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We have Haribo to thank for giving the world the gummy bear. The German brand launched the very fist packaged gummy bears — called Gummibärchen — back in the early 1920s, and the world has been snacking on them for the last 100 years. In those 100 years, there have been very few innovations. Sure, there have been new flavors, different sizes and textures, but largely the shape, size and flavors of Haribo’s bears remain the same and any brands that have followed suit have surely used Haribo as their gummy muse.

It’s not surprise that gummy bears have remained a favorite — they’re unapologetically sugary, they can pull out a filling at any moment (which we guess is a good thing?), and even though they have little to no redeeming nutritional value, at the end of the day, they taste amazing and that’s all anyone really wants from good candy. Candy bowls, in the green rooms of your favorite events, recording studios and anywhere with extensive snack offerings will often have some form of gummy bears and you can bank on their presence at any store that offers candy and snacks.

Are they always good? No. So to seperate the good from the bad, we sampled as many brands as we could get our paws on. For this ranking, we paid special attention to flavor and texture as we find these two factors principal in determining how good or great a Gummy Bear is. We largely skipped any sour or low-calorie varieties, fully risking our dental work for your gain. So here they are, the world’s best gummy bears, ranked from bad to great.

14. 365 Gummy Bears

Price: $4.69 (not available online)

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Easily the strangest Gummy Bears on the market, 365’s vegan bears bear little textural resemblance to your traditional Haribo-style gummy. The berry-tasting anonymous fruity-flavored bears come in pink and red. The texture is a waxy one that is more reminiscent of extra large-sized fruit snacks than true candy. Flavor-wise 365’s bears are not atrocious, just ambiguously fruity and also sugar-forward thanks the tapioca syrup and cane sugar combo.

Best Flavor: Dark Red

Bottom Line: There is nothing “gummy” about these bears besides the fact that you have to pick them off that part of your mouth after you eat them.

13. Great Value Gummy Bears

Price: $6.52

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Walmart’s Great Value delivers on its namesake as these affordable gummies have a softer chew in most cases, contain artificial flavors and colors, while tasting moderately decent. We’d say they offer a great value! The flavors are cherry, strawberry, apple and lemon – each tasting unique though none are exceptional. Great Value produces very standard gummy bears and there’s truly nothing wrong with it but don’t except anything beyond the baseline.

Best Flavor: It’s a toss up.

Bottom Line: Great Value Gummy Bears are a fine way to fill your candy dish or your sweet tooth craving, but it’s doubtful you’d go out of your way for a second bag, even if you’re already at Walmart.

12. 7-Eleven Gummy Bears

Price: $3.09

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Very closely resembling every normal size gummy bear on the market, 7-Eleven’s bears take a page from the Albanese playbook (more on this later) and include 12 different flavors. Spongier than the Haribo variety, these hibernating gummies are also slightly softer than your average bear though they appear indistinguishable in shape. Flavorwise, the variety is plentiful with 12 flavors and you’ll be sure to find some favorites but it’s also tough to say there are any that go past being one note sweet and vaguely similar to the artificial flavors those fruits are typically flavored with.

Best Flavor: Lime.

Bottom Line: 7-Eleven does a commendable job with their branded gummy bear offering though their contribution to the gummy game is a bit questionable, considering they carry several of the other brands listed here in most of their stores. The spongy texture of these bears is ideal, but some flavors end with an extra sugary aftertaste that goes a bit beyond and others have a weird off-putting aftertaste that is difficult to verbalize.

11. Bowl & Basket Gummy Bears

Price: $1.69

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Strangely imperfect in their cut from whatever mold or machine they’re produced by, Bowl & Basket’s 12 flavors are very sweet in flavor and soft in texture. Your dentist may be quicker to endorse these not-as-chewy gummy bears, but they’re still pretty sticky. Though the flavors here are in the double digits, there is nothing particularly pleasing or mind-blowing about any of them.

Best Flavor: Grapefruit.

Bottom Line: A perfectly passable option, but this is a Shoprite store brand and not one of the good ones, as Shoprite sells a lot of the other brands listed here already.

