Jerrod Carmichael officially comes out as gay in his new comedy special, Rothaniel, which debuts Friday night on HBO. In the soul-baring stand-up set, which drops just one day before he hosts Saturday Night Live, Carmichael confirms he’s gay for the first time and works through how keeping that secret impacted his family, particularly his deeply religious mother.
“As much as she believes in God, I believe in personal growth and feeling free. And I do feel freer.” The Carmichael Show creator says after revealing that his father’s infidelity being exposed made him feel like a liar because, now, he was the family member with a secret. So Carmichael decided to do something about it and finally came out to the audience, which applauded after realizing what they just witnessed. Via Variety:
After a long silence, the audience claps, to Carmichael’s visceral relief. “I’m accepting the love, I really appreciate the love. My ego wants to rebel against it.” Later, he adds, “I rebelled against it my whole life. I thought I’d never, ever come out. At many points I thought I’d rather die than confront the truth of that, to actually say it to people. Because I know it changes some people’s perceptions of me. I can’t control that.”
Again, it’s a big and important moment for the comedian, especially in the way that he did it, on-stage, in a big HBO comedy special, on the eve of an SNL hosting gig. Good for him, both for this and for working his way back onto NBC after his sitcom, The Carmichael Show, received an 11th-hour cancellation following its second season.
You might be the most telling example of how Netflix can pick up an underappreciated show and allow it to flourish on streaming. That was the case after the first season went relatively unnoticed on Lifetime. Stalker Joe was a hit, though, and this development mildly disturbed leading man Penn Badgley himself, since Joe is such a reprehensible guy. However, the show’s done so well at turning the tables on Joe and dragging him through hell that it’s quite an addictive series. Last season, his Mr. and Mrs. Smith-style serial-killing counterpart, Love, ended up biting the dust, and Joe fled to Paris.
That’s where the season finale left off, but Netflix has now revealed (and they’re apparently out of range of Caroline Kepnes’ initial novels) that Joe has already left his new building. This set photo tells the tale of Joe’s new stomping grounds, and while he hasn’t crossed any ponds, he’s swapped out countries. “Joe’s back for a bloody good time,” the Netflix caption reads. “If his book choice tells us anything… our boy might not be in Paris anymore.”
So, from New York to California to Suburban Hell, and now.. to London? The book-obsessive’s choice of reading material adds up, too: Thackeray, Dickens, and A Good Man In A Cruel World by Rhys Montrose. Those seem like pointed choices, although it feels like a crime not to throw in Dostoyevsky just to make everyone wonder what’s up. Or Kierkegaard. I’d love to hear Joe verbally wrangle with either of those names. Everyone should say Kierkegaard with aplomb.
For real, though, I’m excited to see how Joe’s next “fresh start” will go, now that he’s no longer a family man (?) and since he apparently hasn’t followed anyone to London. Or has he? Tati Gabrielle is among the returning cast (along with Charlotte Ritchie and Lukas Gage), so maybe she’s got something to do with the venue change. Speculation abounds!
If you were in a mall in the early-to-mid 2000s, there was a very good chance you came upon a store with the overwhelming scent of musk and over-the-top synth beats, featuring unrealistic mannequins and models who looked like they would bully you in the lunchroom. That would be Abercrombie and Fitch!
The clothing brand has a notorious history of being racist and overly sexual for a teen brand, and just generally offensive. But, for some reason, they were the brand of the early 2000s. And now, Netflix is taking a closer look at this company’s controversial history. It turns out it’s much worse than we all thought!
Netflix’s doc will go in-depth into the complicated history of the brand. As per the official description, “All the cool kids were wearing it. This documentary explores A&F’s pop culture reign in the late ’90s and early 2000s and how it thrived on exclusion.”
The company was known for its numerous discriminatory lawsuits and overpriced t-shirts with offensive sayings. The documentary will feature former A&F employees (who, at one point, were referred to as “models”) speaking out against the brand, which still exists, by the way, and recently launched a TikTok-inspired line in order to appeal to Gen Z. When the company has been around for over 100 years, it’s bound to do some pretty wacky stuff.
