Month: March 2021

Blxst is certainly in for a big year after gaining great popularity as a result of a thrilling 2020. While his plans for the forthcoming months remain to be seen, Blxst is kicking things off with a pair of new singles. The West Coast native returns with his Just For Clarity EP supported by contributions from Drakeo The Ruler and Russ. Blxst connects with Drakeo The Ruler for “Don’t Forget,” a silky-smooth effort that sees both artists discussing the skepticism they encountered on their way to the top. While they’ve forgiven their doubters, the duo declares that they won’t be forgotten as it fuels their motivation to continue thriving.

The second song of EP presents Russ alongside Blxst for “Fck Boys.” On this track, they both find themselves in relationships with women who are damaged due to sub-par experiences with men they encountered prior to them. Despite these hardships, the duo declares that they’re the man their female companions have been waiting for. To add to their point, Russ questions “who the f*ck is he to f*ck up your whole life” while Blxst reminds listeners that “f*ck boys f*ck it up for real n****s.”

The songs arrive after Blxst shared a deluxe reissue of No Love Lost at the end of last year. Since then the singer has also delivered videos for “Got It All” and “No Love Lost.”

Press play on both tracks in the videos above.

After the success his two 2020 projects brought him last year, it’s only right that Giveon is making sure his Take Time and When It’s All Said And Done EPs are celebrated in the new year. The Long Beach singer ensured this would happen in three ways. First, he shared a new video for his Take Time standout, “Heartbreak Anniversary.” The visual reflects on the highs and lows Giveon experienced with an old lover, played by Samantha Logan who many might recognize by the name of Olivia Baker from the TV drama, All-American. Giveon transitions between his lonely present and his turbulent past with his old love interest as he sings about the day their relationship came to an end.

Secondly, in addition to the video, he shared his latest single, “All To Me.” Similar to his prior releases, “Favorite Mistake” and “Still Your Best,” Giveon arrives with a bit of toxicity for listeners on the new effort. He finds himself in the presence of a woman who is not treated well by her partner. Looking to make matters better for this woman, Giveon offers to step in and be the ideal companion she’s wanted for a lifetime. Lastly, Giveon dropped a deluxe reissue of Take Time and When It’s All Said And Done, which combines the two EPs and “All To Me” into one effort titled, When It’s All Said And Done… Take Time.

You can watch the “Heartbreak Anniversary” video and listen to “All To Me” above.

When It’s All Said And Done… Take Time is out now via Epic Records. Get it here.

Corporate sponsorship is widely accepted in the sports world, but the Michigan State Spartans made an announcement on Thursday that turned some heads, even in a culture that expects money grabs at every turn. In short, the university announced that its men’s basketball team will now have what it describes as a “presenting sponsor” in the form of Rocket Mortgage. Not only will the two brands be tied together, Michigan State’s announcement indicates that the program will now be referred to as “MSU Spartans Presented by Rocket Mortgage” at every turn in its home arena, the Breslin Center.

Beyond the men’s basketball partnership, Rocket Mortgage will have “considerable branding” in other venues, including Spartan Stadium, that “will be highly visible to TV audiences.” That isn’t unusual by any stretch but, once again, a major men’s college basketball program is now linked with a corporate sponsor to the point of a new naming convention.

To spice up the announcement, quotes were included from both men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo and football coach Mel Tucker.

“Rocket Mortgage has been a valued partner for years with Michigan State and we are excited that they are continuing to support our program into the future,” Izzo said. “As presenting sponsor of our season, their presence will be an asset as we compete for championships.”

“Michigan State Football wishes to thank Rocket Mortgage for their continued support, not only of our program, but for their overall support for intercollegiate athletics,” Tucker said. “It’s important for championship teams to have championship companies behind them, and Rocket has been a champion for our program for years and will be well into the future.”

While it should surprise no one, the announcement references Dan Gilbert, the founder and chairman of Rocket Mortgage, as an alum of Michigan State, and also indicates that he and his wife, Jennifer, “contributed $15 million to Michigan State” back in 2016. There are often ties on that level in massive, integrated branding partnerships. As one final reminder, though, a Blue Blood men’s basketball program is now going to be called “MSU Spartans Presented by Rocket Mortgage,” and the jokes will be flying across the Big Ten and beyond.

While some people have already seen the first hour of Zack Snyder’s Justice League if they happened to try watching Tom + Jerry at the right time, the rest of us will have to wait until March 17 to see the nearly four-hour epic for ourselves. If you’re willing to give Justice League a second go, however, you can now watch it along with the director responsible for it.

