Category: Worldwide

It’s that time of the year again when critics try to think of every record they heard in the previous eleven months and determine their favorites. Steven and Ian are up to the challenge in this week’s Indiecast episode. But first they talk about the stock albums that seem to populate these lists — the “arty” and “obscure” hip-hop record with an unpronounceable name, the near-unlistenable “acclaimed” death-metal record, the “accessible” jazz album with indie cred. etc.

From there they do a quick Sportscast about Steven’s recent love of college football. They also discuss Taylor Swift being named Person Of The Year by Time magazine and how the media was weirdly in the tank for her all throughout this past year. Finally, Steven and Ian each pick their five favorite albums of the year, and hash out the trends they think defined 2023.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 167 here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

Cameo: the home of retired athletes, standup comedians, and disgraced politics. George Santos joined the video-sharing service after he was kicked out of Congress for, among other misdeeds, using campaign funds on Botox and OnlyFans. He’s already making way more than he ever did as a politician, including a few hundred bucks from Jimmy Kimmel.

“Santos has a new gig making videos for Cameo for $400 a pop, which is a dilemma because on one hand, you hate to give money to a guy like George Santos. But on the other, eh, pretty good chance he has your credit card information already,” Kimmel joked during Thursday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. He sent Santos a “number of different ridiculous requests” on Cameo using a fake name, leading to the new segment: Will Santos Say It?

The short answer: yes.

One request had Kimmel asking Santos to congratulate his mom Brenda for cloning their pet dog schnauzer. “Hey Brenda, I wanted to congratulate you on successfully cloning your beloved schnauzer, Adolf. I know it was a lot of trials and tribulations, but you finally did it,” the former New York representative said in a video that looked it was filmed in a car that was going through a dark tunnel. “Now you get to enjoy Adolf and be happy, so give him a belly rub for me. Mwah.”

You can watch the Kimmel clip above.

December is usually pretty quiet when it comes to new music releases, but Nicki Minaj just came through with one of the year’s final major albums in Pink Friday 2. Minaj got a little help from her friends on the project, too, as there are a number of featured artists involved.

Who is featured on Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday 2?

Featured on Pink Friday 2 are J. Cole, Lil Wayne, Tate Kobang, Drake, Lourdiz, Lil Uzi Vert, Skillibeng, Skeng, Future, and Tasha Cobbs Leonard. Additionally, SZA makes a surprise cameo on “Needle” video a sampled voicemail, while Billie Eilish’s “When The Party’s Over” is sampled on “Are You Gone Already.”

What is Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday 2 tracklist?

To see all the features in context of the album, check out the tracklist:

1. “Are You Gone Already”
2. “Barbie Dangerous”
3. “FTCU”
4. “Beep Beep”
5. “Fallin 4 U”
6. “Let Me Calm Down” Feat. J. Cole
7. “RNB” Feat. Lil Wayne & Tate Kobang
8. “Pink Birthday”
9. “Needle” Feat. Drake
10. “Cowgirl” Feat. Lourdiz
11. “Everybody” Feat. Lil Uzi Vert
12. “Big Difference”
13. “Red Ruby Da Sleeze”
14. “Forward From Trini” Feat. Skillibeng & Skeng
15. “Pink Friday Girls”
16. “Super Freaky Girl”
17. “Bahm Bahm”
18. “My Life”
19. “Nicki Hendrix” Feat. Future
20. “Blessings” Feat. Tasha Cobbs Leonard
21. “Last Time I Saw You”
22. “Just The Memories”

Pink Friday 2 is out now via Young Money/Republic Records. Find more information here.

Nicki Minaj’s highly anticipated new album Pink Friday 2 has arrived as one of the final major releases of 2023. Given Minaj’s star power, she was able to pull some big-time collaborators into the fold for the project. That includes longtime associate Drake, who features on “Needle.”

