Month: April 2022

Although the 64th annual Grammy Awards were better than usual, some hip-hop fans still have a bone to pick with the Recording Academy over one segment in particular. During the Grammys’ in memoriam segment Sunday, fans were distraught to learn that LA rapper Drakeo The Ruler, who died in December of 2021 after being attacked at the Once Upon A Time In LA festival, had been left off the reels of those musical figures who were remembered for their contributions.

The exclusion rubbed salt into a still stinging wound for many rap fans, especially those who knew Drakeo in life. Journalist Jeff Weiss, who had championed Drakeo extensively and covered the rapper’s stint in a Los Angeles County jail awaiting retrial for various gang-related crimes for over a year, had this to say about the Grammy Awards on Twitter: “Drakeo didn’t make the Grammys memoriam tribute, another reminder why they’re worthless.”

Another writer addressed the omission by posting Drakeo’s video for “Pippy Long Stockin” and writing, “The Grammys slept on him but we know the truth.”

The insult was added to the injury of the Grammys moving the Best Rap Album award off of the program, harkening back to the show’s earlier attitude toward rap and the 1989 boycott against the show for its decision not to televise its first-ever hip-hop awards. Drakeo wasn’t even the only California rapper left off the in memoriam segment; Bay Area rapper Gift Of Gab, who formed one-half of seminal rap duo Blackalicious, was also omitted from the rolls.

The Grammys have come a long way since 1989, but it seems they have further still to go.

As a teenager, while my WWE-loving friends were obsessing over The Rock, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, and Big Show, I was that obnoxious kid who reminded them at every opportunity that wrestling “wasn’t real.” I was not fun to be around. I’m sorry, Kyle, for the time that I said “Bret Hart? More like Bret Fart.” I didn’t mean it. My anti-wrestling snobbiness was particularly dumb and hypocritical because it’s not like I didn’t enjoy watching proudly shirtless dudes beat the crap out of each other. I loved Jackass.

Actually, let me rephrase that: I love Jackass. Jackass Forever is one of the best movies of 2022, and while I won’t go so far as to call myself the biggest fan on staff (that honor belongs to Vince Mancini, who ranked the greatest Jackass movie stunts of all-time), I am enough of a giant hand connoisseur that I made the trek to Arlington, Texas, this weekend to watch Johnny Knoxville settle his feud with Sami Zayn at WrestleMania 38.

But first, some background. These two have been going at it since January when Knoxville announced that he was going to participate in the Royal Rumble while promoting Jackass Forever. Zayn said that he wasn’t qualified for such a high-profile event, and quickly eliminated Knoxville from the Rumble. Things have only gotten more heated since then. Zayn was kicked out of the Jackass Forever premiere; there was a SmackDown attack; and Knoxville “leaked” Zayn’s phone number on a banner attached to a plane that flew over Los Angeles. “So yesterday, Sami Zayn got my personal phone number and was texting and stalking me all day. So today, for my birthday, I am flying his phone number over Los Angeles. 407-574-1532. See ya at WrestleMania, Shnookums,” Knoxville said. Zayn received more than 300,000 text messages and 250,000 calls.

This brings us back to Wrestlemania 38.

Knoxville vs. Zayn was no regular “anything goes” match. It was a live-action cartoon. Knoxville, looking like Artie, the Strongest Man in the World from The Adventures of Pete and Pete, took out a trash can, stop sign, and crutches from underneath the ring. (Chekov’s stop sign would make a return appearance.) Zayn, who should play Tormund’s brother in a Game of Thrones spinoff, was thrown on a table full of mouse traps, zapped by a taser, and had his nuts crushed by a bowling ball. Other members of the Jackass crew came out to help Knoxville, including Chris Pontius, a.k.a. Party Boy, who wiggled his butt in front of Zayn while wearing even fewer clothes than Brock Lesnar, and Wee Man, who got the biggest pop of the match when he body slammed Zayn.

