Month: December 2021

Though songs are chosen independently by Uproxx, we may earn commission on qualifying purchases you make after clicking on links within this article as an Amazon affiliate.

Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw a slew of terrific year-ending collaborations between Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi as well as Juice WRLD and Justin Bieber. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

For more music recommendations, check out our Listen To This section, as well as our Indie Mixtape and Pop Life newsletters.

Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi — “Just Look Up”

Grande and Cudi expanded their IMDb pages this year by appearing in Don’t Look Up alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence. Along with their on-screen roles, the pair also came together on a song for the film, which, at least in title, has the exact opposite message, as it’s called “Just Look Up.” As for the sound, it’s a grandiose ballad that sees both artists showing off their emotional sides.

Juice WRLD — “Wandered To LA” Feat. Justin Bieber

Even though Juice WRLD tragically passed away two years ago now, new music from the late rapper has been released at an impressively regular rate. His posthumous output has included a lot of collaborations, and his latest is a Justin Bieber collaboration called “Wandered To LA.” As Uproxx’s Wongo Okon notes of the track, “The new song sees both artists wide-eyed and curious for the good and bad things that await them in the future.”

Grimes — “Player Of Games”

Get ready for a new Grimes era, because she launched one last week, declaring, “And so the BOOK 1 era begins.” That message came alongside the release of a new club-ready single, “Player Of Games.” Naturally, some speculate the song is about Elon Musk, as Grimes sings on the chorus, “If I loved him any less / I’d make him stay / But he has to be the best / Player of games.”

Khalid — “Scenic Drive” Feat. Ari Lennox and Smino

Khalid found himself in a funk this summer, as he noted of his then-in-progress project, “Creating is what keeps me from losing my mind but my passion goes away a little more every day.” Eventually, though, Khalid powered through and released Scenic Drive last week. A highlight from the project is its title track, a healthy dose of nighttime R&B that features Ari Lennox and Smino.

Ed Sheeran and Elton John — “Merry Christmas”

In recent years, Elton John’s older Christmas music has had some annual chart success, so he wanted to run it back with a new holiday tune. He recruited Ed Sheeran to help him out and together, the pair dropped “Merry Christmas.” If you’re surprised the song’s title is so simple, that’s how Sheeran felt when he discovered that basically no notable song had used it before.

Phoebe Bridgers — “Day After Tomorrow”

It’s Christmas music season, so leave it to Phoebe Bridgers to subvert expectations with her holiday song. Instead of going in the Sheeran and John direction of a classic bell-heavy Christmas tune, her contribution to the holiday season is a gloomy and gentle six-minute cover of Tom Waits’ “Day After Tomorrow.”

The National — “Somebody Desperate”

The National and its members have their fingerprints all over the new Cyrano movie. The Dessners composed the score and recently performed a song from it with Peter Dinklage on The Late Show. Matt Berninger and his wife (and frequent The National collaborator) Carin Besser also penned lyrics for the film, and The National themselves contributed a song to the soundtrack, the evocative “Somebody Desperate.”

Tierra Whack — “Stand Up”

The end of last week was kind to Tierra Whack fans: On Thursday, she announced a new project called Rap?, and on Friday, she released it. Among the highlights is “Stand Up,” which is delightfully minimal in its production and lets Whack’s deceptively catchy rhythm take over.

Cordae — “Sinister” Feat. Lil Wayne

Cordae is gearing up to drop his next album, From A Birds Eye View, but in the meantime, he’s kept his fans fed with miscellaneous drops here and there. Another one of those came last week, but it was more than a diversion, as he linked up with Lil Wayne for the groovy new single “Sinister.”

SZA — “I Hate U”

This summer, SZA decided to drop a trio of new songs on Soundcloud, and one of those, “I Hate U,” ended up gaining enough popularity for SZA to give it an official release, as she noted, “this started as an experiment on SoundCloud but y’all asked for it On streaming.” The track is a smooth tune that sees SZA flexing her vocal chops over moody production.

