Offset and Cardi B may be in the middle of a divorce, but he still did everything he could to help make the “WAP” rapper’s birthday special. He got her a pricey new car and bought her a birthday billboard, and he also devoted a sweet Instagram post to Cardi.
Sharing a photo of him and Cardi laying down together, Offset wrote, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY @iamcardib you are amazing woman you the best! Me and Kulture are proud of you!!! over came every obstacle in front you they was all sleep at once then you woke the world up! Thank you for being 1000% every min I known you live it up enjoy keep f*cking balling I’m lucky.”
Offset seems to be feeling down about his impending divorce: He recently said on Instagram that he misses “Mrs. WAP.” The relationship between the two isn’t totally sour, as Cardi recently defended Offset after fans called him a “bad man,” writing, “He a dumbass not a bad man. Cause out of everybody that tried to steal, finesse me into working with their brand for less he got people coming for me with CORRECT CONTRACTS and never ask for a dollar or benefit like every1 else. N****s is n**** but a bad personality he not.”
Divorces can be a challenging time, but that didn’t stop Cardi from enjoying her birthday blowout. She had herself a big ol’ party, and she certainly partied hard; At one point, she found herself face down on the floor.
Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
If you go by Rotten Tomatoes score, Spectre is the “worst” James Bond movie in the Daniel Craig-era. But ironically, of the four films, it has the best opening scene: 007 carrying out a mission in Mexico City on the Day of the Dead was thrilling and, with its lengthy (and deceptive) tracking shot, technically impressive. Spectre deserves a top-10 placement on any Best Bond Pre-Title Openings list, and it sounds like whatever director Cary Joji Fukunaga has in store for No Time to Die will be up there, too.
The Wall Street Journaldescribes the opening as “slow-paced, visually arresting, subtitled with dialogue in French and entirely Bond-free. Focusing instead on Madeleine’s backstory, the opening is a terrifying episode from her childhood in which Safin, wearing a Japanese Noh mask, kills her mother, pursues Madeleine through the home and hunts her down on a frozen lake.” Fukunaga then made an interesting comparison between that scene, which appears in the trailer, and another film. And genre:
“Some clown chasing a child around the house,” Fukunaga says with a laugh. “Yeah, it’s like I brought back It in the first five minutes of Bond.”
Fukunaga was the original choice to direct It, but he wanted to make an “unconventional horror film,” while the studio “wanted me to make a much more inoffensive, conventional script.” He later added, “They thought they couldn’t control me. I would have been a total collaborator. That was the kind of ridiculous part. It was just more a perception. I have never seen a note and been like, F*ck you guys. No way. It’s always been a conversation.” Fukunaga received writing credit on the highest-grossing horror movie of all-time, but it sounds like he channeled his unseen It ideas into No Time to Die‘s opening. As if the wait to watch Ana de Armas kill bad guys wasn’t long enough as is…
No Time to Die is scheduled to come out on April 2, 2021.
Memphis rapper Blac Youngsta was arrested in Dallas over the weekend on a weapon charge, according to XXL. Blac Youngsta, aka Sammie Benson, was picked up for unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon on Sunday (October 11) during a traffic stop. During the stop, the arresting officer reported that he found a handgun between Benson’s legs.
XXL
Blac Youngsta was booked at the Suzanne Lee Kays Detention Facility and posted a $5,000 cash bond early this morning. He seemed unfazed by his stay in the jail, posing in a photo with his attorney Andrew Wilkerson on Instagram. Wilkerson captioned the photo, “Oh… cause I thought an attorney that’s all cap said something…. I stay on the job… he say ‘I like ya energy my n***’ naw fr.. this my city!”
Blac Youngsta, who rose to prominence in 2017 with the viral single “Hip Hopper,” has had his fair share of run-ins with the law. In January 2016, employees at a Wells Fargo believed that the rapper was robbing the bank when he withdrew $200,000 from his account, calling the police, who released him at the scene and prompted him to accuse police and Wells Fargo employees of racial profiling. In 2017, Youngsta was arrested for allegedly shooting at Young Dolph’s bulletproof SUV over 100 times. In 2019, the charges were dropped.
