Month: July 2021

Spotify and Electric Lady Studios have announced a new series of EPs titled Live At Electric Lady, with the first release featuring Jon Batiste, coming on July 29. Additional recordings will feature Patti Smith, Japanese Breakfast, Dominic Fike, Faye Webster, Bleachers, Remi Wolf, and Natalie Bergman, “with more surprises to come,” according to a press release.

As for Batiste, the Oscar-winning Colbert musical director recorded his EP with fellow jazz musicians Kenny Garrett, Ron Carter, Gary Bartz, and Joe Saylor. Meanwhile, according to the release, each artist spent their sessions playing their own music, plus “cover songs of artists connected to the studio’s history.”

Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner had some nice words about her experience recording at Electric Lady, which is famously situated in New York City’s West Village and has hosted sessions by iconic musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, The Clash, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and more. “It was an absolute dream to get to record at Electric Lady. The rooms are filled with good, ancient vibes and the engineers there are unparalleled, so it’s no wonder it’s such an iconic studio that holds a place in so many legends’ hearts,” said Zauner. Faye Webster, who recently released the critically lauded LP I Know I’m Funny Haha, also had good things to say: “I’m so excited and honored to be a part of this. For my first time in Electric Lady, to be a part of this series with so many people I love, is something I’ll never forget. I’m going to be processing this for a while.”

Look out for Jon Batiste’s Live At Electric Lady EP on 5/21.

Coi Leray, DDG, Lakeyah, and Morray kick off the 2021 XXL Freshman Cyphers for this year’s class, each bringing their own unique style to a beat produced by algorithm master Nick Mira. DDG opens proceedings with a typical West Coast/Michigan swing flow, then cedes the floor to Lakeyah, who undoubtedly delivers the best straight-up rap verse, hunting for the sort of credit that only comes from being an expert technician. Morray splits the balance between his signature crooning and some off-the-dome rhymes bigging up his cohorts.

That leaves Coi Leray, who is quite possibly the most controversial addition to this year’s list. Despite having three years of tried-and-true material including a handful of viral hits to her name, it was her song “No More Parties” that first exposed her to the wider mainstream audience, drawing comparisons to both Dej Loaf and Playboi Carti in the process. It’s also, oddly enough, the song least like the bulk of her output, so it seemed going in that the Cypher would be her chance to lay skeptics’ doubts to rest.

She absolutely does not do that, instead opting for a choppy, Carti-esque delivery on a relatively short verse that does little to allay the concerns about her placement before giving up and resorting to her trademark twerking. It’s an unusual choice for a rapper who is under fire and facing a make-or-break moment with all eyes on her. While it’s pioneering, to be sure (Megan Thee Stallion once pointed out that a female rapper would face a ton of criticism for rapping like Playboi Carti, and for all intents, it appears she was correct), and a boundary has been broken to allow women to branch out more stylistically, I can see Coi taking a lot more fire now — with this verse undermining much of the evidence that supporters could use to defend her.

It’ll be interesting to see how this Cypher will be received on social media as well as how it affects future installments and the ongoing debate about whether the Freshman Class even needs a Cypher anymore.

Watch the 2021 XXL Freshman Cypher above.

In April of 2020, international advocacy organization Global Citizen urged people to stay at home to stop the spread of COVID by tapping some of today’s biggest artists for their Together At Home livestream. Now, Global Citizen is announcing another livestream, this time aimed at urging major corporations and foundations to donate funds to deliver COVID vaccines to the vulnerable and help end global poverty.

Global Citizen Live is a 24-hour livestream filmed in several countries across six continents. Kicking off on Saturday, September 24, the concert will feature headliners Billie Eilish, Lorde, and Lizzo, among others, and take place in cities across the world like Lagos, Rio de Janeiro, New York City, Paris, London, Seoul, LA, and Sydney.

Along with Eilish, Lizzo, and Lorde, some other artists set to perform include Adam Lambert, Alessia Cara, Andrea Bocelli, Angélique Kidjo, BTS, Burna Boy, Camila Cabello, Coldplay, Christine And The Queens, Davido, Demi Lovato, DJ Snake, Doja Cat, Duran Duran, Ed Sheeran, Femi Kuti, Green Day, HER, Hugh Jackman & Deborra-lee Furness, Keith Urban, Lang Lang, Metallica, Rag’n’Bone Man, Ricky Martin, Shawn Mendes, The Lumineers, The Weeknd, Tiwa Savage, Usher, and more.

In a statement about Global Citizen Live‘s mission, Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans detailed the devastating affects of COVID across the globe:

“COVID-19 has drastically reversed the progress toward achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals pushing upwards of 160 million people back into extreme poverty. There are now more than 40 million people on the brink of famine. Progress on climate change has halted, as the majority of the Fortune 500 fail to set science-based carbon reduction targets. We must rectify the damage done and hold world leaders and businesses accountable for ensuring that the entire world recovers from this pandemic together. ‘Equitable recovery’ is not an act of charity — it is the only way we can ensure a fighting chance at achieving a sustainable world free from extreme poverty.”

