Category: News

As the age-old saying goes, everything is bigger in Texas. Musician Dende is here to prove that this also applies to the music scene. The “Georgia” recording artist has found the perfect balance of creative endeavors. From his work as a singer, rapper, producer, and instrumentalist, Dende has laid the groundwork for his latest album, ’95 Civic.

Dende dropped by Uproxx Studios for a tear-jerking performance of his single, “Nightmares,” off his album for Uproxx Sessions. The track outlines a devastating denial post-breakup. Dende carries that heartbreaking vulnerability with him into his performance as he uses a vile to serve as a symbol of his runaway lover.

Singing, “Early mornin’ / When I miss you most inside my bed / You be runnin’ laps inside my head / But I just keep movin’ on ahead, yeah / Late at night / When I just can’t sleep, my heart is heavy / ’Cause I miss you here to hold me steady,” Dende simultaneously holds back tears as he recounts the events.

When discussing his latest album, in a statement, Dende said, “Releasing ’95 Civic feels like the last thing I needed to do to move on to the next phase of my life. Although it’s a sad project, the time it allowed me to spend with A&R Mizz and producer Billy Blunt is something I will never forget. This is our best work yet.”

Watch Dende’s Uproxx Sessions performance of “Nightmares” above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s 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.

Maggie Rogers and Zach Bryan have more in common than just their January single, “Dawns.” Bryan sold tickets to his 2023 The Burn Burn Burn Tour via AXS shortly after expressing his distaste for Ticketmaster with All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster.

Rogers is going one step further for her newly announced Summer Of ’23 Tour.

“in an effort to eliminate bots and lower fees — i’m going analog,” Rogers tweeted today, April 6. “come buy a ticket like it’s 1965. i’ll be in person selling tix at music hall of williamsburg tomorrow for the forest hills show. see you there !”

Rogers attached a photo of a much longer statement, which explains, “There’s a lot of conversation right now about combatting bots and making sure tickets get directly into the hands of fans, and at a reasonable price. Ticketing fees have never been higher and a lot of people, me included, are justifiably frustrated and concerned.”

She later notes, “On Friday [April 7], for one day only, we’re running an in-person pre-sale where you can go directly to your local box office to buy a ticket. There’s a two ticket per person limit, but you can choose any ticket you want — all of the prices and tiers will be available, along with exclusive merch and a special playlist I cooked up just for box office day.”

After tomorrow’s in-person presale, there will be an artist online presale on Tuesday, April 11, at 10 a.m. local time. The Spotify and venue/local presales are both scheduled for Wednesday, April 12, at 10 a.m. local time, with the latter extending to Thursday, April 13 at 10 a.m. local time, and the public on-sale will begin Friday, April 14, at 10 a.m. local time. All ticketing information can be found here.

The Summer Of ’23 Tour will kick off on June 3 at Primavera Sound in Barcelona, Spain and extend throughout Europe until July 14. Del Water Gap will open for those dates.

Alvvays and Soccer Mommy are Rogers’ North American openers. That leg kicks off on July 24 July 24 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Rogers’ Feral Joy Tour wrapped last month and supported her July 2022 album, Surrender.

Last year, it was reported that Kanye West‘s Donna Academy was shut down and then unexpectedly reopened shortly after. Now, TMZ reports that the school is allegedly being sued by two former teachers.

TMZ obtained a lawsuit by two female teachers — the only Black teachers working there — who were fired for calling out education, health, and safety violations. They claim their termination was due to retaliation and racial discrimination.

For starters, the only food being fed to students is apparently sushi, which has to be eaten off the floor, without any tables or chairs. Students are not permitted to bring any outside food or drink aside from water. West is allegedly spending $10,000 a week on sushi. They’re also not permitted any utensils. Also, no classes can take place on the second floor because West is “afraid of stairs.” Similarly, students aren’t allowed to wear jewelry because he “did not like jewelry.”

The dress code for students is that they must wear all black, which can be viewed in pictures on TMZ’s post. Nike and Adidas clothing is also forbidden. There’s also no janitor or a school nurse. The two teachers also alleged that their paychecks were often short up to $2,700.

It seems like only yesterday that conservatives were mad about Bud Light cans, and that’s because it was yesterday. However, in surprisingly quick fashion, Fox News and its right-wing viewers are already furious about a new change: The updated lyrics to “Kiss The Girl” in Disney’s live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid.

