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When scanning the music industry for the best teams and rosters, it’s hard to leave Love Renaissance out of the conversation. More commonly known as LVRN, the label is responsible for big-name artists like 6lack, Summer Walker, Shelley FKA DRAM, and Westside Boogie as well as growing acts like BRS Kash, Cruel Santino (fka Santi), Young Rog, OMB Bloodbath, and more. With that being said, there’s also a new name on the roster that’s worth paying attention to.

Eli Derby, an 18-year-old singer from Maryland, is carving out his own lane on the LVRN team. For those who follow the label close, you’ll most likely recognize his name from LVRN’s 2020 Christmas album, Home For The Holidays where Derby delivered a pristine cover of “This Christmas.” His rendition, which featured background vocals from Summer Walker, was gentle and filled with youthful spirit as he also pushed the limits for what proved to be a personal standout on Home For The Holidays.

That cover birthed an interest in Eli Derby, and from that moment on, the wait to hear what else the young singer had to offer began. Eight months later and a slight step out of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic later, Derby returned with his official debut single, “Gaslight.”

Uproxx caught up with Derby over a Zoom call for an interview where we learned more about the young singer. Where did his musical journey begin? How did it elevate? What’s next? All while learning his personal goals for the future.

I read that you used to be in your church choir when you were younger. What experiences from your time there do you feel contributed to the artist you are today?

It started off with my grandfather, whose actually a pastor. So just being in the church, I was forced to either be an usher, or play, or sing. I had to do something, they would not let me just chill or sit down, so I got active. My uncle was a drummer, so I saw him and I was like, “Wow, I want to do this.” He taught me a few things and then a couple of years later, I wanted to sing. I kind of felt like I had a voice, you know, you sing in the shower all the time and you just feel like you have a voice and if the church likes it, everybody will like it. Then my dad was like, I want you to be better than me so either you’re gonna be a singer full-time, you just can’t play drums and that be it, cause I kind of stopped wanting to sing, so he was like play piano or guitar, so I chose piano. I started playing keys in the church, singing, and drums, I was on all that.

Later, I saw Ed Sheeran performing on YouTube just watching and researching his stuff. Growing up during that time, I don’t know, for some reason I didn’t really see a lot of Black people playing guitar. So I was like, that’s how I could be different a little bit. I decided, hey, I’ll pick up the guitar and learn how to play all these instruments. So [I was playing] guitar, piano, drums, bass, and singing in church. That’s how I started making and producing my own music, playing my own stuff, and just making my own sounds and creating my own world is just me who I am, as Eli.

When does the point of focus shift from investing your time in the choir to working on your YouTube covers?

So I’ll say around 12 or 13 I really like started to take this seriously. My dad was just very, very supportive, shout out to my dad and my mom. They were very supportive of me. As a matter of fact, my mom is a singer and my dad was an actor, so they really understood what I was trying to do and saw the passion that I have for music, so it was a no-brainer. Around 12 or 13, I started performing. My dad knew a couple of people in the DMV area, which is where I’m from. So I’d perform at the late-night shows, around the clubs out there, he would sneak me in, get me out there to perform, and get me comfortable on-stage performance in general.

Speaking of your dad, at just eight years old, he would sneak you into bars to perform for people there. I imagine this helped with spotlight moments, do nerves throw you off guard nowadays and how do you stay ready for these opportunities?

Yeah, I mean there are definitely moments where the nerves kick in. I had a performance at a show like two weeks ago in DC with a couple of hundred people, the nerves definitely kicking in. I have to remember though, we all eat the same, we all sleep the same, we all look at the same sun, the same moon, the same sky. We all are human, so why would I be nervous? I’m ready for this, it’s my time. That’s all I think about.

When did you feel like things were changing for you?

Yeah, it was two moments. The first one was when I put out the Frank Ocean cover for “Close To You.” I did that one and then the next one was when I put on my original song “Love Song.” I did the studio version of it, and I mean, the girls went crazy. I just got mad DMs telling me to drop the song, drop the song. I did not think it was gonna be that crazy, it’s different when people really like your music. That’s your goal, right? But it’s just crazy to me that people actually listen to what I’m saying.

Fast-forward a bit and now LVRN is home for you. What made them the ideal place for you to start your career?

LVRN, they’re the best really. I’m 15/16 at the time I met them and I see these five successful Black guys, and it felt right. It felt like a place where I could be myself. The energy was very genuine and their taste in music and how they just operate as a tempo is not just n****s guessing, they know what they’re doing. So I think that’s made me say yeah, they’re the ones.