White Hot: The Rise And Fall Of Abercrombie And Fitch premieres April 19th on Netflix. Check out the trailer above.
Unlimited Love, which is out now, is a big album for Red Hot Chili Peppers, as it’s their first one with guitarist John Frusciante since the 2006 hit Stadium Arcadium. To commemorate today’s release, RHCP shared a video for the rocking “These Are The Ways.” The clip starts with Anthony Kiedis robbing a convenience store, which leads to a police chase.
“That’s a song that John [Frusciante] brought — the arrangement and a version of that melody. I’m never able to recreate his melodies perfectly — he’s just on a different melodic level — so I usually put it through a simplification machine. I didn’t overthink it. It was the first idea that came to my mind when I heard that arrangement, which is very bombastic and almost like a huge classical orchestra, exploding and then going way back. It was a reflection on life in America, but not a good or a bad reflection — just, this is it. We might be bloated, we might be overloaded with more than we can handle, and let’s just take a step back and re-think it just a little bit. But it’s not, ‘This is wrong and that’s right.’ It’s just, ‘This is who we’ve become.’”
Watch the “These Are The Ways” video above.
Unlimited Love is out 4/1 via Warner. Pre-order it here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
When Parks first released the song in February, she said: “‘Softly’ is a song about yearning. About how fragile you feel in the dying days of a relationship when you’re still desperately in love. The song is about how it feels to brace yourself before the blow of a break up and reminisce about the days where it all felt luminous.” This longing and luminosity can be felt in her gorgeous, glimmering performance; it soars with desire as she repeats in the chorus: “Break it to me / break it to me / break it to me / break it to me softly,” the feeling building with each time she sings the line. Her vocals sound effortlessly bewitching, giving her music a special flair that can’t be found anywhere else.
Watch the mesmerizing performance of “Softly” above.
“I’m a fan of Will, Jada, Chris, all of them,” Rocky replied. “They OGs. I think it’s unfortunate that, like, he emasculated another Black man in front of all them people like that. But I do think that, like, it’s some built-up shit that probably wasn’t really targeted at Chris Rock. I don’t know. … Like what you said, it seems like it’s more than just a G.I. Jane joke.”
Well, he’s certainly right about things being built up. For one thing, Jada has suffered alopecia, an immune disorder that causes hair to fall out in patches. This is why she keeps her head shaved, a look that drew the comparison to the titular character from Demi Moore’s 1997 woman-in-the-military film (it probably doesn’t help that the movie was pretty bad and roundly rebuked on its release). In the preceding years, the Smiths have been a lightning rod for criticism and ridicule as a result of their rumored open marriage and the press run for Will’s memoir. A lot of quotes were taken out of context and used to demean and mock the man, who we know has social media and uses it often. In addition to the way people have talked about his kids, it probably is safe to say he’s had just about enough of the jokes.
Despite the fact that we’re still several weeks away from learning all of the teams that will participate at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, teams were drawn into groups of four on Friday afternoon in Doha. There are slightly less than eight months to go before the tournament begins when the host nation will take on Ecuador, kicking off a month of soccer designed to crown the best national team in the world.
Here’s how the entire draw broke down, along with the days that each group will play its games.
Group A (Nov. 21, Nov. 25, Nov. 29)
Qatar
Ecuador
Senegal
Netherlands
Group B (Nov. 21, Nov. 25, Nov. 29)
England
Iran
USA
Scotland/Ukraine/Wales
Group C (Nov. 22, Nov. 26, Nov. 30)
Argentina
Saudi Arabia
Mexico
Poland
Group D (Nov. 22, Nov. 26, Nov. 30)
France
UAE/Australia/Peru
Denmark
Tunisia
Group E (Nov. 23, Nov. 27, Dec. 1)
Spain
Costa Rica/New Zealand
Germany
Japan
Group F (Nov. 23, Nov. 27, Dec. 1)
Belgium
Canada
Morocco
Croatia
Group G (Nov. 24, Nov. 28, Dec. 2)
Brazil
Serbia
Switzerland
Cameroon
Group H (Nov. 24, Nov. 28, Dec. 2)
Portugal
Ghana
Uruguay
South Korea
As for the matchups for each match day, there is a uniform scheduling process. Team 1 plays Team 2 and Team 3 plays Team 4 on match day one, match day two is 1 vs. 3 and 2 vs. 4, and to close things out on match day three, 1 plays 4 while 2 plays 3.
