Month: June 2021

NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert done the Don Joey Crack way looks a bit different from the other bespoke office concerts. With a camera trailing behind him, Fat Joe enters the premises where his Terror Squad is in ready position, spitting “I stand alone in this cold world” — the first verse from his 2001 origin story track, “My Lifestyle.”

“What’s good, Tiny Desk?” Joe said, flanked in a denim Louis Vuitton bucket hat, baby blue aviators, and a Barbie-pink leather jacket. Against a backdrop of designer sneakers encased in glass, the Bronx emcee ran through some of his biggest in his 30-year career, including his monumental Song of the 2002 Summer, “What’s Luv?” Vocalist Angelica Vila expertly handled the Ashanti parts and the salsa dancing parts, matching the Don in a long hot-pink blazer.

“Luv” ripped into the undulating “Lean Back” — where the tiny desk was, predictably, leaned on — and then Joe’s new single, “Sunshine (The Light).” The new track uses a Heaven-sent mashup by DJ Amorphous, of Rihanna’s 2016 song “Kiss It Better” and Luther Vandross’ 1981 song “Never Too Much.”

“I love you Luther,” Joe said, pausing for a reflective moment before performing his Terror Squad anthem, “All the Way Up.” Having released his first new single since 2019, the 50-year-old rapper contemplated the difficulty of staying both authentic and fresh in the music industry.

“I tell ’em all the time — that your darkest moments bring you the most clarity. It’s hard to start from nothing, make something of yourself, and have ’em rip it all away, start back from scratch … Who’s gonna come back, 40-years-old as a rapper? Well shit, Tina Turner did it at 48. Terror Squad means loyalty, trust, respect, and honor. Most of all, we never give up.”

In an aggressive and controversial push to secure more aid for Israel, Senator Lindsey Graham is facing intense backlash on social media as people bring up his resistance to much-needed aid for American citicizens throughout the pandemic. Graham recently met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and he touted the meeting on Twitter, where the senator attempted to push the “More for Israel” slogan on Memorial Day.

On Tuesday morning, Graham took his pro-Israel campaign to Fox News audience and proceeded to hype up the threat of attacks from Hamas. “The people trying to destroy the state of Israel would kill you if they could,” Graham said. “The more people that try to destroy Israel, the more Hamas tries to destroy Israel, the more Iran tries to destroy Israel, the more aid that the United States will provide to Israel.”

For his efforts, Netanyahu has publicly praised Graham for his pro-Israel campaign. “No one has done more for Israel than you, Senator Lindsey Graham, stalwart champion of our alliance and we have no better friend,” the prime minister said, according to the Jerusalem Post.

However, on top of the already sensitive nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Graham is receiving increased blowback for fighting aggressively for Israeli aid despite spending the past year either delaying or outright voting against such pandemic relief efforts as stimulus payments, expanded unemployment insurance, and universal healthcare. Like most Republicans, Graham is against government spending, but that ideology seems to have gone out the window when it comes to Israel.

(Via Lindsey Graham on Twitter)

After taking 2019 off, Florida’s Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival returned in 2020, from March 5 to 8. That was right before pandemic-caused quarantines were put into effect in the US, making it one of the last large-scale events to happen before the world changed. There’s not going to be an Okeechobee this year, but organizers have announced dates for the 2022 event, their fifth overall: March 3 to 6.

Pasquale Rotella, founder and CEO of Insomniac Events (one of the companies behind the festival), offered a statement, saying, “After this long year, I couldn’t be more excited to return to Sunshine Grove and be back in nature with all my Okeechobee friends and fam. This festival is all about music, camping out, and making s’mores while dancing in a jungle, grass fields, and on a beautiful beach. It was the last festival I attended before the pandemic hit so I can’t wait to be back!”

Soundslinger (the other company behind the fest) founder Rechulski also says, “It’s been quite a difficult 14 months for all of us, especially everyone in the live event mass gathering community. I hope that music can once again shine as a beacon of light and hope and bring us a much needed distraction. I’m just glad to be back and have the chance to do what I love the most!”

Tickets will be available to purchase in a limited pre-sale starting on June 3 at noon ET. Learn more about the 2022 Okeechobee festival here.

Nicholas Braun couldn’t discuss the new super-secret season of Succession with British GQ, but he did talk about the time he got sprayed with Faygo at the Gathering of the Juggalos. Next best thing really. It was a few years ago and he was preparing for a role in a “now-canceled movie” in which his character was a fan of Insane Clown Posse. In other words, Cousin Greg was a juggalo. If you’re working that out in ol’ noggin still, you’re not the only one.

Braun flew to Oklahoma City, where that year’s Gathering of the Juggalos festival took place, and embedded himself among the ICP faithful. Martin Freeman could never, ever do this:

After a day of moshing and drinking “the grossest alcohol we could get,” he found himself on stage with a hundred other juggalos for an almost ceremonial experience in which they were all drenched in a soft drink called Faygo – a kind of juggalo baptism.

