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When Outer Wilds came out in 2019 it was a game that many people considered revolutionary. A game about exploring and learning as much information as possible before the end of the universe occurs sounds morbid, and in a lot of ways it is, but the mystery of the game is what pushed players forward. Almost everyone who played Outer Wilds had high praise for it and many have called it not just a great video game, but one of the best ever made.

However, the game of Outer Wilds was extremely self-contained with an ending that didn’t leave much room for elaboration. That’s why it was a bit of a surprise when on Thursday it was announced that the game would be receiving an expansion. Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye will release in September and it will be the only expansion the game receives. It’s time to go back and explore the universe one more time.

This creates so many questions. Does this mean there will be more worlds to explore? More story elements? Is it setting up for Outer Wilds 2, which got teased back at E3 with a cheeky trailer that had no actual info other than it was in development? Whatever the case, with a September release date, we won’t have to wait too long for it to come out. We’ll find out more when we finally get our hands on it, but for now, we can only speculate about what is going to be entering the Outer Wilds universe with this expansion.

FBoy Island: Season 1 (HBO Max series) — Hoo boy this show looks like one hot mess, and that might be exactly what you need during this slightly disastrous summer. Escape to a land where a dozen self-proclaimed “FBoys” compete against a dozen self-proclaimed “Nice Guys” for the affections of three ladies. Nikki Glaser hosts, and the show aims to answer the ultimate social experiment’s question, according to the synopsis: “Can FBoys truly reform or do Nice Guys always finish last?” (Well, one of the FBoys crushes a mango with his bicep in the show’s trailer, so this is entertainment.)

The Wine Show: Season 3 (Sundance/Acorn TV series) — Who doesn’t want to see a bunch of dashing and distinguished gentlemen — Matthew Goode, Matthew Rhys and James Purefoy — travel across Portugal to unearth the region’s best wine? There’s also an exploration of sparkling wine and other countries involved, including Thailand and Germany, and eventually there’s New York City, along with wine, wine, and more wine.

Resort To Love (Netflix film) — Christina Milian stars as a pop star who’s hired for her ex-fiancé’s wedding, which obviously sounds like a total disaster. She, of course, can’t do jack about the situation due to her current music-career meltdown. And she’s in a very precarious state, personally, while aiming not to fall back in love with her ex. Who will be getting married in this movie, exactly? We’ll see how predictable this gets.

Transformers: War for Cybertron: Kingdom: Season 1 (Netflix series) — The Autobots and Decepticons must confront rival Cybertronians that have been spawned by their conflict. There are Predacons, too, and a Golden Disk, and Megatron might now hold a distinct advantage in his rivalry against Optimus Prime. Robot drama!

Behind The Music: Season 1 (Paramount+ series) — This revival brings back the Emmy-nominated docuseries that was once so popular on VH1 and will not be updated for a new generation. Of course, one should expect the older generations of music to be showcased here because, let’s face it, music can be considered ageless. The profiled artists this season include Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, LL Cool J, and Huey Lewis, and one can expect plenty of “vault” episodes that have bene remastered and updated with fresh interviews. MTV Entertainment co-produces this series, which will stream only on Paramount+.

Dr. Death: The Undoctored Story: Season 1 (Peacock series) — In addition to Dr. Death as dramatized (and starring Joshua Jackson), this docuseries dives into just the facts as doctors attempt to stop Dr. Christopher Duntsch, the murderous surgeon.

Ultra City Smiths: Season 1 (AMC+ series) — Fans of Robot Chicken will undoubtedly want to check out this stop-motion animated selection from Stoopid Buddy Stoodios and showrunner Steve Conrad. Expect very adult-oriented humor and the voices of Kristen Bell, Dax Shepard, Alia Shawkat, Tim Meadows, John C. Reilly, Bebe Neuwirth, Jason Mantzoukas, and Damon Herriman.

Jellystone!: Season 1 (HBO Max series) — Rustle up the family for this treat of a show featuring the residents of Jellystone, including Yogi Bear, Cindy Bear, Huckleberry Hound, and all of their joyous pandemonium.

Earlier today, I wrote about how rappers in 2021 are breaking out of their comfort zones and trying new things, unconcerned with fitting archetypes or remaining stuck with one consistent sound like rappers of the past. Lil Yachty’s new song, “Love Music,” offers a perfect example. Rather than relying on the bass-heavy, bombastic trap that he’s been kicking around the last couple of years or even reverting to his early cartoon-trap styles, this song sees him going soft-rock like it’s 2005 all over again.