The live-action film has already been a lightning rod for conservative scorn thanks to Halle Bailey being cast in the lead role of Ariel, prompting Josh Gad to call out “racist trolls.” And now it’s back on Fox’s radar. The controversy stems from composer Alan Menkin, who wrote the music for the original animated film, revealing to Vanity Fair that he adjusted the lyrics so the song respects Ariel’s boundaries.

“There are some lyric changes in ‘Kiss the Girl’ because people have gotten very sensitive about the idea that [Prince Eric] would, in any way, force himself on [Ariel],” Menken said.

That was enough for Fox News to get all worked up. Via The Daily Beast:

On Thursday, the film’s “woke lyrics” debate made it to Fox News, where one anchor cringingly joked, “The Little Mermaid used to sing ‘up where they walk, up whether they run,’ now she might sing ‘up where they woke!’”

Fox’s predictable response was roundly roasted on Twitter, especially considering the network was whining about the wrong song.

However, it should be noted that non-conservative Little Mermaid fans are puzzled by the lyrics change.

“I’m telling u NOBODY thought kiss the girl was implying this stuff!!?” tweeted one Disney fan.

Meanwhile, others noted that the lyrics change missed the forest for the trees.

“Looool the movie is about a woman who literally has to give up her voice and be mute to get a man,” Jezebel editor-in-chief Laura Bassett tweeted. “I don’t think changing the f*cking kiss the girl lyrics is going to make it a bastion of progressivism.”

(Via The Daily Beast)

Russell Westbrook picked up a big win at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday night in a game that involved the Los Angeles Lakers. Of course, Westbrook does not ply his trade for the Lakers anymore, as the team traded him ahead of the deadline to the Utah Jazz, which bought him out and gave him the chance to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers as a free agent.

While he didn’t put up the sort of numbers that he did during his MVP days, Westbrook had a respectable 14 points on 6-for-12 shooting with four assists, three rebounds, a steal, and a block in 21 minutes of work in the Clippers’ 125-118 win. And apparently, Westbrook had some fun letting his most prominent ex-teammate know that it was his team’s night, as several folks have pointed out that he kept pointing at LeBron James.

This wasn’t only happening after jumpers. At one point, James threw a pass out of bounds right to Westbrook, who — you guessed it — stood up and pointed at him.

“We’ve been telling Russ for the past two days, ‘Russ, we’ll match your energy. We got your back. We’re gonna come out with this win,’” Clippers guard Bones Hyland said after the game, per Mirjam Swanson of The Orange County Register.

The two teams entered the night with the same record, but with the win, the Clippers moved into fifth place in the Western Conference. The Lakers, meanwhile, have the 7-seed, and are one game back of the Golden State Warriors for the final top-6 spot in the West.

(Via ClutchPoints)

Way back in August 2022, The Boys‘ Antony Starr posted a throwback photo to celebrate returning to being Homelander for Season 4. Fast forward two-thirds of a year, and that job is finally done for now. This season, which will include Jeffrey Dean Morgan in a small role, had the difficult job of following up on one of the Amazon Prime Video series’ biggest money shots so far, and the endeavor may have been exhausting.

At least, that’s what we can wildly speculate from the looks of a departure photo also posted by Starr on social media. He’s on an airplane with a very non-Homelander vibe and looking like he can finally take a load off, and he’s probably ready to ditch the blonde hair for awhile, too.

“Season four done and dusted for this blonde bozo. Congrats to the entire team xo,” Starr tweeted.

Starr also included photos of his travel “Amiga,” who appears to be better behaved on an airplane than some humans (now I want to take my dog on a plane ride, too).

More fuel for the “exhausting” hunch: one Black Noir fan who responded to Starr declared, “Season 4 gonna be absolutely crazy. I might actually need therapy.”

And Starr fired back, “Me too.”

Considering all that goes into being Homelander, that’s an understandable sentiment. Sadly, though, The Boys doesn’t yet have an official Season 4 release date, but before that happens, we’ll get to see the college-aged Gen V spinoff sometime in 2023. That show’s set photos have already freaked out Arnold Schwarzenegger (according to his son, Patrick), so the good news there is that franchise is staying on brand.

Caroline Polachek released her new album Desire, I Want to Turn Into You on Valentine’s Day. The stunning record features a song with Grimes and Dido, as well as an unexpectedly beautiful moment with bagpipes. Now, the idiosyncratic artist shared the video for the titillating track “Smoke.”

The video is otherworldly, full of fire and haze. She proves the full-body experience of her music with her unorthodox dance moves that resemble an exorcism of sorts.

