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Tyler The Creator Admires The Honesty Of Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers’

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Throughout Tyler, The Creator’s career, which has seen him evolve from highly controversial to mature and versatile, one resounding theme is his unbridled honesty. Whether it comes through in his raps or his interviews, the former Odd Future leader always tells it like it is. Thus, it only makes sense that the Call Me If You Get Lost artist took a liking to the honesty on one of the biggest releases of this year, Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, per his recent conversation at the 2022 Converse All Star Series in Paris.

The initial conversation was about vulnerability and Tyler took it a step further by highlighting the two-disc LP that was released in May. “I love that album, but I feel like he touches on sh*t that’s so, like, open and honest that some people can’t listen to it because they probably feel like he’s looking at them in their eyes and they’re like ‘Oh, I can’t panic. Uh, I can’t listen to this. Put on something else so I can hit my dougie.’ And keep forgetting and numbing the sh*t he’s talking about.”

Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers generated a lot of conversation for tracks like “Savior” where Kendrick attempts to remove himself from the pedestal he was put on, “Father Time” where he addresses how Drake and Kanye West’s reconciliation came off as odd to him due to his need to mature some more, and of course, “Auntie Diaries” where he unloads the clip of a certain queer slur while also addressing his family members’ gender transitions in a way that split the LGBTQIA+ community.

Our community, specifically within the internet, often struggles with accepting someone else’s truth, especially when delivered in a way they don’t like (not to justify the use of the aforementioned slurs.) Still, K. Dot overall received some positive reviews and Tyler is understandably within that camp.

Check out Tyler, The Creator’s full interview at the Converse All Star Series above.

The-Dream Says He Loves ‘Making You Guys Happy’ After Seeing The Reaction To Beyonce’s ‘Break My Soul’

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Last week, Beyonce sent the world into a frenzy with the announcement that her seventh album Renaissance would arrive at the end of July. The chaos picked up when she revealed the project’s lead single, “Break My Soul” would be made available for fans on Tuesday. The song arrived a few hours earlier than expected as fans were given the opportunity to press play on it with just hours left in the Juneteenth holiday. Beyonce received sweeping praise from her fans for the song, and The-Dream, one of the song’s co-writers, took to Twitter to thank fans for their words.

“I Love Making You Guys Happy,” The-Dream wrote on Twitter before adding, “and even if for a second I can give anything of [myself] to help you get through a moment in these crazy times I’d use my entire heart to do so.” He continued, “No one’s f*cking sleeping tonight! @Beyonce we have done something special yet again my good friend.”

In addition to The-Dream, Beyonce’s “Break My Soul” also features songwriting from Tricky Stewart, Jay-Z, Fred McFarlane, Allen George, and others. The song itself samples Big Freedia’s 2014 bounce record “Explode” and Robin S.’ 1993 single “Show Me Love.”

You can view The-Dream’s tweet above.

French Montana, Jadakiss, And Benny The Butcher Walk Through With ‘Bricks & Bags’ On Their New Collab

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In just a few days, French Montana will release his fifth album Montega, an effort that is produced entirely by Harry Fraud. The project will arrive just seven months after French released his fourth album They Got Amnesia, a 21-track effort that featured appearances from Rick Ross, Kodak Black, Pop Smoke, Lil Durk, Doja Cat, Saweetie, Fivio Foreign, Ty Dolla Sign, Moneybagg Yo, and many more. Before Montega, French and Harry decided to drop off one more single, this one being “Bricks & Bags” with Jadakiss and Benny The Butcher.

The new record is carried by a hook that Jadakiss and Benny repeat throughout the song, as they rap, “I should’ve signed to Coke Boys, but I was selling dope, boy.” Together, Benny, French, and Jadakiss deliver sharp verses on the song in that order as they all rap with confidence over the Harry Fraud-produced beat.

