Month: July 2021

Willow has well over a decade of music industry experience to her name, but through it all, she never quite put out the music she truly wanted to. All of that changed today with the release of her new album, Lately I Feel Everything. The project presents 11 songs and a few guest acts, including pop-punk star Avril Lavigne.

The two join forces for “Grow,” which arrives as an anthem towards self-care and doing all things necessary to advance on the journey towards self-improvement. It also features Travis Barker who delivers a strong boost to the song’s production. During a recent interview with Alt Press, Willow spoke about collaborating with Lavigne.

“My goodness. She’s just amazing,” the singer said. “She knows this genre like the back of her hand. It was just effortless watching her come up with her verse. Just the tone of her voice and how she knows exactly the right tone that’s going to work with the song.” Willow added, “When I heard her verse, I was like, ‘Oh no, should I even get on this?’ Because I’m not going to sound nearly as hardcore or amazing as she sounds. But then I was like, ‘You know what? Don’t go back into that mindset. Be confident, hold your head up high and sing this damn song with this amazing woman.’ I’m so excited for it.”

In addition to Lavigne, Lately I Feel Everything also includes guest appearances from Alya Tesler-Mabe, Tierra Whack, Cherry Glazer, and three additional features from Travis Barker, with one coming on “Transparent Soul,” the lead single from the album.

Lately I Feel Everything is out 7/16 via MSFTSMusic/Roc Nation. Get it here.

The streaming game is getting strange this week with the “game” component getting literal. Do you want to know where you’ll find the best bang for your buck among the streaming services? One would assume that Warner Bros’ Space Jam sequel starring LeBron James and Zendaya (as Lola Bunny) would be the frontrunner offering, but HBO Max ended up with an inexplicably controversial game on their hands. Yes, the film will probably draw a lot of eyeballs; however, the competition from the other streaming services is so fierce that HBO Max doesn’t land in the top spot.

Instead, those honors go to Disney+ this week, due to Marvel and more Marvel. The Loki season premiere felt so intricately layered and emotional that it begs for a second (or third) viewing, while Black Widow and Monsters Inc. will keep you coming back for more. Also, Discovery+ takes a huge chomp to volley into second place with a whole boatload of Shark Week options to stream. Meanwhile, Netflix churned out a variety of quality options (action? horror? heists? humor?) that will have you covered. Apple TV+ dropped a hell of a cast into a musical show; Hulu’s got the latest Ryan Murphy offering and some Paul McCartney; Peacock has an evil doctor; and AMC brings you The Walking Dead: Origins and even more.

Here’s everything that you should consider putting in your queues this weekend.

Disney+

Loki: Episode 6 (Disney+ series) — Season finale time has arrived, and don’t worry, the show’s already renewed for Season 2. Well, it’s a damn good thing, too, because Tom Hiddleston has an absolute blast playing the mercurial trickster of the MCU, and the timeline troubles shall continue. This week, there’s a crushing moment, and there’s also a new big bad cruising into Phase 4. This is the best Disney+ show so far, and Loki’s so beloved that you might binge the whole thing all over again.

Black Widow (Marvel Studios film on Disney+) — Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff finally gets a proper send-off in this actioner that aims to go back-to-basics but succeeds more on a personal level. The film follows the events of Captain America: Civil War, but more importantly, we receive butt-kicking ladies in well-choreographed fight scenes and an emotionally resonant story that introduces us to the inner Natasha, as witnessed by Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova. She’s perhaps the only person in the world who’s allowed to tease Natasha, and their dynamic (and the chemistry between Scarlett and Florence) rules. The film also allows David Harbour to perform grunt-filled face work with a wild accent while the ladies swirl around him in hand-to-hand combat.

Monsters at Work: Season 1 premiere (Disney+ series) — Twenty freaking years after Monsters Inc. arrived in theaters, this franchise has persisted with a prequel and a few shorts, and now, John Goodman and Billy Crystal return as James P. “Sulley” Sullivan and Mike Wazowski. They have both been promoted, and a new crop of monsters (voiced by Mindy Kaling, Henry Winkler, Ben Feldman, and Alana Ubach) are doing the harvesting. The twist here, of course, is that the franchise is trading scares for laughter.

