Kid Cudi made headlines earlier this year when he donned a dress while performing on Saturday Night Live. That wasn’t a one-off thing for him as he proved yesterday, when he showed up to an award show wearing another dress, one that was flashier than his previous look.
Cudi wore a custom wedding dress to attend the Council Of Fashion Designers Of America’s annual award show, the CFDA Awards, yesterday alongside American Emerging Designer Of The Year nominee Eli Russell Linnetz. Linnetz designed the look and People describes it, “Cudi’s wedding-inspired look featured a full lace catsuit worn underneath a matching tea-length skirt and sleek white blazer. Instead of heels, he opted for embellished white sneakers to add some edge. Of course, the ensemble wouldn’t be complete without a statement veil.”
Linnetz told the publication, “I just out of the blue sent him a text of a wedding dress and I was like, ‘Will you be my bride?’” Cudi also said, “I trust this man so I was down to take it wherever his mind went.”
Following Cudi’s SNL appearance where we wore a dress, he explained that he wasn’t concerned with negative reception his fashion choice, saying, “I’ve never been someone who’s like thinking about the backlash. I don’t give a f*ck about what anyone thinks. You can’t when you’re doing this sh*t. I knew it would piss some people off, but I love that. Because hip-hop is so weird about sh*t. I’ve already seen people making YouTube videos where they’re just strictly talking about me and this dress. Like grown men angry, grown Black men angry. ‘He’s doing something against men and masculinity, it’s a big thing going on…’ And I just be like, yo, this is so funny, this is crazy that I’ve stirred it up like this.
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.
The key to fully understanding the position Summer Walker finds herself in on her new album Still Over It is to remember where she left off. Every story has a prologue, and for Summer, that would be “Nobody Else,” the vulnerable confession towards love that closed her debut album Over It. “I want this, I want this to work out so bad / God, I feel it in my chest at night,” she begs on the track. “I want this, I want this, yeah, yeah / Will never fall out of love with you.” As we all know now, Summer’s wishes went unfulfilled, and while this step into love eventually tore her heart apart, it also gave the world what shaped up to be her magnum opus with Still Over It.
Cardi B says it best at the end of “Bitter.” “Put that drama in your music,” the rapper advises Summer while telling her to not “let b*tches… feel like they have a one-up by destroying your moment by telling your business to the world.” For better or for worse, the best way to regain control of a narrative for a successful musician like Summer is to make that best music of your life, and that’s what is present on Still Over It. Through the project’s 20 songs, Summer issues responses to women that interfered with her relationship, onlookers who questioned her decisions without knowing the entire story, and the very man who caused her heartbreak and destroyed the love she hoped would last a lifetime.
On Still Over It, Summer excellently reinforces that despite the whirlpool of controversy, turmoil, and toxicity that her relationship drowned in, her true desire was a love that was offertory rather than transactional. “All I wanted was for you to stay / It’s the bare minimum for me,” she bellows on “Reciprocate.” “I don’t wanna throw it all away / It’s a good thing, it’s a good thing.” It’s this standard reciprocation, which she asks of her partner and fails to receive, that drives her into a pit of sadness and regret. “You should know my mind by now / And it don’t seem to matter how many times I try,” Summer sings on “You Don’t Know Me” in disenchanted spirits. “But I cry, I say it nice / Yell it out loud, write it down, I’m tired.” It’s tracks like these where Summer uses tender production and her best songwriting to cast her pain through a projector to the world, one so big that it allows all the necessary details of her story to exist and roam free for listeners to digest.
