#MTVU

[monards]

crepe extreme lesbianism strikes yet again

[buttons4ever]

[rockshrimp1989]

Good LAWD!!🔥🔥

[themcrarchive]

10/26/2004: MCR interviewed by MTVu Backstage Pass on the Nintendo Fusion Tour at the Roseland Ballroom in New York, NY🩸 #Revenge20

[kuiperblog]

What makes movie action “good?”

There’s a John Wick movie in theaters. There seems to be pretty uniform agreement that John Wick movies have great action, and simultaneously, there seems to be a lot of general “Marvel fatigue,” some of which is specifically about the MCU, but also some of which is about “action blockbusters” that seem to put a lot of focus on action and spectacle that a lot of people seem to be growing increasingly disenchanted with. (See, for example:  Tomorrow War (2021) starring Chris Pratt, Extraction (2020) starring Chris Hemsworth, and to round out the Chris roster we also have Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) with Chris Pine.)

Most of the discussion tends to focus on effects, and how making everything in a computer feels soulless while practical effects like the ones in John Wick and Everything Everywhere All At Once are superior, and there’s a certain degree to which blockbuster CG does look worse due to everything being computer generated. But I think a much bigger and more deep-seated problem is that blockbuster action is poorly structured.

There are a lot of great practical scenes in John Wick with choreography that is great not just in execution, but in concept: if you recreated them with computer animation, or hand-drawn animation, many of them would be just as fun. You could look at a storyboard with a director’s poorly-drawn pencil sketches and you’d still be able to follow the logic and understand what the scene’s impact is supposed to be. You can tell this, because people can describe these scenes, and regularly do exactly that, because they’re memorable. It’s what the legend of John Wick is all about. (And it’s not just the “top 10 most creative John Wick kills” listicles that remind us of that fact.)

The thing is, John Wick doesn’t rely on the unique outlandish props for memorable kills. Most of John Wick’s kills boil down to “point gun, pull trigger.” And yet despite that most of his kills are with bullets, so many of them feel unique. Each scene feels like it has a tempo to it, a sense of flow, a chain of cause and effect. “That guy is hiding behind a pillar, but his toe is sticking out. So I’ll shoot him in the toe, causing him to bend over in pain, exposing the rest of his body so I can shoot center of mass.” There’s always the moment when John Wick runs empty and has to reload before delivering the killshot.

There’s a storytelling principle that’s often applied to plot structure. This was famously described by Trey Parker to a bunch of NYU students on MTVU's "Stand In." Trey Parker describes the writers room as containing a massive white board, split into 3 acts, where they write down ideas scenes and rearrange them. Each scene has to be entertaining by itself, but they also need to be connected by a coherent narrative through-line.

"You don't want just one scene where, 'well, what was the point of that?' Take the beats of your outline, and if the words 'and then' belong between those beats, you've got something pretty boring. What should happen between every beat that you've written down is either the word 'therefore,' or 'but.'”

A happens, therefore B happens. Or, B doesn't happen, but C happens, therefore D happens. Repeat.  You can use this to structure the plot for a 25-minute TV episode, or a 120-minute movie, or a 2-minute action scene. Follow it, beat by beat, and see if one leads to the next:

One of the evil henchmen comes swinging at our hero with a wooden chair raised over his head, but the hero dodges and the wooden chair smashes against the floor, shattering. Therefore, the ground is now covered with the broken remains of a wooden chair, so the mook picks up one of the long pieces of wood that served as a chair leg and begins swinging at the hero again. But the hero successfully dodges and the wooden club breaks and splinters in a way that causes it to become, therefore the mook starts trying to use the splintered end to stab the hero...

I’m not saying this is an amazing action scene, but it’s a competent one: each beat flows into the next. The chair becomes a chair leg, then the chair leg becomes a shiv. Each time the henchman comes rushing at the hero, he’s doing it with a different weapon. The scene has a logic to it: if you rearranged the shots, the scene wouldn’t make sense. You can’t start with a splintered piece of wood and then end on an intact chair.

