Rapper Jack Harlow’s appearance at Game 1 between the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks was one of the game’s oddest subplots. Harlow was courtside for the game and the game’s referees apparently had no idea who he was. (Which, considering the two referees heard saying they don’t know who he is are two older white guys, fair.) And then Jack Harlow had his own fun with them not recognizing him.
One of the referees, Scott Foster, then attempted to have his own fun with it, resulting in…this.
To someone’s credit, there was some effort put into the video. It’s somewhat a homage of sorts to a scene Harlow’s video for ‘Nail Tech’ with Foster playing the row of Harlow and the song playing over the scene.
And then it gets a little bit weird. It cuts to Foster in the car with three other referees, where Foster attempts to lip sync part of ‘Nail Tech’. Attempt is the key word here because he’s a bit off trying to rap just a few lines of the song and notably fumbles his way through the line “she down low three-point stance/I’m back there doing Jack dance.’ Which, again, makes sense as Foster is an older guy who almost certainly never had heard ‘Nail Tech’ before deciding to be a part of this social media stunt.
Really, this whole video is the Steve Buscemi ‘How do you do, fellow kinds?’ meme come to life. Credit to Foster for trying to have fun with it, but boy this feels forced. May I suggest, if Foster wants another crack at this, recreating the made jump shot scene from the song ‘Tyler Herro’ with Tyler Herro next time he’s assigned to a Miami Heat game? That feels more his speed.
Buddy had a spotlight moment in 2018 with the release of his debut album Harlon & Alondra. It was yet another example of an excellent debut album from new artists in the 2010s that documented their experiences growing up in the West (see: Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid M.A.A.D. City, YG’s My Krazy Life, and Ty Dolla Sign’s Free TC). However, after Harlon & Alondra arrived, Buddy would go almost four years without a project before dropping his sophomore effort Superghetto earlier this year. It was a brief effort with just ten songs to its name, but in the spirit of keeping the album alive, Buddy returns with a new video for it.
Just a month after Superghetto was made available to the world, Buddy shares a new visual for “Bad News.” It’s a claymation effort that begins with a fight between a police officer and what appears to be Buddy’s love interest. Soon enough, Buddy himself is fighting a cop, but that’s not all the tussling he does for a video. The visual concludes with an unsuccessful fight between the rapper and his evil twin.
The new video arrives after Buddy announced the tour dates for Superghetto. His string of shows will begin on June 15 in Oakland, California and continue for a couple of a weeks before concluding on June 30 in Chicago, IL.
You can watch the video for “Bad News” above.
Superghetto is out now via RCA Records. You can stream it here.
Earlier this week, people all over the country were sent into absolute shock when a draft opinion of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe V. Wade leaked to the public. In this draft, it was revealed that the Supreme Court would overturn the famous 1973 decision which protected womens’ right to have a safe and legal abortion across the country. The news sparked reactions from all corners of the world, including those in the music world like Halsey who called the decision “one of the most significant events we will witness in our lifetimes” that will “spiral into lethal situations for our entire country.”
Now, recent Grammy-winner Questlove has commented on the matter, but his thoughts arrived in a form of a call to action. In a post he shared on Instagram, Questlove asked his followers to “channel your rage into action” before sharing his thoughts on how men specifically should react to Roe V. Wade possibly being overturned.
“Men we of all people need to rally behind this,” he wrote. This isn’t a ‘ahh man that’s a woman’s thing.’ Someone in our life be it your mother, your daughter, your sister, your cousin, your aunt, your next door neighbor, your girlfriend, your other girlfriend, your side jawn, your co-worker, a bff of one the aforementioned and ESPECIALLY you. If this effects them? It effects us.”
He continued, “Trust me I just wanna wake up, look at my social media, eat a grilled cheese, watch soul train, and figure out how to stump wordle. But we are in a state of emergency right now.”
Later on in the post, Questlove asked that people protest and fight for others if they won’t do so for themselves.
You can view Questlove’s post above and his full message below.
“Men we of all people need to rally behind this. This isn’t a ‘ahh man that’s a woman’s thing.’ Someone in our life be it your mother, your daughter, your sister, your cousin, your aunt, your next door neighbor, your girlfriend, your other girlfriend, your side jawn, your co-worker, a bff of one the aforementioned and ESPECIALLY you. If this effects them? It effects us. Trust me I just wanna wake up, look at my social media, eat a grilled cheese, watch soul train, and figure out how to stump wordle.
But we are in a state of emergency right now.
