Month: November 2020

Benee is fresh off the release of her debut album, Hey U X, which came out on Friday. It’s a diverse effort, featuring everything from off-kilter pop to more guitar-based indie rock. Album opener “Happen To Me” falls in the latter category, and that’s the song she chose to perform for her appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last night. Joined by her band, Benee took to a dimly-lit stage to perform the alternative-leaning tune, which doesn’t sound unlike Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes (Arpeggi)” (a parallel that Stereogum also independently drew).

For most artists, late-night TV is a rare opportunity to play live in any capacity nowadays, but Benee just finished a tour of her native New Zealand. She said in a recent interview of playing live, “I knew I would miss playing shows, but not to the level that I friggin’ didn’t know what to do with myself. It was just crazy to see the new energy that everyone was bringing to each show. Everyone is so happy to watch live music again.”

Benee also recently told Uproxx of her new album, “I think with this album, I haven’t really held back on experimenting with genres and even lyrics. Maybe I would have been more hesitant to do some of the things that I’ve done on this album in my previous bodies of work.”

Watch Benee perform “Happen To Me” above, and check out our recent interview with her here.

A Korean hip-hop outlet probably isn’t the first place one would go looking to find out about a potential joint project between Post Malone and Ty Dolla Sign, two of pop and R&Bs biggest stars at the moment, but considering how influential K-Pop has become in the past few years, maybe it’s something we should all start getting used to. Ty recently revealed in an interview with HiphopLE that he and Post have doubled down on their “Psycho” and “Spicy” chemistry to work on a collaborative album he says is “coming soon.”

While speaking about his collaborative chemistry with fellow hook master Jeremih, which resulted in 2018’s joint album Mih-Ty, Dolla Sign explained that the two decided to string together their favorite songs out of about 50 rough drafts. Ruminating on whether he would repeat the process with another artist, he gives a mischievous grin to the camera and says, “Who knows if I might do it again, but I’m sure it’s possible. Posty and Ty Dolla Sign album coming soon.” Although it seems he was jokingly speculating on the possibility rather than making a solid promise, there will no doubt be plenty of fans of the two who can’t wait to see it become a reality.

Ty Dolla Sign’s new album Featuring Ty Dolla Sign is out now, while Post Malone recently fell off the Hot 100 for the first time in years.

Watch Ty’s interview above.

Over the last few years, Atlanta trap trailblazer Future has become something of a savant of the collaborative joint mixtape. Beginning in 2015 with What A Time To Be Alive by Drake, Future has since gone on to repeat the process with a number of his indirect scions, including Young Thug (2017’s Super Slimey), Juice WRLD (2018’s WRLD On Drugs), and most recently, Lil Uzi Vert on this week’s Pluto X Baby Pluto. The latest constitutes each collaborator’s second project of 2020 (third for Uzi if you count the deluxe version of Eternal Atake, LUV Vs. The World 2, as a separate project) and delivers more of what their fans have come to expect, trading on the duo’s established chemistry from their 2016 crossover with DJ Esco, “Too Much Sauce.”

And yes, by now, both artist’s fans know exactly what to expect from either — and thanks to their trio of singles released at various points throughout the year, what to expect from both. The duo first teased their collaboration back in May with the deep-fake-featuring “Wassup” video, which appeared on LUV Vs. The World 2. The video not only established that their working chemistry remained intact, but also that fans would greedily devour anything these two put out together. They set out to leverage this tendency — well-cultivated by each artist’s well-evinced productivity — with the singles “Over Your Head” and “Patek” in July, stoking the flames of curiosity and turning expectation into all-out frenzy.

How much mileage this tape gets from listeners will greatly depend on how much they like either artist. Neither is going to surprise anyone lyrically, as they tread similar territory to each of their solo releases this year. The 15-song set opens, fittingly enough, with the DJ Esco-produced “Stripes Like Burberry,” which smartly picks up where the duo left off four years ago on “Too Much Sauce.” It quickly establishes one of the benefits of Future’s propensity toward working with his stylistic offspring: It gives listeners the opportunity to compare the two and determine how they overlap and diverge from one another, spotlighting Future’s influence and Uzi’s innovation thereof.

“Bankroll,” “Bought A Bad Bitch,” and the standout single “That’s It,” which also received the video treatment upon the album’s surprise release Friday, are further examples of their stylistic convergence — as well of their thematic limitations. While both have proven highly capable of injecting introspection in their work (albeit mostly in passing), here most of their wordplay leans in service of their attraction to bling, their proficiency with firearms, and their delight in the carnal pleasures provided by willing female companions. In other words, there are no surprises here — which begs the question of why this collection needs to be 15 songs long when they pretty much cover all the subjects they care to by the end of “Marni On Me,” the second song of the tape.

