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The NFL has gone to great lengths to ensure as few individuals as possible get infected with the coronavirus at team facilities or during the course of their work as players, coaches, and team personnel. But while Browns wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. is doing his part in Cleveland to keep the season moving along, the All-Pro pass-catcher also believes the virus is avoiding him on purpose.

After being sent home sick last week by the Browns, Beckham was asked about his run-in with illness and whether he was ever worried it may have been COVID-19. His response, in typical Beckham fashion, was that he had complete confidence in himself and his ability to avoid infection.

Leaving out whether the science of Beckham’s explanation stands up to scrutiny or whether he’s even right or wrong, it’s worth just sitting in the outlandish cockiness of a person who utters these words.

The full video of his answer is worth your time as well.

https://twitter.com/gifdsports/status/1318963141548691457

Rarely does Beckham say anything he does not truly mean, but with that little grin and the pause he takes as he gathers his thoughts to toss out a truly incredible take on his potential battle with this virus, shows that he is entirely serious about his odds here. Anyway, please wear a mask and wash your hands and keep your distance from others.

Amine puts on for his Portland neighborhood in the exuberant new video for “Woodlawn” from his summer album Limbo, filling the self-directed video with family, friends, and references to his hometown. Situated in the northeast section of Portland, Woodlawn is a mostly minority section of the city that has been undergoing a period of gentrification (which Amine spoke on in his debut album, Good For You, with “Turf”). To counteract the disappearing character of his section, Amine celebrates and displays the things that make it special to him.

In one scene, Amine seems to be enjoying a Trailblazers game in his room, which is decked out in team paraphernalia, while flanked as usual by best friends Yosief Berhe and Jonathan Ressom. In another, the crew off-roads in ATVs decorated with Limbo stickers, while for the group sequence, dozens of Amine’s friends dance to the song while wearing matching black outfits and Limbo masks.

The video for “Woodlawn” arrives a little under a month after the song made its television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! with an innovative performance involving a hot air balloon. It’s the fourth video from Limbo after “Shimmy,” “Riri,” and “Compensating” featuring Young Thug. Shortly after the release of the album, Amine gave a live streamed performance on YouTube.

Watch Amine’s “Woodlawn” video above.

Not to get all Denzel GIF on you, but when I saw “Mel Brooks” trending on Twitter this morning, I feared the worst. He’s 94 years old… we’re in the middle of a deadly pandemic… his best buddy Carl Reiner passed away earlier this year. To my great relief, however, Mel Brooks is doing just fine. The reason the director of Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and The Producers, three of the funniest movies ever, is trending is because he endorsed Joe Biden for president in what’s apparently his first political video.

“My father, @MelBrooks, is 94. He has never made a political video. Until now,” his son (and World War Z author) Max Brooks tweeted, along with the hashtags #MelBrooks4JoeBiden, #BidenHarris, and #GrassrootsDemHQ. “I’m Mel Brooks, and behind me you see my son and my grandson, and they can’t be with me. Why? Because of this coronavirus, and Donald Trump isn’t doing a damn thing about it,” Brooks says in the video. “So many people have died, and when you’re dead you can’t do much. So I’m voting for Joe Biden. I like Joe. Why do I like Joe? Because Joe likes facts. Joe likes science. Joe will keep us going. Take a tip from me – vote for Joe.”

If Biden doesn’t tweet “vote for me, so 94-year-old Mel Brooks can hug his son and grandson” within the next hour, his social media team should be fired.

Ariana Grande and Adele have some very dedicated fans who often show their undying love by flooding Twitter with fancams and and supportive posts. But on occasion, their fans can turn ruthless. That’s what happened Wednesday when Grande and Adele fans, anxious for information on new music from the artists, mistakingly thought an indie record of the month company was sharing exclusive music from the pop stars.

Both Grande and Adele have been steadily teasing new releases, so when record club Vinyl Me, Please cryptically announced they had a “big new album” on the way, Grande and Adele fans swarmed their page with giddy excitement.

Much to the disappointment of the stans, Vinyl Me, Please’s “big new album” turned out to be Julien Baker’s upcoming record Little Oblivions, which she announced Wednesday with the lead single “Faith Healer.” In retaliation, the stans took over the record club’s replies with cries of distress.

Those familiar with Vinyl Me, Please’s platform were confused why Grande and Adele fans thought an indie company would be responsible for releases from some of today’s biggest pop stars.

Vinyl Me, Please attempted to thwart the stans by giving them a primer on Baker, describing her “incredibly raw, self-confessional” sound.

See the tweets from Grande and Adele stans above.

Life always presents challenges, but for a variety of obvious reasons, 2020 has been a more difficult year than most. Musicians have been hit hard by the pandemic, and it certainly hasn’t been easy on FLETCHER. The rising pop star was preparing to have a huge year: She was set to release her debut album and go on tour with Niall Horan and Lewis Capaldi. As she notes in the latest Honda Backstage video, though, those things didn’t happen. Instead, she changed her plans and had a year she didn’t see coming.

