NLE Choppa has been going through a transformation in recent months. Back in September, the rapper announce he would stop rapping about violence in favor of a more pacifist career. Cementing his new peacemaker status, Choppa has announced his next record.
Choppa took to social media to share the news of his record From Dark To Light. The album’s cover art hints at Choppa’s new era of music, depicting the rapper seated in a meditative pose at the intersection of light and dark. The 11-track album is only a few weeks away from being released, debuting on the rapper’s November 1 birthday.
Last year, Choppa spoke to Uproxx about how he handled catapulting to success while still in high school. Offering his fans advice, Choppa said: “I love saying, just keep God first and just keep working. If you got a dream, pursue that dream. Whatever’s in your head, it don’t matter how impossible it seem, chase that sh*t because that’s what I did. It’s just doing numbers for me right now. […] Just being patient and let God work out problems. Work out everything, slowly. Patience is key pretty much. I still rush a lot of stuff but I’m thankful for my team and everybody around me. They help me value patience so I value patience a lot. From me being patient, I got the deal I wanted instead of the deal that’s a slave contract or some sh*t.”
From Dark To Light is out 11/1 via Warner Records. Pre-order it here.
NLE Choppa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
One defining characteristic about the Los Angeles Lakers during their run to a championship was how every player bought in to what Frank Vogel and co. wanted to do. As a result, L.A. was able to win the 17th championship in franchise history and seemed to have a blast doing it, with the team having a bench that celebrated like a 15-seed in the midst of a gigantic March Madness upset.
As Vogel explained during a recent appearance on The Lowe Post, his hyper-expressive bench did cause him some headaches. As a result, he had to turn to an unlikely source of inspiration to get his guys to calm down a bit: Old School.
“During the Finals we used that, which is, you don’t really think you’re gonna be using levity in your film sessions during the Finals, but,” Vogel said when ESPN’s Zach Lowe relayed that he heard the movie played a role in the team’s Bubble stint. “Everybody thinks the best scene in Old School is either the Frank the Tank scene or the streaking scene, but they’re wrong. The best scene in that movie is the dart scene.”
A quick interjection here: If you have not seen Old School in a while (or if you have, I suppose), here is the dart scene. If you haven’t seen Old School period, uh, I’d apologize for the spoiler but the movie has been out for nearly 18 years so it technically doesn’t count as a spoiler, and also, you should see Old School.
“Our bench was so nuts throughout the whole playoff run — like, the celebrations, the jumping out on the court, doing the goggles,” Vogel said. “The refs, every game, telling me, like, ‘These guys got to get back on the bench, this is out of control.’ So there was a little dust up and I wanted to sell the message that you could get suspended. If there’s an altercation, you guys are out there. You guys are crazy, I like that, but let’s make sure you guys are back. So that’s the scene that came to my mind, when Will Ferrell’s got a dart and his neck, and he’s looking at who goes, ‘Man, I like you, you’re crazy.’ So I said, ‘This is my message to you guys: I love the energy, I love you guys, but you’re crazy and you need to kinda get it under control.’”
As an added bonus, Vogel described the scene as having “Stifler from American Pie” in it. Anyway, this ended up working, and as a result, the Lakers won without any players getting in too much trouble for having way too much fun on the bench.
T.I. is just one day away from releasing his upcoming record The L.I.B.R.A (The Legend Is Back Running Atlanta), which boasts features by some of today’s hottest artists like Rick Ross, Snoop Dogg, John Legend and Benny The Butcher. T.I. announced the effort with “Ring,” his collaborative track with Young Thug which marked his first new song of 2020. Returning to offer one last preview of his album, T.I. taps Lil Baby for the wavy track “Pardon.”
Collaborating with Lil Baby was a smart move on T.I.’s part, as the rapper has been a hot ticket item lately. Lil Baby recently revealed he’s accepting no less than $100,000 for a feature and flew all the way out to Wyoming after Kanye tweeted about wanting the rapper on one of his songs.
“Pardon” marks T.I.’s third song of the year and while the rapper has been quiet on the music front in 2020, he’s been steadily making headlines — oftentimes for controversial reasons. In the last few months alone he’s called out Candace Owens, made out out-of-pocket comments about his daughter’s sex life, and was sued for promoting fake cryptocurrency. Controversy aside, T.I.’s also been making good in recent months. After the pandemic hit, the rapper took to the streets in his Atlanta hometown to join Killer Mike in passing out free meals to the community.
