Month: September 2024

Gordon Hayward’s NBA tenure came to an end this offseason. Hayward, who last played with the Oklahoma City Thunder, announced on social media that he decided to retire at 34 years old, marking the end of a career that included stops in Utah, Boston, and Charlotte.

Like many retired athletes, Hayward has appreciated the opportunity to focus on things that he just could not pack into the busy schedule of an NBA player. He’s “excited,” he tells Dime, about what he has going on outside of basketball, taking golf lessons and getting back into tennis, the latter of which he famously played in high school. He’s relishing the chance to be a dad, too, as he ran through the list of things he had to miss as a father during his playing days — even if his kids weren’t thrilled with his decision at first.

“Initially, they were all upset about it, because they wanted me to keep playing,” Hayward says. “They like going to the games, they like seeing me. But then I think it set in that I’m going to be around more, and they like that, too.”

Hayward is also getting into the world of movie production. On Sept. 27, Hayward’s Whiskey Creek Productions will release its first featured film, Notice to Quit, which features Michael Zegen of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in the lead role.

“The movie is about a real estate broker in New York who’s trying to figure things out, as far as life is concerned,” Hayward explains. “He’s trying to sell these places, just basically trying to make ends meet, and he’s struggling to do so. The movie is called Notice to Quit because the day that he’s getting evicted from his apartment, his daughter, who he has with his ex-wife, is basically coming and saying she’s being evicted from his life, as well, because they’re moving to Orlando. And not to tell too much of the story, but the story goes of him and his daughter over the next 24 hours, and what they go through in New York, being together, and Andy, who’s the main character, basically figuring out what’s important in life, and seeing work-life balance and how that plays out.”

Hayward wasn’t someone who always knew he wanted to get into filmmaking — he didn’t take film class in college with an eye on this being in his post-playing future. He just loves the art of storytelling, whether that means listening to others or getting to tell stories on his own. His interest in film started like so many, by watching movies. With the amount of traveling that athletes do, Hayward needed something that would help him pass the time. That ended up being movies and television shows. His NBA career started when athletes got portable DVD players and a packet of DVDs handed to them as they got on the team plane, and ended with guys being able to watch whatever they wanted on their phone or an iPad. Still, getting lost in that world doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to want to pursue it as your post-playing career.

And then, Hayward’s life and career changed in an instant. Five minutes and 15 seconds into his first game as a member of the Boston Celtics in 2017, Hayward suffered a leg injury that would cost him an entire season, and while the Celtics went on to make the Eastern Conference Finals in his absence, Hayward worked to get his body right. That story was told in “The Return,” a docuseries produced by The Players’ Tribune and directed by an up-and-comer named Simon Hacker. Working with Hacker on that project led to the two staying in touch, and as Hayward entered the later years of his career, the two began working on a partnership that became Whiskey Creek.

“We hit it off just talking about movies and our passion for movies, and we ultimately decided we wanted to start a production company, and then decided that we wanted to make a film,” Hayward says. “Simon is a creative genius. He is really, really talented. And he’s like, I got this script, and I kind of want to go for it. I was like, all right, let’s do it, and we decided to shoot our shot.”

Hacker wrote and directed Notice to Quit. Hayward, who admits he’s “a very curious person” by nature, wasn’t able to be especially hands-on as it was being made — filming happened while his basketball career was ongoing, so Hacker handled the day-to-day but sent him dailies and talked through things when problems needed to be solved. Unsurprisingly, he relished the opportunity to go out to Skywalker Sound and work with Chris Scarabosio, who served as the film’s re-recording mixer/supervising sound editor.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the film is that it’s not what you’d expect out of a production company started by a recently-retired athlete. It would have been very easy for Hayward to jump into the world of filmmaking by putting his name on a documentary about, say, Butler basketball. Instead, Hayward appreciated that he had the opportunity to have his first film as a producer be something other than, as he describes it, “a typical athlete sports movie.”

“I feel like a lot of people, when athletes make movies, they want to make it all about sports and stuff,” Hayward said. “And while I think we could go down that route, I want to do movies and tell stories that are not just about sports, which, this movie has nothing to do with sports. Telling stories that apply to where me and my friends, me and my boys would go to the movies and enjoy it. Ones where me and my wife would go to the movies and enjoy it. Ones where me and my kids, just all kinds of different genres. I don’t want to be pigeonholed into one thing.”

