St. Louis rapper Smino is two years removed from his last full-length album, 2018’s slinky, soulful Noir. In the interim, he’s kept his fans sated with a slow but steady trickle of releases, including “Reverend,” “Rice & Gravy,” and “I Deserve,” as well as the 2020 lockdown mixtape She Already Decided and a string of features with the likes of JID (“Baguetti“), Thundercat (“Dragonball Durag” remix with Guapdad 4000), Denzel Curry (“So.Incredible.Pkg” remix), Yebba (“Louie Bag“), Syd (“Right Track“), and Khalid (“Scenic Drive“).
However, fans have still looked forward to his third full-length album with increasing anticipation, and today, he shared just enough information to pique their interest and turn up the anticipation from “eager” to “rabid.” Appearing on the latest episode of YouTube Originals’ Bear Witness, Take Action conversation series, Smino joined comedian Teddy Ray for “What Say What?!”, a discussion about the new album and each artist’s respective influences and creative process. During the discussion (at about the 8-minute mark), Smino reveals the title of his upcoming album: Love For Rent. He also explains the meaning behind the title:
“It’s based on different types of love,” he says. “It could be bad love, petty love, obsessive love, real good love, family love. But it’s just about the different ways I lent out my heart to the point where I didn’t have enough left for myself. I just put a pause on a bunch of sh*t. Letting everybody come eat and then you go get the plate last and you like, ‘Damn, I’m hungrier than a b*tch.’”
Later in the episode (at the 10-minute mark), Smino hits a makeshift stage on the set (made up to resemble a kitchen) to perform his new singles “I Deserve” and “Black Luv Ain’t Dead.” You can watch the full episode above and stay tuned for more information about the long-awaited comeback album, Love For Rent.
Good eats and great weed go hand in hand. The whole thing about weed giving you the munchies isn’t completely true (some weed does and some weed doesn’t) but one thing is for certain — weed makes food taste better. I don’t just mean marginally better. Eating while stoned can be a downright religious experience. After taking a fat rip you start laser focusing on the varying flavors, textures, and smells of your food. Suddenly a burger goes from a good lunch to a vivid sensory experience that borders on the psychedelic.
I know this because I write about food and weed constantly. So when I heard famed stoner and musician Wiz Khalifa was launching a food concept (appropriately dubbed HotBox) to pair with his Khalifa Kush weed brand, I knew it was something I had to experience.
Made in collaboration with the virtual restaurant brand NextBite, HotBox by Wiz Khalifa is a delivery-only virtual restaurant that is currently available in Miami, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York City, Houston, and more and is actively expanding to additional cities nationwide. The food is sourced from local restaurants that meet the specific ingredients and preparation practices required by NextBite — so the dishes should be pretty consistent, no matter what city you’re ordering from. The menu is a stoner’s paradise of indulgent carb-rich snacks like Hot Cheeto dusted cheeseburgers, zesty buffalo wings, tater tots, mac and cheese, cookies, and more.
None of Wiz’s food is actually infused with cannabis. But the brand and Wiz himself confirmed in a Zoom tasting I attended that they were actively exploring the idea while also looking for ways to offer plant-based options to the menu. The lack of any cannabis-infused treats may seem like a missed opportunity, but I think the food actually stands a chance of tasting better without any infusions. Better, in my opinion, to smoke up and treat this as a post-stoned meal.
Which is exactly what I did.
The Weed: Khalifa Kush
Dane Rivera
Before we get into the menu, we should probably talk about Wiz Khalifa’s cannabis brand Khalifa Kush — currently available in California in preroll and flower form. The cannabis is sourced from Northern California’s Bay Area by Colorado-based cultivator RiverRock Cannabis and is apparently the only weed Wiz smokes. He affectionately refers to the brand simply as “KK” on social media. I’d call bullshit on that as purely a piece of marketing but, having smoked the brand, I can actually buy it.
Khalifa Kush has a pungent flavor and provides a sensory-enhancing high with a THC level in the mid 20% range. Smoking the pre-roll had me feeling good and hypersensitive to my surroundings, while still keeping me from feeling weighed down and sluggish. It didn’t have the best flavor to it (I was smoking a pre-roll after all) but the high was powerful and definitely lifted my spirits. Not a bad pairing to go with a menu launch… but with all the weed I smoke for work (living the dream over here) my tolerance is through the roof, so I plan to be as harsh with the HotBox food as I am when I’m ranking french fries, chicken sandwiches, or any other food.
