Month: November 2021

Although it has been literal decades since Snoop Dogg was a legitimately menacing presence in hip-hop, that doesn’t mean he can’t occasionally tap into that mode when the mood calls for it. In the case of his new song “Murder Music,” it’s absolutely called for. However, just in case his Corona commercials softened up his image too much to be taken that seriously, he smartly calls on some of rap’s past and current prime purveyors of murder music — namely, Griselda’s Benny The Butcher, the resurgent Jadakiss, and the eternal Busta Rhymes.

Benny sets things off, declaring the ominous beat by Nottz “what they gone play when they wipe the prints off they hammers.” Then, Jadakiss reminds listeners that “it ain’t no reward for the streets.” Busta Rhymes bats cleanup, reminiscing on his rowdy battle rap past, recalling that “I don’t discriminate, I even bodied close peers.” Snoop holds down the hook, which is nice and simple, driving the “murder music” theme through repetition.

The song is set to appear on Snoop Dogg’s upcoming compilation album, Algorithm. At a recent listening session at his Compound in Los Angeles attended by Uproxx, Snoop said the project will operate as a showcase of the talent, past and present, on Def Jam, celebrating Snoop’s new position there as executive creative and strategic consultant. Algorithm is due November 19.

Listen to “Murder Music” above.

Pablo Larraín’s Spencer is a meditation on the life of Princess Diana (played by Kristen Stewart) over the course of a few days in 1991 around the holidays. It is not a happy time for Diana, but the film does provide one true moment of joy as Diana and her two sons, William and Harry, are driving into town, belting out Mike + the Mechanics’s “All I Need is a Miracle.” It’s a wondrous scene, and a strangely startling song choice. And, yes, according to Larraín, the decision of what song to play in that moment was not taken lightly, narrowing it down from over 100 choices.

It’s also difficult to watch Spencer and not think of current events, namely Diana’s son Harry leaving the royal family. I asked Larraín about this, too, and he seems to agree that, yes, we are seeing some of what he depicted play out, but is also smart enough to not comment directly. Also, Larraín is no stranger to films about powerful women and tragic circumstances, having also directed the phenomenal Jackie. Is it a coincidence he’s made a movie about both Princess Diana and Jackie Kennedy? Larraín makes it pretty clear that it is not.

I did not expect to hear a Mike + the Mechanics song during this movie at any point. So why do we hear “All I Need is a Miracle” at such a crucial point?

Well, I guess it’s because of the context. That song plays at a moment where the movie unleashed the character, or the characters unleashed herself. And it was a long process. I had a very long list, a playlist, that had 100, or even more, tracks.

Wow.

Down to 50. And then, of course, there’s a lot of music that we know that she heard. I don’t know if you’ve seen, but they exhibit this suitcase with cassettes. So you can read what other music that she was listening that she liked. And, also, she had many friends that are famous musicians. So it was a whole thing, to choose that song, because it’s a song that would come out of her car…

It has to be something actually getting airplay?

It’s a tape, it’s a tape. It says, “Track one,” whatever. And then, at the same time, it needed to elevate and change the tone of the movie that we had until there.

It does.

In a way that feels organic and uplifting without, I don’t know, being cheesy. Something that feels natural and pure. It was a hard call. It was a tough decision. I played them – meaning them: Kristen and both kids – different tracks, up until I played that song. And the kids were super excited and they were singing it. So I was like, “This is it.” And when we were shooting it, they were asking me – the kids, especially Freddie, who plays Harry – he asked me, who’s the miracle? why are we singing this? And I said, “It’s your mother. And it’s right here.” And that’s how it made a lot of sense for us.

Also it hits that sweet spot of being a popular song, but it’s not overused in movies today.

Yeah! You’re completely right. Part of the equation to choose a song like that is to find a song that has not been significantly used in another movie, but also a song that you think you know, so it clicks certain things in your memory. But it’s not all over the place, you know? And also what I really like is is the use of keyboards. And those guys are coming from Genesis…

Mike Rutherford, yeah.

