Music

Snoop Dogg, LL Cool J, 50 Cent, Fat Joe and many more stars are mourning New York City hip hop icon DJ Kay Slay, who passed away Sunday evening. He was 55. His family confirmed he died after a four-month battle with COVID-19.

Born Keith Grayson, Kay Slay was a radio DJ, music executive, and recording artist who began selling mixtapes in 1993. He dropped his first album, The Streetsweeper, Vol. 1, in 2003, followed by The Streetsweeper, Vol. 2, More Than Just a DJ, The Big Brother, and Hip Hop Frontline. His latest album, The Soul Controller, was released in 2021.

“Thank u @djkayslay for being u,” Snoop Dogg commented on Instagram. “God bless ya soul.”

LL Cool J wrote, “Such a real one. So solid. Rest in power King. I’m gonna miss you B. #ripdjkayslay.”

50 Cent thanked Slay for helping to launch his career. “I will never forget rappin in Kay Slay’s kitchen when I was trying to get on,” the rapper/actor posted. “He was the go to guy.”

Fat Joe praised Slay for promoting him when he was unknown. “My brothers we lost a General today, a Pillar of our community. We will hold this man in the highest regards for he is an icon,” the “Lean Back” MC commented. “RIP SLAY. We love you. We’ll keep your name alive as long as I’m here. GOD BLESS.”

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Jack White has debuted in the top five on the Billboard 200 with his latest solo album, Fear of the Dawn.

The record, White’s fourth solo effort, lands at number four on the chart with a total of 42,000 equivalent album units, 39,000 of which were traditional album sales. That latter figure makes Fear of the Dawn the best-selling album of the week.

Prior to Fear of the Dawn, White had a streak going of three straight number-one solo albums, having debuted atop the Billboard 200 with 2012’s Blunderbuss, 2014’s Lazaretto and 2018’s Boarding House Reach. Outside of his solo work, White has one more number-one album: the 2019 Raconteurs release Help Us Stranger.

White will have a chance to start a new number-one album streak later this year with Entering Heaven Alive, his second solo record of 2022. That’ll be released July 22.

In the meantime, you can catch White live on his ongoing Supply Issues tour, which continues Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

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Psy burst onto the scene in 2012 with his viral hit “Gangnam Style” and successfully introduced K-pop to Western radio.  Now, he’s ready for his next music era, and has previewed the first song off his upcoming album, Psy 9th.

On Friday, Psy released an animated teaser for the song “Happier.”  The track is a departure from the fanciful vibe we’ve come to expect from the singer.  Based on the 20-second preview, this new single appears to be more serious and emotional in nature.  It shows a young boy playing with a glowing yellow ball that has “Happiness” emblazoned on it.  As he grows older and life begins passing him by, the ball begins rolling farther away and he is unable to catch it.

“Happier” features vocals from Crush, who sings, “I wanna be happier” before Psy’s rap verse takes over and fades as the teaser comes to an end.

The song, which is due out April 29 at 6 p.m. Korean time, will be the eighth track off the forthcoming PSY 9th album, which will be the musician’s first album in about five years.  A release date for the new studio effort is forthcoming.

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Anthrax and Black Label Society have announced a co-headlining U.S. tour set.

The joint outing, which also features Hatebreed on the bill, will launch July 26 in Phoenix, and will wrap up August 28 in Philadelphia.

“[BLS frontman] Zakk [Wylde] has been a friend and an inspiration to me as a guitar player, songwriter, and beard grower since we met in 1988,” says Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian. “We’ve had the privilege to share festival stages with Zakk and BLS around the world, and it’s always been a head-banging mutual admiration society between the two bands.”

“Now we get to share the stage every night on what is easily going to be the heaviest tour of 2022 — the ultimate pounding one-two combination of bands,” Ian adds. “Oh, and did I mention we’ve got f***ing Hatebreed with us as our special guests? Holy crap, it’s going to be the night of 1000 crushing riffs.”

Anthrax will be celebrating their 40th anniversary on the tour, while Black Label will be supporting their new album, 2021’s Doom Crew Inc.

Tickets go on sale this Friday, April 22, at 10 a.m. local time. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit Anthrax.com.

