Amaria has been working towards this moment for the last four and a half years. The Tampa native launched her music career at the beginning of 2020, and since then the young singer’s tender and velvet have graced ears far and wide, whether it be releases like her debut single “Morning” or her first two projects. Bittersweet and All For You. Other examples lay with collaborations alongside Mac Ayres, UMI, and Destin Conrad as proof of Amaria’s neo-soul excellence inspired the likes of Sadé and Erykah Badu.
This continues with her debut album Free Fallin’ which arrives with an added dose of maturity and youthful wisdom that arrives thanks to experience in the music world. “The main theme of the album, represented by the name, is the idea of going through different life experiences with no safety net,” Amaria said about the album in a press release. “Letting life take you whichever way it wants — essentially ‘free falling.’” Amaria achieves this while using different feelings, styles, attitudes, and auras from various R&B eras in a combination that feels truly authentic to the young and talented singer.
With Free Fallin’ out now and in rotation, we spotlight Amaria for this week’s Uproxx Music 20 column in an interview that dives into her inspirations, aspirations, and influences.
Okay, now I am mad at all the rappers. It’s not that there hasn’t been a slew of worthy contributions to the canon over the past 10 months; it’s that so many of them waited until November to release absolute bangers that will have to be mainlined instead of savored ahead of the inevitable year-end lists. There were so many dead weekends over the past couple of months; did Tyler The Creator, Earthgang, Lil Uzi Vert, IDK, and Freddie Gibbs all have to wait ’til this week to drop? On the bright side, though, there’s a decent chance that Tyler’s new album manages to bring back New Music Tuesday, which can only benefit artists, fans, and labels — if only the latter have the brains and balls to follow through. More notable releases this week:
Drake’s “No Face” video. No comments, the man’s been through enough this year.
Central Cee’s “One By One” performance on COLORS announcing his upcoming debut, Can’t Rush Greatness.
Future and Travis Scott’s long-awaited remix for “South Of France.”
And a timely remake of Kurtis Blow’s ’80s classic “Basketball” featuring Lola Brooke and finally acknowledging the ascendance of women’s hoops. I don’t care if it is technically a commercial for DoorDash; it’s a long overdue investment into women’s sports.
Also: Saweetie kicks us off on Christmas, relegating Thanksgiving to the also-ran status it deserves.
Here is the best of hip-hop this week ending November 1, 2024.
Albums/EPs/Mixtapes
Bishop Nehru — Nehruvia: Solace In Shadows
Bishop Nehru
In the years since the East New York native’s teenaged debut over a decade ago, he’s kept up a truly stunning level of output, especially since going independent after parting ways with Mass Appeal. You might not have noticed; he moves with the sort of murky mystery as former mentor MF DOOM, but let his latest project (and second of 2024) serve as a reminder of his deft pen and commitment to cerebral lyricism matching that of other notable underground names like Earl Sweatshirt and Ka.
EarthGang — Perfect Fantasy
EarthGang
Like Tyler The Creator, EarthGang dodged the Friday deluge with a Tuesday release for their new album, which is a truly unexpected mashup of alt-indie sounds, funkwave dance floor fillers, and African diaspora riddims that explores all the ways in which human ingenuity trumps algorithmic precision. No AI would ever think to combine the sounds and ideas presented here, which is the point of EarthGang’s whole ongoing “Versus The Algorithm” project. Sometimes, it’s the things that don’t “make sense” that work the best. Surrender to humanity of Pefect Fantasy; resistance is futile.
Freddie Gibbs — You Only Die 1nce
Freddie Gibbs
Gibbs’ first full-length since 2022’s Soul Sold Separately, You Only Die arrives with little fanfare or advance warning, yet all the skillful wordplay and emotive storytelling rap fans have come to expect from the Indiana product. The soulful production includes notable samples like the Tony Toni Toné interpolation on “It’s Your Anniversary,” which offers a form-fitting backdrop for Gibb’s heart-yanking raps.
