Month: June 2022

Fiona Apple rarely comes out of hiding. Usually, it’s only for occasional new music, like Fetch The Bolt Cutters, her first album in eight years, which arrived during the pandemic, or to discuss social issues, which she has always been passionate about, whether that be through words or through action.

She recently returned to talk about the overturning of Roe v. Wade, joining tons of other musicians in using their platform to effect change. She did so via a video on the Fiona Apple Rocks Youtube channel, saying: “I’m just one of a lot of women who need to keep on expressing that we do not f*cking accept this.”

She added: “We have to talk about how we feel about this, how unacceptable this is. We have to keep on expressing ourselves, because this is all about control. You know that. It’s all about control. It’s not about life. It’s about control. It’s about control of women, about control of our bodies, about taking our control of our own bodies away, about taking our autonomy and our privacy and our agency away, taking our choices about what we can do with our lives away.” At the end of the video, she advocated for giving money to abortion funds and bail funds.

Watch the video above.

Last month, legendary group Depeche Mode announced that their keyboardist Andy “Fletch” Fletcher had passed away at the age of 60. “Fletch had a true heart of gold and was always there when you needed support, a lively conversation, a good laugh, or a cold pint,” they wrote in a statement at the time.

Today, the “Enjoy The Silence” band has revealed more about his death, including the cause, which was an aortic dissection that occurred while he was at home on May 26. Read the full statement below.

We wanted to take a moment and acknowledge the outpouring of love for Andy that we’ve seen from all of you over the last few weeks. It’s incredible to see all of your photos, to read your words, and to see how much Andy meant to all of you. As you can imagine, it’s been a strange, sad, disorienting few weeks for us here, to say the least. But we’ve seen and felt all of your love and support, and we know that Andy’s family has too.

A couple weeks ago we received the result from the medical examiners, which Andy’s family asked us to share with you now. Andy suffered an aortic dissection while at home on May 26. So, even though it was far, far too soon, he passed naturally and without prolonged suffering.

We had a celebration of Andy’s life in London last week, which was a beautiful ceremony and gathering with a few tears, but filled with the great memories of who Andy was, stories of all of our times together, and some good laughs. Andy was celebrated in a room full of many of his friends and family, our immediate DM family, and so many people who have touched Andy’s and our lives throughout the years. All being together was a very special way to remember Andy and see him off.

So thank you for all of the love you’ve shown Andy and his family and friends over the last few weeks. It honestly means the world to all of us. Andy, you’ll be missed, but certainly not forgotten.

Love, Martin & Dave

John Wall picked up his $47 million player option this week, but the expectation has been that Houston, now armed with a roster full of young talent, would be looking to move on from the veteran.

Trading Wall’s salary is nearly impossible, unless they want to bring back Russell Westbrook, and as such the most likely scenario seemed to be a buyout that would allow all parties to move on. The question was how much would the Rockets be willing to eat and how much would Wall be willing to give up, but it appears the two sides have reached an agreement amenable to everyone, as reported by Yahoo’s Chris Haynes.

Per Haynes and ESPN’s Tim McMahon, Wall will give back $6.5 million of his contract to leave Houston, but he’s now free to find a new home and return to the NBA basketball court for the first time in over a calendar year. The frontrunners for his services, per Marc Stein, are the Los Angeles Clippers, who will make a push for the former All-Star to join them — and the taxpayer mid-level exception just so happens to be the exact amount Wall gave back.

I wrote Sunday about the strongest indications in months that John Wall could soon successfully negotiate a buyout with Houston, with the Rockets’ monthslong efforts to find a workable trade exit for the former All-Star guard repeatedly stalling. League sources reiterated Monday that the Clippers would be making a strong pitch to Wall once he makes it to the open market, with their chances of signing him said to be enhanced by the presence of coach Tyronn Lue.

Given the Clippers cap situation, unless they decide to pursue a Kyrie Irving trade — which they can now that he’s picked up his option — Wall makes sense for a backup to Reggie Jackson as they look to load up on more veteran help for what they hope will be a deep playoff run next year. It would allow Wall a chance to prove himself again coming off a year off for tanking reasons and could revitalize his career. Other contenders could emerge as suitors, but for now it appears Wall is going to be headed off to L.A. once free agency opens — something Woj confirmed shortly after the buyout became public.