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

A small teen girl sat quietly at the end of my row, a seat between her and anyone else, as the crowd anxiously awaited the biggest musical act in the world right now, BTS, to make a brief appearance at the 2021 edition of Jingle Ball at the Forum in Los Angeles. The iHeartRadio event, put on through local pop station Kiss FM, brings the biggest stars and rising artists in pop together for an annual event, and like the 2019 edition, BTS was set to open the evening. When the music started for the 10-minute set (two songs, “Butter” and “Dynamite,” broken up with by group addressing the fans and singing “Happy Birthday” to Jin), the girl lept on top of her chair, carefully unfolding a homemade sign to wave at them, and popped out her phone to film the entire thing. When an usher calmly asked her to step off the chair, she obliged, only to get right back up moments later, the Korean pop sensations bringing out a rebellious streak generally associated with other genres.

At these kinds of events, trying to see things through the eyes of the fans is a joy. As we get older, it’s easy to forget how special it can be at a young age to see the artists you adore in person, even if it is only for a few minutes. It’s also easy to forget the time that goes into preparing for these encounters: making a sign, securing the clear bag that most venues now require, obtaining tiny binoculars (I loved that she had these) to get a better view from across the arena, feverishly posting to fan forums during the ensuing acts, and undoubtedly recounting the experience for days and even years later. And watching others in the audience absolutely losing their shit to artists like Ed Sheeran, knowing every word to every Doja Cat song, twerking for an Icy Chain from Saweetie, and witnessing the ascension of talents like Lil Nas X and Tate McRae, it’s hard not to feel heartened by the state of pop music, and for a world where we can sit in a room and enjoy them all together, again.

For BTS, who just finished an historic run at neighboring SoFi Stadium, the performance caps their most impressive year yet, and leads into one that they teased would mean more chances for the Army to see them in 2022. It was unclear if their fans knew their appearance would be so brief (I figured as much knowing how Jingle Ball typically operates, but there were gasps of disappointment when they left the stage), but their Army Bomb Light Sticks still shone brightly around the arena throughout the evening, as many of the artists made compelling cases for the Army to stick around.

Sheeran was clearly the other main event of the evening. A divisive artist in critics’ circles, it only takes a few moments of witnessing his live presence to get it. Over five songs — a couple of his recent singles, his brand new Christmas song, and classics “Perfect” and “Shape Of You” — Sheeran showed off his looping skills, a feat indie fans who’ve been to an Andrew Bird or Tune-Yards concert would be familiar with, but isn’t often seen in big spectacle pop. But this act feels different from Sheeran, someone who doesn’t need to show off his chops and techniques to win over audiences, that he still keeps it real and essentially does his entire performance live and solo (aside from keys accompaniment on “Merry Christmas”). It’s obviously not revolutionary, but it’s also enough to give credence to his bonkers big popularity.

The other biggest highlight was Doja Cat. With hits like “Say So” and “Kiss Me More,” she’s got the songs play venues of this size by herself, and she has the star power to match. Sure, the band was a little too prevelant in the mix, but her set felt like the most fully-realized short performance of the night, including putting the spotlight on her drummer for a solo and taking the time to vibe out to her own music while headbanging and flashing a huge smile. Sometimes Spotify plays don’t equate to such a strong live presentation, but Doja clearly is an artist that can succeed on all fronts. And as she likely expands that live presence in 2022, don’t be surprised if we’re not all living on Planet Her by the end of next year.

Elsewhere, Saweetie largely did a similar set to the one I witnessed a few weeks back at Head In The Clouds, and it still was great, with her recent live training showing through as she prepares for her next big step up the pop ranks (her seeming tradition of handing out Icy Chains to fans during her set absolutely rules, maybe more artists should hand out gifts from the stage.) And Tate McRae was the most impressive of the rising stars. At just 18, she has successfully lept from the dancing world to pop stardom, and through her smokey vocals, sharp dance moves, and warm ease on stage, the sky is the limit for how far she can take her art.

It wasn’t all success stories — Dixie D’Amelio didn’t show any reason for being in the same class as the other artists on the bill besides a big social media following — but for the most part, Jingle Ball demonstrated a healthy state of pop music. Sure, Dua Lipa’s last-minute cancelation was a bummer, but the night still had that unwrapping-a-gift-under-the-tree feeling, where everyone was happy to be back doing this yearly tradition again, creating musical memories to hold onto for as long as we can.

