Music

Baby Keem Faces Down His ‘Issues’ In The Latest Video From His New Album, ‘The Melodic Blue’

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More than two years removed from his last project, Baby Keem has arrived with a new body of work for his growing cast of supporters to enjoy. The Melodic Blue is out now and it comes with a small, yet star-filled cast of guest acts. Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, and Don Toliver each stand beside Keem at various points on the album, with Lamar marking the most appearances on the 16-track project. The new album arrives after Keem stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to debut “Issues,” while he follows up with a desolate video with a similar setting.

In addition to “Family Ties,” a previously-released single that ramped up anticipation for The Melodic Blue and Kendrick’s own upcoming fifth album, the TDE rapper also connects with Keem on “Range Brothers” and “Vent.”

“Range Brothers” arrives as a two-part track that begins with Keem delivering laid-back raps over bass-heavy production. Things take an odd and chaotic turn in the second half as Lamar arrives join Keem as they deliver off-kilter bars that, if anything, sound more like a troll as Lamar checks in and repeatedly chants “top of the morning.” As for “Vent,” that collaboration between Lamar and Keem is quite the bashful single as the duo combines their energies for a mosh pit-friendly track.

You can watch the “Issues” video and listen to Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar’s additional collaborations in the videos above.

The Melodic Blue is out now via PgLang/Columbia. Get it here.

Ed Sheeran Helps Celebrate The New NFL Season With A Performance Of ‘Shivers’

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A fairly large group of sports fans all over the world are rejoicing as the NFL made its official return on Thursday night. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the league’s reigning Super Bowl champions, welcomed the Dallas Cowboys to their home stadium to officially start the new season. Prior to kickoff, however, fans at home and outside of Tampa Bay’s Raymond James Stadium were greeted by a performance from Ed Sheeran. The singer took the stage to perform his latest single, “Shivers” for fans that gathered at the venue.

The performance came hours after Sheeran released the track to his supporters. “Shivers” stands as the third single from his upcoming album, joining “Visiting Hours” and “Bad Habits” as records that gave fans a taste of what’s to come with the new album. After announcing “=” last month, Sheeran spoke about the album and what it means to him.

“= (Equals) is a really personal record and one that means a lot to me,” he said. “My life changed greatly over the past few years — I got married, became a father, experienced loss, and I reflect on these topics over the course of the album. I see it as my coming-of-age record, and I can’t wait to share this next chapter with you.”

You can watch Sheeran perform “Shivers” in the video above.

= is out 10/29 via Asylum/Atlantic. Pre-order it here.

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

SZA Appears To Agree With The Idea That Great Music Requires Some Extent Of Intense Labor

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Crafting a great song or an excellent body of work is not an easy thing to do. This task is often laborious and requires months, even years of hard work. It’s something that many people brought up following the release of Kanye West’s Donda. However, claims that the rapper might have overworked engineers who contributed to the album left people debating where the line exists between hard work and overworking.

SZA seemed to declare her stance on the matter as she shared an Instagram post from singer Sev Daliza that declared great music sometimes requires intense labor.

“Unpopular opinion,” Daliza began. “You don’t get ‘off the grid’ quality of artistry without some extent of forced labor,” the singer wrote referencing West’s “Off The Grid” track from Donda. Sacrifices have to be made for greatness. Everybody tiptoeing these days afraid to cross boundaries or to be exposed. But at the end of the day, your favorite song, your favorite shoe, your favorite garment, your favorite drink wouldn’t be created if everybody in the process was in a comfortable state.”

Daliza added, “Labor takes its toll. Somebody at some point sacrificed something unwillingly for it. It’s not just the willing ones, sometimes we just need to dig our graves in order to feel alive.”

SZA shared Daliza’s post to her Instagram Story as it seems like it’s something the TDE singer may relate to. Prior and after the release of her beloved debut album Ctrl, SZA often spoke frequently about the struggles that went into crafting the project.

You can view the post above.

Pete Davidson Explained How He Fell Off The ‘SNL’ Stage With Machine Gun Kelly

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Saturday Night Live will return next month for a new season, but the cast that will put on sketch comedy on short notice still seems up in the air. That includes Pete Davidson, who had an eventful Season 37 that saw him falling off the stage thanks to rapper Machine Gun Kelly during the show’s closing credits.

