Hot Ones

LL Cool J Uses Cardi B Lyric To Describe Spicy Wings On “Hot Ones”

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As the future of his next album is rumored to hang in the balance, LL Cool J is testing the heat on Hot Ones. The beloved Rap icon is fresh off an epic Grammy Award performance with dozens of his peers as they celebrated 50 years of Hip Hop. After heating up the stage, he’s powering his way through different levels of hot wings on the First We Feast series, and it’s an episode that had audiences laughing.

It was also clear from the jump that spicy foods may not be LL’s cup of tea. He ate the first wing with a low-burning sauce and joked, “That’s hot enough.” While laughing, he made it through, but it didn’t take long for LL to regret agreeing to appear on the show. The Rap icon was asked questions about his career as he paced himself. LL spoke about this year’s Grammy performance and admitted it was his “most enjoyable.”

This Year’s Grammy’s Made Hip Hop History

Spliff Star, Black Thought, Sandra Denton, Flavor Flav, Grandmaster Melle Mel, LL Cool J, Grandmaster Flash, and GloRilla perform onstage at the 65th Annual GRAMMY Awards held at Crypto.com Arena on February 5, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty Images)

“I’ve had other moments hosting, just purely hosting, that were amazing as well,” LL further stated. “But as an artist, this was like, by far the most fun for me. Being on stage with Rakim and Public Enemy and Salt-N-Pepa and Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Rahim. I just want people to know that, you know, for years Hip Hop has been served in a brown paper bag. The greasy brown paper bag. I also want people to—I wanted it to be served on a silver platter and thankfully, it was. I was able to make a huge contribution.”

He praised the production and Questlove for helping to curate the performance. “I think it turned out to be something real special for Hip Hop,” LL added. Previously, Questlove also spoke about the development of the show. He revealed that it wasn’t an easy feat getting all of those artists together. Fans took to social media to fire off questions to The Roots icon about why certain rappers didn’t show face. Quest was ready for all complaints.

Questlove Set The Record Straight

Undoubtedly, we would have loved to see all of our favorites at the Grammys Hip Hop 50th tribute. However, Questlove revealed that many people declined, others were already booked, and some had excuses that the Rap legend didn’t share. There were reportedly talks of having something feature all femcees, but they decided against it. Production also opted to avoid highlighting artists who have passed on because there was always the chance that someone would be excluded and fans would be upset.

Ice-T also revealed that Lil Wayne and Future were supposed to perform at the Grammys, too. However, it is unclear exactly why the two hitmakers didn’t make the stage. Check out more from LL Cool J above as he quotes Cardi B’s “WAP” lyrics to describe the heat on Hot Ones.

Lizzo Didn’t Think ‘About Damn Time’ Would Be A Good Lead Single At First

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“About Damn Time” could end up being the biggest song of Lizzo’s career. Currently, it’s at least in the conversation, as it recently became her second No. 1 single (after “Truth Hurts”) and it now has two weeks on top (to the seven of “Truth Hurts”). Whatever the case, what can be confirmed is that it was clearly an excellent choice for lead single from Lizzo’s album Special. There was a time, though, when Lizzo didn’t think that would be the case.

Lizzo is the guest on today’s new episode of Hot Ones and at 8:52 into the video, Sean Evans asks how Lizzo chooses her lead singles. Lizzo responded with the “About Damn Time” backstory, saying:

“‘About Damn Time’ was the last song I wrote for the album. I was turning in my masters in March. I wrote ‘About Damn Time’ in February, and I was like, ‘This one? [I don’t know] about this one.’ ‘Cause the hook wasn’t done, the verses wasn’t, ‘In a minute, I’ma need a….’ It wasn’t there yet. So I was like, ‘Uh-uh’ [shakes head].

And when I finished it, I was like, ‘Oh f*ck, this song needs to come out right motherf*ckin’ now. ‘I been so down and under pressure? I’m way too fine to be this stressed?’ It’s like, hello, we needed that right then when I dropped that motherf*cker. She I’m so bad at picking singles for myself because I think everything I do is incredible. I really do.”

Elsewhere in the episode, Lizzo talks about the Minneapolis music scene, her best older rap song, and more, so check it out above.

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

Post Malone Met Either An Alien Or A Ghost On His Compound In Utah

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Post Malone‘s got a new album, Twelve Carat Toothache, coming out next week (what a great title), so naturally, he’s on a press tour to promote it after putting out the first single, “Cooped Up.” And because he’s Post Malone and thus drawn to doing things in unconventional ways, his first stop is none other than Complex’s Hot Ones. While chomping on ultra-spicy chicken tendies with Sean Evans, Posty chops it up about his new album’s recording process, playing Magic The Gathering, and yes, meeting an alien at his Utah compound — unless it was really a ghost.

