Fans Compare Jack Harlow’s Current Success To Lil Dicky’s For Obvious Reasons

Despite the average NBA ref not knowing who he is (they must not have watched Narnia), Jack Harlow has been flying high recently. After the success of his potentially controversial collaboration with Lil Nas X in 2021, more rap fans than ever know Harlow’s name — enough to lift his upcoming album’s second single, “First Class” to No. 1 on the Hot 100. His new album, Come Home The Kids Miss You, stands to also debut at the top of the Billboard 200 chart next week as a result.

So, naturally, fans on Twitter are putting his career trajectory in perspective as only fans on Twitter can. Comparing Harlow to another hotly tipped white rapper whose music career unfolded in a much different way, a commenter wrote, “jack harlow havin the career lil dicky thought he was gonna have.” The tweet has sparked a bit of a debate since some fans took it as a diss toward Dicky (who is still a much better-known factor at this point owing to several years’ head start).

One fan responded, “Let’s be clear tho lil dicky would wash jack harlow,” while another implored fellow fans, “Y’all better stop comparing Jack Harlow to Lil Dicky. Dave would rap circles around him, with all due respect.” However, others agreed with the original premise that Jack’s career had a much more positive trajectory compared to a similar point in Dicky’s.

Of course, Dicky has found a new outlet for his creativity in the form his FX show Dave, which allows him to put his comedy raps into the proper context to be fully appreciated. Meanwhile, Jack’s on his second album and still turning down pop collabs to keep it hip-hop, something we still have yet to see from Dicky, so if anything, the two rapper’s careers are more divergent than they are at odds. Dicky doesn’t even like performing, so obviously both had different goals to begin with.

Meanwhile, for those truly in the know, the real victim is Asher Roth, who managed to eke out one mainstream hit before being banished forever to the backrap circuit (where he is, for all appearances, perfectly comfortable and happy).

Nipsey Hussle’s Suspected Killer Has A New Trial Date

Eric Holder, the man accused of shooting and killing Nipsey Hussle in March of 2019, will finally go on trial in June, according to HipHopDX via the Los Angeles Criminal Court website. Before that, a pretrial readiness hearing has been set for May 19 in which the defense and prosecution will determine whether or not to resolve the case without going to trial. Holder has pled not guilty to one count of murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and one count of felony possession of a firearm.

The trial has been delayed multiple times, with the first occurring in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, in May 2021, Holder reportedly refused to leave his cell, and then, two months later, both the assigned judge and Holder’s original defense needed to be replaced (the judge due to retirement, the attorney due to death threats against his family). The most recent delay was earlier this year, after the trial was scheduled to begin in January.

Holder was arrested just two days after the shooting in the Los Angeles County suburb Bellflower. Police said that the shooting was motivated by a personal disagreement in front of Nipsey’s Marathon store on Crenshaw and Slauson. A security video allegedly shows the agitated Holder walking up and firing on Nipsey, hitting him and two bystanders multiple times. Nipsey was pronounced dead at the hospital just hours later, leaving the hip-hop world to mourn his loss just as he was finally receiving the mainstream success he’d worked for a decade to get.

The new trial date is June 2, 2022.

Jack Harlow Says Drake Offered Him Words Of Encouragement After Their Collaboration Leaked

Jack Harlow‘s upcoming sophomore album, Come Home, The Kids Miss You features a promising selection of collaborators. Fans, however, have already gotten a taste of some of the upcoming tracks in the form of a leaked Drake collaboration, which surfaced online last month. The track was revealed to be titled “Churchill Downs” yesterday, following Harlow’s unveiling of the album’s tracklist.

In an interview on Hot 97, Harlow admitted that he was upset by the leak.

“It hurt my feelings,” he said. “I’m really tight about leaks. I don’t bounce my music so I haven’t had leaks in a long time. I don’t ride to my music while I’m working on an album… the only time we get to experience it is in the studio. [The leak] was heartbreaking, especially because [Drake]’s an idol of mine. I wanted to control that moment, but it’s destiny.”

Harlow mentioned that Drake was also sad about the leak, but as an artist who has dealt with his music leaking for years, Drake was able to offer Harlow some words of encouragement.

“[Drake] kind of, you know, nudged me like, ‘Aye, don’t trip. This what was meant to happen,’” he said. “I think his experience, he let me know like, ‘You think this is gonna affect your life? Like, it’s fine.’”

In addition to Drake, Harlow also collaborated with Lil Wayne, Pharrell Williams, and Justin Timberlake on the album.

Check out the full interview above.

