Doja Cat defended her position as a rapper over the weekend when someone on social media sparked a debate of what she should be classified as.
X user @playeration wrote on Saturday (Aug. 9), “Hopefully after Doja drops pop disco album of the century her fans can stop trying to force her into female rap conversations.” Doja said in her recent V Magazine cover story that Vie, her upcoming fifth studio album, is a “pop-driven project,” while the publication also pointed out that she’s still rapping on much of the album. The same X user doubled down in a subsequent post by writing, “Sorry to inform you guys but you can’t be taken seriously as a rapper without ever prioritizing bars, punchlines, wordplay, and storytelling: the very things that make rap what it is.” They later claimed they asked four different members from Doja’s Kittenz fanbase to share “their best Doja bar and it’s CRICKETS.”
“You don’t listen to or read enough of my writing to be able to make this claim. I’m alright at what I do and sometimes I’m incredible,” Doja replied in the same thread. Please stop trying to downplay my ability it feels like you’re doling out criticism with no constructiveness based on something that’s deeper than just the topic of music.”
You don’t listen to or read enough of my writing to be able to make this claim. I’m alright at what I do and sometimes I’m incredible. Please stop trying to downplay my ability it feels like you’re doling out criticism with no constructiveness based on something that’s deeper…
The X user @playeration continued emphasizing how examples of Doja’s punchlines and wordplay would justify her position as an MC, but the Grammy-winning artist was purposefully resistant to providing such because “part of me feels like you will immediately shoot it down. What I intend with my work is for the listener to choose what they rock with and what they don’t,” she wrote back. “You have to give me a chance if you’re going to make criticisms about the entirety of my raps. You have to listen. You have to read. If you don’t read or listen how will you know. I shouldn’t have to sit here on twitter and give you a simplified, snipped, deconstructed, and without insulting you, DUMBED down version of my writing for you to be able to hear what hundreds of thousands and lets be honest, millions of people are recognizing as adequate rap bars. You aren’t stupid. Listen to my music.”
If I give you any bars part of me feels like you will immediately shoot it down. What I intend with my work is for the listener to choose what they rock with and what they don’t. You have to give me a chance if you’re going to make criticisms about the entirety of my raps. You…
The same X user claimed they’ve listened to Doja’s full catalog and are excited about her upcoming Vie tracks “Jealous Type” and “Take Me Dancing,” the latter of which she previewed over the weekend at an after party at the San Francisco drag nightclub Oasis following her headlining set at Outside Lands on Friday night, Aug. 8. Doja debuted the former track during her festival performance. X user @playeration later cited Rakim, Jay-Z and Jeezy as their “frame of reference” when it comes to rappers, which Doja understood and respected.
“Jay Z is a great writer and so is Rakim and Jeezy you have great taste. 😉 Thank you for opening up about that,” she wrote. “If you’ve listened to every single song off of every single album I’ve made I appreciate that. If you’ve haven’t been able to find a bar that you can connect with, thats more than okay, that’s your right. Thank you.”
Now I understand you and you understand me and now I can respect where you’re coming from. Jay Z is a great writer and so is Rakim and Jeezy you have great taste. 😉 Thank you for opening up about that. If you’ve listened to every single song off of every single album I’ve made I…
Art Fein, a longtime fixture of the Los Angeles music scene who achieved his greatest success as the host of Art Fein’s Poker Party, a music-focused public access TV show, died on July 30. He succumbed to heart failure while recuperating from surgery for a broken hip. He was 79.
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Each episode ran for 30 minutes, and featured conversation and performances. Many of the videos are archived at Fein’s YouTube channel.
“Terribly saddened to hear that Art Fein, producer/manager, music historian and really, the Ed Sullivan of public access TV, has passed away,” bass player Toni Pambianco wrote on X. “He’ll be greatly missed.”
