Month: September 2022

People leave SNL all the time, but this year is a little different. At the end of Season 47 in May, four cast members left. Then three more joined them. Then one more. That brings the total to eight departing performers, with only four replacing them (so far). But longtime SNL honcho Lorne Michaels isn’t worried, and he even knows what to blame.

Talking to The New York Times, Michaels argued that the “turnover” is a natural result of having a once-in-a-lifetime public health crisis, which led to a lot of people sticking with jobs amidst an uncertain economic climate.

“The pandemic had put us in this position where no one could really leave because there were no jobs,” said Michaels. “And at the same time, if I don’t add new people every year, then the show isn’t the show. There have to be new people, for both our sake and also for the audience.”

Michaels even argued that there were not only too many cast members, but too many cast members who were focused on other things, who were itching to leave.

“We got to a point where we had a lot of people, and people weren’t getting enough playing time. The way the series has survived is by that level of renewal,” Michaels explained. “The price of success is that people go off and do other things; their primary obligation is to their talent and to keep pushing that. And there’s something so much better about the show when all that matters is the show. There’s a time to say goodbye, and there’s a natural time for it, but the natural time just got interfered with by the pandemic.”

Michaels called Season 48, which begins on Oct. 1, “a year of reinvention,” adding that “change is exhilarating.”

He also talked up the show’s 50th season, which some have speculated could be its last. Michaels dismissed that, and the idea of him retiring, saying only that Season 50 will be super-sized.

“The 50th will be a big event. We’ll bring everyone back from all 50 years and hosts and all of that. It will be a very emotional and very strong thing,” he said. “There won’t be as many plus-ones, I can tell you that much.”

(Via NYT)

Last month, the new honchos at the newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery did the unthinkable and unprecedented: They scrapped a mostly-complete big-budget comic book movie. Batgirl — and the sequel Scoob!: Holiday Haunt — were yanked from release, with execs reasoning it would be more cost-effective to scrap them for tax breaks rather than spend money advertising and releasing them. The move was shocking to fans, and to the many, many people who worked tirelessly to make them. That includes star Leslie Grace, who over the weekend dropped what may be some of the only footage anyone will ever see of the film’s production.

Grace took to TikTok, where she shared a brief montage of behind-the-scenes footage. “I couldn’t resist,” she wrote in the caption. The footage includes lots of her training her butt off, practicing fight moves for a movie people may never see. At one point she can be seen fighting off someone who’s choking her. At the end you can see her in her full Batgirl regalia, a big smile on her face, clearly thrilled to have nabbed such a role in such a high-profile production.

The song played over top of it is Omar Apollo’s “Evergreen (You Didn’t Deserve Me At All).”

The backlash against Warner Bros. Discovery’s bizarre move has been fierce, but they don’t appear to be losing any sleep over it. Meanwhile, they’re going all in on The Flash solo movie, despite everything its star, Ezra Miller, has done. But it’s clear some people aren’t ready to move on as though everything is fine.

(Via Deadline)

This November, Tems’ cover of Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” will appear on the soundtrack of Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. A portion of her cover appeared in a trailer for the movie, which was revealed in July, and an EP containing the song was released shortly after. This weekend, Tems performed the song live for the first time at Global Citizen Festival in Ghana.

Joined by a backing band, Tems is seen in a fan-shared clip singing the song with her vocals just about matching the quality of those on the studio recording. The crowd mirrors her energy, particularly as she gets to the bridge, singing along, as Tems repeats, “everything’s gonna be alright, everything’s gonna be alright.”

Tems has come a long way in the past five years. In an interview with GQ UK, she revealed that in 2017, the year before she released her debut single, “Mr. Rebel,” she was living alone and struggling financially.

“There were times when I was not just broke – I was broke and hopeless,” she said. “I used to steal food. I used to go to my aunty’s house just so she could give me food to take home,” she says. “I just felt like, What is the point of me existing right now? You have to remember those times. Because that person does not exist anymore.”

Over the course of the past year, she’s collaborated with some of the biggest names in music, including Drake, Future, and Beyoncé. Not to mention, she’s contributed to the soundtrack of one of the year’s most anticipated films.

