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There have been rumors in recent days that Kanye West’s presidential campaign has received support from powerful Republicans who believe his candidacy could draw votes away from Joe Biden and help Donald Trump get re-elected. However, based on a new poll from Politico/Morning Consult, it doesn’t look like Kanye will sway the election that much either way.

In the poll of registered voters, Kanye earned just two percent of the votes overall, and only two percent of votes among Black voters. Furthermore, Biden’s 9-point national lead over Trump is unaffected by Kanye’s presence, as his lead remains the same whether or not Kanye is on the ballot. Kanye performed so poorly in this poll that he actually finished 7 points behind “no opinion.”

Ron Christie, a Black Republican strategist and former aide to Dick Cheney, told Politico of Kanye’s campaign, “I think a lot of people of color view Kanye’s bid for the presidency as a quixotic one, and they don’t see him as being legitimate for the office. It’s more of yet another Kanye publicity stunt. Democrats traditionally get 90-plus percent of the black vote. I think a lot of people are going to look at Kanye and just say, ‘I don’t think so.’”

This morning, Kanye revealed that he is “starting Plan A,” which, for the sake of his White House dreams, is hopefully something that makes him a more appealing candidate.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

“I think if you go three records back, we were an emo band,” John Rossiter says. We’ve reached the inevitable part of our interview where the 31-year-old Young Jesus frontman is asked to place his group in a particular scene, and I can sense his discomfort. My seemingly simple, straightforward question is surprisingly difficult to answer for a band whose incredible new album, Welcome To Conceptual Beach, covers enough sonic ground to encompass Sigur Ròs, Sun Ra, the Dave Matthews Band, and numerous points between and beyond those acts.

No, there’s nothing “simple” about Young Jesus. Nor should there be.

“Sometimes the genre tropes of emo and indie rock can be a bit suffocating to us, so we just never paid attention to it,” he says, in a shy, earnest voice that can’t quite conceal the justifiable pride he has in Welcome To Conceptual Beach, hands down one of 2020’s best and most exciting indie-rock records. At a time when many artists seem content to mine the same relatively narrow sonic and thematic terrains of long-established archetypes — “the punk band,” “the confessional singer-songwriter,” “the indie-pop star” — Young Jesus strikes out with an uncommonly bold sound that aspires to the overpowering emotional directness of indie’s grandest classics from the ’90s and ’00s, while also exploring experimental, even esoteric instrumental textures deriving from jazz-inspired improvisations that often push their songs past the 10-minute mark.

Which is to say, Welcome To Conceptual Beach has the gut-level drive of watersheds like The Lonesome Crowded West or In The Aeroplane Over The Sea without relying upon the familiar indie-rock tropes those records codified. In fact, one of the most profound pleasures of Young Jesus — which formed in the aughts when Rossiter was in high school, cycling through different members before solidifying with its present lineup of bassist Marcel Borbon, drummer Kern Haug, and keyboardist Eric Shervrin three years ago in Los Angeles — is how unpredictable this band can be. Songs have a way of transmogrifying. The album-opening “Faith” drifts into a visceral math-rock breakdown before shifting to a disquieting, Pink Floyd-style space-rock jam. “Meditations” similarly lurches like a surly woolly mammoth with meandering Spiderland guitars cut with a mystical flute, until the tempo suddenly shifts at the midpoint and the song becomes a furious rocker. “Pattern Doubt” is among the tracks that largely ditch guitars in favor of an acid-jazz saxophone and fluttery keyboards inspired by Alice Coltrane. Later, on the 11-minute epic “Lark,” the beauty melts away from a barrage of free-form noise before the song regains an anthemic, stately splendor.

“There are, of course, moments that are very emotional, and very indie sounding, but we’re not trying to write a song in any genre,” Rossiter says. We’re just being where the four of us go, because we each come from such different musical backgrounds. We just go wherever it’s going to go, and we really thrive in that space.”

Two years ago, I called Young Jesus “one of the most adventurous young indie rock bands.” Today, I wouldn’t qualify that statement — no other indie band right now mixes the visceral and the intellectual as well as this group. I don’t expect to feel as flat-out exhilarated by the possibilities of an indie-rock album this year as I am by Welcome To Conceptual Beach. It is truly a special album.

In a recent phone interview, Rossiter explained how Young Jesus got here.

You’ve described the “conceptual beach” idea as a kind of mental refuge for yourself that goes beyond just this album. What exactly does it mean to you?

