Month: June 2021

Taskmaster is front and center in the latest teaser for Black Widow, and while Marvel is still playing the character’s identity close to the chest, fans are given a look at the villainous threat in the preview that’s aptly titled “Fight.”

In the short clip, Taskmaster is seen going toe-to-toe with Scarlett Johansson‘s Black Widow as he mimics the moves of her fellow Avengers. In the comics, Taskmaster has “photogenic reflexes,” which allows him to copy the fighting style of any opponent, including Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Panther, and now, Black Widow who’s never crossed paths with Taskmaster before. (She’s also not enjoying getting her butt handed to her.) When she turns to her old team for intel, Florence Pugh’s Yelena walks Black Widow through what limited knowledge she he has on the mysterious fighter.

“His call sign is Taskmaster,” she says. “He controls a whole army of Widows.”

That last part about an “army of Widows” is a new nugget of information, which might point to Taskmaster’s true identity. In the comics, he was a fight trainer named Tony Masters who became one of Marvel’s most ruthless mercenaries and a formidable foe to The Avengers. He’s also crossed path with Spider-Man enough times that he’s considered one of the webhead’s top villains. However, the Black Widow movie appears to be going a different route with Taskmaster, and his (or hers) true identity may not sit well with Johansson’s master spy.

Black Widow hits theaters and Disney+ with Premier Access on July 9.

We’re only a few days removed from the release of Doja Cat’s new album Planet Her, but as has become tradition, a deluxe edition of the record has already been released. On the brand new expanded edition of the album, Doja brings some more guests into her world, as it includes the Eve-featuring “Tonight” and the Gunna collaboration “Why Why.”

On top of that, there’s also an extended edition of her The Weeknd collaboration “You Right,” which bumps the song from three minutes in length up to four, as well as two unaccompanied Doja songs, “Up And Down” and “Ride.”

Of Doja’s Planet Her collaborations in general, Uproxx’s Bianca Gracie noted in her review of the album, “One of Doja’s best traits is how she shapeshifts her sound to compliment guests. Along with ‘You Right,’ she’s a gracious host on Planet Her, melding her tone to pair with Ariana Grande’s signature sultry coos on ‘I Don’t Do Drugs’ and pumps up Young Thug for a glorious battle of the rap weirdos on ‘Payday.’”

Listen to the new Eve and Gunna collaborations above, stream Planet Her (Deluxe) below, and revisit our review of the original album here.

Planet Her is out now via Kemosabe Records/RCA Records. Get it here.

There’s a moment in the sixth season finale of Fear the Walking Dead after a nuclear bomb explodes in the distance when Colman Domingo’s character, Victor Strand, is standing in the window of a rumbling building. Assuming he’s about to be decimated, Victor awaits his demise for a few seconds before realizing he’s cheated death. For the umpteenth time in Fear the Walking, Victor Strand has somehow dodged the grim reaper, but no one is less surprised than Strand himself.

Victor lets out a hearty laugh, worthy of a supervillain. “Why are you laughing?” a man Strand only just met standing next to him says.

“Because I’m alive,” Strand says. “After everything I did, I’m still here … I am Victor Strand. I’m a man who has thrown men to the wolves when necessary. Who has not been afraid to cut the cord when I had to. I’m a backroom dealer, a grifter, a shark. Hell, I’ve cheated at chess when a back was turned. Again, and again, and again. Without fail.”

Asked why he is the way he is, Victor confesses, “Survival. I’ve done it all my life, and despite the critics, I’m still here.”

It’s not a particularly necessary monologue given the situation, and all due respect, it’s not a particularly well-written monologue, either, although that line line — “despite the critics, I’m still here,” may as well refer to Colman and the very show itself. Colman Domingo sells the absolute hell out of it. In fact, for six years — though good seasons and very bad seasons — Colman Domingo has made the most of his every moment. He is not the heart of Fear the Walking Dead (that’s Lennie James’ Morgan Jones), and he’s not the most physical actor on the series (that title likely belongs to Alycia Debnam-Carey’s Alicia), and he doesn’t have the extensive resume of, say, Rubén Blades, but Victor Strand is always the most compelling character on Fear the Walking Dead, which has everything to do with Colman Domingo.