The final qualifying games — which will pit either the UAE or Australia against Peru in one and Costa Rica against New Zealand in the other — will take place in June, as will the final European play-off match between either Scotland or Ukraine and Wales. The 2022 World Cup will begin on Nov. 21 and run through Dec. 18, when the final will take place at the newly-built Lusail Iconic Stadium. Group play will come to an end on Dec. 2, with the knockout rounds beginning on Dec. 3.
The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.
ITEM NUMBER ONE — Just hear me out
Apologies to Daniel Radcliffe, but we are going to talk about The Slap again. Briefly. I promise this will be brief. The problem here is that I have a weekly roundup thing that posts on a Friday and The Slap happened on Sunday and everyone is so sick of it already but I still have things to say. It’s a real dilemma I have on my hands. Not as much of a dilemma as, say, getting slapped on live television by one of the most famous people in the world while both of you are wearing tuxedos, in front of God and Zendaya and everyone, but still. A dilemma.
The nice thing is that I’m not here to yell about, like, what it means for the children or whether Will Smith should have been arrested. If I’m being honest, I find the whole thing kind of funny, just from a purely chaotic standpoint. I mean, Jamie Lee Curtis walked onto the stage carrying an adorable little puppy named Mac & Cheese — FOR THE IN MEMORIAM — and no one is talking about it at all this week. That’s crazy to me. Think about how wild another event would have to be to top that. And then think about how this cleared that bar with remarkable ease.
No, I am here with a pretty simple question, which is as follows: Are we all, like… doing okay? I’m actually being semi-serious here. I don’t necessarily think this is how or why Will Smith snapped during the Oscars and marched up the steps and open-hand slapped Chris Rock in the face, but, man, we’ve kind of been through a lot in the last couple years and we really do not talk about it. Everyone is a little more fried than they’d like to let on, I think. We went through a whole damn pandemic. And we still are, a little. It’s a lot!
I know a person — an otherwise extremely rational and composed person who I would describe as strong in a number of ways — who had a mini-meltdown in the grocery store a few weeks ago because one particular item was out of stock. It wasn’t necessarily the item that was the problem. It was seeing the empty shelf and getting flooded with memories of the first stages of the pandemic, when everything was still super scary and no one knew what to do, and all that stress we were all carrying and trying to power through. That’s gonna mess us up for a while, I think, in ways we haven’t even started to confront yet. People who lived through the Great Depression kept cash stored around the house for the rest of their lives. We talk about the lasting physical symptoms of COVID a lot, but we were really in the house and afraid for a long time. There’s some level of trauma there. It could get really weird.
Again, I don’t think “because COVID” is enough to explain why it all happened, and I would have laughed out loud if Will tried to use that as the sole reason in his apology. I just think everyone is a little more cooked than we’re showing, and it might explain some of the general weirdness we’ve experienced lately, which has been almost normalized in a way that’s even weirder. I think that also explains some of the post-Slap takes. The Takes are always bad after something like this, but my heavens, they were something else this week. I read them all because I am legitimately unwell and love the anarchy, but… yeah.
Someone invoked 9/11. Multiple people shouted that Chris Rock could have died. The whole-ass New York Times trotted out its big brains for a Take Roundup. Some lady said “What if he had slapped Betty White instead?” which was especially funny to me, in part because Betty White passed away a few months ago, in part because it implies Will was so slap-crazy that he could have slapped anyone or anything indiscriminately, and in part because it’s maybe one or two steps away from saying “What if a dinosaur had shown up and eaten all the trophies and they had to cancel the ceremony and Denzel Washington had to perform emergency surgery to cut them out of its stomach for its own health?” I’m not linking to any of these on-purpose. You don’t need that. But they’re all very real, I promise.
