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Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lil Wayne Turned Madison Square Garden Into a Time Machine on His ‘Tha Carter VI' Tour
In 1994, my parents finally went to see The Rolling Stones. The group released Voodoo Lounge, their twentieth album, in July that year, and immediately began touring it. In August, they came to East Rutherford, New Jersey, to play at a football stadium, and my mom and dad decided it was the right time to check a major show off their bucket list. The moment represented an inflection point for the group. It was the first album the Stones had released in five years and was met with a degree of skepticism. They were firmly in middle age, three decades into their career, and had seemingly come to the realization many sixties era Boomer artists were waking up to: Their largely middle class, middlebrow audience had grown up along with them, and were liquid enough financially to pay exorbitant prices for shitty seats to see the band that had eluded them for so long, even if there was rampant speculation the group was washed, and on the downside of their primes. The Stones were on my mind last night at Lil Wayne's Madison Square Garden concert, because it's been 28 years since the Hot Boys released their debut album, Get It How U Live It! on an independent New Orleans based rap label that called itself Cash Money Records, nearly the same span of time between the Rolling Stones' debut in 1964, and the Voodoo Lounge Tour. More from Rolling Stone Sabrina Carpenter, Lil Wayne, Addison Rae, and All the Songs You Need to Know This Week Lil Wayne's First 'Tha Carter VI' Track Featured in an NBA Finals Campaign Escaped Inmate Asks Lil Wayne, NBA YoungBoy, Meek Mill for Help Wayne's show last night, and the venue itself, was a hard booking to figure out, and made complete sense. Wayne has circled New York, a city with a sacred and tortured place in his heart, the entirety of his career. It's where he found his muses in Jay-Z and the Diplomats in the 2000s, as well as where he served an eight-month prison sentence at the peak of his fame and his artistic powers, in Rikers Island over a possession of a loaded weapon charge in 2007. And yet, here he was holding a glorified album release party in the world's most famous arena, ostensibly the first leg of a North American Carter VI tour that opens here the first week in June, but won't resume until the very end of July. The album we had all gathered to celebrate, two hours past the advertised start time for the show, is quite simply a fucking disaster. Tha Carter VI is the work of an artist who either doesn't have a creative team around him capable of pushing back on his worst and most indulgent impulses, or one unwilling to listen to dissenting voices. And in lieu of that lack of editorial process, its author has clearly misplaced, if not permanently lost, his once unimpeachable grip on his true north. Since Carter VI was released on Friday at midnight, my timeline's been ablaze with fans, former fans, and haters chiming in on what exactly had gone so terribly wrong. And yet the electrified Garden crowd was stuffed to the bleeds by the time Wayne hit the stage just after 10, strutting to the stage with a white electric rockstar axe, sporting blonde dreads, pink sweats tucked into heeled knee high boots, an oversized heavyweight Britney Spears T-shirt with her name in neon pink script, a chunky scarf, a bejeweled grill, white framed sunglasses—which would be subsequently swapped out for glasses so big each lens threatened to blot out Wayne's face—and a frozen wrist and neck, rocking doubled iced out crucifix chains and an iced out crucifix pinky ring to go with an iced out wallet chain and a slowly burning late-90s-sized blunt hanging out of a corner of his mouth. There was a minimal stage show behind him: A steeply pitched platform behind the rapper with the Roman Numerals 'I' and 'V' glowing, garden variety pyrotechnics and smoke cannons, a live drummer and a DJ, but the real special effect was the music. The polished old pro bent time and space, keeping the unfortunate new work to a minimum and running through his hits, reliving, nearly chronologically, the thrill of experiencing his catalog all over again at a speed run. The show is special, as it is for any artist with the generational staying power of Wayne, or say, the Stones, because it can represent entire eras in music, in life, in the career of the artist, a chameleonic constant shifting that is a necessity when you've been around for decades. It's why the live experience in this age of streaming is so vital for younger fans trying to navigate this massive back catalog. A pop animal like Wayne must be experienced outside. Pay attention to the ironclad, near chronological setlist built through generations of trial and error response on the road, and watch how tens of thousands of people who were there for each step of Wayne's career reacts to it. To experience the power of these highlights in the room, with a crowd. He has a roster of endless hits—some that touched the Billboard charts and some that never did because the samples can't be cleared and they're still not streaming but were ubiquitous in the aughts nevertheless—from decades of classic, iconic