This is the year of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs comeback. The band’s last album was 2013’s Mosquito, but they’ve been announcing shows and teasing music, and today they’ve finally announced their first new song in nine years arriving Wednesday, June 1. It’s titled “Spitting Off The Edge Of The World,” and it features Perfume Genius.
The “Maps” performers are hosting an event in Brooklyn tomorrow for a video preview of the song. It will be airing all day at a new event space called Main Drag Music. “To view video you must relinquish your phone during the screening but will get it right back,” the Eventbrite page reads.
When announcing New York City and LA shows a couple of months ago, the band posted: “It’s with true life-affirming pleasure to announce our two headline shows in our two hometowns NYC AND LA,” Karen O said in a statement, “supported by two wildly gifted bands Japanese Breakfast and The Linda Lindas at the Hollywood Bowl, with The Linda Lindas supporting in Forest Hills and our other support TBA soon! Representin’ a few generations yo! Cannot wait to see you there! New music! New Era! And New Home with Secretly Canadian! Much to celebrate!“
The Golden State Warriors will play for an NBA championship for the sixth time in eight years. Golden State won Game 5 over the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday evening to secure their standing as the champions of the Western Conference. Now, they’ll have to sit back and wait to see if the Boston Celtics or Miami Heat meet them.
Steph Curry was excellent against the Mavericks and earned the Western Conference Finals MVP award for his troubles. In the aftermath, ESPN’s Mike Greenberg posed the following question on Friday morning’s edition of Get Up!: “If he adds that Finals MVP, if they win another championship — I think we have all generally, universally considered LeBron James to be the defining player of this generation. Could Steph Curry have something to say about that here?”
Patrick Beverley was among the folks who were tasked with answering that question, and while he said James has set the bar ultra high, he thinks Curry would deserve to be in that conversation.
“I believe so,” Beverley said about Curry’s case as the defining player of this era if he goes on to add to his trophy case. “And that’s not to discredit, obviously, what LeBron has done in the league, and what he’s still doing, and his legacy. He set the bar extremely high.
“But you’ve got to give Steph Curry a lot of credit, man, he’s 6’1, 25-5-5 average in the playoffs, shooting over 43 percent, back to the chip again, six out of eight times,” Beverley continued. “His resume, scoring titles, most three-pointers hit ever, his resume is elite, so you have to put him up there.”
Vince Carter pushed back a bit on Curry needing a Finals MVP due to the circumstances under which the distinction was given in 2015 (Andre Iguodala) and during their other two title wins — Kevin Durant got it, but Carter argued “Steph took a back seat to KD to allow him to be the KD they needed to win back-to-back years.”
“We, on the outside, felt like, ‘Man, he deserved that trophy as well,’ but he’s an unselfish superstar and it was about empowering everybody else and making sure everybody else is able to do their job to be great to win championships,” Carter said. “So I think if they’re able to pull this off and win these four games, he will hold that trophy. And it’s not disrespecting LeBron, I think now you’re saying Steph needs to be talked about for this era and generation like we do LeBron James.”
The entire conversation caught the attention of Draymond Green, who praised Beverley and added his take on Curry’s place in this conversation.
Pat Bev went on TV and got off to a bad start with the Cp stuff. I’ve watched him a lot since. He’s extremely knowledgeable and well spoken. Also now speaking like THE NEW MEDIA!!
They don’t understand that he’s speaking of Lebron to show the magnitude that Steph should be mentioned. Not that he’s bigger or better than LeBron. It’s simply saying he’s one of the goats. They can only make one greater than the other. They don’t like them being GOATs!
“I’m making a speech tomorrow at the NRA in Huston and it’ll be very interesting,” he told far-right radio host Sebastian Gorka, who served as Deputy Assistant to the President (until he resigned) during Trump’s time in the White House. “And so yeah, interesting time to be making such a speech, frankly.”
