Category: News

After a pair of quiet years, fans of Top Dawg Entertainment and their artists are hoping that the label’s activity will much higher in 2021. While a number of their artists, such as Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, SZA, and Isaiah Rashad, are rumored to have an album dropping at some point this year, TDE’s Punch confirmed one thing his artists most likely won’t participate in.

After rumors of a possible Verzuz battle with Schoolboy Q began to surface, with fans naming Vince Staples, A$AP Rocky, and others as potential opponents, Punch denied the battle would happen during an interaction with marketing strategist Karen Civil. She mentioned Punch on Twitter and said, “Chile… they out here saying ScHoolboy about to do a Verzuz… We know ya’ll don’t allow phones in the studio… lol,” referencing TDE’s famous studio rules. Punch denied the rumors saying, “Nah. Nope. We not doing this @KarenCivil.”

Further into their conversation, Punch inquired about Civil’s new Girl I Guess podcast with model and close friend Ming Lee Simmons and why he had not been invited yet. It was here that the duo began to tease new music from Kendrick Lamar. “Now you know your always invited! Can we play that new Kendrick you played me?!” Civil asked, to which Punch responded, “YES! Soon.”

The interaction between Civil and Punch came after Ab-Soul confirmed that both his and Lamar’s albums were “on the way.”

Friday’s gaming news was tough for Xbox owners who have little interest in Xbox Game Pass, as word spread that the price of Xbox Live Gold membership for many people would drastically increase in the coming months. Some Xbox Live Gold subscribers got notice that the monthly price would drastically increase, costing up to $120 a year.

That’s twice as much as it costs for a year of the PlayStation equivalent, and many saw the move as one that would push people to buy Xbox Game Pass instead, as it comes with an Xbox Live subscription as well as lots of other content that Microsoft has invested in heavily in recent months. News of the move made a lot of noise online, though, and not all of it was positive. Which perhaps is why Microsoft announced it will abruptly pull back from new pricing plans in a blog post the company made public on Friday night.

Explaining why the Xbox team decided not to change Xbox Live Gold pricing, the company admitted “we messed up today” and acknowledged that it changed its mind because of the negative feedback it received on social media.

We’re turning this moment into an opportunity to bring Xbox Live more in line with how we see the player at the center of their experience. For free-to-play games, you will no longer need an Xbox Live Gold membership to play those games on Xbox. We are working hard to deliver this change as soon as possible in the coming months.

If you are an Xbox Live Gold member already, you stay at your current price for renewal. New and existing members can continue to enjoy Xbox Live Gold for the same prices they pay today. In the US, $9.99 for 1-month, $24.99 for 3-months, $39.99 for 6-months and $59.99 for retail 12-months.

It’s good news for those who would have been impacted by the changes, for sure. Though Xbox Game Pass is a good deal for those that want access to a growing list of titles, more casual gamers were certainly upset that they’d see a huge price increase to get access to the internet for the few games they’d like to play. While growth is always in mind for companies when they make these decisions, sometimes chasing that growth for one product like Game Pass can come at the risk of upsetting people you already count as customers. We’ll see how long things stay the same for pricing of Xbox Live Gold, but for now it seems things will be staying put.

Everyone knows about the first big pop hit of the year — Olivia Rodrigo getting her “Drivers License.” And it’s impossible to underplay the importance that streaming had on that song’s success; Spotify commented on how how unexpected her numbers were on their platform, and there’s no doubt that Olivia’s platform on TikTok — currently just above 4 million – has been helping bolster the song’s success. Oh, and then there’s the whole Disney+ star and love triangle-related drama.

Though she doesn’t have the Disney machine behind her, a similar streaming framework seems to be working for another young new singer, Jessia, an artist based in Vancouver, Canada. Although it’s not her debut song, Jessia released her first 2021 single, “I’m Not Pretty,” on the same day as “Drivers License,” on January 8. It might not be the No. 1 song in the country yet, but “I’m Not Pretty” has a groundswell of streaming support behind it, too, queuing it up to become the second big pop hit of the year.

With a little support from Spotify — who made her the face of their Pop Rising playlist and added her to the largest playlist Today’s Top Hits — and the force of over 500,000 TikTok followers, Jessia’s body positive anthem is well on its way to hit status. The song began on TikTok as a snippet, and then into a full song, a process that will surely become more common in the coming weeks and months as the social media platform is becoming a new incubator for musical talent.

Check out her excited TikTok celebrating the Spotify inclusion, and stream the song itself above.

Whether or not this comes to fruition remains to be seen, but it sure seems like Deshaun Watson’s time as a member of the Houston Texans could come to an end sometime soon. Watson’s reported displeasure with the franchise for a number of reasons has led to plenty of speculation about a potential breakup, with one report indicating that teammates would support him no matter what his next move ends up being.

