Month: May 2022

There has been a wave of musicians speaking up about the recent leaked document that suggests the overturning of Roe v. Wade: Phoebe Bridgers, Halsey, Questlove, Lorde, Olivia Rodrigo, and more. Rock legends Rage Against The Machine are the latest to step in to share their support for a woman’s rights to choose.

“Rage Against The Machine stands in support of reproductive justice and will continue to fight against any attempts to restrict or control reproductive freedoms,” the band’s statement reads. “Criminalizing access to abortion will only add to the suffering disproportionately felt by poor, BIPOC and undocumented communities. The constant rightward shift of both major parties should alarm us all — a wake up call that we desperately need to organize radical people power against a warfare state that continues its assault on people’s lives.”

The “Killing In The Name” performers have never hesitated to dive into politics, despite many clueless fans asking them to “stick to music.” Frontman Tom Morello has to deal with all sorts of constant bullsh*t; last year, he had to clarify on Twitter that he wasn’t white when someone accused him of white privilege for being friends with Ted Nugent who defended the Capitol insurrection.

Things got heated during Friday morning’s episode of The View as Sunny Hostin shared her true opinion on Black Republicans during an exchange with conservative guest host Lindsey Grainger. Oddly enough, the conservation started while discussing the announcement that Karine Jean-Pierre will be taking over for Jen Psaki as the White House press secretary. When she assumes the role, Jean-Pierre will be the first openly LGBTQ and Black press secretary, which prompted Hostin to ask if Grainger, who is also Black, is a Republican. When Grainger said yes, that’s when the panel went sideways.

“I feel like that’s an oxymoron, a Black Republican,” Hostin said prompting a tense back and forth with Grainger that ultimately ensnared co-host Ana Navarro, who is a Latina Republican.

Via Mediaite:

“I don’t understand either of you,” said Hostin.

“You don’t understand yourself, though,” shot back Granger.

“I understand myself,” replied Hostin. “I don’t understand either of you.”

“I don’t understand Latino Republicans,” she added.

Eventually, Navarro got the panel back on track by saying the focus should be about “celebrating Karine Jean-Pierre.” However, this wasn’t the first time Navarro and Hostin have sparred over this exact topic. In early April, Hostin went on the offensive and pressed Navarro on why she’s still a Republican, which led to a similarly heated exchange like the one with Grainger.

“The party that you loved doesn’t exist anymore,” Hostin asked Navarro via Decider. “It’s the party of insurrectionists, it’s the party of traitors, white supremacists, it’s not the party that you loved. It’s just not.” Instead of answering the question, Navarro shot back, “What you don’t understand is that no matter how much you want it to happen, the Republican party is not going to disappear.” The two eventually moved on thanks to the help of guest host Chelsea Clinton.

(Via Mediaite)

Jack Harlow isn’t afraid to speak up on behalf of his friends. In an interview with The Guardian, the “First Class” rapper defended his “Industry Baby” collaborator Lil Nas X from the homophobic backlash against him.

He said, “The totally inappropriate reaction to him lets you know that we still have some progress to be made. And you hear it in passing; there’s still some homophobia going on. But he’s taking the hit that artists won’t have to take in the future. That’s what makes him a hero.”

For what it’s worth, those detractors couldn’t hold the pair back. “Industry Baby” quickly rose to No. 1 on the Hot 100, marking Lil Nas’ third single to reach that height and Jack’s first. It also helped launch Jack to superstardom along with the No. 2 showing of his breakout single “What’s Poppin.” Jack’s most recent single, “First Class,” was able to go No. 1 ahead of the release of his second studio album, Come Home The Kids Miss You, out now via Atlantic Recordings.

Jack had previously addressed some of the criticism of the “Industry Baby” video, tweeting that he “followed [Nas’] lead every step of the way.” He also insisted that “if he had asked me to be in that shower scene I woulda been in that shower scene. I just let the mastermind cook.”

Obviously, spoilers for Ozark are contained within.

