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.

On “Roof,” the ninth song from her new album Before Love Came To Kill Us, Canadian singer-songwriter Jessie Reyez sums up her career evolution and her current position in one succinct line. “I could drive a Benz, but I’m still in my old-ass Honda,” she smirks. “Cocky’s in a coma, but I got my commas.”

That’s the album in a nutshell: Reyez has grown up but she’s also held her center. Her growth is as evident as her powerful sense of self-assured identity. It’s an identity she worked to establish on her developmental EPs, Kiddo and Being Human In Public, and it emerges fully formed on Before Love Came To Kill Us.

Possessed with an off-kilter voice and a wicked sense of humor, Reyez litters her lyrics with sly pop-culture references and emotional gut-punches, a legacy of her come-up alongside rappers like King Louie and multiple collaborations with Eminem. But she also knows her way around a straight-up pop bop, giving Before Love an impressive array of tools with which to work.

From singing in Spanish on “La Memoria” (Reyez is Colombian-Canadian and lived in Florida, busking on the beach before moving back to Toronto and pursuing music full-time) to referencing Goodfellas on the album’s intro “Do You Love Her,” Jessie utilizes every tool at her disposal to demonstrate her growth as an artist. While she does so, though, she doesn’t get lost in the eclecticism of the project, using the diverse styles to display different facets of her own strong personality.

The centeredness allows her to remain the focus, even when guest stars 6lack and Eminem contribute verses. Her duet with the former on “Imported” allows her to flex her hip-hop songwriting chops alongside one of the genre’s most solid dual-talent artists, while on “Coffin,” Jessie’s half of the song is miles better than Em’s out-of-place, off-key crooning. Through each track, Reyez’s voice slides between more alien pop and cool, velvet R&B, further demonstrating her versatility.

That versatility is doubly highlighted by the variety in the production. The uptempo “Dope” is a dance-pop party starter, offsetting the ballad-laden back-end of the album, which gives Reyez the chance to explore infatuation (on the pulsating “I Do”), heartbreak (the sweeping “Love In The Dark”), and a friends-with-benefits situation turned sour (the aggressive “Kill Us,” which lends the album its title). Reyez sings with charm and panache, modulating her unusual voice to suit the needs of each track, from moody and dark to carefree and tongue-in-cheek.

With that level of self-assuredness and nerve, Reyez is able to navigate seemingly disparate soundscapes and experiment to her heart’s content, secure in the knowledge that she won’t be swallowed up by an overwhelming new sound or stumble over an unfamiliar one. Before Love Came To Kill Us is a rock-solid statement of self-determination that shows flashes of promise that Reyez will be able to adapt to whatever sounds become the vogue, but also remain distinctive, with a sound all her own. The Canadian songwriter comes into her own as an artist, proving she can ride the wave and still sound like herself.

Before Love Came To Kill Us is out now via FMLY and Island. Get it here.

Before the release of Revenge Of The Dreamers III, Cole wrote on Twitter of the album, “Know that this album represents community and the unheard unsung artists that fight and bleed daily to be felt.” That sentiment shines through strongly on album highlight “LamboTruck,” on which Cozz and Reason rap about being underappreciated by their labels, Dreamville and TDE, respectively. Now the narrative track has come to life in a surreal new video.

In the clip, Cozz and Reason rap about their respective situations before meeting up and plotting to rob J. Cole. Once they come to terms, the video ends on a still, panning shot (like the bar scene from The Other Guys) of the two messing with cardboard cutouts of their respective label bosses.

In the aforementioned tweets, Cole continued, “There will be someone you never heard of on this album. Look them up and support them if they resonate with you. A follow goes a long way. Same goes for the producers that go unheard and make beats all day every day hoping to cut through. To the producers and artists that came through but didn’t make the album, you are there in spirit. Thank you for your presence, the energy of those sessions was the most magical.”

Watch the “LamboTruck” video above.

ESPN’s quest to fill broadcast times typically reserved for live sports has led them down a few different paths. One is playing to nostalgia in the form of past sporting events and even WrestleManias, as well as playing classic Disney sports movies. Another is pushing up the highly anticipated The Last Dance documentary, which features 10 hours of interviews and never before seen footage of the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls.

Finally, they’re diving into the world of eSports a bit more, most notably with an NBA 2K20 tournament featuring 16 NBA players playing 1-on-1 games against each other. That tournament tips off on Friday night (April 3), with Kevin Durant and Trae Young as the top seeds on opposite sides of the bracket.

Offshore bookmakers have released odds on the tournament, and while Durant and Young are the top seeds, they are not at the top of the odds sheet right no. Sportsbetting.ag and Bookmaker.eu both have released odds and, as of writing at 3 p.m. ET, their odds vary wildly. At Bookmaker, Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton are co-favorites at +450, followed by Donovan Mitchell (+847) and Durant (+850). At Sportsbetting, Booker is a +350 favorite followed by Durant at +400, Ayton at +650, and Young at +800.

