Iceland is known for its dramatic volcanic and glacial landscape and its fascinating culture. (Did you know that Icelanders don’t use family names for their last names? Now you do.) But who knew the Land of Fire and Ice also had a wickedly hilarious sense of humor?
In a tourism promotion ad, the public-private marketing organization Inspired by Iceland introduced the “Icelandverse,” where everything and everyone is real, with no need for “silly VR headsets.” It’s a direct trolling of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s video introducing the metaverse, right down the narrator’s haircut.
To get the full hilarity of the Iceland ad, watch the first couple of minutes of Zuckerberg’s “Connect 2021: our vision for the metaverse” video, if you haven’t seen it yet:
On the one hand, the metaverse does seem like the next logical step in technology, and there are probably some super cool ways we could utilize virtual internet reality. On the other hand, creepy Matrixy future much, Zuck? To his credit, he does poke fun at his reputation for seeming like an android just after the 5-minute mark, when he says, “I thought I was supposed to be the robot.” (But he also didn’t do a whole lot here to save himself from that reputation, either.)
We’ve all watched too many movies that prompt us to see a virtual-reality-filled future as overly detached and lacking in human connection. What the metaverse will really be like remains to be seen, but that perception—and the general consensus among many that Mark Zuckerberg is … well … odd—is what makes Inspired by Iceland’s promo video so perfect.
Watch:
Some said an open-world experience this immersive wasnu2019t possible. But itu2019s already here. And you donu2019t even need silly VR headsets. nnIntroducing, Icelandversen#icelandversepic.twitter.com/b1cf1REKl9
Right out of the gate, Zuck gets zapped with a zinger: “Today I want to talk about a revolutionary approach on how to connect our world without being super weird.” (If you didn’t think the first few minutes of the metaverse video was super weird, please go to minute 18:50 and watch for a bit.) The hair, the outfit, the camera work, the “water that’s wet,” the “skies you can see with your eyeballs”—it’s all just delightfully understated, wholesomely clever and perfectly effective.
Now I want to visit Iceland for the volcanoes, the hot springs, the waterfalls, the geysers and the Olympic-level trolling of one of the world’s most powerful billionaires. (Oh yes, and the “really easy-going” people.)
By the way, If you’re curious about what’s on their faces in the hot spring, it’s not sunscreen, but a mask. The Blue Lagoon geothermal spa is known for its blue silica and algae mask that supposedly makes your skin radiant. (Reason #2849 to head to Iceland.)
Well done, Inspired by Iceland. If we can’t get to Iceland in real life, we’ll definitely visit you in the metaverse.
That was the case for 21-year-old Kallayah Jones, and her optimism paid off exponentially.
Jones had been unemployed for months, not to mention homeless for two years, jumping from friend’s houses to her grandparents’ home. Add onto that: having to search for jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, which I don’t need to tell you is no easy feat. So when she had her interview for a serving position at The Spot Sports Bar and Grill in Georgia, it’s understandable that Jones felt intense anxiety.
And yet, after the interview, Jones gave herself a moment of carefree happiness. And it changed her life forever.
The video of her dance is below:
Jones didn’t even know whether or not she got the job, but clearly felt like she nailed the interview. She would later mention in interviews that she was proud of being her authentic self.
The video shows the young woman carefully looking both ways and then (in what she thought was a private moment) beginning her exuberant parking lot happy dance over a job well done. A “moment of exhale,” she called it. A chance to release that anxiety and lighten up in spite of circumstances.
What Jones had failed to notice during her not-so-secret performance was the restaurant’s security camera, which caught the entire thing.
Dakara Spence, the manager who interviewed Jones, had been through a similar challenge, having been homeless herself for a period of time. Spence told reporters that she knew what it was like to be turned away for not wearing the right attire to a job interview, and that if she ever had the chance to give the same opportunity she had been given, that she was gonna do it.
