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Keeping up with the best new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw Ariana Grande kick off a new era and Ty Dolla Sign come through with a cleverly titled effort. Yeah, it was a great week for the best new music. Check out the highlights below.

Ariana Grande — “Positions”

For months, Grande has dropped little hints about new music here and there, but they finally materialized last week with “Positions.” It also looks like the track may include a dig at a certain famous ex of Grande’s, as fans are speculating.

Ty Dolla Sign — Featuring Ty Dolla Sign

Ty Dolla Sign is a real Kevin Bacon figure in music, as he has worked with (or worked with somebody who has worked with, or worked with somebody who worked with somebody who…) basically everybody. He flexed his self-awareness with the title of his new album, Featuring Ty Dolla Sign, which includes appearances from Kid Cudi, Post Malone, Kanye West, Anderson Paak, and Thundercat (and that’s only in the first six tracks).

Gorillaz — Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez

Gorillaz has spent 2020 dropping periodic loosies featuring a fascinating array of artists, and now they have collected those tracks and others on Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez. The collection features everybody from Robert Smith to St. Vincent to Elton John to Earthgang.

Adrianne Lenker — Songs and Instrumentals

Like many artists, Adrianne Lenker took advantage of her newfound free time to be productive. In her case, the process involved retreating to a cabin in western Massachusetts, from which she emerged with a pair of new very different albums.

Julien Baker — “Faith Healer”

Even if some pop fans weren’t thrilled to hear about Baker’s new album, it’s big news in the indie community. It sounds like it’s going to be a step forward, too, as the lead single, “Faith Healer,” sees Baker broadening her instrumentation horizons.

Saweetie — “Back To The Streets” Feat. Jhene Aiko

Aiko hopped on a remix of Saweetie’s “My Type” last year, and now the pair has reconvened with Aiko joining Saweetie on her latest, “Back To The Streets.” Uproxx’s Wongo Okon notes the track sees the artists “treating their love interests like a leased vehicle, enjoying the time they spend with them and making the most of it, all to return it and move on the to next new thing.”

Blackstarkids — Whatever, Man

Blackstarkids sent a cold email to Dirty Hit, and while that sort of thing doesn’t often work, the group’s material was good enough to get them signed. The group recently told Uproxx their new album is fun and not meant to be taken too seriously, and they suggested the mindset to have while listening to it: “Don’t just sit all stiff and try to form your opinion.”

Jean Dawson — Pixel Bath

ASAP Rocky obsessives noticed last week that the rapper popped up on an album from an up-and-comer named Jean Dawson. That’s the only feature on the young artist’s album, as it’s mostly focused on his diverse and confident material, which he described in a recent interview, “I want it to be controlled chaos. I just want it to feel like you’re in multiple places at the same exact time.”

Jack Harlow — “Tyler Herro”

Although the Miami Heat didn’t win the NBA title this year, Tyler Herro emerged as a clutch force during the postseason. He got some love from Jack Harlow, who made a song all about him and their shared outsider status, even recruiting the baller to appear in the video.

Rico Nasty — “Don’t Like Me” Feat. Don Toliver and Gucci Mane

Rico has been as prolific as anybody over the past few months, and she continued her hot streak last week with “Don’t Like Me.” She wasn’t the only one hitting out at her haters, as Don Toliver and Gucci Mane joined her on the track.

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

Most of the MCU discussion this year has revolved around how Black Widow‘s calendar moves pushed back The Eternals, but there’s another Phase 4 MCU film that also got shuffled around on release dates and saw production challenges. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings began filming in February, and by March, the film suspended production while Destin Daniel Cretton was awaiting the results of a coronavirus test. And as we’ve all seen, nearly every short delay has turned into a longer one this year while movie theaters struggle to stay afloat.

Well, there’s finally some good news on the MCU feature film front: Shang-Chi leading man Simu Liu announced on Instagram that the movie has finally wrapped filming. “We made a baby!!!” Liu wrote. “We can’t wait to introduce him to the world in 9 months.”

Yep, it’s nine months until the film’s July 2021 release date. When it arrives, Shang-Chi will be Marvel Studios’ first Asian-led tentpole movie. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, Marvel crafted the film with authenticity by almost exclusively pursuing an Asian cast and Asian filmmakers. Kevin Feige previously revealed that the film included “a 98% Asian cast” that will feature Awkwafina, Tony Leung, Michelle Yeoh, and Ronnie Chieng.

