Category: Worldwide

With the coronavirus still affecting individuals and families all over the country, Diddy took a moment to step up and provide some momentary relief for Miami residents in need. According to the Associated Press, the rapper and entrepreneur was joined by his children at an event in the South Beach neighborhood of Overtown where they handed out $50 bills to people in a crowd that surrounded them. The goal for Diddy and his sons was to help ease the financial struggles many of the Miami residents were experiencing as a result of the pandemic. In addition to the cash, they also handed out $50 Publix supermarket gift cards and bags that were filled with hygiene products. During the event, Diddy made sure to stay safe as he wore a clear face shield and black gloves as moved through the crowd.

In addition to providing the coronavirus relief to Miami residents, Diddy is also working with nightlife and music festival organizer Michael Gardner as well as the local group, Teens Exercising Extraordinary Success, to grant rental assistance to 175 families in the area. The news of his work in Miami comes hours after he joined in on the end-of-year declarations that the music world makes before flipping the calendar as he shared his pick for today’s best songwriter.

“Partynextdoor, to me, is the best writer that’s out there right now,” he said before taking a second to think it over, all to stand firm on his choice. “I said it, I said it.”

(via Associated Press)

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

It’s only been two years since the synth-pop trio Chvrches put out a record, 2018’s Love Is Dead, but in that time a lot has changed in pop music. This year, one of their songs off that record, “Forever,” got a “separate but together” performance video after its placement in the Netflix show Elite helped spike popularity.

And don’t worry, the group aren’t planning to go full folk-pop like Taylor Swift, but frontwoman Lauren Mayberry did tell The Guardian recently that another pop star has influenced the direction of their fourth album.

“The vocal production on the Billie Eilish album is absolutely phenomenal — that is an advancement in pop music,” Mayberry began. Noting that her bandmates “Iain and Martin like to be across what is happening for production stuff.” She continued: “We want to be aware of it because there’s just awesome pop music and you can learn something from it. Learn the production tricks but don’t learn the other parts: I think that was the challenge of this album. We did two albums that existed in a certain space, and by the third record it felt like what we were doing had been popularized by other people. How do you run that race next to other people? Well, we’ve realized that we don’t have to run that race. You’re never going to win in a race that is saturated by people who are bigger, better and more popular, so you might as well pivot and go somewhere else.”

Still, their next album, which the piece stated is set for an early 2021 release, is going to be different than the first three. “It’s definitely got the Chvrches DNA, but I don’t think that these songs could slot into any of the first three records,” Mayberry said. “You want it to be like your band, but you want it to be enough of an evolution that it’s not the same thing over and over again. But how do you do that? Especially with modern day pop music where there’s a pressure to take your sound and put it through the filter of what is popular. I think you can tell that it’s us — it’s not screamo or anything like that.”

Read the full Guardian interview here, and look out for new music from Chvrches coming very soon.

The Milwaukee Bucks have never been shy about letting it fly from downtown. The Bucks shot the fourth-most threes in the league last year, understanding that there is value in being able to hit them at even an average clip if you put them up at a crazy high volume.

When they do hit them at a higher than average percentage, though, the Bucks are capable of mollywhopping opponents. And when they get absolutely white hot from deep, which they did on Tuesday night against the Miami Heat, then Milwaukee is able to set records.

The Bucks came out on top against the defending Eastern Conference champions, 144-97, in a game that was so hilariously one-sided that TNT straight up stopped broadcasting the game and instead opted to do a swing around to the other games in the league. Milwaukee did it from deep, going 29-for-51 (56.9 percent!) percent from behind the three-point line and setting an NBA record for the most triples in a single game in NBA history. The previous record was 27, and it was set by the Miami Heat in 2017.

Milwaukee hit so many threes that they did not convert from deep for the final 6:07 of the game and they already had the record set. The team emptied its bench, and every single player on the team hit at least one three, with one exception: two-time reigning league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Young Thug has spent the better part of the last two days in hip-hop headlines thanks to a number of comments he made during a recent appearance on the Million Dollaz Worth Of Game podcast. The latest attention-grabbing moment came when the YSL rapper discussed Drake and other high-level hip-hop artists in terms of the ceiling they have when it comes to the level of success they can reach in the music industry.

