Month: July 2022

When it comes to rap, money is the motive for many. Awards, acclaim, and lists are cool, but the pursuit of poses drives most of the biggest acts. Key Glock lives this reality to the fullest in his new video for “I Be.” Whether it be beautiful women counting up his stacks or adding more to his plate after big wins in poker, there is no shortage of cash in this visual. Key Glock raps with calculated confidence as he reflects on all he does in his life to keep the bags flowing. If the video doesn’t make it clear enough, the bars certainly add to the narrative.

The 24-year-old follows behind a lineage of Memphis rappers with similar wealth goals, dropping this visual off just weeks after his latest single “Diapers.” 2022 also saw Glock share “Pain Killers,” “Proud,” and the deluxe version of Yellow Tape 2, which added 10 songs to the original 2021 iteration of the album. The young rapper also showed what he could do alongside a seasoned veteran that same year, joining forces with the late Young Dolph for Dum And Dummer 2.

With his work rate, it may be possible another project is coming before the year ends.

Check out Glock’s “I Be” video above.

Up until the release of Tyler’s fourth studio album, Flower Boy, he was still considered an underdog. After its release, he found himself at the forefront of pop culture, poised to become a No. 1-selling, Grammy Award-winning, certified superstar. A lot of that is owed to the stylistic switch he made on Flower Boy; shedding his abrasive, foul-mouthed shock-rapper persona, Tyler leaned into more melodic production sensibilities and confessional songwriting — a gamble that surely paid off with more mainstream acceptance after his early material made the industry establishment keep him at arm’s length.

Today, on Flower Boy‘s fifth anniversary, Tyler reflected on how the album’s release was the moment that “changed everything” for him and shared his favorite musical moments from it, getting really specific as he underlined those moments down to the bar.

“my favorite FLOWER BOY moments: sometimes; music under first 4 bars of 2nd verse on pothole; ‘find the words’ section on garden shed; 2nd half of i aint got time; dropping seeds/november/ enjoy today as a whole; glitter 2nd half harmonies,” he wrote. “flower boy changed everything for me, thank you all for your ears.”

Now that Tyler’s wrapped up his tour for Call Me If You Get Lost, it’ll be interesting see what new creative turns his career takes.

After locking in a court date for its lawsuit against Elon Musk, Twitter has released a second quarter earning reports where the social media company repeatedly blames Musk’s botched acquisition as a cause of revenue loss. As the attempted purchase went from a done deal to Musk suddenly growing concerned about bots and attempting to back out, advertisers understandably had “uncertainty” about buying space on Twitter as the digital ad industry is experiencing problems of its own.

Via The Verge:

For the time being, though, the chaotic acquisition seems to be making it more difficult for Twitter to sell ads. Bloomberg previously reported that Twitter was trying its best to calm advertisers’ concerns about how Musk might change the platform, while Ad Age reported more recently that the drama has sent the company’s ad sales into “disarray.”

Interestingly, Twitter experienced user growth during the second quarter, but not because of Musk. The company cites “ongoing product improvements” for an increase in users.

Despite Musk causing a dip in ad sales, Twitter is still suing the Tesla CEO to complete the merger agreement at the agreed upon stock price. While Musk may be balking about the bot problem at Twitter, those concerns ring hollow considering Musk specifically cited bots as his reason for buying the platform in the first place. He boasted that he would not only fix the problem himself, but turn the platform into a free speech mecca. However, that was before Tesla’s share price started plummeting (possibly because of the acquisition) as did Twitter. Now, Musk might be forced by a Delaware court to complete the original deal, which in effect, means he’d be on the hook for buying Twitter at billions more than its worth.

(Via The Verge)

When legendary musicians are inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, they get a classy trophy, a star-studded ceremony, and honors at the official museum. But the Indiecast Hall Of Fame inductees get something even better: bragging rights. On this week’s Indiecast episode, hosts Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen induct albums into Indiecast HOF in three categories: ’90s, ’00s, and 2010s.

The indie news front was fairly quiet this week, other than popular podcasting and TV duo Desus And Mero announcing they’re parting ways after what seemed to be tension and animosity. It now leaves Indiecast as the only pop culture podcasting duo left in the universe. Steven and Ian also share their thoughts about The Wonder Years’ new music and dedicated fan base.

