Month: December 2022

Miley Cyrus has, more or less, promised fans new music in 2023 through “New Year, New Miley” promotional posters and a countdown clock. But she’s also making a few promises to herself. Ahead of her Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party NBC special tomorrow night, December 31, Cyrus sat down with Hoda Kotb to dish on her resolutions.

“My 20s were so much fun. If you don’t believe me, I believe you can google it,” the 30-year-old star said. “It looks as fun as it was, but it’s a different kind of fun. I feel that whatever I had in my purpose to prove, I did that. And now, it’s less about proving to others and more about for myself.”

Cyrus continued, “I think why New Year’s is probably my favorite holiday is because everyone has the same idea that I’m kind of exercising all year around, which is, it’s time for something new. It’s time for a change. It’s time for a new beginning. And I think a lot of us wait until midnight to go, ‘Well, when I wake up tomorrow in this new year, everything will be different.’ But it won’t be different if you aren’t different.”

When Kotb specifically asked for Cyrus’ New Year’s resolution, she admitted that her “instinct is very loud, but I’m not a great listener sometimes. The full resolution, as exclusively reported by People yesterday, was inspired by Dolly Parton’s husband, Carl Dean Thomas.

“Dolly was telling me, her husband [Carl Thomas Dean] says, ‘You’re not hard of hearing. You’re hard of listening,’ and I guess that would kind of be my resolution — to not just listen to myself, but listen to others,” Cyrus said.

Parton, Cyrus’ godmother, was tapped to co-host this year’s Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party, a role held by Pete Davidson last year.

“I’ve never seen Dolly actually scared before, but I told her, ‘You know, at the end of the year, I was really wanting to do something different. I think I’m gonna dye my hair brunette,” Cyrus additionally relayed to Kotb. “She acted like I told her the worst news you can imagine. She clutched her pearls, gasped and went back, and she goes, ‘You can’t do that! You are me!’ I am somehow some extension of Dolly Parton, so I will be blonde.”

The musical guests joining Cyrus and Parton in Miami include Fletcher, Latto, Liily, Rae Sremmurd, and Sia. Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party will air live tomorrow, December 31, on NBC beginning at 10:30 p.m. EST and lasting until after midnight. It will also stream live on Peacock.

Watch Cyrus’ TODAY With Hoda & Jenna interview above.

Here is what I know, for certain, about Asking For A Ride, the new album from the Louisville, Kentucky garage rock quintet White Reaper: it’s really good.

It could be White Reaper’s best album. It’s entirely possible that the album is flat-out-great, maybe even a classic of its form. It certainly has all the material: hard riffs, lighters-up choruses, sneaky great hooks, and production that makes the songs sound big without sacrificing the raw energy that this sort of thing needs.

The only real issue at hand is that I’ve been listening to this album on a stream sent by White Reaper’s label Elektra. And that’s fine and all, as listening to albums on your laptop is kind of the de facto way many of us take in music these days.

But when it comes to the sort of unadorned, bash-and-pop rock music that White Reaper specialize in, there’s two ideal ways to experience it: live and in a car, and I won’t have the opportunity to do either of those for months, as the album is not out until January 27th, and I won’t be able to visit my parents and commandeer their SUV for further critical evaluation purposes until the spring.

Ok, here’s one other thing I know, for certain, about Asking For A Ride: it wasn’t easy to make.

White Reaper (guitarist-frontman Tony Espositio, drummer Nick Wilkerson, bassist Sam Wilkerson, and keyboard player Ryan Hater) are a boyish band of classic rock aficionados that formed in high school, and began playing at Louisville’s DIY venue Skull Alley, learning how to become a band and how to ride the energy of a crowd, while also learning all about safe spaces, being an ally (and not being an asshole) and all the other things a young band needs to be well-versed in these days.

After releasing their snotty 2015 debut White Reaper Does It Again and the arena-dream 2017 follow-up The World’s Best American Band via Polyvinyl (the first album to also feature guitarist Hunter Thompson, they signed with the WMG affiliate Elektra and released the more polished You Deserve Love in 2019. It earned a number one Billboard Alternative single with “Might Be Right,” but in retrospect, the album as a whole doesn’t entirely sit well with them.

White Reaper were determined to recapture the feeling of their live shows, and even scrapped the first version of Asking For A Ride, which was recorded with a big-shot producer that Esposito declines to name. They started over, recorded and largely self-produced in Nashville with the help of band friend and engineer Jeremy Ferguson. The result finds Espositio largely coming into his own as a singer and lyricist, projecting a new-found confidence that fits the strength of the new songs, which at various points resemble Weezer, Cheap Trick, The Replacements, Nirvana, and The Strokes, but all delivered with a panache that now feels singularly them. Again, I can’t wait to hear this in a car with the windows rolled down.

