Month: March 2021

There’s an Oreo for just about everything these days, and that will soon include NBA teams, as the parent company of the cookie brand this week became the Official Snacking Partner in the NBA. Normally who the NBA partners with does not affect anyone’s taste buds, but in this case it will, as the league and Mondelez International are combining forces to create Oreos based on NBA dynasties.

NBA fans will get to buy Oreos based on their favorite dynasties, including the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls, Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat. The limited-edition packs will be available later this month.

Additionally, the company is putting together sweepstakes to offer fans a trip to NBA All-Star Weekend in 2022 and will continue to develop NBA-branded snacks from its other product lines, including Chips Ahoy! Cookies, Nutter Butter cookies, and Sour Patch Kids gummy candies.

So if you’ve ever wanted to literally taste championship success and never got close enough to sip the frothy champagne flying around a postgame locker room after your team hoisted the trophy, Oreo is making that a reality. After the popularity of the Lady Gaga Chromatica Oreos, we may see this trend continue for a while, and NBA teams at least give the cookie-maker a chance to keep things colorful. For now, we’re just left considering whether the Miami Heat’s run really qualifies as a “dynasty?”

Pink Sweats and Kehlani’s performance on their Pink Planet duet “At My Worst” is already gently harmonious, but the duo kicked it up a notch on The Tonight Show with a gorgeous visual component that perfectly accented the duality of the soul-stirring ballad.

Performing in a room split down the middle, each artist’s side is the perfect complement to the other’s. On Pink Sweats’ side, he wears his customary color, which contrasts nicely with the canary yellow decor. He’s backed by a female guitarist, while on the other side, Kehlani wears a yellow dress in a pink room, backed by a male guitarist. The yin-and-yang effect mirrors the complementary quality of their voices as they sing both to each other and to their respective loves (Pink Sweats recently proposed to his longtime girlfriend JL Bunny, who is a performer in her own right).

Sweats is fresh off the release of his debut album Pink Planet, which dropped last month backed by the loving single “Heaven.” Meanwhile, Kehlani has been leading the R&B resurgence with a slew of features in 2020 supporting her musical peers and her last album, It Was Good Until It Wasn’t.

Watch Pink Sweats and Kehlani’s harmonious performance of “At My Worst” above.

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

Over the past few months, Jenny Lewis and Chicago rapper Serengeti (real name David Cohn) have worked closely together after striking up a friendship in 2018. They’ve released a few tracks so far, beginning with “Unblu” in December, which was followed by “Vroom Vroom” in January. Now they have a third track, “Idiot,” along with a DIY video, which mostly features edited clips of Lewis dancing and posing in a bathing suit.

Lewis and Serengeti previously explained how they came to be collaborative partners, writing, “Jenny met Dave down a long hallway in a former Communist Media Center in East Berlin during the People Festival of 2018. Dave asked Jenny to sing on a song about Tom Selleck passing on the part of Indiana Jones. […] A fast friendship was born as they skulked about, cracking jokes and chatting about their mutual love for boxing. […] Then the world shut down and Jenny & Dave hunkered down in Los Angeles & Chicago, respectively. Jenny smoked weed every day and Dave stayed totally sober. The result is five songs made on Jenny’s iPhone, for Dave. Beats, bass, drums, digital tanpura & topline, sent via text, ripe for Dave’s poetry. To accompany the music, Jenny made videos on her phone during the witching hours, editing while under the covers.”

Watch the “Idiot” video above.

Jenny Lewis is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In the days following Glee star Naya Rivera’s death, the show’s co-creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan praised the actress for the “humor and humanity that she brought to Santana’s relationship with her best friend and eventual girlfriend/wife Brittany.” They also said that they were “currently in the process of creating a college fund for the beautiful son Naya loved most of all.”

Rivera’s dad is wondering what happened to that college fund.

In a series of tweets on Tuesday, George Rivera accused Murphy and his team for making “broken promises” and “hollow gestures.” He tweeted, “When you are part of the Hollywood elite, some people treat others as they are ‘less than’ …. vocalize a good game, but it’s as shallow as the sets on stage, that they create. Promises made in public, only to fade with time and excuses …. even in a unexplainable tragedy.” When asked if they set up a trust fund for Rivera’s son, Josey, her dad replied, “Hahaaaa.”

