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Black-Owned Streetwear Brands You Need On Your Radar For 2022

It’s hard to imagine what modern fashion would look like without the influence of streetwear and, by proxy, hip-hop. These days, sneakers, hoodies, sweatsuits, and graphic t-shirts are must-have wardrobe essentials, whether you’re shopping in the casual or luxury markets. Hip-hop’s influence on modern culture (fashion and beyond) cannot be understated.

And yet… if you take a cursory scan of the big fashion houses of Europe leaning into streetwear or the fast-fashion brands most often associated with the style, you’ll find that they are overwhelmingly white-owned. A discouraging sign for a fashion world leaning so heavily into hip-hop culture.

Point being, a shift in ownership in streetwear is long overdue and the best way to support that change is with your wallet. So the next time you move to stock your wardrobe with some fresh looks, make sure to also support some Black-owned streetwear brands. With that aim, here are 15 companies we love, with styles that are sure to level up your whole vibe.

10 Deep

Founded by Scott Sasso in 1995, 10 Deep is a brand that has been around for a minute, but they’ve never lost their edge. The brand cut its teeth alongside legends like Futura2000, Russ Karabalin, Rick Klotz, Camila Elhke, and the PNB Crew and served as a chief architect of early ‘90s streetwear.

Many of these brands wouldn’t exist without the influence of 10 Deep.

A-Cold-Wall

Founded in 2015 by British designer Samuel Ross, A-Cold-Wall first started as an art project before evolving into a fully-fledged men’s apparel brand. The aesthetic here leans on the luxury end of things and takes a significant influence from modern architecture and industrial design.

Scanning the brand’s Instagram will reveal an almost fine-art-like approach to streetwear. This year the brand launched some exciting sneaker collaborations with Dr. Martens that combined A-Cold-Wall’s minimalist design with classic silhouettes.

ALLCAPS Studio

Started by Philadelphian designer Saeed Ferguson, ALLCAPS Studio, perhaps unsurprisingly, plays with a lot of different font styles and typography in their designs. Generally, the text appears over simple solid color streetwear basics, allowing the kerning on its unisex stylings to be enjoyed in all their wavy glory.

Art Comes First

This London-based label is the brainchild of Sam Lambert and Shaka Maidoh and prioritizes artistic expression and cultural craftsmanship for what the brand describes as a “redefined global style.” Ultimately, the brand sees itself as an arts collective with several different enterprises.

The fashion aesthetic of the brand lands somewhere between punk rock fashion and vibrant bespoke tailoring.

Bricks & Wood

Founded and operating in Los Angeles’ South Central, Bricks & Woods prides itself in being a brand that delivers fits that are equal parts functional and high quality. Primarily, the brand focuses on streetwear staples and basics in unisex sizing.

If you’re all about cozy fits that still have you looking like the best dressed in the room, Bricks & Wood is the move.

The Brooklyn Circus

Prep style might be the antithesis of streetwear, but The Brooklyn Circus attempts to fuse the two looks and they do so to exceptional results. The brand has a special skill for taking the iconic silhouettes of iconic college-inspired silhouettes and infusing them with the modern sensibilities and eternal cool of streetwear.

Come Back as a Flower

From the mind of Esper Knows, Come Back As A Flower is a Los Angeles-based fashion label that puts ethical production and sustainability at the forefront, utilizing recycled cotton on 100% of the brand’s offerings. The drops that come out of Come Back As A Flower might be few and far between, but each one features hand-dyed production and attention to detail and craft that is able to instill a sense of pride in you just for owning a piece.

The aesthetic here leans on the heavily psychedelic side, so if you like a little tie-dye with your streetwear, you can’t go wrong with this brand.

Denim Tears

Denim Tears specializes in… well, denim, but it goes much deeper than that. Started by former Kanye West consultant Tremaine Emory, Denim Tears is both a denim brand and a company that tasks itself with highlighting cotton as a symbol forever intertwined with America’s history of slavery.

The clothing is as thought-provoking as it is fresh. Since the brand’s inception, they’ve moved past simple denim pieces, offering a growing list of dope streetwear basics and essentials.

Fear of God

If you follow streetwear closely you’re probably already aware of Jerry Lorenzo’s massively popular Los Angeles-based label Fear of God, but on the off-chance you don’t, you need this brand on your radar ASAP.

