The biggest strength of Flau’jae Johnson’s game? Her vision, on the court and in the studio.
The 2023 NCAA Champion, LSU guard, and rising rap star saw how nurturing her two passions – music and hoops – could help her pave her own path to success from an early age. She was spitting lines as young as age seven, performing in clubs around Savannah, Georgia and entering massively popular TV competitions like America’s Got Talent while practicing in the paint, developing her skills to catch the attention of Coach Kim Mulkey at the beginning of her high school career. In everything she does, on the stage and in the arena, there’s a strategy, a playbook, a game plan to reach the next level.
Just ask Lil Wayne.
In a new episode of UPROXX’s Beyond The Game, host Jeremy Hecht sat down with Johnson to chat about her meteoric rise in the worlds of music and sports and the smart strategic moves she has made along the way.
After giving WNBA legend Sue Bird a shout-out for introducing the Young Money mogul to her music during an interview on her ESPN talk show, Johnson mapped out how she seized her moment, initially connecting with Wayne on social before showing off her lyricism to one of his beats on a Sway In The Morning freestyle. The viral posts, the song selection, her choice of fit (a Tha Carter IV tee) – it was a play Mulkey herself might’ve drawn up, and it scored her a collab with the hip-hop icon.
“I had it all planned out,” Johnson tells Hecht in the video above. “This is going to go viral, he’s going to see it, and that’s what happened. It was all strategy. I gotta inspire him to want to do it.”
That hustle mentality is something Johnson was born with. The daughter of the late Camouflage, a promising young rapper from Savannah who died before his daughter was born, Johnson has always been determined to make her mark. She gained a following at an early age thanks to her reality competition appearances, working with Jermaine Dupree on a talent series that got her industry attention, but when music seemed to stall and basketball courted her, Johnson’s circle never let her give up on her initial dream. She credits her family – her mom, grandmother, and siblings – for believing in her multihyphenate abilities, and herself for making the choice to be more. More than just a rapper. More than just a basketball player. But instead, a cross-cultural icon-in-the-making.
“The price of regret is worse than the pain of getting it done right now,” Johnson told Hecht of the mentality she’s adopted to juggle the demanding schedules of collegiate ball and on-the-rise artist, adding she’s often guided by a simple question, “Are you going to be great today or are you going to be mediocre?”
That word doesn’t seem to fit all the young star has accomplished so far, from SEC titles and NCAA trophies to collaborations with Wayne and Wyclef Jean who’s dubbed their partnership in the booth as, “like Shaq and Kobe.” It certainly doesn’t describe Johnson’s no-holds-barred chat with Hecht where she recounts her unlikely beginnings as a rapper and ball player, her reality TV run, her fearlessness and setbacks, the artists she admires, and the songs that get her hype.
Nothing is off the table, in the episode and in terms of Johnson’s potential.
As the trees begin to shed their leaves and the weather cools down, one thing is holding steady: music festivals. Sure, spring and summer both have claims to being the center of music festival season, but fall is not without its merits. From ACL to Portola to III Points to Camp Flog Gnaw, some of the best festivals in the world take place towards the end of the year. And, the more temperate weather makes the appeal that much greater.
With a run of music festivals comes the need to prepare for those festivals. Once again, we’re back with a guide of items we think will help make your next music festival experience better, either from a functionality standpoint, an enjoyment standpoint, or simply a survival standpoint. Either way, pack up and we’ll see you at the show.
ohsnap!’s Snap 4 Luxe
oh snap
From finding set times to recording performances, chances are you spend a good amount of your festival experience holding your phone. The Snap 4 Luxe is the super-thin grip that you didn’t know you needed. With a variety of new colors (red, lavender, hot orange, hot pink, and sky blue), this multifaceted device can also be used to prop a phone up for viewing ease, and won’t make your phone lay down awkwardly when on its back. It’s also magnetic, so you can stick your phone on a variety of surfaces, and it is MagSafe® compatible with wireless charge-through. Honestly, this feels like a great way to avoid losing your phone at a festival, and just a great phone accessory for everyday life.
Despite only being in a handful of states, STIIIZY is the best-selling cannabis brand in the US. That speaks both to the quality of the product and the brand’s overall footprint in the space. And while legalization is gaining traction in more and more states, there still might not be a better place to sample a little THC than a music festival. This recently released line of STIIIZY edibles is ideal for the festival grounds, especially because you can enjoy them before heading in and let the effects hit you once you are in front of a stage. With Indica, Sativa, and Hybrid options, there is truly something for every cannabis user, and their 2:1 THC to CBN Edibles are formulated to ease anxiety and tension, which is perfect for big crowds. Weed and music go together like milk and cookies, but just be sure to obey local guidelines and festival protocols.
As I wrote about earlier this year, wellness at music festivals is becoming a major focus, with more brands finding ways into the space. This also means that you can be packing ahead, knowing that your body will be pushed to its limits and in need of a little TLC. We recommend the products from Hyperice, specifically the Normatec leg system. It’s basically a portable massage therapy system designed for athletes that uses air compression to help you recover, but it’s beneficial for anyone wanting to take care of their body. They also make nifty massage guns like the Hypervolt 2 Pro, which provides spot treatment for any sore muscles. These aren’t the smallest items to include in your packing, but they’re worth making space for.
KIND bars have had a music festival presence for years. Sometimes, they’ll have an installation giving them away. Sometimes, it is just through advertisements. But there’s a reason that the association works so well: they provide portable bits of energy and sustenance while tasting great. Whether for the car ride on the way to the fest or back at camp for post-event snack, packing light bites like those offered by KIND are truly essential. New recent offerings include KIND Zero (with no added sugar) and a Seeds, Fruit, And Nuts line.
While you probably can’t bring your own food and beverages into a music festival, you’ll def need to plan ahead whether you are staying at a hotel or hitting the campgrounds. The ORCA Wanderer 24 is a great companion, with the size and space to hold wine bottles and up to a 24-pack of beer (or soda?). With five colors to choose from, we particularly like the Starboard, which can stand out from the crowd. Also, the leak-proof zipperless design and waterproof lining are ideal for travel, ensuring that your ice doesn’t leak all over your car, tent, or hotel room.
Unless you have your own hotel room or a bed secured, many people will be roughing it a bit for festival accommodations. We recommend this inflatable sleeping pad for whatever situation you might find yourself in. Again, this is very compact so as not to take up too much of your packing footprint, but will make a world of difference in overall comfort. We particularly like the built-in siderails, which allow the sleeper to remain secure on the pad all night (or day, depending on WHEN you sleep).
