Month: August 2020

The best new hip-hop albums coming out this week include projects from Cookie Kawaii, Jaden, KenTheMan, Nasty C, Rich Brian, Saigon, Teejayx6, The LOX, Wifisfuneral, and Yung Bleu. Basically, yikes.

This week is stuffed to the gills with so much rap your ears might pop, and yet, depending on which direction you’re coming at it from, you might feel like some of this stuff isn’t worth checking out or isn’t even technically “hip-hop.” And while I won’t try to tell you what your taste should be, I can tell you that maintaining that attitude might make you miss out on some great stuff.

So yeah, if you’re a young head, stuff from The LOX and Saigon might feel stodgy and “old school.” And if those names got you excited you may not be champing at the bit to check out Jaden or Wifisfuneral. But trust me on this: both kids have bars. And kids, listen: it’s worth checking out the older stuff, even if you think it sounds like something your dad would listen to (2012 was so very long ago) because it can give you worthwhile context and history that informs your current faves. Besides, variety is the spice of life, so listening to a little of Cookie Kawaii’s Jersey club or Nasty C’s South African perspective can’t kill you, and might just become a welcome addition to your personal rotation. You won’t know ’til you’ve tried it!

Here are all the best new hip-hop albums coming out this week.

Cookie Kawaii — Club Soda Vol. 2

Cookie Kawaii does rap a bit on her clubby tracks, but as hip-hop becomes more and more informed by EDM (see: “WAP” or Duckwrth’s excellent debut album) it’s nice to see where those influences come from. The only downside here is that we’re still on lockdown — or should be [points sternly], so we’re missing out on some Cookie-fueled nights out full of laser lights, packed rooms, and sore legs in the morning.

Jaden — Cool Tape, Vol. 3

Jaden expands on both his eclectic sound and the backstory of his conceptual protagonist from Syre and Erys with the latest installment of his Cool Tape series. Incidentally, that involves both the mellow surf rock of “Cabin Fever” and the confident swagger of “Rainbow Bap.”

KenTheMan — 4 Da 304‘s

First of all, let’s just talk about how great that name is. Ken. The. Man. As the rising tide of female solidarity in hip-hop threatens to become a tsunami (a good thing, if you ask me), sometimes, all it takes is the right name to set yourself apart and establish your mission statement. Ken is here to take the top spot and earn equal recognition to hip-hop’s men.

Nasty C — Zulu Man With Some Power

During a recent trip to South Africa, I heard Nasty C everywhere. He’s the hometown hero, although there was an undercurrent that he’d Americanized his style too much for local tastes. That said, he’s one of the most popular members of his country’s hip-hop community and looking to crossover to the wealthiest market in the world, so playing ball couldn’t hurt (England had a similar sentiment about Dizzee Rascal in ’03, but he’s still around, so clearly, a little evolution is welcome).

Rich Brian — 1999 EP

There’s a lot of big, bold sounds and melodies on Brian’s latest EP, which he calls the best thing he’s done, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t also improving as both a songwriter and a rapper. If anything, his growth over the past few years has been impressive; from the gangsta-aping of “Dat Stick” to the heavy backpack rap vibes on Sailor, Brian is proving that the constraints of traditional hip-hop can’t hold him — nor should they.

Saigon — 777: The Resurrection

This one really is just for me. You couldn’t tell me in 2004 that Saigon wasn’t the second coming. However, after years of label interference that squandered the positive buzz from a XXL Freshman Class cover and Just Blaze’s involvement as executive producer, his debut album The Greatest Story Never Told seemingly lived down to its title on its quiet release in 2011. Since then, Saigon hasn’t done much… so I, personally, am very excited for this comeback, especially with no one trying to force him to collaborate with Pretty Ricky (who’ve since made a comeback of their own. SYNERGY).

Teejayx6 — Black Air Force Activity: Reloaded

He’s calling it an EP, but it appears to be a deluxe version of the original Black Air Force Activity with twelve new songs, including appearances from fellow Detroiter Sada Baby and NLE Choppa. More scams, more hilarious punchlines, more tales of illicit activities, and more of that overwhelming Detroit accent. If you don’t find something to like here, check your pulse.

The LOX — Living Off Xperience

That sound you heard was thousands and thousands of old heads lacing up their Timbs and taking to the streets to cop this on compact disc. I kid, but The LOX truly was a foundational group for an entire generation of rap fans, even if it was mostly for their solo work (“We Gone Make It”) and feature appearances (“It’s All About The Benjamins”). However, those who’ve aged out of checking for the hottest new rapper on the streets would do well to at least check out new music from their old faves rather than paying lip service to “real hip-hop” while shaking their canes at Lil Uzi Vert.

