Of all the various locales that have been pivotal to the overall dominance and growth of hip-hop over the past three decades, it’d be hard to argue against Brooklyn as the genre’s number-one force. It’s the birthplace of acts like the Juice Crew, The Notorious B.I.G., Lil Kim, and many folks’ GOAT, Jay-Z. However, it turns out that one of the borough’s residents has a different view of the lattermost name, preferring a more recent Brooklynite as his dream collaborator.
During a recent appearance on DJ Akademiks’ Off The Record podcast, Bobby Shmurda explained why he’d rather collaborate with late Pop Smoke than the all-time great Jay-Z (who recently had Bobby out to his 40/40 club to celebrate its anniversary). Akademiks presented the two options to Bobby, positing that “the hood gonna go crazy for” a Pop Smoke collaboration or “a song with Hov.” Without hesitation, Shmurda replied, “Pop Smoke,” taking the host aback with his on-point impression of Pop’s booming bass voice and memorable ad-libs. “I love Jay too, but I like it,” he said.
It’s no surprise; despite his familiarity with rap fans thanks to the 2014 smash “Hot N****,” Bobby is only 27 — much closer to Pop Smoke’s 20 years than Jay’s 52(!). It makes sense he’d be much more tapped into Pop Smoke’s contemporary approach than any of Jay’s latter-day output — let alone his 10, 15, and 20-year-old classics, the oldest of which would have dropped when Bobby was just seven(!!).
Unfortunately, it looks like only one will ever be available for the newly-independent rapper, who drops his first post-Epic Records single this Friday. Hopefully, Jay won’t take this news too personally if Bobby ever decides to reach out for that verse.
Canadian-Serbian artist Dana Gavanski is focusing on her voice in her sophomore album When It Comes. In the two years since her debut effort Yesterday Is Gone, the musician spent her time not only rediscovering what first made her fall in love with making music, but also learning how to use her voice as an instrument.
As a result, Gavanski’s voice delicately floats above enticing synths and languid piano keys on When It Comes. Her airy vocals shift between evoking a sense of power and vulnerability, examining how mood is captured through melody. Much of the album explores how context, like melody, can alter meaning. As Gavanski noted, even her album’s title, When It Comes, “has a heaviness to it but also a lightness, depending on your frame of mind.”
Ahead of the release of her upcoming album, which is out this Friday, Gavanski sits down with Uproxx to talk about following your instinct, her inspiring grandmother, and her hidden burping talent in the latest Indie Mixtape Q&A.
What are four words you would use to describe your music?
All that you want.
It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?
Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.
What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?
As I have mostly just performed in the UK, it’s quite not a fair assessment. Bristol is up there.
Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?
My Baka because she’s unwavering, compassionate, and incisive.
Where did you eat the best meal of your life?
In Nijmegen with my beau at a fish restaurant during a day off on tour.
What album do you know every word to?
Brandy’s Never Say Never.
What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?
Julia Holter at The Great Hall, Toronto in 2019.
What is the best outfit for performing and why?
Snapped Ankles’ tree costumes. Though not sure I’d survive a whole gig in one of them, let alone a song!
Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?
Foxes and other animal rescue.
What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour?
We try not to listen to a song more than once.
What’s the last thing you Googled?
Pedro Pascal
What album makes for the perfect gift?
Keyboard Fantasies by Beverly Glenn-Copeland.
Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?
A haunted, old, likely never renovated hotel in the lake district.
What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?
It’s not my favorite tattoo but it’s my first and the story is kinda funny. I was 19 and taking my 9 year old sister to ballet. I had passed by a tattoo parlor in Montreal and thought maybe I had enough time between her lesson and when I had to pick her up to get a tattoo. It was a super hot humid summer day and I fainted from pain and heat, but quickly came to and then it didn’t hurt anymore. When I picked up my sister from ballet I was a little late and told her what I’d done and she said, “Cool!”
What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?
I rarely listen to the radio.
