Month: June 2023

Warner Bros. Discovery is going full steam ahead with The Flash movie, which stars Michael Keaton and dueling Ezra Millers, and our own Mike Ryan recently wrote that the film is actually quite good. Further, the film launches almost immediately after the CW wrapped up the ninth and final season of The Flash TV show, so all things are coming up speedy.

There’s no telling whether Ezra Miller’s various touch-and-go scandals will impact the box office, or whether this film will fare better than the Shazam! sequel while the DCU is in flux, and no one quite knows what James Gunn has in store for his heroes and villains.

One thing is certain, however: if you plan on watching The Flash, expect it to be on par, lengthwise, as recent Marvel Studios efforts. The Flash clocks in at 2 hours and 35 minutes, so be prepared for that in addition to the requisite trailers and anything else (Nicole Kidman PSAs?) that your theater sees fit to play before the start of the movie.

From the synopsis:

Worlds collide in “The Flash” when Barry uses his superpowers to travel back in time in order to change the events of the past. But when his attempt to save his family inadvertently alters the future, Barry becomes trapped in a reality in which General Zod has returned, threatening annihilation, and there are no Super Heroes to turn to. That is, unless Barry can coax a very different Batman out of retirement and rescue an imprisoned Kryptonian… albeit not the one he’s looking for. Ultimately, to save the world that he is in and return to the future that he knows, Barry’s only hope is to race for his life. But will making the ultimate sacrifice be enough to reset the universe?

The Flash arrives in theaters on June 16.

Tyler The Creator appeared on the Rap Radar Podcast last Friday, June 9. He said several things that the aggregation machine swept up, such as his proclamation that “I f*cking hate Rap Twitter,” but he has a soft spot for his 2011 major-label debut album, Goblin.

“Bro, Goblin is f*cking terrible, but I still love it,” Tyler said at the 1:24:46 mark. “It’s an energy and an aura that it has — hearing my wonky synths and gross drums and me not realizing I’m yelling on every song and saying the most wild sh*t is what got people there. It’s not about the music. If you were there, that energy and that aura and that air just cutting through what everyone else was doing is so important.”

He continued, “And there’s still some ones on there. I still think ‘Yonkers’ is awesome. ‘She’ is awesome. The first two versions of ‘Nightmare’ is ill. ‘Tron Cat’ is still awesome. ‘Analog’ is still cool. Like, there’s still a few things on there, but people don’t know, like, a lot of songs on that album were just random songs I recorded after ‘Goblin’ that we kind of just [viewed as], ‘Yeah, here, I got these songs.’”

Tyler said nearly the exact same thing during an interview for WSJ Magazine in late 2019 — noting then that Goblin was “trash, but I don’t regret making it.”

“It’ll make the overall story sicker when I’m 43, and I own a billion-dollar company, and it’s, like, ‘Look what I was doing when I was 19. Who would have thought those skate rats who like the color pink would be doing this?’” Tyler told the publication at the time.

Watch the full Rap Radar episode with Tyler here.

Charles Barkley forever insisted he was going to retire at 60 and leave the television world, but instead, the now 60-year-old keeps adding jobs to his resumé.

After re-signing on a massive deal to continue with Inside the NBA, Barkley also is headed to CNN for a weekly talk show with Gayle King in the fall. He also makes appearances on NBA TV during the Finals, and most recently popped up on TNT’s Stanley Cup Finals coverage from Miami. During that appearance, he got told by Wayne Gretzky that he doesn’t need to go do news and should instead join them each week for their hockey show, because he wouldn’t even have to leave Atlanta.

Barkley responded that Gretzky is far from the first person he knows to try and talk him out of doing the CNN show, joking “apparently I’m jumping on the Titanic,” with how many people are telling him “abort, abort” [3:25 of the below video].

As Awful Announcing explained, part of the reason many are likely trying to talk Chuck out of doing the talk show is CNN is going through some structural changes, most notably with Chris Licht being let go as CEO after being the one to come up with the Barkley-King show. Still, Barkley is defiant about continuing on, saying he’s “excited” about working with Gayle. We’ll see in a few months whether Barkley’s friends were right about him needing to avoid jumping on with CNN, or if he can make the transition to the news world and find success the way he has in sports television.

One of the toughest Oscar races to call every year is Best Costume Design. Do you go with the 1920s extravagance of Babylon, or the rock ‘n’ roll jumpsuits of Elvis, or Afrofuturism of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever? All are worthy winners — Academy voters gave the award to Ruth E. Carter in a historic first — but next year will be a rare gimme on your Oscar ballot.

And the Oscar for Best Costume Design goes to… Barbie.

Vogue UK spoke to costume designer Jacqueline Durran, who won an Oscar for another Greta Gerwig film (Little Women), about how she dressed Barbie. Dozens of them. “The defining characteristic of what she wears is where she’s going and what she’s doing. It’s about being completely dressed for your job or task,” she said, adding, “I had buyers going out every day looking for clothes in specific colors in every shop in London.” Durran also revealed where one of Barbie‘s most viral (non-pink) looks came from.

