Kendrick Lamar is no stranger to the top of the charts, but following his Super Bowl Halftime Show performance, he now owns half of the Billboard Hot 100’s top ten songs. That includes, of course, a return of “Not Like Us” to the top of the chart, extending its reign at No. 1 to three nonconsecutive weeks.
Three of the remaining songs held positions in the top five, with “Luther” featuring SZA landing at No. 2, “TV Off” featuring Lefty Gunplay at No. 3, and “Squabble Up” at No. 5 (“Die With A Smile” by Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga held onto the fourth spot). Meanwhile, the other SZA-featuring song from Kendrick’s performance, “30 For 30,” took the No. 10 spot. It’s not unexpected, but it is impressive to see just how much the performance boosted Kendrick’s songs.
Kendrick’s streams weren’t the only part of his performance to receive a boost. StockX, the sneaker and apparel reselling platform, reported that sales of the retro sneakers Kendrick wore onstage went up more than 400%, while his monthly Spotify listeners rose to over 100 million — making him the first rapper to reach that benchmark in the app’s 15-year history.
It also undoubtedly juiced the sales for tickets to Kendrick and SZA’s upcoming Grand National tour named after and promoting his new album GNX.
Indie music has grown to include so much. It’s not just music that is released on independent labels, but speaks to an aesthetic that deviates from the norm and follows its own weirdo heart. It can come in the form of rock music, pop, or folk. In a sense, it says as much about the people that are drawn to it as it does about the people that make it.
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Twin Shadow – “Permanent Feeling”
On “Permanent Feeling,” George Lewis Jr., AKA Twin Shadow, coats his voice in gratuitous Auto-Tune and sings of eternal life (and love) over a bed of fluttering guitars, cloudy synths, and plucked bass. Reckoning with permanence, namely the lack of it, Twin Shadow has created one of his most gorgeously urgent songs in years. If “Permanent Feeling” is any indication, then his forthcoming album, Georgie, is shaping up to be a standout in his vast catalog.
Pup – “Hallways”
While making their fifth album, Who Will Look After The Dogs?, Pup learned how to have fun again. The pop-punk (or should I say “pup-punk”) band’s infighting is infamous, the creative process resembling something more along the lines of a destruction process. Following the acerbic anthems of 2022’s The Unraveling Of PupTheBand, the Canadian outfit focused on coiling themselves back up into a coherent whole. “Hallways,” the first song frontman Stefan Babcock wrote for LP5, is a simple exercise in rediscovering inner joy as a means of recalibrating your outer community. Shout-along vocals and a propulsive drum beat center Babcock’s self-reflective musings. It underlines the enduring idea that playing music with the buds is supposed to be fun.
Florist – “Gloom Designs”
Emily Sprague begins “Gloom Designs,” the closing track of Florist’s forthcoming album Jellywish, gazing inward. “In my life, will I see the day / We can be face to face,” she wonders. As the song progresses, the indie-folk musician expands her purview to muse on the world in its entirety: “Humanity what have we done to this? / Is there nothing left?” In press materials, Sprague describes “Gloom Designs” as the “whole history of us” and “the question mark for what comes next.” Ending Jellywish with this existential entanglement seems to be the point for the record’s existence in the first place.
Lucy Dacus – “Best Guess”
Next month, Lucy Dacus will release Forever Is A Feeling, her first solo studio album in four years. Whereas previous singles “Ankles” and “Limerence” hinted at the boygenius member’s Baroque inclinations, her new single, “Best Guess,” is more standard Dacus fare with its steady drum beat and lightly modulated guitars. “If I were a gambling man, and I am / You’d be my best bet,” she sings in the chorus. It’s an ode to taking a risk on someone and how that risk can ultimately pay off.
Venturing – Ghostholding
“So should I change my name again,” Jane Remover asks on their latest single, “JRJRJR.” Well, in a way, they already have. Venturing is the alias Jane has given themselves, and Ghostholding, their debut LP under this moniker, builds on the post-rock foundation they established on Jane Remover’s 2023 album, Census Designated. Whereas the next proper Jane Remover record returns to the rap cadences and hyperpop-inflected sounds of their earliest work, Ghostholding posits a parallel universe in which Jane kept pursuing rock’s outer edges. Venturing gives them the outlet to reify that universe.
Real Lies – “I Could Join The Birds”
As Real Lies themselves tell it, We Will Annihilate Our Enemies contains more songs in the present tense than their music ever has. The English electronic duo is normally known for its wistful, swooning love songs carried by pulsing bass and thumping drums. All those crucial elements are still here, but this time around, Real Lies don’t dwell in retrospective thought so much as observe their current surroundings. On “I Could Join The Birds,” for instance, Kev Kharas and Patrick King consider all the people that make up their city, all the stories transpiring at that given moment. With its four-on-the-floor house beats and aqueous synth pads, “I Could Join The Birds” constructs itself as a conduit for introspection, capable of branching outward. A disco ball, after all, is just a sphere composed of countless mirrors.
