Category: Viral

The basketball world lost another luminary figure on Monday, as the Thompson family announced legendary former Georgetown coach John Thompson Jr. had died at 78.

Thompson coached at Georgetown from 1972 to 1999, compiling a 596-239 record over 27 seasons and building them into a national power. Thompson led the Hoyas to 20 NCAA Tournament appearances, only missing out on March seven times, including three trips to the Final Four (1982, 1984, and 1985), and the 1984 national championship. He coached future Hall of Famers like Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, and Allen Iverson, the latter of whom posted a touching tribute to their former coach on Twitter, thanking him for saving his life and wishing for one more phone call to talk about life.

It’s the latest tremendous loss for the basketball world, after the recent deaths of legendary Arizona coach Lute Olson and former UConn and NBA star Clifford Robinson late last week. Thompson was a massive figure in the sport not just for his successes on the court, but for his leadership and guidance off of it to countless players. Tributes from around the basketball world poured in on Monday morning to remember Thompson and his efforts, both as a coach and a Black man who fought for much more than just himself.

Netflix’s limited series High Score is an attempt to highlight video game history, a topic so large showrunner Melissa Wood admitted it could swallow up the entirety of her filmmaking career. And she’d be just fine with that, if Netflix is interested.

The show is both sprawling and narrowly focused, touching on the intensity of the early console wars between Nintendo and Sega, the differences between the Japanese and American game markets, and how gaming pioneers unleashed new ideas that radically shifted its trajectory into the multi-billion dollar market that it is today.

But it also is a limited series on small stories hidden in plain sight that changed the industry forever. In its six episodes, Wood and France Costrel highlighted the work of relative unknowns like Jerry Lawson, a Black man who first pitched the idea of a console that had interchangeable game cartridges. High Score is a series that manages to make Mario and Zelda visionary Shigeru Miyamoto a side character, not a major player, making clear the simple fact that some of the best stories about video games are often the least well known.

Uproxx spoke to Wood about High Score, the joy of working with other creatives on projects and why the show highlighted some stories and decisions over others during its six episodes. And what might be coming next if there’s more High Score in store.

Uproxx: I was just reading your Reddit AMA after finishing the series myself. What was it like to get some feedback from people who have watched?

Melissa Wood: That was fun. I’d never done that before. It’s great to talk to people directly, you don’t usually have a chance to do that. Things go out in the world so it’s nice when you have that direct line to people who’ve seen the show.

One thing I was thinking while watching this and I wanted to ask you about was how you choose the narrative of the show. The industry has so many stories and so many ways to explain its history, but where do you start deciding what’s important and needs to be explored?

It was really hard, actually. Because you’re right, the industry is huge. So much has happened in the last 40-something years and there’s endless stories to sort of look into. There are a few things that sort of guided our decision-making in the beginning. One was we sort of wanted to look at the industry from a personal perspective and from a different perspective. For instance, we knew that we wanted to include a music composer because we thought that this was a part of gaming that’s not really thought about really often but it’s so crucial to the experience as a player.

We knew that we wanted to have sort of a diverse cast of characters whose own experiences and creation would vary from each other. For instance Gordon Bellamy’s attachment to Madden, we felt like that was really special and unique and different from the other people in our series.

What we really wanted to sort of not go down the route of with our series was sort of telling the same perspective of the visionary lone creator who has a great success over and over again. We thought that would be really repetitive and thought it would sort of sell the industry a bit short in how innovative it was and how many various people had been involved in creating these games.

I was actually going to ask about the show’s diversity. The industry as a whole, and still is today, dominated by men. Specifically straight, white men. The series does a good job to show not only how many other stories there are but also how important games are to other people, more marginalized people. I’d never really seen that in a gaming property to this scale before.

It’s so interesting because we certainly wanted the show to be diverse, we feel like representation matters. France (Costrel), my creative partner, she grew up in France so she had a completely different background than I do but we felt that games are sort of a common language. No matter where you’re from, games can be a common connection and everyone can sort of experience these worlds. So it was definitely a goal to show the diversity and a diversity of players and creators.

I’ve talked to a few journalists and read some things and a lot of people do comment on the diversity of the show. And while I’m glad people noticed that, in some ways I feel that, when we wrapped the show I was like ‘I feel like we didn’t quite meet the mark of diversity that we aimed for.’ So it really kind of shows how low the bar is and more work needs to be done in this industry.

