Month: February 2021

Last night Chloe X Halle dropped the video for “Ungodly Hour,” the title track off their massive 2020 breakout album. But that wasn’t the only thing they had in store for fans. Since the pandemic has made it impossible for musicians to tour their work, plenty are opting to release a deluxe or revamped version of their records from last year. Chloe X Halle have dubbed theirs the “Chrome Edition” of Ungodly Hour, and dropped the new version tonight. This edition includes two new tracks from the sisters Bailey, and the songs hew a lot closer to gothic pop than the smoldering R&B of the rest of the album.

Not that there aren’t hints of this kind of power on “Tipsy,” but “Hazy” and “80/20” take on an even more confident, swaggering feel — there’s no shying, loved-up narrator on these tracks. Instead, braggadocio and dark beats pepper the new songs, which are ripe for remixes too. And though it’s not fair to constantly compare Chloe and Halle to their mentor, Beyonce, these two songs in particular are reminiscent of some of the more bossed up work she’s been drawn to, especially later in her career. For this duo to already be at that place of extreme confidence at this age? Now that’s the power of a mentor. Check out “Hazy” above and “80/20” below.

Pop Smoke was just getting a taste of stardom when it was all ripped away from him in early 2020. The Brooklyn rapper was tragically shot and killed during a home invasion in Los Angeles. While his musical talents and impact were undeniable, we recently learned that Pop had so much more he wanted to prove to his supporters. In just a week, the rapper will make his posthumous acting debut for Eddie Huang’s basketball film, Boogie. While fans will still have to wait for the arrival of that film, they can enjoy some new music from Pop thanks to his “AP” single.

The new track finds Pop Smoke thriving in the drill rap pocket that brought him a massive wave of supporters in his unfortunately brief career. Throughout the nearly three-minute song, the Brooklyn native flaunts his lavish lifestyle and raps about his jewelry, money, and more. The track is the also official lead single for the Boogie film. In it, Pop will play a character named Monk, one who rivals the movie’s main character Alfred “Boogie” Chin (played by Taylor Takahashi) on and off the basketball court.

“AP” may not be the only song fans hear from Pop Smoke this year. DMX and Meek Mill have both teased records that he is featured on.

Hear the new single in the video above.

Boogie is scheduled for release on March 5 through Focus Features.

Stop the presses — two of music’s most legendary groovers are collaborating.

In an unexpected Instagram post from Bruno Mars — who has been relatively quiet on the new music front since his controversially won Album Of The Year at the 2018 Grammys — revealed that he and Anderson .Paak have teamed up for what is sure to be one of the funkiest supergroups around. Dubbing themselves Silk Sonic, Mars shared that the two have already made a whole album’s worth of material together, and the first new song will be dropping next week, March 5.

“We locked in and made an album,” Bruno wrote on Instagram. The band’s called Silk Sonic. First song drops next Friday 3/5.”

This isn’t the first time .Paak has worked with another artist for an entire album. His project NxWorries is a supergroup with LA legend Knxwledge, and their 2016 album Yes Lawd! is still a fan-favorite. Bruno isn’t a stranger to working with other big names, he infamously pulled Cardi B onto “Finesse” at the height of her career, and has worked with The Police (!) already. But he hasn’t gone as far as to create an entire album with another artist, so it will be fascinating to see how this plays out. In the meantime, check in next Friday to get the first taste of Silk Sonic.

The Denver Nuggets haven’t been able to get out of second gear this season despite the sensational play of Nikola Jokic, and on Thursday they lost to the Washington Wizards for the second time this month, falling to 17-15. The Wizards have been very good of late, winning six of their last seven, but even so, this isn’t a team that Denver would believe should be capable of picking up a season series sweep against them.

And yet, despite some shaky execution late offensively by the Wizards, they were able to pull out a 112-110 win thanks to what can only be described as the worst 4-on-1 fastbreak in NBA history. Washington missed their final shot attempt and Nikola Jokic was able to tip the rebound out to Jamal Murray to start what should’ve been a fastbreak to tie the game, at the very least. Bradley Beal was the only Wizard between Murray, Facu Campazzo, Michael Porter Jr., Will Barton, and the rim.

What happened from there was, truly, stunning to watch.

Somehow, out of that incredible opportunity, the Wizards could only manage a three-point heave from Campazzo, who was 1-of-6 prior to that moment from three on the night. Murray pulls up at the three-point line, possibly thinking that he’d get one of his teammates to cut to the rim and put Beal in a situation to make a hard decision: give up a pull-up three that could give Denver a win or give up an open layup that would send the game to overtime.

