uproxx interviews

d4vd Is Focused On The Process Of Evolution Rather Than What Might Come From It

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D4vd press photo 2023
N. Walker

d4vd’s rise to fame happened at the speed of light. This hyperbole accurately describes how the 18-year-old Houston native went from an active video gamer who uploaded clips of himself playing Fortnite to YouTube (where he tallied 15 million views in total) to a touring musical act who is set to hit the road with SZA for her second leg of the SOS Tour. It’s all happened in the blink of an eye, but don’t be mistaken, d4vd is extremely talented as his debut EP Petals To Thorns proves.

The nine-track project is one that d4vd used to excellently capture a rise and fall in love. The petals — the first half — represent the good moments, while the thorns and final half of the project capture the bad and the eventual end of the relationship. Just three months after releasing Petals To Thorns, d4vd is back with another project: The Lost Petals. This new body of work contains just five songs and lives as the aftermath of the events on Petals To Thorns.

Together with the arrival of The Lost Petals, Uproxx caught up with d4vd to talk about his rise in the music world, The Lost Petals, touring with SZA, and his future plans for both music and gaming.

You’ve had a quick rise to fame, which can be a bit rattling for anyone. How have you adjusted and does it feel a bit normal now?

Yeah, it’s always been normal. I feel like I’ve acclimated well. I was home-schooled for four years so being outside was like a need for me. I was inside the house for way too long. So as soon as the time came for me to start going on tour, things like that, going on press runs, [and] traveling to different countries, it was like boom, this is what I needed to get out of the house. So I ran with it.

If you had to take all your influences, what qualities would you take from each one to make the artist you are? Like who most inspired your writing? Singing style? Artistic direction?

My biggest writing inspiration isn’t even in music. It’s an author from Japan named Hajime Isayama who wrote Shingeki no Kyojin, most famously known as Attack On Titan. Yeah, so Hajime Isayama for my writing, sonically it’d be Chet Baker and Michael Jackson. My stage presence? Michael Jackson and maybe XXXTentacion.

You’re a couple of months removed from your Petals To Thorns project. What would you say you’re most proud of about it?

The theme. I feel like sonically, it made sense, and the theme was very clear. I tried my best to tell the story with it. Having all the songs made already, without even having the intention of making a project that had to be cohesive, is mind-blowing to me. Everything was already done before I even had an idea of making an EP. But just being me and being a storyteller, it kind of just worked anyway. So I’m very proud of storytelling. Looking at the rose, having the thorns all representing love, just the theme of going through a relationship from top to bottom. It was just cohesive.

Now we have your The Lost Petals project, which fits into the world of Petals To Thorns. Do they fall in line with the original project or would you say this is more of a different perspective?

If we’re talking experience-wise, Petals To Thorns is the concert, you’ve been at the show, and “The Bridge” is leaving the show and now, The Lost Petals is that post-show depression. So it’s very sad, there’s not one single happy song. The way “The Bridge” left off, this [The Lost Petals] picks up and then it’s kind of like the conclusion. It’s like a closing of the book, two chapters being Petals To Thorns and The Lost Petals]. We’re closing that book and we’re moving on after that.

What would you credit most to your success?

My faith in God bro because God did amazing things early on. The way it kind of worked instrumentally with the gaming and everything. It’s like all the full circle moments of me wanting to be a professional esports player so bad that I was like tunnel vision into that one goal. But then, as soon as the copyright strikes hit, the gaming kind of pushed the music and the music started to push the gaming and they kind of worked together and they both went up at the same time. I don’t know, it would not have happened if it weren’t for those copyright strikes.

You’ve had a couple of tours already in your career, and now, you’ll be joining SZA on her SOS North American Tour. What experience do you hope to take from that may be different from the others?

The audience, of course. Playing in front of 10,000-15,000 people, that’s gonna be insane. I feel like getting used to not being so close to the crowd because it gives you a chance to really be a performer. When you’re that close to the crowd, really feeding off of them, but [at arenas], sometimes you can’t see everybody especially when you’re on that big stage and it feels like it’s just you up there. I feel like the nerves kind of go away when you can’t see. I feel like I’ve had the most nerve-wracking experience when I’m playing in front of maybe three people doing a little acoustic performance or even doing a music video shoot. But when it’s that many people it kind of becomes you and I’m just excited to see myself progress in that stage.

Stepping off music for a second, you said that music and gaming have worked hand-in-hand for you. What are some plans you have for the gaming world next?

I want to leak too much, but I literally just left a meeting about gaming. I’m working a lot on Fortnite stuff, the new Fortnite season is dropping, and everybody’s on the game again. Gaming is going back on the radar, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is dropping. I’m working hand in hand and being more in the gaming space and telling a story because that’s where I came from. I’m more of a gamer than a musician, it’s telling that story even more. I’m working on scoring and a lot of soundtracking, too. The thing is with the Fortnite montages, I would make a Fortnite little montage and then make a song for it. So I was really doing scoring before I was even thinking about actually scoring. So having the opportunity to go back into my roots, and just be able to make music for the game that I’m such a fan of is insane to me. Maybe a concert in a Fortnite. A lot of stuff is coming gaming-wise, and 2024 is about to be lit on the controllers.

You’ve achieved a lot in such a short period of time, what are some goals you have for yourself going forward?

I want to make the best music possible. I feel like this past week I made my best music. I feel like I’m finding what I want to do. In terms of the artistry. I produced on a song for the first time two days ago. I’m getting used to being back on the keys playing piano again and finding myself instrumentally. So just becoming a greater artist. I’m not very sentimental, but I really do enjoy the evolution of self rather than the fruits that come from it. I feel like the best goal for me is just to be a better me. So, 2024 is all about evolution. I feel like it’s gonna be very evident in the music, the visuals, and the creative surrounding everything. It’s going to be next level.

The Lost Petals is out now via Darkroom/Interscope Records. Find out more information here.

Pressa Breaks Down The Basics of Wassa Language And All The Ways To Use It

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Just last year, Pressa blessed UPROXX Sessions with his performance of “Blame Me,” where the Ontario rapper reflects on the haters and anybody who switched up on him. But now he’s back to break down Wassa Language, a lingo that you need to adopt.

Pressa kicked it off by telling our very own Cherise Johnson that “wassa” means savage, which is a pretty accurate way to describe some of these next terms.

If you’re trying to do the nasty with someone, you should ask them if they want to “oneaz.” If you feel like someone is trying to finesse you, ask them why they are “kawaling” you like that.

Wassa language also has a term that you can use for the next time you hop in the smoke session. Instead of asking somebody to pass you the weed, ask them to pass the “deadmihanna,” which can also be shortened into “deadmi.”