album and mixtape work, which matters when you're trying to understand the impact of an artist of this magnitude. It's a reminder that Lil Wayne is one of the most unique and context-rich rappers of the modern era, thanks to his inventive and influential approach. No GOAT-level rapper less resembles the artist he was when he began, compared to the artist he became, than Wayne does. Like LL Cool J (Who made a brief but memorable cameo on the Garden stage), he was a survivor who never stopped evolving. Whose appeal to his longtime followers was in charting his evolution: From yapping adolescent with the good fortune of being in proximity to one of hip hop's great groups, powered by one of its greatest beat architects, to a young solo rapper experimenting with his style on his underground mixtapes while at the same time aping the influences he wore on his sleeve on his safe and pat major label releases, be it an imitation of Jeezy and T.I.'s early aughts southern crack rap, or Jay-Z's traditional, rockist east coast LPs, to finally combining all those years of experimentation, and metabolizing those influences and producing a sound and a style that was entirely personal and unique, that at last blended his strange instinctive mixtape shit and pragmatic one-for-them proper album releases to produce a run that changed rap to such a degree it has clearly become difficult to look back and understand how subversive and groundbreaking it was at the time. Old Wayne fans such as myself are a funny breed. We're washed people who haven't quite accepted we're washed, in overlaundered Polos with fucked up collars, wearing sunglasses inside in the dark at night and extremely expensive fendi buckets that look stupid as hell. But the music at MSG made us all children again. And this is why you can more or less skip Tha Carter VI, but can't afford to miss Wayne live this summer if you have the opportunity to go see him. His show recreates the joy of his journey, the sense of wonder, the three-decade progression in style and substance that made Wayne one of the greatest rappers of the modern era. On the 30-year anniversary of the Voodoo Lounge Tour, my parents went back to the Meadowlands to see The Rolling Stones again last year, with a pair of tickets that were still wildly expensive and in demand, this time at a football stadium named after an insurance company rather than a football team. The hand-wringing over Voodoo Lounge and the Voodoo Lounge Tour was both warranted and empty, depending on your perspective and what matters to you as a fan. The album was characterized as a bloated, 15-track, one-hour-long product of the insufferable 'CD era', a glorified excuse to tour that has largely been forgotten, and you could argue that, in terms of new music, it was the official death knell of the Rolling Stones' relevance. It also was the richest tour ever to that point, a record the Stones themselves would break multiple times in the ensuing years, the birth of the band as conveyors of 'adult contemporary' bullshit, a nostalgia factory/national mint, that thanks to their longevity made them one of the first groups to capitalize on their boomer fanbase aging into elder feeling-chasers and exploring the limits of what you could charge for a concert ticket, ushering us into this current, deeply fucked era of crazed fans willing to go into significant debt to see Taylor or Beyoncé. Mick and Keith are in their 80s; they are multi-millionaires and have spent the last three decades releasing music occasionally, strictly for their hardcore fan base, but largely living off the incredible creative output of their first three decades. I thought about that as Wayne poignantly ended his show with 'A Milli', one of the strangest Grammy-winning, Billboard Top 10 hits in rap history. I sat next to a middle aged mother and her teenage son freaking out to Wayne and particularly 'A Milli' in the Garden last night, and considered these institutions in pop, the generations of fans who grew up on the Stones' music and Wayne's music, who exposed their kids and grandkids to that incredible initial run and come together whenever these acts go back on the road to appreciate one of the great catalogs in the American songbook again and celebrate their shared love for it. To run back the hits, and remember the glory days, when our favorite artists were young, and so were we. 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
Axios
17-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Lil Wayne, 21 Savage and J. Cole will headline Raleigh's 2025 Dreamville Festival
Lil Wayne, 21 Savage and J. Cole are among the headliners at this year's fifth and final Dreamville Festival in Raleigh. Why it matters: The lineup for Dreamville's finale, which was released Monday less than three weeks before the festival is set to take place, has been long anticipated. The festival has consistently been one of Raleigh's largest events, regularly bringing around 100,000 visitors to Dorothea Dix Park since it began in 2019. Driving the news: Lil Wayne will headline the festival's first day, Saturday, April 5, with Hot Boys and Big Tymers. 21 Savage will also perform Saturday night. J. Cole will headline the festival's second day as he has in years past, along with Erykah Badu and Tems. Wale, GloRilla, Ari Lennox and BigXthaPlug will also perform at the festival, according to the lineup released by the festival Monday. What's next: General admission tickets for the two-day festival are available starting at $299.99. Other ticket options are sold out but you can join the waitlist. Planning to go to Dreamville 2025? Here are 3 things to know before you go to Dreamville Festival