Instead, Campazzo, MPJ and the trailing Barton all stop at various points on the three-point line as well, leaving Murray with no outs when Beal jumps out on him and a trailing Rui Hachimura arrives as well. The result is a skip pass to Campazzo who launches a contested three that barely catches iron. After the game, Murray took responsibility for the blown opportunity, but in all honesty, it’s far from his fault alone.

If just one of his teammates cuts to the rim, Denver gets a much better shot, but he also could’ve gone downhill to attack Beal and then kick it out to Porter Jr. in the corner. Everyone involved erred and the result is one of the most stunning missed executions of what should’ve been an easy scoring opportunity of the season.

Murray said postgame he should’ve just shot the ball and that he thought Porter would cut, but it was just a misunderstanding at the worst time.

The Hawks are having a disappointing season, particularly after team governor Tony Ressler passed down a mandate to the team to make the playoffs after spending big this offseason. As a result, head coach Lloyd Pierce’s seat has gotten quite hot, with the Hawks below .500 and scuffling to a 4-9 record in February.

Pierce gave an interview to Jeff Schultz of The Athletic effectively clearing the air on his feelings about the status of his job, the Hawks’ season overall, and his relationship with general manager Travis Schlenk. The way Pierce put it, he treated every day of being as a head coach as a day on the hot seat, and has learned to have peace of mind about the temperamental nature of NBA decision-makers.

“It’s always going to fall on me,” Lloyd told Schultz. “That’s part of sports. I’m glad it falls on me because it won’t shake me one bit.”

Still, because he has become so close with Schlenk, the dynamic around the fact that Schlenk may soon have to fire him doesn’t seem to phase the Hawks coach, who recognizes how the business works and is simply going to keep trying to do what he can until he’s told the job is no longer his.

“Travis is going to fire me one day,” Pierce said matter of factly. “And do you know what I’m going to say? The guy gave me a great opportunity in life. Do you think I’m going to be pissed? He’s damn near my best friend. I’m eternally thankful for his belief in me, and ultimately the decisions he has to make are always going to be about the organization, but I’m eternally grateful for the belief and the confidence that he has had in me. That’s the beauty of this. That’s why there’s no pressure or stress. I have a job to fulfill. I have to hold all the responsibilities and standards towards me, and I understand that. That’s the job.”

After early reports of tensions between star players Trae Young and John Collins, things have not gotten any steadier in Atlanta. The team keeps losing, has not been healthy all year, and may be lining things up to make the affable Pierce the fall guy soon.

Seth Curry is enjoying a strong season with the Philadelphia 76ers and, upon arrival, the 30-year-old guard helped to transform his new team’s offense with his perimeter shooting. Given that Curry converted 45.1 percent of his three-point attempts in the two previous seasons and Philadelphia was desperate for floor spacing, the partnership always made sense, and the 76ers are bearing the fruits of the acquisition to the tune of the East’s best record.

On the flip side, the Dallas Mavericks aren’t faring quite as well this season after sending Curry to Philadelphia in a swap for Josh Richardson. To that end, Dallas lost to Philadelphia by a 111-97 margin at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday evening and, after the game, Curry sent some positive vibes to his old team, all while making it clear that he feels the Mavericks made an error by dealing him.

The wording of “bad business decision” is tremendous here, even if it makes total sense that Curry would feel that way. Dallas isn’t suddenly a struggling offensive team, as most of their issues are on the defensive end, but the Mavericks were the No. 1 offense in the NBA last season and they haven’t been able to replicate that level of success on a grand scale. Some of that is the absence of Curry as one of the league’s best shooters, and Richardson hasn’t been fantastic in Dallas, even with some recent improvement.

On paper, the Curry-Richardson swap made perfect sense for both teams and it filled needs on each side. So far, though, Curry and the 76ers have to be the ones feeling pretty fantastic about the deal. For good measure, Curry scored 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting with a perfect 3-of-3 mark from long distance on Thursday evening, and he got the last laugh with an apt quote after the final buzzer.

The music world is still reacting to the surprising split of Daft Punk. The duo of Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter announced the breakup this past Monday after 28 years as one of the world’s most popular electronic acts. Musicians like Alesso and Strand Of Oaks, who were inspired by Daft Punk, sent their well wishes to the duo after hearing the news. Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker also weighed in on the split during a recent interview with Apple Music’s Matt Wilkinson.

“I mean, I guess I wasn’t expecting to be as emotional as I was,” he said. “Especially because I watched the video they released, that kind of eight-minute thing, which I think has already been on a movie of theirs, obviously re-contextualized for them announcing their split up, but it really moved me. Really moved me.” He added, “It was almost like when you hear about someone that’s died. I know it’s obviously not nearly as tragic as when someone dies, but that kind of shock. My phone blew up.”