There might be four or five teams in the league that would not benefit from acquiring Watson, so should he become available, it’s hard to imagine that there wouldn’t be a gigantic market for his services. As for where he would go, a report by Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald indicates that his eyes are on the AFC East, with the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins being his preferred landing spots.

Watson this week told people the Jets are his top preference among the teams he’d like to be traded to because they hired Robert Saleh to be their coach and Watson values Saleh so much he wanted the Texans to interview him for their vacant head coach job.

Watson confirmed reports, circulated for several weeks in national media, he’d also welcome playing for the Dolphins but said that is his second choice at this time.

Both of these franchises have been mentioned pretty frequently whenever Watson’s potential availability has come up — the Jets could use a quarterback if they decide that Sam Darnold is not the future, and they could theoretically put together a number of picks to bring Watson to New York while keeping their copious amounts of cap space free to add talent around him. The Dolphins, meanwhile, were nearly a playoff team in 2020 and can offer up a package that revolves around last year’s first round pick Tua Tagovailoa and the No. 3 pick in this year’s Draft, which originally belonged to the Texans.

It’s important to mention that there’s no guarantee that Watson would head to either of these places, just like there’s no guarantee that the Texans opt to move on from him. If he they do, though, and Watson has his way, the Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots, and one of the Dolphins or Jets might end up having one heck of a problem on their hands twice a year.

Early Saturday morning, news arrived that legendary talk show host Larry King had died at the age of 87. Cause of death has not yet been revealed, though his passing came three weeks after he was reportedly hospitalized with coronavirus complications. As expected, many took to Twitter to remember him and his captivating interviews. Of the many that resurfaced online, a good amount of them featured musical guests.

There was his interview with the late Mac Miller, in which the Pittsburgh rapper hilariously told King to repeatedly say “bootysniper.” Other iconic moments included one with Snoop Dogg that occurred at Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles and another with Celine Dion, where she brings King to tears as she sang “My Heart Will Go On.” There was also his conversation with Lady Gaga, in which the singer made sure to rock suspenders just as he had for the past few decades.

King’s chats with 50 Cent, Tyler The Creator, Tinashe, and more resurfaced online. Some artists shared pictures from their interviews and thank him for his work. Mariah Carey posted an image on Twitter and said she was “grateful to have known him.” Barbra Streisand called him “one of a kind” and Steve Aoki said it was “an honor to have sat across the table from u” adding “legends never die.”

You can check out more musician-based remembrances below.

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

Since his sister Billie Eilish became an international superstar off the strength of her debut, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, her brother and artistic partner Finneas has been releasing plenty of solo material of his own. As the primary producer on Billie’s album, Finneas certainly helped Billie build her unique sound, but if you think his solo work sounds anything like Billie, think again.

After his debut EP Blood Harmony dropped in 2019, followed up by a deluxe version in summer of 2020. Then, late last fall Finneas slowly began to release new singles, from the uplifting piano ballad “What They’ll Say About Us,” to a meditation on the internet and cancel culture, “Can’t Wait To Be Dead,” which he also brought to The Late Show for an anthemic performance. On the political side of things, in November he also dropped the Trump-skewering “Where The Poison Is” last November, and worked with Demi Lovato on her own political track “Commander In Chief.”

Now, he’s gearing up to release a studio version of a new single called “American Cliche” on February 5, and it’s one that some fans have heard before in a live performance at LA’s The Mint. Check out the video above if you’d like to hear how he was performing the song in the past, but keep in mind, he just might be tweaking it a bit for the official version. At least, that’s what he told fans on Twitter after announcing the single release date.

Look for the official version dropping early next month, and am I the only one who hears a little Bublé in there? We already know Billie loves him, so it wouldn’t be surprising if Michael has influenced Finneas, too.

It’s been half a week since Donald Trump left office, as well as two weeks since he was banned from much of social media. And though things have been much more quiet without his constant presence, his family and supporters are happy to keep him in the conversation. On Friday night, his oldest son, Don Jr., took to Twitter to try and boast about one of his accomplishments. And he was very quickly and very thoroughly owned.

“Donald Trump is the first president in modern history did not start a new war,” Jr. wrote. While technically it’s true no war started on his watch, there’s still a lot to unpack here. And unpack people did, taking issue with his bold claim.

For starters, his definition of “modern history” seemed to be pretty modest. Presidents Obama, Clinton, Reagan, and both did either start or involve the U.S. in a war, but you don’t have to reach back that far to find another president who didn’t: Jimmy Carter.

And then there’s that failed MAGA coup he helped start.

