Month: July 2023

Moving in together is a big step in any relationship. It’s never something you want to rush into. Unfortunately, our former president is an impulsive child, which is why Donald Trump invited Kari Lake to stay at Mar-a-Lago where she’s been “practically living” and reportedly driving him nuts.

The failed candidate for Arizona governor has been the front runner to be Trump’s running mate in 2024, but Lake may have lost her shot on the ticket by committing a cardinal sin: Taking attention away from Trump.

Via The Daily Beast:

As one of the advisers put it, she’s a “spotlight hound.”

While Lake does check off the running-mate box of being an extremely “loyal” backer of Trump, her ability to outshine the ex-president might just be her downfall.

One of the two Trump advisers, who has spoken with Trump about the matter, said the former president doesn’t appreciate Lake “running around saying she should be VP.”

On top of being a loyal MAGA soldier, Lake has shown a strong willingness to embrace and spread election fraud conspiracy theories. Much like Trump, Lake has refused to accept that she lost her bid for Arizona governor. However, being too much like Trump may just be Lake’s downfall.

“She’s a shameless, ruthless demagogue who wants power and will do whatever she has to do to get it,” a Trump advisor told The Daily Beast.

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Lake dismissed the alleged drama as “pathetic attempts from Team DeSantis” to weaken Trump. “MAGA world is more United [sic] than ever and ready to win big in 2024.”

(Via The Daily Beast)

Janelle Monáe’s “Lipstick Lover” was perhaps the biggest song of spring thanks in part to the borderline-NSFW video. In particular, the wet T-shirt teaser video used to promote the visual drew some eyeballs. Now, Monáe has another teaser out and it’s similarly skin-baring.

Last night, Monáe revealed that she has a video for “Water Slide” coming out on July 7 (this Friday) and heralded the visual with a quick 15-second teaser. The setting of the clip appears to be similar to that of the “Lipstick Lover” video: At an outdoor pool party with a bunch of women wearing not that much clothing. In the teaser, Monáe and others dance, show off their bodies, and otherwise enjoy each other’s company.

This comes after Monáe had a sometimes-wild weekend at Essence festival. During her set, she went ahead and flashed one of her breasts on stage. Elsewhere, she joined Megan Thee Stallion on stage for a twerking “boot camp.” A month ago, she also had her own float at the LA Pride Parade and gave a moving speech to onlookers between songs.

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

Donald Trump Jr. is having one heck of a Fourth of July week. This includes him investing time in tweeting about the suspected cocaine found near the West Wing of the White House. That led to plenty of jokes from respondents, yet if all had gone as planned, Don Jr. would be ranting from Australia this week, where he had been scheduled by Turning Point to go on a three-city tour of speaking engagements (with Brexit muse Nigel Farage in tow).

That clearly did not happen, and Turning Point posted a sad “#CancelCulture note to explain why Don Jr. did not surface in Melbourne, Sydney, or Brisbane after he had reportedly bragged about his “huge fan base in Australia.” Turning Point had also declared, “It seems America isn’t the only country that makes it difficult for the Trumps…”

That appeared to be a reference to the petition to deny a visa to the Eldest Boy. A group of Aussie activists had reasoned, “Donald Trump Jr is an illegal [redacted] bigoted person who should not be allowed to enter Australia for the purpose of earning himself and possibly his father any ‘Campaign Contributions.’” And for whatever reason, Trump seemed alright with letting people know that this worked, and his tour was postponed because the Libs “canceled” him.

Not so fast? Clare O’Neil, the Aussie Minister for both Home Affairs and Cyber Security, decided to speak out on Twitter. O’Neil did delete her tweets, but Reuter quotes them for posterity. According to O’Neil, Don Jr. acquired a visa, and she suggested that he bowed out because he didn’t sell enough tickets:

“Geez, Donald Trump Jr is a bit of sore loser,” she said in a series of posts on Twitter that were later deleted.

