Category: Viral

James Blake is gearing up for the release of his sixth studio album. Today (June 28), Blake announced Playing In The Robots will arrive this September.

Ahead of the album, Blake has shared its lead single, “Big Hammer.” The song is primarily an instrumental track, comprised of hypnotic tech sounds. In the accompanying action-packed video, Blake and a crew of accomplices are seen driving into buildings and embarking on heists.

In addition to the new album, Blake will also be going on tour beginning in the fall.

You can see the video for “Big Hammer” above and the Playing Robots Into Heaven cover art and tracklist below, as well as the tour dates.

1. “Asking To Break”
2. “Loading”
3. “Tell Me”
4. “Fall Back”
5. “He’s Been Wonderful”
6. “Big Hammer”
7. “I Want You To Know”
8. “Night Sky”
9. “Fire The Editor”
10. “If You Can Hear Me”
11. “Playing Robots Into Heaven”

09/18 — Milan, Italy @ Fabrique
09/21 — Brussels, Belgium @ Forest National Club
09/22 — Paris, France @ L’Olympia
09/24 — Berlin, Germany @ UFO im Velodrom
09/26 — Tilburg, Netherlands @ 013
09/28 — London, UK @ Alexandra Palace
10/03 — Atlanta, GA @ Coca Cola Roxy
10/05 — Queens, NY @ Knockdown Center
10/09 — Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway
10/10 — Montreal, QC, Canada @ L’Olympia
10/12 — Toronto, ON, Canada @ Rebel
10/14 — Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom
10/16 — San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic Theater
10/19 — Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Playing Robots Into Heaven is out 9/8 via Republic. Find more information here.

Over the past year, Metro Boomin has had an incredible run. While he is already widely known as the face and sound of modern-day trap music, on his last two projects, the album Heroes & Villains and the Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse soundtrack, he stepped his game up to unexpected levels. Now, he’s credited as the executive producer on not just one, but two versions of Young Thug’s new album, Business Is Business — the original and the rejiggered Metro’svb Version.

Of the two, Metro’s Version is — unsurprisingly — superior, despite having all the same tracks and only two new songs. Its success highlights the importance of sequencing on a project, an art that goes overlooked by fans all too often. Business Is Business presents a unique opportunity to explore how sequencing changes the tenor and direction of an album because while “deluxe editions” of albums have proliferated in the streaming era, rarely have they experimented with song order the way Metro does here.

For instance, on Metro’s Version, the late-album standout “Jonesboro” is repurposed as the intro; while it gets lost in the shuffle amid the original 15 tracks, popping up around the time that most albums tend to start dragging, on the deluxe edition, it sets the mood for the whole project. Although the vibey, melodic track “Parade On Cleveland” with Drake is probably one that fans were itching to get to upon the album’s release, “Jonesboro” more accurately predicts the… well… businesslike tone of the project.

Business Is Business is a much more somber effort than Thug’s prior releases So Much Fun and Punk, owing at least partially to his present circumstances as a guest of the Fulton County Jail. It also makes sinister tracks like the 21 Savage-featuring “Want Me Dead” and “Hoodie” featuring BSlime and Lil Gotit a bit uncomfortable to listen to, considering it was Thug’s lyrics about sliding on enemies that initially tied him to the Fulton County D.A’s racketeering case against gang/label YSL.

Likewise, the celebratory overtones of “Oh You Went” with Drake and “Hellcat Kenny” with Lil Uzi Vert are undermined by the looming threat of a prison sentence reaching football numbers hanging over Thugger’s head. And, of course, there’s another elephant in the room. Although incarceration isn’t the same as death, the album’s compilation of old verses and guest appearances makes it feel almost cobbled together the way some notable posthumous releases have been and raises the question of how much of this was what Thug actually wanted versus how much of it was just feasible over the past few months.

Similar projects recorded or released by incarcerated rappers like Drakeo The Ruler and 03 Greedo attempted to answer these questions with incomplete results, and Business Is Business rarely does better at doing so. Thug’s vocal and lyrical dynamism helps, as does his well-established chemistry with Metro as a producer and the team of beatmakers employed on the project. But you can’t help but wonder as you listen whether he’d have made changes to the beat selection or to his partners’ verses if he had true access to the process of putting things together.

