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      Nipsey Hussle’s Killer Sentenced to 60 Years to Life in Prison

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      Eric R. Holder Jr. was found guilty of first-degree murder last year in the 2019 killing of Hussle outside a clothing store he had founded in Los Angeles.The man who was found guilty of fatally shooting the rapper Nipsey Hussle in 2019 was sentenced on Wednesday to 60 years to life in prison in a Los Angeles courtroom.Eric R. Holder Jr., 33, was convicted last year of first-degree murder for shooting Hussle outside The Marathon Clothing store the rapper had opened in the South Los Angeles neighborhood, where both men grew up.Mr. Holder was sentenced to 25 years to life on the murder count, to another 25 years to life because a gun was used and to another 10 years for shooting two other people that same day, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.Aaron Jansen, the public defender who represented Mr. Holder, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.There was no dispute that Mr. Holder pulled the trigger. Multiple witnesses and even Mr. Jansen identified Mr. Holder as the assailant who fired toward Hussle with two handguns, hitting the rapper at least 10 times, then kicking him in the head.But Mr. Holder’s legal team said during the trial that the case was overcharged. Mr. Jansen said that the fatal shooting was not premeditated and that it took place in the “heat of passion” after an exchange in which Hussle, 33, invoked neighborhood rumors that Mr. Holder had cooperated with law enforcement.After meeting for less than an hour on a second day of deliberations, the jury members appeared to agree with Los Angeles County prosecutors that Mr. Holder had made the decision to kill Hussle after the two spoke as he returned to a car, loaded a gun, took a few bites of French fries, then marched back through the parking lot to confront the rapper.In addition to his conviction on the murder charge, Mr. Holder was also found guilty of possessing a firearm as a felon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter, stemming from the wounding of two bystanders.Fans mourned Hussle, whose given name was Ermias Joseph Asghedom, as an artist and entrepreneur who had moved past his early years as a member of the local Rollin’ 60s Crips gang. His public memorial in April 2019 in Los Angeles drew about 20,000 people, including Stevie Wonder and Snoop Dogg.Not a commercial hitmaker, Hussle was hailed as a local hero and celebrity, producing music on his own terms for 15 years before releasing his major label debut, “Victory Lap,” in 2018. More

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      De La Soul’s Dave Jolicoeur, a.k.a. Trugoy the Dove, Dies at 54

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      The trio expanded the stylistic vocabulary of hip-hop in the 1980s and ’90s, but its early experiments with sampling led to legal troubles, and the group’s longtime exclusion from streaming.David Jolicoeur of De La Soul, the rap trio that expanded the stylistic vocabulary of hip-hop in the late 1980s and early ’90s with eclectic samples and offbeat humor, becoming MTV staples and cult heroes of the genre, died on Sunday. He was 54.His death was confirmed by the group’s publicist, Tony Ferguson, who did not specify a cause or say where Mr. Jolicoeur was when he died. In recent years, Mr. Jolicoeur has openly discussed a struggle with congestive heart failure, including in a music video for the group’s song “Royalty Capes.”De La Soul arrived with the album “3 Feet High and Rising” in 1989, a time when hip-hop was still relatively new to the mainstream. The genre’s public face was often confrontational, with groups like Public Enemy and N.W.A speaking out about the racism, police violence and neglect faced by Black communities in America.By contrast, De La Soul — three middle-class young men from Long Island — presented themselves with hippie floral designs and a music video set in a high school for their song “Me Myself and I.” The group wore baggy, brightly colored clothes, to the sneers and side-eyeing of their classmates in gold chains, black shades and matching B-boy outfits.Mr. Jolicoeur — whose original stage name in the group was Trugoy the Dove, though he was also known as Plug Two, Dove and later, just Dave — had the first lines of the track, riffing on a fairy tale. “Mirror mirror on the wall/Tell me mirror, what is wrong?” he rapped. “Can it be my De La clothes/Or is it just my De La song?”That album, with singles also including “Say No Go” and “Eye Know,” reached only as high as No. 24 on the Billboard 200 chart, but it was an instant classic that pointed to new directions in hip-hop. Later albums included “De La Soul Is Dead” (1991), “Buhloone Mindstate” (1993) and “Stakes Is High” (1996).With its producer, Prince Paul, the group developed an idiosyncratic and freewheeling style of sampling that brought new textures to hip-hop. “3 Feet High” contained pieces of more than 60 other recordings, including