Month: February 2022

In the thick of the pandemic, modern day hip-hop renaissance man Open Mike Eagle gave hip-hop heads an incredible treat when he debuted the What Had Happened Was podcast with super producer Prince Paul. Mike had a knack for setting Paul at ease and it resulted in incredible stories about Paul’s work with De La Soul, Gravediggaz, Handsome Boy Modeling School, Chris Rock, and more. The hits kept coming with Season 2 in 2020 featuring none other than El-P of Run The Jewels. Much like the first season, each episode was a chapter in the subject’s career focusing on a specific album or project, and guided by the benevolent host, El-P took listeners through the ins and outs of RTJ, Company Flow, and everything in between.

The newly announced third season promises even more hip-hop geekery, as it features famed hip-hop exec Dante Ross. A mercurial figure in the Golden Age of hip-hop, Ross was responsible for ushering along acts like Digital Underground, Queen Latifah, and De La Soul while with Def Jam and Tommy Boy Records. Then, as the hip-hop A&R man at Elektra Records, Ross signed legends like Busta Rhymes, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Del The Funky Homosapien, and a whole lot more.

Suffice it to say, Ross is a hip-hop treasure trove of knowledge and he makes for a spectacular guest alongside the equally spectacular host. Open Mike Eagle’s Stony Island Pods network is now distributed by the much larger Talkhouse network and this season represents a well-deserved big step up for the very excellent show.

What Had Happened Was Season 3 with Dante Ross premieres Wednesday, February 9. Listen/subscribe here.

NLE Choppa ended the first month of the new year by releasing his sophomore album Me Vs. Me. It arrives nearly a year and a half after his debut album Top Shotta. That same year he was given a spot on the 2020 XXL Freshman Class list with names like Jack Harlow, Rod Wave, Latto, and more. To continue the promotion behind his latest body of work, NLE Choppa returns with a video for “Trap Phone.” The visual finds him surrounded by his crew and a cast of women as he boasts about his street rap while showing off his charisma with a collection of energetic dance moves.

Me Vs. Me arrives with sixteen songs and features from Young Thug, Polo G, G Herbo, and Moneybagg Yo. The project dropped a week after its original release date after NLE Choppa delayed it out of respect for Long Live Young Dolph, the compilation album that was released in honor of Young Dolph who was shot and killed in November. “Trap Phone” joins songs like “Stompin,” “Mmm Hmm,” “Unapologetic,” and “Drop Sh*t” as records from Me Vs. Me to receive the visual treatment.

You can watch the video for “Trap Phone” above.

Me Vs. Me is out now via Warner Records. You can stream it here.

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

Faouzia fans have been watching the young pop star slowly but surely build a career for herself in the music industry. Sure, it doesn’t hurt that her signature style is incredibly strong as well, but the Moroccan-born pop star’s powerhouse voice is really what sets her apart from the rest. Last year the 21-year-old artist released a couple of excellent new singles, “Hero” in the summer followed up by “Puppet” in the fall, and both helped establish her within the mainstream pop world. Though she was born in Morocco, Faouzia was raised in Canada but is quickly becoming a crossover artist in America.

After a sold-out show in Los Angeles right on the heels of her new releases, Faouzia has clearly been hard at work prepping a video to go along with her newest single. And this week, the clip is finally here. “The idea for the ‘Puppet’ video is one I had been thinking of since I first wrote the song,” Faouzia said. “I’ve been not only thinking about what I wanted the visuals to be, but also about how I wanted to portray the meaning of the song through fashion, makeup, hair, and a story that feels true to myself.”

Collaborating with Kyle Cogan on the visual, Faouzia explains that each of the costume changes represents another version of the captured character. “I worked with Kyle Cogan on this one and he’s done such a phenomenal job at bringing it to life,” she explained. “The main character has been captured, strung up in wires to be examined and commanded by the faceless men. As we delve into her mind, we see four versions of her, each representing a different element of lost control. While each character has their own meaning for me, I’m excited to see how everyone connects with each variation as I know everyone will see different reflections of their own lives.”

There’s plenty of her signature high-fashion looks, some disorienting fisheye camera lenses, and so many costume changes, as those who would have this pop star do their bidding get a wake up call. It’s right there in the lyrics of the song, but clearly, her rebellion just needed the right setting for her to break free. Check out the dramatic clip above and keep an ear out for more new music from Faouzia, hopefully coming very soon.

