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The best new hip-hop albums coming out this week include projects from Benny The Butcher, Black Thought, Chuck Strangers, Open Mike Eagle, Price, Preme & Popcaan, Rexx Life Raj, Serial Killers, T.I., and WizKid.

Take a deep breath and fasten your seatbelts, this week is so jam-packed with releases that you may need another week to get through them all.

Here are all the best new hip-hop albums coming out this week.

Benny The Butcher — Burden Of Proof

The Griselda Gang keeps trucking. This time, Benny — the quietest of the bunch in 2020 so far — links up with Hit-Boy, who just completed an album with Nas, to release what is (in my opinion) the exclamation point on the Buffalo boys’ year.

Black Thought — Streams Of Thought, Vol. 3: Cane And Able [EP]

The Roots frontman and master rap-tician had to put the third edition of his acclaimed EP series on pause due to the pandemic but knowing him, it’ll be well worth the wait.

Chuck Strangers — Too Afraid To Dance [EP]

Pro Era’s non-Joey Badass members have been slowly but surely carving out an impressive space for themselves on the New York underground scene and Chuck is the latest member to drop as well as the only one to offer up new material in 2020 (aside from Joey’s two singles earlier this year).

Open Mike Eagle — Anime, Trauma And Divorce

Following up 2017’s conceptual Brick Body Kids Still Daydream, the art-rap linchpin returns with a deeply personal rumination on, well, trauma, shot through with tongue-in-cheek references to wrestling, video games, and yes, anime to lighten the burden.

Price — CLRD. [EP]

Audio Push has quietly been producing some of the West Coast’s strongest independent releases over the past few years. Now, the duo’s members are making their first forays into solo work (not including Oktane’s run of 2011 freestyles that proved the group had shifted gears from jerking to straight-up rap). This one might be my favorite release of the week — although, I’ve been known to be biased in the past.

Preme and Popcaan — Link Up

Canada’s Preme *cough cough* links up with Jamaica’s Popcaan for a refreshing take on dancehall that bridges the diasporic gap between the two West Indian enclaves. The OVO-Unruly connection remains strong.

Serial Killers (B-Real, Demrick, And Xzibit) — Summer Of Sam

When this one popped up in my email, eyebrows were certainly raised, since their last release was two years ago. If you think hip-hop has too much singing in it, isn’t menacing enough, doesn’t quite suit your gym mix, this one is for you. Wall-to-wall bars over beats that wouldn’t have been out of place in the late ’90s, all delivered by some of rap’s most respected pioneers.

T.I. — The L.I.B.R.A.

Trap music has come a long way since T.I.’s coined the phrase a decade and a half ago but somehow, he’s managed to keep up with every twist, turn, and evolution to remain one of the genre’s most respected stalwarts. Two years removed from Dime Trap, T.I. has gone independent to bring his 11th project, which features Young Thug, Lil Baby, and more.

WizKid — Made In Lagos

As Nigeria takes the spotlight of world news as the latest epicenter of the fight against police authoritarianism and abuse, Wizkid has been using his platform to demand the end of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in his home country, all while prepping the release of his highly anticipated follow-up to 2017’s Sounds from the Other Side.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It’s a well-known standard of etiquette that you don’t upstage a bride at her wedding. You should dress up and look nice, but not fancier than the bride. And you certainly shouldn’t draw attention to yourself with a big announcement, taking the attention away from the big day and turning it onto yourself.

But what if the bride does that for you?

A video shared by @_BlackCouples and reshared by @RexChapman starts with a bride with her back to her line of bridesmaids, preparing to toss the bouquet. Traditionally, the woman who catches the bouquet is supposed to be the next one to tie the knot. But as this bride is about to toss the flowers, she stops.

Then she turns around, shakes her head, and starts walking toward one of her bridesmaids.

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The bridesmaid clearly has no idea what’s going on, and when the bride hands her the bouquet she just giggles. Then the bride spins her around to her boyfriend, who is down on one knee, holding up a ring. Aw, dang.

