Category: News

Sometimes the best new R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm and blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they really love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the best new R&B jams that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.

First up, The Weeknd‘s remix to “Blinding Lights” with Rosalia. Chris Brown also drops off the music video for “City Girls” featuring Young Thug and Dee Gatti offers a visual for her buzzing track “Caught Up.” Check out the rest of the best new R&B below.

The Weeknd — “Blinding Lights Remix” Feat. Rosalia

The Grammys may have snubbed The Weeknd from next year’s awards but that’s not stopping the XO singer from dominating the Billboard charts and all of our ears with his infectious hit “Blinding Lights.” This week, Abel surfaced with a remix to the track featuring Rosalia which is sure to ignite new life into the After Hours hit.

Chris Brown & Young Thug — “City Girls”

Chris Brown and Young Thug’s Slime & B was met with high praise upon its release with a lot of love for their song “Go Crazy.” This week, the duo delivered a music video for “City Girls,” another fan favorite from the project. The music video is a cinematic production set in a 1920s era Los Angeles starring Breezy dancing his heart for the object of his affection.

Dee Gatti — “Caught Up”

Rising R&B singer Dee Gatti out of Dallas arrives this week with the music video for her buzzing single “Caught Up.” Directed by fellow Texan Dance Daily, Dee spends a little quality time with her boo while riding in an old school whip. No word when fans will be able to get their ears on a full-length project from her, but based on her previously released tracks “Chances” and “I.J.S.,” it’s surely something to look forward to.

Jet The 3rd — “Solitude”

It’s time to get to know Jet The 3rd. Described as a genre-bending, master lyricist, Jet The 3rd comes through this week with her somber track “Solitude” and a visual to go with it. The song is the first track off the Houston native’s EP Au-Courant, which is expected to experience a re-launch sometime in the near future.

Alycia Bella — “Link”

Alycia Bella’s sultry new single “Link” is out. It’s a smooth cut drowns in toxic loveship and the addiction that ensues from the taste of it. “I’m just excited for myself to accomplish something,” she said in an interview with Vogue. “And just getting my voice out there and letting people know what I’m about, and finding friends and new fans.”

Rotimi — “Love Somebody”

Rotimi drops off his Adam and Eve-inspired music video for his song “Love Somebody” starring his girlfriend Vanessa. “During this tough time in our society, we wanted to share a piece of our love with the world,” he said in a statement via email. “Love always wins.” It’s true, and the world needs love now more than ever.

Blxst — No Love Lost Deluxe

Blxst already came through and bodied his debut No Love Lost released on Red Bull Records earlier this year and now, he’s coming with even more heat in the form of the deluxe. The Los Angeles native adds five additional tracks to the project including “Wrong Or Right” with Bino Rideaux.

Check out this week’s R&B picks, plus more on Uproxx’s Spotify playlist below.

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

These days, it seems like every major gaming franchise is headed into production on a movie or TV show, and Metal Gear Solid is officially the latest case. Word broke on Friday that Star Wars alum Oscar Issac will add a Metal Gear movie to his busy schedule, taking the role of Solid Snake in the film that’s been in development at Sony for some time.

The news was met with a lot of enthusiasm online, and for a variety of reasons. People like Issac, for starters, and it’s clear he’s a fan of the franchise. Considering Issac himself called his shot on the casting, there was considerable celebration when word he got the role hit social media.

For, you know, a variety of reasons.

There were also a lot of seasoned Metal Gear fans ready to tell people perhaps more unfamiliar with all the, well, Snakes, that many had the wrong picture associated with Issac’s new role.

It was another good time to share the image of Issac eating Cheetos with chopsticks, too.

https://twitter.com/jenovabuffay/status/1334936694689247233

Once the celebrating was over, a lot of talk was about what a Metal Gear Solid movie even looks like.

Many fans were hoping there will be some fun MGS easter eggs in the movie, too.

The uncertainty about what the film will be about will definitely last well into the actual shooting for the movie itself, as there’s plenty of lore to dig through in the franchise after three decades. But one thing that was clear to most fans is that the enthusiasm for the franchise is there with both Issac and also director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, who is also signed onto the project.

https://twitter.com/KhailAnonymous/status/133491882496186777

In other words, it was a very good Friday for Metal Gear fans.