The moviegoing experience was one of the leisure activities put on hold at the height of the pandemic, and even when new movies came back to theaters, it wasn’t the same as before. In a different time, for instance, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet would have set the box office on fire. It did not. Even now, only a handful of movies have been bona fide blockbusters. One of them is Top Gun: Maverick, which last weekend not only got into a photo finish with Elvis but also became Tom Cruise’s first movie to cross the billion dollar line. And to celebrate, Cruise — who filmed himself watching Tenet when theaters starting opening back up — penned a nice thank you note to the industry and to audiences who’ve mostly returned to theaters.

“To all the films in release, to all the studios, and to all the exhibitors: congratulations. To the audience: thank you for venturing out and allowing us to entertain you,” Cruise wrote. “See you at the movies.”

Of the 1,006,936,963 the belated sequel has made worldwide, over half of that is in the United States. And to think Cruise had to fight to keep the movie off streaming, as so many other would-be blockbusters did when audiences were stuck at home. Cruise was extremely proud of the film even before anyone saw it. It actually played the Cannes Film Festival and Cruise showed up at the premiere in a helicopter he piloted himself. And to think he’s turning 60 in just a few days from this writing.

Drake recently dropped his new album Honestly, Nevermind as a total surprise, giving fans little time to prepare for the 14 new songs. He didn’t expect everyone to understand and enjoy it immediately; after it was released, he said in an Instagram video, “It’s all good if you don’t get it yet. It’s all good.”

But it seems like most people did get it because 13 of the songs climbed their way onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart, which extended his record for most career entries to an unprecedented amount of 263. Honestly, Nevermind is the rapper’s 11th record to reach No. 1 on the charts, making him tied for third with Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand after The Beatles who have 19 and Jay-Z who has 14. Not too bad, especially for an album with no press cycle.

He’s not done reveling in the success of the album, though. On the premiere episode of Table For One, his new radio show on SiriusXM, he discussed his forthcoming plans and projects surrounding the LP: “Me and Kenzo have a book coming out this year. Yeah, we have a book coming out this year, a poetry book. So I hope you guys tune into that, too, because that’s going to be some sh*t.”

Last week, Donald Trump’s inner circle had a big freak-out over some news: Apparently the former president had invited a documentary crew to film during the 2020 election. Upon learning about the series, called Unprecedented, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot immediately requested to see it. Discovery+ picked it up, and will air it later this summer. There has already been some damning revelations about Ivanka Trump, who confessed to House investigators that she agreed her dad didn’t win reelection.

There’s also some not great stuff about another Trump kid. In an interview with The Independent, Unprecedented director Alex Holder said Eric Trump wasn’t as horrified by the possibility of violence erupting after the election was called for Joe Biden — and as he and many in the Trump clan were spreading lies about voter fraud.

“When I asked Eric about the potential danger of sort of rhetoric and the sort of the belligerence, he felt that it was … fair game in that it … was sort of the equivalent on the other side of the political discourse, or he felt that it was the right thing to do … because the election was stolen,” Holder said.

No doubt there’s more in Unprecedented, which is broken into three parts and features surely shocking interviews with most if not all of the major players in Trump’s disastrous final two months in office.

(Via The Independent)

Kyrie Irving is headed back to Brooklyn, at least for now, as the star guard was given permission to seek out a sign-and-trade opportunity but found very few takers outside of L.A. As such, Irving picked up his player option worth $36.5 million, which means he’s going to be playing out his final year with the Nets and then hitting free agency next summer — or, he’ll be traded anytime between now and the deadline.

Because this is Kyrie Irving, he had to issue a deep statement about how he was picking up his player option rather than declining it and taking the taxpayer mid-level in L.A. that’s worth just over $6 million.

Irving saying he’s the type to “dare to be different” certainly is backed up by his history, but it’s also objectively funny to say not turning down $30 million is somehow the rebellious approach here as opposed to what literally everyone else would do in this situation if presented with the same number of options as Irving — which are, by all accounts, his player option, the TPMLE in L.A., or a short-term extension for not-max money in Brooklyn. Naturally, Irving’s effort at being deep about all of this led to NBA Twitter turning his quote into a rather hilarious meme for the night.

