As the world awaits news about the condition of rap icon DMX, who remains on life support in a coma after suffering a heart attack reportedly caused by an overdose, a new song featuring the rapper surfaced on streaming services, courtesy of Cleopatra Records. Titled “X Moves,” the new track is a collaborative effort featuring Parliament-Funkadelic bassist Bootsy Collins, as well as Asia guitarist Steve Howe and Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice. A fusion of funk, rap, and rock, it highlights DMX’s ferocity and versatility at a time when the icon’s fate hangs in the balance.
Meanwhile, the rapper’s actual label, Def Jam, is facing backlash after releasing a pair of compilations highlighting his prior work, with some fans finding the timing disrespectful and exploitative. However, some defenders applauded Def Jam for underscoring X’s importance to so many music fans at a time when younger listeners might be curious about why his predicament has had such a widespread effect.
Although erroneous rumors about the rapper’s condition circulated late last night, his manager Steve Rifkind, posted an Instagram video imploring fans to hold off and wait for an official statement. However, the outlook isn’t great; a critical test of DMX’s brain function Wednesday reportedly found little improvement.
We’ll see if fans receive “X Moves” better than they did the Def Jam compilations. You can check out the track below.
In news that the music world hoped would not arrive, it’s been reported that DMX has tragically passed away at the age of 50. The news arrives less than a week after he suffered a reported drug overdose at his home. According to TMZ, the incident occurred at 11 p.m. last Friday and resulted in him being rushed to a White Plains, New York hospital.
Upon his arrival, the rapper was reported in “grave condition” and placed in the facility’s critical care unit. TMZ also reported that the overdose triggered a heart attack. After some conflicting reports about his status, it was clarified that he remained on life support with little brain activity. The rapper then spent days in the hospital with family, friends, and supporters hoping he would pull through. But on Thursday night, word of his passing was reported by his family in an official statement.
DMX’s passing is a sad ending to his long-documented battle with drug addiction. It’s one that began when the rapper was tricked into smoking crack by his rap mentor at just the age of 14. In recent years, his battle landed in the eyes of the public through multiple trips to rehab — one in 2017 and another in 2019. In both situations, he was forced to cancel concerts in order to get a grasp on his addiction.
In 2019, his rehab announcement was made through an Instagram post. “In his ongoing commitment to putting family and sobriety first, DMX has checked himself into a rehab facility,” the caption read. “He apologizes for his canceled shows and thanks his fans for their continued support.”
Despite these past bumps, DMX seemed to be heading toward a better path and was preparing to release his upcoming album, one he said would arrive with features from Griselda Records, Pop Smoke, and U2’s Bono.
Despite hailing from Liverpool in the United Kingdom, an ocean away from the birthplace of rock and roll, The Beatles’ importance in the influence of American popular music can not be understated. But why do they keep getting compared to American rap groups from Atlanta, namely Migos and Outkast? In a recurring social media gag, every so often some prominent figure on Twitter declares a modern rap group “bigger” or “better” than The Beatles, setting off another round of vigorous and — it must be stated — mostly irreverent, tongue-in-cheek debate.
On one side are The Beatles’ defenders — those who believe that even feigning to compare them to newer acts, across genres, generations, and geography, amounts to nothing less than musical sacrilege. On the other, a mass of folks who seem delighted to do nothing more than joyfully impugn the legacy of the most successful rock band of all time by arguing for one group whose biggest breakout involved the repetitious invoking of a luxury design house and another whose most mainstream hit was accompanied by a video that parodied the height of Beatlemania.
Caught in between them are bewildered music fans who can’t help but wonder how the artists being compared even relate to each other and why either side seems so intent on making such a fuss over the others’ opinions. Some may wonder how Migos, barely a decade into their career, or Outkast, more than a decade past their golden years as a respected rap duo, even merit discussion alongside the act that held more Billboard records than any other until very recently. However, the answer is not so simple as comparing plaques, and the motivations of both sides are more complex than they appear.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think anyone takes these declarations all that seriously — and if they do, that’s their prerogative. Art is subjective; one person’s most successful rock band of all time is Quincy Jones’ pick for “worst musicians in the world.” For someone whose tastes run more toward blasting bass-heavy, 808-ridden triplet raps through the streets of downtown Atlanta than dropping the needle on the psychedelic meditations of a groovy quartet of shaggy-haired British misfits, making the claims that “Stir Fry” is greater than “Penny Lane” might seem pretty reasonable.