With only 11 weeks to make everything, the team were still creating costumes as they filmed. That had one perk: the flexibility to keep adding new ideas. In one late fitting, actor Ryan Gosling came up with the idea for Ken-branded underwear for his character, a detail that went viral when the film’s marketing dropped. “We just rushed to make it,” she says.

“Ken’s Oscar-winning underwear, as worn by Ryan Gosling in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie” has a nice ring to it.

(Via Vogue UK)

Apparently, Drake’s new(-ish) track “Search & Rescue” was originally supposed to have a Lil Durk verse on it. As happens so often with Drake getting guest verses from younger rappers (and beneficiaries of his co-sign), Durk’s verse was scrapped for one reason or another but recently surfaced online.

Fans were tickled by the verse, which seemingly featured a kinky admission on Durk’s part; however, the rapper has since logged on to clarify the line in question before the rumors get too out-of-hand. In the verse, he raps the line: I’m worse than Kevin Gates, I’m me / India know I’m down to drink P.” While the Kevin Gates and India references are obvious (Baton Rouge rapper Kevin Gates is as well known for his outrageous claims in interviews as he is for his music, while India refers to Durk’s longtime girlfriend and social media personality India Royale), the “drink P” bit perked up fans’ ears, as it sounds a lot like he’s admitted to indulging in, well, let’s just say “watersports.”

However, he insisted that this isn’t the case in a comment on Akademiks’ post about the lyrics. “Down to drink p—— op (pop),” he clarified. “As in soda mix it with the lean … Just sometimes.”

For what it’s worth, this one is pretty much on Durk. Rappers are known for making up new slang all the time (“Pushin P” was a year ago now, talking about something else entirely), but it’s on them to make sure the context makes it easy for fans to figure out. Plus, hip-hop gossip channels have been abuzz with stories about stars’ urine-based proclivities, including the aforementioned Kevin Gates, who last year told Bootleg Kev he’d drink Beyoncé’s pee. Fans will probably forget all about this, though, when Durk drops the promised deluxe edition of Almost Healed

Lindsey Graham once denounced Trump’s intent to pardon Jan. 6 rioters, but lately, he’s been doing everything possible to defend the former president. Following Trump’s first indictment, he begged people to send Trump money not once but twice. Now, he’s here to bend over backwards while discussing the second indictment, a much more severe set of charges (about the boxes of classified documents that Trump hoarded/stored in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom) than the Stormy Daniels scandal ever yielded.

On Sunday, Graham appeared on ABC’s This Week, where he didn’t last too many seconds before snapping at George Stephanopoulos. The conservative senator had begun rambling about Hillary Clinton’s emails, and when the host attempted to get him on track, he was met with this: “No, let me finish!”

Graham continued to get snippy on live TV after Stephanopoulos pointed out that he never answered his question of whether Graham believes that Trump truly did nothing wrong. In response, Graham groused, “I’m trying to answer the question from a Republican point of view. That may not be acceptable on this show.”

From there, that turned back into Graham arguing that Hillary was held to different standards than Trump, and yes, that’s true. However, Clinton wasn’t U.S. president when (as then FBI chief James Comey) she “careless”-ly stored classified information from emails on her own private server. That investigation also found no “clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information.”

As well, Clinton wasn’t president during these offenses. She was Secretary of State and subject to a different set of guidelines than the Presidential Records Act. Still, Graham continued while arguing that the indictment was unfair and meant to “delegitimize” Trump. Graham is further convinced that any espionage-related charges are completely unfair.

In response to Stephanopoulos’ inquiries about “audio tape of Donald Trump saying he knows this is secret information he knows he’s sharing with other people,” Graham responded, “I’m not saying it’s okay.”

So far, this scandal has already been pooh-poohed by MAGA enthusiast Lauren Boebert, but it also caused Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade’s spirit to deflate in front of the Fox News audience. In other words, expect this to get messier.

(Via ABC News)

This is a celebratory year for Snoop Dogg, marking 50 years since hip-hop’s birth and 30 years since the release of his debut album. Doggystyle is supposed to receive a sequel album from Snoop and Dr. Dre appropriately (or inappropriately, depending on who you ask) titled Missionary.

As Billboard relayed in April, Audible is also commemorating 50 years of hip-hop with original programming.

“Snoop’s Words + Music: From the Streets to the Suites will debut June 15 and honor the 30th anniversary of Doggystyle,” Billboard‘s Carl Lamarre wrote on April 21. “According to a press release, From the Streets will find Snoop reflecting ‘on his coming-of-age journey from the streets of Long Beach to around the world and his decision to pursue love and life over death and destruction.’ It also touches on his days ‘from singing in the church choir as a boy to meeting Dr. Dre and eventually buying Death Row Records.’”

On Sunday, June 11, HipHopDX shared an advanced snippet from the Audible Original that finds Snoop specifically recalling “Gin And Juice” being nominated at the 37th Grammy Awards in 1994.

“Queen Latifah approached me about that song, right? ‘Cause me and her was nominated for a Grammy — that song against ‘U.N.I.T.Y.,’ and she won. And I was hurt,” Snoop said in the clip. “But she was like, ‘N****, I love ‘Gin And Juice.’ That’s my favorite sh*t,’ so then I got unhurt fast.”

