Category: Worldwide

In just a few days, French Montana will release his fifth album Montega, an effort that is produced entirely by Harry Fraud. The project will arrive just seven months after French released his fourth album They Got Amnesia, a 21-track effort that featured appearances from Rick Ross, Kodak Black, Pop Smoke, Lil Durk, Doja Cat, Saweetie, Fivio Foreign, Ty Dolla Sign, Moneybagg Yo, and many more. Before Montega, French and Harry decided to drop off one more single, this one being “Bricks & Bags” with Jadakiss and Benny The Butcher.

The new record is carried by a hook that Jadakiss and Benny repeat throughout the song, as they rap, “I should’ve signed to Coke Boys, but I was selling dope, boy.” Together, Benny, French, and Jadakiss deliver sharp verses on the song in that order as they all rap with confidence over the Harry Fraud-produced beat.

“Bricks & Bags” follows “Blue Chills” which French released last week. The release is one of four singles from Montega as French previously shared “Drive By” with Babyface Ray and “Alcatraz.”

You can listen to “Bricks & Bags” in the video above.

Montega is out 6/24 via Epic Records. You can pre-order it here.

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

Earlier this year, Spoon returned with their tenth studio album Lucifer On The Sofa, the follow-up to 2017’s Hot Thoughts. Today they’re sharing the music video for the track “My Babe,” as well as a remix by Adrian Sherwood.

The video, produced by Jamie-James Medina, stars “Cowboy” Jack Clement as a host of a ’70s variety show as well as Brad Leland from Friday Night Lights. It’s so VHS tape-like that it’s not on YouTube; it premiered on the band’s Facebook. The band will be bringing their Lucifer On The Sofa to the road soon, on a headlining tour and a co-headliner with Interpol plus openers The Goon Sax.

Listen to the “My Babe” remix above, watch the video here, and find their headlining tour dates underneath.

07/07 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom *
07/08 – Albany, NY @ Empire Live *
07/09 – Quebec City, QC @ Festival d’ete de Quebec
07/11 – London, ON @ London Music Hall #
07/12 – Kalamazoo, MI @ State Theatre #
07/13 – Madison, WI @ The Sylvee #
07/15 – Urbana, IL @ Canopy Club #
07/16 – Iowa City, IA @ The Englert Theatre #
07/18 – Winnipeg, MB @ Burton Cummings Theatre ^
07/19 – Regina, SK @ Conexus Arts Centre ^
07/20 – Saskatoon, SK @ Coors Event Centre ^
07/22 – Edmonton, AB @ Midway ^
07/23 – Calgary, AB @ Calgary Folk Fest
07/25 – Victoria, BC @ Capital Ballroom ^
07/26 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom ^
10/06 – New Orleans, LA – Toulouse Theatre
10/07 – New Orleans, LA – Toulouse Theatre
10/07-9 – Austin, TX – Austin City Limits Music Festival
10/11 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom
10/13-16 – Austin, TX – Austin City Limits Music Festival

* Water From Your Eyes
# Bodega
^ Widowspeak

Ever since his career exploded, Quentin Tarantino has had this pesky habit of promising projects that never materialized. He’s talked about making a Vega brothers movie, about the characters played by John Travolta in Pulp Fiction and Michael Madsen in Reservoir Dogs. He’s talked about making a Bond movie and a Star Trek movie. As of last fall, he was still threatening a third Kill Bill.

And then there was that time, in 2019, he floated a movie with comic Jerrod Carmichael. It would be an adaptation of DC/Vertigo comic Django/Zorro, which would find the gunslinger teaming up with an aging Don Diego de la Vega, better known as Zorro. Tarantino first talked it up in 2014, two years after Django Unchained, and it would have been a sequel set several years later. Jamie Foxx presumably would return. It wasn’t clear what Carmichael would be doing, but now we know he would have been Tarantino’s co-screenwriter.

Anyway, that’s no longer happening. But they tried. “Quentin’s a lunatic who I love, and I’m happy that I got to spend the time,” Carmichael told GQ (as caught by The AV Club). “We saw exploitation flicks at the New Beverly, he read me scenes that never made it to his movies, that he had typed out, in his kitchen after making fresh-squeezed lemonade for me.”

But, Carmichael says, that’s society’s loss. “It was really special. It’s actually an incredible, incredible script that came in from that Django/Zorro that I would love for Sony to figure out, but I realize the impossibility of it,” he said. “But I still think we wrote a $500 million film.”

Since their collaboration was first announced, Carmichael’s life has changed dramatically. The star and co-creator of the dearly departed sitcom The Carmichael Show has come at as gay, had a hit Netflix stand-up special, and even uses a picture of him with Taylor Swift as his Grindr profile pic. But maybe someone, some day can give us the Django-Zorro mash-up he swears up and down is great.

