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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.

Life as Brent Faiyaz knew it changed by the time summer arrived in 2017. His guest appearance on GoldLink’s “Crew” with Shy Glizzy, which dropped in December 2016, shot him into the spotlight thanks to the perfect hook he provided for the song. While that record is certainly the most impactful towards his upward trajectory, there’s another one that came out two months prior that best speaks to the man we hear today. Sonder, Brent Faiyaz’s group with producers Dpat and Atu, released a record called “Too Fast” which Brent uses to respond to those who “​​say I drive too fast, move too fast, live too fast.” Little did we know this line would foreshadow Brent’s demise a half-decade later.

Brent Faiyaz’s sophomore album, Wasteland, expands on the message from “Too Fast.” Throughout the album’s 19 songs, which include features from big names like Tyler The Creator, Drake, and Alicia Keys as well as fellow Marylanders Joony and Tre’Amani, an all-gas-no-breaks lifestyle is not the only thing that Brent defends. He also critiques the “toxic” label that’s been placed on him, especially after the 2020 release of his F*ck The World EP. “That’s the Internet word that people like to attach to sh*t” and “So if you sing some real sh*t, like what’s toxic? What’s real?” he says to open Wasteland on “Villian’s Theme.” For Brent, his songs detail a very real lifestyle that isn’t some false persona or game of pretend to play into a trend. Brent isn’t being anything, he just is it, and to him, there’s a difference between the two.

As the non-linear and cluttered conversation on “Villian’s Theme” concludes, in comes the intimidating strikes of a violin on “Loose Change.” The first official record of the album is one Brent uses to pour out his complaints about fame like water from a bucket. The ladies complain too much for more of his time and the men are clout chasing and/or trying to knock him off his throne. Following the monetary theme at hand, “Price Of Fame,” finds Brent once again fighting for peace in the spotlight. “They just wanna take me off of here,” he quips on the song before letting us know that fame, glitz, glam, people screaming your name, and the demands “isn’t everything.” In other instances on the album, like on “Gravity,” “Wasting Time,” and momentarily on “Addictions,” Brent appears worn out and exhausted by the requirements of those in his world. For what it’s worth, more times than not, he’s only asked for the bare minimum – especially from women – and it’s for this reason that there’s a better word than toxic to describe the 26-year-old singer.

In all reality, Brent is more selfish than toxic, that’s seemingly the message on Wasteland. Sure, each share qualities that intersect, but I’d argue that the latter better represents the Maryland native. It’s selfishness that leads to him making a red carpet appearance with his side chick on “Oblivion” moments after his baby mother expresses her frustrations towards feeling lonely and uncared for on “Egomaniac.” It’s selfishness that sees Brent check in with nonchalance for a woman and her seemingly unfounded complaints on “Ghetto Gatsby.” “I can’t buy you happiness if you ain’t got it,” he sings. “Move you to a place, still ain’t what you wanted.” Notably, just two songs later comes “Wasting Time,” the Drake-featured track that arrives as an ode to a minimalistic and unbothered relationship, one that brings a twinkle to the eye of Brent.

In a way, it’s a good thing that Brent is very front-facing about his desires; that way you know exactly what you’re getting into with him. He isn’t controlling, he tells you to do as you please on “Dead Man Walking.” He wants you to view the world as he does as he proudly flexes his approaches and offers to teach them on the foot-stomping “Role Model.” Even in his most love-driven moments, your disappointment about his true personality isn’t something he can fix as noted on “Heal Your Heart.” Brent is a rockstar, matter of fact, he’s a “Rolling Stone” as he coolly reminds us. On that song, he sings, “I’m sorry in advance if I let you down,” with enough sincerity and sympathy that you almost believe he’s genuinely apologetic. But as we know, it’s nonchalance towards others hurt by a lifestyle he loves that takes precedent. The real Brent arrives a few lines earlier. “I’m a rolling stone,” he declares. “I’m too wild for you to own / In a whip that’s meant to speed.”

