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The BTS Army is still elated over Jung Kook’s new single, “Dreamers,” which was released this past weekend ahead of the FIFA World Cup. On Sunday (November 20), he performed the song at the games’ opening ceremony.

The song is an empowering anthem, on which, Jung Kook sings about perseverance.

“Look who we are, we are the dreamers / We make it happen, ’cause we believe it / Look who we are, we are the dreamers / We make it happen ’cause we can see it,” he sings on the song’s chorus.

In the song’s new accompanying video, Jung Kook is seen dancing in the streets of Qatar, celebrating with the city’s people. Qatari singer Fahad Al Kubaisi joins in on the bridge of the song, basking in the beauty of his home country.

In a recent interview with Weverse, Jung Kook said that listening for the mood of a song helps him get into the zone to record it in the studio.

…[T]o put it simply, I’d say I sang ‘For Youth’ in a very sorrowful way, ‘Run BTS’ in a way that sounds like we did a long time ago and ‘Yet To Come’ with a similar feeling to ‘Life Goes On,’” he said. “I kept thinking I wanted to try recording again. I think I could do better, just that things were a little hectic when we recorded.”

Check out the video here.

Saweetie made a recent appearance on the Bootleg Kev Podcast to share her thoughts about the state of current rap music. Specifically, the California native spoke about how she feels that women are dominating the current game in major cities, including Los Angeles.

“I mean, LA and other cities, it just goes to show that this is the reason why women is running rap and hip-hop,” Saweetie said (as HipHopDX notes). “Because there’s just so much violence and disrespect in the male music. You gotta think, like, remember, what was it, like ’16/’17, remember when like YG, Tyga, Chris [Brown], Big Sean, TeeFlii was out? It was fun, party music.”

“It wasn’t like, ‘I’ma do this to you, and this, and this,’ you know? I feel like we gotta raise the vibration with the music and get back to having a good time,” she added. “Empathy and love, for real.”

While it might have been perceived as “party music,” it’s worth noting that Saweetie not connecting Brown and Tyga with violence and disrespect in music is an… interesting list. Between Brown’s lengthy history and Tyga’s 2021 felony domestic violence arrest, they certainly haven’t been raising the vibrations for a while.

However, to give credit, Saweetie has also spoken in the past about specifically which female rappers have influenced her — from Lil’ Kim, Foxy Brown, Missy Elliott, and Nicki Minaj. “I’ve always liked their demeanor. I know that when they step into the room, you can just feel that boss-ness. They just always felt so powerful to me,” she told Apple Music last year.

Long live Virgil Abloh: Following the one-year anniversary of the fashion designer and entrepreneur’s passing, some of the biggest names in music are coming together to keep his legacy going.

As a driving creative force in fashion, visual arts, and music, Art Basel will host the inaugural Mirror Mirror Festival to honor the late culture innovator’s life. The one-day event is set to take place on December 3 at the FPL Solar Amphitheater in Miami, Florida.

The festival is curated by Benji B and will center on a mixture of Abloh’s passions, including music. The accompanying concert will be headlined by former collaborative partners Travis Scott and Skepta. Although this isn’t Travis Scott’s first performance since last year’s AstroWorld tragic, based on the relationship the pair had during Virgil’s life, this seems to be the most emotional.

Additional performers include Yves Tumor, Pedro, Venus X, BAMBII, Rampa, and Acyde. Festival curator Benji B will also share the stage with the featured musical acts for a guest DJ set.

According to the festival’s website, all net profits earned from the tribute will be used to launch The Virgil Abloh Foundation next year.

To purchase tickets for the Mirror Mirror Festival, click here.

At this point, Donald Trump’s tax returns — much like Donald Trump himself — are a bit like a mythical beast in that you’re not entirely sure their existence isn’t some giant hoax. But for those who still care and/or are interested, including Jimmy Kimmel, the Supreme Court might just have gotten us one step closer to actually seeing what the hell is hiding in the former president’s financial records.

As Kimmel shared on Tuesday night:

We may actually, finally, maybe get to see what Darth Tax Evader has been hiding from us. The Supreme Court today ruled against him and they denied Trump’s request to stop Democrats in the House from examining his taxes. The ruling was unanimous; there were no dissents. You know it’s bad when even Clarence Thomas is like, ‘I’m out, bro. You’re on your own on this one.’

Trump, of course, is not happy with this ruling. Because, as Kimmel noted, “as he told us many, many times, he was planning to release them himself.” The late-night host then shared a compilation video starting back in 2014 and going all the way through to 2020 in which the former (and sometimes, within the context of the video, current) president shares how willing and “proud” he’ll be to release his tax returns — if only he weren’t being audited.

“He promised to release these tax returns more times than he promised to release Melania,” Kimmel joked. “Like 10,000.” (You can watch the full Trump segment above, beginning around the 2:20 mark.)

Meanwhile, Kimmel continued, Fox News seemed more interested in turning centuries-old presidential traditions into a scandal. Over on Laura Ingraham‘s show, they were aghast that the presidential turkey pardon took place on the same day as the delivery of the White House Christmas tree. My stars!

