Month: May 2021

A little over a year after he made his return with Changes, Justin Bieber began a new album cycle with his sixth effort, Justice. The project, which boasted 16 tracks and features from Khalid, Chance The Rapper, Burna Boy, Giveon and Daniel Caesar, helped Bieber return to the top of the album charts. It also made the singer the first male solo artist to debut a song and album at No. 1 in the same week after “Peaches” made its debut atop the singles chart. This is also the song that Bieber recently gave a stripped-down performance of, much to the delight of fans.

Bieber pulled a seat by a piano as he rocked bright pink sunglasses and dreads — the latter which caused a bit of controversy last week — to deliver the somber take on “Peaches.” While the track originally features Giveon and Daniel Caesar, this version was an entirely solo effort that gave Bieber the opportunity to show off his vocals.

The rendition was the third take of “Peaches” that Bieber has delivered over the past couple of months. He first premiered the track during his NPR Tiny Desk concert from back and March and recently joined Jimmy Fallon and The Roots for a classroom instrumental version of the song.

You can watch Bieber’s stripped-down performance of “Peaches” above.

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

Rick And Morty‘s fifth season inches closer to actually airing on Adult Swim, and Saturday brought another trailer to fans as well as a lengthy video animated by Paul Robertson set in a video game-style universe where the titular characters battled some formidable foes.

First came a new trailer for the show itself, which revealed a lot of jokes and crazy scenes but probably did little to actually spoil what’s ahead in Season 5. We know there will be a Power Rangers parody, for example, but we don’t really know why beyond the jokes about attacking a monster individually to up the drama for the big reveal.

The trailer is light on a coherent plot, but it does echo some of the big questions it’s tackled about the Sanchez family occupying a multiverse we’ve come to expect lately.

“What have we become,” Morty asks at one point. “Why are we even doing this anymore?”

In another video that was released on Friday, the titular characters see their quiet dinner glitch out into a sprawling pixel art battle very much reminiscent of a side-scrolling video game.

Unlike many of the shorts which have bridged the gap between seasons with side stories and homages to other styles, this one is much more lengthy. At more than 17 minutes, the video is nearly as long as an actual episode, though this one lets the guns and swords and lasers do the talking.

It’s a lot of Rick and Morty at once, honestly, but another way to get fans more excited for the return of actual episodes on air starting on June 20. We’ll see if fans can parse out what will happen in those episodes, but if we’ve learned anything from the show over the years it’s that even if you think you know where it’s heading, it can still manage to surprise.

It’s been a few months since R&B duo Chloe x Halle created separate social media accounts where they both show off their individual personalities and styles. They made the accounts after Halle Bailey flew over to the United Kingdom in order to film her role in Disney’s live-action rendition of The Little Mermaid.

In the meantime, Chloe Bailey has taken advantage of her individual account to showcase her singing talents. The latest example of this came Saturday night when she posted a cover of Cardi B’s “Be Careful” from the rapper’s 2018 album, Invasion Of Privacy.

The cover was met with immediate praise and fans from all over who showed love to the singer for the excellent vocal performance. Chloe’s rendition of “Be Careful” eventually made its way to Cardi B’s eyes, who also had nothing but good words for the singer.

“This is soo beautiful got me smiling from ear to ear and blushing maa hard,” Cardi wrote on Twitter. “You see this how I thought I sounded on the track.”

Chloe’s rendition of “Be Careful” adds to the growing list of covers she’s shared over the past couple of months. She’s tried her hand at Silk Sonic’s “Leave The Door Open,” The Weeknd’s “Earned It,” Giveon’s “Heartbreak Anniversary,” and Yung Bleu’s “You’re Mine Still.”

You can listen to Chloe Bailey’s cover in the video above.

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

Cobra Kai fans are used to waiting. There were 34 years between the first film and the premiere of the Cobra Kai series, and well over a year-and-a-half between Seasons Two and Three, as the series moved from YouTube Red to Netflix. Fans of the series will not have to wait as long, however, for Season Four, as filming has just completed on the season, according to two of its stars, William Zabka and Martin Kove.

“After 3 1/2 months of production, I’m proud to say #CobraKaiSeason4 is officially wrapped!,” Zabka posted on Twitter. “Ready???! LET’S BEGIN!” the actor who plays Johnny Lawrence added, including a photo of production, clearly filmed under COVID-19 protocols, which might explain why it also took three-and-a-half months to shoot.

