Category: News

The late Blackalicious MC Gift Of Gab left behind a sizable collection of recordings the group will be sharing in the future. Today, the first of his posthumous releases, “Vice Grip,” dropped, providing fans of the Oakland native’s intricate lyrics a heaping dose of them as he again puts on a breathless display of vocal virtuosity over a rollicking beat.

Gift Of Gab passed away this June at the age of 50. In a statement, Blackalicious producer DJ Xcel wrote, “Our brother was an MCs’ MC who dedicated his life to his craft. One of the greatest to ever do it. He’s the most prolific person I’ve ever known. He was all about pushing the boundaries of his art form in the most authentic way possible. He truly believed in the healing power of music. He viewed himself as a vessel used by a higher power whose purpose was to give positive contributions to humanity through Rhyme.”

Blackalicious’ label Quannum has enough material from Gab to release unheard music for “years to come.” Gab was one of several prominent figures the underground rap world has lost over the past few months, including Zumbi of Zion I, MF DOOM, and Squeak of Pivot Gang.

Listen to “Vice Grip” above.

It’s been nearly two decades since Eminem made his film debut in the box office hit 8 Mile, and he’s now ready to work on another acting project. The rapper has now accepted one of his first acting roles since 8 Mile, and it’s in 50 Cent‘s upcoming Starz TV show Black Mafia Family.

50 confirmed the news of Em’s role on Instagram. The rapper is set to portray the famed FBI informant White Boy Rick, aka Richard Wershe Jr., who was convicted of drug charges and sentenced to life in prison at just 17 years old. Wershe was officially released in 2020, and the 2018 eponymous film starring Matthew McConaughey told his story.

Speaking about Em’s involvement in the upcoming series, 50 wrote: “Oh yeah i’m bringing the big dogs out, I couldn’t do a show based in Detroit without incorporating the legend @eminem. Got him to play white Boy Rick in BMF, this sh*t is out of here.”

Eminem has just a few acting credits on his IMDb page since 8 Mile (aside from music videos): He’s been on Crank Yankers, Funny People, Entourage, and The Interview.

Em isn’t the only rapper 50 Cent is enlisting the help of for his TV series. Last year, the rapper implored Rick Ross to use his track 2010 “BMF” on the show, which would be a fitting addition seeing as the title is already the same. Ross accepted, but on one bizarre condition: 50 Cent had to agree to promote Wingstop on his Instagram page. Ross owns a number of Wingstop storefronts, so he said he’ll agree to clear the track for 50’s Starz show, but first wants to “profit off of him.”

In 2018, Ariana Grande delivered one of the year’s musical highlights with her album Sweetener. It was released on August 17 of that year, which makes today its third anniversary. Grande has decided to observe the occasion by reflecting on the album with some behind-the-scenes photos. Sharing a gallery of them on social media (in the form of a video), Grande wrote simply, “thank you.”

Grande previously said of the album in a 2018 interview, “Sonically, also where I’m using my voice is very different this time. I feel like everyone’s heard me do all the gymnastic stuff and it’s fun, I love to sing, you know and like, prove a point when I’m like, ‘Look what I can do,’ but also it’s cool that this is a way more about like, the lyrical content and it’s like a sweeter more mature side of my voice. I feel like it’s like using newer parts of my range that I don’t get to showcase on my radio ones.” She also noted, “I feel I’m gonna look back at life and like instead of having kept diaries, I would have made albums and be like, ‘Oh, I remember exactly what was happening when we made this, I remember exactly what’s happening.’ So it’s just another dope chapter closed.”

Revisit our review of Sweetener here.

During a new interview with Steve Bannon, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene kept her conspiratorial brand strong by making a nonsensical argument about American gun ownership and the Taliban. While using the chaos in Afghanistan as a backdrop, Greene accused the Biden administration of “paying the Taliban” by gifting them with “weapons, vehicles, Blackhawk helicopters.” In reality, the Afghanistan national army abandoned their weapons and vehicles, which the Taliban immediately seized as soon as U.S. forces left the country, but Greene isn’t one to let a few facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.

According to Greene’s illogical rant, Biden’s “gifting” of weapons to the Taliban makes any attempt to enact gun control in America null and void. Never mind that there’s a massive difference between having weaponry in a war zone and on American soil, if the Taliban have assault weapons, then goshdarnit, Americans should have them, too.

