The best new hip-hop albums coming out this week include albums from the prolific Buffalo spitter Conway, Atlanta trap crooner Future, the witty and worldly Deanté Hitchcock, Chicago spark plug Polo G, and Brooklyn drill adherent Sheff G. As quarantine continues, it appears Drake has, as usual, led a trend of big-name artists throwing up their hands and unleashing their back-stocked material — social distancing-induced tour cancelations be damned.

While some of the biggest artists in other genres continue to hold back their new music in hopes of a return to normalcy (and the sort of promo tour that supports their entire operation and recoups their recording losses), the guerrilla nature of lots of rap recordings these days allows for rappers to cut costs and makes putting out records profitable (enough) to justify letting their latest work loose on the world. When Drake released his Dark Lane Demo Tapes a couple of weeks ago, it seems it was a signal to other rappers to open the floodgates, prompting a spate of releases from other established A-listers like Lil Durk, Future, Nav, and more. Projecting out into the near future (no pun intended), we can expect releases from Gunna, Run The Jewels, and others who have decided that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Here are all the best new hip-hop albums coming out this week.

Conway — No One Mourns The Wicked

Conway is living up to the “Machine” epithet of his moniker, as he’s already on his second release of 2020 after March’s Lulu EP with The Alchemist. This time around, he’s linked up with former satire blogger Big Ghost for a nine-song full-length project. If you haven’t gotten enough of Griselda Records’ grimy aesthetic from Westside Gunn’s Pray For Paris last month, this one is for you.

Deanté Hitchcock — Better

Atlanta’s own Hitchcock distinguished himself last year with a feature on Dreamville’s Revenge Of The Dreamers III compilation, locking down a major label deal and a string of high-profile feature credits from the likes of Childish Major, H.E.R., and more. That streak continues on his major-label debut with 6lack, JID, Miguel, and Young Nudy. He’s going to be one to watch, for fans of Dreamville, Outkast, and JID’s Spillage Village collective.

Future — High Off Life

Beginning with Drake collab “Life Is Good,” Future has low-key owned 2020, popping up on features from RMR, DaBaby, Nav, Drake, and more, all while re-releasing his most beloved mixtapes to streaming services for the first time since 2015. His new project is sure to extend the trap pioneer’s legacy, while recording in quarantine may have given him some new perspectives.

Polo G — The GOAT

Polo G was one of the breakout stars of 2019, exploding into the mainstream with his tracks “Finer Things,” “Pop Out,” and “Heartless,” and landing his debut album, Die A Legend, on numerous year-end lists. He seeks to repeat the feat with The GOAT, which finds him incorporating both turn-up party tracks like the Mike Will Made-It-produced “Go Stupid” with Stunna 4 Vegas and NLE Choppa and moody introspection on “DND.”

Sheff G — One And Only

Brooklyn, stand up. While the biggest borough may have lost its brightest breakout star earlier this year with the death of Pop Smoke, his fellow grime purveyors have picked up the torch to carry the subgenre forward. While Smoove L, Fivio Foreign, 22Gz, and others haven’t quite garnered the same level of attention as Pop, it’s only a matter of time until one of them breaks out and Sheff G has just as much opportunity as anyone if any of the songs from this set catch on the way “Welcome To The Party” did.

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

The Last Dance has kept sports fans captivated over the last month, as it’s the exceedingly rare new sports thing that folks can consume during the NBA’s COVID-19 hiatus. The 10-part docuseries will come to an end on Sunday evening, and ahead of the final two episodes, prop bets have popped up for those who want to channel their inner Michael Jordan and gamble on something that doesn’t necessarily call for gambling.

The reason props have been unveiled for the final two episodes is, unlike the first eight, screeners have not been sent out for the final two and, thus, there’s not any leaked footage on the interwebs.

