After a couple of years of relative quiet from Cordae, things are now happening fast for the young DMV area rapper. Last week, he announced the release date for his upcoming sophomore album, From A Bird’s Eye View, after dropping the video for its Lil Wayne-featuring single “Sinister.” Today, though, he announced the next step in the rollout for the project: its accompanying tour, which kicks off February 3 in Dallas, TX and runs through March 19 in Sacramento, CA. See the tour dates below.
Atlantic
2/3 — Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
2/4 — Houston, TX @ House of Blues
2/5 — Austin, TX @ Emo’s
2/7 — New Orleans, LA @ House of Blues
2/8 — Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade @ Heaven Stage
2/10 — Nashville, TN @ Cannery Ballroom
2/11 — Charlotte, NC @ The Underground
2/12 — Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
2/15 — Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts (TLA)
2/17 — Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
2/20 — New York, NY @ Webster Hall
2/21 — Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore
2/23 — Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
2/25 — Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
2/26 — Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
2/28 — Chicago, IL @ House of Blues
3/1 — Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
3/3 — Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
3/4 — Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
3/6 — Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
3/7 — Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theatre
3/9 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Novo
3/10 — San Francisco, CA @ The Regency Ballroom
3/13 — Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
3/14 — Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre
3/16 — Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
3/18 — Eugene, OR @ McDonald Theatre
3/19 — Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades
Sueco is a rising star in music. It’s hard to describe a sound that can be associated with him right now, because a big part of his appeal is his willingness to try different sounding music. After releasing hits like “fast,” “paralyzed,” and “Sober/Hungover,” he’s quickly making himself into an even bigger name.
It turns out that music isn’t his only passion — Sueco is also a big gamer. His passion for video games goes all the way back to his first-ever console, the Sega Dreamcast. These days, he’s gaming on a PC, and it’s this passion that made him a perfect choice for the launch of The Greenroom, an innovative music, gaming, and sports crossover event series presented in partnership with gaming giants VaynerSports, eFuse, and Aim Lab. This event will feature Sueco against other major stars like Bankrol Hayden, Juju Smith-Schuster, and Bugha, as they all play Halo Infinite for a prize of $10,000 in cash and a custom championship ring.
We got a chance to talk to Sueco about how he thinks he’ll fare in the upcoming event, what games he’s been into playing lately, and more.
What made you want to involve yourself with the launch of the Green Room series?
Well, I’ve always been a gamer, especially when I was a kid. I’m starting to really get back into it a lot. With this first tournament, the Halo tournament, Halo 3, when I was growing up, was a big part of who I was. I spent so much damn time playing Halo when I was a little kid. When I saw they were rebooting the franchise and whatnot, I was just stoked that I was able to be a part of anything related to it because it’s just a really nostalgic feeling for me. Then it’s funny, when I downloaded the game, I was crossing my fingers, hoping that it didn’t suck. But it’s sick and it seems like a lot of people love it. I don’t know. It’s cool. I’m just glad to be a part of it.
Have you had much of a chance to play it? Or was it just a little bit of time to mess around with it?
Not even that much time. Maybe about three or four hours so far. Just enough to get all the basics down. But then I just got on Aim Lab, so now I’m training. Now I’m going to play like a pro. So everybody, get ready for the tournament because I’m coming in strong.
You said you played a lot of games growing up?
Yeah. I was always playing a lot of the weirder games, to be honest. I played World at War and Modern Warfare and Zombies and shit with the homies. But I was more into games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and KOTOR 2, and sh*t like Civilization and Portal. More strategy and puzzle-based games. Also, one of my favorite games was this platformer named Psychonauts. They just dropped the sequel. It was sick because, again, it was one of those things where I was just hoping, please don’t be bad, please don’t be bad. And it was f*cking sick. After 12 years, they finally dropped the sequel.
What were your thoughts (on Psychonauts 2)?
Storyline-wise, I was a little confused. I’m going to be honest. But I enjoyed it. There are not really that many platformers anymore. Obviously, there’s some, but I feel like platforms used to be a way bigger thing. It’s nice to find a good platformer. You feel what I’m saying?
Yeah. When we were growing up it was like, we got Mario, we got our Sonics. We got all that stuff and those were the main games everyone played. But now Psychonauts is the niche game as opposed to when it was the main type of game.