Discovery+

Shark Week 2021 (Discovery+ event) — The annual shark-involved festivities bring several new offerings, including a Jackass special (which is predictably banal) and Eli Roth’s FIN. In his documentary, Roth and a group of scientists and activists travel the globe to shine a light on how mankind kills (many) millions of sharks every year, often through a vast criminal enterprise that could render these animals extinct within a decade. The movie’s co-produced by Leo DiCaprio, and here’s more select picks for the week: Great White Comeback, Stranger Sharks, Tiger Queen, Extinct or Alive: Jaws of Alaska, Rogue Tiger Shark: The Hunt for Lagertha, Envoy: Shark Cull, and The Great Hammerhead Stakeout.

Roswell: The Final Verdict (Discovery+ limited series) — The recently declassified UFO reports from the Pentagon didn’t exactly satisfy curious minds, so there’s no time like the present for revisiting the 1937 Roswell, New Mexico incident, in which a rancher claims to have witnessed strange debris gathering, which led to decades of denials by the U.S. government and endless conspiracy theories. This series will revisit eyewitness accounts in an attempt to uncover the whole truth.

HBO Max

Space Jam: A New Legacy (Warner Bros. film on HBO Max) — Somehow, this film’s the most controversial entry of the year, and all that fuss isn’t paying off because oh boy, the reviews are not fantastic. Even without Pepe Le Pew, this film sounds like a stinker, but at least it’s weird enough that those who can’t resist won’t be bored. LeBron James rallies Lola Bunny (Zendaya) and the rest of his animated pals against the “Goons,” a new gathering of pro basketball stars in order to get home after being trapped in digital space. There’s a rogue A.I. who’s the villain here? It sounds, uh, wild.

Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tapes (HBO series on HBO Max) — Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow’s podcast undergoes this miniseries treatment here while expanding upon existing interviews with whistleblowers, private investigators, and more. Since Ronan’s the son of Mia Farrow, who was married to Woody Allen (with the whole paternity issue looking awfully odd), the subject of alleged predatory behavior hits particularly hard. The minseries will dig into the powers that be, beginning with the Harvey Weinstein case, for which Ronan’s groundbreaking New Yorker investigative report got the #MeToo ball rolling.

Gossip Girl: Season 1 premiere (HBO Max series) — The original CW series helped to launch the careers of Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Sebastian Stan, and Penn Badgley (and the latter is now portraying an amped-up version of the same character on Netflix’s You). HBO Max is now ready to welcome another crop of mostly unknown faces playing wealthy, privileged teens who find themselves socially surveilled and at the mercy of the “Gossip Girl” narrator, who’s still voiced by Kristen Bell. Showrunner Josh Safran has promised that this reboot series will be much more socially conscious than the original, and that the teens will “take Ubers, not limos.”

Netflix

Gunpowder Milkshake (Netflix film) — Look, Netflix original action films might seem like they’re in plentiful supply these days, but this one’s worth particular notice. Karen Gillan portrays the assassin-daughter of an elite assassin, portrayed by Lena Headey, and the pair come back together again to help protect a young girl from an organization known as The Firm. Nope, Tom Cruise does not make a cameo in this picture, but there’s a group called The Librarians, who are played by Michelle Yeoh, Angela Bassett, and Carla Gugino. Essentially, we’ve got three generations of badass ladies here, doing their best to wipe out pesky henchmen and raise a lot of hell.

Heist: Season 1 (Netflix series) — Three of America’s greatest heists shall be examined in the finest of detail here by the people who did the heisting. These adventures include a Vegas casino heist, a Miami airport heist, and a a Kentucky bourbon heist. The shooting style here aims for Ocean’s Eleven and Catch Me If You Can, and the planning of these heists is flat-out meticulous, so it’s no wonder that the initial heisting went well. However, one must realize that these heisters were eventually busted, so there’s that part of the story, too. Crime doesn’t pay in the long-term, kids.