“I was talking to the youngins the other day…a Hip Hop artist you can only go so far,” Thug said. “Once you’re Drake level, there’s nothing else you could do. At this point, they’re waiting on you to fall down. It’s no next level unless you go pop or something else. So, I’m always focused on the next level.” It’s an interesting point to hear from the Atlanta rapper considering the fact that hip-hop is today’s biggest and most popular genre, but despite that, it wasn’t the only eyebrow-raising point Thug shared on the episode.

The So Much Fun rapper also declared that the only way he would participate in a Verzuz battle is if it was against Lil Wayne. “It would probably have to be like [Lil Wayne],” he said. “Because you got to think — we got to talk about influence. We got to talk about everything. We got to talk about everything. It’s not just about no rap.” He also got attacked for his comments about Jay-Z and whether or not the Brooklyn legend had 30 songs he could play for an entire stadium of fans to rap along with him.

You can watch the Million Dollaz Worth Of Game podcast episode in the video above.

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

Selena Gomez is a pop star who is rare in more ways than one. Tonight, the young singer took to Twitter to criticize Facebook for the rampant disinformation that exists on the platform.

In particular, she’s concerned about the lies and false information that are being spread about vaccines, just as the COVID-19 vaccine is beginning to get distribution in the United States. “Scientific disinformation has and will cost lives,” she wrote in a tweet. “@Facebook said they don’t allow lies about COVID and vaccines to be spread on their platforms. So how come all of this is still happening? Facebook is going to be responsible for thousands of deaths if they don’t take action now!”

Below her comments, Selena shared the following tweet from the Center For Countering Digital Hate, whose CEO, Imran Ahmed, was on BBC News talking about this issue.

“We took a thousand bits of misinformation and got volunteers to report it using the platform’s own reporting systems,” Ahmed said on BBC. “And less than 5% of it was taken down. The truth is we’ve been gaslit by the social media companies, they say they’re doing their utmost. But in reality, they’re doing absolutely nothing.”

Hopefully whistleblowers like Ahmed — and celebrities using their platforms like Selena — will help draw more attention to this issue so can realize that vaccines are safe and will help us return to normalcy.

Warning: This article contains spoilers about the final episode of The Sopranos, which you can (and should) binge on HBO Max.

The very final episode of The Sopranos contains one of the most shocking and contested endings in television history — a note of ambiguity that was so sudden some HBO subscribers thought there was a technical glitch. But there’s one thing most people can agree on: Creator David Chase chose the perfect final song. The last scene is set entirely to Journey’s anthem “Don’t Stop Believin’” — a semi-tongue-in-cheek way to cap a show that was always funnier than its rep. But, Chase recently revealed, there was almost another, very different last song.

On a new episode of the Talking Sopranos podcast, which is hosted by two of the show’s stars, Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa — who played Christopher and Bobby “Bacala,” respectively — Chase was asked about how he landed on arguably Journey’s signature hit. Chase said he was driving around in a van with crew members, and he hit them with some of his choices. He had three. He can’t remember the second one. But the first, which was not picked, was [drum roll] “Love and Happiness,” by Al Green.

“Love and Happiness” is, of course, not a cheesy ’80s power ballad. It’s a silky, smooth, reflective number, revealing a contentment that James Gandolfini’s Tony never quite found. Thing is, Chase says, the crew members in the van weren’t hot for “Don’t Stop Believin’.” “Everyone went, ‘Oh, Jesus Christ, no!’” he recalled. “And I thought, ‘That’s the one.’”

So there you have it: Because people recoiled at this great show — the one that arguably launched the whole Second Golden Age of Television in which we (also arguably) still live — ending with Journey, Chase decided it should end with Journey. Even now Chase hasn’t fully flopped to its side. “I consider that song a guilty pleasure,” Chase said on the podcast. “I always liked that song. But other people think it’s, I don’t know, corny ’80s s*it.”

You can watch the full episode of Talking Sopranos below. The bit about the final song starts around the 42-minute mark.

And if you need a refresher on the Al Green great, here you go.

(Via Showbiz CheatSheet)

Even before A Star Is Born debuted in 2018, the movie featuring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga was an internet sensation. The trailer was parsed for weeks, and the movie itself received very positive reviews. Beyond that, Cooper and Gaga collaborated on “Shallow,” which was a smash hit in the music world and, while the song isn’t necessarily in the every day consciousness as 2020 comes to a close, a pair of NBA players are bringing the hype back.

