Category: Viral

Following years of disappointment and dissatisfaction with her former label, Tinashe broke free and claimed her independence in 2019 and quickly began to lay the foundation for her fourth album. Nine months later, backed by managerial support from Roc Nation, she delivered her fourth album Songs For You with help from 6lack, G-Eazy, and more. The album was received well and signaled that Tinashe would thrive with her newfound independence. Months after the album’s arrival, the “2 On” singer heads back to her fourth album for a new remix.

Calling on Zhu, Tinashe shares an enchanting remix of her Songs For You cut, “Die A Little Bit.” Adding on to the song’s original version, which features British rapper Ms. Banks and presents a dark house track that promotes nighttime fun in an elevated state, the updated take brings a bit more rhythm to the mix thanks to the addition of Zhu. The track marks the second collaboration between Tinashe and Zhu, as the two artists connected for “Only” earlier this year. The “Die A Little Bit” remix also marks the second remix to arrive from Songs For You. The first came last week as Tinashe collaborated with THEY., a producer-singer duo comprised of Dante Jones and Drew Love, for a remix of “Hopscotch.”

Listen to the “Die A Little Bit” remix in the video above.

The NBA return is right around the corner, and scores of players have been traveling from far and wide to rejoin their teams in preparation for the games in Orlando this summer. One question that’s been on everyone’s minds is just what level of conditioning we can reasonably expect from the players after a more than four-month absence.

The answer is that it will likely be a mixed bag, even for those who have been diligent about their diet and exercise regimens. The diaspora that happened in the wake of the pandemic meant that some players found themselves in situations where they didn’t necessarily enjoy the same access to the type of state-of-the-art exercise equipment that they are normally accustomed to.

Take Steven Adams, for instance, who left Oklahoma City soon after the hiatus and returned to his farm in New Zealand so he could be close to family. In a recent Zoom call with Thunder beat reporters, Adams talked about how he’s been spending his free time during the shutdown, joking that he’s turned to his farm animals to mimic the conditions in the post.

Via Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman:

While at home, Adams took a break from wrestling Western Conference centers and joked that he stayed in basketball shape by “boxing out cows” on his farm.

Adams and the rest of his Thunder teammates are participating in mandatory individual workouts at the team’s practice facility before they fly to Disney World next week for training camp. The Thunder (40-24) will resume the season Aug. 1 against the Utah Jazz.

The Thunder, with Chris Paul at the helm, had been one of the NBA’s most pleasant surprises before the season shut down. They head into Orlando having clinched a playoff spot as they sit at No. 5 in the Western Conference standings.

(The Oklahoman)

It was less than five months ago that the hip-hop community took a huge blow as Pop Smoke was tragically murdered in the wee hours of the morning. Murdered in his Los Angeles home, his death arrived just days after he shared the deluxe version of his Meet The Woo 2 mixtape. His death was mourned by many in the hip-hop community including Lil Tjay, Joey Badass, and more. Granting the world one last opportunity to hear what was and what could have been in the life and career of Pop Smoke, the Brooklyn rapper’s posthumous debut album, Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon has arrived as promised.

Shortly after the untimely passing of Pop Smoke, 50 Cent vowed to finish the deceased rapper’s debut album. While it was never confirmed whether or not 50 Cent played an executive role on the album, he does appear on the album alongside Pop Smoke and Roddy Ricch for their collaboration “The Woo.” A phrase that became a trademark saying in Pop Smoke’s music, the track is a well-meshed collaboration of the past and the present. Pop Smoke was often compared to 50 Cent due to their similar sound as well as a “Many Men” remix that was released earlier this year. On the other hand, Roddy stands as one of the most popular newcomers in the music industry and he and Pop could have very well held that title together if things had played out differently.

As for the rest of his album, Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon clocks in with 19 songs including “Dior” and “Make It Rain” and sees appearances from Lil Baby, DaBaby, Future, Polo G, Quavo, Swae Lee, and more. The album also arrives with a new cover after the original design, created by Virgil Abloh, was ripped apart by fans on social media.

Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon is out now via Victor Victor Worldwide and Republic Records. Get it here.

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

For well over a decade, Gucci Mane has put on an absolute clinic when it comes to releasing projects. It was just last summer that he shared his 100th project with his Delusions of Grandeur album. That said, it was rather unusual that the Guwop Records head honcho waited nearly six months to share his first single of 2020, never mind his first project. Coming through just in time for summer’s peak, Gucci Mane shared his umpteenth album, So Icy Summer, and boy did his get a lot of help on it.