With the release of “Gaslight,” your first single on LVRN, what made this the perfect single to release to the world as your debut solo single?

So I wrote this song during the COVID quarantine. I definitely wanted to put out a song during that time, because then I was in and out of the studio making music. I’m seeing no touring, no performances, I’m like bet this is my time to really just hone in on this project, at the time it was like okay, we’re gonna do an EP. So I wrote a song about being gaslighted because that was a situation that happened at that time. I’m writing the song and DJ Dahi, one of the producers, sent me a sample. I go into Logic, I flip it, I put some drums to it, add a little guitar, and I’m just writing to the sh*t. The situation is about a girl I was in a relationship with, she was my best friend for years, and problems occurred and she tried to pin me against the wall as if I was in the wrong, but really she was in the wrong. So, I was researching what that really meant and I saw “gaslighting” and then a friend told me what it meant and I was like, “Oh sh*t! Gaslight!” and that’s how it came to be.

With that being said, what can you tell us about your next project?

So I got a lot of cool stuff coming out, super excited. The next single is coming out pretty soon, I’m excited about that. The third single is with a feature, but I can’t say who yet, but y’all really gonna like it. It’s a fucking vibe, it’s a vibe, it’s some R&B to the core. It’s crazy, I’m super excited.

What’s your favorite 2021 album?

Imma go with Tyler’s album, I like that one. It’s been playing on my playlist the most, I don’t know why, I think that Kanye’s was good, Drake’s album was good, but what I keep playing to is definitely Tyler. I will say, Summer Walker’s coming out with the album and I’ve heard a couple of tracks, it’s looking close.

Is there anything you’re nervous about going forward? Confidence is key, but I would assume some fears exist somewhere.

Yeah, definitely. I feel like all artists go through it whether they want to admit it or not, cause I have nothing to lose. It’s like will I be successful? Will I be big? You always have doubts in your head as an artist, will people give a f*ck? Will people listen? Will people pay attention? Will people care? A wise man said those are things you definitely want to ask yourself. It would be foolish not to ask those questions because what I’m doing is so important to me, it’s my life.

On the flip side, what are you most excited to show or do as a new and growing artist?

I want to go on tour, I want to be a touring artist. That’s a flex because to say I wake up every morning, go to a different city for n****s to scream my music that I make is a fucking flex. So I feel like once it gets to that, it’s gonna be over. I’m a performer to the core, it all stems from church, right? If you can get people in church to get up off their feet, clap their hands, and sing with you? Church is very cut-throat, they won’t tell you this, but church is cut-throat. If you’re not good, they will boot you off, they will take the mic from you, they will give it to somebody who’s better. I’m a performer to the core, I dance, sing, play piano, guitar, all that sh*t, I just entertain. I think when I go on tour it’s gonna be crazy.

With less than two months left in 2021, what are your remaining goals for the year?

I want to get a couple more performances in. I may be going to London next month to do a show out there, that would be dope hopefully I’ll get to do that. Just really perform like, I know when the music sh*t goes crazy, I want it to be like, I’ve been doing so it’s nothing new.

As new fans discover your music and join you on this journey, what’s one thing you want them to know?

Everything I write is from me, the music you hear I produce or helped produce. It’s all from me as a person. I don’t cap about what I talk about, and it’s soulful. With this generation it’s good, but I feel like there’s missing something. I feel like that’s what I bring to the table.

Juliette Lewis knows a thing or two about how things work in Hollywood. She’s regularly appeared in films and on TV since the late 1980s before really taking off in the early 1990s with a run of movies that included Kalifornia, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, and Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers. On the note of that last movie, however, Juliette has revealed that the production was a grueling one. She made that declaration while expressing solidarity with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). The union is currently at the bargaining table regarding working conditions for crew members, and President Matthew Loeb is promising that, if an agreement isn’t reached, 60,000 film and TV workers will strike on Monday, October 18.

While detailing her support for the IATSE, Juliette took to Instagram, where she revealed that 15-17 hour work days are customary for actors, and she’d like for her colleagues to speak up, too. Her main point, though, is that crew members work even longer hours, which means that they’ve got things rougher (and for lower pay) than talent does. Juliette revealed that she was conditioned as a teenager “to never take a sick day off, or it would cost tens of thousands of dollars. And you’d be labeled ‘problematic.’” This led to her working while having the flu and migraines and “through walking pneumonia on Natural Born Killers for two weeks where I thought I might die.”

