Category: Viral

The world’s biggest Afrobeats festival, Afro Nation, is heading home. Throughout the year, the multi-day event has had stops in Detroit, Miami, and Portugal. But come this December, the live performance movement will make its highly-awaked return to the continent of Africa. The dates for Afro Nation Nigeria 2023 have been revealed, and Burna Boy will be one of the featured headliners.

In a posting on Instagram, the organization revealed that the festival will take place on December 19 and 20 in Lagos at the Tafawa Balewa Square. J Hus, as well as Black Sherif, are also slated to perform at the festival.

Afro Nation became an international hit due to its incorporation of music genres across the diaspora, including Afrobeats, Afro-fusion, Amapiano, R&B, hip-hop, and more. Although the full lineup hasn’t been shared, judging by the melting pot of entertainers that appeared at the festival’s other installment earlier this year, Afro Nation Nigeria 2023 should be equally as diverse.

On the event’s website, organizers did reveal a tidbit about what ticketholders should expect. According to a note on the main webpage, due to the predicted influx of attendees, there will be a bevy of viewing areas to ensure everyone can glance at the main stage performances.

Afro Nation Nigeria 2023 has begun VIP pre-sales for users subscribed to their email newsletter. General sales will begin soon. Find more information here.

The mystery of why some songs endure forever while others are quickly forgotten is commonly believed to have two explanations. The first explanation is that in order to stand the test of time a song must reach the cultural zeitgeist, a magical level of popularity that transcends mere chart success to attain near-universal adoration. (Think almost everything by The Beatles or Thriller.) The second explanation is that a song is so artistically brilliant that even if isn’t popular in its time future generations will come to affirm its excellence. (Think the Velvet Underground or almost every once-obscure shoegaze and slowcore band from the ’90s.)

But what if there is also a third way? And what if that third way somehow violates the first two explanations for musical immortality? I refer to a song that didn’t transcend mere chart success to reach a commonly recognized pop-culture zenith, nor was even remotely artistically notable or critically acclaimed in its time or in retrospect. A song that is ordinary in every way, and yet has achieved extraordinary streaming numbers. A tune we all thought we forgot about but can, when prompted, instantly remember, word for freaking word, whether we like it or not? (At least the chorus, anyway.)

I refer to “Rude,” the (lone) hit by the Canadian pop-reggae band Magic!, originally released 10 years ago this fall.

Just by typing that sentence, I have instantly inserted “Rude” into your head and my head and all the other heads that made the mistake of reading this column. I can preemptively sense the hostility that is bound to come my way from the masses. To which I can only reply: Why you gotta be so rude? Don’t you know I’m human, too?

There are many things I could say about “Rude.” It is a gently rocking ditty about asking your girlfriend’s father for his daughter’s hand in marriage. In the context of the music video, it is also a song about interracial romance and an endorsement of doing the Watusi as your first wedding dance. Musically, it is a handy tool for explaining the difference between “catchy” and “good.” It boasts possibly the most incompetent guitar solo in an ostensibly “professional” musical context ever. It makes Canada’s other famous reggae-tinged export, 1992’s “Informer” by the pop-rapper Snow, sound like Desmond Dekker.

To understand “Rude” you must hold two thoughts in your head simultaneously: It stinks, but it’s also weirdly difficult to hate. I can’t be mad at it, no matter how much it annoys me. You can love “Rude” because it makes you happy, and you can also love “Rude” because it’s very enjoyable to make fun of. Either way, you’re completely chillaxed when this song is on.

Which is why, for me, “Rude” is the best worst song of the 21st century so far. It’s the kind of harmlessly silly one-off that we once took for granted, and now seems like a rarity in pop.

Here’s another thing about “Rude”: It has crazy legs. Way crazier than you probably imagine. If I may speak in the parlance of “Rude”: The streaming numbers truly put the song in “another galax-saay!” On Spotify, “Rude” has been streamed 1.2 billion times. The figures on YouTube are even more astronomical — people have watched the music video for “Rude” 2.4 billion times, and left more than 251,000 comments.

It makes sense that fans of “Rude” most often enjoy it with the (unintentionally hilarious and unexpectedly charming) video, which really takes the song to the next level. Taking it in as “just” an audio experience makes those streaming numbers much harder to comprehend.