A week before Christmas, I jumped on the phone with Espositio to talk about scrapping a finished record, what he learned from his first major label album, and the bewildering feeling of scoring a hit single.

So, this album sounds a lot different than the last one. It seems a little bit less ready for radio, and a lot more like it’s ready to tear up a nightclub.

Honestly, making it was very crazy. It just felt like there was a new problem every step of the way. We started writing in October 2020, and it’s gonna come out in January 2023, so it took a long time.

I think COVID definitely played a part in that. I think it was hard to feel creative or inspired at the very beginning of the pandemic, ’cause we were just sitting around. And I really learned that being in transit and touring and constantly seeing things and constantly being stimulated is a big help for writing. But yeah, it really slowed things down when that was out of the equation.

I can imagine how frustrating it must have been, because 2019, you’re having a couple of hits on the radio, you’re having a lot of momentum, some big tours with Weezer and Pearl Jam, and then all of a sudden everything stops.

Yeah, that was pretty crazy. I think at that point, though, we were pretty worn down from touring, so we were pretty excited to get a break. We just didn’t realize it was gonna be as long as it was.

Was the thought that you’d come back and like me, do some more touring for You Deserve Love, and ride the success of “Might Be Right?” Or at what point were you like, no, we should just get to work on the next one?

Around October 2020, I think, is when we kind of were like, “that’s over, let’s get started.” We all met at this bizarre Airbnb in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas. It was the first time we’d seen each other since that last tour. We just tried to write.

Now, what was that moment like when you guys finally reunited in the same room?

It was really hard to be productive because I think we were just really excited to see each other and there was a lot of fooling around and joking around and things of that nature. It was very hard to stay on track.

The trip was about like maybe a little less than 10 days. We spent a good two or three days just messing around, maybe even more.

So this time around, you decided to self-produce. What was the thinking there?

So that’s another kind of cursed aspect of this album is that we chewed through a couple producers on the way to the end result. We had one producer and we went into the studio last November, November ’21, and it just wasn’t the right fit. And we just left there knowing that it wasn’t done and that we didn’t feel good about it. So, at that point, we were like, “let’s just go in with an engineer and just do the rest ourselves.”

What do you think was off about the album, at that point?

I’m trying to like diplomatically say that […] Like just the people we were in the studio with, I just don’t think were right for us creatively. And it was hard to get really anything done that we felt great about. And it was just this weird kind of a labored process that was just super uncomfortable.

I can tell you’re being very polite and diplomatic and I appreciate that, but definitely anyone reading this or any fans of yours is going to say, “okay, so they got paired with some pop producer, someone who doesn’t understand what White Reaper is, and they’re forced to make a pop record that didn’t work for them.” Am I within the vicinity of things?

Oh yeah, that’s pretty close. [chuckle] That’s pretty close.

So you threw the album out, and then did you start from scratch, or were there any songs you thought were good that just got the wrong treatment?

So we kept some, four of the songs on the album were ones that we did record from that session. And then the other six were songs that we either redid from that session or wrote totally fresh to finish the album with.

Now, when did you feel the album was coming together in a way that was up to your standards, and you were really starting to nail it?

Honestly, as soon as we got into the studio with Jeremy in the first couple days there, I think we felt really good. And we had a week of preparation in Louisville before we went to Nashville, and I think at that point, we were just excited again. And it was kind of dark times between then and leaving the last studio. We were in this kind of state of uncertainty about what was gonna happen to us. But as soon as we got together again, we kinda slapped ourselves out of it, and it started to feel really good and exciting.

Once you finally turned the album in, was the label supportive or were they mad that you didn’t go with the more pop direction?

They’ve always been very supportive, weirdly. We were nervous ’cause we basically had to record it twice, so we were like, “oh, they’re probably so pissed off.” But they’ve been very, very supportive and very helpful.

Speaking of major labels, looking back on it, how do you feel about how You Deserve Love came out, now you’ve had time to sit with it.

I feel like recording that record was really fun, because it was the first time we did a big producer thing with Jay Joyce, and he was very into live takes of the band and running through things a bunch. And I think we really liked that. And I will say, though, I don’t know if it’s our favorite album to play live. That is kind of where I sit with it now. There are only a couple songs off that record that we’re stoked to throw into our set. And then a lot of them feel like these pretty polished, poppy things that would feel weird with the rest of our set. But outside of that, I look back on it fondly. It just feels like an awkward sort of puzzle piece sometimes at our live shows.

