Month: July 2021

Last fall, Ariana Grande released her third album in as many years with Positions. The project grew to be one of the most popular pop releases from the year and it’s an effort the singer continues to promote as she returns with a new video for “Safety Net,” her collaboration with Ty Dolla Sign. The video released for the track is a live performance in which Ariana performs on a grass-covered stage under a futuristic-looking lighting fixture.

The track joins “34+35,” “POV,” and “Positions” as the only other songs from Positions to receive the visual treatment. “Safety Net” is also a song that was included in Uproxx’s ranking of the best songs in Grande’s career as it came in at No. 45. Aside from her own work, Grande’s most recent work has come in the form of collaborations.

Prior to the new video, she teamed up with Doja Cat for “I Don’t Do Drugs” from the rapper’s third album, Planet Her. She also contributed a verse for a remix of The Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears.” It’s a song that topped the Billboard singles chart for two consecutive weeks and one that they performed together at the iHeartRadio Music Awards earlier this year.

You can watch the “Safety Net” video above.

Ty Dolla Sign is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Ever since Billie Eilish took off, her brother and musical partner Finneas has established himself as a go-to songwriting and producing collaborator in the music industry. Just in 2020, he worked on songs with artists like Halsey, Demi Lovato, Justin Bieber, and Kid Cudi. His hard work has paid off in a big way: A new report indicates that Finneas was the No. 1 songwriter on Spotify in 2020.

As Music Business Worldwide notes, data from music rights data platform Blokur ranks Finneas as the most successful songwriter on Spotify last year, followed by XXXTentacion, Eilish, Juice WRLD, and Ed Sheeran. The data takes “into account factors such as the success of songs on various streaming charts, as well as the percentage of each song that each songwriter is credited with writing.” The methodology used to create the lists is explained in greater depth here.

Meanwhile, it was revealed yesterday that in the songwriter ranks across the streaming landscape more broadly, Finneas and Eilish also finished near the top, at Nos. 3 and 5, respectively. Topping that list was Tones And I, with Roddy Ricch, Lil Baby, Oz, Sheeran, Lewis Capaldi, and Pop Smoke also making appearances in the top 10.

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

During a touching tribute to legendary Hollywood director Richard Donner, The Goonies actor Jeff Cohen revealed Donner and his wife generously paid for the child star’s college education when his acting career hit a wall. Despite playing the imminently quotable Chunk in the ’80s treasure-hunting classic, Cohen never found another hit and began working as a production assistant for Donner at Warner Bros. After realizing that show business wasn’t working out for him, Cohen made the decision to go to college, and that’s when Donner unexpectedly stepped up in a big way for the child actor. Via Variety:

When I was applying to college, I said, ‘hey Dick, can you write me a letter of recommendation for college?’ And he said, ‘sure kid.” He called everybody kid. If you were seven years old he called you kid. If you were 50 years old he called you kid. He asked me to put some notes together to give him an indication of what he should say. In the note to him, I told him about my life and some of the struggles that I went through as a kid — my father not being there and other issues that I dealt with. And he called me on the phone and instead of merely writing a letter of recommendation to college, he told me that he and Lauren had read my letter and they were going to pay for my college. I was absolutely flabbergasted. I was shocked. I had to sit down, because, for me, paying for college was going to be a problem. That changed my life.

Thanks to the Donners paying his tuition at Berkeley, Cohen went on to become an entertainment lawyer. While the Donners’ financial help was obviously huge, more importantly, “they believed in me.”

“They thought I could make something of myself,” Cohen wrote. “That is Dick Donner — being kind, being empathetic, and not because he wanted anything in return.”

(Via Variety)

Drake and Nicki Minaj have a storied history together. It all started when Drake shouted out the rapper on his debut album, saying he wanted to marry her. Despite a few feuds in the past, the two have been very close ever since and they finally cemented their working relationship on Minaj’s recent Beam Me Up Scotty track “Seeing Green.” It now looks like the two rappers are cooking up another project, much to the delight of their fans.

Drake is currently continuing to drum up excitement about his upcoming album Certified Lover Boy. The LP has been pushed back a few times and it still remains without a solid release date. However, the rapper took to his Instagram Story on Tuesday to hint that he was posted up at Minaj’s studio. The photo instantly began to spark rumors of another possible collaboration between Drake and Minaj.