Nice try though Wiz!
The Bottom Line
If you want to smoke what Wiz smokes in the studio, this indica-leaning hybrid is definitely worth a pickup.
The Food: Ranked From Worst To Best
5. So Baked Hybrid Cookies
Dane Rivera
Nope, not hybrid like a weed strain, this is simply a mix of caramel, chocolate, and pretzel, all mixed up into a single cookie that is served with a salted caramel dipping sauce. This cookie is easily the weakest link on the menu. It’s not it tastes bad — it’s a damn cookie we’re talking about — but it’s not really that good either. The cookie is dense, a bit dry and is more cookie than you want in a single sitting (which, consequently, means it’s perfect for being stoned) and despite having pretzel bites and a salted caramel dipping sauce, this thing comes off as much more sweet than it does salty.
A better balance between the salty and sweet flavors might’ve made this cookie a winner but as it stands, it’s just okay. Don’t let those stoner goggles fool you into thinking you actually want to order this. You’re just high.
The Bottom Line
Unless it’s free with the meal, skip this one, you’re not missing out on anything.
4. Taylor Gang Tots
Dane Rivera
I’m a little torn on these. First of all, tater tots, while delicious, just don’t travel well. When hot and crispy tater tots are trapped in a wax-lined paper box, the heat that emits off of them and bounces off the walls of the container turns what should be a crispy masterpiece into a soggy mess. That’s exactly what happened to these tots so if you really want these to shine you’re going to have to put just a bit of work into it. After a few sad tots, I grabbed my order, spread the tots on a sheet of aluminum foil, and threw that shit into the toaster oven for a good ten minutes until they were nice and crispy again.
The tots themselves are delicous, they’re fluffy, a bit buttery, and full of flavor, but given that they don’t travel well, we can’t rank these much higher than this placement. Especially considering if you’re stoned and hungry, you’re going to be less motivated to put the work into helping these tots shine.
The Bottom Line
Delicious, but tater tots don’t travel well so if you don’t have the patience to reheat these in a toaster oven to get them crispy again definitely skip these.
3. Bigger Blazier Buffalo Wings
Dane Rivera
My HotBox order came with the Bigger Blazier Buffalo Wings order, not to be confused with the menu’s Bigger Better Buffalo Wings, so I can’t speak to how much “blazier” they are compared to the OG, but as far as buffalo wings go these are pretty excellent. I prefer a crispier exterior, but given the travel time I knew I wasn’t going to get that. I didn’t feel the need to reheat these though like the tots. The chicken is tender and juicy while the buffalo sauce gives a nice zesty and spicy kick. The wings are served alongside a side of ranch or bleu cheese dressing and the ‘ol standard wing accompaniement of carrot and celery sticks.
The HotBox wings match the sort of quality and depth flavor you’d find from a WingStop or Buffalo Wild Wings. It’s not mind-blowing, but the wings are perfectly serviceable and I find little if nothing to complain about.
The Bottom Line
A pretty solid wing effort. Wiz would be wise to add a few more flavors, hopefully a dry rub is in the cards.
2. Fully Packed Bowl
Here is where things get really interesting. Wings and cookies are all fine and good, but the Fully Packed Bowl truly lives up to the stoner food utopia promised by this culinary concept. It comes off as a greatest hits package of the entire HotBox menu, a bed of tater tots is bathed in a blanket of saucey macaroni and cheese drizzled with the same zesty buffalo sauce used on the wings accompanied by crispy chunks of fried chicken and some Hot Cheeto dust sprinkled on top of it all. The bowl has crunch, thanks to the fried chicken (the tots still leave something to be desired) and Cheeto dust combination, and is full of savory salty flavors that serve as the perfect stoner cat nip.
You have to be high to even want to eat this thing, but from your first forkful on you’ll be pleased that you took that big rip before diving in.
The Bottom Line As decadent and delicious as it sounds. The Fully Packed Bowl combines an appetizer sampler’s worth of flavors with the form factor of nachos. It’s the most stoner-friendly item on the menu and a must order.
