Category: News

Joel Deleōn is making his return to music next month. On Monday Night (November 28), the ex-CNCO star revealed the release date for his next single “IDK Y.”

As Joel Pimentel, he first launched his career in 2015 as a member of CNCO. Ricky Martin helped put him into a group with Richard Camacho, Erick Brian Colón, Zabdiel De Jesús, Christopher Vélez on the reality series La Banda. Following a few years of success of with CNCO, Deleōn decided to leave the group in May 2021.

Adopting his second last name and the name of his late grandfather, he kicked off his solo career in October 2021 as Joel Deleōn. That month, the Mexican-American singer released his debut single “La Culpa.” In January, Deleōn dropped his second single “Coco.”

After nearly the rest of the year without releasing new music, Deleōn will drop his new single “IDKY Y” on December 16. When his fan base District D left 100k comments on his Instagram announcement post, he revealed the song’s release date and a preview of the futuristic music video.

Deleōn promises that fans who pre-save “IDKY Y” will be receiving a surprise from him soon. In the an audio preview of the song, he appears to be embracing elements of dance music.

Can he go three-for-three? Well, budding rapper Saucy Santana is certainly going to give it a try. With two successful tracks, “Booty” featuring Latto and “I’m Too Much” under his belt as a signed artist, the proud Florida representer continues his Grammy bid with new single, “Bop Bop.”

The song produced by Tre Trax follows Santana’s signature danceable uptempo pop-rap formula. Pulling together subtle references from hits of the past, in just over two minutes, Santana has a solid single on his hands. On his RCA-debut single, “Booty” featuring Latto sampled Chi-Lites’s 1970 song “Are You My Woman? (Tell Me So)” (made popular by Beyoncé’s “Crazy In Love”). This go-around, Santana draws inspiration from rapper-turned-actor Will Smith’s 1992 The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song and Remy Ma’s 2006 song “Conceited.”

“Bop Bop” opens with an eerily familiar-sounding pre-chorus. As Santana raps, “When I’m on the scene all the hoes gon’ jock / Phone gon’ ring, coins don’t stop / Clubbin’ all night, bottles gon’ pop / Step off in the spot, bop-bop-bop,” it is nearly impossible to ignore the similarities in its cadence and that heard in Khia’s 2002 cult-classic “My Neck My Back.” While the opening of “My Neck My Back” relied on a steady snare, Santana elevated the sound to include the flair of a cymbal.

Co-written by Sage Skolfield, in the first verse Santana gets right to his bag-securing mission paying homage to Will Smith as he raps, “This a lil’ story all about how you run a n**** pockets only usin’ ya mouth / Talkin’, talkin’ ’bout his bread / Talkin’ ’bout his cheese.”

As the chorus comes in Santana gives a faint nod to Remy Ma with the repeated line, “It’s whatever.” Then on the second verse, Santana lets the listener know he doesn’t have time to be tied down with love but he gets plenty of suitors as he raps, “I got the sauce and the boys McLovin’ / can’t keep a man ’cause a bitch be clubbin’ / Bad b*tch that got plenty / don’t ask who, ask how many.”

While the track is fun and trendy, quintessential Saucy Santana, it doesn’t quite reach the same charisma as “Booty.” However, Santana has proven to be a grower and not a shower. After a few months of viral campaigning on TikTok, he very well may have another hit on his hands.

Listen to “Bop Bop” above.

Though Coi Leray only dropped her major label debut album, Trendsetter, this past April, she’s already gifting fans with her new music. On her latest single, “Players,” Leray takes control of the game, and embraces her inner player.

“If he broke then you gotta let him know / You could have anybody, eeny, miny, moe / ‘Cause when you a boss, you could do what you want / ‘Cause girls is players too,” raps Leray over a sample of of “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash & Furious Five.

“Players” arrives after weeks of Leray teasing the song on TikTok. In a recent interview with I-D, Leray said TikTok has been essential in helping propel her career, however, she knows she is more than a simple flash-in-the-pan. While she aims for more longevity than viral memes, she hopes to help her peers in the game navigate the industry from the beginning of their careers.

“People tried to make me out to be a TikTok artist and limit me to just being a social media girl,” Leray said. “Now you see in 2022… everybody and their grandmother’s on TikTok. There’s not one major artist not asking, ‘How do I get on TikTok?’ It’s one of those things where you gotta educate your peers, and I’m here to do that, for real.”

