After months of delays and an often-irritating waiting game, Drake finally shared the release date for his upcoming album, Certified Lover Boy. The rapper “hacked” a Sportscenter broadcast to reveal September 3 as the official date, then later shared quite the controversial artwork. Now he’s unveiled the guest features for the project in a very creative way.
Drake posted the names of his guests on various billboards. Among those set to appear include Jay-Z, Young Thug, Future, 21 Savage, Lil Baby, Giveon, Ty Dolla Sign, and Lil Durk. The billboards for the artists were placed in each one’s respective state. For instance, Jay-Z’s was in New York, Lil Durk’s was in Illinois, both Giveon and Ty Dolla Sign’s were in California, and Atlanta played home to Young Thug, Future, 21 Savage, and Lil Baby.
Lil Durk’s is set to appear on the album’s lead single “Laugh Now, Cry Later,” but it’s possible that he and Drake worked on multiple songs. Just like with the rest of the guests on the album, we’ll have to wait until Friday to find out.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Certified Lover Boy is out 9/3 via OVO Sound/Republic.
Well, it’s that time of year again when we look across Twitter at a sea of angry tweets about the glitches in the most recent release of Madden. This year’s iteration, Madden 22, is no different from previous years with glitches everywhere. Some of them are funny, such as this one where an entire defensive line gets destroyed, but there are the ones that aren’t quite as enjoyable.
Players have been reporting that when they’re in Franchise mode they’ll be playing through games, win the game, and go back to the menu only to discover they have suffered a loss. The likely cause of this has something to do with players online franchises desynching from the servers, but that doesn’t make the glitch any less frustrating when it occurs. Especially when it’s occurring enough that multiple people are tweeting about it.
Franchise mode played the whole game won 42-7 to come back to main screen to find out no stats count and I got a loss. What’s going on @EAMaddenNFLpic.twitter.com/5AkTCfHEez
As always, we want to stress that making video games is incredibly difficult. However, when the entire objective of franchise mode is to play through an entire season there is little reason to stay engaged with the game when the results not only aren’t counting but are being recorded as losses. Why not just simulate through every game if there’s a chance we’re going to lose anyway? This is one of those glitches that makes players put the game down and never play it again, even after it’s been patched out.
While every Madden game these days seems to launch as a buggy mess, Madden 22 is earning special accolades among fans for being one of the most broken at launch. Visual glitches, such as fans holding up signs cheering for the wrong team, are spread throughout the game. Unfortunately, those are minor compared to the people who have seen the game consistently crashing or being unable to access entire modes such as Face of the Franchise. The worst sin a game can commit is not allowed players to play it and right now people who want to play Madden are struggling to even get through menus. Then, when they do, their game might be recorded as a loss. It’s no surprise to see that people are frustrated.
As for a fix, at this point, all EA has is that fixes are “in the works, stay tuned,” per a statement to IGN about the loss glitch issue. A patch is surely on the way, but given the widespread issues in the game, it seems unlikely one patch will be enough to fix it all.
Earlier this week, Lil Wayne celebrated the tenth anniversary of his ninth album, The Carter IV. It’s an important one in the rapper’s career as it’s the first he released after serving an eight-month prison sentence for illegal possession of a weapon. A decade later, he rung in the anniversary by hopping on Twitter to answer questions from fans.
It was during this Q&A that Wayne revealed how often he changes his verses when working with Drake, whom he signed to Young Money more than a decade ago. “Everything Drake send back, I always have to go back and re-record,” Wayne said in a video response. “It’s always too hot. It’s always because he says something at the end that make me be like, ‘Oh, I could make more of the song and capitalize on what he just said.’ I have changed my verse a billion times because of Drake and that’s always the person.”
He added, “It’s always because he says something that sounds a whole lot more interesting and unique and I feel like we need to capitalize on whatever the hell he said.”
Wayne and Drake have collaborated several times, the most recent being “Seeing Green,” with Nicki Minaj, and “BB King Freestyle.”
Everyone knew that the upcoming Marvel’s Midnight Suns would be a tactical game of some kind. The developer, Firaxis Games is famous in the tactics RPG genre thanks to previous hits like XCOM and Civilization. However, there was a lot of interest in what direction they were planning on taking the game. Was it going to be just a Marvel version of the popular XCOM series, a spin-off of Civilization, or was there a plan to take this potential new franchise in a completely different direction?
