The Renaissance Rundown: Heat 88 — Coming Off the Bench

We’re one man down, a couple of crypto cringe croons in, and a few MLK comparisons closer to hell — but we’re never gonna give you up. Happy Megan the Stallion Day!

What’s good y’all?

We‘re doing a little remix on the programming here at The Renaissance for the next few weeks. Paul is out on injured reserve, so I (Juwan J. Holmes) am hopping in to bring you your regularly scheduled newsletter.

TL;dr — Paul’s sitting out on newsletter duties for the next few weeks (he’s alright, but feel free to let him know you’re thinking about him!), so it’s gonna be… May (corny beginning-of-May joke made: check…) telling you about Megan the Stallion’s latest honor, Sean Paul’s latest temperature check, and… (checks notes) who the kids are apparently missing?

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• The Renaissance Rundown Newsletter is being helmed by Juwan while Paul is on the mend from a surgery last week to address a non-life threatening injury he had. He’s okay, but let him know you’re thinking about him and hope he recovers well on his Instagram, Twitter, or website!
• With everything going on… *gestures at humanity* things have slowed down around here as of late, but don’t worry, we are still cooking things up. We may have brainstormed for some campaigns in the immediate future… 👀

ARTICLES

Here’s some recent articles from us that may be of interest:

Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show: A Recap — Paul K. Barnes

While Paul’s out of writing commission for a little, there’s still plenty of words of his to read around here. Take his recap on the Super Bowl Halftime Show, for example.

Jacob Ezra Walks the Dividing Line — Paul K. Barnes

Paul’s profile of music artist and journalist Jacob Ezra is a complete banger: “Walking the line between music journalist and artist is a very rare position. For Jacob, he started as a music artist before he was a music journalist, so naturally, his perspective is both unique and considerate… The conversation over who has the right to review music, and what type of music they review, has reached a new level of polarization. It’s all very interesting, to say the least.”

Reentering the World of Underground Rap — Paul K. Barnes

Paul’s thinking exercise on what constitutes “underground” will make you think, if you like doing that sometimes.

HAVE YOU HEARD…

Today, May 2nd, has been declared Megan Thee Stallion Day in her hometown of Houston, Texas. Mayor Sylvester Turner issued the proclamation, and presented Megan with a key to the city at a ceremony held yesterday.

Later today, fashion’s premiere event — the Met Gala — is being held for the 38th time at the Metropolitan Museum of New York. This will be the first Met Gala held in May since 2019–2020’s was cancelled (pandemic) and 2021’s was held in September (just eight months ago — which is probably why it feels like it already happened.) This year’s theme, based on an exhibit of the same title, is “In America: An Anthology of Fashion.” I can’t wait to see how badly that goes.

The Met Gala chair’s this year are Regina King (this would mark one of her first public appearances since her son’s death), Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Performers have not been formerly announced, but you can still expect a heavy crew of musicians to show up. Vogue’s livestream coverage, which is co-hosted by Vanessa Hudgens and La La Anthony, will start at 6pm EST.

In other news:

• Music journalist Ivie Ani launched a new live radio show “In Full Effect” on Amazon Music’s AMP application this week. Download the AMP app and use the code “IVIE” to access the show and several other talk radio and licensed songs.

• In an interview on Twitch for Rolling Stone, Sean Paul liked comedian Jay Pharoah’s impression of him so much that he committed to signing the SNL alum. During the interview, Paul also shared what’s the right temperature for your girl and (once again) what he says at the beginning of the song.
• The Rolling Stone Twitch also interviewed the rapper IDK last week, his first sit-down since announcing his upcoming KAYTRANADA-produced album, Simple. They broadcast on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 4pm EST at www.twitch.tv/rollingstone.
• Drake is (allegedly) a fan (or more?) of Abby Shapiro, the influencer sister to right-wing conspiracist Ben Shapiro.
• Joe Budden is holding a grudge against Earl Sweatshirt over a sketch mocking him from a 2014 episode of Loiter Squad, the former Odd Future rapper said as a guest on the Showtime show Desus & Mero.
• In the second season premiere of her self-titled, weekly variety Showtime series Ziwe, Ziwe asked Breakfast Club host Charlamagne da God why he always “beefs” with Black women, as well as inquiring further about his self-comparisons to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

MUSIC RELEASES

This past week: Kehlani’s BLUE WATER ROAD and Future’s I Never Liked You came out. Additionally, Wale’s More About Nothing, the Seinfeld-inspired mixtape sequel to The Mixtape About Nothing (2008) and prequel to the album The Album About Nothing (2015), is now available on streaming services 12 years after its release. Amongst singles released: Tink and 2 Chainz have a single called “Cater” and Jvck James released the EP ON THE ROCKS featuring the song “Hennessy Tears.”

This upcoming week: there’s not a heavy amount of hip-hop drops as of now slated for the month of May, but IDK’s album Simple, YNW BSlime’s Goat and Jack Harlow’s album Come Home The Kids Miss You (further comment on the title withheld… for now) are set to come out on Friday, May 6. (Non-rap artists releasing music also include Simple Plan and Arcade Fire — this weekend’s musical guest for Saturday Night Live.) Before that, Lil Gotit’s album The Cheater, which leaked in January according to Genius.com, gets officially dropped on May 4 (may the four-ce of record sales be on his side.)

Later in the month, though: there will be plenty of new hip-hop for fans to ingest. Of course, Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers comes out May 13, as does Leikeli47’s album Shape Up and Dreezy & Hit-Boy’s Hit-Girl. Sean Paul’s new album Scorcha is slated for May 27, while Blackstar (the moniker for duo Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey) and Trippie Redd both have releases expected this month, according to HipHopDX.

Randomly, Rick Astley’s Whenever You Need Somebody (featuring the viral sensation “Never Gonna Give You Up”) is getting a remastered release this week too, in case you were wondering.

RELAY

Here, we relay from a portion of an article written recently regarding hip hop.

This week, we’re relaying from Pitchfork staff writer & rap columnist Alphonse Pierre, and their column “Crypto Is the Most Uncool Thing You Could Possibly Rap About”:

The track, by Rich the Kid and Takeoff, is called “Crypto,” and it’s the most embarrassing rap song I’ve come across in a minute.

Just look at this chorus: “She want the info/I want to talk about crypto.” Is anyone even sure what that means?! Either it’s about Takeoff being so singularly business-minded that he just wants to talk to his girlfriend about investing, or it has absolutely no meaning and is the sort of line that will get him paid a shit ton of money to perform at an angel investor’s birthday party.

RECOMMENDED SONGS …for some reason, all the reasons, no reasons

• “Hit My Phone” — Megan Thee Stallion feat. Kehlani — SUGA (Happy Meg Day!)
• “Maybach Music” — Rick Ross feat. Jay-Z — Trilla (A good throwback to start May with, minus that same old Justin Timberlake meme.)
• “Get TF Out My Face” — Saucy Santana [prod. by Bankroll Got It & Diego Ave] (Familiarize yourself with RCA Records’ newest talent.)

Thanks for reading, for somewhere between the first and eighty-eighth time, The Renaissance Rundown. If you didn’t know, you can find me on every social at @/JuwantheCurator (in addition to @JuwantheWriter on Twitter), my latest work and links at linktr.ee/JuwantheCurator, and my own site, juwanthecurator.wordpress.com.

As always, follow The Renaissance Project (@TheRenProj) via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr.

See y’all next week.