In the Reel Goats-directed video for Rod Wave’s “Tombstone,” the Florida trap crooner recalls his struggles as he enjoys a snow day in the forest. However, in the deceptively sunny B-plot of the video, a little boy endures similar tribulations, watching his out-of-work father argue with his clearly overworked mom. His story comes to a head when he’s approached on the street by a police patrol car and things pretty much play out like you’d expect.
The somber video accompanies the latest single from Rod’s upcoming album, SoulFly, following the reflective “Street Runner.” The innovative rapper accompanied that single with a web video game that plays a chiptune version of the instrumental and lets players race a hot rod along a coastline at sunset collecting heart-shaped power-ups.
Before announcing the album’s release date, Rod had a falling out with his label over money, threatening to hold back its release until things were made right. Within a few days, though, he apologized for making the issue public and said everything had been resolved. He quickly followed up with a tracklist and release date: March 26, this Friday.
Watch Rod Wave’s “Tombstone” video above.
SoulFly is due 3/26 on Alamo Records. You can pre-save it here.
Earlier this month, Arizona rapper Baby Keem shared his first new single of 2021, “No Sense,” after a relatively quiet 2020 that saw the release of just two singles despite Keem’s appearance on the 2020 XXL Freshman cover. Today, he shared the apocalyptic video for the new track, which was produced by Kendrick Lamar’s pgLang, naturally.
The video finds Keem staring out the window of an apartment in a large apartment building complex, watching what appears to be masses of people congregating in the courtyard below. Inside the apartment, he seems to see a group of women sitting around a table exchanging little white packages, while outside, one of the buildings collapses for seemingly no reason.
Keem finally decides to leave the apartment, running to the parking garage and commandeering a car, but at the end of the video, he takes a curve in the exit corkscrew a little too quickly in his haste to escape and the car careens off the building before a smash-cut to black. If anyone wants to take a guess at what any of this means, they’re welcome to, because the video leaves a lot open to interpretation.
With “No Sense,” the total of videos he’s released since 2019’s “Orange Soda” blew up comes to three, including “Moshpit” and “Hooligan.” It seems clear that Keem is willing to take his time in releasing a full-length project and judging from the growing stream counts, his fans are more than willing to eagerly consume each long-awaited release.
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.
One of Guapdad 4000’s press pics is a photo of him and his grandma, whom he lovingly calls “Naynay.” It’s a Tagalog term of endearment meaning “mom”; the way he uses it reflects the relationship he has with his Filipino grandmother as a result of his rough-and-tumble upbringing in West Oakland. Throughout his newly-released album, 1176, he highlights those aspects of his Filipino heritage as he shares some of his most vulnerable and personal material yet.
That cultural honor comes through in the titles of songs like “Chicken Adobo,” in which he compares a partner’s love to the heartwarming flavor of the Philippines’ most recognizable dish. The autobiographical vulnerability comes through in songs like “Uncle Ricky,” where he details his run-ins with a reckless relative, and “Stoop Kid,” where the porch of the house from the album’s cover becomes the center of the mise en scene for dice games, shootouts, and family drama to play out over the course of Guapdad’s life.
It’s only right, then, that his prime partner in this endeavor is someone who can relate to some of those aspects of his upbringing. Enter Illmind, a near 20-year veteran producer who has worked with some of hip-hop’s biggest hitmakers and well-respected underground legends from Drake (“You & The 6“) and J. Cole (“Love Yourz“) to Little Brother (“Good Clothes“) and Skyzoo (“Luxury” with Westside Gunn) — and he just happens to be Filipino, as well. Guapdad and Illmind met at a mutual friend’s session and instantly formed a personal and creative bond that resonates throughout 1176, from the unexpected Alice Deejay flip on lead single “How Many” to the ghostly, deconstructed Miami bass R&B of “Catching Bodies,” that brings out some of Guapdad’s most cutting recollections and observations.
Uproxx connected with the “Cartier Kuyas” over the phone to break down the new album, but unfortunately, the conversation had to once again swing to address the sharp rise in anti-Asian hate crimes over the past year in the wake of the recent spa shooting spree in Atlanta. While that conversation helped to highlight a sense of solidarity between the two seemingly disparate groups that actually form Guapdad’s genetic makeup, the rest of our discussion illuminated the intriguing creative process behind bringing 1176 to life.
I have to ask: how are you feeling? How are you responding to the tough news?
Illmind: It’s coming as a surprise to me, just as much as everyone else. It’s really unfortunate. I’m saddened by it. I’m praying for the people who have been affected and the families of all the people that lost their lives so far in these hate crimes. 2020 was an intense year for obvious reasons and now it’s almost like we’re shifting to each culture every year.
