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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.

It only took one keyboard lesson for Claud to realize they wanted to be a musician. “When I was about 11 or 12, a contemporary music school opened up in my town and I took a trial keyboard lesson,” they tell me over Zoom. “The keyboard teacher was super cool. He taught me the four chords, it was just C, G, A minor and F. I was like, ‘I can do this, I can play these chords. And I can write my own melodies over them.’ And that’s how I started writing songs.”

It wasn’t long before Claud started releasing music professionally, beginning shortly after they landed on campus at Syracuse University and started attending house shows at the various DIY venues around the city. (“Shout out to Space Camp!”) It was there that Claud met another fledgling indie pop artist by the name of Clairo, and the two would eventually start writing together. However, after spending a couple of semesters writing more music than essays, Claud opted to leave Syracuse to focus on music full-time.

Claud became prolific after leaving school, releasing a string of seven EPs and other short-form releases between the summers of 2018 and 2020. During this whole period, they had their sights set on a full-length release. “With EPs you don’t really need to have a set theme or a message you’re trying to convey,” they explain. “But I really do feel like with a record you do have to have that. And you do have to know what you’re trying to say and find your voice a little bit more.”

One of the first things to stand out about their debut album Super Monster is the depth of its production and the confidence in its delivery. Claud’s songwriting process is one of those anomalies that defies standard explanation, but when a song begins to come to life in their head, it isn’t long before it exists in its full form, in the confines of their brain. At this point, it’s important for them to enlist the help of some collaborators in order to bring the full vision to life. “[I recorded] most of the guitar parts. I played around a lot with bass on the record, too. But I can’t play drums to save my life. So I did not do that. I don’t think you would like the record as much if I didn’t get a drum guy.”

From the first notes of “Overnight,” listeners are invited into Claud’s world as they describe the overwhelming feelings of love at first sight. “Soft Spot” continues the narrative that begun in “Overnight” to illustrate that relationship’s dissolution, and the sense of lingering feelings that remain even after a breakup. “You told me that it’s over now/But I can’t help that I think about/All the things that we used to do/’Cause I’ve got a soft spot/I’ve got it for you,” they sing softly over an affected acoustic guitar and compressed drums.

Much of the album revels in heartbreak – not only romantic, but also social. However, when Claud couldn’t land on a specific story to tell in a song, they would turn to their phone for inspiration. “I use my Notes app religiously,” they recall. “I have probably thousands and thousands of notes. Anything that I think I might want to pull from or anything that I find weird, I’ll just write it down. And then when I go to write a song, I’ll look through my notes and see if anything reminds me of something or someone and then I’ll start writing.”

After about a year and a half of writing and recording, Claud finally had the material for a full-length album. But it wasn’t until they received a call from Phoebe Bridgers, who was in the process of starting her own label, that the full scope of possibilities for the album finally presented itself. With the album already mostly recorded, the next stop was mixing at Electric Lady Studios, a process that greatly widened the lens for the album’s sonic capacity.

“When you’re making music in an apartment or even a garage or a living room it’s hard to imagine it in a space bigger than that,” they explain. “And then when you step into a space like Electric Lady that’s three times the size. Even that one studio, it was three times the size of my apartment. It’s like, wow, this is being played in a big room right now and has the potential, if I want it to, to be played in another big room.”

The result of building the album around big-room aesthetics is a sound that truly fills headphones to fully envelop a listener and welcome them into the world of Super Monster. Across the album’s thirteen tracks, Claud builds a unique indie-pop listening experience that doesn’t sound quite like anything else. Songs like “In Or In Between” or “That’s Mr. Bitch To You” are filled with rich, distinct layers that leave space for imagination and ruminating in Claud’s vivid storytelling.

More than just blowing out the sounds for the album, the mixing process at Electric Lady also provided the album with something a bit more demonstrable: a title. After the studios’ manager discovered a lost Daniel Johnston painting called “Claud And The Super Monster,” the undeniable coincidence snapped the album’s true meaning into focus for Claud and encouraged them to drop the album’s working title and run with Super Monster. In that moment, “it really hit me,” they recalled.

“The reason why I’ve been a fan of Daniel’s for so long is because I really have been fascinated by the themes of the way he talks about monsters and creatures in his work. I liked Super Monster because it felt like superhero, but also monster. It was a really interesting pairing. I asked the family if I could use the title and they let me use it. Then I did my own artwork for it. I wanted to draw my own artwork, because Daniel drew his own artwork and that’s what he would have done. And also, I just felt the most authentic thing that can come from me is my music and then also my own artwork.”