While he’s not opposed to settling down, Brent is opposed to slowing down. He told us there was no such thing as too fast, but as we hear at the end of “Wake Up Call,” that’s not totally true. He realizes this as his car tumbles to destruction as he rushes to try and save his pregnant baby mother from a suicide attempt. During the last seconds of Brent’s frantic phone call with her, she bluntly says, “No, you can’t always get what you want.” He once said F*ck The World, and while he was completely in his right to say that, the world now returns the insult. The thing is, the world – this chaotic Wasteland that Brent finds himself in – is through his own creation. “Life moves fast when you do what you want,” he sings on “Jackie Brown.” What he soon learns through this album’s well-crafted, dark, and vivid records is that the fast life is oftentimes a death race rather than a carefree cruise through the city.

Wasteland is out now via Lost Kids LLC. You can stream it here.

(Spoilers from The Boys season finale will be found below.)

The Boys said goodbye to a Supe during the third season finale, but fortunately, this Supe did not shuffle off from this mortal coil as temporarily believed. Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) put her life on the line to push Soldier Boys (Jensen Ackles) out a skyscraper window, but due to a rescue campaign (seemingly on behalf of her queer fans), she made it out alive, unbeknownst to the public (and Vought, because Colby Minifie’s Ashley erased the footage) at large. Now, Maeve gets to go retire and live a private life with her partner, but before that happened, boy, did she ever throw down against Antony Starr’s Homelander.

Maeve did the physical work after Billy Butcher dropped the ball. She punched the daylights out of Homelander, and although she suffered some serious facial injuries in the process, she still gathered all of her strength to make sure that Soldier Boy couldn’t kill everyone. Whereas Billy was distracted by his promise to protect Ryan, which will likely do more harm than good since he’s now bonding with his bio dad, Homelander. But see that look on Maeve’s face ^^^ when she managed to draw blood on Homelander’s perfectly chiseled face? She’s been waiting a long time for that to happen, and her fans on Twitter loved to see it.

Also! Maeve got her happy ending. Black Noir certainly didn’t get one, but this is a wonderful turn of events because Maeve finally did the thing.

The Boys‘ Season 3 finale is currently streaming on Amazon.

As fans have been enjoying, rewatching, and meme-ing the final two episodes of Stranger Things season four, there is one criticism that stands out among the rest: the finale is just too dang long. Luckily, the Duffer Bros know that, but they have a pretty valid explanation: the show just goes too hard.

“I think we just couldn’t find a good spot to break it because there’s almost an hour of build-up tension, and then it just goes hard for an hour,” Ross explained to Collider. Duffer adds that the episode would’ve felt incomplete and used.

“Then we have our 25 minutes of coming down the coda. It would’ve just not been a very satisfying episode to stop it after that first hour. In our opinion, it just would’ve petered out. We didn’t want to force an ending, so we just figured, well, it’ll just be this monster episode. If you want to pause it, go ahead.” It’s almost as if viewers could use something like a commercial break to split up the scenes, right?

Matt then explained that perhaps the timing could have been better, with the season split equally to help reduce that season finale bloat: “If we were to do it again, I would probably make the split earlier,” he explains. “I would write it into the narrative. I would love to see all eight at once, but it’s also, people talk about it more when it’s split up. It’s way better that you guys split it up, we’re able to keep writing about it.”

Despite the length, fans went all out: the series recently reached 1 billion (!!!!) hours watched, and it will likely keep climbing as viewers dissect each and every frame of the finale. They might as well just release the fifth season in theaters at this point.

As for if the final season will get the same split treatment, the Brothers add that it’s a balancing act. ” I do enjoy what we did this season, and that you get a bit of both worlds, and that you were able to devour a lot of content and get into the characters and story, but at the same time, allow for discussion and all that in between.” There sure was a whole lot of discussion!

(Via Collider)

Last month, 23-year-old singer Niki announced her new album Nicole and released the lead single “Before.” She’s back today with another new track from the LP; it’s called “Oceans & Engines,” written when she was only 17. She also revealed that the release date for the album is August 12.

