Month: July 2022

We’re a mere two-and-a-half years from the next presidential election, and already there’s talk about who could be America’s 47th commander-in-chief. Could it be the 45th president, despite him being accused of choking a Secret Service agent? (That is unless he’s too weak or too fat to have done so.) Or could it be the guy who spearheaded a homophobic bill and likes to bully students? It’s still too early to tell — way, way, way too early. But already some of Donald Trump’s biggest admirers are warning his closest competition to step off.

As per The Daily Beast, Newsmax host Greg Kelly had a warning for Ron DeSantis, who has gone from Trump clone to Trump adversary, even Hoovering up some of his fleeing donors. Kelly started by praising him. “He is amazing, so talented, so smart, unlimited political future. I want him to be president someday,” he said. “I think that’s almost guaranteed to happen, but I’d rather not see him run in 2024.”

As a graphic appeared on screen reading “Not Yet, Ron,” Kelly continued. “Let’s face it, though, he’s borrowing heavily from Donald Trump style and agenda and policies, and that’s fine,” he said. “That’s totally fine, but I’m hearing from more and more Republicans. ‘Well, you know, Donald Trump has all that baggage, and it’s time for a fresh face.’ Don’t fall for that argument!”

Kelly then dug deeper into his argument. “Let’s see, he’s forty-three now, on Election Day in November of 2024, he would be forty-five years old. Now, here’s the thing. That makes him, what, three decades younger then-President Trump,” he said. “I’m not saying that’s a good thing, I’m saying he’s got plenty of time ahead of him to make his move, but not now, and there are some things he needs to clean up.”

He concluded by offering a compromise: Why don’t they run on “the same ticket”?

Of course, the hearings for the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot are still not over, and they could very well end with Trump being legally blocked from seeking the highest office in the land. Meanwhile, all DeSantis has done is muck up his state’s response to the pandemic.

(Via The Daily Beast)

There have been quite simply way too many books published about Donald Trump, which may seem odd given that he has a very limited vocabulary. Most of them have been critical tell-alls, teeming with damning (or at least unflattering) intel. Others have at leat attempted to be fawning, but still made him look bad. One of the latter was Here’s the Deal, from his longtime counsel Kellyanne Conway, a tome that was supposed to come with a big plug from the big guy himself…at least until he read what was in it.

The Daily Beast published a piece about how Conway worked her way back into Trump’s graces — while perhaps not coincidentally ramping up attacks on her own husband. How did she get into his bad graces? Partly by claiming in her book that she told him he lost the 2020 election. When the book was released, Trump took to his rinky dink Twitter clone to deny that allegation.

“Kellyanne Conway never told me that she thought we lost the election,” he wrote. “If she had I wouldn’t have dealt with her any longer – she would have been wrong – could go back to her crazy husband.” (She responded by calling him a “girlboss,” which she meant as a confusing compliment.)

And that’s the reason why Trump wasn’t out there demanding his followers buy up her book. And that may also be why Conway’s book, like others written by former Trump staffers, have bombed. But at least these two crazy kids are back in each other’s favor.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Last November, Adele ended her five-year drought without an album thanks to the release of 30. The project was one of 2022’s most successful releases as it was both the last No. 1 album of 2021 and the first of 2022 thanks to six non-consecutive weeks atop the albums chart. That wasn’t the only five-year drought Adele had ongoing. Prior to Friday, it’d also been five years since Adele held a live and public show, but thankfully that came to an end last night through her performance at BST Hyde Park.

Adele put on a show for the crowd of 65,000 people at BST Hyde Park. During her performance, which clocked in at about two hours, she said it was “so strange to be in front of a crowd again.” Elsewhere in her set, fans enjoyed performances of newer records, like her 2021 chart-topping record “Easy On Me,” as well as classics like “Someone Like You.” It was during the latter performance that Adele was brought to tears as the crowd of 65,000 people showed off their singing skills by belting out the lyrics to “Someone Like You.”

A fan captured the moment and it was clear that Adele was moved by her fans’ support as she tried her best to fight back the tears. Afterward, Adele sang the chorus for “Someone Like You” one last time and concluded the song’s performance by simply saying, “Wow.”

You can watch Adele’s emotional moment in the video above.

