Month: January 2021

It was only a matter of time before Pennsylvania’s Lt. Governor John Fetterman — the man whose recently excelled at roasting Trump and his cronies on all the major news networks — made a run for higher office, but even he didn’t expect the outpouring of support he got from the folks of his home state late last week.

Fetterman took to Twitter on January 8th, first retweeting an Inquirer article claiming he was eyeing a run for one of Pennsylvania’s Senate seats before expanding on his policy points and linking to a page where supporters could donate if they wanted to see Fetterman campaign for Congress. Presumably, Fetterman was going to gauge the temperature of a possible Senate campaign by the number of donations and response he got from the people of his home state.

Well, it looks like that number was so staggering that even Fetterman was a bit surprised by the fervor of his followers hoping to see him enact change on their behalf in Washington D.C. Fetterman again jumped on Twitter to marvel at how many people responded to his potential political bid and to thank the people of Pennsylvania for their support.

According to the Lt. Governor, in just 72 hours, 15,000 donors in almost every county in the state plus residents of every other state in the country, donated an average of $33 to his campaign. In the first three days, he had raised over $500,000. The support for Fetterman comes, in large part, because of his fearlessness in calling out GOP members who continue to support (or as he calls it, “simp”) for President Trump, even as the pandemic spirals out of control and MAGA rioters attempt a coup on Capitol Hill. Fetterman was a clear, level-headed voice in Pennsylvania during the chaotic aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, despite encountering resistance from Republican lawmakers in his state. He’s also proudly progressive, even getting in trouble with the state’s GOP-led legislature for flying marijuana flags (he’s pro-legalization) and Pride flags from his office balcony.

In other words, he’s Republicans’ worst nightmare, so it makes sense so many people want to fund his trip to Capitol Hill right now.

Yesterday, Lana Del Rey shared the art and tracklist for her upcoming album, Chemtrails Over The Country Club, a reveal that probably didn’t go how Del Rey envisioned. Regardless, she’s pressing on with the promotional cycle, and today, she has released the album’s title track.

It’s a slow, pensive number, and like much of Del Rey’s music, it conjures vivid scenes, with lyrics like, “I’m on the run with you, my sweet love / There’s nothing wrong contemplating God / Under the chemtrails over the country club / Wearing our jewels in the swimming pool / Me and my sister just playing it cool / Under the chemtrails over the country club.”

She also shared a video for the clip, and it features Del Rey in a nostalgic setting, driving an old Mercedes convertible dressed in clothes from decades ago, albeit with a touch of modern via a mask (the one that drew criticism recently). Partway through the clip, things take a jarring and creepy twist that involves wolves, fire, and some paranormal humans.

In a conversation with Jack Antonoff for Interview in September, Antonoff asked Del Rey if she feels like she’s “revisiting the past” on the new album. Her response included some of her thoughts on the title track, saying, “Not so much where I’ve been, but more like where I’m going. It makes me anxious listening to it, because I know it’s going to be a hard road to get to where I want to be, to do what I want to do. A lot of that’s going to involve writing classes and being uncomfortable in new places with not many friends and raising my dogs and my cats and my chickens alone. It’s going to be work. I hear Chemtrails and I think ‘work,’ but I also think of my stunning girlfriends, who so much of the album is about, and my beautiful siblings. ‘Chemtrails’ is the title track because it mentions them all and it mentions wanting so much to be normal and realizing that when you have an overactive, eccentric mind, a record like Chemtrails is just what you’re going to get.”

Watch the “Chemtrails Over The Country Club” video above.

Chemtrails Over The Country Club is out 3/19 via Interscope. Pre-order it here.

Last Friday, CBS This Morning aired Gayle King’s interview with Miya Ponsetto, the “SoHo Karen” who was arrested (hours after the interview took place, natch) after falsely accusing a Black teenager of stealing her phone. “I don’t… racism is… how is one girl accusing a guy about a phone a crime?” Ponsetto said at one point. In another, she snapped “enough” at King, who was praised for calmly dismantling the Daddy hat-wearer.

CBS This Morning aired the rest of King’s “exclusive interview” on Monday. “I had noticed my phone had been missing, so I just approached the hotel manager, asked him if he could kindly just check the footage,” Ponsetto recalled. “In my opinion, I was, like, ‘OK, any person walking down could possibly be the person that might’ve had my phone.’ I wasn’t racial profiling whatsoever. I’m a woman. I’m Puerto Rican. I’m a woman of color. I’m Italian, Greek, Puerto Rican.” King asked whether that means “you can’t be racist because you’re saying you’re a woman of color? Is that what you mean?” Ponsetto replied, “Exactly,” causing a bewildered King to say, “I would disagree with that.”