HBO Max announced on Thursday that it will host a livestream of the mega movie featuring Snyder, who fans have rallied behind to give another shot at the DC Universe film. According to Deadline, Scener will power a livestream where people watching on computers will be able to follow along with Snyder during the new cut of the movie’s four-hour runtime.

The event, which is open to all HBO Max subscribers watching on a Chrome web browser, is set to kick off on the Scener website at 4PM PT/7PM ET. Snyder will give a video introduction and also be part of conversation throughout the four-hour runtime. After the event, HBO Max subscribers will be able to create their own watch parties in March and April via Scener.

The watch parties may be a fun way to watch what fans either seem to be extremely excited or equally skeptical about given the first film’s mediocre reception in 2017. The Scener setup puts everyone on the same viewing schedule, with a chat window on the side of the screen so fans can chat and react to the movie as it plays. It’s similar technology that many used in the early months of the pandemic to connect with people while they watched shows and movies on streaming services while in lockdown.

We live in a society where, despite still needing to stay apart for a bit longer, Zack Snyder is excited to watch his movie with you.

“I’m excited to finally share my vision for ‘Justice League’ in a virtual screening with our incredible fanbase who, through the power of community and an inspiring grassroots campaign, played a major role in making this premiere possible,” Snyder said in a press release.

The latest episode of Kyrie Irving vs. The Media arrived after Thursday’s close-fought game between the Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics, which are of course Irving’s current team and his former team. Irving turned heads when, after the game, he went through the Celtics bench and showed love to many members of his former organization.

The situation began when Irving dropped 40 on the Celtics in a 12-point win, then embraced many of his former teammates, as well as newcomers like Kemba Walker.

After Irving’s performance and his connection with Celtics players and staff, Irving was asked about it by the media. Naturally, Irving was withholding and full of jokes in his interaction with reporters.

“Big surprise, huh, to a lot of people?” Irving asked.

Many Irving controversies ago, he was accused of mishandling relationships with many Celtics teammates, and sapping the energy and focus out of younger players in particular. We will never know precisely how accurate that all was, but most every situation is more complicated than the public perception of it, and Irving had to be frustrated with the daily play-by-play of his days in Boston.

Knowing that he still is close with many in Boston, he used the game against his former team to add to the mystery of his persona.

Coi Leray’s 2021 is off to a great start and it comes as a result of her “No More Parties” track. The single was released at the end of January and quickly found success on TikTok thanks to a short video with the song playing in the background that tallied more than 42 million views in just a week. Giving it a second boost, she tapped Lil Durk for a remix of the song, which helped the record reach its peak of No. 32 on the Billboard singles chart. Nearly a month after the remix was dropped, Leray and Durk join forces for a new visual for the song.

While the motto of “no more parties” is clear to Leray, her friends failed to receive the message as they threw a wild get-together at her home while she was gone. Upon her return, she’s left to clean up the mess that was left behind. From Solo cups to unwarranted guests, Leray is tasked with removing all of the unwanted components from her home with some well-supplied help from Durk.

“No More Parties” stands as a great follow-up to her 2020 EP, Now Or Never. The six-track effort was backed by guest appearances from Gunna, Kiana Lede, Sevyn Streeter, and Fetty Wap. As for Lil Durk, the video arrives days after he appeared on The Tonight Show to perform “Still Trappin” and “Stay Down” with 6lack.

You can watch the video above.

While the majority of Rihanna fans are waiting for a new album from the singer, as her last one arrived in 2016 with Anti, the long wait don’t mean that she’s spent the last five years doing little to nothing. Rihanna has been hard at work building her Fenty empire, one that began in 2017 thanks to the launch of Fenty Beauty. The following year she would start her Savage X Fenty lingerie line and in 2019, her Fenty fashion house was officially born. After debuting Fenty Skin last year, Rihanna is preparing to bring a new line to her company, that being Fenty Hair.

According to Harper’s Bazaar, the singer filed a trademark application for Fenty Hair on March 3. The publication reports that the trademark looks to cover “everything from styling, straightening, relaxing and waving products, as well as hair color and even hair glitter.” The news comes after the singer decided to shut down her Fenty fashion house last month, one that was launched in collaboration with LVMH. Despite this, it was also announced last month ago that Savage X Fenty’s net worth reached $1 billion.

After hearing news of the new line, fans celebrated the news on Twitter and one support shared a great reaction to it. “Can’t wait to be around the house in my Fenty furniture, Fenty Skin on, in my Savage X Fenty, doing my Fenty Hair, wearing Fenty X Puma, while listening to absolutely NOTHING,” they said, throwing a slight jab at the singer’s yet-unreleased ninth album.