Whiskey Creek has a few ideas for what is next on the horizon, with Hayward saying there are a couple scripts that he and Hacker are excited about once their focus is no longer on Notice to Quit. He hopes that, over the next decade, the studio continues to churn out interesting stories and people continue to show up to the movie theater to watch them.

And as he enters this chapter in his life, Hayward already sees parallels between his career in professional basketball and the early days of his career in filmmaking, and he plans on bringing the mindset that he used in his old gig to his new one.

“I think that, as in sports, and as in life, I think it applies in filmmaking as well, and it’s been a little bit mirrored in my career: It’s not always going to go exactly the way that you planned,” Hayward says. “But I think if you’re passionate about it and you believe in it, and you work hard and put everything you can into it, usually the results take care of themselves. That’s the way that I approach a lot of things in my life, and I’m approaching this the same way.”

Begrudging pop star Chappell Roan’s unapologetic advocacy for artists’ privacy has begun to influence the way fans interact with their favs (or at least started a conversation around it). But that isn’t the only trend accidentally spearheaded by the “Good Luck, Babe!” singer.

Following a surprise onstage debut of “Hot To Go!” with Olivia Rodrigo, fans have created a trend of requesting the song be played by other acts and begun documenting it all on TikTok. Now, Vampire Weekend, Beck, and St. Vincent have found themselves belting out the singer’s lyrics after bending to concertgoers demands.

During a recent stop of Vampire Weekend’s Only God Was Above Us Tour, the band’s frontman Ezra Koenig hilariously found himself shuffling through his memory bank to recall the track’s lyrics. In a video captured by attendees (find it here), Koenig puts his own spin on the popular tune.

Although Beck and St. Vincent didn’t actually cover the track, over on TikTok, the two musicians created a hilarious clip (viewable here) to show that they are in the know. “I hope she plays ‘Hot To Go,’” says Beck.

Before ending with a snippet of Riot Fest 2024, the video cuts to St. Vincent to burst the bubble, saying: “Beck, this is Slayer.”

Given Roan’s issues with the public eye, maybe this sort of star-studded karaoke could do her some good.

Chappell Roan has become a major festival draw, which she proved earlier this year with what looked like one of the biggest crowds Lollapalooza has ever seen. So, folks attending this weekend’s All Things Go festival in New York face some disappointing news today (September 27): Roan was set to perform, but now she’s pulling out.

In a post shared on her Instagram story (as captured by Variety), Roan explained that “things have gotten overwhelming” recently, saying:

“I apologize to people who have been waiting to see me in NYC & DC this weekend at All Things Go, but I am unable to perform. Things have gotten overwhelming over the past few weeks and I am really feeling it.

I feel pressures to prioritize a lot of things right now and I need a few days to prioritize my health. I want to be present when I perform and give the best shows possible. Thank you for understanding

Be back soon xox.”

In recent times, Roan has faced criticism over some political statements she’s made. Earlier this week, she celebrated the one-year anniversary of her album The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess and noted her life “has been amazing and hard and beautiful and eye opening and empowering and transformative and every emotion ever.”

Leon Thomas is an imperfect man in an equally imperfect world. His sophomore album Mutt, out now, depicts him surveying the damage and debris left behind over the last year due to both life and love.

“Mutt is an example of me really perfecting that sound and just continuing to tell these stories as I’m a single guy doing my thing, trying to figure it out, trying to find love in a very interesting dating circus that we have right now,” Thomas tells Uproxx over a Zoom call.

Though this “very interesting dating circus” serves as entertainment in the form of an album, it brought forth important life lessons for Thomas thanks to his new dog. “As I started working on the album in my new home, I began to notice similarities between my dog’s behavior and my own,” Thomas noted in a press release for Mutt. “It made me think about the give and take in relationships, and the struggle for obedience.”

He added, “Even though my dog may sometimes make a mess in the house or bark loudly at the neighbors, I know he means well. This became a metaphor for not being a perfect partner but having good intentions.”

On Mutt, Thomas flips through moments of this past relationship to recall the flawed behaviors and moments by both him and his ex-partner. “Safe Place” kicks in gear with a steady drum that pedals Thomas’ infatuation with the fast life and how it may not be appealing for a companion. Thomas uses soul-stirring ballads to navigate the imbalances of love caused by either him (“I Do”) or his partner (“Yes It Is”). Then, with help from Masego (“Lucid Dreams”) and Wale (“Feelings On Silent”), comes the struggle to silence the noise and move forward.

