Month: April 2022

Fans of the superior Harley Quinn (not that one) are in for a real treat! A spinoff of the hit animated series Harley Quinn is in the works at HBO Max, with a focus on Kite Man and the various patrons of Gotham’s sketchy dive bar hangout, Noonan’s.

The show will be produced by Harley Quinn co-creators Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker, and Dean Lorey, as well as the voice of Harley herself, Kaley Cuoco. The third season of Harley Quinn will premiere this summer.

Suzanna Makkos, executive VP of original comedy and adult animation for HBO Max, told Variety, “We love the wild and fun world of Harley Quinn so much we just had to make a spin-off and who better to center it around than the outcast Kite Man. Justin, Patrick, and Dean have created the perfect local hangout for Gotham City’s not-so-finest at Noonan’s, where bar patrons can blow off steam after a long day of mayhem.”

Matt Oberg will reprise the role of Kite Man in the 10-episode season. Peter Girardi, executive vice president of alternative programming for Warner Bros. Animation, added: “Exploring this world further with our partners at HBO Max and DC is going to be a lot of fun. Plus, after getting dumped by Poison Ivy, the least we could do was give Kite Man his own show.” Poor Kit Man.

The series is expected to air later this year.

Dre London lied to us… well, sort of. Two weeks ago, Post Malone’s manager stirred up the new album pot by indicating on Instagram that the next Post Malone album would be out “next month.” And today, we just learned from rapper himself, that the new album‚ which is set to feature appearances from The Weeknd, Doja Cat, Roddy Ricch, Robin Pecknold, and The Kid Laroi — is actually coming a little bit later than London indicated.

“Twelve Carat Toothache. June 3rd,” Post Malone tweeted today.

To London’s credit, he started the year voicing his frustrations over Post Malone’s label, Republic Records, delaying the release of the album. In an Instagram post, he commented that, “Album has been done!! We Ready!! But seems @republicrecords @universalmusicgroup isn’t [shrugging emoji] Posty fans no more need to press me anymore we did our part!! Now it’s time for the label to get the business right before we drop BIG Album! Hit them up! We been ready like u are! #DreVision #2022 It’s Time!!!”

It looks like the powers that be have finally given the green light for what will surely be one of the biggest album releases of 2022. Before the album comes out, Post Malone has a show scheduled at the Miami Grand Prix, before he’s set to headline a slew of summer music festivals like Outside Lands in San Francisco and Hangout Festival in Atlanta.

Twelve Carat Toothache is out on 06/03 via Republic Records. Pre-order it here.

A decade ago, a young gospel-focused singer named Jacob Lusk made it to the final five of American Idol season 10 on the strength of his booming, layered voice that was well, unforgettable. Now with the modern cinematic R&B trio Gabriels, the Compton-native Lusk has found the vessel that is sure to vault him and multi-instrumentalist bandmates Ari Balouzian and Ryan Hope to great heights. Uproxx recently named Gabriels’ Bloodline EP one of our “Best Albums That You May Have Missed” from this past winter and even the great David Byrne has cited Gabriels as a current inspiration of his. But wait… there’s more!

Today, Gabriels have just released their first new single of the year in the expansive “One And Only,” and it presents the most stacked and booming sounds from the group yet. The soul-packed number sees Lusk’s silky baritone rising above backing gospel harmonies with Motown drums, upswing strings, and lively keys. The song feels akin to contemporary R&B acts like Michael Kiwanuka and Leon Bridges, both in Lusk’s silken vocals as well in Balouzian and Hope’s fantastic arrangement. The band added in a statement that the song “is about relationships that are built on a trauma bond. As much as you can love someone and want to help each other, ultimately change and peace come from inside and the only one who can save you is yourself.”

Listen to Gabriels’ “One and Only” above.

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

Earlier this week, a Rolling Stone report published a surveillance video of the altercation that led to DaBaby’s deadly shooting at a Walmart in 2018. In the video, DaBaby is seen scuffling with Henry Douglas down the store’s aisles, before Jaylin Craig intervenes and is ultimately shot and killed by DaBaby. DaBaby has maintained that he was acting in self-defense and while the internet is ablaze on what exactly the surveillance footage means for the case, DaBaby hasn’t wavered on his stance.

