ASAP Rocky and Rihanna are super official in the video for Rocky’s new single “DMB” (Dat’s My Bitch). The smoothly edited video sees the two stars hanging out in Rocky’s hometown, Harlem, where they sip wine on the fire escape, shop at flea markets, and low-key stunt all over town. The video is shot on grainy, low-res tape, giving the whole thing a warm, home-movie vibe that matches the downmarket, uptown sensibilities of the song — and really, the couple’s whole relationship.
There’s also a scene of RIhana repeatedly meeting up with Rocky as he leaves jail — a scene that finds art imitating life. Rocky was recently arrested by the LAPD as the couple returned from Rihanna’s native Barbados on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. He made bail the same dayhttps://uproxx.com/music/asap-rocky-released-jail-posting-bailt/. Police have been investigating claims that the rapper shot at another man in November of 2021, grazing the victim’s hand. Police raided Rocky’s home in a search for the potential weapon, but all the guns they found were legally obtained and registered; none were even the same caliber as shell casings found at the crime scene.
OJ Da Juiceman finds himself at odds with the law once again, as NBC affiliate LEX18 reports he was arrested on Monday (May 2) in Hardin County, Kentucky. The 40-year-old rapper was charged with possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, possession of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia. OJ was detained at the Hardin County Detention Center in Elizabethtown and is now looking ahead to his May 13 court date.
The 32 Entertainment founder‘s first legal wrinkle came in 2015 in Tennessee as he was arrested for intent to distribute, gun possession, and unlawful crime with possession of a firearm. The police found guns, marijuana, and 300 rounds of ammunition in his car as he was on his way to perform in North Carolina.
The Atlanta rapper first broke through in the late 2000s, collaborating with Gucci Mane, Jadakiss, Swizz Beats, and more. He was recognized by XXL in the 2010 iteration of their Freshman List alongside J. Cole, Wiz Khalifa, Nipsey Hussle, Big Sean, Jay Rock, and Freddie Gibbs. While he has not been the biggest selling artist in the game or from Atlanta, he did burst onto the Billboard 200’s Top 20 chart with his debut album The Otha Side Of The Trap.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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.
Kehlani’s sophomore album, It Was Good Until It Wasn’t, focused on absorbing the destruction that failures in love and life caused against her while disallowing it from throwing her off her journey. This theme of navigating through the presence of an unwanted being was fitting at the time as the world was forced under the glass dome of a global pandemic. For Kehlani, everything else was good until it wasn’t, and for the rest of us, by that same token, the once-normal world that we previously took for granted was good until it was deemed otherwise. With that, it leaves us with two options: wait for things to work themselves out or acknowledge the circumstances as a sign to make changes in your life. With her third album Blue Water Road, Kehlani opts for the latter.
Recreating happiness is what Kehlani strives for on Blue Water Road. In its best form, it’s as pure and euphoric as the ocean waters that sat across from the Malibu stretch of road that her third album is named after. Luckily for Kehlani, happiness is not uncharted territory for her. The singer’s 2015 debut album SweetSexySavage is probably the giddiest and most spirited we’ve heard her be so far. But it came with a heavy dose of naivety and overflowing charisma that, together, asked “what could go wrong?” Well, a lot did and that’s what brought us to It Was Good Until It Wasn’t. However, time heals and it did for Kehlani as it placed her on an upward trek that returned her to her better days. Kehlani succeeds at recreating happiness on Blue Water Road while her old naivety is replaced with the gratitude to be here again. It also comes with the understanding that she’s not only experienced the worst, but a permanent residency at the top of the world goes unguaranteed.
By the end of Blue Water Road, Kehlani’s lifelong search for serenity is complete, and it’s quite fulfilling. In an Apple Music interview, she revealed that her initial intention on Blue Water Road was to make music for a deluxe release of It Was Good Until It Wasn’t. What Kehlani didn’t know at first is that the growth she needed was already in progress, and thus the music that came out of those sessions was no longer connected to her sophomore album. We waste no time learning about these changes as Kehlani yearns to “throw a paper tantrum” at a strip club for a dancer she’s grown very fond of. Just two years ago, she forced herself to be in the middle of loud music and erratically flashing lights while noting, “Damn, you know I hate the club.” Where It Was Good Until It Wasn’t begins with a chilling anecdote about a “Toxic” love, Blue Water Road sets off with accountability and the recognition of her faults in love through “Little Story.”