Your Honor (Sunday, Showtime 10:00 p.m.) — Bryan Cranston’s intense (although uneven) limited series faces inevitable comparisons to Breaking Bad, and for sure, Cranston’s character executes his most Walter White-like maneuvers since Heisenberg left the building with AMC’s 2013 “Felina” finale. Some The Wire vibes and Defending Jacob vibes resonate throughout as well, and here he’s playing a sort-of everyman (albeit one with more power than Walt), who tangos with the criminal underworld after making an incredibly bad decision that quickly sets off a series of even worse decisions, eventually leading to a sh*tload of collateral damage. And a lot of Panic Faces.

Big Mouth: Season 4 (Amazon film collection) — One of TV’s funniest shows is back to drum up anxiety, courtesy of Tito the Mosquito (who will be voiced by Maria Bamford), in addition to all the hormone monsters that you dearly love. Newcomer voices on the series include Ayo Edebiri replacing Jenny Slate as Missy, along with Zach Galifianakis, Seth Rogen, Josie Totah, Lena Waithe, Quinta Brunson, John Oliver, Sterling K. Brown, Paul Giamatti, Maya Erskine, and Anna Konkle.

Shameless (Sunday, CW 9:00 p.m.) — The Gallaghers are dealing with the pandemic in their own way on Chicago’s South Side, which forces Kevin and Veronica to get really creative with the Alibi, as Frank’s fretting over gentrification. It’s the final season, y’all! Here’s a list of what we’d like to see happen before finale time.

The Mandalorian: Chapter 11 (Disney+ series) — The bounty-hunting Star Wars series follows up on revealing Baby Yoda’s name and that Grand Admiral Thawn moment that got the fandom going.

Mank (Netflix film) — All the iconic directors are crafting Netflix movies these days, and David Fincher is now joining them. Even more notably for cinephiles, he’s doing so with a 1930s Hollywood throwback to the days of Orson Welles, and when social critic/alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. “Mank” Mankiewicz scrambled to put the finishing touches (and his name) on the Citizen Kane screenplay. If Gary Oldman in the title role wasn’t enough to get you onboard, then perhaps hearing that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are doing the musical honors will be the final enticement you need.

Small Axe (Amazon film collection) — It’s week three of five for this batch of Steve McQueen-directed movies. The stories, set in London’s West Indian community, will explore the endurance of the human spirit despite setbacks from discrimination and rampant racism, all set from the late 1960s to the 1980s.

Hardy Boys (Hulu series) — The beloved detective book series gets the reboot treatment with Frank (Rohan Campbell) and Joe (Alexander Elliot) leaving the city for their parents’ hometown following a tragedy. What seems like a quiet summer grows more intriguing when they stumble upon some key evidence.

Selena: The Series (Netflix limited series) — The Walking Dead‘s Christian Serratos stars as as Selena Quintanilla Perez, the Queen of Tejano Music, who began as a young girl from Texas but became the most most successful female Latin artist in history before being murdered in 1995 at the age of 23.

Here’s the rest of this weekend’s notable programming:

Supermarket Sweep (Sunday, ABC 8:00 p.m.) — Leslie Jones and every bit of her enthusiasm will host contestants in this revival of the grocery-shopping game show.

Pandora (Sunday, CW 8:00 p.m.) — The Galaxy’s staring down war while the ghosts of Osborn’s past come back to haunt him, and Jax must rally the team together to save them all.

Euphoria Part 1: Rue (Sunday, HBO 9:00 p.m.) — Need a little Zendaya to tide you over before the show returns (at an undetermined date) for Season 2? The Emmy award winner returns for the first of two special episodes. This one officially lands on HBO on Sunday, but you can catch it early already, only on HBO Max. Rue’s relapsing and ends up in a diner whilst contemplating life after Jules leaves her along at the train station following their winter formal.

The Outpost (Sunday, CW 9:00 p.m.) — Talon’s discovery of a deadly power coincides with Gwynn learning Tobin’s secret, and opposing groups are hunting for Yavalla for opposite purposes.

Murder On Middle Beach (Sunday, HBO 10:00 p.m.) — First-time director Madison Hamburg (who we spoke with) reveals his nearly decade-long journey to investigate who murdered his mother, Barbara, in a still-unsolved case out of Connecticut. It’s a heck of a watch that will keep you guessing.

Moonbase 8 (Sunday, Showtime 11:00 p.m. EST and streaming) — Fred Armisen, Tim Heidecker, and John C. Reilly are here to make space funny as astronauts working toward a lunar mission. This week, Cap takes a psychological test that doesn’t end as expected for him, and he’d like to… move the base?