Martin Kove, who plays the villain in both the Karate Kid movies and Cobra Kai included a number of references to the franchise in his wrap-up post:

Tonight, myself and the entire crew of COBRA KAI S4 officially wrapped! What a season, And what a year. A crew that is fearless and shows no mercy, through Covid we pushed on, we striked first and with a cast that strikes hard! @jonhurwitz @healdrules & @haydenschlossberg101 you have more energy than I knew was humanly possible. The Captains of our cobra Kai ship, leading us to glory daily, without your leadership we would be lost in the waters”, “Thank you @netflix and @sptv for allowing us to sweep the leg day in and day out. To @ralph_macchio & @william_zabka the battle rages on! I couldn’t be more humbled to work along side you both. Who put the work in day in and day out and day in and day out. And to the fans…..well….the real story has only just begun….but you know that! So get ready because COBRA KAI….NEVER…DIES!!!!”

Netflix had been experiencing something of a drought of content of late, seeing the amount of new original content drop 50 percent from April 2020 until April 2021, which is part of a larger problem that resulted in fewer than expected new subscribers in the first quarter of 2021. Last week, however, it released the much talked about fantasy series Shadow and Bone, and the streamer has three of its biggest series on top for the fourth quarter of 2021, including Cobra Kai, The Witcher, and You.

Few details have been released about Season Four, except that Vanessa Rubio (Carmen) and Peyton List (Tory) will be back as regular cast members, and Dallas Dupree Young and Oona O’Brien have newly joined the cast. It does not appear, however, that Nichole Brown — who plays Aisha — will return for the fourth season, while there is no word on how much screentime the series’ worst character will get in the fourth season.

Xolo Maridueña, who plays Miguel Diaz, may have given away one spoiler for the fourth season, however.

Cobra Kai will return late in 2021.

In Better Call Saul (and after the events of Breaking Bad), Bob Odenkirk’s character, Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman, changes his identity again and takes a low-profile job working at Cinnabon in Omaha, Nebraska. After all, even fugitives have to make a living. It appears as though Dexter Morgan will follow a similar path, having faked his death in the original Series 8 finale after steering his boat out into a hurricane before resurfacing as a lumberjack in Oregon.

In the revival, meanwhile, it appears that Dexter will work a job similar in stature to that of Gene Takavic in Saul. We know that Dexter relocates to Iron Lake, N.Y. in the forthcoming revival, where he will face off against the ninth season’s villain, the mayor of Iron Lake played by Clancy Brown. Now we know how Dexter earns a living in Iron Lake.

Behind-the-scenes set photos from Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts — where the final season was filming — appear to show the logo of the work vest he is wearing. He’ll be working at a place called Fred’s Fish & Game, a workplace strategically placed between a gun shop and a bait and tackle store, according to other set photos. Iron Lake, N.Y. appears to be an outdoorsy town. Michael Cyril Creighton, meanwhile, has been cast as Fred Jr., the son of the store owner, essentially confirming Morgan’s new position.

It’s a far cry from a blood spatter expert, but between the fish-and-game store, the gun shop, and the bait-and-tackle store, Dexter would seem to have access to all the tools necessary to continue perpetrating murders, which he’ll obviously continue to do, as foreshadowed in the last Dexter teaser. The teaser features a body wrapped in duct tape and plastic wrap, undoubtedly purchases he could have made in his own or the adjoining retail outlets.

Jennifer C. Carpenter’s Debra Morgan will also likely be along as his Dark Passenger, hopefully advising Dexter on how to deal with rude customers.

Source: Dexter Daily, Pop Culture

We already know there’s a new Green Lantern coming to the DC Universe, but we also know that it’s not the character that Zack Snyder had picked out for the universe if he were in charge. Perhaps that’s why on the same week DC announced the next version of the intergalactic character we see new details about what could have been for his sprawling vision for Justice League.

Snyder already had his preference of Green Lantern picked out for Justice League. In fact, he cast the role of John Stewart, played by Wayne T. Carr. And despite revealing that much in the aftermath of his four-hour epic Zack Snyder’s Justice League hitting HBO Max, DC had Martian Manhunter appear in the film rather than Carr’s Green Lantern. Still, at least one scene was shot and the news of such got some Snyder fans up in arms when another actor was cast to play Green Lantern this week.

And as CBR pointed out, Snyder shared a behind-the-scenes image of Carr doing a scene that was later cut from the film a day after that news started to circulate.

And Carr, who has used the #RestoreTheSnyderverse hashtag a number of times in recent weeks, shared his own on-set image as well.

None of this is certain to get Snyder the additional Justice League movies he wants, but it does give new fuel to fans who have spammed YouTube trailers and other social media with that hashtag in an attempt to keep hopes alive that Snyder will get more pull to the Justice League universe and see his vision fully restored. Given that DC has already pushed back on some things — including Carr’s Green Lantern appearing in the Snyder Cut — it’s far from a certainty that any of this will work. But, hey, we got a Snyder Cut in the first place in large part to this kind of pressure. And both Snyder and the actor slated to play his Green Lantern certainly seem willing to give the extremely online people what they want.