Yes, Uzi’s solo outing here touches on trauma (“See, I saw a n**** get killed back when I was a toddler / So how I’m ‘posed to love, girl? Now how I’m ‘posed to fear?”), but what could have been an opportunity to expand his range of topics and reveal more of himself quickly regresses back into generic brags about getting head and an ugly, glossed-over reference to domestic violence: “Why you tellin’ n****s about my stash spot? / She lucky I ain’t kill her, could’ve gave her an ass-shot.” This after nearly three months of calls to defend Black women in the wake of Megan Thee Stallion’s shooting by Tory Lanez, as well as the accompanying silence of Tory’s peers and non-female collaborators… it’s a bad look.

That isn’t to say this one reference ruins all the fun, but the hedonism on display wears thin. The beats run the gamut of the sort of cartoon trap favored by Uzi more than the gloomier fare beloved by Future, which gives the latter a boost in energy. The tempo remains high-spirited enough that a club DJ could drop the needle on track one and walk away from the booth, content that the club would rock for the next hour without any additional effort. But the clubs are all closed and the world is on fire; while some escapism is nice, there’s a difference between vegging out for a bit and fiddling while Rome burns. Pluto X Baby Pluto rides the line pretty closely and while it has the potential to grow on you with enough time and repeats listens, there isn’t much here to entice very many of the latter.

Pluto X Baby Pluto is out now via Atlantic and Epic. Get it here.

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Dolly Parton may save us all. Literally.

On Monday, drugmaker Moderna announced that it’s developing a COVID-19 vaccine that has proven to be 94.5 percent effective, “joining Pfizer as a front-runner in the global race to contain a raging pandemic that has killed 1.2 million people worldwide,” according to the New York Times. Funding for the vaccine, which could be given to “more than 20 million people in the United States by sometime in December,” came from, among others, country legend and all-around national treasure Dolly Parton.

The “Jolene” singer donated $1 million to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center earlier this year after her “longtime friend Dr. Naji Abumrad, who’s been involved in research at Vanderbilt for many years, informed me that they were making some exciting advancements towards that research of the coronavirus for a cure,” she wrote in a statement. Parton and Dr. Abumrad became buddies when he treated her after she was involved in a car accident; his son, Jad, later hosted the Dolly Parton’s America podcast:

Moderna’s efforts to clinch a vaccine were funded, in part, the Dolly Parton COVID-19 Research Fund as part of the musician’s unwavering support for the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, according to an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The centre was one of several key players and institutions in public health that have supported Moderna’s months-long bid to contain COVID-19.

Parton (who you can also thank for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer show) hasn’t publicly taken credit for the good news, but Twitter is happy to salute the angel among us.

[To the tune of “Jolene”] “Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine.” (Sorry.)

(Via Yahoo! News)

50 Cent has proven himself to be a successful businessman, as he has found plenty of ways outside of music to increase his wealth. A few years ago, though, he says turned down a million-dollar opportunity that would have required virtually no effort and little time on his part. 50 guested on The Breakfast Club this morning, where he revealed that the Trump administration previously offered him a million dollars to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017.

50 said, “They offered me $1 million to go to Trump’s inauguration. I passed on that. [They initially offered] $500,000 and it went up to a million while I was still confused with whether I should do it.” Charlemagne Tha God then asked why 50 was confused, and he replied, “He was needing it for the same reasons you see now, he participated with different artists for the Black vote. And I’m going, ‘Nah, I ain’t gon’ put myself in that position.’ ‘Cause I don’t know what I’d have to do to recover from that.”

He also expressed his belief that Lil Wayne got paid to show support for Trump, responding to Charlamagne’s suggestion of that, “Yeah, I’m sure. Easily. He got paid. He had the sweater and the picture.”

Watch the interview clip above, and find the full conversation below.

Where were you on November 10th? November 12th? Banging your head against the refresh button only to come up empty-new-console-handed?

We get it. We were doing the same thing: at the online frontlines confused about time-zones, spamming “add to cart”, and signing petitions to make captcha’s a requirement on these big-box retailer websites. Bots should be a war crime. But pangs of rage and disappointment won’t get you through what might be a long winter before you have a chance to wrap your arms around a warm Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5. That’s why we’re bringing you this super-practical (and not at all depressing) plan to make you feel just a little bit better about the wait.

