Although it’s been a while since Ludacris last dropped new music — he’s a busy man, after all, what with learning to cook, learning to fly airplanes(!), and starring in the Fast & Furious sequels over the past year or so — he’s found a clever backdoor back into the rap game, combining his love of the culinary arts with his tongue-twisting gift of gab for “Butter ATL,” a slippery new single partially inspired by his Atlanta contemporary Gunna.
Not only does Luda prove adept at adopting the legato flow of his hometown’s current crop of hip-hop stars, but he also gets a little side action as his mention of Jif peanut butter in one of his eye-popping punchlines ties nicely into Jif’s new ad campaign. In the commercial, Luda struggles with finding a new flow to catch the song’s hypnotic beat before getting caught with a mouthful of peanut butter on his next take. His newly muddled attack perks up Gunna in the background, who notes, “That flow crazy.” Luda challenges followers on TikTok to duplicate his feat, inviting them to spit their own verses with a mouthful of Jif.
The ad arrives in midst of a rap resurgence for the Atlanta veteran, who has popped back up with feature verses on Conway The Machine’s “Scatter Brain” with JID and Justin Bieber’s “Peaches” remix and is set to perform at the Lovers & Friends festival in 2022.
Check out “Butter ATL” and Luda’s new Jif commercial above.
Hailing from St. Louis, Missouri, today’s guest on UPROXX Sessions is 21-year-old rapper-singer, Ryan Trey. With his album A 64 East Saga on the way, Ryan drops by the Uproxx Studios office to give a soulful performance of the project single “It’s About A Girl.” Over a muddy, swirling synth and hardcore kick drum, Ryan salutes a girl he describes as “top two, but you’re not two,” praising her for “changin’ keys on the regular.”
Dropping his debut album EIGHT24 in 2018, Ryan has continued building a following of loyal supporters, which include fellow Midwesterners Bryson Tiller and LeBron James. He’s also set to open for Jack Harlow for Sprite’s Live From The Label concert series this Wednesday, which could be the start of a star run that could soon put him in a similar position to the one Harlow currently occupies.
Watch Ryan Trey’s live performance of “It’s About A Girl” for UPROXX Sessions above.
UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.
Outkast favorite André 3000 has reportedly been cast in the upcoming Netflix film White Noise, which is directed by Noah Baumbach (who helmed Marriage Story) and also stars Adam Driver, Don Cheadle, Greta Gerwig, and Jodie Turner-Smith. Based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Don DeLillo, the movie, according to Netflix, “dramatizes a contemporary American family’s attempt to deal with the mundane conflicts of day-to-day life while grappling with the larger philosophical issues of love, death, and the possibility of happiness in an uncertain world.”
Since leaving Outkast in 2007, André has acted in a handful of roles over the last 15 years, notably appearing as Jimi Hendrix in the 2013 biographical drama Jimi: All Is By My Side, for which he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.
In 2019, the Atlanta rapper delved into why he has no interest in releasing a solo album, telling Rick Rubin on the Broken Record podcast, “I haven’t been making much music, man. My focus is not there. My confidence is not there. I tinker a lot. I’ll just go to a piano and sit my iPhone down and just record what I’m doing. Move my fingers around and whatever happens, but I haven’t been motivated to do a serious project. I’d like to, but it’s just not coming. In my own self I’m trying to figure out where do I sit? I don’t even know what I am and maybe I’m nothing. Maybe I’m not supposed to be anything. Maybe my history is kind of handicapping in a way.”
White Noise is currently filming in Cleveland, Ohio and is expected to hit Netflix sometime in 2022.
When last week’s Billboard Hot 100 chart was released, it was noted that The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” had tied Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive” for the most time spent on the chart, and it was therefore one week away from claiming the record outright. Sure enough, on the latest Hot 100 (dated August 21), “Blinding Lights” is on it for the 88th week and is now the longest-charting song in the history of the Hot 100. The song was released on November 29, 2019, and despite all the time that has passed between then and now, it’s still high up on the charts, at No. 18 this week.
Additionally, aside from the new feat, “Blinding Lights” also holds the record for most weeks spent in the top 5, top 10, top 20, and top 40 of the chart.
.@theweeknd‘s “Blinding Lights” has now spent 88 total weeks on the #Hot100 (No. 18 this week).
That sets a new record for the most weeks spent on the chart in history.
It was a good week on the chart for The Weeknd beyond that as well: His latest single, “Take My Breath,” makes its debut on the chart at No. 6, making it his 13th top-10 song on the chart.
.@theweeknd‘s “Take My Breath” debuts at No. 6 on this week’s #Hot100 chart.