The lack of Gunna and Lil Keed’s voices on the album only twists the knife. While Gunna was able to process his feelings about the past year on his own new album, he was only free to record it by potentially betraying his longtime mentor, benefactor, and friend. Meanwhile, even if Thug truly believed that Gunna isn’t a “snitch,” they’re barred from associating by the courts anyway, breaking up what has been a lucrative and creatively fruitful musical partnership, if not a criminal one.

Metro does a superb job of tying the disparate elements of the album together enough to sound like a cohesive project on the original but truly works wonders on the resequenced version bearing his name. If his efforts weren’t undermined by the above concerns, Business Is Business might have been a triumph in the same order as his and Thug’s last handful of releases. As it stands, the project is a testament to the value of sequencing and an emblem of what the music world might lose if Young Thug loses his case.

Business Is Business is out now on Young Stoner Life Record / 300 Entertainment.

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

Despite coming into this offseason already above the tax line, the Miami Heat are among the most talked about teams as free agency approaches. That is in part due to them patiently waiting for Damian Lillard to potentially come available on the trade market, but also because they will see a pair of key contributors to their Finals run last year hit the market.

Gabe Vincent and Max Strus are in line for big paydays this summer after strong performances in the playoffs, and it seems unlikely that both will be back in Miami next season. Strus is the most likely to leave, as he figures to have lots of interest from the numerous teams looking to upgrade their wing depth with more shooting, as Jake Fischer of Yahoo indicates Indiana, Orlando, Detroit, and Cleveland all figure to pursue Strus at the full mid-level or above.

Vincent returning is very much in the cards, depending on how the point guard market elsewhere shakes out, but in terms of external roster upgrades for Miami, Fischer noted a somewhat surprising potential Heat target he’s heard rumblings about: Christian Wood.

Wood is coming off of a year in Dallas where he posted strong offensive production — 16.6 points and 7.3 rebounds per game on 51.5/37.6/77.2 shooting splits — but he was not trusted at all by Jason Kidd on the defensive end, which limited him to 25.9 minutes per game. As such, Wood doesn’t exactly fit the mold as a “Heat Culture” guy, but his offensive skillset is tantalizing for a team that could use more scoring punch from their frontcourt and severely lacks depth behind Bam Adebayo. It would be quite the bet by the Heat that their program can get the most out of Wood and keep him engaged on both ends, but if his value is so low that he’d be available at the kind of number Miami can afford this summer, it might be a high-upside flyer for a Heat team without many real options to upgrade their roster on the free agent market.

There’s a lot to love about the trailer for Bird Box Barcelona, including the concept itself — shifting away from the rote sequel (a highly unnecessary one in the case of Bird Box) in favor of an anthology. Given enough compelling stories, the Bird Box universe could extend indefinitely to different corners of the world to see how everyone was affected by the unknown creatures making us sit in flaming cars and jump off tall buildings.

Plus, it stars Georgina Campbell, who absolutely crushed it in Barbarian and Mario Casas, whose a Spanish talent that’s no stranger to the surreal apocalypse after co-starring in Alex de la Iglesia’s Las brujas de Zugarramurdi.

Spinning off from Bird Box, Barcelona also takes full advantage of the opportunity to show us the very beginning of the end of the world. Casas plays a father trying to bring his daughter to safety, teaming up with a small group of survivors.

The trailer is a fantastic showcase of the inventive horrifying scenarios and the unsettling vibe directors David and Alex Pastor have built as they trash the postcard beauty of Barcelona to handhold us down into hell.

Bird Box Barcelona hits Netflix July 14th, which is more than enough time to read the Josh Malerman novel and order some new blood pressure medication.

It’s safe to say Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Harrison Ford bonded on the set of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The Fleabag creator recently revealed that two co-stars were big into pranking each other while filming the fifth installment in the iconic franchise. Although, Ford wouldn’t exactly call it “pranking.”

