Russ has never been one to downplay his accomplishments — and although he’s caught some flak over the years over it, he certainly deserves to pat himself on the back once in a while. After all, as an independent artist, he can take more credit for his achievements than most, and holds them up as an example of what’s possible for other aspiring indies — even if it’s not always likely.
His latest achievement is one that’s certainly worth boasting about. On Twitter, Russ wrote, “Blessed to be the first solo rapper to perform at the pyramids in Egypt,” along with a video of himself doing so, basking in the spotlight as a massive crowd sings along to his 2015 breakout single, “Losin Control.” According to Egypt Today, the show at the Giza Pyramids took place on October 21 as part of his The Journey Is Everything world tour. The organizers behind the event previously hosted the Black Eyed Peas at the pyramids, which explains Russ’ “first solo rapper” qualifier.
Russ’ world tour recommenced with the Giza show after he canceled all of his European dates for mental health reasons. Provided he’s able to continue, he’s scheduled to hit India, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Hawaii, South America, Mexico, and South Africa on the remaining tour dates.
Esteemed journalist and All the President’s Men inspiration Bob Woodward recently released hours of audio from interviews he conducted with Donald Trump over the years. This ticked off the former president, who fumed that “Woodward never got my permission to release tapes of my various interviews with him,” but, here’s a thought, maybe don’t speak to the guy who helped take down Richard Nixon? Then again, as Jimmy Kimmel pointed out, “There is nothing [Trump] likes doing more than talking about himself — it’s his version of phone sex.” That’s only half true: there is nothing Trump likes doing more than talking about himself — and quoting his own tweets.
In the tapes, Woodward asks Trump, “You are president of two Americas, they are divided. Is it, in the end, not your job to be able to bring them together? Isn’t your job, job one, bring them back together?” Trump replied, “I think the biggest problem I have for doing that — I would love to do that, because I’ve oftentimes said that — you remember when I put out the Christmas greeting where I said, ‘Merry Christmas to all, even the haters?’ You know, but I would love to be able to do it, but the biggest problem is the media.”
A rambling answer? Blaming the media? Calling out the haters? Trump is hitting all the greatest hits.
The holiday-themed haters and losers tweet is a favorite of Trump’s. He’s used it for Thanksgiving (“Happy Thanksgiving to all — even the haters and losers”), Christmas and New Year’s (“I’d like to wish all of my friends — and even my many enemies — a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year”), and, uh, 9/11 (“I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, September 11th”).
Trump should have his Twitter ban lifted for one day and one day only: December 16, 2022. “Happy Avatar: The Way of Water release day, even to the haters and losers” is the message we all need this holiday season.
While 2022 is coming to a close, there are still a number of highly-anticipated album releases that are set to come out before the end of the year. Sure, Taylor Swift, Arctic Monkeys, and Kid Cudi just put their stamp on this year with their new albums, but there’s a really strong crop of imminent releases and especially some really juicy speculative drops on the horizon. These are our most anticipated albums for the rest of 2022.
Drake & 21 Savage – Her Loss
October 28
After Honestly, Nevermind album closer “Jimmy Cooks” saw Drake and 21 Savage top the Billboard Hot 100 earlier this year, the pair decided to make an entire album together. Her Loss drops on October 28th and the rappers made the announcement midway through the new “Jimmy Cooks” video. Expect more of 21 Savage’s monotone storytelling mic savagery and Drake’s undeniable ability to keep making hits.
Fred Again.. – Actual Life 3 (January 1 – September 9 2022)
October 28
Few dance music producers are blowing up in the way Fred Again.. is right now and the Brit is keeping his foot on the gas. Along with Charli XCX, Fred Again.. brought in easily the biggest crowds of the elite EDM-focused Portola Music Festival in San Francisco this past September. The third installment in his Actual Life series is sure to see him shining the light on emotive vocalists, like 070 Shake on “Danielle (Smile On My Face).”
Smino – Luv 4 Rent
October 28
Now signed to Motown records, the third album from Smino comes when the St. Louis rapper’s star is soaring higher than ever. Luv 4 Rent will feature a number of high-profile guest vocalists including Doechii, Lil Uzi Vert, Lucky Daye, and even J. Cole on the already released “90 Proof.” Smino will also be taking the album out on the road in a co-headlining tour with JID early next year.