What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?
My baka would give me a foot massage to get me out of bed to go to school when I was a kid.
What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?
Learn to depend less on other people’s opinions to do things, and follow your instinct, unclouded by anxiety.
What’s the last show you went to?
Bas Jan and Yama Warashi at Cafe Oto.
What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?
Godfather I or Godfather II.
What’s one of your hidden talents?
Burping consecutively.
When It Comes is out 4/29 via Flemish Eye. Pre-order it here.
When you think about it, it’s kind of fitting that Future’s new album, which is titled I Never Liked You, features both Drake and Kanye West. For one thing, those two can’t seem to decide if they love or hate each other and for another, they are also two of the only artists who can really keep up with Future’s penchant for pettiness. They’re just two of the guests who appear on the tracklist for the album, which Future shared today.
Some of the other guests are no surprise; after all, Future graced Gunna’s hit single “Pushin P” alongside Young Thug earlier this year, so it’s only right that his ATL brethren return the favor on a similarly ridiculously titled song, “For A Nut.” And Kodak Black makes sense since he’s on something of a comeback tour of feature appearances despite his past behavior (and let’s face it, Future isn’t exactly known for being respectful of women, either).
But the name that really jumps off the list is Nigerian singer Tems, who exploded into popularity last year via Wizkid’s “Essence” and has slowly started to become a force in her own right. She appears on a song with Drake (one of two featuring the What A Time To Be Alive collaborator), which increases the intrigue that much more. We’ll see what the results of the eyebrow-raising musical collaboration sound like on Friday, April 29, when I Never Liked You drops via Freebandz and Epic.
It’s officially crispy beer season, the weather is getting warmer and spring is in full bloom. There are myriad options this time of year, but for us, thirst-quenching lagers are the play of the day. Among all the easy-drinking beers, nothing is easier.
When it comes to refreshing spring and summer drinking, we’re looking for the perfect ratio between flavor and total crushability. For that, we’re talking about classic European lagers, American lagers, Vienna lagers, bocks, and of course crisp and thirst-quenching pilsners. To help you find some less-talked-about winners, we asked a handful of craft beer experts, brewers, and beer professionals to tell us the most underrated lagers of all time.
Rothaus Pils Tannen Zäpfle is a really underrated lager (in America). I think a lot of the imports have drifted into the shadows as craft beer exploded, but this is just an incredible example of the style. Crisp and clean with a nice bread-like malt presence, it’s a very complex, well-made beer.
Sapporo Premium Beer
Sapporo
Mike Haakenstad, brewing operations manager at Sycamore Brewing in Charlotte, North Carolina
In my opinion, the most underrated lager is an ice-cold Sapporo out of one of those fancy un-dentable cans. This beer doesn’t get much love, but I haven’t come across a meal that it doesn’t drink well with. It’s super light and crisp, slightly sweet, and has a touch of hops on the nose. Perhaps access to the beer could be an issue as to why it is so under-appreciated. Mainly available in Asian restaurants exclusively, in addition to retailers, this beer doesn’t get a ton of exposure.
I truly enjoy Samuel Adams Boston Lager. I mean, it was one of the first American craft beers to sell in Germany under the Reinheitsgebot (Bavarian beer laws). It really is a fantastic, herbal and spiced, drinkable beer that is available nearly everywhere and kind of taken for granted nowadays.
To me, one of the most underrated lagers out there is The Way I See It, an unfiltered German pils-inspired pale lager from Zac Ross and Marlowe Artisanal Ales. We are always sticklers for simplicity and focus, and these are both facets that we have always held the utmost respect for when it comes to the beers that Zac is making at Marlowe. What makes The Way I See It so great lines up with both of those traits. It is a straightforward equation of carefully selected ingredients, water, and time that are all manipulated with a super high level of attention to detail (as all high-quality lager should be) to create a beer that drinks so effortlessly all while knowing how much went into producing it. This hop-forward, yet delicate, little beer provides just enough of everything you would want in a pale lager (minerality, softness, bitterness) while keeping everything balanced in perfect harmony.