So, they went to the right school. Incredible.

I’m curious what you thought over the past few months with Harry and Meghan leaving the royal family and doing their interview. There are similar themes to what this movie is saying. And a lot of people are probably going to think about that while watching this movie.

Oh, yeah. I understand. But I’m just a filmmaker, and I don’t think…

I’m not asking what you think about them. I’m wondering how you think it affects how viewers might look at your movie.

I don’t know. It’s a good question. It’s a very good question. I understand it. And we could know that soon, as soon as the movie opens. But what I feel is that we are portraying them, I think, for the first time on a movie, or even in television. And I do respect them a lot, and I think they had a lot of difficulties. And this is a maybe a painful, painful part of their life, because of their mom and their loss and the tragedy. So I will say that I wouldn’t want to throw any other problem to them or whatever, or the reality. And if one of them is doing something that you might think, “Well, it’s a very interesting thing to say.” I just don’t feel good talking about it in public. It’s not who I am, my friend.

I’m guessing you are getting a lot of questions about one of your previous films, Jackie. It is interesting you’ve done two movies on these extremely famous, powerful women who went through tragedy. Is that just coincidence? Or is there something that draws you to that?

Well, I think when you make a movie and spend three years on each of them, I don’t think coincidence is the right word.

Well, sometimes when you talk to filmmakers about this kind of stuff they get adamant one thing has nothing to do with the other, but I don’t know if there is or not.

Yeah, I’m fascinated by the roles they had in the second half of 20th century, I think. They were very similar in many things, and very different in others. And they were both women linked to very powerful families. They were married to powerful men. They were in a very privileged context for most of their life. And they were people who had a very complicated relationship with media, even though they were both able to find their own voice in that sort of complicated context. And I think that’s a very hard thing to do and very interesting. But at the same time, they’re very different movies, I think.

Oh, they 100 percent are…

Jackie is a movie about memory and grief and maybe legacy. And I think Spencer is about motherhood and identity. So they play together well, but they are not sisters. They’re cousins if possible. Right?

I see.

And they’re related, but not really. And something that I think is fascinating is how they actually shaped contemporary fashion. Not in the last 20 years, but up until the very end of the last century, they were both icons. And it’s not just this superficial elements of fashion. I think they also built the culture on a number of things that is related to a more artistic perspective, because they were making choices based on color, texture, fabrics. And they were wearing stuff that back then were, most of the time, very often against the rules.

And they were inventing the persona throughout fashion in a way that I think is fascinating. So from from the pink dress that Jackie wore in Dallas that day, to the wedding dress that Diana got married with, to the red coat, she wore in church… you name it. Nowadays, we’re used to those images. Back then when they were wearing those things each day of their life, it felt really really instructive and very original. I don’t know. Some people didn’t like it. And they were accused of doing whatever weird things, the way they were dressing, but they were building their identity throughout a very beautiful structure. And they knew how to do it. So, yeah, it’s fascinating.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Adding Dolly Parton to any project is always a good idea, but it gets even better when it finally completes a long-awaited reunion with her 9 to 5 costars, which is exactly what’s happening on Netflix’s Grace and Frankie. According to a new report, Parton will guest star on the series’ seventh and final season, putting her back on screen with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. Via TVLine:

For the uninitiated: 9 to 5 was released in 1980, and starred Parton, Fonda and Tomlin as the above-mentioned Doralee, Judy and Violet, three working women who decide to get revenge on their sexist boss (played by Dabney Coleman). The movie went on to gross over $100 million at the box office.

At the moment, Parton’s role on Frankie and Grace is being kept under wraps, but she will appear in the show’s final 12 episodes that will drop sometime in 2022. (Four episodes were released early in August to tide over fans.)

