Every Single Album - Beyoncé Tour Rumors, the Next Round of Drake vs. Kendrick, and Upcoming Spring Releases

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

Nora and Nathan talk about whether there is any validity to the rumors that Beyoncé is getting ready for a ‘Cowboy Carter’ tour (1:00); Drake’s lawsuit against his own record label, Universal Music Group, for promoting Kendrick Lamar’s diss track against him (21:32); and some upcoming spring album releases from JADE, Lucy Dacus, and Addison Rae (41:47). Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Nathan Hubbard Producer: Kaya McMullen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm Joanna Robinson. Join us every week on the Prestige TV podcast feed is your favorite ringer hosts like Bill Simmons, Van Lathen, Mallory Rubin, Sean Fentasy, Chris Ryan, Julia Lippman, and many more cover the latest episodes of your favorite TV obsessions. From boardrooms to throne rooms to courtside and through the mushroom apocalypse, we'll be here throughout the week breaking it all down. Subscribe to the Prestige TV podcast feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to every single album.

I'm Nora Preciati and I am joined as always. by Nathan Hubbard. Nathan, how is your Wednesday morning as we're recording this? Yeah, we're doing okay. There is a palpable, albeit subdued, buildup for the impending Grammys. There's a lot at stake, I think, even though it's been kind of a crazy news week with the inauguration and still the fires and the football and all these things. There's really something that matters that's happening over the course of the next week. next couple of weeks in Grammieland.

Yeah, I'm really excited. I think it'll be a really interesting show, and I genuinely don't feel like I know what's going to happen. We're going to talk about some of the Grammy stuff that's going to intersect with a few things that we're going to talk about today. However, I will say that next week, we're going to do like an all Grammys, take some questions, do predictions, go hard on the major storylines heading into the show, and then, of course, we'll recap it following the show.

And when we know who wins, we'll touch on some of the Grammy's stuff. just because other things that we're going to talk about today probably will intersect. But if you're looking for just like all Grammys, that's going to be next week. So stay tuned for that. Also, we'll say, as I think Nathan would would concur with. So many like kind, kind shoutouts both of our way, but mostly Nathan's way from this audience. And it's just very nice. You're all very wonderful people.

So thank you. Yeah. Appreciate it very, very much. Here's what we're going to talk about today. First of all, some of our main pop girls are being. a little mysterious online, and we're going to break it down. Some speculation, Beyonce speculation, some Gaga countdown website stuff. Then we're going to talk about a big story in music about an artist who we've sometimes

touched on, but haven't ever spent like a ton of time with, who is Drake, who is suing his label over the aftermath of the Kendrick Beef and not like us. And that's just a big story in the music world right now. And again, it sort of crosses over into some Grammy stuff, some Super Bowl stuff, and is also just interesting. So we're going to dig into that a little bit. And then we're going to go over a few upcoming releases, including some from some of the artists that we talked about potentially having really big and interesting 2025s.

And now we know a little bit more about how that's going to take shape. So that's going to be the last thing that we're going to talk about today. And then again, next week, Grammys, Grammys, Grammys, and maybe we'll do a little bit of Super Bowl stuff might depend on whether or not we're expecting Taylor Allison Swift to make an appearance at the game depending on who is participating. So we'll see. But let's start with Pop Girl Mystery Corner. And the two featured players in this segment this week are going to be Beyonce and Lady Gaga. Let's do Beyonce first. So as we've talked about, she was supposed to make an announcement on January 14th. That was postponed because of the

fires. Now, that announcement still hasn't happened in any official capacity, but one of the major theories was that what she was going to announce would be a Cowboy Carter tour. And there are some apps like songkick that have sent fans notifications about Beyonce shows this year. there was one date that appeared to be scheduled at Soldier Field on September 12th in Chicago. So, Nathan, you know so much about touring, and you have at times cautioned me that artist put holds on venues all the time and don't believe everything you read and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I'm asking you, do you think this is legit? Do you think that Beyonce is going to tour Cowboy Carter this summer and fall? I do.

I think what happens a lot of times in. in ticketing systems. They are, by definition, sort of, they're a combination of enterprise software and consumer-facing technology. Oh my God, everybody just fast-forwarded through this section. That's fine.

Hello, nerds who hung around. I will promise you, I will make this not boring, but I want you to understand why, when a place like Song Kick fires off an alert, that may be indicative of something happening. These ticketing systems, people have to enter in the tour dates into somebody in an office somewhere in a ticketing company

gets told that Beyonce is going on tour and they get told the details of the tour and where and when, and they enter that information into the ticketing system. They don't intend to make it public yet, but they get it ready so that when the tour announcement happens and the on sale, so much of selling tickets is about building a pipe

for that on sale moment and getting as much demand or perceived demand as possible in that moment, so that people have FOMO and they feel like they got to go because they're asking for your money, like in some cases over a year before the event actually happens. And so they've got to build up the hype around it. So the timing of everything and the precision of the announcement is supposed to be paramount. But what ends up happening is you have sometimes sort of data entry folks who've gotten this information

and they put it into a ticketing system. But once it's in that system, those are secrets that aren't supposed to be made public. But there are lots of consumer-facing applications like Songkick that tap into a ticketing system through an API. And if the right parameters aren't sent. Wait, sorry, API. Please help. I'm drowning here. Come on.

You understand the basics of API. Okay, but what does it stand for? Okay. So it's an application programming interface, which really means. Of course. It's basically a connection point. If you take a plug and plug it into the wall and you get power into your hair dryer

or whatever it is that you're plugging into the wall. Okay, crazy that you say that because I blew out my hairdriar literally yesterday. I'm so upset about it. Yeah, see, you and I, we have these vibes. Of course, I understood that. So what an API is, is it's kind of that outlet where you can plug into a system

and you can take data out of it. It's like a connect. activity point where you can take data out of it. And if I am songkick or the, if I'm Spotify, the tour dates that you see on Spotify, Spotify pulls those out of ticketing systems that they've plugged into via an API. And what happens is they get sent sort of automatically the updates of, you know, whatever is in that ticketing system when the ticketing system decides to make it public. And so if the individual or individuals who are entering in these secrets, into the ticketing system to get ready for this announcement.

