The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Key Glock has yet to allow a full calendar year to escape him without delivering a new project to the world since his 2017 breakout tape, Glock Season. Five months after Dum And Dummer, his 2019 joint tape with fellow Memphis rapper Young Dolph, Key Glock returned at the top of 2020 with yet another boastful project, Yellow Tape. Just four months later, Glock flies through with yet another confident collection of tracks thanks to Son Of A Gun.

For the second time in his career — the last in 2018 with Glock Bond and Glockoma — Key Glock graces his audience with a second project in a twelve-month span. While the blaze set by Yellow Tape and standout efforts like “Dough” and “Word On The Street” is still alive, Key Glock adds fuel to the fire with Son Of A Gun. While the term is often used towards a child with an absent father, Glock embraces the term as part of his identity and uses it as the reason to unapologetically flex his blessings and accomplishments following a grim childhood.

Deciding against a slow and steady build-up towards the action, Key Glock arrives with the force of a car accident in a four-way intersection on the album’s intro track, “Son Of A Gun.” Led by erratic swipes on a violin and a thumping bass, Glock mentions the hardships of his youth and promises he made to his mother growing up, “Yeah, b*tch, I’m the sh*t and I came from nothin’ / Told my mama that a change gon’ come / Yeah, yeah, straight out the slums.” Two tracks later, Key Glock glides with confidence and charm on “FYTB” while refuting the credibility of the competition with anecdotes that date back to his pre-rap days. “Yeah, young n**** came from sh*t, but I didn’t tap out, uh / Have you ever spent a night up in the traphouse?” he asks.

Presenting a rags-to-riches story with plenty of riches still left to be made, Key Glock makes it clear that his confidence and authority are nailed gunned into himself and his music. “Money Talks” finds him silencing the competition and the suggestion that the talking should only be done by the dead presidents they all claim to have all by asking, “Money talk, what the f*ck is you talkin’ ’bout?” The celebration of a prosperous life continues as Glock gets lost in his braggadocious bag on “Flexxxin” and “Go Get It.” Both tracks present the Memphis rapper in a proud pile of materialist earnings, with the former being a near-obnoxious celebration of money, cars, fame, and more, while the latter features much of the same tied into a message of relentless hustling and a tunnel-visioned approach to getting money. “Why they hatin’ on me? I’m curious, I’m gettin’ paid and they envious,” he ponders on “Go Get It.”

Yellow Tape and Son Of A Gun are both similar in varying ways. They both present Key Glock with an unblemished armor, diamonds that require a pair of sunglasses to truly appreciate, and the authority to make you second guess an attack whether it be lyrical or physical. However, Son Of A Gun drizzles Glock’s personality across its fifteen tracks, giving us a young man with no desire to alter his upbringing as it is precisely the reason he became the confident being he is today.

Glock refuses to be sorry for himself, and we as listeners shouldn’t be either. “Rich Blessed N Savage” finds him simultaneously aware and accepting of how his childhood has affected him today as he raps, “If you don’t like me, blame my parents.” Son Of A Gun is the boastful proclamation that, as unorthodox as his upbringing was, it’s part of his DNA and the very reason he shines as bright as the string of diamonds that dangle from his neck.

Son Of A Gun is out now via Paper Route EMPIRE. Get it here.

This article was originally published by The Conversation. You can read it here.

Anthony Pinter, a Ph.D. student in information science at the University of Colorado Boulder, recently completed a study on people’s experiences with upsetting and unexpected reminders of an ex on Facebook.

His team’s findings are examples of algorithmic cruelty – instances in which algorithms are designed to do something and do it well, but end up backfiring because they can’t fully grasp the nuances of human relationships and behavior.

How has social media made breakups more difficult?

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Anthony Pinter: Breaking up with a loved one has always meant making difficult choices: who gets the couch, who gets the fridge, who gets the cat.

But before social media, once the messy details were sorted, it wasn’t too difficult to create the physical, mental and emotional space that research has shown to help with the healing process. In the past, you could simply stop going to your ex’s favorite coffee shop. You could box up photos and put them in storage.

