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Van Buren Records Sneer At Doubters And Reinforce Their Increasing Greatness With ‘DSM’

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Van Buren Records is loudly and proudly a product of Brockton, Massachusetts. The rap collective boasts a roster of thirteen creatives with impressive talents that include rapping, producing, and fashion designing. Luke Bars, Meech, Felix!, Jiles, Saint Lyor, Ricky Felix, Andrew Regis, Kiron, RLouie, Invada, and Shelby have all contributed — through both individual and collective work — to what makes Van Buren Records such an enthralling unit.

The individual members of Van Buren Records have been releasing music for the better part of the past half-decade. However, it wasn’t until last year that they finally united for their official debut album Bad For Press. The 13-track project was, and still remains, a fine display of collaboration, balance, camaraderie, an artistic vision, and [TK]. While some thought that it would be some time before the group offered another body of work, Van Buren Records made a quick return with their second album DSM last month.

An acronym for Dover Street Market, Van Buren Records’ sophomore release reinforces their increasing greatness while also sneering at doubters who questioned if the group had what it took to construct another impressive process. In short, the answer is yes, and in a conversation with Uproxx, Van Buren Records tells us how it all came together.

How would y’all categorize Bad For Press and DSM separately based on their differences?

Luke Bars: [DSM] is the evil twin.

Meech: That’s a good way to put it. They’re both in the same realm; they’re two different energies, two different words, but still us.

Luke: Bad For Press, we were just coming into the industry. DSM is like we’ve seen what’s been going on. We’ve been around. We’re building our own experiences from it and we just put that into the music. You can just clearly see the difference. I don’t want to say it’s dark, you can see that the innocence has been lost a little and that’s not a bad thing.

It took a few years from when y’all first started for the world to get your first formal project with Bad For Press, so I was genuinely surprised to see y’all, who all have individual solo careers you work on, return so quick album No. 2. What made y’all say let’s do this again without much of a break?

Meech: It happened just through momentum swing after the wintertime. People are working on their own things and I think the route of going to do a project again kind of just happened from a conversation in the springtime, like, “Yo, let’s just cook up again, we haven’t done we each other. Get 2-3 records out the way.” Then, honestly, our competitive spirit took over after we made two or three records. Then it’s like, “Yo, let’s just see where we go from here. Just keep knocking sh*t out.” It just happened naturally — it wasn’t like we planned it out. A couple of us dropped singles this year, but aside from that, it just happened because the competitive spirit was like, “Let’s just slap them one more with some sh*t.”

Ricky Felix: People thought we lost it after the first album. People thought that after the first one, we were gonna be one-offs or that they gave us something ill, and then it’s over. So for the past year, we were looking at it like we got to smack these guys in the face with something new, no holding back. We had our convos about it because — I ain’t gonna lie, we were all kinda shook — we were seeing the monthly listeners on Spotify and we were like it’s not the same as when Bad For Press came out. We were all kind of like, do people think we fell off? Do people think that we’re not ill no more? So DSM is really all that anger and that frustration into one project, more aggression over there.

What inspired the title DSM, which is short for Dover Street Market? I think there’s a double entendre there, but why this title?

Ricky: The name of the album came from where we were at that time. We just dropped Bad For Press, we were in LA, and we were traveling a lot. I think it was a mixture of seeing the world, seeing how people dressed and we were trying to get fly. We just culminated our own styles, and on top of that, we wanted to become more individuals with this project. We wanted to really highlight individual artists. We all know as a unit we’re a force to be reckoned with, but now we have to show as individuals that we’re forced to be reckoned with. All that came with the album and it was more of an idea of time in LA, finding that feeling of trying to take that next step into the game, mixed with the music that we created, mixed with the studio space. Dover Street Market really hit both sides of the name: Dover Street Market the store and Dover Street, the street where we had the studio at. It just made sense at that time and it still does.

For me, Bad For Press has the attitude of “yeah, you’re just gonna have to deal with us” while DSM is way more brash and even angry. What things brought us to this approach?

Sheed: When we started out making DSM, we were going into it looking at it like a little EP. As we were building, we were like, “It’s all filling but let’s just see where we end up with it.” Everyone was in such a hungry mode at the time of creating music, it just shows on all the records that were made.

Jiles: With this project, we brought a lot of our own personal records to this project whereas in the last couple of projects we were basically in the studio together. That’s why you kind of see everybody showcase their individual talent more because it’ll be records that Luke brings to the table, Meech brings to the table, or I bring to the table, and then everybody would feed off that artistic energy.

What are some of your favorite verses from the project that are not your own?

Luke: My favorite is Invada’s “Get Money” verse.

