For Hip-Hop’s 50th Anniversary, Blue Note Jazz Fest Highlights The Genre’s Influences And Reach

Jazz thrives in cities with history: New Orleans, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago. These cities are also places where you’d expect a new festival to pop up and have success, taking full advantage of a post-pandemic hunger for live music. The California iteration of the Blue Note Jazz Fest, now in its second year, is hundreds of miles away from these hubs for the genre, tucked between the beautiful peaks and canyons of Napa Valley.

This year’s Blue Note, sharing a name with the legendary label it’s created by, is centered around a lineup that pays tribute to the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop. Mary J. Blige, Nas, and Chance the Rapper are in the headliner spots, with sets from Ari Lennox, Smino, De La Soul, Bilal, Lalah Hathaway, and a host of other greats across the Black music space who are all connected to, influenced by, and champions of hip-hop.

Hip-hop’s birth can be directly traced back to the Bronx in 1973, where turntables and spoken word collided. By the ’80s, its reach had gone far beyond the borough; artists began to reach for more complicated beats and lyrics that represented a complex image of the Black experience. Jazz samples built the bones for many of these songs, while the Jazz ethos built the attitude. Artists like Rakim & Eric B. and A Tribe Called Quest are the golden standard of this period: music that is urgent, frenetic, skillful. Created for and by Black people.

After inspiration from jazz fell out of fashion through the ’90s and early 2000s, its direct connection to hip-hop came back to center in a big way with To Pimp A Butterfly, the 2015 project that’s widely considered Kendrick Lamar’s best effort. It’s a dense, cerebral album layered with live jazz so complex that sometimes it’s hard to tell where the horns and drums end and the rapping begins. Despite its ambitious and politically-charged format, it was a monumental, critically acclaimed statement from rap’s newest visionary.

Robert Glasper, the jazz producer and pianist, was instrumental in many aspects of TPAB, from its jazz-centered concept, to writing and session playing for the album’s keyboards and synths. The record became a modern statement of excellence in every corner of music that it touched. Kendrick was elevated to great status, and brought those who were critical to the record’s creation with him into that arena, including Glasper. From that moment on, he became a connecting figure between modern jazz and hip-hop. Glasper is, without a doubt, taking up the mantle of being jazz’s most prolific and present leader.

Robert Glasper’s history with Blue Note is direct: he’s had an annual residency at their club in New York for years. Once the West Coast concept for a festival was solidified, Blue Note label head Steve Bensusan tapped Glasper personally to help him curate the lineup and get his network of West Coast jazz friends and collaborators onboard. Many of the same artists he’s performed with during his residencies and on his records are slated to make appearances at this year’s fest, all contributing to the small-world feel of the lineup.

“The club becomes the engine which then drives some of the other concerts or events that we produce in that market,” Bensusan explained to me while on-site at Silverado Resort a couple months ahead of the fest. After opening a club in Napa in 2019, then hosting a successful outdoor series and big-stage events, a festival was the next big step to conquer the music market in wine country.

The Napa version of Blue Note is designed to be more intimate than its East Coast sister event, which has existed since 2011. In Napa, attendees have the chance to experience multiple stages and genres on mid-sized grounds, without the overwhelming setup and crowds of most other festivals. This setup creates an experience where the music is central, and artists are more likely to be on top of their game and feed from one another’s energy.

With Glasper’s influence, Blue Note Napa is a gathering ground for new West Coast icons like Glasper, Terrace Martin, and Anderson .Paak to assemble, while giving shine to legends like George Clinton, Madlib, and Bobby McFerrin. Even though many of the festival’s acts aren’t straight-ahead jazz artists, the legacy of its name implies a certain air of musicianship that needs to be lived up to.

“Most of the time on the festival stage, you go see that one artist and that’s what you see, that’s what the festival is,” Glasper told us last year ahead of the festival’s first outing. “This one’s gonna be more cross-pollination, with a family-oriented kind of vibe. It’s smaller than most festivals on purpose,” he continued.

This year’s celebration of hip-hop is an important milestone, where the modern prestige of jazz and the acknowledgment of hip-hop as essential are both celebrated. Glasper himself explained it best: “There are so many amazing artists and trailblazers [in Black music] and to have them all in one festival represents so much and represents how free the music can be.”

Blue Note has the potential to be much more than a festival – the lineup alone can stand as music history: tracing the evolution of Black music at a time when it’s more present than ever in mainstream consciousness. Jazz is often considered prestige music, inaccessible to people who are young and disconnected from its history. Expertly curated lineups focused on a multi-generational slate of artists, like Blue Note Jazz Festival Napa, have the potential to connect the dots between all Black genres and make their relevance more apparent than ever.

Gunna’s New Album ‘A Gift And A Curse’ Proves Hip-Hop Should Move Beyond Its Gangster Trappings

I’ve been rewatching The Sopranos this year. It’s been a long process – partly because of the density of the average Sopranos episode and partly because of the glut of new content to keep up with that has been released over the past couple of months. Also, I took February off because who wants to spend Black History Month being called an eggplant?

