Category: Viral

Last December, Lil Uzi Vert told TMZ that they wanted to at least pause their music career “to make women’s clothes.” Uzi might be using Coachella 2024 for a dry run of their designs. The Philadelphia rapper hasn’t abandoned music entirely, seeing as their main purpose for being at Coachella is to perform this Friday night, April 12, and next Friday night, April 19, but Uzi’s merch is dominating the headlines so far.

Several X accounts (formerly Twitter), including Complex, are circulating photos of Uzi’s merch table at Coachella. A $40 black graphic tee featuring a photo of Uzi above the word “THEMINEM” is for sale. Yes, Lil Uzi Vert turned Eminem’s name into a statement on identity. (Lil Uzi Vert publicly began identifying with they/them pronouns in July 2022.) We should expect nothing less from Uzi, a chronically clever mind.

Eminem should be honored, but at the very least, he can probably appreciate the humor in it. Just last month, Em appeared in a “Dre’s Anatomy” skit on Jimmy Kimmel Live! alongside 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg. He also pulled an April Fools’ Day joke. Not to mention, Eminem posted he’s “looking for Stans” this week as a casting call for his upcoming documentary. Pro tip: Put Uzi in the film.

Peso Pluma is preparing to take the Coachella 2024 stage on Friday night, April 12, and he might have inadvertently dropped a clue about his setlist earlier in the day. Pluma and Arcángel released the video for “PESO COMPLETO,” and its vibe rivals whatever will go down at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California across the next two weekends.

To start, Pluma and Arcángel step into the ring with sumo wrestlers. They’re not planning on wrestling these massive athletes because that would be silly. Instead, they just bop around and rap in the ring in between the action, which is a relatable decision. However, that is pretty much where any relatability ends.

Elsewhere in the video, the Latin superstars throw around thousands of dollars. At one point, Arcángel casually makes it rain while seated on a jacuzzi occupied by a beautiful woman. We then see several more beautiful women in bikinis around Pluma, who raps poolside while holding (yes) a stack of cash. Sadly, nobody ever joins the woman in the jacuzzi, but she’s not totally alone. The video ends with her filing bills into a cash-counting machine and fanning herself with money.

Watch the “PESO COMPLETO” video above.

Future and Metro Boomin are on a heater. We Don’t Trust You, their collaborative studio album that dropped on March 22, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Future and Metro Boomin followed that up with We Still Don’t Trust You, a “completely separate body of work” that’s all but guaranteed to also debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Between the two, Future and Metro Boomin have released 42 songs in three weeks.

Still, Metro Boomin won’t rest.

On Friday evening, April 12, Metro a 65-second visual for “All My Life” featuring Lil Baby — one of 25 tracks from We Still Don’t Trust You. The behind-the-scenes video hits all the appropriate notes for a behind-the-scenes video.

There are various shots of luxurious cars, including but not limited to a Tesla Cybertruck. While someone is lighting up in the studio, Future can’t stop vibing to his own “All My Life” bars about selling out Madison Square Garden while his peers can only sell out Barclays Center, flying to Japan, taking a Xanax (“I’m so f*ckin’ high, I can’t even see straight”), and “Ballin’ on this sh*t like Johnny Manziel.”

Listen to “All My Life” above, and check out the full We Still Don’t Trust You tracklist here.

On Monday, April 8, Billie Eilish finally announced that she will release Hit Me Hard And Soft on May 17 — not only among Uproxx’s “Most Anticipated Albums Of 2024” but also among the most anticipated albums of the past few years. Eilish is aware of the stakes every time she does anything, and that’s especially true with this album.

“I feel like every time you put anything out, it feels like your nudes leaked a little bit, and I think this one, specifically, is like that,” Eilish told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in an interview aired on Friday, April 12.

She continued, “Something that Finneas and I said to a couple of people when we were starting to play it for people was that we kind of made the album that if somebody had said, you know, ‘I want you to make an album, and no one is gonna hear it. You don’t have to worry about anybody else’s ears and their opinion and anything at all. It’s just that you have to make an album. For some reason, it’s in your contract to make one, but no one can hear it.’ We pretty much, with exceptions, made that album. We made an album without really any — or much — thought of other people.”

Eilish’s original announcement was an Instagram post of the album’s cover art alongside the caption, “‘HIT ME HARD AND SOFT’ MY THIRD ALBUMMMMMMMMMMMMM COMES OUT MAY 17THHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHH so crazy to be writing this right now i’m nervyyyyy & exciteddd not doing singles i wanna give it to you all at once :PPP finneas and i truly could not be more proud of this album and we absolutely can’t wait for you to hear it. love you love you love you.”

Watch the Apple Music clip above, and see Eilish’s post below.

Hit Me Hard And Soft is out 5/17 via Interscope. Find more information here.