Yeah, exactly. I haven’t played the new Ratchet and Clank, but everyone says that’s sick. Have you played it?
I haven’t, but I want to. I’ve been hearing the same thing, that it’s sick. Especially because I heard it’s one of those games where you can just go into a different world almost instantly. It’s like, oh this is the type of thing you can only do on a NextGen console kind of thing.
Facts. I need to get myself a f*cking PS5 and play that sh*t.
I was going to ask if you had one yet. It’s been impossible to get one.
I don’t even have a console. I just have a PC set up.
Are you a PC gamer then?
Yeah. I play everything on PC. I’m not even going to tell you that I have the most kickass PC because it’s a prebuilt. But it gets the job done.
You did a song with Wiz Khalifa for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie a while back. What was that like working with him and everyone else there?
Working with all those people was sick. Wiz, all of them, really, they’re all legends. That was sick for me to be able to be on a song with them. But also, my first game ever was Sonic Adventure 2 on the Dreamcast. That was when I was maybe four or five years old. So the fact that I was a part of the official franchise was nuts to me. It was super cool. It was funny, I remember they didn’t have the red carpet, they had the blue carpet because it was Sonic, right? IGN came up to me and asked me for an interview, and I just lost my mind. I was like, oh my God, IGN is interviewing me. And they were like, whoa, that’s the first reaction we’ve got like that.
I was going to say, for you, was it more exciting … when you started gaining fame and popularity, was it more exciting to be talking to IGN as opposed to Hollywood Reporter or those types?
Oh, yeah! To me, like I said, because that was just something I grew up reading and being a part of. So it was just like, oh my God, is this really happening? It was sick. That was a good time.
Sueco is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Dr. Dre has a new album coming with Floetry singer Marsha Ambrosius, according to photos both posted to social media. The two previously collaborated extensively on Dr. Dre’s 2015 album Compton and on “Stronger” from Ambrosius’ 2014 project Friends & Lovers. The release, apparently titled Casablanco, will mark something of a comeback for both; Ambrosius last released a full-length project in 2018 with Nyla, while Dre hasn’t released a headlining album since Compton. Dre has done some production work on his longtime collaborator Eminem’s last album, Music To Be Murdered By, and on the new Grand Theft Auto game, which Snoop Dogg thinks is “great f*cking music.”
Perhaps Dre is taking Snoop’s advice about turning his pain and anger into magic after completing divorce proceedings with his ex-wife Nicole — something he celebrated with balloons and more. Dre’s also returning to music after his early 2021 aneurysm scare, which caught him off-guard. “I’ve always been a person that has always taken care of my health,” he said after his recovery. “But there’s something that happens for some reason with Black men and high blood pressure, and I never saw that coming.”
His return to music after very nearly losing his life also includes the announcement that he will play the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show alongside Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige, and Snoop Dogg. Stay tuned for more about Casablanco.
The music video hosting network Vevo has announced the results of their most viewed videos of 2021 (Vevo notably hosts a great majority of the popular videos we watch on YouTube, so you’ll often see the “Vevo” logo on a screen in the bottom left corner.) The year’s big winner — both globally and in the U.S. — was The Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears” clip set in a macabre masquerade ball and directed by Cliqua. After performing at the Super Bowl LV Halftime Show in February, The Weeknd saw a surge in video interactions and the video clocked 615 million views in 2021 globally, with 102.9 million of them coming from the US.
Globally speaking, the top three videos of the year were rounded out by Karol G and Mariah Angeliq’s “El Makinon” with 556 million worldwide views, and the Black Eyed Peas featuring Shakira’s collaboration, “Girl Like Me,” with 519 million spins. In the US, Lil Baby’s “On Me” came in second with 94 million domestic views and Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me By Your Name) was third with 91.3 million views.
Lil Baby was the most viewed artist in the US with 770 million total views (The Weekend was second with 559 million,) while Karol G took home the Global crown with a whopping 3.11 billion views, narrowly edging The Weekend’s 3.10 billion global views.
Watch The Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears” video above and check out the graphics below for a look at the Top 10 most-viewed videos of the year both globally and in the US.