1. Blazed OG Cheetos Burger
Dane Rivera
I know I just sang the praises of the Fully Packed Bowl, the best stoner food I’ve had all year, but what really blew me away from the HotBox menu was the Blazed OG Cheetos Burger. I’m not the biggest Hot Cheetos fan — yes, I ranked every single flavor of Flamin’ Hot ever, but I wouldn’t count myself as a true fan and I certainly am not a fan of Hot Cheeto dust in food. I find it incredibly gimmicky. Or I should say, I “found” it incredibly gimmicky, because the Blazed OG Cheetos Burger has completely changed my mind. It might be banned in Europe, but Hot Cheeto dust is a fantastic blend of artifically spicy flavors that deliver on the heat without drowning out any of the other flavors.
Get this dust in the hands of a professional chef ASAP! The Blazed OG Cheetos Burger comes with a thick and juicy burger patty, American cheese with Hot Cheetos dust embeded into it, as well as lettuce, tomato and what HotBox is calling Thrill Sauce on a brioche bun. For whatever reason, my burger didn’t come with the Thrill Sauce but it was so good it honestly didn’t matter.
The beef has a nice depth of flavor, it’s juicy, salty, and perfectly cooked. The burger quality matches the same sort of flavor you’d find at a Fat Burger or Shake Shack. Not quite as juicy, but definitely a contender for best deliverable burger in the fast food space. If you’re going to order one thing off of the HotBox menu I still suggest you try the fully packed bowl, but in terms of which menu item has the best flavor, it’s hard to beat this. Though I haven’t tried the delicious looking chicken sandwich that is on the menu which Wiz counted as a personal highlight.
The Bottom Line So good I wish it was a double!
You can order Wiz Khalifa’s HotBox online at the official website or through third party delivery services like DoorDash, UberEats, Postmates, and GrubHub.
As Vince Staples once said (to the tune of 135,00 retweets and 258,000 likes), “The national anthem don’t even slap.”
Twitter
Over the years, various efforts to rectify this state of affairs have met with mixed results — Marvin Gaye’s rendition at the 1983 NBA All-Star game came close, Fergie’s effort at the 2018 All-Star, not so much — but the fact remains that the “Star-Spangled Banner” is kind of a dud, extolling virtues that the nation still hasn’t come within waving distance of since its writing.
That hasn’t stopped folks from trying, though; the latest was Atlanta R&B singer Jacquees, whose insistence that he’s the “king of R&B” over the past few years (he even named his 2019 album King Of R&B) has already made him subject to pushback and ridicule. Ahead of the recent NBA game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors, Jacquees opted for a laid-back rendition marked by his signature melisma and vibrato — i.e., “vocal runs” and that warbling quality singers’ voices sometimes have.
A tweet capturing the video of him singing the national anthem has gone viral on Twitter as folks debate his performance choices comparing it to the aforementioned Fergie debacle as well as Carl Lewis’ 1993 miss at another NBA game. Basically, the consensus is that Jacquees did way too much, but somehow also still not nearly enough to save that dreadful song from its built-in limitations. Jacquees himself was less than amused at the response, posting an apparent response of his own:
Seriously, would it kill anyone for us to update the national anthem? Like five major musical genres have been invented since America’s inception, and literally, any of them would save countless future generations from suffering this sort of embarrassment. Check out the responses to Jacquees’ performance below.
Yess the people realizing Jacquees can not fucking sing. Great day for music
Lately, everyone’s talking about Diamond Certification. Just last week, Cardi B became the first-ever female rapper ever with two Diamond certified tracks and yesterday, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” claimed Diamond Certification as well (and surpassed over a billion streams, natch.) But what exactly constitutes Diamond Certification, you might ask? It’s an official Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certification that signifies an album or single that has sold over ten million units. So essentially, it’s a 10 times Platinum release. And today, we have a new friend in the Diamond business.
Roddy Ricch definitely has the mojo deals coming his way now that his single “The Box” is officially Diamond Certified. The 23-year-old Compton rapper’s track joins such illustrious company as Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You,” Kanye West’s “Stronger,” Adele’s “Hello,” and Pharrell’s “Happy.” He was presented with the plaque yesterday.
But he won’t be resting his laurels on the new plaque for too long, as his next album, Live Life Fast, is set to drop before the end of the year. So if you’re looking for any last-minute stocking stuffer ideas, you could help the man on the way to his next Diamond certification.
Live Life Fast is due 12/17 on Atlantic.
Roddy Ricch is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Entertainment Tonight reports that television host Nick Cannon‘s youngest son, five-month-old Zen, recently died. Cannon announced the infant’s death during his show’s opening monologue, showing the audience a photo of Zen and breaking down as he described the conditions that led to his loss.
