Month: April 2023

Lord knows when we’re getting the third season of HBO’s teen drama series, Euphoria, but two familiar faces from the show have teamed up for a special collaboration. Labrinth, who scores and produces the soundtrack for the show, has recruited Zendaya, who plays the show’s protagonist, Rue, for “The Feels,” a new duet featured on Labrinth’s album, Ends & Begins.

On the track, the two vividly describe the whirlwind of emotions that comes with falling in love. Over a hypnotic, trippy track, Labrinth offers a detailed testimony, singing, “I got touched by God and it f*cked me up / Like an electrical current crossing through my veins / Lightning came and hit me again.”

Zendaya comes in with the song’s second verse, delivering silky vocals as she sings, “Now you got me lost in emotion / Now you got me intoxicated with your drug / Bloodstream racin’, heartbeat pulsin’ / The truth of it is I’m in love with you.”

It’s been a while since Zendaya has released any music not related to Euphoria. Fans have been eager to hear new music from the Emmy Award-winning actress since hearing her duet with Labrinth on “I’m Tired,” which appeared in the show’s finale of season two. About 10 years ago, she released a self-titled album, which featured the hit single, “Replay.”

She revealed last year that she chose to step away from music “for a number of reasons,” but still really finds joy in the art.

Perhaps this means we may get more music from Zendaya in the future.

In the meantime, you can listen to “The Feels” above.

After dropping a new single, “Bops,” earlier today, Coi Leray has another hit on her hands. On her new single, “My Body,” Leray takes ownership of her sexuality, paying no mind to what any sex shamers have to say.

The song features a rather x-rated interpolation of “It’s My Party” by Lesley Gore, as Leray lays down the law for trifling men.

“It’s my body, I could f*ck who I want to / F*ck who I want to, f*ck who I want to / It’s nothin’ new, you just mad it ain’t you,” she rap-sings on the song’s chorus.

Several of Leray’s singles have become viral hits, including “Twinnem” and “Players.” This has been fuel to Leray’s fire, as she is currently hard at work on her second album. In an interview with Apple Music 1’s Eddie Francis, she detailed the album, and said it’s going to be “one of the biggest projects ever.”

“I’m so excited about this second album because it’s really mostly myself,” said Leray. “I told myself, like I have a couple features, which I’m going to keep it discreet because it’s only literally a little bit, not even a handful, but I’ve been working on this project constantly, constantly. I stay in the studio. As you can see, I’m in my home. It’s my home studio here. I’m constantly in the studio 24/7. I’m amazing when it comes to that mic.”

You can listen to “Body” above.

Bebe Rexha‘s new album Bebe contains a good selection of dance tunes, as well as poignant ballads. Her newest single, “Seasons,” features country legend Dolly Parton, as the two reflect on their youth.

The age-old adage, “the more things change, the more they stay the same” holds true on this painfully relatable ballad, as Rexha and Parton long for days past. While they feel like the time has slipped away from them, they hold onto their youth with one hand, and the wisdom that comes with age in the other.

“I lie awake inside a dream / And I run, run, run away from me / The seasons change right under my feet / I’m still the same, same, same, same old me,” they sing on the song’s chorus, over a simple, calming guitar loop.

In the song’s accompanying video, the two singers are seen in grayscale, standing at microphones, letting the music and lyrics speak for themselves. At one point, the two embrace, symbolizing a kinship between two talents of two different generations.

You can watch the video for “Seasons” above.

Bebe is out now via Warner Music. Find more information here.

Bebe Rexha is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The National‘s much-anticipated ninth studio album, First Two Pages Of Frankenstein is finally here. While fans of The National have been anxious for new music, the album’s collaborations have fueled even more interest in their latest record.

On a song called “The Alcott,” The National collaborated with Taylor Swift, in what feels like a long overdue duet.

Over a haunting piano track, the band’s lead vocalist Matt Berninger reflects on a romance that no longer exists, he is joined by Swift on the chorus, and part of the latter verses, and their vocals blend harmoniously.

“It’s the last thing I wanted / It’s the first thing I do / I tell you my problems / And you tell me the truth / It’s the last thing I wanted / It’s the first thing I do / I tell you that I think I’m fallin’ / Back in love / Back in love with you,” they sing.

The collaboration comes as a full-circle moment, as The National’s Aaron Dessner produced much of Taylor Swift’s eighth and ninth studio albums, Folklore and Evermore. Swift and The National also collaborated on the Evermore cut, “Coney Island.”