Check out the performance of “No Woman, No Cry” above.

>Black Panther: Wakanda Forever arrives in theaters 11/11.

Following the success of his cereal, Snoop Loopz, Snoop Dogg has revealed a new line-up of products in his Broadus Foods collection. In a video shared to Instagram, Snoop revealed Momma Snoop Breakfast Foods, featuring instant grits, oatmeal, maple syrup, and pancake mix.

“There was a void for our culture when they took ‘Aunt Jemima’ off the shelves,” said Snoop in the post’s caption. “We’re replacing it with ‘Momma Snoop’ pancake mix, syrup, grits and oatmeal adding diversity into the grocery stores industry and creating opportunities for minority-owned food products and brands.”

Snoop founded Broadus Foods last year, to honor the legacy of his mother, Beverly Tate, who died last year. Snoop named fellow rapper and businessman Master P as the company’s CEO.

“Our mission is to build economic empowerment and generational wealth,” added Master P in the post. “The more we make, the more we give.”

With his breakfast line, Snoop says in the clip that his plans for the breakfast line include “making it real easy for you to get up in the morning, get you something to eat, start your day off right. Somethin’ healthy, somethin’ generational, somethin’ from me and P, to you and yours.”

Over the course of the past year, Snoop has dipped his toes into a variety of business ventures. Back in February, he acquired Death Row Records, and shared plans to turn it into an “NFT label.“

Ahead of his upcoming album, Survivor’s Remorse, G Herbo stopped by Ebro In The Morning this past Friday for a very raw, intimate conversation. During their interview, Herbo discussed how he’s dealt with depression. Specifically, he emphasized the importance of opening up to people who can empathize.

“You don’t even know the support that you have until you open up and say something,” Herbo said. “It don’t have to be your family; it don’t have to be your closest friends. There’s people out there who just care because they understand what you’re going through.”

Elsewhere during the interview, Herbo opened up about losing his brother, who was fatally shot last year. He admitted that he turned to alcohol to numb the pain.

“When I started drinking liquor I was not myself,” he said. “I didn’t even know how to handle it being off liquor, because I was doing it to grieve.”

Last night, Herbo joined Nicki Minaj during her headlining performance at Rolling Loud New York. The two first collaborated in 2014, on Minaj’s underground hit, “Chiraq.” The two performed “Chiraq” to an audience who shouted back every word.

Check out the full interview above.

Survivor’s Remorse is out 10/7 via Republic. Pre-save it here.

Kanye West made a surprise appearance at Rolling Loud New York this weekend. Last night, Ye joined Playboi Carti during his Rolling Loud set, and the two performed their collaboration, “Off The Grid” from Ye’s Donda album.

Carti and Ye have collaborated and performed together several times. Ye executive produced Carti’s most recent album, Whole Lotta Red, and Carti joined Ye earlier this year for a performance at his Donda 2 album release party.

This past April. Carti spoke with XXL, where he spoke about the creative process behind Whole Lotta Red, and shared how Ye has been a good mentor for him in his career. Carti spoke highly of Ye and credited him, as well as ASAP Rocky for helping elevate his career.

Words can’t describe…that’s my big brother. That’s my friend. I talk to Kanye every day. He’s different and I’m different. I see myself in him a lot and I’m pretty sure he feels the same. I don’t really have too many friends and that’s really one of my friends. I love him. I love ASAP Rocky. What them two guys did for me is… I love them and I appreciate everything.

Check out the performance above.

Arkansas and Texas A&M met on Saturday night in Dallas for their annual Cowboys Classic game in Jerry World, and this year’s edition featured two of the most bizarre plays that ended up determining the game’s outcome — both going in favor of the Aggies.

The first was a 97-yard fumble return touchdown from Texas A&M after Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson bizarrely chose to try diving over the line from the three, had the ball punched out, and then the Aggie defender (after seemingly getting stopped) flipped the ball to a teammate who ran it in for a score — which was followed by a botched extra point to leave Arkansas with a one-point lead.