(Via GQ and The AV Club)

Lil Baby’s rise to being one of the rap game’s favorite acts has been a long time coming. He began bubbling on a nationwide scale back in 2017 with the release of his Too Hard mixtape. He reached a new level the following year with his debut album Harder Than Ever, and by 2020, he had cemented his name as a rap superstar with the release of his sophomore album My Turn. Through it all, we’ve seen different sides of Lil Baby: focused, braggadocios, introspective, and desiring of social change. Now, with the upcoming arrival of his new documentary, we’ll get a new look at the Atlanta rapper.

A trailer for the documentary, which is titled Untrapped: The Story Of Lil Baby, gives viewers a look into Lil Baby’s life as a father. We see him playing with his two sons while speaking about the type of father he wanted to be with them after opening up about his experience and memories with his own father. “Today Lil Baby is a devoted father to his two young boys and a powerful voice in the fight for racial justice and police reform,” a press release says about the upcoming film which arrives on August 26 through Amazon’s Prime Video platform.

“Untrapped: The Story Of Lil Baby is at once an intimate portrait of a singular artist and activist and an exploration of the systemic oppression that keeps far too many people of color from participating in the American Dream.”

You can watch the trailer for Untrapped: The Story Of Lil Baby in the video above.

It’s been five years since the release of dream-pop band Cigarettes After Sex‘s beloved 2017 self-titled debut. They’re celebrating with a North American tour this fall, as well as a limited edition vinyl on white and clear vinyl and picture disc available via Partisan here.

The tour will kick off in September in Seattle, Washington and will end in October in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This follows the unveiling of the 2020 single “You’re All I Want,” a track that definitely left fans wanting more. About the track, they said, “Recorded in the summer of 2017 during the sessions for our second album, Cry. The initial takes of the song were finished in the courtyard of the house we were staying at in Mallorca, late in the evening, right as a thunderstorm was rushing in over us.”

Check out the full tour dates below.

09/12 – Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
09/13 – Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
09/14 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
09/16 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
09/18 – Los Angeles, CA – Primavera Sound LA
09/20 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
09/22 – Austin, TX – Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater
09/23 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
09/25 – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
09/27 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
09/30 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
10/01 – New York, NY – SummerStage
10/02 – Boston, MA – House of Blues Boston
10/04 – Montreal, QC – MTELUS
10/05 – Toronto, ON – HISTORY
10/07 – Chicago, IL – Riviera Theatre
10/08 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue

Find ticket information here.

Rudy Giuliani used to be called “America’s Mayor.” Today he’s the Inspector Clouseau of politics. As the Jan. 6 committee hearings continue, even more of his accident-prone tomfoolery than already known is being made public. On the fourth day of hearings, Arizona’s house speaker revealed he and his colleagues found Giuliani’s attempts to overturn democracy so incompetent that they laughed at him.

Meanwhile, two election workers, whose lives Giuliani helped overturn, testified about an absurd mistake he made while accusing them of voter fraud. According to The Daily Beast, the former president’s then-attorney accused them of passing a USB stick, which he claimed contained fake votes. It did not contain fake votes. And one reason it didn’t is it wasn’t a USB stick. It was a ginger mint.

It’s an absurd story about a tragedy. After the two women were falsely accused of voter fraud by Giuliani and Donald Trump, they received death threats and even had a mob show up at their homes, attempting to make a citizens’ arrest. They described how it upended their lives, and “all because of lies.” She added,“Do you know how it feels to have the President of the United States target you?”

The next Jan. 6 hearing is on Thursday, and Rep. Bennie Thompson said it will focus on Trumps “attempt to corrupt the country’s top law-enforcement body, the Justice Department, to support his attempt to overturn the election.”

(Via The Daily Beast)

Elon Musk is the richest person in the world, as well as the most tabloid-heavy billionaire. Just in the last week, the Tesla and SpaceX honcho has taken part in a chaotic town hall meeting with Twitter staff, got sued over his Dogecoin cheerleaderism, and demonstrated his free speech absolutism by firing employees who criticized him. Now he’s having some personal problems.

As per The Daily Beast, one of Musk’s eight children has effectively disowned him. An 18-year-old trans woman — whose name has been withheld for her privacy — has filed to have her gender officially listed as female. She also wants a name change, saying, “I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.”

Musk himself has noted that his daughter “does not want to be a public figure.” After the news broke, her mother, Musk’s first wife Justine, tweeted out in support of her daughter.

Musk has a history of making comments critical of the trans community. In 2020, he got in trouble with then-partner Grimes after he tweeted, simply, “Pronouns sucks.” Even after being told to “turn off ur phone,” Musk later commented that he “absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an esthetic nightmare.” Last week he threw his support behind Florida governor Ron DeSantis, he of the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

(Via The Daily Beast)

The New York Knicks have been on a never ending journey for a high-level point guard ever since Walt Frazier hung up his alligator boots for good. The good vibes from the Kemba Walker homecoming last season only lasted a few weeks before his knee issues punctured his production, leaving New York without a floor general that could consistently generate good shots for the offense.

