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Louisville, Kentucky rapper 2KBaby’s melodic new track “Mad” is racking up plays and rapidly growing his following online, so it’s only right he stops by Uproxx Studios to perform the bubbling viral hit on this week’s episode of UPROXX Sessions. His performance proves his success is no fluke, as he slides through the one-take with ease and enough charisma to show viewers he’s more than just a voice and a polished flow.

2KBaby has been on the rise since going viral in 2019 with “Old Streets,” a freestyle turned official release that put him on rap fans’ radars with its poignant message and fervent delivery. After signing to Roger Gengo’s Masked Records, 2KBaby set out to build his catalog, releasing the Pregame Rituals mixtape in April this year and collaborating with industry veterans like G Herbo, Lil Durk, and YFN Lucci. He’s got a song with DaBaby stashed away and a growing following on social media that suggests the 20-year-old’s dream of rap stardom is just one hit away.

Watch 2KBaby’s UPROXX Sessions performance of “Mad” above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s new performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too..

2KBaby is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

As someone who’s only been to the barber once over the last six months, my hair is a mess. I desperately need a cut to fix the shaggy bowl cut that I’m currently sporting. But hey, it could be worse, at least my hair isn’t trying to kill anyone (only my self-esteem). Directed and written by Dear White People‘s Justin Simien, Bad Hair follows Anna, a young Black woman who’s trying to make it in music TV. When her white boss suggests that she get a weave to advance her career, Anna does so — except, oops, there’s “a hidden toll to pay at night,” Simien told EW about his 1980s-set throwback. “It’s a psychological social thriller that is a commentary on the American experience and the kind of quiet little deaths we all have to endure to advance and be seen by mainstream society.”

Watch the trailer above. Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Bad Hair follows an ambitious young woman who gets a weave in order to succeed in the image-obsessed world of music television. However, her flourishing career comes at a great cost when she realizes that her new hair may have a mind of its own.

Bad Hair, which also stars Elle Lorraine, Vanessa Williams, Lena Waithe, Laverne Cox, Jay Pharoah, Kelly Rowland, Blair Underwood, James Van Der Beek, and Usher Raymond (THAT Usher, the one from Hustlers), premieres on Hulu on October 23.

Regardless of whether or not Goran Dragic can return from a plantar fascia injury at some point in these NBA Finals, the Miami Heat likely won’t be getting back the rejuvenated player who boosted their offense to unexpected heights in the Bubble. The Heat will have to adjust, and while they have a deep squadron of talented perimeter players, there is no one who can precisely replicate the downhill play-making prowess Dragic brought them this summer. What is more likely is that Jimmy Butler will take on even more for Miami if they want to make this series competitive following an 18-point loss in Game 1.

It’s obvious how Butler could impact the series offensively, because we saw it during last year’s playoffs when he was in Philadelphia. Maybe it’s not his preference or it wears him out because of how hard he also plays on defense, but Butler is capable of running an elite playoff offense. And this year’s Miami roster caters to his strengths even better, with a spread pick-and-roll game that allows Butler to simply take what the defense offers rather than forcing shots with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid cramping the floor.

While it’s hard to take much from Game 1 that Miami will want to replicate moving forward, the Heat would do well to also double down on what got them here rather than over-reacting — and based on what we know about Erik Spoelstra as a coach, it’s far more likely that he does the former than the latter. Losing Dragic means a lot of the quick-hitting pick-and-roll action that can generate easy offense for Miami will be harder to come by, as Dragic scored 0.94 points per pick-and-roll possession this season, better by far than Butler, Tyler Herro, or Kendrick Nunn. With all the spacing and play-making Miami can put on the floor, Dragic’s quickness and craft are the perfect finishing touch. Nobody can replicate that.

The offense will, by nature, look different. Pick-and-roll is the simplest way to generate efficient offense, but the Heat are special because they have other looks, too. The efficient orchestra of the Duncan Robinson-Bam Adebayo screen game was nowhere to be seen in Game 1, in part because of the Lakers’ near-perfect switching defense. But forcing Los Angeles to sell out even more on Robinson outside the arc could free up more space in the halfcourt to let Butler, Nunn, or Herro cook in Dragic’s place.

