Month: January 2021

Though local outlets like KCRW have already been singing Jensen McRae’s praises, it wasn’t until a joke about an imaginary Phoebe Bridgers “cover” that many in the music industry sat up and took notice. Last week McRae tweeted a joke about the intro to Phoebe’s third album in 2023, hypothesizing it would be about getting vaccinated at Dodgers Stadium. Then, she went ahead and wrote the first verse for good measure. Hey, it’s a pandemic, we’re all trying to entertain ourselves as we can.

Thing is, McRae’s “cover” was so spot on — and actually a really good song — so of course Phoebe herself shared it with the simple exclamation “oh my god.”

After that, the internet did its thing and the song became an instant social media hit. So Jensen decided to give the people what we want, and wrote through the whole song, naming it “Immune” and sharing it tonight. While it’s great that this viral incident put McRae on the map, keep in mind that she’s much more than just someone having fun on the internet, she’s an fledgling musician herself on the cusp of releasing a debut album, and has already released incredible original songs like “Wolves” and “White Boy.” Like Phoebe, McRae is a Los Angeles native; she was born in Santa Monica and raised in Woodland Hills in a Black and Jewish family. She received a full ride to USC’s Thornton School of Music and graduated with a degree in popular music performance. Check out “Immune” above and look for a lot more coming from Jensen soon.

In a world where touring is an activity that won’t return until this fall at the earliest, artists have spent the better part of the last year performing from the comforts of their own home. During a recent appearance on The Late Late Show With James Corden, Halsey reflected on some of the things she missed about touring. However, it’s what she said she did not miss about live performances that caused the singer to recall an interesting moment.

The pop singer revisited a 2016 show at New York City’s Madison Square Garden where nothing seemed to go right at its start. “One time I was onstage, and everything stopped working — sound, lights, video, music, the whole thing, my brain,” she said. “Everything malfunctioned, and I had to stand on the stage for two minutes talking to the crowd…. Two minutes in stage time is like a century.” A video from a fan who attended the concert shows the singer jumping into an impromptu monologue during her performance of “Castle” from her Badlands album when the malfunction occurred. She later revealed that once everything was fixed, she started the whole show over in order to “do the whole thing with no mistakes.”

Halsey’s appearance on The Late Late Show With James Corden comes after she was forced to cancel the world tour behind her 2020 Manic album. “Despite our absolute best efforts, there is no guarantee I’ll be able to tour the currently scheduled dates,” she said in a statement to social media. “I miss seeing all of you in the crowd every night more than anything, but I need to prioritize your health and safety.”

You can watch her interview with Corden in the video above.

Trae Young had a monster night against the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday, scoring 38 points on 12-for-23 shooting with five assists in a 108-99 Atlanta Hawks win. Late in the game, Young hit a triple from quite a way behind the three-point line that sealed the deal for Atlanta, and right after the shot went in, he paid a subtle tribute to someone else who was known for having prolific games against the Clippers.

Young pointed to a spot on the floor, and as he was walking to his bench following a timeout, held up a 2 on one hand and a 4 on the other in memory of the late Kobe Bryant, who died one year ago on Tuesday in a helicopter crash.

Young was a gigantic fan of Bryant, and on the day of his passing last year changed up his number to Bryant’s original digit, 8, during the game that the Hawks had that night before switching back to his normal number, 11. He didn’t go to quite those lengths this year, but still, hitting a big shot against a team that Bryant routinely tormented during his Hall of Fame career and then flashing his number on his fingers isn’t a bad way for Young to join the chorus of folks in the basketball universe who honored Kobe on Tuesday.

Verzuz is riding high off the success of their most recent battle between Keyshia Cole and Ashanti, a matchup that brought in huge numbers and even set a new Instagram Live record. Now the Swizz Beatz and Timbaland-led show is on the lookout for their next battle. In fact Timbaland recently said there’s a pairing that Drake is looking for specifically: Usher and Justin Timberlake.

