It’s been about two weeks since Doja Cat dropped her astrology-inspired “You Right” video featuring The Weeknd, a track off her otherwordly Planet Her album. The singer has now shared some behind-the-scenes footage of the shoot where, true to the video’s theme, Doja researches her astrology sign. In doing so, Doja finds out that she’s apparently very comparable with Paul Rudd.
The behind-the-scenes footage opens with Doja calling up her mom to find out the exact time she was born, a crucial piece of information needed for finding out an astrology birth chart. Doja’s birth chart describes her as “committed and assertive,” to which she responds, “Oh. This is about me being a b*tch.”
Using the same app, Doja looks up Paul Rudd’s birth chart to see if they are compatible. Doja reads off the results: “Right away, Paul might have seemed familiar, like you two were close friends or family in a past life. This sense of shared history creates an ease of comfort between you and a deep sense of immediate trust. It’s like Paul’s the kind of friend you can let down you guard with, you can be yourself with.” The singer then mentions, “I’ve never met this guy, but that’s very weird because his demeanor is very much like my family, which is very strange.”
Doja then checks her compatibility with Beyonce, which is apparently her “strongest connection.” The app says the two musicians would make “incredible allies,” and Doja seems to agree.
Soccer Mommy (aka Sophie Allison) upped her clout in the music world with her 2020 album Color Theory, a sophomore effort that became a critical- and fan-favorite. There’s no word yet on when a follow-up might arrive, but Allison did share some new music today, a song called “Rom Com 2004.”
The song was produced by BJ Burton, who is known for his work with artists like Bon Iver, Charli XCX, Chance The Rapper, and many others. Allison says of the track, “I wrote this song a while back and made a poppy demo for it. Then I told BJ to destroy it.”
Based on how Allison described the creation of the song, the result makes sense. For a lot of the track, it sounds like one of the breezy, poppy tunes from one of her last two albums, but there are times when it sounds like the device used to play the track is malfunctioning, resulting in some dissonance that keeps you on your toes and wondering what’s going to happen next.
The song arrives with an appropriately glitched-out visual, which features a Nintendo Mii-like representation of Allison adventuring through a city and encountering all sorts of madness.
DDG is having a breakout year/month/week. His recent shift toward music from vlogging can definitely be considered a success after his Die 4 Respect mixtape with OG Parker charted on the Billboard 200 and its single “Moonwalking in Calabasas” was certified Platinum by the RIAA. Those feats were followed up by his selection to the 2021 XXL Freshman class and this week, Uproxx debuted our digital cover story profiling his journey from working at TJ Maxx in Pontiac to making five-figure checks from YouTube to his current hip-hop stardom.
Today, he caps all that off with a performance of his latest Die 4 Respect single “Hood Melody” for UPROXX Sessions, projecting the calm confidence befitting of a burgeoning star. Along with his XXL Cypher, it’s a glimpse at a surprisingly polished performer who is taking the craft seriously, even as he continues to expand his interests into even more areas like acting and amateur boxing.
Watch DDG perform “Hood Melody” for UPROXX Sessions 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 Sessionsis a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.
Bradley Beal’s dreams of participating in the 2020 Summer Olympics appear to be on the verge of ending. According to a report by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, USA Basketball is looking for someone who can take a spot on the roster from Beal, who entered health and safety protocols on Wednesday.
USA Basketball is working to replace guard Bradley Beal on the team’s Olympic roster ahead of trip to Japan, sources tell ESPN. Beal entered into health and safety protocols.
This would be an absolutely brutal blow for Beal, who figured to play a major role for the Americans as they looked to win their fourth consecutive gold medal. It is unclear if he entered the protocols because he tested positive for COVID-19 or was just a close contact of someone who did, nor is it clear if a similar fate will befall Jerami Grant, who reportedly had the same thing happen to him on Thursday.
The question, should Beal need to be replaced, is whether or not the organization tries to get another guard to fill his role — Cleveland Cavaliers youngster Darius Garland, a Select Team member who has been with the team in recent days while they wait for their players that are still participating in the NBA Finals, would be a snug fit — or if they look to address their relative lack of size by adding someone who can play big man and go up against the likes of France’s Rudy Gobert. The team has a little time to make a decision, as their first game will take place on July 25 against Gobert and the French.
Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox are far from shy about their relationship. The two made out on the red carpet, recently had less-than-glamorous ayahuasca trip, and Fox even had some choice words for those criticizing their age gap: “Go f*ck yourself.” Though the two officially met on set of a film, Kelly recently admitted that he had been crushing on Fox for several years.
In a cover interview with GQ, Kelly sat down with a writer who published his first-ever profile in their high school newspaper. During their conversation, Kelly talked about his rise to fame, his decision to pivot to pop-punk, and, of course, his headline-making relationship with Fox. Kelly even admitted that he had a poster of Fox plastered on his teenage bedroom wall, and someone from their high school remembers him vowing to marry her one day. “It was from her GQ shoot,” he said after confirming the details with Fox. “So that’s some full-circle sh*t.”
Kelly is now known for his eccentric style, but when he was growing up, he took inspiration from any and all media he consumed. “My guidance came from who was talking to me in my headphones and who I was watching on TV. The neighborhoods I was hanging in, the people I was around, those were my influences, those were my parents, those were my guidances,” he continued in the GQ interview. “I had to be whatever I was seeing on TV. I will never forget when I saw American Gangster in theaters, with Denzel Washington. I immediately went to my boss.… I borrowed his fur coat and I borrowed his suit…and swore to God that I was Frank Lucas. A week later I would see Travis Barker in a music video and I would be in a T-shirt with a purple tie over it and some baggy JNCO jeans.”
The last time we got a new BadBadNotGood album was 2016, when the Canadian jazz group dropped IV. Now, they’re coming back with a new one: Talk Memory is set for release on October 8 and will be their first release through XL Recordings in partnership with Innovative Leisure. The cover art, by the way, was created by Virgil Abloh’s design firm Alaska-Alaska. The news is accompanied by the single “Signal From The Noise,” a nine-minute single that combines elements of ambient, jazz, and electronic music.
The band says of the album, “It took a year or two of just living life to get to the place where the creative process was exciting again and once we actually went in to the studio it was the most concise recording and writing process we’ve ever had. We hope that the improvised studio performances bring the listener closer to our live experience.”
Listen to “Signal From The Noise” above and find the Talk Memory art and tracklist below.
XL Recordings
1. “Signal From The Noise”
2. “Unfolding (Momentum 73)” Feat. Laraajii
3. “City of Mirrors” Feat. Arthur Verocai
4. “Beside April” Feat. Karriem Riggins and Arthur Verocai
5. “Love Proceeding” Feat. Arthur Verocai
6. “Open Channels”
7. “Timid, Intimidating”
8. “Beside April Reprise” Feat. Arthur Verocai
9. “Talk Meaning” Feat. Arthur Verocai, Terrace Martin, and Brandee Younger
Talk Memory is out 10/8 via XL Recordings. Pre-order it here.
WARNING: Spoilers for the Loki season one finale below.
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After Loki Episode 2 dropped, series director Kate Herron revealed that Miss Minutes, the talking cartoon clock who, at the time, seemed like just a friendly information mascot for the Time Variance Authority was in for an “interesting” character journey. As the series went on, Miss Minutes didn’t seem to do too much, but in Episode 5, Journey into Mystery, she is shown to be a clever cog in the TVA machine as she secretly arranges for Minutemen to swarm Sylvie (Sophia Di Martina) at the behest of Judge Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). Again, nothing revelatory, but then things go wild in the season finale.
With a jump scare that still has folks reeling, Miss Minutes swings open the door to the Citadel and reveals that she’s been working with Kang/He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) the whole time as she tries to persuade Loki and Sylvie to take a deal to save the Sacred Timeline. When they refuse the anger, we see a flash of anger from Miss Minutes, which shows that she’s more sentient than anyone imagined.
In a new interview, Herron and head writer Michael Waldron reveal that keeping Miss Minutes around and making her a part of Kang’s plot was something they all agreed right out of the gate. Via Marvel:
“Early on in the scripts, we all were definitely united on, ‘We’ve got to keep Miss Minutes in the story somehow,’” director Kate Herron tells Marvel.com.
“She was a really fun way to deliver some pretty heady exposition,” head writer Michael Waldron adds. “There’s something sing-songy and sort of non-threatening about [the way she talks]. But yet, when it turns, and when she becomes evil, suddenly it’s really scary.
