If you log onto Netflix today, you won’t be greeted with the usual home page. Instead, the streaming service is promoting its curated selection of “films, series, and documentaries” about “racial injustice and the Black experience in America.” The Black Lives Matter collection features over 45 titles from Black storytellers, including 13th and When They See Us, both from Ava DuVernay; Best Picture winner Moonlight; and series Orange Is the New Black and Dear White People, as well as Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, which is out Friday.

“When we say ‘Black Lives Matter,’ we also mean ‘Black storytelling matters.’ With an understanding that our commitment to true, systemic change will take time – we’re starting by highlighting powerful and complex narratives about the Black experience,” Netflix wrote in a statement. “When you log onto Netflix today, you will see a carefully curated list of titles that only begin to tell the complex and layered stories about racial injustice and Blackness in America.” Other titles include Malcolm X, Mudbound (be sure to check out Pariah, too), and Best Documentary Feature nominee Strong Island.

Last week, Netflix tweeted, “To be silent is to be complicit. Black lives matter. We have a platform, and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators, and talent to speak up,” although to this date, as NBC News points out, they “have not indicated any changes they will make internally, nor any specific donations. The “Black Lives Matter” collection is a good step, as was pulling four of Chris Lilley’s shows due to “questionable depictions of characters” — but let’s hold a bigger wave of applause for when we see real change.

(Via Variety)

Travis Scott’s “Highest In The Room” was one of 2019’s biggest songs, but now it has gotten the rapper into a bit of trouble: Scott is being sued over the single due to alleged copyright infringement.

Billboard reports that a trio of songwriters — Olivier Bassil, Benjamin Lasnier, and Lukas Benjamin Leth — filed the lawsuit in federal court in California against Scott (real name Jacques Webster), as well as other people and entities involved with the song’s creation and release: Oz (Ozan Yildirim), Nik D (Nik Dejan Frascona), Mike Dean, Cash Passion (Jamie Lepr), Sean Solymar, Cactus Jack Records, Grand Hustle LLC, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Papa George Music, and These Are Songs of Pulse.

In the 37-page complaint, the plaintiffs accuse Scott and his collaborators of “pretending to be interested in a collaboration” before “intentionally [breaking] the rules by exploiting plaintiffs work without consent or a license, masquerading as if plaintiff’s music is their own.”

The songwriters say they created a song called “Cartier,” which features a distinct guitar melody that “Highest In The Room” allegedly ripped off, in 2019. Lasier then posted a link to the song online and sent the track to over 100 producers and artists, including Lepr. The complaint states, “There is no doubt that Defendants’ ‘Highest in the Room’ was modeled after and copied original, prominent and qualitatively and quantitatively important parts of Plaintiff’s ‘Cartier.’”

Richard Busch, the attorney for the songwriters, said, “Everything we basically have to say is set forth in the Complaint. I will just add that our clients are very successful songwriters/producers who, as set forth in the Complaint, and is common practice, corresponded with the defendant writers with an eye toward licensing their work through a collaboration. They never expected that this would end up in a lawsuit but felt they had no choice but to take this action under these circumstances.”

The songwriters are asking a judge to declare copyright infringement, and for damages and a share of the song’s royalties.

Over the weekend, Sesame Street star Elmo appeared with his father (Louie) on CNN to discuss the power of protest. Specifically, this involved Elmo learning about why Black Lives Matter has taken to the streets against racism and police brutality, and why “not all streets are like Sesame Street… because across the country, people of color, especially in the Black community, are being treated unfairly because of how they look, their culture, their race, and who they are.” Louie further explained that people have “every right to be” upset “because racism is a huge problem in our country,” and the segment was warmly regarded by many, but that does not include (surprise!) Tucker Carlson.

The Fox News host is absolutely furious at Sesame Street and CNN and even at Elmo. Carlson, as ludicrous as it sounds, lashed out on Tuesday night over a pair of puppets, who were ultimately urging support for Black Lives Matter:

“It’s a children’s show. Got that, Bobby? America is a very bad place and it’s your fault, so no matter what happens, no matter what they do to you when you grow up, you have no right to complain. That’s the message and it starts very young.”

Not incidentally, Elmo will soon host his own late-night talk show on HBO Max (which announced this week that it’s temporarily pulling Gone With The Wind over “racist depictions”). Tucker will probably also be angry about both this movie being shelved and Elmo scoring a late-night gig, and while we shouldn’t expect Elmo to indulge Tucker with any airtime on his show, it’s at least fun to imagine them going toe-to-toe.

Lizzo has often discussed issues related to body positivity, both in her music and outside of it. Now she has again addressed the subject, this time taking to TikTok to call out those who are critical of her body.