not only Funkadelic and Ohio Players grooves — de rigueur in 1980s rap — but also oddities like sounds from old TV shows and recordings of French language lessons.But legal problems related to its samples became the bane of the group. One sample, of the Turtles’ organ-driven psychedelic pop track “You Showed Me” (1968), had not been cleared properly, and the Turtles sued; the case was settled out of court.Ongoing legal problems with sample clearances prevented the group from releasing its music in digital form, which effectively blocked the trio from music’s most important marketplace in the 21st century. Recently, the group finally cleared those samples and was gearing up to release its music in digital form in March.The group’s lighthearted style — whimsical in-jokes, and lyrics that could be irreverent or earnest — delighted fans and captivated critics. It was one of the first in hip-hop to cross over to the collegiate crowd, and took on the reputation of “thinking-person’s hip-hoppers,” as the critic Greg Tate put it in a review of “Buhloone Mindstate” in The New York Times.“With irreverence and imagination,” Mr. Tate wrote, “De La Soul has dared to go where few hip-hop acts would follow, rejecting Five Percenter polemics and gangster rap for reflections on an array of topics: ecology, crack-addicted infants, Black suburbia, roller-skating, harassment by fans, male sexual anxiety and even gardening as a hip-hop metaphor.”Mr. Jolicoeur distilled the group’s worldview into a few lines in “Me Myself and I”: Write is wrong when hype is writtenOn the Soul, De La that isStyle is surely our own thingNot the false disguise of showbizDavid Jolicoeur was born on Sept. 21, 1968, in Brooklyn and moved to Long Island with his family as a child.In Amityville, N.Y., Mr. Jolicoeur joined with high school friends Kelvin Mercer, known as Posdnuos, and Vincent Mason, or Maseo, to form De La Soul. The group’s demo for “Plug Tunin’,” which later appeared remixed on “3 Feet High and Rising,” caught the attention of Prince Paul, the D.J. of the group Stetsasonic, who was then quickly establishing himself as one of the most gifted producers in rap. Their collaboration introduced the abstract, alternative hip-hop it would become known for.“Every last poem is recited at noon,” Mr. Jolicoeur rapped as Trugoy — yogurt backward, for a preferred food. “Focus is set, let your Polaroids click/As they capture the essence of a naughty noise called/Plug Tunin’.”The trio honed its sound and comedic stage presence at school concerts and parties at a space it called “the dugout,” on Dixon Avenue in Amityville. Proudly repping “Strong Island,” De La Soul noted that its proximity to New York City allowed it to keep an eye on the hip-hop stronghold, while the suburbs gave it space to grow and learn.“The island has given us the opportunity to see more things,” Mr. Jolicoeur told The New York Times in 2000. “It broadened our horizons.” He added, “We had the opportunity to soak in a lot more. And that’s why we are who we are today.”De La Soul went on to lead what was known as the Native Tongues, a loose collective of outsider hip-hop groups like A Tribe Called Quest and the Jungle Brothers, which influenced artists like Mos Def and Common.In addition to sampling, De La Soul was formative in the incorporation of skits — spoken dialogue between tracks — on its albums. In a live review from 1989, the Times critic Peter Watrous wrote that the group “seemed on the verge of inventing a new type of performance — part talk show, part rap concert — where their funny conversations and routines were as important as their raps, even if the funniest lines were accusations about Trugoy’s status as a virgin.”The group’s absence from digital services kept it from reaching new audiences for years.“We’re in the Library of Congress, but we’re not on iTunes,” Mr. Mercer told The Times in 2016. Two years earlier, in frustration, the group gave away virtually all of its work, releasing it online to fans at no charge. Its 2016 album, “And the Anonymous Nobody,” was financed by a Kickstarter campaign that raised over $600,000. The album was largely sample-free.Still, the group retained a strong following among fans and fellow artists. In 2005, De La Soul was featured on “Feel Good Inc.,” a hit by Gorillaz, the multimedia project created by the British singer-songwriter Damon Albarn and the visual artist Jamie Hewlett. Mr. Jolicoeur co-wrote the song with Mr. Albarn. The song went to No. 2 in Britain and No. 14 in the United States.In the group’s interview with The Times in 2016, Mr. Jolicoeur spoke about the urgency the trio felt about getting its older work back before the public.“This music has to be addressed and released,” he said. “It has to. When? We’ll see. But somewhere it’s going to happen.”Joe Coscarelli contributed reporting. More

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      Trugoy the Dove of De La Soul’s 10 Essential Songs