On Wednesday, we finally got our answers to at least some of those questions. Marvel released a gameplay trailer of the upcoming game to give fans some insight into some of the features we’ll see in Midnight Suns. The trailer featured a lot of fun gameplay such as dialogue trees, multiple characters, and most interestingly a card system. While the trailer didn’t go too in-depth into features, because it’s a trailer, what stood out the most was definitely the cards that appeared to represent characters’ abilities and powers.
Traditionally, tactical RPGs go in one of two directions. They either take the Civilization direction where it’s basically a turn-based Real-Time Strategy game. The alternative is the XCOM or Fire Emblem route where characters are positioned in a way that can create tactical battle advantages. These advantages can swing the direction of a fight and allow the player to potentially do more damage to their opponent. Midnight Suns however seems to be building their system around deck building, which has its pros and cons.
Deck building games in concept are simple, put together a deck of cards that will act as actions for the players. Where the fun in them lies is that, if the player spends enough time creating their deck, they can build ultra-powerful move sets. It’s all about creating the perfect win scenario and it requires a lot of scrolling through menus, trial, and error. For some people, the idea of collecting cards, building out a deck, and creating the perfect setup for characters is a ton of fun. For others, it’s a chore that is going to make them not want to play the game. Deck building isn’t for everyone and it’s a bit of a surprise to see such a polarizing gameplay style applied to a franchise with such a huge potential fanbase like Marvel.
However, there is one aspect of this trailer that could solve an issue that so many tactical RPGs have to deal with, especially the XCOM series. Cards might mean that the accuracy system from the XCOM games will not be a part of this game. Anyone that’s played XCOM knows this frustration. The setup is perfect, the enemy has been outmaneuvered, and all that’s necessary is for your AI to hit their shot. You have a 99 percent chance of a hit, and then your character misses. The enemy turns around and hits a shot on you with not only a lower percentage chance, but it’s a critical hit and you die immediately. Controller? Broken.
A reaction to the Midnight Suns, and one that would have been completely reasonable, is to say that it should have just been Marvel XCOM and in a lot of ways it looks just like that. However, with these cards acting as powers, the rules change. It becomes not only about how you have set yourself up for an attack, but what deck you’ve brought in with you. Set yourself up perfect, play the right card at the right moment, and watch the results of your work come to fruition. No 99 percent misses. While cards might not be for everyone, they may feel more fair and rewarding than the percentages of previous games.
The Alien franchise hasn’t been doing so hot, despite valiant efforts. Though a Noah Hawley TV series version is still a go, Alien: Covenant, the prequel that was also a sequel to the universe-building Prometheus, dramatically underperformed back in 2017. But there was also another Alien film — a fifth in the main storyline, concerning Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley, to be helmed by District 9’s Neill Blomkamp. That seemed to be dead a few years ago, but there was someone who always had its back: Sigourney Weaver.
In an interview with The Independent (by way of IGN), Blomkamp — promoting his new film, Demonic — opened up about the aborted project, which would presumably concern the surviving clone of Ripley, who emerged in the fourth outing, Alien: Resurrection (which also underperformed, once upon a time). He didn’t seem to have much optimism about it ever being exhumed.
“I don’t know, to be honest. I’m not sure that I would do that project,” he said. “My assumption is that it’s completely dead.” But he had nothing but warm thoughts about its almost-star.
“Sigourney was unbelievably supportive and amazing. I have nothing but the best things to say about Sigourney,” Blomkamp said. “I’m such a fan of hers on every level. She was always into the project, but Fox just clearly doesn’t want it. I haven’t had anything to do with that for years.”
Weaver had been interested in returning to the role that made her name since at least 2004, when she talked about doing a “small, spooky movie” that would “take Ripley to whatever the next stage may be.” But that obviously never happened. But given how much Hollywood loves reboot/revivals — and how much press the high school stage version of the original Alien received a while back — maybe never say never.
At the top of the year, Julien Baker staged her return, following up 2017’s Turn Out The Lights with Little Oblivions. Our own Steven Hyden dubbed it her best album, thought her 2015 debut Sprained Ankle is still in my own personal rotation for epic, silvery confessional records. Now that she’s ushering in this new phase, Baker is also opening up her work for reimagining from her fellow artists, launching the Little Oblivions remix EP a few weeks ago with a rework for “Bloodshot” by Helios.
