Category: News

The concert and festival landscape has been bleak over the past year-plus for obvious reasons. Now, though, things seem to be slowly returning to normal (or something like what normal used to be, anyway). Artists are announcing tour dates for this summer and fall, and music festival organizers are also preparing to host events later this year. Now, one of the country’s most esteemed events is slated to make its return in 2021: Pitchfork Music Festival has announced its 2021 dates and lineup.

The fest is set to hit Chicago on the weekend of September 10 to 12. The headliners for Friday are Phoebe Bridgers, Big Thief, and Animal Collective. Saturday will be led by St. Vincent, Angel Olsen, and Kim Gorden. Capping things off on Sunday will be Erykah Badu, Flying Lotus, and Thundercat.

Elsewhere, performers will include Yaeji, Black Midi, Hop Along, Kelly Lee Owens, Dogleg, Armand Hammer, Ty Segall & Freedom Band, Waxahatchee, Jay Electronica, Jamila Woods, Faye Webster, Bartees Strange, Danny Brown, Cat Power, Andy Shauf, Caroline Polachek, and Yves Tumor.

Tickets are on sale now, so learn more about this year’s festival here.

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

Always one to speak candidly to fans about his creative process and the trials and tribulations that go down behind-the-scenes, James Gunn recently revealed that he’s been receiving daily death threats over the fate of characters in his upcoming reboot/sequel The Suicide Squad. While tweeting out a link to his new interview with Den of Geek, Gunn cited a threat he received just that day, and pointed out that it’s happening way too often.

“This morning on IG: “This is a threat. If you kill (character name redacted) I will hatecrime you.” Every. Single. Day,” Gunn wrote.

In the interview Gunn tweeted, he reiterated earlier remarks that absolutely no one is safe in The Suicide Squad, and it’s a decision that he makes entirely based on what serves the story best. “The first thing I had to do was ignore the potential blowback from killing a character,” Gunn explained before walking through his writing process and making it clear that whoever dies wasn’t a “personal choice.” Via Den of Geek:

“It’s all in relationship to the story that I would kill anyone who the story saw fit to kill. I’m working for the story. I’m just the servant of the story. So whatever the story says is what I’m going to do, no matter what the repercussions are for anything. And I believe in the truth of the story. I believe that there was a story out there that needed to be told that I don’t have total control over.”

Of course, it doesn’t set fans’ minds at ease that, when asked during an Instagram Q&A which characters die in the film, Gunn answered “almost all of them.” However, it should go without saying that reacting to that information with death threats is never the right response.

(Via James Gunn on Twitter)

In his first-ever professional basketball game, J. Cole looked like he belonged on the court, even though his stats were nothing to write home about. If anything, his debut ball game called to mind memories of his debut project: As long as he stuck to what he was good at and didn’t try too hard, he acquitted himself the way you’d expect from a self-proclaimed future superstar. That quality has held true over the course of the decade since, even up to his latest release, The Off-Season.

If a metaphor comparing the North Carolina native’s rap career to his sports one seems almost too easy, it’s only because Cole himself invited such comparisons with the new album’s title and rollout. Even the cover prominently features a flaming basketball hoop, reinforcing the symbolism of the “off-season” motif. Cole spoke at length in both interviews and his personal documentary about the mentality of drilling and training himself on his already virtuoso raps with the goal of improving to his satisfaction — much like a pro athlete would add new facets to his game between seasons.

Even with the coincidence of his first-ever game, which his longtime friend and manager Ibrahim Hamad even called something of an accident of timing due to the pandemic pushing back both the album’s release and the start of the newly created Basketball Africa League, the parallels practically write themselves. In his limited first-half minutes, Cole was able to score a bucket at the rim on a putback and was even given the honor of shooting the team’s technical free throw — a distinction that is usually only bestowed upon the team’s best shooter on the floor at the time of the foul.

In the second half, though, the team decided to reward Cole’s performance with more indulgences. He was allowed more touches, even bringing the ball up on a few possessions. This increased time brought increased exposure to the flaws in his game: whether because of first-game nerves or simply due to his trying too hard, he was responsible for three turnovers and an airball (as well as a couple of assists), and it was revealed that he either can’t or won’t go left in isolation.

