Month: September 2021

Last year, Gorillaz returned to the music scene with their seventh album, Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez. Now, the band’s lead vocalist Damon Albarn is stepping out on his own again for his second solo album, The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows. The project is locked in for a November 12 release date, but Albarn has already been dropping singles, including the fourth, “Royal Morning Blue.”

The track is much more upbeat than the previous new ones Albarn has released so far. In a press release, he noted that the song was created during a trip to Iceland after he gained inspiration from the wintry oceanside that surrounded him. He added that it was “directly inspired by the view from Albarn’s position at the piano looking out over the sea, [and] captures the wonder of rain turning into snow before his eyes.”

He continued, “That’s why the song opens with ‘Rain turning into snow,’ because it’s that moment, that feeling. In all the darkness that we have experienced, that was such a beautiful, positive thing.”

The release of “Royal Morning Blue” comes after Albarn shared “Polaris,” “Particles,” and “The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows.”

You can can hear the new track in the video above.

The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows is out 11/12 via Transgressive Records. Pre-order it here.

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

Melvin Van Peebles was the second Black filmmaker ever hired to direct a movie by a major film studio. Called by some the “Godfather of Black Cinema,” he was also a pioneer of independent film, who broke free of the very studio system he’d infiltrated so he could do what he wanted. He wrote books, recorded albums, even staged a Tony-nominated Broadway musical. And on Wednesday, he passed on at the age of 89, having led a long, fruitful, and game-changing life on his own terms.

Like James Baldwin, Van Peebles was an African-American who went to Paris, hoping to find the success that eluded him at home. After writing a string of novels, he got the chance to turn one of them, La Permission, into his feature directorial debut. The Story of a Three-Day Pass, released in 1967, Hollywood flew him out. The story is they were expecting the next (white) French auteur. They were shocked when off the plane stepped a Black American.

Though the first major studio movie directed by an African-American was Gordon Parks’ The Learning Tree, in 1969, Van Peebles’ Watermelon Man, from 1970, was the second. A savage satire, it concerned a white bigot who awakens one day to find he’s Black. Columbia Pictures wanted him to cast a white actor, put him in Blackface, and have a happy ending, in which he magically switched back. Van Peebles insisted on putting Godfrey Cambridge in whiteface, if only for the opening stretch, and having him instead evolve into a passionate Black nationalist.

Van Peebles was quickly disillusioned with Hollywood. So he sank his own money into his next film: Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, an borderline avant-garde exploitation movie about a wrongly accused Black man, played by himself, fleeing the racist police who framed him. “Rated X by an all-white jury,” read the promos, designed by Van Peebles himself, and it became a runaway hit, in turn inspiring the Blaxploitation genre.

Soon Broadway beckoned, as well as the record industry. Throughout he gave people what he wanted to give them, not what they wanted. That often meant that his work was ignored during release, only to inspire others later. By the ‘80s, he even branched out into another industry: He became an options trader on the American Stock Exchange, all while still pursuing theater and film.

His son Mario followed in his footsteps, becoming both an actor and a director, including New Jack City and Baadasssss!, in which he played his father as he made Sweet Sweetback.

“Somebody once asked me, ‘Melvin, how’d you get to the top?’”, he once said. “It was simple. Nobody would let me in at the bottom.” His passing — mere days before the release of a lavish box set by the Criterion Collection, arriving September 28 — was met with widespread mourning by the filmmakers let in the door he helped kick down.

And by others.

The Minnesota Timberwolves fired their president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas on Wednesday, a rather stunning move given training camp is set to begin in a week.

The statement from Wolves owner Glen Taylor was succinct, to say the least, and didn’t even include the typical token compliment to the person you’re firing on their way out. That, along with the timing, seemed to indicate that this decision was precipitated by something worse than just your typical executive getting fired for poor performance. Late Wednesday night, we got far more detail into what went down and why Rosas was let go immediately from The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski and Shams Charania, who published a detailed report about how the Wolves came to this decision.

This was the culmination of a months-long investigation into complaints about the working environment under Rosas in the front office, which showed internal dysfunction and frustration about long hours and what was felt to be a lack of input into decisions. Executive VP of basketball operations Sachin Gupta, who has now taken over on an interim basis and could be the full-time hire, not being allowed to take a job with the Rockets for more money but the same title was among the examples cited as leading to complaints about Rosas’ leadership style. There was also his handling of firing Ryan Saunders and hiring Chris Finch almost immediately without a complete search, as well as frustrations from agents about promises not kept and Rosas’ handling of player and agent relationships.

In summation, it appears to have been compounding issues that led to “dysfunction,” as The Athletic put it, but part of the reason for his immediate ouster was an affair he had been having with someone in the Timberwolves offices that came to light recently.