“The turkey pardon had barely happened, or it was barely finished, when Jill Biden went out to receive the White House Christmas tree,” lamented Ingraham’s guest. “At this rate, New Year’s Eve could be coming tonight at midnight! I mean, can we take a breath between the seasons?!”

Admittedly, even Ingraham seemed to realize that this bit of performative outrage was a little desperate — her main contribution was adding in a few gasps and eye rolls. As Kimmel pointed out, “maybe the funniest part of Fox complaining about the White House skipping Thanksgiving and going straight to Christmas: Earlier that night, they had a big show of lighting the Fox Christmas tree, complete with Santa and top-quality Christmas-themed merch.” And one evil Grinch co-host (a.k.a. Jesse Watters).

TikTok is great (hear me out) because when someone has a really good storytime, there is no telling where it will go. For instance, a man named Ron Clark recently decided to tell his tale of a fateful Dunkin’ Donuts shift that landed him in the ER…and he told this edge-of-your-seat story by rapping it (rhymes and all!)

After pulling a last-minute shift, Clark was bored with his co-worker when he decided to play hide and seek, which sounds dangerous to do in a kitchen filled with hot coffee and sharp knives, but hey, you have to learn somehow. He sang, “I went inside to find a place to hide, I’m very competitive and that’s not a lie. I saw the oven and I knew I could fit. I thought like that because I’m an idiot.” If your first thought is “I can fit in this oven,” maybe it’s best to have someone with you to tell you that that is not a very good idea.

But! It gets worse. Clark sang, “The oven stayed on all day it was always hot. It’s where we cooked our muffins, brownies, and croissants. And so I crawled inside and I pulled closed the door, and then I realized you cannot open an oven door from the inside,” in an effort to have the best hiding spot in the history of hide and seek, Clark had locked himself in the oven. If you can believe it, it gets even worse.

Clark yelled to his co-worker for help, “I quickly knew what had to do, ‘Ryan crawl through the drive-thru!’” In a stunning turn of events that mimics a Spongebob Squarepants episode, Ryan was then stuck in the drive-thru, while Ron was stuck in the oven. So who was manning the Dunkin’ Donuts counter?! Nobody! Are you on the edge of your seat yet? Does this type of thing ever happen at Starbucks?

The duo ended up in the ER, where Clark said most of his hair had burnt off, but they survived and he did not get fired… just lightly toasted…. get it?!

The moral of the story here is that it’s probably not a good idea to play hide and seek in a Dunkin’… unless you are Ben Affleck. He could probably pull it off.

(Via Mashed)

After Sam Bankman-Fried got blasted in court for using FTX as his own “personal fiefdom,” the embattled crypto bro issued an apology of sorts to employees. While Bankman-Fried regrets some of the decisions he made leading to the exchange’s embarrassing billion dollar crash, he spent most of the mea culpa pointing fingers elsewhere.

Specifically, Bankman-Fried railed against the new management’s rush to file for bankruptcy, which he previously complained about in a series of frank and potentially incriminating, surreal direct messages to reporters following his ouster.

Via The Guardian:

“We likely could have raised significant funding,” he wrote. “Potential interest in billions of dollars of funding came in roughly eight minutes after I signed the chapter 11 docs. Between those funds, the billions of dollars of collateral the company still held, and the interest we’d received from other parties, I think that we probably could have returned large value to customers and saved the business.

“An extreme amount of coordinated pressure came, out of desperation, to file for bankruptcy for all of FTX – even entities that were solvent – and despite other jurisdictions’ claims … I reluctantly gave in to that pressure, even though I should have known better; I wish I had listened to those of you who saw and still see value in the platform, which was and is my belief as well.”

Bankman-Fried blamed an $8 billion liability that he just kinda forgot about it because it was old. What Bankman-Fried didn’t mention in the apology is that the $8 billion hole was a result of FTX’s hedge fund Alameda Research, where The Guardian reports “deep-rooted mismanagement resulted in billions of dollars of cash being waylaid.”

If you haven’t picked up on it by now, “mismanagement” has been a recurring theme since the FTX crash, which could have potentially devastating impact on the crypto market. When new FTX CEO John J. Ray III took over the company after Bankman-Fried was removed, he didn’t hold back describing the chaos he found.

“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here,” Ray said in legal fillings. “From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented.”

(Via The Guardian)

Vladimir Putin’s disastrous war is financially draining Russia, which isn’t even the worst of it, given the enormous loss of life (including many, many Russians) over in Ukraine. He’s apparently so upset about his manpower losses, which show that “boots on the ground” isn’t exactly working out. With Ukrainian cities completely out of reach in that regard, he resorted to launching missiles into Kyiv, where he killed multiple civilians, including a newborn, and knocked out utilities to the area. His increasing desperation has led to nuclear chatter, and we’ve also heard that his dwindling supply of allies is heading into “civil war” while it becomes obvious that this war is a huge mistake.