Earlier this week, Rihanna shocked the world by revealing she and her boyfriend ASAP Rocky are expecting their first child together. The news arrived a little over a year after rumors surfaced about the pair’s romance. The couple shared pictures from a photoshoot they did together in New York, which features Rihanna rocking a pink Chanel jacket that was halfway unbuttoned to show her baby bump. Just a few days after those pictures arrived, Rihanna returns with another one to celebrate the start of Black History Month.

The new picture also showed Rihanna’s baby bump, which she captioned, “How the gang pulled up to black history month.” She also included a pair of pictures from her photoshoot in the Instagram post. Shortly after Rihanna shared the news about her pregnancy, her father Ronald Fenty gave his reaction to it during an interview with TMZ. “When I got the news, I was so excited and ecstatic,” he said. “And I’m just hoping it will have ten fingers and ten toes.” Ronald also revealed his hope for the baby’s gender. “I’m looking for a girl,” he said. “I already have two grandsons, so I’m looking for a daughter now.”

The announcement arrived after her Clara Lionel Foundation pledged $15 million for organizations that are fighting against climate change.

Gunna is off to a great start this year. He released his third album, DS4EVER, last month and it topped the Billboard 200, giving the rapper his second No. 1 album as a solo artist and his third altogether, thanks to YSL’s Slime Langauge 2. He’s also giving back to the community that helped him become the success he is today.

Gunna teamed up with Goodr, a sustainable food waste management and hunger relief company, to open a free grocery store in Atlanta’s Ronald E. McNair Middle School, which he attended as a teenager. Called Goodr Grocery Store, it will serve more than 900 students and allow them to pick from his favorite foods and snacks, as well as fresh produce and toiletries. There’s also a “Drip Closet” section that offers clothes and sneakers — even Nike Air Jordans.

“I have the highest regard for Gunna’s dedication to giving back to the community that raised him,” Goodr founder and CEO Jasmine Crowe said in a statement. “Goodr and Gunna have teamed for the greater good several times in the past couple years. His commitment is inspiring.”

The company plans to launch more free grocery stores in schools and community centers across the country.

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

Far right commentator and professional troll Ben Shapiro is pushing 40 but he still looks like he had his head shoved down a toilet by some high school bully. So it was only fitting that he’d find himself talking to young school children, attempting to brainwash them with conservative talking points. Luckily, some of them seemed to see right through a guy who thinks obesity and not getting vaxxed are the same thing.

In a new video co-sponsored by something called “Conservakids,” the guy who once painfully read through “WAP” line by line descended upon a public library with a stack of index cards, each with a government term printed on them. His goal, he said, was to explain these ideas “to very, very small children in a fashion that kids can understand.” Alas, they seemed to understand the terms better than he does.

On the subject of taxes, for instance, Shaprio claimed, “The government takes all your money and gives you very little in return.”

“That’s not true,” one kid shot back.

He then backed off, saying, “I mean, it’s kind of true. It depends on the kind of government.” He soon doubled down, claiming, “Taxes are theft.” Taxes, Shapiro said, are supposed to be used on services like the police. “They’re not supposed to spend it on just random projects or silly things that they have in their head.”

They didn’t seem convinced, so Shapiro assured them, “As you get older, you’ll realize how little you like taxes.”

The video then cuts to another boy saying, “Yeah, he’s way off-base about that.”

He then based California, where he lives, describing it as a place “where monsters roam the streets and garbage is strewn everywhere. It’s, it’s a horror escape.”

Eventually, he informed the kids that they “just learned more than you will in all of college,” though they probably won’t agree if they later decide to go to college and realize on day one how little Shapiro knows. Some seemed to have figured that one out already.

At the end, one of the boys who spoke up was interviewed about what he thought about Shapiro’s presentation. “I’ve seen my mom look at him on Facebook. She said he was a very smart guy,” he said. When if he agreed with his mom, he replied, “Well, now that I’ve met him, maybe.”

The whole thing can be watched here, if you can stomach listening to Shapiro’s “MicroMachines Guy on amphetamines” vocal stylings.

(Via The Wrap)

It’s been nearly three years since Nicki Minaj dropped her last album, Queen. Since then, she got married, had her first child, and found herself in a fair amount of controversy. The singer is about to release her upcoming single, “Do We Want A Problem?” with Lil Baby, which she’s currently promoting.

In addition to riding the interview circuit, Nicki also went on Instagram Live with Kevin Samuels, a former consultant who has repeatedly sparked controversy on social media for his dating advice. His comments are often condescending, especially towards women, but Samuels’ conversation with Nicki was, for the most part, smooth-sailing.

