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Sunday’s Emmys were looser than usual (more award shows should involve things being set on fire), but it is with a heavy heart that I must announce that the censors are it again. While presenting the award for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series, Orange Is the New Black‘s Laverne Cox said, “I am living proof of the American dream that anyone in this country can lose the Emmy four years in the same category and yet somehow end up on this stage presenting an award to someone who probably didn’t…” That’s when her mic cut out, leaving viewers to wonder what was bleeped out. It turns out, it was “effing.” Not “f*cking,” but “effing,” as in, “…presenting an award to someone who probably didn’t effing vote for me.” That somehow wasn’t the silliest bleep of the evening.

Anthony Anderson was one of the few famous faces (along with Jason Bateman) to join host Jimmy Kimmel at the Staples Center, where he discussed all the Black people who were nominated for an Emmy this year. “These Emmys would have been NBA All-Star weekend and Wakanda, all wrapped in one. This was supposed to be the Blackest Emmys ever,” the black-ish star said. “These Emmys would have been so Black, it would have been ‘hot sauce in your purse’ Black. It would have been ‘Howard University homecoming’ Black. It would have been ‘you fit the description’ Black. We would have had speeches quoting our great poets like Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Cardi B…”

The censor, who is not a “certified freak”, was ready (if a half-second late):

Anderson went on to say that there would have been speeches quoting Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and even Cardi B. “‘WAP,’ Jimmy,” Anderson said, repeating “WAP” several times and causing a gap in the audio [that was] ABC censoring Anderson.

“WAP,” the mega-hit from Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, stands for “wet ass p*ssy,” and although Anderson never actually said any of those words, the mere mention of the acronyms was enough to turn ABC into Helen Lovejoy. Maybe it was for the best, though. “WAP” is not something anyone should have to explain to their innocent parents.

Here’s the full clip. At least Anderson got one “WAP” in there.

The pandemic has changed album release cycles. One thing from the before times that remains intact, though, are surprise releases. In fact, one of the most beloved indie groups is getting ready for one: Fleet Foxes have announced that their new album, Shore, will be out tomorrow (September 22). The album will be their first since 2017’s Crack-Up.

They made the announcement on social media, revealing the record will be available at 9:31 a.m. ET, to coincide with the autumn equinox. Additionally, the album will be accompanied by a “55-minute Super-16mm film ‘Shore,’ filmed and directed by Kersti Jan Werdal.”

The band hasn’t confirmed much more info than that, but some tidbits have emerged from other sources as well. The album art appears to have found its way out into the world, and it reveals the album’s tracklist. The tracklist as it appears on the art seems to closely mirror a partially whited-out tracklist that Robin Pecknold shared around this time last year.

Check out the rumored tracklist below.

1. “Wading In Waist-High Water”
2. “Sunblind”
3. “Can I Believe You”
4. “Jara”
5. “Featherweight”
6. “A Long Way Past The Past”
7. “For A Week Or Two”
8. “Maestranza”
9. “Young Man’s Game”
10. “I’m Not My Season”
11. “Quiet Air / Gioia”
12. “Going-To-The-Sun Road”
13. “Thymia”
14. “Cradling Mother, Cradling Woman”
15. “Shore”

Shore is out 9/22 via Anti-.

Keeping up with 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 a pious collaboration between Justin Bieber and Chance The Rapper, as well as debut releases from promising newcomers in pop and hip-hop. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

Justin Bieber — “Holy” Feat. Chance The Rapper

Justin Bieber hasn’t even had the opportunity to tour behind last year’s Changes, but he’s already on to a new era. That’s how Scooter Braun described Bieber’s new single, anyway, the Chance The Rapper-featuring “Holy.” Both artists have been public about their piety, so the gospel-inspired track is a natural venue for the pair’s first collaboration.

Lil Tecca — Virgo World

The 18-year-old rapper has kept busy since breaking out with his 2019 single “Ransom.” He dropped a series of delightful videos — “Royal Rumble,” “Out Of Love,” and “IDK” — for his debut album, Virgo World, and now the record has arrived. Uproxx’s Aaron Williams describes the album as “more polished” than the project that preceded it, his 2019 mixtape We Love You Tecca.