In the meantime, I’ve been following the racketeering case against Young Thug, Gunna, and the rest of Young Stoner Life Records – or the Young Slime Life gang, if you buy the Fulton County District Attorney’s account of events of the past eight years. I watched as Gunna, Unfoonk, and nearly a dozen other members of the group accepted so-called “Alford Pleas,” admitting to lesser charges in exchange for shorter sentences while maintaining their innocence.

Hip-hop fans and artists alike turned on Gunna, declaring him a “rat,” someone who should be excommunicated from the community. His longtime producer Wheezy deemed him persona non grata; Lil Durk assumed he must have given information about the so-called criminal dealings of Young Thug (who most rappers and producers maintain hasn’t done anything illegal, so somebody has to explain to me the logic on that).

This has all both amused and frustrated me – a lot like my Sopranos viewing of late – probably because my recent rewatch has illuminated to me just how ridiculous the show wants us to know its characters really are. The members of the DiMeo crime family are, to put it bluntly, a bunch of petty, ignorant, emotionally-stunted goobers; their entire system of rules and honor codes ultimately amounts to a grown-up version of the He-Man Woman-Haters Club from Our Gang and The Little Rascals.

The gangsters of the show are men with the mindsets of little boys, all trying to prove to each other how “manly” they are, based on a concept of manhood out-of-sync with the world around them. This holds true of most mafia-centric entertainment: The Godfather, Goodfellas, Casino, The Gangs Of New York, and yes, the hip-hop whose artists have based their stage personas (or past criminal activities) on these characters and “this thing of ours.”

Which makes it all the more baffling why Gunna is being held to these standards, when all he’s ever really claimed to be is a rapper. Yes, he’s rapped about illicit activities, but it’s been pretty firmly established by now that lyrics in rap should be understood to be exaggerated, fictionalized, or outright made up. No one believes Lupe Fiasco has a mecha in his backyard. Jadakiss’ bathtub most definitely does not lift up, nor do his walls do a 360.

Rappers are often playing roles, but what happens when those roles blur the line between creativity and reality? To take it even further, what happens when they drop the facade entirely and get “real” again? Gunna attempts to answer these questions on his new album, A Gift And A Curse, but honestly, I’m more interested in the response than I am in the music, which is as technically proficient as we’ve come to expect from Gunna – if a bit more earnest, humble, and soul-searching.

While social media was awash in posts claiming that Gunna’s career was over due to his “snitching” – something no one can confirm or do anything other than speculate about until the actual trial starts – most recent projections put the album at just under 100,000 equivalent units. That’s certainly a dip from his past projects, but it’s also far from “imminent retirement” numbers. It undermines the thesis that hip-hop and this mafioso-lite “honor code” are as closely bound as outsiders and parasites like DJ Akademiks seem to think.

And that, ultimately, is a good thing. As much as hip-hop is influenced and impacted by money from crime (after all, it costs a lot to get started in the music business, and there are few other options for many folks from America’s inner cities), it’s also taken lots of inspiration from mobster movies, leading to this impression even among the staunchest rap insiders that “keeping it real” is synonymous with acting like a Tony Soprano or Henry Hill.

But, spoiler alert: We know how their stories turn out. Hill not so coincidentally turns state’s evidence in an effort to save his own life. Tony’s fate is left to the viewer’s imagination, but that smash-cut to black bodes ill for someone whose “honor code” included murdering men he’d known since grade school, employees who he himself characterized as “good earners,” and even his own nephew (who was, admittedly, a f*ck-up of the highest order whose loose-cannon behavior often threatened the family business).

Whether or not you believe YSL was a gang or a label – and it matters, because you can’t really have it both ways in this case – holding someone who the vast majority of us only ever knew as an artist to the outdated, self-destructive rules of a pack of overgrown children is about as dumb as idolizing wiseguys who openly view the Black creators of hip-hop as “ditsoons,” “mulignans,” and “butterheads” in the first place. (Tony fainting at the sight of a box of Uncle Ben rice will never not be funny.)

And as for A Gift And A Curse, my big takeaway was this: Gunna has made some of his best music by stripping away the artifice and the trappings of gang life. That should tell us a lot about the direction hip-hop should be going instead of trying to rehash the same old stories – all of which have tragic endings.

A Gift And A Curse is out now on Young Stoner Life Records/300 Entertainment.

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

Killer Mike Paints A Compelling Self-Portrait — Flaws And All — With ‘Michael’

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

For two-plus decades, Killer Mike has existed at the periphery of the mainstream’s perception of Atlanta rap, despite being widely acknowledged by fans within the culture as one of the scene’s most talented members. There was Mike’s association with Outkast, the forebears of Atlanta’s rise to national prominence, and his tag-team duo, Run The Jewels with El-P, opening a whole new market of festival appearances and hipster blogger love.

He was even given one of rap’s ultimate blessings; on Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 To Pimp A Butterfly standout “Hood Politics,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning Comptonite throws Mike a lyrical shout-out while denouncing the hypocritical elitism within the hip-hop community. “Critics want to mention that they miss when hip-hop was rappin’,” he rails. “Motherfucker, if you did, then Killer Mike’d be platinum.”

