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On Saturday night at The Forum, Playboi Carti broke every rule of performing I’ve come to expect from a live rap concert. Carti’s set was more like a DJ set at a rave; instead of witnessing athletic feats of breath control or charismatic interplay between the artist and his fans, we essentially watched a silhouette dancing through the fog, occasionally punctuated by the flamethrowers at the front of the stage

Fans couldn’t even see him for most of the concert. The production must have melted a metric ton of dry ice for smoke effects. He could’ve had a body double for all anyone could tell (a possibility for which there is a non-zero chance, considering his comments about being inspired by MF DOOM, who was known to pull that trick a few times in his day). But If it sounds like I’m down on the performance, I promise it isn’t because I am. If anything, I was impressed. Here was an artist creating atmosphere, wresting full buy-in from his fans by sheer force of will, personality, or mind control.

I can attempt to posit reasons for what I saw as a disproportionate response to the apparent level of effort going into the performance. My first guess is that Carti’s fans, which from my observations mainly seemed to hail from zoomers and the younger end of the millennial spectrum, come from an era where like 75 percent of their lives are lived online. Again, this isn’t a diss; this is a generation that has barely known a world before Netflix, YouTube, UberEats, or the big 3 of social media (Instagram, Twitter, TikTok). Hell, most of them probably never had a Myspace page.

Maybe for them, the appeal isn’t in watching how artists transform their works on stage, it’s just in seeing them in real life. In concert, this person with whom they engage largely as an abstract concept via text, images, short video clips, and an inch square profile picture becomes… well, real. Three dimensional, dynamic, tactile. Perhaps rather than coming to be entertained, they’re coming simply to connect in a world that seems to be constantly so but is really more isolated and individualistic than ever before.

They aren’t just here to watch, they’re here to commune, to participate. And maybe Carti is, too. After all, artists are every bit as subject to the lonely experience of existing in a digital world as anyone — maybe even more so, because of the nature of life spent locked in studios or on the road.

And maybe, because artists like Carti and his peers largely owe their success to the internet rather than the hard-earned grind of growing a fanbase through grueling live performances at tiny venues and developing over time, they’ve never learned to appreciate the technicalities or nuances that prior generations did. I hate to say it, but maybe that’s okay. I once wrote that Carti doesn’t really deserve to be trapped into the box of expectations that the rapper label comes with. Perhaps that includes the ones that say rappers must perform all of their own vocals without support, that they must be experts at talking to the crowd, that everything has to be curated and polished to the point of making it all appear seamless and easy.

On the other hand, maybe Carti really just has mind control over these kids, like the vampires he often references in his public communique. Maybe he just really is tapped into a different wavelength that tickles the basic instinct to wild out and move around and the fact that I remember AOL chat rooms just makes me old as hell. But as he closed out his set to deafening chants of his name, I was struck by a sense that I had just glimpsed the future… If not of hip-hop as an institution then of some as-yet-unnamed wave of pop culture fueled less by virtuoso than vibes.

One thing that was heartening to see: kids having fun safely. In the wake of the Astroworld disaster in Houston the night before, I could sense the tension of concern that this Carti show could get out of hand in the same way. After all, just weeks before, Playboi Carti fans had torn up his venue in Houston when the concert was canceled at the last minute. Yet on Saturday at The Forum, the chaos was controlled and fans’ youthful exuberance was encouraged. It showed that you can still have this kind of show if you maintain a certain level of respect and consideration. By all means, wild out. Just know where the line is, and keep all your toes on one side.

The Narcissist Tour continues Tuesday, November 9 at Gallagher Square in San Diego, CA. You can see the remaining tour dates here.

Sunday night, Cordae dropped by Desus & Mero to talk about his new music and his recent physical transformation posts on social media, but because it’s Desus and Mero, the conversation was quickly sidetracked into NSFW discussions about adult film, McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, and of course, the inescapable juggernaut of popularity that is Netflix’s Korean drama Squid Game, which Cordae thinks is “oversaturated.”

