Month: July 2023

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.

Mau y Ricky have never limited themselves to one genre. Throughout their career, the Venezuelan brothers have remained committed to pushing Latin music to new places while having fun doing it. As they get ready to embark on a new era, Mau y Ricky have compiled their recent hits onto the new Desgenerados Mixtape. Alongside acts like Eladio Carrión, María Becerra, CNCO, and Carin León, the guys explore diverse sounds like EDM, regional Mexican music, reggaeton, and cumbia.

“Desgenerados means the liberty to do anything we want,” Ricky Montaner says about their mixtape. “To not just be put in one box. We’re having the liberty of just expressing anything that we’re feeling.”

Mau y Ricky have a very unique perspective as artists. They have multi-platinum plaques as a duo and thanks to superstars they’ve written for like Becky G, Karol G, Ricky Martin, and Maluma. Mau y Ricky also come from a famous musical family with Argentine pop icon Ricardo Montaner as their father. Their sister Evaluna Montaner and their brother-in-law Camilo are musicians as well. Despite growing up Montaner, Mau y Ricky have made a name for themselves as hit-making singer-songwriters.

Mau y Ricky are at a transition with recently signing to Warner Music Latina and launching their own label. Desgenerados Mixtape is a gift to their fans while the guys get ready for what’s next. Over Zoom, Mau y Ricky caught up with Uproxx about the mixtape, the stories behind their big hits, and their future as a duo.

How would you describe the experience of working on music together as brothers?

Ricky Montaner: In our case it’s been amazing because truly we’re best friends. We have this way of working where one’s weaknesses is the other person’s strengths, so we do play better together. We’ve just been very practical with that since we know that we need each other to succeed. We’re also really good at getting along because we don’t want to tarnish that. Not only is our relationship as brothers obviously important but so is our passion. They’re very well aligned, so we found a way of keeping everything super smooth. Truly it’s the best part about my job that I’m able to do it with my brother.

What was life like for you guys also growing up in a very musical family?

Mau Montaner: It’s awesome because we know we all have a lot of things in common and we know that in our own different and authentic way, we’re impacting the lives of people. That’s beautiful to be able to do it as a collective and as a family. The only thing that sucks is that we all have crazy schedules that sometimes we’d want to be able to be at each others’ things, activities, and moments a lot more. That’s probably the downside of it, but it’s for a good purpose and something that’s very positive

Why did you guys decide to put together these songs on the Desgenerados Mixtape?

MM: This is a collection of songs that we had for the last couple of years. They almost didn’t see the light of day and we just decided to do a big mixtape of all the songs that weren’t put on albums. We’re constantly making music, so we’re constantly evolving as artists. That’s a version of Mau y Ricky we thought was very important for our fans to experience and have as well, so that’s why we decided to put these songs out. We really love them and we’re ready to move onto the next phase of our creativity, so this tells a story that helps transition into that.

You guys live up to the name of Desgenerados (Without Genre), so what was the experience like to explore different genres on the mixtape?

RM: It’s amazing! We usually do that and we usually give ourselves the liberty of doing that. We wanted to reinforce it — even with the name of the mixtape. Letting everybody know that we’re not defined by one thing. We’re going to keep changing and evolving because we think that’s important as artists. There’s songs of mine that I have written that I feel are like two or three Mau y Rickys ago. They’re all still part of me, but we’re constantly growing.

One of the biggest hits on the mixtape is “Llorar y Llorar.” How did that regional Mexican music song come together with Carin León?

RM: That song is truly a dream come true for us. It’s a song that we’re extremely proud was successful and that people got to hear it. It was not only our fans who are the best, but also people who don’t necessarily listen to Mau y Ricky everyday. People were connecting with the song, so that’s such a special one. It came together when we were on tour in Mexico. We were living there for a minute and I was in the car and that first line of the chorus and melody came together. We just sat down with the guitar and wrote it and finished it. Then we produced it with Rafa Arcaute, who is a producer I admire a lot, and JonTheProducer as well. We reached out to Carin through a mutual friend we have. We knew about each other, but we never met, and we met through a Zoom call. It was literally friendship at first sight.