To hear Mike himself tell it, though, there’s another reason behind the lack of hardware denoting his sales achievements. “My first record deal damaged me,” he told Spin in an interview this year promoting Michael, his first solo album in over a decade. “It made me afraid, it pulled me back. I hadn’t done terribly on the major. I just, you know, I came out the same year as 50 [Cent] selling 10 million f*cking records. I sold, you know, 500,000.”

While going gold with your debut album (2003’s Monster, which features the millennial-era sex-rap favorite “A.D.I.D.A.S.”) is no small accomplishment, Mike became convinced he belonged on the underground circuit, where his rap prowess could lead to all the critical acclaim that pursuing greater sales goals might cost him. So, he became a bit trapped between the two worlds; a charismatic would-be star content to grind it out below the radar where his talents might be better appreciated.

In all of this, he admits, it seems he never quite got around to introducing the audience to Michael Render, the man behind the Killer Mike persona — and maybe that’s why he never connected with audiences the same way that Kendrick Lamar would, despite sharing his fiery resolve and unapologetic outlook toward presenting his unvarnished view of the world around him. And so, Michael, released Friday via Via Loma after Mike spent half-a-million dollars of his own money recording and producing it, attempts to do that, explaining how and why Killer Mike came to be, and what he’s truly capable of when not relegated to a sidekick or partner role.

First of all, Mike’s Dungeon Family DNA runs throughout the project; it opens with an appearance from CeeLo Green in “Down By Law” and flourishes on “Scientists & Engineers” with features from the elusive André 3000 and fellow wayward Dungeon cousin Future. The album also embraces Mike’s more recent forays into the chaotic doom funk of his longtime production partner El-P on “Two Days.” But the prevailing musical thread that ties Michael together is the gospel of his youth.

Beginning with the ferocious “Shed Tears” and continuing through the defiant “Run,” picking up in the maudlin “Motherless” and piercing through the production of the album in its haunting use of organs and clips of passionate sermons from Malcolm X, the influence of the South’s church-steeped culture undergirds Mike’s tearful reflections and assertive remonstrations as he recounts his evolution from nihilistic drug dealer to community leader and unofficial poet laureate of Atlanta.

There are slip-ups, of course. A questionable reference to Brokeback Mountain on “Talk’n That Sh*t” undermines Mike’s coalition rhetoric (hard to form a coalition if you’re still so committed to dehumanizing at least 10 percent of any group of people working toward a supposedly common goal; as a resident of the city with one of the largest LGBTQ populations in the nation, Mike should know better), and occasionally, his real-life actions, however well-intentioned, come off as contradictory of the revolutionary bars he rattles off on nearly every song.

But if you’re going to paint a picture of a person, their flaws are necessarily going to be part and parcel of the completed image. That Mike refuses to shy away from even the most unflattering self-portrayals are a huge reason why he’s got so much support from the artistic community and from critics. He’s showing us just who Michael Render is, even if that’s just something we’ve all always known.

Michael is out now on Loma Vista Records.

These Photos From Bonnaroo 2023 Show Just How Special The Farm Really Is

2023 music festival season is in high gear — and you can stay updated on the best music festivals in the handy Uproxx Music Festival Preview. This past weekend, tens of thousands of fans descended on Manchester, Tennessee for the 2023 edition of the iconic Bonnaroo, which saw more than 150 artists perform on more than 10 different stages. It was absolute madness once again for the festival known for combining genres and aesthetics, with everything from dance music, hip-hop, country, rock, and pop music featuring during the four-day event.

A host of memorable performances highlighted this year’s slate. Foo Fighters, Kendrick Lamar, and Odesza were the headliners, but notable sets were also delivered by the likes of Tennessee natives Paramore, nu metal legends Korn, Roo regulars My Morning Jacket, rising rap star Baby Keem, and tons more, like Tyler Childers, Marcus Mumford, Lil Nas X, Fleet Foxes, and Sheryl Crow. But anyone that’s been to Bonnaroo will tell you that while the bands are the driving force of the festival, the sense of community makes it stand out in a crowded festival field. There’s truly no place like The Farm.

Uproxx sent photographer Paul L. Carter to capture the action. Check out some highlights from the weekend in the form of festival photos and artist portraits.

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Jacob Collier

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Sheryl Crow

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Matt Maeson

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Foo Fighters

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Portugal. The Man

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Pixies

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Kiana Ledé Named Her ‘Grudges’ To Move Forward As A Hopeful Romantic

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Inconsistency, inconsideration, and indecisiveness. Kiana Ledé names those as her “biggest pet peeves” during an interview with Uproxx ahead of her second album Grudges. Throughout the album’s 17 songs, Ledé journeys through past relationships that left her to deal with those bad qualities. However, it doesn’t stop there. Ledé also lists the grudges she has against men overall and herself as well. “I’m naming my grudges and calling them out so that I can move forward with my life,” she says.

