With all of these exciting acts, fans are eager to get their hands on tickets.
Where can fans buy tickets for Something In The Water?
According to a tweet from the festival’s official Twitter account, fans can purchase tickets from the Something In The Water website. However, it appears only “a limited number of passes are still available.”
Those who aren’t able to get tickets will be able to live stream full performances via Williams’ YouTube channel.
This year’s festival is presented by Walmart, who is committed to helping communities thrive.
“Strengthening local communities is core to Walmart’s DNA,” said Cedric Clark, executive vice president, store operations for Walmart US. “By investing in our associates and in the communities we serve, we help build a foundation where people can live their full potential every day. We’re excited to team up with Something In The Water, returning to a special place to Walmart, Virginia’s Hampton Roads, to help celebrate and empower this community we’re so proud to be a part of.”
Find the full lineup of performers below.
Live Nation
Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Late last year, Pharrell announced that his Something In The Water Festival would return to his hometown, Virginia Beach, after he moved it to Washington, DC in 2022 over the city’s handling of the death of his cousin. Today, he revealed the lineup, and it’s a doozy. In addition to a headlining set from “Pharrell’s Phriends,” which in the past included Clipse, Justin Timberlake, NORE, Q-Tip, and SZA, the massive lineup features everyone from Lil Uzi Vert to Wu-Tang Clan. You can see the full lineup below.
The festival will take place on April 28-30, with general admission three-day passes priced at $399. For more information, you can visit the fest’s website. You can check out the full list of performers below.
100 Gecs, Aminé, Ayra Starr, Babyface Ray, BADBADNOTGOOD, Black Sherif, CHIKA, Clipse, Coi Leray, d4vd, Doechii, Feid, FLO, Flo Milli, gigi, Grace Jones, Jay Pharoah, Jazmine Sullivan, Jessie Murph, Kamasi Washington, KayCyy, KAYTRANADA, Kehlani, Kenny Beats, Kid Cudi, Kitty Ca$h, Latto, Lil Durk, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Wayne, Lil Yachty, Machine Gun Kelly, Maren Morris, Masego, Mumford & Sons, Nile Rodgers & CHIC, NLE Choppa, Polo G, Remi Wolf, Riovaz, Saucy Santana, Skrillex, Summer Walker, SWV, The Kid LAROI, UMI, Wale, Weston Estate, Wet Leg, Wu-Tang Clan, YEИDRY, and yvngxchris will all be performing at Something In The Water 2023.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Lil Nas X has found himself in hot water. Although the rapper has practically made a career off of sparking controversy online (just look at the backlash he received from his Satan shoes and the devil imagery in his music video for single “Montero“), this time, he’s causing harm to the queer community, to which he himself belongs.
Yesterday (March 14), the rapper uploaded a picture of what appeared to be a Black woman to his Twitter page with the caption, “the surgery was a success,” joking that he had undergone gendering affirming surgery. It is unclear if the image posted was of an AI-generated image of himself as a woman or if it was of an actual random woman on the internet who looks like him; either way, fans did not find any humor in the joke calling him out for being insensitive.
Lil Nas X apologizes to the trans community after being accused of mocking transitioning in a now-deleted post. pic.twitter.com/f8mdWEQ4kA
Users weren’t afraid to call him out for it, given that several pieces of anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation across the country have been introduced and, in many cases, passed to criminalize gender-affirming medical care for trans people.
Initially feeling wrongfully attacked by users, Lil Nas X brushed their comments off. But now, the musician has taken back to Twitter to apologize.
He wrote, “Apologies to the trans community. I def handled that situation with anger instead of considering why it was not cool. Much love to you guys. Sorry.”
apologies to the trans community i def handled that situation with anger instead of considering why it was not cool. much love to you guys. sorry
As an entertainer that has been constantly attacked and made the butt of several jokes due to his sexual orientation, trans fans are extremely disappointed in Lil Nas X’s behavior.
James Corden has made The Late Late Show a cultural staple since taking over the late-night program in 2015. The experience hasn’t been entirely positive, though, as it sure looks like a lot of people hate Corden. He certainly didn’t earn himself public favor last year with joke-stealing accusations and the infamous restaurant situation. So, on the latest “Carpool Karaoke” segment, Bad Bunny got to do something it seems a lot of people wish they had the chance to try: put Corden in a headlock.
Bad Bunny has a strong connection to WWE, and towards the end of “Carpool Karaoke,” that conversation topic came up. So, Bunny and Corden took to a wrestling ring, in which Bunny showed Corden some moves, including a headlock, a camel clutch, and more. Wrestling legend Rey Mysterio also made a surprise appearance and helped Corden develop a more intimidating wrestling attitude.