But Spence’s empathy is not what won Jones the job. After seeing the security camera footage, she hired her on the spot.
One small moment became a viral sensation and pretty soon millions sharing Jones’ story. She made headlines, and was even gifted a check for $15,000 from Ellen Degeneres. And today, both Jones and Spence are great friends.
If you’re wondering how to do Jones’ fun moves yourself, she breaks it down in the video below. She suggests using it anytime you get a blessing or opportunity. But ultimately, it doesn’t have to be her jig. Just do your dance, whatever it is. Cause if Jones’ story is any indicator, being yourself can be the simplest way to allow a miracle.
In times of depressing unemployment stats and bleak headlines about inflation, a special thank you is owed to Jones for reminding us all that pure, unadulterated joy is not only contagious, it’s powerful. That new chapter you’ve been waiting for might only be one dance away.
Alex Jones thinks the world is coming to an end because he’s finally facing legal consequences for all those Sandy Hook-denying conspiracy theories he’s been spreading over the past few years.
The Infowars host jumped on his show today to rant about his latest courtroom defeat. He just lost his fourth defamation suit brought before a judge by families of the victims of the elementary school shooting that happened in 2012. The families sued Jones for claiming that the tragedy — which left 26 dead, including 20 young children ages six to seven years old — was all a hoax. He was found liable after he failed to provide requested documents in the case to a judge.
Of course, while fuming over his loss in court, Jones skimmed over the emotional re-traumatization he inflicted on the parents and siblings of the teachers and school children lost in the shooting to instead focus on his own perceived persecution, calling the judgment a result of “a system trying to kill the First Amendment.” He also accused the judge of “absolutely engaging in what I would say is fraud, saying that we didn’t give them information.”
Jones went on to equate his court loss with a larger, societal-level downward spiral that apparently only he’s been able to see coming.
“It’s a symptom of the disease of globalism and the disease of corruption and decadence in this country and in the world in general and really the end of the country as we know it,” Jones said while discussing the defamation suits against him. “Now it can be rebooted, hopefully, but the country, for all intents and purposes, is gone. This is modern warfare we’re under. And the country itself is being bankrupted and dissolved. And if I spend my time tactically talking to HBO or talking to The Wall Street Journal or running around trying to defend myself from the fake things they’ve launched against me, we’re going to lose the whole country and the planet.”
So, there you have it, folks. Alex Jones is definitely not mad about losing big time in court.
“I was in a computer art department, in art school. I used to make jokes like, ‘There’s two and a half Black people in the room,’ and someone would be like ‘Hm?’ And I’m like ‘What? I’m the half-Black person.’”
These are the kind of jokes that activist, organizer, and game designer Shawn Alexander Allen found himself making early on in his education in arts and games as a Black man. He considers himself a longstanding member of the games industry, getting his start in 2000 as a moderator on the IGN boards for seven years. However, Allen didn’t get a job working in games properly until he landed at Rockstar Games almost 14 years ago. After some time at Rockstar though, Allen still found himself in the same spot he did all those years ago in art school.
“I’m like one of the only Black people in this company that sells Black culture to Black people,” he tells UPROXX. “F**k this s**t.”
This moment came to Allen as a part of a reexamination, or “reinvention of self” in 2012. He always enjoyed games, and he always thought about them critically, but to that point felt he had failed to consider the “cultural implications” of the work he himself was doing. Around that time, he began listening to Saul Williams and Jay Z’s “Dead Presidents,” and before long it was, as Allen puts it, “like They Live, the John Carpenter film.” Suddenly, he was looking around at the industry and culture he was a part of and just wasn’t content with what he saw, or more specifically what he didn’t see.
“I can’t look at things as like innocent mistakes anymore,” he said.
