Latest news with #BrentFaiyaz
IOL News
21 hours ago
- Entertainment
- IOL News
LOOK: One artist's powerful journey through loss, recovery and the redemptive power of music
In a recent social media post, DJ and music producer &friends shared a heartfelt timeline of the trauma of losing his brother and his long journey back to music. In a deeply personal and emotional social media post, the New York-based artist offered fans a timeline of that trauma and the long road back to music, healing and success. Ten years ago, DJ and music producer &friends lost his little brother - a devastating event that would send his life and career spiralling into silence. His story, spanning a decade of pain, purpose and resilience, culminates in his first major hit, 'Jackie B', released earlier this year alongside Brent Faiyaz and Joseph (CH). The post isn't just a career retrospective - it's a vulnerable look at how grief can derail your dreams, but also how it can shape and even resurrect them. In his post, &friends writes: August 2015: 'After 6 years of DJing and making music, I lost my little brother. The music stopped. I quit completely.' The loss was too immense. In one moment, music - the thing that had defined him - had become unbearable. June 2016: To escape his grief, he uprooted his life, moving from San Diego to New York City. He joined a marketing agency simply to survive. 'Music? Dead to me,' he admitted. It was no longer a passion, just a reminder of pain. December 2018: Unexpectedly, an opportunity arose. A top NYC club invited him to DJ - the date? His brother's birthday. 'I said yes. For him.' That night, something stirred. 'People felt something. I did too.' 2020: The Covid-19 pandemic hit. While building the company and working 80-hour weeks, music became his outlet again. 'Every free second? I poured into music. It was the only thing keeping me sane.' October 2021: He leapt. He left his marketing job behind. 'Everyone said I lost it … Maybe I did. Maybe I was. But I couldn't live without music anymore.' 2022: He dropped his first record, and then came 'Ode Ireti' featuring El-Jay and Oluwadamvic. The track went viral after Keinemusik played it at Burning Man. 'Something shifted,' he recalls. 2023: His dream took off. He played his first international shows. He was touring - but it wasn't easy. 'Balancing health, art and business? Harder than anyone tells you. I kept going for both of us.' 2024-2025: He debuted a new track at Coachella - 'Jackie B'. The reception was electric. It went viral. Two weeks ago, he released it officially - with Brent Faiyaz and his longtime collaborator Joseph (CH). 'My first big, big hit. I know the little bro is watching.'
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Brent Faiyaz Plays ‘Peter Pan' and ‘Tony Soprano' on New Singles
Brent Faiyaz is back with two singles named for two very different, very famous fictional characters, but the singer tells Rolling Stone an important throughline connects them. 'Everything I'm creating right now is about showing [a] range of concepts, principles, emotions, and experiences,' he said via email. 'Innocence versus Indecency. Vulnerability versus guardedness. These tracks capture the core of that.' One, called 'Peter Pan,' is a dreamy love song, where Faiyaz coos, 'Darling open up your window and take my hand 'cause there ain't nowhere we can't go.' Meanwhile, 'Tony Soprano' is a melancholy slow burn where Faiyaz laments the perils of his fame and success like a tortured mob boss. 'These hoes mad funny/Bitch I'm not that funny,' he says, thinking of the women who indulge him for their own gain. 'Go 'head, laugh for me/Know you want that bag from me.' Through the track, he also takes comfort in what he can provide for himself. More from Rolling Stone Wizkid Taps Brent Faiyaz for 'Piece of My Heart' 'SNL': Watch 21 Savage Perform 'Redrum,' 'Prove It' Taylor Swift, Brent Faiyaz, Mr. Eazi, and All the Songs You Need to Know This Week 'I'm embracing duality,' Faiyaz tells Rolling Stone about the two-pack. ''Tony Soprano'' is about tapping into that leader mentality – handling real-life pressure, running my own label, building a team. 'Peter Pan' is outside of all that, free from limits. Full of wonder. They might seem like opposites, but that's what I'm living.' Faiyaz's last solo single was 2023's 'WY@,' a single from his mixtape Larger Than Life. At the time, he told Rolling Stone's Larisha Paul that the record, 'reflects having access and opportunity, and having to say no to certain shit — or the inability to say no to certain shit. That record is about addiction in a way, shape, or form, but more from the perspective of submitting to it versus fighting against it. It touches on addiction in a way that makes it a little more seductive.' Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
These Blog-Era Rap Stars Dropped Last Week. Only One Made the Hot 100