The Knicks front office have not been shy about their pursuit of Jalen Brunson in free agency this offseason, but if he decides to re-sign with the Dallas Mavericks, the Knicks may turn their eyes to the trade market for a new point guard. ESPN analyst Jonathan Givony went on Zach Lowe’s podcast and hinted at the Knicks trading their lottery pick for Malcolm Brogdon.

Brodgon would be a significant upgrade for the Knicks providing both on-ball creation and shooting off the ball to complement RJ Barrett and Julius Randle. Brogdon’s injury history has been the major sticking point throughout his career. He only played 36 games last season and he has not played more than 65 games in any season in his 6-year career. While Brogdon is only 29, Indiana could be looking to retool its future around third-year guard Tyrese Haliburton, and acquiring a lottery pick from New York would go a long way towards that.

On the other coast, the Los Angeles Lakers have been searching for a Russell Westbrook solution for months now. New head coach Darvin Ham sounded enthusiastic about creating a role for Westbrook to thrive this season, but the Laker front office may have different ideas for Russ. Givony also mentioned discussions between the Lakers and Pacers centering around Malcolm Brogdon, Russell Westbrook, Talen Horton-Tucker, and future draft picks.

This trade would require Indiana to buy in on the Horton-Tucker hype that has yet to bear much fruit, but also allows them to shed three seasons of Brogdon’s contract of more than 21 million a year. Brogdon would, in theory, be a perfect fit next to LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and would allow Los Angeles to move past the Westbrook debacle and refocus on title contention for the remainder of James’ time as a Laker.

Alvvays haven’t released any new music since 2017’s Antisocialites, but that hasn’t stopped indie heads from fawning over their two-album catalog non-stop in the meantime. The jangly Canadian band played some one-off shows opening up for The Strokes over the years and will be appearing as part of Courtney Barnett’s Here And There touring “festival” in August. But now they’ve shared a full-on slate of US fall tour dates beginning in October at Chicago’s Riviera Theatre, the hometown of their support act, Slow Pulp.

Not only that, but the band posted a teaser on their Instagram yesterday and said in a statement that new music “may” be on the way.

We’re gonna take that to probably mean, “Yes, new music is coming and you will hear it live on this tour!” (surely one can dream?) Until then, check out the full slate of Alvvays’ US tour dates below. Tickets go on sale Wednesday, June 22nd at 10 am local time here.

08/16 — Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed (Here and There Festival)
10/14 — Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre $
10/15 — Minneapolis, MN @ First Ave. $
10/18 — Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot $
10/19 — Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory $
10/20 — Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom $
10/21 — Eugene, OR @ McDonald Theatre $
10/22 — Seattle, WA @ The Moore Theatre $
10/24 — Arcata, CA @ Arcata Theatre Lounge $
10/26 — San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore $
10/27 — San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore $
10/29 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern $
10/30 — San Diego, CA @ Observatory North Park $
11/02 — Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater $
11/04 — Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall — Downstairs $
11/05 — Dallas, TX @ The Studio at The Factory $
11/07 — Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse $
11/08 — Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works $
11/09 — Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel $
11/11 — Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club $
11/12 — Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall $
11/15 — New Haven, CT @ College Street Music Hall $
11/16 — New York, NY @ Kings Theater $
11/18 — Boston, MA @ Roadrunner $

$ = w/ Slow Pulp

J.R.R. Tolkien did not invent orcs; version of them date back to at least the 10th century. But the author’s magnum opus The Lord of the Rings helped make them popular in modern times, leading to their appearances in Dungeons & Dragons, Warcraft, and Peter Jackson’s beloved film trilogy from the early aughts, which were designed to look like Harvey Weinstein. Warcraft has its share of female orcs, but so far the Tolkien wing has not. That’s about to change.

In a new interview with IGN, members of the production team for Amazon’s super pricey forthcoming Lord of the Rings series — subtitled Rings of Power — revealed that among the expansions in their version of Middle-earth will be orcs of more than one gender. When asked what she loved about the new series, executive producer Lindsey Weber said, “There’s some female Orcs that I truly loved.”

It sounds like Tolkien heads will be learning quite a lot more about orcs than they did before. They won’t just be the fearsome baddies as presented in previous films.

“The way I described it to my team, it’s a bit like these are the baby versions,” says Jamie Wilson, who is head of the shows prosthetic department. “They’re not actually babies, but it’s them coming out from the darkness. So this is early on. So for example, if you go to past films about them, you’ll see them and they’re quite battle damaged and scarred and all that kind, because there’s been lots more battles.”

Sympathetic orcs, some of whom are also ladies, eh? You’ll be able to see them when the show debuts on Amazon on September 2.

(Via IGN)