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Ian gives props to Pool Kids, a Florida-based band that sounds like Paramore if Hayley Williams was obsessed with listening to Rush. Steven endorses the new album by John Moreland, whose ninth album Birds In The Ceiling is out now.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 98 below and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

[This post contains spoilers for Nope — seriously, turn back now if you haven’t watched the movie yet… this is your last chance]

Jordan Peele and Paul Anka both have the same advice: just don’t look.

Early in the director’s new film, Nope, Haywood’s Hollywood Horses owner O.J. (played by Daniel Kaluuya) takes one of his horses to a film set, and even after instructing everyone to not look the animal in the eyes, they don’t listen and the horse freaks out. To make ends meet, O.J. loans his and his sister Emerald’s (Keke Palmer) horses to Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun), a former-child star who now runs a Western theme park.

That’s one connection between the Haywoods and Park. The other? Aliens.

I won’t go through the entire plot of Nope or do one of those “Nope ending, explained” posts — there are plenty of those elsewhere on the internet. Instead, I want to focus on one element of the film: how O.J. and Emerald manage to survive their encounters with the flying saucer, henceforth referred to as “Jean Jacket,” and why Ricky doesn’t.

In short, Simpsons did it.

O.J. learns that if you don’t look at Jean Jacket, it will basically leave you alone. This is also how Springfield’s mascots, including Lard Lad (but not the captain of the high school basketball team), are defeated in the “Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores” segment of “Treehouse of Horror VI” on The Simpsons. “To stop those monsters, one-two-three / Here’s a fresh new way that’s trouble-free / It’s got Paul Anka’s guarantee,” Anka sings, while Lisa adds, “Guarantee void in Tennessee.” Together, they repeat, “Just don’t look.”

Some animals see direct eye contract as a threat, and Jean Jacket is no exception. It’s why it devours Ricky and his paying customers at Jupiter’s Claim; they’re too blinded by the spectacle to realize they’re in danger. If only they had listened to Paul Anka.

For more on Nope, check out our interview with Jordan Peele.

As has been the case with all seven previous hearings, Thursday night’s January 6th hearing delivered a series of bombshells about what exactly Donald Trump was doing—or, more accurately, not doing—in the hours during which the rest of the country watched as rioters broke into the Capitol and attempted to burn democracy as we know it to the ground. But the one moment that had everyone talking, tweeting, and laughing out loud in the room belonged to Missouri senator Josh Hawley.

Hawley made his pro-coup position clear on the day of the Capitol riots when he seemed to salute the rioters with his frat bro greeting—a moment he was once so proud of he had it printed on a mug. But last night, we saw what happened after his faux tough guy stance: When Hawley was told that the rioters had breached the Capitol, he and his soul “dipped in dogshit” ran the f*ck out of there like a Looney Tunes character.

Had there been any women, children, or infirmed individuals in his way, he most likely would have pushed them aside without a second thought. It didn’t take long for Twitter to react.

And while Twitter is usually known as a place where people like to argue, millions of people seemed to have the same idea: setting Hawley’s Forrest Gump imitation to music, with more than one person hearing The Benny Hill Show theme.

As has been the case with all seven previous hearings, Thursday night’s January 6th hearing delivered a series of bombshells about what exactly Donald Trump was doing—or, more accurately, not doing—in the hours during which the rest of the country watched as rioters broke into the Capitol and attempted to burn democracy as we know it to the ground. But the one moment that had everyone talking, tweeting, and laughing out loud in the room belonged to Missouri senator Josh Hawley.

Hawley made his pro-coup position clear on the day of the Capitol riots when he seemed to salute the rioters with his frat bro greeting—a moment he was once so proud of he had it printed on a mug. But last night, we saw what happened after his faux tough guy stance: When Hawley was told that the rioters had breached the Capitol, he and his soul “dipped in dogshit” ran the f*ck out of there like a Looney Tunes character.

Had there been any women, children, or infirmed individuals in his way, he most likely would have pushed them aside without a second thought. It didn’t take long for Twitter to react.

And they’re still reacting this morning:

​​https://twitter.com/AdamParkhomenko/status/1550471715280543745?s=20&t=n7mW1d7qoCZe_o_PknhJPA

And while Twitter is usually known as a place where people like to argue, millions of people seemed to have the same idea: setting Hawley’s Forrest Gump imitation to music, with more than one person hearing The Benny Hill Show theme.