After revealing the rest of his weekend plans (he’ll be campaigning against Liz Cheney and not watching The Bob’s Burgers Movie or Top Gun: Maverick, like a normal person), Trump continued, “But on Friday night, I’ll be in Houston. And we’ll be making a speech and discussing a lot of the things which you would agree to, and you know, you have to protect, you have to protect your Second Amendment. You have to give that Second Amendment great protection, because without it, we would be a very dangerous country frankly.” The families who lost their kids this week might disagree with you.
tell that to the 20 families that just lost their children, pretty sure they would say we are a very dangerous country BECAUSE of their “protections” https://t.co/KpfUkenMvK
Trump on his NRA speech tonight: “Interesting time to be making such a speech, frankly .. You have to give that Second Amendment great protection because, without it, we would be a very dangerous country.” pic.twitter.com/uMOXbzfsrJ
Rico Nasty’s last full-length project, her debut album Nightmare Vacation, is around a year and a half old now, so you can’t blame her fans for being anxious for a new one. And although Rico’s been releasing singles here and there, like the jock jam influenced “Money” with Flo Milli and her latest song, “Intrusive,” it didn’t look like there was an official rollout happening.
However, Rico’s a rebel who does things her own way. Case in point: It looks like she may have actually announced her new project on Twitter ahead of a wider release strategy. After a cryptic tweet reading, “17 :D,” it didn’t take long for fans to start speculating. However, Rico was equally quick to lay that speculation to rest, replying to a fan’s question, “17 tracks or June 17th???” with an enthusiastic response: “Bitch when I say BOTH.”
She didn’t offer much in response to further fan prodding except to confirm an upcoming European tour, but she did tease some details about the upcoming collection. “And by the way I do have some ‘singy songs’ for u lil soft ass bitches,” she wrote in a separate tweet.
And by the way I do have some “singy songs” for u lil soft ass bitches
The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.
ITEM NUMBER ONE — This is journalism to me
There was a period of time, not that long ago, where everyone was mean to Guy Fieri for no really good reason. Yes, the hair, sure, and the general vibe, fine, crossed with a generally harsher and more judgmental version of the internet — blogs, specifically — created as close to a perfect storm as you’ll ever see. I was as guilty of it as anyone. I don’t think any news story in my online career brought me as much pleasure in the moment as the time a teenage supervillain stole his Lamborghini. I feel conflicted about it. Maybe not the Lamborghini thing. That’s still wild.
The tide is turning, though. It’s been turning for a while. Guy Fieri is being recognized as a wholesome king and good dude by some of the snots like me who once roasted him and by some of the fancy-schmancy types in the food community. This is cool. It’s good to look at things and re-evaluate them and maybe flip your perspective a bit every once in a while. It is now my position that every waiting room should play episodes of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on a loop all day long. I think it would do wonders for the American psyche as a whole. I am serious about this.
Which, among other reasons, is why it brings me such pleasure to direct you to this profile of Guy Fieri in the New York Times by Matt Flegenheimer. It might be the greatest work of journalism I’ve ever seen. Go read it all. I’m going to pull out some highlights, but seriously, go read it all. Because it is barely a paragraph old before it gets to this…
“I want to chug the chutney!” Mr. Fieri said, daring someone to stop him. “One little bump.”
It was 9:33 a.m.
Perfect.
Or this section, in which Guy Fieri explains his theories on cooking and food and how all of it has slowly gained acceptance from the community that once shunned it.
“If you only hear Metallica as a heavy-metal band, then you are not hearing Metallica,” Mr. Fieri said, riding shotgun after a day of filming and charity work. “Now maybe you don’t like that style. But they’re real musicians.”
Not a single note. It reads almost exactly like something you would expect Guy Fieri to say, which is kind of cool. There’s something to be said for being yourself all the time, even when it wasn’t always popular. I respect it a lot. It’s also good that we note the thing in there about charity. Guy Fieri does so much charity work. It’s one of the things that bent his colleagues toward acceptance. Look at these quotes.