Wifisfuneral — Pain?

Speaking of old heads, I can see how they’d be turned off, both by this Florida rapper’s name and his unruly appearance. Scratch the surface, though, and his ’90s New York influences bleed through, even when he sing-raps his Big L-inspired punchlines and floats over synth-heavy, eerie production endemic to the “mumble rap” genre. Despite the title, his album is a lot of fun — although there are plenty of requisite introspective tracks as well.

Yung Bleu — Bleu Vandross 3

Sounding for all the world like a cross between Future and country cousins from places like Tennessee, the Alabama underground vet is confident and polished on his latest, running the gamut from hood tales to love songs. High-profile features include fellow Alabama breakout Flo Milli, No Cap, Rylo Rodriguez, and Yo Gotti. My personal favorite of all the projects I’ve heard this week.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Burna Boy‘s new album Twice As Tall, out now through Atlantic Records, finds the African star taking the status quo to task with fiery lyricism and a bold, defiant stance that positions him as a revolutionary looking to take down the oppressive system. The song best embodying this concept from the album is the Chris Martin-featuring “Monsters You Made,” on which Burna Boy takes issue with 600-plus years of colonialism. In the new video for the song released today, he makes it plain, with imagery invoking militias the world over.

The video comes along at an eerily prescient moment, with uprisings that seemed to have cooled over the summer flaring up once again in the wake of the shooting death of Jacob Black at the hands of the Kenosha, Wisconsin police department. In the video, Burna’s millitia ambushes a money truck convoy, collecting the stacks of bills into a building-sized pile and setting it ablaze. If that’s too metaphorical for you, Burna’s pointing out capitalism’s hand in the racially-motivated oppression of Black people — specifically in Africa, but broadly, the world over — and pointing out that the only justice to be doled out is only done so when the money is threatened. Take from that what you will.

Watch the “Monsters You Made” video above.

Twice As Tall is out now via Atlantic Records. Get it here.

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

On a day where many of the active sports leagues stopped to address yet another Black man shot by police, play in the NHL’s two Canadian bubble cities continued on Wednesday. The decision to play while others stopped to demand societal change through a high-profile wildcat strike angered some hockey fans and, apparently, some NHL players who have reportedly pushed for the league to stop play on Thursday.

According to reports, the NHL postponed games on Thursday night, a day after merely holding a moment of reflection at some of their Wednesday games.

On Thursday afternoon, rumblings started in the afternoon that the league would see games postponed as a result of player action. It soon became clear that at least one team had voted not to play on Thursday, a day after the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks started a player movement to cancel the NBA slate as they ask for more direct action from the league and owners in regard to social justice issues.

Much of that movement appears to be driven by players like Evander Kane and Matt Dumba, the latter of which spoke eloquently about racial injustice while in the bubble with the Minnesota Wild earlier this summer. Neither player are still in the bubble, but are part of the Hockey Diversity Alliance, which apparently pushed for players to understand the significance of the moment and not merely continue play on Thursday after they were invited by players in the bubbles to participate in a conference call.

Kane tweeted about the movement on Thursday, stressing that it’s players, not the league or anyone in charge of organizations, pushing to make this action a reality.

It’s a frustrating turn for many fans and clearly players like Kane, who watched the NHL plow forward with games at a decidedly decisive time for many. It’s not clear how long the discontinuation of play will last in the NHL, but it certainly started later than in other leagues for reasons that will be discussed by many moving forward.

Most of us had one of those neighbors growing up—the one who gave us the stink eye if we so much as looked at their perfectly mowed lawn and shooed us away if even our shadows crept onto their flower beds. There’s a reason “Get off my lawn!” was a meme before memes were even a thing.

Then there are neighbors who rock. The ones who smile and wave through the window and share their fresh-baked cookies with the neighborhood kids. The folks who genuinely enjoy the vibrant energy that children bring to the block and embrace the idea of “it takes a village.”

When one of the guys behind Canyon Chasers, a motorcycle enthusiast website, shared a video of how he handled a kid who kept playing in his driveway when he wasn’t home, it wasn’t clear at first which kind of neighbor he was going to be. But then he explains how his security footage showed a preschooler riding his bike around his flat concrete driveway every evening, and how he decided to do something about it.

And what ensued was the best Anti-Get-Off-My-Lawn move that ended up pleasing more neighbors than he anticipated.