Earlier this week, Billie Eilish put her fans (and “close friends“) out of their misery and finally announced her next album, Hit Me Hard And Soft, will be released on May 17. Eilish confirmed she’s “not doing singles” during this album cycle, but she did play “like 14 seconds” of an unreleased song snippet for Apple Music’s Zane Lowe on Friday, April 12.

Elsewhere in her interview with Lowe, Eilish explained that “it’s definitely weird” to not have a single to promote ahead of this album’s release because she’s never not released a single ahead of an album, even though she “hate[s] singles.”

Maybe Eilish will scratch the itch to tease Hit Me Hard And Soft in a more roundabout way at Coachella 2024 this weekend — perhaps even with Lana Del Rey?

Will Billie Eilish Perform With Lana Del Rey At Coachella 2024?

The fans are convinced that Eilish will join Del Rey for Del Rey’s headlining set at Coachella 2024 on Friday night, April 12. We must note here that speculation is just speculation, and nothing is confirmed, but there appears to be some evidence that an Eilish cameo is at least a strong possibility.

The X (formerly Twitter) account LDR Crave posted photos of Eilish on stage and wrote, “A little glimpse of Lana Del Rey’s stage for Coachella [eyeballs emoji] seems like Billie Eilish was also seen on Lana’s stage when she was sound-checking yesterday [eyeballs emoji].”

LDR Crave also reposted two other fan accounts claiming that “a worker just told us [Lana is] bringing out Billie” and “SECURITY GUARD JUST CONFIRMED LANA’S BRINGING BILLIE OUT.”

Meanwhile, Eilish posted a pretty photo of the blue sky and palm trees alongside two brown eyeball emojis to her Instagram Story late Friday afternoon, April 12.

If you are having thoughts about taking your own life, or know of anyone who is in need of help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (273-8255) or text “HOME” to the Crisis Text Line: 741741.

There’s an old Hebrew saying that if you “save one life, you save the world entire.” Who knows if Brooke Lacey, 22, had that lofty goal when she began a campaign in 2020 to help uplift people’s spirits during the first COVID-19 wave.

But her kind efforts may have done just that.

Lacey has struggled with mental health issues throughout her life and she knew that people like her were going to have a really hard time during COVID-19 lockdowns. A study from May 2021 found that the New Zealand population had “higher depression and anxiety compared with population norms.” The study also found that “younger people” and “those most at risk of COVID-19 reported poorer mental health.”

To help those who may be struggling, Lacey printed 600 stickers with an uplifting message and posted them around places where people may take their lives, including trains, bridges and large bodies of water in Wellington, New Zealand. She also made a bumper sticker with the same message for her car.

The stickers spoke directly to those who may be contemplating taking their own life. “Please don’t take your life today,” the stickers read. “The world is so much better with you in it. More than you realize, stay.”

Earlier this month, Lacey parked her car in her university’s lot and when she returned to her vehicle to leave, she noticed a note was affixed to the windshield. Thinking it was someone complaining about how she parked or a ticket, she prepared for the worst but wound up being blindsided by the positive message.

A driveru2019s bumper sticker has saved a strangeru2019s life.nnAfter her own battle with depression 22-year-old university student Brooke Lacey was inspired to create a batch of 600 signs to inspire those battling mental illness.nn#StarFMNews919 @Star919FMpic.twitter.com/0SSHhUvyvK

— StarFMNews919 (@StarFMNews919)
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A 22 year New Zealand student called Brooke Lacey, who’d suffered with depression created some bumper stickers to help others who might be going through a similar experience. Recently she found a heartfelt note under her windscreen wiper to thank herpic.twitter.com/kFfu9wtXnN

— Giles Paley-Phillips (@Giles Paley-Phillips)
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“I left my house with a plan and asked for a sign, any sign, I was doing the right thing when I saw your car in the parking lot. Thank you,” the note read. At first, Lacey wasn’t sure what the person was referring to, then she remembered her homemade bumper sticker.

“I had these made so long ago, put one on my car and forgot about them, until now,” she tweeted on her since deactivated account. “I am so glad whoever you are chose to stay today. You never know who needs this reminder.”

Now, it’s unclear exactly what the person’s “plan” was, but there’s no doubt that Lacey’s bumper sticker inspired them to choose life. Let’s hope that the sticker also inspired them to seek professional help for whatever difficulties they are going through.

Whether it was intentional or not, Lacey’s sticker was effective because it followed one of the most important strategies that people use at suicide hotlines. According to Science.org, it’s of utmost importance that people contemplating suicide are handled with “respect and empathy.”

Lacey’s story is a beautiful reminder of the power that one simple, thoughtful gesture can have on another person’s life. Every day, there are people all around us who are looking for a sign to give them a reason keep going. Whether it’s a hug, a smile or the right message in the right place at the right time, we should all be like Lacey and make sure everyone knows that the world is better with them in it. In fact, much more than they ever realize.

