Music

Cardi B is continuing to give her hot music takes, whether her fans like it or not.  Recently, the “WAP” rapper revealed she’s a fan of emo rock — or at least, one particular artist.

Taking to Twitter, the singer shared a clip of My Chemical Romance‘s 2004 hit “I’m Not Okay (I Promise),” where lead singer Gerard Way dramatically belts out the song’s chorus.  The track was the lead single off the album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, which came out the same year.

Remarked Cardi, “They don’t make music like this anymore.” 

It didn’t take long for the band to catch wind of the conversation and hit Cardi up in the comment section.  
“Grazie mille Cardi!,” they wrote, which is Italian for “a thousand thanks” in English.  My Chemical Romance is from New Jersey, not Italy, but whatever.

Of course, this cordial back and forth has fans wondering if the Grammy winner is considering a new collaboration featuring MCR, or if she’s hinting that her next music era will come with an emo twist.

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Michelle Branch is the latest celebrity to be mom-shamed — but it happened to her in real life, not online.

On Twitter Tuesday, a furious Michelle posted, “I just got shamed by another mother (who was holding her own young infant!) for nursing my 6 week old baby on a bench at a playground while my toddler was playing.”

Adding the “mind blown” emoji,” Michelle added, “She said I wasn’t ‘being modest.’ I am in shock that this kind of judgement was coming from a fellow mom!”

She continued, in a separate tweet, “…and to clarify, I had a nursing tank top on and was seated away from others. It’s not like I walked into the crowd and whipped my t**s out. Being a mom is hard enough. Can we not judge one another for how we feed our babies?”

In response to a fan, Michelle further wrote, “I was in shock, so I didn’t say anything back. I’m fuming!”

Michelle and her husband Patrick Carney of the alt-rock band The Black Keys welcomed their daughter, Willie Jacquet Carney, on February 2.  She and Carney also share son Rhys James Carney, who’s three.  From her previous marriage, Michelle has a 16-year-old daughter, Owen.

Fans online rushed to Michelle’s defense, with one pointing out, “Modesty ain’t gonna feed that baby.”

Another added, “Ugh, that’s so frustrating, especially when it’s coming from another mom! Why is providing nourishment to our babies seen as a shameful thing?”

“It’s 2022, women should breastfeed their babies wherever whenever the f**k they need to,” stated a male fan, to which a female fan replied, “In most (if not all) 50 states we are allowed to by law!”

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Though “a bit apprehensive” to join the slave thriller, Alice, Keke Palmer says it was her character’s empowerment that inspired her to take on the role. 

In an interview with ABC Audio, the Akeelah and the Bee star explained why she felt it was necessary to take part in telling the based-on-true-events story of her character, Alice, an enslaved woman who escapes her owner and, alongside co-star Common, later seeks revenge.

“When I first heard ‘oh, it’s a slave movie,’ I was definitely a bit apprehensive because I’m used to one specific style or perspective that’s portrayed in a history or a Black-American slave history narrative. And it usually does not involve a lot of empowerment,” the 28-year-old actress said. “But when I read the script, not only did I see the character Alice and how she exists throughout the film was dynamic, but also it went in a place of empowerment and hope and having faith and choosing and taking a hold of freedom.”

The “film of freedom” according to first-time director Krystin Ver Linden, takes viewers on an interesting journey, having introduced an enslaved Alice on a 19-century Georgia plantation and then transporting her to the year 1973. On a mission to repay her slave owner, Paul, played by Jonny Lee Miller, Alice comes into a redefined, empowered version of herself and vows to take back her dignity.  

Palmer says she also learned about Black history by being a part of the film and was on board to help educate others on “things taken out of the history books.”

“I think when we understand and learn more about these truths, they allow us to see the oppression that’s still happening today,” she said. 

Alice premieres in theaters March 18.

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Fast-rising hitmaker Hardy first made a name for himself as a songwriter who crafts country radio hits for the likes of Florida Georgia Line, Blake Shelton, Dierks Bentley and Cole Swindell, but his latest release showcases his rocker edge.

The new song, “Sold Out,” officially arrived on Wednesday after Hardy spent months teasing it and playing it live. Backed by metal-inspired, screeching vocals and hard-charging guitarwork, the song sounds more like a hard rock tune — but the lyrics are the singer’s mission statement of his unapologetically redneck lifestyle.

“I’m still the same ol’ redneck f***, don’t give a damn / Ain’t afraid to throw a dead buck on my Instagram / Grain alcohol in my cup / Got the whole house wall to wall / And I still ain’t sold out,” he sings in the chorus.

Hardy’s been a busy guy over the past couple of years, putting out his studio debut, A Rock, plus two collaborative Hixtape projects featuring the likes of Ronnie Dunn, Jon Pardi, Jimmie Allen, Chris Lane, Brothers Osborne and many more. His newest single, “Give Heaven Some Hell,” is currently in the top-fifteen and rising at country radio.

But that’s not all: As his artist career takes off, Hardy’s continued to write hit songs for other stars, and he picked up the Songwriter of the Year trophy at the ACM Awards earlier this month.

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Limp Bizkit is returning to the road.

The “Break Stuff” rockers have announced a U.S. headlining tour for this spring, kicking off April 28 in Tampa, Florida. The trek will wrap up May 31 in Ontario, California, and will make a stop at New York City’s Madison Square Garden along the way.

Tickets go on sale this Friday, March 18, at 10 a.m. local time. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit LimpBizkit.com.

Limp Bizkit will be touring in support of their new album Still Sucks, which dropped last Halloween after a 10-year wait.

