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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.

With her seventh studio effort Renaissance Act I, Beyoncé is uniting us under a groove—several of them, actually—in the name of life, love, and liberation. Nearly 10 years after her surprise self-titled LP rewrote the rules of album rollouts, she rewound her creative clocks back, back into time by revisiting the traditional release approach, and through homages to the music of yesteryear. The past and present of dance-oriented stylings including disco, house, bounce, and afrobeats merge to meet throughout the 16-track effort, which is the first in this era’s trilogy.

Dance has been the heartbeat of music for decades. Renaissance offers sonic appreciation for dance-pop and disco game-changers like Donna Summer (whose monster record “I Feel Love” is the blueprint for the album’s fulfilling finale “Summer Renaissance”), Teena Marie (whose influence is found in the sexy “Cuff It”), and Grace Jones, who provides a rare feature on the dynamic banger “Move” alongside Tems. But more fundamentally, the project honors and reclaims dance’s Black and brown, queer and trans beginnings and attributes.

Since its mainstream rise, dance music has provided a cathartic release in times of trouble, especially for those who are typically “othered” in the eyes of society. Like most things, dance music has been co-opted by whiteness on a level that all but erases the historic Black, brown, and queer contributions to the scene. Beyoncé’s reimagining of the style allows for these legacies to shine through in ways they may not have been able to previously. (In a statement released prior to the album’s release, Beyoncé notes that Renaissance honors the LGBTQ+ “fallen angels” whose musical offerings went unnoticed, and her ever-stylish godmother, Uncle Jonny, who died as a result of AIDS-related complications.)

Queer history is nothing without the Black and brown movers and shakers who laid the foundation for its eventual larger-scale acceptance, and Beyoncé’s tributes to LGBTQ+ culture throughout Renaissance are similarly bold and beautiful. Nightclub superstar Kevin Aviance chants during the ballroom-themed standout “Pure/Honey,” while a drizzle of the 1992 single “Miss Honey” by drag legend Moi Renee brings listeners into the scene from where these figures ascended. Trans icon Ts Madison’s unwavering confidence is sprinkled into the Black-and-proud anthem, “Cozy,” which also features lyrics describing the Pride flag. The thick clack of folding fans—a sound that’s become a unifying staple in queer spaces—ripple through the end of the electric, Drake and Travis Garland-sampling “Heated.”

Personal liberation can also be unapologetically sexy. Given the euphoric sexual revolution associated with dance and disco clubs during their heyday, the flirty foreplay of “Plastic Off The Sofa,” the straightforwardly horny “Thique” (“sit on that, bounce it, bounce it”), and the climactic voyage “Virgo’s Groove” feel most apropos. (“Touch me, touch me, please me, kiss me, boy,” she begs on the latter betwixt impressive melisma and vocal layering.) Even as an artist who is relatively private, Beyoncé is not one to shy away from celebrating the appeal of sex, love, and the power they purvey in her discography. Renaissance is no exception.

The album is largely saturated with messages of love and calls for listeners to ignore societal perceptions in order to be their perfectly imperfect selves. Self-assurance rings throughout the sensual, retrofuturistic “Alien Superstar.” (“I’m one of one…I’m the only one,” she declares.) The dembow-leaning opener “I’m That Girl” also urges us to own our unabashed confidence. (“Please, muthaf*ckas ain’t stoppin’ me,” the voice of late Memphis rap pioneer Princess Loko proclaims throughout the track.)

Acknowledgment of Beyoncé’s Dirty South upbringing should come as no surprise, as the Houston native often recalls her roots. The twerk-ready “Church Girl” ties in the oft-used Triggerman beat and bounce pioneer DJ Jimi’s “Where They At?” The Billboard Top 10 hit “Break My Soul” samples NOLA’s favorite “Queen Diva” Big Freedia. In hindsight, “Break My Soul” is the ideal first single, as it encapsulates every aforementioned attribute of the album.