Speaking of JonTheProducer, you guys have a history of working with him. What’s the chemistry like between him and Mau y Ricky in the studio?

RM: Jon is like the third member of our band. He literally knows us the best more than anybody else. Sonically, I trust him so much. He’s a guy that’s studied so much and has just done it for so long at a high level that I think he’s just amazing. Our chemistry is as strong as it is with Camilo, with Mau, and our constant collaborators. Jon is our most frequent collaborator. He’s just incredibly talented and we’re lucky to be able to work with him as often as we do because I know a lot of people want to work with him.

How did the song “Mal Acostumbrao” come together with María Becerra?

MM: We were having to leave Buenos Aires to play some shows in Mexico and María was flying to Buenos Aires. Her flight got delayed, so we ended up not being able to meet at the time that we had set. Our flight was at 8 and we had no time to meet, so we decided to move our flight back for the later flight of like two hours later. We were able to get into the studio for about two hours with María and Big One and we wrote this song. I love the song so much and María is just incredible, so is Big One, and we had an amazing time. This is definitely another pillar inside the mixtape for us.

Your new single from the mixtape is “Ex” with La Joaqui. What’s the story behind that cumbia collaboration?

RM: We were doing The Voice in Argentina. We were having to live there for a minute and we were also in the middle of touring. Every time we would go out after a show, we noticed they played our songs at the club, but they remixed them to this cumbia sound. We decided to do a song that they didn’t have to remix. I reached out to the producers that I feel together with Tini have made that sound be super mainstream. I said, “Hey guys, I have this chorus and I think it would be a great cumbia song and you guys are killing the game with that sound, so let’s do it.” They came back wanting to do it. They wrote the verses and they sent them to me, we cut them, and we just killed it. We sent La Joaqui the song and she decided to hop on it immediately. She confessed to us later that she was super excited because she’s never done this kind of genre before. For us, it was just so natural to invite her and she killed it, so it’s a song we absolutely love.

CNCO is getting ready to split up. How would you describe the experience of working with them on the song “Vivir Sin Ti”?

RM: The experience of working with CNCO was amazing. We’ve been friends since they started. We were trying to make it at the same time and everything started happening close together. We wrote songs together. We hung out at the studio. We had the same management at the time. It was a very natural collaboration for us. Lots of the CNCOwners were really asking for this and I get messages on my social media all the time about this. We finally got together to make this happen. We’re honored to have the official last CNCO song — for the time being anyway. I love those guys and wish them all the best.

An explosive moment on the mixtape is Puerto Rican rapper Eladio Carrión featuring on “No Puede Ser”? How did that EDM-infused collaboration come together?

MM: We were friends and got along in the studio. We had written several songs in the studio together. One day we just came across the producer Palace with this new kind of sound and style of songwriting that we decided to do on the song. We sent it over to Eladio and we told him we sincerely thought he would murder this song. It’s a super unexpected collaboration and an unexpected song to do together. We thought that was the magic behind it and I think it paid off. It’s one of my favorite songs we’ve ever done and one of my favorite [guest] verses. He just kills it and it’s outside of what he usually does. I love that he was able to do that in a song that’s on our mixtape.

I noticed that you guys also released the mixtape through Why Club Records. What can you tell us about your label?

MM: Why Club Records is a record label that we dream will eventually host other artists as well, but for the time being it’s us and our new creative place. It’s a place for musicians and artists with their music that has some kind of purpose. Not necessarily a message to it, but they want to impact the lives of people profoundly. They want to impact culture, so this is a house for that. It’s for the liberty of artists being able to do whatever they feel genuinely and authentically.

What can we expect from the next era of Mau y Ricky?

MM: If you mean what’s coming after Desgenerados, you can expect us to do the best music we’ve done in my opinion. We’re more authentically ourselves than ever and just creating from a place of pure honesty and joy. We’re planning a lot of cool and meaningful stuff for our fans and people that are just joining our family. We’re just really focused on our people and making our people feel special as we really hope they do. I hope that you stay tuned.

