Month: July 2023

Cardi B is shutting down any haters who doubt the fact that she writes her own lyrics, following the release of her “Point Me 2” collab with FendiDa Rapper. Earlier this morning, a Twitter user wrote, “I don’t care who writes it. Cardi B is hard AF!” about the song — leading the Bronx rapper to chime in.

“I WRITE IT ….Come to a studio session!” she responded.

Even with Cardi’s invite, the original poster still gave credit where it was due. “She raps with conviction. Every time!” he added.

“Once Cardi B releases another classic album in 2023,” another user commented on the post. “She’ll end up being a top 5 woman rapper once it’s all said & done respectively. Her features are too consistent.”

Over the years, Cardi B has pushed back against similar claims about her songwriting and having ghostwriters. “I do write a lot of my sh*t that’s the thing,” she said in 2019, according to Billboard. “Yes just like every other artist I do have a couple writer that help with hooks but I wrote plenty of songs on my album specially my mixtape.”

She also took home the ASCAP Songwriter Of The Year award that same year.

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

Investigative journalist Valerie Bell from ABC 33/40 was called to a lake near Birmingham, Alabama, for a breaking news story when she got the surprise of her life. When she arrived at the scene, authorities told her they received a call about a domestic dispute.

The officer said the emergency call led them to believe it was a “violent scene” with a lot of “screaming and hollering.” Although by the time the police arrived, the husband jumped into his car and took off, eventually driving it into a lake.

Bell took out her notebook and asked if she could take notes. But before she could jot any down, the officer told Bell that there was someone “really important” right behind her.

How it all went down… 💍 Here I was, thinking I was going to breaking news @abc3340, but little did I know, it was all part of a massive collaborative plan to pull off one heck of a surprise. Can’t wait to spend forever with you. I’m the most lucky girl. #BecomingBjornson pic.twitter.com/Md0P5yShxx

— Valerie Bell (@ValerieBellTV) July 1, 2023

Bell couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw her boyfriend down on one knee. She must have gotten dizzy having to switch her headspace from what she thought was a serious crime scene to the love of her life proposing.

“Val, you’re the greatest thing that ever happened to me,” her boyfriend said on one knee. “Every day with you is a day well spent. I hope I can spend forever with you. Will you marry me?”

To which the reporter responded, “Yes.”

The majority of responses on Twitter were congratulatory in nature. However, some were a little put off by the fact that the premise for the situation was a domestic disturbance. Others thought that the proposal was a waste of public resources. However, in a follow-up tweet, Bell reassured her followers that the local authorities involved in the proposal were all volunteers and off-duty.

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It’s an interesting premise for a show to invite celebrities to talk about their careers while eating hot wings that get spicier and spicier, but it works. First We Feast’s “Hot Ones” has been a fan favorite on YouTube, with everyone from Tom Holland to Idris Elba to Billie Eilish partaking in the tear-jerking, mouth-burning interview challenge.

People have ranked their favorite episodes multiple times, based largely on guest reactions to the wings. Gordon Ramsey’s appearance in 2019 has gotten more than 119 million views in the past four years as he critiques the wings, swears profusely and dramatically spews water in an attempt to stop his mouth from burning. But at least he had some donuts in front of him to help cut the heat.

Jennifer Lawrence appears to be in the running for the most entertaining “Hot Ones” episode, and with only a few different drinks to choose from to ease the pain. She’s definitely tough, making it through all 10 wings without bugging out, but her reactions are so genuinely JLaw, it’s hard not to love them. With nearly 9 million views in just two weeks, her sobbing appearance may just be the best yet.

She initially says she’s going into the episode humble, as she doesn’t think she has that high a pain tolerance. But she starts strong, right up to wing number seven. But when “Da Bomb” hits at eight, hoo boy.

Watch the highlights of her reactions:

@firstwefeast

jennifer lawrence’s reaction to every wing on hot ones 🤣 #hotones #jenniferlawrence

The full episode is a little over 23 minutes and worth watching. Jennifer Lawrence, 32, has had an incredibly successful and prolific film career for her age. The Academy Award-winning actress has received critical acclaim, but it’s been her down-to-earth personality in interviews that has won the hearts of the general population.

