2020 brought two new full-length projects from Future: his eighth album High Off Life and his collaborative Lil Uzi Vert project Pluto x Baby Pluto. Since then, though, fans have been waiting for a new LP from Future. The rapper has been hinting at when it’s set to arrive, as last week, he indicated it would be coming later this month. Now, he has doubled down on the release window in a new Instagram post.
Sharing a photo of himself (perhaps the album cover given its square crop), he wrote, “date 4.29 title TBA.” So, it looks like the album’s dropping on the 29th this month but we’ll have to wait a bit longer to find out what it’s called.
While it’s been a year-plus since a new Future album, fans haven’t been hungry for new material from the rapper. In January, he and Gunna dropped perhaps the most viral song of 2022 so far, “Pushin P” (which they performed on Saturday Night Live earlier this month). Aside from that, he popped up on Lil Durk’s “Petty Too” (which they later performed on The Tonight Show). More recently, he featured on Earthgang’s “Billi.”
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
50 Cent has been less than happy with the current situation at Starz, where he currently produces the Power universe of television shows. He recently complained about the network’s treatment on social media, threatening to relocate his shows after being frustrated by its refusal to announce any renewals for the next few seasons of the handful of Power spinoffs currently airing. Now, after voicing his frustrations and still receiving no new information on those renewals, he says he’s had enough.
“Everybody ready to work,” he wrote in the caption of his latest Instagram post, which included a video of a mixed martial artist asking for a role in Power during a post-fight interview. “I’m trying to buy my universe back from STARZ so it goes where ever I go. Only 5 months left in my deal, and I’m not on the air for 6 months so We Out!”
In his previous posts, 50 explained his reasoning. “They renewed High Town, and FORCE is the highest-rated show they have sitting in limbo,” he argued. “If I told you how much d*mb shit I deal with over here, you would think they all went to school on a small yellow bus.”
The finale of Power Book IV: Force is set to air on April 17.
Playboy Carti revealed a lot during his interview in XXL. Ahead of his upcoming album Music, the “Magnolia” rapper touched on his friendships with other rappers like Lil Uzi Vert, his elusive nature, and being a father.
“I’m a father,” he said.”You know what I’m saying? You know how it is having kids. I just got responsibilities. I pay a lot of bills. I take care of a lot of people. I take care of my mom. I take care of my family. I take care of my baby mom [and] I take care of my son. There’s a lot of people I take care of. So, it’s like, I gotta keep doing it.”
Since the interview’s publication, the aforementioned baby mom, rapper Iggy Azalea has taken to Twitter, seemingly dismissing his claims that he takes care of her.
“Take care of me? Lmaooooo let’s not get carried away now,” said the “Fancy” rapper in a now-deleted tweet.
via Twitter
This isn’t the first time Azalea has called Carti’s presence as a father into question. In 2020, she took to social media to say Carti had missed the birth of their son, Onyx, to play video games.
“I had onyx alone completely cause he was my only visitor approved with Covid,” she said in a now-deleted tweet. “We lived together at that time.”
Kendrick Lamar has long been in contention for the GOAT label. He’s the first rapper to win a Pulitzer Prize (for his 2017 album DAMN.) and his last three albums (Good Kid, MAAD City, To Pimp A Butterfly, and DAMN.) have all been critically praised. However, even after all those heaps of achievement have been lavished onto him, it turns out Kung-Fu Kenny is still capable of blowing fans’ minds — even with his older work.
A new video from Dissect podcast breaking down one of Kendrick’s old verses is making its way around Twitter, and fans are expressing their awe at the complexity in Kendrick’s writing that it reveals. The verse is from Pusha T’s 2013 single, “Nosestalgia,” which appeared on the Virginia rapper’s album My Name Is My Name. Released in the wake of Kendrick’s incendiary “Control” verse, which dropped just a few months before, it’s easy to see how some rap fans might have overlooked its quieter impact.
Rather than naming names, Kendrick employs a mind-bending numerological approach to the wordplay in the verse, which sees him comparing himself to a brick of cocaine and reminiscing on his loose connections to the drug game through his father. As Dissect points out, Kendrick cleverly uses the numbers nine and ten to accomplish this, with Dissect carefully explaining the underlying genius behind the technique.
