GloRilla, Summer Walker, Muni Long, Maxwell and Boyz II Men are among the first wave of contemporary stars and legends announced for the 2025 ESSENCE Festival of Culture. Presented by Coca-Cola, the annual music and lifestyle event will take place July 4-6 in New Orleans.

In addition to the aforementioned acts, the lineup of headliners and performers includes Davido, Nas, The Isley Brothers, Donell Jones, Buju Banton and New Orleans’ native son Master P. Banton and GloRilla will be making their ESSENCE Festival debuts as well. Grammy-winning songwriter/producer Jermaine Dupri will also curate a tribute to the legacy of multifaceted industry icon Quincy Jones. Titled “ESSENCE Flowers,” Dupri’s special salute will “bring together artists who’ve sampled, studied or shared space with the music titan,” according to the press release announcement.

“We Are Made Like This” is 2025’s theme as the festival celebrates the 55th anniversary of its namesake, ESSENCE magazine. Serving as hosts for the evening series of concerts will be actor/comedian Anthony Anderson and cultural curator Kenny Burns.

A mix of returning and new lifestyle experiences will round out the weekend’s various offerings. These include the ESSENCE Food & Wine Festival, ESSENCE Film Festival, BeautyCon and ESSENCE Authors.

In celebration of its 30th anniversary last year, the 2024 ESSENCE Festival of Culture featured eight-time Grammy Award winner Usher in a special performance of his classic 2004 album Confessions. Attendees were also treated to performances by Janet Jackson, Victoria Monét, Charlie Wilson, Birdman & Friends Presents 30 Years of Cash Money Millionaires and a tribute to Frankie Beverly & Maze.

When Kendrick Lamar surprise-dropped his GNX album, an immediate standout from the project was “Squabble Up.”

The song topped the Billboard Hot 100, at the same time as GNX debuting atop the Billboard 200 albums chart. The track became Lamar’s fifth Hot 100 No. 1 out of six total, and his third of 2024 – the most among all artists of the year. He previously led in 2024 with “Not Like Us,” for two weeks beginning in May, and “Like That,” with Future and Metro Boomin, for three weeks in April.

Below, find the lyrics to Kendrick Lamar’s “Squabble Up.”

God knows
I am
Reincarnated, I was stargazin’
Life goes on, I need all my babies (gyah, gyah)

Woke up lookin’ for the broccoli
High-key, keep a horn on me, that Kamasi
IP, ownership, the blueprint is by me
Mr. Get Off, I get off at my feet
(When I hear music, it makes me dance)
(You got the music, now is your chance)
A yee nigga couldn’t try me in the tri-state
Buddy pass, bet I get him splashed ’til he hydrated
Bounce out, know he spook town, eyes dilated
I got the money and the power both gyratin’

I feel good, get the fuck out my face
Look good, but she don’t got no taste
I walk in, walked out with the safe
Mando, let me know what the play

What the fuck? I got hits, I got bucks, I got new paper cuts
I got friends, I got foes, but they all sitting ducks
Hit his turf and get crackin’, double back like a deluxe
Fifty deep, but it ain’t deep enough
Fuck a plea, there he go, beat him up
Fallin’ from my money tree and it grow throughout the months
Spit a loogie at the camera, speed off, yeah, it’s us

I feel good, get the fuck out my face
Look good, but she don’t got no taste
I walk in, walked out with the safe
Mando, let me know what the play

Squabble up, squabble up
Squabble up, squabble up
Squabble up (mh-mh), squabble up (mh-mh)
Squabble up (mh-mh), squabble up

Hol’ up (hol’ up), where you from? (Where you from?)
Bye, bitch (bye, bitch), I’m finna go dumb (finna go dumb)
Sideways (sideways), bunk skunk (bunk skunk)
Fever (fever), I’m on one (I’m on one)

Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, baby rockin’ it
Quid pro quo, what you want? ‘Cause I’m watchin’ it
Work on the floor, let me know if you clockin’ it
Brodie won’t go, but I know that he poppin’ it
It was woof tickets on sale ’til I silenced it
Pipe down, young, these some whole other politics
Bitch with him and some bitch in him, that’s a lot of bitch
Don’t hit him, he got kids with him, my apologies
Ghetto child, it was Black & Milds with the Smirnoff
Yeehaw, we outside, whoadie ’bout to kill him off
Blaps on blaps, it’s a fact, this a brick of raw
Tell me why the fuck you niggas rap if it’s fictional?
Tell me why the fuck you niggas fed if you criminal?
“Ayy, Dot, can I get a drop?” I’m like, “Nigga, nah”
Ace boon coon from the Westside to Senegal
It’s a full moon, let the (ah) wolves out, I been a dog

I feel good, get the fuck out my face
Look good, but she don’t got no taste
I walked in, walked out with the safe
Mando, let me know what the play

Squabble up, squabble up
Squabble up, squabble up
Squabble up (mh-mh), squabble up (mh-mh)
Squabble up (mh-mh), squabble up

Lyrics licensed & provided by LyricFind
WRITERS
Jack Michael Antonoff, Matthew Bernard, Tony Butler, Mark Anthony Spears, Ruchaun Maurice Akers Jr., Kendrick Lamar Duckworth
PUBLISHERS
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, WHOOPING CRANE MUSIC

If you watched music on TV at any point in the last 50+ years, you most likely experienced the work of Don Mischer, who directed and/or produced hundreds of hours of programming, including six Super Bowl halftime shows and variety specials headlined by such icons as Barbra Streisand and Willie Nelson. Mischer, who amassed 15 Primetime Emmys for his work, died on Friday (April 11) in Los Angeles. He was 85.

Mischer produced and directed Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, the star-studded 1983 special on which Michael Jackson introduced his Moonwalk. Mischer also produced and directed a 1985 sequel, Motown Returns to the Apollo. In 1993, he reunited with Jackson when the superstar headlined the Super Bowl halftime show. That performance is credited with elevating the halftime show to its current status as the world’s top platform for a music performer.

Mischer worked on five more Super Bowl halftime shows, headlined by Paul McCartney (2005), The Rolling Stones (2006), Prince (2007), Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (2008) and Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band (2009). The most memorable of these was the show which Prince headlined amid a downpour. It regularly tops lists of the greatest halftime performances of all time.

Mischer directed The Kennedy Center Honors across four decades (1978-86 and 1992-2005). He also produced and/or directed three of the four EGOT-level awards shows — working on three Tonys telecasts, three Oscars telecasts and nine Primetime Emmys telecasts. He never worked on the Grammys, but he served as executive producer of the Billboard Music Awards three times (2011-13).

He produced and directed the 1996 Summer Olympics opening ceremony and served as executive producer of the 2002 Winter Olympics ceremony.

He worked on many superstar specials, including Goldie & Liza Together (1981), where Oscar winners Goldie Hawn and Liza Minnelli memorably teamed up. Others included Willie Nelson: Texas Style (1989), Sonny & Cher: Cher Remembers (1999), Barbra Streisand: Timeless (2000) and James Taylor: One Man Band (2007). He also worked on dance specials headlined by Twyla Tharp, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines, and comedy specials starring Eddie Murphy and Don Rickles.

Mischer worked on many “event” TV specials, keyed to anniversaries or re-openings. Among them: Irving Berlin’s 100th Birthday at Carnegie Hall (1988), Carnegie Hall: Live at 100 (1991), Bob Hope: The First 90 Years (1992), To Life: Israel’s 50th Anniversary Celebration (1998) and National September 11 Memorial & Museum Dedication (2014).

Mischer’s first major credit in TV was directing Great American Dream Machine on PBS (1970-71). That led to directing In Concert, a late-night music series on ABC (1973-75).

Mischer produced the 2004 Democratic National Convention, which led to a rare, if understandable, slip on his part. After John Kerry’s speech accepting the nomination for president, balloons were supposed to drop from the ceiling onto the delegates below. However, the balloons got stuck and did not fall. Mischer lost his temper and let out a string of expletives — which went out live on CNN.

