Month: April 2021

Welcome to SNX DLX! This time around we’ve got a light week with a few heavy hitters, including new Jordans from Atlanta-based A Ma Maniére, Nike, and the latest creation from rising sneaker designer Aleali May. A sneaker inspired by the eternally stoned South Park character Towelie also dropped via Adidas but that release was so intertwined with the culture of 4/20 that today, on 4/21 while everyone is recovering from 24 hours of being high, it just feels like the moment has passed.

Still, we felt like it’s still worth a mention — as it’s a pretty dope terry-cloth take on Adidas’ famed Campus 80 silhouette. Towelie’s eyes turn red when exposed to the UV light… That’s about all we’re going to say about these sneakers, but if you’re a big South Park head, this might be something you want to pick up.

Now let’s get to the shoes that we are featuring, and once you’ve scooped up a dope pair of kicks be sure to hit up our apparel roundup to complete your fit.

A Ma Maniére Air Jordan 3 “Raised By Women”

Parisian-influenced Atlanta-based luxury streetwear brand A Ma Maniére is linking up with Nike this week to drop a sleek and simple unisex Air Jordan 3 and apparel collection inspired by and in tribute of the women who raised us.

“As we look to the future of our communities, our country, and the world, from the White House to any house, we are all raised and led by women,” writes the A Ma Maniére team on the collection’s launch page.

This grey and white take on the Jordan 3 features the brand’s “A” logo at the tongue of the left shoe and sports quilted interiors and hidden messages on the inner heel.

The A Ma Maniére Air Jordan 3 “Raised By Women” is set to drop on April 21st for a retail price of $200. Pick up a pair at Flight Club.

Aleali May Air Jordan 1 High Zoom CMFT Califia

Virgil Abloh who? The designer/stylist/model currently glowing up Nike’s roster into a new era is none other than LA-based designer Aleali May, who has made a habit of radically transforming the Air Jordan 1. This week she continues that trend, with the High Zoom CMFT Califia.

Inspired by her high school drill team, the Califia features a loud true blue and green colorway with cream chenille detailing on the wings logo, a matching tongue and Aleali May branding on the tongue tag and heel. The high-top sneaker will drop alongside a sportswear-focused apparel collection that borrows from the same vivid color palette.

The Aleali May Air Jordan 1 High Zoom CMFT Califia is set to drop on April 22nd for a retail price of $140. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Air Jordan 11 Low Legend Blue

Sick, we’re finally getting a low-top version of the Air Jordan 11 Legend Blue. Fans of low-top Jordans have only been waiting for this for *checks calendar* TWENTY-FIVE YEARS. The Legend Blue colorway, with its pristine white upper and icy blue sole and accents, is one of the silhouette’s best colorways and now it’s finally available in a low-top cut.

MJ first unveiled this colorway at the 1996 NBA All-Star Game, a 25 is stamped on the sock liner, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the colorway.

The Air Jordan 11 Low Legend Blue is set to drop on April 24th for a retail price of $185. Pick up a pair at GOAT or Flight Club.

VANS Style 57

VANS doesn’t get a whole lot of love over here at SNX. It’s not personal, the brand just rarely offers anything new that competes with heavy hitters like Jordan Brand and Adidas — but we’re really digging on this revival of the vintage Style 57 sneaker silhouette, a skate sneaker that hails from the early ’90s So-Cal skate scene.

Dropping in burgundy and black, the Style 57 features a suede upper with an interesting contrast stitching pattern and an extra low-top cut. It’s familiar enough that it’s recognizably Vans, but different enough to catch our eyes.

The VANS Style 57 is set to hit Japanese retailers like BILLY’S Tokyo on April 24th for a retail price of $92. Pick up a pair here.

Nike SB Dunk High Pro Hawaii

If you’re looking for a pair of vacation Dunks (who amongst us isn’t?) to rock on your coastal road trip (or a trip to Hawaii) this summer, then look no further than the aptly-named SB Dunk High Hawaii. Featuring a floral tear-away material upper that reveals a shaggy suede upper and palm tree print with an inner pocket for storing your drugs… I mean anything you’d use an inner pocket for… this feels creative and fun without trying too hard.

Seriously what the hell are these inner pockets for? Snacks? Keys? Change?

Nah, they’re for drugs. We see you, Swoosh.

