Month: August 2021

Over the years, Taylor Swift and Halsey have developed a great working relationship. As two wildly divergent pop stars, and artists who have both faced down their fair share of criticism in this industry, the pair have a lot in common. And, it’s pretty cool to know that though they’re technically in competition for fans and streams, they’re also rooting for each other.

Today, for instance, Taylor took to Twitter to let her massive fan base know she’s been diving into the new Halsey era, for their Trent Reznor-produced album If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power. “I’m blown away by @halsey’s artistry and commitment to taking risks,” Taylor wrote. “Giving us all a brave new era to dive into and explore together. If I can’t have love, I want power is out now- please stream and buy the album!!”

Now that Halsey’s album is finally out, the artist has discussed how Reznor’s mentorship pushed them to make “really weird choices” and push against the grain. So much pop music right now has come to sound similar, and Halsey and Taylor took it in different directions of late, whether that be toward noise and electronic, harsher sounds or pastoral folk-pop. Take Taylor’s advice and check out Halsey’s latest — they’re at their peak as an artist on this one.

It’s become an all-too familiar and tragic story: Conservative radio host tells their listeners vaccines are bull. Conservative radio host catches COVID. Conservative radio host dies. It’s happened to two such figures in August alone, including Phil Valentine. And now there’s a third: a Florida personality who was so against life-saving medication that he called himself “Mr. Anti-Vax.”

As per The Guardian, Marc Bernier, who spent three decades on the Daytona Beach station WNDB, passed away three weeks after being hospitalized with COVID-19. He was 65 years old.

Bernier was known for inviting those with viewpoints different from his own, including Democrats, on his show. But over much of the last year Bernier had been emphatically against vaccines. Back in December, he told one guest, “I’m not taking it … Are you kidding me? Mr Anti-Vax? Jeepers.” As his own station manager put it after he wound up in the hospital, “If you’ve listened to his show, you’ve heard him talk about how anti-vaccine he is on the air.”

Bernier is the third conservative radio host to die after railing against the measure that could have saved their lives. As per Politico, fellow Floridian (and Newsmax fill-in anchor) Dick Farrel, real name Farrel Austin Levitt, died in early August after spreading doubt about the vaccine’s efficacy and trashing Dr. Anthony Fauci. He changed his stance after testing positive.

A few weeks later, Phil Valentine, of Nashville, Tennessee, was a strong proponent of vaccines not being mandatory but that it should be about “personal choice.” He, too, did a 180 after he contracted the disease that ultimately took his life. Now Bernier has joined them — the second Florida radio host, in a state that is being run roughshod by the Delta variant and the lack of attention being paid to it by its leaders. Please get vaccinated if you haven’t.

(Via The Guardian and Politico)

The New York Mets have slid to third in the NL East, 7.5 games back of the Atlanta Braves thanks in large part to a cold spell since the All-Star break. The Mets are just 3-7 in their last 10 and the slide has, unsurprisingly, led to frustration from the long-suffering New York faithful that still flock to Citi Field to watch them play.

Boo birds are a fairly regular occurrence at Mets games during their skid, and it’s starting to frustrate the players. In recent games, after big hits, Mets players have started to do a thumbs down celebration that many assumed was some inside joke thing in the dugout, but as Javier Baez explained on Sunday after a 9-4 win over the Nationals, it’s actually a response to the fans, as the Mets want to turn the tables by booing the fans after successful plays since the fans boo them after bad plays.

It is pretty funny that Mets players are booing their fans after they succeed, but, in all honestly, Mets fans are probably thrilled that their frustration is being heard and the result is players playing well, even if that reason is to spite them. Baez hit fans with the thumbs down after a monster home run (you can barely see the celebration as he crosses home plate from the zoomed out view), but a better shot of it comes on the Francisco Lindor double.

The Mets playing well just to spite their fans is really the most New York thing they could do and if it gets them back into the playoff race, everyone will be thrilled.

Earlier this month, Young Thug celebrated his 30th birthday with a star-studded party that featured appearances from 21 Savage, Lil Baby, Metro Boomin and Travis Scott. Most gave him an expensive piece of jewelry. However, the most interesting gift came from his manager, 300 Entertainment A&R Geoff Ogunlesi, and realtor Trey Williams, namely 100 acres of land in his hometown of Atlanta. Weeks after Thug showed off the land — which he’s dubbed “Slime City” — on social media, we’ve learned about the plans he has for it.