In January 2009, Mischer had a happier experience when he produced and directed We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial, which featured performances by Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen.

Mischer received 15 Primetime Emmy Awards, a record 10 Directors Guild of America Awards for outstanding directorial achievement, two NAACP Image Awards, and a Peabody Award (for Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever). In 2012, he received the Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television from the Producers Guild of America. In 2014, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2019, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of America (DGA).

In November 2023, Mischer published his memoir :10 Seconds to Air: My Life in the Director’s Chair. Kirkus Reviews called it “a frank, insightful recollection of an accomplished career.”

“Don was simply iconic,” Lesli Linka Glatter, president of the DGA, said in a statement. “His mastery of directing live events was a fast-paced symphony of meticulous planning combined with on-the-spot decision-making that elevated our nation’s greatest cultural events, always capturing the human spirit behind them. … Don’s skill as a director elevated the emotions, excitement and importance of these live worldwide moments, creating lifelong memories for audiences around the world.”

After directing and producing hundreds of hours of live television, Mischer knew what he was doing and felt at peace when a show went live.

“There’s nothing like that feeling that the clock is ticking down and you’re sitting in the truck, and then suddenly it’s time, and everybody gets quiet,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2010. “That’s when I get calm.”

Mischer is survived by his wife, Suzan; four children, Heather, Jennifer, Charlie and Lily; and two grandchildren, Everly and Tallulah.

“I’m terrified,” says Post Malone while kicking back in an Indio, Calif., villa. He’s at an intimate but rowdy party hosted by Poppi, the fast-growing prebiotic soda he was an early investor in, and is speaking about his upcoming Coachella 2025 headlining gig that will close out both weekends of the festival on Sunday night April 13 and 20). 

“They want me to do something crazy, and I’m terrified to do it,” he teases, not saying much more. Even so, Posty says he gets nervous before every show. Except for, maybe, the first time he played Coachella in 2018 at the Sahara tent. “I wasn’t as nervous back then… I’m just old now. Everything hurts.”

Getting older is, in part, why Post was so eager to support Poppi from the jump. “I remember kicking soda was a hard thing,” he says, speaking of a few years back when he decided to swap in some healthier day-to-day choices. He says his manager, Austin Rosen, told him about the then-new option, which Post tried and declared, “This is f—ing banging.” 

Other than stopping by to hang and support Poppi (which in March celebrated a nearly $2 billion acquisition by Pepsi Co), Post has stayed tucked away for most of Coachella weekend one. And the day after his set, he reveals, he’s right back to work cutting vocals for his upcoming album.

And yes, he’s cooking up another country set. 

While speaking about how kind the Nashville community has been since he had started working on his chart-topping 2024 album, F-1 Trillion, he says that every time he gets together with his crew out there — which includes buddies and fellow artists like Ernest, Hardy, Thomas Rhett and many more — “we just have fun. We just sit and f—ing talk and make songs. And so I’m pretty excited for the new record already.”

Posty says he’s already done two trips to Nashville for the project and has “made probably 35 songs; it’s just a matter of which one’s rock, and which one’s sock,” he says. (As for whether or not he’ll perform any new music during his headlining set, he says with a laugh: “Absolutely not.”)

Malone is currently working with scratch vocals, but shares that the band has already cut a bunch of songs “and they’re f—ing killing it… I sit there and listen to these songs, and I usually hate listening to my music, but listening to the band play, I get so excited.”

That excitement Post feels for the country music genre is evident — plus it works. F-1 Trillion spawned the Hot 100 No. 1 hit “I Had Some Help,” featuring Morgan Wallen, while a total of 18 songs off the album charted on the tally. F-1 also debuted atop the Top Country Albums chart. And in May, Post will compete for album of the year at the Academy of Country Music Awards. 

While country music has been the vehicle to help launch Post into this stratosphere of success, his hits-filled catalog that spans hip-hop, pop and even rock will be on full display during his headlining set, he assures.