Allen spent some time writing a thesis paper on Black and Latin people in the indie games scene, built up a knowledge of hip-hop and its origins, “dug into race studies,” and did everything he could to feel confident in what he hadn’t known for all those years. Then he pointed all that energy and knowledge outward. His sharpened beliefs subconsciously found roots in his longtime project, Treachery in Beatdown City; in places within the game like “a white socialite cheering on an aggressive cop” and the game’s general reflections on gentrification (a problem which has deeply afflicted New York City, the place Allen’s called home for most of his life and the not-so-subtle inspiration for his own game’s setting).
But it wasn’t enough to just make games about his people, his home, and their struggles; he wanted to actually help Black folks and people of color in games with what he worked hard to internalize. So, eventually, he found himself at the Game Devs of Color Expo.
Conversations that Allen had with Game Devs of Color Expo co-founder Catt Small, as well a general frustration with the whiteness of the games industry, seem to have played a pivotal role in realizing the event. In the early 2010s, there was what Allen called a “time where the industry was open and could have been an amazing changing point and it wasn’t.” This period was the indie boom of the 2010s, where fresh new exciting perspectives were merging with the mainstream, bringing an influx of not just novel perspectives but specifically perspectives of color. Instead, it did what it always does and “calcified around the status quo.”
Allen did not become formally involved in the GDoC Expo until after the inaugural event came to pass. Joining in its second year, Allen has fought tirelessly to make sure that the GDoC Expo is an event for and about people of color. He played a chief role, for example, in the event’s change in venue to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture on Malcolm X Boulevard in the heart of Harlem, a space Allen proudly dubbed “Black as hell.”
As a co-organizer, he’s also primarily focused on outreach for exhibitors, sponsors, and speakers, who are invited to talk about anything and everything outside of how they are marginalized, a weakness he’s observed in how the industry props up its minorities from his own time giving talks.
“Advocacy talks are garbage because they’re only ever on advocacy panels and they’re only around advocacy people and they’re only on tracks for advocacy,” Allen said.
The possibility space for growth and development for developers of color has traditionally been narrow and thus needed expanding. The GDoC Expo then exists as a place where the folks invited on to those panels were free of those responsibilities and being pigeonholed. They’re free to explore all kinds of topics, including the intersection of their cultures and games beyond representation. Allen even presents his own talks or hosts panels at the shows, telling me, “You know you gotta back the thing you believe in, right?”
The folks that Allen has brought into the fold seem to believe in the show just as much as he does.
“They’re just happy,” Allen shared. “Like they’re not anxious, they’re not tired. They’re not like ‘Whew man, that was a hard week but I think I got something out of it.’ It’s more like ‘Wow, when do I get more of this? Because this thing made me feel seen.”
An example of that is how Xalavier Nelson Jr., the acclaimed indie developer responsible for An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs and Hypnospace Outlaw, specifically wanted to debut the latest announcement for his game Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator at the GDoC Expo this year because of his affinity for the show. For countless others, the space the GDoC Expo has afforded them is their first opportunity to be seen at all. It’s put countless devs directly in contact with folks who would try their game for the first time and has attracted publishers who attend, gauge interest in the games, and allow for negotiations to take place. Some indie studios, like Virtuoso Neomedia (Zodiac XX) and Soft Not Weak (Spirit Swap) have been the outright recipients of money at the GDoC Expo or on the part of its organizers, which has helped them continue development on their games. Others have benefitted from this direct support, having been able to add features like additional translations or simply launch their titles due to the aid. This kind of impact is exactly the kind of work that Allen wants to accomplish with GDoC Expo: help that immediately translates to the success of developers of color.
Allen does acknowledge that this makes the expo a bit of a dark horse in a white-dominated space, even if it’s just doing what most shows and institutions in games seem afraid to do: give people of color an actual chance. He specifically called out the inaction on part of publishers who say they aren’t excluding developers of color, though in fact do because “their Rolodexes are just very small and they don’t go out of their way to do anything.” In response, Allen wants to do everything in his power to lift up those voices.
