Month: June 2022

In just a matter of a year, Doechii went from a bubbling artist to one of the biggest newcomers in music. Her rise to fame came after she achieved viral success on TikTok after her 2020 record “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake” went viral on the platform last year. That same year Doechii released her second EP Bra-Less and connected with Isaiah Rashad for “Wat U Sed” which was one of the many bright moments from Rashad’s The House Is Burning album. This year she’s released a pair of strong singles, “Persuasive” and “Crazy,” and it’s these records that she brings to the stage for a 2022 BET Award stage for an energetic performance.

Doechii took the stage and kicked this off with a performance of “Persuasive” as she absolutely brought the energy for a spirited rendition of the song. She was backed by a collection of dancers who showed off some impressive dance moves for the performance. Halfway into the song, Doechii switched into a performance of “Crazy” that showed off her rap skills while keeping the excellent choreography in place around her.

Doechii’s appearance on the BET Awards stage comes after she was included in this year’s XXL Freshman Class. She joined a group that also included Babyface Ray, Babytron, Big30, Big Scarr, Cochise, Kali, KayCyy, KenTheMan, Nardo Wick, Saucy Santana, and Sofaygo.

You can watch Doechii perform “Persuasive” and “Crazy” at the 2022 BET Awards in the videos above.

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

The music world has been waiting for Cardi B to make her presence felt again since the massive success of her debut, Grammy award-winning album Invasion Of Privacy. The Bronx rapper seems to be gearing up for the next era of her already impactful career as on Sunday night she announced hew new single “Hot Sh*t” will arrive on July 1.

The announcement, teased during tonight’s BET Awards, came via Twitter in the form of a promotional video with Cardi standing atop New York City. Though the clip does not feature any substantial lyrical part of the song, there is enough of it to hear Tay Keith’s producer tag. “Hot Sh*t” would mark the fifth time Keith has produced specifically for Cardi B, previously contributing to big records like “Who Want The Smoke?,” “Type Sh*t,” “Wish Wish,” and “Big Paper.”

The fun didn’t stop with the promotion for “Hot Sh*t”, as “Bodak Yellow” artist revealed that another surprise is coming at 8:00PM on Monday night. This would be the “Be Careful” singer’s first solo release since 2021’s smash “Up.” She hasn’t been completely away in 2022, adding a fiery verse to Kay Flock’s “Shake It” also featuring Dougie B and Bory300.

Check out Cardi B’s announcement of “Hot Sh*t” above.

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

Shortly after the release of his sophomore album Come Home The Kids Miss You, Jack Harlow found himself in a bit of controversy thanks to a Hot 97 interview where he seemed completely shocked to find out that Brandy and Ray J are siblings. Furthermore, he failed to recognize two notable records from Brandy’s discography. Harlow was criticized for not knowing these pieces of information about Brandy, and soon enough, Brandy herself caught wind of the moment as she threatened to “murk this dude in rap.” She followed through with the promise with a freestyle over “First Class.”

Despite all the aforementioned events, it should be noted that all is well between Jack and Brandy as they joined forces for a performance of “First Class” at the 2022 BET Awards. Harlow led the way with his verse before clearing the stage for Brandy to arrive and shut it down with her verse. Harlow even showed off some dance moves during the performance that will surely prove to be a highlight moment during the award show.

Jack and Brandy’s performance came after he took the stage with Lil Wayne to perform “Poison,” their collaboration from Come Home The Kids Miss You. DJ Drama also appeared on the 1s and 2s for Harlow’s performance.

You can watch Jack Harlow’s performance of “First Class” and “Poison” with Brandy and Lil Wayne in the clips above.

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

Lizzo is a fantastic performer, and she punctuated that with her performance of “About Damn Time” at the 2022 BET Awards. Dressed in an outfit reminiscent of the disco ball lingering behind her on the LED screen, the Grammy winner played the flute to open the performance before flexing her vocals as dancers flanked in front and behind her.

