Music

Royce Da 5’9″ Claims Atlantic Blocked Cordae From Appearing On ‘The Allegory’

The rapper shared the news during an interview with PSA Hip-Hop’s Threeletterman3. …

Royce Da 5’9″ became a Grammy nominee last week when The Allegory, the Detroit rapper’s eighth album, earned a spot in the Best Rap Album category. This isn’t the first time he’s been nominated, having received one at the 2010 awards for his appearance on Eminem’s Recovery. But the version of the album that got released is not exactly the one he wanted. In a recent interview with PSA Hip-Hop’s Threeletterman3, Royce revealed that Cordae was supposed to appear on it but the young rapper’s label, Atlantic Records, blocked him from doing it.

“[Vince Staples] sent his verse last day because originally YBN Cordae was there in that spot,” Royce said. “Atlantic would not clear YBN Cordae, so I had to take him off. They said they wanted to ‘keep him young.’ These labels, they are so caught up young, young, young, young.” He was a bit frustrated by the label’s action, however, and he also pointed out that it put Cordae in a bad position as well.

“Obviously the kid wanted to do it, otherwise, he wouldn’t have done it! So why put him in that position?” he said. “And now the album is nominated for Grammy. You don’t think that in retrospect was a bad move from them?”

Royce’s The Allegory joins D. Smoke’s Black Habits, Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist’s Alfredo, Nas’ King Disease, and Jay Electronica’s A Written Testimony as the other nominees in the Best Rap Album category.

You can watch the interview in the video above. Royce’s remarks on Cordae come around the 27-minute mark.

Cordae is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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Artist Spotlight

“Subterranean Homesick Blues” finds a new direction through Ghost of Panama

Rearranging a song that carries six decades of cultural weight is a creative challenge, but Ghost of Panama approaches “Subterranean Homesick Blues” with clear purpose. The rock band radically reworks Bob Dylan’s counter-culture hit, reshaping its identity while keeping its rebellious spirit. It’s a tribute to musical heritage and a statement of artistic independence all in one.

This new interpretation is very much shaped by the production, made at Ghost of Panama’s home studio in West London. The setting allows an intimate approach to reinterpreting a familiar song and lets the group engage directly with the material, taking it in a new artistic direction.

“Subterranean Homesick Blues” centers on the tension between conservation and transformation. Ghost of Panama is true to the song’s rebellious spirit without adding to its legacy, and this approach gives the release an adventurous feel, grounded in countercultural energy but driven by a desire to see what the composition can become in a different musical context.

Their version of this 60-year-old classic shows that respecting a song’s history can also mean breaking the rules and finding new ways to express its spirit. Fundamentally, “Subterranean Homesick Blues” presents Ghost of Panama as artists who want to engage with the past without being tied to it. The release’s strongest identity is a familiar heritage reimagined through a singularly forward-looking creative vision.

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Artist Spotlight

“NO MORE” by Amanda Holley connects healing, awakening, and survival

“NO MORE“ carries that kind of emotional weight, and some songs feel like they come from lived experience but reach for something bigger. Amanda Holley blends R&B and soul, turning a lifetime of survival into a vision of healing, awakening, and the determination to move beyond what caused the pain.

“NO MORE“ is a healing anthem for people who have gone through bad experiences and reached a place of higher awareness, but it’s also an emotionally charged protest. The duality is introspective and outward-looking at the same time, turning personal survival into a broader declaration that some experiences, conditions, or cycles should end.

Holley had a premonition of the song six months before the world went into global shutdown. In the vocal booth, working out melodies with her collaborators, she pictured people in the streets. Those images were hard to imagine at the time, but subsequent events would make them painfully familiar.

“NO MORE“ is given a particularly contemplative underpinning by the context. The identity of R&B and soul leaves room for emotion. The song’s themes link survival, awakening, resistance, and the need for change. Amanda Holley is an artist using music to process personal endurance and a broader sense of social awakening. It’s got a complicated significance, and its release feels like a glimpse of a moment when personal intuition and public reality collided in an unexpected way.

Photo Credit: Yulia Shusharina

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