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We are less than a week out from Ed Sheeran‘s fifth studio album, —. The album features production by Aaron Dessner of The National, who also produced a fair portion of Taylor Swift’s albums, Folklore and Evermore.

The upcoming album is said to be a departure from the pop sounds Sheeran had been dropping in recent years. In an interview with The Guardian, Dessner praised Sheeran’s craft as a songwriter and an artist, and doubled-down on his choice to work with him.

“[Ed Sheeran]’s made giant pop records that are easy to criticise, but on a human and artistic level, he’s so gifted and lovely,” he said. “It couldn’t have been more natural, fun and rewarding to feel him jumping off the cliff with me. Over time, I’ve tired of the ‘what’s cool?’ debate.”

For —, Sheeran and Dessner worked on 32 songs, though they settled on 14 for the final tracklist. “There were times when he tracked vocals that were almost unusable because he was so emotional,” said Dessner.

Since the sessions for — have ended, Sheeran and Dessner have worked on over 30 more songs, on which, Dessner says he can hear them improving.

— is out 5/5 via Atlantic. Find more information here.

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

It’s been a weird six months since Elon Musk took over Twitter. Among other headaches, there are no longer blue check marks verifying if a famous or notable account is legit, unless Musk foists it upon them. Even the business account verifications are a mess. Musk seems unhappy there, too. How does the service’s creator and ex-honcho feel about it? Not great!

As per Insider, Jack Dorsey was asked about Musk on Bluesky, his Twitter alternative, with someone wondering if he’d prove to be the “best possible” steward. His reply was blunt.

“No. Nor do I think he acted right after realizing his timing was bad,” Dorsey wrote. “Nor do I think the board should have forced the sale. It all went south.”

Dorsey reflected on the drawn-out purchase of Twitter, which found Musk spending months trying to wriggle out of a potential deal, only to suddenly go all-in.

“If Elon or anyone wanted to buy the company, all they had to do was name a price that the board felt was better than what the company could do independently. This is true for every public company. Was I optimistic? Yes. Did I have final say? No. I think he should have walked away and paid the $1b.”

It’s a 180 from Dorsey’s position this time last year, around when Musk was first flirting with buying the company.

“In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company,” Dorsey wrote back then. “Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.”

So much for that.

(Via Insider)

John Mulaney appears to be in a good place these days. He’s sober, he’s a father, he’s got a new, acclaimed stand-up special. But his life could have been even more different than it is now. During an appearance on Doug Herzog and Jen Chaney’s podcast Basic! (as caught by The Hollywood Reporter), Mulaney revealed that back in the mid-teens he was asked to replace Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. But the timing was way off.

“It was shortly after the SNL 40th anniversary,” Mulaney said. “I had a sitcom on Fox. They’d aired all 13 [episodes], but it was canceled. It didn’t do good numbers, but at least critics reviled it. So, it was a fun time.”

So when then-Comedy Central president Kent Alterman came to him with one of the biggest gigs in the comedy world, he wasn’t ready to commit.

“I was extremely flattered that y’all were asking me about it,” Mulaney remembered. “I sensed they would be big shoes to fill. I think I also was gun-shy from putting myself out there at that moment after the Fox run. And I sensed all eyes would be on whoever came after Mr. Stewart.”
He went on:

“It wasn’t the right thing at that moment, but I remember saying to Kent, ‘I wish it was five years from now.’ And he went, ‘Yeah, but it’s not.’ I mean, I just remember Kent had a great tone of, ‘I hear you. I’m here to hear out anything you have to say, but it’s now, and we’re asking you about it, and we can’t talk hypothetically for that long at this dinner, John.’”

Instead, of course, the job went to Trevor Noah, who lasted a good seven years and left his own stamp on the place. The job is vacant once more, with guest hosts filling in.

Hosting The Daily Show isn’t the only gig Mulaney turned down. He also recently revealed he did the same thing at his old job at SNL, who wanted him to host Weekend Update.

