Month: December 2021

Of all the standout guest verses on Kanye West’s pivotal 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Pusha T’s verses on “Runaway” and “I’m So Appalled” are widely considered to be among the best. As it turns out, though, Pusha’s verses might not have been present — in fact, the whole trajectory of his career might have changed — were it not for the intervention of his manager, Steven Victor, who recently told Noah Callahan-Bever how Ye’s slow recording process frustrated Pusha to the point of quitting the island-bound sessions altogether.

In the lead-up to releasing the album, Kanye had absconded to Hawaii, seeking refuge after his 2009 VMAs dust-up with Taylor Swift. Feeling the recriminations of viewers who’d condemned his stage-rushing incident, he knew his next project would potentially be his last chance to swing public opinion back to his side. The recording sessions in Hawaii, which have since become music lore, gathered some of the biggest names in hip-hop for what would turn out to be arguably one of Ye’s best albums. However, because the process had involved so much downtime — the participants often notoriously skived off recording sessions to play basketball — Pusha, who’d been invited by Kanye after learning the Clipse rapper had recently gone solo, almost gave up.

“There’d be periods where we would be in Hawaii for like two or three weeks and no work would be getting done,” says Victor. “So for someone like Pusha, it’s like, ‘What is this? This doesn’t make sense.’ We were supposed to go out there one time and he was like, ‘Tsk. I’m not going, man. This ain’t it.’ I was like, ‘Nah, we have to go! [Kanye’s] process is his process.’ He was like, ‘I’m not going.’”

Eventually, Victor, who went solo, was able to cover for Push long enough to convince Kanye to extend a recording contract with GOOD Music to the Virginia rapper. That was enough to entice him back, and the rest, as they say, is history. Pusha rose through the ranks to become GOOD’s President, presiding over high-profile signings like 070 Shake and Desiigner. Check out the full interview below.

Stephen Colbert has refused to say the name “Donald Trump” on The Late Show since last November, when Joe Biden won the election. “For the record, I’m not trying to scrub him out,” he explained back in April. “It’s just that legend has it, now that he’s out of office, if you say his name three times, he appears in your bathroom mirror and then uses your toilet while complaining that it’s low flush.” Colbert added that he originally went with “former-president, but that gives him dignity ― and me flashbacks.”

It took months for anyone to notice the lack of Colbert saying “Trump,” but it’s become a popular in-joke on the late-night show, with viewer-submitted nicknames like Mar-a-Lardo, Tangerine Ball Bag, and Marginally Sentient Spray Tan.

The Late Show is off this week, but the show’s YouTube channel put together a supercut of all of Colbert’s nicknames for Trump. Highlights include: Walker: Taxes Evader, Scooby Coup, Dolt 45, Tangerine Palpatine, Drinks with Two Hands, Vanity Manatee, Penis Pumpkinhead (which sounds like an off-brand Halloween costume), Hair Farce One, The Big Lie-bowski, King Baby Coward, Old Wack Donald, Ole Yeller, and Jackass O’Lantern. Somehow, there are dozens more.

You can watch The Late Show video above.

As part of its long-running In Performance At The White House series, PBS aired Spirit Of The Season last night, which featured a number of performers bringing holiday cheer to the White House, including Camila Cabello, the Jonas Brothers, Andrea Bocelli, Matteo Bocelli, Virginia Bocelli, Eric Church, Norah Jones, Pentatonix, Billy Porter, Northwell Health Nurse Choir, Voices Of Service, and “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band.

Cabello brought a Latin flair to her performance of “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” as she sang the holiday classic backed by Mariachi Herencia de Mexico. Meanwhile, the JoBros delivered a rendition of their original 2019 holiday single “Like It’s Christmas.” While at the White House to tape their performance, Nick, Joe, and Kevin even managed to get Joe Biden to make a TikTok video with them.