Of course, one wonders how Disney will handle the rollout amid ongoing pandemic fallout. Over in China, where the movie has been expected to perform well, exhibition is booming once again, but if U.S. theaters still aren’t a feasible option for a wide release at that point, a decision will have to be made on whether any MCU movies will be going the Disney+-Mulan route, as will be the case with Pixar’s Soul on Christmas. Then again, we’ll have to wait and see if Black Widow can keep its May 2021 date before learning more about the Shang-Chi plan.

In the meantime, here’s another wrap photo from Destin Daniel Cretton.

Taylor Swift’s album Folkore has made a handful of visits to the top of the Billboard 200 chart this year. It debuted at No. 1 on the chart dated August 8 and spent its first six weeks in that spot. After a two-week break, it returned to No. 1 for one more week on the chart dated October 3. The album again fell from the top, this time for three weeks, and now, Folklore is once again No. 1 for the eighth total week.

The album jumped all the way up from the No. 10 spot, thanks primarily to a drastic increase in sales from Swift’s webstore, where she offered autographed CD versions of the album for $25 for a limited time. Of the 77,000 equivalent album units earned in the US in the week ending October 22, 57,000 of those were album sales. That puts the album’s total album sales at a hair over a million (1.04 million), which makes it both the first album to sell a million copies in 2020 and the first album released in 2020 to sell a million.

The eighth week on top extends Folklore‘s run as the album with the most weeks at No. 1 since Drake’s Views remained in the top spot for 13 nonconsecutive weeks back in 2016.

Revisit our review of Folklore here.

During Friday’s virtual Seinfeld reunion with Julia Louis-Drefyus and Jason Alexander, co-creator Larry David revealed his favorite episode of the NBC sitcom. Unsurprisingly, it’s the episode that won David his first Emmy: “The Contest,” a.k.a. the episode about masturbation where the word “masturbation” is famously never said.

“I didn’t even put on the board, because I didn’t want them asking. I just wanted them to come and see the read through. [When they did,] I had worked myself up into a lather because the read through really went great. I was watching [the network executives] and I couldn’t tell how much they liked it,” David said. “But I was ready to pack the whole thing in if they didn’t let us do this show: ‘I’m quitting. I’m quitting. I’m gonna quit.’” But the executives surprisingly didn’t object, and years later, “The Contest” was named the greatest episode of all-time by TV Guide. Not just for Seinfeld, but for all TV shows.

David believes “The Contest” put Seinfeld into another level of popularity. “That show changed something about how we were perceived in television land,” he said. “It really catapulted us to another place. It moved us to another level, I think.” It’s also one of Louis-Drefyus’s favorites. She praised the episode for having a “very feminist point of view, and kind of critical I think, looking back on it.” “The Contest” has an ambiguous ending over who won (not Kramer), but as we learned in the Seinfeld finale, George cheated, making Jerry the champion. David confirmed as much during the reunion, saying, “George throws out a line, he says he cheated. So, I guess, then Jerry won it.”

He only won because Izzy Mandelbaum wasn’t invited to participate. Mandelbaum!

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

Recently, 19-year-old social media influencer Quenlin Blackwell, who rose to fame on Vine and is now popular on TikTok and other platforms, said in a video, “I live with Diplo right now, and he fully supports my endeavors.” Diplo, who is 41 years old, was asked about the arrangement, and he joked it came about because he has “no other friends.” That led to rumors that something romantic was going on between the two, which they have now both addressed.

In a tweet, Blackwell denied that she was “being groomed” and insisted that her relationship with Diplo is “platonic,” writing, “i’m an adult. i’m not being groomed. platonic relationships exist. i’ve been living here for over a year…i’d rather break both of my legs and be forced to walk than pursue diplo romantically and he’d rather choke. He’s barley in LA be he’s so busy. diplo has given me the opportunity and the security to create. diplo and his team are my mentors in LA and they are my safety net. diplo and his team have saved me numerous times from the weirdos in LA. my parents trust him. i trust him. y’all are making me feel icky. diplo is my LA dad..nothing more.”

A few hours later, Diplo addressed the situation as well, insisting that while he sometimes uses the building where Blackwell lives, he doesn’t live there and is basically just her landlord: “OK so I rent one of my properties to @quenblackwell. And yes I use the studio that is in that building. Her social media is sarcastic and chaotic and I can see you can get a twisted idea but there is nothing but a friendship between us.” He added in another tweet, “As a landlord I don’t really consider age or race as a qualification. U just gotta pay security deposit. And don’t poke holes in the walls or ruin my carpet.”