At one point, Miss Minutes was going to engage in a fight scene in the Citadel, but that never made it into the final episode. As for voicing the character, animation veteran Tara Strong took an unusual approach by recording the lines over video chat and reacting to the episodes in real time. According to Strong, it was a blast to see Miss Minutes evolve from “cutesy little stuff” and “exposition” to an integral part of the story.
“It was so much fun to play her angry after starting at this place of very cute and cautious of how much you know about her, to finally let her emotions really come out and be furious that Loki’s messed up the timeline so much, and she’s so angry about it,” Strong said. “It’s just fun to unleash and play her to this next level in this maximum capacity.”
With Loki Season 2 officially announced, hopefully, the Citadel won’t be the last place that we see Miss Minutes turn up.
For the second day in a row, a member of the group the United States plans to send to Tokyo to participate in the Summer Olympics has been placed in health and safety protocols due to a COVID-19 scare. Bradley Beal received word of his need to enter the protocols during his stint in Las Vegas with Team USA on Wednesday, and on Thursday, Jerami Grant learned he’ll have to do the same.
The news was broken by Shams Charania and Joe Vardon of The Athletic. While there is no word about how this impacts his availability for the Olympics, Charania did note that Grant did not test positive for the novel coronavirus.
Team USA’s Jerami Grant has entered health and safety protocols at Team USA camp, sources tell me and @joevardon. Grant has not tested positive for coronavirus. He and Bradley Beal are in protocols in Las Vegas.
Grant would be a gigantic loss for the United States, which already suffered from a general lack of frontcourt bodies ahead of the Games. A member of the team following a career-best season with the Detroit Pistons, Grant played 17 minutes in the tune-up game against Nigeria, started and played 13 minutes against Australia, and saw eight minutes of action in the team’s 28-point win over Argentina.
Should Grant not be able to take the floor, the United States would be left with Bam Adebayo, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, Kevin Love, and Jayson Tatum as its primary frontcourt options. The team is slated to begin Olympic play on July 25 against France.
We’re willing to bet that the ten best-selling Scotch whisky brands in the world will surprise you. Hell, a lot of these brands surprised us (except for number one, but more on that later). When you look at the actual numbers of cases of alcohol sold globally, many seemingly popular (and unarguably beloved) Scotch whisky brands don’t even register in the top 150, much less crack the top ten scotch whiskies sold.
Though single malts dominate the awards circuit and conversation among aficionados, not one single malt brand breaks into the top ten best-selling scotches. The top-selling single malt is Glenfiddich, which would have ranked 19th on this list (and ranks 133rd overall among spirits sold). The fact of the matter? When it comes to cases produced and purchased, blended Scotch whisky reigns supreme.
For clarity, this list of the top ten best-selling Scotch whisky brands comes from The Spirits Business‘ annual report of cases sold globally in 2020. When they say “brand,” they mean a specific brand from a company that likely has dozens of whisky distilleries/shingles/brands in their portfolio. Some brands make multiple expressions; others just make one — making this number interesting but certainly not a 1:1 representation of the most purchased bottles on earth.
To go a little deeper than just listing each brand and their sales numbers, we’re also calling out the one expression from that brand we think is most worth trying — though not all of them are and we’ll point out which ones to flat out skip. If any of these bottles interest you, make sure to click on the prices to give them a shot. You never know, you might find a new favorite.
J&B is a back bar mainstay. This old-school blend became hugely popular in the U.S. after Prohibition and still sits on most American bar shelves to this day, though often just collecting dust. The juice is a mix of 42 single grains and single malts that lean heavily into Speyside whiskies.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is malty with a flourish of orange zest next to cedar bark and sweet, buttery toffee. That sweetness carries and folds in fatty nuts and a bit of red fruit. The oak and spice kick in late as the sip fades fairly quickly while warming you up.
Bottom Line:
Your mind might play a trick on you as this can actually taste dusty sometimes. That being said, this is perfectly fine scotch if you’re looking for a mixer or highball candidate or something to bury in a big bowl of summer punch.
The heart of Dewar’s is Aberfeldy whisky. This blend is a testament to Master Blender Stephanie MacLeod’s prowess in bringing good whisky together to make great whisky. The juices are aged for 18 long years in American oak before they’re vatted into a large oak tun and allowed to rest before proofing and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
There’s that signature Aberfeldy honey on the nose with hints of almonds, stone fruits, and red berries. The palate dials all of this in with a marzipan vibe next to more honey, bruised apricot skins, and dark chocolate-covered red berries. The end is soft, silky, and brings a final bite of sweet oak with a slight tobacco chew.
