Category: Worldwide

Nas’ record King’s Disease dropped last week and the veteran rapper has been reminiscing on his early career in promotional interviews. Nas recently recalled his final conversation with Tupac was over a diss track. Now, the rapper reminisces on the time he was supposed to record a verse for Notorious B.I.G., but hit a major roadblock.

In a recent interview with The Breakfast Club, Nas gave an explanation as to why his Biggie collaboration never saw the light of day:

“I got too high. I was in the studio and Big was rolling up some of that Chocolate from Brooklyn and he didn’t warn me. I was zonked out, yo. There’s pictures of that session out there. I think, yeah, we were supposed to do a couple of songs. I was going to remix some stuff for Ready To Die. One of them I did was ‘Gimme The Loot.’”

Charlamagne Tha God was incredulous at Nas’ story: “And you got too high to get on ‘Gimme The Loot.’ Why not come back the next day?” Nas replied, “Still high.”

The rapper continued that, back in the day, it was difficult to line things up. “Man, that smoke. We were smokers and still are, still am,” Nas said. “Things happened, I lived far out in Manhattan and at the time, coming to the city was like a mission. It was hard to get me to move, man.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Nas addressed the fact his release dates always seem to line up with Jay-Z’s: “Yo, bro that’s a hell of coincidence; that’s some confidence for you!” he said. “I think things just happen; just synergy, you know? Jay would know better than me.”

Watch a clip of Nas’ The Breakfast Club interview above.

King’s Disease is out now via Mass Appeal. Get it here.

Ammonite, director Francis Lee’s follow-up to his acclaimed God’s Own Country, stars Kate Winslet as a famous fossil finder (an FFF, if you will) who develops a romantic relationship with a shy married woman played by Saoirse Ronan. If longing gazes on a constantly-overcast British seashore gets you going, this is the movie for you! It’s the first time Winslet and Ronan have worked together, and they brought their nominated-for-a-combined-11-Oscars talent to self-choreographing one of the film’s sex scenes.

“Saoirse and I choreographed the scene ourselves,” Winslet told the Hollywood Reporter. “It’s definitely not like eating a sandwich. I just think Saoirse and I, we just felt really safe. Francis was naturally very nervous. And I said to him, ‘Listen, let us work it out.’ And we did. ‘We’ll start here. We’ll do this with the kissing, boobs, you go down there, then you do this, then you climb up here.’ I mean, we marked out the beats of the scene so that we were anchored in something that just supported the narrative. I felt the proudest I’ve ever felt doing a love scene on Ammonite. And by far the least self-conscious.”

I dunno about you, Kate Winslet, but “you go down there, then you do this, then you climb up here” is how I eat a sandwich. Anyway, there are countless horror stories about the things male directors have made actresses do in sex scenes, so Winslet and Ronan choreographing the scene to make them feel most at ease is a welcome change of pace.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

The Indiana Pacers are in the market for a new head coach. According to the statement released by the team, Nate McMillan, who has been at the helm of the franchise since 2016, has been relieved of his duties. The news comes following the team’s sweep at the hands of the Miami Heat in the NBA’s Orlando Bubble.

While McMillan has had plenty of regular season success during his time in Nap Town, accruing a 183-136 record during his time in charge, the team has struggled to make much noise in the playoffs. While Indiana has made it to the postseason all four years that he has been the coach, it has failed to make it out of the first round. Outside of one series in which they pushed LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers to seven games, every other postseason appearance has ended in a sweep.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN beings a bit of interesting news about where the team could look next. According to Woj’s reporting, the Pacers have an eye on the situation in Houston, where Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni does not have a contract beyond this year.

The next year is a big one for the Pacers franchise. All-Star guard Victor Oladipio can become an unrestricted free agent at the conclusion of the 2020-21 campaign. There is no word on whether that impacted the team’s decision to move on from McMillan, although it had been previously mention that rumblings about his job security have swirled “all season long.”

It’s not uncommon to discover that an entertainment star has some connections in the industry that helped them get to where they are, whether that be family or somebody else close to them. Saweetie had that sort of contact: Gabrielle Union is her cousin. Saweetie says, though, that she wanted to achieve success on her own, so she refused help from the actress.

