Month: August 2020

Ariana Grande has a strong Twitter presence, using the platform to interact with her fans in a casual, friend-like way. Every now and then, she’ll hop on to let her devotees know what’s going on in her life. Today, she took to the site to join her fans in celebrating the two-year anniversary of Sweetener, which came out on August 17, 2018.

Responding to one user celebrating the milestone, Grande wrote, “happy two years of my fav baby. such a special one. love u so much.” Somebody else asked for an “updated top three” songs from the album, so Grande shared her rankings of Sweetener songs. First is “Get Well Soon,” second is “R.E.M.,” and her third spot is “tightly tied between” the title track and “God Is A Woman.”

She also suggested that something new from her could be on the way soon. Responding to a loving message from a fan, Grande tweeted, “love u more ! i’m gonna go work on things for u (yeeeee) but be back soooooon.”

Grande did some celebrating on Instagram as well, sharing a gallery of photos from the Sweetener era and writing, “happy second birthday to my favorite baby sweetener.” Just before that post, she shared a photo of herself wearing a bra and wrote, “was holdin my tiddies up with the other arm thats cropped out.” She jokingly added in the comments, “ag6 title.”

Grande isn’t currently in the midst of an album cycle, but she has still had a huge year, racking up a pair of No. 1 singles in 2020 thanks to collaborations with Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.

Nearly 18 years ago, Run-DMC DJ and hip-hop pioneer Jam Master Jay was shot to death by unknown assailants at a recording studio in Jamaica, Queens. The murder became the subject of the 2018 Netflix documentary ReMastered: Who Killed Jam Master Jay?, interviewing those who knew Jay and revealing just how convoluted and mysterious the case really was. Today, though, it may have been de-mystified by the arrest of two men in connection with the murder, according to The New York Times

The Times reports that federal prosecutors plan to announce their indictments of Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan, Jr. for murder while engaged in drug trafficking. Washington is currently serving a federal sentence for robbery. Jordan was apprehended on Sunday. Authorities have long suspected Jay’s murder was connected to a financial dispute, according to Rolling Stone. Washington was originally named as a suspect in 2007, according to Billboard, which reported he denied any connection to Jam Master Jay.

Jam Master Jay was one of the three founding members of Run-DMC, one of the most influential acts in hip-hop’s 1980s boom in popularity. Their song “My Adidas” helped prove hip-hop’s worth as a marketing tool, while “Walk This Way” with Aerosmith bridged the gap between the emerging style and the predominant rock sound. They were the first hip-hop act to appear on American Bandstand and the cover of Rolling Stone, and they were the first to be nominated for a Grammy.

After Twitter went wild with rumors on Friday that the original Annabelle doll escaped from the Warren Occult Museum, the owner has taken to YouTube to confirm that the creepy doll featured in The Conjuring is still safe in her equally as creepy church prison… thing.

According to The Wrap, the Annabelle rumors reportedly started when someone edited her Wikipedia page with a claim that the doll had flown the coop on August 14 at 3 a.m., which Twitter quickly latched onto. Obviously, the real life doll didn’t go anywhere, but just to set the record straight, museum owner Tony Spera filmed himself in front of Annabelle where she’s clearly in her “cage” and still very much in Connecticut. (If you’re confused by her appearance in the video, the original Annabelle was actually a Raggedy Ann doll.) Spera did, however, say “Annabelle is alive” before correcting himself, but as the video goes on, it’s clear that he’s having some fun leaning into the viral moment.

“Remember, I have high-tech security here,” Spera said in the video. “If she had left the museum I’d have instantly known if something happened or somebody broke in. I have good alarm systems here and the police are good to respond. They respond within a couple of minutes, maybe, if that.”

Spera went on to shoot down rumors that Annabelle was flying first-class across the country and/or visiting her boyfriend Brahms, which seems to suggest that he’s been enjoying the social media frenzy that kicked off on Friday with tweets like the ones below:

While she might not be traversing the country, Annabelle will (hopefully) return in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It in July 2021 unless movie theaters are still just as deadly as a real horror movie.