It’s rooted in hate. So I pray that we can do what we can to start shifting the narrative and, this might sound whimsical and like I’m in fantasy land, but I am a real true believer in love conquering hate at the end of the day, but getting there is going to be the challenge.
Guapdad: That was a powerful statement, Illmind. I’m over here completely resonating with that. I’m trying to take my time and come up with my more diplomatic response, because right now I’m just on some Oakland n**** sh*t because it’s infuriating. If somebody touched my grandma, I’m going to kill him.
I feel you. I remember you said that the last time we talked about this. So, as far as the album goes: What was the seed? How did this get started? Where did the idea come from and how did you water it and make it grow?
Guapdad: Essentially, the seed came from us. I only talk in this with this type of diction because we homies and I like to give you a bit more deeper scoop than most of the shit we’ve been doing: Honestly, I feel like innately, me and Ill, have been preparing our whole lives to meet each other and work.
Everything that he liked, everything that I liked, everything that we had done up until this point kind of snowballed into us f*cking clash-of-the-Titans meeting each other and just feeling like we was already friends. We both have those similar life experiences throughout our whole lives that led us to there, to where we got this crazy synergy. I don’t give a f*ck what Ill play. As soon as I hear it, the song’s done.
Illmind: I mean Guap said it all. That’s exactly how it started. It’s crazy because we come from two different coasts. Guap is from the West, I’m from the East. We came up on a lot of the same things even with that distance, from fashion to just music taste to just this aesthetic, visual audio aesthetic, everything. And we both take our crafts very seriously and we’re deeply passionate.
When you put two guys like us together, on top of the fact that we both share a similar culture being Filipino, it’s like what Guap said, we were almost sort of destined to do this. The first time I had a session with Guap was in LA, and it was almost like a deja vu moment, where it was like either I saw this happening or it was kind of like written in the stars and it was like, “Oh yeah, whatever you’ve been doing up to this point led to this point right now.”
This is the house I grew up in. It was hella hard for me to go back and look at this demon in the face as we began to make art with it. A bitter sweet return birthed one of the most beautiful covers I’ve ever released Ty @paulxmiddletonpic.twitter.com/ZMnW0GGo7g
Guap, how do you tap into this vulnerable mode and why was it so important to do it on this project coming straight off Dior Deposits?
Guapdad: Honestly bro, that was just one big venting session. I’ve been doing a lot of running from a lot of demons, especially throughout just quarantine and all of these things going wrong. And all of these things popping up in my life that trouble me, that take sleep away from me, that add to the pressures of my career. I run away from these things by just working more. I distract myself with work because I’m a f*cking work machine.
I hadn’t processed losing my house because I never slowed down. Had a going away last party at the crib, and I went and I got my tears out. I cried harder than I ever cried in my life at this sayonara event to my old residence. But I feel emotionally, hadn’t really dealt with that devil face-to-face. And the music, these beats, my heart, my spirit was forcing me to talk about it. It was forcing me to talk about that because creatively, I’d probably always reference it and never get over it if I didn’t.
I don’t want to always talk about how much it hurt to lose the house. I don’t want to always look at white people in my neighborhood and get mad at them for gentrification. I don’t want to harbor hate. So it was necessary that I made a song like “Stoop Kid” so that I can still exist in a normal space.
Illmind: It was crazy because at the point in the album creation, when Guap was like, “All right, let’s do some shit. I want to tell some stories, man. I need to pull some emotions.” And a light bulb came off for me because those are, personally for me, those are some of my favorite types of records to make with people. And when he said that, I pulled out the bag.
On “You & The 6,” that was [Drake’s] first time he’s talking about his relationship with his mother and father. “Love Yourz,” a song about Cole talking about the importance of self love and valuing the right things, became the muse for Forest Hills Drive. I feel like when I make music, there’s this emotion that I put into it. And when an artist feels that same, resonates with that vibration and is able to pull something deep inside of them and write something incredible with it, that’s my North star where I feel like I did my job.
What does Naynay think about the wild stuff you sometimes say on these records?
Guapdad: She don’t give a f*ck. [All laughing.] I’m paying bills, and she know my heart is good. One thing that’s tight about my grandma is she sees my blackness and my extrovertedness, she’s always nurtured it. There is a side of me that is very blunt. And there is a side of me that’s non-filtered. And she always accepts that because she accepts me expressing myself. And this is how I choose to do it. So she f*cks with it.