(Via THR)

The Memphis Grizzlies saw their season come to a premature end on Friday night. Facing elimination in Game 6 of their opening round series against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Grizzlies walked into Crypto.com Arena and got run out of the building, as the Lakers were able to pick up an emphatic, 125-85 win.

While Los Angeles has been one of the best teams in the Western Conference in recent weeks and Memphis was without three important players due to injuries (Steven Adams, Brandon Clarke, Luke Kennard), it was nonetheless a shocking fall from grace for a team that looked like a contender for much of the year. This is especially because the team’s star guard, Ja Morant, declared earlier this season that the only team he thought would challenge the Grizzlies was the Boston Celtics, as he believed the Grizzlies were “fine in the West.”

Unsurprisingly, Morant was asked about that quote after the loss, and he made clear that he just has to deal with it.

“I don’t mind,” Morant said about the quote getting thrown back in his face after this. “I don’t care. I said it, I’ll deal with it.”

Morant struggled mightily in Game 6, as he scored 10 points on 3-for-16 shooting with six assists, five rebounds, and three steals in 34 minutes of work. The 10 points marked a playoff career-low.

Cardi B isn’t one to mince words. So, it’s clear that she can easily see through anyone’s BS. Cardi isn’t here for anyone’s fake persona in real life or online, and she had some choice words for some people who had been hating on her.

Yesterday (April 28), the “Up” rapper took to Twitter to express disdain for people who take on a different personality for the sake of their online presence.

“That mean girl persona y’all put on for the internet don’t fool me,” she said. “I can tell y’all were NERDS in high school.”

Though Cardi didn’t tag anyone in particular, she responded to a fan, who said that these people must’ve been “lonely asf at the lunch table.”

Cardi doubled down, saying, “it just be so cringe watching kids, grown woman/Men be on some nasty stank ish on the internet when you was getting your face smushed In the hallway …MIRRORING the exact same people you use to HATE!”

This series of tweets comes just a few days after Cardi voiced her support for a young woman who shared a video of herself taking selfies at a baseball game, while being mocked by fans in the rows behind her.

“I would of put that ring to use,” she said.

It’s clear that Cardi isn’t here for bullies of any kind.

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

Vic Mensa‘s new song “Swish,” a scorching collaboration with Chance The Rapper and G-Eazy is the talk of the internet. The reunion between the late blog-era rappers is evoking a sense of nostalgia, while providing fresh sounds. Equally as buzzy is the song’s video, which features the three artists making the rounds across Chicago.

In the video, Vic, Chance, and G-Eazy are seen riding motorcycles throughout the city, riding trains with twerking women, and enjoying dinner in Chicago-style diners. At the end of the video is a dedication to sports drifter Jake Rio.

Since the beginning of his career, Vic has been labeled a “conscious rapper,” among the likes of Chance, as well as Kendrick Lamar. “Swish” is a more bouncy, party-ready record than anything he’s done in the past. In an interview with Paper from this past February, Vic revealed that while he doesn’t mind the title, he does find a sense of cognitive dissonance when he makes music outside of the realm.

“I think the place where it becomes sticky is that it’s not the entirety of my being as a person,” said Mensa. “So if I want to make a ratchet-ass song for the strip clubs, I feel very conflicted. Can I even do this? That’s where it becomes conflicting for me.”

You can check out the video for “Swish” above.

The Los Angeles Lakers had a chance to punch a ticket to the Western Conference Semifinals on Friday night against the Memphis Grizzlies. With the game happening in Crypto.com Arena, L.A. came out on fire and made clear that they had no plans on heading back to Memphis for a potential Game 7.

Anthony Davis, in particular, played like a man possessed on Friday. Whether he was doing the dirty work on offense or playing one of the best defensive games of his career, Davis was nothing short of magnificent. And in the third quarter, he was responsible for perhaps the nastiest poster we have seen all postseason, which came at the expense of the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year, Jaren Jackson Jr.

