Month: July 2023

As we reached the mid-point of 2023, one of the biggest topics of discussion among music fans was how no rap album had yet reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart — the first time this had failed to occur by July since 1993. The long streak has finally been broken, however, by Lil Uzi Vert, whose third studio album Pink Tape entered the albums chart at the top, also marking Uzi’s third album to reach No. 1.

As Billboard notes, the last time the first half of the year featured no rap No. 1s was in 1993 — two years before Uzi was even born — when Cypress Hill’s Black Sunday debuted at No. 1 on the August 7th chart, 34 weeks after Ice Cube’s The Predator. The last rap album to reach No. 1 before Pink Tape was Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains on the December 17 chart, a 29-week gap.

Between the two, SZA’s SOS and Morgan Wallen’s One Thing At A Time have absolutely dominated the No. 1 spot, at 10 and 15 nonconsecutive weeks each, respectively, while four albums each spent one week at the top. Karol G’s Mañana Será Bonito, Stray Kids’ 5-STAR, Taylor Swift’s Midnights, and TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s The Name Chapter: Temptation. That’s a lot of K-pop.

This week’s top 10 sees Morgan Wallen’s One Thing At A Time at No. 2, Peso Pluma’s Génesis at No. 3, Midnights at No. 4, and Wallen’s previous album Dangerous: The Double Album at No. 5. The remaining five, in order, are SZA’s SOS Gunna’s A Gift & A Curse, Swift’s Lover, Aespa’s MY WORLD, and Rylo Rodriguez’s Been One.

Rap Sh!t made its way to HBO Max last summer as Issa Rae’s second offering to the streamer following the conclusion of Insecure. The new show documented the rise of two ladies who came together to form a rap duo in their hometown of Miami, a story that is similar to the rise of City Girls who are also co-executive producers on the show. Season one of Rap Sh!t was a success, and as expected, fans quickly called for a second season. The show was renewed for season two shortly after season one ended, and now, we have an official date for the new season.

Max announced today that season two of Rap Sh!t will premiere on August 10. Just like season one, the new season will be eight episodes and the first two episodes of the season will be released on the August 10 premiere date. The announcement also came with a new teaser that gave a small preview of what goes down in season two. Shawna and Mia, who are played by Aida Osman and KaMillion respectively, experience new levels of fame and different struggles as they navigate their new lives as successful rappers.

You can watch the teaser for Rap Sh!t season two in the post above.

‘Rap Sh!t’ season two debuts on Max on August 10. Season one is available to stream on Max.

Late last year, a wild story broke about Kansas City Chiefs superfan Chiefsaholic, who traveled around following the team wearing a full wolf costume to games, getting arrested for armed robbery.

Then, in March, he apparently cut off his ankle monitor and went on the run, evading law enforcement for the last four months until he was finally arrested this past weekend in California. Xaviar Babudar, aka Chiefsaholic, was initially charged with one count of bank theft and one count of traveling stolen property across state lines after robbing a Tulsa credit union in December. However, that was apparently just scratching the surface, as the FBI launched a probe into a number of unsolved bank robberies across the midwest in recent years after his initial arrest and found that phone records placed him in the exact location of four robberies in four different states, as well as a pair of failed robberies in Minnesota. He also was running money through casinos by buying chips and cashing out in an attempt to launder the money (via the Department of Justice).

According to an affidavit filed in support of the federal criminal complaint, Babudar traveled throughout the Midwest to perpetrate a string of robberies at various banks and credit unions. He allegedly laundered the robbery proceeds through area casinos and bank accounts.

Following Babudar’s arrest in Oklahoma last December, FBI investigators began reviewing bank records, casino transaction records, and sensitive financial reporting to determine the breadth and scope of additional potential criminal activities. Babudar purchased and redeemed more than $1 million in chips from various casinos in Missouri, Kansas, and Illinois between April and December 2022, the affidavit says.

Investigators also reviewed unsolved bank robberies throughout the Midwest during that time frame. Babudar’s cell phone was placed in the same cities and locations for these previously unsolved bank robberies and attempted robberies, the affidavit says. In addition to the bank theft with which Babudar is charged in this complaint and the bank robbery charged in Oklahoma, the affidavit specifically refers to four bank robberies in Nebraska, Iowa, Tennessee and Oklahoma, and to the attempted robberies of two credit unions in Minnesota.

After the Iowa robbery, which was for $70,000, he apparently deposited that exact amount over the next few weeks into his money market savings account, which, it’s pretty bold stealing money from a bank and then leaving a paper trail by depositing it into another banks shortly after. I don’t think that’s something they teach you in Bank Robbery 101.