In her “Hot Ones” interview, she answers questions about her life, experiences behind the scenes and her opinions on other actors’ work. And impressively, she manages to provide coherent answers even when she appears to be dying.

Watch the whole episode here:

While the 4th of July celebrations might have ended, it seems Doja Cat is keeping the party going — by sharing some stripped-down pics from a patriotic photoshoot to her Instagram.

Doja changes looks throughout, wearing an American flag bikini in one as she poses with a messy hot dog. The food theme then continues as she goes topless, replacing the bikini top with some whipped cream and cherry coverage instead.

There’s also some popsicle poses as the rapper sits outside — clearly with seductive intent. Doja truly looks incredible in the series of high-quality shots, rocking her sunglasses throughout quite a few of them and theming her makeup around the red, white, and blue colors of the holiday.

“male gays > male gaze,” she captioned the set, tagging her photographer, Jacob Webster.

Fans in the comments are loving the shoot too. “MOTHER IS MOTHERING,” one user wrote. Others, well, are going a different route — while still keeping things positive. “Look at me Doja, I’m the hot dog you want,” another IG person commented.

Doja previously has been active on social media over the past few weeks, as she also dropped some new tour dates for the winter and is gearing up to share new music.

Check out Doja Cat’s patriotic slideshow above.

Parents who live in two-story houses know the struggle of clutter on the stairs all too well. It doesn’t seem to matter how tidy someone keeps their home, things pile up on the stairs. You start cleaning, and as you move through the rooms on the lower level an odd number of items that belong on the upper level continue to appear. The things don’t belong to you, so you put them on the staircase to be begrudgingly put away by one of the small humans you care for.

Eventually, the pile grows and becomes a tripping hazard. But there’s something parents who suffer from stair piles didn’t know they needed until now, and that’s a song about their plight. Kim and Penn Holderness are always coming up with creative ways to make parents laugh and this parody of “Living on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi is just chef’s kiss.

The parody is called “The Pile on the Stairs” and it has parents holding up lighters and swaying in their living rooms with their eyes closed. At the start of the video, Kim is standing on the stairs in front of strewn items.

“Do you not see this stuff? I put it on the stairs. Then you just carry it up. I’m not touching it,” she says. “I guess we’re just leaving this stuff here until we move.”

That’s when Penn comes in with the vocals, playing an electric guitar keyboard and belting relatable lyrics to a tune nearly everyone knows.

“Mommy found a pair of my socks. They’re down on the couch along with some other stuff. So much stuff,” he sings.

Each line in the song just adds to the relatability of this parenting struggle. People in the comments were here for the switch-up in lyrics.

“An 80’s power ballad dedicated to leaving items on the stairs? You’ve made our entire Tuesday, Penn and Kim,” one person wrote.

“This one just went straight to the top of my Holderness favorites! You scored a perfect bullseye with this one. These lyrics are going to be stuck in my head for all eternity,” another said.

“I’m dying, this is totally our family. We’ve started trying to institute a ‘take 1-2 things from the stairs when you go up’ rule, which apparently I’m the only one who follows. Although our pile is more on one side, rather than all over the place. :),” a different commenter wrote.

Watch the entire music video below:

Shocking footage out of Fenton, Michigan, reminds everyone never to take their eyes off a swimming child—especially one who is using floaties and is not an experienced swimmer.

Griffin Emerson, 7, was swimming in the shallow end of an apartment pool wearing floaties when he decided to remove them and play in the deeper end of the pool. “I just wanted to prove myself. Like, yeah, I can actually swim and stuff,” Griffin said, according to Good Morning America.

After struggling to keep his head above water, Griffin sank to the bottom of the pool.

“I saw him, and I just knew that he wasn’t OK,” Noah Roche, 12, said. “I saw him at the bottom of the pool, and then I didn’t know if he was just playing down there or something. So I just told Weston to get in and dive down to see if he’s OK.”

“His head was going up and down. I knew he wasn’t OK,” Noah’s brother, Weston Woods, 8, added.