FLETCHER isn’t coy about the fact that 2020 has been difficult, saying in the video, “Rock bottom: It’s a phase that I’m in right now. I can’t be in sessions, I can’t perform, I can’t release anything. What’s my identity? I’m feeling super lost but also going through this emotional turmoil with my ex.”

She and her ex, YouTuber and content creator Shannon Beveridge, quarantined together, which resulted in The S(ex) Tapes, an EP about the dissolution of their relationship. FLETCHER explained the project (for which Beveridge helped create the visual components), “The whole concept behind S(ex) Tapes is somebody being caught in their most vulnerable. That’s what these visuals are for me, and being captured by somebody who’s captured me in all of my forms over the last four years.”

The EP dropped in September, and with that in the (not-so-distant) past, FLETCHER is eager to find out what’s next for her: “I am on the other side of this. My truest, strongest self is on the other side of this, and I want to know what this person looks like so I can share that with the people in my life.”

Check out the video above.

Some “limited edition whiskeys” are simply regular expressions in a special bottle. You might end up drinking the very same juice that’s inside a standard release. Other limited editions are one-off single barrel or single cask drops that come directly from the head distiller’s stash. Then you have ultra-rare or very old releases, plus single malts, blends, or bourbons that were made for an event or anniversary that’ll never be seen again.

It’s a “limited” category full of endless opportunities for interesting expressions. Ironic, sure, but also tons of fun to explore.

The thing with limited edition whiskeys is that they’re amazingly varied in style, age, and, of course, price. You can find expressions in the $20-range and the $2,000-range, but it’s safe to say that a limited edition whiskey is generally going to cost more than your everyday bourbons or blended scotches. That doesn’t mean there aren’t affordable bottles out there, it just means that this particular list isn’t specifically aimed at saving you money (we have plenty of those, if you’re looking).

The 10 bottles below represent singular experiences in whiskey drinking. A few are released every year in limited quantities and a few are new releases just for 2020. Some are legit investment bottles and others are just an investment in a nice whiskey-sipping evening. Enjoy!

Jim Beam Distiller’s Cut

ABV: 50%
Distillery: Jim Beam, Clermont, KY (Beam Suntory)
Average Price: $22

The Whiskey:

This limited edition from Jim Beam is hand-selected by the legend Fred Noe. He chooses five and six-year-old barrels from the Beam warehouse and bottles them with no chill filtration. The result is a more robust version of the Jim Beam you know and have probably enjoyed shooting with a beer back at the bar.

Tasting Notes:

The classic Jim Beam touches of vanilla and sweet caramel are evident on the nose but accompanied by a clear rush of oak and hints of fruit. The palate delivers on those bourbon aromas with a nice Christmas spice matrix accompanied by an almost tropical fruit sweetness. The end has a nice balance of spice, sweet, and oak as it swiftly fades away.

Bottom Line:

You can snag a bottle of this for around $20. It tastes like it costs $40, easily. Yes, it’s an easy-drinker but that just means you can drink it on the rocks, in a highball, or in your favorite cocktail.

Woodford Reserve 2020 Kentucky Derby 146

ABV: 45.2%
Distillery: Woodford Reserve Distillery, Woodford County, KY & Brown Forman Distillery, Shively, KY (Brown-Forman)
Average Price: $50

The Whiskey:

This is standard Woodford Reserve in a collector’s edition bottle. Each year for over 20 years, Woodford Reserve has released a unique bottle with a hand-painted tribute to the Kentucky Derby on the label. While the juice inside isn’t exactly something to clamor over (it’s a solid bourbon all around), the unique art on the bottle is what aficionados are after. Previous year’s editions are already selling for a lot more than $50.

Tasting Notes:

The fairly high-rye mash bill leans into spice, oak, and a little bit of orange oil on the nose. The vanilla takes a back seat to a Christmas cake with plenty of dark spice, dried and candied fruit, and caramel sweetness. The end is lingering, spicy, and has a very distant hint of oaky smoke.

Bottom Line:

Look, you can get a bottle of Woodford Reserve for $30. This really is all about a cool bottle with a bespoke piece of art on the glass that’ll look good on your shelf and maybe make you some cash in a decade or two.

The Balvenie Single Barrel First Fill Aged 12 Years

ABV: 47.8%
Distillery: The Balvenie Distillery, Dufftown, Speyside (William Grant & Sons)
Average Price: $82

The Whisky:

This is a very limited release from an iconic distillery. Each release of this single cask expression only yields 300 bottles. That’s it. The barrels are first-fill ex-bourbon casks that are chosen specifically for their depth of flavors.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a definite bourbon edge to this sweet single malt with hints of spice, and toasted oak with plenty of vanilla and toffee. The palate leans into the toffee while bringing a real sense of spicy baked apples next to creamy vanilla pudding. All of that spice, fruit, and sweetness slowly dissipates as the dram warms your senses.

