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Drake Shared A Joyful Photo With Haim And The Sisters Had A Great Response

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Last month, Haim launched the The One More Haim Tour and last night, the trek brought them to Toronto for a show at RBC Echo Beach. While they were in the city, they met up with its proudest resident, Drake, who shared a photo of himself with the sisters.

It’s a happy image, with Drake sporting a wide smile with his arms around the Haims, Alana smiling with her eyes closed and tongue out, Este striking a tongue-out-arms-crossed pose, and Danielle going for a more subtle smirk. Drake captioned the post, “Just met the Beatles.”

Haim later shared the same photo and referenced Drake’s caption, writing, “We’re the Beatles.” Este also shared the photo on her personal account and wrote, “reunited.”

This was surely a major moment for Alana, as she’s been a longtime Drake superfan: In a 2014 Cosmopolitan interview, she described a custom Drake phone case she made for herself, saying, “I found these crazy Drake stickers, so I just stuck them on my phone. Basically, it’s the best thing that now I get to see Drake’s face on my phone 24 hours a day.” She added, “I’m the biggest Drake fan of all time. I mean, we all are. We all constantly fight about who gets dibs on Drake. But I think Danielle, my middle sister, is the frontrunner. She’s actually obsessed with him.” After being told about Drake and Rihanna’s breakup, she also noted, “I want to marry Drake, but if anyone could steal my spot in Drake’s heart, it would be Rihanna.”

Later, the two would appear in the same 2015 “Mean Tweets” segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, while Alana and Este were seen attending Drake’s birthday party in 2017.

Lute Is Proof That Things Get Better With Time In His Confident Video For ‘Like Wine’

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Earlier this year, Dreamville released their fourth compilation project as a group with D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape. The 15-track release features the entire label’s roster of J. Cole, Ari Lennox, JID, Earthgang, Cozz, Bas, Lute, and Omen. It also presented additional contributions from 2 Chainz, ASAP Ferg, Young Nudy, G Perico, Reason, Kenny Mason, and Sheck Wes. Nearly two months after the project arrived, Lute arrives with a visual for “Like Wine,” one of his contributions to the project.

In the video, Lute proves that many things in life, like himself and a nice bottle of wine, get better with time. He delivers this message as he drives around in an old BMW while also posing in a body shop filled with throwback vehicles. Lute’s latest video comes after he added to the experience behind his 2021 sophomore album Gold Mouf with visuals for “Eye To Eye” featuring fellow Dreamville rapper Cozz and “Changes” featuring BJ The Chicago Kid.

Lute’s newest video arrives he completed the North American stretch of Saba’s Come Back Home tour as an opening act alongside Enny.

You can watch the video for Lute’s “Like Wine” above.

D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape is out now via Interscope and Dreamville. You can stream it here.

The Music World Shares Their Condolences After The Tragic Shooting At Texas’ Robb Elementary School

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On Tuesday, The United States was once again hit with news of a mass shooting, and this time, it sadly occurred at an elementary school. An 18-year-old gunman entered Texas’ Robb Elementary School and began shooting at students and teachers in the building. The suspect, Salvador Ramos, was eventually shot and killed during a stand-off with officers. According to AP, the incident is the deadliest shooting at a U.S. grade school since 20 students and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut back in 2012.

The shooting at Robb Elementary School occurred just ten days after a racially-motivating shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo left ten dead. Unfortunately, both cases are examples of the mass shootings that occurred over and over again in the United States over the last decade. The shooting has left the music world to send condolences and extend a loving hand to a community, and a country, that could really use it.

Taylor Swift offered her words after she watched Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr speak passionately and criticize government leaders during a press conference. “Filled with rage and grief, and so broken by the murders in Uvalde,” Taylor wrote. “By Buffalo, Laguna Woods and so many others. By the ways in which we, as a nation, have become conditioned to unfathomable and unbearable heartbreak. Steve’s words ring so true and cut so deep.”

Missy Elliot also shared a message of her own on Twitter. “We living in some TRYING TIMES… It’s heavy,” she wrote. “I am praying for everyone that is struggling MENTALLY/FINANCIALLY/PHYSICALLY that some PEACE be RESTORED! So many in the world is dealing with pain & I don’t have the answers but I send you LOVE virtually.”

You can view more messages from artists in the posts below.

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

Rick Ross Reveals That He Has Never Had An Email Account

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Rick Ross is a busy man. The rapper just completed his partnership with Epic Records, and is currently taking offers from labels like Def Jam; he was also on Blxst’s last project Before You Go, alongside a couple of other collaborators. Despite his success and hustle, he told HotNewHipHop in a recent interview that he has never owned his own email address, which is especially surprising during the digital age where music is most often streamed online.

