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For as many people like Trevor Noah and the Grammy producers who are concerned about Kanye West’s recent troubling behavior, there are others around him even more heavily invested in defending him from the criticism he’s been receiving lately, such as The Game. One of the latter is Chicago rapper GLC, who appeared on Kanye’s first two albums and was one of his closest associates at the start of his career. Like Kanye and Game, GLC posted his defense of the embattled producer on Instagram in the caption of a photo of Ye with his four children.

“@kanyewest is the ultimate father,” he wrote. “He fights for the betterment of his children. I understand that we all have our vices & issues but would you like a dude in & out the rehab in the midst of your children? He aims to have his kids at church & form a relationship with God. He doesn’t want his little girl on social media with make-up on, singing about how she’s in love with an emo girl… The way he is being portrayed in the media is disheartening on many levels especially when it comes to our own people aiming to bring him down. It makes me wonder would the headlines read the same if he wasn’t a Black Man in America?”

Well, yeah, probably. The thing is, Kanye seems to be mostly expressing those sorts of doubts to deflect from the very problematic behavior he’s been exhibiting lately — a lot longer than just the past few months when he ramped up attacks on his ex-wife’s new boyfriend. He continues to lash out at anyone who seems to want to help him, and he paints any consequences of his own actions — such as getting suspended by Instagram — as persecution enacted on a supposedly free thinker who is mostly just regurgitating red-pill, right-wing talking points. It sounds like what Kanye, GLC, and the rest of Kanye’s yes-men really want is free reign for him to do and say whatever he wants — no matter how much potential harm it might be doing to his kids, who probably wouldn’t enjoy most of this media scrutiny either.

Early on in X, A24’s Texas Chain Saw Massacre-meets-porn throwback, an aspiring French New Wave-loving filmmaker explains to his prudish (for now) boom mic operator girlfriend why he’s interested in shooting an “adult feature.” He’s part of the sweaty drive from Houston to a farmhouse in middle-of-nowhere Texas because he wants to prove that it’s “possible to make a good dirty movie.”

This weekend, we got two of them. It’s about time.

X is director Ti West’s first movie since 2016’s In a Valley of Violence, and best movie since 2009’s The House of the Devil, a deliberate homage to the horror films of the 1970s and 1980s. X, with its grindhouse delights, also feels like it’s from a different era: it’s grainy, grisly, and most of all, sexy in a way that you rarely get nowadays in a wide-release movie (2,865 screens with an impressive $4.4 million opening weekend).

I’m not trying to go all “back in my day” on you (mostly because “my day” was, like American Pie and Eurotrip), but I feel the same way as Steven Soderbergh when it comes to the superhero movies that have dominated Hollywood for the past 15 years: “Nobody’s f*cking!” Contemporary blockbusters are largely sex-less affairs with the occasional outlier, like every time Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz share the screen in The Batman; meanwhile, everybody’s f*cking in X. There’s boobs and butts, and because it’s the 1970s, probably another b-word that rhymes with “tush,” although we don’t see any of those. X is “only” rated R, after all.

Another R-rated feature that was released this weekend was Deep Water, the long-delayed “mid-budget adult sex thriller” from director Adrian Lyne starring former real-life lovebirds Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas. In his review, our own Mike Ryan wrote, “To the point that Deep Water makes no sense, it’s impossible to make heads or tails out of character motivations, and there’s no real resolution or payoff to anything, yet I enjoyed this trashy dumb thing more than I ever thought I would.” I couldn’t agree more.

Whether it’s Ben Affleck in Gone Girl-mode repeatedly saying “the snails are not for eating” (add a “clapping hands” emoji between every word for maximum effect) and looking uncomfortable on a bicycle, or Ana de Armas having her own “Zou Bisou Bisou” moment and picking a pubic hair out of her mouth, Deep Water is a sleazy blast. I only wish it had been released not on Hulu, but in theaters like X: the off-the-charts camp levels are more fun in a communal setting. If there isn’t already a Deep Water drinking game, there needs to be one. “Take a shot every time Ben Affleck looks sad while staring at Ana de Armas flirting with another dude.” You’d be drunk in 20 minutes.

