Month: October 2021

Summer Walker teased a release window for the follow-up to her 2019 debut Over It this past weekend after foregoing the BET Hip-Hop Awards and now, she’s revealed both its actual release date. Fittingly, it’s called Still Over It and it’s due on November 5 through LVRN and Interscope. Summer announced the project’s impending release with a colorful trailer featuring City Girls’ JT, reenacting a phone conversation between the two from this date, two years ago.

In the clip, Summer is wearing her all-pink outfit from the cover of Over It — a light pink bikini and du-rag — while sitting in the same room on the same phone. This time, though, we get to see who’s on the other line: JT, who at the time, was locked up for credit card fraud. Sure enough, JT appears in the trailer in her neutral, state-issued coveralls — although I doubt her face was beat to the gawds when she was actually in prison — as they make plans for a post-release hang.

JT was released in March last year, but then the world shut down due to a pandemic. Fortunately for Summer and JT, things are reopening and they can get back to those plans.

Watch the trailer for Summer Walker’s new album Still Over It above.

On Monday, Facebook experienced the longest and most crippling outage in the social media company’s history as both its main site and sister platforms, Instagram and WhatsApp, were completely unusable for hours around the globe. Naturally, the jokes started flying on social media sites that were working, and Stephen Colbert had plenty to say on the topic when Monday’s The Late Show episode aired. While setting up the events surrounding Facebook’s worldwide outage, Colbert couldn’t help but get in a solid dig at the platform’s penchant for spreading wild conspiracy theories.

“For hours, users were left in suspense about whether their second cousin thinks the vaccine gives your pancreas WiFi,” Colbert quipped before reveling in how awkward it must have been for Facebook to communicate its outage to users through a competitor.

“It was so bad that the only way Facebook could let the world know what was going on ― and this is true ― was by posting a message on Twitter. Ow! That must hurt,” Colbert said. “Facebook communicating problems on Twitter? That’s like Burger King running out of fries and having to announce it on a Big Mac.”

“As the panic grew, Facebook did not say what might be causing the outage,” the Late Show host continued. “Now, I’m no computer expert, but my theory is: a just God?”

However, Colbert didn’t keep his jokes contained to the outage. He also made it a point to highlight that the outage occurred shortly after Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen appeared on 60 Minutes and claimed that the social media site has been purposefully allowing misinformation to fester on the site because anger leads to more profitable levels of engagement.

“Well, if the Facebook algorithm likes things that make you angry, it’s gonna love the news about the Facebook algorithm,” Colbert said to close out the segment.

Yesterday, Mitski revealed she had a new song coming today, although she didn’t share that much info about it. Now, we know a lot more: The track is called “Working For The Knife,” and it premiered this morning alongside a new video.

The video — directed by Zia Anger and filmed at at The Egg in Albany, New York — starts with a cowboy hat-wearing Mitski walking through a dark and ominous outdoor space. She eventually finds her way inside, where she sings, licks a handrail or two, and makes her way to a stage, where she dances her heart out.

Mitski says of the song, “It’s about going from being a kid with a dream, to a grown up with a job, and feeling that somewhere along the way you got left behind. It’s being confronted with a world that doesn’t seem to recognize your humanity, and seeing no way out of it.”

Watch the “Working For The Knife” video above. Mitski also announced a long run of tour dates for 2022, so find those below.

02/17/2022 — Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
02/18/2022 — Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
02/19/2022 — Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern
02/21/2022 — Birmingham, AL @ Iron City
02/22/2022 — New Orleans, LA @ Civic Theatre
02/24/2022 — Houston, TX @ The Lawn at White Oak Music Hall
02/25/2022 — Dallas, TX @ The Factory in Deep Ellum
02/26/2022 — Austin, TX @ ACL Live at Moody Theater
02/28/2022 — Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
03/03/2022 — Los Angeles, CA @ Shrine Exposition Hall
03/04/2022 — Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
03/07/2022 — Portland, OR @ Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
03/09/2022 — Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre
03/12/2022 — Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
03/14/2022 — St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre
03/15/2022 — Milwaukee, WI @ The Riverside Theater
03/17/2022 — Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
03/18/2022 — Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall
03/19/2022 — Montreal, QC @ St-Jean-Baptiste Church
03/21/2022 — Boston, MA @ TBD
03/24/2022 — New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall
03/25/2022 — Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall
03/26/2022 — Washington, DC @ The Anthem
03/29/2022 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE
03/30/2022 — Louisville, KY @ Old Forester’s Paristown Hall
03/31/2022 — Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
04/21/2022 — Bristol, UK @ Marble Factory
04/22/2022 — Leeds, UK @ University Stylus
04/23/2022 — Glasgow, UK @ Queen Margaret Union
04/25/2022 — Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street
04/26/2022 — Manchester, UK @ O2 Ritz
04/28/2022 — London, UK @ The Roundhouse
04/30/2022 — Brussels, BE @ Botanique
05/02/2022 — Tourcoing, FR @ Le Grand Mix
05/03/2022 — Paris, FR @ Le Cabaret Sauvage
05/04/2022 — Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
05/06/2022 — Zurich, CH @ Les Docks
05/07/2022 — Lausanne, CH @ Les Docks
05/09/2022 — Berlin, DE @ Metropol
05/10/2022 — Copenhagen, DK @ Vega
05/11/2022 — Stockholm, SE @ Nalen
05/12/2022 — Oslo, NO @ Rockefeller Music Hall
05/14/2022 — Hamburg, DE @ Fabrik
05/15/2022 — Cologne, DE @ Stollwerck
05/17/2022 — Vienna, AU @ WUK
05/18/2022 — Prague, CZ @ Rock Cafe
05/19/2022 — Munich, DE @ Strom