Bad Bunny is one of the last “Carpool Karaoke” guests before Corden leaves The Late Late Show, as his final episode is set for April 28. That last show will be preceded by a prime-time special, The Last Last Late Late Show. While Bunny is as of now the final confirmed “Carpool Karaoke” guest, given how important the segment has been to Corden, it feels likely there will be some sort of new installment in the special and/or the finale.
Still basking in the glow of his Grammy Award win for Best R&B Album, critically acclaimed musician Robert Glasper made a guest appearance on The Late Show hosted by Stephen Colbert. With a full supporting band and featured vocalist Yebba, the musicians delivered a special performance of their track, “Over” off Glasper’s award-winning album Black Radio III.
Although the track wasn’t a featured single, (that designation belongs to “Black Superheroes” featuring Killer Mike, BJ The Chicago Kid, and Big KRIT), fans quickly latched on the song. Yebba’s buttery vocals and Glasper’s masterful skills on the piano, while providing clear sonic guidance for the supporting band, demonstrates just why he is so revered. Their performance of the track on The Late Show was nothing less than spectacular.
Black Radio III, as the title shows, is the third installment of the musical series Glasper began ten years ago. As an episodic project, Black Radio blends together elements of jazz, rap, hip-hop, and R&B a musical tightrope Glasper has walked his entire career.
When asked about the legacy of the musical series, Glasper said, “Black Radio was always intended as an ongoing project, evolving over time, perhaps never complete but anchored in its creative commitment to celebrating black music,” adding, “The supreme edition of Black Radio III brings more new songs that have deeply personal meaning to me and are too special to not share with the world.”
August 11, 2023, will mark the 50th anniversary of the house party largely credited with the creation of hip-hop. Although the various elements of what we’ve come to know as the world’s most popular and influential cultures were already taking root in the streets of New York City, the birthday party that Cindy and Clive Campbell (aka DJ Kool Herc) threw in the rec room of their apartment building became the widely accepted inception point of hip-hop in the history books.
Now, 50 years later, the musical innovations that grew out of that soiree and the block parties that followed it have become the foundation of a global phenomenon with branches on nearly every continent. Hip-hop, once thought to be a trend that would go the way of disco, has instead flourished, changing the way the world acts, dresses, and talks through multiple generations of musical evolution.
But it all started with the DJ, the one who played the breaks back-to-back to form the beats that all rap music, from early electro to G-Funk to trap and cloud rap, is built upon. So, who better to talk about the history of rap than one of its most prolific DJs (and producers), Just Blaze, whose experiences span nearly the breadth of hip-hop’s history? His memory for all things hip-hop is darn near photographic – or should I say “phonographic” (sorry) – and he’s got an ear for details that makes picking his brain a treasure hunt that always bears fruit.
“This is an art form that is truly organic, truly natural,” he says via Zoom. “It came from a place of struggle, as do many things in our community. And for something that we created from a place of struggle and not having, for it to be as lucrative… The money aspect is great, but to be as lucrative, but also just as influential, as it has become worldwide, it’s truly an astonishing thing to see.”
Just’s earliest memories of hip-hop stem all the way back to the early ‘80s when the first rap records were first finding their way to radio stations throughout the Tri-State area. The New Jersey-bred producer fell in love at first listen. “I remember my younger days when I was a literal kid, like six, seven years old, and discovering this music, only to be told by my elders, ‘Well, when we were kids, we thought Motown was going to last forever. And trust me, in 10 years it’ll be something else.” And that was 40 years ago, and we’re still here and stronger than ever and more powerful than ever.
But obviously, hip-hop has changed a lot in the decades since. Where once, all you needed was a four-track drum machine and a microphone, there’s a lot more technology involved in crafting a hit. While Sylvia Robinson brought in a session band to replay the riff from Chic’s “Good Times” on “Rapper’s Delight,” today’s producers have a wide array of samples to choose from, pulling liberally from any genre that strikes their fancy. Whether breakbeats or 808s, jazz samples, or pre-produced loops, there is any number of permutations the music can take.
Likewise, rappers themselves look vastly different from their forebears. Adidas tracksuits are a thing of the past; now, you might see a rapper from Atlanta decked out like a rock star, or one from Compton dressed like a vision of the far future. “Everything that’s old will be new again, everything that’s new will eventually get old,” Just says of the rapid evolution. “The first round of records were kind of emulations or recreations of what was happening in the parks. But then you enter that second generation of it being put on record, starting with ‘The Message’ or whatever. And then you fast-forward only three years later, two, three years later, and it’s Run DMC. All black. It looked like dudes from the streets as opposed to the previous generation that looked like dudes dressing like P-Funk.”
