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The Weeknd has been a world-famous pop star for a long time now, but somehow, he had never done a late-night television interview. He changed that last night (May 15), though, with his all-encompassing appearance on The Tonight Show.

The pair headed to Fordham University to make a surprise appearance at a college graduation party. There, Fallon was introduced as a guest DJ, at which point he feigned ignorance about how to work the equipment. After fussing around for a minute, he plugged his phone in and started playing “Blinding Lights,” at which point The Weeknd popped out to sing the song. The video wrapped with him performing “I Can’t Feel My Face” for the excited student body.

During the interview portion of the show, The Weeknd gave a lot of credit to Tom Cruise performing to “I Can’t Feel My Face” on a Fallon lip-sync segment for giving the track a boost. He’s so grateful, in fact, that he went ahead and gave the Cruise movie Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning some free promo by reading its plot synopsis.

He also performed the songs “Baptized In Fear” and “Open Hearts,” so watch clips from The Weeknd’s Tonight Show appearance above and below.

Steven and Ian begin with a Sportscast segment on recent NBA news, including conspiracy talk about the draft lottery and whether it’s wrong to send an “lol” after a devastating sports injury. From there, they touch briefly on the Fantasy Albums Draft, which is looking very close, and recent mainstream rock releases by Sleep Token and Counting Crows. Then there’s a discussion of the recent Arcade Fire record, which both Steven and Ian reviewed, and the band’s future prospects. In the mailbag, they discuss criticism of the new André 3000 piano album from the jazz community.

In Recommendation Corner, Ian talks about the new album by punk veterans Mclusky and Steven recommends the latest from Philly country-rockers Friendship.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 239 here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

A little over three months removed from the release of his joint album with The Alchemist and Larry June, Life Is Beautiful, 2 Chainz has already begun rolling out his latest project, a short film called Red Clay. Naturally, he’s also recorded a soundtrack for it, consisting so far of two tracks: last week’s “ATL Experience” featuring The Isley Brothers, and today’s new release, “Sista Wives” featuring fellow ATLlien Lil Yachty.

Over a positively frantic Buddah Bless beat, the two rappers reel off some boastful raps full of the colorful flexes we’ve come to expect from both, with no choruses. All gas, no brakes. As for why it’s called “Sista Wives,” well, blame Yachty, who mutters, “Just because your friends hit it, don’t think that y’all sister wives,” in his laconic first verse. Meanwhile, an animated 2 Chainz dispenses his own unusual boasts, bragging, “Told my lawyer, ‘I’ma call you back, this my other lawyer,’” which is just objectively funny.

Red Clay, which Chainz co-wrote alongside veteran actor Omar Epps, premiered at the Atlanta Film Festival on May 3. It was directed by Christian Nolan Jones, who won best short film at the festival two years before. The story revolves around a teenager facing a challenging upbringing named Nook.

Watch 2 Chainz’s “Sista Wives” video featuring Lil Yachty above.

Quiet as it was kept (for some reason), Latto had one of the best albums of 2024 in Sugar Honey Iced Tea, which spawned a number of fan-favorite yet somehow also underrated singles including “Big Mama,” “Brokey,” and “Blick Sum.”

Now, less than a year removed from her latest album, she kicks off her campaign for 2025 with a romantic single, “Somebody.” Borrowing a couple of lines from Aaliyah, Latto informs a romantic interest: “I really need somebody, tell me you that somebody / I don’t care about your bodies / Love the way you touch my body.” Later in the song, she admits, “You make it so hard to be P / Got me wearin’ my heart on my sleeve / I be missin’ you soon as you leave.” Yup, it sounds like she’s sprung.

The song’s a slight departure from the usual uptempo and harder hitting singles she usually comes out swinging with, but perhaps that’s the point. She’s already got the streets in her pocket; by getting the lover girls on her side, Latto will have a solid foundation for a new album to build on her prior work and finally get her the recognition (and commercial performance) she deserves.

Listen to Latto’s “Somebody” above.

Long Beach bred soul singer Giveon is back and embracing classic sounds in his new single “Rather Be.” Borrowing ’60s soul’s penchant for lush instrumentation and good, old-fashioned begging, Giveon tells his woman he’d rather be a fool with her than start over with someone else. “I’d rather be a fool than believe in someone new / I’d rather be with you,” he croons. “Any other half with someone who is not even half of you.”

“Rather Be” is the first we’ve heard from the singer since his Febrary single “Twenties,” in which he debuted his snazzy, new, buttoned-up style. The new look continues in the video for “Rather Be,” directed by Loris Russier, who’s previously worked with Tems, Future, and even Fortnite. There’s a clean-cut, cosmopolitan aesthetic, very reminiscent of the work of Solange Knowles, planting Giveon and his band in balanced compositions around an architectural marvel.

With two new singles out, it’s likely only a matter of time until Giveon releases a follow-up to his 2022 debut album, Give Or Take. On its release, Give Or Take debuted at No. 11 on the US Billboard 200 and No. 5 on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, so a new album could be among the hits that have contributed to R&B’s resurgence over the past few years.

Watch Giveon’s “Rather Be” video above.

The flags are out for the F1 film soundtrack. After starting fans’ engines with Don Toliver and Doja Cat’s “Lose My Mind,” and shifting into gear with Rosé and her contribution “Messy,” the curators behind the high-octane racing film’s soundtrack rev their engines with Dom Dolla and his pulse-pounding single, “No Room For A Saint” featuring Nathan Nicholson.