X and Deep Water couldn’t have less to do with each other (one’s an old-school slasher; the other has a little girl driving her mom crazy because she won’t stop playing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” on the Alexa — guess which is which!), other than they’re both fun, sexy times. We’re already in the golden age of phallic shenanigans… maybe sleaze is making a comeback, too? That’s the vibe shift we all need.

Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw Coi Leray and Nicki Minaj drop the collaboration that almost didn’t exist and Charli XCX go full pop mode with a new album. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

For more music recommendations, check out our Listen To This section, as well as our Indie Mixtape and Pop Life newsletters.

Coi Leray and Nicki Minaj — “Blick Blick”

“Blick Blick” almost didn’t happen, or at least not as it was released last week featuring Nicki Minaj. The good news, though, is that it did, as the pair dropped their braggadocios meet-up a few days ago. Uproxx’s Wongo Okon says on the single, Leray and Minaj “are a taunting duo that flexes their status and fires some shots at the competition, all without fear of being defeated at any point.”

Charli XCX — “Every Rule”

While Charli XCX spent the lead-up to Crash flexing how pop-focused the now-released album is, she kinda went against that with her final pre-album single, “Every Rule.” There’s no upbeat, in-your-face pop hook here, but rather, an emotional collaboration with AG Cook and Oneohtrix Point Never that shows even when Charli is in pop star mode, she hasn’t fully left her alternative instincts behind.

Normani — “Fair”

After generating some attention with a clothes-free teaser, Normani capped last week by dropping her latest single, “Fair.” On the tune, Normani gets vulnerable as she sings about her struggles with moving on after the conclusion of a relationship.

Arcade Fire — “The Lightning I, II”

Last week had two major Arcade Fire headlines: Will Butler revealed he left the band last year, and a few days before that, the band dropped a new single, “Lightning I, II.” Butler’s on this song, as he left the band after their new album, We, was completed. As for what the tune’s like, it’s classic, epic rock Arcade Fire.

Ethan Gruska and Bon Iver — “So Unimportant”

Ethan Gruska, perhaps best known in recent years as a Phoebe Bridgers collaborator, has added another esteemed name to his Rolodex, as he and Bon Iver linked up on “So Unimportant” last week. While Justin Vernon is clearly the bigger name here, he was actually pretty starstruck to get to work on the song with Gruska, as he said in a statement, “It’s not often that something IMMEDIATELY grasps you where you stand as his music did. It only happens a few times in one’s life.”

Fivio Foreign — “Magic City” Feat. Quavo

Fivio Foreign feels like he needs more time to work on his debut album B.I.B.L.E., since he announced last week he was delaying its release. While that news might be a downer, he came through last week with “Magic City,” a Quavo collaboration on which the rappers confidently make it rain at the strip club.

Rosalía — “Candy”

Rosalía has one of the headlining album releases last week with Motomami, which she immediately preceded with the pre-album single “Candy.” While it’s rhythmic as many of her songs are, this one comes at it in a calmer way, sounding almost ambient in some moments and captivating in all of them.

Juice WRLD — “Sometimes”

There’s apparently still some Juice WRLD posthumous material left in the tank, as last week brought a new song, “Sometimes.” The song arrived as an update to his Fighting Demons album and it’s a dark, brooding tune as he sings about the issues his substance abuse has brought him.

The Smile — “Skrtng On The Surface”

It’s currently Radiohead season… sort of. The band hasn’t announced a follow-up to 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool, but Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood’s side project The Smile has been getting after it lately. They dropped a new single last week, “Skrtng On The Surface,” which Uproxx’s Adrian Spinelli reckons “might just be the best offering yet from this enigmatic supergroup.”

King Princess — “For My Friends”

Cheap Queen came out in 2019 and now it appears King Princess is gearing up for her second LP. She hasn’t formally announced it yet, but she’s dropped a number of singles since that album, including last week’s “For My Friends,” an evocative alt-pop tune on which King Princess reckons with how much of a handful she can be.

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

As Moon Knight gets closer to its premiere on Disney+, director Mohamed Diab has been opening up about how important it was to him that the Marvel series focuses on Egyptian representation. In the process, he also expressed disappointment over the upcoming Black Adam film starring The Rock, which Diab feels squandered a significant opportunity to feature Egyptian talent.