Social media has complicated things. Platforms like Facebook are designed to encourage connecting with your network and reminiscing about the past. It recommends upcoming events, suggests people to add as friends, resurfaces old memories and photos and highlights what your friends are doing.

via Unsplash

But after a breakup, you probably don’t want to be alerted about a new friend your ex has made on your news feed.

Nor do you want to see an old photo with your ex reappear as a “Memory.” And with access to your ex’s online life just a search and a click away, it’s easy to succumb to forms of “Facebook stalking,” in which you periodically check in on their profile to see what they’re up to and whom they’re hanging out with.

Not surprisingly, Facebook has been shown to prolong the healing process of a breakup. Conversely, you might also start to realize your ex has already moved on, which can be just as painful.

“Just block your ex,” you’ll hear people say. Why isn’t this enough?

Pinter: First, blocking or unfriending isn’t as simple as it sounds. It can be done in as little as three clicks. But once you’ve done it, it’s hard to walk back from; if you ever decide to unblock someone or refriend them, social media platforms will often alert the ex that you’ve done so – which can send ambiguous signals and expectations.

But yes, platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have features meant to prevent these unwanted encounters – unfollow, unfriend or block. A few years ago, Facebook even developed a feature called Take A Break, which effectively mutes someone for a set period of time.

However, people are still seeing reminders of their exes on social media – even when they’ve actively taken advantage of features that supposedly prevent these encounters.

My colleagues and I conducted in-depth interviews with 19 people who had had an unexpected and upsetting reminder of an ex on Facebook.

One participant mentioned that the mother of an ex’s new partner was suggested as a possible friend. Another saw their ex commenting on a mutual friend’s post.

In one case, an old photo that Facebook resurfaced via the Memories feature – from a beach vacation the two had taken when they’d been a couple – didn’t even include an image of the interviewee’s ex. But being prompted to think about that vacation was upsetting enough.

What’s really going on here?

Pinter: This is happening because the algorithms still don’t fully understand humans.

While you can tell Facebook you don’t want to see your ex anymore, the algorithm doesn’t realize that this might also include peripheral reminders of your ex, like a photo of his or her best friend, or a comment he or she has made on a mutual friend’s wall.

via Book Catalog / Flickr

Context matters, but algorithms often don’t have the ability to understand it. Even though that photo from the beach might not have anyone in it, it’s loaded with memories that you’d rather not think about.

In our work, we want to bring attention to what we call the “social periphery” – the satellites of a relationship, romantic or otherwise. Systems like Facebook are built to cultivate community, but the algorithms that undergird the system often rely on simplistic representations of people’s experiences like “relationship status” or “blocked.”

Features meant to prevent upsetting encounters in the wake of a breakup or other fraught events similarly rely on these simplistic settings, ignoring the realities of a social periphery.

To the algorithm, the suggestion of the ex’s new partner’s mother is a perfectly reasonable suggestion – you probably share mutual friends that alert some sort of internal metric. But a human would know better than to make that suggestion.

Why do these findings matter?

Pinter: Algorithms are becoming more integrated into our everyday lives, and social media isn’t the only place where we’re seeing these undesirable outcomes occur. For example, as people begin to rely more heavily on voice assistants like Siri or Alexa to send texts, we inevitably run into situations in which the programs mishear us and, for example, send a wildly inappropriate message to a boss or parent.

Our findings present a challenge for designers and developers: How can we create algorithms that are better attuned to the deep, lived experiences of the humans who will use these systems? It’s unlikely that there is a one-size-fits-all solution to this problem. On Facebook, features like Take a Break or blocking can be seen as important steps. But it’s clear that there’s a lot more work to do.

