Month: June 2024

The music of Queen has a profound visceral effect on everyone. Few pieces of art can cause complete strangers to put aside their differences and come together in song, but by golly, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is one of them. It would be cheesy if it weren’t so absolutely beautiful.

This pertains even to non-English-speaking countries, it appears. Recently, thousands of Harry Styles concertgoers in Warsaw, Poland, began cheering as those iconic beginning piano notes penetrated the air.

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It wasn’t long before the entire stadium was singing along to that beloved tune and acing every single lyric. As one person commented on YouTube, even though most people in Warsaw don’t speak English, “they sing Queen.”

The passionate impromptu performance serves as a reminder of how special both Queen and the late Freddie Mercury remain today.

“No other band will ever come close to Queen. They were lightning in a bottle and Freddie was a whale in a teardrop. Once people keep singing his words, FM will live on forever,” another YouTube viewer wrote.

Indeed, seeing an entire stadium come alive with “Bohemian Rhapsody,” you can’t help but feel Mercury’s soul return to the mortal plane, as if we’ve all been transported back to that historic Live Aid concert in 1985 when he had the entirety of Wembley Stadium wrapped around his finger for 21 glorious minutes.

Watch below, and try not to sing along. Scratch that—sing your heart out.

This article originally appeared on 7.14.23

Leave it to Pharrell to find the cure to the musical biopic overload Hollywood is currently suffering from. Today, the pioneering producer shared the first trailer for Piece By Piece, his biographical movie that is one part traditional biopic, one part documentary, and one part animated Lego adventure.

Wait, what?

Yep, you read that right. Look, there’s just no way the man who fronted The Neptunes and N.E.R.D., who made “Happy” and “Get Lucky,” and who can’t be stopped from wearing those big-ass hats would ever just hire some good-looking actor to recreate his come-up. Instead, Piece By Piece is a colorful, animated feature directed by Morgan Neville in which Pharrell is rendered as a minifigure whose imagination blurs the lines of reality — along with a cast that includes some of the biggest names in music, from Justin Timberlake and Snoop Dogg to Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar. I’m buying a ticket just to see Lego Jay-Z give his signature chuckle. (Lego, if you’re reading this… You know what to do. We NEED IT.)

The release of the trailer reverses a string of … well, awkward headlines for the musical genius. Up ’til now, he’s seen a string of legal actions filed against him by collaborators including his Neptunes partner Chad Hugo and singer Pink to block him from copyrighting certain brand names and capitalizing from his work with them.

On the bright side, his work at Louis Vuitton — particularly a recent collab with Tyler The Creator — has been well received and he’s got a fun single with Miley Cyrus called “Doctor (Work It Out).” You can watch the Piece by Piece trailer above.

The Bikeriders almost got pulled from zooming into theaters this summer, but fortunately, the cinematic stars aligned — courtesy of Focus Features and Universal Pictures — to propel the star-studded biker drama into theaters on June 21.

The project should be a blast, too. Tom Hardy will be doing a Brando voice in a Jeff Nichols-directed movie that looks like Martin Scorsese had a lovechild with Kurt Sutter’sSons of Anarchy. In other words, you will soon be able to see Hardy and Austin Butler roaring across highways and cornfields and through cities on bikes and tossing punches. Norman Reed’s will also be there, looking rougher than The Walking Dead‘s Daryl Dixon after not bathing for years. Good times.

If you are looking forward to this film, we encourage you to head to theaters to see the adaptation of photojournalist Danny Lyon’s iconic black-and-white photo book, as compiled after he embedded with a real-life 1960s biker club. Yet if you are in a streaming frame of mind, that will eventually happen, too.

When Will ‘The Bikeriders’ Be On Streaming?

This movie will surely hit the VOD circuit near the conclusion of its theatrical run, but streaming is on the horizon, too. Since it’s a Universal Pictures-distributed movie, that means that the movie will stream first on Peacock. A precise date hasn’t been announced, but if it follows the Oppenheimer pattern (about six months), that would put the movie on Peacock in the late fall. In other words, if you are jonesing for some biker action — also co-starring Boyd Holbrook, Michael Shannon, Damon Herriman, Karl Glusman, Beau Knapp, Mike Fast, Toby Wallace, and Happy Anderson — ride into theaters on June 21.

The Boston Celtics held an event for fans at TD Garden on Oct. 4, 2018. At the time, Boston was the most exciting young team in the Eastern Conference, coming off a conference finals appearance that helped cement them as the next team in line if LeBron James ever decided to do something crazy, like join the Los Angeles Lakers in free agency.

While Kyrie Irving couldn’t play during that run — which ended with a Game 7 loss at home to James and the Cleveland Cavaliers — due to a knee injury, the All-Star guard was one of the stars on that Celtics team — the guy Danny Ainge acquired in a trade with the Cavs the previous year to get them another championship. And in a moment in front of Boston’s fans, Irving decided to express his intention to re-sign with the team instead of entering free agency the next summer.

And then, Irving never signed a deal, and things deteriorated over what became his final year with the Celtics. You can pick from any number of moments where the vibes were just completely off, from the time Irving admitted that he called James and apologized for not realizing how hard being a leader is, to any of the comments to the media where Irving was just a little too blunt about, well, everything.

“It was just a chapter in my life that I got to enjoy for the most part,” Irving told the media this week, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN. “We had a great opportunity to do some special things, but it was cut short, just based off personal reasons on my end. One thing I look back on my time in Boston — I’ve said this over the past few years, but somehow it gets tossed under the rug — but the greatest thing I learned from Boston was just being able to manage not only my emotions or just what’s going on on a day-to-day basis of being a leader of a team or being one of the leaders, and having young guys around you that have their own goals, but you have to learn how to put the big picture first.”