Before the release of Mutt, Uproxx caught up with Leon Thomas to discuss his sophomore album, finding love in his current home of Los Angeles, and how fame and success affect his pursuit of love.

We’re a little over a year removed from the release of Electric Dusk. What in that time gave you the confidence and confirmation to get right back to it and craft another project?

I knew going into my deal with Motown that they wanted two albums in my first cycle with them. So, even prior to dropping Electric Dusk, I was in the studio really trying to figure out what the sound palette was going to be and how I was going to progress from the first album to the second. Touring and seeing the response to my first album really gave me a jolt of energy towards the tail end of this creative process. I went through some breakups and some turbulence that really turned into some amazing songs. It was cool to live life and express myself through music on this new project. It’s definitely a labor of love and I feel like I really found an amazing pocket to live in for this new album.

Your new album Mutt is inspired by the similarities you saw between you and your dog’s behavior and how you both make mistakes despite having the best intentions. What was the exact moment you made this realization?

This is kind of trippy, I don’t know how this works with you guys, but listen, I was doing some shrooms for a lot of this album, right? I was staring at this new painting I have in my house. I’m on the floor Indian style looking at this new painting [and] I’m kind of tripping. My cat and my dog are fighting. My cat, she’s older than my dog, so she makes sure he’s in pocket, and they were going at it. She hit him with a paw, he whimpered, and he had this face. I think because I was tripping a little bit, I just saw the similarities between the two of us just living life, [and] trying to figure things out. He had the best intention, all he wanted to do was play. It was interesting to see him in that moment.

There’s such a connection between dogs and music from Elvis to Snoop Dogg. We’ve seen this metaphor [with] Parliament-Funkadelic. It’s been a common theme because I think there’s a real element of control that we have as human beings and that dog correlation definitely makes a lot of sense. I wanted to play into it and see what happens.

There’s a lot of hip-hop-inspired production on this album. For example, you have a beat from Conductor Williams on here. For a breakup R&B album, why did you feel like that was the soundscape to have for your story?

That’s a really interesting question. After I got out of my long-term relationship, there were times when I was super inspired by everything that Alchemist was doing [and] all the Madlib tapes he did with Freddie Gibbs and a bunch of other cats. That was a huge source of inspiration for me. There was this light bulb moment of, man, I haven’t really heard a lot of R&B artists sing on tracks that have that lo-fi production. I know for a fact that as a musician, I can make some of these sample-based ideas come to life with my band and I just wanted to attack it.

I’m a huge fan of hip-hop from A Tribe Called Quest up to Pharrell, and you know, with Pharrell being a really big inspiration for me, and even Kanye [West], I see how that can turn into really classic moments. Conductor, to me, has this J Dilla sound that I’m a huge fan of. I’m just glad I was able to pair that up with my vocals and turn it into something special.

You start off the album with “How Fast,” which is, contextually, a complete change of pace from “Slow Down,” the intro to Electric Dusk. What in the past year has brought on this new perspective, and have your thoughts on the woman on “Slow Down” changed?

What’s interesting is that I just feel like [with] being on tours, moving pretty crazy, it’s so easy to move too fast and miss very important things. “How Fast” is just an example of me understanding myself more and just asking the question, “How fast till it all comes crashes down?” You want to find balance on this journey, but you gotta keep it moving. “How Fast” was me expressing myself and just talking that talk, talking my sh*t. I feel like I’m getting more confident, I’m popping out more, I’m doing my thing, and I wanted to show people on this album that I’m not afraid of the man I’m becoming. I’m just more confident these days, so I wanted to show that on a lot of these songs.

On “Feelings On Silent,” you repeat this one line multiple times throughout the song: “Don’t tell me what they say about me.” There’s a certain desire to be numb to the outside that you display here, especially with that line. Where does that come from and how did it come about?

We live in a world of communication through social media and I think it’s really just me just trying to, like you said, quiet the noise. People love to talk, they love to gossip, and all this other sh*t. For me, I’m just focused on my dreams and focused on my inner circle and my inner self. I feel like “Feelings On Silent” is just a ballad talking about how numb you have to be in order to be an artist.