So many mediocre action movies fail to deliver it. The bad guy punches the hero. And then he punches the hero again. And then he tries to kick the hero. And then he punches in a different, cooler way. There’s no real sense in which each beat is a consequence of what followed it: if you cut the scene up and rearranged the shots, a lot of people might not even notice. (And in fact that sort of thing happens all the time in the editing bay.)

Tony Zhou self-deprecatingly describes this problem when critiquing one of his own videos, saying “This is a list you could put in any order. That’s why it’s so boring.”

For examples of action cinema where every beat feels like a consequence of what preceded it, watch any classic Jackie Chan movie (the ones that came out of Hong Kong, not Hollywood). Tony Zhou describes it like this:

“So how does Jackie create action that is also funny? First off, he gives himself a disadvantage. No matter what film, Jackie always starts beneath his opponents. He has no shoes. He’s handcuffed. He has a bomb in his mouth.“

“From this point, he has to fight his way back to the top. Each action creates a logical reaction. And by following the logic, we get a joke.” (Jackie is facing an assailant with a gun; Jackie has a gun, but it’s empty. Therefore, Jackie fakes surrender, handing his empty gun to the assailant. Therefore, the assailant is now holding an unloaded gun in his left hand. The assailant now thinks he has control of the situation, but reaching for the unloaded gun distracted him the fact that Jackie was entering a fighting stance and getting ready to kick: therefore, when Jackie kicks, he succeeds in knocking the loaded gun out of the assailant’s right hand. Therefore, the assailant tries to fire at Jackie using the gun in his left hand -- which is empty, and he realizes it in a moment of surprise which Jackie seizes on by punching the assailant in the face.)

This is the joy of watching Jackie Chan films: much like the example of a chair (which morphs into a chair leg, which morphs into a shiv), a prop in a Jackie Chan movie is rarely just one thing. A ladder isn’t just a ladder; it’s a prop. And it’s several different kinds of props. Fighting with a ladder like this:

...is subtly different than fighting with a ladder after this happens: 

And if you flip it over a guy’s head, it suddenly becomes a cage: 

...trapping a guy just long enough for him to look at you in surprise right before your fist intersects with his face.

It’s great for action comedy, but it’s also great for straight action: sometimes, the “punchline” is someone getting defeated in a surprising way. John Wick is one of the few big franchises of recent years to reliably do this sort of thing well.

Often, John Wick accomplishes this by being clever.  But I think a big part of it comes down to the fact that John Wick is just mortal enough for the number of bad guy’s he’s facing to matter. Each scene needs a sense of “progress,” where the stakes are constantly changing, and sometimes the change in stakes is as simple as, “There are five bad guys, oh no!” Bang bang, pivot, bang bang. “Okay, now there are only three bad guys.” (It’s harder to do this when you’ve been injected with super soldier serum and wear a suit made of high-tech blast resistant stretch fabric: Captain America subduing five bad guys doesn’t feel meaningfully different from him subduing three bad guys, even if the way he punches them is really cool.)

Stakes matter! If threat level scales linearly with the number of bad guys on screen, then each scene will have a natural eb and flow to it as bad guys get gradually picked off (or as more of them stream into the room, or pick themselves up off the floor and reach for the gun they just dropped).

One of the MCU scenes that actually did this better than most is the famous Captain America elevator scene: first, Crossbones and two guys get onto the elevator with cap. A bit surprising. Why is that guy resting his hand on his hip so close to his gun? Several floors later, the elevator opens, and four more guys get on. They’re wearing suits, like you’d expect from people who just showed up for a day at the office. This is headquarters, there’s nothing to be worried about. So why is that guy sweating? Then, the  door opens again, and three more guys get on -- and these guys are wearing tac gear. But hey, it’s Jack -- I know Jack, he was in the first ensemble movie, he can’t be one of the bad guys...so why is he standing directly between me and the door?