A Twitter user questioned the nature of Diplo and Blackwell’s relationship, asking, “What do you have in common with a 19-year-old that would warrant a friendship, quick.” He responded, “We made music together.” The person wasn’t satisfied with that answer, as they followed up, “At most, that constitutes a working / business junction, so again – what do you have in common with a 19-year-old that would warrant a friendship, as you previously said.” Diplo again responded, “To make music you have to have chemistry to be creative with a person. we didn’t make songs between plexiglass door while on discord.”

This situation led to people resurfacing some of Diplo’s old tweets, including one where he wrote, “girls born in the ’90s i hav to stop sleepin with u.” That tweet was sent in 2010, at which point Diplo would have been 31 and people born between 1990 and 1999 would have been anywhere from 11 to 20 years old. Somebody asked Diplo while he deleted that tweet, to which he responded, “Because it has zeo context now and my girlfriend at the time was 20 and we broke up.”

Somebody else noted, “k but several tweets from 2010/11 were waaay too weird. I hope you changed tho,” to which Diplo replied, “Yeh I used Twitter in a very dumb way back then and would not consider anything I wrote credible. Kinda cringe to read it without context.” Another user brought up a 2017 tweet in which Diplo wrote, “Low key sent my cv for r kelly sex cult membership,” and Diplo responded, “This was the year my Twitter was a basically a bad meme account that I didn’t run anymore and didnt care about. I didn’t even have a pw for it. but I obviously don’t want to join a sex cult. And I deleted it when someone sent it to me.. And that’s my final answer.”

This all comes amidst the release of Diplo’s latest Major Lazer album, Music Is The Weapon, which came out that past Friday.

If Suicide Squad isn’t the worst movie in the DC Extended Universe (an unofficial name, but it’s the one that’s stuck), then it’s the most disappointing. It’s not entirely director David Ayer’s fault, as he claims “the film I made has never been seen” (“It’s exhausting getting your ass kicked for a film that got the Edward Scissorhands treatment”), but there is one thing about Suicide Squad that everyone can agree was a success: the casting.

OK, maybe not the ENTIRE cast, but Margot Robbie is a brilliant Harley Quinn, it was interesting seeing Will Smith play against type, Viola Davis is always great, and Jai Courtney is a fun Captain Boomerang. It’s the biggest compliment James Gunn, who flipped from Marvel to DC to write and direct The Suicide Squad (although don’t worry, he’s returning for Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3), gave to his film’s sort-of predecessor.

“Listen, David Ayer’s gotten trouble for the movie. I know it didn’t come out how David wanted it to come out,” Gunn told Empire. “But he did one really, really great thing, and that is he picked fantastic actors to work with, and he dealt with these actors in building their characters in a really deep and fearless way. It’s something David definitely deserves to be lauded for, and it’s definitely added to this movie.” Robbie, Davis, and Courtney, as well as Joel Kinnaman, are returning for The Suicide Squad, along with DC newcomers John Cena, Idris Elba, Taika Waititi, and Steve Agee as a talking shark.

The death-filled The Suicide Squad comes out on August 6, 2021.

(Via Empire)

As you’re no doubt aware by now, Borat 2 treated viewers to Sacha Baron Cohen’s most beloved character dunking hard on Rudy Giuliani. In the film, the former NYC mayor reclines on a bed and shoves his hand down his pants while in a hotel room with Borat’s daughter (played by Maria Bakalova), who’s portrayed as 15 years old in the movie. Although there was no indication that Rudy was aware of the character’s age (until Borat burst into the room and exclaimed, “She’s 15, she’s too old for you!”), it’s still a terrible look. In the aftermath, Borat responded to the scene, and Cohen went out-of-character with a very different reaction, but if you were looking forward to what John Oliver had to say on Sunday night, the Last Week Tonight host did not disappoint:

“It says something about Rudy’s character is that the weirdest part of the sentence is ‘Rudy Giuliani got tricked, then shoved his hand down his pants in a hotel room in front of a relative stranger’ is that it doesn’t end at word ‘relative.’”

With that “relative” kicker, Oliver’s talking about how Giuliani’s first marriage (to his second cousin) lasted fourteen years until he reportedly annulled the the union. That’s an additional bit of proof that Giuliani’s not to be regarded as the sharpest pencil in the box, along with Giuliani appearing to think that “Borat” is a real person while lashing out amid the sequel’s release. Rudy also bizarrely tried to blame his compromising hotel behavior on an unverified Hunter Biden conspiracy, as strange as that sounds.

