What The Hell Just Happened in Music This Week?

Papoose headlined Hot 97's Summer Jam and UOENO it.

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Image via Complex Original
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Dear Summer Jam attendees, how did it feel to watch Kendrick Lamar, Mariah Carey, and Wu-Tang Clan perform as the opening acts for...wait for it...Papoose!? Pap owned the week. Everyone talked about him crashing Summer Jam and that's exactly what he wanted.

But Papoose's comeback wasn't the only surprise this week—Action Bronson signed to TDE. Just kidding! He was just messing around on Twitter. 

It's been a crazy few days which included an MMG Monday, Diddy teaching fans the #DiddyJetDance, and Lil Durk unfortunately facing a lengthy jail sentence. We've got all the updates on those stories and more in What The Hell Just Happened in Music This Week?

RELATED: What The Hell Just Happened in Music This Week? (June 2)
RELATED: What The Hell Just Happened in Music This Week? (May 25)
RELATED: What The Hell Just Happened in Music This Week? (May 19) 

 

Papoose stole the show at Summer Jam.

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Action Bronson didn't actually sign with Top Dawg Entertainment.

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Young Chop on the Vine.

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Soulja Boy appeared on The Bachelorette. We repeat: Soulja Boy appeared on The Bachelorette.

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Soulja Boy appeared on The Bachelorette. We repeat: Soulja Boy appeared on The Bachelorette.

Date: June 3

On Monday, Soulja Boy made an appearance on ABC's reality show The Bachelorette. Forget why he was there in the first place—the only moment you need to remember is the jaw-dropping music video he made with the show’s contestants, the ironically-titled "For The Right Reasons.” It’s, umm, really something to see! The title contestant Desiree (sort-of) raps her way through a two-and-a-half minute explanation of her quest for the perfect man. Meanwhile, the lucky gents who are courting her serve as hype men and backup dancers. (Hey, relationships are hard work, this is just another one the rigors. Beats a Saturday morning trip to Home Depot, right?) Meanwhile, Soulja Boy lurks in the background, smiling like he’s thinking about what he's going to spend this check on. —Julian Kimble

RELATED: Soulja Boy Stars in ABC's "The Bachelorette" Rap Video

An old white lady left her husband for Waka Flocka Flame.

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2 Chainz dropped a song called "Feds Watching" with Pharrell, just before we'd all get confirmation that the feds were watching.

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2 Chainz dropped a song called "Feds Watching" with Pharrell, just before we'd all get confirmation that the feds were watching.

Date: June 4

Last week, 2 Chainz said he would premiere material from his new album at Summer Jam XX. He made good on his promise, and Monday, dropped an official version of a new song, featuring a rejuvenated Pharrell, called "Feds Watching.” “I'm be fresh as hell if the feds watchin’,” he chants on the chorus. Of course later in the week, the nation would learn that the feds are indeed watching, all of us, all the time, through the efforts of the National Security Agency and the PRISM initiative. Just as we suspected. Of course, there’s no way 2 Chainz and Pharrell could have timed their release to coincide with the big political news. Or is there?—Julian Kimble

RELATED: Listen: 2 Chainz f/ Pharrell "Feds Watching"

LL Cool J delivered a legitimately good guest verse on a new Action Bronson song and old LL Cool fans got all nostalgic and teary-eyed about it.

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LL Cool J delivered a legitimately good guest verse on a new Action Bronson song and old LL Cool fans got all nostalgic and teary-eyed about it. 

Date: June 5

It's hard being a fan, and it's hard to get old. LL Cool J's Radio was, I think, the third rap album I ever owned. When I was fifteen, and grounded after getting busted for having a party when my parents were out of town, I kept the cassette tape in my Walkman for a solid week, memorizing every word of every song and every skit, every cowbell and record scratch. So it's been particularly painful for me to watch his famously up-and-down musical career flatline over the past fifteen years. How many times have I wished he would just, you know, pack it in and make movies about genetically-modified super sharks for the rest of his life? And earlier this year, when things hit a depressing new nadir with the astonishingly terrible "Accidental Racist" song, I hung my head in vicarious shame. So it was surprising to see that the newest rap star to come out of LL's home borough of Queens, Action Bronson, had recruited my old hero to accompany him on a remix of his recent single "Strictly 4 My Jeeps"—a song based around a sample of the 1990 EPMD classic "Rampage," on which LL, again in a guest role, coined a future catchphrase, "Slow down, baby." (Action and LL are joined on the song by another Queens rapper, from yet another era, G-Unit's Lloyd Banks.) And it was downright shocking to hear LL sounding not... actually... half... bad? I slid the Soundcloud needle back and listened again. Yes, indeed, LL was sonning the younger generation more effectively than he has since he told Canibus not to touch the mic on his arm. "Third as fly, y'all half as intelligent/Step on that horseshit like Hannibal's elephants!" Whooo! Fresh! —Dave Bry

