He wrote in a post, “I kinda feel a bit all over the place at the moment. I made this album as a way to make sense of things that go on inside my head, and immensely proud of it. I woke up this morning and just felt lighter. Lighter that the album is in the world, and lighter that people are connecting with it on such a deep and meaningful level. The only thing I want from this album is that people feel something when they listen to it. It makes us all feel less alone when we realise our most embarrassing, darkest feelings are things that everyone goes through.”
Of Aaron Dessner, he added, “I feel so grateful to have been able to work with @aarondessner on this project, he brought out a side of me I buried down, out of fear and fake bravado, and helped me create something that I know will be one of the most important albums in my discography for many reasons. Thank you all for all your kind words.”
– is out now via Asylum and Atlantic. Find more information here.
(WARNING: Spoilers for this week’s Power Book II: Ghost episode will be found below.)
The secrets are out and the cats are out of the bag in season three of Power Book II: Ghost. Deceit is the name of the game in this series, but as we all know, it only lasts for so long before things blow up in someone’s face. In this case, Tariq now knows that not only is he under investigation for RICO, but that Cooper Saxe is helping the feds build that case. He learns this toward the end of episode seven when he’s able to talk to Lauren, who is very much alive this season, to figure out what the police have on him. That’s not all for the new discoveries at this point in season three of Power Book II: Ghost. Kiki also reveals to Brayden that she knows everything about him and Tariq’s CrashCoin operation which also means she knows about their drug dealing operation at Weston Holdings. She isn’t out of the clear though, as it turns out that she is helping Brayden’s uncle Lucas run a Ponzi scheme at the family company. As I said, the secrets are out and now it’s time for people to take action by bracing themselves for what’s next.
In episode eight of Power Book II: Ghost, titled “Sacrifice,” things begin with Tariq letting Davis McClean know that Cooper Saxe is working with the feds to build a case against Tariq and the Tejadas, and maybe even Davis himself. Davis heads to the police station to meet with Diana, who is under arrest, and he sees first-hand how Saxe and Jenny Sullivan are working together. He takes no direct action, but he does set up a play from Tariq that allows him to lure Saxe and the cops to Effie under the assumption that they’re arresting her in the middle of handling a drug shipment. What both the cops and Effie don’t know is that everything was swapped out and cleaned out which now makes Saxe an unreliable source. Unfortunately for Saxe, news of him essentially being a snitch also reached Davis’ newly released brother Theo who took matters into his own hand and killed Saxe and himself at the end of the episode.
Elsewhere, Tariq gets help from RSJ and Brayden to get his and Monet’s money out of Weston Holdings and away from the Ponzi scheme that Lucas and Kiki are leading. Gordo’s family continues to suspect the Tejadas’ involvement in Gordo’s disappearance, Cane and Effie are lovebirds all of sudden (random, but I guess), but it’s a short-lived as Effie is arrested for attempted murder in relation to Lauren. Power Book II: Ghost is wrapping up its third season so you know the drama only going to increase.
Here are some of the biggest takeaways that we have after season three’s eighth episode, “Sacrifice”:
Cooper Saxe’s Demise Was Inevitable
As of today, Cooper Saxe is no longer a member of the Power Universe. At the end of episode 8, he gets shot and killed by Davis’ brother Theo who killed himself a short time after. Truthfully, Saxe was due for some type of unfortunate end, but I thought it was going to be something less gruesome like maybe losing his job or being the victim of severe beating of some sort from the people he is trying to jail. Since the original Power series, Saxe has made it his life’s calling to take down the St. Patrick family. He failed with James St. Patrick and it was the same with Tariq. Through it all, he threw out all his morals, both personal and those attached to his career, in hopes that it would eventually bring him to take down the St. Patrick regime. Saxe was a speeding car heading towards a brick wall that he was too blind to see. There we plenty of exits he could’ve taken along the way to save himself, but here we are. Many have tried and many have failed. Truthfully, I’m not surprised that Saxe’s time came to an end, but I am surprised it ended this way.