Listen to T.I. and Lil Baby’s “Pardon” above.
The L.I.B.R.A (The Legend Is Back Running Atlanta) is out 10/16 on Grand Hustle. Pre-order it here.
Young Thug is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Following NBC’s controversial decision to host a town hall with Donald Trump after the president withdrew from the second debate by refusing to participate virtually due to his recent coronavirus infection, over 100 Hollywood stars have signed a petition to implore the network to move the event to another date. As it stands, Trump’s town hall will directly compete with Joe Biden’s Q&A event on ABC on Thursday night, which is when the second debate would’ve taken place had Trump’s campaign agreed to the rules. But since that clearly didn’t happen, Biden was awarded the entire time slot to himself. Or at least he was until NBC stepped in, prompting an open letter from Hollywood’s biggest power players.
“This is not a partisan issue. This is about the political health of our democracy,” the protest letter states as it takes NBCUniversal and its parent company Comcast to task for undermining the bipartisan debate commission. Via Variety:
“President Trump refused to participate in the virtual debate scheduled for Thursday night by the Presidential Debate Commission,” the letter says. “By agreeing to air his town hall as counterprogramming opposite Vice President Biden’s town hall on ABC, you are enabling the President’s bad behavior while undercutting the Presidential Debate Commission and doing a disservice to the American public.”
Here’s the full list of stars who signed the letter to NBC:
Aaron Sorkin Adam McKay Adam Scott Alex Barnow Allison Tolman Amy Lippman Amy Schumer Aubrey Plaza Ava DuVernay Ayelet Waldman Ben Stiller Billy Eichner Billy Porter Brendan Gall Chelsea Handler Chris Bishop Chris Meloni Chris Miller Chris Sullivan Chrissy Metz Courtney Kemp Dahvi Waller Damon Lindelof Dan Fogelman Daniel Hageman David A. Goodman David Guggenheim Debra Messing Ely Henry Emily Gordon Eric Guggeheim Greg Berlanti JJ Abrams Jason Moore Jennifer Yale Jill Knox Jim Parriott Joe Mantello Jon Cryer Jon Hamm Jon Huertas Josh Gad Josh Singer Julianne Moore Julie Plec Justin Hartley Keith Powell Kenya Barris Kevin Hageman Kumail Nanjiani Laeta Kalogridis Latoya Morgan Mandy Moore Marc Guggenheim Mariska Hargitay Marti Noxon Martin Gero Matthew Lopez Max Mutchnick Michael Chabon Michael Green Michele Fazekas Milo Ventimiglia Neal Baer Nicholas Stoller Nicole Yorkin Otmara Marrero Parvesh Cheena Patton Oswalt Phil Lord Preacher Lawson Robert Kirkman Ryan Murphy Samuel Baum Sarah Schechter Sarah Silverman Sarah Treem Seth Grahame-Smith Seth Rogen Shakina Nayfack Sophia Bush Sterling K. Brown Sunil Nayir Susan Kelechi Watson Tara Butters Terry Matalas Thor Freudenthal Tom McCarthy Tony Kushner Travis Beacham Vanessa Taylor Zoe Lister-Jones Ken Olin Abbi Jacobson Alison Janney David Kohan Robert King Malcolm Spellman Seth MacFarlane Marjorie David Donald Faison Chris Misiano David Goyer Julie Martin Joss Whedon Warren Leight
While the letter will hopefully turn some heads at NBC, the battle over the controversial town hall continued on Twitter where the #NBCBlackout hashtag is gaining traction thanks to stars like Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who was a prominent fixture on the network during her time on Seinfeld.
For the first time in 13 season, someone other than Daryl Morey will serve as the general manager of the Houston Rockets. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Morey, one of the leaders in the NBA’s embrace of analytics, will step down from his position and move into an advisory position with the team until it completes its search for a head coach. The news of Morey’s departure was confirmed by Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, who stressed that this was Morey’s decision.