The timing of Renaissance’s first act is especially pertinent. Throughout American history, many female pop forces have reconfigured the uplifting sounds of dance music as a means of escapism amidst turbulent times. Madonna’s 1990 hit “Vogue” pays homage to the club kids of the then-growing ballroom scene, who experienced violence, the effects of the HIV/AIDS crisis, and politically-driven identity erasure in the post-Reagan US. Janet Jackson’s iconic 1989 album Rhythm Nation 1814 supplies listeners with energetic dance-pop and New Jack Swing tunes aimed at pushing positivity amidst racial tension. Bey’s M.O. for Renaissance was “to create a safe place” where people from all walks of life would be able to find and own the beauty in their uniqueness in lieu of chaos and societal ostracism.

Beyoncé is by no means the first artist to rework dance music for mainstream audiences (nor will she be the last). Yet, her ability to highlight the genre’s unsung heroes and epitomize what the style truly means for so many people allows for marginalized groups, in particular, to feel seen, heard, accepted, and (even if for just one hour), be at peace in their very own rhythm nation. Given the downright dreariness of the world today, there’s no better time than to be living life as out loud and authentically you as possible.

Renaissance is out now via Parkwood/Columbia Records. Get it here.

If you have any interest at all in Jeopardy!, by now you know just how difficult it is to play as a contestant. Everyone who appears on stage admits that just knowing the correct response is about half of the battle. There’s training to be done with makeshift signaling devices at home to get the timing just right. And then there’s the nerves of competition and competing under the bright studio lights knowing that, eventually, millions of people will watch the result.

Add in filming five episodes a day if you keep winning and being a contestant becomes as much a physical and emotional battle of wills than anything. It’s, well, a lot.

Adriana E. Ramírez, a writer from Pittsburgh, penned a touching essay for The Atlantic about her appearance on the show earlier in the year. And while it didn’t go very well for her on stage, she had plenty of insight into filming and how it felt to see her episode air months after it filmed.

One of the most interesting things in the piece is the sheer improbability of even getting accepted as a contestant in the first place. On top of two different trivia tests and a practice game on Zoom, there’s a huge number of people you have to do better than to even be considered.

At our taping in March, the producers told us that more than 100,000 people had taken the initial online test in 2021. About 400 contestants compete in a regular season of Jeopardy, which means that 99.6 percent of people who took the first test last year did not make it to the Alex Trebek Studio. The same year, Harvard rejected 96.6 percent of applicants.

Unfortunately for Ramírez, she struggled during her appearance against a 16-time winner, Ryan Long. The piece is as much a reflection on Jeopardy! and trivia as it is about a singular fact about the show: eventually, everyone loses. And because of it, the anxiety she had about that airing on national television turned into a rewarding experience.

Ramírez’s piece is well worth the read for any Jeopardy! fan curious about the inner-workings of the show, including the fact that some contestants have their own group text threads. And it’s also a really nice read about how trivia can be about a lot more than just knowing random facts about things. But if you want to appear on Jeopardy! someday, you might need to be as lucky as you are good at trivia.

[via The Atlantic]

I bailed on The CW’s Riverdale after season two, which is just when the show got good. And by “good,” I mean, it turned into a time-jumping show where high school football fields are literal war zones, Archie and Betty have superpowers, and in Sunday’s season six finale, Cheryl does… whatever is happening here.

Honestly? Good for her.

Here’s how the TVLine recap for “Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen: Night of the Comet” begins: “A comet sent by Percival is headed straight for Riverdale, and he also added a force field that prevents anyone from leaving town… Archie is determined to dig a tunnel around the force field, and Cheryl thinks she knows someone who can undo Percival’s spells… They turn to Cheryl’s ancestor Abigail Blossom, who explains that Cheryl can just use her fiery phoenix powers to melt the comet, since it’s made of ice.”

That ol’ trope. I think the same thing happened on Young Sheldon. Here’s more:

Veronica calls everyone together to share her idea: Since her power allows her to absorb other people’s energy, she thinks she can absorb everyone’s superpowers and pass them on to Cheryl to fortify her for the big comet showdown, and then maybe the resurrected people won’t die again! Sure, why not? They all slice their palms with Percival’s magic dagger and hold hands, passing their powers to Veronica, who passes them to Cheryl with a kiss. Suddenly, Cheryl can see auras, shrug off bullets and read minds.