In recent days, rumors about Adele’s return to music have been picking up steam. Rumors in September suggested that new music was coming soon. Then, over the past few days, billboards and updates to Adele’s website and social media pages indicated that Adele is preparing to release an album titled 30. There’s no further news about 30 yet, but now it has been confirmed that Adele is finally releasing new music, and it’s coming soon.

Today, Adele shared a teaser for a song called “Easy On Me,” which is currently set for release next week, on October 15. The video clip is scored by a few seconds of new music, which sounds like a snippet from a piano ballad. As for the video itself, there’s black-and-white footage of Adele driving an older car. Beyond that, there doesn’t appear to be any more available information about the song as of now. “Easy On Me” will be Adele’s first single since 2016’s “Water Under The Bridge.”

What can be gathered from this, though, is that Adele’s next batch of music probably isn’t drum and bass, as she previously joked it would be. On her 31st birthday in 2019, she wrote on Instagram, “30 tried me so hard but I’m owning it and trying my hardest to lean in to it all. No matter how long we’re here for life is constant and complicated at times. I’ve changed drastically in the last couple years and I’m still changing and that’s okay. […] Bunch of f*cking savages, 30 will be a drum n bass record to spite you.”

The Phoenix Suns and their former No. 1 overall pick have reportedly come to an impasse regarding a potential contract extension. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, talks on a contract extension for standout center Deandre Ayton have “stalled,” as the team is hesitant to offer him a maximum rookie extension and Ayton would like to get the kind of deal that has been given out to a number of other members of his draft class.

Ayton, who played a major role in the Suns’ run to the NBA Finals last season, could potentially become a restricted free agent next summer should the two sides not come to terms on an extension in less than two weeks.

Ayton, 23, is eligible for a five-year, $172.5 million extension, with escalators that could reach $207 million — a deal that many executives league-wide expected would be complete in short order this offseason. But now, with a looming Oct. 18 deadline for rookie extensions, sources said the talks between the Suns and Ayton’s representatives are slowed by ownership’s current assertion that Ayton doesn’t deserve to be included in that group of players — and a belief by the 7-footer that his performance, potential and the marketplace dictate that he does.

So far, four players from the 2018 draft — Luka Doncic, Trae Young, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Michael Porter Jr. — have put pen to paper on max extensions. Ayton, of course, was drafted before all of those players, and has become one of the more promising two-way big men in the league. He averaged 14.4 points and 10.5 rebounds in 30.7 minutes per game for the Suns last year, and seemed to take his game to another level in the postseason, serving as a reliable outlet for Chris Paul and a menace on the defensive end of the floor.

Ainsley Earhardt often stays out of the line of fire when fellow Fox and Friends co-hosts Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy are going at it. She sure does say a lot, though, during other moments, and The Daily Show decided to document a certain habit for one of the Fox News personalities who’s very upset that Christmas is ruined because no one wants to work. The same host who declared Trump a super hard worker tends to revert to a telling habit: mentioning “my friend” in countless instances to support her points.

As the Trevor Noah-hosted Comedy Central show phrased things, “Ainsley Earhardt takes the ‘friends’ part of ‘Fox & Friends’ very seriously.” From there, this clip functions as a compilation of every time that the co-host has mentioned her friends, her best friend, her anti-vaxxer friends, her friends with kids, and well, you get the point. The routine quickly grows tedious while one watches the exhaustive repetition, which is punctuated by this awkward reaction face from Brian Kilmeade around the 1:30 mark.

It must be noted that Kilmeade doles out his fair share of idiosyncrasies on-air, too, mainly in the form of tantrum-y outbursts and baffling claims about reading Hitler in school and whatnot. Still, Ainsley deserves the spotlight where The Daily Show is concerned. Or at least, her “friends” (if they all really exist) deserve it.

As Media Matters writer Bobby Lewis put it on Twitter, “‘i have a friend’ = ‘i saw someone say this online.’”

After teasing The Suicide Squad fans during the Emmys with a tiny glimpse of the new spinoff series, Peacemaker, HBO Max has released an extended clip that builds on the scene from last month’s sizzle reel. More importantly, it answers the questions of how the heck Cena’s character actually has friends to meet for dinner, and it turns out, he doesn’t. They’re co-workers forced to work with him.

