Month: May 2022

Tove Lo has been unveiling shimmering songs, like the recent bombastic “No One Dies From Love” and the dark pop anthem “How Long” for Euphoria. But yesterday the Swedish singer decided to bring an Olivia Rodrigo song to her P3 Session, performing her own rendition of “Good 4 U.”

The “Habits (Stay High)” singer makes the hit her own by making it piano-driven, transforming it into a heartfelt ballad. Deeper in, the song is imbued with synths that are first haunting and then more danceable. It’s an emotional rollercoaster. People note in the comments that, by the end, this version of “Good 4 U” sounds like it’s all hers.

A while ago, Tove Lo introduced Crypto Tits, a collection of artwork made with crypto artist Blake Kathryn and featuring new music from Tove Lo herself. The title is a nod to her 2017 track “Disco Tits,” and a portion of the proceeds from the collection with benefit the organizations Black Girls Code and Carbon 180. She explained, ‘I’ve been exploring the NFT space for a while now and it’s super inspiring to me. Blake’s creations feel like new and different worlds to me and I love to create immersive experiences around my albums and shows, so this process was just awesome and mind expanding.”

Ah yes, the coveted Donald Trump endorsement. Several years ago, no one could have ever dreamed that a U.S. president who lost a reelection campaign (and spurred on an insurrection) would inspire such a far-right frenzy to nab his approval, but we’ve never seen anything quite like MAGA devotion. However, all Trump touches does not turn to (gaudy) gold. The streak (a 55-0 one) is finally broken with the loss of a Kentucky gubernatorial candidate who Trump persisted in supporting despite sexual harassment allegations from several women.

This news does not bode well for Dr. Oz (whose Trump endorsement actually inspired a MAGA mutiny) or J.D. Vance (who Trump reportedly endorsed after Tucker Carlson passed on word of a rival’s “disgusting” sex life) or Lauren Boebert (who Trump endorsed the day after her House rebuke for a string of Islamophobic remarks). What happened in Kentucky, though? The Trump-endorsed Charles Herbster got defeated in the GOP primary by Jim Pillen (a vet and “hog producer”), even after Trump decided to keep endorsing Herbster despite the red flags of eight women who alleged that Herbster either groped or forcibly kissed them at political events. Via Mediaite, Trump addressed those accusations and defended his guy:

Trump endorsed Herbster last year, before the allegations surfaced. Nevertheless, Trump held a rally for the businessman earlier this month and defended his pick.

“He’s been maligned, he’s been maligned, he’s been badly maligned and that’s a shame,” Trump said. “That’s why I came out here it would have been easier for me to say I’m not coming out but I defend people when I know they’re good. He’s a good man.”

And thus, an endorsement streak is no more, even after Herbster demonstrated the ultimate loyalty (as revealed in the above campaign billboard) of adding a “Trump won” (obviously, he did not win) to his campaign paraphernalia. So watch out, Dr. Oz. And the same may even go for the Trump-endorsed Marco Rubio, who must be sweating like crazy against a real contender of a Senate rival, Val Demings in Florida.

(Via Mediaite)

Danny Boyle was the original choice to direct the 25th film in the James Bond franchise, which later became No Time to Die. But the Oscar-winning filmmaker left the project due to “creative differences” and was replaced by Cary Joji Fukunaga (who has since been accused of sexual harassment by multiple women). In an interview with Esquire UK, Boyle revealed what his “topical” Bond film would have been about out.

“I remember thinking, ‘Should I really get involved in franchises?’ Because they don’t really want something different. They want you to freshen it up a bit, but not really challenge it, and we wanted to do something different with it,” Boyle said. “Weirdly — it would have been very topical now — it was all set in Russia, which is of course where Bond came from, out of the Cold War. It was set in present-day Russia and went back to his origins, and they just lost, what’s the word… they just lost confidence in it.”

Boyle noted that No Time to Die used a similar plot device as the scrapped script he wrote with John Hodge. “The idea that they used in a different way was the one of [James Bond’s] child, which [Hodge] introduced [and which] was wonderful,” he explained. Would Boyle be interested in directing a future 007 movie? “I don’t think so.” There goes the Sex Pistols chance to sing the theme song.

(Via Esquire UK)

Olivia Rodrigo is one of today’s biggest pop stars, but she got to that position thanks in large part to the influence that rock has played on her music. She has been eager to show appreciation to her rock forebearers (like with all the covers she’s been busting out on tour) and she did so again yesterday after meeting Jack White.