“That’s like a head ass, now,” Cordae said of the show when asked whether he’d watched it recently. “N****s overdid Squid Game so much.” While he allowed that “a lot of n****s did some dope sh*t with it,” he adamantly rejected Desus’ suggestion that he make an album based on the show. He did, however, seem interested in a parody of the show mentioned by the host. “I gotta check that, just for curiosity,” he quipped.

On a more serious note, Cordae explained how he lost so much weight in the photos he recently posted. He admitted that “I was just eating terrible. This is my first time getting money like this and we eating steaks, going to Mastro’s every day, getting chefs to pull up.” He says that he was able to shed the extra pounds by “just staying disciplined.”

Watch Cordae’s wild Desus & Mero interview above.

The Boston Celtics stumbled out of the gate to start the season at 2-5 and it didn’t take long for frustrations to become apparent. Marcus Smart called out Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for not wanting to pass late in games and allowing the offense to be too predictable, which in turn resulted in the players getting together for a tense meeting in Orlando.

Since then the Celtics have played better, picking up a pair of wins in Florida before losing a heartbreaker to the Mavs, and it seemed as though they might be pulling themselves from the funk they were in the first two weeks. However, the task to continue their climb out of the early hole they put themselves in will only get more difficult, as they will spend the next week or two without the services of Jaylen Brown, who is sidelined with a hamstring strain.

Brown has been one of the true bright spots for the Celtics this season, averaging 25.6 points and 6.2 rebounds per game on 49.3/39.7/78.0 shooting splits. Without Brown, Boston will be hoping that Jayson Tatum can shake free of his early slump and they will need guys like Smart and Dennis Schröder to take on a bigger scoring load. If there is some good news it is that the schedule this week isn’t particularly heavy, as Boston is off until Wednesday when they play host to the Raptors, followed by the Bucks on Friday and a trip to Cleveland for games Saturday and Monday. It’s possible Brown would only miss those four games, but if his injury keeps him out on the longer end of the timetable given, he could miss three or four more games with games against the Hawks, Lakers, Thunder, and Rockets coming the following week.

It was one year ago today, November 8, that Alex Trebek died at 80 years old. Jeopardy! still hasn’t settled on a full-time host since his passing (it was Mike Richards, until it wasn’t, and it DEFINITELY won’t be Aaron Rodgers), so Ken Jennings will fill in for the next three weeks. This is his second stint as host, which is a “very tricky job,” he told USA Today. “The mechanics of hosting Jeopardy! are daunting. There’s a lot going on at once, and Alex made it all look so easy. But I can tell you firsthand, it’s not easy.”

Jennings wasn’t aware that his return as host would coincide with Trebek’s death anniversary. The crew knew, but “they didn’t want to put that in my head,” he explained. “So I was not told until after that it was the November 8 show.” Trebek’s passing will go unmentioned during the episode, outside of “possibly a [title] card,” but Jennings said that he “did wear Alex’s cuff links that week, that his wife, Jean, had been kind enough to leave for me. So I do have a little kind of souvenir.”

Jennings’ debut as the inaugural guest host was a huge success — during the first week of his six-week stint, he brought in an average of 10.3 million viewers, second this past season only to Trebek’s final week as host, the Deseret News reported. Of all the 16 guest hosts who would fill in for the show’s 37th season, Jennings had the highest ratings.

Jennings and Mayim Bialik will continue to rotate as hosts for the foreseeable future.

(Via USA Today and Deseret News)

In much the same way Facebook became uncool once your angry uncle started logging on, Ted Cruz is doing his best to tank the most popular slogan of the right-wing conservative set right now.

Is it Senator Cruz’s fault that he’s the physical manifestation of the word “cheugy”? Probably not, but he had to know that his endorsement of the new anti-Biden chant preferred by fellow Republican blowhards like Representative Lauren Boebert would seriously hurt its stock value. Before we get into the Cancun Cruz-ness of it all, let’s recap: the “Let’s Go Brandon” chant first originated thanks to an on-air-interview-gone-wrong at a NASCAR race in Alabama. An NBC reporter was chatting with driver Brandon Brown after his win when the crowd launched into a chant he first interpreted as a celebration of Brown’s win. The reporter suggested the crowd was chanting “Let’s Go Brandon”. In reality, they were chanting “F*ck Joe Biden.” The phrase took off from there, with everyone from Republican representatives to Southwest Airline pilots co-opting the Biden dig. It got so bad that even NASCAR tried to distance itself from the phrase.