Don't pull all the shades down in the room to keep the secrets. The API is told, and it's designed to just publish that stuff out to all of the people who are going to tell the world about the on sale dates. And so if they haven't kept each tour date secret as it gets entered in, occasionally something like this happens where the data gets pushed out accidentally through an API, it's just the digital infrastructure. doing what it's been told to do and designed to do. And the secret gets out right away. And so when it pops up on those various apps and sites that are tapping into the ticketing system, it's a pretty

good indication that something's going on behind the scenes. Now, there's a whole lot of misinformation out there and sometimes, you know, random Twitter sites aren't plugged in through the API. They don't have access. You have to be a legitimate site. The ticketing system has to have, or the ticketing company has to have approved you and there has to be some trust built in. So rando freaking, you know, Beyonce tour date 6-69-420 is not tapping into the API. So when they say, Beyonce's playing a tour, they don't know what the fuck they're talking about. But it's these more legitimate sites that you've come to trust and rely on that have those formal relationships with the ticketing companies that sometimes spill those secrets accidentally. And I think that is probably what's happening here.

Okay. Cool. Thank you for taking us all to school. Also, is everybody like satisfactorily asleep at this point? Everybody's awake because this means that we can go to a Beyonce concert. I'm psyched. This is great. I was stopping myself from getting totally hyped up until I heard it from your mouth that like this, this was a fair indication. And that's awesome. Presumably, if all of that stuff is in the works and in the systems, that announcement will come short. obviously she was preparing to make whatever announcement she's going to make last week. I mean, it's one of two things, right? It's either she's touring or it's the third album. And I am hearing nothing in the channels about the third album. And I think it would be, you know, with all of the focus on Cowboy Carter coming up with the Grammys to announce that before,

announce a new album before the Grammys, just would be weird. It's just the timing of it would make absolutely no sense. So it's got to be a tour. And that's great because what we saw at that halftime show of the Texans game made me excited to see her go out and do it because it's a reminder that nobody performs with the audacity and ambition of Beyonce when she makes these sort of cultural moments. And I can't wait to see if she's really going to go out after the last tour that she did, which didn't end that long ago, really ran.

in parallel to the Taylor tour for a big chunk of it. Yeah, for the first summer of it. Yeah. I mean, if she's going to go do the work on an entirely new tour with the dancing, with the visuals, with whatever it is that is so important to the visual part of Beyonce's art, man, we're in for a treat. I'm excited. All right.

Next mysterious woman of the pop universe is Lady Gaga. And I think this one I have a clearer handle on. So Gaga has an upcoming album. We don't know the name. We don't know the exact date. But it is allegedly coming, you know, around next months. I think the buzz has suggested, or maybe she said that somewhere, that it would be February. And there's music out from that already, obviously, like, disease was the first single for that.

She now has a countdown. Everybody's doing a countdown. Everybody is so Taylor Swift these days. And so on her website, it says, that there is a countdown ending as we are recording this next Monday, January 27th. And the theory, because as you move a cursor around the website, it changes to say, or it did change to say on the first day that the countdown went up, LG1, and that was, there were seven days before the countdown ends.

the theory would be that it's going to change to say LG2, LG3, LG4, LG5, LG6, and then LG7, and then it's going to be an announcement of, who knows, is it the name of the album? Is it the exact release date? We shall see. But it seems to be presaging some developments with the upcoming Lady Gaga album, which would indicate that that's coming fairly soon, which I think is exciting, because as you and I both talked about we were maybe left a little cold by disease from a creative perspective just because it is really a hearkening back to very early Gaga and we've heard some of that from her before.

But if I'm remembering that conversation correctly where you and I both wound up was we're not going to be sitting here underestimating Lady Gaga and I'm excited to hear what that is and to see what this countdown is. But I feel fairly confident that it is previewing some announcement relative to what's coming with the album. Fair, fair assertion on my part. Yeah, absolutely fair assertion. I mean, first, let's just say you and I both are on the record not totally getting die with a smile, but the public is on the record in large part, some portion of the public really liking die with a smile. And first of all, I think the public really likes Bruno Mars and the public really clearly likes Lady Gaga.

So the two of them together is just going to do well. But it does speak to the buoyancy of Gaga's career versus relatively, you know, I don't know, but the Katie Perry situation that's happening right now, even though I'm sure her tour is going to do just fine. Katie says, I just think, you know, let's be honest, disease didn't do very well. And if Die with a smile hadn't been out right now, I would be smashing the panic button if I was in the Gaga camp going, am I going to get Katie Perryed?

And I know we're going to talk about Addison Ray today, I'm sure for a minute, but are the Addison Ray's and Tate McCraise and this next generation, are they just crowding us more established pop girls out? And how do I find my way in, right? And we've laughed about it a lot, but it does sort of feel like Katie Perry is running into every glass door that she can find hoping it's a window.

and she just is sort of very publicly in that, you know, everyone's inside the room and they can see her smushing herself in a clumsy way up against the glass door that she thinks is a window. It's just this sort of public display of trying to get in. And at some point it feels like the person is trying too hard. You sort of admire the resiliency, but you also can't help but laugh at the failure of it, right, is one way to say it. And so in this case, the, the, The Gaga situation is fascinating for that reason. Is there space for her still? Is the power of her fan base so strong that they're going to embrace her no matter what she does?