Other highlights include: Knoxville setting off an airhorn near Zayn’s ears; Zayn’s “Sami Zayn Forever” pants; me having to explain who Chris Pontius is to the guy in his 60s sitting next to me; Zayn getting smashed by a giant hand; and the 78,453-strong crowd going wild the first time the Jackass theme song was played. I never thought I would hear the Minutemen in the Dallas Cowboys stadium, but here we are. For that, and many other things, I want to thank the Jackass guys (and girl — Rachel would have been great at WrestleMania). The match ended when Knoxville, with assistance from Wee Man and Pontius, tased Zayn, who got trapped in a comically large (and slightly malfunctioning) mouse trap. The winner: in his WrestleMania debut, Johnny Knoxville.

I’m sure there are some wrestling traditionalists out there who didn’t enjoy the slapstick nature of the match. To them I say:

I can’t believe I ever thought wrestling wasn’t great.

You can watch every WrestleMania on Peacock.

Before you read this, I want you to know I think Daniel Espinosa is a terrific filmmaker. Life is a fantastic horror, thriller, and a whole lot of fun. And Safe House has turned into one of those movies that’s on cable non-stop and I watch it every time it’s on; I’ve probably seen at least parts of it 20 times by now. So that’s why Morbius is such a headscratcher. Espinosa makes good movies. Morbius literally feels like there are scenes missing. (Though, it performed okay at the box office this weekend.) At the time of this interview, the review embargo had broken, unleashing historically bad reviews, so I asked him directly what happened. (I really want to give Espinosa credit for doing this interview. A lot of people by that point would have just canceled.) To the point I told him that I didn’t believe for a second that this movie that was released in theaters is the one he turned in. Morbius is taking such a beating online, I wanted to give a filmmaker I like the chance to, at least, have some say in the narrative that’s being painted. Honestly, I worry he’s going to get blamed, but my gut feeling is this wasn’t completely his fault.

(Editor’s note: Spoilers ahead.)

I also asked him about that post-credit scene with Michael Keaton as The Vulture that makes absolutely no sense. Keaton was touted as one of the stars of the movie. He’s in the trailer! But now he’s in a post-credit scene being transported from the MCU to the universe of Dr. Michael Morbius and Venom? And then he asks Morbius – who in the whole film is painted as this ambitious guy who just took things too far – if he wants to team up and fight Spider-Man. At no point does Morbius even mention Spider-Man, nor is there any reason to believe Morbius would have any beef with Spider-Man, let alone have any interest in teaming up with this criminal to fight Spider-Man.

Also, when Morbius was being filmed, I heard a story about something that happened on set that I always wondered if it was true. So I asked Espinosa if that actually happened and, to my somewhat shock, he did confirm that what I had heard was indeed true.

I’m a big fan of two of your movies, Safe House, which is on cable all the time and I watch it every time…

Oh, nice.

And Life is amazing.

Thank you, that means a lot. Those two movies are really close to my heart. Safe House was my beginning of coming to America, really cocky and wanting to do everything super real. What’s funny is one is super real, another one is a space movie. But I did a space movie!

Yeah, but it’s not just a space movie, it’s also a horror movie.

One thing with Life, too, is that the ending of Life was always misunderstood, because our perspective was it was the tribute to The Twilight Zone years, and then everything turns to shit. That’s how those movies end. And then people were like, “Oh, it will have a sequel.” I’m going, “No, man, it’s The Twilight Zone ending. It turns to shit.”

I don’t know if you saw this, people at the time thought it was the beginning to a Venom movie. Do you remember that?

I know, I know. Yeah, exactly.

In Morbius, Michael Keaton is in the trailers, but then in the movie he doesn’t show up until the post credit. It does seem like some things were reworked. I’m wondering, after Spider-Man: No Way Home, did you have to change Michael Keaton’s role in this to match up with the events of that movie? Is that what happened?

It was more that when Spider-Man came out, they said, “We know how this works and we have a visual concept of how to make this.” But the idea of having different timelines was something that was, for me, introduced within the movie universe with Into the Spider-Verse. When we were talking about making the movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse had just come out and it was a huge success. I told the guys, I said, “This is super common among comic book readers.”

Well, there are scenes of Michael Keaton in the trailer that aren’t in the movie, so that’s why I was wondering if some things had to be reworked to match with No Way Home?