And the term that you can probably get the most usage out of is “crodie,” which is basically just brodie with a c.

Watch Pressa’s Wassa Language with UPROXX below.

In addition to being the resident expert on the latest lingo, Pressa released a single “Unfollow Me” last month and is currently on the Canadian leg of “The Final Lap Tour” with 50 Cent and Jeremih.

Rob49 Is On The Verge Of Greatness With ‘4GODII’

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rob49 godii interview
Ivan Eremin / Derrick Rossignol

Rob49 has only been rapping seriously for around three years, but he’s already on the verge of his big breakout. In the past year, the New Orleans native has fielded a steady stream of impressive opportunities and made the most of them. He joined the recent spate of rappers doing hype videos for their hometown sports teams — in his case, the Saints — and landed a string of high-profile feature placements, performing alongside the likes of G Herbo, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Trippie Redd, and most recently, Travis Scott.

That last one, “Topia Twins” from Travis’ long-awaited album Utopia is certainly the one that puts Rob on the launching pad. His fuel? A charismatic, languid flow peppered with smart wordplay and cold-eyed remembrances of life in the trenches. His stabilizers (i.e. the thing that’ll keep him at the forefront of street rap for a while): His hard-won business savvy and a gift for code-switching bestowed by his time in the National Guard after high school, an experience he says saved his life.

And the spark that’ll likely ignite his ascent into the stratosphere is 4GODII and its newly released deluxe edition. Adding ten new songs to an already hard-hitting tracklist containing features from G Herbo, Icewear Vezzo, NoCap, and Trippie Redd, Rob showcases more of his seemingly unstoppable drive and bottomless well of sharp observations and eyebrow-raising wordplay. Already something of a fixture around Uproxx — check out his New Orleans food guide and UPROXX Sessions performance — Rob linked with us via Zoom to break down the theme of 4GODII, his new favorite restaurants, and how Travis Scott surprised him with his collaboration request.

This year has been an incredible breakout for you. What would you count as the biggest difference between 2023 and 2022?

Just the amount of music I’m ready to drop. Last year, I wasn’t comfortable dropping no music, but this year I understand: “They like you, so it’s whatever you come out with, they’re going to like it, so just go.” I think that was one of my biggest things that I should have did in 2022 that I didn’t do. But this year, it’s just I feel like I could drop anything.

It’s interesting to hear you say that because some of the profiles I’ve read, you were described as kind of a cool kid, and you have such confidence in your delivery. Why do you think you felt that sense of, I don’t know, reluctance or shyness or self-consciousness about putting your music out?

I just like being a perfectionist, and I had to realize everything not going to be perfect. I just was trying to perfect everything, just trying to jump from zero to 100 when instead I could have jumped from 0 to 20, 20 to 40, 40 to 60, 80 to 100. But now I understand that so that’s what we’re doing.

What’s been your favorite opportunity that’s come along as a result of your big step-up in the past year?

I think my favorite opportunity was probably being on Billboard, making a Billboard debut because yesterday my song debuted at No. 17. I just was sitting back like, “Damn, you going to look at this 10 years from now and be like, ‘This the time for you.’” So that’s probably one of my things that I was looking forward to.

I was listening to the tape, and it is just so hard hitting that it feels to me like the car tape, where you just put that in the car and just cruise. Is that the vibe that you were going for with that?

That’s really the vibe I went for because I’m like, “Man, I don’t make car music. I need to make some car music.” I told you I was trying to perfect everything. I’m trying to make music that people like. Now I’m like, “Man, this hard right here. This what we going with. We going uptempo, we going crazy.”

What was your childhood like growing up in New Orleans? What were you like as a kid?

Honestly, I think I got ADHD because in school… I look back at it, bro, I could never chill. I was always in trouble. I remember thinking to myself, “Alright, when I go to school today… I get put out every day. I’m going to be good and not get put out.” I ain’t never want to be extra bad. I wanted to be the smart kid, but I just was bad in school for some reason.

I don’t think any of us was ever really bad. I think some of us were just funny. I think a lot of teachers just couldn’t handle funny kids.

Nah, I ain’t going to lie. I used to be doing a lot of bad shit.

Was that when you decided to start rapping? Or what was the song that you heard? You said that it was something like a Future song.

It was all his music. I used to listen to it and just rap at the end. You know they got a little beat left? I used to just put my own lyrics there and be like, man, I go crazy on here. That’s why a lot of my ad libs turn the way they do in the middle of my shit. Just doing that.

Do you remember who the first person was that got you in a studio and really started making it real for you?

Probably my partner. He was the first person got me in the studio ever. He was making music, and he went and got some food. I told him the song was trash. He like, “You make one.” I wound up making one, and it was just that. He’s like, “Man, this what we doing now.”

I read that you spent some time in the National Guard. What can you tell me about your time in the National Guard?

I’ll tell you everything about it. I ain’t going to lie. It was one of the funnest times in my life, but sometimes I wish I never did it, though. Coming straight out of high school, I went straight there just because I wanted free college. I went and I came home. And I was looking at all my peers and shit, and I was just a different person.

I had missed so much. I had stopped doing stuff for so long, I just was a different person. But I ain’t going to lie, I feel like it saved my life though because the stuff I was doing before I went there, if I would’ve went into that summer or that next year, keep doing what I was doing, I probably wouldn’t have been here today, period.

What are the biggest lessons or takeaways from your time in the National Guard that you apply to your musical approach today?

Just being aware and being able cater to all crowds. In the National Guard they got different races, they got different ages, and you able to fit in everywhere. Right now, I’m able to fit in everywhere because I done been in all different type of rooms. Before I even went to the National Guard, I was in the trap room so I learned that room already. Now you go to this and you got to change everything. I go rapping, I know them rooms, and I got a whole collage of things I can always bring to life. They got a lot of n****s in the hood who can’t even express that shit.

That definitely is something I catch through the music because you do have a clever way with words that shows that you really put thought into it. I can see you probably ending up on tour by the end of this year. Is there something that you’re looking forward to the most going on tour?

I just want to go on tour with Travis Scott. That’s about it.

Speaking of Travis Scott, what can you tell me about how that song came together and how its reception has impacted you?

I ain’t going to lie. It just impacted me so much. We go pull up, and the first day, we was just talking. He bring me to the club, we went crazy in the club. Then sometime I wind up coming back down there, and we about to go pull up on Travis. I’m going over there to chill just like we did last time. We go straight to the studio. He like, “You ready to make a song?” I’m like, “What the fuck, nigga? Yeah. What the fuck is you talking about?”