How I Deal With Kids Playing in My Driveway | The Saga of My Driveway Racetrack

www.youtube.com

How fun would that have been when you were a kid? And how great that he made a new one each time it rained? And how delightful is it that people of all ages showed up to enjoy it?

Imagine a world where all neighbors were this thoughtful and generous with their time and property. More of this, please.

UK grime MC Octavian is set to release his hotly-anticipated debut album this year, teeing up the project — which is executive produced by grime pioneer Skepta — with a new single dedicated to building cross-cultural connections across the pond. “Famous” ponders the counterintuitive aspects of the institutions — fake friends, untrustworthy relationships, and lost contacts — alongside Gunna and Saint JHN.

While the chorus tackles the above drawbacks of fame, the three performers’ verses focus on the positive aspects, creating an interesting contrast between the theme and their day-to-day existences. Each of them is also relatively new to the spotlight; Octavian first broke out in 2018 with his Spaceman mixtape, Gunna blew up as a mentor of Young Thug, breaking out in 2018 on the Drip Harder joint tape with Lil Baby, and Saint JHN likewise started to gain public acclaim after a 2018 co-sign from Solange.

Octavian’s upcoming album is rumored to be titled Love Evol and “Famous” was preceded by the Future-featuring “Rari.” It’s clear from the features so far that Octavian is aiming at stardom on both sides of the pond. With Gunna, Future, and Saint JHN fans checking him out, he’s halfway there.

Listen to “Famous” featuring Gunna and Saint Jhn above.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The synergy between music and whiskey is undeniable. How often do you pour a particular dram and the spin just the right tune to accompany it? It’s a real part of the music and whiskey experience and late distilling legend Dave Pickerell wanted to take it even deeper. Pickerell partnered with the legendary rock band Metallica to take this symbiotic relationship between booze and music into the juice of a whiskey, quite literally, with Blackened American Whiskey.

But, it wasn’t to be. Pickerell unexpectedly passed in 2018 before he could finish the project. In June of 2019, Rob Dietrich — the former head distiller of Colorado’s Stranahan’s — joined the Blackened Whiskey team as the new master distiller and blender. “It was really important for me to be an authentic brand and not just like a gimmick,” Dietrich told me. “This goes back to Dave Pickerell’s talent and years in the industry and literally tying in the music.”

When Metallica came up with the idea to create a whiskey, they wanted to craft something that independently stood on its own. Dietrich remembers that “they didn’t want to approach a whiskey that was already being made and say, ‘Hey, can you make a Metallica line of whiskey and we’ll share royalties?’” Dietrich then used terms like “a thousand percent,” “perfectionists,” and “fingers in the process” to describe what Metallica wanted their whiskey to be and that’s how they found Dave Pickerell. And Pickerell delivered with a new way to age whiskey in the barrel.

So what exactly makes this whiskey so special? It’s something called the “sonic enhancement process,” Dietrich says. This is a method in which Metallica’s music is played to the whiskey. It’s trademarked as Black Noise. They believe that this is where the magic happens. And yes, you’re allowed to roll your eyes. But you also have to read about how this works too.

So, Pickerell worked with Meyer Sound — the sound company that provides all of Metallica’s traveling sound gear and engineering — and they provided a device in which music is played at a low frequency. In fact, it’s played so low — between four and eleven hertz — that you can’t even hear the song. So what’s going on? “It vibrates the barrel so vigorously that the whiskey is moving in and out of the wood at a very rapid pace,” Dietrich explains. “So, the whiskey is actually interacting with the wood at a much more rapid pace than if it was just sitting there.”

In order to prove the science behind the sonic enhancement, Pickerell compared two barrels he’d been finishing in Spanish oak with one exposed to Black Noise and one not. He took samples from both barrels and sent them off to a lab to test the results about how the juice interaction with the wood. Dietrich says that “the barrel that had the sonic enhancement process to it, every single one of the flavor levels were elevated.” He adds, “I was completely blown away by that. We’re taking traditional methods and now we’re playing this innovation of sound literally using Metallica’s music to help make and change the whiskey.”

If your eyes are still rolling in disbelief and skepticism, you’re not alone. Despite knowing the brilliance of Pickerell and Dietrich, I too was a skeptic. Then I tried some.

