Month: June 2020

Kid Cudi and Kanye West are known for their animated personalities and live performances but they’re about to get animated in a more literal sense. Cudi just shared a teaser trailer for the duo’s Kids See Ghosts animated show based on their 2018 joint album of the same name. The show is directed by Takashi Murakami and features the voices of the two hip-hop stars as well as the return of the Kanye Bear mascot as designed by Murakami for Kanye’s 2007 album Graduation.

The cartoon clip sees Kanye as Kanye Bear and Cudi as Kid Fox getting swept up in an epic adventure. They are pursued by the titular ghosts through a nightmarish dreamscape before being rescued by an anime-inpsired, dryad/mecha who transforms into a spaceship before swooping in to save the day. The teaser doesn’t provide much in the way of plot — or even in their voice acting, as Kanye’s character just vocalizes reactions to being terrified by the ghosts and Cudi mostly speaks in monosyllables. However, it’s enough to get their fans excited for the show and the rest of us just intrigued enough to stay tuned for more information.

The trailer arrives after some big news from both artists. After Kid Cudi announced he would be starting a new podcast, Kanye West shared news of his new partnership with Gap.

Watch the Kids See Ghosts teaser trailer with Kid Cudi and Kanye West above.

Ask any Scrubs fan what their favorite episode of Scrubs is, and they will invariably tell you that it is the 14th episode of season three, an episode called “My Screw-Up.” That is the episode where Dr. Cox thinks he is at his son’s first birthday party, but in the end, there’s a Sixth Sense twist, and both the audience and Dr. Cox simultaneously realize that we are at the funeral of Ben Sullivan, Dr. Cox’s brother-in-law and best friend, played by Brendan Fraser. It is a gut punch of an episode, the top-ranked episode in even our own ranking of the all-time best Scrubs episodes. It is also the episode that launched the career of musician Joshua Radin, whose song, “Winter,” played during the reveal in that episode. It was how the rest of the world discovered Radin.

In fact, Brendan Fraser appeared in three episodes of Scrubs and all three — out of 182 episodes, in total — appeared in the top 15. That’s how well regarded Brendan Fraser was on the series, which had a lot of great guest stars over the years: Heather Graham, Scott Foley, Markie Post, John Ritter, Tom Cavanagh, Michael J. Fox, Mandy Moore, Matthew Perry, and even Ryan Reynolds. Brendan Fraser, however, was the only actor to appear on Scrubs during the time in which he was also a big movie star. Fraser’s three episodes of Scrubs, in fact, coincided with the peak of his career, during his run of The Mummy movies.

Given Fraser’s popularity during a time in which movie stars did not often appear on television — much less as guest stars on sitcoms — why would he take a role on Scrubs, in its freshman season, no less? Is it because he’s just a really nice guy? That is certainly part of it, but Bill Lawrence — the creator of Scrubs — also managed to convince Fraser with a personal touch.

As Fraser tells it on this week’s episode of the Scrubs rewatch podcast, Fake Doctors, Real Friends, Bill Lawrence got is foot in the door with Fraser, so to speak, because Lawrence’s wife (and Scrubs cast member), Christa Miller, was friends with Fraser’s then wife, Afton Smith. Fraser, however, had never met Lawrence.

Bill Lawrence phoned up Fraser and asked him to be on the show. Fraser replied by asking for Lawrence to send him the script. However, “I mentioned something about feeling a little tired or jet lagged and that I needed to get back to the gym,” Fraser said. And Lawrence said, “Well, alright. I’ll send the script over.”

“And when he sent the script over,” Fraser continued, “he sent a bunch of gym shorts. I mean, like, nice ones, too! So I thought, alright. I’m in! When one man sends another man gym shorts, there is no other love.”

It was those gym shorts that would entice Fraser to appear in two episodes in the opening season, and a return trip for the best episode ever of Scrubs in season three. The Polaroid cameras in Fraser’s episodes were also a little nod to Fraser, a longtime amateur photographer who even got Zach Braff into Polaroid photography. Moreover, when Fraser picks up Braff’s character, J.D., and J.D. says, “EAGLE,” it would become a running joke throughout the rest of the series. Fraser, meanwhile, would go on to become the guest actor most associated with the sitcom, and all because Bill Lawrence sent him some gym shorts!

