Rae Sremmurd, the brotherly rap duo from Tupelo, Mississippi, is back with another new single from their newly announced album, Sremm 4 Life. It’s called “Tanisha (Pump That),” and it’s an upbeat, pulsating club song — think the Miami bass-style R&B of Ghost Town DJs’ “My Boo” — and finds the Brown boys admiring a special young lady at the function and encouraging her to “poke it out” before offering to “take you on a private vacation.”
The song is produced by the Ear Drummers’ longtime collaborator Mike Will Made-It, who co-produced alongside veteran hitmaker Pharrell Williams. On Twitter, Mike Will promised that “Ear Drummer Summer is loading,” which is a welcome relief for those fans who’ve had to wait almost five years for a follow-up to Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi’s last album, 2018’s SR3MM.
Fun fact : I worked with my brother @Pharrell on @RaeSremmurd new single dropping tonight… Big ol
Ahead of announcing the release date for Sremm 4 Life, the sibling act shared a string of singles that included “Denial,” “Torpedo,” and “Sucka Or Sum,” displaying their usual well-worn chemistry. Earlier this week, they also showed off the album’s cover artwork, which continues their tradition of minimalist covers while updating it to show off their style.
Listen to “Tanisha (Pump That)” above.
Sremm 4 Life is due April 7 on Ear Drummers / Interscope. Get more info here.
After taking a brief hiatus from releasing music and performing, Megan Thee Stallion is set to make a return to the stage. The “Plan B” rapper will perform her first live show of the year in Houston on March 31 at the AT&T Block Party.
The AT&T Block Party takes place March 31 through April 2, in Houston’s Discovery Green park, and is set in conjunction with the Men’s Final Four weekend.
“There’s no place I’d rather be for my first performance of the year than my hometown of Houston,” said Meg in a statement. “The AT&T Block Party Concert is gonna be such a vibe, and I can’t wait to get back on stage in the city where it all began. I’m looking forward to seeing my Hotties and putting on an unforgettable show for them.”
Meg’s upcoming performance will also mark her first Houston show since 2019, as the last time she performed in her hometown was during Astroworld festival right before the pandemic.
It’s ironic; as a member of De La Soul, the late Trugoy the Dove helped pioneer hip-hop’s so-called “Daisy Age,” but it’s only after he passed that he’s receiving his flowers. The latest tribute to Dave Jolicoeur comes from frequent collaborator Damon Albarn, who praised the rapper’s generosity in an audio clip shared by Dave’s bandmate Posdnous.
“I just want to talk about Dave’s generosity, I think,” Albarn says in the clip. “[He was] very generous with his spirit and he had some amazing future-taking ideas that he was able to articulate with the rest of De La Soul. In a way, they changed the paradigm so I just wanna say I miss you and love you.”
Albarn was one of De La’s greatest advocates during the time their music was not available to stream, tapping them to feature on multiple projects with his virtual band, Gorillaz, starting with “Feel Good Inc.” from 2005’s Demon Days. Most recently, they appeared on the deluxe version of Cracker Island on the song “Crocadillaz,” which was released shortly after Dave’s passing.
The group’s music is finally on streaming now, though, and after a tribute concert in their hometown to celebrate in which Plug Three, Maseo, got emotional talking about Dave’s impact, fans can also honor the pioneering rapper by running up the numbers on Stakes Is High.
Today, tools for music creation and distribution are more available than ever. While accessibility is good, with a larger talent pool, it’s not always easy for deserving acts to stand out. Now, though, Coca-Cola and Warner Music Group’s WMX are teaming up to help some of those artists out with the Coca-Cola Transformation Team.
To put it broadly: Transformation Team is a talent search that will give a select few artists significant development and exposure opportunities, ones that could set their careers off in a brighter new direction.
Interested emerging artists can submit video entries to be considered for the Transformation Team. Only three will be chosen to take part in a multifaceted one-day boot camp that’ll be guided by a Warner Music Group industry expert. Artists will be given major tools for success as they learn about songwriting, stage style, mixing, and other topics.
