Month: November 2020

Offset is jumping from TV to film according to Deadline, which reports he’ll be making his movie debut in American Sole alongside Pete Davidson and O’Shea Jackson Jr. The film revolves around a get-rich-quick scheme gone wrong, as Davidson and Jackson’s characters use money from reselling sneakers to fund an app. Offset will play the computer engineer who is “critical to the storyline.” He’s also curating the soundtrack alongside the film’s director Ian Edelman and STX Music executive Jason Markey, contributing “at least one original song.”

“This is my first feature film as an actor,” Offset said in a press release. “After doing NCIS, I knew I wanted to do more acting. Landing this role in American Sole is dope. Not only do I get to star in the movie, but I get to bring my skills to the table as the curator and executive producer for the soundtrack. I’m bringing my world to the big screen. I hope the world is ready.” As he notes above, he first dipped his toe into acting with a role on NCIS earlier this year.

2020 has been full of firsts for Offset. He detailed his firsthand experience with voter suppression in a PSA ahead of voting in a national election for the first time ever, as well as surprising Atlanta residents with meals as they waited in line to vote.

Whether or not you’ve realize it, there’s a good chance you’ve heard Jim-E Stack before.

He’s not a household name (yet), but he’s worked with a bunch of them: Diplo, Charli XCX, Haim, and Joji, to name a few. Those collaborations and others have led to Ephemera, the producer’s new album that he tells Uproxx mostly originated from sessions for other artists. When those tracks weren’t quite right for one reason or another, he re-worked them for his own purposes and emerged with a brilliant collection that’s packed with guests: Ephemera has features from Bon Iver, Empress Of, Octavian, Kacy Hill, and others.

Before Stack’s contacts list was so fleshed out, he got his musical start on the drums as a San Francisco pre-teen. After joining his high school’s jazz band, surrounded by fellow music enthusiasts, his tastes expanded until he got into hip-hop production, making beats on a friend’s computer after school. After getting a better feel for Ableton, Stack started to lean more towards dance music and progressed to his current ability level. Between then and now, Stack has spent time in New Orleans, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles, released some solo material (like his 2014 album Tell Me I Belong), and built his reputation and list of credits to the point where he’s been a sought-after collaborator for the past few years.

Now, Stack could name-drop better than most people in music, but he’s not about that. While his music isn’t shy or reserved, it comes from a place of understanding that he’s there to help, saying, “When I’m working on a song for an artist and their project, the only kind of mindset I’m in is, ‘Am I supporting this person’s vision and helping them realize it?’”

This time, though, it’s about him, and he’s more than capable of realizing visions of his own. We got on the phone with Stack ahead of the project’s release and chatted about how writing for himself is different than writing for others, finding different sources of inspiration during the pandemic, and his thoughts on NBA rappers.

In recent years, you’ve worked with a lot of other artists on their songs, but you do the opposite on this new album where you have them join you on your tracks. Do you have a different mindset when you’re working on a song that has your name on it as opposed to one with somebody else’?

It is, but that mindset doesn’t really set in until a bit later in the process. With a lot of these songs — not all of them, but I would say half of them — they actually came out of working on stuff for that artist. So, the Bon Iver one, for example, that was just one of 20 songs we made in August of 2017, working on stuff for him. ‘Jamie’ was just one that didn’t really make sense for his album but that we always really loved, and I especially loved, so I just kind of kept fucking with it. It got to a point where it felt more like a Jim-E Stack song and production than it did just a Bon Iver song.

When I’m working on my own music, it’s completely self-indulgent and I’m just making stuff I want to listen to. Whether I’m just listening to it off of my phone or it’s out on Apple Music and Spotify for everyone to hear, it’s just for me. When I’m working on a song for an artist and their project, the only kind of mindset I’m in is, “Am I supporting this person’s vision and helping them realize it?” I’m just there in a supportive role, kind of like the opposite of a self-indulgent role.

As you said, most of these songs originated in various environments, so is there a sort of overarching theme or aesthetic to them or do they all feel more like their own thing to you?

Generally speaking on the album, I would say it feels just a little more uplifting and emotive. It just feels like more kind of positive music. Everything is… not everything, but most everything is in a major key. And I think that wasn’t a conscious decision while I’m making the music nor was it necessarily a conscious decision in selecting the songs for an album. But I think all these songs, all these little ideas that had been laying around, I think they all resonated with me because they had a kind of more uplifting tone to them.

