Music

Masked Wolf Is Thankful That His First Performance Was Opening For An EDM DJ

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2021 was kind to Masked Wolf, as the Australian rapper saw his 2019 single “Astronaut In The Ocean” experience newfound popularity and shoot up the charts around the world, including in the US where it was a top-10 song.

Like many artists before him, traveling and performing was a major part of the rapper’s come-up. So now, Masked Wolf looks back and reflects on some of those experiences for “Stories From The Road,” a video series presented by Songkick and NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration).

He spends part of the video explaining why supporting an EDM DJ in a small Sydney, Australia club was an ideal first live performance, saying, “I was crapping myself; I was so scared, I was anxious. And these people just danced to anything. I was doing ‘Vibin” and [they] had never heard it before and they were just enjoying life. And I was just like, ‘Man, I hope my performances, all of them, are like this.’ People were just vibing to any song and just enjoying their night.”

He also talks about his dream tour destinations and the moments that make him think he’s “made it,” so check out the video above.

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

Megan Thee Stallion Makes Her BBMA Debut With Performances Of ‘Plan B’ and ‘Sweetest Pie’

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Megan Thee Stallion delivered another reminder that her knees were created in a laboratory in her performance debut at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards. The Houston artist graced the stage sporting a thong bodysuit and lace-up boots with an initial solo rendition of “Plan B” before her backup dancers joined the fun. She then transitioned into “Sweetest Pie” sans co-star Dua Lipa.

The 27-year-old walked away from the night with the Top Rap Female Artist award, a form of recognition she’s already familiar with having won it at the 2020 BBMAs. She also previously won the 2019 Billboard Women In Music Powerhouse award.

Megan Thee Stallion has been riding a huge wave of momentum over the years, seeing much success due to collaborations with Cardi B (“WAP”), Beyonce (“Savage Remix”), and Nicki Minaj (“Hot Girl Summer”). She’s taken home a Grammy at each of the last three shows and set Guinness World Records for being the first Female Lead Rapper to win Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance. She last released Something For Thee Hotties back in October 2021, following up her debut album Good News in November 2020. Revlon and Essence took to Twitter to salute Megan for her 2022 BBMAs victory, which likely will not be her last.

Check out Megan’s performance above.

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

Latto Gives A Blowout Performance Of ‘Big Energy’ At The 2022 Billboard Music Awards

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Earlier this year, Latto admitted that Cardi B’s 2018 Coachella performance inspired her to improve her own live show, and last night at the Billboard Music Awards, she put what she learned to good use with a blowout, exuberant performance of her own massive hit, “Big Energy.” Flanked by a fleet of dancers and backed by a soaring live band, Latto gave the BBMAs a taste of the charismatic, explosive performances she recently showed off on her first-ever headlining tour.

The single, which kicked off the promotion for her new album, 777, has become her biggest hit to date. In April, “Big Energy” peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart propelled by a sample of Mariah Carey’s 1995 single “Fantasy.” Latto tapped Carey herself for the song’s remix, furthering its reach, and along with singles like “Soufside” and “Wheelie,” “Big Energy” helped push 777 to a top-20 debut on the Billboard 200.

Those accomplishments didn’t go unnoticed. Although Latto wasn’t nominated for any awards at last night’s ceremony, her showstopping performance will undoubtedly result in an invitation to come back — and the success of 777 will almost certainly warrant a nomination if she keeps the momentum going until next year.

Watch Latto perform ‘Big Energy’ at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards above.

Cara Delevingne Gets Roasted For Her High-Effort, Low-Quality BBMA Photo Of Doja Cat, DJ Khaled, And Fat Joe

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The 2022 Billboard Music Awards went down last night and if you had to pick one non-musician in attendance who stole the show, it’s probably Cara Delevingne. It seemed like she was all over the place last night, including the floor when she laid down to snap a photo of Doja Cat, Fat Joe, and DJ Khaled.