In an interview with TMZ, Williams revealed that Thug wants to build high-quality homes, a waterpark, a camping site, and much more in Slime City. He also wants to create a dirt bike trail for folks around the area to enjoy, on top of bringing his annual Slime Fest there as well. Williams said that he’s already spoken to architects and engineers, adding that things will get going as soon as they receive a few permits that they’re waiting on.

In the meantime, fans can keep an eye out for new information on Thug’s upcoming album, Punk. So far, he’s released its first single, “Tick Tock,” and teased October 15 as a release date for the project.

You can check out the full interview on TMZ here.

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

He’s like Batman, except his bat signal is Category 4 storms and instead of saving people, he simply puts himself (and his crew) in harm’s way. Jim Cantore headed down to New Orleans over the weekend to report on Hurricane Ida, which made landfall in Louisiana, with the beloved city part of its path. It’s scary stuff, as Al Roker can tell you. But Cantore didn’t get pummeled by waves. But he did get mocked and trolled.

As it happens, the Weather Channel vet was in New Orleans on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which he famously covered. Since then he’s become a target of social media jokes. They say that wherever Jim Cantore goes, trouble follows. But though Ida is no joke, people found a number of his antics worth a chuckle.

While Roker got pummeled by waves, Cantore seemed to have no such bad luck. There were the videos of him, all suited up, looking like he was about to be blown over…while people walked around calmly in front or behind him.

There was a guy doing cartwheels.

There was a guy who may have simply been trolling him.

Cantore’s outfit was so hardcore it included a baseball helmet. People felt that was a bit much.

Eventually he did fall down.

Cantore’s notoriety is such that, two days before Ida landed, the city was begging him not to visit, lest he bring the chaos with him.

So let’s all have a good laugh (or two) (or three) (or more) at Jim Cantore. At the same time, stay safe, Louisiana.

It’s Olivia Rodrigo’s Billboard chart, we’re just living in it. Seriously though, the pop star has been dominating the charts ever since her first official single “Driver’s License” dropped at the top of 2020, and it seems like every other week there’s a new story about her breaking another record or cinching another victory in the industry’s official ranking board. Today’s accomplishment is her debut album Sour returning to the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 albums chart after a surge of vinyl sales pushed it back up.

Though Sour came out back in May, the album has been returning to the No. 1 spot on the chart not once, twice or even three times, but four times before this week, boosted from other promotions like her Sour Prom concert film. With the official release of Sour on vinyl, Rodrigo’s debut has now clinched a fifth week at the No. 1 spot. As Billboard reports, the album has the second-most weeks at No. 1 this year, trailing only behind Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album.

Her vinyl bump is just another connection Olivia shares with her idol, Taylor Swift, who experienced a similar surge when the evermore pre-orders finally processed around the same time Sour came out in May. Also notable for pop fan’s: Lorde’s third album Solar Power bowed at No. 3, behind Olivia and Trippie Red. Not bad company! Check out the full report here.

Kanye West’s newly-released album Donda features a whole lot of names from the music industry: It’s got [deep breath] Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Travis Scott, Ariana Grande, DaBaby, Marilyn Manson, Lil Baby, The Weeknd, Playboi Carti, Roddy Ricch, The LOX, Ty Dolla Sign, Lil Durk, Fivio Foreign, Pop Smoke, Vory, Baby Keem, Young Thug, and Shenseea. Additional guests on the album include Syleena Johnson, Francis & The Lights, Don Toliver, Tony Williams, Conway The Machine, KayCyy, Westside Gunn, Swizz Beatz, Jay Electronica, Chris Brown, Sunday Service, and Rooga. But there’s one person who’s particularly upset that they were left off the album.

Hours after Donda was released, Soulja Boy took to Twitter to express his frustration with being elided. It began when a fan asked him for his opinion on the finally released albun. The rapper replied, “Idk how to feel, Kanye sent me that song ‘remote control’ and I don’t hear my verse on it… hmm f*ck that n****.” Soulja Boy then posted texts between him and Kanye that show them discussing the song, whose version on the album features an additional verse from Young Thug. In the caption he wrote, “This n**** Kanye smh. Tell homie dont hit my phone no more.” Lastly, Soulja Boy concluded his attack against West by writing, “That n**** Kanye weird af.”