I think that’s just kind of reflective of the past two or three years of my life, which is when they all came from, which has just been one of just getting a little older and just growing into myself a little more and just kind of experiencing a little more kind of gratitude for the life and everything I have, rather than a yearning for what I don’t have.

Speaking of how you’ve been feeling, I was reading an interview that you did recently and you said that during the pandemic, you’ve been feeling kind of up and down creatively. What sort of impact has this whole thing had on you getting this album done and making music in general?

There’s the issue of just not being able to collaborate with people as freely. I think it’s definitely been something I’ve had to find my way to work around, because it’s not like people don’t want to work together now, but it’s not as free-flowing and it’s a bit more hesitant. A lot of my music is born out of like pretty informal circumstances, not super planned out, like, ‘I’m going to meet this person and we’re going to work at this studio on this.’ It just naturally is a bit harder with social distancing concerns.

In the last couple of months, I’m good. My mood went a little more stable, but the toughest thing for me is… I don’t have many like recent life experiences to draw upon for inspiration, you know? It’s not like everything I do is a literal translation of how I was feeling on this day on this day. It’s more stuff like, there was some kind of mood in the bar. I was out with friends last weekend and then in the Uber home, I heard this song, and those are the kinds of feelings that I would put into a song.

I don’t know what that is now. Like, “Oh, wow: I had a great walk and watched a documentary,” you know what I mean? You’d like to just do something that feels like it’s like reflective of a life lived or something when you’re not really living life. You’re just kind of like getting through each day, but I guess I’ve just gotten a bit more used to it. I don’t know, it’s not easy.

I was going to ask how you’d handle working on a full album with an artist like Aaron Dessner did with Taylor Swift, but then I realized that you basically did that with Kacy Hill on her album, as you co-wrote and/or co-produced most of those tracks. How does being a full partner like that compare to working on a track or two for an artist or a project?

That’s the only album where I’ve done that, and I think you just develop a certain kind of relationship to the music. As a whole, I think there’s something really fun about that. You’re just invested in it as a whole. I worked on all of that with my really good friend BJ Burton, who is amazing in his own right.

The really cool thing about that and working on that as a group was being able to give input on stuff or help shape stuff, even when it’s not the track you’re producing. The group effort thing is cool to me, being able to contribute to a song without having to like take ownership of producing a song like that. The environment is like a fun one. It’s not like super task-oriented and that’s often the way that like producing one song for someone can be.

We worked on a lot of that in Minneapolis, and it was just waking up at our hotel, going to BJ’s studio and just basically fucking around and making music and working on this until we got bored with it, then pivoting to another song and then grilling burgers and hot dogs in the backyard and then, you know, whatever. It’s just very free. The group effort is just a really fun thing to be a part of. I think it’s something very special that cannot in any capacity be replicated when you’re doing just one song for someone.

What sounds like it may have been a dissimilar process to that was the work you did on Charlie XCX’s quarantine album [How I’m Feeling Now]. She went about that process in a pretty transparent, fast, and real-time sort of way that was pretty much unheard of before. What was it like to work on something that way? Do you have any takeaways from that experience that could inform how you work going forward?

Coincidentally, BJ was working on the project stuff with Charlie, and he was the one who was just kind of like pulling stuff together as a whole. Everything being done in this super remote fashion, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But I think like for me personally, you’re just like a little more detached, you know? That’s not something I would ever opt for. I like being in the same space and hanging out. That to me is what’s really amazing about making music together and collaborating. So not having that be able to be a part of working on her stuff was definitely a little different for me. But by no means do I think her work suffered as a result of that, because she’s just so good. She has such a strong vision for what she wants to do.

You got your start in production by making hip-hop beats in high school. You’ve mostly worked with singers, but over the past a year or so, you’ve had tracks that people like Octavian and Joji and Dominic Fike. Do you have any interest to get more into working with rappers and making hip-hop?

I do, but I think like at the same time, I know my strengths and weaknesses with that. There isn’t a part of me that wants to specialize in programming, like making the best, most banging, bounciest drums like Murda Beatz or someone like that. I’m not trying to get into hip-hop trying to emulate what some of these incredible producers already do. I think I am very much interested in doing more rap and hip-hop stuff, but it needs to be right. Like, if Drake or someone likes what I do, but wants a super hip-hop beat out of me, there’s no way it’s going to be as good as Murda Beatz or whatever.

