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Father John Misty saw all the jokes and the conspiracy theories on Friday (Nov. 22) about how his album release schedule has eerily been synched up with Kendrick Lamar‘s music drops over the past 12 years and he responded in the only way he knows how: with a diss track and jokes.
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Okay, not a diss track in the Drake sense, but rather the first wide release of the shaggy folk rocker “God’s Plan,” which he originally issued on Bandcamp last month and which fans gleefully suggested was a soft rock shot fired at the Pulitzer Prize-winning MC. FJM uploaded it to his Instagram on Saturday with no commentary and lyrics that didn’t provide much direct linkage to Lamar. “A man’s life, God’s trash/ There’s no law but the old law, baby/ Pettiful, nothing dies/ Said by ass-drawn kamikaze/ Year zero in the summertime,” FJM sings on the track; he reposted it on X, adding three coffin emoji.
The comments did the heavy lifting: “the heart part 7,” wrote one fan in a joking reference to Lamar’s new track “Heart Pt. 6” (itself a response to rival Drake’s “The Heart Pt. 6” diss track about Lamar), with another adding, “Kendrick diss track?,” and a third admitting, “A Kendrick FJM beef is something I would’ve said could’ve only come to my imagination in a fever dream and yet here we are. Life is beautiful folks.” Leaning into the fake beef, commenters also wondered why Lamar was “real quiet since this post,” warning “u have 24 hours to respond” and asking “@kendricklamar you’ll let this slide???”
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Fans immediately heaped meaning on the post, considering that sleuths did the math and figured out that Father John and K.Dot have released new albums in the same year for more than a decade, including in 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022 — though not on the same day — until now.
On Friday, Lamar dropped the instant classic GNX with no advance notice, stealing some thunder from FJM’s new LP, Mahashmashana. Misty got the joke, writing on X on Friday, “Not now I’m furiously scribbling my seeming response” to the odd coincidence, adding, “It’s okay only other times it’s happened was 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2022.” He also showed he had a good sense of humor about the unbalanced chart competition, writing, “Hm how do I tell em my albums don’t chart.”
In addition to the tweets and song, FJM had some more fun with the Freaky Friday release date action, reposting DJ Bean’s mash-up cover featuring the artwork from both men’s LPs and a second in which he was PhotoShopped into Kendrick’s car. Even Misty’s label, Sub Pop Records, got into the action, uploading an edit of the cover to the singer’s album with the Lamar DAMN. font.
The eternally arch, laconic Misty took the whole thing in stride, though Lil Wayne appeared to respond to a lyrical reference on the opening GNX track “wacced out murals” with a bit of heat. On the song, Lamar references his love for Wayne’s classic Tha Carter III album and wonders if his hard work — which includes landing the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show slot in Weezy’s hometown of New Orleans next year — had “let down” the fellow MC.
“Man wtf I do?!” Wayne wrote in his response on X. “I just be chillin & dey still kome 4 my head. Let’s not take kindness for weakness. Let this giant sleep. I beg u all. No one really wants destruction,not even me but I shall destroy if disturbed. On me. Love.”
Listen to FJM’s “God’s Trash” below.
On the first night of his Stairway to the Sky tour on Saturday (Nov. 23) Zayn Malik paid tribute to his late One Direction bandmate Liam Payne. According to fan photos and videos, the homage to the singer who died at age 31 after a fall from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina on […]
Lana Del Rey has announced a string of stadium shows in the U.K. and Ireland for summer 2025. The U.S. star’s tour will kick off at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium in Wales on June 23, before heading to Glasgow, Liverpool, Dublin and wrapping up at London’s Wembley Stadium on July 3. See the full run of […]
Charli XCX is bringing her Party Girl series to London next summer with a huge outdoor show. Charli will curate a day at LIDO Festival in east London’s Victoria Park on June 14, 2025, as well as put on a headline performance – marking her first U.K. festival topline slot. Explore Explore See latest videos, […]
La Bichota, it’s officially a Bratz! On Monday, Nov. 25, the lifestyle and fashion doll brand Bratz announced the launch of its Bratz x Karol G Collector Doll. Following Karol G‘s 2024 Latin Grammy win for best urban music album, the brand, celebrated for its bold self-expression, transformed the Colombian musician’s 2023 Latin Grammys look […]
Drake has officially announced his return to Australia for the Anita Max Wynn Tour, marking his first visit to the country in eight years.