Bottom Line:

This is a solid sipper that needs a little water to really let it bloom. You can also make a killer old fashioned with this expression.

Method and Madness Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey

ABV: 46%
Distillery: Irish Distillers, Midleton, County Cork (Pernod Ricard)
Average Price: $84

The Whiskey:

This new limited release from Midleton Distillers down in County Cork, Ireland, is also one of the more unique drams on this list. The juice is a single pot still whiskey, meaning it’s made from both malted and unmalted barley in a, you guessed it, pot still. The whiskey then rests in both ex-sherry and ex-bourbon casks before it’s blended. Finally, the whiskey is finished in chestnut casks, which is quickly becoming an interesting alternative to more traditional oak.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a clear maltiness on the nose next to grated fresh ginger and a savory herbal note beside a flutter of candy-sweetness. The juice holds onto that sweetness and marries it to the spice, adding a bit of ripe banana next to a crusty and buttery breadiness. A trace of slight bitterness comes in late with the spice and oak as the sip fades out.

Bottom Line:

This is a solid sipper, especially with a rock or two. It’s also very interesting in a cocktail where the whiskey can shine (think Manhattan).

Compass Box Peat Monster Arcana

ABV: 46%
Distillery: Compass Box Whisky, London (Sourced)
Average Price: $104

The Whiskey:

London-based blender Compass Box is making some seriously fine blended scotches right now. One of their pinnacles is their Peat Monster Arcana. The lion’s share of the blend comes from Talisker with help from Ardbeg and Miltonduff whiskies alongside a special French oak casked whisky to round out the blend.

Tasting Notes:

This is a “peat monster” in name only. The smokiness is drawn way back but clearly present with a note of dark chocolate next to cinnamon spice and a hint of — and bear with us — outboard motor smoke on the briny sea. It’s really enticing, especially if you grew up near the ocean. The palate edges away from the smoke with a bold fruity sweetness that mixes nicely with the spice and helps the sip keep the campfire intensity at bay.

Bottom Line:

This is a really good highball whisky with minerally fizzy water. It’s an even better pairing dram if you’re getting into funky cheeses.

Cardhu Aged 11 Years

ABV: 56%
Distillery: Cardhu Distillery, Archiestown, Speyside (Diageo)
Average Price: $106

The Whiskey:

Every year, Diageo releases their Rare By Nature series of single malts from around Scotland. This year’s limited releases open with a classic yet young single malt from Cardhu. The eleven-year-old expression was aged in a combination of refill, new, and ex-bourbon American oak barrels with an aim to draw out the whiskey’s sweeter and spicier edges.

Tasting Notes:

This is amazingly light with a bit of shaved wood next to big notes of tart and sweet apples and pineapple next to a rush of bright lemon zest and an underbelly of wet earth. The sweet fruits stay strong as the taste edges towards a flourish of warm, peppery spice next to a buttery biscuit. The end is long and full of that spice and sweetness. A little water really brings the fruitiness back into the foreground with a brightness that’s enrapturing.

Bottom Line:

This is a fantastic sipper and one of my top single malt drams of the year so far.

Aberfeldy 18

ABV: 43%
Distillery: Aberfeldy Distillery, Aberfeldy, Highlands (Bacardi)
Average Price: $130

The Whiskey:

This year’s Aberfeldy 18 is a special release from Malt Master Stephanie MacLeod. This expression takes Aberfeldy aged in refill bourbon casks and transfers that juice to red wine casks from Pauillac, Bordeaux. The finishing in funky red wine adds a wonderful depth to the already well-craft juice that helps this brand-new release really shine.

Tasting Notes:

The sip opens with a bushel of bright red berries leaning towards sweet/tart blackberries with a sense of oak and a hint of tobacco. The palate delivers on that nose and adds a cedar bark dimension with a nice hint of cinnamon and allspice next to dry tobacco and a slight earthiness. The plummy fruits, cedar, and spice round out the sip as it slowly fades into a nice, warm hug.

Bottom Line:

This is another of my favorite single malt drams of the year (so far). It’s just a wonderful sipping whisky that only gets bolder and tastier with a little water or a single rock.

Midleton Very Rare Vintage Release 2020

ABV: 40%
Distillery: Irish Distillers, Midleton, County Cork (Pernod Ricard)
Average Price: $210

The Whiskey:

Midleton Vert Rare Vintage releases are to Irish whiskey what a Pappy drop is to bourbon.