I’d have to cross paths with the artist where they want to do something that’s outside of that box, or else it’s like, “You don’t need to come to me. There’s a million other producers who are better than me at like making more straightforward rap stuff.” I’d be better like working on something like Tyler The Creator’s Igor that [Travis Scott’s] Astroworld, you know?

I saw a video of you recently opening up some packs of basketball cards. Of all the NBA players who rap, who is your favorite and/or which one would you most like to work with?

Probably Damian Lillard, because he’s from the Bay Area and he’s just fucking sick. He’s one of my favorite players.

And he’s actually good at rap.

Yeah, exactly. I’d just like to talk with him. Not that I know him, but as a human being, I’m just down with him. He can hit me up anytime.

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

Beloved Today co-host and weather anchor Al Roker is battling prostate cancer, and he discussed his prognosis on Friday morning’s edition of the NBC morning show. As seen in the above clip, Roker announced that he’ll be taking some time away from work to treat the cancer, and the 66-year-old icon is wasting no time, given that he’s scheduled next week for surgery to remove his prostate. As far as his health outlook is concerned, Roker didn’t hold back on the positive or negative front.

“It’s a good news-bad news kind of thing,” Roker explained. “Good news is we caught it early. Not great news is that it’s a little aggressive, so I’m going to be taking some time off to take care of this.” He does remain optimistic that “hopefully in about two weeks,” he might be able to return to America’s TV screens. Roker also pushed back at the notion of anyone feeling sorry for him and definitely doesn’t “want people thinking, ‘Oh, poor Al’ because I’m gonna be OK.”

While breaking the news of his own diagnosis, however, Roker wished to shine light on how Black men are at increased risk for prostate cancer, given that 1 in 7 Black men will receive a similar diagnosis to his news. “The problem for African American men is that any number of reasons from genetics to access to health care,” he declared. “So we want to make it available and let people know they got to get checked.”

All well wishes are going out to Al Roker for a full recovery, along with a speedy return to our living rooms.

With Wilco’s Summerteeth reissue coming later this month to (belatedly) celebrate its twentieth anniversary, Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen are looking back to 1999. While it might not have necessarily been a more innocent time, it was certainly a simpler time where teen pop and nu-metal ruled the radio waves and alternative rock was starting to become plain old indie rock.

In the new episode of Indiecast Hyden and Cohen revisited their five favorite albums from the era to determine what still holds up today. While Hyden’s top five albums walks that line between alt-rock and indie rock with albums like Summerteeth and Nine Inch Nails’ The Fragile, Cohen was more focused on the emo rock scene, remembering albums from Jimmy Eat World and American Football.

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Cohen supports the new album from Philadelphia band The Goalie’s Anxiety At The Penalty Kick. Hyden, on the other hand, is still looking to the past to sing the praises of Foxygen’s 2013 album We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 15 below and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts here. Stay up to date and follow us on Instagram and Twitter.

Georgia is one of a handful of states currently without a confirmed winner in the presidential election. If Joe Biden triumphs over Donald Trump in the state, though, Jason Isbell has promised a treat: A covers album of songs by Georgia artists.

Isbell wrote on Twitter last night, “If Biden wins Georgia I’m gonna make a charity covers album of my favorite Georgia songs- REM, Gladys Knight, Vic Chesnutt, Allmans, Cat Power, Precious Bryant, Now It’s Overhead, etc… And damn is that gonna be fun.”

Isbell got a stamp of approval from R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, who tweeted, “Sounds great, Jason!” Isbell replied, “Blessing much appreciated, Mike.” He also got input from Brandi Carlile, who expressed interest in joining Isbell on the project and offered some suggestions: “And I will happily sing harmony. Oooh!! Can we also do kid fears by the indigo girls and you be Michael Stipe???” Isbell responded, “Ohh I love that song so much. Good thinking- I can give it my stipiest shot that’s for sure.”

Aaron Lee Tasjan also chimed in, “Just got chills thinking of you and the band playing a Drivin n Cryin song.” Isbell answered, “Man hell yes gotta do Honeysuckle Blue.” Joe Henry also responded, “Would love to hear you sing something of Vic Chesnutt’s, truly. Not that there aren’t other reasons why GA ought to bring this home.” Isbell replied, “Vic was so brilliant. It’ll be hard to choose but I definitely will.”