Her style of performing is so eccentric that she often draws comparisons to Kate Bush, which she had to speak out about.

“while I realize it’s a huge compliment, i’m endlessly f*cking annoyed by being told i’m ‘this generation’s Kate Bush.’ SHE is our generation’s Kate Bush, she is an active artist who’s topping the charts, and is irreplaceable. I, meanwhile, am this generation’s Caroline Polachek,” she wrote on social media after The Guardian dubbed her as “Gen Z’s Kate Bush.”

The Desire, I Want to Turn Into You lead single “Welcome To My Island” also received a viral remix by Charli XCX and The 1975’s George Daniel (who are dating) that was ubiquitous on TikTok for days.

Watch her video for “Smoke” above.

Actor Lance Reddick died on March 17, days before the release of one of his final films, John Wick: Chapter 4, but the cause of death wasn’t revealed at the time. It has now: TMZ reports that the beloved The Wire and Fringe star died of “Ischemic Heart Disease as well as Atherosclerotic Coronary Artery Disease. The death certificate also states Reddick was to be cremated.”

Reddick was found dead at his Studio City home on March 17. At the time, law enforcement sources said his death appeared to be of natural causes. We know Lance’s wife, Stephanie, was the one who dialed 911 after finding him collapsed in the backyard.

At the John Wick: Chapter 4 premiere, Keanu Reeves remembered Reddick as a “beautiful, special person. [He] was a person of dignity and grace. I just feel really honored and grateful that I had a chance to have met him and worked with him.”

Reeves, in a statement with John Wick director Chad Stahelski, also called his co-star a “consummate professional and a joy to work with. Our love and prayers are with his wife Stephanie, his children, family and friends. We dedicate the film to his loving memory. We will miss him dearly.”

(Via TMZ)

Uproxx placed Blxst’s four-song EP Just For Clarity 2 among the Best New Hip-Hop released the week of March 10, writing, “Is California rhythmic crooner Blxst a rapper or a singer? And once again, the answer remains: Who cares? His upbeat ruminations on love, lust, and loyalty work equally well through either lens.”

The video for “Passionate” featuring Roddy Ricch, one of the EP’s four tracks, arrived on Thursday (April 6) and features all of the above.

Roddy begins by singing about being “too passionate” and reminiscing about “days we wasn’t having sh*t” from the hard-earned perspective of wealth.

“I been too passionate / but when I ride the ‘Rari I ain’t ever gon’ fasten sh*t,” Ricch raps while surrounded by luxury sports cars outside of a mansion at night. “And when my b*tch inside it, she don’t like when I go fast and sh*t / Motor in the hood sound just like a dragon, b*tch / And I put that on my momma / I ain’t gone raise a bastard son / He ain’t gon’ have to pick up sticks, he ain’t gon’ have the drum  / He’ll know his daddy had a motherf*ckin’ platinum run.”

Footage of a Blxst live performance splices across the screen before Blxst starts his verse overlooking a vast landscape under blue skies and sun, correlating with “This ain’t overnight / I woke up with no ceiling / I made a vision come to life, I’m Cole Bennett.”

Just For Clarity 2 was rounded out by “Keep Calling” with Larry June, “Call My Bluff,” and “Ghetto Cinderella” featuring Mustard and Terrace Martin.

Watch the “Passionate” video above.

Roddy Ricch is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Everyone (except Metallica’s accountant) is still mourning the death of Eddie Munson, the breakout character from Stranger Things season four played by Joseph Quinn. That’s no excuse for asking the actor who “killed” him on the show for an apology, but people grieve in different ways, I suppose.

It’s unlikely that Eddie will return in season five, except for maybe in a flashback, but that hasn’t stopped viewers from reading too much into tweets from the Stranger Things writers’ room Twitter account. They shared two photos of Quinn as Eddie, one in which he’s “feelin’ it,” and another where he’s not.

While it has not been confirmed nor denied whether the beloved character will be making an appearance in season five, fans have already begun speculating ways in which the character – who was killed off last season – could make an appearance in the new episodes.

Here are the tweets:

Let’s see how they’re going over with fans:

When asked at London Comic Con last month about a possible return in season five, Quinn said, “I mean, they’re shooting soon! I don’t know… I’d love to be – I died. I think it’s probably unlikely. That’s my honest answer.” Oh well. At least we’ll always Doja Cat trying to slide into his DMs.

Stranger Things is expected to return to Netflix in 2025.

(Via NME)