Month: August 2020

Ralph Macchio‘s life would never be the same after 1984’s The Karate Kid. Five years and two sequels later, he seemingly stepped away from the franchise for good, other than occasionally revisiting his Daniel LaRusso persona for nostalgia’s sake, like he did on How I Met Your Mother. A few short years ago, his stance changed when he climbed aboard what turned out to be a highly-popular and critically-acclaimed revival series, Cobra Kai, which streamed for two seasons on YouTube Red (now YouTube Premium). Now, the show’s roundhouse-kicking over to Netflix on August 28.

Catch up with those first two batches of episodes while you can (before it reaches an even larger audience) because a release date for more will be coming soon. The show offers the perfect degree of nostalgia while updating the rivalry — Macchio’s LaRusso goes toe-to-toe again with William Zabka’s Johnny Lawrence — in a compelling way. The show ends up being a rare success in a sea of mediocre revivals and reboots, and Macchio was kind enough to prep the stage by speaking with us about why he’s so pleased with Cobra Kai and protective of The Karate Kid‘s legacy. We also addressed the biggest lingering issue that hasn’t popped up on the show yet with Macchio giving us insight on what could come in the future.

It’s a good time for Cobra Kai escapism. With the move to Netflix, did you find out before or after Season 3 wrapped?

That was after. We had information that YouTube was shifting out of scripted, and credit goes to Sony Television and YouTube for allowing us to find another home that will hopefully give us another life. And the pandemic arrived in the midst of all that. We spoke to many of the platforms, and it feels like it’s turned out awesome.

With so many revivals and reboots, I did feel skeptical at first, but this show feels organic, and it’s addictive to revisit this story as updated.

Yes, and I’m probably coming off a lot more intelligent than I am, but I did hold out. Listen, I’ve heard many, many pitches over 30-plus years of why we wanna revisit this world, and it never seemed fresh. It was always easier to say no and protect the legacy because I’m very protective of it, and it was never smart enough. This was a smart idea at a time when we have these streaming platforms, these abilities to make these five-hour movies, cut up into 10 half-hour parts. You let the characters breathe, and it doesn’t have to fit inside a 2-hour motion picture sequel that has to be louder, faster, funnier, bigger. [Creators] Jon [Hurwitz], Josh [Heald], and Hayden [Schlossenberg] were the guys that you just believed wanted to make the show that the fans wanted to see because they are the three biggest fans of the franchise. It was about how, tonally, is it going to find its way and embrace nostalgia while being fresh and original? Fortunately, it stayed that way.

The tone manages to stay lighthearted despite confronting some tough issues, which is notable, rather than turning toward a “dark” or “gritty” reboot.

Oh, that’s true. And we’re always finding those “feels” or “goosebump moments” or those nostalgic moments, but as it goes on, and you’ll see soon, you have to raise that bar and keep that young audience involved. It does dig deeper into places and take deeper dives from the action and dramatic standpoints, and they navigate that orchestra quite well and keep that music playing. Keeping everybody interested is quite fascinating to watch and be a part of that process and not always know how it’s gonna land.

Since your movies in this franchise, the Internet has… happened. You’ve even did an oral history of the crane kick. However, what gets under my skin was the end of the first movie when Johnny says, “You’re alright, LaRusso!” Daniel responded positively, but the show hasn’t reconciled this yet with the present?

Well, I can say this much. It hasn’t been addressed, but believe me, that was in every one of the first pitch meetings, it was there. Kreese was the bad teacher to Johnny Lawrence, who was trying to redeem himself in that teen moment. The thing that we discussed, and it’ll be interesting, is that at what point do we actually address that? To date, it hasn’t been directly addressed. How we attribute it — because we’ve discussed it — is that at that moment, yes, once they went back to school and once life began, the 30 years beyond that moment on, the untold story that slowly but surely dribbles out. In Cobra Kai‘s flashbacks or [through conversations], you can kind-of write those 30 years that no one ever saw. So just because that moment happened doesn’t mean that something didn’t happen that sent it to a dark place, and not necessarily an action by LaRusso to Lawrence, but maybe something in Lawrence’s life.