Since that photo started making the rounds after Joe shared it, fans took to Twitter to poke fun at the low quality of the photo despite all the trouble Delevingne went through to snap the pic.

More broadly, a lot of attention was paid to how excitable Delevingne seemed to be throughout the evening, especially in her interactions with Doja and Megan Thee Stallion.

Elsewhere during the show, Doja had one of the biggest nights thanks to her 14 nominations. She managed to win four of those: Top R&B Artist, Top R&B Female Artist, Top R&B Album (for Planet Her), and Top Viral Song (for her and SZA’s “Kiss Me More”). Meanwhile, Megan picked up a win on her sole nomination of the evening, for Top Rap Female Artist.

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

Travis Scott Performs ‘Mafia’ At The 2022 Billboard Music Awards, His First Awards Show Since Astroworld

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Travis Scott has been returning to the stage after the Astroworld tragedy that happened in November. Information about injuries is still coming out; only a few days ago, a woman filed a lawsuit against Scott because of a miscarriage she experienced after the festival. Still, the rapper performed at the Billboard Music Awards after Diddy, advocated for him. “I am uncanceling the canceled,” he explained in an interview. “There will be no canceling on my watch. Love is about forgiveness… so that was why it was important for me to have Travis Scott perform. It’s going to be a great night.”

He performed the song “Mafia” with a bright, futuristic stage setup that’s aligned with the aesthetic of his forthcoming album Utopia, which does not yet have a release date. Fans in the comments praise Scott for seemingly working on his vocals, which sound more trained than they used to.

Aside from this performance, he also recently played a club in Miami where tickets at the door were $300 for men and $200 for women. He is also set to make his headlining festival return, with a spot on the roster for the Brazilian festival Primavera Sound in November.

Check out Scott’s performance above.

Elon Musk Responds To Snoop Dogg’s Wild Plan To Buy Twitter

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A few days ago, Elon Musk announced his acquisition of Twitter was temporarily on hold as he awaits more information about how many of the platform’s accounts are spam or fake. As the purchase is paused, Snoop Dogg sees an opportunity to swoop in and buy Twitter himself and Musk has thoughts about the rapper’s mission.

On Friday, Snoop laid out his plan, most elements of which are questionable at best. He wrote over the course of multiple tweets, “May have 2 buy Twitter now. Gonna replace the board of directors with Jimmy from my corner Fish Fry, Tommy Chung and tha guy with the ponytail on CNBC. First line of business. Free internet on airplanes!!! 29 dollars for 1 hour is bullsh*t. Everyone gets a blue checkmark. Even tha bots with 10 letters in their name that hit you in DMs n just say ‘Hello’. Nah f*ck those bots. #WhenSnoopBuysTwitter …”

Yesterday, Musk responded with two fire emojis, to which Snoop replied, “You bring the fire I’ll bring the smoke!!”

Of course, Snoop is most likely joking about his plan, given the ridiculousness of some of his ideas; the free airplane WiFi is a good one, though, although that’s not really something he could change owning Twitter. Furthermore, buying Twitter is expensive, outside the price range of even Snoop, whose net worth is estimated at $150 million.

Lil Wayne’s ‘Luka A Ho’ Tweet Got Dunked On Repeatedly As Doncic Buried The Suns In Game 7 With Him Courtside

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The Dallas Mavericks thought it would be fun to kick the hell out of the Phoenix Suns on Sunday night during Game 7 of their Western Conference Semifinal series. Dallas walked into Phoenix and put on a crazy shooting display, while the Suns’ offense could not get off the ground, as evidenced by their 27 first half points.

A number of famous folks in attendance, including Lil Wayne, who joined the Suns last postseason as they celebrated making the NBA Finals. Weezy has had a close eye on this series, as evidenced by this tweet he sent during Game 5.

Well, as it turns out, saying that about a dude a few days before he comes out and plays a role in launching the opposing team into orbit doesn’t work out great when you’re famous. Because during Game 7, people on the internet decided to quote tweet this ruthlessly and dunk on Wayne with such ease that you’d think he, too, was playing defense for the Phoenix Suns on Sunday.