From there, it was almost all Texas A&M for the next two quarters of play, as they took a 23-14 lead, but Arkansas clawed back to cut the deficit to two and got the ball back with six minutes to play needing just a field goal to take the lead. After driving deep into Aggie territory, a fumble set them behind the sticks and all they could do was set up an attempt at a go-ahead kick. Cam Little trotted out for the 42-yard attempt and proceeded to hit what looked like a pretty good kick that was drifting right and, ultimately, bounced off the very top lip of the upright and caromed back into the end zone.

The reverse end zone angle shows just how absurd the miss was, and how close Arkansas came to taking the lead.

With 1:30 to play the Aggies would’ve potentially had time to drive for their own winning score, but this ensured the result was an Arkansas loss as Texas A&M kneeled out the clock to preserve a narrow win. The Hogs will be kicking themselves for some missed opportunities in the game, but the wild fumble return and this kick will particularly stick out in the minds of Arkansas fans for a long time.

Post Malone has faced a series of mishaps while on his “Twelve Carat Tour.” A week ago, the “Cooped Up” singer injured his ribs after falling through a hole on stage during his St. Louis show. Still, Post managed to perform, while clutching his ribs, visibly in pain. Unfortunately, he is unable to perform at his Boston stop tonight, as he has been hospitalized.

Post took to his Instagram stories to share the news, saying, “I’m having a very difficult time breathing, and there’s like a stabbing pain whenever I breathe or move.”

He revealed to fans that he typically wakes up rather late during tours, and today, he woke up with cracking sounds on the right side of his body.

Post has not indicated whether his current injury is related to that which he sustained at the St. Louis show, however, he said the show will be rescheduled and that fans who purchased tickets for tonight’s show will be able to use them on the rescheduled date.

“Once again, I’m so f*cking sorry,” he continued. “I love y’all so much. I feel terrible, but I promise I’m going to make this up to you. I love you Boston, I’ll see you soon.”

Emmy Award-winning singer, rapper, and flutist Lizzo may soon be able to add another feat to her incredibly stacked resume. Next week, the ‘About Damn Time’ singer will bring her Special tour to the Capital One Arena in Washington DC. Ahead of the show, she received a special invitation from the Library Of Congress to check out their incredible flute collection.

“The @librarycongress has the largest flute collection in the world with more than 1,800,” said Carla Hayden, the Librarian Of Congress, in a tweet. “It incl Pres James Madison’s 1813 crystal flute. @lizzo we would love for you to come see it and even play a couple when you are in DC next week. Like your song they are ‘Good as hell.’”

Lizzo replied to the tweet, saying, “IM COMING CARLA! AND IM PLAYIN THAT CRYSTAL FLUTE!!!!!”

Lizzo has been playing the flute since she was 12 years old. On an episode of The Late Late Show With James Corden, Lizzo showed off some of her flute skills in the show’s “Carpool Karaoke” segment, and also revealed that she named her personal flute ‘Sasha Floot,’ in honor of Beyoncé’s alter-ego, Sasha Fierce.

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

Over the past couple years, Kid Cudi has allowed fans to get a closer look at his life. Last year, he released a documentary called A Man Named Scott on Amazon Prime Video, which gave fans a look at his career from the release of his breakthrough single, “Day ‘N’ Nite,” to the present day. Earlier this month, he revealed that he has begun work on his memoir. Now, ahead of his upcoming 10th album, Entergalactic, Cudi revealed that he is learning how to skate again, and is taking lessons from a skating legend.

“Tony Hawk is gonna teach me to skate again,” Cudi said in a tweet. “Its gonna take awhile to find my footing but im f*ckin ready. Im documenting the whole thing. Come take the journey w me. First lesson today. Here we go b*tch.”

Though he did not reveal whether he’ll share the documented footage in the form of a full-length documentary or a series of videos, Cudi promises to keep his fans fed.

Cudi’s Entergalactic will arrive next Friday, and its accompanying Netflix special will be available to stream on the same day. In an interview with Rolling Stone, he shared his hopes for the project’s impact.

“I hope it just sprinkles a little love in their life. I hope it makes people feel really good,” Cudi said. “I hope people listen to it with their lover, or crushes or whoever and just vibe and connect with it and just go.”

Entergalactic is out 9/30 via Republic and will stream on Netflix the same day. Pre-save the album here.