21 Savage‘s next album is ready, and he’s not waiting until 2026 to deliver the LP to the masses. The Slaughter Gang CEO announced Monday (Dec. 8) that his What Happened to the Streets? album is slated to be released this week, on Friday (Dec. 12).

21 shocked fans when he posted a menacing black-and-white trailer to Instagram, which closed with the album announcement, and he wants to know what happened to the street code he was raised on.

The cryptic teaser follows a person walking down a dark alley, and they appear to be the target for a group of gunmen armed with snipers who are looking to wipe out their existence, all to the tune of a heart-pumping orchestra. Footage of the target’s life is chopped up into a montage before the album announcement hits the screen.

Plenty of 21’s peers were excited to hear that the East Atlanta rapper was back, as Conway the Machine, G Herbo, DJ Khaled, Zaytoven and Honorable C.N.O.T.E. all chimed in on IG. “You know you go NO SKIPS every time Buddy,” Herbo commented.

According to Apple Music, the album boasts 14 songs with none already being available as singles. 21 has stayed pretty quiet in 2025, but ended up making a guest appearance on Summer Walker’s “Get Yo Boy” track in November.

21 Savage’s last album, American Dream, topped the Billboard 200 in January 2024 with 133,000 total album-equivalent units earned. The project was 21’s fourth to reach the album chart summit and netted him 14 more Billboard Hot 100 entries.

Watch the What Happened to the Streets? trailer below. Stream the album on Friday (Dec. 12).

Sylvester Stallone, KISS, George Strait and Gloria Gaynor are among the luminaries being celebrated Sunday (Dec. 7) at the annual Kennedy Center Honors, with Donald Trump hosting the show, the first time a president will command the stage instead of sitting in an Opera House box.

Since returning to office in January, Trump has made Washington, D.C.’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which is named after a Democratic predecessor, a touchstone in a broader attack against what he has lambasted as “woke” anti-American culture.

Trump said in August that he had agreed to host the show. The Republican president said Saturday at a State Department dinner for the honorees that he was doing so “at the request of a certain television network.” He predicted that the broadcast, scheduled to air Dec. 23 on CBS and Paramount+, would have its best ratings ever.

“It’s going to be something that I believe, and I’m going to make a prediction: This will be the highest-rated show that they’ve ever done and they’ve gotten some pretty good ratings, but there’s nothing like what’s going to happen” on Sunday night, Trump said.

Trump is assuming a role that has been held in the past by journalist Walter Cronkite and comedian and Trump nemesis Stephen Colbert, among others. Before Trump, presidents watched the show alongside the honorees. Trump skipped the honors altogether during his first term.

Since 1978, the honors have recognized stars for their influence on American culture and the arts. Members of this year’s class are pop-culture standouts, including Stallone for his Rocky and Rambo movies, Gaynor for her feminist anthem “I Will Survive” and KISS for its flashy, cartoonish makeup and onstage displays of smoke and fire. Country music superstar George Strait and Tony Award-winning actor Michael Crawford are also being honored.

The ceremony is expected to be emotional for the members of KISS. The band’s original lead guitarist, Ace Frehley, died in October after he was injured during a fall. The band’s co-founder Gene Simmons, speaking on the red carpet when he and the other honorees arrived for the ceremony, said the president had assured him there would be an empty chair among the members of KISS in memory of Frehley.

Crawford called it “a beautiful honor” and said, “It’s humbling, especially at the end of a career.”

Mike Farris, an award-winning gospel singer who is performing for Gaynor, said she is a dear friend. “She truly did survive,” Farris said on the red carpet. “What an iconic song.”

Previous honorees have come from a broad range of art forms, whether dance (Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham), theater (Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber), movies (Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks) or music (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell).

Trump has taken over the Kennedy Center

Trump upended decades of bipartisan support for the center by ousting its leadership and stacking the board of trustees with Republican supporters, who then elected him chair. He has criticized the center’s programming and the building’s appearance — and has said, perhaps jokingly, that he would rename it as the “Trump Kennedy Center.” He secured more than $250 million from Congress for renovations of the building.

Presidents of each political party have at times found themselves face to face with artists of opposing political views. Republican Ronald Reagan was there for honoree Arthur Miller, a playwright who championed liberal causes. Democrat Bill Clinton, who had signed an assault weapons ban into law, marked the honors for Charlton Heston, an actor and gun rights advocate.

During Trump’s first term, multiple honorees were openly critical of the president. In 2017, Trump’s first year in office, honors recipient and film producer Norman Lear threatened to boycott his own ceremony if Trump attended. Trump stayed away during that entire term.

Trump has said he was deeply involved in choosing the 2025 honorees and turned down some recommendations because they were “too woke.” While Stallone is one of Trump’s Hollywood ”special ambassadors” and has likened Trump to George Washington, the political views of Sunday’s other guests are less clear.

Honorees’ views about Trump

Strait and Gaynor have said little about their politics, although Federal Election Commission records show that Gaynor has given money to Republican organizations in recent years.

KISS co-founder Gene Simmons spoke favorably of Trump when Trump ran for president in 2016. But in 2022, Simmons told Spin magazine that Trump was “out for himself” and criticized Trump for encouraging conspiracy theories and public expressions of racism.

Fellow KISS member Paul Stanley denounced Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden, and said Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 were “terrorists.” But after Trump won in 2024, Stanley urged unity.

“If your candidate lost, it’s time to learn from it, accept it and try to understand why,” Stanley wrote on X. “If your candidate won, it’s time to understand that those who don’t share your views also believe they are right and love this country as much as you do.”

Violet Grohl is officially dropping original new music.

On Friday (Dec. 5), 19-year-old daughter of Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl announced through social media the release of her debut solo track “THUM”, accompanied by the B-side “Applefish.”

“I’m beyond excited to finally share a little bit of what i’ve been working on over the last year,” Grohl wrote on Instagram. “I made these tracks with the most badass group of musicians, so happy they’re finally yours:).”

The songs are available as a 7-inch vinyl for $8 through Bandcamp. The alt-rock-leaning “THUM” is available for streaming, while the moody “Applefish” can be purchased digitally or on vinyl.

Violet’s new music follows rumors that she has been working on her debut album since last year. According to The Hollywood Reporter, she spent time in a studio gifted by her father for her birthday, collaborating with producer Justin Raisen, who has worked with Charli XCX, Drake, John Legend and Kim Gordon.

Violet first emerged as a musician in 2018 at age 12, performing a cover of Adele’s “When We Were Young” with her father. Since then, she has performed with the Foos frontman and surviving members of Nirvana on a cover of “Heart-Shaped Box,” and provided backing vocals for artists including St. Vincent and Beck.

She has also contributed backing vocals on the Foo Fighters’ albums Medicine at Midnight and But Here We Are, and performed at tribute concerts honoring the late drummer Taylor Hawkins. In 2021, she released a cover of X’s “Nausea,” in collaboration with her father.

Most recently, she sang lead vocals on Nirvana’s In Utero hit “All Apologies” at the 2025 FireAid LA Benefit Concert, sharing the stage with her dad, Krist Novoselic, Pat Smear and Gordon.

Check out Grohl’s Instagram post below.