The Canadian rap icon casually dropped the news during a livestream with gaming streamer xQc on Sunday night (Nov. 24), revealing that the tour will kick off on Feb. 9 and run through early March.
“February 9th for anybody that’s watching from Australia, I’m coming back to Australia for the first time in eight years. Coming back to Australia on tour,” Drake shared during the livestream. “Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast… February 9 ’til like… March something.”
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While specific dates and venues have yet to be confirmed, Drake teased appearances in key cities like Melbourne, Sydney, and the Gold Coast. However, the OVO rapper seemed to rule out visits to “other places.”
The announcement comes as a major moment for Drake’s Australian fans, who last saw him perform live during the Boy Meets World Tour in 2017. “Funny enough, it’s actually called the Anita Max Wynn Tour,” Drake told XQC during the stream.
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The timing of the tour’s launch is particularly noteworthy, as it coincides with Kendrick Lamar’s highly anticipated Super Bowl halftime show performance on the same day. The two artists have been engaged in a well-documented musical feud throughout the year, with the artists slinging diss tracks at one another, like Lamar’s “Not Like Us” and Drake’s “Push Ups”. Lamar recently also surprised-released his latest album, GNX.
Anita Max Wynn is a nod to a viral moment from Drake’s December 2023 livestream on Kick. During the stream, he introduced an “alter ego” with the same name, a pun on the gambling phrase “I need a max win,” which refers to hitting the maximum payout on a slot machine.
The phrase, popularized by streamer Adin Ross, quickly became an internet sensation, inspiring memes, TikTok edits, and exaggerated depictions of Drake’s character. Now, the joke has come full circle, lending its name to Drake’s 2025 Australian tour.
Drake had previously hinted at a turn return to the country earlier this month, posting an old photo of himself in front of Sydney’s Opera House to his Instagram Story, writing, “It’s been like 7 years.”
In addition to the tour announcement, Drake also provided an update on his forthcoming collaborative album with PARTYNEXTDOOR, revealing, “Me and Party’s album is 75 percent done shout out to PX cooking right now. Album sounds incredible…This album is good; it’s the sound that people know and love us for.”
Drake and Party announced their joint album back in August while on stage performing together in Toronto.
Earlier this month, PND hopped on his Instagram Live as he wrapped up the European leg of his Sorry I’m Outside Tour and revealed his project with Drake is nearing the finish line. “Guys, I have one more show on this tour,” he told his followers. “Then the album is getting finished. That’s all I gotta say.”
Nick Cave has responded to a recent complimentary tweet from Bob Dylan’s newly-active account, labelling the experience “a lovely pulse of joy”.
The initial tweet was shared via Dylan’s account on Tuesday (Nov. 19), and saw him reflecting on the recent performance by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in France just two days earlier, specifcally singling out the song “Joy”, from Cave’s Australian Music Prize-nominated album, Wild God.
“Saw Nick Cave in Paris recently at the Accor Arena and I was really struck by that song Joy where he sings ‘We’ve all had too much sorrow, now it the time for joy’,” Dylan wrote. “I was thinking to myself, yeah that’s about right.”
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The comment apparently made its way to Cave, who is himself a noted Dylan fan (having previously reflected on the musician’s work and having covered numerous tracks from his extensive back catalog). Taking to his sporadically-updated Red Hand Files website, Cave explained that he was unaware of Dylan’s presence, but called the tweet “a lovely pulse of joy that penetrated my exhausted, zombied state”.
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He continued; “I was happy to see Bob on X, just as many on the Left had performed a Twitterectomy and headed for Bluesky. It felt admirably perverse, in a Bob Dylan kind of way. I did indeed feel it was a time for joy rather than sorrow. There had been such an excess of despair and desperation around the election, and one couldn’t help but ask when it was that politics became everything.
“The world had grown thoroughly disenchanted, and its feverish obsession with politics and its leaders had thrown up so many palisades that had prevented us from experiencing the presence of anything remotely like the spirit, the sacred, or the transcendent – that holy place where joy resides. I felt proud to have been touring with The Bad Seeds and offering, in the form of a rock ‘n ’roll show, an antidote to this despair, one that transported people to a place beyond the dreadful drama of the political moment.”
