Month: April 2021

Julia Michaels hasn’t had the typical trajectory in her music career. She’s written music for artists like Selena Gomez and Britney Spears, has a quadruple-Platinum single, and boasts three Grammy nominations — all without ever having released a full-length record. But that’s about to change as Michaels is officially gearing up for the release of her debut album, which she announced Thursday with the sincere track “Love Is Weird.”

Michaels’ debut album is titled Not In Chronological Order. It’s a reflection on the cycle of love and loss, as well as a commentary on her career accolades. Speaking about the project in a statement, Michaels described how each song marks a different step on her journey to find love:

“The way that I saw the tracklisting in my head, a lot of the heartbreak came in the middle, and finding new love came at the end. That’s the arc of this album: I’m not bitter about love anymore. I know what functional love is like and being in love and being hesitant about that love because it feels so perfect.”

Listen to “Love Is Weird” above and check out the Not In Chronological Order album art and tracklist below.

1. “All Your Exes”
2. “Love Is Weird”
3. “Pessimist”
4. “Little Did I Know”
5. “Orange Magic”
6. “Lie Like This”
7. “Wrap Around”
8. “History”
9. “Undertone”
10. “That’s The Kind Of Woman”

Not In Chronological Order is out 4/30 via Republic. Pre-order it here.

The 2020 Basketball Hall of Fame class was always going to be special, as three of the greatest NBA players of the last few decades were viewed as sure-fire inductees on their first year of eligibility. Unfortunately, this celebration of basketball excellence will have something of a dark cloud over it, as one of those players is the late Kobe Bryant.

A whole host of other deserving folks will be inducted, but even before his passing, Bryant was viewed as the headliner of the class. And on Thursday afternoon, we learned a detail about this year’s ceremony that will make the celebration a little more special: Michael Jordan will be prominently involved.

The Hall released the list of individuals who will formally welcome all of the names in this class into Springfield. The headliner is Jordan, a 2009 inductee, being the one to usher Bryant into the Hall. Jordan will also serve as the presenter for Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, while some of the other big name presenters include David Robinson (inducting former San Antonio Spurs teammate Tim Duncan) and Isiah Thomas (inducting Kevin Garnett).

It’s hardly the first time Jordan has spoken about Bryant since he passed away in early-2020, as he was one of the people who spoke at his memorial at Staples Center. The 2020 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on May 15.

In 2018, City Girls were an intriguing duo on the rise, receiving coveted co-signs from the likes of Quality Control Music and Drake. However, the Miami duo’s hot streak nearly came to an end after JT was locked up for credit card fraud, leaving Yung Miami to carry on performing under the City Girls moniker solo. As Yung Miami tells Megan Thee Stallion in an insightful discussion for Interview magazine, the duo’s public perception was so bad that she had to “beg” DJs to play City Girls’ music at clubs.

“JT went to jail and I used to have to beg the DJs to play our song,” Miami admits. She also had trouble getting her discouraged co-star excited to continue hustling in the rap game. “I used to be like, ‘JT, we got to rap for real.’ They were going up for our songs in the club and she’d be like, ‘B*tch, I’m in jail. I’m not thinking about no f*cking music.’ And I was like, ‘JT, this is our way out. I think we should take this seriously.’”

JT also tells an amusing story about how she spent her advance. “At the time, girl, I was so hood,” she recalls. “I think I gave my ex-boyfriend some money for his lawyer and he still went to jail for a long-ass time. Whew, girl, I hate him. Other than that, I don’t remember. I was just spending money fast. I ain’t going to lie.”

You can read the full interview here.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In the newly released Season 14 finale of “Hot Ones,” Steve-O capped off the episode by pouring hot sauce directly into his one of eyes, which was obviously a first for the talk show that combines eating increasingly hot wings with celebrity interviews. In the random final moments, Steve-O basically ignored host Sean Evans’ final question and launched into a bit about how Gordon Ramsay is the all-time “Hot Wings” champ. Naturally, the Jackass star took that as a challenge, and an opportunity to shill one of his own products.

In what appears to be an unscripted moment, Steve-O got up out of his seat clutching a bottle of Steve-O’s Hot Sauce for Your Butthole, which is an actual thing that exists. After promoting his spicy sauce, Steve-O then proceeds to chug the whole bottle but doesn’t stop there. With still a little bit left at the bottom, he pours it into his eyes as Evans watches in absolute horror. The “Hot Ones” host seriously looks like he has tears in his eyes as he watches Steve-O immediately regret the clearly painful stunt. “That last part was unnecessary,” he says before reaching for a glass of milk to wash the hot sauce out of his retinas.