Though Allen’s no longer in New York where the GDoC Expo will likely continue once in-person events can happen again, he’s determined to keep it global and accessible, enjoying the success the online show has experienced the last few years and is determined to keep up. He wants to do for Atlanta, where he now resides, what he did back home and keep expanding even.
“I’d love to do something in Detroit. I’d love to do something in Oakland,” he continued, adding that he’d take the show to Ghana and Nigeria if he could. “Like keep bringing it with you because that’s the good thing about the globalness of [the show being online] right now is that we are getting people from everywhere.”
The idea seems to be to grow the GDoC Expo into a healthy alternative to the more widely-recognized (and exclusive) Game Developers Conference, and it seems well on its way.
Allen joked that his goal was to expose the games industry to people of color like Homer Simpson was exposed to a lesbian bar in an episode of The Simpsons. The joke is that the audience expects Homer to condemn the whole thing, but really it’s a misdirection and he embraces it all.
“I wanna do that to like the Homers of the world,” Allen said. “I want them to walk into the Game Devs of Color Expo and just look around and be like, ‘Man, there’s so many beautiful people here.’”
WARNING: Spoiler for Eternals below. Although, the cat’s really out of the bag on this one.
In a casting coup that was unfortunately blasted all over Twitter two weeks before Eternals hit theaters, Harry Styles made his MCU debut in the film’s mid-credits scene as the classic Marvel character, Eros (a.k.a. Starfox if you want to get super nerdy), a hedonistic, yet occasionally heroic Eternal who spends his days wandering the galaxy looking for love. Oh, and also, he’s Thanos’ brother, which is why MCU fans absolutely flipped over Styles showing up in the cosmic film.
With the One Direction singer’s Marvel debut out in the open, Styles recently revealed to Dazed how he ended up playing the sibling of the MCU’s most brutal villain — for now:
Styles cautiously checks the publication date of this Dazed story before confirming his inclusion as the brother of villain Thanos. “I’m only in right at the very end,” he says humbly. “But who didn’t grow up wanting to be a superhero, you know? It was a great experience and I’m so grateful to have gotten to work with Chloé.”
According to Eternals director Chloé Zhao, she had Styles pegged for Eros from the first moment she saw him in Christoper Nolan’s Dunkirk, and that instinct was only further confirmed after meeting him. “There’s so much of Eros in him,” Zhao recently told Deadline while thanking Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige for making the casting happen.
As for what exactly Eros’ presence in the MCU means… that’s still anyone’s guess. He was never close with his genocidal brother in the comics, so there’s probably not a concern that he’ll be looking for revenge. Although, if there’s one thing the MCU has prided itself on, it’s switching things up, so maybe the Marvel Universe is about to be rocked again.
Go ahead and file Turnstile as the only hardcore band in 2021 dynamic enough to have a track featuring Blood Orange. It’s moments like that on “Alien Love Call” that are in total contrast to a blistering number like “Blackout” and “Fly Again” off of their 2021 breakthrough album Glow On, that have made the Baltimore band a unique specimen. And oh yeah, there’s that whole live concert experience that the band has been resoundingly praised for.
On the latter, Turnstile have announced the 2022 “The Turnstile Love Connection 2022 Tour,” and are ready to punch you in the heart, no matter what city you’re in. They’ll be supported by Citizen, Ceremony, Ekulu, and Truth Cult.
Concert pre-sale begins 11/16 and general on-sale is on 11/19. Get tickets here and check out the full tour dates below.