All of this, Juliette says, illustrates how Hollywood productions don’t allow for adjusting schedules “to accommodate a person’s health.” Here’s more of her lengthy rant on why actors should stand up for those crew members who make their jobs possible:

“I am actually thankful for this worth ethic it’s served me in many areas of my life but I am an actor so when I think of the crew who shows up hours before actors do and leaves hours after actors do and are asked to work miracles daily that’s a whole other story that goes beyond a soldier like worth ethic and that’s why all you have to do is read some of the stories you see people dying behind the wheel… Every actor should be standing up for their crews and talk about how we’ve worked in asbestos filled totally unsafe uninhabitable environments to get the shot and because they were cheap to rent out and got permits on that.”

Juliette stresses how crew members frequently show up hours before actors do and leave hours later, so that the stars may shine. They do so without SAG protections, too, so there’s no 12-hour turnaround protection as the actors receive. You can read her full Instagram post below, in addition to a very simple (and forthright) message of support from Samuel L. Jackson, who dropped a “#fuckaroundandfindout.”

Throughout her initial rise to stardom, Cardi B was one of music’s most outspoken voices, from developing a friendship with Bernie Sanders to calling out injustices on social media, but lately, she hasn’t addressed current events or politics quite as much. When a fan asked why she stopped talking about politics as much, Cardi’s heartbreaking response made perfect sense.

“I was tired of getting bullied by the republicans and also getting bashed by the same people I was standing up for,” she replied, referring to the outsized backlash she received for many of her political statements. By aligning herself with Bernie Sanders, she became a favored target for conservative commentators, who also took to criticizing her music and performances, even as they ignored plenty of other rappers whose music was even raunchier than hers. However, also receiving criticism on her opinions from the other side of the aisle seemingly took its toll, as well.

As if to prove the point, one commenter posited their own cruel reasoning behind the two-sided backlash: “cus you sound like you’re slow when you talk and it was ruining everything.” Cardi had the perfect response, though, pointing out that “It was the only way YOU would of understand me.” Cardi’s down-to-earth explanations, which always came from her, may have been unpolished, but by no means is she out of her depth; Cardi’s AP History teacher pointed out that the rapper was an A-student, despite her freewheeling approach to grammar on Twitter.

Over the past year, Peppa Pig — the titular animated character from the long-running children’s TV show — has been involved in a surprising amount of music porks beefs. Back in December, Cardi B expressed frustration with how Peppa was influencing Kulture to want to jump in puddles, since that’s a pastime in which Peppa often indulges. Just last month, the Peppa Pig Twitter account went at Kanye West to brag about getting a higher album review score from Pitchfork than West did with Donda.

Recently, it was Adele’s turn for a barnyard brawl. Fortunately, the situation has been amicably resolved.

During a recent livestream, Adele was asked if she’d collaborate with Peppa, and she answered emphatically, “No!” Peppa responded on Twitter with a GIF of her hanging up a phone (which comes from this hilarious scene, by the way).

Fast-forward to his morning, when Adele was doing an interview with Capital FM. During the chat, the hosts brought up the Peppa situation and then played a message from Peppa herself, much to Adele’s surprise. Peppa said, “Hello, Adele! That made me really, really sad when you said you wouldn’t collaborate with me. Why not? Don’t you like me?”

Adele’s first response was to question the authenticity of the voice (Peppa has been voiced by multiple actors over the show’s run). She said, “Is that the real nowadays Peppa? First of all, babes: Peppa, that ain’t the one of you I know. That’s not the same voice as the one I grew up with my son. But Peppa, I’ve already said today: I regret it. I spent three years watching you. I really regret it, and any time you want to go jumping in muddy puddles and sing in muddy puddles, I’m with you, babes. I felt terrible the second I said it.”

Adele referred to an interview with Hits Radio from earlier in the morning. During that conversation, Peppa was also mentioned, and Adele said of the situation, “I felt terrible because I watched Peppa Pig every day for three years when my kid was younger. […] Peppa, I’ll always do a duet with you, babes. Love ya!”

If Peppa does end up getting an Adele collab, she’d be in rare company, as Adele doesn’t have many guests on her upcoming album, 30.

This story was originally shared on Capital One.

Inside the walls of her kitchen at her childhood home in Guatemala, Evelyn Klohr, the founder of a Washington, D.C.-area bakery called Kakeshionista, was taught a lesson that remains central to her business operations today.