Deadline reports the program was taped between December 11 and 14, as opposed to being a single concert in the East Room like it usually is, due to COVID protocols. They also note this is the first In Performance At The White House special since 2016, as none were held during Donald Trump’s presidency.

Watch Cabello and the Jonas Brothers’ performances above and check out the full In Performance show here.

Buffalo-bred rapper and Griselda Records founder Westside Gunn was rushed to the hospital on Tuesday, telling fans via Instagram that EMTs were called when he discovered that he couldn’t breathe. He also revealed that it was the second time that it happened within a month. And while he wasn’t able to pinpoint a cause, there has been a certain virus circulating lately that causes exactly the symptoms he described — a virus he’d previously caught last year and that can have long-running aftereffects even after a person recovers from it.

Gunn didn’t go as far as naming COVID-19 as the culprit behind his breathing problems but he did post a second Instagram Story offering his own explanation. “Some rest & I’ll be back,” he promised. “Thank y’all so much for the love, u know I love u all even the haters!!! happy holidays… I didn’t realize I had 60 points in the 3rd quarter I should’ve been benched myself, some should be thankful I’m giving y’all a head start anyways (I’m still talking shit but if u know me u know I’m humble lol…) Allahu akbar see y’all next year.”

Gunn has had a relatively busy year, recently dropping the eighth installment of his Hitler Wears Hermes mixtape series and featuring on projects with the likes of DMX, IDK, and Russ. Hopefully, he gets the rest he needs and recovers soon because 2021’s In Memoriam section is getting way too long

There’s a certain tendency online for hateful commentators to bash on the elders in the music world, and it’s something that’s always irked Cardi B. As a female rapper herself, Cardi has faced the kind of constant criticism and endless nitpicking that many other celebrities have endured, but there’s one person she will always defend from it — and that’s Lil Kim. When “WAP” came out and Cardi and Megan Thee Stallion were relentlessly attacked, Cardi admitted it shocked her because she grew up on raunchy rap like the music Kim used to make, and Kim has noted in the past that she’d love to remake “Ladies Night” with Cardi involved.

And the mutual respect between the two is probably why Cardi took it upon herself to defend Lil Kim from the latest round of cyber bullying that Kim is facing. In a series of tweets last night, Cardi let her fans know that she thinks the constant abuse Kim faces as a “real f*cking legend” is heartbreaking.

When commenters brought up Cardi collaborating with Kim — as if that would somehow stop the other internet bullying — and Cardi assured everyone that when the time is right, her collaboration with Kim will come.

So there you have it Kim — Cardi’s always got your back.

Last summer, Avengers came out of the woodwork to praise Bridger Walker, a six-year-old boy who put himself between a German Shephard and his little sister, resulting in 90 stitches to the face for his heroic effort. While most people forgot about the brave story, Tom Holland definitely did not. The Spider-Man: No Way Home star made good on his promise to invite Bridger to the set of the film, and it was everything that a young Spidey fan could ever want.

According to an Instagram post from Bridger’s dad (Robert Walker), Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, and Flash Thompson actor Tony Revolori went out of their way to make the tiny hero’s visit special. In fact, they made the whole Walker family feel special, and they were sure to thank the Marvel stars for the incredible day.

When we first arrived on set, I was a little apprehensive that once the “curtain was pulled back” that the magic of the movies would be lost for the kids. The opposite was true! Tom, Zendaya, Harry, @lifeisaloha, @tonyrevolori, and the entire cast/crew made our kids feel like stars. They don’t just act the part of friendly neighborhood heroes – that’s what they truly are.

The look on the kids’ faces was priceless when we rounded the blue-screen to see Tom, in full costume, high above the set on a light post. It was emotional to see him waive at the kids like he was the one that was supposed to be excited – not the other way around.

The Walkers also shared a set video of Bridger getting to help Holland film a scene by “filling in for Zendaya.” Fair warning though, try not to get misty-eyed watching Spidey make a boy feel like the true hero he is. So many feels.

