Music

Lil Baby Says Jay-Z Is Someone He Looks Up To: ‘I See Myself Following In His Footsteps’

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Lil Baby has had a great last year and a half, and this Sunday saw another example of that. The rapper took the stage at the 2021 Grammys to deliver a fiery performance of “The Bigger Picture,” which was also among the night’s nominated songs. While his set was a memorable one, he later revealed another exciting thing that happened to him that night.

“I met jay z,” he wrote in a tweet. “He let the security walk with bey an he walked by his self. Boss sh*t.” Later, during an interview with Billboard, he spoke about the run-in. “I’m really not that fond of meeting other celebrities, but Jay-Z is a guy who I look up to, and look up to the way he moves and the things that he’s done,” he said. “I see myself following in his footsteps.”

Lil Baby also discussed his Grammy performance and explained why he felt it was important to show scenes of police brutality and riots. “I wanted to use a specific situation that would give people an understanding of where I come from,” he revealed. “I didn’t really want to use the George Floyd or Breonna Taylor [killings] or something. I wanted to use something that stood by me. That happened in Atlanta, and I live in Atlanta, and I’ve been in some of those same exact situations.”

Cardi B Trolls Candace Owens For Calling Her Grammy ‘WAP’ Performance An ‘Attack On American Values’

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While Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” single has been wildly popular since its release last August, it’s only angered conservatives across the country. They’ve deemed the song as inappropriate on all accounts, but this week Candance Owens took things a bit further. After their performance at the Grammys on Sunday, Owens took to Twitter, where she railed against their performance.

“This spectacle? Virtually what we were looking at last night was a lesbian sex scene being simulated on television, and this is considered feminist. It’s iconic. It’s forward. It’s progressive,” she said. “This is starting, to me, to seem like it’s not even left or right. It’s not a political issue. This seems like an attack on American values, American traditions, and you’re actually actively trying to make children aspire to things that are grotesque.” She added, “We are celebrating perversity in America.”

Cardi caught wind of her comments and thanked her for giving it “more views that boosted the views on YouTube and is counting towards my streams and sales.” Owens objected to her response, saying that her issue wasn’t her success, but rather her “being used to encourage young women to strip themselves of dignity.” She added, “Men typically treat women how they treat themselves. You know that.”

Cardi B pushed back, using former First Lady Melania Trump to make her point. “No! Candy, men treat women on how a woman allows a man to treat them,” she wrote above picture of a nearly-nude former First Lady. “I mean look at Melania she was a porn star however she didn’t allowed Trump to treat her as so or shame her for her [past] and made her into a First Lady & the mother of his child.”

Owens then asked her, “What is your obsession with the Trump family?” Cardi had a sarcastic response. “I’m obsessed she’s my idol,” she wrote. “She showed me I can be naked perform wap and still be a First Lady one day ! ….wait so only White women can be naked and show their sexuality and evolve in their 30s but I can’t ? Wow America is soo unfair .To think this was the land of the free.”

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

Diddy And Joey Badass Celebrate Their First-Ever Oscar Nominations

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The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences revealed the nominees for the 93rd Annual Academy Awards on Monday, with plenty of powerhouse thespians, like Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield, receiving nominations. But a couple big names in the music industry also received quieter acclaim.

Diddy and Joey Badass both landed Oscar nominations for their contributions to the film Two Distant Strangers. It was nominated in the Best Live Action Short Film category, and as for their respective roles, Diddy served as producer while Badass played its main character, Carter James. After hearing the news, Badass took to Twitter, writing, “I’m officially Oscar-nominated. That’s crazy. #TwoDistantStrangers… Imma be a F*CKING EGOT.” Diddy, meanwhile, tweeted three prayer hand emojis with a graphic of the Best Live Action Short Film nominees.

The Two Distant Strangers team also celebrated the nomination on their Instagram page. “Filming in the middle of a pandemic, in just five days, brought numerous challenges,” they wrote. “But our team was united and persevered. Thank you to everyone that has believed in us and helped us to get to this point. We can’t wait to share this story with everyone.”