Kehlani progress on this journey comes with its missteps and unsuccessful moments. It’d be wrong to assume that the ever-growing 27-year-old singer suddenly figured out how to perfectly and flawlessly approach life. She enters a new relationship only to leave with regrets on the Slick Rick-sampling “Wish I Never,” she’s gaslit on “Get Me Started” with Syd, and she attempts in a very Issa Rae way to justify her infidelity on “More Than I Should” with Jessie Reyez. It’s all honest and relatable and it’s what makes Kehlani’s music so indulgent. She never approaches it from a holier than thou perspective, and she never throws stones from her glasshouse. We understand Kehlani cause we’ve been there before and we all aim to fit life’s complicated puzzle pieces together to solve some problem that we have.
With that, Kehlani successfully achieves serenity through her ability to establish it within her. You can’t fall in love without knowing and accepting what you love, and you will never find peace without dealing with the chaos that lies within. A perfect example of that comes on “Altar,” where Kehlani grapples with grief and achieves the initially impossible feat of accepting that a loved one is no longer physically present. “Soon, I’ll see your face,” she sings with undeterred optimism. “Don’t know why I ever thought you were far away / I shoulda known better.”
So what does serenity look like for Kehlani? It could be finding a love so perfect and united that she confuses her hair, reflection, and her skin for her lover’s on “Melt.” It could also be enjoying the fruits of her labor towards a healthy love on the nearly-NSFW “Tangerine” where she sings, “So don’t tell nobody what’s done in the garden / The fruits you can harvest, they grow where you water.” However, it’s best captured on “Everything” as the arrival of a new lover who checks off her physical, verbal, and compatibility boxes leaves her to praise the heavens for this gift she’s waited so long for. As a result, her excitement for it can’t be bottled. “That was before me, it’s childish, you done with your wildin,’” she sings. “Now you can be wild with me, run that mile with me / Catch some flights out with me.”
Simply put: Kehlani won. She found new love and accepted her natural identity – both sexual and physical – all while managing to keep the thunderous clouds and unsettling fires that shook her world on It Was Good Until It Wasn’t out of her present-day life. Nowadays, things are better than good, they’re great, and it’s all thanks to Blue Water Road.
Blue Water Road is out now via TSNMI/Atlantic. You can stream it here.
Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
You can thank the artist very briefly not known as Prince for ensuring that one of the greatest sitcom couples of all time became a couple in the first place.
The music legend Prince was a huge fan of FOX’s New Girl, which ran from 2011-2018 and starred Zooey Deschanel as Jess Day and Jake Johnson as Nick Miller. Prince appeared as himself in a season three episode aptly titled “Prince” that aired in 2014. On The Kelly Clarkson Show on Wednesday, Minx star Jake Johnson told host Kelly Clarkson that Jess and Nick got together because it’s what Prince, inarguably the most important fan of the series, wanted.
Johnson, with his Minx beard intact, described Prince’s iconic arrival on set. “He came around and he was talking to Zooey [Deschanel],” Johnson said. “He looked at me and said to Zooey, ‘I would like to meet Nick now.’ Zooey looked at me and, obviously, whatever Prince wants…[Prince gets]. She walked over and was like, ‘Hey Nick, come over here.’ I met Prince and he was as nice as it gets.”
But it turns out the greatest musician of his generation and superfan, who passed away in 2016, came to the New Girl set with an agenda. “He wanted to live in the reality of the show, and he wanted Nick and Jess to be together,” Johnson said. “So he said he would do the show if he could help them get together. He got to live a little fantasy. He wanted them together, and we wanted Prince. Prince is the best.”
Given the direction of the show and the characters, Nick and Jess likely would have gotten together without Prince’s involvement, but Prince certainly made it happen quickly. Thank you for your service, Prince. You can watch video of the interview below.
Dr. Dre famously said he became hip-hop’s first billionaire (a title actually held by Jay-Z) back in 2014 when he sold Beats Electronics to Apple, but his boasting about it caused an ungodly amount to get cut from the final sale price. According to HipHopDX via The New York Times reporter Tripp Mickle’s new book, After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul, when Dre talked about the deal in a video posted on social media, Apple took the sale down $200 million due to a confidentiality clause in the initial $3.2 billion agreement.
