Though she’s been working in music since her preteen days, it’s been almost ten years since Jhene Aiko released her official debut mixtape Sailing Soul(s). To celebrate its upcoming anniversary later this month, Aiko is rereleasing the project to streaming services for the first time ever — and it includes an exclusive track.
Sailing Soul(s) is the first project Aiko released after having adverse meetings with label heads. Instead of trying to put the mixtape out through a label, Aiko decided to debut the project through her own website. In a post about it, Aiko wrote she was sick of trying to “sell” herself to label executives at the time:
“this mixtape was a pivotal moment for me. when i was 12 i was signed to a label, singing songs i had no real connection to. besides that, i had no real stories of my own to tell at 12 lol. then i took a break to focus on school. in my teens i was singing demo records and taking meetings. i met with one record exec who told me i needed to do a better job as ‘selling’ myself when i came into meetings. dressing like myself, singing like myself, talking like myself… wasn’t enough. i thought, ‘why do i have to sell myself? why do i have to try to convince you of my worth? of who i am??? from that point on i decided i would never try to ‘sell’ myself. i would simply BE myself and whoever felt a connection would SEE ME and my worth.”
Streaming video is the best thing that’s ever happened to documentaries. People who would never have paid for a ticket to a theatrical nonfiction film are now, thanks to Netflix’s robust selection, scarfing down the stuff by the barrel. But where to start among the masses? Here are 25 of the best documentaries on Netflix right now to get you going, covering a variety of themes and real stories.
Even if you’ve already witnessed the madness of this real-life horror story over on Hulu, you should see it again on Netflix. Hulu’s Fyre Fraud feels like more of a thinkpiece directed at the millennials who were suckered into buying tickets to a luxurious music fest on a secluded island in the Bahamas. Netflix’s Fyre does a better job of placing you in the action, giving you a real feel for the chaos and an understanding of how so many people could’ve been roped into this doomed venture.
Beyoncé’s history-making Coachella performance was enough to temporarily rename the music festival Beychella last year, and now fans who couldn’t afford to see Queen Bee perform live get a backstage pass to the show with this doc. Are there killer performances, musical mash-ups, and dance routines? Sure. But what really makes this music doc stand-out besides the talent of its star is the intimate look fans are given into Beyoncé’s personal life, from her surprise pregnancy to her struggle to get in shape before the event and all the in-between madness and heartbreak.
To understand the enigma that was the Trump campaign, one must first understand the man behind the historic presidential run. Roger Stone is a well-connected lobbyist, a Republican political trickster responsible for the campaigns of former presidents like Richard Nixon and Ronal Reagan. He’s well-versed in navigating morally-murky waters to help his horse win the race, and we see him do just that in this doc, which follows the mogul over a five-year period as he crafts Trump’s winning-campaign.
One of the strangest, most tragic sports stories in history is that of professional wrestler Dave Schulz and his friend, John du Pont. Du Pont was heir to the multi-million dollar Du Pont family fortune and used his inheritance to fund a professional wrestling team with the hopes of competing in the Olympics and other prestigious sports events. Mark Schulz was a wrestler struggling to get out of the shadow of his older brother’s more promising career. The two were roped into du Pont’s scheme, training wrestlers for him, but the partnership quickly soured and led to du Pont murdering Dave Schultz before barricading himself in his family compound to avoid arrest. It’s chilling, bizarre, and all the more riveting because of it.
Another sports doc, this one about a rag-tag group of baseball players in Oregon, feels decidedly more fun than its wrestling counterpart. The doc follows the Portland Mavericks, a defunct minor league baseball owned by actor Bing Russell that played for five seasons in the Class A-Short Season Northwest League. Kurt Russell, Bing’s son, also played on the team and served as its vice president. The film charts the Maverick’s origins, from underdogs to anti-establishment heroes.
