Category: News

This Monday marked exactly two years since Solange surprise-released her acclaimed LP When I Get Home alongside a cinematic short film, which she is sharing a remastered director’s cut of through The Criterion Channel. Both the film and the LP are very personal to Solange, as the singer was undergoing health issues at the time. Her health situation was apparently much more serious than she had previously let on, as the singer has now revealed that she was “quite literally” fighting for her life.

Reflecting on When I Get Home‘s two-year anniversary, Solange took to Instagram to share a lengthy statement about how the project “changed” her life:

“When I first started creating ‘When I Get Home’ I was quite literally fighting for my life…in and out of hospitals (s/out park plaza on Binz! 🙂 with depleting health and broken spirits asking God to send me a sign I would not only survive, but that if he let me make it out alive, I would step into the light whatever that meant. He begin speaking to me. Half the time I didn’t know where it was coming from. I only knew I had to open the door and honor it. I didn’t see naann a thing I imagined. I didn’t know who I was speaking to on ‘I am a witness’. When I listen back, I hear a woman who had only an inkling of what the journey entailed, but didn’t have a clue of why or what the journey would look like. This project has shown me, once you open that door, you can’t go backwards. Believe me I’ve tried saying ‘nah I’m just playing’ so many times, ha. I’m not a big fan of talking about sh*t I don’t know yet. I didn’t do much talking during this time because of that. I’m really down for showing the process, and staying quiet when it hasn’t all yet being revealed. I make work to answer questions within me, for survival. Sometimes I am asking myself that same question many ways. Sometimes it takes me years. I have to honor that time. This Houston ting moves slow y’all. One day, I’ll tell y’all about the days I’ve had since I opened this door. The things I’ve uncovered. The life long healing I’ve begin. The great divine joy and love I’ve experienced. The stories of my past I’ve survived that I had stored all up in my body…. till it said…. no more. The re-learning. The reckoning. This album led me to all of it. Life has now become before WIGH and after WIGH. I’m so grateful for you guys allowing me the space and time.”

This isn’t the first time Solange has addressed her health problems. Back in January 2020, the singer announced she would be canceling a handful of tour dates at the Sydney Opera House due to “the physical demands of the shows.”

Find Solange’s Instagram post below.

Van Morrison raised some eyebrows last year with a series of anti-lockdown singles. Today, if those eyebrows have any more room to go up, they certainly have: Morrison announced a new album called Latest Record Project: Volume 1, which is not a work-in-progress title but the actual name of the album.

Things get wilder once you dive into the 28-song tracklist. Featured on the album are a number of songs with head-scratching titles, tunes like “Psychoanalysts’ Ball,” “Stop Bitching, Do Something,” “They Own The Media,” and “Why Are You On Facebook?.”

Morrison says of the album, “I’m getting away from the perceived same songs, same albums all the time. This guy’s done 500 songs, maybe more, so hello? Why do you keep promoting the same 10? I’m trying to get out of the box.”

Morrison also shared the album’s title track today, so check that out above and find the full Latest Record Project: Volume 1 tracklist below.

Disc One
1. “Latest Record Project”
2. “Where Have All The Rebels Gone?”
3. “Psychoanalysts’ Ball”
4. “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished”
5. “Tried To Do The Right Thing”
6. “The Long Con”
7. “Thank God For The Blues”
8. “Big Lie”
9. “A Few Bars Early”
10. “It Hurts Me Too”
11. “Only A Song”
12. “Diabolic Pressure”
13. “Deadbeat Saturday Night”
14. “Blue Funk”

Disc Two
1. “Double Agent”
2. “Double Bind”
3. “Love Should Come With A Warning”
4. “Breaking The Spell”
5. “Up County Down”
6. “Duper’s Delight”
7. “My Time After A While”
8. “He’s Not The Kingpin”
9. “Mistaken Identity”
10. “Stop Bitching, Do Something”
11. “Western Man”
12. “They Own The Media”
13. “Why Are You On Facebook?”
14. “Jealousy”