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Weezer is kicking off spring with “A Little Bit of Love.”

The new song, available now via digital outlets, is the lead single off Rivers Cuomo and company’s SZNZ project, a series of four EPs corresponding with the begging of each of the year’s four seasons.

“A Little Bit of Love” will be featured on the first EP, SZNZ: Spring, which drops on March 20, fittingly the first day of the season.

Weezer will celebrate the spring equinox with a performance on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday, March 21. They’ve also announced a “seasonal residency” with the show, meaning they’ll be back to perform throughout 2022 to mark the releases of the Summer, Fall and Winter SZNZ EPs.

SZNZ follows Weezer’s two 2021 albums, OK Human and Van Weezer.

Here’s the SZNS: Spring track list:

“Opening Night”
“Angels on Vacation”
“A Little Bit of Love”
“The Garden of Eden”
“The Sound of Drums”
“All This Love”
“Wild at Heart”
“Across the Meadow”*

*Included on vinyl release only.

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Billie Eilish is up for an Oscar March 27 for her No Time to Die James Bond film title song that she co-wrote with her brother, FINNEAS.  But Billie says she wasn’t thinking about super-spies when she wrote the haunting theme.

“I wrote the song from the perspective of somebody I had hurt,” she explained to Deadline. “We never think about how our own actions are perceived from other people’s point of view. Or, we do, but we don’t do it enough.”

Billie said composing “No Time to Die” was a “really interesting situation” because it challenged her to step out of her comfort zone.

“It taught me a lot, to put myself in somebody else’s shoes, and it was fun, too, because you can create a character and write about something other than yourself,” Billie explained. “You don’t have to expose yourself; you don’t have to be telling your truth.”

“It was actually kind of fun to write… Sometimes writing songs is a horrible experience,” Billie admitted. “What was cool about writing a song from the perspective of the movie itself was that we love writing characters and narratives into our music, and I feel the music we’re most proud of is the music where we’ve come up with a plot for the song ahead of writing it.”

The “bad guy” singer revealed she doesn’t normally enjoy the process of writing music, which is why “No Time to Die” was a singular experience for her.  

“I feel like people always say making music is therapeutic, and I genuinely don’t agree. I don’t really enjoy it. I only enjoy it afterwards, when I play it,” admitted Billie. “I love listening to what I’ve made.”

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Tank has done it again. The singer has racked up his sixth #1 on R&B radio with “I Deserve.”

The song, which Tank also wrote and produced, is the second single off his upcoming 10th studio album, R&B Money. It follows his previous #1 R&B hit, “Can’t Let It Show.”

“I feel like Jordan in ’98 winning his sixth title with the Chicago Bulls! I’m so grateful to all the R&B music lovers because this couldn’t happen without you,” Tank says in a statement about “I Deserve” hitting #1. “This is a blessing, and I’m here to share more with the fans as I gear up for the release of R&B Money.”

R&B Money is due out later this year. In the meantime, Tank has some performances lined up, including shows at Orlando’s Soul Festival, Cincinnati Music Festival, and Club Quarantine Live in Las Vegas over Labor Day Weekend.

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Garth Brooks is adding another stop to his Stadium Tour for 2022. The superstar will play at Charlotte, North Carolina’s Bank of America Stadium, which is the home of the Carolina Panthers.

It’ll be Garth’s first time playing the venue, and his first show in Charlotte in more than 20 years. It’s a make-up date of sorts: He first planned a Stadium Tour date in Charlotte in 2021, but that show was one of five that got canceled after a resurgence of COVID-19 cases.

Before that show had to be pushed, over 70,000 fans had purchased tickets, selling out the venue. Between all the canceled dates, over 350,000 tickets were refunded to Garth’s pushed 2021 shows; he’s been mounting a return to the dates he wasn’t able to make last year. Recently, Garth also announced 2022 dates at Nashville and Cincinnati, two cities he wasn’t able to hit last year.

Tickets for Garth’s Charlotte show go on sale March 25 at 10 a.m. ET, and the concert itself will take place July 16. As always for Garth’s Stadium shows, the concert will feature in-the-round seating, and tickets retail for $94.95 apiece, all-inclusive.

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Jack Harlow is ready to launch his second studio album, announcing the title and release date on Wednesday.

The rapper’s Come Home the Kids Miss You album is due out May 6, he told Rolling Stone.  He also admitted “Nail Tech” is “probably my least favorite song on the album” because his upcoming work is “more serious” to reflect the journey he is on.

“I want to be… the face of my generation, for these next 10 years,” he explained. “We need more people in my generation that are trying to be the best, and you can’t do that with just ear candy, vibe records. You got to come out swinging sometimes… I got to dig deeper this time.” 

In order to be “one of the best in my generation,” the “Industry Baby” singer decided to make a few life changes.  One included quitting alcohol, which he did a year ago. Though he didn’t have a drinking problem,  Harlow said simply didn’t like how he felt the day after drinking and so decided to ditch “boyish things.”

“I’m sick of waking up with a dry throat, sick of feeling bloated, I’m sick of the decisions I make on it,” he explained. “I’m in my well-oiled-machine era. Because I can see my future right in front of me. And I feel there’s so many people counting on me outside of myself.”

As one of the few white men in the rap game, Harlow says he hasn’t been asked if its “right” for him to be in the genre, because “people see I have an innate passion for rapping, so they don’t ask me that question.”  Instead, he plans on “honoring the competition.”

“I’m gonna go out on that court and play as hard as you’re playing,” he vowed. 

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