(Via The Wrap)

Gamers have come to expect a lot of things out of the Mario franchise, but “get emotional over a bob-omb” is not on the list. It’s things like that separating Paper Mario: The Origami King from its platforming cousins in a very strange and ultimately satisfying way.

Paper Mario is a franchise that’s always tried to achieve something different from traditional Mario games. The series of role playing games have switched up combat over the years and tried something slightly tweaked in each addition, and the newest game, The Origami King, is no exception. Unlike other Paper Mario titles the combat system in The Origami King is a wheel with sliding panels you maneuver in order to attack. You spin and slide tiles into place that let Mario pick up items and hearts and coins and also position himself to attack bad guys in boss fights.

When the baddies aren’t office supplies, you scramble origami bros and boos to line them up to hammer or hop on. It’s a departure that both cleans up the combat from previous editions and also makes things weirdly complicated. I found the puzzles either incredibly simplistic or not worth the time to overthink, opting to spend coins to have the toad onlookers you’ve rescued elsewhere in the game gently guide my hand and do most of the work for me. It never really seemed to offer a scalable challenge, and the solutions were either so obvious it felt silly or frustratingly vague enough that I retroactively felt foolish once I’d figured it out.

While you might think a tepid evaluation of that combat system would impact how fun the game itself is, you’d be wrong. I didn’t really like the combat in The Origami King, a game I enjoyed the hell out of. The second part of that statement comes entirely from the game’s writing, which is hilarious and charmingly heartfelt. The game introduces new origami characters that have depth

It’s a game that contains a surprising amount of musical numbers, sure, but an equally surprising amount of heart. It’s silly and simplistic and also very funny. The first mechanic you learn is gleefully tossing colorful confetti in the air and repairing holes in the landscape made by paper mache goombas. The next is essentially pounding everything in sight with a hammer to discover crumpled up and hidden Toads.

It would be easy to call the game childish, as it has a dedicated “hints” button in combat and its puzzles and fetch quests can be fairly easy to solve. But the writing often hides that all-ages approach, or at least makes it tolerable with humor and character overreaction combined with a bit of added Mario lore. I found myself screenshotting various things to remember including here, which are fairly pointless without the game’s context. But a brief collection of Origami King absurdity includes a Wise Guy tape dispenser, a hilariously-named game show and just the right amount of horror elements in a children’s game to throw you off completely.

This Paper Mario somehow finds a way to be both a Nintendo property and still contain the humor that matches absurd headlines from The Onion about Nintendo. It also tells a very fun, if not unnecessary, story about a world ravaged by a surprisingly powerful foe. It has Wild West homages and very familiar characters given new and unexpected emotional growth. Some of the best moments come from ancillary side characters making quick comments you wouldn’t expect, offering jokes about Mario or his folded soldier foes.

The Origami King is juvenile, sure, but mostly because it takes place in a world where an existential threat to existence is taken seriously enough by all that enemies work together. Mario rescues his fabled antagonist Bowser in the game’s opening minutes, then spends the entirety of the game working to free his minions from the grasp of an origami creature gone mad with power. Bigger things are at play here, and so even rivals spending their entire lives pitted against each other need to help one another out for a bit.

Characters from all sides of the Mario universe are on the same team here against the origami foes, and so the Shogun tourist attraction is devoid of tourists because the threat of paper mache is simply too high. It’s unfair to compare every video game to real life in the age of coronavirus, but a number of titles coming out these days just happen to be about humanity-altering viruses. Origami taking over a paper universe isn’t a 1:1 match, of course, but I couldn’t help but shake how easy it felt to get everyone on the same page in the game and how helpless it feels to do the same once you put the controller down. Even Olivia, herself origami and the brother of your foe, fell in line pretty quickly.

Not every game needs the nihilism that an epic tale like the Last Of Us Part II has about people, especially in these trying times. Even funny, cheerful games can offer a jolt of emotion for characters you never expected to mourn. And somehow, in Paper Mario: The Origami King, the least realistic thing about the game isn’t that origami can come to life but that once it did everyone else realized it was a threat they simply couldn’t ignore.

