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This has truly been the year of Olivia Rodrigo. For starters, no album was streamed more worldwide in 2021 than Sour and no songs were streamed more in America this year than “Good 4 U” and “Driver’s License” (on Spotify, at least). She also received seven 2022 Grammy Award nominations, including Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best New Artist. The most impressive thing about these accolades is that she’s done it all without touring. That’s right, Rodrigo has yet to announce a tour in support of Sour, and while she’s played at awards shows, it’s safe to call her recent Austin City Limits performance her first full concert.

Her dazzling performance of “Traitor,” shows the undeniable talent that has shot her to the top of the pop world. Rodrigo starts behind a piano, singing the lovelorn ballad. As the song’s energy begins to rise, she threatens to get up, but maintains her post. Then just as the song builds into its climax, she can’t control the emotions of the song and rises up to face the crowd and belt the incredible chorus as the song peaks and closes. She looked possessed up there, almost like an artist who’s been pining to play a full show for her fans (wink, wink.)

Rodrigo’s set, which opens with “Brutal” and was part of a double bill with Phoebe Bridgers, will air in full on the December 4th episode of Austin City Limits PBS and it will be streaming on December 5th.

Watch the video of “Traitor” above and learn more about the episode here.

Every year, BBC Radio 1 picks a crop of “Teen Heroes,” which they describe as “young people who make the world a better place.” All this week, they’ve been revealing 2021’s picks, and on Greg James’ Radio 1 Breakfast show this morning, they surprised an honoree named Madison with a message from her favorite musician: Halsey.

Halsey recorded an audio message for Madison, in which the singer says, “Hey Madison, it’s Halsey. I heard about your ‘positivity packages’ and the massive amount of good that you’re bringing to members of your community. Struggling with your mental health can be a lonely battle, but I’m so proud of you for using your compassion and your experience to help others. You’re making a really big difference in a lot of lives. Just remember to always take time to direct those words and actions towards yourself as well. I’m with you, I’m in awe of you, and congratulations for being a very much deserved Radio 1 Teen Hero.

Earlier in the broadcast, James explained Madison’s story, saying that she started experiencing severe anxiety three years ago. While she had been on an upswing, the pandemic lockdowns were a real setback for her. Despite her own struggles, though, Madison came up with “positivity packages,” boxes containing things like candy, fidget toys, notes of encouragement, and more, which she would mail to people having mental health difficulties. To date, she has mailed over 300 of these packages.

Check out Halsey’s message above and listen to more from the broadcast below.

Tierra Whack has had an interesting career trajectory so far. After beginning her career as a battle rapper named Dizzle Dizz, she reverted to her real name in 2017 and dropped her high-concept debut album, Whack World, in 2018. Despite a 15-minute runtime consisting of 15 one-minute songs, Whack World became a critical and commercial hit, earning Whack a placement on the 2019 XXL Freshman Class alongside soon-to-be massive stars like Cordae, DaBaby, Gunna, Megan Thee Stallion, Rico Nasty, and Roddy Ricch.

However, since then, her output has been somewhat… let’s just say “sporadic.” After releasing a string of intriguing singles in 2019, she’s restricted new releases mainly to feature verses on other artists’ songs (Willow and Janelle Monae‘s) and singles released as part of brand partnerships like “76” with the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers (her hometown team), “8” from the Madden NFL 22 soundtrack, and “Link” as part of Lego’s Rebuild The World Campaign, as well as a handful of impressive freestyles over past hits like Ludacris’ “Stand Up,” Onyx’s “Last Dayz,” and CJ’s “Whoopty.”

Earlier this week, however, she teased a new EP titled Rap? alluding to the eclectic mashup of styles she’s used on previous releases. The EP, which is apparently meant to commemorate the release of her new Vans collection, dropped today as promised, featuring three tracks: “Meagan Good,” “Millions,” and “Stand Up.” And yes, all three tracks are most certainly fantastic examples of the genre, giving Whack plenty of opportunities to showcase her rap talent.

Watch the video for “Stand Up” above, and check out the other two songs below.

A recent high school basketball game in Iowa ended with one player getting hit with a felony for attacking someone on the other team in the handshake line. Following Tuesday night’s game between Carlisle and Nevada, one Carlisle player, Carter Prenosil, hopped into the handshake line and threw several surprise punches once he met the first player on the opposing team.

