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Blxst‘s new video for “Chosen” from the deluxe version of his No Love Lost EP takes inspiration from historically Black colleges and universities, with a heavy emphasis on fraternity life as displayed in movies like Spike Lee’s School Daze. Blxst plays the big man on campus, bumping into his romantic lead early in the video and spending time with her on the yard and at a house party.

The song’s featured artists, Tyga and Ty Dolla Sign, also appear as fellow members of Blxst’s frat, throwing a parking lot party and staging a performance backed by cheerleaders on the football field. Meanwhile, the cheerleaders put on a private twerk show of their own in the locker room.

The “Chosen” video follows “Got It All” with Dom Kennedy as the latest visual releases from No Love Lost, while the LA-based rapper and singer followed-up the project with a two-song double single release, Just For Clarity, earlier this month. That single included appearances from the recently released Drakeo The Ruler and indie rap evangelist Russ.

Watch Blxst, Tyga, and Ty Dolla Sign’s “Chosen” video above.

Ty Dolla Sign is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Well before you hear her delicate, soaring voice, an admirable aspect of Joyce Wrice’s career is her ability to be a highlight in a room full of undeniable talents. After landing collaborations with Dom Kennedy, Blu, Jay Prince, and others in the early to mid-2010s, Wrice’s light would soon brighten. In recent years, she’s landed tracks with Devin Morrison (“With You”), Free Nationals (“The Rivington”), and Westside Gunn (“French Toast”). Her contributions were always the sweet icing on an already tasty cake, a delicacy that slowly drew more interest towards the supporting act with each release.

Finally, Wrice has delivered her main course to the world with her debut album, Overgrown. Unlike most love-focused R&B debuts, which often present youth and naivety as accompanying attributes in relationships, the LA singer’s body of work seemingly arrives after this stage in life. Experience and the wisdom to learn from it all find Wrice more prepared to begin the trek towards a committed lover who’s just as mature as she is.

While the end goal on Overgrown is indeed a partner who meets her standards, that’s only half of it. On the album’s title track, which doubles as the project’s outro, Wrice shares what could be documented as her “above all else” mantra. “But don’t you lose all that makes you you,” she sings. “You will be scared, unprepared sometimes.” The heart will always want what it wants but altering its best and most foundational aspects to attain that will bring a result that’s not nearly as satisfying as one imagined.

This very thought process is why on “Losing” she makes her insufficient lover not only aware of their sub-par contributions to their growing relationship, but her irreversible decision to find something better. The song’s swift-moving drums and giddy guitar strings capture her nimble sidestep in dodging the bullet of an unsatisfying love. “Must Be Nice” also echoes the mantra she introduced on the album’s outro, and despite a counter for Masego to continue to flow, Wrice stands firm on placing a pause on their nighttime fun for the betterment of herself. “But it’s just something about the things you do to me / You keep me places I know I ain’t supposed to be,” she sings, adding, “I’ve got rules when I’m with you I don’t follow / I’m wishing you were a phase.’”

Wrice’s insistence for a companion that checks off all her desired boxes stems from being deprived from her close encounters of just that. This picture-perfect partner who absorbs her attention by simply breathing is her muse on “Addicted” and “Think About You.” The once too-good-for-you singer finds herself swept up on a love cloud that unfortunately fails to bring her to her desired location. The former accounts for her inability to turn her dream lover into a reality over an electric ballad while the latter is a dreamy affair that sees her putting the ball in their court with the hope that they make the easy layup.

Overgrown is the LA singer’s way of letting both new and old interests know that immaturity and indecisiveness are not welcomed in her world. It’s clear Wrice has had her fair share of that in the past and its return is the last thing she needs. While some might use their debut to document their growth, Wrice takes her opportunity to show that she is grown. Whether it’s falling in love, falling out of it, or just avoiding it altogether, Overgrown tells and shows listeners that through it all, she’ll present her best self and push forward with it as nobly as possible. If you’re going to wear your heart on your sleeve as she does, the least you can do is protect it from heinous outside forces. For Wrice, this protection not only comes in the form of self-preservation but also through strict warnings that promise undesirable consequences if ignored

Overgrown is out now via Joyce Wrice Music. Get it here.

This will make me sound like an obnoxiously nostalgic ’90s kid (because I am), but: Nickelodeon ruled in the 1990s. There has been plenty of great stuff on the channel since then, including Avatar: The Last Airbender, Invader Zim, and SpongeBob SquarePants (it technically premiered in 1999, but close enough), but it’s tough to beat the original NickToons block of Doug, The Ren & Stimpy Show, and Rugrats.

Nickelodeon got even better when Hey Arnold!, KaBlam!, and Rocko’s Modern Life, my personal favorite, were added to the lineup. And that’s just the animated shows. There was also Clarissa Explains It All, All That, Kenan & Kel, Salute Your Shorts, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and Guts, among many others.