Vevovevo
Some of the artists mentioned here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
iHeartRadio’s Jingle Ball Tour already suffered a huge loss last week with the announcement that Doja Cat had to pull out of the remaining performances due to a positive COVID test, but over the weekend, the tour’s organizers received even more bad news as members of Lil Nas X’s show crew also tested positive, forcing him to also pull out of the rest of the tour. Over the weekend, surviving acts Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber played extended sets, but with Doja, Lil Nas X, and Coldplay all dropping out, the holiday tour is decidedly a lot less jolly.
As yet, Lil Nas X has not commented on the cancellations on his own social media, and we don’t know whether he was among those who returned a positive result on the COVID test that forced him out. Before leaving the tour, though, he appeared to be having the time of his life, even as he laughed off an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction that caused him to fall onstage as he tried to keep himself covered up. Oddly enough, it was his second of the year after splitting his pants on SNL, which prompted him to switch to skirts in an effort to avoid a repeat — an effort that was apparently unsuccessful.
Earlier this morning, the nominees for the 79th Annual Golden Globe Awards were announced in Los Angeles and to great surprise, Hollywood Foreign Press President Helen Hoehner gave way to an illustrious Southern Californian to read off the first half of nominations, saying, “And now to help me announce the 79th Annual Golden Globe nominees, please welcome a special guest… Snoop Dogg.”
Out came the lanky six-foot-four-inch rapper with a red “Murder” beanie on his head, an asymmetrical paisley button down shirt, modest-sized gold medallion, and of course, Locs sunglasses. First off, big shouts to Snoop Dogg for getting up in time to appear in front of a screen by 6 a.m. That’s a father of four right there, people.
But for all the jabs Snoop Dogg has received for mispronouncing a couple names (“Ben Uhffleck… Ben Affleck. My fault… sorry about that, Ben.”), he actually totally nails all or most of some pretty difficult names. He pronounced Dune director Denis Villeneuve’s name with very stout French pronunciation of a hard “e” at the end. He then showed his versatility in the love language by pronouncing The French Dispatch composer Alexandre Desplat’s name with a soft “t.”
Of course there were moments of hilarity, like the way he said Pose actress Michaela J. Rodirguez’s last name like it was one of the homies from the block (“Rordriguezz!”) or how he delivered the title of the musical Tick, Tick…Boom! like it was the punctuation to a song lyric.
So don’t listen to anyone who makes the condescending claim that Snoop Dogg was “butchering so many of the nominees’ names that it was hard to tell who actually got nominated.” Because he was absolutely himself and he did a fine job at the mundane task before him.
Watch Snoop Dogg announcing the 79th Annual Golden Globe Nominees above.
Russ, who is currently doing promotion for his newly released mixtape Chomp 2, stopped by The Breakfast Club and explained how he financed the new project by taking out a bank loan rather than signing with a label. Using Wale’s 2019 single “On Chill” as an example, he explained how he would go about opening a line of credit to support the track. “Let’s say it’s $250,000… Guess what you can go do. Go get a line of credit… I don’t wanna play with my own money. Even though an advance, they give you a million dollars and spend money at radio, that still ends up being your money. If I get a line of credit from the bank… it’s about time value of money.”
Russ speaks on how he funded his #CHOMP2 project & radio singles with a line of credit from bank. He says it’s much better than getting a “loan” from a major label pic.twitter.com/F34oOed64W
“So with Chomp 2,” he continued. “I have millions of dollars in the bank, I could fund it myself. Why? … Everything on Chomp 2, I’m using the line of credit. I could pay $1,000 for the rest of my life. If the issue is upfront cash… A bank will give y’all millions of dollars.”
Of course, some folks on Twitter pointed out that not everybody has this particular set of options, but Russ was adamant his point was in pursuing alternative funding and maintaining ownership of publishing rights and his music career. Check out some of the reactions to Russ’ advice and his responses below.