Grudges is Ledé’s first album since her 2020 debut Kiki. That project presented a young adult who sought a fairy tale love story and believed that it could exist for her. Even the album’s low moments amounted to nothing but a brief bump in the road as it concludes with “Separation” and “No Takebacks,” which proved that Lede’s hopes and dreams were reasonable and not the result of youthful naivety. Three years later, things are much different for her. The novelty behind romance has lost its shine a bit and the frustration that she can’t have this thing that so many other people can indulge in is more present than ever.

“As a mature young woman, if I seem to be in a relationship with someone, I’m agreeing to meet in the middle, not compromise, but meet in the middle,” Ledé says. “So when you’re not helping me help us or help you, I can’t have that and I don’t like things that are out of my control. So yes, it frustrates me when I don’t know what someone’s thinking.”

These frustrations make for the foundation of “Irresponsible” and “Gemini Slander” on the album. The former blends anger and disappointment for a message penned directly to an unnamed lover who failed to live up to the adult task of being transparent, mature, and honest in love. “Gemini Slander” places Ledé in the driver’s seat as she walks away from a man who lacks the consistency and decisiveness required for love. Through a listen of Grudges, it’s clear that Ledé’s pains in love weren’t a brief or occasional occurrence. She has enough stories to tell because she’s been through it.

“I went through a breakup actually, during COVID I went through two breakups, so I don’t know if I got the world record for modern relationships you can have in quarantine,” Ledé recalls with a laugh. “Was in both of them, and clearly they did not go so great, but it’s okay. It left me with great music.” Though it wasn’t immediately that Ledé knew these songs would become what we now know as Grudges.

“Maybe [after] a year, a year and a half of making the album we were just like, these are grudges,” she says. “It wasn’t just about me having a grudge about my [exes], it really just created this perfect headline of the grudges I hold against the world and everything that it encompasses.”

Kiana Ledé’s growth from her early days helped her reach this point of vulnerable and sheer honesty about herself and others. Even throughout Grudges, there isn’t a point where she is spiteful toward those who contributed to qualms in love. It comes from a level of accountability that exists in these situations, especially ones that the singer herself had a hand in creating.

“I think as I’ve gotten older, no matter how big my role was, in those relationships, and this way, I can acknowledge and accept the part that I played,” she notes. “Too Far” is a perfect example of this as she acknowledges the effects of crossing the friendship barrier to explore the once-forbidden fruit of intimacy.

Though spite and retaliation were absent, a loss of faith in love, people, and trust took its place for some time as she details on the album’s title track. “I went through so much and was put through so much pain by the people that I thought loved me the most,” she remembers. “When that sort of betrayal happens, it’s really hard to think – like if these people were supposed to love me, how will this person that I met on Tuesday that I think is a good person and could be a good friend, how are they not gonna screw me over?” In naming and eventually freeing her grudges, Kiana also found it necessary to do the same to overcome doubts.

“I realized that you can build a good community by just trying,” she says. “I had to accept that with love of any kind, is going to come pain, and we can’t escape loss. That’s just a part of life.” Here, Ledé speaks of having hope, hope that tomorrow will be better, hope that you’ll receive what you prayed would be eventually, and hope that it’ll all be okay. “My friends and my mom are like you just are hopeful,” she says. “I just hope that people are who they say they are. There’s gonna be that one in a million that really is, so there is some hope and love somewhere.”

Despite all that she goes through on Grudges, this hope comes alive to conclude the album with “Magic.” It plays a role similar to that of “No Takebacks” on Kiki, a record that pours out the hopes for a forever romance, and while “Magic” looks to do the same for Grudges, it does so with a new sense of reality.

I label Ledé as a bit of a hopeless romantic, a title she fully accepts and credits for her ability to hold a grudge so well. However, when Grudges comes to a close, we’re left with the feeling that Ledé wants to be more of a hopeful romantic – optimistic about love’s potential while being a bit more practical about its arrival. Look no further than “Where You Go” with Khalid for evidence of this transition Ledé wants to make in the future. Though that record is certainly romantic on the surface, underneath that is the reminder of an unhealthy codependence that Ledé used to have in a previous relationship.

“I do hold a grudge against my younger self that was codependent with people that I was in a relationship with,” she admits. “It feels so good to be able to rely on someone right? But once it gets a little too codependent, like ‘I go where you go,’ it can be a lot.” Simply put, recognizing your faults is the first step in eventually correcting them.

At the end of the day, Grudges is Ledé’s moment of self-reflection and self-work and the pressures of getting it all done to overcome the past and reach what is destined for you. We see this through the intricate and well-thought-out artwork for Grudges. “The mirrors are a representation of a self-reflection, looking at yourself, and also who you are presently in that moment,” Ledé says. “The cameras are a representation of there being a lot of pressure while you’re looking at yourself, everyone else is looking at you, while you’re just trying to figure it out.” Overall, it’s a “clusterf*ck of sh*t around you” that hones in on the overwhelming feeling of working on yourself as the world watches and expects you to show up and simultaneously meet their own expectations.

In these moments, as Kiana Ledé has proven, the best thing you can do with flaws (and grudges) is to name them, acknowledge them, and set them free. But whatever you do, try your best to not hold on to them.