Prenosil, who is 17, was arrested on Wednesday and faces a felony count of willful injury, and if convicted faces up to 10 years in prison. According to TMZ, the incident led to the opposing player getting diagnosed with a concussion and receiving four stitches due to a cut on his mouth.

“He said something during the game that Carter didn’t like so at the end, Carter went up and finished it,” one Carlisle student, JayJay Noring, told KCCI. “Which was a little way too beyond if you ask me. He didn’t have to go that far.”

In a statement, Dr. Steve Gray, the superintendent of Nevada Community School District, said that “it sounds like our student-athlete is going to be alright” and that “I’m very appreciative of the response of our coaches and players, as well as the Carlisle administration, for quickly de-escalating the situation.”

Tragedy struck last month during Travis Scott’s performance at his annual Astroworld festival. A massive crowd surge of 50,000 people left hundreds injured and ten people dead, including a nine-year-old boy. Seeing as families and friends of victims are still coping with the insurmountable loss, many thought Hulu’s decision to host a TV special titled Astroworld: Concert From Hell on their site was highly insensitive.

The 50-minute Astroworld: Concert From Hell program recapped the events that went down at the Houston festival. The description of the documentary special says it gives a “minute-by-minute look at what happened” that night: “Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival was supposed to be the concert of a lifetime. But it turned into a tragic nightmare. A minute-by-minute look at what happened in the crowd, the young victims who were killed, and what happens next.”

People on social media caught eventually caught wind of the documentary special and condemned Hulu, with one user saying it was in “poor taste.” Eventually, Hulu opted to remove it from their website completely. A spokesperson for Hulu told Variety: “This was an investigative local news special from ABC13/KTRK-TV in Houston that originally aired on November 20th. This was not a Hulu documentary and has since been removed to avoid confusion.”

Read Variety‘s full report of the TV special here.

When the list of 2022 Grammy nominees was unveiled last month, some were upset to see that Marilyn Manson had earned himself some nominations thanks to his work on the artist then known as Kanye West’s Donda. Now, though, Manson, who is currently facing multiple sexual assault and emotional abuse lawsuits, has had one of those nominations removed.

Manson was credited as a writer on Ye’s Best Rap Song nomination for “Jail.” The New York Times notes, though, that when it comes to “Jail,” Manson “is not listed among the writers on the most current version of the album.” Indeed, on Spotify right now, Manson is credited (under his real name, Brian Warner) on “Jail Pt. 2” but not on “Jail.”

That said, since Manson is still part of Donda‘s Album Of The Year nomination since he is credited on the album.

Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. was recently asked about Manson’s nominations and he explained, “We won’t restrict the people who can submit their material for consideration. We won’t look back at people’s history, we won’t look at their criminal record, we won’t look at anything other than the legality within our rules of, is this recording for this work eligible based on date and other criteria. If it is, they can submit for consideration. What we will control is our stages, our shows, our events, our red carpets. We’ll take a look at anyone who is asking to be a part of that, asking to be in attendance, and we’ll make our decisions at that point. But we’re not going to be in the business of restricting people from submitting their work for our voters to decide on.”

After highlighting Houston rappers like Erica Banks and KenTheMan, UPROXX Sessions once again plays host to a Space City spitter in RayFace, who stops through for a boastful performance of his 2020 single, “No Middle Man.”

An adherent of Houston’s long-held tradition of independently released music, RayFace founded his own record label, Self Made Music, while also running other businesses on the side. His self-released mixtapes include Underrated and Trapademic, from which he’s released a slew of self-funded music videos, including “Out The Trap” “Got To Have It” and “Tell Me Why,” the latter containing a feature from fellow self-made Houstonite Slim Thug.

Although he’s still a relative newcomer without the resources of a major-label artist, two of the videos he’s released this year have garnered over a million views on YouTube and his polished presentation suggests that he’s got all the tools he needs to build an even bigger buzz in the future.

Watch RayFace’s UPROXX Sessions performance of ‘No Middle Man’ above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

Coming into its fifth anniversary, Madrid’s Mad Cool Festival is already one of the biggest music festivals in Europe, bringing nearly 200,000 revelers to the sprawling Valdebebas urban open space venue. The initial 2022 lineup was announced in June and was heavy on the rock and roll acts with Metallica, Muse, The Killers, Imagine Dragons, Pixies, Faith No More, Twenty One Pilots, and Placebo leading the way.