And this subliminal retaliation should not come as a surprise to anyone (best believe this is payback for voting a black woman in the Supreme Court. No one is saying this so I’ll say it) yes….it’s a burden. And it’s easy to give up (especially my age in which if you’re optimistic you’re like “I got less than 40 years left, I’m out of here”—-thing is I got people I love born 10 years ago that have to be here til 2080—-it’s a novel idea: thinking of someone else. If you don’t participate cool, at least rp/add to your stories.”
June 24 is going to be a hot summer night in LA — both literally (likely) and figuratively (almost assuredly). A Hot Summer Night In LA is the name of Summer Walker‘s headlining concert at the Staples Ce-fine, Crypto.com Arena (yuck), which will feature a slew of special guests including Jazmine Sullivan, Ari Lennox, Saucy Santana, Joyce Wrice, Doechii, and Alex Vaughn. Ladies, leave your man at home. The show is billed as part of BET Awards weekend, with a special pre-sale for Summer Walker fans today through May 5 at 10 pm PT. The general sale starts on Friday at 10 am.
The show will be something of a coronation for Ms. Walker, who released her new album Still Over It last November to a truly impressive reception. It became the first album by a female R&B singer to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 since 2016 (following Solange’s A Seat At The Table) and signified that R&B’s mainstream comeback is no passing fancy. A Hot Summer Night In LA is sure to keep that energy going with a lineup consisting mainly of R&B-singing women backed by rappers who bring boss-bitch energy.
After being convicted of first-degree manslaughter for a 2017 stabbing, Kidd Creole, formerly of pioneering rap band Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison, according to Rolling Stone. Creole, real name Nathaniel Glover, was accused of stabbing a John Jolly, a 55-year-old homeless man, to death on the street, believing that Jolly was propositioning him.
In a statement, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said, “Mr. Jolly’s death was devastating to his family and those who knew him. Every life we lose to violent crime ripples throughout our entire city, and we will continue to ensure everyone in our borough can live their lives with the sense of safety and security they deserve. This case makes clear that if you commit a violent crime, we will hold you accountable, and I thank our team for their hard work achieving justice in this matter.”
However, Glover’s lawyer Scottie Celestin sees the sentence as “egregious and extreme.” He told Rolling Stone, “I continue to have faith in our judicial system. My focus is now on the appeal process. There are many appealable issues, specifically the denial of Mr. Glover being able to assert the justification of self-defense, despite the fact that he was retreating and the victim followed behind him. While some may be happy with the presumed victory of the acquittal on the top charge of Murder, we don’t view it as a win. I believe the 16 years given are heavy-handed and motivated not by the evidence and mitigating facts but by external factors.”
As a member of the Furious Five, The Kidd Creole was pivotal in the early development of the hip-hop music business. The group’s 1982 hit “The Message” is largely credited as one of rap’s first “conscious” songs and was added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.
“I’ve sat in the shadows for over 14 years allowing the Kardashians to use my name, to abuse my name, make billions of dollars over a decade-and-a-half talking about a topic I’ve never really spoken about,” he said. “I’ve never leaked anything. I have never leaked a sex tape in my life. It has never been a leak. It’s always been a deal and a partnership between Kris Jenner and Kim and me and we’ve always been partners since the beginning of this thing.”
When rumors of the tape first emerged way back in 2006, the former couple went to court along with Vivid Entertainment, the tape’s eventual distributor. Eventually, both reached an agreement with Vivid for the tape to be commercially released. According to Ray J, it was just one of many — all of which he says are in the possession of the Kardashians (which he says Kim kept in a Nike shoe box). “They’re not letting the world know that there’s a bunch of sex tapes that we made but they’re not going anywhere because she has them all,” he confessed.
He also claimed the initial leak was orchestrated by Kris Jenner — Kim’s mother and manager — to generate publicity for the family’s other endeavors, which eventually included a reality show, Keeping Up With The Kardashians. “Once I pitched the idea to [Kim], just playing around a little bit, that’s when she jumped on the idea, talked to her mom and it was out of my hands from there,” Ray J insisted. “From the beginning of us putting this sex tape out, this has been the biggest lie in the industry in the history of entertainment.”
Elsewhere in the story, Ray J provided screenshots of conversations between him and Kim in which he vents his frustrations about the narrative painting him as a villain and she attempts to smooth things over. You can read the full story here.
A few months ago, fans of Los Angeles rap on Twitter were left agape by a post by a local blogger, who shared his thoughts on the city’s current crop of talent via a “rap report card” featuring grades for the likes of newcomers such as Blxst, Kalan.FrFr, Roddy Ricch, and more. The post sparked a days-long debate that quickly became more than contentious thanks to the near-universally mediocre numbers the blogger handed out, which many took as an overt diss to their hard work, talents, and successes to date. Considering some of the names mentioned are just beginning to receive mainstream attention or release music professionally, that feeling is fair.
