Photo: Pitchfork

In addition to the rollout of his most recent album, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, Kendrick Lamar has released the music video for the album’s song “N95.” 

In the video, in which the 34-year-old rapper co-directed with Dave Free, Lamar is spotted floating above water while reflecting the crucifixion of Jesus pose, escaping a group of men in a cat-and-mouse scene, and doing donuts in a car with Baby Keem, who is the co-producer of the track. 

“N95” is the second new video released by Lamar this month, after “The Heart Part 5.” Lamar stands as the director of his latest music video with pgLang collaborator Dave Free. 

The rapper is distorted into deepfakes of OJ Simpson, Kanye West, Kobe Bryant, Nipsey Hussle, Jussie Smollett, and Will Smith in the visual. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, co-producing a comedy film with Lamar, supervised the creation of the video via their studio Deep Voodoo. 

Lamar revealed the album last August alongside a new website called Oklama, announcing that it would be his last release for Top Dawg Entertainment. 

“I feel joy to have been a part of such a cultural imprint after 17 years,” he said. His promotional statement is like what Michael Jordan said of his legendary comeback fax. 

Mr. Morale is the rapper’s first album after Damn was released in 2017. He snagged a Pulitzer Prize award and a bunch of Grammys for his 2017 album. He spent his years doing LPs alongside numerous projects and collaborations, giving appearances on tracks by Busta Rhymes, Terrace Martin, Sir, and Anderson. 

Lamar has also teamed up countless times with Baby Keem, particularly creating “Family Ties” with his cousin. The artists gained the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance in 2022 for the track. 

Following his appearance on stage during the Super Bowl halftime show in February, Lamar is scheduled to headline Glastonbury and Rolling Loud Miami this year. 

Lamar is often dubbed one of the most influential rappers of his generation. Apart from his solo career, he is also a part of the hip hop group Black Hippy together with his former Top Dawg Entertainment labelmates Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, and Schoolboy Q. 

He was raised in Compton, California, and started his musical career in his teenage years under the stage name K.Dot, releasing a mixtape called Y.H.N.I.C. (Hub City Threat Minor of the Year) that gathered local attention, resulting in his contract with indie record label TDE. 

Overly Dedicated earned him the beginning of his recognition in 2010. A year later, he independently released his first studio album, Section.80, which contained his debut single, “HiiiPoWeR.” 

Since that release, he has garnered many online following and teamed up with numerous famous rappers. Later, he had a record deal with Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment under Interscope Records. 

In 2012, Lamar made his major-label debut with Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, gaining mass recognition and mainstream success.

Photo: Reuters

London-based Abbey Road Studios conducts its first music photography awards this end of the week, with a solid spotlight on a category that deserves acknowledgment, as per the studio.

May 14’s award ceremony is a groundbreaking moment for the industry and will pay tribute to emerging and established photographic artists, reaching from live shots to intimate portraits.

The shortlisted pictures – shot last year – involve photographs of singers Billie Eilish and Arlo Parks, artist David Mrakpor, and dancers on live shows.

“Music Photography Awards started as a nugget of idea from one of our team because we see even from our archives that we have at Abbey Road how important photography is in telling the story of what’s going on in a studio or behind the music,” said Managing Director at Abbey Road Studios, Isabel Garvey, in an interview with Reuters. 

“And as we went digging, we realized it was a category that really wasn’t celebrated. So, we decided … with our connections with musicians, with creatives, with the whole industry that actually we were in quite a unique position to mount an award ceremony like this and give these photographers the platform to celebrate all of their work.” 

The show holds open and invited categories: open categories include portrait photography, editorial photography, and artist-at-work.

Eric Johnson, a New York-based photographic artist who has taken pictures of Biggie Smalls, Missy Elliot, and Lauryn Hill, will be granted the icon award for “contribution to the art of music photography.” 

Live music photography, studio photography, undiscovered photographer of the year, and championing scenes and zeitgeist, called the “images that define music in 2021,” are among the awards in the open categories. 

“We obviously know there are a lot of talented music photographers out there, but we weren’t quite prepared for the onslaught of applications,” stated Garvey. “I think we had over 3,000 applicants amongst the open categories.” 

Proficient photographic artists like Jill Furmanovsky are among the awards jury.

“I was impressed there was so much material from a year when we were in COVID, so they couldn’t have been nearly as many situations to shoot music photography as in previous years,” Furmanovsky stated. 

“And yet people were doing it: small gigs or gigs with masks on or people recording in their rooms or their houses and so on. It was quite moving really at times to see that and also historic actually, because it was a moment in time.”

Photo: Getty Images for The Recording Academy

Lady Gaga has been confirmed to release a new song this Tuesday, May 3, titled “Hold My Hand” for the new Tom Cruise movie Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to 1986’s Top Gun.

“Hold My Hand” is produced by Gaga and BloodPop®, with additional production from Benjamin Rice. 

The movie version will also feature additional production and score music by Harold Faltermeyer and Hans Zimmer.

On social media, Lady Gaga wrote: 

“When I wrote this song for Top Gun: Maverick, I didn’t even realize the multiple layers it spanned across the film’s heart, my own psyche, and the nature of the world we’ve been living in. I’ve been working on it for years, perfecting it, trying to make it ours. I wanted to make music into a song where we share our deep need to both be understood and try to understand each other—a longing to be close when we feel so far away and an ability to celebrate life’s heroes. I’m so grateful to Tom and Hans and [director Joseph Kosinski] for this opportunity—and it’s been a beautiful experience working with them. Me, BloodPop, Ben Rice and everyone else who worked on it with us are so excited to share it with you. This song is a love letter to the world during and after a very hard time. I’ve wanted you to hear it for so long. And I’m so excited to give it to you on May 3. ‘Hold My Hand.’