If you feel like taking a trip back to the decade of this annoying-but-effective alarm clock that I still hear in my nightmares, good news: a ton of old (and newer) Nickelodeon shows have been added to Paramount Plus. “It might be time to revisit some childhood friends… Check out all the classic 90s @Nickelodeon shows that are now streaming on #ParamountPlus,” the streaming service tweeted, along with individual tweets for the old-school Nick lineup. I never thought I would miss Binyah Binyah, but here we are.

One show missing, however, is The Adventures of Pete and Pete. I realize that Eureeka’s Castle probably isn’t as good as I remember it being, but Pete and Pete holds up. It’s worth getting the DVD set for the music only.

Despite being a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the better part of a decade, Anthony Mackie only just learned what an Easter egg is this week. For the record, we’re not talking about literal Easter eggs, even though the holiday is just around the corner, we’re talking about visual references or seemingly throwaway lines that have a hidden meaning to diehard fans. While The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (so far) has nowhere near the amount of Easter eggs as WandaVision, the Disney+ series does have its share of Marvel clues, but Mackie and Sebastian Stan won’t totally nerd out over them.

While calling in to The Jess Cagle Show, Mackie responded to a question about fan theories by revealing that he only recently learned about Easter eggs, which blew away host Julia Cunningham, who couldn’t believe he’s only just now hearing about them despite doing Marvel films for so long. But Mackie offered a pretty logical explanation.

“We don’t go around saying, “Yo, you saw that Easter egg?’” he said. “That’s just not a conversation you have as an actor.”

Mackie’s explanation makes sense. As an actor, his job is to say the lines and worry about his performance in the scene, so he’s not going to be paying attention to every detail in the background that might not even be there because it was added in post-production. As for Stan, he offered a much more blunt explanation.

“We try not to think about it as much as you think we do,” Stan responded. “I have like this weird thing to say, it’s like a very strange thing, but we are actually not these characters. I mean, I know that’s just got to be so fascinatingly interesting to decipher, but we’re not these characters.”

In other words, don’t ask Sebastian if Bucky is Mephisto.

(Via The Jess Cagle Show)

The Orlando Magic are busy during the NBA’s trade deadline. The team made the first major move of the day by finally moving on from All-Star center Nikola Vucevic, who is headed to the Chicago Bulls for Wendell Carter, Otto Porter, and a pair of first-round picks. Now, the team is continuing to offload veterans with an eye on the future by coming to terms on a deal for Evan Fournier.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Fournier is headed to the Boston Celtics, which have been mentioned as a potential suitor for a number of players at the deadline. Wojnarowski reports that Boston will pay a relatively low price to bring him on board, parting ways with a pair of second-round Draft picks for Never Google.

Per Marc Stein of the New York Times, the scuttlebutt around the league had been that Fournier would end up in Boston for some time.

Fournier has been mentioned as a player who could be on the move all year, regardless of whether the Magic decided to overhaul its roster. He’s on an expiring contract and is in the midst of a career year, averaging 19.7 points and 3.7 assists in 30.3 minutes per game while connecting on 38.8 percent of his threes. Boston sits at 21-23 on the year, putting it in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, and now adds some more offensive firepower to its rotation.

Taylor Swift’s reworked Fearless (Taylor’s Version) album is on the way and perhaps most excitingly for fans, it features newly recorded versions of songs that haven’t been released before. One of those is dropping tomorrow: “You All Over Me (From The Vault)” and it features backing vocals from Maren Morris (along with production from Aaron Dessner). Now, hours ahead of the track’s debut, Swift has shared a snippet of it.

A brief portion of the song was debuted on Good Morning America today and it sounds like a mid-tempo country ballad. Lyrics include, “No amount of freedom gets you clean, I’ve still got you all over me.”

When announcing the track yesterday, Swift wrote, “HI. I wanted to let you know that the first ‘From the Vault’ song I’m releasing from Fearless (Taylor’s Version) comes out tomorrow at midnight eastern. It’s called You All Over Me (From The Vault). One thing I’ve been loving about these From The Vault songs is that they’ve never been heard, so I can experiment, play, and even include some of my favorite artists. I’m really excited to have @marenmorris singing background vocals on this song!! Produced by Aaron Dessner and co-written by Scooter Carusoe – can’t wait for you to hear it.”

Check out the “You All Over Me (From The Vault)” snippet above.

The Nikola Vucevic era in Orlando has come to an end. According to multiple media reports, the Magic have decided to move their All-Star center and franchise lynchpin to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for a package of players and picks. The news of the deal was first broke by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, who brought word that the Magic will package Vucevic and veteran swingman Al-Farouq Aminu in the deal.

Then, Wojnarowski and Shams Charania of The Athletic began piecing the deal together, with the Magic receiving a haul back. According to the reports, a pair of first-round Draft picks will head to Orlando — including the Bulls’ selection in the 2021 Draft — along with young big man Wendell Carter Jr. and the expiring contract of Otto Porter Jr.