Blackened American Whiskey

ABV: 45%
Distillery: Sweet Amber Distilling Company, Mineville, NY (Sourced)
Average Price: $149.99 (includes double vinyl box set)

The Whiskey:

Blackened is a blend of bourbon and rye whiskeys from Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Canada. It is aged in brand new white American oak barrels for an average of eight years and cask finished in Spanish brandy barrels. During that finishing process, the whiskey uses sonic enhancement called Black Noise. The low hertz vibrations of the music bash the blackened brandy casks, shaking the whiskey and allowing it to take in more flavor from the wood, or so they say.

Tasting Notes:

Possessing a warm amber hue with the aroma of oak and stone fruit (particularly apricot and cherry), this whiskey lures you in. Baking spices, such as cinnamon and clove, dance with honey and vanilla notes for a creamy mouthfeel. The lingering finish has subtle hints of honey and maple without being overwhelmingly sweet.

Bottom Line:

It doesn’t taste gimmicky after all (sigh of relief)! This stuff is quality. Scientifically, the low-hertz vibrations enhance the whiskey, but I say it’s the blend of North American whiskeys that create this flavorful palate. It’s worth every penny down to the very last drop, plus it comes with a double vinyl set. Batch 100 is as in-your-face as Metallica’s discography, and with the higher proof tastes exceptional in an old fashioned.

After NBA players decided to go on strike instead of play three scheduled playoff games on Wednesday, Knicks forward Moe Harkless took to Instagram to document his confrontation with Portland police during his time playing for the Trail Blazers.

Harkless explained that as he headed toward the Trail Blazers’ arena with his 12- and 14-year-old nephews, officers pulled him over before he could even pull onto the freeway and toward the Moda Center in downtown Portland, and would not explain why. The officers demanded his license and registration but would not answer questions regarding what he had done wrong.

It was only after they checked his records and realized he was a star for the local NBA team that he was allowed to leave and received an apology from the officer.

“See why we can’t ‘just play,’” Harkless said in his Instagram post. “Because even when we do, we’re still looked at as less when we step off that court, we’re still targeted by officers when we step foot off that court.”

Harkless is not in the Bubble, but his story is yet another from Black athletes — some of whom, like Sterling Brown of the Milwaukee Bucks and Thabo Sefolosha of the Houston Rockets, play in the NBA — who have been racially profiled and treated aggressively by law enforcement.

The NBA postponed games for the past two days and likely won’t resume the postseason until Saturday amid players protesting the latest incident of police shooting a Black man, when Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

The Milwaukee Bucks chose to sit out their Game 5 in protest, leading to the rest of the league choosing to follow suit, as well as the WNBA, MLS, some MLB teams, the ATP and WTA (after Naomi Osaka announced she wouldn’t play Thursday) and even the NHL on Thursday. On Wednesday night, players met in a tense meeting in Orlando, which involved reports of the Lakers and Clippers pushing to not play the remainder of the season (although recent reports indicate LeBron James was maybe not as adamant about not playing as was initially reported) and players held another meeting on Thursday morning. In that meeting, it was decided to continue playing, but also to continue coming up with a plan of action and some demands they want to see from ownership in stepping up further alongside of them in the fight for social justice.

While the players were meeting on Thursday, the NBA’s Board of Governors did the same and, according to ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan, Michael Jordan served as something of an intermediary between the players and the owners. Per MacMullan, Jordan spoke with Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook about what players wanted, and pushed owners to listen to the players in this moment.

The owners held a virtual meeting on Thursday morning and, it has been confirmed by two participants, Jordan was a voice of reason, urging the other owners to allow the players to express their frustrations and concerns before offering any of their own solutions.

“Right now, listening is better than talking,” Jordan told the group, according to sources.

Players are trying to come together on what they want and it was never realistic to expect one (or even two) meetings in a short span to fully produce a plan of action, and it seems Jordan is urging his fellow team owners to give the players time to do that. Jordan is obviously the owner most connected to the players as the only former player (and only Black) majority team owner, so it makes sense that he would be this kind of voice of reason in the moment.

Now it’s on the players to articulate what they want from owners, and more importantly it’s on owners to heed Jordan’s advice and take to heart what players ask them to do.

If nothing below suits your sensibilities, check out our guide to What You Should Watch On Streaming Right Now.

Cobra Kai: Seasons 1 & 2 (Netflix, Friday) — Season 3 of this crowd-pleasing arrival will arrive in 2021, but you can catch up to your heart’s content because Ralph Macchio promised us that “[t]he best is yet to come” for this series. Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso faces off again with William Zabka’s Johnny Lawrence and both of their respective dojo members, and the show’s still got the same energy as the original movies. May the franchise live on as long as possible.