“Bricks & Bags” follows “Blue Chills” which French released last week. The release is one of four singles from Montega as French previously shared “Drive By” with Babyface Ray and “Alcatraz.”

You can listen to “Bricks & Bags” in the video above.

Montega is out 6/24 via Epic Records. You can pre-order it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Lil Baby Talks Fatherhood In The Trailer For His Upcoming Documentary, ‘Untrapped: The Story Of Lil Baby’

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Lil Baby’s rise to being one of the rap game’s favorite acts has been a long time coming. He began bubbling on a nationwide scale back in 2017 with the release of his Too Hard mixtape. He reached a new level the following year with his debut album Harder Than Ever, and by 2020, he had cemented his name as a rap superstar with the release of his sophomore album My Turn. Through it all, we’ve seen different sides of Lil Baby: focused, braggadocios, introspective, and desiring of social change. Now, with the upcoming arrival of his new documentary, we’ll get a new look at the Atlanta rapper.

A trailer for the documentary, which is titled Untrapped: The Story Of Lil Baby, gives viewers a look into Lil Baby’s life as a father. We see him playing with his two sons while speaking about the type of father he wanted to be with them after opening up about his experience and memories with his own father. “Today Lil Baby is a devoted father to his two young boys and a powerful voice in the fight for racial justice and police reform,” a press release says about the upcoming film which arrives on August 26 through Amazon’s Prime Video platform.

“Untrapped: The Story Of Lil Baby is at once an intimate portrait of a singular artist and activist and an exploration of the systemic oppression that keeps far too many people of color from participating in the American Dream.”

You can watch the trailer for Untrapped: The Story Of Lil Baby in the video above.

Denzel Curry Announces A Fall US Tour And Delivers A Can’t-Miss ‘LA Leakers’ Freestyle

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Earlier today, Kid Cudi announced that Denzel Curry would be supporting him for seven of the shows on his To The Moon World Tour. And while that’s a good look for Curry, it’s also a major flex for the rapper as he just announced his own headlining tour at the same time.

Curry — who recently called himself “the best rapper alive” — will be supporting his album, Melt My Eyez See Your Future, which came out in March and is one of Uproxx’s Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2022 so far. Meanwhile, Curry popped into Power 106 this week to drop an LA Leakers freestyle over Lil Durk’s “Ahhh Ha” & Jeezy’s “I’m Just Sayin.” “I murder everything that I’m touchin’, you feel me,” he said before shifting from one beat to the other. It’s a can’t miss flow.

Check out Denzel Curry’s tour dates below. An artist pre-sale begins on Wednesday, June 22 at 10 am local time running until Thursday, June 23 at 10 pm local time. The public sale begins on Friday, June 24 at 10 am local time here.

06/21 — Orlando, FL @ House of Blues
06/24 — New Orleans, LA @ Fillmore
06/25 — Houston, TX @ Bayou Music Center
06/26 — Austin, TX @ Stubb’s
06/28 — Dallas, TX @ Southside Ballroom
06/30 — Albuquerque, NM @ El Rey
07/01 — Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
07/10 — Quebec City, QC @ Festival D’Ete de Quebec
07/29 — Los Angeles, CA @ Hard Summer
07/31 — Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza
08/16 — Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
08/18 — Portland, OR @ Veterans Memorial Coliseum
08/19 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
08/21 — Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena
08/23 — San Diego, CA @ Pechanga Arena
08/24 — Inglewood, CA @ The Kia Forum
09/04 — Miami, FL @ FTX Arena (American Airlines Arena)
09/16 — Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore
09/17 — Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works
09/18 — Atlanta, GA @ Music Midtown FESTIVAL
09/20 — St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
09/22 — Milwaukee, WI @ The Eagles Ballroom
09/24 — Minneapolis, MN @ Palace Theatre
09/27 — Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
09/28 — Toronto, ON @ Rebel
09/30 — Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theater & Ballroom
10/01 — Columbus, OH @ KEMBA Live!
10/04 — Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore
10/06 — New York, NY @ Terminal 5
10/07 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore
10/08 — Boston, MA @ Roadrunner