Tariq Has Been The Tejadas’ Savior
In this week’s episode, as well as last week’s, Tariq is crowned the man with the plan. Last week, it occurred when Monet needed a way to stop the Russians and this week it was when Brayden needed an idea to get Tariq and Monet’s money out of the Weston Holdings Ponzi scheme. As we know with the former, Tariq sent a tip to Rashad Tate to have the feds show up just in time to catch the Russians red-handed as they accepted a new delivery of cocaine. This week, Tariq teams up with RSJ to force their hand and return not only his money but Tariq and Monet’s in exchange for his silence on the Ponzi scheme. It’s not the first time that Tariq has saved the Tejadas, and Monet is for sure grateful for Tariq’s presence, but that’s not the case for Cane. His disdain for Tariq has been clear as day since the beginning, and it hasn’t gotten better especially now that their whole family is under investigation for RICO. Once again, Tariq saves the day by leading the feds into a trap that disrupts and sets back their progress. Cane can hate Tariq all he wants, but things would be a lot different if Tariq wasn’t the man with a plan.
STARZ
Brayden Needs A Reality Check
Throughout season 3, we’ve watched Brayden attempt to live an odd sort of double life in the drug game. He’s the one that needs to be in it the least, but his desire to be there is probably just as high if not more than anyone else’s. Granted, he just enjoys the money that comes with the game, and because of that, he views the drug game as a business and nothing more. However, it becomes clear that he’s due for a reality check when he flips out at Kiki for running the Ponzi scheme with Lucas. Brayden criticizes her for joining an operation that takes people’s retirement savings, pensions, and more, and she points out that he is also causing damage to people by selling poison to them. Her point is that they are both doing the same thing in different ways, and she’s right. For as much as Brayden wants to be in the game, he’s also done his best to avoid all the gruesome yet important aspects of the operation he wilfully involved himself in with Tariq and the Tejadas. There is dirty work to be done in the field that Brayden works in, and as everyone has gotten their hands dirty for the sake of the operation, Brayden needs to do the same and accept that this is the reality he’s chosen
Effie Was Always Going To Be The First To Sink
This week’s episode closes with the death of Saxe, but that comes after another major event in this episode. A short time before, the feds arrive at Effie’s dorm to arrest her. She believes that it’s for drug dealing, but it’s actually for attempted murder in relation to Lauren. Clearly, this is a move by Jenny, Blanca, and her team to secure some type of win after getting tricked at the CrashCoin facility, but it’s not a shocking outcome as Effie was always going sink first as she was the most disposable in the operation. This is essentially an undisputed fact as she was the pawn used to draw the feds into the trap set up for them. Tariq and every member of the Tejada family is in the middle of the operation while Davis McClean protects them from the law and any potential trouble from the police while also warning them to stay low when the heat turns up against them. Effie was no more than an employee for them, something that became truer when Tariq, the only person who would’ve saved her, learned that she tried to kill Lauren. Keep in mind, with Tariq, Brayden, Cane, and Dru still responsible to move all of Noma’s product, getting Effie out of is probably very beneficial to them in regards to that. My money was on the season concluding with Tariq in jail, and not Effie, but just a couple of episodes left, we’ll see if this is a bet I lose.
New episodes of ‘Power Book II: Ghost’ are available on the STARZ app on Fridays at 12:00 am EST and on the STARZ TV channel at 8:00 pm EST.
Marshmello and Brent Faiyaz have teamed up for a new heartbreak anthem — only this time, Faiyaz is doing the heartbreaking. Over a simple, rolling, percussive beat produced by Marshmello, Faiyaz reminds someone of his intentions and insists that it wasn’t his fault that she got her heartbroken.
“You ain’t fall in love with me / You fell in love with the man I could be / You ain’t fall in love with me / You fell in love with your vision of me,” sings Faiyaz on the song’s chorus.
Elsewhere in the song, Faiyaz notes that while he considers himself a kind person, he isn’t responsible for the way anyone else feels.
“I can ease your mind if you goin’ through somethin’ / That don’t mean I can cure depression / I free my night if you wanna do somethin’ / But I’m takin’ your direction,” he sings.
In the song’s accompanying visual, Faiyaz is seen going on a drive in the woods with a young woman. They park the car and hang out in the woods for a bit, and while he is protective of the woman, he reminds her not to get her hopes up, in terms of romance.
Russ is known for writing, producing, and engineering all of his own music. But tonight (May 5), the multihyphenate has opted to revisit a late-aughts favorite.
Last month, fans demanded that Russ release a cover of Secondhand Serenade’s “Fall For You” after he had apparently trolled the internet by singing parts of the song in viral clips. He has made good on his word by finally sharing the studio version of the cover.
This version is a little bit more stripped back than the 2008 original, and also features Russ singing in a lower key. However, the R&B sounds blended with the emo element make the cover feel like a whole new song.