Fear of God has an undeniable futuristic and luxurious quality to it. They’re the only brand that can make sweats look like something fit for royalty. Whether it’s the brand’s luxury apparel or their high-profile sneaker collaborations, no wardrobe is complete without at least one Fear of God branded piece.

Heron Preston

Heron Preston comes from the mind of the designer of the same name. A Parsons School of Design alumnus, Preston’s brand borrows the look and color palette of modern workwear and gives it a luxury-brand style presentation.

From functional puffer jackets and faded denim staples to psychedelic high-fashion prints and sheer fabrics, Heron Preston is a brand that seems to get more exciting with each new drop.

Mami Wata

Officially launched in 2017 by Selema Masekela, Peet Pienaar, Nick Dutton, and Andy Davis, Mami Wata is a celebration of all things Black surf culture. The brand is heavily inspired by the vibrant surf scene of South Africa, and delivers beach-friendly essentials like board shorts, tees, hoodies, and button-ups that look equal parts fly and comfortable.

Nicholas Daley

If Jimi Hendrix was a young musician in his prime today, he would without a doubt be dressed head to toe in Nicholas Daley. The designer combines tie-dye and heavily saturated color palettes with streetwear staples that will have you looking like you just walked off the set of a new Erykah Badu music video.

RenownedLA

Founded back in 2011 by the young designer John Dean III, Renowned first began as a creative outlet for Dean’s projects when he was a high school student in Akron Ohio. The brand tasks itself with designing streetwear that speaks to and for the past, present, and future of Black designers by paying tribute to the sportswear stylings of early hip hop, retranslated through a modern lens.

Telfar

Founded in 2005 by Telfar Clemens, Telfar has gone on to become one of the most sought-after brands in all of streetwear. The label primarily focuses on unisex stylings, with its key piece being a variety of Telfar branded bags, which routinely sell out minutes after being restocked. Walk down the streetwear rocking a Telfar and you’ll easily be the most stylish on the block.

Union

Owned by Chris Gibbs and Beth Birkett, Union is a favorite amongst hardcore streetwear aficionados. The brand routinely drops some of the best sneaker collaborations of all time, whether we’re talking Nike, Jordan, or Adidas collaborations as well as streetwear essentials like cozy and colorful outerwear, graphic t-shirts, and more.

If you’re all about streetwear, it rarely gets better than Union.

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Dua Lipa And Lil Nas X Join Elton John To Celebrate The Power Of Music On The ‘Ultimate Zoom’ Call

While in lockdown, Elton John found himself with ample time on his hands. Rather than picking up crocheting as a hobby or buying a Peloton bike like so many others did at the time, John decided to get to know some of today’s chart-topping musicians the best way he could — by collaborating over Zoom. Thus, his album The Lockdown Sessions was born, a 16-track genre-spanning project featuring today’s top artists.

To ring in the holidays and celebrate the success of The Lockdown Sessions, which landed at No. 1 in the UK, John once again opened up Zoom and gathered all his collaborators in once place for the “Ultimate Zoom” call. John began the call and soon after, artists like Dua Lipa, Nicki Minaj, Miley Cyrus, Lil Nas X, Rina Sawayama, Eddie Vedder, SG Lewis, Charlie Puth, Brandie Carlile, Damon Albarn, Stevie Wonder, Stevie Nicks, and Young Thug all joined.

The 4-minute video was both a celebration of the album and a reminder of all the little frustrations of virtual calls like WiFi issues or distracting noises in the background. According to press materials, the video is meant as a “celebration of the way that Zoom has enabled people to continue to work, interact and create music in the most challenging of circumstances.”

Watch Elton John, Dua Lipa, Lil Nas X, Miley Cyrus, and more on the “Ultimate Zoom” call above.

The Lockdown Sessions is out now via EMI Records. Get it here.

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

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Drakeo The Ruler Defined A New Generation Of LA Rap

By now, you’re probably aware of the death of Drakeo The Ruler, who was stabbed in the neck backstage at the Once Upon A Time In LA festival. You might not have been aware of just who Drakeo The Ruler was, or why him performing there was such a big deal. As he himself would put it, it’s because he “is LA hip-hop.” While that might sound like typical rapper self-aggrandizement, in Drakeo’s case, it was uniquely true.