Rockets general manager Daryl Morey is leaving the Rockets, a person with knowledge of the decision said. Source said “100 percent” Morey’s decision. @wojespn reported first.
As Wojnarowski explains, Morey approached Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta about this following the team’s exit from the second round of the playoffs at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers, at which point the two sides figured out an agreement. Morey, it is reported, wants to explore possibilities away from basketball for now and is open to returning to the league in the future.
In the aftermath of Houston’s elimination from the NBA’s restart in Orlando, Florida, Morey approached owner Tilman Fertitta with the idea of leaving the job and the sides quietly worked through an exit agreement to conclude his 13 seasons running the franchise’s basketball operations, sources said.
Morey isn’t ruling out a future return to the NBA on the team side, but he has become increasingly determined to explore what else might interest him professionally, sources said. Morey also saw an opportunity to spend time with two college-age children who are each taking a gap year academically during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Rockets do apparently plan on promoting internally, with executive vice president of basketball operations Rafael Stone becoming their new general manager. The move comes as a major shock, as there was zero indication that Morey had any intention on leaving a team that had been built in his image over the course of his entire tenure. Houston, more than any team in the league, has been defined by its embrace of letting the numbers be their guiding principles, which has led to an admirable run of success.
However, the franchise — and, by extension, Morey — had come under scrutiny for never being able to get over the hump, with their overarching philosophy oftentimes coming under criticism. He also stirred up controversy prior to what ended up being his final year at the helm with a tweet in support of protestors opposing the Chinese government in Hong Kong, which led to the league taking a financial hit due to China’s refusal to air games in the aftermath. That did change recently, as CCTV aired the final two games of the NBA Finals.
It stands to reason that whenever he decides to return to basketball, Morey would be in demand by front offices in need of a major shake up. But for now, Morey is on his way out, and the Rockets are handing things over to Stone.
Run The Jewels has had a healthy relationship with Adult Swim for the duration of their tenure, and Killer Mike and El-P are set to expand on this weekend: They previously announced they’ll be teaming up with the network and Ben & Jerry’s to present “Holy Calamavote,” a performance to help inspire voter registration.
The performance airs on Adult Swim (the network’s first televised concert and RTJ’s first show in support of RTJ4) on October 17 at midnight ET, and ahead of then, the full lineup for the show has been shared. Aside from Mike and El-P themselves, the duo will be joined by Pharrell Williams, 2 Chainz, Zack De La Rocha, Mavis Staples, Josh Homme, Greg Nice, Gangsta Boo, DJ Cutmaster Swiff, Cochemea Gastelum, and master of ceremonies Eric Andre.
The performance will also be simul-streamed on the Adult Swim website, and the show will be made available on the Adult Swim YouTube channel immediately afterwards. The performance is set to include every song from RTJ4.
El-P recently told Uproxx about the new album, “We feel like this is a distillation of everything that we do and we really walked away from this feeling like we gave it our all and we stuck the landing. This is what the vibe was that we wanted to feel. And I don’t think there’s any radical departures, except we know going in how we want people to feel. We knew we wanted this to be raw and funky and joyous.”
Anthony Davis accomplished his primary objective with the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this week when the team won an NBA championship, the first of Davis’ career. Now, Davis has a major decision facing him this offseason, as his contract gives him the option of opting out of his deal and becoming a free agent.
The rumbling for some time has been that Davis will choose to go down this path, and on Thursday morning, Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that this is indeed the plan. He did, however, note that Davis has no intention of going anywhere else, and his agent, Rich Paul, is going to sit down with the team and figure out a deal.
“Davis plans to opt out of his $28.7 million player option and re-sign with the Lakers, sources tell The Athletic,” Charania wrote. “Davis and his agent, Rich Paul, will hold meetings in the coming weeks to discuss the situation and the contract term that is most sensible for Davis.”
The “most sensible” phrase is interesting, because as Charania lays out, there are a number of paths that involve X years + a player option that Davis could explore. There are, of course, questions right now about where the league’s salary cap will sit entering this next offseason, and while Davis could take a LeBron James-esque deal that gives him the flexibility to opt out following next season, he could just as easily explore something more long-term that lets him decide to hit free agency as the league’s salary cap rises.
