Music

Erykah Badu Apologizes For Being The ‘Terrible Guest’ At Barack Obama’s 60th Birthday Party

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Earlier this month, Barack Obama celebrated his 60th birthday with a star-studded celebration at Martha’s Vineyard. The party made headlines days before it began after the former president and his team were forced to cut back on the number of invitees due to COVID-19 concerns. Some, like the hosts on Fox & Friends, were quite happy that Obama had to scale back his party, while others let Curb Your Enthusiam jokes fly after Larry David was uninvited from the event.

The bash made headlines again after Erykah Badu posted, and quickly deleted, a video from the event to her social media page. The clip showed attendees without masks, which caused many to criticize the former President and First Lady for not practicing safer measures for the party — despite the presence of a medical professional who was enlisted to make sure all CDC, state, and local pandemic protocols were followed, according to People.

Due to all the commotion that came as a result of her video, Badu hopped on Twitter to apologize for her actions. “Mr. And Mrs. Obama , Please forgive me 4 being the ‘terrible guest’ at such a sacred event for your family,” she wrote. “I was so inconsiderate, Thank you for all your love. What an example of ‘how NOT ‘ to be …… erica.” When someone asked if the Obamas forced her to remove the video and apologize publicly, she replied, “Naw sis. It’s just right thing.”

Cardi B Defends Lizzo After She Had An Emotional Breakdown About Negative Comments

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Lizzo should be celebrating a good moment in her career as she just released “Rumors” with Cardi B, her first single in almost two years. Unfortunately for her, however, negative comments Lizzo read on social media pushed her to tears that were captured during a recent Instagram Live session she held.

“For the most part, it doesn’t hurt my feelings. I don’t care,” she said during the livestream. “I just think when I’m working this hard, my tolerance gets lower, my patience is lower, I’m more sensitive and it gets to me.”

The Cuz I Love You singer continued to address the “people who have something mean to say about you” for the remainder of the livestream. Once a clip of Lizzo’s words landed on social media, Cardi B arrived to defend her on Twitter.

“When you stand up for yourself they claim your problematic & sensitive,” the rapper wrote. “When you don’t they tear you apart until you crying like this. Whether you skinny,big,plastic, they going to always try to put their insecurities on you.” Cardi added, “Remember these are nerds looking at the popular table.”

You can watch a video of Lizzo’s livestream and view Cardi’s response above.

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

Lizzo Said Name-Dropping Drake On ‘Rumors’ Was Her Attempt At Flipping The Script

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Lizzo’s fans were greeted with an awesome treat this past weekend as the singer released her first song in almost two years. Her newest release found her working beside Cardi B for their first-ever collaboration, “Rumors.” The song came with an elegant video that captured the pair using sarcasm to clown their haters about the unsupported and false claims people make about the artists.

While that was a notable aspect of the song, another one came when Lizzo name-dropped Drake. “Readin’ sh*t on the internet,” she says on the song. “My smoothie cleanse and my diet / No, I ain’t f*ck Drake — yet.”

During a recent interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Lizzo explained what inspired her mention of Drake on the song. “I just thought it would be so funny to say,” she said. “I have a small relationship with him. He’s very cool. I just feel like women, there’s so many times where girls’ names get dropped in songs ’cause they’re fine.”

“Rumors” is presumably the lead single from Lizzo’s upcoming fourth album, which the singer hinted features work from Mark Ronson and Philip Lawrence of Bruno Mars’ songwriting/production team The Smeezingtons. Until then, fans can catch her perform the new track and more during upcoming festival appearances at Bonnaroo and Firefly.

You can watch the full interview between Lizzo and Lowe in the video above.

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

Mike Dean Insists That He’s Still Working With Kanye West On ‘Donda’: ‘The Album Continues’

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For an album that we know is more or less complete, barring any extreme changes, the process toward the release of Kanye West’s tenth album, Donda, has been an extremely drawn-out effort. While the wait has certainly tested the patience of fans, one could assume that the constant work behind the scenes on the album may be a nuisance for some collaborators and that appeared to be the case for producer and engineer Mike Dean, who is a frequent collaborator of the rapper.

Thanks to a string of tweets from Dean on Saturday, many fans concluded that he quit working on Kanye’s upcoming project, but the producer insists that’s not the case.

