It’s felt like a long wait for new SiR music, with a few errant singles and features occupying the space between present day and 2019’s Chasing Summer. As fans have wondered what is next and when it’s coming, the answers could be coming sooner than they think after the TDE artist returned today (May 5) with the single “Satisfaction” and an accompanying visual.
What begins as a heartwarming reflection on a happy relationship with one lover evolves into the 35-year-old cycling between different activities with different women. Through it all, his expression is never as bright as when he’s with the woman he truly loves. In “Satisfaction,” SiR sings about wanting to stay in his true love’s arms and wishing the future could never happen because he knows, inevitably, things will fall apart.
Prior to this, the Inglewood native appeared on “Common Sense” with his brother D Smoke, the “Same Space” remix with Tiana Major9, and his own solo outing “Teach Me” from the Judas & The Black Messiah soundtrack. Though rumors are swirling around TDE’s roster as a whole when it comes to projects, it still remains that Kendrick Lamar’s upcoming Mr. MoraleAnd The Big Steppers is the only confirmed upcoming release. Still, with it almost being three years since SiR’s last LP, fans are definitely prepared to chase him into the summer until he drops again.
Rochester rapper RXK Nephew brings chaotic energy to a wild performance of his song “C.A.N.D.Y.” for the latest episode of UPROXX Sessions.
A burgeoning underground favorite, Nephew raps with a booming, gripping voice and a crashing, waterfall-esque approach to rhythm. His lines tumble out in a rush, like he can’t wait to get to the next overstuffed bar, packing in as many syllables as he can pronounce and still be legible. He uses much the same approach to his music releases, dropping song after song, tape after tape in what appears to be an effort to become the most prolific rapper not just today, but of all time. His shock raps are reminiscent of ’90s horrorcore, chock-full of off-the-wall references and threats, but fall out of his head in true stream of consciousness form. He’s the perfect rapper for the hyperactive, meme-informed era we live in today.
Watch RXK Nephew’s UPROXX Sessions performance of “C.A.N.D.Y.” above.
UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.
Though regularly cited and often slighted for his relentless hedonistic nature, Future has proven yet again that he’s just as committed to giving the people what they want in his new visual for theI Never Liked You standout record “Wait For U” featuring Drake and Tems. The Director X-lead video opens up with an introduction for viewers to the impending toxic king fairytale, set in medieval times. Future finds himself at odds with the queen after being betrayed by a knight played by 4YE’s Trey Richards, whose snitching leads him to later be killed by the 38-year-old.
Drake appears later in the video, embarking on his own journey to rescue a damsel from two villains. In the end, the woman he sought to rescue ends up saving him from an untimely death. While Tems is noticeably absent, the song’s producer ATL Jacob and rapper Strick both make cameo appearances.
I Never Liked You was released on April 29 under Freebandz and Epic Records. In addition to Drake and Tems, the album featured Kanye West, Gunna, Young Thug, EST Gee, Kodak Black, and later added Babyface Ray, Lil Baby, 42 Dugg, Lil Durk and Young Scooter on the six deluxe tracks released Monday (May 2).
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Man, as much as I’ve criticized Eminem for not getting with the times, I feel like I should apologize now. As it turns out, Em’s regressive positions are nothing compared to his longtime foe Benzino’s. The Boston rap totem could certainly be accused of living in the past, as he’s the only one holding onto the massive L Eminem handed him back in the noughties. The latest example of his sour grapes attitude toward basically everything about modern-day hip-hop is his reaction to Eminem’s recent induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
In a new string of tweets, Benzino claimed that the Rock Hall has “no respect for our culture” after including Eminem. Posting a screenshot of a recent tweet from Rolling Stone, he also wondered “Where’s Nas, Eric B and RAKIM, Kool Moe D, Epmd, Fearless Four, Fat Boyz [sic], Lauren Hill [sic], Little Kim[sic], OutKast and 100s other Black rappers?”
Rock and roll hall of fame is just like the Grammy’s, they have no respect for our culture, Black or Hip Hop and if you don’t agree, you’re racist, period point blank.
