Everybody’s riding the Ice Spice wave. With a fast, scorching flow, and the ability to slaughter any beat, it’s no wonder why Ice’s star is continuing to rise. Last night, during a performance at Ultra Miami, Zedd surprised the audience by bringing out Ice.
During her appearance in Zedd’s set, Ice performed one of her earlier tracks, “No Clarity,” which contains a sample of Zedd’s “Clarity.”
Ice’s take on Zedd’s 2012 breakthrough track features her rapping over a drill beat containing pitched-up vocals from the original. Some notable lines include “It get hot so I’m keepin’ my cool / And he like how I get in my mood / So why would you fuck with my mental / After all that I told you I been through / But you was my heart so I let you.”
When Ice appeared on stage, she was met with cheers from the audience.
Zedd brought out Ice Spice in Miami to perform “No Clarity” which samples his track “Clarity.” pic.twitter.com/BksPKDWXZ6
Back in January, Ice recalled fondly of growing up on EDM sounds in an interview with NME.
“At a point of time in the early 2010s around middle school, I started hearing it more when it became more popular,” said Ice. “I was hearing Zedd and Skrillex a lot. Do you remember when Skrillex was super big? That was a whole era. People went from emo to Skrillex like that [snaps fingers].”
After an all too brief hiatus, Kanye West returned to Instagram on Friday, March 24. Last year, West went off of social media after posting a series of anti-Semitic rants on Twitter, and making anti-Semitic remarks during television appearances. It seems as though he’s turned a new leaf though — maybe.
Last night, West took to Instagram to reveal that he had been watching Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum’s 2012 remake of 21 Jump Street. He shared an image of the movie’s poster and said that he no longer harbors hatred towards the Jewish community.
“Watching Jonah Hill in 21 Jump street made me like Jewish people again,” said West in the post’s caption. “No one should take anger against one or two individuals and transform that into hatred towards millions of innocent people. No Christian can be labeled antisemite knowing Jesus is Jew. Thank you Jonah Hill I love you.”
Since the start of 2023, West has (thankfully) remained relatively quiet. However, he reportedly got married to a Yeezy architectural designer named Bianca Censori in January.
West’s daughter North has gone viral on TikTok, particularly with her drawings, as well as her dance videos with Ice Spice. Though Ye has not directly commented on the TikToks, he voiced his disapproval of North joining the platform last year.
At the time of writing, Ye has only returned to Instagram, and not to Twitter, where his infamous rants began.
Here is the best of hip-hop this week ending March 24, 2023.
Albums / EPs / Mixtapes
03 Greedo — Halfway There
03 Greedo
Fresh out of prison and consigned to a halfway house until September, Greedo still finds a way to keep up his superhuman level of productivity. Although he warned fans “I’m not inna rush to talk after damn near 5 years,” it’s clear he’s got a lot to say after five years away, resulting in 33 new tracks that he’s been cheerfully explaining for fans on Twitter.
Hit-Boy — Surf Or Drown
Hit-Boy
Hit-Boy might be primarily known as a producer, but he’s always been more than capable of holding his own on the mic. Taking a break from his ridiculously productive King’s Disease recording sessions with Nas, the California beatmaker steps in front of the board for a 21-track (!) project featuring guest spots from Nas, Big Sean, Dom Kennedy, and Jay 305.
Hunxho — 22
Hunxho
Atlanta rapper Hunxho follows up his 2022 album Xhosen with a new project full of personal meaning. “22 is a big part of me,” he told HipHopDX. ““I named it 22 because I’m talking about everything we was going through on the block… They’re going to remember 22.”
Jasiah — 3
Jasiah
Second-gen thrash rapper Jasiah had a lot to prove coming into his new project. In 2021, he captivated fans with the viral single “Art of War” featuring fellow part-time punk rappers Denzel Curry and Rico Nasty. In the year since, the Dayton native grown in repute, adding collabs with the likes of Travis Barker and Jeleel. 3 could be his breakout moment.