Fein especially liked to give a platform to roots music artists such as zydeco star Clifton Chenier, Jerry “Swamp Dogg” Williams, and Ray Campi & the Rockabilly Rebels. Fein was influential in putting a spotlight on this genre, long before the Recording Academy added dedicated categories to recognize this music, namely best regional roots music album in 2012, best American roots song in 2014 and best American roots performance in 2015.
“He just did such a great job,” Rosie Flores told writer Randy Lewis, who wrote a detailed tribute/biography following Fein’s death. “We could get on television, you know, and we weren’t famous people – a lot of us weren’t famous — but we were cool, and he would give us airtime and who else was doing that? Nobody.”
Fein was quick to capitalize on a 1984 FCC policy that allowed cities to require a public-access channel any time they enter into a franchise agreement with a cable company. The show was taped in Los Angeles, where Fein relocated in 1971 after college, but also aired on local-access channels in Austin, Texas, a stronghold of roots music, and, on a less regular basis, New York City and Seattle. It was at a taping of the show at Century Cable in Santa Monica, Calif. that Fein met his wife, Jennifer, who worked there.
The show was an ideal vehicle for Fein, showcasing his passion for music and his gregarious personality in a way that regular, 9-to-5 jobs never had. In the 1970s, Fein had worked in promotion or publicity for three record companies — Capitol, Elektra/Asylum and Casablanca — but he didn’t last more than a year at any of them. He was also music editor for Variety for about a year. That wasn’t a good fit for his talents and temperament, either.
The show is where he really flowered. In 1992, when the show was eight years and 400 episodes into its run, The Los Angeles Times ran a major feature on Fein and his show. The writer of the piece, Bob Baker, noted that prior to the show, Fein “had been making an uneven living in the margins of rock music —working as a music consultant on films and TV shows, writing freelance articles, writing album liner notes and, for a couple years, managing the Blasters.”
“If this show is a springboard, I’ll be mighty happy,” Fein told Baker, “but if it’s not, I’m having a ball doing what I want to do. I’ve always had an artistic temperament, but before I started the show I never had any art. I couldn’t sing; I didn’t want to write a novel. But this is something I feel really good about. I almost feel like a knight going off to battle when I leave the house, like I’m going to really say something.”
Fein was a catalyst who loved nothing more than making things happen (he was less concerned with whether he got paid for his role). He played The Blasters’ “Marie Marie” for Shakin’ Stevens, who recorded it and landed a top 20 hit on the Official U.K. Singles Chart in 1980. He organized annual events such as an annual Elvis Birthday Bash, held on or around The King’s Jan. 8 birthday each year for more than four decades, and a New Year’s Eve Bash for six years from 1978 to 1984.
Arthur David Fein was born on June 17, 1946, and was adopted at birth by Sam and Lillian Fein. The music bug bit him when he was 10, which is also, not coincidentally, when Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and other rock and roll icons exploded.
In his 2022 memoir, Rock’s in My Head, Fein wrote about accidentally catching Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show in January 1957. “My life changed in a lightning bolt,” he wrote. “Who was this side-burned Pied Piper from outer space with slick black hair like Superman, and just as handsome? … What was this music? This was rock & roll!”
Fein became an even bigger fan of Lewis. “If Elvis was God, Jerry Lee Lewis was the Prince of Darkness,” he wrote.
Fein graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder at the end of the 1960s with a degree in journalism. He moved to California in 1971, living for a couple of years just south of Santa Cruz. In 1973, he moved to L.A. He had a brief stint at Capitol in the label’s newly-created college promotion department. The department was eliminated less than a year later.
Fein freelanced music articles for a time before being hired as music editor at Variety. That job didn’t last long either, nor did subsequent jobs in publicity at Elektra/Asylum and Casablanca. Some people just aren’t cut out for 9-to-5 gigs.
Fein did better working for himself. He hung out his shingle as an artist manager, working with Ray Campi & the Rockabilly Rebels, The Blasters, The Cramps and The Heaters. In 1983, he produced the album, (Art Fein Presents) The Best ofL.A. Rockabilly. He was a music consultant for TV and film — Roadhouse 66 (1984), Tour of Duty (1987) and Blood Diner (1987).