“I don’t think he had the respect of people like me or people in the food industry,” said Traci Des Jardins, an acclaimed Bay Area chef who has become a friend. “He has earned that respect.”
“An amazing individual,” said the philanthropic chef José Andrés, recalling how Mr. Fieri churned out plates of turkey for wildfire evacuees in 2018.
That’s cool. Good for Guy Fieri. I love that he’s made an entire career out of highlighting American small businesses and supporting the restaurant industry — literally the people that feed America — and he’s found a way to do it that’s fun and in his own distinctive style. Arguments can be made that he’s done as much for independently-owned restaurants in America as the entire federal government. Again, that’s cool.
Also, he makes paragraphs like these possible.
He can pass hours, by land or fishing boat, reflecting on life and family with a close friend, Rob Van Winkle, whom Mr. Fieri addresses as Ninja and most others know as Vanilla Ice.
“Some of us never grow up,” said Mr. Van Winkle, who attributed Mr. Fieri’s nickname for him to his rap in the 1991 “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” sequel, adding that he has been renovating the chef’s new home in Palm Beach County, Fla., a short drive from his own. “When Guy and I are together, we’re like the oldest teenagers in town.”
Okay, stop reading for a second. After this paragraph. Close your eyes. Picture yourself out fishing, early in the morning, dew on the grass in the marsh surrounding the lake, a thin layer of fog lingering on the glassy surface of the water… and then, a few dozen yards away, approaching you, you see Guy Fieri and Vanilla Ice together in a boat.
Think about how you would react to that one.
Be honest.
There’s a non-zero chance you would fall out of the boat.
Right?
Do not lie to me.
Yet the likeliest explanation for his durability, for his heightened esteem among some peers, is deceptively simple.
“He seeks to understand rather than be understood,” Mr. Zimmern said, “which I think is as high a compliment as I can give.”
This is a great quote and a beautiful explanation of why Guy Fieri is still out here doing it, gaining a foothold in the culture, and winning over cynical dweebs across the country. It sums things up almost perfectly.
“Almost” is the key word there, though. It turns out things can be summed up better. I know this because, a little further down the profile, we see this quote from a dude named Jim that, I think, really nails things with a clarity you don’t often get from words on a page.
“He goes to all these diners, drive-ins and dives,” said one fan, Jim McGinnis, 77, explaining the show’s appeal as Mr. Fieri administered handshakes and how-ya-doing-brothers at a charity event for New Jersey veterans. “It’s just a pleasure.”
Zero lies detected anywhere in those statements. Congrats to Guy Fieri. And Jim. Congrats to both of them. I bet they’d get along. They should go fishing with Vanilla Ice and make it a television show. I would watch it. I swear to god I’m not joking.
ITEM NUMBER TWO — LET RITA AND HELEN RACE
Something important happened this week: Rita Moreno, Hollywood legend and freaking EGOT winner, was cast in Fast X, the tenth Fast & Furious movie. As the grandmother of Vin Diesel’s character. This is wild. Imagine going back in time to 2001 and telling someone as they walk out of the theater after seeing the first movie in this franchise that there will be nine more over the next 20 years and that Rita Moreno will end up playing Dominic Toretto’s grandmother. They would think you are insane. And that’s before you tell them any of the other stuff that’s happened in the last 20 years. My point is that having a time machine would be fun.
Anyway, I have one request here and I think it’s pretty reasonable: I want to see Rita Moreno and Helen Mirren race. Against each other. Maybe for pink slips or maybe for pride or maybe just for the love of the game. This could happen. It really could. They are both now members of the Fast & Furious Family. Literally, kind of. Helen Mirren plays the mother of Jason Statham’s character, who tried to kill Dominic Toretto with a bazooka as recently as three movies ago but is now invited to his cookout. These are the best movies.
