In just a few days, the late Pop Smoke’s second posthumous album, titled Faith, will be released. It’s an effort that his management spent months teasing after the success of his first posthumous album, Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, became one of the most popular albums of 2020. Just before Faith arrives, the tracklist for the project gets unveiled by the late rapper’s team.
Faith will have 21 songs, two longer than the standard edition of Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon. While potential guest features for the album have yet to be revealed, some rumored names include Cardi B, Dua Lipa, Kodak Black, and Lil Tjay. Cardi may have accidentally revealed that a possible collaboration between her and Pop exists after she posted a screen-recording of her phone that showed she was listening to a song called “CB POP.”
The Weeknd had a monster year in 2020 thanks to his fourth album, After Hours. With a huge world tour set to begin next year, some might have expected the singer to rest up before hitting the road. But for the last few months he’s been teasing that he’s planning to release new music, which he hinted at again on Tuesday.
In a string of posts on Twitter, The Weeknd seemed to confirmed that a new project could arrive before the After Hours tour. “We gettin’ there [CD emoji],” he wrote, adding, “Really proud of this one. Wow… Massaging it now, being sweet to it. Giving it some tlc…” The singer then clarified what to expect. “Just so there’s no confusion, it’s a full body of work… [sunset emojis],” he wrote referencing “the dawn,” which he teased at the Billboard Music Awards back in May. He added, “The tour is gonna be MADNESS.”
The Weeknd first started teasing new music en route through a string of tweets back in April. “Made so much magic in the small quarantined room,” he wrote in one tweet before adding, “nothing’s ever random… now just piecing it all together… it’s so beautiful.”
Not only does Tecca’s track — which features a verse and a hook from Portland rapper Aminé — appear on the soundtrack, but the video revolves around the two rappers linking up on Xbox for a session of the New Legacy tie-in game. However, rather than being an arcade-style basketball sim — something the gaming world desperately needs at the moment — the game is a side-scrolling beat-em-up starring an animated LeBron James fighting his way through hordes of enemies a la nostalgic ’90s faves like The Simpsons and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Tecca, who wasn’t even alive when any of the above products came out, gets digitized into the game alongside LeBron, helping him defeat the animated legions of bad guys while showcasing the colorfully retro gameplay. I still say the game should have been an NBA Jam style basketball sim with Bugs Bunny, but if a beat-em-up isn’t your thing, there’s a Candy Crush update and some LeBron-themed DLC coming to Fortnite, as well.
Watch the video for Lil Tecca & Aminé’s “Gametime” above.
Space Jam: A New Legacy is in theaters and streaming on HBO Max starting 7/16. The soundtrack is out now on Republic Records. Get it here.
Each year since its inception, the XXL Freshman Cypher has offered the members of each Freshman class an opportunity to justify their inclusion — or totally embarrass themselves. For this year’s first round of Cypher verses, including Coi Leray, DDG, Lakeyah, and Morray, it appears controversial pick Coi has opted for the latter, delivering an utterly baffling verse reminiscent of Playboi Carti’s squelched ad-lib-spitting style before giving up on rapping and reverting to her trademark twerking (perhaps to distract viewers from the laziness of her verse). You could say that Coi, who’s got a better pen than she lets on, half-assed the assignment.
— BASEMENT BOYZ ON YT (@BasementBoyzTV) July 13, 2021
In fact, plenty of fans have taken their thoughts to Twitter to say that and more. While Coi has received a truly bewildering amount of hate online for everything from her body to her fashion sense to her biggest hit yet (only on Twitter is success a bad thing), she’s always had a fair amount of defenders willing to go to bat against the body shamers and rap chauvinists who impugned her hit’s unconventional style — which is also a departure from her usually polished rhymes on tracks like “Huddy” and “Slide” with Gunna. Those defenders are hard-pressed to stand up to the trolls this time, though, as she blew her chance to take control of the narrative with an impressive verse — or at least a finished one.
