Category: News

Chance The Rapper and Joey Bada$$ have been living up to their new track’s title as of late. Chance has been releasing a lot of music ahead of his forthcoming sophomore effort, experiencing a resurgence of sorts, while Joey had to break unfortunate news to his fans that his anticipated upcoming album 2000, originally set to release tomorrow (June 17), experienced a setback due to sample clearance. While dates for neither’s LPs are known, they decided to treat the fans with an early release of their collaborative single “The Highs And The Lows.”

In Chance’s typical typeform, the two spit for nearly four minutes over a soul sample-laden, low tempo beat. The Coloring Book artist discusses his mother, mimosas, and makes a nod to Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, mixing in his raspy singing vocals every so often. Joey ad-libs the chorus before his own verse where he discusses cutting his vices and being blinded by the outside noise. “The best things in life are on the opposite side of fear,” the New York rapper says.

For Chance, this continues the aforementioned momentum while “The Highs And The Lows” serves as an appetizer for the Joey Bada$$ faithful.

Check out “The Highs And The Lows” above.

One of the gems within hip-hop is when an artist puts their own spin on a song that another rapper has already put out. Back in late April, Future released his ninth studio album I Never Liked You which kicks off with the high-energy “712AM” produced by Wheezy and TM88. Today, Key Glock decided he wanted to try his hand at the track with his latest video of the same name.

The Memphis rapper rides around in his yellow vehicle, following a similar cadence to Future’s but ensuring he doesn’t sound like a copycat. The video follows the 24-year-old as he sips from a styrofoam cup, makes a trip to the store, and lands at the studio with some of his crew because the raps can never stop, even while he’s rapping. It is braggadocious energy galore, and rightfully so.

For Key Glock, “712AM” follows his remix to Denzel Curry’s “Walkin” in early June. In March, he shared the deluxe version of 2021’s Yellow Tape 2, rounding the album out at 30 songs and no features. While there’s no mention of an upcoming project, Glock is keeping the momentum strong and showing his ability to excel at other people’s beats in addition to his own with the latest “712AM”

Check out the video for “712AM” above.

Just nine months ago, the world breathed a sigh of relief as Drake finally dropped his long-awaited sixth album Certified Lover Boy. The project arrived with 21 songs and guest appearances from Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Travis Scott, Young Thug, Future, 21 Savage, Lil Baby, Giveon, Ty Dolla Sign, Lil Durk, Yebba, Project Pat, Masego, Tems, and Kid Cudi. Certified Lover Boy debuted with the biggest week of 2021 — a title that Adele’s 30 later took — and it went on to spend five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Now, to the absolute shock of the world, he’s already prepared to return with his seventh album.

That’s right, Drake just announced that his seventh album Honestly Nevermind will arrive at midnight and the world can’t believe it. The announcement dropped like a bomb from the sky, and it came less than 24 hours after Beyonce announced her seventh album Renaissance would arrive next month.

There aren’t too many details surrounding Drake’s upcoming album, but there are plenty of things to possibly look forward to. We may receive the first collaboration between Drake and Kanye since their 2017 effort “Glow.” We may receive another stellar track with Rick Ross or Lil Wayne. There’s so much more we could receive with this album, but we’ll have to wait a few hours to figure it out.

You can view Drake’s announcement above.

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

Patton Oswalt is versatile. He can play MODOK, narrate an adorable docuseries about penguins taking over a small town, and pretend to be a 20-something waitress named Becca so his son will talk to him. Hopefully there’s a filter for that. In the SXSW breakout I Love My Dad, Oswalt plays Chuck, whose son Franklin (writer/director/star James Morosini) blocks him on social media. With his only lifeline to his distant son cut off, Chuck invents Becca as a Hail Mary that works disturbingly well.

It’s basically She’s All That, but instead of a bet, it’s a dad flirting with his adult son.

Winner of the SXSW Grand Jury Award and Audience Award, I Love My Dad also stars YouTube star and Teen Vogue host Claudia Sulewski as the invented woman and Lil Rey Howery as Chuck’s anti-dick pic best friend. Based on a true story (seriously?), this is the feature film directing debut for Morosini, who has had roles in The Sex Lives of College Girls and American Horror Story.