Echoing Evans’ statement, The Weeknd said he’s honored to join the livestream. “It is very important to me to be a part of this historic event to spread awareness and encourage action toward helping the people of Ethiopia during this devastating humanitarian crisis they are faced with,” he said. “It’ll be an honor to perform and help bring support to these citizens who are suffering so severely.”

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

Team USA’s Olympic roster will take on the WNBA’s All-Stars in the 2021 All-Star Game on Wednesday night. It’ll be the first time we see Dawn Staley’s team — in pursuit of a seventh consecutive gold medal — play in an exhibition game. They’ll play Australia and Nigeria later in the week.

While Team USA will draw attention, there’s a lot on the line for the game’s other participants, too. The event will be a warmup for Australian star center Liz Cambage, who is also set to play in Tokyo, as well as a first audition for 2024 Olympics hopefuls like Arike Ogunbowale, and a potential statement game for 2016 Team USA snub Candace Parker.

Here are a few things to watch for on ESPN when the game tips off from Vegas on July 14 at 7:00 p.m. ET.

1. Who does Team USA start?

With a team as deep as the U.S. Olympic roster, which features six of the last 11 WNBA MVP winners, every lineup is going to see some level of success. But earning a starting nod is an honor of its own.

In 2016, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, Tina Charles, and Brittney Griner started. Moore is not on the roster, but the other four are. It’ll be interesting to see if they remain in the starting lineup, even with the emergence of Jewell Loyd, Breanna Stewart, and A’ja Wilson in particular. Dawn Staley has a lot of choices to make. The good news for her is that it’s hard to make a bad one.

2. Will Liz Cambage play big minutes?

Cambage led all scorers at the 2016 Olympics with 23.5 points per game, but Australia fell in the quarterfinals to Serbia. No team is in Team USA’s realm, but Australia — led by WNBA players Leilani Mitchell, Rebecca Allen, Ezi Magbegor, Stephanie Talbot, and Alanna Smith — may have the best chance to upset them.

This could be a warmup for Cambage, who will get to see the USA squad twice in exhibition action in Vegas, before a possible gold medal showdown.

3. How are Team USA’s shots distributed?

One of the most difficult tasks for any superteam is having players understand their new roles. Staley’s group has 12 of the best scorers in the world (seven of the WNBA’s top 10), all capable of leading a team. But USA won’t thrive on pure isolation plays. It’ll need a system that balances all of its stars’ capabilities.

Playing pass-first guards like Chelsea Gray, Skylar Diggins-Smith or Sue Bird on the floor at any given time in the game feels like a must.

4. Will Tina Charles take over?

Before the season started, A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Elena Delle Donne, and Candace Parker’s names dominated the MVP conversation.

Since then, Jonquel Jones — who will compete as an All-Star — has asserted herself as the frontrunner, but Charles is inching closer and closer as the season wears on. The forward is leading the league in points per game at 26.3 per game, which is a 5.3-point lead over the next-best Jones. Though she isn’t firing as efficiently as Jones, she is making 46.8 percent of her shots from the field and 37 percent of her 3-pointers. That’s super solid, and a breakout showing in a matchup of the game’s best could open more eyes to the Mystics’ leader for MVP.

5. Will this be Arike Ogunbowale’s night?

Nneka Ogwumike was Team USA’s biggest snub, but she won’t compete for the All-Stars. Ogunbowale was the next-biggest cut, though, and will play. Last year’s WNBA leading scorer is just 24 years old but saw a few other players her age — including Napheesa Collier and Ariel Atkins — make the cut. That stings.

Ogunbowale — debatably the most clutch player in basketball right now — has never once in her life been shy of a big moment. If the game-winning shot in the 2018 Final Four wasn’t enough proof, the game-winning shot in the 2018 championship game damn sure was. She’s always ready when the lights are brightest, and this will be her first unofficial audition for the 2024 Olympics.

6. How will Candace Parker play against Team USA?

Parker’s already downplayed the importance of this game to her, and for good reason. She’s already one of the best basketball players of all-time. She has two season MVP awards, a Finals MVP, and a WNBA championship. Everything else is extra for her already legendary career.

But maybe things will feel a bit different after the ball is tipped. Her beef is, of course, not with her Team USA opponents, but rather, the people who chose to keep her off the 2016 roster. It could be hard for her not to want to go full-speed knowing they’re all watching.

At this point, it seems like everyone has their own podcast. We live in an era where celebrities are more accessible than ever, and podcasting is the most direct way to have the kinds of lengthy, unfiltered conversations that fans of any medium — sports, culture, etc. — cannot get enough of.