This article originally appeared on 02.24.22

For most musicians, creating a hit song and making it big on the international stage would be living the dream. For Gotye, it turned out to be a bit of a nightmare.

Gotye is the stage name of Wouter “Wally” De Backer, the singer-songwriter behind the 2011 smash hit song, “Somebody That I Used to Know.” The music video for the song becoming one of YouTube’s most-liked videos, and with 2.2 billion views, the video could have earned over $10 million in ad revenue.

But De Backer has refused to place ads on it, saying, “I’m not interested in selling my music. That’s the reason I don’t put ads on my YouTube channel, which seems strange to people in today’s climate, but that is a decision you can make. I’m like that with all my music.”

It was the fame that came with the virality of the song that was the bigger issue for the artist, however. It’s a simple enough thing to turn down money, but there’s not much you can do to stop a viral wave.

The song took six months to write and produce, and when the video leaked a week before its official release, it quickly caught fire. At first, De Backer was just excited that his song was being played on the radio. Then the virality online took hold and that was also exciting for a while.

From the start, De Backer was grateful for the song’s success, but he also managed to stayed simple and humble. He didn’t buy anything large or luxurious with the money he made from song sales, being content to drive his old van. And when he was asked what was the best thing that happened in the previous year, he responded, “It probably wouldn’t be anything to do with a marker of success of my song or my album. More something like a really great swim I took at Summer’s Beach near where I live.”

Soon the covers and parodies of the “Somebody That I Used to Know” grew more widespread and the quality of them began to wane, De Backer began to feel “burnt out” on it all. He had no control over people connecting name with whatever they were hearing done to his song, which was frustrating. He started to feel the pressures that come with fame, to have a certain personality or to follow up his huge hit with another huge hit. And he missed feeling like he had a personal connection with his audience, which becomes difficult at a certain scale.

He even began to feel self-conscious about the popularity of the song due to its theme—two people who had broken up and couldn’t work out their differences. The fact that so many people were celebrating it so fiercely was uncomfortable for him; he didn’t want to be responsible for spreading more angst or bitterness in the world. And then came the “overplayed” and “annoying” era of oversaturation. He even apologized to people for having to hear the song so often because radios wouldn’t stop playing it.

Ultimately, he ceased putting out music as a solo artist and focused on making music with his long-time band, The Basics. There is a possibility for another solo Gotye project sometime in the next decade, but he’s probably hoping he doesn’t end up with a big hit next time around.

Watch SunnyV2 tell the story of Gotye’s “one hit wonder” experience and how it impacted his musical career:

It’s a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks they want to be famous or wishes they’d have a song go viral. Parts of that experience can be great, but fame isn’t always everything it’s cracked up to be.

Everyone wants to know how long they will live and there are many indicators that can show whether someone is thriving or on the decline. But people have yet to develop a magic formula to determine exactly how long someone should expect to live.

However, a doctor recently featured on the “Today” show says a straightforward test can reveal the likelihood that someone aged 51 to 80 will die in the near future.

NBC News medical contributor Dr. Natalie Azar was on the “Today” show on March 8 and demonstrated how to perform the simple “sit to stand test” (aka sit-rising test or SRT) that can help determine the longevity of someone between 51 to 80.

The test is pretty simple. Go from standing to sitting cross-legged, and then go back to standing without using any parts of your body besides your legs and core to help you get up and down. The test measures multiple longevity factors, including heart health, balance, agility, core and leg strength and flexibility.

You begin the test with a score of 10 and subtract points on your way up and down for doing the following:

Hand used for support: -1 point

Knee used for support: -1 point

Forearm used for support: -1 point

One hand on knee or thigh: -1 point

Side of leg used for support: -1 point

None

— (@)

A 2012 study published by the European Society of Cardiology found a correlation between the SRT score and how long people live. The study was conducted on 2002 people, 68% of whom were men, who performed the SRT test and were followed by researchers in the coming years. The study found that “Musculoskeletal fitness, as assessed by SRT, was a significant predictor of mortality in 51–80-year-old subjects.”

Those who scored in the lowest range, 0 to 3, had up to a 6 times greater chance of dying than those in the highest scores (8 to 10). About 40% of those in the 0 to 3 range died within 11 years of the study.

Azar distilled the study on “Today,” saying: “The study found that the lower the score, you were seven times more likely to die in the next six years.”

“Eight points or higher is what you want,” Azar said. “As we get older, we spend time talking cardiovascular health and aerobic fitness, but balance, flexibility and agility are also really important,” she stressed.

One should note that the people who scored lowest on the test were the oldest, giving them an elevated risk of death.