A whole lot has happened to that guy, no doubt.

And also — doesn’t this happen sometimes? — not really defending this as much as offering something about it: there are times that you do something or say something and react in a way, and then you go to sleep and wake up the next morning, and all of a sudden, it’s not feeling that good anymore? And then something else happens, and before you know it, you’re a couple of decades into it, and that moment disappears, and it’s something bigger. Maybe for Johnny Lawrence, that’s what happened over time.

The beginning of The Karate Kid Part II probably didn’t help, when Kreese put Johnny in a headlock.

Right, so the last thing on his mind after that was probably the life that he’s led from that moment forward. But if we get to continue to make that show, it will find its way because they an extraordinary job of finding those pieces, and old clips and even different camera angles, and then you can hinge a plot point based on that. It’s a lot of fun.

Over the years, you’ve revisited Daniel-san at moments, like with How I Met Your Mother. You also did the “Wax On, F*ck Off” sketch for FunnyOrDie. How do you choose where to bring it back?

Yeah, that last one was all me. I was at that moment in 2010 where the remake was coming, and I started seeing at the time, like, Tiger Woods and Charlie Sheen, and Sandra Bullock won an Oscar and had a breakup, and that got a ton of press. And I just started thinking that I needed to do the anti-version of what’s sexy in Hollywood, and that’s where “Wax On, F*ck Off” came from. It was all on my terms.

With How I Met Your Mother, that one came from my kids when I initially passed on it, and it was not as well marked out as it came out to be. It was a one-off joke, and then I was kind-of wallpaper throughout the episode, so it wasn’t exciting, and I told my kids that I was gonna pass on it. They were like, “Who do you think you are? How dare you pass on How I Met Your Mother?” Then we did a creative call, and then we found a way that I’d be more of Barney’s worst nightmare, and the Zabka payoff as the clown was fantastic. That one was by committee, and it worked out, and the more I was willing to heighten the cameo, the more willing the writers were to find that. On top of that, so many young kids who watched it then watched The Karate Kid and came up to me and said it was awesome. And now with Cobra Kai, we’re hitting all four quadrants.

It’s really remarkable to see how well this show is connecting with the younger generation.

Well, the kids are just great and wonderful to work with. And the writing staff is writing it fully, and the cast is big, so it’s nice to see that. A big part of the Netflix thing is that we’re in the “young adult” division, believe it or not. That’s the category that this show, and that’s the direction. I think you’ll see more of a push in creating more awareness of these young actors going forward, so it’s not only about these two rivals, these guys in their 50s, trying to not act like teenagers. It’ll be a little of everything.

There’s the idea, of course, presented by the show, that Miguel and Robby might be products of their senseis, like Daniel-san and Johnny. And there’s a huge mess to clean up in Season 3.

Yes. That’s a big part of where Season 2 leaves off and what we address going forward. In Season 2, clearly, both Johnny and Daniel had good intentions and believed in what they were doing, and then things went off the rails. Here’s the thing: just because you have knowledge of something doesn’t mean you know how to teach it on a larger scale. Case in point: LaRusso’s heart was always in the right place, and what he was doing, when other obstacles come in the way, the clarity of that (on Lawrence’s side as well) goes off its axis. There’s a decent amount of recalibrating and “look at what this has become” with the cliffhanger and how they get out of the mess. I can’t talk about it too much but can say that it is fantastic. So there’s my tease.

You gotta tease. People expect it.

The best is yet to come in this series! And I believe in that.

In closing, I gotta talk about that crane kick. Are you surprised that it’s such an iconic moment, all these years later?