Most recently, Blac Youngsta released a joint album with fellow Memphis rapper Moneybagg Yo, who had some firearm problems himself last month.
Let’s start here with an understatement: a lot of gruesome stuff happened on Game of Thrones. That includes pretty much every wedding scene, as well as Dany chomping on a horse heart, multiple instances of sexual assault, and Theon losing his “favorite toy.” The list goes on and on, but one of the more brutal fight scenes (other than the Red Viper/The Mountain showdown) involved a doozy from Jason Momoa’s Khal Drogo.
That’d be the moment when Khal Drogo gets to show off his fight moves, and his finishing flourish sees him rip Mago’s tongue out of his throat. Mago had committed the grave offense of insulting the Khaleesi, and here he is, paying the price.
As it turns out, the gross-tongue thing came straight from Momoa’s brain, according to James Hibberd’s new oral history, Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, which is yielding all sorts of previously unknown tidbits. Episode director Daniel Minahan related that Momoa was opposed to turning this into a beheading scene because that seemed too, you know, run of the mill (Momoa is quoted as saying, “We’ve chopped off so many people’s heads. I think I should cut his throat open and pull his tongue out through his throat”). Yet where did that idea come from, exactly? The Aquaman star nabbed it from his own bizarre dream: “I had a dream where somebody dumped on my wife and I ripped his tongue out through his throat.”
I don’t even want to know if Momoa meant “dumped” in a literal or figurative sense, but co-showrunner David Benoiff added that the fight scene probably wouldn’t have happened at all if Momoa hadn’t insisted upon Drogo being able to demonstrate his prowess, rather than having people take the show’s word for it:
“Jason had a high batting average of ideas he’d come to us [for, and] that we liked and ended up using. And one thing he said fairly early on was, ‘I’m supposed to be the baddest man on the planet, I got this long braid because I’ve never lost a fight, and everybody is afraid of me. But nobody sees me fight, and isn’t that kind of lame?’ We told him, ‘No, it’s good, you’re so badass you don’t have to prove yourself. You’re the victor of a thousand battles, Jason, go back to your trailer.’ But there was something kind of strange with not getting to see this guy do what he does best.”
And that’s how we got the Khal Drogo “come at me bro” meme, so it’s a good thing that people listen to Jason Momoa.
Today is Columbus Day, but some folks are instead choosing to observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day; both are among the top-trending topics on Twitter today. One band in the latter group is Portugal. The Man, who have teamed up with “Weird Al” Yankovic for a new (non-parody) song, “Who’s Gonna Stop Me.”
The lyrics are about trying to get by in a world where you aren’t a priority, and the video features indigenous people lip syncing the words. The clip also features Yankovic playing a wolf spirit character. In a statement accompanying the track, Portugal. The Man discussed the colonization of America and human progress before noting:
“Now, at the dawn of the 21st century, mother earth is reacting to the past few hundred years of neglect. The earth is sending out pandemics, fires, hurricanes, and so on. The indigenous say that it’s the earth’s immune system calibrating itself. The indigenous people of the Americas, and the rest of the world, have stewarded their sacred planet for tens of thousands of years of recorded history — likely more. The PTM Foundation turns a conscious heart to the ancestral youth of the indigenous elders to shepherd our sacred planet and peoples through this time of difficulty.”
The PTM Foundation, by the way, is the band’s organization that is described on its website, “PTM Foundation is focused on building community resilience, empathy, and awareness through music, stories, art, education and connectivity. We aim to convene and organize partnerships and projects informed by community need, then mobilize Portugal. The Man’s listeners and supporters around that shared vision.”