But for an elder generation who grew up with The Beatles, it’s a slap in the face — which is part of the fun for their disruptive detractors. For many of hip-hop’s formative years, rock-chauvinist music critics and fans denied the nascent movement’s musicality, value, and validity as an art form. Fans of rap endured sneering comments that dubbed rap “crap” (haha, so clever) and demeaned the poetry in its often blunt, plainspoken lyrics. Used to lofty, esoteric references to walruses and thinly veiled references to the wonders of LSD — you know damn well that’s what that song is about — rap’s tendency to drive home its points with the force of a nail gun rubbed them the wrong way.
By the same token, their criticisms got under rap fans’ skin, but all rap fans could do was rankle privately and defend the value of the form publicly, through multiple waves of indecency witchhunts led by the likes of Barbara Bush all the way up to Bill O’Reilly. Even today, Cardi B has to defend herself from the Tucker Carlsons of the world almost weekly. But now that rappers like Cardi and Migos are the best-selling acts in the country (an easily quantified claim to make thanks to the advent of streaming), their legitimacy is already assured and all that’s left is to return four decades’ worth of grief one trollish tweet at a time.
Furthermore, The Beatles are no longer a group that defines youth culture. Where once they shocked the world, sent teen girls into hysterical paroxysms, and made concerned mothers clutch their pearls even as they tapped their feet, they’re beyond tame by today’s standards — they’re lame. Furthermore, The Beatles’ prime was a long time ago. We’re in an era where most news items, hit singles, and viral discoveries have a shelf life of about 18 months. For younger millennials and Generation Z, a group that had their own “mania” 50 years ago and no new hits in the last 30 would barely register against the non-stop deluge of new content we’re asked to consume just to keep up these days.
And while The Beatles ruled radio in their day, the average 13-year-old today has probably never even willingly turned one on for their own benefit — if they even know what radios are (again, thanks to the advent of streaming). Many can likely only name a handful of songs — songs that, to them, probably sound how the tunes Captain America was listening to sound to elder millennials and Generation X. It’s their grandparents’ music, and while grandparents can be cool, their taste usually isn’t. So while older hip-hop heads — and it’s usually members of the aforementioned “X-ennial” generation who actually post the tweets in the first place (see: Ron Funches and Donald Glover) — plot to torment their own elders as a means of resistance and revenge for all the pestering of their formative years, for the zoomers, it’s a way to assert their own tastes and identities, as well as indulging in their generations’ unique taste for digital chaos (see: Lil Nas X).
However, that alliance is mostly one of convenience and circumstance and there are already signs of it fracturing. Consider this: Outkast’s last major hit came out almost 20 years ago. That’s just long enough to be retro — which is only a few more years away from being terminally uncool. Time marches on, and Father Time remains undefeated. So while Migos and Outkast may be better than The Beatles today, tomorrow, they might just be inferior to the Polo Gs and Lil Nas Xs of the world. And The Beatles? Well, you know what they say: Everything old is new again. Maybe in another 10 years, they’ll be back in fashion after some 17-year-old samples “Hey Jude.”
You really have to give CJ credit; the kid hit it big with “Whoopty” and he’s been running with the ball ever since. While releasing his NYC Remix with French Montana and Rowdy Rebel and a Latin Mix with Anuel AA and Ozuna, he’s also kept up a steady stream of videos from his debut EP Loyalty Over Royalty. Today, he released a deluxe edition of the project containing the above-mentioned songs, as well as two new tracks. One, “Lil Freak” featuring fellow New Yorker DreamDoll, got the video treatment as well, and hallelujah, CJ finally changed locations for this one.