I think this beer, as well as the rest of the Marlowe portfolio, can be underrated simply because Marlowe does not yet have their own brick-and-mortar location to fully immerse folks within its story.
Bierstadt Lagerhaus Slow Pour Pils is a must try pilsner. It’s an insanely drinkable lager that’s extremely flavorful and clean. The subtle nature of the style might not always wow people, but its beauty is in the delicate, soft mouthfeel of this incredibly refreshing lager.
Urban Roots 10°
Urban Roots
Douglas Constantiner, founder and CEO of Societe Brewing in San Diego
Urban Roots 10° is my go-to. It’s only underrated because Urban Roots does not widely distribute. They’re a brewery and BBQ joint in Sacramento. The flavors are beautifully nuanced and complement the drinking experience — crisp, refreshing, and drinkable.
Trumer Pils is often overlooked as a craft beer. This pilsner brewed in Berkeley, California (with a sister brewery in Salzburg) is world-class. Crisp and dry with a pleasant Noble hop aroma and balanced bitterness, it’s difficult to beat.
Pacifico is often overlooked when it comes to Mexican lagers. While remaining incredibly refreshing and light, this beer packs significantly more hop aromatics and malt flavor than other iterations of the same style.
Bohemia is my pick. This is a fantastic Czech-style pilsner, full-bodied and brimming with toasty malt and Czech hops. Very enjoyable if you can find it and definitely doesn’t get the respect it deserves.
I don’t see Heater Allan Pils much in the Valley, but when I do, it’s always my choice. Heater Allen is one of the top lager breweries in the U.S., but this is a brewery (and beer) more appreciated by brewers than the average craft fan. It’s clean, with a little bit more of a rounded mouthfeel, and the hops used are brighter than a typical Czech pils.
American Solera Little Sun
American Solera
Derek Gold, director of brewing operations Weldwerks Brewing in Greeley, Colorado
ABV: 5%
Average Price: Limited Availability
Why This Beer?
Little Sun from American Solera and Our Mutual Friend Brewing is my pick. Complexity is the name of the game for this foeder-aged lager collab. Rustic bread crust with toasted oak and floral and citrus hop aromas permeate. It finishes dry and crisp with a pleasant bitterness.
It’s not your typical summer crusher, but it would definitely be a go-to for me.
I would have to say Yuengling Lager. I grew up on this beer and it will always have a special place in my heart. Whenever I go to a bar that doesn’t really have many craft beer offerings, this is my go-to. I don’t think too many give this beer credit outside of Pennsylvania and Florida, so it kind of flies under the radar at times.
Radeberger Pilsner
Radeberger
Marshall Hendrickson, co-founder and head of operations at Veza Sur Brewing in Miami
Radeberger Pilsner. This beer is a quintessential German Pils to me, light and refreshing with some great Noble hop flavor and aroma. It goes great with food, or if you want to knock back a couple on a warm day. It’s a wonderful beer. It should be more popular in the U.S. than it is.
Menabrea Bionda Lager
Menabrea
Jesse Mix, regional manager of beer and soft drinks at Sprecher Brewing Company in Glendale, Wisconsin
I’m going with Menabrea Bionda Lager. Pilsners and Blondes tend to be dominated by the German breweries but some beautiful light lagers are being produced by some traditional breweries in Italy. Made with a proprietary yeast culture, corn, and Magnum hops this is just a delicious beer that will pair well with just about any type of food and situation.
The ABGB’s Industry Pils is not exactly unknown, it wins awards and lager drinkers love it. But even though it stacks up even against the best pilsners, it’s still not a household name. I’ve hosted a few blind tastings and it is always at or among the top, they just really know how to integrate all the bitterness in such a hop-forward beer so that it doesn’t come across as sharp. You can drink them again and again, not paying any attention, or you can observe every nuance in the beer from each sip.