Saweetie explained the situation, saying during a recent Desus & Mero interview:

“They were all kind of upset at me because they heard ‘My Type’ and was like, ‘We didn’t know you was doing music. What you doin’ over there?’ But me, I have so much pride. I believe in being self-made and trying to figure things out on my own. I appreciated that they reached out and was like, ‘We see what you’re doing. Our friends keep talking about you. We see you and if you need our help, please let us know.’ So I appreciate the support, but for me, like, I’ve always been self-motivated. So, instead of asking for help, I just wanted to see if I could do it on my own.”

Watch the interview above.

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

Paul George struggled through the first four games of the Los Angeles Clippers’ playoff slate in the NBA’s Orlando Bubble. He broke out of that slump in a big way on Tuesday night, scoring 35 points and looking like the All-Star he is as the Clippers throttled the Dallas Mavericks and moved one game away from advancing to the conference semifinals.

After the game, George opened up about what has caused him to struggle. As he explained to Jared Greenberg of TNT, George found himself in a “bad” and “dark place” while he’s been in the Bubble, but believes he has made it to the other side of that.

“Whatever it was, I mean, the Bubble got the best of me,” George said. “I was just in a dark place, I really wasn’t here, I checked out. These past couple games, it was difficult. But shoutout to people who stood behind me, that was in my corner. The positivity, my teammates, my family, friends, everybody, thanks to everybody that reached out to me. I was just in a bad place, and I found my way. I’m back. And I look forward to the rest of this run.”

There was plenty of talk after Game 4 that something was up with George, but it was unclear exactly what was going on. During his postgame media availability, he expanded on this, commenting on how he was struggling with his mental health.

“I underestimated mental health, honestly,” George said. “I had anxiety, a little bit of depression. Just being locked in here, I just wasn’t there, I checked out. Games 2, 3, 4, I wasn’t there, I felt like I wasn’t there.”

George mentioned conversations he had with the team’s psychiatrist that played a role in his “energy” and “spirit” changing, while Clippers coach Doc Rivers explained that the team made it a point to rally around him to help get him out of his funk.

“PG and I sat in my room after the game,” Rivers said. “We just had a long talk, not all about basketball, really. Several players did it. Guys were knocking on his door.”

A few players have discussed how hard it can be staying in the Bubble, a heavily-controlled and regulated environment in which they’re away from their families and friends and there’s no escape from playing basketball. George deserves a ton of credit — as would anyone who is being this open about how mental health can impact anyone — for being this clear about what’s being going on, particularly because it can be brutally difficult to normalize having conversations about anxiety and depression.

Conservative culture critics are continuing to try to make an example of Cardi B, even though they really should have learned their lesson by now. The latest is former Congressional candidate and podcast host DeAnna Lorraine, who decided to make an odd comparison while watching the Republican National Convention last night.

“America needs far more women like Melania Trump and far less like Cardi B,” Lorraine opined, parroting pundits like California Congressional candidate James P. Bradley and Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who seem to be really, really invested in Cardi’s new song, “WAP” — after discovering it “accidentally,” of course.

Cardi, who never lets these sorts of insults slide for too long, batted back with a succinct reminder that the gap between herself and the former model is actually pretty slim. “Didn’t she used to sell that Wap?” Cardi questioned. While that’s perhaps an exaggeration — all evidence suggests that Mrs. Trump was only ever a nude model before dating Donald Trump in 2000 and marrying him in 2004 — Cardi’s next tweet made the comparison less of a contrast and more of a parallel. “This pic giving me ‘Yeah, you f*ckin wit some wet ass pussy’ vibes,” she wrote, sharing a photo from one of Melania’s aforementioned nude photoshoots.

Of course, the more she’s harangued by Republicans hoping to use her as an avatar of America’s moral decay, the more attention and success “WAP” receives. It just spent its second week at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and spawned a theme-appropriate merch line selling T-shirts, sweats, raincoats, and umbrellas emblazoned with the song’s title. Maybe taking down Cardi is like “draining the swamp” — you know, saying one thing while totally doing the opposite.

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

Netflix’s The Witcher (which proved to be better than it had any right to be) is rolling film again on Season 2. Yes, really, and Henry Cavill recently posted an unflattering photo of himself as proof, and the good news is that a ton of fresh The Witcher content will eventually arrive. Given the success of the video games, books, and the show’s first season, Netflix has officially turned it into a franchise; so, we’ll see a live-action prequel series called The Witcher: Blood Origin and an animated, feature length movie called Nightmare of the Wolf. Before those happen, fans can also get a satisfying dose of Geralt of Rivia with an upcoming 32-minute special called Making The Witcher.