Netflix’s Ozark has come to a savage and shattering conclusion, and somehow, Marty Byrde (presumably) made it out alive with his family intact as well. Granted, we don’t really know what happened after the screen went black, but the suggestion was that Jonah killed Mel the Private Investigator as he clutched the goat-shaped cookie jar full of Ben’s ashes. (What a sentence.) Yep, unless Jonah went rogue again (doesn’t seem likely), the general consensus is that Marty, Wendy, Charlotte, and Jonah made it back to Chicago without being in coffins. And they even survived that rollover vehicle crash, which make zero sense, but alright. Let’s get onto the real point here, though.

What about Ruth Langmore? She lost the game, all because Javi’s mother, Camila, took revenge on everyone’s favorite spitfire over Javi’s death, which was (in and of itself) also an act of vengeance. So circular! And Marty ended up living in Ruth’s world, but since Wendy saved his ass, and someone major needed to be sacrificed before this show ended, Julia Garner threw herself on that grenade. And I’m not too mad about it, even though part of me wanted Ruth to surface in some Ozark movie one day, similar to Jesse Pinkman in El Camino within the Breaking Bad universe. We won’t get a Zombie Ruth, either, so let’s make the best of things while celebrating the season’s best scene.

I’m not talking about Ruth’s death scene, although that was a fitting end for her, given that she died as she lived: ferocious and stubborn as hell and shouting, “Well, are you gonna f*cking do this sh*t or what?” At this point, I’m convinced that she kind-of wanted to die, given that she’d lost Ben and Wyatt, and she was actually haunted (in a pleasant way) by Wyatt, to the point where it probably made her sad to be alive and beginning to live out their rich-people dreams without him. She’d cleaned up her record and could have built up her legit business, and so on. But that wasn’t in the cards for Ruth, and there’s a major hint that this would be the case in Season 4, Part 2’s premiere episode.

The scene in question is a poetic one in which Run The Jewels’ Killer Mike surfaces (as himself). It’s an understated yet powerful scene, and I love it so very much.

We got to see Ruth step out of Missouri when she headed to Chicago after confronting the Byrdes and learning who killed Wyatt. While she mulled over whether she could kill Javi, Ruth (who has been mainlining Nas’ “N.Y. State Of Mind” while driving and so on) stumbled upon one of her heroes at a diner. And of course, one would expect Ruth to acknowledge this with an “I really love your sh*t.” They then entered into a telling discussion about what Ruth’s listening to at that very moment. She’s thinking about Wyatt and life, and she mentions how Nas’ song is bittersweet and rife with equal parts of nostalgia and hatred.

Killer Mike considered this, admitting, “You know, when I listen to that record, his projects are in Queens, and you can kinda see Manhattan, and I’ve always thought it was so hopeful and f*cking cruel at the same time.” To which Ruth asked, “You ever wonder if he’d trade that record if it meant not having to go through all that sh*t?” And Killer Mike shruggingly responds, “I mean, you gotta ask the question…” From there, Ruth admits that she doesn’t sleep while explaining this omission with a “you know.” She receives an understanding nod from Killer Mike, and Ms. Langmore goes her way.

Although Ruth goes gangster during Ozark‘s final episodes, it’s fair to say that this scene gives us a look inside of her honest-to-god emotions, much more than she’s let anyone ever view before now (other than fury and contempt). It feels right that this episode is titled, “The Cousin Of Death,” which comes from a particular turn in Nas’ lyrics:

It drops deep as it does in my breath
I never sleep, ’cause sleep is the cousin of death
Beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined
I think of crime when I’m in a New York state of mind

The scene’s a gift. Ruth is holding her own with one of her idols while they acknowledge a shared experience: Nas living in the projects while Ruth grew up in a trailer, observing privileged families visit her community as “vacation,” and although she’s fought her way out of the situation, what she’s experiencing now is, as Killer Mike declared, both “cruel” and “hopeful.” In the end, Ruth chooses chaos, and that chaos finds her amid interspersed scenes of kicking back on top of the trailer with Wyatt while they dream about being rich enough to build a swimming pool next to a lake.

Ever so briefly while Ruth clutched a coffee cup during a celebrity encounter, we got to see her act more alive we’ve seen her be during most of the show. She then essentially engineered her own ending by taking out Javi, but one can’t blame her; he embodied all of the cruelty that stole her hope away. Ruth persisted in beginning to build a dream home that Wyatt would love, but she never would have enjoyed any hopefulness without him. Also, Killer Mike exists in the Ozark universe. Oh, and those cookie jar ashes! Ozark is such a great show.