James Cameron takes big chances. Thing is, The Abyss aside, his bets usually pay off, big time. The entire entertainment industry was sure Titanic would be a box office disaster, and look where that got them. The same thing happened with 2009’s Avatar, which, after a brief usurping, is still the highest grossing movie ever. It’s happening again with his threatened four Avatar sequels, which will almost certainly make all the money. In the meantime, the first incredibly expensive, incredibly belated sequel sure sounds eccentric, especially given this news: As per Empire, Cameron is not only bringing back Sigourney Weaver, and she’s not only playing a new character. No, she’s playing a teenager.

In the first Avatar, Weaver played one of the sympathetic humans: Dr. Grace Augustine, who died before the climactic spectacular. When it was announced the actress, who earned an Oscar nomination for Cameron’s Aliens back in 1986, was returning, people wondered how that would work. But Cameron, as ever, thought outside the box. Now she’ll be playing Kiri, who’s not only a teenage Na’vi but also the adopted daughter of Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana’s Jake and Neytiri.

This might be a first — a septuagenarian playing a teen, albeit via motion-capture. But she relished it. “I think we all pretty much remember what we were feeling as adolescents,” Weaver told Empire. “I certainly do. I was 5’ 10” or 5’ 11” when I was 11. I felt strongly that Kiri would feel awkward a lot of the time. She’s searching for who she is. I was thrilled to be given that challenge by Jim.”

Avatar: The Way of Water, whose principal photography was finished a year-and-a-half ago, is currently due in theaters on December 16 of this year.

(Via Empire)

In the last few months, Drake has made it clear that he has no issue wagering big money on sports or at the roulette table. It’s not too surprising as he’s one of the music’s most popular artists, thus giving him a comfortable cash supply to pull from for his big bets. It was just last month that Jack Harlow revealed that he lost a lot of money trying to keep up with Drake’s betting ways at the Kentucky Derby. In his latest move, Drake revealed that he bet $1 million in favor of Israel Adesanya to win UFC 276 on Saturday.

Drake shared the news about the bet through a recording of a FaceTime call between him and Adesanya. In the video, he says that he put a “light million” in favor of Adesanya and noted that he has a “deep deep respect” for the fighter. Drake also requested to walk Adesanya out for the Saturday night fight and the fighter complied. “One of the most inspiring guys to me,” Drake wrote in the caption of the Instagram post. “The death note author himself and my partner with @stake @stylebender BIG FIGHT TMRW…got a million on it [shrugging emoji].”

In just the past few months we’ve seen Drake place a $1 million bet for the Los Angeles Rams to win the Super Bowl and a $200,000 bet for the Golden State Warriors to win the Western Conference Finals, both of whichwere successful

You can watch the FaceTime call, which ends with an Honestly, Nevermind reference, in the video above.

After years of difficulty with record labels, Raye is a newly independent artist, and is finally gearing up to release her long-anticipated debut album. Kicking off her new era, she has released the raw, powerful new anthem, “Hard Out Here.”

On “Hard Out Here,” Raye takes aim at her old label, as well as norms established by the heteropatriarchy.

“What you know about systems / About drugged drinks / F*cking nearly dying from addictions,” she rap-sings over a haunting, thumbing, percussion-driven beat.

“I was very angry and in a lot of pain when the bones of ‘Hard Out Here’ were solidified,” said Raye in a statement. “I wrote this song because I needed this song. ‘Hard Out Here’ is about the bounce back, a rant reflecting on the last eight years of my career, and me preparing to take control of my narrative, my art, and my life truly for the first time.”

Raye also revealed that she had come up with the concept for “Hard Out Here” when she was 19 years old, however, Polydor, the label she signed with in 2014, wouldn’t allow her to release the song.

In the song’s accompanying music video, directed by Mikey Robbins, Raye dons several wigs and various lingerie outfits. In different scenes of the video, she performs for a group of people in suits, seemingly symbolic of record label representatives.

Over the years, Raye has penned tracks for the likes of Charli XCX, Beyoncé, John Legend, Rita Ora, and more. She has also contributed vocals to EDM tracks from David Guetta, Disclosure, and Louis The Child. Now, as an independent artist, she is finally able to let the world hear her on her own terms.

Check out “Hard Out Here” above.

Legendary producer Scott Storch stopped by Drink Champs this week, and during his visit he revealed that one of 50 Cent’s biggest hits was almost a different song for a different artist. When Storch created the instrumental for 50’s “Candy Shop,” he originally had Fat Joe in mind.