Somebody else asked, “Can you do it in time to donate a portion to @GeorgiaDemocrat in time for the runoff elections,” to which Isbell responded, “Ahh brilliant maybe so.” The runoff election is scheduled for January 5, 2021, so if Isbell takes that idea to heart (and if Biden wins the state), his Georgia covers project could arrive at some point in the next couple months.

Former Trump chief strategist and conspiracy podcaster Steve Bannon has dug himself a ditch on Twitter. Mind you, this is happening after Bannon got arrested on a boat by U.S. Postal Service Police in August (and posted bail) for mail fraud tied to a We Build the Wall crowdfunding campaign (which Bannon allegedly used for personal expenses). So, Bannon is out on bail, which presents its own issues, including the possibility that he violated bail conditions by calling for the beheading of Dr. Anthony Fauci (who has been the target of repeated recent attacks by President Trump) and FBI Director Chris Wray.

Not a wise thing to do. Bannon made these comments on his podcast-y online program, War Room: Pandemic, which is as much of a far-right-wing affair as one might expect. Prior to the comments that got him banned, Bannon echoed President Trump’s claims that he’d won reelection. Then he made the beheading remarks and posted the video clip to Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Here’s what CNN reports on the situation:

CNN relays that Bannon spouted the following violence-inciting rhetoric: “I’d put the heads on pikes. Right. I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats. You either get with the program or you are gone.”

Fauci has previously discussed death threats upon himself and family members. Bannon’s further encouragement of violence, particularly as the presidential election is about to be called (with many MAGAs), certainly deserves a ban and more. Really… is this a bail violation?

(Via CNN)

This morning, multiple topics related to Georgia, Ray Charles, the song “Georgia On My Mind,” and John Legend were trending on Twitter. That’s because as election votes continue to be counted in Georgia, a lot of people are thinking about the Charles classic, including Legend, who shared a video of himself singing the song. The song was written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell but most famously recorded by Ray Charles, whose version of the track is Georgia’s official state song.

Legend took on the song a capella, and at the end of the two-minute clip, Legend said with a smile, “I love you, Georgia!” Legend’s video came after reports that Joe Biden had taken the lead in Georgia as well as Pennsylvania.

The musician has of course been a vocal supporter of Biden and critic of Donald Trump. He performed at Biden’s pre-election rally and discussed Trump’s “Platinum Plan,” saying, “But Trump’s Platinum Plan for Black folks is nothing but fool’s gold, because you can’t bank on a word he says. Ask the students of Trump University. Ask all of the contractors he stiffed. Ask the people his charity was supposed to help before it was shut down for being a fraud. Ask all the Black and brown Americans who are dying from this virus and losing their jobs under his watch. The president isn’t strong: He’s a coward, and his career in business and in government has been failure after failure after failure.”

Watch Legend sing “Georgia On My Mind” above.

All three seasons of Chappelle’s Show were added to Netflix and HBO Max on November 1, but not every episode is available. Season two goes from episode five (“True Hollywood Stories: Prince & Red Balls Energy Drink”) to episode seven (“World Series of Dice & Mooney on Movies”), with no explanation for why episode six, “The Internet & Moment In the Life of Lil Jon,” is missing. That’s the one with Lil Jon at the airport and Chappelle imagining if the internet was a real place, featuring a cameo from Ron Jeremy. The porn star is the reason why the episode was quietly left off Netflix and HBO Max, as he’s been accused of sexual assault by numerous women.

The Daily Beast reports that when “ViacomCBS signed over the non-exclusive streaming rights for Chappelle’s Show to Netflix and HBO Max later in the year, the episode was excluded from the licensing deals altogether due to standards and practices.” The streaming services were “notified in advance by ViacomCBS that this specific episode would not be made available” as part of the deals. “The Internet & Moment in the Life of Lil Jon,” which first aired on February 25, 2004, is available on YouTube and Amazon.

Jeremy is “looking at a total of 11 counts of forcible rape, eight counts of sexual battery by restraint, six counts of forcible oral copulation, five counts of forcible penetration by a foreign object and much more,” according to Deadline. If found guilty, he faces up to 330 years in prison. Jeremy’s next court appearance is scheduled for December 14.

