Category: News

Earlier this week, Red Bull released the latest episode of its Spiral Freestyle series featuring Ab-Soul, Big Sean, and Joey Badass. The episode has since gone viral for Joey’s competitive verse, which picked up the threads laid down by his spicy early 2025 singles, “The Ruler’s Back” and “Sorry Not Sorry.”

The combative energy did not go unrecognized or unchallenged. When “The Ruler’s Back” dropped, Top Dawg Entertainment rapper Ray Vaughn responded a fiery follow-up to his battle rap track, “Crashout Heritage.” Once again, Vaughn responded to Joey this week with “Hoe Era,” a witty, wordplay infused diss track playing on the name of Joey’s old band Pro Era.

Vaughn recently released his own debut project on the label, The Good The Bad The Dollar Menu, so the timing couldn’t be much better for his name to be going viral — hopefully, all the attention he gets from “Hoe Era” will translate into spins for his excellent debut, because he’s certainly worked to earn them.

“Standing next to Soul ain’t gonna save you,” Ray jabs in his verse, nodding to the fact that Ab-Soul also participated in some friendly back-and-forth with Joey during their Spiral freestyle. It looks like the Long Beach native wants to compete, and even his own teammates won’t stand in the way of the fade.

You can listen to “Hoe Era” above.

Last week, Sound Check host Jeremy Hecht took his first L during a livestream with YouTuber DDG. This week’s episode, however, takes him back to Dreamville Festival, where he previously took on the challenge with Ludacris, for another encounter with a 2000s Southern rap legend: Juvenile.

Naturally, Juvie’s choices include songs from his former group, Hot Boys, his longtime bandmate, Lil Wayne, and New Orleans musical pioneers, including The Neville Brothers and Louis Armstrong. Asked to choose between “I Need A Hot Girl” and “We On Fire”; “A Milli” and “Hustler Muzik”; and “Brother John/Iko Iko” and “What A Wonderful World,” Juvie came up with some answers that might surprise you. They certainly gave Jeremy a sense of Juvenile’s musical taste.

Here’s how it works: Jeremy plays two songs for the guest artist, who has to choose one and explain their choice, giving Jeremy a chance to learn their musical taste. Jeremy then has to guess the artist’s life anthem, the song they’d take to a desert island, which the guest wrote down earlier on a piece of paper. Our production team has also given him a decoy song, and Jeremy has to guess which is correct based on what he’s learned in the previous rounds.

Does he redeem himself this time around? Watch the episode above to find out.

Sometimes, you just want to watch a robot who loves to watch soap operas. And Murderbot is here to fuel that want.

Apple TV+’s status as the streaming sci-fi king will only continue to grow with this Alexander Skarsgård-starring series adaptation of Martha Wells’ The Murderbot Diaries. The show takes a comedic approach to a Sec Unit gone rogue with a bang-up cast that includes David Dastmalchian, who is in almost every TV series worth watching these days.

The question remains, however, when you can watch the deadpan robot juggle his bingewatching stints and humanity-saving heroics.

When Do Murderbot Season 1 Episodes 1 & 2 Come Out?

May 16. From there, the 10-episode first season will roll out weekly until July 11. If you haven’t caught the series trailer yet, it’s damn cute, and the synopsis ain’t bad, either:

“Murderbot” is an action-packed sci-fi series, based on the award-winning books by Wells, about a self-hacking security android who is horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable “clients.” Murderbot must hide its free will and complete a dangerous assignment when all it really wants is to be left alone to watch futuristic soap operas and figure out its place in the universe.

The cast also includes Tamara Podemski, Sabrina Wu, Akshay Khanna, and Tattiawna Jones. And good on Murderbot for finding time for recreation while still getting his job done. Robot goals.

JID is back, and the apocalyptic video for his new single, “WRK,” follows a similar format to the trailer for his upcoming album, God Does Like Ugly, depicting conflict in a devastated version of his hometown, Atlanta.

Mixing the haunted aesthetic of post-apocalyptic shows like The Walking Dead and The Last Of Us with the scavenged future punk tribal discord of the Mad Max series, the “WRK” video explores a version of A-Town where something very bad has apparently happened, splitting the denizens into two factions. One, a hazmat-clad authority group, faces off against the other, a group of residents gone feral, as JID raps in the wreckage of an abandoned skyscraper.