All of this is to say, if you’re planning on betting on this 2K tournament, shop your odds because they vary wildly from book to book. The one point I will make is that, given how The Action Network’s 1-on-1 tournament has played out on 2K, the big men have an advantage if they use their size correctly. Full odds from both sites can be found below.

Devin Booker +350 (SB)/+450 (BM)
Kevin Durant +400 (SB)/+850 (BM)
Deandre Ayton +650 (SB)/+450 (BM)
Trae Young +800 (SB)/+1500 (BM)
Donovan Mitchell +900 (SB)/+847 (BM)
Hassan Whiteside +1000 (SB)/+1300 (BM)
Rui Hachimura +1200 (SB)/+1100 (BM)
Andre Drummond +1600 (SB)/+1548 (BM)
Pat Beverley +1600 (SB)/+1337 (BM)
DeMarcus Cousins +1800 (SB)/+1023 (BM)
Zach LaVine +1800 (SB)/+1100 (BM)
Harrison Barnes +2000 (SB)/+1200 (BM)
Michael Porter Jr. +2000 (SB)/+1548 (BM)
Montrezl Harrell +2000 (SB)/+1337 (BM)
Derrick Jones Jr. +2200 (SB)/+1200 (BM)
Domantas Sabonis +2250 (SB)/+2084 (BM)

“We’re just in pure survival mode,” says longtime friend of UPROXX, Jason Quinn — chef and founder of Playground DTSA in Santa Ana, CA. “We don’t want to fire or furlough people so we’re just… we’re making it happen however we can.”

Those words embody the painful truth facing our nation. No one is having an easy go of it right now. We’re all just muddling through. Especially people in the service industry. Grocery store employees, gig economy workers, food servers, chefs — they’re risking their health every day to keep a sliver of our society functioning while doctors on the frontline grapple with COVID-19.

In many cases, economic survival depends on staying operational. For Quinn and many small business owners like him, remaining open in some form is the only way to keep employees afloat.

“We were a day from shuttering,” Quinn continues. “But my staff has to eat and our guests have to eat. In the end, closing felt like the easy way out; trying to unlock how to stay open, that felt like the impossible challenge.”

On March 13th, Playground DTSA was assessing the severity of the outbreak in real-time and upping their sanitization practices, as well as relaxing their hours. By March 16th, faced with a state-wide stay-at-home directive, Quinn started going live on Instagram daily — asking his customer-base for feedback about how best to serve them. A few days later, he was floating to-go and delivery models, and selling wagyu beef and fresh fish to home cooks.

Almost immediately, Playground had to temporarily suspend protein sales because the response was so rabid. That facet is back up and running now — with steak, pork, and fish available through a new webstore. The restaurant has also launched take home ramen kits.

Quinn isn’t the only chef throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks. Head chef and founder of Los Angeles’ Guerrilla Tacos, Wesley Avila, has put together what he’s calling an Emergency Taco Kit — which includes five pounds of roasted chicken and carne asada, a quart of red and green salsa, tortillas, onion, cilantro, rice, beans, 30 eggs, and probably the most coveted of all goods: four rolls of toilet paper.

But for every ripple of success, there’s a tsunami of restaurants collapsing altogether or having to furlough their whole teams. According to the Los Angeles Times, Bon Temps, a popular LA Art’s District restaurant headed by Chef Lincoln Carson, closed its doors indefinitely on the evening of March 16th — just a few days into trying to make it as a take-out only establishment. Los Feliz eatery Kismet also closed after its take-out service and take-home broth and labneh didn’t pull in enough funds to cover expenses. Another Kind Cafe in Laguna Beach, which was featured in a previous UPROXX piece as an example of a restaurant succeeding with takeout business during the quarantine, has since halted operations indefinitely. And famed chef Danny Myer’s hospitality group laid off 2,000 employees just a few days into the shutdown.

Deborah VanTrece, the executive chef of Atlanta Georgia’s Twisted Soul, broke down some of the real-world struggles restaurants are facing to Bon Appétit, “Our insurance is doing nothing. Our landlords have offered no rent abatement, even though most of the retailers in this complex have been forced to close completely. And that stimulus package sounds cute on paper, but in real-time it don’t mean shit.”

The restaurant industry is used to adapting to the changing tastes of the dining public, but there isn’t a single independent restaurant on earth equipped to survive a global pandemic without sustaining major losses. The business model just isn’t built for it. The margins are far too thin and the costs never really stop.

