Meek Mill performs during his Expensive Pain show at Madison Square Garden.
Griffin Lotz for Rolling StoneMeek Mill is set to release his final Dreamchasers mixtape — the fifth installment in his series — as an NFT.
The Philly rapper revealed he would be taking this approach with his work for the first time via Instagram.
“#DCPOUNDCAKE LAST DREAMCHASER MIXTAPE A NFT …. LOYALTY CLUB STARTS JANUARY.1st 2022,” he wrote while jamming out to the music. He also added that fans “can invest merch albums and shows and get marketed.”
Though Meek doesn’t explain what his “loyalty club” is, it could possibly mean perks for his fans.
Meek released the last mixtape in the Dreamchasers series back in 2014 with DC4. The announcement of a new installment comes just a little more than a month following the release of his fifth LP Expensive Pain, which was the MC’s first album since 2018’s Championships.
In the interim, he shared a handful of EPs and singles like last year’s Quarantine Pack and his 2020 singles “Letter to Nipsey” (with Roddy Ricch), the Justin Timberlake-assisted “Believe” and “Otherside of America.”
At the BTS concert in Tokyo on Friday (April 17), j-hope opened up to ARMY with heartbreaking news. His grandmother, who played a major role in raising him and had always been proud of his journey with the group, has passed away.
Speaking to the packed crowd at the Tokyo Dome, the K-pop star chose to be open with fans about what he was going through. “Honestly, this might be a bit of a heavy thing to share, but I really wanted to express how I’m feeling today,” he said, translated from Korean into English. “Right after we arrived in Japan, I got the news that my maternal grandmother, the one who raised me from when I was little, had passed away.”
“I felt completely stunned and did not really know how to process it at first, but being around the members, sitting down together for meals, and focusing on rehearsals helped me more than I thought it would,” j-hope went on. “My grandmother was always incredibly proud, not just of me but of all the members. She truly believed in what we do. So I feel like if she was watching from above today, she would have loved every second of it.”
He closed by thanking the audience for making his first performance after the loss feel meaningful and full of support.
BTS are currently touring in support of their new album ARIRANG, which has just earned a third week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Following three opening shows in Goyang, South Korea, the group is set to perform twice at the Tokyo Dome before heading abroad for the North American leg. Before the tour wraps in March next year, they will also visit Latin America, Europe, Australia, and several other regions across Asia.
On the same day as the first Tokyo concert, j-hope’s solo interview with Rolling Stone was released. During the conversation, he spoke about stepping into a leadership presence within the group. “I think that’s my role on the team,” he shared. “It just comes naturally. It feels strange to even call it a role, but I just try to handle things as they come and support the other members in any way I can.”
Additional reporting from Billboard Korea.