Rodrigo shared some photos and videos from their meeting, including a clip of her gleefully crying while hugging White. She wrote, “got to meet my hero of all heroes today. still crying. thank u @officialjackwhite for being so kind to ur biggest fangirl. everyone go listen to fear of the dawn!!!!!” White later re-shared Rodrigo’s post and wrote, “I had the chance to meet a talented singer and musician today named @OliviaRodrigo, she’s very cool, very real and very much a lover of music. She’s also introducing another set of youth to the love of vinyl records as well. Respect. -jack white III.”

To White’s point, Rodrigo put a significant focus on vinyl during the Sour album cycle; Ahead of the album’s release, she shared a video of herself giddily seeing the detail-filled vinyl edition of the album for the first time. She also wrote, “I’ve discovered so many of my favorite albums through vinyl records and it’s the coolest thing in the world to get to hold one with songs I wrote.”

It paid off, too: The album had one of the biggest vinyl sales weeks of the past 30 years, which helped propel the album back to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

The Phoenix Suns opened the Western Conference Semifinals with a pair of home wins over the Dallas Mavericks, taking control of the proceedings as the No. 1 overall seed. Dallas responded in kind with back-to-back home victories in Game 3 and Game 4, including a three-point shooting barrage on Sunday that evened the series at 2-2. With the scene shifting back to Phoenix, the pressure was back on the Suns but, after a bit of an uneven start, Devin Booker and company took care of business in a 110-80 victory to take a 3-2 series advantage.

Following a 37-point explosion in the first quarter of Game 4, the Mavericks threatened a repeat at the outset of Game 5. Dallas zoomed to a 10-3 run out of the gate, and the Mavericks led for the lion’s share of the first half.

https://twitter.com/dallasmavs/status/1524210798762987520

The pace was quite slow in the first quarter, leading a modest-looking affair on the scoreboard. Both teams shot well in side the arc, though, and Devin Booker scored 12 points in the opening quarter to bring Phoenix back within three.

Dallas pushed its lead back to as many as eight points in the second quarter, even with Luka Doncic on the bench following a 12-minute stretch on the floor to begin the game. The Suns did answer, however, and Phoenix tied the game after a 10-2 run.

The Suns snuck into halftime with a three-point lead, offsetting the impressive start from Dallas. Booker was a huge part of the success with 16 points, and while Doncic had 18 points before the break, he needed 17 shooting possessions to achieve that production. Overall, the second quarter was far less efficient for both offenses, but the Suns were poised for a breakout.

Phoenix put together a 17-0 run early in the third quarter, taking a 68-50 lead in the process that doubled as the first double-digit advantage for either side. On one end, the Mavericks failed to score for more than five full minutes, going ice-cold at an inopportune time. On the other, Booker continued to operate at a high level, scoring 24 points on his first 15 shooting possessions, and the rest of the Suns got into the act with high-level play.

The Suns weren’t done there, with the onslaught continuing. Overall, Phoenix out-scored Dallas by a 27-4 margin over an extended run, turning a one-point lead into a 24-point advantage late in the third quarter. The Suns eventually led by 22 at the end of the third period and, generally speaking, the damage was done.

Phoenix’s third quarter was awe-inspiring and dominant on both ends. The Suns shot 54 percent from the floor and scored 16 points in the paint with only two turnovers, taking advantage of a huge edge in the possession battle. That was prompted by Phoenix forcing 12 (!) turnovers in the quarter, made even more notable by the fact that Dallas is normally elite in ball security.

The fourth quarter never became competitive, leaving extended garbage time and a comfortable win for Phoenix. The Suns shot 49.4 percent from the floor in the game and also attempted 16 more shots from the field, maximizing the possession game through offensive rebounding and turnover avoidance. Booker finished with 28 points, with Chris Paul adding 10 assists and Deandre Ayton producing 20 points and nine rebounds.

On the other side of the floor, the Suns held the Mavericks to 38 percent shooting and created 18 turnovers in the game while keeping Dallas away from the offensive glass. Doncic scored 28 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, but it was not an elite performance by his lofty standard, and the Mavericks finished with only nine assists as a team.

Phoenix now appears to be in complete control of the series, simply by nature of a 3-2 lead and the advantage of Game 7 at home. Still, the Mavericks will have a chance to stay alive with a Game 6 win on Thursday, and Dallas was a different team at home during the series’ first trip to American Airlines Center.