The weekend of July 4 was relatively stacked with hip-hop releases from stars who have been beloved in the genre for years, but data from Luminate and Billboard reveal that few of them made the kind of impact they'd once been capable of. Drake fired shots at fake friends on 'What Did I Miss?', ASAP Rocky dropped 'Pray4DaGang,' singer Brent Faiyaz played the roles of 'Peter Pan' and 'Tony Soprano' with a double single release, Logic produced his own single 'The Adventures of Cocaine Larry,' and Chance The Rapper enlisted Smino and Lil Wayne for 'Tree.' Yet, only one song cracked the Billboard Hot 100: Drake's 'What Did I Miss?', which landed at Number Two. It was the only one to chart on Luminate's list of the 100 most-streamed songs of the week, too, per a report shared with Rolling Stone (and it was Number One there). Even on hip-hop specific charts, things didn't look much better for the rest of the gang. Only Brent Faiyaz's tracks managed to grab spots on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ('Peter Pan' at 47 and 'Tony Soprano' at 28) in addition to Drake, and the Canadian rapper was the only one to make the Hot Rap Songs chart, too. More from Rolling Stone Travis Scott Hangs Out With His Amazing Friends on 'Jackboys 2' What Is Going on With ASAP Rocky's Album 'Don't Be Dumb'? Drake Taps Lauryn Hill, 21 Savage, Rema, More Surprise Guests for London's Wireless Festival Notably, all of these artists are millennials who were stalwarts in what's known as the Blog Era, the period between (very) roughly 2005 and 2015, kickstarted by the emergence of tastemaking rap blogs like NahRight, 2DopeBoyz, and Miss Info in the time of lawless filesharing and capped by the rise of streaming platforms like Spotify that radicalized the way music was made and monetized. Many of the biggest names in rap — and entertainment at large — today earned their stripes during the Blog Era. That includes many of these artists who dropped last week, as well as notable figures like Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Nicki Minaj, and Kanye West. So, why does it matter that no one but Drake seemed to permeate the mainstream last week? Because, in this new era, stans have decided it does. Across pop music, warring fan bases lob streaming and sales statistics at each other online to prove the relevance of their fave – or the irrelevance of their rivals. Several hip-hop focused X pages noted that despite ASAP Rocky dropping 'Pray4DaGang' as an Apple Music exclusive for the first 24 hours of its release starting July 4, it didn't seem to crack Apple's Top 200 songs chart, including one belonging to controversial streamer and Drake ally Akademiks, which taunted the Harlem rapper. While it's less surprising that long-cooled acts like Chance the Rapper, Logic, and even the legendary Lil Wayne (whose latest album, Tha Carter VI was met harshly by many critics) didn't quite breakthrough, ASAP Rocky's quiet return is more jarring. Yet, it's just another signal of the changing of the guard as more niche music communities thrive, TikTok virality constantly thrusts new acts to the forefront, and monoculture erodes. Think about it: Kanye West is all but a pariah, Nicki Minaj garners more headlines for her social media tirades than her raps, and even as Drake sits atop the charts and headlines festivals, his reputation has been deeper in the pits than ever before. In 2018, The New York Times' Nitsuh Abebe asserted that these greats were falling. 'When it comes to pop, 'people born around 1990' are already done for,' he wrote. 'It is a testament to their influence that popular music has already spent a decade doggedly attached to the same stars who took over the charts during this group's teen years […] It has been an impressive run. Now it feels as if that run is ending.' Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Brent Faiyaz Announces New ‘Icon' Album: See When It Arrives
Move over, Cardi B. Brent Faiyaz announced his upcoming album, Icon, on Thursday (July 3), which is slated to hit streaming services on Sept. 19 — the same day as Cardi's Am I the Drama?. Faiyaz sent fans into a frenzy with a post to his Instagram Story featuring the album title and a possible cover art for Icon, alongside the expected release date of Sept. 19. More from Billboard Boldy James Finally Explains Why Amanda Seales Claims He Owes Her Money Jim Jones Says He Didn't Realize How Many People Loved Nas Until Viral Comparison: 'I'm Watching People Go Absolutely Batsh- Crazy' Liam Gallagher Apologizes for Using Racial Slur, Says 'It Wasn't Intentional' The R&B singer's wasting no time kicking off the rollout on Friday (July 4) when a pair of singles, named after famed fictional characters 'Tony Soprano' and 'Peter Pan,' will arrive. A snippet finds Faiyaz lending his intoxicating croon to laid-back production: 'I wish that I could breathe underwater/ I'll swim to the deepest ocean to be where you are, babe/ If I could be there, I would love you inside out,' he sings. Icon serves as Faiyaz's first studio album since 2022's Wasteland, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200. He also released a mixtape in 2023 with Larger Than Life featuring Missy Elliott, A$AP Rocky, Babyface Ray, Coco Jones and Tommy Richman. Ahead of the mixtape's arrival, Billboard reported that Faiyaz inked a lucrative distribution deal with UnitedMasters and launched his ISO Supremacy record label/creative agency. 'My role musically and artistically, that's not really up for me to interpret,' Faiyaz told Billboard in 2024. 'There are still a lot more things I want to learn. But now I'm realizing how important it was to break the mold so that people can see my story, see what we did and say, 'All right, I can do that. It's just another way to go about it. It doesn't really have to be so black and white.' That has been my role: to usher in this new wave of creative freedom.' Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