When free agency rolled around at the end of June in 2019, he decided to team up with Kevin Durant as a member of the Brooklyn Nets. It sent a shockwave throughout the league, largely because while the rumblings of Durant and Irving teaming up in the Big Apple weren’t new, the expectation was that they’d head to Madison Square Garden and join the New York Knicks, instead.

It was quite the blow for the Knicks, which had just seen one of its hopeful building blocks leave town. Six months earlier, New York made the decision to trade Kristaps Porzingis to the Dallas Mavericks and end his tenure in New York after three and a half years — reports indicated that a meeting between Porzingis and the Knicks led the team to believe he wanted a trade, as he had concerns about the direction of the franchise. What started as a promising marriage between a team desperate to get over the hump and a lottery pick whose skillset got him nicknamed “The Unicorn” devolved, and the Mavs were there to take advantage.

Before he ever got to play a game in a Dallas uniform, the team gave Porzingis a lucrative 5-year contract extension, as they finally got the running mate that would help Luka Doncic go from a budding superstar to an MVP with an All-Star sidekick. Or so they thought.

The entire Dallas experiment fell apart — what once looked like a hand-in-glove fit between a genius offensive engine and the perfect modern day big man eventually turned into Porzingis getting excoriated by his coach for how bad he was at posting up and, eventually, getting benched in the playoffs. Porzingis had his own hand in how things failed in Dallas, as there were rumblings of his frustration with his role, and he spoke about his experience in Dallas this year on the “The Old Man and the Three” podcast.

“It’s a big mix of things,” Porzingis said. “Maturity, for sure. Again, I’m talking about what I could have done better. And then, I wasn’t that much into analytics and numbers. If somebody, I think, at that stage of my career presented it to me the right way and said, ‘This is what we need to do, this is what we need from you, you’re gonna be way more effective doing this.’ Like, kinda explaining to me better. I think that would have made the difference, a little bit.”

While Doncic stressed this week that he has a good relationship with Porzingis now, Porzingis told Redick that their relationship wasn’t the best early on — “I think we both tried to make it work,” he said. “I think communication — maturity, communication on both of our parts — should have been better.”

Fast-forward to today and Irving and Porzingis are two indispensable pieces of teams that are four wins away from winning a championship. And the thing standing in their respective ways are the teams that brought them on board with title aspirations, only for both to fail spectacularly. Those experiences, along with continued struggles in their pit stops in between Boston and Dallas, have given both players the necessary perspective to adapt their games to the needs of their team and become exactly what the Celtics and Mavs have needed to reach the NBA Finals.

Irving, of course, joined Durant in Brooklyn after leaving Boston. James Harden then came to town, forming a superteam by any definition of the word. When they all played together, they were magnificent … only they very rarely got that chance, with Irving at the center of their instability. Whether it was due to his refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the way he conducted himself in the aftermath of sharing a link to an antisemitic film on his Twitter account, or injuries, Irving was just not available enough, and usually for reasons that were wholly preventable on his part. He requested a trade in 2023, which led to Dallas getting him at the deadline for what is, in retrospect, pennies on the dollar.

Porzingis, meanwhile, essentially got salary dumped by the Mavs, as he got sent to Washington with a protected second-round pick for Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans. He was a nice player for a year and a half on a team that slogged its way to 35 wins in back-to-back seasons before the Celtics — in a series of events I still cannot wrap my head around — managed to acquire him in a three-team trade where they also received multiple first-round picks. One of those picks, a top-4 protected 2024 selection from the Golden State Warriors, was put in the package that was sent to Portland in exchange for Jrue Holiday.

Those past failures were crucial in shaping the guys that both of those teams got. Dallas did not trade for the Kyrie Irving who showed up in Boston, the one who wanted to get out of the shadow of being James’ sidekick and show that he could be the man. Instead, they got a guy who saw first-hand what all goes into being one of the leaders of a team. You hear it now in how people around the Mavs talk about Irving taking on the role of being a unifier, and how he’s playing off of Doncic instead of trying to be the man in Dallas.

Boston did not trade for the Kristaps Porzingis who got salary dumped to basketball purgatory and spent 82 games licking his wounds from a mega-trade gone wrong. Whether that meant getting better at posting up opposing defenders (he is now the league’s top post-up player, a far cry from when Rick Carlisle tore into him in front of the media and brought stats to back up his case) or being someone who accepts a smaller role that has a big impact on winning, Porzingis has figured out the “be a star in your role” lesson that many players need to figure out before they can become the best version of themselves.

Neither Irving nor Porzingis were good enough as a high-profile trade acquisition for teams that viewed them as a potential cornerstone for their franchise. And that happens. There have been countless athletes over the years who found themselves in that situation. But the important thing is to understand why you failed and how to learn and grow from that.

Both Porzingis and Irving have done that. Their teammates rave about their leadership and their calming influence, a far cry from their more mercurial younger days. On the court, they embrace and thrive in roles they once shunned. Irving, back where he started as the second star providing a change of pace and extra scoring and creative punch next to a generational superstar. Porzingis, now willing to accept his place on the totem pole behind Boston’s 1A and 1B, providing them with whatever they need on any given night, whether that’s three-point shooting or post scoring, and anchoring the defense at the other end.

As a result, their current teams are four wins away from a ring … with only their exes standing in their ways.

Dads love James Patterson. That’s a scientific fact, and fortunately, Prime Video (Amazon) has teamed up with Patterson to beef up its roster of Dad TV. That already includes shows like Jack Ryan and its alleged spinoff and (for the weirdest dads) Outer Range. For the dads who enjoy watching brick sh*thouses outsmart the bad dudes, there’s also that force of nature called Reacher, and on a slightly less jacked note, get ready for Cross.