Here is a thing that Bill Simmons said on his podcast back on April 13 about his first-team All-Rookie ballot:

“I put [New Orleans Pelicans forward Herbert Jones] first-team All-Rookie,” Simmons said, per SI. “I put him over Jalen Green. F*ck Jalen Green. I don’t care you’re scoring 40 points and your team’s 19–60. Congratulations. I’m sorry, I like winning players.”

It’s a quote that led to Simmons coming under some scrutiny, with Draymond Green joining the chorus of folks who had a huge issue with how Simmons presented his argument. Green posted a picture of Simmons on his Instagram Story and asked “How is it that this guy has a voice in deciding if Jalen Green will qualify for a super max deal?” Green wrote on Instagram. “He clearly says F Him, which sounds very personal btw. But he has a say in what someone earns? What work has he done in this life that qualifies him to have a say in an NBA players salary? @NBA.”

As we learned on Tuesday night, Draymond isn’t the only current player who didn’t like this. Joel Embiid spoke to the media after the Philadelphia 76ers got thrashed by the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. It was the first game since we learned that Embiid lost out to Nikola Jokic for the league’s Most Valuable Player award, and Embiid was asked about the decision.

After stressing that he knew this was coming and praising Jokic for his season, Embiid went after Simmons for what he had to say about the No. 2 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft.

“I don’t know how to explain it, but I go back to what I heard on a podcast, Bill Simmons basically saying … it sounded like he had a grudge against somebody saying ‘F Jalen Green,’” Embiid said. “If you’re going to allow these type of people to vote on these awards, that’s not fair. What if Jalen Green was in a position to earn a supermax, or, I don’t know, or an All-Star appearance? You’ve got someone sounding like that, and he has a lot of power, he can sway a lot of other media members, and you got someone saying that type of stuff. I don’t think it’s fair, I don’t think it’s ok.”

Embiid is the latest player to express that they don’t like how award voting can be tied to whether or not a player becomes eligible for some additional type of compensation — for example, Jayson Tatum brought this up during an appearance on JJ Redick’s podcast. This, of course, has an additional level to it, because while Simmons was talking about how he dislikes Green’s game, using this type of language to justify where you’re placing someone on some sort of ballot is always going to go over poorly.

At any given moment, you’ll most likely catch Gucci Mane with a neck and/or wrist flooded with diamonds. The Atlanta trap star has never been shy to show off his collection of jewelry and extremely expensive watches. So it would make sense that Gucci would be quite grateful if he lost one of those items all for it to be swiftly returned to him, and that’s exactly what happened at a recent show of his. During a past club appearance, Gucci decided to turn up with the crowd, but it was during this time that he lost one of his jewelry bracelets.

Luckily for Gucci, the bracelet was returned to him by a good samaritan not too long after he lost it, and he showed his gratitude with a generous gift. After the bracelet was given to him, Gucci took out $5,000 in cash to give to the fan as a way to show his appreciation. “I was f*cked up when I felt like it came off my wrist,” Gucci said at one point during the night.

Gucci’s display of appreciation comes as he’s turned up his activeness on the music front. It’s highlighted by a collection of songs he’s dropped this year: “Rumors” with Lil Durk, “Publicity Stunt,” “Blood All On It” with Young Dolph and Key Glock, and “Serial Killers.”

You can view a fan-captured video of Gucci dishing out the cash to the fan.

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

It’s coming up on 13 years since the last time James Cameron first took viewers to Pandora, the Yes album cover-esque planet first depicted in 2009’s Avatar. Given the giant elapse in time — and that its cultural footprint isn’t that huge, apart from some mega-fans seen in an episode of How to with John Wilson — you may doubt whether people still want to hang with the blue Na’vi. But judging from how many people watched the sequel’s first teaser trailer in its first 24 hours online, Cameron need not worry.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, the teaser nabbed the second-highest amount of views for a trailer in a single day, shy of only the one for F9: The Fast Saga. Disney and 20th Century claim that, worldwide, the first look at Avatar: The Way of Water nabbed a whopping 148.6 milion views. Of those, 23 million were from China alone.

To put that in perspective, that’s more than Black Widow (116.8 million views), Incredibles 2 (113.1 million), and Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker (112.4 million). The only one with more than Avatar 2 is the aforementioned F9, which amassed 202.7 million online views in its first 24 hours on the information superhighway.