Rico Nasty — “Own It”

Rico Nasty told Uproxx earlier this year that the pandemic has given her the opportunity to make some changes to Nightmare Vacation, but she’s still been pushing out tracks from the project. The latest is “Own It,” which is accompanied by a characteristically off-the-wall video that packs a lot of peculiar visual moments into just two minutes and change.

Busta Rhymes — “Yuuu” Feat. Anderson .Paak

Busta Rhymes has long teased a sequel to his Grammy-nominated 1998 album E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event): The Final World Front, and now it’s finally coming. Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath Of God is on the way, and he previewed it last week with “Yuuu,” a collaboration with Anderson .Paak.

Ava Max — Heaven & Hell

A pop star on the rise, Ava Max dropped her debut album, Heaven & Hell last week. It’s led by tracks like “Heaven & Hell,” which appealed to fans and peers alike, as Saweetie and Lauv hopped on a new version of the tune.

Anitta — “Me Gusta” Feat. Cardi B

Cardi B manages to stay in the music news cycle in one way or another, and aside from drama in her personal life, she managed to do so last week with new music. She hopped on Anitta’s “Me Gusta 2,” contributing characteristically confident lyrics like, “He like to eat the cake like it’s my B-day.”

Gus Dapperton — Orca

In a recent interview with Uproxx, Dapperton described his new album Orca as being about “feeling trapped, depressed, and having these people and unconditional forces of love in your life that reel you back in.” He added, “A lot of the things I’m talking about are really timely right now. I have a responsibility to release this music.”

Sufjan Stevens — “Sugar”

The latest preview of Stevens’ upcoming The Ascension is the evocative seven-minute “Sugar.” Stevens says of the track, “‘Sugar’ is ultimately about the desire for goodness and purity (and true sustenance). On the surface the song is just a string of clichés, but the message is imperative: now is the time to gather what is good and pure and valuable and make it your own, and share it with others.”

Alicia Keys — Alicia

Keys has had one of the most beautiful and empowering voices in music for years now, and both of those qualities are on full display with her new self-titled album. She shines on her own, but assists across the tracklist from Khalid, Miguel, Sampha, Tierra Whack, and others certainly don’t hurt.

Armani Caesar — The Liz

Earlier this year, Caesar was introduced as the de facto “first lady” of Griselda, and now she has dropped The Liz, her first release on the label. It’s a diverse effort, showing off that she can thrive just as well on old-school- and new-school-style instrumentals.

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

A Twitter user’s (relatively) innocent question has hip-hop fans at odds with one another (again) as they debate the individual merits of two of the genre’s most groundbreaking and prolific artists. After a fan page wondered, “Who’s the better lyricist: Lupe Fiasco or Kendrick Lamar?” even those artists themselves couldn’t help gettting involved. Lupe quoted the tweet, adding the response, “Lupe, but…” He quickly deleted it, but not before screenshots could be taken and circulated, letting the world know his response.

Of course, Lupe once caused great consternation in hip-hop circles by saying that he didn’t view Kendrick as a “top-tier” lyricist. After a backlash, he later retracted the statement with an apology, and as recently as this summer was stuck still explaining his rationale for making it in the first place.

Of course, his response here would only draw more reactions from hip-hop heads on Twitter, including one in particular with a little more skin in the game than most. TDE President Punch, who’s known to get into his own tiffs on the social app — including ones with some of his own artists — didn’t directly address Fiasco’s tweet. Instead, perhaps in the interest of keeping the peace, he dropped a context-less “lol” that can easily be construed as his final word on the subject. Fellow TDE signee Reason also chimed in on the kerfuffle, writing, “Tired of ppl who truly don’t understand lyrics tellin me who the best lyricist are.”

Lupe Fiasco is fresh off the release of his House EP with Florida producer Kaelin Ellis, while Kendrick has yet to release a body of work — or even a new song — in 2020. That may soon change; the Compton rapper was reportedly seen shooting a music video in Los Angeles recently, indicating that new music may soon be on the way.

Ellen DeGeneres recently ousted multiple top producers in the wake of revelations of a “toxic” workplace behind the scenes of her long-running daytime talk show. She also promised to address those accusations on-air, and she’s keeping that promise. As you can see in the above clip, Ellen talked about the allegations in the opening moments of Monday’s return to her show. It’s now Season 18 for The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and the host is vowing that “a new chapter” is beginning.

