Music

A Song From J. Cole’s ‘The Off-Season’ Has Fans Recalling His Tiff With Noname

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J. Cole’s new album The Off-Season arrived last night to plenty of fanfare as listeners expressed their awe at his refocused rapping and generated enough streams to drive the new project to the top of Apple’s charts. However, not all of the reactions have been positive, as one song seems to be reminding fans of last year’s altercation with Chicago rapper Noname.

To recap: J. Cole and Noname became the center of a wide-ranging debate on social media when J. Cole released “Snow On Tha Bluff,” a reflective track in which Cole attempts to unpack his complicated emotions about social justice work and language. Many fans interpreted some of the song’s lyrics as references to Noname, who’d previously tweeted about celebrities keeping silent during the 2020 uprisings over the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, among others. She responded with “Song 33,” calling out his poor timing, and fans on both sides debated the merits of both points of view.

Today, it appears many are either reevaluating or reaffirming their positions, thanks in part to a line from “Applying Pressure,” the fourth song on the concise The Off-Season. “If you broke and clownin’ a millionaire, the joke is on you,” Cole asserts. However, it looks like plenty of listeners disagree, turning “Noname” into a trending topic as they revisit the debate, which Noname herself commented on just a few days ago.

While “Applying Pressure” is seeing its share of attention, fans also expressed fascination at “Let Go My Hand,” on which Cole confirms the rumored scuffle between himself and Diddy in 2013… right before inviting the man himself to close out the track with one of his trademark prayers.

The Off-Season is out now via Dreamville Records and Roc Nation. Get it here.

Teyana Taylor And Iman Shumpert Are Starring In Another Reality TV Series

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Teyana Taylor has been quiet ever since announcing her plans to retire from music, but fans are about to get an exclusive look at what she’s been up to lately. Taylor and her husband, the basketball player Iman Shumpert, are starring in an upcoming reality TV series about their lives.

Following the release of her standout 2020 LP The Album, Taylor and Shumpert are sharing an honest look at their lives in the E! series We Got Love Iman & Teyana. The show mark their second reality TV series following VH1’s Teyana and Iman, which premiered in 2018 and saw only one season. Now with a new network, the couple are giving an “unfiltered behind-the-scenes look at their lives juggling music, fashion, business and family,” according to E!.

News of the reality TV series arrives shortly after Taylor announced she would be stepping away from her music after feeling “underappreciated” by her label. “Everything that you guys see of me, everything that I put out, everything that I do is like, 100 percent me,” she told her fans in an Instagram Live addressing her retirement. “My thing about it is, there’s no gun to anybody’s head to do anything that they don’t want to do. So yes, I am going to feel underappreciated if I’m putting in 110 percent and my label is giving me, they’re reciprocating what 10 percent of that.”

Time will tell if Taylor is planning to reignite her music career with the upcoming We Got Love Iman & Teyana series, or if she’ll pivot to focus on other aspects of her life. E! has yet to announce a premiere date for the show, but did note that it will arrive some point in 2021.

J. Cole Confirms His Rumored Fight With Diddy On ‘Let Go My Hand’ － Which Features Diddy

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Fans everywhere are rejoicing over J. Cole’s new project The Off-Season, which arrived more than three years after his last solo effort. While some believed the project would drop without features, it turns out its guests — 21 Savage, Cam’ron, Lil Baby, and more — were just unlisted on the tracklist. As listeners continue to take in the new album, one of its tracks is causing many to take a trip down memory lane, one that brings them back to the summer of 2013.

On “Let Go Of My Hand,” J. Cole raps, “My last scrap was with Puff Daddy, who would’ve thought it? / I bought that n**** album in seventh grade and played it so much / You would’ve thought my favorite rapper was Puff.” This, of course, confirms a rumored fight that Cole had with Diddy at an after-party event for the MTV VMAs. Diddy himself appears on the outro of the song to deliver one of his signature prayers, “Lord, please guide our steps / Watch us, cover us / So that every move we make is in alignment with your will.”

While the cause of the fight was never confirmed, rumor has it that it started when Diddy, who was heavily intoxicated, began an argument with Kendrick Lamar at the party about his infamous “Control” verse and the TDE rapper’s claim that he was the “King of New York.” Diddy eventually tried to pour a drink on Kendrick, an action that upset Cole, a close friend of Kendrick. As a result, Cole allegedly took it upon himself to fight Diddy for trying to douse Kendrick, which led to their respective crews going at it. Nearly eight years later, it’s good to see that they’ve patched things up.

Press play on “Let Go Of My Hand” above to hear the line yourself.

The Off-Season is out now via Dreamville/Roc Nation. Get it here.