Toward the end of the contentious chat, King asked Ponsetto what she thought when she saw the video of herself attacking 14-year-old Keyon Harrold Jr. “You already asked me that. You already asked me that at the beginning of the interview,” she responded. “I’m not going over it again. “I would like to have a real interview with real questions and real heart and real sincere apologies. Let 2021 be the moment of healing. Seriously.”

King also spoke to the victim’s parents, Kat Rodriguez and Keyon Harrold Sr., who called Ponsetto’s apology “as genuine as when she shushed you. It said a lot. I have an issue with the idea of entitlement versus character. It’s all been tragically consistent.” The jazz musician said that if he acted the way she had, “I’d be in jail now. If I had hurt her in any way, I’d be in jail now. We wouldn’t even be able to have this conversation. As a Black man, every day I walk outside, I have to play the perfect game — almost like doing a no-hitter — just to be believed.” As for Ponsetto, who was charged with with attempted robbery, grand larceny, acting in a manner injurious to a child, and two counts of attempted assault over the weekend, claiming that she wasn’t racial profiling, Harrold Sr. told King, “No one has to say the N-word for something to be an act of racism.”

You can watch the rest of the interview below.

Just a week after Dr. Dre’s Los Angeles home was targeted by burglars, his fellow hip-hop impresario Diddy also recently experienced a home invasion, according to TMZ. The house, located in Toluca Lake, was also where Diddy’s ex Kim Porter died in 2018.

According to police, a side door was pried open, setting off the burglar alarm. A caretaker noted that the place had been tossed for valuables, filing a report. However, TMZ notes that someone from Diddy’s family would have to take stock of whether anything had been taken.

Diddy’s year is off to a much worse start than the end of his 2020, which saw him giving back with gift cards and hygiene products in Miami and celebrating his mother’s 80th birthday with an expensive gift. He also recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of his collaborative album with Dirty Money, Last Train To Paris.

Meanwhile, the recent attempted break-in at Dr. Dre’s home was foiled by police, who noticed the thieves’ SUV and gave chase, leading to the arrest of four individuals who’d been targeting the neighborhood. Dr. Dre wasn’t home at the time; the pioneering hip-hop producer had recently been hospitalized after having a brain aneurysm. He’s still in the ICU being checked out.

The 1975 released Notes On A Conditional Form last year, and it looks like the band, or perhaps just Matty Healy, has some new music on the way with some noted collaborators.

Yesterday, Healy took to his personal Instagram account to share some photos of his home and noted, “Lockdown in the bunker. Keeping sane by cleaning and taking pictures currently. Very excited about new music in the coming months with some brilliant artists (thank you to them!) – new playlist tomorrow, for sanity reasons.” One fan shared a brief wishlist of who they hoped Healy had worked with, and they actually got a response.

The follower commented, “Please tell me you’re collabing with [Beabadoobee] or charli xcx!!!!” Healy responded, “BOTH.”

A collaboration between Healy and Beadaboobee isn’t be the biggest surprise, considering that Beabadoobee’s 2020 album Fake It Flowers was released on Healy’s label Dirty Hit. Meanwhile, Healy hasn’t worked with Charli yet, but given how many new people Charli has worked with over the past couple years, it’s not a shock to see her and Healy link up. These collaborations may end up appearing on the solo project Healy’s mother said he is working on.

Charli XCX is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

TMZ reports Dr. Dre is still in the intensive care unit a week after being admitted. Doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center still don’t know why Dr. Dre had a brain aneurysm a week ago and are running a battery of tests to determine the cause, lest Dre suffer another one. Dre projected that he’d be on his way home soon in his first post to social media after the initial news broke, but it looks like the real doctors wanted a second opinion.

In the meantime, Dre has received a wave of support from his fellow artists, who posted numerous messages expressing their well-wishes and asking fans to pray for the rap music pioneer. Unfortunately, not everyone was so altruistic when it came to Dre’s recent medical setback. Police arrested four individuals who apparently tried to break into Dre’s home in Brentwood while he was away after staking out the neighborhood thanks to some other recent thefts in the area.

