Month: November 2020

The Weeknd and the NFL have announced that the Canadian superstar will perform at the next Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show on February 7, 2021.

In a press statement, Pepsi’s Vice President of Marketing, Todd Kaplan, said, “The Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show is one of the most anticipated performances of the year and we are thrilled to welcome The Weeknd to the stage,” said Todd Kaplan, VP of Marketing, Pepsi. “Pepsi has worked with some of music’s biggest artists over the years – from Prince to Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Bruno Mars, and most recently, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. After a year that’s largely been void of live music, we can’t wait to watch The Weeknd transform the world’s biggest stage with his limitless talent and creativity, delivering what will most certainly be an unforgettable performance that will be remembered for years to come.”

Adam Harter, Senior Vice President of Sports, Media, and Entertainment added, “We can’t wait to welcome multi-award-winning artist The Weeknd to the Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show stage. In collaboration with the NFL and Roc Nation, we continue to reimagine what a Pepsi Halftime Show looks like with some of the biggest musicians in the world. We expect The Weeknd will continue to raise the bar, setting a new precedent both musically and visually for the most-watched performance of the year.”

The announcement caps a stellar year for The Weeknd, whose March album After Hours has proven to have legs a mile long, with a deluxe version featuring a who’s-who of star artists, a string of well-received television appearances including a VMA win for Best R&B, and a virtual concert on TikTok. The Weeknd himself has also popped up Ariana Grande’s new album, Oneohtrix Point Never’s new EP, and Calvin Harris’ latest single.

As Stan culture evolves and grows, artists’ superfans are going to greater and greater lengths to get their faves’ attention. While the Barbz still relentlessly hound anyone who speaks ill of Nicki Minaj — or even her collaborators — Eminem, the man who coined the term Stan, had a run-in with a stalker who broke into his house this year. Another Eminem fan got into the Guinness Book Of Records for inking her 16th tattoo of the star’s face on her. And the wrath of the Beyhive knows very few bounds.

However, the latest superfan shenanigans led to the fan being arrested after trying to illegally board a Los Angeles-bound flight to try to meet her hero. According to The New York Post, 23-year-old Yaazmina Payton was stopped from boarding a flight at O’Hare International Airport on Sunday, November 8 after ducking the ropes at the boarding gate for an American Airlines plane headed to LA. She was charged with felony criminal trespassing after failing to produce a boarding pass. On Monday, her counsel at a hearing said that she suffers from PTSD and anxiety disorder and she was released on $500 bail. She’ll have a hard time flying out of O’Hare in the future; she was banned from visiting the airport.

Meanwhile, Jay-Z himself is launching his own cannabis brand, which might help Payton with that anxiety.

Tiffany is the forgotten Trump… to everyone except Matt Gaetz.

On Wednesday, while her father continued to refuse to concede the election, Donald’s daughter posted a photo of herself in the White House on Twitter, adding a heart emoji for good measure. The typical reply ranged from “remember having a lavish birthday party while Covid is a raging pandemic?” to “I, too, randomly pose with drapes,” but the weirdest response came from Gaetz, the conservative congressman from Florida, who one-upped Trump’s heart emoji with the fire, heart-eyes, and thumb-up emojis. Weird!

This isn’t the first time Gaetz has turned into the Tex Avery wolf for Trump, either. In response to the president congratulating her for graduating from Georgetown Law earlier this year, he wrote, “Tiffany is a beautiful person inside and out! It’s so great to see her success.” Trump “liked” Gaetz’s new tweet, but everyone else was creeped out.

It’s unknown what Nestor thinks of Gaetz, a publicly-elected official, getting “horny on main” for the president’s daughter, but Ron Perlman might have something to say about it. The pair were locked in a long Twitter feud, where the Sons of Anarchy actor called Gaetz a “dipsh*t,” among other amusing insults. “A guy who wins a totally gerrymandered district with daddy’s money deserves our deepest admiration. You’re right… I only PLAY scumbags and grifters. You’re the real deal!” he tweeted. Perlman hasn’t said anything about Gaetz, but he has been unloading on the president.