Naturally, the video is accompanied by a colorful video full of fluffy cotton candy clouds and six-foot sunflowers, which surround Yachty and his leading lady as they hold hands, have a picnic with Baskin Robbins, and Yachty turns into a real-life heart eyes emoji. The cutesy aesthetic is a sharp contrast to Yachty’s most recent work with the grimy grifters of the Detroit rap scene on Michigan Boy Boat, but right in line with the playful image he cultivated early in his career and still maintains with Reece’s Puffs raps and movies based on Uno.

“Love Music” is also part of a general shift in the landscape toward the sounds of the 2000s — namely pop-punk, which pervades new and upcoming releases from the likes of MGK, Willow Smith, and Young Thug. Once again, Yachty’s playing the part of trendsetter, providing the poppier counterpoint to the aggressive (but still fun) music being made by his contemporaries.

Watch Lil Yachty’s “Love Music” video above.

Gymnatics have been a big topic of interest at the 2020 Olympics for a number of reasons, and a huge event, the women’s all-around final, goes down tonight at 8 p.m. In the US, that’s airing on NBC, and now Swift has given the network an assist by doing a new ad for the broadcast.

Over footage of gymnasts training and competing, Swift says in the minute-long spot, “Life can surprise you. It can humble you. It can test you. It can inspire you. They didn’t expect this to be the story, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t ready for the spotlight. They’ve worked for this. They’ve dreamed about this. They belong here. So don’t be surprised as the story takes flight from here, in the women’s all-around in Tokyo.” The ad is also scored by an instrumental version of her Evermore title track.

Meanwhile, Justin Bieber recently offered a message of support to Simone Biles, who will not be participating in tonight’s competition after withdrawing from the event. Bieber wrote, “Nobody will ever understand the pressures you face! I know we don’t know each other but I’m so proud of the decision to withdraw. It’s as simple as — what does it mean to gain the whole world but forfeit your soul. Sometimes our no’s are more powerful than our yes’s. When what you normally love starts to steal your joy it’s important we take a step back to evaluate why. […] So proud of you @simonebiles.”

The Los Angeles Lakers are among the most active teams (that we know of) on the trade market hours before the 2021 NBA Draft. The Lakers have significant roster upgrades they would like to make around LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and with just the mid-level exception available to them in free agency and the 22nd overall pick on Thursday night, their only real options for a significant addition is through the trade market.

There’s significant buzz that Buddy Hield is a top target of the Lakers, who have reportedly put the No. 22 pick, Montrezl Harrell, and either Kyle Kuzma or Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on the table in hopes of landing the sharpshooting two-guard from Sacramento. However, the Harrell portion of that trade could be an issue, as he would have to agree to pick up his player option and forego free agency to play a year with the Kings. There’s reason to believe he might be willing to do so, as the Kings can offer him a far more significant role than he had in L.A., and his market is likely not very high this offseason due to a down year in 2020-21, but it’s certainly not a guarantee.

Without Harrell involved, the Kings might not be interested and L.A. would need to look elsewhere to offload Kuzma as they have been reportedly trying to do all offseason. The San Antonio Spurs, according to Marc Stein, are among the teams with interest in Kuzma and have approached the Lakers about figuring out a sign-and-trade to send Compton-native DeMar DeRozan back home.

Adding DeRozan, who is not a three-point shooter, to the LeBron and AD pairing isn’t necessarily ideal from a spacing perspective, but he would give them a big boost in the secondary creator department next to James. The bigger issue with this option is that being involved in a sign-and-trade would hard cap the Lakers (around $140 million) and that would significantly limit their options for filling out the rest of the roster. As such, working out a deal for Hield seems likely to be L.A.’s priority on Thursday night, but if Harrell isn’t on board and Sacramento won’t be amenable to a different package, then it’s possible that they would engage further with the Spurs to bring a third star to L.A.

During his years on SNL, Jason Sudekis likely crossed paths with frequent musical guests Foo Fighters, led by Dave “This Could Be My Penis” Grohl. But it wasn’t until Ted Lasso that he incorporated one of their songs in his work.

Sudekis told Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus on the After School Radio show that “My Hero,” the anthemic single from the band’s 1997 album The Colour and the Shape, is the “first time that I heard a song and I felt I saw a whole movie about that song. At least my interpretation of it. I’ve never spoken to Gus [Brandt] nor Dave [Grohl] or any of the guys in the band about what that song is about. Some of those themes are literally being used in season two of Ted Lasso.” He continued:

“Just the idea of false prophets or don’t meet your heroes or the idea that all statues have clay feet, I think is another example of that. People are human. I pay attention when a song becomes a muse, whether you end up using the tune or not. But yeah, I saw a beginning, middle, and end to a story in that song, for me. That was really profound at 21 years old, 22 years old, having just moved to Chicago to try this acting thing.”