Timbeland shared the news during a recent appearance he and Swizz Beatz made on ESPN’s Jalen And Jacoby, saying Drake told them to make it happen. “I’m like, ‘Soon to come. Soon to come,’” he said. Elsewhere on the show, Timbaland said that the other potential matchups Verzuz are considering include No Limit vs. Cash Money and Missy Elliott vs. Busta Rhymes. About the latter pairing, he said, “It is, to me, the best party that could ever happen on Verzuz,” and added, “It’s just a matter of comfort zone of my sister wanting to celebrate with her brother and understanding that it’s not competition. It’s a party.”

The pair’s appearance on Jalen And Jacoby also caught some attention when they said they were looking to hold battles between dead singers, including Michael Jackson vs. Prince and Tupac vs. Notorious B.I.G. — although, they promised, “in a way that the people is gonna really love it.”

For the last 21 years, Richard Lewis has enjoyed a sporadic but fruitful gig: Every now and then getting to play a fictionalized version of himself who gets annoyed by or annoys a fictionalized version of Larry David. He’s been on Curb Your Enthusiasm from the very start — since the pilot filmed in 1999, a full year before the show went full-time. Sadly, though, he’ll have to miss the in-the-works, post-COVID-19-set Season 11. But he has a good excuse.

The comedian and actor broke the news on Twitter, citing totally understandable health issues. “T ragically, these past 18 months I’ve endured a back and two shoulder surgeries and not able to be in #curbyourenthusiasm for season 11,” Lewis wrote. “I’ll be watching…”

Lewis elaborated to Variety: “For 20 years, I had the greatest comedy gig I could have ever imagined with my oldest and dearest friend LD. Honestly, I’m crushed that I won’t be part of this season. For sure, I will be screaming with all the other Curb fans when the new season starts. Hope to be there for Season 12.”

Lewis has appeared in 39 of the show’s 100 episodes. Last season he was pretty busy: He had two separate girlfriends, including a crier-for-hire played by Isla Fisher, and he even had a rare dramatic theater role. Good luck, Richard, feel better, and come back to kvetch soon.

(Via Variety)

Next month, Billie Eilish will release her documentary Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry, which will premiere in movie theatres globally and on AppleTV+ as well. Ahead of its release, the singer sat down with Vanity Fair to share what it was like to re-experience certain aspects of her life.

“It’s really about my life, me, in such a way that I was not expecting, and was pretty brutal to relive,” she said. “I was going through hell in certain parts of my life, and I had no idea anyone was seeing it. The fact that they have footage of it and you can see my emotions.” She also revealed that the film reminded her of a certain beloved sitcom.

“It’s like, I can’t help but think about the last episode of The Office when Erin was like, ‘How did you do it? How did you really get how we felt and what we were doing? How did you do it?’” she said. “I used to watch that episode and be like, That would be amazing if somebody did that and you could rewatch those parts of your life from a different perspective. And I did it!”

Director R.J. Culter also shared some thought, saying the “stories of teenage life are so interesting to me.” He added, “It’s such a fascinating time of life, where you were both child and adult; one foot in childhood, one foot in adulthood and especially for somebody who’s going through what Billie was going through and who was such a remarkable talent.”

You can watch the trailer for the film above.

Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry premieres globally on 02/26.

(via Vanity Fair)

In March Spy Kids turns 20 years old. Mazel tov! It’s also about to cross another milestone: It’s been a decade since the series saw a proper film. (There was a short-lived TV show, which ran two seasons, ending in 2018.) But that’s about to change: According to Entertainment Weekly, it’s coming back, complete with franchise’s father (and Baby Yoda bud) Robert Rodriguez back in the same seat.

What’s not clear is if anyone from the original four films will be returning as well. Those starred Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara as the spawn of two spies, played by Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino, who follow in their parents’ footsteps when they get captured. Will Vega and Sabara return, each with their own batch of kids who spy? Could be! But the only detail known at this time is that, much like the original, the revival will revolve around a multicultural family.

When Rodriguez made Spy Kids, he was coming off a line of R-rated, adults-only (or teens-also) genre movies, starting with his attention-grabbing, almost-no-budget debut El Mariachi, which he was able to shot for a shockingly low $7,000 back in the early ’90s. (Post-production cost rather a lot more than that, but it was still a bargain.) He still often makes movies in a home studio in Austin, including his last picture, the gigantic, James Cameron-shepherded Alita: Battle Angel. Whatever he does with Spy Kids 5 or whatever it is, he’ll probably at least have the sense to bring back Danny Trejo.

