Month: October 2022

On January 6, 2021, an estimated 2,000 rioters stormed the Capitol — less than half of whom have been identified and/or charged. If the FBI is looking for an easy way to identify the remaining insurrectionists, Trevor Noah has an idea: create a dating profile on The Right Stuff.

Over the weekend, the Peter Thiel-backed dating app for conservatives launched, and has since become the butt of many (many, many) jokes. On Monday, The Daily Show host joined in when he took a moment to talk about dating apps, or what he describes as “the quickest and most convenient way to meet a few dozen psychopaths.”

The Right Stuff, however, is different: It was founded by Daniel Huff and John McEntee, a pair of former Trump staffers who claim that being associated with the 45th president has been reason enough for more than one woman to get up and leave in the middle of a date. While Noah isn’t sure he’s buying that, he’s happy to hear that The Right Stuff will change all that for these narrow-minded singles. Because “once people started signing up, it was immediately clear that this isn’t like other dating apps,” Noah said. As he explained:

[T]here are prompts for things like Favorite Bible Verse. Well, that’s fine. Favorite Conservative Pundit — huh. And: January 6th Was… blank? Yeah, so good luck out there all you conservatives hoping to match with that special FBI agent monitoring the site.

You can watch the full clip above, including the promo for The Daily Show‘s new app — Hate F**k.

ESPN is heading into its 21st season as a broadcast partner of the NBA and will be making a number of updates and changes to its presentation of NBA games and studio shows for the 2022-23 season.

While the voices on games will be the same — the biggest news from Tuesday’s media call was Hubie Brown being back on a one-year deal to do “abut 15 games” and confirmation of JJ Redick being a more regular game analyst this season — there will be a number of ways things will look and sound different when watching games on ESPN. Among the biggest is a new NBA on ESPN theme for the first time in more than a decade, as they looked to make a more contemporary sound.

It is a perfectly fine theme, nothing particularly exciting, but it’ll surely get some reaction, good and bad, simply by being new. That will be heard prior to games, ahead of NBA Countdown, and in promo packages, while NBA Today might get its own theme in the near future.

As for visuals, there is a wholly new graphics package for games and promos this season, with an emphasis on team colors and logos (note: the music is not part of the NBA on ESPN changes, but just some commercial music they used to provide some backing for the new look).

In games, the biggest change being a scorebug that will no longer take up the entire bottom of the screen, instead going for a condensed look to provide more court space. Along with the condensed size, fans will also be pleased to learn that the color swatches for each team will change based on what uniform set that team is wearing so they always match, ensuring there’s no longer any confusion when a team wearing white might have a green scorebox.

They also have new player graphics to provide in-game updates and stats that share a similar look to the scorebug.

The full screen graphics will also be more colorful and feature player images more heavily.

Overall, it’s a solid update, particularly with the scorebug. Showing more of the court is always good and still getting information to viewers without as much clutter is a welcome change. All of these changes will go into effect for the ESPN’s first preseason broadcast on Thursday night.

Last week, George R.R. Martin announced that a new companion book, Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty, Volume One, would be released this month for anyone who wants to go even deeper into the Targaryen dynasty and their complex world of dragons. While this isn’t surprising considering the fact that Martin is busy doing everything besides actually finishing Winds of Winter, fans are upset with the book’s co-authors, Linda Antonsson and Elio M. García Jr.

In response to Martin’s tweet linking the book, many fans piled on with various examples of “racist” statements from Antonsson over the years. The two authors have been working with Martin since 1999 when they began an online lexicon of A Song Of Ice And Fire knowledge before Game of Thrones even existed on HBO. She and her husband García have been working as fact-checkers for Martin for over two decades.

Antonsson has a history of criticizing diverse casting choices in the series, which has angered fans who refuse to support her writing or works. Most recently, she was angered when House of the Dragon cast Steve Toussaint as Corlys. “There are no Black Valyrians and there should not be any in the show,” Antonsson blogged at the time. Obviously, this was not well-received!