Yeah. Exactly. The first thing that happened was that we had Michael Keaton because we were planning on doing this. But then when Spider-Man: No Way Home came out, it said, “This is how the visual effects are.” And then the idea of having him just encountering him in that universe seemed too complicated, and then we put it in the end.

Okay, so you did have to cut some things to make it match up with No Way Home, is that accurate?

Yes, because we have to match… I didn’t know how the transportation would look like in that.

Like the crack in the sky thing?

Yeah, exactly. That wasn’t done, that didn’t exist, so there were all these small things that had to be addressed. But I think that the concept of having different timelines were, I believe, came from Sony, not from Kevin Feige. It was Sony that initiated that idea. I think tha Miles Morales that you have in Spider-Verse, I would bet your life on that you would have Miles Morales from the Spider-Verse in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point.

The thing I wasn’t clear on in the post credit scene is when Vulture says, “I think this is a Spider-Man’s fault. We should team up and fight him,” how does Morbius know who Spider-Man is? Also, the movie establishes that Morbius is a good man who got too ambitious and created this serum and some bad things happened. But at his heart, he’s not a bad person. Why would Morbius be interested in teaming up with this criminal?

First of all, Vulture is not a criminal in that universe just yet.

That’s fair. But why would Morbius be interested in what Vulture has to say in the first place?

Exactly. I think it’s a meeting of those… because in this world, Spider-Man exists. In all the different Marvel timelines, you have a Spider-Man, it’s a totem. In the Marvel Universe, what you say is that you have to have a Spider-Man in each universe for it to function. He’s one of the fundamental beings. Now, that’s how it is in the comic books.

Okay sure, but there’s nothing in the movie that establishes that Morbius has any beef with Spider-Man whatsoever, though.

Oh, exactly. I think that’s more one of those scenes that are made that when you have scenes before that in a movie comes along, that will explain that reposition.

I heard a story about filming and I want to see if this is true. Someone told me that Jared Leto was so committed to playing Michael Morbius that even when he had to go to the bathroom, he would use his crutches and slowly limp to get to the bathroom. But it was taking so long between for pee breaks, that a deal was made with him to get him a wheelchair so someone could wheel him there quicker and he agreed to that. Is this true?

Yes.

All right.

Yeah. Because I think that what Jared thinks, what Jared believes, is that somehow the pain of those movements, even when he was playing normal Michael Morbius, he needed, because he’s been having this pain his whole life. Even though, as he’s alive and strong, it has to be a difference. Hey, man, it’s people’s processes.

Yeah.

All of the actors believe in processes. And you, as director, you support whatever makes it as good as you can be.

Right. But from your angle, can that be, “This is really slowing down production and I have to talk to the big wigs and tell them why we’re behind.” I could understand why that might be, I don’t know, frustrating, is that the word?

But it’s more that I think the directors that don’t like actors get really frustrated about that. I think it’s really mysterious, what they do. Almost all actors, in general, have their own reputation of being an interesting person how he works with their characters. I think that all of them have these traits. If you want a completely normal person that does only things that you understand, then you’re in the wrong business. Because what’s different is what makes them tick. It’s very hard to be able to say, “I can take this part away and I will still get the same stuff from him.” I don’t do that. I’m more to see like, “Hey, if you’re doing this, we have to do this.”

Again, like I said when we started, I am a huge fan of Safe House. I’m huge fan of Life. I’m sure you’ve seen the reviews for this. This doesn’t feel like one of your movies and I’m curious, was this what you turned in? Is there something else? Because it feels like at some points, there’s some scenes missing. I don’t believe for a second this is what you turned in.

These movies are big ideas…

Because I think you are a very good director, and I think there are some decisions that were made that weren’t always in your hands here.

You’re very sweet. You’re very kind. I think that I work at my best if I get a lot of decision power. But, in this movies, they’re big movies that have a lot of people’s interest. It’s different processes every time.

