Music

Scarface Announces His Farewell Tour

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Houston rap icon Scarface is retiring from the rap business, but not before he takes one last bow. He recently announced his 32-city Farewell Tour, which will take one last spin of the US. Kicking off in Oakland, California on July 8 and running through August 27 in Odessa, Texas, the 51-year-old will give fans a final opportunity to see him live before he rides off into the sunset and sends his jersey into the rafters after almost 40 years.

A likely contributor to Scarface’s impending retirement is his recent bout with COVID-19 and kidney failure. Although he received a new kidney in 2021, it looks like he’s bowing out after his rough ordeal to take a well-earned rest. However, it’s hard to let go, thus: The Farewell Tour. Tickets go on sale Wednesday May 18. See the full run of tour dates below.

07/8 – Oakland, CA @ Yoshi’s
07/9 – Los Angeles, CA @ NOVO
07/10 – Phoenix, AZ @ AURA
07/12 – San Luis Obispo, CA @ Fremont Theater
07/13 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s
07/15 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
07/16 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre
07/19 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Soundwell
07/20 – Denver, CO @ Gothic Theatre
07/21 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Cotillion Ballroom
07/22 – Kansas City, MO @ The Truman
07/23 – Sauget, IL @ Pop’s
07/24 – Minneapolis, MN @ Skyway Theatre
07/26 – Springfield, MO @ Outland Ballroom
07/27 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl
07/28 – Pontiac, MI @ The Crofoot
07/29 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
07/30 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue
07/31 – Fort Wayne, IN @ Piere’s
08/2 – Columbus, OH @ Skully’s
08/3 – Washington, DC @ Howard Theatre
08/4 – Harrisburg, PA @ XL Live
08/5 – Portland, ME @ Aura
08/6 – Queens, NY @ Rock the Bells Festival
08/7 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club 24
08/11 – Huntsville, AL @ Envy Entertainment
08/12 – Birmingham, AL @ Iron City
08/13 – Mobile, AL @ Soul Kitchen
08/14 – Jackson, MS @ The Hideaway
08/18 – Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
08/19 – Austin, TX @ Empire Control Room
08/27 – Odessa, TX @ Ector Theater

Lil Keed Experienced ‘Severe Stomach Pain’ And Multiple Organ Failure Before His Death

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On Friday, YSL rapper Lil Keed died suddenly at the age of just 24 years old. At the time, no cause of death was available but today, TMZ reports that the XXL Freshman‘s death was related to multiple organ failure, including his kidneys and liver. Keed reportedly complained of severe stomach pain before his death, checking into an LA hospital for tests. However, his organs began to fail, leading to his eventual death.

According to TMZ’s sources, Keed had been sober recently after struggling with alcohol and drugs over the years. His death came as an untimely shock in the wake of the arrests of many of his YSL associates, who were wrapped up in a racketeering indictment that called YSL a hybrid street gang. Keed’s brother, fellow Atlanta rapper Lil Gotit, summed up the mourning on social media. “Can’t believe I seened u die today bro,” he wrote. “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.”

The Los Angeles County Coroner’s office is expected to do an autopsy later this week.

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

Logic Shares The Release Date For His Seventh Album, ‘Vinyl Days’

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Ahead of his upcoming Vinyl Verse Tour with Wiz Khalifa, Logic will drop his seventh studio album, Vinyl Days next month. The album follows Logic’s January announcement of him coming out of his rap retirement.

Earlier this year, Logic teased the tracks “Breath Control,” along with Vinyl Days‘ title track. This month, he released “Therapy Music,” which features Russ. On “Therapy Music,” Logic raps, “I keep my ego in check, just me and this instrumental pumpin’ through this cassette deck / Money don’t represent my rank / Yeah, Logic rose from jack but even the Titanic sank / I seen cats with egos bigger than cruise ships lose it / Gain power and abuse it.”

Last month, he dropped a double single, comprised of the tracks “Tetris” and “Decades.” This came after a public dispute with Def Jam, who originally planned to release them as two standalone singles. “What the f*ck is going on, man? I told Def Jam that I wanted to release my sh*t as a two-pack,” Logic said in an Instagram video, “and I just found out that they’re releasing it as two singles at the same time. What kind of sh*t is that?… I care about my fans, man. I care about hip-hop. I care about music.”

Fortunately, it seems Logic got his way after all.

Check out the Vinyl Days artwork below.

Logic Vinyl Days cover
Courtesy of Def Jam

Vinyl Days is out 6/17 via Def Jam. Pre-save it here.

Cardi B Has No Sympathy For The Buffalo Shooting Suspect: ‘They Have An Evil Mentality’

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Over the weekend, an 18-year-old white man walked into a market in Buffalo, New York, and began shooting people. He killed 10 and injured another three, motivated by bigotry and ignorance as evidenced by a 180-page manifesto he posted online. It was one of just four mass shootings that took place over the past weekend, and the latest example of how genuinely messed up the political and social climate has gotten. As the world reacted to the tragedy, Cardi B, who often has canny observations about current events, didn’t reserve any sympathy for the perpetrator.