Cave closed by lamenting his ability to express in-person gratitude to Dylan, instead opting to utilize his own site to do so: “I was elated to think Bob Dylan had been in the audience, and since I doubt I’ll get an opportunity to thank him personally, I’ll thank him here. Thank you, Bob!”
Dylan’s Twitter account has become a source of intrigue in recent weeks given its recent resurgence in activity and its apparent shift from promotional messages to actual comments from Dylan himself. Alongside recommendations for New Orleans cuisine and a delayed tribute to late comedian Bob Newheart, Dylan has aso ignited speculation into the identity of a mystery woman named Mary Jo.
SZA season is upon us, according to the artist herself. The four-time Grammy Award-winner has confirmed that fans will be hearing new music before the year is out, sharing the news as part of a recent appearance on Kai Cenat’s livestream alongside fellow guest Lizzo. Letting slip that a “whole new project” was up her […]
Seattle grunge icons Pearl Jam have wrapped up their 2024 touring activities with a special show in Sydney.
The final show of their Dark Matter World Tour (and the final date of their first Australian tour in a decade) took place at Sydney’s ENGIE Stadium on Saturday (Nov. 23), and featured a 27-song set full of hits, deep cuts, and the typical cover versions.
One of the more notable covers was the band’s rendition of “Hunger Strike”, originally recorded by Temple of the Dog for their sole self-titled album which peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 in 1991. Considered something of a retroactive supergroup due the presence of future Pearl Jam and Soundgarden members, the original version features respective frontmen Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell sharing co-lead vocal duties on the track.
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It’s become a grunge anthem, and as a result, it’s sporadically been played by Pearl Jam, with its last appearance in the band’s set being at Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit in October 2014. It had previously been a staple of Cornell’s live sets prior to his passing in May 2017.
Pearl Jam’s final Australian show also featured covers of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”, with their 11-song encore set opening with a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “No Surrender”.
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The first time it had been performed since the band’s appearance in New Jersey in June 2006, this particular performance saw Vedder solo armed with an acoustic guitar as he dedicated the track to its creator. Dubbing Springsteen “a great friend of mine and a brother of mine”, Vedder explained that if he hadn’t been performing the final show of Pearl Jam’s world tour, he would have been watching The Boss wrap up his own world tour in Vancouver.
“Bruce Springsteen is magic and he makes magic, and he works hard to make magic,” Vedder told the crowd. “And then sometimes it’s easy for him to make magic, but he also has songs of strength.
“I know for him, as well as us, it’s been a tricky time in our nation back home,” he continued. “We’re going to be OK. It’s just going to take some time, a bit of a reset. But we will lean on music when words fail us.”
Previously, Vedder had performed “No Surrender” alongside Springsteen at New Jersey’s Continental Airlines Arena in October 2004 as part of the 2004 Vote For Change tour. That same performance also saw Vedder guesting on a rendition of “Darkness on the Edge of Town”.
Wizkid‘s Morayo tops this week’s new music poll.
Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (Nov. 22) on Billboard, choosing Wizkid’s latest album as their favorite new music release of the past week.
The poll featured competition from various music genres, and Wizkid’s new song collection brought in an impressive 78% of the vote. Voters this week chose Morayo over new music releases from ROSÉ, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Nas X, Jack Harlow, Quevedo, Miguel and Jelly Roll — and even the soundtrack to the box office hit Wicked, featuring lead vocals from Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.
Wizkid’s Morayo, released via Starboy Entertainment and RCA Records, is dedicated to the Nigerian artist’s late mother, Juliana Morayo Balogun. The Yoruba word Morayo translates to “I see joy.”
“It’s very, very personal,” he said of the album’s material, in an interview with Esquire over the summer. “I hope it lifts spirits and spreads positive energy.”
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The 16-song set features collaborations with Jazmine Sullivan, Brent Faiyaz, Asake, Anaïse and Tiakola, and is the follow-up to 2022’s More Love, Less Ego, which peaked at No. 2 on the World Albums chart and No. 59 on the Billboard 200.
Morayo lead single “Piece of My Heart,” featuring Brent Faiyaz, was released ahead of the album in October, reaching No. 4 on the U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart and No. 7 on World Digital Song Sales.
Among the new music trailing behind Morayo on this week’s poll is ROSÉ’s solo single “Number One Girl,” which came in second place, and Kendrick Lamar’s surprise album GNX, which came in third.
See the final results of this week’s poll below, or here.
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