One thing I love about this album is you do a great job keeping the balance of blame in the aftermath of this breakup. From the male perspective, a lot of these breakup albums are either “she did me dirty” or “I f*cked up and now I gotta win her back.” There’s a nice balance there, was it intentional for you to keep this balance?

I wish I was super intentional about that, but I think it’s just me expressing myself. I’m growing man, I’m learning [and] getting into my spiritual walk and prayer, and just knowing myself more. Accountability is a huge part of growth, so I’m just expressing that through the music without even explaining myself, just expressing myself. That comes with a little bit of a back-and-forth. There are times when people have done me wrong and there are times when I’ve done the same. I just wanted to express both sides of it because that’s the real sign of growth when you can do both.

After going through the breakup that inspired the album, as well as creating the project, what is your stance on being the perfect partner? Is it possible to be perfect?

I feel like fools chase perfection. I think it’s really important to be constantly growing and honest with yourself. You can have a partner that fits you right now, but you’re both going to evolve. So it’s just about just genuinely finding ways to grow with each other. That’s why, for me, I’m big on friendships and trying to build and cultivate them because that lasts longer than the physical attraction. A lot of that comes from just knowing yourself, but the perfect partner? I don’t think [it] exists. I think the partner that’s gonna be the best for you over time, that’s the real piece, and that’s something I’m still looking for to this day.

What would you say are your biggest frustrations with love? Songs like “Far Fetched” point to the frustrations of a materialistic woman (something I think appears in your music a lot). And despite these frustrations, what makes you keep trying at it?

I think we all deserve it, man. I think it’s an important thing to have. It’s the thing that grows the family tree. It keeps you balanced. There’s no powerful man without a powerful woman behind him — or beside him, I should say. It’s just been a journey living in LA. I feel like it’s a place where you can travel to houses with Rolls Royces and Lamborghinis and flashing lights and makeup and surgeries, and then you go like a short 10-minute trip down to Skid Row and it’s literally hell, it’s just insane, you know?

That dichotomy of intense poverty and intense wealth all in the same place really focuses a lot of people’s energy and intentions on financial gain and that bleeds into trying to find a partner and it’s tough and very frustrating. Being a black man and trying to figure things out in a world that doesn’t always cater to my growth, it can be tough to kind of trust in somebody who really just wants a check.

When you look back at this album — all the moments and just creating the music for it — what’s one memory that sticks out the most for you?

I set up my house like a musical playground. I had my living room constantly playing loads of anime at that time – the Studio Ghibli films, Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and just vibes like that. I was kind of getting my infant child together. I had a whole studio room in the back with a live drum set and I would constantly just make music and then watch movies and kick it. It was a time where I was spending a lot of time by myself, but it’s where I came up with the concept for the album [and] finished a bunch of songs for it. I think another very important part of this creative process was meeting Rob and D. Phelps, they’re a production duo called The Doctors. They brought such an element of live musicianship, that’s how we made “Mutt” [and] we made “I Used To” working with Baby Rose and having a live band playing with us while we were recording like the old time days. [It] just brought a whole new level of musicianship to the body of music that I’m making right now.

I like to look at albums as little puzzle pieces that, in time, come together to tell a story about a musician’s artistry. How do you hope the Leon Thomas–Mutt era is remembered a year or so from now?

I don’t think much about that, but, I genuinely want people to feel like they know me better. I want them to just understand my musical palette. I explore a couple of different subgenres throughout this album and I just want to be seen as more than just a straight up-and-down R&B artist. That’s why there are hip-hop and rock themes because I feel like it’s very important for them to understand that I’m a creative who works with other artists for a reason. I am a melting pot and I’m just really looking forward for people to see me for exactly who I am – just a creative mind. I hope that they accept the fact that I create with no boundaries.

Mutt is out now via EZMNY Records/Motown Records. Find out more information here.

Nobody could ever accuse Sebastian Stan of sticking to “safe” career choices outside of the Bucky Barnes box. In the past few years alone, he’s portrayed a fine young cannibal in Hulu’s Fresh, donned prosthetics for A24’s A Different Man, and went into hair-metal mode for Hulu’s Pam & Tommy.

Speaking of that latter project, both Lily James (who recently appeared in A24’s tragic wrestling-family biopic The Iron Claw) and Stan went all-out for their roles as doomed 1990s tabloid couple Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, and the pair will reignite their chemistry in a different way for Let The Evil Go West, so let’s roll out what is known about this movie.