Fear Street Part 3: 1666 (Netflix film) — The trilogy’s final installment brings the franchise to a head when Sarah Fier’s curse finally gets its origin story. In the end, you’ll see how Shadyside’s residents all feel their lives changed on one fateful night, which will reverberate from many generations to come. R.L. Stein’s stories light up here with a a climactic hurrah. Naturally, you’ll wanna check out the 1978 and 1994 editions before hitting this one.

Never Have I Ever: Season 2 (Netflix series) — Mindy Kaling’s brainchild (one of them, at least… there are so many) returns with more coming-of-age comedy. Devi’s making more questionable decisions along the way (that’s obligatory) while fumbling around through the finer points within new relationships. She does, however, face an out-of-her-control dilemma at school when “another Indian girl who is prettier, cooler” arrives on the scene. Expect more drama at home, too, as this beloved series continues to celebrate the awkwardness of adolescence.

I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson: Season 2 (Netflix series) — Get ready for more insanely absurdist (and almost therapeutically refreshing) sketch comedy from creator and writer Tim Robinson. He’s back with partner Zach Kanin for more of turning the most mundane and bizarre life moments into shouty hilarity, and guest stars this season include Bob Odenkirk, Sam Richardson, Paul Walter Hauser, Tim Heidecker, and many more. If you haven’t had the pleasure of digging into Robinson’s work, and you love Adam Sandler and Chris Farley’s exaggerated humor, yet crowned with an especially self-aware twist, you must plop this show into your queue.

Apple TV+

Schmigadoon!: Season 1 (Apple TV+ series) — If a musical comedy series starring Cecily Strong, Keegan-Michael Key, Alan Cumming, Kristin Chenoweth, and Jane Krakowski sounds a little bit too frenetic to you, consider this: Apple TV+ has been crushing the comedy game these days with the likes of Mythic Quest and Ted Lasso under its still-young belt. So, one can bet that if a series called Schmigadoon! can succeed, the show found the correct streaming home. Strong and Key portray a backpacking couple who stumble into a 1940s musical, literally. The premise might sound a bit like a horror movie, but it’s intended to be (bizarrely) romantic with a bang-up cast that demands a streaming shot.

The Snoopy Show: Season 1 premiere (Apple TV+ series) — Don’t be a blockhead, Charlie Brown. Instead, tuck into this new animated series for all ages, as long as you’re into the almost universally beloved beagle, Snoopy (duh), and his best friend for life, Woodshock. Not only is Snoopy actually Joe Cool, but he’s also Masked Marvel and a World War I flying ace, and yes, do not try to resist this delight of a revisiting that’s based upon Charles M. Schultz’s “Peanuts” comic strip.

Hulu

American Horror Stories: Season 1 (FX on Hulu series) — This spinoff of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s long-lived, anthology-based franchise will present a new iteration of horror. Viewers will receive a fresh set of terrors within every episode, after the flagship series already dove through an unsettling asylum, a freak shows, a haunted hotels, a witch coven, and the apocalypse. It’s not as scary as the real America, but close.

McCartney 3,2,1: Season 1 (Hulu series) — The legend himself (yes, Paul McCartney) sits down with Rick Rubin to get real about his work and legacy from The Beatles, along with his five decades as a solo artist. This is a six-part series the aims to be much more revelatory than your usual pop-culture documentary, which is fitting, given that we’re talking about an iconic musician.

Peacock

Dr. Death (Peacock limited series) — This true-crime series tells the story of Dr. Christopher Duntch, whose homicidal ways left dozens of victims in his career’s wake. Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater play the medical colleagues who attempt to stop the mayhem and help bring him to justice. The story’s based upon the Dr. Death podcast, and the prosecutor on the case (portrayed by AnnaSophia Robb) will stop at nothing to indict the healthcare system that helped Duntch bury his misdeeds for years. The doc is so chillingly portrayed by Joshua Jackson that this show might freak Dawson’s Creek fans the hell out.

AMC+

The Walking Dead: Origins (AMC+ limited series) — This batch of episodes will bridge the gap between zombie-apocalypse-laden seasons with the origin stories of Daryl, Carol, Maggie, and Negan. Expect a lot of interwoven clips (along with cast interviews and narration) to remind everyone of these characters’ most pivotal moments as their stories head into the final season.