They took it a step further in October adding a fifth day to the summer fest and artists like Haim, Florence + The Machine, and Nathy Peluso. Now they’ve beefed the lineup up one final time adding Jack White as the fifth day headliner and infusing the lineup with more big name acts like Stormzy, London Grammar, Modest Mouse, Two Door Cinema Club, Local Natives, and Mura Masa.

It brings the grand total to 144 artists playing across the festival’s five nights. Other artists playing on this comprehensive bill include St. Vincent, The War On Drugs, Beabadoobee, Arlo Parks, Phoebe Bridgers, Leon Bridges, Animal Collective, Tinashe, Glass Animals, Carly Rae Jepsen, Chvrches, Wolf Alice, and loads more.

Mad Cool Festival festival goes down from July 6 to 10, 2022. Tickets are on-sale here.

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

After 26 books and two movies, Jack Reacher is headed to television with his own Amazon Prime series, Reacher. However, if you’re expecting to see Tom Cruise reprising the iconic action hero, you’ve got quite the 6’3″, 250 pounds-of-muscle surprise ahead of you.

In the first trailer for Reacher, none other than hulking Smallville and Titans star Alan Ritchson has taken on the role of ex-military-man turned renegade Jack Reacher — a far cry from the more slender Cruise, who starred in the 2012 and 2016 films. According to series’ author Lee Child (via Entertainment Weekly), Amazon’s reimaging of Jack Reacher — and Ritchson’s casting in particular — is significantly more in line with how he envisioned the character looking in his stories, perfectly conveying the levels of “stillness,” “menace,” and “goodwill” the Reacher we know from the books should have.

“When I picture Reacher, let’s say you’re in a bar or restaurant, the door opens, he steps in, and the temperature in the room drops by a degree, because people think, ‘What the hell is this? Even if there’s not an immediate threat, there’s an impact. That’s what I wanted,” Child said. “This guy stepped on the screen and had this stillness and blend of menace and goodwill that is always confusing about Reacher. If he’s going to be your friend, you’re very lucky. If he’s not going to be your friend, you’re very unlucky. All of that had to be transmitted just through stance, mood, look — and Ritchson had it right away.”

Despite this first look at the series’ only clocking in at about two minutes, everything Child is saying is made abundantly clear by Ritchson’s intimidating performance in it as the character slams inmates into tiled walls and breaks more than a few bones.

In addition to Ritchson, Malcolm Goodwin (American Gangster), Kristin Kreuk (Smallville), Willa Fitzgerald (Dare Me), Chris Webster (The Most Dangerous Game), Marc Bendavid (Dark Matter), Willie C Carpenter (Brawl in Cell Block 99), Currie Graham (NYPD Blue), and Harvey Guillén (What We Do in the Shadows) are all set to star in the upcoming series, which hits Amazon Prime on February 4.

After ten years and millions of records sold, UK pop band Little Mix are stepping away from music for the time being. The band announced Thursday that they plan on taking an indefinite hiatus next year after completing their 2022 Confetti arena tour. While they clarified that it’s not an officially breakup announcement, Little Mix say they hope to “recharge and work on some other projects” instead.

Sharing the statement on social media, Little Mix wrote:

“We wanted to let you all know that after the Confetti tour in April/May next year we are going to be taking a break from Little Mix.

It’s been 10 amazing years, a wonderful non-stop adventure, and we feel the time is right to take a break so we can recharge and work on some other projects.

We can’t thank you enough for your love and never-ending support since the beginning. We love you all SO much.
We are not splitting up – Little Mix are here to stay. We have plans for more music, tours and performances in the future. We’ve made so many incredible memories with you all, and we can’t wait to make so many more. We’re sisters and we’ll always have each other and you, the fans, in our lives. Little Mix is forever.”

The news comes after many changes for Little Mix. Band member Jesy Nelson left the group last year in order to start a solo career and just dropped off a debut single featuring Nicki Minaj. On top of that, members Perrie Edwards and Leigh-Anne Pinnock just became new moms.

Find Little Mix’s announcement below.