Dallas Mavericks big men Boban Marjanovic and Maxi Kleber came together on something of a cover of “Shallow” and, well, the only thing to do is watch the magic happen.

First, Marjanovic is a delight, and that has been well documented for a very long time. He steals the show, both with his tone and general demeanor during the performance, and Boban also decided to make up his own words for the occasion.

Kleber, who is a wildly underrated two-way player for the Mavericks, also makes a substantive contribution in that he is playing piano in a competent way. That isn’t a small thing, and you can tell both men are enjoying themselves throughout the festivities.

It’s not as if covering a (very) famous duet is a new phenomenon, but the timing is hilarious and this is just fantastic content. There isn’t much else to say, but watching it again is probably a good idea. We cannot wait for the pair to team up for a full-length album.

YG returned in 2020 with his fifth album, My 4Hunnid Life, which saw appearances from Ty Dolla Sign, Gunna, Tyga, Lil Wayne, and more. It also served as the first release through the newly-formed joint venture that YG’s 4Hunnid imprint and Epic Records began this past spring. Now, the Compton rapper is ready to introduce fans to the latest chapter in the 4Hunnid experience thanks to news of a new sneaker, entitled “The Flame,” set to arrive next year.

The rapper shared the news in a post on his Instagram page. The image shows YG behind a trio of sneakers that look awfully similar to the classic Nike Cortez design. Despite the similarity, YG’s sneaker won’t be released in partnership with a shoe brand. But given his roots in Compton, where the Cortez model is very popular, it likely served as inspiration for The Flame’s design.”

The Flame comes with toe tip overlays and exposed stitching that goes along the border of the throat. A large flame design can be found on the lateral and medial walls of the shoe, while the words “The Flame” appears in cursive font on the tongue. For those who are interested, The Flame is set to arrive in March 2021 and will come in white/red, blue/white, black/white, and red/white colorways.

(via Hypebeast)

Queen of custom gifts. Queen of making fun of the worst year of our lives. Queen of helping her friends make it through.

Beyonce has been more focused on her Ivy Park line than new music, even if Black Is King and its accompanying film/visual album made a big splash this summer. But it turns out, even if you’re as rich, famous, and talented as Beyonce, 2020 was still a tough year. To let her friends know that she’s there for them through this incredibly difficult time, Bey had custom necklaces made for her inner circle that expressed a collective frustration with a terrible year.

Bey’s friends like Angie Beyince and her mother, Tina Lawson, both posted the custom gold necklaces she had made for her crew that combine a middle finger with 2020 to make one perfect ode to the new year. “@beyonce gifted all of her girls with this amazing custom 2020 necklace,” Beyince wrote on Instagram. “2020 “ It’s a hand with middle finger and the year 2020 combined into one. When I opened it my eyes teared up because it is both Hilarious & Deeply Sentimental. 2020 has had ups and downs but over all its been a really weird and tuff year. Hopefully 2021 is good to the world.”

https://www.instagram.com/angiebeyince/?utm_source=ig_embed

The original queen, Miss Tina, had this to say: “note my Christmas present (my necklace) from Beyonce f__k 2020 two many losses !!! But it is almost over and we are still here !!! Give God Some.”

Hey Bey, just send a quick DM to get my address if you have any extras. In fact, not a bad idea for merch, eh? Then again, I don’t want to see the numbers “2020” in a row ever again after December 31st.

It’s been more than two years since J. Cole revealed his next album would be titled The Fall Off. The Dreamville rapper first alluded to it on “1985 (Intro To The Fall Off)”, the final track on his 2018 album KOD. Two years have passed and no new album. But J. Cole is still keeping the faith alive, taking to Instagram to claim it’s become his main point of focus.

The rapper shared a handwritten to-do list, which he titled “The Fall Off Era,” which features a list of things he aims to complete before the arrival of The Fall Off. The first two items, “Features” and “ROTD3,” are crossed out, implying they’ve been completed. The former refers to his impressive run of guest appearances he did between 2018 and 2019, ending with the track “Loyalty,” alongside Gang Starr. The latter references Dreamville’s star-studded compilation project Revenge Of The Dreamers III, which arrived in summer 2019. There’s also “The Off-Season,” plus “It’s A Boy” and, infally, “The Fall Off.” It’s unknown what the former is, but it wouldn’t be a terrible guess to assume it’s the first single from The Fall Off. Whatever it is, it looks like it’s the last step Cole will take before unleashing The Fall Off to the world.