Year: 2022

LL Cool J, the legendary rapper who was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame last year, is having some fun on Twitter. After a tweet went viral that read, “LL Cool J was ridiculous in every music video he was in. Just go look,” the “I Need A Beat” singer decided to provide some humorous commentary by making a TikTok with the classic green screen effect so that he appeared in front of the tweet. “Time to break the silence,” he says. “Yeah, I was definitely ridiculous. That’s my goal. I make my own rules.”

The tweet is full of replies that proved the original tweeter’s point; there’s a clip where he is “playing the guitar on a young lady’s leg,” as Cool J puts it. “I think I should’ve had two or three girls though,” he remarks with a completely serious tone. There’s another clip where he’s pouring chocolate syrup on a woman’s knee caps. “Definitely was wildin’,” he says. “Although, I always felt there should’ve been more chocolate. Maybe using a giant paintbrush or something, and just really go in.”

All of these clips are, you know, something else, and Cool J’s explanations only make them even funnier.

Rosalía is preparing to be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live this weekend. In the days before the show, it’s not uncommon to see SNL guests stop by Late Night With Seth Meyers or The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (both of which are taped in 30 Rockefeller Plaza, as is SNL) for an interview. That’s just what Rosalía did last night, as she sat down for a chat with Fallon and told a funny story about Harry Styles unknowingly texting with somebody who had her old phone number.

Rosalía started by sharing a text conversation screenshot Styles sent her on Instagram, which Styles explained, “Your texts are confusing.” The conversation begins with Styles saying, “This is so beautiful,” regarding Rosalía’s 2020 single “Dolerme.” Of course, Rosalía wasn’t actually on the receiving end of this text, but whoever was played along for a bit, responding, “I know my darling.” From there, they go back and forth: “Love it,” “Love you,” and “Love you toooooooo.”

Then the mystery texter broke character and replied in three consecutive texts, “Haha sorry. You’re wrong. I don’t know who you are.” Styles responded, “I’m confused.” The texter then replied by explaining more thoroughly and doing something most people probably wouldn’t do if they were knowingly texting with Styles: telling him to leave them alone. They wrote, “This number belongs to someone before. But now it’s my number. So don’t bother me anymore. Good night. Thanks.”

Naturally, that saga got a big laugh out of Fallon, as many things do.

Speaking of SNL, Rosalía was all smiles in some SNL promos that were shared yesterday, alongside Mikey Day, Chris Redd, and host Zoë Kravitz. So, check out the Fallon interview above and the SNL promos below.

The next time you’re at a wedding — maybe even your own — take a look around. Dakota Johnson might be there requesting Talking Heads at the DJ table, or patiently waiting for a slice of cake, or gossiping about Ellen (mostly like gossiping about Ellen).

Like DMX, Taylor Swift, and Barack Obama before her, The Lost Daughter star is a fan of crashing weddings. In fact, she called it “one of my number one hobbies” during a game of “Never Have I Ever” (not the very good show) with W Magazine.

“I feel like I’ve done that a lot,” Johnson said before sharing an anecdote about the time she danced the Hora at a Jewish wedding. “There I was, holding up the bride and groom in a chair. And they were just like ‘Who… what are you doing here?’”

Red Rocket standout Simon Rex, who also took part in the game, can relate.

He recalled: “I looked down off the balcony and there was a wedding going on and I thought, ‘That looks fun,’ so I went down and danced with people. It was good, weddings are fun, especially when you’re not the groom.”

Forget Vince and Owen. Let Dakota and Simon star in Wedding Crashers 2.

(Via W Magazine)

Spring is already around the corner and the music industry is gearing up for a new season of releases. Indiecast hosts Steven and Ian have spent the first few months of 2022 sharing their music takes, but it’s now time to hear what listeners have to say.

This week, Indiecast takes some time off of reviewing albums to read some listener mail and answer burning questions. Steven and Ian kick things off by giving advice on how music nerds can respectfully discuss albums without becoming overbearing. Then, they discuss their opinions on the best album-closing tracks and share their picks for the top three worst songs of all-time (spoiler alert: Smash Mouth gets an honorable mention).