He played me this shit with him and Pharrell. He played me this shit with him and The Weeknd. And he telling me I can get on any of this, I can play with any of this. And then he played “Topia Twins,” but it was structured so different. It was just a mellow song, how his mellow songs be, and he say, “Twin bitches, twin bitches jumping off jet ski.” I said, “Give me this right here and put this up here. Cut the beat right here. This the song we’re going to start it from right here.” And that’s what we did. We really made that motherfucker.

I haven’t seen anybody ask you, well, at least not in any of the print interviews I’ve read, about Vulture Island. What is the concept of Vulture Island?

It was just me and my partners just looking for a name. We liked vulture. That’s what we came up with. We wasn’t thinking too hard about it or nothing. We liked vultures. And then we was in the studio. We were just banging it for two years straight. And we was in the studio making “Vulture Island.” We had beaucoup people in there and I remember just saying real trap stuff about Vulture Island. I was like, that’s crazy because to us, this is like an island. This is my 10 partners, and we ain’t going outside this island.

So it’s been a crazy year for you. If and/or when we get on another call, we get on Zoom again and we’re talking and catching up and you just say, “Hey Aaron, the craziest thing happened over this past year,” what do you want to be able to tell me next year?

I just want to stay consistent. That’s it. I don’t want to have no expectations for myself because that’s when I thought to myself, “Am I doing it right?” I just want to keep going, keep dropping music that you like. If they do wind up liking you, at least they’re going to like you for you.

4GODII (Deluxe) is out now via Rebel/Geffen Records. Get it here.

Kid Capri Is One Of One

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Kid Capri
Paul Peteyshotya Jacobs

As an innovator, originator, and pioneer of the art of DJing in hip-hop, Kid Capri has been around long enough that he doesn’t need to prove anything. Throughout his several decades in the genre, Capri, who was raised in The Bronx, honed his DJ skills at a young age, eventually mastering other creative outlets like producing and rapping. His quick rise led to him gaining national recognition for being the live DJ on Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam for seven years. Capri embodies the elements of hip-hop because he lives and breathes the culture, becoming the blueprint for longevity and building a successful brand in entertainment.

As far as introducing techniques, Kid Capri was an early adopter of extending the record, bringing the record back, and teasing the records to crowds. Capri backs his contributions to DJing with more examples. “Playing the records from different parts than what would normally be played from, playing the record 15 times back-to-back like I did with ‘Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See,’” Capri says. “That’s how DJs started doing that on the radio. Playing records fast, putting it on, taking it off in the fourth bar. All these different things you see DJs do right now: Kid Capri.”

The proof of his icon status was seen at this year’s BET Awards, where he curated a celebration of the 50 Years of Hip-Hop through musical medleys across all generations and pulled it off in a way only he could’ve done. 2023 continues to be an active year for Kid Capri as he’s featured on Hip Hop 50 Live at Yankee Stadium on August 11 for the Bronx Bombers set with A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and Fat Joe. He’s also back in the studio working on his next album More Love as well as appearing on tracks by Daz Dillinger and Lil Eazy E (“Ridin”), Ron Browz (“Stay With Me”), 5ive Mics (“I’m a Rap Star Remix”), Dave East (“Come 2 Far”), and an unreleased Black Rob collab from Life Story 2, produced by Deric “D-Dot” Angelettie.

Kid Capri remains a household name because he’s always on the road, giving fans plenty of dates to catch him behind the 1s and 2s live. You can hear him on Kid Capri’s Block Party on Sirius XM Fly on the weekends, bringing throwbacks with new tracks that end with a special Block Party mix. His status has been built off being a Grammy winner, producing for Jay-Z, Heavy D, Madonna, 50 Cent, and more. He’s been the touring DJ for Diddy, Aaliyah, Salt-N-Pepa, and Timbaland. Kendrick Lamar once reached out to feature him on his Pulitzer Prize-winning album DAMN. All of this to say that Kid Capri’s career knows no bounds, a constant force within hip-hop’s 50 years who remains humble and thankful to still be here.

Let’s put a number on this now. How long have you been doing this?

Since I was eight years old. I’ve been known for 35 years.

I ask because on your album The Tape, you have this song called “Don’t Sweat Me” where you saw you’re the hardest working man in hip-hop. After all these years, you’re still living up to that.

Absolutely. Thank you. I appreciate that.

Why haven’t you slowed down? What keeps you motivated?

I genuinely love what I do. I know that me being a DJ in this business was always an uphill battle. They always look at DJs as the bottom of the totem pole, except when hip-hop first started. DJs were the front guy; records came in, and the rapper had to be the front guy. They pushed the DJs to the back. So that’s when I became my own one-man band and didn’t need anybody in front of me. I could do every myself and I just needed the world to see it. And fortunately enough by the grace of God, a TV show called Def Comedy Jam fell on my lap so I could show the world that and I just took it from there. That’s where all the DJs followed, they followed what I did, speaking on the mic the way I do and everything I do. And it just created a whole new thing. That’s just one of the things I did. But it all comes from me, staying focused on it and knowing exactly what I want, and also being a fan as well as the deliverer.

With The Love, you wrote, produced, and rapped on it. Why do you not want to be put in a box?

This is the reason why I don’t have “DJ” on my name. When you see “Kid Capri,” you see Kid Capri. You don’t see “DJ Kid Capri.” The reason why is it puts you in a box. It makes people think that’s all that you do. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if you’re a person with many talents, why would you be put in a box? Look at 50 Cent, he’s not just a rapper. He’s a director, he’s a producer, he owns a clothing company. He’s got things going on. He’s not just one thing. When we get into this music business, we do what we do to bring everything else to what we do. If you are a person that wants to open a restaurant, do you not want to open a restaurant because you’re a DJ or bass player or a drummer or a singer? No! You shouldn’t be stuck in no box and nobody should tell you to stay in a box. The sky is not the limit it is just the first stop.

When we think of Kid Capri, we think of your contributions to mixtape culture. A lot of people credit you for making a profit off your mixtapes. When did you realize that you could make money off them?

Well, I was doing that when I was in the SNS Club with Starchild. We was doing some tapes, and people would come and buy them right there. When it became something different was when I decided to sit on the street corner and sell my tapes. First of all, the $20 me and Starchild was making, we would have to split. Now I’m by myself, that whole $20 is coming to me. People were walking up, ‘why would I buy a tape for $20?’ Listen to my tape in the beginning, you’re going to buy everything I have. Because that’s how I made it. I made it so people were there while I was making it. When you heard it in your car, you felt you was a part of it and it felt like you was at a party even though most of the tapes that was made was in my hallway. But you felt you was in a club somewhere. The things I would say and the music I would play that other people wasn’t knowing about. Just the way I did things, it became so infectious around the world that it just stuck.

