Month: April 2022

Donald J. Trump is kind of an awkward guy. He’s incapable of doing simple things without making them weird. He can’t talk to children about Christmas without telling them Santa Claus isn’t real. And he can’t wish everyone a happy Easter without smearing a good chunk of the nation.

On the day of the Christian holiday, while many were in church celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the former president was firing off one of his glorified press releases, which he still does despite owning a social media service so bad even he doesn’t use it.

“Happy Easter to all including the Radical Left Maniacs who are doing everything possible to destroy our Country,” the frontrunner for the Republican presidential ticket in 2024 wrote. “May they not succeed, but let them, nevertheless, be happy, healthy, wealthy, and well!”

It’s a profoundly Trumpian statement, a mix of bile and unconvincing graciousness towards his many, many enemies, which at this point includes most of the planet. Then again, Trump has never been great with Easter. He botched his first Easter egg roll in the White House, in part by allowing himself to be photographed alongside a nerdy version of the holiday’s mascot, giving the world one of his countless unflattering photos. You can see said image above.

(Via Raw Story)

Revivals are all the rage nowadays, but in the seven years since Mad Men ended on a high note, no one has tried to bring it back. But one of its supporting players has now expressed interest in returning to the role that made her name.

That person is Keirnan Shipka, who broke out playing Sally Draper, the younger, impressionable daughter of Jon Hamm’s advertising wizard Don. The actress went on to nab her own show, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, a darker take on the Archie Comi character Sabrina the Teenage Witch that ran for two seasons. But what she’d really like to do is go back to where she started.

“I’m not done with Sally,” Shipka recently told ET. “I don’t think she’d be in New York. I think she’d do L.A… But I’m not done with her at all.”

When Mad Men ended, Sally was in her teens, having watched as her parents’ marriage crumbled and her dad grappled with both his job and his secretly stolen identity. It left off in the shaggy ’70s, but Shipka would love to see how Sally handles the Reagan ’80s, when the materialism that went out of fashion over Mad Men’s time span roared back with a vengeance.

Mind you, much as Kiefer Sutherland recently expressed vague interest in returning to 24 hero Jack Bauer, Shipka isn’t openly announcing a Mad Men spinoff. She’s simply throwing this out there, and maybe something will happen or it won’t.

(Via ET)

A little over a year ago, Brockhampton’s Kevin Abstract announced that the group would release their final two albums in 2021. “Everybody just getting a lil older and got a lot to say outside of group projects,” Abstract later said about the decision for the band to come to an eventual end. The first of their two projects, Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine, arrived in April 2021 with help from ASAP Rocky, ASAP Ferg, Jpegmafia, Danny Brown, and more. As for their next project, which would be their last one, Brockhampton gave an update about it during their Coachella set on Saturday.

According to Billboard, Brockhampton took the stage with matching Adidas Originals varsity jackets with the band’s logo and a quote on the back that read, “all good things must come to an end.” It came after the band previously announced that they would take an “indefinite hiatus” after a few more shows. During a performance on “Bankroll,” Brockhampton’s Merlyn took the mic and said, “My name’s Merlyn and I just wanted to say I love all of y’all, but it’s not a comeback because we not coming back.”

The band played records like “Sweet,” “Bleach” and “Sugar” during their set, and as things came to a close, a video of Abstract telling the band that he made an album in New York City appeared on the screen. Afterward, a message appeared on the screen that read: “THE FINAL ALBUM 2022.”

It was yet another chaotic week for the world, and SNL’’s Weekend Update was there for it. Among the bizarro news was Elon Musk, the troll-iest of billionaires, threatening to buy Twitter, the social media service that dared boot the most dangerous president in American history.

“Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for over $40 billion so he can loosen its free speech rules,” Michael Che said. “That’s how badly white guys want to use the ‘n-word.’”

“Honestly, I don’t understand why Elon even wants to own Twitter,” Colin Jost said. “It used to be something that seemed important and even fun and now you look at it and it’s confusing and depressing. It’s the Giuliani of apps.” He added, “Plus, Twitter isn’t even that profitable anymore. It just feels like a bad business decision. And I say that as someone who bought a Staten Island Ferry with Pete [Davidson],” a reference to an actual, questionable thing that happened.

The segment didn’t shy away from the scariest thing to happen in their city this week: a man shooting up a subway in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park, but thankfully not killing anyone. Che talked about how he was arrested after calling a tipline (though not without some help from the city’s latest hero). Over a photo of the suspect, Frank James, being carried out on a perp walk and not exactly looking in shape in a purple t-shirt, Che cracked that “judging from this photo, he was auditioning for the role of Grimace.”

At the end came a brief nod to another tragic story: the passing of legendary comic — and 1980 SNL cast member — Gilbert Gottfried. Neither Che nor Jost mentioned him by name, but the segment concluded with a photo tribute to Hollywood Squares’ greatest contributor.

You can watch the first stretch of Weekend Update in the video above.

Last year was a great year for Isaiah Rashad. After nearly five long years, he returned with his sophomore album The House Is Burning. Thanks to features from Lil Uzi Vert, Jay Rock, SZA, 6lack, Doechii, and more, The House Is Burning stood out as one of the better rap projects in 2021. This year was supposed to be an even better one for Rashad, but things took an unexpected turn when his alleged sex tape was leaked. The incident was another example of social media’s cruelty, but through it, the good side of it was shown as a large number of fans made sure to send him love after the leak.