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Ian talks up Karate, a band who is booked for this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival and seem like the perfect fit for an Indiecast Venn diagram. Steven gives a shout-out to Goose, who he just called the “next great American jam band” in a recent feature.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 80 on Spotify below, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

Nearly a year after he teamed up with Lil Baby for Voice Of The Heroes and 15 months after he dropped his last solo project, Lil Durk is back in action with his new album 7220. The project is a follow-up to 2020’s The Voice which peaked at No. 2 on the albums chart, making it his highest-charting release along with 2020’s Just Cause Y’all Waited 2. 7220 delivers 17 songs, including the previously released “AHHH HA,” “Pissed Me Off,” and “Broadway Girls.” It also comes with features from Gunna, Future, Summer Walker, and Morgan Wallen.

Now that the album is here, one of the early highlights from it is “Petty Too” with Future. The track flaunts the rappers’ spiteful ways as they admit to being petty at various times in their lives, even with the women that they interact with. Prior to releasing 7220, Durk shared a video for “Golden Child” where he delivers a raw look into his life as he raps into the camera as his crew smokes and shoots dice in the background. The collab also arrives after Future deemed Valentine’s Day the “Worst Day” with a somber single last month.

You can listen to “Petty Too” in the video above.

7220 is out 3/11 via Alamo Records/Sony Music Entertainment. You can pre-save it here.

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

Back in 2018, less than a year after they released their third album Culture II, Migos decided that they were going to break off for a brief moment and release solo albums. Quavo dropped Quavo Huncho, Offset delivered Father Of 4, and Takeoff released The Last Rocket. In the grand scheme of things, the projects weren’t as beloved as the Migos projects as they helped to highlight while the group works so well together. Now, almost four years later, there’s no sign that the trio is preparing to release solo projects again, but some, including Takeoff, have released songs as individual artists.

For the first time since he dropped The Last Rocket, Takeoff is back in action as a lone act. With his latest release, he calls on Rich The Kid to join him for “Crypto.” The track is of course focused on cryptocurrency as the rappers flex their wallets and how much they’ve attained. It also arrives with a laid-back video that follows Takeoff and Rich as they walk through city streets and kick it on a plane as they brag about their finances.

The new track comes after Takeoff lent his voice to Roddy Ricch’s sophomore album Live Life Fast where he appeared on “Paid My Dues.” As for Rich The Kid, he recently teamed up with Lil Wayne for their joint project, Trust Fund Babies.

You can listen to “Crypto” in the video above.

It’s been a little over 18 months since Latto dropped her major-label debut album Queen Of Da Souf. The project arrived after she earned a spot on the 2020 XXL Freshman Class list. Altogether, Queen Of Da Souf helped push the Atlanta rapper into the spotlight and she’s absolutely made the most of it. Her 2021 single “Big Energy” has grown to be her most successful track so far. Now, Latto is looking to match the song’s success with her latest single, “Wheelie.” The track arrives with a guest verse from fellow Atlanta native 21 Savage and a thrilling new video.

The new visual is filled with motorbikes and luxury vehicles doing donuts which is fitting action for the new song. Elsewhere, Latto shows off her dance moves and later stands tall and confident with 21 Savage as they flex some muscle through boastful raps. The new track is not the duo’s first record together as Latto previously recruited 21 Savage for “Pull Up” from her Queen Of Da Souf album.

The new record comes after Latto delivered song strong guest verses over the last year. They include a remix of “Sorry Not Sorry,” her most recent effort with Atlanta rapper Omeretta The Great, as well as records with Toosii, Don Toliver, and Lil Durk. 21 Savage, on the other hand, has recently laid verses with JID, King Von, Rick Ross, and more.

Scroll up to check out the video for “Wheelie.”