It all started when Saturday evening when Dean sent out a number of tweets that seemed to be rooted in frustration. They included brief messages like “F*CK THIS” and “good to be at the house!!!” as well as longer ones where he writes, “100000% FOCUS ON MY SHOW PRODUCTION FOR NEXT WEEK. GONNA BE LIKE COACHELLA IN A 650 PERSON VENUE!!” A Kanye fan replied and wrote, “Fine but then go help Kanye PLZ,” to which Dean answered, “Helping myself. Thx.” Another user mentioned the producer and said, “mike dean is more than just donda guys,” and Dean replied, “A lot more. Very much more.”

Elsewhere, a fan who took notice of Dean’s tweets concluded in posts of their own that Dean’s messages were about his work on Donda. The Twitter user labeled the album’s process as “toxic” and “the weirdest rollout over.” The producer then slipped into the Twitter conversation and wrote, “Toxic. That’s it.” There was another message from Dean that called for fans to direct their album questions to the artists rather than to their collaborators.

“Don’t ask me about utopia or any other albums drop date,” Dean wrote referencing Travis Scott’s highly-anticipated fourth album. “Ask the artists. I’m not the decision makers here !!

Despite all of this, Dean returned to Twitter on Sunday morning to clear the air and assure fans that he has not stepped away from any projects. “I haven’t quit anything,” he shared in a tweet. “The album continues. Lol. People read too much into tweets. Lol.”

Lil Baby Explains Why He Won’t Discuss Controversial Topics On Social Media

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Lil Baby had a number of big moments in 2020 with most of them coming as a result of his sophomore album, My Turn. Another highlight during the year, however, came when the rapper released “The Bigger Picture.” The track touched on police brutality, social justice, and racism as the rapper made it clear that he understands his people’s pain despite the fame and fortune he’s attained.

More than a year after the song was release, it was the center of a conversation between the rapper and MSNBC’s Ari Melber that eventually led to Lil Baby explaining why he avoids discussing controversial topics on social media.

“I’m not into social media like that. I post on social media and interact, but I don’t really catch what’s going on or what people are saying,” the rapper said to Melber. “I don’t really wanna just speak on situations, especially when I don’t know the whole backstory [because] something I say might get misinterpreted. So, I’m quiet as far as me posting.”

“I speak through my art … I’m not posting nothing. It ain’t work like that,” Lil Baby added. “’Cause I really feel some type of way about the whole situation. So I’m not gonna be a George Floyd advocate only … It’s deeper than that with me. I know people, personally, who got killed by the police. That would be fake of me to post about [Floyd’s murder] when I ain’t even post about somebody I know who is going through [something similar].”

You can watch the full interview between Lil Baby and Ari Melber above.

Bas Is All For A ‘Verzuz’ Between Dreamville And TDE: ‘It’d Be Good Competition’

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Since its emergence last spring, Verzuz has done an excellent job of spotlighting artists from an array of genres and generations. For the most part, the battles that the platform hosted involved solo artists but viewers have watched matchups between groups with the most recent being The Lox against Dipset. Additional examples include SWV vs. Xscape and The Isley Brothers vs. Earth, Wind & Fire.

While fans of Verzuz wait for the platform to announce its next participants, a potential pairing has been thrown into the mix for a future battle, that being Dreamville vs. TDE.

The former features names like J. Cole, Bas, Earthgang, Ari Lennox, JID, Cozz, and more while TDE houses Kendrick Lamar, Isaiah Rashad, SZA, Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, and others. With that being said, the group of artists are responsible for multiple impressive albums over the last decade and in Bas’ eyes, a Verzuz between the two would be great.

The rapper was asked about a potential Dreamville-involved Verzuz during an interview with DJ Charisma on Power 106. “It’s gotta be TDE, right?” Bas replied. “That’s family, but it be good competition, for sure.” While Bas is all for the battle, he made sure to clarify that nothing is set in stone for it yet. “We gotta solidify everything,” he added.

You can listen to Bas’ interview with DJ Charisma on Power 106 above.

Isaiah Rashad is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Live Nation Will Require Vaccinations Or Negative COVID-19 Tests For Their Concerts And Festivals

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It appears Live Nation is looking to put safety first. The nation’s largest concert promotion company has announced that vaccinations or negative COVID-19 tests will be required for its concerts and festivals. The requirement goes not only for all attendees but also all artists and workers at any future shows that are involved with the company. President and CEO Michael Rapino detailed the announcement in a statement on Friday.

