Category: Viral

It has been a long road between SZA’s 2017 debut album Ctrl and more new music. Last night, she dropped her first solo song in three years, the Ty Dolla Sign-featuring “Hit Different.” That apparently opened the floodgates: Just hours after releasing the single, SZA took to Instagram to share even more new music.

She posted a 40-second sample of more fresh material, a midtempo track carried by SZA’s soulful vocals. The file is titled “29 Dahi Beat – RB SLS 06.18.20,” suggesting that she recorded this version of the track back in June, and that the intrumental was produced by DJ Dahi, with whom she has worked before. She wrote, “Punch gon kill me but I’m in a sharing mood.”

She begins in the snippet, “Yes, I been used to bein’ used like this, ain’t no no different / I need more than lies in my thoughts / Praise to the Most High / I felt protection over my most prized possession / Talkin’ bout my sanity’s at a six point seven / Handin’ out poinsettias / To my dead homies’ mothers, praying they feel better / Might get sh*t mindin’ my business / Might get sh*t sharing my vision, my mind.”

Find the snippet above and check out “Hit Different” here.

If you thought having DJ Khaled as a friend was a fun and enjoyable thing, you might have to rethink that. Known for his antics and eccentric personality, DJ Khaled has worked with multiple names throughout the industry with little issue, but in his new video for “Popstar,” Khaled has seemingly gotten on the last nerves of his frequent collaborator, Drake.

The video opens with Khaled sending an endless stream of videos nagging the rap star to complete the video for the song. Showing no desire to leave Canada to work on the visual, Drake vents out loud about Khaled’s bothersome ways before coming up with an idea to get the video done. Calling in a favor from Justin Bieber, Drake gets the “Yummy” singer to take his role in the song and throw a massive house party to get the video done.

The video arrives after Khaled shared the song and “Greece,” which both feature Drake, last month. Both singles will serve as the lead single to his upcoming twelfth album, Khaled Khaled, which is set to arrive by the end of the year.

Check out the “Popstar” visual above.

Making yet another contribution to the Black-owned community, Beyonce took to her BeyGOOD foundation’s Instagram page to announce a $1 million donation to Black-owned businesses. “Proud to announce $1 million in additional funds from Beyonce to help Black-owned businesses,” the Instagram post read. “Round two of funding opens this month with our partner, NAACP.”

Beyonce’s upcoming donation with the NAACP is her second of the year after she teamed up with the organization in July to launch the Black-Owned Small Business Impact Fund with a goal to “help strengthen small businesses and ensure economic empowerment for Black businesses.” The fund provided $10,000 grants to businesses that were severely impacted by the pandemic and based in Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and New York.

The new donation is just one of a few ways Beyonce has given back to the community this year. After joining Megan Thee Stallion for a remix of “Savage,” the two artists donated the proceeds from the song to a Houston nonprofit and the charity received over 500 new donations within 24 hours after the song arrived. Shortly after, she launched a campaign with her BeyGOOD foundation that offered 1,000 coronavirus testing kits, face masks, gloves, vitamins, and household supplies to Houston natives.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

I love sushi as much as the next guy, but for your average American sushi joint appetizer, it’s hard to beat that nice little basket of tempura veggies. Hopefully still hot and crunchy, with that batter that looks sort of like a golden-yellow icicle and the sweet soy-based dipping sauce (tentsuyu!), it goes great with a nice champagne-y Japanese lager.

Vegetable tempura was probably the first thing I ever ate at a Japanese restaurant as a child and I can confirm that it still rips as an adult. The batter is so good that it almost doesn’t matter what’s inside, which is probably the philosophical basis of the entire dish. But that doesn’t mean we don’t all have our favorites. And you often have to choose what you reach for, because it’s one of those dishes that everyone at the table will assume is a shareable (at least in my family, buncha god damned wolves).

A note on what we included: Obviously, shrimp and other seafood probably makes the best tempura. Yet you can’t just order nothing but shrimp tempura. For one, it’s kind of overkill, and for another it makes the shrimp tempura taste less good if it’s not a rare delicacy that you have to hunt for. Ordering homogeneous shrimp tempura with no veggies is like eating de-shelled pumpkin seeds — not having to work for it just doesn’t seem right. It doesn’t taste as good.