Let’s compare this to his rap work. We know he can rhyme his ass off and he knows it too; this is the strongest facet of his music-making ability and he produces his best, most engaging material when this is what he focuses on. It’s when he overindulges or tries to do too much that his weaknesses as a songwriter get exposed. There’s a tendency to drone on at length about how good he is at rapping; the awkwardly framed, “relatable” songs about things like losing his virginity and folding clothes have drawn as much criticism as praise over the years. Being relatable is one thing; oversharing is another entirely.

On The Off-Season, Cole wisely mitigates most of his most glaring flaws. By keeping the runtime short, he keeps himself on topic and remains efficient in conceptualizing and executing the album’s 12 songs, without the tail-end drag he sometimes delivers on his longer projects. He also varies the production a lot more; rather than producing on every single track, he employs input from hitmakers like Boi 1da, DJ Dahi, Jake One, and T-Minus to set up the plays for him, letting him stick to the aforementioned rhyming without having to split his focus. This is especially useful on tracks like “Pride Is The Devil,” where the production — which samples Aminé’s “Can’t Decide” from the 2020 album Limbo — opens the floor for Cole and Lil Baby’s impressive two-man game on the lyrical end.

He also gets into more personal storytelling, such as on “Let Go My Hand,” where he finally confirms the long-rumored scuffle between himself and Sean Combs. Although the track is scant on details, it’s a far-sight more interesting than the stilted regular-guy raps he used to attempt. We want to hear about his life, not ours, and this is among one of the most up-to-date references he’s offered, even if the incident in question happened nearly five years before. By contrast, the other “relatable” songs he’s offered up over his career were either nostalgic recollections of his childhood in Fayetteville or the painfully earnest “Let Nas Down.”

Mercifully, Cole also cuts down on the attempted social commentary. After admitting that he’s no extensive reader during his 2020 dust-up with an unnamed Twitter user that many thought to be Noname, it seems he’s learned to stick to being more of a role player than aiming to be a do-it-all All-Star. That’s a smart move on his part; it gives critics less to pick at in his lyrical game and makes him look more like the fan-favorite he is. There’s nothing wrong with being a mid-level specialty player — they often get to star in their own right, eventually.

That just leaves the bars themselves as the primary point of contention and those are subjective. Cole’s fans will likely get as much of a kick out of double entendres like “I put an M on your head, you Luigi brother now” as his detractors will side-eye such missives as corny. Likewise, the subject matter — J. Cole’s technically proficient rhyming and wordplay — will get varying mileage depending on the listener’s preference. From the perspective of this writer, there have been many better bars and many worse ones. What Cole does well, he does really well, and it’s easy to appreciate the level of work that went into it without him reminding you once a verse.

That latter aspect tends to detract from just being able to appreciate his talent as it is; it’s a little like those players who have a bad game and conspicuously spend hours in the gym afterward getting up shots. We already know that Cole has had a hit-or-miss career buttressed mostly by the strident insistence of his most outspoken fans. Telling us about how much work he puts in isn’t going to sway listeners who don’t prefer his music. For what it’s worth, many of hip-hop’s most appreciated artists throughout its history have been those who make it look easy and effortless, whose practice stayed behind closed doors and revealed itself under the bright lights in their high-level songwriting, catchy hooks, or intimate storytelling.

Cole’s dedication to the craft, to getting better at it every day, is commendable. Whether that commitment leads to a more entertaining product is debatable. Given The Off-Season’s status as an ostensible set-up for whatever “The Fall-Off” portion of J. Cole’s career will be, it’s possible that he’s just giving us a rare glimpse into the amount of forethought and skill polishing that goes into setting up a 20+year career. That’s pretty cool, but some of us will be looking forward to watching the actual game footage, not just the practice highlights.

The Off-Season is out now via Dreamville. Get it here.