If the opening gag of the trailer (Chuck furrowing his brow while thinking “sup?” means “soup”) is any indication, it’ll be on the gentler side of comedy instead of the gross out territory it could easily slide into. Also, “sup?” officially means “soup” now. Text accordingly.

We wanted more Jean Smart, and that’s exactly what we’re getting.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that HBO Max has renewed its Emmy-winning series Hacks for a third season. Hacks follows the complex mentorship between Las Vegas-based comedian Deborah Vance (Smart) and her young writer (Hannah Einbinder). The series recently wrapped up its second season on the streaming service and is currently running a For Your Consideration campaign, hopeful to add even more Emmy awards to add to its collection (the television equivalent of lightsaber collector General Grievous).

“We congratulate Hacks’ extraordinarily gifted executive producers and cast, and our partners at Universal Television. We are overjoyed at the audience and press response to the new season, and glad to give viewers more of this gorgeous, hilarious, moving show,” said Sarah Aubrey, head originals for HBO Max, per THR.

Hacks is definitely a survivor. HBO Max original Raised by Wolves was recently canceled after two seasons, and HBO recently passed on an original series from J.J. “Somehow Palpatine Has Returned” Abrams (his first original series since Fringe) due to budget reasons, according to THR.

“The first two seasons of Hacks — expertly crafted by Lucia, Paul and Jen — gave us beloved, complex characters who make us laugh and feel deeply. We’re thrilled that our HBO Max partners have renewed this standout series for a third season, and we can’t wait to see what’s next for Deborah, Ava and the rest of our outstanding ensemble,” added president of Universal TVErin Underhill.

Lil Durk has had a highly successful last few years and his confidence matches the accolades. While his mettle in music isn’t to be denied, his skills on the basketball court are also well-documented as well. After an April episode of The Shop on HBO, he received one of the biggest co-signs any non-professional basketball player can receive in the form of praise from LeBron James. “Lil Durk can hoop,” King James said. “He can hoop for real. Man, he [at] Lifetime hooping. He got a f****** cannon, too. He got a peel, and he look like a mothaf*cker that can [ball].”

https://www.tmz.com/videos/2022-06-15-061522-lil-durk-1441473/

TMZ had a second to speak with “The Voice” at LAX this past Wednesday (June 15) and Durk took it a step further by calling out two of the most prominent figures in his primary sport, who also have an affinity for basketball themselves: three-time SBL champion Drake and new professional hooper J. Cole.

“[Drake’s] my dog, but he ain’t gon’ play us though,” the “Refugee” rapper said. “[LeBron] knows I’m the best ever. Tell your f*cking children.” He had similar energy for Cole. “I know I can, I just told you that I’m the best ever,” he affirmed. “[That’s] my boy, but I’d dunk that sh*t on [J. Cole].” Time will tell if these matchups will ever occur, but Lil Durk doesn’t seem too worried about how they will go.

Check out Durk’s boastful comments to TMZ above.

In the Barry season three finale, Barry Berkman (Bill Hader) gets on his hands and knees in the desert. He’s wailing and shaking uncontrollably, like a chihuahua who knows they just did something very wrong. It’s an oddly high-pitched tone for a grown-ass man, especially a grown-ass man who happens to be an assassin who is capable of killing mercilessly while entrenching himself in the lives of those he’s killed. Barry wails and shakes, even harder at an even higher frequency the longer he’s on the ground. The wails turn into sobs, the kind you only do when you’re alone, except he’s cowering in front of Albert Nguyen, a Marine he saved in Afghanistan. “I know evil, Barry,” Albert says over Barry’s sobbing. “And you’re not evil.”

Barry has always been a great show with clever writing, innovative direction, and sharp performances from Hader, Sarah Goldberg, Stephen Root, fishing fanatic Henry Winkler, Anthony Carrigan, and more. These days, shows we love feel like a blur, like a dream you remember but can’t describe. Barry’s pivotal third season accomplished an impossible mission in the Peak TV era: it sticks with you. The motorcycle chase through LA in season three episode six felt more horror than action, so tense you can feel it right now. Barry’s near-death walk in episode seven, and Barry’s go-to body burial location: a remote location in the desert by a tree that could be on the cover of an alt/indie/alt album.

