Music

H.E.R. Performed ‘We Made It’ Off Her New Album ‘Back Of My Mind’ At The BET Awards

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H.E.R. has just released an excellent new album, Back Of My Mind, and was part of Amazon’s Prime Day concert film alongside Kid Cudi and Billie Eilish, so she’s been in the spotlight a lot lately. All that wasn’t enough to stop her from entering her BET Awards performance tonight by descending from the ceiling on a floating platform while playing the drums herself. Is there anything she can’t do? The multi-talented artist was performing the intro off her new album, “We Made It” during tonight’s show, and after kicking things off with the drums, she later put on a guitar to shred the guitar solo toward the end of the track.

Though it’s one of the earliest performances in the show, and it will be hard for people to top Cardi B and Offset announcing that the “WAP” rapper is pregnant with their second child, H.E.R.’s live rendition of this track is still going to be one of the highlights of the night. She’s become a cultural force in the R&B world in just a few short years, but clearly, this woman is a career artist. Check out her performance above and if you haven’t spent any time with her new album, Back Of My Mind yet, definitely give it a spin.

Moneybagg Yo Hits The 2021 BET Award Stage To Perform ‘Wokesha’ And ‘Time Today’

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After years of mixtape releases that eventually put the Memphis native on a pedestal high enough to drop official albums, Moneybagg Yo is arguably having the best year of his career. It’s in large part due to the success of his fourth album, A Gangsta’s Pain. The positive reception of that album and its song helped land Moneybagg a spot in this year’s lineup of BET Award show performers. He graced the stage with a brief performance of “Wokesha” before transitioning into a laid-back rendition of “Time Today.”

His set comes weeks after A Gangsta’s Pain became the first No. 1 album of his career at the beginning of May. Two weeks later, the album reclaimed the top spot on the albums chart, making it one of a few albums to do so on the Billboard 200 this year. The album’s success can be credited to it’s post-release promotional run as the rapper shared several videos for tracks like “A Gangsta’s Pain” and “Free Promo.”

On a more recent note, Moneybagg Yo dropped “Rookie Of The Year” in support of Memphis Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant’s film, Promiseland. The rapper also joined Belly in a video for their “Zero Love” collaboration. Moneybagg will also headline the 2021 Brocolli City festival with Lil Baby later this year.

Scroll up to watch a clip of Moneybagg’s BET Award performance.

Cardi B Showed Up During Migos’ ‘Type Sh*t’ Performance To Announce She’s Pregnant Again

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Migos recently released the third installment of their ongoing Culture series, and Culture III offered more of the same triplet flows and lightning fast rap verses that have been their signature from the beginning. With the impact of Culture III — including a collaboration with none other than Drake on “Having Our Way” — of course the Atlanta trio would be a presence at tonight’s BET Awards. Of course, the beloved group has been up against some heavy charges with the drama that went down between Quavo and Saweetie, who were formerly one of hip-hop’s hottest couples and had a rather brutal, public breakup. Aside from allegations of cheating, which Quavo deflected, some expensive gifts have been rescinded, and Saweetie is ready to move on.

Another related couple is doing much better though, during their performance tonight of “Type Sh*t” off the album — a collaboration with Cardi B — the one and only “WAP” artist announced that she’s pregnant again. Though her own relationship with Offset has been a little tumultuous, it looks like the couple is happy to be expanding their family. Check out the video of their performance and Cardi’s big announcement above, along with a newly shared photo on Twitter below.

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

Lil Baby Performs ‘We Win’ With Kirk Franklin At The 2021 BET Awards

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Lil Baby has formed an era of his own thanks to the release of his 2020 album, My Turn. Despite being more than a year removed from dropping that project, the Atlanta rapper is still enjoying moments that are rooted in the album’s arrival. He was crowned Songwriter Of The Year at this year’s ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Awards and the showed credited “Emotionally Scarred” and “The Bigger Picture” as some of Baby’s best work. Now, the rapper finds himself onstage at the 2021 BET Awards where he performed “We Win” alongside Kirk Franklin. The duo was backed by a group of dancing backup singers as they shared a fiery performance the song, which serves as the lead single for the upcoming Space Jam: A New Legacy soundtrack.

