The rollout of Metallica‘s fascinating covers compilation albumThe Metallica Blacklist continues, this time with J Balvin’s Latin take on the band’s 1991 single “Wherever I May Roam.” While the original is a driving saga about a drifter who redefines anywhere he lays his head as “home,” Balvin’s cover snatches the saucy sitar loop from the beginning of the song, adds rumbling 808s, and Balvin’s own swaggering review of his impact on the music game.
“Ya son más de diez años metiéndole y todavía sueno como nuevo,” he boasts, roughly translating to, “It’s been more than ten years and I still sound like new.” The hook brings back the wailing guitars, with the buzzsaw ax-work and chorus of the original forming an aggressive bridge.
The previously released singles from the band’s cover album have included Miley Cyrus’s take on “Nothing Else Matters,” which also includes Chad Smith, Elton John, Robert Trujillo, Watt, and Yo-Yo Ma, and two wildly different covers of “Sad But True,” one from St. Vincent and one from Jason Isbell. Other artists expected to appear on the 53-track album include Cage The Elephant, Darius Rucker, Kamasi Washington, Phoebe Bridgers, Pup, Rina Sawayama, and Weezer.
Watch J Balvin’s “Wherever I May Roam” cover video above.
The Metallica Blacklist is out 9/10 via Blackened Recordings. Pre-order it here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Rap gets compared to basketball a lot, but I think it’s probably because the sport provides some of the aptest one-to-one comparisons to the art form. For instance, a lot of practice goes into both, and the most skilled practitioners make each look easy, even though the average person might find what they do incredibly hard. For another, fans of both love to debate who the “best” of each is, even though we all use different criteria to determine what “best” means.
For me, the best rappers aren’t the ones who rap the fastest or drop the most explosive, tongue-tying cadences, although that’s part of it. Nor am always impressed by the cleverest punchlines, which are in essence just dad jokes that rhyme. They can be pretty amusing though. I like rappers I can relate to, but I also like the ones who give listeners something to aspire to. Storytelling and concepts are important, too.
Overall, though, the best raps give some sort of insight into the person reciting them, then use that insight to reflect something true about the world, something universal. It’s a quality that’s a little difficult to explain, but it’s a little like Ted Lasso’s description of the offsides rule in association football: You know it when you see it. Each verse here has that quality, that thing that makes your ears prick up, that sets off sparklers in your brain, that makes you reach for the rewind button because you know something special just happened. These are the best verses of the year so far.
21 Savage on J. Cole’s “My Life”
21 Savage returns the favor J. Cole once paid him on his own hit single “A Lot,” popping in with a verse that shatters the myth that he only has one mode. Sure, he starts out there, justifying his homicidal tendencies with the trauma of watching his friends lost to street life, but then he slings some wicked wordplay (“I disrespect you respectfully”) and juxtaposes his menace with a mean sense of humor (“I got a good heart, so I send teddy bears every time we make they mommas cry”).
Chika on “Save You”
The Alabama rapper’s March EP Once Upon A Time was shamefully overlooked, especially as a document that explains exactly why she is who she is. While the first verse is a masterclass in petty, it’s the second verse that impresses, summing up Chika’s sense of betrayal at one-way relationships and the dangers of her anxiety and workaholism. Yet, she still ends on a positive note, reflecting the steely optimism that sustains her — and setting the example for listeners to snap their own metaphorical chains.
Guapdad 4000 on “Stoop Kid”
This might be cheating, but from the extended “porch” conceit that extends throughout the song, I’m going to consider both verses here as one verse that was broken in half for song construction purposes. Taken in this way, it may very well be the best verse of the year — or at least my favorite kind, one that sets a scene in vivid, glowing detail. It’s a concept that is fully written through and contains every spectrum of emotion, from warm nostalgia to brokenhearted paranoia.
Jay-Z on “Sorry Not Sorry”
Maybe it just sounds cooler in contrast to Nas’s nerdy Bitcoin boss talk, but Jay’s verse is a study in casual intricacy as he weaves multiple meanings throughout its repeated opening lines, juxtaposes his rags to riches, compares himself to a Messiah figure, and advocates fad diets all over a glittering Street Runner production that evokes the luxuries settings and items he describes. I know we’re all supposed to frown at such materialistic delights (pandemic’s still on, y’all) but damn if he doesn’t make them sound cool.