It is not clear whether or not Doncic has seen this tweet, but given how well he played during Game 7, I don’t think anyone would be surprised if we learned that he was a little mad that Lil Wayne called him out.

Eminem Shares His Love For Kendrick Lamar’s New Album Through A Message To Dr. Dre

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Kendrick Lamar’s newly released fifth album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is this weekend’s biggest release. It’s the rapper’s first full-length release since 2017’s Damn., and the wait for a new body of work was undoubtedly seen through the project’s first-day numbers. According to Apple Music, the album earned the most first-day streams for an album released in 2022. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is also set to debut at No. 1 on the albums chart next week. Until then, fans will continue to indulge in the project, and one of those people is Eminem, who took to Twitter to share some love for the album.

In a rare tweet, Eminem praised Kendrick’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers with a message to his longtime friend and collaborator Dr. Dre. “Yo @DrDre this Kendrick album is f*cking ridiculous,” Eminem wrote. “I’m speechless.” Dr. Dre isn’t credited on Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, but he does own Aftermath, the label that both Kendrick and Eminem are signed to. Despite this, Eminem and Kendrick only have one collaboration together, that being “Love Game” from the former’s 2013 album The Marshall Mathers LP 2.

As for Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, it arrives with 18 songs and features from Blxst, Amand Reifer, Sampha, Taylour Paige, Summer Walker, Ghostface Killah, Kodak Black, Baby Keem, Sam Dew, Tanna Leone, and Beth Gibbons of Portishead. Kendrick also recently released a video for “N95” and it featured an appearance from Baby Keem.

You can view Eminem’s tweet in the post above.

em>Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is out now via PgLang/TDE/Aftermath/Interscope. You can stream it here.

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

Bad Bunny Lands His Second Consecutive No. 1 Album With ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’

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Bad Bunny gets more and more popular by the year. At the top of 2020, he released his second album YHLQMDLG which became the highest-charting Spanish language album when it debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard albums chart. It took Bad Bunny less than a year to break that record as he did at the end of 2020 with the release of El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo which debuted at No. 1. Now, for the second consecutive time, Bad Bunny finds himself at the top of the Billboard 200 chart thanks to Un Verano Sin Ti, but he does so with his biggest first week.

For the Billboard 200 dated May 21, 2022, Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti went No. 1 with 2740,000 album units sold in its first week. That number is comprised of 261,000 streaming equivalent album units thanks to 356.55 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs. The album also posted 12,000 pure album sales. The first-week debut for Un Verano Sin Ti is the biggest of any full-length release this year, surpassing the previous mark set by Future’s I Never Liked You.

Un Verano Sin Ti also had the largest streaming week ever for a Latin album, the biggest streaming week of 2022 for any album of any genre, and the biggest streaming week for any album since Drake’s Certified Lover Boy.

Bad Bunny’s latest accomplishment comes after Un Verano Sin Ti had Spotify’s biggest-ever streaming day ever in the first 24 hours after the project’s release.

Un Verano Sin Ti is out now via Rimas Entertainment LLC. You can stream it here.

Young Thug-Protege Lil Keed Dead At 24, Hip-Hop Mourns

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Young Thug-protege and 300 Entertainment/YSL Records-signed recording artist Lil Keed passed away at Burbank Hospital in Los Angeles on Friday (May 13) — according to the artist’s family members, girlfriend and reps.

The cause of death is currently unknown at this time. More on the passing as information becomes available. Lil Keed’s brother and Atlanta rapper Lil Gotit and longtime girlfriend Quana Bandz, who also shares a child with Keed, shared tearful tribute messages with fans via Instagram on Saturday morning (May 14)

MORE: EyeOnEyez Releases new single “SHYNE” Ft. Lil Keed and Frankie Smallz “Listen Here”

“Can’t believe I seened u die today bro I did all my cries I know what u want me to do and that’s go hard for Mama Daddy Our Brothers Naychur and Whiteboy,” wrote Lil Gotit in an Instagram post early Saturday morning (May 14).