Rashad held his first performance since the leak at this weekend’s Coachella festival and it’s here that took the opportunity to respond to the alleged leak. He did so through an introduction video that he played before beginning his set. “The purpose of doing that was to embarrass him,” a voice in the video said. “However, it backfired. When his video leaked, his streams and everything went up. He’s up on the charts now.” The video also featured clips from The Game, Joe Budden, Akademiks, and more

He would go on to play highlights from The House Is Burning like “RIP Young” and “Headshots.” Rashad also brought out Doechii for “Wat U Sed” and her new song “Crazy” and SiR for a performance of “Rope // Rosegold” from The Sun’s Tirade.

“I see all the messages and all that sh*t, all the positivity,” Rashad said before closing his set. “Y’all n****s done kept me alive these last couple months.”

You can watch the video from his Coachella set above.

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

It’s a big weekend: Easter is upon us, Passover has just begun, Ramadan is halfway through, and Coachella is on its first weekend. With all that and more, SNL kicked off its latest episode. Bowen Yang started the show as the Easter Bunny, welcoming everyone to “warm Halloween” and introducing himself as the “freakiest” holiday character: a “man-sized bunny with no back story.”

Yang then introduced a cavalcade of guests to ring in the Christian holiday. There was Kate McKinnon as Dr. Anthony Fauci. (“I’m still here. Turns out I’m like glitter: No matter how hard you try to get rid of me, I’m still in your hair and sometimes in your face.”) There was Cecily Strong’s Marjorie Taylor Greene. (“I’m worried about Easter. Between the pastels and the jelly beans, this holiday has gotten a little too LGQRST for me.”) Chris Redd brought back his Eric Adams and Kyle Mooney appeared as not Jesus but Jared Leto.

Mikey Day appeared as Elon Musk, joking about buying Easter (“I am offering 43 billion Peeps”), which would be better than him buying Twitter. Finally there was James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump, who barged in, despite not being invited, and rambled so weirdly about knowing Reese’s (the snack) and going to “Count Chocula’s 500th birthday” that Yang’s Easter Bunny just peaced out.

You can watch the sketch in the video above.

Usually, Billie Eilish has no problem being the center of attention wherever she goes, but after Harry Styles turned in an absolutely stunning performance last night, suddenly, Billie has a lot to live up to. Not only did Harry debut his new single, “As It Was,” to kick off his set, he also shared not one but two (!) other new singles, performing them live for the first time, and even brought out Shania Twain for a duet of “Man, I Feel Like A Woman,” and “Still The One.” Whew, and that was all in one night!

No matter, Billie has a whole host of collaborators up her sleeve, too. Initially bringing out Khalid to perform their duet, “Lovely,” she later surprised the ‘Chella crowd by bringing out none other than Damon Albarn. You might remember a recent interview he did, where Albarn leveled some pretty rude claims about Taylor Swift, and also praised Billie in the same breath. Clearly, Damon and Billie are on pretty good terms. First he dueted with Billie on her own song, “Getting Older,” then the Brit rock star launched into a hit from his own band, the Gorillaz’s “Feel Good Inc.” Check out clips of her and Khalid above, and performances with Damon below.

New music from Lizzo is a good thing in most people’s books, but a new single and a live debut on Saturday Night Live? Now that’s an embarrassment of riches. The pop star and now inclusive shapewear line designer took to the SNL stage tonight after her latest single, “About Damn Time” had only been out for a few days. That didn’t stop her from dubbing it the “song of the summer,” before it even dropped, and showing out for the retro song’s disco-themed music video.

Replicating some of that video’s style for tonight’s live debut, Lizzo and her dancers were clad in glittery neon outfits and performed on a stage lit with colorful bands of lights. The R&B star and her all-female, all women of color band turned out a super funky version of the song, with light choreo and lots of feeling. Check out that performance up top and check out her second performance below. For her second song of the night, Lizzo chose to perform “Special,” the title track off her forthcoming album of the same name, this time in a glamorous pink gown. Since Lizzo was both the musical performer and guest star on tonight’s episode, she appeared in a whole host of skits too, so check those out if you want more.

CL was dealt a rough hand when the 2020 pandemic hit right around the time she was planning to release her debut solo album. Pushing the record back until the fall of 2021, when Alpha did drop, it flew a bit under the radar. That’s partially because she was releasing the album completely independently, on her own label Very Cherry. The K-pop star has been off the grid for a few years following her split from former girl group, 2NE1, one of the biggest acts to ever come out of Korea.

Though the band hasn’t performed together since their split back in 2015, which is when CL decided to launch her solo career, they reunited today onstage at Coachella during 88 Rising’s slotted time. Following up a short performance from CL by herself, which included live renditions of Alpha singles “Spicy” and her classic “Hello Bitches,” she returned to the stage with the rest of the group following her performance. All four of the girls — CL, Park Bom, Dara, and Minzy — hit the stage to perform their 2011 hit “I Am The Best,” in the kind of surprise reunion that Coachella is becoming renowned for. Check out footage from their performance above, and look out for more surprise guests likely coming soon.

Wherever she goes, Megan Thee Stallion makes news. So it’s not that surprising that the Houston hottie was making waves even before she took the stage at Coachella 2022 by letting fans know she was planning to debut a brand new song. Megan is
constantly giving fans new music, as her most recent collaboration with Dua Lipa, “Sweetest Pie,” clearly proves, and tonight’s new song might be called “Dick Don’t Run Me.” As she already predicted on Twitter, this one really goes out to the ladies and resonates with women most deeply, with a message of female empowerment and a kiss off to an ex lover.

After her disappointment that the fest was initially canceled way back in 2020, The Stallion was clearly more than ready to take the stage this evening. And with her unique combination of spitfire bars, incredible breath control, and all that twerking, her set was a highlight of the night, preceding headliner Billie Eilish by just a few hours. Check out footage from Megan’s set below, particularly these clips of her brand new song. Odds are, this new single is going to hit streaming services sooner than later, so keep an eye out for updates on that, too.