Dre had an up-and-down 2020 before suffering his brain aneurysm, as his wife of 24 years, Nicole Young, filed for divorce after Dre’s seminal 1992 album The Chronic was included in the Library of Congress and he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2020 Grammys.

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.

Jazmine Sullivan. The Philly singer’s name alone is enough to unearth more than a decade of soul-capturing high notes and euphoric ballads. Her talent and remarkable, yet criminally underrated career can be placed into the “if you know, you know” and “what’s understood doesn’t need to be explained” boxes. She’s a treasure to the R&B world, and truthfully, it’s on you if you’ve traversed the world without stumbling onto her in some way. Closed mouths don’t get fed and closed ears miss out on the truth and that’s exactly what Sullivan is for this genre. Despite all the flowers she’s worthy of and received, Sullivan gives fans another chance to throw a few more roses onstage with her latest project, Heaux Tales.

Five long years have passed since Sullivan graced us with a release. A passionate anthem that called for a newly-unwrapped love to be lit ablaze was one of the many offerings her 2015 Reality Show album delivered to her fans. Nowadays, Jazmine lets the misogynistic labels from men burn to ashes as she and her fellow ladies stand tall and proud in their pool of sexual liberation. Heaux Tales presents a track record of men entering and exiting Sullivan’s life, a recurrence she accepts with no shame because what exactly is there to be ashamed of?

It could be the frequent occurrences of her late-night rendezvous, something Sullivan ponders seconds into the album. “I keep on pilin’ up bodies on bodies on bodies,” she sings with a tone of mild self-frustration on “Bodies” before adding, “Yeah, you gettin’ sloppy, girl.” Moments later these concerns are drowned out by the moans of satisfaction and pleasure she lets out on “Put It Down.” She may have debated her sexual activity on the intro all to praise her next man’s stroke game and how it altered her behavior just a few songs later, but it doesn’t make either less representative of the liberation she carries on the album. In both cases, it’s her right to think and do as she pleases without the condemnation or thirst-driven approval a man may have to offer.

Heaux Tales presents moments of freedom that, as a listener, you can’t help but appreciate. With the support of Ari Lennox, who proclaimed that “d*ck spoke life into me” at one instance of her life, the two songstresses float on a dream cloud towards sensual eruption on “On It.” The song is taunting, provoking, and inviting, but the ticket to experience any of that comes with a sizable fee. You can be a part of Sullivan’s Heaux Tales but not without at least paying the bare minimum price of the reciprocated energy or the more fulfilling one that sees the dominant role assumed and played out to the singer’s satisfaction. “Pricetags” follows a similar sentiment, where this time around, money is what “keeps the p*ssy wet” according to Sullivan. After all, it ain’t trickin’ if you got it right?

As liberating as moments on Sullivan’s latest release can be, Heaux Tales shows men can be toyed with, bought, and sent away with no remorse just as much as they proclaim to with women and more than they’re willing to admit. “Pick Up Your Feelings” drills her former lover with the same deafening punch of unforgiveness that Sullivan hoped to overcome on “Lost One,” but luckily for her where there’s one man, they’ll be another to fill the void. As she says herself on “The Other Side,” “I’m hoping these t*tties can get me out the city / I know I’m too pretty to not do nothing with it.” The options are neverending, so altering her ways for one person when there’s a sea of others who will accept them grants power and a boost in confidence to a party that is far from worthy of it. Sullivan isn’t here to declare herself as the epitome of perfection. She sees her flaws, but they all lay within a skin she wears as she pleases for herself, and no one else.

In a world where women are surveilled for their sexual activity and sex workers are looked down upon by the very people who lust over them behind close doors — or even pay for their services — Sullivan’s Heaux Tales casts a light on the goalpost-shifting standards of this patriarchal society. Her stories are held up by similar accounts from five other women, an inclusion that smashes any claims of “projection” on Sullivan’s part. For example, while “Ari’s Tale” appears to be another example of the Shea Butter Baby singer’s eccentric ways, she concludes her anecdote by repeating a line that serves as the album’s foundation. “This is my truth.” That’s all Heaux Tales is for Sullivan, her truth, her story, and a very real account of how she and women all over the world feel in a society ruled by man. The music is elegant and the project’s construction is flawless. Just one week into 2021, Ms. Jazmine Sullivan graced us with an undeniable moment that will be remembered at the end of the year and years to come for a project that carries the characteristics to be labeled a classic in the future.

Heaux Tales is out now via RCA. Get it here.

