Category: News

To help offset some of the negative effects the pandemic has had on American businesses, the federal government introduced the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a loan program to help keep employees on payrolls. Yesterday, the Small Business Administration shared a list of businesses that took out loans between $150,000 and $10 million through the program, and it turns out indie record labels received millions of dollars.

As Pitchfork notes, J. Cole’s Dreamville Records, ATO Records, Dim Mak, Rostrum, and Cleopatra each received at least $150,000. Meanwhile, Sub Pop Records, Third Man Records, and Knitting Factory Records each got $350,000 or more, and Stones Throw Records received somewhere between $1 million and $2 million. Kanye West’s Yeezy also received between $2 million and $5 million, which helped save 106 jobs.

Also receiving PPP loans were music-related entities like concert venues, the Grammy Museum Foundation, music publishers, vinyl pressing plants, and record stores. Overall, the “Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation” sector received a hair under $8 billion across 118,332 loans, which accounts for 1.53 percent of the money loaned out so far (as of June 30).

This help comes at a time when the music industry could really use it. Concerts and festivals have been shut down left and right, and many concert venues believe they won’t survive the pandemic.

This week in the best new pop music, artists offered up sunny tunes just in time for this summer’s first heatwave. Ellie Goulding teamed up with Lauv for a simmering single, Disclosure tapped two rappers for a raucous tune, and Christine And The Queens shared a soaring ballad.

Each week, Uproxx rounds up the best new pop releases. Listen up.

Ellie Goulding — “Slow Grenade” Feat. Lauv

Any project where Ellie Goulding teams up with breakout musician Lauv is sure to make Uproxx’s best new pop list. Arriving on her upcoming double record Brightest Blue, “Slow Grenade” sees the two singers reflecting on a slowly imploding relationship over a buoyant beat.

Disclosure — “My High” Feat. Aminé and Slowthai

After ushering in a new era with a handful of upbeat tracks, Disclosure shares “My High” as the second single off their forthcoming album Energy. Speaking about the track in a statement, Disclosure gushed about their collaborators: “We always wanted to work with rappers, we just didn’t know any and we had no means of contacting them… there aren’t a lot of rappers in Reigate. Writing ‘My High’ with Aminé was a lot a fun, he’s hilarious and may as well be a comedian.”

Christine And The Queens — “Eyes Of A Child”

Written to be included in the Amazon Prime series Hanna, Christine And The Queens pivots from her signature synths for the somber ballad “Eyes Of A Child.” Over a resonating piano, Christine’s soaring vocals are at the forefront of the single as she croons a moving tale.

Gus Dapperton — “Post Humorous”

Gus Dapperton’s “Post Humorous” arrived as the lead single off his upcoming sophomore record Orca. The track features Dapperton’s signature jaunty instrumentals juxtaposed against poignant lyrics which narrates mourning an unexpected death in early childhood. “I’m a huge advocate for putting myself in vulnerable positions in my music,” Dappertain said but admits that confronting these feelings “was a chance to be open that I was afraid of. It was cathartic to put these emotions into music.”

Rina Sawayama — “Dance In The Dark”

As part of Spotify’s Single Series that celebrated Pride month, Rina Sawayama gave a moving cover of a track from Lady Gaga’s 2009 sophomore album The Fame Monster. Sawayama transformed Gaga’s overlooked number “Dance In The Dark” from a pulsating track to an electro-pop ballad. Using her emotive vocals to color the song, Sawayama crooned a rendition of “Dance In The Dark” over wailing guitars and metallic synths.

Honne — “La La La That’s How It Goes”

London duo Honne shared their 14-track mixtape No Song Without You this week. Along with it came the carefree track “La La La That’s How It Goes.” Over a breezy melody, Honne sing of relying on loved ones for support.