Plot

Danish director Christian Tafdrup (Speak No Evil, which was remade into the recent English-language movie starring an off-the-rails James McAvoy) will helm this psychological horror movie that revolves around Stan’s character slowly descending into madness. The indie flick will spring from a Xc Vs script that “follows a railroad worker who stumbles upon a fortune under deeply disturbing circumstances,” according to the synopsis via Hollywoood Reporter. “As horrifying visions and manifestations drive him toward madness, his wife becomes convinced that an evil presence has attached itself to their family.”

What immediately comes to mind from this description is There Will Be Blood, which starred Daniel Day-Lewis as silver-miner-turned-oil-tycoon Daniel Plainview, a figure who turned a mirror upon capitalism, launched a zillion character studies, and had no qualms of drinking other people’s milkshakes. This wasn’t a straight-up “horror movie,” but the results were nightmarish and went far beyond the story itself.

I’m not suggesting that Stan and Lily’s project will be anything like the Paul T. Anderson-directed film that gathered up nearly every available Academy Award nomination (and probably would have taken home more awards if it hadn’t landed in the same awards’ year as the Coen Brothers’ No Country For Old Men for competition’s sake). Still, it’s easy to imagine that Stan and James have signed up for a project that could follow similar themes to that PTA movie, and both actors would likely fare well with these roles on the festival and awards circuits, if this movie does end up fully coming together.

For now, we await further word on whether these industry-speak details (via Indiewire) will yield further news:

Actors Stan and James will also executive produce along with Gramercy Park’s Joshua Harris and Ford Corbett and north.five.six.’s Michael Rothstein and Samuel Hall. North.five.six. represents the international rights and will introduce the project to international buyers in Cannes; CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Film Group arranged the financing and will handle the domestic sale.

Cast

People, this movie will have Sebastian Stan and Lily James. What more could you want?

Release Date

This project was shopped to distributors at Cannes this year, although for now, further details are pending.

Trailer

For now, we must content ourselves by rewatching the Pam & Tommy trailer.

While the YSL RICO trial has been filled with unexpected twists and turns, music releases from Young Thug have been steady and seamless.

Today (September 27), yet another special guest verse from Young Thug hit streaming platforms, this time courtesy of Nigo’s “Dope Boy.” The track proves that Lil Uzi Vert isn’t the only rapper with endless fashion.

On the record, Young Thug shows off his eye for designer duds and extravagant jewelry, a.k.a the quintessential dope boy fly uniform.

“Dope boy Nike, spikes, they can’t spy, kid / Lawnmower service, I ain’t have to sell white-tee’s / Orange and blue Richard Mille, feel like Spike Lee / Put my daughter in Fendi blankets when she night-nighty,” raps Young Thug.

Although the song only runs for a little over a minute and a half, that’s just enough of a treat to hold Young Thug fans over. Also, it is unclear if this song is the starting point for Young Thug’s next full-length project.

If not, that doesn’t matter much, as Young Thug fans are still running up the streaming numbers on beloved his 2023 release, Business Is Business, which featured appearances by Drake, Future, 21 Savage, Travis Scott, and more.

Listen to Nigo’s new song “Dope Boy” with Young Thug above.

“Birds Of A Feather” wasn’t the first single from Billie Eilish‘s Hit Me Hard And Soft, but it’s turned out to be the album’s biggest hit. The fan-favorite song blew up on TikTok before being officially released as a single in July, making it all the way to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Now, Eilish has released a “Birds Of A Feather” video, which is set in an anonymous office building where she defies gravity and seemingly gets pulled around by the ghost of a loved one (don’t get any ideas, Severance season 2).

Eilish and her brother, Finneas O’Connell, recently discussed the origin of “Birds Of A Feather” with Audacy.

“There’s a lot of songs about dying for somebody and loving them till they die, and I thought it was really fun to reverse it,” Finneas explained. Billie added, “With music, my whole thing is that it’s for the listener to decide what it means. It doesn’t matter what I wrote it about, what Finneas wrote it about… It really doesn’t matter, as long as you interpret it the way you need to.” They both admitted that “we overthought this sort of simple song so hard… We kept getting lost in the maze.” But once they re-wrote the chorus, they had a hit.

Watch the video above.

The music, drinks, and shared passion for creativity were flowing this weekend as UPROXX Studios and Hennessy hosted The Sound + Vision Awards, a first-of-its-kind awards show honoring the artists driving music culture forward.