The tweet, which reposts a video from TikTok, has accumulated thousands of interactions (over 16,000 retweets and 68,000 likes as of this writing), with fans gushing about the Compton rapper’s prowess. In addition, more accounts have reposted the original TikTok uncredited, meaning those numbers are just a fraction of the attention the video has received. Fans are calling Kendrick a national treasure, suggesting his lyrics should be studied in school, and generally expressing amazement over the nearly decade-old verse.
Kendrick Lamar always relied on using entendres that are structured in the simplest way. You have to check majority of his verses more than once to even catch what it was. A true wordsmith, but y’all knew that already. https://t.co/Ew3cu2AUKw
I just watched a indepth fact about kendrick Lamar’s verse on Pusha T’s “Nosetalgia” and i must say… This man right here is a National Treasure!!! @kendricklamarpic.twitter.com/uHLmq0jPwK
— Quasimodo at heart/ Chocolate Zeus (@illie_kNOwAH) April 13, 2022
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.
For the past year and a half, New Jersey rapper Coi Leray has faced scrutiny. After her 2020 song “No More Parties” became a staple of both playlists and radio, rap fans wondered where she came from. That scrutiny intensified when she was selected as one of XXL’s 11 Freshmen for 2021. Some of the skepticism was warranted; some wasn’t. While fans’ attention focused on Coi’s physique and colorful, unique bearing, her performances on both the moody, melodic “No More Parties” and her unusual XXL Freshman freestyle left many fans questioning what was once the only thing that mattered in hip-hop: “Can she really even rap?”
On her debut album, Trendsetter, she doesn’t exactly look to put that speculation to rest. Instead of proving that she can rap, she focuses on proving that she can do nearly everything else. Across the album’s 20 tracks, which include the “No More Parties” remix featuring Lil Durk as well as follow-up hits like “Twinnem” and “Blick Blick” with Nicki Minaj, she admirably accomplishes this mission. An expression of her exuberant personality and her eclecticism, Trendsetter should show that Coi Leray isn’t just a fly-by-night one-hit-wonder.
It’s hard to blame rap fans for their skepticism — and their ignorance. After all, Coi, who’d been releasing mixtapes since 2018, seemingly popped up out of nowhere with the success of “No More Parties.” Rap fans are often skeptical of overnight success stories, especially when they seem to be beneficiaries of industry nepotism. You see, Coi’s father is Boston impresario Benzino, former co-owner of The Source magazine, who used to rap in groups like the Almighty RSO and Made Men before joining the cast of Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta. While Coi’s had viral hits like “Huddy” in 2018, the first time many folks ever heard of her was on “No More Parties.”
Coi already demonstrated a solid grasp of different deliveries on her mixtapes Everythingcoz and EC2. Still, Trendsetter in many ways represents her first opportunity to prove naysayers wrong. To that end, she shows her bite on tricks like “Thief In The Night” with G Herbo and “Box & Papers,” on which she directly addresses the attention she’s received lately. “They be like / How you do that there?’ / They ask me, ‘Baby, how you so viral? I see you everywhere,’” she snaps with the pointed delivery of someone fed up with the ongoing inquisition.
She also displays surprising vulnerability on songs like “Anxiety,” “Clingy,” and “Paranoid.” Diagnosed with ADHD, she’s open about her struggles with mental health. These more introspective songs are marked shifts in tone away from the seemingly upbeat singles she’s released so far, but scratch the surface, and it’s clear that she’s been speaking these truths all along. “Anxiety” is a microcosm; couching serious subject matter in bubbly production can sometimes obscure the content. But with Trendsetter‘s more therapeutic tracks, Coi makes the subjects plain — which, in turn, makes it harder to criticize her for being a surface-level mumble rapper, as she has been.
She even dabbles in Afrobeats on “Aye Yai Yai,” an endeavor that comes early enough on the project to throw listeners who only know her from her more effervescent songs. Whether this is a good thing or not depends on your point of view. However, I think I agree with Nicki Minaj, who both praised and critiqued her host’s album. The sequencing is the album’s weak point, as is its length and sometimes scattershot approach. But that’s a minor quibble and when Coi inevitably figures out how to present her ideas more cohesively, whether that means sharper edits or more focused storytelling, she’s shown she has the versatility to manage it.
