GoneTrending

Swedish indie dance pop group Little Dragon keep soaring to new heights. Following up on 2020’s widely claimed (and very excellent) album New Me, Same Us, Little Dragon were inspired by their decades of friendship for their upcoming album Slugs Of Love, which drops Friday.

The 11-track effort was recorded in the same studio they’ve been making music in for the past 20 years. But this time around, they invited some fresh collaborators to join them. Damon Albarn and JID make an appearance on the album and offer a fresh perspective on the band’s sound.

In Little Dragon’s own words, Slugs Of Love “feels like our finest work yet,” and it’s not hard to agree. Songs like “Kenneth,” “Frisco,” and the titular “Slugs Of Love” show off the band’s unique blend of dancefloor-ready indie pop that at time detours to drum and bass, techno, and R&B territory. With lead singer Yukimi Nagano’s vocals providing a dreamy backdrop, the band leaned into experimentation more on Slugs Of Love than past records. “We’ve been exploring different ways to collaborate and communicate,” the band explained in a statement. “Dissolving patterns and making new ones. Nurturing our ability to curiously press down keys, to bang — sometimes hard sometimes gently — on different things, strumming strings, recording sounds and investigating the limits for how much or little a sound can be tweaked.”

Ahead of the release of Slugs Of Love, Little Dragon sits down with Uproxx to talk being patient, creating magic vibes, and loving fully in our latest Q&A.

What are four words you would use to describe your music?

Rhythmical, colorful, organic glitter.

It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

As four friends who love making music and created some magic vibes together.

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?

San Francisco has been consistent since day one.

Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?

There is no one person that we can think of… we probably inspired each other after hanging out so much through the years.

Where did you eat the best meal of your life?

Ooooh…. Mexico City! Or Tokyo!

What album do you know every word to?

Maybe Prince’s Sign O’ The Times.

What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?

Erik saw D’Angelo in Stockholm on the Voodoo tour, I wish we were all there.

What is the best outfit for performing and why?

Any outfit that makes you feel free and inspired!

Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?

Jack Kornfield poetry accounts are inspirational.

What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour?

For a while it was Kraftwerk’s “Neon Lights.”

What’s the last thing you Googled?

Water parks in Gothenburg.

What album makes for the perfect gift?

Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love.

Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?

Hmmm not sure, but I recall a student home in Miami that was pretty crazy, with people partying up all night. Also Dave Sitek’s house where he played sax solos in the morning hours.

What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?

I was 18 hanging on Laguna Beach and simply wanted to get a tattoo, I chose a Japanese crest mark from a book.

What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?

Floating Points.

What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

Loved me fully with all my flaws.

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?

Be more patient.

What’s the last show you went to?

Can’t remember.

What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?

Step Brothers.

What’s one of your hidden talents?

Cooking!

Slugs Of Love is out 7/7 via Ninja Tune. Find more information here.

St. Louis rapper Nelly is fresh off his successful first Hot In Herre Festival and it looks like he’s got another big win in the bag this week. According to TMZ, the “Country Grammar” rapper is $50 million richer after selling 50% of his catalog, joining the string of recording artists who have been trading ownership of their biggest hits for cash now. In Nelly’s case, part of his catalog is now half-owned by Harbourview Equity Partners.

Whilee Nelly’s hits have included “Dilemma,” “Hot In Herre,” “Ride Wit Me,” and “Shake Ya Tailfeather,” he’s even had more recent success with his country EP, Heartland. He also said that he was planning to release a follow-up with an all-women guest roster. “When I am with the guys, we are kegging, beering, trucking, smoking, and hanging out,” he distinguished. “I’m going to have to bring my A-game pretty much when it comes to dealing with the ladies because they are not going to play around with Nelly. They are going to bring it, and I am definitely looking forward to it.”

Speaking of ladies, Nelly and his long-rumored lady friend Ashanti appear to have reunited, after generating some sparks at recent shows. A source for Entertainment Tonight confirmed that the couple is “back together, and both of them are very happy.”

Oppenheimer — a based-on-a-true-story drama about the guy who helped build the atomic bomb, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people — isn’t the most controversial movie coming out this summer. Or even this July 21st. That honor belongs to Barbie. The Margot Robbie-starring comedy, which used up the world’s supply of pink, has already been banned in one country and it might soon be forbidden in another.

Barbie will not be screened in Vietnam over “a scene that includes the so-called nine-dash line, a U-shaped dotted line on a map showing territory in the South China Sea that both China and Vietnam claim as their own,” according to the New York Times. “The nine-dash line is used in Chinese maps to mark its claim over as much as 90 percent of the South China Sea.” Authorities in the Philippines are also considering banning a movie where Ryan Gosling plays a no-thoughts, head-empty hunk who describes his job as “beach.”