Murphy has since responded to the accusations. “Myself, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan have committed to create a college fund for Naya Rivera’s child Josey through the Naya Rivera Estate Trust,” he tweeted. “We have been in repeated conversations with the appropriate executors of her estate.”

Rivera went missing on July 8 of last year after going on a boat trip with her four-year-old son. Her body was found five days later. The cause of death was ruled accidental drowning.

(Via BuzzFeed)

Influential trap producer Southside of 808 Mafia plans to retire from producing after over a decade in the rap game spent making beats for the likes of Drake, G Herbo, Future, and more. Instead, he wants to focus on mentoring younger producers after the release of the next 808 Mafia project. He announced his decision in a series of tweets proposing, then explaining, the retirement while fielding questions from curious fans.

“I’m thinking bout retirement how y’all feel about that,” he said initially. While some fans were supportive, others expressed disappointment, while one simply asked that Southside share some of his wisdom before he retired. He chose to do just that, writing, “After this 808mafia album I’m done. I’m where I wanna be in life as a producer.”

He elaborated, though, that he wasn’t going to stop using the 808 Mafia brand to lend opportunities to newcomers and promised that the album itself would be top quality. Just kno this album is going to be great. I’m still gone lead for the culture, I’m still gone try to put new producers on, but as a producer, I’m throwing the towel in after this album.”

If Southside is serious about retiring, he’ll do so as one of rap’s more prolific hitmakers, responsible for some of Future’s biggest hits including “F*ck Up Some Commas” and “Wicked,” while in recent years, he’s landed placements on Drake’s Dark Lane Demo Tapes and Moneybagg Yo’s “Blue Jean Bandit.” Meanwhile, 808 Mafia, which was founded by Southside and Lex Luger in 2010, has over 30 listed members and a wide range of production credits, living up to Southside’s dream of putting new producers on.

Back in September, Janelle Monáe dropped “Turntables,” which was written for All In: The Fight For Democracy, a documentary about Stacey Abrams. Last night, she brought the song to The Late Show for a stirring performance, for which Monáe was wielding a guitar and joined by a band in a shadowy room.

The song was recently included on the Oscars’ Best Original Song shortlist, which Monáe addressed in a pair of tweets last night, writing, “[All In] started out as a documentary that turned into a movement and I was blessed to be a part of it with ‘Turntables’. This song is for our people and part of a revolution that is still unfolding before our eyes. This song is not for me, but for We, WE THE PEOPLE. Thank you [Abrams], [Liz Garbus], & [Lisa Cortés] for all the incredible work you are doing to tell the truth about voter suppression. Thank you for calling & trusting me with this song. Thank you to [The Academy] for shortlisting both [All In] & ‘TurnTables.’”

Monáe also previously told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe of the song, “We are changing things. The tables are turning. The rooster has come home to roost. So, this song is capturing direction. And when you think about a record, when you think about a record spinning, when you think about the revolutions per minute, it’s all connected. And that is what this song means. This song doesn’t mean that I’m the leader, that I’m here to tell you what to do, how to fix things. I’m simply watching, examining and wanting to highlight all of the people who are on the front lines, fighting for our democracy, fighting against racial inequalities, fighting against white supremacy, fighting against systemic racism and systemic oppression. So, this song is to keep us motivated. This song is to lift up and keep us galvanized when we’re fatigued. And this song is really for the people.”

Watch Monáe perform “Turntables” above.

Just in case the densely-packed wordplay in Phife Dawg‘s posthumous “Nutshell Part 2” got away from you, the song now has an animated lyric video to help make it easier to follow Phife, Busta Rhymes, and Redman‘s elaborate rhyme schemes. The video, which you can watch above, is exclusively premiering here at Uproxx. Featuring illustrated versions of our rhyme heroes bursting forth from a literal nutshell and dynamic synchronized artwork, the Mike Gordon-created lyric video (with additional animation from Konee Rok) is the latest part of the rollout for Phife’s upcoming posthumous album Forever, which is due later this year on AWAL.

