Month: March 2023

(Spoilers from The Walking Dead will be found below.)

AMC recently delivered a bundle of news for The Walking Dead universe, and the immediate headliner there was that the Dead City spinoff will include walkers falling from the sky to make Maggie and Negan’s lives a little more interesting. However, the franchise also released the trailer for Fear The Walking Dead‘s eighth and final season, in which survivors are still dealing with hell on earth, even on an island. That’s the case not only because of the rule of PADRE but also because there’s no escape from walkers (everyone is infected, and everyone will eventually reanimate without blunt force to the head) anywhere on the planet.

The trailer is most notable, however, for Morgan making a clear reference to Rick Grimes, with whom he shared some time early in the series near the dawn of the outbreak. “I want to tell you something that a friend once told me,” Lennie James’ character declares in the trailer. “He said you can hide, but you can’t run…. he wanted me to know that hurt will follow you. It follows you wherever you go. He was right… don’t do what I did. Don’t run.”

This, naturally, feels timely, and the two were always fated to meet once again (this has happened before) for the long haul. James even previously fielded questions about whether he’d be onboard one of those Rick Grimes movies that never surfaced for various, partially pandemic-related reasons. Now that Rick is about to get bloody again for his spinoff with Michonne, the timing could also be right for him to cross paths with Morgan again.

In the trailer, Morgan does apparently go back to Georgia and thinks about Rick some more for good measure.

What next? No one would be upset about seeing Morgan surface on the Rick and Michonne show, or if Fear The Walking Dead wraps up with more clues if not an outright meeting between old friends. Whatever the case, the franchise is having a good time while teasing everyone, and for solid reason. Fear The Walking Dead has previously dropped hints about Rick’s whereabouts, and we also don’t know how Rick (presumably) ends up escaping from the helicopter people for his spinoff, given that we saw them recapture him at the end of The Walking Dead. However, we can guess that Michonne pieces together enough clues to find him, and hopefully, he never rides a horse again.

We should find out more soon, though. Fear The Walking Dead returns on May 14, and the Rick and Michonne party will debut in 2024.

As sports betting becomes increasingly prevalent and more states introduce legal mobile wagering, fans at games now have the opportunity to sweat out their bets in person.

For most, that increases the enjoyment, as there really isn’t anything quite like sweating out a bet live and in the building rather than on TV, but unsurprisingly, some fans get too invested and take things too far. That is what happened after a Wizards-Magic game, when a group of fans heckled Bradley Beal after a 122-112 Wizards loss, with one fan going at Beal for ending up on the losing end of a parlay. Beal, like so many other players, is very tired of complaints from sports bettors who have become very vocal in yelling at players online, and took the opportunity to send a message back in person, per TMZ Sports.

One of the guys in a group yelled at Beal, “You f***ed me [out of] $1,300, you f***!”

Beal then turned, walked toward the fans, and appeared to knock the hat off one of the guys’ heads in response to the heckle. Beal and the fans then jawed back and forth, with Beal calling the comment “disrespectful.”

“Keep it a buck,” Beal said. “I don’t give a f*** about none of your bets or your parlays, bro. That ain’t why I play the game.”

The fan then apparently filed a police report, claiming Beal hit him in the head when he smacked the hat off his head, and Orlando police told TMZ they’ll likely charge Beal with “simple battery.”

This is, of course, incredibly weak for a number of reasons, first being if you’re cussing a player out over a lost parlay, you absolutely deserve to get smacked upside the head. On top of that, instigating an altercation and then running to the police after slight physical contact is also fairly pathetic, but falls in line with the behavior of someone that would cry to a player about their lost parlay. It’s fine and normal to be mad and grumble about a lost bet, we all do it, but don’t do it to the players — either online or in person.

Over the past few years, Black Thought has been branching. Primarily known as the rapper and de facto frontman of The Roots, a growing number of recent releases, the Philadelphia MC has been collaborating with an expanding roster of producers, including Danger Mouse, El Michels Affair, 9th Wonder, Salaam Remi, and Sean C. While his new project, Glorious Game with El Michels Affair, is due April 14, frequent collaborator and DJ J. Period put together yet another compilation of Black Thought tracks to hold fans over ’til then.

