So far, Sound Check host Jeremy Hecht is four-for-four with guessing our guests lifetime anthems, breezing through picks from G-Eazy, Rico Nasty, and Big Sean, but this week, he’s got a new challenge: deciding which song was chosen by the three members of The Lox.
Of course, Jadakiss, Styles P, and Sheek Louch also face the challenge of choosing between two tracks to agree upon by consensus in the first six rounds. This turns out to be extra challenging in the third round, when Jeremy plays them “Shook Ones Pt. II” by Mobb Deep and “C.R.E.A.M.” by Wu-Tang Clan, as Jadakiss comes up with some solid reasoning for his pick, but Styles and Sheek end up divided by their love of both songs.
They also take on some viral new-school tracks from Gelo and Doechii, where Sheek is overruled by his bandmates over the two throwback singles, making Jeremy work overtime to clock their collective taste. “I thought this was gonna be more fun than this,” Kiss jokes, referring to how tough the choices have been. This show is fun, but it’s a thinker too; who’s next to challenge Hecht and have their own taste challenged? Stay tuned!
Watch Sound Check with Jeremy Hecht and The Lox above.
Brooklyn band Sunflower Bean’s biggest breakout to date was 2018’s Twentytwo In Blue and the trio has kept it rolling since then. They followed with Headful Of Sugar in 2022, and now their fourth LP, Mortal Primetime, is out in a matter of days.
The new album comes after a tumultuous period for the group, as members faced personal challenges and changes, but ultimately found their way back to each other. The result is an album with one foot in the past and another in the future, using an amalgamation of classic influences to create something novel and determined.
Ahead of the album’s upcoming release, the band’s Julia Cumming, Nick Kivlen, and Olive Faber sat down with Uproxx to talk about AI, sinus infections, tattoos, and more in our latest Q&A.
What are four words you would use to describe your music?
Faber: Sexy drama rock n roll
Cumming: What Olive said!
It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?
Cumming: A remnant of human tangibility.
Faber: What Julia said!
Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?
Faber: There are so many. For me, Lou Reed is always a guiding light. He was a deeply flawed person but had so much transcendent humility, beauty and love in his art.
Cumming: It’s hard to say one person, but glam rock as a genre was very inspirational for me, especially as a child. That spirit stays with me in every performance.
Where did you eat the best meal of your life and what was it?
Faber: Every Sunday, I try to get together with my family and friends to make meatballs and sauce, nothing beats it.
Kivlen: Luv2eat Thai in LA, it’s super affordable and incredibly delish. Definitely order the crab curry.
Cumming: Tsubaki in LA. Their short rib made me ask the waitress if other people think that’s the best short rib they’ve ever had… I then became known as “the short rib girl.”
Tell us about the best concert you’ve ever attended.
Faber: One of the best was Broncho’s fake last show in Brooklyn in 2022. They played for 2 hours, they blew through most of their catalog Ramones style, barely saying a word. It was so cathartic and I’ve never been to another show where the crowd is bouncing for an entire 120 minutes.
Seeing DIIV and other local bands play DIY venues when I was in high school was incredibly inspiring. It showed me that you could create a magical transformative performance in even the most humble places.
Cumming: Iggy Pop, Desert Daze 2017. Performance perfection. Everything you need from a show which isn’t pyrotechnics or LED screens. Just a living legend screaming into the void and making us all feel a bit less alone.
What song never fails to make you emotional?
Cumming: “Twilight” by Elliott Smith.
Faber: “Candy Says” by The Velvet Underground.
Kivlen: “Dancing Queen” by ABBA.
What’s the last thing you Googled?
Faber: What is the hot key for fades in Ableton
Kivlen: “What is a sinus infection?”. We’re on tour and all battling different illness, it’s hard to keep who has what straight.
Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?
Faber: Yeah, there’s been so many. What comes to mind right now is when we stayed in this random guy’s studio in the sketchiest part of Vancouver. I remember it being so dusty and smoky in there and we were all just sleeping on the floor. The guy told us to make sure we keep the door locked, because the day before someone came running in with their finger chopped off, bleeding profusely.
Cumming: Oh my God, that’s a crazy question. We’ve slept on so many floors. We used to get so sick, it only ended when we stopped sleeping on the literal ground all the time. One time, Nick and I put some jackets on some amps and tried to sleep on them so we weren’t on the floor.
What’s your favorite city in the world to perform and what’s the city you hope to perform in for the first time?
Faber: New York City is the best city in the world. I’d love to play in Brazil one day.
