Lizzo is on the lookout for new dancers to join her tour and what better way to find them than a reality TV competition? That’s the premise of Watch Out For The Big Grrrls, coming to Amazon Prime Video on March 25. In the show, Lizzo recruits 10 women for a dance boot camp at the Big Grrrls House, as they compete for a spot on Lizzo’s tour team.
Throughout her career, Lizzo has been very vocal and earnest about her experiences maneuvering in the entertainment industry as a plus-sized woman, and she makes it clear in the trailer above that she wants to use her power as a superstar to extend more opportunities to women like herself. “Girls that look like me don’t get representation,” she says. “It’s time to pull up my sleeves and find them myself.”
Despite her struggles, Lizzo has been extremely body-positive through the years, and very successful whether you believe it’s because or despite her appearance. She’s unafraid to strip down to promote her music and even enthusiastically reached out to Cardi B for a potential Playboy pictorial. Meanwhile, her music has appeared in countless avenues, from television and film to the Grammys to Barack Obama’s list of favorite songs. It seems almost certain that her show will have the same impact.
Watch the trailer for Lizzo’s Amazon series, Watch Out For The Big Grrrls above.
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.
Teenage rebellion has long been considered part and parcel of the hip-hop package and perhaps no modern rapper exemplifies this like $NOT. Emerging from Florida’s SoundCloud rap scene in 2018 with the pulverizing “Gosha,” the 24-year-old rapper could have been described as “teenage rebellion” personified. But what happens when teenage rebels grow up? $NOT shows glimpses on his new album, Ethereal, but he isn’t quite ready to leave his punk-rap roots completely behind.
Born in New York, but raised in West Palm Beach, Florida, $NOT bears every hallmark of the scene’s flourishing heyday. Like many other members of the Florida rap community, many of his more popular songs feature tortured, distorted bass, screaming, thrash-inspired vocals. He even has a signature look: A light hoodie pulled tight around his face that he’s rarely seen without – much like Ski Mask The Slump God’s durag or the mask of MF DOOM.
But he’s also always been something of an outsider to that culture as well. While he’s been largely defined by the accouterments of the scream-rap style, he’s also shown a more tender side. For instance, on “Revenge” from his debut album Beautiful Havoc, he dabbles in more melodic production, with mellow acoustic guitars and a singsong vocal delivery. And on Ethereal, he pursues these instincts much more enthusiastically, on introspective cuts like “Blue Moon” and “5AM,” which he calls his favorite song from the album on a Zoom call with Uproxx ahead of its release.
“I’m just like, ‘Yo, let me use my sound but let me add a little spice to it,’” he says of the departure. “It’s just one of those songs that hit different when it’s slow, but it’s still crazy when it’s fast, when it’s normal. When I recorded it, I didn’t have a thought process or anything. I just did what I wanted to do on it.” He does confess that the sharp left turn could alienate some of his day-one fans, but he also accepts that as part of the bargain when it comes to expanding his sound and doing what he wants.
“I don’t know if the fans will receive it well,” he admits. “That’s how it always is. Those are really experimental to me. ‘5 AM,’ that’s really experimental to my sound. It’s still true to my sound, but it’s like… it’s in my world but it’s in a different universe.” $NOT accepts that the perception of him as an artist doesn’t necessarily jive with the musical output he’s released so far. Part of that is down to the viral videos of his raucous performances, which he uses to grow his legend by reworking even his more mellow material to suit the live format.
“Even my name sounds crazy – like me in a mosh pit, it fits the name and everything,” he says. “But if you listen to the music, it’s very calm like chill. That’s how I am. But when I perform, I try to rage with those songs too. It’s kind of crazy, I’ll be trying to get the crowd to open a mosh pit for the saddest song.” That reputation for turning up has made him one of the more exciting talents, but he’s learning that his recklessness can have as many negative effects as positive ones.
Case in point, lead single “Doja” featuring ASAP Rocky. The song is a classic slice of that anti-establishment formula, fitting right into the skate-punk rap aesthetic that Rocky and ASAP Mob cultivated in the early 2010s. $NOT admits that the song’s title is a double entendre, and could refer to either the rapper Doja Cat or the slang term for weed, but in his verse, he mentions her by name. “I’ll f*ck a b*tch named Doja Cat,” he gibes, gloating in that exaggerated way common to hip-hop. However, a mistranslation on lyrics sites brought the song to the attention of the actual Doja Cat, who shot back, “You f*cked who?” on Twitter. After she deleted the reply, $NOT himself clarified that the lyric was misconstrued but by then, the damage had been done – or the song’s attention-grabbing purpose was served, depending on how you look at it.