In fact, the only good Takes in any of this, as usual, belonged to Cher, our nation’s greatest tweeter. Look at a master at work.
Well, this is a bummer. Bruce Willis is going to step away from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia, a brain disorder I was not familiar with until I Googled it this week after reading this Instagram post from Bruce’s ex-wife, Demi Moore. It does not sound fun. I wouldn’t wish on anyone, even people I don’t like. I would especially not wish it on Bruce Willis. This is where I am going to write about Die Hard for a minute. Yes, again.
People have been saying things like “Die Hard is a masterpiece” and “Die Hard is one of our greatest Christmas movies” for so long now that it’s easy to forget both things are true. Die Hard is so, so good, just an all-time classic of an action movie, perfectly paced from beginning to end, which is not nothing when you’re trying to weave comedic moments into a movie about a terrorist taking over a skyscraper and holding dozens of people hostage. The fact that it works at all is almost a magic trick. The fact that it works as well as it does is borderline sorcery.
And with all due respect to Alan Rickman, who delivers a Top 20 all-time villain performance here, the train keeps chugging because of Bruce Willis. He’s hungover and beat up and shoeless and bloody and the movie keeps insisting on adding to his collection of maladies as the plot develops. Cast a lesser actor, one with less natural charisma or one who doesn’t believably look like he was born with a five o’clock shadow, and the whole thing falls apart. Look at this guy.
It’s basically a perfect movie. We’ve been trying to replicate it for like 35 years now and the closest we’ve come so far is probably Die Hard 2 or Die Hard With a Vengeance, two sequels that hold up against the original much better than they have any right to. Which, again, credit to Bruce Willis, probably the best actor we’ve ever had at playing a hero who looks just constantly inconvenienced by his own heroism.
Yes, sure, fine, the last few years of his acting career have not exactly been a parade of glory and triumph, but also, like, who cares? Bruce Willis was in Die Hard. That’s enough. You could go your entire career and never reach that peak. You could add up your entire career and never reach it. Die Hard is great. Bruce Willis is a legend. Let’s all wish him nothing but the best.
ITEM NUMBER THREE — There’s no easy transition from issues like mental health and brain conditions so let’s just say it: It is once again time to discuss the ding dongs
HULU
Great news. Two bits of great news, actually. The first is that I had another excuse to post the screencap of Tommy Lee having a conversation with his own penis — VOICED BY JASON MANTZOUKAS — from Pam & Tommy, which is great because I really like that screencap. The second is that The Guardian tracked down and interviewed Hollywood’s Premier Purveyor of Prosthetic Penises. Also, his name is Matthew Mungle, which is… cool. It’s cool. It feels like that’s what the name of a prolific penis producer should be, you know? So, I guess there were three pieces of great news here.
Anyway, let’s go ahead and jump into this interview because there are some absolute gems contained within. Like… this.
“When I get an email or phone call from a producer or director saying they need a penis,” Mungle tells me, “my first questions are: is it cut or not cut, what’s the length and girth, how large are the testicles, and how long are the pubic hairs?” It sounds like a dating profile, I say. Mungle throws back his head in a great laugh. “You have to think about that stuff!”
I love very much that this is a job and I love even more that this guy has it. He’s been so busy lately, too, what with all the phallic shenanigans going on lately in film and television. He’s made wieners for everyone from Chris Hemsworth — who allegedly keeps his next to his replica of Thor’s Hammer — to, yes, Sebastian Stan and his talking dinger from Pam & Tommy. But the man is not just a shaft maestro. He’s going to give you the full package.