You can watch the full Killer Mike scene below:

Netflix’s ‘Ozark’ is currently streaming in its entirety.

Elon Musk may have spent $44 billion on Twitter, but he didn’t do so while listening to Donald Trump.

The Tesla CEO and ex-boyfriend of Grimes shot down Devin Nunes’ claim that the twice-impeached former president was behind his Twitter acquisition. Nunes, who runs Trump’s social media rival company Truth Social, told the press earlier this week that it was his boss’s idea for Musk to take control of Twitter saying, “we encouraged Elon Musk to buy” because “someone has to take on these tech tyrants. Donald Trump wanted to make sure that the American people got their voice back and that the internet was open and that’s what we are doing.”

Musk who, one could argue, is also a “tech tyrant” clapped back against Trump taking credit for his truly terrible investment in the company tweeting, “I’ve had no communication, directly or indirectly, with Trump, who has publicly stated that he will be exclusively on Truth Social.”

Whether Musk is actually pals with Trump or not is another question. The tech mogul has criticized Trump’s social media platform in the past and his far-right supporters. He also seems happy to let Trump play in his own sandbox while brainstorming ways Twitter might start making money. So far his best idea seems to be to charge companies and businesses (though likely not his own) to use the platform.

Still, seeing as Trump’s Truth Social has experienced some embarrassing setbacks recently, it makes sense that Musk wants to distance himself from another businessman whose grand “free speech” crusade has basically turned out to be a 4-chan knockoff.

(Via Variety)

Teen sensations The Linda Lindas have been relentlessly gaining momentum ever since their viral moment with their fiery anthem “Racist, Sexist Boy.” They’ve since released an unabashed album called Growing Up on Epitaph Records, as well as announced that they’ll be opening for the New York City rock legends the Yeah Yeah Yeahs later this year. Today, they’re back with more cool stuff: a music video for their track “Why” which features an appearance from the one and only punk feminist icon Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill and Le Tigre.

“The ‘Why’ music video is a tribute to The Decline of Western Civilization, the legendary 1981 documentary about L.A. punk by Penelope Spheeris, and Spirited Away, one of our favorite Miyazaki movies,” the band said in a statement. “It is set in an imaginary Save Music in Chinatown show, part of the series of all-ages matinee fund raisers for music education at Eloise’s school, where we played some of our earliest gigs with some of the musicians from Decline––Alice Bag, Phranc, Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski––who are now our friends. The art was drawn by Eloise, the flyers are real, and no dessert was wasted!”

Watch the music video for “Why” above.

Despite being related by blood, the Queen does not consider her grandson, Prince Harry, to be a part of the family anymore. Probably because he did leave the royal family, but still! She is sticking to her morals and has decided to not invite Harry and Meghan Markle to stand with her at her Jubilee, which is a party, not a fancy food dish or album. The Queen’s Jubilee happens during a landmark year, with the last one being in 2017 for the Queen’s 65th year of reign.

It should be noted they are still invited, they are just not granted permission to stand with her on the balcony, which is apparently a very important photo op. CNN confirmed the family would be there so that Queen Elizabeth would be able to meet her great-granddaughter for the first time. A spokesperson told the outlet: “Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are excited and honored to attend The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations this June with their children.”

Though they will be in attendance, only “working royals” are allowed to stand by the Queen on the balcony for the iconic photo op, which begs the question: what is their “work” exactly? This means Prince Harry, Meghan, and Prince Andrew will not be standing by the Queen on her day. It’s unclear if Andrew was invited at all at this time, but let’s hope not!

Wednesday’s episode of First Take featured a discussion between JJ Redick and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo regarding Draymond Green in the aftermath of a heated Game 2 against the Memphis Grizzlies. The discussion centered around how Green carried himself — Russo claimed that America is getting sick of Green and that he should “shut up and play,” while Redick pointed out the parallels between that and pundits who tell athletes to “shut up and dribble,” going as far as to say that Russo’s rhetoric about athletes is the sort of thing you hear on Fox News.

Redick received plenty of praise in the world of basketball for how clearly he spoke out against a worn-out and incorrect talking point. That continued on the most recent episode of Green’s podcast, as the Golden State Warriors star reacted to the conversation, excoriated Russo (who he repeatedly called “Bad Dog”), and spoke at length about the way that athletes are letting their voices be heard in the media.