Basically, after getting charged for one robbery and facing a good amount of trouble, the Chiefs superfan is now facing a whole lot more trouble after going on the run and the FBI linking him to six other attempted robberies (four of them successful). That investigation, one presumes, is why he went on the run in the first place as he knew he was about to be in real Barney.

Don’t film Jay-Z doing the Electric Slide with his mom during his wife Beyoncé‘s Renaissance Tour shows. The rap mogul caught a fan capturing the family moment (during Beyoncé’s Cameo-sampling cover of Maze’s “Before I Let Go,” naturally) and put a stop to their voyeurism with a gesture, but that didn’t stop the fan from uploading the video — which still went pretty viral on Twitter thanks to the Jay-Z Daily account. I guess it’s kinda like the Barbra Streisand Effect.

Still, you can’t blame Jay for being a little protective. After all, while the rapper himself is used to becoming a meme for his awkward head-nodding and chronic lack of athletic ability, that’s his mom. She’s probably one of the few people on the planet who can make him cry, so if he can keep her from becoming fodder for some of the mean jokes people like to make online, you know he will.

But, in this case, it seems the fan captured a wholesome moment and the responses have been accordingly upbeat. Commenters are mostly praising Jay for being such a fan of his family and remarking on the cultural ubiquity of the dance/song combo, and noting how good he’s gotten at spotting surreptitious cinematographers. And hey, he may not be the best diver, but his steps are ON POINT.

Check out some of the responses below.

It has been 10 days since Damian Lillard requested a trade out of Portland after the Blazers kept the third pick in the Draft, taking Scoot Henderson, and could not find any upgrades to the roster beyond re-signing Jerami Grant to a massive 5-year, $160 million deal.

That trade request felt like the culmination of a months-long staredown between the organization and Lillard, with general manager Joe Cronin being the one having to make the decisions on what moves to make (or, more importantly in this case, not to make). On Monday, Cronin addressed the media for the first time since Lillard’s request to be traded to the Miami Heat, and noted that he hasn’t spoken to Lillard personally since that July 1 request was made.

Cronin said he “understands” why Lillard wouldn’t think the Blazers had made the right win-now moves, and said it was a failure on his part to not find the deals to bring those players in.

Cronin also noted that there had not been any meaningful movement on trade talks, hammering home that Portland will remain patient waiting for the best possible offer, saying “if it takes months, it takes months.”

It’s fair to wonder how much posturing is being done on all fronts of Cronin’s statements. He says it was his failure to make the deals to bring in win-now players to keep Lillard, but the Blazers have been very conservative when it comes to making trades since he took over in terms of adding those types of players. That’s not just been a thing this summer, when they didn’t ever get serious traction on a deal for the third overall pick, but going back to the trade deadline when they traded away Josh Hart for Cam Reddish and a pick. It feels like Cronin is trying to say the right things here, but I’m not sure the actions of the last year back up this really and truly feeling like a failure in his eyes.

As for the patient approach bit, that’s the only real leverage Portland has in this whole situation. Miami’s the team that needs to get this done so they can fill out their roster, as veterans on the free agent market are not going to want to wait around for months before finding out if there’s a spot for them in Miami. Cronin is shifting as much of the onus on the Heat to find the assets Portland demands, while also inviting other teams to make their offers for Lillard to see if maybe someone will reach out with a better offer and bank on Lillard showing up regardless of what his agent is telling teams about the Heat being the only team he wants to join. The Blazers have nothing but time on their hands here, as next season is not the end goal.

Sometimes the best new R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm-and-blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they really love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the best new R&B songs that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.

Since the last update of this weekly R&B and Afrobeats column, we’ve received plenty of music and news from the genre’s artists.

PartyNextDoor returned with his second single of the year, “Resentment,” and confirmation that his PartyNextDoor 4 project is on the way while Mahalia revealed the tracklist to her IRL album. Janelle Monaé and Megan Thee Stallion gave a twerking “boot camp” at Essence Festival and the former also shared a video for “Water Slide.” Elsewhere, SZA revealed new details about her “Kill Bill” video and 6lack released an AI-generated Since I Have A Lover soundscape.

Here are some more releases on the new music front that you should check out:

PartyNextDoor — “Resentment”

The road towards PartyNextDoor 4 continues, and while we’ll have to wait a bit for the next project, PartyNextDoor returns with his new single “Resentment.” It strikes as a record that slighted lovers all over the world will relate to as PartyNextDoor releases the resentment he holds against a past lover.