Kaela – “Tender”
Kaela Sinclair successfully auditioned to become M83’s keyboardist in 2016. The Texas native beat out hundreds of applicants after bandleader Anthony Gonzalez issued an open call. From there, Sinclair embarked on a global tour and has since become a permanent fixture of the group’s lineup. In May, she’ll release a new solo album, Supraliminal, on Gonzalez’s label Other Suns. “Tender,” the single that accompanies the announcement, abounds with gauzy synth pads and hypnotizing arpeggios. Although she initially gained notoriety through her M83 affiliation, Kalea is here to cement herself as an artist in her own image.
Horsegirl – Phonetics On And On
Following the release of their 2022 debut album, Versions Of Modern Performance, indie rock trio Horsegirl quickly became one of the most exciting bands to come out of Chicago. While its core songwriters Penelope Lowenstein and Nora Cheng juggle English courses at NYU, they’ve managed to record their second album for Matador with the singular Cate Le Bon, who produced it at the Loft. Phonetics On And On is a level up by means of scaling back. Decidedly spare in its instrumentation, especially compared to its Sonic Youth-inspired predecessor, Phonetics‘ panache is translated through its minimalist confidence. Rather than lathering the guitars in Lee Ranaldo levels of distortion, Horsegirl have opted for clean, open space, allowing their infectious songwriting to resonate clearer than ever.
Japanese Breakfast – “Mega Circuit”
Michelle Zauner broke through to a wider audience with Japanese Breakfast’s indie-pop opus Jubilee and her memoir Crying In H Mart when they both released in 2021. For the next Jbrekkie album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women), Zauner dials back the synths and sweeping choruses in lieu of a more subdued aura. “Mega Circuit,” its latest preview, adopts a livelier flair with country drummer Jim Keltner’s shuffle. Given that Zauner has covered Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again” at many Japanese Breakfast shows, it’s a full-circle moment to see her collaborating with the man who played drums on the original recording.
Toro Y Moi – “Daria”
Last year, Chaz Bear released the eighth Toro Y Moi album, Hole Erth, a swerve away from the psych-rock-heavy Mahal and a dive into Travis Scott-esque hip-hop. Featuring guests such as Don Toliver, Kevin Abstract, and Duckwrth, it only seems appropriate that an exclusive track from the Japanese edition of the record, “Daria,” is produced by rap trailblazer Kenny Beats. With its chorus-soaked bassline, in-the-pocket breakbeat, and Chaz’s unbothered delivery, “Daria” meets the middle point between its two creators’ signature styles.
Samia‘s much-anticipated new album, Bloodless, comes out on April 25. But before then, she’s shared a catchy-yet-disquieting new single, “Lizard,” which follows the similarly animal-themed “Bovine Excision.”
“It’s painful to stay present, to exist as a real, flesh-and-blood person at a party, after existing comfortably as a myth or a memory,” Samia said in a statement. “And it was even more painful to try not to ruin a party I’d already ruined.”
You can listen to “Lizard” above. Samia also announced the dates for her North American tour with Raffaella, which are listed below along with her previously shared European dates.
Samia’s 2025 Tour Dates: The Bloodless Tour
04/25 – Brighton, UK – Resident
04/26 – Bristol, UK – Rough Trade
04/28 – Liverpool, UK – Rough Trade
04/29 – Leeds, UK – Jumbo
04/30 – Nottingham, UK – Rough Trade
05/01 – London, UK – Rough Trade East (Matinee Show)
05/01 – London, UK – Rough Trade East
05/20 – Portland, ME – Portland House Of Music *
05/21 – Boston, MA – House Of Blues *
05/22 – Northampton, MA – Academy Of Music *
05/24 – Toronto, ON – The Opera House *
05/25 – Montreal, QC – Le Studio TD *
05/26 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground *
05/28 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre Of Living Arts *
05/30 – New York, NY – Brooklyn Steel *
05/31 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club *
06/03 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall *
06/05 – Milwaukee, WI – Turner Hall *
06/06 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue *
06/07 – Kansas City, MO – The Truman *
* with Raffaella
Bloodless is out 4/25 via Grand Jury Music. Find more information here.
On Friday (February 14) Drake and PartyNextDoor finally released the joint album they’d been teasing for much of 2024. Some Sexy Songs 4 U turned out to be a collection of 21 tracks that tapped into Drake’s more melodic instincts to try and regain the footing he’d lost due to his war of words with Kendrick Lamar. However, as it happens, there was one “sexy song” missing — but Drake couldn’t resist sharing it with the world, despite the sample clearance issues that kept it off the album.