Cumming: I love to perform in Japan, they are so kind and great listeners.
What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?
Faber: You’re a girl, and you should probably address that.
Cumming: You don’t need to listen to what everyone else says, they don’t necessarily know more than you.
Kivlen: Don’t take any specific music or song too seriously, let them breathe and change. Work on songwriting everyday. There is no limit or secret trick to being creative besides hard work.
What’s one of your hidden talents?
Faber: Not hidden, but cooking. I love to cook, it’s like making music but more quickly gratifying and delicious.
Cumming: I’m very good at picking restaurants! And ordering. Does that mean I’m good at eating?
Kivlen: My hidden talent is painting and crafts. I don’t post them anywhere or do anything with them. It’s something I do purely for my own enjoyment and creativity.
If you had a million dollars to donate to charity, what cause would you support and why?
Faber: I would create a totally free HRT access situation. Build our own labs, and have our own doctors and scientists, and get the gender-affirming care to everyone and anyone who needs it.
Kivlen: I would donate to the Palestinian people.
Cumming: There’s a million answers to this question, but I would start with funding programs that support extracurricular studies and activities for the public school students of New York City. They are our future and deserve everything.
What are your thoughts about AI and the future of music?
Faber: We have to resist AI. It’s funded and invented by the billionaire lizard class. It also is substantially worse for the environment than most things. We need to hold on to humanity.
Cumming: As of now, I think AI has the capability to be a tool for usefulness in lots of directions. But I think you have to continuously rally against it with your own efforts of finding serendipity, and use its predictability to find ways to be more creative as a human being.
Kivlen: I honestly don’t know enough about it to have any opinion, I still don’t understand how it’s different than any other computing process. The people who seem interested in developing it, I don’t trust.
You are throwing a music festival. Give us the dream lineup of 5 artists that will perform with you and the location it would be held.
Faber: The Ramones, Broncho, Tonstartssbandht, Pure X, and The Roches in my backyard on Long Island
Cumming: DEVO, CHER, IGGY POP, MADONNA, B52’S!
Who’s your favorite person to follow on social media?
Faber: My girlfriend.
Kivlen: All my amazing musician friends on TikTok. I love the music community on there, it’s very creative supportive and funny.
What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?
Faber: I have one tattoo. It’s the trans icon on my wrist. My ex got a stick-and-poke kit and I asked her to do it randomly one night. It was the first one she ever did. I love it.
Cumming: I have a tattoo that says “life’s a gas” after the T-Rex song. I’m a huge glam rock fan. Sometimes I think it’s silly I have the word “gas” on my body, but sometimes I think it’s cool, too.
Kivlen: My most prominent tattoo was done by a South Korean artist named Git B. It’s an abstract piece that she designs beforehand. You don’t see it until you get it. I absolutely love all her work.
What is your pre-show ritual?
Kivlen: If we’re in a town with friends, I like to have a party environment in the green room. I love hosting.
Cumming: 1 and 3/4 sugar free Red Bull, 1/4 tequila.
Faber: Center myself, drink a Red Bull, take a shot.
Who was your first celebrity crush?
Cumming: Mike Nesmith from The Monkees
Faber: Rachael Ray, which is super embarrassing, but I loved the Food Channel growing up and would always watch 30 Minute Meals.
You have a month off and the resources to take a dream vacation. Where are you going and who is coming with you?
Faber: Probably upstate NY, just hanging with friends, maybe build a studio, record a record, and eat lots of good home-cooked food.
Kivlen: I like to do a road trip vacation, or a really long stay somewhere remote. Have lots of friends come throughout the time.
What is your biggest fear?
Cumming: Wasting time or talent with ungratefulness or unworthiness.
Faber: Succumbing to the fear. It can be exhausting, but you have to keep going.
Kivlen: Getting bit by a tick with Lyme or dying in a car accident.
Mortal Primetime is out 4/25 via Lucky Number Music. Find more information here.
Over the weekend, I was given the privilege of attending Davido’s intimate underplay show here in Los Angeles, where he previewed songs from his upcoming album, 5ive. While he did play the expected singles, such as the previously released “Funds” and “Be There Still,” the AfroFuture headliner also gave the small crowd a preview of other songs from the album. It’s a pretty good project.
