Music

Famous Dex Got Arrested During A Court Hearing For Violating A Protective Order

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Famous Dex was reportedly arrested for violating an October protective order against him on domestic violence charges on Thursday, June 10, during his arraignment hearing for 19 other charges accumulated this March, according to TMZ. The Chicago-born rapper was in court to plead not guilty to 19 charges — including domestic violence and gun possession — when it was revealed he’d allegedly violated the protective order, which was put in place after another instance of domestic violence last year. Dex was taken into custody with a bond set at $200,000.

In November, Dex’s home was raided by SWAT over concerns that he’d barricaded himself inside with a TEC-9 after a neighbor reported a domestic disturbance between Dex and his girlfriend. When police arrived, they determined the woman had injuries consistent with abuse and called for backup from SWAT, who were unable to locate Dex in the house. Then, in March, he was pulled over in North Hollywood for not having a rear license plate, and searched the vehicle when he tried to escape. Police say they found a loaded firearm under the seat and arrested him on the spot.

He was later charged with 19 charges, including domestic violence, weapon possession, dissuading a victim from reporting a crime, and defacing property, from three different incidents. The restraining order against him restricted him from possession of a firearm, which is likely what led to his latest arrest, and that firearm had been defaced to remove its serial number — a felony in California. Dex faces up to 18 years in prison as a result of these charges.

Nicki Minaj Apologized To T-Pain For Ghosting On His 2007 Collaboration Request

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Last month, T-Pain posted a video to TikTok apologizing to all the stars he’d accidentally ghosted by not checking his Instagram DM request folder, saying he had no idea that verified accounts were also sorted into requests. It seems he knows how it feels to be metaphorically “left on read,” revealing on the 85 South Show that he’d once been on the receiving end when he reached out to Nicki Minaj to collaborate early in the Queens, New York star’s career.

T-Pain recalled that in 2007, he’d reached out to collaborate, but eventually got curved by Nicki, who was busy working on her breakout tape, Beam Me Up Scotty.”We was about to work together and she stopped responding and I was like, ‘Nick, let me know what’s going on,’” he said. “She was like, ‘Hey, I’m an artist too and I’m working on my shit so ya know. Baby, chill.’ And I was like, ‘Oh… My heart.’”

When a clip of the interview made its way onto Shade Room’s account, Nicki couldn’t help responding in the comments. “I don’t remember this AT ALL but it DEF sound like smthn I would say,” she admitted. “Omg what was I thinking? He was already a rlly big artist. I was still underground. Chileeee I used to b buggin yo. My bad babe, all love. I have nthn but respect for your talent and thank you & Kanye for clearing ‘Go Hard’ for Beam Me Up Scotty last month.”

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When Beam Me Up Scotty finally did hit DSPs last month, it marked a watershed moment for Nicki, bringing her full circle with her Young Money compatriots Lil Wayne and Drake on “Seeing Green.” Meanwhile, T-Pain used the attention from his TikTok video to debut his new single with Kehlani, “I Like Dat.”

A New Juice WRLD EP, ‘The Party Never Ends,’ Is Reportedly On The Way

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Since Juice WRLD’s tragic passing in late 2019, there hasn’t been a shortage of new music from the late rapper. His first posthumous album, Legends Never Die, was released last summer, and now it looks like another new project is on the way.

In a recent interview, the rapper’s team declared that a new EP titled The Party Never Ends is on the way and that it will feature Lil Uzi Vert as well as “a few other big people.” Beyond that, they didn’t offer any additional info like a release date, approximate length, or song titles.

Even aside from Legends Never Die, there has been a bunch of new Juice WRLD material over the past year-plus since his passing. Just a few days ago, he popped up on new albums from Migos and Maroon 5. Other recent collaborators include Post Malone, Clever, The Kid Laroi, and Young Thug.

He never got in the studio with Kid Cudi, though, which Cudi recently lamented on Twitter, saying of Juice and DMX, “Im really am pissed and heartbroken I never got to link w these guys. X and Juice were real ones. Loved what they brought to the game. It was beautiful to witness.”

Lil Baby And Lil Durk’s ‘Voice Of The Heroes’ Debuts At No. 1 On The ‘Billboard’ Album Charts

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Michael Thomas

Lil Baby and Lil Durk were two of the most popular hip-hop artists in 2020. The former’s My Turn was the best-selling album of the year, while the latter went next level with Just Cause Y’all Waited 2 and The Voice. This year, the rappers decided to bring their talents together for their joint album, Voice Of The Heroes, which has just debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album charts.