Forever will be Phife’s first solo album since 2000’s Ventilation: Da LP, and while there’s little information so far, “Nutshell Part 2” gives us enough to go on to assume that it’ll make good use of the Five Footer’s contact list. Word has it, there’s still plenty of posthumous J Dilla production work yet to be released, so it’s possible that more beats from the late, great Detroit legend will appear here, along with cameos from other Native Tongues affiliates showing their affection for the dearly departed Phife. A Tribe Called Quest initially announced the album in 2017 but given the extra time they spent on perfecting it in the years since, it’s sure to be a fitting tribute to Phife’s legacy.

Watch Phife’s animated “Nutshell Pt 2” lyric video above.

Director James Gunn was already a prolific social media user, and naturally, that only increased as the pandemic has trapped most of us at home for the better part of the year. So when Gunn sees demonstrably false rumors being reported about his work, he’s had even more time to quickly swat them down to the delight of his fans who enjoy that Gunn gives it to them straight.

This time around, Gunn spotted a report claiming that casting is underway for Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 and that he’s looking for a “Zac Efron type” to play Adam Warlock, a classic Marvel character with ties to the Guardians in the comics. However, if anyone would know when casting has started on Guardians 3, it’s Gunn, and he quickly dismantled the online rumor that he’s currently looking for someone to play the golden, Space Jesus-like character, who he’s never confirmed is in the film.

“There is no casting underway for Vol. 3. And in what world would I only cast a ‘Caucasian’ if the character has gold skin?” Gunn tweeted. “And if I wanted a Zac Efron type wouldn’t I go to Zac Efron? Where do you get this nonsense?”

As is often the case, Gunn’s denial about the casting rumor went viral as “Adam Warlock” started trending on Twitter on Tuesday night, which caught the eye of Seth Rogen who threw his hat in the ring for the non-existent role.

Gunn let him down gently.

As expected, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s much-watched interview with Oprah Winfrey sent Piers Morgan into a tizzy.

“I don’t believe a word she says, Meghan Markle,” he said about the Duchess of Sussex (who he called the “Pinocchio Princess”) on Good Morning Britain. “I wouldn’t believe her if she read me a weather report.” Morgan no longer works for the morning show after he stormed off the set, but before his huffy exit, his remarks reportedly led to “more than 41,000 complaints” against regulator Ofcom, including one from Markle herself:

Both the Guardian and the Telegraph claim that a complaint was lodged on behalf of the royal after Monday’s Good Morning Britain, in which Morgan repeatedly lashed out at Prince Harry and Markle over their revelations in the explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey. The growing furore over the former CNN host’s tirade would ultimately see him quit the show… Both ITV and Prince Harry and Markle’s Archewell foundation said they wouldn’t comment on the complaint, although neither denied that it was made.

Chris Ship, ITV’s royal correspondent, reported on the complaint on Twitter, writing, “So… the Duchess of Sussex formally filed a complaint to @ITV on Monday. It’s thought to have been sent to the broadcaster’s CEO. Meghan raised concerns about how @piersmorgan’s words affect the issue of mental health and what it might do to others contemplating suicide.”

Since his Good Morning British exit, Morgan has favorably compared himself to Winston Churchill and thanked his Twitter followers “for all the love, and hate.”

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

When the nomination and awards seasons roll around, the Grammy Awards and the Recording Academy tend to be the recipients of plenty of ire. That seems to have come to a head in 2020 and 2021, though, as for one reason or another, lots of people have taken issue with the ceremony. Zayn is one of the latest high-profile figures to take a shot at the Academy, and it was quite a shot that he took.

Yesterday, he tweeted, “F*ck the grammys and everyone associated. Unless you shake hands and send gifts, there’s no nomination considerations. Next year I’ll send you a basket of confectionary.” After letting that stew for a few hours and gain traction (as of this post, the tweet has nearly a quarter of a million likes), Zayn apparently felt the need to clarify, so he followed up, “My tweet was not personal or about eligibility but was about the need for inclusion and the lack of transparency of the nomination process and the space that creates and allows favoritism, racism, and [networking] politics to influence the voting process.”

Zayn’s latest album, Nobody Is Listening, was released on January 15, 2021, putting it outside of this year’s Grammys eligibility window, which is from September 1, 2019 to August 31, 2020.