Music

When rising rap star DreamDoll started rapping, it was mostly just for fun and games. The Bronx native said she got her start by making jokes or “cutting a**,” as New Yorkers would call it. Since hitting the hip-hop scene recently, DreamDoll’s career has seen rapid success. At the 2022 Essence Festival of Culture in New Orleans, ABC Audio caught up with the rapper to discuss her music journey thus far. 

“I’ve been rapping since college. I used to do a lot of freestyles,” she said.

She went into detail about the on-and-off again relationship she’s had with rapping, her decision to start back up and her lead 2017 single, “Everything Nice.”

“And from there, I just kept doing it,” she said. “I either had to stop working in the clubs or take my music serious. And look where I am today.”

DreamDoll said she was proud to be a part of Essence Fest, the annual Black music and arts festival known as the “party with a purpose,” where she performed for the first time this year.

“I’m proud to be on the stage with legends and just to be a part of the culture,” she said. 

During the four-day event, the 30-year-old rapper spoke on a panel about plastic surgery and shared her own experience. 

She told ABC Audio that she opened up about “the stigma people have about plastic surgery and things that I got done and that if I regretted anything and the misconception people have of plastic surgery and how addicting it is.”

Riding the wave of her recent track “You know My body” with Capella Grey, DreamDoll said to stay tuned for new music on the way.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

On Thursday, Backstreet Boys announced they’ll release their long-awaited holiday album, A Very Backstreet Christmas, on October 14. Earlier this year, Backstreet’s Nick Carter told ABC Audio that not only does he think people will be impressed with the project, they’ll be “absolutely shocked.”

“It’s something that we have been working on for years, something that we’ve always wanted to do,” Nick said. “Christmas is a very special time for us as family … and for our families. And so, we have a lot of classic holiday songs … stuff that we’ve always listened to growing up … now we have our own versions of those [on the album].”

The album features classics like “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Last Christmas” and “The Christmas Song,” as well as three originals. Nick said that because Christmas “is a special time,” he hopes that these new renditions of old songs will help them “become a part of” people’s holiday celebrations.

“We have had a couple Christmas songs, but not this kind of body of work,” Nick pointed out, adding that he thinks “people will be absolutely shocked” when they hear it.

“I know for a fact our vocals on the record are incredible,” he said. “The harmonies are unlike anybody else out there. Nobody else does harmonies like we do.”

Nick added, “We’re excited for people … to hear it for the first time. I think that people are going to be really impressed.”

The group is currently out on their DNA World Tour.

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Shawn Mendes says he is still healing after breaking up with girlfriend Camila Cabello, but is thankful his music will always be there for him.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that in a phone call with reporters, the Canadian star said his first post-breakup song, “When You’re Gone,” was “a kind of good description of how I was feeling a month after my relationship ended.” 

He added, “My music is always going to be a representation of where I am. It’s a healing process for me to write about how I feel and put it into music. It’s always been something that’s really helped me grow as a person.”

Shawn and Camila dated for two years before calling it quits in November 2021.  

Aside from creating new music, the “Stitches” singer is currently out on his first arena tour in three years, and he hopes his music is bringing comfort to his fans.

“There’s no way to avoid the kind of suffering that’s happened over the last couple of years,” said Shawn, adding that he views music as “cathartic” and “a direct line to the heart.”

There’s also something else Shawn is looking forward to: his big screen debut in Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, for which he provides the voice of the titular smiling reptile.

“Seeing my voice kind of come through the face of a CGI crocodile was bizarre,” he said. “I think it’s going to be something I’m so proud of, especially as I get older.”

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile arrives in theaters October 7.

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Panic! at the Disco is back on the charts with a “Vengeance.”

Brendon Urie‘s band has hit #1 on Billboard‘s Alternative Airplay ranking with the new single “Viva Las Vengeance.” Panic! previously led the chart twice before, with “Say Amen (Saturday Night)” and the crossover mega-hit “High Hopes.”

Having just dropped on June 1, “Viva Las Vengeance” took only five chart weeks to reach the top spot on Alternative Airplay. The last track to ascend the chart that quickly was Twenty One Pilots‘ “Shy Away,” which hit #1 in three weeks in 2021.

“Viva Las Vengeance” is the lead single and title track off the upcoming seventh Panic! album, which will be released August 19. It’s the follow-up to 2018’s Pray for the Wicked.

Panic! will launch a U.S. tour in support of Viva Las Vengeance in September.

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Journey‘s first new studio album in 11 years, Freedom, was released today.

The 15-track collection, which was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, is the first Journey album to feature drummer Narada Michael Walden, who also co-produced Freedom with guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain.

Freedom also marks the return of bassist Randy Jackson, who previously played with Journey from 1985 to 1987. Walden and Jackson joined the band after longtime Journey drummer Steve Smith and bassist Ross Valory were fired in 2020.