“I’ve only really released one album since the streaming really been at its strongest point, so for me, of course my greatest times were when we was at Best Buy for the signings,” Ross said. “That was the best feeling versus streaming. Ain’t no real connection with the fans now, to me.” He continued: “It’s different. When you talking about the streaming, you talking to a n**** who ain’t never had a email.”

About streaming, he added: “So the love for the streaming, it’s cool. We still get money, but is it from the streaming, or is it from the brand or Da Boss Rick Ross? ‘Cause regardless, I don’t care what we streaming, Da Boss Rick Ross got demands that’s gotta be met.”

You can read Ross’ full interview with HotNewHipHop here.

Drake Seemingly Responds To Pusha T’s Claim That He Was Banned From Canada

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It’s pretty clear at this point that Drake and Pusha T have no interest in settling their longtime. Tensions have been high between the rappers for years now, but the peak of their beef can back in 2018 when Pusha shared the news about Drake’s first child, Adonis, before Drake himself had a chance to announce it. The rappers have thrown subs at each other on various tracks, but in the latest development between the two, Pusha claimed that he’s been banned from Canada during a recent appearance on Drink Champs.

“I’m banned from Canada,” he said during the interview. “I can’t get back over there. I ain’t allowed to go back over there.” He added, “I went to my show [and] it was rowdy people at the show. I didn’t even get to the song. It got rowdy and I got on my way. It was cool.” The show Pusha is referring to is his 2018 Toronto concert that resulted in fans throwing drinks at him as he performed. However, Drake and his longtime OVO associate Chubbs seem to view things differently as an Instagram post from the latter reveals.

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“We Don’t Ban N*ggaz We Welcome Them With Open Arms,” Chubbs captioned a picture of him and Drake walking with an entourage of other people. Unsurprisingly enough, Drake caught wind of the post and chimed in with his own message. “Come on over,” Drake wrote with a laughing emoji.

This comes after Drake seemingly threw some shots at Pusha T in his guest verse on Jack Harlow’s “Churchill Downs.” On it, he raps, “But I gotta get a n**** back for that, it’s non-negotiable / It’s not even debatable,” which appears to be in response to Pusha’s “The Story Of Adidon.” Drake throws more shots with lines like, “All I hear is plug talk comin’ from middleman / All I hear is tall tales comin’ from little men,” and, “Daytonas with the green faces,” on the track as well.

You can view Pusha T’s Drink Champs episode as well as Drake and Chubbs’ comments in the posts above.

ESPN’s ‘The Greatest Mixtape Ever’ 30 For 30 Will Tell The Story Of The And1 Mixtape Tour

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For kids that grew up in my generation, the And1 Mixtape Tour was appointment viewing. You’d come home from school, turn on ESPN2, and then go outside in your best tall tee and oversized basketball shorts and try to replicate what you saw from Hot Sauce, The Professor, Alimoe, Escalade, Skip To My Lou, and everyone else in the driveway.

Streetball’s boom in the early-to-mid 2000s was formative for a generation of hoopers, influencing the style and skills of players who would go on to play in the league and bring some of that flair from the hardtop to the hardwood. While legendary streetball courts like Rucker Park have been curating basketball culture for decades in cities like New York, the And1 Mixtape Tour brought that to people nationwide, and ESPN’s latest 30 for 30, The Greatest Mixtape Ever, will tell the story of the meteoric rise and legacy of the tour.

Jadakiss will narrate the documentary, with interviews with NBA players like Iman Shumpert, as it will take a look at the impact of the And1 Mixtape Tour on both hoops and hip-hop, and how it bridged those two worlds together in a beautiful marriage of basketball and music that redefined an era of both.

The Greatest Mixtape Ever will premier on May 31 at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Caitlyn Jenner Says Pete Davidson Treats Kim Kardashian ‘So Well’ While Kanye West Was ‘Difficult To Live With’

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This past February marked one year since Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from Kanye West, but it also marked the first time that Pete Davidson referred to Kim as his girlfriend for the first time. Pete and Kim have seemingly been doing well in their relationship. However, the occasions that they’ve made headlines have more times than not had to do with Kanye who has expressed his dislike of Pete in social media posts and in songs as well. Now, for the first time, Caitlyn Jenner is chiming with her thoughts on Kanye and Pete.

During a recent interview on The Pivot pivot podcast with Channing Crowder, Ryan Clark, and Fred Taylor, Caitlyn spoke about her feelings towards Pete and Kanye as well as how they’ve individually treated Kim. “[Pete and Kim] came over the day because I told them, ‘Come on, I haven’t even met him yet,’” Caitlyn began. “So she brought him over and they just spent a couple hours here at the house together — very different than what she would normally date.” Caitlyn then went on to speak about Kanye.