Drake posted the track to his burner account on Instagram, writing, “no $$$AMPLE CLEARANCE for my goat” in the caption. And although he didn’t reveal just who his “GOAT” is, HipHopDX has identified the guest vocalist as New Orleans bounce artist Heaven. The song appears to be built on a sample of the 1991 hit “Breakin’ My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes)” from New Jack Swing pioneers Mint Condition, as well as elemental bounce foundation “Triggerman.” That song had peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and resurfaced recently on TikTok via a trend in which the younger user base shows off videos of their parents, who insisted they were heartbreakers back in the day.
Meanwhile, although some of the official tracks from Some Sexy Songs, such as “Celibacy” and “Gimme A Hug,” rack up streams, some fans insist that the lower streaming numbers on Spotify compared to Apple Music lend weight to the Toronto artist’s complaints against the former (those fans, of course, are ignoring a plethora of factors, including but not limited to completely different distribution chains for the joint album and Drake’s solo efforts, huge discrepancies between user bases for the two competing platforms, and the fact that Drake’s name, like it or not, is more or less mud for a lot of people right now, and probably will be the foreseeable future).
Perhaps the best thing Drake could do after sharing this track is take a long vacation, giving fans a chance to miss him before returning with a more positive outlook and a focus on quality over quantity.
You can check out Drake’s post for the uncleared song here.
With his new album WHAM (Who Hard As Me), Atlanta rapper Lil Baby returned to form after the creative stumbles of his 2022 album It’s Only Me. Now, with a new album, Dominique, on the way, Lil Baby has announced the dates for his WHAM World Tour, with dates in North America, Europe, and Australia and New Zealand. He’ll be joined by Houston rapper BigXthaPlug on all dates but one, while NLE Choppa and Loe Shimmy will act as openers in the US.
Tickets for North America go on sale Friday, February 21 at 10am local time at whamtour.com. Europe and Oceania will have a Mastercard presale beginning Wednesday, February 19. You can find more info at priceless.com/music. See below for the full tour dates.
Lil Baby WHAM World Tour Dates
06/03 – Houston, TX – Toyota Center
06/05 – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center
06/07 – Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena
06/08 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena
06/10 – Miami, FL – Kaseya Center**
06/12 – Jacksonville, FL – VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena
06/15 – Raleigh, NC – Lenovo Center
06/17 – Baltimore, MD – CFG Bank Arena
06/18 – Brooklyn, NY – Barclays Center
06/19 – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center
06/21 – Columbus, OH – Nationwide Arena
06/22 – Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena
06/24 – Milwaukee, WI – Fiserv Forum
06/25 – Chicago, IL – United Center
07/01 – Los Angeles, CA – Intuit Dome*
09/12 – Berlin, Germany – Max Schmeling Halle
09/14 – Copenhagen, Denmark – KB Hallen
09/16 – Dusseldorf, Germany – Mitsubishi Electric Halle
09/17 – Brussels, Belgium – Forest National
09/19 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – AFAS Live
09/23 – Zurich, Switzerland – The Hall
09/24 – Paris, France – Adidas Arena
09/26 – Manchester, UK – Co-op Live
09/27 – London, UK – The O2
10/08 – Perth, Australia – RAC Arena
10/10 – Sydney, Australia – Qudos Bank Arena
10/11 – Brisbane, Australia – Brisbane Entertainment Centre
10/14 – Melbourne, Australia – Rod Laver Arena
10/16 – Auckland, New Zealand – Spark Arena
Tyla isn’t necessarily the most provocative figure, but she has faced some controversy after referring to herself as “a colored South African,” as opposed to saying she’s a Black person, in a 2020 video that resurfaced in 2023. Here’s an explainer of the situation, but in short, Tyla’s use of the word has to do with the term’s different historical contexts in the US and in her native South Africa.
Now, she has taken a moment to clear the air and share her thoughts.
In a new British Vogue interview, Tyla said of the backlash, “Honestly, I felt like I had no… no control. People took it and… It just went so far that I didn’t know what to do. The way people painted me… And I understand that word is a sensitive word to people, so I don’t blame people for being touched about it. I just would have wanted an opportunity for people to actually truly listen and learn.”
She also said of her identity:
“You know that even if you give the best explanation, people will still choose not to understand. But I’m at a point where I know who I am. I know I’m a Black woman and I know I’m a colored woman as well and you can be both. And the people that care to learn, they understand now. And that’s enough for me.”