The Nike SB Dunk High Pro Hawaii is set to drop on April 23rd for a retail price of $120. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

New Balance Vision Racer ReWorked

We’re big fans of Jaden Smith’s collaborations with New Balance, and this week brings a brand new iteration on the duo’s Vision Racer sneaker, dubbed the Vision Racer ReWorked. The ReWorked version features a Spinnex upper which utilizes 30% of surplus textile waste and gets its speckled midsole thanks to scrap TPU, rather than paint.

It’s hard not to see the influence of Nike’s Space Hippie collection here, but Smith and New Balance’s Vision Racer is a lot sleeker to look at.

The New Balance Vision Racer ReWorked is set to drop on Earth Day, April 22nd, for a retail price of $149.99. Pick up a pair at New Balance.

Nike Space Hippie 01 Healing Jade

Last year we were huge fans of Nike’s sustainable Space Hippie collection of sneaker silhouettes and it looks like Nike is offering a third colorway collection this week, dubbed Healing Jade, beginning with silhouette 01.

These algae and jade-toned kicks are still composed of 50% recycled material by weight and feature a recycled polyester upper made from plastic bottles, t-shirts, and yarn scraps, with a Crater Foam midsole.

The Nike Space Hippie 01 Healing Jade is set to drop on April 24th for a retail price of $130. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

BBC x Reebok Instapump Fury BOOST

In our opinion, if you’re going to make an Instapump Fury (they have f*cking pumps on the tongue for Christ’s sake) you better enlist Billionaire Boys Club, because they’re the only label that can make this tired and gimmicky design actually look fresh.

I know I’m being hard on the Instapump, but I have a personal thing against gimmicky shoes, I also happen to hate the Nike SHOX (even though I definitely wanted a pair as a kid). Anywayyyyyy, this collaboration between Reebok and BBC drops in two Earth-themed colorways dubbed “Earth” and “Water” and feature a Cordura upper with reflective 3M detailing throughout, with BBC branding on the Pumps.

The BBC x REEBOK Instapump Fury BOOST is set to drop on April 23rd for a retail price of $200. Why didn’t they drop this on Earth Day? Who can say? Pick up a pair at the BBC webstore.

Disclaimer: While all of the products recommended here were chosen independently by our editorial staff, Uproxx may receive payment to direct readers to certain retail vendors who are offering these products for purchase.

Earlier this week, word emerged that the Kobe Bryant estate and Nike had been unable to reach an agreement on a contract renewal to keep Kobe’s beloved sneaker line with Nike going, and there is significant uncertainty about what comes next. It’s possible that the estate looks to another company, like adidas where Bryant first began his career, but they could go into creating their own sneakers as well.

Whatever the case, it’s big news not just for Nike and fans of the Kobe line, but for NBA players as Kobe’s sneakers are the most worn signature among all NBA players. Last year, per BallerShoesDB, 53 players wore the Kobe Protro 4s, the most of any sneaker in the league, with two other Kobe sneakers cracking the top 15 for a combined 31 more players. That’s a significant portion of the league that is now looking at needing to make a change or needing to stock up on pairs to keep for the future.

NBA players are, unsurprisingly, very particular about what they put on their feet. Most players stick to the same line for years on end, although some Kobe sneaker acolytes shifted to Giannis’ Zoom Freaks (which were modeled after Kobe’s low-top design). The Kobes are, by far, the most worn low-top on the market and if Nike can’t produce them anymore, players are concerned for what they’ll do for the future. Among those are Lakers players Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Talen Horton-Tucker, who both spoke on Monday night about how they plan to stock up and were shocked by the news breaking that Nike and Kobe were splitting, via Silver Screen and Roll.

“It was very surprising for me,” Horton-Tucker said on Monday. “You know, I play in Kobes, I’ve played in Kobes all year, and I’m going to continue playing in them, but it’s just crazy — it’s a crazy thing. With everything that’s going on, it’s kind of unfortunate, but I guess I’ve got to figure something out now. I’m putting a call out to everybody right now: whoever can get me any Kobes, I need them.”

“First of all, I’m going to try and get a couple more pairs before they stop selling them,” Caldwell-Pope said. “The reaction that I had was I was shocked, I didn’t think that would happen, I thought they would continue to make shoes but I don’t know anything behind that, so when I saw it, I was just a little shocked.”

Anthony Davis likewise said it “hurt” to see Kobe and Nike split, as he’s a Nike athlete and wears the Kobes.

