Month: February 2023

Logic announced his departure from Def Jam last summer, proclaiming he felt “in control of my career.” His relationship with Def Jam officially ended with Vinyl Days, an album that Logic said he crafted “in 12 days so I could get off Def Jam.” Retirement? What’s that?

In January, Logic had another announcement: College Park, his debut independent album, is due out this Friday, February 24. The Boondocks-themed trailer highlighted Logic’s boundless creativity, and he released “Wake Up” featuring Lucy Rose to continue to paint College Park‘s thematic playground.

Today, February 22, he added “Lightsabers” featuring C Dot Castro to the mix, and it flirts with the same repetitive structure and reflective attitude.

In the “Lightsabers” video, Logic raps atop various fantastical landscapes, including a ginormous lava-spitting volcano. “It’s a good day, good day, good day, good day / Had a lot of bad ones this year / But today’s a good day.”

Elsewhere, Logic states himself and his neighbors are “shinin’ like lightsabers” and touches on reclaiming his career: “I hope you don’t give up your dreams for a nine-to-five / Don’t get me wrong, it’ll pay your bills / But if you don’t love your job, tell me, what’s the point? / Don’t disappoint, better make it a point to do it a better way.”

Watch the “Lightsabers” video above.

College Park is out on February 24 via Three Oh One Productions. Pre-order it here.

Niall Horan is hot off the release of his new single, “Heaven,” which dropped last week. “Heaven” marks Horan’s first solo single in three years, and will appear on his third solo album, The Show, which will drop this summer.

Today (February 22), Horan appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show, where the two talked about Horan’s first season as a coach on The Voice, which reminded him of his time on The X Factor, where he formed One Direction.

During the interview, Horan revealed to Clarkson that he still keeps in touch with his former One Direction bandmates Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik.

“We speak constantly, so it’s a good little thing to have,” he said. “Especially on the show, we were so lucky. You would see all the other artists melting all the time over everything. And we were just 16, 17, 18, 19 – whatever we were. It was so fun.”

This is particularly exciting for Directioners to hear, as last week, fans took to TikTok to share their theories that a One Direction reunion may be in order for The Show.

You can watch the full clip from The Kelly Clarkson Show above.

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

Camila Cabello said the process of making her album Familia “saved my life” upon its April 2022 release, and she spent the rest of the year thriving. After making her film-acting debut in Amazon Prime Video’s 2021 Cinderella remake, Cabello conquered the small screen as a coach on the 22nd season of The Voice and ended her one-season stay with a bang in December.

And today, February 22, Deadline exclusively reported Cabello is plotting to return to the silver screen.

According to the publication, Cabello “has closed a deal to join” the cast of Rob Peace, alongside Mary J. Blige, Jay Will and Chiwetel Ejiofor, who is directing the film from his own script.

Deadline provided more context on what to expect from Rob Peace:

“The film, currently in production, is based on Jeff Hobbs’ bestselling biography The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League. It follows Robert Peace (Will), a young man who grew up in a crime-ridden section of Newark, NJ and later graduated from Yale with degrees in molecular biophysics and biochemistry earned on scholarship. Peace led a dual life living in the insular world of academia and as a lab researcher of cancer and infectious diseases, while at the same time making six figures from the sale of marijuana. He was killed in a drug-related shooting in 2011. Cabello will play Peace’s fellow Yale student Naya, with Blige and Ejiofor as his mother and father.”

Cabello isn’t losing her footing in music, though. In January, she and Camilo dropped the video for “Ambulancia,” their 2022 single. She was also nominated at this month’s 2023 Grammys in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category for her collaborative track “Bam Bam” with Ed Sheeran.

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

Just days before his upcoming album, Glockoma 2, Key Glock has shared his new single, “Dirt.” On his previously released single, “Work,” Key remains focused and motivated, despite the events that have taken place over the past few years.

On “Dirt,” Key reassures us that while recent years have been rough, particularly with the death of his cousin and frequent collaborator, Young Dolph, he is still hardened and unbroken, and will continue to carry on Dolph’s legacy. He also reminds us that he isn’t here for anyone throwing dirt on his name.