“Donald Trump Jr has been given a visa to come to Australia. He didn’t get cancelled. He’s just a big baby, who isn’t very popular.”

As of now, Don Jr. has not addressed O’Neil’s tweets. He did, however, complain that his dad received more grief for his “Diet Coke” addiction than Biden did for the coke found in the White House. He’s still on brand:

(Via Reuters)

As The Eras Tour rolls on and Taylor Swift brings her spectacle from city to city, memories continue to be made, both for Swift herself and for the thousands of people who have gotten to see the show so far. One Swiftie, though, has a tangible memory that’s become a part of them, one that they won’t forget for at least a few days.

The fan, known as saccharinesylph on TikTok, shared a video of themselves before Swift’s July 1 concert in Cincinnati. The video consists of two photos. The first is a photo of them smiling with the overlay text, “When you decide to write YNTCD lyrics on your chest for Eras Tour Cinic N2 and weren’t thinking about the sun.” On their chest is the “You Need To Calm Down” lyric, “Shade never made anybody less gay.” Sure enough, the next photo shows them with a sunburn on their chest, but the areas where the paint/makeup of the words was applied is unscathed, meaning the lyrics are clearly visible on their skin.

Some commenters on the post noticed the irony of the situation, like one user who wrote, “I guess some shade would have been a little bit helpful.”

Saccharinesylph isn’t the only one who got unintentionally tattooed: One commenter wrote, “I have a [heart] around my eye where I bedazzled the lover look. Work is fun for me right now.” Somebody else commented, “I kept seeing girls with the lover hearts on their face and I’m like y’all are going to be real surprised when u wake up tmw.”

Drake performed his first headlining North American tour show since 2018 on Wednesday night, July 5, when his and 21 Savage’s It’s All A Blur Tour sent Chicago’s United Center spinning.

Drake’s historic Apollo Theater performance in January, which Uproxx’s Wongo Okon reviewed, was a 41-song triumph. In terms of volume, it was also something of a dress rehearsal for It’s All A Blur.

Drake and Savage will return to United Center on Thursday, July 6, before logging thousands of miles until October 9. See all of the remaining It’s All A Blur Tour dates here, and check out the full opening night setlist below (as logged by setlist.fm).

Drake

1. “Look What You’ve Done”
2. “Wu-Tang Forever”
3. “Marvins Room”
4. “Say Something” (Hook Only)
5. “Shot For Me”
6. “Can I”
7. “Feel No Ways”
8. “Jaded”
9. “Jungle”
10. “Over”
11. “Headlines”
12. “HYFR (Hell Ya F*cking Right)”
13. “The Motto”
14. “Started From The Bottom”
15. “Energy”
16. “Know Yourself”
17. “Nonstop”
18. “Sicko Mode”
19. “Way 2 Sexy”
20. “BackOutsideBoyz”
21. “Jumbotron Sh*t Poppin”
22. “Laugh Now Cry Later”
23. “God’s Plan”
24. “Crew Love”
25. “Childs Play”
26. “Wait For U”
27. “In My Feelings”
28. “Nice For What”
29. “Controlla”
30. “One Dance”
31. “Fountains”
32. “Work”
33. “Too Good”
34. “Yebba’s Heartbreak”
35. “Texts Go Green”
36. “Calling My Name”
37. “Massive”
38. “Sticky”
39. “Search & Rescue”

Drake And 21 Savage

40. “On BS” (Played From Tape)
41. “P*ssy & Millions”
42. “Spin Bout U”
43. “Knife Talk”
44. “Jimmy Cooks”
45. “Rich Flex”

Drake / Encore

46. “The Ride”
47. “How Bout Now”
48. “Legend”

Remember, mere months ago, when Drake had people believing he might be on the cusp of retirement? That was cute.

Drake couldn’t be more active right now. Two weeks ago, he surprise-dropped a poetry book and printed a QR code in select newspapers to tease an accompanying album, entitled For All The Dogs. His and 21 Savage’s It’s All A Blur Tour kicked off its three-month North American leg at Chicago’s United Center on Wednesday night, July 5, and he didn’t waste time stoking the anticipation.