The nice thing here is that, by explaining all of this again, I have given myself another excuse to post the quotes Helen Mirren gave when she was cast in the eighth Fast & Furious movie but was not given the chance to drive…
“I wanted to be driving, but unfortunately, I’m not,” she says, shrugging. “Maybe that will come in the future, in Fast and Furious 12.” She pauses. “I’m probably one of the few people on the set who know how to drive a gear shift car. I doubt the Rock knows,” she jokes. “But I do. I know how to double declutch.”
… and to post this GIF of her getting to drive in the ninth movie after making that stink and calling out The Rock, which, to be clear, is still deeply funny to me.
Universal
So, yes, please, whoever is reading this and can make it happen or who knows someone and can make it happen or can maybe blackmail someone (just a little) into making it happen, let Rita Moreno race Helen Mirren in Fast X.
For me.
For all of us.
But definitely for me.
ITEM NUMBER THREE — The Mission: Impossible movies must continue, for the people
This is the trailer for the next Mission: Impossible movie, Dead Reckoning — Part One, which is an outrageous thing to title a movie. Or anything else, I guess. But definitely a movie. That’s not really the point, though. There was nowhere to go but down after they came up with Ghost Protocol anyway. Ghost Protocol! I’m still not over that. I suspect I’ll never be over it. It is one of my favorite phrases ever. Someone even said it in the movie. Here, look.
PARAMOUNT
It must have been so thrilling to deliver that line. I bet people cheered. I bet someone off-camera whispered “yesssss” right away and it was just loud enough that a microphone picked it up and they had to reshoot the scene. I would have absolutely been this person. I should not be allowed on a movie set.
The trailer is awesome, though. Which is not a surprise. The Mission: Impossible movies rarely disappoint. Tom Cruise is about to turn 60 and he’s still out here doing nonsense like this.
PARAMOUNT
Meanwhile, I ate something kind of spicy last week and my stomach hurt for two days. I am conflicted about this. As I am about the thing where the trailer came out this week and the movie does not premiere until next year. Next year is so far away. It’s not fair. Give it to me now. For free. And give me $1,000. I’ll go as low as $850.
ITEM NUMBER FOUR — Thank you to Sebastian Stan for keeping “Pam & Tommy had a scene where Tommy Lee’s penis spoke to him with the voice of Jason Mantzoukas” in the news
HULU
A good way to tell that there are too many television shows these days is that we are not all sitting around every day talking about the scene in Pam & Tommy where Sebastian Stan, in character as Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, had a conversation with his own penis, which was shown on-screen and was voiced by Jason Mantzoukas. It’s a shame, really. We’re just burning through all kinds of stuff — some legitimately good, some wild, some featuring a talking penis — and none of it is sticking. I hate it.
This is why I’m grateful whenever someone brings it up again. Which Sebastian Stan did. On television. During an interview. The Hollywood Reporter has the quotes.
The actor went on to say that Lee’s 2004 book Tommyland features the rocker’s penis as a character, and so the show’s writers intended the scene as an homage to that choice.
“It’s actually a very sweet scene because it’s a love confession to some extent,” Stan continued. “He’s realizing he’s in love with this woman, and he’s telling his best friend. ‘Don’t let me down, buddy.’”
This is terrific. He said it — and by “it” I am again referring to the thing where he, Sebastian Stan, in character as Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, had a conversation with his own penis, which was shown on-screen and was voiced by Jason Mantzoukas – was “a sweet scene.” And he was kind of right about it, too. There are two primary takeaways from all of this and I think it would be good if we all tried to remember them going forward:
It’s good to try to slow down sometimes and let the cool and important stuff sink in so it doesn’t get burned up like rocket fuel as you hurtle yourself through an endless cosmos of content
There was a scene in Pam & Tommy where Sebastian Stan in character as Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, had a conversation with his own penis, which was shown on-screen and was voiced by Jason Mantzoukas
I might go carve both of these into the face of a mountain. People need to know.
ITEM NUMBER FIVE — Paddington gets it
I feel the need, the need for a marmalade sandwich.