The debut single by a group fronted by the journeyman songwriter and producer Nasri Atweh (Justin Bieber, Chris Brown), “Rude” was meant to introduce the world to what Atweh described as his “modern-day Police” sound. That was the nice way to put it; the not-nice classification for Magic! would be “cod reggae,” a derogatory term coined in England back in the ’70s to describe a slick and pop-friendly form of reggae typified by Eric Clapton’s mild cover of Bob Marley’s “I Shot The Sheriff.” The Police is one of the more credible bands to garner the “cod reggae” tag; it’s also been applied to The Clash’s “Guns Of Brixton,” Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me,” and the many “reggae-ified” covers of ’60s pop classics by UB40.

By the mid-2010s. the “soft-rock steady” of “Rude” was also associated with more recent precedents like the patois-heavy pop-punk of Sublime, the well-groomed jam band O.A.R., and the sandy-sandaled singer-songwriter Jack Johnson. It’s not a sound that was trendy at the time, nor was it trendy at any time in music history. But it is, paradoxically, always at least a little bit popular. Like I said, this kind of music makes people feel good, even if they’re embarrassed to exclaim “say yes say yes” when it comes on in a crowded room.

But it’s in the video that “Rude” becomes something else entirely. We see Atweh doing some awkward quasi-skanking as the rest of Magic! jams out to “Rude” in a garage. This is intercut with a straightforward depiction of the song’s narrative: Atweh sets out to visit his girlfriend’s parents in order to make his proposal. He claims to have put on “my best suit,” but we can plainly see that he’s wearing a leather jacket and T-shirt, which immediately establishes him as an unreliable narrator. (I’m tempted to call Atweh the “Randy Newman of cod reggae,” but that would be too idiotic even in the context of this column.)

What’s more crucial is that we can also see that Atweh is Palestinian, and his girlfriend is a Caucasian blonde, and that the dad looks like Mitt Romney. While the lyrics to “Rude” never spell out the reason why the dad rejects Atweh as a suitor for his daughter, the video subtly implies that race might play a factor. This is reiterated later in the video when the dad encourages his daughter to date a straight-laced white guy, which she rejects. Ultimately, after the dad shoots down one more request from Atweh for his blessing, he follows through on his threat to “marry her anyway.”

(It’s also possible that I’m reading too much into this and the dad simply has a prejudice against pop-reggae singers, which might be the only acceptable form of prejudice.)

When I wrote about “Rude” in the summer of 2014 — when it finally became a slow-burn smash after being re-released that winter, eventually peaking at No. 1 for six weeks — I never thought that people would still care about this song well into the next decade. What could possibly explain the enduring popularity of this dopey little tune? I headed to the YouTube comments section of the “Rude” video to search for clues that might explain the phenomenon. I expected to find viewers paying tribute in half-serious, half-snarky fashion. (Kind of like what I’m doing right now.) What I actually found were shockingly earnest expressions of longing.

Can we bring this back? This feeling? This music? This vibe. The world needs more of this.

After 9 years, still one of the best songs out there, wish we could go back to the 2010’s.

I miss the days when this song could be played on the radio more than 100 times every 5 minutes. Could we please bring this back?

No matter how many times i listen to it never get old forever a masterpiece.

The sentiment I saw the most — aside from the inevitable “Can we bring this back?” nostalgia — was “This song does not get old.” There are two ways to interpret this statement. The first is: This song does not sound dated. And I think that’s right. “Rude” does not sound like a typical hit from the summer of 2014, and it doesn’t sound like a typical hit now. And that plays to its advantage, especially when you compare to other hits from that time like Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” and Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy,” which scan as “extremely mid-2010s” in a way that “Rude” doesn’t. All cod reggae hits pretty much sound the same no matter what decade they come from, which gives them a surprising timelessness.