“But, Kimberly has been through a lot with the guys that she’s been with,” she added. You know, especially Kanye — very complicated guy. I liked Kanye, got along with him so well. Two of us did great together, and even when I transitioned, he was so on my side and you know, loving it. But he was very difficult to live with and Pete is 180 degrees [in] the other direction. I mean, first of all, he treats her so well, and when they were over here, Kim [was] so happy and Kim deserves to be happy.”

You can view Caitlyn’s appearance on The Pivot in the video above.

Kanye West’s Campaign Committee Reportedly Says He Had Nearly $4,000 Stolen From Him After His President Run

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It’s been almost two years since Kanye West unsuccessfully ran for president during the 2020 election. His run was filled with controversial moments which include accusations that his campaign was secretly run by Republicans and reports that it violated fundraising practices. The rapper himself reportedly said that the run “cost him his marriage” to his now ex-wife Kim Kardashian. Well, it turns out that his campaign cost him more than his marriage. According to his committee, the run also cost him a few thousand dollars thanks to a fraud scheme that was executed against Kanye.

TMZ reports that Kanye’s campaign committee filed a letter with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday. In the letter, they allege that someone who had access to the campaign funds stole the money to pay off credit bills. The committee says someone who was not affiliated with the campaign took $3,999 in total through three separate transactions that were made between December 2021 and February 2022.

“It has been determined that the disbursement for $1474 on 12/9/21, $1280 on 2/8/22 and $1245 on 2/22/22 was an external fraud situation,” the letter reads according to Insider. “After investigating, it was determined that an individual not connected with the campaign accessed a campaign account to pay his own credit card.” The latter later adds that Kanye was not reimbursed by the First Bank of Wyoming, where the campaign’s account was held, for the allegedly stolen funds.

“The bank was unable to reverse the transactions at issue due to the way they were presented for payment,” the campaign wrote.

Will Smith Reveals The Last Time He Cursed In His Raps And Why He Stopped

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David Letterman’s Netflix show, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, premiered its fourth season last Friday, tapping musical guests Cardi B and Billie Eilish, actors Ryan Reynolds and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and NBA star Kevin Durant for in-depth conversations and hilarious shenanigans. One guest who straddles the line between actor, musician, and even athlete is Will Smith (y’all saw that episode of Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air where Will is his school’s basketball star), who discusses the audition for his game-changing sitcom, going to therapy, and his rap origins.

Emerging in the late ’80s as one-half of the often-comedic rap duo DJ Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince, Smith rose to stardom behind such wholesome hits as “A Nightmare On My Street.” However, as rap had begun to take a turn into harder-edged fare, the Grammy winners were often ridiculed for being “soft,” something that Smith has admitted in the past weighed on him. When Dave asks whether Will and Jeff felt any pressure to change lanes, Will offers that while he didn’t feel any pressure to change, he disliked that characterization.

“I hated that, being called soft,” he says. “The origin of my style and why I pursued it in that way [is] when I was about 12, my grandmother, she found my first rap book… I couldn’t even curse well. It was like, ‘Shit ass damn/Will, you the man.’ Not even good cursing. My grandmother found my rap book and wrote a letter in [the] front of my book and said, ‘Dear Willard, truly intelligent people do not have to use words like these to express themselves. Please show the world that you’re as smart as we think you are. Love, Gigi.’ And that was the reason I never cursed in any of my records.”

You can check out the full episode here.

Sonny Digital Explains ‘How I Blew Up’ With A $300 Beat Turned ‘Billboard’ Hit

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Uproxx’s How I Blew Up is back with veteran Atlanta trap producer Sonny Digital. Breaking down how he went from selling beats for just $300 to helping redefine the sound of Southern hip-hop, Sonny fondly recalls learning to make beats on his older brother’s beat machine and later downloading FL Studio. He also recounts his influences, including proto-trap mainstays like Drumma Boy and Shawty Redd, who were responsible for hits for the likes of Gucci Mane and T.I.

Sonny’s first beat to blow up was the scintillating production for YC’s 2011 song “Racks,” which also featured a then-emerging Future. “None of us were really as big as we were gonna be,” he admits. “It wasn’t really a big song to me. It turned into a big song… I sold the beat to them for $300 because I just looked at it like how I was handling business at the time.”

That’s right, the song that began Future’s rise to being one of hip-hop’s biggest stars only cost $300 — and Sonny had no idea how the business worked back then. In time, though, he became one of the most in-demand producers in Atlanta, and now has a half-dozen platinum records to his name, including hits with 2 Chainz, 21 Savage, Future, and Travis Scott.

You can watch the full episode of How I Blew Up above.