This was a weird and bad week for reasons that do not especially require rehashing here. I am fried and I suspect a lot of you are, too. So… let’s just look at this tweet from my sweet boy Paddington Bear in which he takes the famous Top Gun quote about having a need for speed and substitutes, instead of speed, marmalade sandwiches.
And then let’s look at this tweet by jaythechou — who is doing the Lord’s work on a daily basis — that inserts Paddington into the original Top Gun.
If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this up.
From Matt:
Pop quiz, hotshot.
A madman threatens to blow up the moon unless you agree to never use one of the following GIFs ever again: Judith Light doing cocaine at the rodeo or James Wolk slapping a general and shouting “Where’s the sloth?” What do you do? Just let him blow up the moon?
This question cracked me up, mostly because of the general premise of it all. Just the idea that someone is so sick of me posting these GIFs that they’re spending millions of dollars to shoot what I’m assuming is either some sort of rocket or space laser at the moon. I get it, though. I do post them a lot. And I’m going to post them again, now, for context. First, the one from the short-lived Dallas continuation series where Judith Light did a line of cocaine from an ornate box while standing inside an empty rodeo arena…
TNT
… and then the one from Zoo where James Wolk backhand-slapped an evil general while demanding to know the location of a sloth whose shrieks were so powerful they could cause earthquakes.
CBS
Two things are true here:
Both of these things actually happened on television
I love them both the way a parent loves their children
That said, I’m keeping Judith. It’s just more useful. You can use it to react to all sorts of things. And I do. Friends will text me to ask simple questions — “Do you want to go to Chili’s for dinner on Saturday?” — and I’ll just post that GIF as a response. I bet they groan every time. This makes it funnier to me.
Authorities in the southwest German town of Walldorf have ordered some cat owners to keep their pets indoors until the end of August, to protect a rare bird during its breeding season.
CAT LOCKDOWN
WE HAVE A GERMAN CAT LOCKDOWN
I DID NOT EVER EXPECT TO TYPE THAT SENTENCE
I AM GOING TO TYPE IT AGAIN BUT MAKE IT BOLD THIS TIME
WE HAVE A GERMAN CAT LOCKDOWN
The decree is designed to help save the crested lark, which makes its nest on the ground and is therefore easy prey for feline hunters. The bird’s population in Western Europe has declined sharply in recent decades.
This is incredible. They really want people to keep their cats inside the entire summer to protect some birds. Which, now that I think about it, isn’t that big deal? I don’t know. My family had a cat when I was growing up and he barely ever went outside. You could leave the door wide open and he’d just yawn at it from the floor. His name was Sylvester and I loved him very much. Great dude.
Regional daily Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung reported Wednesday that the head of the local animal protection association plans to take legal steps to challenge the decree.
“Please remain calm,” it quoted him as saying. “I can assure you we’ll do our best to stop this disproportionate measure.”
It says a lot about me as a person and the various personality flaws I possess that I would absolutely, 100 percent, watch a video feed of these legal proceedings. Live. Every day. Lots of you weirdos have been watching the Depp-Heard trial. This is that for me. I hope they call witnesses. I hope one of the witnesses is a cat. I hope the trial becomes a worldwide phenomenon and they end up making a miniseries about it in a few years. I hope the miniseries contains a scene where a bunch of dogs are watching the trial on television and laughing at the cats.
Despite being persona non grata in the music industry for the past six months or so, Travis Scott remains as popular as ever among sneakerheads. Today, his latest collaboration with Nike dropped — and unfortunately for his fans, the shoes proved as scarce as a recent Travis headlining performance.
The culprit in this not-so-mysterious case of the missing shoes — as it so often is — was SNKRS, Nike’s app for bidding on the most coveted (or “hyped”) releases from its stocks. Whereas you’d go on the plain old Nike app for a pair of new LeBrons or general release Air Max, SNKRS is where you need to be for the latest Jordan retro or high-profile limited-edition release with artists like Travis or Billie Eilish.