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

In a surprising move from the notoriously tight-lipped Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige has officially confirmed that Charlie Cox will return to the MCU as Daredevil. Cox brought Matt Murdock for the now aborted Netflix series of Marvel shows, and the cancellation of those shows left a huge question mark about what would Marvel would do with those characters. Everything was on the table from bringing them back to Disney+ to doing a full-on reboot. Well, in the case of Daredevil, we now know Marvel’s plans and just in time for the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which surely, isn’t a a coincidence.

Here’s what Feige told CinemaBlend, which set Marvel fans buzzing with excitement when the news hit late Sunday night:

If you were to see Daredevil in upcoming things, Charlie Cox, yes, would be the actor playing Daredevil. Where we see that, how we see that, when we see that, remains to be seen.

While Feige doesn’t specifically confirm that Cox will be appear in No Way Home, it has been a long gestating rumor bolstered by alleged sightings of the actors on set. (Heck, Kevin Smith was talking about all the way back in March of 2020.) More importantly, Cox’s performance on the Daredevil series was easily one of the highlights of the Netflix shows, and fans are absolutely stoked that his version of ol’ hornhead is finally getting a chance to run wild in the MCU.

Of course, fans are now asking for the other Netflix characters to return, particularly Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones and Jon Bernthal as The Punisher.

In the more immediate future, Cox’s returning as Daredevil will only further support theories that Vincent D’Onofrio is also returning to the MCU and could already be making his presence felt in Hawkeye on Disney+ as the mysterious “uncle” to Alaqua Cox’s Maya Lopez.

(Via CinemaBlend)

2021 saw Olivia Rodrigo become one of the biggest musical artists in the world with Sour, but her rise to superstardom has been atypical in that there weren’t a ton of in-person appearances involved due to the pandemic. She has performed live here and there, but now Rodrigo has announced her first major tour.

In April and May of 2022, Rodrigo will had a bunch of venues with support from Gracie Abrams and Holly Humberstone. Then, after a couple weeks off, she’ll head to Europe and the UK, with Baby Queen opening those shows.

Check out the full list of tour dates below.

04/02/2022 — San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium *
04/05/2022 — Portland, OR @ Theater of the Clouds *
04/06/2022 — Seattle, WA @ WAMU Theater *
04/07/2022 — Vancouver, BC @ Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre *
04/09/2022 — Salt Lake City, UT @ UCCU Center *
04/11/2022 — Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom *
04/12/2022 — Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom *
04/14/2022 — Minneapolis, MN @ Armory *
04/15/2022 — Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom *
04/16/2022 — Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom *
04/19/2022 — Milwaukee, WI @ Eagles Ballroom *
04/20/2022 — Chesterfield, MO @ The Factory *
04/22/2022 — Cincinnati, OH @ The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center *
04/23/2022 — Detroit, MI @ Masonic Temple Theatre *
04/26/2022 — New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall #
04/27/2022 — New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall #
04/29/2022 — Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall #
04/30/2022 — Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall #
05/03/2022 — Boston, MA @ Roadrunner #
05/04/2022 — Washington, DC @ Anthem #
05/06/2022 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia #
05/07/2022 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia #
05/09/2022 — Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy #
05/10/2022 — Nashville, TN @ Grand Ole Opry House #
05/13/2022 — Austin, TX @ Moody Amphitheater #
05/14/2022 — Irving, TX @ Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory #
05/17/2022 — Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Federal Theatre #
05/18/2022 — San Diego, CA @ The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park #
05/20/2022 — Las Vegas, NV @ The Chelsea #
05/21/2022 — Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Bowl #
05/24/2022 — Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre #
05/25/2022 — Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre #
06/11/2022 — Hamburg, Germany @ Stadtpark ^
06/13/2022 — Berlin, Germany @ Verti Music Hall ^
06/15/2022 — Zurich, Switzerland @ Halle 622 ^
06/16/2022 — Milan, Italy @ Fabrique ^
06/18/2022 — Cologne, Germany @ Palladium ^
06/19/2022 — Brussels, Belgium @ Forest National ^
06/21/2022 — Paris, France @ Zénith ^
06/22/2022 — Amsterdam, Holland @ AFAS Live ^
06/29/2022 — Cork, Ireland @ Live At The Marquee ^
06/30/2022 — Dublin, Ireland @ Fairview Park ^
07/02/2022 — Glasgow, UK @ O2 Academy Glasgow ^
07/03/2022 — Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo Manchester ^
07/04/2022 — Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy Birmingham ^
07/06/2022 — London, UK @ Eventim Apollo ^
07/07/2022 — London, UK @ Eventim Apollo ^

* with Gracie Abrams
# with Holly Humberstone
^ with Baby Queen

Gwyneth Paltrow is a multi-millionaire movie star who sells exploding vagina candles. She’s not the most relatable person — except for when it comes to her fuzzy memory about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There’s a lot of Marvel movies and shows, and there will continue to be a lot of Marvel movies and shows for the rest of our lives. It’s hard to keep track of them all, even (especially?) when you’ve been in eight of them.