There sure are a lot of famous Chrises in Hollywood these days. Well, actually there’s really just four: Chris Evans, Chris Pine, Chris Hemworth, and Chris Pratt. That’s enough that, a couple years ago, a debate was held on Twitter about who was the best and who was the worst. The latter went to Pratt, partly because of his association with a church accused of being anti-LGBTQIA+. Pratt’s wife didn’t agree, but Pratt himself seemed okay with it. Well, guess what? Chris Pratt doesn’t even go by Chris anyway.

In a recent interview with SiriusXM’s Pop Culture Spotlight With Jessica Shaw (as caught by Entertainment Weekly), Pratt revealed that he’s not even a Chris. “What do they call you?” Shaw asked. “Pratt?”

“Yep. Pratt. CP. You know, CP. ‘Hey, CP.’” Pratt/CP replied. “But no one calls me Chris. My friend, Chad. I went golfing with my friend, Chad, my pastor the other day and he was like, ‘No one calls you Chris? I’m gonna call you Chris. Alright, Chris. You’re up.’ And I was like, ‘No, it feels weird. It’s not my name. Don’t call me Chris.’”

So now the “Best Chris” debate needs a new worst Chris. (Although it’s worth noting his birth name really is Christopher.) But just because Pratt’s not a Chris doesn’t mean he can’t still do Super Bowl bets with someone who’s still a Chris, and a pretty good one at that.

(Via EW)

Toronto rapper and producer Nav is back with the announcement of his first big release since 2020’s Emergency Tsunami: he’s unveiling a new album called Demons Protected By Angels. It has no official release date yet, though he has been mentioning July 29 on social media, which could be the release date of the record or of a single.

Nav is known for frequent collaborations. Emergency Tsunami watched him work with the producer Wheezy. He’s also done tracks with Lil Baby for “Don’t Need Friends,” Belly for “Requiem,” Young Thug for “No Debate,” and more. It’s likely that Demons Protected By Angels will be full of more chart-topping collaborations with an eclectic range of guests.

In 2020, he also shared “Turks,” a song with Travis Scott and Gunna, released during the week that he was celebrating the one-year anniversary of Bad Habits, his sophomore album that served as his first Billboard 200 chart-topper. It was his fourth collaboration with Travis Scott, following Nav’s “Champion” and Travis’ “Biebs In The Trap” and “Yosemite,” which also featured Gunna. Gunna’s album DS4EVER debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200, and featured a plethora of other guests including Landstrip Chip, Mobile, Yung Bleu, Beam, Rockford, and Fresco.

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

Kyrie Irving had one of the most bizarre individual seasons by an NBA player in recent memory. The 7-time All-Star guard sat out the start of the season after refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine to meet New York City’s mandate, then was allowed to be a part-time player, appearing in only road games until the city’s mandate was lifted in the final month of the season.

Irving had some tremendous highs, but also was inconsistent in his impact, particularly in the playoffs, which probably should’ve been expected from a player who appeared so infrequently — just 29 games in the regular season. The frustrations with Irving’s status was a factor in James Harden forcing his way out of Brooklyn almost as quickly as he had forced his way in from Houston, and the relationship between star and team is not exactly in a good position.

So, when it came time for Irving to make a decision on his $36.5 million player option, there was plenty of interest league-wide. Irving entering free agency would create a fascinating market (and potentially upset Kevin Durant and his future in Brooklyn) and there have been rumblings the Nets aren’t keen on giving him a max deal. Things got to the point that the expectation became Irving would leave, the team reportedly gave him permission to pursue a sign-and-trade, and at one point, we learned that the franchise would have preferred losing him and Durant as opposed to going through the circus we saw last year.

Ultimately, Irving decided to pick up his option, but in a twist, he told Shams Charania of The Athletic that he will stay in Brooklyn and see out the last year of his deal.

Now, all eyes turn to whether or not he can hammer out an extension with the team, or if the two sides even want to pursue one, anyway.