Category: News

Barbz, rejoice. It appears NM5 is imminent. Yesterday, Nicki Minaj took to social media to tease new music. In the video clip, shared on her social channels, she is seen dancing on a couch, twerking in all her glory.

Fans get a taste of new music with the video, as a new song utilizing a heavy sample of Rick James’ “Super Freak” plays throughout.

“I can lick it, I can ride it while you slippin’ and slidin’/ I can do all them little tricks and keep the d*ck up inside it / You can smack it, you can grip it, you can go down and kiss it / And every time he leave me alone he always tell me he miss it,” she raps.

This isn’t the first time Nicki has interpolated “Super Freak.” In “Wanna Minaj,” a cut from her 2008 mixtape, Sucka Free, she freestyles over “Freaky Gurl” by Gucci Mane, on the chorus of which, Gucci raps, “She’s a very freaky girl / Don’t bring her to mama.”

As of now, Nicki has not yet announced a title or a release date for her hotly-anticipated fifth studio album, but in a February interview with The Dana Cortez Show, she revealed that fans can expect the rap stylings they loved Nicki for during her mixtape era.

“There’s a little bit of full-circle-ness happening,” Nicki said, “because I’m creating music kinda like how I used to create music when I first started rapping on mixtapes. I just feel like that’s what’s needed right now… [writing] raps that connect with people, that make people want to sign a long and channel their inner bad bitch.”

At the end of the week, Lizzo will release her fourth album Special, which comes three years after her Platinum-selling, Grammy-winning third album Cuz I Love You. Ahead of the release of Special, Lizzo unveiled the tracklist for the project, and what caught many people’s attention is the album’s closing track, “Coldplay.” The song’s title left many to wonder what the song is about, during a new interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Lizzo gave some insight into the record.

“This is one of the most literal songs I’ve ever written,” Lizzo said about the song according to Rolling Stone. “Everything I say in the song actually happened.” The song is produced by Ricky Reed, who put together a piano loop and pushed Lizzo to just talk over the instrumental, and what resulted was a sprawling and lengthy tale about a lovestruck vacation she was on. Afterward, Lizzo said she felt “raw and sensitive” about the song and simply wanted to move on, but Ricky had other plans, as he crafted her monologue into a song. Elsewhere in the interview, Lizzo confirmed that the song also has some direct references to Coldplay, and this led to a FaceTime call with Chris Martin during the sit-down.

“I was with somebody, and I was just looking at the stars,” Lizzo said to Martin after she thanked him for letting use the band’s name for the song, which also samples Coldplay’s “Yellow.” “And I was with him, and I was singing it. And tears just were coming to my eyes. You have such an incredible ability to move people with the poetry of your lyricism. So thank you so, so much.”

“Hey, I don’t know how to accept those kinds of compliments,” Martin replied. “Thank you. If someone had told me 22 years ago, ‘One day, Lizzo’s going to make out to this song,’ I’d be like, ‘Okay, great.’ It’s become Lizzo’s hookup song, and that’s good.” Lizzo gleefully added, “Oh, that’s baby-making music, baby!”

Special is out 7/15 via Nice Life and Atlantic. You can pre-save it here.

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

The Addams Family and The Munsters both premiered in 1964, a banner year for black-and-white sitcoms about a family of monsters freaking out the normies. The Addams Family was eventually turned into two very good movies, 1991’s The Addams Family and 1993’s even better Addams Family Values, while The Munsters, well, there’s a Munsters movie called The Munsters’ Scary Little Christmas. Needless to say, it’s no “homicide.”

Rob Zombie has wanted to make a non-Christmas Munsters movie for over 20 years, and he finally got his wish: the family-friendly trailer for The Munsters dropped today (you can watch it above). The Munsters stars Jeff Daniel Phillips as Herman Munster, Sheri Moon Zombie as Lily Munster, and Daniel Roebuck as Grandpa Munster, while Butch Patrick, who played Eddie Munster in the original series, will make a cameo. Hopefully Zombie can answer how a Frankenstein and a vampire made a werewolf baby.

The Munsters has always been campy, but the low-budget campiness of the trailer is too much for some. “Regardless of the film itself, that’s possibly the worst trailer I’ve ever seen. Jumping between color and b&w, disconnected voiceover, random scenes cobbled together. I’ve no idea what this is supposed to be like. And Herman’s voice is too high,” reads one tweet. Others are willing to give Zombie the benefit of the doubt:

The Munsters comes out later this year.

It has been roughly 17 years since Eminem released his first greatest hits compilation, Curtain Call: The Hits. Since then, he’s released six more albums worth of material, generating four more No. 1 Hot 100 hits, as well as a further slew of Billboard hits like “Venom,” “Godzilla,” “Rap God,” and more. So it’s only right that he takes another Curtain Call, announcing the compilation’s sequel due August 5. And while fans were excited by the news that the project would contain a few new songs, including “The King And I” and “From The D 2 The LBC,” the album’s cover drew a less enthusiastic response.

