Month: October 2021

While Kawhi Leonard won’t be suiting up for the Clippers anytime soon this season following offseason ACL surgery, he’s been keeping busy as a co-executive producer for the Culture Jam Vol. 1 compilation, scheduled to be released tomorrow via Virgin Music. Yesterday, Uproxx reported on the latest video drop from the album for A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie And Capella Gray’s “Bestie.” The track follows the first two releases from the album: Rod Wave and YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s “Everything Different” and “Waves” by Gunna and Polo G.

Now, one day ahead of the release, the full tracklist has been shared and it looks like Kawhi plucked the cream of the crop from All-Star Weekend function. “Gotta Have It” with Ty Dolla Sign, Stefflon Don, and recent Uproxx cover star Wale stands out as one to get hyped on. It should be noted that Leonard indicated that part of the proceeds will benefit the Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation. In addition to the album, Leonard is presenting the Culture Jam Sports And Music Festival (CJ21) featuring Cordae, Bluebuckslean, and others, held at the Shrine Auditorium in LA on November 21st.

Check out the tracklist below.

1. “Everything Different” Feat. NBA Youngboy and Rod Wave
2. “Waves” Feat. Gunna and Polo G
3. “Thankful” Feat. Lil Uzi Vert
4. “Bestie” Feat. A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and Capella Grey
5. “Gotta Have It” Feat. Ty Dolla Sign, Stefflon Don, and Wale
6. “Everywhere You Go” Feat. Yung Bleu and NLE Choppa
7. “No Thank You” Feat. Bluebucksclan

Kawhi Leonard Presents: Culture Jam Vol. 1 is out 10/22 via Virgin Music. Pre-order it here.

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

Phoebe Bridgers is on top of the music world now, but it wasn’t always that way. Once upon a time, she was just a kid learning how to sing, and apparently, she did so by being annoying.

Bridgers and frequent collaborator Marshall Vore are among the participants in “Song Start,” a new series from Spotify For Artists. Spotify describes it as “a video and podcast education series focusing on songwriting, production, music, and mindset. It’s a jumping off point. It’s where the song starts!” In Bridgers and Vore’s video, they go over recording an acoustic demo track. As an aside, though, Bridgers notes, “I learned how to harmonize by being the annoying kid in the car who was like, “[sings],” like harmonizing with everything on the radio. But that’s how you learn!”

The clip mostly focuses on Bridgers using a small device called Spire Studio, which connects to a phone, to record a demo with individual vocal and guitar tracks. At the end of the video, Bridgers offers some solid advice for artists, saying, “Apologize for yourself as little as possible. When I show something and I’m like, ‘OK, it’s not all the way done and this is by no means finished,’ it’s just like, just do it, it’s fine.”

Watch the video above.

While Denis Villeneuve’s Dune might have a lot of things going for it — an all-star cast, great source material, an impressive budget, and some pretty decent reviews so far, to name a few — there’s one thing we here at UPROXX personally think stands out above all else: Oscar Isaac’s beard. Ever since the film’s first trailer hit YouTube last September, Isaac’s rugged-yet-regal appearance has caused quite a commotion and a frankly dangerous number of swoons and sighs. As such, it might come as quite the shock that Duke Leto’s lion-like mane almost ceased to exist.

In an interview with GQ, Dune makeup and hair department head Donald Mowat revealed the first concept art for Isaac’s character, Duke Leto Atreides, depicted the character as highly polished and clean-shaven.

“I personally didn’t see Oscar Isaac with the beard initially. When I was working on my Photoshops and concept characters — I kind of diligently pull reference materials — I didn’t. When I heard that this could happen and Oscar and Denis had talked about it, I was a little bit surprised.”