Paltrow had no idea that she was in Spider-Man: Homecoming; she forgot that she had met MCU co-star Sebastian Stan twice before; and Marvel Studios honcho Kevin Feige had to remind her that Samuel L. Jackson plays Nick Fury (“What are you talking about? He’s Nick Fury! You’ve been in movies with him,” he told her). Her latest instance of being blissfully unaware about the MCU happened on Instagram, where she was asked for her thoughts on the Disney+ series Hawkeye. She replied, “No, what is that?”

Paltrow needs to ditch the goop Podcast and start one where she explains what she thinks various Marvel movies and shows are about without having seem them. I would subscribe just to hear her say the word “Quantumania.”

As for why she can’t keep track of all the Marvel movies she’s been in, Paltrow explained, “It is confusing because there are so many Marvel movies, and to be honest, I haven’t seen very many of them. It’s really stupid and I’m sorry, but I’m a 47-year-old mother.” There is nothing to apologize for. Honestly? Respect.

Jake Tapper had some harsh words for Hollywood, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, the NBA, and anyone else who has willfully turned a blind eye to the many human rights atrocities that have taken place under Xi Jinping’s reign all in the name of the almighty dollar. As The Wrap reports, Tapper praised the Women’s Tennis Association for doing “something that few other athletic organizations or corporations in general have been willing to do: Criticize the Chinese government and take serious steps to protest its brutality.”

On December 1, the WTA announced that would will no longer take part in any tournaments in China following tennis star Peng Shuai’s allegations that she was sexually assaulted 10 years ago by China’s former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli.

On November 2, Shuai shared the details of her alleged assault via a social media post on Weibo. Within 30 minutes, the post was removed as was Shuai’s account and any mentions of her on social media. Shortly after that, Shuai herself vanished—a situation that has many, including fellow players like Serena Williams—worried for her safety.

While Shuai has been seen in videos released by Chinese state media, it’s unclear whether she is actually safe. The situation is drawing international attention, particularly given that we’re less than two months away from the Winter 2022 Olympics in Beijing. “Not only is the [International Olympic Committee] not raising its voice in solidarity in protest, the IOC is helping the Chinese government by providing cover,” says Tapper.

The IOC claims that it has had two video calls with Shuai over the past two weeks, yet has not provided any footage from these calls or the transcripts. “The IOC has not mentioned her allegations of sexual assault,” Tapper said, “nor would the IOC explain who set up these calls. The IOC is behaving like a mob lawyer.”

The human rights atrocities in China, of course, go back much further than Shuai. “This year both the Trump and the Biden administrations have asserted that China is committing ‘genocide’ and crimes against humanity.”

Tapper mentioned companies like Apple and Nike by name, saying that the companies “publicly claim to decry slave labor, but to be clear: the behavior we are seeing from U.S. corporations, it’s not about a company surviving. It’s about discontent with just hundreds of millions of dollars, desiring instead billions of dollars.”

The way Tapper sees it, Shuai’s disappearance is akin to “the consciences of the millionaires and billionaires of Hollywood and the NBA and the IOC and Wall Street are all so eager for Chinese cash, they’re pretending none of this is happening. There is no amount of money that can buy enough soap to wash that blood off their hands.”

(Via The Wrap)

Tom Holland will be taking a break from web-slinging to do a little tap-dancing. The 25-year-old Marvel star will be playing Hollywood legend Fred Astaire in an upcoming biopic. Variety reports that Holland confirmed the role on Sunday, while in London promoting Spider-Man: No Way Home.

In a recent GQ profile of the actor, Spider-Man producer and former Sony chairperson Amy Pascal described the actor as “the hardest-working person that I know” and said that “there are very few actors working now who are versatile in the way that he is.” In addition to discussing his ongoing journey as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Pascal mentioned to writer Oliver Franklin-Wallis that she was hoping to get Holland to play Astaire in an upcoming movie, but left it at that.