“I was really annoyed with DC when they set Black Adam in a fictional middle eastern country as an excuse to cast non-Egyptians, when it was obviously meant to be in Egypt,” Diab said in an interview with Filfan (translated by Comic Book). While Diab understood that Black Adam is simply sticking to the source material, he’s of the opinion that representation should’ve been a higher concern:

“Representation opportunities shouldn’t be wasted… But it’s not a full mistake since it’s based on an iteration of the comics that doesn’t mention Egypt.” He added, “I wanted to showcase Egyptian talents as much as I could. Every culture should be represented by its people so I hired actors, an editor, a costume designer, an art director & a composer who are all Egyptian.”

Diab also confirmed that Oscar Isaac‘s character, Marc Spector, will be Jewish in the Disney+ series despite reports to the contrary. “The journey that Marc Spector is on during our whole show is: Who am I?” Diab said before explaining that’s a universal theme we all deal with on a “day-to-day basis.”

Moon Knight premieres March 30 on Disney+. Black Adam hits theaters October 21.

(Via Comic Book)

In 2017, Uproxx premiered “Revelatory,” the lead single of Caracara’s debut Summer Megalith. They’ve since released the 2019 explosive EP Better which caught people’s attention, including Indiecast‘s own Ian Cohen who interviewed them for Stereogum. They also did an Audiotree live session that pushed them even further in the indie rock scene. After announcing their Will Yip-produced sophomore effort New Preoccupations (As The Gods Descend) last month, the band have unleashed a powerful new single, “Colorglut” today, which features Circa Survive’s Anthony Green.

About the album, vocalist Will Lindsay said: “I think what people will be able to hear in this record, and what we hope to say, is that this isn’t a totally dark and dismal record. We didn’t want to make a druggy emo record about recovery. What we really wanted to show, and what anybody trying to quit substances knows, is this is what makes it so hard: that there are these incredible, rapturous highs that exist in concert with the use of the substance that can’t be uncoupled from it, but aren’t invalidated by it. Just because it ended with you needing to stop does not mean that you can’t celebrate those beautiful memories that you did make.”

Listen to “Colorglut” above.

New Preoccupations (As The Gods Descend) arrives 3/25 via Memory Music. Pre-order it here.

In The Eye, music’s best up-and-coming artists take to an intimate and minimal studio space to perform highlights from their discography, with only one microphone and one take. This time, getting in the studio is Omah Lay, an afrobeats/R&B favorite you’ve probably heard working with some of today’s biggest artists.

The 24-year-old Nigerian musician formally launched his music career by dropping some singles in 2019 and landing a record deal. After taking a few months off, he returned in 2020 with “Bad Influence,” which was a success on social media. Early in his life as a professional artist, he made waves in the industry, with his two 2020 EPs, Get Layd and What Have We Done, and songs from them faring well on the Apple Music charts in Nigeria. Apple took notice, as they prominently featured Lay when they launched their Africa Rising Artist Showcase in 2020.

All this attention has led Lay to work with some major names in the music industry: He teamed up with 6lack on a remix of “Damn,” then just a couple weeks ago, he and Justin Bieber connected on “Attention.” For his performance on The Eye, he went with the latter song. Bieber didn’t swing by the studio to join Lay on this rendition of “Attention,” but Lay was totally capable of carrying the smooth and rhythmic track, which he performed here essentially in its original form minus the Bieber appearance.

In a 2020 interview, Lay explained the origin of his stage name, saying, “Omah was gotten from my name and the Lay is the way my people call people who are far away.” The singer also noted that his original vision for his career was different than where he finds himself now, saying, “I wanted to be a rapper. I was part of a rap group, my name was Lil King [laugh]. I really liked Drake and his flows so I wanted to be like that.”

He went on to say of his success in the afrobeats scene, “I don’t want to sound like God or like a God, but I always knew this was where I was going to be.”

If he was saying that in 2020, imagine how happy he must be with where he’s at now.

Watch Omah Lay perform “Attention” for The Eye above.

Omah Lay is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

(Spoilers for Netflix’s Bad Vegan will be found below.)