‘Morbius’ is in theaters everywhere. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Every year, there are always at least a couple Grammy nominations that stick out. This year, one of those was in the Best Arrangement, Instrumental Or A Cappella category: Nominated was an arrangement of “Meta Knight’s Revenge,” a song from the 1996 Super Nintendo game Kirby Super Star, as arranged by Charlie Rosen and Jake Silverman and performed by The 8-Bit Big Band featuring Button Masher (Silverman’s performing name).

Video game songs aren’t nominated that often so what happened last night was big: “Meta Knight’s Revenge” (which appears on The 8-Bit Big Band’s 2021 album Backwards Compatible) actually won the award.

This is a huge moment in Nintendo history and in video game history more broadly; Eurogamer notes this is only the second time a song originally from a video game has taken home a Grammy, following Christopher Tin’s 2010 win for Best Instrumental Arrangement With Vocalist(s), for a song composed for Civilization 4. Previously, Journey composer Austin Wintory got a nomination in the Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media category in 2013 but didn’t win.

So, that means this Kirby win is the first time a song from a Nintendo game has ever won a Grammy. This news arrives with especially good timing, as it quickly follows the March 25 release of the latest Kirby game, Kirby And The Forgotten Land for Nintendo Switch.

Rosen shared an excited reaction on the social media pages for The 8-Bit Big Band, posting a photo of himself and Silverman with their trophies and writing, “HOLY SH*T WE WON THE GRAMMY!!LONG LIVE VIDEO GAME MUSIC!! Thank you to everybody who’s ever listened to [The 8-Bit Big Band], the 100s of artists who have contributed their time/talent/musicianship, and of course HUGE thanks to my co-arranger on Meta Knights Revenge the one and only [Jake Silverman] !! MUCH LOVE, [Charlie Rosen].”

Rosen also posted this pretty terrific Kirby graphic a few days ago:

Watch The 8-Bit Big Band and Button Masher perform “Meta Knight’s Revenge” above. Also check out where Kirby Super Star (and another SNES Kirby game) ranks on our list of the 100 best Super Nintendo games (according to over 200,000 players) here.

After Madison Cawthorn admitted he lied about seeing his fellow Republican colleagues in Congress doing coke and inviting him to orgies, the North Carolina representative became the subject of a John Oliver rant as the Last Week Tonight host hauled Cawthorn’s repeated penchant for telling tall tales. But, first, Oliver had words to say about the now-infamous coke and orgies accusation, particularly Cawthorn’s odd choice of words.

“I’m pretty sure that people having coke-fueled orgies don’t call them ‘sexual get-togethers,’” Oliver quipped. “A ‘sexual get-together’ sounds like a sex-toy party at your friend Brenda’s friend Shanae’s house where you realize halfway through that the whole thing’s a pyramid scheme.”

Oliver then turned his attention to Cawthorn’s documented history of lies. Via Mediaite:

“He implied the car crash that left him partially paralyzed derailed his plans to attend the U.S. Naval Academy, even though his application had already been rejected before the crash,” Oliver said. “He frequently claimed to be training for the Paralympics, which was news to actual Paralympians like Amanda McGrory, who pointed out he’s not even in the official registry for Paralympians, which you would have to be in order to compete.”

After noting Cawthorn’s relationship with the truth is “unrelentingly bad,” Oliver also made sure to note that the young congressman was the subject of a “scathing public letter signed by more than 150 of his fellow college classmates alleging that he engaged in ‘sexually predatory behavior’ while in college.”

(Via Mediaite)

Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw the Dreamville squad come through with a compilation and Harry Styles turned in a “song of the summer” contender. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

For more music recommendations, check out our Listen To This section, as well as our Indie Mixtape and Pop Life newsletters.

Dreamville — “Stick” With JID Feat. Kenny Mason, Sheck Wes, and J. Cole

J. Cole and company put on their Dreamville Festival this weekend, but ahead of the event, the fest’s namesake label put out a whole new project, D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape. Dreamville collaborations are always, well, collaborative: The tracklist kicks off with “Stick,” which includes contributions from Cole, JID, Kenny Mason, and Sheck Wes.

Harry Styles — “As It Was”

Summer is coming and based on the sound of Harry Styles’ new single “As It Was,” he’s ready for it, as the track is full of warm, happy vibes. Fans all over were ready for the song, too, as they’ve listened to it so much that it’s broken multiple Spotify records. So basically, it’s going to be a very Harry summer.