“When all that shit was happening, I didn’t care,” he admits. “I was like, ‘Whatever. If this is going to bring more shit to the song, go ahead. It’s working.’ Some people thought it was a diss track towards Doja, but I’m like, ‘I got no animosity towards Doja.’ She looks good and I didn’t really think much about it, and plus, I needed some shit to rhyme with. So I’m saying ‘scat, pack, Doja Cat.’ It ain’t nothing too deep about it. They just think I’m trying to degrade women and all that, but I don’t know, it’s rap. I’m just being real grimy.”
Ironically, for such a reckless rapper, one who admittedly doesn’t put much thought into lyrics or even his album’s title (“I thought it was a cool word,” he explains. “It was a tattoo on a girl’s neck”), he’s already got his retirement plan figured out. When asked what he wants to have accomplished by next year, he says, “I’ll be like, ‘Yo, I own a gas station, bro. Come get this gas, it’s the cheapest gas out here, $1 a gallon.’” It’s hard to tell if he’s joking. The music on Ethereal is the same way; it could be deadly serious or totally frivolous, but it’s always captivating.
Ethereal is out now via 300 Entertainment. You can stream it here.
SNOT is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Fans of the offbeat hip-hop comedy series Dave can rest easy — Lil Dicky‘s heartfelt yet absurdist brainchild has been renewed for a third season, as confirmed by the show’s official Twitter.
While the confirmation announcement is light on details — when does the show return? Who are the guest stars? How does the show’s Lil Dicky restart his career after blowing off the opportunity of a lifetime to remain loyal to his hype man and the show’s best character, GaTa? — it’s enough to reassure those of us who have been re-bingeing the show on Hulu for the last six months that at least the answers to those questions are forthcoming.
The show is named after its creator — Dicky’s real name is Dave Burd — and loosely based on his life and early career as an aspiring albeit awkward rapper, reproducing such moments as his first radio appearance, his XXL Freshman cypher, and his first big television performance, all while heightening both the drama and the comedy of those events to borderline belief-straining levels of ridiculousness.
The approach has paid off, making Dave one of the most beloved new comedies of the past two years and earning it comparisons — however misguided — to other contemporary classics like Donald Glover’s Atlanta. It’s also revitalized Lil Dicky’s entertainment career, giving him an outlet for his comedic proclivities while finally letting the rest of the world in on the joke. Whenever the show returns, it’ll be with a huge audience — and while we won’t know exactly what to expect, we’ll at least be expecting to laugh and sob in nearly equal measure.
The Chicago Tribune reports that R. Kelly, who was recently convicted on charges of racketeering in New York, has dismissed his Chicago-based legal team to employ the attorney who successfully appealed Bill Cosby’s conviction as his defense for his upcoming Chicago sex abuse case. Calling into court from the Brooklyn jail where he’s awaiting sentencing in his prior conviction, Kelly told US District Judge Harry Leinenweber that he was switching representation to Jennifer Bonjean for the August trial.
Bonjean represented Cosby’s appeal in Pennsylvania after he was convicted of sexual assault in 2018. The conviction was overturned by a split court which found that Cosby had been unfairly prosecuted due to an agreement made with a previous district attorney in exchange for his cooperation in a civil lawsuit from one of his alleged victims. The incriminating statements he made while under this agreement were used as a driving factor in his eventual conviction, which caused justices reviewing the appeal to write, “Denying the defendant the benefit of that decision is an affront to fundamental fairness, particularly when it results in a criminal prosecution that was foregone for more than a decade.”
Bonjean is already working on Kelly’s New York appeal, for which he was granted an extension due to a COVID-19 diagnosis. However, she’ll have little time to get up to speed on the Chicago case; Kelly’s two co-defendants, Derrel McDavid and Milton “June” Brown, want the case to proceed to trial on schedule. Meanwhile, Kelly could receive up to 10 years in federal prison when he’s sentenced in May. Meanwhile, his Chicago case primarily revolves around his efforts to bribe or coerce witnesses in his 2008 child pornography trial. Incidentally, Cosby says he believes R. Kelly was railroaded.