In case you missed these recent picks:

Heaven’s Gate: The Cult Of Cults (HBO Max documentary series) — Way back in 1997, the Heaven’s Gate cult made headlines with a comet-chasing mass suicide that echoed Jonestown. However, this incident turned out to be the most voluminous suicide on U.S. soil and also involved 20 people’s disappearances. An alien-conspiracy theory and applesauce and disturbing infomercials soon surfaced, and this documentary series surfaces never-before-seen footage and first-person accounts to fill in blanks and add some UFO weirdness to the mix.

The Flight Attendant (HBO Max series) — Kaley Cuoco busts away from the The Big Bang Theory with a fun flight of (darkly comedic) fancy. She plays portrays an airline stewardess whose international jet-setting lifestyle includes falling into bed in various countries with various handsome men. During the course of one particularly fateful encounter, Cassie wakes up next to the dead body of a one-night stand. She spends the rest of the series attempting to clean sh*t up. Surrender to this madcap ride.

For much of 2020, Bandcamp has hosted the wonderful Bandcamp Friday initiative, which involved them waiving their share of the income they usually receive from sales on their platform on some Fridays, so artists ultimately come away from the transaction with more money. The endeavor has been a great success, but it looks like it’s coming to an end. In a recent post, Bandcamp noted they will “continue to hold Bandcamp Fridays on the first Friday of every month until the end of the year.” They haven’t publicly committed to continuing Bandcamp Fridays in 2021, so today’s, the last one of the year, is the final one that’s officially scheduled.

The silver lining is that Lucy Dacus is helping to send Bandcamp Fridays off (potentially) with a bang: Today, she shared a cover of Hinder’s 2006 classic “Lips Of An Angel.” Dacus’ rendition of the track, which she says she recorded “a few months ago,” eschews the raspy, post-grunge edge of the original version and turns it into more tranquil folk a la Dacus.

Proceeds from the song will go to The Okra Project, which describes itself as “a collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people by bringing home cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans People wherever we can reach them.”

Listen to Dacus’ “Lips Of An Angel” cover above.

Errol Spence Jr.’s win over Shawn Porter last September was one of the best fights of the year, as the welterweight stars put on quite the show with Spence firmly establishing himself as one of the sport’s very best with a split decision win to move to 26-0 with 21 wins by knockout. Just weeks after reaching new heights in the sport of boxing, however, Spence suffered serious injuries when he was ejected from his Ferrari after crashing it at high speeds in Dallas. He still has pending DWI charges against him from the incident.

In the year-plus since, he’s had to battle his way back from a self-inflicted wound, coming to terms with his vulnerability and having to overcome the mental and physical hurdles of rehab and trying to return to the ring.

“I learned this past year that basically shit happens,” Spence told Uproxx over the phone last week. “I mean, you gotta roll with the punches. You can go sit in a dark room and drink and feel sorry for yourself or you’re gonna stick your chest out and do what you have to do to get back to where you once was, and that’s something that I did because I had nobody to blame but myself. At the end of the day I didn’t feel sorry for myself or say, ‘Oh I got in a crash,’ this and that. I basically put my work hat on and got busy.”

After a two-month training camp, Spence is making his long-awaited return to the ring in his hometown of Dallas, fighting against former welterweight champ Danny Garcia this Saturday night on Fox Sports PPV. Spence says camp has been great, a refrain every fighter repeats in the weeks leading up to the fight, but he can point to some specific moments that allowed him to feel like he was returning to the form that made him one of the pound-for-pound best in the world a year ago.

“Probably like the fourth or fifth time after I started sparring, everything really started clicking and everything started coming together,” Spence said. “Combinations and slipping and blocking punches and things like that with ring generalship. So, yeah I’d say probably like in sparring.”

In Garcia, Spence is facing a veteran of championship bouts at super lightweight, where he held two belts, before moving to welterweight, where he previously held the WBC title. Garcia’s two losses have been by decisions to Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter, two of the best at 147 pounds, and Spence is expecting a similarly competitive effort from the veteran fighter, offering him a chance to build his resume against one of the best.

“I’m just looking to see the Danny Garcia of old,” Spence said. “This is a guy who’s always going at 100 percent. He never backs down from a fight. A guy that basically fights and fights and tries to make it as close as he can to win the fight. So, for me I’m just looking at a world class opponent and somebody with a great resume I can beat and put him on my resume.”