IDK — Bravado + Intimo
IDK
As quiet as it’s kept (at least, among some of you so-called “rap fans”), IDK has become one of the most compelling and consistent voices in hip-hop today — even if that voice pretty closely resembles one of our recent excommunicates (I joked on Twitter that it’s silly to look forward to any Kanye project as long as IDK is releasing new music). The Maryland rapper’s latest distills the best of prior projects like Simple and F65 into a compact compilation of songs that show the most critical sides of rap: the chest-beating and the soul-baring.
Lil Uzi Vert — Eternal Atake 2
Lil Uzi Vert
Another “surprise release,” the sequel to 2020’s Eternal Atake wisely foregoes a long windup in favor of a shortened runway that allows Uzi to dodge the buildup of expectations that can crowd out artistic ambitions. By taking the pressure off, the Philadelphian genre bender gets to focus on showing off the rapid fire bars that gave them their rap name over a collection of beats that should appease anyone who was disappointed by all the rock and rolling on Pink Tape.
Tyler The Creator — Chromakopia
Tyler The Creator
After taking a few detours into R&B and mixtape rap territory, Tyler gets back to his most familiar lane, crafting a slick successor to 2017’s Flower Boy. However, in the years since, he’s grown as both a composer and a person — growth that lays the groundwork for one of his most polished and mature releases to date. While Tyler’s early work spoke to the rebels and rapscallions of the world doing their best to make it through their rocky teens, his latest speaks to adults they’ve become while still honoring those youthful ideals.
Westside Gunn & DJ Drama — Still Praying
Westside Gunn
Gunn — bar none, the most productive person working in rap music today — actually has two projects out today: The five-track 11 and the Gangsta Grillz entry Still Praying. We’re giving the spot to the more polished product, which resides comfortably in the now familiar zone that has defined his output to date. Enough drugs to fuel the New York State economy get sold, enough verbal bullets to take over a third-world nation get thrown, and those ad-libs everybody loves remain intact.
Singles/Videos
Gang Starr — “Finishem”
I’ll be honest: I did not think I would ever hear a whole new Gang Starr song in 2024. Surely, every last viable Guru verse has been used, every session between Guru and DJ Premier has been plumbed. And yet, here we are, miraculously hearing the Beantown representative over his Houston brother’s production in honor of the five-year anniversary of One Of The Best Yet, their last album together and first since 2003’s The Ownerz.
Flau’Jae — “Big Bag”
LSU’s women’s basketball season tips off in just a few days, and junior guard Flau’Jae Johnson gets herself hype with a boastful new release tapping into every rapper-hooper’s favorite subject — that bag. While we’ll see how her off season bag work pays off on court in a few days, we’ve already seen how her off season rap moves contributed to a “big bag” of opportunities, making her one of the first college athletes to be afforded such gains from extracurriculars during her student-athlete years.
Kal Banx — “Sunstory” Feat. Isaiah Rashad
The TDE producer continues the rollout to his debut project, following “Hop Out Cho Feelings” with “Sunstory” a jazzy mood poem featuring labelmate Isaiah Rashad. Featuring a looser structure than the traditional “verse-hook-verse-hook” model, “Sunstory” sees Rashad contemplating his conditions. A pretty string section closes things out, showing off Banx’s production prowess and leaving appetites whet for his eventual release announcement.
Luh Tyler — “Money Virus”
Tyler loves rapping; it’s been evident since his breakout “Law & Order.” But it’s rare to see someone who blew up so young so committed to improving after all the success. At first blush, “Money Virus” might seem just another example of the teen rapper piling double entendres on top of each other, but he’s gotten more precise with his delivery and creative with his hook work, demonstrating his dedication to actually improving rather than coasting on past wins. If only they could all be like Tyler.