RM: We’ve been in the studio since November working on a new album. That’s why we called this a mixtape because we’ve rediscovered the meaning of making an album with what we’re working on right now. We’re incredibly excited about it. We’re working, of course, with Jon as well, but we’ve brought in a couple of people that truly have made a huge difference in our lives and in our creativity. It’s going to be amazing. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

Desgenerados Mixtape is out now via Warner Music Latina. Listen to it here.

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

We are gathered here to celebrate the beginning of the end for How To With John Wilson, a show that somehow blends a showcase of human weirdness, modern annoyance, mundane misadventures, and litter to create something that touches profundity while in pursuit of presence and meaning.

With a final 6-episode volume (which debuts Friday on HBO), Wilson isn’t necessarily promising a grand thesis statement (perhaps partly due to the fact that he’s still going to be telling stories, just through different projects). Instead, he’s doing what he’s done during the show’s first two seasons, exploring, observing, theorizing, and showcasing a broad spectrum of humanity while turning his camera on the world around him, celebrating uniqueness and connection all the while.

As we have at the start of each previous season, Uproxx spoke with Wilson about all of that and so much more, closing the loop on an enjoyable series of conversations with a filmmaker who has elevated people-watching to a literal art form during a, let’s say a highly eventful span of three years.

Through the show, you uncover a lot of things that I would imagine in the moment are somewhat surprising. I’m just curious if you found yourself changing with the process, getting more used to these kinds of things, getting more used to just abject human weirdness as you went through it?

It’s less that I got used to it. I think I just started to gravitate towards it more. When people reveal something very personal to me during an interview, I don’t react on my face, but I feel this intense high inside, that this person trusts me and that I am having an actual real moment with somebody, or I’m getting a real moment from somebody on camera and I’m kind of just more in shock that I’m the only person there witnessing something like that.

That’s the high that I’m chasing throughout all the work; getting to these real moments with people that we don’t usually have access to in our personal lives or in other media that we watch. I feel so much content out there doesn’t want to go to these really complicated places with people because a lot of reality content and even fictional content, there’s a lot of heroes and villains and there’s not as much in between. And it’s like, it’s all that weird gray area stuff that I think you can relate with the most. Because people do confess these really personal (things).

People say a lot of stuff that you might on the surface think is kind of weird in the show. But then I try to make you see that you’re only a couple of degrees away from this person, or you just might feel the exact same way as this person. There’s a bit of this person in all of us, in a way, that you’re seeing.

For sure. Thinking about other shows that you watch, or reality TV, like you’re saying, it’s almost like you take away that there’s maybe eight kinds of people and you watch this show and you see that it’s a much bigger box of crayons personality-wise that we have out in the world. It’s refreshing, honestly, to see them.

Yeah, I just find it so insulting when we don’t give people the space they deserve. I think that there’s this whole generation of reality, kind of nonfiction stuff that wastes so much opportunity with these really complex people by flattening them, and I want to encourage people to not do that anymore.

Yeah, it’s a cynical sort of productization. Again, it’s only a handful of archetypes that they want to showcase, and so everything feels just homogenized as opposed to something like this, which feels like I said, more like a rainbow of personalities. Was that the goal from the start, to showcase that?

I mean, that was part of it. Part of it was to reveal parts of myself. Part of the goal to begin with was to reveal parts of myself that I was afraid of revealing, but also exploring humanity in a way that I felt was being neglected in other media.

You mentioned revealing parts of yourself. I know catharsis through art can be tricky, especially at the end when you’re kind of looking back at it. At the end of the show now, three seasons in, any pause over any bits of yourself that you revealed? Do you feel like you didn’t give enough?

I don’t regret anything that I’ve revealed.

Are there things filmed that you pulled back specifically because it was too much, with regards to your personal revelations?

No. There was some stuff that didn’t make sense narratively, some anecdotal stuff that we took out. That was just kind of fat and we just trimmed it as we were editing stuff. But again, people just reveal so much of themselves in the show, that I needed to either meet them there or kind of overdo it with my own memoir stuff, just so it didn’t feel like I was just gawking.