Anthony Pinter is a Ph.D. Student in Information Science, University of Colorado Boulder

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The first episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia aired on August 4, 2005, when the highest-grossing film in the country was Wedding Crashers, “We Belong Together” by Mariah Carey was at the top of the Hot 100, and Jacob Tremblay wasn’t alive yet. So much has changed since then — mostly the Tremblay being born thing — but Sunny soldiers on. The FX-turned-FXX comedy was renewed on Monday for a record-breaking 15th season. The record being broken: the longest-running live-action comedy series:

With its 14 seasons to date, It’s always Sunny had tied ABC’s The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet as the longest-running live-action comedy series. Now FX’s flagship half-hour series is solidifying its place in the TV history books as the sole holder of the record.

You can shove your 1950s wholesomeness up your ass, Ozzie and/or Harriet. (To be fair, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet was up to 435 episodes after 14 seasons; Sunny is “only” at 154.) The renewal isn’t a huge surprise, as Sunny continues to still be really good and has a refreshing willingness to change with the times. Co-creator Rob McElhenney has also said that the Paddy’s Pub gang will “keep doing it forever if people keep watching.” We must protect 75-year-old Danny DeVito at all costs.

(Via Deadspin)

Despite the quarantine, musicians continue to turn out some of the best new pop music to cure isolation blues. This week saw releases from major artists like Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Doja Cat.

Each week, Uproxx rounds up the best new pop music. Listen up.

Lady Gaga — “Rain On Me” Feat. Ariana Grande

With a first-ever collaboration between two of today’s biggest pop stars like Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande, it’s sure to make our best new pop list. Lady Gaga has revealed the second single off her anticipated record Chromatica, which is due this Friday. “Rain On Me” features pulsing club-ready production with the two singers’ vocals reaching new heights.

Carly Rae Jepsen — “This Love Isn’t Crazy”

Just one day after teasing long-awaited Dedicated B-sides, Carly Rae Jepsen gifted fans with a whopping 12-track project. Collaborating with producer/Bleachers vocalist Jack Antonoff, the pop singers’ “This Love Isn’t Crazy” stands out as an exuberant effort.

The Weeknd — “In Your Eyes (Remix)” Feat. Doja Cat

Following a string of newly-rescheduled tour dates, The Weeknd tapped Doja Cat for a bouncy remix of his After Hours track “In Your Eyes.” The slightly reworked beat boasts a digital horn at the forefront of the instrumentals, with Doja Cat’s smoothly delivering her verse. “Love the way you’re talkin’, love your style, but, ooh, babe / We know that you got it from me,” she sings.

Tove Lo — “Sadder Badder Cooler”

Tove Lo released her record Sunshine Kitty last September. But that hasn’t stopped the single from taking on a handful of other projects and collaborations. Now, the Swedish singer has unveiled her Sunshine Kitty Deluxe record, which features the earworm “Sadder Badder Cooler.”

Sia — “Together”

“Together” is just one of the ten singles Sia wrote for the upcoming movie Music. The film is based on a screenplay the singer wrote in 2007 and it stars Kate Hudson, Leslie Odom Jr., and Dance Moms mainstay Maddie Ziegler.

Ellie Goulding — “Power”

It’s been five years since Ellie Goulding’s last record, but she’s now ushering in a new era with the triumphant single “Power.” In a statement alongside the single, Goulding said she wrote the single as a reflection on dynamics she’s experienced in modern relationships: “‘Power’ is about relationships in the 21st century, how they can now be dictated by social media, superficiality and material things. Dating can sometimes start out with lies or embellishments. The girl in the song is disillusioned by love and the cruel, good looking, self-obsessed people she keeps ending up with.”

Dana Williams — “Underwater”

Dana Williams’ “Underwater” is a reflection on impending doom oftentimes felt when relationships are going smoothly. The singer’s velvety-smooth cadence melts over a slow, rolling beat. “Are we / Running out of time, are we? / I’m so worried / That we’re running out of time,” Williams sings.

