Month: April 2022

The busiest comedian of 2022 (not Kim Kardashian’s boyfriend, sorry) is Jerrod Carmichael, who not only dropped his acclaimed HBO special, but is now gearing up to release his directorial debut, a dark buddy comedy titled On The Count Of Three. Carmichael also co-stars in the flick, based on a screenplay by Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch.

Despite Carmichael’s generally light-hearted tone, the movie has some dark themes. It focuses on two life-long friends: Val, played by Carmichael, and Kevin, played by Christopher Abbott (It Comes at Night and Girls) who make a suicide pact after a long string of bad luck and mental health issues. The duo spends a day preparing for their deaths, settling affairs, and confronting people from their past.

The film also stars Henry Winkler as a psychologist who emotionally scarred Kevin as a child and Tiffany Haddish as Val’s girlfriend. The movie made its debut at Sundance in 2021, receiving praise and sparking conversations about mental health, which will likely gain traction once it gets a wide release.

This isn’t the only movie to star Carmichael and Abbott, who will also join Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Mark Ruffalo, and Margaret Qualley in the upcoming adaptation of the 1992 novel Poor Things.

On The Count Of Three hits theaters on May 13th. Check out the trailer here.

Despite being such a flashy rapper, Atlanta trap star Gunna seems to appreciate those of us who have regular jobs, too. Earlier this week, he drew some positive attention for tweeting “It’s cool to work a 9-5 no capp. Getting money is getting money.” That tweet garnered a ton of engagement (over 50,000 retweets and 323,000 likes to date) and on Wednesday, he expanded on the sentiment behind the tweet in a video on his Instagram Story.

Perusing a rack of clothing in the video, Gunna says, “Back to what I was saying, 9-5 is cool. I need these people. All these people that worked today, I needed these people here today. Like, it’s overly cool.”

Over the past few weeks, he’s been expressing a number of insightful opinions about the rap business, catching some off-guard with his sincerity and humility. In the latest episode of the LeBron James talk show, The Shop, he brushed off criticism of his single “Pushin P,” attributing accusations that he stole the slang to his critics coming from”player sh*t, too. That’s all that means. That’s what I took from it like bro, everybody been player. Your uncles, your aunties? They was player.”

He also observed that while so many artists have been sharing their discontent with their respective labels, he doesn’t see things the same way. “You shouldn’t say, ‘f*ck the label, ’cause they taking the chance on you,” he noted. “It’s up to you to really make this money back and go make more money. And for all the young artists who are coming up, I want to tell them, ‘Man, don’t look at it like it’s a bad deal. You’re not getting what you want in the beginning…it can always get better.”

Check out Gunna’s video above.

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

Hip-hop’s intergenerational conflict had seemingly died down in recent years, thanks in large part to collaborations crossing the age divide, like “Replace Me” which saw Nas connect with younger rapper Don Toliver. However, it appears it was still right there, simmering beneath the surface, waiting for someone to light the spark to reignite it. The hosts of The Breakfast Club came close when they teased Coi Leray about listening to Pusha T, but she defused the situation by saying she’d rather collab with him (as she did with Nicki Minaj) than start a beef.

Unfortunately, it looks like one of Coi’s collaborators had some further thoughts about the new rapper/old rapper dynamic and finally touched off the conflagration that had been waiting in the wings. Pontiac, Michigan rapper DDG, who recently released his Gunna collaboration “Elon Musk,” shared his thoughts on Twitter, drawing a polarized response from followers who weighed in with a variety of opinions from agreement to disbelief to outright refusal. “Today’s rappers are 10x better than the rappers back in the day,” he wrote.

When fans blasted him for it, he offered some controversial follow-up takes. When one fan brought up Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G., he shot back, “On some real sh*t.. when the last time u listened to either in the car.. BE TRUTHFUL.” He also provided some context for his opinion in a separate tweet, writing, “I respect the older generation of hiphop, but this generation creativity on another level fr. Hip Hop ain’t never been the number 1 genre until NOW.”