If you asked me in 1984 if I’d be having this conversation with you, I’d say, “Yeah, right.” What I call the pop culture debate of it — Was it legal? Who’s the real Karate Kid? — to me, the great fun of that is that people really care! And there’s fandom and arguments and videos made on the concept. The movie belongs to the fans, and it’s become a worldwide piece of our childhood. As far as the crane kick and what it’s become, when I came out of a screening (a preview of seeing it for the first time), a majority of the audience — whether they were 10 or 62 years old — they were out on the sidewalk doing the crane pose to each other. That’s why it doesn’t surprise me, because [it was] like when you leave a Broadway show, and you’re singing that song. That usually says that it has some staying power. But 36 years? That’s incredible.

‘Cobra Kai’ streams on Netflix on August 28 with a Season 3 release date coming soon.

Infamously masked queer country singer Orville Peck has been turning heads ever since his 2019 breakout debut Show Pony. Since the record’s release, Peck has continued to captivate audiences through lonesome videos and heartfelt tributes. Now, the singer has teamed up with the iconic star Shania Twain to give a rendition of their collaborative track “Legends Never Die” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Much of late-night television is still virtual, though Fallon and his team are back in their studio. For the performance, Twain and Peck took over a country dive bar in bedazzled outfits to croon their soaring collaboration, which arrives on Peck’s recently-released six-track effort Show Pony.

Ahead of his late-night appearance, Peck delayed his Show Pony EP just days before it was supposed to be released. Explaining the decision on social media, Peck wrote: “We’re undergoing a huge overdue worldwide transformation thanks to the Black Lives Matter movement and that is mainly what I want to put my focus on at the moment. The momentum is currently so strong, and it needs to keep going in order to dismantle the injustices of oppression, so if your voice hasn’t been heard yet just use it, or walk out and hear the protesters, and if you’re scared, tell them Orville sent you.”

Watch Peck and Twain perform “Legends Never Die” on The Tonight Show above.

Show Pony is out now via Sub Pop. Get it here.

The first day of the NBA Playoff featured three stellar games that were tightly contested until the end, and one absolute drubbing in the form of the Raptors 134-110 win over the Nets. Day two looks an awful lot like we might see a repeat, with a pair of very intriguing 4-5 matchups, a highly anticipated 1-8 series between the Lakers and Blazers beginning, and then the Bucks opening their title quest against the Orlando Magic.

That is the series I’m here to write about and if you’re struggling to get too excited for it, well, it’s hard to blame you. The Bucks haven’t looked quite like their dominant selves from the regular season in the Bubble, but against a Magic team that scuffled into the 8-seed, in part due to the loss of Jonathan Isaac for the year with a torn ACL, there’s not a whole lot of intrigue in the same way the West’s 1-8 series has.

Still, there are some things to watch for in this series from both sides beyond the stars, and we’re going to explore the X-factors that might determine just how quickly this series ends.

Milwaukee Bucks: Eric Bledsoe

If there were ever a series for Eric Bledsoe to shake free of his woeful playoff performances of the past and build some confidence going into a postseason run where he is very much needed by this Bucks team, it’s right here. The Magic’s backcourt has long been their weakness and remains so, with D.J. Augustin and Markelle Fultz serving as their top ball-handlers and facilitators. Bledsoe has been truly awful in back-to-back postseasons in Milwaukee, but he unlocks so much for this offense if he’s good because he serves as the third creator that is hard to plan for when you have to spend so much time focusing on Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton. The Bucks don’t need Bledsoe to win this series, but they might need him come the next round or, at least, the conference finals. Getting off to a strong start might be huge for his confidence and creating a new playoff narrative for himself.