Victor Strand is probably the kind of character that Jon Bernthal’s Shane would have become had he survived the third season of The Walking Dead. He’s opportunistic, cutthroat, and loyal only to the extent that it benefits him. On The Walking Dead, Victor Strand would have ditched his Alexandrian family and joined Negan’s Saviors at the first opportunity, and then he would have slashed Negan’s throat as soon as Negan had fallen out of favor and Alexandria would have immediately welcomed him back. That’s the kind of character Victor Strand is. He’s charming and cunning, but most of all, he is convincing. Victor Strand has been on the right side of things and on the wrong side of things, but we never stop rooting for him.

That’s all because of the ferociously good Domingo Colman. He’s at least one of the three best actors in the entire The Walking Dead universe and with the exception of Steven Yeun and Danai Gurira, he’s probably the best positioned to break out of the franchise and find mainstream success. Hell, he already has. Like Gurira, he’s already huge in the theater world (he has 25 years of stage experience, including an Obie award and a Tony nomination), and in the last few years, he’s played impactful roles in the zeitgeistian HBO series Euphoria and awards season pics, including If Beale Street Could Talk and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. He’ll soon also appear in Nia DaCosta’s Candyman. You can bet he will be remembered.

More recently, AMC wisely kept Domingo in the network fold by greenlighting West Philly, Baby, a TV series based on Domingo’s play Dot, which Domingo will adapt, direct, and produce himself as part of his first-look deal with AMC Studios. He’s such an extraordinary increasingly in-demand actor that I can’t help but think that Fear will eventually lose him. In fact, I’m not sure why he’s stuck around this long, except that he has more loyalty than his character. Then again, based on his Insta, Colman is clearly the heart-and-soul of the series behind the scenes, a guy who keeps things fun even during months’ long shoots in the heat of Texas.

I wouldn’t say that Fear the Walking Dead is Colman Domingo’s show, but I also can’t imagine it without him. He’s a guy who literally threw the series’ lead, Morgan Jones, to the zombies, and we’re still pulling for him. When he’s on the screen, I cannot take my eyes off of him. So, whatever AMC is paying the guy, they need to double it.

Leaving the country during a historic winter storm that left hundreds dead. Mansplaining. Tweeting during a Senate Rules Committee meeting. Sharing Russian propaganda videos to shame America’s “woke, emasculated military.” Publicly campaigning for the man who called your wife ugly and claimed your dad assisted with the assassination of President Kennedy. Terrible The Simpsons impressions. Shockingly, none of these misdeeds are on Ted Cruz’s list of 15 things that will get someone canceled in 2021.

Earlier this month, the Texas senator was a speaker at the Faith and Freedom conference, the “premier national event for people of faith and conservative activists.” He kicked off his speech by doing something radical: “I’m going to speak the truth.”

“America is great, Christopher Columbus discovering America was a good thing, George Washington was an American hero, Thomas Jefferson was an American hero, Abraham Lincoln was an American hero, our Founding Fathers were extraordinary patriots, America has been a force for good in the world, we should stand for our National Anthem, police officers keep us safe, marriage is a holy covenant before God, an unborn child is a child, children do best when they are raised by a mother and a father, Israel is our friend, the Wuhan virus came from Wuhan, and there is a difference between boys and girls.”

What does these 15 things — the last two of which elicited chuckles from the far-right audience — have in common? “I want you to pause and think for a second that just a few years ago, every one of those statements would have been utterly uncontroversial and blazingly obvious – even to the most dimwitted among us,” Cruz explained. “And today, we are at a moment where saying those words can get you canceled. Saying those words can get you fired. Saying those words can get you erased.” He must have been proud of himself, because although the speech was over a week ago, the senator shared this tweet into his feed on Sunday (after tweeting that the Left hates America).

One thing that won’t get you “canceled” apparently: amplifying false voter fraud claims, leading to a failed insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. Otherwise, Ted would be “erased.” Also, sharing articles that use photos that make you look much younger than you are.

For years now, there has been tension between Lil Kim and Nicki Minaj, with the former calling the latter a “snake” in 2017, for example. Now, though, the two pioneering rappers could be brought together on one of the most popular platforms of the past year: Verzuz.

In a red carpet interview ahead of the BET Awards yesterday, Kim was asked if she would do a Verzuz show and she responded simply, “Yes.” She was then asked if she had a preferred opponent, and in another succinct response, she said, “Nicki.” The host replied, “I would love to see that,” to which Kim responded, “Yes, me too.”