Plot

James Patterson’s Alex Cross is about to get a TV show that promises to stand apart from the films starring Morgan Freeman and Tyler Perry. And as Reacher has shown, audiences loves a protagonist who easily outwits bad guys, and Cross does so by climbing inside their noggins. In particular, this forensic psychologist and detective is “uniquely capable of digging into the psyches of killers and their victims, in order to identify—and ultimately capture—the murderers,” according to the show’s description. And you know that this show is serious about hammering that home because in the show’s trailer, a baddie snarls, “You’re not getting a confession. You’re not in my head.” To which Cross replies, “Oh, I’m definitely living rent free.” Boom.

Cross, of course, is a renowned character drawn by Patterson over the course of 30+ novels. Creator Ben Watkins has crafted a first season full of pulse-pounding complexity, and Amazon has so much faith in this project that they recently renewed the Original Series for a second season before the show has premiered. In a press release, Watkins celebrated:

“I am thrilled to be embarking on another chapter of Cross. Moments like this don’t happen by accident. Getting a Season 2 pick-up before our first season even drops is a huge testament and vote of confidence in the amazing work that our crew, cast, directors, writers and production team have delivered thus far. It’s also a direct result of the unwavering support bestowed upon us by Prime Video and our producing partners at Paramount TV Studios, Skydance and James Patterson Entertainment. I am grateful for all of the above and can’t wait to run it back even bigger and better.”

Additionally, Amazon MGM Studios head of TV Vernon Sanders declared that audiences should expect plenty of Aldis Hodge’s take on Cross. “Ben Watkins and his team have created something unique within the crime-thriller genre that long-time fans and newcomers alike will all enjoy,” explained Sanders. “And with over thirty novels written by Patterson featuring Alex Cross as his main protagonist, it was an easy choice to bring Cross back for a second season.”

Cast

Aldis Hodge stars as the titular Alex Cross. He will be accompanied by Isaiah Mustafa, Juanita Jennings, Alona Tal, Samantha Walkes, Jennifer Wigmore, Eloise Mumford, Ryan Eggold, Caleb Elijah, Melody Hurd, and Johnny Ray Gill.

The Season 2 cast is already coming together and includes Wes Chatham, Matthew Lillard, and Jeanine Mason.

Release Date

Somehow, Amazon hasn’t unveiled a specific release date for Cross, but expect it to drop this summer.

Trailer

If a detective looked at you like this? Give it up.

“Brat sounds really b*tchy, and it’s very direct; it’s a little confrontational, but I think also it’s confrontational because, sometimes, when you’re at your most vulnerable, you lash out,” Charli XCX said on Therapuss With Jake Shane. “That’s the whole thing about the name, Brat. Yes, it’s b*tchy and [redacted] and confident, but I think also you act like a brat when you’re feeling insecure.”

Sold!

Luckily, we don’t have to wait much longer to fully understand what Charli XCX meant when describing her forthcoming new album, Brat. “Von Dutch,” “360,” “Club Classics,” and “B2b” are already out in the world, but here’s when the rest of the tracklist will join them.

When Will Charli XCX’s New Album Brat Be On Apple Music?

Charli XCX’s Brat album is due out on Friday, June 7. As with most albums, that means Brat should be available to stream on Apple Music, Spotify, or any DSP as soon as the clock strikes 9 p.m. PT on Thursday, June 6, and midnight ET on Friday, June 7.

Charli XCX’s Brat Tracklist

1. “360”
2. “Club Classics”
3. “Sympathy Is A Knife”
4. “I Might Say Something Stupid”
5. “Talk Talk”
6. “Von Dutch”
7. “Everything Is Romantic”
8. “Rewind”
9. “So I”
10. “Girl, So Confusing”
11. “Apple”
12. “B2b”
13. “Mean Girls”
14. “I Think About It All The Time”
15. “365”

Charli XCX’s Brat Album Cover Artwork

Yesterday, Ice Spice announced the release date of her debut album, Y2K, after months of anticipation. At the same time, she also shared the album’s cover artwork, but while she was clearly very proud of it, folks on social media were, unsurprisingly, less than impressed.

One element fans took note of was the placement of the album’s title on the photo, which was shot by David LaChappelle. Some fans even took it upon themselves to redesign the cover themselves, hoping to improve on its perceived flaws.

Today, Ice Spice herself responded to the criticism, posting a Polaroid photo of herself and LaChappelle on X (RIP, Twitter.com) with a thankful caption and a cryptic message. “David LaChapelle is #Y2K!” she wrote. “soooo sweet + legendary he didn’t even charge me cus he f*cks wit a real b*tchthank U for all the incredible art you’ve put out through the years this cover means everything to me & yes Y2K was placed on the trash can on purpose can u guess why?”

If the placement of the album title is indeed meant to be a metaphor for moving on from the nostalgia for years past, it certainly hasn’t translated in Ice’s music. A proponent of so-called “sample drill,” both her look and her sound draw heavily from the years immediately after her birth (she was born on New Year’s Day, 2000, if you can believe it). Her most recent single, “Gimmie A Light,” interpolates a sample from Sean Paul’s 2002 hit “Gimmie The Light,” while 2023’s “Barbie World” tapped Aqua’s “Barbie Girl,” a staple of turn-of-the-millennium Europop.

My colleague Derrick Rossignol is right; writing about beef and hate for the past six months has been exhausting. We here at Uproxx would much rather focus on the positives — especially when it comes to hip-hop, which has been about as innovative and productive as it has ever beeen in 2024.