Barry Berkman started in a bedroom in Cleveland, Ohio. The contract killer who offers to stab targets in the nut had a plaid sheet set and a Metallica poster over his bed. He was seemingly wholesome with very violent tendencies that you might miss if you were not paying enough attention. After encountering an acting class while on a job in Los Angeles, Barry catches the acting bug, and decides to pursue his new, random dream while continuing his contract killing. A lot of television shows eventually abandon their premise as they transform. Barry has never abandoned its premise, but it has transformed it. As the story has moved forward and as its characters’ lives spiral as they get more involved in the entertainment industry, the tone of the show has darkened along with them. But it still, always, even in the darkest of moments, manages to be funny, especially thanks to performances from comedy kings Hader and Winkler.

Barry’s embarrassing but deeply pure cry in the season three finale represents everything Barry is: emotionally, even physically painful but also painfully funny. At first glance, Barry might seem similar to The Sopranos or Mad Men, the groundbreaking antihero dramas that defined the Golden Age of television and changed it forever. While neither The Sopranos nor Mad Men were necessarily empathetic to their flawed (more accurately terrible) protagonists, they provided characters to root for to provide balance (Carmella Soprano, Peggy Olson). Barry doesn’t provide that balance at all, instead allowing most of its characters, even the ones not involved or privy to the show’s violent side, to be quite terrible, self-absorbed people. Barry is also more sprawling, following storylines that, outside of this series, have nothing to do with each other, such as a streaming show and the sparring between two mobs. Barry is a comedy, a crime thriller, an unraveling of toxic masculinity, and a brutally honest satire of the entertainment industry, examining how it can change people for the worse. At the beginning of the series, Barry was a contract killer, yes, but he’s gotten even worse since he moved to LA and became an actor.

In its third season, Barry separated itself as an essential, revolutionary show that will define the next era of the medium.

Before the Arctic Monkeys were taking the world by storm, it was The Libertines who were sweeping the early aughts UK scene with their fiery, tongue-in-check indie rock and punk. Led by singer Pete Doherty, The Libertines helped usher in the post-Britpop era. And while their 2004 self-titled album is their most heralded release, it all began with 2002’s debut Up The Bracket, produced by Mick Jones of The Clash.

Now for the 20th anniversary of the London quartet’s debut, an Up The Bracket 20th Anniversary Edition is being released with a bonkers number of bells and whistles. For starters, there’s 65 previously unreleased recordings in the collection, from demos, to radio sessions, live versions, and more. There’s also a 60 page booklet with interviews and photos and of course, a remastered version of the original album.

Check out the album artwork below, along with The Libertines’ upcoming UK tour dates. A full tracklist and additional details can be found at roughtrade.com.

Up The Bracket 20th Anniversary Edition is due out on 10/21 via Rough Trade records. Pre-order it here.

On his fourth studio album, Twelve Carat Toothache, Post Malone is self-aware. When he first stepped onto the scene, many thought his viral “White Iverson” hit would make him a one-hit-wonder. Seven years into his career, he has over nine Grammy nominations under his belt and 11 Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hits to his name. As his track record suggests, Malone is a skilled hitmaker, mastering the art of rock-influenced hip-hop with enough pop elements for mainstream radio. But on Twelve Carat Toothache, Malone seeks to make more than quick hits. The album is his most cohesive body of work to date, and his first worth a listen from beginning to end.

Twelve Carat Toothache opens with “Reputation,” a piano-driven ballad on which he reflects on the mental effects of the debaucherous lifestyle of which he’s become known for singing and rapping. It’s a dark track in nature, in which Malone acknowledges, “I know I f*cked up before, but I won’t do it again / And I got a lot of things that I wish I would’ve said / And I’m the same damn fool, and I’m wearing that hat again / I know I f*cked up, and I can’t make it right.” It’s hard hearing Posty talk about wanting to end his life, but it evokes the same feeling as his Stoney cut, “I Fall Apart,” a song in which the listeners bonded with Malone over heartbreak from whichever past lover of theirs came to mind. Now, Malone sings of heartbreak from his past mistakes.

While Twelve Carat Toothache may open on a melancholy note, he seeks to escape the feelings of despair on the bouncy “Cooped Up,” which features Mustard-protege Roddy Ricch. He shouts what we’ve all felt these past two years — “I’ve been f*cking cooped up.” The song’s accompanying music video, directed by Andre Bato, sees the two of them emerging from a dark place, literally, as the apartment in which they are partying contains black space in place of walls and ceilings. It maintains the spirit of a Post Malone party track, but a little more mature than “Congratulations” from Stoney and “Rockstar” from Beerbongs And Bentleys. It’s as though he’s traded parties and clubs for kickbacks and hang sessions.