Seeing a live performance is perhaps the best way to hear music, but it’s also one of the loudest and potentially most harmful ways. Hearing protection is important, and Vibes’ hi-fidelity earplugs lower sound without sacrificing quality, making them a must-use for the next show you attend.
Nobody has a better front-row perspective to the growth and development of pop music — and how it affects pop culture — than DJs. As the party controllers, they are the ones who set the vibes, yes, but they also get to see trends as they play out in real time. Sometimes, they’re even the ones sparking those trends.
In much the same way, so much of American culture has come from the Black experience: jazz, rock & roll, hip-hop, and dance music all started in music halls and underground venues catering to a Black American clientele that was often barred from more mainstream spaces.
One of the spaces that Black folks were kept out of was higher education. And so, as we found juke joints and empty rec rooms to develop jazz and launch hip-hop, Historically Black Colleges and Universities became cultural hot spots, where new movements in politics and art were nurtured and primed to change the course of American history.
In looking to gain some new insights and perspectives on how HBCUs have impacted America’s various party scenes, there was no better resource to turn to than LA native DJ R-Tistic. A veteran of the DJ scene, playing everything from local weekly residencies to corporate gigs to Coachella, R-Tistic has seen every kind of party imaginable. And, as a graduate of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University — also known as Florida A&M or FAMU — he’s got the unique experience of seeing how Black student life can have an outsized impact on social and cultural standards, even hundreds of miles away.
Can you tell me a little bit about what your experience at FAMU was like and how that has informed your approach to your craft today?
I didn’t start DJing until I got there and I was… Plugging in my laptop. Initially I didn’t even plan to be a DJ. It was more so, it just happened throughout time. But I would say it influences it in so many ways because the main thing is that everybody’s coming from somewhere different. So at that time, this is the mid-2000s, when I feel like everybody’s music was so different. You can argue and say that it’s still different sounds now, but overall we know it’s a lot more similar. Back then, St. Louis had Chingy and J-Kwon and Nelly versus LA having Snoop and Game. And even The Bay sounded different from LA back then.
My first time doing a New Orleans party, they were like, “But you from LA. You don’t know our real music. All you know is Lil Wayne. We wanna hear Webbie.” At a HBCU, I think everybody comes in as a freshman kind of arrogant because it’s like, you coming from whatever city you came from. You think your city’s the best. I got there playing Bad Azz and Eastsidaz and Suga Free, and they’re like, “Why you playing this happy music?” Harlem dudes are playing all Dipset. And even Harlem and Brooklyn going at it, talking about Dipset versus Jay-Z or the Philly dudes and D Bloc. So I feel like it was just the fact that we had so many different styles, and we got to really meet people and see how they reacted to it.
I remember it was a group called Dude ‘n Nem, they had a song called “Watch My Feet.”
Juke, juke, juke, juke!
I would’ve had no idea what it was. It would’ve sounded foreign to my ears if I was just in LA hearing it because I was out there, and I heard, “Bang, bang, bang, skeet, skeet, skeet, and let me bang.” It made sense when I heard it. So it’s just the fact that you hear so many different varieties [at HBCUs].
I think over time, as the blogosphere moved in, that replaced that in-person experience.
In some ways it did. It is still different because even when I go back now, you’ll still hear more regional music. For FAMU specifically, it’s different only in that because of the cost of everything, I don’t think there’s as many out-of-state students as it used to be when I was there. Whenever I go to the Hood clubs out there now just to check in, I do hear a lot more of the southern music and just Florida music than I hear the other sounds. The blog area and social media and streaming, it did kind of homogenize things to an extent, but you still will get a different variety.
A lot of those artists had sounds that didn’t match where they were from. Even Kendrick. People argue now that “Not Like Us” is his first LA song. [Writer’s Note: Those people are SUPER wrong.] I get what they mean because “Swimming Pools” and those songs did not have a traditional West Coast sound. I think they grew up in the era where they didn’t really have as much of a direct connection to that regional sound. So they made music that appealed based on what they grew up watching on 106 & Park versus what was really local.
How did the melting pot aspect of going to an HBCU help those artists break through, then?
We had a showcase called “Rep Your City,” where each city had their own two minutes to play their regional song and do a dance. So Chicago did “Bang Bang Bang Skeet Skeet.” We might’ve did a “Wrong Idea” or something like that. We crip up. The Bay had a little hyphy moment. Everybody had their own little moments. And some people got booed. They booed us just because it was like, “What is this LA music?”
A lot of folks are still stuck in whatever their region is into. Freshman year, everybody gravitates toward what city they’re from, and that’s your whole identity. So I think that, that flattening happens at HBCUs because after a couple of years you start meeting friends from different places.
I always wondered what kind of role the HBCU college scene played in accelerating or even in breaking things. Because a lot of times people would come back from school, and they would know what song was about to hit even before it hit on a national level. It almost feels like that’s the spot where everything starts. As much as we talk about “Black people generate culture in America,” I feel like that’s the microcosm.
Yeah, for sure. I remember bringing K-Wang back to LA in ’02, ’03 first time I heard it and I couldn’t dance to it, but people just liked the beat. And then I didn’t hear it to get in LA until ’08. And now it’s crazy because it’s a whole line dance to it. I think a lot of times it did accelerate things, because I remember even in high school when my boy, his older brother was at Morehouse, and he told me, he was like, “Hey, Jay-Z got a song with Twista called, ‘Is That Your Bitch?’ And Missy’s on there too.”
I had a homie who went to Clark, and once he got to Clark, all he liked was Atlanta music. So he got back, he was playing Bone Crusher and Drama and Pastor Troy in LA. I realized that a lot of the major DJs around the country are from HBCUs, from Young Guru to Drama and Cannon and Jae Murphy.
There’s been talk of whether HBCUs are still relevant. Politically, there have been a lot of arguments against HBCUs that have gotten louder. What do you see as the primary benefit beyond music, beyond anything else, of having HBCUs as not just learning institutions, but as cultural centers, as places that are for us in the climate that we currently exist in?
It’s an argument that I feel like anybody who even questions why they exist, they’re already going to be turned off and not really open to hearing the true answer. One argument is always that the real world isn’t all Black, but nobody white would ever tell somebody white to not go to Harvard or Yale or any other school that’s 70% or 90% white. “Don’t go there because that’s not diverse.” You never hear that.