Orlando Magic: Markelle Fultz

On the other side, the Magic need Fultz to be really good off of the bench to keep their offense rolling when they go to the second unit. Milwaukee’s defense packs the paint and will look to make Nikola Vucevic’s life difficult with their length in the form of the Lopez brothers. That means it’ll be on the Magic guards to probe the paint to collapse the Bucks defense and make the right pass to the perimeter. The formula against Milwaukee has always been to simply try and shoot the lights out against a defense that is willing to give up those shots. It’s incumbent on Augustin and Fultz to create those looks, though, and Fultz gives them a dynamic that no one else on that team can replicate. If they hit shots, who knows, they might pull a game off the Bucks or at least make this a more entertaining series than expected. If not and their guards aren’t making Milwaukee work and scramble, it’ll be a short series and a short drive home for the Magic.

Responding to the news that Kim Kardashian and others like Meek Mill have taken up the cause of freeing incarcerated New Orleans rapper C-Murder, Master P welcomed the renewed support their celebrity has brought to the case, but he also wants them to know, “this is not gonna be easy.” Master P expressed his gratitude via TMZ, recording a video talking about the case and the new interest Kardashian’s involvement has brought to it.

“My whole thing is on getting my brother home,” he says. “So, whatever anybody do that’s gonna support that I appreciate it. But like I said, Louisiana is not like the rest of these places.” He goes on to remind viewers that he’s already spent millions trying to fight the court on his brother’s behalf. “It’s just a blessing that people understand my brother is innocent — he should have been free… I hope it’s all for the right reasons… This place has a lot of corruption… This is not gonna be easy.”

C-Murder was sentenced to life in prison for murder in 2009, losing his final appeal in 2013. However, in 2018, two key witnesses recanted their statements, claiming they’d been pressured into testifying against him, prompting C-Murder and Master P to push for a new case.

Watch Master P express his appreciation for the newfound attention on C-Murder’s case above.

Former Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio became a master of the self-own on Twitter following his return to senatorland. Some of his recent hits have included calling gun control an “infection,” paying tribute to late civil rights icon John Lewis by posting a photo of Elijah Cummings, and cracking an Antifa joke while mulling over how to have football this year. He kept his streak going on Monday night with a sarcastic tweet in response to actress Eva Longoria speaking at the Democratic convention.

“Brilliant move!” Rubio wrote about Longoria (who holds a masters degree in Chicano studies and advocates for representation in STEM fields). “No one is more in touch with the challenges & obstacles faced by everyday Americans than actors & celebrities.”

How soon they forget… Rubio appears to have overlooked the fact that the GOP often brings its own arsenal of celebrities who speak at conventions. Although the list for this year’s event hasn’t been confirmed, it’s not out of the realm of possibility to expect Scott Baio and Antonio Sabato Jr. to step up to the (virtual) podium again as they did in 2016, which is the reason why a false tweet about those two, along with Ted Nugent, being confirmed for 2020 feels so believable. And let’s not forget about this moment in 2012, where Clint Eastwood used his RNC stage time to shout at an empty chair, immediately prior to Rubio’s appointed time onstage.

As one might expect, Roasted Rubio is on the menu again with lots of tweets about Eastwood, along with mentions of Baio and a certain reality-star-turned-president.

The DNC continues tonight with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the agenda. Rubio should, uh, enjoy the proceedings once again.

On her new album Hype Nostalgia, Rituals Of Mine — also known as Terra Lopez — locks in her unique brand of electronic R&B to deliver an album that is about reconciling with the past and learning from it to come out the other end of every struggle a little bit stronger. We’ve already heard two singles from Hype Nostalgia, and today we are happy to have exclusive access to “Exceptions,” the album’s third preview that utilizes a TC Helicon vocal effects pedal to turn her voice into another instrument on the multi-layered track.

In celebration of the new single, Lopez sat down to talk visiting Snoop Dogg’s mansion, Jeff Buckley, and Meg Ryan in the latest Indie Mixtape 20 Q&A.

What are four words you would use to describe your music?

Manic, cathartic, industrial-strength r&b.

It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

Resilient.

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?

There’s nothing like playing a show in the Bay Area!

Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?