Just check out this piece I wrote nearly four years ago in which I called Drakeo one of the architects of LA’s new underground sound alongside 03 Greedo and Shoreline Mafia. So far, that assessment has borne itself out even despite a series of setbacks that had so far prevented that underground sound from penetrating the mainstream (insomuch as there even is a difference between underground and mainstream in the modern, Spotified era of rap).

While Shoreline Mafia eventually split up, individual members like Fenix Flexin and OhGeesy have made a significant impact with their own solo material. 03 Greedo went to prison in Texas for gun possession, but has since dropped a slew of projects recorded in the months before beginning his sentence. And Drakeo himself spent nearly two years in jail fighting charges of attempted murder without bail but recorded his own project from behind the walls, maintaining his presence on the outside before being released in the transition between Los Angeles District Attorneys after last year’s elections.

He came back with a vengeance, releasing a studio album and two mixtapes in rapid succession within months after his release — a testament to his vaunted prolific work ethic. And while those independently released projects weren’t chart-toppers, it’s in Drakeo’s influence on the LA scene that we can see the most evidence supporting his claim to be the avatar of the city’s new approach to hip-hop.

The slippery, off-kilter cadence that he uses across much of his catalog has been replicated in the elaborate punchlines of West Coast jokers like 1TakeJay, AzChike, BlueBucksClan, and Drakeo’s own protege Remble, while the hometown stop on his recent tour saw a line for the Novo wrapped not just around the block but around nearly the entirety of the LA Live campus, something I hadn’t personally witnessed in any of my own many (many) forays to the area for concerts and Clippers games.

However, his death isn’t just a loss for LA hip-hop — it’s also an indictment of many of our society’s systems, starting with the justice system. There’s no way anyone could have predicted him dying in less than a year after being released but it’s an absolute travesty that anyone could be locked up for most of the last two years of their life before ever being proven guilty of a crime. Life is so short and so precious; there must be alternatives to simply incarcerating people for even being suspected of crimes.

And yes, there are probably a few recriminations to be had for Live Nation, who organized the Once Upon A Time In LA festival. Drakeo’s mother has already begun to pursue legal action against the promoter, citing a lack of security backstage, which anyone who’s ever spent any time in the streets of Los Angeles should have seen the necessity for. As one Twitter user put it, that is too many gangs in one place, and certainly not the venue or the time to cut costs by hiring fewer guards. The fact that this could happen demonstrates either unfamiliarity with the acts involved — certainly in line with corporate America’s shallow, profit-driven level of engagement with hip-hop and Black culture — or a callous disregard for their safety. It’s doubly damning that Live Nation is already under fire for its last festival this year, the disastrous Astroworld, where 10 people were killed by a crowd crush, believed to be caused in part by lack of security.

A growing sentiment among the segment of my social network that comments on the goings-on of Los Angeles is that there is “something going on” in the city. In just the past handful of years, the LA area has seen the violent deaths of an inordinately great number of rappers from Nipsey Hussle to Pop Smoke. However, it’s not just something that’s confined to LA — in Dallas, we saw the shooting death of local rapper Mo3, and in Memphis, Young Dolph was also killed. Unfortunately, hip-hop has always been a bellwether of wider trends in society.

That there appears to be a trend of rappers meeting violent ends only says that America still has yet to address the underlying circumstances that cause violence in the communities that produce these rappers, that cause these rappers to produce violent music reflecting their circumstances, and that cause that violence to eventually find them again even as they strive to leave it behind. No one should be living like this, forced to look over their shoulder at home while thousands of fans scramble to hear more horror stories they themselves will never have to experience. All of these rappers, including Drakeo, are the canaries in the coal mine. I wonder if America will stop digging before it’s too late.

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Gucci Mane’s Somber ‘Long Live Dolph’ Video Implores The Streets To Stop The Violence

While some of Young Dolph‘s fellow Memphis rappers have overlooked the Paper Route Empire founder’s recent death to continue performing diss tracks they recorded against him in spite of fan backlash, other rappers have gone the other direction, making tracks to praise him and remember his legacy. Gucci Mane is one of those rappers, saluting his fallen friend and imploring fans to stop the violence on “Long Live Dolph,” from his newly released compilation album, So Icy Christmas.