The Lakers players aren’t alone, and it’ll be interesting how Nike moves forward. What seems most likely is that they continue putting out shoes with the same performance specs and silhouette as the Kobes, but under a different name — as adidas did with the Crazy 8s and others after Bryant left for Nike — and have players test out their other low-top options — whether the Zoom Freaks, Zoom BB NXTs, or their new GT series. Still, for now, expect players to load up on as many pairs as possible before they’re forced to look elsewhere, because changing shoes is a very big deal for players who have grown comfortable in a line over their entire career.

The idea of a laid-back rapper like Lil Baby participating in a TikTok challenge may seem unlikely, but since one of the latest challenges tests users on their knowledge of artists’ lyrics rather than memorizing complicated, air traffic control-esque choreography, it would seem like he’d have at least this one in the bag.

Spoiler alert: [In extremely “Morgan Freeman as narrator” voice] He did not have this one in the bag. Confronted with a line from his 2018 song “I’m Straight” from breakout tape Harder Than Ever, Lil Baby was unable to recall the follow-up to “I’m cool on the love and the high-fives / You n***as can’t keep up with my guys,” which should have been “You can’t get all this drip in a lifetime.”

Now, to be fair, rappers forget their lyrics all the time, especially ones with extensive catalogs like Baby’s (see: Eminem, Lil Wayne, Nas). Despite only being around for half a decade, he’s accumulated the sort of output rappers in the ’90s would envy, with six full-length solo projects and two joint albums to his name in that time (and another on the way). Those albums are also very long, and while the general trend in hip-hop has been to shorten verses and songs overall to accommodate shorter attention spans and the greater prominence of streaming, Baby’s rather endearingly stuck to full-length verses with as many as 24 bars at a time.

That said, it’s still pretty awkward and funny to watch a rapper known for his lyrical output experience a complete brain fart during a quiz of their own lyrics, and pretty bold of him to let the TikTokers put him on blast like this. Watch Lil Baby flunk his own test below.

While our pursuit to find the best bottle of bourbon whiskey at every price point isn’t over (there are still the stratospherically expensive unicorn bottles to get to), we think it’s time to reflect a little before moving on. Over the course of this year, we’ve highlighted 120 bottles of bourbon whiskey — ranging from $8 to $200. There’s no way that every single one of those bottles is going to be for everybody. In fact, we tried to highlight bottles that had varying flavor profiles as much as possible, to give you a wide range of tasty expressions to choose from.

Now we’re looking at those 120 picks and narrowing them down to the one bottle from each price point between $10 and $200. One bottle that we (technically, I) love best. Each of these 12 bourbons was listed in one of our price-point roundups. They’re also the ones I actually stock in my bar cart at home. Meaning that while we dig all the bottles we highlighted, these bourbons keep us coming back.

If any of these bottles catch your interest, click on the prices to snag a bottle for yourself. After all, only you can figure out if a bottle of bourbon fits your distinct palate by actually giving it a shot.

$10-$20 — Heaven Hill Green Label

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $13

The Whiskey:

Heaven Hill’s Green Label Old Style Bourbon is always affordable and very palatable. This expression adds an extra two years (or so) of aging to the entry-level juice. Beyond that, we’re talking about a very standard bourbon that’s meant to be mixed, shot, and enjoyed without breaking the bank.

Tasting Notes:

Sweet oak comes through on the nose with a hint of dried mint and maybe some brown sugar. The palate holds onto that oak and gets a little bitter, thanks to the char of the wood, while vanilla arrives with a touch of pancake syrup. It’s really the oak that holds on the longest, as the sip creates a warm buzz on your senses and slowly fades out.

Bottom Line:

This is a perfect bottle of booze to learn mixology with. It’s bold and cheap and works really well in an old fashioned or Manhattan.

$20-$30 — Old Tub

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $24

The Whiskey:

Last year, Jim Beam released their “distillery-only” Old Tub expression on the national market. The juice is an unfiltered and higher ABV version of classic Beam, giving you more of the brand’s depth in each sip of whiskey.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a sense of cornmeal next to sawdust, oily vanilla, and a hint of fresh honey sweetness that entices your senses. The sip takes on a caramel corn sweetness as the vanilla carries you towards sweeter woods and cherry fruits. The end is short and sweet (like most Beam), with a distant wisp of orange oils next to a slight minerality.

Bottom Line:

This is an interesting Jim Beam to try on the rocks. We’ve also been experimenting with it in cocktails and it really holds up nicely, even in overly sweet ones like a Horse’s Neck.

$30-$40 — Balcones Texas Pot Still Bourbon

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $30

The Whisky:

This is a true Texas grain/corn-to-glass experience. The whiskey is made from Texas grains and corn in old-school stills and then matured under the warm Waco, Texas sun in Balcones‘ own warehouse. The results are small-batch blended, slight proofed, and bottled.