🎶 But if you decide to

I’ll ride in this life with you

I won’t let go till the end 🎶”

Lady Gaga’s has previously won the 2019 Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Shallow” in A Star is Born and was nominated for Best Original Song at the 2016 Oscars for “Til It Happens to You.”

Lady Gaga collaborated with Tony Bennett last year in Love for Sale, the Chromatica remix album Dawn of Chromatic, and a 10th anniversary edition of Born This Way. She also recently performed Love for Sale songs at the 2022 Grammy Awards. 

She will finally go on tour for Chromatica starting July.

Top Gun: Maverick hits theaters on Friday, May 27.

Photo: Pitchfork

In addition to the new single “The Rev3nge,” Joey Bada$$ will release a new album named 2000. It is set to be rolled out on June 17 through Columbia Records. 

The latest album’s launch dates are close to the mixtape 1999 release 10 years ago, which brought him wider recognition. He then released Rejex in September 2012 and Summer Knights in July 2013.

His debut album B4.Da.$$ was launched in January 2015. In 2016, he made his television debut on USE Network’s Mr. Robot. All Amerikkkan Badass, his second album, was launched in April 2017.

He has also revealed a North American summer tour with Capella Grey. Check out the dates below. 

Joey Bada$$:

07-01 Boston, MA – Big Night Live

 07-02 Montreal, Quebec – MTELUS

 07-03 Toronto, Ontario – Rebel

 07-06 Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of Living Arts

 07-07 New York, NY – Terminal 5

 07-08 Silver Spring, MD – The Fillmore

 07-09 Norfolk, VA – The Norva

 07-10 Atlanta, GA – Masquerade Heaven Stage

 07-12 Chicago, IL – House of Blues

 07-13 Minneapolis, MN – The Fillmore

 07-15 Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom

 07-17 Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex Rockwell

 07-19 Portland, OR – Roseland Theater

 07-20 Vancouver, British Columbia – Vogue Theatre

 07-21 Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo

 07-23 San Francisco, CA – The Regency Ballroom

 07-24 Sacramento, CA – Ace of Spades

 07-26 San Diego, CA – House of Blues

 07-27 Santa Ana, CA – Observatory

 07-28 Los Angeles, CA – The Novo

Joey Bada$$ is known as Jo-Vaughn Virginie Scott by birth. He is an American rapper, singer, and actor from Brooklyn, New York City. The 27-year-old is a founding member of the hip-hop collective Pro Era. 

His fame started when he posted a YouTube video of himself freestyling in October 2010. The video was uploaded to hip hop website World Star Hip Hop and captured the interest of the president of Cinematic Music Group, who later became his manager. 

In 2012, Joey and Capital Steez posted a YouTube video for “Survival Tactics” through their channel “PROfckingERA,” which samples the 2000 Fold song by Styles of Beyond of the same name. 

February 2012 saw Pro Era launch their debut mixtape titled The Secc$ Tap.e. MTV News then featured Joey’s verse from the video on a RapFix Live episode in March 2012; he later appeared as a featured guest on Sucker Free after a month. 

After those little start, his success kept coming – albums and collaborations.

Photo: Pitchfork

Post Malone has launched a new song entitled “Cooped Up,” featuring Roddy Ricch. It’s the most recent preview of his new album Twelve Carat Toothache. Malone stands as the producer of the single with his constant collaborator Louis Bell. 

“Cooped Up” is the second single Post Malone has released from his upcoming album, after “One Right Now” with The Weeknd. He previewed other new songs on his Instagram Live not long ago, such as team-ups with the Kid Laroi, Doja Cat, and Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold. 

Twelve Carat Toothache will be released on June 3. It launches after Post Malone’s 2019 studio LP Hollywood’s Bleeding. Malone told Billboard that the latest album expresses “the ups and downs and the disarray and the bipolar aspect of being an artist in the mainstream.” 

This weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live will feature Post Malone as a musical guest, his debut on the show, with Selena Gomez hosting it. 

Born Austin Richard Post, Malone is an American rapper and singer-songwriter famous for his introspective songwriting and vocal styles. He usually blends genres and subgenres of pop, hip hop, R&B, and trap. 

His stage name was acquired by putting his birth name into a rap name generator. 

The 26-year-old started his music career in 2013 as an independent artist and gained popularity with his 2015 debut single, “White Iverson,” which ranked number 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100. 

Malone then inked a recording contract with Republic Records and launched his debut studio album, Stoney, in 2016. One of the album’s songs is the diamond hit single “Congratulations.” The album broke records, remaining on the US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart for 77 weeks. 

Beerbongs and Bentleys, his second album, launched at the top ranks on the US Billboard 200 and broke numerous streaming records. It had the Hot 100 number-one singles “Rockstar” and “Psycho” and received a nomination for Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards in 2018. 

The third number one, “Sunflower,” was the promotional and lead single to the soundtrack for the MCU film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It was on Malone’s third album, Hollywood’s Bleeding, which earned Malone the second number one. 

The second single also reached number one rank and broke records, remaining on the top ten charts for 39 weeks on the Hot 100. 

Post Malone is one of the highly esteemed music artists with more than 80 million records sold. He has snagged 10 Billboard Music Awards, three American Music Awards, one MTV Video Music Award, and has been nominated for the Grammy Awards six times.