This may sound like an insult — it’s not — but some episodes feel more intentioned or kind of polished than others. I like that. It feels refreshingly uneven at times with the story. Is that intentional to not necessarily have it feel so polished and so crisp that people start to wonder if it’s staged?

Yeah, totally. I never want anyone to think it feels staged. I want everyone to believe what they’re seeing and some episodes are extremely tight in how they wrap up and cover everything, but I like kind of having variation with that because then it doesn’t feel like a formula as much. And the idea of a formula is something that I’m constantly trying to fight.

Yeah, you’re not making Law & Order, you’re making something that feels like a fingerprint. Something that’s a little different in every iteration. Right?

Yeah, that’s well put. Otherwise, people get bored once they see what’s coming.

Yeah, anyone would get bored if they were trying to fill a specific template each time.

Yeah.

I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but I always feel like it just feels like a sunnier story when you’re talking about a specific interest that people have that they kind of come together to share as opposed to things where people are more isolated with their interests. The silo guy story is a bit sadder than the vacuum club because one is someone who’s trying to limit their indulgence into their own sort of interests to make sure that they still stay connected and one is people sharing an interest.

Yeah. I usually do celebrate these larger groups within the show because no matter how niche their interests are, I love that they found each other no matter what the obsession is. But yeah, the guy in the bunker, I did also see a bit of myself in him, but also I think that’s this kind of logical extreme in the episode for privacy and as it relates to restrooms and stuff like that. And the fact that he was also a septic tank specialist was like too perfect to me.

Is there a specific theme for this season or an overarching idea, whether it was intentional going in or whether at the end of it you feel like it revealed itself? I have my own takeaways, I doubt that they’re the takeaways that you intended.

I would be curious to hear yours.

I’ll be vague here, to not spoil anything. But in the early going, it seemed like some of the messaging was to be careful to not get too into our specific sensitivities, but then there’s also sometimes a danger in getting too into our specific interests as well. I spent a lot of time indoors during the pandemic because I’m immunocompromised. And so to me, I always felt like there was a risk in getting a little too inside oneself. So I kind of took that away from the show.

That’s good. I think there is a risk to getting too much inside yourself and it’s something I try to fight because otherwise you get lost in this galaxy of options. But getting lost in there is something that a lot of us do at the same time, and I want to make people feel comfortable doing that.

There’s a lot of stuff that we cover in the show and it’s really hard to sum up what the project of this season specifically was. There’s a lot of non-sequitur stuff in there. But I think this season is kind of about truth, it’s about desire, it’s about the infinite. It’s big things that I think about all the time that I’m not really sure about. Commitment.

And vacuums.

Yeah, vacuums.

The season premiere of ‘How To With John Wilson’ debuts Friday on HBO

With The Boys, Invincible, and now Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem under his belt, Seth Rogen has become quite the mastermind at delivering well-received adaptations based on indie comics. The comedy writer/actor and his partner Evan Goldberg have openly admitted to being longtime comic book fans, but the one thing they have not been interested in (so far) is tackling a project for the Big Two: Marvel and DC Comics.

While promoting Mutant Mayhem, Rogen opened up to Polygon about why he’s steered clear of the MCU and whatever the heck is happening over at DC Studios.

“Honestly, probably fear,” Rogen said with a laugh. “We really have a pretty specific way we work; me and Evan have been writers for 20 years at this point. It’s a fear of the process, honestly. And I say that knowing nothing about the process. There are a lot of Marvel things I love.”

Rogen further elaborated on his concerns about the Marvel system, and if he and Goldberg would be able to work in that environment:

It’s mostly a fear of how would we plug into the system they have in place, which seems like a very good system, and a system that serves them very well. But is it a system that we would ultimately get really frustrated with? And what’s nice about [Mutant Mayhem] is that we’re the producers of this. So we dictated the system, and we dictated the process in a lot of ways.

Working on The Boys has also spoiled Rogen when it comes to creative control.