The band said in a statement about the track, “For all those who thought we reached the pinnacle of our career, we just wrote a song with Jeff Bhasker and Paul Williams featuring Weird Al Yankovic and The Last Artful Dodgr. Then we made a video with all our best friends in our backyard and in the river, we live on. So there.” Elsewhere in their statement, the band also wrote of Yankovic, “To us ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic has always been a figure of playful boundary-breaking. His work makes us take less seriously, the things that we take so seriously, like what’s cool, or what’s trendy. ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic has been an inspiration for Portugal The Man since their inception until now.”
Listen to “Who’s Gonna Stop Me” above, and find the band’s full statement about the song below.
“They say barbwire was the death knell of the cowboy. It was the end of the open range and the end of open pastures. Before the cowboys, for time immemorial, the indigenous peoples of the Americas looked to the earth as their spiritual authority. They did not parcel the earth any more than Christians, Muslims, or the Jewish faith would parcel out God. That would be sacrilege. But along came the colonists and they did just that. After the genocide of the indigenous peoples, once our white picket fences and barbwire and border walls were erected, the ancestors of the colonists made a lot of technological progress. We invented cars, skyscrapers, cheeseburgers, and smartphones! And yet now, at the dawn of the 21st century, mother earth is reacting to the past few hundred years of neglect. The earth is sending out pandemics, fires, hurricanes, and so on. The indigenous say that it’s the earth’s immune system calibrating itself. The indigenous people of the Americas, and the rest of the world, have stewarded their sacred planet for tens of thousands of years of recorded history — likely more. The PTM Foundation turns a conscious heart to the ancestral youth of the indigenous elders to shepherd our sacred planet and peoples through this time of difficulty.
The PTM Foundation is a platform for artistic collaboration between materialist culture, the arts, and indigenous paradigms. For the video for “Who’s Gonna Stop Me” we created a collaboration between indigenous artists, friends, artistic collaborators, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, and Indigenous organizations to explore the possibilities of collaboration in this new time. To us ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic has always been a figure of playful boundary-breaking. His work makes us take less seriously, the things that we take so seriously, like what’s cool, or what’s trendy. ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic has been an inspiration for Portugal The Man since their inception until now. In the tradition of the indigenous cultures of the western North American territories, the Coyote represents the trickster and the maker of new worlds. The trickster is an archetype that can be found in nearly all indigenous and ancient cultures; the trickster not only is playful and a comedian but through their playfulness, they connect people. PTM Foundation sees music and art as a similar tool to make new connections and we consider this video to be the beginning of a campaign of many collaborations to come. PTM Foundation strives to forge bridges between the materialist contemporary culture in which we are immersed and the indigenous stewards to whom we strive to give a larger voice.”
Portugal. The Man is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
In the process of winning his fourth title in Year 17, James continued to assert himself as the league’s best postseason finisher, showing an array of abilities that make him nearly impossible to stop on the offensive end. It is that diversity of options to attack you that has been the biggest growth in James’ game, as he’s gone from the most physically dominant force since Shaq to someone who has harnessed that physical skill with the mental understanding of exactly how to pick an opponent apart — and has added the skills needed to attack an opponent from wherever on the floor.
After hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy once again, James talked with Scott Van Pelt and was asked about the biggest difference between 35-year-old LeBron and 27-year-old LeBron when he won his first title. James pointed to that mental side of understanding his game as the biggest difference, and said that his current form would “dominate” his younger self from the Heat days.
LeBron James says 35-year old LeBron would dominate 27-year old LeBron.
Given that 27-year-old LeBron was in his physical prime it’s a bit surprising to hear James say he’d “dominate” him now, but at the same time it’s not as if the current form of James is exactly a slouch in terms of athleticism. He may not be quite as quick or quite as bouncy, but he still has plenty of burst and, coupled with where he’s at mentally with his understanding of both himself and his opponents, LeBron seems to think it wouldn’t be much of a competition.
Sometimes the best new R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm and blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they really love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the best new R&B jams that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.
