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Dua Lipa has done a lot with her Future Nostalgia material, whether that be releasing remixes or an entire remix album with The Blessed Madonna. Now, though, she’s back with a new song, “Fever,” which features Belgium singer Angèle, who sings in French.

Lipa sings on the hook of the infectious and thumping pop tune, “I’ve got a fever, so can you check? / Hand on my forehead, kiss my neck / And when you touch me, baby, I turn red / I’ve got a fever, so can you check?” Angèle takes over the second verse with lyrics that translate to, “Maybe with time, it will go away / And yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, I don’t see myself there / Like a medicine, I am nothing without you / And I know that I know that I’m wasting my time in yours arms.”

The song serves as Angèle’s introduction to English-speaking listeners, although she’s an established star in French-language music. She made her breakthrough in 2018 with the single “Tout Oublier,” and since then, she has racked up hundreds of millions of plays on Spotify.

Meanwhile, Lipa also recently announced that she will be performing a “Studio 2054” livestream show on November 27, tickets for which are on sale now.

Listen to “Fever” above.

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

Over the past few years, the City Edition jerseys across the NBA have offered us some truly special alternate uniforms. The idea was to pay tribute to some specific aspect of the local community, and teams have gotten more and more creative and colorful with their ideas of late.

Some have also gotten a little more socially conscious about it. Take the Portland Trail Blazers, for instance. This week, the organization debuted their stunning new alternate jerseys that they’ll be wearing periodically next season, with a unique focus on both the majestic landscape of the state and its Native American legacy.

The team posted their first images of the new uniforms to Twitter on Thursday.

According to the team’s website, each stripe on the color scheme holds symbolic meaning for various state destinations, such as the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm outside of the city limits that hosts one of the most spectacular tulip festivals in the country; Crater Lake, the deepest alpine lake in the United States; Cannon Beach, a popular Oregon Coast destination; and the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

The franchise is also using this opportunity to not only pay homage to its Native American heritage, but to give back in a meaningful way. Here’s more from the team’s site:

Honoring the tribal nations throughout was is now considered Oregon who have called this land their home from the beginning. Biofreeze and the Trail Blazers have teamed up to donate a portion of the net proceeds from the jersey sales to the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), a Portland-area nonprofit working to enhance the diverse strengths of Native youth and families through cultural identity and education.

The uniforms will go on sale Dec. 3 and are available through the team’s site.

Lil Wayne caused a stir yesterday when he posted a tweet praising the Trump administration’s “Platinum Plan” and posing alongside the man himself. Fans reacted with dismay to learn that the Funeral rapper had endorsed Trump and even some of his peers spoke up to criticize his decision. One of those peers, 50 Cent, might not have the moral high ground — but when has that ever stopped him from a good troll?

Posting a screenshot of TMZ’s story about the endorsement along with the photo, 50 censured his fellow rapper. “Oh no, Wayne,” he wrote. “I would never have took this picture.” However, 50 himself was just admonished for doing something similar, including by his own ex-girlfriend Chelsea Handler, when he posted an Instagram photo of a misleading television news graphic about Joe Biden’s supposed tax plan proposing a 62% tax on New Yorkers making more than $400,000/year (something 50, a resident of Connecticut, wouldn’t even have to worry about anyway). He said he’d be voting for Trump just to avoid the additional taxes, never mind Trump’s racist rhetoric.

Such was the backlash against 50 that even he had to clarify that he was just joking about voting for Trump a few days later, with Handler confirming that he was supporting Biden instead. That didn’t stop conservative figures from adopting him as a symbol of their movement alongside Ice Cube and Kanye West, despite many of those same characters spending the past decade criticizing rappers and rap music for their content. This election can’t wrap up soon enough.

Back in the mid-00s, Mike D’Antoni’s Phoenix Suns revolutionized basketball with its high-flying, Seven Seconds or Less offense. The whole operation was possible in large part to the brilliance of point guard Steve Nash, who won a pair of MVP awards with the Suns for his troubles.