“Baking cakes gave me the confidence to believe in my own brand and now I put my heart into giving my customers something they’ll enjoy eating,” Klohr said.

While driven to launch her own baking business, pursuing a dream in the culinary arts was economically challenging for Klohr. In the United States, culinary schools can open doors to future careers, but the cost of entry can be upwards of $36,000 a year.

Through a friend, Klohr learned about La Cocina VA, a nonprofit dedicated to providing job training and entrepreneurship development services at a training facility in the Washington, D.C-area.

La Cocina VA’s, which translates to “the kitchen” in Spanish, offers its Bilingual Culinary Training program to prepare low-and moderate-income individuals from diverse backgrounds to launch careers in the food industry.

That program gave Klohr the ability to fully immerse herself in the baking industry within a professional kitchen facility and receive training in an array of subjects including culinary skills, food safety, career development and English language classes.

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Photo courtesy of Capital One

The organization also offers participants the opportunity to enroll in its Culinary Small Business Incubator, a 9-week training course that teaches participants to create and scale their own food-based startups.

During that program, LA Cocina VA provides participants with support for developing the internal operations of their businesses and provides a shared kitchen for community members to rent space at affordable rates.

Patricia Funegra, who founded La Cocina VA in 2014, said that helping people like Klohr is exactly why she wanted to create the incubator.

“I have firsthand experience of the difficulties of being an immigrant and person of color in America,” said Funegra. “At the same time, I also know the enormous opportunities that exist here to improve people’s lives.”

With the help of funding from Capital One, the center has been able to support 160 participants since opening with roughly 85% of graduates being hired for jobs in the food industry upon completion.

La Cocina VA also received support from Capital One’s Community Finance team as it provided financing for the construction of Gilliam Place, an affordable housing unit in which La Cocina VA moved its operations into in 2020.

After moving into Gilliam Place, Funegra launched the Zero Barriers Training and Entrepreneurship Center, a hub for startup founders that includes a kitchen incubator and a community cafe to provide workforce development opportunities for residents.

That support comes as part of the Capital One Impact Initiative, a multi-million dollar commitment to support growth in underserved communities and advance socioeconomic mobility by closing gaps in equity and opportunity.

La Cocina VA students also worked alongside Capital One Cafe ambassadors to learn skills in management and personal finance.

Photo courtesy of Capital One

“The COVID-19 pandemic forced entrepreneurs, especially people of color and immigrants, to shift their entire business models just to survive,” said Emilia Lopez, the Senior Vice President of US Card Customer Resiliency, who serves on La Cocina VA’s Board of Directors. “As a La Cocina VA board member, I am proud of the commitment and support Capital One provides La Cocina VA and thankful for their effort this past year to help entrepreneurs quickly adapt their businesses to support alternative dining options.”

La Cocina VA is also in constant communication with employers, partners, hotels and restaurants to make them aware of their pipeline of graduates.

“La Cocina VA taught me not just the physical work that goes into baking and cooking but also how to have a good understanding to mentally and financially launch my business,” said Klohr. “They’re helping me make those connections and I know they’ll always have my back.”

As the NBA season approaches and the preseason comes to an end, we’ll be taking a look at the player on each team that holds the key to unlocking their full potential.

For the Denver Nuggets, the goal is to breakthrough in the loaded Western Conference after one conference finals and two conference semifinal trips in the last three seasons. They have the reigning MVP in Nikola Jokic and, at some point, hope to have Jamal Murray back at full strength later in the season. Murray’s health coming back from an ACL tear and when he can return is a considerable question mark, but assuming he is back for the playoffs and back to his usual self, then so much of the Nuggets hopes of rising above the rest of the West’s elite falls on the shoulders of Michael Porter Jr.

Last season saw MPJ breakout to the tune of 19 points and 7.3 rebounds per game on 54.2/44.5/79.1 shooting splits, as he put his considerable scoring talent on display from all areas of the floor. The next step for Porter Jr. to take is being able to more consistently impact games in a positive way, whether he’s scoring a lot or not. Part of that is being more steady as a scorer. He can be a bit streaky, and when Murray returns and takes away a few more touches per game, it will be even more important for him to be able to stay engaged and be able to be a consistent contributor in big games, not just serving as a microwave who can heat up and go on a personal 10-0 run. Porter Jr. is certainly capable of making that leap, but it’s the step in his development at the NBA level that will determine if this year he can be that third star to elevate Denver above the rest of the West’s elite.