You can listen to “The Alcott” above.

First Two Pages Of Frankenstein is out now via 4AD. Find more information here.

Way back in the long-ago days of March, Tucker Carlson was still riding high as Fox News’ most popular on-air personality, with his primetime “news” show averaging about 3.4 million viewers per night. On Wednesday night — two days after the surprise announcement that Tucker had gone bye-bye — the 8 p.m. time slot had lost about 60 percent of its audience, according to The Wrap.

That’s bad news for Fox News and for Brian Kilmeade, who has been filling in for Tucker since Monday night. (Clearly, people must have missed Kilmeade’s recent interview/game of catch with Ron DeSantis!)

While Monday night’s show saw its ratings hold steady (perhaps partly out of morbid curiosity)‚ Kilmeade is no Tucker — at least as far as Fox’s nightly viewers seemed to be concerned.

As The Wrap writes:

But boy, what a difference a couple of days makes: While the 8 p.m. hour got 2.59 million total viewers on average on Monday, viewership dropped to 1.7 million viewers on Tuesday, and slid further to 1.33 million total viewers on Wednesday, falling just behind MSNBC in that time-slot, according to Nielsen live plus same-day figures.

While Fox is used to being America’s most watched “news” network, Wednesday’s showing put that slogan in jeopardy. MSNBC’s All In With Chris Hayes topped Fox News’ 8 p.m. news hour by a slim margin of just a few thousand viewers. Maybe if Fox News viewers knew that Kilmeade once questioned why anyone would hire a pregnant woman and famously declared that he read Mein Kampf in high school, they’d tune back in.

(Via The Wrap)

No one expected the Hawks to push the Celtics to a Game 6, but on Thursday night the two teams returned to Atlanta for what turned out to be a rather thrilling conclusion to a surprisingly entertaining series.

Boston jumped out to a 12-2 early advantage, only to see the Hawks storm back to take their own 7-point lead before the game settled into a back-and-forth affair. Neither team could grab control of the action until the late fourth quarter, when Boston got a string of big time buckets and big time stops on the other end to extend their lead out to eight with the Hawks going more than four minutes without a made shot. By the time the Hawks offense found its footing again, the deficit was almost insurmountable, but Atlanta doomed itself with one of the strangest sequences we’ll see all playoffs.

After Bogdan Bogdanovic went 1-of-3 from the line to cut the deficit to six, the Hawks retained possession on a ball that went out of bounds on the sideline deep in the corner of the court. From there, the Hawks failed on four consecutive attempts at getting the ball in play, with Trae Young throwing it off of Marcus Smart twice (including one straight into Smart’s nuts) and De’Andre Hunter bouncing one off Al Horford before throwing a pass to absolutely no one for a turnover.

It really is one of the most bizarre things you’ll see in the playoffs, as the Hawks simply could not get the ball in play, as if they’d never worked on an inbounds play from the corner all season. Young struggled with Smart’s length, while Hunter seemed likewise bothered by Horford, and the result was Atlanta not even getting a chance at a miraculous comeback because they could never get the ball to a shooter. Boston would ice the game at 128-120 to advance to the conference semis where the Heat are waiting, and while this wasn’t quite Grayson Allen dribbling out the clock on Milwaukee’s season, it was certainly a rough way for the Hawks to close out a series in which they fought so valiantly.

The Philadelphia Eagles are going to go down as one of the big winners of the 2023 NFL Draft. While it’s rare that you can safely say this in the middle of round one, the reigning NFC champions managed to add to their already stout defense by moving up one spot to select Jalen Carter, an indomitable defensive tackle prospect out of the University of Georgia.

There are some who believe that Carter is the best player in the 2023 NFL Draft, so for the Eagles to acquire him at all is a coup. Add in that they only had to trade up one spot — they sent the No. 10 pick and a 2024 fourth-round selection to move up — and it’s a home run for Philadelphia, which now has a tailor-made replacement for Fletcher Cox when his time with the team is over.

Of course, not everyone is happy about this. Here is Micah Parsons, who plays for the Dallas Cowboys and therefore has to deal with the Eagles twice a season, getting very upset during Bleacher Report’s NFL Draft show, saying that he is sick to his stomach watching Philly add a player of Carter’s caliber.

To add insult to injury, Bleacher Report had Eagles receiver A.J. Brown call in and tell Parsons that he should “just be a Philadelphia Eagle at this point.” Our hunch is that the Dallas Cowboys are not going to trade Micah Parsons (who is, it must be noted, a Pennsylvania native) to the Philadelphia Eagles, but if that changes, we’ll let you know.