Haim aren’t usually purveyors of intense guitar-driven rock, but that’s just what they’ve made for the new animated film The Croods: A New Age. Their contribution to the soundtrack, “Feel The Thunder,” is the theme song for the movie’s Thunder Sisters characters, and it was inspired by Guns N’ Roses.

The band recorded and co-wrote the song with producer Ariel Rechtshaid, who Danielle Haim told Rolling Stone is “the biggest Guns N’ Roses fan,” saying, “He’s obsessed with them — he went and saw them on their most recent tour a bunch of times. And so I figured that that’s what we were looking for. We were like, ‘Let’s get Ariel.’ But I’d never tried to make music like that before, so it was fully like a crazy experiment.”

Danielle also said of the track, “We grew up listening to rock music, pop, a healthy smattering of a ton of different kinds of music. I don’t know how often you really hear rock music in a kid’s film anymore, or rock music in general anymore.”

The band also worked on the track with Croods composer and Devo leader Mark Mothersaugh, who spoke highly of the group: “I thought it was cool how these young women are in this cool part of their trajectory right now. I look at them and think about what a great time Devo had when we were where they are right now. They’re very talented ladies who are very fun to work with.”

This song isn’t terribly unlike another track the group made for an animated film this year, as their Trolls: World Tour cut “Rock N Roll Rules” is also an uncharacteristically rocking tune for them.

Listen to “Feel The Thunder” above.

It’s no secret that longtime actor Jon Voight is a huge Trump supporter who regularly finds himself being dragged on Twitter for his outlandish takes backing the president. This time around, Voight caught the attention of Samuel L. Jackson after the Ray Donovan star made a new Twitter video that essentially calls for war over the (fake) “lie” that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Voight even goes so far as to accuse Biden’s supporters of being “evil” and says that the right is now locked in a “battle of righteousness versus Satan.” Via The Hill:

“We must fight this corruption that has taken over and fight for the good that seems lost,” he said. “Let us give our trust to God, and fight now for Trump’s victory because we all know this ballot count is corruption like they are. So let us not back down. Let us fight this fight as if it is our last fight on earth.”

After catching wind of Voight’s rhetoric, Jackson fired back with one of his trademark F-bombs. “First, you gotta stop looking at this insanity!!” Jackson tweeted. “The Civil War was about Slavery so pay attention to the symbolism. Lastly F*CK. John Voight!!!”

Jackson’s fiery condemnation of Voight did not sit well with right-wing Twitter users, who fired back at the Pulp Fiction actor and chastised him for his use of profanity, which is like chastising McDonald’s for serving hamburgers, but okay.

But it wasn’t all backlash in the replies. Jackson had plenty of supporters who were very happy to see him call out Voight in pure SLJ style.

(Via Samuel L. Jackson on Twitter)

Pharrell is known for his Grammy Award-winning music and his work in the film industry, but everyone can also agree on one thing about the musician: he doesn’t seem to age. Pharrell has been questioned about his flawless skin for many years, and he’s now finally ready to reveal his secrets through a line of carefully-developed skincare products.

Pharrell has been praised for his age-defying skin for years. Travis Scott even quizzed him on his routine last year, asking if it was true that the musician only washes his face with cold water, to which Pharrell replied: “You gotta exfoliate like a f*cking madman.”

But now taking things one step further, Pharrell teamed up with his longtime dermatologist Elena Jones for the product line Humanrace. The skincare line will be released everywhere November 25 and includes include cleansers, creams, exfoliators, and more.

The products are also made with waste-reduction in mind. Each bottle comes with a removable chamber at the bottom to allow an easy way for refilling products without needing to toss the entire container. Speaking about the products in a statement, Pharrell said: “Humanrace Skincare doesn’t differentiate by race or gender. We’re creating for humans; we are all born in the same skin.”

Check out a preview of Pharrell’s Humanrace skincare line above.

Busta Rhymes has long been viewed as one of hip-hop’s most exuberant and active artists, so the news he almost died due to unhealthy habits may come as a surprise to those who remember his as the vivacious ball of cartoonish energy who made hits like “Woo-Hah!!” and “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See.” In a recent interview with Van Jones for the latter’s YouTube show The Messy Truth, Busta revealed just how bad things got and what pulled him out of his health slump, inspiring him to get more fit.

