Category: Trending

Earlier this month, YG began the rollout for his upcoming sixth studio album, I Got Issues, with a smooth performance of the album’s lead single “Toxic” for A COLORS Show. After announcing the project’s official release date, he’s getting going in earnest with another laid-back single, “Alone.” The common throughline appears to be a thread of introspection that has always been in his musical output but has become more pronounced now that he’s in his 30s with more control over his music and career. While it remains to be seen whether more aggressive singles like “Run” and “Scared Money” will appear on the project, YG has displayed a growing sense of balance in his music.

Rather than dropping an elaborate video for “Alone,” YG doubles down on the song’s reflective nature with an in-studio performance video highlighting its moodiness. Seated on a stool in front of his microphone with a red Solo cup and backed by candles and masked security guards (the skiing kind, not the COVID kind), YG takes stock of how his gangster habits — formed by the trauma of growing up in Compton — interfere with his current lifestyle. He’s got money, status, and safety now; he’s got to leave the streets alone. Whether he’ll be able to is another story entirely but we’ll say this: He has a way of staying out of trouble and making amends when he does mess up. That’s more than you can say for a lot of entertainers.

Watch YG’s in-studio video for “Alone” above.

I Got Issues will be out 9/30 via Def Jam. The album is available to pre-save and pre-order here.

What rhymes with DRAM? The rapper’s new song “Wham!” does. A hypnotic banger produced by Spiff Sinatra, Hero, and Shelley/DRAM, he blends creative rhymes with a chill R&B chorus. “Wham!” was showcased during DRAM’s prior Instagram Live and teased via his social media channels in August. According to the song’s YouTube page, there will also be an acoustic video version.

Raised in Virginia, he was born Shelley Marshaun Massenberg-Smith, and has gone through a number of artistic name changes over the years. Stepping on the scene as D.R.A.M. with his debut EP #1Epic, the musician made impressive waves early on. His debut album Big Baby DRAM reached top 10 on the US rap charts in November 2016, and has since been certified Gold. Eventually, he changed his stage name in September 2020 to Shelley FKA DRAM, releasing a sophomore album in April 2021 with the same title. Now, as of a tweet he shared in July 2022, it appears he is back to just DRAM.

Over the past few years, DRAM has also attracted attention for a number of significant artist collaborations. His hit single “Broccoli” featuring rapper Lil Yachty made it to the top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and opened the door for DRAM’s work with other musicians. During the fall of 2016, he appeared alongside Chance The Rapper for a performance of “Blessings (Reprise)” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The following year, he teamed up with Gorillaz for the song “Andromeda” from the band’s 2017 album Humanz.

Now, DRAM’s “Wham!” is the first glimpse of a potential new project titled What Had Happened Was. On Twitter, he revealed that he will be including R&B songs cut from 2021’s Shelley FKA DRAM on his next release.

Listen to DRAM’s new song “Wham!” above.

If you’ve ever wondered what the name is of the DC Comics character The Joker, it has been revealed to be Jack Oswald White. This probably brings your mind to the White Stripes leader of the same name, who has spoken up about the “flattering gesture.” (It doesn’t appear the character was directly named after the musician, but the folks at DC had to be aware of him, right?)

“An interesting note,” he wrote on Instagram, “during the process of putting together the artwork for my album Fear of the Dawn last year, I asked artist Rob Jones to communicate with the amazing DC comic artist Mikel Janin to see if he would be interested in a commission: illustrating me in the range of the style that he draws his version of The Joker for DC comics.”

White continued: “Bizarre patterns and coincidences emerge in the universe that we only see glimpses of at times, some meaningful, some meaningless. A large thank you to Mr. Janin for contributing this wonderful work to the record.”

In another post, he wrote: “I’d love to thank DC comics for giving The Joker the name of ‘Jack White’ after me. Though his hair is usually not as blue as mine, I still take it as a flattering gesture on their part and consider it an honor. It was a lonely journey through my life being the only person with that name until now.”

In the same episode where James Corden paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, The Late Late Show host also asked Kris Jenner about whether she had anything to do with Kim Kardashian’s sex tape. Television can be wonderful (and weird as f*ck) sometimes.

Corden hooked “momager” Jenner up to a lie director and asked her a series of questions, including whether her family has any overseas tax shelters (“No” — she was telling the truth) and if Kylie is her favorite child (“Yes” — she was telling the truth). Then came the big one: “Did you help Kim release her sex tape?” The crowd gasped, but with seemingly barely concealed annoyance, Jenner replied, “It’s OK. No.”

Was she telling the truth?

In his 2016 book, Kardashian Dynasty, author Ian Halperin spoke to a source in the “adult film industry” who told him that one of Kardashian’s friends “advised her that if she wanted to achieve fame, a sex tape would be the way to go… Kim had discussed the idea of producing a tape with her family beforehand.” Halperin also alleged that “it was Kris who engineered the deal behind the scenes and was responsible for the tape seeing the light of day.” The (famously unreliable) lie detector test would like a word.