Born in June to Cannon and Alyssa Scott, Zen — Cannon’s seventh child — suffered from hydrocephalus, which describes the buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. This causes pressure inside the skull which can lead to a number of symptoms, including disability and death. It can be treated with a shunt, which is placed in the skull through surgery, however, despite doctors treating Zen with this method, things took a turn for the worse.
“Ultimately, it was cancer in the brain and the tumor began to grow a lot faster,” Cannon explained. “This weekend, I made a valid effort to spend the most quality time I could spend with Zen. We woke up on Sunday and was like, ‘I feel like I want to go to the water.’ We got a chance to go to the ocean.”
He also explained that show business is “all he knows,” which is why he’s back at work so soon after. While a pre-taped episode aired on Monday, the tapings he was scheduled to shoot were canceled and he’ll be taking time off from the show for the time being.
Jack Harlow has come a long way since he first started making music. In fact, he recently shared a photo of his 2018 tour that showed less than 20 people in the crowd. That’s why it was especially meaningful for him to be named Hitmaker Of Tomorrow by Variety, who awarded the rapper at their star-studded Hitmaker Brunch over the weekend. While on stage, Harlow told the crowd that he credits his love for the written word to his childhood days of reading Harry Potter books.
Harlow walked on stage to accept the award and during his speech, the rapper shared a story about his youth. He recalled the time when he was in second grade and he won a book-reading contest thanks the reading all the Harry Potter books he could find:
“So we get to the end of the school year and there’s a big assembly. The entire school is there, in my memory at least it feels like a stadium full of people. The climax of this assembly is the staff announcing the top three students who had read the most, or at least, had been credited the most points for reading. In third place they announce some fifth grader, he goes up and they give him his trophy. Second place, another fifth grader — he goes up, they give him a trophy. And in first place, a second grader, they called my name. And I had beat the entire school. I won by a landslide, I probably had quadruple whatever second place had. […] It was a competition and it brought out the competitor in me, which is a big part of the genre I’m in. All that reading is what made me the writer I am now and I’m pretty sure it’s what going to make me the hitmaker of tomorrow.”
Watch Harlow give his speech while accepting his Variety’s Hitmaker Of Tomorrow award above.
Jack Harlow is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Most of us have neighbors in real life, but some of us have virtual neighbors, too. Such is the case for Snoop Dogg, who just got a new neighbor who paid nearly half a million dollars for the privilege of owning some virtual space adjacent to Snoop’s virtual space.
Snoop owns property in The Sandbox, which is described as “a virtual world where players can build, own, and monetize their gaming experiences in the Ethereum blockchain using SAND, the main utility token of the platform.” On December 2, to celebrate Snoop’s Sandbox presence, a sale of virtual spaces near Snoop’s was launched. During that sale, a plot next to Snoop’s was purchased for 70,903.8222 SAND, which at the time of purchase was worth about $458,038. As of this post, the current value of the SAND used to make the purchase is approximately $382,906.
Snoop shared a tweet about the purchase and wrote, “Won’t u be my neighbor.”
Snoop is currently in the midst of launching a significant partnership with The Sandbox, as outlined on the platform’s website. The rapper is building a re-creation of his real-life Diamond Bar, California mansion, as well as a venue that will host concerts and other live events.
Learn more about Snoop’s involvement with The Sandbox here.
It’s not always easy balancing work with school — especially if you’re a recording artist. While more and more artists attempt to complete their educational goals at the same time as their career ones, you might wonder: What does that balancing act actually look like? South Central LA rapper NCognita attempts to answer that question with her new docuseries, Nita Unfiltered. Kicking off today, its first episode follows her NCognita as she prepares to return to Loyola University New Orleans, talking it through with her family at home and describing the differences between LA and New Orleans.
Ncognita is just starting her career, but she’s already got a lot of weight behind her thanks to the co-sign of Insecure creator Issa Rae, who signed the young rapper to her label Raedio earlier this year after holding a competition for an invitation to a writing camp for the show’s final season. Issa Rae has been curating the soundtrack for Insecure all five seasons, leading to expanded work on the soundtracks for shows like 50 Cent’s Power and HBO’s Betty. Raedio previously partnered with Baby Tate to release her After The Rain EP as well, spawning the hit record “I Am” with Flo Milli.
So while Ncognita may not be a household name just yet, there’s a strong chance you’ll be hearing her in at least one of the places Issa Rae currently holds sway. Take the chance to get familiar now.