Tasting Notes:

You get a real sense of kettle corn covered in caramel next to hints of oak, sweet apples, and worn leather. The taste veers away from these notes slightly, with pecan pie topped with vanilla cream, more of that leather and oak, and a touch of honey. The end is chewy and lingers as almost-spicy tobacco arrives late to accentuate the oak.

Bottom Line:

This is a divisive whiskey in the bourbon world. We’d argue it’s a great bottle to expand your palate outside of the “classic” bourbon notes that play on repeat for a lot of bottles in this genre. Just make sure to add a little water or ice to really open it up.

$40-$50 — Michter’s Small Batch Bourbon

ABV: 45.7%

Average Price: $47

The Whiskey:

Michter’s really means the phrase “small batch” with this expression. The tank they use to marry their hand-selected eight-year-old bourbons can only hold 20 barrels, so that’s how many go into each small-batch bottling. The blended juice is then proofed with Kentucky’s famously soft limestone water and bottled.

Tasting Notes:

Buttery caramel and peaches mix with creamy vanilla and oak on the nose. The vanilla really shines as the peach almost takes on a grilled edge — growing sweeter and adding a whisper of smoke next to peppery spice. The spice kicks up and warms the senses, as the slow fade embraces stone fruit, toffee, and more vanilla then gets a final kick of charred oak.

Bottom Line:

This is another whiskey that’s built as a workhorse bourbon. And while we dig it as a sipper on the rocks, it’s truly a killer cocktail base for any whiskey cocktail.

$50-$60 — Wild Turkey Rare Breed Barrel Proof

ABV: 58.4%

Average Price: $50

The Whiskey:

This is a classic bourbon from a classic distillery. Rare Breed is comprised of hand-selected barrels that hit just the right marks, according to master distillers Jimmy and Eddie Russell. The barrels are then married and bottled as is, allowing the beauty of the barrel to shine through in every sip.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a deeply nuanced nose, with hints of crème brûlée spiked with Christmas spices next to mild tobacco, orange zest, and a touch of fresh mint. The palate holds onto all of that, adding a pine resin dankness that softens to cedar. The end is long, warming, and holds onto the spice and cedar while creating a well-rounded mouthfeel — pure silk.

Bottom Line:

This might just be the best expression of Wild Turkey on the shelf right now. It’s got an amazing depth of flavor while remaining smooth. It’s also a workhorse and shines as brightly in a cocktail as it does neat or on the rocks.

$60-$70 — Belle Meade Reserve Bourbon

ABV: 54.15%

Average Price: $65

The Whiskey:

Belle Meade, the blending arm of Nashville’s Nelson Green Brier, sources some of the best barrels for their expressions. This whiskey is a hand-selected, marrying of high-rye (30 percent) seven to eleven-year-old bourbons that are bottled at nearly barrel strength (it’s just touched with water, as needed) — allowing the juice in the barrel to speak for itself.

Tasting Notes:

Cornmeal that’s been spiked with stewed and spicy peaches, caramel, softwood, and vanilla greet you. The sip really leans into the classic bourbon vibes on the palate with starring apple pie with plenty of cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg inside a buttery crust paired with hints of cedar, library leather, and tobacco chew. Notes of raisins and walnuts arrive late in that apple pie as the sip slowly fades, leaving you warmed and wanting more.

Bottom Line:

This kind of feels like that ultimate slow sipper. Please add water to really let those deep buttery apple pie notes bloom in the glass and take your time basking in them.

Alternately, use this in a simple bourbon cocktail. It’ll shine, especially given the high proof.

$70-$80 — Elijah Craig Barrel Proof

ABV: Varies

Average Price: $75

The Whiskey:

Elijah Craig Barrel Proof is all about finding the best barrels in the Heaven Hill warehouses and letting that whiskey shine on its own. These are released three times a year (we’re tasting the January 2021 release below) and the various expressions have been winning award after award. The whiskey in the bottle is generally at least 12 years old and bottled with no cutting down to proof or filtration whatsoever.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a real throughline of sunny berry brambles (blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry) next to orange oils and a touch of oakiness on the nose. That fruit and oak will carry through on the palate as hints of buttery toffee, rich vanilla, and peppery spice mingle on the tongue and set your lips abuzz. The end tends to be slow and velvety with the spice, fruit, oak, and vanilla all blending nicely until the very last.

