Month: June 2022

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 Post Malone’s new album drop and the return of Polo G. 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. Also find our Uproxx HQ Spotify playlist, which is updated weekly with the best new music, at the end of this post.

Post Malone — “Love/Hate Letter To Alcohol” Feat. Fleet Foxes

Post Malone is well known for his musical interests outside of his rap/pop lane, like when he and Travis Barker played a full set of Nirvana covers and when he and Billy Strings covered Johnny Cash. He worked a bit of that into his new album Twelve Carat Toothache, too, by getting Fleet Foxes involved. Robin Pecknold’s distinct vocals carry the track throughout, playing nicely with Malone’s own singing and the brooding instrumental.

Polo G — “Distraction”

Polo G had a massive summer last year when Hall Of Fame was a No. 1 album for him. Whether or not Summer 2022 goes the same remains to be seen, but Polo did drop off “Distraction,” which arrived alongside a creative video that sees Polo in the arcade, beating up a streamer, boxing on top of a birthday cake, and other visually interesting goings-on.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs — “Spitting Off The Edge Of The World” Feat. Perfume Genius

In early 2020, Karen O, in reference to Yeah Yeah Yeahs, declared, “It feels like time to have something new out there.” Now, over two years later, the band has made good on that tease: Last week, they announced Cool It Down, the group’s comeback album. They also shared “Spitting Off The Edge Of The World,” a grandiose and atmospheric track on which they get a perfect assist from Perfume Genius.

Lakeyah — “Mind Yo Business” Feat. Latto

Lakeyah and Latto are two of rap’s finest up-and-comers, so naturally, them linking up on “Mind Yo Business” went well. Uproxx’s Aaron Williams notes that on the song, the rappers “display some aggressive chemistry on the fast-paced track, which finds them boasting their big-money moves while warning haters not to stick their noses where they don’t belong.”

070 Shake — “Medicine”

Modus Vivendi was a big album for 070 Shake, as the 2020 LP was her debut and it was well-received critically. It is also a tough act to follow but Shake did so this week with her sophomore album, You Can’t Kill Me. When the album finally dropped last week, Shake shared a video for “Medicine,” an synth-driven and aggressive-but-measured single.

Angel Olsen — “Ghost On”

In her review of Olsen’s new album Big Time, Uproxx’s Carolyn Droke notes, “Pairing Olsen’s mourning with her infatuation with her partner, it’s no wonder Big Time leans into the alt-country genre. Her slight country drawl and twangy steel guitar makes sense within the context of Olsen’s musical trajectory, especially since she now resides on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains. The album walks listeners through her personal torment, something Olsen has never shied away from in the past.”

Gucci Mane — “Mrs. Davis”

A lot of songs are about counting notches in your bedpost, but that’s not Gucci Mane, who met now-wife Keyshia Ka’Oir Davis back in 2010. She’s the subject of Mane’s new single “Mrs. Davis,” on which he lovingly pays tribute to how she has continually stuck by him, through good and bad: “I was at my worst, so you deserve my best / I treat you like a queen ’cause you deserve the best / Said I’d get twenty years, she didn’t break a sweat / Went from kissin’ in the jail to kissin’ on a jet.”

Swae Lee and Diplo — “Tupelo Shuffle” Feat. Gary Clark Jr. and Austin Butler

The new Elvis Presley biopic is interesting from a musical perspective in that its soundtrack is giving modern artists, often ones whose styles don’t really align with that of The King, a chance to offer their take on Presley’s style. Swae Lee and Diplo take a crack at it with “Tupelo Shuffle,” which is built on an interpolation of “That’s All Right Mama” and features Gary Clark Jr., who plays Arthur Crudup (the original artist of the song) in the movie.

Niki — “Before”

23-year-old up-and-comer Niki has herself a new album, Nicole, on the way, which she previewed last week with “Before.” The tune is extremely Bridgers-esque and it sees Niki finding closure for an old love story.

Tim Heidecker — “Sirens Of Titan” Feat. Kurt Vile

Over the course of his past two albums, Tim & Eric star Tim Heidecker has recruited some serious indie firepower to help bring his musical visions to life. Just last week, he released “Sirens Of Titan,” a tune Heidecker says he wrote with Kurt Vile in mind (which is evident listening to it) and got Vile himself to join on the track.

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

Amazon Prime Video’s unprecedentedly expensive The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power doesn’t premiere for another three months, but the showrunners are already thinking about the series finale. They must have learned from Game of Thrones.