Grudges is out now via The Heavy Group/Republic Records. Find out more information here.

Doja Cat’s Latest Transformation Is For Her — And That’s A Good Thing

Doja Cat is back. The mercurial artist announced the release date for her return single “Attention” earlier this week after what appeared to be a mix-up with the pre-save link. This came after several months in which the mischievous rapper/singer appeared to waver on her upcoming fourth album’s title, genre, and even seemingly whether she wanted to even continue making music. She went through a half-dozen extreme makeovers — some temporary, others more permanent — and trolled her fans.

And yet, all those changes are actually true to Doja Cat’s character. She has always cycled through aesthetics, personalities, and sounds throughout her career; that she continues to do so just proves that she remains true to herself, despite fans’ concerns that she “switched up.” For Doja, switching up is core to the persona that she’s cultivated from the very beginning. With a new album on the way, no one knows what to expect — not even, it seems, Doja herself — but considering how things have been going so far, that’s probably a very good thing anyway.

From the beginning, Doja Cat has demonstrated a chameleonlike ability to transform to suit either the needs of the song she’s making or her own, often esoteric whims. Take her breakout song, “Mooo!” for instance. Doja had already been signed and releasing music for some years before the jokey track skyrocketed her to national notoriety. But “Mooo!” was obviously a huge departure from the spacey, bohemian vibe of “So High,” released three years before, or the lighthearted, poppy sensibility of the cunnilingus anthem “Go To Town” from the year before.

Instead, “Mooo!” was Doja at her goofiest; in the homemade video, she morphed into an anime cowgirl, showing that she didn’t take herself too seriously and wasn’t exactly married to either image of herself as an incense-burning hippie or a latex-clad pop vixen. And when the backlash against “Mooo!” from hip-hop traditionalists grew from a dull roar to a loud insistence that the accomplished but relatively unknown performer didn’t have anything else to offer, she transformed again.

On Doja’s next album Hot Pink, she embraced a truly bewildering variety of both genres and looks, while also insisting that she was taking music more seriously. That promise paid off with the embrace of a pop-punk aesthetic in the video for “Bottom Bitch” and couture looks in the one for “Rules.” Meanwhile, Doja’s musical experimentation broadened, from the glitchy techno of “Addiction” to the rhythm-n-bass of “Like That” featuring Gucci Mane to the nu-disco of “Say So,” Doja’s first-ever No. 1 hit single.

With the onset of the pandemic and the shutdown of live entertainment, Doja showcased her gift for metamorphosis with a string of live performances of her smash, reimagining “Say So” as a heavy metal rocker and an orchestral ballad. She attributes this to her boredom with performing the same song over and over again in mostly empty rooms, but where many stars would get by with adding a live band and reshuffling some choreography, Doja let her imagination run wild.

Since then, we’ve seen a lot more examples of Doja Cat’s penchant for reinvention throughout the rollout and tour for her third album Planet Her, and in the run-up to her next album. At first, she proclaimed it would be a double album, with one half entirely produced by 9th Wonder. Then, it was just one album, leaning more heavily into the hip-hop proclivities she gleaned from coming up in LA’s Project Blowed-inspired underground rap scene.

Of course, then Doja says her ADHD kicked in, prompting her to envision the album as a collection of R&B songs, then as punk. In the meantime, she underwent dramatic physical changes as well, shaving her head and eyebrows and railing against industry standards that demand women look “f*ckable” at all times. She adorned herself with a litany of tattoos, from 15th-century grotesqueries to anatomical diagrams. With her new aesthetics, she seems very much to be challenging the expectation of polished perfection that accompanied her prior pop-oriented efforts.

She changed the speculative title of her album from Hellmouth to Scarlet (at least, that’s what fans believe it’ll be called after some cryptic social media posts from Doja), implying a rebellion against traditional femininity either way. The term “Hellmouth” comes from the Buffy The Vampire Slayer franchise, which satirized horror conventions positioning women as frail victims or traumatized final girls with its high-indestructible, valley girl vampire killing machine.

And “scarlet woman” is a term that has long been bandied by the patriarchy to slander women who enjoy their sexual freedoms. It also evokes blood, like the cover art for “Attention” — a fluid whose association with women has always been one known to make men feel a little squeamish. Those wimps. So, it looks like Doja Cat is once again aiming to mutate into a new form, the consummate shapeshifter. This time, though, her new guise, whatever it is, will be for her and not for us. Even so, everybody wins.

Janelle Monáe’s ‘The Age Of Pleasure’ Channels Freedom and Euphoria As Acts Of Resistance

Over the last five years, Janelle Monáe’s brand as a creative force to be reckoned with hasn’t gone unnoticed. However, after dipping her toes into new experiences like acting and writing, she’s getting back to her musical roots. Much like the Kansas City-bred, ATL-cultivated musician herself, The Age Of Pleasure (which clocks in at just over 32 minutes) is sweet and petite. Yet, despite its length, her fourth studio-album serves as a jam-packed, Pan-African-spanning ode to finding pleasure in everyday moments.