For us going into the real world, it made no difference. Once I graduated, I realized that it made no difference because the only difference between us and other folks is when it comes to cultural references. That means we might have a joke about The Wood, they might have a joke about Breakfast Club. But even with that, we can watch a movie. We can learn “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
It’s more so them just realizing that Black students might not have the same advantages to begin with. So I had classes where the actual professor called me one night at 1:00 AM on a Thursday, like, “Hey Ron, you didn’t turn in these four assignments. Hey, if you don’t turn those in, you might not pass.”
And that’s 1:00 AM on Thursday. I spent until 7:00 AM working on that and turned it in. And it’s like that type of experience wouldn’t happen at a white school at all. I doubt it would. Maybe it would, but I doubt that because it was a Black teacher who felt like I was his nephew.
Right. He was trying to get you through the class, graduated from the school, so that you’re in a position where, okay, if you’re going to sink or swim, but at least get you on that platform first.
Too often these days, judgment of a music festival’s merits is reduced to the “who’s on the lineup?” question. It feels trivial, now, in our second decade of a peak music festival landscape showing few signs of slowing down, that we don’t consider everything else to be equally as important as the lineup. It’s in that “everything else” department that San Francisco’s Outside Lands has edged past other festivals over time, and demands more attention than a lineup that many thought wasn’t among the strongest in its 16 years when first announced.
The prevalent narratives about Outside Lands 2024 will understandably center on Chappell Roan drawing yet another gargantuan crowd, Grace Jones putting on an unimaginable performance masterclass, Kacey Musgraves joining fill-in headliner Sabrina Carpenter on stage, and Sturgill Simpson’s first live performance in three years. But it also absolutely also needs to be that Outside Lands 2024 was the most well-produced version of the Golden Gate Park megafest yet.
Alive Coverage
Let’s be honest, if you’re dropping around $500 for 3-day GA passes (double that for VIP) you could reasonably expect a music festival to provide a bit more than just the bare essentials. Unfortunately, the bar is set so low for festivals that if a large-scale production can make it through the weekend without anyone complaining about bathrooms, food lines, crappy cell service, or a headliner dropping out, it’s probably a good enough effort.
Outside Lands took everything a step further for the benefit of attendees this year. There were once again more bathrooms, and I seldom found myself waiting longer than a minute or two to use one; even the handwashing stations were always filled with water, soap, and paper towels at all hours of the weekend. And texting was smooth throughout, making meeting up with friends an actual possibility in every scenario.
This was the first year where I felt like the long food lines didn’t stand in the way of being able to sample all of Outside Lands’ extremely well-curated collection of 101 Bay Area food vendors from a bevy of cultural backgrounds. Hot and juicy quesabirria tacos, the most elite selection of hot dogs and corn dogs I’ve seen outside of a Korean night market, lobster tots and tacos, dumplings from countries I didn’t know much about until this weekend, and a new program designed to allow for people to try smaller versions of items so that they can engage with more of the food stands. This was awesome.
What was new to the 2024 version of Outside Lands legitimately added to the experience and didn’t feel like a frivolous sponsorship cash grab. The Latinx-music focused Casa Bacardi looked delightfully like Scarface’s Cuban getaway house, and it was thumping and vibrant all weekend long. DJ’s perched on a balcony played reggaeton and electrocumbia to a two-level crowd. You could stop and dance, or casually chill and walk through the ornately styled lower bar level. It felt like a really successful case study for organizers who could very well expand the Latinx music offerings next year.
Adjacent to Casa Bacardi was the Cocktail Magic area where six different bars were slinging craft espresso martinis and old fashioneds for anyone to purchase, regardless of ticket tier. Beer Lands was once again an excellent representation of the Bay Area craft beer scene, while a scaled-down Wine Lands area still featured Sonoma pinots and natural wines from 30+ wineries in a more intimate and approachable space than in year’s past — elevated amenities you should have at your disposal at a $200/day festival ticket, but don’t get everywhere.
Alive Coverage
Now in its second year, Dolores’ is a queer-focused indoor/outdoor dance club at the far end of the Polo Field opposite the main stage. Spirits were crazy high all weekend with drag shows, queer DJs, and even ‘90s disco diva Crystal Waters delivering a downright tour de force to what couldn’t have been more than 1,500 people on Sunday night. Outside Lands partners with local queer entertainment curators and it really comes across like an accurate representation of queer culture in the region. “I used to sneak into this festival and now I’m on stage here!” drag queen Nicki Jizz said to a roaring crowd, driving the point home of the inclusivity and diversity that took years for Outside Lands to achieve.
Dedicated to electronic music in all forms, the SOMA area was redesigned this year to be entirely outdoors and, more importantly, to expand capacity three-fold. Gone were structural and ingress issues, and gone was the dark, seedy rave den of the past. I managed to stop here once each day and it was buzzing with the under-21 crowd who found themselves in an accessible alternative space.
Alive Coverage
A walk from one stage to the other came with welcome stops along the way. In the eucalyptus groves of McLaren Pass, a wedding venue dubbed City Hall hosted three ceremonies a day. Some friends and I sat in on a wedding on Friday afternoon, with thousands of bubbles floating past a bride and groom who fostered their love for each other at Outside Lands ten years ago. We toasted the pair and left with full hearts, ready to embrace the rest of the festival around us.
It’s these walks through the winding paths of Golden Gate Park that filled me with joy the most. When the sun’s rays found their way into open fields, through trees and onto hillside crowds, it was the single biggest elevator of the festival that finds itself at the mercy of San Francisco’s testy weather systems; truly the most authentic part of the city. Midway through Saturday afternoon, the sun was in full force and the festival was humming. Every single stage I made my way past, from Romy’s arresting and vulnerable vocals at Sutro stage to the loud and proud bounce at Dolores’. It didn’t even matter who was playing on the main stage, because there was SO MUCH to see and do everywhere.
There was Flower Lands, where you can craft an arrangement or simply stop and smell different flowers in the “aroma lounge,” or The Mission, where nonprofits focused on voting and sustainability tabled all weekend. Heck, even activations like the Chase Sapphire Lounge rest stop and interactive bars from Gray Whale Gin and Sierra Nevada — all long-time presences at the festival — felt like they seamlessly belonged to the experience because they’ve grown with it.
Alive Coverage
Make no mistake about it, there were also a number of defining performances. The aforementioned Chappell Roan and Grace Jones drew the most elated main-stage crowds of the weekend. If there was a set you had to be at, it was those two, with Jones’ unabashed creativity towering (literally and figuratively) higher than everything all weekend. Shaboozey held nothing back on Friday afternoon with a raucous industry-heavy VIP area looking damn near as full as the much bigger GA crowd. Real Estate shined with charisma in an early time slot and Schoolboy Q understood the assignment, delivering emphatically for one of the biggest crowds of the weekend. Meanwhile, Billy Woods’ avant-garde flow, local rockers French Cassettes, and next-big-thing Medium Build marked the intimate Panhandle Stage.