On J​.​ Period Presents The Live Mixtape [JB Edition], the DJ utilizes Thought’s status as one of rap’s preeminent technicians of the craft, pairing live freestyles taken from Thought’s most recent Roots Picnic Live Mixtape performance. over instrumentals from the late, great funk and soul icon James Brown, as well as hip-hop beats that sampled his works. These include Nas’ “Get Down,” “Big Payback,” “Hot Pants Road,” and Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power.”

While Black Thought labored for much of his career with The Roots in relative obscurity, thanks to social media and a string of strategically placed freestyles, he’s finally received recognition from rap fans as a peerless rapper, and here, he puts that reputation to the test, freestyling for 35 minutes over some of the funkiest production known to man. Check it out on J. Period’s Bandcamp.

Donald Trump took a break from threatening “death and destruction” on the world on Monday night to sit down with Sean Hannity and deny that he was threatening death and destruction on the world. The former president also made time to partake in what might be his second favorite activity: Talking sh*t about Ron DeSantis.

Just hours after it was reported that Donald has banned anyone who has worked with the pudding-loving Florida governor for becoming a part of Team Trump, the 2024 presidential candidate — who is currently on Indictment Watch — told Hannity that DeSantis would be nothing without him. As Mediaite reports, the Fox News host prompted his guest to commence the trash-talk by telling Trump, “The question I get asked the most about you is, ‘Ron DeSantis – what happened? I thought they were friends.’” That was all it took for Trump to start spilling:

He was desperate. I gave him a nice endorsement. I said, ‘You write out what you’d like and let me see it.’ He wrote it out and I thought it was terrible so I changed it, made it great. I gave him a great endorsement. From the moment I pressed that button he blew that guy away. The race was over. They never even got to spend their money…

I got him the nomination. By the way, he could never have gotten the nomination. He would be working either in a pizza parlor place or a law office right now, and he wouldn’t be very happy.

As Mediaite wryly notes, “DeSantis has degrees from Yale University and Harvard Law School.”

Trump has pulled out all the stops in his attempts to smear DeSantis, including by attempting to come up with a sick burn of a nickname; “Ron Dukakis” is Trump’s latest offering.

You can watch the conversation at Mediaite here.

(Via Mediaite)

Matt Damon and Jimmy Kimmel have been fake feuding for so long, Ryan Reynolds was still years away from playing Deadpool in Hugh Jackman’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Since the mid-aughts, the pair have consistently trolled each other (we’ve got the full history here), although things have been quiet in recent years.

Or at least they were until the 2023 Oscars. “Was it difficult filming your movie The Martian because your co-star Matt Damon can’t read and smells like dog medicine?” Kimmel, who hosted the ceremony, asked Jessica Chastain.

Damon recently got his revenge at the premiere of Air, his basketball movie with Ben Affleck (but not Michael Jordan). When asked by Entertainment Tonight whether he’ll ever make up with Kimmel, the actor replied, “No, no, he’s an asshole. Why would I ever do that?” Damon called the late-night host “a terrible human being” and “a demonstrably bad man.” He then looked at Kimmel, who was also walking the red carpet, and yelled, “Hey! I’d love to take a picture with you but we ran out of time.”

When asked if they might ever reconcile on his show — or even have an episode devoted to Damon — Kimmel shot the idea down, sharing, “I just can’t imagine it happening. I really can’t. I think we have Ben [Affleck] on tomorrow, so we’ll have that, but that will be as close as we get.”

If Damon and Kimmel appear alongside Reynolds and Jackman in Deadpool 3, we’ll really be through the meta celebrity feud looking glass.

(Via Entertainment Tonight)

Like any good husband, Ben Affleck had to stop the proceedings during Monday night’s premiere of Air to gush about his beautiful wife, Jennifer Lopez. While Affleck has no shortage of praise for Air and its stellar cast that he had the privilege of directing, the actor put a pause on his promotional duties to single out Lopez before firing up the film for a captive audience in Los Angeles.