None of this is particularly surprising, because Davis deciding to leave the Lakers after winning a ring and being set up nicely to defend the title would be a strange decision. Still, for any of the other 29 teams that hoped to possibly get their foots in the door, it seems like that option will not present itself.
Donald Trump only comes up twice on The Sopranos. You’d think it would be more, considering Trump Tower is less than 20 miles from the real-life Bada Bing strip club, but nope, just the two times. In the first mention, Ira Fried, the “prick doctor,” says, “Eat my dust, Donald Trump” while running a housing scam. The second doesn’t happen until the series finale, when A.J. tells Tony that his goal in life is “work for Trump or somebody, be their personal pilot.” No one in 1999, when The Sopranos premiered on HBO, could have predicted that The Apprentice guy (it’s weird to think about The Apprentice and The Sopranos being on at the same time) would one day become president. But let’s say the show was still on: would Tony Soprano and the rest of his crew vote for Trump?
Michael Imperioli, who somehow only won one Emmy for playing Christopher Moltisanti, has recently taken to inserting pro-Joe Biden messages into The Sopranos. “Trump stopped by the Bing one night. We gave him VIP treatment, everything on the house and he didn’t tip anyone! Zero! Stiffed the whole staff… even Peppino the bathroom attendant. Unforgivable. VOTE BIDEN,” he wrote in one. And another: “VOTE BIDEN: Joe Biden was a long time customer at Satriale’s and yes, he loves his Gabagool. You got to live him for that.” When asked by Vanity Fair how he sees the election playing out, Imperioli said that the “the Soprano crew” would vote for Biden, while “most of the New York crew is not for Biden. They’re for Trump.” As far as I’m concerned, that’s canon. No self-respecting Green Day fan would vote for Trump — it’s not very punk.
Sopranos creator David Chase likely agrees with Imperioli, based on prior comments:
“He would think [Trump] was full of shit. Whether he thought he was a good president or not,” Chase said. “I don’t know that Tony thought much about that question at all, with anybody who was in office. But I know Tony would have thought Trump was penny ante, in terms of his lying and presentation.”
The next time you think about including Tony in this meme…
Rumors recently arose that Kendrick Lamar was set to leave TDE, his longtime home, to be the flagship artist on his pgLang label. He quickly debunked the Twitter speculation in a call with TDE CEO Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith,’ joking that the rumors “got ’em sayin’ I done shook the label and all that, man.” He also asked Top Dawg, “Why would I fall off?” That question has many layers.
“King Kendrick” was one of the biggest rappers of the 2010s. Good Kid Maad City,To Pimp A Butterfly,Untitled, and DAMN is an incredible run of albums, and there’s no reason to feel like he’s not capable of maintaining that excellence. How many albums will he drop this decade that become lauded as classics? Will his output make him his generation’s go-to choice for greatest rapper ever, especially when he’s already in a lot of top-fives?
It looks like Kendrick, unlike other great rappers who made pivots, is predominantly focused on music. But how long will music be his number one career priority? There are many exciting questions just like these surrounding Kendrick as he enters the 2020s as a hip-hop OG at just 33.
The first step in that journey could come this year. Kendrick has been mostly quiet of late — a disappointing development for those who wanted him to speak up on social issues — but we all know he’s working on an album. At the top of 2020, Billboard editorial director and current columnist Bill Werde revealed that Kendrick may “finally be done” recording his upcoming album, “and that he’s pulling in more rock sounds this time.” Werde gave an indication that the always ambitious artist was gearing to drop a new album that his fans are eager to hear — but then COVID hit.
The global pandemic has muddied the plans for many top-tier artists. While it’s been a plentiful year of quality projects, releases from artists of Kendrick’s commercial stature are events, with tours and other financial boons attached to them. A tour is obviously not happening anytime soon. TDE is famously discerning about their releases, so the uncertainty of the pandemic has undoubtedly affected the prospects of an album that was reportedly done recording ten months ago.
But hope is not lost on a Kendrick project this year. Top Dawg said in May that it was coming “soon.” He was spotted in LA in September, reportedly filming a video. Perhaps TDE has realized that our current climate is the new normal, and they might as well drop a project that’s sure to be one of the top-streamed whenever it’s released.