Television is kind of the same way where things are starting to change and they’re being more active about bringing in a diverse crew and covering diverse subjects. I don’t know, I’m just sort of thinking this week with all these things going on in the news, how it’s been so noted on the series about how it’s so diverse when it could have been more so.

There’s a pretty distinct mix of visual effects in High Score. There’s archival footage, there’s some recreations of events and also some animation. Was that the product of necessity or were you able to decide what you wanted to do with each moment with a bit more purpose?

For sure we knew from the very beginning the we wanted to combine a lot of different elements to make the series as visually interesting as possible. We didn’t want it to feel historical. We didn’t want to have talking heads, then archival, then talking heads. We thought that would feel very sort of static and boring and we wanted it to feel more immersive and active.

So it was the plan from the beginning that we were sort of going to combine a lot of different materials to tell the stories. And really, in the end, it came down to the stories themselves kind of determining who could be animated or what could be archive, what could be digital. Obviously, you know stories like Jerry Lawson, who is no longer alive, we wanted to bring his story to life through animation so we could sort of connect with him as a person even though he’s no longer here. But other stories like Howard Scott Warshaw, who created E.T., he had these amazing, very visual stories he told about meeting (Stephen) Speilberg. Even though we were able to film a lot of other stuff with Howard Scott Warshaw — he was such a cool story participant, up for anything — we just thought it would be really fun to sort of bring those to life with animation and kind of have it play like a video game. So it was sort of a mix of necessity and creative vision.

It must have been really exciting when some of this was filmed. It seemed like some people were extremely game for whatever, and were really passionate about their stories. That must have really guided those decisions.

Oh yeah. It was so great because, these are creators themselves. Sometimes when you’re making a documentary you do a lot of explaining why you need to actually film material in order to show something. But everyone we worked with on this series, they knew. They were makers themselves, so they knew that they were going to have to participate to tell their stories. And we really tried to bring them in, as soon as we started talking to them on the phone and bringing them into the brainstorming because we really wanted to make whatever they did authentic to who they were.

And so obviously some people, Shaun Blum, for one, the Nintendo gameplay counselor, he was really ready to ham it up for the camera. And it works, because that’s who he is. And other participants wanted to just show their passion or be sort of poetic about what we filmed, so it really felt like a collaboration with them and it was also fun because it gave us the opportunity to sort of not repeat ourselves. We wanted every person to feel like their own story was unique and had its own stake in our series.

The series itself is firmly set in the past, at the impetus of gaming and where it starts and how it grows. It seems like it unfolds maybe not exactly sequentially, but things evolve with an exception for a brief moment in the last episode. If there are more episodes in High Score, does it continue where it left off or eventually get to the present? Or are there more stories to tell in the 70s and 80s?

Well, who knows. For now it’s a limited series. I would love nothing more than to work on iterations of High Score for the rest of my career. It’s so much fun and there are so many story opportunities still out there. So I can’t say if we were to do a second season what it would look like. But any of those things are possible. I think there are so many stories that we didn’t cover in this time frame that we would love to cover. But I think that so much has happened since then that would also be completely new territory and we certainly would have more people who were still around in the industry that would participate. So, I mean, who knows?

I do think that there’s something really appealing to the nostalgia factor and something about it being a new frontier, where there weren’t really rules yet like there is now. Where people could go and kind of test their ideas and they had more sort of freedom. So that is appealing just in the sort of stakes and creativity are all there. But I also think that the games have changed and the technology is its own sort of story these days.

I thought it was interesting that when there are new ideas and the rules of an industry aren’t there, there are inevitably lawsuits and copyright infringement and all these sort of legal situations. The show seems to not editorialize when it came to that, or maybe pick a good guy or bad guy in any of those fights. Was it difficult to tell those stories and not frame it in that way?

I mean, we didn’t really feel that was the role of this series. There’s certainly room for a series like that, there’s a way to tell that kind of story. But we just wanted to focus on the people and their contributions and let the audience decide for themselves whether… like, the violence episode, episode 5. We don’t need a really strong statement there. We just let the character speak for themselves but I think you can subtly guess where we stand there in the sort of light treatment of it.