Bottom Line:

This is a fine damn dram of whiskey. It’s bold, drinkable neat (though it is warm without water or a rock), and will expand your palate. Those berry notes really do shine with a bridge between the stems/leaves and the actual ripe berries on their vines.

$80-$90 — Barrell Bourbon Batch 025

ABV: 56.7%

Average Price: $89

The Whiskey:

Barrell Bourbon is one of the best blenderies in the bourbon game right now. This fairly new batch marries bourbons from Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana that are anywhere from five to 15-years-old. The juice is then bottled at cask strength, allowing what was in those barrels to shine the brightest.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a fruity note on the nose that leans slightly savory towards melon as creamed corn with a bit of maple syrup offers up a counterpoint. The taste touches on notes of dark chocolate-covered marzipan as that savory fruit feel dances between rhubarb and fig, with dried orange tobacco chew and maybe a whisper of black licorice. The end is shockingly short and reveals an espresso bean bitterness and… almost saltiness… with a little water in the mix.

Bottom Line:

This is one of those drams that causes you to pause. There’s a lot going on that doesn’t sound like it’ll work on paper. But once you add a little water, go back and forth on the nose and really dive in, you’ll find a great goddamn whiskey.

$90-$100 — Redemption 9-Year-Old Barrel Proof

ABV: 54.1% (varies)

Average Price: $99

The Whiskey:

This sourced whiskey from Indiana (MGP) is one of the best examples of how a unique shingle can make whiskey shine. Redemption’s team painstakingly searches the warehouses for just the right barrels to meet their taste requirements. In this case, that was a nine-year-old single barrel of bourbon with a mash bill of 75 percent corn, 21 percent rye, and four percent malted barley.

Tasting Notes:

The nose really gives you a sense of oily vanilla pods with touches of wildflower honey, rich and buttery toffee, and a hint of dark roasted espresso beans. The palate holds onto those notes as the vanilla and honey both become creamy, while adding a slight black pepper spiciness with a hint of salty smoked bacon fat lurking way in the background. The end is medium-length and touches back on that vanilla, toffee, pepper, and bitterness as it fades.

Bottom Line:

This yearly limited release is yet another reason to stop bashing sourced whiskey. This juice really shines and has a unique taste that feels like classic bourbon with palate expanding depths.

$100-$125 — Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Barrel Proof

ABV: varies

Average Price: $120

The Whiskey:

This much-lauded and beloved bottle from Buffalo Trace is classic whiskey making. The spirit is from Buffalo Trace’s low-rye mash bill. The juice is then aged in warehouses built by the Colonel over 100 years ago. The best barrels are selected yearly for batching and bottling with no fussing whatsoever.

Tasting Notes:

The sip draws you in with a spicy berry jam next to a perfumed note (kind of like wet potpourri) and buttery toffee sweetness. The taste, on the other hand, leans into vanilla oils, dry cedar, and a dusting of white pepper that winds back to the spice without the jam. The end is kind of long and really smoothes out, thanks to the vanilla and toffee, as the peppery spice builds towards a tobacco-filled cedar box and a very distant hint of fresh mint.

Bottom Line:

This is a very hyped whiskey (its MSRP is $75). The prices are going to vary wildly and reach very high, depending on which release you find. All of that being said, this whiskey deserves the buzz it gets. It’s amazingly smooth and easy-drinking for a barrel-proof. Though, adding water really does let this one bloom.

Though it’s a pricey option, we’d argue that this pick is also an incredible cocktail base for boulevardiers or old fashioneds.

$125-$150 — Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection Chocolate Malted Rye

ABV: 45.2%

Average Price: $135

The Whiskey:

No, this isn’t a rye whiskey. It’s a one-off Woodford Reserve bourbon that uses chocolate malted rye grains in its mash bill. The mash is made from 15 percent rye that’s been malted/toasted until it takes on a dark and rich chocolate-y taste (think of the malts used for Guinness or any porter).

The bourbon was released in late fall 2019 and is a one-of-a-kind whiskey that we’ll likely never see again.

Tasting Notes:

You’re greeted with a sense of cornmeal that’s been dusted in dark cacao next to a vanilla pudding base with a hint of marzipan and savory fruit. The taste really holds onto that dark chocolate, taking it into full-on cacao nib territory with dryness and bitterness, while hints of chili spice and very mild pine mingle on your tongue. The finish lingers for a good spell as the cacao veers into a spicy yet dry tobacco chew, leaving your senses buzzing.