“We are creating the infrastructure and process for them, not plugging into someone else’s infrastructure and process,” Rogen said before getting brutally honest. “We’re control freaks!”

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem hits theaters on August 2.

(Via Polygon)

After Ian hit up the Pitchfork Music Festival last weekend, Steven hits him up for a post-mortem in today’s episode. Turns out Ian skipped out on Saturday — a day marred by weather delays — in order to eat custard in Wisconsin. Which means he missed out on the headline set by Big Thief, the weekend’s most polarizing performance. Steven and Ian also talked about the band’s recent single, “Vampire Empire,” and whether it qualifies as a disappointment.

Another huge indie star who put out new music this week is Mitski. Ahead of her forthcoming album The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We, due out in September, she released a quality single, “Bug Like An Angel.” After discussing the song, the guys try to place Mitski in the galaxy of reigning indie stars. From there, they pivot in a non-indie direction to Post Malone, whose new album Austin is out today. Does he deserve a yay or nay? They report, you decide.

In the mailbag, a listener asks Steven and Ian to stop making fun of Sublime. This, predictably, only prompts more Sublime jokes. Ian also pulls out his San Diego card to justify the mockery.

In Recommendation Corner, Ian talks about the latest effort from the long-running British band The Clientele, while Steven endorses a recent live album from Father John Misty.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 148 here 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.

Sin City is going to need to make room for one more music star. First, it was Adele, then it was Usher, and now it’s Kylie Minogue, who is set to storm the strip with a glamorous residency of her own. Beginning on November 3, the “Padam Padam” singer’s highly-anticipated Las Vegas debut will kick off at Venetian Resort’s Voltaire.

Minogue’s More Than A Residency marks the pop star’s first Vegas residency, and it will also be the venue’s featured act. Across three months (November, December, and January 2024), the musician will bring back the essence of Studio 54 in the intimate 1,000-person capacity venue.

When asked about her upcoming Vegas debut, the singer said, “The spirit of Voltaire is one of pure, authentic fun. It’s one I resonate with as a pop artist. My new album ‘Tension’ is all about the space where the intimate and universal come together, and Voltaire represents just that.”

She later added, “The creative team has designed an environment where people can get up and dance at their tables and revel in the night. That’s what Voltaire is, and I can’t wait to perform in this intimate and exciting setting.”

With Emmy and Tony Award-winning production designer Derek McLane at the helm of the set, that’s a complete understatement. McLane opened up about the inspiration behind the design, saying, “I really wanted it to feel like an escape from the environment of the casino floor. Something that felt like a completely different world. An intimate, exciting, and inviting world.”

Tickets, tables, and packages for Minogue’s More Than A Residency show go on sale on August 9. Find more information here.

While a lot of the ongoing celebrations of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop have focused on where hip-hop has been, it doesn’t make much sense to focus only on the past. No Hip-Hop 50 celebration should be considered complete without taking a look at where hip-hop is going.

As The Notorious B.I.G. once pointed out, no one could have seen where rap music and hip-hop culture would have ended up at the outset, but in the same vein, even he couldn’t have seen how things would turn out 30 years after he recorded “Juicy.”

That makes it a fun and unique challenge – it’s impossible to predict where hip-hop could be in another five years, let alone fifty. Still, if these young rising stars have anything to say about it, the genre should be in great hands.

Here are 10 rising rappers who have the potential to dictate what hip-hop could look like in the future.

Cash Cobain

Rap fans have often been ambivalent about embracing the avant garde. For every Young Thug who blows up, there are a dozen rappers with squeaky or slurred voices who never gain traction among hip-hop heads, who can be as fickle as they are loyal. But when they do decide that they love a new artist with an original ken, they can be as devoted as they once were skeptical.

Cash Cobain is one of those artists who has a chance to go either way. The self-declared “sample God” of New York drill, the Queens native has a flow that is slippery in ways we haven’t heard from trap rappers who have earned the same descriptor. His unabashed pillaging of millennial R&B hits certainly makes him more likely to earn fans than foes, and even if he never hits it big in the traditional sense, his style is guaranteed to influence someone who does.