All parents everywhere are just winging it. But as a kid or a person without kids, especially, who never thought on that level, you don’t realize that. Because that’s who you look to when you hungry. That’s who you look to when you need money. That’s what you look to when everything fails and you got to restart. Some people don’t get that privilege. It should be every human’s fail-safe. And that’s how I look at my grandma. She like God to me in that way because her forgiveness is indefinite, and I’m appreciative of that. There’s something tangible that I can hold onto. Even though it’s emotion, that shit is so thick with presence, I feel like it’s physical.
I know you guys have to sit through a lot of press days and have to answer a lot of the same questions over and over and over again. I want to know: What’s a question that you guys wished somebody would have asked you that nobody’s ever asked you?
Guapdad: I never get to talk about cinema, and I have a real love for movies. If you ask me who’s my favorite sound designer, I would say Hans Zimmer.
Illmind: I’m going to copy Guap. Can I do some movie talk too?
Go for it!
Illmind: I guess a lot of people don’t know this about me, but I love John Woo, the director. Hard Boiled, The Killer, all the OG sh*t. Bullet In The Head, The Replacement Killers are fire. But in general, I’ve been really getting into Korean cinema from the ’90s and early 2000s. Korean cinema is something that I was pretty obsessed with for a long time. But I just think their sh*t is super fly. The soundtracks, the visuals, the type of cameras they use, the goriness, the storylines are so bizarre, but so fire to me. Old Boy is the most insane script to put a green light on. I’m talking about the OG one.
Guapdad: One of the greatest movies of all time.
1176 is out now via Paradise Rising / 88rising Records / 12Tone Music. Get it here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Having a work preserved in the National Recording Registry of the Library Of Congress is a significant honor, and now that feat is something a handful of artists can add to their resume. Today, the Library Of Congress announced its 2020 selections for the registry and among the highlights from the world of modern music are Nas’ 1994 album Illmatic and Janet Jackson’s 1989 album Rhythm Nation 1814.
Some other notable works include one of the oldest known audio recordings via Thomas Edison, Kermit The Frog’s “The Rainbow Connection,” Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s “Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World,” Kool & The Gang’s “Celebration,” Jackson Browne’s Late For The Sky, and the This American Life episode “The Giant Pool Of Money,” which is the first podcast recording to be included in the National Recording Registry.
Librarian Of Congress Carla Hayden said, “The National Recording Registry will preserve our history through these vibrant recordings of music and voices that have reflected our humanity and shaped our culture from the past 143 years. We received about 900 public nominations this year for recordings to add to the registry, and we welcome the public’s input as the Library Of Congress and its partners preserve the diverse sounds of history and culture.”
Check out the full list of recordings from the 2020 class below.
1. “St. Louis Tinfoil” — Thomas Edison (1878)
2. “Nikolina” — Hjalmar Peterson (1917) (single)
3. “Smyrneikos Balos” — Marika Papagika (1928) (single)
4. “When The Saints Go Marching In” — Louis Armstrong (1938) (single)
5. Christmas Eve Broadcast — FDR & Winston Churchill (Dec. 24, 1941)
6. “The Guiding Light” — Nov. 22, 1945
7. Odetta Sings Ballads And Blues — Odetta (1957) (album)
8. “Lord, Keep Me Day by Day” — Albertina Walker And The Caravans (1959) (single)
9. Roger Maris hits his 61st home run (October 1, 1961)
10. Aida — Leontyne Price, et.al. (1962) (album)
11. “Once A Day” — Connie Smith (1964) (single)
12. Born Under A Bad Sign — Albert King (1967) (album)
13. Free To Be…You & Me — Marlo Thomas And Friends (1972) (album)
14. The Harder They Come — Jimmy Cliff (1972) (album)
15. “Lady Marmalade” — Labelle (1974) (single)
16. Late For The Sky — Jackson Browne (1974) (album)
17. Bright Size Life — Pat Metheny (1976) (album)
18. “The Rainbow Connection” — Kermit The Frog (1979) (single)
19. “Celebration” — Kool & The Gang (1980) (single)
20. Richard Strauss: Four Last Songs — Jessye Norman (1983) (album)
21. Rhythm Nation 1814 — Janet Jackson (1989) (album)
22. Partners — Flaco Jiménez (1992) (album)
23. “Over The Rainbow / What A Wonderful World” — Israel Kamakawiwo’ole (1993) (single)
24. Illmatic — Nas (1994) (album)
25. “This American Life: The Giant Pool Of Money” (May 9, 2008)
If you’ve spent a decent amount of your Tuesday on Twitter, you more than likely caught some portion of the growing story between Jensen Karp and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It began when Karp posted an image of what he said were dried shrimp tails that he discovered in his box of cereal. He reached out to the brand’s Twitter account and was able to get a response, but it wasn’t the one he hoped for. As a result, he took his cereal box findings to a lab to confirm it. The entire thing was written about in The Washington Post and while we wait to see how this plays out, there are more details coming out about Karp that continue to shock people.