10. Nice Gummy Bears (Walgreen’s)

Price: $1.99

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Nice’s Gummy Bears’ shape and size is identical to that of an Albanese bear (we promise we’ll tell you what this means soon), but they’re thicker and tougher in texture and a little more sugary in flavor, though not necessarily sweeter. Some of the flavors have depth beyond being one note sweet, but others are on the more generic side.

Best Flavor: Blue Raspberry

Bottom Line: Nice Gummy Bears turn out to be a quality pickup if you’re ever at a Walgreen’s, but they are far from the best.

9. Favorite Day Gummy Bears

Price: $1.49

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Target’s Favorite Day Gummy Bears offer a variety of flavors. Here is the deal though, the texture is not very soft and chewable. This is a harder bear. Texture aside, Favorite Day executes on a pretty high level and most of the flavors here are well-done, our favorites include Orange, Pineapple, Blue Raspberry, Watermelon and Peach. A peach-flavored gummy bear – why isn’t this more of a thing?

Best Flavor: Peach.

Bottom Line: Target’s Favorite Day Gummy Bears are one of the best from a corporate mega store. But they can’t compete with the more dedicated brands that we’ve ranked higher.

8. California Gummy Bears – California Fruit Mix

Price: $6.95

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Softer than a traditional gummy bear but still gummy, California Gummy Bears are one of the only brands where the bear is shaped like an actual animal and not just a bear with superb posture sitting upright like it’s in a chair. Since they are California gummy bears and the state is known for that style of bear, the shape seems very on-brand, while also being cute and colorful due to the different flavors.

Unfortunately, despite the great shape and decent soft texture, the alluringly appealing flavor variety does not fully execute on the deliciousness spectrum. Pink Grapefruit and Tangerine bears lack any sour note that typifies real citrus nor does Peach or Mango have any signature tang. Ultimately, these come off like a missed opportunity to offer interesting flavors.

Best Flavor: Raspberry.

Bottom Line: The well-designed branding and packaging cast California Gummy Bears as a premium product and though they don’t deliver completely on flavor, they do in all other categories that count.

7. Haribo Goldbears – Wild Berry

Price: $2.00

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Perhaps my eyes are getting old but the difference in color between Strawberry and Blueberry, as well as Raspberry and Cherry are difficult to decipher with Haribo’s Wild Berry Goldbears. Raspberry and Wild Cherry both have a slight tang, making them more dynamic in flavor than their blue-ish counterparts that are mainly just sweet. All of the Wild Berry Goldbears flavors have the same signature bouncy Haribo texture, beloved by snacking consumers and floss companies, alike.

Best Flavor: Wild Cherry.

Bottom Line: The Haribo Goldbear is a textbook gummy bear, and their Wild Berry collection offers many popular berry flavors. If that’s your speed, then you can’t go wrong with picking up this less common variety of Haribo’s Goldbears.

6. Haribo Goldbears

Price: $2.00

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Haribo Goldbears are literally the gold standard when it comes to gummy bears. The bears offer a familiar blend of flavors, with that signature chewy molar-testing texture the brand is known (and beloved) for. The Goldbears are sure to satisfy any gummy bear hankerings. Though the flavors are artificial, they’re exactly what you expect from a gummy bear and are distinct enough to satiate lovers of cherry, lemon, pineapple and orange.

We don’t have anything bad to say about Haribo Goldbears, they’re dependably consistent and if you want to switch it up, they offer a sour version as well as bags with other flavors.

Best Flavor: Orange.

Bottom Line: There is nothing innovative about Haribo Goldbears, but who needs gimmicks when you have the original recipe? There is no wow or shock factor, but these don’t disappoint in anyway. They are the gold standard. The foundation that all other bears are birthed from!

5. Black Forest Gummy Bears

Price:$5.49

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Black Forest makes their gummy bears with real fruit juice, and they genuinely have a juiciness to them. Despite their juiciness, all flavors finish sugary sweet and the soft chew of the gummy has a bit of a fruit snack feel to it. These are just facts, not knocks, each flavor does specifically taste of its real fruit self, the lemon is citrusy but not tart, the cherry has the full body flavor of real cherry and the apple is slightly earthy and sweet, as most real apples usually are. If you like your bears tasting natural, you’ll love these.