The opportunity doesn’t stop there, as participating artists will be the subjects of video profiles and will give their own performances on The Eye. The esteemed, stripped-down performance series is the perfect way to show off undeniable talent and has previously hosted recognizable figures like Kevin Gates, Maisie Peters, and Pink Sweat$, among others.
The road to stardom is often difficult and rarely looks the same for two artists. For a few talented up-and-comers, though, Transformation Team could be a pivotal part of the journey.
More details about Transformation Team can be found here.
Did you know that the guys responsible for one of the most beloved and zany videos of 2014 are nominated for several awards at the upcoming Oscars? Because I sure didn’t.
Actually, let me back up. Somewhere in the recesses of my pop culture-addled brain, I was aware that the 2014 video for the DJ Snake and Lil Jon collaboration “Turn Down For What” was directed by 35-year-old director tandem Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels. And I also knew that Daniels directed the 2022 runaway smash at this year’s Academy Awards.
But somehow, my brain failed to connect the dots in any meaningful way until my editor pointed out to me that I’ve been talking about that movie pretty much nonstop since it came out last year, and that this was exactly the sort of connection that would allow me to do so in the music section. Also, it’s pretty darn nifty that Daniels were able to earn all those Oscar nominations by essentially just doing all the same things they did in their music video on a larger scale.
The track record for music video directors who turned to film has some truly wild variation. Sure, directors like Francis Lawrence (“Bad Romance,” “I’m A Slave 4 U”) went on to direct blockbusters (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Mockingjay) while Spike Jonze (“Buddy Holly” and “Sky’s The Limit”) garnered critical acclaim for his arthouse films (Being John Malkovich, Her). But you also have Michael Bay and Hype Williams. The less said about Belly, the better.
But if you’d told people in 2014 that the people behind the unhinged “Turn Down For What” video would ultimately bring their transgressive commitment to chaos to the big screen – and earn 10 Academy Award nominations in the process – they might not have believed you. But in viewing Everything Everywhere All At Once, they’d see that all of the hallmarks of Daniels’ style remain intact. Which means that even after all their success, “Turn Down For What” might remain their greatest accomplishment yet.
In case you need a refresher on just how wild DJ Snake and Lil Jon’s video gets, here it is. The video opens on the rooftop of an apartment building, with a man staring into the camera as the beat builds. He leaps into the air in an apparent belly flop that smashes through the roof as the beat drops, landing in the apartment below. He proceeds to twerk on and/or hump practically every piece of furniture, terrifying the apartment’s occupant. She phones the police, and at this point, you’re likely expecting the story to proceed from what is an unusual but still altogether believable standpoint.
You’re wrong, though. So wrong. Not only does the phone officer’s face melt off a la René Belloq in Raiders Of The Lost Ark – one of many pop culture callbacks throughout Daniels’ work – but the dancing affliction of patient zero turns out to be somewhat contagious. After the lady’s clothes get blown off with a pelvic thrust, she joins in the debauchery, dropping her derriere right onto the first man’s face and once again crashing through the floor into the next apartment. This time, they disturb a family sitting down for dinner, leading to looks of horror and dismay as the process starts all over again.
The dance moves this time run the gamut of provocative Caribbean and South American styles (my favorite is the Brazilian Surra de Bunda, in which the female dancer rests her legs on her partner’s shoulders and then repeatedly smashes her posterior into his face… it’s so ridiculous) until the family gets into it too. The mother’s mammaries move of their own accord, the dad and daughter start headbanging, and before you know it, yet another apartment is practically demolished. And yes, they once again end up in the unit below, where at least an actual party is taking place.
The unsuspecting partygoers stare at the newcomers for a bit, and then things get really out of hand. A police officer sent over for the noise joins the party (of course), more furniture and flatware gets destroyed, and in the end, everyone ends up slumped over. That doesn’t stop the first guy’s sweatpants from twitching ominously as the video cuts to black.
When the video was first released, it was a phenomenon, leading to thinkpieces in Vox and on music interest sites, memes, and edits that made it even more ridiculous than it originally was. The internet couldn’t get enough; the song itself was licensed for use in films like 22 Jump Street, Furious 7, and the second Angry Birds movie, appeared in comedic sketches on The Tonight Show, and was even used in political campaigns like Rock The Vote and Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” initiative.