You can watch The Late Late Show clip above.

There’s something poetic about the fact Built To Spill and The Afghan Whigs dropped an album on the same day. The bands may have been diametrically opposed in the ’90s, but because they peaked around the same time and have now become a staple for Gen X indie heads, the two groups oftentimes get put in the same category. On this week’s Indiecast episode, hosts Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen put both bands’ legacy into perspective while discussing Built To Spill’s When The Wind Forgets Your Name and The Afghan Whigs’ How Do You Burn?

The biggest music news of this week came from Harry Styles and the absolute chaos that is his new film, Don’t Worry Darling. The film’s premiere saw cringey interview quotes, Florence Pugh being a wild card, and a (debunked) rumor that Styles spit on his co-star Chris Pine. Plus, a fan mailbag question had Steven and Ian finally addressing which one of them is guilty of having a squeaky chair.

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Ian endorsed Phoenix band Holy Fawn, whose new album Dimensional Bleed is out today. Meanwhile, Steven shouted out Bitchin Bajas’ new album Bajascillators, which sounds like Philip Glass meets the Grateful Dead.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 105 here or below and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

Shia LaBeouf threw a molotov cocktail into the Don’t Worry Darling promotional tour (which was already fraught with drama) by dropping a basket of receipts to refute Olivia Wilde’s narrative that he was fired from the film. From the emails and messages that LaBeouf provided, including the infamous video of Wilde referring to Florence Pugh as “Miss Flo,” it appeared like the Transformers actor was having issues with the lack of rehearsal time, and everyone mutually decided it was best to part ways. This information counteracted the narrative from Wilde that she fired LaBeouf to protect Pugh.

However, as the Don’t Worry Darling drama picked up even more steam at the Venice Film Festival, Wilde offered a counter-claim to LaBeouf’s side of the story. He gave Wilde an ultimatum, and she sided with Pugh. When asked to respond to this new narrative, LaBeouf took himself out of the story. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

According to a new Vanity Fair article, Olivia Wilde said your acting process was “not conducive to the ethos” she demands on set and that you display “a combative energy.” She also claims Florence Pugh was uncomfortable with that energy; that you gave Wilde an ultimatum; and that she ultimately chose to fire you and keep Pugh. Do you want to speak to that?

It is what it is — every blessing to her and her film.

If LaBeouf’s non-response seems oddly spiritual, the actor has converted to Catholicism after facing a series of scandals including allegations of sexual assault. LaBeouf told THR that his conversion was guided by Mel Gibson. Yes, that Mel Gibson.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Something very strange happened with the troll pushback to the Amazon’s “woke” Lord of the Rings: The Rings Of Power. That effort appeared to be (conscious or not) led by Elon Musk, who was thrilled about Galadriel being the “only” character who’s “brave, smart, and nice” on the show. The Sandman author Neil Gaiman shared his opinion (after a follower’s inquiry on the subject) that Elon should stay in his own “fail” lane. Gaiman is well-accustomed to receiving his own criticism from the own anti-woke crowd, and he previously addressed the tiny “backlash” over his Netflix show’s diverse casting.

Well, some trolls got confused and thought that Neil was defending Lord of the Rings because he was somehow involved in production. This isn’t the case, and he’s merely watched a few episodes, but Neil decided to mock-apologize to furious J.R.R. Tolkien fans who raged over the “‘woke diversity’ sh*t” in the Amazon series. “I’m so sorry,” Neil feigned on Twitter. “I have taken your hurt to heart and promise that I will no longer make any Lord of the Rings based television for any network ever.”

This was only the beginning of that joke, and Gaiman fans grew very amused to watch this confusion go down. And then Michael Sheen (who stars in Gaiman’s Good Omens on Amazon and portrays Lucifer in The Sandman Audible production) got in on the game. “If you’re going to criticize the way Neil wrote LOTR you’ll have to go through me first,” Sheen wrote in defense of his pal with a choice Lord of the Rings reference. “YOU SHALL NOT PASS! #IHaveNotYetBegunToFight.”

Gaiman acknowledged his friend’s effort to rescue him from the trolls of non-Middle-earth: “My love for @michaelsheen passeth all understanding.”

That arguably wasn’t the best response to this mess, however. Twitter user Helena Bell came in hard. “Will he also defend your writing of Transformers? The Star Wars sequels?” she asked. “What of your butchery of Grimm’s source material of your 1937 animated version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves? Stop writing all the things, Neil. Give us blessed silence and nothing to pass the time.”

I’ll never understand how trolls have so much energy in the first place, but they sure are dedicated.

(For You)r Consideration is a weekly column breaking down the rappers and singers doing it RIGHT on TikTok and the viral TikTok music trends and top songs taking over your FYP.

The Return of a Snoop Dogg Classic

TikTokers are infamous for digging up often-forgotten ’90s and 2000s hits and using the tracks as background for clever trends. This week’s chosen classic is Snoop Dogg’s 2009 “Sensual Seduction.” Creators are flocking to the app to use the sexy and synthy song from his ninth studio album to tell stories and create content using sly brow raises, the app’s zoom feature, and longing glances. Anitta used the sound to share a meal with man’s best friend, and Kylie Jenner even hopped on the trend with her momager Kris to promote a new Kylie Cosmetics line. Catch the following TikToks to see “Sensual Seduction” in action.

Who’s Ready for Fall?

Nearly 60 years after its release, a 1965 single by The Mamas and the Papas has the potential to be TikTok’s next big sound. The record, which reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in the day, is called “California Dreamin’” and is perfect for those pining to make content as the seasons transition. Kicking off with the lyrics “all the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey,” and later with the line “I’d be safe and warm if I was in LA,” the song is fitting for TikToks featuring fall fits, weather, recipes, and more. Check it out below and see how the track is already being used on the app.

Meet The “Umph In It” Challenge

There’s a new challenge for the dancers of TikTok set to a remixed version of a 2007 baby-making anthem. The Tik-Tokified mix of Jagged Edge‘s “Put A Little Umph In It” (with the original Ashanti verse) is background music for the “Umph In It” challenge created by dancer @itsweezhose. The choreography consists of less than ten moves making it easy for all creators, even those with two left feet. Some of the app’s most popping artists, like Quality Control Music’s “Female Goat,” Lakeyah, hopped on the trend, and with over thirty thousand videos to the sound, it’s only up from here.

“THE BUDGET”

Issa Rae and HBO’s Rap Sh!t wrapped its first season last week, but there’s a sound from the series that could be the app’s next big thing. Rapper and Rap Sh!t actress KaMillion uploaded a clip to the platform quoting her character Mia Knight’s shady one-liner. “You know what’s the difference between you and I? The budget” has the potential to take over For Your Pages across the globe. From brands using the sound to promote the quality of their products to comedians comparing celebrity doppelgangers, and of course, bad b*tches being just bad b*tches, there’s a world of potential for those 11 words.

“BAD” by Maya B

R&B and pop singer-songwriter, Maya B, has taken to the clock app to promote what seems like an upcoming single titled “Bad.” The Pasadena native started her own wave by using the song’s lyrics “good girls only go bad” to praise the infamous Lady Gaga, give us a rundown of the baddest of the bad on reality TV, and showcase her personal good girl turned bad journey. There’s no noise or news about when the “Sink” singer will drop the record, but fingers crossed it blows up on the app in the meantime! Watch how Maya B is using the app below.

Joaquin Phoenix and Ari Aster are A24 all-stars. The former starred in C’mon C’mon, a charming black-and-white drama about a radio journalist who bonds with his precocious nephew that isn’t as obnoxious as it sounds, while the latter wrote and directed Hereditary and Midsommar, two of the iconoclastic studio’s biggest hits.

Hereditary was actually A24’s highest-grossing movie, with $81 million at the box office, until Everything Everywhere All At Once came along and crossed the $100 million mark. Aster has a strong enough track record — and his films have inspired countless memes, an A24 favorite — that his next movie has the studio’s biggest budget yet.

Variety reports that “Canada’s Sphere Films has signed a multi-picture deal with A24 that will cover nine of the U.S. studio’s films in the Canadian market. Under the deal, Sphere Films will theatrically release pics,” including “Aster’s Disappointment Blvd. starring Joaquin Phoenix. The latter, which has a budget of around $55 million, is believed to be A24’s biggest production to date.”

$55 million is a huge budget for an indie, but it’s a fraction of what, for instance, Netflix spent on Red Notice and The Gray Man, both of which cost around $200 million. Disappointment Blvd. will also likely have a longer shelf life than those two films, which put up big viewing numbers during their first week of release — then were never thought of again. And if Disappointment Blvd. stinks, well, the headlines write themselves.

Disappointment Blvd., which also stars Nathan Lane, Patti LuPone, Amy Ryan, Kylie Rogers, Parker Posey, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Hayley Squires, Michael Gandolfini, Zoe Lister-Jones, and Richard Kind (what a cast), comes out in 2023.

(Via Variety)

There was a sad bit of globally significant news yesterday (September 8), when the world learned that England’s Queen Elizabeth II died at 96 years old. In the hours since, the world has offered up reactions and tributes to the Queen after her passing, and now so too has Harry Styles.

At his Madison Square Garden concert last night, Styles addressed the audience, saying, “From my homeland, there was some very sad news today: the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Please, join me in a round of applause for 70 years of service.”

Other UK musicians have also offered up their own thoughts about Queen Elizabeth. Elton John, for example, wrote in a post, “Along with the rest of the nation, I am deeply saddened to hear the news of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s passing. She was an inspiring presence to be around and led the country through some of our greatest and darkest moments with grace, decency and a genuine caring warmth. Queen Elizabeth has been a huge part of my life from childhood to this day, and I will miss her dearly.” Ozzy Osbourne also shared, “I mourn with my country the passing of our greatest Queen. With a heavy heart I say it is devastating the thought of England without Queen Elizabeth II.”