The chorus for “My Hero” goes: “There goes my hero / Watch him as he goes / There goes my hero / He’s ordinary.” Your hero can be anyone — it doesn’t have to be world-famous soccer player. Unless it’s Roy Kent. Roy Kent should absolutely be your hero.

You can listen to After School Radio from the link below.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

Skepta and J Balvin fall into a black widow’s trap in their sultry, surprising video for “Nirvana.” Taken from Skepta’s upcoming EP, All In, the song features a Spanish-inflected guitar loop over which the two rappers deliver flirtatious verses to the objects of their desires. The chorus promises to take a lover “to your Nirvana” as they insist that “every day’s a celebration when you come from the Gaza.”

In the elegant-looking, KLVDR-directed video for the track, Skepta approaches a sophisticated woman during a dinner party at her mansion. While at first, there are hints of heist thrillers like Netflix’s Lupin, it turns out that Skepta is really the one getting played as his seemingly successful seduction of the lady of the house ends with him awakening imprisoned alongside J Balvin, who’s tied to a chair and looks quite distraught, implying this isn’t for fun. The video concludes with the mistress walking the halls of the opulent mansion leaving what looks suspiciously like bloodstained footprints behind her as she goes to find her next victim.

The eerie video is surprisingly the first single from the new EP, which Skepta only announced earlier this week. Titled for the British star’s newfound love of poker, it also features Kid Cudi and Nigerian rapper Teezee and drops tonight at midnight.

Watch the video for “Nirvana” above.

The Philadelphia 76ers enter Thursday night’s NBA Draft with Ben Simmons still on the roster. Despite the fact that the team has reportedly had some conversations with other franchises and views a trade as inevitable, Simmons is still with the Sixers, as nothing has materialized ahead of one of the biggest nights of the NBA’s offseason.

An issue, reports have indicated, is that Philly wants a whole heck of a lot back in exchange for their All-Star forward. One team, per Zach Harper of The Athletic, learned this the hard way, as the Cleveland Cavaliers apparently tried to gauge the Sixers’ interest in a move for Simmons and were told they’d need to part with more or less everything they have.

One question outside of a likely Mobley pick is what else they might have in store for themselves. Rumors of Collin Sexton trades are swirling. Exploring better-balanced books in the future is happening. And even kicking around a potential Ben Simmons trade for Cleveland has been discussed, as it has with many teams. League sources said brief conversations between Cleveland and Philadelphia were explored, but an asking price of every young player the Cavs value plus multiple first-round picks in the future wasn’t something they’d consider.

It’s an interesting look into Philly’s (pun intended) process here, because while there was a perception that Simmons’ value cratered during the NBA playoffs, it appears that the Sixers are indeed confident in their ability to get back something really substantial for a 25-year-old All-Star on a long-term contract. Whether or not they’re able to do this, of course, remains to be seen, but Philly seems content to wait until they get something really substantial back before making a move.

The early ’90s might have been hip-hop’s golden era but thirty years later it’s apparent we’re entering a pretty special time for the genre. As much fuss as algorithmically generated tracklists have caused over the past couple of years, the current hip-hop landscape has been more diverse, creative, and boundless than that early time when the genre was seemingly recreated with every new release.

In 2021 especially, rappers have gotten out of their comfort zones, leaving behind familiar styles and sounds to forge new paths based not on what might sell or what the cool kids are doing, but on their own whims, fantasies, and newfound levels of access. Rappers like IDK, Tyler The Creator, and Vince Staples have always worked on the side of the field just left of center, but this year, they’ve all put out music that sounds effortlessly innovative, leaving behind the bombastic sounds that made them critical darlings to take creative risks — risks that have paid off, delivering some of their best output to date.

For IDK, that innovation came on his second album, USee4Yourself, in which he again takes a microscope to a single subject, examining it from multiple angles and drilling down to determine how he really feels about it. Whereas on his breakout mixtape IWASVERYBAD that subject was the institutionalization of Black men (especially himself) and on his debut album IsHeReal? he pondered the existence of a higher power and mourned the loss of his mom, on USee4Yourself he turns the lens to relationships and romance, filtered through his recent status as a rap star.

And while he includes frequent collaborator Rico Nasty and reaches out to the mainstream with features from Offset and Young Thug, he also burrows into his own hip-hop fandom, putting Jay Electronica and MF DOOM together on “Red.” That song also features Westside Gunn, one of rap’s modern avatar’s of bars-first hip-hop, while the production, on the whole, seems to take inspiration from Gunn’s Griselda collective rather than the brash sounds that defined IDK’s earlier projects. If anything, USee4Yourself sounds like if Yeezus was actually made by a Kanye who actually cared instead of just projecting the appearance of caring (IDK vocally sounds so much like him here, I made the personal decision to swap out all the Kanye songs on all my playlists with songs from this album).