The track also features a surprise cameo from SZA via a sampled voicemail that introduces the track. She says, “I mean, I don’t know if I like girls, I saw Sheila at Seraphin. Maybe we had too much tequila. Actually, yeah, we definitely had too much tequila ’cause I don’t know why I’m even playin’ on your phone right now. I’ma just block you, bye.”

Drake offers the song’s first verse and a catchy chorus, on which he sing-raps, “Pull up the Maybach and bend your leg back / Let’s engage that, don’t delay that / You’re like a needle, life’s a haystack / Friends they can leave us, you could stay back.”

This collaboration resolves the For All The Dogs situation: A link-up between the two was previously teased, but when Drake’s latest album dropped, Minaj was nowhere to be found on it. Now, though, they finally managed to make something happen before the year ended.

Listen to “Needle” above.

Pink Friday 2 is out now via Young Money/Republic Records. Find more information here.

Nicki Minaj is back. Tonight, the illustrious hip-hop artist released her long-awaited fifth studio album Pink Friday 2. Over the course of the album, Minaj grapples with a whirlwind of emotions, from love, loss, grief, and newfound motherhood. On a standout track, “Let Me Calm Down,” she teams up with J. Cole as she finds herself conflicted as someone attempts to reconnect with her.

“I knew if that if it was meant to be, that one day I would let him / Twenty years later them decisions, I don’t regret them / Just wish you would give me space when I really need it / To be alone in my zone when I’m really heated,” raps Minaj on one of the song’s verses, showcasing her confusion about the place this person once had in her life.

Cole then pops in with a verse of his own, offering a special message to the song’s subject. He better get right if he wants Minaj in his life.

“They talkin’ slick and make you wanna pull a Rated-R / You like her, love her like a brother, like a manager, an A&R / Plus a therapist when it start rainin’ hard / Her life was trauma filled, it left her with a tainted heart,” he raps.

You can listen to “Let Me Calm Down” above.

Pink Friday 2 is out now via Republic. Find more information here.

One of the coolest things about the In-Season Tournament semifinals came by way of the broadcasts. Both ESPN and TNT had television rights to one of the games, and instead of getting territorial, there was a ton of crossover between the two networks, whether that came in pre and postgame analysis or the broadcasts themselves, where analysts from both networks teamed up and called the game.

The best part, unsurprisingly, came at the very end of the night, when Stephen A. Smith and Michael Wilbon joined Inside the NBA. Wilbon, bless him, was largely left unscathed, because the Inside guys decided to use the crossover event to cook Smith mercilessly. Things started cordially enough, as everyone on set expressed their long-standing admiration for one another. And then, it was time for “Shaqtin’ a Fool,” which took a few playful jabs at Smith before the haymaker: His terrible first pitch at Yankee Stadium from earlier this year made it into the segment.

If this did not humble Smith, what happened next certainly did. It came time to do their final segment of the night, which was asking Smith to play “Who He Play For?” The funniest part did not involve Smith — that would go to Charles Barkley guessing that Garrett Temple plays for the New Jersey Nets, which no longer exist — but you can tell that he hated every second of this.

At the end of “Shaqtin’ a Fool,” Smith made it a point to promise that he will exact revenge.

“All I’m gonna do is remind y’all this: I got a two hour weekday show, five days a week,” Smith said. “I’m gonna get y’all. I’m gonna get y’all for this. I don’t know how yet, but I’ma get y’all.”

Nicki Minaj is back. Tonight, the illustrious hip-hop artist released her long-awaited fifth studio album Pink Friday 2. Over the course of the album, Minaj grapples with a whirlwind of emotions, from love, loss, grief, and newfound motherhood. On a standout track, “Let Me Calm Down,” she teams up with J. Cole as she finds herself conflicted as someone attempts to reconnect with her.

“I knew if that if it was meant to be, that one day I would let him / Twenty years later them decisions, I don’t regret them / Just wish you would give me space when I really need it / To be alone in my zone when I’m really heated,” raps Minaj on one of the song’s verses, showcasing her confusion about the place this person once had in her life.