As well as matching the colour of the actor’s skin, Mungle has to consider movement – and not just of the member. “The testicles I made for Step Brothers were quite specific,” he recalls, “because he pulled them out of his trousers and rubbed them on a drum kit.” You didn’t see the meat, just the two veg. “They had to move like free-floating testicles, rather than rigid miniature space hoppers. So I decided that we’d make actual testes that we put into a sack, which was very thin.”
I could read quotes from this guy all day, just talking about prosthetic genitalia like your neighbor would talk to you about making a birdhouse. I want him to start a podcast. I want him to become a TikTok influencer. I want him to be happy, mostly, but I simply cannot live without more anecdotes like this.
This, I presume, is where most actors will be keen to point out that a prosthetic is needed. Mungle details how he transformed these flaccid members into erections off screen. “We worked a wire into each very small penis. When the time came, I had to go in, get down on my knees, take the little penis wire, pull it up then walk away.” He pauses. “I think there’s actually some video of me doing that.”
If you love your job 30 percent as much as Matthew Munger seems to love his, you are going to have a wonderful career. Congratulations to a true king.
ITEM NUMBER FOUR — Nobody worry, I figured it out
ABC
Let’s start with some true statements:
Abbott Elementary is a good/fun show
Sheryl Lee Ralph is so good on Abbott Elementary
Her delivery of that line up there from this week’s episode has taken up permanent residency in brain
So that’s cool. I love cool things. I also love that mentioning all of this gives me an excuse to tell you that I finally figured out where I recognize Sheryl Lee Ralph from. That’s important to me. It’s been tearing me apart. She’s had a long career and has been in a lot of stuff and I’ve seen her before in some of it, but none of it that I saw in the Television section of her filmography jumped out at me. Like, yeah, I remember it, but it’s not it, you know?
Well, I scanned the Movies section of her filmography this week, and I went way back, and blammo, there it was.
DISNEY
She voiced a dog named Rita in the 1988 animated film Oliver & Company, a twist on… uh, Oliver Twist (sorry) that featured talking dogs and cats singing and dancing around New York City. I watched it maybe 400 times as a little guy. That’s where I know her from. That and Moesha.
I am glad we settled this.
ITEM NUMBER FIVE — I want this hovercraft
Japan’s Tsuyoshi “Big Boss” Shinjo just entered the game on a hover craft for his managerial debut with the Nippon-Ham Fighters pic.twitter.com/3xCWFb2dZR
We move away from the world of film and television to bring you important hovercraft news from Japan. This is maybe the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, especially when you go to Shinjo’s Wiki page and learn his nickname.
Tsuyoshi Shinjo, also known as BIGBOSS, is a former Japanese professional baseball outfielder and current manager for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball. Born in January 28, 1972, Shinjo is the second Japanese-born position player to play a Major League Baseball (and the first in the National League) game and was the first Japanese-born player to appear in the World Series.
This is exactly something a dude named BIGBOSS should do. I am so jealous I might spit on the floor. Both of the hovercraft and the fact that his nickname is BIGBOSS. But let’s focus on the hovercraft, if only because I think it’s substantially more likely that I could one day have $700,000 of disposable income to burn on a hover device than it is that I could convince even one person to start calling me BIGBOSS.
A Japanese startup backed by soccer player Keisuke Honda hopes to persuade wealthy consumers to swap their supercar for a 77.7 million yen ($680,000) hoverbike which went on sale on Tuesday.
More. Tell me more.
The “XTurismo Limited Edition” from Tokyo-based drone startup A.L.I. Technologies is equipped with a conventional engine and four battery-powered motors and promises to fly for 40 minutes at up to 100 kph (62 mph).
MORE
I MUST KNOW MORE
GIVE ME SOME DELIGHTFULLY GRANDIOSE STATEMENT FROM THE CEO
NOW
GIMME
“Until now the choice has been to move on the ground or at scale in the sky. We hope to offer a new method of movement,” Chief Executive Daisuke Katano told Reuters.
God yes. This is fantastic. I don’t think any of you realize how much time I’ve spent this week reading about this hovercraft. Look at this video.
LOOK AT IT
Here’s the best part: This hovercraft entrance that Shinjo used was only just barely the most elaborate entrance he made this season. Because he also did this.