Parker also commended the duo for walking away when they felt the time was right. “That must take so much guts to do, and not just say, ‘Someone might offer us a billion dollars for a show next year. Maybe let’s just hold out,’” he said. ‘You know, to just say, ‘This is the end.’ I think it takes a lot of guts.”

You can listen to the full interview here.

Thursday was the wildest day for Mr. Potato Head in…ever? It was announced the shape-shifting doll toy, which since 1952 has delighted kids who like to swap out random human-like features on a plastic potato, would be getting a bit of a makeover. Indeed, he would become gender neutral, presumably in reaction to a society becoming ever more tolerant of non-binary lifestyles. Conservatives were pissed at the toy news.

But perhaps it was all for nought. Hours after their line of potato toys started trending for almost certainly the first time in Twitter history, Hasbro issued a statement clarifying that neither Mr. nor Mrs. Potato Head weren’t going anywhere, thus restoring faith in the traditional family unit of toys that look like root vegetables.

What they were changing was the name of the overall Mr. Potato Head brand, shortening it to simply “Potato Head.” The Mr. and the Mrs. would still be sold. The slight re-branding wasn’t to be progressive, a spokesperson for Hasbro told The New York Post, but “to better reflect the full line.” (Indeed, it does seem like sloppy and confusing marketing to sell Mrs. Potato Head under a Mr. Potato Head umbrella, now that we think about it.)

What’s more, there will also be a “family kit,” which will include enough potato parts and accessories for kids to “create all types of families,” the spokesperson said.

Will this calm the conservative beast? Probably not! Surely the whole “create all types of families” line will fuel three sweaty Don Jr. videos alone, not to mention a week of Fox and Friends. But some wondered if Thursday night’s Fox News hosts wouldn’t suddenly have to do some 11th hour rewrites on their scaredy cat monologues.

(Via The New York Post)

Maybe Mitch McConnell’s word isn’t bond. A couple weeks back during the Senate’s impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump — which he had delayed until after he was out of office — he flip-flopped in the span of about fifteen minutes. First he voted to acquit him, then he took to the floor to denounce him, effectively blaming him for the crimes he said he didn’t commit. Now he’s had yet another of his unpredictable changes of heart: The Senate Minority Leader says he will “absolutely” support Trump should he run in 2024.

When pressed as to why he would support someone he only two weeks before said had caused the failed MAGA coup, McConnell offered some old-fashioned dodges. “What happened in the past is not something relevant now,” McConnell cryptically told Fox News, saying the GOP was “moving forward” so he can battle Joe Biden and the more progressive parts of the Democratic Party.

When host Brett Baier asked him about that lengthy, blog-like screed Trump wrote, in which he called McConnell a “dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack,” he dodged that, too, trying to spin that the GOP lost control of the Senate, costing him his beloved gig as Majority Leader. “The Republican Party had a very good day on November 3,” he asserted. When pressed further about that major loss, McConnell simply said, “I don’t have any further observations to make about that.”

It was a classic McConnell move, sleazy and risible. And all people could do on Twitter is helplessly point to the words he said only a couple handful of days before, directly contradicting this.

Some wondered if perhaps people should not trust what McConnell says.

Others offered some explanations for his about-face.

In other words, either McConnell noticed his approval rating sunk because he trashed Trump or he has no soul. Maybe both.

On Thursday Twitter announced an exciting new feature on their 15-year-old social media service. No, they didn’t finally add an edit option so you could fix inane typos or random autocorrects. Instead, they’re creating what they call “Super Follows,” in which users can put certain tweets behind a paywall, charging others to read it. It’s…an interesting idea. That is to say, it was instantly mocked, in part for sounding way too close to OnlyFans and Patron, which at least promise more than 240 written-out characters.

But let’s go back to what’s most enraging people about it: that Twitter top brass thought of ripping off another platform’s idea before giving users the thing they want. That is, again, the edit function. People have been clamoring that for ages, perhaps as long as the service has been around — which is to say, since 2006. (They’ve also begged Jack Dorsey to kick off all of the Nazis, though to his credit he has kicked a good chunk of them off. So props where it’s due.)

When news of the “Super Follows” broke, it wasn’t long before everyone had this same complaint.

Those that weren’t complaining about the dearth of edit options were making jokes about OnlyFans.

So, as usual, the best way to use Twitter was to make Twitter. Nature indeed is healing.