(Via Robert Walker on Instagram)

We are no longer in a TV wasteland, so get ready for the streaming services to pile on even harder than they did in 2021. Production roared back into full swing, and HBO Max has been amassing plenty of prestige and not-so-prestige series for the taking. I’m truly looking forward to a new Hacks season because, hey, give me some smartass Jean Smart, and she will sustain my life force. Well, HBO Max ain’t stopping there.

There’s a ton to look forward to in the above sizzle reel, which also makes me think about how, about five years ago, the thought of a Game of Thrones spinoff would be one of the most exciting TV tidbits out there. We’re now staring down House of the Dragon, which is still something to look forward to (very much, actually), but Matt Smith and his Targaryen wig are gonna have to work hard to overcome that series finale season. In addition, we’re seeing first looks at two high-profile returning shows: Kaley Cuoco proving everyone wrong in more of The Flight Attendant and the Man in Black staring at Caleb in more Westworld. Does Caleb look confused, more than anything else, to you? Sure he does. He doesn’t know what the heck’s going on in that show either.

On a more easily digestible note: More new and returning shows flash before our eyes at breakneck pace. There’s John Cena’s Suicide Squad character in Peacemaker; the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special that will hopefully skirt the whole J.K. Rowling mess; and several new originals coming your way. Those include Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, The White House Plumbers, We Own This City, Julia, Love & Death, and The Time Traveler’s Wife. Also, there’s more returning shows, including The Nevers, Raised by Wolves, and one last hurrah for His Dark Materials.

Here’s my takeaway: gimme some Jean Smart, Kaley Cuoco, and some dragons.

The Brooklyn Nets have not played a game since Saturday, as each of their last two contests — a pair of home tilts against the Denver Nuggets and the Washington Wizards that were slated to take place on Sunday and Tuesday, respectively — got postponed due to the sheer number of players the team has in the NBA’s health and safety protocols.

Now, a third consecutive game on the team’s schedule is getting moved to a later date due to Brooklyn’s inability to put enough basketball players on the floor. The league announced on Wednesday morning that the team’s upcoming matchup with the Portland Trail Blazers is not going to happen. It was scheduled to take place on Thursday evening in Rip City, but now, the game will be pushed back to a later date.

As of this writing, LaMarcus Aldridge, DeAndre’ Bembry, Bruce Brown, Jevon Carter, Kevin Durant, James Harden, James Johnson, Paul Millsap, Day’Ron Sharpe are all in the health and safety protocols, while Joe Harris is sidelined due to ankle surgery and the duo of Nic Claxton and Blake Griffin are listed as day-to-day. Kyrie Irving is also in the protocols, but he is not with the team as he is getting ready to return as a part-time player.

Next up on Brooklyn’s schedule is a highly-anticipated Christmas Day matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center. There is no word on whether or not the Nets will have enough players to play that game.

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of Ed Sheeran releasing his one-off single “Afterglow.” So far, he has celebrated in a couple of ways, one much more hilarious than the other. The not-funny-but-still-good one is a video he shared of himself and some backing vocalists singing the song a capella in a church. His other observance is looking back at the time he tried to make the song go viral on TikTok and actually managed to do so, but not in the way he thought he would.

On December 27 last year, Sheeran shared a video of himself performing about a minute of the song, singing and playing acoustic guitar in a studio, and asked his fellow TikTok users to “duet” him, in this case meaning both to sing along with him and to use the TikTok’s “duet” feature to add their video to his in a side-by-side format. The video took off, as it currently has about 54.7 million views. As for the duets, they came flooding in, although it was mostly people ignoring the song and instead doing whatever sort of loud activity they could think of to drown out Sheeran’s performance.