Removing himself from the dreary warehouse location of the “Real One” and “Set” videos, CJ lands in sunny Miami, where his tendency to rock his shirts unbuttoned fits right in. Here, he’s surrounded by bikini-clad women poolside at a hotel, where he professes his appreciation for — ahem — sex-positive women as his video vixens twerk around him. DreamDoll pops up halfway through the video to spit a high-speed verse while showing off her own gluteal tactics (“backward in heels” continues to hold true in the rap world).
Watch CJ’s “Lil Freak” video featuring DreamDoll above.
Loyalty Over Royalty (Deluxe Album) is out now on Warner Records. Get it here
. CJ is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
DMX has been the talk of the hip-hop world in recent days as things seemingly aren’t looking good for the rapper following a reported overdose. Today, Def Jam decided to release a pair of new compilations, DMX: The Ruff Ryder and A Dog’s Prayers, a move that some fans believe is in bad taste. Some see these releases as a money-grab, thrown together to capitalize on DMX being in the news.
The Ruff Ryder features some of DMX’s biggest hits like “X Gon’ Give It To Ya,” “Party Up,” and “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem,” while A Dog’s Prayers features some of the “Prayer” tracks the rapper has released throughout his career.
In a tweet announcing The Ruff Ryder last night, Def Jam wrote, “As we continue to pray for DMX’s recovery, let’s take a look back at some of the gifts he’s dedicated so much of his life to give to the world.” About 40 minutes later, they shared A Dog’s Prayers and wrote, “Nothing comes close to the feeling you get when you hear DMX start praying. Every word hits deep. Even if you don’t believe, you’re inspired and encouraged. Send some of the same energy back out for him while he’s fighting his way back to us all.”
As we continue to pray for DMX’s recovery, let’s take a look back at some of the gifts he’s dedicated so much of his life to give to the world.
Nothing comes close to the feeling you get when you hear DMX start praying. Every word hits deep. Even if you don’t believe, you’re inspired and encouraged.
Following the releases, the label faced some backlash. One Twitter user wrote, “dmx isnt even dead and def jam is already trying to profit…” Another wrote, “F*ck off stop using the situation to make as much money as you can.”
dmx isnt even dead and def jam is already trying to profit…
Not everybody feels the same way, though. One Twitter user noted, “There’s literally nothing wrong with this. His label re-released a small Greatest Hits album and are promoting it so that people hearing about DMX for the first time have a good starting place. You guys are just so desperate to hate labels even when they do something good.”
There’s literally nothing wrong with this. His label re-released a small Greatest Hits album and are promoting it so that people hearing about DMX for the first time have a good starting place. You guys are just so desperate to hate labels even when they do something good.
— MR. BEAN IS LISTENING TO ROADRUNNER (@beanvillainy) April 9, 2021
Check out some more tweets about the DMX compilations and stream both releases below.
So Def Jam tonight just released a DMX Compilation, a new single, and a spoken word EP. Not even waiting for his death to start exploiting him eh? pic.twitter.com/DQmEA8emAh
— Kevin D. Grüssing (pronounced Grew-Sing) (@KevDGrussing) April 9, 2021
After a nearly four-year hiatus, Miguel returned to the spotlight a few weeks ago, releasing the first three volumes of his Art Dealer Chic EP series on DSPs along with a new song, “Funeral.” Then, on New Music Friday this week, he followed up with Art Dealer Chic, Vol. 4 and the video for “So I Lie.” Some fans believe he reveals that he’s about to be a father through a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from a very pregnant-seeming woman who looks a lot like his wife Nazanin. If so, it’d be a surprise to fans who follow the couple on social media, where they’ve given no hint of such a life change taking place.
Of course, the deception of social media fits with the theme of “So I Lie,” in which Miguel reflects on the fickle nature of fame. “Laugh and the world will laugh, too,” he mulls. “Cry and the world laughs at you, girl / So I lie to myself / Let’s be real, I’m afraid of how I feel / So I lie to the world.”