News of Drake in Minaj’s studio arrives just ahead of a big announcement from Minaj. On Tuesday, the rapper took to social media to tell her fans to mark their calendars for this Thursday at 10:30 pm ET. “There’s something I URGENTLY need to share w you guys,” she tweeted. “No, I won’t be late. In fact, I’ll be early. This is VERY VERY VERY IMPORTANT.”

Though Minaj didn’t drop any more hints, fans are desperately hoping that her announcement, coupled with Drake in her studio, means another collaboration with the two is in the works. Fans shared their excitement on Twitter, trying to manifest another joint project between the two icons.

The Fast & Furious franchise has gone to some pretty fantastic lengths to set itself apart from the pack over the years, but one fan idea that has been floating around the internet since the release of F9 is beyond the pale, according to the films’ star Ludacris. Known in the series for playing hacker Tej Parker, Luda has been with the series since the relatively more grounded 2 Fast 2 Furious and has watched it grown to its present proportions from within, so he’s about as close to being an authority as it gets.

Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night, Luda told guest host Wanda Sykes that a possible crossover with the Jurassic World franchise is “the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life.” Although he admitted that his own series has gotten close to flying off the rails in the past, he just can’t see how they’d make such a mashup work. “I’m just going to be honest with you,” he promised. “They surprised me in this franchise with a lot of things of how we continue to top ourselves. But nowhere in my right mind do I see Jurassic World and Fast & Furious coming together. Maybe they gotta convince me but I just don’t see it. That’s ludicrous. Pun intended, for sure.”

Certainly, if such a thing were to be in the works, Luda would be the one to confirm (or outright spoil) it. When asked about previous fan theories that the Fast series would go to space, he told The Hollywood Reporter, “I will say that you are very intuitive, because you said something right, but I’m not going to give it away.”

Watch Ludacris’ interview with Wanda Sykes above.

Melbourne punk-rock outfit Amyl And The Sniffers have announced a new album, Comfort To Me, plus a new single and video, “Guided By Angels.” The band’s second full-length album follows Amyl’s 2019 self-titled debut and last spring’s three-track EP, Live At The Croxton. In a press release, frontperson Amy Taylor had this to say about Comfort To Me:

“All four of us spent most of 2020 enclosed by pandemic authority in a three-bedroom rental in our home city of Melbourne, Australia. We’re like a family: we love each other and feel nothing at the same time. We had just come off two years of touring, being stuck in a van together eight hours a day, and then we’re trapped together for months in this house with sick green walls. It sucked but it was also nice. We spent heaps of time in the backyard listening to music, thrashing around in shorts, eating hot chips. The boys had a hard time being away from the pub and their mates, but it meant we had a lot of time to work on this record. Most of the songs were really intuitive. Main thing, we just wanted it to be us.”

She adds:

“If you have to explain what this record is like, I reckon it’s like watching an episode of The Nanny but the setting is an Australian car show and the Nanny cares about social issues and she’s read a couple of books, and Mr Sheffield is drinking beer in the sun. It’s a Mitsubishi Lancer going slightly over the speed limit in a school zone. It’s realizing how good it is to wear track pants in bed. It’s having someone who wants to cook you dinner when you’re really shattered. It’s me shadow-boxing on stage, covered in sweat, instead of sitting quietly in the corner.”

Check out the Comfort To Me tracklist below, and have a look at the “Guided By Angels” video above.

1. “Guided By Angels”
2. “Freaks To The Front”
3. “Choices”
4. “Security”
5. “Hertz”
6. “No More Tears”
7. “Maggot”
8. “Capital”
9. “Don’t Fence Me In”
10. “Knifey”
11. “Don’t Need A C*nt (Like You To Love Me)”
12. “Laughing”
13. “Snakes”

Comfort To Me is out 9/10 via ATO. Pre-order it here.

When it comes to making music, rising R&B singer Tone Stith is the type of artist who likes to take his time. He sings, knows how to write a Billboard chart-topping hit, plays multiple instruments, and can be seen in various Instagram clips showing off his vocal ability, including in 2017 when he covered Drake’s “Madiba Riddim” off More Life.

He’s made great progress since then and it’s evident on his new EP FWM. The project is an R&B purists’ dream filled with nine songs and features from the likes of Kiana Lede, Lonr, and frequent collaborator HER for the song “When You Love Someone.” FWM is a sonic display of Stith’s ever-evolving talent from his pen game to the way his voice warmly wraps around each soulful word he sings. If Tone Stith wasn’t on your radar before, there’s a good chance FWM is convincing enough to turn anyone into a believer.