Jpegmafia & Danny Brown — Scaring The Hoes
Jpegmafia
Rambunctious rap rebels team up for an exhibition of slightly unhinged punchline-slinging, sample-smashing, avant-garde rap shenanigans. They might be “scaring the hoes,” in the parlance of skeptical rap fans who are a little too tempered to the usual club-friendly fare, but they are also certainly entertaining fans of left-field hip-hop.
Kota The Friend & Statik Selektah — To See A Sunset
Kota The Friend
Reprising their union on 2021’s To Kill A Sunrise, Brooklyn indie rap stalwart Kota reunites with Boston producer Statik and their chemistry remains as strong as ever.
Quando Rondo — Recovery
Quando Rondo
Georgia boy Quando Rondo has earned a loyal and vociferous following in his home state through a steady diet of woozy, stone-cold street bangers. Recovery marks his second full-length studio album, with 20 tracks of his signature soulful but wounded reflections on the trials and tribulations of life at the bottom.
Rucci & Bankroll Got It — Notorious
Rucci
Inglewood’s own Rucci has already established himself as one of the more compelling voices of the young West Coast scene. Bankroll Got It provides him with some of the most fitting production of his career, allowing him to perfectly embody the evolution of the G-Funk sound that once defined the region’s contributions to rap canon.
Singles / Videos
Atmosphere — “Bigger Pictures”
Underground hip-hop mainstays Atmosphere returned this year with the announcement of a new album titled So Many Other Realities Exist Simultaneously due in May. If that title sounds a little Everything Everywhere All At Once, that’s no accident; neither is Slug’s intention to convey similar uplifting messages to the film, saying, “I wrote this while wanting to remind my loved ones and myself that regardless of the external conflicts happening around us, we are here for each other.”
BIA — “I’m That Bitch” Feat. Timbaland
Missy Elliott’s influence continues to permeate the fabric of rap. With drill music reaching into the genre’s rich history for inspiration (and samples), it makes perfect sense that it would settle on one of the most innovative voices the culture has ever known. Even the video looks like something Missy and Hype would have come up with 20 years ago — and it still looks like the future.
Kali — “Area Codes”
Atlanta rising star puts her own spin on a concept from one of her hometown’s most recognizable voices. Switching up the G-Funk of Luda’s original, Kali’s version opts for a bass drum and snap combo that subtly bridges the gap between them and stands as its own thing.
Lloyd Banks — “101 Razors” Feat. Method Man
Method Man has become something of an ageless wonder whose pen only gets sharper as he gets older. Of course, he’s constantly testing it against characters like Lloyd Banks, who has garnered praise for his barwork through his 20-year career, so it makes sense.
NLE Choppa — “Ain’t Gonna Answer” Feat. Lil Wayne
It’s hard to dislike Choppa. The kid’s charm doesn’t exactly excuse his goofiness but it certainly makes it more palatable. When he sticks to fun, club-centric fare like this, he’s genuinely enjoyable. That he incorporates a verse from Lil Weezyana himself on a Cash Money Records/Mannie Fresh-inspired booty shaker like this makes me root for him all the more.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
After solidifying himself as one of Latin music’s top rappers, Myke Towers is proving there’s no limits to his flow with his genre-bending album La Vida Es Una. While delivering more reggaeton and Latin trap bangers, the Puerto Rican artist also dabbles in Afrobeats, R&B, and house music influences. Towers shows that he’s an all-around Latin pop star on his LP, which features J Balvin, Daddy Yankee, Arcángel, and Ozuna.
Towers made his debut in 2020 with his first album, Easy Money Baby. The LP boasted his breakthrough hit “Si De Da” with Farruko. After scoring multiple reggaeton hits, he returned to his Latin trap roots with his 2021 album Lyke Mike. As an established force in both genres, Towers is now pushing his flow to new places while embracing a global sound that his fans around the world can enjoy.
