What The Hell Just Happened in Music This Week?

The holy trinity of Drake, Kanye and Jay dominated headlines.

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Image via Complex Original
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Summer is finally here. Whoooooo-hooooooo! A couple extra O's in there, as it's been a pretty lackluster year in music so far, and we're hoping for an extra hot blockbuster season to make up for it. We're off to a good start. With Kanye West's Yeezus on store shelves, Jay-Z and Drake both announced release dates for new albums this week. Fingers crossed for more sonic display of what it looks like when great rappers are in roasters.

Meanwhile, Chief Keef got arrested again, J. Cole received Nas's approval (at long last) and Miley Cyrus put out a video that is, well... really something special. All that and more in this week's edition of What The Hell Just Happened in Music This Week?

RELATED: What The Hell Just Happened in Music During The First Quarter of 2013?

Jay-Z explained the #NewRules & announced The Samsung Album.

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Jay-Z stole everyone's thunder.

Date: June 16

Man, Big Brother didn't give Yeezus even a second to breathe. In one of the great rap sneak moves of all time, Jay dropped a very-expensive-looking three-minute ad during the Game 5 of the NBA Finals for his forthcoming album, The Branded Content Album Magna Carta Holy Grail. The spot doubled as a Samsung commercial and featured Jay announcing that the album was dropping July 4.

It was brilliant business strategy. In one fell swoop, Jay sucked all the air out of the room right when Kanye, Cole, Mac Miller and Wale (who, lest we forget, is still managed by Roc Nation) were all hoping to have a moment. He was nice enough to take the time (over a span of five minutes) to shout them out during a Twitter rant later that night wherein he also asked, "If 1 Million records gets SOLD and billboard doesnt [sic] report it, did it happen? Ha." 

That's a little disingenuous. He was referring to the stipulations of his deal with Samsung. The electronics giant has technically "purchased" a million advance orders of the album in MP3 form, which they will install in, and so give away with, the first million versions of their new Galaxy cellphones to be sold starting July 1st. (Three days prior to the album's official release.) Again, you can't knock the hustle. It's genius. Five million dollars worth, at the least. (Samsung got a discount for buying in bulk.) But counting cell phones sales in the stats game stretches that old line about numbers not lying. (Prince tried a similar stunt nine years ago.) 

We're wondering how the marketing will affect the music. Optimists hope that the spotlight Jay has put himself in will inspire him to great performance heights. An artist in his position needs to find new ways to challenge himself, and inviting the disdain of everyone with even a smidgen of distaste for the corporatization of hip-hop is certainly one way of going about that. On the other hand, might a cool five milly up front be cause for creativity-killing contentment? And what about compromise on behalf of his Fortune 500 partners? This year has already seen several rappers cause a shitstorm for their financial connects. We're assuming present day Jay won't say anything as outlandish as Rick Ross or Lil Wayne did. Then again, we're talking about a guy who once threw a slick reference about the going rate for a kilo of cocaine ("If Jeezy's playing Lebron, I'm paying Dwayne Wade") into his biggest Billboard hit ever. You can imagine every activist group in the country putting Samsung's PR department on speed-dial. And if Jay imagines that, too (and one would expect he would; this is not a man who doesn't see bigger pictures), it could be stifling. Playing it safe never made for great art. 

Finally, let's take a second to appreciate what an amazing troll the album title is? Seems like Magna Carta would have been enough. (And we credit Jay for withstanding the Borscht-belt temptation to go with Magna "Carter. We're not sure we could have.) Throwing that Holy Grail in there is so ridiculous. And surely intended to give all the Illuminati conspiracy theorists something to riff on for months. "IT'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE CAN'T YOU SEE!!!" (Big Brother, always watching.) Either that or you see Jay sitting in a room staring at two dry erase boards, one with Magna Carta written in red marker written (in Beyonce's handwriting) and another with The Holy Grail in blue marker (in Ty-Ty's writing.) After hours of deliberation and a couple of games of Bejeweled on the iPhone (natch!), Jay finally looks up and says, "Yes." —Insanul Ahmed

RELATED: Jay-Z Announces New Album "Magna Carta Holy Grail"

Chief Keef was arrested at gunpoint for a past misdemeanor.

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Chief Keef was arrested at gunpoint for a past misdemeanor.

Date: June 17

Chief Keef was arrested—yet again—on Monday by Chicago police. The most recent in a series of arrests stemming from an initial confrontation with police over a year ago, when the then-16-year-old ended up with an aggravated unlawful use of a weapon charge. Since then, though, he's become famous, and moderately wealthy (enough to buy a house, anyway), and his arrests have been on relatively minor charges: Marijuana in Georgia, speeding in suburban Chicago. The reaction across the web has been a mix of jokes about the predictability of seeing Keef in handcuffs, and stern moralizing about his being on the wrong path. Meanwhile, the circumstances of his arrest—Chicago police traveling miles to the rapper's speeding ticket hearing in Skokie, Illinois, to arrest him, reportedly with guns drawn, for a misdemeanor trespassing offense—don't spark much concern at all.