I can’t keep defending Coi Leray if she keeps performing like this…. Idk about this XXL Cypher. I love her energy but her music is giving kids bop or early morning Disney with those noises & such….. pic.twitter.com/zAJGSrjZSr
who is giving Coi Leray a platform? she not even cute enough for this and the bars are worse than Saweetie’s, now when I say light bright privilege this be what I mean pic.twitter.com/1KrL1WJxt5
For what it’s worth, the Cypher isn’t always an indication of future success and there’s nothing stopping Coi from returning her focus to witty wordplay. Her move makes a certain kind of sense, as she catered to the fans who most appreciated her most successful single yet, “No More Parties,” who might not have been tuning in for anything more than vibes. But for her part, Coi seems to be taking the criticism in stride. Unfortunately, this was also a rare chance at a second first impression in the minds of many fans, who she’ll have to work that much harder to impress in the future. For proof, just check out the responses below.
Just heard that Coi Leray freestyle and honestly it’s not even that bad she just need to work on her flow, her delivery, her wordplay, her pronunciation, her enunciation, her pitch, her cadence, rhythm, and probably needs to read a dictionary
In April of 2020, international advocacy organization Global Citizen urged people to stay at home to stop the spread of COVID by tapping some of today’s biggest artists for their Together At Home livestream. Now, Global Citizen is announcing another livestream, this time aimed at urging major corporations and foundations to donate funds to deliver COVID vaccines to the vulnerable and help end global poverty.
Global Citizen Live is a 24-hour livestream filmed in several countries across six continents. Kicking off on Saturday, September 24, the concert will feature headliners Billie Eilish, Lorde, and Lizzo, among others, and take place in cities across the world like Lagos, Rio de Janeiro, New York City, Paris, London, Seoul, LA, and Sydney.
Along with Eilish, Lizzo, and Lorde, some other artists set to perform include Adam Lambert, Alessia Cara, Andrea Bocelli, Angélique Kidjo, BTS, Burna Boy, Camila Cabello, Coldplay, Christine And The Queens, Davido, Demi Lovato, DJ Snake, Doja Cat, Duran Duran, Ed Sheeran, Femi Kuti, Green Day, HER, Hugh Jackman & Deborra-lee Furness, Keith Urban, Lang Lang, Metallica, Rag’n’Bone Man, Ricky Martin, Shawn Mendes, The Lumineers, The Weeknd, Tiwa Savage, Usher, and more.
In a statement about Global Citizen Live‘s mission, Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans detailed the devastating affects of COVID across the globe:
“COVID-19 has drastically reversed the progress toward achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals pushing upwards of 160 million people back into extreme poverty. There are now more than 40 million people on the brink of famine. Progress on climate change has halted, as the majority of the Fortune 500 fail to set science-based carbon reduction targets. We must rectify the damage done and hold world leaders and businesses accountable for ensuring that the entire world recovers from this pandemic together. ‘Equitable recovery’ is not an act of charity — it is the only way we can ensure a fighting chance at achieving a sustainable world free from extreme poverty.”
Echoing Evans’ statement, The Weeknd said he’s honored to join the livestream. “It is very important to me to be a part of this historic event to spread awareness and encourage action toward helping the people of Ethiopia during this devastating humanitarian crisis they are faced with,” he said. “It’ll be an honor to perform and help bring support to these citizens who are suffering so severely.”
Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Coi Leray, DDG, Lakeyah, and Morray kick off the 2021 XXL Freshman Cyphers for this year’s class, each bringing their own unique style to a beat produced by algorithm master Nick Mira. DDG opens proceedings with a typical West Coast/Michigan swing flow, then cedes the floor to Lakeyah, who undoubtedly delivers the best straight-up rap verse, hunting for the sort of credit that only comes from being an expert technician. Morray splits the balance between his signature crooning and some off-the-dome rhymes bigging up his cohorts.
That leaves Coi Leray, who is quite possibly the most controversial addition to this year’s list. Despite having three years of tried-and-true material including a handful of viral hits to her name, it was her song “No More Parties” that first exposed her to the wider mainstream audience, drawing comparisons to both Dej Loaf and Playboi Carti in the process. It’s also, oddly enough, the song least like the bulk of her output, so it seemed going in that the Cypher would be her chance to lay skeptics’ doubts to rest.