Best Flavor: Cherry.

Bottom Line: Black Forest Gummy Bears have a juicy finish and mouthfeel that few brands offer, and though they taste great, they’re mostly sweet and have an addictive soft chew texture that is atypical of gummy bears. For that we can’t give them the top spot, but they are solidly top five.

4. Yum Earth Gummy Bears

Price: $9.69

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Bearing (sorry, had to) flavors like Peach, Mango, Cherry and Strawberry and with 90% organic ingredients, Yum Earth’s Gummy Bears are the direction the future of candy should be headed. Yum Earth proves you can choose not to consume genetically modified or artificial ingredients and still have a delicious candy snack, as these bears are wonderfully chewy, texturally bouncy, and very satisfying. The flavors are equally tasty too, each distinct and some with citric acid to mimic the sour notes of the actual fruits.

Best Flavor: Peach.

Bottom Line: Yum Earth’s Gummy Bears come in snack size packets that are small enough to sneak into lunches or desk drawers, whatever suits your fancy, and very easy to justify due to the portion control. They also taste great, which is the most important thing.

3. Albanese Gummy Bears

Price: $3.99

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

We’ve been alluding to this brand constantly, so if you’ve been scratching your head throughout this ranking, it’s about to pay off. Albanese set a new standard: 12 flavors, soft and squishy, skinny, but taller than your average bear. These bears offer a texture and aftertaste that slightly resembles Jello — in a good way if that’s possible — Albanese’s staple Gummy Bears are the prototype for soft but perfect gummy texture. Albanese’s bears also contain juicy fruity flavor that none of its copycats has been able to duplicate, even if they attempt to copy Albanese flavor for flavor.

Best Flavor: Pineapple.

Bottom Line: Often imitated but never bested, Albanese blew our minds the first time we ever sampled them and we’ve been hooked since (though our favorites are their Sour Gummy Bears, which are identical to these but with the citric acid/sugar outer layer to up the ante). Albanese has clearly put Haribo and other Gummy Bear brands on notice with their 12 flavor Gummy Bears concept.

2. Trader Joe’s Organic Beary Tiny Gummies

Price:$15.00 (for 5 packages)

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Trader Joe’s Tiny Organic Beary Gummies are so small, you could argue that these aren’t gummy bears at all, but instead gummy cubs. Small size aside, we’re counting them! The Beary’s texture has a great bounce, though slightly softer than the usual bear. Strangely, the Beary flavors are not listed on the packaging, but they’re all individually very fruity and flavorful. We’re tasting cherry, apple, grapefruit, apricot, and possibly others. Part of the fun is trying to figure out the flavors, I guess. I certaintly enjoyed it.

Best Flavor: Grapefruit.

Bottom Line: Trader Joe’s Organic Beary Tiny Gummies are some of the best Gummy Bears out despite their miniature size. Ultimately, the size doesn’t diminish the experience, in fact it increases the joy because you can easily combine or eat handfuls without feeling any guilt or shame. Not only that, but these are also some of the best-tasting gummy bears, and at the end of the day that’s what matters most.

1. Albanese True To Fruit Exotic Fruits

Price: $3.99

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

First off, kudos to Albanese for even having the chutzpah to call on very niche and unusual flavors for their “Exotic” Fruits Gummy Bears (e.g. Asian Pear, Blood Orange, Alphonso Mango, Crimson Cranberry etc.). Albanese is a brand known for having double digit flavors, and while this pack comes up a bit short, they’re still delivering eight flavors, which is more than Haribo could ever dare to offer (shots fired).

Flavor-wise, the Exotic Fruits bear a juicy nuanced profile for each individual flavor that taste just like the actual fruits they represent and that’s not a surprise because Albanese utilizes real juice concentrate in its recipe.

The mere fact that Albanese has a cranberry-flavored gummy bear is already pretty unique, but the way the brand executes on that mix of tart and sweet flavors typical of real cranberries just can’t be beat.