Denzel Curry Tour Dates
Denzel Curry

Vince Staples Offers His Thoughts On Drake Releasing A Dance Album: ‘I Did That In 2017’

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There’s a new Drake album out and as usual, it’s dominating the discourse online as fans parse what it means for pop culture at large. However, this time, there’s a whole new angle for that discussion, as Honestly, Nevermind eschews Drake’s usual mopey R&B and passive-aggressive raps in favor of a genre experiment in the vein of house music alongside executive producer Black Coffee. And as usual, Joe Budden has thoughts, which he shared on his podcast along with call-in guest Vince Staples.

While Joe wondered whether the album meant the elimination of rap music as a whole (because Joe Budden, again, is not a journalist and has no real frame of reference for such things), Vince’s response was more measured as he pointed out that such genre-hopping projects are nothing new in hip-hop — not even for Vince himself. “I did that in 2017,” he reminded the host. “N****s was on me… That Big Fish Theory, n****s was mad at that. ‘What’s up with this n****?’”

Vince expanded on his views (no pun intended), comparing music to Instagram: “Everything looks the same, everything moves the same, everyone dresses the same, everyone talks the same,” he explained. “So the genre sh*t is gonna have to go out the window eventually. It’s too hard to separate culture because the internet is kinda pushing everything in the same little bubble.”

He’s got a point: Besides himself, a number of artists have blended genres including dance genres like house and techno into hip-hop, with some artists distancing themselves from the “rapper” label altogether. However, the thing that hasn’t gone away is rapping as a lyrical style, and there are still plenty of artists — arguably way more of them, to be honest, who release music primarily in that mode regardless of trends. And considering some of the responses to Drake’s album, it doesn’t look like hip-hop fans were quite ready to make the switch — which didn’t stop it from topping Apple Music’s Dance chart on release day.

Basically, no rappers should be restricted solely to rapping or making music according to popular trends, but rap as a genre probably isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

You can watch the full episode of The Joe Budden Podcast above.

Stormzy Joins The Graduating Class Of The University Of Exeter With An Honorary Doctorate

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Stormzy has accomplished a lot in a relatively short amount of time. In addition to rising to the forefront of the UK rap scene, winning Best Grime Act MOBO Awards in back-to-back years, earning the first UK Albums Chart No. 1 for a grime album in 2017 with his debut album Gang Signs & Prayer, winning British Album of the Year at the 2018 Brit Awards, and headlining Glastonbury in 2019, Stormzy has just reached an even rarer height, receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Exeter recognizing his “outstanding achievements in the field of higher education philanthropy and widening participation”.

Stormzy has been an advocate for change in Great Britain since the beginning of his career, pushing against racial injustice and engaging in philanthropy and activism, funding the Stormzy Scholarship for Black UK Students at the University Of Cambridge.

At the ceremony where he was awarded his honorary doctorate and addressed the graduating class, Stormzy said:

“The journey I took to get to this moment has been considerably different to yours. You guys have the guts and the grit and the dedication that it takes to study for years and to finish your degree…whereas I got my AS results in my first year of college and said yeah, see you later. I didn’t have the same minerals that you guys have. A year later I took another swing at my A levels at a different college…until I sat down for my English exam in January and walked out after 10 minutes.

It took a hell of a lot for you to get here today. Your journeys to get to this moment were hard-fought. The road you took was not easy. And this is coming from someone who tried to walk that exact same road and failed. So from the bottom of my heart I say congratulations, well done and you should all be so proud of yourselves, what you have achieved is incredible. Don’t let anybody downplay it and don’t let anybody undermine it. If you are sat in this room today you are worthy and you are brilliant.”

You can watch Stormzy’s speech in the recorded ceremony above, at around 1:10:00.