And you look at Die with a smile and my conclusion is yes. But disease not really taking root is a little bit concerning. So the general move of record labels now is to create this mystery. right there is mumford just put out a single rushmere which i happen to love and all they did was like in one small tiny fan community posted a link that had a map on it and if you went to the map and you figured it out there was actually a little pond called rushmere which is where the band used to hang out and if you sort of hovered your mouse over you found a little song snippet so there was no other announcement. But it started a really intense discussion in the fan forums and the communities

outside of where this was posted because of the mystery, right? And fans want that challenge. They love feeling like they're on the inside. They love the, right, Taylor Swift blacking out her social media profile. I mean, this is, like, this wouldn't be happening if it weren't for Taylor, right? She has, she has trained an entire generation of artists to just be like cheeky at every turn. Yes. And so you've got a marketing manager at a record label who's like, okay, here's our campaign. And it starts from the first principles thinking of how do we create some intrigue and mystery and something that people can get excited about and keep checking in so that just like that on sale, we create a bunch of fomo and we have a moment where everybody dives in. And the hope is that the energy of that moment

draws people in via word of mouth and that it accelerates the cultural relevance of the, you know, art that's put out. So that's what's happening here. And I would just say, I expect there to be more than just a silly website that's going LP1, LP2, LP3, LP4, right? I expect a little bit more of a show from someone who is, if nothing else, one of our great show people in music. Right. What a month for the cursor. Explain. I just, there's something that feels so like analog about it to me because you do so much on the phone now.

And like so many of these things that are designed to be shareable and generate buzz are intended to be, you know, texted and passed between people on their phones. Right. And so to me that like there's just something that makes me feel like I'm on my parents, you know, blue bubble Macbook in 2007. Yeah. There were no APIs then.

There were no APIs then. Moving the mouse around and seeing the curse. Like, remember when you could change what your cursor looked like? I'm sure you still can, but like no one gives a shit. But you could change your cursor to be like a flower or a heart or something if you thought that was cute. Everybody's fast forwarding again. No.

people are like, I remember doing this. This is what this is what this is recalling to me. All of that makes sense. They're building buzz. Here's the problem, Nora. Well, because Buzz can, it can create a letdown. Yeah, but like, we are less than a year removed from one of the great album launch campaigns of the last decade in Brat.

and the bar is set so high for people to actually give a shit and to engage in a cultural moment that I worry a little bit. Brat didn't... Brat grew. Like, Brat had an incredible launch and an incredible plan and an incredible concept.

But Brat wasn't Brat because they teased it for two months before and the act of doing so built up all of this buzz that then the album came out and sort of capitalized on. Brat was like Brat mostly built up

after it was released. Yep, agree, but it was a thing and it was a plan and there were details and nuance and again, the capturing of a verb and an adjective and of color and a season and like, you know, you got to, if you're going to go down this path, it's just like the Taylor Tour in live

has set the bar extraordinarily high for what is to follow. I actually think that Brat campaign, if you're going to get people fired up and excited and engage, you've got to actually do the work and you've got to have a plan. And the music better be good. Yeah, for sure. That above all else. Like, I mean, if you and I go and, you know,

burp on the microphone for an hour, it's going to be hard for us to sell it, even if we've got a great campaign. I don't know, maybe people want to listen to that. We'll find out. But the, I think, I just think, that the expectation has been raised. And so we'll see. The reason I, again, am interested in this Gaga campaign is she is nothing, if not willing, to bend herself into all sorts of new and different

shapes and sizes creatively to express herself. And she has a mind that is capable of sort of building up a world building, as it were, right? World building around this piece of art. So if this is the start, I expect that it's a trickle that will result in a flood. We'll see. We'll see. I think that's right. I will say that I think she's getting the intended result of, I am aware that this is a thing that's happening that seems to be leading up to music. I know, you know, I heard someone mention it yesterday that somebody put the story in a group chat.

You know, like there is awareness. And I think as long as there's awareness, people will check out what she puts out. And if it's good, I don't know that she's going to get knocked for there weren't enough bells and whistles in the rollout. But the rollout has just begun. So there may be a lot of bells and whistles. And like you said, I wouldn't necessarily expect Lady Gaga to underdo it because historically that is not totally her ammo. But we will find out. Yep.

You want to talk about Drake? Yeah. I mean, let's talk about Drake. Let's talk about... This is a wild situation. Yeah, I mean, it is a wild situation, but also in context, it's kind of one of the defining technology content questions of our time. I mean, Trump pardoned the Silk Road guy yesterday. I mean, we'll explain what the Drake thing is, and then I'll get into this.

but like this slot squarely for me into this question that we've been tackling since the age of Napser that really started with the music industry, which is to what extent is the platform that puts out speech or content responsible for that content? And are they liable? Or is it the person and their speech? and it bumps into all kinds of free speech issues and everything else. But I will leave it to you and your eloquence to tee up what is happening with this Drake versus Universal Music Group lawsuit.

So here are the basics. So Drake, through his legal representatives, has filed a federal lawsuit suing his label, UMG, for defamation, essentially. And his argument is that because he is called a pedophile in Kendrick Lamar's not like us. And he has worked with Universal for many years since I think 2009. His allegation is essentially that if they thought that he was actually a pedophile, they would not have worked with him over that long period of time.

therefore they knew that what Kendrick says in the song is not true. Certified lover boy certified pedophiles. Why are you trolling like a bitch, ain't you tired? Trying to strike a chord and it's probably a minor. Which is important because Drake is a public figure and the defamation standard for a public figure is very high. It is very hard to win a defamation case against a public figure. and it hinges on not only false information having been published, that false information having

harmed the person reputationally or otherwise. One of the things that Drake cites in the suit is security concerns, including that two days after the song was released, he had a security guard who was shot at his house in Toronto. The house is the cover art for Not Like Us, and it has all the little red dots, which, you know, suggest the presence of a registered sex offender over the house in the album art. So he's saying, you know,

not only has this caused me your reputational harm, it's imperiled my safety. And so he's saying that it's not true, that it hurt him, and that Universal helped publish the song, because Universal also represents Kendrick, while knowing that it wasn't true. And he says that I guess Drake's contract is up for renegotiation this year.