02/23/2022 — San Francisco, CA @ The Regency Ballroom
02/24/2022 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Novo*
04/26/2022 — Englewood, CO @ The Gothic Theatre
04/27/2022 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Soundwell
04/29/2022 — Vancouver, BC @ The Rickshaw Theatre
04/30/2022 — Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
05/02/2022 — Portland, OR @ The Roseland Theater
05/04/2022 — Albuquerque, NM @ El Rey Theatre
05/06/2022 — Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater
05/07/2022 — Dallas, TX @ Amplified Live
05/09/2022 — Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
05/10/2022 — Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl
05/12/2022 — Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave
05/13/2022 — Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theatre
05/14/2022 — Lawrence, KS @ The Granada Theater
05/18/2022 — Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theatre
05/17/2022 — Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
05/19/2022 — Toronto, ON @ The Phoenix Concert Theatre
05/21/2022 — Worcester, MA @ The Palladium
05/23/2022 — Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
05/24/2022 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore Philadelphia
05/26/2022 — Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Turnstile is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Donald Trump and Chris Christie can’t ever seem to agree for long on whether they’re frenemies or straight-up enemies. The former Republican primary rivals previously made nice, which led to Christie making a Hostage Face while backing up his “friend” on Super Tuesday, but that eventually caved to a massively petty feud after Christie contracted COVID while coaching Trump for a reelection debate. Christie subsequently criticized Trump’s sit-back-and-see-what-happens approach to COVID, and that’s led to more ugliness, including a new revelation from the former New Jersey governor: Trump actually asked if Christie would publicly blame him for catching COVID.
Not only that, but Christie appeared on The View, where he reiterated that, yep, Trump really was only worried about how this would all reflect on him politically. The M&M strategist also revealed that Trump was like, “How do tough guys like us get this?” And then Christie acknowledged that Melania’s behavior was the precise opposite, and she periodically called him in the hospital:
“And a real contrast, by the way, Sunny, to his wife, who called me every day that I was in the ICU, first thing in the morning, to see how I was doing. And then would call my wife after that to see if she needed anything…. A real contrast between the couple.”
That’s something, especially in light of previous reports that Melania didn’t give a sh*t about the Jan. 6 insurrection as it happened. Yet by Christie’s account, he knew a very different person and perhaps more significantly, a person who’s very different (when it comes to empathy for a friend) than her husband. Whereas Trump previously declared that Christie’s “spittle” was visible during their debate prep, and that he “tried to duck from the droplets, according to Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury book from summer 2021.
Needless to say, there are plenty of folks out there who don’t care for Donald Trump and the job he did back when he was the POTUS. Among those is Taylor Swift, who has criticized him on a number of occasions. This caused some bad blood (sorry) between the two, so much so that a Trump staffer was advised against listening to Swift’s music.
“I remember a moment early in spring, I was really angry after a meeting where I had lost an argument with someone, [about] something I didn’t agree with that was related to the COVID pandemic. I came back and was playing Taylor Swift very loud in my office that night. I had a colleague knock on the door and he said, ‘Are you trying to get fired?’
I was super confused about that. I was like, ‘For being blunt in meetings or for what?’ He said, ‘I don’t think she’s a fan of Trump’s, so if somebody hears that, you should really watch your back. You should be careful on that.”
Swift famously supported Joe Biden’s successful presidential campaign and gave her reasons for doing so last year, saying, “The change we need most is to elect a president who recognizes that people of color deserve to feel safe and represented, that women deserve the right to choose what happens to their bodies, and that the LGBTQIA+ community deserves to be acknowledged and included. Everyone deserves a government that takes global health risks seriously and puts the lives of its people first. The only way we can begin to make things better is to choose leaders who are willing to face these issues and find ways to work through them. I will proudly vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in this year’s presidential election. Under their leadership, I believe America has a chance to start the healing process it so desperately needs.”
On Monday, the Halo Infinite multiplayer beta surprise dropped and caught a lot of us off guard. Everyone immediately rushed to their PCs and Xbox’s to try and download the game as quickly as possible. Those who are blessed with faster internet, or managed to get through the servers, were able to get on and play the game first. Unfortunately, not everyone was quite as lucky with their own downloads.