Latest Record Project: Volume 1 is out 5/7 via Exile/BMG. Pre-order it here.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is a football player-turned-wrestler-turned-action movie star. Those are three physically demanding jobs, and he’s got the litany of injuries to prove it. The potential-presidential nominee recently shared a photo of himself face down on a table with a bunch of doohickeys (medical term) attached to his back. “Even though I look like a wounded, passed out drunk buffalo laying face down in prairies – can’t tell ya how grateful I am for these quiet healing/recovery moments,” he wrote. Johnson then listed the painful boo boos (another medical term) he’s recovered from over the years:

4 knee surgeries
Torn quadricep off my pelvis
Torn adductor off my pelvis
Triple hernia surgery
Ruptured Achilles’ tendon
Completely shoulder reconstruction
3 low back disc herniations
2 low back disc ruptures

“It’s the daily reminder that we only have one body and we gotta take care of it…” he added. One way that Johnson takes care of his body is through cupping. “First time cupper over here. Looks more gnarly than it feels, but over all I enjoyed the therapy,” he wrote about the experience, along with a photo of large red circles around his back. “Always looking for new techniques to keep this 250 million year old dinosaur body balanced and optimal with not only all my past injuries but my daily grinding family/work/training/repeat schedule. It all takes it toll, so being proactive is critical.”

I can’t wait for The Rock’s next movie: where he body-swaps with a 250 million-year-old dinosaur. (I would genuinely watch and enjoy this. Jason Statham could voice a raptor.)

It’s been almost two years since the release of Chance The Rapper’s debut album The Big Day and he hasn’t released a new single since then — “The Return” doesn’t count, that was for a re-release of his and Jeremih’s Christmas album, and we’re not entirely sure it was all-new, to begin with. Since then, Chance has spent more time with his family while the dust settles, bringing with it a lawsuit from his former manager, a countersuit from Chance, and a whole host of quarantine movie opinion tweets from the Windy City rapper.

However, it looks like he may finally be hopping back on that horse this year, as he recently tweeted a short clip of what looks like a new music video with the caption, “The Heart & The Tongue.” Today, he confirmed that the video will be dropping on Friday with a separate tweet replying to the first, prompting an excited reaction from fans, praising the serpentine rhymes on the new track, as well as the stripped-down beat.

The new track doesn’t exactly mark a reinvention for The Rapper, but it does seem like he’s getting back to basics after blowing out the production budget on his last two projects. The time away seems to have done him some good; earlier this year, he reunited with Vic Mensa on a track for the first time since they were teenagers on “Shelter” and his verse on Justin Bieber’s “Holy” seemed well-received as well. I won’t say “the old Chance” is back because he never left — I’ll die on my “The Big Day was good” hill — but the older, wiser Chance is getting back in touch with the version that made us all fall in love with him in the first place and that can only be a good thing.

Chance’s new track releases in full this Friday. Check out the snippet above.

When Raya and the Last Dragon makes its debut later this week, the world will get to watch Kelly Marie Tran become the first Southeast Asian Disney Princess, which is a huge deal for the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants. In a new interview, Tran reveals how she was understandably gripped with “absolute fear” when Disney offered her the chance to step into one of its animated “magical worlds” that Tran has always loved since she was a child. Likening the experience to being offered her breakout role in Star Wars: The Last Jedi while she was still working a full-time job as an assistant at a recruiting firm, Tran walked through how she pushed through the fear of closing doors for other Asian actors if the movie isn’t a hit. Via IndieWire:

“The pressure of it is very real as well. There’s this sort of idea that if this movie doesn’t do well, then it’s our only shot. And it’s like all of these sort of false narratives that I have in my head, and maybe false narratives that are perpetuated by an industry that, for so long, has been held in the power of one type of person. … When I think about all the people that I’m seeing work in this industry now that are continuing to open doors for people like them, God, that’s really inspiring.”

