Month: July 2020

Pop Smoke’s posthumous debut album, Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, landed Friday to a warm reception from fans and plenty of critical acclaim. Today, Complex shared its new Complex Cover profiling the creation of the 50 Cent-produced project, interviewing 40 of Pop Smoke’s collaborators for stories on how it all came together.

One of those artists interviewed is Quavo, who appears on the project three times, including on one of the more attention-getting departure’s from Pop’s signature drill sound, “West Coast Sh*t” featuring Tyga. The song, produced by Mustard, proved to be a challenge for the young Brooklynite but Quavo says his faith in Pop Smoke helped bring the song together.

“You know, Pop was a New York drill rapper. He didn’t really know how to slide on that style. But I was telling him his voice was so amazing that he could rap on anything. And he was like, “No, man. I’m going to sound like 50 Cent. I want to sound like Pop.” I said, “That’s what I want you to sound like.” And the rest was history.”

Complex also spoke to Roddy Ricch, the other Compton rapper to appear on the project on the song “The Woo,” which also features 50 Cent. “I wasn’t able to catch up with Pop when he was around,” Roddy admits, but says that he was invited to be on the album by 50 — an opportunity he couldn’t turn down. “But just the guy he was, and the guy I am, I felt like it would happen organically to meet up and talk. Then 50 invited me to be on the album, which is hard. I just wanted to be a part of something that was bigger than life. I wanted to be part of something I felt like I should have been a part of in general.”

Read the full profile here.

Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon is out now via Victor Victor Worldwide and Republic Records. Get it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Pop Smoke’s life came to an end earlier this year in Los Angeles, but his origins were in Brooklyn; Growing up, he spent a lot of time in his native Canarsie neighborhood. Now, people in the area are honoring the hometown hero rapper with a mural.

Los Angeles-based company Hattas Public Murals is behind the project, and they recently took to Instagram to share photos of the art, which is currently in progress. It depicts the rapper’s smiling face, backed by what looks like a starry sky and/or clouds. The post’s caption reads, “We are honored to be painting this powerful memorial for the late Pop Smoke. If you’re in Brooklyn, stop by to see it in progress at 8125 Flatlands Ave.”

It’s not clear if there is one individual artist behind the mural, but the Hattas website notes that they employ a “highly skilled team of muralists” for their works.

Meanwhile, today brought some big news regarding Smoke’s murder. TMZ reports that according to LAPD sources, the department arrested five people in connection with the rapper’s death at a rented Hollywood Hills home. Three adults and two juveniles were apparently arrested, although the charges have not been revealed as of yet.

There is no playbook for how to deal with someone going on a racist rant in public. But the way server Gennica Cochran handled a bigot demeaning a table of Asian customers is something we can all applaud.

She was working as a server at a Camel Valley restaurant near San Francisco when Michael Lofthouse, CEO of tech firm Solid8, began harassing an Asian family celebrating a birthday.

Lofthouse had been belligerent all night, changing his seat and repeatedly sending back food.

After going on an expletive-laden racist rant at the family for singing “Happy Birthday,” Jordan Chan, pulled out his cellphone, began recording Lofthouse, asking him to, “Say that again.”

---

Karen Kicked Out Of Fancy Carmel Valley Restaurant For Being A Racist Dbag To Asian Customer!

www.youtube.com

For a few moments Lofthouse was silent, knowing that he was being filmed, but then flipped off the camera, got up from his table and said, “Trump’s going to fuck you!”

Cochran then stepped in, confidently shouting, “You need to leave right now. Get out, you are not allowed here, get out now. You do not talk to our guests like that, they are valued guests, you are not allowed here ever again!”

As Lofthouse put his jacket to leave he called the family “Asian pieces of shit.”

Cochran pointed her finger directly at Lofthouse and said, “You are not allowed here ever again.”

The video is a perfect example of someone having absolutely zero tolerance for racist behavior. She doesn’t feel the need to be gentle about her disgust with the grinning, smug Lofthouse.

Nope, she put her foot down, pointed at him and told him his actions will not be tolerated and that he needs to go immediately. Cochran was even a bit surprised with herself after seeing the video.

“To hear the emotion coming out of my voice, to see my mannerisms, it was unbelievable. It was just something that came over me and I just did what needed to be done,” she told ABC News. “I did what anybody else should or would do in that situation.”

The server says her strength came from the compassion she felt for the family.

“I felt very protective of them,” she said. “You don’t come in here and say those kinds of things to people. Especially people feel so raw coming out of quarantine. Most of these people this is the first time that they’ve been out to dinner and then you have someone attacking them it was just no, no, I don’t have time for this.”

The incident put her in touch with her mamma bear instincts.