It’s a great example of slowly amping up the tension by gradually adjusting the threat level up. The scene even amps up the tension by having the magnetic handcuff, which leaves Cap in various stages of incapacitation throughout the fight. And he has to fight his way up from the bottom. But we very quickly go from this iconic shot:

...then after literally three seconds of Cap delivering a rapid series of strikes to incapacitate most of the mooks, he’s back to fighting two or three of them at a time.

Despite there being ten bad guys in the elevator, it’s kind of hard to get a clear fix on how many of them attacking Cap at any given moment, all of the others existing in various states of injury and recovery after they get the wind knocked out of them. In fact, the only shot that allows us to get a full body count is after the fight is over:

But it’s still a fun scene, one of my favorites, succeeding at being fun and memorable.

The bigger issue is the need to be “epic”: threat level can’t scale linearly with the number of bad guys on screen when you want a scene where there are literally hundreds of enemies to fight off.

There’s a certain point at which the marginal effect of another bad guy on screen is effectively zero. Obviously, this is the case when you have hundreds or dozens of enemies on screen, but there’s a real sense in which “group of seven bad guys” doesn’t feel different from “group of six bad guys.” Our brains just categorize both as “a pretty big cluster.” Research tends to come to slightly different results on this, but it seems like humans count “one, two, three, four, many.” Once you have five bad guys on screen, adding a sixth bad guy doesn’t do anything to change the stakes.  (That’s the problem with having a hero who’s so strong that you need to throw 10 bad guys at him to pose any threat.)

If you cap the total number of on-screen bad guys at five, then each enemy the hero defeats meaningfully changes the stakes, and John Wick does this a lot. In many cases, the flow just comes from watching the number of bad guys on screen decrease linearly as the hero picks them off, one by one. It gives the scene a natural scenes of progress, and it can sometimes be played for comedy, like Neal Stephenson does in Snow Crash in a scene described by a sniper’s dialog:

"It's, like, one of them drug dealer boats," Vic says, looking through his magic sight.  "Five guys on it.  Headed our way."  He fires another round.  "Correction.  Four guys on it."  Boom.  "Correction, they're not headed our way anymore."  Boom.  A fireball erupts from the ocean two hundred feet away.  "Correction.  No boat."

That’s a (very short) scene with flow. You can’t rearrange the beats; every beat leads to the next. Follow the logic, and arrive at the punchline.

[clubnate]

I am not the anon who followed for cobra and now will accept my fate as a tai fan, but please, please, please explain the connection between The Academy Is and Cobra Starship.

Unabridged is preferred tbh.

i got 2 anons about this and this is literally the thing i'm the most insane about omg ok warning this is gonna be long cause i'm just gonna include everything ive got on my google doc about this

TLDR; same record labels, snakes on a plane, lots of tours together, music videos, webshows and general friendship is the conncection

It starts pre-cobra with midtown. iirc, tai were just fans of midtown pre-tai and in the early days, they're from chicago and came up in the same scene as fob, mike carden (tais guitarists) old band had fob open for them and he was even asked to join fob in an early version of it, so fob, tai and midtown all eventually become friends which is when they met gabe and eventually they toured with midtown twice in 04-05.

2006- midtown dies in 05 and from the ashes rises COBRA STARSHIP. Cobras gets signed to fueled by ramen and decaydance records, which is the same 2 labels as TAI. while gabe's working on the music, tai's bassist, sisky finds out about snakes on a plane and suggested submitting their song to be on the soundtrack. Then william beckett the singer of TAI suggested to gabe that this would be perfect for cobras and he should put a song forward, which he does. Gabe makes some changes to the lyrics, adds william, travie and maja and Bring it (snakes on a plane) was born. (source) Sometime around 2006-2005 gabe briefly featured in the music video for 'the phrase that pays'