“I love you sooooo much baby what I’m post to do with out you I can’t breathe right sleep right nothing I don’t even wanna talk to nobody Keed I can’t take this,” shared Quana Bandz in the captions of a tribute post on Instagram with a series of photos and videos with Lil Keed and her together. “What am I supposed to tell Naychur? What am I gone tell our new baby ? Keed I just told you the other day if you left me with these two kids I was gone loose my mind my Mind is lost baby. You told me everything I’m sooooo sorry I didn’t fly to LA I know I could’ve saved you baby you really showed me all you needed was MY LOVE you gave me that I gave you that. IM SORRY please just tell me this a dream come home. YOU PROTECTED US. Whyyyy DADDY. You a fighter bru I was on my way I was RAQHID …..these 8 years you been in my life you showed me nothing but love I’m sorry baby I’m sorry for whatever I did anything I did I’m sorry let me make it better You my backbone you my spine you my heart baby IF I DONT KNOW ANYTHING I KNOW YOU LOVE ME & MY BABY MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THIS WORLD 💚😢 WE fight we argue but you know we was what each other needed… YOU GAVE ME THE WORLDDDDDDDDD. Anything I wanted …. Needed you got it / did it for me with no questions ask! BABY you was just on the phone with me in the bed HOW you leave like that without saying that was gone be your last goodbye your last I love you our last FaceTime ! SMH baby please tell me I’m dreaming I wanna wake up and this shit be a dream. CALL ME BACK DADDY. My head spinning 😵‍💫 my body numb I don’t even feel myself typing Raqhid you know I’m so weak for you baby WEAK AS HELL for you . SOOOOOOO WEAK SO WEAKKKK SO FUCKINNNN WEAK FOR U BRO THIS SHIT HERE HIT HARD. WHO IM GONE MAKE LOVE TO NOW ???? WHO GONE KISS ME IN MY SLEEP ALL NIGHT? Who gone rub my Belly ? RAQHID WHY U LEAVEEEEE ME MAN. You was my boyfriend my best friend my slime my twin my ride or die! WHATEVER u on you know I was on it 10x Worst. THESE FUCK ASS NIGGA KNOW THEY COULDNT FUCK WITH U AND THEY HATE THEY. MY BD NEVER LACK YALL PUSSY ASS NIGGAS DONT NEED TO BE ACTIN LIKE THIS YALL BODY EITHER. GOD WANTED MY BOY HOME he had better plans. SLAT IN PEACE PRINCE SLIME 💚 WE LOVE U FOREVER I hope I have a son he gone be your 1st JR🤰🏽👨‍👧 #LONGLIVEPRINCESLIME ❤”

Hailing from Atlanta, Lil Keed broke onto mainstream hip hop with his trio of breakout mixtapes in the Trapped in Cleveland series. After catching the attention of Young Thug, Keed signed with 300/YSL in 2020 and appeared on the YSL compilation albums Slim Language and Slim Language 2. Keed recently appeared on his brother and Ty Dolla Sign’s collaboration “Rich $hit.”

Along with Lil Gotit and Quana, other hip hop stars paid tribute to the late-artist, including Lil Yachty, Trippie Redd and Westside Gunn. “Damn Keed” tweet Gunn on Twitter with sad face and hand in front of his face emojis. Trippie Redd shared a video of him and Keed on stage with the caption, “Me and Keed talking to ummmm…”

See more tributes below:

MORE: Jimmy Bolt & Lil Keed Join Forces for “Wolves”

Lil Keed was working on his upcoming album before his passing. No official word on the forthcoming Lil Keed project’s status or release schedule at press time.

Lil Keed is survived by his daughter, Naychur. He was 24-years-old.

We at The Source would like to send our prayers and condolences to the family, friends and fans of Lil Keed. Rest in peace.

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