The second way to interpret “This song does not get old” is: I never get sick of this song. This one is harder for me to fathom, but I think I get it. “Rude” came out of arguably the last great era of one-hit wonders, when acts like Gotye, Foster The People, Passenger, Walk The Moon, and scores of others came out of nowhere, dropped a massively impactful earworm, and then disappeared off the face of the planet. These artists were different in every way save one: They were unpretentious fodder for ubiquitous spins on mainstream pop radio stations. They demanded nothing of the audience other than their superficial enjoyment. If you are inclined to view this era via a nostalgic lens, it seems like the last moment of innocence before the arrival of Donald Trump and a new era of extreme seriousness in pop, when even Katy Perry felt compelled to comment on the state of the world. Magic! is the purest manifestation of this frivolous time. The exclamation point says it all — this was exuberance for the sake of exuberance, evincing a shameless naïveté that once was standard in pop and now seems refreshing.

These days, one-hit wonders are increasingly rare as the charts are dominated by the most entrenched pop-star nation-states. The obvious exception in 2023 is Oliver Anthony, the lightning-rod Americana singer who came out of nowhere, dropped a massively impactful earworm, and may or may not disappear off the face of the planet in the near future. Only Anthony is a hit for the same reason that seemingly everything breaks through now — he’s a tool of the culture war whose song “Rich Men North Of Richmond” can either be enjoyed or hated as a means of inflaming the emotions of whomever you’re opposed politically.

If “Rude” came out today it would be immediately interpreted by one side as an important statement about identity and by the other side as a “woke” anthem. The dad’s resemblance to Mitt Romney in the music video would be celebrated as cutting satire by some and cruelly divisive by others. “Rude” wouldn’t be allowed to just be a dumb pop hit that everybody has heard way too many times. It would have to mean something. And that is the kind of song you get sick of very quickly.

Thankfully, this was not the fate of “Rude.” It remains frozen in ember, a stupidly beautiful butterfly caught in mid-flight from a distant time too pure for the bitter modern world.

The new season of Wheel of Fortune already has a blunder for the ages. During Monday night’s episode, iconic and outgoing host Pat Sajak had to inform a contestant that they just missed a puzzle letter with their brutally incorrect answer. It was pretty rough

After Vanna White turned over all but one of the letters, the board read, “DINING IN THE DINING _ AR” for the category “What Are You Doing?” That category name would prove to be wildly prescient as contestant Jessica Washington went for the solve and whiffed it.

According to TV Insider, Washington guessed, “Dining in the dining jar,” which was obviously not correct as the next contestant went right for the “C” and nailed the correct answer, “Dining in the dining car.”

Over on social media, Wheel Watchers couldn’t believe what they just saw. The shocked reactions and jokes started flying after watching Jackson miss such an easy clue. Although, at least one Wheel of Fortune fan came to Jackson’s aid.

“To be fair, I’m pretty sure the last time anyone dined in the dining car was 1954,” Flannery O’Gooner tweeted.

You can see more reactions below:

With only one letter left in the puzzle, Jackson’s blunder seemingly tops a missed guess back in March where a contestant failed to win a million dollars and a European vacation when the board read, “A ROARING FIRE IN THE FIRE _ _ A _ E.”

(Via TV Insider)

There’s a new Spotify feature in town: Jam. So, what is it?

Spotify introduced Jam in a blog post today (September 26) and described it as “a personalized, real-time listening session for your group to tune into together,” adding, “Jam builds on some of our popular social features and combines them with our personalization technology to take real-time listening with pals to the next level.”

Head here for specifics on how to use Jam, but broadly speaking, it works like this: One user (who must have a Premium account) sets up a Jam and invites other users (Premium or not) to join it. Then, all users can add new songs to the queue, allowing people to come together and craft a shared playlist as a team. The user who created the Jam has a bit more control, though, as they’re able to decide what users are allowed into the jam, change the order of songs, and remove songs from the queue.

Spotify explains in the blog post, “There are few things more powerful than connecting over a shared love of music. So over the past few years, Spotify has unveiled a wide range of new features, including Collaborative Playlists and Blend, that make sharing the music you love easier than ever. […] Today we’re introducing Jam, a personalized, real-time listening session for your group to tune into together. Jam builds on some of our popular social features and combines them with our personalization technology to take real-time listening with pals to the next level. […] Get ready for a deeper way to connect through the artists, songs, and albums that unite you — and to discover some unexpected gems with those around you.”

Check out Spotify’s promo video about Jam above and learn more about Jam here.

