Month: April 2021

Staten Island rapper CJ continues his quest to dominate pop culture with the video for “Set” from his debut EP Loyalty Over Royalty. This brings the total number of music videos from that project to five of eight, including “Whoopty,” his original breakout hit, “Bop,” its first follow-up, and “Real One,” which he released in the final week of March to extend his run.

In addition to the aforementioned videos from the EP, he’s also released multiple remixes of “Whoopty” to ensure maximum saturation. On the “NYC Remix,” he recruits French Montana, his vocal doppelganger, and Rowdy Rebel, the GS9 New York drill forebear who recently ended a six-year stint in prison, to hype up the Big Apple aspect of the standout hit. Then, he got in touch with his roots via the “Latin Mix,” which features Reggaeton/Latin trap stars Anuel AA and Ozuna to talk smack in Spanish.

To date, “Whoopty” by far remains CJ’s most popular track thanks to an infectious beat that even other rappers find irresistable. So far, Tierra Whack, Westside Boogie, Polo G, and Young M.A have all gone in with freestyles over the melodic loop, with more sure to come.

Watch CJ’s “Set” video above.

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

Greg Gutfeld of Fox News’ The Five is officially in the late-night comedy business now. Well, that’s sort-of the case. His new show, Greg Gutfeld’s Gutfeld! aims to be an alternative to all the late-night comedy shows (and cable news talk shows) out there, and so far, it’s drawing a decent amount of viewers (1.69 million, which beats the cable news competition). One would expect that the existing crowd showed up because Gutfeld is promising to “cancel cancel culture,” although one can’t expect the attraction to last too long. Not when people get over the novelty of exactly how not-laugh-filled this show’s jokes turned out to be.

Take the opening monologue, for example, which suggests that Joe Biden thinks his TV is a microwave and that Brian Williams broadcasts from Mars.

It’s… not great. Even “hard-edged satirists” are supposed to be funny. Well, this is not drawing genuine laughs, and comedians are taking notice. Both Michael Ian Black and Tim Heidecker noted that the logo looks too far too close to the Garfield counterpart. Is that funny?

The Daily Beast spoke with some comedians who’ve offered their own criticism. Jena Friedman (formerly of The Daily Show and now of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) declared, “It’s like watching a guy going through a divorce doing an impression of Bill Maher… He reminds me of the boss whose jokes you’re forced to laugh at.” Sasha Stewart (formerly of Nightly Show) stated, “Just because something has the cadence of a joke does not make it a joke.” She added, “I’m sorry for the five staffers who make up the laugh track.”

Justin Cousson (who noted the laugh track) and Conan writer Laurie Kilmartin also weighed in.

People can’t stop marveling at how cringeworthy all of these jokes are turning out to be.

Meanwhile, let’s turn to Sean Hannity.. here’s a real laugh.

Back in August, LA-based singer Duckwrth leaned into his funk-forward sound though his anticipated debut album SuperGood, which saw a handful of soulful collaborations with the likes of Earthgang and Jean Deaux. Though its been less than a year since his full length LP, Duckwrth has already been hard at work on new music. Taking his tunes to an NPR Tiny Desk performance, Duckwrth premiered two new upbeat songs.

Backed by a full band and a pair of backup singers, Duckwrth kicked off the set with a rendition of his SuperGood track
“Kiss U Right Now.” He then moved into one of his unreleased song titled “Make U Go,” which he said was written “for the lovers and the freaks.” Next, Duckwrth delivered another new sultry tune, “Birthday Suit,” before closing out the performance with his debut album’s title track “Super Good.”

Ahead of his Tiny Desk concert, Duckwrth sat down with Uproxx to talk about his debut album SuperGood and how rhythm is central to his sound:

“I think that for me, it was proving to myself who I am and what sound I like the most for myself, what space I want to be in, and it’s something about soul and more specifically rhythm. Rhythm is my sh*t. When I perform, I don’t stop moving. Unless it’s just one of those moments I have to sit still, but further than that rhythm is my shit. So I think SuperGood solidified it for me. Like, “N****, this is you, so kick it here for a bit,” but I’m still going to play with different genres.”

Watch Duckwrth’s Tiny Desk concert above.

SuperGood is out now via Republic. Get it here.

It goes down in the DMs. Just weeks after Lil Nas X made a TikTok using a screenshot of his Instagram DMs to put Tekashi 69 on blast after Tekashi tried to troll Nas with homophobic jokes, another artist has adopted the format to take her own thirsty messengers to task.