Maxo Kream — “Big Hoe Me”
The Houston big stepper swaggers all over a rumbling but surprisingly pretty beat to highlight the thin line between mentorship and bad advice, detailing the ways in which his “big homie” low-key ruined his life. After all, someone really looking out for him would keep him away from the street life, not hand him a gun and send him out to hit the opps. In that way, “big homie” is more like a “big hoe,” hence the title.
The Philadelphia 76ers haven’t had Joel Embiid to start the 2024-25 NBA season. Embiid missed all of the preseason, and when the first game of the year rolled around, the team said he was out with “left knee management” — the Sixers star dealt with left knee issues that limited him to only 39 games last season, and while he was able to play in the Olympics, he hasn’t taken the floor since.
It’s led to Embiid getting a ton of criticism. Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal both hit him pretty hard on TNT, while one column by a local reporter — titled “Joel Embiid disrespects the Sixers, the game, its greats, and himself. Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley are right to rip him.” — seemed to especially rub him the wrong way, which he made clear while speaking to the media on Friday.
“It was never decided,” Embiid told the press when asked when it was decided that he’d slow play his debut this year. “Like I said, everybody has been on the same page. If your body doesn’t react well, and if your body tells you one thing — I’ve done it. From what I can tell you, I’ve broken my face twice, I came back early with the risk of losing my vision, I’ve had broken fingers, I still came back. So, I’m not gonna sit here and be like … When I see people saying he doesn’t want to play. I’ve done way too much for this city, putting myself at risk for people to be saying that. So, I do think it’s bullsh*t. Like that dude, he’s not here, Marcus, whatever his name is, I’ve done way too much for this f*cking city to be treated like this. Done way too f*cking much.
“But, like I said, I wish I was as lucky as other ones, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not doing whatever it takes to be out there, which I’m gonna be here pretty soon.”
Keri Russell’s return to TV in Netflix‘s The Diplomat bestowed viewers with a second season of Kate Wyler that began streaming on October 31. This led to a swift binge session for people who couldn’t wait to see how Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell) would irritate the hell out his wife while possibly holding backroom conversations with other countries. Then the mood shifted. Kate changed her mind and decided to go for the VP slot, and this led to some rare sexy time with Hal, but not so fast.
Kate’s newfound ambitions were shut down by current VP Grace Penn (Allison Janney), who decided that she wasn’t going to resign after all. This was a turn of events befitting almost any Allison Janney character, but the season’s final moments did cause my mouth to fly open. Hal (of course Hal) had decided to inform the president of his VP’s treachery, and he stressed POTUS out so much that the dude dropped dead, meaning that Grace Penn is now president. The season ended with federal agents swarming across a lawn to where Kate and Grace were arguing. The End.
If I hadn’t been aware that only six episodes existed in this second season, I might have been upset for a few moments at the sudden ending. And on social media, yup, people are frustrated to receive six episodes instead of the eight (like the first season), which has sparked a question.
Why Does The Diplomat Season 2 Only Have Six Episodes?
First, it’s important to acknowledge that — as frustrating as it might seem to wait for more episodes — at least Netflix pre-announced a third season renewal, so it’s not as though the abrupt season finale is a series finale. As for the “why,” showrunner Debora Cahn told TV Line, “It was my decision.” She also added, “[Netflix] was not happy. They wanted the full eight.” Cahn, however, was too exhausted to turn around eight episodes to bring the show back in less than two years despite the Hollywood strikes:
Cahn attributes the episode shortfall to limited bandwidth. “I was really tired,” she says with a chuckle. “It was a time thing. It felt like there wasn’t enough time to turn around eight of them. It was a lot to do in what appeared to be a short period of time.”
Cahn did promise that “Season 3 will be eight episodes.”
And you know what? Viewers don’t seem to be complaining every time that Slow Horses — a show with a similar pace, tone, and style as The Diplomat — releases six-episode seasons. That shorter structure has allowed that show to stick to annual releases, which is far more preferable to viewers than waiting three years between seasons. Adding more episodes to The Diplomat‘s second season probably would have pushed the release back considerably due to rewrites, and then viewers would be upset about a longer wait, but as the common saying goes, you truly can’t please everybody.