“Glock be the name, and you know I’m gon’ bang / I made me some millions, they think I’m unchanged / F*ck this fame and f*ck these chains / Made packs disappear, like David Blaine / These b*tches be all on my dang-a-lang / I just bought a new blue pinky ring, my heart cold, it’s icebox / Number one rule, get that money, man, I got this sh*t from Dolph / It ain’t no shame up in my gang, I’m tryna get it off,” raps Key on the chorus, over a vintage soul-sampling beat.

You can listen to “Dirt” above.

Glockoma 2 is out 2/24 via Paper Route and EMPIRE. You can pre-save it here.

Ric Wilson is setting the tone for 2023 with “Pay It No Mind,” the debut collaborative single from Wilson, Chromeo and A-Trak out today, February 22. The groovy, infectious track was also produced alongside Pomo, but Wilson is undoubtedly the video’s star.

Directed by Bob, the “Pay It No Mind” visual begins with Wilson confidently strutting into a live drawing class and stripping down to be their nude model. “Footwork through all the bullsh*t,” he sings over a bouncy, shimmering beat. “And just keep glowing while they hopin’ that you ruin / Tell ’em pay no mind, mind, mind, mind to it.”

Wilson also seamlessly slips into a buttery flow, rapping, “Dribble like I play for the Raptors / Can’t nobody else dunk faster.” (Hopefully his hometown Chicago Bulls won’t take offense that he name-checked the Toronto Raptors.)

According to a press release, “Pay It No Mind” was written and recorded during the pandemic in California after A-Trak “was introduced to Wilson’s music via Wilson’s own manager, which led to A-Trak sharing with his brother Dave 1 of the Canadian funk group Chromeo.”

It continues, “The first of many inspired sessions also found the crew discussing everything from socialism and communism to peoples movements and career oral histories.”

And based on Instagram posts from Chromeo and Wilson, we’ll be hearing more from those sessions.

Wilson thanked “funk lordz” Chromeo and “A-Trak the GOAT” for contributing to “Pay It No Mind” before teasing, “We also got more coming soon.” He included in the Instagram caption that the song’s title was inspired by Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson” and is “a song about sticking to your own drum and not letting bystanders, critics and haters sway your happiness, goals and pursuit of liberation.”

Chromeo took it one step further by more or less confirming that they either are working on or have completed an album for Wilson.

“We connected with Ric during the pando and hit it off so we were just like ‘Ric, we’re about to make you an album!’” Chromeo wrote. “We don’t produce for other artists a lot and we particularly love to lend our sound to someone on the come up, to help amplify their talent and message. It’s gotta feel personal. PLUS if they’ve got the cojones to get naked in their video, you gotta respect it.”

Watch the “Pay It No Mind” video above.

Earlier this month, Jack Antonoff won Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical at the 2023 Grammys. He became the first producer to claim the category in back-to-back years since Greg Kurstin did so in 2017-18.

The impressive feat — nor all of his Taylor Swift equity — didn’t protect him from savage reactions to his and Bleachers’ cover of The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night,” posted by @BeatlesEarth on Tuesday, February 21.

The two-minute video finds Antonoff and his bandmates on a moving bus while performing the 1964 title track of The Beatles’ multi-platinum-certified album, including a saxophone solo.

Most everybody on the internet was less than impressed, to say the least. Music journalist Gita Jackson tweeted, “Jack Antonoff is my enemy.”

Patrick Lyons echoed Jackson. “The past week is a perfect microcosm of the Jack Antonoff experience: he does incredible work on [Lana Del Rey’s] “a&w” and barely gets praised for it, then drops the most cringe Beatles cover in history and people can’t stop talking about him,” Lyons tweeted.

Another Twitter user asserted possibly the most cutting insult one can receive: “Jack Antonoff is doing a poor job of convincing me he doesn’t have zero sauce.”

Ouch. Let’s hope, for Jack’s sake, he stays off of Twitter. But the rest of you can view some of the reactions below.

Remember the Oscars last year? Of course you do. It’s where one of the most popular actors of the last quarter century may have permanently torched his career. After Will Smith “smacked the sh*t” out of Chris Rock it was put chaos, with no one sure how to remedy the situation. (One way? Give the perpetrator an Oscar 20 minutes later.) But this year, should something like it happen again, they’re ready. Maybe.