With the Lakers up 84-55 in the third quarter, Dennis Schröder walked the ball up the floor and got met by Davis, who set a screen. Davis rolled, Schröder lobbed it up, and then, this happened.

That is a stellar effort by Davis, one that the best defensive player in the NBA just had no chance against. It’s been just that kind of night for both teams, in large part because of the performance that we’ve seen out of Davis.

Smokey Robinson, as part of the promotional circuit for his new album, Gasms, is now spilling on a past affair he had with Diana Ross decades ago. It went on for “about a year,” according to his new interview with The Guardian, while Robinson was married to Claudette Rogers.

“I was married at the time. We were working together and it just happened,” he said. “But it was beautiful. She’s a beautiful lady, and I love her right till today. She’s one of my closest people. She was young and trying to get her career together. I was trying to help her. I brought her to Motown, in fact. I wasn’t going after her and she wasn’t going after me. It just happened.”

“After we’d been seeing each other for a while, Diana said to me she couldn’t do that because she knew Claudette, and she knew I still loved my wife. And I did. I loved my wife very much,” Robinson added. “You asked me what happened when we get older, and we get wisdom in life. I learned that we are capable of loving more than one person at the same time.”

While Robinson and Rogers ultimately separated, with the singer getting remarried in 2002, fans are still shocked by his reveal — and why it happened now.

“Smokey Robinson is 83 & felt the need to let us know he slept with Diana Ross. That probably was like in the 70’s,” one user wrote, complete with the crying emoji.

Scroll for some more reactions to the Smokey Robinson and Diana Ross affair reveal.

A few months ago, an Asake concert held at London’s O2 Brixton Academy resulted in a deadly crowd crush, with two victims and several injured.

Because of the tragic incident, the venue’s license was also suspended by the city’s police, who are now trying to shutter the doors of the venue for good. Closed since December, they have deemed that it “has not been successful in identifying the remedial measures which need to be in place before the Academy can safely re-open.”

Musicians and fans alike are now pushing back, sharing their thoughts on social media and starting petitions to keep the venue’s doors open. The closure has also resulted in many tours having to be postponed or adjusted, given the unforeseen circumstance. Since this morning, one uploaded to Change.org has over 20,000 signatures.

Garbage shared a link to it, writing “Save Brixton Academy” on Twitter.

Others, like Primal Scream’s Simone Marie Butler added, “Brixton Academy is such an important and historic venue for south London and live music. There is a police a station literally opposite, surely with new management / infrastructure + security it can be improved ? instead of just shutting it down?”

The next O2 Academy Brixton license meeting is being held on May 15, according to NME.

Continue scrolling for some more reactions from musicians.

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

Bruce Springsteen‘s concert at Barcelona’s Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys had some very special surprise guests. Most notably, Michelle Obama joined The Boss on stage as she sung along with him for “Glory Days.” Michelle was also joined by actress Kate Capshaw for background vocals. (Steven Spielberg is married to her.)

The ladies even got their own microphone and some tambourine, as they jammed out to the nostalgic track, while the rest of the E Street Band played. Fans are loving the energy, with one writing, “Michelle Obama on the stage with Bruce Springsteen in Barcelona, because in the end it’s Springsteen’s world and we’re just guests.”

According to Reuters, Springsteen had gone out to dinner with Barack and Michelle Obama and Spielberg, giving the husbands a treat as well. One of the restaurant employees shared a pic of them all together with the caption, “the pleasure this job brings you!”

However, their relationship with Springsteen goes even further back than that. Barack did a Renegades: Born In The USA podcast with the musician throughout early 2021, given they had been friends already before recording. Spielberg and Capshaw had also attended Springsteen’s shows in the past, including one that was held in Dublin in 2012, according to Alamy.

Check out the clip of Michelle Obama and Kate Capshaw performing with Bruce Springsteen above.