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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.

Yesterday was day two of Donald Trump’s impeachment trail, but Ted Cruz was preoccupied with a more important matter: breast milk. In response to a tweet from conservative-leaning publication Washington Examiner about a hospital in England replacing the term “beast milk” with “human milk” to be more inclusive, Cruz wrote, “Orwellian: The words ‘breast milk’ are now forbidden. Because science.” (Take a shot of “human milk” every time a conservative calls something “Orwellian.” You won’t make it.) This extremely bad, Gina Carano-esque tweet set off CNN’s Chris Cuomo.

“Orwellian? Sir, you are at a trial that you’re not even paying attention to, where you are saying that what happened didn’t really happen, because you don’t want to have to deal with the reality. That, my brother, is Orwellian” he said. Cuomo then wondered why breast milk was on Cruz’s mind. “Focus, Ted. If you got off Trump’s teat a little bit, maybe you wouldn’t be thinking about breast milk so much. Do your damn job!” he fumed.

While it was all but a foregone conclusion that Cruz would not vote to convict former President Donald Trump of inciting the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, impeachment managers attempted to sway Republicans to their side by playing video showing just how close the insurrectionists actually came to members of Congress that day. Whether Cruz was paying attention during that video or not, Cuomo reminded him just how much worse that day could have been, at least for some.

“If Trump had his way, maybe you, but certainly not all of you, would have made it out of there. Think about that,” Cuomo added. “Trump waited for hours. Why?” He’s right. Things have could gone worse: Cruz could have been liking porn tweets again.

(Via Yahoo!)

As HBO continues to aggressively ramp up its content game, the premium cable channel is actively exploring new writers to get a fourth season of True Detective off the ground. While the series was a breakout success when it aired in 2014 thanks to commanding performances by Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, True Detective‘s second season starring Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn did not fare as well. Series creator Nic Pizzolatto was able to turn things around with Season 3 starring Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff, but he parted ways with HBO and signed a first-look deal with FX after talks for a fourth season deteriorated.

However, since HBO owns True Detective, it’s free to continue the crime series with a new creative team, which is exactly what it’s doing according to Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys. Via Deadline:

“It’s safe to say we’re working with a couple of writers to find the right tone and take. It’s definitely an area that could be very interesting and I think it would be interesting with a new voice. Quality is what’s going to guide us so if we end up with scripts that we don’t feel are representative or are not at a high enough quality, we’re not going to do something just to do it,” he said.

Deadline reports that the new season will “likely” be without Pizzolato’s involvement, but that could change. Back in January, Pizzolato began negotiating an exit deal from FX after McConaughey left the drama series Redeemer, which would’ve re-teamed Pizzolato with the True Detective star. With his schedule now open, Pizzolato could come back to consult on a fourth season of True Detective, but that all depends on if HBO decides that he should be back in the franchise.

(Via Deadline)

Post Malone wants to be the very best like no one ever was.

Okay, so I don’t actually know this for a fact, but I couldn’t not quote the Pokémon theme song here right? Billboard reports the corporate-favorite, chart-dominating pop-rap star is helping ring in this year’s annual Pokemon Day celebration with a virtual concert on Saturday, February 27.

As it turns out, the pong enthusiast is also pretty excited about Pikachu; Billboard notes he still owns his Game Boy Color just so he can play the OG iterations of the game, which are now 25 years old. Incidentally, Post himself just turned 25 last July and pointed out the coincidence in a statement about the partnership. “I’ve been a fan for such a long time, kind of grew up with it,” he says. “Celebrating 25 years is a big deal, so we decided to do it together.”

Post is only the first artist to team up with Pokémon as part of this year’s ‘P25 Music” initiative, with further details to be shared at the end of his concert. The Pokémon Company International will host a “Pokémon GO Tour: Kanto” event the Saturday before Post’s concert distributing a special password on February 25 for a special Pikachu that can do the move “Sing” in their Sword and Shield games. Longtime fans know this is pretty unusual; the “electric mouse” generally learns only electric-type moves. Yes, I’m a nerd but you clicked, so you are too.

Pokémon and Post Malone fans will be able to watch the concert for free on Saturday, 2/27 at 7:00 pm ET on Pokémon’s YouTube channel, Twitch channel, and 25th anniversary website.