When it wraps up its seven-season run next year, Grace and Frankie will have the distinct honor of having the most amount of episodes for a Netflix original series. While Orange Is the New Black is the current record holder at 91 episodes, Grace and Frankie will top that by streaming 94 episodes when the final season premieres. And, now, the show will get to say it had Dolly Parton stop by for a freaking 9 to 5 reunion, so yeah, try and top that, whichever Netflix series is still racking up episodes. (Narcos, maybe? — Nope, that’s not it. It’ll come to us.)

(Via TVLine)

Ariana Grande has been around for 28 years, and for most of them, she’s been pursuing a career in entertainment. She was in the Broadway musical 13 as a teenager and landed a role in the Nickelodeon series Victorious not long after that. Her roots go even deeper than that, though, as was shown on The Tonight Show yesterday when Jimmy Fallon surprised Grande with video of her first ever singing gig.

Fallon explained that Grande’s first gig was singing the national anthem at a Florida Panthers game when she was 8 and that, thanks to Grande’s mother Joan, he had footage of that performance to show. “Oh my gosh, are we going here,” Grande asked as Fallon set up the clip. The video shows a fresh-faced Grande singing the last few lines of the song, absolutely belting it out before ending the song and letting a big smile spread across her face.

Grande was looking for her shot at fame even years before that. The singing clip was preceded by Grande telling a story about how she called Nickelodeon when she was just four years old. She managed to get through to Universal Studios and expressed her interest in auditioning for All That or The Amanda Show. While that call didn’t end up being fruitful, Grande, as aforementioned, went on to become one of the network’s big stars.

Check out clips from Grande’s Tonight Show interview above and below.

It can be hard to live up to the standard set by your parents, especially if one of them made their name in your industry. But up-and-coming New York rapper Turbeazy is both following in his father’s footsteps and blazing his own path.

Turbeazy remembers going to his father’s concerts as a kid; formative experiences that gave him his first exposure to hip-hop. When his dad became a DJ, Turbeazy took advantage of the moment, feasting on a fully fleshed-out collection of rap records that also helped to influence his career choice.

“At school, I used to freestyle,” Turbeazy says, “and one day somebody told me I should rap, so I ended up going to one of these kids that somebody put me on to that had a studio.”

Thanks to a laptop his mother gave him, Turbeazy kept recording, even while in the Army. When he got out, the education continued with classes that helped him forge a career as an audio engineer at Manhattan’s Fight Klub Studios.

When he records now, Turbeazy is sure to keep one foot in the past, allowing the influence from his father’s career and record collection to find its way into his music.

“In order to move forward, you gotta be able to know and acknowledge the past,” he says. “I still feel like that needs to be represented. It’s something that I was raised to appreciate, coming from a household of an artist and a person who was deep into hip-hop culture. I love and appreciate how far music has evolved.”

While Turbeazy is forging his way forward, his journey hasn’t been without challenges.

“When I was in the Army, nobody really wanted me to rap,” he says. “They thought it was funny. I had a few supporters, but when it was time for me to leave, they were saying, ‘You should re-up and stay in the Army. You can be a good soldier.’ I was like, ‘I want to go to school. I want to be a rapper.’ People were like, ‘That’s a stupid idea.’”

He also remembers being rejected when he tried to pass somebody in the industry a flash drive of his music. It’s something that could discourage someone, but Turbeazy turned it into fuel, telling us that it made him “want to go harder.” And so far, that persistence is paying off. Turbeazy’s profile is steadily increasing and he has songs racking up tens of thousands of plays on platforms like Spotify and SoundCloud. The way Turbeazy sees it, staying positive and dedicated, especially when the goal seems so far away, is the only way forward.

There exists in modern pop culture a certain strain of thinking that holds that celebrity gossip obsession can actually be a righteous pursuit, so long as one engages in it with a sufficiently feminist mindset. That if we can just channel our need for scandalous news about the wealthy into the deification of powerful women, concerning ourselves with their hair and their makeup and their dresses and their personal relationships will become good and just. That it will be a necessary correction of the previous generation’s brand of celebrity gossip, which was misogynist and bad.