Check out “Players” above.

While wins have been hard to come by for the Orlando Magic so far this season, there are plenty of reasons for optimism surrounding one of the youngest teams in the league. One of the players responsible for this is Bol Bol, who has carved out quite the role in Orlando as part of his career reset after things didn’t quite work out for him in Denver.

On the season, Bol is averaging 13.5 points, 7.9 rebounds, and two blocks in 27.1 minutes per game while connecting on 41.9 percent of his attempts from behind the three-point line. His play has encouraged his teammates, with Paolo Banchero talking to HoopsHype and coming close to comparing the uniqueness of Bol’s game to Victor Wembanyama, the presumed No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.

“Everyone talks about the Victor dude from France,” Banchero said. “I’m not trying to compare them, but Bol’s 7-foot-2, shoots threes, brings it up the court, makes passes, and blocks shots. I feel like people kind of forget about him, but Bol’s a freak of nature.”

Banchero went on to say that Bol’s play this season has not caught the Magic by surprise, citing the times they played together over the offseason and Bol’s track record as a blue-chip recruit in high school.

“He’s ultra-talented at 7-foot-2, can shoot pull-up threes, and block shots all around the court,” Banchero said. “He moves like a 6-foot-5 shooting guard. It’s crazy.”

The Magic are 5-16 on the season. Of their seven top leading scorers, only Gary Harris is older than 23.

Following GloRilla’s recent Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance, there are a lot of artists anticipating working with her it seems. One of those is DJ Jermaine Chambers, who posted a recent Facebook statement claiming that the rapper called him and wanted to collaborate on a song.

“So GloRilla just called me and told me to pack my bags,” he wrote. “It’s time to turn my state up one more time.”

Eventually, Glo caught wind of Chambers’ post and had some choice words for his claim. “What are your talking about,” she responded. “Ian said sh*t like dat.”

Glo is frequently active on her Facebook under her real name Gloria Woods. A while back, she assisted a fan who needed help with bills as a birthday gift.

Despite her generosity for fans on social media, GloRilla doesn’t stay quiet when it comes to getting hate and weird comments. She recently fired back about people who didn’t like her music or positive nature. At the end of the day, she’s laughing with her Grammy nod.

“The same song they was clowning me & my friends about saying we was Ugly & Dusty just got nominated for a Grammy,” she posted. “WHEN GOD IS ON YOUR SIDE YOU CANNOT FAIL. BUT GOD.”

As Avatar: The Way of Water gets ready to dive into theaters this month, the sequel is testing the cultural impact of the first Avatar film. In the process, James Cameron has not been shy about his filmmaking process for the sequel that’s 13 years in the making. In his latest interview, Cameron reiterated that, unlike the Marvel movies, the Avatar sequel will show his heroes actually growing and taking on the greatest challenge of them all: raising a family.

In order to tackle Jake and Neytiri’s role as parents, Cameron admits that he mined his interactions with his own kids to flesh out the dynamic at the center of The Way of Water. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

“I’m on a rules-based universe, and the kids weren’t into it,” Cameron says. “They said, ‘You’re never around half the time. And, then, when you come home, you try to make up for it by telling us all what to do. And Mom’s really the one that’s been making all the rules the whole time while you’ve been off shooting. So you don’t get to come home and do that.’”

More specifically, Cameron used the sequel to grapple with bringing his domineering directorial style home with him instead of leaving it on set. In a surprisingly open and self-deprecating moment, Cameron admits that he can be a lot to deal with as a dad, and his kids were right to call him out.

“I thought, ‘I’m going to work out a lot of my stuff, artistically, that I’ve gone through as a parent of five kids,’” Cameron told THR. “The overarching idea is, the family is the fortress. It’s our greatest weakness and our greatest strength. I thought, ‘I can write the hell out of this. I know what it is to be the asshole dad.’”

Avatar: The Way of Water hits theaters on December 16.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Christmas came early this year: the trailer for Cocaine Bear is here.

Directed by Elizabeth Banks, Cocaine Bear tells the real-life story of a bear that goes on a murder spree after eating a bunch of cocaine. It’s basically an episode of Justified… but with a bear. “I am cautiously optimistic that people will will like it,” Banks said about the film (which has a great poster). “It’s definitely a wild ride. It’s a unique film that absolutely lives up to the title and one of the things I’m most excited about is, I feel like the trailer just scratches the surface of everything this film has to offer.”