All told, Super Monster is a piece of work that is 100% Claud, from the lyrics to (most) of the instrumental tracks, even down to the artwork. They have been carrying around all of the pieces in their head for nearly two years, and it is a cathartic moment to nearly have them out in the world for others to experiences.

As our conversation winds down, Claud pauses for a moment to consider the album’s central focus, and what they want listeners to take away from their first full-length project. After a few seconds of silence, they are very deliberate with their answer. Super Monster is an album about love, “a reminder that to myself and to other people that you’re capable of being loved. If you open yourself up enough and remind yourself that you’re worthy of it, it’s possible and that you deserve it.”

Super Monster is out February 12 on Saddest Factory. Pre-order it here.

After slogging through a tough start to the year playing away from their homes and families, the Raptors on Thursday announced the routine will continue, as they will play the entirety of their 2021 calendar in Tampa as well. The choice, the Raptors said, was made in order to be “mindful of public safety measures” in Canada as well as travel restrictions between the two countries.

The Raptors’ inability to play games in Toronto seems to come more from the fact that teams from all over the United States would have had to travel into Canada, which is still closed to non-essential travelers who are not Canadian. Maybe the Raptors could have played games in front of an empty ScotiaBank Arena, but the Canadian government seemed unwilling to make exceptions for NBA teams to break the border restrictions.

“We’re living in a city of champions, and we intend to carry on the tradition of winning for our new friends and fans here,” Raptors President Masai Ujiri said in a statement, in a nod to the Buccaneers’ Super Bowl victory.

Playing in their new digs, the Raptors are 4-5 at home and 12-13 overall. The team has struggled to defend all season and has greatly missed departed players like Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol. They have, however, gotten past some of their early-season struggles, winning six of their last 10 games and sitting in a tie for fifth in the Eastern Conference.

Following reports that Elon Musk’s Tesla purchased $1.5 billion in Bitcoin on Monday, a Reddit post from early January started gaining attention thanks to its seemingly prescient prediction that Musk was going to make a big move on the cryptocurrency. The now-moderated post from “TSLAinsider” claimed to be from “a software dev working at R&D at Tesla in California” who said that the electric car company had purchased $800 million worth of Bitcoin. Despite the fact that Tesla purchased nearly double that amount, the post quickly garnered attention from the media for being the first to announce the investment. However, there was just one small problem: “TSLAinsider” is a 24-year-old college student in Germany who made the whole thing up while high on acid.

According to “TSLAinsider,” his plan was to simply make a “trollpost” for laughs. But in the process, he ended up accidentally reading the tea leaves from an exchange that Musk had with MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor in December. Saylor’s company had purchased $1 billion in Bitcoin in 2020, so the young German figured it’d be funny to joke that Musk was about to do the same. Via New York Post:

“Me and my girlfriend, we took acid, and I saw the conversation between Michael Saylor and Elon Musk on Twitter, and I was like, yeah, why shouldn’t he buy into bitcoin?” Hendrik told The Post in a Tuesday Zoom interview from Germany. “He’s crazy and he has a lot of money, so why not?”

Despite the trollpost and joking about Musk being “crazy,” Hendrick is actually a firm believer in Bitcoin being the “technology of the future,” and he praised the Tesla CEO for the purchase would encourage other companies to do the same. “They all want to be like Elon,” he told the Post.

(Via New York Post)

Karl-Anthony Towns made his return to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night after missing the previous 13 games due to a bout with COVID-19. He played well in a 119-112 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, slotting back into the starting lineup and recording a double-double, and after the game, he spoke to the media and explained how his experience has led him to joining the chorus of players calling on the NBA to skip its planned All-Star festivities in Atlanta next month.

Towns — who has been vocal about how COVID has impacted his family, taking a number of loved ones including his mother, Jacqueline — explained that he went through quite the battle with the virus, saying that because he is a “high-risk case,” he went through a number of “scary nights.”

When it comes to the All-Star Game, Towns leaned on how close COVID-19 has been to him since the very beginning of the pandemic to lay out why he’s totally opposed to the idea.

“I personally don’t believe there should be an All-Star Game, but what the hell do I know?” Towns said, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “Sh*t, I obviously haven’t dealt with COVID, probably a guy who has some insight into that. What should I know about COVID, right?”

The NBA All-Star Game is scheduled to take place on March 7 in Atlanta. Towns joins a number of players — like LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and De’Aaron Fox — who have expressed skepticism over the game taking place. Some of the players who are opposed have cited the pandemic, while others have mentioned the grind of this season as reason why they would like to take a week to decompress in March.

After releasing two separate albums, it’s safe to say that Sufjan Stevens had a productive 2020. The first was Aporia, an instrumental New Age LP that he wrote with his stepfather and Asthmatic Kitty record label co-found Lowell Brams. For his next record The Ascension, however, Stevens with back to his folk roots to creative a captivating collection of songs.