In terms of actual vegetables, I’m not talking about your specialty items here either that you’d order in homogeneous form — your tempura green beans, your asparagus tempura. Both are great, but for these purposes, we’re only counting vegetables that come standard, or at least semi-standard, in your typical mixed vegetable tempura order. So don’t come in here and start asking me shit like “but Vince, what about deep-fried squash blossoms?!”

1. Lotus Root

Lotus root is the king of tempura vegetables. It’s perfect. It has the root vegetable texture that’s perfect to fry, can be sliced wafer-thin, and has basically the maximum allowable surface area you could possibly get from a thinly-sliced vegetable. A fried lotus root is almost cheating. It’s the corked bat of fried vegetables. Lotus root is like a gilded potato chip that’s soft and juicy inside. If I were to design a perfect frying vegetable out of thin air I probably couldn’t do better than a lotus root.

It’s like a naturally occurring bloomin’ onion.

2. Sweet Potato

Sweet potato comes in at number two… if it’s sliced thinnish, ideally not much more than an eighth-inch thick. A thinly-sliced sweet potato has that nice pumpkinny sweet flavor and beautifully soft texture inside. Too thick and they get dry and mushy. A thicker sliced sweet potato would be down at number four or five or lower. Regular potato is also great, though not common enough for the list. Yucca root is also solid, but more of a South American thing.

3. Carrot

Tempura carrots retain a little more snap than tempura sweet potatoes. Your mileage may vary. I definitely prefer it to a thicker sweet potato, but they admittedly don’t quite have the melt-in-your-mouth quality of sweet potatoes. I give carrots B+ for texture, A for flavor, and C for sauce retain-ability.

4. Kabocha squash

I had to do a little Googling to figure out “what are those little cantaloupe-looking things that taste like a sweet potato?”

If you’re smarter than me you already knew, that’s a kabocha squash. They look like little green pumpkins when whole. In tempura form, they look like a little fried slice of cantaloupe and taste like fried pumpkin pie. They’re moister than sweet potato with less snap than carrot. All three are kind of a wash depending on slice thickness. Like sweet potato, the thinner the better with kabocha, though the kabocha is more forgiving. It’s like a lower risk, lower reward sweet potato.

5. Mushroom

I love the flavor of a fried mushroom. I don’t even really care what kind. Button mushroom? Why not. Shiitake? Shiit yeah. Mushrooms lack some of the elegant simplicity of a deep-fried root vegetable and have a spongier texture, but they make up for it in the flavor department. The worst thing about tempura mushrooms, mostly in the case of white or button mushrooms, is that they tend to retain a bit of liquid, so if you don’t wait long enough, sometimes biting into one can shoot superheated 200-degree liquid right onto your soft palate.

That’s a bad night. But hey, I like to live dangerously.

6. Onion

Honestly, onions could go a lot higher. They fry up beautifully, and they’re sweet, soft, and moist inside. The full trifecta. Gimme a nice thicc one, save that skinny stuff for your hamburgers and string bean casseroles. The only thing holding tempura onions back on this list is their own ubiquity. You don’t need to order tempura to experience a nice battered onion ring (battered > breaded, do not dispute me on this).

Victims of their own success, really.

7. Cauliflower

Cauliflower is like sturdier broccoli and it makes a great frying vegetable. Ever had buffalo cauliflower? Wonderful (though again, it better be breaded. Don’t you dare try to pass off some non-breaded nonsense as buffalo cauliflower). It makes a great tempura vegetable for the same reasons. While they lack the texture of a root veg, and the flavor of roots or mushrooms, they somewhat make up for it in superior dunkability. Those florets are great for soaking up sauce (mom joke goes here).

8. Broccoli

Is it controversial to put broccoli below cauliflower? It’s not as moist or as tender as cauliflower and the florets are more delicate so they don’t stand up to deep frying quite as well. I’d also argue that broccoli is a little stinkier. Still, absolute A+ sauce retention and best-in-class dunkability.