When he looks at where hip-hop is now, he very much recognizes tinges of records that he had a hand in himself. “Over the past two years, I’ve cleared so many samples of my records from the early 2000s,” he beams. “There’s kids rhyming over flips of Fabolous’ ‘Can’t Let You Go.’ There’s kids rhyming off of [Cam’ron’s] “Oh Boy.” I shouldn’t call them kids respectfully, but younger people rhyming off of records that I created in the early 2000s. You got R&B records that are flipping all the R&B records from the late ‘90s and early 2000s as well. So it’s all a cycle, right?”
And despite the new technologies that bring the music to the audience, he still sees a place for the original purveyors of the sound, the DJs. While Spotify rolls out algorithmic playlists and TikTok presages the breakaway hits of the future, Just Blaze knows that there’s just no replacing the living, breathing, person behind the turntables. Sometimes, someone just has to be able to feel the vibe.
“It started out where the DJ was at the forefront,” he recalls. “The emcees were kind of just the backup. They kept the party going. And those routines evolved to eventually provide the early building blocks for songs. Over time, that focus changed in certain genres. So obviously in hip hop, the focus remained on or started to shift towards the emcee for various reasons that are too long to get into here.”
“I look at other genres that have spawned out of similar traditions that hip-hop did, like house music today, which kind of traveled a similar parallel to hip-hop in terms of where it came from. It came from a place of struggle and not having much. A lot of times in that world, the DJ’s still the star of the show. You can have a number one record in the world, nobody knows who the singer is. They know who the producer/DJ was.”
But, he says, “You can never completely take the DJ out of the equation because hip-hop is still very much a street-level culture in many ways. Even though radio plays a different role than it did before the advent of streaming, many records were broken on the radio by DJs. A lot of records still break in the club. Who was running the club? DJs. Remove the DJ from the equation, a lot of these records don’t get the legs that they end up with to allow them to enjoy success…. You could never fully remove the DJ from the equation because like I said, it starts with the DJ.”
So, where does hip-hop go in the next 50 years? It’s proven its staying power. It’s driven ad campaigns, and fashion trends, and even formed the innovative backbone of many industries like tech – just look at AI, NFTs, streaming, and virtual rappers. Just, despite being a fountain of insight, doesn’t want to hazard a guess and end up looking like the elders who told him that hip-hop was just a fad.
“I’m not going to purport to know where hip hop goes in 50 years,” he demurs. “What I will say is, what I hope to see is a return to a bit more of balance. I have nothing against the music that the younger generation is making because I’m cognizant that I’m not the target audience. And one thing that I strongly dislike is when folks from previous generations, whether they be consumers or creators, try to downplay the music that the younger generations are making. It’s like, this music isn’t for you.”
Like a health-conscious person eating more nutritious food, getting more rest, and still occasionally indulging in a sweet treat, the folks who make up this culture are going to need to be more intentional about their choices. “I would like to see a return to balance when you could hear in one day, or in a two-hour span whether it was on TV or on the radio, you might catch Public Enemy, X-Clan, MC Hammer, De La Soul, Pharcyde, some local groups that were making noise,” Just advocates. “You would catch all that and then still hear the super popular… You might still catch Vanilla Ice on the radio too, for better or worse.”
This, he posits, is the key to ensuring that hip-hop sees its 100 birthday, which isn’t as far away as it might seem. After all, 1979 turned out to not be all that long ago. Time flies when you’re having fun – and at its core, that’s what hip-hop is all about. Happy birthday to the culture – and many more.
Following the untimely death of his cousin and Migos bandmate Takeoff last year, it looks like Offset is getting back into the gears of making music. Yesterday (March 13), the rapper took to Instagram to share an update on what fans believe will be his second solo album.
In an Instagram Story, he shared a picture of himself wearing a hoodie, protected by a Balenciaga windbreaker. The photo was captioned, “Album mode.” The album was planned to arrive last year, but Offset delayed the project after Takeoff’s death.
In recent months, Offset and his wife, Cardi B have been making lots of public appearances. They did not shy away from any sort of public displays of affection this past weekend at the Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty, or last month at the Grammys. During the Super Bowl, the two appeared in a commercial announcing the launch of their McDonald’s meal.
In an interview with Complex published after the commercial, both Offset and Cardi teased new music of their own.
“I’m just looking forward to the fans hearing this music,” Offset said. “I’ve been making because I [used] a lot of new producers, I did a lot of new sounds, there was some new artists. So I’m just excited for the new chapter.”
In the midst of executive producing the soundtrack for Creed III and planning Dreamville Fest 2023, J. Cole is still finding time to put his pen to pad to drop new music. His latest featured verse on international music star J-Hope’s new single “On The Street” is the ultimate hip hop/K-pop crossover. However, as J-Hope revealed in the behind-the-scenes video, this collaboration was nearly a decade in the making.