“Lyke Myke was something more for me,” Towers says. “With this album, I’m thinking more about my fans, what they want, and the kind of music they want to hear live. I made this album being more conscious of what people are looking for from me.”
The album’s title translates to “You Only Live Once” in English and Towers embodies that feel-good energy throughout the 23 tracks. Over Zoom, he caught up with Uproxx about what he wants his fans to take from La Vida Es Una, his big collaborations, and what’s coming next.
Why did you decide to name your album La Vida Es Una?
I gave it that name because lot of things have happened like with the pandemic. It makes you think, “There’s not a lot of time to follow your dreams, so have to give it your all.” They say you that you have take advantage of your time here and enjoy it. I’m always conscious of things like that. That you only live once.
In addition to reggaeton and trap, you explore genres like Afrobeats, R&B, reggae, and house music album. Why did you decide to branch out into those genres?
I wanted to take risks on a musical level and do things that I’m not used to. I’m at a level where I have a lot of fans so I have that responsibility to please them. I can’t limit myself. Thanks to them I’m at where I’m at now. I’m doing the music that I like to do with a mix of what my fans are asking for. With this album, we’re separating the Myke Towers with the “y” from the [Mike] with the “i.”
You collaborated with J Balvin for the song “Celos.” What was that experience like working with him?
I have a lot of respect and admiration for Balvin. He’s a guy that’s super humble. For example, if you write to him in a DM on Instagram, he will respond to you right away. That’s something that you don’t expect from him at the level of fame that he’s at. I’m always like a little boy asking many questions with people like him because I like to learn. We had a great time when we shot the music video together. The other day we went to an Afrobeats concert together. Balvin is a leader. He has my respect.
You salute reggaeton pioneers Don Omar and Tego Calderón in “Don & Tego.” What inspired you to make that homage with Arcángel?
The song “Bandoleros” by Don Omar and Tego Calderón is an anthem to me. It’s always playing around the world. There hasn’t been a time since that song has come out that it hasn’t been played anywhere. And as artists, they’ve inspired me like Arcángel. The name that made the most sense for me was “Don & Tego. ” I feel like this song was something that was missing in the streets. A very street reggaeton song that that we liked back then that inspired us. We made that with this song and I know when people listen to it, they’re really going to like it.
Another reggaeton G.O.A.T that you collaborated with is Daddy Yankee. What was the experience like working with him in “Ulala (Ooh La-La)”?
The legend allowed me appear on his album [Legendaddy] and now he’s appearing on mine. For me, that was like earning the respect from the leader of the genre. For him to be on my album, that’s above and beyond. My respect from D.Y. was earned in levels. First, he gave me advice before he was collaborating with me. He saw my process [in the studio] and told me — he knows how to identify what’s strong and what’s not. That’s why I’m sure of myself.
I love the R&B sound the “Cama King.” This is my first time hearing about Chita. Why did you decide to feature her on this song?
[The song’s producer] Tainy is a visionary. When I told him I was missing a female voice on this song, he said, “I know who would be good for this. Calm down.” When I heard what Chita sent, I went crazy. I didn’t meet her in person but I told her thank you for collaborating me with. I hope this is a blessing for her as much as it is for me. She’s a female Argentine artist and the women are killing it right now.
“Aguardiente” is a song that stands out to me because it has a really Colombian vibe.
I made that song with Sky. He’s Colombian. He one’s of those producers that I click well with. Every time we get together, we come out with classics without forcing anything. [The alcoholic drink] Aguardiente is something that’s clearly from Colombia and I wanted to make a song with that. It goes hard.
What do you want people to get out of this album?
I want people to get the message that sometimes we worry about things that aren’t worth it. We have to remember that you only live once. With what I do, I want to motivate people as well. Even though it seems easy, it’s not easy. I go through things as well. It might not be the same [problem] as yours but we’re going to get to a point where we can relate. With this album, I want to unite people when we sing it live together. It’s something to enjoy. I want them to do with it what they want, to dedicate it to who they want to dedicate it to, and to go out and enjoy it. When I’m in your country to perform, we’re going to sing everything together.
