Month: July 2023

Donald Trump Jr. continued to make attacking Hunter Biden a key focus of his father’s 2024 presidential campaign. While serving as the keynote speaker for the Turning Point Action Conference over the weekend, Junior wasted no time bringing up Hunter’s laptop, which has been conservative McGuffin going all the way back to the last presidential election… where it failed to give the elder Trump a victory over Joe Biden. But why let a dead horse go unbeaten?

“I have a feeling if it were the ‘Don Jr. laptop from hell,’ you all would have heard about it,” Don Jr. told the crowd. “Right? I mean, do you think if I was videoing myself going 172 while smoking meth, I have a feeling, magically, CNN would find it to be relevant again.”

Junior then attempted to trumpet his father’s parenting skills by claiming the former president would’ve brought the hammer down if Junior were caught in a similar scandal.

Via Mediaite:

“Like, do you know — let’s talk about this for a second — do you know what my father would have done to me if it was my laptop?”

At this suggestion, the crowd broke into laughter, and an attendee yelled, “He’d chop your head off!”

“Yeah, my dad would have sent me to Gitmo! You’re right!” Don Jr. said.

Junior ended his remarks by suggesting that maybe Joe Biden could learn a thing or two about parenting from famous Father of the Year Donald Trump. (Father of the Years openly fantasize about having sex with their daughters, right? Ok, just checking.)

“You know, I think Hunter could have used some of that tough love from Joe…,” Junior mused about his dear old dad.

(Via Mediaite)

Back on May 19, country star Jason Aldean shared a new song called “Try That In A Small Town.” However, on July 14, he shared a video for the track. Then, over this past weekend, he ended a concert early due to heat exhaustion. Presumably for at least one of those two reasons, the two-month-old song has received some renewed attention online and it’s not favorable.

Aldean is a trending topic on Twitter today (July 17) after a couple different tweets showcasing the song’s lyrics went viral, with over a million views each. One reads, “.@Jason_Aldean – who was on-stage during the mass shooting at a Las Vegas concert in 2017 that killed 60 people and wounded over 400 more – has recorded a song called ‘Try That In A Small Town’ about how he and his friends will shoot you if you try to take their guns.” The other says, “heard some talk about jason aldean’s newest song and had to look up the lyrics… are we fr letting this sh*t slide?? in 2023??”

The song begins, “Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk / Carjack an old lady at a red light / Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store / Ya think it’s cool, well, act a fool if ya like / Cuss out a cop, spit in his face / Stomp on the flag and light it up / Yeah, ya think you’re tough.” The chorus continues, “Try that in a small town / See how far ya make it down the road / ‘Round here, we take care of our own / You cross that line, it won’t take long / For you to find out, I recommend you don’t / Try that in a small town.”

The second verse starts, “Got a gun that my granddad gave me / They say one day they’re gonna round up / Well, that sh*t might fly in the city, good luck.” He sings in a later bridge, “Full of good ol’ boys, raised up right / If you’re looking for a fight / Try that in a small town.”

This garnered plenty of reactions. One user wrote, “Someone tell Jason Aldean…,” and linked to an Associated Press article with the headline, “Mass school shootings mostly happening in small-town America.” Another user wrote, “Just a reminder that Jason Aldean grew up in a city (population approx. 160,000) and now lives in Nashville, TN (population 692,000). He has no idea what ‘happens in a small town’, he’s just a racist who writes barely concealed lynching songs.”

When releasing the song’s video, Aldean explained, “When u grow up in a small town, it’s that unspoken rule of ‘we all have each other’s backs and we look out for each other.’ It feels like somewhere along the way, that sense of community and respect has gotten lost. Deep down we are all ready to get back to that. I hope my new music video helps y’all know that u are not alone in feeling that way. Go check it out!”

Check out some more reactions below.

Early this month, Young Thug and Drake reunited — on digital wax if not in real life — on Thug’s new album, Business Is Business for a pair of tracks, “Parade On Cleveland” and “Oh You Went,” continuing their longstanding chemistry. Today, they shared the video for the latter track, which makes up for the lack of Young Thug’s physical presence with a few reminders of his impact on music fans in his native Atlanta.

Of course, while Young Thug’s presence is still felt in having young fans clamor all over Drake to recite Thug’s lyrics, the Atlanta rapper remains incarcerated. He’s (still) awaiting trial on charges of racketeering and other crimes, accused by the State of being the ringleader of a criminal organization responsible for wreaking havoc throughout Atlanta.