He continued, “You know, a muthaf*cka gets hurt ’cause he lose and sh*t, but I’m like, damn, this is the Queen, n****. Bow down. This is the muthaf*ckin’ queen, and she told me that. She said, ‘But I love ‘Gin And Juice.’ That’s my favorite sh*t.’ So, I was like, you know what? I can take that L.”

Snoop’s “Gin And Juice” lost to Latifah’s “U.N.I.T.Y.” in the Best Rap Solo Performance category.

Snoop Dogg has been nominated for 16 Grammys throughout his iconic career but is still awaiting his first win.

Fox News is not playing around when it comes to Tucker Carlson launching a new show on Twitter. After warning the former anchor that his new web series is a breach of contract, Fox News has reportedly sent Carlson a cease-and-desist letter, which has once again prompted a fiery response from the ousted TV personality’s attorneys.

Despite Carlson still being under a multi-million dollar contract with his old network, Carlson’s legal team has attempted to paint the situation as a “freedom of speech” issue.

Via Axios:

“Fox News continues to ignore the interests of its viewers, not to mention its shareholder obligations. Doubling down on the most catastrophic programming decision in the history of the cable news industry, Fox is now demanding that Tucker Carlson be silent until after the 2024 election,” the statement continued. “Tucker will not be silenced by anyone … He is a singularly important voice on matters of public interest in our country, and will remain so.”

The statement from Carlson’s lawyers is similar to last week’s response to a Fox News notice that Carlson is in breach of contract. His team blasted the move as “hypocritical” given Fox News “defends its very existence on freedom of speech grounds.”

However, Fox News has continued to play hardball with Carlson. Prior to his filming his new Twitter show, the network reportedly confiscated all of its equipment from Carlson’s home in Maine, leaving him scrambling to set up a new production studio. That move did not deter him from launching his show, but Fox News is clearly showing no signs of backing down either.

(Via Axios)

The Idol aired its second episode on Sunday, June 11, and while many viewers were focused on the increasing role of Blackpink’s Jennie Kim, The Weeknd is committed to releasing singles from the HBO series’ soundtrack.

“World Class Sinner” and “The Lure” arrived ahead of Sunday’s episode — joining the previously released “Double Fantasy” featuring Future and “Popular” featuring Madonna and Playboi Carti — and two new singles joined the mounting batch after the episode: “Family” by The Weeknd with Suzanna Son and “Devil’s Paradise” by Mike Dean.

Tesfaye was particularly excited about Son’s The Idol character, Chloe, as evidenced by his Instagram activity, including a clip of Chloe playing “Family” at the piano.

The Weekend (real name Abel Tesfaye) shared his The Idol music plan last Wednesday, June 7.

“I was planning on dropping the whole soundtrack for [The Idol] by the finale, but I’m too hyped… instead, I wanna drop new music from the show every week with each episode,” Tesfaye captioned an Instagram post. “I’m excited for you guys to hear what we’ve been cooking and all these incredible artists that are a part of this show… this week… Jocelyn’s pop song ‘world class sinner’ and ‘the lure’ (theme score)… episode 2 this Sunday [purple devil emoji].”

The Idol was co-created by Tesfaye, Sam Levinson (Euphoria), and Reza Fahim.

“After a nervous breakdown derailed Jocelyn’s (Lily-Rose Depp) last tour, she’s determined to claim her rightful status as the greatest and sexiest pop star in America,” HBO’s official synopsis reads. “Her passions are reignited by Tedros (Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye), a nightclub impresario with a sordid past. Will her romantic awakening take her to glorious new heights or the deepest and darkest depths of her soul?”

Listen to the latest offerings from The Idol soundtrack below.

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

Kanye West turned 46 years old on Thursday (June 8) and over the weekend, he celebrated with a nyotaimori dinner with friends and associates like “wife” Bianca Censori, Freddie Gibbs, GLC, John Monopoly, and Ty Dolla Sign. Nyotaimori (sometimes called “body sushi”) is the Japanese practice of serving sushi on a woman’s naked body. The practice dates back to the Edo period (between 1603 and 1867) but has since become thought of as an “exotic” attraction after its popularity in Japan dwindled in part due to international travel. The practice has been banned in some countries due to health and moral concerns.

Fans seeing videos from the celebration on social media certainly expressed some of those concerns, especially as it became apparent that Kanye’s daughter North also attended the gathering, shooting video of her dad rapping along to his track “Off The Grid” (she was apparently in a different section of the establishment where the sushi was being served normally). Some fans criticized the rapper, calling him a hypocrite for previously criticizing his ex-wife Kim Kardashian for allowing North to maintain a TikTok account. “so kanye flipped when kim let north do a dance on tiktok but he’s okay with having her come to his birthday where they’re serving sushi off a naked woman?” one fan asked.

Of course, as always, Kanye’s got his defenders, as other fans expressed appreciation for Kanye teaching North videography skills (or just, you know, saving money on a pro videographer). Although the rapper/producer has fallen out of favor, it looks like he’s still got plenty of supporters, and peers in the industry who are willing to show up to celebrate with him.