Now following up on The Ascension‘s September release, Stevens returns to share a video for his track “Tell Me You Love Me.” To help with the visual, Stevens tapped acclaimed Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino to spearhead the project. The result is touching, featuring dancers slowly moving around to Stevens’ poignant lyrics.

The visual is the first solo project Stevens has put out this year, but its not the only music he’s shared so far. In January, the singer revealed that he had teamed up with CJ Camerieri to feature on CARM’s debut record alongside Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. After working with Stevens, Camerieri praised the singer’s natural talent: “Sufjan’s use of orchestral instruments set the stage for everything I’ve done in my career,” Camerieri said. “He was the first artist I toured and recorded with after graduating from Juilliard and playing those incredible trumpet melodies every night was such a thrill. He brilliantly recognized the similarities between the trumpet and the human voice, utilizing the instrument’s vulnerabilities, expressive capabilities, and inherent strength to carry a song forward.”

Watch Stevens’ “Tell Me You Love Me” video above.

The Ascension is out now via Asthmatic Kitty. Get it here.

After cosplaying as razor-fanged ninja Mileena to announce the latest round of DLC for Mortal Kombat 11, Megan Thee Stallion’s partnership with the game continues this evening. This time around, she’ll be more hands-on, joining a Twitch livestream to play the game as her favorite character and show off her gaming skills. “Attention Hotties!” she wrote. “Watch me kick some ass as Hot Girl Mileena in #MKUltimate.”

The livestream comes just in time to help Megan promote the release of her appearance in Ariana Grande’s “34+35” remix video, which she, Ari, and Doja Cat have been promoting all week. It’s been a busy month in general for the Houston Hottie, as she released her playful “Cry Baby” video with DaBaby, joined fellow Texan Bobby Sessions on the theme song for the new Coming To America sequel, and continued to negotiate a new deal with 1501 Certified Entertainment, securing more favorable terms with the help of Jay-Z, who spoke on the phone with J. Prince.

Meanwhile, Meg’s been staying in shape with her Hottie Bootcamp series on Instagram, sharing her workout routines with fans who want to get their “Body-ody-ody-ody-odies” in shape for their future twerkouts to her endless string of hits.

Watch Megan’s Mortal Kombat match on Twitch and YouTube tonight, 2/11, at 7 pm PT.

It’s been a while since Kacey Musgraves’ most recent album, 2018’s Golden Hour. Over the past couple years, fans have been eagerly anticipating her next record, and now it looks like that could be arriving in the handful of months.

Musgraves is the subject of a new Rolling Stone profile, and the piece notes Musgraves’ next album “is set to be released this year.” It also says that Musgraves is considering structuring her album like a tragedy, and that when she had that idea, “the album that had seemed fairly nebulous began to take real shape in her mind.”

The feature then concludes with a recounting of a studio session with Musgraves and her collaborators, producers Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk. At one point, Musgraves hints at what some of her new music sounds like, saying, “I mean, looking at the list of songs, we have some that venture into, like, a Bill Withers land. We’ve got that synth stuff that we always loved. And we’ve got some Eagles or America territory. There’s a little bit of a dance vibe.” There’s also a conversation about a song called “Star-Crossed” and the musical direction of it, and the piece also shares some lyrics from the tune that reference Musgraves’ divorce from Ruston Kelly:

“Let me set the scene
Two lovers ripped right at the seams
Woke up from the perfect dream
And then the darkness came
Signed the papers yesterday
You came and took your things away
I moved out of the home we made
And gave you back your name.”

The song is then described, “Tashian’s guitar accompaniment had started as a mere flittering of notes, then grew with Latin-inflected drama. Musgraves had sung the words quietly, her voice like a gossamer thread unspooling. The song ended with an outro, the word ‘star-crossed’ repeated until it trailed off, without resolution. At least, that’s how it ended that day; nothing was yet set in stone.” Elsewhere, it’s revealed that Carlos Santana may end up performing on the song.

Check out the full feature here.

As Trump’s impeachment trial continues, more of his supporters are turning on him… and, apparently, each other.

Jacob Chansley — the QAnon Shaman currently whining about the lack of organic meals while being jailed for his part in the Jan. 6th insurrection — is the subject of most of the discourse on right-wing message boards today. And that discourse? It’s pissed, as are plenty of QAnon members who are scrambling to come up with new conspiracy theories as to why one of their most prominent leaders is now denouncing Trump. (The 10-year jail sentence he’s facing might have something to do with it, but hey, what do we know?)