The video cuts together clips of Gucci performing the Zaytoven-produced song in a black suit with photos and archival footage of Dolph running the streets, rapping for fans, and raising his kids, along with scenes from Dolph’s recent public memorial service in Memphis. “Don’t take your life for granted, could be gone in seconds,” Gucci rhymes. “R.I.P. to Dolph, long, long live the legend.”

Young Dolph was shot and killed in November while buying cookies by two masked assailants who opened fire with automatic weapons through the window of the bakery Dolph frequented. His death prompted the city to rename a street in his honor. However, his rival rappers, such as Blac Youngsta have continued to throw lyrical slights at him through performances of old diss tracks and sly references in their own music videos.

Watch Gucci Mane’s “Long Live Dolph” video above.

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Bill O’Reilly Had To Console A Distraught Trump After His MAGA Fans Booed Him For Getting The Booster

Disgraced ex-Fox News star Bill O’Reilly’s had quite a return week in the news cycle. Most of his “comeback” has to do with his poorly selling tour with ex-President Donald Trump, who O’Reilly (strangely enough) threw under the bus while telling NewsNation’s Dan Abrams that Trump’s suspected 2024 presidential bid “was a loser.”

The tour must go on, though, and that ended up creating some chaos, too. Over the weekend, Trump ended up admitting onstage that he got the Covid booster shot, and that move resulted in loud boos from the crowd, which must have come as a shock, given that Trump feeds off praise from his die-hard fans, who didn’t seem so die-hard anymore. (Sad!) O’Reilly spoke again with Dan Abrams and admitted that Trump called him, all upset about the boos, and O’Reilly had to cheer his pal up while giving Trump credit for the vaccines. Via The Daily Beast:

“I told him that today, he called me. I said ‘This is good for you, this is good that people see another side of you, not a political side, you told the truth, you believe in the vax, your administration did it, and you should take credit for it, because it did save, I don’t know, hundreds of thousands of lives.’”

Then O’Reilly swapped out his previous tune and admitted that he’s “trying to tell President Trump, run on your record. He’s going to run again, all right.” Take that as you will, from a guy who once reportedly grunted like a wild boar while also labelling a Fox News employee as “hot chocolate,” which is a mental image that we were unfortunate enough to endure amid O’Reilly’s fall from cable news grace in 2017. News of his sexual harassment settlements didn’t help either, but the takeaway here is that O’Reilly’s doing what he can to make sure the MAGA cycle continues.

Watch O’Reilly’s latest talk with Dan Abrams in the above video (with the booing talk around 3:30).

(Via The Daily Beast)

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Blac Youngsta Performed His Young Dolph Diss ‘Shake Sum’ And Fans Aren’t Happy

Young Dolph’s death hasn’t stopped at least one of his rivals from keeping their beef alive. Blac Youngsta, a fellow Memphian with whom Dolph had a longstanding feud, has drawn the ire of fans on Twitter after a video of him performing the Dolph-dissing track “Shake Sum” surfaced online. In the song, Blac Youngsta denounces Dolph’s claims to Memphis’ rap throne, saying, “You ain’t from the city, you from Chicago.” There are also the typical threats of gun-related violence, which to some fans reads a little tacky in light of how Dolph died.

https://twitter.com/longlivedolph1/status/1473208546804346882

Blac Youngsta himself, meanwhile, took the criticism in stride. He semi-addressed the critics in an Instagram post of his new video “I’m Assuming,” adding a lengthy caption. “I’m the type of n***a who ain’t neva sat back and looked for nobody to feel sorry fa me!” he wrote. “I come from the heart of South Memphis where you get no sympathy, don’t even know what that is. With that being said, I could give 2 f*cks what the world think about me.”

In addition, the new video is shot in a graveyard, with some astute fans noticing that the name on a mausoleum behind me reads “Thornton” — Young Dolph’s real last name. I suppose some beef lasts forever — even when one party already had the last word.

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All The Best New Indie Music From This Week

Indie music has grown to include so much. It’s not just music that is released on independent labels, but speaks to an aesthetic that deviates from the norm and follows its own weirdo heart. It can come in the form of rock music, pop, or folk. In a sense, it says as much about the people that are drawn to it as it does about the people that make it.

