Month: July 2023

What is a mixtape? The answer might be uncertain in 2023 when albums, mixtapes, playlists, and “projects” all seem interchangeable. But Paramount Plus is looking to break down the format with its new documentary, Mixtape. Featuring interviews with mixtape legends like Lil Wayne, Jadakiss, ASAP Rocky, The Game, and many, many more, the doc attempts to define what the mixtape has meant to hip-hop for the past 50 years and track its evolution from actual, physical tapes, to downloads and streams blowing up careers. Check out the trailer above.

The part I find myself looking forward to most is DJ Drama‘s recollection of the 2005 police raid that upended hip-hop’s mixtape subculture after the Recording Industry Association of America became desperate to stem the tide of illegal downloads and rampant bootlegging. Drama was accused of racketeering, which he says in a clip in the Mixtape trailer made him “more famous than I ever was.” (You can read a little bit more about that incident here.)

Mixtape‘s August 1 release date is perfectly timed to join the ongoing Hip-Hop 50 celebrations currently going on, which include The Criterion Channel streaming classic hip-hop films, Sony Music dropping a compilation of its 50 years of contributions to the culture, and Mass Appeal’s producer EPs by Swizz Beatz and DJ Premier.

Though Coachella quite literally just happened, it’s time to start thinking about next year’s, which hopefully won’t have as much drama. In 2024, it’ll take place from April 12 to 14 and April 19 to 21. Tickets have already been on sale as of last month.

The owner of Coachella has sparked some controversy in the past. His name is Philip Anschutz, who owns the festival through AEG. The billionaire has been considered a polarizing figure because he and his foundation have donated money to organizations that are both anti-LGBT and support climate change denial. However, in 2017, he shared a statement to address the situation.

“Recent claims published in the media that I am anti-LGBTQ are nothing more than fake news — it is all garbage,” he wrote. “I unequivocally support the rights of all people without regard to sexual orientation. We are fortunate to employ a wealth of diverse individuals throughout our family of companies, all of whom are important to us — the only criteria on which they are judged is the quality of their job performance; we do not tolerate discrimination in any form.”

He continued, “Both The Anschutz Foundation and I contribute to numerous organizations that pursue a wide range of causes. Neither I nor the Foundation fund any organization with the purpose or expectation that it would finance anti-LGBTQ initiatives, and when it has come to my attention or the attention of The Anschutz Foundation that certain organizations either the Foundation or I have funded have been supporting such causes, we have immediately ceased all contributions to such groups.”

DDG deceived fans into believing Halle Bailey was pregnant on April Fool’s Day, but the platinum-certified artist isn’t playing around when it comes to Maybe It’s Me…, his forthcoming album and follow-up to last year’s It’s Not Me It’s You.

“I don’t know, Doc. I just feel like people really be hatin’ on me for no reason, and they don’t really know what be going on. They just be going off of what they see on the internet,” DDG said in his newly dropped official trailer for Maybe It’s Me… while laying on what appears to be a therapist’s coach. “But if people knew what was really going on, like, I wouldn’t even be going through this mentally.”

DDG references “a little screenshot on Twitter scandal” that started his struggle, presumably the DMs exposed his ex-partner Rubi Rose, which has “been going on for, like, five, six months now.” The camera cuts to a young Woo Wop holding a notepad and asking DDG why he decided to DM his ex. DDG said he “was just being petty,” which directly nods toward his February single, “Way Too Petty.”

Woo Wop encourages DDG to “be the bigger person” because he’s “not in the same position as before.”

DDG is about to attract even more attention with the release of Maybe It’s Me…, and below is everything to know about the album so far.

Release Date

Maybe It’s Me… is out Friday, July 14, via DDG Entertainment Inc./Epic Records.

Tracklist

1. “Famous”
2. “Love For Sale”
3. “Trynna Link”
4. “Rambo”
5. “Hands On Me”
6. “Rizz”
7. “Pioneer”
8. “Hard On Myself”
9. “I’m Geekin (Remix)” Feat. NLE Choppa and BIA
10. “I’m Geekin” Feat. Luh Tyler
11. “I’m Geekin”
12. “This Summer”

Features

As confirmed by DDG’s Instagram post sharing the tracklist, the album’s featured artists are BIA, Luh Tyler, and NLE Choppa.

Artwork

Singles

DDG released the sizzling single “This Summer” in early April, but it was quickly overshadowed by the sticky, self-aggrandizing “I’m Geekin.” DDG remixed “I’m Geekin” with Luh Tyler in May and again with BIA and NLE Choppa in June. Most recently, DDG dropped “Trynna Link” last week.

Tour

As of this writing, DDG had no announced plans for a subsequent tour.

Maybe It’s Me… is out 7/14 via DDG Entertainment Inc./Epic Records. Find more information here.