Cheryl saves Riverdale (she essentially tells the comet to stay outta Riverdale), but everyone gets set back in time to 1955. “So we thought: What if we go back to high school, but instead of high school in the present, we make it high school in the 1950s, which is how a lot of people think of the Archie characters,” showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told Entertainment Weekly about the decision to turn back the clock heading into the final season. Most importantly, Jughead has his crown hat again.

I don’t know what Riverdale is doing, but I am absolutely here for it.

(Via TVLine)

Anybody who thought the vinyl resurgence was just a fad was mistaken: The industry has experienced a legitimate revival. As a result, music fans are interested in physical media in ways they may not have if the decades-old medium hasn’t made a comeback. That doesn’t mean everybody is listening to just their parents’ old music, though. That’s part of it, sure, thanks to rereleases that present classic albums in new ways. A vital part of the renewed vinyl wave, though, is new projects being released as records, of which there are plenty.

Whatever you might be into, each month brings a new slew of vinyl releases that has something for everybody. Some stand out above the rest, naturally, so check out some of our favorite vinyl releases of July below.

Beyoncé — Renaissance

Undoubtedly, Renaissance is July’s biggest album, which means it’s probably a must-have in your vinyl library. Queen Bey is offering plenty of options, too, like a limited edition LP with alternate cover art (pictured above) or, if you’re more into CDs, four different CD box sets, each with a different t-shirt.

Get it here.

George Michael — Older (Deluxe Box Set)

Older was a huge moment for George Michael, and now his third solo album is the subject of a massive new box set. It features the album (remastered from the original tapes), a 48-page book, and some art prints.

Get it here.

Yo La Tengo — I Can Hear The Heart (25th Anniversary Reissue)

Yo La Tengo’s 1997 LP is flat-out among the greatest ever and now it turns 25 years old here in 2022. To celebrate, the band has pressed it on a new limited edition translucent yellow that also comes with a reproduction of the “President McKinley Academy Of Rock” sweatshirt as seen in the classic “Sugarcube” video.

Get it here.

Jack White — Entering Heaven Alive

The modern king of vinyl has a new album out, so you know he’s going to deliver when it comes to physical editions. Sure enough, exclusive to the Third Man Records web store is a version of Entering Heaven Alive pressed on lovely “Tranquil Turquoise” vinyl.

Get it here.

Liars — They Threw Us All In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top (Reissue)

Liars are still kickin’ after two decades together, and now they’re preparing to reissue their albums. They’ve started with their debut, which, like all albums in this reissue series, will be pressed on recycled vinyl, making this perhaps the most eco-friendly LP you could have in your collection.

Get it here.

Roxy Music — Flesh + Blood (Reissue)

Roxy Music has popped up in the vinyl round-up space often in recent months and now they’re back with another fresh reissue. This time, it’s 1980’s Flesh + Blood, which was enhanced with a half-speed cut and comes with other glow-ups like “a deluxe gloss laminated finish.”

Get it here.

Beabadoobee — Beatopia

Beabadoobee was an exciting up-and-comer with her 2020 debut album Fake It Flowers, but now she’s proven that wasn’t just beginner’s luck with her terrific sophomore record. She’s released it in a number of lovely vinyl editions, including the Coke bottle clear vinyl version seen above.

Get it here.

Various Artists — Jazz Dispensary 2.0 Bundle

Music lovers looking for exposure to a new world of jazz will be happy with Vinyl Me, Please’s second team-up with Jazz Dispensary. This collection includes four funky hand-picked albums — Bayeté’s Worlds Around The Sun, Gary Bartz’s The Shadow Do!, Idris Muhammad’s Peace And Rhythm, Melvin Sparks’ Spark Plug — sure to expand your musical horizons.

Get it here.

Thin Lizzy — Jailbreak (Vinyl Me, Please Reissue)

Thin Lizzy’s breakout 1976 album Jailbreak put the Irish rockers on the map, and now Vinyl Me, Please is looking to put this “Overmaster Orange” vinyl reissue on your shelf. Furthermore, Uproxx’s own Steven Hyden actually penned the liner notes for this edition.

Get it here.

Lizzo — Special

One of the month’s most colorful albums has gotten a decidedly less vibrant vinyl release. It’s a beauty, though, as this edition of Special is pressed on silver vinyl, and if it piques your interest, you ought to act fast: It’s exclusive to Lizzo’s web store and only 7,000 copies are set to be sold.