Compiled from rare home videos from Christopher “Biggie” Wallace’s best friend, Damion “D-Roc” Butler, this revealing doc gives fans a different look at the iconic rapper. Sean “Diddy” Combs and Biggie’s mom also give interviews, detailing parts of Biggie’s life we didn’t know about, but the most compelling footage comes from D-Roc’s amateur videos. These clips give us an unfiltered look at a man who would become a legend.
This 2016 documentary from Ava DuVernay won an Emmy and was nominated for an Oscar during awards season two years ago. The film chronicles the justice system’s abuses against black people, making a case for institutionalized racism being a problem in America that’s only emboldened by the prison cycle. DuVernay boldly explores how prisons and detention centers are making a profit off of free prison labor, most of it done by black men which begs the question, is slavery really dead?
Let’s be honest, Taylor Swift could’ve delivered a glossy, stylized, superficial doc about her life to promote her latest album, and her rabid fanbase would’ve eaten it up. Instead, the pop star took a risk and gave filmmakers no-holds-barred access to her personal and professional life, offering up intimate interviews with herself and her family, detailing difficult struggles with body dysmorphia and eating disorders, allowing cameras inside her sexual assault trial, revealing her mother’s cancer diagnosis, and unearthing home video footage of her youth to create a fuller picture of herself. It’s a film that reveals the human underneath the icon. It’s bold, brutally honest, and some of Swift’s best work yet.
Few environmental warrior films do more for the cause than Jeff Orlowski’s Chasing Coral. The doc rounds up a team of scientists, photographers, and divers from around the world to draw attention to an environmental crisis we’ve never seen before — the vanishing of the world’s coral reefs. It works on two levels: By giving us an underwater adventure that attempts to shed light on the mysteries of the deep and highlighting a problem we can see with our own eyes. There’s no denying this one, no looking away, and Orlowski’s crew takes full advantage of that.
’90s crime nostalgia is alive and well in this pseudo-doc from director Kitty Green. Everyone knows how tiny pageant queen JonBenet Ramsey died — bludgeoned to death in the basement of her family home — so Green is less interested in rehashing the investigation into the little girl’s death and more interested in reenacting her life and final moments. To do this, she enlists actors from the area where the family lived, all hoping to play JonBenet or her parents in an upcoming production. Over the course of the film, these thespians are forced to confront the reality of the Ramsey family’s situation which in turn helps viewers to take a look under the surface of this tabloid trauma.
This timely doc gives us a look at the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal that rocked the world of gymnastics just two years ago from the point of view of reporters at the Indianapolis Star in charge of exposing it. A cover-up spanning two decades and involving higher-ups at both US Gymnastics and Michigan State where Nassar served as a physician and professor, this revealing investigation into a sinister culture that’s hidden behind the success of its top female athletes makes you rethink everything you thought about the Olympic dream.
his marks the first documentary to come from Netflix’s high-profile producing deal with Barack and Michelle Obama. The film takes a hard look at what happened to a General Motors plant in Ohio when it was closed down during the 2008 financial crisis, causing 2,000 workers to lose their jobs and destroying the small town of Moraine, Ohio. Things only get more complicated when a Chinese billionaire comes to town to transform the plant into a glass-making facility, promising thousands of new jobs before cultural divides threaten to derail the whole thing. It’s a fascinating view of consumerism, the American workforce, culture clashes, and how people can connect with each other despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
In 1992, Sandi Tan, along with her friends, made Singapore’s first indie film. She wrote and starred in it, a project called Shirkers, her two girlfriends produced and edited it, and a man named George Cardona directed. Cardona vanished one day, taking all the film materials with him, and propelling Tan on a decades-long journey to find the truth. It’s an engrossing study in betrayal and the dangers of collaboration, and it works mostly because Tan approaches it from a true-crime mystery angle, stripping it of any nostalgia that might tint her lense.
This gripping documentary confronts some hard truths about religion: its power to unite and its power to divide. Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady follow three members of New York’s notoriously insular Hasidic community as they try to break free from their religion while holding onto their families and sense of belonging.