In recent days, the organization discovered that Rosas, who is married, had a consensual intimate relationship with a member of the organization, The Athletic has learned from multiple sources. It made several people within the organization uncomfortable, sources said. While this was not the reason for Rosas’ dismissal, it certainly impacted the timing.

CBS Minnesota had reported likewise earlier in the evening that an “inappropriate relationship” had contributed to his firing on Wednesday, and while The Athletic’s report quotes a source as saying the decision was “performance related,” it certainly seems to have accelerated the decision to let him go.

In total, Rosas’ downfall in Minnesota seems to have followed a path many executives have, where promises of a family environment are met with a reality of cold business decisions made that rub longtime members of an organization the wrong way and, when coupled with a lack of on-court success, that dysfunction builds to a place where something like an extramarital affair in the office is enough to tip the scales completely.

The Golden State Warriors, along with the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets, will be among the NBA teams where players are beholden to local regulations requiring the COVID-19 vaccine to go to work. While the league as a whole does not have such a policy for players, those in New York and San Francisco won’t be able to practice or play in home games if they are not vaccinated, as the NBA told teams that they were, indeed, a part of those local mandates.

In Brooklyn, Sean Marks said this week that there are a couple of Nets who, right now, wouldn’t be eligible to play because of the vaccine mandate, but expected everyone to be “allowed to participate” by the time camp starts — it wasn’t totally clear if he meant those players would be getting the vaccine or if they were trying to work something out with the city regarding the mandate. For Golden State, however, they are less confident that they will be at a full roster for camp, per a report that emerged on Wednesday night from the San Francisco Chronicle‘s Rusty Simmons.

There’s increasing concern among the Warriors about the early season availability of starting small forward Andrew Wiggins, who has declined to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to NBA sources.

Wiggins was open last year about not wanting to get the vaccine — it should be mentioned he said he wouldn’t get it “unless I’m forced to” — but with a mandate in place that would not allow him to go to practice or play in home games at the Chase Center, that decision now has a significant impact on a Warriors team that will already be starting the season with Klay Thompson out as he works back from an Achilles injury. Per Simmons, the team has gotten Wiggins to speak with doctors about the vaccine, its effectiveness, safety, and importance, but Wiggins has remained “unmoved” about getting it.

With the season rapidly approaching, Wiggins will have a decision to make. That’s also the case for the Warriors, as the already shorthanded squad will need to find a replacement for one of their top players for 41 games if he holds onto his stance. Beyond that, it’s hard to see how a player who isn’t at practices or home games could jump in for road games only, but this is a situation the Warriors and Wiggins will have to navigate should he continue to turn down the vaccine that 212 million Americans have received at least one dose of so far.

Lucky Daye kicked off 2021 by releasing his third EP, Table For Two, which features six duets with female singers, including Ari Lennox, Yebba, Joyce Wrice, and more. The singer has stayed quiet on the solo side of things since then, but he’s also dropped an impressive collection of guest verses. On Wednesday, he returned to the solo route with his brand new single, “Over.”

The luscious track captures he and his partner — played by Jordyn Woods — caught up in a confusing relationship that finds them on-and-off-again. “Over” also arrives with an excellently shot video, in which Daye experiences a bad dream multiple times before breaking out of the cycle.

The new song comes after Daye connected with Sevyn Streeter for “Feelz,” off her sophomore album, Drunk Wordz Sober Thoughtz. It’s one of many strong collaborations that Daye has been a part of this year. Others include “You Want My Love” with Earth, Wind & Fire, a remix of “Slow Down” with VanJess, and “Make You Feel Good” with BJ The Chicago Kid.

Daye recently performed at HER’s Lights On Festival in California and is set to appear on stage at the showcase’s second iteration in Brooklyn, NY.

You can watch the video for the track above.

Starting in the ’90s, Birdman and Lil Wayne were an inseparable duo for the better part of two decades. The duo’s close relationship fell apart during the mid-2010s, after label issues arose around the release of Wayne’s Tha Carter IV. Nowadays, things are better between the two, and during a recent appearance on Revolt’s Big Facts Podcast, Birdman spoke about the infamous kisses that he and Wayne shared at multiple points of their careers. During the conversation, he explained that their father-son relationship and his fear of death as to why he and Wayne shared these very intimate moments.

“I always looked at Wayne as my son…’cause I was in the streets and I thought this might be the last time they ever see me, ’cause I was living like that,” Birdman told Revolt. “That’s where that sh*t really started from. I thought that, every night I leave, I might not never come back.” He added, “I was his father when he didn’t have a father and I love him like my own and I’d give my life for him and I’d take a life for him.”

You can listen to Birdman’s comments on Big Facts Podcast in the video above.

The first few months after having a newborn are seriously stressful. It’s tough to get any sleep and your entire schedule revolves around the needs of the baby.

It’s expensive, too! It seems like you’re constantly shelling out $25 for a box of diapers and $40 for a can of formula.