This year’s release is the final one from Irish Distiller’s Master Distiller Brian Nation and it’s a doozy. The whiskey is a blend of 13 to 35-year-old whiskeys aged in lightly charred ex-bourbon casks. The selection and blending of this renowned dram is a bit of a handoff between Nation and Irish Distiller’s new Master Distiller Kevin O’Gorman who worked with Nation to create this farewell expression.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a real sense of the oak with notes of sugar cane, bourbon vanilla, Christmas spices with a peppery edge, creamy chocolate, and a whiff of late-summer orchard fruit. That fruit carries you into the taste with an over-ripe pear essence next to orange zest, mild spice, and oak. There’s a slight bitterness on the backend that leads the fruit, oak, and spice slowly off into the distance.

Bottom Line:

This is just a great whiskey all around, Irish or not, and a top-five of the year for me. Sip it slowly with a little water so it can properly bloom.

Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch

ABV: 55.7%
Distillery: Four Roses Distillery, Lawrenceburg, KY (Kirin Brewing Co.)
Average Price: $320

The Whiskey:

Every year Four Roses releases a Limited Edition Small Batch that often becomes the toast of the bourbon world. The bottle retails (from the distillery) for $150 but will cost you twice that on the secondary market. What’s in the bottle is a refined blend of high-rye and low-rye mash bills with fruity and spicy yeasts in the mix. The four bourbons in the blend are 12, 16, and 19-years-old.

Tasting Notes:

There’s classic bourbon vanilla, sweet caramel apple, honey, and oaky presence up top. The sip then edges more into stonefruit territory with a clear apricot taste next to red berries and rye spiciness that’s dialed-in. The end is long, full of fruit, rye spices, and a warming embrace that draws you back for more.

Bottom Line:

This is a really nice sipping whiskey. The addition of a rock or water really helps it open up. Is it worth the aftermarket price? That’s up for you to decide. But it does live up to its hype in our estimation.

William Larue Weller

ABV: 67.25%
Distillery: Buffalo Trace Distillery, Frankfort, KY (Sazerac Company)
Average Price: $700

The Whiskey:

This wheated bourbon from the world-renowned Buffalo Trace shingle is a hell of a dram. For the 2020 edition, the barrels were stored in two specific places in two specific warehouses for 12 years, where 73 percent of the juice was lost to the angels. The whiskey was then married and bottled exactly as it came out of the cask.

Tasting Notes:

This one is incredibly welcoming on the nose, with a creamy vanilla foundation mingling with notes of fatty pecans, caramel, and charred oak. Coffee bean bitterness sits next to ripe cherry fruity sweetness and that creamy vanilla. The oak keeps the sip going as a hint of dark chocolate arrives on the long finish.

Bottom Line:

This was my favorite expression from this year’s Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. It’s perfect with a single rock in a tumbler.

Fall has fully arrived, and with the colder temperatures soon to settle into the U.S., Netflix is settling into more heavy-duty bingewatching territory while also encouraging holiday-fueled escapism. You may not be doing the full-on family thing this year (and let’s face it, that’s probably a good thing), but you can still enjoy the togetherness of others right? Hey, you’ll be avoiding dinnertime arguments, so there’s something.

Plenty of original offerings are on the way, including the return of Netflix’s crown prestige jewel, The Crown, which has consistently captivated even the most hardcore non-royal-watchers among us. Meanwhile, Ron Howard’s stirring up Oscar buzz with a film starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close, who are both overdue for some gold themselves. Oh, and Shawn Mendes is doing the documentary thing, and Christmas is coming from both Kurt Russell and Dolly Parton.

Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Netflix in November.

The Crown: Season 4 (Netflix series streaming 11/15)

This batch of new episodes introduces two major newcomers to the ensemble: The one and only Gillian Anderson as Prime Minister Margaret “Iron Lady” Thatcher and newcomer Emma Corrin as Princess Diana. Of major interest to royal watchers will be how the show frames the royal entrance of Diana, who would become the People’s Princess amid her stormy marriage to Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor). And as this teaser suggests, the fairy tale certainly isn’t everything that Diana expected it to be. The events of the season threaten to cast a shadow upon both the House of Windsor and Downing Street through high-pressure situations and cracks in the royal veneer.

Hillbilly Elegy (Netflix series streaming 11/24)

Amy Adams and Glenn Close both transform themselves for an Appalachian-set drama and even more swings at those elusive Oscar wins. Directed by Ron Howard, this film’s based upon J.D. Vance’s memoir of the same name, and the story follows how Vance, a Yale Law student, returns to his hometown for a family crisis. In the process, he’s dealing with high drama amid his mother’s addictive struggles. It’s a modern-day exploration of the American Dream as fueled by complex dynamics and a multigenerational take on the common-yet-uncommon journey that each family member faces in different ways.

Shawn Mendes: In Wonder (Netflix documentary film streaming 11/23)

The floppy-haired heartthrob takes fans behind the scenes of his demanding rise to the top, which led him towards a reckoning of sorts. The film promises a heartfelt glimpse into the pressures experienced while coming-of-age in front of absolutely everyone. While charting his path from precocious troubadour to global superstar, the project also includes never-before-seen footage of his private life and worldwide travels.

Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square (Netflix film streaming 11/22)

Everyone loves Dolly, so at least there’s one thing that you won’t be arguing about with your relatives this season. Featuring an album full of original Dolly music, this film (which co-stars Christine Baranski) revolves around how the coldest of hearts can melt in the face of family, love, and the enduring Christmas spirit of a small town.

The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two (Netflix film streaming 11/25)

Kurt Russell’s hot Santa returns two years after Kate and Teddy saved Christmas. Kate’s now a cynical teenager with family drama, and for some reason, she’s not thrilled to spend Christmas in Cancun. The trouble truly begins when a mysterious toublemaker, Belsnickel, plots to destroy Christmas and make a ground zero out of the North Pole. Russell’s here to help save the day, and yes, Goldie Hawn’s along for the ride.

Here’s the full list of titles coming to Netflix in November:

Avail. 11/1
M’entends-tu? / Can You Hear Me?: Season 2
60 Days In: Season 5
A Clockwork Orange
Boyz n the Hood
Casper
Christmas Break-In
Dawson’s Creek: Seasons 1-6
Easy A
Elf Pets: A Fox Cub’s Christmas Tale
Elf Pets: Santa’s Reindeer Rescue
Elliot the Littlest Reindeer
Forged in Fire: Season 6
Jumping the Broom
Knock Knock
Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath: Seasons 1-3
Little Monsters (1989)
Mile 22
Ocean’s Eleven
Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Piercing
Platoon
School Daze
Snowden
The Garfield Show: Season 3
The Impossible
The Indian in the Cupboard
The Next Karate Kid
Wheels of Fortune
Yes Man

Avail. 11/2
Prospect

Avail. 11/3
Felix Lobrecht: Hype
Mother

Avail. 11/4
A Christmas Catch
Christmas With A Prince
Love and Anarchy

Avail. 11/5
A New York Christmas Wedding
Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta?
Midnight At The Magnolia
Operation Christmas Drop
Paranormal

Avail. 11/6
Citation
Country Ever After
La trinchera infinita / The Endless Trench
The Late Bloomer

Avail. 11/9
Undercover: Season 2

Avail. 11/10
Dash & Lily
Trash Truck

Avail. 11/11
Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun
The Liberator
Nasce uma Rainha / A Queen Is Born
What We Wanted

Avail. 11/12
Fruitvale Station
Graceful Friends
Ludo
Prom Night

Avail. 11/13
American Horror Story: 1984
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey
The Life Ahead
The Minions of Midas

Avail. 11/15
A Very Country Christmas
America’s Next Top Model: Seasons 19 & 20
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
The Crown: Season 4
Hometown Holiday
Survivor: Seasons 20 & 28
V for Vendetta

Avail. 11/16
Loving
Whose Streets?

Avail. 11/17
The Boss Baby: Back in Business: Season 4
We Are the Champions

Avail. 11/18
El sabor de las margaritas / Bitter Daisies: Season 2
Holiday Home Makeover with Mr. Christmas

Avail. 11/19
The Princess Switch: Switched Again

Avail. 11/20
Alien Xmas
Flavorful Origins: Gansu Cuisine
If Anything Happens I Love You
Voices of Fire

Avail. 11/22
Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square
Machete Kills

Avail. 11/23
Hard Kill
Shawn Mendes: In Wonder

Avail. 11/24
Dragons: Rescue Riders: Huttsgalor Holiday
El Cuaderno de Tomy / Notes for My Son
Hillbilly Elegy
Wonderoos

Avail. 11/25
The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two
Great Pretender: Season 2

Avail. 11/26
Larry the Cable Guy: Remain Seated
Mosul

Avail. 11/27
A Go! Go! Cory Carson Christmas
The Call
Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker
Don’t Listen
Sugar Rush Christmas: Season 2
Überweihnachten / Over Christmas
Virgin River: Season 2
La Belva / The Beast

Avail. 11/28
The Uncanny Counter
Wonderoos: Holiday Holiday!

Avail. 11/30
The 2nd
A Love So Beautiful
Finding Agnes
Spookley and the Christmas Kittens

Coming Soon
Mismatched
Supernatural: Season 15
Trial 4

Here’s the full list of titles leaving Netflix in November:

Leaving 11/1
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil
Olympus Has Fallen
Shark Night

Leaving 11/4
Death House

Leaving 11/6
Into the Forest
Krisha

Leaving 11/7
Hit & Run
Hope Springs Eternal
The Sea of Trees
Sleepless

Leaving 11/8
Bathtubs Over Broadway

Leaving 11/11
Green Room

Leaving 11/14
Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States: Season 1

