Last year, Rosalía’s third studio album, Motomami was one of the most critically-acclaimed albums of the year. The album spawned hits like “Chicken Teriyaki,” “Despechá,” and “Hentai,” all of which, she performed during her hour-long set.
But also, during her set, Rosalía brought out a special surprise guest. During a performance of “Beso” from Rosalía was joined by her collaborator and boyfriend, Rauw Alejandro. This reveal was met with cheers and applause from the audience.
While on stage, Rosalía and danced as if they were the only ones in the world, despite being surrounded by dancers performing top tier choreography, and an audience who sang along to every word, not missing a single beat. Rosalía and Alejandro also got a bit steamy with their dancing, which got a rise out of the crowd.
Throughout her set, Rosalía maintained a creative, festive energy, while pushing the bounds of what it means to be a pop star in 2023. As pop approaches a more language-neutral landscape, Rosalía sets the scene for what the future of music looks like.
It’s that time of the year again; hundreds of thousands of people flock to the California desert to show out in their best outfits, sample some amazing eats, and, of course, see a line-up of incredible artists at Coachella. Now that he dust has (literally) settled on the grounds, let’s look back on the highlights of Coachella 2023 Day One, which highlighted era-defining artists Blondie and Blink-182 while bringing together some of the current innovators like Bad Bunny and Metro Boomin.
Philip Cosores
Bad Bunny closed out the night with a bang, and I’m not just about the fireworks during his main stage set. The Puerto Rican rapper drew the largest crowd of the night, and for good reason. While the moment was historic — Bad Bunny is the first Latin solo artist to ever headline the festival — he made sure to highlight the roots of Reggaeton music and credit the artists who made his success possible like Celia Cruz, El General, and Tego Calderón. On top of that, his show-stopping stage design cleverly nodded to the viral concert he performed on top of a gas station late last year. Bad Bunny performed all the hits during his set, like “Moscow Mule,” “Yo Perreo Sola,” and “Después De La Playa.” He even brought out Post Malone for an acoustic set, but technical difficulties made it nearly impossible to hear him.
Philip Cosores
Bad Bunny is far from the only artist who brought out surprise guests on stage. One thing about Coachella is always true: if an artist has a collaboration, they’re going to use their Coachella set as an excuse to bring that artist out to perform. Metro Boomin’s closing set at the Sahara stage is perhaps the biggest example of that. A massive stage floated down from the ceiling that housed Metro’s main DJ equipment, with Metro himself dressed as a superhero (cape included). John Legend appeared below, kicking the set off with their Heroes & Villains track “On Time.” From there, Future joined Metro for several tracks like “Superhero,” “Serve The Bass,” and “Thought It Was Drought.” Don Toliver was next, delivering “Too Many Nights” with Future. 21 Savage also took the stage for a couple tracks like “10 Freaky Girls” and some highlights from Savage Mode 2, while also giving Metro his flowers by naming him the “greatest producer of our generation.” Finally, after teasing his appearance on Twitter, The Weeknd pulled up and the crowd went wild. He delivered his After Hours track “Heartless” and gave us a taste of upcoming music with an unreleased track. Finally, The Weeknd closed out the set with fan-favorite “Creepin,” where Diddy made a brief and unexpected cameo.
Philip Cosores
Blink-182 was another major highlight from Coachella day one, and perhaps the only major artist who didn’t bring out any surprise guests. Instead, they themselves were the surprise guests. Blink-182 was announced as part of the lineup just a few days ago, reuniting on the stage with their original lineup of Tom Delonge, Mark Hoppus, and Travis Barker for the first time in nine years. And in the years since, each three members have come a long way; Mark Hoppus beat cancer, Tom Delonge discovered aliens (kinda), and Travis Barker married a Kardashian. Joining together on stage, though, it felt like no time had passed. Mark and Tom were continually cracking “your mom” jokes like it was still the ’90s. To their credit, their set did feel like it transported the crowd back to their 1999 inception, playing all the early tracks like “The Rock Show” and “What’s My Age Again.” They closed out their set with three back-to-back greatest hits, “I Miss You,” “All The Small Things,” and “Dammit.”
