Music

A Detroit Mural Of Eminem Was Vandalized Less Than 24 Hours After It Was Finished

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Eminem has always shown up for his Detroit hometown, consistently donating money to organizations in the city through his Marshall Mathers Foundation. But the same sentiment apparently isn’t shared by everyone in the city, as someone completely vandalized a new mural of Eminem in Detroit less than 24 hours after it was finished.

According to a report from The Detroit News, Chicago-based street artist Chris Devins spent all of last Saturday painting a giant mural of Eminem in Detroit’s Cass Corridor. Devins claimed passersby showed their support of his work by snapping photos and honking their car horn as he painted. However, Devins came to find out that someone had completely defaced the artwork less than a day after it was completed.

Devins said he was already back in Chicago by the time he heard the news of the mural’s vandalization. “I felt terrible,” Devins said, calling the graffiti “disrespectful.” He continued, “I was devastated. Who would do that? That’s against the rules of street art. […] I want to restore it to its original value. I would like to re-present it to the community in its unblemished form.”

Devins wasn’t commissioned by Eminem to paint the mural, but was visiting Detroit with his family for Labor Day Weekend and thought the empty wall could “use some beautification.” The painting is based on a photo of Eminem by photographer Nitin Vadukul.

The artist currently plans to return to Detroit to fix the mural soon. Even still, he’s offended that someone had the audacity to deface his artwork so soon after it’s completion. “You can’t give some people anything good,” he wrote on Instagram.

Janet Jackson Shares A First Look At Her ‘Janet’ Documentary’s Trailer In A New Teaser

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Janet Jackson is getting ready to give her fans a behind-the-scenes look at her storied career and rise to fame. Her upcoming documentary Janet is set to feature archival and unseen personal footage, home videos, and exclusive celebrity interviews, which she has previewed in a teaser of the film’s new trailer.

Jackson debuted a one-minute teaser of her Ben Hirsh-directed documentary this week. Along with telling Jackson’s story, the film features some talking head commentary by friends and collaborators like Missy Elliott, Mariah Carey, Paula Abdul, and more.

“This is my story, told by me, not through someone else’s eyes,” Jackson says in the trailer. “This is the truth — take it or leave it. Love it or hate it. This is me.”

Janet is set to be released live on A&E and Lifetime in January 2022. The full documentary will be a two-part event, with the entire four-hour film premiering across two nights.

After sharing the trailer, fans showed an outpouring of support for the singer. That included Missy Elliott, who praised Jackson’s talent. “You are the BluePrint of what a SuperStar is,” she replied. “40 years in the game & still counting! You are UNBREAKABLE! I Love you Jj you already know.”

Watch the full Janet teaser above.

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

Wiley Has Been Charged With Burglary And Assault After Allegedly Attacking Another Man In London

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British grime godfather Wiley has been charged with burglary and assault after allegedly attacking another man in London, according to BBC. Billboard also reports that Wiley will appear at Thames Magistrates’ Court next week after being arrested on Monday, September 3 in connection with the August 28 incident. Allegedly, Wiley broke into the home of kickboxer Ali Jacko, causing what BBC called “a minor injury” for which “paramedics had not been needed.” However, Wiley will be charged with assault by beating and burglary with intent to cause criminal damage for the incident.

Incidentally, the last time Wiley was in the headlines, he didn’t fare much better. He was banned from Facebook (and Facebook’s subsidiary Instagram) last summer for making anti-Semitic comments on the platform just days after receiving a similar suspension on Twitter. Wiley also got dropped by his management company, capping his fall from grace — which, ironically, came at just about the height of his recognition after a decades-long career spent pioneering the UK grime scene.

His position at the forefront of the scene initially lent at least a little credence to his accusations of cultural appropriation against dabblers in the scene like Drake and Ed Sheeran, but quickly swerved into salty old man-ism when he included new wave leader Stormzy in his tirades. After a back-and-forth battle between the two, Stormzy appeared to come out on top by default as Wiley self-destructed his public image.

Beyonce And Jay-Z’s Basquiat Tiffany Ad Gets Criticized By The Painter’s Collaborators And Friends

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According to a new report at The Daily Beast, the new Tiffany & Co. ad campaign featuring Beyonce and Jay-Z posing alongside a rarely-seen canvas by Jean-Michel Basquiat has drawn the ire of the artist’s closest friends and collaborators, some of whom say they were “horrified” to see the ad. They maintain that Basquiat himself would not have approved of such commercial use of his work, calling it a “prop” to give the ad empty cultural clout.

Alexis Adler, who is described as a girlfriend of the late painter who lived with him during his early career, told The Beast, “I’d seen the ad a couple days ago and I was horrified… the commercialization and commodification of Jean and his art at this point—it’s really not what Jean was about.” Alder pointed out that while Basquiat certainly wanted to be commercially successful, he also wanted his art to be accessible. “Unfortunately, the museums came to Jean’s art late, so most of his art is in private hands and people don’t get to see that art except for the shows,” she notes. “Why show it as a prop to an ad? Loan it out to a museum. In a time where there were very few Black artists represented in Western museums, that was his goal: to get to a museum.”