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Doja Cat, Carly Rae Jepsen and Megan Thee Stallion used the Coachella stage as a platform to debut their brand-new songs over the weekend.

Doja, who still insists she’s retiring from music, performed an odd new single on Sunday that blends heavy metal and rap as she forcefully laughs along with an electric guitar.  Then at the end, she announced Taco Bell is bringing back the Mexican pizza to its menu.  People were confused by the bit, as seen on a fan captured-video. Doja also brought on rappers Rico Nasty and Tyga during her set.

As for Carly, the “Call Me Maybe” singer took over the Coachella stage on Friday for the first time since 2018 and debuted her new song, “Western Wind.” A fan managed to record part of the debut performance.  Soon after, Carly announced on Twitter that the single is coming soon and fans can pre-save it now.

Meg also unloaded her new, “very… personal” diss track on Saturday night, which samples Jodeci, Raekwon, and Ghostface Killah’s “Freek’n You.”  A fan captured the explicit performance on video.  According to Meg’s Twitter, she’ll be dropping the track soon. 

Also performing at Coachella was Post Malone, but he didn’t have anything new to share with fans — but according to TMZ, he had a strong message.  While taking over the stage on Saturday, the “Circles” rapper became emotional as he spoke about loving everyone, even strangers, before discussing the ongoing crises of COVID-19 and Ukraine.  Posty hoped to inspire fans to reach out to those who are struggling.

He also brought on Quavo during his set and, at the end, did a little crowd-surfing.  The outlet adds his shirt vanished as he was surfing and it is unknown how that happened.

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Billie Eilish‘s Coachella set featured a surprise appearance by Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn.

The “bad guy” artist invited Albarn on stage for a joint performance of her song “Getting Older,” as well as rendition of the Gorillaz classic “Feel Good Inc.”

For the “Feel Good Inc.” performance, Eilish and Albarn were also joined by Posdnuos of hip hop trio De La Soul, which provided the iconic rap verses on the original song.

Albarn is an Eilish fan, and has covered “Getting Older” himself. In the infamous Los Angeles Times interview where he claimed Taylor Swift “doesn’t write her own songs,” Albarn called Eilish a “really interesting songwriter.”

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Lorde is scheduled to perform at New York’s Radio City Music Hall Monday night but it remains to be seen if she will, since she had to postpone her last two shows due to laryngitis.

The first show scrapped was her April 15 gig in Uncasville, CT. In a statement on the venue’s website, Lorde said, “These past couple days I’ve been pushing through some horrendous laryngitis, and I regret to inform you that my voice hasn’t sufficiently recovered to be able to play the show for you…I’ve tried everything, and unfortunately it’s physically impossible for me to sing much of the set.”

The second affected was Saturday’s gig in Washington, D.C.  Lorde said in a tweet, “Unfortunately, due to continued illness, I am postponing our show. I am so, so sorry. My voice is still a wreck, and I don’t want to give a less-than-great performance. I love playing in DC, and I’m gutted it’s you guys I’m letting down.”

The D.C. gig has been moved to August 29, while the Connecticut show has been moved to August 25.

Lorde’s Monday and Tuesday night shows at Radio City were still listed on the venue’s website as of Monday morning.

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Over the weekend, Mariah Carey and Gwen Stefani got visits from the Easter Bunny — but in Gwen’s case, it was actually her husband, Blake Shelton, dressed in a giant pink bunny suit.

”hoppy #Easter from me + the easter blakey,” wrote Gwen on Instagram, captioning a video of Blake in his bunny suit walking down the hallway with their dogs.  He accessorized the bunny suit with a pair of bunny slippers. On his own Instagram, Blake shared another video of his Bunny debut, and wrote, “Happy Easter everybody. You’re welcome.”

Gwen also shared a photo of her son Apollo posing with her father, as well as a throwback photo of her two older sons, Kingston and Zuma, posing with the Easter Bunny — not Blake — when they were much younger.

As for Mariah, her Instagram video showed the Bunny walking up her driveway and sneaking into her palatial mansion, where he left huge baskets for her twins Roc and Roe. He also tip-toed into Mariah’s bedroom and woke her up, and then dropped off some more baskets in the front yard before leaving, as Mariah blew him kisses from her balcony.

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