“I’m not a mother, but I felt almost maternal,” she said. “Right, like this is my family and I will take care of them and I will do whatever I can to protect these people. To have someone hate you just because of the way that you look, that’s beyond me. I don’t understand it.”

After the incident, Lofthouse apologized for his behavior.

“My behavior in the video is appalling. This was clearly a moment where I lost control and made incredibly hurtful and divisive comments,” Lofthouse said.

“I would like to deeply apologize to the Chan family. I can only imagine the stress and pain they feel,” he added.

Chan isn’t buying the apology and blames Donald Trump for inciting his racist tirade. “He’s just saving face. I think he really meant what he said and what he did,” Chan told The Washington Post.

“The fact that Donald Trump is our president … gives racists a platform and amplifies voices of hate,” she wrote. “The surfacing of racists is so prevalent right now, even in such an ethnically/culturally diverse and liberal state like California, because Trump HIMSELF uses his position to incite racial tension.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump has routinely called the virus the “China Virus” and the “Kung-Flu.”

Cochran’s behavior in the face of disgusting racism that night is a perfect display of the power of direct action. Her handling of the situation has won her tens of thousands of dollars in donations.

A GoFundMe campaign entitled, “A Bg Tip for an everyday Hero” started by Jeremy Stephens, a complete stranger inspired by her actions, has already earned her $41,000 in “tips.”

The server and yoga instructor believes that her actions on that day instilled an attitude she will hold to forever. “It’s not something that I will condone ever again, being silent,” she said.

After seeing how she handled the situation, there’s no doubt she’s inspired countless others to take the same stance.

UPROXX Sessions returns this week to kick off another round of raucous live performances straight from the bathroom set at our California offices. This time around, buzzing Bay Area alliteration aficionado Guapdad 4000 drops in to share his new song, “Greedy” from his quarantine-recorded EP, Platinum Falcon Tape, Vol. 1.

Guapdad’s performance is sure to become a Sessions favorite as Guap uses the track to detail the motivations behind his life’s moves, from scamming to rapping and the work ethic that has made him one of the more exciting newcomers to the rap game in a minute. “It all started with the Sidekicks, you know the swipe flick, I was snaggin’ them fools,” he recalls, “Upgraded to the iPods, cameras, tripods, I was grabbin’ ’em too.” “Greedy” may be the perfect introduction to the man who calls himself the Ferragamo Falcon, Valentino Viper, Stone Cold Steve Flossin, and Shia Labustdown.

Watch Guapdad 4000’s performance of “Greedy” above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s new performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

Guapdad 4000 is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Hulu just dropped the official teaser for its upcoming comedy series Woke starring Lamorne Morris (New Girl). The show is based on the real life of cartoonist Keith Knight, who developed and co-wrote the show with Barbershop writer Marshall Todd.

Here’s the official synopsis:

New comedy series, Woke, follows Keef, an African-American cartoonist finally on the verge of mainstream success when an unexpected incident changes everything. Keef must now navigate the new voices and ideas that confront and challenge him, all without setting aflame everything he’s already built.

Knight, the author of The K Chronicles, Ink, and The Knight Life has won awards while juggling racial and class issues, and as Variety points out, he tends to enjoy “poking fun at the minutiae of urban living,” and those themes definitely come through in the the Hulu teaser. Morris character, Keef, is shown as an easy-going animator who just wants to “keep things light” until the NYPD shoves a gun in his face and tackles him to the ground in a, sadly, very poignant scene.

Following the incident, Keef finds himself taunted by cartoon objects as they push the once-neutral artist to truly examine the world around him and realize he can’t keep denying that racism exists even it means blowing up his career. Helping him along the way are Workaholics star Blake Anderson and Key and Peele‘s T. Murph, who are trying to wrap their heads around the fact that their friend sees talking trash cans and malt liquor bottles that demand racial awareness. It’s going to be a surreal time had by all.

Woke will be available for streaming on Hulu on September 9.

With every major summer festival getting canceled due to the pandemic, festival organizers are brainstorming clever ways to keep fans engaged. Some events, like Primavera Sound, have gone digital and opted to air past sets in place of their events. Newport Folk Festival, one of the longest-running music festivals in the world, is following suit. Newport announced their Folk On Revival weekend, a three-day virtual event that will broadcast never-before-seen performances by major artists.

Newport’s Folk On Revival weekend will pull rare sets from their 60-year archive to share an eclectic range of performances. Fans will be able to watch artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Sharon Van Etten, Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell, Mavis Staples, and more perform their songs at a variety of venues. Along with having the opportunity to watch the sets, Folk On Revival will broadcast audio of the performances on a handful of radio stations across the country.

