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Pete Davidson Mentioned Kanye West And Ariana Grande During The ‘Weekend Update’ On ‘SNL’

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Last night’s episode of Saturday Night Live was also the last ever for Pete Davidson. Before the episode aired, the comedian announced that he would not be returning for the show’s 48th season along with other cast members including Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, and Kyle Mooney. For his last appearance on SNL, Davidson went out with a bang. He conducted one last rap parody sketch, which was eventually interrupted by Eminem who asked demanded that he stop them. He also stopped by Weekend Update to deliver a sweet and self-deprecating farewell to SNL, but not without mentioning a couple of music names he’s been tied to.

Davidson sat with Weekend Update co-hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che and kicked things off by acknowledging the “millions of people only watching to see if I bring up Kanye.” This is of course in reference to his new relationship with Kim Kardashian following her divorce from Kanye West whom she was married to for seven years. Next, Davidson ran through some events that took place in his life during his time at SNL. One of them includes a phone call he made to SNL producer Lorne Michaels about his engagement to Ariana Grande.

“He always gives the best advice,” Davidson said. “I said, ‘Lorne, I just got engaged to Ariana Grande after dating for two weeks.’ He said, ‘Oh, hold on for dear life!’ It’s a true thing he said.”

You can watch Davidson’s appearance on Weekend Update in the video above.

Kendrick Lamar Earns The Biggest Week Of 2022 As ‘Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers’ Goes No. 1

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Philip Cosores

Kendrick Lamar fans waited five long years to receive his new album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. The project finally arrived earlier this month, and it’s safe to say that it was far from what fans expected from him. Similar to how To Pimp A Butterfly was a big change in direction from Good Kid M.A.A.D. City, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers was quite the shift from Damn. Nonetheless, Lamar’s fifth album has still received favorable reviews from critics, and now, he can add another No. 1 album to his resume as Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers topped the Billboard 200 charts.

For the Billboard 200 dated May 28, 2022, Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers debuted at No. 1 thanks to 295,000 album units sold. That number is comprised of 258,500 streaming equivalent album units thanks to 343.02 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs. Elsewhere, Mr. Morale also posted 35,000 pure album sales. Altogether, this feat gives Lamar the fourth consecutive and overall chart-topping album of his career.

Lamar’s fifth album put up the largest overall week in 2022, breaking a record set last week by Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti. Bad Bunny’s album still had the biggest streaming week of 2022 with Mr. Morale coming in at a not too distant second place. Mr. Morale also had the largest sales
week for a digital album in 2022 and the biggest overall week since Adele’s 30 posted 839,000 units back in November.

You can revisit our review of Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers here.

Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is out now via PgLang/TDE/Aftermath/Interscope. You can stream it here.

Eminem Crashed Pete Davidson’s Latest ‘SNL’ Rap Parody On To Say ‘They All Suck’

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Last night’s Saturday Night Live episode was a unique one for multiple reasons. Japanese Breakfast made her debut on the show with performances of “Be Sweet” and “Paprika.” Additionally, it marked the finale episode for the show’s 47th season. However, the most notable aspect of the show was the notable goodbyes that were delivered on the episode. Pete Davidson, Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon, and Kyle Mooney all announced that they would not return for the show’s 48th season. With that, they all tried to go out with a bang and Davidson achieved that thanks to his latest and final SNL rap parody.

For his latest rap parody, Davidson — who was dressed as Lorne Michaels — took on Dr. Dre and Eminem’s “Forgot About Dre,” making it the third time that he’s rapped over an Eminem song. While the comedian might have had a smooth plan for his latest take on the 1999 track, Eminem himself arrived on set to cut things short. Towards the end of the video, Eminem appeared and essentially pulled the plug on everything. “I would just stop. They all suck,” Eminem said about the rap parodies. “Stop. It’s really bad.” Davidson tried to explain that he was just paying homage to the rapper, but Eminem refused to entertain him. “Pete, don’t f*cking do it again!”

Davidson heeds Eminem’s request, but not without taking his anger out on the real Lorne Michaels. Referencing Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore, Davidson yells, “Well Lorne, you blew it!”

You can watch Davidson’s latest rap parody in the video above.