The stated mission of NBA players coming into the Bubble in Orlando was to continue keeping the issues of systemic racism facing the Black community, from police brutality to voter suppression, at the forefront of conversation even as the season restarted. It was a concern that led to discussion about whether restarting the season at all was the right move, but once they moved forward with the Bubble, players have done as promised and continue to use pre- and postgame press conferences to speak out on injustices happening around the country.

For LeBron James, he’s taken up the issue of voting rights and Black voter suppression in recent months, launching the More Than A Vote coalition that has brought in some of the top athletes from around the world of sports to shine light on the obstacles and suppression tactics used against Black voters. On Monday, More Than A Vote ran an open letter on The Undefeated issuing a call to action for fans that are getting ready to settle in for the NBA Playoffs, offering things they can do to fight voter suppression and pull down the barriers to voting in the Black community.

The letter highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic will be used as a suppression tactic, with polling locations likely to be shut down, creating longer lines and wait times in areas that are heavily Black that already battle these issues. It’s why the coalition has worked with stadiums and arenas to make them official polling locations, offering resources and a guide for how more stadiums can go through the process to become a voting location.

For us, though, the letter outlines a number of things we can do to try and alleviate some of the voter suppression that figures to run rampant come November. The first, of course, is to vote and ensure we are registered to vote, but they go much further than just suggesting voting as the solution.

For those who are young and healthy, volunteer to work the polls on Election Day. The average poll worker is 60 years old. Most cannot risk COVID-19 to ensure we can vote. Our grandparents, parents, aunties and uncles are being asked to risk their lives to open a polling location? No way. And don’t just volunteer to work polls, but volunteer to work in the most vulnerable communities where you are needed.

Second, volunteer your time and money to an organization mobilizing for this fight. More Than A Vote is partnering with NAACP Legal Defense Fund, When We All Vote, Fair Fight and the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. These groups and others like them are in our community fighting for our people and they need all the help they can get.

Third, share information that will educate, energize and protect Black voters. Use your influence to create change. Use your social media to share accurate information about how to vote and where to vote safely. Follow the groups we listed above, as well as More Than A Vote. We are all sharing critical and accurate information. Do not recklessly post B.S. from unknown places. Take this election seriously. Become trusted community leaders and activists who help keep our people informed and empowered.

The first suggestion is one that will be vital, as getting more young people signed up to serve as polling workers would be a huge step towards keeping polling locations open. It’s something I don’t think is thought of very often as an option for people to do, but it is critical to the success of elections to simply staff these polling places.

Beyond that, the other two suggestions are far more easily worked into your daily life. Giving to the right organizations to help disenfranchised voters is something anyone with the financial means can do, and everyone can get better at thinking critically and avoiding blindly sharing information without checking into it first. Misinformation is one of the greatest threats to this election and sharing accurate information online — and flagging things that are not true — is very important.

People said it couldn’t be done. “Brian,” they’d say with weariness in their eyes, “I’m sorry, but there’s just no way, ever, that there will be a set of circumstances that allows you to compare the NBA Playoffs to Bio-Dome, the 1996 film in which slackers played by Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin find themselves — through a series of circumstances and hijinks that include, among other things, urine and firecrackers — trapped inside a bubbled-off experiment, quarantined off from society to prevent a contamination that threatens the entire project, working together with teams of scientists and doctors under strange conditions for an extended period of time to achieve a common goal in the end.”

And yet, here we are, on the verge of the 2020 NBA Playoffs, with the teams in a metaphorical if not literal bubble, quarantined off from society to prevent a contamination that would endanger the whole project, working together with teams of scientists and doctors under strange conditions for an extended period of time to achieve a common goal in the end.

Joke’s on you naysayers. Here are six lessons — real, legitimate, actual lessons, kind of — that NBA playoff teams in the bubble can learn from Bio-Dome.