The North Water (AMC+ limited series) — This adrenaline-filled series stars Jack O’Connell, Colin Farrell, and Stephen Graham with a story about a beleaguered and disgraced military surgeon who must contend with a terrifying Arctic mission. The elements are the worst enemy here, followed closely by the crew-mate violence at hand. Civilization is a long way away from this story.

The Beast Must Die: (AMC series on AMC+) — Jared Harris and Cush Jumbo star in this revenge-thriller series (which originally aired on BritBox UK and achieved a viewing record) that has already been renewed for a second season. The story’s based on Nicholas Blake’s 1938 novel and revolves around a mother who’s hell-bent upon avenging her son’s death, all while a detective’s working the case and hoping hoping to solve matters before mom takes justice into her own hands. It’s an enormously chaotic show, but it’s so crushingly executed that you’d be gripping your seat arms if you watched it in a theater.

Toosii has gained several moments to slow down and take a break this year, but the New York rapper continues to keep his pedal to the metal and finding new ways to show off his artistry to his growing audience. The rapper’s streak of high productivity in 2021 extends with his latest single, “Head Over Hills.” The track captures him reflecting on the past and current status of his life as he touches on stereotypes he broke down, the love he found, and many other things that are defined as success in his eyes. He also delivers a video for the song, which finds him turning up with fans at a concert and enjoying some fun moments with his team.

Two months ago, Toosii dropped off his latest project, Thank You For Believing. The thirteen-track project saw the New York rapper join forces with Latto, DaBaby, and Key Glock on an effort that proved to be an impressive step forward in his career. Shortly after its release, Toosii was inducted into this year’s class of XXL Freshman rappers, a group that included names like Pooh Shiesty, Blxst, Flo Milli, 42 Dugg, Coi Leray, Rubi Rose, Lakeyah, and more.

On a more recent note, he and Blxst showed off their bars as a part of the 2021 XXL Freshman freestyle series.

You can watch the video for “Head Over Hills” above.

Two years ago, Blxst and Bino Rideaux shared their debut joint project, Sixtape. The 2019 6-track EP helped bring the West Coast rappers to a new level in their careers and it’s one they would surpass the following year with their respective solo efforts. Blxst brought himself to XXL Freshman status thanks to his No Love Lost project while Bino Rideaux solidified his artistry with his own project, Outside. Now, the duo is back together and reunion brings the release Sixtape 2 and a new video for “One Of The Ones.”

The visual is introduced with a motivating narration from DJ Drama, who provides a boost in energy to the effort just like he did during his appearances on Tyler The Creator’s album, Call Me If You Get Lost. Blxst and Bino gamble the night away, enjoying their riches and celebrating the success they’ve attained in their respective careers.

Sixtape 2 is an entirely solo effort with the two rappers handling all of the vocal responsibilities. The project arrives with 12 tracks, double the amount that the duo delivered on Sixtape. The video also arrives after Blxst delivered his XXL Freshman Freestyle alongside Toosii.

You can watch the visual for “One Of The Ones” above.

Sixtape 2 is out now Red Bull Records. Get it here.

Much like the failed blogger MAGA fans still cling to, many in the sphere of influence around Donald Trump are simply out to make a quick buck. And the latest example of this is a smartphone designed to make people make a very dumb purchase, apparently in the name of fighting censorship.

That would be the “Freedom Phone,” a device that’s supposed to come pre-loaded with all of Trump World’s favorite apps like Rumble and Parler according to a flag-waving website selling preorders of the phone as of this week. According to the site, it will be available in August and come with a number of apps and a “free speech-first operating system,” whatever that means. But the hefty price tag for an unsubsidized smartphone, $499.99, may be much more than what the phone is actually worth.

As The Daily Beast’s Will Sommer detailed, the Freedom Phone is little more than a budget phone made by a Chinese manufacturer that’s selling for much more as the “Freedom Phone” than it does otherwise. The company, run by a self-proclaimed “youngest bitcoin millionaire” named Erik Finman, wants to sell phones to patriots who don’t want to be censored on social media like Trump and his insurrectionist supporters claim to have been since the January 6 MAGA riot in Washington.