All of the following prop bets come via BetOnline:

Episode 10 average viewership: Over/Under 6 million

Episode 9 and 10 metered market rating in Chicago: Over/Under 12 market rating

First person shown:
Phil Jackson, 3/2
Jerry Krause, 2/1
Scottie Pippen, 3/1
Jerry Reinsdorf, 4/1
Dennis Rodman, 5/1

How many people will be shown with cigar in mouth? Over/Under 3 different people

How many times will the “f” word be said? Over/Under 2½

Will Michael Jordan be shown in a Wizards uniform?
Yes +150 (3/2)
No -200 (1/2)

Will Michael Jordan cry while being interviewed?
Yes +110 (11/10)
No -150 (2/3)

Based on what we know about this series, it seems safe to say the ratings will be through the roof for the final two episodes (although the second episode each night has seen about a 200,000 viewer dip from the first, so 6 million might be tight), there will be a bunch of cigars (the real number is O/U 2 because Jordan is going to have a cigar in his mouth at some point and they’re showing them win a title, so there will be celebration footage that will surely feature cigars), and there will be plenty of profanity. Also, Jordan being shown in a Wizards uni seems like some solid value. Of course, prop bets on an ESPN documentary are not canon, but if you were to wager on anything, those in particular seem like the most sensible bets.

The 2014-15 Los Angeles Lakers were among the worst teams in franchise history, winning just 21 games that season as Kobe Bryant was limited to playing less than half the season due to injury and the rest of the roster struggled mightily.

That also happened to be Jeremy Lin’s lone season in Los Angeles, and even though Kobe was hurt and not around the team for a good portion of the season, he did make sure his presence was felt. Lin joined Danny Green on the “Inside the Green Room” podcast this week and recalled Kobe showing up to practice the day before the trade deadline to the surprise of his teammates, and when prompted on why he was there, he offered an extremely Kobe answer.

“He comes in, sweatsuit [on], he has a sling around for his hurt shoulder, he has his shades on, his Kobe shades,” Lin recalls. “And he walks in and everyone’s like, ‘Ohhhh’ and Booz, Carlos Boozer, is like ‘Kob! Good to see you bro! Dang, we haven’t seen you in a bit, how come you came today?’ And he was just stone-faced, and he was like, ‘I just came by to say bye to some of you bums who are going to get traded tomorrow.’ [laughs] And then he sits down at the table where you control the scoreboard at the practice facility and he said a couple words to the coach, and then he left. And I remember one of my teammates was just like ‘I lost all motivation to practice.’”

It is extremely on brand for Kobe, and is especially topical right now as we all just watched an episode of The Last Dance where they dove into Michael Jordan’s penchant for belittling teammates in practice. Kobe, of course, modeled so much of his game and mentality after Mike and picked up the mantle of being the most demanding star in the league when it came to how he treated and handled his teammates.

It’s a tactic that can only work for a select few that have such unimpeachable work ethic and the skill to match that their teammates can’t ever really fire back at them for being hypocritical with their demands — which is often lost in the deification of both — but it’s clear that, at least now, Lin can look back and laugh at the moment. It also could’ve just been Kobe cracking back at a question of why he was finally popping in to visit the team with a witty comeback, but somewhere in there was at least a little bit of seriousness from Kobe in calling them bums — although the funniest part of the story might be that the Lakers didn’t even make a trade that year,.

Hailing from Atlanta, R&B sister duo Chloe x Halle has been busy. Not only was Halle cast as Ariel in the upcoming live-action remake of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, but the sisters have been busy making music. Signed to Beyonce’s label, the duo tease a new era of music with the snapping number “Do It.”

“Do It” arrives as the lead single off Chloe x Halle’s sophomore record, Ungodly Hour. The duo’s mesmerizing harmonization melts over a fluttering backbeat. “I beat my face / Moving fast ’cause the Uber on the way / Taking pictures make sure you can’t see no lace,” they croon at the single’s hook.

Speaking to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe about the project, Chloe said she and her sister aim to showcase their talent through a collection of catchy numbers: “My sister and I, we are such music heads of real musicality and I feel like we kind of showed that on our first album, The Kids Are Alright. And for this one, we really just wanted to show how we could pair our musicianship with a few bops and letting people enjoy themselves and have fun as well as the lyrics and the messaging of the album. We called it Ungodly Hour because it’s okay to not be perfect all the time. It’s okay to have those moments of self reflection when you just don’t feel okay.”