According to the Drake fan account Word On Road, Drake told the crowd, “I have an album coming out soon for you’ll.”

The account also relayed that Drake began his set with the Take Care track “Look What You’ve Done” and chronicled his setlist in real time.

Photos surfaced online prior to the show of the It’s All A Blur Tour merch, including Nike hats, bucket hats, and several graphic tees.

Drake and Savage will perform again in Chicago on Thursday, July 6, before hitting Detroit, Michigan for back-to-back shows at Little Caesars Arena. The exhaustive leg is scheduled to conclude in early October. Drake will stage two assuredly epic hometown shows at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on October 5 and October 7, ending with the rescheduled Columbus, Ohio date on October 9.

The It’s All A Blur Tour is Drake’s first North American tour since 2018.

See all of the dates here, and check out more opening night footage below.

Despite what he sometimes claims, Donald Trump clearly loves Vladimir Putin. He didn’t get along with many world leaders, but he always cozied up to the despots. When Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Putin’s private mercenary army the Wagner Group, launched a quickly aborted mutiny a couple weeks back, it clearly left Trump verklempt — no less so because he reportedly wanted (and may still want, should he win re-election) one of his own.

As per Raw Story, yet another Trump tell-all is coming out. It’s called Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump, and it was penned by Miles Taylor, former chief of staff of the Department of Homeland Security during Trump’s reign. The tome won’t be released until July 18, but Taylor has already discussed some of the shocking things revealed within. In a piece for Real Clear Politics, Taylor wrote of Trump’s “envy of private armies, like Putin’s wayward Wagner Group.

“The former president once sought his own mercenaries and might do so again if he wins back the White House,” Taylor added, saying there was real “alarm” among his colleagues that he could make this a reality.

Taylor writes that Trump first came up with the idea in the summer of 2017, when he wanted to “yank U.S. troops out of Afghanistan without any planning” because he was “impatient” and was tired of spending money on the issue. The DHS team tried to come up with some new solutions, only to discover that Trump had come up with his mercenary gang idea. What did Taylor think of it?

I explained that this was a horrible idea for many reasons, not least of which was that a Trump-controlled mercenary group would circumvent public scrutiny, erode checks and balances around the use of force, and undermine confidence in the American military.

But by then Trump’s advisers were already talking to Erik Prince about siccing Blackwater upon Afghanistan. Taylor then cobbled together a “thick briefing memo” about why this was a bad idea. But knowing Trump’s attention span, he condensed his 50-to-60-paged book into two pages, writing “in the president’s voice.” They even gave it a Trumpian title: ‘Afghanistan: How to Put America First—And Win!’

Here’s a primer on the then-president’s primer:

If we pulled out of the country too fast, I wrote, we would be mocked as ‘losers’ by terrorists. If we wanted to be ‘winners,’ we needed to fight smarter and harder, then cut a ‘great deal’ to hand over security to the Afghans. I made no mention of deploying a private army to finish the job.”

Thing is, it worked — because Trump was convinced that it would make him look like a “loser,” not a “winner.”

Alas, it was a pyrrhic victory: Trump circled back to the mercenary gang idea the following year when he wanted a 5,000-man team to help overthrow the regime in Venezuela. Someone else had to write the memo dissuading him from that one.

Now that Trump is back on the campaign trail, Taylor’s worried third time’s the charm. After all, he often referred to the U.S. military as “his” — “his military,” “his generals.”

“Next time we won’t be so lucky,” a person familiar with the matter told Taylor. “We’ll have a military run by mercenaries.”

For now, though, Trump’s a little distracted by his various legal woes, and by rage-posting on his rinky-dink Twitter clone.

(Via Raw Story)

On Wednesday night, July 5, Drake and 21 Savage’s winding It’s All A Blur Tour kicks off at Chicago’s United Center. Drake reminisced on his formative Degrassi days to hype up himself and fans for opening night, and the tour’s staging is reflective in an especially sentimental way.