The world hasn’t seen much of Dave Grohl since the death of now-former Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who passed away on March 25 (although Grohl did pop up at Paul McCartney’s Glastonbury performance in June). Now, he has sort of made his return to TV, via an interview on MSNBC’s The Beat With Ari Melber; The conversation just aired on July 20, but was filmed prior to Hawkins’ death.

At various points during the 25-minute chat, Melber showed Grohl interview clips of himself and his former Nirvana bandmates in the early ’90s, getting Grohl’s reactions to his younger stuff and using what he said as launching points for conversation.

The first clip was of a 1991 Nirvana interview with MTV News, in which Grohl, who was 22 years old at the time, speaks about previously independent bands signing to major labels. After the clip, Grohl laughed and quipped, “First of all, I don’t know if I had hit puberty yet. Listen to my voice! What was that? What the heck was that all about?”

He then talked about the band’s relatively low level of ambition at the time, saying he would live off of inexpensive gas station corn dogs and didn’t want much more than that. That proved to be a perfect transition into the next clip, of a 1993 MTV News interview in which Grohl laments getting too much mustard on a hot dog he bought from a hot dog stand.

In the final clip, another snippet from that same 1993 interview, Kurt Cobain talked about being happy to start collaborating with Grohl more on songwriting. To that, Grohl responded, “It always takes me back to that famous drummer joke: ‘What was the last thing the drummer said before he got kicked out of the band? ‘Hey guys, I have a song I think we should play!””

He continued, “I had a studio in my basement and I would go down into my basement, record songs really just for me, like an experiment, some sort of creative outlet where I’d play guitar and bass and drums and sing, and they were fully formed songs. But in Nirvana, I was perfectly happy just being the drummer of Nirvana. It was a great, great band to be the drummer of. And I did show Kurt my songs sometimes, but I mean, it’s… [laughs] it’s not easy to show one of the greatest songwriters of our generation your silly demo you did in your basement. So I kind of kept it to myself.”

Check out the full The Beat interview above. Also check out the original ’90s Nirvana interviews in full below.

Guap, formerly known as Guapdad 4000, is a true character. The hilarious rapper gained popularity through his ridiculous Twitter videos where he would match self-loathing with delusional confidence en route to repeatedly going viral. He would even post freestyles that were borderline accurate parodies of rappers but also pleasantly surprisingly displays of talent folks were not aware of. Eventually, Guap would release actual projects but this week he pivoted to the big screen with his short film Stoop Kid.

The film, published on Amazon Music in partnership with 88 Rising, is described as “A deeply personal coming-of-age story which follows music artist Akeem ‘GUAP’ Hayes as he navigates a complex upbringing in Oakland, California. The music from GUAP’s album 1176, titled after his childhood home address, sets the tone for this moving story, telling the tale of a Black-Filipino artist as he explores his identity, his family, and community.”

Guap previously held a screening for the film in June 2021 in collaboration with his recent album 1176, and released the promotional trailer last week. With effortless charisma and a variety of ways to both relate to and entertain people, it seems it was only a matter of time before Guap went this route.

Check out Stoop Kid via Amazon Music here.

With how often Britney Spears posts and how revealing her dispatches tend to be, she has one of the most popular Instagram accounts in all of music. There are different kinds of “revealing” when it comes to Spears’ posts: Sometimes, she’ll get vulnerable/honest about how she’s feeling, and other times, she’ll show off some serious skin with racy photos and videos. Her latest posts fall in the latter category.

In four separate posts, Spears shows off photos and videos of herself laying in bed, with just underwear on and only bed sheets or hands covering her top half. She seems to have had a terrific time shooting these posts, as the video post shows her flashing wide smiles as she rolls around bed and strikes various poses.

It appears this is all going down in the UK, as Spears captioned one of the posts, “Waking up in London with my Cabo thong !!!” She added in another, “Not sure … tea or coffee ???? I held my phone up with a book and a remote control to shoot this ….”

Elsewhere in recent Spears Instagram activity, she took time to offer praise for both Selena Gomez and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Check out the posts above and below.