Lupe Fiasco Will Be Teaching A Rap Course At MIT Later This Year

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This is year is lining up to be a great one for Lupe Fiasco. He’s preparing to release his eighth album Drill Music In Zion and it’s a project that he’s already calling the best of his career. His engineer Craig Bauer called it the “Rap Album of the year” before correcting himself and saying “Nah. Decade. If you don’t feel something after listening to this…. You may want to check your pulse.” Drill Music In Zion is set to arrive on June 24, but it’s not the only big thing Lupe has in store for 2022. Later this year, the Grammy-winning rapper will teach a rap course at the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology (MIT).

The university announced that Lupe will be a part of their MLK Visiting Professor Program for the 2022-2023 academic year. Lupe shared the news in a tweet of his own. “I been holding this for a while,” he wrote. “I’ll put together something more sophisticated later that really captures the nuance and gravity but for now I’ll just say it straight and raw: I’m going to teach Rap at @MIT.”

Lupe’s upcoming course comes after he served as a visiting artist at MIT from 2020 to 2021. As for Drill Music In Zion, the upcoming project will be his first full-length release since 2018’s Drogas Wave.

You can view Lupe’s tweet about his upcoming rap course at MIT above.

Pusha T Wants To Prove His Rap Immortality: ‘They Need To Understand That I Can Do This Forever’

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This year has been a great one for Pusha-T. He kicked things with his impressive “Diet Coke” record which featured production from Kanye West and 88-Keys. He followed that up with “Neck & Wrist” alongside Pharrell Williams and Jay-Z. Both songs later appeared on his fourth studio album It’s Almost Dry which became Pusha’s first No. 1 album of his career and an early favorite for rap album of the year in 2022. The project was his first since 2018’s Daytona, but as Pusha tells it, it will be far from his last album. That’s because he seeks one major thing in his career going forward: rap immortality.

During a recent profile with NME, Pusha T shared his desire to prove that he is indeed an immortal rap figure. “A lot of our forefathers, the greats, they didn’t stand the test of time,” he said. “As great as they were, I don’t know how much they are [still] appreciated. [I want] to show that rap doesn’t have to age out. When people look at me, they need to understand that I can do this forever.”

It’s a tall task for anyone to accomplish, even those as talented as Pusha, but with his steady improvement over the years, Pusha might achieve his goal.

You can read Pusha’s full profile with NME here.

It’s Almost Dry is out now via GOOD Music and Def Jam. You can stream it here.

Bobby Shmurda Wants New York’s Rap On Trial Bill To Be Adopted Throughout The United States

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Earlier this week, the New York Senate passed Senate Bill S7527, better known as the Rap On Trial bill. It was sponsored by Senators Jamaal Bailey and Brad Hoylman and it received support from rappers like Fat Joe, Jay-Z, Killer Mike, and Meek Mill. The bill states that there should be “clear and convincing evidence” that an artist’s song, video, or other “creative expression” is “literal, rather than figurative or fictional.” This now makes it harder for prosecutors to use lyrics, which are exaggerated more times than not and used for the sake of the art, to tie in rappers in cases related to RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) and more.

Shortly after the bill was passed, TMZ caught up with Bobby Shmurda to hear his thoughts about it. Bobby, who was released from prison last year following a seven-year sentence on weapons and murder conspiracy charges, had his lyrics used in court. “I’m grateful for it,” he told TMZ. “I feel like it needs to happen all over the country, especially with what’s going on in Atlanta right now. I feel like rap is targeted the most. Rap is expression you know? If you look at movies, everything is expression, so rap is an expression. I feel sometimes like it shouldn’t be said in court or anything.”

He later added, “I feel like it limits art, it limits what it does. When they say that the rap can be used against you, it limits your art because sometimes people just want to be free.”

Bobby’s comment about Atlanta is in reference to the RICO case that Young Thug, Gunna, and 26 other members of YSL were recently wrapped up in. In that case, the charges against the group include conspiring to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, murder, armed robbery, and participation in criminal street gang activity.

You can listen to Bobby’s comments in the video provided by TMZ here.

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

Doja Cat Has To Get Tonsil Surgery ‘ASAP,’ Which Will Impact Her Summer Plans

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Doja Cat has kept exceptionally busy lately, but now it appears she will soon be forced to slow down. Over the past couple days, she has detailed some issues she has been facing with her tonsils, noting yesterday, “dr. just had to cut into my left tonsil. i had an abscess in it. my whole throat is f*cked so i might have some bad news for yall coming soon.”