My generation would say DJ Drama is the person we look up to as a pioneer in the mixtape game. What about the other pioneers in your class? What have they done to influence it?

I don’t know what everybody else is doing, you know what I’m saying? I just stick to what I’m doing. I will say this: DJ Drama has done tremendously great picking up the torch and moving in the direction he moved. Because when I stopped making the tapes, I didn’t stop because I fell off. I stopped because I was the Michael Jordan of making the tapes. I just stopped because they said I was making all this money for making these illegal street tapes. So I said, ‘You know what? I made a name already. Let me take my career and go a different way.’ I just left at the top of my game. The last tape was the Doo Wop diss. I was on fire and I just left. I started television, I started all the other things and took my career to a more serious direction. Ater that, Clue, Drama, and everybody else came in and took the torch and did what they did. But had I kept going, there would still be a Drama, Clue, and everybody but I still would’ve been one of them dudes at the top.

You’re known for allowing DJs to be viewed as artists. Can you elaborate on how you did that? You’ve talked about this before if you’re on stage killing it for two hours, you need to be paid the same way as an artist.

Why should the DJ get treated any different? Why isn’t the DJ on the front cover of a magazine? Now it is, but all these years I had to fight for it, I would have to say no to a lot of things that people was giving to me because they thought I needed it. No. I’m not doing this, I’m not doing that. I had to stay at a certain level to let people know how serious it is and how we got to be looked at. You’re not going to look at me as someone just playing records. I’ma bust whoever’s ass that got the big platinum record. I’ma make it hard for him on that stage in this arena. So you’re gonna give me the same type of respect. You’re gonna pay me the same kind of way. You might not pay me the same as the platinum dude, but you’re going to pay me respectfully the way I’m supposed to. I don’t want no more than what I’m worth. I want what I’m worth, no more no less. So if you can’t give me that, then you don’t respect what I’m doing. What’s any difference between me playing turntables and Stevie Wonder playing the piano?

Right.

What’s the difference? It’s a talent. It’s something I am doing. So you’re going to look at the DJs as less then because they’re playing records? It’s the way we play them. It’s what we do that make people feel the way they do. Why shouldn’t we be respected? Why on the flyer on some of these festivals, they are at the bottom of the flyer? Why? You won’t see me at no bottom of no flyer! I rather not take the show. I rather you keep your show before you not respect my position. Very known thing, I was supposed to do the TLC tour with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. But the promoters thought I was less than. They had TLC real big as they should be, they had Bone Thugs medium, and they had Kid Capri real small. So I said, ‘Ok, end the tour.’ And I deaded the whole tour because of a flyer. I had to take those types of stands in order for people to take it serious. If I gotta take from myself to say no for people to take it serious, then I’ll deprive myself just to make sure I make my statement.

You’ve been immortalized in many songs like Biggie’s “Juicy,” worked with Big L on “Put It On.” What do those shouts out mean to you?

Well, I’ll tell you this. I’ve been shouted on many, many songs. The one Biggie shouted me out on. The one Greg Nice shouted me out on. The one Parrish from EPMD shouted me out on, “Crossover.” All of those are hit records, but there’s a lot of records that I’ve been shouted out on that wasn’t hit records. To be shouted out on all those records and did all these records, produced for Heavy D’s “Nuttin’ But Love” and wrote half of it. I produced for Madonna. I did Jay-Z’s “It’s Like That.” All these different records I did, “Rowdy Rowdy” with 50 Cent. To get a call from Kendrick Lamar in 2017 to be on his album and narrate his album, that shows right there the growth of everything I’ve done. I ain’t have to say nothing else. When me and him were in the studio, I asked him ‘why didn’t you get Battlecat and Pooh? Two West Coast legends to be on the album?’ He’s like, ‘Nah, love those dudes. Those are my dudes but I know what you did for the music business. I know what you did for the DJ. I know what you did authentically and that’s what I want on my album.’ So this young dude knew the story. I didn’t have to tell him, he knew what it was. He put me on this album that put me in countries that I never been to before. He put my voice in countries I never been to before, so he brought me to a whole new generation of people that might not even heard of a Kid Capri or don’t know what Kid Capri is about, or haven’t had the Kid Capri experience. He brought me to those people. I wish we could’ve did a lot more like concerts and tours. He didn’t need me, of course. But if we would have been together, it would have been insane. Because I’m on the only hip-hop, Pulitzer Award-winning album, a milestone was made when we did that. So I’m grateful for that.

This is a loaded question: what made you fall in love with hip-hop?

The same reason everybody else do. You can’t help it. It is entertaining. I would not want to be born in the ’50s, ’40s, and the ’30s. I was born at the right time where I came right in the middle of the meat of everything. Everything dope. I’m in that. My dad’s a soul singer. My grandfather played trumpet for all the big guys. It’s always been there. So it was inevitable for me to do [music]. I grew up with it and I gave my whole life to it. When somebody is like really dedicated without even knowing they are dedicated, you can’t beat them. You can’t never outdo them. You can’t outwork them because they’re dedicated without even thought.

You’re always wanting to create opportunities for other people. Not a lot of people in this industry want to do that, to bring the next generation up.

Well because some people get stuck in an old-school way of thinking. They don’t want it to go nowhere, they don’t want the shine off of them. They think if the younger man comes in, he’s going to take away from you. No. There’s only one Kid Capri. You can have a million people try to be Kid Capri, but there’s only one Kid Capri. There’s only one Jay-Z. There’s only one Busta Rhymes. There’s only one Nas. There’s only one Eminem. That’s it. So, that’s you, forever. Nobody can take that away.

Flyana Boss Are Proving That ‘Weird Black Girls’ Run Hip-Hop – Literally

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flyana boss interview
SJ Spreng/Derrick Rossignol

If you’re out in public and notice a pair of colorfully-clad Black girls just take off running while rapping about synonyms, Kanekalon, and cinnamon, don’t panic. That’s probably just Flyana Boss, the rising new rap duo currently taking over timelines with an endless supply of video clips promoting their ultra-viral June single, “You Wish.”

When I say “taking over,” I mean it. The group’s videos, in which they run toward the camera while rapping their cheeky lyrics, are bound to appear on nearly every social media platform’s endless scroll with enough swiping. And, given every platform has adopted some version of TikTok’s signature move, that’s a lot of engagement for the quirky duo. The places they’ve taken over include a grocery store, the Happiest Place on Earth, and even the headquarters of Google and TikTok.