And so his assertion is that they are doing this in order to devalue his music and his brand to get leverage in those renegotiations. And the one other thing I'll say, which I think ties into some of what you're going to talk about, is that he is pulling together some narratives and legal theories. I keep saying he, like obviously he's doing this through lawyers, who are the ones who are actually sort of organizing the way that they want to present this case. They are doing it in a way that references a lot of conspiracy theories. And it's the same legal team. Tell me what you mean.

It's the same legal team that represented. the owner of the pizza shop in D.C. That was the target of PizzaGate. They've also represented some election workers who were targeted after there were so many conspiracy theories about the 2020 election having been stolen. And so the way that they are setting up to argue this case, if it ever gets to that point,

is basically placing Kendrick Lamar saying, you know, certified pedophile, in song lyrics within the context of conspiracy theories that have led to you know, vigilantes or crazy people or whatever.

Going rogue and attacking people or just doing things that are harmful. In usually in like political worlds in not music, not in entertainment, like in these realms that I think we would think of

as just being sort of separate. So that's one thing that stood out to me, and I'm wondering if maybe that figures into what you were talking about, which is one of the big things that this raises, being, you know, what responsibility do these platforms have to police or control what's going out on their platforms? Well, it is, look, I think we should make this discussion. I don't want to just, like, so box it.

I mean, I think, you know, there's a bunch of interesting points of view around this, right? Like, there's the one, like, what a fucking wuss angle. Yes. Which feels, I mean, it's a legitimate conversation to have. Like, is Drake being just, like, too sensitive? I think it's hard. This is not the first lawsuit Drake has at least begun the moves of filing related to

not like us. So there is at least a vibe of, like, he's throwing things up against the wall to see what sticks because it's less about truly thinking that you're wronged in this specific way versus just like trying to make something happen, trying to get retribution in some way. I don't know. I mean, it's interesting that he hasn't sued Kendrick himself. And so it doesn't, I'm not exactly sure what the end game is.

I mean, certainly Trump, who felt like he was defamed, went around and sued a bunch of people directly. And, you know, has had varying degrees of success, lots of failures. the ABC Stephanopoulos settlement that a lot of people, I think, were pretty disappointed in. Yeah. But it still sent a message, right? And probably has changed the way that a lot of people have acted or will act on a go-forward basis with this administration.

And so it's unclear what Drake's objective is. You would think if it was part of the sort of escalating battle to strike back that he might sue Kendrick directly. And I'm not sure that's totally off the table. but you know I start I start from here first of all there's a long history in rap music of back and forth warring and there is also a history and rap music of that devolving into violence that took away some of the biggest stars of their generation and I think on the one hand the historical context is helpful and generally speaking escalating rhetoric that leads to violence is dangerous you know, on the other hand, just because it's rap

doesn't mean that the situation is the same as like Tupac and Biggie. Right. But also like somebody did fire shots at his house. And like this came home to roost in a very real way. And it's hard to sort of sit on the outside and judge what it's like to be shot at and feel like,

okay, the stakes have risen from this being a safe space, if you will, to beat the shit out of each other verbally, now it's escalated to something that, you know, has gone beyond the word as a weapon and into something that's physical. And so there is a line that gets dangerous. And I don't, I can't judge what it's like to be

in that situation. What I'll say is that this, to me, feels like, again, is Twitter responsible for hate speech? in some ways, you know, by organizing the January 6th rally was Trump responsible for what happened at the... There's a lot of these kinds of issues. They're not all exactly analogous. But it is this, you know, is Universal's job to police the content that they are a co-investor and owner of and that they distribute? Like, is it their job to say, to make the call, on where the lines are. And what I'll tell you from my,

you know, I was a pre-IPO employee at Twitter, and I spent a bunch of time with the executive team thinking through this issue. And, you know, there's a story around, I'll tell it quickly, but three American hostages were beheaded on camera by ISIS. And the video, they posted the video to Twitter. And we were trying to decide where the line is from abuse and hate speech and, you know, taking care of families and their victims and taking care of the users.

And when you ask the three families, so the story goes, like all three families had a different opinion on how to handle this. There was one family that said, put it up, put up the whole damn video. I want the world to see how horrible these people are. And there was another family that said, please don't do this. I don't want this out there. And I think that the end decision at some point was that they showed the video up until like a knife

was pressed against the victim's neck and then anything after that was cut off. Yeah, okay, but that feels like an arbitrary decision that has to get made by a human being and that today there is no AI infrastructure that you can train on what is right around speech and where speech stops hurting or where the right line is for the amount of damage or impact or risk that gets created by speech. And so this is like one of the defining issues of our time.

It's permeating our politics. It's permeating technology. And in this case, it's permeating our art. how responsible is universal for, you know, for curtailing, for filtering, for censoring, for, you know, whatever the verb is that you want to apply. And so it matters. Where this case goes is not really so much for me about Kendrick versus Lamar. I'm sorry, about Drake versus Kendrick. It is much more about the responsibility of a platform, of a co-investor, of a partner to police speak. And let's be clear, there is certain kinds of speech that can create violence that leads to it, that does damage.

And how do you hold people accountable for that while also not restricting a freedom that is embedded in the Constitution and that is very unique to most of the thriving, successful parts of the planet? That's a defining issue of our generation and it's playing out in this case. Yeah. No, it's so, to see that intersect with the music biz is sort of a fascinating feature of this. On a slightly smaller scale, it also makes you think about just, even just the petty drama of it, right? Like, these are business partners. Is Dr. It's going to be a universal artist in a year? Like, what the fuck? This is dramatic. He's suing them. They put out all his records. It's a very weird strategy. and it just speaks to like a lot of hurt feelings. Like, it feels like it could be a reality show. Now, again, there's violence involved, so it's hard to judge. But just like objectively, when you remove yourself from it, it's like, well, you know, keep my wife's name out your damn mouth.