This week, Trey Songz releases his album Back Home, Queen Naija delivers the visual for “Lie To Me” featuring Lil Durk, and Ella Mai performs her new single “Not Another Love Song” on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
Trey Songz — Back Home
Award-winning singer Trey Songz made a return to his Virginia roots at the top of this year and during that time he conjured up his latest album release Back Home (in between fighting for social justice), which has finally arrived with 22 sensual and loving tracks. From the album’s opener “Be My Guest” to the previously released single “Back Home” featuring Summer Walker, Trigga really does seem to be right back home musically, as well.
Queen Naija — “Lie To Me” Feat. Lil Durk
Rising R&B star Queen Naija released her song “Lie To Me” featuring Lil Durk last week and this week she delivered (another) visual directed by Teyana Taylor for the catchy number. Naija’s debut album Misunderstood is scheduled for release on October 30 and is set to feature “Lie To Me” as well as her previously released songs “Pack Lite” and “Butterflies Pt. 2″ featuring Wale.
Ella Mai — “Not Another Love Song”
During Rihanna’s SavagexFenty show, Ella Mai surprised fans with her new track “Not Another Love Song” and this week she performed the song on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. It’s a deep R&B cut that explores all the swimming thoughts of a new love that’s drowning in vulnerability, over Boi-1da production. “Not Another Love Song” is a sweet introduction into the next era of Ella Mai.
Bjrnck — “Waiting On You”
Up-and-coming R&B singer Bjrnck performed a soothing live version of her song “Waiting On You” with a live band and it’s the closest thing we’ll get to a live show from talent like this during the pandemic. Bjrnck shows off her vocal talent with poise and proves why she’s up next.
Q — “Take Me Where Your Heart Is”
Florida native Q comes through this week with a visual for his soulful track “Take Me Where Your Heart Is,” which is the first release from his forthcoming collection of songs off The Shave Experiment . The project is expected to be released this fall and should be filled with enough moving soul-pop numbers to get through cuffing season.
Allyn — “Richie Rich”
As the follow-up to her Mozzy-assisted single “Tap In,” Allyn returns with her latest release “Richie Rich.” The up-and-coming R&B singer lets it be known that cash rules everything around her for anyone trying to get close.
MarMar Oso — “Slide” Feat. Eric Bellinger
MarMar Oso drops off an animated visual for “Slide” this week featuring Eric Bellinger of his project Marvin’s Room. “Slide” is the follow-up to MarMar’s remix to his viral song “Ruthless” with G-Eazy.
Yola — “Hold On” Feat. Brandi Carlile, Sheryl Crow, and Jason Isbell
Yola’s new single “Hold On” sees assistance from Brandi Carlile, Sheryl Crow and Jason Isbell on guitar for a soulful cut reminiscent of the 1960s, which was made to benefit the efforts of MusicCares and National Bailout Collective. The song was inspired by conversations Yola had with her mother growing up about the challenges of being a Black woman in America.
Riley — “Creepin’”
Amber Riley of Glee, now simply known as Riley, is finally listening to fans and has released some music this year with a 6-song self-titled EP that includes her song “Creepin,’” which just received the visual treatment
Sainvil — “Sweet”
Sainvil returns this week with another enigmatic R&B track in the form of “Sweet.” It’s the second single off his upcoming project aptly titled 2020 Was Hijacked. The visual features Sainvil soaking in a tub while crooning about the pleasures of oral foreplay.
Check out this week’s R&B picks, plus more on Uproxx’s Spotify playlist below.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Now that Logic’s making a ton of money streaming video games on Twitch, it would appear he’s got a lot of disposable income. It’s already well-known he’s pretty geeky — again, the man streams video games for a living — and it’s also equally well known that geeks love dropping insane amounts of money in pursuit of their passions. Lots of income and geeky habits are sure to produce some attention-grabbing results and according to TMZ, that’s exactly what happened.