A whole lot of time has passed since then, and a number of teams have adopted principles used by those Suns. Nash will presumably try to do this, too, as he’s now the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets. Like many first-time head coaches, building out his staff is crucial, and on Friday morning, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN brought word that Nash will turn to his former head coach as an assistant, as D’Antoni, along with longtime assistant Ime Udoka, will head to Brooklyn.

The pair will join Jacque Vaughn as members of the Nets’ assistant coach staff. D’Antoni will join the Nets following his departure from the Houston Rockets, where he was the head coach from 2016 until a few months back, while Udoka was with the San Antonio Spurs for years before joining the Philadelphia 76ers in 2019. D’Antoni isn’t the only member of the 7SOL Suns who will help Nash make the transition to coaching, either, as Amar’e Stoudamire recently hopped on board Nash’s staff as a player development coach.

In the incredibly saturated roguelike genre, Hades stands out by turning death, the most common gameplay penalty of all time, into the only gateway to the richest parts of the story. This puts a fascinating spin on the consequences of failure in video games: when you die, the story advances.

In Hades, you play as the son of Hades, the Greek god of the dead, as you make violent attempts to escape the underworld in order to find a less-chaotic life on Mount Olympus. The operative word in that description is “attempts” because, after each foiled escape, you’re promptly returned to your father’s literal office in hell for both a scolding and a new piece of the narrative puzzle.

And there will be a lot of attempts.

This should sound refreshing to fans of roguelike and Souls-esque games who typically feel an excruciating loss of progress when met with death. Usually, those are the stakes that sell the game. Spelunky, Dead Cells, and Enter the Gungeon are just a few titles that have taken off because of their difficulty level; so with the promise of not only difficulty but also “reward” each time players die, Hades offers an innovative twist that breaks new ground in the roguelike genre.

I love a roguelike on paper but can only take so much heartbreak. Yet, in Hades, when I find myself banging my head against the keyboard after a failed run, I can find some solace knowing that there’s something new to discover right around the corner. For example, an especially difficult boss will crush me for the fourth time in a row but, upon my resurrection, I’ll meet a Greek goddess who will piece together more of my backstory and introduce new means to increase my base stats. Run after run, Hades simultaneously deals out story and new gameplay mechanics to keep the player not only entertained, but motivated to try again.

I don’t think I’m alone in saying that part of why I play games is to escape my own personal day-to-day hell, so I’ve always had a hard time understanding the attraction to punishingly difficult games. Especially when, in some games, like Dark Souls itself, part of the experience is the frustrating movement or combat.

In Hades, not only have they found an innovative way to keep the player engaged between deaths, they also spent a ton of time refining the combat and movement into a buttery smooth, well-paced, and easy to understand system. There’s a small handful of weapons, with a few different moves, and a large variety of enemies that are all exceptionally polished. It’s the perfect pick up and put down game: I’ve gone days without playing and the movement muscle memory instantly returns to me without feeling like I need a couple practice runs in before I try it for “real.” This all sounds like basic game design and something that every developer should strive for, but Hades reminds you what makes the difference between an 8/10 and a 10/10 game when it comes to “feel.”

Roguelikes sink or swim in the gameplay department, but that distinction alone clearly didn’t satiate developer Supergiant Games. In every other department they took a victory lap and they aren’t afraid to show it: in their recent marketing materials for, what ended up being, a front page Reddit AMA, they flaunted that they recorded over 300,000 words of dialogue for the game and boasted that their soundtrack is two and a half hours long, among other things.