Fein was also a successful author. He wrote three books: The L.A. Musical History Tour: A Guide to the Rock and Roll Landmarks of Los Angeles (Faber & Faber, 1991, with a second edition published by 2.13.61 in 1998); The Greatest Rock & Roll Stories: The Most Outrageous, Magical and Scandalous Events in the History of Rock & Roll (Rhino/GPG, 1997); and the memoir Rock’s in My Head (Trouser Press Books, 2022).
In The L.A. Musical History Tour, Fein told readers where to find such L.A. rock sites as the Foster’s Freeze in Hawthorne where The Beach Boys hung out; Morrison Hotel, where The Doors shot the cover photo for their 1970 album of the same name; and the location of the “Rock & Roll Denny’s.”
He also wrote a blog, Another Fein Mess. Dispatches from 1998 to 2017 are archived at Fein’s website.
Fein had a long and complicated friendship with Phil Spector. Fein had long idolized the legendary producer and creator of the Wall of Sound. The first place Fein stopped when he arrived in L.A. in 1973 was the now-defunct Gold Star Recording Studios in Hollywood, where Spector produced sessions by such acts as The Crystals and The Righteous Brothers. Over the years, Fein brought many friends, including Gene Sculatti, Bob Merlis, Dick Blackburn, Kristine McKenna and me, to Spector’s home for visits.
Fein remained loyal even after Spector shot and killed actress Lana Clarkson at his home in 2003. He attempted to stay in touch even after Spector was convicted of second-degree murder in 2009 and was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison. But eventually, Fein seemed to accept that he had been loyal to a fault.
“I wrote to him 15 times when he was in prison and never got an answer,” Fein revealed in his memoir. “By the time he died, on January 16, 2021, at the age of 81, I had completed my mourning.”
Journalist Chris Morris (a former Billboard writer and editor), summarized Fein’s unique collection of strengths in a review of Fein’s memoir: “Art has served rock & roll as scribe, flack, label guy, manager, promoter, TV host, kibitzer, schmoozer, and all-around good Joe. He has known the famous, infamous, nefarious, and fabulous denizens of the music and lived to tell the tale.”
Fein is survived by his wife, Jennifer, and their daughter, Jessie.
Gunna‘s The Last Wun tops this week’s new music poll.
In a poll published Friday (Aug. 8) on Billboard, music fans chose the Atlanta rapper’s sixth studio album as their favorite new release of the past week.
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The Last Wun brought in nearly 57% of the vote, beating out new releases from artists like MGK (Lost Americana), Laufey (“Snow White”), Jonas Brothers (Greetings From Your Hometown) and Ethel Cain‘s (Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You).
The 25-track album, the follow-up to last year’s One of Wun, includes the singles “Won’t Stop” and “Him All Along,” and features collaborations with Offset, Wizkid, Asake, Burna Boy and Nechie.
Given the finality suggested by the project’s title, fans have speculated that this may be Gunna’s last release under YSL Records/300 Entertainment. His relationship with the label — founded by Young Thug — has become increasingly complicated in the wake of the high-profile YSL RICO trial.
“It’ll come to me just through life and just living,” Gunna told Uproxx in June, describing his creative process. “So for this album in particular, it’s no theme. It’s in current time of what’s happening with me.”
Gunna last topped the Billboard 200 with 2022’s DS4EVER. All of his solo albums have landed in the top three on the chart and reached No. 1 on the Top Rap Albums chart.
MGK’s Lost Americana secured second place in the poll with 13% of the vote. The rootsy folk album marks the artist formerly known as Machine Gun Kelly’s first full-length Americana project, following a run of hip-hop and pop-punk releases. The “Other” category came in third, earning nearly 9% of the vote.
Check out the full results of this week’s poll below and visit Billboard’s Friday Music Guide for more must-hear releases.
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
While Walmart has daily rollback deals online, one of the best ways to score a deeper discount at the department store is by signing up for Walmart+. And there’s no better time to do it, as the retailer is launching some new music and entertainment perks exclusively for Walmart+ members.