When an AP reporter mentioned the possibility of the part to the actor on Sunday, he confirmed that “I am playing Fred Astaire,” but didn’t have much more to say about the part, as the script just came in a week ago, so he has yet to read it. “They haven’t given it to me,” Holland said. “I know that Amy Pascal has the script. She FaceTimed me earlier; I was in the bath, and we had a lovely FaceTime. But I will be playing Fred Astaire.”

Though it sounds like a movie could be made of Holland and Pascal’s bath-time FaceTime.

As Variety noted, Holland just might be the perfect actor to take on the imposing role of a noted song and dance man, as the current (and future) Spider-Man got his start on the stage as the lead in the West End version of Billy Elliott the Musical from 2008 to 2010.

Holland isn’t the only actor who’ll step into the role of Astaire for an upcoming project. Jamie Bell, who originated the role of Billy Elliot in Stephen Daldry’s 2000 film, will be playing Astaire to Margaret Qualley’s Ginger Rogers in yet another biopic that follows the pair’s acting—and dancing—partnership.

(Via Variety)

Leading into this week’s Succession episode, I didn’t believe it was possible for me to feel less empathy for Shiv than I already do. Surprisingly, this has nothing to do with her recent cringeworthy party moves, which our own Brian Grubb described as “[d]ancing like a person who just grew limbs that morning in a frantic attempt to exorcise all these demons.” That dance gave us nothing, and Roman put it, “I heard it looked like a cry for help,” but it’s clear that no one in history has been less thrilled that her husband’s not going to prison. Shiv’s cold-heartedness knows no bounds, and while Logan is objectively the most ruthless person in Succession, Shiv gives him a run for his money. I’d even argue that she’s worse because there’s not an ounce of likability on display. What really gets me is how she’ll turn on a dime on the issue of sexual misconduct, and she uses her femininity to manipulate these situations to her own advantage.

Clearly, a lot happened this week, including these biggies: Kendall may have drowned (I hope they don’t kill him off yet, although the preview for next week doesn’t look promising for him); Logan made his own grandson poison-check his food (because this show can’t help but get Shakespearean up in this motherf*cker); and oh yeah, Roman inadvertently sent Logan a d*ck pic. We’ll get back to that point in a minute, but first, this: Every line out of Shiv’s mouth felt more unredeemable than the one that came before. She managed to knock Tom down several more pegs during pillow talk, and instead of easing his “after burn,” she capped things off in that department with a few choice lines:

– The master manipulator called Tom “manipulative” when he felt discomfort over the horrible things she said in bed, and she reminded Tom for the umpteenth time that she doesn’t love him, and “you know.” Oh, Tom knows.
– She professed a desire to “bag some embryos” and “put it together” after deciding to stick it to Mom and have some kids. One gets the distinct feeling that she’d have no issue flushing Tom’s babies down the toilet, at some point in the future.

That wasn’t all. Waystar Royco President of Domestic Operations Siobhan Roy topped her own reprehensibility in the final moments this week. Her episode kicker calls back Season 2’s penultimate episode, when this happened:

Shiv had appealed, woman-to-woman, in an attempt to shut down the cruise-lines scandal by intimidating a sexual assault victim into silence. She painted an aftermath where the victim would be held out as a “slut,” her legal testimony would be all over her tombstone, and so on. While playing the for-the-greater-good card and professing her intent to take down The Man, Shiv wielded her femininity in the most sinister of ways. She took away a victim’s voice, and of course Shiv hasn’t done a thing for anyone but herself in the aftermath. We recently saw her overlaying some PR magic on this scandal while Kendall let some truth fly through his guerrilla speakers via Nirvana’s “Rape Me.”

After these documented attempts from Shiv to shut down sexual assault victims’ right to justice of some sort, she sure changed her tune after Roman’s dick pic slip-up. She seized upon the situation in a blink of an eye, trashing both Roman and Gerri to Logan. For just a moment, let’s behold the background on Roman’s phone.