Amy Allen — “Queen Of Silver Linings”

After years of co-writing popular songs for major pop stars like Harry Styles and Selena Gomez, Amy Allen makes her major-label debut with the soulful single “Queen Of Silver Linings.” About the emotive ballad, Allen said: “We thought of two characters — the Queen of Silver Linings, who holds onto love at all costs and wants to fix things, even if it’s not in her best interests to do so — and the King of Good Intentions, who means well but continues to let her down. As a Queen of Silver Linings myself, I realized that the message isn’t one of hopelessness. I believe there’s quite a power in having the guts to shamelessly fight for something you wholeheartedly believe in.”

Ingrid Andress — “Waste Of Lime”

Following her strong debut effort Lady Like earlier this year, Ingrid Address returns with the playful single “Waste Of Lime.” Inspired by the Beach Boys’ track “Kokomo,” Andress delivers tongue-in-cheek lyrics which is the singer’s way of aiming a subtle middle finger at an unreliable partner.

Maisie Peters — “Sad Girl Summer”

UK singer/songwriter Maisie Peters had a breakout 2019 when she was featured on the Birds Of Prey soundtrack after only releasing her second EP. Now the singer is ready to continue her success into 2020 with “Sad Girl Summer,” an irresistibly catchy number. About the single, Peters said: “I wrote ‘Sad Girl Summer’ at the beginning of summer 2019, which ironically went on to be one of the best summers of my life! The song is all about letting go of things and people that aren’t worth your precious time and energy, and celebrating the people in your life that are.”

Baker Grace — “Up All Night”

Following an EP and a handful of singles, 19-year-old musician Baker Grace returns with the lush track “Up All Night.” Produced by Cautious Clay, the single is a reflection on preemptive judgment. “Everybody has a story and I think it’s important to take the time to understand each other and become more compassionate, so we can learn, grow, and heal together,” Grace said about the track.

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

Wonder Woman‘s formative days as an Amazon warrior on the mythical island of Themyscira was a huge hit when the first movie hit theaters in 2017, so fans should be thrilled to learn that director Patty Jenkins is diving even deeper into the history of the badass women fighters in Wonder Woman 1984.

In a new interview, Jenkins revealed that that one of the flashback scenes will involve a young Diana competing in the Amazon Olympics, which has been a long-time staple of the Wonder Woman comics. The competition will revisit the ancient kingdom, which was last seen in the beginning moments of Justice League, and give audiences a deeper sense of how Diana became such a fierce warrior. Via Empire:

“Here are these people who are incredibly powerful and capable, but different in how they approach things. If you’ve ben training for hundreds of years because of an impending invasion, you’re going to be constantly working on all these skill sets. So, to me, every year, they would have these Olympics to see who’s doing the best on horses or swimming the fastest, and seeing new tricks people have figured out.”

Of course, highlighting the Amazons makes sense not only narratively, but also for Jenkins’ future plans for the Wonder Woman franchise. Back in April, she revealed that she’ll be shepherding a spinoff movie focused solely on the Amazon women of Themyscira that has already been “pitched and sold.” However, Jenkins hopes to avoid the director’s chair for the spinoff and take more of a “producer-level” approach, which presumably, will give her time to approach Wonder Woman 3 with a fresh palette.

(Via Empire)

After Hugh Hefner died in 2017, his iconic Playboy publication decided to honor him as the first man to ever appear on the cover of the magazine without a woman. Fast-forward to 2020 and the quarterly magazine decided to transition to a digital-only publication in light of the pandemic. With the new platform, Playboy decided to make some other changes as well. Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny graced the magazine’s most recent cover, making him the second man ever to appear solo on the front of Playboy.

Bad Bunny’s digital Playboy cover was shot pre-pandemic and arrives shortly after his record-breaking album YLQMDLG. The effort is the highest-charting Spanish-language album of all time, debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

Along with making history on the Playboy cover, Bad Bunny discussed his album, reggaeton style of music, and growing up in Puerto Rico in an interview with the publication. “There’s nothing worse than being somewhere and feeling like you don’t belong,” said Bad Bunny. “I’ve been trying to make sure everybody feels part of the culture of reggaeton. I want to make sure they feel that they have someone there, that friend that can stand up for them.”