The Diplomat‘s second season is currently streaming on Netflix.
Basketball and hip-hop have been joined at the hip as long as both have been at the forefront of American (and eventually global) pop culture. This is largely a result of ’80s rap pioneer Kurtis Blow‘s 1984 breakout hit “Basketball.” You know it. You love it.
The song’s been remade a couple of times over the years — most notably by Bow Wow in 2002 — but Blow himself teamed up with DoorDash and contemporary hitmaker Lola Brooke for “Basketball 2.0,” a remake capitalizing on the WNBA’s breakout 2024 season. Adding new verses to the traditionally heard “I like the pick-and-roll / I like the give-and-go,” the two rappers name check a variety of contemporary players, from LeBron James and Kevin Durant to WNBA stars like A’ja Wilson, Jonquel Jones, Sue Bird, and of course, rookie sensation Angel Reese.
The video for the song, which includes a demonstration of DoorDash’s DashPass benefts, takes place at New York’s legendary Rucker Park, where the Knicks’ Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart take on all comers with some help from Bird, ending with a cheeky visual reference to NBA Jam — that’s right, “HE’S ON FIRE!” Fortunately, Kurtis has a fire extinguisher handy to put out the burning backboard.
You can check out Kurtis Blow and Lola Brooke’s “Basketball 2.0” video above.
Chelsea Cutler and Jeremy Zucker drove by Brentwood Road, and the direction of their artistic lives changed.
Brent was born. First, with the five-track Brent EP in May 2019, followed by the five-track Brent II EP in February 2021.
“When we were coming up with the name for the first one, it was a big conversation,” Zucker tells Uproxx in a joint interview with Cutler. “We wanted to create something that had a name of its own that didn’t have anything attached to it. We wanted a name that would become sort of a thing. We got attached to the idea of it being a name, and we were going through names. It was literally on the way home from the cabin where we did that original Brent. We passed Brentwood Road. Brent just sounded right. For a second, we were like, ‘Is that too weird? Does that not make sense? Who is Brent?’ The more we started talking about it, the more natural it felt.”
Brent III, their first-ever collaborative full-length album out now via Mercury Records, captures Cutler and Zucker in their most naturally reflective and vulnerable states.
Cutler and Zucker talked all things Brent with Uproxx below.
Brent III — and your entire Brent world — is described as “home away from home.” Are there pieces of you that only feel at home within Brent?
Jeremy Zucker: Honestly, when we started, I would say yeah. That was one of the first times that I’ve really embraced wholesomeness as a young adult, and that’s the first time I felt like it was cool to cater to this feeling of wholesomeness and comfort. But now, I definitely experience it outside of Brent.
Chelsea Cutler: Yeah, I mean, I think that making Brent was one of the first times that I also experienced the intersection of collaboration and friendship in the music industry. Obviously, I think we’re both really fortunate. We do a lot of collaborations and have a lot of friends that we work with frequently in the music industry, but it definitely kind of defined collaboration for me and working relationship for me.
Brent III was recorded in several locations, but “A-frame” was born in an A-frame cabin in Big Bear, and the Brent universe metaphorically lives in a cabin in the woods. So, what does the Brent cabin represent to each of you?
JZ: A safe place. Where you are doesn’t matter; it just matters who you are with.
CC: I think of the Brent world as current nostalgia, if that makes sense. Well, I just think of Brent as this place where I get to make really, really special music and bring my inner child’s creative vision to life while experiencing watching movies, getting food together, and laughing.
JZ: It’s just like summer camp.
CC: Yeah. It’s the most raw human experience, and it’s very vulnerable to exist that much in the present with someone.