That’s a bit of a gut punch to see, right before Shiv threw Roman under the bus, though it’s hard to argue anything in his favor, since he was so insistent upon sending those “items” to Gerri, despite her declaration (“I’m f*cking serious”) that she did not want them. Yet Shiv knifed the hell out of Gerri, too, while more than suggesting to Logan that Gerri’s saving those dick pics as “leverage” and “banking it as ammo.” And Shiv’s monstrous nature is undeniable when she takes it upon herself to pressure Gerri to report Roman while stressing that her “delicate position as interim CEO” would be in jeopardy “if you can’t deal with your own sexual harassment.”

This exchange (which also feels like a threat) with Gerri, when one considers it along with how Shiv intimidated the cruise-lines scandal sexual assault victim, makes things crystal clear on Shiv’s end. Her top (and only) priority is her own ambition, and her “this must be so hard for you” routine is only an act. Shiv’s said and done a lot of horrible things over the course of this show, but being so loosey-goosey about sexual misconduct — and massaging each instance for her own ends — might be the worst.

Gerri, for her part, appears to not be too ruffled by this exchange. She’s surely stocked up plenty of ammo from other dealings with the Roys, and she knows where all the bodies are buried, so hopefully, she’s safe. Yes, it’s true that Logan’s been looking for an excuse to push Gerri out, and he’s also seemingly less disgusted by Roman’s actual behavior than how Roman’s behaving this way toward someone who’s not “a nice piece of tail” while branding Gerri “frozen f*cking p*ss” who needs to be shipped out. Even Roman knows Gerri shouldn’t be fired at this point, but hey look, Shiv’s already seizing upon this situation for her own purposes: to push Roman out and finally be The One. Ugh. I mean, I could conceivably admire Shiv’s hustle (we are, after all, dealing with various degrees of a-holes with these siblings), but she crosses the line with her fake-ally stances, when we really know that she does not care about putting an end to sexual misconduct. That’s simply another pawn to her, and god, I want Gerri to mop the floor with this whole damn family.

Well, other than Cousin Greg. Everyone can leave Greg alone.

HBO’s ‘Succession’ airs on Sunday nights, and it’s almost season finale time.

Currently (and also for the past half-decade), Rihanna anxiously fans wait for the follow-up to her 2016 album Anti. Therefore, they eat up any sort of update about new music from Rihanna, no matter how minor it may be. Well, the latest Rihanna dispatch is certainly minor but is exciting regardless, as she suggested to a paparazzo recently that new music is quickly forthcoming.

In a video of the encounter, Rihanna emerges from a car and the person behind the camera asks her, “Any new music, anything?” The singer responded as she walked away, “Soon, soon, soon.”

In September, she said of her upcoming music, “You’re not going to expect what you hear. Just put that in your mind. Whatever you know of Rihanna is not going to be what you hear. I’m really experimenting. Music is like fashion: you should be able to play. I should be able to wear whatever I want, and I treat music the same way. So, I’m having fun and it’s going to be completely different. That’s it.”

Meanwhile, the last month has been full of honors for Rihanna. Last week, she was declared a “national hero” of Barbados, she found herself in the top 10 of Billboard‘s Greatest Of All-Time Hot 100 Artists chart, and Ed Sheeran noted that he always thinks about Rihanna when he’s making decisions in the studio.

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

Last Week Tonight is off until 2022, but over the weekend, the HBO show released a web-only video on a very important topic: snack-sponsored video games.

There was 7 Up’s shockingly good Cool Spot (here’s a fun podcast about the game), Cheetos’ Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool, and the Doom-inspired Chex Quest, which increased sales of the cereal that tastes “like the box it came in” by 248 percent in six weeks. Or as host John Oliver put it, “For six weeks in 1996, Chex cereal f*cked.”

Oliver is sick of snack brands tweeting like humans who are Going Through It, including Sunny D’s infamous “I can’t do this anymore” tweet, to which Pop Tarts replied, “Hey sunny can I please offer you a hug we are gonna get through this together my friend.” No, it’s time for snack brands to “tweet less and make games more.” Oliver even threw out some suggestions: Orville Redenbacher: Space Marine, Chips Ahoy! “but you’re a grizzled cookie pirate, sailing a sea of milk trying to track down Captain Crunch and nail his severed head to your mast,” and a Chef Boyardee vs. SpaghettiO fighting game.

They may not reach the highs of Pepsiman, but it’s a start. You can watch the clip above.