Central Cee

As much as stateside rap heads have held the UK’s grime and drill artists at an arm’s length in the past, that reticence to embrace hip-hop’s extended family from across the pond has slowly eroded in recent years. Part of this may be due to the clever backdoor those cousins have utilized; drill production, which originated in London’s underground rave scene, is now a familiar fixture on the streets of New York.

Be that as it may, Central Cee doesn’t water down or hide his Shepherd’s Bush, London origins or influences. And while he hasn’t crossed over to US radio, those in the know have accepted him as the future of the British rap regime. It helps that he’s closely associated with a prior favorite in Dave, with whom he collaborated on an EP, Split Decision, earlier this year. It was well received, with its single “Sprinter” peaking at No. 1 on the UK charts. And just in case there was any doubt about his viability with a Yankee audience, he’s got that coveted Drake co-sign via his “On The Radar” featuring The Boy himself.

Chris Patrick

An indie rapper who doesn’t sound like an indie rapper, East Orange, New Jersey’s Chris Patrick has gained a small but extremely vocal following blending the sort of cerebral rhymes commonly associated with artists on the independent scene with thumping, anthemic beats that wouldn’t sound out-of-place in a crowded club or blasting out of car stereos on a sweltering summer day.

Patrick’s 2022 album X-Files is much like its namesake; it started out a cult favorite, but now, a wider audience is curious to see what all the fuss is about. Patrick’s next project will undoubtedly have a larger impact, proving that there are more directions that independent rappers can still go.

Flyana Boss

In Uproxx’s profile of the viral sensation rap duo, group member Bobbi LaNea asserted that they are “paying tribute to what hip-hop truly is.” Their clever use of nursery rhymes in their lyrics harkens back to Run-DMC’s use of the old “Peter Piper” tongue twister, and Flyana’s back-and-forth flow recalls the intricate routines employed by classic pioneers like the Furious Five and Beastie Boys.

Though Flyana Boss burst onto our timelines with the splashy social smash “Miss Me,” they are no one-hit wonders. They have a solid discography that proves that the well of ideas runs deep – but past that, their lasting legacy will be kicking open the door for future “weird Black girls” to express themselves through hip-hop in unconventional ways. Whether that’s wearing elf ears, name-checking Kanekalon, or just being willing to cause a commotion in the local convenience store, there’s value in what they’ve already done.

Kenny Mason

Rap and rock go hand-in-hand. From “Walk This Way” to Collision Course, the shared rebellious spirit of the two in-your-face genres has made magic throughout the past five decades. And sure, there have been some missteps – nu-metal, anyone? – but in recent years, the covalent bond between rap and rock has generated some truly compelling combinations courtesy of acts like Rico Nasty and Trippie Redd.

Kenny Mason’s music, on the surface, seems to stem from that tradition, but shot through with an undercurrent of indie sleaze – the sort of shoegaze-y, fuzzed-out rock that took over pop culture throughout the late aughts. Mason is equally comfortable collaborating with festival rap faves like Denzel Curry and JID as he is imbuing his output with the alt-rock vibes of My Bloody Valentine and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

LaRussell

There’s been a lot of talk lately about how crowded and repetitive festival lineups have gotten. With so many events in the space and only so many rappers around with the sorts of followings that justify their placement, it stands to reason that a lot of the same names have been popping up on many different rosters.

LaRussell, who hails from Vallejo (just like fellow indie rap pioneer E-40), could easily be a standout of one of those lineups. Instead, he’s more likely to pull up in your neighbor’s backyard to play a show for a few dozen folks at a time. His backyard tour concept is just one of the innovative spins he’s putting on the independent rap hustle. He’s kept up a steady stream of self-released projects and singles, punctuated by semi-regular appearances on your favorite radio freestyle shows. He’s perking up a lot of eyes and ears, proving that there are alternatives to same-old-same.