Kehlani — “Up All Night” Feat. Justin Bieber

Kehlani recently confirmed their upcoming album Blue Water Road is coming out later this month and it is a personal look. Joining Kehlani for part of that journey is Justin Bieber, who features on the new single “Up All Night.” Uproxx’s Alex Gonzalez notes of the tune, “Kehlani sings of love and infatuation over a cooing, thumping groove, offering a throwback vibe that still manages to feel ahead of its time.”

Vince Staples — “Rose Street”

Staples treated his fans to a quick taste of Ramona Park Broke My Heart last week with “Rose Street,” and it certainly is quick: The track runs for under two minutes and almost half of that time is a sample. Once he actually gets into rapping himself, though, Uproxx’s Danielle Chelosky notes, “Against a trap beat and booming bass, he spews quips about his devotion to his friends over his romantic relationships.”

City Girls — “Top Notch” Feat. Fivio Foreign

The last time JT and Yung Miami came together on a City Girls song was 2021’s “Twerkulator,” which was a TikTok hit last year. Now, though, the pair is back with its first new single. It’s an upbeat tune fans are surely hoping signals an anticipated follow-up to City Girls’ third album, 2020’s City On Lock.

Willow and Siiickbrain — “Purge”

Willow’s pivot to pop-punk has been a tremendous success, as it has yielded some popular tunes on which Willow shows she really has what it takes to succeed in the genre. She deviates from that slightly on her latest, though, as the Siiickbrain collaboration “Purge” skews more in a dark industrial direction.

Toro y Moi — “Déjà Vu”

Toro y Moi has long found himself comfortable floating between genres, and on his latest single, “Déjà Vu,” he finds himself in guitar-driven psych-rock territory with a Jeff Tweedy-esque vocal delivery for good measure. The song is the latest from Mahal, which will be his first LP since signing with Dead Oceans.

Angel Olsen — “All The Good Times”

Angel Olsen has kept busy over the past couple years with singles and various projects, but now she has a full-blown new album on the way, as she announced Big Time last week. That comes out in June, but ahead of then, she shared “All The Good Times,” an alt-country tune that’s full of moments both slow-burning and anthemic.

Freddie Gibbs — “Ice Cream” Feat. Rick Ross

Freddie Gibbs is heading to Coachella for a performance in a couple weeks, but ahead of that, he’s linked up with Rick Ross for a fresh collaboration, “Ice Cream.” The instrumental is a take on Raekwon’s 1995 song of the same name and Uproxx’s Adrian Spinelli notes, “Kenny Beats’ homage is subtle, but once you hear it, it’s a worthy nod to the classic, and as the track comes to a close, the melody is more noticeable. ”

Red Hot Chili Peppers — “These Are The Ways”

John Frusciante left RHCP after 2006’s Stadium Arcadium, but now with Unlimited Love, he’s on his first album back with the band. On the day they shared the album, the group also dropped a video for “These Are The Ways,” which finds the Chili Peppers in a space they occupy well, moving back and forth between soft and intense moments.

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

Folk-rock stalwart Father John Misty is releasing his new album Chloë And The Next 20th Century, the follow-up to 2018’s dark God’s Favorite Customer, at the end of this week. After teasing the record with cryptic Instagram clips and then unveiling singles like “Q4” and “Goodbye Mr. Blue,” Josh Tillman is giving us another last-minute glimpse into the album with the new single “The Next 20th Century.”

This song is a nearly seven-minute visceral opus with intricate storytelling and diverse soundscapes that involve searing electric guitars and an enchanting orchestra. The words gradually become more dismal and existential, with Misty lulling in a detached baritone, “Even their romance made us masters and slaves / And now things keep getting worse while staying so eerily the same.”

Last month, Misty gave a powerful performance of “Goodbye Mr. Blue” on The Late Show, giving the twangy single its late-night television debut. He also played the Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles in February and brought other singles “Funny Girl” and “Q4” to life for the first time.

Listen to the stunning, immersive track “The Next 20th Century” above.