Hermanos Gutiérrez – El Bueno Y El Malo
October 28
Swiss-Ecuadorian brothers Estevan and Alejandro Gutiérrez’s newest album is coming out on Dan Auerbach’s (of The Black Keys) Easy Eye Sounds label. Hermanos Gutiêrrez make instrumental music that feels like it belongs in an Ennio Morricone score for a movie starring Danny Trejo or Antonio Banderas. And each song is a journey into a different corner of a mystical desert offering enlightenment to all who wander its paths.
Phoenix – Shaka Zulu
November 4
For their first album in over five years, Phoenix have already done something they’d never done before: On “Tonight,” they featured another artist on one of their songs for the first time ever in Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig. The album was recorded in an empty Parisian Art museum in the thick of the pandemic, and “Winter Solstice” captures the rhythmic serenity that singer Thomas Mars and company were going for in recording Shaka Zulu.
Tenci – A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing
November 4
Chicago indie band Tenci was named one of our On The Up emerging artists to know in September on the strength of the delightful bucolic folk of “Two Cups.” Out on Keeled Scales, A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing now presents itself as one of the most compelling indie releases of the rest of 2022. Singer Jess Shoman’s impassioned vibrato is sure to draw comparisons to Big Thief, while the sweeping multiple movements of “Sour Cherries” show that Tenci is just as ambitious.
Joji – Smithereens
November 4
As Asian music powerhouse 88rising is getting ready to take its Head In The Clouds festival to Jakarta and Manila in December, Joji continues to rise into one of the collective’s alpha artists. He’ll be at both new Asia editions of the music fest, in the midst of his global tour to support the release of Smithereens, which sees him straddling from the fusion two-step of “Yukon (Interlude)” to the sheer balladry of the viral TikTok hit, “Glimpse Of Us.”
Christine And The Queens – Redcar Les Adorables Étoiles
November 11
Delayed nearly two months after singer Chris suffered an injury during tour rehearsals, Redcar Les Adorables Étoiles marks the first Christine & The Queens album since Chris transitioned. On the new album, Chris performs as the “Redcar” character on another crop of upper-echelon French pop songs. This promises to be a multidisciplinary project, with the gripping performer making new art while seeking to dismantle gender-assigning norms.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Soundtrack
November 11 (movie release)
Considering the success of executive producer Kendrick Lamar’s 2019 Black Panther Soundtrack (including two Grammy wins), the stakes are high for what Wakanda Forever has in store musically. Never fear, Rihanna is apparently here to deliver the goods. A series of billboards in New York City appear to have been teasing her appearance on the soundtrack album, which also already includes Tems’ take on Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry.”
Weyes Blood – And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow
November 18
In November, elegant indie singer Weyes Blood will return with the second album in a trilogy that began with 2019’s breakthrough Titanic Rising. Natalie Mehring’s voice gorgeously flows over a piano and hushed drum beat on the riveting “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody,” a song she explains is about finding a collective consciousness as we search for meaning in a cruel world. Deeply philosophical indie epics have hardly sounded this beautiful.
Roddy Ricch – Feed The Streets 3
November 18
When Roddy Ricch followed up last month’s release of the introspective “Stop Breathing” with the straight-up flex of “Aston Martin Truck” last week, speculation spiked that the diamond-certified rapper’s next album was on the horizon. Now with the impending release of the third installment in the Feed The Series mixtape series, Ricch has said that he wants “to be closer to my fans and show all the sides no one ever sees.” He’s been wildly successful since debuting in 2017 and it’ll be interesting to see how he puts a bow on the trilogy that gave him his start.
Stormzy – This Is What I Mean
November 25
Few British rap stars have grown to international acclaim quite like Stormzy. Now signed to Def Jam, Stormzy recorded his album on the tide-locked Osea Island, saying that the process “felt beautifully free.” While “Hide & Seek” is a tongue-in-cheek love song, Stormzy went all out on hard-spitting “Mel Made Me Do It,” getting cameos in the song’s music video from globally recognized personalities like Usain Bolt, Jose Mourinho, and Dave.