However, ever since its release, it has been as much a source of frustration for fans as it has a resource — in fact, many times, it is more so. Nearly every new release day brings with it a slew of fans posting their “Ls” on social media, as the drawing system condemns many fans to the dicey proposition of the resale market, where they can get their latest grails, but only at a 200% markup (sometimes more). Today was no different, as the hotly-demanded Travis Scott Cact.us collection, consisting of a reconstructed Air Max 1 and Air Trainer 1, disappeared faster than you could say, “It’s lit!” Those who did hit today met an immediate wave of hate from their peers.
Only on @Nike SNKRS app where you can lose 4 different raffles…My brother and my cousin even tried and THEY DIDNT WIN EITHER. You’re telling me out of 12 tries.. no one could win ONE pair of shoes? Statistics aren’t even on your side. I’m done.
There is some good news on the horizon for Travis fans, though. He makes his return to the festival scene at Primavera Sound in Brazil this summer, while his album Utopia is still waiting in the wings. Check out fans’ SNKRS laments above.
Flea is of course best known for his work with Red Hot Chili Peppers, but all the while, he’s been active as an actor, too. In fact, he’s had roles in some legendary movies, including The Big Lebowski, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, and Back To The Future Part II (and Part III). He may have also helped define your childhood by voicing Donnie in The Wild Thornberrys.
Now, the bassist and thespian has found his way into another iconic franchise: Star Wars, thanks to his role in the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Flea’s latest role comes after rumors about it started circulating a few weeks ago. (Worth noting is that Obi-Wan Kenobi director Deborah Chow also directed RHCP’s recent “Black Summer” video, a connection that surely helped fuel those rumors.)
Consequence notes Flea plays a bounty hunter named Vect Nakrui and describes his role, “In order to bring Kenobi out of hiding, Third Sister Reva (Moses Ingram) hires a bounty hunter to kidnap Leia Organa. That criminal is Vect Nakru, played by Flea himself. The idea is that since Kenobi served Bail Organa during the Clone Wars, the Alderaan Senator would once again call upon the Jedi to help find his daughter. Indeed, Kenobi digs up his old lightsaber and heads to Daiyu to rescue the girl — and face Vect.”
Flea isn’t the first musician to carve out a role in the world of Star Wars: Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) played Lando Calrissian in 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. Lin-Manuel Miranda and legendary Star Wars score composer John Williams also had cameos in Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker.
Drama seems to always follow the Migos, but rumors have been swirling about internal tension between the trio ever since fans realized Offset and Cardi B unfollowed Quavo and Takeoff on Instagram. The concerns grew even further as the unfollowing aligned with Qua and Take promoting their new single “Hotel Lobby,” which was released last Friday (May 20) under the name Unc and Phew. Now, Offset is evidently here with some new music of his own, providing a small snippet on his Instagram story this week.
The three members of Migos are no strangers to doing things on their own, regularly appearing on other artists’ music by themselves and even dropping three solo albums from each member within six months of one another in 2018-2019 before taking a long break. The added layer of the social media aspect makes this a cause for concern, but none of the members have officially addressed the supposed tension. It’s known what they can do together, with multiple No. 1’s and Grammy nominations under their belt and DJ Akademiks spoke in a TMZ interview about how he believes fans should not be worried.
“They might be going through a small disagreement or whatever,” the media personality says. “I think that they’re angling it because, you know, Takeoff and Quavo just put out a song, so they’re kind of letting it lie, letting the questions linger or something like that.” In this “everything is a rollout” climate of today’s music, it’s fair to question everything. The actual blood ties between the three make this an even more intriguing situation.
Check out the snippet of Offset’s new music above.