My father is the reason I started creating music in the first place. I couldn’t really ever find an effective way to communicate with him so I would write songs to try to and express myself. I’ve been doing that my whole life and I guess still am, after all this time.

Where did you eat the best meal of your life?

London, 2019. Best Mediterranean food I’ve ever had. I still think about that damn dinner haha. Falafel plate with hummus, cucumber salad, GLUTEN-FREE wraps! BOMB.

What album do you know every word to?

Fiona Apple — When The Pawn.

What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?

Bjork ‘Biophilia.’ She played a tiny space in Richmond, CA and we were front row. I couldn’t stop crying.

What is the best outfit for performing and why?

My custom Ovate kimono and drop crotch pants or my Fried Rice army green pants. Also, some high top Air Jordan 1’s so you can stay light on stage.

Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?

Miranda July’s Instagram is perfect and hilarious. She’s so quirky and strange – I love her.

What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour?

Oh god, tour. I miss it. I’d have to say we listen to a lot of Yussef Dayes and Neil Young haha.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

How to potty train your puppy (I just rescued a 4-month-old terrier).

What album makes for the perfect gift?

Jeff Buckley — Grace.

Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?

On a stranger’s floor that eventually led us to Snoop Dogg’s mansion the next morning.

What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?

First tattoo was terrible (NorCal stars that I’ve luckily gotten covered up) but my favorite tattoo… I have a lot of dead guys tattoed onto me. I tend to get tattoos when I’m in a manic or sad state so I have a lot of tattoos from artists/authors who inspire me: Elliott Smith, Fernando Pessoa, Jeff Buckley, Bjork, Sigur Ros even haha. I think my favorite tattoo is my “Future Forever” tattoo from Bjork’s song. I got it the first week I started taking antidepressants as a vow to myself to keep going.

What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?

Drake, Cardi B, Billie Eilish.

What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

When I was just starting to make music I really wanted a Mini Korg. I was so broke but would save any tips I got from my coffee shop job but it just wasn’t even close to what I needed. My best friend Machu knew that I had been saving up for months and rode their bike over 10 miles in the hot Sacramento summer heat to Guitar Center and surprised me with it one day. It is the reason I was able to create my first album. I’ve never gotten over that generosity.

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?

Go to therapy.

What’s the last show you went to?

It was a show that my label, Bitchwave Records, was hosting back in February for an LA band called Cartalk.

What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?

I never watch TV but I’d say probably You’ve Got Mail haha. What can I say, I love ’90s Meg Ryan.

What would you cook if Kanye were coming to your house for dinner?

Mexican Takeout and some real talk about him getting some help.

Hype Nostalgia is out September 25 on Carpark Records. Pre-order it here.

Fernando Tatis Jr. is the current frontrunner for the National League MVP, as the Padres’ young shortstop is playing absurd baseball to start the shortened 2020 season.

On Monday night, Tatis belted his 10th and 11th home runs of the season late in the game — a three-run shot and a grand slam, respectively — racking up seven RBI in the process and continuing to show off his prodigious power to all fields and powering San Diego to 14-4 win in the series opener in Texas.

After that performance, the 21-year-old Tatis now leads MLB in home runs (11) and RBI (28), as he’s been nearly unstoppable at the plate from his leadoff spot. However, the conversation late Monday night and Tuesday morning was, somehow, not about how baseball’s newest young star is further injecting life into the game with his electric play, but about how he is, in fact, bad because he dare chose to swing at a 3-0 meatball with the bases loaded in a 10-3 ballgame.

Rangers manager Chris Woodward took exception to Tatis’ grand slam and made it known he wasn’t happy about it, complaining about old baseball people’s favorite topic: the unwritten rules.

Padres manager Jayce Tingler likewise was unhappy with Tatis missing a take sign on the pitch, explaining after the game he didn’t like running it up, while Tatis offered a semi-apology, while also seeming as confused by the entire controversy as many fans.

