Month: December 2020

Fiery rap duo Blimes And Gab weren’t going to let 2020 go without releasing one last video from their acclaimed debut album Talk About It. But this time, instead of going for cheeky fun like the “Shellys (It’s Chill)” video or throwing a house party as they did in their lighthearted “Feelin It” video, in their new video for “Baptism” they bring the fire and brimstone, hearkening back to their days battle rapping and breaking hearts.

As the intro track from Talk About it, “Baptism” set the vibe early, letting fans know that these two artists are not here to play. The video is likewise deadly serious, as they march through the streets of Los Angeles dressed like the warfaring survivors of an apocalyptic movie while fire falls from the sky. They spit heat, too, with punchlines that land like bombs as meteorites do the same around them over the thundering drums.

Back in July, the duo told Uproxx what sets them apart and made 2020 their most successful year yet. “Part of our success has been from staying true to ourselves, and we both feel really strongly about staying true to ourselves,” said Blimes. “We both feel really strongly about dressing the way we want to dress, being comfortable, and sometimes that’s sexy. Sometimes that’s feminine. Sometimes that’s tomboy. Sometimes that’s comfortable. We know that there’s so many standards placed on women, and we really, really, really, really want to go against the external standards. You’re not going to tell me how to dress. You’re not going to tell me how I need to show up. I am the gatekeeper of my own personal comfort. I’m the gatekeeper of my own personal style. And so that’s really important to us in terms of being women.”

Watch the “Baptism” video above.

Geraldo Rivera recently (about a month ago) revealed that Donald Trump won’t take his calls anymore after the former daytime-talk host became one of the first prominent conservatives to declare that Trump lost the election. So, the Fox News personality is left with no choice but to be very public. He’s been urging the sitting president to stop throwing tantrums that would only lead to him kicking and screaming his way out of the White House on January 20. From snow-bound rants about GOP “knuckleheads” and his profane reaction (“are you sh*tting me?”) to the “lunatic fringe” who essentially wants Trump to start a civil war, Geraldo’s been bringing the heat.

He’s not done yet. In a tweeted missive aimed directly toward election loser, Geraldo continued the saga. “Whatever is planned for January 6th, true friends of @realDonaldTrump want him to remember the country comes first,” he tweeted. “The presidency means more than any individual. Reject the crackpots. Exit with dignity and grace, for yourself, your family and the country you served so ably.”

In other words, Geraldo would like Trump to stop acting like a “frat boy” and finally do the right thing, rather than golf during stimulus chats and amid the explosion of COVID-19 cases in the United States. It’s a strange turn of events for Geraldo, who’s been looking like the levelheaded one while trying to talk some sense into a few of his Fox News colleagues who’ve been dragging their feet on accepting the election’s reality.

Even though Trump won’t listen to his former buddy, it’s a development to behold. Geraldo Rivera, one-time Capone vault opener and ejected wartime correspondent, is now looking like the voice of reason. 2020, man.

An annual tradition to start every NBA season is Charles Barkley going on Inside the NBA on TNT and illustrating how little he paid attention to the offseason player shuffle with a game of “Who He Play For?” On Tuesday night’s show, Barkley went 0-5 after missing on players like the Lakers’ Alfonzo McKinnie and the Bulls’ Garrett Temple, which was admittedly entertaining.

However later in the show, Ernie Johnson was plugging a new addition to the show’s social media strategy for the new season, which allows fans of Inside to play “Who He Play For?” on Instagram and compete with Chuck, when Barkley started feeling himself and boasted that he could surely beat “the public.”

Those are strong words from a man who had just literally gotten zero of the questions right minutes beforehand, but of course it’s Barkley, so he’s going to be cocky. The response from Johnson, though, was the punchline to the whole encounter:

Way to say what we’re all thinking, EJ! The game is fun and all, but at a certain point, you’ve gotta question how Barkley gets away with not knowing some of these guys. It’s not like Temple is a deep cut by any means, he was just playing in the Bubble and was a key figure in the players’ union during negotiations this year. Not that Barkley needs to know every Bulls eighth man, but most of these guys are in NBA rotations right now. They may very well be on TNT’s airwaves before long.

Johnson said what we were all thinking and Barkley, in a rare moment, was speechless.

Four years ago, The Weeknd said that he would not make music about politics. But after a full year of tragic global events, the singer can’t help but center his upcoming music around some of 2020’s unfortunate-yet-memorable moments. After his album After Hours was snubbed by the Grammys, the singer is already starting to work on his next LP — and it’s inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests, the pandemic, and the tensions in the U.S. election.

The Weeknd opened up about his next album’s plans in an upcoming 100-page zine for Tmrw. In his interview, the singer offered some insight into his musical inspirations:

“I have been more inspired and creative during the pandemic than I might normally be while on the road…The pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement and the tensions of the election have mostly created a sense of gratitude for what I have and closeness with the people near me.”