The singer continued that staying true to his roots is important to him: “I have always done what I feel is right. I was born in Puerto Rico, and I still live in Puerto Rico. I am living my dream thanks to Puerto Rico, and more than a responsibility, it’s a connection that makes me do things naturally — get it? If something happens and we need to help, I do it because they are my people, famous or not — it’s a matter of the heart.”

Check out Bad Bunny’s digital Playboy cover below.

Last year, Netflix dropped a new series from the Chef’s Table crew called Street Food: Asia. The series was a departure from the halcyon haunts of the culinary elite and, instead, focused on the food of the streets. The same arresting aesthetic was in place. But with Street Food, everything felt accessible to the common food lover (if you were willing to travel, that is). In the end, it was an easy watch that, at the time, you could actually experience yourself if you had the travel bug.

Watching the trailer for the second installment of Street Food — this time focused on Latin America — feels entirely different. With Americans pretty much banned from travel to most of the world, this truly feels like escapism most of us won’t get to experience for awhile, making this show feel like our only access point to enjoy these experiences at the moment. And wow does this trailer stoke our wanderlust for travel and our hunger for great, accessible food on the streets of South America.

Still, one cannot watch this outside of the context of our current situation. Will the vendors be out on the streets at all at the end of the pandemic? What will the street food experience look like? Hell, even referring to a part of the Americas as just “Latin America” now clangs more loudly of Euro-Colonial erasure of Indigenous and Afro Americans than it did a month ago.

In short, we weren’t expecting a trailer that focuses on delicious street food to bring out so many fraught emotions. But here we are.

This season of Street Food: Latin America will allot episodes to Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia. The episodes look like they’ll bridge European and Asian colonial cuisines, African food cultures, and the Indigenous foodways still present in some South American societies. It looks and sounds like a glorious mix of languages, cultures, foods, and locales — and we can’t wait to dig in.

‘Street Food: Latin America‘ premieres its full season on July 21st, 2020 on Netflix.

There are few things more reliable in this world than getting factual, straightforward information from Magic Johnson’s Twitter account. When the Hall of Famer tweets, there is a little added brightness brought to the timeline. His Twitter account has become almost a parody of itself, most often sending congratulations to other great athletes while listing out, very specifically, what they have accomplished, or simply noting some news and facts about it.

However, as we learned recently during an appearance by Johnson on Rob Lowe’s podcast “Literally!,” Johnson is not the person writing his tweets.

“No, I have somebody write them out. I tell them what I want to say and they write them,” Johnson told Lowe after the Hollywood star was puzzled by the fascination with Johnson’s Twitter account (h/t Silver Screen and Roll).

It is heartbreaking news for NBA Twitter, as there was something really enjoyable about imagining Magic Johnson typing out these extremely matter of fact tweets. Still, this begs a few further questions about Johnson’s Twitter.

1. Who is writing Magic Johnson’s tweets?
2. Is that a full-time job or just part of an overall assistant deal?
3. Are these tweets sent verbatim from what Johnson says, or is this mystery tweeter simply given a prompt and told to “make it sound like me?”
4. Does he have standards for what tweets should look like and a strict “no editorializing” policy?
5. How can one procure the Magic Johnson Twitter Style Guide?
6. Is he properly paying his social media manager for crafting one of the all-time Twitter brands?

I’m most intrigued by the third question, because there’s still a chance this is how Magic Johnson would tweet if he wanted to actually operate the phone but is too rich to need to do so. If he’s just dictating these tweets verbatim than this might be even better than him pecking away at a phone keyboard. I can see him reclining in a chaise lounge in his office, dictating exactly how he wants to congratulate Patrick Mahomes on a record-breaking contract, with the specific details of how much he could make.