To be fair, Mowat had very good reason for envisioning Isaac this way. In Dune, author Frank Herbert describes the Duke as “tall, olive-skinned. His thin face held harsh angels warmed only by deep gray eyes,” which does cast the character in a pretty severe light that the decidedly kind-faced Isaac doesn’t quite have. Furthermore, in the 1984 David Lynch movie, Duke Leto is only given a slight beard (that looks far more incidental than the carefully sculpted one Isaac sports), and in the 2000 mini-series, the Duke is clean-shaven. Mowat said he ultimately had to go back to the drawing board when he heard Villeneuve and Isaac were all about the actor maintaining his facial hair, and ultimately found some pretty interesting inspiration.

Ultimately, Isaac keeping the beard actually served the film well in a number of ways. First and foremost, it helped accentuate the age gap between Isaac and his on-screen son Paul (Timothée Chalamet), as well as gave them a bit more of a physical connection: their hair. Whereas Chalamet’s pale, slender and Tim Burton-esque portrayal of Paul implies his character mostly takes after his mother, both his and Isaac’s boast some wild tresses that prove the two do have some relation.

“We kept [Paul’s] hair very wavy, a lion-like mane. He’s like the young lion to the old — this mane of hair blown in the sand and the dust and the spice — but he is Lady Jessica’s son. He’s pale, he’s statuesque, he’s beautiful, but he’s got his father’s hair.”

While we’re absolutely certain Isaac, an incredibly handsome and talented actor, would look and perform just as wonderfully without it, I think all parties are happier the upcoming Dune movie let Duke Leto keep his mane — even if it did take 14 weeks to grow and required 35 minutes of grooming a day to make it look camera ready. You can catch Isaac’s beard in all its glory starting at 6 PM ET today, when the film hits HBO Max, or Friday, October 22 in theaters.

There’s a new update in the ongoing saga of Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers. Days after he was kicked out of practice by Doc Rivers and suspended for a game, Simmons, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, came and left the 76ers’ practice facility without doing a scheduled workout at the team’s practice facility. The team did not have a full-on practice today, per Woj, after playing their first game of the season on Wednesday.

The 76ers next play on Friday against the Nets in what, in theory, should be a fun early-season showdown between two of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. But with the continued absence of Kyrie Irving for Brooklyn and the Simmons situation for Philadelphia, there’s some shine taken off of this matchup.

What’s going on with Simmons now is also still unclear. Per Woj, he hasn’t practiced with the 76ers since reporting. Does Simmons’ continued absence and seeming unwillingness to engage with the team in a way that will get him back to the court force Daryl Morey’s hand at some point? Will they fine him again if he doesn’t participate in workouts? It’s clear now that he wants out and is trying to make thing uncomfortable in an effort to be traded. It’s just unclear if it will work, at least in the short term.

The current feeling at Netflix HQ is that the streaming giant has turned into its very own episode of Squid Game. The controversy surrounding charges of Dave Chappelle’s new comedy special The Closer being labeled transphobic have spilled outside of the streaming giant’s boardroom and into the entertainment world at large.

In the past week alone, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos offered up a half-ass apology to the people who might be offended by Chappelle’s new special, but made it clear that he supported freedom of speech for artists. Then he ended up having to apologize for his original apology, yet in doing so reconfirmed that he was standing by Chappelle. The response, particularly from Netflix’s inner circle of talent and employees—who staged a walkout—was swift.

Hannah Gadsby was pretty forthright when she issued a message to Sarandos, stating:

“You didn’t pay me nearly enough to deal with the real world consequences of the hate speech dog whistling you refuse to acknowledge, Ted. Fuck you and your amoral algorithm cult… I do shits with more back bone than you. That’s just a joke! I definitely didn’t cross a line because there isn’t one.”

Elliot Page, who stars in Netflix’s Umbrella Academy, took to Twitter to express their unhappiness with the situation:

But a new groundswell of support is emerging in support of Chappelle’s right to say whatever the hell he damn pleases from the comedy community. As Deadline reports, Jamie Masada, founder of L.A.’s legendary Laugh Factory comedy club, has written an open letter to the comedy community asking for Chappelle’s fellow comedians to rally around him. In a letter that was picked up by the Los Angeles Times, Masada wrote:

“What we are witnessing is an attack on the independence of comedy and the freedoms that make comedy the most organic, noncommercial form of entertainment.