Nick Jonas — “Until We Meet Again”

Serving as a judge on this season’s The Voice, Nick Jonas cooked up something special for the season finale with “Until We Meet Again.” The single is partially a tribute to the show, but mostly a tribute to essential workers fighting the pandemic. Alongside the single’s release, Jonas shared a heart-tugging video where he writes uplifting thank-you messages to hospital workers and offers his gratitude. Proceeds collected from the track will be donated to Feeding America, a cross-country network of food pantries and soup kitchens.

Shy Martin — “Nobody Likes Moving On”

The prolific Swedish songwriter has her sophomore album due out this summer and the singer continues to preview the release with “Nobody Likes Moving On.” About the track, Shy Martin said: “In my past relationships I’ve moved to another city after they’ve ended and through that been able to easily have a fresh start, with new relationships and friendships. The conversation led on to our current relationships and I realized how horrible and hard a break up with my current boyfriend would be as we have so many friends in common and work with the same people in the same industry. We’re also completely in love with the same small part of Stockholm where we spend most of our time in the same favorite cafés, shops and restaurants.”

Cautious Clay, Still Woozy, Melanie Faye — “Cheesin’”

With much of the world still at home in quarantine, artists have decided to get creative with collaborations. A new collaboration between Cautious Clay, Still Woozy, and a number of other artists was born out of a similar creative drive. Each artist has their own verse on the track and 100 percent of net profits from the single will be donated to benefit MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.

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

Over the course of his career, DJ Khaled has been afforded the opportunity to work with many big-name musicians. In his last record alone, Father Of Asahd, Khalid collaborated with stars like Cardi B, Meek Mill, and Jay-Z. But no one has had an impact on him quite like Rihanna. In a livestream chat with Timbaland, DJ Khaled discussed Rihanna’s unique talent and a recent experience running into her.

DJ Khaled and Timbaland recently joined each other on Instagram Live. The two discussed their music, but the conversation eventually turned to Rihanna. “Yo Tim, I ever tell you this story? Rihanna touched my suit one day and told me it looked good on me,” Khaled recounted. “I lost my mind.”

The two also discussed Rihanna’s remarkable vocals. Referencing his 2017 collaborative track “Wild Thoughts” with Rihanna, DJ Khaled said he “cried tears” upon hearing the finished track for the first time.

DJ Khaled’s exchange with Timbaland arrived just after Rihanna celebrated fifteen years of her debut single “Pon De Replay.” In a heartfelt message to fans, Rihanna said: “Feels like just yesterday I was shaking in the hallways of Def Jam waiting to audition for Jay. Pon de Replay is where it all began….15 years later and I’m here because God led me to you, and you guys have held me up, supported me, tolerated me, loved me, kept it too real with me, and we got always be connected because of that!”

Watch DJ Khaled and Timbaland’s live chat above.

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

Predicting how the NBA will move forward if and when it restarts following its COVID-19 pandemic is awfully hard, if only because so many options appear to be on the table. One that has been speculated is for teams to come back — likely in some sort of bubble league — get to 70 games, and then jump right into the playoffs.

It’s something that makes sense financially, but logistically, it would be strange for teams that have no shot at making the postseason to go to Orlando, go through a weeks-long camp, play four or five games as a formality, and then go home. One player who would find themselves in a situation where this could be a waste of time is Damian Lillard, as the Portland Trail Blazers are 3.5 games behind the 8-seed in the Western Conference and have played 66 games on the year.

As such, Lillard explained to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports that he would show up, but unless there’s a clear pathway to make it to the postseason, he would not play.

“If we come back and they’re just like, ‘We’re adding a few games to finish the regular season,’ and they’re throwing us out there for meaningless games and we don’t have a true opportunity to get into the playoffs, I’m going to be with my team because I’m a part of the team,” Lillard said. “But I’m not going to be participating. I’m telling you that right now. And you can put that [expletive] in there.”

Lillard was on a call earlier this month with a collection of superstars, which wanted to present a “united front” in support of returning to play. Having said that, while Lillard would not want to take the floor under normal circumstances, he did lay out a plan that he believes is “perfect.”