Newport’s executive producer Jay Sweet said the decision to cancel this year’s event was tough but he hopes the Revival weekend will bring music lovers together:

“In the history of this festival, there has never been a time like we’re in now. A global pandemic shuttering our plans to congregate before quickly shifting into the biggest civil rights movement in over 50 years. Many of our lives have drastically changed, financially, emotionally, and/or irrevocably. It has been painful for many of us, on the front lines fighting the pandemic, on the front lines fighting social injustice and especially for those losing loved ones along the way. While it was an emotional gut punch to cancel the festival in a year where it is so clearly needed, we felt it was imperative to our community to do something. Music has always brought our family together, even when we’re divided. The Newport stage has always been a sanctuary for artists to speak their minds on the times in front of us, not with merely one voice alone, but many in unison. This year’s Newport is no exception, collectively representing what it feels like to be human in today’s world by amplifying our convictions. For 2020 these voices will be our megaphone, these events our stage.”

Get tickets Newport Festival’s Folk On Revival weekend here.

The Philadelphia Union played its first MLS Is Back match on Thursday morning, a 1-0 win over New York City Football Club that kicked off at 9 a.m. in Orlando. The breakthrough came in the 63rd minute by team captain Alejandro Bedoya, but a moment before things kicked off paid homage to those who have lost their lives to senseless acts of police brutality.

The entire Union squad lined up for a pre-match photo in t-shirts that read “Black Lives Matter.” Upon taking them off, the team turned around, and instead of having their names across the nameplates, the team surprised everyone — most notably ESPN’s broadcast crew, which wasn’t sure what was going on — by having names like “Floyd,” “Taylor,” and more across their backs.

This was not the only tribute we saw out of the Union, as Bedoya wore a special captain’s armband that included the names of those who were killed by those who took an oath to protect and serve.

Following the match, Union coach Jim Curtin explained that the decision was made among members of the team without the league’s approval.

“At the start, certainly things going on in our country far bigger than soccer,” Curtin said, per ESPN. “I have to say I’m very proud of my players throughout the past four months for the leadership they’ve shown, the leadership role they’ve taken in the BLM movement, educating the other players on our team.

“The idea today was action over permission; I hope the league understands that. It was done to show respect, to learn, to grow, to make our country better. I’m really proud of my players for everything they’ve done.”

After releasing Father Of The Bride last year, Vampire Weekend spent some time touring in support of the album (back when touring was a thing). Now, they have chronicled a pair of Florida performances in a new EP, Live In Florida, which is available exclusively on Amazon Music.

The EP features performances of five songs: “Sunflower”, “How Long?”, and “2021” from Father Of The Bride, as well as “A Punk” and “White Sky,” recorded at shows in Miami and St. Augustine.

The band wrote in an Instagram post, “We went back to revisit some of our favorite shows from last year and put together a little something based around two beautiful nights in the Sunshine State.” Drummer Chris Tomson also said in a statement, “Vampire Weekend has had a long and healthy relationship with the Florida music fan, and last summer’s Miami/St. Augustine run was no different. These shows were a little sticky in the August humidity but I had so much fun playing and the really great crowd vibes always help (especially, but not limited to, Nick from Orlando’s inspired assistance on ‘A-Punk’). These shows stayed with me like the pepper sauce from O’Steen’s or a Cubano Doble from Enriqueta’s.”

Listen to the Live In Florida EP below.

One of the exceedingly few good things to come out of this year of COVID has been the reemergence of drive-in movie theaters. The worst things about theaters have been and always will be the proximity to random strangers (I got stories, believe me, folks).

This weekend also sees the release of Palm Springs, possibly my favorite movie of the year and maybe a whole lot more. It’s 88 minutes of perfection. I saw it at Sundance six months ago and snagged a screener to refresh my memory so I could write my review. I ended up watching twice, once for myself and once to show my fiancée. It’s the kind of movie you want to force your friends and significant others to see. Which is to say: perfect for a drive-in.