“Yesterday, there’s a lot of news in the sports talk world, but in particular, JJ Redick sending the clown back to the circus,” Green said. “Number one, I’m not sure where this Bad Dog guy really came from, I really noticed him over the course of the last couple months going up and screaming to the top of his lungs when he’s sitting next to Stephen A. Yesterday, he went on TV and he says, ‘America is tired of Draymond Green.’”

Green then played the clip of Russo’s commentary and questioned how what he has done in his life to be able to speak for the nation by making these sorts of sweeping claims, and while he stressed that he’s “not one to really pull the race card very often,” Green made an exception in his response to this.

“That definitely had a very racist connotation,” Green said. “A very racist undertone, and even beyond it having a racist undertone, we don’t need to go any further than: who are you? Who are you to say, like, what have you done in your life to say America’s tired of him, shut up and play? Shut up and play?”

After mentioning that he reacted to this on his Instagram account, Green mentioned that the days of telling athletes to “shut up and play” are gone, won’t be coming back, and won’t be tolerated. He also told Russo to “thank the good lord” that Green didn’t take his job, as he was offered a spot on the First Take desk before he decided to sign his deal with Turner.

To close, Green riffed about the landscape of media and how it’s changing, saying that people like Russo “will no longer be allowed to put out these false narratives” and “not know what you’re talking about and we’re going to listen to you,” before praising the work Redick does as someone who has been an athlete at the highest level and isn’t “afraid to shut an idiot up.”

“When I say ‘sincerely yours, the new media,’ you will be held accountable, and you will have to know what you’re talking about in order to speak on these sports,” Green said. “You will have to know what you’re talking about in order to speak on this game of basketball. You know why? Because we’re doing it now.”

Chet Hanks, son of Tom (which remains confusing), is famous for his “White Boy Summer” rants lately, along with his status as a label-signed rapper of sorts. He’s also coming off an incredibly strange (and unflattering, of course) appearance on Atlanta‘s third season (while affecting a Trinidadian accent), and apparently, Chet’s now promoting his private-training app. (Burpees with Chet Haze? No thank you.)

That’s the reason provided to Entertainment Tonight for why Chet appeared on Ziwe, where he could not possibly have done well in any relevant context when grilled by host and former Desus & Mero writer Ziwe Fumudoh. And in the below clip, the interview went as awkwardly as expected when Ziwe asked Chet (who’s notorious for his racial slurs) if he felt any need to “apologize to any marginalized communities.”

Spoiler Alert: He did not feel that need (“nah”).

“I don’t feel like I’ve truly done anything offensive, so I don’t.” Chet nodded when asked if he sees his actions as “a celebration of culture” and believes that “social justice warriors can kick rocks.” In response, he simply declared, “Yeah, yeah…. yeah!… No, I 100% agree. Social justice warriors can kick rocks.”

Ziwe airs at 11:00 pm EST on Sundays. The Chet episode should be a doozy.

In case you were wondering if David Cronenberg still has “it” (“it” being defined as “weird as hell body-horror movies”), the trailer for Crimes of the Future begins with Viggo Mortensen commenting on Léa Seydoux looking at his organs. Later, Kristen Stewart says that “surgery is the new sex,” Seydoux slices open a guy’s chest and licks the wound, and there’s also a dancer covered in stitches and ears on his forehead.

So, yeah, I think David Cronenberg still has “it”.

“It’s set in a world where people have evolved to a point where we don’t feel physical pain,” Stewart told Screen Daily about Crimes of the Future. “Sex has changed quite a bit, and the new art form is growing organs. Viggo is a famous performance artist. Léa Seydoux is his partner who tattoos these organs and displays them.” She added that her character becomes “enamored with Viggo’s artist,” which, yeah, makes sense.

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

As the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, the body undergoes new transformations and mutations. With his partner Caprice, Saul Tenser, celebrity performance artist, publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances. Timlin, an investigator from the National Organ Registry, obsessively tracks their movements, which is when a mysterious group is revealed… Their mission – to use Saul’s notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.

Crimes of the Future premieres at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival later this month and opens in June, hopefully in dozens of theaters near you.