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      The Long Island rapper David Jolicoeur, known for his freewheeling rhyme style, has died at 54, just weeks before his trio’s catalog arrives on streaming services.David Jolicoeur, best known as the rapper Trugoy the Dove of the climate-shifting rap group De La Soul, weathered decades of industry shifts with acerbic wit, oblique rhyme styles and intense bouts of self-reflection that flew in the face of hip-hop’s boast-centric bottom line.Jolicoeur, also known as “Plug Two” in the Long Island trio he helped found in 1988 with Kelvin Mercer (Posdnuos) and Vincent Mason (P.A. Pasemaster Mase) died on Sunday at 54, just weeks before the group’s songs, long absent from streaming services, will finally arrive on digital platforms.De La Soul’s debut album, “3 Feet High and Rising,” from 1989, was nothing short of a sea change moment in the genre’s sound, fashion, attitude and aesthetic. As leading lights of the Native Tongues collective — a loose crew of fellow travelers that included Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest, Queen Latifah and Monie Love — De La’s baggy bohemian look would replace rap’s thick gold chains and sweatsuits with Afrocentric leather medallions and vintage patterns. It was Jolicoeur’s innovation to raid their dads’ closets for bell bottoms and straighten the legs, not to mention stylizing their asymmetrical haircuts.De La Soul broke the Top 40 that year with the pop splash “Me, Myself and I” — for years the trio would reliably add “We hate this song!” when performing it live — but went on to become hip-hop royalty thanks to the emotional depth plumbed in tunes like “Tread Water” and “I Am I Be.”Quirky production, introspective lyrics and its unorthodox look had De La Soul dubbed “alternative hip-hop,” a feel that would rapidly spawn similar-minded artists like the Pharcyde, Digable Planets, P.M. Dawn, Arrested Development and Dream Warriors. But over time, its legacy became less a recognizable “sound” and more a model for any rap act open to aesthetics and ideas that cut against the hardcore grain, like the Roots, the Fugees, Common, Black Star and eventually world-conquering artists like Kanye West and the Black Eyed Peas.Here are 10 essential verses from an artist whose “Delacratic” attitude toward self-expression helped rewire hip-hop’s DNA.De La Soul, “Plug Tunin’” (1988)On its debut single, De La Soul introduced an abstract “new style of speak” that landed in the middle of the hard-edge Def Jam era like a prismatic fracturing of hip-hop, beat poetry and alien transmissions. On the first song the trio did as a group, Jolicoeur coolly raps like a Slinky tumbling down stairs, “Dazed at the sight of a method/Dive beneath the depth of a never-ending verse/Gasping and swallowing every last letter/Vocalized liquid holds the quench of your thirst.” As he told the author Brian Coleman of their lyrics at that time, “Maybe it was our warped character, but we didn’t really want people to understand it at all. Sometimes we were trying to make it difficult, because it would make people always want to know more.”De La Soul, “Me, Myself and I” (1989)De La Soul’s biggest hit was also De La Soul’s biggest albatross: The Day-Glo visuals around its single and video promptly burdened the group with the label “hip-hop hippies.” In a sad irony, Jolicoeur’s verses on “Me, Myself and I” were specifically about not being judged by his unconventional fashion choices. Borrowing the rhyme flow from “Black Is Black” by the Jungle Brothers, another Native Tongues crew, Jolicoeur opens the trio’s first and only Top 40 pop hit with a radical mix of exhaustion and self-questioning: “Mirror mirror on the wall/Tell me mirror, what is wrong?/Can it be my De La clothes/Or is it just my De La song?” “If some think that we have a hippie style and a hippie sound, that’s just fine,” Jolicoeur told Melody Maker in 1989. “But we’d be offended if it was said that we wanted to be hippies. We don’t. We just want to be ourselves.”De La Soul, “Pass the Plugs” (1991)The second De La album — sardonically titled “De La Soul Is Dead” — pushed back on the daisies and fluorescents with a sound that was a little more disillusioned and dark but still breezy. Taking the second verse of “Pass the Plugs,” Jolicoeur bemoans the industry panopticon of radio programmers, promoters and a record label that wanted more hit singles.De La Soul, “Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa” (1991)The most lyrically and thematically intense song of De La Soul’s career, “Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa” tells the story of a Brooklyn girl abused by her father — by the song’s end, she takes her revenge with the titular weapon as he works as a department store Kris Kringle. The story is narrated mainly by Mercer, who was channeling real-life emotions after finding out a friend was a survivor. However, in a masterful storytelling technique, Jolicoeur takes two verses as the doubting acquaintance who doesn’t believe the girl’s accusations.Teenage Fanclub and De La Soul, “Fallin’” (1993)Treating an entire song like one of its famous skits, De La play washed-up, once-successful rappers on this