Inspired by a pinball machine, the cover features an illustration of Eminem throwing up the devil horns, surrounded by rendered references to his past projects and digital score displays. Of course, the numbers on those displays will be familiar to anyone who ever did the upside number words with their calculator in class in high school. The visual gag keeps with Eminem’s sometimes sophomoric humor, but between those, the weirdly rendered pinball theme, and just the overwhelming busyness of the design, fans couldn’t help but give the cover a well-earned roasting on Twitter

However, as always, Em had his defenders as well.

In any case, the album and its cover will be out 8/5 via Shady/Interscope.

One of the best sitcoms to ever exist, Abbott Elementary, has scored a handful of Emmy nominations after its brilliant first season, and the love is very much deserved.

The show received seven nods at the Emmy nomination announcements yesterday, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actress for Quinta Brunson, Outstanding Supporting Actor for Tyler James Willians, and Outstanding Supporting Actress for acting veteran Sheryl Lee Ralph and Janelle James.

Of course, fans of the quirky school district are not surprised at the nominations. The show has a dedicated fanbase who have been campaigning for their favorites to get the recognition they deserve. Ralph, who has starred on both the stage and screen for nearly 50 years, snagged her first nomination, and her incredible reaction was caught by her son.

Ralph shared her excitement with People, saying, “I am so deeply honored and completely overwhelmed with an abundance of gratitude that comes with this recognition. Thank you to the Television Academy for the delicious honor of being nominated in the Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series category, alongside the most talented and hilarious actors of today.”

Brunson not only scored a nomination for her acting, but also for penning the pilot. In a statement to People, show creator and star Brunson expressed her excitement: “What an honor to be nominated by the Television Academy. Creating this show has been the greatest gift and to have it recognized in this way is the dream. It’s a joy we get to share with the amazing people who watched our first season,” she added, “None of this would be possible without my incredible, supportive EP’s Justin Halpern, Randall Einhorn & Patrick Schumacker, our incredible writers room, our insanely talented cast, and the hard-working teams at ABC and WBTV for helping to bring Abbott Elementary to life. Lastly, and most importantly, I want to thank teachers. Thanks for being our inspiration.”

Producer Patrick Schumacker also posted a congratulatory tweet, with a behind-the-scenes look at shooting the pilot over a year ago.

All in all, it’s been a pretty good year for the Abbott crew, who kick off the second season of their hit comedy on September 21st.

The last time we received a project from Lil Uzi Vert was at the end of 2020 when he and Future joined forces for Pluto X Baby Pluto. His last solo release was LUV Vs. The World 2, which doubled as the deluxe edition of his 2020 album Eternal Atake. Over the years, Uzi has teased multiple projects, but only now has he delivered a sold release date on one. On Tuesday night, Uzi took to his Instagram page to announce his upcoming Red & White EP. He even shared the artwork for the project to boost anticipation for it.

In the caption for the project’s announcement, Uzi wrote, “Red & White Ep …. Before The P!NK.” That’s a reference to Uzi’s long-awaited The Pink Tape which he first announced towards the end of 2021. He originally said the project would arrive just in time for Halloween last year, citing that it was in the mixing process at the time. However, a short time later, he revealed that the project would be delayed so “it won’t suck.” Since then, we haven’t heard much about the project, but Uzi did promise recently that he is “going back to classic mode” for his next releases, so hopefully, it starts with Red & White.

You can view the announcement and cover art for Red & White above.

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

As the January 6 hearings continue to drop damaging bombshells about the events leading up to the attack, Steve Bannon just had his spot blown up thanks to a secret recording. In the leaked audio from late October 2020, the White House strategist details how Donald Trump will exploit the lag in counting to mail-in ballots to declare himself the winner and use the chaos to maintain his grip on the White House. Obviously, Trump and Bannon’s plan greatly expanded to disastrous results with the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Via Mother Jones:

“What Trump’s gonna do, is just declare victory. Right? He’s gonna declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s a winner,” Bannon, laughing, told the group, according to audio of the meeting obtained by Mother Jones. “He’s just gonna say he’s a winner.”

“As it sits here today,” Bannon said later in the conversation, describing a scenario in which Trump held an early lead in key swing states, “at 10 or 11 o’clock Trump’s gonna walk in the Oval, tweet out, ‘I’m the winner. Game over. Suck on that.’”

As Bannon further explains in the recorded conversation with supporters of exiled Chinese mogul, Guo Wengui, Trump declaring victory before the ballots are counted will cause advantageous pandemonium.

“So when you wake up Wednesday morning, it’s going to be a firestorm,” Bannon said. “You’re going to have antifa, crazy. The media, crazy. The courts are crazy. And Trump’s gonna be sitting there mocking, tweeting shit out: ‘You lose. I’m the winner. I’m the king.’”