After an (unavoidably) awkward introduction about what a terrible summer this has been, DeGeneres got down to business:

“As you may have heard this summer, there were allegations of a toxic work environment at our show and then there was an investigation. I learned that things happened that never should have happened. I take that very seriously. I want to say I am so sorry to the people who are affected. I know that I am in a position of privilege and power and I realize that with that comes responsibility. And I take responsibility for what happens at my show. This is The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

DeGeneres also discussed the double-edged sword that her “be kind” mantra turned out to be. She admits that that saying made her “tricky position” even more precarious to navigate, especially when confronted by reports that that she’s a different person behind the scenes than the sunshiney frontwoman exterior led people to believe for years. “The truth is, I am that person that you see on TV. I am also a lot of other things,” she admitted. “I am a work in progress, and I am especially working on the impatience thing and it’s not going well because it’s not happening fast enough. I will tell you that.”

Prior to DeGeneres’ return to air, Howard Stern stated his belief that Ellen should simply embrace being a “prick,” and Steve Harvey urged her to “walk away” (while also siding with the host). Clearly, Ellen isn’t walking away, but this whole fiasco does bring to mind Ellen’s 2018 profile with The New York Times, to which she strongly suggested that she wished to leave building to pursue projects that explore more of her own personality or portray “someone unappealing” on a TV show or movie. Ellen also pointedly stated, “The talk show is me, but I’m also playing a character of a talk-show host. There’s a tiny, tiny bit of difference.” It remains to be seen whether she’ll cut the talk-show persona loose, once and for all, when it’s time for renewed contract negotiations (before 2022).

Through their appearances in various pieces of pop culture, there are certain dates that have become beloved. Next month, for example, will bring Mean Girls Day, because of one line in the movie in which Lindsay Lohan’s character declared the day’s date: October 3. Ahead of that, though, is a favorite in the realm of silly music unofficial holidays: Earth, Wind & Fire Day, which is today.

Of course, the group’s iconic hit “September” begins with the lyric, “Do you remember the 21st night of September?” To mark the day, the band has shared a new version of the song, the “Eric Kupper Remix,” which they released towards the end of last week. The re-work of the song doesn’t alter much (as it shouldn’t) beyond giving it a stronger four-on-the-floor beat, making the legendary tune somehow even easier to dance to.

The song originally came out in 1978, and all these years later, it still gets fans excited. This morning, the song trended on Twitter in the US in various forms; As of this post, four of the top 30 trending topics are related to the song or Earth, Wind & Fire.

As for the significance of the 21st night of September, the song’s co-writer, Maurice White, has explained that there really isn’t any, saying in a 2014 interview, “We went through all the dates: ‘Do you remember the first, the second, the third, the fourth…,’ and the one that just felt the best was the 21st. I constantly have people coming up to me and they get so excited to know what the significance was. And there is no significance beyond it just sang better than any of the other dates. So… sorry!”

Watch the video for the new “September” remix above.

HBO’s ‘Lovecraft Country’ is ambitious and astounding and will undoubtedly blow your expectations away. Created by Misha Green, who’s working with Matt Ruff’s 1950s-set dark-fantasy novel as source material, the show counts horror visionary Jordan Peele and sci-fi maestro J.J. Abrams as executive producers. The show is full of literary and musical references, along with monsters, both in-your-face and figurative; we’ll discuss the resulting symbolism on a weekly basis.

This week’s episode of Lovecraft Country takes a break from Chicago and heads back in time to Atticus’ tour in South Korea. In other words, we’re not getting an immediate followup on finding out that Christina and William are the same person. We also don’t learn what that reveal means for Ruby, who thought she was sleeping with William while also swapping into the body of a white woman. And we aren’t seeing any followup on Montrose coming out as homosexual. This episode also won’t please anyone who isn’t a fan of the show’s abrupt tonal shifts, but man, no one can accuse this series of playing it safe. This week, we do receive a much-needed backstory on Atticus’ Army years in “Meet Me In Daegu,” in addition to more insight into his beef with Montrose.

Overall, this was a tightly focused installment — revolving around Atticus’ Korean War tour of duty, which led him to meet a nursing student, Ji-Ah (Jamie Chung), in two separate contexts (though he doesn’t remember the first) — that’s not nearly as complex as most Lovecraft Country episodes. Of course, there are still numerous WTF moments, so let’s talk those out.