“Mass shooters are not mentally ill,” she tweeted on Sunday in the wake of the attack. Oftentimes, in the wake of a mass shooting (the fact I have to write “often” in that sentence is pretty sick, right?), the discourse will turn into a debate about mental health. However, Cardi wasn’t having any of this distraction tactic this time around. “They have [an] evil mentality.”

As usual, Cardi might be onto something. It’s telling that there’s assumed victimhood for the people who perpetrate these terroristic acts, as though they can’t be held responsible for their actions. But I gotta say, a guy writes 180 pages about how much he hates people he’s never met, that tells me he’s perfectly functional, his thinking has just been warped.

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

Freddie Gibbs’ Fight In Buffalo Was Caught On Video

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The only thing worse than possibly taking an L and having the whole internet laugh at you over it is having video footage of said L pop up online. Freddie Gibbs, who recently performed in Buffalo, New York with what appeared to be a swollen eye, had been the subject of some nasty rumors that said he’d been jumped just hours before. Now, TMZ has the footage, which depicts Gibbs and a whole bunch of other men trading blows inside the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que restaurant.

While there’s still no official word on just what started the brawl, fans have been running with one theory in particular due to its location and the war of words Freddie has been waging on hometown hero Benny The Butcher. While he’d previously enjoyed a healthy working relationship with all the members of Griselda Records, a recent exchange between Gibbs and the notoriously outspoken Westside Gunn seemed to sour that connection.

Then, after Benny dismissed a rumor of a joint album between the two, saying their time “came and went,” the prickly Gibbs took his words as a challenge. They have been going back and forth on social media ever since. However, if recent events are connected to their tiff, perhaps cooler heads will prevail and they can talk out their differences like grownups.

Watch the video of Freddie Gibbs’ restaurant fight above.

Brandy Responds To Jack Harlow Failing To Identify Her: ‘I Will Murk This Dude In Rap’

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Jack Harlow may have been the last person to know that Brandy and Ray J are siblings. This news made headlines last week following Harlow’s appearance on Hot 97, when he was played Brandy’s “Angel In Disguise.”

When played the sound clip, Harlow was instructed to guess the performing artist. Hosts Peter Rosenberg and Ebro Darden offered hints, saying, “Her brother is the reason a lot of people are famous,” and, “Her brother has an amazing sex tape.”

Harlow immediately caught on that the hosts were referring to Ray J, to which he responded, “Who is Ray J’s sister?”

“It’s Brandy,” shouted host Laura Stylez.

“Brandy and Ray J are siblings? Nobody’s ever told me that in my life,” replied Harlow.

Since Harlow’s appearance on Hot 97, neither Ray J or Brandy had responded until early this morning, when Brandy responded to a video clip shared by a fan account on Twitter.

“I will murk this dude in rap at 43 on his own beats and then sing [h]is ass to sleep,” said Brandy in a tweet.

Her response seemed to have been all in good fun, as she followed up clarifying that her response to the “First Class” rapper was “all love.”

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

Spotify Is Testing Out NFTs On Artist Profiles And Folks Are Very Unsure Of The Consequences

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As Spotify continues to add bells and whistles to the streaming service’s artist profiles like the ability to buy concert tickets and merch, they’re beginning to test out NFTs, too. As Music Ally and Billboard report, artists like Steve Aoki and The Wombats present two of the early test cases, where artists can promote their NFT’s on their profiles and people can click through to purchase them on NFT marketplaces. The test is currently available to select US users via Spotify’s the Android app.

At first glance, this does seem like a slippery slope of sorts, as artists have turned to NFTs as a way to control 100% of the net proceeds from the sale of their music and publishing rights. Considering Spotify pays artists a paltry sum that lies somewhere between $0.003 to $0.005 per stream, it’s understandable to think that there might be an ulterior motive at play from the Swedish streaming giant.

“Spotify is running a test in which it will help a small group of artists promote their existing third-party NFT offerings via their artist profiles,” a spokesperson from Spotify told Music Ally. “We routinely conduct a number of tests in an effort to improve artist and fan experiences. Some of those tests end up paving the way for a broader experience and others serve only as an important learning.”

Music Ally also reported that Spotify isn’t taking a cut of any NFT sales in this test. But one has to wonder if they’ll take a cut of whatever the NFT marketplace makes? Or if when the testing period is over and the feature is fully implemented, that they’ll indeed work their way into taking a cut of the direct sale of the NFT. Promoting an NFT on Spotify does not seem like a good proposition for smaller artists who count on the sale of their NFTs as a main source of income. But for artists like Aoki, or The Wombats, who have a comfortable pipeline of income sources and are looking to spread the word about their new blockchain ventures, then this might make sense.