collaboration with the Scottish jangle-rock band Teenage Fanclub for the “Judgment Night” soundtrack — a weirdly prescient rock-meets-rap experiment. “We wouldn’t play ourselves to do something that was wack, but the way the concept plays itself out, it’s supposed to be wack,” Jolicoeur told Vibe in 1993. “The track is supposed to sound wack.” Instead, the group’s look at the other side of fame produced some of the most poignant verses of its career. Raps Jolicoeur, “I knew I blew the whole fandango/When the drum programmer wore a Kangol.”De La Soul, “Ego Trippin’ (Part Two)” (1993)On this single from De La Soul’s jazz-flecked third album, “Buhloone Mindstate,” Jolicoeur draws a sarcastic line between his group and contemporary hip-hop machismo and bragadoccio. “I change my pitch up, smack my bitch up, I never did it,” he raps, flipping a classic line from New York’s Ultramagnetic MC’s. “The flavor’s bein’ bought, but brothers ain’t gettin’ it.”De La Soul, “Stakes Is High” (1996)“Stakes Is High” was not just the evocative title to De La Soul’s fourth album. As Mason told Okayplayer, “I mean the whole energy around developing that record, it was a crucial place of not knowing if we was going to continue or we going to be forced to go get regular jobs and become common folk.” For the lead single and title track — produced by the emerging beatmaker Jay Dee, later known as J Dilla — Jolicoeur unleashes a torrential downpour of criticism deriding the state of mainstream hip-hop: “Sick of swole-head rappers with their sickenin’ raps/Clappers of gats, makin’ the whole sick world collapse.”De La Soul, “Itzsoweezee (Hot)” (1996)The last track recorded for “Stakes Is High,” though it ultimately became the album’s second single, was a rare solo turn for Jolicoeur. As Mafioso imagery began taking over hardcore New York rap, Jolicoeur popped the bubble with lines like “Why you acting all spicy and shiesty?/The only Italians you knew was Icees.”Prince Paul featuring De La Soul, “More Than U Know” (1999)Another prime example of Jolicoeur and Mercer’s storytelling abilities is this song from the producer Prince Paul’s wildly ambitious concept opera “A Prince Among Thieves.” Playing the role of a crack addict, Jolicoeur pulls the extended metaphor trick, rhyming about the drug as if it were a love interest: “I can’t refuse her, my denial’s a wish/Fell into her arm when I gave her a kiss.”Gorillaz featuring De La Soul, “Feel Good Inc.” (2005)This alterna-pop gem from Damon Albarn’s virtual cartoon crew ultimately became the biggest success story of De La Soul’s career, garnering the group its first and only Grammy. Known for a usually mellower delivery, Jolicoeur instead unleashes a barrage of high-octane bars: “Laughing gas these hazmats, fast cats/Lining ’em up like ass cracks/Play these ponies at the track.” More

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      AKA, Influential South African Rapper, Is Fatally Shot

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      The rapper, whose legal name was Kiernan Forbes, was one of the most formidable songwriters in South African hip-hop. He and another man were killed outside a restaurant on Friday.AKA, a generation-defining South African rapper whose blend of local sounds with American hip-hop vaulted him into stardom, was fatally shot on Friday night outside a restaurant in the coastal city of Durban.The police said that AKA, 35, had been walking to his car on a popular nightlife strip shortly after 10 p.m. when two armed people approached from across the street and fired several shots at close range before running away.AKA, whose legal name was Kiernan Forbes, and another man died at the scene, the police said. Although the police did not name the second victim, South African news reports identified him as AKA’s close friend Tebello Motsoane, a 34-year-old chef and music entrepreneur known as Tibz.The police said on Saturday that they were still searching for the suspects.The killing drew an outpouring of grief from around the country, with fans, artists, major political parties and the government sending out messages of condolence. On Saturday, fans gathered outside the restaurant where he was killed, Wish on Florida, to pay their respects, with some blasting his music from their cars.“AKA was counted amongst the best rappers on the continent,” South Africa’s Department of Sport, Arts and Culture said in a statement. “AKA was one of the most patriotic artists who literally flew the South African flag high everywhere he went around the globe.”Born in Cape Town, AKA moved to Johannesburg as a child. He attended an elite private school, the sort of setting where hip-hop first became popularized in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent because affluent students had access to rap from its birthplace, the United States. In a 2014 article in the South African publication The Sunday Times, AKA described his parents as being “scared but excited” when he told them that he wanted to pursue a music career.He produced for several artists before his own big breakout in 2011 with his hit single “Victory Lap” on his debut album, “Altar Ego.”He went on to become known as one of the most formidable songwriters in South African hip-hop, noted Cedric Dladla, a music and culture journalist based in the country. AKA would take beats and samples from popular South African genres like amapiano and kwaito and incorporate them into his music, Mr. Dladla said. That helped influence a new generation of rappers, some of whom became rivals of AKA.