Lizzo is no stranger to the BET Awards as she has been nominated for five since 2019, winning Best Female R&B/Pop Artist in 2019. The “Truth Hurts” singing has also been nominated for two BET Hip Hop Awards, won one of the 11 Billboard Music Awards she has been nominated for, and two of the 8 Grammys she has received nominations for. Lizzo notably holds the Guinness World Record for the most weeks at No. 1 on the US singles chart for a rap single by a female artist.

Lizzo has released two songs so far this year, June’s “Grrrls” and April’s “About Damn Time.” She collected a collaboration with rap’s biggest stars with last year’s “Rumors” featuring Cardi B. Lizzo has not released a full-length project since 2019’s Cuz I Love You, but next month she will release her third album Special.

You can check out Lizzo’s BET Awards performance in the clips above.

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

Aside from conversation about possible winners and what the performances might look like, tonight’s 2022 BET Awards has been the topic of conversation due to Lil Nas X’s frustration with them. The singer was not nominated for this year’s award show despite being one of the biggest artists of the last 12 months. Fans also took issue with this as they noted that Jack Harlow was nominated as one of his biggest contributions in the last 12 months was a guest verse on Lil Nas’ chart-topping “Industry Baby.” Harlow has shown support for Lil Nas on numerous occasions, and the latest came during his red carpet appearance for tonight’s BET Awards.

Harlow showed up on the red carpet at the 2022 BET Awards rocking a Lil Nas graphic t-shirt. It featured multiple pictures of the singer, the background of his 2021 album, and the word “Montero” which is Lil Nas’ first name and the title of his debut album. Lil Nas eventually caught wind of Harlow’s red carpet appearance and shared some love back with him, writing in a tweet, “Wow I really love this man.”

The BET Awards red carpet moment comes after Lil Nas X released “Late To Da Party” with YoungBoy Never Broke Again, a record that finds Lil Nas saying “f*ck BET” multiple times.

You can view Harlow’s red carpet look in the post above.

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

The original Top Gun didn’t have a huge opening. Indeed, the top grossing film of 1986 was a word-of-mouth hit, staying in theaters for months, simply because people really, really enjoyed it. (And thanks to a soundtrack that kept cranking out hits, like the one accompanying its iconic/ridiculous volleyball scene.) That longevity seems to be repeating itself 36 years later. Indeed, in its fifth weekend in release, Top Gun: Maverick returned to the top of the box office in a very close tie with the biopic Elvis.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, both the belated follow-up and the latest from director Baz Luhrmann grossed around $30.5 million. Box Office Mojo has Top Gun 2 grossing a smidgeon more, with $30,500,176 to Elvis’ $30,500,000. Those numbers may change slightly by Monday, but even if it remains a tie, it’s impressive for any movie nowadays to continue Hoovering up this much money over a month into its release.

The second Top Gun also achieved another milestone: It crossed the $1 billion line globally, with over half of it coming from the United States alone. On top of that, it also returned to select IMAX screens, which surely helped it dip a mere 32% domestically from the previous week. So kudos to the little movie that execs wanted to dump onto streaming during the pandemic, a plan thwarted by star Tom Cruise, who will now get a very, very nice paycheck.

(Via THR)

It was just nine months ago that Drake released his long-awaited sixth album Certified Lover Boy. The project debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with a first-week sales total of 639,000 which made for the biggest week in 2021 at the time. Certified Lover Boy also logged non five consecutive weeks at No. 1 and ended the year as the only rap album released in 2021 to reach Double Platinum status. Drake isn’t one to make fans wait too long in between releases, but the whole world was shocked when announced the release of his seventh album Honestly, Nevermind earlier this month.

Following its arrival two weeks ago, Drake has found his way back to the top of the charts after Honestly, Nevermind debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. For the chart dated July 2, 2022, Honestly, Nevermind checked in at No. 1 with 204,000 album units sold in its first week. That number is comprised of 191,000 streaming equivalent album units, thanks to 250.23 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs, and 11,000 in pure album sales.