After arriving in his souped up patriotic ride, with a live bald eagle in the backseat, Peacemaker gets ruthlessly dunked on by the support team for Amanda Waller’s Task Force X. They have a lot of questions about why Cena’s character walks around in a bright red costume all day, and what’s up with the eagle. When Peacemaker reveals the bird’s name is “Eagly,” he’s bombarded yet again with another round of jokes.

The clip also dropped a new logline for the douchetastic series: “He’s got the looks, the car, and the best sidekick ever — all in the name of peace.” However, it doesn’t look like any of those things are as badass as Peacemaker thinks they are.

Here’s how creator James Gunn announced the Peacemaker series, which he created while bored out of his mind during quarantine:

“Peacemaker is an opportunity to delve into current world issues through the lens of this superhero/supervillain/and world’s biggest douchebag,” Gunn said in a statement. “I’m excited to expand The Suicide Squad and bring this character from the DC film universe to the full breadth of a series. And of course, to be able to work again with John, Peter, and my friends at Warner Bros. is the icing on the cake.”

Peacemaker starts streaming January 16, 2022.

For the first time in 25 years, Donald Trump is off the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans. The former-president’s net worth is $2.5 billion, so he’s doing fine, but he’s $400 million short of making the list — and down $600 million since the start of the pandemic due to his portfolio largely being made up of empty big-city properties.

Of course, it’s his own dang fault that he tumbled off the list.

If he paid the maximum possible capital gains tax — 23.8% to the federal government, plus 8.8% to the New York State authorities on every penny he owned — that would have shaved about $1.1 billion off his fortune, leaving him with $2.4 billion on the first day of his presidency. But what would have appeared to be a huge sacrifice at first could have turned into a lucrative realignment. By plowing that $2.4 billion in an index fund tracking the S&P 500, for example, Trump’s fortune would have ballooned to $4.5 billion by now, leaving him 80% richer than he is today. His refusal to divest, in other words, cost him $2 billion.

This is not going to sit well with Trump, who once lied his way onto the Forbes 400 (the fascinating story involves an alter ego named “John Barron,” because even his fake names aren’t subtle). Trump was in the top half of the ranking every year from 1997 to 2016, but he started to tumble during his presidency and now he’s entirely off it. At least there was one repercussion for his bungled administration…

The Forbes 400 is topped by Jeff Bezos ($201 billion), Elon Musk ($190.5 billion), Mark Zuckerberg ($134.5 billion, although that may have dropped after yesterday), Bill Gates ($134 billion), and Larry Page ($123 billion). You can find the full ranking here.

(Via Forbes)

Kacey Musgraves stole the show during Saturday Night Live this past weekend with her performance of “Justified.” The stage design was simple: Musgraves sat with a guitar on her lap, but notably, it appeared she wasn’t wearing any clothes (except for a pair of boots). It was hard to tell for sure if she was actually naked, though, as the stage lighting was dark and there wasn’t a large variety of camera angles used during the broadcast.

Now, though, we know for sure: Musgraves was in fact nude during the performance. Musgraves’ confirmed as much with Variety, saying, “She was nude. Precautions were taken, and this was the first time it’s happened on the show.”

Fans noticed the performance was visually similar to a scene from Forest Gump, in which Robin Wright’s character Jenny sings and plays guitar naked as “Bobbi Dylan.” After the performance, Musgraves seemingly confirmed the Forest Gump inspiration by sharing a still frame from the movie, of Jenny’s fateful nude performance.

Meanwhile, fans will get to see Musgraves perform in person (presumably fully clothed) in 2022, as she recently announced a string of North American tour dates for early next year.

Revisit Musgraves’ performance of “Justified” here.

Star-Crossed is out now via Interscope/MCA Nashville. Get it here.

When Coldplay and BTS’ paths converged on their collaborative single “My Universe,” the bands were on two very different paths. While BTS is in the midst of an impressive string of No. 1 singles, Coldplay’s last chart-topper came over 13 years ago, with 2008’s “Viva La Vida.” Now, though, both bands are back on top: On the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated October 9, “My Universe” debuts at No. 1.

Along with being Coldplay’s first No. 1 in 13 years and 3 months, “My Universe” is BTS’s sixth No. 1 in just over a year and a month. That’s the fastest an artist has ever racked up six chart-topping sings since The Beatles did so over the course of a year and two weeks from 1964 to 1966.

As BTS songs tend to do, this one made history. Aside from the aforementioned accolades, BTS has now had five songs debut at No. 1, tying them with Drake and Ariana Grande for the most ever. “My Universe” is Max Martin’s 23rd No. 1 song as a producer, tying him with George Martin for the most of all-time. Also worth noting is that “My Universe” is the first collaboration by two lead groups to ever go No. 1 on the Hot 100.

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