Weston jumped into the pool and pulled Griffin to the surface, but he was unconscious. Griffin’s mother ran over to the boy and began performing CPR. The boy eventually spat up the pool water and regained consciousness. He was taken to the emergency room and released 36 hours later after a full recovery.

The boys were recognized for their heroic efforts at a ceremony attended by Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson, who gave the boys a packet of books and $100 each for a shopping spree. Swanson also recognized the dispatchers, EMTs, firefighters and deputies who assisted in the rescue.

Griffin’s family was also on hand to congratulate the brave brothers.

“Griffin had a little problem in the swimming pool,” Griffin’s grandfather said during a Facebook Live video shared by the Genesee County Sheriffs. “And these two young men right here saved him, got him from the bottom of the pool and brought him to the side of the pool. They’re my heroes.”

Noah’s answer was simple when asked why he helped with the rescue. “I just thought it was the right thing,” he said, according to WNEM.

The news out of Michigan comes after a recent rise in warnings about floatie safety. Jim Spiers, co-founder and CEO of SwimJim and president of the nonprofit Stop Drowning Now, told Today.com that floaties “don’t always work.”

“Kids can slip them off their arms, they can tip over, so it’s a huge issue,” Spiers continued. “They’re an aid — they’re not a rescue device, and parents should not look at them as a rescue device or as the babysitter in the pool.”

Sheriff Swanson took the occasion as an opportunity to make sure that children are supervised at all times while swimming. “We are in the season of Fourth of July and summer fun and parties, and you can never take your eye off a lake, a pond, a river, a pool a kiddie pool. Assign someone to that water,” Swanson said. “Learn CPR if you don’t know it.”

A dad is sharing his first encounter with a transgender woman in his small Texas town, and the simple lesson he taught his son is inspiring hope in others.

James Eric Barlow (oddragon226 on TikTok) shared a video from his car describing how he and his son saw a trans woman in real life for the first time. “We all know that there’s people that are disgusted whenever they see a trans person,” Barlow begins. “And we all know of the people who don’t care if they see a trans person.

“But apparently, we’re a third type of person (or at least I am, I can’t speak for him),” he says, indicating his son in the backseat who chimes in with “I am, too!”

Barlow then goes on to explain how they had just had their first experience with a trans woman. It wasn’t anything major—she just walked through a door behind them and Barlow held the door for her, just as he would any other person. He didn’t even notice she was trans at first, but once he did, his immediate reaction was one we can all learn from.

“When I tell you how happy it made me,” he says, beginning to tear up, “to be able to see somebody be out and open to the world here in small town Texas. You just gotta know how much bravery that takes. Right, Mikey?”

“Hell yeah!” the son agrees.

Barlow wanted to say something to her, but he didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable, either.

“But if you’re a trans woman and you came here to the Landmark truck stop in Clyde, Texas, just know we’re proud of you,” he concludes.

@oddragon226

our first trans woman experience #trans #transwoman #transpeoplearepeople #transrights #translivesnatter

Barlow’s video was shared on Reddit, where it’s received 37,000 upvotes and a slew of comments that prove parents set the tone for their kids’ sense of acceptance.

“Indoctrinate your children with kindness, compassion, consideration and respect for others.” – Toddthmpsn

“When I was younger I would get my hair cut by a woman named Liz. She spoke Spanish so it was hard for to understand her English sometimes. My dad spoke Spanish so would translate for her and me. I noticed Liz looked a little different then other women. But I never said anything, I never felt any differently about her. She never scared me, or made me question anything. She was just Liz. As I got older I realized she was a trans woman. And it literally changed nothing. She was still just Liz. Liz was always kind and treated everyone warmly. I havnt seen her in years but I hope she is doing well. I really liked her.” – PerplexedPoppy

“This literally happened to me as a child in the 80s. A cashier at a store we visited suddenly started dressing in a feminine style and it appeared that they were transitioning. My mom explained to me in an age appropriate way that sometimes people decide they want to be a man instead of a woman, or a woman instead of a man. She told me that people would probably be mean to the cashier and it was important for us to remember that and always be polite to her, as we would anyway. This was way before trans issues were as mainstream as they are now, but my mom had seen an episode of Phil Donahue where transwoman discussed their stories, and she recognized it as a medical issue. Core memory for me.” – ZipCity262