Taking place at will.i.am’s FYI Campus, the event was packed with celebrity guests and music tastemakers — gathered together to celebrate the behind-the-scenes visionaries who drive music culture through music video direction, stage choreography, merch design, and so much more.

We’re talking Tino Schaedler, the creative director behind Travis Scott and SAULT’s futuristic on-stage designs; Adrian Martinez, the go-to campaign collaborator of Peso Pluma and Bad Bunny; Sean Kusanagi, the mind behind ODESZA’s stage show; Tyler, the Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw team; and Eric Haze, the artist imagining music culture’s most recognizable logos.

To kick off the event, UPROXX threw a pre-show party fueled by bespoke Hennessy cocktails, eclectic bites crafted by culinary design studio AnanasAnanas, caviar bumps, and stunning floral ice sculptures. Guests mingled while enjoying musical performances from Isaiah Collier and J. Rocc before comedian and host Reggie Watts opened the show, setting the stage for an electrifying celebration filled with surprise appearances and some inspiring storytelling that all shined a light on the often unsung creative heroes in the world of music. LL Cool J stopped by to hand out a Lifetime Achievement award to Haze while ODESZA’s live show lead, Sean Kusanagi, gushed about the privilege of getting to make art that moves people.

Dive deeper into the nominees and honorees by visiting UPROXX’s Sound + Vision platform, and stay tuned for more looks from the inaugural show.

The word “legend” gets thrown around too loosely these days — as do the epithets “G.O.A.T.” (“greatest of all time”), “icon,” and “generational talent.” All too often, they get applied to artists or athletes in the midst of a great, maybe even mind-blowing run. But they are also applied too quickly, before the true test of iconic status can really be weathered or overcome: Time. Runs end; even some of the most paradigm-shifting talents can come and go in the matter of months or just years. Perhaps they set the foundation for true greatness to stand on after them, and that should be noted, but they probably shouldn’t be remembered as pillars or exemplars of their craft.

Wednesday night at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, Usher Raymond earned — or rather, proved that he long ago already earned — all-time status with the Los Angeles stop of his aptly-titled Past Present Future Tour.

Here’s a thought exercise: Think of Usher’s contemporaries in R&B or pop music — the Justin Timberlakes, the Tevin Campbells, the myriad of quartets, trios, and boy bands to have come and gone since Usher’s debut in 1994 with his self-titled album. Stars have fallen; controversies, both fabricated and substantiated, have stalled ascensions; many have reached dizzying heights but become untethered from the craftsmanship that made them. Even beyond just smooth vocalists, Usher stands more or less alone.

Sure, Snoop Dogg has become a titan of pop culture, but his last RIAA-certified album was 2008’s Ego Trippin’. He’s better known for sports commentary than music at this point. Jay-Z? Hasn’t made a new album since 2017’s 4:44 (critically hailed though it was). And a handful of Usher’s contemporaries are so much worse off at this point — especially this year — that it’s better not to mention them at all.

But Usher, who garnered his first Hot 100 No. 1 in 1997 with “Nice & Slow,” and whose string of Hot 100 hits continues to this day with his independent album Coming Home and its lead single “Good Good,” has nearly outlasted them all. He’s retained his radio relevance while becoming the sort of towering titan of pop culture capable of headlining the Super Bowl Halftime Show, which he did this year to tremendous acclaim, reminding doubters that he’s got almost 30 years worth of hits to draw from. He did just that at BET Awards in June as he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

And he does it again on the Remy Martin-backed Past Present Future Tour, with a setlist reaching all the way back to his fresh-faced debut and running through R&B touchstones like “Burn,” “Lovers And Friends,” “My Way,” “Superstar,” “U Remind Me,” and “You Make Me Wanna…”; club classics like ““DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love” and “Yeah!”; and the sports stadium staple “OMG.”

Wednesday night, Usher also showcased the depth of his Rolodex, employing comedic chops alongside a bare-chested Kevin Hart, who teased the audience with his own rendition of “Nice & Slow” before being given the tongue-in-cheek boot by his host. Breakout star Tommy Richman put in an appearance to chirp his way through his smash “Million Dollar Baby” before Usher’s spiritual ancestor Stevie Wonder took to his piano at center stage, with the star of the evening doing duets to “Ribbon In The Sky” and more. Who else has that kind of pull, plus the generosity to cede the spotlight to his inspirations?