The leaked audio of Bannon couldn’t have hit at a worse time as the House committee is still actively investigating the attempted coup. Granted, Bannon recently dared the Jan. 6 committee to let him testify on prime time, that was before Mother Jones published the leaked audio, in which he can be heard plotting to reject the results of a federal election.

(Via Mother Jones)

Tuesday’s January 6th hearings revealed yet another boatload of dirt on what went down behind the scenes in the months, weeks, and days leading up to the insurrection on the Capitol. One of the most interesting tidbits was about a meeting-turned-shouting match that took place on December 18, 2001 until the wee hours at the White House, where Donald Trump had assembled all the usual suspects—plus a who’s who of totally random individuals, including Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne—to figure out his next step in how to cling to power in the wake of a lost presidential election.

As The Washington Post reported, this “motley crew of unofficial Trump advisers [who] had talked their way into the Oval Office and an audience with the president” spent hours offering up all sorts of increasingly bizarre ideas on how the election might have been stolen (spoiler: it wasn’t) and some mostly illegal strategies on how Trump might be able to deny the results and remain in power. When one lawyer tried to explain to the president how “nuts” these ideas were, all hell broke loose, and former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann admitted that he and disgraced ​​former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn nearly came to blows. At one point, Rudy Giuliani—classy as ever—called people like Herschmann, who weren’t willing to blow up democracy as we known it, “a bunch of p*ssies.”

Perhaps the most entertaining detail reported about this meeting, which former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson described as “unhinged” in a text message sent that night, is that Byrne, presumably one of the nutters who thought Trump could somehow just ignore America’s vote and carry on as president, made more than a meal out of some Swedish meatballs Trump served up as the hours wore on. As The Washington Post wrote:

At some point, the meeting migrated to the Yellow Oval Room in the White House residence, where Trump served the group Swedish meatballs. (Byrne was “nonstop housing meatballs — he ate so many meatballs,” one person familiar with the gathering told The Post.) There the fighting continued.

If loving tiny meatballs and discounted home goods is wrong, Byrne clearly doesn’t want to be right.

(Via The Washington Post)

Whether you call him YoungBoy Never Broke Again or NBA YoungBoy (the NBA would rather you didn’t though), there’s no denying that the Baton Rouge rapper has been a lightning rod for controversy and legal trouble. However, he just received a break regarding the latter, according to Rolling Stone. A federal trial against YoungBoy for felony gun possession began today, and even before any arguments were presented, the judge, US District Judge R. Gary Klausner, made a decision that could go a long way toward helping YoungBoy, ruling that his lyrics cannot be used as evidence.

Apparently, prosecutors wanted to use rhymes from songs like “Gunsmoke,” “Life Support,” and “Lonely Child” in which he mentions FNs (Fabrique Nationale Herstal, a leading Belgian firearm manufacturer that has become a favorite of rappers in recent years). Unfortunately for them, it appears Judge Klausner has been following the controversy surrounding the “Rap on Trial” debate, which was inflamed by the state of Georgia’s racketeering case against Young Thug. In that case, the evidence against the rap mogul mostly amounted to the use of his lyrics to show a connection to YSL, the name of his label but also a prolific street gang according to Georgia District Attorneys.

“Even if Mr. Gaulden is familiar with various models of guns and sings about them, it does not mean that he knew this particular gun was secreted on the passenger floor of the Maybach when police attempted to pull his car over to arrest him,” YoungBoy’s defense argued ahead of the trial.

However, YoungBoy could still face years in prison if convicted and he has another case pending in his home state, Louisiana. Some evidence for that case was also thrown out recently; video and photos of YoungBoy allegedly holding the guns which he’s charged with illegally possessing were improperly obtained, according to the court.

YoungBoy Never Broke Again is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

A little over a week before her debut album, You Still Here, Ho? drops, Flo Milli is back with another raunchy heater. The latest from the Alabama native rapper, “No Face,” features Milli delivering her unabashed, raunchy rhymes, over a futuristic electronic beat.

On the song’s chorus, she repeats, “put that p*ssy on his face / put that p*ssy on his face / put that p*ssy on his face / no face, no case,” and later says, “Ridin’ ’round in ‘Bama, got these n****s in rotation / I ain’t gotta rap, you know p*ssy rule the nation.”

Ahead of You Still Here, Ho?, Milli has also released “PBC,” a powerful anthem whose title means, “pretty, Black, cute.”

In an interview with NME this past March, Milli said she is aware of her fiery pen game and the impact of her untouchable bars

“I knew the power of words, and that’s probably the reason why I do what I do,” Milli said, “because, at the end of the day, you can hate on me, but when you get in that car and hear the radio, you ain’t got no motherfucking choice but to hear me on the radio. When you’re in that club, you’re going to hear my voice. I don’t have to say anything at all.”

You Still Here, Ho? arrives 7/22 via RCA.