Now, Sheeran has made a new video looking back on the situation. The text on screen reads, “A year ago I joined TikTok to create a trend for my song Afterglow. It went so well. So many talented duets.” The video then shows off some of the duets Sheeran’s request yielded, which include people banging on a drum, using a blender, and playing a didgeridoo. Sheeran also captioned the post, “Join TikTok they said, go viral they said.”

So far, the responses to Sheeran’s new video are nicer this time around, as most of the comments are from people empathizing with Sheeran and praising him for being able to take a joke.

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

First, if you haven’t yet seen The Matrix Resurrections, you may want to wait to read this until after because the true nature of Neil Patrick Harris’s Analyst character is discussed. So, having said that, Neil Patrick Harris is very good at playing this kind of role. Where it’s like, hm, where is this guy coming from? And, then, yes, down the line find out he has sinister motives. (He also played this to perfection in Gone Girl.)

Apparently Lana Wachowski felt the same way. The two had never met, but Wachowski reached out to Harris and after a FaceTime chat talking about clouds and fog, Harris was cast in this pivotal role of Thomas Anderson’s (Keanu Reeves) therapist who, at first, has to convince Thomas that everything he remembers about The Matrix is all in his head. But as the film progresses, this character becomes more and more central to the entire plot.

Harris also talks a bit about his stint as Oscars host. In that it’s starting to look like a rarity since there hasn’t been a host going on three years now. Harris actually gives a pretty thoughtful and insightful answer about why no one really wants to host it anymore and what can be done to revamp the proceedings.

But, first, when we hopped on Zoom, the scene behind me was pretty bare because we are in the process of movie, which Harris was quick to point out…

Neil Patrick Harris: I like what you did with the place.

Well, look, we’re moving, by the way, so you’re just lucky you’re not seeing a bunch of boxes behind me.

Nice, congrats.

And you live in New York, right?

Indeed.

As you know, moving in New York City, not the easiest thing to do. So this is the only wall that is…

Fairly livable?

Yes.

Amazing.

I love it when you play characters like this. Is this something you seek out? Gone Girl is another good example.

I think that my background in magic might be helpful in some of these roles that I get to play? Because with magic you know the secret and you try to be as skilled as possible at when secrets are revealed, or withholding information in misdirection kind of ways. So, I think because of the logic of that, it’s kind of fun to be as subtle as possible with potentials and with questions and uncertainties, right? I also live in a murder mystery head space. Where everyone is kind of culpable. The UPS guy could be the murderer just as much as the matriarch. So, I think it’s fun to always maybe have an eyebrow raised and maybe be the red herring or not.

Speaking about being red herring, in Gone Girl I think you’re playing against how most people think of you. Now that you’ve done Gone Girl, I don’t think it’s as much of a surprise anymore. I just think you’re really good at it. I don’t think it’s, “Well, obviously Neil Patrick Harris couldn’t be a bad guy,” anymore.

That’s interesting. And so, again with this, Lana tasked me with really embodying an analyst who was capable of making sure that Thomas Anderson didn’t overreach. And that he, in a world that he was starting to question, that there was someone he could talk to that would make him feel safe and comfortable, right?

Yes.

And I think that that’s a human place to exist and also serves multiple purposes. And so that’s why I think it’s fun. I played all kinds of operatic Count Olaf’s and things where it was very clear what my agendas were and what I was seeking to accomplish. And I enjoy the David Finchers and the Lana Wachowskis for honoring subtlety where you might… where you’re not sure. Sometimes I’m the analyst with a little “a” and sometimes I’m the analyst with a capital “A” and you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get.

I spoke to Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss and it’s pretty obvious why they’re back in this movie. So how does it work for you though? Does Lana just call you?

I think her casting process starts much earlier than “we’re making this movie and everyone should audition for it.” And I don’t want to speak for her, but it seems like she likes to surround herself with people that she vibes with. And since she was a part of the creation of the story and the script, she wanted to make sure that there was an energy vibe element to everyone, whether they had a big part or a small part. I don’t think she likes to hang out with people she doesn’t gel with. And so we got to engage and FaceTime, sort of like what we’re doing now, and just talk about stuff and life. And I’m so fascinated by her and I’m such a fan of her work and I’m such a fan of her heart that I just kind of commandeered that conversation and asked her a lot of questions.