Released June 9, The Age Of Pleasure creates a comforting space for Monáe and her beloved “Fandroids” to live out loud. Crafted in response to the pandemic and influenced by “Everyday People,” a globally-recognized cultural gathering and love letter to the Black community, the project showcases the 37-year-old’s evolution as a “free-ass motherf*cker.” Pleasure’s varied yet succinct production traverses the Black diaspora across 14 songs — Afrobeats, Ampiano, Lover’s Rock reggae, and trap-infused tunes showcase the artist’s creative license to do whatever the hell she feels like doing, in the name of artistic and individual gratification.

Though lyrics were crucial to Pleasure’s predecessor, 2018’s Grammy-nominated Dirty Computer, they don’t demand the spotlight here. Instead, the music — and the communal energy it ultimately stands for — speaks volumes. While outside ears may have felt that Dirty Computer’s content wasn’t “for them” for whatever reason, Pleasure makes it clear that anyone — regardless of gender identity or affirmation — is welcome to toast to life’s delights and concede to the rhythms. (“I want all of us (Black and Brown people, specifically) to have a soundtrack to this lifestyle,” Monáe told Angie Martinez in May.)

But this is not to say that Pleasure is devoid of queer moments, which should not come as a surprise considering the mechanisms of Monáe’s catalog and personal life. (The artist uses she/they pronouns, and identifies as non-binary.) For instance, the “Vivrant Thing”-interpolating “The Rush” featuring Amaarae and Nia Long is a call-out to the “pretty girl” who’s caught her eye. The runway-ready “Haute” nods to gender-fluidity. (“A bitch look pretty, a bitch look handsome,” Monáe says.)

The island-tinged single “Lipstick Lover” celebrates queer Black bodies, and the buzz surrounding its “controversial” music video (which showcases those bodies and much more) ultimately forced the multihyphenate to create a censored version for virgin eyes. Despite the new visual’s slight deviation from full-out freedom, the point still stands firm through Pleasure’s music. Monáe urges listeners to give in to enjoyment of self and with others, whether it’s emotionally or sexually.

This could be through Issa Rae-in-the-mirror-style affirmations (“I’m looking at a thousand versions of myself, and we’re all fine as f*ck,” she states in “Phenomenal,” which features TDE’s Doechii), or through commemorations of personal growth. The album opener “Float” finds the artist applauding her wins over an infectious trap beat created by Nate Wonder and Nana Kwabena, and horns provided by Seun Kuti and his band, Egypt 80. (Pleasure largely feels Fela Kuti-esque through grandiose instrumentation, so the sonic support from the legend’s son feels especially apropos.) And obviously, pleasure can also be found through physical self-exploration. (“If I could f*ck me right here, right now, I would do that,” Monáe admits on the aquatic, autoerotic “Water Slide.”)

But The Age Of Pleasure is best represented through songs illustrating the importance of community — the hallmark of “Everyday People” bashes. Monáe has been open about her past experiences living with a perfectionist complex. Through healing, she’s learning to enjoy the present without edits or filters, and she encourages others to do the same. (“I’m working on the balance of knowing that some things are just beyond your control and you’ve got to be in the moment and roll with the punches,” she said of her journey back in 2018.)

The dropping of this shield is most evident during The Age Of Pleasure’s trifecta of tracks: the CKay-assisted “Know Better” (which samples a hip-hop favorite: “Darkest Light” by the Lafayette Afro Rock Band), the bouncy “Paid In Pleasure,” and “Only Have Eyes 42,” a cheeky nod to polyamory that concludes with a euphoric string outro. This particular trio amplifies the notion of loosened inhibitions, forcing us to surrender to the moment and just have fun soaking up the company of others.

Given the internet discourse surrounding Monáe’s expression of her autonomy after years of donning (and shedding) her iconic tuxedo uniform, the growth of her individual freedom and self-understanding feels affirmed through The Age Of Pleasure. It can be anxiety-provoking to let your guard down, let people in, or to show up completely as yourself, but it can also be liberating to be exactly who you want to be in a world that doesn’t want you to do so.

The album captures what we all aim to experience at the end of the day. In this mid-to-post-pandemic era, it amplifies a new definition of freedom for many. The attacks on Black, Brown, and queer Americans is a daily concern. (A centuries-long one for all, but especially within the last several years.) Considering the constant diversions from the real national issues at hand, art celebrating the euphoria of authentic humanity, even with the threat of Right-winged erasure congregating in the distance, is resistance at its finest.

Throughout history’s most unsavory moments, music has always been there for minorities in particular to feel safe and seen. As someone who has never been a stranger to creating art reflective of The Times™, Janelle Monáe’s The Age Of Pleasure maintains the musician’s crusade of using her work to allow any and all “dirty computers” to remember that there is indeed a place for them in the world, and on the dancefloor.

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

Metro Boomin’s ‘Across The Spider-Verse’ Soundtrack Lives Up To The Incredible Film

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Five years ago, I reviewed the soundtrack from Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, a film that blew my mind and instantly became ingrained as not just one of my favorite Spider-Man or Marvel or superhero films but one of my favorite films, period. Five days ago, I watched that film’s sequel, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, and now, as I write this, I’m still buzzing from the high of watching it again just hours ago.