Lady Gaga is keeping the little monsters fed. Next month, she will release her much anticipated new song, “Hold My Hand” from the Top Gun: Mavericksoundtrack.
As the film, which was originally planned for a 2019 release, has seen several delays, so has the song. However, fans got their first taste of the song in a trailer, which was revealed last month.
“When I wrote this song for Top Gun: Maverick, I didn’t even realize the multiple layers it spanned across the film’s heart, my own psyche, and the nature of the world we’ve been living in,” said Gaga in an Instagram post. “I’ve been working on it for years, perfecting it, trying to make it ours. I wanted to make music into a song where we share our deep need to both be understood and try to understand each other — a longing to be close when we feel so far away and an ability to celebrate life’s heroes. I’m so grateful to Tom and Hans and Joe for this opportunity — and it’s been a beautiful experience working with them. Me, BloodPop, Ben Rice, and everyone else who worked on it with us are so excited to share it with you. This song is a love letter to the world during and after a very hard time. I’ve wanted you to hear it for so long.”
Top Gun: Maverick will premiere in theaters on May 27, with “Hold My Hand” available to stream just weeks earlier.
“Hold My Hand” is out 5/3 via Interscope. Pre-save it here.
Donald Trump loves deals. He can’t get enough of them. “Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully or write poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That’s how I get my kicks,” he tweeted in 2014. But if you Google “trump deals,” one of the first links that comes up is an article from Global Witness. Under the headline “Exposing Trump’s Deals,” it reads, “Our investigations into Donald Trump’s business deals have exposed corruption, conflicts of interests, and money laundering red flags.” Just because he tried to turn deals into an “art” form doesn’t mean he’s any good at them.
Boeing should have rejected then-President Donald Trump’s proposed terms to build two new Air Force One aircraft, the company’s CEO said Wednesday. Dave Calhoun spoke Wednesday on the company’s quarterly earnings call, just hours after Boeing disclosed that it has lost $660 million transforming two 747 airliners into flying White Houses… Then-Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg, who was dismissed in December 2019, personally negotiated the Air Force One terms with Trump.
“Air Force One I’m just going to call a very unique moment, a very unique negotiation, a very unique set of risks that Boeing probably shouldn’t have taken,” Calhoun said about the pair of Boeing 747 jetliners that were abandoned by a bankrupt Russian airline. “But we are where we are, and we’re going to deliver great airplanes.”
As one of his passion projects, Trump required that the new Air Force One be painted red, white, and blue instead of the blue and white color scheme used since the 1960s. “It’s going to be the top of the line, the top in the world,” he said. But for now, the new 747 airliners can’t even play the Harrison Ford thriller Air Force One on DVD.
The funniest part about this is that Boeing was never going to lose the Air Force One contract, yet it somehow has already lost two thirds of a billion dollars on the project.
The hype for Arcade Fire‘s new album We has been building at an exponential rate. From cryptic mail to fans and singles like “The Lightning I, II” and “Age Of Anxiety” that offered promising previews of the 40-minute epic, fans have been growing more and more excited for the follow-up to the band’s 2017 LP Everything Now. With only a little over a week left until the unveiling of the album, the “Wake Up” performers have released another single “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid),” a hopeful ballad that offers help and inspiration: “I give you everything that’s mine / I give you my heart and my precious time,” sings vocalist Win Butler.
“There’s nothing saccharine about unconditional love in a world that is coming apart at the seams,” said Butler. “WE need each other, in all of our imperfection. ‘Lookout Kid’ is a reminder, a lullaby for the end times, sung to my son, but for everyone… Trust your heart, trust your mind, trust your body, trust your soul. Shit is going to get worse before it gets better, but it always gets better, and no one’s perfect. Let me say it again. No one’s perfect.”