“Tonight will be the night that I will fall for you / over again / Don’t make me change my mind / Or I won’t live to see another day / I swear it’s true / Because a girl like you is impossible to find /You’re impossible to find,” he sings on the song’s chorus.
Equally as excited about the cover is Secondhand Serenade himself, who took to TikTok to express his joy over the snippet Russ shared.
Ahead of the upcoming F1 Grand Prix Race in Miami, which is set to take place this Sunday (May 7), will.i.am has shared a fiery new collaboration with Lil Wayne.
On “The Formula,” the pop and hip-hop veterans remind listeners of their place in the game. Will experiments with drill sounds as he delivers snappy, clever bars.
“Lightning quick, y’all can’t stick with it / I stay slick like I’m liquid / Super complex, ain’t comin’ simplistic / I told ’em, I told ’em, I told ’em I’m sick with the cold / So let me encode ’em / I got the ammo, so watch me reload ’em /I’m comin’ with flammables, time to explode ’em,” he raps.
Swooping in with some more heat his Wayne, with a verse chock-full of car metaphors
“Call me, ‘Weezy F1’ / My car fly like the Jetson’s / You a small fry, need ketchup / Fall behind or you can catch up / You can fall down or you can step up / Been a long time since I messed up / I told Father Time I’m his step-son,” he raps.
In a recent interview with us, Will pleasantly recalled meeting Wayne for the first time, and described the vibe he got from him.
But as age-old adages hold, grief is part of getting older, and on one of —‘s most poignant tracks, “End Of Youth,” Sheeran deals with growing pains, as the number of loved ones around him seems to be getting smaller.
“Is this the end of our youth? When pain starts taking over / I just don’t know if I can ever just let it go / Everything’s falling apart, our love is real, it never closes / I guess it’s all part of life, but I can’t help but be alone / We spend our youth with our losing hearts wide open / And in the dark, it’s in the next, the end of youth,” Sheeran sings on the song’s chorus.
While fans will hear several personal accounts from Sheeran over the course of the album, he explained in an interview with Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe that he hopes the music will resonate with fans dealing with various forms of grief.
“I sent this record to the record label, and they were like, ‘Is it a breakup album?’ And it’s not. It’s an album about… grief and depression and stuff,” said Sheeran. “I feel that I don’t want to give too much context and hammer it home…I want people to listen to it and relate it to their own life.”
You can listen to “End Of Youth” above.
— is out 5/5 via Asylum and Atlantic. Find more information here.
Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
It’s been a rough week for Ed Sheeran. The “Eyes Closed” hitmaker has spent the last few days in court, fighting allegations of plagiarism on his 2014 hit, “Thinking Out Loud.” It was also revealed that he missed his grandmother’s funeral because he was required to appear in court during that time.
Thankfully, Sheeran won his case today (May 4), and has now dropped his long-awaited fifth studio album, —.
The album is Sheeran’s most personal yet, as he endured various life-changing events as he was writing for the album. Over the past year, Sheeran’s wife, Cherry Seaborn battled cancer while she was expecting her and Sheeran’s second child. He describes the events and the accompanying emotions on one of —‘s standout tracks, “Sycamore.”
“Right now in the waiting room, emotions running wild / Worried ’bout my lover and I’m worried ’bout a child / Part of me was always in denial
It’s gonna take a little while,” he sings on one of the song’s versus.
Earlier this week, Sheeran premiered his Disney+ documentary, The Sum Of It All, where Seaborn revealed he wrote several songs in a short amount of time after the album’s primary producer Aaron Dessner sent him various instrumental tracks.
In an interview with Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe, Sheeran explained more about the writing process for the aforementioned songs.
“Aaron will tell you this, but he sent me seven instrumentals one day and I sent them all back in two and a half hours and we have all the time stamps on it,” Sheeran said. “So it was like, and it’s songs like ‘Sycamore,’ which is one of my favorite songs…That’s what I find really uncomfortable about the release of the album is I have no idea. It’s foreign territory for me… even with Plus or Multiply, it’s like you write for three years and you pick the best songs and then that’s the album. Whereas this one, I wrote for a month and all of those songs are coming out. There’s a bonus of the album with eight songs and that’s all that I wrote in that time. And it’s coming out. And it’s not even necessarily a risk because it is what my fans originally liked me for, which was singer-songwriter stuff. Each my albums, I’ve always been like, well, I know I’ve got this and I know I’ve got this and I know I’ve got this.”