The more typical gummy bear fruit flavors like raspberry are bursting with juicy sweet goodness but an also slightly sour flavor, more dynamic than any raspberry gummy you’ve tasted. Even the Queen Pineapple flavor has a piquant note that mimics the more bitter parts of the fruit – there is nuance and complexity to every single flavor in this bag. We’ve truthfully never had a brand like it.

Texturally, they’re identical to the artificial version of Albanese Gummy Bears, offering a slightly soft bounce to the bear than what is historically typical, as well as an easier chew. But we’re going to let flavor take precedent over texture here. These can’t be beat.

Best Flavor: Rubus Raspberry.

Bottom Line: Very few gummy bears on the market have as genuine and dynamic a flavor as these Albanese True To Fruit Exotic Fruits Gummy Bears. The nuance, the complexity, the flavor blend — we’ve never had a bear offer so much! Yes, they’re that good.

When North Carolina rap crooner Morray released his new single “FTA (Failure To Appear)” a month ago, it was the Fayetteville native’s first new single in nearly two years, after the Lil Tjay collaboration “High Price.” Prior to that, he’d released the buzzy 2020 single “Quicksand” and featured on fellow Fayettevillian J. Cole’s 2021 hit “My Life” alongside 21 Savage, reprising Pharoahe Monch’s chorus from Styles P’s 2002 standout, “The Life.”

After being featured on XXL‘s Freshman cover, and with the co-sign of one of hip-hop’s unofficial “Big Three,” it seemed Morray was poised to blow up in a big way before he took a long break, basically disappearing for all of 2024. Perhaps that was a blessing in disguise: After dodging the contentious and testy energy of a year defined by diss tracks, Morray has a more-or-less clean slate as he prepares to release his second mixtape, Long Story Short, unencumbered by the baggage of his connections (and label obligations, as he’s newly independent, with distribution through EMPIRE).

Still, he got plenty out of his association with his Fayetteville compatriot, who famously told him to scrap several albums’ worth of material in the process of recording his debut, which he hopes to release this year after setting the table with Long Story Short. As he tells Uproxx via Zoom, “Every song that J. Cole heard that he said didn’t belong, none of those songs are even around anymore.” Instead, he’s focused on reintroducing himself to the world of hip-hop and establishing what’s transpired “off-screen,” so to speak, as he contemplated his comeback.

That slow-cooked approach has served many of his peers well, from J. Cole himself to some of the biggest success stories of the past four years. Musically, the album sees Morray attacking gritty beats with even more bluesy aplomb than ever, while contextually, hip-hop’s soil is ready for some new sounds after the scorched-earth scuffling of the past year. Morray has emerged with some stories to tell, and with Long Story Short, he delivers a useful prologue, synopsizing the parts we need to know before serving up the real plot for 2025.

What have you been up to since we last heard from you?

Honestly, I’ve been just living life. I ain’t going to lie to you: Really going through it and just realizing who I want to be and the kind of music I want to make and the kind of person I want to be, the kind of father I want to be. Just really just been living, you feel me? And learning in these past four years. I’ve really just been working on my craft and working on my pen and working on Morray.

It shows. The raps on this are incredibly top tier. I could never in my time figure out how to get down that melodic style that you’re so good at because my breath control wasn’t there. Do you jog three miles a day to get that up or how do you maintain that?

No, I’m going to keep it a band. Bro, growing up in church, you going to learn that breath control regardless. Auntie ain’t about to sit here and let you mess up the whole song because you can’t breathe, so you got to learn that at a young age. So that sh*t came from me since a little kid because jogging three miles a day, no sir-ski.

It’s 12 tracks and the process of selecting tracks has always been really interesting to me because there’s a logic that goes into it: You record a lot and then you have to figure out which ones. What are the criteria that make a Long Story Short song a must-have and what’s the sort of thing that can disqualify a track?

I wanted to stick to exactly what happened in chronological order, so there’s a lot of songs that I make that sound the same. So it’s like, I have four songs that have the same topic, but which song is the best song out of those four songs? And then I pick the next topic and make four to five songs for that topic and pick the best song… I like to go through and just create different vibes for the same topic just to see what’s the best vibe I can have.