We didn’t really feel like it was our vision or our goal to sort of tell the audience what to think of the industry. It was more about sort of sharing the experience of the people that created these games. At the same time, it was noticeable that you focused on ideas and not necessarily all the work it takes to get there. Other portrayals of the gaming industry sort of glamorize the crunch aspect of making games and the sacrifices people make. Was it because that sort of thing is less interesting or less compelling television or maybe because the ideas are simply more interesting for you as creators?

I think it’s probably a combination of both. I know that there is an art to coding, absolutely. But I don’t know much about it. I do absolutely see that there’s an elegance and an art to it. But I think in a visual medium like TV and for a broad audience it’s really hard to translate that. And I think for myself personally working in a visual medium, working in a storytelling medium, something that’s a little bit more accessible like music and painting and how those ideas made it into the game they’re just easier for me to understand and translate.

Last question: is there a game you’re playing right now that’s getting you through These Trying Times? I know you’re still doing a lot of press and enjoying the fact that the series is out, but is there anything you keep coming back to?

So during lockdown, I’m locked down with my seven year old, so I had to play Roblox a lot. But I will say I think that Sayonara Wild Hearts is the best game of the last year. I think that that’s a really great escapism game. It is slanted toward music and art, which I like a lot, which I think it’s just totally immersive and wonderful as a game that’s pretty simple.

Saturday Night Live‘s “Weekend Update” anchor Colin Jost has been all over the late-night and podcast circuit this summer, promoting his new book A Very Punchable Face, wherein he reveals that he may be leaving SNL after the election (and also discussed the Cecily Strong’s exit from “Update”). We have not heard as much, however, from Jost’s co-anchor, Michael Che, who paid rent for 160 apartments back in April in honor of his grandmother, who passed away from Covid in the spring.

Che, however, was on Conan Needs a Friend this week, as he and the cast presumably prepare for another season of SNL. It’s a solid episode, as Che talked more about his upbringing, and brilliantly riffed with Conan for the full hour. Che — who is the first Black “Weekend Update” anchor — also talked about his experiences on “Update” and why he often makes jokes about race on both “Update” and in his stand-up material.

“It’s interesting to me,” Conan said to Che, having just watched a stand-up bit that Che had done on Black Lives Matter. “There’s no way anybody could watch that and not think, ‘Oh, Michael wrote this at the beginning of the pandemic, right after George Floyd, and it’s the perfect statement about this,’ and then you realize, this was written and performed in 2016. How the f**k did he do that? That’s insane!”

“That’s the reason I like to write about race stuff,” Che said. “It always holds, you know? If I write a joke about racism, I know it’s going to be there next year. I write those race jokes for the same reason that Mariah Carey wrote ‘All I Want for Christmas.’ It’s always gonna play. It’s always gonna be there. There’s Christmas every year.”

“This is a case in point, of you saying something that is indelibly sad, which is race jokes are always going to be relevant,” Conan said, “and then immediately had us howling… suddenly, I’m laughing at one of the saddest things anyone has said to me in a while.”

Michael Che will return to Saturday Night Live this fall, where there will be no shortage of material with which to work.

Source: Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

At first listen, Jaden’s latest project, CTV3: Cool Tape Vol. 3, feels like a dramatic departure from his prior material. Whereas his debut Syre was a masterfully produced introduction to a talented young rapper who very much wanted to be accepted as such and Erys was a method-style deconstruction of the hip-hop tropes of the day, CTV3 plays like a meta but surprisingly sincere ode to nostalgia in all its glory.

It’s fitting, as the young heir (he’s still just 22) defines his latest excursion as a “prequel” to the conceptual storyline of his first two projects. Incidentally, this means CTV3 merges two separate threads that have run through Jaden’s discography since he debuted as a rapper in 2012 with the first “Cool Tape,” The Cool Cafe. While Syre and Erys are both very much fully-fledged albums and executed as such from top to bottom, Cool Cafe’s follow-ups, CTV2 and The Sunset Tapes: A Cool Tape Story are more experimental, allowing him to flex his creative muscles without being beholden to the story of his semi-autobiographical Syre character (named for Jaden’s own middle name).