LESSON NUMBER ONE — MAKE THE BEST OF A WEIRD SITUATION

Context: After almost ruining the entire Bio-Dome experiment by sneaking in hundreds of people and a full punk band for a luau-themed party, Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin’s characters, Bud and Doyle, realize the error of their ways and attempt to encourage the scientists to see the project through anyway, with a few adaptations, to make it work even if it’s not exactly how they envisioned.

This one goes out to the teams that had legitimate championship ambitions entering the season, and to the handful that developed them as the season progressed. The Lakers, the Clippers, the Bucks, maybe even the Nuggets and Raptors. The teams that were cruising into March with plans of rest and focus before the playoffs, the teams that had designs on maybe even closing out the season on their home floor in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans, with confetti falling from the heavens and a mess of champagne-soaked humanity in the locker room afterward, and a parade through the streets with hundreds of thousands of people packed together whooping and yelling and hugging. All the things you see in your brain when you have those title dreams.

All the things that, now, will not be happening, as they’ve been replaced with empty gymnasiums and restrictive health protocols and social distance guidelines that frown on embracing strangers and bathing in a dirty pool of sparkling wine. It’s going to be very weird. It’s not what anyone pictured when the season started in the fall. But it’s where everyone is now, and it’s better than nothing, and there’s no point in not giving it a go. A bonkers bubble title is better than no title at all.

This lesson applies in another way, too, to some of the teams who snuck in late or who are wildly undermanned for one reason or another. More screencaps will help.

Do I think the Blazers can win the title this year? No. I do not. They’re too thin and chaotic and they’ll have to outscore everyone 145-144 to survive. But do I very much want to see Dame Lillard attempt to continue his supernova bubble performance and give the Lakers fits in the first round? Yes. Yes, I do. And do I want to see a Zombie Nets team without Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving scrap their little hearts out against the Raptors? Yes, I’d like to see that, too. The whole thing is already chaos. Let’s lean all the way into it.

LESSON NUMBER TWO — HOLD EACH OTHER ACCOUNTABLE

Context: Stephen Baldwin’s character, Doyle, swallows the emergency key to prevent anyone from leaving, ensuring that everyone will be stuck inside to see the challenge through until the end, challenges be damned.

This is probably a bit drastic for playoff teams in the bubble. I cannot in good faith suggest that teammates basically imprison each other inside the hotel to prevent them from breaking quarantine. The general theme applies, though. Everyone is in it for the long haul. It’s time to band together. It’s time to check on that teammate who was watching the Buffalo Wild Wings commercial with a burning desire in their eyes, the kind of desire that can lead to irresponsible behavior, the kind of desire that can send you on a mission for lemon pepper wings that results in a 14-day isolation in a playoff situation where 14 days can cover an entire round of action.

So yes, check on each other. Be each other’s support system. Make sure everyone is following the rules, even the other teams, to whatever degree you can. There’s a delicate ecosystem in play inside the bubble. One positive test can quickly spin into dozens, and that can shut down this whole operation.

And maybe stay out of the pool, too.

Can’t be too careful. That’s all I’m saying.

LESSON NUMBER THREE — ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES

Context: With the plant life dying and the whole experiment on the brink of collapse, our two idiot heroes work with the scientists to develop a plan. They use the leftover beer and soda cans from the ill-advised party to form a reflective screen that, with the addition of filtered air, will help harness the rays of the sun and breathe life into the wheezing ecosystem.

Things could go sideways at any point in any number of ways over the next few months. This is unprecedented territory. A team might lose an important player to a positive test, or even a false positive. A starter might have to sit in a Game 7 because he woke up with mild symptoms and the doctors want to err on the side of caution. The key is to adapt, to take what you have and make the best of it, to duct tape a solution together, and fight through toward a common goal. Just like they do in Bio-Dome. I can’t believe I’m writing any of this either.

LESSON NUMBER FOUR — CARROTS ARE MIRACLES

Context: I don’t know, just work with me here.