Appearing on Apple Music’s R&B Now Radio to talk about the new EP, Miguel told host Nadeska, “I want to make stadium R&B… I want to make big, ‘We Will Rock You’ R&B songs.”
Nearly four years removed from her latest studio album You Make It Feel Like Christmas, Gwen Stefani is ramping up for a comeback with Let Me Reintroduce Myself. After teasing one of its new songs, “Slow Clap,” on Instagram, she released the video today, complete with a guest appearance from pop-rap princess Saweetie.
The new song flows in the same vein as Stefani’s previous tracks with Eve: It’s got a dancehall/reggae vibe, upbeat lyrics, and a call-and-response chorus that encourages listeners to sing along. Even the video, which finds the two stars taking over a high school gym for some pep rally-style shenanigans, may remind fans of the video for “Hollaback Girl.”
Although Gwen hasn’t released much new music over the past few years, she’s been a hot commodity as a collaborator, working with her fiance Blake Shelton on “Nobody But You” and with dance-pop star Dua Lipa on the remix version of her album Club Future Nostalgia.
Meanwhile, Saweetie has been an in-demand guest star as well, popping up on Lil Tjay’s recently released albumDestined 2 Win, and preparing to feature on Demi Lovato’s next album. Her fans also believe a collab with Nicki Minaj is in the works.
Watch Gwen Stefani’s “Slow Clap” video featuring Saweetie above.
Saweetie is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
In June 2020, Blackpink debuted the video for “How You Like That,” which was then their first new song in a year, on YouTube. About 1.6 million people tuned in to watch the clip’s live premiere, which was a record for platform. Just a couple months later, that record was broken by BTS’ YouTube premiere of their “Dynamite” video, which is estimated to have had somewhere between 3 and 4 million people watching live. That is where the record stands today.
There’s one key factor those two videos have in common, both with each other and with every other video that has ever premiered on YouTube since the feature was introduced in June 2018: the countdown.
Every YouTube premiere is preceded by a colorful countdown that features vibrant, abstract animations and a clock ticking its way down to zero. Every countdown also includes the same song playing front and center, a two-minute instrumental track that stirs up anticipation with its nostalgic electronic synths, drum machine percussion, and orchestral string plucks. It comes across like a brighter cousin of Washed Out’s “Feel It All Around” (which is famous for the snippet of it that was used as the Portlandia theme song).
Commenters on YouTube re-uploads of the song agree, as they’ve shared a variety of feelings about the track. One person noted, “People in 2030/2040 will be like: This is soooo nostalgic!! Only real ones remember this.” Somebody else wrote, “This is honestly such a fitting song for YouTube Premiere countdowns, it just perfectly goes with your imagination running wild about what you’re about to see.” Another user painted a picture of the end of YouTube with “Space Walk” as the soundtrack: “I feel like this is something that would play in the final minutes of youtube before the site shuts down. Just this music and a few minutes to remember everything that has happened on this site over the decades before it all goes away.”
The song is beloved and has been heard millions (perhaps billions) of times at this point. Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You,” the most popular all-time song on Spotify, has nearly 3 billion spins, and it wouldn’t be surprising to learn that the YouTube premiere song — across every YouTube premiere ever, music video or otherwise — has been heard more times than that.
The odd thing, though, is that the story behind the YouTube premiere song and the identity of the person (or people, or something else) who made it is mostly a mystery.
Some answers about the track can be easily found: A quick Google search for “YouTube premiere song” reveals that the tune is called “Space Walk” and it’s credited to an artist named Silent Partner. Beyond that, it’s not immediately obvious where the song comes from. One thing we can tell is that the song wasn’t specifically made to be used for YouTube countdowns: The oldest uploads of the song on YouTube date back to early 2015, which pre-dates the premiere feature by over three years.