Above, Netflix has dropped a trailer for the special, which promises “the secrets behind the saga.” Front and center, the video dives into the climactic first-episode fight scene between Geralt and Renfri (Emma Appleton). As one might imagine, their flawless swashbuckling did not come effortlessly, and Cavill even ditches the Geralt wig to concentrate on nailing his moves. It was worth it, and as Cavill reveals in this video, the exhilarating scene that only lasted two minutes involved a full ten days of training. (And that’s after he basically held a sword in his hand for months on end, just to get used to the feel.)

Naturally, the special should show us how Lauren Schmidt Hissrich wove three separate storylines — those of Geralt, Yennifer, and Yiri — together. The first season didn’t do so in a completely seamless manner, but the second season won’t be jumping around as much (especially since Geralt and Yiri finally crossed paths in the season finale), which should be a relief to anyone who grew slightly confused while watching.

Making The Witcher is streaming on Netflix now.

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.

Kelly Lee Owens is days away from releasing her second album, Inner Song, which comes after “the hardest three years of [her] life,” as she describes it. The journey may not have been easy, but she emerged out the other side grateful.

Owens sits in London on one end of a phone interview, fresh off an online Inner Song listening party. It was the first time anybody outside of her inner circle heard the record, and she’s just getting used to her latest batch of creativity being out there.

“It’s still weird, but I’m coming to terms with people hearing it now,” Owens tells Uproxx. “Last night was an amazing reaction, and every time someone says that they love it, I kind of get this tingling and it feels really good.”

That’s the same reaction her fans (and the ones she is bound to earn in the coming weeks) ought to have when they finally get to hear Inner Song this week. Her 2017 self-titled debut album put her on the map in the electronic music world, and Inner Song is her living up to the massive potential that project showed. The album soars, thumps, relaxes, excites, and otherwise makes the three-year wait worthwhile by expertly capturing a variety of moods and aesthetics.

“A variety of moods” adequately describes the new standard of life in 2020 and how Owens has experienced it. “I’m kind of riding that roller coaster of life, up and down, and just being compassionate with myself, and also counting a lot of my blessings,” she says. “I think all of us have had things stripped away, and just understanding what’s important — family, friends, good food, health, and nature — I think all of that’s interconnected.”

Owens seemed to be on one of those aforementioned ups during our chat, as her smile could be heard over the phone as she discussed Inner Song and some of what went into it, how virtual gigs compare to the real thing, and what her next new endeavor may be.

How did you approach making this new album differently than your first one, especially considering that your first album did well and perhaps set a high bar for you for this one?

It’s always that dreaded second album thing that people talk about, right? I’ve seen a lot of my friends go through that, and I was determined to not bow down to that pressure, because it can really mess you up and it can really inhibit what it is that’s needed to come through and be said. So, for me personally, I was kind of lucky that the first album rippled and kept rippling for almost three full years.

I kept getting asked to do things like tour with Jon Hopkins and DJ. I just kept saying yes, and that meant that I couldn’t create as much as I would’ve liked to. I was really ready to create when the time came, and it was last February that the album was recorded. The music, the instrumentals, were recorded within 35 days, which is kind of crazy. I think that’s when the floodgates kind of opened. I was with a guy called James Greenwood and he just encouraged me to let the ideas flow and have them be fully formed, saying, “Don’t do what you normally do, Kelly,” which is trying to EQ the kick drums before you move on the synth melody. “Let’s maybe scope the sound, deal with nudges later, and just allow the ideas to be fully formed and honor the ideas in that way first.”

I can see it being very easy to fall into a trap where, in your mind, you say, “Well, this kick drum or whatever is in front of me now, so let’s just get it perfect now.”

That’s the perfectionist within me, and I think most people who make music are perfectionists in some sense. I also enjoy the detail, but it’s okay if the detail comes at the end, which is also a part of honoring the idea fully. I think James is not interested in that at all, but I could spend hours on automation and the nudges and making sure things flow into one another. I really, really enjoy that, but it was also amazing to feel a bit more like a conduit for the ideas this time, to actually be fully present. It was almost like it worked so well that, honestly, it was a bit of a blur, how it happened. I know I worked hard, and I know it was exhausting in a satisfying way, but a lot of the details, it’s odd: I can’t remember it. It truly was a whirlwind.