As we progress further and further into Summer’s sophomore album, she’s forced to loosen her resistance towards letting go of a love that once made her melt. Through records like “Insane,” “Constant Bullsh*t,” and “Unloyal” with Ari Lennox, Summer almost jumps out of the moving car that is her relationship, but the unknown dangers that await her once she takes that dive delay this long-overdue exit. The man in question is London On Da Track, the father of her first child, and on “Switch A N***a Out” she uses sheer honesty to explain why she stayed beside him much longer than she should have. “’Cause I don’t want nobody, nobody else but you,” she sings, referencing her Over It closer. “And I used to be on my replacin’ sh*t / I would switch a n**** out so damn quick / If he ain’t gettin’ with my sh*t / But it just ain’t like that with you.”
Just like it would for anyone else, Summer reaches her breaking point through the last third of the album. After failed moments to fully shut the door on “Closure,” “Toxic,” and “Screwin,” Summer finally issues the grand closing for a love that she realizes was truly never meant to be. It brings forth some of the most painful and heartbreaking lyrics on the album. “Cause my heart is breakin,’” she bellows on “Broken Promises.” “I’ve been mistaken / You’re not the man I thought you were / And they tried to warn me.” Another example arrives on “Session 33.” “’Cause a house is not a home when no one’s there,” she notes. “So alone, no one’s there / Should I move on since no one’s here? / You know what you got is good, that’s why you refuse to let me walk out your life.”
Calling Still Over It Summer’s true villain story might be taking things a bit too far. Even her most ruthless moments, like dragging London and his mother on “4th Baby Mama,” seem well-deserved for a woman who was left to spend her “whole f*cking pregnancy alone.” In a perfect world, the happiness Summer exhibited to close Over It was still supposed to be alive and well on her sophomore project. A true love story and a child to raise with this forever partner should’ve been the narrative for her second album. Things were supposed to be different, but to her disappointment, that was not the case. Summer has grown as a singer, songwriter, and overall artist set on bringing her vision to life. However, until she receives the love she truly deserves, Summer Walker will still be over it.
Still Over It is out now via LVRN/Interscope. Get it here.
In the days since the Astroworld Festival tragedy, Travis Scott has shared two statements about it on his social media pages. Now, his lawyer is stepping forward to speak about it and he’s calling out the Houston police department. In a statement released on Wednesday, according to Billboard, Edwin F. McPherson said, “There has been multiple finger-pointing, much of which has been by city officials, who have sent inconsistent messages and have backtracked from original statements.” McPherson then criticized Houston Police Chief Troy Finner for comments he made in a recent interview with The New York Times.
During the interview, McPherson cites Finner’s claim that Astroworld was not shut down for fear that fans would riot. However, McPherson said, “a short time later, Chief Finner states the responsibility to stop the show falls on Travis.”
“It was reported that the Operations Plan designated that only the festival director and executive producers have authority to stop the show, neither of which is part of Travis’s crew,” McPherson said. “This also runs afoul of HPD’s own previous actions when it shut down the power and sound at this very festival when the performance ran over 5 minutes back in 2019.”
He concluded, “Investigations should start proceeding over finger-pointing so that together, we can identify exactly what transpired and how we can prevent anything like this from happening again.”
Bryson Tiller has a lot of music on the way. After he took just a little over five years without new music, he released his third album, Anniversary, at the end of last year. Once again, Tiller is gearing up to close out the year with a new release and he took to Twitter to make the announcement.
“Before we get into my next album, i wanted to share another special project i worked on for you guys,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “This one was really fun to make. Inspired by Bieber, Ariana, and by one of my loneliest holiday seasons ever.. A Different Christmas.” He added, “Happy Holidays from me to you, especially if you’re spending them alone!”
Tiller revealed that the project will arrive next Friday, November 19. Tiller also attached the cover art. The inspirational Christmas projects from Bieber and Grande that he refers to are most likely Bieber’s 2011 release Under The Mistletoe and Grande’s 2013 EP Christmas Kisses as well her 2015 EP Christmas & Chill.
The announcement comes after he gave an update on his upcoming album Serenity earlier this year. “Over the years, I realized how much f*cking music that I had for Serenity, all this different sh*t, so Serenity is now not one album, but it’s three albums,” he said. “It’s three volumes, one is a rap album, one is an R&B album, and then one is a pop album.”