Braun said that he “felt disgusting. My skin was just layers and layers of soda, dirt, and sweat,” but he only has kind words for juggalos. “They’re kind of sweet,” he added.

You should read the whole British GQ profile, but I singled out this anecdote because: I need to see the footage of Cousin Greg drowning in Detroit’s stickiest soda. It’s not an impossible mission. The Gathering only happened in Oklahoma once, in 2017, so if someone has hours of free time to look for a very tall man on stage with Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, possibly holding a California Pizza Kitchen box, please let me know. Thank you.

(Via British GQ)

After releasing her 2020 album Miss Anthropocene, Grimes decided to turn things up a notch. Earlier this year, the musician tapped several DJs to reimagine some of the LP’s tracks as pumped-up dance floor songs for her project Miss Anthropocene (Rave Edition). Grimes clearly enjoyed turning up the tempo on some of her music as she’s now teased and upcoming collaboration with British EDM DJ Chris Lake.

Grimes took to social media to share a clip of her and Lake’s song, which he previewed this week at a massive outdoor concert in Arizona, one of his first shows since the pandemic. “@chrislake testing our Song! Shud we release this?” she wrote alongside the snippet. The 43-second preview offers a first look at the single’s hook. It opens with Grimes’ choppy vocal samples and a pounding bass before the beat drops. The crowd seemed to enjoy the collaboration, as the video shows fans yelling in excitement after the beat drop.

News of the upcoming single is the last we’ve heard from Grimes since she appeared in an SNL sketch alongside her boyfriend Elon Musk. Grimes took on the role of Princess Peach and later revealed she had suffered a panic attack following the segment.

Listen to a snippet of Grimes’ upcoming single with Chris Lake above.

During Friends‘ original ten-season run, Matthew Perry’s struggles with substance abuse were well documented ones. In the years since the show’s finale, Perry appeared to be very aware of people’s lingering concerns while admitting to a cloudy memory, to the point where “I don’t remember three years of it … somewhere between season 3 and 6 … I was a little out of it, yeah.” Well, the subject revved back up on social media during last week’s HBO Max reunion event, when Perry seemed a little less full of pep (as with a People exclusive video as well) than the rest of the returning cast.

Perry’s got some defenders that want to assure everyone that he’s doing alright. An unnamed source quickly spoke with The Sun to claim that Perry had emergency dental surgery shortly before the reunion filming, and while speaking to Hollywood Reporter, reunion director Ben Winston was quick to respond to a question about Perry’s health while classifying disparaging remarks as “unkind”:

“[H]e was great. People can sometimes just be unkind. I wish they weren’t. I loved working with him. He’s a brilliantly funny man and I thought he had some great one-liners in the show. I felt just happy and lucky to be in his presence and directing him on something like this.”

Likewise, executive producer Kevin Bright supported Perry while declaring, “What people say is what people say.” He added, “I think he’s OK. He seems stronger and better since the last time I saw him, and excited about going forward.”

While the serious nature of substance abuse is no joke, seriously, emergency dental surgery is also no fun, either. Could there be anything less fun to deal with in the hours before the taping of a highly anticipated reunion that would be played for all the world to see? I don’t even attempt to talk or eat after novocaine, and Perry (allegedly) didn’t have that option available to him. Can we refocus the reunion response to the wonderful Matt LeBlank meme instead? Yes, please.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

Piers Morgan is a bit of an enigma. Though he has become best known to global audiences for his awkward obsession with Meghan Markle, he’s also regularly starting Twitter beefs with people who quite literally don’t really even know who he is (see: his painfully embarrassing correspondence with The Wire creator David Simon). Yet, through it all and against all odds, Morgan—a 56-year-old man who tried to start sh*t with Demi Lovato over frozen yogurt—seems to have remained gainfully employed for the past 30-odd years for engaging in exactly these kind of antics. And, if you’re willing to believe the Sun, some people are actually interested in hearing what he has to say.

As Vanity Fair reports, Good Morning Britain—the a.m. talk show that Morgan stormed off the set of in early March, never to return—has seen a drop-off in its ratings ever since its resident loudmouth’s departure. Morgan told the paper that GMB has “reached out—there have been approaches,” adding: “Never say never.” Which, for Britons, might be more of a threat than a passing comment.

But bad takes are just one of Morgan’s recurring issues; knowing when to keep his mouth shut is yet another problem. At this very moment, he’s getting a lot of heat for calling Naomi Osaka an “arrogant spoiled brat” for choosing to walk away from the French Open if speaking to the press was part of what was required of her. True to form, Morgan then found a way to relate the situation back to Markle, writing in his Daily Mail column:

“This is straight out of the Meghan and Harry playbook of wanting to have the world’s largest cake and eating it, by exploiting the media for ruthlessly commercial self-promotion but using mental health to silence any media criticism.”

Reminder: This is coming from a man who walked off a TV show when he was facing criticism. Pot, meet kettle. As for whether GMB is seriously considering bringing Morgan back, only time will tell. In the meantime, Morgan is treating the news of his former employer’s ratings decline in precisely the mature way you’d expect.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Samia put herself on the music world’s radar in 2020 with her debut album The Baby. Now, she’s back with more new music: Samia shared a video for “Show Up” today, which is the first look at her upcoming EP Scout. That project is set for release on July 23.

