Music

Anderson Paak Was Pretty Thrilled To Meet BTS, And Even Offered To Become A Member

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Anderson Paak
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Anderson Paak has been on fire lately. His success with Bruno Mars on the duo Silk Sonic notwithstanding, Paak also released not one but two albums in the last three years, putting up Oxnard and Ventura within a year of each other. Like most people, he cooled things down last year during the pandemic, but apparently spent that time constructing a throwback duo with Bruno that kicked off with the hit single “Leave The Door Open” and exploded from there. And given his great taste in collaborators, it’s not surprising that Paak made his way to SoFi Stadium last night to make sure he got some facetime with one of the biggest pop groups in the world, BTS.

Taking a group pic with the beloved boy band and immediately posting that content to Instagram, Paak had the best caption for the moment, too. “@bts.bighitofficial lmk if you need another member! I work well in groups!!!” he wrote. Well, I don’t think anyone would be mad about a collaboration between these two — Paak himself said he’d be down earlier this year — so we can at least start there. Or BTS jumps on a Silk Sonic song? When the supergroups are just every pop star in the ecosystem, we’ll have reached peak internet.

Virgil Abloh Is Dead At 41 After A Two-Year Battle With Cancer

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Virgil Abloh 2020 Paris Fashion Week
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The music and entertainment world was hit with shocking news on Sunday: Famed designer and DJ Virgil Abloh has passed away at the young age of 41. The news was shared through his personal Instagram account as well as the social media pages ofLouis Vuitton, where he served as the company’s artistic director. “For over two years, Virgil valiantly battled a rare, aggressive form of cancer, cardiac angiosarcoma,” the post on Abloh’s Instagram read. “He chose to endure his battle privately since his diagnosis in 2019, undergoing numerous challenging treatments, all while helming several significant institutions that span fashion, art, and culture.”

The news was met with a wave of condolences across the music world. Pharrell, who Virgil credited as a big influence on his work, shared a lengthy message honoring him. “My heart is broken,” Pharrell wrote. “Virgil you were a kind, generous, thoughtful creative genius. Your work as a human and your work as a spiritual being will live forever.” He added, “Sending love and light to your wife, children, family and day ones. You’re with the Master now, shine.”

Virgil Abloh’s work appeared all over the entertainment and creative world. From his trademark Off-White brand and work with Louis Vuitton to crafting some of music’s most memorable recent album covers, from working with the likes of Ye, 2 Chainz, ASAP Rocky, Lil Uzi Vert, and more, his contributions to the world will never be forgotten.

You can read more condolences below.

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

French Montana Argues That It’s Harder To Be Successful In Rap Than It Is In The NBA

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Earlier this month, French Montana returned with They Got Amnesia, his first album in a couple of years. It’s jam-packed with features from John Legend, Rick Ross, Kodak Black, Pop Smoke, Lil Durk, Fivio Foreign, Fabolous, 42 Dugg, Coi Leray, Ty Dolla Sign, and more. French recently shared a video for the track “Bag Season,” featuring Lil Tjay, but it’s comments he recently made about rap and the NBA during a press run that has some people talking.

“You’re better off making it in the NBA than Hip Hop,” he said during an appearance on Hot 97’s Ebro In The Morning. “NBA, they got like what, 28 teams … 15 players on every team? And that’s in the hundreds. You talk about Hip Hop, you can’t even name 10 people that’s hot every couple months. The odds … anybody can do it if it was easy.” He added, “So you talkin’ about trying to make it? Your hustle gotta be relentless. Can’t take no for an answer, you gotta be up when everybody sleep.”

French recently connected with Saweetie and Doja cat for some freaky fun on “Handstand.” He also joined forces with Fivio Foreign for a video for their collaboration “Panicking.”

You can watch a clip from French’s appearance on Hot 97’s Ebro In The Morning in the post above.

They Got Amenisa is out now via Epic Records. Get it here.

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

Ye And Taylor Swift Received Album Of The Year Nominations At The 2022 Grammys Thanks To A Last-Minute Decision

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The 2022 Grammy Awards will see the total number of categories increase from 84 to 86, but that’s not the show’s only big change. The Recording Academy also expanded the number of nominees in three categories: Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best New Artist, all of which are going from eight to ten. And as a new report from TheNThe New York Times, that may have allowed some of this year’s big albums — and a number of songs — may not have made the cut otherwise.