CTV3 brings both those creative strains together in a most unusual way. While he’s shown that he’s a more than capable MC, it was clear that he’d adopted a new direction from the introduction of his first single, “Cabin Fever.” Landing as it did amid a global pandemic requiring a period of self-isolation, its theme of restricted young love resonated despite ostensibly being part of a multi-album story arc that related more to Jaden’s personal experiences. As it’s a “prequel” to its predecessors, CTV3 positions Jaden in a more optimistic light with even more surf-rocky throwbacks in the vein of “Cabin Fever” such as “Lucy!” and “Falling For You” featuring Justin Bieber.

The latter leans into the teenage melodrama of its conceptual subject, with Jaden/Syre pronouncing “If you don’t call me, I’ll jump off the roof.” It’s typical Romeo & Juliet stuff, but Jaden delivers it in a way that feels both knowing and sympathetic. It’s an honest depiction of all the angst and overinvestment of a teen romance, but delivered with distance, it allows Jaden to view it with a clear eye, without judgement. Hey, we were all young once. The overall project oscillates between tracks like these, reflecting the ecstatic highs of young love, and tracks like the more rhythmic “Rainbow Bap” and “Young In Love.”

The rap-rap songs give Jaden the room to flex a little and remind listeners that yes, he can rap his ass off just as well as dad could. However, they also serve a purpose within the narrative. These are Syre’s internal monologues, where he takes a step back and examines his feelings, albeit with the cockiness and insecurity of youth. These aren’t the lows, they’re the lulls; those points in a fresh crush when the mirror gets to talking to you, telling you that you’re moving too fast, that you’re not moving fast enough, that there’s no way she’ll like you, or that you’re the shit and she’d be crazy not to.

And while “Cabin Fever” and “Boys And Girls” draw much of their lightheartedness from their flower child, Beatles-inspired nostalgia, the raps on “Endless Summer” and “Rainbow Bap” draw from older generations of hip-hop, leaning heavily on sampled drum breaks and direct lyrical references to pioneers like KRS-One and Slick Rick. This also echoes that youthful tendency of teens, freshly aware that things happened before they were here and some of those things were pretty cool, start rooting through their parents’ music libraries and discover gems that help shape who they are and set them apart from their peers. Anyone who’s encountered TikTok’s determination to run E.L.O.’s “Mr. Blue Sky” into the ground can attest to as much.

With Cool Tape Vol. 3, Jaden gets to flesh out the story of his fictional avatar a little more fully while also spreading his wings. Branching off into new styles like ‘60s psych-rock in this way is smart, drawing his entrenched fanbase with him by degrees rather than all at once, while giving wary newcomers a chance to dip their toes into his genre experimentation, then work their way into his full-time commitments to rap. Meanwhile, the tape accomplishes one other goal; it shows Jaden isn’t just a one-trick pony and that he’s adding new facets to his sound all the time. When he finally is ready to step away from the story of Syre, he’ll have plenty of tools at his disposal to build whatever shape his dream takes next.

CTV3: Cool Tape Vol. 3 is out now via MSFTSMusic / Roc Nation Records. Get it here.

HBO’s Lovecraft Country is ambitious and astounding and will undoubtedly blow your expectations away. Created by Misha Green, who’s working with Matt Ruff’s 1950s-set dark-fantasy novel as source material, the show counts horror visionary Jordan Peele and sci-fi maestro J.J. Abrams as executive producers. The show is full of literary and musical references, along with monsters, both in-your-face and and figurative; we’ll discuss the resulting symbolism on a weekly basis.

So far, Lovecraft Country‘s monsters have shone light on how Black history and horror are often interchangeable terms while exploring “sundown towns” and cult rituals gone amiss, along with a commentary-filled soundtrack that includes Gil Scott-Heron’s “Whitey On The Moon” and Marilyn Manson. Figurative and literal monsters have abounded, and this week, the show gets down with what (at first) appears to be a classic haunted house story (but is, contextually, so much more) in the “Holy Ghost” episode.

The themes might be complex, but the action is straightforward and more of a building block for what’s to come. Atticus and Leti struggle to cope with what went happened in Ardham, including a certain snake-vision, in different ways that intersect. We also learn more about what sure sounds like a scheme from Christina Braithwaite, although the show’s making a mystery of where on the evil-good spectrum her intents are sitting, as well as the whereabouts of her associate, Patrick. As some of you fine people have pointed out, we’ve never seen them in the same room together.

Let’s move on with the action because there’s so much this week.