There were also some flops, like Daniel Caesar’s lukewarm and detached Friday nighter. Later, Brandon Flowers introduced The Killers calling themselves “a great rock band!” which felt achingly desperate. They closed with a tired rendition of “Mr. Brightside,” which was eclipsed by a passionate sing-a-long in the exit tunnel from attendees as the band clinged to their classic in the background. Jungle sounded generic in an early evening show, settling for videos of vocalists who weren’t on stage with them — including Channel Tres, who was at the festival. Unless you’re Gorillaz, that shtick is never gonna land and Outside Lands is just really at its best when it isn’t so algorithmically charged. For as well-received as Sabrina Carpenter’s performance was, I couldn’t help but think how much stronger originally-scheduled headliner Tyler, The Creator (before he dropped out) would’ve been following Grace Jones; a 1-2 punch of Black excellence for a festival that seemed focused on maintaining that throughline.
Alive Coverage
If Post Malone’s country set wasn’t your cup of tea, Sacramento native Victoria Monét was putting on a highly theatrical R&B display across the fest; shrewd counter-programming. Sturgill Simpson’s pure outlaw country with a newfound emotional edge was dynamite, but definitely a soft-landing for a smaller main stage crowd to close out the fest. Adrenaline was still pumping through my veins on the fest’s final night, as I drifted away from Simpson for one final long walk across the festival grounds to see the last hour of Kaytranada’s set at the second biggest stage, Twin Peaks. Kaytra achieved what some SOMA DJs couldn’t, and told a story with intention through a wizardly-mixed set of his original songs. Hearing Gal Costa’s vocal sample on “Lite Spots,” at the same stage where I’d heard him play it at the fest seven years earlier to a crowd a fraction of this size, was beautiful — both a subtle homage to the Brazilian singer who died in 2022 and a hat tip to his history here. His was a beaming, brilliant display all around.
At the wedding I attended on Friday, the officiant explained that the couple chose to get married at Outside Lands because of the “shared values and imaginations here” and how “the intangible magic of it all is so attractive to them.” Finding that zone can take time and the best way to do it at Outside Lands? Wander. Plan less and allow room for discovery in this infinite slate of choices of what to see, do, hear, eat, and drink. Because more than any other shiny name on the lineup, it’s what surrounds the main stages that makes this festival experience a genuinely spectacular one.
Black Business Month is inextricably tied to the concept of “paying dues.” Nothing comes without first putting in some time and consistent effort to ensure not just the success of any given endeavor, but to build the trust that ensures that partners, customers, and investors will have confidence in offering their custom.
Like fellow Vallejo native E-40, LaRussell has built an enthusiastically engaged following outside the confines of the traditional major label system through his brand, Good Compenny. However, he’s taken it a step further, monetizing endeavors far beyond the established revenue streams we’ve come to expect from independent rappers, fueled by a Field Of Dreams-inspired philosophy: If you build it, they will come. But first, LaRussell had to build the trust among fans that would give them the confidence in supporting left-field strategies like backyard shows, sharing stock in music releases, and a lifetime membership to all of LaRussell’s shows. He has built a business from the ground up by being himself, taking chances, and paying dues.
“That’s just part of the process,” he explains of how he built that trust. “You start with one, one turn to two, two turn to four, four turn to eight, eight turn to 16, 16 turn to 32, 32 turn 64. And we just embraced that process the entire time. I’m never really trying to win people who don’t f*ck with me. I over-deliver to the people who love me, and they go tell everybody else.”
That’s how the Bay Area rapper gets fans to buy into each new product he rolls out, by paying his dues. Naturally, this means being great at the core skill at the heart of his entire business plan: Rapping. He’s not just great at the craft, either. He’s also hella productive. According to Genius.com, LaRussell has released 18 albums since 2018. Per Tidal, that number is closer to 33. The point is, he puts out so much music at such a rapid pace, that it’s hard to consistently keep track. This is a benefit of his indie status, but it’s also by design — and because he has so many revenue streams, LaRussell doesn’t worry about oversaturating the market.
“I make good dope,” he chuckles at the thought that he might be overdoing it. “I make good dope, and as long as you do dope, you’re going to come to me for it. Some n****s eat McDonald’s every day because that’s what they love, and that’s our focus. I’m not really focused on the people who don’t want to be here no more. I focus on the people who want to come to my crib, the people who love what I do, and I keep supplying it.”
That consistency and productivity not only cements fans’ willingness to stream his musical output, but also their belief in each new product he offers. For instance, although backyard shows — concerts he literally holds in fans’ backyards — and selling stock in his streams are at least based on his core work, he’s since been successful in offering experiences that don’t have anything to do with music in the first place.
“We got so many different ways to get paper off this music sh*t,” he enthuses. “It don’t even make sense. I be trying to put the OGs on all the different ways because it’s endless now. It goes beyond masters and publishing and live performances now.” For example: “I go straight to the people and I let them make offers on everything. I get paid to go hang out with fans. I opened it up to where you could book me to come play pickleball and come chill. We’ve just made every aspect of being an artist monetizable.” Just imagine being able to hoop with Tupac, or shoot pool with Jay-Z. Fans often dream of just being around their favorite rappers, sharing space and time with them… LaRussell has made this a reality while turning it into a business opportunity.
However, despite doing this interview for Black Business Month, LaRussell scoffs at the idea of BEING a Black business himself. “I just define myself as a business. I’m just in the business of humanity. I like to do dope sh*t and meet dope humans and share dope sh*t and just try to make people smile and cultivate through what we do. And I like to make paper. I don’t really look at it as this is a Black business or separate from anything. I got a bunch of different races and ethnicities just within my network and in my group. We just building big business in general.”
Which is, perhaps, the core of why historian John William Templeton and engineer Frederick E. Jordan Sr. founded this admittedly esoteric agenda 20 years ago: to show that a Black-owned business could and should be considered as innovative and profitable as any other. It highlights the possibilities, just as LaRussell’s own successes paint a broader picture of success for hip-hop artists. Even when an idea seems less viable on paper — or even in practice — LaRussell understands that paying dues is all part of the process.