Leaving 11/15
9
Abominable Christmas
The Addams Family
Drive

Leaving 11/16
Santa Claws
Soul Surfer

Leaving 11/17
Sour Grapes

Leaving 11/22
End of Watch

Leaving 11/23
Bushwick
Shot Caller

Leaving 11/26
The Lincoln Lawyer

Leaving 11/27
Jeopardy!: Champion Run I: Gilbert Collins
Jeopardy!: Champion Run II: Rachel Lindgren
Jeopardy!: Champion Run III: Ryan Fenster
Jeopardy!: Champion Run IV: Josh Hill
Jeopardy!: College Championship III
Jeopardy!: Producer’s Pick
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

Leaving 11/30
Anaconda
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl
The Bachelor: Season 13
Bad News Bears
Diana: In Her Own Words
Gridiron Gang
Hostage
National Security
Lakeview Terrace
Moneyball
Ocean’s Eleven
Ocean’s Twelve
Ocean’s Thirteen
Priest
Stand and Deliver
The Tribes of Palos Verdes
West Side Story
Y Tu Mamá También
You Don’t Mess with the Zohan
Zodiac

Atlanta’s Deante Hitchcock and Oakland’s Guapdad 4000 reunite on “Déjà Vu” from Hitchcock’s upcoming deluxe version of his debut album, Better. Over a chilly beat, the two rappers reminisce on past paramours, lamenting the mistakes that cost them chances at happiness. Hitchcock sums it up in his verse, theorizing that “‘Fallin’ in love is bad for your health,’” as a statement, is “cap.”

The two rappers last linked up on “Orgasm Full Of Pain,” from Guapdad’s amusing Falcon Fridays series of single releases. The pair likely linked up in Atlanta at the star-studded recording sessions for Dreamville’s Revenge Of The Dreamers III, to which both were invited and where Guapdad became a breakout star, and since then, they’ve developed smooth working chemistry that has delivered some spectacular results.

After originally dropping Better in May and supporting it with videos for “Attitude” and “I Got Money Now,” Hitchcock allowed a few months to go by before announcing its deluxe version, joining the ever-growing list of artists utilizing the strategy to extend the lifespan of their projects in lieu of touring this year. Hitchcock shared the tracklist on Instagram, revealing a wealth of new songs with appearances from TDE’s Reason, fellow Atlanta rapper Kenny Mason, and R&B star Ro James.

Listen to Deante Hitchcock’s “Déjà Vu” featuring Guapdad 4000 above.

The deluxe version of Better is due 10/28 via RCA/Bystorm. You can pre-save it here.

Guapdad 4000 is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

LeBron James, like the many other NBA players, is focused on voting as Election Day nears. Through his More Than A Vote Campaign, James has worked all summer to return the franchise to Americans who are often disempowered, and has partnered with Win Black to battle misinformation directed at Black voters.

In an interview with Astead W. Herndon of the New York Times, James explained his work this fall. Focusing on voting rights and community education is James’ plan rather than engaging in a war of words with President Donald Trump, with whom he has butted heads in the past.

“I don’t go back and forth with anybody. And I damn sure won’t go back and forth with that guy,” James said. “But we want better, we want change in our community. We always talk about, “We want change,” and now we have the opportunity to do that.”

The reigning NBA Finals MVP sees too much at stake this election cycle to get caught up in a controversy with the president. Data from 2016 shows millions of Black Americans did not vote in the presidential election after turning out in record numbers in 2008 and 2012. Organizations like More Than A Vote and Win Black are hoping to reverse that trend in 2020. The potential of that work, according to James, is far greater than whatever he might gain from spending his energy bashing the president.

“You know, there’s so many stats out there, you can see it every time,” James said. “Who didn’t vote? What counties didn’t vote? What communities didn’t vote? And a lot of that has had to do with our Black people. So, hopefully, we can get them out and educated and let them understand how important this moment is.”

With about two weeks to go until Election Day, James is hoping one last blitz aimed at empowering young Black people about the power of their vote can make a difference in the outcomes for local and national politics.

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“It just feels extreme,” Kevin Morby said of the political divide between his Kansas City, Kansas hometown and his former LA dwelling. “Moving back here, it’s interesting when you’re faced with someone who you might love, but then suddenly their politics are the complete opposite of yours.”

Morby was forced to get used to extremes in the past two years. Little did he know it at the time, but the singer had a “weird precursor to quarantine” while recording his cinematic slice-of-life album Sundowner. Isolated at his new home in the suburbs of Kansas and far away from his life in the big city, Morby was overcome with a poignant sense of nostalgia as the sun set each night across the boundless country. While he struggled with seclusion, his newfound free time allowed him the opportunity to contemplate the bigger picture: Death, divisive politics, and why he found himself ceaselessly chasing the sun’s setting rays.

These are themes Morby delicately depicts in Sundowner. He captures the vastness of the American landscape, both political and otherwise, through hushed pleas in “Don’t Underestimate Midwest American Sun” and samples of groaning thunderstorms on the fully-instrumental number “Velvet Highway.” In this way, Sundowner speaks to the stark contrast between rural and city life and casts an auspicious prayer for the future of American children in a time where hope feels as fleeting as ever.