“Oceans & Engines” shows off her skill for storytelling, in a Phoebe Bridgers or Angel Olsen kind of way, especially when it comes to narratives about pain and loss: “How is it now that somehow you’re a stranger? / You were mine just yesterday / I pray the block in my airway dissipates / And instead deters your airplane’s way,” she sings. About the song, she said:

“I wrote this song in 2016 when I was 17 experiencing the earth-shattering heartbreak of a first love moving away for good. It is massively dramatic & long with a naïveté & innocence I look back on fondly now at 23. Like she had no idea about what was going to happen. Like the fact that after writing it in bed at ungodly hours of an 11th grade weeknight snacking on stale cereal she would eventually revisit the song and release it years later. Life can be quite cyclical at times and that has become painfully obvious throughout the process of re-working these songs that are some years old now. Can’t wait for you all to hear each one nestled in the plush & pillowy company of sister songs when the album drops in August but in the mean time, here’s a second snippet of my favorite thing I’ve made so far.”

Watch the music video for “Oceans & Engines” above.

Nicole is out 8/12. Pre-order it here.

Charlie Puth’s latest album, Voicenotes, dropped in 2018 and a lot has happened in the singer-songwriter’s life since then. Perhaps most notably, he’s become a major TikTok star, having one of last year’s most-viewed musician accounts on the platform. He’s used that to his advantage musically, like when he teased “Light Switch” before its release earlier this year.

Now, Puth’s third album is on the way, as Puth has announced Charlie is set for release on October 7, and it’s an album that was formed significantly by his online presence.

Yesterday, Puth wrote on Instagram, “This album was born on the internet, and I’ve had so much fun making it in front of all of you this past year. 2019 me used to think that in order to be an artist, you had to hide away and talk to nobody to make your art. Turns out you make MUCH better art when you involve millions of people in the process. (For me at least.) I hope you scream cry every word when I sing these songs on tour because they wouldn’t be here without you. Thank you.”

Meanwhile, Puth was on NBC’s Today this morning to perform “Light Switch” and his Jung Kook collaboration “Left And Right.”

Charlie is out 10/7 via Atlantic. Pre-order it here.

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

Better Call Saul returns from its midseason break on Monday, July 11. The nominations for the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards will be announced the following day. If Rhea Seehorn isn’t freaking finally nominated for her performance as Kim Wexler on arguably the best show on television, it will not be all good, man.

In a New York Times profile of Seehorn that came out today, Better Call Saul co-creator Peter Gould had only glowing things to say about the actress. “There wasn’t even a remote second choice,” he said about someone else playing Kim. “If we had not cast Rhea Seehorn in this role, we would be talking about a very different show right now.” Better Call Saul would still be a very good show without Seehorn, but it’s an all-time great show largely because of her. And the Kettlemans. Can’t forget the Kettlemans.

Seehorn also teased the final six episodes:

“The next six episodes, this whole season, was probably the most challenging work I’ve done in my career — but blissfully so,” she said in a follow-up phone conversation. “My last day, I left the set and I just thought, I’m going to be thinking about that ending for a very, very long time.”

You can watch a teaser for Better Call Saul‘s final season below.

(Via the New York Times)

Over the past couple of years, it seems like Tyga has been on an ongoing quest to become the most popular ese in East LA. First, he popped up on YG’s “Go Loko” in 2019, and it seems he enjoyed the mariachi vibes so much, he kept going, following up with “Mamacita” (which also featured YG as well as the legend himself, Carlos Santana), then “Ayy Macarena” (featuring the duo responsible for the original monster hit, Los Del Rio), and now, he keeps the Latin party going with “Ay Caramba.” His latest Spanglish-accented single is accompanied by a video that can only truly be described as “ridiculous” — but in the best way.

Tyga in a fat suit? Check. Tyga with a foot-long mustache? Check. Tyga as a freaking luchador? Check. This video has it all. Tyga really leans into Mexican pop culture archetypes and looks very much like he’s having the time of his life doing so. It’s nice when rappers don’t take themselves so seriously. Tyga’s rhymes on the track, though, let you know that he hasn’t given himself completely to self-parody. Among the things prompting Bart Simpson’s signature exclamation throughout the song: a “big ol’ Glock on the hip,” a woman who “remind me of Tabasco,” and his Porsche when he “press on the turbo.”