2007- things ramp up and they start touring together. Both bands are supporting acts on the honda civic 2007 tour and are featured at 3 separate Decaydance fest shows in Paris, Kohn and London. They also do a series of international festivals together like reading and leeds, pukkelpop, summer sonic, ect AND they do an australia tour just the 2 of them, this was all through summer. At the end of the year cobras jump on TAI's headliner tour, they weren't supposed to butviva la cobra came out earlier than planned so they had no tour to promote it so tai let them open for the last month or so. Both were also apart of the MTVu campus takeover this year. TAI had a webshow and cobra are featured multiple times from 2007-2008, this is actually where they got the idea for cobra cam and even stole TAI's camera man to film it. also somewhere someone released official merch that included cobra, TAI and fob that said 'gabe is not a ynonym for sisky' and they promoted it together.

2008- Both bands are part of the lineup for warped tour this year, snakes was played a lot and when suarez had to leave the tour for a couple days, sisky and the butcher (TAI's drummer) covered for him. TAI's album was released in august and featured backing vocals from Ryland, Alex and Gabe, and every member of cobra is mentioned in the thank yous. Right after warped both bands go to australia and opened for panic at the disco (bonus info: victoria, sisky and ryan went bar hopping for ryans 22nd), then right after they go and do a japan tour with the hush sound and the cab. For welcome to the new administration, suarez remixed TAI's song 'automatic eyes'

2009 onwards- Things slowed down after this. The butcher is briefly featured in the good girls go bad music video. in 2011 both band play at the 15th anniversary of fueled by ramen, this ended up being TAI's last show before they split. After they split, butcher was the drum tech for cobra from 2011-2012. When TAI had a reunion in 2015, suarez played bass for sisky with carly rae jepsen so he could play on their reunion tour. Also around 2015 Gabe and Mike started TAG music together, i think mike has left since then though.

Extras: at every TAI show since their 2022 reunion they have played snakes on a plane, with gabe or without. Gabe also always does backing vocals for the song 'classifieds' if he's there. Sisky used to do travies rap during snakes if he wasn't there, he did it a bunch on warped 2008.

Sisky commented this during cobrakkah in 2021 and i think about it a lot tbh. I think they were just best friends who got to tour the world together in their youth and are still friends and still hold a lot of love for eachother :,)

hope that wasn't too much, i'm pretty sure i covered everything that i know about. Decaydance is my favourite thing so i have a google doc of all their connections so i remember them all :D

something to add would be that TAI are opening for fob on the 3rd in LA and a few cobras live there, so i wouldn't be suprised if they show up for snakes on a plane!

EDIT: if you want photos of any of these things I mentioned I probably have some so please ask! and if you don't want to, search my tag #thepolycule and there's a bunch of photos of decaydance bands hanging out together, including TAI and cobra

[thelensofyashunews]

CASH COBAIN SHARES HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED SOPHOMORE LP PLAY CASH COBAIN + "ACT LIKE" VID

Fresh off being named a coveted Apple Up Next artist, a 2024 XXL Freshman, and Billboard Rookie of the Month, Cash Cobain has shared his highly-anticipated sophomore album Play Cash Cobain (via Giant Music) — with an accompanying music video for his long-awaited Pop Smoke tribute, "Act Like", which made its broadcast premiere on MTV Live, MTVU, MTV Biggest Pop, BET Jams and on the Paramount Times Square billboards. The release follows this week's profile of Cash on The New York Times Print Arts Section Cover, who hailed him as an artist that's "changing the sound of drill." 

The momentum around this LP is at an all-time high following the release of his last single "Problem", a 15-person Slizzy mix bolstered by a prominent sample of Brooklyn newcomer Laila!'s viral hit "Not My Problem". The near-8 minute track boasted an insanely stacked lineup of features from the likes of Fabolous, Big Sean, Kenzo B, Lay Bankz, Luh Tyler, Anycia, Chow Lee, Kaliii, 6lack, Flo Milli, YN Jay, FLEE, Don Q and Rob49 –– calling back to a lost era of heavyweight-posse cuts of the 00's.

