Month: March 2023

As Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine drags well into its second year, the Russian president’s brutal reputation keeps heightening. This is the case even as Putin obsesses over cabbage while cutting off ammo from his private army of mercenaries as they suffer enormous loss off life alongside garden-variety Russian troops. The Kremlin has also been making Lex Luthor-type statements, yet since the war’s onset in early 2022, people cannot help but notice (on a more micro note) that Russian elites (with close ties to Putin) continue to die mysterious deaths after criticizing his bloodshed in Ukraine.

The Sun has assembled a staggering list of 39 such deaths so far, and that includes several deaths when elites seemingly wander out of high-story windows while taking smoke breaks and such. Others have been strangled and died from gunshot wounds in deaths that have been ruled “suicides,” and here’s a sampling of the more bizarre instances:

– Died of ‘drug induced heart attack’ during shamanic ritual in Moscow

– Shot dead in swimming pool in Leningrad

– Fell down a cliff to his death in Sochi

– Burned alive in his apartment in Moscow

– Dies in hospital of sepsis in Moscow

If you think that this montage sounds not unlike “Baptismal bloodbath” at the end of The Godfather, then you’re not alone. The Sun spoke to analysts who allege that Putin is a “mafia boss” figure, and these analysis also believe that contract killing could play a role here. A retired U.S. Army Military Intelligence Officer, Jon Sweet, declared, “Anyone seen as a potential threat seems to have an attraction to an open window.” Whereas Professor Anthony Glees declared that “two kinds of victim” exist, and those include actual high-profile critics (“frequently involved in big Russian corporations”) of the war, along with “those who Putin believes have double-crossed him.”

Of course, nothing conclusive has ever arisen from side-eyes toward Putin for his opponents dying in mysterious and seemingly unlikely ways. Speculation will continue to abound, though, and it’s worth noting that Putin has jailed his most vocal political opponent, Alexei Nalvalny, for years, and a documentary on his life won an Academy Award at Sunday night’s ceremony.

(Via The Sun)

Nick Cannon is no stranger to people joking about his productivity. Andy Cohen joked that he should get a vasectomy, the paternity experts at Maury shared some suggestions of their own, and fellow comedian Kevin Hart even sent him a vending machine full of condoms as a prank.

So, when Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel joked that Nick and his kids were at least partly responsible for the record-breaking box office scores of Avatar: The Way Of Water, the multi-hyphenate father of 11 took it in stride. “Avatar: The Way Of Water was the most expensive movie ever made,” Jimmy noted in his opening monologue.

“Disney spent 2 billion dollars to make this movie. Just to break even, all of Nick Cannon’s children had to see Avatar four times.”

According to TMZ, when he was asked how he felt about the joke, Nick said he was on-board with the jokes, as he and Kimmel are close. After all, Nick started out as a standup comic himself, so he can handle being the target of a good roast.

In fact, of all the cracks about his seeming drive to populate a small country, some of the best (and strangest) have come from Nick himself. Last week, he teamed up with Kevin Hart to shoot a (probably fake) promo for a game show about women competing to be his seventh baby mama. He also cracked a few jokes over the holidays about the added pressure having so many kids puts on him.

There are softball interviews, and then there’s Brian Kilmeade literally tossing a baseball softly with Ron DeSantis. The Florida governor indulged the Fox & Friends anchor by joining him on a baseball field in Dunedin where the two discussed DeSantis’ potential presidential run while playing catch (no fastballs included, literally).

Kilmeade, who’s been a frequent defender of DeSantis, even teed up the governor for a shot at Donald Trump because, again, the whole thing took the softball interview to a level of cringe that’s surprising even for Fox News. Kilmeade asked DeSantis what he thought about Trump testing out nicknames, and he worked in a little jab of his own.

Via Florida Politics:

“You have a record of achievement. People can call you a name, but that’s not going to trump the achievement. And so we built the astounding record of achievement. The best is yet to come. I’m defined by my accomplishments. I’m defined by leading the state, and I’m defined by having a state, which is the number one destination for Americans who are looking for a better way of life.”

While the softball interview might play well with Fox viewers, over on Twitter it’s getting ripped to shreds where users are dunking on everything from DeSantis’ height to the “divorced dad energy.” However, people also began theorizing that the whole production may be a deliberate attempt to troll Trump and the infamous photo of him attempting to play catch, but mostly it was meatball jokes.

You can see some of the reactions below:

(Via Aaron Rupar on Twitter)

It’s been nearly one year since Uproxx featured 88rising and Rich Brian on its April 2022 cover.

Since then, the label amplifying Asian voices in hip-hop staged the first-ever label-curated set on Coachella’s main stage (as noted by Billboard at the time) and brought its own Head In The Clouds Festival to California, Manila, and Jakarta.

Today, March 13, Head In The Clouds Festival announced its inaugural Head In The Clouds New York will take place at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New York on May 20 and May 21, 2023.