Or the tragically large number of COVID-19-related deaths, which, nearly a year later, are at record numbers.

Besides, it’s not as though Donald J. Trump didn’t try to start a war.

Some pointed out his other failures.

And some pointed out Jr.’s typo.

In fact, maybe it wasn’t Jr. doing the tweeting after all.

Dunks causing basketball hoops to break isn’t exactly a new thing. What is a little different about what happened in Friday night’s game between Carver and Ramsay, a pair of high school basketball programs based out of Alabama, is what happened when Ramsay’s KeShawn Murphy threw down a little too hard.

Murphy, a three-star power forward recruit who will head to Mississippi State next year, got thrown an alley-oop and finished over a defender to put Ramsay up, 61-44. The issue was that it took him a second to let go of the rim, presumably because a Carver player was standing right under it, and as a result, he pulled the entire hoop down. It wasn’t a rim being ripped off and the backboard shattering, but rather, the entire apparatus came swinging down and caused a bit of a panic.

A few players had to move out of the way or else they were getting hit by the swinging backboard, and as you can tell when the part that was previously connected to the ceiling hits the floor, there was a whole lot of force behind things coming crashing down. The good news, of course, is that everyone was fine and the game will resume from this point next week.

But the whole thing looked like straight out of a movie, to the point that a number of folks on Twitter were able to name the film series where something like this could theoretically happen: Final Destination.

It was so bad that Final Destination straight up trended on Twitter because of this clip.

A general rule of thumb is that it is good to avoid situations in which things that happen get compared to a series of films that are about horrifying and deadly accidents. At the very least, as a number of people pointed out, if the writers of this series want to add a scene to Final Destination 6 whenever that comes out, an Alabama high school basketball game might have provided some ominous inspiration.

“All I know is every time I think I hit my ceiling / I go higher than I ever f*cking been.”

The chorus to Eminem’s latest song, “Higher” comes with his signature humility — but humor aside, the song’s swaggering confidences is the perfect connection between Em and the spirit of UFC. Eminem and ESPN partnered together to debut the stark, black and white video for “Higher,” one of the new singles off his late December album drop, Music To Be Murdered By – Side B, during their pre-show for UFC 257: Poirier vs. McGregor 2.

The video features cameos from both Dana White and ESPN’s Michael Eaves, and focuses on Eminem’s biggest battle — with his own demons. Though Eminem released Music To Be Murdered By about a year ago, in January of last year, “Higher” is part of the expanded edition, Music To Be Murdered By — Side B that was released in late December.

Though the clips is full of shots of Em facing off against the microphone while in the ring, and training behind the scenes, it also includes real footage from ESPN’s UFC coverage, deepening the connection between the rapper’s metaphorical battles and the physical ones these fighters face in the ring. Check out the clip above.

After a fast and furious couple weeks of smash hit singles, a love triangle, and lots of internet rumors, the dust is beginning to settle on Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License.” The hit single is a torch song about Olivia’s broken heart, and has managed to rack up debut streaming numbers that rendered Spotify execs speechless, while earning her praise from Taylor Swift, Halsey, and Cardi B. It’s also drawn attention of another kind, from Olivia’s rumored ex Joshua Bassett, her Disney+ co-star, and his rumored new girlfriend, Sabrina Carpenter.

In the days since “Drivers License” success, both of these entertainers have taken it upon themselves to release new singles — “Lie Lie Lie” and “Skin,” respectively — that appear to play into the narrative of Olivia’s original song. It’s arguable that “Drivers License” references the pair’s new relationship in its lyrics, but her take is ambiguous enough that probably no one would’ve done more than guess and move on if Bassett and Carpenter hadn’t decided to issue response songs. And, sadly, neither of their songs even come close to the pathos or momentum that Olivia’s original has.

In fact, fans are now beginning to wonder if Bassett and Carpenter, and particularly Carpenter’s song “Skin,” which seems to take the descriptor of “blonde” hair in “Drivers License” personally (even though it’s just an objective fact and not a dig?) are simply trying to ride on the coattails of Olivia’s success. It certainly seems to be working, the “Lie Lie Lie” video has racked up over 5 million views at the time of writing, even though most of the other videos on his channel only have thousands of views. “Skin,” on the other hand, has only been out for two days and it already 3.5 million views and is making major strides on Spotify charts.

Either way, all three of the artists are benefitting from the attention, but it’s still Olivia who is the most — “Drivers License” currently sits at 62 million views on Youtube and the No. 1 song on the Billboard chart. “Skin” is nowhere near that level, but it’s building quickly. Listen below if you haven’t heard it yet.

Oh and before you go, just know that Sabrina and Joshua have a collaboration on his forthcoming EP called “We Both Know.” The games are just beginning…