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Tyler The Creator’s Golf Wang 2022 Collection Is Bringing Back The Baggy Look

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It’s often said that fashion goes in cycles that come back around every twenty years or so. With this knowledge, I regret to inform all you millennials out there that you are now old. If it makes you feel any better, you can call it “retro,” which is what we did when we were bringing back bellbottoms and platform shoes and trying really hard to embrace punk aesthetics. Now, it’s our turn, as the baggy look is back and the teens are now running around looking like extras from She’s All That.

Leading the charge, as usual, is Tyler The Creator, who is pretty much the trendsetter for anyone who entered middle school around the time Odd Future was upending hip-hop’s cultural conventions and making Theresa May really nervous they might turn over the tea cart if they gained access to Old Blighty. Tyler’s brand, Golf Wang, has been one of the go-to looks for the legions of fans who used to scribble “Kill Them All” in their notebooks, terrifying teachers and conservative commentators throughout the 2010s.

Today, he revealed the lookbook for the latest summer collection, which consists of a variety of wide-leg, loose-fits, colorful sweaters, woven shirts, and jeans with biohazard symbols all over them. I guess Tyler hasn’t grown all the way up just yet — and he never should. You can check out some of the fits below, with more on the official website. They go live on June 18 at noon ET. You can grab them in-store at 11 am PT.

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It Looks Like Kid Cudi Is Jumping On The Artist Festival Wave With Moonman’s Landing In Cleveland

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In recent years, as music festivals have become a more prominent portion of the industry’s ecosystem, more artists have begun to fund and promote their own festivals to take advantage. If most of your income comes from live performances, why not get yourself and a bunch of your work friends paid while offering entertainment for your hometown crowd? Entries to this promising space include J. Cole’s Dreamville Festival, Pharrell’s Something In The Water (which is this weekend), Tyler The Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival, and most infamously, Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival. This autumn, a new contender may be throwing his hat in the ring: Kid Cudi.

On social media, Kid Cudi announced that his Moonman’s Landing event would take place in Cleveland, Ohio on September 17, 2022. Although details remain scarce and it isn’t even really confirmed that the event being teased is indeed a festival, that outcome seems the likeliest, as Cudi certainly falls within that same upper echelon of hip-hop with the above-mentioned names and has seen plenty of success on the festival circuit, especially at Rolling Loud, where many of the above performers have appeared.

Whatever Moonman’s Landing turns out to be, it’ll land in the middle of a huge month for Cudi. He’s also releasing his new album, Entergalactic, and its accompanying Netflix animated series on September 30.

How Ghostface Killah And Raekwon Made An Original Song For ‘TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge’

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

What comes to mind when you think of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? The Statue of Liberty, pizza, maybe the Manhattan skyline? All of these are defining traits of New York City, which doubles as the home to our favorite fictional group of reptiles. The Turtles have always embodied New York in a way that few other fictional characters in pop culture do.

With Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge coming out, the publishers over at Dotemu knew early on they wanted one of the game’s many themes to be the Turtles’ love for the city. They also wanted tie something in that paid tribute to the era when the Ninja Turtles were at their peak. So, they looked around and quickly realized who they wanted to partner with the Wu-Tang Clan — specifically Ghostface Killah and Raekwon.

“We knew that, for the soundtrack of the Turtles, we wanted to have guests,” Dotemu’s Adrien Marie tells UPROXX. “We wanted to have big guest stars because it makes sense for the project and we wanted to raise the bar. Adding to what we have already been doing, we have a lot of different artists and guest stars, but we wanted to go further into mainstream music … we also were thinking about the fact that TMNT and hip-hop makes sense. A deep part of our perception is that it’s very anchored in there, it’s in the TMNT DNA, to have something hip-hop, and so we were thinking about hip-hop artists. And it’s New York, so we didn’t want to have any West Coast artists. So, our thought process was that we need to have East Coast hip-hop artists from the ’90s and the Wu-Tang Clan was at the top of the list.”

Of course, the Wu-Tang Clan was formed in Staten Island. There are few people in music that better represent New York than them, so having Ghostface Killah and Raekown involved in the game was an obvious decision. So much of Shredder’s Revenge is about capturing the original spirit of the Turtles that many people grew up with in the ’80s and ’90s. From having a new rendition of the original theme song playing in the opening cinematic, to the entire game’s style, it’s a trip down memory lane for everyone involved.

So how exactly did Dotemu and the developers over at Tribute Games involve them? The spoiler-free answer is that it does play in the game and it’s one of the best moments of the entire game, but there are some secrets to the song that we don’t want to reveal without a spoiler warning.

A disclaimer: If you plan on playing Shredder’s Revenge then be warned that the following few paragraphs will have spoilers for both the game and music.