Gosh, it’s such a big thing for me, so it’s hard to put it into words. I started it probably about six years ago now, just making a few zines, and giving those out on tour. Every day, I would wake up before work, and write as if I was this post on Conceptual Beach. So it became a kind of diary, where I could become a character — as it turns out, is really helpful for sorting out your own health and psychology and soul, to be able to separate yourself out a little bit into different figures. It would really help me sort through my feelings, anger, guilt, sadness, shame, unworthiness, creativity, joy. At that point in time, I was living really deeply in my own mind, and that’s a really isolating place to be. So it helped me dive into the heart of that. This record, I hope, is my life opening up a little bit, and leaving my mind, joining a community, and being more in my body.

That goal to be more in your body seems tied with the band’s focus on improvisation, which is really about trying to live in the moment musically.

Kern, our drummer, sent us on that path as a group. He really loves musicians like Sun Ra, Anthony Braxton, The Fall, Bill Orcutt, and on and on. But he especially loves Sun Ra. He’s almost a scholar. He has a weekly radio show, where he just talks about Sun Ra. He taught a couple of college classes on him. Him bringing that element really was special, and it changed my life, because it allows you to participate in music, and if you view it from a certain angle, there are no rules. You can do anything. The only thing that you can really assess improvisation with is, are the musicians present with each other? Are they listening to each other? Are they taking risks, and embracing each other’s risks and mistakes and successes, and actively framing it together? It’s this shape that you’re constantly making as a group. And you can’t control it. When it’s at its most beautiful, you’re sort of transmitting that moment, rather than exerting control over it.

I remember the last time I talked to you, you were talking about Derek Bailey and his book, Improvisation, and about how, even when you feel like you failed, that you’re not really failing, because you’re going to a place that you wouldn’t have gone otherwise.

One thing I’ve really struggled with my whole life is the act of really learning. I think of learning as reading a book and then you know something. But learning is a really complicated, difficult process, that is mostly based on experience. And a lot of those experiences are uncomfortable, because you’ve never had them before, and you don’t have the mental capacity yet to be comfortable with it. You’re in a whole new land. If we can develop the skills to greet a moment that is new, and can shake your foundation, you can’t … or at least I can’t figure out an exact response to that will always make life okay. Which is what I’ve wanted for a long time. Like, oh, if only I can figure out a certain way to respond, I’ll be good. That never works. What has helped has been like, oh, can I monitor my feelings? Can I be present as this is happening? And can I ask other people how they’re feeling as it’s happening? Improvisation is about that. It’s all questions. All you’re doing is asking questions with your instrument.

It’s interesting we’re talking so much about community given that these times we’re in right now are very isolating. How are you dealing with that?

I’ve been making music. Eric’s been making music, Kern’s doing his radio show. Marcel’s been recording. It’s been — this is not unique to me — a super up and down experience. Each day, each moment feels really different. All my emotions feel heightened, and to be isolated can be really hard. I think I’m just getting out of the reactive phase of that, which is like, “Oh, this is all overwhelming, and so much is happening.” And moving towards like, “Oh, there are creative ways to engage with this, and there are opportunities here.”

I have to stretch and meditate every single day, or else I’ll lose my mind. And I have started dancing to far out jazz records, and Grateful Dead records, so that I can just move some of this through my body. And that really helped.

When I first heard Welcome To Conceptual Beach, I was struck by the vocals. You’ve changed up your style quite a bit — it’s more of a crooner style that reminded me of Jeff Buckley and Anohni. How did you hit upon that?

I’m so glad you picked that up. Anohni and Jeff Buckley are two major touchstones for this record. Because I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, and raised Episcopalian, and very modest and humble, I learned to cut myself down a lot. On this record, I started to realize that attitude really doesn’t serve our music very well. The way Kern and Marcel and Eric are playing is very confident, and they really believe in themselves as musicians, because they’re very talented. They work on it a lot. So for me, I realized, I really could just believe in myself more, and love my voice a little bit more, and really go into it. So there’s a lot less screaming on the record, and a lot more singing. And it’s brought me a lot of joy, because just using my voice as an instrument, I think that is in parallel with me learning to love my body more. Because your voice is such an embodied thing.

Anohni and Jeff Buckley, they lean into who they are a lot, and it’s beautiful. And that’s what I think people respond to, how vulnerable they are, and how powerful that vulnerability is. I started to feel like I had that same something within me, when I really believe in myself.

Was it difficult to get to that place where you felt comfortable taking more chances, vocally?