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
Once upon a time, the phrase “Compton rapper” evoked a very different image than the one it might conjure today. Before the very concept of a denizen of the Hub City was revamped to include examples of Black excellence and crunchy granola woke rap, the above-mentioned term suggested an air of menace, as well as urgency. After all, “Straight Outta Compton” wasn’t just a declaration of hometown pride, it was a call to action.
Now that the city has spawned such eclectic artistic standouts as Kendrick Lamar, Buddy, and Westside Boogie, one might think that Compton is no longer producing acts in the vein of NWA, MC Eiht, or more recently, YG. However, there’s a burgeoning underground in the city, producing rappers who are far less mainstream-friendly, but every bit as vital as their gangbanging predecessors. The one you need to know is Compton Av.
Named for the street he grew up on, Av quietly but assuredly built a decade-long career on independent releases such as Thugged Out, Tru 2 The Streets, and All In, becoming something of a local celebrity and a fixture of Compton’s indie rap scene. But with his latest release, the 10-track Net 30, he stakes a claim on the wider world of hip-hop, proving that despite his veteran status, he’s just getting started.
From its opening track, Compton Av lets listeners know what kind of time he’s on. Yes, he’s gangsta as hell, but he’s a businessman, as well, here to teach the finer points of making the transition from the streets to the boardroom. There’s a knowing wit to his rhymes, which find him smirking his way through casually delivered daggers and the sort of raunchy comedy of peers like 1TakeJay and AzChike, but he also drops the occasional gem like a thunderbolt from Zeus himself.
“I done seen record deals and said I wouldn’t take it / And took care of hoe n****s who said I wouldn’t make it,” he says in the self-titled intro. Later, in the interlude “Fucc The Opps,” Av sums up the mindset that drives the reckless lifestyle he touts: “N****s give they life to the set until they lose it / Had a chance to go to the league, the n**** blew it… How you supposed to feel when you grew up in the slums / When they asking ‘where you from,’ you better get yourself a gun.”
While much of the album is given over to turn-up anthems like “Secret,” “Tear It Up,” and “Jumpin,” he also offers upliftment on “I Did It (Winnin),” which calls to mind Jay Rock’s 2018 hit “Win.” “We made it from nothin’, look at God,” he boasts over a triumphant horn loop. And on “Slid’N” featuring West Coast rap godfather Snoop Dogg, he gets off some sinister one-liners, demonstrating both his gangsta bonafides and an unexpectedly creative way with words.
This isn’t game-changing stuff, but it is perhaps more representative of where the average Compton citizen is at than the brainy, jazz-infused raps from some of Av’s more celebrated compatriots. As important as it is to magnify the “high art,” it’s equally necessary to highlight the stuff that will soundtrack the late-night house parties, summertime cookouts, and midnight gang slides that are also a part of the city’s vibrant, rich history. Black folks shouldn’t always have to be excellent to be considered worthwhile and some stories are best told in the blunt language of the culture that created them.
Net 30 is out now via Cook Gods/Rich Off Rap/Empire. Get it here.
’80s star Bruce Hornsby has proved himself as an avid participant in the current indie-rock scene. In 2019, he gathered Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, guitarist Blake Mills, British folk trio The Staves, and musician-producer Brad Cook for his album Absolute Zero.
Today, Hornsby furthers his indie-rock involvement with the release of his new album ‘Flicted, which includes a feature from Danielle Haim on the swift song “Days Ahead.” The track moves forward with optimism as they take turns singing, “There will be days ahead / I’m pretty sure / Brightening lighter rays / In this world.” The sound is vibrant and airy, and their vocals are ethereal, especially when coming together to create a harmony.
The group Haim released one of the most beloved albums of 2020 with Women In Music Pt. III. It watched them find power in their vulnerability, which they were open about on Twitter: “For my sisters and I, there have been times in our lives where we have felt like we are stuck in a dark hole,” Danielle wrote on Twitter. “Every time I’ve been depressed — it takes me accepting that I need help to start to get out of it.”
Listen to Hornsby’s new collaboration with Danielle on “Days Ahead” above.
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