The debate quickly became a rehash of the “mumble rap” debates from a few years ago — y’know, the one where people acted like they can’t just understand accents or that repetitive choruses are somehow a new phenomenon in rap. While some acknowledged that the music has evolved in unexpected and truly creative ways, some just couldn’t move past the sacred cows of their youth (or, let’s be honest, their parents’ youth).

Check out some more responses below.

There’s no LCD Soundsystem or Grandmaster Flash, but the official Succession season three soundtrack is still full of “bangers,” as Kendall Roy would put it. Classical musical-indebted bangers from Emmy-winning composer Nicholas Britell, but bangers nonetheless. The season three soundtrack, which comes out this Friday, also includes a full-length version of Kendall’s painfully earnest cover of “Honesty” by Billy Joel.

“Jeremy is incredible, and really such a phenomenal artist,” Britell told Variety about the cover. “I find Kendall’s performance of ‘Honesty’ to be very intimate. It’s very moving.”

HBO needs to release a full album of the Succession cast covering Billy Joel songs. Roman should do “Captain Jack” because of the “you just sit at home and masturbate” line, I would love to hear to Greg mumble his way through “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” and Shiv and Tom can be Brenda and Eddie from “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.”

Here’s the tracklist:

1. Furioso in F Minor by Nicholas Britell

2. Milan – Promenade by Nicholas Britell

3. Rigaudon by Nicholas Britell

4. Andante Agitato – End Credits – “The Raid” by Nicholas Britell

5. “Sorry, Pinky” by Nicholas Britell

6. Satyricon – Instrumental by Nicholas Britell

7. “Tuscany” Suite for Piano and Orchestra by Nicholas Britell

8. Sinfonietta in A Minor – Strings Variation – “The Photo” by Nicholas Britell

9. Impromptu No. 1 in C Minor for Piano by Nicholas Britell

10. Scherzo in F Minor – Strings by Nicholas Britell by Nicholas Britell

11. Largo Doloroso – Strings by Nicholas Britell

12. Serenata – “Il Viaggio” by Nicholas Britell

13. “Tuscany” Suite for Piano and Bass by Nicholas Britell

14. Impromptu No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra by Nicholas Britell

15. Scherzo in F Minor – Piano and Bass by Nicholas Britell by Nicholas Britell

16. Ricercare – Strings and Voices – Bonus Track by Nicholas Britell

17. Nocturne – Piano and Strings by Nicholas Britell

18. Impromptu No. 1 for Strings – End Credits – “Chiantishire” by Nicholas Britell

19. Dolce Pianos and Strings – “Il Viaggio” by Nicholas Britell

20. Andante Moderato – End Credits – “Amen” by Nicholas Britell

21. Honesty (feat. Kendall Roy) by Nicholas Britell, Kendall Roy

(Via Variety)

It looks like Roger Stone might’ve jumped the gun in his efforts to get his Twitter account reinstated.

Donald Trump’s former hype-man was banned from the social media site in 2017 after he made some vulgar, threatening posts targeting CNN anchors Jake Tapper, Don Lemon, and Ana Navarro, among others. Stone has since moved his social media presence to platforms like Telegram but it seems he got a bit overeager after news broke that Elon Musk put in a bid to buy Twitter. The human equivalent of a Roger Rabbit cartoon villain attempted to forge a new account on the site, sharing this message with his followers on Telegram:

“Well, bitches I’m back on Twitter,” Stone wrote, according to The Daily Beast. “I’m anxious to see how strong Elon Musk’s commitment to free speech is.”

Unfortunately, it seems that he doesn’t know how major corporate acquisitions work because while Musk has technically bought the company, his bid still needs to pass a shareholder vote. That hasn’t happened yet — though it likely will in the coming months — so, as of now, his biggest influence on Twitter’s policies has been to openly criticize some of its employees. That’s bad news for Stone, who seemed to believe that Musk’s accepted bid meant he could return to Twitter to start spreading more misinformation and harassing people he doesn’t like. His account, @RogerStoneUSA, was banned within minutes of creation.