Philip Cosores
Countless other artists on Coachella 2023’s day one lineup made their memorable mark on the weekend. Gorillaz, who recently dropped the album Cracker Island, used their stage time to highlight collaborators. They invited Thundercat to the stage to perform their recent album’s title track, Del The Funkee Homosapien for their iconic hit “Clint Eastwood,” and UK rapper Slowthai for “Momentary Bliss.” Artists who couldn’t make it to the stage were replaced massive holograms, like Tame Impala singing his part on “New Gold” and Snoop Dogg firing off his verse in “Hollywood.” Indie-pop trio MUNA was also a highlight of the day. The group dedicated their set to their young queer and trans fans while performing a soon-to-be released song and bringing out the members of Boygenius to sing “Silk Chiffon.” Top Dawg Entertainment rapper Doechii brought the heat to the already sweltering day with an impeccably choreographed set. New Zealand breakout songwriter Benee drew a massive crowd for a mid-day performance where she brought out Gus Dapperton for their quarantine-era viral hit “Supalonely.” Finally, Philly band Soul Glo made good on their hard-core genre label by opening up a mosh pit and delivering a riotous and riveting set.
Philip Cosores
Follow along with Uproxx’s Coachella 2023 coverage here. Check out a few more photos from Friday below.
Some of the artists mentioned here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Given their range of collaborations with artists, it was not surprise that Gorillaz had a lot of special guests for their Coachella set Friday. The band kicked things off by bringing out Thundercat, who played “Cracker Island,” the title track off their most recent album.
Shortly after, Damon Albarn brought out Peven Everett for “Strobelite” and Jamie Principle for “Hollywood.” After a brief interlude in which the band played “Andromeda,” Albarn brought out Bootie Brown to perform “New Gold.”
For one of Gorillaz’s best-known songs, “On Melancholy Hill,” Albarn dedicated it to his daughter, Missy.
Brown returned later in the show to play “Dirty Harry.” Next up was Slowthai, who dropped by to perform “Momentary Bliss,” one of Gorillaz’s songs from their record Song Machine.
While a lot of attention has been lavished on Rolling Loud as the premiere hip-hop-oriented festival (and rightly so), Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash, which takes place annually in the Chicago area, is quickly carving out a chunk of that regard for itself. It probably helps that Lyrical Lemonade is the brainchild of Cole Bennett and has produced music videos for just about every notable name in rap right now (as well as Jack Black, whose “Peaches” song from The Super Mario Bros. Movie is an inescapable earworm).
So it makes sense that the 2023 lineup for Summer Smash includes a great many of those notable names, including headliners Future, Kid Cudi, and Playboi Cart, along with “a very special Chicago guest” which probably means Chance The Rapper (or a hologram of Juice WRLD, you never know. As long as it ain’t Kanye). Meanwhile, the three-day festival — which takes place at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, IL on June 23-25 — also includes heavy hitters like Vince Staples, Ice Spice, GloRilla, Freddie Gibbs, Ski Mask The Slump God, G Herbo, Cordae, Juicy J, Trippie Redd, Lucki, Central Cee, Lil Skies, and Rico Nasty, and that’s just the top line of each of the three days.
Earlier this month Forbespublished a list of billionaires and only one name from the rap world was on it: Jay-Z. After Kanye West lost his deal with Adidas for making antisemitic remarks last year, he was removed from the list, leaving his former “big brother” Jay the only rapper officially worth nine figures.
However, there’s one other rapper who thinks he deserves placement on the list, even if the numbers don’t quite bear him out. 50 Cent insisted that he’s technically been a billionaire for years but he’s yet to receive credit because he actually pays his employees (a dig at Jay, or an acknowledgment of the popular perception of capitalists in general?). Appearing on The Enthusiast Podcast (with thanks to HipHopDX), 50 put forth his argument as such at the 37-minute mark:
So when they financially say, ‘Oh you’re a billionaire, this person is a billionaire,’ it’s like, I’ve been a billionaire since 2007. I’m that far from where I came from that I’ve been a billionaire financially because everybody around me is being paid. Resources that I compensate for people to be there and I really don’t see things that I want that I can’t go get it.
Megan Thee Stallion has returned to the public eye and the stage. However, the “Sweetest Pie” rapper has decided to take her time when it comes to jumping back into the realm of social media. The H-Town hottie is keeping a relatively low profile on social media, dropping a few sensual selfies here and there, holding back from fully immersing herself into any one app. According to TMZ, the recording artist is doing the exact opposite in the courtroom.
The outlet reports that in a motion filed in court today (April 13), Megan is accusing her former label’s (1501 Certified Entertainment) Carl Crawford of not only “keeping money from her,” but also of “hiding money” earned outside of the label’s main bank account. Megan is supposedly bringing this to light to ensure that if she does win her case against them for unpaid royalties amongst other things, she will be able to recoup the lost earnings without issue.