“This has been a joy, and I want to just enjoy this moment for one second,” Affleck said via The Hollywood Reporter. “And I want to say that none of it would be possible — this company, this movie, this joy tonight — without the love and support of my wife who means more to me than anything in the world. I want to say thank you. I love you. You mean the world to me. You’re fabulous, you’re amazing, you’re wonderful, good, kind, magnificent and I love you.”

But JLo wasn’t the only one who got some love. Affleck also made it a point to shout out his longtime friend and collaborator on the Michael Jordan film, Matt Damon. Air also marks the first production from their new company, Artists Equity.

“If you’re really lucky in life, you’ll have a friend like Matt Damon,” Affleck gushed. “I love him and it’s the biggest joy of my professional life to work with him.”

Air dunks into theaters on April 5.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Ariana Grande responded to a sweet tribute and shared her own in honor of the tenth anniversary of her “The Way” collab with her ex, the late Mac Miller. The single was featured on Grande’s debut album and has since been certified triple platinum.

“can’t believe it’s been a whole DECADE (and more) in this road together… how are u guys celebrating today?” one fan account wrote, to which Grande responded, “I love you.” She also shared the sentiment in her Instagram story, using a clip from their music video together.

Miller passed away in 2018. A few years later, Grande appeared on Zane Lowe’s Apple Music (via Harper’s Bazaar) show to speak to who he was as a person — someone who loved being creative, especially when it came to making music.

“I think that nothing mattered more to him than music, ever,” she said. “And he was the kind of person who woke up and rolled into the studio, tumbled out of bed, into the studio next door. Nothing was more important. Talk about losing track of time and forgetting to eat, remind yourself to take care of yourself and be a person. He was a person who gave literally every single second of his thought and time and life to his music.”

Kelly Clarkson has made it known that she’s the queen of covers with her Kellyoke segment on The Kelly Clarkson Show. Just this year, she’s belted out powerful renditions of songs by Katy Perry, Florence And The Machine, Muna, Taylor Swift, and more. She can tackle quite literally anything.

She proved that again last night (March 27) at the iHeartRadio Music Awards. The singer joined superstar Pink, who performed her recent single “Trustfall,” as well as “Just Like a Pill” and “Raise Your Glass” and was joined by Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo before being joined by Clarkson as well. Then, Clarkson took the spotlight with a performance of Pink’s classic hit “Just Give Me a Reason,” and Pink helped her with a big finish.

Earlier this week, Clarkson announced her 10th studio album Chemistry on Instagram, which will come with a 10-night Las Vegas residency to accompany the LP.

“We’re calling it an intimate night and I don’t want to give it away,” she said. “There will be different elements every night and every show is not going to be the same. We will have the audience participate and I will talk to the audience because now I’m on a talk show and I’m used to engaging. It’s going to be a different kind of show than what people are used to in Vegas.”

Watch the iHeartRadio Music Awards performance above.

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

You’re walking down the sidewalk, earbuds in, listening to your favorite hip-hop beats. As your head bobs to the sounds, the sun warms your back. It’s a perfect day.

When the chorus hits, the empty Sprite bottle in your hand becomes a drumstick, passing traffic becomes a sea of concertgoers, and the concrete beneath your feet is suddenly a stage. Spinning on your heels, you close out the song with your face to the sky and hands in the air.

Spotting a bright blue bin, you chuck in your imaginary drumstick. The sound that echoes back is satisfyingly cool, a deep, reverberating clunk so loud you can hear it over the music.

That is the sound of recycling.

Imagine how harmonious it would sound to mix the tones of millions of bottles going through the recycling process—the melody of all of us doing our part?

The Coca-Cola Company recognizes its responsibility to help address the world’s plastic packaging crisis. Several of the company’s most popular brands were historically made in green plastic bottles—however, when green plastic is recycled, it is usually turned into single-use items that do not get recycled again. To take one more step toward greater sustainability, Sprite, Fresca and Seagram’s are now being packaged in clear plastic bottles, increasing the likelihood of them being recycled over and over again—a process known as “closed loop recycling.”