Lots of wizard-y, borderline-snakey things:

Shout out to that trouser snake from Episode 2, but that wasn’t Atticus’ first snakey rodeo. In fact, he was all wrapped up and eye-penetrated by furry “snakes” after Ji-Ah lost control of the monster inside of her during their lovemaking. We’ve seen her a few times already (more on that later), but most importantly, she’s the owner of the ominous voice at the end of that South Korean telephone number. Of course, that first snake vision that we saw, back at the Ardham Manor, appeared to be strictly happening inside of Leti’s alternate, spell-driven reality as an allusion to Adam and Eve’s fall after she was tempted by the snake (which came out of Atticus’ pants).

This time, though, the snake-like creatures are more like furry tentacles. Ji-Ah has been transformed by a shaman — at the behest of her mother, as part of a combative, resentful relationship that parallels that of Atticus of Montrose — into a vengeful entity known as a Kumiho, a shapeshifting fox spirit that seduces and kills men. In order to break the spell and become human again, Ji-Ah must kill 100 men, and she intended for Atticus to be the final sacrifice. Yet she couldn’t go through with it when she first had the chance. And Ji-Ah ends up sparing him during their final meeting (when he finds out she’s a monster that hurled him, naked, across a room), but he’s still driven to contact her. Well, he’s kind-of a monster, too? That brings me to the next point.

Atticus committed some very bad wartime acts:

We know Atticus to be a generally levelheaded man who’s prone to fits of rage when it comes to his father. That’s something that scared the heck out of Leti last week before they reconciled, but we straight-up see the inhumanities that he committed while acting under orders of the U.S. Army. He executed a nursing student on camera while she knelt next to Ji-Ah, and then he helped cart off Ji-Ah’s best friend away (never to be seen again), which is what led Ji-Ah to faux-romantically pursue him when they meet again in the hospital where she works. Later, she tells him, “We’ve both done monstrous things, but that doesn’t make us monsters.” And hell, they could have worked out, if not for the whole shaman-spell thing ruining their romance with sex-tentacles.

How should we view Atticus now, given that we know he’s capable of also torturing prisoners of war (Ji-Ah saw this vision while connected to Atticus’ mind during their tentacled encounter) — is he still the hero of this story? In the debut episode, we saw him waxing rhapsodic about (the racist) Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess Of Mars hero, John Carter, while overlooking the character’s flaws. It’s a problem.

Otherwise, the whole snake-y sex attack provides for a bizarre backstory to Atticus’ brushes with magic before Ardham Manor. We’re gaining some perspective on why Atticus was so levelheaded, compared to George and Leti, during the crazy sh*t that went down with the cult. I mean, he managed to survive a spirit that reduced 99 other men into a bloody spatter like this…

… so perhaps a homicidal white supremacist cult wasn’t all that shocking to Atticus in comparison? Fair.

Is Atticus in real danger of dying?

It’s not looking great, let’s put it that way. Due to the powers bestowed by this ^^^ shaman, Ji-Ah’s Kumiho powers cause her to foresee Atticus’ death in America. We also learn during this episode that Ji-Ah’s phone warnings (“You should have listened to me”) may have sounded like threats, but she actually tried to stop him (“Don’t go home… If you go home you will die. I saw it!”) from leaving because she wanted to protect him. Obviously, Atticus didn’t listen to her and may live to regret his stubbornness, but he’s in too deep now in Chicago. He’s now devoted to unraveling the Language of Adam and stopping Christina from doing whatever it is that she’s plotting to do.

Here’s where we’ve seen Ji-Ah before this episode:

She appeared as the Martian Princess in Atticus’ opening dream.

She was Atticus’ imaginary assailant during his alternate-reality experience in Ardham:

In a show that never even needed a secret weapon to succeed, Jamie Chung’s sure looking like a bonus weapon.

Hey, Atticus once enjoyed Montrose’s favorite book:

Ji-Ah and Atticus ended up bonding and falling in love with their mutual desire to escape reality through pop culture. She adores Judy Garland movies, and he loves losing himself in books. Interestingly enough, we don’t Atticus poring over his usual pulp fiction (by racist authors including H.P. Lovecraft, who Montrose abhors) that was also beloved by the late George. Instead, we see him reading the same book, The Count Of Monte Cristo, that he took note of a few episodes ago in Montrose’s apartment. That was a reference to Black French author Alexandre Dumas’ pushing back at racism (particularly as exercised through colonialism) after experiencing it firsthand.

