Roddy Ricch LIVE LIFE FAST album cover courtesy Atlantic Records
Roddy Ricch dropped his second studio album, LIVE LIFE FAST, on Friday, featuring Future, 21 Savage, Kodak Black, Ty Doll $ign, Lil Baby, Gunna, and Takeoff from Migos. The 18-track project is the follow-up to his 2019 RIAA double-Platinum debut album, Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial. The Grammy winner also debuted the video for “25 million” from the album. The 23-year-old rapper recently celebrated “The Box” from Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial being RIAA-certified Diamond for ten million sales.
The Weeknd served double duty Friday, dropping two tracks with separate artists. The three-time Grammy winner is featured on the latest posthumous release by Aaliyah, “Poison.” The song is the first single from her upcoming album, Unstoppable, due in 2022. The Toronto star previously sampled her 2002 hit “Rock the Boat” on “What You Need,” from his 2011 mixtape, House of Balloons. The Weeknd is also featured on FKA Twigs’ new song, “Tears in the Club”. The new tracks follows the “Blinding Lights” singer’s previous release, “One Right Now,” with Post Malone, which dropped on November 5
Also, Gucci Mane is celebrating the holidays with his So Icy Christmas compilation album. The “Trap God” recorded five solo tracks on the project, which also features several of the artists from his 1017 Global Music label, including BigWalkDog, BiC Fizzle, and Hotboy Wes.
Finally, Nick Cannon released the soundtrack for his holiday film Miracles Across 125th Street, which he directed, produced, and in which he stars. The 13 tracks feature Cannon, as well as several of the cast members, including Teyana Taylor, Fred Hammond, Lil Kim, Jim Jones, Karen Clark-Sheard, Kierra Sheard, and Kiki Sheard. Miracles Across 125th Street premieres Monday, December 20 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on VH1.
As previously reported, Ed Sheeran and Elton John have reworked their holiday hit “Merry Christmas” into a new song called “Sausage Rolls for Everyone” — a charity collaboration with the British couple who call themselves LadBaby. Now, all four of them are starring in a new music video for the song, which has them dressing as sausage rolls, eating sausage rolls and singing about sausage rolls, all in an attempt to raise money for the hungry.
In the clip, the male half of LadBaby, Mark Hoyle, smuggles Elton and Ed into the recording studio dressed as giant sausage rolls. They start the song, with Ed playing a guitar decorated like a sausage roll. Mark, his wife and musical partner Roxanne and Ed are sporting Santa hats and Elton-style glasses, while we see Elton behind the mic chomping away on a sausage roll.
The whole project — the song and the video — raises money for The Trussell Trust, a charity that supports food banks throughout the U.K. and works to end hunger.
“Every pound for this song goes to helping the people along/Sausage rolls for everyone,” they sing. At the end, Elton says, “I haven’t had a sausage roll for years!”
Now, “Sausage Rolls for Everyone” will be directly competing with Ed and Elton’s original version of “Merry Christmas” for the coveted title of the U.K.’s Christmas Number One — the song that will be on top of the chart on Christmas. The winner will be revealed December 24.
If the LadBaby track wins, they’ll be the first act ever to score four Christmas number ones in a row. Their three previous songs were also charity singles with funny lyrics about sausage rolls, set to the music of pre-existing hits like “Don’t Stop Believin'” and “I Love Rock ‘n Roll.”
“Write what you know,” the old saying goes, and nobody takes that more seriously than Thomas Rhett: He’s known for writing songs so autobiographical that they mention his wife and daughters by name.
After welcoming baby Lillie Caroline last month, Thomas now has four kids aged six and under at home, so he has plenty of material to draw from when he’s writing songs about parenthood and family. The singer debuted one such song on Instagram this week, singing and accompanying himself on acoustic guitar.
“It’s 5 a.m. and they’re tugging on the covers / You and me baby, looking at each other like / Whose turn is it this time? / Well, I guess it’s mine,” Thomas sings, looking off-camera as the sound of one of his toddler’s voices grows in intensity.
Appropriately, Thomas’ song about toughing out the more grueling parts of parenthood while simultaneously trying to soak up every moment got interrupted by his real-life “tornado in the living room,” in the form of one of his four daughters.
“One needs a nap,” he sings pointedly, nodding at the chaos going on offscreen, “And the other needs a changin’…I pick her up, put her on my shoulder / Better hold her while she lets me hold her.”
In a mix of comedic timing and tear-jerking tenderness, Thomas sums up the young parents’ plight in his new song. He didn’t share any more details about it, or whether it’ll be on either of the two albums he’s got planned for 2022.
His first project of the new year, Where We Started, is due out first; its lead single is “Slow Down Summer.” Later on, in the fall, Thomas will release Country Again: Side B.
Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd has released a new solo song called “Petrichor.”
“It’s a weird and wonderful thing to have a song swimming around in your head for months at a time and then a moment later it’s born into the wild world,” Boyd says of the tune. “Happy birthday little song.”
You can download “Petrichor” now via digital outlets.