Nicki Minaj’s New Song ‘Fractions’ Draws Criticism For Lyrics Seemingly Referencing Her Husband’s Accuser

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Almost six months into the new year and more than a year removed from her last single, Nicki Minaj made her grand return tonight with a re-upload of her beloved Beam Me Up Scotty mixtape. The project’s appearance on DSPs arrived with three new songs, one of them being “Seeing Green” with Drake and Lil Wayne, the trio’s first track together in almost three years. Another track that’s housed on the mixtape is “Fractions,” a solo effort that finds Nicki showing off the lyricism her fans fell in love with. However, the track did not arrive without controversy as a certain line on the song is causing some to believe it references her husband’s accuser.

After a brief intro on the song, Nicki raps, “Ayo, I’m the one who run the city where they armed and vicious / Accusations on them blogs and they all fictitious.” In the short time that’s passed since the song was released, listeners have already taken to Twitter to share their thoughts about the line. One Twitter user pointed out the controversial aspect of the song in a pair of tweets. “On*k* is smart,” they wrote. “She did a nostalgia release to push past the fact that she literally has a bar in a new track implying that her husbands survivor is lying on her and folks will eat it up.” They added, “Y’all can’t even say she didn’t say it either. She literally said ‘accusations on them blogs and they all fictitious.’”

The tweet sparked a number of replies with many replying in agreement to the line’s poor taste. One person replied, “Damn Nick sick for that” while another said, “i just can’t imagine ruining ma legacy/empire for an abusive man. prayers to the victim fr.”

You can listen to “Fractions” above and read more reactions to the line below.

Beam Me Up Scotty can be found on all DSPs here.

Russ Keeps Things Nonchalant Despite His Rap ‘Status’ On His New Single

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If you’re a fan of Russ, I have some great news for you. The Atlanta-bred rapper is back to releasing a new song every week for his supporters, something he did early in his career to help him reach the breakout moment he arrived at in 2015. Russ shared that the weekly releases would be returning last week in a tweet writing, “DROPPIN A SONG A WEEK AND IGNORING EVERYBODY.” Now, for its second installment, he shares his latest single, “Status.” The new effort sees Russ cruising through bars about women, friends who doubted him, and his growing popularity all while keeping his emotions in a nonchalant state.

Russ’ latest drop comes after he kicked off his return last week with “Small Talk.” That track brought plenty of energy from Russ as he declared no interest in small talk when there’s business to be taken care of. While the two tracks signal a consistent return to music, they aren’t the first piece of music Russ has delivered in 2021. Prior to that, he dropped a number of singles which include “Ugly” with Lil Baby, “Bankrupt,” “Misunderstood,” and “Hard For Me.”

As for fans who might be interested in a new project from Russ, they may have to wait a bit as he delivered two of them in 2020 with Shake The Snow Globe and Chomp, which should be enough to keep listeners satisfied when paired with the new singles.

Press play on the new track in the video above.

Leon Bridges Ushers In A ‘Gold-Diggers Sound’ With His Breezy New Song, ‘Motorbike’

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For the past couple of years, Leon Bridges was steadily working on his upcoming third album. It’s an effort that follows his 2018 release, Good Thing, and in the months and years leading up to the forthcoming project, Bridges shared singles like “All About You” with Lucky Daye and “Sweeter.” Now, the Fort Worth-bred act returns with his newest track, “Motorbike.” The breezy song finds him dreaming of riding in the wind with his partner in love seated behind him with their arms wrapped around the singer. This exact desire is display in the singer’s warm video for the song, which is directed by Anderson .Paak.

The new song comes less than two days after an official announcement from Bridges about his third album. He revealed in an Instagram post that the project will be titled Gold-Diggers Sound, named after the recording studio the album was created in. “I created this world with @rickyreed and @natemercereau at Gold Diggers Studio in East Hollywood over the course of two very long years,” Bridges wrote under the post. “With immense joy, greater purpose, and sometimes doubt, I labored over these eleven songs, but the record truly came together when I immersed myself in everything @golddiggersla making it my home, my escape, and the center of my creative world.”

He added, “The record features some remarkably talented friends, longtime collaborators and I believe it’s my most personal album yet.”

Press play on the video above to hear “Motorbike.”

Gold-Diggers Sound is out 7/23 via Columbia. Pre-order it here.

Migos’ ‘Straightenin’ Kicks Off The Rollout For Trio’s Highly-Anticipated Album, ‘Culture III’

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This fall will mark three years since Migos released their last album, Culture II. The effort arrived at the height of their stardom, one that was sparked by the series’ predecessor and tracks like “Bad And Boujee.” Since then, music from the trio has been scarce, but it seems like all of that is about to change soon as they reunited for their latest single, “Straightenin,” which Quavo previewed in a video he posted on social media a couple of months ago. The teaser received a good response from fans and now that’s it’s here, fans seem very excited for the Migos’ upcoming album, Culture III.