(Via EW)

The pandemic has made it hard for all corners of the entertainment world to operate under normal procedures. Festivals have been shut down, award shows have gone virtual in empty venues, and anything that requires a team present requires multiple tests beforehand. Cardi B recently shared what her team has to do on a weekly basis as a result of the pandemic, as well as how much it costs to ensure everyone’s safety.

“I get Covid tested bout 4 times a week,” she wrote in a tweet. “My glam and management gotta get tested as well. Everytime we get tested is about 250$ each. This is seriously a new business [face palm emoji].” It’s a fairly expensive amount to spend on a weekly basis for the test, amounting to $1,000 a day and $7,000 a week for a team of four, Cardi herself included. However, it’s necessary that tests are done at a frequent rate, given how cases around the country continue to rise at rapid rates.

Cardi’s tweet comes months after she revealed that when she and Megan The Stallion shot the video for their collaboration “WAP,” they spent a total of $100,000 on COVID-19 tests.

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

Beloved NBA writer and analyst Sekou Smith died on Tuesday. Smith, a Michigan native based out of Atlanta and a perpetually welcoming face to hoops fans who would tune into NBA TV, lost his battle with COVID-19, sparking an overwhelming response from the basketball community for a man whose love for the game was unmatched. The news of his passing became known to hoops fans by Unit1HoopSource.

A graduate of Jackson State, Smith, who was 48, covered the league for decades following a stint at The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss. He spent years covering the Indiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks before joining Turner, where his musings would appear in writing, on television, and on his podcast, “NBA Hang Time,” which he hosted alongside Lang Whitaker and Rick Fox. A man who wore many hats, the thing that always came through no matter the medium was that Smith truly loved the game of basketball, something that NBA commissioner Adam Silver articulated in a statement.

Bringing Smith up to anyone in the basketball world would always elicit a similar response — a smile, a story, something about how he was a force for good in the sport. This sentiment spread like wildfire among those who knew him in the game, whether they were players, fellow reporters, or anyone else who got the chance to know him.

Turner analyst Steve Smith took a moment before his broadcast of Clippers-Hawks on Tuesday evening to speak about Smith, emphasizing that the impact Sekou had on him goes beyond hoops.

Smith was well-known for his ranking of the league’s MVP candidates, which was known as Sekou’s MVP Ladder and always found a way to inject insight into even the most one-sided of races to be named the league’s top player.

For those who had the privilege of knowing him, there was no one better. Rest in peace, Sekou.

It’s been almost a week since Mitch McConnell lost his prized gig as Senate Majority Leader, a position he held since 2015. During his tenure, he developed a reputation as the “Grim Reaper” (his description), blocking untold pieces of progressive legislation, including the second stimulus package that still, over a month since its passing, hasn’t reached millions of Americans. So when Senate Democrats, including new Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, tried to do something McConnell felt went against Senate rules, he let them have it — at least over Twitter.

According to CNN, McConnell has spent the last week trying to save the filibuster, the controversial procedure that has evolved in the last handful of years into a way to stall legislation. Removing it has been one of the top priorities for certain Democratic Senators, and McConnell, despite no longer having any real power, has been adamant about keeping it. But when it looked as though Democrats lacked the votes to expel it, McConnell declared victory.

“Today, I made clear that if Democrats ever attack the key Senate rules, it would drain the consent and comity out of the institution,” he tweeted. :”A scorched-earth Senate would hardly be able to function. It wouldn’t be a progressive’s dream. It would be a nightmare. I guarantee it.”

First off, again, McConnell and his party no longer have control over the Senate. (That doesn’t mean the famously pleasant Schumer won’t ever cow to his threats, mind you.) For another, McConnell is perhaps the last one to speak about destroying Senate “comity.” And people were quick to remind him of his past deeds, among them blocking Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland for over a year, railroading Amy Coney Barrett into the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s SCOTUS seat mere weeks before an election, etc. etc. etc.

Others reminded everyone that McConnell does not have the power he claims to wield.

Anyway, Schumer and company, don’t be afraid of a little turtle.

(Via CNN)