Of course, Cruz couldn’t let the chance to snag a bit of headline-making controversy pass him by, so he made his own contribution to the “Let’s Go Brandon” movement in the form of this very unfunny tweet:

Political leanings aside, this kind of trolling is just lazy. It’s obvious Cruz pulled the photo from someone else’s socials, didn’t tag them, and then added his own commentary. It’s some real “F for Effort” sh*t-posting on his part but, then again, the guy hasn’t had a vacation in *checks watch* a month? So really, give him a break.

Or don’t. He left millions of his constituents to freeze to go sunbathing on the beaches of a country he regularly rants about for political clout. Twitter certainly didn’t give him any mercy in response to his bandwagon-hopping post:

Today, Dave Grohl continues his apparent effort to dominate every area of the entertainment and media industry. He’s of course a music legend, his new memoir is a best-seller, and now, he and the rest of Foo Fighters announced that they’ve made a new movie, Studio 666. While Grohl and the band have experience with documentaries, this project is a different beast, as it’s a horror comedy film in which they also star.

Aside from Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett, and Rami Jaffee, the BJ McDonnell-directed movie also features Whitney Cummings, Leslie Grossman, Will Forte, Jenna Ortega, and Jeff Garlin. The movie is set to hit over 2,000 US theaters on February 25, 2022, while an international release date will be announced soon.

Press materials describe the film, “In Studio 666, the legendary rock band Foo Fighters move into an Encino mansion steeped in grisly rock and roll history to record their much anticipated 10th album. Once in the house, Dave Grohl finds himself grappling with supernatural forces that threaten both the completion of the album and the lives of the band.” Deadline also notes of it, “Dave Grohl and his Foo Fighters bandmates star in a film they shot in secret, about what happens when the legendary rock band rents an Encino mansion steeped in grisly rock and roll history, to record their 10th album [Medicine At Midnight]. Trouble is, frontman Grohl is creatively blocked, and when evil forces in the house sink into his consciousness, the creative juices begin flowing, but so does the blood. Can Foo Fighters complete the album, with the band still alive to tour?”

Dave Grohl says of the movie:

“After decades of ridiculous music videos and numerous music documentaries under our collective belts, it was finally time to take it to the next level… A full length feature horror comedy film. Like most things Foo, Studio 666 began with a far fetched idea that blossomed into something bigger than we ever imagined possible. Filmed at the same house where we recorded our latest album Medicine At Midnight (told you that place was haunted!) we wanted to recapture the classic magic that all of our favorite rock and roll movies had, but with a twist: hilarious gore that f*cking ROCKS. And now, with the help of Tom Ortenberg and the team at Open Road Films we can finally let this cat out of the bag after keeping it our best kept secret for two years. Be ready to laugh, scream, and headbang in your popcorn. Studio 666 will f*ck you up.”

McDonnell also said, “Studio 666 is a perfect combination of all things I love. Rock, horror, and comedy all tied together in a very thrilling motion picture. I am so excited to have teamed up with the Foo Fighters to create an old school ‘Band’ movie. It’s been years since we’ve seen something like the Beatles’ Help!, The Monkees’ Head, or Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park. Take that 60’s/70’s old school band film fun, mix it with horror and Studio 666 is born! I am so ecstatic for audiences of film and music to come together and enjoy our film.”

There’s no trailer or additional info yet, so for now, the poster the band shared (check it out above) is the first and only look at Studio 666.

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 Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak unleash a rare single and two of the biggest chart titans of recent years teams up. 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.