The new track arrives with a video that portrays the trio surrounded by a large group of people while the Migos sit in luxury cars and hold large sums of money while flexing some muscle on the track. During an appearance on The ETCs podcast with Kevin Durant and Eddie Gonzalez, Quavo updated listeners on the album. “We done with the album, we just waiting on 2021, man, so everything can crack up,” he said. “We want the commotion, we want to move, we want to be outside. We want to drop it and go on tour. We want to have an album listening [party] and have people in that thang and really hearing the album.”

In February, Quavo returned with another Culture III update. “It’s coming real soon,” he said. “Less than a month and a half.” While that didn’t pan out to be true, it’s clear the album is well on its way to the ears of fans.

You can listen to “Straightenin” in the video above.

21 Savage, Young Thug, And Gunna Take Care Of An ‘Emergency’ On A Haunting Banger

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21 Savage recently found himself in a new position. The rapper was given the green light to curate and executive produce the soundtrack for the newly-released film, Spiral: From The Book Of Saw. Considering that the new movie is a horror film, the gruesome tales that appear in 21 Savage’s music, as well as the haunting production that accompanies it, make the Atlanta rapper the ideal artist to provide a soundtrack for the film. On it, 21 Savage calls on a pair of his fellow ATL comrades, Young Thug and Gunna, for a stirring new track titled, “Emergency.”

The song is one of four records that appears on the soundtrack for Spiral: From The Book Of Saw. The project also flaunts appearances from Young Nudy, another Atlanta rapper that is more than worthy of their own attention. It also features Millie Go Lightly and members of 21 Savage’s Slaughter Gang collectives. The project arrives just seven months after 21 Savage made his return with Savage Mode II, his joint album with Metro Boomin. It was met with positive reviews from all around and it would go on to be his and Metro’s second chart-topping albums of their careers.

You can press play on the video above to hear “Emergency.”

Spiral: From The Book Of Saw Soundtrack is out now via Epic Records. Get it here.

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

Nicki Minaj Makes A Royal Return To Her Barbz Beside Drake And Lil Wayne On ‘Seeing Green’

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The last full-length album Nicki Minaj delivered to the world came in August 2018 with Queen. The project was underwhelming and failed to live up to the hype and quality of her previous albums and mixtapes. In the years that followed since Queen, Minaj shared a few singles with fans, like “Yikes,” “Megatron,” and “Trollz” with Tekashi 69, but nothing led to a new album. Now, the hope is that will soon change as Minaj makes her long-awaited return through a re-release of one of her most popular mixtapes, Beam Me Up Scotty.

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The tape was uploaded with five new additions including “Seeing Green” with Drake and Lil Wayne, the trio’s first track together since 2018’s “No Frauds.” The re-release also features new songs with G Herbo and more. Anticipation for the new music began earlier this week when Minaj shared a picture of herself to her social media pages with a simple caption that read “F R I D A Y.” While that specific post did not confirm that music would be arriving, she would reveal that a new song was on the way in a later post writing in part, “New (music notes emoji) @ MIDNIGHT.”

The track arrives after some high and low moments for Minaj. Last month, the rapper’s 2014 record, “Anaconda,” became the first female solo rap song to reach a billion views on YouTube. She also tied Katy Perry and Rihanna for the most overall music videos with more than a billion views. The feat arrived after Minaj’s father was tragically killed in a hit-and-run accident on Long Island, resulting in the arrest of a 70-year-old man.

Beam Me Up Scotty can be found on all DSPs here.

T-Pain Flips A Classic Track Of His With Kehlani For Their Lush Collaboration, ‘I Like Dat’

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A couple of weeks ago, T-Pain made a shocking discovery on his Instagram account. It turns out that the “Bartender” singer had accidentally ignored direct messages on the app from some of music and entertainment’s biggest names. Rather than sit and sulk about the missed opportunities, T-Pain turned it into something to laugh and learn from while apologizing to those who he accidentally ignored over the years. Despite the long-overdue response, many of the artists that reached out to T-Pain were still open to collaborating with him and today we’ve received the first of what could be many collaborations.

T-Pain connected with Kehlani for their brand new single, “I Like Dat,” an effort that flips the former’s classic 2005 record, “Buy U A Drank.” The duo previewed the song during a town hall that T-Pain held to apologize to all the people he ignored via Instagram DMs. Kehlani herself was excited for the collaboration to finally come to fruition as she took to Twitter to share her thoughts. “woke up out my sleep to say i really have a song wit t pain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” she wrote. “on the flipped beat of Buy You A Drank!!!!!!! this b*tch Buy You A Drank Part 2!!!! what is my life!!!!!!!!!!”

You can check out the new track in the video above.

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