“I’m in the car and I go to sleep, and I’m snoring crazy,” he recounts. “And it gets to this point where I’m trying to inhale, and not I’m able to inhale. My son got so scared that he spoke to the security about this fear that he had. My son was so scared of how he was gonna hurt my feelings by having this conversation with me directly that he had to tell someone else to tell me. That sh*t f*cked me up — I just felt like I was letting my son down, I felt like I was letting a lot of people down.”

Busta reveals that he’d developed polyps (abnormal tissue growths) in his throat and was up to 340 pounds. His doctor told him, “‘Your polyps grew so big that it blocked 90 percent of your breathing passage and if I send you home tonight and you sleep under the AC and catch a cold and that last 10 percent of breathing of your breathing passage gets blocked up…you are going to die tonight.’” The revelation prompted Busta to change his ways and from some of his recent Instagram posts (and the rejuvenated rapping on his new album Extinction Level Event 2, it looks like it’s paid off.

Watch Busta’s full interview with Van Jones above.

Word dropped on Thursday that Russell Westbrook’s discontent with the direction of the Houston Rockets had turned into a desire to seek greener pastures. It’s tricky trying to identify what he would command on the trade market, but according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, at least one team has emerged as a potential landing spot for the former league MVP.

Charania brings word that the Charlotte Hornets “have emerged as a potential suitor.” While he pointed out that there are some other teams who are kicking the tires on a deal for Westbrook, Charania mentioned that there are a few reasons why Charlotte theoretically makes sense.

“There are moveable veteran contracts, as well as the Jordan Brand connection for Westbrook,” Charania said, referencing the fact that Westbrook is sponsored by Hornets owner Michael Jordan’s apparel company.

As for the potential contracts, Nic Batum’s monster deal finally expires at the end of this season, something that is also the case for Cody Zeller — the former is in line to make about $27.1 million this year if he picks up his player option, while the latter makes a touch over $15.4 million. The tricky thing is what else Houston might want, and whether they would demand anyone or anything else (Malik Monk, a draft pick, etc.).

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had no problem dunking on Senator Marco Rubio’s recent wordplay on Democrats, and she’s also not here for the floating of him (even as a joke) as a member of “The Squad.” The group of four female lawmakers of color — including AOC, along with Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts — all won reelection to the House of Representatives last week. They’ve shown themselves to be unafraid of confronting the Washington establishment, and Rubio is not invited.

Granted, they’re talking about the same subject lately. AOC believes that Biden could have adopted a more Latino-friendly strategy with the Latino community. That’s a sentiment that Rubio is advocating for (during an Axios interview) when it comes to the GOP, which he wishes would rebrand with the idea that “[t]he future of the party is based on a multiethnic, multiracial working class coalition.” This led to a joke-y tweet from The Intercept’s Murtaza M. Hussain, who wrote, “Marco Rubio is joining The Squad” while linking to The Hill’s article on the subject.

Ilhan Omar heard about it and responded with a simple, “Membership rejected.”

The social-media-savvy AOC soon joined the discussion. Although Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley haven’t voiced their opinion on Rubio’s “membership” yet, AOC felt confident in banning him “By unanimous vote.”

No dice for Marco Rubio. In other words, he won’t be riding a blue wave (unless he’s GIF-ing by mistake) anytime soon.

Future and Lil Uzi Vert are about to release… something. The “Too Much Sauce” duo have been teasing a collaboration between them for the past several months, putting out bread crumbs such as their double release of singles “Over Your Head” and “Patek.” Their fans believe they’re working on a joint mixtape but their moods were dampened when the project didn’t materialize on its rumored release date.

Now, however, it appears as if those fans’ thirst for this release may be quenched in some fashion this Friday. Both Uzi and Future shared an intriguing trailer for what appears to be a Hype Williams-directed music video. Whether that video will be for one of their previously released singles or accompany a full project remains to be seen. Both artists love to build hype while remaining as mysterious as possible — see Uzi’s out-of-the-blue drop for the deluxe version of Eternal Atake or Future’s Drake-featuring “Life Is Good” video from way back in the pre-COVID times.

The two rappers had already released the video for “Wassup” in May, so it’s likely they do have more songs recorded. We’ll have to wait a few hours to find out what they’re serving up next.

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.