Today she’s shared another remix, this one by Australian songwriter Gordi — who released the magnificent breakout album Our Two Skins last year — tackling the beautifully brutalist “Ringside.” Today also marks the release of the full EP, which includes the following additional remixes: Half Waif remixing “Faith Healer,” Jesu remixing “Favor,” and Thao remixing “Ziptie.”
After an appearance at the Newport Folk Festival, Baker is slated for a series of tour dates behind the album this fall. While it’s most likely she’ll be playing the original versions of her songs, there’s always a chance some of these artist may join her on the road to unveil their own versions live. Check out the latest remix by Gordi above and the get the EP here.
We live in a world where men, who have never and will never experience pregnancy or childbirth, make laws about women’s reproduction, which in and of itself is a headscratcher. When we’re talking about anti-abortion legislation, which effectively forces women to go through pregnancy and childbirth whether it’s healthy for them or not, it seems like the people who actually experience those things should have a more heavily weighted say in such legislation.
Of course, women have varied opinions on the matter. (The most recent Gallup poll found that 53% of women in the U.S. identify as “pro-choice” and 43% identify as “pro-life.”) But interestingly, a Twitter thread is showing how actual experience can either shift or concretes a person’s views.
Writer Jennifer Wright wrote, “Raise your hand if pregnancy and childbirth only made you *more* pro-choice,” and the responses came flooding in.
Raise your hand if pregnancy and childbirth only made you *more* pro-choice.
Scores of women responded in the affirmative, saying that going through pregnancy, childbirth, and childrearing has either made them change their stance from anti-choice to pro-choice or solidified their pro-choice beliefs.
For some, it was getting a first-hand taste of the potential dangers pregnancy poses.
@S_Lynne_13 @JenAshleyWright Pre-eclampsia here too. Needed emergency csection to save me and my baby. I was 34 wee… https://t.co/61DPCdUw49
Many women shared that going through pregnancy and childbirth made them realize that forcing someone who doesn’t want to be pregnant or birth a child to do so is cruel.
@JenAshleyWright After my two pregnancies there is no way I would force a person to go through the same thing who w… https://t.co/8hY0OTVOFC
A few men even weighed in, saying that their experience just witnessing their wives’ pregnancy and childbirth difficulties made them see that no one should be forced through it against their will.
@JenAshleyWright Watching my wife spend 7 days in the hospital giving birth to our daughter made me hate 2 things m… https://t.co/nZz355IjID
Scrolling through the hundreds of comments in the thread, the consensus was clear.
Pregnancy and childbirth are difficult and dangerous, with lifelong consequences, even when you want a child. Adoption is not the panacea people make it out to be. Struggling through infertility and multiple miscarriages can make women more understanding of how complicated reproductive choices are. And the idea of the government forcing a woman to stay pregnant and deliver a baby no matter the circumstances feels wrong when you know exactly what that can mean for her.
Let’s leave personal medical choices that don’t affect others to patients and their providers, period.
Welcome to SNX DLX, our weekly roundup of the best sneaker drops of the week. We’re now officially in the month of September and if you step outside you can actually feel summer turning to fall. It’s a bummer for those that live for that summer freedom but from the looks of this week’s offerings and the sneaker drops set to release in the coming weeks, we’re going to end 2021 strong. It’s already been a great year for sneakers, so anything else we get at this point is just icing on an already delicious cake.
We here at SNX DLX love cake, so we say bring it on!
This week we’ve got some summer-inspired looks from Melting Sadness and Adidas, as well as some great Jordan colorways, and new Yeezy Slides. But the week’s best drops are easily the Nike collaborations, with Social Status and Undefeated bringing radical redesigns of two of Nike’s best silhouettes. Let’s dive in!
Melting Sadness x Adidas Melting Ice Cream Collection
Atmos
Zhang Quan’s Melting Sadness label has teamed up with Adidas to drop the best ice cream-themed shoes ever. Yup, sorry Pharrell. This four-shoe collection sees the brand taking on Adidas’ 3MC and Campus silhouette, offering two iterations of each sneaker dipped in colorful melted ice cream detailing that’ll have you mourning the end of summer.