FLO – 3 Of Us

FLO’s fans have been begging for new music, and though they’re hard at work completing their debut album, the British singing trio was kind enough to bless their supporters. They dropped off the 3 Of Us EP complete with three songs, a feature from Bellah, and music that’s a promising preview for their upcoming album.

Mahalia — “Ready”

At the end of this week, British singer Mahalia will release her sophomore album IRL (In Real Life). As a final act before that project’s release, she returns with the album’s opening track “Ready” which joins “Terms And Conditions” and “Cheat” with JoJo as the album’s previous singles.

Jon Vinyl & Jeremy Passion — “Thinkin Bout You”

A couple of months after giving us his “No Feelings” single, Jon Vinyl teams up with singer Jeremy Passion for their new effort “Thinkin Bout You.” The sultry single is a confessional effort that Vinyl and Passion use to lay out their feelings about a lover in hopes that they feel the same way about them.

Kendra Jae — “Count Your Blessings”

Sacramento singer Kendra Jae began her year with “Risky” and “Stutter” beside Mozzy, and now she’s back with “Count Your Blessings.” With her latest effort, Jae is fierce and confident as she warns a new lover to appreciate and value what they have before it’s gone.

FrvrFriday — “Summer’s Up”

FrvrFriday’s first solo release of the year came last month with “Said+Done” and the follow-up to that is here with “Summer’s Up.” The uptempo production is blended with FrvrFriday’s moody vocals for a record that dares to push the limits of what’s in store for him on summer nights.

LateNightJiggy — “Favorite”

Less than a year removed from his Flavors 3 project, LateNightJiggy is back in action with his new single “Favorite.” Here, LateNightJiggy contemplates focusing on one girl rather than the multiple he has. He admits to having a favorite, and at this point, he just wants his No. 1.

Laya — “F’d Up”

With a new project Bet That on the way, Staten Island singer Laya is getting the ball rolling with her new single “F’d Up.” “Time to put haters on their back and tell ’em, quit with all that cap — because you got me f*cked up,” Laya says of the new track, which arrives after her 2022 EP Um, Hello

Che — “Someone”

Philly native Che is ready to shake up the year with his new single “Someone.” It’s his first single of the year and its lands as a dark yet passionate release that Che uses to capture the realization he has after finding the woman he’s been looking for.

Cherise — Calling

Just a couple of years after her Remedy EP, singer Cherise is back with her debut full-length project Calling. Through 12 tracks the London native and Vocalist of the Year by the Parliamentary Jazz Awards winner but her artistic growth and talents on display.

Bella Shmurda — “DND” Feat. Lil Kesh

At the end of the month, Nigerian afrobeats singer Bella Shmurda will release his DND EP. Ahead of its release, Bella Shmurda connected with Lil Kesh for the EP’s title track which captures the main theme Shmurda will have on the EP.

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

G Herbo has been arrested in his hometown, Chicago, and accused of illegal gun possession, according to TMZ. Police sources say the rapper was arrested Sunday evening, booked for misdemeanor unlawful use of a weapon in a public place, and released on bond. However, there is no information on what prompted the arrest or Herbo’s interaction with police in the first place. Herbo was previously arrested on gun charges in 2018, pleading guilty to one misdemeanor count of unlawful use of a weapon.

In 2020, the rapper was charged with fraud for his alleged connection to a stolen identification ring based in Massachusetts. Authorities, in that case, say Herbo and his associates used the stolen IDs to purchase $1 million worth of illegally obtained goods and services, from chartering private planes and renting vacation homes to buying designer puppies. Herbo turned himself in in December of that year but has yet to go to trial.

The rapper is a few months removed from his latest album, Survivor’s Remorse, which was released in October of 2022 and included features from A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Benny The Butcher, Conway The Machine, Future, Offset, and the incarcerated Young Thug. The album debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard 200, selling 27,500 album-equivalent units. Since 2020, the rapper has been an outspoken advocate for mental health awareness through his Swervin’ Through Stress initiative.

It’s been over a year since The Boys Season 3 wrapped up its literally explosive ending, so fans are understandably getting antsy about when Homelander and the gang will return for Season 4.

Below you’ll find everything we know so far about the highly anticipated season, which is already being touted as one of the weirdest thing that Homelander actor Antony Starr has ever filmed. And that’s saying a lot if you’ve been following the show. There have been no shortage of outlandish moments over the past three seasons, so it’ll be interesting to see what the creative team has cooked up for this latest jaunt through a world of raunchy “superheroes” gone mad with power.

