Month: April 2022

Donald Trump may be some resort-dwelling, possibly jail-bound money-loser with a failing social media service. But to the Republican party, he’s the 2024 front-runner. As is his wont, The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper invaded MAGA land to find what his followers are really saying — and it’s not all that different from what people say in a country without a lot of freedom.

In his latest video, Klepper first stops at this year’s CPAC, where he ignores the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mike Lindell, and, of course, the big guy himself. Instead he made a beeline for the fans. One tells Klepper that Trump was great with the economy. Klepper responds by pointing out that the economy was in the gutter when he left office in January 2021.

“I’m talking about before the COVID economic collapse,” she replies.

“We don’t count the whole term,” Klepper shot back. “We cherry pick numbers to make him look like a fantastic president.”

One young Trumpist says he likes his insults, like calling people fat and stupid. Klepper gets him to admit Trump has the sense of humor of a 15-year-old like him. “So you wanted a 15-year-old as president, and you got that,” Klepper said.

Eventually Klepper notices that more and more attendees are singing the praises of Hungary, whose prime minister, Viktor Orban, is infamous for cracking down on democratic norms — and winning the praise of Trump and Tucker Carlson. He eventually heads over there, where he finds a similarly blinkered, bubbled populace. But it’s really a teaser for Klepper’s new special, “Hungary for Democracy,” which airs on April 21.

In the meantime, you can watch Klepper’s latest video above.

It’s been a really long time since we’ve received a full-length project from Dreamville’s Bas. His last project came in the summer of 2019 with Spilled Milk. The four-track EP had contributions from Earthgang, JID, Ari Lennox, and served as a follow-up to his vibrant 2018 third album Milky Way. Since Spilled Milk, Bas has laid off a few guest verses while showing up on Dreamville projects like Revenge Of The Dreamers III and D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape. At long last, Bas is back, and while it may not be with an album, he arrives with a batch of new records through a new EP.

Bas touches down with his [BUMP] Pick Me Up EP, and it features the highlight record from it is “Admire Her” with Gunna. On it, the duo takes time to shower their ideal partners with love after realizing what makes them special. They do so over production that complements Bas’ versatile ways as it does to Gunna’s slimy persona.

The EP also includes the previously-released “The Jackie” with J. Cole and Lil Tjay. Elsewhere, listeners will catch appearances from Galimatias on “Eyes On You” and Ari Lennox on “The Others.”

You can listen to “Admire Her” in the video above.

[BUMP] Pick Me Up is out now via Dreamville and Interscope. You can stream it here.

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

The last full project that we received from Phoebe Bridgers came in 2020 with Punisher. Since then, Bridgers has launched her own label, collaborated with Taylor Swift, and performed at a bunch of live shows. It will certainly be a little while until we receive Bridgers’ third album, but until then, listeners can enjoy her latest single, “Sidelines.” The track is a captivating effort that she uses to declare her fearless approach to the world. “I’m not afraid of anything at all,” she sings to open the song. “Not dying in a fire, not being broke again.”

Bridgers created the new song for Hulu’s upcoming adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Conversations With Friends as she’s been a longtime fan of the author. She wrote the record, which a press release states will be her only new song of the year, with bandmate and collaborator Marshall Vore and Ruby Rain Henley. When Bridgers announced the new song earlier this week, the news caused her website to crash as fans rushed there to pre-save the new record.

As for what’s next, Bridgers will continue her tour which will bring her to cities across the United States. Then in June, she’ll take her talents overseas for performances in the United Kingdom and Europe before she returns to North America for eight final shows.

You can listen to “Sidelines” in the video above.

Two of Cardi B’s most recent singles pushed the boundaries of what some might expect from her musically. “WAP” and “Up” caused quite the ruckus at the time of their releases, but it was all a part of Cardi’s plan to be her most expressive self. For her latest musical contribution, Cardi shifts things to the opposite side of the spectrum thanks to some help from Bronx rappers Kay Flock, Dougie B, and Bory300. Together, the quartet joins forces for their electrifying and raw drill record, “Shake It.”

While the new song, which samples Sean Paul’s “Temperature” and Akon’s “Bananza (Belly Dancer),” is a rather short one, the energy that the rappers bring to it makes for quite the ride. It arrives with a visual that watches Cardi, Kay Flock, Dougie B, and Bory300 take over a Bronx street corner as they’re surrounded by their crew members who are either draped in red or blue. Cardi herself sports a bright red wig as she absolutely kills her verse on the song.