Well, that bad news has come: This afternoon, Doja wrote on Twitter, “Hi guys. I wanted you to hear it from me first. Unfortunately I have to have surgery on my tonsils asap. The surgery is routine but the recovery is going to take awhile due to swelling. That means I have to cancel my festival run this summer as well as The Weeknd tour. I feel horrible about this but can’t wait for this to heal and get back to making music and create an experience for y’all.”

A positive takeaway to be had from this is it appears it may prompt Doja to reconsider some of her less healthy habits: Yesterday, she noted of vaping, “nah im too scared to hit it cuz my throat hurts so bad. i cried for hours. its not worth it. then its like imagine all that wierd poisonous sh*t in the vape seeping into the completely open wound in my throat like f*ck that. im hella young.”

070 Shake Calls On Christine And The Queens For A Full ‘Body’ Experience In Her New Single

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070 Shake has a little more to say before she drops her upcoming album. Her new single “Body” is a whirlwind of sonic experiences, opening with a sultry nature before everything heightens and becomes frantic. Eventually, the song becomes simultaneously haunting yet beautiful but through the jarring transitions, the New Jersey artist and guest star Christine And The Queens vocally command the space with ease. David Andrew Sitek and Mike Dean contributed on the production side, the latter of whom also mixed and mastered the track.

“Body” is the third single from the 24-year-old’s upcoming sophomore album You Can’t Kill Me, following “Web” and “Skin & Bones.” You Can’t Kill Me, set to release on June 3, comes almost two and a half years after Shake’s critically-acclaimed debut album Modus Vivendi. The Def Jam artist burst onto the scene after signing with G.O.O.D Music back in 2016 before appearing on Pusha T’s Daytona and Kanye West’s Ye in 2018. 070 Shake earned her first chart entry in 2019, peaking at No. 12 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart as part of DJ Khaled’s “Holy Mountain,” also featuring Mavado, Buju Banton, and Sizzla.

Check out “Body” above.

Christine And The Queens is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Mark Ronson, Damon Albarn, And Wale Assist Our Flying Friends With Their New Benefit Song ‘Bird Calling’

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Damon Albarn may have devoted a significant chunk of his life to gorillas (rather, Gorillaz), but they’re not the only animals he cares about: He and a bunch of other artists contributed to For The Birds: The Birdsong Project, a five-volume collection of 242 recordings inspired by birds and their singing, with proceeds benefiting the National Audubon Society.

The first volume rolled out today and among the new songs is “Bird Calling,” a collaboration between Albarn, Mark Ronson, and Wale. Ronson offers some rhythmic, midtempo production while Wale carries the song with rapped and Albarn provides the hook.

Project organizers say, “The Birdsong Project is a community dedicated to the protection of bird life, and to the celebration of the joy and mysteries of birdsong. We believe that birds — no matter feather or flock — are precious and inspiring and fundamental to our world. That a world without birds would be a world without freedom and flight and song. We believe birds matter. Are endangered. And need our help.”

Elvis Costello, who contributes to the endeavor, adds, “This should be so very obvious; without birds we would be knee-deep in worms, swarmed by bugs, the trees bereft of song. The least we can do is raise our voices in praise or lament. I’m grateful to [producer Randall Poster] for asking me to join his magnificent flock.”

Listen to Ronson, Albarn, and Wale’s “Bird Calling” above.

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

Blueface And DDG Share The Lively ‘Meat This’ Video Ahead Of Their Upcoming Collaborative Project

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Blueface and DDG have a strong respect for one another, and it goes without saying they both like to have a good time. The two young rappers join forces on the new video for their collaboration “Meat This” to remind us of their proclivity to enjoy life. Blueface and DDG find themselves in the company of many women at the club or collecting stacks of money and gold to fund their expansive lifestyles.

“Meat This” kicks off the lead-up to their upcoming full-length collaborative project set to release later this year. Though there is currently no name for the project or set release date, the union makes sense as Blueface and DDG previously traded verses on the remix to the latter’s Platinum-certified record “Moonwalking In Calabasas,” in addition to “BGC” and a snippet that has been titled “Rich Guy.”

Blueface has been enjoying the success of the November release “Chose Me” featuring the bubbling sensation Blxst, as it topped Triller Global Charts earlier this month. As for DDG, he tapped Gunna back in February for “Elon Musk.” With Blueface last putting out a project in 2020, and DDG 2021, this is an exciting new direction for the two.

Check out the video for “Meat This” above.