“If we come back and I don’t have an opportunity to make the playoffs, I will show up to work, I’ll be at practice and I’ll be with my team. I’m going to do all that [expletive] and then I’m going to be sitting right on that bench during the games,” Lillard said. “If they come back and say it’s something like a tournament, play-in style, between the No. 7 and No. 12 seeds, if we’re playing for playoff spots, then I think that’s perfect.”

Of course, a skeptic wonders whether Lillard would advocate for this plan if Portland was securely in the playoffs, but given the circumstances, going with a more creative solution that gets more teams into some version of a postseason does make sense. The Blazers are something of a unique situation — they’ve been banged up for much of this season, and once games start back up, they’ll be mostly healthy (save, presumably, for Zach Collins) and will have Jusuf Nurkic ready to make his 2019-20 debut. They’re a team no one would want to play if they could make the postseason, and if Lillard has his way, they’d make it in.

You may think you’ve seen HBO Max‘s Love Life already in countless permutations, and you might even believe that you’ve seen a few of these variants (Girls, Sex and the City, Insecure) on HBO. That assumption might even persist for a few episodes, but as the Anna Kendrick-led, romantic-dramedy series continues to unfold, Love Life evolves into a complex affair. Yes, we’re watching another young New Yorker looking for love in almost every wrong place. This protagonist, Darby, is also one of those 20-something New Yorkers who happens to live a life that resembles a lot of romcom heroines (good job, nice apartment). She pushes through disastrous relationships with all the wrong men while supportive presences float in and out of the frame. The set-up certainly feels familiar, but somehow, the show still feels novel in many ways.

Feeling fresh is a tricky balance to achieve. Yet there’s a hell of a lot of talent involved, both in-front-of-and-behind the camera, with Love Life. It also happens to be an interesting choice for HBO Max to slide into their first wave of original offerings that are timed to the streaming service’s launch. Will original shows weigh into people’s choice to pay for HBO Max (if they’re not rolled in through existing subscriptions)? That’s tough to say because the 10,000+-titled library will also get people in the door. Yet follow-up moves will grow more competitive for the Netflix and Disney+ rival, including the decision to release the nerd-divisive “Snyder Cut” of Justice League. And first impressions matter a lot, so Love Life has a large burden to shoulder, much like Darby, who the show follows for a decade, almost like a case study. (See, the title makes sense in that context.)

“Case study” sounds sociological, but it fits here and is treated almost tongue-in-cheek from the start with very British narration from Lesley Manville. This feature is also the one of the stranger aspects of the show. I don’t know if this ended up being an Inglourious Basterds-type of deal where Samuel L. Jackson actually narrated much of the film, but then his part got cut back (for runtime’s sake) to a few interludes. That may have happened here to crop things down to “comedy” length. All I can conclude there is that the narration is inconsistent and maybe the most pretentious and “off” aspect of this show. Somehow not pretentious, though? Scoot McNairy with a martini.

Scoot portrays Bradley, who I cannot reveal too much about, other than to say that he’s a slightly older man to Darby and a successful entrepreneur. As an artist, McNairy must have enjoyed lighthearted subject matter after the heavy stuff he’s done lately (True Detective, Narcos: Mexico), but Love Life is very much the type of show that you’d expect from Kendrick playing a protagonist. I don’t even say that because she’s done a lot of romcom-ing. Rather, she’s both an Oscar and Tony-nominated actress, and her presence here — sweet but also with an acerbic edge — along with the scripts, elevate this project from simply being “somewhat damaged Caucasian woman seeks love.” Kendrick’s presence acts as an anchor while the show’s players swirl around Darby, each of them (often inadvertently) helping her navigate difficult transformations in life. Kendrick weathers the bumpy ride in a way that feels, well, natural. And relatable.