Donda is out now via GOOD Music. Get it here.

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

Adam Sandler has a pretty substantial deal with Netflix to make movies, but he admitted that the company made one big change he had nothing to do with in his upcoming movie.

As The Hollywood Reporter detailed, Sandler appeared on The Dan Patrick Show on Thursday to talk about his upcoming movie, Hustle. The basketball film isn’t about him wrecking pickup games in the New York region. Instead Sandler plays a recruiter looking for the next big star. And he revealed that a major change was made to the film because Netflix doesn’t currently get to do business with China.

“It was written originally that I find a player in China and somehow, Netflix is not in China. So they were like, ‘Would you guys please make it so we find someone in Latin America or Europe?’” Sandler told Patrick. “So the next thing you know, I’m in Majorca [Spain].”

Patrick, who has a cameo in the film, was shocked to learn that the plot was changed for that reason. “Wait, that’s how that happened?” he asked, to which Sandler replied, “Yeah, it was originally, ‘find a player in China.’”

Anyone making movies knows that the people footing the bill often request changes, but it’s still surprising that Sandler saw this much meddling from a studio. There’s also the odd nature of the change, as Sandler is certainly not someone to turn down filming in a luxurious beach location, turning his shoots into fun vacations with his pals. So perhaps he didn’t mind the change of scenery all that much.

Still, Sandler said the move may have actually helped make Hustle better because it meant casting another real-life basketball player who, like Kevin Garnett in Uncut Gems, is said to have stolen some scenes.

In Netflix’s Hustle, Juancho Hernangómez of the Memphis Grizzlies plays the recruit Sandler’s character hopes will help change his fortune.

“[Hernangómez] acts better than me in every scene,” Sandler said. “It’s just like, god damn it. This guy is falling, crying in the middle of a scene, doing the right thing. Every joke he says, I’m like, ‘He said it smoother than I would have.’”

We’ll have to see just how Hustle turned out, but now we know where a good portion of the plot’s direction goes and how it got there.

[via THR]

Well, things just got a bit interesting.

On Sunday morning, Kanye West’s long-awaited tenth album Donda was released to the world. It came after three listening sessions in the span of one month and several delays that left fans doubtful that the project would ever release.

Lucky for them, that changed today as Donda and its 27 songs are available for a listen on all streaming platforms. According to the rapper himself, however, the project did not arrive in the way he would’ve liked as he shared an Instagram post claiming that his label released the album without his permission.

“Universal put my album out without my approval and they blocked Jail 2 from being on the album,” an image the rapper shared read. In addition to his own label, GOOD Music, West also calls Def Jam Recordings home, a label that Universal Music Group owns.

West’s post seemingly explains why “Jail, Pt. 2,” which features DaBaby and Marilyn Manson, was not on Donda at its initial release around 8 am EST on Sunday morning. The issue was corrected just a few hours later as “Jail, Pt. 2” was added to the album on all streaming services.

Furthermore, West’s message could also mean that Donda was not intended to be released today. The rapper has spent more than a month making changes to the album while holding listening sessions for it in both Atlanta and Chicago. Either way, I’m sure West’s fans are very happy the album was released today after quite the wait.

You can view a screenshot of West’s Instagram post above.

Now that Lorde’s third album Solar Power is out, fans have been able to sit with the record for a week and dive in a bit deeper. It’s definitely a left turn for the pop star, who seems content to approach things from a much slower, low-key perspective after two albums that were super ebullient. Now, she’s focused on things like traveling to Antarctica, and spending time on New Zealand beaches, and that laid back approach comes through in the album. For this album, she was also able to include a spoken word cameo from one of her own pop heroes, Robyn, who offers a coda on the end of album cut “Secrets From A Girl (Who’s Seen It All).”

In a new interview with NME, Lorde talked about the amount of empathy that Robyn offers in her songwriting, which might be the reason she wanted her to act as a guide on the end of that Solar Power track.

“I think there’s just so much room in Robyn’s world for being a hot mess or being this sort of ball of emotions shooting out in every direction,” Lorde said. “I think about a song like ‘Call Your Girlfriend’ – she’s not in a traditional hero’s role; she’s telling someone to break up with their girlfriend so they can be with her. But she’s also having a huge amount of empathy for that other woman – that is some really big, complex adult sh*t to be tackling in a dancefloor banger!”

Check out the whole interview here.