Every week, Uproxx is rounding up the best new indie music from the past seven days. This week we got two more Big Thief songs, an awesome Nada Surf cover from Pom Pom Squad, and a new track from Waxahatchee. Check out the rest of the best new indie music below.

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Big Thief – “No Reason” / “Spud Infinity”

Big Thief’s massive 20-track album Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You is just a few months away, and we’ve already heard almost half of it. “No Reason” and “Spud Infinity” are the latest additions to the list, and both show completely different sides of the band. “Spud Infinity” is a relatively funky affair featuring an epic jaw harp section, while “No Reason” boasts an equally epic flute solo.

Pom Pom Squad – “Popular” (Nada Surf cover)

All the way back in March of this year, Pom Pom Squad’s Mia Berrin tweeted, “I’m gonna recreate the video for popular by Nada Surf but I’m gonna play every character.” Nine months later, Berrin has made good on her promise with a cover so faithful that she even recreated the original video nearly shot-for-shot. For added effect, Nada Surf vocalist Matthew Caws even contributed backing vocals to the track.

Waxahatchee – “Tomorrow”

In just a few weeks, AppleTV+ will release their animated adaptation of Cece Bell’s 2014 graphic novel El Deafo. The show features an original soundtrack by Waxahatchee, and this week we got the first taste of what to expect from the accompanying music. “Tomorrow” doesn’t sound too far from Katie Crutchfield’s recent work as Waxahatchee, with a bit of extra upbeat punchiness to accompany the show’s animation.

Band Of Horses – “In Need Of Repair”

It’s been more than five years since the last Band Of Horses album, but that’s all about to change with the release of their sixth LP, Things Are Great, early next year. “In Need Of Repair” is the latest taste of the album, which Derrick Rossignol describes for Uproxx as “an easygoing and heartfelt single,” and continues the narrative of the band looking to return to their musical roots.

Cat Power – “I’ll Be Seeing You” (Billie Holiday cover)

Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) is no stranger to covers albums. Next year, she’ll follow up The Covers Album, released in 2000, with an all-new collection titled Covers. Along with the album announcement, Marshall shared a sparse, emotional rendition of Billie Holiday’s “I’ll Be Seeing You,” which Marshall described in a statement as “a conversation with those on the other side… and it’s really important for me to reach out to people that way.”

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Chris Noth’s Been Dropped By His Agent, Axed From ‘The Equalizer,’ And Lost A $12 Million Deal To Sell His Tequila Brand Following Sexual Assault Allegations

Last week, The Hollywood Reporter ran a story in which two women accused actor Chris Noth of sexual assault. (Noth claimed both interactions were consensual.) From there, more women have come forward, including actor/director Zoe Lister Jones, to share their own experiences stories about inappropriate behavior on the part of Noth dating back decades.

While Noth—who is best known as the longtime star of Law & Order and the notorious Mr. Big on both Sex and the City and, at least for a moment, its new And Just Like That… reboot—has denied or explained away any and all accusations made against him (so far), the stench surrounding the actor is severe, and seemingly credible enough that many of Noth’s former associates are quickly backing away the actor.

On Friday evening, one day after the first allegations surfaced, Noth was dropped by his talent agency, with a spokesperson for A3 Artists Agency telling Deadline “Chris Noth is no longer a client.”

Later that evening, the New York Post reported that a deal for Noth to sell Ambhar, his tequila brand, to Entertainment Arts Research (EAR) for $12 million had been called off. “We thought it would be in our best interest to withdraw from the transaction,” Bernard Rubin, EAR’s president, told The Post.

By Monday, Noth was getting more bad news. The Hollywood Reporter announced that the actor had been fired from The Equalizer, the CBS series that is currently in its second season. CBS and Universal Television, which co-produce the series, issued a joint statement in which they said that “Chris Noth will no longer film additional episodes of The Equalizer, effective immediately.” (He will, however, be seen in one more episode, which had already completed production.)

Noth released a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, in response to their original article, stating: “The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false. … The encounters were consensual. It’s difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I don’t know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women.”