The nominations arrived weeks after the documentary Bigge: I Got A Story, which Diddy co-produced. As for Joey, following a few quiet years on the music side of things, he’s been quite active lately, with his video for “Trust Nobody (2 My Brothers),” with DJ Scheme, and his remix of Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats’ “Cosmic.m4a,” with The Alchemist.

Pooh Shiesty Bought A New House For His Mother Weeks After His Brother’s Death

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Pooh Shiesty has accomplished a lot in 2021. Earlier this year, the Memphis-born rapper released his debut commercial mixtape, Shiesty Season, which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard albums chart, and which features his most successful single, “Back In Blood,” with Lil Durk. Now he’s Shiesty added a very personal accomplishment to his growing list of feats.

Shiesty recently bought a new home for his mother and took to Instagram to celebrate, dropping a video that shows him and his mother enjoying the house. It’s a big deal after the tragedy that recently befell he and his family: In late February, his brother Tarrance Henderson passed away after a battle with brain cancer. The death prompted Drake to send his condolences to the rapper in an audio message that Shiesty shared with fans.

“I just want to send you my condolences, man,” Drake said in part. “In tough times like this, realize what you’ve been able to accomplish in this short time and what you have in front of you. I’m wishing you strength in these times, man.”

Check out Pooh Shiesty’s Instagram post above.

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

Lil Baby Reveals The Title Of His And Lil Durk’s Upcoming Joint Mixtape

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In a new interview with MTV News, Lil Baby revealed the title of his and Lil Durk‘s hotly-anticipated joint mixtape. While there was some doubt that such a project even really existed, Baby insisted that “Me and Durk dropping an album for sure” before revealing that the album in question is titled The Voice Of The Heroes. Baby explained the title as well, saying, “When it comes to that street sh*t, that ‘hood sh*t, we like the heroes. The kids look at us as heroes.”

Further detailing the contents of the album, Baby promised a variety of different song styles. “We got songs with bars, we got songs with vibes,” he said. “It’s gonna be one of the craziest albums to ever come out… We got more than one album recorded. We been locked in with each other. That sh*t easy.”

The two rappers first teased the potential crossover project in the wake of their “Finesse Out The Gang Way” video from Durk’s 2020 album The Voice. A few weeks later, they went into full promo mode, posting about the mixtape all over their social channels. With Lil Baby revealing the tape’s title, perhaps the release date will follow. Until then, fans will just have to wait for more details and run back “3 Headed Goat” on repeat.

Watch Lil Baby’s interview with MTV News above.

St. Vincent And Kid Cudi Are Booked To Perform On ‘SNL’ In April

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Every so often, Saturday Night Live unveils their next lineup of hosts and performers by sharing the names unceremoniously scribbled on Post-it Notes. The brightly-colored sticky notes have once again returned to disclose which musical acts have been booked for the first two episodes in April, revealing that St. Vincent and Kid Cudi are set to take the late-night stage. Jack Harlow is also featured in the announcement, although his upcoming appearance was revealed last month.

St. Vincent has been booked for SNL on April 3, almost exactly a month after the singer announced her anticipated album Daddy’s Home, which is slated for a May release. She’ll be appearing alongside host Daniel Kaluuya, who recently starred in the Oscar-nominated film Judas And The Black Messiah. St. Vincent’s performance will mark the second time the singer has been invited to play her music on the SNL stage since 2014.

Following St. Vincent’s episode, Kid Cudi will take the SNL stage on April 10, hosted by Carey Mulligan. Kid Cudi previously appeared on the show back in 2018 to make a cameo in a sketch with Kanye West, but April’s episode will be the rapper’s musical debut on the program.

Sharing the news on social media, St. Vincent expressed her excitement: “Saturday Night Live has been my favorite show since I was a kid and I can’t believe I get to play it AGAIN,” she wrote.