The all-star guest list doesn't stop there on Play Cash Cobain –– with him grabbing marquee features like Quavo, Don Toliver, Laila!, & 4Batz & long-time collaborators Vontee The Singer and Payroll. The 19-track album is a direct result of the lightning-hot run he's been on this year –– with a majority of the LP being made only in the past 8 months following a flurry of late-nights at the club, romantic rondeaux, and the makings of his "Slizzy Summer."

The artwork is a nod to one of Cash's biggest influencers and collaborators -– Drake, who added his inscription and signature on a fan's phone case, completing the 'PlayCashCobain' theme he's maintained around this release. Topping it all off –– Cash also announced his debut headlining solo NYC show, at the historic, newly-reopened Brooklyn Paramount next month (tickets available HERE). This is the follow-up to his iconic 'Slizzy Fest' birthday show at Irving Plaza, a night that boasted a stacked lineup of NYC finest which led to it being unfortunately shut down, only for Cash to lead his fans to Union Square for an impromptu performance in the park (read Rolling Stone review). In the words of Cash:

“I’m feeling sexy, slizzy — I’m just happy to give y’all this music finally. Thank you to all my fans and supporters, I really appreciate you. Been working non-stop on this album and I’m just so excited to share 'Play Cash Cobain.' It’s a Slizzy Summer!”Last week, Cash had an electric pair of performances on Ice Spice's sold-out NYC dates, with Rolling Stone noting -– "Cash is one of the coolest artists in the game, boasting a signature sound replete with a dance that simulates a flowing ocean current. The young crowd ate it up...". 

The hype has continued to explode, with Future & Metro Boomin bringing Cash out during their sold-out Brooklyn date and later that night, him linking up with Travis Scott in an impromptu DJ set. Play Cash Cobain serves as the exclamation point on a 2024 winning streak that includes the Ice Spice-assisted "Fisherrr" (feat. BaySwag) (40M Streams) remix, as well as a collab with J. Cole on “Grippy” (15M Streams), a new version of his 2023 track “Dunk Contest” (13M Streams), and a fan-favorite, "Rump Punch" (20M Streams).

With the success of Cobain’s smash singles, the Bronx superstar has skyrocketed to over 4M Monthly Listeners on Spotify and in the past year his streams have gone up 3,400% on Apple Music alone. Cobain has since hinted at collaborations with Frank Ocean, Travis Scott, Lil Yachty and more –– a sure sign that superstardom is soon to come. The rapper and producer also recently made his triumphant Billboard Hot 100 debut alongside Charlie Wilson on Don Toliver's single "Attitude"(100M Streams) [ read hisBillboard: 'Chartbreakers' feature], –– showcasing exactly why the outlet proclaimed, "The Summer of Slizzy is upon us".

[katyperrychina]

Katy Perry发布全新单曲《LIFETIMES》

今天，Katy Perry发布了她的全新单曲《LIFETIMES》。这是一首充满光辉和活力的歌曲，反映了爱情的永恒。该曲目收录在她即将于9月20日发布的新专辑《143》中。

为配合这首歌的夏日氛围，由Stillz（曾与Bad Bunny、Rosalía合作）执导的官方MV在美丽的西班牙伊比沙岛拍摄。该视频已在MTV Live、MTVU、MTV Biggest Pop以及时代广场的派拉蒙广告牌上首播。

“《LIFETIMES》是一首关于永恒之爱的歌曲，Katy Perry表示。“它讲述的是找到你一生中那个深刻而满足的爱。灵魂伴侣不一定是伴侣的形式——它可以以各种不同的方式出现，比如一个孩子、最好的朋友、宠物。对我来说，这个人就是我的女儿——我每晚都问她，‘你会在每一个轮回中找到我吗？’她回答‘会’，让我感到被找到了。你们会一次又一次地找到彼此，直到永远。” 