Meanwhile, The Weeknd is gearing up for a new album, of which “Take My Breath” is the first look. He recently said of the album, “The music hit the studio like a Mack truck. The new project is packed with party records. Like real-deal, illuminated-white-tiles-on-the-floor party records. Quincy Jones meets Giorgio Moroder meets the best-night-of-your-f*cking-life party records.”
Last week, The Kid Laroi earned his first No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart last week with his Justin Bieber collaboration “Stay.” Now, the single has lived up to its name: On the Hot 100 chart dated August 21, the track has remained in the No. 1 spot for a second consecutive week.
Meanwhile, a notable debut on the chart is the latest single from The Weeknd, “Take My Breath,” which premieres at No. 6. Elsewhere, Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U” remains at No. 2, where it has been for some time. In fact, it’s held that spot for a record-tying amount of time: The only ever song to spend at least 11 weeks at No. 2 is Whitney Houston’s 1995 single “Exhale (Shoop Shoop).”
When “Stay” debuted at No. 1, Laroi and Bieber made their home countries proud: The song is Bieber’s eighth No. 1, which ties him with Drake for the most all-time among Canadian artists. Meanwhile, as for Laroi, “Stay” is the first song by an Australian-born solo male artist to top the Hot 100 in 40 years, since Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl.” He’s also the first Australian-born artist to top the Hot 100 since Sia, who was No. 1 for four weeks in August 2016 with the Sean Paul collaboration “Cheap Thrills.”
Chance The Rapper is one of the better-established artists in rap right now, which begs the question: Why doesn’t he have a label with a roster full of little homies like so many of his peers? “Young Thug is the king of that sh*t,” he tells Showtime hosts Desus & Mero. “He got 50 people in this sh*t, put them in great positions.”
However, as he explains, “I’m in a position where I can’t sign anybody. I can’t put nobody on.” He elaborates, “You get to a certain space in the industry, and then people are like, ‘Okay, who are your underlings?’ … I’ve never been a person that signed anybody, so when somebody is hot and people are like, ‘Yo check this person out,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I listen to this person every day.’ I don’t have anything for them. I can’t advance their career. I can tell them not to sign. That’s the best I can do for n****s right now.” One such rapper he does shout out though is Beaumont, Texas’ Teezo Touchdown, with whom he’s performing at Summerfest in September.
Desus also challenges Chance to answer the age-old question of which city’s pizza is better between Chicago and New York. Chance goes with his hometown, but he offers an intriguing rationale: “I think the problem with New York pizza is you have too much of it.”
Watch Chance The Rapper’s hilarious interview with Desus & Mero above.
Chance The Rapper is one of the better-established artists in rap right now, which begs the question: Why doesn’t he have a label with a roster full of little homies like so many of his peers? “Young Thug is the king of that sh*t,” he tells Showtime hosts Desus & Mero. “He got 50 people in this sh*t, put them in great positions.”
However, as he explains, “I’m in a position where I can’t sign anybody. I can’t put nobody on.” He elaborates, “You get to a certain space in the industry, and then people are like, ‘Okay, who are your underlings?’ … I’ve never been a person that signed anybody, so when somebody is hot and people are like, ‘Yo check this person out,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I listen to this person every day.’ I don’t have anything for them. I can’t advance their career. I can tell them not to sign. That’s the best I can do for n****s right now.” One such rapper he does shout out though is Beaumont, Texas’ Teezo Touchdown, with whom he’s performing at Summerfest in September.
Desus also challenges Chance to answer the age-old question of which city’s pizza is better between Chicago and New York. Chance goes with his hometown, but he offers an intriguing rationale: “I think the problem with New York pizza is you have too much of it.”
Watch Chance The Rapper’s hilarious interview with Desus & Mero above.
People like to throw the term “industry plant” around at artists that encounter rapid success. Oftentimes these musicians exist in the major label system. And, often they are women. What exactly the term means has dozens of interpretations, but can generally be narrowed down to an artist having an unfair advantage in the music biz, where they are propped up for accolades they do not deserve, getting big looks despite not having the fanbase that should be necessary for such success.
While these sorts of criticisms have a myriad of issues, one of the biggest faults is that they tend to explain away something someone doesn’t understand (or doesn’t attempt to understand) as the product of conspiracy. If you look around at the news in just about any field, this tends to be a running theme around how things are discussed on the internet. Rarely do people actually take the time to see how things work for themselves.