“We even know what our final shot of the last episode is going to be,” J.D. Payne told Empire. “The rights that Amazon bought were for a 50-hour show. They knew from the beginning that was the size of the canvas – this was a big story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. There are things in the first season that don’t pay off until season five.”

Those five seasons take place thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. But don’t worry, there’s still plenty of little guys. The Rings of Power doesn’t feature hobbits, but it does have the equally hairy harfoots, “who [appear] in the original Tolkien lore as the hobbits’ predecessors,” according to Empire.

“We’re the traditional Tolkien little guy,” [actor Lenny Henry said]. “Traditionally, the little people in this world provide comedy but also get to be incredibly brave. You’re going to see us run the full gamut of emotions and actions in this adventure.”

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on September 2.

(Via Empire)

In recent years, there have been more stories about artists selling the rights to their music catalogues for some nice paydays. It’s mostly older artists with large discographies that have aged like wine and continue to resonate with modern audiences, but some younger folks have decided to cash out, too. OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder, for example, was one of 2021’s highest-paid musicians after selling his storied song catalogue — he co-wrote songs like Beyonce’s “Halo” and Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” — for $276 million.

Now, Julian Casablancas has decided that he too would like to get paid: Rolling Stone reports he has sold his stake in The Strokes’ catalog to Primary Wave for an undisclosed amount. The deal only includes Casablancas’ material with The Strokes, not his solo material or work with The Voidz.

While The Strokes haven’t been a huge chart success when it comes to singles — their sole song to make the Billboard Hot 100 is “Juicebox,” which peaked at No. 98 — they do have a number of tunes with staying power: “Last Nite,” “Reptilia,” and “Someday” have all been certified Platinum by the RIAA and they each have have over a quarter of a million streams on Spotify, with “Last Nite” currently sitting at a hair under 425 million plays. The band’s albums from the 2000s are also among the most revered of their era.

The Los Angeles Lakers figure to look a lot different next year. They have a new head coach in Darvin Ham, who joins them from Mike Budenholzer’s staff in Milwaukee, and a roster that figures to see some significant changes to the rotation pieces at the least, given most everyone beyond their top stars is a free agent this summer.

How they fill out the roster of minimum deals will play a big role in determining how successful they will be, but we won’t see how they attack roster building until July 1. For now, Ham is in the process of filling out his coaching staff and he’s apparently bringing an old friend back to the Association in Rasheed Wallace, who Ham played with in Detroit from 2003-2005, winning an NBA championship in the process. Wallace hasn’t been an assistant in the league since his one season with the Pistons in 2013-14, but has spent time coaching high school ball and most recently was an assistant for Penny Hardaway at Memphis.

Hardaway was asked about Wallace’s status for next season on Monday, and divulged that he is likely on his way to L.A. to join Ham’s staff.

Ham has been fond of Wallace’s coaching potential for a long time, so it’s not a surprise that he’d bring Rasheed back to the assistant coaching ranks of the NBA. Where Wallace’s presence figures to be an immediate help is with Anthony Davis and continuing to get the most out of him on both ends of the floor, with Wallace being able to relate to Davis about as well as any coach could given his skillset as a player.

It’s also part of why it’s important for people like Ham to get head coaching jobs, because they open up opportunities for an entirely different group of people to get on an NBA bench and show their value as coaches that might otherwise not get that chance.

Roots Picnic, founded in 2008 and hosted annually in Philadelphia, has evolved into a major staple within the Black community. Every June, attendees have been treated to some of the fresh faces in the music space as well as appearances from seasoned veterans. One thing that always occurs is Black Thought taking the stage and reminding everyone that there is a short list of rappers who can compare to what he brings to the microphone. This year was no different, as The Roots’ lead MC blessed his hometown at the 2022 event this past Saturday (June 4) alongside Rick Ross and Benny The Butcher during the “Live Mixtape” showcase.

Ross and Benny performed some of their most popular records before the 50-year-old hijacked Ross’ “Hustlin” and Butcher’s “Johnny P’s Caddy” beats and delivered momentous freestyles. It didn’t stop there either; Black Thought went back even further and spit over LL Cool J’s “I Shot Ya,” UGK and Outkast’s “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You),” and Pharoahe Monch’s “Simon Says.” If that wasn’t enough, the “State Prisoner” artist joined the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul Mary J. Blige during her set later in the evening and added a new verse over her classic 1992 record “What’s The 411?”

