Music

D Smoke Pays Homage To ‘Sade’ And Remixes The Snoop Dogg-Featuring ‘Gaspar Yanga’ For Spotify

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Just a day after Chika’s Grammy-week Spotify Singles release found her covering Billie Eilish, Chika’s fellow Best New Artist nominee D Smoke drops his own Spotify Singles package, including a remix of his Snoop Dogg-featuring “Gaspar Yanga” and new song “Sade.” “Sade” is an ode to the music of the British singer, but it’s also an homage to the healing power of music overall, as he addresses the hardships of his upbringing in Inglewood, California, and how music helps to ease his mind.

Meanwhile, on the more aggressive “Gaspar Yanga,” D Smoke does a little chest-beating, boasting of his success and strength. The remix is a rarity in 2021, as it’s an actual “remix” of the beat, utilizing a different sample after the original took its leading looping from the Koutev Bulgarian National Ensemble’s 1991 rendition of “Bre, Petrunko.”

D Smoke discussed his Grammy nominations — he’s also up for Best Rap Album — with Ebro Darden on Apple Music, explaining what the nominations meant for him just a year after his breakout in the wake of winning the first season of Netflix’s Rhythm + Flow. “I appreciate that because a lot of people think popularity is the determinant factor,” he said. “A lot of people determine their success by the numbers. When you got artists on their own dime and their own time that make something happen, that’s worth recognizing. It’s artists that stream more than me. It’s artists that have more radio play than me. But if we’re talking about what I put out and the company that I’m amongst, I’m proud to see that list.”

Listen to D Smoke’s Spotify Singles, “Gaspar Yanga (Remix)” and “Sade,” below.

Lena Waithe Launches A New Label, Hillman Grad Records, With Def Jam

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Queen & Slim creator Lena Waithe is making the jump from film and TV into music, announcing the creation of a new label with Def Jam, Hillman Grad Records (named for Waithe’s production company, which itself is named for the fictional HBCU in A Different World). Waithe will be joined by Tebs Maqubela and Albert Cooke to “identify and develop underrepresented artists in hopes of priming them for long-term success,” according to a press release. Maquebela previously helped develop Brockhampton, while Cooke worked in Artist Development at Island Def Jam and Artist Relations at SoundCloud.

Waithe detailed the importance of storytelling in music in a statement, saying, “Music and storytelling have always gone hand in hand. And I think that’s because musicians are the storytellers we love the most. They can take complex emotions and simplify it in four minutes, the same artist can sing about the revolution and falling in love. Music is a part of us. It’s so often connected to our fondest and sometimes our darkest memories. Musicians tell our story. At Hillman Grad Productions we believe in identifying and amplifying new talent, and we want to continue to do that in the music industry. Jeff Harleston and his phenomenal team at Def Jam have given us their trust and their resources to help develop artists that not only have potential but staying power. We look forward to the journey ahead.” Interestingly enough, Waithe isn’t the only film talent getting into the music business.

In 2020, Atlantic Records partnered with television and film creator Issa Rae for Raedio, a new record label that has since been the launching pad for a number of successful emerging artists like Pink Sweats, Teamarr, and Yung Baby Tate, as well as the Insecure soundtrack. If this sort of thing really does become a trend, it’ll go a long way toward reversing a dire lack of Black and female executives in the recording industry, bringing new voices to the fore, which we’re all the way here for. Someone get Quinta Brunson on the phone.

Pink Sweats And Kehlani Give A Harmonious Performance Of ‘At My Worst’ On ‘The Tonight Show’

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Pink Sweats and Kehlani’s performance on their Pink Planet duet “At My Worst” is already gently harmonious, but the duo kicked it up a notch on The Tonight Show with a gorgeous visual component that perfectly accented the duality of the soul-stirring ballad.

Performing in a room split down the middle, each artist’s side is the perfect complement to the other’s. On Pink Sweats’ side, he wears his customary color, which contrasts nicely with the canary yellow decor. He’s backed by a female guitarist, while on the other side, Kehlani wears a yellow dress in a pink room, backed by a male guitarist. The yin-and-yang effect mirrors the complementary quality of their voices as they sing both to each other and to their respective loves (Pink Sweats recently proposed to his longtime girlfriend JL Bunny, who is a performer in her own right).

Sweats is fresh off the release of his debut album Pink Planet, which dropped last month backed by the loving single “Heaven.” Meanwhile, Kehlani has been leading the R&B resurgence with a slew of features in 2020 supporting her musical peers and her last album, It Was Good Until It Wasn’t.

Watch Pink Sweats and Kehlani’s harmonious performance of “At My Worst” above.