Numbers are cool and all, but man do they become impressive when you play Hades and quickly realize that not only is every voice-actor and piece of music completely dynamite, but that an overwhelming majority of that work sat on one person’s shoulders: Darren Korb, who both composed the music and voiced the main character. The attention to detail there, combined with a gorgeous and well-researched art direction, make for a complete experience that honestly feels deserving of something beyond its $25 price point. I guess what I’m really trying to say is that a good majority of indie roguelikes have no problem looking and sounding like sh*t while still finding great success. That’s not a complaint I have per say, but I think Hades clearly wanted to be a game — not just a one-off experience beyond the competition.

And that attention to detail means no player gets left behind. Supergiant Games originally released Hades in 2018 on Steam Early Access in order to ensure that their “hardcore” audience, typically associated with roguelike games, could provide finer-point feedback before the full release. This is evident when exploring the game’s Patch Notes Archive, a detailed history of every update that was made to Hades over the course of its time in Early Access, where Supergiant goes out of its way to specifically denote changes made to the game that were “inspired by community feedback”. Once they clearly addressed those needs, namely with thousands of rebalances, Hades then took the steps to ensure that “casual” players can experience everything the game has to offer as well.

Supergiant introduced “God Mode,” a toggle that can be activated at any time during play that buffs your stats and makes enemies easier to defeat. What makes this fantastic outside of other games who have attempted something similar is that even with God Mode enabled, every player still has access to 100 percent of the content and unlockables. For me, that cultivates trust in the game that it’s going to deliver even in its final hours; it makes me feel that Hades has one final ending that everyone, regardless of skill-level, deserves to experience.

Trust, especially in the modern era of video games, is the often overlooked ingredient in game development. Ignoring the micro-transaction multiplayer experience for a second, even big companies that develop expensive and expansive AAA single-player experiences tend to produce games that feel rushed to release date. These games feel unfinished, uncared for, and create unease in communities that invest hours upon hours into these titles. With Supergiant Games, who have an impressive track record of critically successful games like Pyre, Transistor, and Bastion, it feels like they know that they’re always one failed game away from losing their audience forever.

The result is a brilliantly polished video game that wants you to feel like hours sunk into it are hours well spent, in life and in death. Hades took the time to make something worth playing, whether you like roguelikes or not because they know that your time is worth something too.

Vin Diesel helped produce one of the most distinctly odd moments of the pandemic when the Kelly Clarkson Show virtual audience danced along to his debut single, “Feel Like I Do,” last month. As for the song itself, it was a pedestrian bit of tropical house that was released on Kygo’s Palm Tree Records label and made with Kygo collaborator Peter Martin. The single was actually a chart success for Diesel, as it debuted at No. 18 on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs in early October.

After a taste of glory, Diesel is looking for more on his newest single, “Days Are Gone.” Like “Feel Like I Do” before it, “Days Are Gone” is a completely acceptable and generic tropical house song on which the actor gets nostalgic for the less restrictive lifestyle of pre-pandemic times.

Ahead of the song’s release, Diesel guested on The Late Late Show last night to discuss the track, telling James Corden of it:

“As you know, I love all kinds of music, but because of the times, I felt like the first few songs that I release should be upbeat or positive in some way. So I’ve been focusing on tropical house, obviously with the Kygo connection and with my songwriter/producer Peter Martin. We’ve been focusing on upbeat songs. ‘Days Are Gone’ is a song that kind of represents how we all feel right now, reminiscing about a time pre-COVID where our lives were different, where we… I can’t say that it’s about the pandemic, but I can say it’s something that I think people will relate to, the nostalgic element of the song, I think people will really gravitate to. I hope they do. I remember my friend Ozuna saying to me one day, ‘Every music artist in the world creates music to be No. 1, but you create music out of love, and because of that, it will probably be No. 1.”

He also spoke about his blossoming music career more broadly, saying he turned to music after he had to delay upcoming film projects: “The idea that I had to push Fast 9 made me feel… I didn’t want to feel like I was letting down a whole audience, a whole Fast audience. So, thinking about what I could do to compensate for the fact that the film was being pushed ’til 2021, I realized I had this other creative outlet and I had my first opportunity, really, to delve completely into the music. […] And that’s what I did. For me, I’m very grateful that I’ve been toying with music so long that on a year like this that no one could forget, I had a creative outlet, and that is music.”