Basketball players are generally good about being candid and forthright, no matter the medium, but that’s especially true for players who have launched podcasts in recent years. On today’s Dime Breakdown, we decided to highlight some of the best NBA podcasts in the game right now. For example, if you’re a podcast listener and don’t subscribe to J.J. Redick’s “The Old Man and the Three,” or “Pull Up with C.J. McCollum,” or Kevin Durant’s podcast “The ETCs,” you’re missing out on endlessly fascinating and entertaining conversations about life as a basketball player and all the things that go into that, from what they do on the court to some of their pursuits off of it. Plus we showed some love to dudes like Gilbert Arenas, Matt Barnes, and Stephen Jackson, the retired players who have made the smooth transition into life as podcasters.

After running through those, we wanted to identify the players who we think could thrive if they ever decided to get into podcasting. The list could go on for hours, but in our eyes, there are a number of guys who really stand out among the rest.

Stephen A. Smith dominated sports headlines on Monday for all of the wrong reasons, as he bungled the names of Nigerian basketball players while ripping Team USA for losing to D’Tigers and then later said Shohei Ohtani being the face of baseball wasn’t what the sport needed because he speaks through a translator.

The latter point, in particular, caused quite the uproar and garnered an awful lot of response from his own ESPN colleagues on Twitter, as they pointed out how bad those comments were and how they played into xenophobic tropes that foreign players have for years dealt with across all sports. Smith initially tried to clarify his statement, but eventually came to realize there was no clarifying and issued an apology for his “regrettable” comments, saying he “screwed up.”

On Tuesday morning, Smith again issued an apology saying he was “wrong, period” to open the show.

Joon Lee, who was among the most vocal individuals from ESPN immediately after Smith’s comments on Twitter, was given ample airtime to talk about why those comments were so hurtful to hear as an Asian-American and pointed out the issues the sports media as a whole has in dealing with Asian athletes.

Smith also got an earful from ESPN baseball analyst Jeff Passan, who offered an impassioned explanation for why Ohtani is the type of player and person that First Take, ESPN as a network, and baseball as a whole should be embracing fully, noting he is the embodiment of chasing the American dream — the full segment with Smith’s apology and Passan’s response can be seen in the video at the top.

Passan is right in that Ohtani is the type of player that should be celebrated across sports media. He is a magnetic, seemingly endlessly positive personality on the field who shows that joy for the game constantly, without even needing to express it verbally — which, again, he’ll happily do through an interpreter because that’s what is most comfortable. He also pointed out that Smith mentioned on Monday’s show that they’ve barely discussed Ohtani this year, and Passan pointed to that being a First Take problem, not an Ohtani one.

Smith has gotten rightfully blasted for his comments and has seemingly taken that in and recognized just how off-base he was. That said, we’ll have to see how long this lesson sticks with him, but it’s clear that there was no gray area here for his comments with his ESPN colleagues and how quickly he has walked it back and apologized has made it abundant he’s seen that.

During last month’s BET Awards, some fans on Twitter expressed confusion at the presence of Jack Harlow at the ceremony and his nominations, as Harlow isn’t Black despite his participation in what he acknowledges is a traditionally Black genre. He addressed the debate in a new interview with Yahoo!, saying, “I feel blessed to have a voice in this period because, one, I’m not a street artist, and two, I’m not Black. The only thing keeping me here right now is that level of authenticity, of being myself.”

Harlow, who was nominated for Best New Artist, Best Male Hip-Hop Artist, and Best Song for his “What’s Poppin” remix featuring DaBaby, Tory Lanez, and Lil Wayne, appears to take in stride both the light backlash against him and the cultural shift that led up to it. He compared the modern era to the blog rap era when artists like Mac Miller and Asher Roth were seemingly being accepted into hip-hop spaces more readily than some of their predecessors. Although white rappers have always flourished economically, not all of them appeared at the BET Awards or received nominations.

“All of this stuff was coming into the fold and it had this energy surrounding it of, ‘We’re letting the white kids come to the party. We’re all in this together,’” Harlow said. However, in conversations with his fellow Kentuckian Nemo Achida, he notes that since the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, some Black folks have expressed a desire to close ranks. “He feels like the country going into these new civil rights moments almost shifted away from, ‘Let’s have the white boy at the party,’” he noted of his friend’s observation. “It became less about let’s all be diverse together and turned back into hip-hop being, ‘It needs to be a Black genre.’”

He accepts this new state of affairs philosophically, saying, “That’s just been the natural transformation of things, I think,” and even agrees that as a participant in a Black genre, he has a responsibility to show up for Black people. “The things I was doing last summer, any fans who didn’t feel like criticizing the police or were on the other side of things, I was going to weed them out. That could have been a moment for them to no longer be fans. But what is important is that I lead by example for all the white kids looking at me. This is what you do. You don’t just enjoy Black culture. You stand up next to Black people in a time of need.”