The lawsuit against late rapper Lil Peep’s record label First Access Entertainment will proceed to trial according to Rolling Stone, which reports that a Los Angeles judge denied the label’s request to dismiss the suit filed by Peep’s mother Liza Kathryn Womack.
Womack filed the suit in 2019, two years after the rapper’s death from an overdose of fentanyl in November of 2017, citing negligence and wrongful death due to FAE’s tour manager Belinda Mercer providing artists on the Come Over When You’re Sober tour drugs including cocaine, ketamine, Percocet, and Xanax. Among Womack’s other bases for suing were allegations that no one on the tour bus was trained in “life-saving apparatuses” for treating overdose such as Narcan or defibrillators — neither of which were provided — nor even to recognize signs of an overdose in the first place.
Judge Teresa A. Beaudet declared that the evidence provided by Peep’s mother was enough to establish a “causal connection” with Peep’s death, although she also ruled statements from Peep’s fellow musician and labelmate Cold Hart inadmissible as hearsay. Hart had claimed Peep’s managers telling the rapper to make “himself sick from taking a bunch of Xanax” to get out of a show without losing money. However, because he had not personally witnessed this, it could not be considered evidence.
Part of his statement was eligible though, as he was able to attest to Mercer providing the drugs to those on the bus. Beaudet acknowledged this part in her ruling, saying, “There’s no question there’s a triable issue as to whether (Mercer) provided the drugs or not. If you’re going to create an environment like that where drugs are flowing, and you’re providing it, and hey, you actually don’t have any life-saving device or any Narcan to help people who are going to have a problem with these drugs, it seems to me you are creating a very dangerous situation there… The fact (that the defendants) didn’t give the decedent adequate protection for that environment, I think that could add up to causation here.”
Unfortunately for Womack, Beaudet did dismiss similar charges against Peep’s co-manager, Bryant “Chase” Ortega, saying that the evidence did not show Ortega “directed” the negligence leading to Peep’s death. Peep’s mom also says that the label owes her $4 million from the rapper’s merch and music sales, which is being withheld in an effort to stall her lawsuit against them.
The reigning ARIA Artist of the Year with the Album Of The Year award as well at essentially Australia’s version of the Grammys, Genesis Owusu is coming to the US for his first headlining tour in the country. Backing his stellar release, Smiling With No Teeth, he’s also shared the new video for the bombastic “Black Dogs!”
“It’s a straight-to-the-point song encompassing a day in the life of me, or just any Black person in Australia,” Owusu said in a statement. “It’s not that I’m getting abused by police every day, but it’s all the little microaggressions. Sonically speaking, it plays into how I feel every day, going into white spaces and feeling a bit paranoid.”
The video is an intense expression of the above sentiment and it showcases the pointed aesthetic that has made the Ghanaian-Australian soar as an artist. He’s an important voice for Australian hip-hop and will be surely welcomed with open arms when he arrives in the US next month.
Watch the video for “Black Dogs!” above and check out Genesis Owusu’s full US tour dates below. Tickets are now on sale here.
03/20 — San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
03/21 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Roxy
03/24 — Boise, ID @ El Korah Shrine (Treefort Music Fest)
03/25 — Seattle, WA @ Neumos
03/28 — St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club
03/29 — Chicago, IL @ Schubas
03/31 — Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
04/02 — New York City, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
04/03 — The Sinclair @ Boston, MA
04/08 — DC9 Nightclub @ Washington, DC
04/09 — Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
04/10 — Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
04/12 — Nashville, TN @ Basement East
04/14 — Austin, TX @ Antone’s
04/15 — Studio at the Factory @ Dallas, TX
04/16 — Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall [upstairs]
In addition to being one-third of Atlanta rap trio Migos, Quavo is becoming increasingly well known for his love of basketball. He’s participated in the NBA’s All-Star celebrity game multiple times, winning the MVP award for the game in 2018, and helped launch Bleacher Report’s inaugural All-Star adjacent two-on-two game last year alongside 2 Chainz, Jack Harlow, and Lil Baby. Now, not only is he participating in the celebrity game again this year, but he’s also going to play in actual NBA games — NBA video games, that is.
Quavo was announced as the latest playable character in NBA 2K22, which is out now via 2K Games. The rapper made the announcement in an Instagram post showing off his character model during gameplay, and from the clips provided, it’s a frighteningly good likeness, right down to Quavo’s signature, iced-out glasses frames — which he would probably never wear in a real game. However, judging from the caption he added, it seems he has one major quibble with his in-game presentation.