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

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This Season’s Best New Holiday Music That You’ll Actually Want To Listen To

Every year we hear a lot of the same classic holiday songs. There’s no denying the holiday power of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas,” or DMX’s “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.” But bless the artists who keep pushing the holiday music envelope and are giving us new tunes to break up the monotony of the season. So with that, these were the songs, albums, and more that stole the show this holiday season.

There I Ruined It’s Mariah Carey x Twisted Sister Christmas Mash-Up

You didn’t think you were gonna get through this list without a Mariah Carey song, did you? So we’ll get it out of the way right now, but it’s not what you think. The folks at the There I Ruined It YouTube channel present some of the most unpredictable mash-ups of songs. Think Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” expertly collided with a K-Pop band. For the holiday season, however, they have taken the liberty of mashing up Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas” with Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take it” in dedication to “the warriors of Christmas retail during another Mariah Carey Season.” It’s the stuff that holiday heavy metal dreams are made of. I wonder if Mariah’s gotten wind of this one yet? While she’d probably be repulsed, she’d certainly applaud the fact that the song is part of the “Un-Ruin Christmas” fundraiser for Toys For Tots. Donate here.

HAIM’s Reboot of Adam Sandler’s “The Hanukkah Song”

The Sandman created a timeless joint back in his SNL days with “The Hanukkah Song,” but who better to give it a re-fresh than Los Angeles’ most famous trio of Jewish sisters, Haim? But you know what the funniest thing is about this song? It’s the little differences. Maya Rudolph, Japanese Breakfast, and Bryce and Aaron Dessner of The National kick off the tune’s laundry list of famous Jews, then instead of naming who “eats together at the Carnegie Deli” (a la Sandler’s original), Este, Alana, and Danielle swap in LA institution “Canter’s Deli.” The Haim version has a distinct knack for including prevalent pop culture personalities and lines like “Doja Cat’s half-Jewish, Chalamet’s half too. Put ‘em both together, what a fine-looking Jew!” would make the Sandman proud. The big payoff comes at the end of the clip, when we find out that the video released during Hanukkah, is actually a clever ruse to tease their 2022 tour.

The LCD Soundsystem Holiday Special Featuring the All My Friends Sitcom

If you hadn’t heard yet, the Omicron coronavirus variant forced LCD Soundsystem to cancel the final three shows of their 20-night residency at New York City venue Brooklyn Steel. It’s definitely the prudent move given the circumstances in NYC right now, but rest assured, you can celebrate with LCD Soundsystem on Christmas week by watching their brand new holiday special. The LCD Soundsystem Holiday Special is part concert and part LCD sitcom, and the sitcom is directed by comedic genius Eric Wareheim. It stars Wareheim as James Murphy, alongside Macaulay Culkin, Aparna Nancherla, Luenelle, and more. It airs on December 22nd via Amazon Music here and the trailer below is can’t miss stuff.

Jhené Aiko – “Wrap Me Up”

A holiday love song from Aiko, “Wrap Me Up” opens with jingle bells and a harp as she hopes to spend the holiday season with a lover by the fire. Where a lot of holiday pop comes across as an over-produced year-end formality, Aiko’s gorgeous voice is undeniable here. She evokes the imagery of the sights, sounds, and feel of the holiday season as she sings:

“Every December you’d make sure you’re here
So I pray as soon as I wake
That we spend today up under each other
‘Cause there’s nothing more I need
Than you here with me, no gift would be better”

A Very She & Him Christmas Deluxe Edition

There is no album I’ve played more this holiday season than the now classic and officially ten years old holiday album from the She & Him duo of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward. Deschanel’s voice has this built-in nostalgia that makes us think about her singing Christmas carols in the movie Elf, an iconic modern Christmas tale if there ever was one. But I digress, because the deluxe version of A Very She & Him Christmas comes with new bonus material like a cover of Madonna’s “Holiday,” and a splendid take on “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas” that’s a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll. Also, all proceeds from album sales benefit 826 National, which funds creative writing programs for kids. Get it at Bandcamp.