This lines up with what Kim said in 2017, noting that she would collaborate with Minaj if the price is right. She said, “Some things just can’t be mended unless there’s, like, a different type of conversation. Some people take it too far, some people take it to a point where they try to really deliberately see you in the ground or they still hold on to ‘I’m right.’ A snake is a snake. I’m not gonna try to pick it up because it was being nice to me. […] It’s still a snake at the end of the day. For that situation, it would have to be a business conversation.”

As for the BET Awards, Kim was on hand to pay tribute to Queen Latifah, so check out that moment here.

John Oliver’s knack for peppering serious subjects with biting humor has been going particularly strong lately. Last week, he covered the ill-advised Tokyo Olympics and the predatory lending practices that are increasingly involved with home renovations, but he made sure to sandwich in the Westminster Dog Show controversy during a delightful pair of interludes. This week’s edition of Last Week Tonight delivered a main segment that warned of fake health-care sharing ministries, which con unsuspecting enrollees into shelling out cash before, inevitably, denying that any benefits exist. Well, Oliver did a deep dive, and then he put a bow on it (around the 19:00 minute mark above) by introducing viewers to his “Mega Wife.”

Here is a look at Wanda Jo Oliver, who is the “Felicity Huffman to my William H. Macy,” apparently. Oliver took up the title of “Mega Reverend” and Rachel Dratch picked up the Wanda Jo wig. This actually isn’t the first time (nor the second time) that Dratch has popped onto Last Week Tonight, yet as a wise person once said, Christ on a cracker…

Dratch has appeared multiple times as Wanda Jo, once while creating a fake church called Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption back in 2015. Dratch also portrayed a psychic medium (in 2019) on the show, but this time, she’s back as Wanda Jo to help John fund the Our Lady of Perpetual Health church’s Johnny Care ministry, and the show has invented yet another fake website at FreedomFromHealthCare.org. It’s almost diabolical how good Oliver and Dratch are at putting on their evangelical faces to push JohnnyCare, which follows tenets like “I believe in not getting sick” and “I believe in not having a pre-existing condition.”

All of this, of course, is meant to underscore Oliver’s warning that the “lower-cost health insurance” that’s being pushed by these “ministries” turns out to be “not insurance at all,” and states are leaving their residents completely without recourse on how to clean up after they’ve fallen for these bogus institutes. The subject’s a tricky one, obviously, and hopefully, we’ll see the Oliver Effect work awareness, if not actual change.

Hey, I’ll bet these two have a real good time together…

The Milwaukee Bucks entered the fourth quarter of Game 3 trailing by two and, with 7:32 to play, were down by seven to the Hawks in Atlanta. For the last three years, one of the biggest critiques of the Bucks in the playoffs has been how much they’ve struggled to create good offense in late game situations, particularly in the halfcourt, but throughout this postseason they have shown a greater resolve than they’ve had in the past two playoffs that ended in disappointment.

On Sunday night, the answer for good offense was a simple one: get the ball to Khris Middleton. The All-Star caught fire in the fourth, scoring 20 points in the final period (38 overall) to outscore the Hawks (17 points as a team) by himself to lead Milwaukee to what became a runaway 113-102 win. Middleton got it rolling from three and once that happened, everything he put up seemed to go in the basket.

It was nothing short of sensational for Middleton, who had a disastrous Game 1 performance that many pointed to as the reason (beyond Trae Young’s outrageous effort) the Bucks dropped the opener. He put that behind him once he got into rhythm and carried the Bucks home, with his Milwaukee teammates happy to get him the basketball, step aside, and watch him cook.

That includes Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had 33 points and 11 rebounds on the night in another dominant performance. Still, Giannis was happy to let his teammate go to work in the fourth and after had nothing but effervescent praise for Middleton’s fourth quarter effort.

As Giannis said, it was “greatness,” and Middleton put the team on his back to make sure they got homecourt advantage back and took their first lead of the series at 2-1. Moving forward, the Bucks will look to finally get Middleton and Jrue Holiday going in the same game, as Holiday was spectacular in Game 1 and terrific in Game 2 to pick up the slack while Middleton was struggling.

If they can manage that, it’s hard to see where the Hawks find the firepower to match the Bucks with Bogdan Bogdanovic still struggling (although he looked to be moving better in Game 3 on his injured knee) and Trae Young suffering an ankle injury late in the third quarter that left him unable to really explode off his right foot in the fourth. On top of this series, should they make it there, they’ll seemingly need all three rolling at once for the Finals, and Milwaukee will hope the fourth quarter will only be the start of a big run from Middleton.