Yes. I share this because I hope there are kids that experienced something similar: When I started playing in this band, 12 years ago, I would sing about two feet away from the mic, and no one could hear it. We were playing to about five people at bars in Chicago that would let underage kids play shows. And we would literally have to sit outside of the venue until our set, and then they’d be like, “Okay, you guys are allowed to come in to play, then you have to leave.” But I was terrified. I’ve always been a really shy performer. And for some reason, I just felt I had to keep doing it, because it would unlock something in me. I’m sure it’s the same thing with writing about music, that you start, being like, “Oh my gosh, this is so … how could I ever publish this?” And then all of a sudden, you’re not filtering it so much through your mind. You’re more just letting yourself go and do it in the great moments. But it takes a lot of time.

You’ve also really branched out sonically beyond being a guitar-bass-drums rock band. I really love the song “Pattern Doubt,” which has a beautiful saxophone part and this fantastic fluttery keyboard sound.

That song in particular is such a good reference, because it gets at some of the key ways in which we’ve matured as a band and become more comfortable. The sax player and flute player on the record, Brian Tuley, Marcel played with in a ska band in high school with, called the RidicuLites. They’re both still ska people, but Brian is also this great jazz musician. He has such an ear for melody that he just kind of stepped in the first take and laid down that opening melody for “Pattern Doubt.”

That song is the meeting point of past and future and present for the band. If I’m going to be totally honest, I’ve been afraid to reference certain things that might be are too poppy, or what I would deem embarrassing. I didn’t want to share that I would listen to certain music when I was younger. Or even now, that I still listen to it, unless it’s in an ironic or sarcastic way, so I can still appear cool. Now I feel really comfortable with the fact that the sax line in “Pattern Doubt” is directly connected to the crazy amount of Dave Matthews Band I listened to as a 10 to 14 year old. And that the keyboard line is very much influenced by Alice Coltrane I’ve been listening to in the past three years of my life, and that Eric’s been getting into. They’re both really important. One’s not inherently better than the other in my life. And they weave this really rich musical tapestry that, in some ways, I have been ignoring.

It brings me a lot of joy, because it’s not a judgmental record. It’s not asking anyone to come to it with a really developed, pretentious palate. It’s like, “Join us anywhere you’re at.” I think there are access points. That’s why it’s called Welcome To Conceptual Beach. I believe they’re a lot more inviting.

Welcome To Conceptual Beach is out Friday via Saddle Creek. Get it here.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was a box office dud at the time of its release in 2010, much to Seth MacFarlane’s delight, but the Edgar Wright-directed film has gotten the respect it deserves in the decade since. We named it the third best comic book movie of the 2010s, and nearly everyone in the cast has gone on to other acclaimed projects: Chris Evans and Brie Larson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Aubrey Plaza in Parks and Recreation, Kieran Culkin in Succession, Alison Pill in every prestige TV drama, etc.

Scott Pilgrim was such an in-demand project that you could build an impressive roster from the now-famous actors who weren’t cast in the movie. For instance, Wright revealed to Vanity Fair that Betty Gilpin, who is the best (only) reason to watch The Hunt, auditioned to play drummer Kim, as did Rooney Mara and Zoe Kazan.

“Sometimes there will be an [actor] I see… Like when I saw Betty Gilpin in GLOW. I was like, ‘Why does this woman look familiar? She’s amazing, oh, my God. Why do I know her? Why does that name sound familiar?’ And it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, she read for Scott Pilgrim.’ That’s what I do feel quite good about,” he said, “because I looked at my notes again and I had written by Betty Gilpin: ‘She’s great.’ At least I feel good about the fact that even if people lost out on the roles… there’s a lot of people who were kind of next.”

Other nexts include: Robert Pattinson as evil ex-boyfriend Lucas Lee, which went to Evans, and Sebastian Stan, who auditioned for Sex Bob-omb lead singer Stephen Stills; the part was given to Mark Webber. Wright is satisfied with the cast he ended up with (rightly so!), but “even when I look at the list of people who did audition, they’re all people I would still kill to work for,” he said. Edgar Wright Batman movie, when?

(Via Vanity Fair)

The iconic Netflix introductory sound nailed the ideal length for binge-watching sessions. If you’re gonna pound 20 episodes of, say, Cobra Kai (the first two seasons come to Netflix on August 28 with a third season to follow), then you definitely don’t need a 16-second intro before each part. You already know where you’re at, what you’re watching, and so on, with no reminder/reassurance needed beyond a “ta-dum.” However, if you’re gonna go watch a Netflix movie in a theater, then 16 seconds is a drop in the bucket compared to the 80 trailers that have already played.