The feminist branding is a figleaf, of course, for the same thousands-of-years-old human impulse to worship power and gawp at shiny clothes and pretty people, about which we’ve only recently learned to become ashamed. This phony humanism’s pretense is revealed in the way we force certain public women into our own ideas of cool iconoclasm, no matter who they actually are or what they actually do. Like rebranding a white octogenarian judge “The Notorious RBG” to make her sound more like a dead black rap star. Are we depicting them differently because it’s more honest, or simply because it flatters us? Maybe screaming “leave Britney alone” isn’t the best method of leaving Britney alone.

This mass rebranding exercise comes this week for another public figure too dead to complain, Diana Spencer, the former Princess of Wales and current subject of the new movie Spencer, from Chilean director Pablo Larraín and screenwriter Steven Knight (CBE, one of the co-creators of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire). Larraín and Knight focus their depiction on just one supposedly-representative weekend in the life of Princess Diana: Christmas weekend 1991, when Diana and Charles were on the rocks and at odds over Charles’ affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. They were attempting nonetheless to keep up appearances, for the sake of the traditional Christmas celebration at the family’s Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, next to the house where Diana grew up.

I should note that the movie simply expects us to come prepared with all this background information, about Sandringham, about the rocky marriage, about Charles’s affairs, as the film makes no attempt to convey it here other than through occasional title cards that read “Christmas Eve” or “Christmas Day,” and vague allusions to affairs an hour into the film.

Spencer bills itself as “a fable from a true tragedy,” which is maybe another way of saying “a montage of fashion shoots with the sheen of artistic merit.” Throughout the film, Larraín and Knight are constrained by competing impulses: to worship the princess on the one hand, because she is beautiful and a princess with many fine clothes, but on the other to acknowledge that the monarchy is a monumentally silly institution. Because for one thing it is, and for another it has to be in order to position Diana leaving it as iconoclastic.

They attempt to marry these conflicting desires by depicting Princess Diana, played by Kristen Stewart, as a reluctant princess, thoroughly skeptical of all this monarchical silliness. She just wants regular middle-class things! Going for drives and eating KFC and placing word art above the hearth! (Okay I added that last one myself, only the first two were in the film). Perhaps I’m missing some necessary context here that the movie fails to provide, but: wasn’t Diana Spencer the daughter of a viscount? Someone who grew up on the grounds of a royal estate? Did she not marry one of the world’s most Howdy Doody-looking ass dorks presumably on the basis that he was a prince, because some part of her was so enamored with the idea of becoming a princess and living that princess lifestyle?

Spencer treats Diana as if she was kidnapped into all this, being held against her will. It depicts her life as such a demeaning, excruciating, maddening spectacle that you wonder why she doesn’t just leave. That Diana was a prisoner is a perspective meant to flatter that actually flattens. Surely the real Diana had more agency than this. Surely she did more to rebel against stultifying traditions than cry, puke, and be late to dinner. Surely she had a personality beyond Spencer‘s corny notions of beautiful songbirds in gilded cages.

Spencer‘s most laughable motif is its running comparison of Princess Diana to Anne Boleyn, who was beheaded by Henry VIII in 1536 when he figured that would be easier than getting a divorce. Spencer‘s Diana reads a book about Boleyn, who also appears to Diana in visions, Obi-Wan Kenobi-style (though, unlike Kenobi, Boleyn never offers any useful advice). In one early scene, Diana arrives at a formal dinner wearing her new necklace of pearls, a symbol of Diana’s oppression based on the rumor that Charles gifted an identical set to his mistress. Diana imagines herself as Boleyn over soup, conflating her pearls with the headsman’s ax until she begins to choke. When she finally can’t take it any longer she snaps the strand holding the pearls and they cascade around her, raining down dramatically onto the table and into the soup. Which Diana then eats, crunching on the pearls presumably in some attempt at magical realism, delivered with all the ostentatious but thimble shallow symbolism of a European perfume ad. She’s eating the pearls! Isn’t it just fabulous?