At one point, Samuels asked Nicki to rate herself on a scale of 1-10 and the rapper chose 7, but Samuels was not satisfied with her answer. “It’s the default answer for most people because they don’t want to go too high, they don’t want to go too low,” he said. Instead, he gave the singer a 9 and said she “gets additional points for eyes.”

Despite their rather calm conversation, many fans were a bit confused as to why Nicki hopped on Instagram Live with Samuels and they took to Twitter to share their reactions.

You can view a clip from the Instagram Live above and read reactions from fans below.

Much like cryptocurrency, NFTs are a rising digital trend that can’t help seeming awfully dodgy, and just because Gwyneth Paltrow and Paris Hilton are into them. The same day that some artists discovered that non-fungible tokens were being made without their consent, word broke that a collector of the fad got scammed out of their collection of JPEGs depicting apes and mutants.

As per Vice, the collector, who goes by larrylawliet (though their handle is “@iloveponzi,” which is all but begging con artists to scam him), appears to have been tricked into granting hackers access to his crypto wallet. A cybersecurity researcher told Vice that, after looking at larrylawliet’s blockchain transactions, “it appears larrylawliet gave access to his NFTs to what they likely thought was a dAPP or distributed app, perhaps to help them trade the images. The problem is that it wasn’t actually a dApp, but an individual’s wallet, which proceeded to drain larrylawliet’s wallet of all their NFTs.”

After getting access to the cyrpto waller, the hacker(s) proceeded to steal seven NFTs: one from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, five from the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and one Doodle. The hackers then sold them for a total of $700,000. That, larrylawliet said, was far less than they were worth; they claimed they were worth something in the area of $2.7 million.

This has become an all-too-common scam in the cryptocurrency world, while NFT heists are on the rise. And it’s a reminder that the world of NFTs, especially when combined with cryptocurrency, is so questionable even Kanye West is steering clear.

(Via Vice)

Hailey Bieber might be leaning into her role as the wife of superstar Justin Bieber, but that hasn’t stopped her from doing plenty of things on her own, either. Most recently, she launched a mini show interviewing some of her famous friends in her own bathroom, complete with a dining table and prepared snacks of the visitor’s choice. Past guests on Who’s In My Bathroom have included fellow model Kendall Jenner, and rising pop star The Kid Laroi, and today’s guest was none other than Normani.

After Normani taught her proper technique for eating crab legs, Hailey called the rising pop star a once in a generation talent, and heard a little bit more about her experience moving to Houston after her family was displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. Eventually, the conversation naturally turned to Normani’s latest single, “Wild Side,” which features none other than Cardi B — who rather infamously starred in the video while she was pregnant. Normani admits she had higher expectations for the clip before learning Cardi’s movements would necessarily be limited. “Cardi, she was pregnant while we shot the music video,” Normani begins around the 5:30 mark. “I initially had the idea of us like hanging from the ceiling wrapped in chains, and like, I think really really big. I wanted there to be like, alligators swarming around us in the water, you know the scene we had together. And they’re like, ‘you know, she’s pregnant.’ And I’m like ohhhhh.”

So chains and alligators were off the menu for the moment! Obviously the “Wild Side” video still came out great though. Check out the full interview above.

Back at the start of 2019, J. Cole announced that “Family And Loyalty,” his collaboration with Gang Starr, would be the “last feature you’ll hear from me.” That claim turned out to be short-lived, as Cole, who typically isolates himself from other artists, is currently in the midst of another feature run. This Friday, YG, J. Cole, and Moneybagg Yo will team up for their new song “Scared Money,” which seems to be the latest single from YG’s upcoming album, following last spring’s “Sign Language.”

J. Cole’s decision comes after he did some self-reflecting around the release of his sixth album, The Off-Season. “Do you really want to look back and be like, ‘You didn’t work with nobody?” Cole said in a documentary that arrived shortly before the release. “You didn’t have no songs with nobody?’ You just cool with that?’ No, OK! So start saying yes to some features.” Thankfully, Cole did just that.

In the past few months, Cole has released songs with Wale (“Poke It Out“), Young Thug (“Stressed Out“), “Joyner Lucas (“Your Heart“), and Benny The Butcher (“Johnny P’s Caddy“). While “Scared Money” will be Cole and YG’s first song together, it will be Cole’s second with Moneybagg Yo, as they worked together back in 2018 on “Say Dat.”

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