Brockhampton – No Cap
Date Unconfirmed
While Brockhampton announced in January that the group is breaking up, a final album has been teased since a message popped up on the video screen at their goodbye performance at Coachella. Then in early October, Kevin Abstract tweeted out that the album is due out “before the year is over” and is called No Cap. The clock is effectively ticking on this final farewell from the group.
SZA
Date Unconfirmed
It’s been five years since Ctrl dropped and we’ve been on the edge of our seats waiting for SZA’s follow-up album since then. The anticipation finally started to feel real this year when SZA said that “the album’s finally ready to go — more than I’ve ever felt before.” Nevermind that she said we were gonna have a “SZA summer” because she said in mid-October that the album is coming “any day now.” And in the ultimate tease, her long-awaited new single, “Shirt,” hit Spotify last week, only to be pulled shortly thereafter because it was added to the service too early by mistake. It’s gotta be coming, right?
Nicki Minaj
Date Unconfirmed
Ever since the August release of “Super Freaky Girl,” the Barbs have been counting on a new Nicki Minaj album. The single came after the UK’s Wireless Festival hyped Minaj’s appearance by touting an impending album. The rapper has since promised “a return to mixtape Nicki” — which hopefully comes after she’s buried the hatchet with Latto.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Andrew Bird has shared a new song inspired by one of the great poets of the past. On “I Felt A Funeral, In My Brain,” Bird is joined by Phoebe Bridgers, as they sing lines inspired by the poem by way of soft, chilling vocals over haunting violin strings.
“I felt a funeral in my brain / And mourners to and fro / Kept treading, treading, till it seemed / that sense was breaking through,” sing the two on the song’s refrain.
Bird came up with the concept for the song after reading a poem by Emily Dickinson, also titled “I Felt A Funeral, In My Brain,” which he said felt like an accurate description of his inner world.
“It became an inspiration for the songs on [my most recent album] Inside Problems,” said Bird in a statement. “Who better to sing it with than Phoebe Bridgers? I sent her a demo and so, here we are. Thanks to Ms. Dickinson’s publisher at Harvard University Press for allowing us to use this poem. As I understand, her poems weren’t published as she intended them until the 1950s—that is, without the heavy hand of her male editors.”
White Reaper is back with a new song, “Pages,” as the first teaser from their next album, Asking For A Ride. Accompanied by a vintage film video, “Pages” opens with a chill acoustic guitar before finding the rest of the band rocking out by a waterfall. Being the record’s first single, it is a magnificent preview of what fans can possibly expect.
“It seems like ‘Pages’ could’ve easily existed on one of our earlier records, it’s just a few chords and a simple melody; but because of that, I’d say that it’s pretty unique to the rest of our new album,” vocalist and guitarist Tony Esposito said in a statement. “We can’t wait to show everyone what we’ve been working on.”
“I wanted to get everyone together for an outdoor daylight look in one of my favorite architectural public spaces, the Keller Fountain in Portland, Oregon,” Lance Bangs, who directed the “Pages” video, added. “It was designed in the late ’60s and opened to the public in 1970. It’s an enduring free space where people can spend time. We filmed on a bright, warm afternoon and conjured up a video that feels like the song: dynamic, catchy, genuine.”
In addition, the band announced a 2023 North American tour. It will feature Narrow Head, Militarie Gun, Taipei Houston, and Mamalarky as additional opening support. A complete list of dates is available here.
Watch White Reaper’s new video for “Pages” above. Continue scrolling for the complete Asking For A Ride album art and tracklist.
ARTWORK BY MARK STUTZMAN
1. “Asking For A Ride”
2. “Bozo”
3. “Fog Machine”
4. “Getting Into Trouble w/ The Boss”
5. “Funny Farm”
6. “Pink Slip”
7. “Heaven Or Not”
8. “Crawlspace”
9. “Thorn”
10. “Pages”
Asking For A Ride is out 1/27/2023 via Elektra. Pre-order it here.
White Reaper is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Over the course of his promotion for the Murder Inc. documentary The Murder Inc Story, Irv Gotti received a backlash for repeatedly talking about his illicit, 20-year-old affair with former Murder Inc. artist Ashanti. In defense of himself, he argued, “You keep asking me… got paid to do a documentary on my life and on Murder Inc. If I didn’t talk about Ashanti, you’d be like, ‘What type of bullsh*t is this?’ She’s too important to Murder Inc.”