The team-up topped the Billboard 200 chart with 150,000 units sold in its first week — a number that’s comprised of 144,000 streaming equivalent album units and 4,000 pure album sales. It also marks Lil Baby’s second No. 1 after My Turn topped the charts for five non-consecutive weeks last year. Meanwhile, Voice Of The Heroes is Lil Durk’s first No. 1 album. His previous high for a project was No. 2, which he achieved twice in 2020 thanks to the one-two punch of Just Cause Y’all Waited 2 and The Voice.

Other highlights on the chart include Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour at No. 2, J. Cole’s The Off-Season at No. 4, and Moneybagg Yo’s A Gangsta’s Pain at No. 6.

Check out our review of Voice Of The Heroes here.

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

Polo G Speaks Out On Twitter For The First Time Following His Arrest In Miami

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Polo G’s celebratory weekend came to a rather quick end as the rapper was arrested in Miami following an album release party he held for his new full-length effort, Hall Of Fame. The rapper was pulled over with his mother and manager, Stacia Mac, his younger brother, and security personnel as they were driving in a vehicle. According to Billboard and documents provided by Miami police, the rapper was stopped in order to be searched for weapons as a cop suspected they might be carrying some because they heard a passenger say the vehicle they were riding in was bulletproof.

When the officers stopped the vehicle, they asked all the occupants to step out and this is when the alleged altercation between Polo G and the cops ensued. Officers Brandon Carrero and Joseph Acuna “ended up in a struggle on the ground” with the rapper who also struck the former in the head, chin, forehead, and cheek during the incident, according to the arrest report. The rapper would be taken into custody and hit with a number of charges.

After posting a $19,500 bond, Polo G took to Twitter to speak out about the matter for the first time.

“1 of the officers told us they was on us since we got Off our Jet,” he wrote before following it up with a second tweet adding, “They playin foul in Miami & dat sh*t been like that for a minute.”

Polo G’s charges include battery against a police officer, public servant/influence performance threat, resisting an officer with violence, resisting an officer without violence, and criminal mischief.

Pharrell Will Open A Private School For Low-Income Students In His Home State Of Virginia

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There’s a long list of things that Pharrell has done for his home state of Virginia. In 2017, he pushed forward a plan to bring a new Virginia Beach Dome venue to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. He also brought the Something In The Water festival to the state in 2019 as a highlight attraction to Virginia during their College Beach Weekend. Now, the multitalented act is back with more for Virginia as he announced plans to open a private school in the state for low-income students.

The Yellowhab school will be opened in Norfolk, Virginia’s Ghent neighborhood, which is close to his Virginia Beach hometown. Children in grades 3-5 will be able to enroll at Yellowhab and tuition for at least the first year will be free with other costs to be paid for by charitable donations.

“If the system is fixed and unfair, then it needs to be broken,” Pharrell said in a press release according to The Virginian Pilot. “We don’t want lockstep learning where so many kids fall behind; we want bespoke learning designed for each child, where the things that make a child different are the same things that will make a child rise up and take flight.”

Pharrell chose Norfolk for the school because of its history of housing segregation and the city’s plans to redevelop three public housing complexes. Yellowhab is also designed to group students by skill level rather than grade with a curriculum that gives priority to STEAM — science, technology, engineering, art, and math. The school will open on September 7 and families can apply for enrollment on July 1 through Yellowhab’s website.

Drake Confirms ‘Certified Lover Boy’ Will Arrive By The End Of The Summer

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Drake’s upcoming sixth album, Certified Lover Boy, is by far the most anticipated album of 2021. However, it’s also a project that fans should’ve already had in their possession if things went according to plan. Back in October, the rapper announced that the album would arrive in January, but he was later forced to delay the project after he had to take time away from working on it in order to rehab from knee surgery.

Since then, the rapper has continued work on Certified Lover Boy without sharing a new release date for it. Thankfully, during a recent interview, Drake revealed when fans can expect the album.

In a sit-down during the URLTV battle rap league’s NOMEXI event, Drake was asked when Certified Lover Boy arrived. When interviewers tried to get a specific release date out of him, the rapper kept things tight-lipped. However, when an off-screen guest asked if the album would be here by the end of the summer, Drake replied, “Oh yeah, I’ll be there. My album will be out by then.”