[via CBR]

The Orlando Magic knocked off the Memphis Grizzlies, 112-111, thanks to a monster night by Cole Anthony capped off with maybe the best postgame interview we’ve seen this year. Anthony, the rookie guard out of North Carolina, scored a game-high 26 points with eight rebounds, six assists, and three steals in 36 minutes of work.

His biggest bucket came at the very end of the game. Orlando found itself down by two with seven seconds left, and after inbounding the ball, Anthony got it right back and went to work. He got Kyle Anderson on a switch, and despite being smothered, got off a jumper that went through the cylinder with 0.01 seconds left on the clock.

As you can guess, Memphis was not able to do much of anything in that final tenth of a second, giving the Magic their second win in three games. And shortly after, Anthony went on TV to do the following things: 1. Say he was bred to come through in big moments, 2. Nearly swear on air because Markelle Fultz poured water on his head, 3. Emphatically say the word “yeah” a few times and, 4. Make clear that when he got the switch with Anderson, he believed “it’s game time.”

Anthony has been a bright spot for the Magic over the last month or so, scoring in double-digits in 12 consecutive games and looking like an important member of their core going forward. Here’s to hoping he keeps hitting big shots, because his postgame interviews are terrific.

The Oklahoma City Thunder do not have the worst record in the NBA. Still, it’s hard to argue that there’s a worse team in the league right now, as the Thunder consistently get stomped and somehow look more listless than the final score implies. To that end, perhaps the result of Saturday night’s game against the Indiana Pacers isn’t surprising, even if they set a high-water mark for futility in the process.

Indiana walked into Oklahoma City and mollywhopped the Thunder, 152-95. According to ESPN, that 57-point margin of defeat makes this the worst home loss in the history of the league.

Some credit goes to the Thunder’s players for fighting, I suppose, as the team trailed by as many as 67, which would have narrowly avoided being the most one-sided loss in league history — the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Miami Heat by 68 points in 1991. With Al Horford shut down for the rest of the year despite being healthy, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dealing with a foot injury that looks set to keep him sidelined until the end of the campaign, and the team prioritizing giving guys minutes with an eye on the future over trying to win right now, perhaps they’ll find a way to topple that record before the year ends.

Since the end of last year, J. Cole has been teasing a new release titled “The Off-Season“, an effort that will precede his upcoming album, The Fall Off. While he did not specify if “The Off-Season” would be a single or project, the Dreamville rapper can’t wait to share it with the world as he revealed in a post to his Instagram Story. “Just rode through the city to The Off-Season,” he wrote. “Dawg (face palm emoji)… Too excited.”

The post comes just a couple of days after Bas revealed “The Off-Season” is something fans can expect their hands on soon. “The Off-Season,” he wrote under a photo of Cole in the studio. “pack your bags. [rocket emoji] in two weeks.” Its title holds a sports theme which falls in line with Cole’s early mixtapes, 2007’s The Come Up, 2009’s The Warm Up, and 2010’s Friday Night Lights, so it’s very much possible that “The Off-Season” could be a new mixtape rather a new single.

If that proves to be true, The Off-Season would be Cole’s first full-length solo project since his 2018 album, KOD. Since then, he’s gone on an impressive guest feature run, teamed up with his Dreamville labelmates for Revenge Of The Dreamers III, and dropped three singles: “Lion King On Ice,” “The Climb Back,” and the controversial “Snow On Tha Bluff.”

You can check out a screenshot of Cole’s post above.

NBC’s Steve Kornacki turned into a star during the 2020 presidential election. While Americans waited for the call that Joe Biden had turned Donald Trump into a one-term president, Kornacki manned a board somewhere at NBC headquarters and broke down vote dumps from swing states for days, explaining where said votes were coming from and what the implications were for both candidates.

Kornacki’s popularity led to NBC trying to find other ways to keep him on television doing things of/related to numbers — because, you know, we don’t exactly have elections with national implications every week in America. He got to do some big board work for Football Night in America on Sundays in which he broke down the AFC and NFC playoff pictures, and on Saturday, Kornacki and his big board were back to make a projection for the 147th running of the Kentucky Derby.

The good news for NBC is that he did not mess things up for future airing of Steve Kornacki programming by whiffing: Kornacki predicted that Medina Spirit would end up winning, and lo and behold, that’s exactly what happened, with the horse winning by a margin almost as narrow as Biden did in Georgia.

Steve Kornacki please give me the Powerball numbers at your leisure.