The last single Cardi B released was in August, and it was a biggie: “WAP,” her collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion, went on to break the internet, swiftly debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and became the most-Googled term of the year. Fans have been patiently (and not so patiently) awaiting new music from the rapper since. After teasing a special “announcement” Sunday evening, Cardi has finally shared details about her next single — and you don’t have to wait long to hear it.
Cardi took to social media to share the exciting news: Her next single “Up” is debuting on Friday. The song is going to be available on streaming services, as well as in the form of a limited-edition CD, which Cardi is making available for pre-order alongside the single’s debut.
Ahead of the single’s announcement, Cardi revealed how costly it has been for her team to maintain productivity during the pandemic. Not only does she get COVID-tested about four times a week, but she also has to pay for regular tests for her glam team as well, which cost about $250 each. After releasing the video alongside her song “WAP,” Cardi also said she spent nearly $100,000 on COVID tests for the entire crew.
Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Skullcrusher, the moniker of songwriter Helen Ballentine, got her start in music at a young age. But it wasn’t until she quit her art gallery 9-to-5 gig to pursue her creative side that Skullcrusher was born. Ballentine released a collection of songs under her stage name last year in the form of her self-titled debut EP. Ballentine now teases a new era of music by sharing a love letter to one of her favorite musicians with “Song For Nick Drake.”
Ballentine says the t rack is an ode to how Nick Drake’s music has influenced her own career. “‘Song for Nick Drake’ is about my relationship to the music of Nick Drake,” she said. “It recalls moments in my life that are viscerally intertwined with his music, specifically times spent walking & taking the train. The song is really my homage to music and the times I felt most immersed in it.”
“Song For Nick Drake” may be Ballentine’s first new track of the year, but it’s not the only single she’s released since her EP. Back in October, Ballentine found herself reflecting on her early childhood by penning the chilling track “Farm.” She accompanied the single with a wistful cover of Radiohead’s 1995 song “Lift.”
You can watch Skullcrusher’s video for “Song For Nick Drake” above.
Following Chicago rapper Noname‘s dreamy debut studio album Room 25, fans have been on the lookout for more. She’s intermittently released music since he breakthrough, but she’s been putting most of her energy towards her Noname Book Club, which highlights works by authors of color and donates books to incarcerated folks. But now there’s some good news.
On Monday Noname — who is not signed to a label, by the way — took to Twitter to give an update about the status of her new music in the most Noname possible: by casually tweeting about it. “lmao i don’t even know how to promote myself as a rapper anymore but my song Rainforest drops in a few weeks,” she wrote.
lmao i don’t even know how to promote myself as a rapper anymore but my song Rainforest drops in a few weeks
One person replied to her tweet with clear excitement, saying they plan on supporting her by purchasing merch. But instead of selling vinyl and various apparel, Noname says she’d rather have fans join her book club.
this is so nice! i won’t be selling anything but you can support our efforts to send more books to incarcerated members of @NonameBooks subscription starts at $1/month https://t.co/AfAJhAUSSc
The new single could mean the rapper is on track to release her anticipated sophomore album Factory Baby in 2021, as stated in her Twitter bio. Back in 2019, Noname said she wants to quit music after the release of Factory Baby because her “heart isn’t fully in it anymore.” Time will tell if Factory Baby really is her final release or if she will continue making music in the future.
There are a number of unique elements to the NBA this season, most of which the league hopes will be just a temporary change, like a December start date, putting the schedule out in segments, and, obviously, the lack of fans in arenas.
However, one change that could be around to stay is the league having teams play two-game series in the same market. It was a change made to limit travel for exposure reasons, but it’s something that the NBA should consider moving forward because even in non-pandemic years, fewer flights and less travel are a good thing for players.
Coaches are a big fan of the series format as well, as it simplifies game prep by not needing to turnaround a new gameplan for a new team in a day or two, and also allows for some tweaks to that plan between games once you’ve learned from the first. Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau expressed his appreciation for the two-game sets prior to Monday’s game in Chicago, where they’ll face the Bulls again on Wednesday, and said it’s something he’s heard from a lot of others around the league.
Tom Thibodeau says he hopes that the two-game series are “here to stay.” Says he thinks most of the people in the league like it, also.