Speaking to being in the weeds of the album, you had a tweet recently that said, “Thunder contains some of the most magnificent bass frequencies.” To me, that reads as a tweet from somebody who loves samples and finding odd things to put in their music, like all the ice samples that you had in “Melt.” Were there any unusual samples beyond that that found their way onto the new album?

There’s a couple. In ‘On,’ towards the end, in the end section, there’s a really high-definition recording of a train pulling into a station. It’s just a delight for the ears. I think I kind of started the track with that and used that BPM for the track, and then set it around that, then built up the percussion, and then the melodies on the synth, and then took it away again, and then I was like, “Oh yeah, I better add that back in.” It’s just like a puzzle of triggering ideas and that’s really what samples are about for me.

Are there any songs on the album that have taken any new meaning in light of all that’s going on? I know you said most of the album was written pre-March when all this started happening worldwide.

What I really enjoy in my personal life is, I like to think of myself as spiritual and I like to tap in. There’s a song called “Wake Up” and that was kind of a commentary on swipe culture and tech and where we’re at with that stuff, and how that’s affected us and our connection to the natural world. So, the line, “Never pausing to take it in or was avoiding your sense of dread.” You know, it’s not a judgment, it’s a commentary on — looking at myself, even — waking up every day swiping. That’s why I said, “Wake up, repeat again.” So we were all, as we’re in this dreamlike state, when we’re so vulnerable to ideas and information, we wake up and we look at Instagram or whatever, and we’re taking in all this stuff and I just don’t think that’s so good for us.

I was looking at that and then I was looking at the theme of nature versus technology. One thing that was revealed to me sonically was, I realized that the strings are like Earth, and Earth asking us to listen and connect and really be honest about what’s happening. This stuff reveals itself to me. I think that relates back to me allowing myself to be some kind of conduit for this record.

There’s a feature on the album from John Cale, which is a nice get. I’m sure it’s pretty exciting for you, especially with your background in indie and you both being from Wales. What did you learn working with a legend like that?

I think what John inspires in me is, he’s nearly 80, I think. I don’t want to push on the years in case I’m wrong. [Editor’s note: John Cale is 78 years old.] He’s just as wild and free in his creativity as possible. He’s not being like, “Oh, I’m going to be 80, I need to conform and remain relevant and popular.” He’s always been true to himself and his creative ideas and his creative integrity. I think that really inspires me about him, and I saw that when he delivered what he delivered to me, and also just the fact that he was genuinely a storyteller. That’s why I asked him in the first place. So it was just so beautiful to receive what I received from him. Then he graciously allowed me to rearrange it and he loved the arrangement.

In recent years, you’ve also managed to work with, as you said, Jon Hopkins, and you’ve also remixed St. Vincent and Björk. Are there any other greats on your list who you’d love to work with?

It’s funny you say that, because basically… Thom Yorke. [laughs] Maybe “Arpeggi” is my way of being like, “Hi.” [Editor’s note: Inner Song opens with a cover of Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi.”] I just love Radiohead, especially In Rainbows. I mean, they’ve made so many great records, but for me, that one is a pure desert island disc, if I have to take ten albums to listen to forever. I think sonically, we’re kind of interested in similar things, but it’s kind of like with Jon Hopkins, I knew before I met him that if we were to ever collaborate, it would be something that was kind of quite epic and that would flow.

One of your recent posts on Instagram that I saw was a very bare-bones recording set-up. It was basically just a microphone, headphones, and an older MacBook Pro. Do you prefer a more stripped-down recording environment, and what can you get from that kind of setup that you can’t from a larger sort of studio space?

What you saw on Instagram is where I write and record all of my vocal ideas. For this album and the first album, I have all my notebooks, and then I get this one big note pad and I pull in all my ideas for what I need to say or what the songs need me to say. People are like, “Is that Logic 9?” And I’m like, “Yeah, dude, it is.” Everything’s old, but it still works. If it ain’t broke, why fix it? I’m very much like that.

If it does a job, it does the job. I think with each album, it’s important to introduce something new, perhaps, and that could be like… this time it was a plugin. So yeah, I think keeping it simple is great.