YouTube themselves offers a free download of the song as part of the audio library in their YouTube Studio, a set of back-end tools for video creators to freely use. The song’s listing there notes it was added to the platform in November 2014 and describes its genre as “ambient” and its mood as “bright.” Downloading the MP3 file of the song from YouTube and viewing its ID3 tags — metadata used by programs like iTunes (rest in peace) to indicate the file’s title, artist, and so on — doesn’t reveal much more info, aside from the fact that the album is listed as “YouTube Audio Library.”
As far as publicly available information about “Space Walk,” this seems to be the end of the road. However, we can learn a bit more more about Silent Partner, but not much more.
Silent Partner seems to be a Kevin MacLeod-type of artist. For those not familiar, MacLeod has made thousands of songs available under Creative Commons licenses so creators can use them for various purposes, and indeed they have. His work has become popular because of that fact and because he works in a variety of genres. In his vast library, there is bound to be at least one song that is suitable for any sort of project. If you’ve spent time on the internet, it’s almost a guarantee that you’ve heard his work.
Similarly, Silent Partner has “about 1,383” songs available in the YouTube audio library (which seems like too specific a figure to preface with “about”) and they’re listed under genres spanning from electronic to hip-hop to classical. All of the songs were added to the platform between September 2013 and November 2014.
Outside of the YouTube audio library, Silent Partner has a mostly silent web presence. There’s a SoundCloud account that has a bit over 2,100 followers and a YouTube channel with around 500 subscribers, both of which have uploads of some songs from the YouTube audio library. It seems that is the entirety of Silent Partner’s online footprint.
The most recent upload on the YouTube channel, a song called “Get Back,” was posted on July 3, 2016. The latest post on SoundCloud is from May 15, 2018, although the two most recent uploads before that are from 2017 and 2015.
The closest thing we have to any biographical info about Silent Partner comes from the About section of their YouTube page, which reads simply and appropriately, “…silently here…” It’s not clear if Silent Partner is an individual person, a band, a collective of artists releasing music under one overarching label, or something else entirely.
The only other “statements” we seem to have from Silent Partner are their handful of SoundCloud comments, which are mostly brief responses to positive feedback about their music and telling inquiring creators they are allowed use Silent Partner songs in their projects.
What we can gather from SoundCloud, though, is that it seems Silent Partner has an interest in Buddhism and/or meditation: The four accounts they follow on SoundCloud are Khyentse Foundation (which provides “support for institutions and individuals engaged in all traditions of Buddhist practice and study“), Samye Institute (a “place where students from all corners of the globe explore how to work with their minds in order to realize the liberating wisdom and compassion of the Buddha”), Tergar Meditation Community (which “supports individuals, practice groups, and meditation communities around the world in learning to live with awareness, compassion, and wisdom”), and Study Buddhism (which uploads podcasts about Buddhism). Most of Silent Partner’s liked tracks on SoundCloud are also about similar topics.
All of these biographical discoveries come with the assumption that these accounts are actually affiliated with whoever is behind Silent Partner. All of the uploads on both SoundCloud and YouTube were posted after the songs were made available on the YouTube audio library, so it’s completely possible that somebody who has nothing to do with Silent Partner downloaded a bunch of their MP3s and re-shared them to pose as Silent Partner. It’s not like a potential imposter would have had an established Silent Partner web presence with which to compete.
Beyond YouTube and SoundCloud, the only other online resource that seems to have info about Silent Partner is IMDb. On the site, Silent Partner has a few dozen credits spread across TV shows, movies, and other projects from between 2007 and 2021. Meanwhile, fans of various other creative endeavors have taken to the comments of Silent Partner uploads to share where they came across their music, like one person who heard a Silent Partner song in a video from mega-popular YouTube personality Miranda Sings (aka Colleen Ballinger), or others who discovered Silent Partner through Thunderf00t, who has nearly a million YouTube subscribers.
Despite a greatly appreciated effort, a YouTube representative was unable to provide Uproxx with more information about Silent Partner or how “Space Walk” was chosen as the YouTube premiere song. SoundCloud direct messages sent to Silent Partner by Uproxx have also gone unanswered. Last year, an attempt by a BuzzFeed journalist to get in touch with Silent Partner via the comments section of a SoundCloud upload was also not fruitful. It’s not just us who wants to know more about Silent Partner but can’t get a hold of them.