“Everything works for me,” he says. “Everything works as long as I do the work. Only things don’t work is the things that I don’t do the work for, but everything work. Gold cards, stock, the residency shows, the offer-based systems, the Proud To Pay, merch, everything works. Some things take a little bit longer to develop, but everything works… You just got to build every day. You just got to get in there and do your work, and you never know what’s going to come from that work. Something might pop up that alters everything that you have planned to do in the next five because it happened tomorrow… I announce shows and I don’t even put the address until close to the date. So people just buy tickets based on trusting me. They don’t give a f*ck where it is. I could be in the middle of anywhere and they going to come because they just trust me. When I put out new technology, they just trust LaRussell because I built a trustworthy brand and I haven’t steered the people wrong.”
J Balvin is bouncing back. After taking a breather to focus on himself and his family, the Colombian superstar has returned with his new album Rayo. The electrifying LP reflects J Balvin’s return to his reggaeton roots with longtime collaborators like Feid while looking to the genre’s future with rising stars Ryan Castro, Blessd, Carín León, and more.
“This is an era full of joy,” J Balvin says. “This is an era where I am making music for myself, remembering those beginnings that pushed me to be what we are today, and I’m happy to share this with the world alongside a new generation of very talented artists. This era is pa’ la cultura [for the culture].”
Rayo is named after J Balvin’s first car from when he was getting his music career off the ground in Medellín, Colombia. After a few years of grinding, he broke through in 2013 with his album La Familia while putting his country on the map in the reggaeton scene. Other artists from Medellín who have become stars following J Balvin’s success include Maluma, Karol G, and Feid, who started out as one of his co-writers. After becoming a father in 2021, J Balvin stepped away from the spotlight to take care of his mental health and his son Río. In April, he kicked off his comeback with performances at Coachella that included a Will Smith cameo.
Rayo is like a fresh jolt to J Balvin’s electronic reggaeton sound as he teams up with titans in the genre like Zion and Chencho Corleone. J Balvin also reunites with Feid for the alluring “Doblexxó” and continues to use his platform to highlight the next wave of Latin urban acts like Omar Courtz, Yovngchimi, and Quevedo in the swaggering banger “En Alta.” Over Zoom, J Balvin talked with Uproxx about taking time off, his comeback album, and his legacy.
How would you describe the experience of stepping away to focus on your family and raising your son Río?
Besides meeting my best friend, my son, being a father has taught me many things. I love watching Río, watching him grow up, and him continuing to teach me things. It has been a wonderful time for me, my family, and especially for my new music. It feels amazing to come back with 15 songs and a whole new album to share with my fans. I couldn’t be happier right now with Rayo.
What was the experience like to perform at Coachella and have Will Smith come out as your special guest?
It is one of the best things that has happened to me in my life: Representing Latinos at one of the most important festivals in the world and also being fortunate to bring Will Smith to the stage. For a moment, I didn’t even believe it. I am still amazed by the power of music and how it unites cultures and people. It was an experience from another planet.
Why did you want to name your album Rayo after your first car?
Rayo is full of stories and lessons. My first car took me to many places that shaped my career as an artist and as a person. Rayo means a lot to me, as my friends would say, who also joined me in those adventures of riding in a red car through Colombia.
You and Feid go back to the days of your 2016 album Energia. What was the experience like to work with him again “Doblexxó”?
I greatly admire Feid and what he has achieved. We have a lot of history together. It was time to give people this duo again.
You broke down boundaries for reggaeton from Medellín. What do you think about the success of the artists from your hometown like Karol G, Maluma, Feid, Ryan Castro, and Blessd?
They were not easy barriers to break down and I did not do it alone either. Many of us had been doing interesting things with reggaeton in Medellín. Nowadays, seeing my colleagues breaking records with music makes me proud of our country and hard work. Karol G and her tour made history. Being the first Latin artist to sell out the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid four times is something to admire. Feid and Maluma are also doing incredible things and they are followed by Blessd, Ryan, and the people coming up behind them. There are many artists who are raising our flag high. I’m happy for all of them.
On your album, you’re also teaming up with rising Latin urban acts from Puerto Rico like Yovngchimi, Luar La L, Omar Courtz, and Dei V. What was the experience like to work with them?
This is by and for the culture. They are the new generation that I admire and I listen to their music. Having them on this album means that we share the same energy and that we are looking to continue expanding Latin music around the world.
You also recently teamed up with Mexican reggaeton acts like El Malilla, El Bogueto, Yeri Mua, and Uzielito Mix on the “G Low Kitty” remix. What do you think about the reggaeton Mexa music scene?
Mexico is also awakening a new generation of Latin urban artists. Mexico is a huge country and the fact that the genre is being heard only brings good news. There is a lot of talent in Mexico and there is much more to discover in the reggaeton Mexa scene.
Speaking of Mexico, you joined forces with música Mexicana star Carín León on “Stoker.” How would you describe the experience of collaborating with him?
The big surprise on Rayo! Carín is a great artist. All my respect to him. “Stoker” challenged us both to do something different. At the end of the day, celebrating with Carin after the Coachella show paid off. [Laughs.]
What do you want people to take away from Rayo?
You have to do what makes you happy in a way that makes you happy. Vibing with what you do is the important thing to be able to enjoy your work and what you’re doing. Above all, you should be able to transmit that feeling to others.
What’s life been like balancing being a father and a global pop star?
Being precise with times and space is essential. I try not to mix the two that much. Although sometimes they do intersect, let me be clear in saying that I love my job but my family is my priority.
Will there be a US tour soon?
New tour dates are coming for sure. We’ll talk more about it very soon.
What do you want to accomplish next in your career?
There are still many accomplishments to achieve. There’s many places to visit and perform in. Whether I’m accomplishing things with my music, by giving more Latin flavor to the world, or through my Vibra En Alta Foundation. With my foundation, we want to focus on children and young people who are vibing with who they are.
What do you see for the future of reggaeton?
I think we are in good hands. An incredible generation of new talent is coming. They’re very talented and creative people. There is still much to explore and cultures to unite through the genre.
For the first time in his career, Drake is the underdog. Okay, that’s a bit dramatic, but a comeback of sorts is certainly expected from the Toronto rap star. That, or proof of resilience — evidence that his defeat by Kendrick Lamar won’t be marked as a major turning point in his career. Admittedly, we’ve already seen this resilience from Drake.
His 2018 beef with Pusha T ended with a semi-low-blow knockout punch in the unveiling of Drake’s son Adonis, but in the end, Drake went on to put out his biggest hits and run the summer as he’s done many times this year. But this time, Kendrick Lamar beat Drake at the game he hoped to play, and now the Compton rapper owns the summer thanks to “Not Like Us.” That leaves the fall and winter months up for the taking, and in extremely smart fashion, Drake is gearing up to take them over.