Honestly, Nevermind is Drake’s eleventh chart-topping album making him just one of five artists to have more than 11 No. 1 projects. He joins The Beatles (19), Jay-Z (14), Bruce Springsteen (11), and Barbra Streisand (11) on that list. Honestly, Nevermind also had the fourth-biggest streaming week in 2022 and the project helped Drake secure his eighth consecutive year with a new top 10 album, something that no other act has done in that time span.

Green Day is currently on the Hella Mega Tour with Weezer and Fall Out Boy. Throughout the tour, Billie Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool, and Mike Dirnt have spared no opportunity to make their political views heard. A backdrop on the stage at one of their recent European shows featured the simple and direct words, “F*ck Ted Cruz!” Now at their London show last night, Armstrong took the opportunity to vent his frustrations at the deteriorating morale in America in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s reversal this week.

“F*ck America. I’m f*cking renouncing my citizenship. I’m f*cking coming here,” he said to the London Stadium crowd, who went into an uproar. “I’ve just had too much f*cking stupid in the world to go back to that miserable, f*cking excuse for a country!,” he continued, before adding that, “Oh, I’m not kidding, you’re going to get a lot of me in the coming days.”

Armstrong’s boiled-over words are a reflection of how a majority of Americans feel after the Supreme Court’s controversial decision to overturn the nearly 50-year-old Roe v. Wade case that federally protect’s a woman’s right to have an abortion. Artists have been making their voices heard in droves, from Phoebe Bridgers leading a “F*ck the Supreme Court’ chant at Glastonbury, to Lizzo pledging to donate $1 million to pro-choice organizations, as well as Taylor Swift’s commenting on how she’s absolutely terrified.

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

The Angels and Mariners wouldn’t be on the shortlist of the most heated rivalries in baseball for most people, but on Sunday afternoon the divisional foes got into quite the brawl after the Angels drilled Jesse Winker with a fastball to the hip in a 0-0 game in the top of the second inning.

It was a slow burn, as initially there was just a little jawing and the Mariners calling for pitcher Andrew Wantz to get tossed, but eventually Winker’s attention turned to the Angels bench, shedding the umpire’s best efforts to hold him back, and sparking a three-minute long fight that saw punches, tackles, and a few separate instances of things seeming to have calmed down only to have another fight spark it once again.

MLB is going to have its work cut out trying to figure out who earned a suspension in all of this, as there is just a sea of bodies grabbing at each other, some trying to pull guys away and others trying to instigate. There’s some punches thrown and some definite instigators that will see themselves get fines and suspensions, but it’s as good of a basebrawl as we’ve seen in some time and that’ll certainly spark some interest in the next series between these AL West teams.

On Friday, Eminem and Snoop Dogg released their new single, “From The D To The LBC,” with a partially-animated video that shows them turning into Bored Ape NFTs. So it’s only fitting that they performed the song together at this past week’s NFT-centric ApeFest 2022 in New York City. But a video of Eminem walking off the stage after the performance has people talking, and it’s not about NFTs.

As Em walks off, he greets a few people that were watching the set from the side of the stage. Cordae was among them, who gets a big hug when Slim Shady notices him and they exchange brief words. Then just as Em is about to keep walking, Bobby Shmurda, who was standing with Cordae, grabs Eminem’s attention shouting, “Big homie!” and the two dap up and have a quick hug as Em walks off and Shmurda sports a huge smile.

Given that Eminem and Cordae previously collaborated on remixes of “Killer” and “Parables (Remix),” people are speculating on Twitter as to whether this means that Em and Shmurda could have a track on deck? “Listen… an Eminem and Bobby Shmurda collab. I’d invest,” one person said. “Ain’t no way I just watched a video of Bobby Shmurda dapping up Eminem,” another added.

Meanwhile, other folks are laughing at the fact that Eminem nearly walked past Shmurda, saying things like, “Eminem Straight up did not know that was Bobby Shmurda standing next to Cordae last night Backstage at ApeFest2022.”

Regardless, the sheer happiness on Bobby Shmurda’s face (a dude who just spent almost seven years in jail and is back on the grind) at having a moment with Eminem, is something anyone with half a heart can get behind.

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