“AKA was a person who was an advocate for the South African identity of music,” Mr. Dladla said. “That’s what made him stand out, no matter where he went.”Some of his songs were laden with references that only people in South Africa would understand, like his single “Lemons (Lemonade),” which made reference to a derogatory term used for foreigners and the practice of police officers asking for a “cold drink” when they want a bribe. But AKA also gained acclaim across Africa, collaborating with popular artists like Burna Boy, the Nigerian Afrobeats star.What also set AKA apart, Mr. Dladla said, was his performance style — an energetic and captivating aura, often with the backing of a band. He once performed with an orchestra.“That’s when the evolution from him being a rapper to him being a well-rounded musician started,” Mr. Dladla said.Whatever international acclaim he received, AKA seemed to embrace being a star who catered to Africa rather than the United States.“Why not be big in Africa?” he told The Sunday Times. “The States know what they want and consume it. There are lots of dollars on the continent.”Two years ago, AKA lost his fiancé, Anele Tembe, to tragic and controversial circumstances when she fell to her death from the 10th floor of a hotel in Cape Town. The two had a rocky relationship, according to news reports, including an altercation about a month before Ms. Tembe’s death when AKA was accused of breaking down a door at the couple’s Johannesburg apartment after Ms. Tembe locked herself inside a room. A friend of Ms. Tembe’s told News24, a South African online publication, that AKA had slammed his fiancée’s head against a wall, but AKA denied ever abusing her.AKA had been scheduled to perform at a nightclub on Friday night in Durban as part of an extended celebration of his birthday, which was late last month. Earlier in the day, he had posted videos on Instagram of himself dancing in a gym, getting his hair cut and eating a plate of seafood at the restaurant he visited before his death. He had also plugged his upcoming album, “Mass Country,” which is due to be released in about two weeks.“Our son was loved and he gave love in return,” his parents, Tony and Lynn Forbes, posted in a statement on his social media accounts.AKA is also survived by a young daughter he had with D.J. Zinhle, a popular South African D.J. In an Instagram post on his birthday last month, AKA had posted a picture of his daughter and a cake.“Thank God for another year on this earth,” he wrote. “Looking forward to seeing what he has in store for me in 2023.” More

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      Lil Uzi Vert Gave the Eagles the Soundtrack to Their Season

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      Eagles players ran out onto the field to the Philadelphia rapper’s “Just Wanna Rock,” and they regularly celebrate with the song’s viral dance.PHOENIX — Like all N.F.L. teams, the Eagles employ many exceptionally large men. But as they left their locker room ahead of the N.F.C. championship game against the San Francisco 49ers, they were led by a musician who stands just 5-foot-4.The artist, clad in a midnight-green No. 16 Eagles jersey and diamond chains, was the rapper Lil Uzi Vert, who ran out with the group as “Just Wanna Rock” blared through the stadium. Uzi’s song, which has a viral hip-shaking dance to go with it, has become the soundtrack for the Eagles’ season.“That song got the city and the world buzzing,” Eagles linebacker Kyzir White said. “That feel like our anthem right now.”Uzi, who uses they/they pronouns, said in a recent interview that the response to the track “was like a dream come true.”The rapper, a native of Philadelphia, noted that it was gratifying to discover their fan base is “actually bigger than what I think,” adding, “I didn’t think that they really listened to me.”Dive Deeper Into Super Bowl LVIIThe God of Sod: George Toma, 94, has been a groundskeeper for all 57 Super Bowls. On Sunday, his perfectionism will be on display for millions of people who will have no idea who he is or how he suffers for his work.Philadelphia Swagger: After surviving a disastrous introductory news conference, an ill-chosen flower analogy and his “Beat Dallas” motivational shirt, Nick Sirianni has transformed the Eagles, and maybe himself.Inside a Kansas City Oasis: Big Charlie’s Saloon is a South Philadelphia bar with a bit of a conundrum: how to celebrate Kansas City’s Super Bowl berth without drawing the ire of locals.Halftime Show: The nearly four-year gap between Rihanna’s live performances will close when she takes the stage at the Super Bowl. During her hiatus, the stakes for her return have only grown.The up-tempo “Just Wanna Rock,” inspired by Jersey club music, doesn’t feature many lyrics. But its dance exploded on TikTok, and has evolved to include different variations. At its core, dancers shake their hips and move their arms while looking at a camera with a stoic facial expression.When running back Miles Sanders scored the Eagles’ first touchdown in the N.F.C. championship game, he celebrated with the dance; he was joined by center Jason Kelce, who looked more like he was trying to shake an insect off his back. “They still got some learning to do,” Uzi said, laughing.