If you’ve listened to Dom’s collaborations with Kid Cudi or Nelly Furtado, or caught one of his recent live sets at a festival, you already know what to expect here: A roaring beat, hypnotic melody, and an earworm hook that’ll loop in your head like the titular performance vehicles as they chase that checkered flag to the podium.

F1, which is due in theaters on June 27, will follow Brad Pitt’s aging racer as he’s recruited to mentor a hotshot new driver (Damson Idris) in his last chance to prove he can still keep up with the field. If it sounds a little like the plot to Pixar’s Cars 3, I don’t know what to tell you. It’s racing. You just wanna watch the cars go fast and if nothing else, they’ll sound cool doing it.

Listen to Dom Dolla’s “No Room For A Saint” above.

F1 is due in theaters on June 27.

Rihanna is back with “Friend Of Mine,” her first new song since 2022’s “Lift Me Up.” Like its predecessor, “Friend Of Mine” hails from an upcoming film soundtrack for Smurfs, in which she’ll also play female Smurf, Smurfette, (“Lift Me Up” appeared in the Black Panther sequel, Wakanda Forever). However, unlike that song, “Friend Of Mine” throws out some of the musical conventions we’ve seen Rihanna employ in the past, really leaning into her promise that her next album won’t be “commercial or radio digestible” with a pulsating EDM track and sparse vocals that find Rihanna playing more her own hype woman.

The video is a simple, understated endeavor, with Rihanna walking through a set resembling the Smurfs’ forest village. When she gets to Papa Smurf’s house, she opens the door, transitioning the video to a stream of scenes from the upcoming animated film.

Rihanna recently announced that she’s on pregnancy number three with ASAP Rocky after keeping the impending bundle of joy a secret until last week’s Met Gala. However, she said that pregnancy won’t prevent her from working on her next album, which fans have been demanding since 2016’s Anti.

Watch Rihanna’s “Friend Of Mine” video above.

Smurfs premieres in theaters on July 18.

Benny Blanco and Selena Gomez discuss the creation of their new album and debate which of them really said “I love you” first in a new short film, conveniently titled I Said I Love You First, same as the album itself.

The film includes both conversations about their joint creative process and intimate performances of songs from the album in their home, with Selena crediting Benny with having a more “diverse, interesting” musical palette than hers, and Benny complimenting his fiancée’s creativity.

They also discuss the challenges of figuring out a system for working together, with Selena admitting that “I didn’t want you in the room” while recording, because “it’s hard having producers in the room, but you make it easy.” The key, they discover, is communication, something that we get to see for the first time in their sweet short.

“Sometimes, people like to make stuff that’s so perfect and so put-together, but what makes you so special… is it’s rough around the edges and real,” Benny tells her. She replies, “The easiest thing about the process… your notes are always extremely generous and never dismissive of the qualities I do have.”

Watch the “I Said I Love You First” short film above.

About a month ago, Nas’ label, Mass Appeal, announced Legend Has It…, an upcoming slate of albums — including one from a secret artist. Today, they revealed who the artist was via Nas’ social media and a cinematic trailer; Slick Rick, whose last album, The Art Of Storytelling, was released over 25 years ago in 1999. Talk about your “epic returns.” The album is called Victory, and is due on June 13 alongside a “visual album” that the trailer says was filmed over the course of four years, helmed by executive producer Idris Elba and premiering at SXSW London and Tribeca Film Festival the same day.

The trailer features black-and-white shots of a slew of young men, ranging from elementary school aged to elderly, wearing Rick’s iconic eye patch, as Rick narrates. “Before there was motion pictures, you had be able to make people visualize through your mouth, through your poetry,” he says. “Let the mind fly.”

In addition to Victory, the Legend Has It… initiative will include new albums from a group of New York rap pioneers and staples, including the late Big L, De La Soul, Ghostface Killah, Mobb Deep, and Raekwon. Starting with Slick Rick’s return is one hell of a way to kick things off, and promises great things from the project.

You can watch the tailer for Victory above.

Victory is due on June 13 via Mass Appeal and 7Wallace. For info on the film premieres, click here (SXSW London) and here (Tribeca).

Ladies and gents, the rappers are rapping in 2025. Inspired the pugilistic vibes of the year previous, respected word slingers like Joey Badass and rising stars like Ray Vaughn are stepping into the booth with cruel (but sportsmanlike) intentions. The latest dispatch comes from the Brooklyn rapper, who responds to the Long Beach Top Dawg representative’s day-old diss “Hoe Era” with the deprecatory (and timely) “The Finals.” The NBA finals are still a couple of weeks away (at best) but hey, it’s never too early to get a jump on the search engines.

This time, Joey goes for the jugular, making sure to mention Ray’s name multiple times and predicting a short stay on the TDE roster for his opponent. “I let ’em rot while I charge ’em for top dollar / You’re the next n**** gettin’ dropped off thе Top roster,” he sneers. “And I’ma be the Rеason, okay, bet / You sick dog, lookin’ for beef with a seasoned vet.” Reason, of course, infamously agitated for a release from his contract with the label last year, releasing his first independent project this year (check out our interview with him about it here).

At the end of the track, Joey returns his attention to his true target: Kendrick Lamar, with whom he’s had a friendly competition since Kendrick’s notorious “Control” verse put the rap game on notice in 2014. “I salute you Kenny, but I know you well aware,” he warns. “You lookin’ for some competition? Then just know that I’ll be right here.”

Listen to Joey Badass’ “The Finals” above.