NEWS
On July 25, GloRilla returned to Memphis not just as a rising star, but as the city’s new cultural cornerstone.
The inaugural Glo Bash at a sold-out FedExForum, the 26-year-old rapper turned her birthday into a full-scale hometown celebration. A spectacle of defiance, pride, and Southern rap supremacy.
The event revived a tradition cemented by her CMG label boss and mentor Yo Gotti, whose Birthday Bash concerts once defined the Memphis summer. From local theaters to sold-out arenas, Gotti’s annual shows united generations of Southern hip-hop fans. His retirement from the stage in 2022 left space for a new torchbearer—one GloRilla has stepped into with conviction.
The lead-up to Glo Bash wasn’t without headlines. Just days before the show, the rapper—born Gloria Hallelujah Woods—was arrested on felony drug charges in Georgia after police responding to a break-in at her Atlanta-area home allegedly found a large stash of marijuana.
But instead of shrinking from the attention, she capitalized on it. At the concert, fans snapped up limited-edition merch featuring her mugshot, flipping controversy into branding with savvy irreverence.
The show itself was pure theater. Opening with a biographical short film, GloRilla rose from a two-story platform in a black-and-gold ensemble, her energy electric from the first bar. Over the course of 20-plus songs, she delivered a performance as sharp as it was celebratory, commanding the stage with a mix of grit and charisma.
A parade of high-profile guests turned the concert into a Southern rap summit. Kodak Black, Rob49, and BossMan Dlow brought raw intensity. Muni Long slowed the pace with a duet on “Don’t Deserve.” Sexyy Red ignited a frenzy with “Whatchu Kno About Me,” while Big Boogie and Moneybagg Yo anchored key moments with Memphis pride. In the finale, Yo Gotti emerged for a blistering rendition of “Pull Up,” passing the torch in real time to his most dynamic protégé.
Glo Bash wasn’t just a birthday concert—it was a coronation. In a city that birthed legends, GloRilla now commands the main stage. Her voice is bold, her vision clear, and her moment is now.
NEWS
James Acaster has officially introduced his new band, The Wow! Scenario, alongside their debut song, ‘Zacuti’, featuring BC Camplight. More information about the project can be found below.
The Wow! Scenario began two decades ago and has now been brought to life by Acaster with his friend Graeme Wicks, BC Camplight and Emma Daman.
Their first album, ‘Stand in the Star. A Verse and a Chorus’, will arrive through Bella Union on October 23. Preorders are available here.
Listeners have also been given an early preview of the album through the jazz inspired lead single ‘Zacuti’, which is available to hear below.
Acaster and Wicks formed the group in Kettering in 2004. According to a press statement, they had already chosen to end the band by the time they recorded their full collection of songs with producer Chris Hamilton in December 2007.
The statement also revealed that the group’s name was inspired by an intoxicated audience member who tried to say they lacked “the X factor”. However, the person repeatedly used the wrong phrase and told them: “You don’t have the wow scenario, guys. You need to get the wow scenario”.
The musicians revisited the recordings with Hamilton in 2018, removing the original singing and replacing the vocal melodies with saxophone, clarinet and fiddle. At that stage, they planned to release the material as an instrumental record.
After deciding they were not satisfied with that version, the group returned to the studio for a third attempt in March 2023. BC Camplight and Emma Daman provided vocals for the new sessions, while the album was eventually mixed and finished in March 2025.
1. ‘Diving!’
2. ‘Once More!’
3. ‘Golf Socks!’
4. ‘Alpaca Spinner!’
5. ‘Reality!’
6. ‘Instructions!’
7. ‘Zacuti!’
8. ‘The Curse!’
Acaster previously created the music project Temps, which brought together a collective of 40 performers, including Quelle Chris, Xenia Rubinos, Shamir, NNAMDÏ and Seb Rochford.
When the collective was first revealed, the comedian and Off Menu podcast host discussed its origins during NME’s ‘In Conversation’ interview series.
“I was doing bands when I was a teenager into my early 20s, and I was like, ‘This is gonna be my entire life, all I’m gonna do is music,’” Acaster said. “When the band split up I started doing stand-up as a placeholder, and then I fell in love with stand-up and got really obsessed with that.
“I’d never made an album from scratch that didn’t exist yet – recording it and writing it at the same time – and I’d never produced anything before, or mixed something as intensely as this one. There’s a lot of new things – if I had been doing it on my own, I don’t know how long I would have lasted.”