“My new Twitter account was suspended after just six hours. So much for free speech,” he later told followers. “Just makes me like Telegram all the more.”

Sure buddy, that’s why you’re practically salivating at the mouth to get a new Twitter handle with Musk’s help. Stone also told The Daily Beast that he’s hopeful someone at the company will lose their job because of his embarrassing gaffe.

“I posted a new account to prove a point,” Stone said. “I look forward to whoever made the decision to suspend my account getting fired. Attn: Elon Musk.”

Really loving where this new “free speech” era on Twitter is heading, right guys?

(Via The Daily Beast)

Oscar nominee, wizard/doctor actor, scarf wearer, and extremely good person Benedict Cumberbatch has welcomed a family of Ukrainian refugees into his home in the United Kingdom.

Cumberbatch told SkyNews this week that a Ukrainian family will be living in his U.K. home during a press junket for Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness, which comes to theaters Friday, May 6. The family has not arrived yet, but Cumberbatch is keeping track of their status to make sure they’re safe. “They’ve made it out of Ukraine, I’m monitoring their progress every day,” he told the outlet.

“Sadly, they are undergoing some medical treatment – to say anything more about that would be invasion of their privacy and too much about when they’re coming and how that’s being managed would invade mine – but I want to give them some stability after the turmoil that they’ve experienced, and that’s within my home,” he added. “I’ve been trying to help other Ukrainian families – nationals that are UK citizens – to house their extended families en masse, which you know they want to do, but it’s very costly. I’m working through a wonderful charity called Refugees at Home, which is a great gateway to the government scheme, but also to offering further wider support that’s needed for the psychological trauma that these people are suffering from,” Cumberbatch said.

SkyNews reported that during the interview, Cumberbatch was dressed in Ukrainian colors blue and yellow.

Tegan and Sara have quite a few new developments to let fans know about. First and foremost, we’ve got some new music from the legendary duo, a song called “F*cking Up What Matters” along with a tongue-in-cheek video that gets into just how deep their catalogue goes, especially in the music video department. Since they’ve done pretty much every video treatment under the sun, and even recently launched a TV show, the pair take fans through the process that artists go through to make a music video in the first place… as the treatment for this video. It’s a little meta, but as with most things these two tackle, it totally works in the end.

Secondly, the band has some pretty big news surrounding this new era — they’re now signed to the indie label Mom + Pop. Here’s a statement from the band on this decision:

“Michael Goldstone signed us to Sire/Warner in 2006. We had just made The Con and felt like the vision Goldie and the team at Sire had for us and the album were a good fit. But soon after he signed us, he left to start Mom+Pop. We never held it against him. But joked that one day we’d work together for real. So it was with great enthusiasm that we agreed to sign to Mom+Pop when our deal with Warner ended in 2021. We look forward to being back at an indie label, on a brilliant roster, with Goldie and the label’s incredible team helping us start this next chapter in our lives with the release of our tenth album.”

You can’t argue with that! Check out the new music video up top and get ready for a new era from the band.

On Hulu’s The Girl From Plainville, Emmy nominee Elle Fanning plays Michelle Carter. In 2017, Carter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter due to texts she sent to her boyfriend, Conrad Roy, encouraging him to commit suicide. The Girl From Plainville tells the story of Carter and Roy, dramatizing their relationship and the unprecedented Massachusetts trial that led to a guilty verdict. The show focuses on one reported aspect of Carter’s personality, which is her obsession with the Fox television show Glee and, in particular, the relationship between its stars Lea Michele and Corey Monteith. Michele and Monteith played lovers on Glee and dated in real life from 2012 until his tragic death in 2013 at age 31.

Fanning, who also served as a producer on The Girl From Plainville, spoke to Variety about playing Michelle Carter, which she says involved watching “a lot” of Glee and getting as obsessed with Michele’s mannerisms as her character.