Late in the game, Nunn actually scored the ball decently well, and finished with 18 points on 11 field goal attempts. If he can find a rhythm, Nunn’s quickness is the closest replacement for Dragic’s stylings as the Heat have. Nunn is fast enough to beat switches and has the shot-making ability to attack the in-between space where Dragic is so good. Maybe he even returns to the starting lineup if Dragic is out or comes off the bench in Game 2.

Digging this far into the depth chart is not only necessary because of Dragic’s injury, but also because Herro proved nearly unplayable in Game 1. Of all the stars in the NBA, LeBron James has long been the ultimate decider of who can and can’t cut it in the postseason. If a player is too small or too slow or unable to read the floor, James will hunt them down repeatedly and make them make a defensive play. At age 20, Herro was not up to the task in Game 1, and while his shooting could come around (he went 6-for-18 from the field and 2-for-8 from three), his defense will almost certainly remain a concern. Are the potential for better offensive days worth it for Miami when putting the ball in Butler’s hands is a more proven upgrade?

Of course, injuries also forced Adebayo and Butler out of Game 1 at different times. They may be hampered, too. And even if Adebayo plays — he is officially listed as doubtful — one major indicator from Game 1 is that Miami has to play bigger to match the Lakers. The good thing is they have the personnel to do it, and it could help them overcome Dragic’s absence as well.

Looking above, Nunn and the whole Heat offense excelled late (when the Lakers likely were not defending at full strength) playing in a two-man game with either Andre Iguodala or Kelly Olynyk. Those two are interesting substitutes for Adebayo as screeners in Miami’s offense because they can attack mismatches, especially when the Lakers are switching so aggressively. Iguodala can sometimes create a shot for himself, but he’s a great passer. Olynyk can score in the post or launch deep threes. It would make sense if Olynyk plays more with Adebayo in Game 2, and Iguodala could be a surprise candidate to replace Dragic in the starting lineup if the Heat really do lean into Butler as a ball-handler.

The Heat have answers on offense, but far fewer on defense. If they aren’t controlling the pace of games and size of lineups, they lose much of what propelled them through the East side of the bracket. Dragic’s absence won’t be the only issue, but even if Butler steps up, it exacerbates their proven formula and forces them to rely on less proven players and less balanced lineups.

Injuries were unfortunately a major story coming out of Game 1 of the NBA Finals, especially for the Miami Heat, and the news was decidedly not positive the morning after their loss. The team announced Thursday that both Goran Dragic and Bam Adebayo are doubtful for Game 2 of the series.

Dragic is struggling with a torn left plantar fascia after dealing with lower-body injuries all season, but the Associated Press’ Tim Reynolds reported Dragic is still “fighting” to play in Game 2.

Yet Reynolds calls Adebayo’s injury a “complex new wrinkle,” after Adebayo had initially hurt his arm in the Eastern Conference Finals against Boston and is now dealing with a neck strain that was revealed on his MRI.

Missing both starters would be a huge problem for the Heat after both players elevated their game to a new level in the Bubble and helped lead Miami to these Finals. As ESPN reporter Bobby Marks noted, players like Joe Johnson who have suffered torn plantar fascia have undergone treatment and been able to play but have not been themselves playing through pain.

These injuries happening early in the series may give both players more time to rehab and return to the floor, but the Heat are in a bind as they try to stay afloat if these two are out in Game 2.

My Morning Jacket’s album The Waterfall came out all the way back in 2015, and it took five years for them to release its sequel: The aptly titled The Waterfall II dropped this year. It’s a weird time for bands to promote albums right now, but especially for My Morning Jacket, whose stage presence is a significant part of their appeal. While they can’t get in front of real-life audiences, fans have been able to check them out on TV, at least. They guested on The Tonight Show in July, and last night, they hopped on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

For their performance of “Feel You,” the band went full-on socially distanced. The band members weren’t in the same room, but they took advantage of green screens and clever editing to put on a wonderful audiovisual display.