What impressed me the most is that I saw Usher do nearly the same setlist — albeit with a shuffled song order — at his Las Vegas residency not a full year ago. His stage at Intuit Dome struck me as being far less elaborate than the stage at Dolby Live at Park MGM — it certainly never transformed into a scale replica of his hometown’s Magic City, opting for a more (ahem) stripped-down approach — yet his performance was no less engaging. I didn’t think he’d have the room to pull off his roller skating tricks, and yet, he did. The crowd was inarguably larger than the capacity at his theater show, yet even the rafters were rollicking to “There Goes My Baby” and “Climax.”

The new venue undoubtedly helped; at some point during the show, I texted my editor to request that I only cover concerts at Intuit Dome for the rest of my tenure at Uproxx. Yes, there’s a little homerism from a lifelong Clippers fan, but the building’s design, intended to highlight the partisanship of a basketball home game, also lends itself toward amazing acoustics that complement its state-of-the-art, brand-new sound system, and terrific sight lines, as even sitting at a right angle to the stage, budged up against The Wall (inspired by college arenas), allowed a fantastic view of the stage and its recesses.

But, honestly, Usher doesn’t really need the help. Even without the massive, cutting-edge production on display, without the fleet of rigorously conditioned dancers, without the laser lights, and without the double-digit costume changes he effected throughout the night, Usher would be the consummate performer. He’s not just a once-in-a-generation talent, he’s a multigenerational one. He’s got a massive past catalog to draw from, but he’s also a modern hitmaker and superstar — and like his hero Stevie, he’s likely to remain one for generations to come.

Anders Rahm fell in love with stage design and the aesthetics of live performance as a young kid. While others were saving up for PlayStations or basketball jerseys, Rahm, who co-founded creative design company Raw Cereal, was counting pennies in hopes of catching his favorite groups on tour.

“I used to say that my savings account was in a stack of concert tickets,” he explains to Uproxx with a chuckle.

Though his heart has always been in live music, Rahm took a circuitous path to where he is today: creating festival rigs and tour designs for artists like Fred Again.., Calvin Harris, Duke Dumont, and more. He went to college with hopes of being a chef, but by his mid-20s, he had abandoned that dream and got hired at a creative agency.

After years of hustling, he sent a “future resume” to Baz Halpin, who led design for Taylor Swift’s 1989 tour, among others, with his company Silent House. (Silent House’s work on Tyler The Creator’s 2023 Camp Flog Gnaw set just won the Sound + Vision award for Best Stage Show Design.) Halpin introduced Rahm to some of his collaborators, and he quickly found himself on set of his first gig as a freelance stage designer: Assisting the 2018 Super Bowl Halftime Show with Justin Timberlake.

When Rahm started Raw Cereal, he began following a simple tenet: He wanted his company’s work to represent “unprocessed creativity.” Now, as a go-to collaborator for EDM superstars across the globe, Rahm and Raw Cereal are expanding their scope as they continue to perfect the craft of making every concert an unforgettable, charged experience.

What were your introductions to the art and music worlds as a kid?

I just really loved music. My dad gave me a stack of records when I was 10 or 11, and it was right around the time that my parents had a guest room and we got our own rooms. My dad gave me the new room and he gave me a turntable receiver, two speakers, and some crates of records. I just really got into rock and roll, soul, and funk music. When I was a bit older, I started going to shows and festivals. I was just hooked on live music.

What did you go to school for?

I actually went to school to cook. I learned a lot from that, really. I still look at what we do today as a similar process. Running a kitchen is no different from running a creative services company. We’ve got specialized teams that focus on specialized things, and in order to run a good restaurant, it’s the same as running a solid operation.

I took an apprenticeship, which was really key for me. I realized that I learned from people as opposed to from classrooms. From there, I realized I could just find teachers and reach out to people I wanted to learn from. I found that more often than not, they were totally willing to support me in that. I started in my early 20s, and I left cooking and in my mid-20s.

I ended up at a creative agency, and through that creative agency, I met Baz Halpin. I was in Milwaukee at the time. He was in LA running Silent House. He had done Taylor Swift’s 1989 tour and led Katy Perry’s tour — all the biggest in the world. I had met him because he hired us to do some of his video edits.