Like, it's all the same thing. It's like, when does the hurt and pain and impact of words justify an escalation to physical violence? and if the answer is never, then how do you hold somebody accountable for the weapons of words? But all that shit aside, like, it does come off as like super not hard.

Like, and it does come off as, you are absolutely waving the flag. Right? Yeah, you lost the battle. You lost the war. I feel like when not like us came out

and just, and when that beef was like sort of at its most intense, I remember reading a few pieces about that we're sort of asking, like, has this gone too far? Is this not fun anymore? Like, are the types of insults that are being flung and the things that are being allegedly exposed about people? Like, has it crossed a line? And, like, there's something that always seemed a little bit silly to me about that in terms of, like, guys, this is a rat beef.

Like, what do you think that they're going to be, say, like, I didn't care for. for what you said in that last song, Mr. Lamar. Like, that's just not going to happen. At the same time, I had a conversation with my ringer colleague Justin Charity about this recently because I had this sort of hang up where not like us was the song that was used as, presented as kind of like the final blow. This is how Kendrick won. And I interpreted the sort of key.

element of that being the accusation that Drake is a pedophile. That being the thing where it's like Drake couldn't come back from it and he didn't have a good, like he didn't have a good response and therefore, you know, ding, ding, ding, Kendrick wins. And I think because of some of the other like big stories in music this year, I had this question of like, Okay, so he won because I'm supposed to think that's true. And if I'm supposed to think that's true, should we call the police maybe? Like, this is a big deal. Right.

And Justin was like... You referenced this before. We talked about this. Yeah. It was like, I was like, what are we? You're like, hey, is it weird that no one's like even responding to this? And we're just kind of pretending like it's a joke or because if it's not a joke, like, yeah. And I do, like, I don't know.

In a weird way, this feels like an extension of that to me. And what Justin said was like, I hear you. And it is kind of interesting that, you know, to my knowledge, no one ever tried to like run down the story or chase it down or find out, you know, why, what exactly made Kendrick think that that would be the thing to say? Should we follow up here? Well, the Diddy story suggests it takes a little time for these things to come out into sunlight, doesn't it? Sure. But the presence of that story, you would think, would make some people

motivated to, I don't know, do some digging. What Justin's... Who knows? Maybe they are. But what Justin said was like, his point was that that allegation got a lot of headlines and a lot of buzz. His feeling was that the real central thrust of Kendrick's argument against... Drake is essentially he's not like us. He's not really a true he doesn't really belong in the rap world

and he's been kind of a culture vulture over the course of his career. Obviously there's a racial element to that and so what Justin was saying was like really that's not sort of feels like that's the reason Kendrick won but it's

not. And so it doesn't necessarily, it doesn't take away the question of like, hey, is anybody going to look into this? But at the same time, it wasn't quite as critical to how that story played out as maybe like I was feeling like it was, which I thought was interesting. It does not take the central question away for me. And it's still something that's going to be on my mind in the next couple of weeks because this song, which is a great song in a song that I love, is nominated for a bunch of Grammys and presumably is going to be performed in front of millions and millions and millions of people

at the Super Bowl. Yeah. And yeah, I'll say one thing about this lawsuit, I said, why hasn't he sued Kendrick? Maybe he's waiting for Kendrick to go perform it on the largest television audience in the world and then drop a lawsuit that, you know, it speaks to the damages that that did. I mean, I think there is a,

a chance, a non-zero chance that Kendrick's not going to play it, because he definitely has a legal team. Put aside the, yeah, bring it on, motherfucker, that would be the sort of natural sort machismo reaction. He definitely has a legal team that's like, hmm, bring it on, motherfucker, not typically the, the MO of lawyers when they wake up in the morning and talk to their clients about potential liability. In the aggregate, what this lawsuit speaks to is, you know, is, you know, is clearly there's been some brand damage. By some metric that's going on in that camp, is it just that they're reading the comments?

Is it that they have some data that suggests through unfollowing or through streaming that Drake has taken a hit? Is it, you know, there is something quantitative and qualitative that has driven concern for the Drake brand and career situation here. And the aggregate has driven them to decide that the risk of filing the lawsuit and the news cycle around it

and the high likelihood that it doesn't create a lot of sympathy for him is worth it. And so I think there's something serious afoot here. I think we're probably underestimating the amount of damage that at least Drake feels has been done. Who's responsible for that? Is it because he lost the battle? Is it because Universal allowed this content to come out? Is it because Kendrick really hit home on a very sore spot?

All that is going to be worked out now, not just on Spotify, but in the courts. We'll follow this story, whatever happens. It is really, like, this is slightly unusual fair for us on this pod, but it's just, it's a fascinating story from a lot of angles. If Kendrick doesn't perform not like us at the Super Bowl, I do think that'll be really telling. because I think it's fair to say that he has that platform essentially because of what this song and

some of his output around it meant for his place in culture this year. So I think that would be fascinating. Okay, last thing. Can we run through some upcoming releases? We can. I just want to let you know that while we have been talking like Gaga's website is now born this way themed.

Okay. Which is LG3. Yeah. So it's like ticking up. And I believe it went live on Monday, right? So this would be one, two, three. So this is why. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So we are there. Got it. That's an upcoming album.

Another one. I believe I recall one Lucy Dakis being in your list of artists to watch in 2025. And so I think you will be listening on March 28. Eighth, when forever is a feeling, will be released. There have been two songs put out from this, Ancles and Limerance. Ancles also has a very fun music video that comes along with it.