Dr. Greg Hartley, Board Certified Geriatric Clinical Specialist and associate professor at the University of Miami, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that we should take the study with a grain of salt. “Frailty, strength, muscle mass, physical performance—those things are all correlated to mortality, but I would caution everybody that correlation doesn’t mean causation,” he said.

And of course, the test doesn’t take into account injuries or disabilities that may make doing the test impossible. But one of the study’s authors says that the study is a call to take our mobility seriously.

“The more active we are the better we can accommodate stressors, the more likely we are to handle something bad that happens down the road,” Dr. Claudio Gil Araujo, told USA Today.

This article originally appeared on 3.10.23

It’s an annual marquee event for J. Cole to take the Dreamville Festival stage. It happened last weekend, as expected. Unexpectedly, however, the biggest headline from Cole’s set was an … apology?

Before performing “Love Yourz,” Cole issued a heartfelt apology to Kendrick Lamar for dissing him on “7 Minute Drill,” a song on Cole’s surprise-released mixtape, Might Delete Later. “7 Minute Drill” was a response to Lamar dissing Cole and Drake on “Like That,” the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit from Future and Metro Boomin’s We Don’t Trust You. Within his apology, Cole said he planned to remove “7 Minute Drill” from streaming services, but did he?

Did J. Cole Remove ‘7 Minute Drill’ From Streaming Services?

As of Friday afternoon, April 12, it would appear that Cole made good on his promise. On Apple Music and Spotify, “7 Minute Drill” is still listed on the tracklist of Might Delete Later but unavailable to stream. The song has been removed from J. Cole’s YouTube page entirely.

At Dreamville, Cole explained that he was “so proud” of Might Delete Later, “except for one part,” which is “7 Minute Drill.”

“It’s one part of that sh*t that make me feel like, man, that’s the lamest sh*t I ever did in my f*cking life, right?” Cole said, in part, later adding, “I felt conflicted because I’m like, ‘Bruh, I know I don’t really feel no way.’ But the world wanted to see blood. So, I say all of that to say, in my spirit of trying to get this music out — I ain’t gonna lie to y’all — I moved in a way that, spiritually, feels bad on me.”

J. Cole surprise-dropped Might Delete Later and seems to have surprised himself more than anybody else. The project included the song “7 Minute Drill,” which was a response to Kendrick Lamar’s verse on “Like That” from Future and Metro Boomin’s We Don’t Trust You. Lamar not-so-subtly dissed Cole and Drake, and Cole hit back with bars like, “Your first sh*t was classic, your last sh*t was tragic / Your second sh*t put n****s to sleep, but they gassed it.” Days later, Cole publicly apologized to Lamar while performing at his annual Dreamville Festival and vowed to remove “7 Minute Drill” from streaming services.

He meant that — and he really took Might Delete Later literally.

As of Friday afternoon, April 12, “7 Minute Drill” is no longer available to stream on Apple Music, Spotify, or YouTube. The song is still listed on the Might Delete Later tracklist, but it’s grayed out with no option to hit play.

“I’m so proud of that project, except for one part,” Cole said on stage at Dreamville, as captured by HipHopDX. “It’s one part of that sh*t that make me feel like, man, that’s the lamest sh*t I ever did in my f*cking life, right?” After acknowledging that a lot of people don’t want to hear an apology or anything to dilute the perception of rap beef, Cole said, “I damn near had a relapse” because of how much it had been weighing on him.

Read more from Cole’s apology below.

“All of this time of me moving on my own accord, for the first time, I was tested. Why am I tested? Because I got the world and I got my n****s like, ‘What you gonna do, Cole?’ Boy, I must have had a thousand missed calls. Oh, my f*cking God. Texts flooded. I couldn’t even answer my sh*t. ‘N****, it’s wartime!’ N****s wanna see blood.

I was conflicted because, one, I know my heart. You know what I mean? And I know how I feel about my peers. These two n****s that I just been blessed to even stand beside in this game, let alone chase they greatness, so I felt conflicted because I’m like, ‘Bruh, I know I don’t really feel no way.’ But the world wanted to see blood. So I say all of that to say, in my spirit of trying to get this music out — I ain’t gonna lie to y’all — I moved in a way that, spiritually, feels bad on me.

I tried to, like, jab my n**** back, and I tried to keep it friendly. But at the end of the day, when I listen to it and when it comes out and I see the talk, that sh*t don’t make me feel right in my spirit. That sh*t disrupts my f*cking peace. So, what I want to say right here tonight is — in the midst of me doing that and trying to find a little angle and downplay this n****’s f*cking catalog and his greatness — I wanna say here tonight, how many people think Kendrick Lamar is one of the greatest motherf*ckers to ever touch a f*cking microphone? Dreamville, y’all love Kendrick Lamar, correct? As do I.”