What do you want to accomplish next?
Thanks to God we’re making moves that we’ve never done before. Little by little, I’m taking my name, my island, my music, and my movement to new heights. I want to make an impact with young people. That’s where I’m inspired. I want them to feel that Myke Towers is with them. I want them to feel like they’re a part of my movement.
La Vida Es Una is out now via Warner Music Latina. Listen to it here.
Myke Towers is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Thursday night (March 23), I went to the first evening of SZA’s sold-out Los Angeles tour dates at the Kia Forum where she performed songs from her No. 1 hit album SOS and her critically acclaimed debut album Ctrl. It was truly an ethereal experience filled with oceanic splashes of glowing reds, yellows, oranges, soft purples, and pretty pinks, intertwined with bright sparkling lights.
While many were in attendance to simply watch Solana perform “Kill Bill” or her soon-to-be-hit-record “Snooze,” I wanted to see how all the Easter eggs she’d been placing into her music videos since 2014’s “Babylon” video aligned with her show. Puzzles are my thing, what can I say?
This particular puzzle started on December 8, 2022, the day SOS was released. It was a full moon, which is said to be the perfect time to set intentions of releasing things that no longer serve you. That had to mean something, right?
The day she shared her tour dates, I immediately noticed that it was set to take place right in the bosom of Pisces season on February 21 while the new moon was in Pisces (her moon sign) and wrapping on March 19. The new moon is said to be the best time to manifest fresh intentions. The original final date of the tour was March 22, during the Aries full moon. From there I got lost in a rabbit hole of discovery.
Aware of these connections, I was better able to understand her tour performance — which could be seen as something like a Broadway play where SZA is acting out the journey of saving herself with help from the stars. When the show began, SZA sat on the ledge of a board, mimicking her cover art, as she rapped the unreleased “PSA.” Then, she took a dive into the ocean.
That moment reminded me of the “Babylon” video when she fully immersed herself in a lake, leaving behind $7 (a number that is significant for many reasons) and a note that read, “Gone fishin’,” an idiom for checking out of reality. Fishing for what? Wisdom.
YouTube
As she got into “Seek & Destroy,” “Notice Me,’ “Love Galore,” and “Broken Clocks,” I noticed her performing on a boat dock.
It’s reminiscent of her “Broken Clocks” video where the kids from Camp SZA are shown running to a lake to hang out. TDE’s own Jay Rock is there too and he holds a lifesaver.
YouTube
When she spit the words to her title track “SOS,” it looked like she was on the side of a ship or a submarine. Then she eased into, “Blind,” a song about discovering that everything you need to be great is already inside of you. ”It’s so embarrassing / All of the things I need living inside of me / I can’t see it,” she crooned. “It’s so embarrassing / All of the love I seek living inside of me/ I can’t see, I’m blind.”
Although there’s no music video, I peeped that the lighthouse she was singing in front of was from her Saturday Night Live performance. Lighthouses guide ships safely to the harbor, especially when the weather is difficult and dangerous.
Next up was the Darkchild-produced banger “Shirt,” a song that was well worth the wait — as was the live performance for it. Now, at the end of the “Broken Clocks” video, she gets beat up at a strip club, causing her nose to leak and putting a bloodstain on her shirt, while her friend yells “Sis! Wake up!” Jay Rock’s music plays in the background. In the “Shirt” video, she tells LaKeith Stanfield, “Color is light, light is energy, everything is energy.” Also, while she dissociates n another part of the video, we witness SZA attempting to grab a fish.