Trendsetter is out now on Uptown Records. Get it here.
Months before the release of his critically acclaimed album, The Blueprint in 2001, Jay-Z performed a memorable set at the annual Hot 97 Summer Jam. For over two decades, Jay-Z‘s hour-long set has remained one of the hip-hop festival’s most iconic moments, footage has proven difficult to find.
Until yesterday, when Jay’s set resurfaced via a YouTube account called HipHopVCR.
The set consists of Jay performing several of his hits and debuting new tracks. He performed “Takeover,” a response to Nas’ scathing diss track “Ether.” “Takeover” was produced by Kanye West, who, at the time, was relatively unknown. “Takeover” was targeted at both Nas and Mobb Deep, particularly one-half of Mobb Deep, late rapper Prodigy. During the performance, Jay broadcast a photo of a young Prodigy in dance classes on the jumbotron.
Later on in the set, Jay brought out Michael Jackson. Though the two didn’t perform together, Jackson can be seen blowing kisses and tossing peace signs to a roaring crowd.
Jay would later collaborate with MJ on Blueprint cut “Girls, Girls, Girls,” on which, Jay claims Jackson sang background vocals, despite not appearing in the song’s credits. In 2010, a song called “(I Can’t Make It) Another Day appeared on Jackson’s posthumous album, Michael. The track was originally written as a collaboration between Jackson and Lenny Kravitz for Jackson’s 2001 album Invincible, but did not make the final tracklist. It was later rewritten and recorded as “Storm” and included on Kravitz’s 2004 album Baptism, as a collaboration between Jay and Kravitz.
Though footage of the Summer Jam set has remained scarce over the years, the performance has been held to high regard in the realm of hip-hop. Jay would reference the performance in a remix of Jeezy’s 2008 hit, “Put On,” rapping, “I put Mike Jack on stage at Summer Jam, Billie Jean / I put Prodigy in his place on that Summer Jam screen.”
There are plenty of music awards out there but perhaps the most prestigious is a work being selected for preservation in the Library Of Congress’ National Recording Registry; Recordings are selected after being deemed “worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical, or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.” It’s a major achievement, as only 600 recordings have ever been honored.
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden says, “The National Recording Registry reflects the diverse music and voices that have shaped our nation’s history and culture through recorded sound. The national library is proud to help preserve these recordings, and we welcome the public’s input. We received about 1,000 public nominations this year for recordings to add to the registry.”
Keys also noted, “I’m so honored and grateful that Songs In A Minor, the entire album, gets to be recognized as such a powerful body of work that is just going to be timeless.
Find the full list of 2022 selections below and read more about them here.
1. “Harlem Strut” — James P. Johnson (1921)
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Complete Presidential Speeches (1933-1945)
3. “Walking The Floor Over You” — Ernest Tubb (1941) (single)
4. “On A Note Of Triumph” (May 8, 1945)
5. “Jesus Gave Me Water” — The Soul Stirrers (1950) (single)
6. Ellington At Newport — Duke Ellington (1956) (album)
7. We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite — Max Roach (1960) (album)
8. “The Christmas Song” — Nat King Cole (1961) (single)
9. Tonight’s The Night — The Shirelles (1961) (album)
10. “Moon River” — Andy Williams (1962) (single)
11. In C — Terry Riley (1968) (album)
12. “It’s A Small World” — The Disneyland Boys Choir (1964) (single)
13. “Reach Out, I’ll Be There” — The Four Tops (1966) (single)
14. Hank Aaron’s 715th Career Home Run (April 8, 1974)
15. “Bohemian Rhapsody” — Queen (1975) (single)
16. “Don’t Stop Believin’” — Journey (1981) (single)
17. Canciones de Mi Padre — Linda Ronstadt (1987) (album)
18. Nick Of Time — Bonnie Raitt (1989) (album)
19. The Low End Theory — A Tribe Called Quest (1991) (album)
20. Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) — Wu-Tang Clan (1993) (album)
21. Buena Vista Social Club (1997) (album)
22. “Livin’ La Vida Loca” — Ricky Martin (1999) (single)
23. Songs In A Minor — Alicia Keys (2001) (album)
24. WNYC broadcasts for the day of 9/11 (September 11, 2001)
25. WTF With Marc Maron (Guest: Robin Williams) (April 26, 2010)
Lute’s big league start happened back in 2017 with his debut album’s release on Dreamville. West 1996 Pt. 2, which is the sequel to his 2012 mixtape, arrived two years after Lute joined the J. Cole-led squad. Names like EarthGang, Cam O’bi, Elevator Jay, and more appeared on the project which served as a great start to his Dreamville. Lute’s next album would take a while to arrive but it finally dropped towards the end of 2021 with Gold Mouf. Like his debut, Gold Mouf was another strong release from Lute, and six months after its release, he continues to promote the project with a brand new video.
