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House of the Dragon Season 1 Wasn’t Perfect — But It Was a Worthy Heir to Game of Thrones
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 1 finale of House of the Dragon, “The Black Queen.”] Probably the most unintentionally hilarious part of House of the Dragon’s first season finale came at the very end, if you were watching with subtitles on: When Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), having just learned of her son’s death, turned away from the fire to reveal her grief-stricken face, the captions acknowledged a shift in composer Ramin Djawadi’s score like so: [Vengeful music plays]. It was funny because the captions really didn’t need to say anything — D’Arcy’s face said it all. It was all a jaw-dropping capper to a largely gripping season of television, because as we come to the finale, it can be said: If the goal was to create a new series that would please even ...
George Clooney and Julia Roberts Reunite in Seaweed-Thin Romcom Ticket to Paradise: Review
The Pitch: David (George Clooney) and Georgia (Julia Roberts) are two hugely successful, extremely divorced people, with 19 years of bitter animus between them. In fact, the only times they even see each other are for the major milestones in the life of their daughter, Lily (Kaitlin Dever), and even then they can’t help but snipe at each other through forced smiles. But they’re forced back into each other’s orbits when Lily shacks up with a handsome seaweed farmer (model Maxime Bouttier) on her post-graduation trip to Bali, and invites them to her whirlwind wedding on the Indonesian island paradise. Recognizing that throwing her career away for idle island living and a guy she’s just met is a Bad Idea, the two plot to sabotage the wedding from the inside. Along the way, though, t...
Rap Song of the Week: Lil Uzi Vert Heads to the Club on “Just Wanna Rock”
Rap Song of the Week breaks down all the hip-hop tracks you need to hear every Friday. Check out the full playlist here. This week, Lil Uzi Vert hops on a Jersey club beat with “Just Wanna Rock.” Lil Uzi Vert takes pride in acknowledging their roots in North Philadephia’s Francisville neighborhood. With Jersey club recently breaking out from its origins in Newark — just an hour or two away from where the rapper, who uses they/them pronouns, was born and raised — it was inevitable that the always-experimental artist would dip a toe into the genre. The result is “Just Wanna Rock,” an uptempo dance track with gothic keys that Uzi Vert dropped after it went viral on TikTok. Co-produced by MCVertt, a frequent collaborator with Jersey drill pioneer Bandmanrill, and Synthetic, who is kn...
Song of the Week: Taylor Swift Is the “Anti-Hero” of the Story After All
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Taylor Swift doesn’t hold back with the hyperaware, self-loathing “Anti-Hero.” Ahead of the release of her new album, Midnights, Taylor Swift shared a video to Instagram providing some insight into the subject of “Anti-Hero.” “This song really is a real guided tour throughout all the things I tend to hate about myself,” she said plainly. Somehow, that feels like a bit of an understatement for how fully Swift digs into her own paranoia and need for control with this song. She leans all the way into the theatrica...
Loyle Carner Is Standing Up for the Things That Matter
Loyle Carner is all grown up. Speaking to Hypebeast from a U.K. music studio, the South London rapper finds a moment of solitude while waiting for his crew members to turn up for a session. Surrounded by amplifiers and microphones and talking into a Zoom screen, Carner opens up on the most intimate, soulful and altogether human album he’s ever made. Carner, real name Ben Coyle-Larner, reminisces on his almost decade-long music career, which originally sprung to life when he was 19. “There have been times when I have been high on confidence, then low on confidence. Times of being super happy and super sad. At the start of the album process, I was in a bad place, I was low,” he tells Hypebeast. In 2014, Loyle Carner released A Little Late, an E.P. packed with smooth jazz samples and an hones...
Hit-Boy Comes Clean on His Relationship With Ye, Discusses His Production Credits and Dropping New Music
Hit-Boy has been creating number-one hit songs for more than a decade. From working with industry heavyweights like Drake, Rihanna, Nas, Jay Z and Beyoncé, to his highly publicized fallout with Ye – the artist formerly known as Kanye West – Hit-Boy has a lot to say and share with fans that have been following him from the start. Fresh off dropping Tony Fontana Part III with Curren$y, participating in the Madden NFL 23 campaign and looking forward to the release of Nas’ highly anticipated “King’s Disease III” album, Hit-Boy hopes to open up the world to understanding the man behind the music as he creates new projects based on his own narrative – as opposed to helping someone else build theirs. Celebrating his latest project and also looking back on his Grammy award-winning career achieveme...