Because there’s so many ways you can tell a story: There’s not just one way. I’ll write a song and record it four different ways just to hear how it sounds. Different flows, different tempos, different everything just to see, “Okay, does this fit the story better or does this one?”

In terms of Long Story Short, what kind of a story would you say that this is? If you had to give it a genre and a log line… You know how movies are like, “Oh, Die Hard on a boat”? They give you a log line and then they give you the genre of it. What would this one be?

Triumphant gladiator vibes. I just see myself being in the middle of the arena, bro, fighting everything that’s against me and really coming out on top. Just ain’t no “Hail Caesar,” it’s “Hail Morray” now. I’m putting myself first and I’m ready to just take on anybody.

What were some of the struggles or obstacles or things that you felt like were trying to hold you back over the last three years? And what were some of your strategies or your things that helped you overcome those in the process of writing this album?

It was lack of confidence for me, lack of support from people that I was doing business with before. It was a lot of small things that became big things. So I can’t pinpoint one single thing, but it was a difficult four years trying to figure out exactly what I was trying to do and who I was trying to become.

I made so many different kinds of sounds, and it was trying to figure it out, and I finally realized: “Yo, bro, get back to you.” And I got that from the people that surround me, the people that support me, the ones that helped me, the ones I call when I’m struggling with something or the ones that surround me and like, “Yo, bro, you got this.” Having a close-knit team is really what makes me feel like I could do it all because I know they’ve really got my back.

That actually reminded me of something that you said prior to… I want to say it was ’22. You were doing an interview with HipHopDX. You told DX that J. Cole made you scrap “hella” albums. How much of Long Story Short is entirely new and how much of it is a remainder of something that J. Cole was like, “That’s not good enough, bro?” And you just reworked it until it was?

Well, I’m going to keep it a band. Long Story Short, it is a mixtape. I wouldn’t even call it my album, because I feel like I just had so much to get out and I wanted to do this. Okay, Long Story Short, before I give you my album, this is what you have to start with. You got to know me first.

And every song J. Cole heard that he said didn’t belong, none of those songs are even around anymore. No lie. So that whole album probably got scrapped there. I’m not using none of those songs ever. This is all a revamp, a new Morray. And he’s heard these songs and he f*ck with these songs so it’s like, all right, it’s cool. I really found my lane. It’s not because of nobody else. It’s just because I feel comfortable with the music now.

I first discovered North Carolina as a hip-hop hub in high school because of Little Brother. I remember the point of contention was Little Brother was really salty about people thinking they were supposed to sound like Petey Pablo. Since then, there’s been Rapsody and there’s been J. Cole and there’s been you. The kind of artistry that y’all make is unique, and it’s always very inspirational. It’s always very soulful… But everybody’s got bars.

North Carolina’s filled with so much culture, so much blues, so much jazz, so much that’s real to the heart core of our culture. So when we rap or when we sing, we’re always finding some way to give it back to the culture, and also tell our own story as well. North Carolina’s just got so much. It’s just so much of everything. So much love. There’s so much affection. There’s so much comfort. It’s so much of everything that you just want to put it in your music. Even in the negative songs, too. You want to have some kind of comfort. Like, “I’m riding around my city but it’s on me,” type sh*t. But it’s just a very comfortable sound, a very fulfilling sound and it makes you feel better than just being a rapper.

Who’s somebody or what’s something that you consider an inspiration that you think most people would be surprised by?

I get my inspiration from watching people that have been in a bad situation and made themself better. It’s not even specific people. I could be on the ‘Gram and see somebody tell their story from who they used to be to who they are now, and it just excites me as a person. Like, “Damn, whatever you went through bro, you just beat the odds. I feel like I need to write a song about beating the odds right now because bro, I’ve been there, and you’ve been there and at least I know you can relate.” And that’s where I pull from. My inspiration comes from everyday life, seeing life. I got to live it, or I can’t write it.

What would you say is the moral of the story of Long Story Short? What would you hope people take away from this project after listening to it a couple of times and apply to their own life?