It’s Opening Day in Japan, here’s how Nippon Ham Fighters Big Boss Tsuyoshi Shinjo entered his first game.
All relief pitchers should come into the game using one of these two methods
I was chatting with the Uproxx Sports dudes about all this and suggested that Charlie Manuel would have been the funniest manager to watch ride in on a hovercraft, and our Robby Kalland countered with Jim Leyland, which was such a good answer that I’m still kind of mad about it today
It’s fine. I’m fine.
READER MAIL
If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.
From Paul:
Be honest, did you shout a little when the Top Gun trailer cut to the shot of Admiral Iceman? I thought of you immediately. I hope there’s a scene where Val Kilmer is yelling at Tom Cruise over some hot shot shenanigans and Tom Cruise shouts back “I’M DOING THE BEST I CAN, ICEMAN.” Just for you.
Okay, this one will require a little explanation. First, let’s go ahead and post the trailer for Top Gun: Maverick, a movie that was supposed to come something like eight years ago (ballpark) but got delayed about a million times. Jon Hamm plays a hardass military guy who I sincerely hope tells Maverick that they’re not so different by the end of the movie.
Also, yes, of course, Iceman is an admiral now, which we see via photograph hanging on the wall, and is honestly a more interesting movie to me than whatever is going on here. Show me that story. Show me Iceman’s rise. Show me him meeting with a president. I need and deserve this.
PARAMOUNT
Regarding the Kilmer of it all, and the thing at the end of Paul’s email about doing the best you can… this is so stupid. Way back in 2013, when Val Kilmer used to tweet a lot (miss u, Val), he posted one that said “Make more art,” to which I — an idiot, through and through — responded thusly…
… and then proceeded to send Val Kilmer a bunch of awful MS Paint drawings I made. You can see them if you open that tweet and scroll through the replies. Val and I had a little moment. (I was still using a galactically stupid pseudonym back then.) I am so happy to see him and his character thriving all these years later.
A flamingo that flew away from a Kansas zoo nearly 17 years ago and has been on the run ever since was glimpsed in Texas earlier this month.
Hmm
Okay, yes, this is a perfect news story. I don’t see how it could get any bett-…
A video posted by the Coastal Fisheries Division of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department shows the bird, named Pink Floyd, on March 10 wading into Cox Bay near Port Lavaca, about 120 miles southwest of Houston.
THE FUGITIVE FLAMINGO IS NAMED PINK FLOYD
ARE YOU KIDDING ME
COME ON
LIKE HIS OFFICIAL NAME IS “492,” WHICH IS ALSO COOL, BUT STILL
I LIKE TO PICTURE HIM WITH SUNGLASSES ON
SORRY FOR STILL TYPING IN ALL-CAPS
I GET EXCITED
When he and other flamingos arrived at the zoo from Tanzania a few years earlier, staffers decided it would be unethical to amputate part of the birds’ wings to prevent them from flying since they were already adults, the newspaper reported.
Instead, the zoo clipped the flamingos’ feathers, what one staff member described as similar to getting a haircut. But in 2005, staff missed signs that their feathers needed to be clipped again, and nos. 492 and 347 flew the coop.
This is incredible. My guy did a full-on jailbreak. Good for him. I hope he goes back and frees other ones. I hope he rides a motorcycle. I hope he stays in one town for a few weeks and then skips out under the cover of night before anyone catches on. I hope he’s left a string of broken hearts across the south. I hope there’s one cop — also a flamingo — who has been tracking him this whole time and has a map up in his office with thumbtacks pressed into it where Floyd has been spotted and strings of yarn between them that plot his movements.
I would watch this movie tonight.
Pink Floyd has been spotted along the Texas coast for several years, officials said. There have been other reported sightings of the bird in Arkansas, Louisiana and Wisconsin, according to the BBC.
There is nothing in this entire world — not one thing — that would make me happier than Pink Floyd the Fugitive Flamingo showing up in Vegas and running out of a casino with a bag filled with $500 chips.