Instead, the controversy focuses on the artist's moral fiber. Not to excuse any of Keef's behavior, which is surely not helping him out in the eyes of the law. (Did his lawyer really okay random drug tests as a part of his probation for the speeding charge?) but it seems like the "predictability" of him being arrested has more to do with flaws in the country's justice system than with his recent behavior, which, while not anything that should be encouraged, isn't really all that different from anything that millions of teenagers are doing across the country every day.

The difference, of course, is where Keef is from and who he is. There is an entire strata of our society that is allowed to essentially graduate from school and transition directly into the prison system. It doesn't matter that he's no longer on a corner dealing drugs; he can still get dinged on probation violations like trespassing misdemeanors and smoking weed. Shit that friends of mine all got into when they were in high school.

The difference is twofold: One, there's always the possibility that police are targeting him specifically (certainly travelling up to Skokie to arrest him on a minor charge gives this impression) because of how much attention he's drawn to the system's complete failure to deal with violence in the city. But the second part is more important, because this isn't about Keef, really. Whether or not you fuck with his music, this should be drawing all kinds of attention to our overcrowded prisons, full of kids from places like Woodlawn, who never have a chance to get out from under the first crime they commit. —David Drake

RELATED: Chief Keef Arrested

Drake graced the cover of GQ, announced an upcoming tour, and kinda creeped us out a little bit.

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Kanye West's American Psycho-inspired Yeezus promo allowed Scott Disick

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Kanye West's American Psycho-inspired Yeezus promo let Scott Disick live out his dream and also revealed Kanye's close, personal relationship with Bret Easton Ellis.

Date: June 17

There's been a long-running gag in reality television chat rooms about the striking resemblance between Kourtney Kardashian's husband Scott Disick and the actor Christian Bale in the film adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis's American Psycho. Monday night, pop culture junkies finally got the moment we'd all been waiting for: Lord Disick as Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman. 

A 2-minute, 14-second promo video for Kanye West's new album, Yeezus, recreates the famous scene from the movie when Bateman murders his more-successful colleague, Paul Allen. Kim Kardashian's friend Jonathan Cheban fills the Allen role (Jared Leto in the movie). Disick adjusts Bateman's ramblings, referencing Kanye's "I Am a God" rather than Huey Lewis's "Hip To Be Square" before hacking Cheban to death with an axe. Disick hams it up hard, coming across as perhaps more Charlie-Day-of-It's-Always-Sunny-in-Philadelphia-as-Patrick Bateman than as Bale-as-Bateman, but it's very satisfying to know that Kanye saw the same thing in Disick that we all did. (Almost as satisfying as watching Cheban get hacked to death with an axe.) We are happy it happened.

Meanwhile, Bret Easton Ellis himself revealed that not only did he script the short film, but that he had a three-hour conversation with Kanye at Cedars Sinai hospital on the eve of Yeezus' release! What the hell did they talk about for so long? Whatever it was, we hope it inspires another collaboration between the two. Like, possibly a video for "Bound 2." —Julian Kimble

RELATED: Scott Disick Stars as Patrick Bateman in Kanye West's "American Psycho" Short Film

June 18 finally happened.

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June 18 finally came and it was anticlimactic.

Date: June 18

Unfortunately, due to the nature of leaks, June 18th as an actual release day was an anticlimactic event. By then, each of the three highly-anticipated releases officially scheduled for that day—new albums from Mac Miller, Kanye West and J. Cole—had been thoroughly inhaled and exhaled by rap fans for at least a few days.

People had already done enough pre-digested comparing, contextualizing, extolling, dismissing, and panning before any of the albums could even be purchased in a store. Such is the double-edged sword of the leak.

On one hand, we get to hear the music we want to hear as soon as possible (and for free, which is of course a whole 'nother conversation.) On the other hand, the suspense, the delicious suspense, for anyone planning to buy the album gets drowned in the reactions. Unless of course, you are the type of person who manages to lock oneself away from the Internet for the two weeks prior. Which we're willing to bet you are not. —Alexander Gleckman

RELATED: Great Days In Rap Album Release History

Miley's "We Can't Stop" video was one big clusterf**** of "ratchet culture," twerking, art, and product placement.

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Miley's "We Can't Stop" video was one big clusterf**** of "ratchet culture," twerking, art and product placement.