The joy of the whole wedding party is palpable as the bridesmaid squeals and then starts to cry. Her boyfriend’s grin could not be wider, and the bride herself is beaming behind her friend.

Some people commented on the video saying they’d be upset if a friend stole their thunder with a stunt like that on their big day, but it’s clear that the bride was 100% in on it. It’s not like she was taken by surprise, which would have been tacky. There are stories of clueless people staging their own big moment during someone’s wedding reception, and such stories are always super cringey.

But this wasn’t that. This looks like a beautiful group of friends sharing not just one, but two very special events in their lives at the same time. The bride selflessly shared the spotlight on her big day, and in doing so got to play a significant role in someone else’s love story as well—someone that she clearly cares a lot about to want to surprise her like that at such an iconic moment.

The video clearly hit people right in their soft spots, perhaps especially right now when so many of us have had to miss out on attending our loved ones’ weddings. It’s not clear when this wedding took place, but it’s presumably from before the pandemic. These are the kinds of moments we long to see again, when we can safely hold big gatherings, when don’t have to wear masks and mentally measure six feet constantly, when we can hug our loved ones with wild abandon.

Until that normalcy returns, we’ll just have to live vicariously through these kinds of inspiring, feel-good videos.

Starting with The Last Dance and throughout this entire summer of NBA basketball, the debate between LeBron James and Michael Jordan has been constant. Now that James has won his fourth championship, fans and Hall of Famers alike are hashing it out again. Magic Johnson, in a recent interview with John Lynch of Business Insider, explained why James still has a chance to retire as the greatest ever.

Asked how he viewed James’ accomplishments in the Bubble, here’s what Magic said:

I view it as a man who, that’s why he’s where he is. In terms of winning now four championships and dominating basketball at a tender age of what, 35, I think it is. For him, to me, to be the best basketball player still in the world.

Also, he should have been the MVP of the league during the season. He was MVP of the NBA Finals. I mean, his taking care of his body, his focus, his drive, his will, is off the charts. He’s a throwback. That’s why he’s in that G.O.A.T. conversation.

And he can move forward. As he keeps winning, he will climb that ladder. There’s already talk about, you know, comparing him and Michael, and there will be serious talk if he wins another one. It’s going to be hard. Fans are really going to be pushing for him to be right up there with Michael.

As Magic notes, what makes James’ case so interesting is that he’s still capable of adding some significant accomplishments to his resume, namely a fifth (or possibly sixth) title to move even closer to Jordan. Along with that, part of why Magic seems to be so impressed with James’ performance this year is because of the challenges this season posed. On that note, Magic expanded upon why the Bubble was a unique difficulty compared with normal seasons.

More from Magic:

Yeah, the play was amazing. Listen, guys had to sacrifice so much. First of all, they had to leave their families at home. Then they had to eat things that they normally was not accustomed to eating. They didn’t get to eat what they wanted. So all these things happened in that bubble. And so for them to come and play the way they played and the way they performed. Nah, man, it wasn’t pickup basketball. That was sensational basketball. You know, for the circumstances that they played under. For them to come ready to play each and every night. Hats off to every single team and every single player.

It’s hard to argue that in a postseason where many superstars underperformed and success seemed to be predicated upon focus, force of will, and team chemistry, that we may one day look back like Magic at this Bubble as an even more special achievement for James than normal.

Ty Lue will become the next head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers, replacing Doc Rivers after serving as Rivers’ lead assistant this season, according to a new report from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Lue, who had reportedly been among the front-runners since the Clippers parted ways with Rivers in late September, will receive a five-year contract from the team.

The deal will give Lue security into the future even as the Clippers aim to nail down long-term commitments from superstars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George after a disappointing second-round playoff loss. Lue’s task will be to shore up a team that reportedly suffered from turmoil all season long and severely underperformed in the NBA Bubble this summer.

