Breakout R&B star Leon Thomas built on the momentum of his hit song “Mutt” with a deluxe reissue of the album of the same name, Heel, last Friday, adding nine new songs to the tracklist. They included a new version of the titular track, two collaborations with Big Sean, and the focus track, “Not Fair.”
To commemorate the deluxe album’s release, Thomas stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! to play “Not Fair” live, just four months removed from making his official television performance debut on The Late Show with “Mutt.” As with his previous performance, Thomas took the stage with his band, playing guitar and showing off his powerful vocals, this time amid a tangled coil of various audio cables (way more than could reasonably be expected for the current band set up). A background visualizer on the screen behind him played a distorted, closeup waveform, reminding me a little bit of those old Winamp visualizers. The performance offers an intriguing alternative listening experience for fans (similarly to The Weeknd’s “Open Hearts” video from January).
Watch Leon Thomas’ Jimmy Kimmel Live! performance of “Not Fair” above.
Mutt; Heel is out now via EZMNY Records and Motown Records. You can find more info here.
This week, West Coast living legend Too Short is the latest artist to stop by Uproxx Studios to try to psych out Sound Check host Jeremy Hecht. Jeremy pitted two remakes of his classic 2006 song “Blow The Whistle” against each other in his quest to glean Short Dawg’s taste, playing Saweetie’s “Tap In” alongside Drake’s “For Free.” Jeremy also had Short choose between “Still D.R.E.” and “The Message,” “The Ghetto” and “Atomic Dog,” and two songs that make great use of Too Short’s favorite word. Can he figure out Too Short’s life anthem?
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.
Watch Too Short take on the Sound Check challenge above. New episodes of Sound Check drop every Wednesday at noon ET / 9 PM PT on Uproxx’s YouTube.
Addison Rae is getting her shine as a pop star these days, but it was her time working with Charli XCX during the Brat era that felt like a formative moment for her.
Explaining during a new Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe that the session to write the “Von Dutch” remix was “a really big turning point” for her, Rae said that she was “still pretty insecure in my songwriting abilities.” Speaking about a note of lyrics she sent to Charli, she continued:
I sent her that, and she was like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to use all of this. We need to use all of this in the song.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God, are you sure you don’t want to like change it up or make this better? You’re amazing, and I trust you. This is your song and I just want to aid your artistry and your vision on this.’ […]
I felt very seen. Then I had hummed out that hook melody, ‘You just want to scream my name,’ that little melody that we do for the hook of the song. I hummed that out in my car and I sent it to her and she was like, ‘Great, this is the hook.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God, I had never felt so seen and understood, and also just trusted.’ I think she trusted me so strongly with what I thought was cool for that, which really gave me confidence in my taste.
Last month, while presenting the award for Favorite Country Duo or Group at this year’s American Music Awards, two burgeoning country stars — both playing homage to the storied genre, made headlines. As Megan Maroney, the blonde up-and-comer who often answers to “Emo Cowgirl” gave Shaboozey, fellow Country crooner known for his chart topping track “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” that mixes country and rap — a quick music history lesson, sharing a story of the how the Carter Family won Favorite Country Duo or Group in 1974. She ended her story by giving them credit, where it perhaps wasn’t due, saying they “basically invented country music.” He gave her a side eye so fierce for the comment that the internet noticed. Later, he explained, while defending Maroney, the reason for his reaction. “When you uncover the true history of country music, you find a story so powerful that it cannot be erased,” he shared via Twitter. It’s a sentiment many Black artists like Shaboozey have attempted to share as they navigate the world of American roots music, a sound made up of decades of blues, bluegrass, folk, gospel, and country.
Since the advent of radio, Black artists have been categorized by their race rather than their sound. In a segregated system that was more concerned by marketing to white people vs. Black people, and choosing which airwaves songs would play based more on physical characteristics than sound, it’s no surprise that it’s taken until 2025 for an artist like Beyoncé to become the first Black woman to win the Grammy for Best Country Album. But the truth is that people across races have been creating American roots music since the African rhythms, call-and-response vocals, and the banjo (which has African origins), blended together with the fiddles and ballads of Britain and Ireland, with Native American musicianship and storytelling. It’s a genre that is chiefly American, and although people may assume it was created by those who had the platforms to speak about it during their time (*cough* The Carter Family *cough), it would not have been and could not have been created anywhere other than the sonic melting pot of this country.
