Music

Since changing her controversial stage name from Mulatto to Latto, the Atlanta rapper says she’s ready to embrace her new name to reflect her upcoming music.

“Yes, I’m so, so, so excited for the new music. I feel like historically, the negative definition of Mulatto might have been holding me back,” she tells NME. “And this new name, Latto, short for “lottery,” can be forthcoming of good fortune; financially, spiritually, emotionally. I feel like this is [going to] be turning over a new leaf.”

Fans were first introduced to Latto as Mulatto on the first season of Jermaine Dupri‘s competition series, The Rap Game, in 2016. It wasn’t until last year that the 22-year-old considered changing her stage name after facing backlash over the term’s history due to its widespread use in the U.S. South during the era of slavery.

Latto says it’s been a “pretty smooth” transition from competing with others to earning her first platinum plaque for her 2019 breakout single, “B**** From Da Souf.”

“I want more plaques,” she declares. “I got my first plaque, and now I need to be in the studio more ‘cause I need to make more hits to get more plaques.”

“The Biggest” rapper says fans can expect to hear more elevation and growth on the follow-up to her gritty debut album, Queen of Da Souf.

“I’m actually in album mode right now, so the first project I’m about to drop is gonna be a plethora of flows, different [beats per minute],” Latto explains. “I’m from the South, so I tend to choose slower [beats per minute]. That’s very Southern or whatever. But I’m choosing different beats, working with different people, producers, artists. Everything is just [going to] be an elevation.”

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For many bands, a best-of compilation marks a retrospective look at a career that’s at or close to the end. That’s why Dirty Heads vocalist Jared “Dirty J” Watson didn’t want to release one.

Watson admits to ABC Audio thathe was “so against” the idea of a Dirty Heads best-of when it was suggested by the band’s label.

“We’re not old,” Watson says. “They wanted to call it Greatest Hits, which is, like, ‘What?'”

“I think of, like, Led Zeppelin or Creedence Clearwater [Revival],” he adds. “It was just, like, ‘What are you talking about?'”

Watson eventually softened his stance when the label explained a best-of could be a “starter album” for new fans who’ve just heard Dirty Heads’ resurgent single, “Vacation” — which has gone viral in 2021 due to a TikTok trend —  as well as a collector’s item for older fans.

Watson was still hesitant, though, especially since Dirty Heads is sitting on a brand-new, recently-completed album. So, he struck a deal.

“I said, ‘If you guys wanna do a best-of album — which I think is super weird, but I get it — you have to put on two or three of these brand-new songs,'” Watson recalls.

The result is The Best of Dirty Heads, which is out today. Along with past singles including “Vacation” and “Lay Me Down,” the compilation also features several new recordings, including “Rage” featuring Blink-182‘s Travis Barker and Aimee Interrupter of The Interrupters.

“There’s acoustic guitars, and there are these reggae verses, but it is more aggressive and uptempo,” Watson says of “Rage.” “There is like a ska feel to it, but then there’s also a punk feel to it. So there’s enough of each person it it to where the features are perfect.”

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Pop Smoke‘s label, Victor Victor Worldwide, has released the tracklist for the rapper’s second posthumous album, Faith, which drops Friday. 

The 20-track album has a number of surprising guests, including Kanye West, Pharrell, Pusha T, Rick Ross, The-Dream, 21 Savage, 42 Dugg, Future, Takeoff, Kid Cudi, Swae Lee, and more. 

Chris Brown will bring his R&B vocals to the track “Woo Baby,” while pop singer Dua Lipa joins Pop on “Demeanor.”

In addition, Faith will shed light on Pop Smoke’s connection to other emerging Brooklyn drill rappers such as Bizzy Banks and Rah Swish, who also make appearances on the album. Yet in the comments, fans wished the album featured fellow drill rappers Sheff G, and Fivio Foreign.  Meanwhile, others declared Faith would become “the album of the year.” 

Pop Smoke’s posthumous debut album, Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, was released in July 2020, months after the Brooklyn rapper was shot and killed at age 20. The album topped both the all-genre Billboard 200 chart and Billboard‘s Top Rap Albums chart.

 

 

 

 

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Elton John is celebrating 300 episodes of his Apple Music show Rocket Hour.

As he reflected on the milestone with Zane Lowe, Elton said one of the things he’s loved most about the show was getting to discover new, young artists like Lorde, Billie Eilish and Dua Lipa.

“When I first heard the first thing I ever heard from Lorde, which was ‘Royals,’ I just thought it was unlike nothing I’d ever heard before,” he said. “It…just blew my mind. It was so simple and yet so moving. The same thing with Billie Eilish; it was like, when I hear her records, there’s nothing [like] the space and the feel of it.”

As for Dua, Elton tells Zane, “She’s amazing…She just has this inner beauty and an outer beauty, but she deserves every success that comes her way.”

Dua, meanwhile, offered Elton praise right back in a congratulatory message for hitting 300 episodes.