Mind you, this wasn’t the trailer’s proper debut. It actually first appeared before Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness last weekend, meaning that all the people who saw it — and it made $180.5 million domestically plus nearly $450 million overseas — had already seen the Avatar first teaser. Perhaps people just really enjoy grooving on its serene surveys of Pandora, a realm unseen since the first Obama administration.

You can watch the new Avatar sequel teaser above.

(Via THR)

Denzel Curry is a little over a month removed from the release of his fifth album Melt My Eyez See Your Future. The project was his first release since 2021’s Unlocked 1.5 with Kenny Beats and his first solo effort since 2019’s Zuu. Through the 14 songs on Melt My Eyez See Your Future, Curry gets help from Robert Glasper, T-Pain, 6lack, Rico Nasty, JID, Slowthai, and more. Curry seems to be feeling very confident after his fifth album, and he made it quite clear during a recent interview with XXL.

“Just look out for me,” Curry said during the sit-down. “Look out for any of the next projects that’s ’bout to come out. I’m ’bout to shake the whole game up. I don’t care what anybody gotta say, bro. I’m the best rapper alive. Point blank, period.” While Curry is completely in his right to believe that, one of his frequent collaborators, DMV rapper IDK, isn’t about to let him claim the title without a fight. IDK responded to Curry’s comments on Twitter, writing, “Battle me @denzelcurry.”

Curry wouldn’t take long to issue a response to IDK, writing back, “You don’t want that homie.”

Curry and IDK’s back and forth comes after they collaborated on the Kaytranada-produced “Dog Food.”

You can view Curry and IDK’s interaction in the posts above.

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

The Miami Heat are on the verge of a berth in the Eastern Conference Finals. Miami played host to the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday night, and in one of the most emphatic performances that we’ve seen this postseason, the Heat got up early and never looked back en route to a 120-85 win. As a result, Miami pulled ahead in the series, 3-2, and will look to wrap things up in Philadelphia a little later this week.

Things were back and forth early before the Heat were able to get the first bit of separation. Midway through the first quarter, Miami was able to go on a 12-0 run to give themselves an early 21-10 lead.

While the Sixers were able to keep things from getting too one-sided, the Heat found themselves up by 12 after one in large part due to the shooting that evaded them in the last two games. After connecting on 23.3 percent of their attempts from deep in Game 3 and 20 percent of their triples in Game 4 with the team hitting seven threes in each game, Miami went 5-for-11 (45.5 percent) in the first quarter on Tuesday night — Max Strus, in particular, was feeling it early, as his 11 points (tied with Jimmy Butler for the most in the game through one) came by way of three of his six shots from downtown connecting.

Philly’s offense, meanwhile, struggled to get much of anything going in the first, scoring only 19 points in the game’s opening 12 minutes. While things leveled out a bit in the second quarter, Miami led by as many as 18 points and was able to take a 56-44 lead into the locker room. Butler, in particular, continued to be spectacular, leading the team with 14 points, six rebounds, and three assists at the break.

The most notable moment of the half may have come halfway through the second, when Joel Embiid went down in a heap after securing a rebound. While that happened, Dewayne Dedmond tried to poke the ball away, but ended up pushing it into Embiid’s face, causing him to go down and hold his face — the big man, of course, missed the first two games of the series with a fractured orbital bone and is currently playing with a mask.

Still, he was able to remain in the game, although he struggled in the first half with six points on 2-for-6 shooting and a pair of rebounds. Harden led the way for the Sixers with 10 points, five rebounds, and four assists.

By the end of the third, Miami led by 15. It was a lead that was as many as 20 during the period. And early on in the fourth, Doc Rivers emptied his bench with more than eight minutes remaining and saw the Heat get it up to as many as 37 points. All evening, they were just the team that looked to have that extra pep in their step — the ball moved a little faster, their rotations were a little more crisp, all the little things that happen when a team appears more locked in than the other — while Philadelphia just did not seem to have it from the time the game tipped off.

Butler was Miami’s main man with 23 points, nine rebounds, and six assists, while Strus had a double-double with 19 points and 10 boards. Five other players — Gabe Vincent, Victor Oladipo, Bam Adebayo, PJ Tucker, and Tyler Herro — all hit double-digits in scoring, while Adebayo battled with Embiid on defense all night. For Philly, Embiid had 17 points and five rebounds, Harden had 16 with six boards and four dimes, Tobias Harris had 12, and no one else hit double-digits in scoring.

Game 6 between the Heat and Sixers will take place in Philadelphia on Thursday night at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.