The issue was again brought up in a 2024 Breakfast Club interview, during which Tyla’s publicist shut down the line of questioning. Of that, Tyla said:
“Me choosing not to say anything, I’m happy that I didn’t. I didn’t want to explain my culture and something that is really important to me on a platform that is just going to be purposefully misconstrued. I’ve explained it a lot of times before, but people took that and put words in my mouth. They said a whole bunch of things that I never said and ran with it. If people really searched, they’ll see that in South Africa we had a lot of segregation. It was bad for a lot of us. They just classified us. And that just so happens to be the name that the white people called us. They chose to call people that were mixed ‘colored.’ And I’m not gonna lie, it was hard because all my life, obviously I knew ‘I’m Black’ but also knew that ‘I’m colored’. So when I went to America and people were like, ‘You can’t say that!’ I was in a position where I was like, ‘Oh, so what do I do? What am I then?’”
“My Harry Styles is really bad,” cast member (and the show’s go-to Jennifer Coolidge impersonator) Chloe Fineman told Chicken Shop Date host Amelia Dimoldenberg on the red carpet for the SNL 50th anniversary special on Sunday. “I did it and he was at the table and was so devastated by how bad it was.” She then demonstrated a bit of her impression, saying, “Anyway, I’m Harry Styles, anyway” in a non-convincing British accent.
Styles hosted SNL in 2019, but according to the New York Post, the former One Direction member and Fineman “didn’t share any scenes together during that episode.” She did, however, do an impression of another famous Brit, Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge, in a The Tonight Show sketch where Jimmy Fallon impersonated Styles as he learned the choreography for the “Treat People With Kindness” music video. You can watch that clip here.
On the music side of things, Styles hasn’t announced whether he’s releasing his follow-up to 2022’s Album Of The Year-winning Harry’s House this year, but we’re really hoping he does.
Kendrick Lamar wowed with his recent Super Bowl Halftime Show performance, of course. One of the most surprising elements of it was the unexpected appearance of Serena Williams, who danced on stage as Lamar performed. Given her supposed history with Drake and the general anti-Drake sentiments of Lamar’s performance, many have assumed Williams’ presence was meant as some sort of diss towards Drake.
However, she’s insisting that’s not the case.
Williams’ husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, tweeted on February 10, “Some of y’all have no idea how criticized Serena was for this same dance at Wimbledon 13 years ago and it shows…. This is bigger than the music.” Yesterday, Williams responded:
“That there my baby daddy and husband. Always got my back. I Love you. Gosh I’m so late to the game (I’ve been sick) & busy investing in billion dollar companies and running @WYNbeauty… def not dancing to be petty lol. I think I proved 23 times over (not counting 4 gold medals) that I simply don’t have time for petty. All love and respect always nothing negative here.”
Meanwhile, Drake had a pretty clear response to “Not Like Us” on “Celibacy,” from his new PartyNextDoor collab album: “We’rе not like them, baby, and they’re not like us, either one.”
Adele has amassed an impressive base of super fans around the world. But if you were to ask the “Chasing Pavement” singer who she stans the list may or may not surprise you.
Over the weekend, a viral video of Adele revealed her deep admiration for another musical act. In the clip (viewable here courtesy of HipHopDX), Adele can be seen absolutely losing it as she watched Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean reunite on stage during SNL 50: The Homecoming Concert.
Due to Adele’s pure joy watching the mini-Fugees reunion, the video is now making its rounds across X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok. “Wow, SNL, just wow,” she captioned the clip. “Incredible! I can’t believe what I’m watching.”
Adele has publicly expressed her love for fellow musicians like Beyoncé, Celine Dion. Following Adele’s awe-struck response to Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean’s performance at SNL 50: The Homecoming Concert it is safe to say they are also on Adele’s “entertainers I stan” list.
The SNL 50: The Homecoming Concert is exclusively available on Peacock. Find more information here.
However, ahead of the July 5th concert, Osbourne wants fans to know that despite his restrictions he will give it his all. During a recent episode of Ozzy’s Boneyard on SiriusXM, Ozzy Osbourne revealed that he will not play a full set with the band.
“I’m not planning on doing a set with Black Sabbath,” he said. “But I am doing little bits and pieces with them. I am doing what I can, where I feel comfortable.”
He continued: “I am trying to get back on my feet. When you get up in the morning, you just jump out of bed. I have to balance myself, but I’m not dead. I’m still actively doing things.”
Ozzy’s wife, manager, and media host Sharon Osbourne spoke about his joy to be reuniting with Black Sabbath in a chat with BBC. “He’s so excited about this, about being with the guys again and all his friends,” she said. “Ozzy didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to his friends, to his fans, and he feels there’s no been no full stop. This is his full stop.”
Black Sabbath’s final show, Back To The Beginning, is set for July 5 in Birmingham, England. Find more information here.
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