The story comes up as Sean asks about his “close encounters with wildlife” out there in the hills of Utah, leading to Post recounting his trials with a “big mama cougar” who keeps finding ways over (or under, around, or possibly even through) his pet-protecting fence. “It’s supposed to keep all the wildlife out but somehow, this big cougar keeps getting in,” he recalls, before dropping the bomb. “Also, there was an alien there.” Obviously tickled by Sean’s bemusement, Post elaborates, “Not like a physical alien, but like a ball — I think it was an alien. Or a ghost. We caught it on the infrared camera. Does an alien count as wildlife?”

Post compares the “orb” to Sauron’s Eye from The Lord Of The Rings, which plays into his love of fantasy fiction.

Watch Post Malone’s latest Hot Ones interview above and listen to Twelve Carat Toothache on June 3.

Pusha T Explains Why He Thinks Rap Beef Has Changed Over Time On ‘Hot Ones’

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“[Rap beef] is really corporate now,” Pusha T says in between bites of hot sauced-covered chicken wings during his appearance on the popular interview show Hot Ones. The question he’s been asked by unflappable host Sean Evans is, “What would you say is the biggest difference between how diss tracks were exchanged 20 years ago versus today and why is still important who wins?”

Pusha would know; he’s been keeping a running feud going with Lil Wayne for nearly 20 years himself (over a hoodie, no less), pulling in Wayne’s protege Drake and outing the latter as the father of a secret child in 2018. Continuing to share his thoughts, he elaborates that “Now, you’ll have a rap beef and the record label gets involved. The CEOs are like, ‘Whoa! You can’t do this to my artist!’ I don’t think they end careers anymore, because people don’t have the same pride level about the art.”

He also thinks it’s less important who wins, because “Back in the day it was career-ending… Nowadays, people don’t care. They’re like, ‘Oh well, they lost today. No big deal.’”

And okay, I’m sorry, all due respect to Push but as the resident hip-hop historian, I gotta say GTFOHWTBS. 20 years ago, Jay-Z and Nas held a knock-down, drag-out rhyme fight over the King Of New York title that fans still debate about and neither’s career suffered over it. In fact, both became more popular, with Nas’ “Ether” arguably revitalizing his standing with fans after a pair of lukewarm releases to close out the ’90s. And if my man is talking about the 50 Cent/Ja Rule thing, it’s important to remember that Ja Rule’s label was shut down by the freaking FBI.

No one’s career was ever buried by a rap beef. Since the beginning, battle was an integral part of the genre; if there’s any culprit to blame for rappers’ short-lived careers, it’s fickle fans and quickly evolving musical tastes. Of course, the highest-profile rap beef with the highest stakes wasn’t even about rap, which explains why it came to such a tragic end — which, contrary to conspiracy theories that float around the internet to this day, had little to do with the rules of engagement in hip-hop.

Pusha’s entitled to his opinion but at the end of the day, the narrative of rap beefs ending careers is just that: a narrative. As a matter of course, these things are always much more nuanced than we tend to idealize them as with our nostalgia glasses on. Anyway, for Pusha’s latest beef, check out his McDonald’s diss track “Spicy Fish Diss,” which he made in conjuction with Arby’s. How’s that for corporate?

Watch Pusha T’s full Hot Ones interview above

Megan Thee Stallion Shares The One Thing She Relates To The Most In Anime Shows

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When she’s not on the road or collaborating with major brands like Popeyes and Revlon, Megan Thee Stallion is watching anime. She has so much love for the genre that she even partnered with anime streaming platform Crunchyroll for some eye-catching merch. Now combining her love of hot foods and anime, Megan joined an episode of Hot Ones to explain what exactly she loves so much about watching anime.

When asked about her go-to anime show on Hot Ones, Megan described the series Black Clover, which she says she’s currently watching. The rapper explains why she relates to the only character who doesn’t have magic, saying she loves proving to everyone she’s stronger than they first expected:

“My favorite character on the show is Asta because this motherf*cker is always screaming and hollering. Even if they’re in the middle of the fight, he’ll just bust out with some goofy sh*t. […] I just feel like I can relate to him, and a lot of the other characters in anime, because people will try to count you out when they feel like you ain’t sh*t or you ain’t got something yet. But you train and train, and you fight and fight, you keep proving everybody wrong and you keep beating the odds. I feel like, that’s the type of person I am.”

Watch Megan’s Hot Ones segment above.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Ed Sheeran Doesn’t Think 50 Cent Knew Who He Was Even After They Collaborated

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During a guest spot on the latest episode of “Hot Ones,” a very red-faced Ed Sheeran recounted a funny story about his collaboration with Eminem and 50 Cent on 2019’s “Remember The Name.” Apparently — and Sheeran says the rapper may refute this if asked — Sheeran was pretty sure that 50 Cent didn’t know who Sheeran was, even after they had worked together.

“If you were to go into my school and go, at the height of Shady Records, at the height of Aftermath [Entertainment], and go, ‘Which one of these kids is gonna do a song with Eminem and 50 Cent?’ No one would’ve guessed me,” joked Sheeran between bites of wings doused in hot sauce. “50 will probably disagree with this,” he continued, referencing the time they were both present at Wembley Stadium in the UK, “[but] I don’t think 50 had a f*cking clue who I was. I think afterwards he was like, ‘Oh, the ‘Shape Of You’ guy!’”