Date: June 19

Well, Miley Cyrus has shed that Hannah Montana image once and for all. She made damn well sure that everyone was aware of that in her new video for "We Can't Stop." It's bizarre, and barely fits the cliched, basic lyrics—you know, like 

There's no denying her new song, "We Can't Stop," is fun. (It's catchy as fuck. I listen to it multiple times a day.) But the lyrics are banal even by banal pop-lyrics standards. "Dancing with Miley?" (Pronounced like "molly." We see what you did there.) "Can't you see it's we who 'bout that life?" Groan. And if you're more than a little uncomfortable watching her twerk, we understand why. Sure, she's grown up now. Twenty years old. Well beyond "barely" legal at this point. She's no longer America's Disney Channel sweetheart. But she's also, clearly, not the girl she's forcing on everybody. She looks awkward licking her lips a million times, rubbing her body all over the bed, showing us her tongue so much we're pretty sure the part about it being her mouth so she can "say" whatever she wants was originally written a little differently. And, as this Jezebel article expertly pointed out, it's kind of sad that Miley needed to go so "ratchet" to get her "hood pass." (Wouldn't that Mike WiLL Made It beat and her blatant Rihanna imitation do the trick?)

It's distasteful. But hey, that can surely be said for the entertainment industry as a whole. Miley's trying to find a place in it for herself—through music right now. She's working with rappers, she's working with Pharrell, and she's become super-close best friends with Mike WiLL Made It. In short, she's being heavily, heavily influenced by hip-hop. And in a few months, when that full album drops, who knows? Maybe we'll get more meaningful music from Miley. Meanwhile, how's her "new image" working so far on the marketing front? Well, that video's at 25 million views on Youtube. —Lauren Nostro

RELATED: Video: Miley Cyrus "We Can't Stop"

Kanye and Kim named their baby North West. (Crazier things have happened.)

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Molly made The New York Times.

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Waka Flocka Flame said he was producing Amanda Bynes's rap album.

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Waka Flocka Flame said he was producing Amanda Bynes's debut rap album.

Date: June 21

Nickelodeon-star-turned-Internet-crazy-person  Amanda Bynes has taken her obsession with rappers and rap music to levels nobody ever wanted to see. She is now apparently trying to get into a studio and record a rap album.

Sure, Amanda has oft tweeted about her musical aspirations. But, y'know, who believes half of what she says when she's stoned? However this week, confirmation regarding an Amanda Bynes album came from none other than Waka Flocka Flame, who says he is executive producing the project, enlisting songwriters and adding his own vocal contributions. Hell, the album even has a tentative title, Shots.

What does this mean?

What does anything ever mean anymore? What is the meaning of "mean." What is going on?!—Dharmic X

RELATED: Waka Flocka Says He's Producing Amanda Bynes Rap Album "Shots"

J. Cole finally made Nas proud.

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J. Cole finally made Nas proud.

Date: June 22

When J. Cole’s album first leaked a few weeks back, the obvious highlight was “Let Nas Down,” a song about how sad the young rapper when he heard his hero didn't like his 2011 single "Work Out." Strangely, though, despite how well-received new song was, Nas refused to comment. Cole claimed Nas told him he was “highly impressed," but skeptics were skeptical. Finally, yesterday, Nas dropped a remix to the song, and yes, he likes it. In fact, he called it "Made It Nas Proud." "How that sound?," he raps. "Here's the crown, pass it to you like nothin'/You ain't let Nas down." Awww. That's nice. Right?—Insanul Ahmed

RELATED: Listen: J.Cole f/ Nas "Let Nas Down" (Remix)

Drake Dropped Four New Songs, a Release Date, and Versace Versace Versace Versace Versace.

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Drake dropped four new songs, a release date, and Versace Versace Versace Versace Versace.

Date: June 22

In the news business, there's a term used to describe the savvy public relations strategy of releasing potentially damaging information at the very end of the week, as all the journalists are headed out the door and the financial markets are closed: the "Friday Night News Dump." With that in mind, we now have reason to celebrate the "Friday Night Drake Dump," wherein Aubrey of Toronto takes the Friday after J. Cole, Mac Miller, and Kanye West have all released albums, and Jay-Z made a tidal-wave sized splash announcement of his own, and drops a big pile of new music all over them. 

And what did Old St. Drake slip down the rap chimney with? Oh, you know, just (1) a track with Atlanta's hottest up-and-comers, (2) a track that's essentially one giant, extended sub-Tweet aimed at Rihanna, (3) a freestyle (ahem, "freestyle") named for Jodeci—one that features J. Cole rapping about tapping into the spirit of Nas (and expressing a little disappointment, it seems, in the website at which you're currently looking), and (4) a track with a new friend, PARTYNEXTDOOR. As well as (5) the fact that his album is coming out on September 17th.

Regardless of what you think of Drake—or whether or not you will let him into your locker room (womp womp)—two things are no longer up for debate: (1) The guy is his own best publicist, as evidenced by his SoundCloud page. (2) Like it or not, this summer will be very VERSACE VERSACE VERSACE VERSACE VERSACE VERSACE VERSACE VERSACE VERSACE VERSACE VERSACE VERSACE, which all goes without saying: VERSACE. —Foster Kamer

RELATED: Drake Drops Four New Songs in One Night and Announces Album Release Date

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