If we don’t stand up for one another it won’t just be one of us that loses this freedom—it will be all of us—and once this freedom is gone, the doors of comedic expression will be sealed shut. There’s no going back. Dave deserves the same freedoms that we all enjoy—the ones that make comedy what it is and provoke perspective shifts time and time again.”

Masada, who has known Chappelle since the comic was 17 years old, says that he has always “shown nothing but kindness, compassion and empathy for his fellow human, regardless of gender, race, status or creed.” He also added that:

“We will stand by our comedians through thick and thin, through rain and shine, through scrutiny and praise. Dave has brought joy to millions of fans across the world and inspired an entire generation of comedians. I know Dave’s character, and I know his heart. He is a gentle soul, and one that only wishes to make the world look at the mundane differently, the normal abnormally and the black and white in color. There is not a hateful thread in Dave’s DNA.”

As the Los Angeles Times noted, it was Masada who banned Michael Richards from the Laugh Factory after the Seinfeld star went on a racist rant back in 2006.

(Via Deadline)

It has been a while since any basketball has been played at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena — aka “Jurassic Park,” because “The Toronto Raptors,” naturally — so you’d be forgiven for forgetting that local rap hero Drake actually has a position with the team. Aside from being a courtside fixture and occasionally popping up in the broadcast booth, Drake is also a “Global Ambassador” for the team, which is ostensibly a marketing gig but seems to entail a lot of sideline trolling, such as a little trash talk with Montrezl Harris in last night’s season opener.

Drake’s return to Jurassic Park is also once again generating viral memes after a video of Drake greeting his fellow regulars at the arena posted by the Raptors Twitter and reposted by Sportscenter reminded fans of a classic sketch from Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele Comedy Central show, Key & Peele. If you haven’t already you can watch the sketch above. In it, Jordan Peele impersonates President Barack Obama, lightly satirizing Obama’s habit of “code-switching” on the fly — even at official State functions.

Fans immediately noticed that Drake took a similar tack (for what it’s worth, the parallels between Drake and Obama would make a fascinating feature, someone remind me to pitch that) with fellow fans at Scotiabank Arena, giving some daps and pounds while greeting others with polite handshakes. Some also noticed that the fan who received the handshake appeared to be SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk, wondering whether Drake wasn’t feeling the billionaire. Check out some of the responses below.

Adam Barrett has been steadily building a fan base on YouTube with his acoustic guitar covers of iconic songs from musicians and bands like The Beatles, The Cure and Oasis.

Last year, Barrett uploaded a cover of The Beach Boys song “God Only Knows,” from their iconic Pet Sounds album. It’s a song so good that Paul McCartney once called it the “greatest song ever written” and has repeatedly praised it over the years, including in 2007 when he performed the song live with Wilson.

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BRIAN WILSON SHARED THIS! | God Only Knows – The Beach Boys (cover)

www.youtube.com

Barrett’s cover honors the spiritual and emotional feel of the original while adding his own unique touch by challenging the soulful harmonies into his own singular sound. The cover is so good that Wilson himself shared it on his Twitter account, adding: “How about this!”

How about this! https://t.co/70fcNSv1gm

— Brian Wilson (@BrianWilsonLive)
1605570796.0

And if you know anything about the famously reclusive Brian Wilson, that seemingly minor comment is high praise indeed.

With around 38,000 views, Barrett’s video is still a bit of an undiscovered gem for most folks. And his talents continue to generate a hugely positive and emotional response from folks experiencing it for the first time:

Barrett’s videos are a great example of how platforms like YouTube can be used to elevate and share the creative talents of people who might otherwise go unnoticed. His covers are introducing him to a new audience that also gets the chance to check out some of Barrett’s original songs along the way. And if you’re a fan of the Beach Boys, or any of the other songs Barrett covers, it’s a wonderful new way to experience the music you already love.