You did a DJ set on Minecraft earlier this year. As livestream things become more common, I’m curious to hear your thoughts on them. How does the feeling of doing something like that compare to doing an actual gig at an in-person venue?

I don’t think it can ever really compare, but there was a feeling that I got from that Minecraft thing and in the chat room last night when I did this album listening party, and everyone turned on their screens and I could see them bouncing in their bedrooms or living rooms. I still felt a sense of community and togetherness and interconnectedness, which is really all it’s about. But there’s nothing like the palpable energy [of a venue]. You can’t beat it, I think. But I do think that whatever base we need to connect in the meantime is good. I don’t think it’s a battle, one or the other: I think both can coexist. I think it’s important for things to be safe and feel good.

I see these DJs, who I won’t name, playing DJ sets with people and, yes, they got masks on, but they’re really squished together. I just wouldn’t personally feel comfortable about doing that right now. I wouldn’t want to get anyone sick and be responsible for that. But for me, I think it’s really about physical connection. I now understand that it’s the privilege of a lifetime to be able to play in a room full of people and for everyone to connect in that way. I think those moments genuinely change life.

You tweeted not long ago, “Big Brother theme tune is still absolutely banging.” I’ve actually never been a regular viewer of that show. So, your tweet made me go and find that song, and you’re right: It absolutely rips. Is making music for a movie or a show something you would like to do?

It’s funny you say that because actually, this time has allowed me to work with my publishing company to be able to explore that more. I had done some writing recently for a TV drama series, and it’s not like officially happening. Also, my music is being trailerized at the moment. They’re taking the music and doing things that I would never be so bold to do, but that’s kind of emboldening me.

I’m actually going to spend the next couple of months — September, October — kind of writing for films in that way and really exploring that kind of dramatic side to my sonics and my personality, I guess. So yeah, film is something I’ve always been interested in writing for, and I think it’s all about conveying emotion, right? Which is kind of all it’s about for me anyway. I think it’s an amazing thing that could be really interesting to do. Watch this space, I guess.

Inner Song is out 8/28 via Smalltown Supersound. Pre-order it here.

Tim And Eric star Tim Heidecker has proven his musical chops beyond the silly songs from his show. He has released some more serious music and has more on the way with his upcoming album, Fear Of Death. He previewed the project earlier this month with the title track, on which Weyes Blood contributes piano and vocals. The pair worked together on more than one track, as she co-wrote and sings with Heidecker on his latest single, “Nothing.”

Like the rest of Fear Of Death, the song addresses dying, with lyrics like, “Nothing: That’s what it amounts to, they say / A black void waitin’ down the road for us one day / But It’s alright don’t listen to me / I could be wrong let’s wait and see / But if you see me in heaven just let me be.”

Heidecker previously spoke about how grateful he was to have collaborators like Weyes Blood work on the project, saying, “This record is a dream come true for me. I got to work with some of the best, and nicest, musicians in town who helped me take some shabby, simple tunes and turn them into something I’m really proud of.”

He also said of the album’s dark themes, “I didn’t know that this record was going to be so focused on death when I was writing it. It took a minute for me to stand back and look at what I was talking about to realize that, yes, I am now a middle-aged man and my subconscious is screaming at me: ‘You are getting old, dude! You are not going to live forever! Put down that cheeseburger!’”

Listen to “Nothing” above.

Fear Of Death is out 9/25 via Spacebomb. Pre-order it here.

In recent months, NPR has shifted the format of its storied Tiny Desk series, instead tasking artists with giving intimate performances from their homes or other spaces that aren’t the NPR office. They got Billie Eilish (joined by her brother Finneas) to participate in their latest performance, and it sure does look like they are in the usual Tiny Desk performance space.

It turns out, though, that the two actually just set up a replica of the space that looks convincing on camera. Between songs, Eilish explained, “So obviously, we are not actually at Tiny Desk, because this is a cardboard cutout of it. But it’s still real, it’s just not in-person real.” The final shot of the performance reveals their setup, which consists of a desk in front of the giant photos of the NPR office’s Tin Desk area, held up on two big wooden frames.

The performance consisted of two songs. Eilish sang and played keyboard on “My Future” as Finneas sat behind her, playing backing guitar and sometimes chiming in with complementary vocals. The two switched places for “Everything I Wanted,” as Finneas took over the keyboard while Eilish sat behind him and sang.

Watch the full performance above.