It makes sense and it is something that the NBA should consider, given they’ve been working in recent years to try and cut down on travel and back-to-backs. Having teams play in the same market provides greater rest opportunities, along with the benefits coaches seem to see from the series format, and it’s actually a bit of a surprise that the league didn’t look into playing more of them this year than they did. The league could go more aggressively towards the series format by adopting more of a baseball type schedule that has interleague (in this case interconference) games taking place all at the same time, which would allow for an in-conference segment of the season for more series.
That seems unlikely but could be something they explore. At the very least, though, it seems they should look into keeping the series format they adopted this year because it’s a hit with the coaches and players.
If you know the name Jordan Belfort, it’s probably because Leonardo DiCaprio played him in The Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese’s epic satire about crooked brokers who gamed the stock market in the ‘90s. (Or maybe you were one of the many he and his cronies gamed.) That film, along with The Big Short and Oliver Stone’s Wall Street, have been big streamers recently, and with good reason: We’re in the midst of the GameStop-Reddit saga, in which amateur traders have been exploiting loops in the system, with possibly game-changing results.
Well, Belfort apparently isn’t going to pass this moment up. Now that the general public is thinking about stocks again, the broker-turned-motivational speaker has recorded a parody video, in which he acts out one of Wolf of Wall Street’s key scenes. About halfway through the film, DiCaprio’s Belfort has been advised to leave his firm after the FBI starts sniffing out its many underhanded deeds. But midway through what was supposed to be his big farewell speech, he announces he’s staying on. It’s a big, thrilling moment…that more or less leads to the destruction of his company and his eventual imprisonment.
So Belfort recreated the speech, for the age of this latest wave of upstarts taking on the system, inserting himself into the scene from the movie. One big difference: What the GameStop Redditers are doing doesn’t appear to be illegal. What Belfort and team did — including securities fraud and money laundering — were. But whether Belfort realizes that Scorsese was definitely not making a hagiography — it’s possibly his angriest film, mired in deep sarcasm and concluding with a disturbing reminder that too many Americans are attracted to charismatic criminals — seems to be up in the air.
The reboot train has come for so many shows in the last handful of years, but it’s never stopped at one of sitcomdom’s most rewatchable titans: Frasier. It’s not for lack of trying: People who can get this stuff done — e.g., star Kelsey Grammer — have been attempting a revival for years, though they have been picky about how it comes back, if at all. But now, as per Deadline, there’s a better chance than ever before about bringing back the good doctor.
It’s still in the early talks, but Grammer and team are reportedly pitching a 10-episode return to Paramount+, the studio’s forthcoming streamer. One catch (apart from that it isn’t an official go just yet): Both Grammer and David Hyde Pierce, who played even more fastidious brother Niles, already have prior commitments: Grammer to an ABC comedy co-starring Alec Baldwin and Pierce to the HBO series Julia. (And of course, Grammer is hot off his memorable turn in last year’s Money Plane.) So they might not start with the tossed salad and scrambled eggs till 2022 at the earliest.
Grammer isn’t the only one pushing more Frasier. The head creative team will include Chris Harris and Joe Cristalli, the latter who runs the much-liked parody account @FrasierContempo. Cristalli, whose previous credits include a staff writer gig on the bygone Colin Hanks show Life in Pieces, celebrated the news on Twitter, declaring victory ahead of the hoped-for green light.
my friend Joe started this Frasier parody account when we worked on Last Man Standing together and used to bully me into liking his tweets. Now he’s behind the Frasier reboot. Bullying works and I think that’s beautiful https://t.co/nocyY3rgpS
So if there’s some show you want to bring back, one good way to do so is to create a beloved parody account on Twitter. You hear that, fans of the old Jon Cryer show The Famous Teddy Z?
Google Stadia is hoping the future of its console will come from game developers outside of the company. Google announced on Monday that it would shut down its in-house game studio, instead hoping other game developers continue to support the platform and use its technology to continue supporting the streaming platform in the future.
Given our focus on building on the proven technology of Stadia as well as deepening our business partnerships, we’ve decided that we will not be investing further in bringing exclusive content from our internal development team SG&E, beyond any near-term planned games. With the increased focus on using our technology platform for industry partners, Jade Raymond has decided to leave Google to pursue other opportunities. We greatly appreciate Jade’s contribution to Stadia and wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors. Over the coming months, most of the SG&E team will be moving on to new roles. We’re committed to working with this talented team to find new roles and support them.