“That was the first time releasing that,” Kelce said with a smile. “I just felt it in the moment.”The song plays regularly in the Eagles’ locker room, White said. Often at the center of the dance circle is defensive lineman Jordan Davis, who stands at an imposing 6-foot-6 and 335 pounds. His moves always surprise his teammates because of his size.“He wants to dance all day,” White said. “Weight room, locker room, it don’t matter, he always hitting that.”Even Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, known for his love for old-school R&B tunes, has gotten behind “Just Wanna Rock.” When Uzi met Hurts in the locker room ahead of the N.F.C. championship game, the rapper remembers Hurts saying that the song was “crazy” — in a good way. Uzi said Hurts’s stamp of approval meant that much more because the song is so different from the player’s standard playlist. (After the Eagles ran out with Uzi before their game against the 49ers, Hurts’s favorite artist, Anita Baker, sang the national anthem.)Lil Uzi Vert performing last month in New York.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images For SiriusXMDuring the Eagles’ 2017 Super Bowl-winning season, the team leaned on the song “Dreams and Nightmares” by the rapper Meek Mill. Eagles players danced and rapped the song word for word before blowing out the Vikings in the N.F.C. championship game. Players said that track is still in heavy rotation, and Mill performed it ahead of the Eagles’ game against the Cowboys in Week 6.“Dreams and Nightmares” has long been considered something of a city anthem, but the popularity of “Just Wanna Rock” has sparked a debate within the Eagles’ locker room.“I like the ‘Just Wanna Rock’ dance, but I like ‘Dreams and Nightmares’ more,” Eagles cornerback Darius Slay said. “I like both of ’em, but the new generation now moved from jumping around. Now they want to dance.”Uzi is hoping the Eagles can help the song lead to change in their city, which has dealt with a recent increase in violent crime. While the dancing is all for fun, Uzi suggested that perhaps people in Philadelphia watching popular Eagles players busting out moves will inspire them to seek positive outlets for their energy.“We from a rough area, and the only thing that gets praised is negative things, and this is a positive thing,” Uzi said, adding: “You would rather be in the house perfecting the dance and doing videos instead of going outside doing something that’s not positive. Why not just keep doing it to make sure that everyone’s safe?”The Eagles haven’t yet asked Uzi to run out with them on Sunday, the musician said. But the rapper will be at the game, and it’s almost certain that players will be shaking their hips in celebrations. More

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      Lil Yachty Breaks Boundaries and Takes on Rap Conservatism

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      Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Amazon MusicOver eight full-length releases since 2016, the Atlanta rap eccentric Lil Yachty has carved out several micro niches — he’s been a novelty rap auteur, a sing-rap warbler, a student and emulator of punchline-heavy Michigan rap.But his latest album, “Let’s Start Here.,” is stirring debate about how Lil Yachty is testing hip-hop boundaries, and why he feels compelled to test them at all. It’s an exploration of psychedelic rock with pop edges that finds Lil Yachty collaborating with indie-rock writers and producers, which is a sonic, if not dispositional, departure.On the new Popcast, a conversation about how young rappers often find themselves at odds with their elders, how Lil Yachty has leveraged casualness as he’s experimented with styles, and how collaborating outside the genre you made your name in can be fraught both musically and critically.Guests:Jayson Buford, who writes about music for Stereogum and othersJustin Charity, staff writer at The Ringer and a host of the Sound Only podcastConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica. More