1. Breathe Deep And Wait

Yes, the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 are shiny, new, and probably smell fantastic fresh out of the box, but they really aren’t going to be much different from the previous generation for at least a few more months. Obviously, they perform better in the graphics, frame rates, and load times departments, but they don’t really have any mind-blowingly different games (which is the most important part!) when it comes to the latest and most exciting offerings. Right now, at launch, the Xbox Series X doesn’t have any exclusive content– every single game available on the console is also available on Xbox One. That, and all the upcoming new games, like Call of Duty: Cold War and Cyberpunk 2077, are also available immediately on the previous generation. This is something that happens every console cycle because games take forever to develop, consoles are notoriously unavailable, and everybody is buying video games during the holidays. No developer wants to leave any gamer behind so don’t leave your Xbox One or PS4 behind just yet. Oddly enough, once the craze dies down and the consoles are more readily available is when upgrading is going to really matter for exclusive titles.

2. Recommit To Your XB1 Or PS4

Fall in love again with your old flame of yesteryear. Run your hand gently along it’s, comparatively, lack of luscious curves, and recall that time two weeks ago when you were playing Warzone with your friends. Simpler times, yes, but treasured memories nonetheless. Look, the PS4 and Xbox One, especially if you have the suped-up X or Pro, are incredibly capable workhorses that still have plenty of life in them. Everybody and their mother has one and are still very much online and looking for you! Plus, cross-compatibility with the newer systems means nothing has really changed in terms of your friends-list. So have a game night with your good friends or take a walk down memory lane on your own. I have a backlog of PS Plus games I still need to work through.

3. Broaden Your Horizons

Y’all ever heard of Nintendo? If you don’t have one already, get a Switch or a 3DS! There is an absolute wealth of fantastic content out there just waiting for you to goomba-stomp. I know so many folks that have never experienced a Zelda game and I’m telling you, they will really knock your socks off. Even if you roll your eyes at the mention of Breath of the Wild, the 3DS has ported versions of Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask which, if you’ve never played, are critical entries in the video game history books. Why stop there? You’re already browsing eBay wondering if it’s worth it to spend $900 on a scalped Series X– go retro and bid on a Super Nintendo (or get one of these) and spend some time learning about what life was like before the internet. You know, if you’re a youngin’. Old heads don’t need to go through that again.

4. Finally Make A Change

If you really feel like burning $900, maybe it’s time you moved into the world of PC Gaming instead. For nine hundred bucks you could get a whole lot of computer that is actually, really going to change the way you play video games. Wait don’t go! I’m not here to convince you that computers are better than consoles (I mean, graphically it’s undeniable but that’s for a different day)– I just want to highlight some big differences in the experience that are maybe super attractive to you. Genuinely answer this question: What does it mean to be “playing video games?” What is the first thing that comes to your mind? The answer is different for everyone, but the one thing that all answers have in common is that they are completely different from what someone would answer a decade ago. “Playing video games” is no longer an isolated experience that begins and ends at the “on” button. Video games are just as big an industry as movies and music these days and to “play a video game” is to share an experience with a friend, be a part of a community, and in some cases even compete. Playing on a computer is the best way to “experience” what video games have to offer in their entirety. On the same piece of hardware I can, for example, play Rocket League, join a Rocket League-League, organize a scrimmage against people in a different time zone, and broadcast it all to Twitch– I mean, there’s a reason why the most prominent video game streamers all play on PC. It’s having the world at your fingertips and, when video game memes are the front page of Reddit nearly every day, video games are the world. Maybe it’s time you gave it a shot? Started streaming? Tried out Counter-Strike to truly understand just how good Shroud is?

Regardless of what you choose to do, know that in 2020 video games are here for you despite all the drama surrounding loot boxes and file sizes. As long as you have something to play on there is something to play and people to play it with. Whether it’s convincing your Mom to download Among Us on her phone or beating the Halo 3 campaign on Xbox 360 for the eleventh time, find a game and play it, because that’s really what this season of gaming is all about.

Netflix’s Oscar-race ambitions might run stronger than ever this year with streaming being the place to watch all the movies during the pandemic. Certainly, we can expect Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial Of The Chicago 7 to draw multiple nominations, and Vanessa Kirby has emerged as a likely nominee in Pieces Of A Woman after snagging the Best Actress award at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The Martin Scorsese-produced film also got a nod for the festival’s Golden Lion honor, and it doesn’t look like an easy watch by any stretch, but Kirby’s performance might convince you to watch nonetheless.

Maybe you’re a Shia LaBeouf fan, too? Well, I’m not sensing a discernible way for him to go disturbingly method here, so for now, all eyes on Kirby. She and Shia portray hopeful first-time parents who lose their child during a home birth. As one can imagine, that scene was a grueling one to shoot, and as Kirby revealed to Entertainment Weekly, it happened as a thirty-minute take that made her feel like she and cinematographer Benjamin Loeb had “been to war together.” After watching Kirby throw down white-hot-yet-simmering rage in The Crown, I believe her.