One of them is a free one-month trial to YouTube Premium, the subscription service that lets you watch YouTube videos and playlists without ads. You can also access YouTube movies and listen to more than 100 million songs on YouTube ad-free. And YouTube Premium lets you watch content offline and in the background too.
Walmart+ members can get 30 days of YouTube Premium for free – a $13.99 value. Choose to continue with the program and your next two months of YouTube Premium are 50% off with your Walmart+ membership. See full details on this limited-time off here.
While Walmart offers daily deals for everyone, a Walmart+ membership offers loads of benefits, exclusive perks and early access to sales before everyone else. The best part: you can currently sign up for Walmart+ for free with this free trial offer. That’s right, new users can get a 30-day day trial to Walmart+ without having to pay a single cent.
Use the free trial to get instant access to shop all the Walmart+ deals online. Ready to get started? We’ve rounded up a list of everything you need to know about Walmart+ — including how to subscribe for 50% off once your free trial is up. See below for more details.
How to Join Walmart+
Walmart+ is free for 30 days right now and then costs $98 for the annual membership (about $8.17/month) or $12.95 for the monthly membership after the month-long free trial is over.
Walmart+ is Walmart’s subscription program, that unlocks instant access to a load of benefits including shopping certain sales earlier than everyone else, special pricing and product releases. Walmart+ members also get a ton of freebies.
Walmart+ features member-only offers such as a whopping 50 cents/gallon off fuel at Exxon & Mobile stations, and up to 5% back in Walmart Cash on flights, hotels, car rentals and activities booked through Walmart+ Travel.
What can you get for free with Walmart+? Members can enjoy free shipping with no order minimum, so you won’t have to worry about adding things to your cart that you might not even need just to get free shipping.
The membership also includes free grocery delivery, contact-free checkout with mobile-scan and go, travel deals, free subscriptions to Paramount+ with Showtime, up to five months of free Apple Music and up to four months of free Apple Fitness. New perks include free pharmacy delivery too.
But wait, there’s more. Walmart+ members get free flat tire repair and other auto care and lots of other member benefits. Some of the limited-time offers available to Walmart+ members (as of this writing) include free access to eMeals, 25% off Turbo Tax (just in time for tax season), free online pet care through Pawp and 25% off Burger King (with a free whopper every three months).
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If you’re interested in more discount options, there’s another ways to join Walmart+ for $49 or 50% off the regular price. Customers currently on government assistance are eligible for this 50% off deal through this sign-up link.
The retail giant introduced its Walmart+ Assist discounted subscription pricing last year. The Walmart+ Assist discount is available to eligible new and existing Walmart+ members. Existing members who qualify for the price cut will receive a prorated refund and the discounted price will begin immediately, per Walmart.
College students and grad students can also save 50% off when they subscribe to Walmart+ Student at a discounted rate of $49/year (or $6.47/month after the free trial).
How else can you save on Walmart+? Subscribing to the Walmart+ annual plan saves you 37% versus paying monthly. You’ll pay a one-time rate of $98 (roughly $8/month) versus paying $12.95 when you go month to month.
You can also give a Walmart+ membership as a birthday or holiday gift. A Walmart+ membership is perfect for shoppers who want access to special benefits such as free shipping and sweet deals.
How do you gift someone with a Walmart+ membership? Simply purchase a Walmart gift card, which can be used to cover the annual membership fee.
Bobby Whitlock, the keyboardist, singer-songwriter and co-founder of the blues-rock band Derek and the Dominos, has died at the age of 77.
Whitlock passed away early Sunday morning (Aug. 10) at 1:20 a.m. following a brief battle with cancer, his manager Carol Kaye confirmed to Variety. He died at his home in Texas, surrounded by family.
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Whitlock’s wife, Coco Carmel Whitlock, honored his extraordinary life in a statement to TMZ.
