Zayn Malik may have left the group to sign a solo deal with RCA but that isn’t stopping the guys from One Direction, as the group has released their new single ‘Drag Me Down’. The band dropped the song on iTunes and Spotify yesterday and it is available now here. Not only is this the first new music from One Direction in awhile, but it displays a new and more mature sound from the group. If you like what you hear, be sure to catch the guys on their current American leg of their On The Road Again stadium tour. Their forthcoming album is due to release this November.
In PND’s new song, he lets out the feelings he has for the R&B singer, Kehlani. The two were in a relationship for a while, until Kehlani claimed she was single in a recent tweet. Titled “Kehlani’s Freestyle”, this follows the footsteps of Drake’s “Bria’s Interlude” and “Cece’s Interlude” where the singing rapper also reveals his feelings towards his past girls. The dreamy beat mixes perfectly with PND’s smooth vocals. Listen to the track below.
Drake and Meek Mill may soon be old news for rap beef as Vic Mensa just took serious shots at G.O.O.D. Music‘s Travis Scott with his new ‘Heir To The Throne’ freestyle. Rapping over Biggie’s classic ‘Who Shot Ya?’ record, Mensa raps, “couple rap n*ggas you done thought that we was crew, real life n*ggas was corny, what can I do? Rich boy rappers get the notion that they tough, you a Cheddar Bob you better shooting yourself.” While mimicking Travis Scott’s “straight up” adlib between bars, Mensa is clearly talking about Scott, who (like Vic) is very close with Kanye West and producer Mike Dean.
While we aren’t certain where, how, or why this beef started, members of the KanyeToThe forum traced the beef back to last month, from one of Mensa’s tweets. In the tweet, Mensa is noticeably annoyed by a HNHH article that describes Vic’s unreleased track, ‘3 AM’, as sounding similar to a “Travis Scott song without the autotune.” Vic soon replied asking that they not mention him with “funny style n*ggas.”
It’s possible that something behind the scenes explains Mensa’s disliking of Scott, and there were rumors that a fight between Scott’s team and Vic’s SAVEMONEY crew broke out months ago, but for now it may just be the case that Mensa isn’t a fan of La Flame. Or perhaps the two are competing for studio time with Kanye and Mike Dean? Either way, this doesn’t seem like a necessary beef, and the unnecessary shots are overshadowing the dope bars Vic laid down in the new freestyle. Both Mensa and Scott will be in Chicago this weekend, as Travis is performing at Lollapalooza and Vic is performing a hometown show for an unofficial Lollapalooza Afterparty, so perhaps the two will cross paths…
Listen to Mensa’s shots towards Travis Scott at the 1:40 mark below.
Last night, rapper J. Cole brought his Forest Hills Drive Tour to Chicago with a stop at Tinley Park’s Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre. With opening performances from Cole’s Dreamville arts (Bas, Cozz, Omen), rapper YG, Chicago’s own Jeremih and G.O.O.D. Music‘s Big Sean, fans certainly got their money’s worth. To warm up the crowd for the main event, Big Sean performed a number of his best known tracks, including a large number of tracks from his Dark Sky Paradise album, as well as some of Sean’s best guest features. The highlight of Sean’s performance however came during technical difficulties, as Sean’s mic cut out during his emotional performance of ‘One Man Can Change The World’. While the crowd initially booed the sound team for the problems, once the Windy City fans could tell that the mic wasn’t going to immediately fix itself, the entire crowd stop their boos and instead cheered for Sean with all their energy as he continued to rap his latest single, dedicated to his late grandmother. Knowing the context behind the record, the crowd helped Sean turned a negative moment into a memorable on.
For J. Cole’s headlining set, the man proved why he is meant to top the bill of a long and talented list of performers. Cole not only played his entire album 2014 Forest Hills Drive, but he gave intimate stories behind the records (as almost a director’s commentary to the album). Cole also brought out Jeremih for a performances of their ‘Planes (Remix)’, and even sprinkled in a few tracks for some of his day one fans. Not one fan left the amphitheatre feeling that Cole and the rest of the lineup didn’t give them their money’s worth.
Check our more photos, from our photographer Dan Garcia, below.
Ever since the announcement that Kanye West’s “G.O.O.D. Music” label has added a new singer to its roster, Kanye fans and music fans alike have been excited to hear what’s to come for singer Kacy Hill. And now fans can finally get excited to hear Hill’s debut project, as Kacy has announced her forthcoming EP, Bloo. “Bloo is a compilation of a few songs I’ve written over the past year, inspired by the necessity of finding happiness in the people I choose to surround myself with,” said Hill. “It is a calm introduction to what I would like to accomplish musically, transitioning from the sound of ‘Experience’ to more refined songwriting.”
As we await more information on Bloo listen to Hill’s track ‘Experience’ below.
Oakland R&B singer Kehlani is on the come up, and if she isn’t your new favorite singer already, she likely will be soon. Not only does she have a track with the Based God, but everything she has released has been good, if not great (download her latest project here). One of our favorite records with Kehlani though is her collaboration with Chicago’s Chance The Rapper, titled ‘This Way’. And today, that record now has an official music video, as Kehlani recruited Chance for the video to her You Should Be Here single.
Watch Kehlani’s official video for ‘This Way’, directed by Austin Vesely, below.
Earlier today, Odd Future’s Mike G (one of the group’s most underrated members) shared a old collaboration with fellow OFWGKTA member Earl Sweatshirt. What’s most interesting about this record, is that the track dates back all the way to 2009. You can noticeably tell the difference in the young rappers’ voices but the track, titled ‘FUK IT’, is still fire. We wonder what other Odd Future unreleased tracks are out there.
Following their mega-successful collaboration ‘Latch’, Disclosure and Sam Smith have again teamed up, this time for Disclosure’s new single ‘Omen’. Off their forthcoming sophomore album, Caracal, which is due out September 25th on Capitol Records, ‘Omen’ is another great record from Smith and the talented production duo. The official video is live now, and fans can sure purchase the track tomorrow, July 28th. “It was really exciting,” says Disclosure’s Howard Lawrence on the new record. “We had three whole days to hang out with Sam and write, which are two of my favorite things to do.”
Last night, Milwaukee singer Lex Allen and the New Age Narcissism collective performed a headlining set at the Brady Street Festival in Milwaukee, WI. While many festival goers were sprinkled throughout the Brady St. bars, somewhere between buzzed and drunk (since it’s what Mil-town does best), a great crowd of fans showed up for the Allen’s entertaining set. Full of costume changes, dancers and surprise performances from NAN’s Siren and Lorde Fredd33, Lex delivered for his hometown crowd.
Check our more photos, from our photographer Dan Garcia, below.
Last night, singer Charles Bradley and his Extraordinaires performed an amazing set at the Subterranean in Chicago, IL. With an energetic opening set from Milwaukee rapper WebsterX, Windy City fans definitely got their money’s worth. WebsterX performed a number of tracks, including his fan favorite ‘doomsday’, and Bradley kept fans entertained with performances from his Victim of Love and No Time For Dreaming records. If you weren’t in Chicago last night, Bradley will be touring the world this summer, while Midwest fans can catch WebsterX at this year’s Summer Set Music & Camping Festival (enter our ticket giveaway here).
Check our more photos, from our photographer Jesus Montero, below.
The Early Registration 