One of the rappers who took issue with his assessment is Carson native Jayson Cash, who at the time had only released a handful of tracks. Despite his relative obscurity, his performance on “Priority,” “All I Know,” and an impressive showing on LA Leakers had already secured him a deal with Asylum Records, and since then, he’s only become more of a priority, moving up to Atlantic Records and prepping the release of his debut project with singles “Top Down” and “Him” featuring Dom Kennedy. But rather than lash out at the purveyor of the rap report card, Cash did something much more productive, hitting the studio to record the fiery “D+ Freestyle” aimed at refuting the claims against him. It was so impressive, West Coast hitmaker Mustard hit him up to get in the studio the same day.
Now, with Read The Room, his Atlantic debut, coming on May 27, and his new single “Him” out today, Jayson Cash re-introduces himself to the world. In a recent Zoom call with Uproxx, the Carson native explains why he deserved much better than a D+ and what fans can expect from him in the future.
For the world, Jayson Cash is a rapper from Carson, California. What are you most notable for so far?
First and foremost, just recently there was this magazine in LA that they were grading different new artists in LA, and they gave me a D+ grade. That’s crazy. I went in the studio and I recorded a response to it. And I didn’t disrespect the magazine or disrespect the person, the writer or anything of the sort, I just talked about a lot of the things that I did this past year. And after I did that, DJ Mustard heard my response and called me to the studio, “Yo, we got to get you in the studio today,” actually that same day. I just had the city just talking, talking, talking and that was just the most recent thing.
But before that, I dropped three singles and got signed. I’m one of a few people that got signed without having a bunch of music out — just a series of different freestyles and different things I was doing throughout the city, just building my name the organic, grassroots way.
I always think is mad funny when artists from Carson are, “No, we are from Carson.” [TDE rapper] Reason will be like, “No, I’m from Del Amo, bro.” Why is it so important for artists from Carson to really be out here screaming Carson, rather than LA?
If you went to New York tomorrow, met somebody that you never met before and they ask you where you from, you say you from Compton.
Yep. I’m saying Compton.
But they know what that is.
When I go out of town and they ask me where I’m from, and I say, “I’m from Carson,” then I got to say, “It’s a city in between Compton and Long Beach. It’s where TDE started.” I have to explain where I’m from to so many people so I figure while I’m on my run and I’m doing everything that I’m supposed to do and I’m yelling and stamping my city the same way that Dr. Dre and all them and Quik and all them put the stamp on Compton, the same way Snoop did on Long Beach, I can do that for Carson. Now when somebody go out of town they ain’t got to explain geographically where Carson is. We haven’t been stamped yet. I’m trying to make sure we get stamped.
Going back to that freestyle because the face that I made on that last line was just so… I used to want to make people make that face when I used to rap. You know, when your whole face sucks in.
“If the n**** with the fit and the shades / Got a 69 scoring a D+ grade / Because I’m ‘lazy, inconsistent and my catalog the same’ / Why the f*ck do y’all even think about mentioning my name?” That’s how I felt.
To be honest with you, the only thing I thought — because everybody’s entitled to an opinion… The only reason why I even responded was that not only was I on his freshman cover, but he came to the studio and he heard my project and he knew why it wasn’t out. I never even had a meeting with Atlantic, I got signed off emails. As far as putting records out, it’s not like I had a whole bunch of people just lined up like, ‘Okay, let’s make the Jayson Cash project happen.’ The consistency in my catalog, that was out of my control. I didn’t like the narrative that was being pushed, like, ‘That catalog is this, because they lazy.’
I’m not lazy at all. That’s what prompted me to respond, not to him, but to anybody that might have heard the conversation and looked at my score, which was all my scores is high except for consistency in catalog. Since this has a million impressions and everybody is seeing this, I don’t want nobody to have the wrong idea about me. Let me tell you who I actually am. I’m the one that wrote for Dr. Dre, I’m the one that did the freestyle with Snoop Dogg. I got Easty Boyz a check for [Blxst’s 2020 single] “Chosen.” I’m going to tell you everything that I’ve done on this run to where you can’t say my impact score is a six. I’m doing all this off three songs.
What are your plans? How much of your plans can you reveal? How much of that is in your control?
The project’s already turned in, singles, turned in. I’m still working on what’s coming after that. I don’t ever want to fall behind and feel like I’m trying to play catch-up. So I always want to be creating.