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

Rich Brian Reflects On His Artistic Growth With The Bouncy ‘Sydney’

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Although Rich Brian had some breakout singles in 2020, including his “Tokyo Drift” freestyle and the Guapdad 4000-featuring “Bali,” and released a seven-song EP, 1999, the Indonesian rapper has been relatively quiet over the past year, soaking up the success of his 2019 full-length, The Sailor.

Today, he released his first single of 2021, “Sydney.” Featuring a video-gamey, constantly evolving beat, the bouncy song finds Brian filling up the pages of his rhyme book with abstract, multi-syllabic thoughts about his growth as an artist. One fun example: “I show my love to legends, that’s why I like my own pictures.”

Speaking with Uproxx last year about his time social distancing during LA’s pandemic quarantine, Brian revealed how intentional his artistic growth has been. “I’ve been getting back to producing more,” he shared. “I’ve always produced and I started learning how to produce when I was like 16, 17. So, that’s always been a nice little skill to have just because it makes it easier for me to make songs and I don’t have to talk to people about what I want all the time. It just makes songwriting a lot better, and being able to learn arrangements and what these little languages are.”

“And it’s been a lot of different kinds of music,” he continued. “A lot of hip-hop stuff, then a lot of really melodic stuff, and that’s what comes out when I produce. I can’t really just do one thing because it gets really boring for me. So I try to switch it up.

Listen to “Sydney” above.

Anderson .Paak Is Thrilled About Making The Hot 100 Chart For The First Time

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Over the course of his career, Anderson .Paak has been gradually climbing his way up the Billboard charts. His four albums — Venice, Malibu, Oxnard, and Ventura — have performed progressively better on the Billboard 200: .Paak’s debut didn’t chart, then the other three records peaked respectively at Nos. 79, 11, and 4. This hasn’t translated to success on the Hot 100 chart for .Paak, though, as prior to this week, he never had a song appear on the chart.

That changed this week, however, thanks to his new supergroup with Bruno Mars, Silk Sonic. The band’s debut single, “Leave The Door Open,” debuted at No. 4 on the Hot 100 chart dated March 20. Getting on the Hot 100 is a major milestone, so naturally, .Paak is pretty excited.

.Paak shared an image of the top ten spots of the chart and wrote on Instagram, “Ima stretch this goose neck to The moooon!! All I can say is thank you!!!! To have a song like this debut in the hot 100 ( my first song to ever make it up there ) is truly amazing. It can’t happen without hard work and yalls support. Thanks for pushing everyone to greatness @brunomars and showing us new heights! I’ll never come down!! let’s keep rising! We love you for this!!! Y’all gonna have me faded all damn week!!”

Revisit Mars and .Paak’s recent debut performance of the song at the 2021 Grammys here.

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

Mick Jenkins And Kaytranada Reunite On The Laid-Back ‘Designer Frames’

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It has been a few years since Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins released a full-length project. Although he released an EP, The Circus, in January of last year, the critical and cult favorite has laid low since 2018, when he shared Pieces Of A Man. However, one exception to that trend was his appearance on Kaytranada‘s late 2019 album Bubba, on which Mick contributed a verse on the song “Gray Area.” Now, two days after that album won a Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Album, the two iconoclastic artists reunite on “Designer Frames.”

Given dance music’s roots in 1980s Chicago House music and Mick’s deep ties to his hometown’s musical history, his chemistry with Kaytranada should come as no surprise and requires little adjustment from either artist to fit into an easygoing groove. The mid-tempo beat Kaytranada provides takes cues from traditional African drum rhythms with a mellow synthesizer rounding things out. Meanwhile, Mick boasts of his “$1,000 Cazals” and coolly delivers a trademark, dense-packed vocal performance with some truly impressive wordplay.

On Twitter, Mick was coy about whether or not the new track would preface a full collection of music in the near future, although he did that he was shooting a video. He’s also getting into the crypto art game as well, sharing a new song as an NFT. Listen to “Designer Frames” below.