He teams up with BJ The Chicago Kid in a new visual for “Changes.” The song is one of many great tracks from Gold Louf, and in the video, Lute and BJ take a moment to address those who’ve let money negatively affect them. They deliver their thoughts from an underground tunnel and on a nearby street while making sure their message is delivered with precision.
The new video arrives after Lute made a couple of contributions to Dreamville’s D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape where he appears on “Starting 5” and “Like Wine.” As for BJ The Chicago Kid, the video arrives after he dropped two EPs in 2021. The first with 4 Am and the second was Three.
You can watch the video for “Changes” above.
Gold Mouf is out now via Dreamville and Interscope. You can stream it here.
Prior to the end of 2021, it’d been a while since Cozz released a project. The wait for new work from him wasn’t all that grueling as he made several contributions to Dreamville’s 2019 compilation project, Revenge Of The Dreamers III. Thankfully, he made an official return back in December with Fortunate, an 7-track release that featured a lone contribution from YG. Fast forward to now and Cozz’s latest work comes through Dreamville’s new compilation project D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape.
One of his contributions to the project is “Big Trouble Freestyle,” which sees him rapping over The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Who Shot Ya,” and less than two weeks after the project’s arrival, Cozz debuts a new video for the track. It captures him walking around his hometown of Los Angeles while firing off some scathing while flexing some heavy muscle about his career. He does it all while the West Coast sun sets behind him.
As for Dreamville’s D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape, the project includes appearances from the rest of the Dreamville cast, that being J.Cole, Ari Lennox, JID, Earthgang, Cozz, Bas, Lute, and Omen across the project’s 15 songs.
You can watch Cozz’s video for “Big Trouble Freestyle” above.
D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape is out now via Dreamville and Interscope. You can stream it here.
Playboi Carti’s last project arrived on Christmas Day in 2020. It was highly anticipated Whole Lotta Red, a project that fans of the rapper spent quite a while waiting for. Constant delays and setbacks caused many to doubt that the project would ever arrive. Thankfully it did, and now, after a little over a year, it’s time to focus on Carti’s next body of work. During an interview with XXL, Carti revealed some details about his upcoming project and also opened up about his personal life.
“I was about to name my album Music because that’s where I’m at, you know what I’m saying? Music,” Carti said during the interview. When asked if he had a title for the upcoming project, Carti confirmed that it would be Music because “that’s all it is at this point.” Carti later revealed what topics were “important” for him to discuss on the project.
“Love. Sex. Drugs. Changes in my life,” he replied. “I’ve been rapping about going to rehab. I want to go to rehab because I think I’m bipolar. I want everybody to feel free. I want this album to make everyone feel free. I hope this album brings peace to the world, honestly.” He added, “I’m in love with what I’m doing. Like I told you, you can’t put a genre alternative [on me]. My little brother told me that all the time.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Carti took a moment to show love to Iggy Azalea, the mother of his first child Onyx. Despite their past issues, Carti had nothing but kind words for Azalea. “Iggy, she’s a great mom. I love her to death,” he said. “I’m single. She’s single now. But that’s one of the best mothers in the world. And that’s what you got to put in the book, you hear me? I love her to death. She is the best mother in the world.”
You can read the entirety of Carti’s new interview with XXLhere.
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