RELATED: Listen: Action Bronson f/ Lloyd Banks and LL Cool J "Strictly 4 My Jeeps (Remix)"

Lil Durk is facing serious jail time.

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Date: June 5

"Get caught with another slammer, they say they first offer ten." This lyric, from Lil Durk's "52 Bars," was the first thing that came to many fans minds when they found out that the Glory Boyz Entertainment rapper had been clipped by police with another gun charge. Not good news for Chief Keef’s Chicago crew.

We had just seen Durk, a few days earlier, when he stopped by the Complex offices. Soft-spoken and reserved, he presents very differently in person then he does on-record—where he delivers blunt, straightforward street rhymes with the searing urgency of Meek Mill. On "52 Bars," the rapper pays homage to Jay-Z with a "Dirt Off Your Shoulder"-style flow. (The title, “52 Bars” references Jay's lyrics on that song as well.)

The key element of Durk's appeal, though, is a more abstract skill, one that transcends influences and references points. As Guru put it, “it’s mostly the voice.” Durk's cuts through the music, creating new lines of melody, and raising the hairs on your arm. "Dis Ain't What You Want," the lead single from his hopefully-still-upcoming Def Jam debute, is the best articulation of this style to date. (The video for the song was shot on South Green street, the same street where Durk was arrested Wednesday). Unlike Keef, who seems to have regular dalliances with the law, Durk’s kept his nose clean in recent yearsm focusing on his career. Like Keef, he bought a house outside the city. But as we’ve learned so many times before, artists coming from neighborhoods like Durk’s Englewood often have a hard time leaving the ’hood behind.

We talked with Memphis’s Project Pat about the subject recently, and he described what it was like. "You’ve got to do it on some realness with yourself, keep it real with your family and of course always keep it real with those that stuck around you," he told us.

"But as far as living conditions, you’ve got to get away from that. I’m from North Memphis all day, but I’m not finna be living in no North Memphis. If somebody see me walk out the house in North Memphis, I got a few guns in that motherfucker, and one on me when I walk out the door. When they see me in North Memphis, the police are automatically going to start harassing me, because they think I’m on something. They’re going to say, “Well, you’re living over here, so I know you got a strap.” I ain’t got time for that."

David Drake

RELATED: Lil Durk Arrested With .40 Caliber Handgun in Chicago

J. Cole previews new album with totally innovative listening session...is what we would have said a month ago.

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J. Cole previews new album with totally innovative listening session...is what we would have said a month ago.

Date: June 6

In a not-so-faint echo of Kanye West's premiere of "New Slaves" as projections on buildings across the world, J. Cole combined technology, geolocation, marketing synergy, and news-cycle hype to premiere his sophomore album Born Sinner earlier this week.

We downloaded the app, appeared at the required location, watched Important People walk by us in line, and ultimately made it inside a theater. We then traded our drivers' licenses for a pair of headphones from a Major Headphone Brand, struggled to figure out how to connect our apps to the streaming music, then listened as a loop of RJD2's "Ghostwriter" played and the event began. It started late, which was good, because it took awhile for people to fumble through the app installation process.

Then J. Cole himself hit the stage, and told a story about trying to create a hit, which occurred to him as being a necessary ingredient to being a successful rapper fairly late in the process of becoming a successful rapper. He described, in a long but endearing way, the exact same story he would tell more concisely in song form forty minutes later, on his song "Let Nas Down."

Then we heard the album, which, yesterday, the rapper offered for free streaming on his website. The record, which we covered in a knee-jerk manner here, is now streaming on Cole's site. —David Drake

RELATED: 30 Second Reviews: First Impressions of J. Cole's "Born Sinner"

The #DiddyJetDance will inspire you and change your life.

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