If you don’t remember, the video was posted to Facebook by Tyrese, who was hanging out in the studio with Dre, both apparently drunk. As they shouted out South Central Los Angeles (Tyrese is from Watts, Dre is from neighboring Compton), Tyrese boasted that “the Forbes list just changed,” referring to the publication’s annual lists of top earners in the world of hip-hop. Dre backed up the brag, touting himself as “the first billionaire in hip-hop.” Interscope founder Jimmy Iovine, Dre’s partner in Beats, found out about the video from Diddy, who called him in the middle of the night after the video went up, prompting him to panic as Dre and Jimmy were invited to Apple’s headquarters by CEO Tim Cook.
They worried that the deal would get the ax, but instead, Cook used the opportunity to save Apple some money, adjusting the sale price by $0.2 billion. Ultimately, the deal worked out; Dre got to keep his boast, and Apple got to keep Beats, which is still paying off to this day. And really, what can you buy with $3.2 billion that you can’t get with $3 billion (although I’m sure he’d have loved the extra $100 million to give to his ex-wife)?
A24 is producing a new television series about iconic Black entertainer Josephine Baker and her role as a freedom fighter against the Nazis. It’s called De La Resistance, and according to Deadline, the show has already found its star in a burgeoning modern icon, Janelle Monae. Monae will portray Baker as the show follows her exploits as a spy in the French resistance during World War II, as well as her adventures as one of the most celebrated performers of the early 20th century.
Monae is also billed as a producer for the series via her Wondaland Pictures imprint, through which the singer has a first-look production deal with Universal Pictures. Monae’s previous acting credits include roles in Harriet, Hidden Figures, and Moonlight, and will also appear in the upcoming sequel to Knives Out. Monae’s new book, Memory Librarian, is also out now. The showrunner is Jennifer Yale, who previously worked on outstanding television dramas such as See, Outlander, and Underground.
They’ve certainly chosen an intriguing figure, whose real-life exploits sound like excellent fodder for a film or TV series. After refusing to perform to segregated audiences in the US, Baker emigrated to Paris, where her racy revue became a worldwide phenomenon and left behind some truly iconic imagery (which Monae recently paid homage to at the 2022 Met Gala). After the Nazis occupied France, Baker became a spy for the Allies, earning The National Order of the Legion of Honour, the highest French order of merit, both military and civil.
Ludacris celebrated a major milestone in a place he holds near and dear this past Wednesday. Georgia State University, the college he previously attended from 1996 to 1998 before dropping out to sign with Def Jam, presented him with an honorary Bachelor of Science in Music Management degree during their master’s ceremony.
The Atlanta rapper addressed over 900 graduates seated in Center Parc Stadium, calling GSU his home before encouraging them to chase their passions and be leaders within their communities. With his wife, mother, and daughters in attendance, he even treated attendees to the chorus of his classic “Welcome To Atlanta,” to which many joined in rapping with him, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. His mother’s presence was especially meaningful, as she was initially concerned about him leaving school to pursue music.
“Mama,” he said, “I made it.”
Despite not completing his initial goal at GSU, the 44-year-old has given back to the university in multiple ways, operating as an artist-in-residence since 2019 and inspiring a law course focused on the music industry titled “The Legal Life Of Ludacris.” Ludacris is a three-time Grammy Award winner and was recognized by The Screen Actors Guild as Outstanding Cast In A Motion Picture for 2005’s Crash. He also recently created the Netflix series Karma’s World.
We love when rappers share their picks for the top five rappers. It gives us insights into their influences and creative processes. It often vindicates some of our most deeply held beliefs about the culture and genre. It puts newer or younger fans (sometimes older) onto a broader range of artists to check out. And, of course, it gives us an endless well of fuel for our most cherished Twitter debate, ensuring that we’ll have enough fat to chew on until the sun burns out.
The latest rapper to contribute to the long-running tradition is Lil Wayne, whose list is quite a doozy, containing both the expected picks and some left-field surprises that actually make sense when you consider his own unique approach to the art of rap. Wayne gave his answer in a special edition of What’s Wright? With Nick Wright, a podcast version of the Fox Sports personality’s popular show.