Bryan Fogel’s Academy Award-winning documentary Icarus wasn’t supposed to involve Russians and doping scandal and cover-ups. Fortunately for Fogel, when the filmmaker decided to test his mettle by competing in one of the toughest cycling competitions in the world and chose to dope to help his chances, he ended up meeting Russian scientist, Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the director of Russia’s national anti-doping laboratory. The result is this nearly 90-minute film that chronicles Russia’s extensive history with doping and Rodchenkov’s fight for his life after he blows the whistle on the country’s bad practices.
It seems as though we’re all now more aware than ever of how utterly screwed any of us can be in an instant if the system places us in its crosshairs for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and not behaving in a way perceived to be “normal” in the immediate aftermath. Recent true crime documentaries like The Staircase, Making a Murderer and Serial have certainly played a part in illuminating this frightening and unfortunate slice of reality. We can now add Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn’s Amanda Knox to that list. Prepare to be terrified and infuriated as the filmmakers detail how an overzealous Italian prosecutor and a global tabloid press thirsty for a sensational story joined forces to wreck a young woman’s life, largely for their own benefit. As Daily Mail journalist Nick Pisa freely admits on camera — without any trace of remorse or shame — about his work covering the case, “A murder always gets people going… And we have here this beautiful, picturesque hilltop town in the middle of Italy. It was a particularly gruesome murder; throat slit, semi-naked, blood everywhere. I mean, what more do you want in a story?”
Netflix delivers another worthy installment in the true crime series with this truly bizarre tale of a naive, church-going family and the man who preyed upon them. The Brobergs lived in a small town in Idaho with their three young daughters when they met Robert Berchtold, a seemingly-nice family man who doted on the girls, in particular, a 12-year-old Jan Broberg. Over time, Berchtold began grooming Jan and manipulating her parents, engaging in sexual acts with both her father and mother to cause a rift in the family before kidnapping her and brainwashing her into compliance. This saga went on for years and as strange as it sounds, nothing can prepare you for hearing the first-hand account of how this sociopath destroyed this loving family.
This documentary features never-before-seen footage of Jim Carrey in character as Andy Kaufman on the set of his 1999 film Man on the Moon. Directed by Chris Smith, the film shows Carrey, who was a celebrated comedic actor at the time, going method for his dramatic role as the brilliant on-stage comedian. There’s plenty of behind-the-scenes drama on this one, including Carrey’s backstage antics while shooting the movie, but what’s really interesting about the film is watching the actor’s thorough process and how he’s approached his colorful careers.
We live in a world connected with most of our interactions happening online. It’s great but, as this doc shows, it’s also terrifying. Terrifying because the way our data changes hands so quickly and indiscriminately — as long as companies shell out the cash for it — skirts all kinds of privacy laws and moral boundaries. This doc, told from the perspective of a journalist attempting to get his search data, the enormous fight with big tech to do it, and how his journey connects to the Cambridge Analytica scandal that may have influenced multiple elections in the States and abroad, is full of fascinating information and shocking tell-alls that could bring this whole internet empire down if people finally decide to start listening.
This political doc made its way from Sundance to Netflix and we couldn’t think of a better time to watch it than leading up to the 2020 election. It follows the grassroots campaign of the right’s favorite punching bag, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, showcasing her charisma and approachability while also diving into more intimate parts of her life, like her relationship with her late father. It’s a feel-good story from Capitol Hill and really, we need more of that.
The film that turned the tide of public opinion on Sea World and convinced Pixar to change the ending of Finding Dory, Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s animal rights muckraker is more than just 83 minutes of theme=park shaming. In telling the story of Tillikum, the psychologically damaged orca who spent his life in captivity and was involved in the deaths of three people, the movie is an elegy for the freedoms that marine creatures like him were once able to enjoy. Is there an ethical way to view creatures like Tillikum up close and personal, and if so, should we trust a private company to deliver it to us?