As per the piece, both Ye’s Donda and Taylor Swift’s Evermore were absent from the initial list of nominees that circulated before last week’s official announcement. They weren’t the only ones. Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” and ABBA’s “I Still Have Faith in You” received nominations for Record Of The Year, but only after the expansion. The same goes for Song of the Year nominees like Doja Cat’s “Kiss Me More” and Brandi Carlile’s “Right On Time.” Meanwhile, Baby Keem and Arooj Aftab landed nominations in the Best New Artist category, but only after the nomination.

Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, told NYT the last-minute expansion was done “to make room for more music, more artists and more genres, and to embrace the spirit of inclusion.” He added that artists added to the categories were the ninth and tenth mos-tvoted-for by the Recording Academy’s members. “For us this is all positive movement,” Mason said. “This is us honoring more great artists, more great music, giving artists an opportunity to shine and showcase.”

You can revisit the full list of 2022 Grammy nominees here.

Fans Added Twerking Megan Thee Stallion As A Backup Dancer For Adele

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It’s Thanksgiving week, so holiday malaise has already set in. People are at home, possibly bored, possibly eating too much turkey, and very likely pondering the existential questions of the universe. Like, what makes a good relationship? When will I discover my true calling? And, of course, my personal favorite: How come Adele never has any back up dancers? At least, that last one was what one Twitter user had on their mind a few days ago, given the arrival of 30 and its insane first-week sales, she’s definitely been on everyone’s minds quite a bit lately.

But of course, in true Twitter fashion, it was a reply to the tweet — with a homemade, DIY solution — that really had the internet up in arms this Thanksgiving. To solve the problem that the original poster pointed out, another Twitter genius added footage of Megan Thee Stallion twerking to a song with the closest rhythm match. Seriously, this mashup is almost perfect, which makes the whole thing even better. While Adele belts out her 25 hit “Water Under The Bridge,” Megan pops and rolls behind her. Honestly, this is a collaboration that the internet has already gotten ahem, behind, it might just make sense to bring it into the real world. Adele, your move!

Rico Nasty Said Being On Playboi Carti’s Tour Is Making Her ‘Wish I Was Dead’

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At first, it seemed like Rico Nasty landing a role opening up for Playboi Carti was a good thing. The rising rapper is one of the most talented MCs in the game, and has made a way for herself as a woman in hip-hop who leans all the way into her own aggressive style of music. She’s a unique force, and one to be reckoned with. But everyone has their limits, and the disrespectful way Carti’s fans have been treating Rico when she’s onstage has begun to wear on her mental health.

Back in November, a fan threw a bottle at her while she was performing in Portland, and she nearly confronted them for the incident. She also was upset when fans booed her during an LA show, saying: “This is what the f*ck we gon’ do for you disrespectful muthaf*ckers out there.. B*tch, we gon’ sit in muthaf*ckin silence! Don’t you f*cking play! What you think this is, b*tch? It’s not that.” So far, Carti has been silent about the way fans have been behaving toward her, but Rico seemed to reach a breaking point tonight when she took to Twitter to let fans know how much she’s struggling.

“I dead ass need at least two hours out of each day. To just cry,” she began. “Crazy how I wanted a tour bus my whole life and now I just be on the tour bus crying myself to sleep every night 😂. I wish I was dead just as much as y’all do trust me. Y’all win.” Quickly deleting her tweets, Complex caught the missives before they were removed:

Rico Nasty Tweet
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Rico Nasty Tweet
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Rico Nasty Tweet
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Twitter has since erupted with support for Rico — including from artists like Kehlani — so here’s hoping she can focus on those messages of love and encouragement instead of a few terrible fans on a single tour. Check out some supportive messages for Rico below.

Mark Hamill Shared Some Memes Mashing Up ‘Get Back’ With ‘Star Wars,’ Because He Too Is Apparently Bingeing The New Beatles Series

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There were a lot of viewing options over the Thanksgiving holiday, but few were as epic as Get Back, the three-part, nearly eight-hour doc series about chronicling the recording of The Beatles’ album Let It Be. It’s a game-changer in a lot of ways. For one, it dispels the myth that Yoko Ono, John Lennon’s soon-to-be-wife, was a disruptive presence who led to the band’s break-up. One person who seems to have chosen the Beatles over, say, the new South Park movie is none other than Mark Hamill.