Bottom Line:
This is a truly masterful blend from a classic blending house. This whisky serves as a great neat or on the rocks pour that isn’t overly expensive. It’s also fairly findable in the U.S., both at bars and liquor stores.
Label 5 is a bottle of simple whisky you’ll find mostly around continental Europe. It’s a rail bottle (cheap shots, mixer, etc.), so it’s no surprise that it’s one of the best selling in the world. The actual juice focuses on Speyside grain and malt whiskies, each around three years old.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is slightly bourbon-esque with vanilla, spice, and toffee sweetness. The palate is full of very sweet caramel apples with a citrus twist. The citrus helps usher in the quick end with a touch of alcohol warmth.
Bottom Line:
This is a middle-of-the-road mixing whisky in Europe that costs about $15 at retail. I wouldn’t even bother looking for it in the U.S.
7. William Peel (2.8 million cases) — William Peel Finest Old Blended Scotch Whisky
This is another whisky that’s really popular behind bars in Western Europe, especially France. The whisky is a blend of 18 single grain and single malts.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a typical balance of sweet apple candy with a hint of caramel next to warm and slightly dry malts. The sip is short, sweet, malty, and will leave you with a mild metallic note at the end.
Bottom Line:
This is, again, a bar mixer you’re only going to see in dive bars in France, Germany, Belgium, and a few other spots around Western Europe. Again, don’t bother even looking for this in the U.S. There are tons of perfectly good bottles of blended scotch already on your corner liquor store shelves.
6. Black & White (2.9 million cases) — Black & White Blended Scotch Whisky
Good ol’ Black & White. This used to be Dean “The King of Cool” Martin’s go-to whiskey — so there’s a bit of panache that still goes with drinking this stuff. The black and white dogs on the label have become damn near synonymous with whisky in the U.K. to this day. The juice leans into Speyside grain whisky more than malt and is pretty damn dialed in.
Tasting Notes:
The bready grains come through with a note of lemon curd and a wisp of smoke. The lemon carries on and is married with a Christmas cake spice and caramel sweetness in the body of the sip. The end is short and sweet both literally and figuratively.
Bottom Line:
While this is a throwback, it does have its charms. It’s super easy drinking, has two cute dogs on the label (our hearts aren’t made of stone), and, while it feels like it’s from a different era, it’s still a solid sipper in a highball.
5. Chivas Regal (3.2 million cases) — Chivas Regal 18
Chivas 18 is the brand’s signature high-end blend. The juice is built around a specially made Strathisla 18 single malt. That juice is supported by 20 other single malts from around Scotland with various casking processes.
Tasting Notes:
Imagine a bar of bespoke dark chocolate from a really fancy-schmancy shop that’s been bespeckled with dried berries — blackberry, blueberry, raspberry — on the nose, plus a rich and very buttery toffee that draws you in closer. The palate holds onto that chocolate bar while adding in dry rose pedals with a slight singe, creating a whisper of sweet and fragrant smoke. The end builds on that floral and bitter chocolate note as it very slowly fades away while warming your soul.
Bottom Line:
You should already have a bottle of this on your bar cart. This is an excellent whisky that’s blended to really shine on the rocks inside of your favorite whisky glass.
4. William Lawson’s (3.3 million cases) — William Lawson’s Blended Scotch Whisky
This scotch is hugely popular in the Central and South American markets. Bacardi has especially been pushing the stuff in Mexico for years now and it’s clearly paying off.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a fair amount of caramel on the nose with old wood and malty burn. The palate stays surprisingly soft as vanilla and caramel blend with a mild yet tart apple note. The end is short and sweetish with that apple and wood lasting the longest but leaving you with a mild malty burn.
Bottom Line:
I got my hands on a flask of this recently and was… mildly surprised. Not wowed, mind you, but it’s fine for what it is. It’ll burn going down but there is something at least under that burn. Still, there’s no real point in seeking this out in the U.S.