The 2021 BET Awards was a smooth sailing affair. The artists delivered great performances and many of the award winners arrived to accept their trophies and give touching acceptance speeches. However, for those who kept a close eye on their TVs during the award show, they might’ve noticed a slightly awkward onstage moment between Megan Thee Stallion and DaBaby.

The two rappers were set to perform “I Did It” with DJ Khaled and Lil Baby at the BET Awards, but after an argument broke out between them on social media, it was hard to imagine they’d take the stage together without their somehow settling their differences beforehand. With Megan leading the way on the song, the Houston rapper performed her verse and slyly exited staged right as Lil Baby rapped his verse. By the time DaBaby arrived to perform, Megan was nowhere to be found as Khaled, Baby, and DaBaby were left as a lone trio to bring the performance to a close.

Megan and DaBaby’s rift began after the latter retweeted a post on Twitter about him and Tory Lanez being cool because they “both shot somebody and don’t have to do no jail time.” DaBaby claimed the retweet was accidental, but Megan wasn’t buying his excuse. “Support me in private and publicly do something different…these industry men are very strange,” she said in one tweet. DaBaby replied, “You know like I know I ain’t no “industry” n****.” The two exchange a couple more tweets before unfollowing each other on the social media platform.

You can watch Megan walk off the stage during the performance in the video above.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It was Method Man who kicked off the the DMX tribute on the 2021 BET Awards, rapping an acapella rendition of one of DMX’s most beloved verses. Then, Griselda Records took the stage to perform a snippet of their new song with DMX, “Hood Blues,” before a succession of X’s contemporaries and admirers, including actor Michael K. Williams, Busta Rhymes, and his own Ruff Ryders crew, including Jadakiss of The LOX, channeled his gritty energy to perform some of his biggest hits like “Ruff Ryders Anthem” and “Party Up.”

DMX passed away earlier this year after an accidental overdose. He was in a coma for a week, during which his contemporaries and fans in the hip-hop world shared an outpouring of well-wishes. Eventually, after he’d passed, it was announced that Def Jam, the label where he’d released groundbreaking classics like It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot, Flesh Of My Flesh, Blood Of My Blood, and And Then There Was X…, put out his posthumous album Exodus, which was named for his son.

Meanwhile, his funeral was held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, with Def Jam footing the bill, where his casket was brought in on a monster truck, and the service featured performances from his daughter (who sang her own rendition of his song “Slippin’”) and the Kanye West Sunday Service choir. DMX’s longtime collaborator Swizz Beatz gave an impassioned eulogy, imploring the assembled mourners to “learn how to celebrate each other while we’re here.”

Watch the 2021 BET Awards tribute to DMX above.

DJ Khaled returned in time for summer with Khaled Khaled, a 14-track album absolutely stacked with major collaborations like Justin Bieber, Meek Mill, HER, Migos, Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Baby, DaBaby, and more. Since DJ Khaled is nominated for Best Collaboration at the 2021 BET Awards, it only makes sense that he would celebrate by bringing Lil Durk, Lil Baby, Megan Thee Stallion, and more to the stage at for his medley performance.

Lil Durk and Lil Baby first kicked off the set to deliver their collaboration “Every Chance I Get.” Then taking the stage, DJ Khaled hyped up the crowd in his typical fashion with one-liners like, “Jealousy is a disease” and “Don’t get mad, get a bag.” Finally, Megan Thee Stallion and DaBaby appeared, joined by HER on guitar, to fire off a pumped-up rendition of “I Did It.”

Ahead of his 2021 BET Awards performance, DJ Khaled was invited to record his reaction to Megan Thee Stallion’s “Thot Sh*t” video before it aired. The producer looked incredulous, shaking his head in disbelief and pointing to a new, raunchy era of the rapper’s music. “Yo, they gon’ actually air this? It’s going on YouTube and all that? Nah! Yo. It’s a new world, and it’s definitely a new video,” he said. DJ Khaled’s reaction was pretty spot-on, as Megan’s video featured clips of her twerking on the desk of an old conservative senator.

Watch a clip of DJ Khaled’s 2021 BET Awards show performance above.

Khaled Khaled is out now via The Best/Epic Records. Get it here.

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