During the video, J-Hope revealed, “When I started listening to music, the first artist I listened to was J. Cole. Being able to work with J. Cole after 10 years as a fan, I’m so happy. It’s just all new, and I still can’t believe it.”
J. Cole didn’t let any potential language barrier stop him from sharing his admiration for J-Hope. Working with a translator, the rapper said, “It’s a blessing to be here with y’all.” The pair initially met back at Lollapalooza 2022 and have kept an eye on each other’s work.
Inside the comment section for the official music video, fans are raving about the collaboration. In fact, the most liked comment reads, “Wow, unexpected. J Cole is my icon. I wouldn’t have thought of seeing him collaborating with a BTS member, but that is great glad it happened.”
Watch the behind-the-scenes video for “On The Street” above.
In 2016, he signed an exclusive deal with Amazon to bring his music to streaming. Now, he has elaborated on what he saw in Amazon that he didn’t in other services.
As Digital Music News reports, at the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville yesterday (March 13), Brooks said that it has to do with Amazon’s ability to sell physical releases of albums and how that benefits songwriters like himself:
“The fact is that Amazon is a retailer as well. So you can sign your streaming deal, but part of that streaming deal is to move those physical units so the songwriters get paid. And people, we can talk all day that ‘Garth went on to raise his kids, what a great…’ — Garth did that for himself. I stick up for the songwriters because I’m freakin’ one of them! Everything I do for the songwriters, I do for myself.
I’m the most selfish guy you’ve ever met, OK? But if we don’t take care of these songwriters, what do you guys have to play? It’s just tough, so that’s why I love partnering with [Amazon]. So the physical comes in, and nobody’s doing physical anymore. So these songwriters are still doing well.
And I hope that songwriters want to get a Garth Brooks cut. One, because I hope that they think that it would be cool. But two, right behind it closely, I hope it’s because they know that if you’re a Garth Brooks songwriter, you’re going to get paid.”
Given Brooks’ popularity, other platforms have tried to lure him. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek once even had a meeting with Brooks to try to get him on board. In 2017, Brooks said of Spotify and Apple Music:
“Spotify came in, Daniel Ek came down to sit with me, sweet man, I love Daniel, great guy. I think he gets a lot of crap. His parents were both street musicians — he’s a good guy who understands music, and I think he wants to help and believes 100 percent he’s helping.
Apple’s a little different story. They came in with their own set of rules, and if you’re already established, you have to change to get to them. I’m never going to change to fit their rules. Nice guys, we have respect for each other, we’re just never going to work together. So we were kind of dead in the water. Then out of the blue, thank God, Amazon shows up and wants to get into the streaming business. The views they shared seemed to correlate with the views we shared.”
The White Stripes is one of the most beloved rock bands of its era and “Seven Nation Army” is a bona fide classic. The band is carried by Jack White’s distinct voice and his often-aggressive guitar, as well as by Meg White’s relatively simple drumming style, the latter of which has often been criticized. A Twitter user revived that discourse recently and The Roots drummer and music historian Questlove was not hearing it.
Late last night/early this morning (March 14), Questlove shared a tweet from a user that read, “The tragedy of the White Stripes is how great they would’ve been with a half decent drummer. Yeah yeah I’ve heard all the ‘but it’s a carefully crafted sound mannnn!’ takes. I’m sorry Meg White was terrible and no band is better for having sh*tty percussion.”
To that, he responded, “I try to leave ‘troll views’ alone but this right here is out of line af. Actually what is wrong w music is people choking the life out of music like an Instagram filter—trying to reach a high of music perfection that doesn’t even serve the song (or music).” He added in another tweet, “This is why I walk that Dilla path and play like a drunken sloppy af amateur because them flaws is the human element in music that is missing. Real film >>>>>>> IG filter photo.”
I try to leave “troll views” alone but this right here is out of line af. Actually what is wrong w music is people choking the life out of music like an Instagram filter—-trying to reach a high of music perfection that doesn’t even serve the song (or music) pic.twitter.com/hCj43qNpcG
This is why I walk that Dilla path and play like a drunken sloppy af amateur because them flaws is the human element in music that is missing. Real film >>>>>>> IG filter photo
In a 2002 interview, Meg White said of the criticism she faced, “I appreciate other kinds of drummers who play differently, but it’s not my style or what works for this band. I get [criticism] sometimes, and I go through periods where it really bothers me. But then I think about it, and I realize that this is what is really needed for this band. And I just try to have as much fun with it as possible.”
See you in Virginia Beach for SOMETHING IN THE WATER presented by @Walmart April 28-30! A limited number of passes are still available at https://t.co/Ul2je8C4F5 pic.twitter.com/OePdUG4kyK
Inependet Music Collection 