‘GTA 6’ Hits Roadblock Despite Reports Nearing Final Development

ScHoolboy Q returned to rap with BLUE LIPS today. It's his first album in five years since 2019’s CrasH Talk, but it sounds like he hasn’t missed a beat. In other news today:

• Song streams & revenue 💰️ 

• GTA 6 hits roadblock despite final stage reports 🎮️ 

• Kanye shuts down Y3 album and “old Ye” rumors 😳

• New Music Friday releases 💿️ 

• Industry Insights 📈 

Song Streams & Revenue

It’s a new week and a new song revenue chart. As reported by Hits Daily Double, which tracks streaming revenue week over week, the above chart reflects the streaming period from Feb 16 to 22.

Kanye & Ty Dolla $ign’s “Carnival” earns 113K from 24M streams in its second week, and Yeat’s “Breathe” debuts with $47K from 10M streams in its opening week. Meanwhile, Rich Amiri’s “One Call” keeps climbing the charts with $40K from 8M streams.

‘GTA 6’ Hits Roadblock Despite Reports Nearing Final Development

“GTA 6 before GTA 6 is crazy” succinctly explains the surprise heard on timelines around the world reacting to the news that the game was heading into the final stages of development. But much like Kanye teasing a song with an uncleared sample—Rockstar Games might be getting ahead of themselves. Find out why below.

How do we know ‘GTA 6’ is in its final stages?

Bloomberg reported that Rockstar Games is asking all employees to return to the office five days a week starting in April. The staff email, sent on Wednesday (Feb 28), cited security concerns and increased productivity as the reason behind the decision.

“Making these changes now puts us in the best position to deliver the next Grand Theft Auto at the level of quality and polish we know it requires,” read the email.

What’s the catch?

Rockstar may want to fast-track development, but their employees aren’t on board. Womp, womp, womp. A new report from the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain criticized Rockstar for the mandatory return to office and said their reasons were unproven. 

Last year, 170 employees already signed a petition with the Union to push back against a mandatory three-day in-office week. The Union is now citing an email from that change where Rockstar said, “This isn’t our first step to five days a week.” 

Employees expressed a range of valid concerns, with only six weeks to appeal before the change goes into effect. But the disgruntled sentiment of the report suggests there’s potential for this to turn into the WGA writer’s striker of the gaming industry.

Is Rockstar Games being unreasonable?

Safeguarding GTA 6 with a Travis Scott Utopia briefcase level of security isn’t wild, given the amount of hacks the game has been victim to. The devil works hard, but GTA 6 leakers work harder. 

The September 2022 GTA 6 leak was described as one of the biggest leaks in gaming history. Well-known video game journalist Jason Schreier called it “a nightmare for Rockstar Games,” which could limit employees’ remote work flexibility—foreshadowing this week's announcement. 

But wait, there are more receipts…

The leaker, Arion Kurtaj, hacked Rockstar’s internal Slack groups (a communication platform favored for remote work) to download the clips using an Amazon Firestick, his hotel TV, and a cell phone—light work, he said. At Kurtaj’s trial, Rockstar claimed the leak cost them $5M and thousands of hours of staff time. 

It’s a Catch-22; both sides have legitimate but opposing reasons, and it remains to be seen if there won’t be any more bumps in the road to GTA 6. If you’ve learned anything from your favorite rapper, release dates are more of a suggestion than a promise.

Kanye Shuts Down ‘Y3’ Album Rumors: “Ain’t Nobody Tryna Be the ‘Old Ye’”

If anyone had hopes and dreams about hearing the “old Ye” on a solo album titled Y3 after Erick Sermon’s recent comments, Kanye’s here to crush that—while promoting Vultures. 

In an interview with HipHopDX, Sermon, a veteran hip-hop producer, commented about working with Kanye on an unreleased album meant to be Kanye’s next solo project. That alone would elicit a “Yawn, next,” but his comments about Kanye returning to his old rap style piqued curiosity.

The duo linked up in Italy last summer before Kanye began recording Vultures with Ty Dolla $ign. “I had him on Hip Hop. I was like, ‘You gotta rhyme. You have to do the stuff that you used to do ’cause you ill at that.’ And he listened! … I had [the old Kanye back].”

Kanye allegedly tabled the project when he began making Vultures, and although Sermon expressed hope they’d finish the album one day—Kanye’s not with it. 

In a DM to the popular fan account @yefanatics, Kanye said, “This is fake news. Ain’t no album called Y3 and ain’t nobody tryna be the ‘old Ye.’” Clearly, Sermon hasn’t heard “Burn” because it’s the closest thing we’ve gotten to “the old Ye” in years.

After shamelessly pointing out the success of Vultures and singing his own praises, Kanye signed off with, “I’m the greatest artist in any genre ever. And I’m just getting started.”

New Music Friday

Viral R&B artist 4batz has finally added another song to his discography, rounding it to three songs and 9.4M monthly listeners. Here’s all the music you can listen to now—categorized by 💿️ for albums and 🎶 for singles:

• 💿️ BLUE LIPS by ScHoolboy Q

• 💿️ Texas Technician by That Mexican OT

• 💿️ After TTBR by Glokk40Spaz

•  💿️ Heathenism by Meek Mill

• 🎶 “Gin & Juice” by 21 Lil Harold, BigXthaPlug

• 🎶 “Act III: On God?” by 4batz

• 🎶 “Tony Montana” by Skepta, Portable

• 🎶 “Like What (Freestyle)’” by Cardi B

• 🎶 “Still Yours” by The Kid LAROI

• 🎶 “Hold Me Down” by Matt OX

• 🎶 “Hot Spot” by Mez, Isaiah Rashad

• 🎶 “We Sh*t Him In His Head Huh” by NBA YoungBoy

• 🎶 “Sticks & Stones” by Joyner Lucas, Conway The Machine

• Over 38% of music on TikTok is “modified,” says study that analyzed 100M audio tracks. According to Pex data, either the pitch or speed of the tracks was altered.

• Jack Harlow taps SZA, Vince Staples, & more for a new festival. Taking place in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, the festival will highlight local food and culture alongside music.

• Fred again.., Lil Yachty and Overmono drop off “stayinit.” The track gets an official release after being previewed at an impromptu NYC rave.

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