9. Bell Pepper

If this was Rotten Tomatoes, I’d put the thumb’s up/thumb’s down line right above bell pepper. I mean, they’re fine. I’m not going to throw a deep-fried bell pepper out of bed. But green bell peppers are often used as filler, and never more so than in vegetable tempura. If you want to stuff it with something (rice, meat, whatever), or swap it out for jalapeño… now we’re talking. Plain fried bell pepper though? Solid “meh.”

10. Zucchini

I don’t get zucchini. Is it a cucumber? Is it an eggplant? Is it like if a cucumber f*cked an eggplant? Why does the texture seem to be the same cooked or uncooked? How do you even know if it’s done? Why do people keep trying to put it in muffins? A zucchini muffin at least makes more sense than zucchini tempura. Zucchini is (are?) too moist to fry well and they just end up soft and rubbery (dad joke goes here).

I don’t know that I hate zucchini, but I sure don’t understand it.

11. Eggplant

Eggplant has its place. I love a baba ghanoush. An eggplant parmesan. A nice moussaka. The Indians do incredible work with it. It’s creamy and it takes nicely to a sauce and some spice. But let’s face it: eggplant sucks as tempura. It’s too moist, not sturdy enough, and too bland. It usually turns into a mushy, soggy, mess. I vote NO on eggplant tempura. At least until I’ve already eaten all the other vegetables.

Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

Aiming to bring new life to the standout single from their sophomore album, Ungodly Hour, Chloe X Halle call on some of the industry’s top female artists for a new “Do It” remix. Recruiting City Girls, Mulatto, And Doja Cat, Chloe X Halle allow the rap ladies to shine in the light of their most successful single to date.

Doja Cat, who leads the way, fits perfectly with the song’s part vibe while bringing an extra dose of confidence to the track. Next up, City Girls slide through with a boastful hair flip and reminders that no one is one their level and lastly, 2020 XXL Freshman Mulatto reinforces her worth and physical qualities.

While the new verses from City Girls, Mulatto, and Doja Cat may have been enough, Chloe X Halle themselves lend new, yet shorter, verses of their own to the song following Mulatto’s verse. The new remix arrives after the Chloe X Halle took to the MTV VMAs to perform “Ungodly Hour.” The flashy and futuristic performance dazzled viewers and landed as one of the standout performances from the night. Prior to the new remix, Chloe X Halle took to Jimmy Kimmel Live! to perform the song.

Listen to the “Do It” remix above.

Ungodly Hour is out now via Parkwood/Columbia. Get it here.

Backed into a corner with a 2-0 series deficit, the Toronto Raptors had only 0.5 seconds to effectively save their season. On cue, Nick Nurse drew up a beautiful play and, when OG Anunoby buried a game-winning three-pointer over the outstretched arms of Jaylen Brown, the Raptors picked up a win to climb back into the series against the Boston Celtics.

While no game swings on one play (and there is plenty to examine from Game 3), Brown expressed considerable frustration after the game when prompted on what transpired.

“We gotta be better than that,” Brown said. “We gotta communicate better. Just me, being four years in, I gotta be better. Can’t give up a three at the end of the game. They made a remarkable shot still. But it’s a f*cking disgrace. It’s terrible. There is no excuse for it at all. It was ridiculous. You can’t take your foot off the gas at all. We gotta be ready to play Game 4.”

Brown recovered in time to make a reasonable contest on Anunoby but, at the same time, the fact that Anunoby was able to get open for the game-winner (with a two-point deficit) is undoubtedly frustrating for anyone on the Celtics side. That apparently goes for Brown, who didn’t hold back in this instance, and his comments came on a night in which he scored 19 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and played outstanding overall defense against Pascal Siakam and others.

It will be exceedingly interesting to see how both teams respond to the ending of Game 3. The Raptors could be invigorated by their new life in the series, while the Celtics could, at least in theory, let this slip impact their play moving forward. Still, Brown made it abundantly clear there is “no excuse” for the way the game ended, and Game 4 looms on Saturday.