专辑《143》是这位多才多艺的音乐人回归本色的一次性感而无畏的尝试。专辑充满了让粉丝们喜爱的那种充满庆祝意味和挑衅性的流行颂歌，充满了情感与活力。

9月20日星期五，Katy Perry将在巴西的“摇滚里约”音乐节上作领衔嘉宾演出，这是她自2015年以来首次在里约热内卢的这个音乐节上表演。她还将在2024年9月28日星期六于澳大利亚墨尔本举行的丰田澳式橄榄球大联盟总决赛的Telstra赛前娱乐活动中担任主角。

Katy Perry的全球累计播放量已达1150亿次，全球专辑销售量超过7000万张，单曲销量达到1.43亿张，是历史上最畅销的音乐艺人之一。她是历史上仅有的12位认证销量超过1亿的艺人之一。

[sigelfire]

Diego Luna and Channing Tatum backstage at the mtvU Fandom Awards in San Diego, California 2014

Photo By Jordan Strauss

[pwblogarchive]

September 2004

FOB is going into preproduction for our new record next week- if you like fob then this is what you should get excited for (duh)-

just don’t want anybody disappointed.

peter

September 23, 2004

“I Dont Want To Dream Anymore If Its Not Me And You”

its been awhile. ive just been staying up late watching movies: mean girls, starwars, and shaolin soccer. summer ended. it makes me sad. lets keep it going [allnight]. nick designed a new site for the gym class heroes. go scope it and tell nick he is good at design and kissing. the new gymclass song is so amazing. we have been demoing with our producer Neal Averon. i know we won’t let you down. i hope this record changes how you/we see things. seeing “love doesnt bore me. it disappoints me” coming out of jude laws mouth may be one of the best ever. so true. we are up for a woodie award. patrick gets funny looking morning wood so go vote for that badboy on the front page. tell hey chris to stop being a bastard and hang out with me. then go watch all indiana jones movies in a row. it will make you feel okay. me and patrick wrote some songs they make my moods a bit more even. its so predictable to write these words and feel this down, im sorry if it bores you. writing has been coming so easily lately, maybe ill post some of it. cause i got the drama queens in my court, in my sheets and our old conversations in my head. send me your love letters and ill check the grammar and send them back. its better than unopened. wrapped a ribbon around my wrist so id have something to open at christmas. im mostly joking but some days i’d love to be just like everyone else. i cant write myself out of this one. come by at 2 tonight when everyone else is asleep. im taking all bets against me.

peter

go listen to converge “you fail me” on play - repeat

September 28, 2004

“Theres A Black Cloud Over Our Heads To Keep Us From Winning.”

day one tbs tour. matchbook romance picks us up. our trailer breaks down on the south side of chicago. spend the night at tony from mest’s house. ditch the trailer and continue to iowa without much equipment or much merch. if you see us in the next couple of days throw some pennies into wells and make some eyelash wishes for us so we can get some better luck. too bad this tour is gonna be so amazing no matter what happens, luck couldnt touch us.

hope you guys like the video and stuff- vote over at oven fresh and mtvu- honestly you are the best.

idontknowwhativegottenmyselfintobutiloveit.

peterpan

[prettyoddfever]

I didn’t post anything about the 15th anniversary of Pretty. Odd. yesterday (March 21st) because the album came out on March 25th in America... so that’s the day that feels like the anniversary to me. A LOT of promo stuff was going on in spring 2008, but here are some key moments close to the release date:

the official Leak was on March 18th. Angels & Kings also played the whole album that day.

PATD performed at mtvU’s Spring Break on March 19th in Panama City Beach. Their AT&T Blue Room performance was recorded around the same time.

*fans in some other countries were able to buy their cds around this time. and some stores sold the cd early too and some preorders arrived early*

Fuse did a PATD marathon on March 22nd that included Live in Denver, the making of NITA, and The Making of Pretty. Odd (those versions were edited down to fit a time slot, though).

Jessica Alba’s lip sync was shared like 1-2 days before March 25th.

the album officially released in the US on March 25th. Panic performed on Jimmy Kimmel that day, and I think they were at their soundcheck while the prerecorded AT&T Blue Room webstream aired.