Silk Sonic — “Smokin Out The Window”

Not long ago, Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak declared their debut Silk Sonic album An Evening With Silk Sonic is set for a 2022 release, but last month, they changed that to November 12. Ahead of that rapidly approaching release date, the duo shared what is presumably the final pre-album single, the soulful (and spiteful) “Smokin Out The Window.”

Post Malone — “One Right Now” Feat. The Weeknd

If there was a chart or streaming record set or broken over the past few years, there’s a good chance Post Malone or The Weeknd were involved in the feat. Now, for the first time, the two generational forces have linked up on a song, and that song is “One Right Now,” a synth-forward tune that sounds like both a natural extension of the After Hours era and something not too far from Posty’s usual wheelhouse.

Lorde — “Helen Of Troy”

Lorde made an earthy pivot with her 2021 album Solar Power, and for those who couldn’t get enough of it, the good news is that there’s now more to be had. Lorde dropped a deluxe edition of the album last week and it came with a pair of low-key bonus tracks: “Helen Of Troy” and “Hold No Grudge.”

Summer Walker — “No Love” Feat. SZA

There are plenty of reasons to be excited about Summer Walker’s hotly anticipated sophomore album Still Over It, and a SZA collaboration is certainly an appealing one. On the smooth “No Love,” Uproxx’s Wongo Okon notes the pair “both admit that if they received a do-over, they’d make sure to be more protective of their hearts with” an unappreciative ex.

Jenny Lewis — “Puppy And A Truck”

Life got you down? Fortunately, Jenny Lewis’ breezy new single “Puppy And A Truck” offers a roadmap to the perfect pick-me-up: “Like a shot of good luck / I got a puppy and a truck / If you feel like giving up / Shut up / Get a puppy and a truck.”

Charli XCX — “New Shapes” Feat. Christine And The Queens and Caroline Polachek

Charli XCX has been dropping off-hand descriptions and other sorts of breadcrumbs about her upcoming album for months. Last week, though, she finally came through with concrete info: The album is called Crash and it’s dropping next March. Furthermore, she also shared her previously rumored collaboration with Christine And The Queens and Caroline Polachek, the synthy pop banger “New Shapes.”

Snoop Dogg — “Murder Music” Feat. Benny The Butcher, Busta Rhymes, and Jadakiss

Snoop Dogg’s list of artists he’s collaborated with is basically just a list of every musical artist ever, and he dug into that roster last week with “Murder Music.” Uproxx’s Aaron Williams sees the song as Snoop returning to his vintage “menacing” ways and notes, “just in case his Corona commercials softened up his image too much to be taken that seriously, he smartly calls on some of rap’s past and current prime purveyors of murder music — namely, Griselda’s Benny The Butcher, the resurgent Jadakiss, and the eternal Busta Rhymes.”

Snail Mail — “Forever (Sailing)”

In his review of Valentine, Uproxx’s Steven Hyden noted that the new Snail Mail album sees Lindsey Jordan returning with a broader musical palette, writing, “The arrangements on Valentine are more expansive than on Lush, most notably on ‘Forever (Sailing),’ in which Jordan sings about an obsessive relationship over a bed of piano, synths, a sneaky-jazzy bassline, and drum machines.”

Radiohead — “Follow Me Around”

Every super-dedicated artist fan base has its favorite unreleased songs they hope will someday make it out into the world in an official capacity. For Radiohead stans, “Follow Me Around” is one of those, and finally, Thom Yorke and company have finally given the decades-old track a proper release as part of the new Kid A reissue, Kid A Mnesia. They even shared a video for the acoustic track and it stars Mare Of Easttown and Memento actor Guy Pearce.

Mariah Carey — “Fall In Love At Christmas” Feat. Khalid and Kirk Franklin

In case you weren’t aware, Mariah Carey is a fan of Christmas. While she’s been riding the success of “All I Want For Christmas Is You” for decades, she’s not done busting out original holiday tunes. Her latest is another romantic yuletide jam, as she linked up with Khalid and Kirk Franklin for “Fall In Love At Christmas,” which, if it’s anything like her aforementioned hit, will top the charts in 25 years.