“@ronnie2k why are u one point away from being rated the same as me?” he wondered, tagging 2K Games’ infamous digital marketing director Ronnie Singh, who was also added to the game as a playable character. “Who Rated Me??” Of course, players always tag Ronnie with qualms about their in-game player ratings, something the social media star made clear is always tongue-in-cheek and orchestrated to hype the game up (he, of course, probably has a lot of say in how he’s rated in-game, despite being far from NBA-ready). So, it really wouldn’t be official without some light griping from the game’s newest star, would it?
Check out Quavo’s announcement and in-game likeness below.
The last week has been quite tumultuous for Kanye West and Kid Cudi. They’ve been close collaborators for 15 years now and, despite their differences, Kanye has always lent a hand to Cudi in times of need. Recently Cudi, who’s been very vocal about his struggles with mental health, sent out a concerning message on Instagram. “God…please watch over me and keep my mind sane,” Cudi wrote. “I could use it right now. To anyone who feels alone, I’m with you and I love you.” Kanye caught wind of the message and re-shared it to his Instagram page with the caption, “Love you family.”
I really wanna say thank u for all the love yall been givin me the past few days. U have no idea how much u all mean to me. I am forever grateful to have so much love and support from all over the world and I wont let yall down. I love you all.
Cudi did not directly respond to Kanye’s message, but he did share a message of appreciation to fans who showed him support. “I really wanna say thank u for all the love yall been givin me the past few days,” Cudi wrote. “U have no idea how much u all mean to me. I am forever grateful to have so much love and support from all over the world and I wont let yall down. I love you all. [prayer hands and heart emoji].”
The rapper’s exchange comes after some bad blood emerged between them. Kanye recently said he won’t put Cudi on his upcoming album, Donda 2, due to Cudi’s friendship with Pete Davidson who is currently dating his ex-wife Kim Kardashian. Cudi responded to Kanye’s message about Donda 2 and wrote in part, “Too bad I dont wanna be on ur album u f*ckin dinosaur hahaha.”
Over the weekend, Juicy J and Wiz Khalifa unleashed a new joint album after more than a decade of working together. Stoner’s Night arrived after weeks of anticipation and a couple of singles: “Pop The Trunk” and “Backseat” with Project Pat. Now that the album is here, Juicy J and Wiz are looking to further promote it with a brand new video for the track “Weak.” It finds Juicy J leading a cast of women who aim to get strong. It also sees Wiz kicking it in a room full of models while Memphis rapper Big30, who also appears in the song, drops some bars from a kitchen.
Juicy J and Wiz Khalifa’s Stoner’s Night —their first project since the deluxe release of the former’s fifth album The Hustle Continues — boasts 16 songs and appearances from Big30, Project Pat, and Elle Varner. As for Wiz Khalifa, he recently teamed up with producers Cardo and Sledgren for Wiz Got Wings.
Stoner’s Night is not Juicy J and Wiz’s first project together. Back in 2016, they teamed up with producer TM88 to form the group TGOD Mafia for TGOD Mafia: Rude Awakening.
You can watch the video for “Weak” above.
Stoner’s Night is out now via Trippy Music LLC. You can stream it here.
Last year was a special year for Coi Leray. The musician had a viral moment with “No More Parties,” which was later remixed by Lil Durk. She also earned a spot on the 2021 XXL Freshman Class list. However, her highs have also come with lows. Leray has seen her body and rap skills often criticized and she may have reached a breaking point with a message she posted and deleted.
Leray’s message began with a tweet that read “Brain dead.” However, in a second post, which she later deleted, she went in-depth about her mental state. “To all my trendsetters, I’m sorry I let you down,” she wrote. “I don’t have it in me to keep pushing. I feel like I’m brain dead. I pray that everyone continues to keep setting trends and striving.” She added, “Don’t know when I’ll be back but I don’t even want to think about it. I love you for life. -coi.”
Her message comes a few months after she revealed that Lil Durk stopped her from quitting rap. “Almost gave up one day and he told me don’t ever stop,” she wrote on her Instagram Story. “Most artist show love from a distance on some weird sh*t, but this man right here believed in me, believe[d] in ‘No More Parties’ and been behind me ever since. He know a star when he see one, and I just wanna thank you for all your support. OTF FOREVER.”
(@coi_leray) 