Whatever coast you claim, whichever generation you consider yourself part of, no matter why you listen to hip-hop in the first place — to party, to think, to hype yourself up, or to escape into a gangster fantasy where you’re the toughest person in your town — there has been an embarrassment of riches with respect to the sheer volume of hip-hop releases this year, and its quality.

So, yes, the bloodsport was enjoyable while it lasted (for some of us), but when the dust has settled, you still need something to listen to. Whether you’re catching up, revisiting favorites you forgot about in the chaos, or just setting up your summer listening playlist, we’ve got you covered. Here are the best hip-hop albums of 2024 so far, presented in alphabetical order and including the entries from the best albums of 2024 so far list.

21 Savage — American Dream

21 Savage’s first solo album in over three years arrived at the top of the year to end a brief run of collaborative albums that included Savage Mode II with Metro Boomin and Her Loss with Drake. American Dream, his third solo album, presents all the sides of 21 Savage that we’ve come to love over the years. His menacing demeanor lives on tracks like “Redrum” and “Dangerous” and his charm is captured on “Prove It” and “Should’ve Wore A Bonnet” while honesty prevails with “Just Like Me” and “Dark Days.” 21 Savage’s long-awaited solo return checks all the expected boxes and elevates the rapper to a higher status, making an American Dream turn global and reach his birthplace of London where he performed for the first time at the end of 2023. — Wongo Okon

Anycia — Princess Pop That

Following a 2023 year that put her on the map, Atlanta rapper Anycia stepped in 2024 with a point to prove. In a matter of four months, it was seen and received thanks to her debut album Princess Pop That. She excels in a lane occupied by few where a cool and calm demeanor delivers the intended messages with a crispness that sends a chill down the spine. Anycia means every word she says as records like “Type Beat,” “Bad Weather,” and “Splash Brothers” prove. That’s Pop That side of Anycia, the Princess that is Anycia uses the Cash Cobain-assisted “That’s Hard” and the splashy “Squigi” to get her point across. What Princess Pop That gives you is duality and evidence that Anycia has plenty to show in the coming years of her career. — W.O

Benny The Butcher — Everybody Can’t Go

Benny The Butcher’s Def Jam debut didn’t usher a change in style or approach for the Buffalo rapper. If anything, his new home allowed him to more comfortably do what we’ve seen him excel at for much of the last decade. On Everybody Can’t Go, Benny puts up a fine display of rapping alongside Lil Wayne on the haunting “Big Dog” all to deliver a riveting and championing tale of a double life on “One Foot In” with Stove God Cooks. “Pillow Talk & Slander” with Jadakiss and Babyface Ray unites different generations of rap for a moment of introspection and celebration. Everybody Can’t Go opens a new era for Benny and promises many more bright moments to accompany the ones he put forth years prior. — W.O.

Bossman Dlow — Mr Beat The Road

Few rappers in 2024 have been as fun to listen to as Florida rapper Bossman Dlow rapper is. His Mr Beat The Road project is a 17-track compilation of exaggerated money spreads, pretentious claims about his ability to make money, entertaining adlibs, and catchy bars and punchlines. For Bossman Dlow, it all started with the success of “Get In With Me,” a convincing how-to on bossing up, increasing your cash flow, and living like a star. The standout single doesn’t even scratch the surface of Mr Beat The Road though. “Boss Talk” puts his title as head honcho on full display while “Mr Pot Scraper” paints him as a hustler like no other. “Come Here” with Sexyy Red is flirtatious fun and “Lil Bastard” with Rob49 sounds the alarm on Bossman Dlow’s inescapable arrival. Mr Beat The Road is a welcome party worth attending and remembering. — W.O.

Buddy — Don’t Forget To Breathe

In an era of so many rappers employing therapy and its associated lingo as a stylistic shortcut to being truly vulnerable, honest, and confessional on records, Buddy’s Don’t Forget To Breathe is, fittingly, a breath of fresh air. The Compton rapper not only takes the time to get to know himself after his decade or so in the game — letting listeners in on the process — but displays his expansive taste with a lush musical palette incorporating groovy R&B instrumentation over head-nodding hip-hop rhythms. “Buddy A Fool” is a self-aware self send-up, “Got Me Started” is a confident slick talk session, and “You 2 Thank” bridges the gap between post-G-funk and diasporic excellence. — Aaron Williams

Chief Keef — Almighty So 2

There’s no denying Chief Keef’s impact on modern-day hip-hop. All of what exists today, for better or for worse, would be different or absent without Chief Keef. At 28 years old, he’s a rap veteran when many at that age are just a few years into their careers, and many who checked into the game at 17 years old, like Keef did, fizzled out shortly after they could legally drink. So Keef’s continued relevance for more than a decade is impressive, as is his fifth album, Almighty So 2. Originally announced back in 2019, the album’s arrival five years later is a great gift to fans. What makes it better are splashy features from Tierra Whack, Sexyy Red, Quavo, and others, as well as sharp bass-rattling production supplied by Keef himself. — W.O.

Flo Milli — Fine Ho, Stay

If Ho, Why Is You Here? was Flo Milli’s fun-loving introduction to the rap biz, and You Still Here, Ho? was her concentrated effort to prove she could consistently make hits, Fine Ho, Stay is a self-possessed declaration of her own permanence as a fixture in the limelight. It’s also a rock-solid display of her rhyme prowess; while she does her fair share of pop-friendly crooning on “Can’t Stay Mad,” songs like “Clap Sum” and “Neva” can easily be argued as the result of her time spent on the road with some of rap’s most practiced contemporary spitters like Benny The Butcher and Gunna. — A.W.