(Via the Daily Beast)

Miley Cyrus has been forthcoming about the fact that her new single “Midnight Sky” draws inspiration from the Stevie Nicks classic “Edge Of Seventeen.” Now those songs have become one on a new remix called “Edge Of Midnight,” a mash-up of the tracks for which Cyrus recruited Nicks herself to contribute. The track combines parts of both songs, beginning with the classic “Edge Of Midnight” opening riff as the songs organically merge from there.

Cyrus recently discussed her relationship with Nicks and how her song inspired “Midnight Sky” on The Tonight Show, saying, “I have the coolest letter ever from Stevie. I sent her the song and I said, ‘You know, I have an alternate melody if you don’t want me to pay tribute to you and your greatness and how much you’ve inspired me,’ and she said, ‘You can borrow from me any time.’ Now, you ask me about new artists and what my advice would be for them, and one thing that I’ve just learned from her, from Dolly, Joan, all in the same, is that they’re so open and welcoming to the younger artists coming up and they offer their mentorship. It’s just been really incredibly important in my career, having someone like her to look up to. Everyone looks up to Stevie Nicks, but having that direct relationship, it’s been kind of life-changing and just so important.”

Meanwhile, in a recent interview, Nicks found a way to relate to the overnight success of TikTok star Nathan Apodaca, who sparked the new Fleetwood Mac revival, saying, “We all do silly, creative dumb things that we never think anybody is going to care about, and the fact that [Apodaca] just reached out to the entire world with his 10-second ride… his life will never be the same. In a strange way, it’s kind of like when Lindsey and I joined [the band] and we had no money — and I do mean no money — and within eight months, together we were almost a millionaire.”

Listen to “Edge Of Midnight” above.

Did Netflix know we’d all be racked with anxiety over the presidential election days after voting polls closed? Probably not, but they had a contingency plan in place and it’s this content line-up.

The platform dropped all six seasons of cult TV teen drama Dawson’s Creek, debuted another holiday rom-com, and ushered in plenty of blockbuster films to keep fans distracted from the political chaos. Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Netflix this week of Nov. 6.

Dawson’s Creek: Seasons 1-6

Opening theme song or no, Netflix dropping this beloved teen drama is exactly what we need this week. Dawson’s Creek is the reason shows like The O.C., One Tree Hill, and Gossip Girl even exist and yet somehow, it still feels fresh and timely. It gave us an epic love story, likable characters, Katie Holmes, an unhealthy obsession with a young Joshua Jackson, and of course, the James Van Der Beek crying meme that just keeps on giving.

Operation Christmas Drop (Netflix Original)

Kat Graham and Vikings star Alexander Ludwig lead this latest holiday rom-com from the streaming platform. Graham plays a business-minded congressional aide who gives up spending the season with her family and friends to, what else, work. That work involves traveling to an Air Force base in the tropics to find reasons to defund it, pitting her against the charming, roguish captain played by Ludwig. You know how things play out from here, right?

Here’s a full list of what’s been added in the last week:

Avail. 10/31
The 12th Man

Avail. 11/1
M’entends-tu? / Can You Hear Me?: Season 2
60 Days In: Season 5
A Clockwork Orange
Boyz n the Hood
Casper
Christmas Break-In
Dawson’s Creek: Seasons 1-6
Easy A
Elf Pets: A Fox Cub’s Christmas Tale
Elf Pets: Santa’s Reindeer Rescue
Elliot the Littlest Reindeer
Forged in Fire: Season 6
Jumping the Broom
Knock Knock
Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath: Seasons 1-3
Little Monsters (1989)
Mile 22
Ocean’s Eleven
Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Piercing
Platoon
School Daze
Snowden
The Garfield Show: Season 3
The Impossible
The Indian in the Cupboard
The Next Karate Kid
Wheels of Fortune
Yes Man

Avail. 11/2
Prospect

Avail. 11/3
Felix Lobrecht: Hype
Mother

Avail. 11/4
A Christmas Catch
Christmas With A Prince
Love and Anarchy

Avail. 11/5
A New York Christmas Wedding
Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta?
Midnight At The Magnolia
Operation Christmas Drop
Paranormal

Avail. 11/6
Citation
Country Ever After
La trinchera infinita / The Endless Trench
The Late Bloomer

And here’s what’s leaving next week, so it’s your last chance:

Leaving 11/7
Hit & Run
Hope Springs Eternal
The Sea of Trees
Sleepless

Leaving 11/8
Bathtubs Over Broadway

Leaving 11/11
Green Room