In a statement to Variety, Antonsson said that it bothers her to be “labeled a racist, when my focus has been solely on the world building,” and that “diversity should not trump story” when it comes to the show’s casting. Antonsson also confirmed that Martin is “aware” of the backlash, though he has not made a public comment. According to the author, Martin “doesn’t see the point in engaging with people” on social media, and “he has not suggested we should stop sharing our opinions.”

Martin is no stranger to controversy and backlash, though he has consciously made the effort to avoid the “f*cking toxic internet” altogether after Game of Thrones ended. Instead, he will spend the next three decades working on Winds Of Winter, maybe.

(Via Variety)

It took Rolling Loud just two years after its 2015 inception for the festival to stretch its arms outside of its original location of Miami, Florida. The massive hip-hop festival, which debuted to critical acclaim, allowed rap fans from all over to come to one location and see a playlist worth of their favorite artists perform over the course of three days. Yes, a bit of running from stage to stage is needed, but many would say it’s all worth it in the name of knocking a few must-see artists off of the bucket list. In 2017, Rolling Loud added cities in California as festival locations, and two years later, Sydney, Australia, and New York City joined the aforementioned spots as locations to house Rolling Loud.

As of 2022, Rolling Loud has or will make stops in Miami, Inglewood, New York City, Toronto, The Netherlands, and Portugal. In the midst of this expansion, Rolling Loud hasn’t had the smoothest string of moments – especially over the last year. After letting off homophobic comments at last year’s Miami festival, DaBaby’s return in Los Angeles was far from welcomed. Kid Cudi cut his performance short in Miami this year after fans threw objects at him as he performed. Additionally, a gun was reportedly fired at the Toronto showcase in July. Bumps in the road are to be expected, but so are smooth stretches, and it’s the latter that Rolling Loud New York 2022 was aiming for.

This year’s New York festival was headlined by Nicki Minaj, ASAP Rocky, and Future. It also featured performances from big names like Lil Baby, 21 Savage, Moneybagg Yo, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Lil Uzi Vert, and Pusha T as well as newer acts hoping to expand their audiences like Armani White, Kali, Jeleel!, GloRilla, TiaCorine, Lakeyah, and Symba. Rolling Loud New York’s goal to have a smooth and mostly uninterrupted festival was quickly nixed as the NYPD reportedly forced them to remove three acts – 22Gz, Ron Suno, and Sha Ek – from the showcase prior to its start due to concerns that their appearances could increase the chance of violence at Rolling Loud. The NYPD pulled a similar move in 2019 with 22Gz, who later performed in 2021, as well as the late Pop Smoke.

If the NYPD was involved, the removal of 22Gz, Ron Suno, and Sha Ek isn’t something that Rolling Loud is truly at fault for. With the additional unfortunate events that occurred at this year’s New York show, there wasn’t too much that organizers could be blamed for. A big pain point for this year’s festival was the absence and tardiness of scheduled performers. Headliners Nicki Minaj and ASAP Rocky were late for their respective sets by well over a half hour, and as a result, they both had their sets cut short due to New York’s late-night curfew for shows. Minaj concluded with an acapella performance of “Moment 4 Life,” while Rocky expressed his frustrations for his performance being cut before apologizing for his underwhelming closing to day two. Future was about 20 minutes late to his headlining performance, which was cut short after a few songs and an appearance from Offset thanks to a brutal rainstorm that sparked a “code red” from Rolling Loud and a request for attendees to immediately exit the premises.

These pains didn’t stop with the headliners, they also trickled down to other performers over the weekend. Playboi Carti was also late to his performance while 21 Savage’s own was canceled for unknown reasons. The rapper was certainly frustrated by whatever went down behind the scenes as he tweeted on day three, “Rolling Loud will never get a show out of me ever again.” To round things out, Ski Mask The Slump God and Big Sean were also no shows at this year’s New York festival. Frustrations about all the absences and long waits were aired out on social media, leaving the organizers to reportedly respond to them onstage. “Don’t be mad at us! Be mad at the artists being late,” Rolling Loud organizers told fans according to one attendee. There’s certainly some truth to that, to say the least.