I really want people to get, yo, everybody’s life, whether you are a rapper, whether you’re a federal worker, whether you don’t do sh*t at all, you’re going to have ups and downs. You got to find the good in all your bad. Every tribulation, every trial, you can have a triumph if you just keep going. Every song on my project is telling people, “Yo, I’ve been through the wire, but I’m not afraid to bet on me.” I’m fearless. The way I name my songs, I want people to say this is their favorite song and feel what that title is telling you. That title is telling you your feelings.

Let’s say next year, you should happen to stop by Uproxx’s new studio, and I’m just in there working and I say, “Oh, what’s up, Morray? What you been up to?” What do you want to be able to say?

I want ’25 to have brought me nothing but success. A successful mixtape, a successful album, a tour. I want to say that I’ve just been working. The amount of work I want to do, that’s what makes me happy. When I see you next year, I want to say, “Bro, I haven’t sat my Black ass down since we talked.” Music is my baby. I wish I was one of them n****s who be like, “Oh, I want to work and then go chill.” I don’t want to ever chill. All I want to do is work. I’m a rapper: My work is fun.

Long Story Short is out now via Morray Music/EMPIRE. Find more information here.

How good is the Severance marketing? First, there was the Grand Central Terminal pop-up with stars Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Zach Cherry, Patricia Arquette, and Tramell Tillman trapped in a see-through cube. Now, the Apple TV+ series has partnered with Odesza for a 23-minute remix of the Severance score entitled “Music To Refine To.”

“We wanted to take people on a journey and give a wider breadth of music and play off and reinterpret Teddy’s score in a unique way,” Odesza’s Harrison Mills told Billboard. “We put different chords under a lot of his melodies, while also trying to stay true to the vibe of the show, which is kind of creepy and subversive. You’re not overtly aware of this dark underbelly.”

Clayton Knight added, “It’s got Odesza energy, but it tries to capture the tone and motifs of the show. It’s also the first time we haven’t had a vocal element to work with. It uses zero vocals.

Maybe the Severance team can get Vince Staples involved next?

You can listen to Odesza’s Severance remix above, and check out the dates for their upcoming Las Vegas residency below.

Odesza’s 2025 Las Vegas Residency Dates: Odesza Wynn DJ Set

05/15 — Las Vegas, NV @ XS Nightclub
05/24 — Las Vegas, NV @ Encore Beach Club
07/04 — Las Vegas, NV @ XS Nightclub
08/29 — Las Vegas, NV @ XS Nightclub
09/13 — Las Vegas, NV @ Encore Beach Club

Swedish multi-instrumentalist and producer Arc De Soleil is a rising act to watch. In fact, the “Mumbo Sugar” singer has already secure noteworthy co-signs from fellow musicians Leon Bridges and Vulfpeck.

While Arc De Soleil tours across North American with the entertainers, he is fleshing out a fan base all his own. Today (February 21), Arc De Soleil dropped a live performance video of “Sunchaser” to get these new supporters into his groove.

According to Arc De Soleil, the self-produced and written tuned started off as a sonic tribute to his trip to Egypt. But it quickly transformed into a fuzzy and funky sonic exploration of the relationship between ancient Egyptians and deity Ra.

In a statement, Arc De Soleil opened up about his inspiration behind the record, saying: “‘Sunchaser’ paints the notion of feeling trapped in a sort of perennial alienation towards being in the world, longing for a sense of realness that would ignite the soul with true belonging. Chasing the sun is a metaphor for the striving towards this home of the soul.”

Watch Arc De Soleil’s live performance video for “Sunchaser” above.

Arc De Soleil 2025 Tour Dates: 2025 North American Tour

06/19 – Rothbury, MI @ Electric Forest
06/22 – Rothbury, MI @ Electric Forest
06/26 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
06/27 – Dallas, TX @ Echo
06/28 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk
07/01 – San Diego, CA @ MusicBox
07/02 – Pomona, CA @ Glasshouse
07/05 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks *
07/18 – London, UK @ Alexandra Palace Park ^

* – supporting Vulfpeck, ^ – supporting Leon Bridges

Although rappers often praise their moms in their music, it’s rare that one of those mothers rises to a level of notoriety among hip-hop fans similar to their famous offspring. But Voletta Wallace, mother of the late Notorious B.I.G., AKA Biggie Smalls, was one of those rarities. Today, TMZ reports that Ms. Wallace has died at the age of 72 from natural causes, after spending the last 28 years fighting for justice for her son’s murder.