A standout on the lengthy tracklist comes with the help of fellow Atlanta rap star, Young Thug. The two rappers work their magic quickly into the album on “Rain Shower” as they two obsess about the diamonds and other jewels they own in their lives. While the song extends a long list of collaborations between Thug and Gucci, which includes their 2014 tape Young Thugger Mane La Flare, the song is one of three collaborations between Young Thug and Gucci Mane on So Icy Summer.

As for the rest of So Icy Summer, Gucci supplies 24 tracks despite being the lead artist on only 12 of them. Holding it down for the top half with help from Lil Baby, 21 Savage, Young Nudy, Future, Key Glock, and more, the attention shifts to Big Scarr, Foogiano, and Pooh Shiesty who lead the way to close out the album. So Icy Summer also arrives after a few weeks of tension between Gucci and Atlantic Records. The ATL rap star accused the label of being “polite racist,” but recently apologized for him comments and promised to “do better.”

Press play on the video above to hear “Rain Shower.”

Gucci Mane is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

So Icy Summer is out now via Guwop and Atlantic. Get it here.

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga, may be a comedy starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams as an Icelandic pop duo with dreams of dominating on the global stage, but the bops in this quirky musical romp are no joke. From EDM anthems about volcanic guardians to innuendo-laced folk songs and sentimental ballads sung in the Icelandic mother tongue, we’ve ranked the film’s best bangers (but there’s no shame in jamming out to any one of these guaranteed hits).

11. “Hit My Itch”

Dalibor Jinksy from San Marino: You performed a song called “Hit My Itch” and you cried through the whole thing. You know why you’re here.

10. “Coolin Wit Da Homies”

Look, would Johnny John John’s angster-rap “Cooling With Da Homies” do well with the Tik Tok crowd? Yes. But there’s something carelessly dismissive in his boasting about his abusive treatment of his parents. Your dad just asked you to mow the lawn, Vanilla Ice. You don’t need to be a d*ck to him via song.

9. “In The Mirror”

While the film admirably committed to a hilariously dark gag that ended with the charred ghost of Demi Lovato warning Will Ferrell’s Lars that his life was in danger because of this singing competition, the joke worked better than the song Lovato sang as Katiana, Iceland’s best hope for winning Eurovision. The most we can gleam from this ballad is that she really likes looking in the mirror, and who wants to bop along with a narcissist like that? Did the elves really go too far in blowing up this diva? We’re just not sure.

8. “Fool Moon”

Unfortunately for Finland’s Wonderfour, they also wrote a song about the moon and it just didn’t slap the same as the next tune on this list. We’re not saying we wouldn’t sway to this bubble-pop beat if it came across the radio – although we would assume it was a new Dua Lipa track – but if you’re going to compete in Eurovision, you’ll need more than a glittery spandex suit and Sia wig to get our vote.

7. “Running with the Wolves”

This performance might’ve given us nightmares — the prosthetics were… a choice — but this song, which blends the best guttural screams of a Slipknot-inspired heavy metal artist with the haunting lilt of an Evanescence wannabe to give us a darker love song, one that equates the stages of romance with moonlit romps through the woods. If howling at the moon is your thing well then, hey, we’re not here to judge kinks. Just songs.

6. “Come and Play”

A severely underrated, Broadway-infused sex party invitation, this entry from Greece is the kind of naughty ditty that we were hoping to see more of during the competition. Performed by actress Melissanthi Mahut and sung by Petra Nielsen, this felt like a cross between a Cabaret joint and the opening number to an erotic space-themed circus. It dips and twists and suggestively bends in all the right places and it speaks to the innermost desires of everyone suffering during this months-long quarantine — we do live in a world of madness, there is too much fear and sadness, we do want freedom. Maybe giant hanging jellyfish sculptures can get us there.

5. “Ja Ja Ding Dong”

I know, I know. Fifth place feels a bit insulting for this particular tune but we’re not here to reward mediocrity folks. Is this folksy jingle catchy as hell? Of course. We even got pop-culture tastemaker Brian Grubb to devise a scientifically proven method for extracting it from your brain cells. But, when compared to some others on this list, it feels a bit… generic. It’s fun, it’s an easy group sing, but I come from a Southern state whose residents lose their sh*t every time Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” comes through the speakers, so I can 100% confirm that just because it had an audience sing-along portion, it doesn’t mean it’s a timeless classic.