While it’s mostly left unspoken as Tran says she’s only wants to focus on the “good” parts of her Star Wars experience, the actress is still the target of vicious online harassment going all the way back to The Last Jedi‘s release in 2017. In an essay for The New York Times, Tran shared how the experience pushed her down a “spiral of self-hate,” so it truly is a triumph that she pushed through being relentlessly attacked by angry nerds to becoming a full-fledged Disney Princess.

Raya and the Last Dragon hits Disney+ Premiere Access on March 5.

(Via IndieWire)

The NBA All-Star Game, Skills Competition, Three-Point Contest, and Dunk Contest are all happening on Sunday. Given the rather hasty nature of how all of this came together, we’re still learning details about the event and the promised contributions the league and its partners will make to HBCUs and COVID-19 relief.

On Tuesday, the NBA announced how the $3 million set aside for the All-Star festivities will be distributed, with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, United Negro College Fund, and Direct Relief’s Fund for Health Equity as the recipients of the donations. The two All-Star teams, as has been the case in recent years, will each represent one organization, this year the TMCF and UNCF, with each organization getting a minimum of $500,000. The rest will be determined by the outcome of the game, with $150,000 going to the team that wins each of the first three quarters, and $300,000 going to the team that wins the game.

Each of the events that normally would take place on Saturday night will also have a charitable element, as the league broke down in their release.

Through the TMCF COVID-19 HBCU Emergency Fund, the three AT&T Slam Dunk contestants will be paired with an HBCU to provide financial support that will benefit students, faculty or programs that address emergency aid, technology needs, food insecurities and mental health services exacerbated by the pandemic. Each HBCU represented by the players will receive a $50,000 donation toward their respective school, with the winner earning an additional $100,000. AT&T will also provide a $100,000 contribution for the three dunkers in addition to donating $5,000 toward HBCU student initiatives through TMCF for every dunk during the NBA All-Star Game

As part of the Taco Bell Skills Challenge, the six participants will represent HBCU schools and students from a selected state. An initial donation of $35,000 will be given to students and institutions in each state through UNCF’s Emergency Student Aid program, which provides financial assistance for food and housing, emergency hardship and retention and degree completion to HBCU students. The winning Skills Challenge participant will earn an additional $40,000 to assist with critical financial support to HBCU schools and students from their selected state.

During the MTN DEW 3-Point Contest, every “Moneyball” shot made will yield a $3,500 donation, while “MTN DEW Zone” shots will be amplified and worth $5,000 and benefit Direct Relief’s Fund for Health Equity, which addresses gap funding for COVID-19 relief efforts in diverse communities throughout the country. In addition, MTN DEW will award $100,000 in newly-created MTN DEW Scholarships to two students from HBCUs during the 3-Point Contest broadcast.

The league also announced some pop-up grocery activations in Atlanta. This year’s game will have a very different look and feel than a typical All-Star Weekend, and amid plenty of valid questions about whether the festivities should be happening, the league has targeted a few worthy organizations to benefit from the March 7 event.

Megan Thee Stallion is one of the new faces of Calvin Klein. The staple fashion brand recruits the Houston Hottie, along with other stars like actor Anthony Ramos, reggae star Koffee, and singer/songwriter Rina Sawayama, for its new 2021 campaign. Along with the usual print images, the campaign includes an enigmatic short film featuring the campaign’s stars asking viewers, “What makes you vulnerable?”

The campaign is just the latest high-profile brand sponsorship for Thee Stallion this year. Last month, she spoofed the 2004 teen comedy classic Mean Girls in a separate campaign for luxury brand Coach after being featured on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar. Unfortunately, fans weren’t happy about the Harper’s shots, even after it was revealed that Megan herself got approval over the photos.