On the saccharine “Wrapped Around Your Finger,” Malone finds solace in a woman he knows isn’t good for him. Upon first listen, it sounds like a sunny, poppy love song, but throughout the song, Posty asks himself, “Why do I tell myself that I do the best I can? / I know damn well that you couldn’t give a damn.” With additional lyrics like, “Ten billion cuties that think I’m the man / But if you come around, I’ll be eatin’ out your hand,” it’s one of two sides of the same coin of Beerbongs And Bentleys’ “Better Now,” only, in this case, he realized that the woman is in fact, just fine without him.

But this doesn’t hinder him from exploring new flames. On the Doja Cat-assisted “I Like You (A Happier Song),” he finds someone who makes him happy. The muse for this song is probably his elusive fiance and mother of his baby, as he sings, “Now that I’m famous, I got hoes all around me / But I need a good girl, I need someone to ground me / So please be true, don’t f*ck around with me / I need someone to share this heart with me,” over a punchy, thomping beat. Posty has come a long way from one-night stands with several woman and found one he likes — even if we’ve never seen her!

Perhaps the track that most showcases his growth is the Fleet Foxes collaboration, “Love/Hate Letter To Alcohol.” As its title suggests, this song sees Malone acknowledging his biggest vice. He’s aware it’s not good for him, but he doesn’t wish to stop, as it seems to be “the only way to drown my sadness.” As Malone, who was born in ‘95, has grown older, it feels as though he has done so alongside his millennial-and-gen-z cusper fans. When “White Iverson” came out, many of the ‘94 and ‘95 babies has just turned 21, and were looking forward to their first time “saucin’, saucin’, saucin’” at the bar or at a party. When “Congratulations” came out a year later, a lot of those people had just graduated college, and were using the song as a graduation anthem. Now, six years later, “Love/Hate Letter To Alcohol” represents many of those people’s relationships with alcohol now, as they are in their late 20s and winding down from the days of wild partying.

As a whole, Twelve Carat Toothache shows that Post Malone knows what kind of artist he wants to be. He’s not the long-haired, grill-wearing, cultural-appropriating party boy he was when he first stepped onto the scene. At this phase of his life, he’s less interested in making quick hits and more interested in taking himself seriously as an artist. Even if he admittedly is hesitant to play his own album back, the music Twelve Carat Toothache is his most honest and self-aware to date.

Among the 28 members of Young Thug’s YSL crew who were scooped up in the wide-ranging RICO indictment against them was Walter Murphy, who is accused of co-founding YSL as a “hybrid street gang” along with Thug himself. Murphy turned himself in when the indictment went public, appearing in court on Tuesday for a bond hearing in which his lawyer Jacoby Hudson “went off” after the judge denied Murphy bond. According to WSB-TV Atlanta, Hudson condemned the Fulton County DA’s case against his client, blaming it on the high-profile status of its rapper targets.

“The whole case is about Young Thug — Jeffrey Lamar Williams,” he said. “That’s who they want. My client don’t want to talk about Jeffery Williams.” Murphy, who was sent to prison in 2016 for multiple charges including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 2013 and attempted murder involving four different victims in 2015, said he changed while in prison on those offenses. “I spent seven years in prison,” he said. “While I was in prison, you know, I stayed out the way and I just got my GED, completed all my classes.” Hudson says that since then, Murphy has not associated with YSL or engaged in any crimes.

Meanwhile, many observers have criticized Thug’s inclusion in the case as well, as it was reported that the evidence against him was based on his lyrics shouting out YSL — which could mean Young Slime Life, the alleged gang, or Young Stoner Life, his label. Gunna, another rapper on the label, was also accused of being a lieutenant in the alleged gang, despite the evidence largely amounting to mentions in his lyrics. Kevin Liles, the founder of YSL’s parent label 300 Entertainment, posted a petition on Change.org decrying the case and calling for the federalization of so-called “rap on trial” laws that would limit the use of lyrics in criminal investigations.

Both Thug and Gunna are set for trial in 2023 after being denied bond. Presumably, so is Walter Murphy.