Category: Worldwide

Earlier this year, Russ promised fans that he would drop a new song on a weekly basis for the foreseeable future. It’s an act that the singer did earlier in his career to bring attention and familiarity to his name, and with all the success he’s accumulated up until today, it’s clear that it worked for him. With that being said, it’s no surprise that the Atlanta native went back to it after the strong 2020 he had. His latest release is “On The Way,” a timid, brief track that finds him emphasizing his tunnel vision approach towards life to his family, friends, and women he frequents himself with.

While 2021 might the year of singles for Russ, 2020 was focused on projects. He kicked things off with his third album, Shake The Snow Globe, a 14-track effort that saw contributions from Benny The Butcher, Rick Ross, Bia, and more. He later served up a deluxe reissue for the project with eight new songs and help from Ty Dolla Sign and Westside Boogie. To close off the year, he returned with Chomp, a 6-track EP that saw him stand beside some of the best lyrical talents the music industry has to offer. This includes Ab-Soul, Benny The Butcher, Kxng Crooked, and more.

On a more recent note, Russ has dropped numerous singles that include “Satisfy,” “Lucky,” “Private,” “Status,” and “Small Talk.”

You can listen to the new song in the video above.

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

Last year proved to be a big year for Blxst and Bino Rideaux. The West Coast acts’ stocks saw a nice boost after they dropped their respective projects, No Love Lost and Outside. Both efforts arrived after they came together for their Sixtape EP in 2019. Now, Blxst and Bino are preparing to release a sequel, but before doing so, they return with a video for the upcoming project’s lead single, “Movie.” The visual finds the rappers employing themselves at a dysfunctional car wash headed by an equally dysfunctional manager. After pushing through the chaos, Blxst and Bino take over the property to throw a feel-good party in the warm West Coast sun.

The new video comes with news that the duo’s upcoming project, Sixtape 2 will arrive on July 16. The effort will hopefully continue the streak both rappers have been on while adding to strong collaborations they’ve already presented in their respective catalogs. Their recent songs together include “Wrong Or Right (Remix)” from Blxst’s No Love Lost and “Brand New” from Bino’s Outside.

Outside of their collaborations, the newly-crowned XXL Freshman Blxst announced his No Love Lost tour and recently teamed up with YG and Mozzy for their “Perfect Timing” video while Bino dropped his first solo single of the year last month with “Got To Know It.”

You can check out the video to Blxst and Bino’s “Movie” above.

Sixtape 2 is out 7/16 via Red Bull Records.

Close associates of Donald Trump tried to make a splash with a new social media platform that Trump may or may not join, but the big news of the day was that the Trump Organization was officially charged for a 15-year tax avoidance scheme that saw a top executive, Alan Weisselberg, saddled with a number of crimes.

The charges have been a long time coming, as those around Trump and the company that shares his name have been part of a years-long investigation into criminal wrongdoing. Thursday’s perp walk flew in the face of what Trump and his children have been saying for weeks now very publicly, that they are “clean” and totally free of any wrongdoing. And in the wake of those charges, both Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump appeared on cable news to talk about how their family is being persecuted in various ways.

Executives appearing on inflammatory cable news segments on the day their company saw indictments handed down is perhaps not the wisest of decisions, legally speaking. But there were several rambling segments that aired on Thursday night. Don Jr., for example, compared the charges to Vladimir Putin poisoning and throwing a political rival in jail.

Eric Trump, meanwhile, last seen using random internet comments to make his case for innocence, appeared on Newsmax to say that his family lives “amazingly clean lives” and tried to make this, once again, about Hunter Biden.

Eric also appeared on Fox News to react to the news that the Trump organization was officially charged with crimes, using much of the same language he used on Newsmax.

Many were surprised that the pair were commenting on an active investigation, which is pretty out of the ordinary for basically any other company under indictment.

The news was handled differently on the different cable networks, to say the least.

Depending on who you believe, Thursday’s news is just part of an all-encompassing “witch hunt” against Trump and his family that’s completely unfounded, or just the start of what could be a long list of charges against the now-former president’s business dealings and the family entangled in them all. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what’s closer to reality.

Even before the announcement of a new project from Big Red Machine — Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver’s collaborative labor of love — Swifties have been investigating the project for Taylor features. Turns out fans were right on the money, as Taylor is a collaborator on not one but two songs on the album, “Renegade” and “Birch.” Tonight one of those songs, “Renegade,” is available for fans to hear, above, and Dessner shared the story behind the track as well.

“While we were making folklore and evermore last year, Taylor and I sometimes talked about experimenting and writing songs together some day for Big Red Machine,” Dessner explained. “Making music with your friends just to make it — that’s how Big Red Machine started and has grown — and that’s how Renegade came about too. This song was something we wrote after we finished evermore and it dawned on us that this was a BRM song. Taylor’s words hit me so hard when I heard her first voice memo and still do, every time. Justin lifted the song further into the heavens, and my brother [Bryce Dessner]’s strings and drummer Jason Treuting add so much. The feeling and sound of this song feel very much at the heart of ‘How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?’ I’m so grateful to Taylor for continuing to share her incredible talent with me and that we are still finding excuses to make music together.”