She absolutely does not do that, instead opting for a choppy, Carti-esque delivery on a relatively short verse that does little to allay the concerns about her placement before giving up and resorting to her trademark twerking. It’s an unusual choice for a rapper who is under fire and facing a make-or-break moment with all eyes on her. While it’s pioneering, to be sure (Megan Thee Stallion once pointed out that a female rapper would face a ton of criticism for rapping like Playboi Carti, and for all intents, it appears she was correct), and a boundary has been broken to allow women to branch out more stylistically, I can see Coi taking a lot more fire now — with this verse undermining much of the evidence that supporters could use to defend her.
It’ll be interesting to see how this Cypher will be received on social media as well as how it affects future installments and the ongoing debate about whether the Freshman Class even needs a Cypher anymore.
During last month’s BET Awards, some fans on Twitter expressed confusion at the presence of Jack Harlow at the ceremony and his nominations, as Harlow isn’t Black despite his participation in what he acknowledges is a traditionally Black genre. He addressed the debate in a new interview with Yahoo!, saying, “I feel blessed to have a voice in this period because, one, I’m not a street artist, and two, I’m not Black. The only thing keeping me here right now is that level of authenticity, of being myself.”
Harlow, who was nominated for Best New Artist, Best Male Hip-Hop Artist, and Best Song for his “What’s Poppin” remix featuring DaBaby, Tory Lanez, and Lil Wayne, appears to take in stride both the light backlash against him and the cultural shift that led up to it. He compared the modern era to the blog rap era when artists like Mac Miller and Asher Roth were seemingly being accepted into hip-hop spaces more readily than some of their predecessors. Although white rappers have always flourished economically, not all of them appeared at the BET Awards or received nominations.
“All of this stuff was coming into the fold and it had this energy surrounding it of, ‘We’re letting the white kids come to the party. We’re all in this together,’” Harlow said. However, in conversations with his fellow Kentuckian Nemo Achida, he notes that since the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, some Black folks have expressed a desire to close ranks. “He feels like the country going into these new civil rights moments almost shifted away from, ‘Let’s have the white boy at the party,’” he noted of his friend’s observation. “It became less about let’s all be diverse together and turned back into hip-hop being, ‘It needs to be a Black genre.’”
He accepts this new state of affairs philosophically, saying, “That’s just been the natural transformation of things, I think,” and even agrees that as a participant in a Black genre, he has a responsibility to show up for Black people. “The things I was doing last summer, any fans who didn’t feel like criticizing the police or were on the other side of things, I was going to weed them out. That could have been a moment for them to no longer be fans. But what is important is that I lead by example for all the white kids looking at me. This is what you do. You don’t just enjoy Black culture. You stand up next to Black people in a time of need.”
When MF DOOM passed on Halloween in 2020, it was thought that he was just a few months shy of his 50th birthday until it turned out the whole world had his birthday wrong for decades. Today is his correct birthday, so in honor of the musical supervillain, both fans and friends alike are sharing their stories and hailing their shared hero.
Since the announcement of his passing, there has not only been a renewed interest in DOOM’s existing works but also a bunch of new releases that many of his collaborators had been sitting on or were otherwise prepared to release and delayed out of respect. His first posthumous appearance was on the joint album Super What? with his group Czarface, consisting of DOOM, Wu-Tang rapper Inspectah Deck, and Demigodz MC Esoteric, who tweeted a bit of behind-the-scenes info about also the album’s accompanying comic written by DOOM.
MF DOOM would have been 50 today. Happy birthday DOOM! This panel features dialogue he added to our comic from the Super What? album. I had originally written “One Beer, no trouble” then D remixed it in favor of Apple juice. Loved having his input. DOOM forever. pic.twitter.com/eMfBqdjZtM
Meanwhile, a string of posthumous releases included appearances on The Avalanches’ “Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life,” on Your Old Droog’s previously recorded “Dropout Boogie,” and on IDK’s newly released album USee4Yourself on the song “Red” with fellow DOOM adherents Jay Electronica and Westside Gunn.
In addition, the game-changing underground rapper will be honored with a street in Long Beach, New York, sometime soon, with discussions on what to call it in the works (I kind of like “Daniel Dumile Drive” but “KMD-MF DOOM WAY” has been floated, as well). Check out the birthday wishes for the legendary MC below.