The latest episode of People’s Party With Talib Kweli welcomes Detroit poet Jessica Care Moore to reflect on her career as a poet and playwright. That career includes performances on the HBO series Def Poetry Jam, appearances on albums from Kweli, Jeezy, and Nas, establishing her own publishing company, Moore Black Press, and friendships with Detroit hip-hop legends like J Dilla, Eminem, and Proof, whom she encountered at the city’s famed venue, The Hip Hop Shop.

Asked about how she became a “go-to poet for hip-hop artists,” Moore details the importance of The Hip Hop Shop to Detroit’s underground rap scene. “I used to run the Hip Hop Shop with Maurice Malone,” she elaborates. “I used to open and close the shop. It was the gathering place for rappers and poets and dancers and culture right on 7 Mile [Road]… Em would come through, Proof hosted the open mic… it was a retail clothing store with a DJ booth and a microphone on the floor. We spent all day there.” Moore details learning business management and credits Malone with popularizing streetwear and hip-hop styles early on.

She also credited J Dilla with being one of the first to think that the idea of putting beats behind her spoken word was a great idea and recalled watching Proof battle Busta Rhymes — a battle she says Proof won handily. “Busta may not admit to this moment,” she chuckles. Kweli affirms, “Proof’s impact was national and it was global.” Moore also takes moment later in the episode to promote her new book, We Want Our Bodies Back, which Refinery29 listed as one of their “Books By Black Women We Can’t Wait To Read in 2020.”

Watch the clip of Moore reminiscing about The Hip Hop Shop below and watch the full episode up top.

People’s Party is a weekly interview show hosted by Talib Kweli with big-name guests exploring hip-hop, culture, and politics. Subscribe via Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.

Posthumous albums reside heavily in the realm of what-ifs and could’ve beens. Like art in a museum, they are presented to the world to enjoy, but unfortunately, without the artist’s presence to proudly stand by their work. Upon their arrival, these albums leave fans wondering a number of things: the heights their beloved artist could have reached, whether or not certain songs were altered, and if the body of work itself is what the artist wanted the world to hear. Pop Smoke’s debut album Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon is riddled with such questions.

Pop Smoke shot like a rocket onto the music scene thanks to his 2019 hit “Welcome To The Party,” which became one of the summer’s most popular releases. His summer 2019 takeover is accentuated by his debut project Meet The Woo and its standout track, “Dior.” Following his 2020 project Meet The Woo 2, Pop Smoke began the process towards his latest release and ensuring another summer takeover, but his death tragically seized that opportunity from him and left fans to grieve and explore the potential the Brooklyn rapper had in store.

With the release of Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, fans of Pop Smoke were granted the opportunity to put their grieving on pause and celebrate the potential of the blossoming star. Unearthing eighteen new songs, and the aforementioned “Dior” single, Pop Smoke’s posthumous debut album proves the Brooklyn rapper was en route towards another belt buckle-grabbing, hip-swinging summer takeover driven by the drill rap that he helped elevate to mainstream popularity.

Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon welcomes a notable amount of artists into Pop Smoke’s playground to run amuck. Lil Baby and DaBaby join him to fantasize about nighttime occurrences on the sinister track, “For The Night,” while Quavo and Future bring awareness to the traitors of the world on “Snitchin.” Nearly doubling the number of features since his last project, Pop Smoke stands beside some of music’s most popular acts and welcomes them to take part in the demeanor he looks to enforce, even when he doesn’t need the help. “44 Bulldog” and “Gangstas” present hard-nosed efforts that creep around the alleyways under the moon unfazed by the danger that lays ahead.

The hardest pill to swallow that Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon presents is the inability for fans to see Pop Smoke live out his growth as an artist. Meet The Woo 2 failed to exemplify his range and teetered into repetitive territory, a critique that his posthumous debut album solves. Nearing the end of the album, Pop Smoke fulfills a wish to venture into the R&B world with well-executed stabs at love that stays true to Pop Smoke’s sound while bringing in new variety and range. He obsesses over his new partner and their newfound love on “Something Special” before delicately diving into the more intimate sides of his relationship on “What You Know About Love.” Ending the R&B sample trifecta with a confident shot at love on “Diana,” Pop Smoke showcases an ambitious aspiration to give listeners something new and expand his once-narrow lane.