Listen to “Days Are Gone” and watch Diesel on The Late Late Show above.

Hip-hop is moving as fast as ever. Luckily, we’re doing the work to put the best new rap music in one place for you. This week, there were videos from Dinner Party, Cordae and Snoop Dogg, City Girls and Lil Baby, Kaash Paige and Isaiah Rashad, as well as Pop Smoke and Quavo. There was also new music from De La Soul and a slew of anti-Trump guests, Kanye West, DaBaby and 2 Chainz, Busta Rhymes and Kendrick Lamar, J.I.D, Jay Electronica, Common and Black Thought, as well as Snot and Denzel Curry. Here’s the rest of the best new rap music this week:

2FeetBino — “Bro Code”

2FeetBino “can’t wait to put [his] Hancock on a check” on “Bro Code,” a swaggering single where the Atlanta rapper shows off his charismatic mic presence over an 808-based instrumental.

Courtney Bell — “PSA”

Detroit MC Courtney Bell dropped an urgent message for the times on “PSA,” a bold record from his upcoming Poverty Stricken album where he analyzes societal ills and surmises, “They infiltrate our hoods by these rappers that fit the image / these ‘Lil whats-his-names’ that get funded by the system.”

Billy Danze — “Gotham” Feat. Method Man

Two legendary movements collide on “Gotham,” where Billy Danze and Method Man get busy over producer TooBusy’s soaring production. The song is from Danze’s We Busy project, which will be out on November 15th.

Faze Blaze — “For The Team” Feat. Tee Grizzley

In the “unlikely collaboration” department, Faze Clan gamer Faze Blaze collaborated with Tee Grizzley on “For The Team,” which starts off with the Twitch streamer recounting “another day on the block.” Perhaps Blaze, who did a marathon stream with Drake (before getting unfollowed), should’ve played his cards better.

Brittney Carter — As I Am

Chicago rapper Brittney Carter gained social media fame over the past year via iPhone-recorded freestyles that showed off her technically-precise, existentially curious lyrics. This week Carter released her As I Am project, which shows her lyrically locked in and meditative over nine-tracks.

Dave East — “Pain (EastMix)”

Just a week after releasing his Karma 3 project, Harlem’s Dave East dropped some bars on a 2Pac classic with his “EastMix” of “Pain,” where he reflects on he and his team’s come-up, celebrating that he’s “got records comin’ back gold, I put ‘em on my wall now.”

Dax — “Gotham”

Dax is railing at the establishment on “Gotham,” a fiery track where he chides, “You listen to these people who got nothin’ to say / You wouldn’t know real if it slapped you right in the face.” The song was paired with a solemn clip which interspersed clips of Dax as Batman, and bloody in chains, perhaps for speaking too much truth.

El Camino — Walk By Faith

Buffalo rhymer El Camino released Walk By Faith earlier this week, beating the Friday rush. He executive produced the gritty, lyrically dense project and gave production duties to fellow Buffalo native Camouflage Monk, who laced the 15-track project with a soundscape that veered from the sinister “Run The Block” to the soulful “Valentino Quarantine.”

Hollyhood Bay Bay — “Trap” Feat. Young Dolph & Trapboy Freddy

Dallas-based DJ Hollyhood Bay Bay (of “Ay Bay Bay” homage) recently linked Trapboy Freddy and Young Dolph for “Trap,” an 808-driven ode to the fast life. Dolph jokes, “I be dead fresh, b*tch closed caskets / I got money habits, tragic” and Freddy tears through a braggadocious verse where he lets us know he “pay for it cash, no writeoff.”