This comes after Akademiks previously reported that Certified Lover Boy would be released by the end of April. Obviously, that month came and went without the album’s release, but Drake’s biggest supporters should be happy to hear that the project will be in their hands within the next few months.

You can watch a clip of the conversation above.

Quavo Said He Planned To Make A Joint Album With Pop Smoke Before His Death

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Migos made their grand return on Friday with their fourth album, Culture III. The project arrived as a 19-track effort with contributions highlighted by Drake, Cardi B, Future, DaBaby, Justin Bieber, Polo G and Juice WRLD. It’s also the Atlanta trio’s first project together since their 2018’s Culture II. Social media opinions of the new album seemingly prove that the rap group has returned to the excellence they displayed earlier in their career with projects like No Label II and Culture. As fans continue to enjoy the new project, Quavo recently revealed another project that sadly never came to fruition between himself and another artist.

During an interview on Los Angeles’ Real 92.3, Quavo spoke about adding posthumous features from Pop Smoke and Juice WRLD on Culture III, revealing that he actually hoped to make a full album with the former before his death.

“That was important, know what I’m saying,” he said. “I had a relationship with Pop Smoke, we had a relationship with Pop Smoke, and it was just, important. We had so many records, me and him was bout to make an album. So I just felt like I had to put Pop on there.”

He added, “Rest in Peace to my dawg Pop, we just made so much good music. Us on a New York drill beat is just like, magic.”

Pop Smoke and Juice WRLD appear on “Light It Up” and “Antisocial,” respectively, on Culture III. While it was the Migos’ first official collaboration with the two rappers, Quavo previously worked with Pop Smoke on “Aim For The Moon,” “Snitching” and “West Coast Sh*t” from the rapper’s posthumous album, Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon.

You can watch the Migos’ interview on Real 92.3 above.

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

McClenney’s Effortless Groove, ‘Kerosene,’ Previews A New Album, ‘On A Virgo Mind’

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Sharing a new single featuring St. Panther today, McClenney is gearing up to release his new full-length project, On A Virgo Mind later this summer on August 13. Releasing the album fully independently, this 26-year-old producer and songwriter is known for his work shaping the sound of Black alternative R&B by collaborating with artists like Jamila Woods, Chika, H.E.R., Khalid and more. Actually, McClenney was a collaborator on the breakout hit that put Khalid on the map, “Location,” which was also Grammy-nominated.

Focusing back on his own solo work, McClenney has earned the co-sign of music industry titan Quincy Jones, and worked tirelessly to help change outdated, coded language in the Grammys that incorrectly labeled Black music categories. He co-authored the proposal that advocated for the organization to remove “urban” from their categories and swap in more descriptive labels like “melodic rap.” Separately, he also co-authored a proposal that expanded the global music categories.

This week’s taste of his forthcoming album is more effortless grooving from the self-described “creative Black mind,” and prominently features St. Panther, aka Irvine born producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Daniela Bojorges-Giraldo. Check out the song below and hear some of his older work above with the “Give Me Time” video. Keep an eye out for more updates on the new full-length from McClenney coming very soon.

Drake Argued With A Referee During A Basketball Game For LeBron James’ Son

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Aside from being one of the most popular rappers in the world, Drake is also an avid basketball fan. From frequently appearing courtside at Toronto Raptors games to hooping with NBA players and friends in the basketball court he had built inside his Toronto mansion, his love for the game is clear. So it comes as no surprise that the rapper stopped by a game for LeBron James’ son, Bronny James, on Friday night.

Bronny finally made his sophomore year debut with the Sierra Canyon School’s high school basketball team after he missed most of the season following surgery for a torn meniscus. Drake’s fandom for the game became very clear when he got into an argument with a referee during the matchup against Corona Centennial High School. Video of the interaction was captured by some in attendance and it shows Drake clearly frustrated with something the ref did. The conversation didn’t last long, and the rapper returned to his seat just seconds later.

Drake went to the game with LeBron himself, as well as JR Smith, Jared Dudley, his son Adonis, and more. Drake rocked a Bronny James jersey in the video for his 2019 track, “Money In The Grave,” with Rick Ross. As for the game, Bronny’s Sierra Canyon team unfortunately lost to Corona Centennial by a score of 80-72.