After hearing who was the owner of the shrimpy Cinnamon Toast Crunch box, Chance The Rapper hopped on Twitter to share an encounter he had with Karp early in his career. “Fun fact,” he said. “The Cinnamon Toast Crunch shrimpy guy gave me 5 racks to shoot a video back when I still had a nose ring.” Just in case you didn’t believe him, Chance posted the tweet with a video that shows him receiving the $5,000 check from Karp and celebrating afterward. The track that got the visual treatment was Chance’s “Na Na” collaboration with Action Bronson from his 2013 tape Acid Rap.
That’s not the only celebrity connection Karp has. People also learned on Tuesday that his wife is Danielle Fishel Karp — yes, the woman who played Topanga, the love interest of Ben Savage’s Cory Matthews, on the beloved teen sitcom Boy Meets World.
There’s no doubt Deante Hitchcock has something big planned in the future. The Atlanta rapper has spent the last month releasing very impressive freestyles over hip-hop tracks from today and yesterday, and for his latest offering he took on Outkast’s 2004 classic “Roses,” with an accompanying video. It finds Deante posing as a homeless man who aims to make ends meet. Despite his character’s hardships, he proclaims that one day he’ll reach the heights of some of today’s favorites in music, like Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Beyonce, and Young Thug.
The new video serves as the fourth consecutive entry in Deante’s New Atlanta Tuesdays freestyle series. He started things off with some bars over Lil Wayne’s “Let The Build Beat,” which arrived with a video that saw him carrying a goat. He returned a week later with a wild freestyle over SpotemGottem’s “Beat Box” and his own submission to the song’s TikTok-bred challenge. Most recently, Deante engaged in an all-out Nerf gun war while rapping over Drake’s No. 1 single and Scary Hours 2 favorite “What’s Next.”
Prior to the New Atlanta Tuesdays series, Deante shared a live version of his debut album, Better, and released videos of the performances with it.
You can watch the video for the new freestyle above.
Today marks exactly one month since Bobby Shmurda was released from New York’s Clinton Correctional Facility. The rapper spent almost seven years behind bars after accepting a plea deal on conspiracy to commit murder and weapons possession charges. His first month of freedom was well-documented, with a profile of his first day out published in GQ to a few club appearances with some of his rap peers. Bobby’s release from prison did come with some conditions, and thanks to documents obtained by TMZ, we now know what those are.
Bobby, who is under parole supervision until February 23, 2026, is not allowed to drink alcohol, attend any bars, or associate with gangs. He also has a curfew of 8 p.m., must submit to drug testing, and receive aggression and anger counseling. An additional component of the parole conditions is that Bobby must seek, obtain, and maintain employment, but with the world waiting on his official return to the hip-hop world, accomplishing that part should be no issue. He also landed a few performance slots during the NBA’s All-Star Weekend in Atlanta earlier this month.
The parole conditions explain a video that emerged at the end of last month, in which was seen turning down a drink during a club appearance. After the video circulated throughout social media, the rapper reposted it on his Instagram story and wrote, “Hell nah a n**** on parole.”
After being shut out at last year’s Grammy Awards, Nigerian superstar Burna Boy is officially a Grammy Award winner after taking home the statue for Best Global Music Album (Twice As Tall) at the 2021 63rd Annual Grammy Awards earlier this month. To celebrate, he has released the inspirational video for his Twice As Tall standout “23.”
Naturally taking inspiration from its iconic namesake, much of the “23” video revolves around the sport of basketball, as seen through the eyes of athletes who are ordinarily invisible: Black women. One of the players the video chooses to highlight is wheelchair-bound, but poses in front of a full case of trophies.
Other women who appear in the video are dancers, designers, and music producers — all fields where Black women are underrepresented — while Burna’s performance sequences play out before projected images of his own accomplishments. “The music make me feel I be Jordan,” he croons on the chorus, encouraging listeners to be the best they can through the life-changing power of self-belief. “Now I understand why them say aiye po gan” — “Now I understand why they say there’s enough space” — he says, highlighting how there is room for everyone to be successful.
Watch Burna Boy’s “23” video above.
Burna Boy is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