I like the phrase “current nostalgia.” None of us can predict what our future self will miss most about the version of life we’re living right now, but what do you think you will cherish most about this time with Brent III as time passes?
JZ: That’s a good question. The thing is, you never know what you took for granted. That’s why you’re taking it for granted.
CC: I know I’m going to be really intentional about enjoying [Brent Forever: The Tour] because it’s our first time touring together. I hope there will be a time in the future when we’ll tour it again. You never know. That could be a fun thing to revisit in some years. But because we don’t know the future, I think I’m going to try to be really intentional about just cherishing each night and even all the time we’ll spend together on off days.
When you’re in the thick of making a Brent record, do you notice a shift in yourself, whether it be your behaviors, perspectives, or enjoying the frivolous things more, than when making any other music?
CC: I would say I had a pretty bizarre and all-over-the-place year, so I would be the first to take accountability that I feel like — definitely, when we had weeks of writing, it felt like an escape and a beautiful thing. And also, there were times that I wish I was more present, which is why I’m obviously trying to really lock in for tour.
JZ: Since it’s outside of our solo artist projects, it’s always an opportunity for Chelsea and I to make music and feel like we’re really good at what we do, where it isn’t attached to either one of our individual identities and it feels less dire and less critical. It feels lighter, in a lot of ways. That’s the most striking thing about it for me.
CC: That’s something I’d love to carry forward into music making in my own career. too.
It’s interesting. In 2019, around the first Brent EP, Chelsea talked about how it represented an opportunity to get away from criticism and music industry pressures. Has that need to escape escalated as you’ve gotten further into your solo careers?
JZ: For me, definitely. It ebbs and flows. Sometimes, I’m super down to work with the pop songwriters and just to be open to new things, but I almost always inevitably need to retreat because when you hear too many other people’s voices, it’s easier to lose the sound of your own. Every once in a while, I need to reset and just be away from everything to get perspective.
What perspective did Brent III give you?
CC: At least for me, I definitely had more fun and felt that special kind of feeling in my chest around a lot of the songs that we made. I think, sometimes, in my own music, I just put so much pressure on myself that I am not even having that much fun making it. I feel like that’s good perspective to carry forward.
Speaking of pressure, you are always under pressure from the fans for more Brent. Why was it finally time to give in and do another Brent record?
JZ: The pressure from fans never really got to me. I just knew it was something we were inevitably going to do. So, I was like, we’ll do it when the time is right.
CC: More than anything, it was the first time in a couple of years that our schedules made sense to do. it.
I was going to ask why it was finally time to do a full-length album. Was it just as simple as logistics?
CC: Honestly, I don’t think either of us went into it expecting that to happen.
JZ: We just had so much more to say.
CC: I think it had been a long time since we’d written together, and then we also removed the physical restraint of just spending a week on a project. We gave ourselves a bunch of weeks over the course of a year, thinking, Let’s just keep writing and keep trying to beat what we have. And then, we ended up just having so many songs that genuinely felt so special and worthy of keeping on the project. So, we just kind of came to a place where we’re like, Well, this has become an album totally by accident.
Which song dictated the direction of the rest of the album?
JZ: When we made ‘And The Government Too!’ was a pretty decisive moment. That was the first song that really felt like Brent.
Why?
CC: It’s a very intangible thing that’s hard to describe.
JZ: For me, it was like the marriage of a heartstring, desperate longing song, which Chelsea and I have written a lot in the past, and pairing that with a really big energy. We knew that we wanted big reverb — the sound of the room in the recordings — so this really beautiful close intimate song just blows up into a massive thing. I remember when we were writing it, we start slamming on the guitars, and the whole room reverberates. We kind of just knew — I don’t know if we ever had a conversation about it. But that’s what Brent always felt like to us. Brent III, specifically.