Fredo Bang — Yes, I’m Sad

It’s been three years since Baton Rouge rapper Fredo Bang emerged with his breakout hit “Top,” which was later boosted by a remix from Lil Durk. He stands tall on his own through honesty and vulnerability, as depicted on his Yes, I’m Sad project. The takeaway from it is that all that glitters ain’t gold, a message Fredo puts forth successfully through songs like “Come Thru” and the project’s sincere title. Still, the gold is very much present in Fredo’s world on “Ring Ring” with Kevin Gates and “Sideways” with NLE Choppa. Fredo’s Yes, I’m Sad acknowledges the hardships in his life, but also pushes himself to do something about and improve the circumstances, a mindset that brings more value to the project. — W.O.

Future and Metro Boomin — We Don’t Trust You and We Still Don’t Trust You

In 2017, Future did something no other artist had ever done before: He released Future (a trap-heavy, bass-knocking rap album) and Hndrxx (a softer, more confessional, and R&B-inspired effort) in consecutive weeks, becoming the first artist to release a pair of Billboard 200 chart-topping albums in the same week. Fast-forward seven years, and Future and Metro Boomin’s We Don’t Trust You and We Still Don’t Trust You are modeled the same way, respectively. Future’s ability to channel both sides of his artistry and deliver the very best of them multiple times in his career is a feat accomplished by few and dreamed of by many. But for now, we can remember these albums as two of music’s best releases in 2024 and one being the catalyst for hip-hop’s biggest war in decades. — W.O.

GloRilla — Ehhthang Ehhthang

Girls just wanna have fun. For all the hand-wringing about the lack of substance in hip-hop these days (from people who happily did their Stanky Leg and bumped “Tipsy” back in the day), rap music has always been about turning up at parties. Rappers like GloRilla remember this — or, at least, keep the spirit of the function alive in their music — making catchy hits that won’t elicit boos for the DJ who plays them. Ehhthang Ehhthang might be light on deep topics and cultural criticism, but while it runs on club anthems like “Yeah Glo!” and “Wanna Be,” it does have some deceptively heartfelt moments, as well. Even its title is a clever callback to so-called substantive rap, adding a country twist to the title of Lauryn Hill’s 1999 smash hit. — A.W.

Gunna — One Of Wun

The current era of Gunna’s career is one nobody could have predicted five years ago. Once-guaranteed collaborations with Young Thug, Future, Lil Baby, and others are now a thing of yesterday. Today, as Gunna’s fifth album One Of Wun displays, the Atlanta rapper makes the most of his inner circle as the variety and availability of past resources have run dry. One Of Wun is as flashy, slick, and smooth as we’ve known Gunna to be. It’s confirmation that he can present that persona when he pleases. “On One Tonight” is one of Gunna’s best outputs in years while “Hakuna Matata” glides with ease and hits corners with impressive finesse. “Today I Did Good” is a surprisingly bright track that showcases the change in Gunna’s life. One Of Wun escapes the dark of yesterday and runs toward the light at the end of the tunnel, which remains bright for Gunna. — W.O.

J. Cole — Might Delete Later

Nearly a decade after his fellow hip-hop heavyweights, aka Drake and Kendrick Lamar, did it, J. Cole delivered a surprise album of his own with Might Delete Later. Cole surprised fans with the project on the weekend of his annual Dreamville Festival and weeks after Kendrick challenged both Cole and Drake for rap’s crown on his “Like That” verse. The strong output from Cole failed to truly shine thanks his lukewarm Kendrick Lamar diss in “7 Minute Drill,” its eventual removal from streaming services, and Cole’s apology for even responding in the first place. Nonetheless, Might Delete Later is still a strong body of work. “Crocodile Tearz” is an impressive display of Cole on the offensive, and “HYB” with Bas and Central Cee presents Cole in a fun and laid-back state worth bringing out more often than he does. Long story short, Might Delete Later is worth keeping in rotation for a while. — W.O.

Kenny Mason — 9

In the four years since Kenny Mason dropped his debut album, Angelic Hoodrat, he’s seen a fairly prodigious jump in his public profile, landing feature placement on tracks from the likes of J. Cole and JID, touring the nation with Danny Brown and Jpegmafia, and garnering widespread acclaim for his unique blend of grunge, shoegaze, and punk rap. On 9, he expands on that genre gumbo, incorporating features from such wide-ranging sources as trap upstart Babydrill and chillwave pioneer Toro Y Moi. More mellow than alt-rap screamers like Trippie Redd and XXXtentacion, but more introspective than Atlanta peers like Gunna and Young Nudy, Kenny’s in a class of his own, bridging gaps between what works and what’s possible. — A.W.

Kyle — Smyle Again

The recent resurgence of jungle and drum & bass is making me feel young again, and a large part of the reason for that renaissance is Southern California native Kyle. Last year, his album It’s Not So Bad evoked the sounds of the Y2K British rave scene with a palette of 2-step and garage, and Smyle Again (named after his breakout 2015 mixtape Smyle) continued to mine that fertile era from a more hardcore angle. Like its predecessor, it borrows the skittering forceful riddims of 2000s UK EDM and pairs them with the sunny, beach-bred cheeriness Kyle is known for. The result is one of the year’s more innovative projects. — A.W.

LaRussell & Hit-Boy — Rent Due

How exactly does one settle on just one LaRussell project when he’s so prone to releasing multiple in a year’s span? It certainly helps when he brings one of the West Coast’s premiere beatmakers, Hit-Boy, along for the ride. Although Rent Due is only seven songs and 18 minutes long, both collaborators bring their A-games, going in like… well… the rent’s due. What truly impresses is the versatility of the album, from the airy uplift of “Lead Me To The Water” to the boisterous street stomp on “Another One.” The two California natives have unsurprisingly great chemistry and if HB wants to drop another four projects with LaRussell, I don’t think anyone will complain. — A.W.