Over the weekend, Drake announced that a joint album with PartyNextDoor will arrive this fall, and it’s the perfect next move for him in his career. “I know you girls are outside,” Drake quipped during a guest set at PND’s Sorry I’m Outside Tour stop in their hometown of Toronto. “When it gets a little chilly, a PartyNextDoor and Drake album will be right there for you.”
Mr. OVO himself has a long track record of big moments in the year’s colder months, though it wasn’t until last year’s For All The Dogs that he actually released an album in October. His breakout mixtape Comeback Season was released in September, as was arguably his best album Nothing Was the Same as well as What A Time To Be Alive and Certified Lover Boy. The Grammy-winning Take Care saw the light of day in November, as did Her Loss, while other highlights like So Far Gone and If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late debuted in February.
In addition to the argument that Drake’s best work arrives outside of the summer months, there’s also one for PartyNextDoor being one of — if not the — best collaborator Drake has consistently worked with in his career. Drake and PND have created over 20 songs together, including collaborations like “Recognize” and “Loyal,” songwriting contributions for each other’s songs, like PND’s “Not Nice” and Drake’s “Come Thru,” and work on other artists’ songs like Rihanna’s “Work” and Popcaan’s “Twist & Turn.”
Drake — music’s versatile superstar — and PND — a modern-day R&B wizard with an unmatched pen — are the perfect combination for a collaborative album. Fans often request joint albums from artists after two or three decent collaborations, all for the finished product to fall flat and underwhelming when it comes to fruition. Drake and PND, have already proven to be a match made in heaven that will only be solidified with this upcoming release.
With all this being said, what makes Drake and PND’s upcoming joint album the perfect move for Drake? Well, for the first time in a long time, Drake can be the cohesive tunnel-visioned artist he hasn’t been in nearly a decade. The beauty of albums like Take Care, Nothing Was the Same, Views, and If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late is they each exist in one individual world. You read their titles and can feel the texture and atmosphere they exist in, whereas with other projects, it’s a bit more scattered and all over the place.
PND thrives at this cohesion, as his most recent album PartyNextDoor 4 proves. He also subscribes to a simpler and more focused approach to his projects, which Drake can also benefit from. Furthermore, Drake and PND’s joint album marks the return of a beloved duo after both reached heights fans previously thought they could only dream of. It makes use of nostalgia, thanks to a decade-long catalog of collaborations, and fulfills a longtime request. For once, Drake is actually listening to us.
Drake will never take a break from music, he’s told us that plenty of times over the last few years. So fans who have begged him to step out of the spotlight will just have to suck it up and deal with the ever-present rap star. There is a compromise here, though. In the aftermath of the infamous rap beef, Drake is seemingly stepping out of the character that played the role of Kendrick’s fuming and disgruntled opponent, and replacing him, is one who wants to prove that good music can erase the bad times, or blur them at least. Drake’s recent release of “100 gigs” of unreleased material included plenty of evidence to show how calculated he is as a musician.
Announcing a joint album with a longtime friend and beloved collaborator is another example of that, and it’s one that could benefit everyone involved, from Drake and PND themselves to waiting fans, as well — if they deliver and meet the expectations laid before them.
We’ve been spoiled in 2024. As we previously outlined in our list of the year’s best albums so far, we’ve been treated to new albums from folks like Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Vampire Weekend, Dua Lipa, Rapsody, and many more.
What’s wild is that there’s still so much to look forward to in the year’s closing months. Cardi B insists her long-awaited second album is dropping before 2025. Post Malone will complete his country pivot on F-1 Trillion. Sabrina Carpenter is set to continue her run as the year’s biggest breakout star with an LP of her own.
Ultimately, there’s something coming for everybody soon, so check out the most anticipated albums of the rest of 2024 below.
ASAP Rocky — Don’t Be Dumb (August 30)
Rocky has kept busy over the past few years with singles and collaborations, but as far as albums, fans have been waiting for a new one since 2018’s Testing. At long last, though, Don’t Be Dumb is set to land this summer and it’s set to include the 2023 single “Riot (Rowdy Pipe’n).”
Beabadoobee — This Is How Tomorrow Moves (August 9)
Something major happened between past Uproxx cover star Beabadoobee’s latest album (2022’s Beatopia) and her upcoming LP (This Is How Tomorrow Moves): She opened for Taylor Swift on The Eras Tour. So, Swiftie eyes will be on Bea’s next one and there’s a lot to enjoy, including “Take A Bite,” “Coming Home,” and “Ever Seen.”
Big Sean — Better Me Than You (August)
It’s been nearly four years since Detroit 2, the latest album from Big Sean. He’s on his way back, though, with Better Me Than You, and if his just-announced new management deal is any indication, he’s looking to shake things up this time around.
Cardi B
Cardi has found herself on lists of most-anticipated albums for the past few years as fans patiently (very, very patiently) await the follow-up to 2018’s Invasion Of Privacy. Cardi had a disappointing dispatch on that front a few months ago, though, when she said she’d be “relaxing this year.” Later, though, she reversed course and promised that her next album, which has yet to be officially announced, is indeed coming in 2024.
There’s speculation that Eusexua is the title of Twigs’ upcoming album, and at the very least, it seems to be the name of a new song, as Vogue relays. The publication also described the song as having a “driving bassline” and Twigs called the upcoming project “a love letter to how dance music makes me feel,” while not specifically saying the album itself is dance music.
Halsey
Halsey is back (even if she’s not necessarily feeling awesome about it at the moment), as she had an album on the way, a project that comes after/amid a tough journey: Halsey recently said of the project, “When I started writing it, I thought it might be the last album I ever got the chance to make.” So far, we’ve heard “Lucky,” a Britney Spears- and Monica-sampling that sounds a lot more uplifting than the tone of everything before this sentence.
J Balvin — Rayo (August 9)
After releasing an album every year from 2018 to 2021, J Balvin fans have found themselves in a rare position: Amid an extended wait for a new album. Their suffering is about to end, though, as Rayo drops in a few days and it features the thumping SAIKO collaboration “Gaga.”
Jamie xx — In Waves (September 20)
Where’s that new album from The xx? They’ve teased new music a handful of times (here, here, here) in recent years, but we’re still waiting for their first new LP since 2017’s I See You. The silver lining is that Jamie xx has remained active in his solo endeavors, and his upcoming album In Waves (his first since 2015’s In Colour) features collaborations with Robyn and The Avalanches.