Individually and together, you have always been exceptional at using outsized, uninhibited emotion — whether sonically or lyrically — to elevate the beautiful minutiae often overlooked in our daily lives. Brent III romanticizes everything because romanticization shouldn’t be reserved for romantic love. Do you constantly just take notes, or where does this bottomless pit of anecdotal hyper-specific lyricism come from
JZ:[Laughs] Life!
CC: No, literally. Even with ‘And The Government Too!,’ it was funny. We were just having a literal conversation, and I remember Jeremy having that line, ‘I would scream at the stars / For keeping us apart.’ And then, he started laughing and was like, ‘And the government, too!’ I was like, ‘Bro, just say that.’ It was awesome. I think so much of our lyrics come from just literal pieces of conversations between us, which is probably why it feels familiar and so real.
Why did you want “Good Things” to be the last song people hear?
JZ: The lyric is, ‘Good things never stay,’ and it ends with this massively dramatic melody lead. When we were writing, it feels like a grand finale. It feels like flipping the page and closing the book. Everything that is special doesn’t last forever because if it lasts forever, the moments aren’t special.
Is “Good Things” your ode, or farewell, to Brent?
CC: Thematically and sonically, for sure. Lyrically, we were kind of just storytelling a bit with it. The way it crescendos into this massive moment, and then breaks down. Jeremy actually ripped the audio of some home videos from my parents. The way the song ends feels really spectacular.
Where did those embedded home videos come from?
CC: It was Jerm’s idea. He asked if I had any home videos, and my parents were so excited. They sent, I think, an hour straight of compiled home videos that they’d put together. Jerm ripped some really special moments from it. I think that embodies that nostalgia we’ve talked about. Listening to it again, I feel like working on Brent nurtures the inner child. To get to make music with a good friend and being creative with a good friend and get to just romanticize your life and live out all these emotions, hearing my parents and my family’s audio at the end, it’s definitely very emotional for me to wrap the project up that way.
As per the Brent bylaws, you each contributed a solo song. But are there any other songs on the album that could, in theory, also be a solo song?
CC: I think we have a few that particularly represented stories in our individual personal lives more so than others. I would say “Ashes & Rush” for me, and “Government” for you.
JZ: Yeah. Usually, though, the chorus will be more general, and then each of us do a verse where we can write about our own stuff in relation. If the chorus is the thesis, then the verse is our supporting paragraph.
It’s an obvious question because this is your first collaborative full-length album, and every album is different from the last. But what really differentiates Brent III from the past two EPs?
CC: The hope is, as you continue to grow and mature as a person, you can honor the complexity of your feelings a little bit more maturely. Hopefully, that translates in the music. Another thing about Brent III is we tackled some subject matters that I thought were pretty cool.
Such as?
JZ: “Ashes & Rust”?
CC: Yeah, “Ashes & Rust,” we wrote about my granddad, and it’s about generational trauma. “Government” is about an international, long-distance relationship.
JZ: And something as ridiculous as the government getting involved in people’s personal lives; having a say over relationships is insane.
CC: I love “Terrible Things,” too. I just love that feeling of a crush.
JZ: And the irony of calling the song “Terrible Things,” but [the lyric] is really, “Is that such a terrible thing?” It’s a very conversational phrase.
CC: Well, yeah, because starting to like someone and starting to notice and want all of those things about a person is terrifying. So, your visceral reaction is like, Oh, no, please don’t!
The album is a mosaic of 11 little stories. I have interpreted it as reveling in simple pleasures and pure romance. Do you see a narrative through line?
JZ: I think seeing the romance or beauty in simple things and not taking things for granted feels like a bit of a through line. Maybe an even deeper through line is the album is a safe place where we can talk about these things.
CC: I think Brent has always been a reflection of Jeremy and I having a close enough friendship to have these intimate and vulnerable conversations about things across all facets of our lives. The fact you have 11 songs about, as you described it, 11 different stories represents true friendship. Being able to talk openly about our feelings and just be there for each other.
What is your primary hope for Brent Forever: The Tour?
JZ: To cry on stage every night?