But at the same time, the album did seem to get you guys onto rock radio. “Might Be Right” was the number one hit, and you had some other popular songs on the radio as well from that album. What was it like to reach a different audience, play to bigger crowds, play festivals, and that sort of thing?

It was pretty crazy. The shows definitely got bigger and it’s pretty funny. We always joked about how the phones come out, on “Might Be Right.” But it was cool to see the growth there, but it was also a little funny.

So tell me how “Fog Machine” came about, because that song is one of the highlights of the album. It’s an absolute ripper, really catchy, but also really raw.

So it was this riff that I had come up with that we had had in our little batch of demos for this new album. But we never could figure out how to get out of that main riff and into a verse or something. It just felt like this riff was looping on the demo we had. We tried it a bunch of different times. And it just stumped us for the longest time. And then finally, like literally the week before we went to Nashville to record, it just clicked at literally the last second. And we threw it in there. It was a buzzer-beater.

I remember when I talked to you a couple of years ago, you said you’re nervous as a lyricist. This one both lyrically and just your voice in general is a lot more forward, a lot clearer in the mix. Do you feel like you’ve grown more confident in yourself as a frontman and as a songwriter?

I’m definitely confident as a singer, but I think lyrics are always tricky ’cause you worry about enunciation or that sort of thing, because for the longest time with our band specifically, they’re like, “I don’t know what he’s saying, but it sounds cool.” I think the lyrics are always gonna be troublesome, because you’re always looking for something better. And it was with “Fog Machine,” the last line of the chorus is “left me hanging in the first place.” We were banging our heads against the wall trying to find something better than that, ’cause like none of us absolutely loved it. But eventually we’re just like,” oh, whatever, that’s what it is and that’s what it’ll be.” But yeah, that’s always gonna be there with every song, wondering if the lyrics are as good as they can be or as good as they should be. And I think that’s just another thing that we do as a band, like when I was talking about seriously self-editing. But yeah, we just think really hard all the time.

Going back to the creation of the album, a lot of the lyrics here seem to have a theme of blowing off authority and realizing you know what’s best for yourself. I’m thinking about “Getting In Trouble With The Boss” or Bozo, just sort of like this real affirmation of yourself. Was that on your mind?

Oh, definitely. And whether it was on our minds consciously or not, I think it was what we were literally dealing with throughout the making of this record. So yeah, that feels like a pretty strong theme, I think, just for us in general. So yeah, I’m glad that you got that out of it.

I know when I talked to you a couple of years ago, you said you guys get a real mix of people, both older people that kind of miss hearing rock on the radio and like younger people who maybe you’re their first band. Does that kind of continue to be the case?

Oh, yeah, it seems like it. I mean, there are definitely a lot of younger kids and it’s weird, it’s either super young or pretty old and it feels like there’s not a lot in between. I would say like from 24 and 18 to 45 and beyond.

It seems like for a lot of kids you might be their first rock band that they got into. How does that feel to be like the introductory group?

If that’s the case, then it’s super, super flattering. And I hope that they can listen to our music and be like, “oh, this is cool, like guitars and drums” and then really find what our favorite records are from us. But if that is the case, that’s super, super flattering to be somebody’s intro.

What do you think you learned about yourself and the band going through this entire process of making the album?

That we just have to persevere. That was the main thing, because there were definitely lots of times when I was like, “what’s the point of even doing this?” Like as soon as we make a decision, we’re going to get some email that’s going to blow everything up and push it back another month. And that just happened time and time again. Like I said, it was dark times there for a minute, but I’m glad that we stuck it out and finished, because it feels great now.

Asking For A Ride is out 1/27 via Elektra.

White Reaper is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Even before Elon Musk purchased Twitter, the site had often been described as a toilet bowl and, now, it might be taking that descriptor literally. According to a new report, Musk allegedly fired the entire janitorial staff at the social media company’s San Francisco headquarters just before the holidays, which has led to some pretty gross working conditions. The move was reportedly made as part of Musk’s aggressive cost-cutting measures, and oh, also the janitors went on strike for better pay. Can’t have that!

The situation isn’t being helped by Musk reportedly looking to consolidate Twitter’s working spaces and most likely abandon the San Francisco building where Musk has already missed rent payments. In the process, he’s condensed workers onto the same floors, which is not great when there’s no janitorial staff around to clean things up, and more pressingly, restock the toilet paper.