J. Cole on “Applying Pressure”
Here’s a controversial take: I really like when J. Cole raps over old-school beats about regular-guy things. The character he describes here isn’t just a straw man; it’s him, it’s me, it’s every disgruntled late-’90s backpacker who thumbed their noses at the popular kids and the Hot 100 hits, thinking his condescension made him cool. Here, Cole subtly admonishes that jerk we all used to be (or still are), reminding him/them/us that hating is bad for their/your/our health.
Lil Baby on “Pride Is The Devil”
I know a lot of these verses are coming from the same album but when the whole point of that album was getting bars off… I mean, mission accomplished, right? Here’s where I make a concession to the mainstream; Lil Baby’s verse here provides a strong argument toward defending his current placement in the upper echelons of hip-hop royalty, which I frankly never really understood. But I got an inkling here. Anyone who can make “schedule” rhyme with “forever” and “negative” is thinking on a different level.
Megan Thee Stallion on “Thot Sh*t”
In a song full of gems (“I walk around the house butt-naked / And I stop at every mirror just to stare at my own posterior,” “I’m the shit per the Recording Academy”), it’s the third verse that really unloads and showcases all the traits that have endeared Meg to her legions of loyal supporters. There are the unsubtle boasts, the clever punchlines, the unabashed self-confidence, the assured sex appeal, and the sort-of wholesome kernel at the center (Meg’s kind of a good-girl geek, what with her collegiate ambition), and that’s just in the first eight bars.
Nas on DMX’s “Bath Salts”
The Queensbridge veteran redeems himself on this gritty cut from DMX’s posthumous album, switching from his Escobar persona (which has always been kind of corny) back to Nasty Nas (a mode he should find himself in more often) for a braggadocious, pseudo-intellectual spin through some of the slickest sh*t talk he’s delivered in a decade. “I’d still be this fly if I worked at Popeyes,” he boasts and for once, he sounds — and I cannot stress this enough — utterly, completely believable.
Skyzoo on “I Was Supposed To Be A Trap Rapper”
For the past decade, Skyzoo has been one of the most consistent, creative, and criminally overlooked rappers in hip-hop. Even so, longtime fans can’t help but hold out hope for a breakthrough, when music listeners at large realize there isn’t that much of a difference between supposedly high-minded lyricists like Skyzoo and the more straightforward appeal of the dominant trap rap genre. Sky makes as much plain on this standout from his latest, All The Brilliant Things.
Tyler The Creator on “Lumberjack”
Sometimes, it’s more the context than the content that makes a verse stand out. Ty is more confessional on “Massa,” more observant on “Manifiesto,” and more unhinged on “Corso,” but “Lumberjack” was the first indication of what his new album Call Me If You Get Lost would be and it was a world-stopper. It’s Tyler in his bag, utterly confident, totally self-possessed, swaggering, cool. Plus Jasper and DJ Drama’s ad-libs just accentuate some top-notch, traditional “look at me”-ass rap.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Chance The Rapper hasn’t performed live in quite some time, both as a result of him taking a break after releasing his debut album The Big Day and due to the global pandemic that shut down festivals and tours for over a year. However, in August, he’ll premiere his concert film Magnificent Coloring World in select AMC Theatres across the country, which will give his fans a chance to see him again, and he’ll return to the stage this September at Summerfest in Milwaukee.
In a new interview about the film with Billboard, Chance says the process of editing the film “made me super thirsty” to perform live again. “Watching a performance of mine from four years ago, I’m like ‘I would have done this’ or ‘I would have done that,’” he says. “I’m saying to myself ’I can’t wait to perform this particular song now. I’m looking at it as a performer, but also as a filmmaker.”
Magnificent Coloring Worldcelebrates the five-year anniversary of Coloring Book, Chance’s critically-acclaimed, Grammy-winning third mixtape, and he’s putting it in theaters because “there’s just something different about going to see something in theaters, instead of watching it in your bed or whatever,” he says. “I always knew that I wanted this to be experienced in a group and on a huge screen with crazy surround sound.”
You can catch Magnificent Coloring World in select cities 8/13. Find out more here.