This is the third song shared from the new album, How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?, following up “Latter Days” and “The Ghost Of Cincinnati.” The album will be out 8/27 via Jagjagwar/37d03d. Pre-order it here.

At the end of 2019, IDK released his major-label debut album, Is He Real? A year and a half later, the DMV rapper is ready to repeat the same kind of success with his upcoming sophomore album, USee4Yourself. While the project won’t arrive for another week, July 9 to be specific, IDK delivers one more single for fans to enjoy with “Pradadabang” featuring Young Thug. The bouncy effort sees the two rappers airing their grievances about gold-digging women who seem to bring them more problems than happiness.

The new track is the third single from USee4Yourself. It arrives weeks after IDK shared “Peloton,” an exuberant effort that finds him flexing some muscle after a woman labels him as the one for her. The project’s lead single, “Shoot My Shot” with Offset, is another ladies-focused track that is riddled with confidence and boastful thoughts from IDK and the Migos-counterpart.

As for USee4Yourself, the album present 17 songs for fans to enjoy when it arrives next week. While IDK is preparing to release the project, “Pradadabang” comes after Thug teamed up with his YSL record label for Slime Language 2, which debuted at No. 1 on the album charts.

You can press play on “Pradadabang” in the video above.

USee4Yourself is out 7/9 via Clue No Clue/Warner Records. Pre-order it here.

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

Spike Lee’s love of the New York Knicks is legendary at this point, but despite the Knickerbockers’ early postseason exit the director will have a big impact on the upcoming NBA Finals.

According to Variety, Lee will direct the opening segments aired on ABC before the games that will determine this year’s NBA champion. The openings, which will feature Lee on screen and behind the camera, hopes to encapsulate the enormity of the Finals ahead of the Phoenix Suns hosting their Eastern Conference opponents in the upcoming championship series.

Each game on ABC will air one of Lee’s four episodes, inspired by NBA legends of both yesterday and today. The openers use a combination of video footage and still images, incorporating historical highlights of the players who have made their marks on the league’s championship series.

…

In the teaser for the first opener, Lee says, “From the blue seats [of Madison Square Garden], to the ticker-tape parade: We’re all in this game together. Every possession, every call, every chant of ‘Defense!’… It’s the NBA Finals, Game 1!”

It’s unclear if Lee will produce more openers if the series goes past four games, which is likely barring a resounding sweep. But either way, Lee sounds very excited about getting a crack at the opens to the biggest games of the season.

“As a basketball aficionado and an orange-and-blue faithful it is my honor and pleasure to direct the NBA Finals opens,” Lee said in a statement to Variety. “I thank Commissioner Adam Silver, ESPN and ABC for giving me the opportunity to do what I love — sports and cinema. YA-DIG? SHO-NUFF.”

[via Variety]

Injuries have been an unfortunate theme of the 2021 NBA Playoffs, and they impacted Game 5 of the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals on Thursday evening. Both Giannis Antetokounmpo (knee) and Trae Young (foot) missed the contest, leaving their teams without No. 1 options under the brightest of lights. The Milwaukee Bucks were able overcome the hole left by Antetokounmpo, however, as they raced to an early lead and never trailed on the way to a 123-112 victory.

After the Hawks came out flying in Game 4, the Bucks returned the favor at the outset on Thursday. Milwaukee led 10-2 at the first timeout, riding seven quick points from Jrue Holiday, and that wasn’t the end of their push. Milwaukee scored on their first 13 (!) offensive possessions, including five offensive rebounds on their first five missed shots. The end result of that onslaught was a 20-point lead in short order, with the Hawks seemingly on the ropes.

While it was a balanced attack for Milwaukee in what became a parade to the rim, Brook Lopez was huge for the Bucks. He scored 16 points in the first half and, on the whole, Lopez was effective in walling off the paint defensively and providing effective offense with his size.

It seemed as if the Hawks might fade at times in the first half but, to their credit, they punched back. Bogdan Bogdanovic led the way with 13 points before halftime and, little by little, Atlanta chipped away. The Hawks made 16 of their final 26 shots after a dreadful start and, when John Collins connected on a three-pointer in the final seconds, Atlanta took only a nine-point deficit into the locker room.

On the first possession of the third quarter, Bogdanovic connected on his fourth three-pointer of the game, bringing the Hawks to within six. Seemingly on cue, the Bucks put together a response with a 12-4 run to reclaim a 14-point advantage.

The rest of the third quarter was a back-and-forth battle, with the Hawks making a push to climb within a nine-point spread. Then, the Bucks scored the final four points of the period, extending their advantage to 13 points with 12 minutes to go.

Milwaukee opened the fourth quarter by scoring the first five points, taking an 18-point lead, and the Bucks were never seriously challenged from that point forward. Atlanta did cut the margin to 13 with less than four minutes left but, when Bobby Portis connected on a dagger three-pointer, the Bucks had enough of a cushion to withstand a late shooting barrage from the Hawks in securing the victory.