Clocking in at 24 minutes, the Oscar-nominated Extremis really would only work as a short, as its subject matter is almost unbearably heavy. Following terminal patients, their families, and their doctors, the tearjerker zeros in on the decision that many people are forced to make: whether to end a life or keep struggling to hold on. Netflix’s first foray into short documentary, it’s raw insight that can be rough for anyone who has been in similar shoes or spent any time facing dire choices in a hospital.
The alternately revolutionary and dispiriting saga of a combative, unapologetic and astoundingly gifted soul singer, Liz Garbus’s doc is a powerful rendering of the struggles Nina Simone faced throughout her career: the ways she became trapped in downward spirals, first of spousal abuse and then of bipolar disorder; and of her desperate, all-consuming urge to affect change on the country during the Civil Rights era. What happened? Watch for yourself.
We’re not sure why watching human beings dangling thousands of feet in the air with no safety net or cable cord to tether them to Earth is so irresistible, but it is, and this doc about free climber Tommy Caldwell and climbing partner Kevin Jorgeson might be Netflix’s most bingeable adventure flick. The two men attempt to scale the impossible 3000ft Dawn Wall of El Capitan, the Everest for free climbers, and if you can stomach over an hour of near-fatal slips, trips, and falls, this is the doc for you.
Warning: Netflix’s The Bleeding Edge will seriously piss you off. It might also make you swear off doctors for the rest of your life. The film is a deep dive into the medical device industry and the dangers that lurk there for unassuming patients. Like the pharmaceutical industry, there are few laws regulating the creation and implementation of medical devices — think everything from birth control to orthopedic instruments — and the doc shows how this is negatively affecting millions of Americans every year from the women unknowingly sterilized by an IUD device to a doctor whose own ortho-device slowly poisoned him. It’s a frustrating watch, but a necessary one.
Ahead of releasing her breakout debut single “Icy Grl” in 2017, Saweetie earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California. Saweetie was already making moves in her rap career while attending college and has cited how important her degree is to her. But attending a school where she was oftentimes the only student of color in the classroom also took a toll on her, to the point that she now says the experience “stripped my authenticity.”
Saweetie recently sat down with The Breakfast Club for a conversation about her career and upcoming projects. Host Angela Yee commended Saweetie for completing her degree in the interview, saying that “sometimes people think that you can’t be authentic as a rapper if you also went to school and did well.” But Saweetie feels as though her college experience forced her to conform:
“That’s so ironic because I feel like college is what kind of stripped my authenticity from me because, when you’re going to a predominately white school, you kind of feel like you have to perform sometimes. Not speaking for everybody, but at least from my experience. So if anything, I feel like after college, I was kind of getting back to who I was before then. But being in a world that’s not your world is uncomfortable, you have to adjust, and I felt like I had to conform a lot because sometimes I’d be the only Black or biracial girl in class. So if anything, I feel like I’m finally getting back to me.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Saweetie said that her success didn’t happen by luck. Rather, she’s been working hard at achieving her goals since grade school: “I have run into people who I was cordial with or who I was friends with and they always tell me that where I’m at right now makes sense. Because I was always ambitious. I’d be top student for my academics, I was female athlete of the year, I was popular throughout my whole life. So people who knew me before this knew that it makes sense for what I’m doing.”
Watch Saweetie’s full interview with The Breakfast Club above.
Saweetie is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Monday is International Women’s Day and Megan Thee Stallion is celebrating in a big way. The rapper is partnering with Fashion Nova, a brand she previously designed a clothing line for, to give away a huge sum of money to women entrepreneurs.
Announcing the initiative on social media, Megan said she’s granting $1 million total to women entrepreneurs, female students, women-owned businesses, and women-focused charities:
“Today is International Women’s Day. I’m so excited to announce that Fashion Nova and I are coming together on a women’s empowerment initiative called Women On Top. We’re giving away $1 million in grants and scholarships all month to all the women. The first organization that I wanna give a big shout out to, and the first $25,000 to is the YWCA in Houston.”