Tyler The Creator, meanwhile, takes a different — but no less effective — tack on his new album Call Me If You Get Lost. While the production combines all of Tyler’s best eras — the soulful reinvention of Igor, the reflective pop of Cherry Bomb and Flower Boy, the abrasive rap on Goblin — the subject matter finds Tyler settling into his role as a recent Grammy winner and multimillionaire, embracing rap’s classic braggadocio in place of his former rebellious shock-rap provocations. Inviting DJ Drama onto the tape to provide hyped-up ad-libs, Ty positions the album as his own entry into the Gangsta Grillz canon.

On several tracks, including the lead single “Lumberjack,” Ty points to his Rolls-Royce, finding ever more elaborate ways to both flex and juxtapose the signifier of wealth with his social status, a la The Throne’s “N****s In Paris.” In a recent interview, Tyler cited BET as the resource that taught him everything he knows; on Call Me, he finally wears that influence on his immaculately tailored sleeve, embracing the bombast of the 2000s crunk era’s fascination with garish jewelry and unfiltered gasconade. He also gets really real about feeling rejected by Black people as much as white people on the autobiographical “Massa,” challenging the expectations against him directly rather than subverting them or simply acting out as he had in the past.

Challenging expectations and sharing the grim realities of his biography were never problems Vince Staples had. Instead, he found that his unflinching confrontation of the traumas that defined his upbringing was being swallowed up by his caustic production choices. It’s no surprise that the EDM-influenced, demented, post-apocalyptic pinball machine beats on Big Fish Theory kept people from tuning all the way into what he was saying or that the alarming screech of the “Blue Suede” instrumental washed out the track’s harrowing narratives of life in gang-divided North Long Beach.

So instead, Vince challenged himself — and frequent collaborator Kenny Beats — to make something more palatable on his self-titled latest. The beats are awash in something like nostalgia — if the word “nostalgia” could ever imply the paranoia creeping through tracks like “Are You With That?” and “Sundown Town.” The placid beats and laid-back delivery are exactly what it seems like Vince would have been doing all along were commercial considerations never a factor (one senses his prior resistance to playlist-friendly material was his own form of rebellion at the thought of being a “star”). Getting away from the crazed, frenetic production that anchored his previous projects let Vince’s voice shine through.

Even Dave East, that eternally maligned avatar of millennial New York City tribalism, has found his groove working alongside soulful producer Harry Fraud on the singles from the upcoming Hoffa. East has struggled in the past, trying to wrangle mainstream expectations with his own taste, to the point where some fans on Twitter have wondered at his inability to connect with a wider audience while artists like those on Griselda seemed to garner more support by avoiding doing the same. Employing the smooth production of Harry Fraud, Dave has never sounded more comfortable than he does on “Diamonds,” “Uncle Ric,” and “Chapo.” This is what he should have been making all along, maybe.

And that seems to be the end result of all this experimentation. Although I said rappers got out of their comfort zones, perhaps the title should read they found and got into their comfort zones. Each of the above-named artists sounds more relaxed, assertive, confident, and clear-headed than they ever have, with nothing to prove and no one to impress but themselves. In trading in their trademark production or shaking loose lyrical crutches, by embracing the tactics and beliefs they once held at arm’s length, they have tapped into a new vein of creativity. The result is a gold rush of unique, engaging, progressive hip-hop that the culture could certainly use much more of — and that fans should reward with their ears.

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

Yesterday brought some unfortunate news, as ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill passed away at 72 years old. He and his band have left their mark on music, so word of Hill’s passing was tough to hear for many. To honor the late artist, Foo Fighters decided to take some time during the first show of their summer tour, last night in Cincinnati, to pay tribute.

During the show, Taylor Hawkins wore a sleeveless shirt that read, “Dusty RIP.” On top of that, the group took a moment to bust out some micro-covers of the band’s songs, including “La Grange.”

Foo Fighters have some pre-existing connections with ZZ Top. Billy Gibbons and Grohl are both involved in upcoming Queens Of The Stone Age material, as Gibbons said of the recording experience in 2019, “Dave Grohl was also taking part and he decided to have a big barbecue. So there was this interesting gathering. So, we spent one hour telling stories, great stories remembering these lovely guys [Pantera’s Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul].”

Gibbons also appeared in Foo Fighters’ Grohl-directed Sonic Highways documentary series. Years earlier, Grohl, Gibbons, and Lemmy Kilmister covered Chuck Berry’s holiday classic “Run Rudolph Run,” for the 2008 album We Wish You A Metal Xmas And A Headbanging New Year.

Check out some clips and photos from the show below.