Bottom Line:

This is one of those bottles we wish could be an everyday dram. It’s just so silky and full of distinct-yet-well-balanced flavors.

Not for nothing, but this makes a crazy good Manhattan with some Antica Formula vermouth and a touch of orange oils.

$150-$200 — Garrison Brothers Balmorhea

ABV: 57.5%

Average Price: $197

The Whiskey:

This much-lauded Texas bourbon is the highwater mark of what great whiskey from Texas can be. The juice is aged in Ozark oak for four years and then finished in oak from Minnesota for another year, all under that blazing West Texas sunshine. The bourbon is then small-batched, proofed with Texas spring water, and bottled at a healthy 115 proof.

Tasting Notes:

You’re greeted with a real sense of a corn-syrup-laced pecan pie next to hazelnut bespeckled cinnamon rolls and creamy milk chocolate. That chocolate drives the taste towards a mint-chocolate ice cream vibe (heavy on the chocolate part) with small dashes of holiday spices, hard toffee candies, worn leather, and a flourish of cedar boxes full of dried tobacco leaves. The end circles back around to all that sweet and chocolatey creaminess with a final slice of pecan pie on a slow fade.

Bottom Line:

This is one of those bottles that just … delivers. Yes, it wins all the major awards and comes with a ton of hype. But, goddamnit, it’s just f*cking delicious. It’s so tasty and truly easy-drinking that we wish it was affordable enough to be an everyday dram.

As a Drizly affiliate, Uproxx may receive a commission pursuant to certain items on this list.

Zero (Netflix series) — This new Italian original series illuminates the power of invisibility with a new kind of superhero (a modern hero), who discovers his powers while hoping to save his suburb outside of Milan. In the process, the shy teen must at least wear a hero’s clothing while discovering the power of friendship and love.

Kung Fu (CW, 8:00pm) — A mid-twenties Chinese-American woman, takes a life-changing journey to an isolated Chinese monastery after dropping out of college. Upon her return, she must banish crime and corruption in her hometown with her newfound martial arts skills and Shaolin values, all in the name of justice. This week, Nick and Henry follow a lead to search for Zhilan, and Althea’s not having fun with her past while Jin and Mei-Li are squabbling.

Nancy Drew (CW, 9:00pm) — Nancy’s on Moonstone Island and digging in on a hunch with Ace and Amanda stepping in to help when Gil can’t do his thing. Elsewhere, Nick is questioning Nancy’s behavior.

Snowfall (FX, 10:00pm) — The John Singleton-co-created series sees Franklin coping with his fracturing family while Gustavo’s looking at a new path, and Teddy’s got a tough decision to make.

In case you missed these picks from last Wednesday:

Why Did You Kill Me? (Netflix film) — This chilling true-crime documentary film follows a mother’s search for both justice and revenge after her daughter (24-year-old Crystal Theobald) is killed. The mother uses MySpace to investigate the crime, and there’s immense fallout for multiple families as a result.

Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! (Netflix series) — Jamie Foxx is now playing a dad, y’all. He’s doing full-time duties for a teenage daughter while juggling business ownership and some semblance of a personal life. Good luck, Jamie Foxx, because life is total chaos, so you might as well embrace that face. The series also stars Kyla-Drew (as the lucky daughter who gets to laugh at dad), David Alan Grier, and Porscha Coleman.

The Circle: Season 2 (Netflix series) — The social-media-focused reality show continues with plenty of shade, twists, shade, turn, and more twists. This season, eight fresh contestants will attempt to figure out who is catfishing and who is real. My goodness, this looks dizzying and maybe a little bit depressing, but people can’t stop watching, so maybe you’ll get sucked in, too? Good luck.

After a four-year hiatus, and a slew of recent rumors, Master of None is making a surprise return to Netflix. The Aziz Ansari series will officially drop its third season in May, but there will be some notable changes. While Ansari will remain the creative force behind the show, serving as both writer and director of the five-episode season titled Master of None: Moments in Love, early reports seem to suggest that his presence will only be felt behind the camera as the show pivots its focus to another character besides Ansari’s Dev. Via IndieWire:

The new episodes are believed to focus exclusively on the first two seasons’ supporting character Denise, played by Waithe. The character and Waithe were the focus of the second season episode “Thanksgiving,” which won Ansari and Waithe the Emmy award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy. Ansari also won an Emmy in this category for the first season of the show and shared it with co-creator Alan Yang.