Now, DaBaby’s lawyers Drew Findling and Marissa Goldberg, have told TMZ that not only did they see the video in 2018, but that it shows that the rapper (real name Jonathan Kirk) indeed acted in self-defense. “Witnesses were interviewed and corroborated Mr. Kirk’s statement,” they said in a statement to TMZ. “The entirety of the surveillance video was viewed and determined to corroborate Mr. Kirk’s statement … Mr. Kirk was protecting himself and his family at the time of the shooting.”

In watching the video, it can be construed that when Craig comes to the assistance of Douglas, his hand is on his hip, thus indicating that he was pulling a gun. DaBaby has claimed that he fired his weapon as he sought to protect his kids, who were with him. Given that the case was concluded without charges in 2019 — although DaBaby was tried and convicted on charges of carrying a concealed weapon, for which he was given a year on probation — it would seem that the authorities agree with his claims of self-defense.

Pusha T is still fresh off the release of his fourth studio album, It’s Almost Dry, but he’s already on to the next project. Already a well-respected icon in the music world and a growing force in businesses like restaurants and tech, the burgeoning Virginia mogul is making moves on the film industry next, executive producing the crime thriller Respect The Jux. Dropping via VOD on May 6, the film tells the story of a young Jamaican immigrant who gets caught up in gang life and a scheme to get rich.

According to the film’s synopsis:

Cat was left in Jamaica by his mother at the tender age of eleven in pursuit of a better life. It would be six years later she was able to send for him and his sister. Within those six years of her absence, Cat becomes a member of “The Order,” a local gang. Living with his mother in a small apartment in the ghettos of Brooklyn, NY, he would become obsessed with obtaining his vision of the American dream.

In addition to being a fast-food spokesperson, Pusha has expressed interest in writing a children’s book but lamented that no one wants to publish it last year. Perhaps his next foray will be into publishing so he can put it out himself.

Check out the clip from Respect The Jux, out 5/6 on VOD, above.

Perhaps gone are the days of shows surrounding toxic tech workplaces, the next big thing will be TV shows about what happens when you have a horrible AirBnB experience!

Enjoy Your Stay is an upcoming series from Uri Singer’s Passage Pictures that will focus on true events surrounding AirBnB’s crisis response team as they respond to various crimes that take place during one’s stay, which include theft, assaults, and shootings.

“We believe this project is an important contemporary story that needs to be told, to show both the victims’ and the crisis team employees’ stories,” Singer told Variety. Airbnb used to be known for its generally lax policies surrounding theft and crime, and high crime rates which are quietly covered up by the response team.

The series will be written by former Wall Street Journal reporter Will Connors, who spent over a decade reporting on fun stuff like corruption, business, and politics. This will be his first screenwriting gig.

The show will also feature a former Airbnb security member as an anonymous consultant who will likely tell some horror stories about what they’ve seen. If anything…this seems like it will be show reasons NOT to use an Airbnb on your next vacation.

Singer recently produced a movie about another infamous company, Tesla, starring Ethan Hawke. He is currently working with director Noah Baumbach on a Netflix project.

Another day, another music video for French Montana. The man has a seemingly endless budget for videos and we’re absolutely here for it. Earlier this month, the video for “Push Start” saw French taking over a New York City subway with Coi Leray and 42 Dugg. Now the latest clip for “Mopstick” featuring Kodak Black sees the pair going down to Black’s home turf in Florida.

Off of Montana’s latest album, They Got Amnesia, “Mopstick” marks the fourth time the duo has appeared on a track together. In the video, they start flexing in an airboat on the swampy Everglades. Montana totes an assault rifle as they cruise the rivers and canals of the Bayou (in case any gators start acting a fool and need the business, obviously). Then, they take the track to the streets of Pompano Beach, rapping in front of a Chinese restaurant and cuddling a baby gator.