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      Lizzo and SZA Spin Up a Fresh ‘Special,’ and 7 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Luke Combs, Jessie Ware, Indigo de Souza and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new songs and videos. Just want the music? Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes). Like what you hear? Let us know at theplaylist@nytimes.com and sign up for our Louder newsletter, a once-a-week blast of our pop music coverage.Lizzo featuring SZA, ‘Special’Lizzo’s soulful, gospel-choir-backed performance of “Special,” the title track from her 2022 album, was a highlight of this year’s Grammys telecast, and now she’s recruited SZA to provide a fresh spin on the song. “You call it sensitive, and I call it superpower,” SZA sings, nimbly skipping across the beat, while Lizzo offers her a message of solidarity: “I thought that I’d let you know, in case nobody told you today, you’re special.” If the original version was a more general anthem of uplift, SZA’s presence gives the song a more intimate call-and-response quality, as if she and Lizzo were two girlfriends exchanging words of support after a long day. LINDSAY ZOLADZBeyoncé, ‘Cuff It (Wetter Remix)’It’s easy, and expected, to think about Beyoncé from the top down. On Sunday, she won four Grammys, giving her a career total of 32 and making her the most decorated performer in the show’s history. Conversations about her music, how she assembles it and how she releases it often take on a world-historical tone. She is the defining superstar of the stan era, publicly available only every once in a while.The Emotionally Charged Sound of SZAThe artist, whose real name is Solána Imani Rowe, has become a dominant figure in American pop.View From the Top: Her moody, enigmatic music made SZA a megastar. Can she learn to live with success?‘Ctrl’: The artist’s first album for a major label, released in 2017, held on to the electronics and the leisurely tempos of her past work. But it placed her fully in command of her songs.Interview: After receiving five Grammy nominations for “Ctrl,” the singer sat down to discuss her journey to success and facing her inner critic.‘SOS’: On her second album, SZA presents herself not as a heroine but as a work in progress who knows she’ll make more mistakes.But she is listening. One of the more gratifying and unexpected turns of the “Renaissance” era has been her acknowledgment of how fans listen to her, responding in something like real time. First, in August, she formally released a mash-up of “Break My Soul” and Madonna’s “Vogue” that had been floating around online.Now, she’s done it again. A few months ago, the D.J. and producer esentrik made a mash-up of “Cuff It” with “Wetter,” a temperate love rap from 2009 by the Chicago fast talker Twista, produced by the Legendary Traxter. It was a hit on TikTok, and now, it’s become something even more substantive. Beyoncé recorded new vocals for this version, which takes the sauciness of the original and cools it down slightly, leaning into afterglow.Making this remix official is savvy acknowledgment that fans listen to music in ways artists can’t anticipate, and it behooves artists to be mindful of how they’re being consumed. And it is savvy business too, a way of formalizing the chaos of TikTok and bringing it under the umbrella of the empire. JON CARAMANICAJessie Ware, ‘Pearls’Jessie Ware’s latest disco-inspired track is an effervescent invitation to, as she puts it, “shake it til the pearls fall off.” The single from her April album “That! Feels Good!” is thick with sumptuous atmosphere and Ware’s signature sass. But most impressively, its chorus’s ascending melody is a dazzling showcase of Ware’s stratospheric upper register. Sing along at your own risk. ZOLADZMegan Moroney, ‘I’m Not Pretty’A razor-sharp premise for a song: “Somewhere out there my ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend is scrolling through my Instagram/Tearing me down, passing the phone around.” A young country singer with a voice that mixes sweetness with wryness, Megan Moroney targets this charming, funny, exhausted song at women who tear other women down. CARAMANICALuke Combs, ‘Love You Anyway’In midcareer mode, Luke Combs doesn’t let it rip quite as often as he once did. His bellow is more stable, his emotional presence more dignified. But there’s still something of a purring engine inside songs like “Love You Anyway,” which in the hands of a lesser singer, would be a familiar, cloying ode to a love so strong, it’s worth the pain of potentially losing it. But when Combs sings, “If your kiss turned me to stone, I’d be a statue standing tall in ancient Rome,” he sounds like he’s thoroughly pondered the consequences — the likelihood of heartbreak — and is pressing on with force nonetheless. CARAMANICAIndigo de Souza, ‘Younger & Dumber’“Younger & Dumber,” from the Asheville singer-songwriter Indigo De Souza, is a slow-burning tear-jerker, a gradual accumulation of heartbreaking lines that takes flight in a soaring climax. “Sometimes I just don’t want to be alone, and it’s not because I’m lonely,” De Souza sings in a wearied croon. “It’s just that I get so tired of filling the space all around me.” But just then, her voice swells in intensity and fills that space with her own wrenching emotion. ZOLADZYaya Bey, ‘Exodus the North Star’Brooklyn’s Yaya Bey brings a light touch to “Exodus the North Star,” the title track