Still, even in 2025, though the face of these genres are changing, many Black singers and songwriters have yet to experience success, thanks in part to the subconscious and industry-created bias that they ‘don’t belong’ in certain genres. Because of this, we’re sharing the names and music of just a few of those artists you should watch, but more importantly, listen to. Here are Black roots artists that are breaking the rules of genre and reclaiming the sound that has always been theirs.
Annahstasia
When LA-based singer-songwriter Annahstasia first wrote songs that paid homage to the sounds she’d grown up with, a mix of folk with jazz training, she was immediately told to pivot to pop. Her deep, resonating voice and storytelling ability through song came naturally to the singer at a young age, but as she met with record executives, she found that her instincts and their intent for her didn’t match. “It was disheartening,” she told NME. “Imagine showing up to a space and being like, ‘This is me.’ And someone saying, ‘Ew.’ It doesn’t feel good.” Lucky for us, she persevered, bringing her songs on global tours opening for the likes of Lenny Kravitz and releasing a debut album filled with poetry, soul, and of course, folk instrumentation. Her latest album, Tether, promises more from the artist, as she pushes against capitalism, leans into self-revelations, and mingles romantic prose with sharp declarations in a move that not only reclaims the genre but allows her as an artist to reclaim herself.
Cleo Reed
New York City’s Cleo Reed has been making a name for herself, combining Black Southern folk and delicate guitar playing to create their own fresh version of roots music. Classically trained in guitar and songwriting at Harlem School of the Arts before joining a punk band (NYC’s Pretty Sick) to releasing their debut album Root Cause in 2023, they’ve relied very little on categorization of their sound and more so into what makes folk music what it is — a means for holding the powerful accountable and documenting lived realities. Her recent single “Always The Horse, Never The Jockey,” embodies the genre’s political core. “It is a harrowing realization to notice and understand that the systems seen in the United States are intentionally designed to fail us,” she said of its inspiration in a statement. “Each day, I’ve seen who chooses to ride right past the dysfunction in search of industry. I can’t help but admit that I feel more in relation to the horse itself than the jockey.” With a new album on the way and a penchant for timely tracks, Cleo Reed’s impact is promising.
Tanner Addel
Country has long been the home of bleached blondes with oversized hair and songs about heartbreak (thank you Dolly Parton!), but those designations have rarely been allocated to Black women in the genre, if they were in the genre at all. Enter, Tanner Addel, who has come into pop country embracing all aspects of herself and telling stories she could only tell. Earlier this year, she released “Going Blonde,” which tells her adoption story, and what drew her to embracing the same color of locks as her mom, whom she never met. She’s already played a sold-out headline tour, manifested a collaboration with Beyoncé on Cowboy Carter’s “BLACKBIRD,” and has continued to amass “buckle bunnies” who, like her, embrace the Country lifestyle they’ve grown up on. And although she’s said that Country has had a hard time evolving, her rise to fame is clearly pushing it in the right direction.
Mexico is a frequent travel destination in the summer, but a fall visit is worth considering, especially with the news of the Corona Capital 2025 lineup. This year’s festival is going down from November 14 to 16 at Mexico City’s Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and headlining are Foo Fighters, Chappell Roan, and Linkin Park.
Elsewhere on the lineup are Queens Of The Stone Age, Franz Ferdinand, Garbage, Lucy Dacus, Jelly Roll, Nilüfer Yanya, Waxahatchee, Vampire Weekend, Alabama Shakes, Grizzly Bear, Lola Young, Marina, Mogwai, Samia, Deftones, Weezer, Cut Copy, Men I Trust, PinkPantheress, and TV On The Radio. Notably, this will be Deftones’ first show in Mexico in nearly a decade.
A pre-sale for Banamex cardholders begins on June 6, then a general on-sale starts on June 7. More information is available on the festival website.
Memo Parra, director of international events at festival promoter OCESA, told Billboard, “Corona Capital is not just a festival — it’s a bridge between cultures, emotions, and generations. Since 2010, it has evolved into one of the most important festivals in the world, attracting thousands of fans from every corner of the globe to Mexico. […] What truly sets Corona Capital apart is its musical curation: a carefully crafted selection that has made music the backbone of the festival.”