“Vaccines are going to be your ticket back to shows, and as of October 4th we will be following the model we developed for Lollapalooza and requiring this for artists, fans and employees at Live Nation venues and festivals everywhere possible in the US,” Rapino said, according to Rolling Stone.

Live Nation — which is responsible for some of the biggest festivals in the world, including Lollapalooza, Music Midtown, Austin City Limits, and Bonnaroo — previously announced it would allow artists to determine vaccination requirements for its shows. The company is also requiring all employees to be vaccinated by October 4 in order to visit any of their offices, events, or venues.

The announcement comes after AEG (Anschutz Entertainment Group), the country’s second-largest concert promotion company, announced it would put the same policy in place for its shows. AEG is responsible for subsidiaries like GoldenVoice, which operates festivals like Coachella, Stagecoach, and upcoming fests like Lovers & Friends and Day N Vegas.

DJ Khaled Revealed He And His Family Successfully Recovered From COVID-19

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While parts of the nation have re-opened, the pandemic isn’t over. The Delta variant is causing cases to surge, forcing many states to scale things back. Even people who’ve been vaccinated have reported getting relatively mild cases of the disease. One of them is DJ Khaled.

The producer broke the news on Instagram. “Fanluv, all our friends and family,” he wrote. “Thank you for your calls and prayers! My family and I recovered from COVID and we’re all good now! God is the greatest! God loves us and we love God!” Khaled, who is married to his wife Nicole Tuck, the mother of their two children 4-year-old Asahd and 8-month-old Aalam, did not reveal which member(s) in his family came down with the virus. In the caption, he expressed gratitude to those who helped them.

“Thank you, grateful for all the love grateful for everyone checking in on my family and I! Please be safe out there! Please take care of yourself,” he wrote. “Thank you to DOCTORS, thank you Dovi thank you to my Queen, thank you Rosa, thank you to my WE THE BEST team, my management ROCNATION, and My partners at EPIC RECORDS for holding me up while me and my family focused on recovery.” He concluded with a reminder to “be safe out there.”

Meek Mill Celebrates His Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award With A New Freestyle

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Earlier this week, Meek Mill became the first rapper to receive the Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award. The honor came via the invite-only entity PTTOW! (Plan To Take On The World!), who recognized the Philly native for his work through REFORM Alliance. After he received the award, Meek took to Instagram to celebrate. “Blessings… I got the Nelson Mandela Humanitarian Award,” he wrote. “Thank you … Rip to the great Nelson Mandela, ‘I ain’t grow up playing ball I had a Smith & [Wesson] because where I’m from it’s very hard to turn 27’ #survivors.” Shortly after he shared the post, the rapper returned with some new work.

Meek shared “Mandela Freestyle,” which finds him detailing his struggles with the legal system and his dedication to reform. “Motivate the people where I come from, my requirement / Say it loud, ‘I won’t be a product of my environment,’” he raps, later adding, “Took them bars they locked me in and made it a rap / I took them cells that they gave us and I made it a plaque.”

The freestyle comes a week after Meek dropped a video for “War Stories,” in which he details his harsh past while showing him eating dinner with his team and hanging out with other rappers, including Bobby Shmurda, Jim Jones, Quavo, Lil Uzi Vert, and more.

You can watch the video for Meek’s “Mandela Freestyle” above.

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

Tory Lanez Violated Megan Thee Stallion’s Restraining Order Against Him, According To Prosecutors

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Last month, DaBaby surprised the crowd at Miami’s Rolling Loud festival by bringing Tory Lanez onstage to perform with him. Many questioned the rapper’s decision to align himself with Tory after he allegedly shot Megan Thee Stallion last summer, for which he later received felony assault charges. It was also not a good move for Tory, as prosecutors that by appearing at the festival, he violated his restraining order against her.

As it happens, DaBaby and Tory’s performance occurred right after Megan’s set. Sources told TMZ that Tory came within 100 yards of Megan during the festival, which violates the order. However, TMZ also reports that a person close to Tory claims that the rapper not only stayed away from Megan before and after his performance but that he never saw her during the festival.

Furthermore, TMZ adds that an insider says authorities believe DaBaby and Tory planned to rush the stage during Megan’s performance, but details are unknown. Prosecutors are asking a judge to increase Tory’s bail or completely revoke it, with the latter resulting in the rapper’s imprisonment until the trial for the shooting begins. A contempt hearing for the possible probation violation has been set for next Thursday.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.