This one admittedly has nothing to do with anything, unless you’re willing to let me stretch it into a general piece of advice to eat healthy to maintain peak physical condition. It’s fine if you’re not, though. I’m really just including it to remind you that Australian pop sensation Kylie Minogue plays one of the Bio-Dome scientists.

Poor Kylie Minogue. Her character is a thinly-drawn mess, which is really saying something in a movie whose entire premise hinges on two doofuses using firecrackers to sneak into a $100 million science bubble because they had to pee and thought it was a shopping mall. She flips between being concerned for the project given the intrusion (justifiable) and being extremely horny for Pauly Shore (less justifiable, especially given that first thing). She tries to seduce him with this carrot at one point. Later, she — Kylie Minogue, multigenerational Australian music icon — throws herself at him and gets turned away. It’s not right. Kylie Minogue deserved — still deserves — much better than this.

But do get your fruits and vegetables. Fiber is a vital part of the diet. This applies to everyone, I guess, not just NBA players in the bubble. Good tip, Kylie Minogue.

LESSON NUMBER FIVE — FIND ACTIVITIES THAT PROMOTE MENTAL HEALTH

Context: As part of the process of healing the Bio-Dome post-luau, Bud plants what appears to be a tremendous amount of marijuana. The benefits of this were laid out in a board meeting earlier (plant life creates oxygen, hemp can be used for rope, etc.), but mostly, well, it’s for the reasons you think.

Two things are important to note here:

• It is hilarious that the plot hole in Bio-Dome that was a bridge too far for me, the one that I could not abide, was the idea that Pauly Shore’s character just happened to be carrying around a few dozen seeds for a potent strain of marijuana as he was driving around before they got stuck in the Bio-Dome, as though all stoners are ready to plant weed at any given moment, or are capable of this level of planning
• I am not suggesting NBA players plant and grow marijuana on the grounds of Disney World

All I’m saying is that the situation is not ideal for tip-top mental health, between being trapped together in one location and not being able to leave and not being able to see your family and friends. Players will need to be aware of this and figure out ways to maintain a balance. Otherwise, they could suffer the same fate as the head Bio-Dome scientist, who went fully unhinged about halfway through the movie and started growing a crazy man beard and making bombs out of coconuts.

He later ate that parrot. I have given a lot of thought as to which player or coach is most likely to suffer this fate before the bubble ends and the best answer I’ve come up with so far is Jimmy Butler. I could see him eating a parrot. He’s a very intense man.

LESSON NUMBER SIX — DO NOT INJURE YOUR BLADDER ROLLERBLADING

Context: Taylor Negron’s character, Russell, a creepy deadbeat loser who is dating Bud’s girlfriend’s mom and hitting on Bud’s girlfriend and later gets a job delivering pizza, starts the movie on the couch wearing an adult diaper because he suffered a very tragic and very 1990s injury to his bladder.

This advice seems very specific, and it is, although you could certainly broaden it out to something like “You’ll probably get bored in the bubble after a number of weeks and begin to seek out leisure activities to pass the time but please do not attempt anything so reckless that it could result in the type of injury that leaves you couchbound wearing a Depends like Russell in Bio-Dome” if you really wanted to stretch the meaning to its limits. I’m just including it because this seems like the kind of thing that would happen to someone on the Sixers before the whole experiment ends.

Within seconds of Joe Biden naming Kamala Harris as his vice president came the Maya Rudolph jokes. “Maya Rudolph up your fee.” “Maya Rudolph bout to eat eat.” “I, for one, am also thrilled about 4 years of Maya Rudolph SNL appearances.” SNL‘s season premiere isn’t usually until late September or early October — whether it will be in-studio or virtual has yet to be determined — so there’s still time for any official decisions to be made, but having Rudolph playing Harris in season 46 (!) is on Lorne Michaels’ mind.

When asked by the Hollywood Reporter whether she’s heard from the SNL head honcho, Rudolph answered, “He sent me a GIF of myself, as Kamala, in sunglasses, sipping a cocktail and saying, ‘Oh no.’ That really made me laugh.” The Big Mouth star (one of her three Emmy-nominated roles this year) also said that after the announcement, her phone “blew up… I think there’s a collective excitement about this. It’s a spot of positivity and hope and some good news, so it feels nice to be associated with that. But I also feel like such a lazy cheater, because I didn’t do anything. I’m not running. I don’t have to do anything but be the same fool I was. She’s doing all the hard work.”