Elsewhere in the piece, The Weeknd added that he thinks After Hours is a way of culminating his decade in the music industry. “I was laser focused back then and I’m laser focused right now,” he said. “This has been the story of my 20s. I feel like I spent the last 10 years creating a sound and most of my career I’ve either been running away from it or duplicating it. After Hours was the perfect piece of art for me to show my tenure in the industry.”

His discussions about infusing politics into his music marks a drastic shift just a few years earlier in his career. Back in 2016, the singer opened up about his support for the Black Lives Matter protests, saying that he donated a large sum of money but wasn’t ready for his music to reflect his political views. “I wish I could make music about politics,” he said in a 2016 interview with V Man Magazine. “I feel like it’s such an art and a talent that I admire tremendously, but when I step into the studio I step out of the real world, and it’s therapeutic. It’s an escape, but recently it’s been very hard to ignore, and it’s also been very distracting. Maybe you’ll hear it in my voice, but it is not my forté.”

Just a day after outspoken radio host Charlamagne Tha God issued a confusing commentary on Drake’s superstar status, his latest episode of the Brilliant Idiots podcast is stirring things up thanks to his unfavorable comparison of J. Cole to Drake and Kendrick Lamar.

While the three artists are widely acknowledged as the top triumvirate of hip-hop, Charlamagne parsed their standing even further in the episode, declaring J. Cole to be an inferior artist to the other two. “You would have to put Drake and Kendrick [Lamar] in the ‘greatest of all time’ combo, right?” he theorizes. “When you play in that era, when you come out in that class with GOATs of that caliber, and even [J.] Cole. Cole got rings but– I don’t put him on the level of Drake and Kendrick. I don’t even put Drake on the level of Kendrick. Skill-wise. Cole is dope. Cole is amazing. I’m not taking anything away from him, he’s a hall of fame all-star. All I’m saying is it’s a difference between what a Kendrick does and what everybody else does to me.”

He does try to ease the sting of his assessment by accepting “Some people may say that about Drake, some people may have Drake the way I have Kendrick and say everybody else is after him,” but continues his Basketball Hall of Fame metaphor. “My point with saying that is those two guys are such GOATs that they make everybody else look almost normal. Charles Barkley looks normal to a Michael Jordan.”

Skating over the fact that Charles Barkley does not have any rings, as Chrlamagne notes Cole does, it’s a surprisingly well-reasoned point from the host, even if his final conclusion is debatable. J. Cole fans might feel a way — actually, they already do, almost constantly — but the subjective nature of art makes it impossible to truly compare the three talent-wise. Drake has the most Hot 100 hits of the three — in fact, he has more than anyone as of this summer — but K. Dot’s got a Pulitzer Prize while is the king of the “platinum with no features” club. Numbers don’t lie, but fans will continue to find ways to make the facts fit their fight, so while Charlamagne might be wrong or right, it all depends on which artist you’re rooting for.

Watch the full episode above.

Never one to shy away from a pop culture moment that lets him embrace his inner nerd in the process, Jack Black has put his own spin on the now iconic music from The Mandalorian for a new TikTok video. While this latest musical joint doesn’t feature Black dancing in a Speedo to “WAP,” it does have the Tenacious D frontman busting out a rockin’ rendition of Mando’s theme while slapping on a Boba Fett helmet, and Star Wars fans are loving it.

You can see Black’s take on The Mandalorian theme below:

Black’s video arrives on the heel of another viral, musical moment from the hit bounty-hunting series. On Christmas Day, Robert Rodriguez dropped a behind-the-scenes video where he jams out on a guitar with Baby Yoda. Considering the little guy is a massive pop culture juggernaut in a tiny package, the video of Grogu bopping and grooving to Rodriguez’s guitar work quickly dominated Twitter.

As for the epic Mandalorian theme, that would be the work of composer Ludwig Göransson, who had the daunting task of creating a new Star Wars sound that could go toe-to-toe with the classic sound created by John Williams. Considering Göransson scored an Emmy for his work, and the theme is popping up left and right in viral videos like Black’s, we’d say he nailed it thanks to a unique blend of baroque recorder solos, drums, and a full-on sympathy that seamlessly mashed together the spaghetti Western and sci-fi genres.

(Via Jack Black on TikTok)

Alex Trebek’s final episodes as the host of Jeopardy! will air the week of January 4, 2021, with his final episode coming on January 8, exactly two months after he died from pancreatic cancer. Those five episodes (which were originally scheduled to air around Christmas until being pushed back) were taped over the course of two days in October, and as executive producer Mike Richards told EW, “You’ll watch them and you’ll go, ‘This guy’s as healthy as could be. This is not a sick person at all.’ He had that much willpower.” Richards also shared a powerful story about Trebek’s last day in the studio.