Although he’s flown under the radar for a while now, the Compton-claiming rapper has become a pretty reliable supplier of worthwhile party raps, including “Run” with YG and BIA, “Freaky Deaky” with Doja Cat, and “Mrs. Bubblegum,” which has its own hilariously tongue-in-cheek video.

Watch Tyga’s “Ay Caramba” video above.

In May, the YSL crew was charged with 56 counts of conspiracy to violate the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act, including violations for drugs, guns, and even murder. Gunna surrendered and was booked into the Fulton County Jail, and then was, along with Young Thug, denied bond requests as the presiding judge declared them a flight risk.

Yesterday, the rapper was denied bond again when he appeared at his virtual court date. According to 11Alive, Gunna will remain in jail until the early 2023 trial date. The judge argued that Gunna poses a threat and could intimidate potential witnesses.

In addition to the initial two charges against Thug, seven more were added as a result of a raid at his home in Buckhead; those charges include possession of controlled substances with the intent to distribute, possession of illegal firearms, and participation in criminal gang activity. According to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, YSL is considered a “hybrid criminal gang,” with both the label and the wider association around it tied to the Bloods. Some observers have also disputed the use of their lyrics as evidence to tie them to a larger conspiracy.

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

Dr. Mehmet Oz can’t stop giving John Fetterman massive openings to roast him as their Pennsylvania senate race heats up. The TV doctor’s biggest liability is the fact that he’s barely a PA resident, so it was a huge blunder for Oz to film his latest campaign from his mansion in New Jersey.

In the video, Oz attacks Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney for being understandably concerned and worn down by gun violence following a shooting at a July 4th fireworks display. Like most Democrats, Kenney is in support of gun control legislation, which Oz criticized to curry favor with Republican voters in the state. (Oz played the greatest hits of GOP gun rhetoric by accusing Kenney and Fetterman of “putting criminals ahead of the community.”) However, Oz fired off his attack from his home that isn’t even in the state, and Fetterman was quick to latch onto that fact.

“Pro tip: don’t film an ad for your PA senate campaign from your mansion in New Jersey,” Fetterman tweeted along with a screenshot of a People article on Oz’s Jersey home.

It was a successful hit by Fetterman, who had recently landed another solid blow against Oz by highlighting that the TV doctor has been distancing himself from Trump after using the former president to win the primary. As for Oz’s attempts to fight back, the best he could come up with was a lame dictionary graphic that says the definition of John Fetterman is a “Bernie Sanders socialist.”

(Via John Fetterman on Twitter)

Donald Trump may be the king of failed business ventures—so long, Tour de Trump!—but the man sure does know how to grift. While the biggest fraud he has successfully perpetrated on his gullible supporters just might be his Election Defense Fund, which raised $250 million… despite not actually existing.

Not content to leave any money on the table, the former president is adding to his bank account by charging thousands of dollars as a motivational speaker and now he’s asking his most loyal stooges to fork over $1,000 for a book of photos signed with his very own tiny orange hands.

As the Intelligencer reports, Trump is now hawking signed copies of Our Journey Together, the widely mocked photo book the former president published following his term in office, which is full of snarky captions and some of his famously Sharpie-written notes, and cost 75 f**king dollars! While you can find $50 copies of it on Amazon, Trump wants to keep riding the coffee table book gravy train by selling a signed “bundle pack” for $999, which will get anyone insane enough to part with that kind of money not only a copy of Trump’s so-called “burn book,” but a signed copy of Donald Trump Jr.’s book Liberal Privilege (a book no one asked for) PLUS a blood-red MAGA hat. It’s a package that the website describes as “a must-have for every patriot!”

The book, it should be noted, is published by Winning Team Publishing, a Don Jr. joint, which describes itself as “the nation’s premier conservative publishing house,” despite being founded in 2021 and having just three titles in its catalog.

(Via Intelligencer)