Jon said in an AbsolutePunk interview on March 25: “Today is the first day some of our family members have heard the CD and they’ve been calling me and saying they like it a lot. It’s fun to see all that work finally paid off.”

[lookedlikethebins]

big ta matty vibes, especially the outfit https://x.com/healyinmymind/status/1780226057863368755?s=46

(x)

OH yes yes yes!!! how did i forget about this outfit in the initial fashion gathering for TA matty? this is very matty as a recent grad/newly masters student being interviewed for the student-run, shown-in-the-student-center-only campus news station. even though it's a few years old, the station will still run sound bites from it (with video) as a sort of PSA bumper before other segments and shows.

George is waiting on campus one day (Matty just had to run upstairs in the student center to get something printed out) and is sitting with his head and eyes down, across from one of the big mounted TVs. When suddenly... he hears his boyfriend (about five years younger) talking about making the human experience beautiful and unlimited and true empathy with the most sincere and intentioned look, staring right into the camera, and almost right at George. Matty comes back after his clip is over and it's moved onto the like, MTVU "Artist to Watch" program (for whom George is definitely not producing the new album). They leave the student center and get going on their day but "You don't need to care about what everyone thinks about you. You don't need to do it." stays with George all day....

[fall-out-boytoy]

William Beckett at the 2007 mtvU Woodie Awards at the Roseland Ballroom on November 8, 2007 in NYC (source, source, source)

[labelleperfumery]

Charli XCX -- Good Genes or Good Docs?!

Charli XCX’s looks over the years are so BRATTY! Here is a 21-year-old version of the singer-songwriter, “fancy” in leather, at the mtvU Woodie Awards and Festival in Texas back in 2014 (left). This was the same year she collabed with Iggy Azalea… from TMZ.com https://www.tmz.com/2024/10/13/charli-xcx-good-genes-or-good-docs/

[lboogie1906]

Rakim Athelaston Mayers (October 3, 1988) known professionally as ASAP Rocky (stylized as A$AP Rocky) is a rapper, record producer, and record executive. Born and raised in Harlem, he embarked on his musical career as a member of the hip-hop collective ASAP Mob, from which he adopted his moniker. His single “Peso” was leaked online and within weeks began receiving radio airplay. He released his debut mixtape Live. Love. A$AP to widespread critical acclaim.

His debut studio album Long. Live. A$AP (2013) debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album was preceded by his breakout single, “Fuckin’ Problems”, which was nominated for Best Rap Song at the 2014 Grammy Awards. In 2015, he released his second album, titled At. Long. Last. A$AP. The album was his second consecutive album to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200 and received positive reviews from music critics. The album’s single, “L$D”, was nominated for Best Music Video at the 2016 Grammy Awards. In 2018, he released his third album, Testing, which peaked in the top five of several countries, including the Billboard 200.

He has won a BET Award, two BET Hip Hop Awards, an MTV Video Music Award in Japan, and an MTVU Woodie Award, as well as being nominated for two Grammy Awards, six World Music Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards, and two MTV Europe Music Awards. He has directed music videos for himself, Danny Brown, and other A$AP Mob members. He produces records under the pseudonym Lord Flacko. He started rapping at age nine, when he moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

He revealed during an interview with GQ that he is in a relationship with Barbadian singer Rihanna. The couple have two children. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

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CASH COBAIN DROPS "PLAY CASH COBAIN" ALBUM

Fresh off being named a coveted Apple Up Next artist, a 2024 XXL Freshman, and Billboard Rookie of the Month, Cash Cobain has shared his highly-anticipated sophomore album Play Cash Cobain (via Giant Music) — with an accompanying music video for his long-awaited Pop Smoke tribute, “Act Like”, which made its broadcast premiere on MTV Live, MTVU, MTV Biggest Pop, BET Jams and on the Paramount Times…