MIKE — Pinball

MIKE’s drowsy lyrical ruminations have always defied easy categorization, even as they’ve illustrated his broad range of cultural and stylistic influences. In the past, this has often resulted in dense, borderline opaque listens that can get mired in murky soul samples and abstract rhymes. Pinball is a different story, though. Like the arcade games it’s named after, Tony Seltzer’s beats on Pinball instead gives MIKE a lively, bouncy background for his cerebral lyrics, bringing more energy out of him and making it sound like he’s actually having a lot of fun. It’s a needed reminder that thoughtful hip-hop needn’t be boring or super serious to get its point across. — A.W.

Rapsody — Please Don’t Cry

In my interview with Rapsody about her new album, Please Don’t Cry, I called it her best and THEE best hip-hop album of the year so far. I may end up revising that opinion by December, but the bar is going to be really hard to clear. Combining lessons she’s learned from therapy, endless reiteration of ideas, and some of her production teams’ finest work to date, Rapsody has crafted a masterclass in vulnerability, honesty, and lyrical dexterity. “Stand Tall,” “Diary Of A Mad B*tch,” “A Ballad For Homegirls,” and “Forget Me Not” are the sorts of honest, “real” rap writing that fans have been begging for for years. — A.W.

Schoolboy Q — Blue Lips

At this point, few of us, if any, should be complaining about the long wait between Top Dawg Entertainment projects. The last few years have brought projects such as Ab-Soul’s Herbert, Isaiah Rashad’s The House Is Burning, and of course, SZA’s SOS after five-year gaps — an approach that seems to be the recipe for producing some of those artists’ most heartfelt, innovative works to date. Schoolboy Q turns out to be no exception. His latest also arrives five years after its predecessor, Crash Talk, bringing with it the very soul of Los Angeles’ experimental jazz history. An eccentric compilation that never stays in one vibe too long, Blue Lips presents a portrait of a matured, sophisticated gangster. — A.W.

Skilla Baby — The Coldest

Detroit rapper Skilla Baby, fresh off a 12-month run that boosted his stock thanks to songs like “Mama” and “Bae,” showed what he’s really made of on The Coldest. Often mislabeled as a rapper with song’s solely for the ladies, Skilla Baby embraces the title with the flirty and infatuated “Whole Package” with Flo Milli as well as “Wifey” alongside NoCap. However, Skilla Baby is more than just a ladies’ man. He’s a certified hustler on the grim “Mike Jack” and he’s successful one who can brag about his wins on “Richie.” Skilla Baby has the type of duality that one should admire and The Coldest puts it all on full display. — W.O.

Tierra Whack — World Wide Whack

World Wide Whack is perhaps one of the most anticipated hip-hop debuts of the last five years, and it doesn’t disappoint. Tierra Whack had the world in the palm of her hand after her EP Whack World introduced the public to the colorful inner universe of the Philadelphia creative, but then reality stepped in. Tierra’s experiences since then inspired World Wide Whack, which despite its whimsical stylings contains some of her most heartrending music yet. “Two Night” and “27 Club” deliver a one-two punch of empathetic pleas for a more measured reception for the sort of creative personalities that have suddenly become a quite endangered species. — A.W.

Vince Staples — Dark Times

Hometown bias aside, I have long believed that Long Beach rapper Vince Staples has been one of rap’s most quietly insightful, innovative voices since 2014, when I first heard him on Common’s Nobody Smiling single “Kingdom.” Since then, his confidence in his artistic vision has only grown, while his already prodigious talents sharpened in his efforts to bring that vision to grungy, cinematic life. Dark Times is the culmination of that growth, presenting a version of Vince that pairs his photographic observations of life at the bottom of the American pyramid with a collection of instrumentals destined to shatter the last (stupid) arguments against him — you can’t say he picks bad beats now. — A.W.

When EA Sports announced they were reviving their college football video game franchise, now simply named EA Sports College Football, fans rejoiced. However, after the initial wave of excitement, fans began wondering if EA would recognize what made the old NCAA Football franchise one of the most beloved sports games of all-time.

With the advent of Ultimate Team and other online play modes built around microtransactions, there was a fear that Dynasty mode would go the way of other franchise modes and get put on the backburner. That, of course, would’ve been a tremendous misstep, because Dynasty mode has always been the gold standard of coach/GM modes in video games. The old NCAA franchise was so fun because you could build a small program into a powerhouse and then turn around and go do it again somewhere else.

Thankfully, EA Sports didn’t turn their backs on what made their college football offering a fan favorite. As principal game designer Ben Haumiller, who worked on the NCAA Football franchise from 05-14, explained in a presentation in Orlando, “Dynasty is what we’re about.” That seemed to be more than just talk, as our first look at Dynasty mode revealed an awful lot of detail and depth about everyone’s favorite game mode.

As we sat through the presentation, I did have some questions, namely how they decided what would and wouldn’t make it into the initial relaunch of the franchise. Luckily, I got a chance to sit down with Haumiller for an additional peek behind the curtain of how the game came together, what their focus was for the initial launch of ’25, balancing giving the game depth and making the game a challenge while still being approachable, and much more.

When you find out the game’s coming back, how do you create the list of must haves versus want to haves in the future? Because obviously, you’ve had 10 years of ideas kicking around.

Oh yeah.

And like, how do you decide what has to be in this first iteration?