Netflix’s Sweet Tooth takes a bit of an unintentional gamble with its release date, which might also work to its benefit. The awe-inspiring story is based upon a comic-book (that ran under DC’s Vertigo imprint) by creator Jeff Lemire, who whipped up a post-apocalyptic fairytale about what happens when a great sickness (which is poorly dealt with by humans) ends with a miracle. In this case, this would be the appearance of “hybrids,” babies who are born half-human and half-animal, and this trailer introduces how that miracle first happens, along with how a hybrid deer-boy teams up with a wandering loner for an extraordinary set of events that neither could have imagined.

Of course, the miracle ends up being viewed as a threat by many humans, who don’t know a swell development when they see it. Or perhaps the Tucker Carlsons of this particular world ruined it for everyone. Probably so! Regardless of the finer details, the lush surroundings shown in this trailer give way to danger and warnings about how evil and good sometimes masquerade in each other’s clothing, and maybe those “nature is healing” memes will be in your head soon after watching this trailer. As it turns out, that deer-boy, Gus (Christian Convery), and his reluctant protector, Tommy Jepperd (Nonso Anozie), will encounter the full spectrum during their adventures; and not all is as it seems, given that the worldbuilding sometimes resembles our very own world, but it’s amped-up to hit home in some stunning ways. From the synopsis:

Ten years ago “The Great Crumble” wreaked havoc on the world and led to the mysterious emergence of hybrids — babies born part human, part animal. Unsure if hybrids are the cause or result of the virus, many humans fear and hunt them. After a decade of living safely in his secluded forest home, a sheltered hybrid deer-boy named Gus (Christian Convery) unexpectedly befriends a wandering loner named Jepperd (Nonso Anozie). Together they set out on an extraordinary adventure across what’s left of America in search of answers — about Gus’ origins, Jepperd’s past, and the true meaning of home.

Something else very cool: Will Forte plays Gus’ father, which might make it worth the price of admission to check out this series (which is executive produced by Susan Downey and Robert Downey Jr.) when it arrives, even if comic-book adaptations aren’t your usual cup of tea.

Netflix’s Sweet Tooth streams on June 4.

Before his death last month, DMX gave his final interview for the TV One special Uncensored: DMX, the first part of which aired last night. Within the episode, he covered stories we know, such as how he was tricked into smoking crack at just 14 years old, and ones that he hasn’t shared as often, like the time he says he met an angel when he was hit by a car as a child. He also discussed his love for dogs, comparing them to God, and how he used perspective shifting to handle some of his deepest woes.

DMX’s angel encounter, which happened when he was four years old, was the result of typical childhood inattention. While visiting a friend of his mother’s, young DMX was told to watch his sister outside but was distracted when he found a dime and went to buy candy. “As soon as I stepped off the curb coming down from the store, a car hit me (and) knocked me way over on the other side of the street up under another car,” he remembers. When he tried to get up, he says a white woman with a clipboard told him to lie back down.

“You’d think that she would’ve stuck around because she saw the whole thing,” he reasons. “I don’t know, I felt like it was an angel. She got no business being in the ‘hood with a f*cking clipboard.” The woman disappeared once his mom and emergency services arrived.

Elsewhere in the episode, DMX calls his dog Boomer one of his closest friends, saying, “Two things capable of unconditional love: a dog [and] God. Same word spelled backward. I really feel like dogs are close to God.”

The second and final part of Uncensored: DMX airs tonight at 7 pm PT/10 pm ET on TV One.

Taylor Swift is in the process of re-recording her old albums, with the first of them, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), getting a release last month. Notably, the rerelease came with previously unheard songs, re-recorded with guests like Maren Morris and Keith Urban. Now, Olivia Rodrigo (who finally met Swift in person at the Brit Awards recently) has revealed that when Swift gets around to re-doing Speak Now, she really wants to be a part of it.

Speaking with NME, Rodrigo said, “My favorite Taylor Swift album is Speak Now. I would love to be on a Speak Now song. I’m just so excited to listen to them, though. I love listening to the vault recordings and stuff like that. I’m gonna own my masters, but I’ll listen to songs I’m not putting out and be like, ‘Maybe I’ll do a vault thing when I’m Taylor’s Swift’s age.’”