Plot

While plot details for The Boys Season 4 are being kept closely under wraps, we do know a few things thanks to how Season 3 left off. Karl Urban’s Butcher is on borrowed time as his experimenting with Compound V has left him with only months to live. Meanwhile, Antony Starr’s Homelander has shown himself to be an unrepentant murderer after publicly melting the face of a protestor in public. But despite the crowd reeling in horror, most people cheered leaving Homelander genuinely stunned at what people will let him get away with. No good can come of that, particularly with Vought working overtime to paint Erin Moriarty’s Starlight as a traitor and wanted criminal following her defection from The Seven.

Cast

The Boys Season 4 sees most of the original cast intact, so expect all of your favorites to be back. Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy is possibly still in the mix, but it’s unclear whether he could pop up again to scare the piss out of Homelander. In the meantime, Season 4 has been getting pretty aggressive in the casting department. The Walking Dead star Jeffrey Dean Morgan is joining the fun along with Mad Men star Rosemarie DeWitt. The Boys is also adding two new Supes into the mix with the addition of Sage and Firecracker, who you can see below:

Release Date

Amazon has yet to announce a release date for The Boys Season 4. However, we do know that the show finished filming back in April 2023, which should put it on track for a late 2023/early 2024 premiere barring any delays from the writers’ strike.

Trailer

Like previous seasons, The Boys Season 4 is holding a trailer drop until closer to its release date. But one thing the show excels at is it’s satirical social media game where it routinely posts videos and messages from Vought International to give fans tiny glimpses of what to expect when the show returns. Going into Season 4, Homelander appears to be facing trial for his brutal murder of bystander during the climactic moments of Season 3. Despite the murder being caught on tape, Homelander is still garnering record approval ratings from the public, which doesn’t seem to mind that the unhinged Supe could laser them in the face at any moment.

You can watch the Vought International clip below:

The Boys Seasons 1-3 are available for streaming on Amazon.

By now, word has already slipped out about Vladimir Putin’s “ghost train,” although the Russia president didn’t take too kindly about this information being in the public view. A Russian amateur photographer feared for his life after taking photos of the luxury train, which supposedly also travels on a secret web of tunnels. That’s all the better to reach that pickle-hoarding hideout while war continues to swallow thousands of lives during Putin’s ongoing Ukraine invasion.

CNN has now made this train more public by publishing plans of the lavishly decked-out train, which seems to be the choice way for the paranoid Putin to move across the countryside and maybe get his Botox fix on the go, too. If true, then there’s a lot of needle-sticking going on, but at minimum, there’s some sort of skin-tightening machine on board, and there’s also a Turkish steam bath and a pretty sweet personal gym. Importantly, as well, the train cars appear to be insulated in a way to protect against “listening devices,” but here’s more about Putin’s available beauty treatments while onboard:

Through the door, further down the car, a full cosmetology center is furnished with a massage table and all manner of high-end beauty equipment — including, according to a leaked document, a radio-frequency machine used to enhance the tautness of skin. The room itself, documents from the Dossier Center suggest, is outfitted to help prevent the use of listening devices.

Well, Putin had better get that Botox in while he can. If he loses the war, and there’s a distinct possibility that he will, then one can count on him at least losing some of his luxury perks, if he’s not fully ousted from office. For his part, Putin reportedly fears a cabbage crisis even more than collateral upheaval from his war. He’s got priorities, alright.

(Via CNN)

Victor Wembanyama’s debut as a member of the San Antonio Spurs didn’t go according to plan, as the first overall pick went 2-of-13 from the field for nine points in his first Summer League game on Friday night, admitting after that he “didn’t know what I was doing.”

On Sunday, Wembanyama bounced back with a performance worthy of the hype, scoring 27 points to go along with 11 rebounds and three blocks as he put on a show for the packed Vegas crowd. Wembanyama shook off the nerves from the first game and the cobwebs from a month away from the court to show off his unbelievable skillset and look far more comfortable and assertive on the court. Having played in two games, which is more than some top prospects play at Summer League, there was an expectation we wouldn’t see much more of Wemby in Vegas — particularly after he took a few hard falls and ended the game wearing a bandaid on his cheek, a la Nelly.

Sure enough, on Monday word came down via Mike Finger of the San Antonio Express News that Wembanyama’s Summer League was officially over.

Wembanyama showed everything the Spurs could’ve hoped for in the second game, and put to rest this weekend’s chatter that followed a rough opener. As such, he’s done enough and can go out on a high note into his offseason, where he is excited to step out of the spotlight and “disappear” for a few months to practice in private and enjoy some time to himself before training camp arrives.