Master of None: Moments in Love‘s spring release will allow it to compete for 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards. But while the show seems to be angling for another Emmy win, the new season will still have to contend with the #MeToo moment that sidelined Ansari back in 2018 even if he’s tucked behind the camera. Granted, the stand-up comic addressed the allegations head-on during his 2019 Netflix special Aziz Ansari Right Now and he’s spoken candidly about how his actions were inappropriate, the topic has already resurfaced following the news of Master of None‘s surprise return. Given Ansari’s openness in exploring love and relationships, it will be curious to see if/how the new season tackles the period between the seasons, both fictional and in the real world.

(Via IndieWire)

Young Dolph & Key Glock’s Dum And Dummer 2 has been out for nearly a month, yet the two Memphis MCs show no signs of pulling back on their prolific rollout for the joint project. After releasing videos for nine of the songs from the twenty-song project, including “Move Around,” “Rain Rain,” “Dummest & The Dummest,” and “Penguins,” they followed up today with Key Glock’s solo song “I Can Show You.”

The video has a relatively simple concept: Key Glock gives a step-by-step manual for making money, posing with his MCM Worldwide luggage and a rather large gun as CGI $100 bills fly around. The solo outing gives Glock the opportunity to highlight his own star power — which may soon be needed, now that Dolph has announced his official retirement, although he previously reneged on a promise to get out of the game. Fortunately, Key Glock has more than enough back catalog to support a long, successful catalog of his own.

His rise to stardom first kicked into overdrive in 2020 with a pair of albums that showed his hitmaking prowess: Yellow Tape and Son Of A Gun. In 2021, he’ll certainly be one to watch and knowing the Paper Route Empire crew, they’ve already got something in the works to make sure there’s something to see.

Watch Key Glock’s “I Can Show You” video above.

The verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former Minnesota police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, has many breathing a sigh of relief. Even though the disturbing video evidence of Floyd dying under Chauvin’s knee is impossible to refute, it’s incredibly hard to convict an officer of murder.

The United States judicial system is so preferential to law enforcement that even though the world saw murder in broad daylight, many were skeptical of whether he’d be convicted.

“Most people, I think, believe that it’s a slam dunk,” David Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh and an expert in policing, told the Washington Post before the trial. “But he said, “the reality of the law and the legal system is, it’s just not.”

Chauvin was convicted of all three charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter. The presumptive sentence according to Minnesota law is 12 ½ years, but aggravating circumstances could raise that number by decades.

“Let’s also be clear that such a verdict is also much too rare,” President Biden said after the verdict was announced. “For so many, it feels like it took all of that for the judicial system to deliver a just — just basic accountability.”

Since 2005, Philip M. Stinson, a criminologist at Bowling Green State University, has been tracking police misconduct and found the number convicted of murder is incredibly small.

Over that time’s he’s counted 140 causes of police being arrested on murder or manslaughter charges as the result of an on-duty shooting. Of the 97 cases that have been concluded, only seven resulted in murder convictions. Some were reduced to lesser offenses and more than half were dismissed or resulted in acquittals.

When it comes to justice for unarmed Black men and women, the numbers are even more sobering.

According to NPR, around 135 Black people have been fatally shot by police since 2015 and authorities failed to press charges in 80 of these cases. Only 13 of the officers who received manslaughter or murder charges with only four were found guilty.

There are myriad reasons why it’s so difficult to convict police of murder. “The law favors the police, the law as it exists,” Harris added.

One major reason is because of the Supreme Court’s 1989 Graham v. Connor decision that states an officer’s actions must be judged against what a reasonable officer would do. “A police officer can use force, but it has to be justifiable,” Neil J. Bruntrager, a St. Louis-based attorney, told Washington Post. “And what the Supreme Court has told us is we have to see it through the eyes of the police.”

via Fibonacci Blue / Flickr

Officers can avoid convictions by claiming they killed someone out of fear for their own safety.

“If a civilian is displaying a weapon, it’s very hard to charge [the police officer] with murder for taking action against that civilian,” Kate Levine, a professor of law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, told FiveThirtyEight. “And even if a civilian doesn’t have a weapon, it’s hard to charge a police officer if [the officer] can credibly say they feared for their life.”

Police also enjoy the protection of unions that provide high-priced legal services immediately after an incident. There is also a built-in conflict of interest in the legal system. Prosecutors often depend on police so they’re inclined to protect those relationships.