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

Southside Is ‘Throwing The Towel In’ After Completing His New Album

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Influential trap producer Southside of 808 Mafia plans to retire from producing after over a decade in the rap game spent making beats for the likes of Drake, G Herbo, Future, and more. Instead, he wants to focus on mentoring younger producers after the release of the next 808 Mafia project. He announced his decision in a series of tweets proposing, then explaining, the retirement while fielding questions from curious fans.

“I’m thinking bout retirement how y’all feel about that,” he said initially. While some fans were supportive, others expressed disappointment, while one simply asked that Southside share some of his wisdom before he retired. He chose to do just that, writing, “After this 808mafia album I’m done. I’m where I wanna be in life as a producer.”

He elaborated, though, that he wasn’t going to stop using the 808 Mafia brand to lend opportunities to newcomers and promised that the album itself would be top quality. Just kno this album is going to be great. I’m still gone lead for the culture, I’m still gone try to put new producers on, but as a producer, I’m throwing the towel in after this album.”

If Southside is serious about retiring, he’ll do so as one of rap’s more prolific hitmakers, responsible for some of Future’s biggest hits including “F*ck Up Some Commas” and “Wicked,” while in recent years, he’s landed placements on Drake’s Dark Lane Demo Tapes and Moneybagg Yo’s “Blue Jean Bandit.” Meanwhile, 808 Mafia, which was founded by Southside and Lex Luger in 2010, has over 30 listed members and a wide range of production credits, living up to Southside’s dream of putting new producers on.

Phife Dawg’s ‘Nutshell Part 2’ Gets An Animated Lyric Video With Busta Rhymes And Redman

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Just in case the densely-packed wordplay in Phife Dawg‘s posthumous “Nutshell Part 2” got away from you, the song now has an animated lyric video to help make it easier to follow Phife, Busta Rhymes, and Redman‘s elaborate rhyme schemes. The video, which you can watch above, is exclusively premiering here at Uproxx. Featuring illustrated versions of our rhyme heroes bursting forth from a literal nutshell and dynamic synchronized artwork, the Mike Gordon-created lyric video (with additional animation from Konee Rok) is the latest part of the rollout for Phife’s upcoming posthumous album Forever, which is due later this year on AWAL.

Forever will be Phife’s first solo album since 2000’s Ventilation: Da LP, and while there’s little information so far, “Nutshell Part 2” gives us enough to go on to assume that it’ll make good use of the Five Footer’s contact list. Word has it, there’s still plenty of posthumous J Dilla production work yet to be released, so it’s possible that more beats from the late, great Detroit legend will appear here, along with cameos from other Native Tongues affiliates showing their affection for the dearly departed Phife. A Tribe Called Quest initially announced the album in 2017 but given the extra time they spent on perfecting it in the years since, it’s sure to be a fitting tribute to Phife’s legacy.

Watch Phife’s animated “Nutshell Pt 2” lyric video above.

Janelle Monáe Performs Her Stacey Abrams Documentary Song ‘Turntables’ On ‘The Late Show’

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Back in September, Janelle Monáe dropped “Turntables,” which was written for All In: The Fight For Democracy, a documentary about Stacey Abrams. Last night, she brought the song to The Late Show for a stirring performance, for which Monáe was wielding a guitar and joined by a band in a shadowy room.

The song was recently included on the Oscars’ Best Original Song shortlist, which Monáe addressed in a pair of tweets last night, writing, “[All In] started out as a documentary that turned into a movement and I was blessed to be a part of it with ‘Turntables’. This song is for our people and part of a revolution that is still unfolding before our eyes. This song is not for me, but for We, WE THE PEOPLE. Thank you [Abrams], [Liz Garbus], & [Lisa Cortés] for all the incredible work you are doing to tell the truth about voter suppression. Thank you for calling & trusting me with this song. Thank you to [The Academy] for shortlisting both [All In] & ‘TurnTables.’”

Monáe also previously told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe of the song, “We are changing things. The tables are turning. The rooster has come home to roost. So, this song is capturing direction. And when you think about a record, when you think about a record spinning, when you think about the revolutions per minute, it’s all connected. And that is what this song means. This song doesn’t mean that I’m the leader, that I’m here to tell you what to do, how to fix things. I’m simply watching, examining and wanting to highlight all of the people who are on the front lines, fighting for our democracy, fighting against racial inequalities, fighting against white supremacy, fighting against systemic racism and systemic oppression. So, this song is to keep us motivated. This song is to lift up and keep us galvanized when we’re fatigued. And this song is really for the people.”

Watch Monáe perform “Turntables” above.

Beyonce Thanks Meghan Markle For Her ‘Courage And Leadership’ In A Message Of Support

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One of the few ways Beyonce directly communicates with her fans is through her website, Beyonce.com, where the queen of pop frequently posts updates and messages of support to friends and fellow celebrities. Today, she used that space to stand in solidarity with Meghan Markle, the American actress of the show Suits, mother of Archie, wife of Harry Mountbatten-Windsor, and once known as the Duchess Of Sussex. Markle was the first person of color to marry into the British monarchy when she wed Prince Harry in 2018, and as an exclusive interview with Oprah revealed this past weekend, the prejudicial treatment she faced because of this was nearly unbearable.