YouTube
Following “Shirt,” she got into “Smoking On My Ex Pack” while impressively doing a full-on costume change. Then, boarded a ship named SOS, and on the back, it read “Ctrl Fishing Co.” Appearing in a flowy black outfit, a beautiful performance of “All The Stars” took place along with Ctrl goodie “Garden (Say It Like Dat).” So far, the ride on her ship appeared to be pretty tranquil even as she rocked out to “F2F” alongside her glorious, stand-out guitarist.
Suddenly the ocean wave patterns became turbulent with rain pouring down as she performed the choreography to “Low” upon the deck of her ship. After wowing us all with the splits, SZA disappears into a sea of darkness.
Then, a bright light circulated the stadium, and to my left, a lighthouse resurrected in the middle of the audience. My eyes followed the light until it landed on SZA, who was adorned in a fairy-like yellow dress and floating in an orange lifeboat while singing “Supermodel.” Fans below were blessed with a rain of flowers sprinkled over their heads. With each song she performed, the closer to the lighthouse she got.
Once she returned to the stage for performances of “Kiss Me More” and “Love Language,” however, she was underwater with fish and a large anchor. Then, a large red shipping crate appeared to emerge from the ocean at the beginning of her “Kill Bill” performance and into “I Hate U,” where streams of water cascaded behind her. According to an interview with Rolling Stone, SZA originally envisioned herself sitting atop a shipping crate for her cover art.
SZA wrapped with “Good Days.” Back into her golden fairy-like dress, she was peacefully seated on the same board from the start of the show but instead, she glowed with the sun. “Half of us chasin’ fountains of youth and it’s in the present now,” she sang as a final reminder to the thousands of supporters who came out in the rain to see her.
SZA’s SOS Tour was indeed an immersive experience based on the Easter egg hunt alone (and I didn’t even detail all of the eggs!). At the end of the show, she teased the visual for “Low” which is expected to drop “soon.” The way SZA utilized her power to steer herself into a massively successful album that has touched people across the globe coupled with holding down the No. 1 spot for 10 weeks straight and a sold-out tour is absolutely inspiring. And if my intuition is correct, SOS could be making a return to No. 1.
Lola Brooke is smoking hot right now. Her viral hit “Don’t Play With It” has her rubbing shoulders with the likes of Flo Milli, Lil Kim and A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, and as it turns out, she was just getting warmed up.
The pint-sized Brooklyn bomber recently revamped her song with a couple of her fellow rap it-girls, delivering a diamond hard remix featuring Latto and Yung Miami. The quick-and-dirty video, which dropped today, finds the three rappers linking up under a freeway overpass with a massive squad to shoot a gritty visual matching the throwback bad-gyal vibes of the boastful, aggressive song itself.
“You f*ck like a hundred n****s just for hundred band,” Lola raps in disbelief. “I don’t even got me hundred bands / I’m still gon’ me a hundred Ms with a hundred plans.” Latto echoes that sentiment from a loftier perspective, rapping, “Hundred bands, f*ck is a hundred bands?” She then brags, “Dropped a hundred on a pendant, that sh*t big as Lola.” Miami bats cleanup, snarking, “I ain’t got hundred mil, but I got it once I flew in.” Whew.
Watch Lola Brooke’s “Don’t Play With It (Remix)” video featuring Latto and Yung Miami above.
The Ticketmaster hate train just boarded another fan group, Drake fans. Although the live event and ticketing conglomerate is reportedly working on a transparency initiative to outline what fees patrons are paying for, that isn’t enough for the “Rich Flex” rapper’s fans.
According to the Toronto Star, the company is being accused of price gouging. To be more specific, in the newly filed class action lawsuit in the recording artist’s home country, Canada, prospective concertgoers are alleging that Ticketmaster is intentionally spiking the cost of his It’s All A Blur Tour. When the tour was initially announced, fans took to social media to share in their excitement of the moment. However, that all changed when ticket prices were revealed reaching into the thousands.