The student, Raheel Ahmad, approached Uzi in the store, asking if the rapper could help him out with his student loan debt. When Uzi inquired about how much it was, the jaw-dropping amount, $90,000, turned out to be well within the rapper’s means. However, he had one question for Ahmad before agreeing to the deal: “If I pay for your college, are you gonna finish college?”
It turns out Ahmad followed through on his end, announcing on Instagram that he’s not only graduating from Temple University this year but he’s doing so with a 3.5 GPA. “I’m sure you all remember this video of me asking Lil Uzi Vert at the mall if he could help pay for my college tuition,” he said in the video. He gave a quick explanation of his situation — his father recently died, leaving his mom to support him and five other kids — and gave some pointed commentary on the current state of America’s education system.
“College can’t be this expensive when it’s meant to be for a better and more stable future,” Raheel says, stating his intention to apply his political science degree toward education reform. He invites Lil Uzi Vert to his graduation party, but this time, he says, “Dinner is on me.” Check out Raheel’s video below.
Taking in the enthused crowd at Baby Keem’s show at the Fonda Theater in Hollywood for his Melodic Tour last Thursday night, it was clear that despite being a relative newcomer, the Las Vegas-raised rapper is already in a league of his own. He also proved to be one of those artists that you have to see to “get,” and while I can’t say I fully understand his appeal after seeing him live, I certainly can understand why he appeals to a generation that values vibes over previously held notions of substance.
One thing that has both helped and hindered the 21-year-old is his blood relation to one of hip-hop’s most critically-lauded poets: Kendrick Lamar. The two are cousins, and Kenny’s shadow looms long over Keem’s career to date. While having that connection certainly drew more attention to Keem’s work, even if it wasn’t highly touted by either of them, it also sets a certain standard of expectations for him — expectations he clearly has no intention of meeting.
As the concert took place in Los Angeles, Kendrick’s hometown and Keem’s birthplace, there were those fans who seemed most excited by the prospect of seeing Kendrick make a surprise appearance — especially since he appears twice on Keem’s debut album The Melodic Blue, on fan favorites “Range Brothers” and “Family Ties.” To his credit, Kendrick takes care not to outshine his cousin on either track, opting to dip his toes into the younger artist’s creative well rather than stick to his own tongue-twisting, mind-bending metaphorical writing style.
Keem’s style is the result of a half-decade-long realignment of hip-hop’s overall trajectory toward artists who push mood over weighty themes and witty wordplay. And while the stars of the era like Travis Scott, Lil Uzi Vert, and other young veterans of the SoundCloud era have renewed rap’s affinity for repetitious hooks and more prominent production than lyricism, they haven’t completely given up on the concept of bringing out the best bars — they’ve studiously reimagined just what constitutes “the best bars.”
At The Fonda, Keem’s turn-up anthems — tapping cuts across both The Melodic Blue and his 2019 mixtape Die For My Bitch like “Range Brothers” and “Stats,” along with his Donda feature “Praise God” — might have received the most exuberant initial responses, but the kids were much more tuned in for the drowsier, vibey-er cuts like 2019’s “Honest” and “Issues” from The Melodic Blue. Vibes rule, and lyrics, while being delivered in sing-song fashion rather than the rapid-fire staccato of my youth, are just as central to the process of creating those vibes.
There’s controlled chaos at the heart of it all, and Keem’s true talent seems to be a mastery of what it takes to control it. Despite giving up a whole year of live development due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns of 2020, instead of presenting the dreary, drugged-out take that many of his peers have come to cultivate over the past few years, Keem is alert and sharp onstage. He knows exactly when to drop the mic and let the crowd fully indulge themselves in crooning along to his magnetic hooks and he’s sequenced at least this particular set perfectly, letting the energy ebb, flow, and spike at natural points without trying to push the margins and burning everyone out or put them to sleep.
That balance was the crux of Uproxx’s review of The Melodic Blue by Wongo Okon, who sought to highlight Keem’s skill at weaving in and out of that vibey, trappy space that is currently so dominant, without trying to imitate his cousin’s depth and dexterity. While some older fans might want to see more of the latter in the same way one concertgoer near the back of the room kept calling for Kendrick to appear — long after it was clear he wouldn’t — Keem knows his audience and serves them exactly what they want, just on his own terms rather than anyone else’s.
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(@key_chaotic) 
Won’t u be my neighbor. 