Of course, setting his eyeballs on fire is another regular day for Steve-O, who made headlines back in December after he and co-star Johnny Knoxville managed to land themselves in the ER only two days into filming Jackass 4. The two were reportedly injured after jumping onto a trampoline while wearing a “f*cking tuba.”

(Via First We Feast)

After Amazon revealed a stunning teaser for The Underground Trailer limited series, they’re going all-out with an astonishing, awe-inspiring trailer for the limited series. One of the biggest attractions to this project, of course, is Barry Jenkins (If Beale Street Could Talk, Moonlight) in the director’s seat while helming a 10-part adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. It’s an expansive project and one that Amazon saw fit to entrust to the Oscar winner, and the even better news is that Jenkins is not only showrunning but directing the entire season. Also, Brad Pitt’s executive producing here through his Plan B production company.

The story is an expansive one (and oh, that gorgeous cinematography), chronicling Cora Randall (newcomer Thuso Mbedu) as she makes a desperate bid for freedom, and she’s pursued by a bounty hunter, Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton), who not only wishes to complete his straight-up mission by returning Cora to a Georgia plantation but to settle a personal score. That is to say, Cora’s mother is the only slave who Ridgeway was never able to capture. This trailer also gives us a few wonderful peeks at William Jackson Harper’s character, Royal, who was born free and helps guide Cora along part of her journey. From the synopsis:

The Underground Railroad chronicles Cora Randall’s (newcomer Thuso Mbedu) desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. After escaping a Georgia plantation for the rumored Underground Railroad, Cora discovers no mere metaphor, but an actual railroad full of engineers and conductors, and a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil… As she travels from state to state, Cora contends with the legacy of the mother that left her behind and her own struggles to realize a life she never thought was possible.

The limited series also co-stars Thuso Mbedu, Chase W. Dillon, Aaron Pierre, Lily Rabe, Will Poulter, Sheila Atim, Amber Gray, Peter De Jersey, Chukwudi Iwuji, Damon Herriman (a.k.a., “Dewey Crowe” from Justified), Irone Singleton, Mychal-Bella Bowman, Marcus “MJ” Gladney, Jr., and Peter Mullan.

Amazon Prime’s The Underground Railroad premieres on May 14.

Earlier this week, Mick Jagger and Dave Grohl dropped their surprised collaboration “Eazy Sleazy,” a rollicking track that aimed to bring “some much-needed optimism” about coming out of COVID-19 lockdown. But that’s not all Jagger had up his sleeve. On Thursday, the veteran musician announced that he’s breaking into the crytpocurrency art market and selling a digital animation inspired by the song as an NFT.

The NFT artwork was designed by the Berlin-based 3D artist Oliver Latta, who makes pieces under the name Extraweg. The visual loop is up for auction via the NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway, and fans will be able to bid on the piece for only 24 hours. In press materials, the artwork is described as “a surreal essence of breaking through the barriers of the human mind and pushing forward on the brink of social collapse to provide a much needed moment of artistic relief as the world slowly transitions out of lockdown.”

100 percent of the proceeds earned from the “Eazy Sleazy” NFT artwork will be donated the various charities. The money will be divided between Music Venue Trust, a UK charity which protects grassroots music venues, Back-Up, an organization providing financial support to ill or injured entertainment technology industry professionals, and the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), the organization which works to preserve independent venues across the US and helped secure the passing of the Save Our Stages Act last year.

Listen to “Eazy Sleazy” above and check out the NFT auction here.

Mid-season retirements are exceedingly rare in the NBA, so when they tend to happen, players will take to social media to offer up praise for whomever decided to call it a career. That exact thing happened on Thursday morning, as LaMarcus Aldridge announced his sudden decision to retire after 15 years in the Association due to an irregular heartbeat.

Aldridge, who retired as a member of the Brooklyn Nets, commanded respect during his time in league as a member of the Portland Trail Blazers and the San Antonio Spurs, and in response, several current and former players used Twitter to celebrate his productive career and highlight how good of a dude he was away from the court.

A handful of former teammates made it a point to say that they viewed taking the floor alongside him an honor, with one of them, Jamal Crawford, praising him for being “the realest I’ve ever met.”

Aldridge had a productive career largely as a member of the Blazers and Spurs, earning seven All-Star nods and five All-NBA selections. He became a member of the Nets last month after San Antonio bought out his contract, and as he explained, his retirement came on the heels of Aldridge suffering an irregular heartbeat in his fifth game with Brooklyn.