Right now, living to fight another day is the name of the game. For some chefs that means crowdfunding for their teams. For others, it means “pay what you can” menus. For Quinn, it means going back on his famous policy of making absolutely no tweaks or adjustments to his dishes.

“We spent eight years only doing things our way,” he says. “If you had asked me what it would take to have me change that, I would have said ‘the end of the world.’ Well, here you go. Now someone calls and our staff says, ‘No peanuts? Steak well done? We got you!’ For us, that’s a huge change in operations, but we have to monetize any phone call that comes our way. My staff needs to eat. So whether you want dry-aged beef or rolls of paper towels, it’s all about ‘what can we do for you?’!”

A few weeks ago, we shared a doctor’s description of his hospital in Italy after the coronavirus had hit them hard. His words were sobering and his account harrowing—but at that point such dire circumstances were still half a world away.

We knew it was only a matter of time before a surge in cases and hospitalizations started hitting the U.S., and now we’re getting a taste of what that looks like from the people on the front line.

Healthcare workers have sounded the alarm on what COVID-19 looks like in the ICU, on their woeful lack of PPE (personal protective equipment), and on the fear and frustration they feel when they see people not adhering to social distancing rules. If you need an incentive to stay at home as much as possible and to avoid interacting in person with others, these nurses’ pleas ought to do it.

A nurse in Southeast Michigan shared her thoughts on video after coming off a 13-hour shift at the hospital where she treated COVID-19 patients on ventilators in the ICU.

“I don’t know what the f*ck just happened the past 13 hours,” she began. “Honestly, you guys, I felt like I was working in a war zone.”

After describing what it’s like to deal with a medical crisis with limited supplies and overwhelmed team members, she said, “I’m already breaking, so for f*ck’s sake, please take this seriously.”

Another nurse wrote a post on Facebook about her night at work last week, where her boss was crying, nurses were breaking down, and they all went to the hospital chapel together to pray. “I ask myself how are we going to survive this?” she wrote. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Another Michigan ER nurse shared a video on Instagram describing one night in her hospital when they were running out of everything—even Tylenol.

Mary MacDonald took a shift at the Southfield campus of Ascension Providence Hospital and was blown away by what she experienced. “If you would have asked me ten-plus days ago if I thought that this was going to get as bad as it was, I would have told you no. I mean, you heard the rumors and you saw the trends, but until you see it first hand you just have no idea…it’s truly frightening.”

The bottom-line message from all of these front line workers is “STAY HOME.” This virus is highly contagious, and It’s not worth the risk to make an extra trip to the store or let your kid see a friend because they’re bored or lonely. Stay at home, even if your area hasn’t been hit hard yet. Stay at home, even if you think it’s safe because your hospitals are still in the calm before the storm.

For the sake of our healthcare workers’ health and well-being, as well as everyone else’s, we all need to do our part to slow the spread, flatten the curve, and keep our hospitals from getting overrun with patients. People’s lives literally depend on it, and we owe it to these medical workers to heed their warnings.

In 2011, Adam Mansbach created perhaps the first children’s book written specifically for parents, called “Go the F*ck to Sleep.” The hilarious story, which chronicles a parent’s desperate desire to get a child to sleep, was made even greater when it was read aloud by world-class f-bomb dropper Samuel L. Jackson.

Now Mansbach and Jackson have collaborated on a new take on the book for the coronavirus pandemic. It’s a poem called “Stay the F*ck at Home,” and it’s perfect. It begins:

The ‘rona is spreading. This sh*t is no joke. It’s no time to work or roam.

The way you can fight it is simple my friends—just stay the f*ck at home.

Now technically, I’m not a doctor. But motherf*ckers listen when I read a poem.

So here I am, Sam F*ckin’ Jackson, imploring you—keep your ass at home.

This is exactly the entertaining admonition we all need right now. Enjoy:

Samuel L. Jackson Says Stay the F**k at Home

youtu.be

“Jumanji” actor and Tenacious D singer Jack Black has captured all of our hearts with his improvisational “Quarantine Dance” he debuted on TikTok.

The dance incorporates bird-like arm flapping, some touches of Russian ballet, and an impressive karate kick. The dance is an expression of pure, unbridled joy mixed with the rage that comes with day upon day of self-isolation.

The video is also memorable because of Black’s wardrobe. He looks like a Texan flirting with the idea of becoming a nudist.

Vimeo user Cut to Black took quick clips from 108 TV shows, movies, and viral dance videos to explain what everyone is going through right now.

Set to the tune of “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke, the video mashes up clips from totally random sources, including “The Office,” “Ed Wood,” “South Park,” “Seinfeld,” “The Big Lebowski,” and “Rick and Morty.”

Whoever made this must have an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture and a lot of time on their hands.

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“I have no intention on leaving.”

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