Oliver dug in on that note. The host listed several reasons why Giuliani’s record with fake information is “not great.” And the Borat fiasco collides with Rudy’s deranged Fox News-aired rantings about unsubstantiated reports about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Oliver’s point, naturally, is that Giuliani’s version of reality is not to be trusted: “Any information that Giuliani is passing on should be treated with extreme caution.” Oliver singled out the former NYC mayor’s butt-dialing habit and how he uploaded footage of himself mocking Asian accents as evidence that he’s “technologically illiterate” to an astounding degree. Oliver also details how Trump’s personal attorney has been flagged by U.S. intelligence as being targeted as a conduit for Russian disinformation.

As for what Trump’s calling “laptop from hell” during rallies, Oliver offers an explanation for those “trying to figure out what the f*ck they’re talking about there.” It’s all about supposedly recovered emails and texts from Hunter’s laptop, “But there are a lot of red flags here. Including the fact the NY Post story that broke it was reportedly written mostly a staff reporter who refused to put his name on it and the laptop’s conduit to the press is Rudy Giuliani, who intelligence officials flagged last year to be the target of a Russian intelligence operation to feed misinformation to Trump.”

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is now available to stream on Amazon Prime.

Over the past decade and a half, craft brewing has exploded in the US. Currently, there are well over 7,000 breweries in the country and they all need as much support as they can get during the ongoing pandemic. But while we believe that you should patronize as many breweries in your region as possible, you’re bound to have your favorite spots among them and, even more specifically, your favorite beers.

With the spirits and craft beer industry award seasons winding down, we enlisted the help of some of our favorite bartenders and asked for the one craft beer they reach for above all the rest. Check out their answers below.

Stone Xocoveza

Fanny Chu, head bartender at Donna in Brooklyn, New York

Stone Xocoveza. For me, it’s the perfect stout because of its incredible flavor profile which is Mexican hot chocolate, notes of coffee, pasilla peppers, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and loads of chocolate. Perfect for the upcoming season and holidays.

Plus, you can make an incredible flip cocktail with it.

Country Boy Shotgun Wedding

Dante Wheat, bartender and founder of Raw Pineapples in Lousiville, Kentucky

Country Boy Shotgun Wedding. Country Boy’s inclusion of vanilla bean gives them something exceptional in the sea of monotony that brown ales can be. This small infusion adds layers of complexity that extend past malt.

I rarely drink beer anymore, but if I do, it’s typically this one.

Maine Peeper Pale Ale

Randall Restiano, beverage director of Eataly NYC Flatiron in New York City

Maine Brewing Company’s Pale Ale — or, honestly, any of their brews. MO, Peeper, Lunch, they are just everything I want in a great beer. If I had to just choose one, it would be the Peeper Pale Ale. Balanced hops, fresh, crisp, citrus notes, and that final flavor of just the slightest hint of brioche.

You can always find one of these beers at our rooftop restaurant on tap or by the bottle all year long.

Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale

Andy Printy, beverage director at Chao Baan in St. Louis

Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale has always been a personal favorite. Even within their releases that seem “conventional” they are always just left of center on delivery. This is the one beer I’d drink if you could only drink one.

Ladyface LA Blonde

Gavin Humes, bartender at Scratch|Bar & Kitchen in Los Angeles

Ladyface Brewery out of Agoura Hills makes this LA Blonde that’s really nice. It’s light, refreshing, but still complex enough to be interesting. That’s definitely my go-to on a hot summer day, but it works almost as well when it starts to cool off in the fall.

Plus, I’m in LA, so it doesn’t really cool off that much anyway.

Metropolitan Magnetron

Hayden Miller, head bartender at Bodega Taqueria y Tequila in Miami

Metropolitan Magnetron. The schwarzbier is one of my favorite styles and this is a fantastic chocolatey pouring craft brew. Smoky, rich, and perfect at any time. Especially the fall.

Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA

Nick Cole, bartender at Kimpton Sawyer Hotel in Sacramento

The best American craft beer would have to be the Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA. The floral refresher is always a go-to on a nice day. It’s not too hoppy and is refreshingly juicy every single time.

Ommegang Rare Vos

Roberto Berdecia, bartender at La Factoria in San Juan, Puerto Rico

If I have to choose from the states, I will pick Ommegang Rare Vos (Amber Ale). This beer is very smooth, slightly fruity/hoppy with some spices and sweetness.