Lady London

If you’ve ever found yourself complaining about the prevalence of so-called “pussy rap” among today’s flourishing cadre of female rappers… Well, first of all, stick a sock in it. That complaint’s old, dusty, dried-up, and overdone, in addition to being terminally untrue. Today’s buffet of talents offers such a wide range of voices and styles that whining about a bare handful of modern rap artists – especially when they’re nothing compared to some of the genre’s pioneers – is a waste of your own time, in addition to being pretty annoying to everybody else.

But, it also makes it obvious that you haven’t been looking for alternatives like Lady London, who has recently received co-signs from the likes of Ciara, who tapped her for the remix of “Da Girls” with Lola Brooke. She’s exactly the sort of lyrics-focused MC that critics of female rappers say they want, and she’s only getting more popular by the day. She’s the proof that there are plenty of bars-first women in rap, and she’s kicking open the door for more to follow.

Luh Tyler

He’s been called the coolest teen in hip-hop, but Tyler’s success portends something larger. For years, hip-hop was all about cool; rappers exaggerated their fashion sensibilities, material possessions, and successes with the opposite sex first and foremost. Somewhere along the way, it became more important to have a good story; “keeping it real” was paramount, but only so long as “keeping it real” meant “keeping it gangsta” or baring some gut-wrenching trauma.

Luh Tyler is too busy talking to girls and telling you about his income for all that. And while that’s not exactly new, the way he does it, with laid-back panache and subtly clever lyricism, is refreshing. He doesn’t try to impress you, so he does. With that as his calling card, he’s helping swing the pendulum back the other way. Think of him as a Larry June for the zoomer set.

Ray Vaughn

For a decade, Top Dawg Entertainment felt like the premier hip-hop label thanks to its core artists, which included Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, Schoolboy Q, and of course, Kendrick Lamar. But lately, that core has been less visible than ever as it feels a little bit like Jay and Q have lost interest in music and Kendrick has moved on from the label. Sure, the remaining members are still working on new music, but it’s been a long time coming, and the label could use some fresh blood to energize the buzz around itself.

Enter Long Beach’s Ray Vaughn, who brings a level of passion and hunger to the same sort of street-centric, philosophical music the original TDE roster was known for. But while they were enamored of lo-fi, moody production that highlighted the heady material, Vaughn emphasizes energetic street bangers – exactly the sort of sounds needed to revitalize and anchor TDE as it enters its new era with a fresh cast including Doechii, Zacari, and Reason.

TiaCorine

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9suUyHpN7Gzk8l7j3qSrIg

Yes, “FreakyT,” the breakout single from North Carolina rapper TiaCorine, is representative of the Winston-Salem native’s talents. But that’s not all she has to offer. Thanks to a colorful presentation – like a lot of today’s young talents, she counts anime as foundational to her artistic identity – she’s got an eye-catching style that makes her impossible to overlook. But past that, she’s got a wide variety of approaches, as demonstrated on her 2022 mixtape I Can’t Wait.

The diversity of style she embraces is very emblematic of her generation. From the video game-glitch-hop to pop rock to dreamy pop, she’s willing to try anything – and she sounds great doing it. There will soon be more artists like TiaCorine than not, as hip-hop kids continue to embrace the breadth of popular culture and weird internet movements, incorporating them into rap standards and transforming both sides of the equation.

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

Celebs: they’re just like us! They also get stuck in airports and… buy $600 worth of pillows and sleep supplies?

OK, maybe celebs aren’t exactly like us, but Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard went through a relatable scenario when their flight got delayed on Wednesday and they were stuck at Boston Logan International Airport for the night.

“Stranded at Boston Airport… 9 hours of delays,” The Good Place actress wrote in an Instagram Story, according to the New York Post, along with a photo of her family and friends. They passed the time playing Uno and Spades (and not asking their good friend Tom Hanks to pick them up in his private jet) before setting up a sleep bunker.

Shepard posted an Instagram reel of the ordeal in which he noted “ZERO vacancies in the greater Boston area.” In the video, Bell joked that she must take her shoes off “when I’m in my bedroom” as she removed her sneakers and walked onto a sheet they had laid on the airport floor.

The camera then flips to Shepard, who is lying on the floor with a neck pillow and blanket, as the pair totals the amount of money they spent on pillows, blankets, and sheets — roughly $600 between the two.