Listen to “Do It” above.

Ungodly Hour is out 6/5 via Parkwood Entertainment. Pre-order it here.

Since 2011, when the project was announced, multiple filmmakers have been attached to direct a “reimagination” of Scarface, including David Yates (Harry Potter), Pablo Larrain (No), and Antoine Fuqua (Training Day). They all dropped out for various reasons, but Universal thinks the retelling has finally found the right guy for the job: Call Me By Your Name and Suspiria director Luca Guadagnino.

Variety reports that Guadagnino will board the project, with a script “off of Joel Coen and Ethan Coen’s version, who’ve been with the project for at least three years, with earlier drafts by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, Jonathan Herman and Paul Attanasio,” according to Deadline. A Coen Brothers-Guadagnino joint project? Say hello to my little… Oscar???

The story has been adapted a number of times, most recently in the 1983 classic starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer with Brian DePalma directing. The new pic is a reimagining of the core immigrant story told in both the 1932 and 1983 films, and will be set in Los Angeles. (Via)

If it’s not too much to ask, I would like to request that Tony and Elvira be played the millennial Pacino and Pfeiffer: Timothée Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan. They had natural chemistry in Lady Bird and Little Women, and he’s already got the dance moves down.

Timmy Montana, imo.

(Via Deadline and Variety)

The Trump Administration has approved the largest solar power project in U.S. history. The $1 billion Gemini Solar Project constructed by Solar Partners, XI LLC (Arevia) will be located in the desert just north of Las Vegas, Nevada. The plant will span some 7,100 acres of federal land and generate enough electricity to power 260,000 homes in the region.

When it’s completely finished in 2022, the solar project will become the eighth-largest solar-producing facility in the world.

The project will produce power for NV Energy, part of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate. It will work to meet Nevada’s requirement to have 50% of the state’s energy produced by renewables by 2030 and 100% by 2050.

The solar farm’s energy may also be shipped out to Southern California.

via Bureau of Land Management

The project will annually offset over 380,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. That’s the equivalent of taking 83,000 cars off the road.

The plant will have a 380-megawatt battery storage system that will hold power created during the day to be released when demand peaks in the early evening.

“Despite the challenges of the coronavirus, we’re pleased to see that Nevada will soon be home to one of the biggest solar projects in the world,” Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said in a statement.

“The solar industry is resilient and a project like this one will bring jobs and private investment to the state when we need it most,” she continued.

The decision is surprising given Trump’s history of standing against renewable energy.

Trump has incorrectly stated that solar power is “not strong enough, and it’s very very expensive.”

He also significantly hobbled the solar industry in 2018 by placing 30% tariffs on solar imports. The tariffs have since been reduced to 20%, but the economic damage has been significant. The tariffs cost more than 62,000 U.S. jobs and cost $19 billion in new private sector investment.

The goal was to inspire U.S. panel production but that has actually decreased since the tariffs went into effect.

The decision to build the solar panel farm show’s the administration’s lack of cohesive energy policy but it’s a definite positive in an era when the federal government has taken a firm stance against clean, renewable energy.

In spite of the Trump Administration’s war against renewables, the country had made significant strides when it comes to solar installations.

According to the EIA, a division of the Department of Energy, the U.S. produced about 11% of the world’s solar energy in 2018 and it accounted for about 1.8% of the U.S. energy mix in 2019.

“Solar accounted for 40 percent of all new electric generating capacity added to the grid in 2019, more than any other energy source,” the non-profit The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) said in a report. That was enough energy to power 14.5 million American homes.

