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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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.

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.

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.

As film production prepares to slowly open up across Europe, there hasn’t exactly been a rush from Hollywood to jump-start stalled projects. Until now.

According to Deadline, Warner Bros. is already making moves to resume filming for The Matrix 4 in Germany beginning in July. The studio has reportedly locked down eight-week contract extensions from the cast, which includes Keanu Reeves. In theory, this extension will make up for the time lost when production on the fourth Matrix film was forced to abruptly shut down in March. Of course, that all hinges on production resuming smoothly in July, which is not at all certain given the different variables involved in protecting cast and crew from the still active COVID-19 virus while also not spreading it to the local community.

Reeves signing an extension for The Matrix 4 will undoubtedly have repercussions for John Wick 4. In April, Wick director Chad Stahelski explained to Collider that the fourth installment in the assassin film series is essentially on hold until Reeves finishes filming The Matrix, so there’s no way he can even begin to nail down a release date.

“Between how much we want to expand the John Wick — let’s just call it a ‘franchise’, I guess — and the pandemic, I couldn’t tell you a release date for the next one. I mean, Matrix was only four weeks in when this all happened. So, Keanu’s gotta go finish his commitment up on The Matrix, which is a big deal and which I think will probably take him until the end of the year. Then we have to go into our prep mode… Release dates, who knows right now.”

As of this writing, The Matrix 4 is still scheduled for a May 21, 2021 release date, but maybe don’t get your hopes up just yet.

(Via Deadline)

With World Whiskey Day coming up this weekend (May 16th), there’s going to be a lot of celebrating of whiskey going around. In previous years, distilleries would fling open their doors for partying, cocktail mixing, tastings, and general merrymaking. Those days are gone (for now). So distilleries are making plans to change up the game while still celebrating all things whiskey.

Jameson Bow Street Distillery is leading the way this coming weekend. The huge Irish whiskey tourist destination in the center of Dublin has been shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To keep the celebrations for World Whiskey Day alive, they’ve shifted to a streaming celebration via Jameson’s YouTube channel. Since you don’t actually have to fly to Dublin to participate, anyone from anywhere can take part this year. Though you may want to pre-order a few bottles of Irish whiskey before the weekend.

The live stream will start with the Jameson team leading Irish whiskey classes. There’ll also be a tour of the Bow Street Distillery, cocktail classes from bartenders around the world, and a live musical performance from a special guest. According to Jameson’s press release, the musical act will be “a once in a lifetime virtual concert from one of Ireland’s favorite musicians.”

Gotta be Bono, right? Sinéad O’Connor? Van Morrison?

Jameson’s World Whiskey Day Live stream will kick off at 3 pm EST on May 16th. Head over the Jameson Irish Whiskey’s YouTube channel to watch along.

After two years as an analyst on Monday Night Football for ESPN, Booger McFarland is done, though not without some regrets. McFarland will remain in a prominent role on ESPN’s football coverage and isn’t sweating his demotion, but wishes that ESPN gave he and Joe Tessitore more time to feel out their tag-team relationship.

“You go through your growing pains and the only way you grow through them is on the job,” McFarland said in an interview on Thursday with the New York Post. “It happens to be one of those jobs that you have to do it in front of 15 million people.

“I just wish that you have an opportunity to, as we do in football, you make mistakes, you learn from them and you correct them and you move on. That is the one thing that I wish we had an opportunity to do, but we don’t.”

McFarland infamously began his MNF tenure in a monstrous go kart of a broadcast chair that became affectionately (or resentfully) known as the Booger Mobile, and also, unfortunately, ruined the view of many a fan in the front few rows of the lower level of NFL stadiums.

“Overall, when you talk about broadcasting, it was tough for a three-man booth to be as cohesive as it could be with one of the people 75 yards away,” McFarland told Andrew Marchand of working with Tessitore and Jason Witten in 2018.

As a viewer, it was always clear McFarland knew his football. That was proven again, even after his demotion, on the 2020 NFL Draft broadcast, as McFarland quickly broke down prospects and passed the baton to his coworkers. Maybe his skill set will shine through better in a studio setting, which Marchand reports is where ESPN plans to put him next football season in a return to the role that he had prior to being thrust onto the Monday Night stage.

The blame probably is not with McFarland for how things turned out, but more so with ESPN’s inability to nail down a broadcast team it believes in for Monday nights. Hopefully the next booth will get more opportunity to grow together as a team and build the necessary chemistry needed for broadcasting success.