Month: June 2021

Following the breakout success of her 2019 global hit “Dance Monkey,” Australian artist Tones And I has continued sharing her sunny music. Now with one EP to her name, Tones And I is officially gearing up for the release of her debut album, Welcome To The Madhouse.

The singer returned Thursday to release the optimistic tune “Cloudy Day.” The single starts off slow as a languid piano offers moody instrumentals. But at the chorus, a group of soulful backup singers join Tones And I to sing about the importance of remaining positive through difficult moments, turning the gloomy song into a snappy and carefree message of hope.

In a statement about her inspiration for “Cloudy Day,” Tones And I said she wrote the track after receiving some much-needed advice from a friend. “After my friend T passed away I was struggling to write any songs that were happy or that I even liked,” the singer said. “I met up with a friend who told me this saying from his late mum – ‘on a cloudy day, look up into the sky and find the sun.’ I knew I wanted to use that as a lyric and the next time I went into the studio I wrote ‘Cloudy Day.’”

About her Welcome To The Madhouse album as a whole, Tones And I detailed some of the themes her music touches on:

“This album for me is very up and down and reflects the forever changing emotions in me. There are songs on the album that were written before ‘Dance Monkey,’ about not knowing if busking was right for me. There are songs about my good friend T passing away and not wanting to deal with those emotions. The ups and downs of life in lock down and the mental challenges / struggles. Some songs make me laugh and some make me cry but there is no running theme or vibe to the album – the songs are unique to how I was feeling the day I wrote them.”

Watch the “Cloudy Day” video above and see the Welcome To The Madhouse cover art and tracklist below.

1. “Welcome To The Madhouse”
2. “Lonely”
3. “Won’t Sleep”
4. “Westside Lobby”
5. “Fly Away”
6. “Sad Songs”
7. “Just A Mess”
8. “Child’s Play”
9. “Not Going Home”
10. “Dark Waters”
11. “Cloudy Day”
12. “You Don’t Know My Name”
13. “Fall Apart”
14. “Bars (RIP T)”

Welcome To The Madhouse is out 6/16 via Elektra. Pre-order it here.

Tones And I is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Kehlani’s run of duets over the past couple of years is bordering on legendary. She’s given the Bay Area a new wedding anthem with Rexx Life Raj, shared the tender “At My Worst” with Pink Sweats, and done heart-tugging joints with Russ and Bryson Tiller. She elevates practically everything she touches, and that includes her latest collaboration with T-Pain, the lush “I Like Dat.” The pair appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to perform their new hit, giving a swaggering rendition complete with cowboy hats and baggy chaps.

As enjoyable as the collaboration has been, it was nearly consigned to an extensive list of partnerships that never happened thanks to T-Pain’s unawareness of Instagram’s UI. The “Bartender” crooner posted a TikTok video toward the end of April, apologizing to all the celebrities and potential collaborators who reached out to him via Instagram’s DMs as he explained that he didn’t realize that verified accounts’ DMs also get filtered into the “requests” folder. Among those he’d overlooked were Diplo, Fergie, and more. But it turned out to be beneficial, as he later held a town hall with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about potential improvements for the feature. T-Pain also premiered “I Like Dat” during the stream, promising plenty more to come now that he’s realized people have been trying to get in touch with him.

Watch T-Pain and Kehlani perform “I Like Dat” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! above.

With the trailer for Netflix’s Masters of the Universe: Revelation out in the wild, He-Man fans have been going nuts for the nostalgia-fueled preview of the limited series spearheaded by Kevin Smith. Pitched as a direct continuation of the original Masters of the Universe cartoon from the ’80s, fans are loving the updated look for the classic series, but that enthusiasm only grew after finally getting to hear one of the more genius casting decisions. Namely, Mark Hamill as Skeletor.

While Hamill is best known for playing Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy, he also has a hardcore following from his voice work as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series. With Skeletor, Hamill is now voicing another classic villain, and He-Man fans are absolutely losing their minds about it on social media:

Interestingly, Smith revealed to Entertainment Weekly back in May that Hamill almost walked away from voice acting before being offered the Masters of the Universe role. “[Hamill] had talked about wanting to step out of animation, but he was like, ‘When you came at me with Skeletor, how could I say no?’” Judging by the outpouring of love from fans, Hamill made the right call.

Here’s the official synopsis:

After a cataclysmic battle between He-Man and Skeletor, Eternia is fractured and the Guardians of Grayskull are scattered. And after decades of secrets tore them apart, it’s up to Teela to reunite the broken band of heroes, and solve the mystery of the missing Sword of Power in a race against time to restore Eternia and prevent the end of the universe.