Did you know her at all before? Had you ever met?

No.

Wow. Okay.

Never met her at all. And so I was just curious as where she’s residing and her answers were spectacular. She lives in San Francisco and Berlin, Germany. And I thought, wow, that’s such an interesting dynamic. And so we talked about clouds in San Francisco and she was obsessed with the way the fog rolls in and what is the viscosity of it. There was just very specific things that she was intrigued in. And I was probing her with questions, because I don’t get the opportunity to get to ask Lana Wachowski questions about stuff. And as it turns out, she was looking for an analyst that was asking questions to people.

Oh, did you not know that? So you were asking questions and she’s like, “This is what I’m looking for”?

I didn’t go in completely blind. But I hadn’t read any script or anything and she was very forthcoming about what she was looking for and who she wanted this person to represent. And so that was in line with how I sort of exist anyway. And so it was a good vibey convo.

When the original Matrix movies came out, did you consider auditioning for those movies?

I grew up in a time when television performers and feature film performers didn’t intermix as much as they do now.

But you were just a Paul Verhoeven movie, Starship Troopers. That’s pretty good.

Which was an anomaly, it felt very, “Wow. I can’t believe I’m in this singular thing.” Even before that… Was it before that? Around then, I did Undercover Brother.

Oh, right.

It was a feature film and it was just exciting to be doing feature film work. But it wasn’t something that I had the ability to say, “This is where I want my career to go.” It was more like, “Paul Verhoeven wants really white Aryan people to be in this movie and you’re really white and squeaky clean looking. Maybe you should play the guy with the trench coat.” And so I thought, well, that’s an anomaly. So, it all felt like that. And when I watched the first films, I just thought, wow, that would be a cool life. To be in big movies where you’re spending months rehearsing on physical things and there’s explosions and there’s very specific asks on a cinematic level. I was sort of infatuated with bullet time and with how the process of creation of a movie like that goes. More than an actor, I was more intrigued by the direction of it all.

Speaking of, I re-watched Starship Troopers. And then I re-watched the trailer. And I don’t know if you’ve seen the trailer recently, but it’s kind of like, oh yeah, no wonder audiences didn’t know they were getting a history lesson on fascism from Paul Verhoeven.

It was very propaganda based wasn’t it?

I am genuinely curious, because obviously you hosted The Oscars. If there’s no host this time that would be three years in a row without one. Has it gotten to a point where there’s just no upside to host? It feels like no one wants to do this.

There’s not a lot. There’s not a lot of upside to hosting the big awards in general. And I don’t say that as negative. Yeah, it’s just the job of the host in that context: which is a very, very pressure filled engagement with people who are very nervous, who are not used to this. This is the last award in a gauntlet of award shows. So they’ve all hung out and lost multiple times already. And so they’re sitting in this giant thing and it’s millions of people watching, so they can’t be themselves and they haven’t eaten. And it’s all very strange.

So the idea of watching award shows in 2021 where there’s so many options of things to watch, I think the whole thing has to shift in some way. And I’m not sure how. The Tony’s are trying interesting ways of doing the awards early and then doing sort of a big spectacle show in the evening. Because if people really want to know and listen to speeches by screenwriters and things, which I think are valid, you can just follow them on Instagram. You can go dive deep on screenwriters. Whereas, before, The Oscars tended to be behind, like, an unveiling of behind the curtain of what happens in the Hollywood industry. We’re much more exposed now. And so I don’t know how it changes? I don’t know how it changes, but I still watch it. I like to see what weird dresses people wear. That’s just me.

Well, that was a great answer. That was very informative.

Thanks, man. Best of luck with the move.

Thank you. We need it.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.