But what they’re buying is, well, a budget phone from China.

In fact, Freedom Phone appears to be a simple rebranding of a budget phone called the “Umidigi A9 Pro,” made by the Chinese tech company Umidigi. In an interview with The Daily Beast, Finman confirmed that the Freedom Phone was manufactured by Umidigi, but couldn’t say immediately which Umidigi phone it was based on.

The Freedom Phone’s $500 price tag would represent a substantial markup on the Umidigi A9 Pro. That phone is available on Chinese retail giant AliExpress for $120 — less than one quarter of the price of a Freedom Phone.

Asked to justify the Freedom Phone’s notable price increase over the Umidigi model, Finman claimed vaguely that the Freedom Phone features customized hardware and improved memory. He committed Wednesday to publishing the phone’s technical specifications — basic details any company selling a phone should be able to provide. As of Thursday afternoon, however, no technical specifications had been provided to The Daily Beast or added to the Freedom Phone’s website.

Sommer’s always-excellent reporting has plenty of details about Finman, as well as some extremely basic logic about the phone itself: all the advertised apps supposed to be “preloaded” on the phone are free and currently available in Android and Apple app stores, so MAGA fans are paying a pretty huge markup just to have them downloaded in advance. There’s also the mobile version of Fortnite on the phones as well, apparently.

None of this sounds like a particularly good deal, except for the MAGA influencers who seem poised to get a cut of profits if their followers buy one with their promotional code. But it will likely sucker some freedom-obsessed folks into buying a cheap phone in the name of fighting censorship. Good luck to everyone involved in figuring out that free speech-based operating system by August.

[via The Daily Beast]

Since breaking out with his debut project, A Love Letter To You, back in 2017, Trippie Redd has made it a point to deliver at least one full-length effort, if not more, to his fans every year. Highlight releases in the years that followed include 2018’s Life’s A Trip, 2019’s A Love Letter To You 4, and 2020’s Pegasus. Trippie will continue this streak with his upcoming effort, Trip At Knight, but not without calling for a prior collaborator in Lil Uzi Vert for their latest track together, “Holy Smokes.”

Trippie and Lil Uzi celebrate their riches on the new track while listing the different ways they can spend their money and enjoy the lavish lifestyles that appear before them. While an official tracklist for Trip At Knight has yet to be revealed, the project is locked in for a July 23 release date, meaning fans will only have to wait an extra week before they can get their hands on it. Trip At Knight will feature the rapper’s previous single, “Miss The Rage” with Playboi Carti, which became his highest-charting single when it debuted at No. 11 on the Billboard singles chart. Trippie also announced a 25-city tour for the album in partnership with Rolling Loud

As for Lil Uzi Vert, the track is the rapper’s latest guest feature, coming just a few weeks after he teamed up with Tyler The Creator and Pharrell for “Juggernaut.” In disappointing news, the new song also comes after he was accused of stalking and abusing his ex-girlfriend, Brittany Byrd.

Scroll up to the video above to hear Trippie’s “Holy Smokes.”

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Just a little over a year after his posthumous debut album, Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, was released, Pop Smoke’s management shares the rapper’s second posthumous effort, Faith. The new release is presented with 20 songs and a large number of guest appearances that include Pusha T and Kanye West who join Pop Smoke for “Tell The Vision.” The track fits right in the drill rap pocket that Pop thrived in before his tragic death as he raps about the struggles he faced growing up. As for the song’s guests, Pusha pays respects to Pop and shouts out Tyler The Creator while Kanye looks to turn up the energy with an adlib-filled intro.

In addition to the aforementioned named, Faith also sports features from Rick Ross, The-Dream, 42 Dugg, 21 Savage, Rah Swish, Travi, Beam, Bizzy Banks, Takeoff, Lil Tjay, Swae Lee, Future, Chris Brown, Dua Lipa, Pharrell, Kid Cudi, Quavo, and Kodak Black. It’s a lengthy affair that invites even more individuals to the party than Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon did.