Arlo Parks felt like an outsider growing up. The London-based 21-year-old musician, whose real name is Anaïs Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho, says she spent most of secondary school “feeling like that black kid who couldn’t dance for sh*t, listening to too much emo music, and crushing on some girl in her Spanish class.” As a kid, she used writing as a tool to make sense of her experiences. Short stories turned into poetry, which turned into lyrics. Two years ago, Parks was translating her frantic journal scribbles into songs in the bedroom of her parents’ house to make her debut album Collapsed In Sunbeams. But now, the musician is up for two highly-coveted Grammy awards: Best New Artist and Best Alternative Album.
This year, the the Recording Academy has increased the number of nominees in their major categories (Best New Artist, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Record Of The Year) from eight to ten, double the number of artists nominated just four years ago. While the expanded category may seem excessive, it allows underrepresented artists like Parks to shine. Her Grammy nominations now prove she’s paving the way for a new generation of indie songwriters to receive critical recognition for genre-fluid music that prioritize themes like mental health and queer love.
The Recording Academy’s decision to nominate more artists is a direct result of the criticism they’ve recently faced. The Academy has been accused of discriminatory voting practices for years, but last year’s nomination cycle was dominated by reports of a corrupt voting system, secret committees, and backroom deals. The Weeknd led a charge to boycott the Grammys all together when his smash-hit record After Hours was snubbed of all nominations after he turned down the chance to perform at the ceremony. Following the backlash, the Academy reshuffled higher ups and announced they would be expanding nomination categories in order to “include more genres and more diversity.” Time will tell if the changes will make a lasting impact on which artists get recognized by the Grammys. But Parks’ nominations are a promising example of the Grammys recognizing less-mainstream artists alongside major stars, seeing as she’s sharing the Best New Artist category with Olivia Rodrigo, Saweetie, and Finneas.
She may be in her early twenties, but Parks’ poetic music resonates with listeners of all ages. Like other Gen Z songwriters, Parks isn’t concerned with confining herself to a single genre of music. She cites Joni Mitchell and Sylvia Plath as her creative idols and while much of Collapsed In Sunbeams can be described as indie rock, her music has clear R&B and indie pop influences. Similar to other artists in her generation like Girl In Red and Clairo, Parks doesn’t mask the themes of her music, penning prose about mental health, relationship woes, and unrequited queer crushes.
Collapsed In Sunbeams is a series of vignettes. Parks’ heart-tugging lyrics are inspired by real experiences but leave just enough room for interpretation to feel universal. Her song “Hurt” features catchy refrains and jaunty riffs while its lyrics describe a friend’s struggle with crippling depression. Parks sings of the friend coping with their feelings by relying on substances, but the song’s main message stands as a reminder that no matter their pain, things will eventually get better. Her breakout single “Black Dog” deals with a similar subject matter. Removing the blame and stigma from people who experience depression, the song focuses on the small acts of service the people around them can do to help lift their spirits. “Black Dog” struck a chord with many — Parks even said one fan reached out to say the song had saved her marriage.
The musician’s intimate songwriting earned her global recognition and two Grammy nods, and many young songwriters are expected to follow her path. “[I’m impressed by] just the sheer variety of music that’s being made by people around our age, and the fact that genres are dissolving, and that people are throwing that idea of any kind of boundary out the window,” Parks told Variety. Because of this, Parks represents the future of what the Grammys should be: underrepresented, talented artists who have successfully touched people across the world with their music. “Being seen as the future in some way — especially as a British, independent artist — is really special,” she said.
The Grammys have gone through a number of changes in recent years, from coping with a ceremony in pandemic times, to being ousted for discriminatory practices. The Recording Academy’s decision to expand their categories is a clear attempt to do stay relevant to a younger generation. But Parks’ two Grammy nominations bring hope that the awards ceremony is paying attention to young artists with an important message. Her debut album should remind young musicians that coping with the weight of the world by making music in their childhood bedroom can lead to a successful career, and may even result in a Grammy.