So it’s understandable that a Facebook user who goes by the name of Chris Blaze asked for a deal when buying a Samsung washer and dryer set of a guy named Dave he met online.

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“I just went to buy a Samsung washer and dryer from a guy and he was asking $500. I told him I just had a kid and if he could take $400 I’d be really grateful,” the father said. “I got home hooked everything up and everything worked great.”

But then he received a message he couldn’t believe.

“I got a message from him saying ‘check the dryer, a gift for the new baby,'” he wrote. Blaze looked in the lint filter and found his $400 in cash.

“Man, words can not describe how grateful I am right now,” Blaze wrote on Facebook. A lot of people on Facebook couldn’t believe the incredible gratitude from a stranger either. Since being posted last Tuesday, it has over 43,000 likes and 245,000 shares.

It’s wonderful to see that there are great people out there like David who understand the hardships that new parents go through. He knew that Chris had a lot of diapers to buy and decided that the new father could use that $400 probably more than he did. Let’s hope that his act of kindness inspires others to do the same.

Dino Serrao believes there is beauty in every person and is on a mission to prove it.

Serrao is an Italian photographer who lives in Norway and travels the world to photograph ordinary people on the street. His portraits are awesome, but the video documentation of him taking people’s portraits is even better. He shares the videos and photos on his various social media channels and has created quite a following.

For a taste of why, watch Serrao convince this elderly grandmother to let him take her picture:

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So many of his videos offer a similar feeling, but each in their own way. And that’s really the point. Each person has their own individuality that creates their own unique beauty.

He just stops people right where they are in the street and asks to take their picture. And the results are stunning.

Sometimes it’s a musician he captures:

Watch this one of a woman with her dog:

A guard at the royal palace:

And just generally interesting people:

In his “About Me” section of his website, Serrao says, “Creating a great impact in this world means socializing with all cultures and traveling all over to connect with each other, in hearts and minds.” That’s exactly what we see him doing.

Keep up the beautiful work, Dino Serrao. You can follow him on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

As first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Michelle Roberts is retiring as the NBA Players Association executive director and will replaced by attorney Tamika Tremaglio. Tremagilo was, up until Wednesday night, an attorney for Deloitte, a firm that provides audit, consulting, tax, and advisory services.

The NBPA officially announced the move in a press release on Wednesday night.

“Tamika has been by our side for many years, advising us on the best practices and policies needed for our organization to operate more like a successful business,” McCollum said in the release. “Given Michele’s strong leadership and guidance that have brought us to where we are today, we were looking for a next-generation leader, who has the skills, vision, and credibility to pick up where Michele will leave off and to elevate our Union to even greater heights. Tamika’s well-rounded experience in collective bargaining, staff management, revenue creation, wealth preservation and culture building, undoubtedly will put our players in the best position to succeed.”

What’s notable about Tremagilo is that she’s going be hands-on in the next round of collective bargaining negotiations between the players and the league. That’s on the horizon — the reported opt-out date for both sides is in December 2022 in the middle of the 2022-23 season — but the ramp-up to that starts now.

“I’ve worked with some of the brightest business and legal minds in the world,” said Tremaglio per the release. “I’ve broken barriers, challenged misperceptions, and much like the professional athletes I’ve supported over the years, I have defied the odds. I’m incredibly grateful and passionate about this opportunity to serve the Players and positively contribute to the role that the NBPA will play in the future of basketball, both on and off the court.”

Roberts also leaves behind a really legacy in her time with the NBPA. She had originally announced her decision to step down as executive back in March 2020 after six years at the head of the organization. Her stay was extended by the pandemic, where she was key in helping Orlando bubble happen and in the league’s players supporting social justice in Orlando.

Tremagilo is the first significant hire by the new president of the NBPA, Blazers guard CJ McCollum, and, as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski noted, Tremagilo also has previous experience consulting for the NBPA and worked with WNBA players when they negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement in 2019.

Last year, Teyana Taylor announced her plans to retire from music months after the release of her third album, which was called, simply, The Album. She revealed that she would be “retiring this chapter” of her career due to “being overlooked,” which she said was a result of issues with her label, Def Jam. “I constantly feel alone, I constantly feel under-appreciated, I constantly feel failed…there is literally no push,” she said during an Instagram Live, adding that she asked to be dropped from the label “on almost 10 different occasions.” Taylor seems quite close to making her retirement official, but she won’t do so without a farewell tour, which she announced today.

Starting this November, Taylor will hit the road for The Last Rose Petal Farewell Tour. “How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard,” she wrote on social media. “However, for every goodbye, God makes the next hello closer. Come out and watch me leave it all out on the stage… One last time… Just for you & as my last rose petal falls, I say farewell.”

The tour begins on November 7 in San Francisco and continues throughout the month before coming to an end on November 30 in Atlanta. Pre-sale tickets will be available starting on September 23 while general admission begins on September 24 at 10 am.