In 2014, Cale Tyson performed at a Ones to Watch showcase presented by Rolling Stone Country at Nashville’s Exit/In opposite future star Margo Price and RaeLyn Nelson, Willie’s granddaughter. Tyson, a Texas native, sang country music songs that night, emphasizing a hillbilly hiccup in his voice and even flirting with a yodel. He sold it well and looked the part too — hat, boots, Pendleton jacket.
But over time, Tyson became tired of country music’s hang-up with a mythologized authenticity.
“It got to a point where I was playing shows and people were like, ‘You drive a truck at home, right?’ I’d be like, ‘No, I drive, like, a 4Runner,’” Tyson says. “‘But you grew up on a ranch, right?’ And I’d say, ‘No, in a suburb.’”
After nearly a decade in Nashville, he pulled up stakes in March 2019, moved to L.A., and began writing introspective indie-pop songs more in line with Bright Eyes and Elliott Smith.
The sea change suits him. On the dreamy, resigned new “Baby You’re Wrong,” he delivers the theme song for a hot vaxxed summer that’s not living up to its billing. “Why worry when we’re all going under?” Tyson sings, reveling in ennui while bongos and synth form a hypnotic rhythm beneath. To his credit, he makes the idea of checking out and giving up sound kind of irresistible.
“I was exhausted by the rat race of trying so hard in everything, whether work, the music industry, friendships, social status… Why am I putting in so much effort when it’s not making me happy much of the time?” he tells Rolling Stone. “Even when I was doing music in Nashville, waking up every day and going to the coffee shop and emailing as many people as possible and trying to get on shows — it was exhausting. So this was written from a place of, ‘What’s going to happen if I don’t worry about all this shit and just go with the flow and do stuff that makes me happy?’”
“To be honest,” Tyson laughs, “it was the same results that I was getting before, if not a little bit better.”
“Baby You’re Wrong” premieres with a video shot guerrilla-style in New York by director Jordan Taylor Fuller that follows a couple with two very different reactions to their trip: one is overjoyed at the city’s sights, the other is miserable. (Guess which one Tyson plays.)
“It’s this idea of sad tourism,” says Tyson, the straight man to his costar, the exuberant Destiny Strudwick. While Strudwick leaps the subway turnstile, taunts the cops, and flashes passers-by, Tyson sits unmoved, bored to near tears. On the Tilt-a-Whirl at Coney Island, she’s elated; he has his head in his hands.
“Baby You’re Wrong” is the follow-up to the equally woozy “Alone,” released in April. Tyson says an album is on the way that builds on the tranquil vibes of those two tracks.
“These are all the songs I wrote when I moved to L.A. I kind of like my life now,” he admits, “but there’s some depressing shit on there, because that’s what I fall back on.”
VIDEOS
Kanye West has been lauded as a creative genius for often going against the grain and finding ways to make fans relate to his music and visuals, even if it is done through unconventional methods. His new music video for “530” accurately displays that ability, depicting common human experiences via puppets and people wearing masks.
The 47-year-old artist shared the lengthy visual via Instagram, supporting the record which appeared on his August 2024 collaborative LP with Ty Dolla $ign titled Vultures 2. Initially, “530” made headlines for the Chicago producer taking shots at his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and name-dropping Drake. However, the video took things in a different direction.
Puppets are used in the visual to represent women getting lip injections, looking at themselves in the mirror, styling their hair, or running errands. Male puppets also appeared in the video, seemingly carrying on with their everyday activities without paying too much attention to the women around them unless they have been enhanced by surgery. There is also a noticeable difference between some visually frightening puppets wearing masks and others who are much better put together. Watch the “530” video below.
“You a fake bi**h, you don’t really love Ye bi**h, go listen to Drake bi**h,” Kanye West rapped on the record. As for Kim Kardashian, he seemingly reflected on how difficult it was to lose her with the lines “Pray your soulmate got a soul when you meet her/ The crystal ball couldn’t tell me if they’d leave again / Problems too extra large to share it with a medium.” He also addressed how tough it was to co-parent, rapping, “The past year been a strange time/ Visitations on Facetime/ And who gon’ break who’s heart first? Always just breaks mine.”
Ye and Kim K officially got divorced in November 2022 and it was a difficult road afterward, as she soon began dating Pete Davidson. West quickly moved on as well, marrying Bianca Censori in January 2023. As for his on-and-off rivalry with the Toronto superstar, it is safe to believe he may never move on.
When Kendrick Lamar fired the first shot on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That,” the 24-time Grammy winner jumped in and revealed that he was on the “Like That” remix. He also spoke with Justin LaBoy and revealed that he enthusiastically linked up with Lamar, Future, Boomin, Rick Ross, The Weeknd, and A$AP Rocky to aid in the “elimination of Drake.” Listen to the “Like That” remix below.
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