Happy Birthday Daniel Dumile aka MF DOOM. I became a fan of DOOM without even realizing who DOOM was, and it’s all thanks to The Boondocks for using his music for their show pic.twitter.com/JkmQMGZbVs
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.
I stumbled upon a tweet recently that read, “No Swedish-Iranian white woman should be this good at R&B but here we are.” Comedic commentary aside, the music Snoh Aalegra creates is oftentimes mind-blowingly good. She thrives in a pocket of her own that’s equidistant from the trapsoul artists of the world and the traditional R&B vocalists that lay on the other side of the spectrum. Both her 2017 debut Feels and subsequent sophomore effort, Ugh, Those Feels Again shine brightly on her portfolio and provide proof towards her impressive artistry. However, the aforementioned tweet begs the question that needs answering: What makes Snoh Aalegra so good?
The answer to that question can be approached from many different angles. However, using her newly-released third album, Temporary Highs In The Violet Skies, as a starting point seems fitting enough. The effort arrives less than two years after Ugh, Those Feels Again, a short return time compared to her R&B contemporaries. In this brief period, Aalegra was able to create a shift in her outlook towards love. It went from deeply longing for a forever partner as she unveils on her first two albums to make the very most of these perfect moments on Temporary Highs In The Violet Skies, regardless of its brevity.
One thing to note about Snoh Aalegra is her ability to string the most impactful words together without the fiery dose of infatuation, sadness, or anything in between that conveys the expected emotions on a given song. Actions speak louder than words, but for the singer, her most heartfelt moments appear with grace, and the painful ones arrive with elegance while her words, quite literally, do all the talking. Staying cool, calm, and collected seems to be her forte, one she portrays so well.
To introduce the album, Aalegra begins with “Indecisive,” a steady-paced effort driven by her nonchalance as chants repeat through the song — “I don’t really care” — but it’s a mere scratch compared to the other things she says on the track. Other lines like “Let me make it clear / Everything is not about you” and “You should have thought about that while you was with me,” cut much deeper. These nonchalantly wrapped declarations come from a hurt place, but the singer stays in control to deliver her message exactly how she wants to. Similar sentiments are expressed to close the album on “Save Yourself.” On it, she bids goodbye to a relationship that proved to be nothing but a failure and dismisses them with one final reminder: “But just know I’m good without you.”
This control and taming of emotions that Aalegra exhibits may not be a natural quality, but rather, a choice to alter her perspective on situations and expense her energy or what’s worth it in her eyes. Perhaps the best example of this comes from the best song on Temporary Highs In The Violet Skies: “Tangerine Dream.” The song is a dreamy tale of two lovers who depart on their separate paths but not before one last run-in on a flight. The potential reignition of their relationship only exists in the clouds their plane flies through, providing a double entendre for a temporary high. In Aalegra’s eyes, it’s better to spend her time at cruising altitude immersed in the warm thoughts that she and her co-passenger once shared. It’s a far better option than fixating on the separate path she’ll walk on once she retrieves her bags from baggage claim.
Her love for these brief moments in paradise turns her into a frequent flyer of sorts as she admittedly revisits these temporary highs to reside in the violet skies she loves so much. Aalegra blatantly ignores the poor qualities of an insufficient lover on “Lost You” simply because they bring her a healthy dose of euphoria. “I won’t hold the past against you,” she sings. “When you hold me, I forget to / I can never draw the line with you.” She clings to cloud nine and avoids addressing the issues that pain her on “We Don’t Have To Talk About It” while “Dying 4 Your Love,” the lead single from the album, seeks the answers she wants rather than the ones that stand so obviously before her.