Lue also is now off the board for Houston and New Orleans, who had both expressed significant interest in him in recent days. While Lue takes over the top seat on the Clippers’ coaching staff, he will bring with him newly signed lead assistant Chauncey Billups, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Billups had been a candidate for head coaching positions around the league as well this offseason.

Los Angeles heads into an offseason still among the favorites for the 2021 NBA championship and has now added an experienced head coach in Lue who has championship pedigree and the ability, like Rivers and Billups, to connect with players as a former NBA contributor himself.

Drake is indisputably one of the most influential artists of the past decade. His mixtape So Far Gone and the resulting deal with Lil Wayne’s Young Money Records (not to mention, the million-dollar bidding war for his services) helped change the way artists make music and labels do business for an entire generation after him. However, his influence apparently goes deeper than many of us knew, as revealed by his longtime production partner Noah “40” Shebib, who appeared recently on Kevin Durant‘s new podcast The ETCs.

While talking about Drake’s influence on the music business, 40 shared the details of a conversation he recently had with Travis Scott, who credited 40 and Drake for not only inspiring him musically but also giving him the blueprint to begin recording via their blog, OctobersVeryOwn.net. “Travis Scott told me this story one time when I first met him,” 40 elaborates. “He was like, ’40, man. You did this post on the OVO blog about all you need is this microphone and an interface and a shitty laptop and you can get it done…’ And he was like, ‘Man, you posted that and I went and I showed it to my mom and I told her yo, you gotta buy this mic and we gotta buy this and that. Trust me, this is all I need. I begged her for it and she bought it for me.’”

Years later, Drake would repay the “favor” by appearing with Travis Scott on “Sicko Mode” and helping him secure his first No. 1 placement on the Hot 100. Meanwhile, 40 also told Durant why Drake doesn’t worry about cost when he requests a sample from his producers, the city of Toronto, and why 40 stopped accepting work from other artists.

You can listen to The ETCs (which also features former Uproxx writer Eddie Gonzalez) here.

For over 20 years, Alife has been playing a part in shaping modern streetwear. The brand’s unapologetically daring design ethos leaves no idea untouched, so long as it resonates with the brand’s core — Tony Arcabascio, Tammy Brainard, Rob Cristofaro, and Arnaud Delecolle. If those four think something’s cool, they run with it. Fearlessly.

Alife originally started as an art collective and workshop for its founders and their graffiti writing friends to flex their creative muscles. Eventually, the crew branched out into the streetwear scene, opening up one of New York’s first high-profile sneaker boutiques, the Alife Rivington Club, where the label would drop collaborations with Nike, PUMA, Reebok, and Adidas. Those splashy collabs soon started to attract around-the-block lines and the type of fanfare that has become a pillar of modern sneaker culture. But Alife never rested on hype alone. They soon began hosting concerts in the Rivington space, attracting talent as varied as John Mayer, Drake, and King Krule.

Alife walked — and by “walked” we mean “presented sneakers in a London tailor shop-inspired boutique” — so that the kids at ComplexCon could run. Their position in steetwear history (and present day) is impossible to argue with. To honor that, we sat down (via Zoom) with Alife founder and Chief Creative Officer Rob Cristofaro and chatted about how the brand helped to shape modern sneaker culture, why they decided to drop a Croc collab (back before the intentionally dorky rubber clogs were seen as “…kind of cool?”), and where fans can expect things to go next.

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The Alife Rivington store, which helped to create modern sneaker culture thanks to its high-profile drops, had this kind of London tailor shop vibe. What made you guys want to present footwear in that way?

It was really just the juxtaposition of a high-end environment in a neighborhood that was really nothing like it. And also, the product that was being offered wasn’t this thousand-dollar suit or whatever. It was really just some of the same products that you would find a block over on Delancey Street, just reimagined in this new environment. So it was really designed to give people an experience where they would walk into this place and be in a totally different world.