That moment went viral in its own right in January, and on Wednesday night Davidson explained what went wrong during the goodbyes. Davidson appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to talk about his upcoming movie and address what happened between himself and Machine Gun Kelly.

The moment happened early in the interview, and he sets the scene starting with an injury that the rapper endured during the production week.

“He bruised his coccyx that week,” Davidson said. “If you don’t know what a coccyx is, it’s the bone in your ass.”

The bruise meant that his mobility was limited, and he had to sit on a “little tooshie pillow.” But despite that, Kelly wanted to do something special during the show’s farewell.

“He got really excited and he went to pick me up, and he forgot he had a bruised coccyx,” Davidson said after explaining that he told the rapper to simply just enjoy the moment and, you know, wave. “So he went to pick me up and he couldn’t go up, so he just started to slowly tilt back.”

Davidson said the fall happened so slowly that they actually held a conversation on the way down.

“It was such a slow fall, we had time for him to go, ‘Oh no,’” Davidson said. “And I went, ‘You’re a f*cking moron.’”

It still remains to be seen if that will go down as one of the last times Davidson appears on the Studio 8H stage. But at least we now know that we’ll have an answer one way or another by October 2.

Arlo Parks Wins The 2021 Mercury Prize For Her Debut Album, ‘Collapsed In Sunbeams’

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One of the first notable albums to arrive this year came from London singer Arlo Parks. The singer-songwriter released her debut project, Collapsed In Sunbeams at the end of January and it’s an effort that was received well by those who were introduced to her growing talents.

During an interview with NME toward the end of 2020, she described the album as “a series of vignettes and intimate portraits surrounding [her] adolescence and the people that shaped it.” She added, “It is rooted in storytelling and nostalgia – I want it to feel both universal and hyper specific.”

It’s this very album that earned her one of the most coveted awards in the United Kingdom. Parks is the latest recipient of the Mercury Prize, which is an award given to the best album released in the UK by a British or Irish act. The singer was graced with the award at a ceremony for it on Thursday, beating out acts that included Wolf Alice, Celeste, and Mogwai to take home the prize.

She shared her appreciation for the win in an onstage speech. “I am completely speechless. I don’t have the words,” she said according to The Independent. “I just want to say a big thank you to my family. My mum and my dad are somewhere in the room today.”

She added, “This is something that came off a lot of hard work from a lot of different people… it took a lot of sacrifice and hard work to get here and there were moments when I wasn’t sure whether I’d make it through, but I’m here today.” Parks spoke further about the win afterward during an interview with BBC 6 Music.

“​I’m still coming off my little cloud – speechless for now, but very grateful,” she said before she was for what she was most proud about with her debut. “The storytelling,” she replied. “The honesty and the humanity and the fact that I was able to talk about things that were really important to me and affected me, in an honest way.​”

Parks also performed “Too Good” at the award show. You can watch her performance in the video above.

GoldLink And Flo Milli’s Nostalgic ‘Raindrops’ Video Recreates Some Favorite Millennial Moments

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It took a minute, but GoldLink has finally gotten around to dropping a video for his single “Raindrops” featuring Flo Milli after debuting the song itself earlier this summer. The video borrows from a few different inspirations throughout, including the video game Dance Dance Revolution, millennial-era MTV video countdowns, and Drake’s meme-launching video for “Hotline Bling.” Opening with a meta look at the trappings of a video shoot, much of the clip focuses on GoldLink dancing inside a glowing, color-changing cube — sound familiar? Meanwhile, Milli appears in a relatively straight shot in a hot pink ensemble to perform the hook.

“Raindrops” was the second single released from GoldLink’s third album Haram!, which dropped in June and featured appearances from Flo Milli, NLE Choppa, Pressa, and Santigold. GoldLink announced the album in June with “White Walls,” and with the release of the video for “Raindrops” and the Flo Milli feature, he looks to keep some momentum going.

GoldLink was recently the subject of an ongoing debate about so-called “cancel culture” when some fans questioned whether he had truly been ostracized over his comments about Mac Miller. Flo Milli, meanwhile, is on an opposite course after being tabbed as one of the 2021 XXL Freshman Class. She is currently working on her debut album.

Watch the “Raindrops” video above.

Tyler The Creator Loved Kanye West’s Original ‘Life Of The Party’ Before It Was A Drake Diss

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In case you missed it, Drake and Kanye West don’t currently have a thriving interpersonal relationship. The pair is beefing at the moment, and as part of that, Drake premiered an unreleased West song while guest-hosting Sound 42, his SiriusXM radio show on the OVO Sound channel. Furthermore, the track, titled “Life Of The Party,” included some shots at Drake.