Toward the end of the video, a cobbled together museum of artifacts holds the city’s history, from the bandana worn by the late Young Scooter, to a 20-inch auto wheel, to a videotape of God Does Like Ugly, which a young survivor pops into a VCR, presaging the coming of the album of the same name.

JID first previewed “WRK” at Dreamville Festival after turning in the long-awaited album despite his manager joking that the album would never come out. Thank goodness he was wrong.

You can watch the video for “WRK” above.

Ahead of the release of her new album Lotus, Little Simz has shared her latest single-word song. First, it was “Flood,” then “Free,” and now comes “Young.”

The posh punk (not pop punk) track comes with a video directed by Dave Meyers that finds Little Simz as a bass-wielding granny. “I was able to tap into a character. That was fun for me,” she wrote in a statement. “It’s just a moment of light heartedness.”

Little Simz also announced a pair of headlining dates in the fall: Manchester’s Co-Op Live on October 16 and London’s The O2 on October 17. Tickets are on sale here.

Lotus was originally scheduled to come out on May 6 before it was delayed to to June 6. “That time has come and unfortunately I’m having to push my album back due to scheduling of shooting a movie that just came in. Not ideal for me or you I know, trust me I’ve tried many ways around it but just means I can’t do the film otherwise,” Little Simz wrote on Instagram in April. “If there was ever a time I ask for your grace and patience it is now.”

You can watch the “Young” video above.

Lotus is out 6/6 via AWAL Recordings. Find more information here.

Erika de Casier had one of 2024’s favorite albums with Still. She’s already back with another one, as Lifetime came out on May 8, and she’s touring behind it, too: Today (May 14), the Danish singer announced the Lifetime Tour.

The brief North American trek spans a few dates in October, when she’ll perform in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, Toronto, and Queens. Information about tickets can be found on de Casier’s website.

de Casier started teasing her latest album, Lifetime, in April, by selling unlabeled cassette tapes on Bandcamp, which were then leaked to YouTube, as Exclaim notes. Then, it arrived last week as a surprise release.

In a 2024 interview with Vogue, de Casier said of her music, “I think when I’m making music, I always feel very confident about it. I’m critical in my process, of course, but it’s a natural kind of criticism. I never say no in the creative process: It’s always, ‘Yes, let’s try it!’ Even if it feels a bit silly. […] The artists I really look up to are the ones with big discographies — and some tracks you like, some you don’t like, but you can hear, ‘Oh, okay, this artist was trying some stuff out here.’ It’s not the end of the world if everything you make isn’t amazing. I try to maintain that mindset, because when I try to be perfect in my music, it really ruins the fun of it.”

Check out the tour dates below.

Erika de Casier’s 2025 Tour Dates: Lifetime Tour

10/14 — Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
10/15 — San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
10/19 — Atlanta, GA @ Hell at The Masquerade
10/21 — Chicago, IL @ Outset
10/22 — Toronto, ON @ The Axis Club
10/24 — Queens, NY @ Knockdown Center

Lifetime is out now via Independent Jeep Music. Find more information here.

Okay, gang, gather ’round, it’s time to talk about Sailorr, who just announced the dates for her From Florida’s Finest Tour. Admittedly, this writer was a little bit skeptical upon the breakout of her hit song “Pookie’s Requiem” via TikTok. But every new move she has made since has made me a bit more of a fan.

Her explanation for her blackened grills — it’s a nod to the Vietnamese cultural tradition of teeth blackening with a hip-hop twist (fun fact: they’re actually her Invisalign trays) — and the “Pookie’s Requiem” remix featuring her closest comparison, Summer Walker, certainly helped. Also, the combo of high and lowbrow influences in her “Bitches Brew” video showed she takes this stuff seriously, and has a lot of great ideas that could grow as her attention and budget do the same.

But where I was really sold was the cover for her debut EP From Florida’s Finest, which replicates the covers of the ’90s YA sci-fi book series Animorphs, featuring a transformation sequence turning Sailorr into a cockroach. One, I was addicted to those books growing up (shockingly heavy on the “A” in “YA,” with graphic depictions of the horrors of war), and two, a display of self-aware sense of humor is always going to buy a lot of grace from me, which in this case is backed up by a truly solid collection of cheeky, vibey R&B. I highly recommend it.

Anyway, tickets for the tour go on sale Friday, May 16th at 2 PM local time, immediately preceded by artist pre-sale from 10 AM to 1:59 PM. You can see the tour dates below, and find more info here.