Most posthumous albums aim to bring closure to an unexpected end like pages ripped out of a chapter before it was read. However, Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon seeks to produce something else. Pop Smoke’s posthumous debut album attempts to bring the Brooklyn rapper’s name, sound, and presence to previously untouched corners and uncharted roads once and for all. In addition to catering to the ’90s R&B fan, Pop Smoke looks to appeal to the West Coast and Latin ears respectively with “West Coast Sh*t” and “Enjoy Yourself” while the hip-hop of old is saluted with “Got It On Me” which interpolates 50 Cent’s “Many Men.”

Shooting for the stars is only possible through leaving one’s world and that’s exactly what Pop Smoke did. Avoiding the trappings that come with posthumous albums, this feels like the album Pop aimed to make and wanted the world to receive. While an attempt at a critical favorite may have been expected, Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon focuses more on commercial expansion, making Pop Smoke larger than the life he lived.

Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon is out now via Victor Victor Worldwide and Republic Records. Get it here.

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

Before the NBA begins its hopeful restart in the Disney Wide World of Sports bubble, the MLS is the first league that is efforting a campaign in Orlando with the MLS Is Back tournament. However, early returns on the soccer league’s attempt at a bubble have not been very good, as one team — FC Dallas — has already had to withdraw from the tournament due to an outbreak that saw 10 players and one coach test positive for COVID-19 while in the bubble.

Now, there is concern of another outbreak on a team as Nashville SC has reportedly had five players test positive for the novel coronavirus (with four tests still yet to come back) and as such, the second game of the tournament featuring Nashville and Chicago has been postponed.

The outbreak among Nashville players after what happened with Dallas illustrates the fragility of these bubbles, and why regular testing isn’t enough if the results don’t come back prior to players participating in team activities. It’s something the NBA and other leagues must be watching closely, as it illustrates just how quickly and easily the virus can spread through a team. Allowing players to interact with each other while waiting for results does nothing to prevent the virus from spreading and raises the possibility of an outbreak that could force a team to withdraw completely.

Whether that will happen with Nashville SC remains to be seen, but what is clear is that the MLS’ restart is already on thin ice before it even begins. Hopefully the players that test positive will either remain asymptomatic or avoid a serious case and be able to make a full and speedy recovery, whether with an eye on returning to the pitch for the tournament or not.

Elisabeth Moss has been a regular on The West Wing (95 Emmy nominations), Mad Men (four-time Outstanding Drama Series winner), Top of the Lake (two Golden Globes nominations), and The Handmaid’s Tale (the first streaming show to win Outstanding Drama Series). Also, she was on one episode of Batman: The Animated Series, which rules. Moss being attached to a project usually means it’s going to be good, and for her next TV series, the Shirley and The Invisible Man star is playing a famous real-life killer.

Moss will star in the limited series Candy, “based on the true story of killer Candy Montgomery and her victim, Betty Gore,” according to the Hollywood Reporter. “Set in 1980 Texas, Candy (Moss) had it all — a loving husband with a good job, a daughter and son and a nice house in the new suburbs — and killed her friend from church with an ax.” Montgomery’s murder of Gore was previously turned into the TV movie A Killing in a Small Town, whose star, Barbara Hershey, won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie. Moss better make room on her awards shelf.

In a statement, Moss said, “I have been wanting to play an anti-heroine for a while now, and have been trying to work with [executive producer Robin Veith] again after Mad Men for even longer, so when she asked me if I wanted to play a housewife from Texas who, some would say, got away with murder, I simply said, ‘Where do I sign?’ Adding the opportunity to work with [Nick Antosca] after his incredible work on The Act was like taking a delicious dessert and putting 100 cherries on top.” No network is attached yet.

tfw you get away with murder

I can’t wait.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)