Despite all of this, Rolling Loud 2022 New York had just enough to make the bad feel not so bad. Starting with the headliners, Nicki Minaj’s guests that included Fivio Foreign, Bia, G Herbo, and Lil Uzi Vert made for an enjoyable set despite its brevity. ASAP Rocky performed very promising songs from his next album and Future seemed ready to knock his set out of the park to close the weekend. Elsewhere, Lil Tjay made a triumphant return on day one as he was all smiles during his first performance since was shot seven times back in June. Toosii was a joy to watch as he stepped off the stage to join the crowd on several occasions for his performance. Lil Uzi Vert turned things into a party as expected and Lil Baby was commanding as always through his set. Pusha T, a known critic of tardiness, was extremely punctual for his performance, coming out on stage right at his 8:20 pm start time to kick off what was an assertive, confident, and overall excellent performance. Saint Jhn, Don Toliver, Jeleel!, and Lancey Foux also join the list of performers who shined.

To the average music fan who attended Rolling Loud’s 2022 New York Festival – that is someone who wasn’t there for one or two specific artists – you most likely left just short of satisfied. Things certainly could have been worse just as much as they could have been better. In more ways than one, both literally and figuratively, Rolling Loud’s 2022 New York Festival had its parade rained on. However, if you were willing to venture out and explore, there was some fun to be had in the rain. Strong options between activations and food trucks made for decent opportunities to boost your morale while a massive section for artist merchandise made it almost guaranteed that you could leave the premises with something to remember the weekend by. In short, Rolling Loud tried their best to put on a great festival, but the powers that be proved to have a stronger arm in the matter. Maybe changes are in order for the festival, maybe not, but one thing is for sure: artists could help in making the weekend go better. It’s something to keep in mind as Rolling Loud gears up to shift its attention to Inglewood next spring.

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

Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington died by suicide on July 20, 2017 — days before the band was scheduled to begin the North American leg of their One More Light World Tour with Machine Gun Kelly. Linkin Park understandably canceled that tour. Five-plus years later, MGK is headlining his own arena tour in support of Mainstream Sellout, his March 2022 sixth studio album.

On Saturday (October 1), the 32-year-old hybrid provocateur spoke to his sold-out audience at London’s OVO Arena Wembley about Bennington before performing “Glass House.” The moment was captured by a fan and posted to YouTube.

“Great human being. He took me in,” Machine Gun Kelly said. “Him and Mike [Shinoda] would always f*cking give me words of encouragement. We had a tour that we were about to start, and three days before we started that tour, Chester passed away. But the last time I saw him was here in Europe. So, I encourage you, because life is short, to go live this life. I know it’s hard, man. I know this sh*t is f*cking hard, but nights like tonight make life worth it. So, I hope you leave here [and] you find more nights like this and that you live this short life. I love you very much.”

In the second verse of the 2019 ballad “Glass House,” MGK mourns Bennington and other artists who have gone too soon: “Look, wish Lil Peep and me had spoke, but I can’t get that back / Just came from Pittsburgh, damn, I miss my homie Mac / Yeah, last time I got off the stage, I looked Chester in the face / But now he gone and ain’t no going back.”

Machine Gun Kelly had performed with Linkin Park at the Poland stop of their One More Light World Tour before they tapped him as an opener.

This isn’t the first time MGK has used his current tour to acknowledge lost life. In late June at Madison Square Garden, he dedicated “Lonely” to TikTok star and aspiring model Cooper Noriega, who passed away earlier that month. Noriega, 19, had tagged along on MGK’s fall 2021 Tickets To My Downfall Tour because of his friendship with the opener, Jxdn.

MGK’s MSG date coincided with the release of his Hulu Life In Pink documentary, which revealed his own struggles with suicidal ideation.

Watch Machine Gun Kelly’s tribute to Bennington above.