Junglepussy — “Bad News”

Junglepussy released her JP4 album last week. Yesterday she unveiled a visual for “Bad News,” an enchanting ode to being “on my own” which was perfectly augmented with an eerie visual of reds, purples, and chains.

Kevin Gates — “Weeks”

Kevin Gates begins the melancholy “Weeks” rhyming “I ain’t took my chain off in weeks / if I tuck they gon / try to kill me anyway,” then proceeds to delve into the turmoil of the streets with his characteristic introspection and penchant for harmonies.

Omarion — “Mutual” Feat. Wale

Wale’s been tearing up features all year. This week he dropped some slick bars over “Mutual,” a funky track from Omarion’s upcoming The Kinection album. The DC rhymer crafted a seductive verse, rhyming “dark liquor make my intentions as clear as Patron.”

Symba — “Big Homie” Feat. 2 Chainz

Symba and 2 Chainz are twin towers on “Big Homie,” a single from Symba’s upcoming Don’t Run From R.A.P album. The two take turns affirming their greatness over a hypnotizing flue, as 2 Chainz concludes, “N****s talk murder so much, it don’t even seem violent.”

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

Guapdad 4000 is equal parts stressed and blessed in his colorful video for “Alpha,” which released today and features some truly hilarious imagery and witty rhymes from the Ferragamo Falcon. The Chris Simmons-directed video is a signature tongue-in-cheek clip from Guapdad, featuring references to import tuner culture and anime, and showing off the rapper’s latest merch, while the James Delgado-produced beat gives him some down-home Bay Area flavor to get off clever bars on.

Guap recently announced that his debut album had been completed during his trip to New York City and fans of his Falcon Fridays drops and wacky “Lil Scammer That Could” video couldn’t be happier. He’s had a busy 2020 building his buzz with tracks like “Hairless Horsemen” and “Orgasm Full Of Pain,” while he cross-branded with features on Deante Hitchcock’s “Deja Vu” and Thundercat’s “Dragonball Durag.” He’s made quite the name for himself and looks to complete his coronation soon.

Meanwhile, his hilarious sense of humor is on full display in Uproxx’s new show, React Like You Know, watching Lil Kim’s “Crush On You” video and calling Lil Cease a “50% Mase.” Check it out here.

Watch Guapdad 4000’s “Alpha” video above.

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

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm has two breakout stars, as Johnny the Monkey was already a star: Tutar, played by future Oscar nominee Maria Bakalova, and Jeanise Jones, Tutar’s babysitter who teaches her that women can drive cars and that she should use her brain, because “your daddy is a liar.” (Judy Riuliani, er, Rudy Giuliani can relate.)

Following the release of the sequel, Jones’ church set up a GoFundMe to raise money for Jones, who’s currently unemployed due to COVID-19. “She is one of the most authentic people I’ve ever met. One good thing that has come from this is that Jeanise doesn’t have to worry about “Tutar” anymore. She has WORRIED about this young lady for a year,” the GoFundMe reads. The campaign is up to nearly $145,000, including $100,000 from Borat himself, Sacha Baron Cohen.

People reports that the actor “donated $100,000 to Jones’ Oklahoma City community on her behalf… The money, to be distributed by the Ebenezer Baptist Church at Jones’ request, has been earmarked for shelter, food, and any other needs the community has.”

“I was blown away but not surprised because I was told about what type of heart this man has,” [pastor Derrick Scobey] says of Cohen’s donation, which will help the community currently struggling with ice storms and power outages. “Maybe it’s a little risqué, some of the things in the movie, but he has a good heart.”

A $100,000 donation? That’s like five plastic surgeries. Or so many potatoes.

(Via People)

In a span of just three years, the Professional Fighters League has gone from an exciting new startup to one of the most established MMA organizations in the world. With a mix of hungry, young talent like rising star Kayla Harrison, an innovative format that features a regular season, postseason and championship and a future-thinking executive in the form of Peter Murray, it should be no surprise the PFL has exploded onto the scene.