It would be fair to say that Milwaukee’s hot start was the No. 1 impetus in their overall success, but the Bucks were able to string together a highly impressive offensive performance, even with middling three-point shooting. The Bucks shot 51 percent from the floor, generating 66 points in the paint and grabbing 14 offensive rebounds that led directly to 19 second-chance points. Lopez (33 points) and Portis (22 points) both set new playoff career highs in scoring, and the shorthanded Bucks also received high-end efforts from Khris Middleton (26 points, 13 rebounds, eight assists) and Jrue Holiday (25 points, 13 assists, six rebounds).

On the other side, Atlanta was simply unable to overcome their early hiccup, even as they got hot from three-point distance, making 15 of their 38 attempts for the night. Bogdanovic led the way with 28 points and seven three-pointers, but the Hawks couldn’t protect the defensive glass and struggled to contain Milwaukee’s attack near the rim.

From here, the series shifts back to Atlanta for a win-or-go-home situation for the Hawks as they trail 3-2 in the series. Nate McMillan’s team has been highly resilient, though, and the Bucks will need to put forth a top-tier effort to close out the series, no matter what the injury situation is for both teams.

Toward the end of May, Demi Lovato revealed that they now identify as non-binary and have changed their pronouns to they/them. The news was shared during a video introduction to a new series called, 4D With Demi Lovato.

“This has come after a lot of healing and self-reflective work,” they said with the announcement. “I’m still learning and coming into myself, and I don’t claim to be an expert or a spokesperson. Sharing this with you now opens another level of vulnerability for me.”

It’s been more than a month since Lovato shared this and while some have adjusted to the change, people like Lizzo have no issue with correcting those who fail to use the correct pronouns for Lovato. An example came when the paparazzi caught up with Lizzo, who was wearing a shirt with Lovato’s face on it, after she attended dinner at Catch LA.

“Is that a message to Demi? Should she reach out?” one of the photographers asked Lizzo in a video, to which she replied, “They,” while holding out her finger. The photographer seemed to miss Lizzo’s correction and continued, asking, “Have her team contact your team?”

Lizzo once again corrected them, saying, “Their team,” adding, “Demi goes by they now.” After catching wind of the video, Lovato reposted it to their Instagram Story and wrote, ”@lizzobeeating you f—ing queen I love you [kissing emoji] thank you.” Lizzo reshared the post to her Story with a heart emoji.

You can watch the video of Lizzo’s interaction with the paparazzi above.

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

The United States’ top women’s sprinter for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics may not be able to compete. On Thursday, Richardson was pulled from the Diamond League event in Stockholm with no official reasoning given, but in the morning she simply tweeted, “I am human.”

Later in the day, word emerged from the Jamaica Gleaner and later confirmed by Tyler Dragon of the Cincinnati Enquirer that Richardson had produced a positive drug test at the U.S. Olympic Trials, where she qualified first in the 100 meter event with a 10.86 second run in the finals. It was not a positive PED test that has Richardson in trouble, but traces of marijuana that has Richardson potentially missing the biggest meet of her life.

Given where we are in 2021 with more and more places legalizing recreational marijuana, many were upset that Richardson could miss the Olympics because of traces of marijuana being found in her system — on top of the fact that weed is not in any way a performance enhancer. The suspension could be 1-3 months, and even if it is on the shorter end of that, the star sprinter could miss the start of the 100 meter rounds at the Olympics, forcing the U.S. to turn to the fourth-place finisher Jenna Prandini for the third spot on the team.

As Dragon notes, it’s possible under a one month ban, Richardson could still compete in the team event as a key member of the 4×100 team, but it’s still a brutal way to lose one of the potential biggest stars of the Games before it even starts.

J Balvin has been extremely active in 2021 and his increased presence in the music world comes just a little over a year after he dropped his fifth album, Colores. With his sixth effort seemingly just around the corner, the Latin star teams up with Skrillex to unveil their new collaboration, “In Da Getto.”

In it, the two artists call up their friends to throw a massive house party. The electric gathering features a game of spin the bottle, explosive fireworks in the night sky, and a brief session that finds Balvin getting his nails done. The visual also sees appearances from TikTok favorites Khaby Lame and dancer Mustafa.

The new song and video serve as Balvin’s fourth single of the year. He kicked off his 2021 campaign at the end of February with a trip back home to a barrio in Medellin for his “Ma’ G” video before returning weeks later with his “Tu Veneno” video. Then, at the beginning of April, he shared his third single of the year, “Otra Noche Sin Ti,” which presented a guest appearance from Khalid.

Outside of music, Balvin recently teamed up with UPS for a campaign in support of Latinx small businesses. “My early days in music felt very comparable to getting a small business off the ground, so I know what it means to start from scratch and chase your dreams,” he said about the partnership.

You can press play on the video for the song above.

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