After “retiring” from music in 2020, a reinvigorated Teyana Taylor has announced her return album alongside its first single. Escape Room is due in August via Def Jam Recordings and will be accompanied by a short film, while the music video for its first single, “Long Time,” arrived today.
The video features a cameo performance from actor Lakeith Stanfield, who portrays Taylor’s romantic partner in a “recap” of what’s happened “previously” in the buildup to the album, while the video itself finds Taylor running away from a Saw-like trap room, and dancing in a risqué ensemble. Musically, “Long Time” takes cues from house music — think of an extension of the sound of Taylor’s 2016 collaboration with Kanye West, “Fade.” Check out the trailer for Escape Room below.
In March, Ethel Cain announced a new album, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You. At the time, the album was given a vague release window of August, but now it’s more clear: The project is set for release on August 8.
Today (June 4), Cain also shared a new song, “Nettles,” an eight-minute epic. Cain says of the track:
“This song and the last track on the record were both written the same week, the very first week I moved into the house in Alabama where I finished Preacher’s Daughter. In similar fashion to Preacher’s Daughter (specifically ‘A House in Nebraska’ and ‘Strangers’), I wrote what essentially became the beginning and end of the story without realizing it. What were originally just little vignettes of emotion I was feeling at the time ultimately became the tentpoles for a larger narrative. ‘Nettles’ became a dream of losing the one you love, asking them to reassure you that it won’t come true and to dream, instead, of all the time you’ll have together as you grow old side by side. Every once in a blue moon, it feels good to slough off the macabre and to simply let love be.”
Listen to “Nettles” above.
Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You is out 8/6 via Daughters Of Cain Records. Find more information here.
It probably took a little longer than anyone would have expected, but Lil Wayne announced the release of the long-awaited sixth installment of his beloved album series, Tha Carter, earlier this year. It comes out on June 6, a little over ten years after Young Thug released his ode to Tha Carter, Barter 6, which came out two years before Tha Carter V. It was a whole thing.
Anyway, naturally, Wayne has since announced a tour supporting Tha Carter VI, presented by Rolling Loud. Kicking off June 6 with a show at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden, it’ll downsize to amphitheaters for much of its run, although shows in the Chicago area, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Seattle will bump back up to arenas. Wayne will be supported on the tour by Tyga, with special openers NoCap (on select dates) and Belly Gang Kushington.
Tickets go on-sale this Friday, June 6th, at 10AM local time, while tickets for the MSG show are already on sale. You can find more info here. See below for tour dates.
Lil Wayne Tha Carter VI Tour Dates
06/06 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
07/30 — Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live *@
08/01 — Virginia Beach, VA @ Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater at Virginia Beach *@#
08/02 — Atlantic City, NJ @ Boardwalk Hall *@
08/03 — Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center *@
08/05 — Hartford, CT @ Xfinity Theatre *@
08/06 — Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center *@
08/08 — Syracuse, NY @ Empower Federal Credit Union Amphitheater at Lakeview *@
08/09 — Darien Center, NY @ Darien Lake Amphitheater *@
08/11 — Toronto, Ontario @ Budweiser Stage *@
08/14 — Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center *@
08/16 — Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center *@
08/17 — Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Music Center *@
08/20 — Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center *@
08/22 — Milwaukee, WI @ American Family Insurance Amphitheater *@
08/23 — Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena *@
08/24 — Tinley Park, IL @ Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre *@
08/26 — Kansas City, MO @ T-Mobile Center *@
08/29 — Phoenix, AZ @ Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre *@
09/01 — Ridgefield, WA @ Cascades Amphitheater *@
09/03 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena *@
09/05 — Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre *@
09/06 — Sacramento, CA @ Golden 1 Center *@
09/10 — Chula Vista, CA @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre *@
09/12 — Los Angeles, CA @ Crypto.com Arena *@
09/14 — Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta Amphitheater *@
09/16 — Del Valle, TX @ Germania Insurance Amphitheater *@
09/17 — Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion *@
09/18 — The Woodlands, TX @ The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion *@#
09/22 — Oklahoma City, OK @ Paycom Center %
09/24 — Huntsville, AL @ The Orion Amphitheater *@
09/25 — Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion *@
09/29 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena *@#
10/01 — Orlando, FL @ Kia Center *@#
10/02 — West Palm Beach, FL @ iThink Financial Amphitheatre *@#
* with Tyga
@ with Belly Gang Kushington
# with NoCap
% with Hot Boys
Aminé has announced the lineup for the 2025 Best Day Ever Festival, which features Smino, Thundercat, and Zack Fox. The Portland rapper’s homebrew festival returns to Edgefield Lawn September 13 and 14 for its second iteration with another set of his favorite acts. Aminé himself will be performing, of course, while the lineup is rounded out by Amaarae, chlothegod, MIKE, and SoundsByDontā. Tickets for the festival go on sale Friday, June 6th, at 10 AM PT. You can find more information here.