You can view Tiller’s announcement for A Different Christmas above.
A Different Christmas is out 11/19 via Trapsoul/RCA.
The investigation into the tragedy at Travis Scott’sAstroworld Festival is still ongoing, but authorities took a moment to point out one incorrect piece of information that’s been floating around. Houston Police Chief Troy Finner spoke to reporters on Wednesday and walked back a previous report that said a security guard at the event was pricked with a needle and required Narcan after he went unconscious. “We did locate that security guard. His story is not consistent with those previous claims,” Finner said. “He says he was struck in his head, he went unconscious, and he woke up in the security tent. He says that no one injected drugs into him.”
Houston police chief walks back the viral story that a security guard was drugged through a needle prick at Astroworld festival
The update comes after Variety and Complex both reported that Travis canceled a $5.5 million “one-off” performance in Saudi Arabia as a result of the Astroworld tragedy. He also canceled his upcoming headlining performance at the Day N Vegas festival which is set to occur on the weekend of November 12-14. According to Variety, a source said he was “too distraught to play.” Post Malone was later announced as a replacement for him.
The morning after the Astroworld Festival tragedy, Travis shared a written statement about the matter. “I’m absolutely devastated by what took place last night,” he wrote in part. “My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld Festival.”
More than three years after Mac Miller’s tragic death, all three of his accused drug dealers have reached plea agreements for fentanyl distribution in connection to the rapper’s death. The last of the trio, Ryan Reavis, who is a 38-year-old resident of Lake Havasu, Arizona, agreed to plead guilty to the charge, according to Rolling Stone, who cited an announcement from the United States Attorney’s Office for Central District of California. Reavis was accused of giving counterfeit pills to a drug dealer who then sold them to Miller. According to the court records, the pills were given to Miller just two days before he passed away on September 7, 2018.
Reavis’ plea comes just weeks after the two other accused drug dealers in the case — Stephen Andrew Walter and Cameron James Pettit — pled guilty to the fentanyl distribution charge in the case. Walter “knowingly directed” Reavis to sell the pills to Pettit, who delivered them to Miller. “Reavis admitted in his plea agreement to knowing that the pills contained fentanyl or some other controlled substance,” the United States Attorney’s Office said on Wednesday. “In fact, the pills contained fentanyl.”
The United States Attorney’s Office says Petit’s case is still pending despite it being previously reported that he reached a plea agreement. In the coming weeks, Reavis and Walter are expected the officially plead guilty before a judge in Los Angeles.
Mac Miller is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
More than three months after Nicki Minaj and her husband Kenneth Petty were sued for harassment byJennifer Hough, who accused the latter of rape, Petty has made a new public statement on the matter. He claims that his interaction with Hough was consensual and insists that he did not rape her. Court documents obtained by XXL say that “Defendant [Petty] denies that he ever raped Plaintiff [Hough] and Defendant denies all of Plaintiff’s allegations of improper conduct and/or sexual assault.” It continues, “Rather, the sexual encounter between Plaintiff and Defendant was consensual and Plaintiff was a willing participant.”
The document continues, “Petty pled guilty to attempted rape, despite his innocence, because he was a scared 16-year-old kid and was told that his sentence would be 20 years to life if he did not plead guilty to attempted rape.” The 1995 conviction led to the New York State Board of Examiners of Sex Offenders’ decision to designate him as a Level 2 offender. However, in late 2019 he was arrested for failing to register as an offender, a charge he pled guilty to in September of this year. He faces a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release.
Hough’s attorney Tyrone A. Blackburn issued a response to XXL about Petty’s comments. “A willing participant would not run 20 blocks to school after a sexual encounter and tell the school security/police that she was raped,” Blackburn said. “If Petty believed Ms. Hough was a willing participant he should have never plead guilty to attempted rape.”