“You put a twist on the instrumentation and the musicianship of it,” he says of crafting a cohesive show. “We have Lillie [Mae] playing the fiddle and Cheese [Chandler Walters] playing the steel [guitar] and incorporating that into the old songs and then transitioning into the new s—… that’s always been the thing about me, is it’s all just f—ing music.”

And thanks to F-1, not only is Post headlining Coachella, but right after will head out on his first stadium tour, the Big Ass World Tour, alongside new pal Jelly Roll. While the correlation between Post’s foray into country music and his global superstardom is clear, he sees his current path as the only one that felt right.

Post has released an album every year since 2022 — “some better than others,” he says softly — starting with Twelve Carat Toothache, then his pop-country-stepping-stone project Austin, and then last year’s F-1. 

“[They weren’t] really, I don’t want to say not well received, but, you know, it was something that I had to do,” he says of Toothache and Austin. “We just slowed everything down and that’s kind of what I was going through at that point. And [F-1] was just f—ing bitching. It was so fun to make. And I said in an interview a while ago, ‘When I’m 30 years old, I’m gonna make a country record.’ And I made it at 29, so I wasn’t too far off. But you know, it just happened naturally. I was like, ‘F— it, let’s go to Nashville. Let’s give it a go.’ I think finally bringing the fun back into what I was doing really showed on the record. And I think a lot of folks had fun listening to it. And we’re going to attempt to do it again. I’m excited to keep going.” 

So does that mean he will continue his trend of releasing an album a year? “Hopefully,” he says, “we’ll have some music releasing very, very soon.”

Luis R. Conriquez, one of the most popular singers of corridos bélicos — songs often associated with glorifying drug cartels and violence — is making changes to his music after a chaotic concert in Mexico.

On Friday (April 11), Conriquez performed at the Feria del Caballo in Texcoco, State of Mexico, but things didn’t go as planned. Due to new government rules banning songs that promote violence in certain areas, Conriquez decided to leave narcocorridos out of his setlist. The result? Angry fans, booing, fights, and even destroyed property at the venue.

In a statement shared on his social media accounts the next day, Conriquez expressed regret over what happened and announced that he’ll be making significant changes to his lyrics moving forward.

“My fans are the most important thing to me — I owe them everything. But as an artist, I must follow the new rules the government has set regarding corridos,” he said.

He also asked his audience to understand his decision, saying he’ll continue focusing on his passion for music despite these challenges.

Conriquez’s show took a turn for the worse during his performance at the palenque — a smaller, intimate venue typically seen at fairs. When Conriquez told the crowd there wouldn’t be any narcocorridos that night, people started booing and shouting. Videos posted on social media show fans growing more upset as he tried to explain the decision. Eventually, Conriquez decided to leave the stage, which led to chairs and objects being thrown in frustration.

The ban on songs that glorify violence was introduced on April 9 in Texcoco and two other municipalities in the State of Mexico — Metepec and Tejupilco. The new rule applies to fairs and mass events, with penalties of up to six months in jail for violations. The State of Mexico’s Security Department doubled down on this policy in a statement released Saturday, urging local authorities to enforce the prohibition of such songs at public events.

This crackdown on narcocorridos isn’t limited to the State of Mexico. Other parts of the country are implementing similar measures, especially after a major controversy in March when the University of Guadalajara hosted a concert where images of a well-known drug lord were projected on stage. That incident led to the U.S. revoking the visas of the band involved, Los Alegres del Barranco. On April 11, the government of Jalisco proposed a new law allowing municipalities to regulate or ban songs that glorify violence at public or private events.

Meanwhile, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has been pushing for a cultural shift in music. This week, the government’s Culture Department announced a binational contest called “México Canta,” which aims to encourage young artists — especially those making corridos tumbados, a trendy subgenre — to create songs without promoting violence or drug-related themes. The initiative comes as Mexico grapples with rising violence in certain areas.

For Conriquez, this new reality means adapting his music to comply with these rules, even if it upsets some of his fans. As he put it in his statement: “The unfortunate events last night put at risk not only the safety and lives of the audience, but also the integrity of my team and myself.” Despite the backlash, he says he’s determined to keep making music — just with a different approach.