Again, the writing is sharp, with several scripts from co-showrunners Sam Boyd (In A Relationship) and Bridget Bedard (Ramy). Each half-hour episode covers an astounding amount of ground as Darby fixates upon a different formative relationship — during which she experiences varying degrees of love — within her life. It’s escapism, sure, but there’s a lot of truth here. There are moments within Love Life that feel too close-to-home, when we get the classic feeling of “if Anna Kendrick can’t find happiness, what hope is there for the rest of us?” Fortunately, those are fleeting flashes. And since this season follows an anthology-inside-an-anthology structure, each episode takes the name of a particular love interest, family, or friend in Darby’s life. Several of these relationships last quite awhile, but some men float right in and out of there.

As the season progresses, we learn more about Darby’s background and why she is how she is, and how she must choose what kind of person to be. Given what we find out about her history, this is far easier said than done, and no shortcuts exist. Settling down with a romantic interest for the sake of settling down is a mistake that a lot of people make and never move past. Yet within Darby’s journey, we see honest-to-god growth, as mistakes are made, sometimes repeatedly, and lessons are learned.

The cast is appealing, especially when it comes to Zoë Chao, as Darby’s best friend, Sara. She’s a trainwreck, but a lovable one, and she fiercely supports Darby (and vice versa) in a manner that’s far beyond the stereotypical BFF in these type of stories. Beyond that, we see an array of love interests slide in and out of (and back into) Darby’s life: Jin Ha is Augie, an intellectual with wanderlust; John Gallagher appears as a high-school crush who’s all grown up; and Nick Thune, well, he plays the probably-too-good-to-be-true guy. All contribute significantly to Darby’s ultimate development. Still, this is overall lighthearted fare, so the series does gently bat around romcom tropes, while outcomes are grounded in reality, striking a nice balance. Other than the odd narration, Love Life is very watchable and a fine start for HBO Max Originals.

The first three episodes of ‘Love Life’ premiere on May 27 with the launch of HBO Max.

Although up-and-coming Memphis rapper NLE Choppa is only 17 years old, he’s seen plenty in his young life to relate to the concept behind Lil Baby’s “Emotionally Scarred.” Hijacking the beat from the Atlanta rapper’s My Turn standout, Choppa delivers “Different Day,” his own take on the trauma of growing up through the turmoil and tumult he’s experienced.

“See, these slugs in my mouth when I smile, but I feel empty,” he raps. “And for the love, for my child I ain’t blow the brain out my fitted.” The accompanying video has Choppa sitting alone in a hotel room and in a parked car, flashing money and showing off his sneakers. He displays his signature energy throughout his performance, holding back from the all-out dancing he’s been known to show off, but still bounces hard to the thumping, purloined beat.

Choppa’s been enjoying a successful 2020 despite current events, as his Roddy Ricch collaboration “Walk Em Down” tears up TikTok and his verse on Polo G’s “Go Stupid” contributes to one of the year’s best-received albums so far. While he has yet to release a full-length project himself, he’s earned his place among the emerging class of future stars.

NLE Choppa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Ten days ago, we reported that Drew Gulak’s contract with WWE had expired, and he hadn’t signed a new one. A lot of people (myself included) thought he might make his AEW debut in the Ladder Match at Double or Nothing (a spot that turned out to belong to Brian Cage). But those who were paying attention may also have noticed that unlike most noteworthy ex-WWE Superstars, he didn’t promote his ProWrestlingTees store, didn’t give an interview, and didn’t even tweet about it. In retrospect, it seems clear that negotiations were ongoing the entire time.

Now Fightful tells us that Gulak was part of yesterday’s Smackdown taping, and will appear on Friday’s show. He’s also been moved from the Alumni section of WWE.com back to the Smackdown roster.

PWInsider reports that this is because he has signed a new WWE contract, and will remain part of the Smackdown brand going forward. This might be bad news for anyone who was hoping to see the Gentlemen’s Club reunited, but it’s great for those who were enjoying his work with Daniel Bryan (a category that definitely includes Bryan himself).

The talk has been that the snag in Drew’s contract negotiations was that he asked for more money, so hopefully the fact that WWE lured him back means that he’s finally traded in those 205Live paychecks for a proper Smackdown salary.