The colorways even sound like flavors, we’ve got Halo Mint, Campus Sand (gross), Cream White, and Icy Blue. Okay admittedly only one of those actually sounds like a good ice cream flavor but each pair at least looks like ice cream and features a unique waffle-cone-inspired tag.
The Melting Sadness x Adidas Melting Ice Cream Collection is out now with each shoe hitting a retail price of $120. Pick up a pair exclusively at Atmos.
AtmosAtmosAtmos
Nike WMNS Air Force 1 Next Nature White & Pale Coral/ White & Metallic Grey
Nike
Nike is slowly but surely finding new ways to add a sustainable edge to its classic silhouettes. This move is a must, and while they aren’t moving quite as quickly as we’d like them to (make all the Jordans more sustainable!), at least they’re making the effort.
This week they’re dropping two new WMNS-exclusive iterations of the almighty AF-1, constructing the sneaker from 20% recycled material by weight and giving each a clean new colorway. Dropping in White & Pale Coral or White & Metallic Grey, both sneakers feature a white upper with either a pastel pink swoosh or a metallic grey outsole.
We prefer the pink swoosh but the metallic grey outsole is a fresh look as well — check them both below!
The Nike WMNS Air Force 1 Next Nature White & Pale Coral/ White & Metallic Grey are set to drop on September 2nd for a retail price of $95. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.
Nike
UNDEFEATED x Nike Dunk vs. Air Force 1 5 On It Drop 2
Undefeated
A couple of weeks back, Los Angeles-based streetwear brand UNDEFEATED unveiled their double sneaker collection Nike Dunk vs Air Force 1 5 On It, and it was easily one of the best sneaker drops of the year. If you missed it, don’t kick yourself too hard because this week brings the collection’s second drop and, while it isn’t quite as iconic as the first, it’s still pretty dope.
Like the first set, this new drop sees UNDEFEATED reimagining Nike’s Dunk low and Air Force 1 silhouettes, combining five premium materials across each sneaker’s upper including crocodile skin patterning, canvas, two different types of leather, and suede. The Dunk features a blue, yellow and white color scheme while the AF-1 goes the all-black route and features a pony hair swoosh.
The second UNDEFEATED x Nike Air Force 1 5 On It drop is set for September 3rd for a retail price of $120 each exclusively at the UNDEFEATED webstore.
Undefeated
Air Jordan 4 Shimmer
GOAT
How many iconic AJ-4’s dropped this year? Enough that we’re going to have to think long and hard about revamping our ranking of the greatest Jordan 4 colorways of all time. This week Nike is dropping yet another AJ-4 that is going to have sneakerheads complaining all weekend long when they catch that inevitable L on the SNKRS app.
The WMNS-exclusive Shimmer combines burnished leather and soft nubuck in a mix of coral and white with a metallic silver Jumpman at the tongue. It’s beautiful.
The Air Jordan 4 Shimmer is set to drop on September 3rd for a retail price of $190. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or hit GOAT and Flight Club to pick up a pair on the aftermarket.
GOAT
Social Status x Nike SB Dunk Low Chocolate Milk
Social Status
In what is probably this week’s freshest collaboration, Nike has teamed up with Social Status for a chocolate milk-inspired mid-rise Dunk that pays tribute to the concept of free school lunch. If you were more of a strawberry milk kid growing up, just wait a week because the brand has also hit Strawberry Milk and it’s just as dope, if not better.
Featuring a mini-swoosh at the toe box, a chunky wrap-around pink swoosh, dual branding, and a sky blue midsole, the Chocolate Milk combines rich brown paneling over a milk-white upper.
The Social Status x Nike SB Dunk Low Chocolate Milk is set to drop on September 4th for an unannounced retail price. Enter the raffle to pick up a pair exclusively at Social Status.
Social StatusSocial Status
Air Jordan 6 Bordeaux
GOAT
Is it wrong to describe a sneaker as sexy? Probably, but I mean just look at the Air Jordan 6 Bordeaux! It combines moody grey tones with black paneling and a wine-toned tongue and heel tab. We fully expect to be hit with mood music once we pop open the box.
