🚀 NASA has made interplanetary music history by beaming Missy Elliott’s 1997 hit ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’ to Venus, marking the first hip hop song transmitted into deep space. The historic broadcast took place on 12 Jul from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, traveling 158 million miles in fourteen minutes via the Deep Space Network. Elliott celebrated the milestone on social media, exclaiming: “YOOO this is crazy! We just went #OutOfThisWorld with NASA and sent the FIRST hip hop song into space through the Deep Space Network. My song ‘The Rain’ has officially been transmitted all the way to Venus, the planet that symbolises strength, beauty, and empowerment”. While it’s unclear if Venusian life forms will appreciate Elliott’s innovative beats, Earth-bound fans can rest assured that her music is now truly universal. Nasa’s JPL, which manages the Deep Space Network, is also responsible for missions like the Mars rovers and Voyager programme.
🥱 Blur guitarist Graham Coxon has addressed the band’s lacklustre Coachella 2024 performance, telling GQ: “I’m perfectly happy on stage, but sometimes, like at Coachella or something, it’s taken you fourteen hours to get there, and then you’re playing to people who don’t give a shit. They’re looking at you like ‘who’s this old git?’” Coxon’s comments come after frontman Damon Albarn’s visible frustration with the unresponsive crowd during their mainstage set in April. The guitarist revealed his strategy for dealing with uninterested audiences: “I just enjoy what I’m doing. I smile at the grumpy faces a couple of times just to see if I can change their expression, then I just get on with what I wanna do”.
🚚Construction and agricultural equipment behemoth JCB has struck what has to be one of the most left-field brand partnerships in recent years, cosying up to Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh to raise money for US military veterans charity VetsAid. The collaboration has been spearheaded by Alice Bamford, granddaughter of JCB’s founder, and her partner Ann Eysenring. Bamford, now a biodynamic farmer based in Malibu California, previously founded noughties garage label E-Mancipated, releasing early tracks from Lemar and garage pioneers Ramsey & Fen. The track Walsh created - called ‘Dig It’ - features his brother-in-law Ringo Starr on drums and premiered at Monster Jam, London’s “full throttle family fun” monster truck festival last weekend, where it was the anthem for the JCB DIGatron monster truck. Watch DIGatron’s performance and listen to the track here.
🖕 Britney Spears has fired back at the Obsournes after Ozzy Osbourne said that he was “fed up with seeing poor old Britney Spears on YouTube” and that seeing her dancing on social media was “very, very sad”, while Sharon Osbourne added that it was “heartbreaking” to see. Hitting back via Instagram, Britney told the Osbournes to “kindly f*** off”, and said that they were “the most boring family known to mankind”, adding that she “hardly ever” dances. The singer went on to praise actress Kate Beckinsale for her own gutsy response to similar online vitriol saying, “I realised how incredibly cruel people were talking about her, saying she needs more age-appropriate content”, adding, “What are you gonna do to help someone out and bring their dreams to life beside being like me and Kate’s haters saying we’re too old or don’t have appropriate content?”
💰 Soulja Boy has filed a $16 million defamation lawsuit against podcast host Tasha K and reality star William The Baddest after a podcast episode in which William detailed an alleged gay relationship with the rapper, including lurid descriptions of an alleged sexual encounter. A clip from the podcast later went viral online, leading to Soulja Boy asking the podcasters to retract their claims. They didn’t, and William The Baddest later showed off a purple ink tattoo of Soulja Boy’s name on his cheek. The lawsuit follows an earlier legal spat between Tasha K and Cardi B which saw the rapper win millions of dollars in damages, punitive damages and legal costs.