Bad Vegan subject Sarma Melngailis recently set the record straight about Netflix making an exception regarding payment for her appearance (and she insists that she used this money to pay back her jilted employees), but she’s not thrilled about one key way that the streaming service is marketing the limited series. This has to do with one of the several hard-to-believe happenings (or rather, non-happenings) that purportedly lured Sarma into the cult-mentality clutches of Anthony Strangis (who operated under the “Shane Fox” pseudonym). That’s before they became casino-bound fugitives and eventually got busted because of a pizza order.

The pizza stuff was odd (because that’s a really bad vegan who orders cheese), but the strangest thing that Sarma admits to believing is that Shane was a black-ops guy and a superpowered being that could make her pit bull, Leon, immortal. The former celebrity restauranteur (who massively fell from grace, and that includes a Rikers Island sentence) admitted that she fully bought into this claim, and Netflix has apparently set up an Instagram profile (with the PerpetualPup handle) that spreads this caption: “Do you want your dog to live forever? You’re not the only one. Click the link in bio to learn more.”

Here’s a commercial to go along with the theme.

Sarma’s not thrilled (she’s “sick”) over how she believes that Netflix is “mocking” her:

“I’m sick. On behalf of dogs and the humans who love them. And on behalf of anyone psychologically abused. Please see my Twitter to hear the audio on this clip, for which the word disturbing is far too mild. The audio is… making a joke out of me. This is how @netflix markets #badvegan? By mocking me, and worse… by luring people to click via… pet immortality? How is this ok?? @netflix you made this. I wish I could ask all those who signed off on this to explain it to me so I understand. Was there a room full people laughing while the audio was scripted? And everyone was just cool with this?”

One can understand why Sarma’s not exactly excited about the dog immortality stuff being dragged. That’s gotta sting, and it’s wild that she ever believed it could happen in the first place, but that’s one of the only reasons that Bad Vegan might be the most unbelievable of all the current scammer series out there. (It’s currently streaming in full.)

While Halsey’s music has long had an alternative influence (even at its most pop), she really leaned into that aspect of her sound with her last album, last year’s If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, which she made with Nine Inch Nails duo Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Now, though, it appears she’s looking to get back to having a more pop-forward sound with her next album.

Over the weekend, she wrote on her Instagram Story, “Due to personal reasons I will be making a pop album.” She added in another post, “I have an incredible song that I could put out as a single for radio next but I feel like that’s insane to do bc I haven’t even toured iichliwp yet idk.” She continued in another post, “I actually have like a few. Idk what to dooooo.”

Halsey is set to tour behind If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power soon, though, as she announced a tour in January. That trek runs from May to July and features support from Beabadoobee and PinkPantheress.

Earlier this month, Halsey suggested she was gearing up for a pop era. In a March 3 tweet, she shared a tweet about a time she replaced herself on the Pop Songs airplay chart and wrote, “this was a very special time. might f*ck around and do it again with H5.” A few minutes later, she responded to a fan who asked how she wants her next album to sound, saying, “the sound usually finds me. i usually like to do a departure from whatever the last album was. i was burnt out from radio on Manic and that’s kinda how IICHLIWP came to be. we’ll see where my defiance takes me lol.” She noted then she hadn’t yet started work on the album, saying, “I’m gonna get through the tour first and then I’ll get to work!”

In 2020, famous pop star The Weeknd appeared in an episode of American Dad and voiced some characters on Robot Chicken. It was confirmed a couple of weeks ago that he would be on the March 20 episode of The Simpsons, “Bart The Cool Kid.” The episode synopsis reads, “When Bart befriends a famous kid influencer who owns an ultra-cool skate wear brand, Homer leads a rebellion of loser dads against them.”

That episode premiered last night. His character is Orion Hughes, who owns the Supreme-parody skate wear brand named Slipreme. He also voiced the character’s father, Darius. Check out a funny clip below, and find more on the official Simpsons Twitter.

The “Blinding Lights” singer heightened the hype of his appearance by quote-tweeting Matt Selman, the executive producer of The Simpsons: “Thank you Matt !! Let’s make Orion Hughes and Bart’s friendship a re-occurring thing.” It looks like more cartoons are in the musician’s future.

In a 2020 Variety interview, The Weeknd said, “American Dad was everything I wanted. It’s going to be hard to beat this in the TV cartoon world, but an obvious bucket list would be to work on The Simpsons. That would be a dream — and if they’re reading this, I actually have a pretty cool idea if they’re down.”