Ms. Wallace was the executor of Biggie’s estate, ensuring that his name and legacy lived on long past his death in March 1997. According to TMZ, when B.I.G. died, his estate was worth $10 million and now, 28 years later, it’s estimated to be worth $160 million, with much of that going to his kids, T’yanna and C. J. Wallace. Throughout her life, Voletta used her platform to talk about and promote Biggie’s works, and was a consultant on a number of films about his life and career, including the 2009 biopic Notorious and more recently, the documentary Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell.

Voletta had spent the last few weeks of her life in hospice care, dying this morning in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, as confirmed by the Monroe County Coroner.

Nickel Boys was one of last year’s cinematic highlights (Uproxx named it one of 2024’s best movies), and a big part of that was the score from Alex Somers and Scott Alario.

In fact, the Oscar-nominated film’s OST is worth checking out on its own, and soon, you’ll be able to add it to your vinyl library: Pre-orders for Nickel Boys — Original Motion Picture Soundtrack are live now ahead of the album’s release on April 25. The album is pressed on “metallic gold” vinyl and comes with a full color insert.

Uproxx’s Philip Cosores previously called Nickel Boys “the best film of the year” and “one of the most exciting artistic accomplishments in recent memory,” writing, “It’s groundbreaking cinema that’s built to last, a movie whose log line (or best of the year blurb) can’t do it justice.”

Check out the Nickel Boys — Original Motion Picture Soundtrack vinyl packaging and tracklist below.

Nickel Boys — Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Vinyl

Nickel Boys — Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Vinyl Tracklist

Side A
1. “Stare”
2. “Out There In Here”
3. “Color Memory”
4. “Bees Buzzing”
5. “Not Be Long”

Side B
1. “Grown Into”
2. “Do Re Mi”
3. “What’s Ours?”
4. “Whirl”
5. “Black And White Photo Booth”
6. “Blooming Bloody”
7. “Boxcar”
8. “Lockets Opening”

Nickel Boys — Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is out 4/25 via Lakeshore Records. Find more information here.

A little over three years since making his debut, Jacksonville rapper Nardo Wick returned this week with his sophomore album, Wick. After a rollout that included “Somethin’” with Sexyy Red, the Future reunion “Back To Back,” Nardo commemorated the album’s release with a new video for “Hello.”

Shot in San Francisco and directed by Dell, who previously worked with Nardo on a number of his videos, including “Hot Boy” and “Wicked Witch,” the video for “Hello” sees Nardo answering the question “where Wicky been?” Apparently, in the streets, accompanied by a pair of masked goons, or in the house, doing some deep thinking on his couch. The alternation between introspection and menace has been a hallmark of Wick’s past output, and clearly remains intact on his latest.

Funnily enough, Wick isn’t Nardo’s first project of the year. That distinction goes to the Hold Off EP, released just weeks before the full-length. Hold Off was the Jacksonville native’s warm-up, shaking off the rust, and getting back into the rough and rugged mode that first introduced him to the world. The EP also worked to expand his range, including the emotive “I Wonder” and releasing a video for the track featuring Milwaukee rapper Lakeyah.

Watch Nardo Wick’s “Hello” video above.

Wick is out now via Flawless Entertainment/RCA Records. You can find more info here.

We are so close to the release of Tate McRae’s So Close To What. So close, in fact, that it’s already here: McRae’s third album (and first since she was announced as a musical guest on SNL) was released today, February 21, along with the dance-heavy video for “Revolving Door.” But interestingly, the first words on So Close To What aren’t spoken by McRae.

People are convinced that the sampled voice saying “no, seriously, get your hands off my man” on track one “Miss Possessive” belongs to Sydney Sweeney. The Euphoria actress is assigned with the intro on the song’s Genius page, and the claim has been spread on social media and Reddit. It could very well be true, since we know Sweeney is a “Tater Tot.”