Apparently, ever since she broke up with Playboi Carti, Iggy Azalea‘s inbox has been flooded with direct messages from famous followers shooting their shots. However, from the screenshots she uses in her TikTok video, in which she dances in the foreground while the screenshots appear behind her, plenty of these famous followers could use some game lessons.

Among them are men who go way too graphic way too quickly, while others offer money for Iggy’s company. One takes a day’s worth of silence from the Australian rapper as license to start insulting her, and another simply obsessively repeats “I love you” over and over again. Take notes, gentlemen: These are all what not to do — not just to famous women, but to anyone online. There’s shooting your shot, then there’s lobbing the ball toward the gym from the parking lot and expecting it to fall in the hoop through the skylight. Just don’t do it.

Meanwhile, Iggy herself has been promoting a new single, “Sip It,” her second collaboration with Tyga after “Kream,” and has been on an anti-music industry campaign, claming she’s been blackballed. You can check out the new single here.

It was reported a few days ago that DMX experienced a drug overdose. The latest reports indicate that he is still in the hospital. The rapper has received an outpouring of support from his musical peers since the news broke, and now Demi Lovato, who has been open about her own overdose, has shared her thoughts about the situation.

In an interview with TMZ, Lovato was asked if she was scared by the DMX news and she replied:

“Yeah, of course. Any time that I see somebody OD or even pass away that’s in the public eye, I immediately think, ‘That could have been you had you not been putting all this work in for the last couple years of your life.’ There are times where I’ve talked about feeling survivor’s guilt, because you do ask yourself, ‘Why am I still here? Why are others not?’ It’s a challenging thing to get over, but ultimately, I had to realize every day is a day that someone else doesn’t get, you know? Every day that I’m here on this Earth is a day that I need to be counting my blessings and just be appreciative and grateful for. It makes me want to live the best life I can possibly live, knowing that others didn’t get the same chance that I did.”

Check out more from the interview here.

After the unintentional reveal of Muncher set social media ablaze back in January, Ghostbusters: Afterlife is officially ready to show off an adorably (demented) spin on an old classic: the Mini-Pufts. In a just-released clip, Paul Rudd’s Mr. Grooberson has his ice cream interrupted after one of the tiny Stay Puft Marshmallow Men burst out of a package on the shelf. But as Rudd’s character learns, you don’t want to get too close to the Mini-Pufts, who have a taste for human flesh and roasting each other on fire. Apparently, there’s going to be a horde of the little guys running around wreaking havoc when they’re not being miniature pyromaniacs who have no problem being melted into S’Mores. It’s hilariously weird.

With the Mini-Pufts reveal, it appears that Sony Pictures is feeling confident in Ghostbusters: Afterlife‘s November release date. Like most blockbusters scheduled for 2020, the film has already been delayed three times, and when it finally crosses-streams in theaters, Ghostbusters: Afterlife will have waited over a year and a half to show us more of its tiny marshmallow mad-men. Here’s the official synopsis:

From director Jason Reitman and producer Ivan Reitman, comes the next chapter in the original Ghostbusters universe. In Ghostbusters: Afterlife, when a single mom and her two kids arrive in a small town, they begin to discover their connection to the original ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind. The film is written by Jason Reitman & Gil Kenan.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is currently set to hit theaters on November 10, 2021.

(Via Sony Pictures Entertainment)

As NFT-mania maintains its vice grip on the public consciousness, early adopter Ja Rule continues to capitalize on the craze by once again returning to the scene of one of his biggest business failures: Fyre Festival. After selling a massive painting of the Fyre Festival logo as an NFT for over $120,000, the latest Fyre-related NFT to appear on his Flipkick platform is a viral tweet about the “gourmet” dinner provided to attendees, which turned out to be a sad cheese sandwhich.

The 2017 tweet was one of the wider world’s first indications of trouble in paradise, as influencer attendee Trevor DeHaas alerted his Twitter followers to the logistical shortcomings that would soon become a full-blown disaster and the subject of competing documentaries on Netflix and Hulu. DeHaas seems to have developed a sense of humor about the whole thing because he has partnered with Flipkick to sell the rights to the now infamous tweet. They’ve valued those rights at $80,000, which will go toward DeHaas’ medical expenses — he needs a kidney transplant and is currently on dialysis.