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Since AEW Dynamite started airing live last week, they’ve made a point of touting onscreen that they’re testing everyone for COVID-19 before allowing them in the arena. Since they’re running shows while many of us are still staying home, they clearly want to offer reassurances that they’re taking precautions to keep their workers (not to mention their workers’ families) safe from the virus. UFC has also apparently been testing people. WWE, on the other hand, has been avoiding talking about the pandemic at all on their shows, beyond references to “this current situation” or whatever.

According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE hasn’t been testing workers for COVID-19 at all.

[UFC is] doing 1,200 COVID tests in one week…AEW is testing everyone. WWE has still yet to do, as far as I know, one test. Which surprised me, because a lot of people were thinking that now that AEW is testing and UFC is testing, that WWE would follow suit to keep.

It’s reasonable to question, as usual, whether Dave really knows what he’s talking about, but if WWE is testing people, why aren’t they telling the public that? Stephanie McMahon and others have talked multiple times about their safety precautions, but it’s always vague stuff about taking temperatures and wiping down the ring. It could only make them look better if they also mentioned COVID-19 tests. Certainly now that this report has come out, it makes sense to expect that if they have been quietly running tests, they’ll want to make that info public.
As for why there’s been no testing, Meltzer puts the responsibility for that right where you’d expect — on Vince McMahon.

As it was explained to me, Vince McMahon is not receptive to the outside world. He finds what’s going on in the outside world to be an annoyance because it is getting in the way of his vision. He’s got a vision, and all these people are getting in the way of what he wants to do.

That certainly sounds like the attitude we’ve all come to expect. But like I said, if they have been testing for the virus, now would be a good time to say so. And if they haven’t been, it’s time to start.

This week’s episode of UPROXX Sessions takes a turn from the pattern previously established by Yella Beezy, Eddy Baker, and idontknowJeffery thanks to Horse Head, who brings an acoustic vibe to his set with his guitar and the lovelorn trap ballad, “Numb,” originally released in 2014 with a sample from Canadian rock band Silverstein.

Horse Head, a member of Lil Peep’s GothBoiClique, comes from Los Angeles and first built his buzz with tracks like “Cry Love,” “Digi Dash,” and “True Blue.” Naturally, he received his biggest boost from his “Girls” collaboration with Lil Peep off the late emo rapper’s 2016 album Hellboy. Like other members of the clique, Horse Head croons his way through moody tunes inspired in equal parts by SoundCloud and Kurt Cobain. He’s also an accomplished producer, creating a series of beat tapes on his own a few years ago.

Watch Horse Head’s forlorn performance of “Numb” above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s new performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

Kehlani is fresh off the release of her latest album, It Was Good Until It Wasn’t, and she seems to think the album has a shot at topping the next Billboard 200 chart and making a bit of history in the process.

Earlier today, she shared a screenshot of a tweet on her Instagram Story, which reads, “If Kehlani goes #1, Her album will probably be the first female R&B album since ‘Lemonade’ to go #1 (need to fact check) & the first R&B #1 album of the decade. That would be such a Win for the Genre. She’s so close to getting it. Let’s do this for R&B !” She added, “need to fact check this, but if so, wow! stream and lets (possibly) make some history?!?!” She later shared the same tweet again and wrote, “since solange* RNB AINT DEAD. lets do this!”

She then took her call to action to an Instagram post, in which she shared her album art and wrote, “last day to stream to get the first strictly RNB first week #1 album in a long time. our genre isn’t dead, our genre deserves!” Justin Bieber has apparently been monitoring this situation, and he seems to believe his No. 1 album Changes, which is certainly indebted to R&B, has been excluded from the conversation: He wrote in the comments, “Changes was rnb ;).”

To Bieber’s credit, in addition to topping the Billboard 200 chart, Changes also went No. 1 on both the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and the Top R&B Albums chart. That was his first time topping either chart. His songs “Yummy” and “Intentions” also both reached the peak of the Hot R&B Songs chart.

Regardless of whatever distinctions It Was Good Until It Wasn’t may or may not be up for, fans who want to help the record reach No. 1 can do so by checking out new merch and vinyl bundles Kehlani just dropped.

Read our review of It Was Good Until It Wasn’t here.