Get it here.

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

When Jalen Brunson started to breakout last year after he and the Mavs had failed to reach an extension agreement prior to the 2021-22 season, many started to project the Knicks as the favorites to land the Dallas guard.

Brunson had grown up a Knicks fan, with his father playing in New York and having a longtime relationship with coach Tom Thibodeau as an assistant in Chicago and Minnesota, and Leon Rose being his father’s agent (and is the father of Brunson’s current agent, Sam Rose). However, as the playoffs wound down the expectation initially was that the Mavs would re-sign Brunson and much of the chatter about Brunson’s many connections to the Knicks quieted. That changed when Rick Brunson was brought back onto Thibodeau’s staff as an assistant in June and in the weeks following the talk of Brunson going to New York changed from a possibility to an outright certainty in the days leading up to the start of free agency.

That immediately led to tampering allegations, particularly from Mavs fans, and while the Knicks did their best to pretend everything was being done by the book — including a rather hilarious report that Brunson would take meetings (in NYC) with the Mavs, Knicks, and Heat, only to cancel those meetings once free agency actually began — very few believed them. The NBA, which is currently investigating the Sixers for some under the table dealings with James Harden, will now also officially look into the Brunson-Knicks connection, per Chris Haynes.

What makes the Brunson situation so unique is how many natural connections he has to the team and how that makes it difficult to figure out what’s tampering and what isn’t. When your father is an assistant coach, what would qualify as a legal conversation and what would be tampering? We will find out soon enough where the line is between family ties and illegal contact.

Following the much-hyped release of Beyoncé’s new album Renaissance, the artist faced backlash over the use of the word “spaz,” which has been referred to an an ableist slur, on “Heated.” Now, Beyoncé has listened and is set to alter the song.

In a statement shared with Variety today (August 1), Beyoncé’s team said, “The word, not used intentionally in a harmful way, will be replaced.”

While much of the immediate reaction to the album was focused on the high quality of the music, there were those who wondered why Beyoncé chose to include the word in “Heated,” especially since Lizzo used the term in her track “Grrrls” in June and promptly changed the song after becoming aware of the word’s controversial nature.

Notably, Hannah Diviney, the writer and disability advocate who brought much attention to the word after Lizzo used it, published an opinion piece in The Guardian today in which she notes that Beyoncé’s artistry and focus on Black issues “doesn’t excuse her use of ableist language – language that gets used and ignored all too often.” She continued, “Language you can be sure I will never ignore, no matter who it comes from or what the circumstances are. It doesn’t excuse the fact that the teams of people involved in making this album somehow missed all the noise the disabled community made only six weeks ago when Lizzo did the same thing.”

The word is derived from “spastic” and “spasticity,” a condition marked by involuntary muscle movements, experienced by people with nervous system issues like stroke, spinal cord injury, brain injury, or multiple sclerosis. According to Benjamin Zimmer, editor for American dictionaries at Oxford University Press, in the 1960s, usage of the word in the US shifted “from its original sense of ‘spastic or physically uncoordinated person’ to something more like ‘nerdy, weird, or uncool person.’”

It’s been a while since Star Wars fans got a good look at Andor, the new prequel series set before the events of Rogue One. The first teaser debuted back in May during Star Wars Celebration, and since then, it’s been mostly quiet as the Diego Luna-led series neared its release date. Not anymore.

Disney+ has just dropped the official trailer for Andor, and if fans of Rogue One are hoping the series will match the aesthetic of the film, they’re going to be very happy. Along with the compelling presence of Stellan Skarsgärd, the epic trailer shows Luna’s Cassian Andor and the beginnings of the Rebel Alliance take on a Galactic Empire that has grown fat, greedy, and too arrogant to release the Rebel threat inside its walls.

The trailer also revealed that Andor has slightly tweaked its release schedule. Originally set to drop its first two episodes on August 31, the series will now premiere three episodes on September 21.

Here’s the official synopsis:

The Andor series will explore a new perspective from the Star Wars galaxy, focusing on Cassian Andor’s journey to discover the difference he can make. The series brings forward the tale of the burgeoning rebellion against the Empire and how people and planets became involved. It’s an era filled with danger, deception and intrigue where Cassian will embark on the path that is destined to turn him into a rebel hero.