Megan recently sat down for a conversation with Tyra Banks as part of her Sports Illustrated cover interview. Banks, who was the first-ever Black woman featured on the magazine’s cover, asked Megan how she knew she wanted to make music.
“I don’t know what I wanna do when I grow up, but I know I want to entertain everybody,” Megan said about her younger self. “I like to see people smile genuinely, I like to see people having a good time. When I finally figured out what it was I wanted to do, I figured out I wanted to rap because my mom was a rapper. She didn’t know I wanted to be a rapper, but I would literally watch her be in the studio all day be like, ‘This lady is just everything.’”
The rapper continued to say she hid her rapping abilities from her mom until her early twenties because she wanted “to be perfect” first:
“I didn’t want to tell her I could rap until I was 18 because I wanted to be perfect to her. I was practicing since I was like seven. When I got to high school, I was like, ‘I’m not going to tell her yet.’ But she’d have these CDs laying around the house, instrumentals. I would take them in my room and I’d write to them. She’d be like, ‘Megan have you seen my CDs?’ and I’d be like, ‘No. What are you talking about?’ So finally I went to college and I was like, I’ve probably held this secret for long enough. I’d start going to the studio by myself, which was probably kind of dangerous because I was like 19, bopping around trying to it out. I didn’t want her to shut me down. I wanted to show her, ‘Look how I’ve been practicing this whole time and look where I am.’ I finally came to her, I might have been 20, and I was like, ‘I can rap.’ She was like, ‘No you can’t.’ And I was like, ‘Yes I can. […] Momma don’t whoop me, but I’m going to curse.’ So I started going off and I started cursing and she was like, ‘Where did you learn all those words?’ I’m grown too, my momma was always treating me like I was a baby. So she was like, ‘You’re not coming on until you’re 21.’ But there was never anything I was passionate about besides music.”
Watch Megan’s full interview with Banks for Sports Illustratedhere.
Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Tyler The Creator is a longtime fan of Converse and has collaborated with the brand on a number of fascinating releases, including his Golf Le Fleur line. It’s likely his love of the brand stems from his roots as a skater in LA, where the kicks are a symbol of multiple different subcultures — and often, a connector of those cultures, bringing together punks, skaters, and gangbangers over their shared love of the Chuck Taylor All Star shoe.
When the brand tapped Tyler to create a short film (a commercial, really) highlighting this connection, they say they had no idea what they were going to get. Knowing Tyler, though, they were sure it’d be a reflection of his off-the-wall sense of humor and unique worldview and it’s probably safe to say they weren’t disappointed in the result, a minute-long spot titled “The Really Cool Converse Club.”
The hilarious ad depicts a group meeting of various subcultures tied to the shoe full of members of Tyler’s own wildly diverse friend group and Converse’s longtime brand partners like NBA legends Bill Walton and Marques Johnson, stand-up comic Josh Johnson, actor Tim Meadows, rapper Vince Staples, punk icon Henry Rollins, and Odd Future member Jasper. Converse skaters Milton Martinez and Louie Lopez and actors Errol Chatham, Arsenio Castellanos, and Jackson Randall also make appearances.
Tyler explained his vision in a press release: “I instantly thought about the many pockets of people that wear Chucks – like skateboarders, soccer moms, kids down the street, guys in the neighborhood I grew up with – and I wanted to put them in one place, that was important to me. Everyone wears Chucks…including pirates.” I won’t spoil it for you here but I will say The Really Cool Converse Club has some pretty strict rules.
Watch Converse’s Tyler The Creator-directed “The Really Cool Converse Club” ad here.
Pop Smoke’s latest posthumous effort, Faith, is a big affair with plenty of guests, including Pusha T, Kanye West, Rick Ross, The-Dream, 42 Dugg, 21 Savage, Rah Swish, Travi, Beam, Bizzy Banks, Takeoff, Lil Tjay, Swae Lee, Future, Chris Brown, Dua Lipa, Pharrell, Kid Cudi, Quavo, and Kodak Black. Now, the party has gotten even bigger, as a new deluxe edition adds four new songs to the album and a handful more guests.
The new songs are “Questions,” “Run Down” featuring OnPointLikeOP and G Herbo, “Money Man” featuring Killa, and “Defiant” featuring Dread Woo and Travi. On “Run Down,” Smoke raps about chasing down haters, while Herbo pays tribute to Smoke with his verse.