Masters of the Universe: Revelation starts streaming July 23 on Netflix.

The 2020-21 NBA season was unlike any other, with a 72-game season in a condensed timeframe, starting in late December and ending in May. There were plenty of rightful complaints about the condensed season, with the league pushing to avoid spilling over into the Olympics at the behest of broadcast partners, and there have been reasonable questions asked about whether the hurried season was a cause for the spike in soft tissue injuries we saw this year.

On top of the Olympics time crunch, the chief reason for hurrying through this season so soon after the Bubble was that the NBA wanted to get back to a normal season timeframe as soon as possible, and it appears they succeeded in doing so just one year after the Bubble. On Thursday, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported that the league sent all 30 teams a memo with key dates for the 2021-22 season, which will see training camps begin in late September, the regular season start in mid-October, and the Finals end in late June followed by the Draft per usual.

There was some legitimate wonder if the league would shift permanently to a new schedule that avoided more of the NFL and college football season during the Bubble last year, but it’s clear that wasn’t something the league really wanted to do and players voiced their displeasure with the idea of losing the summer as their offseason. The 2020-21 season was seemingly the means to the end in terms of getting back to normal, and it seems the league has succeeded in getting back to where they wanted to be.

After a quiet 2020, Ed Sheeran has been more publicly visible this year. That’s especially true of the past few weeks, which have seen Sheeran palling around with Courteney Cox and making hilarious radio appearances. He has also teased a new album, which seems like it will have a more full-band sound than Sheeran’s previous material. Now, it looks like we have an approximate timeline for when the new era will begin.

Yesterday, Sheeran shared a photo of himself making a pained and nervous face and wrote on Instagram, “The moment you realise your first solo single in 4 years is coming out in a few weeks.”

Some fans in the comments noted that Sheeran’s solo song “Afterglow,” which he released in December 2020, could be considered a solo single, thus invalidating Sheeran’s caption. When Sheeran shared the track, though, he wrote, “It’s not the first single from the next album, it’s just a song I love, and hope you love too.”

Meanwhile, Sheeran returned to Instagram today with what may be an advance look at his upcoming era (but also maybe not). In the photo, Sheeran is dressed up as a Twilight-like vampire, complete with fangs, black fingernails, and styled hair. Sheeran wrote, “The nails were a nightmare to try and take a piss with. Wouldn’t recommend.” The photographer behind the image, Zakary Walters, also recently shared a photo of Sheeran drinking wine and spilling it all over himself.

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Of the first three Marvel Cinematic Universe shows to premiere on Disney+, Loki was the most anticipated. That’s not a knock on WandaVision or The Falcon and the Winter Soldier — it’s just that people really like star Tom Hiddleston, a certified gender-fluid Internet Boyfriend. The data backs it up too: Loki was watched by 890,000 households in the United States on the day it premiered, according to Samba TV, compared to 759,000 for The Falcon and the Winter Solider and 655,000 for WandaVision.

Loki‘s viewership also bests the 4-day premiere weekend of Cruella on Disney+, however, that pic was available to subscribers at $29.99… SambaTV previously clocked 1.7 million households who tuned into The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s first weekend and 1.6M for WandaVision over its first three-day frame.

Loki should shatter those figures once people who don’t enjoy waking up at 2 a.m. to watch television (me) get around to checking it out over the weekend.

Every MCU show has been bigger than the last, but it will be interesting if the trend continues. Next up is Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye, neither of which are as well known as Loki (or in the case of Hawkeye, as well liked), followed by Moon Knight. The combined forces of Ethan Hawke and Oscar Isaac might be enough to usurp that space trickster.

(Via Deadline)

If you’ve been on TikTok at any point in the last two months, the odds are extremely high you’ve heard Bia’s “Whole Lotta Money” at least once — I’d ballpark it at around 96%. The ruthlessly catchy wealth anthem has been a staple of all kinds of content, but today, you get to see the face and the razor-sharp performance behind the jewelry jam on UPROXX Sessions.

Hailing from Medford, Massachusetts, Bia is one of a growing number of rising stars to get her start on a reality show. In her case, it was Oxygen network’s Sisterhood Of Hip Hop, where she spent two seasons after signing to RCA Records. However, when the deal stalled out, she secured her release in 2019 — and started her ascent to stardom in earnest. Her song “Best On Earth” with Russ was highlighted by a Rihanna co-sign and gave Bia her first platinum plaque. Over the course of the next year, a string of releases included “Same Hands” with Lil Durk, a new EP, For Certain, on Epic Records, and yes, the TikTok-favorite single with which she’s taken over viral launching pad TikTok. Keep an eye and an ear out; Bia is built for this and finally getting her due.