CC: No, I don’t want that. That would be emotionally taxing.
JZ: I’m just excited to give the show to the fans. I feel like we’re really doing something for the people that the project means a lot for. We’re really doing it up, so to speak, and really putting together an amazing experience for people.
CC: I will say, selfishly, I’m pretty stoked because it’s a really cyclical industry, and there’s so much of put out a project, tour that project, put out another project, tour that project. It’s nice to break the cycle a little bit and get to do something collaboratively — something that’s a little bit, again, outside of our individual careers and individual cycles. It’s definitely refreshing, to be honest, and I feel like it obviously is going to translate into us bringing something to the shows that fans wouldn’t get by coming to our individual shows.
Are you afraid to let Brent go?
CC: Oh, wow. Let me think. I guess I just don’t feel it has to be so finite. That’s the thing about music: It always exists. I mean, we could wake up when we’re 40 and go make another EP. There doesn’t have to be any definitive finality around it. I think it’s cool to live in this grey area of not necessarily needing to close the door on anything. Life is so long, and you never know where we’ll land with it later.
Maybe the most famous sheep ever is Dolly, who was born as a result of cloning and was exceptionally well-known in the late ’90s until her death in 2003. As for the name, Dr. Ian Wilmut, one of the doctors behind the cloning, once explained, “Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn’t think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton’s.”
It turns out Parton is flattered by the whole situation.
I was flattered. You know, when the scientists cloned Dolly the sheep, they used the mammary glands. That’s what they call them … glands … the boobs. They said, ‘Oh, we have this sheep, Dolly…’ Everybody always played up to these [points to her chest], so that’s why we had Dolly the sheep. I was sorry when she died, though I don’t want be cloned myself. I want to get on out of here when I can. We already get a lot of Dolly lookalikes, a lot of Dolly drag queens. I can just send them down to the store instead of me.
She also spoke about her future in music, saying, “Oh, my Lord, I can’t retire. I always say I’ve dreamed myself into a corner. I’ve got to keep all those dreams alive. Every dream spins off into some something else. It’s misinformation when I said I was not touring any more. I still do shows — I just don’t go on the full-blown tours where I go overseas for weeks. I’m older, my husband’s older, and I want to be with him more. So, no. I couldn’t retire if I wanted to. And I don’t want to.”
Over the decades, Halloween’s meaning has changed drastically. Today, the holiday is largely about expressing creativity. For entertainers like Heidi Klum and Janelle Monáe, that sometimes means hours of prosthetic and special effects makeup. But they aren’t the only celebrities that take the day especially seriously.
This year, dozens of women rappers put their best efforts forward for some attention-grabbing looks. Continue below for a list of some of the rappers’ best looks (revealed so far).
Megan Thee Stallion
As the leader of Hottieween herself, Megan Thee Stallion sported several viral looks, including Teen Titans’Starfire (which earned a co-sign from James Gunn). Meg also revealed her anime inspired costume as JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure‘s Trish Una (viewable here) online. But for her annual Hottieween charity party, she showed up as a genie (viewable here).
Cardi B
Cardi B served on Halloween as Jessica Rabbit (viewable here).
Doja Cat
Doja Cat delivered her own kooky spin on Halloween as the sunflower from Conker’s Bad Fur Day (viewable here).
GloRilla
GloRilla took an alternate route, dressing as Flo from the Progressive commercials (viewable here). Big Glo as Flo.
Latto
For Uproxx cover star Latto, she sported two looks for Halloween. To party, the rapper was Jessica Rabbit (viewable here), as well as a Playboy bunny on stage during a Brooklyn concert (viewable here).
Joker: Folie à Deux be damned: No portrayal of DC’s supervillain the Joker will outdo the late Heath Ledger’s depiction in The Dark Knight. Saweetie seems to agree as she dressed up as the mad man (viewable here) for Halloween.