In addition to performing at the show, Baby also received three nominations at the BET Awards. “The Bigger Picture” was nominated in the Coca-Cola Viewers’ Choice Award category while “For The Night,” which finds the rapper alongside DaBaby and the late Pop Smoke, can be found in the Best Collaboration category. Lastly, Lil Baby himself was nominated in the Best Male Hip-Hop Artist.

As for what’s next, Lil Baby will begin a string of festival and concert appearances now that the world has reopened for live shows. He slated to appear at the following festivals: Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash, Rolling Loud’s Miami and New York shows, Made In America, and Brocolli City. He will also hit the road with Lil Durk for their Back Outside tour.

Scroll up to see a clip of Lil Baby’s performance at the 2021 BET Awards.

Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Sour’ Returns To No. 1 On The ‘Billboard’ Albums Chart

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There are many arguments to be had about which artist is having the best year so far. One possibility is Olivia Rodrigo. The pop star earned her breakout moment at the beginning of the year thanks to her debut single, “Drivers License,” which smashed Spotify records and spent ample time atop the Billboard album charts. Her success continued with the release of additional singles, such as “Good 4 U” and “Deja Vu,” as well as the arrival of her debut album, Sour, which debuted at No. 1. Now, a little over a month after it dropped, it’s back at the top.

In the last week, Sour tallied a total of 105,000 album units. As a result, it joins Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album as the only full-length efforts in 2021 to sell more than 100,000 units in each of its first five weeks on the chart. Sour made its debut last month on the Billboard 200 with 295,000 albums units sold. That number was comprised of 218,000 streaming equivalent album units that came from 300.73 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs. It made for the largest overall week for an album in 2021 and the second-largest streaming week ever by a female artist behind Ariana Grande’s 2018 album Thank U, Next.

Revisit our review of Sour here.

Tyler The Creator Credits Westside Gunn For ‘Making Me Just Wanna Rap Again’

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It’s been less than two days since Tyler The Creator shared his sixth album, Call Me If You Get Lost, which arrives two years after the Grammy-winning Igor. But unlike that album, this newest release found him heading back to his old brash rap sound, thanks to DJ Drama, who appeared as the album’s host. After reading through some of the new album’s positive reviews, Tyler hopped on Instagram Live to share some words about his latest release.

“Shoutout rap music, I love it,” Tyler said. “DJ Drama, I love you. What you did for rap — phenomenal. From all the Waynes, all the Dedications, from P the In My Mind Prequel mixtape, to Clipse for the We Got It For Cheaps, from Lupe mixtape run all the Farenheits, the Revenge Of The Nerds, to JAY-Z, to Andre [3000] … to Westside Gunn for making me wanna just rap again.” He added, “I love it. I love rap. It changed n****s lives.”

Recently Drama explained what made working with Tyler unique from other artists. “Normally in these types of situations, if I do a Gangsta Grillz with somebody, they compile their music together and hand it over to me, and then I’ll go in on my own without them and do my thing and return the finished product,” he said. “With Tyler, it was a little different: I came in, gave him an abundance of things—even more than what I had originally placed—and just gave him enough material to choose from and layer it out.”

You can watch Tyler’s livestream in the video above.

Call Me If You Get Lost is out now via A Boy Is a Gun/Columbia. Get it here.

Nicki Minaj Shared A Promising Update About Her Next Album And Previewed A Song With Future

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Last month, Nicki Minaj made her grand return to the music world by uploading her 2009 mixtape, Beam Me Up Scotty, to streaming services. It featured most of the project’s original songs as well as three new additions that included “Seeing Green” with Drake and Lil Wayne as well as “Fractions.” While the release was certainly appreciated, her supporters’ true desire is a new album from the rapper as her last one, Queen, arrived back in 2018. As the wait continues for her upcoming fifth album, Nicki shared a promising update about it and previewed a new song that has fans very excited.

Speaking about her next album during an Instagram Live session, Nicki said, “This album will be definitely my best album thus far.” She also previewed a track titled “Big Barbie” that features a guest verse from Future and production from LondonOnDaTrack. According to Nicki, the song was supposed to appear on Queen, however, it was left off the album for reasons she did not share. In addition to previewing the track, she also teased something special for her supporters that would arrive soon.