For HER, the Bay Area renaissance woman who has faced such criticisms for the last half-decade, the chance to disengage with online discourse was available on Friday night at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Performing the first of two nights in front of a capacity crowd of more than 16,000, HER took an audience of young and old across her many influences, where classical, jazz, R&B, rock, spoken word poetry, and more all made appearances over the course of two-and-a-half hours of music. Backed by conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic as well as her own more traditional band backing set-up complete with a quartet of backing singers, it was a moment where no amount of industry favors could do much good. The Hollywood Bowl is an unforgiving stage that’s been conquered by the biggest and brightest stars of music. And HER spent every moment showing how much she belonged there.
Dustin Downing on behalf of the LA Phil
The evening’s opening gave attendees that frequent the Bowl for contemporary fare a chance to see how the venue functions otherwise. Dudamel led the Phil through a couple of opening numbers, notably both originally by Black composers, showing off the majesty of LA’s premier orchestra. And then without much warning, the music gently transitioned into Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues,” with HER’s unmistakable, disembodied vocals appearing before she made her way to the stage. As she traversed a sampling of material new and old with the orchestra, HER made it known that she’d never in her wildest dreams imagined performing with the LA Philharmonic, another entry to a resume that began as a child prodigy and has included wins at the Oscars and Grammys, support from artists like Rihanna and Usher, and appearances in major national ad campaigns.
HER’s bona fides are abundant, but even so, it’s not surprising that she felt the need to point them out on Friday night. When people spend as much time telling you you don’t deserve something, it’s up to you to highlight your own CV. Still, when she pointed out her own Oscar win or a song’s No. 1 status, it never came across as HER having a chip on her shoulder. It didn’t even come across as having something to prove. No, as she made her way through some of the best tunes of the last five years — including the lively “Fight For You,” the showstopping “Hold On,” and especially on what she called “the wedding song of 2021” “Best Part” — HER’s brand of confidence was anchored by grace. You couldn’t help root for the artist whose trajectory had been heading for this moment since childhood.
HER spent her final hour without the orchestra, showing that superb songwriting and musicianship are not mutually exclusive. She slapped the bass, played guitar behind her head, showed rock star swagger with covers of Lenny Kravitz and Queen, and even played piano and the frickin’ drums to Coldplay’s “Clocks.” If she grabbed Gustavo’s baton and started leading the orchestra herself, no one would have really been surprised. Noting that it was her first proper show since releasing her debut album earlier in the year, Back Of My Mind, HER displayed no cobwebs in what was a deserving coronation for one of music’s newest stars. Surely many helped along the way, but on this night, all the flowers belonged to HER.
Years before Lil Wayne laid claim to the title of “Best Rapper Alive,” he dealt with mental health issues that culminated in an attempted suicide when he was just 12 years old. In a new episode of Complex‘s Uncomfortable Conversations with Emmanuel Acho, Wayne once again details the attempt in his own words, as well as explaining how he managed to survive and the callous attitudes of police officers which almost ensured that he didn’t.
“How I knew I had a mental health problem was I pulled the trigger,” he says of the incident. “I realized that at a very young age.”
Wayne describes in the interview how he shot himself in the chest after being told to give up his rap dreams by his mother. However, since he didn’t die, he says he had an epiphany: “I might be here for a reason.” He says that he was able to slide himself to the door, but that when police removed the door from its hinges and saw him lying there, the first handful bypassed him looking for drugs and guns. However, one officer whom Lil Wayne has always called Uncle Bob in prior interviews refused to step over him and drove him to the hospital.
The rapper further describes how his mental health issues have dogged him into adulthood and stardom as he questions “will you matter when it’s all over?”
While Jack Harlow‘s star continues to rise in 2021, the Lousiville rapper is making healthier life choices to ensure that he’s able to enjoy his success to the fullest. In a post on Instagram, Harlow revealed that he has stopped drinking alcohol this year, predicting that he might have given it up for good.
“Haven’t had a single sip of alcohol in 2021,” he celebrated. “Going the rest of the year without it. Maybe I’ll never take another sip, who knows?” He continued by revealing just how big of a deal this is for him, writing, “My favorite vice was definitely drinking (I don’t like to smoke) but if I learned anything this year it’s that I don’t need it.”
Next, he admitted that while he’s not much of a sharer on social media, he thought it was an opportune time for a check-in. “I don’t usually say a lot in my captions because it feels like anything worth telling y’all I should just put in my songs…but today felt like a good time for a life update,” he wrote. “I’m really grateful for how far we’ve come and I want you to know I appreciate all of you. But I’m hungrier right now than I’ve ever been. I’m prepared to become a well-oiled machine to take this sh*t to the next level. See you soon.”
Whether that means he’s gotten over his documented hatred of exercise, it’s fun to see a rapper actually enjoying their success and taking steps to keep going with excitement for the future.
Jack Harlow is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