Now, they’re facing down the bog standard accusations of being “industry plants” — they’ve been signed since 2019, but are only just now gaining traction despite what they call some “baby viral” moments. Obviously, it takes a while to catch on, and once you do, the haters are bound to come calling.

@flyanaboss

Replying to @jj_doodles8 okay now where?! 🏰💜💕🙃🙃🙃 #flyanaboss #evanblummadeit

♬ You Wish – Flyana Boss

But what struck me about the duo — which consists of two best friends, Folayan Kunerede of Dallas (she’s the one with bleached eyebrows usually wearing elf ears) and Bobbi LaNea (swimmin’ in deals like Michael Phelps) from Detroit — is just how keyed-in they appear to be with not only the youth zeitgeist, but also the true spirit of old-school hip-hop.

During a Zoom interview with Flyana Boss, I mention how their creative incorporation of nursery rhymes harkens back to a simpler time, echoing the back-and-forth rhymes of groups like Run-DMC or Beastie Boys. They note in return that it’s all intentional. With the 50th anniversary of hip-hop coming up, their sudden glow-up appears to be very much right on time.

Throughout our interview, it’s clear that their friendship is no gimmick or label-forged connection. These two genuinely enjoy each other, bouncing off each other’s energy for a fun, kinetic conversation that covers everything from viral fame to anime. For a pair of self-declared “weird Black girls” who insist they’re introverts, they prove as captivating in conversation as their viral videos.

@flyanaboss

#duet with @kevonstage THIS IS CRAZY!!! TYSM TO EVERYONE USING OUR SONG 😭😭😭 WE LOVE KEV😭😭😭😭🦋❤️‍🔥 #flyanaboss

♬ You Wish – Flyana Boss

How do people react when you just take off running in these public places?

Folayan: So we’re in the mode, so we don’t really pay attention.

Bobbi: We’re laser vision.

Folayan: But we notice that people usually move out of our way. That’s one. Smile or…

Bobbi: And every now and then it’s like, “Stop running.”

Has anyone recognized you before you started running and been like, “It’s those girls, it’s those girls?”

Bobbi: Yes, absolutely.

Folayan: So every time we run, we at least get three people come up to us either before or after, during, whatever, just to say, “Oh my God, I love you guys.”

Bobbi: Or “Y’all about to run? Are y’all about to run?” And we’re like, “Yeah.”

Folayan: You’ll be like, “You want to be in the video?”

The thing that really caught my attention when I started seeing you guys over and over again was the look. I think that people are attracted to the look of the group, particularly the elf ears. You look like you escaped from Anime Expo and you’re trying to get away as hard as you can. What inspires the look behind you guys’ elf ears, bleached eyebrows?

Folayan: Yeah, exactly. I love anime.

Bobbi: She’s an anime queen.

Folayan: We also just love the beauty supply.

Bobbi: Beauty supply stores, seeing new packs of hair, seeing new accessories. So it’s just whatever we’re feeling at that time.

Folayan: But we’ve always decorated ourselves throughout our whole entire lives.

Bobbi: And it’s an important expression for both of us.

Folayan: Especially being from African descent, decorating yourself, it’s been a part of our culture for centuries. We just add colors in it and stuff.

Bobbi: We just modernize.

I actually asked this cousin of mine who I love dearly with all my heart, what questions she would ask you guys. Because she thinks you guys are the best. She wants to know what kind of nerdy stuff you guys are into, and if you are, what fictional world would you want to run through for “You Wish?”

Bobbi: That’s a good question. She is really more traditionally nerdy than I am. I nerd out over Motown documentaries and stuff like that.

Folayan: But she’s a pop history nerd.

Bobbi: I nerd out on music stats and facts.

Folayan: And how people developed their careers. And she can tell you stories about Marilyn Monroe.

Bobbi: Everyone. So that’s what I nerd out. But she is like a traditional… You have traditional nerd things like anime.

Folayan: Or video games. So I think I would want to run through, there’s a video game called League of Legends. So I would want to run through the League of Legends Rift, the world.

Bobbi: I would want to run through Oz, but The Wiz Oz.

After watching both Arcane and The Wiz, both of those are a “no” for me. Flyana Boss is such a cool name. I’m always a big fan of rap names that are puns of real people’s names. Are you allowed to reveal which of you came up with Flyana Boss, and what were some of the rejected names?

Folayan: So Bobbi came up with Flyana Boss. She had a dream, and she woke up and there’s this poster of Diana Ross in her room. And so she was like, “Flyana Boss.” But the other contenders were Double Dare.

Bobbi: Double D, because we’re both from D cities.

Folayan: Halle Berry.

Bobbi: Just Halle Berry. Right out, no pun.

That just would have been confusing!

Bobbi: Do you remember? I think I wrote down Flower Power or something like that too. Wow. I had this notebook when I was by myself writing out these names and seeing how they looked.

Folayan: You probably still have it.

Bobbi: I probably have it somewhere. But I woke up from this slumber after we were brainstorming all day, and then I was like, “Diana Ross. Flyana Boss.” And it just came to me. And I texted her right away. I was like, “What do you think of Flyana Boss?”

Folayan: I was like, “Love it.” She actually said Cryana Boss or Flyana Boss, because we’re emotional beings. But we were like, “Let’s go on the positive side and let’s go Flyana Boss.”

So while “You Wish” is the one that’s getting a lot of attention, I did go back and scan through the discography proper. There’s this one called “Miss Me” that I thought was really, really fun. Can you tell me a little bit more about that one?

Bobbi: We wrote it during Covid.

Folayan: My brother produced it alongside with our executive producer, Marky Style. And it’s just a silly fun song. I love Shrek. So there’s a part in Shrek where they’re like, “They’ll grind his bones to make your bread.”

Bobbi: No, there’s so many good lines in there.

Folayan: So we were just like, “Let’s go fairytale. Let’s go just bad bitch fairytale.”

Bobbi: This is one of the songs, this is our voice memo days. So she pulled the beat up that her brother sent, got on her phone, and rapped, “Fee fi fo fum.” And then she sent it to me. I’m like, “This shit is hard. I need to write another verse right now.” So then that’s how that went.

Folayan: And so this was our first little bubbly moment on social media.

Bobbi: We call it baby viral. That’s when we went baby viral.

It reminded me a lot of the olden days of hip-hop. So you guys probably think I’m old, but I remember when I thought Run-DMC was back in the day. And they used to just rap nursery rhyme stuff. There’s this wholesome back-to-basics approach that you guys are almost supplying.