“There’s a different strut to this record altogether,” Schon tells ABC Audio. “[M]any people probably can imagine that…replacing a whole rhythm section is gonna change the overall rhythm, feel in the band. And personally, I love it…I think it’s got a new vibe, and even some of the ballads are…coming from a different place than what we’ve done before.”

Freedom includes songs that sound like they could have come from various eras in Journey’s history, and features a mix of power ballads, hard-rocking tunes, sensitive love songs and even a funk-influenced track.

“I just think the album is very musical,” Neal maintains. “I feel like, for me, it goes back to maybe the Infinity era, when I first started writing with Steve Perry, to what we are now…and what we’re becoming.”

Schon says an important factor in the album’s sound was that, while most of the band contributed their parts remotely, he and Walden worked together laying down guitar and drums tracks live in the studio.

“I personally like [cutting] drums and guitar live…even if there’s no other instruments,” Neal says, “because it breathes new life. You know, there’s a lot of life to the music then.”

Here’s Freedom‘s full track list:

“Together We Run”
“Don’t Give Up on Us”
“Still Believe in Love”
“You Got the Best of Me”
“Live to Love Again”
“The Way We Used to Be”
“Come Away with Me”
“After Glow”
“Let It Rain”
“Holdin On”
“All Day and All Night”
“Don’t Go”
“United We Stand”
“Life Rolls On”
“Beautiful as You Are”

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The late Ronnie James Dio would’ve celebrated his 80th birthday on Sunday.

Dio was born Ronald James Padavona on July 10, 1942, and died of stomach cancer May 16, 2010. His career included fronting Black Sabbath after Ozzy Osbourne was fired in 1979 and forming his own, namesake band, Dio, releasing the classic album Holy Diver in 1983. Along the way, he popularized the iconic “metal horns” gesture.

In honor of the milestone occasion, Holy Diver has been reissued as a deluxe box set, including remastered and remixed audio, live recordings, outtakes and B-sides. For original Dio drummer Vinny Appice, the reissue allows him to reminisce about the “ball” he, Ronnie and the rest of the band had recording the now double-Platinum album.

“It was a fun time in everyone’s life, and that shows in the music,” Appice tells ABC Audio. “The music’s pretty kick-a**.”

For Appice, having fun recording an album was the most he expected out of the Holy Diver experience.

“I remember one of my drum techs saying, ‘It’s gonna go Platinum, man!'” Appice recalls. “I said, ‘Come on, nah’… And then sure enough.”

“Album comes out, we start playing theaters,” he continues. “Then about three months, four months later, we’re playing arenas. It’s the typical rock story.”

The remix for the Holy Diver reissue was done by Joe Barressi, who’s worked with bands including Tool and Slipknot. He worked from the original analog tapes to put a new spin on the audio, such as including an ending on the song “Holy Diver,” which just fades out on the original released recording.

“I don’t know what else [Barressi] might’ve found on those tapes,” Appice laughs. “Probably a lot of cursing and swearing.”

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Måneskin has released a new version of the band’s “Supermodel” video, premiering exclusively via TikTok.

The clip is an alternate version of the single’s original video, with bassist Victoria De Angelis playing the role of the titular “Supermodel” who steals a mysterious red bag as her bandmates chase after her. While the bag glowed Pulp Fiction-style in the first video, when De Angelis finally opens it, she seems disappointed by what, if anything, is inside and promptly throws it away.

“Supermodel” first premiered in May, and its video now has over 9 million views on YouTube.

Måneskin will launch their first North American headlining tour in October. Before that, they’ll perform at this year’s Lollapalooza, taking the stage at the Chicago festival on July 31.

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If you ever saw an album cover that you thought would make a great movie, you and Taika Waititi are on the same page.

At a recent press event, the director for the new Thor sequel, Thor: Love and Thunder, shared how the music from bands like Guns N’ Roses and Metallica shaped the aesthetic of the film.

“We wanted it to be this bombastic, loud, colorful palette, which kinda reflected spray-painted panel vans in the ’80s and rock album covers,” Waititi said.

That influence is even found in the Love and Thunder title treatment and logo, which Waititi wanted to look like something he might’ve “drawn on my school book in class when I wasn’t listening.”

“I remember spending months and months perfecting the Metallica logo,” Waititi recalled.

Anyone who’s seen the Love and Thunder trailer shouldn’t be too surprised, as it’s soundtracked by the GN’R classic “Sweet Child o’ Mine.”

“Guns N’ Roses is one of my all-time favorite bands,” Waititi says. “To be able to use that stuff to reflect the crazy adventure that we’re presenting visually was another one of my dreams that came true.”

Thor: Love and Thunder premieres in theaters Friday, July 8. It’s produced by Marvel Studios, which is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

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