Last night, Davido shared the tracklist for 5ive, which not only includes the aforementioned singles, but also has tracks featuring the likes of Becky G, Musa Keys, Omah Lay, Shenseea, Victony, Victoria Monét, YG Marley, and more. “What songs are you excited about????” he asked of his 16 million followers on Twitter (never calling it “X,” be serious!). On Instagram, he shared a short video in which he walks across a desert alone until being flanked by dancers in colorful, furry costumes. “Legacy is not what you leave behind,” he writes in the caption. “But what you breathe into the future.”
The Afrobeats star is hosting his release party for the album in London, and will return to the UK in July for a stadium show in Tottenham, but for now, hasn’t revealed tour dates for 5ive just yet. That gives us even more to look forward to. For now, check out the tracklist below.
5ive is out 4/18 via Columbia Records, Sony Music Entertainment, and Davido Music Worldwide. Get more info here.
One of the unexpected standout albums of 2024 was MIKE & Tony Seltzer’s Pinball. Pairing the normally low-stakes New York abstract rapper’s blunted musings with the Brooklyn producer’s more raucous audio backdrops, Pinball turned out to be an endearing subversion of audience expectations and an adventurous leap forward stylistically for MIKE.
Apparently, it worked so well, we’re getting a sequel. Today, MIKE and Tony released “Prezzy,” the kinetic first single from their upcoming joint project, Pinball 2. The song, which is co-produced by Clams Casino, is named after the Rolex Presidential watch and sees the usually introspective MIKE do some flexing, comparing himself to Tony Soprano, with one verse and a familiar anti-authoritarian refrain.
In the video, MIKE and Tony get tatted up and hang around a gas station late at night as MIKE delivers his uncharacteristically upbeat bars to the camera. You can watch it above.
Due on May 7 via 10k, Pinball 2 will feature co-production from Akachi, Dylvinci, Ivvys1, and MIKE himself. MIKE produces alongside Tony for the first time as DJ Blackpower. Pinball 2 is the prolific rapper’s second project of the year, following Showbiz!, his 10th solo album to date. He’s also headed on tour; you can find the dates below.
Pinball 2 is due on 5/7 via 10k Projects. You can find more info here.
MIKE Tour Dates
4/16 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church ! % ^
4/17 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat ! % ^
4/18 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
4/19 – Charlotte, NC @ The Underground ! % #
4/20 – Charleston, SC @ Music Farm ! % #
4/22 – Tampa, FL @ Crowbar ! % #
4/23 – Miami, FL @ Gramps ! % #
4/24 – Orlando, FL @ The Abbey ! % #
4/25 – Jacksonville, FL @ Underbelly ! % #
4/26 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse % * ~
4/27 – Birmingham, AL @ Workplay Theatre @ *
4/29 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Resonant Head @ *
4/30 – Dallas, TX @ Tulips $ @
5/1 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall (Upstairs) $ @
5/2 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk Outside $ @
5/3 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger $ @
5/5 – Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress $ △
5/6 – Phoenix, AZ @ Walter Studios $ △
5/7 – San Diego, CA @ Quartyard ♜ !
5/8 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Belasco ?
5/9 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst (Atrium) ♜ !
5/10 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall ♜ !
5/11 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s € + &
5/13 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl + &
5/14 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile + &
5/15 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre + &
5/16 – Boise, ID @ Shrine Basement + &
5/17 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Soundwell + &
5/18 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre + &
5/20 – Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck + &
5/21 – Omaha, NE @ Reverb Lounge + &
5/22 – Minneapolis, MN @ Amsterdam £ ^
5/23 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall £ ^
5/24 – Indianapolis, IN @ HI-FI £ ^
5/25 – Detroit, MI @ El Club ?
5/27 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop £ ︎
5/28 – Toronto, ON @ The Opera House £ ︎
5/29 – Montreal, QC @ Fairmount Theatre £ ︎
5/30 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club £ ︎
5/31 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza ?
? Very special guests
! Sideshow
% Niontay
^ semiratruth
# El Cousteau
* Mercury
~ Stahhr
@ Salami Rose Joe Louis
$ Liv.e
△ Ritchie
♜ Maxo
€ Camden Malik
+ Anysia Kym
& duendita
£ Navy Blue ︎ Mike Shabb ︎ 12k Gotti
Lorde recently indicated that some new music might be on the way, and she hasn’t made any sort of official announcement yet, but we do have some more indication.
As Billboard notes, Lorde just sent a three-minute audio message to fans via WhatsApp. The message (listen to it here) starts with Lorde speaking about communication and going to Coachella, and then she ends by saying:
“I just wanted to say hi because everything is about to change and these are really the last moments where it’s just us, which is crazy [laughs]. But so right, I’m so ready. I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to say that, but I am. I’m so thankful for your patience. I’ve felt your love, I’ve felt you right there. And yeah, this is gonna be crazy. You have no idea [laughs]. OK, I love you so much. I’ll talk to you soon.”