4. “Husavik”

Unless there’s a scene with a dog dying, or Meryl Streep belting out an ABBA tune, I rarely get emotional over movies. World War II epics, doomed love stories, that one with Cameron Diaz where the oldest sister has cancer and Abigail Breslin doesn’t want to lend her a kidney? These do nothing for me. It feels important to preface this with some form of proof of my black soul because not only did the film’s final ballad leave me absolutely verklempt, it also pulled a lone tear from my dusty-dry eye. I can’t say I relate to loving my hometown, but if I lived in a place where the mountains sang and the whales were gentle people and the Northern lights burst their colors, I just might. Add to that the fact that Sigrit finally finds her Speorg note and sings in her native Icelandic, and this song feels like the go-to melody for every sappy, end-of-year slideshow your graduating class sits through before collecting their diplomas.

3. “Double Trouble”

Even though “Double Trouble” is the song that wins Fire Saga a spot in the Eurovision competition (that and the accidental fiery death of all of Iceland’s most promising talent), it’s easy to forget how mindlessly catchy this pop cover truly is. We hear it throughout the film in bits and pieces, always serving as background music to some on-stage disaster — falling from an unsecured harness, getting a miles-long scarf stuck in a giant hamster wheel, etc. But if you take a second to just vibe with this love song, you’ll see it’s got real potential. A campy chorus, an anticipatory build-up, and a tune that literally bores a hole through your brain, “Double Trouble” could’ve won Fire Saga the competition.. if it hadn’t been for that damn wind machine.

2. “Lion of Love”

Unfortunately, as an American, I admittedly know little of music’s annual European Hunger Games, but from what I can gather, the competition is about three things: inclusivity, over-the-top performances, and glitter. This song has all three. Even if we ignore the tour-de-force that is Dan Stevens suggestively groping bare-chested men and wielding a whip like some queer, Russian Indiana Jones (and really, why would we do that?) the song itself feels completely harmonious with the ideals represented at Eurovision. This song — about a man who can’t be tamed, who wanders the savannah hunting gazelle with his flirtatious smile — is clearly an LGBTQ-empowering anthem, one that uses double entendre to allude to forbidden romance and sexual conquests, and it’s powered by the earth-shaking baritones of opera sing Erik Mjönes. It doesn’t just tickle your ear-drums, it tickles your loins as well.

1. “Volcano Man”

We’re courting controversy by robbing “Ja Ja Ding Dong” of this number one spot, but hear us out. There are earworms, and then there are straight-up bops. “Volcano Man” is the latter. A 21st-century punk-Viking-fantasy track, infused with synth beats and ambient whale calls, and it tells the story of a timeless hero just searching for love. He protects volcanoes, he guards the land. He’s an environmentalist, and it’s clear why Rachel McAdams would dub an ode to this immortal Nordic dreamboat using Swedish singer, Molly Sandén’s angelic pipes. Will Ferrell adds a percussive element that elevates this to a thumping club banger that you’d want to sweat it out to in an abandoned warehouse with dangerously sticky floors and white girls beating glow-in-the-dark-paint-covered drum sets. This should’ve been Fire Saga’s Eurovision entry, and we won’t hear any differently.

When the NBA resumes the season at the end of the month in Orlando, it will have been four and a half months without any real form of organized basketball. Translation: there’s going to be plenty of rust to shake off, ideally in the small handful of exhibition games prior to the eight-game slate that will determine playoff seeding.

During this time, we also realized that many of us were under the false impression that all NBA players have regulation basketball courts and world-class workout facilities at their homes, after learning that Steph Curry and others had to order (and assemble) basketball hoops online just so they could safely get some shots up.

Nevertheless, it’s hard not to imagine that some of the older players or those recovering from injuries might actually benefit from all this time off. That’s what Anthony Davis thinks, at least. As he, LeBron, and other teammates reconvened at the practice facility in preparation for Orlando, Davis speculated that the Lakers may have increased their chances of winning the title this year, thanks to the additional rest.

Via Mark Medina of USA Today Sports:

“Obviously we’re missing a key piece in AB, but I think our chances are the same,” Davis said. “Our chances are higher just because we’re all rested and we’re all ready to go. If anything, our chances got higher and it’s going to be about just who wants it more. Everybody kind of had a decompression of the season and obviously with stuff going on, but it’s about what team wants it more and which team can stay healthy.”

The A.B. he’s referring to Avery Bradley, who has opted against making the trip to Florida because of his son’s respiratory issues. The organization is also unsure whether Dwight Howard will participate, as he was among those who voiced concerns about the games distracting from the Black Lives Matter movement.