“As a trans woman, im deathly afraid whenever I have to go to rural areas. I can instantly feel physical tension when I walk into a gas station or a restaurant in these areas. Thank you for being supportive. Trans people need you now more than ever.” – rainbow_lenses

It really is a simple matter to accept people as they are and treat all humans with dignity, kindness and respect, even if we don’t fully understand them. And as this dad and son show, it’s a simple matter to demonstrate non-judgmental acceptance in front of our kids so they hopefully will grow up without being bound by chains of bigotry they’ll later have to learn to unload.

Upworthy earns a percentage of revenue from the purchase of items mentioned in this article.

In today’s fast-paced, information-driven world, it feels like we’re constantly running a marathon with knowledge. As we juggle careers, personal growth, and a multitude of responsibilities, the 21st-century lifestyle barely leaves us any room to breathe, let alone read and learn at our own pace. We all crave wisdom, insights, and a means to quench our intellectual curiosity, but the clock relentlessly ticks away, reminding us of our limitations. It’s a universal problem — we have the will to learn but not the time. Fortunately, Blinkist is here to help.

A better you—15 min at a time

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A better you—15 min at a time

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Petey announced that his first album with Capitol Records, titled USA, will drop this fall — to the delight of his fans. With the news, the indie performer shared the lead single, “I’ll Wait,” which details his anxiety, from being “overwhelmed” while buying groceries to wishing he could control his thoughts better.

“I’ll Wait” also has an accompanying music video directed by Tom Goulet. The fast-paced editing of a backyard party and spending time with loved ones also captures a stressed-out nature to it all.

Fans will get to hear both the new track and other ones from the album on Petey’s newly-announced North American tour this winter. Find a complete list of tour dates below, with more information available here.

Check out Petey’s new song, “I’ll Wait,” above. Continue scrolling for the complete USA tracklist and cover art.

1. “Bags Theme”
2. “I’ll Wait”
3. “I Tried To Draw A Straight Line”
4. “Home Alone House”
5. “Skip This One”
6. “Did I Mention I’m Sorry”
7. “Birds Of A Feather”
8. “Living Like This”
9. “Family Of Six”
10. “The Freedom To F*ck Off”
11. “How Bout That”
12. “Goodnight Nurse”

11/03 — Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
11/04 — Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
11/05 — Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
11/07 — Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
11/09 — New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
11/11 — Asbury Park, NJ @ Asbury Lanes
11/12 — Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
11/14 — Toronto, ON @ The Opera House
11/15 — Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
11/16 — Columbus, OH @ A&R Music Bar
11/18 — Cincinnati, OH @ Top Cats
11/19 — Indianapolis, IN @ HI-FI Indy
12/6 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theater

USA is out 9/22 via Capitol. Find more information here.

Guy Ritchie normally makes movies that are flashy, slickly edited, and brimming with snark-filled action. With The Covenant, he’s grown a bit more earnest, telling the story of an Afghan interpreter risking his life to drag an injured American soldier over inhospitable miles to safety. Jake Gyllenhaal plays the Army Sergeant who resolves to bring Ahmed (Dar Salim) and his family safely to the United States since they’re being targeted by the Taliban for helping US forces.

Fascinatingly, the war film had to make do without real guns after Ritchie banned them from his set following the tragic shooting on the set of Rust. Turns out Ritchie didn’t need them to craft an affecting, beautifully-acted war movie about the bond built between two honorable men caught in the middle of horrific violence.

So, when is it available to stream? Surprise! It’s already available. Just not for free.

As of June 16th, it’s currently available to rent ($5.99) and own ($19.99) on all major platforms: Prime Video, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube, Redbox.

But, as an MGM film, it will eventually be available to stream for free on Prime Video. There’s no official streaming release date for The Covenenant (ahem, Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant), and Prime Video can be fickle about when it chooses to drop it into the vast bucket of free-to-stream films. Another MGM film, Creed III, was available to stream for free three months after it’s release date, so The Covenant might be free to stream sometime in late July or August.

(via Collider)