The track that Ghostface Killah and Raekwon made plays during the boss fight with Shredder towards the end of the game. It’s a really cool moment, because Shredder joins in a little earlier than expected. It’s a fun fight and the best thing to do is blast the music and enjoy the moment to its fullest, but there’s a fun little secret that Marie told us about what the song is supposed to represent.

“So, the idea was to have a rap battle,” Marie says. “Cyrille [Lambert] wanted the first part to be Shredder’s, which is why the first part of the song is from the point of view of Shredder, and then the other side of the track is the reverse. It’s when, after all of the menacing lyrics from Shredder, you have the Turtles fighting back. This is why the second part of the track is the Turtles saying, ‘No, this is this is our fight and we’re going to win.’ Based on that, Cyrille worked with Kid Katana records, and Tee Lopes, the composer of the soundtrack of the game, Tee created a beat, then Raekown and Ghostface recorded their parts.”

The song is a delight, it’s reminiscent of the infamous “Go Ninja” scene from the second movie. If they ever decide to make another Ninja Turtles movie, please let them do a battle rap scene and bring back the Wu-Tang Clan to make a cameo.

Beyonce Fans Are (Predictably) Losing It Over Her Surprise Album Announcement

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Beyonce shared the release date for something called “Renaissance” on Wednesday night, and her fans are (predictably) losing it. While Beyonce has hinted at working on new music, her fans couldn’t help but feel totally parched at the dearth of fresh releases from the pop=R&B queen. Her last album, Lemonade, was released over six years ago and since then, the closest she’s come to putting out a full-length body of work was the soundtrack hybrid album, The Lion King: The Gift, which she later repurposed into the musical film Black Is King for Disney Plus.

So it’s understandable that the Beyhive freaked out a little bit when Beyonce rebooted her social media profiles, removing all content including bios, profile pics, and posts. It’s a move she herself pioneered, indicating that a new project could soon be on the way. However, when she also updated her official website, there were some members of the Hive who felt the star was just stringing them along. There were plenty of protesters hoping that Beyonce wasn’t just building up to another Ivy Park drop, but then Spotify and Tidal got involved and the mystery deepened.

Now, we know exactly when some new Beyonce music will be hitting those DSPs and the meme floodgates have not just opened but totally burst. As usual, the Beyhive is being as hilarious as possible while celebrating the impending end to their dreaded drought. Check out some of the best responses below.

Lupe Fiasco Drops The Title Track To His Upcoming Album, ‘Drill Music In Zion’

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Ahead of his upcoming album, Drill Music In Zion, Lupe Fiasco has revealed the album’s title track. Contrary to its title, “Drill Music In Zion” features Fiasco delivering his brand of conscious rap over a jazz beat — not a drill beat.

On “Drill Music In Zion,” Fiasco examines humankind’s transactional nature and how people’s love of money and material objects drives and ultimately corrodes them.

“Position jostlers monitor hegemonics / Robots make the robots that solder electronics / Nostradamus couldn’t bother to keep a promise / Logic’s on a rocket, where profit defeats the conscience.”

In an interview with Financial Times last month, Fiasco says that he plans to rap until he dies. He also says he’s at a point in his career where he’s no longer driven by numbers.

“I care about rap, but I don’t care anymore about the business side or selling records,” he said. “I’ve always been a storyteller. When I was in the third grade, I wrote a play about a warring cat and mouse. I will be rapping right until the day I die.”

Check out “Drill Music In Zion” above.

Drill Music In Zion is out 6/24 via Thirty Tigers. Pre-save it here.

Lupe Fiasco is a Warner Music Artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Flying Lotus Drops The Singles ‘The Room’ And ‘You Don’t Know’ With Vocalist Devin Tracy

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While Flying Lotus is no stranger to vocal collaborations on his albums, the producer is best known for the prolific canvases he creates on his own. Sure, the Kendrick Lamar-featured “Never Catch Me” is considered by some as FlyLo’s magnum opus, but for some diehards, we’d love to hear more tunes like 2014’s “Your Potential//The Beyond,” where vocalist Niki Randa adds thick vocal textures to the tune. It seems as though FlyLo is indeed entering the point in his career where he’s leaning further into vocalists to help him bring new depths to his music. Look at his last album Flamagra, which featured notable collabs with vocalists in Anderson .Paak, George Clinton, Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano, Thundercat, and others. But those are all known commodities, which don’t have the same allure that someone like say, Randa, brought in the past, as perhaps his muse.