“I’ll never forget when you played ‘Levitating’ on Rocket Hour, I absolutely lost my mind,” she said.

“I just think you’re absolutely incredible, but I also love how incredibly supportive you are of so many new artists and artists from all over the world, and how much you champion and love and respect artists all over,” she added. “It’s just been an absolute dream, getting to know you and getting to see all the magic that you are.”

Elton’s 300th episode airs Saturday on Apple Music 1.

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Coming across a YouTube post of her own isolated backup vocals on Foo Fighters’ classic “Everlong” has sent Veruca Salt‘s Louise Post down a rabbit hole — leading her to reminisce about the recording of the song, which Dave Grohl wrote about their then-romance.

Posting a snippet of that isolated recording on Instagram, Post wrote, “I sang these back-ups over the phone at 2am after being woken up from a deep sleep in Chicago by [Dave Grohl] who was tracking the vocals for ‘Everlong’ in LA.”

“He wanted me to sing the doo-doo’s, which were inspired by our song ‘Shimmer Like a Girl,” she continues. “While I was at it, I wrote a harmony for the chorus and sang that too.”

“The whispered section of this song was originally the dream I was having when the phone rang. It was a dream about us,” she adds poetically. “He later removed it and replaced with his own whispers, one which was a love letter to me.”

“Maybe I’ll tell the full story…eventually…if I feel like it,” she concludes. “But I just came across this post and thought I would share for anyone who is interested.”

While Grohl’s relationship with the “Seether” rocker didn’t end well — Post claimed onstage in 1997 during a show in Australia that Grohl had cheated on her with Winona Ryder — she said several years ago that she and the drummer are now “friends.”

 

 

 

 

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After teasing them online, Alessia Cara has released her two much-anticipated new songs: “Sweet Dream” and “Shapeshifter.”

The tracks are the first taste of new music from the singer’s upcoming third album and both have two very different vibes.

“The theme of duality is recurring on this next album, so it made sense to release two songs to introduce both ends of the thread,” Alessia explains in a statement.

She says “Sweet Dream” represents “the hardship and helplessness surrounding my last couple of years.” On the flip side, she says “Shapeshifter” is “witty and sophisticated,” and represents “the more mature and light-hearted parts of the album.”

She adds of “Shapeshifter,”  “I had to go through lots of pain to regain my footing and this song feels unwavering, despite it not being about the happiest of things.”

Alessia debuted the “Sweet Dream” video Thursday and will be premiering the “Shapeshifter” video Friday, July 23 on CBS This Morning. She’s also lined up a performance of “Sweet Dream” on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday, July 19 and on Live with Kelly & Ryan on Wednesday, July 21.

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Machine Gun Kelly is featured in the August issue of GQ, and he says appearing in the famed magazine is just another aspect of how he’s currently living his childhood dream.

“You know what the dream was? It was exactly what happened to me [at the Billboard Awards], which was go to an awards show, shut down the carpet, go onstage, accept an award,” Kelly tells GQ.

Kelly dominated the coverage of that awards show, where he was named Top Rock Artist, because he showed up with his girlfriend, Megan Fox. And that’s the GQ part of his dream.

As detailed in the article, when Machine Gun Kelly was just plain old Colson Baker, a teenager growing up in Ohio, he got the Decepticons logo from Transformers tattooed on his arm and hung a poster of the movie’s star — Megan Fox — in his bedroom, vowing he’d marry her one day.

“It was the GQ poster, right?” Kelly shouts to Fox during the interview, asking her to confirm exactly which image of herself hung in her boyfriend’s childhood bedroom.

“It was from her GQ shoot,” Kelly goes on to say. “So that’s some full-circle s***.”

But in addition to his dreamlike love life, Kelly is also experiencing his most successful musical moment yet, thanks to Tickets to My Downfall, his current album, produced by Travis Barker. Barker, who says he considers Kelly his “best friend,” first met him years ago after a Blink-182 show.

“He was successful at a completely other genre of music,” Barker says of Kelly, who was a popular rapper before turning to pop-punk. “Not many people can do that.”

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Granger Smith and his wife, Amber, are just weeks away from welcoming a new baby boy into their family. The couple are already parents to nine-year-old London and seven-year-old Lincoln, and they lost their youngest son, River, at the age of three in a tragic drowning accident in 2019.

From the beginning, the country couple has been open with fans about their emotional journey towards deciding to have another baby. This week, however, Amber highlighted a moment of celebration. She shared a series of snapshots from her shower for the new baby, whose name will be Maverick.

“I honestly can’t believe I’m doing this all over again,” Amber wrote. “Many tears were shed, grief and joy are parallel on this journey, but Mavi is so loved and we can’t wait to hold him in about 5 weeks. God is good.”

In an hour-long documentary uploaded to their YouTube channel this spring, Granger and Amber shared their IVF journey, which included a heartbreaking miscarriage along the road to a healthy pregnancy.

Baby Maverick is due in August.

 

 

 

 

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