We’re just a little over eight months removed from summer 2020’s Black Lives Movement protests. After the latest in an unfortunate cycle of Black lives senselessly ended by law enforcement, the protests called for an appropriate punishment for the brutal murders. Amid this latest round of protests, hip-hop artists stepped forward to use their talents to deliver contributions for the soundtrack to the movement or had older music repurposed to suit the moment.

Throughout the summer of 2020, numerous rappers offered records that delivered their own perspective on the tumultuous months of the pain and agony that the Black community was forced to endure. Other, older records reflecting similar sentiments resurfaced, giving protesters a voice that mirrored their own thoughts and feelings as they marched for justice. They became a megaphone for the message those on the ground were chanting and had done so for decades and decades. Songs by the likes of Kendrick Lamar, YG, and Lil Baby stood as bright and exigent conclusions for the Black Lives Matter movement, even if they all weren’t necessarily new. While they each aimed to help the movement, they all accomplished their goals in different ways.

Kendrick Lamar released To Pimp A Butterfly in 2015, and while the Compton rapper touched on many disheartening and frustrating points with the current state of race in America, he found moments of optimism such as the standout single, “Alright.” It allowed protesters to pause in their rightful fit of rage to remember or re-emphasize their reason for fighting while staying optimistic of a future in which Black people can truly be “alright” in this country. Five years later, as Black bodies continued to fall at the hands of police, “Alright” gave many a beat to chant along to, a rhythm to march to, and one extra voice to join the assembly of Black lives in fear that they may soon be the reason their community marches again.

Then news of Breonna Taylor’s and George Floyd’s murders reached social media, as well as Rayshard Brooks and the countless other lives. With that being said, of course, this community took to the streets with contempt for anyone who wasn’t a clear ally — the police and our ex-president included. As a result, the track that YG and the late Nipsey Hussle unveiled moments before that ex-president took office made one of its frequent returns to the public eye.

“FDT” welcomed the anger towards oppression and systemic racism that America continues to allow as the song’s target encouraged worse. YG’s Still Brazy track wasn’t necessarily directed solely at the president. It was for, to paraphrase Lil Wayne, the ex-president “and anybody that love him.” Contrary to the calm and level-headedness that many songs and just people in the world expected Black people to have in the midst of chaos, “FDT” welcomed a returned slap to the cheek. It also saw the rappers present an accurate forecast of predictions for 45’s upcoming presidency. “He can’t make decisions for this country, he gon’ crash us;” sounds about right. “It’s pressure built up and it’s probably gon’ blow;” correct. “We will be seen and we will be heard;” the most important fact of them all.

Lil Baby was among those voices that were heard in 2020. At the time of 2020’s social justice protests, the Atlanta rapper was enjoying the best year of his career. His My Turn album was well on its way to becoming the best selling album of the year while social media professed its love for the project and its highlight track, “We Paid.” Many times before we’ve seen someone at Lil Baby’s height stay out of social issues to avoid screwing “up their money,” but the rapper did the complete opposite at his 2020 peak.

Out came “The Bigger Picture.” The June single saw Lil Baby extend an olive branch of understanding to his people. He didn’t dive into a rabbit hole of racism and oppression in the song nor did he look to untie the many knots and deconstruct the concept to its basic element. He kept it on its surface level and addressed the situation as he both knew and experienced it. Lil Baby captured the fears of Black America (“I see blue lights, I get scared and start runnin’ / That shit be crazy, they ‘posed to protect us”) and acknowledged his fame is something he should use for good (“I got power, now I gotta say somethin’’).

“The Bigger Picture” stated the obvious about the current state of America. In times of need, like last summer, the government did little to heal and protect an infuriated and endangered community. It was and still is time for a change. Lastly, the racial tensions in this country aren’t “black and white.” There isn’t just one simple solution to it all; the issues are woven into the thin threads that make up the flag that flies high above the ground and falsely proclaims the land it looks over “united.” With the world watching him, from teenagers to the most grown adults, Lil Baby echoed the same sentiments that those on the streets, people he eventually joined to protest, had professed for decades.

It’s easy to see how some may label the hope of a truly equal world as nothing more than a dream that reality will never allow them to experience, especially for those who have spent decades watching this never-ending cycle continue. However, when some of music’s biggest names, who have profited from the culture that continues to be slain, step up to use their talents to uplift, stand for, and be a megaphone for their brothers and sisters, it solidifies the unity needed for the fight and, in some cases, it brings the needed push to fight another day.

Nipsey Hussle is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.