The deal positions Chicago, which sits 19-24 and is in 10th place in the Eastern Conference, for a push towards the playoffs, while Orlando gets itself in a spot to build towards the future with a promising young big man in Carter and a pair of potentially solid Draft picks, although it is unclear if there are any sort of protections that will exist on either of them. Since joining Orlando in 2012, Vucevic has been a two-time All-Star selection, and this season, he’s averaging a career-best mark in scoring at 24.5 per game.

The final season of The Walking Dead is already in production (in fact, we’ve already seen a glimpse of the Wall of the Lost) and is expected to continue shooting for all of 2021. The 24-episode final season also won’t end until the end of 2022 (although, it will debut this summer).

As such, the creator of The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman, is not yet mourning the loss of the series because there’s still so much left to see. Kirkman, who is currently out promoting his new Amazon series, Invincible, doesn’t seem to be that involved in the final season. He wrote the source material, and he trusts showrunner Angela Kang to handle the rest. “This is something that Angela Kang is working really hard on crafting,” Kirkman told Comicbook.com.

“I have had some vague conversations with Scott [Gimple] and Angela about the direction and how things are going to wrap up, and what aspects of the comic they may or may not be using,” Kirkman said. “But I think that it is, still somewhat in flux and I’m very excited to see what Angela does and I’m very confident that she’s gonna do something amazing because that’s what she does.”

Meanwhile, the Rick Grimes movie will eventually go into production, as well. The last we heard, it was expected to begin production in spring 2022, although it’s unclear if that is still the case. In either respect, in his interview with Comicbook.com, Kirkman did elucidate on the differences we can expect between the series and the Rick Grimes movie:

“I think that the show is very much an ensemble story and this is very much Rick story. So, I think being able to focus more on Rick as a character and do more with him is really cool. I think it’s gonna be a very different kind of Walking Dead story, which is really exciting. You know, when you’re doing something like this you have to make sure that it makes sense for it to be a movie. This isn’t just some kind of expansion of what you’re expecting from the show. This is something that’s gonna be very different but it’s gonna be the Rick Grimes that we all know and love. And I’m very excited for people to finally see it when it’s released in 2032.”

Kirkman had a hand in the script, so he obviously knows the course that the movie is taking. If it is a “Rick” story, however, I wonder if Michonne will still make an appearance, or if her storyline will sputter out? I would also like to know if there are still plans for three Rick Grimes movies, as before, or if AMC has scaled back its plans, especially in the wake of the pandemic?

While the future of the franchise is still very much up in the air, Season Ten continues on this weekend with the penultimate episode of a season that began way back in 2019. Kirkman’s Invincible, meanwhile, premieres this Friday on Amazon.

Source: Comicbook.com

While JaVale McGee entered the NBA as a member of the Washington Wizards, he spent three and a half years with the Denver Nuggets and made the postseason for the first time as a member of the franchise. Now, McGee is headed back to the Mile High City in a trade between the Nuggets and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

According to multiple media reports, McGee is getting swapped in a deal for backup center Isaiah Hartenstein and a pair of future second-round Draft picks.

The timing of the move is fun for McGee, who last month explained to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports that he did a ton of growing up as a player when the Nuggets acquired him back in 2012.

“When I got to Denver, and I got to a team that was winning already when I got there, it was a whole different feeling of, ‘Ok, this is the point, people don’t care what you’re doing as long as you’re winning,’” McGee said. “That’s when I really fell in love and was like, ‘Ok, this is what it’s about.’”

McGee has provided the Cavaliers with a veteran presence off the bench and in the locker room this season. In 33 games, McGee has averaged eight points, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks in 15.2 minutes a night.

Justin Bieber recently released his sixth studio album Justice, and while promoting the new project, he stopped by his friend and frequent collaborator DJ Khaled’s Amazon Music podcast, The First One. Over the course of their conversation, the discussion turned to that favorite topic of hip-hop heads everywhere: The top five rappers in hip-hop — namely, Justin’s personal list.

A fun thing about this topic is that someone’s list can change a lot over the years (contrary to some folks’ opinions) as they grow and learn or as new rappers enter the scene. Justin has answered this question in the past, offering an unusual mix of names that included Eminem, Mase, Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., and Tupac, mixing in some conventional favorites with a rapper few would expect (but don’t act like you don’t hit your two-step the instant “Feel So Good” comes on).

This time around, though, he shook things up almost completely. Although he retained Biggie and Eminem from his prior list, he now counts fellow Canadian Drake, Mase disciple Kanye West, and the seemingly immortal Lil Wayne among the best to ever grace the mic. Drake is the most recent addition to the rap game overall, but Bieber justifies his inclusion by pointing out his music is “constantly pushing culture and the needle forward”.

Watch Justin Bieber’s conversation with DJ Khaled above.