In a new interview with Time (as caught by Deadline), AMPAS chief Bill Kramer revealed they’re not taking chances this year, having implemented a “ whole crisis team” ready to intervene should there be some kind of copycat violence. Kramer said “we have a whole crisis team, something we’ve never had before, and many plans in place. We’ve run many scenarios. So it is our hope that we will be prepared for anything that we may not anticipate right now but that we’re planning for just in case it does happen.”

Kramer added:

“Because of last year, we’ve opened our minds to the many things that can happen at the Oscars. But these crisis plans — the crisis communication teams and structures we have in place — allow us to say, ‘This is the group that we have to gather very quickly. This is how we all come together. This is the spokesperson. This will be the statement.’ And obviously, depending on the specifics of the crisis, and let’s hope something doesn’t happen and we never have to use these, but we already have frameworks in place that we can modify.”

Of course, the Oscars are no stranger to freak occurrences. They’ve had a streaker. They’ve had Sean Penn making a racist joke (about a friend, but still). They’ve had Adrien Brody forcibly kissing Halle Berry. They’ve had the Sacheen Littlefeather acceptance speech. They’ve had “Adele Dazeem.” And of course, they’ve had the wrong Best Picture winner called out. The slap is arguably the most shocking of all, but if there is going to be some unforeseen jaw-dropper at this year’s show, don’t let it be violence. Maybe it can be more along the lines of some dude running around nekkid, showing off his “shortcomings.”

(Via Time and Deadline)

Following the heartbreaking death of De La Soul’s David “Trugoy” Jolicoeur earlier this month, his bandmates have taken to Instagram to honor him.

In two separate posts on the group’s main account, Kelvin “Posdunos” Mercer and Vincent “Maseo” Mason honored Trugoy, with Posdnuos calling Trugoy “the heart of our group” and thanking him for bringing “so much creativity, energy, and passion to our music.”

“Your passing is a great loss not only to us, but also to the entire hip-hop community,”Posdnuos continued. “You were a true artist who used music to inspire and uplift others, and you will be deeply missed by all who knew you.”

Maseo shared that although he and Trugoy would butt heads from time to time, the two would always “totally come full circle and say, ‘I Love You.’”

“I want to truly thank you for having the birds eye view of our collective vision to be a group,” Maseo wrote.

Thankfully, fans who wish to listen to De La Soul’s music and carry on Trugoy’s legacy can do so beginning next month, as their entire catalog will finally be available on streaming platforms.

You can see both Instagram posts below.

“Dear Dave,

You were the heart of our group. You brought so much creativity, energy, and passion to our music, and your influence will be felt for years to come.

Your passing is a great loss not only to us, but also to the entire hip-hop community. You were a true artist who used music to inspire and uplift others, and you will be deeply missed by all who knew you.

This is heavy on our hearts and minds but we are smiling and even laughing at all the great times we shared with you. As we attempt to navigate this world without you, we stand grateful and proud of all you accomplished on this earth.

We would like to say thank you Dave for being a big brother. Thank you for being a friend. Thank you for the wise words placed in your verses. Thank you for the music you produced that is loved by so many. Thank you for never wanting to compromise the quality of our brand. Thank you for helping us become a group that will remain etched in the timeline of hip hop culture as well as the fabric of music and for now on when we perform ‘Ring Ring Ring Ha Ha Hey’ we will say ‘2-2-2-2-222 we got an angel in heaven who can talk to you’

Love you Dave!

Sincerely,

Merce (Pos)”

“Dave – thank you so much for being in my life. Although you and I would argue like hell, we would both admit when we were wrong and totally come full circle and say, ‘I Love You.’ I want to truly thank you for having the birds eye view of our collective vision to be a group. Before Trugoy The Dove, I met J.D. Dove aside being called Dave in 1985. I remember your mom calling you Dove, so you’ve always had wings, so go on and fly into the light, Merce and I will make sure your legacy is well preserved. ‘We Are De La Soul’ for life and after life, but obviously, it will never be the same. On one end I’m happy you no longer have to suffer the pain of your condition but on the other hand I’m extremely upset at the fact that you’re not here to celebrate and enjoy what we worked and fought so hard to achieve. Unfortunately, emcees that are in groups very rarely get mentioned, you and Merce are top tier, your contribution as emcees and song writers have inspired many to step up there game. DAMMIT DAVE! to be writing about you in past tense is CRAZY, but at least I got to tell you a lot of this and more except for the part about being named Dove. Let me just end off by saying I am very content and more than reassured about our relationship as brothers because we discussed it thoroughly and solidified what is necessary just in case something happened to any of us, but who would’ve thought so soon when there was so much to live for. MY SOUL IS HURTING REALLY BAD, but I want to thank my brother @Plugwondelasoul for digging me out of my hole alongside my wife and children. To all the De La Fans, our peers, constituents and family, thank you for all of your support through this troubling time.