She also discussed her own upcoming album, Sour, saying it is inspired by ’90s alternative rock artists like Alanis Morissette:

“I was really inspired by ’90s alternative rock records with ‘Sour’, especially alternative rock girls. […] I think the albums from that time were so brutally honest and angsty, and I wanted to make an angsty record about me growing up and going through heartbreak. […] I made a project that I feel really proud of and that’s the only thing that I set out to do. I try not to write songs through the lens of hoping that they’re commercially successful. I just feel that takes away some of the magic of the songs. Success in my eyes would be making music that I feel really proud of, and I feel like it challenges me and excites me and hopefully makes people feel understood.”

Check out the full feature here.

Keeping up with the best new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw J. Cole make his anticipated return and Olivia Rodrigo drop her full-length debut. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

For more music recommendations, check out our Listen To This section, as well as our Indie Mixtape and Pop Life newsletters.

J. Cole — “Let Go My Hand” Feat. Bas, 6lack, and Diddy

Rapper and professional basketball player J. Cole has had fans waiting for a new album since 2018’s KOD, and not long after he officially announced the project, it’s here. One of the standout moments was when he confirmed a rumor about a dispute with Diddy… via a track on which Diddy himself features.

Olivia Rodrigo — “Good 4 U”

Ahead of her debut album Sour, Rodrigo has explored a couple of different musical directions on her first two pre-album singles: “Drivers License” was an emotional ballad, “Deja Vu” was a bit more indebted to Radiohead. So perhaps it wasn’t surprising, then, that her latest pre-release single was the pop-punk-influenced “Good 4 U.”

St. Vincent — “Down”

Annie Clark’s new ’70s-inspired album Daddy’s Home is out now, but before the project was released, she shared one final advance single, “Down.” She doesn’t stray from her chosen decade aesthetic, utilizing the punchy funk sounds of the era.

Jorja Smith — “Bussdown” Feat. Shaybo

“Bussdown” is quite the highlight from Be Right Back, especially since Smith described the 7-track project as basically a collection of songs that won’t make her next album: “It’s called be right back because it’s just something I want my fans to have right now, this isn’t an album and these songs wouldn’t have made it. If I needed to make these songs, then someone needed to hear them, too.”

Sleater-Kinney — “Worry With You”

It hasn’t been long since Sleater-Kinney dropped The Center Won’t Hold in 2019, but the group — now just a duo since the departure of Janet Weiss — is returning with Path Of Wellness this summer. Alongside the album announcement, they shared a groove-driven lead single, “Worry With You.”

Internet Money — “His & Hers” feat. Don Toliver, Lil Uzi Vert, and Gunna

Internet Money had a summertime smash with “Lemonade” last year, and now, they’re positioned to repeat that success with “His & Hers.” That’s especially true considering they went with mostly the same formula this time around: Like the former single, the latter also features Don Toliver and Gunna, although Lil Uzi Vert takes over for Nav this time.

Rowdy Rebel and A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie — “9 Bridge”

Rowdy Rebel has been productive since getting out of prison earlier this year, and his latest output is the A Boogie With Da Hoodie collaboration “9 Bridge.” Uproxx’s Aaron Williams describes the track as “a haunting banger of a cross-borough connection,” and the two definitely connect with strong chemistry on the back-and-forth tune.

Leon Bridges — “Motorbike”

It’s been a few years since Leon Bridges’ 2018 album Good Thing, but he’s remained busy in the interim. His latest output is “Motorbike,” a smooth and warm single that arrived alongside an Anderson .Paak-directed video.

Nicki Minaj — “Seeing Green” Feat. Drake and Lil Wayne

Minaj isn’t yet back with a new album to follow 2018’s Queen, but she did bless fans with some new music last week. That came via a rerelease of her Beam Me Up Scotty mixtape, which features a handful of additions, among them being “Seeing Green,” her first new track with both Drake and Lil Wayne since 2018’s “No Frauds.”

Migos — “Straightenin”

It feels like Culture III has been discussed for decades, especially after unfulfilled release date promises like the one from February. There was optimism that it may in fact be dropping soon after Migos shared a video for “Straightenin” last week, and sure enough, a release date for the project was officially confirmed today.