“I got a surprise for y’all. Maybe you’ll find out in a few days,” she said, adding that she has a “major announcement to make.”

Shortly after she uploaded Beam Me Up Scotty to DSPs, Nicki joined Polo G on “For The Love Of New York” off his chart-topping album, Hall Of Fame.

You can listen to the “Big Barbie” preview in the video above.

Justin Bieber Had To Politely Ask Fans To Not Wait Outside His Apartment To See Him

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Justin Bieber is by far one of the most famous names in today’s pop culture world. He has the second-most followers on Twitter and the tenth-most on Instagram, so one could assume that the effects of fame for the singer may be a bit more severe and unique compared to other acts. An example of this came when he arrived at his New York City apartment all to be greeted by fans who waited outside in hopes of seeing him. In a TikTok video that captured the interaction that followed, Bieber had to politely ask the group to leave the area.

“I hear you, I hear you. But this is my home. You know what I mean? This is where I live,” he said after one of the fans asked for a hug. “And I don’t appreciate you guys being here. You know when you come home at the end of the night, and you want to relax? This is my space to do that. So I would appreciate it if you guys could leave.”

This isn’t the first time that Bieber had to ask supporters to not wait outside his apartment. Back in October, he called out “disrespectful” fans for loitering around his NYC home.

“How do you convince yourself it’s not completely inappropriate and disrespectful to wait outside my home to gawk, stare and take pictures as I walk into my apartment,” he wrote on his Instagram Story. “This is not a hotel. It’s my home.”

You can watch the video of Bieber talking to supporters outside his apartment above.

G Herbo Announces His Fourth Album ’25’: ‘I Ain’t Never Seen Myself Going This Far In Life’

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It’s been a little over a year since G Herbo delivered his last album, PTSD, which was hailed as one of the top hip-hop releases from that year. Fast-forward to the present and the rapper is already gearing up to share his follow-up. Titled 25, it was recently revealed that it will arrive next week, on July 2. A trailer also accompanied the announcement and in it, G Herbo shares the inspiration for his new album.

“I ain’t never seen myself going this far in life, I always wanted to be somebody since I was a kid,” he says in the opening of the video. “I’ve seen death way too many times. I’ve been shot, been to jail, I done been broke and I took everything that came with this street shit … all the killing, fear … overcoming that fear.”

He adds, “Now that I’m ’25,’ I feel like I’m at the top of my game. All the bad sh*t I’ve been through, that’s why I am the way I am I always just kept my head high, staying 10 toes down … I know it’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

You can view the cover art and trailer for 25 above.

25 is out 7/2 via Machine/Epic. Pre-order it here.

DJ Drama Explained What Made Working With Tyler The Creator Unique From Other ‘Gangsta Grillz’ Projects

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Tyler The Creator shared his sixth album, Call Me If You Get Lost, on Friday. The project is his first full-length release since 2019’s Igor which went on to win Best Rap Album at the 2020 Grammys. While all of Tyler’s projects are unique, Call Me If You Get Lost was special in its own sense thanks to contributions from DJ Drama. The present-day record executive is also known for backing several key mixtapes in the 2000s through his Gangsta Grillz series and to the delight of fans, Call Me If You Get Lost was made to sound like a project from that era.

During an interview with Complex’s Andre Gee, Drama was asked how working with Tyler on his new album differed from past acts he collaborated with in the Gangsta Grillz series.

“Normally in these types of situations, if I do a Gangsta Grillz with somebody, they compile their music together and hand it over to me, and then I’ll go in on my own without them and do my thing and return the finished product,” he replied. “With Tyler, it was a little different: I came in, gave him an abundance of things—even more than what I had originally placed—and just gave him enough material to choose from and layer it out.” He added, “It has that Gangsta Grillz feel, but this is Tyler’s album. I wanted to relinquish some of the control and let him do what he always dreamed about.”

Altogether, Call Me If You Get Lost presents 16 songs with features from Frank Ocean, 42 Dugg, Ty Dolla Sign, Lil Uzi Vert, Pharrell, NBA Youngboy, Lil Wayne, Teezo Touchdown, Domo Genesis, Brent Faiyaz, Daisy World, and Fana Hues

Call Me If You Get Lost is out now via A Boy Is a Gun/Columbia. Get it here.

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