The song lists Kay Flock as the lead artist and it arrives almost five months after he was arrested for allegedly murdering a Harlem man after a dispute that occurred outside a barbershop.

You can watch the energetic video “Shake It” above.

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

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has not been going well for Ukrainians, with the latter reporting tens of thousands killed in less than two months. It hasn’t been going well for Russia either. Ukrainians have fought back so aggressively, even allegedly sinking major ships, that Russian president Vladimir Putin has fired scores of secret agents in an attempt to deflect blame. Meanwhile, oligarchs and allies have had their property seized. Now one of them has lost more than most.

As per The Washington Post, Viktor Medvedchuk, a pro-Kremlin politician, mogul, and oligarch with close tie to Putin, was captured by the nation’s authorities this week. One of the richest people in Ukraine, he didn’t only lose his freedom. He lost an epic amount of assets, among them 30 plots of land, 23 houses, 32 apartments, 26 cars, and one yacht.

Medvedchuk has already been arrested and charged with treason, having been accused of taking part in a Russian plot to install a puppet government in Ukraine. But he managed to escape house arrest, disappearing for 48 days. When apprehended, the wealthy man, who was a leader of Ukraine’s pro-Russian party, appeared disheveled in camouflage fatigues bearing a Ukrainian flag patch.

In 2021, Forbes Ukraine estimated Medvedchuk’s net worth at $620 million. This week, his 300-foot yacht, named Royal Romance and estimated at $200 million, was taken and is being transferred to an agency specializing in seized assets. Meanwhile, former American president Donald Trump still won’t denounce what his buddy Putin has been doing since late February.

(Via WaPo)

(SPOILERS for this week’s Atlanta will be found below.)

In this week’s episode of Atlanta, “Cancer Attack,” Paper Boi continues his European tour with Earn and Darius beside him. The trio finds themselves in Budapest for the latest performance and all in all, things seem to be going well for everyone. Paper Boi seems to be doing well through the performances while Earn is adjusting well to his position as Paper Boi’s manager. As for Darius, well he’s being his typical wacky self. With that being said, things take a turn during the episode and it begins with Paper Boi losing his phone at the concert venue.

Here are some of the biggest questions we had after season three’s fifth episode.

Where Is Vanessa?

Things have been a bit off with Vanessa this season. She’s clearly affected by some recent events in her life which include a breakup with Earn and failing to get her dream job. She joined Earn, Darius, and Paper Boi on the European tour in hopes of rediscovering herself and getting back on the right track. However, she hasn’t been off to the best start with that, and after quite the odd house party in episode three, Vanessa has separated herself from the group for some peace and quiet of her own. As Earn, Darius, and Paper Boi prep for a show in Budapest, Vanessa is who knows where doing who knows what. Earn is concerned about her whereabouts and well-being, but his attempt to check in on her is met with nothing more than a thumbs-up emoji (the boring, yellow one to be exact). The hope is that all is well with Vanessa, but this is Atlanta, so who knows what’s in store.

Will Paper Boi And Darius See The Flaws In Their Government Conspiracy Theories?

After Paper Boi’s performance, he discovers that his phone is missing. Now, in 2005 it would be difficult to find said missing phone, but we’re in 2022, and Find My iPhone makes discovering this lost phone easy, right? Well, not in the world of Atlanta. Darius somehow convinced Paper Boi that Find My iPhone and the rest of iCloud’s services results are some sort of opt-in to 24/7 government surveillance, and as a result, their mission to find the phone is unnecessarily harder. Sure, a distrust with the government is absolutely valid, but come on let’s be serious here, the government doesn’t need iCloud to watch us (if they so chose to). Additionally, Paper Boi is on a publicly-advertised tour. If Uncle Sam or anyone else in the family wanted to track down the group, I’m sure a simple Google search would do the job. Furthermore, the government will probably resort to their outdoor surveillance cameras and the locations of potential credit or debit card usage before exploring iCloud data. With that being said, let’s hope Paper Boi detaches himself from these conspiracy theories when he gets a new phone.

What Is A Cancer Attack?