However! As far as I can tell, Sweeney hasn’t said that line in any of her movies or TV shows, and she’s not listed in the song credits, either.

So, this begs the question…

Is Sydney Sweeney On Tate McRae’s New Album?

If this was a Magic 8 Ball, it would say “Ask again later.” Specifically, once either McRae or Sweeney confirm it’s actually the actress.

So Close To What is out now via RCA Records. Find more information here.

Lady Gaga is heading to Brazil. Over the past several weeks, the “Abracadabra” singer has treated fans across the US to multiple live performances (i.e. SNL 50: The Homecoming Concert, FireAid LA Benefit Concert, Super Bowl LIX, and the2025 Grammys).

Now, Gaga is ready to take her talents abroad. Today (February 21), Lady Gaga took to Instagram to announced her forthcoming Brazilian bash, Mayhem On The Beach. On May 3, Lady Gaga and the Monsters (super fans) will storm Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for a free show.

In the upload’s cation, Gaga expressed her excitement for the upcoming set. “It’s a great honor to be asked to sing for Rio,” she wrote. “For my whole career the fans in Brazil have been part of the lifeblood of the little monsters. I’ve been dying to come perform for you for years and was heartbroken when I had to cancel years ago because I was hospitalized.”

She continued: “Your understanding that I needed that time to heal meant the world to me. I am now coming back, and I feel better than ever, and I am working so hard to make sure this show is one you will never forget. Get ready for MAYHEM on the beach.”

With Lady Gaga’s seventh studio album, Mayhem, slated to drop on March 7 fans could not be more excited–so are Brazilian official.

According to reports, organizers and authorities believe Lady Gaga’s outdoor event could break a record previously held by Madonna. Last year, Madonna’s show on the same oceanfront pulled in 1.6 million attendees making it “the largest audience ever for a stand-alone concert by any artist in history.” Brazilian suspect Lady Gaga will out do that already astronomical number.

Lady Gaga’s Mayhem On The Beach concert will take place on May 3. The performance at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil will be broadcasted live on Multishow and TV Globo. Find more information here.

Victor Wembanyama took another step towards his apparent destiny as one of the best players in the NBA in his sophomore season, earning All-Star honors and was a near-lock for Defensive Player of the Year at the All-Star break. However, all of that got derailed this week when he returned to San Antonio and noted he had some shoulder discomfort, which led to a diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis that ended his season.

A blood clot is a very scary situation, but the Spurs are optimistic they caught it early and it will be an isolated incident, with Brandon Ingram providing a recent example of a similar situation that had a positive outcome. One of the biggest challenges for Wembanyama will be having to step away from the game he loves for an extended period as he awaits clearance from doctors to return to the court. Kevin Durant knows that feeling all too well, having missed a season with a torn Achilles that, while a very different injury, also requires a lot of recovery time to take place before you can get back to doing anything basketball related.

On Thursday, after the Suns lost to the Spurs, Durant was asked about Wembanyama’s situation and any advice he’d give to the young star.

“That’s tough to deal with initially, but as weeks and months go past you just kind of deal with the [new] normal and understand what you’re getting yourself into. Be patient, I mean that’s the most you can do,” Durant said. “You can’t get back on the court, being upset about it’s not going to do much for you. So, get in tune with yourself a little bit more, find some more Legos to put together, read a couple of books, and then when it’s time to get back on the court and start working out and stuff, lock in. I think he’ll be fine. It’s tough mentally not playing the game, but when you understand what’s a head and focus on each and every day it’ll make it a little easier.”

Durant isn’t one to sugarcoat things, but it’s also some sage advice. There isn’t anything you can do to expedite the recovery process when it comes to something like a blood clot. There aren’t more weights you can lift or extra things you can really do like with, say, an ankle sprain, it’s just a matter of being patient and doing what the doctors say. Durant, who is as much of a basketball sicko as anyone, knows how hard it is to step away from the game, but as he notes, Wembanyama should have a lot of basketball ahead of him still and can use this time to look inward a bit, find some things to fill the time, focus on doing what he has to each day, and then when that clearance does come get back to doing what he does best.