Following a few weeks of teasing, NPR Music today (June 30) premiered its latest episode of their critically acclaimed “Tiny Desk” series, featuring Usher’s performance. As well as a top-of-the-line backing band, Vedo and Eric Bellinger provided background vocals for the R&B legend. The clip lasted approximately 25 minutes and featured Usher’s renditions of classic tracks such as ,” “Confessions Part II,” “Superstar,” “U Don’t Have To Call,” “You Make Me Wanna…,” “Nice & Slowand “My Way.”
His appearance on “Tiny Desk” follows his co-headlining responsibilities at this year’s Something In The Water festival, making him one of the festival’s biggest highlights. As Usher left the stage, he honored Pharrell Williams, who joined the party and helped create the festival.
Usher has not released a new album in six years; Hard II Love is a 15-track collection that features contributions from Priyanka Chopra, Young Thug, Future, and Rubén Blades. A total of 38,000 album equivalent units were sold in the first week to make the album Usher’s eighth top ten album on the Billboard 200. In his opinion, he is already working on the sequel to 2004’s Confessions, which he has been teasing since 2019. A part of Usher’s rousing performance for Cricket Wireless included the release of “Confessions Part III” , a song that, as his collaborator Jermaine Dupri explained on Twitter, turns the material of its predecessor on its head:
A female’s perspective is presented in “CONFESSIONS PART 3”. This song tells the story of a girl who cheats on him and gets pregnant with another man’s baby. This leaves her with the choice of keeping it or aborting it. Having learned this, should he stay or should he leave?”
In addition to dropping dope vibes for his fans, G Perico continues to release music. Perico’s latest is “That’s My Dawg,” a Latin-influenced tune produced by Trunx about the unconditional love Perico has for his homies:
In addition to his previously released singles, G Perico has already delivered a number of top-notch tracks this year, such as “Bacc 2 The Blocc” featuring Curren$y and “Half A Bird” featuring Dave East . Aside from the Tango EP, he also released the eight-track Tango EP, featuring a collaboration with BlocBoi Fame, as well as the standout tracks “INNERPRIZE RAP” and “Hurricane.”
Since G Perico parted ways with Roc Nation, he’s released more than a dozen albums under his own label Innerprize. There have been many top tier releases in the past year, such as Welcome to the Land, No Love In LA, and Play 2 Win. According to an interview he conducted with Home Grown Radio, he mentioned these reasons as to why partnering up with Roc Nation made sense at the time.
“I was independent when I walked in. Afterwards, I did my deal, and I think that was the right decision for me. I would probably be burned out right now if I hadn’t done that. As a result, I got to know people, and I formed relationships with Emery, Jay Brown … that’s family.”
PJ Morton released his album Watch the Sun in April. On its eleven original songs, Morton showcases his songwriting and production abilities. In addition, Watch the Sun includes performances from Nas, Jill Scott, Chronixx, JoJo, Zacardi Cortez, Mr. Talkbox, Wale, Alex Isley, Stevie Wonder, El DeBarge, Gene Moore, Samoht, Darrel “MusiqCity” Walls and Tim Rogers.
The official music video for Morton’s Watch the Sun song “On My Way,” which features El DeBarge, is shown this week. He delivers lyrics in the new video about providing for those who are in need: Morton explores different locations in the visual while delivering his lyrics:
A Grammy award was also recognized earlier this year for PJ Morton’s contribution to Jon Batiste’s We Are album. Adding to the accolades he has received previously, in addition to the best traditional R&B performance award in 2019, he won a Grammy in 2020 for Best R&B Song and a Grammy in 2021 for Best Gospel Album.
As part of the tour, Morton will perform in 12 cities across North America for four months beginning this Friday (June 17). The bill includes many historic venues across the country. As part of the promotion of his new album, the award-winning performer, songwriter and soul singer added six new East Coast dates, starting in Virginia and extending through Baltimore.
With assists from Wiz Khalifa and Curren$y, Guapdad 4000 assembles a dream team for a new music video, “Pose.” Wiz Khalifa and Curren$y contribute as well to the production, making for a feel-good video that showcases the charm of each rapper. With the upcoming single, Wiz Khalifa puts the spotlight on some production work by Drew Banga:
He has blessed his fan base all year with a steady stream of new releases. You can listen to recent releases like “Cheap,” “Fearless,” “Black Iverson” and “Ruthless.”
Khlifa has been working on a collection of collaboration albums since April, including Full Court Press, which he recorded with Smoke DZA, Big K.R.I.T., and Girl Talk. His previous album was dominated by fan favorites “How The Story Goes,” “Put You On,” and “Ain’t No Fun”. Earlier this month, Curren$y released his new album Spring Clean 2, which was produced entirely by Fuse from 808 Mafia.
The Bay Area’s own P-Lo has teamed up with hometown rapper Larry June to deliver a brand new song titled “Good.” The song is the first taste from the Bay Area rapper’s upcoming full-length album STUNNA. “Good” is also produced by Miles Media, Hokage Simon, Cal-A, Bosko, and P-Lo himself.
As well as sharing his plans for his upcoming music, the Filipino-American rapper also expressed his intentions. Despite so many obstacles in life seeking to knock you down, it is important to keep moving forward, P-Lo emphasized in a press release. In essence, my goal is to have people play my music and feel good about themselves.
He also provided assistance on “Again” by E-40 and LaRussell and “Inhibitions” by Thuy. He most recently released the album SHINE, which featured Mozzy, Dom Kennedy, Bosko, Jay Anthony, Mike Sherm, and Kehlani across 16 tracks.
In addition to space jam 2, insecure and blindspotting, P-Lo’s music has also been featured on such movies and shows as space jam 2: a new legacy. Having achieved major success with Bay Area anthems such as “Same Squad” and “Put Me On Somethin,” P-Lo has since gone to win a BMI Award and he has also written and produced tracks such as Kehlani “All Me,” Yo Gotti “Act Right,” and Flo Rida “GDFR.”
Earlier this year, Jay Worthy and Larry June and teamed up to release their collaborative effort, 2P’s In A Pod, which included eleven dope cuts and contributions from Suga Free, CeeLo Green, Roc Marciano, and Jim Jones. Before that, Larry released his Orange Print project, which was filled with smooth visuals for his fans, including “6am In Sausalito,” “Still Cookin,” and “Intercepted” with Money Man.
RECENT COMMENTS