Great question. Man, so I think really what you look at is time is the ultimate arbiter. You only have so much time before a game has a release date. And we did get the luxury of some additional time, and that gave us the chance to really go deep and create everything that you’re seeing today. So I think you look at every facet of the game as well. Like, the biggest things for us have always been gameplay, sights, and sounds. That’s what sets college apart from everything else. So when you think about college gameplay what does that mean? Well, you know, everything from the wider splits or the option game and the flexbone and bringing those things back in, or the Go-Go offense or the walking mesh at Wake, things like that, that aren’t in Madden, because those aren’t run in the professional world. So we’ve got to make sure we have those in.

I think about NCAA 14, we were just starting to do RPOs back then, but we didn’t have RPOs. So you had to kind of fake it where you had two different plays that were essentially RPO and you could set them up as audibles and call it at the line that way. But now we have a full RPO system and all those sorts of things, which Madden developed and we were able to inherit from them and tweak in our own way. So, the gameplay side of things is all those pieces that make it different. The presentation side of the house — artists love that this game is back because they get to make dogs and trees and all these other things that are the funny, kind of goofy side of the sport. I think that’s one thing that I love about college football is it doesn’t take itself too seriously. There’s a lot of just fun goofiness that we get to play with in this game. So yeah, that’s on the presentation side.

In my role on the Dynasty side and the mode side of things, you have your core, you know, roster management and conference standings, and things like that. But the sports are so different in the recruiting aspect and recruiting is kind of like free agency, sure, so there’s some things we can work with together with Madden on and how those are going to work. But they’re so different and drastically different in terms of how those sort of things work — and the transfer portal and the College Football Playoff coming. And since we started, it’s gone from a 4-team Playoff to a 12-team Playoff, and we get to debut that before it ever happens in the real world.

So I think there were so many things that we had — this is must do, this is must do, this is must do, this is must do. And you know, you have your development partners, who are like, ‘Cool, that’s like seven years worth of things. You don’t have seven years. So what are you going to drill down.’ So that’s another piece too, is we had to rethink how we made the game. We couldn’t do it the old way, because the old way wouldn’t get us 134 stadiums for the first year. The old way wouldn’t be able to create all these likenesses of players for having players for the first time ever, such a monumental thing. And so we don’t have the ability to go and scan all those players to get them in. So finding another way of doing all those sort of things. And those are the pieces that we were able to do what we were able to do, because of the work that this team put in to finding ways to make it happen. It’s a labor of love.

You know this, but the first thing people want is Dynasty mode. Like that is the core of the base who played the game.

Yep.

And obviously you have a younger generation, there’s a gap to bridge there that’s played Ultimate Team and all that, but the people that are core is Dynasty Mode. So when we start ideating on what that looks like — particularly the recruiting because I think like you said, that was the thing that stands out to Dynasty compared to any other franchise/GM mode. As you’re building recruiting, what were the conversations that were had about how to do it and make it immersive, but not necessarily make it so in the weeds that it is not approachable?

I think I’ve got a unique perspective on that from my lifetime of the previous game, right? I worked on the game for a decade. And so when I started, we were still in the PS2 land, so we had that style of recruiting. Around NCAA 08, we decided we wanted to change something and to go in a different route. We have felt that had gotten a little stale. We went to a much deeper version, the old football, remember that? The angry football and all that good stuff, and pitch grades, all that sort of stuff came in. We got very deep at that point, and people told us, you know what, like, a little much. A little much. And so we had to dial back. Then we got all the way to 14 where we did that points=based recruiting, and I think we went too far in dialing back, where people are like, ‘Okay, cool, it’s fast, but I don’t feel association, I don’t feel connection with these guys like I want to.’

And so, I think when we were looking at this year and revisiting everything we were looking at, okay, so much has changed between how you handle high school recruiting, between the transfer portal, all of those sorts of elements. But the mechanics themselves have to be fun and have to engage you because you want to do this. This is taking time away from from playing the game. I know that. Like, that’s one of the things you always try to think about in the Dynasty mode or any of these franchise modes. People want to play the game. They love the the front end version of it, the spreadsheets and all that sort of stuff, but it’s all servicing for the actual gameplay. So how can we keep you engaged, but do it quickly so that you can get back in and you’re not spending four hours between games just going in and micromanaging every aspect of recruiting. So you’ll see stuff that you might recognize from the PS2 days. You’ll see stuff that you might recognize from those other later versions, but also too, brand new elements that we brought in to really try and round out what that recruiting experience is like.

There’s so many people that want so many things, you hear all of this stuff, and there’s so many ways you can go, because the sport has expanded to this point where there’s so many different things. You mentioned that you’re not going to really dive into NIL in this iteration. How do you make the decisions on what necessarily to save for a later date to explore?

Those decisions don’t come easy. I can go back to the conversations we had when we were making NCAA 14, knowing that we were a year away from the College Football Playoff. And there were no details about how it would actually work. And we work best when we are replicating things that have been done. We made the decision at the time, and this is gonna be funny, we’re not ready to do College Football Playoff yet, because it’s not for this upcoming year because we were replicating the 2013 season. The old phrase: We’ll get back to the next year. And a decade comes and, you know… [laughs].

So when you think about something like NIL, it’s very tricky for us to think about how it’s changing all the time. You don’t have a set of rules that are the same across from state-to-state. Everybody is different of how things operate. And also too, when you are in Dynasty, you’re the program. You’re not supposed to be the ones doing these deals directly. So with everything that we had, we know how big that story is, but with everything that we had to do, we couldn’t justify spending the time to go down that rabbit hole of what NIL kind of currently is, knowing full well we’re gonna rip that out in a year and go with whatever the new version is and then a year from that, rip that out. So it’s about finding the right time to do a feature like that, to build that in. So that we are doing it in a smart way, doing it in a way that is authentic as we can be, also knowing that we cannot do things that are going to anger our partners, being the schools. We’re an E for Everyone game, so those salacious things are not going to happen. So it’s kind of finding the right time to do some of that.