Via The New York Times:

That has left the office in disarray. With people packed into more confined spaces, the smell of leftover takeout food and body odor has lingered on the floors, according to four current and former employees. Bathrooms have grown dirty, these people said. And because janitorial services have largely been ended, some workers have resorted to bringing their own rolls of toilet paper from home.

While those working conditions downright stink, Twitter employees can take comfort in the fact that Musk managed to help out at least one business this week. The social media CEO came to the rescue of Hooters after a false report that it was closing because millennials don’t like boobs went viral. Sure, Twitter employees are working in a turd swamp, but at least they live in a world where Hooters is going to be just fine. You gotta look for the silver lining.

(Via The New York Times)

[This post contains a minor spoiler for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery]

I have a theory that I’d like to bounce off you: every movie would be 10 percent better with a cameo from Hugh Grant.

This applies to bad movies, like Cats (Hugh Grant as Skimbleshanks), and classic movies, like The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Hugh Grant as an orc). I wouldn’t have felt this way about the romantic-comedy icon 10 years ago, but then I saw his Oscar-worthy performance in Paddington 2, and now I plan on buying a ticket for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves on opening night. Not for the dungeons and/or dragons, but because Hugh Grant plays a character named Forge Fletcher.

The 10 percent better rule was proven correct with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, where Grant makes a brief appearance as the (probable?) boyfriend of Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig, when a character in the movie shows up at the famous detective’s home to hire him. “It is true, I’m married to James Bond,” the actor told Collider about the cameo. Grant then explained how he got involved with the sequel. “It’s the tiniest little moment,” he said. “I don’t really know why they wanted to do it, but anyway, I thought Knives Out was brilliant, and so yeah, I thought, ‘Why not’ I turn up for a few hours…”

Why not, indeed. Remember that for your next movie, Greta Gerwig (Hugh Grant as Barbie).

(Via Collider)

It’s business as usual, outside of YG Entertainment‘s contract discussions and human resources department.

In the past 12 hours, YG Entertainment not only denied the reports of the group moving to THEBLACKLABEL, but the label also released the fifth episode to Blackpink’s Born Pink Memories vlog series, giving Blinks and newcomers what’s it like to go behind the scenes with the popular K-pop group.

In the fifth episode, Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa, and Rosé take viewers on their Los Angeles takeover, during the album promotions for their second studio album, Born Pink. Considering it’s the group’s first time promoting in the US since the pandemic began, Blackpink’s September press run in LA consisted of a jam-packed schedule full of appearances. Making their first stop at their own Spotify pop-up, Born Pink: The Pop-Up Experience (held on September 16 to 18), the quartet took pictures and checked out the space and exclusive merchandise before it opened to the public.

The episode then shifts to clips of the group doing some radio promo at Top 40 radio stations where Rosé and Lisa joked around saying how nervous they were to do radio interviews. The next cut follows the quartet inside a local Target as they buy and unbox their own copies of Born Pink. (Catch Jisoo pulling her own photocard in the mix.) However, things turn for the better as the members are then seen casually shopping around the toy section and buying other things. (Because that’s exactly what you do at Target.)

The rest of the episode shows a glimpse of Blackpink in the studio, rehearsing for their tour and filming pre-recorded content for their concert’s programming.

Blackpink recently concluded the North American and European leg of their Born Pink World Tour but will embark on the Asian leg in 2023.

Indie act Runnner (real name Noah Weinman, yes there are three “ns”) had an urgent message to share with music lovers. While his latest song snippet, “NYE,” may be a 47-second brain dump of his most intrusive thought upon further inspection, it reads more like advice to take into 2023. Listed as one of our top indie acts to watch in the new year, the Los Angeles-based songwriter’s new release proves why.

Coined the year of the introverts, social anxiety boomed in 2022 after nearly two years in lockdown following the COVID-19 pandemic. So now, as many make plans to self-isolate to watch Dick Clark’s New Years’ Rockin Eve hosted by Ryan Seacrest or pop singer Miley Cyrus’ New Year’s Eve Concert Party, Runnner is questioning if this is what you desire.

On “NYE,” Runnner sings, “New Year’s Eve at home recording / Thinking: ‘how’d I get so boring?’ / And how I miss my friends, my loves / Am I choosing what’s important?”

As the momentum from the great resignation dies down, Runnner implores listeners to prioritize friendships and familial relationships rather than finances. A rather fitting message to broadcast on the heels of the new year. Ironically, the song wasn’t written with the holiday in mind.