If you or someone you know is at risk of suicide or contemplating self-harm, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text TALK to 741741, or visit Speakingofsuicide.com for additional resources.

YG — whose new album I Got Issues is out now on Def Jam — is no stranger to controversy. Still, one of his new album’s singles is drawing criticism that it might not have gotten in a different context. No doubt, when YG recorded “How To Rob A Rapper” and planned out its release, he couldn’t possibly have known that just weeks before his album dropped, Philadelphia rapper PnB Rock would be shot to death in a robbery in Los Angeles, just a few miles from the Compton rapper’s hometown.

That hasn’t stopped rap fans from censuring YG over the song’s awkward timing. The general consensus appears to be that “YG should have took that How To Rob A Rapper song off the album,” according to one tweet. Another wondered “if nobody in YG’s camp told him not to drop ‘How to Rob a Rapper’ right after PNB Rock’s death.” Even those who liked the song admitted that it had “terrible timing.”

Still, there were some who defended the rapper’s decision to release the controversial track when he did. “I get why people trippin off YG’s song ‘How To Rob A Rapper,’ but ya also makin it clear ya dont really listen to his music,” wrote one fan. “He got similar songs like ‘Don’t Come To LA’ talkin about the same culture he warnin mfs to not lack when coming into. But y’all trippin off the timing.”

YG hasn’t reacted yet, but he has shown himself to be sensitive to valid critiques in the past. Last year, he updated his My Krazy Life song “Meet The Flockers” to remove lyrics perceived as “anti-Asian” after a backlash in the wake of a wave of attacks on Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can watch YG’s “How To Rob A Rapper” video above.

In an Instagram post on Monday, Russ shared his thoughts on artists who claimed to be blackballed.

“I just wanna give my two cents on something in my industry. No artist is blackballed,” Russ wrote. “Unless they cut off your Wi-Fi, remove your social media accounts, and take your music off all the streaming platforms, you are not blackballed. If you are famous and can still tell your fans, ‘hey, I’m putting out music,’ then you’re not blackballed.”

His comments are on par with the recent conversation surrounding the DaBaby, who had alleged he had been blackballed from the industry after news of his first-week sales had been released for his latest project, Baby On Baby 2.

He continued: “Fans will listen to your music, or they won’t. It’s that simple. Also, if you’re a famous artist and you NEED playlists in order for people to listen to your music, how real are your fans? Why don’t they support you regardless? We’re giving too much credit and power to DSPs and not enough power to us (the artists) and the fans.”

The release was only projected to move 16,000 units — a huge drop in comparison to his previous solo album, Blame It On Baby, which he released in 2020. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, moving nearly 124,000 album-equivalent units per Billboard.

Funny enough, right before this statement, DaBaby seemed unbothered with album numbers.

“Not bad for da BlackBalled Baby,” the rapper wrote on his Instagram Stories.

Even DJ Akademiks also chimed in on the conversation, citing that Apple Music’s Ebro Darden was responsible.

“Da Baby last project in 2020 ‘Blame it on Baby’ sold 124K first week,” Akademics wrote on Twitter. “His new project, after being blackballed by Ebro, Apple Music, is scheduled to do less than 20K. Now yall understand my Ebro convo…. DSPs control who is hot and who is not. Fall out of favor with them… UR DONE.”

Ebro responded noting that Apple Music is hardly the only DSP. “Apple Music is not the only platform. Based on this dummy’s logic, Da Baby should be doing well on the platform HE works for. Is it?”

Finally, Bill O’Reilly said something that the left can get on board with: He hopes that Donald Trump “disappears” before the midterm elections. Unfortunately, O’Reilly’s reason for wanting his “History Tour” pal/punching bag to go away is probably completely different from your own.

As Raw Story reports, O’Reilly chatted with conservative host Charlie Kirk on Monday to discuss the upcoming midterms, and how Trump could best serve his fellow Republicans. The former Fox News host was pretty decisive in his answer: “I hope he disappears,” he said, “because it doesn’t do Republicans any good to have Donald Trump around the midterm elections.”