Luckily, Meghan and Harry’s bond was strong enough that the pair decided to step back from their roles within the royal family, and come to live in America, instead. But as Markle shared in Sunday’s bombshell interview, the environment was so toxic before reaching this decision that she was driven to the point of suicidal ideation. Given all that context, it is probably quite a balm to have a legendary figure like Beyonce stand with her. “Thank you Meghan for your courage and leadership,” Beyonce wrote alongside a photo of herself and Meghan at The Lion King premiere. “We are all strengthened and inspired by you.”

Beyonce.com

As always, Beyonce says it best. Then again, John Oliver’s predictions weren’t too far off either.

Guapdad 4000 And P-Lo Look To Satisfy Their Partners’ Bedroom Needs In The Wacky ‘She Wanna’ Video

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Nearly two years removed from his debut album, Dior Deposits, Guapdad 4000 is gearing up to release his upcoming effort, 1176 with Illmind. The Oakland rapper takes one step closer to the project’s release which his latest single, “She Wanna” featuring fellow Bay Area act, P-Lo. The track is a play off Ying Yang Twins’ “Wait (The Whisper Song)” and arrives with a wacky visual that falls in line with Guapdad’s unique personality.

After waking up next to a pair of women, the rapper quickly declares that he’s dealing with someone who wants to “f*ck all the time.” He proceeds to steal a few credit cards before getting ready for the day. For the rest of the video, we see him receive a fresh batch of cookies, caress the pregnant belly of the presumed mother of his child, show off some dance moves, and more. As for P-Lo, his appearances in the video are limited to his face camouflaged onto the different colored walls in the house the video was shot at.

“She Wanna” is the second single from the upcoming album following “How Many” which is produced by Illmind. Shortly before the song was released, the producer showed love to Guapdad in a warm post. “I’m so proud of Guapdad and I’m proud of myself because we challenged each other,” he said. “That pressure made some diamonds and we can’t wait to show this project to the world. This single is the beginning of what’s to come.” Guapdad also confirmed that the new album would arrive on March 19.

You can watch the video above.

1176 is out 03/19 via 88Rising/TWNSHP.

Guapdad 4000 is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Sukihana And Saucy Santana Keep It Raunchy And Risque In Their Video For ‘Food Stamp H*e’

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Sukihana is making it very hard to ignore her growing presence in the rap game. The Florida native has delivered her latest impressive tracks thanks to “Food Stamp H*e,” her collaboration with Saucy Santana. It comes with a video, too, which begins with them as correctional officers tasked with watching a trio of prisoners clean up litter from a grassy area. After one of them goes on the run, Sukihana ends up injured due to a nasty fall from a horse. This is where things take a wild turn.

The injury earns her a $100,000 settlement, which she decides to use on an “experimental plastic surgery.” For the remainder, Sukihana turns things up by getting up close and personal with her plastic surgeon and joining a few ladies by the pool to twerk their lives away. Saucy Santana steps in to deliver an energetic verse that only boosts the main message of Sukihana’s track.

“Food Stamp H*e” arrives after Sukihana joined muni long for their sexy video for “Thot Thoughts.” The Florida rapper also engaged in a fiery back-and-forth rap battle with Chicago rapper Cupcakke. Prior to that, she delivered her debut mixtape Wolf P*ssy.

Watch the “Food Stamp H*e” video with Saucy Santana above.

Joey Badass Questions Life As He Knows It In His Video For ‘Trust Nobody (2 My Brothers)’ With DJ Scheme

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After going more than two years without releasing much music, not even making guest appearances, Joey Badass made his presence known with a collection of musical contributions in 2020. One of those came with DJ Scheme on their track “Trust Nobody (2 My Brothers).” The collaboration is housed on Scheme’s Family, which he released in December and which also features Juice WRLD, Ty Dolla $ign, Lil Yachty, Lil Keed, and more. Nearly three months after dropping the project, he and Badass return with a video for their song.

It begins with Badass and Scheme in the studio together, presumably listening to music together. The former gets then gets up and heads to a nearby room to pace around and lay down in thought as he examines his life and the relationships. “Tell me, who can I trust if I don’t trust myself?” Badass raps on the song. “Fallin’ victim to lust and needed someone else / I run away from my problems knowin’ I need some help.” The video concludes with the duo riding in the backseat of an SUV as they drive through the cold winter weather to an unknown destination.

Prior to the video, Badass joined Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats to remix “Cosmic.m4a” with The Alchemist. He also celebrated his birthday with a visual for “Let It Breathe.”

You can watch the video above.

Ty Dolla Sign is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.