The NBA’s effort to press on through the 2020-21 season has hit a rather significant snag in recent days as the number of COVID-19 cases in the league have spiked and, in turn, the number of players in the health and safety protocols both for positive tests and contact tracing has increased significantly.

On Sunday, the Celtics were set to bring eight eligible players to Miami to face the Heat, but that game became the second to be postponed this season after Miami had a contact tracing issue that kept them from getting to the minimum 8-man roster. On Monday, the third and fourth postponements of the season arrived as the Dallas Mavericks — who were set to bring Kristaps Porzingis back into the lineup — and New Orleans Pelicans game was postponed due to Dallas’ COVID-19 issues, and the Celtics-Bulls game on Tuesday was pushed due to Boston’s problems.

The Mavs had to close their facility on Sunday after another positive test, reportedly by Maxi Kleber, while already down three players — Josh Richardson, Jalen Brunson, and Dorian Finney-Smith — after one of those three tested positive on Friday. Contact tracing from Kleber apparently didn’t add any players to the COVID-19 list, which Tim MacMahon of ESPN reports means five new players, at least, were added for other reasons on Monday.

Boston was already at the minimum of eight, so any more additions to the COVID-19 list would have dipped them under that number.

In the league’s release on the postponements, they note that they will be meeting with the NBPA to discuss changes to the league protocols, which one has to wonder exactly what that means. With four postponements already and the situation seemingly spiraling out of control around the NBA, how they proceed will be critical to their ability to get through this season, because clearly what is happening right now is not working.

The NBA’s effort to press on through the 2020-21 season has hit a rather significant snag in recent days as the number of COVID-19 cases in the league have spiked and, in turn, the number of players in the health and safety protocols both for positive tests and contact tracing has increased significantly.

On Sunday, the Celtics were set to bring eight eligible players to Miami to face the Heat, but that game became the second to be postponed this season after Miami had a contact tracing issue that kept them from getting to the minimum 8-man roster. On Monday, the third and fourth postponements of the season arrived as the Dallas Mavericks — who were set to bring Kristaps Porzingis back into the lineup — and New Orleans Pelicans game was postponed due to Dallas’ COVID-19 issues, and the Celtics-Bulls game on Tuesday was pushed due to Boston’s problems.

The Mavs had to close their facility on Sunday after another positive test, reportedly by Maxi Kleber, while already down three players — Josh Richardson, Jalen Brunson, and Dorian Finney-Smith — after one of those three tested positive on Friday. Contact tracing from Kleber apparently didn’t add any players to the COVID-19 list, which Tim MacMahon of ESPN reports means five new players, at least, were added for other reasons on Monday.

Boston was already at the minimum of eight, so any more additions to the COVID-19 list would have dipped them under that number.

In the league’s release on the postponements, they note that they will be meeting with the NBPA to discuss changes to the league protocols, which one has to wonder exactly what that means. With four postponements already and the situation seemingly spiraling out of control around the NBA, how they proceed will be critical to their ability to get through this season, because clearly what is happening right now is not working.

Concerts may be able to make a comeback this year, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who cautiously suggested that some venues could reopen this fall. However, the US Chief Medical Adviser warns that the return of live entertainment hinges on an effective vaccine rollout.

On Saturday, during a virtual conference held by the Association of Performing Arts Professionals reported by The New York Times, Dr. Fauci explained that the return of the lifeblood of the music industry depends upon the US reaching a vaccination threshold of 70 to 85 percent of the population. He also warned that masks would likely be a requirement for the foreseeable future.

“If everything goes right, this is will occur sometime in the fall of 2021,” Dr. Fauci said, “So that by the time we get to the early to mid-fall, you can have people feeling safe performing onstage as well as people in the audience.” That’s good news for the arts, as performers, tech crew, and other industry professionals have lost an estimated $14.8 billion according to a survey by Americans for the Arts, a national advocacy group.

Of course, in many locations throughout the country, venues have flouted safety regulations to host shows by DaBaby, Mulatto, and others. However, with the US’s vaccine distribution behind schedule, Fauci advised caution, recommending that perhaps venues could require audience members to provide negative test results in order to gain admittance, while also doing more studies on the impact of concerts and performances on the coronavirus’s spread.

Ultimately, he encouraged viewers that, “We’ll be back in the theaters — performers will be performing, audiences will be enjoying it.” “It will happen,” he said — even if it doesn’t quite happen as soon as he projects.