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

Christina Applegate has been frank about how the final season of Dead To Me saw a series of hurdles for her to overcome. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which brought third-season production to a halt. Still, Applegate resumed filming and finished the season, for which she was nominated for a SAG Award. Around the time, the Married… With Children cast flocked to her side while she received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star, and Applegate also imagined that this would be her “last awards show as an actor” while she contemplated her future career.

Not so fast. Applegate did manage to tell MS where to stick it (with a special red-carpet cane), and now, an awards show has stepped up to say that she hasn’t seen her last one yet. Applegate received an Emmy nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, and she reacted accordingly on social media.

“Thank you to the @TelevisionAcad @netflix @CBS and also the Hollywood critics and of course @GoldDerby for this incredible honor,” Applegate tweeted. “I am humbled and grateful. It’s been quite a ride. Thanks for the lift.”

The category is fairly stacked with likely frontrunners Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary) and Jenna Ortega (Wednesday), as well as Natasha Lyonne (Poker Face) and Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), but Applegate holds her own. She would be my choice for sure, and if you haven’t watched Dead To Me, you are missing out on not only some decadently dark humor but also the wonderful dynamic between Linda Cardellini and Applegate. Oh, and there are two James Marsdens and some headbanging, too. That’s a win, win, and win.

Following the delightfully fun How To Become A Tyrant, Peter Dinklage returns to guide us step by step through the process of becoming a cult leader. The series profiles 6 major cult figures, like Charles Manson and Marshall Applewhite, to deduce the elements that go into convincing an ever-growing number of people that you are worth abandoning everything else in their lives for.

In-depth conversations with talking head experts and former cult members are woven together with funky, wry animations that expose the wolves who preyed on people at their most vulnerable.

So, if you’re looking for a How-To on forming your own cult, this won’t really do it. It’s stridently anti-cult leader. But it will have a lot to teach us about the human condition and the lengths we go to so we can belong, create social structure, and find an answer to the big questions.

As one of the speakers says in the trailer, “If these groups were advertising what they’re really about, nobody would join.”

It’s an interesting moment for cults. Documentaries like Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence are growing in popularity and award notice, while a slew of podcasts about cult leaders continues to maintain a stranglehold on popularity. Maybe we’re all thinking a lot about who we put our faith in and whether we’d be susceptible to some charismatic weirdo who wants to control our souls.

Or we’re just really into lurid stuff.

How To Become A Cult Leader hits Netflix July 27th.

Amazon Prime Video just dropped the release window for The Boys spinoff, Gen V, and fans of the wildly satirical superhero world won’t have long to wait.

According to a new sizzle real for Prime Video’s upcoming lineup, Gen V will arrive some time in September, which is right around the corner. The promo video also shared new footage from the highly anticipated series that will take place at a Vought International University where burgeoning Supes are molded into the likeliness of the greatest hero of them all: Homelander.

Of course, as fans of The Boys know, Homelander is anything but a hero, and if there’s anyone who will sniff that out, it’s cynical college kids who don’t trust anybody.

You can see footage from Gen V below:

Outside of the university setting, little is known about the plot of Gen V. However, executive producer Seth Rogen has already teased that the spinoff series will be way more “insane” than The Boys. In fact, Rogen couldn’t believe what he was seeing when he checked in on the show.

“I’ve been starting to see episodes of, and it’s completely insane,” Rogen told Collider last year. “Just like the combination of superheroes in a college setting, in an incredibly subversive R-rated world is, yeah. There are parts of that show where me and Evan [Goldberg] are watching the cuts of the sequences that were just like, “Dear God, what are they doing over there?’”

Gen V starts class in September on Amazon Prime Video.

(Via Comic Book)

Bob Iger is once again pushing back at Ron DeSantis as the Florida governor’s ongoing feud with Disney shows no signs of backing down. While appearing on CNBC, Iger slammed DeSantis over his repeated claims that The Walt Disney Company is “grooming” children, which is becoming a catch-all phrase that far-right conservatives use to attack the LGBTQ community and their allies. Iger wasn’t having it.

“We are a pre-eminent entertainer in the world, and we are proud of our track record there,” Iger told CNBC via Deadline. “The notion that Disney is in any way sexualizing our children quite frankly is preposterous and inaccurate.”

While Iger reiterated his stance that he doesn’t want Disney to be “drawn in to any culture wars,” the CEO won’t tolerate DeSantis using the power of the state to retaliate against the company’s freedom of speech. Disney has already sued the state and DeSantis, and Iger made it clear that the entertainment giant isn’t messing around:

“We are concerned that he has decided to retaliate against the company for a position the company took on pending legislation in that state,” Iger said. “And frankly, the company was within its right, even though I’m not sure it was handled very well, it was within its right to speak out on an issue, a constitutionally protected right to free speech, and to retaliate against the company in a way that could be harmful to the business was not something we could sit back and tolerate.”