When a rare Pokémon card went up for auction, Logic was more than willing to spend more than most folks make in a year to secure it — a record-breaking $226,000. The card — a “PSA 10 Base Set 1st Edition Charizard” — sold for $183,812.00 with a 20% buyer’s premium tacked on.
A PSA 10 Base Set 1st Edition Charizard just sold at auction with an ending bid of $183,812.00 via @IconicAuctions.
Including the 20% buyer’s premium, the total transaction value exceeds $220k.
Logic copped the card despite recently complaining that his former label, Def Jam, wasn’t paying his collaborators for their work on his retirement album, No Pressure. He also backed Kanye’s accusations against labels, alleging that Def Jam wouldn’t pay Lil Wayne’s fee to appear on the album. Fortunately, should Logic release the mixtape he’s been threatening, his seven-figure Twitch deal should be more than enough to cover those fees and make sure everybody gets paid — and if he’s worried about royalties, maybe he should talk to ASCAP or BMI.
Many years after her previous album, Fiona Apple returned this year with Fetch The Bolt Cutters, one of the most critically beloved albums in recent memory. The album came out towards the start of the pandemic, and thus, she hasn’t been able to tour in support of it. Apple hasn’t really hopped on the livestream concert train yet either… before this weekend, that is. She and her band participated in the virtual New Yorker Fest on Saturday night (October 10) and performed Fetch The Bolt Cutters songs for the first time. She opted to play the album’s three opening songs: “I Want You To Love Me,” “Shameika,” and the title track.
She also chatted with Emily Nussbaum and discussed a number of topics. Regarding Trump and race, she said:
“I mean, the Supreme Court, all that — all the federal judges, my God. I mean, oh, my God. There’s Proud Boys and our president — our president is a White Supremacist who can’t even manage to deny that he is which I guess is good. But I mean, it’s been so insulting, the way that he’s just gaslighting people in America.
I threw my hands up here right now because I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I think that something good that’s happened this year, I mean, through all the bad stuff that has been happening, I think that, one big thing is happening is that I think that a lot of us have been looking at — or a bigger portion of white people had been examining themselves for the kind of racist tendencies they may have without thinking of themselves as being racist.
Like, thinking about like how do I think about this and why — I think that people are finally being able to, like, look at themselves without getting so defensive that they can’t hear what people need them to hear. I feel like we finally been, like, OK, this is too important. I got to check my ego out of this and just be like, I mean, look at myself and let me look at the people around me…
“I think that — I hope that — what I’ve been told about, like, how this album has — had an effect on people or what it’s done for them, what I’ve been told that it makes me feel so proud and I feel like I really succeeded because I’ve always thought that in, like, putting on — like when you do concerts and stuff, when you do anything in public performance, I always — I don’t feel like I need to address people in the audience and tell them how good looking they are or tell them that — or really, like, shake their hands and I’m not saying that that’s bad, that’s wonderful.
And certain shows are great, like that and people go there to bond with each other and watching music. There are certain types of shows that you want to be able to, like, see the person pointing at you and smiling at you and saying, I see you and I love your outfit and shit and you want to have that experience.
But for shows that I do, the way that I want to do it is I want to actually go through something and forget that everybody’s and just go through something and really just do it for myself because I feel like that’s the kind of show that I get something more out of is when I’m watching something, somebody go through something private and I feel like I’m alone with that person and I’m part of that and I’m going through that, too.
And somehow, that connection works and each person in the audience can have that connection with you and be alone with you if you’re not talking to everybody.”
Watch the performance above, find interview clips below, and revisit our review of Fetch The Bolt Cuttershere.
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 Doja Cat and Bebe Rexha team up, Reason drop his long-awaited album, and rising artists Kississippi and Petey making strong impressions. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.
Doja Cat and Bebe Rexha — “Baby I’m Jealous”
Not long after declaring that her third album is all done, Doja Cat returned with a new single, the Bebe Rexha-featuring “Baby I’m Jealous.” The groovy tune is a fun character-driven affair, with Rexha revealing her insecurities before Doja comes in as the full embodiment of them and assures Rexha it’s not her fault her man is lusting after her.