Larraín and Knight try mightily to inflate this marital squabble into something with larger implications, but mostly it seems like what Larraín has here is a kink, a fetish for photographing tragic wealthy women (Spencer seems to assume that because Diana died tragically she must’ve lived tragically too). Between Spencer and his last English-languge film, Jackie, it seems nothing excites Larraín more than the idea of a rich woman looking sad in ten thousand dollars worth of taffeta. Doubly so if the rich woman is played by a petite American actress making bizarre and ostentatious character choices.

Where Natalie Portman played Jackie Onassis in a grating accent that sounded like New England debutante by way of a porn star, Kristen Stewart manages to outdo her for conspicuous effort. She’s rarely without pursed lips or furrowed brow, delivering all her lines like she’s hyperventilating, heavily exhaling or inhaling words through her bottom teeth in a clipped stage whisper that’s as hard to understand as it is to listen to. What are you saying? Why are you whispering? Can’t you just talk? Spencer might be our first ASMR biopic.

That the press is obsessed with her, that her husband is mean to her, that her children have trapped her, these are all things we’re merely meant to infer. All we actually see is Diana crying, Diana puking, Diana cutting herself, Diana obsessing like a narcissistic teenager while ignoring perfectly good advice from people around her. Sean Harris as the devoted royal chef is miles more compelling than Diana the self-pitying brat depicted in Spencer. Spencer forces Diana into victimhood, seemingly under the belief that that’s the only way we can relate to her. It’s all based on the faulty assumption that the press being obsessed with her was bad, while us being obsessed with the press being obsessed with her is good.

Or maybe that’s giving Spencer too much credit. Maybe Larraín merely gets off on the image of a woman kneeling over a toilet in a dress worthy of a museum. No shame if that’s your kink. For me, there’s simply a low limit to how long I can be huskily whispered at in a cretinous accent.

‘Spencer’ opens only in theaters November 5th. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can check out his film review archive here.

The Philadelphia 76ers will once again withhold money from Ben Simmons and put it in an escrow account. According to a new report from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Philly is fining Simmons his $360,000 game check from Thursday night’s win over the Detroit Pistons, a game in which he did not play, and plans on continuing to levy fines against Simmons moving forward.

The Sixers’ reason, per Wojnarowski, stems from two things. One is that Simmons, who has said that he is not mentally ready to compete, is not meeting with team physicians to talk through his mental health status. Instead, Simmons is only meeting with mental health professionals who are available through the Players Association. Wojnarowski reported that Simmons is meeting with team physicians regarding his back.

Additionally, the team is withholding money from Simmons for basketball-related reasons. While he is participating in some activities, Philly appears to want him to expand on what he is doing right now.

Simmons has been showing up regularly at the team’s facility for some daily basketball activity with coaches and individual teammates, but the Sixers will begin fining him again for failures to participate in other requirements, such as strength training, film study and some presence at team practices and game-day shootarounds, sources said.

Despite the ongoing situation with Simmons, the Sixers have been on a tear to start the year. The team is in the midst of a five-game winning streak and boasts a 7-2 record, which is the best in the Eastern Conference.

In hip-hop, it’s always been something of an accomplishment to reach double digits in your album catalog — something only a handful of well-established, super-successful rappers have accomplished in the forty or so years the genre’s been at the forefront of American pop culture. One of those artists is Rick Ross, who crossed that milestone two years ago with Port Of Miami 2. While absolutely no one would blame him for wanting to take a break, it’s clear Ross just flat-out loves to rap — a fact evidenced by today’s announcement that his 11th studio album, Richer Than I Ever Been, is coming next month.

Scheduled to release on December 10 through Maybach Music and Epic, the promo for Richer Than I Ever Been will kick off next Friday, November 12, with the lead single “Outlawz” featuring 21 Savage and Jazmine Sullivan. Ross shared the cover for Richer Than I Ever Been, which features photography by veteran hip-hop shooter Jonathan Mannion, on Instagram. Mannion himself also posted the cover, explaining the concept in his caption: “They can’t even see you, Rozay,” he wrote. “You are in a whole other stratosphere in this moment. Honored to sync up with you for this, our 5th, album campaign.”