Via The Independent:

“Anytime any Democrat ever speaks to America about gun control again, and they want to talk to you about your AR-15, you tell them right now how many weapons and how many semi-automatic weapons did you hand over to terrorists in Afghanistan, to the Taliban, ISIS and possible Al-Qaeda before you ever talk to Americans about gun control,” she told Mr Bannon’s Real America’s Voice podcast.

Naturally, Greene also praised Trump and called him “more presidential” than Biden will ever be while conveniently ignoring the fact that Trump negotiated the withdrawal deal with the Taliban that set the stage for the calamity in Afghanistan.

(Via The Independent)

Just a couple of weeks out from releasing her forthcoming LP Before I Die, South Korean multi-hyphenate Park Hye Jin has shared a mellow new single, “I Need You,” which follows earlier tracks “Whatchu Doin Later” and “Let’s Sing Let’s Dance.” Similar to the aforementioned singles, “I Need You” is sung in both Korean and English. Over light, jazzy piano and a skittering hi-hat, the DJ, singer, rapper, and producer expresses a near-universal wish to get closer to a potential love. Meanwhile, Park Hye Jin’s chilled-out vocals stay cucumber-cool.

Earlier in the summer, Park Hye Jin announced plans to release her debut LP, Before I Die, in the fall via Ninja Tune. The album is entirely written, produced, and performed by Park Hye Jin and follows a lengthy list of high-profile collaborations with artists like Clams Casino and Take A Daytrip (“Y Don’t U”), Blood Orange (“Call Me (Freestyle)”), Nosaj Thing (“Clouds”), and Galcher Lustwerk. Along with the album news, Park Hye Jin announced that she’s hitting the road in the fall; her upcoming US tour dates kick off in Toronto in October.

Listen to “I Need You” above.

Before I Die is out 9/10 via Ninja Tune. Pre-order it here.

If there’s one thing Tucker Carlson is good at, it’s being one of the world’s most loathsome humans. If there are two things he’s good at (and that’s a stretch), it’s stirring up fear and anxiety where none need exist. Case in point: As Daily Beast notes, on Monday night’s show, Fox News’s resident fearmonger no doubt scared the sh*t out of lots of viewers when he warned them that while Afghanistan might be more than 11,000 miles and an enormous ocean away, the violent Taliban takeover happening there right now will affect them—Tucker’s corncob viewers—in deeply personal ways.

In true Tucker (a.k.a. Trucker) style, the scariest situation he could come up with to petrify his audience had nothing to do with the American troops being sent overseas to help quell the situation. Nope, Tucker’s biggest fear is that an Afghan refugee could soon be living in your neighborhood—or his! Oh, the horror!

Unsurprisingly, Carlson has never made any secret of his stance on immigration (he’s against it). In fact, Carlson is so painfully Xenophobic that even Geraldo Rivera once called him out on it! But Tucker and facts—or even reason—are a toxic combination, so he shared his own version of a history lesson on why we should all be worried:

“[I]f history is any guide—and it’s always a guide—we will see many refugees from Afghanistan resettle in our country in coming months, probably in your neighborhood. And over the next decade, that number may swell to the millions. So first we invade, and then we’re invaded. It is always the same.”

So what current pressing matter does Carlson think would be a better use of the government’s time than attempting to step in to help a country that is under siege from a group the UN-designated a terrorist organization more than 20 years ago? “Fentanyl ODs.”

(Via Daily Beast)

To most people, an invitation to Barack Obama’s birthday party would be a life highlight. To Larry David, it was a nuisance.

The Curb Your Enthusiasm creator was invited then disinvited to the former-president’s potential-superspreader birthday bash after the guest list was slimmed down to “only family and close friends.” David was happy to be left off, however, because he assumed he would have to perform at the birthday party. He went “into a tailspin,” according to the New York Times, “trying to think of what routine he could come up with in three days.”

But then David spoke to Obama’s assistant:

“I was pretty glum when I finally called back his assistant,” David said in an email. “When he told me I was eighty-sixed from the party, I was so relieved, I screamed, ‘Thank you! Thank you!’ He must have thought I was insane. Then I hung up the phone, poured myself a drink, and finished my crossword puzzle.”

That’s good advice from Larry. Have you spent the last five hours yelling at a robot when all you want to do is cancel your cable service? Hang up the phone, pour yourself a drink, and finish your crossword puzzle. This applies to all kinds of scenarios, not only when the former-president crosses you off the guest list for his birthday party (relatable).