Have you listened to these songs yet, Nathan? Yeah. I was less excited about limerence. I am super excited about Ankle's. Anklems rules. I kind of like limerence, though. It sounds like she's doing like a Judy Garland thing. Maybe I'll forget how I'll

feel and go on living life as I planned it. Yeah, for sure. I just, did I need that in this moment in time? Probably not. But I spent a lot of time since I heard ankles just thinking about where Lucy fits. And if there's space for her in this moment, she's not, she's obviously not Tate McCray, Addison Ray.

She's not, I don't think she's, brandy carlyle or adele she's like part of the supergroup that had a really big moment a few years ago but not the biggest star there in feeby but she's a really good songwriter and you could see in this moment of sort of vibe shift towards conservatism and the the sort of peak trump thing that is sort of happening right now, that she could be a very interesting antidote to that for some portions of society and some parts of culture. So I was pretty excited about ankles. I'm excited about Lucy Dake as obviously as an artist. And I just am, I'm just, you know, as we do on this show, I'm just looking at where is her lane? And is there perhaps a moment for her here?

I mean, it would be the perfect time to drop a Phoebe Bridger's record, but I know that that's still being worked on and not coming out just yet. But there's, I believe, of a Phoebe Bridger's feature that will be on this record. Yeah. And a Julian Baker feature,

but not altogether, not as Boy Genius. Yeah. So can she capture mind share and cultural interest? You know, I don't know. It's not, I think the songs are there.

It's not inherently obvious to me that the rest of the story and the narrative and the visuals and everything that comes with an artist is attention grabbing. But it might be the perfect counterweight for parts of society that right now are feeling a little bit adrift in this moment. I was interested in the music video and just the fact that it exists because it did feel like a, it, it, it, it's, it sign. a little bit of ambition to me, I guess. And I don't think it's necessarily a given that Lucy is trying to massively grow her audience, right? Like there's a world that would be totally artistically credible and interesting and viable and everything good, where she says more than enough people are interested in what I have to say and create that I can have a really comfortable, good. satisfying and meaningful career. And if that's all of Bushwick and a few other people,

but is never the type of thing where I'm trying to, you know, play Madison Square Garden or whatever, that's fine. And I think that is like, she has that. Like she has accomplished that check, good, could just go the rest of her life thinking about how do I make the best music I can make and that's it. Or she could try to grow it. And that's where that question that you raised, I think, comes into play.

And it, I don't know, I got the sense from going for it with this sort of whimsical music video and doing some promo around the release of this album that she's trying to make that happen. And I think that's a little bit more of an open question, but it's interesting. And I really, I actually liked both songs, but I agree with you that Angles was sort of the one. Okay. One of mine, Jade, who. Totally on your list. I'm excited about this one. I know. Me too.

No, for different reasons. I'm excited for you to explain this to me like, I am a moron. What do you mean? Because you're not getting the songs? I don't get it. It feels like somewhere between Britney Spears toxic and some Gaga stuff. Like it's cool. It's kind of interesting. But I need you to explain to me why we need Jade at 32 years old in this moment and time.

Okay. She fits in this lane. She's 32. It matters. It matters. Listen, this is coming from an old person. I accept that, I suppose. I'm just saying it's not like she's like a racehorse that we're going to take out behind the barn.

Beap him. Go take old yellow out behind the woodshed and shoot her. Here's where I am. Angel of my dreams. What was that analogy? Do they shoot race horses? Yes. They shoot them when they hurt themselves to save them the suffering.

But racehorses, they have great lives. They just go to pasture and make more baby racehorses. Okay. But sometimes they have tough lives because they reach their prime competing ages very young and it is an unstable and insecure trajectory from that point on full of potential pitfalls. And it sounds like that's sort of what you think Jade is in for. We'll save our discussion of horses for another day. Let's talk more Jade.

I'm excited for you to sell her to me. Okay. Well, and here's, here's, I don't, I am not immune to some of the questions that you have about this album and about her and whether this will like really work for people. Here is where I am. She has put out four songs that are going to be part of this record. record. Angel of my dreams, Midnight Cowboy, Fantasy, and It Girl. And I do have to say that I... I like It Girl. I'm putting her on a little bit of Duolipa Watch in terms of just like... Putting out all the singles and maybe hoping...

Throwing spaghetti at the wall. And then by the time the album comes out, first of all, we've already heard half of the stuff and it doesn't... I'm a little nervous about that. But here's where I'm coming from. Midnight Cowboy Fantasy seen it girl. I like I like It Girl and I like Midnight Cowboy. Fantasy I don't get quite as much. Angel of my dreams the more I listen to that song I go this is just like one of my favorite

songs in a while. It's so weird but it's also so like addictive. It's like fentanyl. Again, not like if

maybe the racehorse was not the metaphor you would have used. That's not the metaphor that I would have used, Nathan. But there is something that, you know, I sunk my teeth into it and I don't want to let go. So if that's what that reminds you of, then that's fine. I love that song so much that it just, I'm just bought in on the strength of one song. I am just bought in. I want to see what she has to offer because I think that song fucking rules. Again, it is just so strained.

to be as like perfectly compact of a pop song that it somehow manages to be while switching tempo like nine times and doing this like crazy operatic thing. And I'm just so into it. And I think if you have the balls to like make that be your song out of the gate, then I'm just in. I just want to know what it's what it's going to be. Do you believe in her as an artist? Yeah. Yeah. Boy, did you think about that. Nathan, I'm not saying I feel confident this is going to work.

I'm just saying... Wait a minute. She was on your list. Yes, you do. You're excited. That doesn't mean that I know that this is going to work. I think this could be the type of album. Like maybe it breaks through. Maybe this is the type of thing that works in the UK, but American audiences aren't super into it. That's fine. Again, dualipa watch. She's on Duolipa watch. But I love Dualipa. way, congratulations to Dua Lepa on her first vacation of the year. It seems that she had a fabulous time and I think Chile. One of many. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Minimum of one a month is I think the Duelipa international.

