Month: March 2021

This weekend Nick Jonas released Spaceman — his first solo album in more than four years. He performed the project’s two singles, “Spaceman” and “This Is Heaven,” on an Saturday Night Live episode he hosted and later delivered a video for the former track. While Nick may not be focused on the next stage of his career just yet, the singer revealed that it would be a dream to portray Bruce Springsteen in a movie.

“Well, growing up in New Jersey, Bruce obviously has a special place in my heart and my creative life,” Jonas said during an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “And it is a dream of mine — and I’ll just go ahead and say it, hoping that it gets to the right ears — but it’s a dream of mine to play him in a movie one day and tell his story in some way that would be honoring to him and that he could be involved with.”

He also commended The Boss for the longevity of his career and the way he treats his fans. “[I] could only hope to have a career as lengthy as his and as important as his has been to people,” Jonas added. “And that was the thing that really stood out to me after going to a show is just, he’s been a champion for his fans his entire career, and you see it at the shows. It’s about them. Every moment’s about them, them having the best experience, best night of their week, their life, their year, whatever.”

You can watch the entire interview above.

Spaceman is out now via Island Records. Get it here.

Lil Baby has had a great last year and a half, and this Sunday saw another example of that. The rapper took the stage at the 2021 Grammys to deliver a fiery performance of “The Bigger Picture,” which was also among the night’s nominated songs. While his set was a memorable one, he later revealed another exciting thing that happened to him that night.

“I met jay z,” he wrote in a tweet. “He let the security walk with bey an he walked by his self. Boss sh*t.” Later, during an interview with Billboard, he spoke about the run-in. “I’m really not that fond of meeting other celebrities, but Jay-Z is a guy who I look up to, and look up to the way he moves and the things that he’s done,” he said. “I see myself following in his footsteps.”

Lil Baby also discussed his Grammy performance and explained why he felt it was important to show scenes of police brutality and riots. “I wanted to use a specific situation that would give people an understanding of where I come from,” he revealed. “I didn’t really want to use the George Floyd or Breonna Taylor [killings] or something. I wanted to use something that stood by me. That happened in Atlanta, and I live in Atlanta, and I’ve been in some of those same exact situations.”

Nine years ago, Disney forked out $4.05 billion to buy the Star Wars property from George Lucas (who’s used the money wisely). It’s been a hit-and-miss gamble, with at one sure-fire hit underperforming (Solo: A Star Wars Story) plus derided threequel (The Rise of Skywalker). Still, they own Star Wars, so they might as well make the most of it. With that in mind, it’s a bit strange to learn that, a year and change after it bowed, Disney+ will finally get around to making public some Star Wars content that’s both top-shelf and a bit arcane.

As per Variety, on April 2 the streamer will add a bevy of deep-ish cut Star Wars effluvia. The most high profile of them is the original Clone Wars, which ran for three seasons between 2003 and 2005. Directed by Samurai Jack’s Genndy Tartakovsky, it was meant to bridge the gap between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Its first two seasons unspooled in five-minute bites — it was Quibi before Quibi! — but the third expanded into a full 12 minutes each. (In 2008 Clone Wars returned as a regular-length show, but minus Tartakovsky.)

It’s been a touch inexplicable that the first Clone Wars was AWOL from Disney+. Not so much another big newbie: the two Ewok spin-off TV movies from 1984 and 1985. A mere year after Return of the Jedi, the most marketable figures hit the small screen in Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure, bringing back Warwick Davis’ Wicket, as well as esteemed actress Fionnula Flanagan. Ewoks: The Battle of Endor arrived the next year, this time with Wicket joined by Wilford Brimley and Paul Gleason, the mean principal from The Breakfast Club.

To answer your question: No, you’re not getting the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special. Okay, you sort of are: Disney+ will soon boast “The Story of the Faithful Wookiee,” the only genuinely good part of the franchise’s first major misstep — a cartoon interlude that, among other things, introduced the world to Boba Fett. Still, a dazed Carrie Fisher warbling the theme to Star Wars with lyrics or GTFO.

(Via Variety)

Less than two years after she dropped her album Thank U, Next, Ariana Grande made a quick return last October with her Positions. The effort gave the singer her third consecutive No. 1 album and she eventually shared a deluxe reissue of it with four additional songs. While some may have expected her to take a break, she revealed one more song was on the way, and it would be in the form of a guest feature.

At the beginning of the month, Grande posted a video of her recording vocals to her Instagram Story with the caption, “backgrounds on a song for a friend.” Turns out that friend is Demi Lovato, as Lovato recently confirmed in an interview iwth The New York Times. The tentatively untitled song will appear on her upcoming album Dancing With The Devil…The Art Of Starting Over, and it was the last track added to the project. During an appearance on the audio-based app Clubhouse, she revealed the project — which arrives on April 2 — will be a blend of country, soul, and ’90s pop over its 17 songs and three bonus tracks.