That was really the thought behind it — to create this environment that was like nothing at the time.

The brand has a rich history of collaboration, from Nike to Wu-Tang Clan. How did that become such an integral part of what you’ve been building?

I think when we first started doing that, it wasn’t really going on as often. A lot of the co-branded stuff that we had done with a lot of these partners — from Adidas to Levi’s to whomever — a lot of it was their first-time co-branding with other people. It was the first time that they had really put another brand on their product. So it was really before all the hoopla of co-branding even existed, which was the beauty of it. We were kind of able to pick and chose relevant partners to do that with.

Whereas nowadays… the concept has been beaten to death.

So Alife was choosing brands based on what spoke to you guys personally?

Yeah, it was all based upon the personalities of the four people behind the brand, so there were four different things happening. But footwear was always a big part of what we were doing, which still rings true today. The people that we work with are all relevant to us in a personal way.

When did Alife realize that the sneaker scene was going to get as big as it has gotten? Was there ever a point where you guys knew, “Oh, this is really going to be a thing!”? Or was it all just kind of a surprise?

It was really when we were given sneakers from Nike, it was a new product that they brought up to our studio and unveiled. And it was like, “Wow.” For us to say, “Wow,” it was something important and something that we hadn’t seen or something that was not on the market. So they basically came out with a product that was really brand new. Because at the time it was Adidas Shell Toes, it was Puma Clyde’s, it’s all the sneakers that you’ve been seeing forever. And then they came out with this sneaker that was really like nothing that was out before. And it was a techie shoe, it was Nike, it was all their technology that they used. And it was something that was not on the market at all.

Then the ability to just launch that product to our audience. That was the first time that we saw people line up outside the store for products. As soon as we saw that, we knew — and I think we only had 30 or 40 pairs which were given to us to seed. But that was Nike’s whole thing, was to let us kind of release these things to our audience at the time. And right from that day, from the day that we saw the feedback of the people that were receiving this product, we said, “Oh shit, we’re going to build a space that was designated to sneakers only.”

That’s when we built the Rivington Club, and that was 2001. So we were probably releasing Nike’s early 2001, late 2000, something like that.

I want to talk a little bit about the Alife Croc. In an interview with Uproxx Style Editor Eli Gesner, I heard that you told him it was kind of a “Fuck you,” to sneaker culture. Why did you guys feel like you needed to be the ones to make that statement? And do you feel guilty that you may have inadvertently made Crocs cool?

I think just the whole culture has been so quick to jump on all of these footwear trends and sneaker trends that it gets boring in a way. And everybody’s doing the same thing. Everybody’s co-branding the same shit. It got to a point of nothing new really happening. Also, we feel that we played a pretty important role in what has become the footwear industry. And when you get almost, I don’t want to say blacklisted, but I will kind of say blacklisted, by a brand like Nike, where we can’t get the product anymore, when we’ve played such a pivotal role in what has become of them, it’s kind of like a “Fuck you,” to us.

For me personally, I’m not really afraid to touch certain brands that are taboo in our industry. A lot of these other brands won’t touch something unless other people do it first, but that’s something that we’ve always been keen on. We don’t really give a fuck about if other people like it or if they don’t like it. If it has some kind of relevance to us, anybody in our camp, then it’s a discussion and if it’s worthwhile, we go from there. And Crocs, in the streetwear game, especially before it became a cool thing, was taboo. People would never, ever wear that shit.

So you look at it now and every month there’s a new Croc with a hip brand. A lot of times we’re ahead of the curve, which is kind of not always the greatest — because we’re the guinea pig and we test the market kind of. And a lot of times we’re early in the trend and people don’t always necessarily get it. So it doesn’t always necessarily translate to dollars at that point. But then you look at it a year away from what we did, and usually, these brands that we work with become part of the culture in some way.

