PgLang

Kendrick Lamar’s PgLang Signs Tanna Leone And Shares His First Single, ‘With The Villains’

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Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free’s new endeavor PgLang is rolling after the company’s initial launch was met with mostly confusion about what the company is and what it does. As it turns out, the answer is: “a little bit of everything.” Early last year, PgLang produced a Calvin Klein campaign, then released Kendrick’s cousin Baby Keem’s debut album, The Melodic Blue. This year, it was reported that PgLang would be teaming up with the creators of South Park to produce a comedy film, although that news was met with skepticism from fans due to its questionable premise.

However, the company’s next move may end up being more well-received as it returns to Kendrick’s area of expertise, music, in signing its third rapper, LA native Tanna Leone. To introduce the newcomer, PgLang posted a video interview covering some of the basics about the 24-year-old, like his birthday, favorite color, and favorite quote. The promising young rapper also dropped his first single with the label, “With The Villains,” along with his first music video. Check it out below. Tanna Leone is currently supporting Baby Keem’s tour, which runs through April 18 in San Francisco.

While Baby Keem’s debut was released in partnership with Columbia, Tanna’s will apparently be supported by Def Jam, instead. In a statement, new Def Jam CEO Tunji Balogun said, “We’re excited to welcome Tanna Leone and pgLang to the Def Jam family as valued partners. I’m lucky to have been able to connect with Kendrick and Dave during the early stages of my career as friends and collaborators, and I’m thrilled to be able to extend that relationship here at Def Jam. Tanna is a dynamic and multi-talented new voice and we’re honored to be a part of his development and success.”

Baby Keem’s Artful ’16’ Video Is Both Eerie And Mundane

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If you haven’t been keeping up with Baby Keem, now’s the time to start. The young rapper was part of Kendrick Lamar’s launch of PgLang, Lamar’s own company and a departure from Top Dawg Entertainment. Kendrick’s next album will be his last on TDE, and it looks like he’ll be releasing his own music after that via Pglang. So far, Baby Keem has been one of the other exemplary artists involved with the label, and the fact that he’s Kendrick’s cousin hasn’t hurt his profile any. Today the rising rapper has released a new music video today, called “16.”

Keem is older than 16, though not by much, and the 21-year-old LA rapper is focused on his love life in the artful clip. Directed by Jonas Lindstroem, the stark visual runs through different locations, following Keem and the object of his affection through backdrops both eerie and mundane. Keem’s debut album, The Melodic Blue, dropped last fall, and his subsequent tour was a solid showing, too. It’s not clear if “16” is the beginning of a new album cycle for Keem, but if it is, this is definitely a great start. Check out the video above and keep an ear out for more new music coming from Keem this year.

Kendrick Lamar’s Upcoming Slave Intern Movie Was Absolutely Slammed By People On Twitter

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Earlier this week, Kendrick Lamar was announced as one of the creators of an upcoming film. It’s listed as a comedy and it has Kendrick’s longtime partner Dave Free as well as the creators of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, as collaborators of the film. So far so good? Well, here’s where things get sticky. The currently untitled film was described as follows: “a young Black man who is interning as a slave reenactor at a living history museum” … finds out that his white girlfriend’s ancestors owned his own ancestors.

This plot seemed to rub many the wrong way and it resulted in the film being absolutely torn apart on social media. One person wrote, “And it’s gonna be a… comedy? Oh this bad,” while another shared an image of Dr. Umar Johnson and wrote, “What is this plot?” A third person said, “This is easily, without hyperbole, the worst idea for a story I’ve ever heard.” Others pointed to how their recent requests from the rapper were for new music, his fifth album preferably, and not this kind of movie. “Mannn.. all we asked for was the J.Cole collab,” a user wrote.

The script for the upcoming film was written by MTV2’s Wonder Showzen creator Vernon Chatman, who also voiced a handful of characters on South Park. A director for the movie has not been selected yet.

You can see some more reactions to the upcoming film below.

Kendrick Lamar And Dave Free Partner With The Creators Of ‘South Park’ On A New Comedy Film

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A couple of years ago, Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free mystified the world with the announcement of their new company, PgLang. Nobody seemed to know what PgLang was or what it’d do, but in the intervening years, we’ve seen glimpses. In 2021, the company collaborated with Calvin Klein on a new ad campaign and backed the release of Kendrick’s cousin Baby Keem’s debut album The Melodic Blue on Columbia Records. According to Deadline, though, they’ve now got bigger plans, expanding into the world of film with the creators of long-running animated comedy South Park.

Kendrick, Dave, Matt Stone, and Trey Parker have teamed up to produce the live-action comedy with Paramount Pictures. The premise is probably par for the course for the provocative South Park creators, following “a young Black man who is interning as a slave reenactor at a living history museum” who finds out that his white girlfriend’s ancestors owned his (does this make them many-times-removed relatives? Probably!). The script was written by Vernon Chatman, who created the MTV2 comedy Wonder Showzen and voices a handful of characters on South Park, but no director has signed on yet, despite production being scheduled for this spring. The film will have theatrical distribution, as well as streaming on Paramount+.

Baby Keem And Kendrick Lamar Show Off The Strength Of Their ‘Family Ties’ With A Chaotic Video

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For those of you who might have been unaware, Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem are cousins, and while it wasn’t exactly a promoted fact between the two rappers, the duo made it clear with the announcement of their first collaboration. They announced a new single, “Family Ties” earlier this week, and as promised, the track has arrived and it comes with a brand new visual laced with a cameo from Normani. The video is quite the chaotic effort as it features everything from a shootout, Kendrick Lamar passionately dancing, and fairly good amount of twerking.

The track is the latest single from Baby Keem’s upcoming album, The Melodic Blue. The Vegas-bred act announced the title for the project earlier this year and it’s a full-length release that will include previously-released singles “No Sense,” “Durag Activity” with Travis Scott, and “Hooligan.” Hopefully, Keem’s collaboration with Kendrick signals that The Melodic Blue is closer to arrival than some may expect.

“Family Ties” also marks the first musical release of any kind for Kendrick Lamar in 2021. The track hopefully makes a return for the Good Kid, M.a.a.d City, but there is an end of sorts for him in the near future. Last week, Lamar announced that his upcoming fifth album would be his last with Top Dawg Entertainment, a label he’s called him since 2005. “As I produce my final TDE album, I feel joy to have been a part of such a cultural imprint after 17 years,” he wrote in a letter to fans. “The Struggles. The Success. And most importantly, the Brotherhood. May the Most High continue to use Top Dawg as a vessel for candid creators. As I continue to pursue my life’s calling.”

You can press play on the video above to hear