I watched a lot of Glee. She [Michelle Carter] was a huge Glee fan. I had seen the show, but I watched a lot of it on set. Reading the [Plainville] pilot, in the last scene she’s singing “Make You Feel My Love,” mimicking Lea Michele’s grief. Lea’s grief was real in the show; she’s also mourning her real-life boyfriend I’ve never met her, but I know every mannerism that she does in that scene. I have a legal pad of notes. I wrote down every time she blinked, every time she moved</a>&nbsp;her hand with each word, to mimic the emotion. It was a real exercise. I felt really connected to her, because I feel like I’ve seen her grieve. It was very meta.

Fanning also told Variety about the most challenging parts of making the show. “I think the toughest part was to balance the fiction and reality,” she said. “That’s a theme throughout our show — balancing fantasy and reality. This is a real story, and you need to be sensitive to that, but then we have to also create a show and think about things in a cinematic point of view.

You can stream the first seven episodes of The Girl From Plainville on Hulu. The eighth and final episode of the miniseries drops on Tuesday, May 3.

Last year, Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free announced the launch of their media company PgLang after leaving TDE. While Kendrick has one last album left under the label, he got his own company off the ground the right way, releasing his cousin Baby Keem’s debut album The Melodic Blue. As the rollout for The Melodic Blue wound down early this year, fans were excited to see what PgLang would do next. They weren’t disappointed; the label quickly introduced its next signee, Los Angeles rapper Tanna Leone.

Tanna quickly established himself as a fitting addition to the label’s roster with tracks like “With The Villains,” “Lucky,” “Picasso,” and “Death N’ Taxes.” Now, he’s followed up with his debut album, Sleepy Soldier, which dropped today. Consisting of 14 tracks, the album finds Tanna going solo throughout, despite ostensibly having access to big-name collaborators like Kendrick and Keem. Instead, he works to establish himself as a charismatic rapper and a burgeoning star in his own right, addressing his chaotic upbringing and insecurities.

In a new interview on Complex, Tanna explained what he wanted from Sleepy Soldier. “Honestly, my goal was just to put my best foot forward and show people my range and my diversity,” he said. “I’m not interested in being put in a box or people attempting to categorize me as one thing or another. In reality, it’s pretty normal for a person to be able to change their faces depending on what room they’re going into. We all do it. So as an artist, I just wanted to be that. I wanted everybody to recognize my creativity and my ability to move around and change clothes and change hairstyles, and everybody knows it’s still me being authentic to me.”

You can listen to Sleepy Soldier below.

There is only one episode of television to receive a flawless 10 out of 10 user-voted score on IMDb: “Ozymandias,” the Rian Johnson-directed season five episode of Breaking Bad that 166,035 people have decided is objectively perfect. No complaints here. Other episodes have come close to matching it, though, including multiple episodes of Game of Thrones (“The Winds of Winter,” “Battle of the Bastards,” and “The Rains of Castamere,”), the emotional Six Feet Under series finale, and SO much Attack on Titan, all of which have a 9.9 rating, and — appropriately enough — the latest episode of Better Call Saul.

The Nacho-focused “Rock and Hard Place” has a 9.8 score, which makes it the highest-rated episode of Saul to date, besting other series highlights like “Bad Choice Road” (9.7), “Bagman” (9.7), and my personal favorite, “Chicanery” (9.7). There’s probably recency bias at play here, and “Rock and Hard Place” may end up dropping a decimal point or two, but it’s still an incredible episode of television with a powerful ending.

Will Better Call Saul have its “Ozymandias”? We’ll find out with 10 episodes to go (including next week’s episode, directed by none other than Rhea Seehorn).

“Because he grew, that made it easier to play him over time,” star Bob Odenkirk said about playing Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman for so many years. “I think if you’d asked me in the third or fourth season, I would have said, ‘Yeah, I can’t wait to be past this guy. But he had this arcing in growth, especially toward the end. He does wriggle away to another place that’s, I think, a bit more mature, even if it is tragic.”

(Via IMDb)