SNEAK SCREENINGS (JULY 9)

NEW YORK
Orchard Beach
Bronx, NY

Nickerson Beach
Nassau Cty, NY

Murmrr
Montauk, NY

MIAMI
Hard Rock Stadium
Miami, FL

CALIFORNIA
Vineland Drive-In
City of Industry, CA

Rose Bowl
Pasadena, CA

TEXAS
AT&T Stadium
Arlington, TX

WEEK-LONG ENGAGEMENTS

CALIFORNIA
Van Buren Cinema 3 Drive-In
Arlington, CA

De Anza Mission Four Drive-In
Montclair, CA

De Anza Rubidoux Drive-In 3
Riverside, CA

Paramount Drive-In
Paramount, CA

Vineland Drive-In,
City of Industry, CA

Cameo Cinema
St. Helena, CA

De Anza South Bay Drive-In 3
San Diego, CA

Santee Twin
Santee, CA

Camelot Theatre 3
Palm Springs, CA

NEW YORK
Warwick Drive-In
Warwick, NY

Delevan Twin Drive-In
Delevan, NY

Transit Drive-In
Lockport, NY

Malta Drive-In
Malta, NY

Vintage Drive-In
East Avon, NY

Sunset Drive-In
Middleport, NY

Silver Lakes Drive-In
Perry , NY

Finger Lakes Drive-In
Aurelius (Auburn), NY

Elmira Bargain Drive-In
Big Flats, NY

Bay Drive-In
Alexandria Bay, NY

Black River Drive-In
Black River, NY

INDIANA
Tri Way Drive-In 2
Plymouth, IN

Tibbs Drive-In
Indianapolis, IN

IOWA
Blue Grass Drive-In
Blue Grass, IA

Superior 71 Drive-In
Spirit Lake, IA

MICHIGAN
Getty Drive-In
Muskegon, MI

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Weirs Drive-In
Laconia, NH

NEW JERSEY
Delsea Drive-In
Vineland, NJ

NORTH CAROLINA
Badin Road Drive-In
Albemarle, NC

Hounds Drive-In
Kings Mountain, NC

Eden Drive-In
Eden, NC

OHIO
Magic City Drive-In
Barberton, OH

Springmill Drive-In
Mansfield, OH

Midway Drive-In 2
Ravenna, OH

South Drive-In
Columbus, OH

Dixie Drive-In Theatre
Dayton, OH

Field of Dreams Drive-In
Liberty Center, OH

Field Dreams Drive-In
Tiffin, OH

Van-Del Drive-In
Middle Point, OH

Elm Road Drive-In
Warren, OH

Skyway Drive-In
Warren, OH

PENNSYLVANIA
Skyview Drive-In
Carmichaels, PA

Comet Drive-In
Dunbar, PA

Brownsville Drive-In 3
Brownsville, PA

Starlight Drive-In
Butler, PA

Dependable Drive-In
Coraopolis, PA

Evergreen Drive-In Theater
Mount Pleasant, PA

Garden Drive-In
Hunlock Creek, PA

Circle Drive-In
Scranton, PA

Pike Drive-In
Williamsport, PA

Carrolltown Drive-In
Carrolltown, PA

SOUTH CAROLINA
Highway 21 Drive-In
Beaufort, SC

TEXAS
Galaxy Drive-In
Ennis, TX

Showboat Drive-In
Hockley , TX

TENNESSEE
Stardust Drive-In
Watertown, TN

Summer Drive- In 4
Memphis, TN

WASHINGTON
Rodeo Drive-In 3
Pt. Orchard, WA

Orcas Island FF Pop Up Drive-In
Orcas Island, WA

WISCONSIN
Moonlight Outdoor Drive-In
Shawano, WI

And if you can’t make it to any of these places, well, there’s always Hulu. Happy millionth birthday, dipshits.

Back when the casting buzz for Captain Marvel was in full swing, Charlize Theron was a name that got bounced around a lot, and it made perfect sense. An A-list actress with proven action chops and supermodel looks? How do you lose?

However, while sitting down with Variety to promote her upcoming Netflix film The Old Guard, Theron made a shocking admission. She’s never once been approached by Marvel over the years, which seems like a serious omission on the MCU’s part. Theron has appeared in the Fast and the Furious films, the Alien prequel Prometheus, and the action films Aeon Flux and Ultraviolet, so it seems odd that Marvel studio head Kevin Feige hasn’t at least dropped her a call to discuss a future collaboration. But according to Theron, she hasn’t heard a peep, and she’s cool with it. She’s doing her own thing:

“I swear to God. I’ve never gotten anything,” the Oscar winner says during an appearance on Wednesday’s episode of the Variety and iHeart podcast “The Big Ticket.” “No, I’m not lying to you. But that’s okay. You know what? I am paving my own way. I’m creating my own opportunities. So it’s alright.”

Theron truly is paving her own way, and in an ironic twist, she’s actually poised to dominate the comic book movie conversation this weekend, since Marvel and DC delayed the releases of Black Widow and Wonder Woman 1984. With the chances of movie theaters reopening soon looking grimmer by the day, Theron’s The Old Guard has a wide-open chance to run the table and deliver the action blockbuster of the summer. If Theron didn’t have Marvel’s attention before, we’re guessing she will very soon.

The Old Guard starts streaming on Netflix on July 10.

(Via Variety)