Month: May 2021

2020 yielded some memorable music feuds, with one of the biggest being the beef between Noname and J. Cole. Uproxx’s Aaron Williams previously summed up the situation with a detailed explainer, but in essence, it began with Cole taking notice of a Noname tweet that he perceived as calling him out. Now, about a year after the saga began, Noname has addressed it again.

It began with Noname tweeting a personal philosophy a few days ago: “noname. no allegiance to one ideology. i read all. take what applies. leave the rest.” Somebody responded, “Dweebs gon call you unprincipled,” to which Noname replied, “i’m no longer interested in proving myself to an internet that will cannibalize the vulnerability of those who choose to publicly learn. it’s cop sh*t. i’m interested in what my community calls me. twitter is not my community [heart emoji].”

Somebody else then brought Cole into the conversation, responding, “J Cole literally tried to make that same point to you almost 2 years ago lol.” Noname fired back, “no. j cole was upset because i tweeted about rappers who profit off blackness while simultaneously being silent when it comes to black death. he was angered by the ‘tone’ of a tweet that didn’t even specifically name him.”

Another person replied, “J Cole has out in enough time to and done enough organising to be above your questioning,” to which a seemingly skeptical Noname responded, “wait, j cole is an organizer [monocle emoji].” She then added, “i forgot how much yall play on this app [crying emoji].”

Find Noname’s tweets below.

At some point in the future, there may come a time when Law & Order creator Dick Wolf simply runs out of ideas. Fortunately, for fans of crime procedurals that generally resolve themselves in less than an hour, that time is not now. NBC—which has benefited from Wolf’s seemingly never-ending stream of new perspectives from which to present a crime series for more than 30 years—has ordered his latest concept, Law & Order: For the Defense, straight to series.

While the latest L&O iteration won’t have the built-in audience that comes with Chris Meloni’s posterior, it does have Carol Mendelsohn—the longtime executive producer of the CSI universe—as its showrunner. If there were an Avengers made up of crime TV franchise creators, these two would be it. According to NBC, the new series—which has been ordered straight to series—“will put the lawyers under the microscope, along with the criminal justice system with every week delivering the promise of a contemporary morality tale.”

“This new show is exciting for me personally,” Wolf said in a statement. “We spent the last 30 years on shows that played offense. Now it will be great to play defense, and being able to do it with Carol is an honor and an opportunity for both of us to do television that hasn’t been done before.”

So just how many Law & Order series does that make? Officially, seven (if we’re including the mothership): Law & Order; Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; Law & Order: Criminal Intent; Law & Order: Trial By Jury; Law & Order: LA; and Law & Order: True Crime. NBC has also been trying to get Law & Order: Hate Crimes going for several years now. Meaning that TNT should be well-stocked with reruns for many decades to come.

(Via Deadline)

During Monday’s episode of Late Night, host Seth Meyers took a “Closer Look” at Rudy Giuliani’s legal issues. “Rudy Giuliani’s defenders are claiming the FBI raids of his home and office are part of a conspiracy by the Biden administration to target him, even though the investigation started during the Trump administration,” he said. From there, Meyers spent the next 10 minutes roasting the former-New York City mayor.

Meyers went in on Rudy holding a biography of Alexander Hamilton while teasing a press conference (“I’m guessing Rudy has some secret information that proves Hamilton actually won the duel”), how Trump’s former-personal attorney sounds like “some Upper East Side scam artist who does walking tours for out-of-towners, but doesn’t actually know what he’s talking about,” and his misplaced belief that New Yorkers still love him. “I love that when things get bad for Rudy, he always falls back on ‘New York City, baby!’ But that ship has sailed, pal. You’re never going to be in a Yankees commercial again.”

Later, Meyers noted that Giuliani has seemingly gone out of his way to incriminate himself and Trump. “I’m no legal expert but I’m pretty sure attorney-client privilege goes away when you read the documents aloud on national television,” he said. “It’s like the dumb criminal version of your grandma reading you a funny meme she came across on Facebook.” Meyers also compared him to “an ailing grandfather having a flashback to the war during a family gathering.”

You can watch the “Closer Look” above.

As Britney Spears’ conservatorship battle continues, the embattled pop star is no stranger to rumors. One of them is that she does not currently have control over her social media accounts, a claim that has been recently backed up by Spears’ former makeup artist Billy Brasfield. In a new Instagram post, Spears has addressed that, as well as the recent documentaries that have been made about her.