Three years in the making, Big Sean has finally unveiled his fifth album, Detroit 2. The album aims to extend the success of its predecessor, which stood as a mixtape the Detroit native released back in 2012. An early standout on the album, even before it was released, was “Friday Night Cypher” thanks to its jam-packed list of features. Bringing nearly all the well-known names in Detroit together, Big Sean calls on Eminem, Royce Da 5’9′, Tee Grizzley, Kash Doll, Boldy James, Sada Baby, Cash Kidd, Payroll, 42 Dugg, and Drego to debut some of their best bars on the new song. In an interview with Vulture, Big Sean explained the meaning behind the song.

I made it a point to make the whole city feel included. There’s a song on there that just takes me back. I used to do this radio show called “Friday Night Cypher.” The whole city would come together and we would cypher it up — that’s real Detroit-style right there… It’s definitely a moment on the album where the city comes together, even people who are rumored to have misunderstandings and beef.

As for the rest of Detroit 2, Big Sean dishes 21 tracks to fans for his latest album — enough to make up for his three-year absence from the game. Across the project, fans can expect to hear Jhene Aiko (twice), Ty Dolla Sign, Wale, Anderson .Paak, Young Thug, Lil Wayne, Travis Scott, Stevie Wonder, Dave Chapelle, Erykah Badu, and much more on the album.

Get ready for some bars and press play on “Friday Night Cypher” above.

Detroit 2 is out now via Def Jam Recordings. Get it here.

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

Fans have been begging and pleading for SZA to grace them with the tiniest crumb of music for the last three years after the TDE songstress shared her critically-acclaimed debut album, Ctrl. Tellings fans to remain patient while voicing complaints of her own, the singer has finally returned with her first solo release in three years with “Hit Different.”

Calling on Ty Dolla Sign for the new song, SZA drops the track with a matching visual. The video finds the “Love Galore” singer dancing energetically with her girls in a junkyard. Exchanging the song’s bouncy feel for calmer production, SZA slows things down on the song’s second half with a soothing ballad.

It was just a few weeks ago that SZA took to Twitter to voice her complaints about her inability to share music with fans. Sending a tweet in response to the constant requests for new music, SZA said, “At this point y’all gotta ask punch. I’ve done all I can do.” When a fan proved they did just that, SZA’s frustration was clear as the singer responded saying, “This is all he says to me as well . Welcome to my f*cking life .” With her fans turning their attention to TDE’s President Punch for the next 24 hours, SZA would call off her stans with a new message the following day. “Don’t nobody need to free me Lmao I’m not held hostage n neither is my music!!,” she said in one tweet. “Me n punch be disagreeing ..hes never steered me wrong and I trust Gods timing.” Well it seemed like her trust steered her well as her new single has finally arrived.

Listen “Hit Different” in the video above.

Ty Dolla Sign is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In what is easily one of the more unexpected collaborations of the year, G-Eazy brings Mulatto to the west with their new collaboration, “Down.” Pairing a wild yet entertaining video to the bouncy single, G-Eazy and Mulatto take inspiration from the 1999 sex comedy film Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo for the Reel Goats-directed visual.

Playing a male prostitute who poses as a front desk attendant at a hotel, G-Eazy makes his rounds throughout the hotel and offers his services to those in need throughout the building. Receiving a payment for each person he entertains, G-Eazy gives the lump sum to his boss, Mulatto. It’s not until the rapper reaches a certain threshold that he is allowed to get his hands on some money to keep. Rob Schneider, who starred in the Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo film, also appears in the music video.

The new collaboration between Mulatto and G-Eazy arrives after the West Coast rapper took a trip to the alternative world for his most recent project, Everything’s Strange Here, back in June. Across the project’s 11 songs, G-Eazy handled most of the vocal responsibilities on it aside from features from Kossisko and Ashley Benson. Mulatto, on the other hand, shared her debut album last month with Queen Of Da Souf. The project, which arrived weeks after she was named a 2020 XXL Freshman, boasted 13 songs and features from Gucci Mane, City Girls, 21 Savage, and more.

Watch the wild video for “Down” above.

Two days after a thrilling Game 7 win over the Utah Jazz, the Denver Nuggets had to find a way to refocus and deal with a rested Clippers team finally at full strength, and after hanging around for a quarter, the floodgates eventually opened and L.A. ran away with a blowout win and a 1-0 lead.