Excuse my ignorance here, but seriously, what is a cancer attack? A Google search brings up this episode due to its title and sentences like “when cancer attacks…” We first hear the term when Earn tracks down a young boy who previously met Paper Boi prior to the Budapest show. Earn suspects that the boy took Paper Boi’s phone, and when he’s told that the boy is being taken away by ambulance due to a “cancer attack,” he’s almost 100% sure the boy took the phone. After an oddly thorough search, we find out that the boy did not take the phone. Due to the chaos of the moment, the group doesn’t take a moment to figure out what a “cancer attack” is, so I will do the honors and figure it out for the sake of their and my own sanity. I’ll make sure to report back with results.

What Is Wrong With Wiley?

We have to commend Earn and Paper Boi for their patience because simply put, Wiley is one annoying human. Earn, Paper Boi, Darius, and Socks couldn’t have accused a worse person of stealing the phone. Wiley, who claims to be a fan of Paper Boi does everything in his power to stress the group out between annoying answers, bothersome questions, sarcasm, obnoxious farting, a random performance with a guitar, and more. We eventually learn that Wiley in fact did not have the phone, which makes the lengthy interrogation for the missing phone all that more pointless. Anyone else under these circumstances would have made it very clear that they were innocent, but Wiley decided to do otherwise. Stardom and fame have their perks and downfalls, but dealing with someone like Wiley is something else.

Who Did It Worse? Elliot Or Wiley?

It’s been less than two months since Elliot sat on his bed for two very long hours minutes to play a song for Rue. While the song itself wasn’t bad (the TV version is much better than the official “Elliot’s Song” that was released), it went on for a bit too long in the episode and made for quite the awkward moment. Taking a page from Elliot’s book, Wiley spent two hours minutes of his own playing a song for Paper Boi, who opened up to him about his struggle with writer’s block during the interrogation over the missing phone. If this is what we get for complaining about Elliot’s performance then on behalf of everyone, I’d like to apologize to Elliot, Rue, Dominic Fike, Zendaya, and all of the Euphoria cast for all the complaints placed against them. This is proof that things can in fact be worse.

What Are We Going To Do About Socks?

At this point, we know that Socks’ role is to add stress to the group’s already eventful lives. It goes back to his first appearance in episode three when Socks sparked a rebellion against a women who innocently, yet wrongfully stereotyped Darius. This week, his damage is much worse. After nearly a full episode of searching for Paper Boi’s phone, which included accusing a 19-year-old 32-year-old man named Wiley of the robbery, then interrogating him, and enduring an awkward song from him, all to let him go, we find out that Socks had the phone all along. As the episode comes to a close, he tosses the phone in the trash and rejoins the group like nothing happened. This is after he called himself the “white Liam Neilson” while threatening to kill Wiley and after he almost says the n-word in front of Earn, Paper Boi, and Darius. The European tour is already crazy and hectic enough, and adding his antics to mix, it may be about time to knock your Socks off the show for everyone’s peace of mind.

FX’s ‘Atlanta’ airs on Thursdays at 10:00pm EST.

Everything Sault has ever done has come with an aura of mystique, so dropping a new album out of nowhere should surprise nobody. Their last album, Nine, was only available for 90 days and they dropped two albums in both 2019 and 2020, including their crown jewel, Untitled (Black Is). We know that the group is largely the brainchild of British producer Inflo, who came up working with Michael Kiwanuka, Jungle, Cleo Sol, Little Simz, and most recently, producing three songs off of Adele’s 30. Sault’s first five albums have featured vocals from Sol and Monica Young (aka Kid Sister), but Air, the newest addition to the groups quickly growing discography, sounds nothing like the others.

The group purged every post from their Instagram page and then today started fresh by posting the Air album cover and then five subsequent previews of some of the album’s tracks. Everything on Air feels incredible cinematic, almost like it’s earmarked as a soundtrack for a visual component that’s yet to come. The opening track “Reality” establishes chamber orchestra-like instrumentals with a vocal chant as a motif through each of the seven tracks. The title track feels like the score of a movie where springtime is in bloom, as strings unfurl, cymbals crash and an indistinct female vocal comes in midway through the song. At the end of the fifth track, “Time is Precious,” we hear the first distinct lyrics from what pretty clearly sounds like Cleo Sol backed by a choir as she hums the song’s title in ethereal fashion. Album closer “Luos Higher” introduces spaghetti western strings and the whole album comes across like an interlude towards whatever the next step is. Whatever the next move is for Sault, it’ll certainly be a calculated one. For now, listen to Air in full below, with the album artwork in the player and the tracklist at the bottom.