In the melancholy video for his new single “Bankrupt,” it looks like Russ could use some relationship counseling — or at least, learn some new coping methods. The video opens with the New Jersey rapper dipping out on a bad date, leaving his girl hanging at a diner. Then, he drives to a nearby motel and proceeds to mope a bit before using the payphone outside to call his ex — a conversation that looks unproductive, at best. Finally, he sets fire to his car, presumably to keep himself from backsliding, although it looks like he’s now stranded in the desert instead.

All jokes aside, it appears that the outspoken advocate for artistic independence has found his groove in recent months, dropping a string of artistic videos ranging from the celebratory “Ugly” to the moody “Misunderstood” and “Hard For Me.” He also recently launched his own strain of cannabis products named for his well-received 2020 EP Chomp. Despite his apparent relationship issues — three breakup videos in a row implies some emotional baggage, for sure — his career has turned out to be “pandemic proof” and his esteem among fans has grown ever since he gained some distance from past social media faux pas. Judging from his revenue from streaming, merch, and other business ventures, he’s far from going bankrupt for the time being.

Watch Russ’s “Bankrupt” video above.

In a highly relatable flash of reality at the start of the first episode of Howie Mandel’s new podcast, Howie Mandel Does Stuff, the comic, America’s Got Talent judge, and TV personality declares that he’s “going f*cking nuts” in the pandemic, before rolling into a show that serves as an outlet for him to mine his mind for things to riff on and make some prank calls, all with his daughter, Jackelyn Shultz, by his metaphorical side. The podcast debuted on April 13 and is available wherever you find your podcasts.

To get the word out, Mandel agreed to take part in our ongoing 20 questions series. What was on his mind as he went through this gauntlet of queries? Well, what he was getting into by agreeing to participate, whether Nic Cage is a bisque guy or not, and “Baby Shark,” because that’s always on his mind, apparently. Check out all his answers below.

1. You walk into a bar. What do you order from the bartender?

A punch line, no comedian walks into a bar without a punch line.

2. Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?

I enjoy myself and I like myself and I repost myself. I also follow my kids Jacklyn Schultz, Alex Mandel and Riley Erlich.

3. What’s currently waiting for you on your DVR or in your streaming queue?

M Night Shyamalan’s Servant.

4. It’s your last meal — what are you going out with?

Dessert!

5. What websites do you visit on a regular basis?

It’s not a website it’s an app, but Waze because I’m constantly trying to figure out how to get places.

6. What’s the most frequently played song on your mobile device?

“Baby Shark” because of my grandkids, it’s the only thing that seems to entertain them.

7. If you could go back and give your 18-year-old self one piece of advice what would it be?

How sick you’re going to become of the “Baby Shark” song.

8. What’s the last thing you Googled?

This website to see what I was getting myself into.

9. Dogs or cats?

Dogs because they’re nice enough to go outside to poo just like my wife.

10. Best concert of your life was…?

The Stones, every tour, I go to see them.

11. What book are you most likely to give as a gift?

The Yellow Pages, it’s like giving someone an antique keepsake and it’s easy reading. I’m up to the L’s now.

12. What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

Married me.

13. South Park or Family Guy?

South Park.

14. You have an entire day to do whatever you want. What would you do?

Quarantine.

15. What movie can you not resist watching if it’s on?

Birdemic: Shock and Terror.

16. The sports team or teams you’re most passionate about?

My daughter put together a little decoupage team that I’m really rooting for this year. I never realized that scrapbooking was so competitive.

17. Where did you eat the best meal of your life?

Mostly in my mouth.

18. The last movie you saw in a theater?

I can’t remember anything after Contagion.

19. Who was your first celebrity crush?

The weather girl from channel 9 at home in Toronto.

20. What would you cook if Nic Cage were coming to your house for dinner?

Soup, I’ve always dreamed of sharing a bowl of soup with Nicolas Cage.

Previously: Eddie G

Foxing has mostly dealt in emo-tinted indie rock over the years, but they’ve been trying some different things in recent days. After a quiet stretch, they released “Speak With The Dead,” their first new song in three years, in March. It’s a sprawling and artistic epic, and now they’ve taken another turn on their latest song, “Go Down Together,” which the band shared today.

The new tune is as pop-leaning as anything they’ve ever done, and in fact, the track is actually not too far removed stylistically from Harry Styles’ recent hit “Adore You.” “Go Down Together” is by no means a full-on pop song, but it does boast a catchy hook and is among the band’s most accessible work so far.

Ahead of the song’s release, the band shared the song’s lyrics and chords, encouraging their fans to record “pre-covers” of the song, and sure enough, many of them did, turning in a wide variety of versions of the song.

The band has yet to officially announce a follow-up to their 2018 album Nearer My God, but based on this flurry of recent activity, it certainly wouldn’t be a surprise if a confirmation on that front arrived soon.

Listen to “Go Down Together” above.