So where’s Nas, Eric B and RAKIM, Kool Moe D, Epmd, Fearless Four, Fat Boyz, Lauren Hill, Little Kim, OutKast and 100s other Black rappers?? GTFOH pic.twitter.com/KGBI8KZV5X
So, there are a couple of things happening here. One: Benzino, who used to “run” The Source, needs that edit button as much as anybody on Twitter. Two: While he makes a valid point in the second tweet, he’s gotta understand that he’s probably the last person who should be making it, since his position in this argument is tainted from the jump. Again, he’s had a longstanding, mostly one-sided vendetta against Eminem since before he was ousted at The Source, then got smoked in a rap battle against the Detroit MC by unanimous public opinion. This ain’t for him.
However, there is some truth to what he’s pointed out. That the Rock Hall chose to nominate and so thoroughly vote in Eminem before so many pioneers of the art form reeks of outsiders’ voyeurism, appropriation, and shallow understanding of the music and culture. It definitely looks very cockeyed in the context of, well, everything about America, but particularly this country’s prickly disposition toward Black folks and our creative contributions to mainstream pop culture.
But there’s no denying that Eminem’s had a huge impact since making his debut in 1998, selling more records than almost anybody else in the genre, redefining rap skills in the mainstream, and introducing practically an entire generation (of suburban white kids) to hip-hop, opening the door for successors like Jack Harlow, who recently had the No. 1 single in the country. Em was also an inspiration for big-name genre leaders like Kendrick Lamar and Tyler The Creator, which can’t be discounted. His run of mainstream relevancy has been much longer than influences like Rakim (sorry, it’s true), and the fact is, his next album will probably also go No. 1, no matter what critics say about his increasing creative stagnation.
Yeah, he probably got to have an advantage due to being white, but … This is America. If anything, that remains an indictment of the broader culture of excluding, ignoring, or erasing Black Americans’ contributions (to say nothing of Asian, Latino, or Indigenous ones). At least, now we’ve gotten him out of the way, opening the door to start recognizing rap’s real pioneers. Plus, there’s a Hip-Hop Hall Of Fame coming at some point, which will at least make up for some of the oversights by allowing the culture to recognize its own, without asking a bunch of guitar snobs to validate them.
ASAP Rocky and Rihanna are super official in the video for Rocky’s new single “DMB” (Dat’s My Bitch). The smoothly edited video sees the two stars hanging out in Rocky’s hometown, Harlem, where they sip wine on the fire escape, shop at flea markets, and low-key stunt all over town. The video is shot on grainy, low-res tape, giving the whole thing a warm, home-movie vibe that matches the downmarket, uptown sensibilities of the song — and really, the couple’s whole relationship.
There’s also a scene of RIhana repeatedly meeting up with Rocky as he leaves jail — a scene that finds art imitating life. Rocky was recently arrested by the LAPD as the couple returned from Rihanna’s native Barbados on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. He made bail the same dayhttps://uproxx.com/music/asap-rocky-released-jail-posting-bailt/. Police have been investigating claims that the rapper shot at another man in November of 2021, grazing the victim’s hand. Police raided Rocky’s home in a search for the potential weapon, but all the guns they found were legally obtained and registered; none were even the same caliber as shell casings found at the crime scene.
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
Kehlani’s sophomore album, It Was Good Until It Wasn’t, focused on absorbing the destruction that failures in love and life caused against her while disallowing it from throwing her off her journey. This theme of navigating through the presence of an unwanted being was fitting at the time as the world was forced under the glass dome of a global pandemic. For Kehlani, everything else was good until it wasn’t, and for the rest of us, by that same token, the once-normal world that we previously took for granted was good until it was deemed otherwise. With that, it leaves us with two options: wait for things to work themselves out or acknowledge the circumstances as a sign to make changes in your life. With her third album Blue Water Road, Kehlani opts for the latter.
Recreating happiness is what Kehlani strives for on Blue Water Road. In its best form, it’s as pure and euphoric as the ocean waters that sat across from the Malibu stretch of road that her third album is named after. Luckily for Kehlani, happiness is not uncharted territory for her. The singer’s 2015 debut album SweetSexySavage is probably the giddiest and most spirited we’ve heard her be so far. But it came with a heavy dose of naivety and overflowing charisma that, together, asked “what could go wrong?” Well, a lot did and that’s what brought us to It Was Good Until It Wasn’t. However, time heals and it did for Kehlani as it placed her on an upward trek that returned her to her better days. Kehlani succeeds at recreating happiness on Blue Water Road while her old naivety is replaced with the gratitude to be here again. It also comes with the understanding that she’s not only experienced the worst, but a permanent residency at the top of the world goes unguaranteed.