If you’re a new artist who’s getting label offers it’s BECAUSE you’re making money, meaning you can go to a bank and get the $ you need w/o givin up ownership and if you’re not making money and a label is offering you money, hang up!! You’re boutta get FUCKED https://t.co/x5nZUk1E5y
I’m genuinely tryna help artists get an “advance” without having to sell their masters to a label
I’m talkin to the artists consistently making streaming money to the point labels are offering them deals. Goin to bank is a better place to start if it’s money that you want. https://t.co/DTLuuCZN8K
Imma make a thread cuz I have several response that I hope help
1. This tweet feels outdated. You don’t NEED radio, features or a billboard to blow up. You need great consistent music and videos. https://t.co/bA5SpXRT5V
2. The money should be used to make more music and videos (imo) and with where the internet is now, digital ad spending (although things can blow up without any ad spend – tiktok)
3. I don’t think giving up ownership to your recordings and NEVER getting them back even AFTER recouping is worth it just because a label is gonna do shit for you that you actually NEED, you can do for yourself
Artists who are making money and in a position to sign to a label
I’m sayin either way you’re getting a loan. One you gotta give up ownership of your music forever to get, the other one you don’t https://t.co/79ljzEGzL0
Who was the top musical artist of 2021 on TikTok? Well, it depends how you look at it.
Today, the platform shared a bunch of year-end data, which reveals that Megan Thee Stallion was the top artist in the US by “catalogue creations,” meaning in terms of how many times users included her songs in their videos. This is Meg’s second year in a row securing that title. Following her in the top 10 are, in order, Doja Cat, PoppHunna, Olivia Rodrigo, Cardi B, YungManny, Soulja Boy, Drake, Kevin Gates, and Coi Leray.
When it comes to artists actually using TikTok themselves, though, Lil Nas X had the most-viewed music account in the US. After him on the list are Lizzo, iHeartMemphis, Jason Derulo, Oliver Tree, Leray, Selena Gomez, Charlie Puth, Billie Eilish, and Benny Blanco.
The post also includes a list of the year’s top emerging artists and it includes up-and-comer favorites like Baby Tate, Coi Leray, Magdalena Bay, PinkPantheress, and Shygirl. TikTok also compiled a list of the top “comeback tracks” in the US, meaning “trending songs released between 5 and 25 years ago.” Leading that list is Destiny’s Child’s “Bills, Bills, Bills,” and also included are Kid Cudi’s “Day ‘n’ Nite,” Britney Spears’ “Gimme More,” and Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack” featuring Timbaland.
TikTok shared a lot more year-end data than was covered here, so check out their post here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
It’s possible the song won’t stay on top for much longer, though. Over the past few weeks, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is Now” has been making its now-annual climb back up the Hot 100. It was No. 3 on last week’s chart, and now it’s up to No. 2. If the song does make it to No. 1 on the chart dated December 25 (the final Hot 100 of 2021), it would have topped the chart in three consecutive years and become the only song to ever go No. 1 in four separate years.
As far as Christmas music, Carey’s hit isn’t alone in the top 10. Returning to the space from last week are Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” at No. 3, Burl Ives’ “A Holly Jolly Christmas” at No. 5, and Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” at No. 6. Andy Williams’ “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” is new to the top 10 this week at No. 10, rounding out the five holiday songs in the region this week.
“Too many people got a DREAM that they never chased, then go through life and be angry they never tried,” he wrote. “Let me remind y’all ‘Hot N****’ took 20$ for 1 hour of studio time in the hood to create and that 1 hour of FOCUS changed my life and everyone around me FOREVER.”
Too many people got a DREAM that they never chased, then go through life and be angry they never tried let me remind y’all Hot Nigga took 20$ for 1 hour of studio time in the hood to create and that 1 hour of FOCUS changed my life and everyone around me FORVER #shmurda
That track, which Bobby recorded at some point in 2013, borrowed the Jahlil Beats-produced beat from Lloyd Banks’ 2012 song “Jackpot” and became one of hip-hop’s first modern viral hits, setting the stage for the modern social phenom to legit rap star pipeline that spawned many of today’s biggest artists like Lil Nas X. The track peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and made Bobby and his “Shmoney dance” from the music video household names.
While Bobby’s momentum was briefly curtailed by a stint in prison as the result of a racketeering investigation, since his release, he’s remained as popular as ever as fans await the release of his debut album.
let me remind y’all Hot Nigga took 20$ for 1 hour of studio time in the hood to create and that 1 hour of FOCUS changed my life and everyone around me FORVER