Read the full profile here.

Jack Harlow is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Friends ran for 10 seasons with every cast member receiving Emmy nominations except for one. Lisa Kudrow and Jennifer Aniston both scored a handful of nominations and a win apiece, and the three male stars (Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer) all received at least one nod as well. That leaves only Courteney Cox, who was ignored over and over again through out the show’s run, and if you think she didn’t notice, well, she did. Cox recently told Howard Stern that, yes, it “definitely hurt my feelings” to be snubbed. The good news, though? That streak is over with this year’s nominations.

Sort-of, at least. The HBO Max “Friends: The Reunion” special, which counts Cox as an executive producer, received a nomination for the Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) category. Better late than never, right? Cox was recognized, alongside the rest of her cast members and O.G. show creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane. So, it’s not officially an Emmy nomination for performance, but heck, Monica Geller deserves to her day in the sun. It’ll be the shiniest, most obsessively-scrubbed day ever. Variety laid it all out there with previous nomination counts:

During the NBC sitcom’s decade-long original run, the series nabbed 62 total Emmy nominations. Five of these were for Aniston, who was twice nominated in the supporting comedy actress category (in 2000 and 2001) before moving to the lead comedy actress category, in which she picked up noms from 2002 to 2004, winning in 2002. Kudrow scored a whopping six noms during the 10 years the show was on the air, all in the supporting comedy actress category, winning in 1998. LeBlanc was celebrated three times in the lead comedy actor category, getting nods in 2002, 2003 and 2004; Perry picked up a lead comedy actor nomination in 2002; and Schwimmer scored a supporting comedy actor nom in 1995.

“Friends: The Reunion” is up against some stiff competition, including “Bo Burnham: Inside,” “David Byrne’s American Utopia,” “8:46 – Dave Chappelle,” “Friends: The Reunion,” “Hamilton,” and “A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote.”

The Emmys will air on Sunday, September 19.

(Via Variety)

Former Republican congressman Charlie Dent couldn’t find enough bad things to say about what went down at CPAC over the weekend. Between Donald Trump admitting that he labels any polls that aren’t a win for him “fake” and Donald Trump Jr. trying—and failing—to get a laugh out of the crowd (which in and of itself was actually really funny), Dent seemed to nail the general atmosphere of the gathering when he referred to it as a “freak show.”

As Raw Story reports, while discussing this weekend’s bananas Conservative Political Action Conference on CNN’s New Day, Dent—a GOP member who served Pennsylvania’s 15th congressional district from 2005 to 2018—keenly observed that “CPAC has always been kind of an odd gathering and now it’s been taken over by a bunch of radicals, anti-vaxxers. It’s a land of misfit toys, it’s a political freak show, it’s like the Star Wars bar. This is just bizarre.”

Putting aside the fact that it’s technically a cantina, not a bar… Dent had plenty more to say about just how wacky his former colleagues have gotten during and following the Trump years:

“The fact that we’re celebrating that we’re not meeting our vaccination targets is actually reprehensible, we all know this. I can’t imagine—serious people are not showing up to this thing. I mean, look what happens. they have their stupid straw poll and have a ranked-choice straw poll too apparently now. But this whole group it’s not serious and one doesn’t know if you should laugh or cry or be alarmed about what we’re watching and witnessing at these CPAC gatherings.”

But it seems like CPAC has always attracted the nuttiest Republicans. “I stayed away from them when I was in Congress,” Dent said of the kind of folks who count down the days to CPAC. “I never wanted to be associated with some of the types who showed up there, but again, it says a lot that serious aspirational presidential [Republican] candidates weren’t there.” Clearly, Dent doesn’t see Trump as a “serious aspirational” candidate.

You can watch the full clip below.

(Via Raw Story)

Jean Smart cannot be stopped. Though the iconic actress is preparing to turn the big 7-0 in September, her career is on a major hot streak—and is only getting hotter. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Smart has just signed on to join Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon. Not much is known about the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s latest project, except that, like La La Land, it’s yet another ode to the Golden Age of Hollywood—though this time it’s actually set during that time.

Smart is said to be playing a powerful Hollywood journalist/film critic whose opinion can determine a filmmaker’s future. The movie, which Chazelle wrote and is directing, is set in the late 1920s, when silent films were being replaced by talkies—and not all of the silent film era’s biggest stars made it out alive. According to THR, Babylon has been described as “The Great Gatsby on steroids.”

It’s just the latest bit of great career news for Smart, who has been on a roll for several years—mostly on the small screen—after turning in masterful performances in Fargo, Legion, and Watchmen. Just this morning, the three-time Emmy winner racked up two more nominations—one for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Mare of Easttown, and another for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for HBO Max’s Hacks (which has already been renewed for a second season).

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)