Temporary Highs In The Violet Skies is a testament to enjoying the moment and keeping the mind off what might happen next, whether it be an inevitable end or an uncertain future that lies ahead. It’s an approach that Aalegra makes clear on “In My Eyes,” an outlier record of sorts on the project thanks to upbeat production from The Neptunes. “Some things don’t work and that’s the way love goes,” she sings on the record. Love guarantees nothing, and Aalegra is very much aware of this, which is why she indulges in these temporary highs as often as she does, an attribute that points to what makes her great. The singer uses the briefest emotions of love, pain, and everything in between to create pieces of art that portray the most-telling worlds, just like she did on “Tangerine Dream.” Keeping your head in the clouds is a bad thing, as some might say, but the way Snoh Aalegra tells it, these Temporary Highs In The Violet Skies are everything and more.
Temporary Highs In The Violet Skies is out now via Atrium Recordings/Roc Nation Records. Get it here.
DaBaby is going viral on Twitter again, but it’s not for new music or quirky memes this time. The Charlotte rapper, who was captured in a video over the weekend reprimanding a pair of candy-selling kids for overcharging while in New York for the ESPY Awards, has come under scrutiny for the video. While some are defending his actions, others think he took it too far, embarrassing the kids online and playing the miser, considering how much money he flaunts in his music.
Sharing the video to his Instagram Story Sunday, DaBaby apparently intended to teach the kids a lesson in fair business ethics after they tried to charge him $200 for a box of Gushers. The boys told the rapper that their rate was $2 for each individual bag of candy but DaBaby noted that the boxes only contained 34 bags, prompting a quick math tutorial. “What’s 34 multiplied by two, my boy?” he presses them. “It ain’t $200! It’s not even $100. It’s $68.”
However, it’s his next statement that has some fans up in arms against him. “You gotta use your head, you tried to play me,” he says after giving each kid just $2 in exchange for three bags of candy — $1 each for two bags of Gushers and $2 for one bag of Skittles. “I was gonna bless you anyway. You would have gotten the $200 but now you got $2. Y’all be good.”
so da baby will spend $1000 on hats from a white girl and won’t spend $200 with some black youth. ELECTRIC CHAIR. pic.twitter.com/iSHIHnV4Fg
Some fans on Twitter expressed their disappointment in DaBaby for putting the two youths on blast the way he did, admonishing him or being cheap. Others, meanwhile, frowned on the kids for trying to finesse the rapper because they thought he made more money (to be fair, that’s what like 99 percent of fashion designers and jewelers do when it comes to rappers but that’s their business). Check out the responses below.
Da Baby filmed a flight attendant to criticize her appearance so I hardly believe he’s ‘above’ other lowly antics
I just cried a lil bit for them boys man I really hope they don’t see themselves being humiliated on the internet like that. I wish there was a way we could raise some bread for them bc them babies ain’t deserve that. At all.
Why would you as a black man go and violate two black boys selling snacks on the street? You’re supposed to give them some change and tell them to keep the snacks so they can hold onto more inventory. Dababy is a fucking bozo I want the worst for him pic.twitter.com/HKVcbguLxb
Da Baby was tryna buy some candy and bless the youngins, once they saw who he was they tried to finesse and charge him $200 for a box of candy that probably doesn’t retail for $30 and even at $2 a piece doesn’t resell for over $100. He declined. Ain’t no story there.
Im a trick for children so I woulda been like “cmon on yall! We out for the day! Adventures with da baby!” Coulda changed their whole life in a few hours
That video of Da Baby is such loser shit to me cuz anyone from around the way know what it is. When I see kids in the parking lot, I just give them the money tbh. I dont even bother harassing them with 21 questions. I hate the idea of kids have to sell shit whether it’s to get by
Y’all defending Da Baby like that was y’all money too? Typing from a phone when you stressing about how you gon pay the bill on it when it comes pic.twitter.com/hsm72AnxFX
— Shop OuttaPocketThreadz (@LateBlmr_) July 13, 2021
(@BasementBoyzTV) 
I love her energy but her music is giving kids bop or early morning Disney with those noises & such….. 
(@karenhugerswig) 
(@coi_leray) 
(@playboisasuke) 
kèv Parfum
TheInvestigator
(@SLveki) 
(@DivsRevenge) 
(@big_business_) 
Loved having his input. DOOM forever. 
(@ByDobson) 
(@oscos) 
he’s the reason i got into hip-hop and im glad to have found him 
ALL CAPS ALWAYS
(@earringdealer)