Richer Than I Ever Been is due 12/10 via Maybach and Epic.

Click to download here.

The Many Pussies of Newark

Pod Yourself A Gun returns for a new season of tiddies, meat, parody songs, and plenty of slop for the piggies. Comedian, host of the Sitdown Podcast, and genuine Italian-American Mike Recine sits down with Matt and Vince to talk about the premiere episode of the first half of the sixth and final season of The Sopranos, “Members Only.”

Much like podcasting, no one really retires from the mob, which Meadow’s favorite violent homophobe, Eugene Pontecorvo, learns the hard way after inheriting a small fortune from his aunt and asking Tony if he can move to Florida. When his request is denied, he sends himself to that great big Florida in the sky with pee pee dribbling down his leg. As the guys point out, it’s a real Death of a Salesman type situation, but with more piss.

As noted on the pod, it seems like David Chase’s way of reminding the dummies at home yet again that Tony is not a good guy who should be emulated. Watching him eat sushi does make sushi look really appealing though. Imagine how the wasabi could really activate a powerful nose whistle that would demand the respect of your peers.

Beyond the episode recap, we get a Bada B story parody of Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek” and Mike reveals that Idris Elba used to be a door guy at Caroline’s Comedy Club in New York. To all our door guy listeners, hang in there. Maybe you too can be an international sex symbol one day.

Tell us all about it in a five-star review on Apple Podcasts

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Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast and get more bonus content than you could ever want, AND if you sign up for the Pod Yourself a Shoutout tier, you can bask in the glory of hearing your name on the podcast. Like this week’s newest members: Big Pussy, Hairy Pussy, Weej, Smiley, Chicky, The Wino, The Egg, The Babbler, Horse, Smelly, Goan Fishin’, HTML, Simpson, The Clocksucker, Girthy, Big Percy, Kafka, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kingo, Carl the Fog, Raiders, The Zit, and Uncle Jesse.

-Description by Brent Flyberg.

Not too long ago, QAnon cheerleader and far-right Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene earned a side-eye from Steve Bannon (of all people) when she claimed to be “the most effective member of Congress this session.” She did so after advocating for a government shutdown and after harassing fellow congresspeople, and being stripped of her committee seats, and she’s at it again with her grandiose claims of being able to effect great change, pretty much by herself.

Greene has suddenly declared that she’s appalled by conditions in jails. She even announced, “I am also beginning a plan for real prison reform.” That happened at the end of a lengthy tweet thread after she visited January 6 insurrectionists who were waiting in the D.C. jail for trial. Greene has not spoken about jail conditions prior to her visit with MAGA rioters, but her perspective has completely changed.

Among other declarations in the tweet thread, she said the following:

– “I’ve never seen human suffering like I witnessed last night.”

– “We then were taken to another section of the jail and entered the Patriot wing. I was greeted by men with overwhelming cheers who rushed out to meet me with tears streaming down their faces. They have felt forgotten & hopeless.”

– “It was like walking into a prisoner of war camp and seeing men who eyes can’t believe someone had made it in to see them.”

– “I’ll never forget hearing their screams. This was in a different part of the jail, not the J6 part.”

– “Virtually no medical care, very poor food quality, and being put through re-education which most of them are rejecting.”

– “I am committed to ending this political war and seeing that our justice system is never used against Americans as a political weapon ever again. I am also beginning a plan for real prison reform. Our nation is broken and our people are divided. It’s time to fix it.”

You can read Greene’s full rant on jail conditions below.

So… will this tweet thread and newfound interest in prisoner welfare actually go anywhere, or will this be another instance of Marjorie claiming to be the most productive member of Congress (without actually doing anything)? Take a guess.