By the end of Blue Water Road, Kehlani’s lifelong search for serenity is complete, and it’s quite fulfilling. In an Apple Music interview, she revealed that her initial intention on Blue Water Road was to make music for a deluxe release of It Was Good Until It Wasn’t. What Kehlani didn’t know at first is that the growth she needed was already in progress, and thus the music that came out of those sessions was no longer connected to her sophomore album. We waste no time learning about these changes as Kehlani yearns to “throw a paper tantrum” at a strip club for a dancer she’s grown very fond of. Just two years ago, she forced herself to be in the middle of loud music and erratically flashing lights while noting, “Damn, you know I hate the club.” Where It Was Good Until It Wasn’t begins with a chilling anecdote about a “Toxic” love, Blue Water Road sets off with accountability and the recognition of her faults in love through “Little Story.”
Kehlani progress on this journey comes with its missteps and unsuccessful moments. It’d be wrong to assume that the ever-growing 27-year-old singer suddenly figured out how to perfectly and flawlessly approach life. She enters a new relationship only to leave with regrets on the Slick Rick-sampling “Wish I Never,” she’s gaslit on “Get Me Started” with Syd, and she attempts in a very Issa Rae way to justify her infidelity on “More Than I Should” with Jessie Reyez. It’s all honest and relatable and it’s what makes Kehlani’s music so indulgent. She never approaches it from a holier than thou perspective, and she never throws stones from her glasshouse. We understand Kehlani cause we’ve been there before and we all aim to fit life’s complicated puzzle pieces together to solve some problem that we have.
With that, Kehlani successfully achieves serenity through her ability to establish it within her. You can’t fall in love without knowing and accepting what you love, and you will never find peace without dealing with the chaos that lies within. A perfect example of that comes on “Altar,” where Kehlani grapples with grief and achieves the initially impossible feat of accepting that a loved one is no longer physically present. “Soon, I’ll see your face,” she sings with undeterred optimism. “Don’t know why I ever thought you were far away / I shoulda known better.”
So what does serenity look like for Kehlani? It could be finding a love so perfect and united that she confuses her hair, reflection, and her skin for her lover’s on “Melt.” It could also be enjoying the fruits of her labor towards a healthy love on the nearly-NSFW “Tangerine” where she sings, “So don’t tell nobody what’s done in the garden / The fruits you can harvest, they grow where you water.” However, it’s best captured on “Everything” as the arrival of a new lover who checks off her physical, verbal, and compatibility boxes leaves her to praise the heavens for this gift she’s waited so long for. As a result, her excitement for it can’t be bottled. “That was before me, it’s childish, you done with your wildin,’” she sings. “Now you can be wild with me, run that mile with me / Catch some flights out with me.”
Simply put: Kehlani won. She found new love and accepted her natural identity – both sexual and physical – all while managing to keep the thunderous clouds and unsettling fires that shook her world on It Was Good Until It Wasn’t out of her present-day life. Nowadays, things are better than good, they’re great, and it’s all thanks to Blue Water Road.
Blue Water Road is out now via TSNMI/Atlantic. You can stream it here.
Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
You can thank the artist very briefly not known as Prince for ensuring that one of the greatest sitcom couples of all time became a couple in the first place.
The music legend Prince was a huge fan of FOX’s New Girl, which ran from 2011-2018 and starred Zooey Deschanel as Jess Day and Jake Johnson as Nick Miller. Prince appeared as himself in a season three episode aptly titled “Prince” that aired in 2014. On The Kelly Clarkson Show on Wednesday, Minx star Jake Johnson told host Kelly Clarkson that Jess and Nick got together because it’s what Prince, inarguably the most important fan of the series, wanted.
Johnson, with his Minx beard intact, described Prince’s iconic arrival on set. “He came around and he was talking to Zooey [Deschanel],” Johnson said. “He looked at me and said to Zooey, ‘I would like to meet Nick now.’ Zooey looked at me and, obviously, whatever Prince wants…[Prince gets]. She walked over and was like, ‘Hey Nick, come over here.’ I met Prince and he was as nice as it gets.”
