Hip-Hop Lives Here
Hip-Hop Lives Here
Lil Uzi Vert unexpectedly released a new EP only hours after their Lollapalooza performance was cancelled at the last minute over the weekend.
The Chicago festival began on Thursday, July 30, with Olivia Dean, Charli XCX, Tate McRae, Lorde and The xx among the leading performers. John Summit, Jennie and The Smashing Pumpkins also appeared near the top of the bill.
This year’s schedule covered several musical styles and featured Geese, Wet Leg, Ethel Cain, Turnstile, CMAT, Little Simz, Zara Larsson, Clipse, The Neighbourhood, Yungblud, Beabadoobee, Sombr and Wolf Alice. Lil Uzi Vert, the nonbinary rapper from Philadelphia, had been scheduled to perform before Charli XCX on Friday evening, July 31.
Uzi’s appearance was eventually called off because of dangerous weather conditions, which also caused several other performances to be cancelled or cut short during the weekend. Their set was expected to be especially significant because it fell on the artist’s 31st birthday.
Although their scheduled performance did not happen, Uzi still appeared at the Chicago event. They unexpectedly joined Major Lazer on Perry’s Stage to perform the 2022 song ‘Just Wanna Rock’, before the audience later celebrated by singing ‘Happy Birthday’.
Uzi also commemorated the moment by unexpectedly issuing the EP Maverick ‘Almost Forever’, their first project since 2024’s ‘Eternal Atake 2’. The release arrived exactly 10 years after ‘The Perfect LUV Tape’ first came out.
Awarding ‘Eternal Atake’ five stars, NME wrote: “Lil Uzi Vert still has the game in a chokehold. He’s been making masterpieces for five years now; his body of work offers timestamps for different eras of rap music in that period, from mumble rap (which he pioneered with 2016’s ‘Luv Is Rage’ and ‘Lil Uzi Vert Vs The World’), or the commercial rap he pushed out on his debut ‘Luv Is Rage 2’.
“And here, again, he has made another record that will stay close to the hearts of a generation of rap fans. He is surely our generation’s Lil Wayne.”
Lollapalooza concluded on Sunday, August 2, following several unexpected collaborations. Sombr invited 5 Seconds of Summer onto the stage, The Smashing Pumpkins reunited with Melissa Auf der Maur, Lorde welcomed Charli XCX for ‘Girl, So Confusing’, and Sam Fender joined Olivia Dean to perform their record setting song ‘Rein Me In’.
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Elton John is marking an important achievement in his ongoing sobriety.
Dressed in a patterned top and large square framed glasses, the music legend smiled as he lifted a glass filled with Elton John Zero Blanc de Blancs.
"36 years sober today," the Bennie and the Jets performer wrote beside a celebratory Instagram picture. "Raising a 0% glass to life. Grateful for every single day."
He later reposted the photograph to his Instagram Stories, adding his 1983 anthem I'm Still Standing as the soundtrack.
John previously discussed his battle with substance abuse in his 2019 autobiography, Me, where he described his reliance on alcohol and cocaine during the peak of his career.
The Rocket Man musician explained that he turned to both substances to "block out" the difficulties he was dealing with privately.
"You block it out until the problem of the thing you're facing becomes such a monumental thing that you explode with rage, and that's the way I handled confrontation," he explained during an NPR interview in October 2019. "I hated my addiction. I hated the way I behaved. I hated how I treated people. I hated what I'd become."
John and his husband, David Furnish, revealed their entry into the growing alcohol free beverage industry in January of this year.
"What drew us to this product is the fact that it's the first one of its kind and that it's made differently," Furnish said while discussing the cuvée.
"All the non-alcoholic drinks we've all tried and haven't really enjoyed very much are made with alcohol and then de-alcoholised, whereas with this product, the grapes are fermented with good cultures and that creates all of the properties of a beautiful blanc de blancs."
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