Find a full transcript of the audio below.
“Oh my god, hi. I’m so glad I have your number now. I was really just like, ‘We have to be able to talk like this.’ This is what I’m… this is how I’m messages all day. I’m in the zone of not wanting to think too hard about how to communicate. I don’t want to be stressing about capturing the moment, the right language. What if it’s just about saying it, maybe getting it wrong, that being OK, you know. I think there, you know, there definitely will, there will be a place for the newsletter, because I love to write stuff, so much. But let’s just try this for a sec.
OK, I went to Coachella this weekend. Very fun. I was definitely feeling extremely seedy yesterday, but… well, just ashy, it’s like ashy energy. But it was cool, I like, you know, going into it, like having this little, this little taste out, this like 15 seconds. I was, you know, like I could feel it behind me and I was walking out over to the stage at dusk, thinking about all the Coachella’s that I’ve been at, you know, across like 12 years, and just thinking about how it’s this thing that can really make you, like, lose yourself. It’s so crazy and there’s all these people around and da da, know, everyone’s running around, but I felt so real and so solid, and like… yeah, I can just feel all that I kind of shared to be able to be in this, the way I am right now. It’s like it’s dusk in the desert. F*cking enjoy a bit, you know?
Anyway, I just wanted to say hi because everything is about to change and these are really the last moments where it’s just us, which is crazy [laughs]. But so right, I’m so ready. I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to say that, but I am. I’m so thankful for your patience. I’ve felt your love, I’ve felt you right there. And yeah, this is gonna be crazy. You have no idea [laughs]. OK, I love you so much. I’ll talk to you soon.”
It’s not Valentine’s Day anymore, but you can still enjoy “Candy Gum.”
Emotional Oranges originally released “Candy Gum” featuring Jessie Reyez and Becky G on February 14, and now there’s a retro music video for the sweet and sensual song from the R&B duo.
Emotional Oranges’ Vali told Rolling Stone that “Candy Gum” is “one of my favorite songs off our debut album, so bringing it to life with Becky and Jessie was a dream,” continuing, “They’re not just badass performers, they’re kind, humble, and the most fun to work with. Literal icons. The video feels bold, sexy, beautiful, and unapologetically us… just waiting on Tarantino to turn it into a feature film.”
Reyez teased that there’s an intro they filmed that she hopes is released someday. “That sh*t was a movie,” she said. “We look like Charlie’s angels. Except instead of saying anything, we’re there to f*ck sh*t up.”
As for Emotional Oranges’ aforementioned debut album, the group’s Azad teased, “It’s one of those deserted island albums (prepare for a juicy cliche!) that if you found 50 years in the future, it’d paint an accurate picture of what growing up in the 2000s would sound like. And you’re getting it from 2 different perspectives from opposite coasts. Buckle up, buddy!”
A few days ago, content creator Shawn Vandergriff took to Facebook to share an illustration (AI-generated, it appears) of his Mount Rushmore of white rappers, and the fictitious landmark includes rocky renderings of Eminem, Mac Miller, Paul Wall, and Russ.
Since then, the post had made the rounds online and some rappers have even chimed in. That most notably includes Machine Gun Kelly, who couldn’t believe he didn’t make the cut: “me not on the white rapper mt rushmore is blasphemy,” he tweeted.
Russ also commented on his inclusion, tweeting, “someone with a Facebook tell me how insane the comment section is [crying-laughing emojis].”
As for that comment section, the post generated plenty of feedback and debate. One user wrote, “With no MC search or beastie boys, this list is invalid.” Another said, “Its Eminem and all 3 Beastie Boys. Thats the only right answer.” Somebody else commented, “They forgot action bronsen.” Another user wrote, “Vanilla ice walked so they could run.” Somebody else wrote, “Man I love hip-hop from the roots up. But if you think Paul Wall is top 4 white rapper all time I don’t value your opinion.” Another said, “Eminem, MC Serch, Soul Khan, Action Bronson, El P, Lil Dicky, Aesop Rock, Yelawolf, Beastie Boys.”
Addison Rae is still best known as a TikTok star, but that should change on June 6. That’s the day her album drops, and based on early singles “Diet Pepsi,” “Aquamarine,” and “High Fashion,” she’s the real deal. Rae has a new single dropping this Friday, “Headphones On,” which she’s promoting the same she did with her album release date announcement at Coachella: on her underwear.