Almost as well known for his affinity for hip-hop as Wayne is for his sports referencing raps, Wright offers his own list (a pretty humdrum collection including the usual picks: Jay-Z, Tupac, Wayne himself, Kanye West, and T.I.), which Wayne says he respects. Then Wayne starts off his own list with a pick that far too few people include for my taste, Missy Elliott. Vindication!
Missy is a pick that makes perfect sense for Wayne — a quirky writer and performer who outright avoids convention and whose influence resonates throughout the industry, even if she rarely gets credit for it. Good one on Wayne for including her. Of course, Jay-Z enters his list (he’s repeatedly said that the Brooklyn rapper is his favorite MC ever). He also credits Biggie and Gucci Mane — another interesting pick, although not wholly unexpected from a Southerner like Wayne. Guwop’s influence throughout the bottom half of the States is undeniable and inextricable. His last pick is pretty mind-blowing though.
He cheats a little by picking a group, but rather than a well-worn, oft-tapped collective like Wu-Tang Clan, Wayne once again shows his Southern roots by choosing Atlanta mainstays Goodie Mob, a four-man band that includes Big Gipp, CeeLo Green, Khujo, and T-Mo. Their debut album, Soul Food,
is considered a classic and as part of the Dungeon Family, they worked extensively with Outkast and Organized Noise, two of the most pivotal groups in Southern rap.
Not a bad list, all things considered. And like I said before, pretty telling when you compare Wayne’s influences to his output. It’s easy to see why he goes against the grain so much and the results so often turn out so well.
Check out Lil Wayne’s full interview with Nick Wright above.
Just when it seems like Anderson .Paak can’t get any better, he adds a new gift to his repertoire. The eight-time Grammy Award winner will make his feature directorial debut with dramatic comedy K-POPS!, which he will also star in, Deadline reports. It will be a special treat for the multi-hyphenate as his son, Soul Rasheed, will join him on the big screen.
The film follows a washed-up musician taking his talents to Korea to write for K-pop stars, learning along the way that his estranged son is the leader of one of the most popular groups within the genre. The father sees the opportunity as a way to push himself forward, but realizes connecting with his son is much more gratifying.
The film’s premise uniquely parallels the 36-year-old’s life in certain ways, though calling him washed may be a stretch. Alongside Silk Sonic member Bruno Mars, .Paak brought home four awards at the most recent Grammys as they now prepare for their Vegas residency in May.
The Ventura artist stated, “My mom is from Korea but she was adopted so I never knew anything about my heritage until I met my wife. This movie is a reflection on learning about this part of myself alongside my wife and son — and spending even more time with them!”
The film, released under Stampede Ventures, includes contributions from rapper Jon “Dumbfoundead” Park and writing from Khaila Amazan, responsible for A Cuban Girl’s Guide To Tea And Tomorrow.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Back in October, Kim Kardashian hosted Saturday Night Live and during her opening monologue, she referenced her marriage to and impending divorce from Kanye West, saying, “I’ve been very blessed in this life and I’m grateful for everything, honestly: all the ups, all the downs. I mean, I married the best rapper of all time. Not only that, he’s the richest Black man in America: A talented, legit genius who gave me four incredible kids. So when I divorced him, you have to know it came down to just one thing: his personality. I know that sounds mean, but people keep telling me that comedy comes from truth and if there’s one thing that I always strive to be, it’s genuine.”
Now, we know that, at least according to Kardashian, Ye didn’t particularly like that part of the monologue, so much so that he walked out of the room during it.
On a new episode of Hulu’s The Kardashians, Kardashian said (as Us Weekly notes):
“He walked out on SNL mid-monologue. I haven’t talked to him since. He is upset at the fact that I used the word ‘divorced’ — so he wished I said the word ‘filed’ for divorce. And he was upset that I also said he was ‘a rapper.’ He said, ‘I am so much more than a rapper. I can’t believe you said ‘rapper.” I never want to offend anyone, and I never want to hurt anyone but also that is what this monologue was for. It was to make a joke. I made fun of myself, my mom, and of everything that is personal to me. It is all fun and games and apparently, it wasn’t to him.”