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

Superstar center Joel Embiid was scheduled to sit out the Philadelphia 76ers’ game against the New York Knicks on Monday night to rest, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

Shortly after that report, however, Charania added that Embiid is now in the league’s health and safety protocols and could miss 10 games.

Embiid becomes the fourth Sixer to enter health and safety protocols over the past week and a half, joining Tobias Harris, Isaiah Joe and Matisse Thybulle. According to the NBA injury report, Embiid is “expected to be out until at least Nov. 18.” If that’s the case, he would miss upwards of five games during that span, including contests against the Milwaukee Bucks and Utah Jazz. A Nov. 18 return would see him face off with Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets that night.

Despite sitting atop the Eastern Conference at 8-2 and winners of six straight games, the Sixers have been decimated by early season absences. In addition to health and safety protocol developments, Ben Simmons is yet to play and Danny Green, who is a game-time decision against the Knicks, has not played since the third quarter of last Monday’s victory over the Portland Trail Blazers because of a hamstring injury. If Green does not suit up, the Sixers will be down four starters and five rotation players.

The Seattle Seahawks are coming off of a well-timed bye week that gave them a respite from the three-game losing streak they’ve been on that coincided with a finger injury to Russell Wilson. Geno Smith has taken over and, unsurprisingly, the Seahawks offense has not been able to be close to as effective without Wilson.

Wilson has been offering some updates on his rehab, noting that he had a pin removed from his injured finger recently and was hopeful for a return sooner than later. On Monday, as most of the NFL shifted attention towards Week 10 with just one more game remaining in Week 9, Wilson tweeted out a hype video, set for some reason to the Succession theme music, that showed him going through rehab with the caption simply saying, “It’s Time.”

That indicated that Wilson intends to play in Green Bay this week in a game that is very important for the 3-5 Seahawks if they are going to make a second half push for the postseason — particularly in a division with two teams at 8-1 and 7-2. Adam Schefter confirmed that Wilson had been cleared by his doctor to play this week, as he has cleared the necessary hurdles in his recovery to return.

That’s a big boost for Seattle, obviously, and now the question is whether Aaron Rodgers will be back under center for the Packers after his absence this past week for COVID-19 that has led to all manner of controversy regarding his not following the league’s protocols for unvaccinated players at all times after it was revealed he hasn’t taken the vaccine, instead seeking “alternative treatment” and claiming he got advice from Joe Rogan, of all people.

The first thing I saw at Pitchfork Music Festival was a group of girls in skeleton costumes — the polyester onesie kind sold at Party City — sipping plastic cups of beer. Although music festivals tend to draw out whimsical fashions, I instantly knew who they were and why they were there, as they intended. They were fans of Phoebe Bridgers. And they were there to see Phoebe Bridgers.

The festival goers were, of course, dressed as Bridgers herself. The musician has made the skeleton suit her signature look since the release of her second album Punisher, the album of catchy, unprecious emo-folk songs that took her from an indie darling to superstar. On the cover, she wears the onesie, doused in red light, staring up at the stars. It’s a reference to the cover of her first album Stranger In The Alps, a baby picture of herself painted to look like a ghost, as well as her love of “corny, creepy stuff.”

The skeleton suit has become deeply embedded in Bridgers’ oeuvre. She’s worn and dressed her band in the costumes at most of their performance over the past two years, during which she’s accumulated a list of awards, TV appearances, viral tweets, and A-list collaborations so extensive that it would simply be easier for you to read about them in any of several dozen magazine profiles. She wore a Gucci rib cage on Saturday Night Live and a beaded Thom Browne bone gown on the Grammys red carpet. A pair of sweatpants with bones down the legs and Bridgers’ name printed on the butt, that fans enjoy posting themselves wearing with the caption “Phoebe Bridgers owns my ass,” are still sold out. It makes sense that fans are so obsessed with the ironic visual, which clicks into her world like a puzzle piece: turn your insides out, make a joke of it.