Somebody out there made this music, but for some reason, they’ve opted to not come forward and claim their deserved praise. Maybe anonymously enjoying the success of “Space Walk” is enough for them. Maybe they’re somehow unaware of the impact their compositions have had. Maybe Silent Partner is no longer with us.
So, who or what is Silent Partner? That question has two answers. One is that Silent Partner is the artist behind “Space Walk,” one of the most-heard pieces of music of the past few years. The other is that we don’t know who they are and perhaps never will, making the answer to this question one of the premier unsolved musical mysteries of our time.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
There appears to be hope on the horizon in terms of the ongoing pandemic, as more and more people are getting COVID-19 vaccines by the day. While the world is gradually opening back up, events that would draw large crowds are still mostly not happening quite yet. It may seem surprising, then, that Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas is going on with its 2021 event. Furthermore, it’s happening surprisingly soon, as the festival is set for May 21 to 23.
Pasquale Rotella — the founder and CEO of Insomniac Events, the company behind EDC — shared the news last night, noting that organizers “are moving forward as planned & will be working closely with local & state officials to make the show as safe as possible” and that “more details on safety protocols & the lineup will be shared soon.” He offered no indication that the event — which usually draws about 125,000 attendees per day, as Billboard notes — will be hosted in a reduced capacity, writing, “You can expect the full EDC experience with no details spared, from the festival grounds to the music, stages, art, performers, artists & fireworks!”
This news arrived shortly after Dr. Anthony Fauci said the number of new COVID-19 cases in the US is currently at a “disturbingly high level” and noted that the country could experience a surge in new cases. He concluded, “Hang in there a bit longer. Now is not the time, as I’ve said so many times, to declare victory prematurely.”
Check out Rotella’s post below.
“Electric Daisy Carnival is finally on the horizon. There were times during the pandemic when many of us lost hope. We were challenged to learn & listen to our hearts & trust that the storm would eventually pass, making way for a bright & sunny future for those in our community & around the world.
With the world being shutdown for over a year, I’m happy to announce we’re on our way to being able to celebrate in person. Book your flights, hotels & shuttles — EDC Las Vegas is on for May 21+22+23!
We are moving forward as planned & will be working closely with local & state officials to make the show as safe as possible. You can expect the full EDC experience with no details spared, from the festival grounds to the music, stages, art, performers, artists & fireworks! I look forward to seeing all your beautiful faces & feeling your incredible energy, and I couldn’t be more excited.
More details on safety protocols & the lineup will be shared soon. If you’re unable to attend in May 2021, no worries, but you’ll be missed. You can go to the link in my bio to transfer your ticket to 2022.
We’re ready to spread our wings & embrace our community who we miss so much. We know there may be challenges in front of us, which we will accept & do our best to overcome. We’ve been apart for a long time & I can’t wait to join you, united, Under the Electric Sky.”
Polo G has grown to be a favorite out of the new class of rappers for many hip-hop fans. The Chicago native has released countless songs that have proven his stay in the rap game will be far from temporary. The rapper continues his run with his latest single, “Rapstar,” a boastful effort that discusses his rising stardom and position in the rap game. He talks about his impressive performances on songs, the money and the women he’s involved himself with since his 2019 breakout, and the expected hardships and struggles that come with adjusting to fame.
To push the message even further, he shared a video with the track that shows him buying cars for friends, flying aboard private jet with a number of women on board, dealing with an annoying group of paparazzi, accepting a position in the hip-hop hall of fame, and more. The new track continues what’s been a decent streak of 2021 releases from Polo G. This list includes his “Headshot” collaboration with Lil Tjay and Fivio Foreign, “Richer” with Rod Wave, and “GNF (OKOKOK)” which was paired with a Cole Bennett-directed video. All of it arrives after the Chicago native dropped what was one of the more impressive rap album of last with The Goat.
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