Black Thought’s pen isn’t to be questioned, but this exhibition of sharp lyricism is especially noteworthy as he is on the road to releasing Cheat Codes, a collaborative project with Danger Mouse on August 12. The project, confirmed in May, is set to feature the late MF Doom, A$AP Rocky, Run The Jewels, Raekwon, Joey Bada$$, Conway The Machine, Russ, and more. So far, Thought and Mouse have released their first single “No Gold Teeth.”

Check out what you can expect from Cheat Codes in the 2022 Roots Picnic footage above.

Among their many similarities, Drake and J. Cole have always shared a love of hoops. While this translates in different ways — while Drake is content to win pick-up games at his home court, The Sanctuary, Cole has actively pursued a professional career in basketball, landing on two teams’ rosters in two different leagues — this is something that’s remained consistent throughout their parallel careers.

Until recently, Drake was the more visible one of the two, sitting courtside at NBA games to trash talk his player friends, but now that that number includes J. Cole, it looks like Drake will be popping up at some Canadian Elite Basketball League games as well. On Saturday night, Drake was spotted at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre for the game between the Hamilton Honey Badgers and Cole’s Scarborough Shooting Stars (you’ve gotta love a league that embraces alliteration like this). Drake even wore his fellow rapper’s jersey.

Although the Shooting Stars lost, 84-69, it didn’t appear to put a damper on Drake’s enthusiastic support for J. Cole, who he called “my brother” in a post on Instagram about Cole’s first game. Despite ostensibly competing for the number-one modern rapper spot in the eyes of many fans, Cole and Drake have always supported each other as rappers, with both going as far as calling each other “one of the greatest rappers” ever, so it only makes sense that this show of appreciation has expanded to the court. Since Cole’s spending so much time in Canada these days, you really have to wonder if or when some footage will appear of him hooping at Drake’s infamous Sanctuary runs.

As one of the first celebrity voices to speak out following the school shooting in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas, Matthew McConaughey has ramped up his advocacy for preventing gun violence. In a new op-ed for USA Today, the actor passionately argues for “gun responsibility” measures because “the debate about gun control has delivered nothing but status quo.”

“There is a difference between control and responsibility,” McConaughey writes. “The first is a mandate that can infringe on our right; the second is a duty that will preserve it. There is no constitutional barrier to gun responsibility. Keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous people is not only the responsible thing to do, it is the best way to protect the Second Amendment. We can do both.”

Speaking as both a father and the son of a kindergarten teacher, the native Texan believes there’s a needle to that can be thread that both slows down the “epidemic of indiscriminate mass shootings” and still protect the rights of gun owners. However, McConaughey argues that inaction is no longer an option, and the immediate problem is, in fact, guns. Via USA Today:

The need for mental health care, school safety, the prevalence of sensationalized media coverage, and the decaying state of American values are all long-term societal factors that must be addressed, but right now, we don’t have the luxury of time. We need to focus on corrections and countermeasures that can also and immediately reduce the gun violence tragedies that have become too common in our country.

As for McConaughey’s proposed “gun responsibility” solutions, those include: Background checks for all gun purchases, no assault rifle purchases for anyone under 21 (with an exception for the military), red flag laws, and a national waiting period for assault rifle purchases.

(Via USA Today)

When the rookie scale extension deadline came and went last year without a new deal in place for Deandre Ayton, despite Luka Doncic, Jaren Jackson Jr., Trae Young, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and teammate Mikal Bridges all inking new deals, it raised plenty of eyebrows.

Still, the expectation was, with Phoenix coming off of a Finals run, that another excellent season from Ayton and a deep playoff run would secure him the max extension he believed he deserved and the Suns would keep their core from the 2021 Finals intact. Ayton completed the first part of that, putting forth regular season averages of 17.7 points and 10.2 rebounds per game on strong efficiency as Phoenix locked up the West’s top seed and the NBA’s best record.

However, after getting bounced in the second round by the Mavs in rather stunning fashion, with Ayton being benched after 17 minutes of play in Game 7 during a blowout loss, the tone about Ayton’s future in the desert shifted. There are enough teams that believe in Ayton that he’s going to get a max offer sheet from someone, but no longer is it expected that the Suns will go ahead and match. In fact, per The Athletic’s John Hollinger, the expectation from those around the league is that Ayton will play somewhere else next year.