Al Diaz, Basquiat’s partner in the duo SAMO, also criticized the ad for misappropriating Basquiat’s image and reputation as a “luxury” association. “People think that his association with luxury was because he was impressed with that shit, but he couldn’t care less,” he explains. “It’s not just about wearing an Armani suit. If he wore it, it’s because he could buy it and fuck it up, it wasn’t because the stitches were fabulous or well-made… People won’t see the depth. At this point, the only people that could afford a Basquiat are the people he was targeting. Like, you’re the oppressor. They buy it out so that it becomes meaningless.”

And an unnamed curator of Basquiat’s work takes issue with the company’s insistence that the distinctive blue tone used on Equals Pi would ever be a simple tribute to the remarkably similar “Tiffany blue” signature. “Let’s say he did reference that color on purpose — which seems out of character for him to do something that simple — I think it really flattens his artistic approach,” they said. “He was a really deep thinker. His work wasn’t like, this symbolizes this. Everything references something but then it tells a story of that thing. But let’s say he did though… to use it in an ad, it wouldn’t have been the context. It wouldn’t be used to sell Tiffany’s but to say something critical, maybe about blood diamond extraction or something. I just think it’s a reach.”

The full article can be read here.

Rico Nasty Updates Her SoundCloud With Five New Songs Out Of Nowhere

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One of the more fun aspects of the way streaming and social media have upended the music business is how artists no longer have to rely on traditional releases to get their new material out. Where in the not-so-distant past, everything hung on a label’s release schedule and the need to manufacture the physical products to send to stores, now, rappers like Rico Nasty can simply upload a batch of new tracks to their SoundCloud pages and notify their fans via Instagram and Twitter, with no need to classify the release as a single or an EP or an album.

And that’s exactly what the elusive, genre-agnostic DMV rapper did over the long weekend, posting the cryptic photo below captioned “Secrets on SoundCloud.” A quick perusal of the SoundCloud bears five new discoveries of unknown origin, each reflecting a different sound from the grand Rico Nasty galaxy of sonic experimentation. There’s the puffy sugar trap of “Show Me Your Love,” the JetsonMade-produced banger “How Ya Feel,” the stripped-down “Switch Places,” the spacey “Cotton Candy,” and the surprisingly vulnerable “Grow Up.”

Meanwhile, Rico has more traditionally released another pair of singles, “Buss” and “Magic,” recently, complete with music videos. Whether all this is ramping up to the follow-up to her debut album Nightmare Vacation remains to be seen, but half the fun is not knowing what she’s got planned next.

You can hear Rico’s new songs here.

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

Two Songs From Kanye West’s ‘Donda’ Debut In The Top 10 Of The Hot 100 Chart

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So far, Kanye West’s new album Donda is an undeniable success. The project debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, and its songs are also faring well on an individual basis. Billboard shared the top 10 spots of the Hot 100 chart dated September 11 today, and two of the songs come from Donda: “Hurricane,” which debuts at No. 6, and “Jail,” which comes in at No. 10. West now has 20 top-10 songs on the chart.

While “Hurricane” and “Jail” have guests on them, they aren’t credited as featured artists, so they do not appear on the chart; “Hurricane” includes contributions from The Weeknd and Lil Baby, while “Jail” has a verse from Jay-Z.

Elsewhere on the chart, BTS’ “Butter” returns to the No. 1 spot for a tenth week, making it just one of 40 songs to ever spend at least that long in the top spot. The song’s rise comes after the group released a new remix of it featuring Megan Thee Stallion, although that version of the song didn’t drive enough listening activity to give Megan a credit on the chart.

Meanwhile, Walker Hayes’ “Fancy Like” rises to No. 9 this week, making it just the second country song of the year to make the top 10, following Morgan Wallen’s “Wasted On You.”

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

Drake Says His Giannis Antetokounmpo Lyric On ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Was Inspired By A Tweet

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There are a lot of lyrics on Drake’s Certified Lover Boy, given that the album runs for nearly 90 minutes. One of the standout lines, though, is when he references Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo on “7am On Bridle Path”: “Could at least keep it a buck like Antetokounmpo.” The multi-syllabic name doesn’t exactly lend itself to being mentioned in a song, but Drake says he did it because he was challenged to on Twitter.

Over the weekend, ESPN re-shared a tweet on their Instagram that was originally posted after the Bucks won the NBA championship last season, a tweet that played off the fact that Drake has been known to name-drop athletes in his songs: “Drake working Antetokounmpo into a line is gonna be tricky but he’ll figure out something.” In the comments of ESPN’s post, Drake confirmed that this tweet was what inspired him to mention Antetokounmpo on “7am On Bridle Path,” writing, “Only did it cause of this tweet.”

@espn/@champagnepapi/Instagram

All that said, the song is perhaps most notable for who it doesn’t mention, at least not by name, as fans are convinced that throughout “7am On Bridle Path,” Drake takes jabs at Kanye West as the two rappers continue to feud.