from an upcoming EP that follows her excellent 2022 album “Remember Your North Star.” “Exodus” is a love-struck reverie that begins as a sparse arrangement — just Bey’s voice and some celestial keys — but soon explodes into a joyful, horn-kissed celebration. “Baby, it’s the way you make me feel like your girl could get up and fly,” Bey sings and, accordingly, the song suddenly takes flight. ZOLADZFrench Montana featuring 2Rare, “Ratataaaaa’Turns out that French Montana’s meandering smears, typically at home over lightly galloping production, sound equally intriguing over sounds twice as quick. This song (which perhaps is an allusion to an old TikTok meme) is jubilant and spacious, and a little odd. The Philadelphia club rapper 2Rare, who guests here, is more naturally bouncy than his host, but his antic energy is mostly a counterweight to French Montana’s impressionistic almost-raps. CARAMANICA More

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      Quality Control, Atlanta Rap Powerhouse, Sells to Scooter Braun’s Hybe

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      The acquisition is the famed music manager’s first major move at Hybe America — a division of the South Korean firm — since he became its sole chief executive last month.Quality Control Music, the Atlanta rap label that is one of the hottest hit machines in contemporary music, has been acquired by Hybe America, a company led by the executive and talent manager Scooter Braun, in one of the most closely watched deals in the music business.The acquisition is the first major step taken by Braun — who manages pop stars like Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato — since he became the sole chief executive of Hybe America last month. The company is a division of the South Korean entertainment firm Hybe, which dominates the K-pop world through its management of the superstar group BTS.The transaction was announced late Wednesday by Hybe America and QC Media Holdings, the label’s parent entity. The purchase price was not disclosed, but is estimated at around $300 million.“QC is one of the most significant independent labels in the world,” Braun said in a statement to The New York Times. “They not only distribute music, but they also distribute culture. Their artists are the voices of their communities.”The deal takes off the table one of the most coveted independent labels in music and expands the global repertoire of Hybe, which has only recently begun to look beyond the boundaries of K-pop.Since its founding in 2013, by Pierre Thomas (known as P) and Kevin Lee (Coach K), Quality Control has been behind the rise of rap acts like Migos, Lil Baby and Lil Yachty. Early on, the label mastered the promotion of music through streaming, adapting the fire-hose-of-content strategy that had long flourished in the world of semiofficial mixtapes.By early 2017, the label had scored a global smash with “Bad and Boujee,” featuring the idiosyncratic, stuttering flow of the trio Migos, with a guest appearance by the rapper Lil Uzi Vert. The song spent three weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Lil Baby alone has garnered 37 billion streams of his catalog, according to Quality Control.Thomas and Lee will remain at the helm of the label, under the direction of Braun, they said.Braun became a power player in artist management after discovering a young Bieber on YouTube. In 2019, he came under the cross hairs of Taylor Swift fans when his entertainment company, Ithaca Holdings, bought her former label, Big Machine — including the rights to her first six studio albums — for more than $300 million, without Swift’s participation. Ithaca later sold Swift’s albums to another investor.In 2021, Braun joined Hybe after that company purchased Ithaca — which included Braun’s management deals, music publishing assets and the remainder of Big Machine — for just over $1 billion.“We want to take our brand worldwide and need partners with mind-sets like ours — ground up, self-made and building companies from nothing,” Thomas, Quality Control’s chief executive, said in a statement. “All of Hybe’s leaders are entrepreneurs with track records for finding, growing and amplifying their talent globally.”One question hanging over the deal is the future value of Migos, one of Quality Control’s biggest acts. One member, Takeoff, was killed in a shooting in November. A second, Offset, is suing Quality Control over ownership of his solo recordings. The third, Quavo, is managed by SB Projects, Braun’s company, which is part of Hybe America.Hybe’s deal for Quality Control is the latest in a string of transactions in which big music companies have scooped up smaller labels known for their close relationships with artists.In 2021, Warner Music Group paid $400 million for 300 Entertainment, which has released music by Megan Thee Stallion and Young Thug. That year, Sony Music also purchased a controlling stake in Alamo Records, whose acts include Lil Durk and Rod Wave; the value of that transaction was not disclosed, but is estimated at close to $200 million. More