Speaking with Uproxx, Tone dives into the making of FWM, what it’s like working with HER, his relationship with Drake, and what the future looks like.

This is the EP that you’re coming out with, stands for F*ck With Me. Why should people with fuck with Tone Stith?

I’ve been in the industry for a minute. A lot of people know me from being in a group. Some people know me from writing a lot of songs for Chris Brown and then putting out my solo stuff shortly afterwards. But the thing is now, I feel like that I’m 25 and I really got a good taste of life and got to go through a lot of ups and downs. This new music is like, “Hey, y’all know who I am.” Now, I’m going to really make you say y’all got to fuck with me. I’m here and I can do everything that everybody thinks I can do. Now is the time for the world to fuck with me.

What’s the one song on FWM that everybody needs to listen to?

I cannot lie to you, my favorite song is “FWM.” There’s a special place in my heart for that song. I just feel like when we made that, that night, it was just like, something. I feel like it put everything else into perspective as far as the project goes, but that was the one that really kicked it off.

You have a song with HER, “When You Love Someone,” and you also went on tour with HER before the pandemic. What was it like touring with her? She’s such an amazing artist and musician.

It was nothing but amazing. She’s just so humble, so down to earth, so real. On top of that, just being incredibly talented on stage. It was a great experience. I got to learn so much as far as about artistry, about touring, about connecting with the crowd, about putting on a good show.

Was there something specific that you learned while on tour with her that was a learning experience for you?

She would bring me out on her set because we did a remix of “Could’ve Been” and she put me on the remix. She would bring me out every night and just singing with her and going back and forth. It made me realize, more so when performing, to get to that stage where you let go. You’re not really thinking about anything. It’s just you’re up there. You’re living in that moment and you’re just having fun and you’re connecting with people that you’re singing to. It really made me grow in that aspect.

How was the making of “When You Love Someone”?

Me and HER, we were working at the same studio for a month and a half. She was telling Jeff one day she was like, “Look, I got this song for Tone.” She had already written it. She was like, “I just want to play it for you. Tell me if you like it, if you want to cut it or whatever.” She played it for me, and it was a no-brainer. I was like, “Yo, let’s do it.” So the next day we got in session and she was vocal producing me. I just want to let y’all know, you’ve heard the song before, but it was probably the most difficult song I had to record. Everything had to be perfect. I’m a perfectionist myself but she’s a perfectionist on another level. So, but it was fun and it made me a better artist too.

How is HER as a vocal producer?

Oh, she don’t take no mess as a vocal producer. She don’t take no mess, no slacking.

I know you have a relationship with Drake. I saw you went to help celebrate him being awarded Artist of the Decade for Billboard at his party. How was that?

If you know Drake, you got to know Jas Prince. Jas has been in my corner for years, but he’s the one who connected us and it’s awesome because a lot of people wish they had that outlet to go out and reach out and be like, “Hey, what do you think of this?” And get feedback and stuff like that. It’s just been a blessing because every time I’ll hit him for feedback or just advice he’ll hit me back and give me a real response like, “Yo, this is what you got to do. This is who you got to be if you want to get to this point.” He always keeps it real. It’s a good relationship.

Can we expect to hear you on Certified Lover Boy?

I don’t even know. It could be one of those things. Well, here’s a fun fact. The Bryson and Drake song, they actually sample me doing a Snoh Aalegra cover. So that’s actually me in the background. I don’t know, it could happen. Something like that.

I also just want to talk about your creative process. When you’re in the studio, what is the vibe that you’re setting?

So the vibe, I mean, every day is definitely going to be different. What I like to do before I start while heading to the studio if I’m in the car, wherever, I love to play music. I love to just adventure into different genres, different artists and see what really resonates with me that day. Every day could be different. Some days I’ll be bumping Tame Impala the whole way to the studio. I’m like, “Yo, let’s get it. We in that Tame Impala bag.” Or I’ll be bumping off Michael Jackson, Prince, or just throwback Rick James. Then I’ll suggest, “Yo, we need to tap into this sonic.” Where they were at when they made this? Just playing music and appreciating other music that came before me and even music that’s out right now. It’s just what do I want to tap into? Where do we want to go? Where do we want to take it? Then making it relate to my life.

How do you come up with your ideas?

So I can’t even lie to you, it is definitely like life sometimes. There’s times where I would just think, I’ll hear music while making music, I’ll think of one-word concepts. I like one-word concepts a lot, for instance, “Devotion.” Then there’s times where it’s like, I can be looking around the room, I could be reading something on a bottle. I could be in my phone. I’ll be on Twitter just looking like, “Yo, what are people talking about? What is going on?” I’ll just pull from stuff like that. There’s really no limit to how creative you can be.