Of course, the Hotties were quickly appeased by an anime voice actor’s shout out to the “Body” rapper, and she got approving co-signs from both Congressperson Maxine Waters and actor Idris Elba. She’s also on-track to graduate this year and follow through on her plan to open an assisted-living facility with her classmates. It’s safe to say that after 2019’s Hot Girl Summer and 2020’s Good News, Megan Thee Stallion isn’t going anywhere in 2021.

See Megan Thee Stallion in Calvin Klein’s latest campaign above.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Much has been made about the drama between Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter. The truncated version of the story: Rodrigo allegedly wrote her No. 1 hit “Drivers License” about Carpenter, then Carpenter released “Skin,” which was widely interpreted to be a response to Rodrigo. Now it would seem that Rodrigo isn’t interested in firing back and continuing this “feud.”

In an interview with Radio.com, Rodrigo was asked if she would offer a response to the song and she replied, “I actually don’t know her at all, I think we met once or twice in passing, but I’ve never had a conversation with her so I don’t think I could write a song that was meaningful or emotional about somebody that I don’t know. I think artists should be able to write about whatever they want to write about.”

Carpenter previously denied that “Skin” was about Rodrigo, writing on Instagram, “I wasn’t bothered by a few lines in a (magnificent) song and wrote a diss track about it. I was at a tipping point in my life for countless reasons. so I was inspired to do what I usually do to cope, write something that I wish I could have told myself in the past. […] I don’t want this to become an endless cycle so please don’t take this as an opportunity to send more hate anyone’s way.”

Find the full Radio.com interview here.

It’s the “Jaja Ding Dong” of 2021, the song that you can’t get out of your head no matter how hard you try. “Who’s been messing up everything? / It’s been Agatha all along / Who’s been pulling every evil string? / It’s been Agatha all along.” Written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez (the team behind “Let It Go”), “Agatha All Along” debuted during episode seven of WandaVision — since then, it’s charted on iTunes and inspired countless memes. Kathryn Hahn, the titular Agatha, still can’t believe it.

“I don’t understand it. I know, it’s amazing. It’s so crazy,” she told host Seth Meyers about the reaction to “Agatha All Along” during Monday’s episode of Late Night. “I don’t have social media, so the whole thing was like filtered down through all this,” Hahn continued. “I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?!’ It’s so funny. Meanwhile, I’m outside scooping dog crap, scooping cat crap. The whole thing is so bonkers right now.” (There’s more to the “cat crap” story if you watch the whole clip above.)

Hahn, who simply does not miss, also gave credit to the Lopezes, “who just wrote that crazy, awesome, delicious 47-second…” She didn’t finish the sentence, probably because she had “Agatha All Along” stuck in her head again. I get it. It happens.

The WandaVision finale debuts on Friday on Disney+.

Flo Milli keeps on rolling in 2021, maintaining the momentum of her breakout 2020 and debut mixtape, Ho, Why Is You Here? Today, she shares the video for her new song “Back Pack (Flora The Explorer).” Normally, when you hear the terms “backpack” and “rap” together, it means something else entirely (shout out to MC Jin), but Milli takes her cues from the Nick Jr. family fave Dora The Explorer for her new single, sampling the theme song the title character sings every episode about her magical, talking storage accessory.

In the video, “Flora” explores her new environs on the West Coast with a pink Jeep and wardrobe imitating the song’s inspiration. Content-wise, though, it’s still a Flo Milli classic — boastful, playful, and bold, Milli taunts haters with a sing-song flow and dances alongside a pink, animated monkey (that doesn’t look anything like Boots, to keep it a hundred, but nobody wants Nickelodeon sending C&Ds, right?).

Following the breakout success of Ho, Why Is You Here?, Flo Milli started the new year with the release of her song “Roaring 20s,” celebrating both the calendar year and her lifespan so far over another unusual sample, this time from the musical Fiddler On The Roof. She followed up with a flapper-inspired video for her own single, as well as an appearance alongside Mulatto and Rubi Rose on Rich The Kid’s new video “Nasty” as a burlesque dancer.

Watch Flo Milli’s “Back Pack” video above.