Del Rey confirmed this one herself, saying at a pre-Grammys event in January, “If you can’t already tell by our award winners and our performers, the music business is going country. We’re going country. It’s happening. That’s why Jack [Antonoff] has followed me to Muscle Shoals, Nashville, Mississippi, over the last four years.” She also indicated the project is called Lasso and at the time, it was expected to drop in September, although an official release date has yet to be revealed.
Latto — Sugar Honey Iced Tea
In June, Latto threw a big Birthday Bash concert in Atlanta, where she announced the title of her upcoming project, Sugar Honey Iced Tea. Given the prevalence of rap beef these days, some took the title as a dig at Ice Spice. Whatever the case, there’s no tracklist yet, but perhaps some of Latto’s post-777 singles will make the cut, like her 2023 hit “Put It On Da Floor.”
MJ Lenderman — Manning Fireworks (September 6)
MJ Lenderman has a bit of a double-life situation going on right now: He’s a member of successful indie rockers Wednesday while also earning acclaim for his solo material. Some considered his 2022 album Boat Songs to be one of the year’s best releases, and now he’s prepping Manning Fireworks, which brings his two musical worlds together as Wednesday bandmate Karly Hartzman has a feature on the album.
Nilüfer Yanya — My Method Actor (September 13)
Yanya has become a quick favorite in the indie world over the past half-decade, and for her third album, she’s drawing conceptual inspiration from the world of film. She previously described method acting as “a bit like being a musician,” continuing, “When you’re performing, you’re still trying to invoke the energy and emotion of when you first wrote it, in that moment. It definitely feels like you’re having to recreate or step into that headspace.”
Post Malone — F-1 Trillion (August 16)
Posty just follows his heart. He started in hip-hop, ventured more into pop territory, and now he’s in his country era. It’s off to a cracking start, too, as he landed a No. 1 single by teaming with Morgan Wallen for “I Had Some Help.” Indeed, he had some help making his debut country album F-1 Trillion, as it also features Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, Dolly Parton, Brad Paisley, Jelly Roll, Luke Combs, Chris Stapleton, and many other country favorites.
Sabrina Carpenter — Short N’ Sweet (August 23)
It’s hard to argue against Carpenter’s “Espresso” as this year’s song of the summer (although tunes from Kendrick Lamar and some others have cases, too). Carpenter has quickly become one of music’s biggest stars thanks to her down-to-earth personality and undeniably delightful songs, and there’s sure to be plenty of both on Short N’ Sweet.
Suki Waterhouse — Memoir Of A Sparklemuffin (September 13)
Toro Y Moi has done a bit of everything in his varied music career. It remains to be seen exactly what his next album, Hole Erth, will sound like, but he goes with a blend of alternative and hip-hop on “Tuesday” and honors Broken Social Scene on the dreamy “Heaven.” So, per usual, we’ll have to wait and see what Toro Y Moi does next.
The Weeknd
For well over two years now, The Weeknd has been teasing a trilogy of albums that features After Hours and Dawn FM. It’s still unclear when this arc of The Weeknd’s career will be resolved, but it appears to be soon: He unveiled a teaser video in July that strongly hints a new album is on the horizon, seemingly one about new life or rebirth. Both of the preceding projects produced hits like “Blinding Lights” and “Take My Breath,” so look forward to more bangers.
Sneakers are big business these days. Everyone wears sneakers, from athletes to CEOs to Presidential candidates. What were once a specialized form of apparel designed specifically for sports are now a part of day-to-day life, with different sneakers not only for different games, but entirely different walks of life — no pun intended. There’s a lot of money to be made in footwear — and not just making from the shoes themselves. In honor of Black Business Month, here are some of the Black-owned brands making their mark on the sneaker game.
A Ma Maniére
A New York-based design house with retail locations all over the country, the brand expanded from its Atlanta origins courtesy of founder James Whitner’s commitment to quality, leading to collaborations with high-end luxury brands, Nike and Jordan, and even its own hotel. In 2020, he told Hypebeast, “I thought about the best way I could keep the conversation alive around racism and opportunities for the Black community, [and] the easy answer was to get active.”
Brandblack
Brandblack was founded in 2014 by veteran footwear designer David Raysse, who wanted to offer consumers an alternative basketball shoe in response to Nike’s then overwhelming chokehold over the hoops market. The initial designs were informed by a valuable asset and investor: NBA star Jamal Crawford, who endorsed the brand and wore it on-court until leaving for Adidas in 2016. The brand has since expanded to training, running, and casual offerings while maintaining the same ethos of offering something different from the rest.
Joe Freshgoods
Joe Robinson, the founder and creative director of Joe Freshgoods, hails from the north side of Chicago. After getting his start selling goods online and at pop-ups around his hometown, he’s since collaborated McDonald’s, Nike, Adidas, the Chicago Bears, and New Balance. However, as he put it on his Twitter feed recently, “It’s honestly kinda bigger than sneakers.” His goal, as he put it, “Is always how can I get a bunch of black and brown people a check.”
Katty Customs
In addition to hosting Uproxx’s Fresh Pair with hip-hop superproducer Just Blaze, the sneaker customizer has a customer base that includes superstar athletes and entertainers, and her technique involves making custom kicks look factory-made.
Laced
Owned by James “JB” Baker and former NBA player Eugene “Pooh” Jeter III, Laced is located in Los Angeles’ South Bay area, offering the latest from Nike, Adidas, and more. In addition to selling sneakers and apparel, thought, Laced also serves its community, with toy drives and turkey drives for the holidays. It also sponsors basketball and music events in the city.
LEADERS 1354
A sneaker store in Chicago, Illinois, it’s one of the longest-tenured shops of its kind. Owner Corey Gilkey is a community leader in his own right, and there’s even a docuseries in development describing the store’s history and impact on the both the local community and the sneakerhead community at large.
LØCI
With a mission to “combine fashion with sustainability,” LØCI uses recycled materials and ethically sourced cotton and rubber in its own factories to ensure production sticks close to its values. Co-founders Emmanuel Eribo, Frank Eribo, Philippe Homsy, and Mark Quaradeghini aim to make LØCI a “fashion powerhouse,” and made significant inroads in cross-marketing, partnering with hip-hop star Nicki Minaj for a full line of sneakers earlier this year.
Move Insoles
Developed and launched by sports marketing agent Nate Jones after years of working with NBA players and noticing the wear and tear of the 82-game season on their feet, Move Insoles was partially funded by some of the players themselves — including Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, and Jamal Crawford. The insoles are the first retail insoles designed specifically for basketball, and were developed after taken scans of hundreds of feet to ensure they could work for almost anybody. The brand makes insoles for both pros and everyday athletes, as well as casual insoles to use with ever-popular retros that provide little support for all-day wear.