As Rolling Stone notes, Jim James recently indicated the band has a “completely new record” ready to be released, saying, “The new album is done, but whenever we release it we wanna play shows for it. We wanna make it a thing because it’s so exciting to have these new songs and wanna play ’em live. And we really recorded them really live — it was just the five of us.”

Watch My Morning Jacket perform “Feel You” above.

The Walking Dead will return briefly this Sunday to air the 16th episode of the 10th season. The episode was supposed to air as the season finale in April, but the pandemic changed everything, and now it’s the 16th of 22 episodes this season, although the next six will not return until the Spring. Meanwhile beyond the 10th season, there’s only one more season left, an extended 24-episode 11th season that will air in 2021 and 2022. After that, Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride — who play Daryl and Carol on The Walking Dead, respectively — will ride off into their on spin-off series.

“Ride off” is an apt way to describe it, too, according to Angela Kang, the current showrunner of The Walking Dead and the showrunner of the spin-off series. “They’re going to be off on a different journey,” Kang told Entertainment Weekly. “And that show’s going to feel hopefully a little tonally fresh. They’re just in a different stage of their lives and it’s more of a road show, which I think will be really fun.”

In fact, the idea of a spin-off actually preceded the announcement that The Walking Dead would end after the 11th season. “There’s been talk for a long time about a Darryl/Carol spin-off,” Kang told EW. “And so that was something that we were working on well in advance of the news about the ending of the series.”

That actually makes sense in the context of an exchange Daryl and Carol had earlier this season about getting on Daryl’s motorcycle and leaving everything behind. It appears that it’s exactly what they will do when The Walking Dead ends.

This news in some ways upends the suggestion that the Carol-and-Daryl spin-off will be more of a leaner, less expensive continuation of The Walking Dead, especially as the road-trip element may make it less likely that Carol and Daryl will interact with existing cast members. Tonally, the series will be different, as well, Kang said. Importantly, it also allows the TWD universe to keep Reedus and McBride while also giving them something a little different and more creative to do with their characters. “I know Norman and Melissa have been excited about the prospect of doing something different and new, so that’s in the future.”

“Those are two characters and two actors that I love writing for and working with, Norman and Melissa. So stuff to look forward to,” Kang added.

In the meantime, Kang says that she is going to be focused on making the last 30 episodes of The Walking Dead as good as they can be. On that subject, it sounds like Kang also plans to hew closely to Robert Kirkman’s source material.

The first of those final episodes airs on Sunday night on AMC before the premiere of the next spin-off, The World Beyond.

Source: EW

The recent hiring of Steve Nash as the next head coach of the Brooklyn Nets generated a lot of attention, but in his first media appearance since the decision, Nets guard Kyrie Irving made it clear he sees the entire structure of the organization as collaborative, with no specific head coach running the team from one day to the next.

“I don’t really see us having a ‘head’ coach,” Irving said on Durant’s new podcast, The ETCs. “KD could be a head coach, I could be a head coach (some days).”

The most interesting part is that Durant concurred, adding lead assistant Jacque Vaughn to the mix as someone whose input was part of the collaborative process. Longtime New York sports reporter Frank Isola indicated he didn’t buy that this was the two stars’ actual stance and that it was some sort of elaborate troll job.

Surely it could be, as it wouldn’t be surprising if Irving and Durant saw the debate over Nash’s hiring and decided to play listeners a little bit. But it’s also not far off from something Irving would say in seriousness, which makes it hard to decipher. And besides, Durant and Irving are a pair of guys who know what it takes to win a ring, so they will inherently have a ton of say in whatever Brooklyn ends up doing.