AMITYVILLE, ALL OF LONG ISLAND AND HIP HOP CULTURE, PLEASE STAND UP AND SALUTE THE LEGENDARY ICON TRUGOY THE DOVE, PLUG 2 AKA DAVE! YOU WILL BE EXTREMELY MISSED AND WAY TO DOPE TO EVER BE FORGOTTEN…I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH BIG BRO

MASE”

In a typically brazen move, Donald Trump visited East Palestine, Ohio, which nearly three weeks ago was the site of a train derailment that blanketed the area in toxic chemicals. Not only was it terrifying, it was also avoidable: Early in his lone term, Trump himself undid federal safety measures meant to avert similar disasters. The right has played mock-concerned over the incident. Had he any shame, Trump would have stayed far away. Instead he held a cynical event there. That’s not all: He also shilled for one of his bozo products.

“What this community needs now are not excuses… but answers and results,” Trump told the crowd about an accident that wouldn’t have happened had his administration not zapped his predecessor’s work. He also trashed Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, whose due in the area the following day, saying he “should’ve been here already.”

Trump also had a surprise: “thousands of bottle of water —Trump water, actually. Most of it. Some of it, we had to go to a much lesser quality water.”

Trump has a long, long history of failed products, from Trump Steaks to Trump University to Trump Shuttle to Trump: The Game. Trump Ice is one of them, having been discontinued in 2010. Did he have a stash of them somewhere in Mar-a-Lago? Was he really giving the residents of an area hit with an airborne toxic event old spring water? If so, then they might have the same reaction as Sylvester Stallone.

The Biden administration put out a statement on Wednesday pinning the blame for the catastrophe on the Trump team. Naturally when asked about it, Trump pinned the blame elsewhere, claiming he “had nothing to do with it.”

(Via The Daily Beast)

SZA was named Billboard‘s Woman Of The Year today, February 22. It stands to reason, considering she hasn’t stopped breaking Billboard charting records since the December release of SOS. She has every right to talk her talk right now, but instead, she’s still coming to terms with SOS succeeding at all.

“Right now, I just have extreme gratitude because I swear to God, I never thought I’d be No. 1 for even a week, let alone seven,” SZA told Heran Mamo for the accompanying cover story, speaking of SOS logging seven consecutive weeks (and nine total weeks) at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

She also used the interview to shine a light on other women in music:

“There’s nobody in the industry that f*cks with me and that I f*ck with the way that Lizzo f*cks with me and the way I f*ck with her. She never made me feel like because I don’t have a No. 1 song or I [previously] didn’t have a No. 1 album that I wasn’t capable. She’d been telling me that she thought I was the one for years. The way that she thinks of me so highly as a human being and as an artist means so much to me. I just have never met anybody like her in this entire industry.

“There’s a lot of women I look up to in general that I don’t know personally, but watching them is incredible. Beyoncé, but who doesn’t look up to Beyoncé? I love Jozzy’s and Starrah’s energy. I love the way Nija is from New Jersey and has been able to transmute her energy from being a writer to an artist. Kehlani’s hella effervescent, and you can just feel the energy when she’s performing. I love Chloe Bailey and her commitment to perfection — I feel like she’s going to be a legend. Even Taylor [Swift] letting that whole situation go with her masters and then selling all of those f*cking records. That’s the biggest ‘f*ck you’ to the establishment I’ve ever seen in my life, and I deeply applaud that sh*t.”

Chlöe responded to SZA’s shout-out by tweeting, “Love you always @sza the feeling is mutual.”

Chlöe has a chance to prove SZA right with In Pieces, her debut solo album due out on March 31. She’s already made quite the stir with singles “Pray It Away” and “How Does It Feel” featuring Chris Brown.

Meanwhile, SZA is continuing to ride the success of SOS on her supporting headlining tour, which hits Chicago’s United Center tonight. Omar Apollo is the opener.

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