“I didn’t actually write this song on NYE but pretty close to it,” said Runnner clarifying, “It was the last song I wrote for the record, and I had been in such a deep recording mode I felt like I was neglecting so many other parts of my life. I was diving back into the record one more time and feeling like I should probably come up for air.”

It makes you wonder, will an extended version of “NYE” make its way onto his debut full-length?

Like Dying Stars, We’re Reaching Out is out 2/17 via Run For Cover Records. Pre-order it here.

During the holiday season and the final days of the year, the news cycle tends to get a bit dormant, as most people pack it in, stop doing new things, and wait for the new year to begin. That’s especially true in the music world, but in case you missed it, Christmas Eve brought… something: On December 24, Ariel Pink (who was in DC during the Capitol riot) dropped a holiday tune called “Rudolph’s Laptop,” which seems to be about Hunter Biden: “Rudolph, what have you done?/ They found your laptop, it’s a smoking gun,” Pink sings.

The song’s below if that’s something you want to listen to.

Pink co-wrote the song with Winston Marshall (who left Mumford & Sons in 2021 because he didn’t want to “self-censor) and Two Door Cinema Club’s Alex Trimble. To promote the tune, Pink and Marshall decided to wrap up their year by taking to Fox News to guest on Tucker Carlson (with guest host Tulsi Gabbard filling in for Carlson).

During the interview, Marshall insisted Pink, a Tucker Carlson veteran who faced physical and sexual assault allegations in 2021, has been “cancelled for something that he didn’t even do,” which Pink said he’s “struggling” with while remaining hopeful for a “rebirth.”

Blaine Gabbert, the former first-round NFL Draft pick and current backup quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was part of a group of individuals on Thursday evening who helped rescue a family after a helicopter made an emergency water landing near Davis Islands in Tampa. According to the Tampa Bay Times, a helicopter carrying three family members from Philadelphia and a pilot went on a tour of Tampa and its surrounding islands before crashing.

It was at this point that Gabbert and his brothers, who were out on jet skis, helped assist in rescuing them — one of the individuals who was part of the crash estimated he was “underneath the water for between 45 seconds and a minute,” per the Times.

“I vaguely remember seeing two yellow life jackets,” Gabbert told the media. “It looked like they were in duress, we raced over there, the youngest kid had just came up and said he was pinned in there, and I asked if anybody else was trapped. And then I called 911, tried to remain as calm as possible, but it all turned positive, they were healthy – scared, nervous — but it was a pretty crappy situation that turned good in the end. I was just right place, right time, I guess.”

Gabbert said that the police and fire department were out to the scene within seconds, and that he and his brothers were able to get the family members out of there on their jet skis. All four individuals involved with the crash survived with on injuries.

What makes a video game a surprise? For some, it can be that one game that came out of nowhere and dominated the conversation. For others, it’s a game that defied their expectations and maybe even proved doubters wrong. For this writer, it’s a game that did something I never expected. Most games we know about ahead of time now, although we do get the shock indie here and there, and I think you can find anyone out there who would say a bad game is good or vice versa. As such, a surprising game has to be something that, either through its gameplay or the conversation around it, was caught me off-guard.

To make it more simple, you know something is surprising when you see it, and if you didn’t think any of the games on this list are surprising, that’s okay, because what we all see as a surprise is different in our own eyes. So with that in mind, here are some games that were surprising this year.

Sonic Frontiers – PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC

When an open world Sonic the Hedgehog game was first announced, there was a mixed reaction. There was optimism over a world to explore. At the same time, there was confusion on how Sonic, in particular, was going to traverse that kind of environment. His games are about getting from Point A to Point B at high speeds with quick reactions rewarding skilled players with better rewards. An open world exploration game doesn’t exactly fit that mold, and when the first few gameplay trailers came out, there was definitely some concerned that SEGA was going to miss the mark big time here.

Instead, what we got was a perfectly fine, if not good, new direction for the franchise. The open world aspects were a little dull at times, and the high speed levels would sometimes lead to really frustrating deaths that feel out of the player’s control, but none of this took away from the enjoyment of the overall experience. It was a fun game and the reason this is a surprise is that it was starting to feel like Sonic was losing his way again. But against the odds, this latest game is just as fun as everyone wanted it to be and should be an exciting new step in the franchise.