Iger also called out DeSantis’ rhetoric for sparking a Neo-Nazi demonstration outside of Walt Disney World, which only further pushed Iger to fight back. This isn’t going to end well, Meatball.

“It was horrifying, quite frankly, and it’s concerning to me that anyone would encourage a level of intolerance or even hate that frankly could even become dangerous action. It could be turned into some dangerous act of some sort,” Iger told CNBC. “So it is concerning to me.”

(Via Deadline)

Perimenopause is the sort of gift you never really wanted but you can’t take back because you lost the receipt. It’s like the last hoorah of your fertility as it slowly makes its way out of the door, but it overstays its welcome and has to mess stuff up on the way out so that you’re stuck cleaning up like the responsible adult you are.

Many people are familiar with the term menopause and equate that to symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats. But menopause is actually just the term for not having a menstrual cycle in 12 months or longer. Perimenopause is the time before the year-long absence of a menstrual period, and it can last a pretty long time, as much as four to eight years for some people.

But like a lot of things that involve women’s reproductive health, it’s under-researched, so even doctors may scratch their heads at some of the symptoms.

A comprehensive list of symptoms can be helpful even if some may still constitute a trip to the doctor to check for other causes, because chances are, if you’re nearing 40, perimenopause symptoms are knocking loudly. Thankfully, YouTube creator Kari Anne Wright has compiled a visual list to help you feel a little less alone on this wild ride.

Everyone knows the most talked about symptoms such as hot flashes or vertigo, but Wright takes the time to list things people may not know. Heart palpitations, hair loss, joint pain and forgetfulness are all symptoms of perimenopause. But so are things like foot cramps, itchy ears, weight gain and cold flashes. Yeah, you can just randomly become freezing cold and nothing works to warm you up.

Honestly, the list of symptoms for perimenopause is so long that it feels like the only things not listed are breathing and spontaneous combustion. But having a list and knowing you’re not alone may be just the thing you need to survive this inevitable part of life, so hurry and watch the video below. Save it to your favorites for when you have a moment of wondering, “Is this perimenopause or am I losing it?”

CW’s All-American was green-lit for a sixth season at the top of 2023, but now, it seems like the show won’t arrive during its usual time during the year. A new report from Variety revealed that CW moved All-American season six to midseason and the change was confirmed by the platform. It’s reported that the change was made as a result of the current writers strike for fair wages. All-American normal spot in the schedule was replaced by unscripted shows and reality competitions like FBoy Island, Penn & Teller: Fool Us, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Masters Of Illusion, and World’s Funniest Animals.

The move from CW may suggest that the platform hopes the strike is over by the beginning of 2024. However, with SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ guild, failing to reach a deal of their own, it now leaves room for actors to strike as well.

The change from CW for All-American is just the latest decision that affected a show under the All-American umbrella. It was recently announced that though All-American: Homecoming would be renewed for season three, the show would also have to downsize its season from 20 episodes to just 13. All-American: Homecoming also had to make changes to its cast and that resulted in Peyton Alex Smith and Kelly Jenrette no longer being series regulars for the show. Additionally, the status of Camille Hyde, who plays Thea Mays, is undecided at the moment as her role could also change ahead of season three.

Stranger Things probably won’t be back until 2025, at the earliest, but if you want to run up that hill to make a deal with God (or just say hi to Steve and Robin) before then, Universal Studios has something spooky planned for Halloween.

A Stranger Things-themed maze is returning to Florida’s Universal Orlando Resort and California’s Universal Studios Hollywood for Halloween Horror Nights 2023, this time in an encounter with season four big bad Vecna. Guests will travel from Hawkins, Indiana, to the Upside Down, with stops at Hawkins Labs, the Creel House, and Vecna’s lair along the way. Here’s more:

Along the way, guests will confront their deepest fears and come face to face with otherworldly creatures like demobats and even Vecna himself. In a race against the clock, guests find themselves in the ultimate showdown within Vecna’s blood-red Mind Lair, striving to escape and save mankind from his deadly curse.

Halloween Horror Nights will also have a maze for Emmys favorite The Last of Us. Attendees will follow in the (quiet) footsteps of Joel and Ellie by encountering Runners, Stalkers, and Clickers (pray there’s no Bloaters) as they “navigate the Pittsburgh Quarantine Zone, including iconic locations from the video game such as the creepy and desolate The Hotel Grand and a labyrinth of dark and dank tunnels, in a desperate attempt to escape and survive.”

Here’s a first look at both mazes:

Halloween Horror Nights begins at Universal Orlando Resort on September 1st, followed by Universal Studios Hollywood on September 7th. You can find more information and buy tickets here.