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

In a new clip from Marvel’s Loki, fans get an extended look at Owen Wilson‘s Agent Mobius’ first meeting with Tom Hiddleston‘s trickster god who’s not at all pleased with his current predicament. While fans have seen the elevator introduction in previous trailers where Agent Mobius demonstrates he’s not fooled by Loki or his trademark lies, particularly that he “doesn’t like talk,” the expanded clip takes that scene even further as Loki voices his thoughts on the Time Variance Authority run by Wilson’s character. It also gives fans a small peak into what’s happening in the mysterious new series, as with this Loki dialogue:

“So you’re part of the TVA’s courageous and dedicated workforce? You were created by the Time-Keepers to protect the sacred timeline? [Laughs] The idea that your little club decides the fate of trillions of people across all of existence at the behest of three… space lizards? Yes, it’s funny. It’s absurd.”

Despite being mocked by an actual God of Mischief, Agent Mobius isn’t fazed by Loki’s barbs and hits him with a calm quip: “I thought you didn’t like to talk.” The clever line catches Loki so off-guard that he’s actually speechless, which doesn’t happen often.

Arriving on June 9, Loki will shake things up on Disney+ and buck the streaming service’s normal Friday release strategy by airing on Wednesdays. More importantly, the series is only a few weeks away, which means we’re getting closer to find out what the heck is the deal with Miss Minutes, the animated clock that started popping up in posters and already has her own merchandise.

A few days ago, Migos shared a video for a new song, “Straightenin,” which stirred up optimism that the trio is finally ready to release their highly anticipated album Culture III. The track didn’t come with confirmation of a release date, but now, a few days later, they’ve offered one: Culture III is officially scheduled for release on June 11.

The post making the announcement is formatted like a press release and reads, “ATLANTA, GA (May 17, 2021) — The following statement was released today by the Migos through their label Quality Control Music, located in Atlanta, GA, in response to questions about Culture III. ‘June 11th. We’re Back.’”

Sports fans probably noticed immediately that the post was made to resemble the 1995 press release sent by Michael Jordan’s team to announce his return to the NBA after a brief retirement (that, or, less likely, the resemblance is an unbelievable coincidence). Jordan’s message, sent via fax, reads much like Migos’ post and famously quotes Jordan as saying simply, “I’m back.”

Back in December 2020, Quavo explained the group’s mindset behind the new album and being able to promote it, saying, “We done with the album, we just waiting on 2021, man, so everything can crack up. We want the commotion, we want to move, we want to be outside. We want to drop it and go on tour. We want to have an album listening [party] and have people in that thang and really hearing the album.”

Culture III is out 6/11 via Quality Control Music.

Donald Trump remains banned from Facebook and Twitter, among other social media platforms, for provoking a violent coup at the Capitol building in January. “His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world,” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote at the time. Cameo has no such concerns.

Cameo CEO Steven Galanis told Axios on HBO that he would allow the former-president on the personalized celebrity video website (“Want Redman to wish your 13-year-old cousin a happy bar mitzvah? Cameo!”). “Trump has done nothing on our platform to violate our terms of service,” he said. “I think Cameo is a place for laughs. It’s a place for fun.” Galanis added that Cameo (which recently enabled political fundraising) is currently going through a “big growth spurt, so all the things that are happening today, we have to create our own policies that work uniquely for Cameo, because the rules of our platform are different than they are for YouTube, Instagram, and for Twitter.”

Asked why there are far more Republicans, including former Trump officials, than Democrats, Galanis says, “You had a reality TV star as president… Anyone that was part of it was just one big reality show for the last four years.”

If Trump does join Cameo, he’ll join such far-right luminaries as Tomi Lahren ($90), Sarah Palin ($199), and Sheriff Joe Arpaio ($30). But he’ll also have to compete with numerous impersonators, including “Tiktok Donald Trump: John Walsh” and “Donald Trump Puppet: Troy Murphy.” Get them both for only $120!

(Via Axios)