In honor of International Women’s Day fashion nova and I will be giving away 1 MILLION DOLLARS IN GRANTS AND SCHOLARSHIPS ALL MONTH to women entrepreneurs, female students, women owned businesses, and women focused charities pic.twitter.com/ZumaFy8HCt
This new project isn’t the only charitable initiative Megan has been working on lately. Earlier this week, the rapper announced her Hotties Helping Houston fundraiser, which aims to raise money to help build back the city following the devastating storm. “It is always very important for me to help give back to the city that made me,” she said announcing the benefit drive. “I just want to say thank you to everyone who came together with me to help rebuild my hometown of Houston Texas.”
Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Although IDK had a strong showing in 2020, the PG County-bred rapper has spent the last few months laying low until very recently, when he released the single “2 Cents” to break the relative silence since October’s “King Alfred.” It seems his warm-up period is going to continue for a bit, as he shares another new video, this time for a freestyle over the hit Pooh Shiesty song, “Back In Blood.”
On the original, Pooh Shiesty and Lil Durk recount tales of revenge. As IDK is a bit further removed from the troublemaking days he recalled on his breakout mixtape IWASVERYBAD, his freestyle focuses instead on the best kind of revenge: success. “I bought a chain and a crib in a pandemic,” he boasts. “Got a AMG and not a Panamera / Got a twin turbo in the hood like I’m in the trenches with Tia and Tamera.” It’s clear he’s sharpening his knives for whatever he’s cooking up to release in 2021, building on the growing success of his last year.
IDK’s solid 2020 included the release of his compilation album IDK & Friends 2, which doubled as the soundtrack to the Kevin Durant-produced basketball documentary Basketball County: Something In The Water, as well as making his television debut with the outspoken “No Cable” on The Late Show.
Meanwhile, the “Back In Blood (Freestyle)” video was also accompanied by IDK’s cover of Brent Faiyz’s song “Gravity” which originally featured Tyler The Creator. You can listen to that below.
Rappers are always promising joint albums — or just feeding existing rumors about them based on fan speculation — but Lil Baby and Lil Durk’s proposed collaborative tape appears to be more real than ever after both principals spent the weekend hyping its eventual release on social media. While Lil Durk tweeted about the album and posted on Instagram, Lil Baby was busy avoiding Twitter, so he instead shared his thoughts via Instagram Story.
Aye y’all tell @lilbaby4PF let’s drop that tape streets need this OTF x 4PF
“Aye y’all tell @lilbaby4PF let’s drop that tape,” Durk tweeted. “Streets need this.” He followed up with a post on Instagram promising fans that the two rappers would drop the tape provided the post received 100,000 comments.
Meanwhile, Lil Baby first shared a screenshot of a fan account’s post to his Story, adding the text, “Aye y’all, tell @LilDurk let’s drop the tape.” Then, after Durk posted about it on Instagram, Baby shared the post to his Story, wondering, “Bra, why the hell you playing?”
The clamor for their crossover has reached a fever pitch mainly because the duo’s last collaboration, “Finesse Out The Gang Way,” was well-received by fans of both artists. The newly resurgent Durk has been on a roll for the past two years, just as Lil Baby emerged as a force himself. As both rappers climb into the upper tier of rap stardom, it’s only natural that fans would want to see them work together — especially considering their chemistry on tracks like “Finesse” and “3 Headed Goat.” Plus, Baby has proven he can bring the best out of a collaborator on 2018’s Drip Harder with Gunna, so giving Durk the same foil may result in some spectacular contemporary rap.
Will they actually drop a full project? Who knows, but maybe Durk can give Baby some pointers on his jump shot after Saturday’s disastrous showing at the B/R Open Run two-on-two game with Jack Harlow and Quavo.
As it stands now, it seems to be Olivia Rodrigo’s world: It was just revealed that “Drivers License” is the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for an eight consecutive week. Looking at the charts a different way, though, the world may actually belong to The Weeknd, as he just pulled off a spectacular feat that has never been done before.