It appears that now it’s Ashanti’s turn to address these recollections in her own interview with Angie Martinez on the latter’s podcast. While she already touched on Gotti’s comments on a remix of Diddy’s “Gotta Move On,” singing, “It’s giving obsessed, it’s giving me stressed, it’s giving me pressed / It’s giving this missing the best / But it’s been 20 years / Please say less,” in speaking with Angie Martinez, she goes more in-depth, accusing Gotti of emotional manipulation.
“He would say stuff like, ‘Nobody wants to record with you,’” she recalls. “On one hand, he would make it feel like ‘family, family, family,’ and on the other hand, we would tell me, ‘Nobody likes you. You not gonna get beats from nobody. Nobody’s gonna give you sh*t.’ It was hard.” She recounts being young and gullible and falling for this shtick, but realizing that it was actually a ruse when she got older, more mature, and began working with other artists who would tell her that they “always reached out” — presumably, only to be blocked by Gotti in his jealousy.
Although I’m as excited as the next person about the Brendan Fraseraissance that we’re currently witnessing, I’m also still captivated by the Natasha Lyonnaissance that began a nearly a decade ago and is still kicking. Her role as Nicky Nichols on OITNB may have included some personal touches amid the tough talking, and then Natasha fully seized control of her own destiny with Russian doll while barreling through a topsy-turvy, Groundhog Day-esque world, for which The Atlantic likened her to a “steampunk Columbo.”
Those comparisons (and the Peter Falk-like mannerisms and energy were there) led people to wonder what it might be like to see Natasha in a Columbo reboot. Well, that’s not exactly what’s going on here in Ryan Johnson’s Poker Face series for Peacock, but we can squint hard and imagine it happening because this is a mystery-of-the-week drama revolving around murder. Lyonne’s character is described as (surprise, surprise) “scrappy,” and she may or may not be an outright detective, but “Charlie” does have an uncanny gift (to tell when people are lying), as we hear from Adrien Brody’s apparent slime ball. And from there, Charlie takes off in a Plymouth Barracuda to fall into solving a series of crimes. Again, not-Columbo!
In a statement to Peacock, Rian Johnson explained the show’s inception:
Never underestimate the power of a good dinner conversation between friends. What started as a discussion over steak frites about detective shows and what made them such a reliable pleasure — the exploration of little worlds within each new setting, the guest stars playing killers and victims, and most importantly, a scrappy protagonist you were always ready to kick back with and see win — ultimately resulted in the creation of Charlie, the driving force behind POKER FACE.
Poker Face — which not only features Brody but also Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Barkin, Tim Meadows, Benjamin Bratt, Lil Rel Howery, Tim Blake Nelson (!), and the pair that Natasha can’t quit (Chloë Sevigny and Dascha Polanco) — premieres the first four of ten episodes on January 26.
If there’s one thing we have learned about Donald Trump in the past several years, it’s that he has rarely passed on an opportunity to sit down with a reporter and talk endlessly about himself. As we’ve seen with Maggie Haberman’s recent book, Confidence Man, the former president doesn’t always think too highly of what he said when it’s over. So Bob Woodward, one half of the famed Woodward and Bernstein, who blew the lid off Watergate, made the ingenious move of releasing a new audiobook that includes hours of Trump telling his own story — and dropping some wild tidbits along the way. On Tuesday night, Jimmy Kimmel couldn’t wait to get right into it.
The audio comes from a whopping 20 interviews Woodward conducted with Trump, one before his election and the remaining 19 during Trump’s final year as president. “According to Woodward, Trump would call him randomly at unexpected hours to talk while he was president,” Kimmel said. “‘Cause there’s nothing he likes doing more than talking about himself; it’s his version of phone sex.”
The part that really flabbergasted Kimmel was when the topic turned to COVID, and Trump admitted that he was having trouble talking to his own son Barron, who was 13 at the time, about it. So he asked Woodward — “the guy who was interviewing him,” remarked Kimmel — what he should do about the coronavirus. Fortunately, Woodward had a step-by-step list of how he’d handle the then-impending health crisis, which Trump asked him to read out loud to him. So… Woodward did. And Kimmel was shocked:
Can you imagine that this happened? I mean, I can’t even believe [it]. Trump also told Woodward he was hesitant to release a plan for the pandemic for fear it might not be politically beneficial…
‘Why did grandma die?’