Megan Thee Stallion and Dua Lipa have grown to be two of music’s most exciting musicians. Both have top-5 albums, those being Good News and Future Nostalgia respectively. They also have top-2 records on the singles chart with Megan’s being “Savage” and Dua Lipa’s being “Don’t Start Now” and “Levitating.” Add in Grammy wins and it’s clear that the two artists are well on their way to stardom, if they’re not already. With that being said, it’s only right that they join forces for their new song “Sweetest Pie,” a record that comes with an enticing video.

The new visual begins with two men walking in a forest when they’re greeted by Megan and Dua Lipa. At first, they’re intrigued by the artists, but soon enough they realize that Megan and Dua’s sweetest pies are too much for them to handle and they quickly run away. The men return with an army of guys to try and take down Megan and Dua, but they fail in their attempt as the ladies overcome their attack to reign supreme.

The song arrives as a high moment for both artists. Megan was recently forced to sue her label, 1501 Certified Entertainment, after they refused to count her last project, Something For Thee Hotties, as a project to fulfill her contract with them. As for Dua Lipa, she received two lawsuits that accused her of stealing from other songs to create her hit record “Levitating.”

You can watch the video for “Sweetest Pie” above.

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

“What’s your favorite shape?” is generally a question we ask 5-year-olds, not grown adults. But maybe if we put it into more advanced terms—”What’s the best polygon?”—we’d be compelled to give it some genuine thought.

Since there’s an entire field of math dedicated to triangles, that might seem like a logical answer. But, most human-made things around us are made up of rectangles, so maybe they’re the best. Then again, there are much more interesting quadrilaterals than squares and rectangles (hey, rhombus!) in addition to pentagons, hexagons, heptagons (which I don’t think I’ve ever even seen), octagons, nonagons—so many “gons” to choose from.

As it turns out, there is an answer to this question—at least according to popular YouTube creator CGP Grey.

The answer? Hexagons. Who knew, right?

If you have doubts that the six-sided shape deserves the title of “best,” CGP Grey’s video might change your mind.

In it, we see how bees use hexagons to make honeycomb. That’s not by accident; it’s because hexagons are actually the most efficient shape for tiling. It’s the same reason bees’ eyes are made up of tons of tiny hexagons—and why the back of our eyes are too.

Snowflakes have six sides, which alone is reason enough for the hexagon to be the bestagon, but the reason they’re six-sided is super cool. Saturn has a mysterious, humongous hexagon of gases the size of six Earths, which is weird but also super cool.

But that’s just the peripheral stuff. There’s a fundamental atomic reason why hexagons are the bestagons—strength and stability which allows hexagons to create the strongest atomic material in the universe.

And, of course, Settlers of Catan.

If you have doubts, let CGP Grey convince you. By the end, you’ll have to at least admit that hexagons are pretty darn cool, even if you’re partial to some other polygon.

The Brooklyn Nets throttled the Philadelphia 76ers in stunning fashion on Thursday evening. Brooklyn went into Wells Fargo Center and left with a 129-100 victory, making up for the absence of Ben Simmons with an impressive array of offense and frisky defense throughout the evening. Along the way, there was plenty of vitriol for Simmons in his return, albeit in street clothes on the bench, to Philadelphia, but Kevin Durant and company seemed to quiet the crowd with a dominant on-court effort.

After the game, Durant was asked about what transpired and whether the angst about Simmons had a motivating appeal.

First, Durant admitted that the Nets had Simmons on their mind in trying to have the back of their teammate in a difficult environment. From there, he also managed to get in a jab that included the blowout nature of the final score.

“We look at Ben as our brother. We knew this was a hostile environment,” Durant said. “We knew that he didn’t have an opportunity to play. So wanted to come out there and have them focus on the court more so than just always focusing on them. So they focused on the court tonight, and it’s hard for you to chant at Ben Simmons when you’re losing by that much.”

Durant was jawing throughout the evening, headlined by a notable sequence with Joel Embiid in the first half, and he’s rarely shy about expressing himself.

This was definitely an opportunity to stand behind Simmons, though, and the Nets seemed to relish the chance while adding fuel to the fire in a matchup that could repeat itself in a playoff setting. The next step in the rivalry will be when Simmons actually sees the floor against his old team, but round one went to the Nets, both on and off the court.