To that effect, Netflix decided to snazz things up for the future (for whenever movie theaters are safe places to go again, and people can go watch the next feature-length Spike Lee joint while surrounded by other humans). As detailed by the Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast, Netflix is thinking ahead to those brighter times (not with a goat noise, though that would be something) and commissioned Hans Zimmer to compose an extended intro. Twitter user Siqi Chen plopped this up on Twitter.

Given that Tenet has been having quite an un-fun ride getting into theaters, hearing this work from the Interstellar, Inception, and Dunkirk composer is a reminder that we need life to get back to normal soon. Christopher Nolan’s giving it a shot, though, by rolling Tenet out globally in the coming weeks for Warner Bros. In the meantime, we can all press “play” again on the above sound and then go binge some more Netflix shows.

ASAP Ferg and Nicki Minaj don’t appear in the video for their new collaboration, “Move Ya Hips.” Instead, they opt for the cinematic approach, turning the video into a short film resembling the plot of the sci-fi thriller Ex Machina. When the video’s horny protagonist orders a RealDoll-esque Sex Bot, he gets a lot more than he bargained for. Not only does the bot shoot hoops like a pro, it also malfunctions, showing off a secret feature that its new owner comes to regret.

“Move Ya Hips” is the latest collaboration between the two New Yorkers after “Runnin” with Mike Will Made-It from the Creed II soundtrack. It’s Ferg’s second official lead single of the year after April’s “Value” and his second major collaboration of 2020 after working with IDK on the exuberant “Mazel Tov.” It’s also a reunion with MadeInTYO, who provides the hook on “Move Ya Hips,” after the two previously linked up on the Floor Seats banger “Wam.”

Meanwhile, “Move Ya Hips” completes a hat trick of collaborations for Nicki Minaj which includes the controversial Tekashi 69 reunion “Trollz” and Nicki’s remix of Doja Cat’s viral hit “Say So,” both of which are Nicki’s first two No.1 hits.

Watch ASAP Ferg’s “Move Ya Hips” video featuring Nicki Minaj above.

Future Islands’ last three albums have come about three years apart, and since The Far Field came out in 2017, if the group keeps up that rate, they’re due for a new release this year (especially after debuting a bunch of new material at a 2019 concert). Sure enough, they will be releasing an album in 2020, as they announced today that As Long As You Are drops on October 9.

The announcement is also accompanied by a video for the new single “Thrill,” a more slow-burning and emotional number than the single that preceded it, “For Sure.” The video is just a close-up shot of Samuel T. Herring singing the song in front of a plain white wall, which is honestly enough thanks to Herring having one of the most emotive faces in music.

Additionally, on the day the album comes out, the group will be livestreaming a “very special” show from their Baltimore hometown.

Watch the “Thrill” video above, and find the As Long As You Are art and tracklist below.

01. “Glada”
02. “For Sure”
03. “Born In A War”
04. “I Knew You”
05. “City’s Face”
06. “Waking”
07. “The Painter”
08. “Plastic Beach”
09. “Moonlight”
10. “Thrill”
11. “Hit The Coast”

As Long As You Are is out 10/9 via 4AD. Pre-order it here.

Julia Garner is known for a lot of things — starring in one of the best movies of 2020 (The Assistant) and appearing in one of the best shows of the 2010s (The Americans) — but she’s best known for playing Ruth on Netflix’s Ozark. In fact, showrunner Chris Mundy said that it’s Garner, not Jason Bateman or Laura Linney, who gets recognized the most when they’re shooting in Atlanta. She won an Emmy for the performance and now appears on the cover of magazines, but Garner does have one Ruth-related regret:

When news photos circulated this summer of revelers ignoring social distancing recommendations over a holiday weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks, Garner wondered if she should have made an Instagram post of Ruth chastising them. “Oh my God. I got so furious about that,” she says. “The one thing I regret this year is, I wish that I put out a video, like, Ruth does not approve.”

Those revelers truly don’t know sh*t about f*ck.

