Music

Donde esta Donda?

After waiting for over a year, fans hoping to finally hear Kanye West‘s Donda album — which was slated to drop Friday at midnight — were left disappointed and sometimes angry when the collection was nowhere to be found.

Kanye teased the album’s release in a Beats by Dre commercial, which aired during Tuesday’s NBA Finals, but, as of 1:16 ET, the album is MIA.

Twitter was abuzz with reactions to the latest delay.

“Absolutely got baited. don’t want to talk about,” wrote one user.

“Ah s***, here we go again,” complained another.

“All you’ve got to do is drop the album, drop it today,” another livid fan shouts repeatedly in a video clip.

Donda, named after Ye’s late mother, Donda West, will be his 10th studio effort.  The Grammy winner first teased the album in March 2020 and was originally slated to come out that July. 

However, Kanye cancelled the release and announced he was further tweaking the album when the album didn’t materialize on the promised release date.

Kanye has yet to address why the album failed to drop at midnight.  Earlier on Thursday, however, he shared an image depicting his silhouette sitting in what appears to be a stadium and captioned it, “TODAY’S THE DAY.”

(NOTE: Embedded Instagram video contains uncensored profanity)

absolutely got baited. don’t want to talk about it. #DONDA pic.twitter.com/JVHrf0oBET

— olivia (@oilspill77) July 23, 2021

Kanye fans opening spotify at 12:00 and not seeing #DONDA pic.twitter.com/JjYYcy7OYE

— yon (@yonny_yonyon) July 23, 2021

We need #DONDA @kanyewest pic.twitter.com/d8Cfz3IfM2

— HipHopHotspot (@HipHopxHotspot) July 23, 2021

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Before the summer ends, Chance the Rapper will share his first concert film, Magnificent Coloring World. The Chicago native says the idea for the film was inspired by the 2016 tour for his Grammy-winning mixtape, Coloring Book. 

“While I was on tour, I had this idea about stages and how like my stages flush with the crowd along any stage,” Chance tells ABC Audio. “I wanted to figure out a way like how to make the view of it more panoramic and create like basically a multi-stage set.”

During the pandemic, Chance explored his filmmaking aspirations by educating himself on film and editing. He says he envisions a set with “five stages that are connected in like a semi-circle, and then the audience is all in this big bleacher that’s across, so it looks like an uppercase D.”

The “No Problem” rapper says he’s excited for fans to experience this particular arrangement of songs, as well as new footage, which was filmed and edited at his House of Kicks production house.

“I built and designed my own stage and curated like a song list and a direction for the camera,” Chance says. “It’s so hard to explain. It’s one of those things where I promise…once you see it, you’ll be like, ‘oh, that’s amazing.'”

House of Kicks is also where Chance the Rapper filmed the launch video for Starbucks’ Made-Ready campaign, inspired by the coffee company’s bottled and canned drinks.

Magic Coloring World premieres in select AMC Theatres on Aug. 13.

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Shortly after Dolly Parton‘s surprise invitation last month to join the Grand Ole Opry, Carly Pearce wasted no time getting ready for an event she’s dreamed of practically her whole life: her induction into the country music institution. 

“I feel like I’m getting to plan the best day of my life,” the Kentucky native said just days later. “I’m like planning the biggest party of my life, so just trying to make a few special moments and working on that, and it feels surreal a little bit.”

“I’d be lying if I said I don’t already have my dress, because I do,” Carly admitted.

Now with her August 3 induction a little more than a week away, fans have even more reasons to be excited.

“I feel like the next few months are just gonna be full of — I’ve been working really hard on more stuff,” Carly teases. “And I actually get to, without saying too much, I get to almost marry some of those people that I talk about from the Opry with my current music and some of the extension of 29 that I’ve been working on.”

Right now, 29‘s first single, the autobiographical “Next Girl,” is just a couple steps away from breaking into the top fifteen.

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It’s been ten years since the tragic death of Grammy-winning singer Amy Winehouse, who died of alcohol poisoning on July 23, 2011 at the age of 27. Here’s a look back on her brief but impactful career.

Born to a Jewish family in London, Amy was influenced by jazz greats like Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington, and started writing music in her teens. In 2000, she was signed to a contract by 19 Management, owned by American Idol creator Simon Fuller.

After being signed to Island Records, Amy released her debut album, 2003’s Frank, to rave reviews.  Soon, she was headlining major festivals and winning prestigious awards.

Her second album, Back to Black —  inspired by the girl-group sound of the ‘50s and ‘60s and produced by Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi — was released in October 2006.  It became the best-selling album of 2007 in the U.K., while her single “Rehab” was a top 10 hit in the U.K. and U.S.  Amy’s beehive, tattoos and winged eyeliner made her an instantly recognizable pop culture figure.