Speaking over Zoom from the same studio where the album was recorded on his 4-track Tascam, Morby and his life-sized cardboard cutout of Elvis Presley broke down Sundowner from its overarching themes to its most personal tracks.

In the press materials for Sundowner, you talk about how you came up with the term after feeling really nostalgic whenever the evening time came and you were watching the sunset over the landscape. Do you think that returning to your hometown played into that nostalgic feeling at all? Especially since you were actually living there and not just visiting, did you find yourself surprised, disappointed, or excited about any of the ways that it changed?

Yeah, absolutely. It played into it. I lived in New York for so long and I lived in LA for so long, and those are two places where I would get home from tour or I’d get home from recording and my life in the music industry would just continue. I was very social and constantly going to shows or going out with other friends who were also songwriters, and the night sort of represented this different thing. I really looked forward to the night and I was really anticipating it. It’s kind of when my day began in a lot of ways. And then coming back here where there are none of those things and there is none of the temptation or opportunity to go out and be as social as I was, I was really faced with myself. So the nightfall really represented this different thing. That seemed to be when it became most apparent that I was really just isolated. I was left to my own devices to keep myself entertained, and then later my girlfriend Katie [Crutchfield] moved in. But then it was the two of us isolated and the two of us left to our own devices to keep one another entertained. It took on this whole new meaning, like the sunset and my life in LA or New York meant one thing — the day’s kind of beginning — and then here, it means a whole different thing. And the product of that was me becoming very reflective and looking out at this whole other part of my life from this different vantage point.

That’s really interesting because obviously New York City is known as the city that never sleeps. Things are open until all hours of the night, but I’m sure that in your hometown things close at eight or nine p.m. and there’s nowhere to go that you can stay out late.

There are some lyrics where I literally depict that on this record because it was just a sort of jarring experience, especially when I got back and I was still a night owl and I was staying up late. It just became a very strange experience. There’s a weird sports bar near my house that no one like us would ever hang out at. But I found myself going there alone and it was an isolated experience and a completely new world. […] I think the biggest thing is that there was no one really to relate to about my “bigger” life — “bigger” in terms of being on the road and having a name for myself in music. Whereas in LA, all my friends are songwriters and in New York, all my friends are songwriters and can relate to that sort of lifestyle, but here, I just kept those thoughts to myself.

Do you have the experience in your hometown where there are a lot of people who just stay there and don’t travel?

Yeah, absolutely. And that’s a totally fine thing to do, but it makes it hard for me to relate to those people. But, in the same breath, I really enjoy being around people who are out of the music industry. I think in its own ways, the music industry can be its own small town. It can be its own form of claustrophobia. So it felt really good to step away from that and gain a new perspective on things. And during this fucking reign of Trump, I think there is something to be said about being an artist who exists outside of this liberal bubble in both California and New York. I took some pride in moving back home where I was out of that bubble and I was reminded that it’s everyday people who maybe have never met an artist or who maybe just have never learned about a different way of life.

I like being back in a place where my vote is going to count more in a state like Kansas than it would in a state like New York or California. And I think that’s important too. When I moved here, I was sort of wondering why I was doing it. And the whole thing now feels like a weird foreshadow of the situation we’re all in now. And I see a lot of friends leaving New York or LA or bigger cities and coming back to their hometowns. I think ultimately that’s good because I don’t think that creative people, progressive thinking people, should necessarily be all in hubs. I think it’s good sometimes to spread that out so that the country feels a little bit more evenly divided. It’s been an interesting experience being faced with a lot more Trump flags. Though I will say, I’m very surprised — and I really hope this is significant of something — but I see a lot of Black Lives Matter and a lot of Biden signs, way more than I ever saw any Hillary signs. So I’m taking that as a good omen, hopefully, for November.

You speak about praying for America in certain songs, like in “Don’t Underestimate Midwest American Sun,” you say “pray for our American daughters and sons.” What specifically did you have in mind when you were writing that?

The one water lyric (“Pray for our American water and sons”) pertains to the environment and everything that’s happening. Speaking to then the Dakota pipeline or the pollution, the rising oceans, the wildfires. And I know that’s a global problem, but just more specifically, I think the pipeline stuff was really happening at that time and the California wildfires. Also, speaking to the youth and thinking about what the youth are going through. I think about the stark difference between kids who grew up with Obama as their president and then now, people growing up with someone like Trump is the president. And also that stark difference in terms of things like social media. I think we’re in such an interesting and sort of scary and exciting time in history. And to be a kid right now — my heart goes out to them. I’m very grateful to have grown up without a lot of these things. Growing up with a president that, even if I didn’t agree with, I could make sense of, and growing up without an iPhone. So now, it just seems like the wild west out there.