Letitia F*cking Lewis living up to her full name:

Jurnee Smollett tearing down the street with a baseball bat, smashing windows of her racist Chicago North Side neighbors isn’t the most shocking visual of the episode, but it’s a striking sight. What had seemed like a (suspiciously) great deal (and an opportunity to open a boarding house) turns into a nightmare when neighborhood racism stirs up dormant spirits trapped within her new home. The burning cross in Leti’s front yard push her over the edge, but the spirits inside the Victorian structure were already primed for vengeance. This leads to an unsettling and gruesome climax.

Lovecraft Country does a Poltergeist send-up:

There’s a lot of exorcism scenes out there, but one would be hard-pressed to outdo the satisfaction gained from watching this one: a gathering of ghosts (with mutilated bodies) joining hands with Leti to force Hirem Epstein’s soul out of Atticus, and it’s all set to more gospel (Shirley Caesar’s “Satan, We’re Gonna Tear Your Kingdom Down”). Yes, it’s somehow connected to that damn Order of the Ancient/Sons of Adam cult, as Christina confirms later this episode in a windy bout of exposition. It’s a complicated web, but Leti had purchased the Winthrop House, named for Horatio Winthrop, a founding member of the cult who stole scripture and influenced Epstein as a follower. He’s the monster who kidnapped Black South Side residents, upon whom he performed tortuous, inhumane experiments. Leti knows they only want to be free, and Jurnee Smollett is killing this role.

Leti also believes that her mother left an inheritance, which adds to existing tension with her sister, Ruby, but this is all a ruse from Christina, who’s pulling financial strings. Does Christina actually mean to reveal her entire hand to Atticus regarding her aim to decode the entire Book of Adam? It’s hard to say. On one hand, she knows that no one would believe Atticus if he tried to sound the alarm on her actions. On the other, she also has quite an ax to grind against the cult (and apparently knew that ceremony would explode), so perhaps she’s more benevolent than she appears. Hell, George even threw out the “don’t judge a book by its cover” line, and I don’t think Jordan Peele would agree with tossing that line into the script without coming back to it.

More bad dudes getting taken out:

Anyone who’s watched the first few episodes of this show knows that Lovecraft Country isn’t afraid of getting graphic (that giant ghost with a baby head? yikes), but its violence isn’t gratuitous or without a purpose. As our own Brian Grubb pointed out, this show loves to take out bad guys in the best ways, and this house appears to have gathered quite a few white home invaders in its crawlspace. We see one get beheaded by an elevator, which is both brutal and efficient (even if the scene was literally too dark).

We’re done with this week’s monsters, so let’s do loose ends.

Montrose and Atticus’ secrecy pact:

I gotta say that Montrose makes a fair point when he asserts that telling the truth about George’s disappearance could be counterproductive, due to revealing that “white people also have magic on their side.” We also see another reminder that Montrose favors classic lit like Alexander Dumas’ Count of Monte Cristo whereas Atticus favors the pulp fiction also beloved by the late George (whose Dracula love comes up this week). Atticus also loves Lovecraft (despite the author’s racist legacy), whereas Dumas experienced racism first hand and did not shy away from exploring the effects of colonialism. There’s a lot of layers there that we’ve already discussed about this show’s literary references, but I also think it reinforces that George is Atticus’ real father.

Another well-placed use of spoken word:

Like with last week’s “Whitey On the Moon,” this show crushes the soundtrack/spoken-word game. The episode opens with Leti at church with a voiceover from a 3-year-old Nike “Be True” campaign, which starred Leiomy Maldonado, the transgender model and “Wonder Woman of Vogue” who appears as a judge on HBO Max’s Legendary. Maldonado, much like Leti, climbs metaphorical mountains and breaks down barriers:

“Hey Lei, What did you do, to make a mark on this world? What mountains did you climb? Which angels gave you their wings? Which skies have you flown? When you reach the heavens, who was there to catch when you fell? And did they tell you that you saved them too, like you saved me? That they are mending their wings and holding them up to the sun, just to step back and watch… you fly.”