Meech: I like Jiles’ “The Source” verse.

Jiles: I like Felix’s “BFM” verse.

Sheed: Felix’s “Back Door”

Meech: His “Back Door” verse is there too. I mean Felix’s verses – “BFM,” “Aye God,” “The Army, The Navy.”

I love the mention of rap greats and just rap moments overall, what about them made it necessary as moments to have on DSM.

Saint Lyor: I don’t know, like with “Movin’ Like Pac,” I was just going through a phase. Tupac is a very controversial figure. Seeing a black man exist in the way he was existing during that time, there’s just a lot to learn from — his good and his bad. I guess I was just in a moment where I was just studying his rising and it kind of just bled into the song and the creation of it for me.

Jiles: When Tedd [Boyd] gave me that beat, obviously it’s a boom-bap beat, so obviously I started to think about ’90s stuff. I’ve always been interested in the Source Awards, obviously with it being close to home with Benzino and them. If you’re from Massachusetts, you kind of know a little bit of the origin of it. There are negative aspects of it, like the famous Source Awards and the beef behind those award shows. So I just tried to approach it by talking about a historic time in hip-hop that relates to our state. That’s how I approach that record.

Just like with Bad For Press, DSM ends on a calmer note with “Go,” “God Talking,” and “If My Sins Were Good.” Is the decision to pull the reins at the end an intentional one?

Luke: I just think it happens that way. I don’t think we went into it intentionally. I put it in the group chat like, “Yo, this has to be the outro.” When everyone heard it, it just had that feeling. It just made sense and when everyone else put in their verse on it, it was just a testament to that. Felix gave us a two-minute verse, and none of us were mad. When it’s something like that, you can’t fight against it.

Meech: It’s just in our DNA. There’s some sense of consciousness even on the turnt records, you’ll catch a bar here and there. I think that’s just our DNA, that’s just what makes VB “VB” to me. So that’s why Bad For Press had that feeling and it came naturally back into this one. We talk about real sh*t every day, it’s just the conversations you’ll get within a sitting with VB.

Jiles: We love post-production and structuring our albums. Even after we’re done making albums, I think that’s one of my biggest arguments, album placement and what song goes where. We all love making albums, so we want them to be as cohesive as possible. I think that’s why you usually find those softer, deeper records toward the end of the project.

What’s something that’s absolutely important for a new fan or someone still understanding y’all to know about this project and things going forward?

Ricky: That muhf*ckas is ill with each other and by themselves. It don’t matter what room you put them in, they always gonna eat. We came in as a collective, but before that, we were all individual artists that merged into one group. Out the gate, everyone had their own unique style, unique sound, and their own vibe. For a new fan, I would tell them that you can love the VB album, but make sure you tap in with the individual projects that are about to come out because it’s going to be just as good, if not a whole lot better than what we can do with each other. Now it’s self-expression, now you get to take full control of your art. So when you see that, it’s like, okay, what Luke got? What Jiles got? What Felix got? Meech? What y’all got by yourselves, what y’all thinking about? It’s gonna be very important once these individual projects come out and that expression gets to creep through the window.

DSM is out now via Van Buren Records/Good Partners. You can stream it here.

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The ‘House Of The Dragon’ Producers Were Not Prepared For Matt Smith’s Daemon To Become The ‘Internet’s Boyfriend’

In the original Game of Thrones series, characters were often warned that “The night is dark and full of terrors.” Well, the same holds true for the internet as the creative team behind House of the Dragon is finding out. Despite knowing full well that they cast beloved actor Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen, what they didn’t expect is for that love (and lust) to completely overlook every awful thing the ruthless prince does on the show.

Executive producer Sara Hess and director Clare Kilner recently opened up about watching House of the Dragon fans go nuts for Daemon in ways that Hess didn’t expect. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

He’s become Internet Boyfriend in a way that baffles me. Not that Matt isn’t incredibly charismatic and wonderful, and he’s incredible in the role. But Daemon himself is … I don’t want him to be my boyfriend! I’m a little baffled how they’re all, ‘Oh, daddy!’ And I’m just like: ‘Really?’ How — in what way — was he a good partner, father or brother — to anybody? You got me. He ain’t Paul Rudd.

Kilner, on the other hand, understands the appeal despite how awful Daemon can sometimes be on screen. Turns out his mischievous smile can go a long way in setting fire to one’s loins even after all of the murder.

“Matt is such a risk-taker in his performances and he’s got that little smile and, you know … you can’t help it!” she said. “He is charismatic. People love a baddie.”