The minute-long video is a compilation of clips of Lizzo engaging in various types of physical activity and posing in revealing outfits. She says in a voiceover:

“Hey. So I’ve been working out consistently for the last five years, and it may come as a surprise to some of y’all that I’m not working out to have your ideal body type. I’m working out to have my ideal body type. And you know what type that is? None of your f*cking business. Because I am beautiful, I am strong, I do my job, and I stay on my job. So next time you want to come to somebody and judge them, whether they drink kale smoothies or eat McDonalds or work out or not work out, how about you look at your own f*cking self and worry about your own g*ddamn body, because health is not just determined on what you look like on the outside. Health is also what happens on the inside, and a lot of y’all need to do a f*cking cleanse for your insides. Namaste, have a great day.”

Watch the video above.

Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Gone with the Wind, the 10-time Academy Award winner and highest-grossing movie of all-time (when adjusted for inflation), was one of the landmarks films available on HBO Max at launch. But the streaming service has since removed the Civil War-set epic, starring Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, and Hattie McDaniel (who, as “Mammy,” became the first African-American to win an Oscar), due to “racist depictions.”

HBO Max pulled the 1939 film a day after John Ridley, the screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave, wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times calling for its removal. “At a moment when we are all considering what more we can do to fight bigotry and intolerance, I would ask that all content providers look at their libraries and make a good-faith effort to separate programming that might be lacking in its representation from that which is blatant in its demonization,” he wrote. HBO responded with the following statement:

“Gone with the Wind is a product of its time and depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society. These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible. These depictions are certainly counter to WarnerMedia’s values, so when we return the film to HBO Max, it will return with a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions, but will be presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. If we are to create a more just, equitable and inclusive future, we must first acknowledge and understand our history.”

So, Gone with the Wind is, ahem, gone for for now, but will be coming back with “a discussion of its historical context” (hopefully without all those war scenes). Unlike Song of the South, which Disney continues to refuse to add to Disney+. As you might imagine, there are a lot of Hot Takes about Gone with the Wind being removed, most of which, frankly, my dear, you shouldn’t give a damn about. But some are good. “My only opinion on Gone with the Wind right now is I find it hilarious so many racists are pretending they want it on HBO Max because it made Hattie McDaniel the first black person to win an Oscar,” Keep It podcast host Ira Madison III wrote on Twitter, later adding, “The people mad about this were never going to watch Gone with the Wind in the first damn place.”

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

The music industry is an amorphous organism that is subject to frequent change. One of the latest is the phasing out of the word “urban” as a descriptor of a musical style; Republic Records has banned the word internally. Now, the Recording Academy is following suit.

Today, the Academy announced nine major changes to the Grammy nomination and awards process, changes that were ratified at the semiannual Trustees Meeting in May and are effective immediately, as of the upcoming 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. One of the changes is the renaming of the Best Urban Contemporary Album category, which is now known as Best Progressive R&B Album.

Harvey Mason, Jr., Chair and Interim President/CEO of the Recording Academy, spoke about this change (and the others) with Billboard, saying, “There were some uncomfortable feelings around [the term urban]. I think it’s been a gradual shift within in the R&B community. It’s been discussed [within the Academy]. It’s been a little contentious at times.”

The Academy defines the Best Progressive R&B Album category, “This category is intended to highlight albums that include the more progressive elements of R&B and may include samples and elements of hip-hop, rap, dance, and electronic music. It may also incorporate production elements found in pop, euro-pop, country, rock, folk, and alternative.”

That said, the word “urban” actually hasn’t been completely scrubbed from the Grammys: The Best Latin Rock, Urban Or Alternative Album category has been renamed to Best Latin Rock Or Alternative Album, and the “Urban” is now part of the newly renamed Best Latin Pop Or Urban Album (formerly Best Latin Pop Album).

Noting that “urban” doesn’t have the same sensitivity in the Latin music community, Mason said this change “came directly from the community. The urban community, the reggaeton community tend to feel they’re closer in sound to the pop music. This is coming from them. They asked for this change.”

Other categorical changes include the renaming of Best Rap/Sung Performance to Best Melodic Rap Performance, which Mason says “puts an emphasis on the melodic nature of the performance. It opens the door to more forward-thinking and more different genre blends. It makes it a little bit more inclusive to have records that have rap but also melody and lyrics.”

The Best New Artist category has also been impacted, as the rule that prohibited eligible artists from having released more than 30 tracks prior to the start of the current eligibility year has been dropped. Mason explained, “In [some] genres, specifically hip-hop and rap, their mode of development is record and release. We felt it was unfairly punishing artists who are prolifically releasing material early in their careers. We do not want to exclude any artist based on a rule that was specifically affecting one genre more than the other.”

Also, for the first time, the Academy has made their 66-page Grammy rule book, which was previously only available to voting members and other insiders, available online for all to read. So, check that out here, and read more from Mason about the rule changes here.

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A suction tool to deal with bug bites, moldable glue with tons of handy uses, a portable pressure washer for muddy paws, and lots more super useful things.

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