“88rising started in New York City, from a parking garage in the Bronx to where the first employees came together where we sat in a room in a shared space in Brooklyn to lay the foundation of what 88rising is,” 88rising CEO and founder Sean Miyashiro said in a statement exclusively provided to Billboard.

Miyashiro continued, “It was the most magical time of my life — the whole experience of building and things starting to happen, is the best part of all this. All of this happened in New York City, winter, spring, summer fall — through the seasons it’s where 88rising took shape, and I’m beyond proud and to me it’s only fitting that this was all born there. It’s especially meaningful to be able to do it at an iconic venue like Forest Hills Stadium during its 100th anniversary!”

Billboard additionally relayed that Head In The Clouds is partnering with Heart Of Dinner, a non-profit organization “directly addressing food insecurity and isolation experienced by Asian American Seniors,” in 2023 by donating $1 per ticket sold and activating on-site.

Saturday, May 20, will stage ITZY, Rich Brian, Beabadoobee, Milli, Akini Jing, Dumbfoundead, Fifi Zhang, Hojean, Isoxo, Paravi, Raveena, Spence Lee, and Warren Hue.

Sunday, May 21, will be handled by NIKI, DPR Live, DPR Ian, XG, Atarashii Gakko!, Dabin, Knock2, Loren, Masiwei, P-Lo, Veegee, Wolftyla, and Yeek.

The first ticket sale is slated for Friday, March 17, beginning at 10 a.m. EST. Registration for early access is available here.

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

A couple of years ago, I wrote about why hip-hop doesn’t really do covers of past songs and albums like other genres. I still think it’s pretty good, but last week, rap fans got an object lesson in how harshly a cover can get judged when Logic put a melodic spin on Ice Cube’s 1992 classic “It Was A Good Day.”

While Logic doesn’t see hip-hop as a competition, plenty of rap fans were appalled that he would deign to recreate such a seminal song from the hip-hop canon. However, he shrugged off the backlash on TikTok, claiming that he’d already received the most important co-sign: One from Ice Cube himself.

Replying to a comment that suggested he do a whole album of similar covers, Logic posted a whole new video saying, “It’s funny you should say that because I thought about doing that… Everybody’s all pissed off at me because I did a f*cking Ice Cube cover. Meanwhile, I texted Ice Cube and he’s like, ‘Man, keep on doing you, brotha.’ Who gives a fuck [about the backlash]?”

He also agreed about a potential covers album, positing he could use it for a good cause. “I should do a whole f*cking album, and just do a whole album of f*cking hard-ass ’90s records and call it Logic Greatest Hits, and get all them paid, and get them publishing, and take care of all the legends and the GOATs and the greats from the 90s.”

While it seems that Logic may need a refresher on how publishing royalties work, it’s hard to be mad at him for working to flip a pretty negative situation into a helpful one, even if it doesn’t quite work the way he seems to think (many early pioneers of hip-hop do not own their publishing, so they probably wouldn’t get paid much, if at all, by a covers album). And while that may make some rap fans angry, it certainly does seem as though it’d generate some buzz.

To see Logic perform his own songs, you can check him out on tour with Juicy J.

The 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is upon us, as the bracket of 68 teams that will vie for a national championship was unveiled on Sunday afternoon, with the complete TV schedule for the first round arriving later in the evening.

Once again, the lead broadcast team will be Jim Nantz, Grant Hill, and Bill Raftery, with Tracy Wolfson on sidelines, as Nantz gets set to call his 32nd and final Final Four in Houston. While it’s Nantz’s last dance, there’s no indication that the 79-year-old Raftery will be ending his tenure as college basketball’s favorite voice, but every year is a good year to celebrate the finest in Rafteryisms.

April 3 will be the last time Bill opens the game with a “Jim Nantz, Grant Hill…the [insert team] come out in a little MANTOMAN” as Ian Eagle will fill Nantz’s seat in 2024. Along the way in March we can hope for some lingerie on the deck, puppies to get in order, a little kiss, and everyone’s favorite: ONIONS! To get us all ready for tournament time, CBS put out a three-minute video of Bill’s best ONIONS calls — some from March and some from elsewhere — that is truly a delight.

As Bill says, there are onions and then there are ONIONS. Sometimes we get them early, on rare occasion a double order, but the one March constant is somewhere along the way, onions get served up.

Zombies don’t exist in the world of The Last of Us. Well, maybe they do (it’s unclear if Joel is familiar with the works of George Romero), but the mushroom monsters killing everyone? Those are the Infected, not zombies. It’s an important distinction, so much so that cinematographer Eben Bolter claimed that “we weren’t allowed to say the z-word on set. It was like a banned word. They were the Infected. We weren’t a zombie show.”

The Last of Us is more of a giraffe show than a zombie show, but co-showrunner Craig Mazin claims he never banned the z-word. In fact, “I call them zombies all the time,” he said during a virtual press conference for the season one finale. “I don’t know what Eben was talking about. No, we call them zombies all the time because it’s funny.”

Maybe “zombie” is a slur among the Infected. They prefer “cannibal corpse.”