Enter Devin Tracy, a classically-trained future R&B vocalist, who released an EP in Soulection’s Black Label series in 2018 and last year’s Don’t Take It Personal EP, but is a relative unknown. Lotus discovered Tracy at a recent session and it seems as though a creative connection quickly blossomed between the pair. Now, FlyLo’s new singles, “The Room” and “You Don’t Know,” feature Tracy on vocals and the diehards will be pleased.

“The Room” kicks off the two movement release with those familiar FlyLo layered strings intertwined with snares, as Tracy ranges all over the map with his evocative delivery. “You Don’t Know” is definitely more drums focused, but Tracy is a revelation on both, going from high registers on down and back.

Flying Lotus will be performing at the Hollywood Bowl on August 21st, backed by the Bowl Orchestra, and this new release effectively whets the palate for more new tunes this year from the Grammy-winning producer.

Listen to “The Room” and “You Don’t Know” above.

How Something In The Water Honors Its Home Region

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Virginia isn’t the first place that comes to mind when you think of a musical hotbed. Those are places like NYC, LA, Nashville, Atlanta, and Miami. But Virginia native Pharrell Williams has been trying to change that perception for years, outrightly so with his Something In The Water Festival. Back in 2019, Pharrell described his vision for it, noting that it wasn’t just to bring artists together, but for corporations, the NCAA, and the world to understand that Virginia is here, “open for business,” and deserving its flowers for its outsized yet lesser-known impact on popular music.

To fully grasp that outsized impact, one maybe does need to quickly look back at history. Virginia, with its colonial blend of English, Scots-Irish, and African influences, was a launching pad for old-time music — the foundation for blues, bluegrass, country music, and more. Many of America’s most iconic performers, from Patsy Cline to Ella Fitzgerald, hailed from the state and drew influence from that unique sonic landscape. Popular music today, from jazz to blues to hip-hop, is a reflection of a poly-cultural makeup — and Virginia was one of the first places where those diverse perspectives and styles began to manifest into tangible works of art.

Fast-forward to more recent history, and the state’s impact on the music world is undeniable, yet still seems to fly under the radar. All one needs to do is have a look at Pharrell and his production partner, Chad Hugo, who formed The Neptunes in 1990 from their hometown of Virginia Beach, VA. The iconic duo gave the world hits like “Milkshake” by Kelis, “Beautiful” by Snoop Dogg, and “Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani, with the two eventually being named the second most influential production duo of the 21st Century, only behind pop savant Max Martin. Of course, that’s not the last the world has seen of Pharrell. The multi-hyphenate musician gave us the now divisive, yet still monstrously successful “Happy” (which he himself seems to be sick of), and has contributed to recent work from Kendrick Lamar, Jack Harlow, Kehlani, ROSALÍA, Omar Apollo, Ashnikko, and Snoh Aalegra — just to name a few. He also just dropped this jam with 21 Savage and Tyler The Creator.

He’s not alone though. Surrounding Pharrell is a vortex of other successful artists and producers who also call Virginia Beach and the surrounding Hampton Roads area home, from Pharrell’s cousin Timbaland and his long-time collaborator Missy Elliott to Pusha T and his brother No Malice, otherwise known as Clipse. Each act came up together at the same time in the exact same town — a puzzling revelation that sparks a lot of intrigue. This is where the diverse cultural makeup of Virginia meets with a somewhat surprising facilitator for its melting pot feel — the US Navy. Newport News, where Missy, Pharrell, and those other VA players come from, is home to a large number of naval bases that over the years have brought families from all over the country to the region. That raises the question: could it be that all those disparate influences and regional styles made the area an easy-bake oven for totally fresh yet immediately recognizable and universally resonant music?

Other Virginian artists, from Dave Grohl and D’Angelo to Kali Uchis and Dave Matthews, may not come from Newport News specifically but their varied musical styles embody the state’s broad sensibilities. Their music showcases distinct regional flair and speaks to hotspots just outside the state’s borders, from the country twang of Tennessee to the punk rock and urban flair of Washington D.C. D.C., for instance, is where Grohl cut his teeth in the punk scene, loading him up with influences that he’d take to Seattle in the late ’80s before joining Nirvana with their mix of fast-slow-fast melodic heaviness. The end result was a mix that has made the Foo Fighters an all-time band around the world.

DC’s influence on Virginia’s music shouldn’t be understated with the Nation’s Capital housing so many different artists, from the aforementioned Kali Uchis to rapper Wale, plus a multitude of venues in such a concentrated area. Catering to all sentiments — the heart of the establishment, the spirit of rebellion — Virginia’s neighbor to the north reflects the same diverse cultural personality and output, something that could again easily be attributed to the area’s military and government outposts. As that city welcomes a refreshed version of Pharrell’s Something In The Water Festival this week, music lovers will be given a chance to re-embrace Virginia and its surrounding area’s lasting impact on culture while rejoicing in the art coming out of every under-the-radar city, state, and country across the world.