“Blinding Lights” (which, as a reminder, was released as a single way back in November 2019), is No. 3 on the latest Hot 100, dated March 13. This is the song’s 52nd week in the top 10 of the chart, making it the first tune to ever spend a full year in the top 10. If the track can somehow remain in the top 5 spots for another 9 weeks (which doesn’t seem outlandish at this point), it’ll become the first song to spend a year in the top 5 as well. As of now, it has 43 top-5 weeks (which is a record), 52 weeks in the top 10, 58 weeks in the top 20 (which is second all-time), 61 weeks in the top 40 (tied for third all-time), and 65 weeks on the chart overall (tied for seventh-most all-time.)
.@theweeknd‘s “Blinding Lights” has now spent 52 total weeks in the top 10 of the #Hot100.
It’s the first song in history to spend a full year in the top 10.
On the #Hot100 this week, @theweeknd‘s “Blinding Lights” has now spent:
43 weeks in the top 5 (record-extending) 52 weeks in the top 10 (record-extending) 58 weeks in the top 20 (2nd-most all-time) 61 weeks in the top 40 (tied 3rd-most) 65 weeks on the chart (tied 7th-most)
Simply put, no song has ever dominated the Hot 100 quite like “Blinding Lights” has. On a bafflingly unrelated note, the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony is this weekend, where The Weeknd managed to secure exactly 0 nominations.
R&B’s resurgence as one of the foremost genres in American music continues with the latest newcomer to generate some underground buzz, New Jersey-born singer Fousheé. Her new song, “Sing About Love,” is a sultry, scintillating slow jam that shows off her emotive lyrics and velvety vocals as she sings about recovering from heartbreak. “I can finally sing about love again,” she celebrates, backed by a chewy bassline that melts like fudge under her honeyed, smoky melodizing.
Fousheé’s breakout single, “Deep End,” arrived in July of 2020, accelerated by a sample on Brooklyn rapper Sleepy Hallow’s TikTok hit “Deep End Freestyle.” Once fans figured out who the original song belonged to, they shot the song’s low-fi video to over 11,000,000 views on YouTube, prompting cosigns from hundreds of celebrity accounts who reposted the song on social media. Fousheé kicked off 2021 with the relatable “Single AF,” capitalizing on the momentum and keeping it moving into the new year. “Single AF” has since accumulated over 1.5 million views as well between its visualizer and music video.
With “Sing About Love,” Fousheé hopes to keep her buzz building with more of the bass-heavy, funk-inspired R&B/soul that has put her name on the map.
Ventura, California rapper Kyle’s video for “But Cha” contains an adorable twist. In the first half of the video, he appears to be on a date, sitting at a dinner table and sharing a stimulating conversation with the diner across from him. He offers his “date” a present which, when opened, is revealed to be a bejeweled collar — his “date” is actually his puppy, who makes quizzical doggy faces for the rest of the video as Kyle exhibits infatuated pet owner behaviors like sharing a bath with the pup and dressing them up.
The video’s a classic example of the good-natured artist’s witty sense of humor. The second season of his hilarious animated variety show, Sugar & Toys, just concluded on Fuse, while Kyle himself is about eight months removed from the release of his second album, See You When I Am Famous!!!!!!!!!!!!, which similarly included tongue-in-cheek videos for singles like “Money Now,” in which he commandeers Tyga’s house for an episode of MTV’s Cribs, and the title song, where Kyle’s puppy gets a front-row seat to a stereotypical rap video pool party with scantily clad models and Too Short guest appearances.
Sharing his thoughts on making funny videos instead of serious ones with Uproxx in 2019, Kyle explained his humor. “I really like relating to the most innocent parts of people,” he said. “So, the morning cartoon is just such a nostalgic thing that every human, every race, ethnicity, rich, poor… we all experience the same thing. We all went through it, we all have those memories.”
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https://t.co/BD5qCE0QsG pic.twitter.com/HkEPUyZN6f
OTF x 4PF