“Petrichor” is set to appear on Boyd’s upcoming solo album Echoes and Cocoons, due out next year. It also includes the previously released single “Pocket Knife.”
Incubus, meanwhile, just last week announced a U.S. tour, set to kick off in March 2022.
(WASHINGTON) — Democrats are leaving Washington for the holidays having fallen short on a slew of President Joe Biden’s top domestic priorities and staring down the barrel of a politically-contentious 2022 in which the balance of power in Congress is up for grabs and trending red.
After months of intra-party gridlock, the Senate is closing out its first session without voting on the president’s cornerstone social spending package with no clear path forward on how the bill might progress to the floor in the new year.
“The president requested more time to continue his negotiations. So we will keep working with him, hand in hand,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor amid a rare Friday session, acknowledging for the first time that Biden’s Build Back Better bill will not come to the floor before the holidays.
West Virginia moderate Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin has proven to be the most intransigent of obstacles for Democrats who hoped to quickly expedite the social spending bill, which includes funding for in-home care, universal pre-K, an extension of the Child Tax Credit and Medicare expansion.
Manchin has for months opposed the cost of the $1.75 trillion bill, citing concerns that the real cost of the programs over time would plunge the nation trillions further in debt and spike inflation rates at a time when the cost of consumer goods is skyrocketing.
In particular, Manchin has insisted on extending the expanded Child Tax Credit for the full 10 years of the overall plan — a $1 trillion proposal — while also demanding that the price tag remain under $2 trillion, a dilemma that could only result in deeper cuts elsewhere among prized programs.
Despite ongoing negotiations with Schumer and Biden, Manchin hasn’t been persuaded to come off his position. His vote, and that of every Democrat in the Senate, is necessary to both start debate on and pass the final package.
Biden acknowledged as much in a separate statement released Thursday evening.
“My team and I are having ongoing discussions with Senator Manchin; that work will continue next week. It takes time to finalize these agreements, prepare the legislative changes, and finish all the parliamentary and procedural steps needed to enable a Senate vote. We will advance this work together over the days and weeks ahead; Leader Schumer and I are determined to see the bill successfully on the floor as early as possible,” Biden said.
Immigration reform, another key Biden campaign promise, has also hit snag. Democrats had hoped to work a pathway to citizenship into the proposal, but the Senate parliamentarian, who must assess whether certain items are admissible under the rules governing passage of the package, has ruled against multiple efforts.
On Thursday, the parliamentarian dealt Democrats yet another blow, ruling against their latest effort that sought to provide five-year work permits and deportation protection to undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for at least a decade.
Other December priorities also fell by the wayside as the Senate spent the month grappling with government funding, a must-pass defense authorization bill and a hike to the federal debt limit. All of these issues had to be attended to before the Senate left, and stalls on each priority ate valuable floor time.
Lawmakers will leave Washington this week also failing to address election reform after Republicans mounted a near-unanimous blockade on multiple legislative efforts. Under the current Senate filibuster rules, at least 60 lawmakers must consent to passage of federal voting rights legislation, and GOP opposition has all but doomed the reform efforts.
Democrats made a last-minute push for voting rights earlier this week, convening calls with Biden aimed at pushing moderate holdouts to consider reforming Senate rules to bust the GOP filibuster.
But Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., aren’t prepared to make exceptions to the Senate rules, even for voting rights.
Sinema “continues to support the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, to protect the country from repeated radical reversals in federal policy which would cement uncertainty, deepen divisions, and further erode Americans’ confidence in our government,” her office said in a statement Wednesday.
During Friday’s policy lunch, Democrats drilled down on the Senate rules, hearing from two former Senate rules experts. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said that there are somewhere “between five and nine different plans or permutations of plans, some extremely complex, some pretty straightforward and simple” on getting voting rights passed through the chamber. But so far, there’s no obvious path forward.
“We’re talking about 50 very strong-minded, extremely independent elected officials, each with a separate constituency who are really looking into their consciences,” Blumenthal told reporters. “I think we’re very close, because I think that voting rights is so absolutely critical. I’m hopeful that the New Year will bring us closer together.”
Many Democratic lawmakers see substantive action before the November midterms as necessary to shore up their razor-thin majorities in both chambers of Congress. But Republicans are using the intraparty squabbling among Democrats as an opportunity.
They’ve painted Biden’s social spending agenda as an all but certain increase in inflation.
“I think the big story of the year is inflation,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell Thursday. “The single biggest thing we could do for the American people is to kill the reckless tax and spending spree.”
McConnell said he thought 2022 would be “a good environment” for Republicans looking to retake the majority, adding, “The places that will be making this decision are Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Ohio, Missouri, Nevada and Arizona, and we’ll be out there doing battle. And I think we’ll have the wind at our back.”
Asked about the wildest of wild cards for Republicans — former President Donald Trump, who has consistently attacked McConnell’s leadership — the Kentucky Republican dodged. “Good try,” he told ABC News.