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

Beyonce Finally Announces ‘Renaissance,’ Her Long-Awaited New Album

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A few days ago, Beyonce removed the profile pictures from her social media accounts, which many took as a sign that some major news, perhaps of a long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s Lemonade, was on the way. Indeed, fans are getting what they hoped for: Late last night, Tidal announced Renaissance, a new album from Beyonce.

The image Tidal shared indicates that “Act I” of Renaissance is coming on July 29. Beyonce’s social media profiles have also been updated to indicate the release date. Two possibilities here are that either Beyonce plans to release additional installments of or sequels to Renaissance after the initial drop, or that the project is being split into multiple parts, so just one part of it is coming out on the 29th.

Pre-orders for multiple editions of a box set for the album are available now, but they do not show the album art or tracklist, nor has that information been shared elsewhere.

In an August 2021 interview, Beyonce said (and even used the word “renaissance”) of working on new music, “With all the isolation and injustice over the past year, I think we are all ready to escape, travel, love, and laugh again. I feel a renaissance emerging, and I want to be part of nurturing that escape in any way possible. I’ve been in the studio for a year and a half. Sometimes it takes a year for me to personally search through thousands of sounds to find just the right kick or snare. One chorus can have up to 200 stacked harmonies. Still, there’s nothing like the amount of love, passion, and healing that I feel in the recording studio. After 31 years, it feels just as exciting as it did when I was nine years old. Yes, the music is coming!”

Renaissance is out 7/29. Pre-order it here.

Megan Thee Stallion Details Her Second Album: ‘At First You Was Twerking, Now You Might Be Crying’

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When Megan Thee Stallion first previewed the scathing “Plan B” at Coachella, fans were excited about the new, brazen sound that Megan appeared to be experimenting. The Houston-native rapper is hard at work on the follow-up to her 2020 album, Good News, and in an interview with Rolling Stone, she revealed that she would be taking a more personal approach with her craft.

“I want to take you through so many different emotions,” she said of the upcoming album. “At first you was twerking, now you might be crying.”

Megan previewed several new songs to the magazine, including one called “Gift And Curse,” produced by Murda Beatz. On the song’s chorus, she raps, “A b*tch like me, yeah, I know my worth / F*cking with me is a gift and a curse.” When speaking of the song’s creation, Megan said, “I can take care of myself. I’m so emotionally strong. I’m so independent. You know how easy it is for me to dismiss you, because I don’t need you.”

In addition to “Gift And Curse,” Megan also previewed a more upbeat song called “Pressurelicious.” “Pressurelicious” features Future, who Megan says is “unapologetically himself.”

“I appreciate that about anybody who gets up and has to do anything in the public eye,” she said of Future. “Anybody who has to read about their life online every day and deal with so many energies and can put it out into their music and do it gracefully, I feel like you deserve your flowers.”

At the time of the interview, Megan had “25 to 30” songs she was narrowing down for the album’s final tracklist. She hopes to have the album out before the end of the summer.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Lucky Daye, Umi, And Serpentwithfeet Will All Share Performances As A Part Of Meta Quest’s ‘Soul Sessions’

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Lucky Daye 2022 Meta Quest 'Soul Sessions'
Meta Quest

June contains two occasions that are moments of celebration in Black culture. The first is Juneteenth, which occurs on June 19th, as it was declared a federal holiday last year on June 17, 2021. The second is Black Music Month which has been celebrated every June since President Jimmy Carter initiated it back in 1979. With both of those events in mind, Meta has decided to launch an all-in-one virtual reality concert series featuring some of today’s most talented R&B acts: Lucky Daye, Umi, and Serpentwithfeet. The series, dubbed the Soul Sessions, was announced as an exclusive through Meta’s all-in-one virtual reality headset, Quest 2.

The series kicks off on Thursday, June 16 at 10am PST and the concerts, which were recorded live, will be split into three episodes for each artist. The performances will be available to check until Sunday, June 26 at 11:59pm PST. According to a press release, each episode, which was exclusively made for the Quest 2 headset on Oculus TV and Venues in Horizon Worlds, will feature an interview with the artist where they will explain “how they continue to push culture forward through their music.”

Lucky Daye, Umi, and Serpentwithfeet have all been active over the last six months. Lucky Daye is just months removed from the release of his sophomore album, Candydrip, which was included on Uproxx’s Best Albums Of 2022 So Far list. Umi released her official debut, Forest In The City, last month and Serpentwithfeet used the final months of 2021 to release his Deacon’s Grove EP.

You can check out the trailer for the Soul Sessions above.