The movie is tough news for the future of Stadia itself, though Google assured gamers in the statement that it will work with other companies to bring titles to Stadia and continue to support the streaming console, which needs a $9.99 montly subscription to use. It touted titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and others as successes on Stadia, which uses Google’s cloud services to run games without requiring a true in-home console to play.
Still, it’s huge news in the gaming industry because of the level of talent that was lured away from other established game developers to create the in-house Stadia team.
The thing about Stadia’s internal studios is, they poached *exceptional* talent from other places and made acquisitions with strong potential. They then tasked them to establish new teams and make AAA games, which takes around 3-4 years at best.
Those developers will now either move to other non-gaming Google projects or look for work elsewhere.
1) While some might stay at Google I imagine most of them will leave because they want to make (and have experience making) video games, not Gmail features; 2) Yup many of them will find new game dev jobs, but will they have to move across the world? https://t.co/9sncb68NzL
For years, Westwood actor Evan Rachel Wood has been vocal about the horrific domestic violence she faced without ever directly naming her abuser. Wood even bravely testified about the abuse in front of California lawmakers in 2018, which resulted in legislation that expands the rights of domestic abuse survivors. On Monday, Wood came forward to name her abuser as Marilyn Manson. Following the allegations, Manson has been officially dropped by his record label.
Manson is on the heels of an album release last September. But after Wood and four other women came forward and named him as their abuser, Loma Vista Records has decided to cease working with Manson on his current album and any future projects. Loma Vista shared a statement about their decision to drop Manson on social media, saying it’s “effective immediately:”
“In light of today’s disturbing allegations by Evan Rachel Wood and other women naming Marilyn Manson as their abuser, Loma Vista will cease to further promote his current album effective immediately. Due to these concerning developments, we have also decided not to work with Marilyn Manson on any future projects.”
Wood’s allegations against Manson were made clear in a social media post Monday. After touching on some of her horrific experiences, Wood said she was coming forward to “expose this dangerous man and call out the many industries that have enabled him, before he ruins any more lives.”
While whisk(e)y is a global spirit, it’s mostly made in the United States, Scotland, Canada, Ireland, and Japan. With new expressions dropping daily, you could spend the rest of your life only enjoying bottles from those dram-loving hotbeds. But you’d be doing yourself a disservice.
Because while the “whisk(e)y big five” are historic production hubs for the industry, countries like South Africa, India, Mexico, and even France are all currently producing high-quality whiskeys worth tracking down. Even Sweden is getting in on the action.
In an effort to take a trip around the whisk(e)y world without needing to hop on a plane, we asked a handful of our favorite bartenders to tell us the best whiskeys from countries less known for distilling the brown stuff. Their picks didn’t disappoint — check them all out below.
Sierra Norte Black Corn Whiskey (Mexico)
Seth Falvo, bartender at The Hotel Zamora in St. Pete Beach, Florida
I have to admit, when I was first presented with a bottle of Sierra Norte Black Corn Whiskey, I was skeptical. Corn whiskey, for me, brings back memories of college football tailgating; chasing mason jar swill by shotgunning Abita Amber doesn’t exactly scream “refined spirit” to me. I’m happy to admit that I stand corrected. Sierra Norte Black Corn Whiskey has a rich, sweet taste nuanced with vanilla, maraschino, and brown sugar notes.
The mouthfeel is surprisingly full and smooth, and it makes an excellent Manhattan.
Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky (South Africa)
Josh Curtis, bar director at Carbon Beach Club in Malibu, California
Scotch-style whisky production is big in South Africa, but I’ve only tried its two most popular brands — Bain’s and Three Ships. Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky is filled with hints of vanilla, sweet cream, and toasted caramel and is perfect for sipping or mixing.
Roazelieures Rare Collection (France)
Patricia Verdesoto, head bartender at Jams in New York City
While traveling through Europe two summers ago, I stumbled upon Roazelieures Rare Collection single malt. After having my fill of Aperol spritzes, something with a little more oomph was a necessity. This being my only time trying French whisky, I didn’t know what to expect. Immediately I noticed a light honey aroma followed by dark fruit notes and major malt flavor. The smoke isn’t too heavy, which makes this a much softer experience altogether.
I don’t know if it was the ABV content or the fact that I was very far away from home, but this French whisky straddled the line between the familiar and the unknown — in a very welcoming way.