06/14 — Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade (Purgatory Stage)
06/17 — New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
06/19 — Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground
06/20 — Chicago, IL @ The Promontory
06/22 — San Francisco, CA @ Brick & Mortar Music Hall
06/25 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Roxy Theatre
07/02 — London, UK @ Jazz Cafe

If Jade isn’t already your pop star obsession, she will be soon. The “FUFN (F*ck You For Now)” singer has announced that her debut album, That’s Showbiz Baby!, is coming out on September 12. No tracklist has been announced yet, but hopefully it will include one of the best songs of 2024.

That’s Showbiz Baby! features collaborations with Mike Sabath, Lostboy, Cirkut, Raye, and Pablo Bowman.

“This album has been years in the making, so I’m beyond excited that I can finally let everyone know when it’s coming out,” Jade said in a statement. “I’m very proud of That’s Showbiz Baby! as a body of work and can’t wait to share it with the world. To be able to perform the album live later this year is also a dream come true. See you all on tour!”

You can check out the That’s Showbiz Baby! album cover below, as well as Jade’s tour dates.

Jade’s That’s Showbiz Baby! Album Cover Artwork

Jade’s 2025 Tour Dates: That’s Showbiz Baby! Tour

10/08 — Dublin, Ireland @ 3Olympia Theatre
10/09 — Belfast, UK @ Ulster Hall
10/11 — Brighton, UK @ Dome
10/12 — Manchester, UK @ Academy 1
10/13 — Glasgow, UK @ O2 Academy
10/15 — Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy
10/16 — Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy 1
10/18 — Newcastle, UK @ O2 City Hall
10/19 — London, UK @ Roundhouse

That’s Showbiz Baby! is out 10/12 via Sony Music UK/RCA Records. Find more information here.

Festival season is here, but standalone concerts are worth keeping track of, too. Live Nation is providing a terrific opportunity to see some great acts in the next few months with their “$30 Ticket To Summer” promotion.

Essentially, fans will be able to get $30 tickets to over a thousand shows in the US and Canada. The list of participating artists is strong, featuring Halsey, Avril Lavigne, Leon Bridges, Kesha, Nelly, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, Willie Nelson, Billy Idol, The Black Keys, Goo Goo Dolls, James Taylor, Keith Urban, Luke Bryan, The Offspring, Pantera, Tedeschi Trucks Band, and of course, Kidz Bop Kids. More info about the promotion, including which specific dates are part of the promo, can be found here.

Tickets go on sale starting May 21. Before that, there’s a T-Mobile Early Access and a Rakuten Early Access, both running on May 20 at 10 a.m. ET. Additional information about the T-Mobile sale can be found here, and the Rakuten here.

Halsey is fresh off launching her For My Last Trick tour. She wrote of it, “This tour is going to be a little bit different. Each song was carefully selected. For good reason. There will be many moments where you’re not so sure, but the person next to you is screaming. And some where your neighbor just doesn’t get it, but I’m playing the song you crossed your fingers you’d hear. […] This is something special. I can feel it.”

Each year, fashion fans tune into the Met Gala to find out how their favorite celebrities will interpret the themes and, to quote a popular phrase, “put that sh*t on.” One of those celebrities is Megan Thee Stallion, who has become a fixture of the Met’s infamous carpet pics. And, despite a persistent online rumor about her being banned from future gala’s for violating the organizers’ cell phone policy, it looks like she’ll continue that tradition.

Megan, who posted several videos from this year’s gala on her social media, debunked the rumors in an interview with People, which stemmed from her joke in one of the posts that “we not supposed to have our phones.”

“We’re gonna dead these rumors right now, okay?” she said. “People are like, ‘Oh my God, Megan, you got banned from the Met Gala. No, I didn’t, babe. Like that’s not true. Y’all made that up and ran with it. They love making [stuff up]. Anna [Wintour] loves me, babe. That’s why my phone was out.”

Even so, Meg’s onto new endeavors already as it is, so her invite to next year’s Met Gala is next year’s problem. For now, she’s concentrating on putting together her own fancy dinner, the inaugural Pete & Thomas Foundation Gala, honoring philanthropy related to the foundation she named after her parents. She’s also branching out into fast food franchising, with a Popeyes Chicken opening soon in her hometown, Houston.