At some point in the past few years, Donald Trump Jr. has decided to rebrand himself from the product of white privilege into some sort of gun-toting, liberal-hating, good ol’ boy. Spoiler alert: He looks idiotic playing either role.
While Junior set the bar for douchebaggery pretty high on Easter Sunday, when he posted a photo of three gigantic bunnies packing heat, he amazingly just managed to outdo himself—largely by becoming one of the Easter bunnies in said photo.
On Monday, as Mediaite reports, Junior appeared in a video with former Missouri governor Eric Greitens, where the two of them—locked and loaded—proceeded to simultaneously shoot up a defenseless target. When they knocked it over, Junior proudly proclaimed that they were “striking fear into the hearts of liberals everywhere, folks.” Greitens, who posted the video to YouTube, took it two steps further by titling the 20-second clip “Striking fear into the hearts of liberals, RINOs, and the fake media.”
If Greitens’ name sounds familiar, it might be because he reportedly caused some strife within the Trump clan last summer when Papa Trump learned that Don Jr.’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, was working as the national chair for Greitens’ U.S. Senate campaign. But the former president is reportedly not a fan of Greitens, and didn’t endorse his candidacy, so was said to be pissed that Guilfoyle had attached her name to his.
If Greitens’ name rings a bell for another reason, it’s possibly because the former Navy SEAL resigned his position as governor of Missouri after just about a year due to allegations of sexual assault and playing loose and fast with campaign finance rules. In 2018, he was indicted for invasion of privacy after attempting to blackmail his mistress. But none of that has stopped him from forging ahead with his senate campaign.
Greitens hasn’t found a ton of support among his fellow Republicans. In March 2022, after his ex-wife accused him of domestic abuse, even Josh Hawley urged him to drop out of the race.
If you hit a woman or a child, you belong in handcuffs, not the United States Senate. It’s time for Eric Greitens to leave this race https://t.co/RgCow67dDW
If you haven’t seen A24’s mind-blowing multiversal adventure Everything Everywhere All At Once, don’t worry: Somewhere out there, there’s a version of you that has, and they enjoyed it immensely. To celebrate the film’s unexpected success — it’s got a near-perfect 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and has reduced plenty of packed houses to tears while becoming a box office smash — A24 has shared a “musical multi-verse microsite” bearing a reimagining of “This Is A Life,” the film’s unofficial theme song by David Byrne, Mitski, and Son Lux.
Powered by AI company Bronze, the new site reflects the film’s theme of how a singular entity can exist in infinite parallel realities. The machine learning behind the site changes the song subtly — or dramatically — on each listening, resulting in a completely new experience every time. For instance, the first time I hit play, the song started strong with David Byrne’s vocals first. The second time, it was very downbeat, leading with Mitski’s voice. Meanwhile, in future listenings, it could be all instrumental, or the instruments could change arrangements.
Unfortunately, there’s no telling which version is from the universe with the hot dog fingers (again, go see the movie). But being able to imagine that there are infinite universes where the song sounds different in each one is a cool way to connect the already enigmatic and enjoyable soundtrack with the high-low concept of the film it accompanies.
You can listen to the original version of the song above and check out the microsite here.
Forgiveness is the fourth studio album by Girlpool, but you could easily mistake it for another band’s work. There’s no straight line from the pared-down K Records sound of their debut, Before The World Was Big, to the bombastic industrial glitches and groans that give Forgiveness its brutalist foundation. “Since Girlpool started, I’ve changed a lot,” says band member Harmony Tividad. “I didn’t know what I was made from, the fabric of my being.” She and bandmate Avery Tucker haven’t just grown — they’ve burst through their confines. Forgiveness is the crater left by that explosion, studded with memory-debris: burdens from old exes, fantasies never quite made real, photographs of previous, wounded selves.