The song apparently existed in other forms before it became targeted at the Toronto rapper, since Tyler The Creator says he heard an earlier version of the song. He was a big fan of it, too, as he exalted it on Twitter yesterday, writing, “man i heard life of the party a few months back and lost my mind. song is beautiful man i want to eat it. very anita baker styled progression. original verse was so warm and true. pretty.”

It appears the song has had free real estate in Tyler’s head for the past few days: Last weekend, he quoted some lines for it on Twitter and showed love to Andre 3000’s performance on the track. The admiration is mutual, as Andre wrote in a statement about the song after it leaked, “I just want to work with people that inspire me. Hopefully I can work with Kendrick [Lamar] on his album. I’d love to work with Lil’ Baby, Tyler and Jay-Z. I respect them all.”

Hip-Hop Pioneer Afrika Bambaataa Is Being Sued For Child Sex Trafficking In The Early 90s

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Hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa, who was accused in 2016 of molesting a 15-year-old in 1980, is being sued for sex trafficking by a man who says he was just 12 years old at the time of the abuse, according to Pitchfork. Pitchfork has obtained documents filed New York State Supreme Court on August 4 on behalf of the anonymous accuser claiming that from 1991-1995, Bambaataa repeatedly abused him and arranged for him to be abused by other adult men. Bambaataa would have been around 33 at the time the alleged abuse began.

The lawsuit was filed under New York’s 2019 Child Victims Act allowing victims of sexual abuse to sue their abusers past the statute of limitations of the crimes themselves. In this case, the accuser, a Bronx native identified in the documents as John Doe, says Bambaataa “repeatedly sexually abused and sex trafficked” him beginning at the Bronx River Houses public housing project, where both lived at the time.

The suit claims Bambaataa “eventually began to inappropriately touch [Doe] in his private areas while [Doe] was in [Bambaataa’s apartment],” then eventually encouraged [Doe] to watch pornographic videos while in [Bambaataa]’s apartment,” eventually progressing to trafficking as “[Bambaataa] would transport [Doe] to other locations and offer [him] for sex to other adult men. During said encounters [Bambaataa] would watch as [Doe] was sodomized by other adult men.”

The suit claims John Doe has suffered “physical injury, severe and permanent emotional distress, mental anguish, depression and embarrassment,” and charges assault, civil battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and gross negligence. Bambaataa has yet to respond to the lawsuit as of press time; however, after being accused of similar charges by Ronald Savage in 2016, he issued a statement denying the accusations. Three other men came forward in the weeks thereafter, prompting Bambaataa to step down from his role as leader of the Zulu Nation awareness organization.

The Nation is also named in the current lawsuit, but through a statement to Metropolis, distanced themselves from the embattled hip-hop pioneer. “Nothing has changed since 2016 when these decades-ago accusations first surfaced,” it reads. “This is a personal matter for Afrika Bambaataa and his lawyers to deal with.”

Cordae Plots An eSports-Focused ‘Kickin’ It With Cordae’ Campus Tour

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DMV area rapper Cordae has been busy cooking up the follow-up to his Grammy-nominated debut album The Lost Boy but starting next week, he’ll be taking a break to head to college — that is, on his Kickin’ It With Cordae HBCU campus tour in partnership with nonprofit Cxmmunity and Coca-Cola. In addition to previewing new music in live performances at each of the schools in question, he’ll also be participating in one of many college students’ favorite pastimes: Gaming.

Partnering with each school’s Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference eSports program, Cordae will host a “Gaming, Music And Conversations With Cordae” discussion as well as competing with students in games directly. It’s a nifty tie-in to his rise to fame, which was boosted by his association with the YBN crew, which started as a group of online gamers who eventually decided to make music together. It also dovetails nicely with Cordae’s established involvement in educational initiatives, especially those focused on HBCUs.

Earlier this summer, Cordae partnered with Disney Dreamers Academy and ESPN’s The Undefeated by funding scholarships for HBCU students. Growing up as he did in Suitland, Maryland, he was relatively close to renowned institutions like Howard University (which is also one of his tour stops), which could have had a big impact on him in establishing the importance of education. You can check out the tour dates below.

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference