Category: Viral

“Victory Lap,” the new single from Fred Again.. and PlaqueBoyMax, has already gone through a couple of transformations since its original June release. Back then, it featured a verse from Skepta, rapping over an interpolation of Doechii and Rico Nasty’s “Swamp B*tches.” But early this month, the duo dropped a second version, which featured Denzel Curry, following up two weeks later with a third version adding Hanumankind.

Today, we get the fourth “Victory Lap,” adding another buzzy alt-rapper in the form of Texas rapper That Mexican OT. Like the rappers before him, TMOT contributes a boastful verse, quipping, “Gangsta Mexican, feelin’ like I’m a cholo / Heavy and sexy, just like Moto Moto.” The continuing evolution of the project means he might not end up being the last addition, and it’s exciting to speculate who Fred and Max will tap to join in the fun.

In fact, it’s not just exciting — it might very well be productive. Many of the additions to the track were suggested in the chat of Fred and Max’s live stream documenting the original’s creation, which you can check out below. So, some of the other names that have been suggested just might make their way to a future version of “Victory Lap.” In the meantime, though, you can listen to the collected contributors on “Victory Lap Four” above.

Last week, Freddie Gibbs and Alchemist announced the long-awaited follow-up to their fan-favorite joint album Alfredo with a New Hollywood-inspired short film and the single, “1995.” Today, they shared the gritty video for “1995,” which elaborates on the storyline in the film.

In the five years since Alfredo, it appears the duo has traded in one variety of noodles for another, relocating to Japan and setting up shop at a ramen restaurant. There, they take drop-offs from local yakuza and make dubious exchanges from the trunks of old Toyota’s, all filmed with a nostalgic, neo-noirish filter of the sort you’d see in a movie like Black Rain or High And Low.

With the last Alfredo coming close to winning a Grammy, it’ll be interesting to see what kind of reception Alfredo II receives, five years removed. It’s certainly arriving at an opportune time to make a splash; despite recent buzzy releases from the likes of Clipse and Tyler The Creator, 2025 has been kind of a “slow year” for hip-hop in the eyes of many fans, giving Freddie a clearer lane to cross over than ever, with a road that has already been primed for bars-first, throwback hardcore rap.

Watch the video for Freddie Gibbs & Alchemist’s “1995” above.

Alfredo II is out on 7/25 via Rabbit Vision/ALC Records/Virgin Music. You can find more info here.

New Orleans native Rob49 has a viral banger in his new single “WTHelly.” It helped propel his May album, Let Me Fly, onto the Billboard 200 for his first-ever placement on the chart — and hopefully, not his last.

Fittingly, one first sets up another; today, Rob49 announced the dates for his Let Me Fly Tour, which kicks off in Fort Lauderdale a few days before Halloween, and wraps up in Houston a month later. It’ll be his first-ever headlining tour, after he previously opened for Lil Baby on the Atlanta rapper’s 2025 tour and teamed up with Skilla Baby last year for their Vultures Eat The Most tour, so he’s clearly moving on up in the world.

Tickets for Let Me Fly Tour go on sale July 25, 2025, via Rob49Official.com.

Rob49 – Let Me Fly Tour Dates

10/28 – Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Revolution
10/30 – Orlando, FL @ The Beacham
10/31 – Atlanta, GA @ The Loft
11/4 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage
11/5 – New York, NY @ Racket NYC
11/7 – Toronto, ON @ The Opera House
11/8 – Cleveland, OH @ Roxy’s @ Mahall’s
11/9 – Columbus, OH @ The Forum
11/12 – Detroit, MI @ El Club
11/13 – Chicago, IL @ Outset
11/14 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
11/16 – Denver, CO @ Cervantes’ Other Side
11/19 – West Hollywood, CA @ The Roxy Theatre
11/20 – Mesa, AZ @ The Nile Theater
11/22 – San Antonio, TX @ Stable Hall
11/23 – Dallas, TX @ The Studio at The Factory
11/25 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall – Downstairs

Sound Check with Jeremy Hecht returns this week with another special guest, Offset. Although he’s been relatively quiet in 2025, releasing just two singles (the vindictive “Ten” and “Bodies” featuring fellow ATLien JID), he’s still working toward releasing his third studio album, Kiari. Today, he runs the Sound Check gauntlet, looking to issue our host Jeremy another L by the end of a far-reaching episode.

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.

This time around, the decisions were as tough as ever; Offset had to choose between songs by André 3000 and Future, Dipset and Three 6 Mafia, and even two different eras of his favorite artist ever, Michael Jackson. Can Jeremy right his win-loss record and get back on a streak of Ws? Find out above.

Watch Offset take on the Sound Check challenge above. New episodes of Sound Check drop every Wednesday at noon ET/9 a.m. PT on Uproxx’s YouTube.

Ozzy Osbourne died yesterday (July 22), but before he passed away, he had at least one more project in the works: Last Rites, a new memoir, is set for release on October 7 via Grand Central Publishing.

The official publisher’s blurb reads:

“At the age of sixty-nine, Ozzy Osbourne was on a triumphant farewell tour, playing to sold-out arenas and rave reviews all around the world.

Then: disaster.

In a matter of just a few weeks, he went from being hospitalized with a finger infection to having to abandon his tour – and all public life – as he faced near-total paralysis from the neck down.

LAST RITES is the shocking, bitterly hilarious, never-before-told story of Ozzy’s descent into hell. Along the way, he reflects on his extraordinary life and career, including his marriage to wife Sharon, as well as his reflections on what it took for him to get back onstage for the triumphant Back to the Beginning concert, streamed around the world, where Ozzy reunited with his Black Sabbath bandmates for the final time.

Unflinching, brutally honest, but surprisingly life-affirming, Last Rites demonstrates once again why Ozzy has transcended his status as ‘The Godfather of Metal’ and ‘The Prince of Darkness’ to become a modern-day folk hero and national treasure.”

It also has a quote from Osbourne: “People say to me, if you could do it all again, knowing what you know now, would you change anything? I’m like, f*** no. If I’d been clean and sober, I wouldn’t be Ozzy. If I’d done normal, sensible things, I wouldn’t be Ozzy. Look, if it ends tomorrow, I can’t complain. I’ve been all around the world. Seen a lot of things. I’ve done good… and I’ve done bad. But right now, I’m not ready to go anywhere.”

This follows Osbourne’s previous books: Ordinary People: Our Story (co-authored with his family), I Am Ozzy, and Trust Me, I’m Dr. Ozzy: Advice From Rock’s Ultimate Survivor.

“Changes” is a clear outlier in the Black Sabbath discography: Instead of guitar-driven metal/rock, it’s an emotional piano ballad. That made it the perfect song for Coldplay’s Chris Martin to use to honor the late Ozzy Osbourne, who died yesterday (July 22) at 76 years old.

Coldplay performed in Nashville last night, and early in the show, Martin took a moment to pay tribute to Osbourne (here’s a video), saying, “We’d like to dedicate this whole show to the incredible genius, talent, and character-full gift to the world who was Ozzy Osbourne. We send our love to his family.” Then, Martin, at the piano, performed a quick and stripped-down rendition of “Changes,” which opens, “I feel unhappy, I feel so sad / I’ve lost the best friend that I ever had / She was my woman, I loved her so / But it’s too late now, I’ve let her go / I’m going through changes / I’m going through changes.”

After finishing, Martin concluded, “Ozzy, we love you, wherever you’re going.”

In his 2010 autobiography I Am Ozzy, Osbourne discussed the song’s genesis, writing (as American Songwriter notes)

“We wanted to impress ourselves before we impressed anyone else. If other people happened to like what we were doing, that was just a bonus. That’s how we ended up doing songs like ‘Changes,’ which didn’t sound like anything we’d ever done before.

When a lot of people hear the name ‘Black Sabbath,’ all they think of is the heavy stuff. But there was a lot more to us than that — especially when we started making an effort to get away from all that black magic sh*t. With ‘Changes,’ Tony [Iommi] just sat down at the piano and came up with this beautiful riff, I hummed a melody over the top, and Geezer [Butler] wrote these heartbreaking lyrics about the breakup Bill [Ward] was going through with his wife at the time. I thought that was brilliant from moment the we recorded it.”

Ozzy Osbourne, the iconic lead singer of Black Sabbath who also experienced significant solo success and became a pop culture icon beyond the worlds of metal and rock music, is dead at 76 years old.

A statement from his family reads (as The Guardian notes):

“It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.”

A cause of death has not been revealed, but in 2020, Osbourne revealed he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

Osbourne’s death comes just weeks after Back To The Beginning, the benefit concert that was billed as featuring Black Sabbath’s final performance. Indeed, it ended up being the last time Osbourne took the stage.

Osbourne discussed life and death in a 2023 interview with Rolling Stone UK. Reflecting on the deaths of peers like Motörhead’s Lemmy and UFO bassist Pete Way, he said, “I should have been dead way before loads of them. Why am I the last man standing? I don’t understand any of it. Sometimes I look in the mirror and go, ‘Why the f*ck did you make it?!’ I’m not boasting about any of it because I should have been dead a thousand times. I’ve had my stomach pumped God knows how many times.”

He added, “I don’t fear dying, but I don’t want to have a long, painful, and miserable existence. […] At best, I’ve got ten years left and when you’re older, time picks up speed.”

The headliners for the 2025 Afro+ Fest (pronounced “Afro Plus”) in Washington, DC have been announced. Sunday, August 31, 2025, at RFK Festival Grounds, Gunna and Afropop star Asake will headline a lineup featuring a diverse array of diaspora artists, including rising local rapper Foggie Raw, Jamaican dancehall singer Shenseea, DMV area hero Shy Glizzy, and Swazi house DJ Uncle Waffles.

Called in its press release the “East Coast’s first large-scale festival dedicated to the full spectrum of global Black music and culture,” the festival is the culmination of a decade of efforts by the organization to highlight and unify African diaspora culture through community events. To that end, Afro+ Fest will feature a wide spectrum of music from hip‑hop and R&B to Afrobeats, amapiano, dancehall, and soca.

In the press release, Afro+ founder Michael Awosanya says, “This is the block party we’ve dreamed about for a decade… “The festival’s impact will be felt not only through the music, but in the real opportunities it creates for local businesses and visionaries.”

For more on headliner Gunna, check out Uproxx’s first-ever Visionaries cover story and performance here

Tickets are on sale now. You can find more info here. See below for the full lineup.

Afro+ Fest 2025 Lineup

Gunna
Asake (closing the festival)
Gabzy
DJ Tunez
Foggie Raw
Machel Montano
Ricky Platinum
Shatta Wale
Shenseea
TXC
Uncle Waffles
Wande Coal
Special Guest: Shy Glizzy

Deftones have a new album, private music, on the way, but that’s not all Chino Moreno and company are cooking up: Today (July 22), they announced the lineup for the sixth edition of their Dia De Los Deftones festival.

Aside from Deftones themselves, the lineup features Clipse, 2hollis, Rico Nasty, Deafheaven, Régulo Caro, Ecca Vandal, Glare, and University.

This year’s event goes down on November 1 at Petco Park in San Diego. Ticket sales start with an artist pre-sale on July 23 at 10 a.m. PT, followed by Live Nation, Ticketmaster, and other presales on July 24 at 10 a.m. PT. Then the general on-sale kicks off July 25 at 10 a.m. PT. More information can be found here.

Find Deftones’ upcoming tour dates below.

Deftones’ 2025 Tour Dates

08/22 — Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
08/24 — Edmonton, AB @ Rogers Place
08/25 — Calgary, AB @ Scotiabank Saddledome
08/27 — Winnipeg, MB @ Canada Life Centre
08/29 — Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center
08/30 — Milwaukee, WI @ Fiserv Forum
09/01 — Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center
09/03 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Stadium *
09/05 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Stadium *
09/07 — Quebec City, QC @ Videotron Centre
09/08 — Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
09/10 — Cleveland, OH @ Rocket Arena
09/11 — Baltimore, MD @ CFG Bank Arena
09/13 — St. Louis, MO @ Enterprise Center
09/15 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
09/17 — Kansas City, MO @ T-Mobile Center
09/19 — Atlanta, GA @ Shaky Knees Music Festival
09/20 — Louisville, KY @ Louder Than Life Festival
10/03 — Sacramento, CA @ Aftershock
11/01 — San Diego, CA @ Dia De Los Deftones

* with System Of A Down

private music is out 8/22 via Reprise/Warner Records. Find more information here.

Earlier this year, Lil Tecca returned with the single “Dark Thoughts,” kicking off the rollout for his new album, Dopamine, which also included a fun single called “OWA OWA.” Now, he’s bringing these songs — along with the rest of the album — to a city near you with The Dopmaine Experience tour. Kicking off in late September, the 28-date tour picks up where his currently running European tour leaves off, running through November.

The presale for tickets starts on Wednesday, July 23rd at 10:00 AM local time, while the general sale begins Friday, July 25th at 10:100 AM local time. You can find more information here.

Lil Tecca The Dopamine Experience 2025 Tour Dates

09/24 — Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway
09/26 — Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall
09/27 — New York, NY @ Hammerstein Ballroom at Manhattan Center
09/30 — Washington, DC @ Echostage
10/01 — Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
10/02 — Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore Charlotte
10/04 — Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy
10/05 — Orlando, FL @ The Vanguard
10/06 — Miami Beach, FL @ Fillmore Miami Beach
10/07 — St Petersburg, FL @ Jannus Live
10/09 — Houston, TX @ Bayou Music Center
10/10 — Dallas, TX @ South Side Ballroom at Gilley’s Dallas
10/11 — San Antonio, TX @ Boeing Center Tech Port
10/15 — Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theatre
10/16 — Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues Anaheim
10/17 — Riverside, CA @ Riverside Municipal Auditorium
10/19 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Novo
10/20 — San Diego, CA @ SOMA – Mainstage
10/21 — San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
10/24 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Rockwell at The Complex
10/26 — Denver, CO @ The Mission Ballroom
10/28 — Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater
10/30 — Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Theatre
10/31 — Chicago, IL @ Salt Shed
11/01 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE
11/02 — Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theatre and Ballroom
11/04 — Toronto, ON @ Rebel
11/07 — Montreal, QC @ L’Olympia