The responses from people on social media have shown the inherent distrust that Spotify has built among users and non-users alike. “Just feels like they’ll find a way take the power from artist’s again,” one Twitter user said. “Work on your established problems first,” another user suggested, while another user issued the ultimatum that, “If Spotify goes in this direction im gonna cancel my subscription.”

Steve Aoki May Be The New Leader In The Battle For Worst MLB First Pitch Ever

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For the most part, ceremonial first pitches are wholly uninteresting in the world of Major League Baseball. Honorees run the gamut from celebrities to local heroes to relatively anonymous people but, every once in a while, true magic occurs. One of those instances happened on Monday in Boston when Steve Aoki strolled to the mound to deliver the opening offering before a matchup between the Red Sox and the Houston Astros.

The video is worth a thousand (or more) words.

This is an immediate hall of fame entry in the worst first pitches of all-time, simply because of where the ball landed. Aoki never seemed particularly comfortable with where his setup began, for some reason starting on the upslope on the back of the mound, but, as soon as he begin his move to the plate, there was an elaborate wind-up which probably was not the best idea.

From there, the angle set Aoki up for a disaster, and the ball’s trajectory got out of control with haste. In the videos above, you can get a glimpse of the horror and/or amazement from the patrons in attendance at Fenway Park, but onlookers probably just cannot get enough of this video. The debate will rage as to whether this was truly the worst of all-time since, well, Aoki at least made it to the plate, but it was a sight to behold.

Skip Bayless Said Lil Wayne Told Him Monty Williams Told Deandre Ayton ‘You Quit On Us’ In The World’s Weirdest Game Of Telephone

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Of the many subplots of the Suns disastrous Game 7 performance against the Mavs on Sunday night, the one that has the most bearing on Phoenix’s future is that of Deandre Ayton’s standing with the team.

Ayton played just 17 minutes and when Monty Williams was asked why Ayton got benched after the game, he sternly replied “it’s internal” and moved on to other topics. On Monday, Williams and Ayton had still not sat down to discuss whatever happened 1-on-1, although Monty had spoken with the team and seemed ready to move on, but given Ayton’s status as a restricted free agent this summer set to command a max contract, that entire situation complicates the Suns’ summer plans.

There were rumblings on Twitter from some fans in the Footprint Center near the Suns bench of an argument in the second half between Ayton and Williams in a tunnel, but no visual confirmation from TV cameras or anything that was noticed by those covering the game live. As such, that hasn’t become the massive topic it would if there were such video evidence and mostly it’s been a lot of shrugging and speculating on Ayton’s future.

However, Skip Bayless had a man on the ground in Phoenix sitting across from the Suns bench, none other than Lil Wayne (who got roasted for his “Luka a ho” tweet from earlier in the series), and was willing to report that Williams and Ayton had a spat that led to them being separated after Williams, allegedly, told Ayton he “quit on us.”

Now, this is a wild game of telephone going from Lil Wayne seated across the court and either hearing this or lip-reading it (Bayless wasn’t sure which) and then relaying it to his close personal friend Skip Bayless who brought this information to a national TV audience. At some point, especially if Ayton departs Phoenix this summer, we will likely get some stronger sourced reporting on what exactly happened that got Ayton benched, but this would certainly explain why Monty was clearly upset about it after the game and not willing to discuss the matter.

If it ends up being the case, then everyone better credit pre-eminent NBA newsbreaker Lil Wayne for having the scoop first.

Mac Miller’s Drug Dealer Has Been Sentenced To 17.5 Years In Prison For Supplying Counterfeit Pills

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49-year-old Stephen Walter, one of the men who sold Mac Miller the pills that caused the rapper’s fatal overdose in 2019, has been sentenced to 17 and a half years in prison after he pled guilty last year to the distribution of fentanyl. Water, who had continued to sell counterfeit oxycodone pills cut with Fentanyl even after Miller’s death, had previously made a plea deal for 17 years, but US District Judge Otis D. Wright, II rejected the deal, saying it was too lenient for the offense, according to Rolling Stone.

“The court has elected not to accept that plea agreement,” he said. “So, sir, if you want, at this point, you can withdraw your guilty plea and go to trial. I may as well lay it out. When you continue to engage in this activity even after your activities killed someone, I’m having a tough time not staying within the guidelines.”

Walter, however, decided not to argue after conferring with his lawyer. Although Walter contended with the characterization given, claiming he had no knowledge that Miller had died from drugs he supplied, he accepted the sentence. However, he did advise the court that he believed that another man charged in the case, Cameron Pettit, to whom he initially sold the pills, wanted them for personal use and Walter did not know Pettit wound up giving them to Miller.

Meanwhile, another man who was also convicted, 39-year-old Ryan Reavis, was recently sentenced to 11 years in prison. Pettit accepted a plea agreement as well, but the record has been sealed.

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