Stevie Nicks has already toured throughout 2023, and now, she’s giving fans across the US more chances to see her perform live. Nicks unveiled eight new dates for next year, starting in February at Atlantic City’s Mark G Etess Arena. She will also be joined by Billy Joel once again, but just for the March 9th date in Arlington, Texas.

Tickets for the new shows go on sale this Friday, September 29 at 10 a.m. local time. Nicks will also be playing shows through the rest of 2023, including this weekend at Madison Square Garden. A list of remaining 2023 dates, along with information on purchasing tickets, can be found via Live Nation’s website.

As for other things Nicks has been up to, she released a career-spanning limited vinyl box set over the summer, including a compilation of Rarities with over twenty songs.

Continue scrolling for the complete list of Stevie Nicks’ 2024 Live In Concert tour dates.

02/10/2024 — Atlantic City, NJ @ Mark G Etess Arena
02/14/2024 — Belmont Park, NY @ UBS Arena
02/21/2024 — Greenville, SC @ Bon Secours Wellness Arena
02/24/2024 — Hollywood, FL @ Hard Rock Live
02/28/2024 — New Orleans, LA @ Smoothie King Center
03/03/2024 — Omaha, NE @ CHI Health Center
03/06/2024 — North Little Rock, AR @ Simmons Bank Arena
03/09/2024 — Arlington, TX @ AT&T Stadium*

* with Billy Joel

6lack and Jessie Reyez look to work their magic for a third time on their upcoming single, “Homicide.” The two artists previously worked together on the songs “Imported” and “Forever“; today, 6lack posted a teaser for “Homicide” on his Instagram page, promising to complete “the collab trilogy.” Along with the moody cover art, he shared clips of the videos from the pair’s previous output, as well as an offer for “more surprises this week & all through tour season.”

“Forever” appeared on Reyez’s most recent album, Yessie, while “Imported” appeared on her debut studio album, Before Love Came To Kill Us in 2020. Her most recent collaboration with another R&B star has also been making waves; “Jeans” featuring Miguel came with a spicy video complementing its explicit content.

Meanwhile, 6lack is around six months removed from his most recent full-length release, Since I Have A Lover. The album spawned a handful of singles including the title track, “Talkback,” “Fatal Attraction,” and “Preach.” 6lack has since been preparing for his Since I Have A Lover Tour, which starts in Portland, Oregon on October 1 and runs through November 24 in his hometown, Atlanta. Then, he’ll hop the pond for a series of European shows beginning in February of 2024.

“Homicide” is out this Friday, September 29. You can pre-save it here.

(Obviously, spoilers about Daryl Dixon will be found below.)

Norman Reedus is having the time of his life with his solo The Walking Dead spinoff. He’s not only frontman but executive producer, so he made numerous decisions related to the production, including who’s involved. Reedus agreed to make Daryl Dixon on the condition that frequent franchise director and veteran makeup effects creator Greg Nicotero was on board. And Reedus is also a massive fan of a French performer who had never watched The Walking Dead, but that apparently didn’t matter. Reedus wanted a part written for them, and then he fanboyed out when they appeared on set.

As it turns out, Reedus loves to watch Drag Race, and he specifically wanted Paloma (who won the first season of Drag Race France) on the show in a role focused on the Moulin Rouge-like realm of the Parisian underworld.

Paloma recently spoke with Digital Spy and admitted, “I have to confess I haven’t seen The Walking Dead.” Yet the phone rang one day for a “meeting” and not an “audition,” and when Paloma showed up, this happened:

The casting director told me, “There is no one else in mind for the character. It’s for you. I’ve been waiting for you.”

So I passed the test. It was good for them. And the first day of shooting? Norman [Reedus] just jumped on me, gave me a big hug, and was like, “Oh my God. I’m so happy to meet you. I’m a fan.”

Later, in my dressing room, the scriptwriter told me that Norman asked them to write a part for me. He told me Norman is a very big fan of Drag Race in general, but of France in particular.”

Not only that, but Paloma revealed that Reedus really wants to invite RuPaul onto his Ride With Norman Reedus series, so hopefully, they can make that happen. Also, I hope they make sure that Keanu Reeves is still happily hanging around because I need to hear that whole conversation go down. Additionally, actor Diane Kruger (Reedus’ wife) reached out to Paloma to declare, “Norman was so happy. We have seen every episode of Drag Race.” Alright, that is officially too wonderful. We’re talking about a post-apocalyptic world! I’m not mad, though.