A handful of players are discovering that when they download and launch the game they can’t actually get into the multiplayer beta. Instead what they’re facing is a blank blue screen and nothing else. With Halo Infinite being a Microsoft developed title, everyone swiftly made a blue screen of death jokes but there was concern about why some people couldn’t get into the game. The official response was that a beta build was still being pushed through and a handful of downloads might need to wait on a patch until the game is playable. Eventually, that patch was pushed so players should be able to access the game now, but a handful of players are having to re-download the game altogether. An inconvenience, but a minor one in the grand scheme of everything.
The time is here, Spartans! You should know be able to download the #HaloInfinite beta! If you’re still experiencing an issue downloading the game, please restart console or Xbox app on PC. If you encounter a blue screen after that, please file a Halo Support ticket. https://t.co/KkDEVPhiP0
The assumed reason for why the blue screen error occurred in the first place is that the download some players had was only part of the game. It was basically a placeholder code that would then be added to so players could play the game. However, if players launched the game too early all they did was access the placeholder code and end up with the blue screen problem.
Now that the solution is slowly moving towards being fixed we can spend less time worrying about blue screens and more time slaying in multiplayer.
Rolling Loud is known for bringing a huge cast of hip-hop acts from all over the world to one place so that music lovers can watch performances from their favorites and discover new artists in the process. In 2021, Rolling Loud has brought showcases to both Miami and New York with a third one planned for Los Angeles next month. Hip-hop’s biggest names which include J. Cole, Travis Scott, Bobby Shmurda, Roddy Ricch, Young Thug, Gunna, Lil Durk, Lil Uzi Vert, Playboi Cart, Lil Baby, and many more all performed at the festival this year.
With that being said, Rolling Loud also has room for R&B acts to bring their own unique energy to the festival. At last month’s New York festival, Kaash Paige and Abby Jasmine were two R&B singers who took the stage at the showcase and it comes after a strong period for them both. Paige shared her debut album Teenage Fever last year while Jasmine delivered a deluxe reissue for her album Who Cares? to close 2020. She also dropped her I Hate You 2 EP earlier this year.
We caught up with both singers at Rolling Loud to discuss their feelings towards returning to the big festival stage. We also discussed their growth as performers and what’s next for them in their respective careers.
I assume it’s been a while since you’ve performed at a festival this big, how did you enjoy your experience in returning to the big stage today?
Kaash Paige: Man, I’m just really appreciative of the moment. You’re right, during COVID we didn’t get to shine. A lot of the artists, like myself, I dropped my debut album during COVID and I didn’t get to perform how I wanted to. But this year, I got to tour, I got to be outside. I’m just grateful for everything and I’m just excited for next year.
Abby Jasmine: It was a crazy experience from start to finish. The anticipation leading up to it was crazy. You anticipate for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks on a 15-minute moment. I was definitely on edge the entire time up until my performance. As soon as I got to the Rolling Loud, it was a little bit more real. That made me a bit more nervous, but as soon as I got on the stage, it was great. The crowd and dope, everybody came outside ready to have a good time. I’ve definitely done some shows where people just stand around, but the Rolling Loud crowd was dope.
What do you cherish the most about experiences like this?
KP: I think I cherish seeing every different section of the crowd, you see people that don’t mess with you, you see the people that mess with you, you see the n****s that’s like, “who is this?” You see motherf*ckers like, “Oh, I’m getting hip!” It’s really exciting because, in reality, it’s just work. I feel like this was probably the craziest Rolling Loud performance I’ve ever had, it was insane. I jumped in the crowd, they moshed everywhere, I didn’t expect the crowd to go that crazy. Yeah, I’m just in awe right now.
AJ: I think the biggest one for me is being able to share that experience with my friends, I consider them my chosen family. Sometimes I do shows out of state and they’re not able to make those performances. So being able to have all my friends in that one space and be able to turn up and look into the crowd and see my friends. Walking around backstage, I had my little Henny bottle, I was driving that thing around and we’re just having fun and doing sh*t that we do on a regular basis, but now we’re at Rolling Loud. It was just a really dope experience to be able to do that was my friends because we’re all from New York and we’d never been to a Rolling Loud.