So we recognize that that is a big piece of college football these days. Roster management is so different now between high school kids or roster retention of your current guys or going after the portal. Those are three unique elements that make up how you build a roster now. And so we’ve got those there in a core, and now it’s a matter of building up. And it’s going to be, with that specific piece, when is the time right to dive in and really make that its true piece that needs to be. I think we’re kind of waiting for the world to settle a little bit, so we know what we’re getting ourselves into, for sure.

From from what we walked through. I think one of the main questions I had about the day to day or week to week is, how much player management is involved in Dynasty? With regards to guys looking at entering the transfer portal, how you track kind of like, where you need to meet goals with certain guys and that sort of thing?

You see that during the year through the recruiting side of things in that My School screen that we were showing with all the different pitch grades. You know, this is an area that’s still ripe for a lot more. But right now, it’s about those deal breakers, and not every player has a deal breaker, but the ones that do will be their determining factor of it. From the high school side, are they even looking at you, but also too, once they’re on campus, they still have their deal breakers that if they want playing time and they’re not getting it, they’re gonna look to go to the portal. And so then you can try to convince them to stay if you want to, and if they don’t agree to that, then they jump into the portal. So, yeah, it’s just a matter of kind of looking at all those different pieces and just how do we go about recreating those elements?

So the player management from a week-to-week basis, you are looking on that screen to see players at risk for each of those grades. You’re seeing which players are there and you can, just as real coaches are doing, make that decision. Is it worth it? And also on the recruiting trail, is it worth going after this high school kid? Or do I save that spot for a portal player because I need to win right now? I don’t have time for this kid to develop. I need to win right now. I need to plug some holes. Or I lost a kid I wasn’t planning on losing. Well, now, I don’t have a starting quarterback. I’ve got a couple guys in the wings, but nobody’s ready. Can I get a one year rental guy to come in? Which you see is more and more becoming how people are handling that.

So what we wanted to do was create that sandbox world where there’s not one way to do anything. There’s not one way to recruit. Everybody has their own style of what they want to do. There’s not one way to win a national championship. Everyone has their own ways. You know, with a 12-team Playoff now, you don’t have to be one of the big dogs to get into the four. You can get in as a smaller school and make your way through that way. So there’s just so many different things that you can do that we’re trying to replicate in this game.

You talked about making it something that you really feel like you build, and that story element. It used to be you could kind of game the recruiting as a small school and you could make that pop in two years or whatever. How did y’all try to strike a balance in terms of like, you don’t wanna make it impossible, because that’s part of what people love to do, but also you want to make it more realistic. Like if I’m going to take Georgia State to a title, it’s gonna take some time. How did you kind of decide on what the timeframe is that you want that journey?

Great question too, because the other thing you’re competing against is people don’t want to spend, you know, 20 years to get to their dream school. They want to get there relatively quickly, but also they don’t want it to just be handed to them. So I think that’s something you think of both … I’ll use a Road to Glory example, real quick. You don’t become the starter immediately in Road to Glory. You’ve got to earn your playing time and work yourself up on the depth chart.

So on the Dynasty side, it’s the same sort of thing where like, those four- and five-star kids are not going to be interested in a smaller school from the start. You have to build your grades up in that My School piece to be more attractive to those kids and they have to like what you have to offer. So you might build up Georgia State to be a perennial powerhouse, number one team in the country every single year. But if a kid cares about proximity to home and he’s in California, ‘Sorry about that, you know, I’m staying close over here.’ So those are the things I think that make this game and this sport so much fun is, that association you build these players because they ultimately are choosing you. And so you can’t just manipulate draft logic and things like that just to win a Super Bowl and have the number one pick in the same year. You can be Alabama, you can be Georgia, and still not get the number one player in the country because he wants something that you don’t offer.

Charli XCX has already gifted the world “Von Dutch,” “360,” “Club Classics,” and “B2b,” and the UK pop star went ahead and tacked on Addison Rae and A.G. Cook to a “Von Dutch” remix, then Robyn and Yung Lean to a “360” remix. Still, there is so much of Brat yet to be revealed. Charli XCX’s new album is 15 songs, 41 minutes and 23 seconds long; get ready ready to see that lime green album cover chronically on screens everywhere this summer due to repetitive streaming.

When Will Charli XCX’s New Album Brat Be On Spotify?

Brat is due out on Friday, June 7, which means the album should hit Spotify, Apple Music, and all DSPs at 9 p.m. PT on Thursday, June 6, and midnight ET on Friday, June 7.

Charli XCX’s Brat Tracklist

1. “360”
2. “Club Classics”
3. “Sympathy Is A Knife”
4. “I Might Say Something Stupid”
5. “Talk Talk”
6. “Von Dutch”
7. “Everything Is Romantic”
8. “Rewind”
9. “So I”
10. “Girl, So Confusing”
11. “Apple”
12. “B2b”
13. “Mean Girls”
14. “I Think About It All The Time”
15. “365”

Charli XCX’s Brat Album Cover Artwork

Is Charli XCX Touring In Support Of Brat?

The short answer is yes. Charli XCX will tour this album in several ways, having announced dates billed as Brat 2024 and Brat 2024 Arena Tour, plus her co-headlining North American Sweat tour with Troye Sivan this fall. See all of Charli’s upcoming tour dates here.