In the Times interview, Scooter Braun, Lovato’s manager, spoke about how Grande helped the Lovato return to the pop scene after her 2018 overdose. “I saw that she was scared, like, no one’s going to take me on,” Braun said about his first meeting with her. “I asked Ariana’s opinion and she said, let me go to coffee with her, and by the time she got home, she texted me: You have to take her on, this is my friend. I want to know she’s safe.”

Dancing With The Devil…The Art Of Starting Over is out 4/2 via Republic. Pre-order it here.

While Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” single has been wildly popular since its release last August, it’s only angered conservatives across the country. They’ve deemed the song as inappropriate on all accounts, but this week Candance Owens took things a bit further. After their performance at the Grammys on Sunday, Owens took to Twitter, where she railed against their performance.

“This spectacle? Virtually what we were looking at last night was a lesbian sex scene being simulated on television, and this is considered feminist. It’s iconic. It’s forward. It’s progressive,” she said. “This is starting, to me, to seem like it’s not even left or right. It’s not a political issue. This seems like an attack on American values, American traditions, and you’re actually actively trying to make children aspire to things that are grotesque.” She added, “We are celebrating perversity in America.”

Cardi caught wind of her comments and thanked her for giving it “more views that boosted the views on YouTube and is counting towards my streams and sales.” Owens objected to her response, saying that her issue wasn’t her success, but rather her “being used to encourage young women to strip themselves of dignity.” She added, “Men typically treat women how they treat themselves. You know that.”

Cardi B pushed back, using former First Lady Melania Trump to make her point. “No! Candy, men treat women on how a woman allows a man to treat them,” she wrote above picture of a nearly-nude former First Lady. “I mean look at Melania she was a porn star however she didn’t allowed Trump to treat her as so or shame her for her [past] and made her into a First Lady & the mother of his child.”

Owens then asked her, “What is your obsession with the Trump family?” Cardi had a sarcastic response. “I’m obsessed she’s my idol,” she wrote. “She showed me I can be naked perform wap and still be a First Lady one day ! ….wait so only White women can be naked and show their sexuality and evolve in their 30s but I can’t ? Wow America is soo unfair .To think this was the land of the free.”

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

Ever since the Democrats took all three branches of government, their constituents have been begging to do something should have been done a long time ago: limit or destroy the filibuster. Once immortalized as a noble, if exhausting, procedure in the likes of Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, it has in recent decades been used as a mere tool for obstruction, often wielded by Republicans. And as talk has ramped up in the last months about eradicating it completely, there’s been one person who’s emerged as its biggest cheerleader: Senate norms lover Mitch McConnell.

On Tuesday, the former Senate Majority Leader ramped up his filibuster defense a notch or two. He took to the floor of the chamber to issue a thinly-veiled threat. “Everything that Democratic Senates did to Presidents Bush and Trump, everything the Republican Senate did to President Obama, would be child’s play compared to the disaster that Democrats would create for their own priorities if — if — they break the Senate.”

McConnell wasn’t done. “Let me say this very clearly for all 99 of my colleagues,” he added. “Nobody serving in this chamber can even begin — can even begin — to imagine what a completely scorched earth Senate would look like — none. None of us have served one minute in a Senate that was completely drained of comity, and this is an institution that requires unanimous consent to turn the lights on before noon.”

It remains to be seen if Senate and House Democrats will heed his warning — or if they’ll listen to much of social media, who called McConnell’s bluff and then some.

Some reminded them that McConnell and Senate Republicans lost power.

Others told them not to be scared.

And that the filibuster is the last bit of real power he has left.

In fact, he’s right to be scared.

Besides, some said, McConnell will screw them over anyway.

Some pointed out McConnell’s twisted logic.

Others pointed out that McConnell has temporarily killed the filibuster before.

Others pointed out that the place is already gridlocked anyway.

And some are just tired of Mitch.

(Via The New York Times)

The daytime talk show The Talk has been off the air for a couple days now, and with good reason: One of its stars flipped out on a co-host — and all so she could defend Piers Morgan. Sharon Osbourne didn’t take it lightly when colleague Sheryl Underwood asked about her longtime friend, who got into hot water after his repeated and over-the-top attacks on Duchess of Essex Megyn Markle. The show went on what they said would be a brief hiatus, but it seems the break won’t be as short as once planned.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, The Talk, which was supposed to come back on Wednesday the 17th, is now (tentatively!) scheduled to return Tuesday the 23rd. The official reason is that CBS is not yet done investigating what happened, which, a spokesperson for the network said, includes “a process where all voices are heard, claims are investigated and appropriate action is taken where necessary.”

But since CBS announced the hiatus, other issues have come to light. Fellow original cast member Holly Robinson Peete tweeted that Osbourne had made racist comments about her back in the day. Osbourne disputed that claim over Twitter. But on Tuesday, reporter Yashar Ali posted a Substack featuring allegations of other such language made by her, complete with comments from former co-panelist Leah Remini.