But that video was a huge part of the reason it stuck – people couldn’t get enough of it (to date, it’s accumulated well over a billion views on YouTube). And it established many of the signature flourishes of Daniels’ direction style, from irreverent and downright vulgar humor to the prominently Asian cast – which was as revolutionary in its day as that of the multiverse-hopping Oscars multi-nominee. Much like the dancing contagion from the video, Everything Everywhere features a sort of “everybody was kung-fu fighting” plot element in which one character suddenly displays outsized combat proficiency before nearly every other character becomes a drunken master.
Slow-motion butt drops figure prominently into both works, both for comedic purposes and plot advancement. Even the concept of each apartment being its own little ecosystem before the dancers crash through its ceiling is echoed in the use of the multiverse, where each timeline is encroached upon by Michelle Yeoh’s Evelyn as she seeks the means to defeat the “villainous” Jobu Tupaki. The film is littered with the same sort of pop culture references that led Daniels to nod to Indiana Jones; a song lyric absent-mindedly inserted into some dialogue by Kwan winds up leading to the song itself becoming the connective tissue between worlds.
Even the song’s title seems to reflect Daniels’ maximalist philosophy. As the multiverse shenanigans get nearly overwhelming, as so many plot points converge that you wonder how they’ll keep track, just when you think Everything Everywhere can’t possibly get any bigger, louder, funnier, more obnoxious, heartbreaking, or poignant, Daniels ask themselves, “Turn down for what?” and go even harder. As it turns out, that could be a winning strategy.
Avert your eyes, Devin Booker. It’s been nearly one month since dating rumors were sparked between Bad Bunny and Kendall Jenner. TMZ relayed the recent Grammy winner and Jenner were spotted last month leaving the Beverly Hills restaurant Wally’s separately, but the belief was that they had been there together on “a double date” with Justin and Hailey Bieber.
Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny’s rumored romance is no longer speculation — they were finally photographed together in the same frame … and they’re touching bods. https://t.co/AvdTs3eeGs
Per Page Six, Bad Bunny and Jenner had been at dinner with Kylie Jenner and family friend Travis Bennett (aka former Odd Future member Taco).
However, there has been no concrete confirmation from Bad Bunny nor Jenner that they are dating. Both parties’ representation hadn’t responded to the outlet’s request for comment.
Jenner was previously in a long-term relationship with Booker, an All-NBA and All-Star point guard for the Phoenix Suns.
People reported last November that the couple had ended their relationship the month prior. An unnamed source told the publication, “Both have incredibly busy schedules right now with their careers and they’ve decided to make that a priority.”
People added, “An insider also revealed that the decision to end their romantic relationship was mutual and just came down to timing, though Jenner and Booker do plan to stay in touch.”
Also in November, E! News cited an unnamed insider relaying that Jenner was “not really open to dating right now.”
Today is the 26th anniversary of The Notorious B.I.G.‘s death, and social media is awash in posts praising the Brooklyn rapper’s impact and legacy. Of course, that includes B.I.G.’s friend and business partner, Sean “Diddy” Combs, who shared a throwback video of B.I.G. giving some motivational advice in an old interview alongside the caption,”There will NEVER be another. The GREATEST RAPPER OF ALL TIME. Today we celebrate and honor you king. Love and miss you!!”
In the video, Biggie explains the importance of remaining true to yourself. “Don’t be the fool to just sit back and do it because somebody else is doing it,” he says. “Because those of you who do just gon’ follow in somebody else’s footsteps, and you just gon’ be a shadow. Who wanna be a shadow for the rest of their life. If you got a lil’ something’ that you know how to do, progress that and keep trying. I mean, God knows what could happen. That’s what I did. Just kept on walking, just happened to get to the right ends.”
Even though so much time has passed since The Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down in Los Angeles, his peers and contemporaries never seem to get tired of talking about him and his game-changing effect on hip-hop. Recently, Usher called Big “the most profound talent I think I’ve ever seen in an MC.” Meanwhile, Biggie’s hometown, New York, honored what would have been his 50th birthday last year by lighting up the Empire State Building with a crown on its mast along with citywide celebrations like murals and limited-edition MetroCards.