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

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Lil Nas X, Carly Rae Jepsen, And Muna Played Headliner-Worthy Sets At ACL Fest 2022

The Austin City Limits Music Festival is, like the majority of music festivals, made up of several stages. Unlike most festivals, however, there’s a literal divide between the biggest stages and a smaller stage in the form of a road. But don’t let the size of the Barton Springs Stage, named after the best spot to take a dip and go sunbathing in the Texas capitol, fool you: it hosted two of the best performances during ACL Fest 2022.

Muna and Carly Rae Jepsen were booked only for weekend one of the two-weekend festival, but both acts brought enough energy to last several weeks. Muna is a force for good in this world, with members Katie Gavin, Josette Maskin, and Naomi McPherson preaching joyfulness and tolerance, especially for the LGBTQ+ community. They also make powerfully infectious indie-pop. On the energetic “What I Want,” Gavin regrets that she’s spent “too many years” not knowing what she wants, but she’s “gonna make up for it all at once.” That’s the kind of energy Muna brought to the mid-afternoon set; it was a safe space for dancing on your own.

That was true for Carly Rae Jepsen, too. The beloved-yet-still-underappreciated pop icon is touring behind her sixth album, The Loneliest Time, which comes out this Friday. (Yes, the same day as Taylor Swift’s new album, as she joked during the show.) She played six songs from the record, including the jubilant single (and hopefully a setlist mainstay) “Talking To Yourself” and the live debut of the title track, her yearning duet with Rufus Wainwright. But the biggest pops from the packed, eager crowd were for “Run Away With Me,” the best song on her best album (and for my money, the best pop album of the 2010s); the bluntly horny “Want You In My Room”; and “Cut To The Feeling,” the euphoric set closer. “Sing along with me! Because it is, in fact, the law,” Jepsen joked before launching into “Call Me Maybe,” her breakout single that’s better than 98 percent of all pop music but is only her, like, 12th best song. Speaking of queer icons who have defied the “one-hit wonder” label they were nearly imprisoned by…

Lil Nas X’s hour-long set was structured in three acts, REBIRTH, TRANSFORMATION, and BECOMING, complete with costume changes, backup dancers, and a prop golden horse. The rapper and social media expert is much more than his record-setting biggest hit, with four other singles that have cracked the Billboard Hot 100 top-10, but it was still a risky move to not save “Old Town Road” for the end of the set. Instead, it appeared during Act 1, potentially risking a mass exodus once the casual festival audience heard the one song they were for (this, sadly, happened for Carly Rae post-”Call Me Maybe”).

But, at least around me, no one moved. Everyone was there for Lil Nas X’s full set, not one song. The patience paid off: he delighted the crowd with a spirited and strained-voice rendition of “That’s What I Want,” interpolations of “Get Ur Freak On” by Missy Elliott and “Pony” by Ginuwine (with pelvic thrusts, naturally), and stage designs seemingly inspired by Lisa Frank folders and Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. Near the end of the show, the background screen read, “Long live Montero.” Long live Lil Nas X.

At one point, Lil Nas X acknowledged that he hadn’t played in Austin since 2019. “If I don’t see y’all for another three years,” he added, “I hope y’all have the motherf*cking best years of all time.” At the very least, Lil Nas X, along with Muna and Carly Rae Jepsen, gave three of the motherf*cking best sets at ACL 2022.

The ACL Music Festival will return to Austin on October 6-8 and 13-15 in 2023.

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Stewie Becomes Obsessed In Episode 400 Of ‘Family Guy,’ Inspired By Taylor Swift And Selena Gomez’s Fans

Family Guy is one of the longest-running shows in TV history: It’s been airing on-and-off since 1999 and has nearly 400 episodes in its run. In fact, the 400th episode will be in the show’s 21st season (which premiered in September) and it’s inspired by artists like Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez.

According to Variety, the episode will feature Stewie developing an obsession for a famous pop star. Seth MacFarlane himself, who isn’t as hands-on with writing the show these days as he used to be, pitched the idea to the show’s producers.

Co-showrunner Rich Appel said of the episode, “That’s not a story that would have even occurred to us to tell five years ago, that phenomenon of fans of artists like Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez — you name them — who are just really so devoted, that they adopt their viewpoints.”

Fellow showrunner Alec Sulkin also noted, “It’s always very fun to to come together and make each other laugh, which is really the main part of our job. Family Guy, in particular, is a show that’s known for its humor, its edgy humor and sometimes its dark humor. So, it was just a great group of people to be laughing with at a time when so much was uncertain.”