It will be interesting to see whether the project still has a rock influence when it comes out, and how those sonics will affect Kendrick’s approach to the project as an MC. His spastic delivery and elastic flow find a home on any type of production. To Pimp A Butterfly and Untitled are some of the jazziest projects of recent memory, so it will be interesting to see how the pivot takes form.
WIll there be any other pivots coming from Kendrick? At 33, he’s still at his creative zenith. But history shows that’s not always enough to keep ambitious artists in the game. At 33, Kanye West released My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy an album that many of his stans regard as his best. When Jay-Z was 33, he had recently released The Black Album, his supposed ”retirement album” that’s generally placed in the top half of his catalog by fans. In 2006, Nas released Untitled at 33, a polarizing, but well-regarded album. All three of those projects showed that they could produce as long as they wanted — but rap isn’t all they wanted to do. Fashion goals began to play a larger role in Kanye’s life. For Jay-Z and Nas, it was entrepreneurial endeavors. They had all run rap so long that they were looking for their next challenge.
Will that happen with Kendrick? In March, he collaborated with Dave Free to launch PgLang, which is… still a mystery. The platform’s launch was characteristically ambiguous, with a redacted mission statement that indicates they don’t want us to know what they are until we see what they do. The recent rumor was disproven, but it still made the thought of Kendrick taking advantage of his influence and becoming his own boss an intriguing one.
We’ve seen this story occur with other top-selling rap acts of the 2010s. Drake now pushes his OVO label more than Young Money/Cash Money. Meek Mill pushes Dreamchasers more than MMG. The days of J. Cole as “Jay-Z’s artist” at Roc Nation feel like ancient history, as Dreamville is one of hip-hop’s most recognized crews. In all three cases, there’s no acrimony with their original bosses, labels, or crews, just a realization that all three men are their own entities — who could be upset if Kendrick decided to be that, too?
But of course, PgLang could predominantly be a content studio, like J. Cole’s recent bid to turn “big ideas into reality” with a Dreamville content studio that promises to extend “far beyond music.” Kendrick has created some of the game’s most creative visuals. It’s exciting to think of him and Free merging their visions along with previous collaborators and upcoming digital creators. Along with music videos would they do short films? Full-length features? The questions are endless with PgLang.
There aren’t many quotes out there that suggest where Kendrick’s head is at for the future, which is actually a good thing. His fellow top-tier rap acts like Jay-Z, J. Cole, and Drake move with an air of mystery that keeps fans plenty intrigued about their next move. With rappers now going hard into their late 40s (and Jay-Z into his 50s), we could conceivably see Kendrick Lamar making music for this decade, the next, and beyond — if he wants to. What will his catalog look like by then? Who knows. What is known is that Kendrick is set to drop a followup to DAMN “soon.” Where he goes from there will be one of the most intriguing storylines of the 2020s.
It hasn’t even been a week since season two of The Boys wrapped up its head-exploding run, but Eric Kripke is already getting fans of the show pumped for what’s to come in season three. The showrunner tweeted a screenshot of the next season premiere, which is ominously titled “Payback.” Kripke also revealed that filming will start in Early 2021, so hopefully we won’t be waiting too long for more episodes of Butcher and The Boys.
Considering Butcher separated Homelander from his son with the help of Queen Maeve and Starlight, along with throwing a significant wrench in Vought’s plan to sell large swaths of the supe-making serum “Compound V” to the government, it makes perfect sense that revenge would be on the menu. However, fans of the comic know that Payback is also the name of the very first Supes team that predates The Seven, and Kripke has confirmed that at least one member of the old timey group is arriving in the next season: Jensen Ackle’s Soldier Boy. Via Entertainment Weekly:
“One of the reasons that we’re getting into Soldier Boy [in season 3] and that team, Payback, is we’re interested in exploring a little bit of how we got here,” Kripke said. “Through the history of the supes, we can tell a little bit about the history of America and how we ended up in the current fraught position that we’re in. Soldier Boy gives us an opportunity to do that.”
Just like Aya Cash’s Stormfront (who is still stumping around out there) held up a mirror to social media, and the recent resurgence of Nazi rhetoric in American politics, Kripke plans to use Payback to satirize ideas like “Make America Great Again,” which shouldn’t be divisive at all.
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