The Philadelphia Eagles are going to go down as one of the big winners of the 2023 NFL Draft. While it’s rare that you can safely say this in the middle of round one, the reigning NFC champions managed to add to their already stout defense by moving up one spot to select Jalen Carter, an indomitable defensive tackle prospect out of the University of Georgia.

There are some who believe that Carter is the best player in the 2023 NFL Draft, so for the Eagles to acquire him at all is a coup. Add in that they only had to trade up one spot — they sent the No. 10 pick and a 2024 fourth-round selection to move up — and it’s a home run for Philadelphia, which now has a tailor-made replacement for Fletcher Cox when his time with the team is over.

Of course, not everyone is happy about this. Here is Micah Parsons, who plays for the Dallas Cowboys and therefore has to deal with the Eagles twice a season, getting very upset during Bleacher Report’s NFL Draft show, saying that he is sick to his stomach watching Philly add a player of Carter’s caliber.

To add insult to injury, Bleacher Report had Eagles receiver A.J. Brown call in and tell Parsons that he should “just be a Philadelphia Eagle at this point.” Our hunch is that the Dallas Cowboys are not going to trade Micah Parsons (who is, it must be noted, a Pennsylvania native) to the Philadelphia Eagles, but if that changes, we’ll let you know.

In recent years, running backs going early in the first round have become a rarity, typically reserved for a select few that boast rare physical tools and piled up ridiculous production at the college level in one of the power conferences.

However, the 2023 NFL Draft is maybe showing a shift in running back valuation as two backs went off the board in the first 12 picks, marking the first time that’s happened since 2017 when Christian McCaffrey and Leonard Fournette went early in the first round. The first back off the board came as little surprise, as Texas star Bijan Robinson went to the Atlanta Falcons with the 8th overall selection. While some quibbled with the value at No. 8 just based on running backs as a whole, no one doubted Robinson’s talent, as many had him as a top-5 player on their big board (stripping away positional value).

When the Detroit Lions, who had traded down with the Cardinals from No. 6 to No. 12, arrived on the clock no one was expecting a second back to come off the board, but Detroit shocked just about everyone when they selected Jahymr Gibbs out of Alabama.

You can see the surprise from the NFL Network booth, as no one can quite believe another back came off the board, even one as talented as Gibbs. The Alabama standout (who starred at Georgia Tech prior to transferring to Tuscaloosa) figured to be in play late in the first round for contending teams looking for an elite pass catcher out of the backfield, but no one had him pegged as a top-12 pick. Detroit clearly was going off their board and no one else’s with this pick, and will look to replace Jamaal Williams’ production with Gibbs, as they add another Alabama playmaker to last year’s first round pick, receiver Jameson Williams.

The stunning part isn’t just the sudden run on running backs early, but that two backs were taken before a single receiver went off the board. In a pass-happy league, we usually see multiple receivers drafted before a single back, but this year the tables were turned and Gibbs and Robinson broke the trend and shattered mock drafts everywhere.

The Arizona Cardinals were busy on Thursday night in Kansas City, as they were making moves all over the board in the early goings of the 2023 NFL Draft. First, they moved down from No. 3 to No. 12 in a trade with the Texans, gathering the 33rd overall pick, a 2024 first, and a 2024 third rounder in the process.

From there, after Anthony Richardson went fourth and Devon Witherspoon went fifth, they got back on the phones and landed the No. 6 pick from Detroit, sending the 12th pick they just acquired along with the 34th overall pick in the second round to the Lions in order to select Paris Johnson Jr., the star offensive tackle from Ohio State.

The Cardinals were in a bit of an odd spot picking third overall, but as the lone team in the top-4 without a need at quarterback, they were allowed to shuffle the deck a bit and slide back to land the offensive tackle they coveted. There had been noise that Kyler Murray, who will miss time next season after tearing his ACL in December, had been lobbying for Johnson to be the pick, as he was hopeful to get some more protection on the left side of the line.

Arizona obliged their star quarterback by getting his preferred tackle, who they had to jump the Raiders to land. For Detroit, there was an expectation they would be targeting Witherspoon given their need at corner after trading Jeff Okudah to Atlanta earlier this offseason, but when he went off the board, they started thinking big picture and slid back six spots and picked up another early second round pick to continue rounding out their roster. Detroit now has the 12th, 18th, 34th, 48th, and 55th selections in the first two rounds of the Draft.