Meanwhile, in a recent interview, Smoke’s mother, Audrey Jackson, said that it’s “easier” to listen to her son on Faith, noting that she hasn’t actually listened to Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon yet. “He does sound different on this, his sound, his style, it’s different,” she said.
Listen to “Run Down” above and stream the deluxe edition of Faith below.
Faith is out now via Victor Victor Worldwide/Republic. Get it here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Cardi B and Offset are one of the biggest power couples in music, and it turns out their their relationship started in an appropriately huge way.
Offset was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night, and he told guest host Anthony Anderson that his and Cardi’s first date was at a historic sporting event, saying, “My first date, I went big. I wanted to do something that was not normally done, you know what I’m saying? I wanted to have fun, and not so serious… enjoyable time. So I took her to the Super Bowl.”
The game in question was 2017’s Super Bowl LI. Sports fans know that game well, as it’s the one where Tom Brady and the New England Patriots famously overcame a 28-3 deficit to beat the Atlanta Falcons and pull off the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history.
Offset said he lost $10,000 betting on that game, but there was a silver lining: “I lost $10,000 that night, too. You know what I won? My wife!”
Elsewhere during the conversation, Anderson tried to find out the name of the couple’s upcoming child, but Offset said it’s still a “mystery.”
Check out the full conversation above.
Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Today, she decided it was time to remind the world that even at her age, she’s still got what it takes to rock a Playboy cover. Recreating her iconic, vintage cover for her husband Carl’s birthday, Dolly strutted her stuff in a tiny black teddy. She joked about how her body has outlasted the publication’s ability to release a print cover. “Remember sometime back I said I was going to pose on Playboy magazine when I was 75?” Dolly asked in the social media clip. “Well, I’m 75, and they don’t have a magazine anymore. But, my husband always loved the original cover of Playboy, so I was trying to think of something to do to make him happy. He still thinks I’m a hot chick after fifty-seven years, and I’m not going to try to talk him out of that.” Clearly, this married couple is doing something right.
It’s been a little while since Lupe Fiasco delivered a full-length project to his fans. His last album came back in 2018 with Drogas Wave and while three years isn’t an unusual amount of time to wait for a new project, supports of the rapper would certainly love a new effort from him. Until that time comes, they’ll have to enjoy his sporadic drops like his latest release.
Lupe takes on Kali Uchis’ “Telepatia” in a new remix. The track is a highlight effort from the singer’s sophomore album, Sin Miedo (Del Amor Y Otros Demonios), and on the remix, Lupe lays a couple of verses over the track’s colorful and breezy production. The song is not the first remix that Lupe has dropped in remix months. At the end of last year, he shared a triumphant freestyle titled “Mobb Deep,” which saw him rapping over Beanie Siegel’s 2001 song, “Nothing Like It.” He premiered the new track during a room on the audio-based social media app, Clubhouse.
Prior to the freestyle over “Nothing Like It,” Lupe dropped his double-sided Tape Tape EP with producer Soundtrakk. Before that, he dropped his “BBQ Chicken Freestyle” and his House EP with Florida producer Kaelin Ellis.
Outside of music, Lupe launched the first season of The Lupe & Royce Show, his joint podcast with fellow rapper Royce Da 5’9.” The duo announced the show last fall and described it as “half conversation between friends, half interview show, and 100% weird.”
Kanye West originally announced that his tenth album, Donda, would arrive last summer. But it never arrived. While some hoped the delay would be brief, nearly a year has gone by. At long last, we now know when the album will drop, and people won’t have to wait too long.
According to a press release from Kanye’s label, Def Jam Records, Donda is confirmed to arrive this Friday, July 23. The project will premiere at a sold-out listening event at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, which will also be livestreamed on Apple Music.
The news comes after Kanye teased a song from the album through a new Beats By Dre commercial. The ad features track and field star Sha’Carri Richardson while “No Child Left Behind,” which will presumably appear on Donda, plays in the background. The track appeared as one of nine songs that Kanye had listed on a whiteboard during a studio session with Tyler The Creator.
Donda is set to feature appearances from many artists, including Baby Keem. The reported cover art also surfaced and it depicts an abstract painting of what appears to be a woman painted in red over a grey background.
Happy birthday my love! 