The first Best Day Ever Festival took place in 2024 with BADBADNOTGOOD, Karrahbooo, Kaytranada, MadisonLST, Ravyn Lenae, Toro y Moi, and 3WayHeff. Apparently it was enough of a success to warrant another go-round, so perhaps it’ll end up being Portland’s answer to Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival in a few years.
The festival will also mark the beginning of Aminé’s Tour De Dance supporting his new album, 13 Months Of Sunshine. You can see the dates for that below.
9/13 – Portland, OR @ The Best Day Ever Festival
9/14 – Portland, OR @ The Best Day Ever Festival
9/16 – Seattle, WA @ WAMU Theater #
9/18 – San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic #
9/19 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater #
9/20 – San Diego, CA @ Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre #
9/23 – Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues #
9/24 – Los Angeles, CA @ Shrine Expo Hall #
9/25 – Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre #
9/27 – Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium #
9/29 – Dallas, TX @ South Side Ballroom #
9/30 – Austin, TX @ ACL Live – Moody Theater #
10/2 – Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works #
10/3 – Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy &
10/5 – New York, NY @ Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage &
10/6 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore Philadelphia &
10/7 – Washington, DC @ Echostage &
10/8 – Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway &
10/10 – Toronto, ON @ HISTORY &
10/11 – Toronto, ON @ HISTORY &
10/12 – Montreal, QC @ MTELUS &
10/14 – Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed &
10/16 – Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore Detroit &
10/18 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave/Eagles Club &
10/19 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Fillmore Minneapolis &
+With Lido
=With Sango
%With Tommy Gold
^With Niko B
When it comes to music, I am an environmentalist. I believe where you listen can be as important as what you are listening to. The right song requires the right weather, and vice versa, no matter the time of year. Though the summer, clearly, is the most conducive season of all for listening. Pop bops, low-rider hip-hop anthems, pontoon country bangers — they all slot easily into the potential “Song Of The Summer” lane. (Keep your agoraphobic folk-rock bummers for the winter.)
Personally, I have always been a sucker for a chunky, melodic summertime hard rock jam, going back to my early grade-school exposure to Van Halen’s “Panama” on MTV. The kind of headbanger that makes you feel happy rather than evil. (Or, to paraphrase Def Leppard, sticky sweet from your head to your feet.) Which is why I must salute Turnstile — the Baltimore punk band whose latest album Never Enough drops Friday — for understanding the assignment. Never Enough is one of the best rock records of 2025’s first half, and an expertly executed follow-up to their acclaimed 2021 breakthrough, Glow On. But it would probably sound a little less awesome if it came out on, say, February 21. Thankfully, Turnstile knows who they are and what service they provide. They make music for the start of summer, a time when cookouts and pool parties demand fat, overheated guitar riffs and full-throated choruses. And Never Enough should sound pretty much perfect in that context.
I fell in love with Turnstile back in 2018, upon the release of their second record, Time & Space. Their mix of punk, metal, and ’90s alternative rock reminded me of the “stoned in the backseat” albums of my youth, the feel-good music made by shirtless guys who play groove-heavy riffs while radiating an amiable “it’s all good” attitude. Time & Space felt like an album that I should be hearing on compact disc in a friend’s crappy Saturn S-Series, not on my computer. (Among Turnstile’s accomplishments is being one of the great modern “CD” bands.)