Folayan: There’s a Run-DMC song, it’s like, “Peter Piper picked a pepper, but Run rapped rhymes…” We love studying the old stuff that’s also very quirky and cool.

Bobbi: And we like paying tribute to what hip-hop truly is. Also, we like making puns too, in references to all these fairytales. We love that because it’s something familiar to the ear.

That’s what I like to hear. I like it when there’s an exchange between the generations rather than, “You kids need to grow up,” and “Well, you old people need to let us live.”

Bobbi: We don’t feel that way about any. We love the old school. We love what people are doing now. I’m sure when we’re old, we’re going to love what the kids are doing. We’re not judgy like that. It’s expression. It’s music. Wow, it’s such a great opportunity to be able to create music in itself. So, anybody who does that, my hat goes off to you.

Folayan: And the hip-hop world is so eclectic and beautiful and silly and fun.

Bobbi: It’s not just one thing.

Folayan: It’s not just serious all the time. It’s a whole world. So we’re happy we can be even a little bit part of it.

So what makes y’all “weird Black girls?”

Folayan: We just feel like we have a lot of quirks. We don’t necessarily fit the archetype that’s being painted in mainstream media of what Black girls are or who Black girls are.

Bobbi: Exactly. Blackness in general is not a monolith at all. We come in all different shapes and sizes just like any other group. But it does seem like sometimes, especially for Black women, it’s an even narrower viewpoint that you get. So we want to represent everything outside of that narrow box.

Folayan: And there’s so many of us everywhere, and I think that’s why it’s taking off right now because there’s so many of us.

Bobbi: Which is what we wanted. We always knew there was an audience out there for us, even though we don’t do stripper rap or gangster rap. We knew there was an audience out there. So every time we see people make a video —

Folayan: It’s so cool.

Bobbi: It’s so exciting because they look like us. They’re weird like us.

DDG Accepts His Role As The Villain On ‘Maybe It’s Me’

by
DDG Maybe Its Me Interview
epic records/uproxx

When I listened to “Famous,” the opening track off DDG’s latest EP release, Maybe It’s Me, for the first time, it felt like reading the artist’s diary. The first lines left me feeling like I shouldn’t know any of this — but I couldn’t put it down.

In “Famous,” the Pontiac, Michigan rapper describes being insecure about his relationship with his girlfriend Halle Bailey. He raps, “The hardest thing I ever did was fall in love with a famous b*tch,” exposing the feelings of jealousy that he felt while she was promoting her film The Little Mermaid, and shares some of his fleeting thoughts of sabotage. While some folks would take those secrets to the grave (the backlash he’s receiving showing exactly why), he’s taking the toxic vulnerability path of Drake and Future. The overall arching theme of Maybe It’s Me is DDG embracing being the villain.

“I feel like my last project is basically, me going from playing the victim to me being the villain,” DDG told Uproxx the day of the EP’s release. “Accepting the role as a villain.” In an interview with DDG as he shopped for jewelry on Rodeo Drive, the controversial rapper detailed his TikTok-favorite single “I’m Geekin” and the controversy surrounding “Famous.”

Why do you think that people have started to not like you?

I honestly don’t know, to be honest.

Is it surprising for you?

To be real. It used to be, but now it’s kind of whatever, it is what it is. It’s just the internet. I see a lot of artists get hated on.

When I first heard “Famous,” the first thing I wanted to know was if Halle heard it before you put it out.

Yeah, she heard it.

She was okay with you putting it on the project?

Yeah. It’s just music. Sometimes I exaggerate situations purposely for the sake of the song. I think I’m going to just stop trolling. They can’t handle my humor, so I’m gonna just chill, drop music, and let it ride out.

@uproxx

my man my man my man 🗣 #hallebailey #ddg #littlemermaid #halleandddg #miamiheat #verified #fyp

♬ original sound – UPROXX Music – UPROXX Music

You recently mentioned in a vlog how you wanted to start taking music more seriously and stop making the kind of videos you’re known for and on “Hard On Myself” you say: “Doin’ videos on the ‘net, but I’d rather just rap / One day, I’ma take that leap of faith and just focus on that.”

What’s holding you back from taking that leap of faith, outside the YouTube money?

It is just like – that’s how a lot of people might fall off in a way. They try to abandon what they are, where they got solid, for something that could work out or couldn’t. But, I just really want to do music. I’m just passionate about it. I ain’t tripping on no money or no shit. I just want to see how far I can do the music stuff.

I also want to also talk about the sound of the project because some of the songs like “Rizz” and “Rambo” sound like the early SoundCloud rap era. Is that what you were going for?

Nah, I wouldn’t say that vibe. I’d say I just got a few songs that are more specifically for performance. Then I got some songs that are more experimental, like the “Famous” song. It’s like a UK garage/hip-hop beat — a new sound that I was trying out. You got the slow joints, but the ones that were hyped are for performance.

“Hard on Myself” is nice. What made you record a song like that? Do you have more songs like that?

I don’t. That’s the only song I made like that. That’s where I feel like I am seeing what people like. They like that intellectual, lyrical, slow melody vibe. I feel like since the wintertime coming up I need to get something out for that time. I’m just locking in on that sound.

Since the internet jokes that they can’t name five DDG songs, what are five songs people should add to their playlist to get to know who you are musically?

I would say “I’m Geekin,” “Treat Me Right,” “Stay in My Circle,” “Impatient” and “Elon Musk.”

Tell me what it was like when you linked up with Luh Tyler for the first “I’m Geekin” remix.

That was lit. He’s a cool dude. It was dope. Good vibes. We got in the studio before. He hit me up to hop on the remix and sent me his verse back ASAP. It was like two days.

How did the “I’m Geekin” remix with Bia and NLE Choppa happen?

Choppa told me he wanted to get on it and then my A&R sent it to Bia. But, we are all cool though.

When Lady Gaga posted a TikTok to “I’m Geekin,” was that expected?

No, that was definitely the most unexpected thing.

You have a tweet that says female rappers are winning. Which five are you checking for right now?

I’d say Bia, Cardi B, Latto, Coi Leray, and Nicki Minaj.

Considering the song “Pioneer” and your journey so far, would you say you are creating your own kind of blueprint?

Yeah, I would say so. I feel like what I’m doing is extremely difficult. That’s why it hasn’t been done at my magnitude yet.

In a past interview with Uproxx, you said you wanted to know what it felt like to be Drake, Lil Baby, 50 Cent, and Diddy. You said, “I want to know what it feels like and I’m chasing that experience.” How close to that do you feel like you are?