Spence admits he’s not totally sure what he’ll look like in the ring, noting that he and his coach have been going over their gameplan, but they’ll adjust based on what they see in that first round, both from Garcia and from himself. From there, he’ll look to find his rhythm and exploit any weaknesses he sees from Garcia as the fight wears on.

He’s not concerned with trying to make the veteran uncomfortable in the ring, because he expects Garcia to approach this fight as he does, which is to do what he does best and simply try to fight his best fight, with some in-ring adjustments based on how he feels.

“I don’t know if I can make him uncomfortable, and I don’t think he can make me feel uncomfortable,” Spence said. “I think we both world class fighters who have fought tough opponents – fought the best out there. For us it’s not – if we could make each other uncomfortable, it’s just something that would happen in the fight – I don’t think him or his coach really know how to make me uncomfortable, and I don’t really know how to make him uncomfortable until I get in there for the first round.”

As the fight approaches, Spence is staying solely focused on Garcia. When asked what’s next for him and how he’ll go about picking a new opponent, with many hoping for a showdown with Terence Crawford, he kindly deflects, saying he’s learned after the last year not to look past anything. In the past, Spence may have had one eye on the future and where he can go to elevate his star status, but after the year he’s had from self-inflicted wounds, he’s more apt to living in this moment.

Right now, his opponent is Danny Garcia, and he’s expecting quite the fight. It’s time, once again, to put on that work hat and get busy.

After attending a secret gala for Young Republicans maskless on Thursday night that blatantly defied COVID guidelines, Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz became the target of a press conference held by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, who was not happy. The “ordinarily mild-mannered” politician was anything but as he eviscerated Gaetz for the irresponsible party, which was blasted all over social media. Murphy also gifted Gaetz with new nickname that’s sure to stick around. Via NBC New York:

“That guy in the middle, the tall, handsome fella in the gray suit, that is Representative Matt Putz – oh sorry, Matt Gaetz, and based upon his past performances, it is obvious being a knucklehead is not beyond the pale for him,” Murphy said at a news conference. “He was actually Sarah Palin’s backup act for this event.”

Murphy then gave Gaetz a stern warning, “I hope you’re watching Matt — you are not welcome in New Jersey, and frankly I don’t ever want you back in this state.”

The event was a holiday gala for the New York City Young Republicans who secretly held the event in Jersey City, only to turn around and brag about defying COVID restrictions on social media. Those in attendance, including Gaetz, thumbed their noses at New York City Governor Andrew Cuomo.

However, the open display has now put the venue and the party’s organizers in the crosshairs of Jersey officials who are looking into legal action. As it turns out, Governor Murphy wasn’t the only one with a message to Gaetz. Jersey City Chief Prosecutor Jake Hudnut also had a warning for Congressman Putz.

(Via NBC New York)

When Joe Biden becomes the president on January 20, 2021, at noon EST, hopefully we never have to hear from the MyPillow guy ever again. But until then (and what a long “until then” the next month is going to be), Mike Lindell was interviewed on Friday on Fox News, where he claimed that Donald Trump will be the president for the next four years.

During a protest outside the home of Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, complete with a “hearse carrying some ballots representing dead people,” Lindell was asked by a Fox News reporter about the state’s upcoming runoff election that will determine control of the U.S. Senate. I want the word to get out that Donald Trump will be our president for the next four years,” he replied, via Mediaite. “I talked to [former-Trump campaign attorney] Sidney Powell about three, four days ago, so I know firsthand.”

“When I go all in like I did for the president in 2016, I do my due diligence and I get out there, and I could sit here and tell you, 100 percent. Not 98, 100 percent.”

The MyPillow CEO and founder is part of the March for Trump bus tour, which is going all the way across the country, I sponsored this, and we are going to end up in D.C. I want people to have the awareness of what went on because the mainstream media is not showing you this, but all the corruption, by the time it’s all opened up here and they see it, even the Democrats are going to go, ‘Wow, at least my party tried to steal it.’”

This is what the “mainstream media” doesn’t want you to see:

You can watch the Fox News interview here. Lindell also did… whatever this is.

(Via Mediaite)

Chance The Rapper is reportedly being sued by his former manager, Pat Corcoran, for $3 million in commission according to legal documents apparently filed with the Cook County Court and reviewed by Uproxx. The docs were shared by Courthouse News Services but cannot be confirmed on the Cook County Online Case Search as of press time.