Meg alleged that the label’s account currently holds less than $10,000, “although they’ve deposited millions of dollars” into it over time. TMZ also shared that the musician is alleging that J. Prince and Gee Roberson are “the only ones receiving a payout.”
In the motion, Megan has requested that the judge, in the case, involve a third party to serve as overseer of 1501 Certified Entertainment’s bank accounts until the case is over.
Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj’s video for the “Princess Diana” remix is every bit as violently pink as you’d expect. In it, the two rap royals posture and primp in a bedroom straight out of a dollhouse, mugging in the vanity mirror, doing each others’ makeup, and, yes, twerking like it’s going out of style.
The new version of the song has been hotly anticipated ever since Minaj followed Spice on social media. The rising rap star threw flames on the fire last month when she re-shared her old tweet about the blessed event, prompting a gushing exchange of love-bombing from both artists. While some fans were skeptical of the co-sign and how long it would last, others got so excited they speculated that Spice had signed to Minaj’s new label — even though Ice Spice has been signed to 10K Projects and Columbia for the past year.
Ice Spice’s star has been rising since then thanks to hit singles like “In Ha Mood” and PinkPatheress’s “Boy’s A Liar,” while her debut EP, Like…? (which contained the original “Princess Diana“) showed she had more in the tank than just the breakout single “Munch.”
Drake may be in his “sassy” era, but still, even some things are off-limits for him. The “Search & Rescue” rapper laughed off a hilarious mix-up of him with another rapper but didn’t find a new AI-generated version of him rapping along to Ice Spice’s viral song “Munch (Feelin’ U).
Late last night, the Bronx native released her highly anticipated collaboration with fellow Young Money representative Nicki Minaj. As “Princess Diana (Remix)” began to gain streams, simultaneously, the AI-generated track started to creep back on the users’ timelines. Word of the AI cover eventually got back to the rapper, and he was not at all amused. Taking to his Instagram stories, the musician shared a screengrab of The Shade Room’s reporting with the caption, “This is the final straw AI.”
It is unclear if the entertainer was being sarcastic or truly upset at the fact that an off-brand version of his likeness was being used for cooking up the unauthorized song. But maybe the party responsible for the track could make it up to the rapper by giving it another go this time recording at Drake’s own home studio.
In November, rumors began to circulate that the two were feuding, but Ice Spice has since cleared up the rumors, stating that they are “still cool,” despite the slight shade Drake threw on his track “BackOutsideBoyz.”
Record label stuff can be confusing for music fans. In addition to the complex web of company organization charts and subsidiaries (Uproxx, for instance, is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group, which also contains Warner Records, Atlantic Records, 300 Entertainment, and more), artists themselves make things even more confusing thanks to their naming labels after rap crews and street families, trading chains amongst themselves, and generally making it seem like everybody is signed to everybody else.
Case in point: rap fans have been speculating that buzzing Bronx rapper Ice Spice has signed to Nicki Minaj‘s new label after the two collaborated on the remix of the former’s “Princess Diana” this week. On DSPs, the distributor for the track is listed as 10K Projects (Ice Spice’s label, which is also home to Trippie Redd, Aitch, Jeleel, and Iann Dior) and Heavy On It, which is the name of Nicki’s new endeavor, further feeding the speculation online.
However, it seems unlikely that Ice Spice would end her current record deal — which comes with the backing of Virgin Music Group, a subsidiary of Universal — less than a year after signing it. Nor would it make good business sense to further dilute her shares of her own music by adding another name to the pot — although other artists have had multiple concurrent deals, usually they had them before signing to one with major backing.
So, no, Ice Spice probably isn’t signed to Heavy On It. Nicki’s new label’s name was only added to the track to ensure she gets her share of profits from the streams/sales thereof, not to suggest a new affiliation for the new “rap princess.”
The “Princess Diana” remix is out now via 10K Projects and Heavy On It.
In her appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, Chlöe talked about how happy she was for Halle when she watched the trailer for the movie.
“I was screaming and I was crying,” Chlöe said. “I was just screaming because she is a real-life mermaid, a siren, graceful in all her beauty. And people get to see what I’ve always seen since we were little girls.”
Chlöe also recently said that fans who talk trash about her solo career were never fans in the first place.
“The thing is,” Chlöe began, “the same people who say that weren’t fans of Halle and [me] when we had our Ungodly Hour album out, The Kids Are Alright. So, it’s a bunch of people who are just putting in their two cents now just to really say things. Sis and I, we’ve been underground for a minute and the same people who talk weren’t around then or giving us our props then, and it’s like now they want to talk trash for some reason.”
(@marxxdie) 
Inependet Music Collection 