Surprisingly enough, closed loop recycling and music have a lot in common. Music producers typically use a technique called sound sampling: the process of taking an old sound, chopping it up, and flipping it into a completely new beat. Just like the process of recycling, old can be new in sound sampling. An old sound is used in a new track, which is morphed again into a newer track, and so on. Beats being made today will be recycled by another creative in the future. Que Uptown Funk!

To celebrate the shift from green to clear, The Coca-Cola Company partnered with iconic, genre-defining/defying producers Mark Ronson and Madlib to create the world’s first album composed of the sounds of the plastic recycling process itself. The Recycled Records EP uses real ambient sounds sampled from various points in the closed-loop recycling chain at four different recycling facilities scattered across the United States. From the percussion of a forklift beeping, to the tonal beat of a conveyor belt, to the hi-hat of air blown into a plastic bottle, the EP brings to life the magic of multiple reuses.

“It sounds very crazy to say it, but anything can become a sample…any sound can be manipulated. The sound of opening a barrel of plastic has its own funk and flow to it,” said Ronson.

Not only did The Coca-Cola Company find a way to literally turn the sounds of recycling into music, thanks to the Recycled Records Beat Machine, you can be part of that process, too. Using the site, music enthusiasts are able to remix the very same recycled sound library used by Ronson and Madlib into innovative compositions of their own through an interactive, one-of-a-kind digitized version of an 808 beat machine. Generally, the biggest obstacle for many aspiring artists is accessing the proper musical technology, which is yet another reason why Recycled Records is so dang cool—this beat machine is free and accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

Innovation and creativity are the way of the future; tap into yours today by creating a Recycled Record of your very own. Maybe someday, other people will be dancing down the street listening to YOUR beats!

It’s been nine difficult months since Adam Cole laced up his boots and stepped inside the squared circle. For a time, there was a real fear that he might never be able to wrestle again.

A shoulder injury was the least of his concerns, because suffering two consecutive head injuries that made day-to-day activities like sleeping or riding in the car difficult. He met with doctors multiple times a week and wondered at one point whether or not he could ever drive again, much less wrestle.

He would attempt to watch wrestling, but his passion for the business is so strong that he says it would break his heart not to be out there doing what he loves. As he recovered, messages continued to pour in from fans, and he used that as motivation to continue pressing forward. In the months that followed, Cole passed test after test, overcoming both mental and physical hurdles to climb inside the ring and begin training again.

That lengthy process will reach its conclusion on March 29, when Cole’s journey culminates in two milestone moments. He’ll first face off against Daniel Garcia in his highly-anticipated return match, before a behind-the-scenes look at his long journey back airs on the debut episode of AEW All Access.

“I have a huge amount of emotions going through my body, both physically and mentally as far as excitement, as far as nervousness goes. My journey coming back was an incredibly difficult one. There was a real fear for a long time of me wondering if I was ever going to be able to wrestle again,” Cole told Uproxx Sports. “I just remind myself constantly how lucky and fortunate I am that I’ve been able to recover and get to a point where I’m able to get back to doing what I love to do. Of course there are nerves. I have never in 15 years not wrestled for nine months. That has never happened to me before. So that part of me is nervous. But generally speaking, I am so excited and ready to get back to work.”

The process of managing many months of fear and anxiety that came with his injuries was difficult for Cole. He credits his girlfriend, Britt Baker, for the love and support that has helped him get back to this point. He also worked with others within the industry like Bryan Danielson and Christian as he navigated his recovery, managing emotions, and eventually returning to training.

Cole also makes a point to reiterate his gratitude toward Tony Khan and the AEW medical staff as the ones responsible for getting him to see multiple doctors, going to brain physical therapy, and ensuring he was taking the right steps to recover with no sense of urgency or push to get him back in the ring.

