Erykah Badu Gets Swagger-Jacked, And Radioactivity Sneaks Into A Mall.

Earlier this week, three-quarters of the Black Eyed Peas made a surprising return to the forefront with a clip for a new track called “Yesterday.” It's not only a throwback to the group's early, more hip-hop bent days, but to a handful of classic hip-hop tunes that the trio borrows healthily from.

It's not that the Peas are trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes, necessarily; there just making not-all-that-clever nods to when hip-hop was, in their eyes, so much better. Hence the title of the song.

But bars from Eric B. & Rakim's “Paid in Full” are far from the only aspects of the clip that aren't wholly original.

The clip, which finds BEP inserting themselves into the covers of classic hip-hop LPs, is a most blatant ripoff of Erykah Badu's video for 2007's “Honey” –even going so far as to use a couple of the same album covers. Here's that clip for comparisons sake.

It didn't take long for the good-natured Ms. Badu to point out the similarities first via Twitter and then on Facebook, using the latter to point out that her version won a VMA.

I think THE BLACK EYES PEAS borrowed my idea a Lil lol …I'm gone beat up Will I AM.I wrote and directed this…Posted by Erykah Badu on Sunday, July 19, 2015

*Drops the mic.*

Except, hey, isn't Will.i.am kind of known for this kind of thing? Really, this behavior is about as surprising as North Texas boy Don Henley “returning to his roots” with his upcoming country music LP, which is to say that it's not very surprising at all. Still, the fact that the first solo album in 15 years from the drummer for country rockers The Eagles — maybe you've heard of them? — features collaborations from Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Alison Krauss, Martina McBride and Vince Gill, among others, is pretty cool. The LP, called Cass County, will be released on September 25, and you can hear the McBride-featuring single “That Old Flame,” below.

A tad more surprising is the fact that Chris Holt (The Slack, OLOSPO) is a featured guitarist on the disc. More surprising still is the fact that Henley returned the favor, turning in vocals on Holt's upcoming solo LP, Stargazer, which is also due out later this year.

Moving on, Noisey furthered its case at becoming one of North Texas' best local music blogs with premieres from a pair of local acts. First up, the site debuted The Outfit, TX's new Deep Ellum EP. Continuing his work delivering a report on the Dallas scene via the publication earlier this year Mel and Co. do a commendable job here giving shine to a wide swath of the city's local hip-hop talent. Featured on the EP, which you can stream below, are the likes of Crit Morris, G.U.N., Que P, Kissed Killed, Devy Stonez and a whole bunch more.

And earlier today, the not-actually-local-at-all site also debuted Radioactivity's new music video for its tracks “Battered” and “Stripped,” which was shot inside the old Valley Ridge Mall. Directed by locally-raised Oscar-nominated filmmaker Keven McAlester, it's probably the coolest locally-tied music video we've seen all year. Check it out.

Other new music videos include War Party's clip for “Nolo Mori,” a lo-fi found footage smorgasbord that weaves together classic bits of pop culture with current news events, crafting a statement about the present state of our society in, perhaps, a more poignant way than initially realized. Or maybe that's just what we're supposed to think. Decide for yourself below.

Also, long-buzzing Internet sensation Post Malone finally released a visual treatment for his breakout single “White Iverson.” The video sees the teen rapper ghost-riding some whips and flashing his grill in some nondescript desert. Hip-hop stereotypes be damned. Here's that one.

In some non-video release news, The Pussy Poptimist premiered the second collaboration between Claire Morales and Sundae Crush's Jena Pyle, this one a cover of The Everly Brothers' “All I Have to Do is Dream” that also features the talents of Pearl Earl's Ariel Hartley. It's just another of several collaborations Morales tells us she's got lined up in the coming months.

Finally, The Polyphonic Spree announced it'll be marking the 15th anniversary of The Beginning Stages of… with an October 17 show at Granada Theater where the band will perform that debut LP in its entirety, along with some “deep cuts, choice covers, and some other surprises thrown in for good measure.”

Finally this week, the newly re-formed JIBE announced a show of its own at Gas Monkey Bar N' Grill on September 25.

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