Rumors continue to intensify regarding Ayton and his relationship with the organization that drafted him. We’ll elaborate on this below, but sources tell The Athletic that it’s “more likely than not” that Ayton plays somewhere other than Phoenix next season.

This came from a Q&A about the Detroit Pistons, who Hollinger notes figure to have a good chance of landing Ayton given their cap space and how well Jerami Grant would seemingly fit in Phoenix as a strong return in a sign-and-trade, which is how most anticipate the Suns handling Ayton’s exit. There will be plenty of other teams interested in Ayton’s services, as the Hawks and Trail Blazers have each been linked to having interest in trading for the young center to pair with their star guards, and it will seemingly come down to where Ayton and the Suns can find common ground between where he’d like to play and where they can get the best value in return.

It’s a rather stunning rift that’s grown between the former top pick and the organization that took him first overall four years ago, choosing him over Doncic in part because of his ties to the state of Arizona having played his college ball in Tucson. Now it’s about how the Suns pivot in order to maintain their championship window and what teams see this as an opportunity to vault themselves into contender status by adding a young center still growing into his immense talents.

QAnon cheerleader Marjorie Taylor Greene’s proposed solution to mass school shootings is to embrace fascism/Christian nationality, and now, she’s taking aim again at Parkland survivor David Hogg after openly harassing him for year. Hogg, of course, is used to tangling with the far-right and even told Laura Ingraham where to stuff it, so he wasn’t afraid to push back when Greene goaded him on Twitter about bringing “your girls,” with whom he will “try to manipulate some of my gutless weak colleagues to vote for gun control that will violate our freedoms and leave Americans defenseless.” Greene demanded to know why Hogg wasn’t on her schedule because, well, of course.

In response, Hogg wasn’t here for Greene’s sensationalistic way of phrasing things. “I’m more interested in protecting children and meeting commonsense people who are looking for reasonable solutions to stop children from dying,” Hogg responded. “Don’t really have time to help you go viral for attacking survivors so you can fundraise.” He even added a “respectfully,” which likely wasn’t an easy move.

Greene’s goading actually isn’t too far base from the GOP party line. Down in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott actually proposed sending fake invaders to schools in order to test their defenses. Abbott seems to believe that the problem here is that schools have too many doors, not that lone gunmen have no problem purchasing assault weapons at age 18. As for Hogg, he’s sticking to his non-guns while offering advice on how to emotionally support activists against gun violence.

In the meantime, plenty of people are seeing through Marjorie Taylor Greene’s tactics, especially since she has no problem harassing mass shooting survivors but complains about CNN’s Jim Acosta daring to ask her questions

The midterm elections are gonna be a doozy, guys.

[This post contains spoilers for season four of Stranger Things]

One of the boldest choices in Stranger Things 4 was, early on, having two new characters share a scene together. There was no Eleven, no Joyce, no Dustin, Robin, or Steve — just Dungeons & Dragons dungeon master Eddie Munson (played by Joseph Quinn) and cheerleader Chrissy Cunningham (Grace Van Dien) bonding in the woods outside of Hawkins High School during a drug deal. The two performers had palpable chemistry, so it was a shame that Chrissy was killed by Vecna shortly thereafter. Her death is one of co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer’s biggest regrets about season four.

“We always have those moments [of ‘what have we done?’],” Matt told TVLine. “We shot the quote-unquote drug-deal scene in the woods pretty late, actually, into shooting.” So late, in fact, that Chrissy’s death scene in the Munson trailer had already been filmed. He continued, “The scene came alive in a way that was just so beautiful. And so much of that was Joe and Grace. It was just one of those fortunate scenes where we were able to have two cameras rolling capturing them simultaneously. Joe was doing a lot of stuff kinda spontaneously, and we were getting these amazing reactions from Grace.”

Van Dien’s time on Stranger Things is over, but the Duffers hope to work her again:

They’ve been down this road before, “when we killed Bob in season two,” says Matt. “I didn’t want to do that. We had fallen in love with both the character and Sean Astin. And Sean didn’t want to die. Winona Ryder didn’t want him to die. But we’ll find something else to do with Grace, something else to do with Sean.”

Maybe a prequel about Chrissy and Astin’s character Bob will appear in one of the inevitable spinoffs. They could open a detective agency together.

Stranger Things 4 returns for two more very long episodes on July 1.

(Via TVLine)