But it turns out the greatest musician of his generation and superfan, who passed away in 2016, came to the New Girl set with an agenda. “He wanted to live in the reality of the show, and he wanted Nick and Jess to be together,” Johnson said. “So he said he would do the show if he could help them get together. He got to live a little fantasy. He wanted them together, and we wanted Prince. Prince is the best.”
Given the direction of the show and the characters, Nick and Jess likely would have gotten together without Prince’s involvement, but Prince certainly made it happen quickly. Thank you for your service, Prince. You can watch video of the interview below.
Dr. Dre famously said he became hip-hop’s first billionaire (a title actually held by Jay-Z) back in 2014 when he sold Beats Electronics to Apple, but his boasting about it caused an ungodly amount to get cut from the final sale price. According to HipHopDX via The New York Times reporter Tripp Mickle’s new book, After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul, when Dre talked about the deal in a video posted on social media, Apple took the sale down $200 million due to a confidentiality clause in the initial $3.2 billion agreement.
If you don’t remember, the video was posted to Facebook by Tyrese, who was hanging out in the studio with Dre, both apparently drunk. As they shouted out South Central Los Angeles (Tyrese is from Watts, Dre is from neighboring Compton), Tyrese boasted that “the Forbes list just changed,” referring to the publication’s annual lists of top earners in the world of hip-hop. Dre backed up the brag, touting himself as “the first billionaire in hip-hop.” Interscope founder Jimmy Iovine, Dre’s partner in Beats, found out about the video from Diddy, who called him in the middle of the night after the video went up, prompting him to panic as Dre and Jimmy were invited to Apple’s headquarters by CEO Tim Cook.
They worried that the deal would get the ax, but instead, Cook used the opportunity to save Apple some money, adjusting the sale price by $0.2 billion. Ultimately, the deal worked out; Dre got to keep his boast, and Apple got to keep Beats, which is still paying off to this day. And really, what can you buy with $3.2 billion that you can’t get with $3 billion (although I’m sure he’d have loved the extra $100 million to give to his ex-wife)?
A24 is producing a new television series about iconic Black entertainer Josephine Baker and her role as a freedom fighter against the Nazis. It’s called De La Resistance, and according to Deadline, the show has already found its star in a burgeoning modern icon, Janelle Monae. Monae will portray Baker as the show follows her exploits as a spy in the French resistance during World War II, as well as her adventures as one of the most celebrated performers of the early 20th century.
Monae is also billed as a producer for the series via her Wondaland Pictures imprint, through which the singer has a first-look production deal with Universal Pictures. Monae’s previous acting credits include roles in Harriet, Hidden Figures, and Moonlight, and will also appear in the upcoming sequel to Knives Out. Monae’s new book, Memory Librarian, is also out now. The showrunner is Jennifer Yale, who previously worked on outstanding television dramas such as See, Outlander, and Underground.
They’ve certainly chosen an intriguing figure, whose real-life exploits sound like excellent fodder for a film or TV series. After refusing to perform to segregated audiences in the US, Baker emigrated to Paris, where her racy revue became a worldwide phenomenon and left behind some truly iconic imagery (which Monae recently paid homage to at the 2022 Met Gala). After the Nazis occupied France, Baker became a spy for the Allies, earning The National Order of the Legion of Honour, the highest French order of merit, both military and civil.
Ludacris celebrated a major milestone in a place he holds near and dear this past Wednesday. Georgia State University, the college he previously attended from 1996 to 1998 before dropping out to sign with Def Jam, presented him with an honorary Bachelor of Science in Music Management degree during their master’s ceremony.
The Atlanta rapper addressed over 900 graduates seated in Center Parc Stadium, calling GSU his home before encouraging them to chase their passions and be leaders within their communities. With his wife, mother, and daughters in attendance, he even treated attendees to the chorus of his classic “Welcome To Atlanta,” to which many joined in rapping with him, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. His mother’s presence was especially meaningful, as she was initially concerned about him leaving school to pursue music.
“Mama,” he said, “I made it.”
Despite not completing his initial goal at GSU, the 44-year-old has given back to the university in multiple ways, operating as an artist-in-residence since 2019 and inspiring a law course focused on the music industry titled “The Legal Life Of Ludacris.” Ludacris is a three-time Grammy Award winner and was recognized by The Screen Actors Guild as Outstanding Cast In A Motion Picture for 2005’s Crash. He also recently created the Netflix series Karma’s World.