Years later, I was living in Austin, and Baz was still reaching out to me pretty consistently for help with presentation. I thought to myself, “I love what he does and I really want to do what he does.” I reached out to him and gave him a future resume, where I wrote what I would like to have done and what I would like my job to be. He said, “I can help you with that.” He hooked me up with some of his partners and I moved to LA with the hopes of working with them.

They gave me a chance and as an intern, my first show with that group was the Super Bowl Halftime Show with Justin Timberlake [in 2018]. It kicked off pretty quickly that year. They allowed me to help project manage the graphics for Taylor Swift’s Reputation tour. I was a producer on Beyoncé’s On The Run tour and her Coachella show. From there, my freelance career was off, and then I continued on into starting Raw Cereal a few years ago.

What makes Raw Cereal different from any other company in your sphere?

Oftentimes, we say our internal note is, “We’re here to help.” We’re really a service-focused company, and I think our outward tagline is “unprocessed creativity.” There are a lot of folks really focused on telling stories. While we do tell some great stories, sometimes things get convoluted, and they get lost in the attempt to tell a story in an abstract space. A lot of times, we are able to help build a loose narrative that allows for more of a focused good time, as opposed to trying to follow along in a convoluted way. We’re trying to just convey emotion as opposed to direct attention.

How do you make sure things go off without a hitch when you’re working with someone like Calvin Harris on his Ibiza shows?

I go: That’s how we do it. We can’t always go if there’s overlap, but we have enough great people to where sometimes, we just say, ‘Hey, you’re going over here. I’m going over here.’ We try to be together as much as possible, but it doesn’t always work. With Calvin Harris specifically, I spent close to a month out there in Ibiza and onwards into some of his European festivals. We go to rehearsals, we have creative meetings prior, and then we try to be there as much as possible. I’m on a lot of planes. When we’ve got back-to-back shows, it is back-to-back travel. We like to be there. Hope doesn’t work in this industry. We’ve got to go there and make sure it goes well.

How did you begin shifting into the world of EDM?

We’ve been talking about working in EDM since forming Raw Cereal. Good work begets more work. When we do a good job, people end up calling us. Our work in EDM really started with HiJinx Music Festival. We’re the designers and production leads for HiJinx Music Festival, and we get a lot of connections through that. That was what kind of started it. We had so much fun doing that. We wanted to do more.

Eventually, Fred Again..’s team called and they’re like, “Hey, who can really make this happen and pull it together?” They had a huge ask with a very custom request. We become the fixers in certain scenarios, where people are struggling and they’re saying, “Well, we’ve got something really big on our hands. Who are the people that can come in and really do this, and who’s going to put in the time and effort to really figure it out?” As far as Calvin Harris is concerned, he saw our work and we sent him a deck and he said, “These guys have it. This is what I want.”

What’s the five-year plan for Raw Cereal?

We’re aiming for longer-term projects, specifically in the EDM space. We love dance music and we want to be involved further. That means venues, it means clubs, it means installations, it means international. I had built a club in Asia with XiteLabs at one point in my career, and I’d spent a fair amount of time looking at the Asian club scene. We’re working on some hospitality club design with some partners out of Europe, and then projects in the Middle East. We’re trying to branch out from the United States and branch out from touring shows, taking what we know and building new teams that can really put some longevity into the scene, and hopefully inspire generations of more shows. That’s a big focus for us. Concert touring and festival design installations in EDM, rock, pop, and hip-hop will always be a staple of ours: It’s what we’re built on. We’re just excited to take that into hospitality, venue, and brand design. We’re just looking outwards and upwards.

Does having a venue or a fixed location offer you more versatility?

It does and it doesn’t. What’s fun about the touring show is that you’ve got all kinds of one-off toys that you can play with. You’ve got trucks moving them around and bringing them in. With venue design, you’ve got to think a little bit longer-term. The builds are a little bit more difficult, and you also have to allow room for people to bring in production. While we potentially could go all out and just totally blow a space out of the water, we also have to think, “Well, when Fred comes, he’s going to need room for this, this, and this.” When we’re looking at venue space, we’re really thinking how we can align with consistent updates to design things more modular and accessible for artists that are coming in.

You never want to have an artist say they can’t play at your venue because there’s not space for their design.

That’s exactly it. It’s like moving into a furnished house when you’ve got all your stuff in the truck. What’s the point of buying all this if you can’t use it?