Osbourne, who is the last remaining original co-host of The Talk, first came under fire last Wednesday when she aggressively defended Morgan, “Educate me, tell me when you have heard him say racist things,” Osbourne said to Underwood. “I very much feel like I’m about to be put in the electric chair because I have a friend, who many people think is a racist, so that makes me a racist?”

Osbourne was roundly condemned for what was seen as a privileged response, and she apologized over social media. In light of the more recent allegations, her new publicist responded defensively, writing, “The only thing worse than a disgruntled former employee is a disgruntled former talk show host,” and alleging that over the years she’s been “kind, collegial and friendly with her hosts as evidenced by throwing them parties, inviting them to her home in the U.K. and other gestures of kindness too many to name.”

(Via THR)

The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences revealed the nominees for the 93rd Annual Academy Awards on Monday, with plenty of powerhouse thespians, like Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield, receiving nominations. But a couple big names in the music industry also received quieter acclaim.

Diddy and Joey Badass both landed Oscar nominations for their contributions to the film Two Distant Strangers. It was nominated in the Best Live Action Short Film category, and as for their respective roles, Diddy served as producer while Badass played its main character, Carter James. After hearing the news, Badass took to Twitter, writing, “I’m officially Oscar-nominated. That’s crazy. #TwoDistantStrangers… Imma be a F*CKING EGOT.” Diddy, meanwhile, tweeted three prayer hand emojis with a graphic of the Best Live Action Short Film nominees.

The Two Distant Strangers team also celebrated the nomination on their Instagram page. “Filming in the middle of a pandemic, in just five days, brought numerous challenges,” they wrote. “But our team was united and persevered. Thank you to everyone that has believed in us and helped us to get to this point. We can’t wait to share this story with everyone.”

The nominations arrived weeks after the documentary Bigge: I Got A Story, which Diddy co-produced. As for Joey, following a few quiet years on the music side of things, he’s been quite active lately, with his video for “Trust Nobody (2 My Brothers),” with DJ Scheme, and his remix of Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats’ “Cosmic.m4a,” with The Alchemist.

Over the summer, there were no games as big as Fall Guys and Among Us, two party games were nothing alike. One is a platformer battle royale with intentionally janky controls, and the other is a murder mystery between a group of friends.

Both took the world by storm in large part due to the Twitch communities that quickly formed around them while in-person interactions were limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but more importantly, they are fun. Getting a group of friends together to laugh your way through a few rounds of Fall Guys is a blast, while Among Us is a great way to determine which people you know are really good at lying about being a horrifying space villain.

On Monday, Fall Guys released a trailer for Season 4, which means new costumes, new courses, and a new theme. The future theme looks cool, but right at the end of the teaser is an impossible-to-miss reference to Among Us.

It’s a crossover that makes sense — these two titles are forever going to be connected with one another because of when they both came to prominence, so of course, they have to crossover. A Fall Guy and an Among Us crew mate look eerily similar, with both being cute ovalish creatures. And when Among Us first started blowing up, it wasn’t uncommon for people to think that the memes about it were related to Fall Guys. They were easily the two biggest surprises of 2020 and so many gamers have memories of the fun time spent playing these games.

Now there’s one more important question: They managed to get a crew mate into Fall Guys, will they be able to get a Fall Guy into Among Us? The idea of little bean guys running around with the crew mates all trying to figure out who the murderer is sounded too funny to not happen at some point.

Tony Soprano is a horse boy on the latest Pod Yourself A Gun.

Stavros Halkias from the Cumtown and Pod Don’t Lie podcasts joins Matt and Vince to talk about The Sopranos season four, episode five, “Pie-O-My.” NOTE: We’re releasing this episode early for our Patrons at Patreon.com/Frotcast. For everyone else, it will be live on the free feed in a day or two.

Before we get too far, if you’re worried about spoilers, maybe don’t listen to this episode just yet. Put it on and leave the room so we can still wet our beaks a little bit, but some future events are mentioned. There — you were warned. If you listen to this episode and hear some stuff you didn’t want to hear, that’s on you. You had 20 years to prevent this. What were you waiting for, by the way? The show saved Stav’s life twice already. Meanwhile you were watching what? House of Cards? Louie? That Workaholics episode where Chris D’Elia plays himself? You’re sick in the head.

Anyways for all the cool, normal folks who already saw it or won’t get mad because they understand how time, television and the internet work, this is a fun episode. The guys talk about the shady origins of Stav and Vince’s surnames, the audacity of Janice Soprano, and some excuses to do heroin. They also listen to a couple voicemails and Stav offers his thoughts on who did 9/11.

If you love the podcast as much as David Chase loves fat jokes, take a seat, then get off the floor because you broke another chair, and leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts.

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