Time & Space presented Turnstile as an uncommonly ingratiating band. They did not seem at all dark or angry, no matter how hard their songs raged. But they weren’t really a party band, either. Turnstile was just a good hang. Their music was heavy but their mood was light. It sounded like how friendship feels. And that carried over to Glow On, which refined the big-eared eclecticism of Time & Space — which featured a cameo by Diplo and fearless excursions into R&B, funk, and psychedelia — into a seamless whole. They could now collaborate with Blood Orange and not have it feel like a gimmick. Even better, that record pushed Turnstile into the mainstream. This new status was reflected by their entry into the Foo Fighters/Black Keys “rock bands who get nominated for Grammys” stratum. As Pitchfork recently put it, they are now “the biggest, actually good band in mainstream rock.”
If Glow On was about leveling up, Never Enough is concerned with maintaining that “mainstream rock” distinction. As if that wasn’t a big enough challenge, Turnstile is working without two important contributors to Glow On— producer Mike Elizondo (who supplied that album’s radio-rock sheen) and founding guitarist Brady Ebert (who played those pummeling infectious riffs). Incredibly, Never Enough picks up the thread from its predecessor as well as could be expected. If anything, this record sounds even bigger and dreamier than Glow On. (It was recorded at the same Laurel Canyon studio where the Red Hot Chili Peppers made BloodSugarSexMagik, so it comes by the ’90s alt-rock vibes honestly.) Also: I did my music-critic duty and dragged my laptop to the back patio so I could confirm that, yes, Never Enough sounds incredible in the sunshine. I advise that you pick up some burgers and put the beer on ice, because your weekend soundtrack has arrived.
Notice how at the start of this column, I referred to Turnstile as melodic hard rock, not hardcore. Because that’s what they actually sound like. When I listen to “Sole” or “Dreaming,” I hear a band that is very good at making groove-metal. When I hear “I Care,” I know I’m in the hands of a band that understands power pop. And when I put on “Seein’ Stars,” I appreciate that other people also like “When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What’s Still Around” by The Police as much as I do. (I also assume that Turnstile’s lawyers have reached out to Sting’s people with a settlement.)
I realize that this band’s connection to the scene that berthed them is the most consistent talking point in everything that’s written about them. (“Hardcore” appears 13 times in that Pitchfork profile.) And I know that singer Brendan Yates views his band as “philosophically” hardcore or whatever. But this conversation is the least interesting thing about Turnstile. It sometimes feels like cope for music writers who otherwise would struggle to justify liking a band that sort of sounds like Incubus. (A hardcore Incubus is more respectable, I guess.) I am sure there is a 51-year-old man clad in a Social Distortion t-shirt who is posting right now on Facebook about Turnstile’s questionable proximity to “real” punk, but the rest of the world has moved on.
Their most obvious analogue is Deftones, who had an inverse relationship with their genre of origin, nu-metal. Whereas Turnstile’s hardcore bona fides are a calling card, Deftones had to move beyond their early categorization. But both bands are ultimately viewed as experimental outfits that “transcended” their style of music. On Never Enough, this “color outside the lines” quality is most evident at the heart of the record, with the songs “Sunshower” and “Look Out For Me” forming a mini-suite that starts out in a belligerent, punk-y place and winds toward an ambient, electronic tranquil. It’s a showstopper that demonstrates Turnstile’s casual confidence when it comes to doing whatever the hell they want.
This overt artiness, like White Pony era Deftones, separates them from the pack. But that wouldn’t matter if Turnstile didn’t also deliver the goods. The ambition of Never Enough, blessedly, never reads as self-seriousness. Lest things get too esoteric, they always make sure to slap some red meat on the grill. Like in the closing third of the record, when they get back to playing brilliantly smart “dumb” rock songs like “Birds” (an extremely excitable song about flying chordates) and “Slow Dive” (a successful attempt at rewriting “Sad But True”).
Given how miserable and colorless most of their peers are now — no other genre revels in performative dreariness like the lip-ring soul-patch merchants populating your local modern rock radio station — the sheer effervescence of Turnstile feels like a small miracle. And Never Enough shines like an 80-degree day after endless months of rain.
Never Enough is out 6/6 via Roadrunner. Find more information here.
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