One of the things that I think is cool about the brand is, you guys seem to have this secret language within your own group, like the Crocs being a, “Fuck you,” to sneaker culture, or Espo putting secret messages under the insoles of the Air Woven. How often do Alife collabs have kind of a secret dialogue between the creators that is only known to you guys, and where does that tradition come from?

I think a lot of it is being an independent entity and not really having to have too many cooks in the kitchen. I think when we have an idea, we do it, and we usually do it pretty quickly. A lot of the ideas are kind of authentic and things that we live by. So, whether it’s working with a brand like Lee, who really is not relevant in our world of streetwear but to us it is relevant because we grew up on it and it was part of my youth — a lot of this stuff that I tap into stems from something personal.

A lot of times we want to create pieces that are going to make noise, marketable noise. Where it looks beautiful, it looks crazy, it’s going to generate talk. Sometimes it’s hard to wear, but it’s all authentic.

The brand has linked up with a lot of different legends. What’s your dream Alife collaboration?

I think what I would like to do in the future is a movie, probably. As far as the co-branded product, it’s all been done. Especially now. You have Virgil — who’s at the top of the game. Anything of any relevance, he’s touching. If he wants to do a Mercedes, he does a Mercedes. If he wanted to do a spacecraft, he would do a spacecraft. It’s all game. So I’m not on that level. Alife hasn’t been on that level, although we were pioneers of this, we’re not there. Right now, I have a project that I would like to come to fruition at some point, and it would be an Alife product, but the product is going to be a film.

And it’s going to be a film about authentic New York City that nobody is going to be able to portray unless they actually lived it and have the actual footage and documentation of it while it happened. That’s what I’m working on. Stuff like that, which is less apparel. All the goodies can be built around a project like that, but that’s the type of project that we’re looking into. Museum stuff. We just did a Henry Chalfant exhibition in The Museum of the Bronx earlier in the year. That was relevant in regard to somebody that played a big role in the graffiti world. So that was a nice opportunity to tap into the museum crowd and do something more contemporary in that world. I like to go to places that people don’t expect to see us.

Are any Alife collabs that stand out to you as something that you’re particularly proud of, or you think looks particularly cool?

Really all of them have a certain place in my heart, because I look at them almost as artwork. Personally, I really could give two shits about fashion. I don’t really care. The bulk of our business is t-shirts and sweatshirts and hats and it’s about the content that you’re putting forth on these products more than, “Oh, the cut of our stuff is so good.” That’s not us. So I think for me to touch all of these huge brands, like a Levi’s, like a Nike, or a Timberland. Crocs has a place, Levi’s has a place. They’re all relevant in their own ways. One that really stands out is the Reebok Court Victory Pump that became a kind of iconic shoe for Reebok and put them on the map at a time when they were really doing nothing. But overall. there’s a lot of pieces I think that we have that are relevant in the game.

Another day, another instance of the Trump campaign feuding with a musician. Over the course of his campaign, the president has continuously found himself in hot water after playing unauthorized music at various rallies. This past August, Neil Young finally sued Trump after years of denying the president’s requests to use his music. Now, Phil Collins is the latest artist to take legal action against the president for the same reason.

Trump hosted a rally in Des Moines, Iowa on Wednesday. Just before the president took the stage, his campaign blasted Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight,” an ironic song to play at a large gathering during a time when there’s the threat of an airborne virus.

According to Consequence Of Sound, a representative from Collins’ team said they were immediately aware of Trump using the song: “Yes we are well aware of the Trump campaign’s use of this song and we have already issued a ‘cease and desist’ letter via our lawyers who continue to monitor the situation.”

Check out a news clip of the president playing “In The Air Tonight” at his Iowa rally above.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

HBO’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Outsider left the door ajar for more, which will escape the boundaries of King’s book. Yet considering that the show scored high ratings, more El Cuco (from the imagination of screenwriter Richard Price) will certainly be welcome. Recently, Jason Bateman (who directed episodes and played Terry Maitland) hinted at an upcoming “free ball” of a storyline, and Yul Vasquez (who portrayed the voice of reason, Yunis, against Ben Mendelsohn’s skeptic cop) teased that talks were ongoing on whether Season 2 would officially be greenlit. Now, it seems that Stephen King has let the bogeyman out of the bag.