On top of continuing to harness his considerable offensive talent, there is still work to do defensively to avoid the lapses that have at times driven coach Michael Malone mad. MPJ can get caught ball-watching and isn’t always as crisp with his rotations as he needs to be, and the attention to detail as a team defender — because the flashes are there as an on-ball defender given his length — is the type of thing that separates real contenders. He’s not alone in that regard in Denver, but given his stature as a hopeful superstar, taking that step into being even a neutral team defender, much less anything of a positive, would be a significant gain for the Nuggets.

The talent is there for the Nuggets, it’s about how it all fits together and whether they have enough balance on both ends of the floor to overtake teams like the Lakers and Suns, but if Porter Jr. continues his ascension into the superstar level, there is a real chance for them to cause anyone problems.

Dom Kennedy is back, bringing former Drake co-writer Quentin Miller along in the new video for “Don’t Walk Away.” The West Coast summertime stalwart returned with a smooth new album of low-key luxury lifestyle lyrics, From The Westside With Love Three. As usual, Hit-Boy provides production, sampling the 2000 DJ Quik and Sugafree single “Don’t Walk Away” for a mellow, breezy jam over which Dom and Quentin brag about their accomplishments and possessions.

The video finds the two rappers throwing a laid-back get-together after-hours at Honey’s Kettle Chicken in LA (which I will never forgive for moving out of my beloved Compton). As some lady friends hang out, dance, and eat in the front of the shop, the fellas convene for a private card game at a secondary location. Dom also shows off his Porsche collection outside a garage, soaking up the LA sunshine.

Kennedy has experienced something of a resurgence in recent years, regaining momentum from his Yellow Tape era thanks to his partnership with Hit-Boy. From The Westside Three is his third album in as many years, and on each, he’s sounded revitalized, rapping with fervor and grace we haven’t heard from him in nearly a decade. Wherever this new burst of inspiration came from, let’s all hope it remains consistent because the blog-era favorite deserves this success.

Watch Dom Kennedy’s breezy “Don’t Walk Away” video with Quentin Miller above.

From The Westside With Love Three is out now via The OPM Company. Get it here.

As evidenced by his current work in The Card Counter, Scenes from a Marriage, and the soon-to-be-released Dune, Oscar Isaac is easily one of the busiest actors in Hollywood right now. And, yet, even after coming off his role as Poe Dameron in the latest Star Wars trilogy, Isaac had no idea what he was getting into when he signed on to Marvel’s Moon Knight series for Disney+.

While sitting down with Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast, the actor opened up about joining the Marvel machine (officially, X-Men: Apocalypse doesn’t count) and how he found a willing collaborator in Marvel Studio head Kevin Feige. Isaac also found a production schedule like nothing he’d ever seen before. Via Variety:

“Speaking with Kevin [Feige], I told him I’m going to come in with these big ideas, and if you don’t like them, that’s fair,” he says. “And immediately, we saw it all. I found so much room to do things that I’ve never done before and had been curious about and wanting to do. I could not wait to get to set, and it was the biggest workload I’ve ever had in my career and most challenging; by the sheer amount of stuff we had to do in eight months, and even yet, I couldn’t wait to get to set and work.”

Insane workload aside, Isaac is loving what Marvel is doing with Moon Knight, and so is his fellow actor Ethan Hawke who joined the series after Isaac personally asked him to come aboard when the two ran into each other at a local coffee shop. Despite his previous criticisms of superhero films, Hawke was caught off-guard by how great it was to work with Marvel.

“They’re extremely active, friendly,” Hawke told The Wrap. “They do good world-building and create space for actors. If you want to play, they want you to play.”

(Via Variety)

When your job security means not getting kicked off a platform somewhat notorious for dishing out bans, it’s always nice to have a back-up plan. Luckily for Addison Rae, the TikTok star-turned-actress had just signed a multi-picture deal with Netflix when she received word her TikTok account had been “permanently banned due to multiple violations” of the service’s Community Guidelines. Last night, Rae announced the ban to her fans by sharing a screenshot of the message on Twitter, along with the cheeky caption ,”Well time to get a job,” poking fun at all of those who have mocked the 20-year old’s online career.

While the ban has since been reversed and Rae is back to creating content for her over 85 million TikTok followers, the news came as a bit of a shock to the TikTok community. Since joining TikTok back in July 2019, Rae has become one of the platform’s most popular content creators through posting cute and catchy dance videos, ultimately helping to popularize the app.