“On the second day of taping, what would end up being his final taping and the final time he was in the studio, I went to [his] door and said, ‘Hey, that was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen.’ And he did not like to be complimented. That was kind of staring down the mouth of a great white when you’d do that, because he really didn’t like that,” Richards said. But he felt compelled to compliment an “exhausted” Trebek, who “goes, ‘Thank you.’ He knew what he had done and appreciated the fact that we all knew what he had done. So those last two days are very special, and I’ll never forget them.”

Until next week, please enjoy Alex Trebek’s visit to Sesame Street.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

Earlier this month, Twitter shared a blog post outlining the most liked and retweeted tweets of 2020, but it doesn’t quite tell the whole story, as the gravity of BTS’ impact on the platform wasn’t done justice.

Of the year’s top ten most-liked tweets, two of them were from @BTS_twt, making it the only account with multiple entries in the top ten (based on data from Wikipedia last updated on December 26). Both tweets have about 3.1 million likes, and one is of V getting his hair done, while the other is of Jungkook covering Lauv’s “Never Not.” Other accounts with some of the year’s top tweets include Chadwick Boseman (the announcement of his death), Barack Obama (honoring Kobe Bryant), and Andy Milonakis (making a joke about astronauts leaving Earth at a good time).

BTS’ dominance becomes more apparent as you work your way down the list of 2020’s top tweets: Of the 29 most-liked posts, a whopping 18 of them are from BTS (aka nearly two thirds). Meanwhile, as Twitter noted in their post, the second-most retweeted tweet of the year is Jungkook’s “Never Not” cover, while the Boseman announcement is first. These accolades, by the way, mostly apply to the all-time list of most popular tweets as well, since a 2017 tweet from Obama is the only pre-2020 tweet in the top 30.

Find the full list of this year’s top ten most-liked tweets below.

1. Family of Chadwick Boseman (@chadwickboseman) — “[It is with immeasurable grief that we confirm the passing of Chadwick Boseman […]]” (7.5 million likes, August 28)
2. Barack Obama (@BarackObama) — “Kobe was a legend on the court and just getting started in what would have been just as meaningful a second act.[…]” (3.9m, January 26)
3. Andy Milonakis (@andymilonakis) — “Congratulations to the Astronauts that left Earth today. Good choice.” (3.7m, May 30)
4. Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) — “We did it, @JoeBiden.” (3.3m, November 7)
5. Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) — “America, I’m honored that you have chosen me to lead our great country.[…]” (3.3m, November 7)
6. Macaulay Culkin (@IncredibleCulk) — “Hey guys, wanna feel old? I’m 40. You’re welcome.” (3.3m, August 26)
7. BTS (@BTS_twt) — “Hi Army.” (3.1m, August 16)
8. BTS (@BTS_twt) — “Never Not.” (3.1m, May 3)
9. Mel (@_melaneee) — “IM OFFICIALLY CANCER FREE !!!” (2.9m, June 30)
10. Jamie (@gnuman1979) — “Quarantine day 6.” (2.9m, March 16)

What a year 2020 has been, and not in a good way at all. Dogs make everything better, though, and that’s why the above clip gets my vote for viral video of the year (yes, even above seeing black goo ooze out of Rudy Giuliani). Who wouldn’t be thrilled to see this pup sprint onto a soccer field, mid-match, while brandishing a cleat, looking all cute, and hoping to receive applause for his own performance?

Even the players in this Bolivian match were charmed. According to Reuters, the “incident” (which, let’s face it, is a word that does not accurately or fairly capture the overwhelmingly positive feel of what happened here) shut down the match for three minutes, but no one seemed upset about the inconvenience. Nope, this very good canine received belly rubs for shaking up what was eventually a victory for The Strongest 3-0 over Nacional de Potosi.

There appears to be no followup on who the pup belonged to or how he entered the field, but hopefully, it got some treats (after a Nacional player scooped him off and carted the dog off the field and another player gave it an affectionate rub on the noggin) and was reunited with its lucky humans. What a sweet boy and the winner of everything.

Yesterday, Billie Eilish took some time to share some photos and videos as requested by fans on Instagram, responding to prompts with some clips from her life. Some people didn’t like one of her posts, though, and she lost about 100,000 followers after sharing some nude drawings she made. For reference, 100,000 followers amounted to just 0.14 percent of her then-total of 73 million at the time (and she has recovered nicely, as she’s currently up to 73.1 million just a day later).

Anyway, she had some other fun things to share as well, like a hilarious video from after she had her wisdom teeth removed in 2017. In the newly-shared clips, a loopy Eilish sits in the car and responds with incredulity to her family’s requests to not mess with the gauze in her mouth. She then adopts a happily defeated look as she realizes she’s being filmed. Eilish later sticks her tongue out and wags it around as her family scolds her for putting her fingers in her mouth.

Eilish previously shared some other videos from the same day. In the clips, she talks to the camera, feels her numb mouth, fools around with her gauze, and has trouble walking.

Watch the clips above and below.