“MMA is the growth sport of this decade and the fastest-growing sport in the world,” Murray told Uproxx Sports. “We saw there was room for more than one leader and clearly, MMA fans are seeking to consume more premium, live and quality MMA events, fights and content.”

Immediately out of the gate, the PFL has differentiated itself from the UFC, Bellator, and other top MMA organizations. During the regular season, fighters from 25 countries accrue points across six weight classes, with more points awarded for finishing your opponent rather than letting judges decide the bouts. The top eight fighters in each division earn a spot in the playoffs, where the quarterfinals and semifinals are held on the same night. And in the championship, each division winner earns $1 million and the 2020 world championship.

As innovators in the space, the PFL has also already launched presentation adjustments like a ref cam that brings fans into the cage, punch speed metrics, and have kick speed and heart rate detection expected to roll out in 2021.

“It’s a great product, quite simply,” Murray said. “We’re the only organization in the world that presents MMA in this fashion and it speaks to not only the combat and MMA fans, but fans of other sports as well. It’s programmatic, with a beginning, middle and end, and a spectacle that includes belts and major money on the line. If you combine our sports season format with our cutting-edge presentation, integrating real-time fighter data and fight analytics, it really is MMA 2.0. It’s next-gen.”

In a short period of time, the PFL acquired the No. 1 streamed content on ESPN+ Thursday Nights in 2019 and more than 500,000 viewers to its championship event on New Year’s Eve, riding the popularity of fighters like Harrison, who is a top-3 female fighter in the world and Ray Cooper, who took home the welterweight crown in 2019. They also brought in top talent, with names like former UFC and Bellator contender Rory MacDonald.

“What comes with that is the opportunity to make more money. That’s why we’re seeing top-ranked athletes flock to the PFL. Year over year, it’s going to get harder to get in and it’s going to get harder to keep the top spot,” Murray said. “Our fighters are exclusive to the PFL, and in most cases, fighters are exclusive on multi-fight agreements. Over time, we are absolutely open to PFL champions competing against other organization’s champions. I think fans want to see that. Those would be fantastic event extensions and those are things we look forward to in the future.”

As the organization continues to grow and begins to reach even more fans with its talented roster, it’s important for Murray and the PFL to weigh in on national conversations, such as the upcoming election. That’s why the PFL has rolled out a league-wide, non-partisan initiative encouraging everyone to exercise their right to vote.

“Like any brand, and certainly I believe organization and sport, it’s on our minds, it’s on our fans’ minds and we think it’s a positive message,” Murray said. “We’re not asking anyone to pick sides, we just want them to get out there and support what this country is built on.”

What happens, though, when fighters do opt to pick sides, as the UFC’s Colby Covington has done time and time again?

“That’s up to the fighters,” Murray said. “We don’t own their likeness or political points of view. Our fighters, and other athletes beyond MMA, it’s up to them on how they want to leverage their own platforms to share their views on politics or otherwise.”

As for what actually takes place inside the cage, the PFL is ready to get going after rescheduling its 2020 season.

“We’re locked and loaded for April,” Murray said. “With respect to the pandemic, we made an early decision in 2020 as COVID became a real apparent factor to create destruction in the world and society and business, including sport. So we made the decision to reschedule our third season to 2021. The two guiding factors are the safety of our fighters as well as preservation and maintaining the integrity of our sports season format. Anything less than a full season didn’t make sense so we rescheduled. We had the benefit of seeing what worked and what didn’t in sports. So looking at what the NBA executed in a bubble, the NHL and others, even the UFC doing single-destination in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi. So we took those learnings and are adapting to our model.”

The PFL plans to host a single-destination regular season with its own version of the bubble. Should the landscape change, Murray noted, the organization has the ability to open up to larger-scale, bigger events for the postseason. The first half of the PFL regular season is currently scheduled to begin April 23 on ESPN2, with scheduled bouts to be announced in the coming months.