Swift herself (but voiced by actress Ursula Taherian, not Swift) appeared in the 2016 Family Guy episode titled “Chris Has Got a Date, Date, Date, Date, Date.” In it, Chris asks Swift to go to the school homecoming dance with him and she surprisingly accepts the invitation. It is later revealed, though, that Swift was using Chris to help inspire her songs trashing him. Swift also appeared in a brief gag in the 2014 episode “3 Acts Of God.”

There’s not much when it comes to Gomez’s presence in the show, although she has been mentioned on it here and there.

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George Floyd’s Family Sued Kanye West For $250 Million For Spreading Misinformation On ‘Drink Champs’

The family of George Floyd has apparently followed through on a rumored plan to file suit against Kanye West for his comments about the late Floyd, who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis who knelt on his neck for nearly 10 minutes. Floyd’s death galvanized protests against police brutality in the summer of 2020, his dying words — “I can’t breathe” — becoming a rallying cry for the protestors.

However, on a recent episode of the Drink Champs podcast, West stated incorrectly that Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose, parroting white supremacist propaganda designed to undermine the fight for justice in Floyd’s name. The trope, which was based on findings from an autopsy report that mentioned possible recent use of the drug, plays on existing racist stereotypes of Black people as drug addicts in order to deflect the blame for Floyd’s death away from the officers’ use of excessive force — essentially blaming the victim, and undermining protests for justice (which is the whole point).

However, multiple autopsies confirmed that Floyd died from a heart attack caused by asphyxia — the inability to breathe.

Now, according to a press release from the Witherspoon Law Group and Dixon & Dixon Attorneys at Law, Roxie Washington, acting on behalf of her minor child, the sole beneficiary of Floyd’s estate, has filed suit against Kanye West, seeking $250 million in damages. The suit argues that Kanye’s comments on Drink Champs consituted “harassment, misappropriation, defamation, and infliction of emotional distress,” and also names West’s “business partners and associates,” according to the press release.

In the wake of the backlash against the podcast airing, NORE apologized, saying, ““I felt like I could control the interview. And I learned early on that I [couldn’t]. As a Black man, I feel like I failed. As a human, I feel like I failed.”

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The Two Biggest Shows On Netflix At The Moment Are From Ryan Murphy… And Ryan Murphy

Ryan Murphy is on a Chicago Bulls in the late 1990s-like run right now.

Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Murphy’s controversial limited series starring Evan Peters as serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, is one of Netflix’s biggest shows ever. But it fell to the second spot on the streaming service’s top-10 list this week. What replaced it at the top of the chart? Another Ryan Murphy series.

Variety reports The Watcher, the mystery-thriller that’s based on a real-life case, “racked up a chart-topping 125 million hours watched in its first four days of availability.” Meanwhile, in its third week of availability, Dahmer was watched by subscribers for 122.8 million hours. It’s now at “824.2 million viewing hours since its September 21 premiere, and stands as the second most-watched English-language series Netflix has ever had, second only to season four of Stranger Things.” Maybe it’s happened before, but I can’t think of another instance where Netflix’s two biggest shows are from the same creator… who’s also a producer for the streaming service’s fourth biggest movie at the moment.

Murphy has one other title on this week’s Netflix Top 10: Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, which was No. 4 on the English-language movies chart with 20.1 million hours watched in its first full week of availability, down from second place with 35.4 million hours during the Oct. 3-9 viewing window, which it was available for five days.

Your move, Shonda.

(Via Variety)

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Elon Musk Has Deleted His ‘Three Musketeers Of Social Media’ Tweet With Kanye And Trump, For Some Reason

Elon Musk can’t seem to stand by his memes lately. In the past 24 hours, the theoretical future owner of Twitter has deleted two tweets involving him partnering up with Kanye West, the theoretical future owner of Parler. The latest example arrived Tuesday when Musk fired off meme figuring Trump, West, and himself as the Three Musketeers. In the photo, the three of them are crossing swords with the words Truth Social, Parler, and X, Musk’s proposed social media platform that will envelop Twitter. In the caption, Musk wrote, “In retrospect, it was inevitable.”

However, according to Mediaite, Musk only left the tweet up for an hour before deleting his cute little meme. You can see a screencap below:

Elon Musk Trump Kanye Three Musketeers
Elon Musk on Twitter

As noted earlier, this isn’t the first time that Musk has run from one of his memes. A day earlier, he reacted to the news of Kanye purchasing Parler by posting a Dragon Ball Z meme of the two of them together. In a follow-up tweet, Musk teased “Fun times ahead!!” before deleting both. But again, the internet is forever:

As for why Musk would tie himself to West following his recent antisemitic remarks that even Musk himself said was “concerning,” the answer is pretty simple: attention. Lots and lots of attention. Musk is a well-known troll on social media, and in recent days, he’s been dangerously dabbling in serious topics including the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In short, if making memes where he teams up with Trump and Kanye will get people talking about Elon Musk, Elon Musk is going to do it.