“Remember The Name” was part of the singer-songwriter’s fourth studio album, No.6 Collaborations Project, which also featured collaborations with Justin Bieber, Camila Cabello, Travis Scott, Stormzy, Bruno Mars, Young Thug, and more. At the time of release, Sheeran joked with BBC Radio One about the song’s rapped line “I was born a misfit / Grew up 10 miles from the town of Ipswich” and how it was unlikely that Eminem “would know where Ipswitch is.”

Watch Sheeran’s “Hot Ones” interview in full above, and listen to him tell the 50 Cent story at 11:55 into the video.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Quavo Recalls Migos’ Origins Before Tapping Out During His ‘Hot Ones’ Interview

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With Migos‘ new album Culture III dropping in less than 12 hours, the trio’s most visible members, Quavo and Offset, have been busy doing press all week to drum up buzz for the long-awaited, twice-delayed release. While Offset went the print route, giving some choice quotes to Billboard on Monday, Quavo decided to take on the Hot Ones challenge today… and paid the price, ultimately tapping out after the eighth week, topped with the infamous Da Bomb sauce (“It’s got a nuclear weapon?” has to be a top ten response to the sauce’s label).

Before he threw in the towel, though, he gave some pretty insightful answers to questions about how his collaborators set the vibe in the studio, a photo on Instagram featuring Quavo hanging out with Elon Musk, Kanye West, and Travis Scott, Quavo’s upcoming feature film debut alongside Robert DeNiro, and the early days of Migos before they were a trio. When host Sean Evans brings up the song “Boost It Up” and the group’s high school origins, Quavo details how Takeoff earned his name (by getting all of his verses recorded in one take), why fellow students teased them about their early music, and how Offset was eventually added to the crew to form the trio as we know it.

Watch Quavo’s Hot Ones interview above.

Culture III is out 6/11 on Quality Control, Capitol, and Motown Records.

Jack Harlow Remembers The Show That Inspired His Song ‘Rendezvous’

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Breakout Kentucky rap star Jack Harlow got to live his dream by appearing on this week’s season premiere Complex‘s Hot Ones, but his dream turned out to be more of a nightmare after his saucy fingers got a little too familiar with his right eye halfway through the episode. He spends quite a bit of the interview suffering, but before that, he got in a few really fun responses to questions about lyrics from his debut album, That’s What They All Say.

Host Sean Evans references the reflective song “Rendezvous,” on which Harlow rhymes about being “Eight deep at the show, it might be eight fans,” and asks Jack about his most “character-building” experiences on tour. Jack recalls the tour for his 2017 mixtape Gazebo where, “night after night, I was getting character builders.” He describes situations where he had as many people on stage as there were in the crowd. “One that stuck out was the first night of the tour, which really set my expectations. It was Birmingham, Alabama. There was as many people in the crowd as we had come to the venue with… I had some humbling shows, but they prepared me for this.” He also talks a bit about doing his own stunts in a Call Of Duty ad.

He’s certainly seen a turnaround in his fortunes since. In the same month that he released his debut album on Atlantic, he appeared on The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live, and in an NBA All-Star Weekend game of two-on-two, bringing his audience from “eight fans” to millions in just three years.

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

Maya Rudolph Brought Her Beyonce Impression To ‘Hot Ones’ In A Hilariously Throwback ‘SNL’ Sketch

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Maya Rudolph warned during her opening monologue that she would be wearing lots of wigs and doing impressions on Saturday Night Live, and thankfully for us that meant bringing back her Beyonce impression. The former cast member had hosting duties in its latest episode, and thankfully for us that meant a throwback-feeling segment about a very modern concept: Beyonce appearing on the web show Hot Ones to eat some very spicy chicken wings.

The sketch is a throwback to the era in which Rudolph thrived. It’s an absurd concept to begin with: the most famous musician in the world showing up on a show where you eat spicy wings and promote something while answering softball questions. But it’s a sketch that actually critiques not just the thing it’s parodying — an incredibly popular YouTube show — but Beyonce’s notorious attempts to control her image in the media.

Seeing Beyonce struggle with absurdly-named hot wing sauces and curse out the host, played by Mikey Day, is a departure from anything we’ve seen from the actual singer in years. At one point, Rudolph’s Beyonce is so overcome by the heat of the wings that she asked her stylist to take her wig off, put ice cubes in it and put it back on. Her “publicist” then stepped in to refuse to let that happen on camera.

The joke here is, after years of carefully cultivating her image in the public eye, Beyonce would never do anything like this. Or at least we’d never find out about it. Later, realizing just how many more wings she still needs to endure, she has her manager step in to call the whole thing off, with non-disclosure agreements all around to make sure no evidence of it ever happening.

It was great to see Rudolph play a character that’s not Kamala Harris and be free of the political news cycle that brought her back to the SNL stage at various points over the last year. And it was a strong start to an episode that reminded many viewers of the kind of sketch that was more common when Rudolph was a more permanent member of the show’s cast.