Snoop Dogg is maybe Instagram’s foremost user. He has posted to his feed 13 times in the last 24 hours, so Monday’s (March 6) announcement that Snoop and Wiz Khalifa are co-headliningThe High School Reunion Tour this summer already feels like old news.
But we can’t skip over a different post from Monday.
Adam Krueger is CW39 Houston’s Chief Meteorologist and often takes requests from his TikTok followers on which song lyrics he should try to sneak into his on-air forecasts. He was asked to incorporate a Snoop Dogg song, any song, and chose “Who Am I (What’s My Name)?” from Snoop’s 1993 debut, Doggystyle.
Krueger seamlessly squeezed in lyrics “From the depths of the sea, back to the block” and “follow me, follow me, follow me, follow me” — the latter was done by promoting his social media handles — before his FutureCast allowed him an opportunity to say, “Pretty soon, we’ll step through the fog, and we’ll creep through the smog, and we’ll be able to see a little bit of sun popping out this afternoon.”
“Then I step through the dog and I creep through the smog / ‘Cause I’m Snoop Doggy” is the actual line, but we’ll allow it. And to cap it off, Krueger outlined a potential cold front with, “It’s like that and as a matter of fact (Rat-tat-tat-tat).”
Snoop Dogg approved Krueger’s performance by reposting it to his Instagram with the caption, “Weather man on one .”
Concert proposals are becoming more and more popular. Whether it’s at an Adele show or at a Snoop Dogg meet-and-greet, popping the big question happens more often than you’d expect in a live music setting. Last night (March 8), a Lizzo gig in Glasgow at the OVO Hydro arena was the site of another proposal.
In the crowd, an audience member held their phone up to their forehead with text that read, “Ask my brother’s boyfriend to marry him.” It caught the “Special” singer’s attention. Over FaceTime, the fan asked his boyfriend: “Will you marry me?” and then added, “For the love of god, just say yes.” Lizzo, holding up the phone, chimed in: “What do you say?” Luckily, the answer was yes, which prompted a lot of cheering and made the concert even more of a celebration.
Lizzo has been having a lot of fun on stage. In Germany, she unexpectedly performed an a cappella rendition of heavy metal band Rammstein’s 1997 song, “Du Hast.” She knew how to hype the crowd up: “You better sing that sh*t,” Lizzo announced. “Y’all ready to go f*cking crazy?”
Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
The Main Street Armory in Rochester, New York recently became notorious after a crowd surge incident following a GloRilla concert on Sunday (March 3) resulted in fatal injuries to two concertgoers. On Wednesday, Rochester police revoked the venue’s entertainment license after its owners failed to appear at a meeting with the Rochester Police Department’s Licensing Unit. According to Rolling Stone, the venue had already developed a local reputation for being a “deathtrap,” and police called the move a step to prevent further tragedies.
The incident on Sunday was apparently prompted by false reports of gunfire within the venue. As the crowd pushed toward the exits, ten people were injured. Two women — Rhondesia Belton and Brandy Miller — died from their injuries. The incident came at a time when concert security is under higher scrutiny in the wake of the Astroworld Festival disaster in 2021, which resulted in 10 deaths, hundreds of injuries, and nearly 1,000 lawsuits against the organizers, Live Nation.
GloRilla herself responded to the incident on Monday, writing, “I am devastated & heartbroken over the tragic deaths that happened after Sunday’s show. My fans mean the world to me. Praying for their families & for a speedy recovery of everyone affected.”
I am devastated & heartbroken over the tragic deaths that happened after Sunday’s show. My fans mean the world to me praying for their families & for a speedy recovery of everyone affected
Rochester police chief David Smith said, “It is one step we can immediately take to ensure that the events of Sunday night are not repeated. The bottom line is, lives were lost, and we need to take steps to make sure that no lives are lost in the future if this was indeed something that was preventable.”
Since the Armory’s entertainment license was not renewed, it cannot host events like concerts such as an A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie show scheduled for this Saturday, March 11.
praying for their families & for a speedy recovery of everyone affected 
(@GloTheofficial) 
Inependet Music Collection 