Atticus even requests for Ji-Ah to read The Count Of Monte Cristo to him, and when she claims to know the ending of the book, he realizes that she’s talking about the movie version. He’s read the book already and wishes to re-experience it… because it’s Montrose’s favorite. He’s not sure whether Montrose liked the book because Dumas was a Black author or due to the protagonist’s successful pursuit of revenge. Yet if it’s the latter, then we’ve still got a lot to see from Montrose before season’s end.

HBO’s ‘Lovecraft Country’ airs Sundays at 9:00pm EST.

In the days before her death, U.S. Supreme Court Justice and women’s rights pioneer Ruth Bader Ginsburg revealed her dying wish to her granddaughter: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” Not only is Trump planning to ignore RBG, he’s also casting doubts that she said what she, well, said.

While appearing on Monday’s Fox & Friends, Trump said, “I don’t know that she said that, or was that written out by Adam Schiff or [Chuck] Schumer and [Nancy] Pelosi? I would be more inclined to the second. That came out of the wind, it sounds so beautiful, but that sounds like a Schumer deal or maybe Pelosi or shifty Schiff.”

Trump also told the Fox News host that he’s narrowed his list of potential Supreme Court nominees to fill Ginsburg’s seat to five people and that he plans to announce his selection this week. “I think it will be on Friday or Saturday and we want to pay respect, it looks like we will have services on Thursday or Friday, as I understand it, and I think we should, with all due respect for Justice Ginsburg, wait for services to be over,” he said.

Because nothing says showing respect to the recently deceased than to immediately go against their dying wish. Watch the Fox & Friends clip below.

(Via the Daily Beast & The Recount)

Microsoft rocked the gaming world on Monday with news it made a massive purchase of the parent company of publisher Bethesda — maker of games the Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom. The all-cash deal announced on Monday will see ZeniMax Media acquired by Microsoft, with Bethesda joining Xbox Game Studios.

According to a Microsoft announcement on Monday, the $7.5 billion deal is done and will have an immediate impact on video games. It’s a seismic shift in the gaming industry that has a lot of wrinkles and new possibilities, but first and foremost is a move framed by Microsoft as a way to bolster Xbox Game Pass ahead of the release of two new next-gen consoles this fall. Microsoft pointed out in a release that Xbox Game Pass currently has more than 15 million subscribers, and the acquisition of Bethesda brings with it the “intent” to include future Bethesda games on Xbox Game Pass right on launch day.

It’s unclear if those titles — potentially including future Fallout or Elder Scrolls sequels — will be timed Xbox/PC exclusives or how releases of what are now Xbox Studio games will work. Microsoft now has 23 different studios working under its Xbox catalog, with 2,300 employees getting added to the company in the deal. At least one game, Starfield, was mentioned as under development by Bethesda and will presumably be the first to release on Game Pass like Microsoft teased.

Thinking more long-term, the various things made possible by the deal are far more widespread, including great news for Fallout fans as pointed out by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier.

Whether another New Vegas is on the way or not is way too early to determine, but’s a striking example of just how big this deal is and the repercussions it will have across gaming. Microsoft got a lot bigger on Monday, and the next generation of console gaming is poised to look a lot different than anyone thought just a few days ago.

Like other areas of the music industry, the pandemic has presented both challenges and new opportunities to the folks behind NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series. They haven’t been hosting performances from the traditional venue at their offices, but that means they’ve been able to wrangle artists to participate from wherever they find themselves. For their latest, they got perhaps the biggest pop act in the world right now: BTS.

The performance immediately sent shock waves across the internet: It was the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter in the US within a half hour of its debut. For the set, the group took to their hometown South Korean record store and performed their first US No. 1 single “Dynamite.” After that, they dipped into their archives for the remaining two songs: “Save Me” and “Spring Day,” from 2016 and 2017, respectively.

NPR noted, “We’ve been trying to make a BTS Tiny Desk concert happen for years now — even gaming out ways we might move Bob Boilen’s desk far enough forward to accommodate the superstar Korean boy band’s dance moves. In the end, it took a global pandemic — and the launch of Tiny Desk (home) concerts back in March — to make something happen.”

Watch BTS’ Tiny Desk performance above.