(Via Mediaite)

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Jay-Z Is Reportedly Suing Bacardi Due To Concerns Over Their D’Usse Cognac Partnership

There is trouble in paradise regarding Jay-Z’s partnership with Bacardi: The spirit company is being sued by the Brooklyn rapper through his company SC Liquor and is demanding “total financial clarity,” according to documents obtained by TMZ.

Since 2011, Jay-Z has co-owned top-shelf cognac company D’Usse with Bacardi. Despite the rapper shouting out the brand in his music, the recent lawsuit might hint that something is right between him and his partners. TMZ reports that Jay-Z’s company has asked for “all books and records, the location of all warehouses storing D’Usse barrels, bottles and accessories … as well as all info regarding Bacardi’s physical inventory and its inventory process.”

The rapper has been quiet on the situation thus far. Still, one sentence from the lawsuit stands out, alleging that SC Liquor needs to “monitor the conduct of [Bacardi’s] business to protect SC’s rights as” a partner in the company.

However, despite the tension between him and Bacardi, the “Family Feud” rapper has other prospects on the horizon.

Earlier this month, Jay-Z and his Marcy Venture Partners company invested $16.5 million in a new fully-robotic pizza-making truck called Stellar Pizza. Customers can place an order through an app, and the pizza truck robot will receive it and make the entire pizza toppings and all. It’s then cut and boxed, all for as low as $7, according to Rolling Stone.

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Herschel Walker’s Brilliant Campaign Managers Ordered A Bunch Of Toy Badges To Hand Out To Supporters

What’s worse than one idiot walking around with an honorary police badge and thinking he’s a cop? How about a lot more of them!

As NBC News reports, the brilliant minds behind Herschel Walker’s senatorial campaign in Georgia are leaning into his imbecilic insistence that holding an honorary police badge makes him an actual law enforcement officer. Despite the ongoing mockery of the moment during last week’s debate against Raphael Warnock, when Walker proudly held up his toy badge and announced “I am work with many police officers,” Team Herschel has decided to try and spin this embarrassing gaffe into a publicity bonanza.

Yes, if you’re lucky enough to witness Walker’s upcoming stump speech in Macon, Georgia on Thursday, you might just walk away with an imitation version of Herschel’s own imitation badge — a copy of a copy, if you will — emblazoned with the words “I’m With Herschel” (provided they arrive in time).

“Herschel Walker has been a friend to law enforcement and has a record of honoring police,” Gail Gitcho, Walker’s campaign strategist — and the person who ordered said badges — told NBC News. “If Senator Warnock wants to highlight this, then bring it on. It just gives us a chance to talk about Herschel’s support of law enforcement and law enforcement’s support for him. It’s a great issue for us.”

What Walker’s team might not have realized is that by simply placing an order for 1,000 replicas of the badge Walker carries, they’re also further emphasizing how meaningless the trinket is in terms of holding any real power. Nor does it erase the candidate’s long history of domestic abuse, including the time he allegedly held a gun to his wife’s head.

“I am work with many police officers” indeed!

(Via NBC News)

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Jim Jones Tells ‘Fresh Pair’ His Top Five Most Stylish Rappers, Including Fabolous, Lil Baby, And More

This week on Fresh Pair, Harlem capo Jim Jones stops by to chop it up with Just Blaze and Katty Customs as they reveal another new custom pair of sneakers made just for the “We Fly High” rapper. As always, they ask him for a top five; this time, it’s top five most stylish rappers. Jim’s interesting answer includes not just one of his peers in Fabolous but also quite a few contemporary hitmakers.

Like previous Fresh Pair guests T.I., The Game, and Jadakiss, Jim Jones knows a thing or two about his top five subject. As a member of The Diplomats, Jones was known for being a trendsetter in the early 2000s; the group’s distinctive uniform became a street staple, leading to a lasting nostalgic fondness for their throwback jerseys, over-the-top patriotism, and overall in-your-face aesthetic.

Later, Jones became known as an independent star in his own right with albums such as On My Way to Church, Harlem: Diary Of A Summer, and Hustler’s P.O.M.E. (Product Of My Environment). Most recently, he released a pair of mixtapes earlier this year called Gangsta Grillz: We Set The Trends with DJ Drama and The Lobby Boyz with Maino.

Watch the exclusive clip above and check out the full episode of Fresh Pair with Jim Jones Wednesday at noon PT.