Trey Songz — Back Home
It hasn’t all been great for Trey Songz lately, as he revealed recently that he tested positive for COVID-19. Thankfully, he seems to be doing mostly okay, and he can now bask in a glow of a new album, Back Home. An expansive effort clocking in at about 70 minutes across 22 tracks, he peppered a handful of features throughout the tracklist, including guest spots from Swae Lee, Summer Walker, and Ty Dolla Sign.
Reason — New Beginnings
The TDE roster is one of the most stacked and esteemed in hip-hop, and now Reason has dropped his first new release as part of the storied label. Aside from labelmates Ab-Soul, Isaiah Rashad, and Schoolboy Q, he also gets assists here from contemporaries like JID, Rapsody, and Vince Staples.
Future Islands — As Long As You Are
The band’s Samuel T. Herring recently told Uproxx about the new album, “This one was really about us capturing our vision and how we heard things and taking the time to do that. The Far Field was just so rushed that we didn’t want to have that happen again, that there was a deadline that decided when the album was done. We wanted to decide when the album was done.”
Dinner Party — Dinner Party: Dessert
Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, 9th Wonder, and Kamasi Washington have linked up to form one of the year’s more interesting supergroups, Dinner Party. After releasing their self-titled album earlier this year, the group has returned with a more guest-packed version of it: Dinner Party: Dessert features new contributions from Herbie Hancock, Cordae, Snoop Dogg, Rapsody, Buddy, and others.
Benny The Butcher — “Timeless” Feat. Lil Wayne and Big Sean
The Griselda Records core has been on fire lately, with Westside Gunn, Conway The Machine, and Armani Caesar all dropping superlative releases lately. Now Benny The Butcher is getting in on the fun, as he shared the new single “Timeless,” which features hip-hop titans Lil Wayne and Big Sean.
Anderson .Paak — “Jewelz”
If you need to smile, hit up Anderson .Paak, because his is huge and contagious. It shines through even on his music, as it does on “Jewelz,” an upbeat and boastful track produced by Timbaland.
Victoria Monét — “Touch Me” (Remix) Feat. Kehlani
Monét didn’t include a ton of features on her latest album, Jaguar, but she made up for that last week by linking up with Kehlani. On the new remix of “Touch Me,” Kehlani adds some more sultry lyrics to a track that already had plenty of charge in that regard.
Wild Pink — “The Shining But Tropical”
Wild Pink has offered a new taste of an album, A Billion Little Lights, he’s expecting to drop in 2021, and John Ross recently told Uproxx of that record, “Making music is escapism and I get lost in the albums I make while I’m in the process of making them, this one especially. It’s a fantasy world where I can be somewhere else when I’m listening. There are old western elements as well as heavily electronic ones.”
Stevie Nicks — “Show Them The Way”
A skateboarding dude drinking cranberry juice has given Fleetwood Mac a new wave of popularity in 2020. Stevie Nicks probably wouldn’t have believed that if told in the ’70s, but regardless, the singer has capitalized on the moment by dropping “Show Them The Way,” her first new single in years that features another beloved rock icon: Dave Grohl.
Kississippi — “Around Your Room”
Kississippi (aka Zoe Reynolds) showed a lot of promise with her early material, enough to become the newest signee of Triple Crown Records. Her first new music since the announcement is “Around Your Room,” a playful, Swiftian effort that has us excited for whatever she’s cooking up next.
Petey — Checkin’ Up On Buds
Petey is impossible to not love. He’s a master of doing his own thing, and his own thing offers a lot of fun in a time when we could all use some. Ahead of his new EP, Petey dropped “Don’t Tell The Boys,” which has his characteristic blend of tongue-in-cheek lyrics and genuine moments that make his music a delight to play and replay and replay and…
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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