To bolster their roster, they recently added J.R. Smith, a former teammate of LeBron on the Cavs, as well as Dion Waiters and Markieff Morris. When the season shut down, the Lakers held the No. 1 spot in the Western Conference, 5.5 games ahead of the second-place Clippers.

(USA Today Sports)

It was once the hottest ticket not only on Broadway but in any town in which it toured — then theaters shut down due to a pandemic that won’t go away anytime soon. But at least the minds behind Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s beloved historical show, had the foresight to prepare a Plan B: On Friday, and after much bated breath, a filmed version of the stage show is hitting Disney+ (along with a documentary). And if that weren’t enough of a far-better-than-nothing type of deal, Miranda’s also throwing a star-studded watch party.

The news came from the official Hamilton account, which revealed that on Friday, at 7pm EST/4pm PST, Miranda will take to Twitter for a tweet-along that could also, sort of, be a sing-along. He won’t be alone; the notice promises “the cast of the show.” As per Rolling Stone, that includes Leslie Odom Jr. (Aaron Burr), Anthony Ramos (John Laurens/Philip Hamilton), Renee Elise Goldsberry (Angelica Schuyler), Javier Muńoz (Miranda’s alternate as Hamilton), and Christopher Jackson (George Washington).

Though the show starts at 7pm/4pm, there will be a bit of pre-gaming at 6:30/3:30, when everyone will prepare to settle in for the three-hour spectacular. You’re probably not going anywhere anyway, right? Even though Friday night is the beginning of the July 4 weekend, the pandemic our country can’t quite seem to get a handle is currently spiking across the country, and even places, like New York State, that have partly mastered it aren’t taking precautions. What better way to salute the country that’s arguably in the worst state it’s been in since the Great Depression — if not earlier! — than watching a diverse cast reimagine the Founding Fathers?

The Hamilton watch party will begin at 7pm EST/4pm PST, with a pre-show a half hour prior. The Hamilton film, meanwhile, starts streaming on Disney+ on Friday.

(Via Rolling Stone)

Comic book culture was very, very different in the ’90s. The only successful superhero movies were Batman movies, some of them made by the late Joel Schumacher. And Superman — whose own film franchise had flamed out in the late ’80s — was regulated to TV. Over four seasons, the Man of Steel was seen on ABC’s Lois & Clark: The New Adventure of Superman, on which he embodied by Dean Cain. Cain is not as beloved among comic movies fans as, say, former Bruce Wayne Michael Keaton, partly because he turned out to be an outspoken conservative and Trump supporter prone to eye-rolling pronouncements.

The latest came Thursday, when he made a Zoom appearance on Fox News’ Fox & Friends, there to talk about a recent Time Magazine article calling for a cultural reckoning of superheroes. Cain spent most of his appearance criticizing the Black Lives Matters protests concerning police brutality. But when he was asked about his own former superhero, he had some thoughts.

“I promise you that Superman — I wouldn’t today be allowed to say: ‘truth, justice, and the American way,’” Cain responded.

The pushback online was fierce, with few giving him a pass as an erstwhile comic book hero. In fact, some pointed out that the staunchly conservative Cain was perhaps not, shall we say, typecast as Kal-El from the planet Krypton.

“Superman is an immigrant adopted by a working class family whose archnemesis is a greedy tech billionaire, written by two Jewish Americans in direct response to the global rise of fascism,” one person wrote. “So no, Dean Cain should probably not play Superman today.”

Others had similar thoughts.

Some pointed out that the word “America” featured pretty prominently in the highest grossing film of all time, released only last year.

Some did some general dunks on Cain.

And some said Cain was definitely not their Man of Steel.

First aired in 1993, Lois & Clark spent most of its not time not watching Cain’s Kal-El fighting crime and baddies but being engaged in a Cheers-style will-they-or-won’t-they with Teri Hatcher’s Lois Lane.

When Jonathan Irons was 16, he was put on trial for burglary and assault with a weapon. According to CBS Sports, Irons was tried as adult, and an all-white jury found him guilty—despite there being no witnesses, no fingerprints, no footprints, and no DNA proving his guilt.

Irons began his 50-year sentence in a Missouri state prison in 1998. Now, 22 years later, he’s a free man, largely thanks to the tireless efforts of a WNBA superstar.

Maya Moore is arguably the most decorated professional women’s basketball player in the U.S. A first-round draft pick in 2011, she’s played for the Minnesota Lynx, where she became a six-time WNBA All-Star, a five-time All-WNBA First Team player, a four-time WNBA champion, and the WNBA Most Valuable Player in 2014.