I don’t know. I feel like I’m pretty far. I don’t look at any of my accomplishments and be like, “Oh, I’m getting closer.” I feel like my success has no limit. It’s hard for me to gauge how close I am to anything. I feel like when you get older it’s like, in the music industry especially, you don’t want to rap your whole life. You want to be able to have a catalog where you can also do other sh*t.

Is there an album next or will there be a third installment to this It’s Not Me It’s You, Maybe It’s Me, toxic series?

No, I’m working on the album. I’m going to put out a real album with a good amount of songs. One solid consistent sound. I have been talking to OG Parker about a Die 4 Respect 2 project. That might come about at some point.

Maybe It’s Me is out now via Epic Records.

Mahalia Is Putting Herself First In Music And ‘In Real Life’

by
Mahalia 2023 press image
Atlantic Records

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 someone whose debut album is titled Love And Compromise, there isn’t much compromising on Mahalia’s second album IRL (In Real Life). The British singer laughs as I make note of this during our Zoom call as she heads to LAX for a flight back home after a month in the States.

It’s been four years since Mahalia released Love And Compromise, and since that album’s release, the singer and the rest of the world have gone through a lot. In credit to things like the obvious effects of the pandemic as well as more personal experiences, Mahalia, now 25 years old, is far removed from the 21-year-old woman who released that breakthrough collection.

Growing up is just one of the things that allowed her to make IRL. “Therapy got me here for sure,” she adds. “Therapy was probably the biggest catalyst for me. I think it was the one thing that really allowed me to understand myself. That’s why making this album was so interesting because I really felt like I was reflecting the whole time.”

Throughout the 13 songs that make up IRL, Mahalia couldn’t be more aware of herself and her surroundings and both the good and bad within them. She’s so deeply in love with Stormzy on “November” that she fears missing a moment of this romance by blinking or dozing off into sleep. “Isn’t It Strange” highlights the contradicting moments in her behavior but she blankets it with nonchalance as to do nothing more than acknowledge its existence. It’s a level of honesty and bluntness that emphasizes the “real” aspect of the album title. “I think that’s why this album maybe means so much to me because I think it actually does feel like diary entries,” she says.

Elsewhere, we meet the new Mahalia, the one who refuses to compromise for the things she wants. The one who lays down “Terms And Conditions” for love and warns that a potential lover will have to endure a vetting process conducted by her closest girls. The same who one found the courage to say “It’s Not Me, It’s You” to a man who made her wrongly believe that she was insufficient for a relationship. Despite this, Mahalia admits that often slips back to her old ways. “Even sometimes, now I find myself compromising on things and going, ‘what the f*ck am I doing?” Mahalia notes. “Like this is not what I’ve agreed with myself.”

Mahalia doesn’t attempt to hide the moments she goes against her own terms and conditions on IRL, and it’s that authenticity that adds to the album. After four years without an album, the British singer could have presented herself as a flawless woman who learned from her past to conquer anything her future threw her way. Instead, we get the very real back-and-forth moments of laying firm rules on “Terms And Conditions” all to hopefully bend them on “In My Head” with Joyce Wrice. “Wassup” with Kojey Radical celebrates freedom from an insufficient lover with a fun night on the town all for “Lose Lose” to follow and present Mahalia’s reluctance to put herself first and end a relationship that is riddled with too many problems. Through these instances, you may think that Mahalia is a bit fearful of change, but it was quite the opposite for her.

“My partner and I have now been together for coming up on three years,” she says. “Before that, I only made it to about 10 or 11 months, three times. When I got to that point with my partner, I remember having an internal freakout because I was like I don’t think I can go past that point or I’m feeling like I need to change and feeling like I need to alter something so that I can grow artistically.”

That feeling didn’t last too long as Mahalia admits that she’s “very scared of change now.” She is currently working towards splitting her time between homes in New York and London, a transition that she admits “freaked” her out at its start. “As you get older and figure out your comfort and the things that make you bounce, I think you don’t really want to change that because it’s taken you 25 years to find that sweet spot.”

This relationship has also allowed Mahalia, for the first time in her career, to create an album from the perspective of someone in a stable relationship. Staying on the topic of change, it’s been quite an adjustment for her to write from this new point of view. “I’m so used to just writing about the guys that do the sh*tty things and the guys that leave,” she says. “This was the time to be able to talk about all the intricacies of long-term relationships. They are just as crazy as being single and dating and being in the streets.” It’s a change that Mahalia not only fully embraced, but enjoyed as well. “The process itself was really, genuinely fun. Like, just really fun,” she admits. “I laughed [and] cried a lot while I was writing and creating, and I think that’s maybe why I’m so proud of it.”

During an interview with Evening Standard earlier this year, Mahalia admitted that she “probably wouldn’t have written this same album” if not for the pandemic. It’s an unsurprising note from the singer for a few reasons. First, the pandemic change a lot of things in a lot of areas for people all over the world, changes that were temporary and others that were permanent. Secondly, Mahalia’s almost three-year relationship means that it began in the heart of the pandemic, so who knows how it would’ve existed, if at all, if not for this time that forced the world to come to a standstill. These points aside, Mahalia also credits the “post”-pandemic moments for helping her find a direction for her sophomore album.

“Through the pandemic, we obviously couldn’t go into studios and stuff,” she recalls. “So when, when that time was over, I was working with loads of different people. I wasn’t really taking the time to sit and think, ‘This is my second album, what do I want to say?’ So after that immediate rush of being outside again, I decided that I kind of wanted that. I missed that feeling, I missed the four walls, I miss seeing the same people every single day.”

What came out of that was the decision to work with a small circle of three people to create IRL, and through that, comes an album that she feels is more cohesive than her debut. “[Without that], I would have just been going in the studio with everyone and just making a bunch of music which is kind of how Love & Compromise felt to me,” she admits. “I love that record and I always will because it was my first, but it definitely felt disjointed to me because I wasn’t learning with people and I wasn’t creating with people in that way. I was just creating to create.”

So what is it that Mahalia wants to say on IRL? Through all the changes she’s experienced in her life (multiple managers, boyfriends, and friends), Mahalia wanted to showcase her newfound independence and the benefits that come from it. “I really wanted people to get a sense of independence from this record,” she says. “Even though there are moments when I talk about relationships and people that I do depend on, I think you can really hear that I am depending on myself to get through this life and human experience.” She later adds, “I’m in that phase of my life where I’m like, I can do this sh*t on my own.”

Compromise is a thing of the past for Mahalia. Now, she’s putting herself first, both in her music and in real life.

IRL is out now via Atlantic Records. Find out more information about it here.

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

by
Kiana Lede RX Press photo
Katia Temkin

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.