DeFi abandons Ponzi farms for ‘real yield’
Decentralized finance is beginning to embrace a hot new phrase: “real yield.” It refers to DeFi projects that survive purely on distributing the actual revenue they generate rather than incentivizing stakeholders by handing out dilutionary free tokens. Where does this real yield come from? Are “fees” really a sustainable model for growth at this early stage? It depends on who you ask. The DeFi ponzinomics problem is our natural starting point. Ponzi farming DeFi started to arrive as a concept in 2018, and 2020’s “DeFi summer” saw market entrants — DeGens — piling headfirst into DeFi to early mind-blowing returns of 1,000% a year for staking or using a protocol. Many attributed the real explosion of interest in DeFi to when Compound launched the COMP token to reward users for providin...
How to Watch the 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
On November 5th, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will anoint its 2022 class to musical legend status with an induction ceremony in Los Angeles. If you’re not music industry royalty yourself, chances are you won’t be able to attend the event, but don’t fret: an abbreviated version of the ceremony will be available to stream later in the month. Read on to see how to watch Eminem, Dolly Parton, Duran Duran, and more be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. When is the 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony? This year’s induction ceremony takes place on Saturday, November 5th at 7:00 p.m. PT at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. When is the 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Available to Stream? An edited version of the rock hall event will air o...
“Sixth Sense”: ESPER Is Harnessing Elements of the Paranormal to Rise Through EDM’s Ranks
Haunting, visceral, memorable—what can be said of ESPER’s music that can’t be said of the supernatural? The electronic music prodigy, whose real name is Max Margot, is experiencing quite a rise through the EDM scene. ESPER’s name derives from the concept of extrasensory perception, or ESP, more commonly known as “the sixth sense.” No, he does not see dead people. What he sees is a bright future. Thanks to the iconic 1999 film of the same name, “the sixth sense” is more commonly associated with the paranormal community. But for Margot, it’s rooted more in psychology. One of the core values at the bedrock of his brand, he says, is empathy, as in he hopes his music connects with fans so their subconscious feelings bubble to the surface. And...
Montell Fish Processes His Grief Through DIY R&B
Few singers can encapsulate grief quite like Montell Fish. This summer saw the release of his debut album JAMIE, a raw exploration of the self in the aftermath of a breakup. Across JAMIE’s 10 tracks, unedited vocals and poetic lyricism converge to carve out a harrowing musical narrative, opening with songs embodying the initial high of falling in love and closing with Fish grasping at things left unsaid as he mourns his relationship. JAMIE may constitute the end of one chapter, but it’s only the beginning of the 24-year-old Fish’ story. The singer, currently based in New York by way of Philadelphia, has two more records in the works: CHARLOTTE and MARSHALL, which will join JAMIE to form a trilogy of albums that chart the various stages of the grieving process. Before working on this monony...
Fan Chant: Last Chance to Get Your Spotify Wrapped Under Control
Welcome to Fan Chant, a weekly column for K-pop fans, stans, and newbies alike. Each week, I’ll be rolling out interviews, lists, and all kinds of content to keep you in the loop on the latest and greatest from our friends in Seoul and beyond. Also, make sure to subscribe to my companion newsletter! Friends, believe it or not, we have almost reached the time of year when Spotify’s data collection period ends and the streaming service begins assembling the beloved Spotify Wrapped. It might feel super early, but the official deadline is the end of this month, October 31st. The company then spends November preparing the yearly breakdown to roll out at the start of December, which, more often than not, sends me into a yearly breakdown of my own. The thing is, when I love something, I love it e...
Behind the Boards with Ricky Reed: Producer and Songwriter Talks Lizzo, Camila Cabello and More
Behind the Boards is a series where we spotlight some of the biggest producers in the industry and dig into some of their favorite projects. Here, we sit down with Ricky Reed to discuss his songwriting and production work with Lizzo, Camila Cabello Leon Bridges, and more. It’s been a whirlwind of a decade for Ricky Reed. Since 2012, the California-based singer, songwriter, and producer has helmed dozens of hits, including Jason Derulo’s “Talk Dirty,” Meghan Trainor’s “Me Too,” and most recently, Lizzo’s triumphant Hot 100 No. 1 “About Damn Time.” But Reed’s versatility is what makes his career so special; he’s never just been the go-to pop producer or top line aficionado. He thrives in the sonic grey areas of pop, determined to make each song in his catalog a full experience, never half-as...