Nathaniel Rateliff and Jon Batiste’s Video Magic On “Run Rudolph Run”

Chuck Berry’s raucous “Run Rudolph Run” always seems to call to mind the Home Alone scene when the McAllister family is running for dear life through Chicago’s O’Hare Airport as they attempt to barely make their flight to Paris. Now the soul and folk rock and roll of Nathaniel Rateliff meets the dizzying multi-instrumentalism of 11-time 2022 Grammy Award nominee Jon Batiste on this new version. Debuted at the end of a Late Night With Stephen Colbert episode (where Batiste serves as the bandleader), they totally do Berry’s bluesy song justice. But the way they filmed their video is eye-popping to say the least, as our eyes are drawn to multiple Jons and Nathaniels playing the song. Watch it below.

Gucci Mane and 1017’s So Icy Christmas mixtape

Gucci Mane has put his East Atlanta Santa series to bed and now has the So Icy Christmas mixtape on deck featuring artists from his 1017 records label. 1017 Signees like Big Scarr, BigWalkDog, Enchanting, and Hotboy Wes grace tracks on the album that don’t necessarily fit into the holiday theme, but it’s the Christmas bangers that Gucci Mane himself is on that stand out best. Album opener “Street Ni66a Christmas” is produced by long-time collaborator Zaytoven. “All I Want For Christmas” is a street rap Christmas carol for the ages, where Gucci Mane spits: “All I want for Christmas is my Glock with the extension / A handgun with some monkey nuts, that’s all I want for Christmas.” He then takes a moment to say a prayer for Young Dolph on the Metro Boomin and Zaytoven-produced tribute track, “Long Live Dolph.” As far as holiday music traditions in rap go, Gucci Mane might as well be on his way to sainthood.

Kurstin x Grohl: The Hanukkah Sessions 2021

Picking up on the tradition they started last year, Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl and super-producer Greg Kurstin (Adele, Sia, Foos) posted a YouTube video of them performing a cover of a song by a Jewish artist on each of the eight nights of Hanukkah. It was something to look forward during Hanukkah with Grohl (not Jewish) and Kurstin (Jewish) performing songs like Van Halen’s “Jump” (shout out David Lee Roth,) “Copacabana” with Grohl doing his best Barry Manilow impression, and Amy Winehouse’s “Take The Box,” with Grohl’s daughter Violet on lead vocals.

Jucee Froot As A Raunchy Grinch In The “Christmas List” Video”

Christmas just got a little more ratchet with Jucee Froot’s latest…errrr…holiday video. The rapper tips her Santa cap to the magic of Dr. Seuss with her provocative Grinch costume that spares no detail (all the way down to the green body paint. Uproxx Hip-Hop Editor Aaron Williams said this one best: “Her daughter’s also in the video, which lends another layer of heightened absurdism to the proceedings as Jucee reels off a Christmas list that will probably not only land her on the naughty list, but also send Santa to the doghouse for a week should Mrs. Claus peek over his shoulder while reading it.” Smash that play button below.

Beach Bunny – “Christmas Caller”

Holidays or not, this is just a damn great song and a welcome addition to the indie rock holiday music canon. Singer Lili Trifilio has a knack for oh so sweet hooks and she rides a poppy guitar hook on this one while delivering sugar cookie and cinnamon spice dusted “doo doo doos.”

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

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Keanu Reeves And Drew Barrymore Had The Most Delightful Conversation On ‘The Drew Barrymore Show’

As far as I can tell, Keanu Reeves and Drew Barrymore have only appeared in the same movie once (1986’s Babes in Toyland), but after watching them on Tuesday’s episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, I demand we get a new movie with them being effortlessly charming together. It can be a romantic-comedy, it can be a horror movie, it can be a musical (especially if it’s a musical). I don’t care, as long as it happens. I mean, come on.

Outside of the Pillsbury Doughboy-esque giggle, Barrymore also praised Reeves for being “kind, humble, gracious, hardworking” and recalled the time they went on a motorcycle joyride on her 16th birthday. “We drove at the warp speed of my life. We went and you took me on the ride of my life, and I was so free, I was such a free human being, and it was just this moment where I just remember loving life and being so happy,” she said. Reeves doesn’t remember the specifics as well as Barrymore, but if he wants to relive the moment with me, I’m around. I’ll even bring my own motorcycle helmet.

Later in the interview, Reeves embarrassed himself with a corny expression.

You can watch a clip from their interview above (and see The Matrix Resurrections, either in a theater or on HBO Max, beginning December 22).