We might still be living in a pandemic, but it’s safe to say that music festivals are officially back in full swing (especially for the fully vaccinated). This past weekend brought the return of Dirtybird records label head Claude VonStroke’s festival-meets-summer-camp event, Dirtybird Campout — held at the Modesto Reservoir Campgrounds in Central California. If you’ve ever been to Central Cali, you’re probably well aware that the summer doesn’t ever really go away, and judging from these photo selects we’ve received of the festivities, that held true for this year’s campout, where people rocked summer-ready attire exclusively.

Dirtybird Campout is essentially a summer camp for adults, and festival-goers were treated to epic tug-o-war matches, dodgeball games, all sorts of different races, a talent show, pie-eating contest, deep house yoga, and just about anything else you can think to do at a summer camp — all soundtracked by some of the most cutting-edge modern dance music with performances by Day Zero, Damian Lazarus, Tiga, Catz ‘N Dogs, and the legendary Detroit techno legend, Carl Craig. The whole event looks like some sort of nightmare version of Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, in the best possible way.

Check out some of the festivities below to escape those cool weather autumn blues.

The last we heard from Alex Lahey, the Australian rocker was writing a song for the soundtrack to Netflix’s biggest animated release of all time, The Mitchells Vs. The Machines. Now back to share some new music of her own, Lahey returns with the power pop track “Spike The Punch.”

The track, which teems with energy, was produced by Grammy Award winner Carlos de la Garza, who has worked with the likes of Paramore, Hayley Williams, Cherry Glazerr, and Best Coast. In a statement about her new single, Lahey describes the song’s theme:

“‘Spike The Punch’ is a song about the fun that comes with self-sabotage and reckless abandon. It’s big, it’s loud, it’s fun, it’s its own beast. There are some super sinister tones in there rubbing up against really bright anime style guitar harmonies (guitarmonies, anyone?..) and shout choruses. ‘Spike’ feels like a raucous bookend to navigating these cruelly unpredictable times. Touch wood.”

The visual was directed by Matt Sav and features a performance by Matthew Pope, who goes from sporting a business suit to rocking out in heels and drag. Of the video, Lahey said, “The ‘Spike The Punch’ video is perhaps my favorite video I’ve ever been a part of. I’m incredibly grateful to Matt Sav and his team for pulling this together while I’ve been locked down in Melbourne. Matt and I spoke about how we wanted to capture a sense of freedom, fluidity and fun in this video along with hurtling forward momentum. Matt Pope, the brilliant performer who stars in the video, completely harnesses the direction and puts on a hell of a show. It gives me chills every time I press play.”

Watch Lahey’s “Spike The Punch” video above.

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

Despite its title’s similarity to another hip-hop hit referencing “Ice Baby,” Flo Milli’s new single sounds wildly different from the one most millennials grew up chanting. Instead, it’s an aggressive, boastful track with a thunderous trap beat that aims to establish the Mobile, Alabama native’s growing dominance in the rap game. The song was debuted on the popular performance platform, A COLORS Show, with Flo Milli decked out in a vibrant cyan bodysuit and popping against a magenta background, helping A COLORS Show live up to its name.

Employing a laid-back rapid-fire flow, Milli brags about her newfound success, comparing herself to her detractors and determining that she’s just too big to belong in their conversations. Although she’s not as animated as some prior guests, her chilly demeanor actually works to the song’s advantage, giving the air of someone who remains rock-solid no matter how boisterous the boasts happen to get.

Fans have been looking forward to the Alabama rapper’s return ever since she appeared on this year’s XXL Freshman Class courtesy of the success of her breakout debut mixtape, Ho, Why Is You Here? in 2020. While she followed that up with a strong feature on GoldLink’s “Raindrops,” her overall absence from the spotlight suggested she was focused on finishing a project, which she recently promised would be “versatile.” With the release of a new single, perhaps those fans’ wait will be over in due time.

Watch Flo Milli perform “Ice Baby” on A COLORS Show above.