The Philippines, like Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia, have competing claims in the South China Sea and strongly refute China’s claim to nearly the entire maritime region. “If the invalidated 9-dash line was indeed depicted in the movie ‘Barbie,’ then it is incumbent upon the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) to ban the same as it denigrates Philippine sovereignty,” said Philippines Senator Francis Tolentino, vice chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee.

I’m opposed to censorship…

… but this could work if Barbie is released everywhere else, and the movie theater screens in Vietnam and the Philippines that were set aside for Barbie will play The Nice Guys instead. This way, everyone gets a (hopefully) good Ryan Gosling movie. Or, y’know, Barbie could not be banned. That works, too.

(Via the New York Times and Variety)

Colleen Ballinger (also known as her character Miranda Sings) is in a rough spot at the moment. In June, she faced allegations of grooming, which she responded to with a video in which she plays ukulele and addresses the situation through song. The video, as you might expect based on how I just described it, was poorly received.

Now, another apology video could very well be on the way: Today (July 5), an old video of Ballinger resurfaced. It was filmed at a live performance and it shows her singing Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” on stage, all while wearing dark makeup that looks like blackface.

It’s not clear when exactly the video was filmed, but it was originally uploaded onto the Miranda Sings YouTube channel on February 22, 2018. The video is currently unlisted on the platform, meaning it doesn’t show up on the channel and won’t be shown in search results, but as of this post, it can still be watched here. Based on the full video alone, any potential additional context about the makeup Ballinger had on her face is unclear.

This comes after Ballinger apologized in 2020 for a different video, in which she impersonated Latin women in a video from 14 years earlier. She said in her apology video, “It is not funny, and it is completely hurtful. I am so ashamed and embarrassed that I ever thought this was okay. I was a sheltered teenager who was stupid and ignorant and clearly extremely culturally insensitive. […] Racial stereotypes are not funny, they’re not a joke, and they should never be joked about.”

Drake may or may not have started from the “bottom” (depending on your personal definition) but he never forgot his roots. The actor-turned-rapper shared an amusing reminder of his starting point, teen soap opera Degrassi: The Next Generation, on Instagram while promoting his upcoming It’s All A Blur Tour with 21 Savage.

In the clip, Drake (as his Degrassi character Jimmy Brooks) mimes pulling a gun out of his waistband and firing it. A caption added by Drake reads, “If anyone got beef with Savage on tour this how I’m coming be warned.” HipHopDX got a screencap, which you can see below.

We know Drake’s probably joking — for the record, that character spent the next four seasons in a wheelchair after getting shot in the back by a bullied boy in episode 8 of season 4 (a source of endless amusement for Drake haters online) — but he certainly seems to be psyched for the tour. The tour has already sold so many tickets — despite supposedly sky-high presale prices — that new dates were added to the schedule twice.

Drake continued the rollout this week with a teaser trailer as things kick off tonight in Chicago. In it, he reflects on his early days as an actor — including nearly bombing his audition for the show because he got high with kids at school.

Does history repeat itself or do people like Donald Trump with more money than brains simply never learn from their mistakes? It’s a question we must ask after the twice-impeached former president shared a post on his Truth Social platform calling for his supporters to take to the streets and protest in his name. Actually, he probably knows what the consequences will be — he probably just doesn’t care.

On Wednesday morning, Trump threw an all-caps tantrum over the federal investigation into his alleged mishandling of classified documents. He’s currently facing dozens of criminal counts over his decision to hoard top secret files at his Mar-a-Lago estate once he left office. Since the investigation began, he’s incriminated himself numerous times in interviews like the recent two-night sit-down with Brett Baier. Still, it sounds like he’s finally seen the writing on the wall and is maybe desperately hoping another Jan. 6th might save him from spending time behind bars or something

“MASSIVE PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT IS CURRENTLY TAKING PLACE IN AMERICA. THE WEAPONIZATION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN,” Trump wrote. “CRIME & INFLATION ARE RAMPANT, OUR BORDERS ARE OPEN, OUR ELECTIONS ARE RIGGED, OUR ECONOMY IS IN SHAMBLES, OUR ENERGY INDEPENDENCE IS GONE, OUR “LEADER” IS MERCILESSLY MOCKED, & OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED BOTH INSIDE & OUT. DO THE PEOPLE OF THIS ONCE GREAT NATION EVEN HAVE A CHOICE BUT TO PROTEST THE POTENTIAL DOOM OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA??? 2024!!!”

This isn’t the first time since the post-election insurrection that Trump has suggested his supporters take to the streets. Back in May, Trump prompted his MAGA followers to show up for his arraignment at a Miami courthouse. Luckily, most of the mobs Trump has been able to assemble lately have been pathetically small — perhaps because so many of his Jan. 6th leaders are serving time for their last act of organized domestic terrorism. You’d think the threat of toilet wine and canceled Cabo trips might have taught these people something by now.