But before the 2019 season, in the peak of her career, Moore decided to take the year off for a different kind of court battle—one that had wrongfully convicted a young man and doomed him to spend most of his life behind bars. Her decision rocked her sport, and there was no guarantee that sacrificing an entire season to fight for criminal justice reform would bear any fruit.

Moore’s family met Irons through a prison ministry program. According to The Undefeated, Irons wouldn’t have been eligible for parole for another 20 years, but in March a Missouri judge overturned his conviction. A string of appeals were rejected, the Supreme Court refused to take the case, and the lead prosecutor declined to retry Irons.

That meant he was free.

Moore was at the prison to meet Irons when he walked out, falling to her knees in the emotional moment.

“I feel like I can live life now,” Irons said in a video from outside the prison. “I’m free, I’m blessed, I just want to live my life worthy of God’s help and influence… I thank everybody that supported me, Maya and her family… To have somewhere to be home, I’m so grateful.”

Moore told Good Morning America after Irons’ release, “In that moment, I really felt like I could rest. I’d been standing, and we’d been standing, for so long; and it was an unplanned moment where I just felt relief. It was kind of a worshipful moment, just dropping to my knees and just being so thankful that we made it.”

Since she hasn’t had any time to truly rest in the past year of working toward this goal, Moore will continue her hiatus from basketball through the 2020 season.

Minnesota Lynx coach and general manager Cheryl Reeve expressed some understandably mixed feelings in a statement that beautifully encapsulates the power of the moment and also the problem that it highlights:

“Maya Moore got to celebrate another championship yesterday and none of us who have been blessed to have Maya in our lives are surprised. I cannot imagine, however, what this one must feel like. I was overwhelmed seeing Maya watch Jonathan Irons walk out of the Jefferson City Correctional Center a free man. For the last few years we watched as she gracefully committed herself to Jonathan’s case, and as she has done so often on the basketball court, put the Irons team on her back. I am overcome with joy that Maya and all involved were able to reach their goal of Jonathan’s exoneration.

I also can’t help but feel a great deal of anger. Maya Moore should never have had to leave her profession to engage in the fight against the two-tiered criminal justice system that over polices, wrongfully convicts, and over sentences black and brown communities. The criminal justice system in America is so far from fair and equal and it angers me that Maya has had to sacrifice so much to overcome this racially disparate system.

On behalf of the Lynx organization, we are so proud of Maya for earning the biggest win of her career. I am sure that she was voted MVP of this championship, too. This time there is no hardware to take home to the trophy case, just a wrongfully convicted black man walking free.”

The senior citizens living at 14 Victorian Senior Care centers in North Carolina have been on lockdown since Friday, March 13, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The good news is the center hasn’t had a single case of the virus.

Nearly 26% of all COVID-19 deaths have occurred in retirement homes or assisted living facilities.

Three-and-a-half months of lockdown have put a psychological strain on the residents because they haven’t been able to receive any visits from friends or family.

“It has been mentally straining on them not to see family members and loved ones,” Meredith Seals, the chief operating officer of Victorian Senior Care, told CNN. “When you are used to having family there every day and then you can’t, it’s very lonely for them.”

So to make the residents’ days a little brighter, Victorian Senior Care reached out for help on social media. On June 24, the company put out a post featuring eight residents holding up signs that read, “Will you be my pen pal?” The post quickly went viral with over 32,000 people sharing it on Facebook.

Since the first post went viral, VSC has put up dozens of photos of seniors holding whiteboards with their names and interests. On each post, the VSC has the address to reach each pen pal.

Judy shares that she likes to watch home improvement shows on television, baking, and reading magazines.

via Victorian Senior Care

Amos is a veteran who likes action/adventure movies.

via Victorian Senior Care

Pauline loves to listen to rock ‘n roll and watch scary movies.

Since social media posts went up, letters and gifts have been pouring in from all over the world. “They are overcome with joy when they see the mail,” Seals said. “It’s good to bring people together as much as we can.

Seals says that residents love receiving photos of people and pets and they are going to add a pen pal board to each facility so the residents can share their photos.

Every piece of mail that comes in is sanitized according to CDC guidelines before being distributed to the residents.

“We posted a world map in each facility and they are tracking where they are getting letters from,” she said.

If you would like to have a pen pal but can’t decide on which one of these lovely residents to reach out to, Seals will distribute your letter for you. Just be sure to write the theme of your letter (i.e. sports, veteran, dog, or crafts) on the envelope.

Those can be mailed to:

4270 Heath Dairy Road

Randleman, NC 27317

Attn: VSCPenPals