Come Home, The Kids Miss You is out 5/6 via Atlantic. Pre-save it here.

Jack Harlow is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Dave Chappelle’s Attacker Was Reportedly Roughed-Up By Busta Rhymes

If you’re just waking up and checking Uproxx before your Twitter feed, number one, thank you. Number two: Batten down the hatches. You’re in for a wild day.

Last night, Dave Chappelle performed at the Hollywood Bowl as part of the ongoing Netflix Is A Joke Fest, which has seen seemingly the entirety of the comedy community descend on LA for a month-long slate of events. However, it seems unlikely that any will top the outrageous happenings toward the end of Chappelle’s headlining set. As Dave was closing out the show, an unidentified male assailant tried to rush the stage, apparently brandishing a replica handgun.

He was able to tackle the comedian before a group of people, which reportedly included rapper Busta Rhymes (with whom Chappelle is soon to launch the Dave And Busta Tour, no joke) and the multitalented Jamie Foxx, intervened, packing the attacker up and taking him backstage. Later, he emerged on a stretcher doing his best impression of a human pretzel, as seen in a video posted to social media. He was loaded into an ambulance for transport to a local hospital, where I’m sure doctors will try their best not to practice their own tight fives as they sort his arms back into some semblance of their original shape.

Fans on Twitter have naturally been buzzing, expressing awe at how badly beaten up the attacker looks (here’s your reminder that Busta is 6’1 and well over 200 lbs.) and comparing the incident to Will Smith and Chris Rock’s recent Oscars outburst — including Chris Rock.

For his part, Chappelle seemed unharmed and like Rock, played it off with his own improvised riff, which Foxx joined. “I been doing this 35 years, I just stomped a nigga backstage,” joked. “I seen Busta Rhymes, he was like, ‘That’s how you do it, god.’”

That is, indeed, how you do it. Let’s all hope no one else gets any ideas about trying this stunt again.

Kanye West Is Being Sued By A Pastor Over The Song ‘Come To Life’ From HIs Album ‘Donda’

A Texas pastor is suing Kanye West for using part of one of his sermons without permission, according to TMZ. Bishop David Paul Moten is sampled on the Donda song “Come To Life,” which uses about 70 seconds of the sermon looped throughout the song. Moten’s lawsuit calls the uncleared sample an example of musicians “willfully and egregiously sampling sound recordings of others without consent or permission.” The lawsuit also includes Kanye’s label, G.O.O.D Music, and its parent entities Def Jam Recordings and Universal Music Group. Donda, released in August 2021, sold 309,000 equivalent units, topping the Billboard 200 in its first week.

Kanye was previously sued over a religious sample in 2019. Andrew and Shirley Green, the adoptive parents of a little girl whose prayer is sampled on “Ultralight Beam” from The Life Of Pablo, sued Kanye for pulling the audio from a viral video on social media. Although Kanye reached out to the girl’s biological mother Alice Johnson for permission to use the clip, the Greens, the girl’s legal guardians, said they were never contacted, and that Johnson was never given a written license agreement or payment.

More recently, a music rights company, Declan Colgan Music Ltd., sued Universal over a sample of the band King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man” from the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy single “Power.” DCM said that UMG has been underpaying the agreed-upon 5.33-percent cut from streams.

2022 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Inductees React To Being Selected

This morning, the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame announced its class of 2022 inductees, which features Eminem, Dolly Parton, Duran Duran, Lionel Richie, Pat Benatar, Eurythmics, and Carly Simon. As the news has made the rounds, some of the honorees have taken to social media to offer reactions.

Shortly after the news was shared, Ritchie wrote, “Being elected to @rockhall is an incredible honor. I would like to say THANK YOU to all of the voters, to all of my wonderful fans and to everyone at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Congratulations to all of my fellow 2022 inductees! #RockHall2022.” Duran Duran also shared a video filmed shortly after being informed of their induction, in which they express how “honored and thrilled and happy” they are.

Benatar, alongside husband and longtime musical partner Neil Giraldo, also offered a statement, writing, “We are thrilled and humbled to become part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame family. Thank you to everyone who voted especially the fans and congratulations to all the other inductees.” Annie Lennox of Eurythmics has yet to offer a reaction of her own but she did retweet some, including a message from an apparently official (but not Twitter-verified) Eurythmics account.

Parton has yet to offer a reaction, but a few days ago, after previously rejecting her nomination, she did note what she’d do if she did get inducted, saying, “Well, I’ll accept gracefully. I would just say thanks and I would accept it because the fans vote. But when I said that, it was always my belief that the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame was for the people in rock music. I have found out lately that it’s not necessarily that, but if they can’t go there to be recognized, where do they go? So I just felt like I would be taking away from someone that maybe deserved it, certainly more than me, since I never considered myself a rock artist. But obviously, there’s more to it than that.”