A theme that I noticed throughout the album is you talked about running. Either running from something, someone running ahead of you, or in “Sundowner,” talking about the sun running away from you.

In both situations, the sunset or the running, I’m speaking about a relationship. My girlfriend, Katie, and I had just started dating at that time. It was almost like we were existing in this incubator, like we had this force field around us when we were here. Then, we’d go back out into our lives. In the beginning phases of dating somebody, you never know what’s going to happen, but it felt like a very safe place. We had our own little world, but then we’d go out to the world and we’re subjected to any sort of danger. It just felt like we were existing in this life, but always running from it — running to the next tour or just the next thing that was pulling one of us away.

And then the sun running from me is the idea that I was never conscious of the sun’s patterns. In these other places, I didn’t have too much time to think about it or if I did, I really welcomed the night time. But it was here that I really became anxious. Once the sun goes down, I’m just faced with the night and it’s just me and my thoughts. So it just felt like I was always running or that I was trying to chase the sun, trying to get as much of the day as possible because I didn’t want to confront the night and all that it brought on.

Your song “A Night At The Little Los Angeles” is your longest song on the entire record. You moved to LA after being born in Kansas and you touch on a lot of different midwest states throughout the lyrics. I personally read the song as a way of describing the city through the eyes of somebody who grew up in a small town, especially when you talk about the sand looking like sugar and being buried underneath the concrete, but you also refer to Kansas itself as the little LA.

That song came about when I first moved back to Kansas from LA. I bought this house and I was decorating it. I totally made it look just like a California house and I had a friend comment, ‘Oh, you can’t decorate your house like this. You moved out of California, you got to decorate it with something different.’ It was all agave plants and cacti. It looked like I was trying to live in Joshua Tree or something. So, my buddy gave it that name and some creative part of me really ran with that. I really liked the idea of being in rural Kansas having a hotel that is Los Angeles themed. […] I think of a hotel as a brain. It’s got all these brains within it and there are so many stories to this one building. I’m actually working on a short novella about that — the song but a longform of that song.

Driving through Kansas, it’s just so flat and so boring. There are a couple of rest stops that have palm trees. They try to make it seem like a tropical resort. And there’s also this big billboard that’s in Manhattan, Kansas. It says, ‘We have flights to Los Angeles!’ It’s a big picture of LA, but it’s out in this ugly, barren place. I just love the juxtaposition of someone in the Midwest really romanticizing a place like LA, but perhaps never having been there.

Speaking about your song “Jamie,” it deals a lot with death and the afterlife — death of friends, death of musicians that you really idolized. And it seems like it’s your way of paying homage to those talented musicians. You write about both being sad and angry about death, but also acknowledge that that’s not always the best response — there’s even a sense of hopefulness.

Jamie’s a really good friend of mine and one of my best friends. When I was 20 and he passed away and his death made a very big impression on me. Up until that point, I’d never really lost someone close to me. It just changed my outlook on everything. Jamie has been a constant muse, probably once on every record I mention him or something that he inspired in some way. When I wrote that song, it’d been around 10 years since he had died. So in my own mind, he’d become this mythological figure in my life. He’d inspired so much and I feel like I was able to carry on and do all these things he never got to do, but I got to do them because of him. I wanted to finally give him a name as this person who had inspired stuff but whom I’d never explicitly named. It felt very personal when I was writing it into my 4-track and it was kind of like, ‘Oh, I’ll never release this — this is just too personal, it’s too explicit.’

But then, when I was sitting with a collection of songs, I thought it was good to put his name out there like this. And also the song mentions my friend Desiree, who passed away and who I wasn’t that close with at all. But she’s someone who I knew in passing and who was this popular person in Los Angeles when I was living there. She was a surfer and she died surfing. They were both two people who, when they died, I wasn’t able to go to their funerals. I chose not to go to their funerals because I had a tour plan and it was a kinda crazy thing you deal with as a touring musician. You end up missing a lot of funerals, weddings, and a lot of big life moments for a lot of people. Both of them were such influential people to the people around them and had such big personalities that both of their funerals, having not been there, sort of exist like these big parades in my mind.

You talk about the fire of one’s life “continuing to billow” after it goes out, does that relate back to your song ‘Campfire’ as well?

Yeah, absolutely. That’s the song, which I think about those other people. I never really made fires, but when I moved back here, I have a fire pit in my backyard. I was making a lot of fires in the winter. I was always blown away by how long it takes to put out a fire. You put it out, but it’ll keep smoking and you’ll think it’s out. Then you’ll come back there’s still some wood burning. I would look out my window and be like, ‘The fire is still burning, I don’t know how to put this thing out.’ But I like that as a metaphor for someone’s life — the embers burn on. People, especially those who leave us with music or arts, they really make an impression long after they’re gone.

Sundowner is out now via Dead Oceans. Get it here.