While speaking with Entertainment Weekly to promote Mr. Mercedes on Peacock, King talked about TV’s two versions of Holly Gibney. Justine Lupe’s playing the role on Mr. Mercedes, of course, and Cynthia Erivo gave the character a savant edge on The Outsider. King had nothing but praise for both actresses, and then he expressed hopes for Erivo to continue in Season 2, which he seemingly confirmed is happening:

“Cynthia may get that time, because there’s going to be a second season of The Outsider as soon as they can get the production going… I know exactly where it’s going because I have seen some of the scripts. I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. I’ll just say that it’s really great and a real spooky paranormal element.”

It’s hard to imagine how The Outsider could continue without Erivo’s version of Holly Gibney, so let’s hope that a deal is being hammered out. Viewers will want to see what happens after Holly acted strange (for her) in last season’s finale, along with being apparently afflicted with an El Cuco scratch, leading many to hope that, somewhere, there might be a Holly doppelganger out there to shake up everyone’s little world. Robert Englund would probably be so happy to see that happen, and no one wants to see Freddie Krueger be let down.

More than likely, we won’t be seeing Paddy Considine return for a Season 2, however. He’ll be busy sporting a white wig and suiting up for House Targaryen prequel of Game of Thrones. No more Claude and Doppelganger Claude? Well, Paddy is doing just fine.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

Perhaps this year more than any election year ever, music stars are using their platforms to strongly encourage their followers to register to vote. With her latest plea, Lady Gaga went all out, going as far as to write a “cheesy” (her words) song about it.

The video serves as a promotion for TurboVote.org, which gives people resources and information related to voting. Gaga prefaced her performance, “Hi, this is Stefani Germanotta, also known as Lady Gaga, and I wrote a sing-along about voting!” The lyrics may not be as poetic or poppy as Gaga’s other material, but they’re certainly more directly informative. Seated behind a keyboard, she began the song, “Do you know how to vote? / I know a place you can go / It’s called turbovote.org.” She goes on to explain the process of using the site to get registered to vote with insightful lyrics like, “Have your state or driver’s license / They’ll need your name and birthday / and so you all avoid a mess / have the last four numbers of your social security number / and you’ll need your home address.”

Yesterday, meanwhile, Gaga shared a less musical video about TurboVote.org, in which she takes a couple minutes to talk about the site.

Watch the videos above.

Billie Eilish is a Hot 100-topping pop star with five Grammys and a James Bond theme song to her name, all before she turned 19 years old, but unfortunately most of the conversation surrounding the “Bad Guy” singer this week was over a paparazzi photo. “In 10 months Billie Eilish has developed a mid-30’s wine mom body,” a gross Twitter user wrote, to which her fans quickly jumped to her defense. As did Kat Dennings.

“Anyone reacting to @billieeilish having a normal body has to take a hard look at themselves,” the 2 Broke Girls star tweeted. “As someone who looked exactly like that at her age, it’d be nice for this unhealthy nonsense to fuck right off. She’s beautiful and normal goodbye!” Actress Liz Jenkins replied to Dennings’ tweet, writing, “This! I do want to take it a step further and say anyone reacting to anyone else’s body at all needs to look at themselves. How you feel about another persons body is a YOU problem..”

Eilish, who has said that she wears baggy clothes because “I have to wear a big shirt for you not to feel uncomfortable about my boobs,” responded to the body-shaming by sharing a video from social media personality Chizi Duru, who said, “Y’all gotta start normalizing real bodies, OK? Not everybody has a wagon behind them, OK? Guts are normal, they’re normal. Boobs sag, especially after breastfeeding. Instagram isn’t real.”