The sequel isn’t so much a continuation of the first story as it is its own evolved organism. Like how life started with aquatic creatures and eventually became the wildly diverse array of species and body plans we see today. There’s shared DNA, but you can see how things have adapted and changed and grown into much more complex lifeforms — not necessarily, better, per se, but totally different in endlessly fascinating new ways.

Here’s what I wrote about the first soundtrack: “Like the Black Panther soundtrack before it, the film understands its cultural relevance, the moment it speaks to, and the world it must represent, and does so, making it one of the best hip-hop-oriented film soundtracks ever created.” With that in mind, writing about the second soundtrack, which was produced and curated by St. Louis superproducer Metro Boomin, begs for the sort of reinvention and deconstruction that the second film does.

Fortunately, the new soundtrack offers the perfect opportunity for it. Unlike the first Spider-Verse soundtrack, Metro Boomin Presents Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse plays as more of a straightforward album than its predecessor. While the original presented a diverse slate of artists and styles reflecting and deepening the themes of the movie, listening to the second, you might forget that it’s a soundtrack at all. Nobody mentions Spider-Man, the character, or says the word “superhero” across its 13 tracks (19 on the deluxe version released just days later).

But while each of those tracks slots perfectly into its respective needle-drop moment in the film, here, there’s a sense of cohesion that the first one lacked — for certain, a product of having a single producer curating tracks with his favorite collaborators. Where the first featured a number of rising stars who might not be instantly recognizable — one breakout song, “What’s Up Danger,” was performed by Blackway, who isn’t exactly a marquee star — this one is littered with A-list talent, from 21 Savage and ASAP Rocky to James Blake and Nas.

Fittingly, though, there is some continuity: Coi Leray returns here for the reflective “Self Love.” She’s seen a similar rise in popularity since the first movie, just like the franchise itself (the first film opened at $35.4 million for the weekend; the new one grossed $120.7 million in the same span). Metro also wisely expands his own range, continuing the first soundtrack’s nods to the multi-cultural Brooklyn setting of the film with forays into dancehall (“Silk & Cologne” with Ei8ht and Offset), Afrobeats (“Link Up” with Don Toliver and Wizkid), and alt-pop (the standout “Hummingbird” with James Blake).

And where the first film dazzled with entirely new animation techniques and novel production design, the second, without the element of surprise that the first one had, deepened and expanded its use of these elements to enrich the visual storytelling (in Spider-Gwen’s world, the watercolor backgrounds shapeshift to reflect the characters’ emotional conflicts — strong stuff). Likewise, Across The Spider-Verse‘s soundtrack doesn’t get to blow us away with a “Sunflower,” the Post Malone and Swae Lee collab that went 18 times platinum while becoming a soundtrack earworm on the scale of “Don’t You Forget About Me” or “Danger Zone.”

So, instead, Metro and friends spread the inescapable catchiness across the tracklist as a whole. In the past seven days, I have been stuck, alternately, on ASAP Rocky and Roisee’s “Am I Dreaming,” whose strings pulsate with emotion; Swae Lee, Nav, and A Boogie wit da Hoodie’s “Calling,” which may mark my first time actually enjoying a Nav song; and Dominic Fike’s deluxe edition addition “Mona Lisa,” the very definition of a bop. My neighbors are undoubtedly sick of all three by now, but I’ve considerately varied the playlist with Future and Lil Uzi Vert’s “All The Way Live,” Offset and JID’s (!!) “Danger (Spider),” and “Silk & Cologne.”

Throughout the album, it’s clear that Metro, like the Sony Pictures Animation studio, stepped up his game tremendously. We’re well used to his thumping 808s and haunting samples by now; this time, he adds soaring strings, blaring, superheroic horns, subtle synths, and sprinkles of dialogue from the film to his formula, crafting candy-coated musical concoctions that sit as easily aside each other as they do the frenetic animation and heartfelt scenes on the screen.

If Enter The Spider-Verse produced one of my favorite superhero film soundtracks, Across The Spider-Verse presents one of the best — no caveats or categories needed. It may not feel as groundbreaking as its predecessor, but it is an album that compels repeat listening and rewards it every time. Tasked with producing a soundtrack worthy of the mighty leap forward the sequel has made, the artist whose oeuvre includes not just one superhero-themed album but two (with another on the way) proves himself up to the Herculean task and, like the film itself, leaves listeners desperate for more.

Metro Boomin Presents Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse is out now on Boominati/Republic.

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

FLO Is Ready For World Domination

For the past year and some change, FLO – the British girl group comprised of singers Stella Quaresma, Jorja Douglas, and Renée Downer – have captured the hearts, attention, and most importantly, the support of people all over the world. One of the most impressive aspects of FLO is that they check off the boxes of music lovers with different tastes from different generations.

Their music sounds like it was made from the 1990s-2000s era of shimmering and theatrical R&B production, enough so that millennials will smile and maybe gain a bit of hope for the kids of today. Their soaring vocals and pristine harmonies will make the R&B traditionalists send a hallelujah or two into the sky in relief that their beloved vocals are still important in the genre. Gen-Z can beam in delight at the sight of girls from their generation who shares similar qualities: the resistance to tradition, being fearlessly outspoken, and having confidence in all the best ways.