Police defendants are more likely to refuse plea deals because their high-quality representation makes them more likely to win a trial. “The quality of the lawyering is very different from regular criminal cases,” Brandon Garrett, professor law and Duke University, told CNN. “For the typical criminal defendant, it’s incredibly risky to go to trial.”

Finally, police are protected from being held accountable by qualified immunity, a judicial doctrine that makes it nearly impossible for individuals to sue public officials. “Qualified immunity fosters an environment where government agents, including police, may feel empowered to violate people’s rights with the knowledge they will face few consequences,” the ACLU said. “Under qualified immunity, lives can be taken with impunity.”

Officers are able to hide behind qualified immunity because of a clause that says their misbehavior must be “clearly established” somewhere in case law.

Lawmakers across the country are working to hold police accountable by striking down qualified immunity. In 2020, former Republican and current Libertarian Representative Justin Amash of Michigan unveiled the first bill to end qualified immunity on a federal level for all public officials. Unfortunately, it went nowhere.

However, it looks like qualified immunity’s time could be coming to an end at the local level. Bills addressing qualified immunity have been introduced in 19 states and Connecticut, Colorado, and New Mexico have all passed laws curtailing its power. New York City recently became the first municipality to restrict its use.

It’s too early to say whether the Chauvin decision marks the beginning of a new era where police are held accountable for their on-duty behavior. But the result of the trial is a great example of what can happen when Americans come together in support of truth and justice.

“For so many people, it seems like it took a unique and extraordinary convergence of factors, “President Biden said, “a brave young woman with a smartphone camera; a crowd that was traumatized — traumatized witnesses; a murder that lasts almost 10 minutes in broad daylight for, ultimately, the whole world to see; officers standing up and testifying against a fellow officer instead of just closing ranks, which should be commended; a jury who heard the evidence, carried out their civic duty in the midst of an extraordinary moment, under extraordinary pressure.”

Benny The Butcher and Harry Fraud continue the rollout of their collaborative project The Plugs I Met 2 with the video for “When Tony Met Sosa.” The video mostly sees Benny performing his dextrous verses on a rooftop overlooking the city and seated beside a bathtub as a woman soaks in the frothy bubbles. At the very end, there’s a glimpse of the movie Scarface, from which Benny derives the song’s title.

The video for “When Tony Met Sosa” arrives just over two weeks after the clip for the Rick Hyde-featuring “Survivor’s Remorse” and a little over a month since the release of the
The Plugs I Met 2 project, which launched alongside the video for the 2 Chainz-featuring “Plug Talk.” The Plugs videos give a strong push for the Griselda Records rapper — who also appeared on Belly’s comeback single “Money On The Table” — as he capitalizes on the newfound notoriety he’s received since his 2020 breakout, Burden Of Proof and the past year’s string of show-stealing guest appearances. While it may have taken the Griselda gang over ten years to climb to their current position, it looks like they’re taking full advantage, both as a unit and individually.

Watch Benny The Butcher and Harry Fraud’s “When Tony Met Sosa” video.

It’s been just about a year since Ellis released her dreamy debut album Born Again as a reflection on her relationship with religion. But since the singer couldn’t play live shows following her 2020 release, Ellis once again began writing new material. Her songwriting has resulted in a covers project, as well as the forthcoming EP Nothing Is Sacred Anymore, which Ellis now previews with the cascading and tenderhearted track “Hospital.”

About the single, Ellis said it’s inspired by her accident-prone nature: “I guess you could say I’m accident prone. But it’s those moments when bad or scary things happen that can be so revealing. You really see who shows up for you, who sticks around through it all.”

Around the time of her debut album’s release, Ellis sat down with Uproxx for a conversation where she spoke about the intersection of music and spirituality:

“Something that was really powerful about a lot of the spiritual experiences I’ve had was music-related. I was actually just talking to a friend because I went to see Bon Iver very recently, and I felt this similar feeling inside that I felt in the past, maybe during a very moving or worship service or something. Maybe music is just inherently spiritual? Maybe that feeling can be attributed to that. I’ve written songs before that some of my friends were like, ‘this almost could be a worship song.’ Because, it gets in there. And I love the dynamics in Christian music, where it builds and swells and gets drawn out. I think things feel more emotional, too, so the music I prefer to make is very dynamic and full of feelings.”

Listen to “Hospital” above and check out Ellis’ Nothing Is Sacred Anymore cover art and tracklist below.

1. “Dopamine”
2. “Hospital”
3. “What If Love Isn’t Enough”
4. “Hell”

Nothing Is Sacred Anymore is out 6/25. Pre-order it here.