The induction ceremony is scheduled to take place on November 5 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles before airing on HBO and streaming on HBO Max at a later date.

Eminem, Dolly Parton, And Others Will Be Inducted Into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

The list of 2022 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame nominees was revealed back in February. Since then, the voting process has started and finished, and now, the 2022 induction class has been finalized, the Hall announced this morning that set to be inducted are Eminem, Dolly Parton, Duran Duran, Lionel Richie, Pat Benatar, Eurythmics, and Carly Simon.

This post is being updated.

Lil Durk Launches An HBCU Program That Will Allow Chicago Teens To Explore Different Career Paths

Lil Durk’s 2022 year just keeps getting better and better. The Chicago native dropped his seventh album 7220 earlier this year and it was a project that arrived with 17 songs and guest features from Future, Gunna, and Summer Walker. 7220 later went on to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart, and after falling a few spots some weeks later, it reclaimed the top spot for a second time this year. Lil Durk has propelled the album forward thanks to strong music videos and support from LeBron James. Despite all that’s going on in his world, Durk has still found time to give back to his community.

In partnership with his Neighborhood Heroes Foundation, Durk launched an HBCU college program for teenagers in his Chicago hometown. The exact details of the program are unknown at the moment, but in a post on the foundation’s page, they said that they’ll “be taking them to HBCU Colleges & exposing them to different careers.”

Together with the announcement, Durk also invited 20 students from the South Side of Chicago to join him in a luxury suite for a Chicago White Sox game where he also threw the ceremonial first pitch. For what it’s worth, the White Sox picked up a much-needed 3-0 win against the Los Angeles Angeles, so it’s safe to say that Durk and the Chicago teens gave the team the necessary boost they needed.

You can view the announcement in the post above.

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

Kehlani’s Newfound Romance Altars Her Sleep In The Dreamy Video For ‘Up At Night’

Kehlani has never been one to make her fans wait too long for a new project from her. That’s evident through her latest project Blue Water Road, which arrives just two years after her sophomore effort It Was Good Until Wasn’t was released. Blue Water Road dropped with 13 songs and features from Blxst, Syd, Justin Bieber, Jessie Reyez, Ambre, and Thundercat. So far, Kehlani has shared videos for “Altar” and “Everything” from the project, with the latter coming when the project was released. Now, she adds a third one to the mix with a visual for “Up At Night.”

The new video kicks off with Kehlani asking her Google-powered speaker to play her sleep playlist. “Up At Night” soon roars in the background and Kehlani hops into bed to fall asleep. With that, we enter the singer’s mind which is filled with vibrant colors, elegant dance moves, sparkly diamonds, and more, which are all brought forth by her feelings towards a newfound romance.

During a recent Apple Music interview, Kehlani revealed that many of the songs on Blue Water Road were initially records for a deluxe version of It Was Good Until Wasn’t. However, she says she mentally “wasn’t in the deluxe of my last album” due to a unique experience at the location of where the music was recorded, and thus, Blue Water Road was born.

You can check out the visual for “Up At Night” in the video above.

Blue Water Road is out now via TSNMI/Atlantic Records. You can stream it here.

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

Post Malone Announces That He’s Expecting His First Child: ‘I’m Excited For This Next Chapter’

This year is lining up to be a pretty big one for Post Malone. The singer announced that his fourth album Twelve Carat Toothache will arrive on June 3 and it’ll be his first full-length release since 2019’s Hollywood’s Bleeding. He’s teased the album with a couple of singles and previews of tracks on Instagram, but Twelve Carat Toothache is not the only thing that’s coming for Malone in 2022. The singer just announced that he is expecting his first child with his longtime girlfriend. TMZ reports that Posty shared the news during a private party for friends and family over the weekend.

Post Malone shared his excitement about his upcoming baby in a statement to TMZ. “I’m excited for this next chapter in my life, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been, and for since I could remember I was sad,” he said. “Time to take care of my body and my family and friends, and spread as much love as we can every day.”

As for Twelve Carat Toothache, Post Malone previously confirmed that the project will include features from The Weeknd, Doja Cat, Roddy Ricch, Robin Pecknold, and The Kid Laroi. Posty even went as far as to preview records from the upcoming project which includes “Happy” with Doja, “Cooped Up” with Roddy, and “Love/Hate Letter To Alcohol” with Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes.

Roddy Ricch is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.