“Just so you know, a lot of our guys have green light 3-0,” Tingler said. “But in this game in particular, we had a little bit of a comfortable lead. We’re not trying to run up the score or anything like that.”

“I’ve been in this game since I was a kid,” he said. “I know a lot of unwritten rules. I was kind of lost on this. Those experiences, you have to learn. Probably next time, I’ll take a pitch.”

Baseball has long been in a battle between young and old, particularly with regards to unwritten rules, codes of conduct, and how one should act on the diamond. The newest crop of stars play with a certain flair that the establishment scoffs at, whether with bat flips or, apparently, swinging at pitches that you’re supposed to not swing at.

It can’t be separated that many of these new young stars are Black or Hispanic, wearing chains and having dreads flowing out from under their helmets, threatening to rocket to superstardom and positions of influence in a very white game. Not everyone in baseball wants Tatis Jr. to bend to the unwritten rules, as evidenced by Trevor Bauer’s pushback to the comments he was seeing after the game, along with Tim Anderson of the White Sox — who has also stirred up controversy with his bat flips after mammoth home runs — who doesn’t want to see Tatis change and doesn’t like his manager not having his back.

Still, that both managers in the game talked about giving the young star a talking to of some sort indicates that baseball’s internal culture war is far from being settled, and, despite Tingler’s insistence he doesn’t want Tatis not to be a free spirit, pushing for him to stop playing just because they have a lead is doing exactly that.

Tomberlin graced 2018 with a lovely debut folk record, At Weddings, and now she is ready to follow that effort up. Before she drops another full-length album, though, Tomberlin will release a new EP, Projections, which is set for release on October 16 via Saddle Creek (and which is co-produced by (Sandy) Alex G). She previewed the release today with a new song, the jaunty “Wasted,” which is more instrumentally fleshed out than the material on At Weddings.

The single also got a Busy Philipps-directed video, and Tomberlin said of the visual and song:

“‘Wasted’ was the most fun song to record. I brought the song with the guitar part and knew I wanted drums, but wasn’t sure what kind of beat I wanted. Alex played this drum beat for me and was all ‘kinda left field but maybe this would be cool.’ It took the song to a whole new level. Sad song or summer banger? You tell me. The video was made with the help of Busy Philipps (who directed) and Marc Silverstein (who shot it), who are more like family then friends at this point. I was quarantined with them and their girls in South Carolina and we came up with the idea and shot it in about 4 days on an iPhone.”

Watch the “Wasted” video above, and find the Projections art and tracklist below.

1. “Hours”
2. “Wasted”
3. “Floor”
4. “Sin”
5. “Natural Light”

Projections is out 10/16 via Saddle Creek. Pre-order it here.

Cardi B’s “WAP” isn’t just a hit — it’s one of the biggest hits of all time, landing at No.1 on the Hot 100 and breaking all kinds of streaming records in the process. That’s in spite — or perhaps in part because — of backlash against the song from conservative commentators who derided the song’s subject matter and straightforward, uvula-related sex raps.

Of course, those concerns didn’t stop the promoters of a Trump 2020 boat party from co-opting the song in a promotional video. The video, which appears on the Instagram page @trumpsplans, plays the song over scenes from the party as a group of 20-somethings mug at the camera.

Naturally, Cardi caught wind of the video and expressed her disapproval. “Wasn’t Republican conservatives throwing a little fit bout this song?” she asked rhetorically. “Anyways this makes my ass itchy. I’m callin the FBI on this festivity. They are not quarantining.”

Considering the outsized response to “WAP,” both good and bad, it’s no surprise that it would be used by the partygoers, who all seem to be in the demographic of people the song’s been marketed to. But as Cardi points out, there’s some irony in using the song to promote a Trump party after Cardi herself has been outspoken about the former reality star’s political failings — and the way his supporters have constantly attacked her online since she first blew up with “Bodak Yellow.” Cardi, meanwhile, continues to do her part politically, interviewing Joe Biden recently and urging Alexandria Osasio-Cortez to run for President in 2024.