David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for The Whiteley
Jessie J says she’s ready to fall in love again and sent an open invitation for her future partner to make their move.
Taking to Instagram recently, the “Domino” singer shared a video of her belting out her recent single, “I Want Love,” and opening up about what she’s currently feeling about settling down.
“They say you find the love of your life when you are not looking,” Jessie captioned. “So boom… I’ll pretend to look the other way, and then you just (whoever you are) sneak up on me.”
She added “anytime soon is good,” illustrating that she is hoping that someone sweeps her off her feet in the near future.
The British singer was previously linked to Luke James, Channing Tatum and, most recently, dancer Max Pham Nguyen.
Jessie’s announcement comes a month after she revealed that she suffered a miscarriage. She previously said she’s healing from the heartbreaking loss and vowed she is “not quitting on my happiness or myself.”
Lizzo was overwhelmed with emotion after learning former President Barack Obama crowned her “Rumors” collab with Cardi B one of his favorite songs of 2021. The singer used the honor to show her fellow artists why it’s important to follow their heart when making music.
Reflecting on the unexpected recognition, Lizzo said Friday on Instagram, “Whew! I needed this right now.” She then offered her sincere advice to those who are working hard to become famous through their music, saying they instead should work on making music that resonates with people.
“Listen ya’ll— there’s amazing music that isn’t viral, that isn’t charting, that don’t have a TikTok trend… My music touches people— don’t believe me, ask Obama,” the Grammy winner said. “Artists don’t be discouraged— make the music YOU love and believe in and the rest will follow!”
She then expressed her gratitude to the former president for selecting “Rumors” as part of his year-end roundup.
“Rumors” was released on August 13 and mocks all the nasty lies her critics spread about her on the internet. The main message of the clap-back anthem is to tell haters to focus on the bigger problems of the world and stop obsessing over what she chooses to do with her body and spare time.
It’s new music Friday, so let’s see who’s out with new tunes!
“Mood” singer 24kGoldn released a new single on Friday, a cover and reimagining of Biz Markie‘s “Just a Friend.” His take, “More Than Friends,” sees him wallowing in the friend zone because his crush refuses to see him as anything more. This cheeky song is his last-ditch attempt to be promoted into boyfriend material.
AJ Mitchell has released SKYVIEW Deluxe, an expanded edition of his debut album that features live recordings of his singles, “I Choose You,” “Cheap Red Wine” and “Miss You.” Every live recording is accompanied by a new performance video. SKYVIEW is named after the drive-in movie theater AJ frequented as a child because he says the album is a coming-of age story.
Christmas is next week and, with that, comes a new a cappella twist on a holiday classic thanks to Pentatonix. The group put their spin on “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” after teaming with Bryson Tiller. Don’t worry, there’s no helium involved in this take on the holiday staple! The single is available to purchase and download now.
Avril Lavigne has premiered an acoustic version of “Bite Me,” her debut single with Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker‘s label DTA Records. The unplugged recording is accompanied by a steamy video directed by her boyfriend and “Flames” collaborator, Mod Sun. The video is streaming now on YouTube.
The memory of the late Earl “DMX” Simmons will be celebrated Saturday, December 18 in his Yonkers, New York hometown on what would have been his 51st birthday. New York State has declared Saturday “DMX Day,” and members of the Simmons family will attend, according to YonkersTimes.com
Five local artists will perform at the “DMX Throw Down” for a panel of celebrity judges, and the winner will receive a $500 gift card from Def Jam.
In addition to DMX, Mary J. Blige and The Lox are among the stars who grew up in Yonkers.
“I was not a fan of hip hop growing up, but I came to appreciate Hip Hop after DMX passed away earlier this year,’’ says Wilson Kimball, President and CEO of the Municipal Housing Authority for the City of Yonkers. “First, I realized he was around my age. Then, I realized he grew up in MHACY housing. Lastly, I realized his music came from a dark, real, and honest place. I may not have had the same challenging childhood in the same place, but I understood what he was going through because his lyrics are so compelling.”
Simmons was profiled in the HBO documentary, DMX: Don’t Try to Understand, which premiered Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 25. The “X Gon’ Give It To Ya” rapper never won a Grammy, however, he’s nominated posthumously for Best Rap Song for “Bath Salts” with Jay-Z and Nas.
DMX passed away April 9, 2021 from a heart attack. The iconic rapper/actor was 50 years old.
Ex-Flyleaf frontwoman Lacey Sturm has premiered the video for her new single “Awaken Love.”
The clip, which is streaming now on YouTube, finds Sturm trapped in the world of a painting. Speaking to Knotfest.com about the visual, Sturm shares, “Romance is a shadow of the divine. Everything that makes you come alive is whispering of an eternal life that’s beyond this one. It’s present, and you can wake up to it now.”
“Awaken Love,” which was co-written by Skillet‘s Korey Cooper, dropped last week. It’s Sturm’s second solo song of 2021, following February’s “State of Me.”
Sturm, who left Flyleaf in 2012, released her first and, so far, only solo album, Life Screams, in 2016.