“I didn’t think of it as a ‘prank.’ But yes, I mean, we spent a lot of time fooling around,” Ford told Entertainment Weekly after Waller-Bridge revealed that the legendary actor kicked her out of his trailer following one of her on-set hijinks:

For instance, very detailed masks of the actors’ faces were made for the stunt doubles to wear, and Waller-Bridge managed to get her hands on one of a young Ford that’d been crafted for a flashback scene. Donning the mask, the actress set out to spook her costar in his trailer. “It scared the crap out of him, actually. Even though that ‘actually’ is only represented by him blinking three times and saying, ‘Get the hell out of my trailer,’” she recalls.

However, Ford reportedly got revenge. The actor donned a mask of Waller-Bridge and “even took the time to tie his shirt into a little bow to match her character’s outfit” before sneaking up on her later that day. But if there’s one thing Ford loves more than pranks, it’s a good profane nickname.

“From the moment we met, it was ‘s—head’s all round,” Waller-Bridge said. “We were taking the piss out of each other all the time, and having a lot of fun.”

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny whips into theaters on June 30.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

It was Tom Cruise who championed the return to movie theaters, through both the blockbuster success of Top Gun: Maverick and that time he filmed himself watching Tenet. This week, as the world awaits the release of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, he’s excited to take in another Christopher Nolan film, as well as Barbie and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

“This summer is full of amazing movies to see in theaters. Congratulations, Harrison Ford, on 40 years of Indy and one of the most iconic characters in history. I love a double feature, and it doesn’t get more explosive (or more pink) than one with Oppenheimer and Barbie,” Cruise tweeted.

He also shared photos of himself and Mission: Impossible director and co-writer Christopher McQuarrie possessing tickets in front of posters for the three films, like a hostage holding that day’s newspaper. Except, in this case, it’s the world’s luckiest hostage because they got to see Barbie early.

Or has he seen Barbie and Oppenheimer yet? I want to believe so, even though his wording is vague; it’s no clearer on Instagram, although he did include nods to Nolan and Greta Gerwig. The only way to know for sure is to ask him if he saw Oppenheimer or Barbie first. If he answers “Oppenheimer,” then he’s telling the truth, because that’s the correct order for a double feature.

(Via Twitter/Tom Cruise)

The Houston Rockets are the official team of chaos this summer, as they can get to nearly $60 million in cap space, with no other team in the league coming close to that figure. As such, they are the team every free agent has been tied to, because they are among the very few teams that could give a free agent a significant contract this summer, but as Friday approaches the players Houston is serious about pursuing is becoming a bit clearer.

The James Harden reunion rumors have subsided, with the growing expectation being that he will return to Philadelphia, which has led to the Rockets shifting their attention on the point guard market. Fred VanVleet has become the new leading target for Houston by all accounts, with Marc Stein being the latest to tie the Rockets to the Raptors point guard. In his latest newsletter, Stein echoed Jake Fischer’s reporting that Houston is preparing a 2-year max deal worth north of $80 million to try and pry VanVleet out of Toronto.

I wrote extensively Monday night about Houston’s interest in signing Fred VanVleet away from Toronto. This has led to a flurry of informants advising me to give strong credence to projections that the Rockets want to sign VanVleet, who shot just 39.3% from the field this past season and 34.2% on 3-pointers, to a max two-year deal projected at $83.6 million.

That’s a lot of money for VanVleet, who Stein notes is coming off of a down shooting year. However, that’s the tax a team like Houston has to pay to get solid veterans to come play for them. We’ve seen teams use this playbook in the past — Philadelphia once gave JJ Redick a massive two-year deal to be the first solid veteran to play for the post-process Sixers — and for a team that’s nowhere close to the salary floor and has most of its players on rookie deals, it’s a good use of money that doesn’t clog up the books for the long-term when extensions need to start getting paid out. Now, its fair to wonder if VanVleet is the right guy to use that on, but the options this summer are pretty limited and he would be an adult in the room who has played on championship teams and plays at their biggest position of need. That checks a lot of boxes, even if he is coming off of a bit of a rough year shooting the ball.