NinetyNine Products
After working as a designer for Nike, Cole Haan, and more for nearly 15 years, Jeffrey Henderson started his brand by accident when he showed a factory owner a design while on a business trip to China and returned to find that the shoes had been produced to his specifications. “I had to come up with a brand that meant something because he basically called me out,” he told FootwearNews. “I had no plans of creating a brand.” And yet, NinetyNine appears to be thriving, with a slate of simple, casual shoes that push stylistic boundaries.
RSVP Gallery
Virgil Abloh and Don C established this store in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood back in 2009, and it remains a part of the late Abloh’s ongoing legacy. It isn’t just a sneaker store, either; it’s also a luxury boutique and art gallery.
Saysh
Founded by decorated track athlete Allyson Felix, Saysh was created after Felix left Nike over its refusal to guarantee salary protections for its pregnant athletes (a policy it has since updated). In 2021, Felix launched Saysh with the goal of “crafting sneakers truly shaped to the unique contours of a woman’s foot.” Noting that on average, women have significant differences in foot structure than men (not to mention gait, center of gravity, and so on), the company also works to address disparities in how women are treated in sports, championing pay equity and even offering free size upgrades as women’s feet change due to life changes like pregnancy.
Unrivaled
A new basketball league founded by the WNBA’s Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, the 3-on-3 league will debut in January. In addition to providing the highest average salary in US women’s basketball (ranging from $130,000 to more than $500,000), the league will introduce — and potentially popularize — yet another new format for professional basketball in a burgeoning market. As such, it’ll likely also provide a huge platform for similarly rising sneaker brands, or established ones, as they make increased investments into the growth market of women’s sports. Additional investors include soccer star Alex Morgan and Carmelo Anthony.
For the past two years, Bronx native Ice Spice has been one of the hottest stars in hip-hop. She’s been nominated for four Grammy Awards, won a VMA, and in 2023, became the first rapper with four songs to peak in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 thanks to songs with major stars Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift. That she was able to accomplish all this without putting out a full-length album is impressive, but as the release of her debut album, Y2K, nears, some fans have begun to hold the success of her singles against her. They wonder, “Is Ice Spice an ‘album artist’?”
A year ago, such a question might have seemed unfair to ask. After all, just a few months removed from the peak of her PinkPantheress collaboration “Boy’s A Liar, Pt. 2,” Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj’s Barbie soundtrack contribution “Barbie World” was ubiquitous, permeating pop culture as readily as the film that contained it. Ice had the cross-genre co-sign of pop regent Taylor Swift with “Karma,” and her improved stage presence at festivals like Rolling Loud California, Broccoli City, Power 105.1 Powerhouse, Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival, and Coachella solidified her breakout star status.
But somewhere in the course of the past six months, once she’d finally actually begun the rollout for her debut, the goodwill that had carried her breakout single “Munch (Feelin’ You)” and follow-ups like “In Ha Mood” and “Deli” seemingly dried up. “Pretty Girl,” with Afropop breakout Rema, failed to chart, as did “Gimmie A Light” and “Phat Butt,” the songs following Ice Spice’s Latto diss “Think U the Shit (Fart).” None of Ice’s solo singles have charted as highly as “Boy’s A Liar,” “Karma,” or “Barbie World.” While it’s to be expected that a newer artist wouldn’t chart as strongly without the big names attached, the drop-off would seem to indicate a reduced interest in the one thing we know Ice Spice does well.
Likewise, reception to each new piece of the rollout has been lukewarm, if not outright icy. After she shared the cover art for Y2K, which featured photography from none other than the great David LaChapelle, it seemed most fans could only focus on the placement of the album’s title — which appears in hot pink graffiti on a metal, Oscar The Grouch-style garbage can. That’s not an indictment in itself — fans similarly roasted Megan Thee Stallion’s Megan cover, prompting her to update it with multiple different options — but the din of disapproval over Ice’s moves has gotten steadily “louder” online since she named her lead single after flatulence.
Obviously, there’s a difference between dropping a handful of hits and crafting a full-length project with a unifying theme or sound. But Ice Spice’s generation may not even put the same importance on that as prior music fans. Just a week ago, her collaborator and cohort PinkPantheress, who it must be noted was also born around the same time as Ice Spice (one year and a few months after the literal Y2K baby), admitted something somewhat surprising. “I don’t listen to albums!” she said. “That’s why when it came to my own album, I was like, ‘Do people care about tracklisting?’ I couldn’t believe it. Some people would were like, ‘Oh, it’s a great album, but the tracklisting doesn’t make sense.’ I’m like, just listen to the songs.”
As shocking as that revelation might have been for older fans who grew up on classics like Illmatic, The College Dropout, and Good Kid, MAAD City (or even more recently and relatedly, Invasion Of Privacy), it makes perfect sense for young adults who have almost never known a world without streaming services and playlists. iTunes was launched four months before PinkPantheress was born — Ice Spice was still in diapers. Audiences have been purchasing and consuming individual tracks longer than either of them have known how to talk. While both of their music may be informed by nostalgia for millennial pop and dance music, neither probably has much direct experience with the way we engaged with that music, of ripping the plastic from a newly purchased CD and popping out the liner notes to read the personnel and songwriting credits.
If their — and their audiences’ — engagement with music primarily came in the form of individual songs from playlists or live performances, why wouldn’t they create music from this mindset, rather than thinking in terms of complete works that require a full 40-minute-or-more playthrough? Besides, it’s not like we all went out and bought albums just because the singles were poppin’ on TRL and 106 & Park, either (I have a personal theory that or nostalgia for certain albums actually comes from the hits that made it to radio more so than the sequencing and cohesion of those full projects). So, rather than asking “is Ice Spice an album artist?” maybe the question should be “does Ice Spice need to be an album artist?”
In a world where Cardi B has maintained her relevance through singles and feature verses nearly six years removed from her vaunted debut, the biggest hit of the year is a battle rap completely unassociated with any longer compilation of music (other than the string of diss tracks that effectively sent Drake into hiding for the past month), and albums’ sales/streaming totals are mostly driven by standout tracks anyway, maybe it doesn’t matter if Ice Spice can make a full album — whatever that means in 2024, anyway. It wasn’t high-concept lyrical virtuosity that made audiences fall in love with the Bronx rapper. It was an attitude, a feeling — a vibe, if you will — that carried her to the heights of stardom and brought thousands of fans to all those stages. If she can deliver that, it shouldn’t matter if it takes 14 tracks or a 2-minute single, Ice Spice will remain a star.