The actor and “good at social media” celeb dropped a handful of memes that photoshopped various Star Wars figures into famous photos of the Fab Four. There’s the young him as Luke Skywalker hanging with them circa what looks like 1966. There’s him, Carrie Fisher’s Leia, Harrison Ford’s Han Solo, and Peter Mayhew’s Chewbacca among the throngs in the cover of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. There’s John, Paul, George, and Ringo decked out in Storm Trooper regalia.

What’s the connection? Both Star Wars and Get Back (though no other Beatles content) are owned by Disney. Or maybe Hamill just really, really likes The Beatles. Who doesn’t? In the meantime, hats off to the many who spent a large chunk of their holiday weekend rocking out with The Beatles as they appeared to really enjoy each other’s company — apart from that stretch where George Harrison quits the band, of course.

(Via EW)

The Director Of DMX’s New Documentary Says He Owes His Sobriety To The Late Rapper

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After two years of filming, DMX: Don’t Try To Understand premiered on HBO Max over Thanksgiving. The documentary was directed by Chris Frierson and he recently spoke to Rolling Out about working with DMX. “You know that thing when you meet somebody famous and you’re super disappointed? It was the complete opposite of that,” Frierson said. “It was like everything I hoped for in a human being, I saw over a couple days. And I think possibly he saw something in our coverage that he wasn’t necessarily used to in the questions we were asking.”

Frierson also revealed that he checked himself into rehab for substance abuse days before DMX was hospitalized for an overdose. “That was hard [for me],” he said. “I partially owe my sobriety to him, to a certain extent, because the last thing he said to me was that I was going to be alright.”

Frierson said that he pitched the idea for the doc Mass Appeal back in 2018 around the time that DMX was sentenced to jail time for tax evasion. The initial plan was to shoot select scenes inside the West Virginia Federal prison where DMX was sent, but a warden denied the request. That forced Frierson and his team to wait until he was released in 2019 to begin shooting.

You can read Frierson’s full interview with Rolling Out here.

DMX: Don’t Try To Understand is out now on HBO Max.

Meek Mill Reveals His Last ‘Dream Chasers’ Mixtape Will Be Released As An NFT

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Meek Mill’s early success with mixtapes played a large part in his rise to fame a decade ago. The Philly native’s 2012 tape, Dreamchasers 2, is regarded as both a highlight in Meek’s career and of the entire mixtape era. The last installment in the Dreamchasers series came back in 2014, with DC4, which debuted within the Billboard Top 5. Now, a little over a month rafter his fifth album Expensive Pain, he took to social media to reveal plans for his next and final installment in the series.

“How can they relate I’m too real n#%gas fake,” Meek wrote in the caption, adding, “#DCPOUNDCAKE LAST DREAMCHASER MIXTAPE A NFT.” He continued, “LOYALTY CLUB STARTS JANUARY.1st 2022 you can invest merch albums and shows and get marketed.” It’s unknown when the final Dreamchasers mixtape will be released or what the “Loyalty Club” means, but details should come enentually.

The announcement marks a quick return to action for Meek and his brand new album, whose release was recently supported by videos for “Northside Southside” with Giggs, “Angels (RIP Lil Snupe),” and “Expensive Pain.”

You can view Meek’s post about the Dreamchasers series above.

Meek Mill is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

DJ Khaled Is Readying A ‘Crazy’ New Collaboration With Drake

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DJ Khaled might only be 46 years old, but the DJ, producer, and all-around hip-hop mogul is already a legend. A curator of taste and vibes, there’s no one like Khaled when it comes to orchestrating the perfect collaboration. And it sounds like he’s done it again — ever the business man, during his own birthday party, Khaled let the crowd know that a new collaboration with Drake is about to drop. “I got some new music with Drake coming out real soon,” he said. “This sh*t sounds crazy too. The vocals are in!”

Caught on camera opening up a lavish present — a Rolex complete with green diamonds — Khaled jokes around with Drake on FaceTime (subtle flex right there) about the luxurious gift, then decides to let the whole crowd know how deep his connection with Drizzy goes. I suppose the perfect way to ring in your own birthday is by celebrating business ventures, but it’s still funny to see Khaled get so worked up about new music during a personal event. Check out the clips from the party in the tweets above, and definitely keep an ear out for whatever this DJ and Drake are going to be dropping on us soon.