The post is a video of Spears dancing and she begins the lengthy caption by calling documentaries, like Framing Britney Spears, “so hypocritical:

“Geez !!!! 2021 is definitely way better than 2020 but I never knew it was gonna be like THIS [flushed face emojis] !!!! So many documentaries about me this year with other people’s takes on my life … what can I say … I’m deeply flattered !!!! These documentaries are so hypocritical … they criticize the media and then do the same thing [thinking emojis]????? Damn … I don’t know y’all but I’m thrilled to remind you all that although I’ve had some pretty tough times in my life … I’ve had waaaayyyy more amazing times in my life and unfortunately my friends … I think the world is more interested in the negative [shrugging emojis] !!!! I mean … isn’t this supposed to be a business and society about THE FUTURE [sneezing emojis] ???? Why highlight the most negative and traumatizing times in my life from forever ago ???? I mean DAMN …”

Spears then goes on to talk about things like dancing and gardening before addressing Brasfield, concluding her post, “PSSSS I don’t actually talk to Billy B AT ALL so I’m honestly very confused [crying laughing emojis]!!! This is my Instagram !!!! PSSSSS no paparazzi guy … I didn’t want you and your crew following me around !!!!”

Find Spears’ post below.

When you’re a former National Security Advisor who lied to the FBI about your relationship with Russian operatives, one easy way to prove your patriotism would be to learn the words to the Pledge of Allegiance. Unfortunately, Michael Flynn—who holds the distinction of shortest-serving NSA advisor in the history of the job—didn’t get the memo. And Jimmy Kimmel wasn’t about to let it pass without comment.

While attending a Bikers for Trump rally in South Carolina on Sunday, the disgraced military man decided a great way to energize the room would be to recite the Pledge of Allegiance as a group. But, as Kimmel pointed out during his Monday night monologue: “For an ex-military guy who wraps his misdeeds tightly in the flag, he sure did have trouble coming up with the words to the Pledge of Allegiance.”

The clip, which starts around the 6:30 mark in the video above, finds a befuddled Flynn trying to keep up with the public recitation he suggested. If you want the CliffsNotes version, Flynn’s rendition of the pledge goes something like this:

“I pledge of allegiance…” (nope, no “of” necessary)
“To the flag of the United States of America (ok, now we’re cooking)
“Individ…” (ouch!)

Fortunately for Flynn, Kimmel conceded that there are a lot of people who probably don’t know the pledge, then took to the streets to find out (he was right). Still, it didn’t lessen the hilarity (or the irony) of Flynn’s bungle—if only because he made such a production out of the whole room delivering a group recital of the pledge in the first place.

In the lead-up to his lyrical butchering, Flynn—who was pardoned by his good buddy Donald Trump—told the crowd how “I want you to hear, not just listen. I want you to hear every single word to the Pledge of Allegiance. That is our pledge to each other, that is our pledge to this country.”

Still, it’s got to be better than prison.

Nearly 30 years after Night Court aired its (thought-to-be) series finale on May 31, 1992, NBC has confirmed that a sequel to the hit 1980s sitcom has been given a pilot order.

Melissa Rauch, who is best known for her role as Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz on The Big Bang Theory, is set to executive produce the project and star as Judge Abby Stone, who is following in the footsteps of her father, Judge Harry Stone (played by the late, great Harry Anderson in the original show) by presiding over the late-night antics of a New York City arraignment court. John Larroquette, who played lecherous prosecutor Dan Fielding in the original series, is set to reprise his role (though his current level of sleaziness is not known).

Rumblings of a reboot first began circulating in December 2020, when Rauch approached Warner Bros. TV about securing the rights to Night Court, a show she loved growing up. Shortly after, she managed to attach Larroquette, who was the series’ breakout star in its original run. In 1985, Larroquette won the first of what would become a record-breaking four consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series—at which point he asked to no longer be considered for the honor.

While Rauch had not initially planned to step in front of camera on this one, her excitement for the project led her to take the lead. “My intention was purely to be behind the camera on this project, but my plans quickly changed after falling in love with the incredible script from the brilliant mind of Dan Rubin,” Rauch said of the writer and co-executive producer behind Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, who will serve in the same capacity on Night Court: The Redux (no, that’s not the official title—but it sounds good, so we’re just throwing it out there). “I couldn’t be more thrilled to join forces with Dan, the immense talent that is John Larroquette, and the two powerhouse institutions of comedy that are NBC and Warner Bros. to bring Night Court back to television.”