Since then, Rae has gone on to both act and write music, starring in the Netflix film He’s All That (a reboot of the 1999 teen comedy She’s All That), as well as releasing her first single, “Obsessed,” which was just nominated for an award at 2021 MTV Movie and TV Awards. While it’s clear the star wouldn’t be hurting without her TikTok (she currently sits at 4.8 million followers on Twitter and 40.1 million on Twitter), we’re sure both Rae and TikTok are glad to see her staying on the platform.

Ultimately, neither Rae nor TikTok have confirmed why the rising star was (temporarily) permanently banned, though fans on Twitter were quick to speculate as to what could have happened. The most likely culprit seems to be the video below, in which Rae show’s off her side profile in a somewhat fitted dress while popping her hip. Seeing as TikTok is quick to remove any material deemed remotely “sexual” in nature, it seems a likely theory.

TikTok has come under fire multiple times for their quick-to-ban policy regarding women showing their bodies in any capacity, especially when it comes to women of color and women who are plus size. Here’s hoping Rae’s reversal means the platform might start looking into other cases with more discernment.

It’s been well over a year since Animal Crossing: New Horizons became the most important game of 2020. With everyone quarantining inside amid the COVID-19 pandemic and looking for something to do, we were all blessed to have a new Animal Crossing hit the Nintendo Switch. Of course, with a sense of normalcy returning to everyday life thanks to the vaccines that have offered up protection against the virus, many people have left their towns behind.

A big part of what made people stop playing Animal Crossing, though, was the lack of stuff to do after playing it as much as we all did. The game started to feel very scarce in content, especially compared to previous games in the series. However, after Friday’s Animal Crossing-focused Nintendo Direct, we now know that it won’t be that way for much longer. A whole host of free content is being added to the game on Nov. 5, and on top of that, some paid DLC is on the way as well to give players even more to do.

Now that we have a date for when new content is coming to the game, many of us are going to go back to our towns so we can get it back into shape before the big update. With so much coming that it might feel overwhelming, here are the parts of the update and DLC that we’re the most excited about.

A shopping district

After introducing a shopping district in City Folk and New Leaf, the lack of a place to go get all the items we need in New Horizons was honestly a bummer. Sure, it was nice when we found out that Leif or Kicks was in town, but the lack of consistency was always really frustrating.

With the new update, everyone is going to be available at one central location on Harv’s Island. Having a singular location that you can go and get our shopping done will be wonderful, because it will allow them to be a little more impulsive. There’s nothing more frustrating than deciding you want to do some landscaping only to find out that Leif isn’t in town, or you’re making changes to our home and need new carpets from Saharah. Now, that’s no longer a problem.

Brewster and The Roost

Maybe some people aren’t going to care that now they can go to a coffee shop and hang out, but personally, that has always been one of the best parts of the series. It’s always fun to go down, grab a cup, and hang out with Brewster at his coffee shop The Roost. They even had other Animals on the island come in to grab some coffee in later games, which sometimes led to unique interactions. It adds something that’s always been very important to the series: charm. The charm of The Roost adds so much to the island even if you don’t spend every day there.

More villager interactions

The best part of Animal Crossing is interacting with the villagers. Getting to hear the quirky things they say, witnessing how they talk to each other, and listening to them gossip is an essential part of the experience. Unfortunately, the villagers in New Horizons felt extremely flat at times, with most of them getting tired of talking to you after only a few discussions. Conversations felt repetitive and it started to feel like the villagers were more there to be seen than interacted with. Thankfully, this update is adding more interactions with those villagers, such as the ability to take photos with them and the option to invite villagers over to your home. This little bit of interactivity has been sorely missing in New Horizons and it’s nice to see it coming back in the update.

Happy Home Paradise

While the first half of the Direct was about the free update, the latter half was about new paid DLC coming called Happy Home Paradise. This DLC is cool because it’s essentially a sequel to Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. The player will be able to go design a dream vacation home for villagers that are not only on their own island, but across the entire series. They can even use Amiibo cards/figures to design the homes for specific characters of our choosing. Then, after playing long enough, they can redesign the homes of their own villagers on their own islands. While the DLC is $25, it seems like a lot of content for what is essentially its own game by itself. That’s a steal.

New islands to explore

For anyone that’s gotten tired of the randomized islands that they can fly to, there is now a new set of randomized islands that Kapp’n can take them to. These islands are unique because they can be in different seasons, times of day, and seem more unique than the typical ones they visit. This is great, because some people put down New Horizons for a bit and missed out on the chance to experience alternative seasons. With these new islands, players can experience the different times of the year in New Horizons without having to mess with the clock.