Bhad Bhabie Calls Young Thug The GOAT Rapper And Names His Best Album

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Young Thug’s currently incarcerated but if he never gets the chance to release another rap record, his impact on hip-hop will likely reverberate throughout the genre for the rest of his life and beyond. He’s influenced an entire generation — a generation that includes controversial Florida rapper and social media personality Bhad Bhabie of “catch me outside” fame, who called him the GOAT rapper in a new episode of Complex’s Goat Talk. The Florida rapper also gave her picks for sneakers, reality shows, movies, and more.

Pulling cards that asked for her GOAT in multiple categories, she enthusiastically used Thugger’s full government name when she came to the GOAT rapper card, leaning back to show off how she “got his f*cking lyrics tatted on the back of my leg.” “I’ll fight about it all day,” she vows. In addition, when the GOAT album card came up, she continued the Thug love fest, taking a moment to think about it before deciding. “I was gonna give it to Barter 6,” she admits, citing the 2015 mixtape named in homage to Lil Wayne. “But I have to give it to Slime Season 3, just because of ‘Worth It.’” Released the year after Barter 6, Slime Season 3 debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200, which of course featured the fan-favorite Valentine’s Day anthem, “Worth It.”

You can watch the full episode above.

Young Thug is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Ari Lennox Says Her ‘Huge Fear’ Of Flying Means She’s Done ‘Doing Any Shows That Require Me To Fly’

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Ari Lennox Coachella 2022
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Although Ari Lennox has several performances and festival slots lined up for the summer, she may have to pull out of those soon. Last night, the “Pressure” singer took to her Instagram Story to reveal that she has a fear of flying and wants out of shows that will require her to board a plane.

“For my mental health and my sanity I will not be doing any shows that require me to fly,” said Lennox. “I can not keep torturing myself with this huge fear of mine. It is literally destroying my health. Enough is enough. I’m so sorry to all that are inconvenienced by this. Don’t know what this will mean for my career, but I just can’t do it.”

Neither Lennox nor any of the festivals, including London’s Wireless Festival and the Cincinnati Music Festival, have confirmed that she is pulling out. However, Lennox revealed she is hoping she can conquer this fear.

“On the plane to Minneapolis now,” she said in her story. “I’ll be there [at the scheduled tour stop]. If there’s any peers or anyone out there who knows of a great hypnotherapist, therapist and/or fear of flying solutions, I would be so grateful. I want to beat this.”

Lil Baby Will Receive A Songwriting Award At The ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards

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The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers is set to hold its 35th annual ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards this week and Lil Baby is one of the Society’s big winners. He’s billed to win songwriter of the year — his second such honor in as many years — for a year in which he co-wrote for Drake, Kanye West, and more. Lil Baby’s discography over the past year includes his joint album Voice Of The Heroes with Lil Durk, his Space Jam: A New Legacy soundtrack contribution “We Win” with Kirk Franklin, and two all-new singles with Nicki Minaj, “Bussin” and “Do We Have A Problem?”

In addition, Lil Baby has featured on Billboard-charting singles from the likes of DJ Khaled (“Body In Motion” featuring Bryson Tiller and Roddy Ricch), Drake (“Girls Want Girls“), Kanye West (“Hurricane“), Nardo Wick (“Me Or Sum“), and even Ed Sheeran (“2step“). He also appeared on Vince Staples’ “East Point Prayer,” with the Long Beach rapper praising him for doing the feature for free out of respect.

More recently, he kicked off his own new music campaign with the dual-single release “In A Minute” and “Right On,” following up with “Frozen” a few weeks later. He’s set to begin his Rolling Loud-backed One Of Them Ones Tour with Chris Brown next month, and he apparently has a follow-up for his 2020 album My Turn in the works. That should drop sometime this year.

The ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards take place from today, June 21, through Friday, June 24, with announcements appearing on ASCAP’s social media channels.