Lil Dicky Tells Us ‘Dave’ Season 3 Will Surprise People With Where It Goes

by
Dave Lil dicky
FX

FX’s hip-hop high comedy Dave returned this week in explosive fashion with a double-episode premiere that proved its creator and protagonist’s cringey comedic edge wasn’t dulled by the time away. The brainchild of David Burd — better known to hip-hop fans as the humorous meta-rapper Lil Dicky — Dave follows its titular aspiring rap star as he pursues fame, avoids the pitfalls of being an awkward white dude participating in a Black art form, and this season, looks for love on the road in the wake of his for-real-this-time breakup with ex-flame Ally.

The comedy in Dave derives from Burd’s heightened, hyper-anxious portrayal of a character who is, essentially, himself with, as he put it in a conversation via Zoom, less “social tact.” The Dave of the show often betrays a lack of common sense and an overabundance of ego. Yet, he’s also deeply insecure and selfish, causing him to ignore or downplay his friends’ and family’s concerns until they blow up in his face. Keeping him from being completely unlikable is the core of his needing to be liked — and generally learning his lessons by the episode’s end.

Season three finds Dave in the middle of his first-ever tour, playing undersold dive bars and shooting music videos at his parents’ house in Philadelphia. His concerns — finding a meaningful human connection amidst a parade of fame-induced one-night stands while dodging STDS, and reconnecting with his high school crush by casting her in his video about how she broke his heart — are true-to-life, because they come from the real Lil Dicky’s own stories. But he turns up both the humor and the humiliation to borderline painful levels; you won’t know whether you’ll die from laughing yourself sick or secondhand embarrassment.

It’s all in good fun, though, and the heart of the show remains Dave’s camaraderie with friends like Mike, Elz, and GaTa, while Emma gets a newly pronounced role and a slew of guest stars from across the rap world continue to make hilarious cameos of their own. Dave graciously broke down how he toes the line with his semiautobiographical comedy, incorporates his real-life music into the show to keep fans sated, and which of his guest stars was the funniest so far. Oh, and we played “f*ck, marry, kill” with a trio of his fellow white rappers. He’s a good sport.

In your previous seasons, you’ve kind of backloaded the music. This time, you sort of front-loaded the music. The first two episodes open with music videos, and then the third has an extended musical sequence, where you’re recording. Why did you want to lead off with more music?

I don’t know if that was necessarily by design. I think it just happened that way, and I wasn’t thinking, “We’re going to front-load this thing with music.” I think there’s just, in general, more new music, even as it goes on. By the end of the season, there’s even more music. I think I just happen to be in a position where I record a lot of music in between seasons. Some of it was recorded without thinking, “Will this go in the show?” But then when it’s time for the show to need something, I think, “Well, what do I have that I’ve recorded that could work?” And sometimes, I will record things just for the show.

But I just know that my fans are starving for music. I’m well aware of that. And the show takes up so much of my time that I didn’t want people to think that I’m just an actor playing a rapper now. I just want to remind people that I do make music. And I love music, and I think it’s really cool and unique to the show. And I don’t think any other show could do that.

The music does a lot of the heavy lifting, especially the music video in episode two. It was that perfect cringey level of like, “Okay, he’s riding the line.” Where do you find that line between making Dave relatable and just making him look like a jerk in that episode two climax?

I never want to be on my high horse being like, “Poor me.” I had romantic trauma in the past, and I’m just the ultimate victim all episode. And I think that life is complex, and there are times when there are certain things… I really was supposed to go to a dance with a girl, and then the guy showed up. And then I was the 33rd person there. That really happened to me.

I wanted to make a song that felt nostalgic of a period for a lot of people my age — with AIM [AOL Instant Messenger] and high school and that type of journey. And I also wanted to show a different side, which is the fast-forward 15 years, and this guy’s become a famous rapper. He’s trying to create something out of it, but he is still grappling with all the deep-seated emotions that occur.

I wanted the audience to think, “Oh, Dave’s in the right. Dave’s in the right. She’s in the wrong. She’s in wrong,” and then realize, “Wait, there’s more to it.” And there’s varied perspectives in life. And to just be locked into one perspective, you might miss something. And I think that’s a beautiful part of humanity and a beautiful part of the show.

Do you think this heightened version of Lil Dicky, who exists on the show, would’ve been able to achieve the same level of success as the real Lil Dicky with the way that he responds to things and the crazy stuff that happens to him?

No. I think I’m, in reality, at the right level that a human being should be. Because I still have all the confidence that the character has in the show. I just think I, very much, adhere to social tact, whereas the character in the show, for the sake of comedy most of the time, will take it to a degree well beyond what I would ever do in real life. So I think if I went into record label meetings or whatever saying the same stuff that the character does in the show, I don’t think that the meetings would’ve gone as well.

And also, good for you, you didn’t break Kareem’s leg. Because I know you’re a big hoop fan. I’ve seen you at the celebrity games out here in LA. Would you have wanted to be in the White Men Can’t Jump remake?

Well, I wouldn’t have had time to… And no. Yeah, I just was making my show, and no. For me to be in a basketball movie, I would have to really dedicate my life to the game. If I’m going to be in a full-length motion picture about basketball, I would just care so much about just the footage of me, and that would require dedicating my life to the game. And I don’t think I can do that right now.

Speaking of Jack Harlow… F*ck, Marry Kill: Jack Harlow, G-Eazy, Macklemore.

Probably fuck G-Eazy, marry Macklemore, and kill Harlow.

Speaking of rappers who’ve been on the show, who is the funniest rapper you’ve had on the show to date?

Man, Rick Ross is pretty funny. I’m thinking. I’m thinking. There’s been so many. There’s people that aren’t even named that are coming this season that are so funny. Let’s say, Rick Ross. He was making a lot of jokes up from off the top of his head in our scenes.

I know you do a lot of interviews. I do a lot of interviews. We get sick and tired of hearing the same questions over and over again, both of us. If you were doing the interview, what’s the one question you would want to ask yourself that you would want to talk about?

I’m thinking. I don’t know. “Do you think GaTa deserves every award on the planet?” And I would say, “Yeah.”

I actually got to do an interview with GaTa before, a couple years ago, and he’s just the nicest guy in the world… You guys deserve the success you’ve earned. Last question: What is the one thing you hope people learn from this season? If there’s a thesis statement of the season, what would it be?

Honestly, I have an answer to that question, but it’s the type of answer that I would want to give after people have seen all 10 episodes. Answering that question now kind of gives away but just know we’re headed somewhere. And I think people will be surprised where it goes.