‘Well, because the president has a super-cool ‘Bring Me a Diet Coke’ button on his desk, and he didn’t want to lose that.’
Later in the interview, a pre-presidential Trump claimed that when he won the election (which he had no doubt would happen), he would “be so presidential you won’t even recognize me… You’ll be falling asleep you’ll be so bored.”
“It’s kind of amazing that he was right about almost nothing he said,” Kimmel noted.
Trump went on to tout his abilities as a unifier — a skill be (erroneously) believed Obama was sorely lacking. Then tried to prove his own intelligence by noting that his uncle was a professor at MIT for 40 years, and that his father was even smarter than him. Which… ok.
Trump’s only recourse, of courts, was to post to TRUTH Social in an attempt to set the record straight. He railed against Woodward, who he claims never got permission to release those tapes, which Trump had “allowed only for purposes of making sure that he got my quotes and statements right for THE WRITTEN WORD. In other words, for his nevertheless highly inaccurate book. The tapes are much better than the book.”
So, does he like the tapes or not? It’s hard to tell. But Kimmel loves the idea of Trump claiming that the words that came out of his mouth are all Woodward’s fault. “Why are you agreeing to do 20 interviews on tape with the guy who took down Richard Nixon with tapes?,” Kimmel wanted to know, then concluded: “The emperor has no brains.”
A new excerpt from Matthew Perry‘s upcoming memoir is making the rounds, and it appears that the Friends star either really hates Keanu Reeves or he completely biffed a very dark joke about celebrity overdoses. It’s pretty awkward. In Perry’s book, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, the actor gets candid about his decades-long battle with addiction and alcohol abuse that plagued his time on the hit NBC sitcom and beyond. However, part of that candidness seems to involve animosity towards Reeves.
“Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?” Perry wrote. At first, this seems like the actor tapping into some Chandler-esque sarcasm, but he repeats the sentiment while talking about the deaths of Phoenix and Chris Farley. Perry starred in films with both actors and became close friends with each before their deaths, which deeply affected him — and fueled his apparent hate for Reeves.
While battling addiction at the height of his “Friends” fame and playing Chandler Bing, Perry signed on to film “Almost Heroes,” a 1988 comedy co-starring Farley. When he found out that the “SNL” star had died of an overdose in 1997, at age 33, Perry once again seemed to think it wasn’t fair that Reeves was still alive.
“I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room wall when I found out,” he writes. “Keanu Reeves walks among us.”
As Page Six notes, Perry and Reeves have never worked together, which could be another sign of Perry’s animosity towards the iconic movie star. That said, the (double) mention of Reeves could all be a misguided joke on Perry’s part. The guy’s brand is dark, dripping sarcasm, and he may have gone a just little too heavy on the dark this time around.
Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing hits bookshelves on November 1.
In another sign that Warner Bros. Discovery is committed to its DC Comics franchise despite shelving Batgirl and making lots of proclamations about refocusing on theatrical releases, The Batman spinoff series centered on Arkham Asylum is moving full steam ahead. Antonio Campos has been officially hired as the showrunner for the project, and in another interesting bit of news, it appears the show did not replace the previously announced spinoff about the Gotham City PD.
Although Matt Reeves had previously said that the originally planned Gotham PD series had “kind of evolved” into what is now the Arkham Asylum show, an individual with knowledge of the situation now says that the two are in fact completely separate and that the Gotham PD series remains in development. The Gotham PD series was originally announced in July 2020 with a series commitment. At that time, the show was meant to be about the inner workings of the GCPD and set within the same world as Reeves’ “The Batman,” with Terence Winter writing and executive producing.
Even if the GCPD show never sees the light of day, the forward momentum on the Arkham series shows a surprising commitment from WBD, who seemed reluctant to dump money into streaming projects on HBO Max. However, The Batman director Matt Reeves was the first filmmaker that the newly-merged company signed to a first-look deal, and according to a recent report, he’s developing solo movies based on Batman villains.
The Battinson Universe is looking strong as DC Films enters a bold new age under the watchful eye of James Gunn.
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