Bell, Shepard, & Co. planned to spend the night there, “but we were kicked out,” she claimed. “Thankfully we found friends of friends who offered us their attics and accepted us at 1 am!!!!!!” There are worst places to be stranded at than the Boston airport: the Dunkin’ in Terminal B is open 24 hours.

(Via the New York Post)

A few years ago, no one probably would have guessed that Travis Scott would be shading Timothée Chalamet on a new album (Utopia, which contains an A-list set of guests), but here we are. It sure looks like Scott took a swing at the Dune star who also happens to be the star of the upcoming Wonka. That film happens to also include Hugh Grant as an Oompa Loompa, but even more importantly for our purposes at this moment, Scott’s Utopia includes a track, “Meltdown,” which contains some fairly unmistakeable shade towards Mr. Chalamet, who happens to be dating Scott’s ex, Kylie Jenner.

Reports of that new coupledom surfaced in April, and Page Six recently reported that Kylie stays over at Chalamet’s home “upwards of six days a week” and has even been spotted there without makeup, so you know it’s somewhat serious. TMZ followed the candy trail here to summarize exactly how obvious Scott’s Wonka-filled shade sounds:

Travis Scott is treating Kylie Jenner’s new boyfriend, Timothée Chalamet, like an oompa loompa on his new album “Utopia” … and wants his bm to know she’ll never find another beau more lit than him!!!

On the appropriately titled track, “Meltdown,” Travis blows his tops going at Timothée while dissing his upcoming role as the King of Candy with the lyrics, “Chocolate AP and chocolate the Vs got the/ Willy Wonka factory (Vs)/ Burn an athlete like it’s calories find another flame hot as me, bitch!!!”

E! Online drew a similar conclusion, and some on Twitter have taken notice with one user remarking, “[N]ever in my life would I’ve thought to witness travis scott dissing timothee chalamet.” That sums things up, but hey, at least Scott will never have to be jealous of Chalamet’s own rapping skills.

(Via TMZ & E! Online)

In 2021, iconic punk band Descendents made a comeback with their eighth studio album, 9th & Walnut, whose tracks were written around 40 years prior, which they explained to Uproxx in our interview. The band, who toured with Jawbreaker just last year, has shared a worrying update about their upcoming tour in Europe.

The shows have been canceled due to a “mild heart attack” suffered by singer Milo Aukerman, who needs to recover. Read their statement:

“We are truly sorry, but we have to cancel the upcoming European shows.

Our singer, Milo, had a mild heart attack last night. He’s doing fine, and is expected to make a full recovery from surgery, but will need a few weeks to recover before we can hit the road again.

Hope to see you soon.”

In our interview with the band, Aukerman discussed the universal struggle of making friends as a kid, especially as a punk. “If you’re that person in high school who just can’t find his crew, and is maybe on your own, a loner, you have a couple different choices,” he said. “But I think one of the choices is just to kind of rail against the people who are kind of precluding your involvement.”

Forgot about putting it on the floor. Latto is leaving it all on the screen. The “Seven” rapper made her debut acting appearance on Freeform’s Grown-Ish. Although she only stepped in for a minor role, viewers are giving the Grammy Award nominee rave reviews for the performance she gave.

The musician channeled her inner saleswoman, as she stepped into the role of Sloan, a wine connoisseur. During the scene, Latto and show regular Diggy Simmons’ character Doug have a flirtatious exchange while conducting business.

Viewers took to Twitter to share their thoughts on Latto’s cameo. “This is so good, especially for her first time,” wrote one user.

Another person chimed in to write, “It was gooood y’all can’t even lie.”

“The chemistry between them,” someone else boosted.

Back in June, Latto told Cosmo during an interview that she would love to work on her acting chops. “I want to get in my acting bag because I see myself going out like Rihanna. I don’t see myself doing music forever. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I’ve been doing it for so long already. Sometimes you just want more. I just did my first little acting gig the other day, and I fell in love with that. I like more serious roles,” said the entertainer.