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin – PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin should not be a good game. Honestly, if you only watch the cutscenes, you might be inclined to believe that it isn’t one. Every piece of dialogue is nonsensical, the characters feel like they are just talking to say words instead of speaking to each other, and there are random large blocks of text to signify moments that at one point in development were definitely going to be playable. This is one of those games that, as you play it, you genuinely can’t believe what you are seeing on screen. Take this cutscene that is, without question, the best moment in video games this year.

Everything is like that, and yet smashed between all these cutscenes are some really fun action setpieces. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is a dungeon crawler with big bombastic boss fights and loads of customization options. It has gotten a lot of comparisons to Dark Souls gameplay but it’s actually closer to Nioh, which makes sense because Nioh and Stranger of Paradise have the same developer, Team Ninja. It’s a genuinely very fun game to play, and if you’re someone that likes games like Elden Ring, you might want to give it a try. Just be ready for one of the most bizarre stories you have ever seen. Stranger of Paradise is on this list because you can’t believe it’s real.

Madden NFL 23 – PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC

I can hear everyone screaming now, but before you finish typing that angry comment, please allow an explanation. The Madden games have been largely and unfortunately bad for a very long time. Launch day has traditionally been synonymous with glitches, angry fans, and calls for the NFL to strip EA Sports of their exclusivity license. Things were different this year. Yes, there were glitches, and fans did review bomb places like Metacritic, but the usual outrage was quieter than normal. It wasn’t out of apathy, though. Fans and critics by and large acknowledged that for the first time in a long time, Madden got better this year.

The idea of Madden improving is such a surprise, so unusual from the expected status quo, that it is this lone writer’s opinion that it is one of the most surprising games of the year. This, like others on this list, does not mean Madden 23 is a great game, nor is it a sign that this year’s Madden has improved to the level that many of us fondly remember. But it’s one of the first positive steps the franchise has taken in a long time and one that, if the series does manage to turn around, fans can point to as a great step back in the right direction.

Lupe Fiasco announced in May that he was “going to teach rap at MIT.” More specifically, the multiplatinum-certified rapper is teaching at the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology (MIT) for the 2022-23 academic year as the recipient of an MLK Visiting Professorship, as explained in the YouTube description of his “Rap Theory & Practice: An Introduction” lecture.

“Let your conscience be free. You’re now rolling with the thugs from the MIT,” Lupe said at the beginning of the session, playing off of Jay-Z’s “Get Your Mind Right Mami” verse. “Not thugs, but you know, rappers.”

He showed the class photos of him performing during his high school talent show and performing at MIT’s 2015 SpringFest to illustrate that “rap has always been a scholastic pursuit for me.” Over 90 minutes, Lupe dove into the educational root of rap and dissected the structures of Eminem’s “Stan,” Kendrick Lamar’s “Sing About Me,” and his own “Jonylah Forever.”

According to Lupe, “Stan” is “hands-down probably Eminem’s greatest record.” He laid out how Eminem brilliantly coined the term in fan culture, which was effective because he managed to pour universal, relatable macros into the song instead of trying to force “a bunch of details.” Lupe explained why he felt compelled to write “Jonylah Forever,” inspired by the tragic true story of a six-month-old girl named Jonylah Watkins who was shot dead in Chicago in 2013. Her father was the intended target.

“Destroyed the city. I was like, I need to make that a song right now,” Lupe told the class. “And the song was about Jonylah growing up, going to school, being really smart, going to med school, becoming a doctor. … She goes to open up a free clinic in the neighborhood in which she grew up in, and then one day, she’s in the office. She hears some gunshots outside, and then she runs outside to this van and gets this little girl. Triages her, stabilizes her till the paramedics can come, and eventually, she’s saved. She doesn’t realize that she just saved herself. Repetition, repetition, repetition, power. The twist, the power of that. The surprise.”

Lupe used Lamar’s “Sing About Me” as an example of when the surprise doesn’t fix everything — contrasting how he and Eminem blatantly said their plot twists where Lamar leaned more on evocative symbolism. Lupe promised to teach his students how to use “this particular frame” to learn about “a very specific type of surprise and how to utilize it and execute it” by studying stories from the simplicity of “The Three Little Pigs” all the way to Lamar’s intricate discography.

“You can talk about whatever you want,” Lupe said. “Just has to rhyme. That’s the only thing I ask. And it has to be to a beat.”

The course, per Lupe’s slideshow, will cover “fundamental rap primes” such as surprise, rhyme, metaphor, tone, and more. The full name of the class is “CMS.S60 Special Subject: Rap Theory & Practice.” Registration has begun for the 2023 spring semester.

Watch the full 90-minute introductory video above and learn more from Lupe’s tweets below.