One could argue that it’s doesn’t do any good to have Trump around any elections, but that’s not the point O’Reilly was trying to make. If the no-spin maestro were to predict how the midterms will play out, he sees the “bogus” January 6th Committee releasing their findings just weeks before November 8th.

“It’s the independent [voters] that always make the difference now,” O’Reilly said. “A lot of them don’t like Trump. And the more Trump is in the news cycle, the less the Biden administration [and] Democratic Party’s failures are focused on. So, if I were Trump, I’d, you know, be down in Honduras or something and take a couple of weeks. Get out of the cycle!”

Someone may want to check whether Honduras is on Trump’s list of sh*thole countries before booking that flight.

You can listen to the full conversation here.

(Via Raw Story)

While the Cobra Kai junkies await concrete news about Season 6 from Netflix, Ralph Macchio’s preparing to release his memoir, aptly titled Waxing On. I’ve read the book, and it takes a deeper dive than one would ever expect into the inner workings of The Karate Kid franchise and comes up with a handful of great stories and revelations, along with filling in some (minor) regrets that Ralph has harbored over the years.

On the subject of repairing the past, Ralph spoke with US Weekly about a variety of subjects, including how his “never, ever my favorite” original The Karate Kid movie has now redeemed itself in a way. That’d be Part III, which introduced the franchise’s most masochistic sensei: the cackling and toxic-sludge dealing Terry Silver. He went full karate supervillain in Season 5, and here’s what Ralph said to US Weekly while also talking about how there’s more to explore with future seasons:

“There’s more meat on the bones there. But it’s gotta be entertaining and organic and I think there’s plenty of places to go every season. Whether you bring in Tamlyn Tomita as Kumiko [in season 5 or] Elizabeth Shue in season 3. You [also] have Thomas Ian Griffith — what a great job he’s doing. Karate Kid 3 was never, ever my favorite of those three movies. Now it’s bearing such great fruit and storytelling and refined versions of characters.”

For sure, the great Karate Kid III antagonist gave us a great bad guy for two seasons of Cobra Kai. Silver’s arc culminated with a cinematic, poolside sword fight with Karate Kid III antagonist Chozen, and in the end, all had flesh wounds. It sure looks like we’ve seen the end of Terry, but hopefully, we’ll get a lot more Chozen and several more seasons because those Miyagi-do “roots are strong.”

Macchio’s Waxing On arrives in book stores on October 18.

(Via US Weekly)

Nearly a month since the announcement of her long-awaited, much-anticipated solo debut, and one of the major K-pop releases of the month, Seulgi drops her first EP and single “28 Reasons.”

Just like the first trailer to her solo debut, Seulgi channels her artistic side in the music video. As a film enthusiast who enjoys cryptic and horror-themed movies, the Red Velvet member goes beyond the “velvet” (dark and mature) image but remains parallel to characters she’s played in past music videos. (Think of it as the same lane as her sub-unit with fellow member Irene and their song “Monster.”)

The debut single dives into the psyche of being someone who embodies the toxic side of love. Seulgi’s alter-ego enjoys playing both good and evil throughout the pop dance track: “I will show you heaven/I’m not the devil/Hate me as you want I don’t care/The more you break the more you’ll want me/I swear I need you, my desires are growing/I’m playing with you like a kid/Hovering like your shadow and whispering to you/I’m your light and your darkness….”

“28 Reasons” was majorly produced by SM Entertainment’s in-house producer Yoo Young Jin, while it was co-written by Jeon Jieun, January 8th (lalala studio), and Cho Yunkyung. The EP of the same name consists of six tracks including a song featuring rapper BE’O (“Bad Boy, Sad Girl”).

Find the full tracklist for 28 Reasons below.
1. “28 Reasons”
2. “Dead Man Runnin’”
3. “Bad Boy, Sad Girl (Featuring BE’O)”
4. “Anywhere But Home”
5. “Los Angeles”
6. “Crown”