Global superstardom followed, and in 2008, Amy and Back to Black won five Grammy Awards in a single night.  However, she had to accept via satellite because she’d failed a drug test and wasn’t allowed to enter the U.S. 

Amy, who’d been hospitalized for an overdose at least once, continued to struggle with substance abuse, which affected her live performances and caused erratic behavior — she was arrested several times for assault.  She was also likely suffering from an untreated mental illness, having previously admitted to battling self-harm, depression and an eating disorder.

After a stint in rehab, Amy apparently stopped doing drugs, but then turned to alcohol. Her live shows continued to suffer, and in 2011, her European tour was cut short due to her troubles. She gave her final performance July 20, 2011 in London, appearing as a surprise guest at her goddaughter’s concert.  She died three days later.

After her death, her parents established the Amy Winehouse Foundation to help young people with drug and alcohol problems. A statue was erected in her honor, and she inspired a number of books and several documentaries, including one that won an Oscar. She’s also been the subject of various museum exhibits, with a biopic and a musical reportedly in the works.

Now a bona fide icon, just a few of the singers who’ve cited Amy as an influence include Adele, Lady Gaga, Alessia Cara, Lana Del Rey, Billie Eilish, Jessie J, Halsey, Sam Smith and Bruno Mars.

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Rise Against has released a new acoustic version of “Nowhere Generation,” the title track off the band’s new album.

The updated recording features guest vocals from Meg Myers. You can download it now via digital outlets.

“When we released the acoustic version of ‘Nowhere Generation,’ we found that it really connected with a lot of people,” says frontman Tim McIlrath. “We heard from a lot of unique and beautiful voices, and we knew that we needed to add another beautiful, unique voice to this song. Meg was the perfect choice and we are thrilled with how it all turned out.”

“When Rise Against asked me to sing on ‘Nowhere Generation,’ I felt an instant connection to the song,” Myers adds. “There is a power and a purity about this song that is so healing and unifying.”

The original “Nowhere Generation” currently sits in the top 10 on both Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock and Alternative Airplay charts.

Nowhere Generation the album was released in June. Rise Against will launch a tour in support of the record July 27 in Cleveland.

Myers released a pair of EPs, Thank You 4 Taking Me 2 the Disco and I’d Like 2 Go Home Now, last November. The former includes her single “The Underground.”

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Ariana Grande has released the final installment of her VEVO Official Live Performance series.

The last video features her performance of “positions,” the title track off her latest album. It begins with Ari, clad in a pink bejeweled halter top and skirt matching set, seated at a looping machine on the flower-covered set. She loops her vocals and layers harmonies before launching into the song.

“this series of Positions performances has been such a creative dream come true for me,” Ariana wrote on Instagram ahead of the video’s release. “thank you so much to @vevo and to everybody who contributed their time and energies and talent to these performances. it quite literally takes a village to create something so special so i wanted to acknowledge and say thank you so much to everybody who gave their time and brought so much life to this music.”

“it was such a privilege and gift to me,” she continued. “also, thank you so much to the incredible @tydollasign and @theweeknd for joining us ! it’s as always such an honor and pleasure.”

“Positions” follows Ariana’s previous Vevo Official Live Performance videos of “pov,” “safety net” featuring Ty Dolla $ign, “my hair,” “34+35” and “off the table” featuring The Weeknd.

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Megan Thee Stallion revealed in a new interview that she waited until she was 20 to tell her mom that she wanted to become a rapper.

“I wanted to be perfect to her,” Megan told Tyra Banks for Sports Illustrated. “I was like, ‘No, I’m not gonna tell her yet.’ But she would have these CDs laying around the house — like, instrumentals — and I would take them in my room and I would take the beats and write to them in my room.”

As previously reported, Meg is the first rapper to grace the cover of SI, while Tyra became the first Black woman to achieve the feat in 1996.

Meg said she came clean to her mom when she entered college. “I was like, ‘I can rap.’ And she was like, ‘No, you can’t,'” she recalled. “And I was like, ‘Okay Mama, don’t whoop me, but I’m about to curse, okay?’ So I started going off and I’m cursing and [she gasps,] ‘Where did you learn all those words?!'”

Adds Meg, “And she said, ‘You’re not coming out until you’re 21.'”

The three-time Grammy winner talked about what inspired her to pursue a rap career, revealing she started practicing her craft when she turned seven when she realized she “wanted to entertain everybody,” then waited ten years before telling her mom.

Rapping is in Meg’s blood because her late mother, Holly Thomas, was known as the rapper Holly-Wood.   Thomas, who was also Meg’s manager, died in 2019 of brain cancer.

The new issue of Sports Illustrated is out now.

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