We should all live that way. Let me tell you, as someone who is having to adopt the mantra more than ever, live like it's all going to burn. Dua's way of existing is highly appealing. I simply could not agree more. Her way of arts thing might not be as appealing, but her way of existing is incredibly appealing. Dualipa is incredibly appealing. I love Dual Lipa. This is a pro-Duelapa podcast. Is that why you love Addison Ray?

Okay, hold on. Hold on. We're not done with Jade quite yet. But I do believe in her as an artist because I love that song and I think that song is creative. I think it's daring. I think it's interesting. And for someone who, you know, I'm not saying that she's going to conquer the world. I'm saying that if you can do that, then I'm interested in what your first album sounds like.

And she's doing the promo. She's on Louis Theroux's podcast. By the way, talking about Harry Stiles ghosting her after a single date after they met auditioning for the X Factor together, which I thought was very funny. I mean, speaking of one of many, I mean, How many people have been ghosted post-first date by Harry Stiles? 500? I wouldn't say. I bet it's over 100, but I don't, I bet it's between 100 and 150.

That's it? That's a lot of people to go out with. Harry's 30 plus. It's been 15 years of this. 365 days. You got 3,000 days and you think he's only ghosted 150 people. What are we counting as a date? Like, I'm not saying that ghosted after, you know, making out at a party.

Okay. I'm just saying that I don't know how many people, Harry Styles, is, like, texting and being, like, dinner on Thursday, 7 p.m. Right. This restaurant. I don't think that number is, like, in the hundreds. I think there have been years where he's done multiple of those more than $75. days in a year. You think he's doing, you think Harry Stiles was doing like back-to-back dinner dates? I think he's like Madison Square

Garden. Madison Square Garden is booked for more than 365 events a year because the circus comes in and does three shows a day and the ice capades come in and do multiple shows. And they have times where there's a game in the morning and then they turn the arena and they've got a hockey game at night. Harry Stiles is the Madison Square Garden of dating. What you do if you're like, I need to find someone and settle down as soon as humanly possible.

I don't think that's what you do of your Harry Styles. No, that's what you do when demand massively outstripped supply. Harry Styles, if you're listening and you've ever had

four back-to-back dates in a single day, uh, let us know. Because I think you haven't, but Nathan thinks you had. And maybe Jade can give us some insight into that at some point.

I'm excited. for the album. Let me have it. Let me have this. I'm thrilled. I mean, I hope you're right. You know, I get excited about these early stage launch vehicles getting up into the air and moving towards orbit. Like, yeah, to the moon, baby. I mean, I'm in. I just, I want to understand why we're going to care. And I will give you this. The music has enough weirdness to it that there's nothing sweet or straightforward or this is not a Sabrina Carpenter record. And so there's some industrialness to it. There's some, I don't know, it's not like Bjorky, but it's like, you know, it's left of center. Yeah. And, you know, nine inch nailsish almost. Let's see. But I hear,

I think you make a very good point, which is that got to be careful, you're not trying too hard. And if you put out four calls out into the world and the response has not sent you into the stratosphere and none of these are streaming particularly aggressively. They're fine, but they're not like, it's not die with a smile, right? So it does say something about how it's being received. All that said, I'm interested.

You're interested. Angel of my dreams charting a lot higher. than die with a smile in the Prince Yati household. I'll tell you that. Okay. Last one. I didn't know we would get this. I wasn't sure.

And now I'm full of regret because I was too scared to really go for it. But it's Addison Ray. She's doing it. She told Rolling Stone. She had a cover story. She confirmed that she is indeed

going to put out a full-ass album of music. There are no sad songs. Brittany Spanos, who wrote the Rolling Stone piece, I guess, got to listen to a few of the songs and described them as hypnotic, trans-like pop songs, pulsating and lush, which will no doubt accomplish the primary goal of Ray and her collaborators to make people dance. Well, then, I'm putting her on Duolipa Watch.

This sounds like Duolipa. Well, I mean, here's further evidence. for that. The lyrics are threaded with images of a life that's young, fun, and free being naked on a beach, flying to Paris on a whim, being drunk at a bar. There's no ego or self-seriesness.

Everyone's on dulypa watch. Everyone's secretly. Everyone hated on dulypa in 2024, and in 2025, everyone's just trying to be her. Well, me too. Fuck it. Sign me up as one of those people.

What's okay? So Addison Ray bring in the something. I mean, first of all, can we talk about Diet Pepsi for a second? Yes. Not the song, not the song, but the product. As someone who has been displaced recently

and doing lots of grocery shopping to Airbnb's, for some reason, my father, who I'm dragging around to these various Airbnbs, he's also displaced. It turns out as a massive Diet Pepsi fan. It's like his coffee, which is, you know, a problem in and of itself. These things you learn about people

who you think you know, until you start actually living with them. Whatever. This is not the time or the place on this podcast. I'll start on my father podcast at some point. But what I want you to understand is that it's really hard to find Diet Pepsi. Like I've been doing all kinds of like Instacarting. And every time I get somebody calling being like,

they have no Diet Pepsi. I'm like, what? They got only Diet Coke. It's really hard to find Diet Pepsi. And so it is wild that this is a song that is popular that struck a cord and they can't seem to get their supply chain right. Speaking of demand outstripping supply.

Well, Diet Pepsi, I mean, it is like, I think it's kind of great for them that this song is Diet Pepsi and maybe it's like somehow it works because it's not what you think it's going to be because Diet Pepsi, I feel historically, has had a bad reputation. The Diet Pepsi is clearly inferior

to Diet Coke and you're disappointed of a place only has Pepsi. Again, we're so, like, weirdly in sync right now. My father also drinks a lot of Diet Pepsi, and it's, like, important to him to drink Diet Pepsi. However, historically... What is it about this? So, my dad was always a Diet Coke guy. Okay.