Amrut Fusion (India)
Andy Printy, Beverage Director at Chao Baan in St. Louis
Amrut Fusion from India is a lesser-known whisky but is still so unique, it continues to stand out. It’s made from both malted barley from Scotland as well as barley grown at the foot of the Himalayan mountains and aged in barrels in Bangalore, which sits at 3000 feet. The unique profile is a combination of smoke, apricot, and honey.
If you’re into Islay type single malts, this is a nice lateral move into something new and intriguing.
Brenne 10 Year is a pretty solid spirit, though I’ve only tested it once. It has a lot of cognac on the nose, baked pecans, plums, and spices. The palate follows suit, with baked pies, toffee, cloves, walnuts, and chocolate. Something that would fit in great around Christmas time.
I love Kavalan whisky. It’s from Taiwan. It’s from a subtropical climate, so it ages faster — similar to rum — and they have a wide variety of finishes. The Sherry Cask finish is one of my favorites. I love that because of the climate they have a unique expression of what their whiskey is while still holding true to the values of whisky (the owner was trained in Scotland).
In short, they use their location to their advantage.
Abosolo El Whisky De Mexico is a brand-new whisky hailing from Mexico. While it uses corn as its base ingredient, it isn’t anything like what bourbon drinkers would expect. A 4,000-year-old cooking technique lends notes of black tea and honey.
You should make room on your bar cart for this one.
If you can get your hands on it, try Black Mountain whisky from France. It’s blended and aged in Occitanie, the region where I grew up. They use local barrels and this dram will surprise you. Their whisky is full of character and very smooth.
I got to try a Three Ships 10-Year Single Malt once, awhile back. Distilled in Wellington, South Africa, and aged in new American oak casks this whisky has a bit of honey on the nose, some baking spice and vanilla got flavor, finished with a long oak flavor. This is a great whiskey with a unique talking point.
Writer’s Pick:
Mackmyra Brukswhisky (Sweden)
While Sweden is known for its vodka, brands like Mackmyra are making the world think about the country’s whiskey. Aged in bourbon and sherry casks, this mellow, light whisky has hints of sweet cream, dried cherries, and caramel.
Tim Storms says he first realized he had a wide vocal range when he sang songs at a Christian camp as a kid. As he’s gotten older, that range has only widened as his voice has gotten deeper.
Considering the fact that he’s held the Guinness World Record for singing the lowest note for nearly a decade (an honor he had to reclaim in 2012 after winning it the first time in 2008), you’d expect Storms’ speaking voice to sound like James Earl Jones or something. But to hear him speak, you’d never guess how low his voice can really go.
To give you an idea of how low we’re talking, hit the bottom note of a piano, then imagine adding another piano’s worth of keys below that note. Storms’ lowest notes are so low, they’re nearly impossible for our ears to hear—instead, they feel like the rumble of a subwoofer. The official record-breaking low vocal note was registered at G-7 (0.189 Hz), which means nothing to most of us, but it’s really freaking low.
The guy can really sing, though. Check him out singing “Lonesome Road”:
However, that video, while impressive, doesn’t show of his whole vocal range. Oh yes, Storms holds the Guinness World Record for widest vocal range as well, at 10 octaves.
For reference, a piano has seven octaves. Mariah Carey has a five-octave range, as does David Lee Roth. So yeah. Double the range of Mariah Carey? Impressive.
How does he do it? In an interview with CNN, Storms said that an ear, nose, and throat specialist asked to look at his vocal chords after hearing him sing at a concert. The ENT told him that his vocal chords were about twice as long as average, and the muscles around his vocal chords had a lot more movement to them.
Here’s a showcase that includes some of the low notes Storms can hit as well as a demonstration of his range toward the end:
[HD] Tim Storms Vocal Showcase (G#0 – A4) Studio and Live
To understand how truly unique Storms’ ability to sing those low notes is, check this out: In 2011, composer Paul Mealor wrote a choral piece called De Profundis, which included the lowest vocal note ever written for a classical voice—a low E. A worldwide hunt for a bass singer who could sing the note commenced, and Storms was one of the singers who submitted a recording. While there were other singers who could hit the low E, most had to strain to hit it. Storms could not only hit it seemingly effortlessly, but he could sing two octaves below it as well.
Needless to say, he got the part.
Storms says that the older he gets, the lower his voice gets, so the chances of anyone coming along to take his record is pretty unlikely. Sure would be fun to watch someone try, though.
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