Watch Bia’s UPROXX Sessions performance of “Whole Lotta Money” above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

There are few brands in the world as big as FaZe Clan is right now. This is a company with beginnings as a place everyone went to for trick shot Call of Duty videos, but as time has gone on, they’ve become a powerhouse in gaming and beyond.

Go to their website right now and you’ll find a shop full of merchandise, gaming chairs, and some of the biggest names on the internet promoting it. FaZe Clan may be known for their gaming videos on YouTube, and army of Twitch streamers, but their influence is going even further. Athletes like JuJu Smith Schuster, Ben Simmons, and Bronny James are all members of FaZe and represent them when they’re streaming.

As gaming continues to grow, it’s becoming clear that it is making an impact in a number of different avenues. FaZe is one of the groups leading that charge, and it’s why Call of Duty League co-owner of the Atlanta Faze, Paul Hamilton, believes that FaZe will one day be the biggest lifestyle brand in the world.

Via Sports Illustrated:

“I believe that in the next five years they’ll be the biggest lifestyle brand in the world,” says Paul Hamilton, who co-owns the Call of Duty League’s Atlanta FaZe team with his own company, Atlanta Esports Ventures. “The way content is being consumed is different. My kids will never go to the TV, turn it on and see if there’s cartoons on. They go to their iPad and go watch their favorite streamer. FaZe Clan has been in that area for so long. They have a better idea of what their fans want to consume and how it evolves.”

There’s a lot of truth to what Hamilton is saying here. As children grow up, they aren’t watching the same stuff that all of us did as kids — they watch streamers and gaming videos on YouTube instead of flipping around on TV. They’re growing up embracing gaming and those brands as a result. So companies like FaZe have a head start on everyone else, which they hope will pay off down the road.

When Hideo Kojima broke off from Konami to go form his own company it was a massive story. The legendary Metal Gear Solid director was finally going to be let off the chain to go do whatever he wanted. He’s always been a bit of a wild card in the world of game development, but he’s largely considered a genius when it comes to creating games. Whatever game he was going to release figured to be a must for gamers to check out.

Then he released Death Standing, a game that was largely disliked due to a frustrating gameplay system and often referred to as a walking simulator. The game did not meet the expectations of many fans and it left a lot of people wondering if Kojima needed someone over him to reign in some of his more wild ideas.

Kojima must have heard these criticisms because at Summer Games Fest he released a new teaser. It features Death Stranding protagonist Sam “Porter” Bridges in a scenario similar to many we’ve seen in Metal Gear Solid. With no way to sneak by, Porter does what any Kojima hero would do: He grabbed a box. Except it didn’t go quite the way he wanted to, so he ditched the box and a title saying “Death Stranding Director’s Cut” appeared. Kojima is doubling down on Death Stranding.

The teaser itself is hilarious because it is a direct response to something that a lot of people complained about with Death Stranding. They wanted another Metal Gear Solid game and Death Stranding was anything but that. It’s also just a really funny reference. Watching Sam unable to figure out how to use the box to get around the guards is hilarious, and it’s a great way to announce a follow-up to Death Stranding.

It will be interesting to see what a director’s cut could mean. Nobody that played the game felt like information or gameplay was missing. So what could have possibly been left behind on the cutting room floor? We’ll just have to wait for more information to find out!

Jeff Goldblum is awesome. Nobody has anything bad to say about him as a person and he’s also one of the best characters in the classic movie Jurassic Park. His performance as Ian Malcolm is superb and is a character that people still quote to this day.

It’s how great Goldblum is in that role that made him the perfect person to introduce the newest Jurassic Park game at Summer Games Fest. The event brought on Goldblum to have some comedic banter with host Geoff Keighley. After the banter, Goldblum started talking about how everyone was going to need to be prepared for chaos. A direct reference to Malcolm of course! This then led to the trailer for Jurassic World Evolution 2 which was narrated by Goldblum.

Jurassic World Evolution is a fantastic Rollercoaster Tycoon like game where players can build their own Jurassic Park. Basically, everyone is doing the exact opposite lesson we learned from Jurassic Park, but come on it’s Jurassic Park. Why would we NOT want to build our own dinosaur-style theme park?

The trailer itself was mainly cinematic, not showing us any gameplay sadly, but there’s still plenty of reason to be excited about this Jurassic World follow-up. Fans of the movies, in particular, should really look into getting this if they haven’t already played the first one.