It’s a similar sound like me and Blxst was in the incubator together, working every day. It’s just my take on what I’m influenced by. When you listen to it, you’re going to hear everything I’m influenced by from Suga Free to Quik, to even like my peers, like Blxst. My era, the people before me, and et cetera. But you’re going to hear all that. Not only are you going to hear, you going to feel it because it’s in the music. I heard Blxst on his project say he a new Nate Dogg. So it’s like, if Blxst the new Nate Dogg, my mind is like, “Well, who am I?” That’s another void for me to fill because we haven’t had that run in LA as a rapper in a long time. So I wanted to present a sound, present a perspective and take this opportunity to really do some shit with the music.
Jayson Cash is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Despite the average NBA ref not knowing who he is (they must not have watched Narnia), Jack Harlow has been flying high recently. After the success of his potentially controversial collaboration with Lil Nas X in 2021, more rap fans than ever know Harlow’s name — enough to lift his upcoming album’s second single, “First Class” to No. 1 on the Hot 100. His new album, Come Home The Kids Miss You, stands to also debut at the top of the Billboard 200 chart next week as a result.
So, naturally, fans on Twitter are putting his career trajectory in perspective as only fans on Twitter can. Comparing Harlow to another hotly tipped white rapper whose music career unfolded in a much different way, a commenter wrote, “jack harlow havin the career lil dicky thought he was gonna have.” The tweet has sparked a bit of a debate since some fans took it as a diss toward Dicky (who is still a much better-known factor at this point owing to several years’ head start).
jack harlow havin the career lil dicky thought he was gonna have
One fan responded, “Let’s be clear tho lil dicky would wash jack harlow,” while another implored fellow fans, “Y’all better stop comparing Jack Harlow to Lil Dicky. Dave would rap circles around him, with all due respect.” However, others agreed with the original premise that Jack’s career had a much more positive trajectory compared to a similar point in Dicky’s.
Lil Dicky got Snoop Dogg on his debut (only) album, a star studded environmental theme song, a tv show, then dipped. I don’t think he wanted the career fr https://t.co/wC0BxYXxU7
Meanwhile, for those truly in the know, the real victim is Asher Roth, who managed to eke out one mainstream hit before being banished forever to the backrap circuit (where he is, for all appearances, perfectly comfortable and happy).
This tweet would make more sense if you said Asher Roth instead of Lil Dicky. https://t.co/jmoTmLxAO5
Eric Holder, the man accused of shooting and killing Nipsey Hussle in March of 2019, will finally go on trial in June, according to HipHopDX via the Los Angeles Criminal Court website. Before that, a pretrial readiness hearing has been set for May 19 in which the defense and prosecution will determine whether or not to resolve the case without going to trial. Holder has pled not guilty to one count of murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and one count of felony possession of a firearm.
The trial has been delayed multiple times, with the first occurring in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, in May 2021, Holder reportedly refused to leave his cell, and then, two months later, both the assigned judge and Holder’s original defense needed to be replaced (the judge due to retirement, the attorney due to death threats against his family). The most recent delay was earlier this year, after the trial was scheduled to begin in January.
Holder was arrested just two days after the shooting in the Los Angeles County suburb Bellflower. Police said that the shooting was motivated by a personal disagreement in front of Nipsey’s Marathon store on Crenshaw and Slauson. A security video allegedly shows the agitated Holder walking up and firing on Nipsey, hitting him and two bystanders multiple times. Nipsey was pronounced dead at the hospital just hours later, leaving the hip-hop world to mourn his loss just as he was finally receiving the mainstream success he’d worked for a decade to get.
Jack Harlow‘s upcoming sophomore album, Come Home, The Kids Miss You features a promising selection of collaborators. Fans, however, have already gotten a taste of some of the upcoming tracks in the form of a leaked Drake collaboration, which surfaced online last month. The track was revealed to be titled “Churchill Downs” yesterday, following Harlow’s unveiling of the album’s tracklist.
In an interview on Hot 97, Harlow admitted that he was upset by the leak.
“It hurt my feelings,” he said. “I’m really tight about leaks. I don’t bounce my music so I haven’t had leaks in a long time. I don’t ride to my music while I’m working on an album… the only time we get to experience it is in the studio. [The leak] was heartbreaking, especially because [Drake]’s an idol of mine. I wanted to control that moment, but it’s destiny.”
Harlow mentioned that Drake was also sad about the leak, but as an artist who has dealt with his music leaking for years, Drake was able to offer Harlow some words of encouragement.
“[Drake] kind of, you know, nudged me like, ‘Aye, don’t trip. This what was meant to happen,’” he said. “I think his experience, he let me know like, ‘You think this is gonna affect your life? Like, it’s fine.’”
(@ken_chinaza) 
(@xamzzyy) 
) album, a star studded environmental theme song, a tv show, then dipped. I don’t think he wanted the career fr 
(@bitternessnbyes) 
(@saip13__) 