Express Tribune
26-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Fans concerned as Birdman appears to fall asleep standing on stage—Viral video sparks reactions
Birdman is trending after a viral video appeared to show him dozing off on stage during the Hot Boys reunion tour in North Carolina on February 23. The clip, which has been widely shared on social media, captured the rapper standing motionless with his head down and holding onto a microphone while fellow group member Turk performed. B.G., another member of the Hot Boys, noticed Birdman's stillness and tapped him on the shoulder, laughing as he tried to wake him up. Birdman eventually continued with the performance, but the moment left fans speculating about his condition. Birdman appears to fall asleep on stage during a performance, causing B.G. to have to check on him. — No Jumper (@nojumper) February 25, 2025 The video quickly sparked reactions, with one X user writing, "Check on our legends while they are here!!" Another questioned, "What happened to that boy…..", while some speculated a possible health issue, with one comment reading, "I think that's seizure." Bro's battery died. 😂 — Mostly Honest Liar (@DominicRoberty) February 25, 2025 Check on our legends while they are here ‼️ — Coffee ☕️ (@GeeBoyHajjj) February 25, 2025 Others were more skeptical, suggesting something else might have been going on. "Birdman not flying in that weather," one user joked. Another commented, "He might be on stage physically, but his head is way up there in the clouds." Another fan added, "This n**a had a relapse, he ain't fall asleep."* Yeah, sure, fell asleep. — Spear 🇺🇸 (@Byerocm) February 26, 2025 He might be on stage physically but his head is way up there in the clouds — REESE (@TDHMF) February 25, 2025 This nogga had a RELAPSE he ain't fall asleep 🤣 — Nestradaumus (@Nestradaumus1) February 26, 2025 This isn't the first time Birdman has made headlines during the reunion tour. At a Florida show on February 21, Lil Wayne was seen cutting him off mid-speech, urging him to move on by saying, "Alright, let's go, let's go, let's go." The Hot Boys' reunion has been a long time coming, with previous delays due to past tensions between members. While Birdman has not addressed the viral moment, fans continue to debate whether he was truly asleep or if something else was at play. The Hot Boys tour is set to conclude on February 28 in St. Louis, with Juvenile, B.G., and Turk all joining Birdman on stage for the final shows.
New York Times
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Before Kendrick Lamar eyed Super Bowl shows, Compton basketball was an inspiration
In the dusty, crinkling California sunlight during the early 2000s, on the Centennial High School campus in Compton, Calif., an upperclassman sold a bootleg CD to a younger, eager rap fan. The seller? Arron Afflalo, who would become an All-American basketball player at UCLA and play 11 seasons in the NBA. Advertisement The buyer? Kendrick Duckworth, who would later be known to the world as Kendrick Lamar, a singular presence in hip-hop who will headline the Super Bowl LIX halftime show in New Orleans on Sunday. There's no tectonic movement or sudden magic that announced this connection. Just a scribbled, clandestine entry into Compton's rich folklore. 'If you wanted a CD, all my schoolmates came to me,' said Afflalo, who is two years older than the rap star and Pulitzer Prize winner. 'I think I sold Kendrick either (Jay-Z's) 'Reasonable Doubt' or a Hot Boys mixtape.' A 'Neighborhood Superstar' indeed, Kendrick Lamar ascends to football's biggest stage Sunday at Caesars Superdome. His connection to the sports multiverse is long-standing and hyper-local. The Compton native hung out with the Los Angeles Rams during their 2016 training camp. He was courtside for Kobe Bryant's 60-point send-off. He met Deyra Barrera, the mariachi singer featured throughout his latest album, 'GNX,' during the World Series at Dodger Stadium. Before all of that, he was viscerally inspired by the basketball players repping his city. It's something he readily admitted on 'Black Boy Fly,' a somber, deep cut from Lamar's 2012 album 'Good Kid, M.A.A.D City.' I used to be jealous of Arron Afflalo. He was the one to follow. He was the only leader foreseeing brighter tomorrows. He would live in the gym. We was living in sorrow. Total envy of him. He made his dream become a reality. Actually making it possible to swim. His way up outta Compton with further more to accomplish. Graduate with honors, a sponsor of basketball scholars. It's 2004, and I'm watching him score 30. Remember vividly how them victory points had hurt me. 