The suit filed by the law firm LPC Advocat Inc. on behalf of a Montreal man, documents that the name purchased two “Official Platinum” tickets at $789.54 each for the rapper’s July 14 show at the Bell Centre. Then after checking back the very next day those same tickets dropped about $350.
Inside of the document, LPC Advocat Inc. alleges Ticketmaster is “intentionally misleads consumers for their own financial gain.” Later in the suit, the firm notes, “The tickets advertised and sold as ‘Official Platinum’ are neither ‘premium tickets’ nor ‘some of the best seats in the house’ and are, in fact, just regular tickets sold by Ticketmaster at an artificially inflated premium in bad faith.”
Ticketmaster has not issued a public statement on the matter.
Some couples have great meet-cute stories to tell at parties. It’s a pretty safe bet, though, that if it were a competition, no one would be able to top Teyana Taylor and Iman Shumpert‘s tale, which involves Justin Bieber, celebrity basketball, and Spike Tee’s stellar defensive instincts.
Taylor recounted the thrilling yarn during her appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Thursday night to promote her new movie A Thousand And One, which apparently has a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. After she recalled her first meeting with Beyoncé (to teach her the Chicken Noodle Soup dance), Kimmel pulled out a photo of Taylor with Justin Bieber that was taken during a celebrity basketball game. In it, Bieber’s dribbling while being chased by Taylor, both grimacing from the effort.
“I was on his ass,” Taylor joked. “He was kinda showing off ’cause he knew he was good. I said, ‘Oh yeah? Aight, bet.’… But that was the very moment that my husband fell in love with me. He’s like, ‘Who is that girl? Her defense is on point!’” She said the similarity between them — Shumpert was known as a defensive specialist during his NBA days — got his attention but she made his pursuit… well, interesting.
“Even though he was feeling [me] this day, he didn’t get me that day!” she proclaimed. She explained, though, that it was three years before she agreed to go out with him. He remained persistent and they became friends and business partners (Taylor took on Shumpert as a styling client), but after getting to know him — and see him with his shirt off — they fell in love.
Puth’s “That’s Not How This Works” featuring Carpenter is due out April 14, but who wants to wait that long for new music? No need! Carpenter dropped her “Nonsense (Remix) with Coi Leray today, March 23.
They teased the remix hours before with a clever snippet featuring both of their vocals, “This song harder than keepin’ a secret / He said my head’s crazy, I’m a genius / What’s better than one pop star? It’s two, b*tch / It’s Coi Leray and ‘Brina on the remix.”
In the full track, Leray complements the song’s infectious, lovesick hook with a dizzying flow: “This boy got me goin’ crazy / We just started dating, now he say he want a baby / He said, ‘Coi, you so amazing / ‘You a freak in the sheets, in the streets, you such a lady.’”
“Nonsense” is the breakout single from Emails I Can’t Send, her album from last July — peaking at No. 56 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early February, peaking at No. 18 on the Pop Airplay chart earlier this month, and currently sitting at No. 42 on the Radio Songs chart.
Carpenter and Leray attended the BillboardWomen In Music 2023 event earlier this month. Carpenter presented TWICE with the Breakthrough Award, while Leray presented SZA as Woman Of The Year.
Listen to “Nonsense (Remix)” above.
Charlie Puth is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Saweetie is moving the needle this week by claiming Lil Nas X as her “celebrity guy crush” and blaming her Zodiac sign for the ongoing delay of her debut album. The two-time Grammy nominee also provided an update on the album, and her response is sure to get the people going.
“I’m working on the album. I’m really focused on my craft right now,” Saweetie told Metro UK in an interview published Monday, March 20. “I’m about to drop some treatments and … direct with some directors to shoot some new music videos.”
She added, “I definitely want to work with Rihanna. [Super Bowl LVII] wasn’t even a game. It was the Rihanna concert. [We would] release a dance record to get the party going.”
Most recently, Rihanna attended the 2023 Oscars on March 12 and earned a standing ovation for her live rendition of the Oscar-nominated “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
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