Montana raps, “Fresh out the coma, already grinning, like he ain’t having it,” before Kodak adds, “Fresh out of prison, already winning, I ain’t catching it,” in a nod to the presidential pardon from Donald Trump that got him out of prison early on federal weapons charges.

Watch French Montana and Kodak Black’s “Mopstick” video above.

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

Zambian-Australian rapper/songwriter Sampa The Great returned this week after a three-year hiatus with “Lane,” her first new song since her 2019 debut album, The Return. The dreamy new song receives an assist from Denzel Curry, who contributes a searing verse, and Rochelle Rhembard and Imraan Christian, who direct the surreal music video. The video finds Sampa meditating in a picturesque grotto and features child versions of the two rappers running around with rose-shooting rifles. If you pay close attention, you’ll notice that the face on Sampa’s top appears to be “alive,” as well.

In a press release, Sampa explains the concept behind the song: “We’re not going to stay in one lane, we’re going to create multiple ones,” she says. “My truest self encourages me to explore different lanes, and go beyond what I think I know of myself.”

While the eclectic and underrated artist has been out of the limelight for the past two years, she hasn’t been idle. During the pandemic, she moved back to Zambia, where she spent the last two years writing and recording her upcoming album, which is due later this year via Loma Vista. Throughout that time, she performed virtually for festivals like Afropunk and the Roots Picnic, while her music was heard in nationwide commercials for Ikea and Truly Hard Seltzer. She recently made her Coachella debut, kicking off a stateside festival run that will include Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, and Pickathon.

Watch the “Lane” video above and stay tuned.

Video games are very difficult to make. Any developer can talk at length about the myriad of challenges they faced when making a game, but usually, by the time a game is released, it is in a state where the majority of it works. Sure, we have some necessary bug fixes and the always infamous day one patch, but most major glitches have been found and fixed by the time it gets to your console.

That said, the larger a game, the harder it is to find certain glitches. Sometimes, something small can slip through the cracks, like this glitch in Elden Ring that fans have recently discovered. There is a random wall that, when players approach, they will start getting poisoned, but if they step away from the wall, the poison effect will go away. Most players couldn’t figure out why this was happening beyond “well it’s a glitch,” but one game hacker managed to actually find the core of the issue. Zullie the Witch, a hacker and modder of From Software games, dove into the game’s code and explained why this glitched out wall is different from how poisoning usually works and what likely happened to cause this glitch. (H/t Kotaku).

So, it turns out that the entire reason this one random wall spot can poison players is nothing more than a typo or misplaced label when assigning the wall a material code. It sounds simple when it’s laid out like this in such simple terms, but it makes total sense why a glitch like this would happen. Elden Ring is a massive game with a huge world to explore. Something being labeled wrong like this would far more noticeable in a place like the tutorial area at the start, or maybe one of the game’s many boss encounters, but by a random cliffside that most players would walk by without a second thought?

That is far more difficult for QA testers and developers to find until hundreds of thousands of people are released into the world. Thankfully, as Zullie the Witch explained, this glitch sounds like an easy fix and will hopefully be patched out sooner rather than later.

James Cameron once promised that his Avatar sequels would make you “sh*t yourself with your mouth wide open.” We’ll have to wait and see if his prophecy came true, but the first footage from Avatar 2 — which has an official title, Avatar: The Way of Water — premiered on Wednesday at CinemaCon.

The footage isn’t online, but Deadline has a description:

Avatar 2 takes place in and around the ocean. Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Saldana) have children. “Wherever we go,” says Sully, “this family is our fortress.” The sequel looks even more jaw dropping in its deep-blue visuals than the 2009 film. All new creatures: We see the Na’vi on flying fish bird creatures, communing with a whale, and yet somehow divided despite their affinity with nature: The alien people are split, battling against each other in a guns vs. arrows fight. It’s truly a whole new world upping the stakes of the previous 3x Oscar winning film.

The trailer will debut in theaters before Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which comes out on May 6, before being released online the following week.

Avatar 2, which stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, CCH Pounder, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Michelle Yeoh, Jemaine Clement, and Vin Diesel (let James Cameron direct Fast X), opens on December 16.