Ice Spice
Ice Spice kept it in the ginger family as Leeloo from The Fifth Element (viewable here).
Sexyy Red
Sexyy Red decided to take it to church dressed a Catholic nun (viewable here).
Baby Tate
Baby Tate put her spin on beloved superhero Wonder Woman (viewable here).
Gloss Up
Gloss Up made Halloween a family affair by dressing as Despicable Me minions with her children (viewable here).
Erica Banks
Erica Banks served three looks all on her own as each member of Destiny’s Child (Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams) (viewable here).
Dreezy
Dreezy stepped into a royal’s shoes for the night, dressing as Princess Tiana from the Disney classic The Princess And The Frog (viewable here).
Maiya The Don
Maiya The Don used Halloween to pay homage to groundbreaking rappers Missy Elliott (viewable here) and 50 Cent (viewable here). But Maiya also added some fantasy to Halloween, dressed as Princess Jasmine from Aladdin (viewable here).
Scar Lip
To round things out, Scar Lip created a Halloween spread as Lauryn Hill (viewable here), re-creating several of the Grammy Award winner’s iconic photo shoots over the years.
For the third year in a row, a bunch of big fellas associated with the Philadelphia Eagles will raise some money during the holiday season by releasing an album. A little later this year, A Philly Special Christmas Party will hit streaming services, with Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, and Jordan Mailta showing off their musical chops.
The first track from this year’s album came out on Friday, and features Kelce with a few guests. The first is his brother, Travis, who has hopped on tracks with him in the past for this project and presumably has a pretty good vocal coach. The other is Philly institution Boyz II Men.
It’s called “It’s Christmas Time (In Cleveland Heights),” and features both Kelce bros singing verses — Travis, in particular, does a sensational job with his. You can listen to the entire track at the top of this post. And if you follow the project on Instagram, you saw it get teased a little earlier this week, which showed some of work that went into making the song.
As for when you can get your hands on a copy of the latest charity album from The Philly Specials, A Philly Special Christmas Party will come out on Nov. 22, 2024.
Yesterday, Billboard reported that veteran underground rap producer Madlib had filed a lawsuit against his former manager, Eothen Alapatt — better known to rap fans as Egon of Stones Throw Records. According to Madlib’s lawsuit, Egon used his role as an executive at Stones Throw to self-deal, claiming profits for himself that were otherwise due to Madlib.
Madlib allegedly trusted Egon to set up two entities: Madicine Show, which would handle Madlib’s musical interests, and Rapp Cats, which would manage sales of Madlib’s merchandise. The producer says that he recently learned that Egon was abusing his privileged position by skimming profits for himself, either hiding accounts or providing false accounts of his work to Madlib about his compensation, and not giving written agreements to his business partner.
In another example of his alleged mismanagement, Egon supposedly secured a single lawyer and accountant to represent both partners in the two enterprises, then instructed them not to work with Madlib and only deal with him, even after Madlib secured new representation of his own. After reviewing accounts from 2018-2022, Madlib says his new team found irregularities and lack of hard copy that amounted to “several hundred thousand dollars” listed as “‘consulting,’ ‘commissions,’ ‘fees’ or ‘reimbursements’” for Egon.
‘Lib also accused Egon of locking him out of his digital accounts for services like Apple Music, Bandcamp, and Ingrooves, allowing Egon to take half of the producer’s royalties. Madlib’s complaint says he “demanded that Madicine Show and Rapp Cats be wound up and dissolved,” and that Egon instead told Madlib to buy him out.
Egon was also sued last year by the widow of the late MF DOOM, whose Madvillainy album with Madlib was put out through Stones Throw during Egon’s time there. Jasmine Dumile claimed Egon refused to return DOOM’s rhyme books, insisting on donating them to a digital archive rather than keep them secret as DOOM intended. Egon has derided that claim as “baseless and libelous” through his attorneys, but has yet to respond to Madlib’s newly filed suit.
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