Where’s the most unique place you’ve drawn inspiration from to create music?

I got the opportunity when I was, I think I was 23, 22. I got the opportunity to go to Drake’s tour in Europe for a few days. I was just living in the moment like, “Oh, this is crazy. I’m in Paris for the first time. I’m in London for the first time.” And now that I’m older, I have a bunch of songs from all the things that have happened in that little small timeframe. I think that’s probably the craziest place that I’ve pulled from, because it was just so different. The experience was just totally different. I wasn’t in a place then to really make it come to life.

Have you released any of those songs?

Nope. Not yet.

Maybe we’ll get the Paris tapes in the future.

Yeah. Absolutely.

FWM is out now via RCA. Get it here.

Parasite was a global sensation, earning $258.8 million at the worldwide box office and winning four Oscars, including Best Picture, the first foreign-language film to do so. It’s now being turned into a television show, which would be cause for concern if director and writer Bong Joon Ho wasn’t involved. He’s listed as a producer for the HBO adaptation, which he called a “black comedy” at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday. “I’m working in close cooperation with screenwriter Adam McKay.”

McKay directed Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and Step Brothers, three of the funniest films of the 2000s, but he’s also had success with social satires (The Big Short, which won him an Academy Award) and HBO series that straddle between bleak drama and sidesplitting comedy (Succession, which he produces). If any duo can pull off Parasite: The Show, it’s Bong and McKay.

Bong continued:

“Parasite is a film on wealthy and poor families, and that is a problem everywhere. [The television series] will be something of great genius, I hope. I worked with Adam McKay and he’s figuring out the scenario. We’re going to do it in the United States… The subject continues to have resonance in France and elsewhere. Many of [us] would like to be rich, but I think in all of us there is a fear of becoming poor.”

I’d like to be rich, but I’d settle for learning more about Jessica, only child, Illinois, Chicago (sorry/not sorry for getting the song stuck in your head).

(Via IndieWire)

NLE Choppa has made quite a splash as an entertainer over the last handful of years since exploding onto the scene with his January 2019 single “Shotta Flow.” Since then, he’s become a Hot 100 mainstay and XXL Freshman, reached No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart with his debut album Top Shotta, and worked with some of the industry’s heaviest hitters, including 50 Cent and hometown hero Juicy J. However, it looks like he might be ready to walk away from it all in favor of a new career: Herbalism, aka herbal medicine.

In a tweet, he vowed to “buy out my contract and become full time herbalist,” citing his wish to “help my people” as the reason behind his decision to “forget the music stuff.”

The decision wasn’t a sudden one; over the past year, Choppa has gradually embraced a mindset of personal and spiritual growth, encouraging meditation and plant-based diets. He even went so far as to challenge fellow Memphian Moneybagg Yo to give up lean for chlorophyll as a response to the elder rapper’s fascination with the purple stuff, as documented in his hit song “Wokesha.”

Unfortunately, NLE Choppa’s beliefs have also led him to share some dangerous misinformation as well. He previously tweeted vaccine conspiracy theories, which he’s adamantly held to ever since.

You can see his retirement promise above.

NLE Choppa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It’s time for the NBA Finals, which can only mean one thing: It’s time for Jimmy Kimmel to bring back his annual NBA edition of Mean Tweets. Ok, so, it means about 10,000 other things, because this is the what everything that happens in the league revolves around, but Mean Tweets have become something of an institution this time of year, as current and former NBA players, along with some other prominent folks in the basketball universe, come together to laugh at themselves.

This year’s edition was quite good, as it featured everyone from broadcasters (Shaq, Grant Hill), to current players (Trae Young, Zach LaVine), to LaVar Ball (LaVar Ball). It also includes Kyle Lowry taking his mean tweet to be a compliment and offering a big ol hug to a poster, which was very nice of him.

The highlights are as follows: Hill cracking up as he is reading the tweet about him, Khris Middleton’s smile after reading his tweet, how happy Kemba Walker got over one fan’s theory of why he draws so many charges, Kyle Lowry, how impressed Dwight Howard was by his burn, Spencer Dinwiddie’s soul leaving his body as he kept reading, Young’s face at the top of this post, and LaVine’s reaction. Anyway, we’ll see you next year for the next version of NBA Mean Tweets.