The most surprising thing about all this isn’t people being excited for Rudolph over Harris’ historic selection — it’s Lorne Michaels owning a smartphone. And that he sends people GIFs. That man has strong “rotary phone only” energy. I am, to quote a GIF that Michaels probably sent to Kristen Wiig once, shooketh.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

Drake and Lil Wayne have enjoyed a fruitful working relationship over the past decade-plus, and now Drake has taken a minute to thank the legendary rapper for all he has done for him.

Tidal’s Elliott Wilson shared a video of Wayne speaking highly of Drake in an interview, and Drake returned the favor in the comments, writing, “This man believed in me after so many never called again or just didn’t see it to begin with…most selfless artist ever never held any of us back always pushed us forward every single night in people faces 20k packed into an arena and he had a whole set of his show dedicated to introducing us FOR YEARS…all praise and credit due to the [GOAT].”

Indeed, Wayne was an early supporter of Drake. He featured on two songs from Drake’s 2009 debut EP So Far Gone, and the two continued to collaborate on a number of occasions in subsequent years. Drake was also part of Wayne’s “America’s Most Wanted’ tour in 2009.

Meanwhile, Drake recently announced that he has a new album, Certified Lover Boy, on the way (although he was apparently unable to trademark the title). He introduced the project with “Laugh Now Cry Later,” featuring Lil Durk.

Not two full weeks after YBN Nahmir tweeted, “They left this YBN sh*t in the gutter,” YBN Cordae seemingly confirms the breakup of the crew with a symbolic name change on streaming services. It appears that his new stage name going forward will simply be “Cordae.” While his handle on Instagram has been updated accordingly, due to Twitter’s verification rules, it looks like he’ll be stuck with @Ybncordae for the time being.

It’s a significant change for the 21-year-old artist, as he first came to public prominence as a member of the YBN crew alongside Nahmir and YBN Almighty Jay. YBN (short for Young Boss N****s) first met while gaming online, coming together despite members being scattered across the US. Cordae is from Maryland, while Nahmir is from Alabama. Jay is from Texas. After Nahmir’s single “Rubbin Off the Paint” became a viral success, the crew signed their major deals both as a collective and as individual artists.

Their group debut, YBN: The Mixtape, soon followed, introducing the world to the three primary rappers of the crew, but it was YBN Cordae’s remixes of Eminem’s “My Name Is” and J. Cole’s “1985” (as “Old N****s) that made him the standout and launched his solo career. He followed up with the Grammy nominated debut The Lost Boy and has since been working on his sophomore album. Meanwhile, Nahmir and Jay have yet to follow up with their own projects, although Nahmir has appeared on posse cuts such as “Thot Box” and “I Might,” releasing the single “2 Seater” with G-Eazy and Offset earlier this year.

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

Rihanna hasn’t released a new album since 2016’s Anti, and basically ever since then, fans have been relentlessly asking her about when her next project is coming. As the wait between records grows longer, the pestering has grown more intense. Thankfully, though, Rihanna has a good sense of humor about it.

She cracked another joke about the wait over the weekend when she came across a Shade Room Instagram post about a Rihanna lookalike. The post re-shares a TikTok video from a user who really does bear a remarkable resemblance to the musician, and Rihanna took to the comments with a joke. She played the role of one of her fans in a comment, in which she wrote, “where the album sis? #R9.”

Rihanna has spoken about making music from time to time over the past few years, and in an interview from last month, she offered another update, saying, “I am always working on music. I am always working on music and when I’m ready to put it out in the way that I feel fit, it’s gonna come out. And you’re not going to be disappointed when it happens. It’s going to be worth it. I’m not just gonna put it out just because people are waiting. It’s taken this long, I’m gonna make it worth it.”