You can watch the trailer above. Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Inspired by the 1985 true story of a drug runner’s plane crash, missing cocaine, and the black bear that ate it, this wild dark comedy finds an oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists and teens converging in a Georgia forest where a 500- pound apex predator has ingested a staggering amount of cocaine and gone on a coke-fueled rampage for more blow… and blood.

Cocaine Bear, which stars Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson, Jr., Christian Convery-Jennings, Alden Ehrenreich, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Kristofer Hivju, Margo Martindale, and the late Ray Liotta, as well as a CGI bear that can’t stop doing coke, opens in theaters on February 24, 2023.

Manuel Turizo‘s global hit “La Bachata” is continuing to take him to new places. Last night (November 29), the Colombian singer performed the heartfelt song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

“La Bachata” has become of the biggest hits of the year. Before the Christmas songs crashed the Billboard charts this week, Turizo’s breakthrough single was in the top 10 of the Global 200 chart. On Spotify, the bachata-infused love song has amassed over 542 million streams. On the platform’s Global 50 chart, “La Bachata” sits at No. 3 behind Sam Smith and Taylor Swift. Turizo was invited twice by Coldplay this year to perform the song on the band’s tour stops in Colombia and Argentina.

Now Turizo visited New York City to appear on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Fallon invited him on his late-night show to serenade the audience with “La Bachata.” In a colorful suit, Turizo stood at the microphone stand and let his voice soar. With his signature sultry vocals, he brought the soul behind the song to life with his alluring performance.

Last month, Turizo released his latest single “Éxtasis” featuring Argentine pop star María Becerra. The song will be included on his third album 2000 that’s due out in January. Amazon Music announced that Turizo dropped his version of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” on the streaming platform, but oddly his cover was never released.

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

Matthew McConaughey has been open about his love of words. Just this year he wanted to take the word “unbelievable” and “wipe it from the dictionary.” But he has also been very purposeful with the words he uses when talking about the increase in gun-related violence and school shootings.

After a school shooting in the actor’s hometown of Uvalde earlier this year, McConaughey has been dedicating his time to advocating for the families of the victims and even held a press conference at the White House in order to raise awareness. While pleading with elected officials and Texas residents, McConaughey has been actively pushing for “gun responsibility” as opposed to “gun control,” which he explained to People:

It became very clear to me early on, as a lover of words, that to the right, so-called staunch Second Amendmenters — these are my people in the South, I know them well — “control” is a dirty word. It’s like a mandate. Whoa, whoa, whoa, don’t you tell me what to do, I got my right to bear arms. So that word, out of the gate, is shutting about 80 percent of their ears. . . . I flipped it to “responsibility.” Responsibility is to give the person the power of choice. It’s forward-moving. It’s affirmative. I’m responsible. Don’t tell me I ain’t responsible.

Despite the alarming number of shootings this year alone, the actor believes that the country can evolve as long as people are willing to listen to each other. “I think there’s incremental changes, there’s breakthroughs,” he added. “I do believe that with time, inevitably we can improve, we can ascend, we can evolve as people.”

(Via People)

Over the years, Sufjan Stevens has gifted us with an incredible selection of holiday music. His catalog boasts over 100 holiday-themed songs, as well as box sets like Songs For Christmas and Silver & Gold. Despite having a robust discography with holiday songs, Stevens admitted in an interview with Vulture that Christmas actually isn’t his favorite holiday.

He shared that his favorite holiday is actually Fourth Of July, though not for any patriotic reasons.

“My birthday is July 1, and I am a pyromaniac. I love fireworks,” he said. “Every year, I drive to Pennsylvania and drop like $2,000 on illegal fireworks, cross them into New York state, and we do a big show.”

Most of his Stevens’ Christmas music was recorded between 2000 and 2010, which he said was a more isolated period in his life, “usually in November-December, where I would get together with some friends for a week or two and we’d create without much forethought and improvise and jump into the Christmas catalog and try and create something as quickly as possible. Sort of like first thought, best thought.”

He revealed that this was also the reason he abandoned his “50 states” project, in which he planned to record an album inspired by each of our country’s states.

“I go on all these excursions and I feel they’re indulgent and slightly megalomaniacal in their approach,” he said. “At some point, I realize how absurd and unhealthy and unsustainable it is, so I am fine moving on.”