Victory Golden Monkey

Nestor Marchand, director of food and beverage at Plunge Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

I could drink Victory Golden Monkey every day. It has a great mouthful of spices and the softness of a blonde beer even though it’s a 9.5 percent Belgian-style tripel ale. It’s spicy, smooth, and perfect for cool fall weather.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

Eli Gay, taproom manager at NOLA Brewing in New Orleans

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. More contemporary American pale ales and IPAs all descend from this classic beer. In the early aughts, these styles started to pile on the bittering hops with reckless abandon, losing their malt balance. More recently, bitter hops have fallen out of favor, leaving these traditionally bitter beers more sweet and aromatic. For me, the original American Pale Ale remains king, with an exemplary balance between bracing bitterness, intense aromatics, and toasted caramel malt sweetness.

Writer’s Pick:

Cigar City Jai Alai

This is an impossible question. But if it needs to be answered, one beer immediately comes to mind: Cigar City Jai Alai. This subtly bitter, citrus-filled, juicy IPA is perfect for any time of the year. There’s no wrong time to enjoy a pint of Jai Alai.

Drake turned 34 years old over the weekend, so he decided to celebrate with a private party in Los Angeles that included a meal. Some photos and videos from the event made their way online, including a shot of the alleged menu, which has left some people confused due to one particular item.

Everything appears to be fine for the most part, but it’s towards the bottom of the page that things start to get dicey. The last item listed is macaroni and cheese, but the line below reveals what comes in it: “sun dried tomato, caper, raisin, parsley.”

There aren’t many ingredients that belong in mac and cheese beyond macaroni and cheese, but in Drake’s defense, the item menu directly above the eyebrow-raising mac and cheese, grilled cauliflower, lists the exact same ingredients. So, it seems likely that the issue is just a formatting mistake on the page. Whatever the case may be, the situation has left people confused.

Meanwhile, menu shenanigans wasn’t all Drake was up to this weekend. Aside from his birthday, the rapper was also celebrating the announcement of his new album’s release date (or at least its approximate release window): Certified Lover Boy is set to drop at some point in January 2021.

After roughly seven years away from our television screens, Showtime’s Dexter is returning for what is expected to be a one-season run. Clyde Phillips, the original showrunner, is running the show again, and he’s promised to give fans a second ending, one that is more satisfying than the original but that does not undo the events of the first finale.

We have our own wish list for the second final season, and it appears that Clyde Phillips will likely follow through on at least one of those elements, bringing back Jennifer Carpenter as Dexter’s new Dark Passenger. He didn’t specifically say as much, but by saying he wouldn’t undo the original finale, he’s saying that he won’t resurrect Jennifer Carpenter’s character, Debra, while also saying (via Us Weekly) that there is “some flexibility to do some movie magic.” That, combined with the fact that Carpenter is promoting the revival on Instagram, certainly suggests that she will return as Dexter’s dark passenger.

However, maybe the most telling piece of news that Clyde Phillips has dropped, so far, is not who will be in the Dexter revival, but where it will be set. Specifically, Phillips said that it will not be set in Miami, the setting for all eight seasons of the original run. Why is this telling? If the setting were in, say, Portland, where Dexter relocated, then how would Angel Batista, Vince Masuka, and Joey Quinn appear? Because there’s really only one logical way to bring back the members of the Miami police department and the three surviving series-long regulars — Batista, Masuka, and Quinn — if the series is not set in Miami.

It has to be a manhunt. Eight, nine, or ten years after staging his death, presumably Dexter continues killing in Oregon (or wherever he might have moved), and this time, Dexter is found out, which leads to a sort of manhunt. And if there is a manhunt for Dexter in Oregon, there’s reason to bring Batista, Masuka, and Quinn back in order to help local police investigate Dexter and track him down, because those three will presumably know more about him than anyone else. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t sympathize with Dexter, particularly if Dexter is caught killing someone who deserves to die. Either of the three could work with local authorites to capture Dexter or help him escape from behind the scenes.

It’s either that, or none of the three return, and the revival brings back only Dexter, Jennifer Carpenter as his Dark Passenger, and maybe Yvonne Strahovski, but it seems like it wouldn’t be much of a Dexter revival without returning some of the characters that made the original series so beloved.

We’ll find out when the ninth (and final) season of Dexter returns in the fall of 2021.

(Via US Weekly)