The other well-reported rumor with Houston right now is that they’re the most-known suitor for Dillon Brooks, as they clearly have identified the defensive end as where they need to improve. Brook Lopez is still a possible target for Houston, per Stein, but is expected at this moment to go back to Milwaukee.

Earlier this week, Fall Out Boy announced that they’d be putting a modern twist on Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire.” While updating the events to current times has been something many have tried to do, the band thought they would add themselves to the list.

In the song, FOB run through all the events from 1989 (when Joel released the song) to 2023. They swap Joel’s JFK assassination line for one about 9/11, “World Trade – Second plane / What else do I have to say?.”

On the lighter side, they toss in fun references to My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade, Pokémon, Twilight, Spongebob, the Taylor Swift VMA debacle, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Michael Keaton’s Batman, and more headline-ready rhymes.

And, just in case anyone was wondering, they do keep Joel’s catchy original chorus in their version.

“I thought about this song a lot when I was younger. All these important people and events — some that disappeared into the sands of time — others that changed the world forever. So much has happened in the span of the last 34 years — we felt like a little system update might be fun. Hope you like our take on it.” they wrote on Twitter.

Check out Fall Out Boy’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire” spin above.

Kelly Clarkson isn’t holding back. Her latest album, Chemistry, offers unfiltered accounts of the events leading up to her divorce from Brandon Blackstock. But she’s also getting candid in her interviews during her press run for the album.

Many of us first met Clarkson in 2002 during the inaugural season of American Idol, where she was crowned the winner. However, during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, Cohen asked Clarkson about a time when she revealed on her talk show that some celebrities were rude to her following her American Idol win.

When Cohen asked Clarkson if she’d be willing to name a few of these celebrities, however, she opted to plead the fifth.

She did, however, offer a slight hint, and managed to throw some slight shade in the process.

“I will say, a lot of them ended up on shows like the one I’m from,” she said. “It’s funny what money does.”

Clarkson did not specify whether she meant if these celebrities went on to audition for shows like American Idol or as judges. You can see a clip from the interview above.

Chemistry is out now via Atlantic. Find more information here.

Kelly Clarkson is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Against the wishes of both his mommy and daddy, Elon Musk has reportedly started training to fight social media rival Mark Zuckerberg in a UFC cage match. Ever since the prospect of the cage fight emerged last week, Musk has mostly cracked jokes about the whole thing. The Twitter CEO is fully aware that Zuckerberg has been honing his jiu-jitsu skills, and Musk has openly acknowledged that, should the fight go down, it “could go badly” for him.

However, Musk has seemingly started to take the pending bout more seriously. After joking that he’ll rely on his signature move, The Walrus, “where I just lie on top of my opponent & do nothing,” Musk apparently worked on his fighting skills with Lex Fridman. The podcaster recently shared a photo of the two men sparring, or at least looking like they’re sparring.

“I did an impromptu training session with @elonmusk for a few hours yesterday,” Fridman tweeted. “I’m extremely impressed with his strength, power, and skill, on the feet and on the ground. It was epic. It’s really inspiring to see Elon and Mark doing martial arts, but I think the world is served far better if they train martial arts but not fight in the cage. That said, as Elon says, the most entertaining outcome is the most likely… I’m there for them, no matter what.”

While Musk seems to be mostly messing around with Fridman, the Twitter CEO does have a UFC leged waiting in the wings. According to the New York Post, Georges St-Pierre offered to train Musk, who accepted the offer on Twitter. Whether the training sesh, or the actual fight itself, will happen is anyone’s guess.

In the meantime, Musk’s father isn’t thrilled with his son’s latest stunt. Errol Musk recently told The Sun that the fight is a “no-win situation.”

“If Elon beats this guy, Elon will be called a bully, being so much heavier and taller,” the elder Musk said. “While if he loses the humiliation would be total.”

(Via Lex Fridman on Twitter)