Cole then pops in with a verse of his own, offering a special message to the song’s subject. He better get right if he wants Minaj in his life.

“They talkin’ slick and make you wanna pull a Rated-R / You like her, love her like a brother, like a manager, an A&R / Plus a therapist when it start rainin’ hard / Her life was trauma filled, it left her with a tainted heart,” he raps.

You can listen to “Let Me Calm Down” above.

Pink Friday 2 is out now via Republic. Find more information here.

Fred Again.. continues to deliver the hits. Tonight (December 8), the prolific DJ and producer has teamed up with Baby Keem for a trippy new single, “Leavemealone.”

On the song, Fred drops a hypnotic beat, featuring vocal chops and samples of Keem’s fan-favorite tracks, “Bullies” and “South Africa.”

Fred first shared the song at the Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom in Chicago during a set in August. Though, at the time, “Leavemealone” was unfinished. Still, he continued to play it at shows and festivals, before finally getting Keem to clear the sample.

As Fred Again.. continues to develop a cult-like following, In an interview with GQ Australia, he noted the feeling he gets seeing fans move to his music, and how they have interpreted it in their own ways.

“The feeling that feels most meaningful to me,” he says, “will also feel that way to other people, I think. It sounds unbelievable now, but when I was making the first sh*t, I really thought ‘this is just only for me’. And there was all sorts of anxiety and stress with trying to make just that right. So, yeah, I think that’s been a very powerful thing to see how much other people have taken that feeling in and made it their own.”

You can listen to “Leavemealone” above.

Fred Again.. is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

One of the coolest things about the In-Season Tournament semifinals came by way of the broadcasts. Both ESPN and TNT had television rights to one of the games, and instead of getting territorial, there was a ton of crossover between the two networks, whether that came in pre and postgame analysis or the broadcasts themselves, where analysts from both networks teamed up and called the game.

The best part, unsurprisingly, came at the very end of the night, when Stephen A. Smith and Michael Wilbon joined Inside the NBA. Wilbon, bless him, was largely left unscathed, because the Inside guys decided to use the crossover event to cook Smith mercilessly. Things started cordially enough, as everyone on set expressed their long-standing admiration for one another. And then, it was time for “Shaqtin’ a Fool,” which took a few playful jabs at Smith before the haymaker: His terrible first pitch at Yankee Stadium from earlier this year made it into the segment.

If this did not humble Smith, what happened next certainly did. It came time to do their final segment of the night, which was asking Smith to play “Who He Play For?” The funniest part did not involve Smith — that would go to Charles Barkley guessing that Garrett Temple plays for the New Jersey Nets, which no longer exist — but you can tell that he hated every second of this.

At the end of “Shaqtin’ a Fool,” Smith made it a point to promise that he will exact revenge.

“All I’m gonna do is remind y’all this: I got a two hour weekday show, five days a week,” Smith said. “I’m gonna get y’all. I’m gonna get y’all for this. I don’t know how yet, but I’ma get y’all.”

Tems‘ spiritual journey continues. Tonight (December 8), the Nigerian singer has shared “Not An Angel” her reflective new single on which she feels the need to move on after the end of a relationship.

Over sparse drums and pulsating beats, Tems is at more principled place, moving forward from the wreckage of a lost love.

“’Cause I’m not an angel / I’m just a girl that knows the truth / And I couldn’t save you / You couldn’t see what I’ve been through / I’ll cut my losses in peace / I don’t need nothin’ else from you /’Cause I’m not and angel / I know I did all I could do,” she sings on the song’s chorus.

Tems has become known for her personal approach to songwriting and lyricism. In an interview with Interview Magazine, she opened up about her songwriting process and how she lets her emotions lead the way.

“Sometimes I freestyle to a point where I can’t feel my feet. I’ve entered somewhere and I don’t even know where I am anymore,” she said. “I’m just pouring out my gut and then when I’m done, I don’t remember what I just did. If you didn’t record it, it’s almost as if I blacked out.”

You can listen to “Not An Angel” above.