Source: Fake Doctors, Real Friends

St. Louis rapper Huey, best known for his 2006 hit “Pop, Lock & Drop It,” has been shot and killed at 32, according to Fox 2 St. Louis. Huey, born Lawrence Franks, was shot just after 11:00pm and taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival. Another person was shot at the same time, arriving at the Ferguson Police Department and treated for injuries at an area hospital. He is expected to survive.

Huey was a staple of the video countdown show 106 & Park in its heyday, helping “Pop, Lock & Drop It” climb the Billboard Hot 100 throughout early 2007 to peak at No. 6 in June. A remix of the track features Bow Wow and T-Pain. The track was the lead single from Huey’s debut album Notebook Paper, which was released when he was just 18 years old. Notebook Paper reached No. 26 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

In 2010, Huey followed up with Redemption on EMI, the last album he completed in his lifetime. He had just returned to music in April this year, releasing a new single, “Pulled Away,” for which he was looking forward to shooting a music video on Saturday. Even without more recent new music, the news of Huey’s death sparked an outpouring of grief on social media — a testament to his pop culture dominance in the mid-2000s.

Huey is survived by a 13-year-old daughter.

Nerds are starved for new content this summer (Black Widow would have already arrived, if not for you-know-what), and although HBO’s announcement that the Snyder Cut of Justice League would be coming, it’s still gonna be a wait (2021) until the movie arrives. Yes, it’s true that we can all still be entertained by Jason Momoa being the happiest man alive; however, fans do need something else to keep their interest levels occupied, and they’ve channeled that energy for a worthy cause.

That cause, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, is also close to Snyder’s heart, given that his daughter, Autumn, took her own life in 2017, which is why he stepped down from finishing production, and Joss Whedon was hired to complete the movie. To date, Justice League fans have come together to raise over $200,000 for the charity. Snyder has tweeted his gratitude for their incredible gesture and the reaching of a milestone.

The 300 director’s work on the whole new take (likely a “four-hour director’s cut,” but possibly a six-chapter limited series) of Justice League continues, so that he can finish his vision of the film. Earlier this month, Snyder unleashed a first teaser that shows the arrival of Darkseid with Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor ominously whispering in the background. We can expect the Snyder Cut’s arrival sometime in 2021, hopefully sooner rather than later.

With just a couple of weeks left until the official halfway mark in the calendar, it is safe to say that Guapdad 4000 has been one of the most active artists in 2020. With a pandemic halting all physical movement in the world, Guapdad still kept things going as he introduced his “Rona Raps And Falcon Fridays” series to the world. The former found him collaborating with a number of his industry friends, bringing a total of 10 episodes for fans to enjoy. The latter served as a setup for his Platinum Falcon Vol. 1 tape which was released at the end of the “Falcon Fridays” series.

Moving full-steam ahead, Guapdad returns with another single featuring help from Denzel Curry. The video is a wild one, as it features things like human plants and Guapdad as a Thomas The Tank Engine-style train.

Working their magic once again, the song follows their “Izayah” collab from Guapdad’s 2019 Dior Deposits album. On “Lil Scammer That Could,” Guapdad and Curry lay off a verse each surrounded by a hook from Guapdad that finds him flexing his array of women, money, and jewels. Guapdad continues his braggadocios behavior throughout his verse, before handing the mic off to Curry who delivers his own ambitious raps of wanting to elevate his current living situation to one that allows him to enjoy the finer things in life.

The single arrives weeks after Guapdad and Curry flaunted their rap skills in Episode 3 of the “Rona Raps” series alongside Wiz Khalifa.

Watch the “Lil Scammer That Could” video above.

Kanye West has long had an admiration for Gap, which he has been public about over the course of his career. The clothing retailer has earned mentions on Kanye’s music as far back as The College Dropout, as he used to work there as a high school kid. In a 2015 Vogue interview, Kanye said, “One of my dreams was to be the head creative director of the Gap,” adding that he’d “like to be the Steve Jobs of the Gap.”