Ravi Patel’s Pursuit of Happiness: (HBO Max, Thursday) The star of 2014’s Meet the Patel is back to mull over deep conversations in a four-part season. Maybe some of life’s more fundamental questions shall be solved, but the journey to several different continents will fuel enough escapism that answers might not matter.

The Republican National Convention 2020 (Everywhere on TV, 9:00 p.m.) — The RNC wraps up tonight while taking over networks and plenty of cable coverage as well. Tonight’s speakers include President Trump, Ben Carson, Mitch McConnell, Tom Cotton, Ivanka Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Ja’Ron Smith, Kevin McCarthy, and Dana White.

HBO Max Summer Comedy Specials (HBO Max) — The hottest new premium streaming service is digging deeper into the stand-up comedy game with specials that began dropping last Thursday. The series will culminate with a multi-act special from the HA Comedy Festival hosted by Latinx comedian Anjelah Johnson, who welcomes special guests Danny Trejo, Eva Longoria, and Eugenio Derbez. Solo sets from Rose Matafeo, Beth Stelling, James Veitch are also dropping.

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Lil Rel Howery, Amber Riley

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — Chris Christie, Gregory Porter

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Maren Morris

Going against most standard business advice, Bill Penzey has never hesitated to make his beliefs known to the people who buy his products. The outspoken CEO of Penzey’s Spices, America’s largest independent spice retailer, made headlines when he directly called out President Trump’s racism after his election, and this February he published a public statement decrying the “corruption and cruelty” he says have taken over the Republican party.

Penzey, whose business headquarters reside just outside of Milwaukee, has been openly supportive of the protests against racial injustice taking place all over the nation. But after protests in Kenosha became riotous, someone wrote him a letter suggesting that if it were his store being looted, he’d be singing a different tune.

Bill Penzey pondered this idea. Then he sent out a letter to subscribers and explained that no, he actually wouldn’t.

The letter reads:

“Someone wrote to say that you would be singing a different tune if it was your store being looted. I’m by no means perfect but seriously no, I wouldn’t. Human life means everything; stuff, not so much.

Hearing that the NBA Milwaukee Bucks, in response to yet another police shooting of a Black man, this time just south of Milwaukee in Kenosha, Wisconsin, chose in unison to walk away from yesterday’s playoff game and were willing to take the loss, for me brought such s asens of hope that the tide will no longer stay unturned.

I agree with them. To me today just feels a lot like April 4, 2018, the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination. That day we paid our people and kept things shut because that was not a day for commerce. After some early inquiries about doing the same today it became clear that we were able to do that because we planned ahead and because it was a time before the Coronavirus. To do that today would mean calling to reschedule all of today’s touchless pickup orders. As parents of young kids entering back to school phase with all the extra hoops the virus demands, I get that now is not the time to add extra burdens. So no shut down today.

But what to do? My mind went to that idea that we would feel differently if it was our store that was looted. When I asked around: “What if we looted our own store?” What if we took a snapshot of our Kenosha store’s inventory tonight and simply gave away exactly that amount of inventory in the coming weeks? Unlike the Minneapolis Uptown store that was in the center of things, our Kenosha location is out by the highway and does not have much chance of looting itself. What if we just gave our spices and seasonings to food pantries and gift boxes to organizations trying to raise money to fund change?

Everyone here was like yes, let’s do that. Even my mom at dinner last night cheered on the idea. And as much as we could just look online for worthy recipients, with so many customers in the Kenosha area I would like to start with asking for your suggestions of where things should go…

And please learn the difference between those who simply say law and order over and over again and those who do the hard work of actually achieving it. Until we have a president that respects the laws of this country we won’t have order; it’s that simple.

And once again, hats off to the Milwaukee Bucks. So much of America’s future comes down to voter turnout in the city of Milwaukee. That the members of the Bucks are time and again working to earn the moral authority to ask for that Vote is something big. That their voices reach out to our suburbs and beyond is honest cause for hope. Well done.

And please send your thoughts to those living through the horrors of Hurricane Laura right now. They will need our compassion.

Thanks for healing the world.

Bill”

And for the record, Penzey’s has actually already been affected directly by looting, which is what he’s referring to when he mentions the Minneapolis Uptown store. “If sweeping up some glass and replacing a couple windows is a piece of everybody realizing the costs of racism-fueled police violence towards minorities is no longer affordable, then so be it,” Bill Penzey wrote in an email to customers at the end of May, after the Minneapolis store suffered property damage and looting in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing.

This is what they did with their boarded up windows:

Way to use your platform and power as a business owner to advocate for change and support those on the ground doing the work, Bill.