Faith was announced at the end of the last month with an album trailer that presented encouraging words from the late rapper. “Never let anybody get in between you and your creations,” he says in the video. “Why you just trying to be cool? You gotta make history.”

You can listen to “Tell The Vision” in the video above.

Faith is out now via Victor Victor Worldwide/Republic. Pre-order it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Normani’s last single came back in 2019 with “Motivation.” It’s an uptempo effort that was released with an eye-popping visual that made references to Ciara’s “Goodies,” Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love,” and Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time” videos among others. However, after its release, Normani took a big step out of the spotlight and stayed out of it for nearly two years until, finally, she returned with her first single in nearly two years. “Wild Side” arrives today with help from Cardi B who steps up to provide a guest verse on the bass-driven track.

The track also comes with a video that sees Normani showing off her impressive dance moves while beckoning for the special man in her life to step up to the plate and enjoy a sultry night with her. Cardi later accompanies Normani for her guest verse where both artists appear discreetly nude from head to toe.

The singer originally previewed the song in an Instagram video she posted back in February. She captioned it, “Know it’s been a while,” an obvious tease towards new music on the way and while it took five months for it to land in the hands of fans, late is far better than never. As for Normani and Cardi’s connection, some may remember that Normani appeared in Cardi and Megan Thee Stallion’s video for “WAP” last fall. On a more recent note, Cardi B recently revealed that she’s pregnant with her and Offset’s second child. She broke the news during a performance at the 2021 BET Awards.

You can check out the new song in the video.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Beaten to space (more or less) by Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos has decided not to be outdone by bringing the youngest ever astronaut with him to space later this month. That news came on Thursday, days after the Virgin owner’s own trip to the edges of space that made him the first civilian to briefly leave Earth’s grasp.

Skeptics could certainly paint this as two billionaires merely fighting over the upper edge of Earth’s atmosphere, but a more whimsical look at Bezos and Branson taking flight may see it as the start of space tourism in earnest. Whatever the future holds, though, what’s clear is that this may be yet another example of The Simpsons predicting something that happened in real life years before it actually occurred.

As Deadline laid out following a few days of post-Branson buzz, a scene from the show’s 25th season shows Branson admiring a painting while floating in space. The clip comes from the 15th episode of the season, entitled The War of Art. In it, an art forger speaks to Lisa about how much joy his work has given others, kicking off a quick montage of art in different places. One of them, of course, is an image of Branson floating in a spacecraft while looking at a painting.

The clip from 2004 went viral in the wake of Branson’s spaceflight, but many — including at least one person involved with the show — pointed out that it wasn’t a prediction as much as a pretty common reference once Virgin’s space endeavors were made public with Virgin Galactic that same year.

Given the extremely long time the show’s been on the air and the sheer volume of episodes out there at this point, it seems logical that the show would get things right from time to time. But whether it’s a prediction or luck, it certainly had people talking about weightless billionaires.

After two losses to begin their exhibition slate prior to the Olympics, the men’s USA Basketball team bounced back with a convincing win over Argentina. In the moment, that showing eased at least some of the early concerns about the squad’s forecast for Tokyo, but in the ensuing hours, roster concerns have piled up. Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal is officially out of the Tokyo Olympics after entering health and safety protocols and Jerami Grant joined Beal in the protocols shortly thereafter. As a result, word broke earlier on Thursday that the squad’s penultimate tune-up against Australia could be canceled, and that is now officially the case.

As noted in the official announcement, the women’s team will still take on Australia at 2:30 p.m. ET, but the men’s team is now down to only one more exhibition tilt. They are scheduled to face Spain on Sunday in Las Vegas before heading to Tokyo.

With Beal and Grant out of action, Team USA would have been down to only seven of their 12 players from the original roster, with three players (Khris Middleton, Devin Booker and Jrue Holiday) still participating in the NBA Finals. Reports are circulating that USA Basketball is looking to replace Beal before the team makes its way to the Olympics but, for now, there isn’t anything official.

It certainly seems logical to avoid playing an exhibition tilt if there was any concern whatsoever, and the statement notes an abundance of caution. It will be interesting to see how things proceed from here, though, particularly with the Olympics set to begin in fewer than ten days.