Diddy Has Praise For Both Kanye West And Drake’s New Albums: ‘You Guys Are True Kings Of Creativity’

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In recent weeks, a lot of conversations have pitted Kanye West and Drake against each other as both released new albums at around the same time. Diddy is taking a more diplomatic approach, though, as he has taken a minute to offer praise for both artists and their new music.

In a video posted on his Instagram Story today, Diddy spoke about Donda and Certified Lover Boy, starting, “I listened to both these albums and first of all, I just wanna say that you guys are true kings of creativity. Both of you guys are so special and so necessary, you know what I’m saying? Just thank y’all for the inspiration. I wanna make sure that what hip-hop knows is: That’s the reach and the power that we have. I really wanna take my hat off to these brothers both sharing their truth.”

He then praised specific elements of both albums before concluding, “I just want to say, love decrees that they both win, that we win. When you’re an artist, you keep pushing it to the limit to be the best. [Not] the best not against another man — there is competition, but the best within yourself, and I think that’s why we’re witnessing two greats and enjoying them. I’m having a ball and the music sounds beautiful. Don’t stop, guys, love y’all.”

Meanwhile, Pusha T brought a different flavor to the conversation by seemingly taking pleasure in a dip in Drake’s streaming numbers.

Pusha T Seemingly Enjoys Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Having A Major Day-Two Streaming Drop-Off

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Pusha T and Drake have one of the most famous hip-hop feuds of recent years. So, it’s not too surprising to see that when Pusha found a comparison that paints Kanye West’s new album Donda in a more positive light than it does Drake’s Certified Lover Boy, he was all over it.

It started with a recent tweet from XXL, which compares the Spotify streaming numbers of Donda and Certified Lover Boy on the albums’ first two days of availability. West’s album was streamed 94.5 million times on its first day before jumping up to 102.1 million streams on its second day. As for CLB, it had 153.4 million streams on its first day before falling drastically to 89.9 million the next day.

It’s worth noting, though, that Donda was released at around 8 a.m. on a Sunday, as opposed to midnight on Friday like most albums are (including CLB). If you do the math, Donda and CLB actually had similar numbers in terms of average streams per hour on their respective first days: about 5.9 million and 6.4 million, respectively. So, looking at streams per hour on the album’s first days versus their second-day performance, they performed somewhat similarly, with Donda experiencing a smaller day-two drop-off but CLB reaching a higher peak. So, all in all, the numbers from that tweet don’t fully represent the situation at hand.

Anyway, somebody shared a screenshot of the XXL tweet and added, “i predicted this. i said drake’s day 1 is gonna be huge off the element of surprise then its just gonna drop. donda everyone heard in full 3 weeks before it dropped, still did these numbers and is only growing in streams. crazy!” Pusha seemingly agreed with the tweet, as he gave it a like.

When West released Donda, Pusha shared a congratulatory post about it, writing on Instagram, “This is about power, money, influence and taste…nothing more, nothing less. Watching you ‘joystick the culture”‘makes us all proud. Continue to do things your way, congrats, and I’m honored to have been a part of the process.”

Pusha T Seemingly Enjoys Drake’s ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Having A Major Day-Two Streaming Drop-Off

by
Getty Image

Pusha T and Drake have one of the most famous hip-hop feuds of recent years. So, it’s not too surprising to see that when Pusha found a comparison that paints Kanye West’s new album Donda in a more positive light than it does Drake’s Certified Lover Boy, he was all over it.

It started with a recent tweet from XXL, which compares the Spotify streaming numbers of Donda and Certified Lover Boy on the albums’ first two days of availability. West’s album was streamed 94.5 million times on its first day before jumping up to 102.1 million streams on its second day. As for CLB, it had 153.4 million streams on its first day before falling drastically to 89.9 million the next day.

It’s worth noting, though, that Donda was released at around 8 a.m. on a Sunday, as opposed to midnight on Friday like most albums are (including CLB). If you do the math, Donda and CLB actually had similar numbers in terms of average streams per hour on their respective first days: about 5.9 million and 6.4 million, respectively. So, looking at streams per hour on the album’s first days versus their second-day performance, they performed somewhat similarly, with Donda experiencing a smaller day-two drop-off but CLB reaching a higher peak. So, all in all, the numbers from that tweet don’t fully represent the situation at hand.

Anyway, somebody shared a screenshot of the XXL tweet and added, “i predicted this. i said drake’s day 1 is gonna be huge off the element of surprise then its just gonna drop. donda everyone heard in full 3 weeks before it dropped, still did these numbers and is only growing in streams. crazy!” Pusha seemingly agreed with the tweet, as he gave it a like.

When West released Donda, Pusha shared a congratulatory post about it, writing on Instagram, “This is about power, money, influence and taste…nothing more, nothing less. Watching you ‘joystick the culture”‘makes us all proud. Continue to do things your way, congrats, and I’m honored to have been a part of the process.”