There’s precedent for selling tweets as NFTs, with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first tweet going for $2.9 million, but it’s unclear just what happens once the non-fungible token trades digital hands. Plenty of investors are betting big that other rich folks will want to “own” a digital code that says they have the rights to a piece of artwork most people can just right-click/save as on their desktops. But at least the money in that case went to a good cause; Dorsey donated the money to GiveDirectly, which works with US families affected by COVID.

Meanwhile, Ja’s other big investment this year, into inflated GameStop stock, isn’t quite showing the payouts that enthusiastic investors promised when they made a run on the stock in January. Maybe this isn’t the guy to take your financial advice from, just a thought.

Details about Martin Scorsese’s latest movie, Killers Of The Flower Moon, have been surfacing in recent months. Yesterday, some more information about the cast was revealed and it should delight music fans, as Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson have secured roles in the film, Deadline reports. They join a cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Jesse Plemons.

Isbell is making his acting debut in the film and plays Bill Smith, an enemy of Ernest Burkhart. Simpson, who has had a handful of film and TV roles in recent years, plays rodeo champion and bootlegger Henry Grammer.

The film is based on David Grann’s 2017 book Killers Of The Flower Moon: The Osage Murders And The Birth Of The FBI. A summary of the book from Grann’s website reads:

“In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. […] Many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll climbed to more than twenty-four, the FBI took up the case. It was one of the organization’s first major homicide investigations and the bureau badly bungled the case. In desperation, the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only American Indian agents in the bureau. The agents infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest techniques of detection. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.”

Revisit our 2017 interview with Grann about Killers Of The Flower Moon here.

Sturgill Simpson is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

After teasing fans with a short video of its shimmering logo and a first look at the character designs, Netflix has finally unleashed an official trailer for Jupiter’s Legacy, it’s upcoming superhero epic series Kick-Ass and Kingsman creator Mark Millar. Judging by the trailer, the streaming service is clearly planning to make a big splash when it returns to the comic book series arena as the production values and epic scale are surprisingly robust. Thanks to purchasing Millar’s publishing company, MillarWorld, back in 2017, Netflix has an entire stable of properties to develop, and it went right for the biggest story it could find.

Jupiter’s Legacy focuses on a trio of aging beloved heroes, The Utopian (Josh Duhamel), Lady Liberty (Leslie Bibb), and Brainwave (Ben Daniels) as they struggle with preparing the next generation of heroes, who also happen to be their children. While the kids buckle under the pressure of living up to their parent’s example, they learn that the heroes before them weren’t so perfect either. Here’s the official synopsis:

After nearly a century of keeping mankind safe, the world’s first generation of superheroes must look to their children to continue the legacy. But tensions rise as the young superheroes, hungry to prove their worth, struggle to live up to their parents’ legendary public reputations — and exacting personal standards.

Jupiter’s Legacy starts streaming May 7 on Netflix.

(Via Netflix)

Justin Theroux (HBO’s The Leftovers) is back in leading man mode on the small screen with The Mosquito Coast coming on Apple TV+. From the looks of the previous teaser, the show promised to bring sweeping visuals and an epic adventure, but with this trailer, we’re finally seeing the full-on tone of the show. That is to say, Justin’s radical character looks increasingly unhinged while taking his family for an unwanted ride of a lifetime.

One backstory here is that Justin is actually the nephew of author Paul Theroux, who penned the 1981 novel that was previously brought to life in the mid-1980s with Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, and River Phoenix. Fast forward thirty freaking years, and Dad is going bonkers. He’s cackling like he’s in Cruella, and don’t you hate it when Dad wakes up and decides to take the whole family on the run from U.S. authorities into Mexico? Chill out, Dad. From the synopsis:

From award-winning novelist Neil Cross, and based on the best-selling book by Paul Theroux which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, The Mosquito Coast is a gripping adventure and layered character drama following the dangerous journey of a radical idealist and brilliant inventor, Allie Fox (played by Justin Theroux), who uproots his family for Mexico when they suddenly find themselves on the run from the US government.

There’s no telling whether this shall be a multi-season run or an officially limited series, but Justin previously told IndieWire that this season (which is 7 episodes long) is a sort-of prequel to the films, so we’re definitely not getting a straight-up remake, which is nothing but good news.

Apple TV+’s The Mosquito Coast (co-starring Melissa George, Logan Polish, and Gabriel Bateman) debuts on April 30.