You have both hip-hop and R&B in your discography, and being out here at a major rap festival, I wanted to ask: which one do you enjoy performing more?
KP: Nobody is really used to hearing an R&B singer at a festival for hip-hop. I think I just come out and let n****s know “I’m out here like God sent me.” I’m gonna sing these vocals, but I’m bout to turn up with y’all too. So I try to give them both of everything.
AJ: There’s a real big difference between R&B and rap crowds. There are certain songs I can play for R&B crowds that might not slide with the rap crowd because they’re there to turn up. They want to hear like, you know, lit sh*t. I feel like I do a really good job at trying to blend two as far as when I do sets. I always try to give the R&B crowds a little bit of some rap sh*t and I always tried to get the rap crowd a little bit of like R&B sh*t.
What song do you enjoy performing the most?
KP: I like singing “Love Songs” as my first song just because of course, people know me by that
AJ: I feel like the song that does well with both crowds is “Poland Spring.” That’s just a regular R&B joint, just a real feel-good song and it always does well with like crowds. So that’s one of my favorite ones to perform, and probably “On God” because every time I do that one, the crowd’s energy is crazy.
What do you think has made your onstage experience easier or more comfortable as you’ve grown as an artist?
KP: I just got off tour with Lil Tjay. Doing shows every single day just got me more comfortable to know that it’s gonna be tough crowds and it’s gonna be lit crowds. There’s gonna be moments where your mic’s not working or your sound’s not working. So it’s just being able to be prepared for those moments at all times.
AJ: To be very honest with you, live performances were not my strongest suit for a very long time because I felt like my priorities were always the music. Now I’m kind of seeing it for what it is. There are so many different elements to make music, like yes the music isn’t important, but live performances are something that I was really neglecting. I wasn’t paying much attention to it because I didn’t really have a lot of shows during the pandemic. So coming back, I got real humbled when I had a show and it was a sh*t show. I told myself, like, “Yo, this cannot happen at Rolling Loud. I need to be more prepared.” So I really went in on doing rehearsals and just all that type of stuff.
Did you check out other performances? Who did you enjoy the most? Who would’ve you like to see if you had the chance?
KP: I’m looking forward to seeing J. Cole. I need to hear that. It’s something about J. Cole’s aura that just draws me in. It’s not only the fact that he’s talking about real life, it’s the fact that I relate. He’s an artist that is [one of] the greatest of all time, but still tries to humble himself and put himself down. He be like, “Oh, I’m coming in third place” or I’m doing this or that, like n**** shutup. You’re the goat bro you know? I just relate because we’re all hard on ourselves, especially being artists.
AJ: Okay, so I only saw one performance and I’ll tell you why. The Hennessy caught up to me very early. I’m glad I wasn’t smoking because I would have been just passed out somewhere, probably. The Hennessy got to me real early. I remember very vividly, though, telling people to take me to go and see Asian Doll, I wanted to see Asian Doll so badly. They took me to see Asian Doll, I did go and see Asian Doll and I got to meet her afterwards, it was dope. Oh, I got to see a little bit of Kaash Paige’s set.
What’s the next chapter for you look like?
KP: The next chapter for Kaash Paige is let me finish these shows up this year, and top of the year, it’s my time and everybody’s gonna know Kaash Paige. It’ll be a lot of crazy music that’s dropping [at the] top of the year.
AJ: Well, right now I’m kind of on my little spiritual journey. This year’s been kind of rough. I thought last year was rough, but this year it’s definitely been a little rougher. [I’m] kind of on my spiritual journey, just trying to learn more about myself so I can put that into my music so that everything will keep being authentic. At the end of the day, I just want to be my most authentic self. I’m working on music, I should have something ready by the top of the year.
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