AMC’s The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon airs on Sunday nights.

(Via Digital Spy)

Apparently, “Slime You Out” rapper Drake is going against his 2010 cardinal mantra: never home but always repping. Yesterday (September 25), when his It’s All A Blur Tour stopped at the State Farm Arena, the proud Toronto, Canada, native bestowed a rather cherished title onto the city of Atlanta.

In between songs, Drake took a moment to share his thoughts on the region’s impact on hip-hop culture.

“What would any of us be without Atlanta? All the love that you’ve shown, all the musicians that you birthed, all the contributions that you give. This is hands-down the most important place in rap music. And you should be very proud of yourselves,” declared the entertainer.

Although the sold-out crowd cheered in agreement, others had mixed reactions to the claim once the fan-captured clip was shared on social media.

“Aubrey is no different from a politician,” declared one user, referring to critics that Drake panders to every city he visits.

“Anyone that doesn’t say New York is hallucinating,” barked one user.

“But if it wasn’t for the Bronx, this rap sh*t would probably never be going on, so tell ’em where you from,” proclaimed another.

Despite the overwhelming pushback on his commentary, several users still agreed with Drake’s remarks.

“He is telling the truth. Unfortunately, Drake says this everywhere he goes,” wrote a user.

“He’s got a point. Atlanta has had a hold on rap music for at least 15 years as a collective,” penned one user.

The show featured guest appearances by his On The Radar freestyle collaborator Central Cee, Twitch streamer Kai Cenat, and Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young.

As if Rudy Giuliani wasn’t already up to his neck with legal fees, the former Donald Trump attorney is now being sued by Hunter Biden for allegedly hacking his infamous laptop and other devices.

According to the lawsuit, Giuliani and his former attorney Robert Costello are accused of spending several years “hacking into, tampering with, manipulating, copying, disseminating, and generally obsessing over data that they were given that was taken or stolen from” Biden. The suit alleges that the duo’s actions caused the “total annihilation” of Biden’s digital privacy.

Aiding the lawsuit is the fact that Giuliani has “not only admitted but bragged about downloading data,” which was easily proved by highlighting just one of the many, many times Rudy opened his mouth.

Via CNN:

As an example, they pointed to an episode of Giuliani’s podcast ‘America’s Mayor Live’ in February 2023. According to the lawsuit, in a video of the podcast, Giuliani “held up a laptop computer on camera and announced: ‘This belongs to Hunter Biden.’”

“He proceeded to brag about having copied Plaintiff’s data onto his own computer and about having accessed, analyzed and manipulated the transferred data,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit is part of a more aggressive move by Hunter Biden who is going after his Republican detractors. Before targeting Giuliani, Hunter sued former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler for spending his post-administration free time trying to access Hunter’s devices.

“Everyone involved in stealing and manipulating Hunter’s data should be hearing footsteps right about now,” a source on Hunter’s legal team told CNN.

(Via CNN)

Yesterday, Paramore sent fans into a spiral after posting a cryptic teaser to social media. The post featured a screen recording of the notes app, as the following was typed out: “RE: This Is Why… 9.28 – This Is Why… 10.2 – Why Is This?… 10.6 – Is This Why?” While the first part referenced the band’s album, This Is Why, that dropped in February, many have been wondering what the shifted titled on October 2 and October 6 could mean.

The primary fan theory is that Paramore would be dropping a deluxe version of the album — on at least one of the dates. Or maybe a single announcement before the deluxe drops.

Another one floating around is that they could release potentially two additional new projects with the listed titles.

Finally, some fans believe that a documentary is on the way. “Once again choosing to believe doc and TIW Deluxe are incoming. perhaps a live album to accompany the doc. source: myself,” one user wrote.

Another opted for some math to prove this, pointing out, “10.2… 10×2 = 20… Paramore have been a band for 20 years next year in conclusion October 2nd is the documentary announcement.”

Whatever it turns out to be, fans are on the edge of their laptops.

View Paramore’s teaser post above. Continue scrolling for some additional fan reactions.

Paramore is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.