Not too long after this scene, Leti endures even more than she’s seen already. Not only does she lose her virginity to Atticus this episode (that puts a whole new spin on that snake scare), but she pieces together faces of the murdered South Side residents that materialized in her darkroom photos. She does all of the detective work, and Atticus attempts to play hero at the end of the hour by confronting Christina, who isn’t about to be intimidated. Then there’s the different way that Leti and Atticus deal with trauma: she resolves to confront it, while he’d prefer to simply move out of the house. In the end, Leti helps the spirits mend themselves, and I hope that means that Leti helps them fly.

Oh, and the show also hot-dropped another mystery. This looks interesting.

HBO’s ‘Lovecraft Country’ airs Sundays at 9:00pm EST.

Keeping up with the best new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw The Weeknd share a non-After Hours endeavor and Dua Lipa appealingly re-think her latest album. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

The Weeknd and Calvin Harris — “Over Now”

Days after he gave one of the best performances of the VMAs, The Weeknd took a quick break from the After Hours era to unveil a new collaboration with Calvin Harris, “Over Now.” The track doesn’t have the same nighttime feel as a lot of his new album does, and proves that he’s a talented and diverse performer.

Disclosure — Energy

After an album-less five years, the brother duo that is Disclosure returned with a new effort, Energy, the title of which gives away the nature of the record. It’s a kinetic release, and they secured a fun roster of collaborators for it: Guests include Aminé, Slowthai, Kehlani, Common, and Syd.

Black Thought — “Good Morning” Feat. Pusha T and Killer Mike

Between duties on The Tonight Show, The Roots’ Black Thought has found time to tend to his solo career. His latest output on that front is “Good Morning,” which has a delightful lineup. Joining him on the Swizz Beatz-produced track are Pusha T and Killer Mike.

Jaden — CTV3

Jaden continues to blaze his own creative path, and the latest product of that effort is CTV3 EP. While it’s a step forward for the artist, it also contains a look back: He reconnects with his “Never Say Never” collaborator Justin Bieber for their first new song together in years, “Falling For You.”

Dua Lipa — Club Future Nostalgia

The disco vibes of original version of Future Nostalgia are already enough to get people dancing, but now Dua Lipa has upped the ante on that front. Teaming with The Blessed Madonna, she brought the album back with a new DJ mix, which substantially flips all the songs on the album, brings on some new guests, and breathes new life into music that still had plenty left.

Ty Dolla Sign — “Expensive” Feat. Nicki Minaj

Ty Dolla Sign has been working on a new album, Dream House, over the past few years. He has shared some new material between now and then, and he recruited somebody who has been having an exemplary 2020 — Nicki Minaj — to feature on his latest, “Expensive.” As the song suggests, the two communicate their rich tastes and rap among (CGI) piles of cash and diamonds.

Selena Gomez and Blackpink — “Ice Cream”

Blackpink are racking up collaborations with huge American pop stars. They hopped on Lady Gaga’s Chromatica album earlier this year, and now they got Selena Gomez to join them on their latest, “Ice Cream.” Gomez even celebrated the meet-up with her own flavor of the titular treat.

Kelly Lee Owens — Inner Song

Owens told Uproxx about her process of making her second album, saying, “I was with a guy called James Greenwood and he just encouraged me to let the ideas flow and have them be fully formed, saying, ‘Don’t do what you normally do, Kelly,’ which is trying to EQ the kick drums before you move on the synth melody. ‘Let’s maybe scope the sound, deal with nudges later, and just allow the ideas to be fully formed and honor the ideas in that way first.’”

Cordae — “Gifted” Feat. Roddy Ricch

The YBN collective is no more, so neither is YBN Cordae… in name, anyway. The rapper is now just Cordae, and now he has dropped his first single since the name change, recruiting chart topper Roddy Ricch for “Gifted.” The two have had prosperous come-ups in recent years, which they chronicle here.

Angel Olsen — Whole New Mess

2019’s All Mirrors arrived three years after its predecessor, which was the longest between-albums gap of her career. Now, less than a year later, she returned with Whole New Mess, of which she previously said, “I had gone through this breakup, but it was so much bigger than that — I’d lost friendships, too. When you get out of a relationship, you have to examine who you are or were in all the relationships. I wanted to record when I was still processing these feelings. These are the personal takes, encapsulated in a moment.”

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

Jpegmafia’s rampage continues with another new video, following self-shot clips for singles “Bald!,” “Covered In Money!,” “Bodyguard!,” “Cutie Pie!” and “The Bends!” His latest release — and possibly his last for this particular run of tracks — is the appropriately “Last Dance!” It comes with its own lo-fi music video.