FLO has it all, and with that, there’s no denying that they’re ready to take over the world.

The girls’ recent steps have come through the releases of “Fly Girl” with Missy Elliott and “Losing You,” records that both fit the mold of FLO’s DNA despite being polar opposites sonically. “I think they’re quite contrasting and I think that’s kind of what we’re about,” Stella says about these songs over a Zoom call with Uproxx. “We’re very multifaceted.” Similar to their The Lead cut “Another Guy,” “Losing You” leans into the characteristics of an R&B ballad to bid a final goodbye to a past lover who mistreated them in more ways than one and share the relief that came with their exit.

On the other hand, “Fly Girl,” similar to “Summertime,” is steered by the feisty fun that lives in the heart of a lively part. FLO is fierce, confident, and dismissive to anyone and anything that falls short of their reasonably high expectations because, I mean, c’mon, it’s FLO we’re talking about! “I think that they were good contrasting songs to put out one after the other,” Stella says. “That’s also what our album gonna be about, just us and our journey and being honest about everything.”

FLO’s journey began with the release of their debut EP The Lead in the summer of 2022. A viral clip of one of their music videos on Twitter help make them the beloved darlings to fans that they are now, but the music on that project sufficed as the most ideal launching pad toward their current success. “It was quite a journey getting to that list of songs,” Stella says. “We’re proud of it [The Lead] and proud of the songs and proud of the list. We worked really hard to get everything on there to be how we wanted it.”

That work paid off thanks to excellent entries to The Lead like “Not My Job” and “Immature” which once again find insufficient men as the subject their heavenly harmonies dive into. These songs, as well as others like “Cardboard Box,” stand out as the most quality entries, or “bops” as the girls call them, in their discography. Think they can’t top these? FLO has something to tell you about that. “We like the kind of pressure that, [because] we keep putting out bops, we need to top them because we want to grow as artists,” Jorja says. “We just want to keep pushing ourselves because we want to release the best music possible. We don’t feel pressure from anyone else, we just feel a healthy pressure [from ourselves].”

As the saying goes: pressure creates diamonds. Though the girls still have plenty to achieve in their careers, they have successfully created a career that their younger selves would be proud to see. “It’s really important to us that we stay true and honest to ourselves and each other and to the people that we’re working with who have the power over our music,” Jorja says. “The way we carry ourselves through and navigate these situations is something that our younger selves would be really proud of.”

These situations include their first US tour which came to an end at the end of April with a closing show at Los Angeles’ Fonda Theater. Over the course of two weeks, FLO made stops in major cities like Atlanta, New York City, and Chicago to not establish an audience across the pond, but meet and connect with fans who’d been supporting them for months at a minimum.

“I don’t even think that we’ve had time to process how people are receiving like our shows because it’s [been] so fast-paced,” Jorja admits. “As much as we love meeting people, we kind of hate meeting people in that rushed setting where it’s like, this is this person, ‘hi!,’ next person, next person. I don’t feel like we’re actually like connecting with this person and like getting to know them and actually processing the things that they’re saying.”

Despite that, the girls are still taking in and appreciating these moments as best as they can for the circumstance at hand. “We’re very happy that like overall everyone is really enjoying the show,” Jorja added. “We can’t wait for it to be over so we can actually process how amazing the experience has been.”

Now that tour is over, FLO will get back to work on their upcoming debut album. Though details on it are slim, the project is undoubtedly a highly-anticipated follow-up to The Lead and FLO’s ambitions for the alum are just as high as the excitement from fans for it. “I think definitely around the album, a personal goal is for us to create a video that, through and through, we’re really proud of and there’s no doubt about it that this is just the best video that we’ve created,” Jorja says.

Stella’s response was a bit different saying, “It would be really cool to get some cool features on the album with people we’re inspired by” while Reneé notes, “I’m most excited about having a final piece and being able to reflect on the process of getting there. That’s gonna feel really special and be a very key point in our careers and I want to make sure that we’re able to feel the most amazing feelings about it, even though it’s a crazy process and things might go wrong, the outcome, I want us to feel really proud of it.”

FLO has plenty to be proud of and it’s evident with their upcoming album which is one of the more anticipated debuts in recent time. Through this process, the girls have learned lessons and received advice that will be extremely handy in their expansive toolkit. One of them is simple but equally important to their growth: always do your best. “You never know what people are gonna latch on to,” Jorja says. “So you want to make sure that everything you’re doing is something that you’re like 100% proud of.”

Another example comes with the reminder that this is just the beginning of a career that FLO hopes will turn them into household names like Beyoncé and Whitney Houston. “We’re not in full bloom yet,” Jorja says. “We really want people to just stick around and watch us develop and turn into the incredible artists that we know we are deep down inside.” Taking over the world is in FLO’s destiny, and with the cards they have in their deck, Stella, Jorja, and Renée have just what they need to make that a reality.