Later that night, from my tiptoes at the flank of the crowd, I spotted several more pods of skeletons, gazing up at their anatomically incorrect leader and her band of cadavers. The sighting was nothing special. For Bridgers’ biggest fans, nicknamed “Pharbz,” attending her shows in skeleton costumes to match her has become a beloved ritual. Nearly every concert review of her ongoing tour makes a mention of onesie-d fans. On Reddit and meme groups, where fans document themselves at shows, skeleton ‘fit pics abound.

Watching the skeleton girls watch Bridgers, I was transported to the auditorium of Barclays Center, where I once watched KISS spit blood and shoot fire from their guitars to a sea of their doppelgangers. Since the 1970’s, the band’s fans, AKA the KISS Army, have made a ritual of imitating the band’s four members elaborate costumes, from their make-up to their platform boots, at their shows.

KISS is the most extreme, codified, and certainly the campiest example, but there’s a long tradition of fans cosplaying as favorite bands’ at their shows. In rock, these antics have been most aggressively sustained by the aging fanbase of classic rock and metal bands. To this day, devotees of Metallica and Iron Maiden wear their shirts to shows like sports jerseys, while a popular accessory for the latter’s include a mask of the band’s zombie mascot, “Eddie The Undead.” For other examples, look to Smashing Pumpkins’ “ZERO” T-shirt that became a fan staple in the ’90s after Billy Corgan began performing in the skateboard brand’s T-shirt or My Chemical Romance acolytes in military jackets.

It’s commonplace today for Beyoncé or Harry Styles’ fans to pay homage wearing costumes or merch to their shows. But unless you’re a metalhead, you rarely see this kind of full-throttle, fashion-forward display of fandom at rock shows anymore. Until recently, in the world of indie rock that Bridgers has emerged from, as critic Steven Hyden recently discussed in his “Ask a Music Critic” column, it’s been an unwritten rule that so much as wearing a band’s T-shirt to their show, let alone a head-to-toe costume imitating them, is lame.

People never stopped dressing up like rock stars. Strokes devotees may have well been in costume as Julian Casablancas, given the ubiquity in the ‘00s of his uniform of leather jacket, Converse, and skinny jeans. Or, take Vampire Weekend fans in cardigans of ambiguous irony. People who imitate musicians or artists are, if not signaling their musical allegiances, then articulating their identities by attempting to graft the qualities linked to these artists (in the case of the Strokes: youth, sex appeal, moody malaise; for Ezra Koenig: whimsicality, sensitivity, self-awareness) into their own image.

Something has broken with Bridgers, though. Theres’s a difference between wearing a leather jacket to try to look cool, and dressing in a silly costume in public to broadcast to other people that you’re an artist’s biggest fan. The kind of cosplay that Bridgers — and KISS and others before her — inspires is what happens when fans see the opportunity to participate in something that feels bigger than themselves. Right now, as Bridgers’ star rises higher than any other rock artist’s has in a long time, marking yourself as one of her tribe holds great appeal. It gives fans a way of carving out a place in her cultural moment.

Dressing up like Bridgers is about labeling yourself as a fan. But it also it’s a form of sartorial expression like any other outfit. The phenomenon suggests that there are fans who relate to Bridgers so intensely, they’re using her image as a shorthand for what they want to express about themselves, and can say more by doing so than by putting together their own ensemble. The skeletons are not just advertising that they love Bridgers’ music, but also that they share or at least identify with her everydude charm, morbid sense of humor, casual way of processing trauma, anxiety about the world, and view of life as full of both horror and possibility.

Of course, there is reason to be suspicious of the desire to subsume one’s identity within a celebrity’s. (And certainly to question how a band like KISS has turned their fans’ habit into a merchandising empire). Some will be less than thrilled to see stan antics, which famously can be deranged and even violent, blossoming in rock music. But fandom, at its best, is about a collective experience, in which artists become merely a shortcut to finding your people. Attending a show in costume, and knowing there’ll be others doing the same, can transform live music from entertainment to be consumed into a ritual of joyful belonging. At Bridgers’ shows, skeletons can spot their fellow cadavers across a crowd and know they understand without saying a word.