Nearly five years ago, Nick Jonas unleashed his third album, Last Year Was Complicated. It debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard album charts and spawned one of his most successful tracks, “Close” with Tove Lo, which peaked at No. 14 on the singles chart and served as the third top-20 hit of his career. Despite the success, Nick would take a break from his solo career and spend the next few years a coach on The Voice and making a Jonas Brothers comeback with his siblings Kevin and Joe. Now, Nick is back, and on Friday he’ll release his fourth album, Spaceman.

Its arrival is preceded by a new video for the album’s title track. For it, the singer finds himself on a foreign planet as he desperately attempts to return home. Nick runs across the unfamiliar terrain while passionately singing the lyrics from “Spaceman:” “I’m tryna get home, I’m a spaceman.” The visual also features an appearance from his wife, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, in the form of a hologram.

The visual arrives after Nick hosted and performed on a recent episode of Saturday Night Live where he sang “Spaceman” and debuted his “This Is Heaven” single.

You can watch the video above.

Spaceman is out 03/12 via Island. Pre-order it here.

WandaVision‘s story came to a close last week, and with it some answers that fans had asked basically the entirety of the show’s run. But one answer was a bit disappointing for many of the fans who spent the days between new episodes launching an unending wave of fan theories about what was actually happening in the town controlled by some pretty impressive magic.

Namely, that Vision actor Paul Bettany was actually trolling when he teased a big star he played opposite of in the show’s final episodes. As the weeks wound down, many wondered if he was just teasing fans, and (spoilers ahead) that speculation increased when White Vision showed up. And though many were disappointed by the troll, the man in charge of WandaVision wasn’t nearly as upset by the ruse as some fans were.

Collider spoke to WandaVision creator Jac Schaffer, who was asked about the tease from Bettany that ended up being a pretty clever troll in the end. And while some fans may still be let down, Schaffer thinks the actor has “earned the right” to get fans riled up.

I’m sure you saw Paul Bettany make comments a few weeks ago about how the finale included him getting to work with an actor “he always wanted to work with”? What was your reaction to that?

SCHAEFFER: Well, I mean, I talked to him about it. It was hilarious. He’s hilarious. He’s just what you want him to be. He’s wildly charming, and mischievous and just wonderful. I’m not a trickster, ever. It scares me too badly. But he’s been doing this forever and he’s been doing this since the very beginning. If anyone has earned the right to troll, it’s Paul Bettany.

Interestingly, some of those fan theories actually changed the trajectory of what happened in the show’s later episodes. So while Bettany’s tease may have led some fans in the wrong direction, at least it didn’t impact what actually did happen on the show.

My best friend lives in San Diego. One day a few years ago, her teenage son came home and told her he’d made a new friend at the skate park. He talked about how they had struck up a conversation, the guy had given him some pointers, and they’d chit-chatted about this and that. “He was really cool,” her son said. Then he showed her a selfie they’d taken together.

Yeah, his “new friend” was the skateboarding icon Tony Hawk. True story.

Tales of Tony Hawk not being recognized as Tony Hawk—even for people who actually know who Tony Hawk is—have become the stuff of legends. The 52-year-old made a name for himself in the skateboarding world decades ago and is credited with bringing the sport into the mainstream. Even in 2020, he was listed among the Top 10 skateboarders of all time. He’s had his own video game, cameos in film and television shows, his own clothing line—everything, apparently, but a recognizable face.

The “people not recognizing Tony Hawk as Tony Hawk” thing is so common it’s become a meme of its own. Hawk himself jokes about it all the time, sharing hilarious interactions he has with people on his Twitter account.

This one from a couple of years ago has re-gone viral:

Which is just one of many similar stories. Hawk told Business Insider that it happens often, but he only shares the interactions that are the funniest.

Now the meme itself results in some funny interactions with people.

People’s funny reactions to the meme are becoming their own meme: “I will know Tony Hawk when I see him.”

Part of what makes the whole thing so delightful is that Tony Hawk himself is so delightful. He’s down-to-earth, friendly, doesn’t take himself too seriously, does a lot of connecting out in the community, and is just a genuinely likable guy.

And to top it all off, he’s still a heck of a skater. Though he retired from the pro circuit in 1999, he still skateboards for fun and charity. In fact, he recently landed a 720—two full 360-degree turns in the air off a ramp—which isn’t easy for even a young skater to pull off, and then auctioned the board to raise money to help build more public skateparks. (He did say it might be his last time pulling off that trick, but who knows. Good for him for pushing the age envelope.)

Tony Hawk—skating legend, father of five, nice guy to all, supporter of community parks, and man that everyone adores but nobody recognizes—thanks for being such a ray of sunshine in our world. May we know you when we see you, or at least be entertaining enough to make your Twitter account if we don’t.