“We’re not invincible. For the longest time it was like, oh my God, yeah, I’ll do anything and I’ll fall on the concrete, or I’ll take this move, or I’ll fall off the top of this,” Cole says. “I certainly am more in tune and I’m going to listen to my body better. Because there are times where you have to find that difference between I’m banged up and something’s wrong. As far as I’m concerned, this feels like a second chance. I want to come back and have the best run of my entire career. That doesn’t necessarily mean I have to do a ton of death defying stuff every single night. But at the end of the day, wrestling is a high risk, high reward type of profession anyway. I guess the best way for me to put it is I’m aware now of making sure that I listen to my body, but at the same time I want to go out and just be the best version of myself.”

The best version of Adam Cole has been prominently displayed throughout his career, highlighted by runs through Ring of Honor and most recently NXT. Cole reflects on his time in NXT fondly, with his proudest accomplishment being his 403-day reign atop the promotion.

Cole was known for his run with Undisputed Era and the classics he put on, but his promo with Karrion Kross has been elevated from simply a moment on weekly episodic television to being a viral classic that the internet goes nuts over every few months. Cole laughed and acknowledged he sees the clip pop up here and there.

“It’s wild. I’m incredibly flattered and I think it’s so cool that so many people are interested still in that promo that we had. When we did the promo, I remember thinking like, oh, that went well. But not in a million years did I expect people to still be talking about it so much,” Cole said. “I think the world of (Kross). I’m so happy for him and glad he is doing great, but I had so much fun doing the segment and I would love to work with him again in the future. He’s great.”

As for other memorable moments in NXT, Cole points to his time working under Shawn Michaels and Triple H as significant learning moments in his career.

“There’s a lot of things that I’m really proud of and really thankful for. I’m incredibly thankful for the knowledge and the things that I learned from Triple H and Shawn Michaels. They were two of the smartest guys I’ve ever met and so helpful,” Cole said. “Shawn helped me in various ways, but the one thing that really sticks out to me was his ability and his sense of gauging the cadence of a match. For the most part, I had a general idea of how I wanted to build a match and when I wanted to do my moves and things like that. But as far as the speed at which I did it, it was one of those things that I just did. Sometimes I went faster, sometimes I went slower.

“Shawn has such an incredible ability to be able to listen to an audience while it’s happening and determine whether he wants to go super quick or slow down a little bit and let the audience process everything that’s happening. So his attention to that detail is something I didn’t pay attention to near as much as I do now and I’m incredibly thankful to him for that.”

While it was the in-ring work Cole praises Michaels for helping him with, it was the passion Triple H brings to the table that stands out to him.

“As far as Triple H goes, this guy’s one of the busiest guys that I know. He would always show up to NXT with incredible ideas and incredible thoughts, but most importantly, incredible passion. He had this incredible ability of making everyone that was around want to just put on the best possible show and you really feel like you’re a part of a team and something you’re working towards. And I think as a leader, that’s an incredibly important quality to have,” Cole says. “That’s something I learned, as far as the way that I wanted to approach matches, the way I approach talking about angles or storylines. It’s that passion and excitement that he had and also opening up the floor when it came to discussion or thoughts or ideas about different directions that we could go. It felt like such a fun, awesome process to talk creatively with him.”

When he left NXT, Cole looked forward to traveling and spending more time on the road with Baker, working with some of his close friends, and more consistently streaming on Twitch. As he approaches his return to the ring, those priorities remain the same. He’s also got some unfinished business in the squared circle, beginning with March 29 going as smoothly as possible against Garcia, and hopefully building to another world title.

“Short term, I just want to feel good and I want to perform, and I want to do well on March 29th. That’s the biggest thing. Once I get that out of the way, I’m going to feel like a million bucks. I’m so excited to have that match and have that moment,” Cole said. “As far as long-term goes, it’s the same as when I first came to AEW, and that is to be the AEW World Champion. Every company that I’ve ever worked for, whether it be Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Gorilla, NXT, I’ve been fortunate enough to be put in a situation where I’ve had record breaking reigns as champion. I have that exact same goal, that exact same mentality when it comes to AEW, and at the end of the day, I think if you don’t want to be AEW World Champion then what are you doing? So that is 100 percent my goal and my focus going forward.”