With this sneaker, Nike has another easy win on their hands, the Bordeaux is more commonly associated with the Air Jordan 7 but it looks just as good if not better here on the 6. Rounding out the design are halloween-esque orange lace locks. Nike could’ve sat on this one for fall, but we’re not complaining about the early unveil!
The Air Jordan 6 Bordeaux is set to drop on September 4th for a retail price of $190. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or hit up GOAT to pick up a pair on the aftermarket.
Nike
Adidas Yeezy Slide Glow Green
Adidas
As we mentioned earlier, the summer season is coming to a swift end so unless you live in one of the warmer states that offer year-round summer weather, you’re probably not going to be rocking sandals for the next eight months or so. This means this is the last week of the year that we’ll probably bother highlighting the latest Yeezy Slide release.
While not technically dropping this week (it arrives this Monday on Labor Day), the Slide Glow Green — which doesn’t in fact glow in the dark — features an EVA foam body that keeps the sandal lightweight but comfort-focused. Does it kind of look like barf? Yes, but let’s face it, Kanye makes better footwear than he does music these days, and the Yeezy Slides are universally beloved by Yeezy fans. Unlike Donda.
The Yeezy Slide Glow Green is set to drop on September 6th for a retail price of $60. Pick up a pair at the Adidas webstore or via Yeezy Supply.
Adidas
Disclaimer: While all of the products recommended here were chosen independently by our editorial staff, Uproxx may receive payment to direct readers to certain retail vendors who are offering these products for purchase.
Last month, Haiti was hit with a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that caused more than 2,000 deaths and left over 12,000 people injured, with more than 300 people still missing. Since then, a number of celebrities have stepped forward to contribute what they can for relief efforts towards the country. The latest are rappers Lil Baby and Jackboy, who announced they plan on building a hospital in Haiti.
Recently Jackboy visited the country and spoke about what he saw. He revealed that many patients were forced to stay outside of the hospital because there wasn’t enough space for them inside. This pushed him to commit to building a new hospital in the area. He also announced that he would donate $100,000 towards relief efforts.
“I just walked through a hospital in Haiti & all the patients sleeping outside,” Jackboy wrote on his Instagram Story according to Complex. “I personally handed every single last 1 of them a envelope full of money but fr fr I feel like that ain’t enough…Who want to go half with me & get a hospital built it’s not really that much especially if we using dollars.”
Shortly after Jackboy shared the post on Instagram, Lil Baby replied and wrote, “I’m in.” It’s here that Lil Baby committed to helping Jackboy build the hospital in Haiti.
Time was that wrestlers didn’t translate into movie work. Professional wrestling, at least in the style practiced by the WWE, requires a ton of acting, but just ask Hulk Hogan about his Hollywood stint. It took Dwayne Johnson to break that ceiling some two decades ago. (Heck, maybe he’ll break another one and become president.) Now there are enough wrestler-actors that they can be picky. Recently Dave Bautista, who’s retired from the WWE, said he wants to avoid acting with fellow pugilists — a bold statement that colleague John Cena both mourns and understands.
Cena recently did a video chat for Esquire (in a bit teased out by Digital Spy), in which he tackled regular folks’ questions. There were light queries about his tighty-whitey scenes in The Suicide Squad. But one person went heavier, asking about what Bautista — with whom Cena has wrestled — said.
“I’m super sad about that, because Dave Bautista is an unbelievably gifted actor,” Cena replied. But I think when someone makes a statement like that, the important thing is to look at things from his perspective.”
He went on:
Dave has worked so hard on his craft, he is so dedicated to his characters, and really wants to put forth a body of work that gives him his own identity. I 100% understand that. Dave is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet and one of the most generous guys you’ll ever meet. I don’t have any beef with Davie and I genuinely think Dave doesn’t have any beef with me. He really just wants to be identified and recognized for his work. And I cannot fault him for that. I applaud him for it. To be brave enough to say something like that kind of allows him to go forth on his own. And I appreciate that.
It’s an incredibly diplomatic and mature thing for Cena to say. Still, it would be nice to one day see the two of them playing best friends or brothers — something that has nothing to do with wrestling. At this point, they’ve shown so much range that few think of them as wrestlers trying out acting. They’re simply actors now. Who are, on top of that, great wrestlers.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
(@Diamondsupply_) September 2, 2021