On opener “Nothing Gives Me Pleasure,” those wounds are literal. “Bite my tongue until it bleeds,” sings Tividad’s narrator. “I’ll smile at the feeling.” The song is about sex — the rough kind, with choking and screaming and “fingers up my ass.” It’s “painfully intimate,” says Tividad, and that’s the joke: “I was kind of playing with how physically intimate you could be with someone, and how little you get in return emotionally.” It’s the first of many songs on Forgiveness to throw light into the gap between physical touch and emotional knowledge. Tucker sings the next track, “Lie Love Lullaby,” about a relationship rife with envy and deceit. The lies passing between Tucker and his partner matter as much as the sex they share — and even that’s sweeter in rosy-eyed retrospect. “I cum so much to memory,” Tucker sings.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder; it can also, inconveniently, make the heart forget. “Dragging My Life Into A Dream” could be a missive from Tucker’s older, wiser self to the narrator of “Lie Love Lullaby.” He yearns mightily for a past lover, but he recognizes, too, the yawning void between what the relationship was and what he wished it had been. What to do with all that yearning, though? Where to put it? “The most cathartic part of that song was allowing myself to lean into wanting it,” he says. “I felt like I wanted it again, and a better way than, like, going to get it, was to write about wanting it.”
What else do Girlpool want? Tividad imagines, in the lyrics of “Junkie,” a childhood that never was, where she and a close friend could have explored their romantic feelings for one another instead of letting them lie. “We would listen to emo music and cry together in her closet,” says Tividad, laughing. “And it was like, so obviously gay.” Tividad, who was raised in a number of faith traditions — she nearly attended Catholic school but didn’t go, in the end; the environment wasn’t exactly friendly to freewheeling artists — makes use of the imagery of churches, graveyards, buried secrets. Tucker’s imagination goes to dark places, too, in the stand-out “Country Star,” a brooding ballad fit for Jack and Ennis’s tent. Tucker, who came out as trans in 2017, says, “After many years of settling into my masculinity, I think that my relationship to other men definitely shifted.” He found himself drawn to the lawbreaking energy and stand-off dynamics of cowboys. Rather than living “comfortably” with a “sweet” little lady, the narrator of “Country Star” yearns to be utterly subsumed by a cowboy. “I wanna be your sin boy, baby,” Tucker sings. The musical backing is anything but country — spiky and sinister, with synths as jagged as broken glass.
Tucker and Tividad feel no shame in divulging these fantasies. Throughout the record, they shower compassion on their younger selves, recognizing they’ve done the best they can. “I was looking at something that looked just like love,” they sing, on “Love333,” together, returning to the tight harmonies that made Girlpool’s name. Appearances can deceive; it’s all so easy to look at cruelty and see love, to mistake bulletholes for butterflies. “Everything we experience creates mental patterns that we then project out into the world,” says Tividad. “The more I’m traumatized by these bulletholes, the less sure I get about what I know and who I love.” What if these patterns repeat themselves? Tucker worries, on “See Me Now,” about a lover looking at “old pictures of my band.” Will the past sully every future relationship?
Girlpool recognizes these struggles, but never dwells on them. Loving the wrong person, living in the wrong body — rather than regretting the time they’ve lost, they look for clarity in what they’ve managed to carry with them. “I love those old songs as relics,” says Tucker. “I don’t feel like the same person, but it’s like someone I used to know.” Tividad, too, sees the songs of Forgiveness as natural evolutions of her former work. “Nothing Gives Me Pleasure,” she says, is “the grown-up version” of “Slutmouth,” a song from Girlpool’s very earliest EP about the push-pull of sexual desire and slut-shaming.
There’s a refreshing frankness, honesty, and ugliness in the many moods of Forgiveness. It is more adventurous, and far more ambitious, than any record the band has yet released. Listening, you’ll be awestruck at how far Tucker and Tividad have come since they sang their first frayed harmony. They’ve made messes; they’ve ruined relationships. They’ve also stepped, with confidence and courage, into the world of adulthood. They’ve arrived. Any failings can be forgiven.
Forgiveness is out 4/29 via Anti. Pre-order it here.
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