The video primarily consists of night shots of Peggy standing in front of a neon sign with a woman next to him. They’re silhouetted by the lights behind them and Jpeg rocks a hoodie with a durag as he mimes a performance of the lyrics. Periodically, a picture-in-picture window pops up in a corner to show the pair in another location, with Jpeg still rapping to the camera and his female companion preening at his side. These shots are occasionally interrupted by straightforward performance shots, the only times Jpeg appears clearly in the video.

After Jpeg announced “Last Dance!” on Twitter, he followed up with a post script for fans, writing, “p.s. this is the final one.” Whether that means he’s hibernating to work on a new project remains to be seen, but it has been nearly a year since his last full-length project, All My Heroes Are Cornballs, so a new album would be timely.

Watch Jpegmafia’s “Last Dance!” video above.

Mariah Carey’s upcoming memoir, The Meaning Of Mariah Carey, is set to drop in a month, and there has been a bit of drama in the lead-up to it. There were reports that Eminem was concerned about the book given their complicated history, with Us Weekly quoting an “insider” as saying that Eminem was “stressed out” that Carey might speak ill about him in an intimate sense.

Fans of both artists are surely curious about what will be said about Em, but it actually looks like he won’t be mentioned at all.

A new Vulture profile on Carey indicates that Eminem isn’t mentioned in the book, as the piece reads, “It’s 300-plus meaning-packed pages, and, yes, what she didn’t include has meaning too. Eminem, who was reportedly ‘stressed’ over what Carey might say about their rumored 2001 fling, doesn’t have to worry.” The story goes on to quote Carey as saying, “There’s some songs that I can sing in response to that, but I will not do it.” She continued “with a roll of her head,” “If somebody or something didn’t pertain to the actual meaning of Mariah Carey, as is the title, then they aren’t in the book.”

Read the full feature here, and check out our recap of Carey and Eminem’s past here.

The Haunting of Hill House was a word-of-mouth hit for Netflix. Horror maestro Stephen King called it a “close to a work of genius, really. I think Shirley Jackson would approve, but who knows for sure” (we’ll have to ask Elisabeth Moss), while I’m still shaking from the reveal in episode [REDACTED]. If you know, you know. Creator Mike Flanagan likely could have wrung another season out of the Crain family, but instead, he’s going the anthology series route — The Haunting of Hill House is now The Haunting of Bly Manor.

Based on The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, the 1980s-set Haunting “revolves around Bly Manor and the lives of its inhabitants, both living and dead,” according to Netflix. Much of the cast from Hill House is back — including Victoria Pedretti (Nell), Henry Thomas (Hugh), Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Luke), Kate Siegel (Theo), and Catherine Parker (Poppy) — but they’re playing different characters this time; the plots between the series are disconnected, too, with Flanagan telling EW, “I felt like the Crains have been through enough, and we left them exactly as we all wanted to remember them.”

“I have a story,” an unseen narrator says in the teaser trailer above. “A ghost story.” Spooky. The Haunting of Bly Manor premieres in October. Also spooky.

A couple weeks ago, Megan The Stallion confirmed it was Tory Lanez who shot her, saying, “Yes, this n**** Tory shot me. You shot me and you got your publicist and your people going to these blogs lying and sh*t.” Getting shot is surely a difficult experience, but Megan appears to be feeling confident after the incident, as evidenced by a new freestyle she posted on Instagram last night.

The video shows Megan sitting in her home, playing an instrumental from Lil Ju Made Da Beat on a laptop. She begins the 60-second clip, “Tic-tac-toe, I’m gonna X this bitch / if a hit dog holler, I address that sh*t.” She goes on to address the shooting with a self-assured line, saying, “Got shot two times and I ate that sh*t / bounced right back with a Revlon deal.”

Lil Ju, by the way, was in Megan’s corner shortly after the shooting, refuting claims that Lanez was defending Megan. He tweeted, “I hope y’all don’t believe he was defending her! This a bullsh*t story.”

Meanwhile, Megan had a good night at yesterday’s VMAs. She had three nominations on the evening, and her “Savage” video picked up a win in the Best Hip-Hop category.

Check out the freestyle above.