We just hope that the horn-happy, bass-slapping theme song will remain intact.

(Via The Wrap)

This review of the new animated Disney+ series, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, is directed squarely at a certain type of person. Now, look, if you are already into The Clone Wars and Rebels and Star Wars Resistance, then it’s a safe bet you’re already on board for more. But then there are people more like me who, for whatever reason, just never got into those other shows.

And, look, I’ve tried, but The Clone Wars especially is a tough nut to crack. If you ask fans of the show the best way to watch The Clone Wars you get some sort of answer that usually involves being told that the show isn’t very good at first, but then eventually gets better, and, oh yeah, it doesn’t take place in chronological order. I don’t know about you but that explanation has yet to inspire me to dig into The Clone Wars. On top of that, the whole nature of the actual Clone War isn’t very exciting since we already know that the same guy, Palpatine, is controlling both sides. So as you root for the Jedi and the Clones to defeat the Separatists, you’re kind of rooting for the eventual bad guys. Anyway, it’s weird.

And I tried to get into Rebels. I watched most of the first season but eventually let a few episodes pile up and never got back into watching it. I just kind of summed it up as, “not my cup of tea.” So now here comes Star Wars: The Bad Batch, a group of Clones that were introduced during the final season of The Clone Wars who are genetically “off,” in comparison with the other Clones. This makes the group standout fighters but also leaves them immune to Palpatine’s infamous Order 66. As we saw in Revenge of the Sith, once Palpatine gave the Order 66 command, the Clones, without any questions or hesitation, turned against the Jedi. The members of the Bad Batch witness this happen, but thinks it makes absolutely no sense that the Jedi are all of a sudden their enemy. So, The Bad Batch, just in its story structure, becomes something easier to digest than its predecessor series. It’s not about a grand, sprawling, confusing war. It’s about five soldiers trying to figure out why the Jedi were all just murdered.

And as I mentioned earlier, I’m directing this to a specific audience: the audience who hasn’t really watched the prior Star Wars animated shows. Because I, too, was in that boat. But the concept around this series, these soldiers trying to makes heads or tails out of what just happened, I find pretty intriguing.

And here’s something I really like: the villain of the series is Tarkin. I love Tarkin and I always thought he got the short stick. He’s literally the main bad guy in the first Star Wars movie, yet he didn’t even get an action figure. (Power Droid, a character who is in Star Wars for maybe five seconds got an action figure, but not Tarkin. Also, for the record, I have nothing against Power Droid.) Then when the prequels were announced, well hold on to your hats, we’d for sure be getting some new adventures of Tarkin now. If we were going to see younger versions of Palpatine, Darth Vader, and Obi-Wan, well of course we’d see a young Tarkin! He’s the main bad guy from the first movie! Alas. As we now know, Tarkin’s presence in the Prequels is a little cameo at the end of Revenge of the Sith with no dialogue. (And, sure, Tarkin gets some nice scenes in Rogue One but the fact he’s a digitally created character is still just the weirdest thing.)

Well, here, finally, Tarkin is front and center (at least so far) as the main villain driving the plot. Tarkin figures out the Bad Batch is immune to the whole Order 66 plan and isn’t a big fan of them thinking for themselves, which puts the Bad Batch in a tough spot. Tarkin is also in charge of letting the fine people of Kamino (aka the water planet from Attack of the Clones) know that their Clone services are no longer needed and that the newly formed Empire would now be recruiting soldiers the old fashioned way.

Unlike The Clone Wars and, to a point, Rebels, we don’t really know where any of this is headed. What can a small group of soldiers do anyway against the mighty Empire? What are the intricacies of Tarkin and the Empire not using Clone troopers anymore? If you look at the Star Wars timeline this is set in, there’s a lot of open space between Revenge of the Sith and Solo. For the first time, a Star Wars animated show has me hooked, at least so far. And if you’ve never religiously watched one before, The Bad Batch might be a good one to start with.

‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch’ begins streaming on May 4th via Disney+. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

The Lakers entered Monday night on a three-game losing streak and just 1-6 in their last seven games, facing the streaking Nuggets, winners of their last five, on a back-to-back without the services of LeBron James or Dennis Schröder. It was a less than ideal spot, but also provided an opportunity to get right in a big way and move from 7th to 5th in the West with a win after Portland lost earlier in the evening in Atlanta.

On cue, L.A. found their defensive identity again and won a 93-89 slugfest with the Nuggets on the backs of a terrific performance from Anthony Davis, who had 25 points and seven rebounds in the win.

That effort was great to see for Lakers fans, who had been a bit frustrated with some uneven play from Davis since the big man returned from his Achilles/calf injury amid the L.A. losing streak. However, his effort on both ends was terrific on Monday and he capped off the win with a sensational closeout on Facu Campazzo to seal the win with a blocked three-pointer.

After blocking that three-pointer and getting a much needed win, Davis decided to proclaim to the L.A. crowd that the Lakers were, indeed, back.

We’ll find out in due time if that was a premature declaration from Davis, but for at least one night they found their defensive stride once again and limited Denver’s offense to one of their worst shooting performances of the season. Marc Gasol, whose role has been unclear since the signing of Andre Drummond, was sensational in the win and showed that, at least against matchups like Denver, he’s someone that needs to be on the floor more, no matter how much L.A.’s stars stumped for Drummond to come join them in Los Angeles.

That is a situation that remains to be fully worked out, but at least for one night the Lakers got the vibes right and were able to enjoy themselves on the basketball court, so it’s hard to fault Davis for feeling himself and the entire effort of the team after a much, much needed win.

The Warriors and Pelicans met on Monday night in New Orleans for an important game for the Western Conference play-in race, as the Pelicans, currently in 11th, had an opportunity to pull a game closer to the 9-seed Warriors (and the 10-seed Spurs who lost Sunday night and had to deal with the Jazz on Monday). Golden State, meanwhile, could all but lock themselves into the play-in with a win, and possibly move ahead of the Grizzlies in 8th depending on how Memphis fared against the red hot Knicks.

As such, both teams had plenty to play for and it was the Warriors that came out and dominated from the opening tip, going on to win the game 123-108. Stephen Curry went off once again with 41 points and eight assists, but got some big help from Draymond Green who had a 10-point, 15-assist, 13-rebound triple-double to lift the Warriors above .500 on the season. The game also happened to be ESPN’s debut of the Marvel-themed telecast, which awarded or took away “hero points” to players based on good and bad things they did, and despite Steph’s 41 points, it was Green that took home the “Marvel Arena of Heroes Champion of the Game” honor.

Now, while there was plenty of hemming and hawing on Twitter when this got announced, Green seemed genuinely excited about the award, happily posing with the framed comic drawing of himself as a superhero. In the postgame interview, Draymond explained that he didn’t let his teammates know but he did use the Marvel broadcast as some added motivation to show his kids he was a “superdad.”

While plenty on NBA Twitter saw it as corny, this is what it was designed to do, draw in a younger audience and present the game in a different way. Green clearly embraced that and the Warriors benefitted from him having maybe a little extra juice for this regular season tilt.

As for the alternate broadcast itself, there were fun graphics and drop ins from superheroes, but the best part was how they put a smoke trail on three-point shots which had the unintended consequence of making misses and airballs extra hilarious.

A Tribe Called Quest member Phife Dawg’s life was tragically cut short in 2016 when he passed away due to complications related to type one diabetes. Even just one year after he passed, memorials, tributes, and remembrances were still pouring out in celebration of the legendary figure. Of course, there was the Tribe farewell album released in 2016 that included a few appearances from the late MC, but then rumblings began to stir that a posthumous album from Phife himself would be making its way into listeners hands at some point.

In late 2020, those rumblings became official and now a few songs have been released to help promote the album. First, the album title was revealed to be Forever, a fitting label for a posthumous release, and then the debut single “Nutshell Pt. 2” featuring Redman and Busta Rhymes was released in early February. An animated lyric video for that track followed up, and today, a second single has debuted. “French Kiss Deux” features J. Dilla’s younger brother Illa J and is an homage to Montreal, Canada.

Produced by Potatohead People-produced, the song hews closely to its title and focuses on a potential romantic connection. Listen to the track below and look for the full album Forever coming out later this year.