3. Grant’s (3.6 million cases) — Grant’s Triple Wood
Willam Grant & Sons has a deep bench of whisky distilleries to draw their malts and grains from for this expression. The ripple with this blend is the triple barreling with new oak, American oak, and re-fill American oak, hence the name.
Tasting Notes:
This is tinny yet soft. There’s a mild tobacco spice that’s cut by an apple-esque bridge between tart and sweet. The end builds with a green woodiness that helps keep the sip very easy and, again, soft. It’s super simple and straightforward to sip.
Bottom Line:
This always surprises me. It’s just a really solid workhorse scotch. There are no bells or whistles but it doesn’t need them. The flavor notes really shine in a highball or cocktail. And this is a fine (and cheap) on the rocks contender that you should be able to get at any liquor store.
2. Ballentine’s (7 million cases) — Ballantine’s Aged 17 Years
Ballentine’s is another old-school brand. The difference is that Ballentine’s is in the process of reinventing its line with great older expressions to compete with the Chivas, Dewar’s, and Walkers of the world. Case in point, their 17-year expression is a blend of single malt and grain whiskies that have aged at least 17 years before they’re folded into this blend. The results are an award-winning sipper worthy of your bar cart.
Tasting Notes:
There’s this note of smoke on the nose that feels like the inside of a vanilla-forward bourbon barrel that’s been warmed up next to a fire. The palate holds onto the vanilla and wood and then veers into a full-on honey/orchard fruit/spice vibe that ends up with a hint of anise or maybe black licorice (depending on how many drops of water you add). The light touch of dark spice holds on as the sip slowly fades through the fruit and honey towards a final, woody, and warm malty note.
Bottom Line:
This is just really easy to drink. It’s deep without being too complex. It’s easy to sip neat but shines brightly on the rocks. It also makes a mean cocktail.
1. Johnnie Walker (14.1 million cases) — Johnnie Walker Green Label
The blend is a “pure malt” blended whisky, meaning that it’s made only with single malts (usually blended scotch is made with both grain and malt whisky). In this case, the juice is pulled from all over Scotland with a focus on Speyside, Highland, Lowland, and Island malts, including a minimum of 15-year-old Talisker, Caol Ila, Cragganmore, and Linkwood.
Tasting Notes:
This sip draws you in with the smells of an old, soft cedar box that’s held black pepper, sweet fruits, and oily vanilla pods next to a hint of green grass. The taste really holds onto the cedar as the fruits lean tropical with a hint of dried roses pinging in the background. The end builds on that by adding a note of spicy tobacco, a splash of sea spray, and a distant billow of campfire smoke.
Bottom Line:
Johnnie Walker is the fifth best-selling whisky on the planet (the top four are all from India). Those sales also make it the best-selling scotch whisky globally. It’s not hard to see why, this whisky is everywhere booze is legally sold. That also means there’s a lot of it out there. It’s 100 percent worth going beyond the Red and Black Label versions. Red is made for mixing specifically. Black is made for on the rocks and highballs.
This, on the other hand, is made to be savored, sipped, and loved. Johnnie Walker Green is a masterpiece when it comes to blending already iconic single malts. This remains our favorite Johnnie Walker and one of our most recommended Scotch whiskies on the market.
As a Drizly affiliate, Uproxx may receive a commission pursuant to certain items on this list.
Sydney rockers Gang Of Youths have surprise-released a brand-new EP today called Total Serene. The drop follows the band’s just-released single “The Angel Of 8th Ave.,” which came out last month.
As for Total Serene, the EP follows 2017’s Go Farther In Lightness and features three tracks, including “The Angel Of 8th Ave.” Also on the EP is a cover of Elbow’s classic “Asleep In The Back,” which was the title track to the Manchester indie-rock torchbearers’ 2001 LP of the same name.
“‘Unison’ is a deeply important track for us that really signals where the music is headed on the new record,” lead vocalist David Le’aupepe said of the EP closer in a press release. “I conceived the song in Samoa, my ancestral homeland. Here we sample and introduce the work of David Fanshawe, who travelled to the Pacific Islands in the 1980s and recorded the most extensive library of indigenous Pacific music anywhere in the world.”
Le’aupepe also expanded on the Elbow cover, saying, “We love Elbow and we thought it was thematically relevant. It couldn’t have been anything other than ‘Asleep In The Back.’”
Listen to Total Serene below.
Gang Of Youths is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music.
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