Tyler Okonma has come a long way. The former Fairfax district skate rat is now a mogul on top of being a Grammy Award-winning rapper, singer, and producer as Tyler the Creator. But he never forgot his humble beginnings, which formed the focus of a large part of his concert at the Staples Center — sorry, Crypto.com arena — in Los Angeles Thursday night for his Call Me If You Get Lost Tour. During an intermission in the songs, right before he diverged into a nostalgic mini-set of his raucous early Odd Future material, Tyler reminisced with the crowd about those aimless but hopeful years, drawing a direct line between his rebellious nature and the success that he’s accrued in the past few years.
That go-against-the-grain mentality is what makes him such a great musician — and such a great performer. While so many rappers are content to simply show up and rap, Tyler brings a sort of unhinged glee to his performances, which makes him wildly fun to watch. He’s like the Jim Carrey of musicians, always moving, his coltish proportions adding another fun level to his wacky waving inflatable tube man arm flailing. His face contorts, his body accordions and expands, and his legs splay out. At one point, he did a full-on double leg dip — that’s a death drop, for you Drag Race fans out there, showing off a level of flexibility normally reserved for ballrooms and gymnastics competitions.
Then there are the props. Did I say “the Jim Carrey of musicians?” Sorry, I meant Carrot Top. I’ve been going to rap shows longer than I can even remember. I’ve seen dancers and pyrotechnics and guest stars and all manner of odd things on stage from piles of tires to vending machines to tanks. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone unpack luggage from a vintage Rolls Royce Wraith while rapping. Tyler’s love for bags is legendary; he’s got a chain based on his nickname of “Bellhop,” telling you exactly how much he loves luggage. At most, you’d expect him to have a few bags stacked onstage. Instead, he did the stacking himself — while rapping. He even has a butler!
The staging was some of the best I’ve ever seen too. Rappers love reproducing houses onstage; 2 Chainz, Kanye West, and YG are all examples who’ve employed this fairly standard trope. Tyler takes it to the next level, just like everything else. Silhouettes wafted across the lit windows, standing in for band members and guest rappers. Not content to simply stand on one stage and float along to the whimsical ’60s spy jazz of his latest album, he traversed the arena floor to a grass-covered stage in the middle. How did he get there? On a speedboat, from which he performed his album’s standout track “Wusyaname.” Once on his grassy getaway, he launched into older material from Flower Boy and his aforementioned Odd Future classics.
Tyler knows how to pick his guests too. Kali Uchis, who took the set immediately preceding his, received a warm reception for her Selena-lite renditions of tracks from her 2018 album Isolation and TikTok-favorite “Sad Girlz Luv Money” by Amaarae. Vince Staples, never one to waste a perfectly good platform, delivered his set from the floor stage, which was redressed and lit from below, amplifying the haunting effects of songs like “Señorita.” And Teezo Touchdown, the oddball with a wig made of nails, set things off as always with his hype man Austyn Sux, challenging Tyler for most props used in a single performance (at one point he used a traffic cone as a megaphone, which was hilarious considering he was already miked up). If there’s anything I’d change about the show, it’s the venue; the sound is just so much better at The Forum, where entry and moving around is easier as well. Let the stars bring the chaos onstage; leave the lobby alone.
The crowds at a Tyler show are always fun; young, diverse, and reflective of his devil-may-care attitude towards convention and other people’s expectations. I think the entire row behind me sported septum piercings and crowd-watching felt vaguely like falling through a time warp to the mid-’90s. Curse the zoomers for bringing back wide-leg pants after all the hard work my generation did to make the cozy style functional and fashionable, but it’s pretty amusing to watch younger generations repurpose old styles in their own, funky way. In a way, they got that from Tyler, too; he’s constantly deconstructing his influences like Eminem and Pharrell, retooling them, and retrofitting them to his own unique way of doing things. That — and a healthy dose of persistence — is what got him here and judging from his show, is what’ll keep him here far into the (steadfastly odd) future.
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