“Our brother is watching,” Drake wrote to his Instagram Story atop a photo of a larger-than-life statue of the late Virgil Abloh.

NFR Podcast also tweeted, “Drake & 21 Savage’s tour stage design honors the late great Virgil Abloh with a statue [dove emoji] It pays homage to Virgil’s first Louis Vuitton fashion show in 2018!”

Abloh was an artistic polymath. He died aged 41 in November 2021 after an intensely private two-years-plus battle with cancer. The Chicago-area native’s seemingly sudden passing was met with an outpouring of grief on social media from prominent figures in music, fashion, and entertainment.

In the immediate aftermath, Drake paid tribute by getting a tattoo depicting the same photo that the It’s All A Blur statue recreated.

Abloh served as the Artistic Director Of Menswear for Louis Vuitton until his death, and Pharrell Williams stepped into the vacant role earlier this year.

Drake and Savage’s It’s All A Blur Tour will return to the United Center on Thursday, July 6. They’re then set to perform back-to-back nights at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan on Saturday, July 8, and Sunday, July 9.

The ambitious trek is scheduled to last into October. See all of the dates here.

The 15th staging of Nos Alive is stacked. The lineup boasts the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys, Lizzo, Lil Nas X, Sam Smith, Queens Of The Stone Age, and Machine Gun Kelly.

Thethree-day event all starts on Thursday, July 6, at Passeio Marítimo de Algés in Portugal. The schedule is headlined by the aforementioned acts and so many more — enough that it needs seven stages to handle them all, including Palco Nos Stage, Palco Heineken Stage, Palco WTF Clubbing Stage, Palco Coreto Stage, Palco Fado Cafe Stage, Palco Comedia Stage, and Portico Nos Alive Entrance.

On July 6, Red Hot Chili Peppers won’t take the Palco Nos Stage until 11:30 p.m. local time, just after The Black Keys’ 9:30 p.m. set.

The same stage will welcome Lil Nas X at 1:15 a.m. to conclude the festivities on Friday, July 7. The anticipation for that will be built by Arctic Monkeys (10:45 p.m.), Lizzo (8:50 p.m.), Idles (7:20 p.m.), Girl In Red (8 p.m.), and more.

Saturday, July 8 — or, technically, Sunday, July 9 — will conclude with Rufus Du Sol at 1:15 a.m. Prior, Sam Smith is set for 11:05 p.m., Queens Of The Stone Age at 9:15 p.m., and Machine Gun Kelly at 7:30 p.m. Other July 8 performances will be delivered by Omah Lay, Rina Sawayama, Angel Olsen, and King Princess.

See the full Nos Alive lineup and schedule below, and find more information here.

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

Despite their entire job being able to throw the ball accurately, some pitchers can have a difficult time dialing things down for a throw over to first base.

There’s a reason a lot of pitchers will pitch the ball underhand to the first baseman if they can, because it’s tough to slow things down when you’re accustomed to trying to throw the ball as hard as possible. There are some fairly famous examples of pitchers struggling to make what should be a very simple throw for them, with Jon Lester’s yips being the all-timer, as for years he quite literally could not make a throw to first.

On Wednesday night in Miami, Cardinals pitcher Jordan Hicks was the latest pitcher to succumb to a throwing error to first base, but his came with heightened stakes as there were runners on first and second in the bottom of the ninth with St. Louis clinging to a one-run lead. So, as a chopper bounced back to him, he double clutched and airmailed his first baseman, allowing the game-tying and game-winning runs to score on the most painful walkoff of the season.

The worst thing to do when throwing a baseball is trying to aim it, and you can see Hicks take a second little hop to try and get his throw perfect, while not rocketing it full speed at his first baseman. The result is a lollipop throw that goes bounding into foul territory, with no one able to back up the play and prevent Miami’s runners from rounding the bases and ending the game.