Andor will release its first three episodes on September 21 for Disney+.

New Orleans rapper Mystikal, best known for his run of early 2000s hits including Danger “Been So Long),” “Shake Ya Ass,” and “Bouncin’ Back (Bumpin’ Me Against The Wall),” has been arrested for first-degree rape and false imprisonment according to local news. It’s the third time he has been accused of rape; in 2003, he pled guilty to sexually assaulting a hairstylist, spending six years in prison, and registering as a sex offender. Meanwhile, in 2017, he avoided charges of another assault in Shreveport when they were dropped and was released from jail on a $3 million bond.

Among the charges he currently faces are first-degree rape, simple robbery, domestic abuse battery, false imprisonment, and simple criminal damage to property. He was arrested on Sunday and has not posted bail as of press time.

Before his legal troubles began, Mystikal had a moderately successful career as a member of Master P’s No Limit Records, but reached the peak of his success in 2000, when he released Let’s Get Ready on Jive. It was his only album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and the Neptunes-produced “Shake Ya Ass” became his signature hit. He also featured on Ludacris’ “Move Bitch,” another runaway hit. More recently, he recorded with blog rap favorites like Trinidad James and Lil Dicky in 2016 and went viral for a radio freestyle that was revived last year thanks to some security footage of a man repelling a bear from his backyard.

Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” has perhaps the most famous music video ever, or at least the most famed of the internet era thanks to the famous bait-and-switch “Rickroll” prank. The gag, which involves sharing links that unexpectedly lead to the video, has led to the 1987 visual being one of the most-viewed music videos in YouTube history. Simon West, the video’s director, says that even he’s been Rickrolled and he’s not a fan.

In an interview with Metro, West — whose directorial credits also include movies like Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Black Hawk Down, and The Expendables 2 — noted it’s happened to him “three or four times.” He said, “People are sensitive to it [but] people who know me really well know that I’m not gonna go ballistic. But when it happens, it’s the worst thing! You think they’re gonna send you a cool video about surfing or something and up it comes.”

On a related note, the US Open Of Surfing kicked off this weekend at Huntington Beach Pier, so here’s a video from that.

West also said that he didn’t think much of the quickly and cheaply made video at the time, but that it “haunted” him both after the song’s release and after its internet-fueled resurgence:

“It was one of those things that haunts you! But it didn’t haunt me for many years afterwards. It was one of those shoots that was very cheap, very quick, did it one night. Rick was lovely, but I thought I’d done much bigger and more impressive stuff than that. But of course it’s the one that goes to No. 1 across the world. I’d be shooting in Australia and it would come up. I’d go to Canada, and the thing just follows you around. And then it dies down for 20 or 30 years, and then Rickrolling comes around, and the damn thing comes back again! And starts haunting you again.”

Check out the full interview here.

John Oliver got in a surprise jab at Dr. Oz during the latest episode of Last Week Tonight. While going deep on the current state of mental health care, Oliver slipped a solid burn at the TV doctor and his long-documented history of medical quackery. The moment came when Oliver played a black-and-white clip of nurses being told to put makeup on female patients to “swing the balance between despair and recovery.” It was horrible advice, so naturally, it reminded Oliver of the New Jersey doctor who he once shared a studio with.

“I don’t know what is more alarming there, nurses being forced to take on the skills of a Sephora brand ambassador or the fact that “Can Makeup Cure Sad?” sounds like an episode that Dr. Oz definitely did,” Oliver quipped via HuffPost.

Of course, getting burnt alive is something Oz should be used to by now. He’s currently trailing far behind John Fetterman in Pennsylvania’s senate race thanks to a non-stop barrage of brutal social media posts highlighting the fact that Oz isn’t even from the state. Fetterman even enlisted the help of Jersey celebrities Snooki and Steven Van Zandt to help him call out the carpetbagging doctor.

The situation in PA has gotten so bad for Oz that Donald Trump has been whining to Sean Hannity about it. Trump helped Oz just barely squeak out a win in the Republican primary, but now, he’s tied to the TV doctor as he continues to get his ass handed to him on a daily basis. If there’s one thing Trump hates, it’s losing. Just ask the January 6 committee.

(Via HuffPost)