(Via Mediaite)

It remains amazing that the whole Best-Worst Chris debate only seems to span the MCU when there are so many other Chrises in this world. And of course, Christopher Meloni has been enjoying his return to the Law and Order realm with Organized Crime because this has allowed him to dig into what he’s called a “second act” that includes being a “Zaddy.”

The last time we checked on Meloni was for a similar reason as today. The Wet Hot American Summer ensemble player had stepped back into NBC’s primetime center stage, and promoting that return yielded beefcake photoshoots and jokes such as the following: “I catch flies with my a** cheeks, like a Venus flytrap.”

Additionally, Meloni also appeared in a naked Peloton ad (as screencapped above), and he’s followed that hit up with a nearly-nude ad for Tommie Copper socks. Cue the blurred boxes and the 62-year-old Meloni damn near straddling a countertop while declaring: “I never take these babies off. It’s better than being naked. Why? Because naked only comes in one color.” Enjoy:

Well, he has a sense of humor, and he apparently comes by the nudity honestly. Meloni previously told PEOPLE that he basically sweats it out while naked at home: “I work out naked. It’s my gym… And I don’t black out the window.” No comebacks are possible for that one.

After reports of cocaine being found at the White House sparked a wave of social media jokes about Hunter Biden, the president’s son found a surprising ally on Fox News of all places.

While discussing the confirmation that the substance found at the White House was cocaine, Fox Business anchor Cheryl Casone called out conservative media figures like Donald Trump, Jr. who have used the incident to go after the president’s son. Casone stressed the important thing is finding out how the narcotics made it into the building before lecturing the Fox News audience on showing some empathy for Hunter Biden.

Via The Daily Beast:

“Of course, social media starts making fun—bringing up Hunter’s name, it’s not funny,” Casone exclaimed. “And I think that there’s a lot of cheap shots taken at Hunter Biden.” She concluded: “He is a recovering addict. Nobody wants to see him regress or slip back into addiction. And I think the comments were tasteless.”

While Casone’s comments were an unusually humane approach to Hunter Biden that’s rarely seen on the network, she was right back to slinging red meat to conservative viewers. During another segment, Casone argued that tipping has “gotten out of control.” Every service industry employee wants one, and Casone doesn’t like it.

“I think people are getting actually a little fed up with it,” Casone said. “We’re seeing now a lot of pushback about that tip jar because it’s everywhere that you do business.”

(Via The Daily Beast, Mediaite)

Tonight (July 5) is a big one for Drake and 21 Savage fans, as the rappers are set to kick off the joint It’s All A Blur Tour in Chicago. Before they take the stage, though, Drake shared a teaser video, in which he gets deep in thought while looking back at his life, specifically a moment before his audition for Degrassi: The Next Generation as a kid.

The video is just a black screen with white text captioning his words as he says over some minimal music:

“Someone asked me the other night what my biggest fear is, and I’ve never really had a good answer for it, but my answer was that all this is for nothing. Kind the idea that like, one day, life ends and it just all goes black, and I guess that question, like, sent me, you know, obviously deep into a spiral of thought. And it makes me think about my life and how surreal it feels at times.

I go back to this day when I was like 13 or 14. I had an audition for a TV show that ultimately shaped my life. And before my audition, I went to this kid’s house and um, I, out of, I guess, a desire to be accepted, I would succumb to peer pressure and I got high with these kids right before my audition. And um, I kind of wonder, like, if something bad happened that day, or you know, maybe I’m still high, maybe I’m in some coma and this is just like me playing out my ideal life, and yeah, that concept has stuck with me for a lot of years. I mean, it feels like reality, it feels tangible, but I definitely wonder sometimes.”

Check out the video below.

The Essence Festival was the place to be this past weekend in New Orleans. Over the course of the weekend, the performances made several headlines, including Janelle Monáe‘s performance of her hit single, “Yoga,” during which, she briefly flashed her breast, which was tastefully covered by a pink pasty. While this move proved polarizing, no haters could f*ck up Monáe’s vibe.

Monáe’s festive mood continued throughout the weekend, as she and a group of women joined rapper Megan Thee Stallion on stage. In one clip, Monáe welcomes Meg to the stage — which seems to come as a surprise to the “Plan B” rapper.

“What’s up friend?” Meg shouts in excitement.

In another clip, shared by Essence, Meg is seen leading the rest of the ladies in her “Hot Girl Boot Camp” themed set.

Meg is seen performing “Do It On The Tip” from her 2020 debut album, Good News. During the performance the group of women are seen twerking on stage, as Monáe appears from the side of the stage, clapping to the rhythm in support.

You can see some clips above.

Megan Thee Stallion and Janelle Monáe are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.