“Show Up” is a midtempo pop anthem that’s underscored by expansive shoegaze guitars in the chorus. The video is a fun watch as well, as Samia sings the sing in a corner of a room lit up by various projections and lights.

Samia compares the upcoming EP to The Baby, saying, “It feels like a part two — it’s The Baby‘s slightly older sister letting her know that everything is gonna be alright.”

In an Indie Mixtape 2020 Q&A from last year, the four words Samia chose to describe her music were “Apologetically yodeling my feelings.” She also said of how she wants her music to be remembered, “I hope it still feels like a conversation. I hope anyone who’s listening feels they’re being heard in some way.”

Watch the “Show Up” video above and find the Scout art and tracklist below. She also has some tour dates set for this fall, so find those below as well.

1. “As You Are”
2. “Show Up”
3. “Elephant”
4. “The Promise” Feat. Jelani Aryeh

09/06 — Troutdale, OR @ Edgefield *
09/07 — Redmond, WA @ Marymoor Amphitheater *
09/09 — Berkeley, CA @ The Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley *
09/10 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre *
09/11 — San Diego, CA @ SOMA *
09/13 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Union Event Center *
09/14 — Denver, CO @ The Mission Ballroom *
09/16 — Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom *
09/17 — Austin, TX @ The Moody Amphitheater *
09/18 — Dallas, TX @ South Side Ballroom *
09/19 — Houston, TX @ Bayou Music Center *
09/21 — Atlanta, GA @ Roxy Theatre *
09/22 — Asheville, NC @ Rabbit Rabbit *
09/24 — Chicago, IL @ Schubas #
09/25 — Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line #
09/26 — Kansas City, MO @ Recordbar #
09/28 — Indianapolis, IN @ Hifi #
09/30 — Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s #
10/01 — Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall #
10/02 — New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom #
10/04 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe #
10/05 — Washington DC @ Songbyrd #
10/07 — Columbus, OH @ The Basement #
10/08 — Nashville, TN @ The Basement #

* with Sylvan Esso
# with Savannah Conley

Scout is out 7/23 via Grand Jury. Pre-order it here.

Hayley Kiyoko recently returned with the poignant song about self-reliance, “Found My Friends,” and tonight the queer pop star (also affectionately known to fans as “Lesbian Jesus”) is kicking off pride month with another new track. As opposed to her initial new track, “Chance” is about not being true to yourself and hiding from how you really feel.

“‘Chance’ is a song based on those moments when I denied my true feelings for someone out of fear of rejection, and therefore didn’t allow someone to take a chance on me,” Kiyoko said of the track. “I hope this song empowers people to push past their own self-doubt and realize how worthy they are of love.”

She also self-directed the video for the track, co-starring Alexandra Shipp. “I’m always starved for hopeful queer stories onscreen, and I really wanted to direct a narrative that focused on the happier ‘honeymoon’ phase of a relationship, to show what can happen if we take a chance on ourselves and have that love reciprocated,” she said of the visual.

“The video is meant to portray those first few weeks, months, or even years when you are utterly head over heels in love with each other. I directed the video on 16mm film, alongside an incredible team of badass women — from the director of photography to the editor, and the producers. I am so grateful for the entire crew who helped bring this vision to life as well as to our incredible lead actress, Alexandra Shipp. I hope ‘Chance’ sparks the hope that anyone can and will find the love they deserve.”

Like most of us, Kiyoko’s life was on hold last year during the pandemic, so the influx of new music makes sense. But unlike plenty of other musicians, who were working on new music or resting while touring and performing was impossible, Kiyoko was able to launch another creative project — perfume. Her scent “Hue” is a gender-inclusive fragrance, and she compared the process of making the scent to her experience with songwriting.

Clearly, now she’s back in musical mode, and with not one but two new songs coming so close together, it seems like a new album or EP is very likely in the works.

Watch the “Chance” video above.

Meek Mill decided to get proactive about blogs’ tendency to only cover “goofy sh*t” he does by giving them something else to post about — namely, new music. Today, the Philadelphia rapper released a new video for a no-frills quick hitter called “Flamers Flow,” in which he goes for broke in his signature rapid-fire flow, boasting his accomplishments and mourning his trauma.

The video is likewise relatively straightforward, as Meek Mill raps directly to the camera while fellow street rappers Bobby Shmurda and Dave East (who’s been making cameos in a lot of rappers’ videos lately) play hype man, with Bobby even going so far as to challenge Meek to a push-up contest in the studio. Whether the new single is an indicator of more new music on the way remains to be seen, but Meek’s on the right track if he wants to see his media coverage turn a corner.

Meanwhile, Meek’s coverage has included plenty of celebratory stories as well (I guess “selective attention” is still a thing), as he recently purchased his grandmother a new house, shared a new photo of his youngest son, and invested in cryptocurrency.

Watch Meek Mill’s “Flamerz Flow” video above.

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