And, like, my entire childhood, I can... Like, my dad drinking a Diet Coke is, like, that's formative to me. And I do think that I have like, I, well, so he switched recently because like, I don't know. He just decided to switch. And he stayed with us over Christmas. Nobody does that. Nobody does it. And I went out and he was going to stay with us.

And I was like, oh, I'm going to get my dad Diet Coke because like, I want him to have his things when he's in our apartment. And I have the diet Coke in the fridge. And at one point, we were like out doing something. And he's like, oh, I'm going to pop into a store. And he comes out with Diet Pepsi. And I was like, oh no, like, don't worry. We have Diet Coke. Like, we made sure we had Diet Coke.

And he's like, no, this is a conscious choice. I have agency and I am choosing Diet Pepsi over Diet Coke. Yeah, he was like, so. But you were like, Dad, what the fuck? Because he knew that I'd like gotten it so that he could have it and he didn't want to say it. But he was like, yeah, so like, I drink Diet Pepsi now. And I was shook, David. Like, I was like, what is happening?

Not shook enough to get to the bottom of why he. he made the switch? Like, what prompted it? He said that the Diet Coke was like making, like, it had too much caffeine or something. Like, it was like making him feel weird. After, I was like, well, yeah, it's probably because you've drink Diet Coke your entire life. So now we wake up? So now Diet Pepsi's going to solve that problem?

Maybe it's the Diet Cola that's... Yeah, I know. I was like, well, it's probably too late for that, but... I don't know. I don't know. He just decided, like, he literally woke up one day and was like, I'm going to be a Diet, Diet Pepsi guy now. I don't think it was Addison Ray,

but like, can't totally rule it out. Wow. What the fuck is going on with Diet Pepsi? No, it's really, like, this is a huge deal. Diet Pepsi is for dads. There's the marketing campaign.

Diet Pepsi is for dads. Is it like, because I would always historically sometimes, because I try not to drink Diet soda, because it's really bad for you. However,

because I grew up in a household where like, Diet Coke was my dad's thing. And like every once in a while I would be allowed to have a sip of it. I have like a Pavlovian, this is my childhood response to Diet Coke. So every once in a while I'm allowed to have Diet Coke. And like as a special treat. And your little treat is Diet Coke. It's so like it is so good though. Like it's awful, but it's also so good. And sometimes at an NFL and part of it is also like I can't do caffeine after like. noon, otherwise I won't be able to sleep. But if I'm working late, then maybe it's different. And so sometimes that would come up at an NFL game.

Because I'm a writer. Because I'm a writer. And, but because so many of those stadiums and the league has sponsorship deals with Pepsi, they would have Pepsi. And it would be like, this would be the perfect situation for me to have like an ice cold crisp Diet Coke. And I fucking can't because there's only Pepsi in these friggin machines. Well, life is hard.

I think we've now shared every thought that we have on Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi on this podcast. I'm exhausted. I need a Diet Coke. Can I tell you the other, the thing that I've just been like dying to, to share with you this entire show? Okay. Well, come what may with Addison. We'll find out. I'm psyched to hear it. I think she's a trip.

But when I read this story, I, shrieked. Why? Because do you know who Addison Ray is working with on this project? I think

Circuit. And a couple of people out of the Max Martin production orbit. One of them.

Yeah. Someone is named, one of them is named Luca closer. Yes. And the other one is Elvira.

Oh, no. Elvira is like all over the Addison Ray record apparently. Oh, no. Having been banished from the Taylor Swift camp. Yeah. For just remixes that the Willow remix. Oh, Lord.

The more that you say, the less I know. The 900 Willow remix is. I did laugh because there was a line in the story that was like, and Taylor Swift collaborator Elvira. No, not really. I don't know if I would quite. go that far nice try

look that is about as far outside the bullseye as you can go to get a little Taylor Swift fairy dust

sprinkled on your music it's like you want to go right to the center you go to Jack Antonoff slightly

just right of that you go to Aaron Desner okay I get it now we're out the Max Martin

camp but you're 10 years out El Vira I mean God you might as well root

I mean, do the guy from Snow Patrol. Gary, what's Gary? Gary Lightbody. Yeah. Or the, what's his face from Allis City? I mean, the Al City guy. We don't, he doesn't have a face. Addison Ray featuring Allstate.

I would listen. That's who you should, that's who you should work with. If you want the least amount of Taylor Swift fairy dust that you can possibly sprinkle on your songs, but still be able to say that you've got Taylor Swift fairy dust sprinkled on your songs, you work with the Alist. city guy. Adam Young. What a guy. Well, I'm excited to hear it. I just, I can't get enough of Addison Ray. I find her fascinating. She makes me interested in whatever it's going to be. I don't know if it's going to be good. I love Diet Pepsi. The smoking video was weird. Aquamarine was weird. It was

weird. Aquamarine was weird. I didn't get aquamarine, but. Nobody got it. I don't know if Addison Ray got it. Well, it seems like her beloved platform TikTok is still going to be around for her to leverage to introduce people to this new music. So, yeah, I mean, it's an interesting bet for Rolling Stone to take. But, hey, Diet Pepsi was an interesting choice for your dad to make. So don't begrudge anyone those choices. Just measure on the outcome and the output. And in your dad's case, he made a very fine young woman.

And in Addison Ray's case, let's hope she makes a very fine album. Cool. All right. Let's call that an episode. This week, Addison Ray and Diap Pepsi. Next week, we're going to do all Grammys. This has been every single album. As always, I'm Nora Prince Yati. He's Nathan Hubbard. Thank you to the fabulous and wonderful and spectacular. Kai McMullen for producing this episode. And to you for listening. We'll talk to you next week.