Greg catches us up on his week and then fills us in on Kendrick Lamar’s Juneteenth Concert. Officially called ‘The Pop Out - Ken & Friends,’ the show has been described as a victory lap that united Los Angeles. Lamar’s friends ended up being Dr. Dre, YG, Tyler, the Creator, Roddy Rich, Schoolboy Q, Steve Lacy, and others. Reports also referenced a large attendance by celebrities, athletes, and both members of the Bloods and the Crips. Aside from joining with the crowd to celebrate his victory in his Drake beef, Lamar focused his message on unity and it seems to have resonated. It is already being called one of the biggest moments in hip hop history and Snoop has declared Kendrick Lamar the West Coast King.

Song: Kendrick Lamar - “Not Like Us (Juneteenth Live)”

Jay brings us some new rock songs this week, curated in the Classic Rock section of Loudersound.com. The guys give their opinions on ‘the best new rock songs you need to hear right now.’

Songs:

iNi Kamoze, Salaam Remi - “Here Comes The Hotstepper”

Massive Wagons - “Missing On TV”

Bones UK - “Bikinis”

Orange Goblin - “The Fire At The Centre Of The Earth Is Mine”

Mr Big - “Up On You“

Finally, Nick breaks the news that our end credit music generation provider, Suno.ai, is being sued alongside Udio by the RIAA & all four major record labels for copyright infringement. The AI music generation services are being accused of plagiarizing unlicensed music digested and fed into the AI models. Suno CEO claims they refused discussing the matter and Udio has a nice song in response to the accusations. It’s all new ground for the courts and sure to be interesting to follow as both services claim the index of songs digested to be proprietary information.

Song: Sam Evian - “Wild Days”

Get ready for it! This week on "News with Nick" we have a special report from returning guest, Ciri Kline, on the music game app Soundmap. He joins us on his 14th birthday and reveals his picks from the local vinyl store. In other news, Scooter Braun quits music management and George Strait breaks the concert attendance world record.

Song: MF Doom - “Doomsday”

Greg is up next with a Three for Thursday. We start with a clip from MF Doom’s 2005 “Live at Planet X,” continue on to “Inner Glimpse” by Freddie Hubbard and McCoy Tyner, and finish up with the latest single, “Flea” by St. Vincent.

Songs:

MF Doom - “Live from Planet X”

Freddie Hubbard and McCoy Tyner - “Inner Glimpse”

St Vincent - “Flea”

Jay closes us out with an update to the story, first discussed a few years back, about the unreleased Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. Purchased for $2 million in 2015 by Pharma-Bro Martin Shkreli, the album was seized by the government in 2018 when Shkreli was convicted of securities fraud. The album was auctioned yet again in 2021 by the U.S. Justice Department to the NFT collectors PleasrDAO (Crypto-Bros). The binding original purchasing agreement stipulated that the album could not be commercially exploited until 2103. PleasrDAO, whose stated purpose is to honor "anti-establishment rebels" and wishing to return the music to the people, has been selling shares of the album as NFTs. PleasrDAO has stated that each share of the album sold would reduce the album’s release by 88 seconds. Jay had to get in on this…and he brings us a clip of the album to play.

Songs:

Hermanos Gutiérrez - “Barrio Hustle”

Wu-Tang Clan - clip from Once Upon a Time in Shaolin

On a recent episode of the new show Reflector, the breakdown of the Young Thug trial has captivated Jay. At question is the admissibility of lyrics as evidence in a trial. We dig in further than our original conversation about the subject back in an earlier episode. The podcast kicks off with the PMRC Senate hearings and Frank Zappa’s involvement, which a time-tested way to hook Jay into any topic.

Song: Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder - “Pig in a Pen“

Nick celebrates his grandfather, Alfred E. Gill, who passed last week at home at the age of 95, with a “Three for Thursday: Granddad Edition.”

Songs:

Peter, Paul and Mary - “The Lemon Tree”

The Rooftop Singers - “Walk Right In”

Joni Mitchell - “Both Sides Now”

Finally, Greg recaps the incredible work of producer and engineer, Brendan O’Brien. O’Brien was featured on a recent Rick Beato episode and Greg highly recommends you check it out.

Songs:

Black Crowes - “Hard to Handle”

Red Hot Chili Peppers - “Give it Away”

Red Hot Chili Peppers - “Under the Bridge”

Stone Temple Pilots - Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart”

Pearl Jam - “Better Man”

Rage Against the Machine - “Bulls on Parade”