Tomorrow, Sheeran will bring “Subtract” to life with the album’s visual component, which will premiere at 11 a.m. EST on YouTube.
In the meantime, you can listen to “Sycamore” above.
— is out now via Asylum and Atlantic. Find more information here.
Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
In flashback scenes, we learn Rocket’s origin story and how he learned to talk and fly spaceships. We also meet otter Lylla (voiced by Linda Cardellini); walrus Teefs (Asim Chaudhry); and bunny Floor (Mikaela Hoover). They’ve been experimented on by the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), and when Rocket learns that they’re going to be killed the following day, he plans an escape — but Lylla, Teefs, and Floor are killed before they can see the endless blue sky. It’s one of the saddest scenes in MCU history.
Less sad is the High Evolutionary’s death, because f*ck that guy.
Other deaths in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 include: Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki in a wild performance), who gets blown up in front of her literally golden son, Adam Warlock (Will Poulter); War Pig, a robot pig voiced by Judy Greer, which is a fun sentence; and tens of thousands, if not millions of citizens on Counter-Earth. But at least Cosmo is alive (and a good dog)!
So, to recap, all the Guardians make it out of Vol. 3 alive, but the High Evolutionary, Ayesha, War Pig Voiced By Judy Greer, and Rocket’s friends die. James Gunn better turn off his notifications for the Lylla scene.
No mom dreams of delivering their baby on the side of the road. Visions of comfy birthing centers or a hospital room with the OBGYN that you’ve grown fond of are usually the images that come to mind. But not everyone has a delivery in their place of choice, and women that have birthed more than one child typically have faster labors.
People who have a lot of children often know their bodies and sense how quickly their babies might come, so they try to make it to the hospital before things get interesting. A couple in Florida who were expecting their sixth child attempted to head to the hospital before the baby arrived, but the baby had other plans.
Knowing he had to get his wife to the hospital quickly, Luis Lopez pulled over when he saw deputies on the side of the road and flagged them down for a police escort.
Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), the sheriff’s deputy couldn’t provide the couple with a police escort. He called for an ambulance and put on some gloves instead. Good thing, too, because within a few minutes, he was going to be catching a baby and the entire thing was caught on video.
It’s the kind of thing that’s not only intense but incredibly heartwarming. The Hillsborough deputy, Dan “Red” Jones, was extremely calm and used a soothing voice to encourage the mom, but he didn’t skip out on making a joke when he finds out it was the couple’s sixth child.
“Six! Woo, y’all need a better hobby, OK,” Jones joked.
Turns out this isn’t the first baby the deputy has delivered on the job; it’s his third. He also used to work with cattle and helped deliver calves, so he knows plenty about birthing babies—at least more than the average person. Maybe he missed his calling. Either way, he was just who was needed in that moment.
Check out the dramatic video below:
We are pleased to report that Mom and baby are healthy and doing just fine.
Fans of both Madonna and Julia Garner are in good spirits, as the two appear to have reunited over french fries. Last June, Garner, of Ozark and Inventing Anna fame, was tapped to play Madonna in a biopic based on her life. Several actresses were said to have auditioned to play Madge, including Euphoria‘s Sydney Sweeney and Don’t Worry Darling‘s Florence Pugh.
While fans were elated for the budding superstar to play Madonna, the biopic was revealed to have been indefinitely shelved back in January.
Now, fans are theorizing that the project is back on, after the two were seen partying and sharing fries.
— best of julia garner (@bestofgarner) May 2, 2023
“Glad Madonna 1. Doesn’t hate Julia Garner and 2. Hasn’t locked Julia Garner in a Madonna Biopic Training Camp hell basement,” said one fan on Twitter.
Glad Madonna 1. Doesn’t hate Julia Garner and 2. Hasn’t locked Julia Garner in a Madonna Biopic Training Camp hell basement pic.twitter.com/Q0EN35gtWE
“Does this mean the Madonna biopic is still a go?!?,” said another fan in reaction to the photos. “B*tch we’re Madonna” is pretty clear confirmation, right?”
Madonna posted these pictures of her & Julia Garner.
Does this mean the Madonna biopic is still a go?!?
“Bitch we’re Madonna” is pretty clear confirmation, right?
— Steffi (inn.my.humble.opinion) (@inn_mho) May 3, 2023
If the biopic is back on, it’s safe to assume production won’t resume anytime soon. This July, Madonna will kick off her international Celebration Tour, celebrating four decades of hit.
Madonna is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