'Cause every basket was a reaction or a reminder. That we was just moving backwards, the bungalow where you find us. Afflalo, who played for six NBA teams, was with the Orlando Magic when that verse dropped. He had no clue what was happening, disarmed as his phone erupted and the locker room buzzed. He connected with Lamar and fellow Top Dawg Entertainment aspirant Jay Rock early in their touring careers. They'd talk about mutual friends from high school, the labyrinth of Compton and life in the industry beyond city limits. "I used to be jealous of Arron Afflalo" -Kendrick Lamar Check out Afflalo's 2013-2014 highlight reel! — Be Magic Or Be Gone! (@BeORLMagic) July 26, 2017 The 27th pick of the 2007 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons, Afflalo had a silken jump shot and a sterling reputation around the league, but he never made an NBA All-Star Game or moved jerseys wholesale. But to Lamar, Compton neighbors and peers at Centennial, he was still more important than Michael Jordan. Advertisement 'You're not aware of that in the moment,' Afflalo said. 'You're focused on your passion and your pursuit of something great. But that's the beauty of it: You never know who is watching you and how inspired they are.' Afflalo wasn't the only hooper Lamar looked up to. As the nascent emcee put together a business plan for one of his first mixtapes, he sought investors who had respect in Compton. The pitch went to Josh Childress, a high-flyer who grew up in Compton and ultimately played for the Atlanta Hawks, Phoenix Suns, Brooklyn Nets and New Orleans Pelicans. The pitch, however, went unsuccessfully. 'At that age, my brother was my gatekeeper, so to speak,' Childress recalled with a laugh. 'So many people were sending us deals, business opportunities, all that. Kendrick's pitch never even made it to me. My brother kicks himself to this day.' The eight-year NBA veteran — four years older than the rapper — loves Lamar's constant sonic evolution, from backpacking griot to jazz experimentalist to global hitmaker. But the true defining element, Childress said, is Lamar's authenticity and integrity in centering Compton. His Record of the Year acceptance speech during Sunday's Grammy Awards served as a reminder. The historic allure of their city comes from so many angles. Compton became a bastion for Black achievement in postwar America. It was a battlefield for Reaganomics. It canonized gangsta rap and set aesthetic watermarks for skaters and cowboys alike. Compton yields uncompromising superstars like Dr. Dre, the late Eazy-E and N.W.A., as well as Venus and Serena Williams. But right now, no one is consecrating it quite like Lamar. 'Not Like Us' has become a compulsory stadium soundtrack and pregame hype music. (It also won five Grammys on Sunday.) It is immeasurably enormous, topping the Billboard Hot 100 and, perhaps, defining a new epoch of popular culture. The entire album is a thoroughly Compton endeavor, reaching everyone from Comptonite DeMar DeRozan to Tam's Burgers No. 21, a popular comfort-food spot in the city. DeMar DeRozan on Kendrick Lamar's new album — Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) November 23, 2024 'He's continued to show intellectual curiosity for the world around him, but he's done it in a way that Compton is proud of,' Childress said. 'If you peel back the layers of his artistry, everything's consistent with the fabric of this city. Compton cuts across so many different cultures, and he's always shown up for the city in a way I can really appreciate.' Advertisement It's all surreal for Siete7x, a Compton singer — and dedicated Philadelphia Eagles fan — featured on the 'GNX' track 'Dodger Blue.' That song is a tribute to Angeleno excellence south of the Interstate 10 highway, the parts of the city seldom seen on national broadcasts. 'This is real motivation, I feel it in my heart. Other states just see us beefing with each other, but he's showing us how it can all come together,' he said. 'And Compton really, really loves football. Any given Sunday, any different section, you'll see all the homies together watching the NFL. Every neighborhood and every corner of Compton will be happy for Kendrick on Sunday.' 'The teams here are really embracing the rap culture lately,' added Peysoh, a rapper who appears on the 'GNX' title track. He was stunned to hear the Dodger Stadium organist play the 'Not Like Us' beat during a game this summer. It goes even further at Lakers games, where the instrumentals of 'GNX' tracks 'Hey Now,' 'Wacced Out Murals,' 'TV Off' and 'Squabble Up' soundtrack LeBron James as he brings the ball up the floor. Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show will instantly dominate our public squares, but it's also going to galvanize young viewers who didn't recognize any of this the way Afflalo's 30-point game transformed a cherubic Lamar two decades prior. The Super Bowl is firmly entrenched in rap's public imagination, but more as an evocation of triumph and falling confetti. Now, it's a real place and an achievable destination — with Compton plastered across the marquee. 'From afar, I'm just excited to watch,' Afflalo said. 'The fact that he stays humble and represents the city that raised him … honestly, the tables have turned, in a way. I'm appreciative of him now. He's an inspiration here, a wonderful story, a global success. 'Hopefully, I go on and do things with the rest of my life that makes him proud of the song that connects us.' (Top photo of Kendrick Lamar: Daniel Boczarski / Getty Images for Cash App)