Now, the rapper is getting closer to that goal: This morning, he started teasing a collaboration with the retailer. He shared an image of a person reaching into a bag that reads, “YZY Gap, developed by Yeezy and Gap.” From there, he got a little less opaque, sharing an image of a Gap-style Yeezy logo and writing, “YEEZY AND GAP FORM PARTNERSHIP.” Both posts were hashtagged #WESTDAYEVER.

More details on this partnership were laid out in The New York Times. They report that Yeezy Gap, a new clothing line from Yeezy and Gap, will be available in Gap stores and online during the first half of 2021. The deal reportedly has a term of ten years, with the option to renew after five years, “according to a person familiar with the negotiations, who was not authorized to speak publicly.”

The goal for the collaboration is to make “modern, elevated basics for men, women and kids at accessible price points.” It is also noted that Kanye’s “design vision” will also apply to how the line is presented in-store and online.

Earlier this week, former-The Daily Show host Jon Stewart expressed regret for not having done more to make the Comedy Central series more diverse during his tenure. “The river that we were getting the material from [was] polluted by the same inertia. And you had to say to them, send me women, send me black people. And all of a sudden, women got funny… but they’d been funny all along. We just hadn’t actively done enough to mine that,” he said on The Breakfast Club. Hiring more non-white males is one of the reasons why Stewart thinks The Daily Show is “better” under Trevor Noah.

Stewart recently appeared on The Howard Stern Show to promote his new movie, Irresistible, as well as discuss his time on The Daily Show, which he hosted from 1999 through 2015. “When we started, it was [that] sort of Harvard Lampoon school of pasty white guys sitting in a room… Evolving the show past that took a really long time. It was a lot of work and oftentimes it came with defensiveness,” he said. Stewart explained that one of the issues was that The Daily Show, and many shows both then and now, would often hire interns, but “any intern who could afford to take three months off on college and spend that time polishing your grapes is gonna to come from a wealthy background. So, all the people you were hiring were all socioeconomically at a very high level.”

Stewart admitted “it took us a long time to fix” that and one way was by paying interns.

“By paying the interns, suddenly you’re getting a much more diverse group of people that are coming in,” he added. “What we did before was diversity for diversity sake. It was ‘We don’t have enough women writers, let’s hire a woman. We don’t have enough black writers, let’s hire a black person.’ But what we realized is we weren’t changing the system, we were just granting access to a club everybody should have had access to in the first place.”

Stewart added, “It took 16 years to change it at a glacial pace. Because that kind of mindset to me, because I didn’t grow up in it… it’s not a part of me. For Trevor, it’s a part of him. It flows from him naturally… It makes it better. The show is better.” And wouldn’t you know? Stewart was on last night’s episode, being interviewed by Noah.

Earlier this week, Justin Bieber defended himself against one of the recent sexual assault allegations made against him, saying that it is “factually impossible.” In a series of tweets explaining his position, he concluded that he “will be working with Twitter and authorities to take legal action.” Now, legal action has been taken: TMZ and The Blast report that Bieber has filed a defamation lawsuit against his two accusers — known on social media as Danielle and Kadi — for $20 million, or $10 million each.

The suit says the alleged victims “fraudulently schemed to seek attention and fame by maliciously posting despicable, blatantly false, fabricated, defamatory accusations that Justin Bieber engaged in sexual assault.” The document continues, “It is abundantly clear that these two individuals are trying to capitalize on the climate of fear permeating the entertainment industry.”

The legal documents echo what Bieber tweeted about the accusation from Danielle. She claimed the alleged assault took place at the Four Seasons Hotel in Austin, Texas in 2014, but Bieber said he was never there, showing receipts for his stays at other locations as proof.

The lawsuit also addresses the accusation from Kadi, who alleged that Bieber assaulted her at New York City’s Langham Hotel at around 2:30 a.m. on May 5, 2015. Like the accusation from Danielle, Bieber claims Kadi’s story isn’t possible and called it “an elaborate hoax.”

TMZ says the lawsuit refers to Kadi as “a superfan who waits outside hotels for him, is desperate to meet him and desperate for fame.” The suit says, though, that Bieber and Kadi have never met, which Kadi apparently admitted in her tweets after the date the alleged assault occurred.

