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On Friday night (May 18), Red Bull brought out a slew of gritty underground artists for its horror-themed night of hip-hop, Careful on the Pavement, as part of its Red Bull Music Festival. Bubbling rappers such as Chynna, Lil Wop and Rico Nasty put on gritty performances at New York City's Cutting Room.
DJ Kenn entertained the eager (and heavily medicated) crowd before the evening's first performer took the stage. As the clock moved past 10 p.m., rising D.C. rapper Rico Nasty stormed the venue to loud cheers. Donning her always animated clothing—a white tank top and black sweat pants with giant-sized looped earrings hanging off the side of the pants—the 21-year-old MC, who admitted to popping a Percocet before hopping on stage, engaged with concertgoers with her buzzing singles "Popping," "Trust Issues" and "Key Lime OG."
Despite gifting fans with an energetic set and engaging with fans, the "Hey Arnold" rapper said that she would rather be inside the studio creating music. "I like recording. I spend weeks at a time in studio sessions," she said after leaving the stage. "With touring, so much is on my mind. Keeping up with sh*t. And on the road, I buy so much expensive sh*t."
Nasty's set was followed by bubbling underground MCs such as Lil Wop, Bali Baby, Asian Doll and others, whose bravado-and sex-filled rhymes connected to the street and drug-infused energy of the concert-goers.
However, the highlight of the night came from Philly rapper, Chynna, who kept her set gritty by running through hard-boiled singles such "Gleen Coco," "Seasonal Depression" and "Practice." Decked out in black-and-white camouflage pants and a black crop-top, Chynna announced to the crowd that she is three years opiate free, which was followed by loud cheers.
"I felt crazy. I didn't want to be a statistic. I didn't want to go out that way and people be like: 'I told you so," or glamorize it [drugs], because I don't feel like that," Chynna told us after catching a breather. "It was nerve-wracking to be open, but when you see how many more people who are dealing with the same thing, it's good to have some kind of example of someone you didn't expect to be going through it."
Chynna also explained how having a support system was instrumental in her battling addiction. "It was hard," she said. "I had to go away for a minute and I did detox, but it was a matter of having a really good support system of family and friends."
Overall, Red Bull's Careful on the Pavement was created as an underworld environment, which is great for fans who cater to riff-raff spaces, but Chynna's announcement of her newfound drug-free life was a reminder that hip-hop's underworld can mesh with the cool lames of the world.
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Pixies have unveiled four previously unheard tracks, all written during the period when the band were putting together ‘Bossanova’ and ‘Trompe le Monde’.
The four recordings come from between 1987 and 1991 and are now available across all digital streaming services for the first time. They originally appeared as two bonus 7” singles included with the limited-edition remastered pressings of ‘Bossanova’ and ‘Trompe le Monde’.
Among the tracks is the Steve Albini version of ‘Dig For Fire’, recorded in late 1987 while the band were working on ‘Surfer Rosa’. The song was later reworked before appearing on ‘Bossanova’ almost three years later.
The collection also features ‘Punk Loop’, an unreleased jam recorded during the 1991 sessions for ‘Trompe le Monde’ and originally labelled ‘Punk Loop’ MSTR. Another addition is ‘Brackish Boy’, a track first written with Pixies before being rerecorded by Black Francis for his self-titled solo debut in 1993. The newly released version was mastered directly from the original album session tape, without any additional post-production.
The fourth track is ‘Go Man Go’, written by Black Francis and Kim Deal while the band were recording ‘Bossanova’ and The Breeders were working on ‘Last Splash’. The song did not make the final tracklist of either album, although The Breeders performed it live on a few occasions in the years that followed.
The track made another appearance in 2023 when The Breeders included it in the 30th anniversary reissue of ‘Last Splash’.
Pixies have marked their 40th anniversary throughout this year, including a UK and European tour over the summer. During a conversation with NME at Mad Cool Festival earlier this year, guitarist Joey Santiago revealed that the band were still making progress on new material.
“We’re always in the works. Same formula,” he said. “We have a break coming up in October and we’re gonna get together and piece more songs together.”
The band's latest studio release is 2024’s ‘The Night The Zombies Came’, which marked their first album featuring bassist Emma Richardson. They are also scheduled to tour the US with Queens Of The Stone Age in 2027 as part of the upcoming tour.