“Love you Coachella be right back!!!!!!” Rae wrote in a post she recently uploaded to Instagram. There’s also a photo dump, including one where she’s wearing pink and white underwear with the words “so I put my headphones on.” Those appear to be lyrics from “Headphones.”
The cheeky promo campaign didn’t stop there. News.com.au reports that Rae was spotted this week “climbing out of a car in Beverley Hills as she was heading to lunch with a friend… As she walked away from the cameras, she pulled up her dress to reveal her bright pink underwear underneath. The undies, sporting ‘So I put my headphones on,’ had ridden up her backside.”
If the paparazzi are going to follow you everywhere, might as well use it as an opportunity to promote your album. It’s cheaper than a billboard.
Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon found himself in the Taylor Swift universe in the early 2020s when he and Swift collaborated on two of her songs: “Exile” from Folklore and the Evermore title track. It turns out, though, that those songs actually got their start in Vernon’s realm.
Vernon sat down with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe for an interview that was shared yesterday (April 15), and in it, Vernon explained:
“Right in February there, we were going to go on a tour. This is 2020, so the timeline’s a little fuzzy, but stay with me. […] So Andrew Fitzpatrick, who was playing guitar in Bon Iver, was going to have a baby in April, did have a baby. And we were out a guitar player for our big European run that we were going to do for IMI. And I asked Aaron [Dessner], so Aaron was flying out to gigs, he was listening and rehearsing. He was in. And what we were going to do is have Aaron go out to the middle of these arenas and just play demos of Big Red Machine, new stuff. […] And then March 12th, the NBA season is cancelled and COVID really trips up. And so that tour pretty quickly gets cancelled. And it’s a brick wall for everybody, especially in music. […]
Somewhere around that time, like everybody, like me, Aaron was going on Instagram Live and just playing stuff he’s been working on, because I think we just needed to share. And Taylor heard it. Again, all the glory goes to Taylor for hearing, as a songwriter, what music she wants to make, but those songs are Big Red Machine demos at their core.”
He continued, “Her genius was working with the genius of Aaron Dessner on making the strongest set of lyrics and songwriting that she’s ever had, really. And so during that process, I’m just sort of watching it happen. And to me, it was very much like seeing Taylor enter our whole universe. Of course, there’s no one bigger and we all bowed down to her, you know. But to see her come into that, it was almost like I couldn’t stop blinking. […] And then Aaron hits me up and is like, ‘So Bud-o, I think there’s a song that Taylor would like you to sing.’ And I was like, ‘Taylor?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, I haven’t told you yet, but [we’re] taking some of the songs and she’s writing to them.’”
Musicians are seemingly lining up to have their lives turned into a film. But legendary group TLC has already crossed that off their storytelling list back in 2013. So, the “Waterfalls” musicians had to find another creative outlet to document their professional journey–a theatrical production
After years of teasing, TLC’s “mostly” autobiographical musical CrazySexyCool has an official premiere date. Yesterday (April 15), producer Bill Diggins’ Diggit Theatrical Group announced the piece will make its theatrical debut in 2026 at Washington, DC’s Arena Stage.
Written and directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah (One Love: The Bob Marley Musical) and choreographed by Chloe Davis (Gypsy), Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, the late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas’ tale of sisterhood, “defiance, triumph, and love” will be put on full display as soundtracked by their hit “Waterfalls,” “Creep,” “Unpretty,” and “No Scrubs.”
In a statement shared with Billboard, Diggins, T-Boz, and Chilli expressed their excitement for the production.
“TLC completely changed the game,” said Diggins. “Their music gave a voice to women everywhere, empowering them to be confident and unapologetic. But this isn’t just a story about the music; it’s about the sisterhood between these women and what kept them together through both unimaginable challenges and chart-topping success.”
T-Boz chimed in to say: “Bringing this story to the stage is a dream come true. We have performed in a lot of different venues all over the world throughout our career, but bringing our story and music to the theater is a totally new and exciting challenge.”
That notion was echoed by Chilli. “We have some of the best people in the business working on this project,” she added. “Audiences will get to hear our story – mostly fact with a sprinkle of fiction – told in our own way, and of course it’s set to all your favorite hits!”
CrazySexyCool – The Musical will show at Arena Stage’s Kreeger Theater in Washington, DC, between June 12 and August 9, 2026. Find more information here.
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