The lawsuit alleges that Chance fired Corcoran as a response to the poor reception of his “debut” album The Big Day and now refuses to honor the terms of his original management agreement with him. Pat asks for amounts due per their contract, as well as damages for breach of contract. Per the documents, Corcoran and Chance entered their agreement in 2012, with Pat helping to drive Chance’s brand to its current level of success. However, once he’d reached that level of notoriety, Chance allegedly began ignoring Pat’s management advice, unilaterally announcing The Big Day‘s release and proceeding with the rollout despite Pat’s counsel that there wasn’t enough lead time due to Chance’s upcoming wedding.

Pat claims that Chance’s decision to cancel the accompanying tour for the project was made in response to poor ticket sales and a mediocre reception for the project, which Pat says was made in a haphazard process counter to their meticulous one for previous mixtapes Acid Rap and Coloring Book. However, Chance blamed Pat for the album’s disappointment and began to replace him as his manager with his father Ken Bennett. Pat says Ken booked Chance’s appearances on Good Morning America and Ellen, digging more of a hole for the rapper and prompting Pat to cut ties — but not before demanding back pay for all the projects he helped Chance with, including merch.

Unfortunately, Pat’s agreement with Chance appears to be a “handshake deal,” meaning it’ll be hard for him to prove he’s truly owed 15% of everything. Meanwhile, Chance’s dad has already offered a $350,000 lump settlement — far short of the 15% proportion of the millions Chance has made since 2012. Pat says the amount is closer to $3 million and an account of Chance’s true income for the last eight years to prove it.

While the documents provided aren’t currently available on the Cook County system, the documents show a filing date of November 30, meaning they might just not have been digitized yet. You can review the docs as scanned and uploaded by Courthouse News Services here. Uproxx has reached out to Pat and Chance but has not received a response as of press time.

Things are getting weird on the monolith front, which means many people no longer think it’s actually aliens or something that may end life as we know it on earth. A third monolith has been found, the second one found in America in the last few weeks, and this time the reaction from the general public has been very different.

The first monolith found in the Utah desert shortly before Thanksgiving had already vanished when a second, scuffed up version was discovered in Romania. Reaction to the news that a third one was found in California this week, however, led to violence against the art installation/marketing scheme/ancient artifact intent to spell doom for humanity. And it’s already led to some copycats.

But, more importantly, many people seem to be dreading whatever the truth behind these metal structures actually is.

As the old saying goes: The first time you stumble upon a monolith is a mystery. A second time is a trend and a third time is probably a marketing campaign.

Perhaps the reason so many people are skeptical is, well, they’ve seen this kind of thing fall flat before. And they’ve also watched as countless companies have tried to springboard off the viral attention for their own marketing purposes.

Netflix marketing stunt was a popular answer as speculation about the third structure grew.

But just as quickly as the third mysterious monolith appeared, it was gone.

According to Vice, that’s because men attacked it and knocked it down while chanting “Christ is king” among other things.

In a way, it’s very fitting that this quickly went from a unique curiosity to something that spirals out of control in a matter of days. We’ve gone from bighorn sheep scouting to evangelical lunatics toppling what might be a marketing campaign near a California hiking trail in the middle of a pandemic in a matter of days. It would be a new record if not for, well, everything else that’s already happened in 2020.

Most Christmas songs are about the joy of the season, snow, spending time with family, and other jolly things of that sort. 100 Gecs, who are fresh off a collaboration with 3OH!3, have made a Christmas song, and of course, they didn’t do things the traditional way. Their new tune is called “Sympathy 4 The Grinch,” and like the famous green character, they too have a bone to pick with the holiday season.

Throughout the ska- and punk-influenced song, the duo tell a story about being scorned by Santa Claus. The song begins by setting the scene: “Wanted some speakers, Xbox, and t-shirts / I’ve been good like every single day / Looked under my tree, my box was empty / Santa made an enemy that day (what the f*ck?) / Done being jolly, time to be naughty / Think it’s time we settle up the score / Fill up the wishlist, let’s cause some mischief / Grab my keys, I’m headin’ out the door.”

From there, the story continues with 100 Gecs breaking into Santa’s house to steal his magic bag and make a getaway. It’s both exactly what one would expect from a 100 Gecs Christmas song and something that we couldn’t have seen coming.

Listen to “Sympathy 4 The Grinch” above.