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

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

If it ain’t broke, you aren’t supposed to try to fix it. As an axiom for living and creating, they don’t get much more versatile; it’s a statement that applies to pretty much everything. But just because something works, that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved. On his latest release, the roiling Rich Slave, veteran Memphis rapper Young Dolph aims for that narrow middle ground and for the most part sticks the landing, adding a few new dimensions to his working formula. The result is an intriguing listen that rounds out his boasts with subtle strains of Black history and timely rebellion.

It’s been two years since Dolph’s last proper full-length album, the chest-puffing Role Model. There are plenty of parallels between the two projects: The smirking, skew-eyed album titles; the confident formatting (14 tracks a piece, with judicious use of high-profile features keeping the focus firmly on Dolph); and the albums’ respective subject matter are near mirrors of each other, reflecting an artist with a strong sense of identity (he’s the self-declared King Of Memphis, after all).

But in those intervening years, Dolph also released Dum And Dummer with his Paper Route Empire protege Key Glock, who’s ironically a full decade younger than Young Dolph. Whereas Dolph is staid and confident, Glock brings the chaotic energy of youth and a fresh perspective to the proceedings. It’s said that both the student and the teacher benefit from the relationship; judging from Rich Slave’s revitalized, mesmeric vibe, it seems that saying was correct in this case. The title track and “Death Row” bear this out, as Dolph’s measured flow is accentuated with just a little more force and speed than usual.

Dolph’s also older, with a different set of priorities than in 2018. Just months before the release of Rich Slave, he talked about retiring from the rap game to spend more time with his kids, leaving the day-to-day business of recording and touring non-stop to his Paper Route employees Bino Brown, Glock, Jay Fizzle, and the best-named rapper in the game right now, Big Moochie Grape. That impulse — while short-lived — translates to his delivery on Rich Slave. While Dolph always sounds slightly bored with the trappings of wealth he’s accumulated over the past decade or so, here he actually counts the costs of making it in America.

Don’t get it twisted; he doesn’t suddenly turn into Killer Mike or Nas on the new project. He does, however, seem keen to reexamine his relationship to his wealth. Whereas before, it was all about grinding his way out of poverty, now he contrasts his relative comfort with the subtle stressors that pursue him. “Police pulled me over for nothin’, just because she racist,” he laments on “The Land.” “Two minutes later, it’s five police cars, they got me face down on the pavement / Just ’cause I’m a black man in America / That’s what give them permission to treat us terrible.”

That being said, the vast majority of the project’s runtime is dedicated to Dolph’s favorite things: Running up checks, having a lot of sex, and continuing to terrorize longtime rival Yo Gotti. On “I See $s,” he crows, “I f*cked this rapper baby mama by mistake / Ever since then that big head motherf*cker been hatin’ / How it feel to be a f*ck n****? Congratulations.” Some things never change. Meanwhile, Dolph again keeps the features on the project to a minimum, restricting guest appearances to Key Glock on “No Sense,” G Herbo on album closer “1 Scale,” and Megan Thee Stallion on fan-favorite hype single “RNB.”

Rich Slave may not quite be the mission statement it positions itself as from its opening skit, “Black Friday,” but what the skit does do is remind the listener that there’s always more to the experience of being Black in America than meets the eyes. In a conversation with an old head, Dolph chuckles at his debaucherous tales until he learns a tidbit of local history he didn’t know before — one that likely painted multiple aspects of his upbringing in Memphis without even knowing it. The history of cities like Memphis — truly, of the entire country — are rich, but incomplete and always looming over us no matter how many diamond chains we buy. Considering through that lens, the prospect of a Rich Slave is chilling — and a little bit triumphant.

Rich Slave is out now via Paper Route Empire. Get it here.