The Clippers defense was stifling, and on offense they sliced through the Nuggets defense on unbelievable efficiency on the way to a 120-97 victory. It was quite the performance to assert their dominance to start this series, and now as we look ahead to the rest of the series, here are our takeaways from Thursday’s opener.

1. The Clippers are terrifying

This was just about the perfect game for the Clippers. As always, that starts with Kawhi Leonard, who was 12-of-16 from the field for 29 points in 32 minutes of action. His ability to get to his spot and shoot over any defender without a care in the world is the thing that sets the Clippers apart from most anyone other than the Lakers — who have LeBron who does similar things. Leonard has, like last year, stepped his game up to another level for the postseason and what he does to a defense isn’t just put points on you, but he demoralizes you because even your best effort often isn’t enough.

Beyond Leonard, the rest of the Clippers seem to be rounding into form around him. Paul George had 19 points, seven rebounds, and four assists, still struggling a bit from beyond the arc but looking more like the second star they’ll need him to be moving forward. Marcus Morris continues to be lethal from the outside, hitting 4-of-5 from three-point range and punishing the Nuggets whenever they helped into the paint on Leonard, George, and others.

The bench unit, led by Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell, also seems to be getting into rhythm, which is a huge development since that was the group that struggled the most in the Dallas series. On defense, they got off to a bit of a rocky start, but they took away Jamal Murray and took away the paint, making Denver take a lot of tough, contested jump shots and they did not fall. There’s obviously still a long way to go in this series, but this was about as good of a start as the Clippers could’ve hoped for as they seem to be peaking at the right time.

2. The Nuggets might need a miracle

Denver’s defense steadily got better against the Jazz, particularly in Games 6 and 7 with Gary Harris on the court again, but they just had no answers for the Clippers in Game 1 on either end. Jamal Murray looked like someone that had just had to play a near-perfect 7-game series just to get Denver here, and Jokic, after starting hot, likewise was held in check with just 15 points as Denver’s leading scorer.

On the defensive end, Denver’s weaknesses got exposed by this Clippers team. Harris can only do so much and unlike Utah, L.A. has a lot more capable initiators, particularly on the wings. As such, the Nuggets’ wing defense was exposed as was the soft, doughy interior defense that provides them with almost no rim protection. Draymond Green broke that down perfectly on the halftime show, showing how little a factor Jokic is inside.

The path to wins in this series for Denver is likely similar to that of the Jazz series, as they need Jamal Murray to catch fire again, shooting over the top of the stout Clippers defense, and for them to find ways to force more turnovers to steal some extra possessions because getting consistent stops is very difficult for them. We’ve seen it happen, so we know it’s possible, but to do that four times in this series would require a miraculous turnaround. They’ve been blown out once already in these playoffs in Game 3 against Utah and bounced back immediately, but this Clippers team is a different animal and they will need to show something that wasn’t there on Wednesday to stand a chance.

3. The wings I made tonight were great and here’s how you can make them, too

I’ll be honest, there’s not a ton more to say about this game than the Clippers were sensational and the Nuggets looked tired and overmatched. As such, I figure I can leave you with this, my favorite roasted chicken wing recipe for you to make at home (cooking method comes from Alton Brown’s excellent EveryDayCook book).

Step 1: Boil water in a saucepan/stockpot, place steamer basket in pot, place wings in steamer basket, steam the wings for 10 minutes. (This may sound weird, but I assure you it’s very important to the process).

Step 2: Lay paper towels on a baking sheet, place a wire rack on top and pull wings to the rack. Place in the refrigerator, uncovered, for 1 hour. (Again, stick with me here.)

Step 3: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Remove paper towel from the baking sheet, keep wings on wire rack on the sheet tray, bake for 20-25 minutes.

Step 4: While wings are cooking, melt 1 tbsp butter and add ~half a bottle of Texas Pete hot sauce. Stir to combine.

Step 5: Remove wings from the oven, brush on both sides with the sauce (or toss in the sauce, whichever you prefer), and return to the oven for 20-25 more minutes.

Step 6: Remove wings from the oven (they should be deep golden brown and crispy). Toss or brush with remaining sauce. Serve with carrots, celery, and ranch/blue cheese.