1. “Reality”
2. “Air”
3. “Heart”
4. “Solar”
5. “Time Is Precious”
6. “June 55”
7. “Luos Higher”

The Kid Laroi recently posted a TikTok that seemingly took some shots at his ex-manager Scooter Braun. The video, which is captioned “show me ur last mistake. use this sound,” was used to promote his upcoming song “Thousand Miles.” The song features the following lyrics: “Here goes another mistake I know I’m gonna make / I know I’m gonna make tonight / And I will never change.” As those play, pictures of Scooter Braun flash on the screen, leaving many to believe that Laroi was calling him his “last mistake.” However, it turns out it was nothing more than a prank.

Just a day after Laroi shared the TikTok, Braun took to his Instagram to reveal that the whole was planned. “You got a sec to talk?” Laroi texts Braun in the screenshots. “I have an idea I wanna run past you.” Braun added a message of his own about the situation, writing, “For those asking about the beef…and my friends who are wanting to go hard. Don’t believe everything you see on the internet.”

Laroi’s upcoming single, “Thousand Miles,” will arrive on April 22. It’s set to be the follow-up to “Stay,” his single with Justin Bieber which has spent multiple weeks at No. 1.

You can view the screenshots from Braun in the post above.

The Republican party has been moving in strange and disturbing directions for a while now, but most of them — though not all — know to stop at Hitler. One who doesn’t is Frank S. Niceley, an obscure Tennessee politician who on Thursday made waves for saying that the downtrodden should seek inspiration from the chief architect of the Third Reich.

The Tennessee Senate spent part of the day debating a bill that would deem camping on public property, including homeless encampments, a misdemeanor. Niceley, a Republican member of the state Senate, was for it. But he didn’t stop with criminalizing those who were without homes. He offered a certain historical figure as an idol that could inspire them to not only seek shelter but make the history books.

“I haven’t given you all a history lesson in awhile, and I wanted to give you a little history on homelessness,” Niceley told the state Senate floor. “[In] 1910, Hitler decided to live on the streets for a while. So for two years, Hitler lived on the streets and practiced his oratory, and his body language, and how to connect with citizens and then went on to lead a life that got him in the history books.”

It was a, shall we say, strange lesson to take from the life and career of the 20th century’s most infamous boogeyman. But that didn’t stop him from trying to find a silver lining in the life of the man who helped create the Holocaust.

“It’s not a dead end,” Niceley advised those without shelter. “They can come out of these homeless camps and have a productive life — or in Hitler’s case, a very unproductive life.”

Despite Niceley’s claim, Adolf Hitler did indeed lead a very productive life. If anything it was too productive, right up until his death by suicide in a bunker as the Allies closed in. Perhaps Niceley, despite professing his historian bona fides, shouldn’t quit his day job.

Did Niceley’s colleagues then realize they shouldn’t align themselves with a guy who holds up Hitler as a role model to the homeless? Of course not. The bill passed 22 to 10.

(Via The Washington Post)

Last year was a pretty strong one for Lil Durk. He earned his first No. 1 project thanks to Voice Of The Heroes, his joint album with Lil Baby. Elsewhere, he capitalized on work from his 2020 year which gave him a pair of top-2 albums with Just Cause Y’all Waited 2 and The Voice. In 2022, Durk is taking things even higher and it started with his seventh album 7220 which became his first solo No. 1 album. With rumors of a deluxe reissue of the album on the way, Durk keeps the spirit of 7220 alive with a new video.

The latest visual from 7220 to get the video treatment is “Blocklist.” While many have expected an appearance from Durk himself in the video, he instead recruits his lookalike, Perkio for the visual. In it, Perkio frustrates his girlfriend with his actions at a strip club. As a result, he ends up on the blocklist leaving Perkio to do everything in his power to get his partner to forgive him.

Perkio recently went viral after he and filmmaker King Cid tricked people at a Florida shopping mall into thinking he was the real Lil Durk. To Perkio and Cid’s credit, and in defense of the shoppers, the duo did everything in their power to make sure the prank worked. They rented a Lamborghini and hired fake paparazzi and a security team. Perkio even had fake versions of Lil Durk’s actual tattoos. All in all, it was a successful prank that absolutely worked in Perkio’s favor.

You can watch the video for “Blocklist” above.

7220 is out 3/11 via Alamo Records/Sony Music Entertainment. You can pre-save it here.