Responding to social media posts seems like something that Jerry Seinfeld would never bother with in a thousand years, and yet, the stand-up comedian did just that when he wrote a scathing rebuttal to a LinkedIn post declaring that New York City is “dead” because of the pandemic. While promoting his new book on 60 Minutes, Seinfeld opened up about the reasoning behind his passionate defense of the Big Apple for the New York Times, and it came down to a simple realization: Somebody had to do it:

“When you were a kid, remember kicking over the anthill? That’s what just happened to us. They just kicked over the whole anthill,” he tells Wertheim. “And what do the ants do? ‘All right. Hand me the next crumb. Let’s get back to work.’” Seinfeld says he has nothing against the author of the essay on LinkedIn, “He’s fine. I didn’t like that nobody was rebutting it. Then I realized, ‘Oh, I guess that’s my job.’ Somebody, a real New Yorker, has to answer this.”

While he says he has nothing against the author, Stand Up NYC comedy club co-owner James Altucher, Seinfeld notably didn’t take the opportunity to walk back calling him a “putz.” In fact, he doubled down. “That’s who that guy is for the rest of his life. ‘Oh, look who’s here. The putz from LinkedIn,’” Seinfeld told 60 Minutes.

Published back in August, Seinfeld took Altucher to task for feeling the city and moving to Florida after giving up on New York City. “Imagine being in a real war with this guy by your side,” Seinfeld wrote. “Wipe your tears, wipe your butt and pull it together.” However, the piece drew mixed reactions. While some praised Seinfeld for defending his hometown, others found it tone deaf that a millionaire who owns a three-story garage in the Upper West Side just for his car collection is telling people to “bounce back” while the pandemic is causing large-scale unemployment and economic hardships.

(Via CBS News)

Jhené Aiko debuted her highly-anticipated record Chilombo back in early March. While the singer can’t tour behind the effort, she made sure to take a maximalist approach to her NPR Tiny Desk Concert by bringing with her a full band, as well as her crystal singing bowls, to offer some meditative moments.

Aiko’s Tiny Desk concert was anything but conventional. Kicking off her performance, Aiko set the mood by showcasing the healing nature of her crystal singing bowls, a technique to which she is not foreign. Last year, the singer brought her bowls when she hosted an immersive meditation session that she hoped to spread “world-wide,” which was complete with color therapy, mantras, and meditations.

Not only did the singer share her sound therapy techniques in her performance, but she appeased fans with some older hits. Most musicians choose to have their Tiny Desk segment be an opportunity to showcase their recent releases. Instead, Aiko pulled from three different projects for her eight-song setlist. While the singer did offer a glimpse of Chilombo with “Lotus (Intro),” “Born Tired,” and “Summer 2020,” the singer also performed hits from her 2014 LP Souled Out, electing to play “W.A.Y.S.,” “Eternal Sunshine,” and “To Love & Die.” Aiko even reached further back into her catalog to perform the simmering numbers “Stranger” and “Do Better Blues” from her 2011 debut mixtape Sailing Souls.

Watch Jhené Aiko’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert above.

Chilombo is out now via Def Jam. Get it here.

Against Me! leader Laura Jane Grace dropped her debut solo album, Bought To Rot, in 2018, and now, out of nowhere, its follow-up as arrived. Grace release a new solo record, Stay Alive, today, without any advance warning.

Grace told Rolling Stone of the album, “I just wanted to make a record and I wanted to make a record that was the antithesis of a Zoom call. I wanted to record all analog. I didn’t want to make any edits. I wanted to make something that matters from this period of time because all that sh*t like livestreams … I don’t mean to bash them, but they don’t create anything lasting, you know? […] It’s just about the act of staying alive. I know I’m alive if I’m playing songs. If I’m recording the songs. If I’m making a record. I don’t want the music industry to die. I don’t want to see bands disappearing. And the only way I know how to fight against that is to play music. Is to record music. Is to keep trying.”

She also noted that although some of the songs sound like they were written in response to the pandemic, a lot of them were first written years ago.

Stream Stay Alive below.

Stay Alive is out now via Polyvinyl. Get it here.