Petty’s comments come after a judge ruled that Nicki Minaj would not have to pay a $20 million judgment in the harassment case.
The Houston Rockets will play host to the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night in a primetime, national TV window on ESPN. It gets that spot because it is the first meeting between the top two picks from the 2021 NBA Draft, as Detroit’s Cade Cunningham faces Houston’s Jalen Green.
It will be a celebration of young talent, two of the league’s hopeful future stars squaring off for the first time on teams that hope to build something meaningful around them. That celebration of youth and promising futures happening in Houston this week is bittersweet coming on the heels of the tragedy at Astroworld over the weekend, where eight died, ranging in age from 14 to 27, and hundreds were injured at Travis Scott’s show when fans stormed towards the stage, trampling others in the mad rush across NRG Stadium.
An investigation into the event is ongoing and lawsuits against Scott, Live Nation, and others in charge of the event are mounting, as families of the victims seek some sort of accountability for what should have been an avoidable tragedy. For the young Rockets, the news hit hard, as many players said they would have been at the show had it not been during a road trip, and Scott has become a fixture at Rockets games. Wednesday’s game with Detroit was also supposed to be Travis Scott Night, but per Marc Spears of The Undefeated, that has understandably been postponed, with a moment of silence planned for the victims from the event.
The Rockets were slated to celebrate “Travis Scott Day” during Wednesday’s game against the Detroit Pistons, but it was postponed following the tragedy. The Rockets will instead hold a moment of silence before the game.
As the investigations and lawsuits continue, more information about what exactly happened, how it was communicated in the moment, and where fault lies for an unsafe environment will emerge. In the immediate, many will reflect on how to find ways to support those who lost loved ones.
Scott’s come under scrutiny as a result of the incident at Astroworld, in which 300 people were injured and eight were killed as the crowd surged forward, crushing and trampling festival-goers. Scott reportedly continued performing for nearly 40 minutes after things had gotten out of hand as festival organizers struggled to shut down the event once it was clear that a “mass casualty event” had taken place, and both Scott and the show’s producers/promoters Live Nation and ScoreMore have received a staggering number of lawsuits — a number that is expected to continue rising as more details of the event come out.
Among those that were injured were a nine-year-old who was trampled after his father, who was carrying him, passed out. The boy was found hours later in a hospital, admitted as a John Doe, and put into an induced coma; the family is among those suing Travis Scott. A 22-year-old college student was also legally declared brain dead earlier today, which would bring the total number of deaths to nine should her family remove her from life support.
Jay-Z has racked up another legal victory today, avoiding a $67 million penalty in the process. Billboard reports that a Manhattan jury determined that the rapper/mogul did not breach his contract with Parluxe Fragrances for failing to promote the failed “Gold Jay-Z” cologne. The lawsuit, which was brought against Jay by Parlux in 2016, alleged he “never once personally appeared” to promote the cologne, didn’t help develop product-line extensions to help sell the main product, and never returned a $20,000 prototype bottle after rejecting the design.
Jay responded with his own lawsuit, not only denying Parluxe’s accusations but also accusing the brand of failing to provide accounting reports, business plans, promotional resources, or royalty payments. The case, which began in October, prompted Jay-Z to hire a private investigator to refute former Parluxe CEO Donald Loftus’ claims of ill health in a bid to avoid testifying and saw Jay deliver an impatient testimony in his own defense. “I wanted great products and these guys didn’t understand,” Jay reportedly said. “It was so frustrating working with them.”
According to Billboard, the verdict left both sides in the same place as when they started, awarding no money to either. While Parluxe claimed to have lost $18 million on the Gold Jay-Z cologne and sought $67 million in the lawsuit, neither Parluxe nor Jay, whose countersuit demanded around $6 million in unpaid royalties, got their target payment. Justice Andrew Borrok told the attorneys after the verdict, “You failed to prove your case, they failed to prove their case. You’re excused.”