Later in the press conference, Mazin discussed the role the Infected will play in future seasons of the show. “I think the balance is not always just about within an episode or even episode to episode, but season to season,” he said. “It’s quite possible that there will be a lot more Infected later, and perhaps different kinds, but within the episodes that we were concentrating on, I think ultimately we generally stressed the power of relationships and trying to find significance within moments of action.”

Bella Ramsey is excited for a different kind of action for Ellie in season two, if you know what I mean.

(Via EW)

Drake finally made the announcement everybody knew was coming this morning, March 13. Roughly four months after dropping Her Loss, his joint album with 21 Savage that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Drake and 21 are set to embark on the It’s All A Blur Tour.

Most of the 29 North American dates have been announced with the promise of additional dates, including in Toronto, to come later.

Per a press release, Cash App customers who double as Drake (and/or 21 Savage) fans will get the first pick of It’s All A Blur Tour tickets. The exclusive Cash App presale will run from noon local time on Wednesday, March 15, to 10 p.m. local time on Thursday, March 16. There will also be a Sprite presale from noon to 10 p.m. local time on Thursday. The general public sale will begin on Friday, March 17, at noon local time.

All ticket information can be found here.

In the meantime, check out the official tour poster and announced dates below.

06/16 — New Orleans, LA @ Smoothie King Center
06/19 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
06/21 — Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
06/24 — Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
06/28 — Miami, FL @ Miami-Dade Arena
07/01 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
07/02 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
07/05 — Chicago, IL @ United Center
07/06 — Chicago, IL @ United Center
07/08 — Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
07/11 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
07/12 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
07/14 — Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
07/17 — Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
07/18 — Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
07/25 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
07/26 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
07/28 — Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena
07/31 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
08/12 — Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum
08/13 — Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum
08/18 — San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center
08/21 — Los Angeles, CA @ Crypto.com Arena
08/22 — Los Angeles, CA @ Crypto.com Arena
08/25 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
08/28 — Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
09/01 — Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena
09/05 — Glendale, AZ @ Desert Diamond Arena

Tems attended the Oscars with a nomination in the Best Original Song category for co-writing “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther. The song, performed by Rihanna during the broadcast, lost to “Naatu Naatu” (by Kala Bhairava, M. M. Keeravani, and Rahul Sipligunj) from RRR. Yet Tems — as with fellow nominee Lady Gaga (who performed “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick) — also made headlines for what materialized on the red carpet.

Actually, Tems’ red carpet look overflowed into the semi-stratosphere of the Dolby Theatre. The “Essence” collaborator (who nabbed a spot on our the Most Anticipated R&B Albums Of 2023 list) attended the awards ceremony in a Lever Spring/Summer Couture dress. The gown burst out of all structural confines on the red carpet, and that includes the dramatic headpiece, which remained in place when she took her seat.

As a result, several people who were seated behind and surrounding Tems ended up not being able to see the show. The “stratus cloud” effect was real:

Yep, Tems ended up blocking views from people who either tweeted about this absurdity or were photographed as such.

Was this a “rude” move as noted on Twitter?

Or was this a case of purposefully “taking up space” to express confidence with being seen and heard as a Black woman?

Both statements can be true and valid, as a few Tweeters noted.

Still, the debate raged between people who found Tems’ strategy to be less than polite at a seated event (the headdress could have been adjustable, at least?)…

… and those who offered plentiful support for the aforementioned “taking up space” concept.

The rest of our Oscars 2023 coverage can be viewed here.

Pedro Pascal had a big day yesterday (March 12). Aside from the Season 1 finale of The Last Of Us debuting last night, the actor was also a presenter at the Academy Awards, where his sister Javiera Balmaceda (Amazon’s head of Originals, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, and Chile for Prime Video) was on hand to represent the Oscar-nominated Argentina, 1985. There were a ton of stars on hand for both the actual Oscars ceremony and for the Vanity Fair afterparty, and at the latter, Pascal was momentarily immobilized when he thought he saw Rihanna.

Towards the start of a red-carpet interview with Chicken Shop Date host Amelia Dimoldenberg, as the two exchanged opening pleasantries, Dimoldenberg asked Pascal how he’s doing. As she asked the question, though, Pascal’s demeanor became more serious and distant as he looked off behind Dimoldenberg. After pausing for a few seconds, he asked, “Is that Rihanna?”

(It was not Rihanna he saw from behind, but rather, Saweetie.)

Dimoldenberg quipped that if it was Rihanna, Pascal should abandon the interview and go introduce himself. Pascal responded, “I will literally shove you out of the way.” Dimoldenberg said she’d do the same thing in his shoes and he replied, “If you didn’t do it, I wouldn’t understand.”

Pascal very clearly had Rihanna on the brain all night: In an earlier red-carpet interview at the actual Oscars with Ashley Graham, Pascal spoke about what he was looking forward to that night. He said he was happy to support his sister and to just watch the show before asking, “Is Rihanna performing?”

Rihanna, by the way, did perform.