Production is set to begin on Ozark season four in October, but Garner also has to finish shooting the final five episodes of Netflix’s Inventing Anna, in which she plays real-life Russian scammer Anna Sorokin in the Shona Rhimes-created series. As for which comes first, “It depends on which state is deemed safer. It’s a question I’m curious about every day. They’re complicated roles. It’s very tiring to be two different people at the same time,” she said, adding, “Something I learned during COVID that I was struggling with was, for me acting is like meditating. I had a problem. I was like, why am I not feeling so present? It was because I haven’t been acting.” She can’t get back to acting soon enough, not only for herself, but for everyone who’s followed her career since The Americans.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

XXL, as it does every year, has revealed its 2020 Freshman Class, and being named to this exclusive list is one of the highest honors a young rapper can receive. Fans usually take issue with some artists who were included or excluded from the list, and one big-time figure who didn’t make this year’s issue was Pop Smoke. However, XXL revealed that their original plan actually was to put the late rapper on the list, but they couldn’t due to “circumstances out of our control.”

When announcing the list, the publication wrote:

“One of the bittersweet memories of the 2020 Freshman process was meeting with Pop Smoke a month before his tragic death. Pop was chosen as the first Freshman in the class, to which he happily accepted. Circumstances out of our control prevented us from including Pop as part of the cover posthumously, but to us, he is still part of the class. The issue features an unreleased interview from Pop’s January visit with us where he discussed his career and the Brooklyn drill scene. R.I.P. Pop Smoke.”

The artists who are an official part of this year’s list are happy to be included, as artists like Chika, Jack Harlow, and more shared excited reactions.

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

Lindsey Broad was only on The Office for a dozen episodes in season eight, as widely despised character Cathy, while Leslie David Baker, who played Stanley, was a lovably grumpy fixture from episode one. But both actors have been targeted by trolls online.

Broad recently tweeted about how she was told “f*ck you, Cathy” after she posted something about her dog being “murdered,” while on Instagram, Baker shared the racist abuse he’s received since announcing his Stanley-centric spin-off.

“For those of you who don’t believe racism is still alive in the world… here’s the proof,” Baker wrote. “Our goal has simply been to entertain and give the fans a quality series. These rants are evidence that there is still a great deal of work that needs to be done here in America regarding racism. Bigotry and hate will not be allowed to irradicate art or Black people. Enough said.” Baker shared the hateful messages with his hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers, while censoring one frequently-used slur

As for the Uncle Stan spin-off: the series reached its fundraising goal on Kickstarter last month, and now Baker and “his business partner — Hollywood producer Sardar Khan — plan on shopping it to potential networks and streaming platforms.” Here’s the synopsis:

“After several years of enjoying a relatively uneventful retirement lifestyle, Uncle Stan receives an urgent call for help from his favorite nephew, Lucky: a recent widower with two small children and a motorcycle repair/flower shop in Los Angeles. Soon Uncle Stan finds himself dishing out all the support and guidance he has to offer in his new California home.”

The more Stanley in the world, the better.

Earlier this month, Cardi B teased that she would be launching a page on OnlyFans, a platform that is most commonly associated with adult entertainment but that has seen more widespread adoption in other industries in recent times. She hasn’t mentioned that thought much since then, but now her page is officially live.

Making the announcement, Cardi wrote on Instagram, “Ok guys so now you can subscribe to my only fans! Yes I’ll be putting by BTS from WAP there ! And my day to day content.Also any rumors floating around.NO I WONT BE SHOWING P*SSY , TITTIES AND ASS .LINK IN BIO…It will be a place for only me and my fans.”

As of press time, there are currently no posts on the page. Aside from her profile images, the only content on the account so far is her bio, which reads, “WELCOME TO MY WORLD!” When Cardi does start posting, it will cost fans $4.99 per month to see what she’s up to. She actually dropped her price down from $10, as she tweeted last night, “Ummm I did not know my onlyfans was charging ten dollars …I’m bringing it down to 4.99.Ya spend too much on vinyls and my merch coming next week.”

She apparently also had a bit of trouble activating her account, as she tweeted, “How the f*ck I go live on onlyfans? Wtfff.” She apparently got it figured out, though.

Cardi previously teased how she could use the platform, writing in a now-deleted tweet, “I’m doing a partnership with only fans .Everytime some1 start a rumor I will be addressing it there …..what else should I post besides rumors and behind the scenes ? Maybe a video of me cleaning my home with my nails ?” She also teased her OnlyFans arrival a month ago when she tweeted, “Which platform I should I put my content on ? YouTube or Onlyfans ?I be wanting to interact with my fans and show ya what I’m up too but I also don’t want the eaters on my sh*t.”

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