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 his sophomore album Candypaint, all the world wanted from Lucky Daye was to see him whisk us off our feet with another captivating project. His 2019 debut album Painted was praised from top to bottom by those who enjoyed his serenading vocals on efforts like “Love You Too Much” and “Floods,” as well as folks who caught a groove and danced the night away with “Extra” and “Karma.” Painted was much more than a fan-favorite that was safeguarded by R&B lovers, as is what often happens with stellar projects in the genre. It earned the New Orleans native attention from critics as it landed multiple Grammy nominations at the 2020 award show – including one for Best R&B Album. Painted essentially cemented Daye as next up in the genre that so many are quick to call “dead.”

As Daye prepared to release Candypaint, it became clear that a change in direction was in order. Its cover art portrayed the singer from the chest up dripping in some honey-like substance, an image inspired by The Ohio Players’ 1975 album Honey. It’s a stark contrast from the artistic portrait of Lucky Daye that appears on the cover of Painted. With this visual change comes one for the sonics of Candypaint. Where Painted saw Lucky pop champagne in celebration with his lover, Candypaint slyly dangles handcuffs in front of them with dripping infatuation. Painted dwells on innocent daytime fun and pure love while Candypaint finds life in the sultry atmosphere of nighttime romance.

While the aforementioned albums may fall on opposite sides of the spectrum, they’re both undeniable evidence of Lucky Daye’s sprawling versatility. Candydrip does a great job of flaunting his talents and how he can pretty much do everything and do it well. Whether it’s the funk-inspired “Feels Like” or the traditional R&B beauty of “Guess” or even the alternative R&B-leaning “Intermission,” Lucky’s musical pockets are infinite, and for him, it’s just a matter of picking one to get into. Additionally, while this versatility might cause others to do too much on a given project, Lucky keeps things cohesive and tightly wrapped.

On Candydrip, Lucky Daye yearns for intimacy. The possibility of its arrival through a new lover presents a thrill for him while its continued return from his current partner keeps him on a high. “F*ckin’ Sound” sees Lucky put up blinders to the world as he begs his companion to satisfy his overbearing craving for their body and the passionate interaction that comes with it. “God Body,” which concludes with a slick-talking verse from Smino, uses the ultimate compliment to simplify Lucky’s attempt to get his hand into the cookie jar. While Lucky’s contribution to the song is strong, it’s Smino’s verse that best highlights their ultimate goal. “Roll up on you in the morning like I do my weed,” he raps. “I know what I want and you more like a need.”

For every uphill trek to glory, there’s a downward spiral that marks a return to square one. An excellent example comes with the project’s lead single, “Over.” Here, the flare and undeterred spirit of Lucky Daye vanishes and is replaced by frustration and annoyance. The record recounts an on-again-off-again love that finds Daye consistently surrendering to a woman who can’t make up her mind between being with him or moving on. He impresses, dazzles, and sweet-talks the ladies when he’s in command of everything, but issues tend to arrive for him when he’s forced to wait on others. Finally, when that decision is made, and his attempt at love comes to an end, as it does on “Used To Be,” Daye – just like anyone else – is left to sulk in sadness as his partner’s departure stings a bit too much for him. “A dying rose in the winter / I’m holdin’ on every way I can,” he beckons. “Tell me, is this only just me / By my lonely.”

Candydrip covers Lucky Daye’s insistence on satisfying his nagging sweet tooth towards romance. More times than not, he’s a slick-suit-wearing man who knows just what to say to earn his way as he does on “Guess,” “Feels Like,” and “F*ckin’ Sound.” There are moments when he does a little too much, like the candy-themed “Candy Drip (Interlude)” where he rattles off a raunchy poem that uses candy brands for lustful puns. However, Candypaint concludes with Lucky returning to his original form with heartfelt numbers like “Fever,” “Cherry Forest,” and “Ego.” Lucky Daye has this generation’s R&B crown as he’s made a great case to possess it with each release. All we can do now is watch him shine and thrive in the spotlight as he’s continuously done in his career.

Candypaint is out now via RCA/Keep Cool. You can stream it here.