Chloë And The Next 20th Century is out 4/8 via Sub Pop. Pre-order it here.

Rootin’ tootin’ Lauren Boebert’s kind-of the master of showing off her lack of detailed (and lawmaker-relevant) knowledge through tweets. One need only witness her recent Russia-Ukraine tweet to see how little she understands about international relations. Before that her voting-rights tweet showed how confused she was about the American Revolution, and now, she’s showing off similar vibes about the investment strategies and the stock market.

The latest Boebert missive arrived after news that Tesla CEO Elon Musk nabbed a 9.2% stake after a string of events. First off, Elon loves to troll (and send stock prices up and down in the process) on Twitter, and secondly, the SEC leashed him in 2018 by requiring him to get approval for “material” tweets about Tesla. So this purchase is something, alright, and perhaps it’s the ultimate billionaire-troll move that’ll do nothing.

Musk is now the biggest shareholder of Twitter, which sent Twitter stock soaring up to 26%, and it’s an odd move after he appeared to question the “free speech” platform. And some believed, after these tweets, that he was mulling over starting his own social media platform.

Boebert seems to think that Musk’s shareholder status will end “political censorship” on Twitter, so maybe she’s all upset about the repeated bannings of her pal, Marjorie Taylor Greene, as well as Donald Trump.

Boebert doesn’t seem to notice that Musk purchased passive shares, so he’s investing in Twitter, sure, but he’s got zero control. Naturally, people had comebacks for Boebert.

Tony Bennett was a winner from last night’s Grammy Awards before they even started. When the nominees for the 2022 ceremony were announced last year, he became the oldest artist to ever be nominated for an award in the general field thanks to his nomination for Album Of The Year, for his Lady Gaga collaboration Love For Sale.

Overall, Bennett and Gaga got six nominations: Album Of The Year; Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album; Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical (all for Love For Sale); Record Of The Year; Best Pop Duo/Group Performance; and Best Music Video (all for “I Get A Kick Out Of You”). They did well at yesterday’s ceremony, as Bennett and Gaga ended up winning for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

With those wins, Bennett is the second-oldest person to ever win a Grammy, at 95 years and 243 days old. As The Los Angeles Times notes, the only Grammy winner older than Bennett was Mississippi blues pianist Pinetop Perkins, who won the Best Traditional Blues Album award for Joined At The Hip in 2011. He was 97 years and 221 days at the time of his victory and he died the next month, on March 21.

Meanwhile, Gaga offered a special performance in honor of Bennett during the show. While Bennett has retired from performing and therefore did not join Gaga on stage, he did introduce her in a brief pre-taped video.

Find the full list of this year’s Grammy nominees and winners here.

In space, no one can hear you scream, “April Fools!” Unfortunately for Tyrese Gibson, he’s back on Earth, and the Fast & Furious star apparently fell victim to an April 1st prank.

On April Fools’ Day, Twitter user @Lynchreborn tweeted a quote supposedly said by Martin Scorsese, who made a lot of Marvel Cinematic Universe fans angry when he didn’t call Thor: The Dark World the greatest movie of all-time, or whatever. “I was aghast to find out [Morbius] was based on a comic book. This is the truest height of cinema and even I cannot top it. A wise man admits when he is wrong and I was wrong, I apologize to all comic book movies,” the quote reads, along with the hashtag #MorbiusSweep and a photo of the Oscar-winning director at the Morbius premiere.

Scorsese, needless to say, did not say this. He also did not attend the Morbius premiere (it would have been awkward when he and Bella Thorne wore the same outfit). But Tyrese — who played Simon Stroud in the surprisingly successful Sony’s Spider-Man Universe movie — shared the tweet on his Instagram, apparently believing it was real.

“Wow wow wow I can’t believe what just happened whoa… Cheers and hats off to you [director Daniel Espinosa] this is so amazing King! This is the KING of KINGS of cinema Martin Scorsese this is huge,” Gibson wrote in a post that has since been deleted after he was clowned on by, oh, pretty much everyone. This is his Joker origin story.

Tyrese needs to invite Scorsese to Gibsihana as an apology for spreading misinformation.