From the synopsis:

Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia LaBeouf) are a Boston couple on the verge of parenthood whose lives change irrevocably when a home birth ends in unimaginable tragedy. Thus begins a yearlong odyssey for Martha, who must navigate her grief while working through fractious relationships with Sean and her domineering mother (Ellen Burstyn), along with the publicly vilified midwife (Molly Parker), whom she must face in court. Directed by Kornél Mundruczó, written by Kata Wéber, and executive produced by Martin Scorsese, Pieces Of A Woman is a deeply personal, searing, and ultimately transcendent story of a woman learning to live alongside her loss.

Pieces Of A Woman streams on Netflix on January 7.

Chance The Rapper is more successful than at least 99.9 percent of rappers, but like many young artists, there were those who tried to dissuade him from pursuing his art as a career. Chance guested on The Tonight Show yesterday, and during his conversation with Jimmy Fallon, he revealed that his father originally didn’t want him to be a rapper.

Fallon asked Chance if everybody was supportive of his rap growing up, and he responded:

“Uh… I don’t know if they were supportive of it, but it was understood. It was a thing that… People knew that I rapped, since I was a kid. […] My dad actually really… right when I got out of high school, we kind of… as parents do when their kids graduate from high school and they don’t go to college or get a job, it’s kind of like a friction thing. But after we separated for a while, we got back together and he really helped guide me in terms of the amount of work and focus that I needed to work on it from the business side, and he’s still doing that to this day. But in the beginning, my dad did not want me to be a rapper, for sure.”

They also chatted some about Chance’s musical origins, with Chance telling Fallon that he used to perform as Chano, which he called a “terrible name,” when he was in high school.

Watch the full conversation above.

One of the best scenes in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the conversation between Leonardo DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton and Julia Butters’ Trudi Fraser about the books they’re reading. She’s absorbed in a biography of Walt Disney, while he’s halfway through the story of poor Easy Breezy and his spine problems. “Jeepers, this sounds like a good novel,” Trudi tells an emotional Rick. Soon, you’ll be able to say the same thing while reading the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood novel.

Tarantino has signed a two-book deal with HarperCollins imprint Harper, including the Oscar-winning writer’s “first work of fiction, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, a novel to be published next summer that breathes new life into the characters and the premise of a film that got 10 Oscar nominations,” according to Deadline. “Tarantino has long been infatuated with the movie novelizations he read voraciously growing up, paperbacks that accompanied a film’s release. He has set in that tradition a book that teases out the characters played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt.” It’s like the A Million Ways to Die in the West novelization by Seth MacFarlane, except something you actually want to read!

The Once Upon a Time in Hollywood novel will chart the lives of Tarantino’s two protagonists – TV actor Rick Dalton and his stunt double Cliff Booth – both forward and backward in time… I’ve seen a sample of the book, an appreciation of Dalton’s post Bounty Law career from by Pulp Fiction filmmaker Tarantino, who recounts Rick Dalton’s attempts to extend his career in Italy.

Now we need a The 14 Fists of McCluskey spin-off movie. Then the train will have really left the station. Tarantino is also working on a non-fiction book, Cinema Speculation, that’s described as a “deep dive into the movies of the 1970’s, a rich mix of essays, reviews, personal writing, and tantalizing ‘what if’s,’ from one of cinema’s most celebrated filmmakers, and its most devoted fan.” A fitting topic for our finest film critic.

(Via Deadline)

Last month, Lana Del Rey caught some backlash after she was seen wearing what appeared to be a mesh mask at a book signing event. People of the internet tore into Del Rey for wearing what seemed to clearly be an ineffective mask, but now Del Rey has finally offered a response.

The Michigan Daily, the student newspaper of the University Of Michigan, wrote an article about the mask, and Del Rey replied, “Great article. The mask had plastic on the inside. They’re commonly sewn in by stylists these days. I don’t generally respond to articles because I don’t care. But there ya go. Same goes for everyone’s masks in my video. I’m lucky enough to have a team of people who can do that.”

Del Rey also responded to people who believe she supported Donald Trump in this year’s election and to those who accuse her of glamorizing abusive relationships, writing, “Again not that I believe it’s anyone’s business at all-but I made it clear who I voted for. And I don’t glamorize tough relationships. Relationships can just be tough. Period. Every other singer sings about the same damn thing. Always have, Probably always will. Thanks stay tuned.”

In response to a fan who wondered why it took Del Rey this long to respond to the mask controversy, she wrote, “Bro I’m working on 2 albums and excitedly and happily donating a million dollars throughout the nation. If I responded to everything I would be [shrugging emoji].”

Meanwhile, Del Rey recently announced that she’s working on a covers album.