(Via the New York Times)

With the constant churn of new music these days, it’s easy to overlook gems, which is why D Smoke‘s latest is worth taking a listen to. “Shame On You,” which he dropped on Friday, deserves a little space of its own for its defiant and motivational message praising the independent, righteous rebels of the music industry. He also advocates switching up the usual shootouts that many of his rap peers propagate in favor of good, old-fashioned fisticuffs: “Put the Glock away and sock on they face / Show your pain if you brave,” he challenges in verse two.

The Rhythm+Flow champion from the City of Champions has kept a relatively low profile in 2021 as he works on the follow-up to his Grammy-nominated 2020 debut Black Habits, but that hasn’t stopped him from poking his head out to deliver a few choice shots of his hard-won Inglewood wisdom. After opening the year with the motivational “It’s OK” and its accompanying video, in March, he joined Nigeria’s Fireboy DML for an inspiring track titled — what else? — “Champion,” and contributed to another Netflix project in the form of the “Basketball” theme song from the basketball-themed Last Chance U reboot.

Listen to “Shame On You” above.

Patrick Beverley’s hectic week continues. Days after the Los Angeles Clippers flipped the veteran guard to the Memphis Grizzlies as part of a package that led to a reunion with Eric Bledsoe in Tinseltown, the Grizzlies have decided to take Beverley and send him to Minnesota in a deal with the Timberwolves.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Beverley will become teammates with Anthony Edwards, D’Angelo Russell, Karl-Anthony Towns, and co., while the Grizzlies will take a flier on former Lottery pick Jarrett Culver and 25-year-old big man Juancho Hernangomez.

Minnesota seems poised to push for a playoff berth for the first time since 2017-18, and while it remains to be seen if they’ll be able to get there, Beverley gives them a steady hand in the backcourt and some defensive bite on the perimeter that they did lack. As for the Timberwolves, they managed to acquire a pair of younger players — Hernangomez has been a productive big man off the bench during his career, while Culver appears to be a pure bet on the talent that made him the No. 6 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft despite the struggles that he’s had with the Timberwolves through his first two seasons in the league.

An amped-up Don Jr. can’t stop furiously tweeting, even after receiving comeuppance after gloating about the Fall of Kabul on Biden’s watch. Granted, yes, the situation in Afghanistan is a disaster. Biden’s speech didn’t help in a lot of people’s eyes, and the withdrawal’s execution (following the swift Fall of Kabul) has put forth a look that’s, well, not good. Footage of Afghan citizens clinging to a U.S. military plane has been (and will endlessly be) compared to the Fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War. Yes, the war has been ongoing for two full decades, starting on George W. Bush’s watch in the wake of 9/11 and through the Trump Administration, which did the dealmaking for “peace” that ultimately wasn’t honored.

In other words, the withdrawal date was set before Biden came to town, but his efforts to point fingers won’t go well no matter what. And Don Jr. is having an absolute ball with the fallout. After he ranted about Biden being at Camp David, and Hunter Biden, and “white rage”-focused Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, and even a Pride Flag outside the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Don Jr. kept on going. In his latest frenzied round of social media posts, he’s taking more shots at Biden, including complaints that he dared to attempt a vacation (after his dad spent several COVID weekends on the golf course), including as the following tweet.

Over on Instagram, Jr. served up a real doozy: his dad’s silhouette in a Bat Signal. The message here, although erroneous, is that Don Jr. believes that his dad would save the Afghan people if he was still in office. “Just think Biden has another 3.5 years to go. What could go wrong?” Kimberly Guilfoyle’s boyfriend wrote.

Even discounting politics, it’s hard to imagine how any Trump wouldn’t automatically be the worst Batman ever. That means instant elevation for the Batfleck and George Clooney’s Bat Nips, but still, let’s not go there. It’s all so absurd that it’s not even worth discussing on a nerd level, but more to the point of Don Jr.’s frenzy, he is off the hook. Here he is tweeting out a video and claiming that it’s from present-day Afghanistan, although it’s really from Iraq in 2007. He’s attempting to make the point that “we’ve been lied to by a lot of people in government” while spreading a lie.

As Vox’s Aaron Rupar points out, Jr. also kept repeating himself while talking about how much he misses his dad.

The tirade only continued on Twitter from there while firing shots at Biden for various reasons, including possibly needing to rest for a few moments every now and then.

Whew, Don Jr. is exhausting! He needs a nap, too.