“The main part of the song, obviously, it’s my language, keyboards, it’s my drums,” said Storch. “[Fat Joe] was an inspiration to me during making it and he suggested to do the [intro].”

Joe didn’t actually help with creating the instrumental for “Candy Shop,” however, he came up with the lines for the song’s intro, and is thus, credited as a writer on the song.

“Is he a writer on the record? Yeah, technically,” Storch said. “I’m not taking credit away from him I love collaborating with people, but in this particular instance, we were in the room, But I was making that for him, I wasn’t making it for 50 Cent.”

Last year, during a Verzuz with Ja Rule, Joe claimed he produced “Candy Shop.” Storch was watching the live stream, and commented, “OK, I actually did the ‘Candy Shop.’ Joe helped me with the intro.”

It is worth noting that Storch has also produced several tracks for Joe, including his 2004 hit, “Lean Back,” with Terror Squad.

On the heels of her newest single, “Hot Sh*t,” Cardi B stopped by Hot 97 to talk about her upcoming sophomore album. While she did not reveal a title or release date for the album, she did share that she had ideas for some collaborations on the album. As for one of the collaborations, Cardi noted that she wants to collaborate with fellow New York City native Lil Kim on her record.

“I even hit her up, I want Lil Kim on my album,” she said. “I do have a song that I think, ‘Aight she’s good for it,’ but then I’m also debating on another song. Because I kinda want her on this one, too. What I really wanted to do was like an ‘Aunt Dot’ with her. … But then I’m kinda debating, is that gonna be a little bit outdated? How’s it gonna be? … I just want the song I do with her, I want it to be like a super, like, great comeback. I just don’t want to put her on my album on a song and it’s like, ‘Cool, yeah, she had a Lil’ Kim feature.’ I want this to be like her insane…her moment.”

Earlier today, Cardi took to Twitter to answer questions from fans. During her impromptu Q&A, she said she would also like to collaborate with Latto. She also expressed a desire to make an all-Spanish album, as well as a collaborative mixtape with her husband, Offset.

Check out the full Hot 97 interview above.

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

Since it first began in 2019, Day N Vegas had been establishing itself as one of the marquee hip-hop and R&B music festivals in the country — one that can stand up to the growing influence of the many Rolling Loud properties around the world. The 2022 edition of Day N Vegas was slated to be the first major US festival performance for Travis Scott following last year’s Astroworld tragedy. But now, it’ll all have to wait, as Day N Vegas 2022 has been cancelled.

Previously scheduled to go down from September 2nd – 4th at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds with headliners J. Cole, SZA and Scott, festival organizers announced today that due to, “A combination of logistics, timing and production issues,” they are forced to cancel the festival. The full statement from Day N Vegas reads as follows:

We’re sorry to announce that a combination of logistics, timing and production issues have forced us to cancel Day N Vegas for 2022. The refund process will begin immediately, and funds will appear back to your account within the next 2-4 weeks. All orders will be refunded to the credit card used to complete purchase. If you purchased a festival pass(es) via AXS and have questions about the refund process, please contact AXS via support.axs.com. For Fuse Hotel Package support, please visit daynvegas2022.com for more info.

Also scheduled to perform, were acts like 21 Savage, Baby Keem, H.E.R., Jhene Aiko, Jorja Smith, Joji, Playboi Carti, Summer Walker, Pusha T, and more.

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

The Golden State Warriors lost a few contributors to their championship run when free agency opened up, as Gary Payton II and Otto Porter Jr. went to the Portland Trail Blazers and Toronto Raptors, respectfully. Additionally, Nemanja Bjelica decided he wanted to return to Europe after getting a ring.

While the team did bring Kevon Looney back, there are still minutes to be had among their bench players, and on Friday evening, Golden State went out and got someone. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Warriors came to terms with Sacramento Kings guard Donte DiVincenzo, who will pack up and head elsewhere in the state of California on a 2-year deal worth $9.3 million.

Jake Fischer of Bleacher Reports brings word that the contract includes a player option in the second year.

DiVincenzo started once across 42 appearances with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Kings last season. The former Final Four Most Outstanding Player averaged nine points, four rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.1 steals in 24 minutes per game. While he struggled to hit threes in Milwaukee, he connected on 36.8 percent of his triples in Sacramento after he joined the team prior to the trade deadline in a deal that landed the Bucks Serge Ibaka.