To that end, there’s some armchair psychology going on from Putin’s present foes. Ukrainian presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovich believes that Putin’s recent strategic moves reflect his fear of clear-and-present danger on his end. In other words, Putin knows that if he loses this disastrous war, his life is on the line, via The Independent (and according to The Times):

“[Putin] is very afraid because there is no forgiveness in Russia for tsars who lose wars,” Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, told The Times.

“He is fighting for his life now. If he loses the war, at least in the minds of the Russians, it means the end. The end of him as a political figure. And possibly in the physical sense.”

From there, it’s no wonder that word is leaking out that Putin’s inner circle is privately bemoaning an impending loss, although we’ve heard (for much of this year) that they’re attempting to figure out who might succeed Putin after this war finally ends (and not well for Russia). In the meantime, Ukrainian citizens and Russian soldiers continue to suffer while it looks like this war will drag on into 2023.

(Via The Independent)

Following the death of his Migos bandmate, Takeoff, earlier this month, Offset has taken to Instagram to share another tribute to the late rapper.

In his post, Offset shared an image of his cousin, smiling while dressed in a blue suit, matching suspenders, and gold chains.

“Missing everything bout you specially that smile,” he said in the post’s caption.

This is the second tribute Offset has shared since Takeoff’s death. Earlier this month, after Takeoff’s funeral, Offset wrote on Instagram, saying, “The pain you have left me with is unbearable. My heart is shattered and I have so many things to say, but I can’t find the words. I’ve been going to sleep and waking up hoping that all of this is a dream, but it’s reality, and reality feels like a nightmare.”

Takeoff’s other Migos bandmate, Quavo, with whom Takeoff had just released a joint album called Only Built For Infinity Links, also shared a tribute to Takeoff on Instagram after his funeral. He recalled that he didn’t like calling Takeoff his nephew, despite the face that he was his sister’s son.

“…you are OUR angel watching me and watching us this whole time in living form,” Quavo said. making sure EVERYONE FELT UR LOVE AND HUGS while u here and u made our dreams come true.”

Things are not looking good for Ticketmaster right now. They company has been under intense scrutiny since they faced substantial issues with the launch of tickets for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour. A Justice Department investigation was apparently ongoing before all this happened, but now Congress is set to take a closer look at them, too: US Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) (who are Chairwoman and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee On Competition Policy, Antitrust, And Consumer Rights) announced yesterday (November 22) that they will hold a Congressional hearing to “examine the lack of competition in the ticketing industry.”

In a statement shared on Klobuchar’s website yesterday, she said:

“Last week, the competition problem in ticketing markets was made painfully obvious when Ticketmaster’s website failed hundreds of thousands of fans hoping to purchase concert tickets. The high fees, site disruptions, and cancellations that customers experienced shows how Ticketmaster’s dominant market position means the company does not face any pressure to continually innovate and improve. That’s why we will hold a hearing on how consolidation in the live entertainment and ticketing industry harms customers and artists alike. When there is no competition to incentivize better services and fair prices, we all suffer the consequences.”

Lee also noted:

“American consumers deserve the benefit of competition in every market, from grocery chains to concert venues. I look forward to exercising our Subcommittee’s oversight authority to ensure that anticompetitive mergers and exclusionary conduct are not crippling an entertainment industry already struggling to recover from pandemic lockdowns.”

A date for the hearing or a list of witnesses have not yet been revealed.

Yesterday afternoon, Stormzy unveiled the complete list of artists he collaborated with for his upcoming album, This Is What I Mean. While their exact contributions to a specific track are still unknown, his record boasts new features from Sampha, India.Arie, Nao, and more.

Other additions to Stormzy’s album include George Moore, Knox Brown, Ayanna, Oxlade, Dion “Chord Lord” Wardle, Scribz Riley, KZ, Tempoe, Ms Banks, Owen Cutts, Ayra Starr, Juls, Joel Peters, Calum Landau, Amaarae, Tendai, Storry, Teni,Grades, Debbie, Elmiene, Jacob Collier, Black Sherif, and P2J.

“My album family,” he captioned the reveal with a heart emoji.

“We’re all musicians, but we weren’t always doing music,” he shared in a previous statement. “Some days we played football or walked around taking pictures. And the bi-product [sic] to that was very beautiful music. Because when you marry that ethos with world-class musicians and the best producers, writers, and artists in the world, and we’re in one space, that’s a recipe for something that no one can really imagine. You can’t even calculate what that’s going to come up with. And it came up with a big chunk of this album.”

Check out the full tracklist below.

1. “Fire + Water”
2. “This Is What I Mean”
3. “FireBabe”
4. “Please”
5. “Need You”
6. “Hide & Seek”
7. “My Presidents Are Black”
8. “Sampha’s Plea”
9. “Holy Spirit”
10. “Bad Blood”
11. “I Got My Smile Back”
12. “Give It To The Water”

This Is What I Mean is out on 11/25 via Def Jam/Interscope. Pre-save it here.