The lawsuit claims Kadi’s allegation was fabricated based on the knowledge that Bieber attended the Met Gala. Bieber did attend, but the suit says he attended a private after-party afterwards, at which he stayed until nearly 4 a.m. before visiting a hot dog stand, a visit of which Bieber says there is photographic evidence and witnesses. The suit calls the allegation an “impossibility — a poor, but damaging, fabrication.”

The suit suggests the two social media accounts that published the accusations against Bieber may be run by the same person, or they are working together to smear Bieber’s reputation. Bieber has not offered a public comment about this situation since the tweet in which he said he would “take legal action.”

Netflix sure isn’t stopping with the buffet of content during these quarantine times. If you’re looking for silly escapism (and let’s face it, who isn’t?), Will Ferrell’s teaming up with Rachel McAdams and Dan Stevens in a quest to make Iceland proud. Meanwhile, the young-adult crowd will be thrilled to see the conclusion of Dark, which is fully worth the subtitles if you turn off the dubbing.

Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Netflix this week of June 26.

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (Netflix film streaming 6/26)

Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams are Lars and Sigrit, respectively, and only looking to make Iceland proud at the world’s biggest song competition. Well, that, and they want to fight for any dream worth dreaming for and achieve pop-rock-god glory with one snappy song and Dan Stevens along for the ride.

Dark: Season 3 (Netflix series streaming 6/26)

The final season arrives with a mind-bending conclusion that sweeps past the space and time concepts while much of the group attempts to break the loop. The light and dark worlds collide with a love story bonus. It’s the first ever German language Netflix original series, and it’s coming to an end, so enjoy this last batch of episodes.

Here’s a full list of what’s been added in the last week:

Avail. 6/19
Babies: Part 2 (Netflix Documentary)
Father Soldier Son (Netflix Documentary)
Feel the Beat (Netflix Film)
Floor Is Lava (Netflix Original)
Lost Bullet (Netflix Film)
Girls from Ipanema: Season 2 (Netflix Original)
One Way to Tomorrow (Netflix Film)
The Politician: Season 2 (Netflix Original)
Rhyme Time Town (Netflix Family)
Wasp Network (Netflix Film)

Avail. 6/21
Goldie

Avail. 6/22
Dark Skies

Avail. 6/23
Eric Andre: Legalize Everything (Netflix Comedy)

Avail. 6/24
Athlete A (Netflix Documentary)
Crazy Delicious (Netflix Original)
Nobody Knows I’m Here (Netflix Film)

Avail. 6/26
Amar y vivir (Netflix Original)
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (Netflix Film)
Home Game (Netflix Documentary)
Straight Up

Avail. 6/29
Bratz: The Movie

Avail. 6/30
Adú (Netflix Film)
BNA (Netflix Anime)
George Lopez: We’ll Do It for Half (Netflix Comedy)

And here’s what’s leaving next week, so it’s your last chance:

Leaving 6/29
The Day My Butt Went Psycho!: Season 1-2

Leaving 6/30
21
The Amityville Horror
The Andy Griffith Show: Season 1-8
Blow
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Brooklyn’s Finest
Center Stage
Chasing Amy
Cheers: Season 1-11
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Chloe
Click
Cloverfield
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Elizabeth
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Ghost Rider
Happyish: Season 1
Here Alone
Inception
Instructions Not Included
The Invention of Lying
Julie & Julia
Kate & Leopold
Kiss the Girls
The Last Samurai
Limitless: Season 1
Little Monsters
Mansfield Park
The Mask of Zorro
The Matrix
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Revolutions
Minority Report
Patriot Games
Philadelphia
The Polar Express
Race to Witch Mountain
The Ring
Scary Movie
Sliver
Stuart Little 2
Tremors
Tremors 2: Aftershocks
Tremors 3: Back to Perfection
Tremors 4: The Legend Begins
Tremors 5: Bloodline
What Lies Beneath
Yes Man

Since its founding, the United Nations has worked to drive global progress and tackle urgent problems on all fronts — from health and development, to human rights and equality, to peace and security.

As the world commemorates the UN’s 75th anniversary, let’s reflect on all that humanity has achieved together, and all that is still left to do.

To learn more, visit: https://unfoundation.org/un75

Tell the UN the future you want: https://un75.online/partner/unfoundation