“How do you express in but a few words the grandness of one man who came from abject poverty in the south to heights unimagined in such a short time?” she said. “My love Bobby looked at life as an adventure taking me by the hand leading me through a world of wonderment from music to poetry and painting. I feel his hands that were so intensely expressive and warm on my face and the small of my back whenever I close my eyes, he is there.”
Born on March 18, 1948, in Memphis, Tenn., Whitlock made history as the first white artist signed to Stax Records when he was still a teenager in the mid-1960s. During his time with the legendary label, he performed alongside soul greats including Booker T. & the MG’s and Sam & Dave.
In 1968, Whitlock joined Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, a group whose collaborators included future Derek and the Dominos members Eric Clapton, Carl Radle and Jim Gordon. During this period, Whitlock also contributed to Clapton’s 1970 self-titled debut album and played organ and piano on George Harrison’s landmark 1970 release, All Things Must Pass.
Later that same year, Clapton, Whitlock, Radle and Gordon formed Derek and the Dominos. Whitlock co-wrote half the tracks on the band’s first and only studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, including “Bell Bottom Blues” and “Tell the Truth.” Derek and the Dominos embarked on a U.S. tour in support of the album, with Elton John serving as their opening act.
“It was their keyboard player Bobby Whitlock that I watched like a hawk,” John wrote in his autobiography, according to the Los Angeles Times. “He was from Memphis, learned his craft hanging around Stax Studios and played with that soulful, deep Southern gospel feel.”
Amid escalating drug use and growing personal tensions within the group, Derek and the Dominos split in 1971 while in the midst of recording their sophomore album. Whitlock went on to release a string of solo albums in the 1970s, beginning with his self-titled debut, which featured contributions from all the members of Derek and the Dominos, as well as Harrison. He followed it later that same year with Raw Velvet.
As a session musician, Whitlock also appeared on the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St., Dr. John’s The Sun, Moon & Herbs, and Stephen Stills & Manassas’ Down the Road.
Whitlock released additional solo music throughout the 1970s and returned in the 1990s, often collaborating with his musical partner and future wife, CoCo Carmel, whom he married in December 2005.
Whitlock is survived by his wife, CoCo Carmel, and his children Ashley Faye Brown, Beau Elijah Whitlock, and Tim Whitlock Kelly, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Selena Gomez is looking back on her music catalog with fondness.
Before launching her solo career, the 33-year-old singer and actress fronted the pop-rock band Selena Gomez & the Scene, releasing three studio albums between 2009 and 2012. Now, she’s reflecting on a standout track from those early days.
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In an interview on the Therapuss podcast, released Wednesday (Aug. 6), Gomez told host Jake Shane that her favorite song from her time with the band is “Who Says,” the lead single from their final album, When the Sun Goes Down. The track peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 2011.
“It’s the most powerful moment when I get to perform it,” the Only Murders in the Building actress said. “That’s honestly the only reason I would ever do a tour again … is if I could perform ‘Who Says.’”
Gomez, who hasn’t toured since 2016, said she’d need to “take it down an octave from each year I’ve sang it” if she were to perform it today. She’s also open to re-recording the track, noting that her voice on the original sounds “young.”
“I need to redo it,” she said. “I should recut it.”
The Emilia Pérez star also opened up about the song’s empowering message and revealed that she once teared up while hearing it on the radio during a trip abroad.
“I was like, ‘Why the f—k am I tearing up to my own song?’” she said. “But it was because it was the little me who was there saying these really powerful messages that I still need to hear.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the Rare Beauty founder reminisced about how she first bonded with longtime friend Taylor Swift nearly two decades ago — after both experienced breakups with the Jonas Brothers.
“She and I like to say the best thing we got out of those relationships was each other,” Gomez told Shane. “We became best friends, bonded over the breakup, as girls do. Then we just stuck around for all the ups and downs that came after, and here we are now 16 years later.”
Most recently, the Wizards of Waverly Place alum dropped a joint album with fiancé Benny Blanco, I Said I Love You First, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in May.
Watch Gomez talking about “Who Says” at the 21-minute mark in the Therapuss interview below.