Chansley recently offered to testify against Trump during the Senate’s impeachment trial and his lawyer seems to be framing his defense strategy by painting his client as just another victim of Trump’s incendiary remarks on that fateful day. But the QAnon believers aren’t having it. According to a Vice report, the group is livid at how quickly Chansley turned on their supreme leader, calling him a “rat sack of sh*t” and speculating if the fed bought him off.

“Very staged like he was bought,” one Instagram user commented. “Never saw someone like him just walk into the chambers with a cop there and ask if he could go up there for a picture and no fight back from the cops. Cop just said don’t damage anything. Very weird to me. A lot of staged photo opps for this cat.”

(Maybe because he was dressed like a Simpson’s character and the Capitol was already overrun by that point? But again, what do we know?)

Others on social media had more interesting ideas about why their guy turned on Trump, ideas that ranged from Chansley being some kind of “super-soldier” who hailed from the highest levels of government — in reality he only served two years in the Navy as a supply clerk — to believing he had simply distracted police so insurrectionist could steal valuable intel from the Capitol. One user wrote that Chansley kept the cops occupied while “the other white hat guys grabbed 12 laptops..which Pelosi is freaking about” and believes he’s still on their side, claiming “Shaman guy is a good guy..related to Kennedys.”

Still more believe the QAnon Shaman was never really a true believer. “In The Matrixx,” a leader in QAnon circles, accused Chansley of being a spy for CNN of all things, claiming his attendance at rallies and conferences over the last few years was just part of a long-game being played by the liberal media. Of course, none of these conspiracies have been backed up with any evidence, but hey, if QAnon wants to tear itself apart by spreading lies and misinformation about its own members, we’re pretty sure they’d argue that’s their constitutional right. We’ll just be over here with the popcorn.

(Via Vice)

We’re in an unprecedented time of sisterhood and collaboration between female rap artists. Three No. 1 records last year were collabs between women in hip-hop: Doja Cat’s “Say So” remix with Nicki Minaj, Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” remix with Beyonce, and Cardi B’s Megan Thee Stallion-featuring “WAP.” However, there are some who disagree with the buddy-buddy vibe and still look for any sign of friction between female artists hoping to see a catfight, as in the case of Megan Thee Stallion’s collab with City Girls sparking an argument between Yung Miami and Asian Doll.

Recently, fans tried to apply this reasoning to a recent Instagram Live chat from Cardi B’s sister Hennessy Carolina, assuming that her comments meant a beef brewing between Cardi and rising star Saweetie. In the video, Hennessy criticizes social media personalities who go overboard on plastic surgery. Some fans apparently assumed that Hennessy was shading Saweetie, accusing her of unfollowing the Bay Area rapper on Instagram. Hennessy debunked the growing rumor in an Instagram comment on a gossip account’s post, clarifying that she never followed Saweetie in the first place.

She then dropped in an exciting tidbit for fans of both Cardi and Saweetie — the two rappers’ managers are in talks about a mysterious project the two are working on. It’s not too far out of the range of possibilities that the two have a developing relationship; after all, both are romantically involved with members of Migos, Cardi with Offset and Saweetie with Quavo (poor Takeoff is apparently left out again). If the two are working on something together, fans will undoubtedly be clamoring to hear or see it before too long.

Check out Hennessy Carolina’s chat and comment in the Female Rap Room post above.

Cardi B and Saweetie are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Gina Carano’s now officially no longer playing Cara Dune on Disney+’s The Mandalorian after her latest in a string of controversial social media posts. The tweet in question was a retweeting of a post that compared Republicans to Jews during the Holocaust, and this ended up being enough for Lucasfilm to outlaw her from the Star Wars universe for good while issuing a statement to characterize Carano’s social media posts as “abhorrent and unacceptable.”

That news was followed by a report that Lucasfilm had been monitoring Carano’s tweets for months, and that the firing had been in the works while the studio waited for her to mess up enough to justify her axing. This also thwarted plans for a Cara Dune spinoff (which reportedly was meant to be announced at Disney’s December 2020 Investor Day event), and there’s now a massive far-right backlash brewing over Carano’s dismissal. So, as a maybe-play on “cancel culture,” a bunch of Twitter users want to literally cancel their Disney+ subscriptions (with a #CancelDisneyPlus hashtag) because they believe Carano’s firing is a form of opinion-and-thought policing.

Naturally, these folks aren’t paying much attention to Disney+ being a private corporation who’s not violating anyone’s First Amendment rights because those only apply to censorship by the government. Clearly, Disney+ felt it was in their own best interest to monitor an actress who previously “made light of people including their preferred pronouns on social media by adding ‘beep/bop/boop’ to her Twitter bio,” a move that some viewed as transphobic.

Disney+ will be fine. The Mandalorian will be fine. Also, this.