Being locked up didn’t stop Thug from releasing new music, though — even if the music was actually kind of old. Business Is Business is largely made up of material Thug had previously recorded before being arrested last year. Some fans still couldn’t help but conjecture about whether or not he’d commented on his present standing with YSL artist Gunna, who was released after accepting a plea deal in which he admitted to being in a gang.

Business Is Business is out now via Young Stoner Life Records/300 Entertainment/Atlantic Records. Get it here.

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

Tucker Carlson’s wallpaper face received plenty of airtime while he essentially dominated Fox News in prime time. However, an even more notable phenomenon can be found in the ousted host’s maniacal-sounding fits of laughter. Such as the case when The Daily Show couldn’t resist making a supercut out of Tucker giggling about sex while interviewing Elon Musk. Then there was the time that Tucker brayed with laughter while discussing his “white replacement” theory.

The laughter has taken over the airwaves too many times to count, and no matter the context, it’s always unsettling. So without further ado, here’s the most disturbing thing that you will see all day: Tucker giggling madly about a variety of subjects during his speech at the Turning Point Action Conference. His kicker appears to be a cocaine joke.

“Don’t trust a man with numb gums.” And again, the laughter. It’s a lot. Each laugh is like 10 normal laughs, and these super-laughs just keep coming.

Also, is that closer better or worse than Don Jr.’s cocaine joke? Perhaps it’s best not to compare them and not to think about this too much at all. Also, those Turning Point Action events are a little bit pricey, so hopefully, those in the audience do enjoy Tucker’s brand of enthusiasm.

Eight years after Dead & Company began in 2015, the spin-off Grateful Dead band played their final show on the farewell tour at San Francisco’s Oracle Park.

Consisting of original Dead members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann — along with John Mayer, Jeff Chimenti, and Oteil Burbridge — they had consistently toured (although Kreutzmann did not join the farewell tour, according to Brooklyn Vegan).

Even with the band coming to an end, the members are also staying quite busy, according to the publication. Weir’s band Wolf Bros are joining Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival Tour this fall. Kreutzmann’s Billy & The Kids band has two August shows: one in Baltimore and one in NYC.

And although Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh wasn’t in Dead & Company, fans can still catch him rocking out with Phil Lesh & Friends — who have several concerts going on later this month.

Continue scrolling for the final Dead & Company setlist.

1. “Bertha”
2. “Good Lovin’” (The Rascals cover)
3. “Loser”
4. “High Time”
5. “Samson And Delilah”
6. “Althea”
7. “Dear Mr. Fantasy” (Traffic cover)
8. “Hey Jude” (The Beatles cover)
9. “Bird Song”
10. “Help On The Way”
11. “Slipknot!”
12. “Franklin’s Tower”
13. “Estimated Prophet”
14. “Eyes Of The World”
15. “Drums”
16. “Space”
17. “Days Between”
18. “Cumberland Blues”
19. “Sugar Magnolia”
20. “Truckin’”
21. “Brokedown Palace”
22. “Not Fade Away” (The Crickets cover)

When it comes to hare-brained schemes, Donald Trump has no equal. According to a new book by former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor, Trump reportedly wasted considerable amounts of time obsessing over his border wall between the United States and Mexico. Even worse, that time was often spent on problems that didn’t even exist, yet Trump still expected people to follow through on his crazy solutions.

On one occasion in March 2019, Trump reportedly started demanding “out of of nowhere” that something be done about Texas ranchers who were opening doors in his border walls to let cattle reach the Rio Grande river.

“No doors. I don’t want doors,” Trump said in an excerpt from Taylor’s book. “How crazy is this? There are doors in the border wall? It’s stupid. They can just walk up, open the door, and thousands of [illegals] rush in.”

Despite being told by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen that this wasn’t even close to true, Trump still plowed ahead demanding a fix that would, we kid you not, involve cows climbing ladders.

Via Newsweek:

“Just buy the land. I know more about land than any other human on Earth. Let’s do it, okay?” Taylor quotes Trump as saying. “Give the ranchers ladders. They can use ladders to get to the other side, but not doors. You could use small fire trucks. Call the local fire stations, and use the ladders on their trucks to help them get over.”

The plan was “so incandescently stupid I couldn’t laugh,” Taylor remembers thinking at the time.

According to Taylor, Trump spent “coming up with imbecilic ideas at the border than he did focusing on his job” and the former president often had to be warned by the Pentagon to “stop talking about shooting migrants.”

“When it comes to Trump, the truth is always vastly more idiotic than the fiction,” Taylor told Newsweek.

(Via Newsweek)

As a culture, we are always talking about the fact that the “ideal” man or woman we see represented in advertising is so unattainable that it damages people’s mental health. But the reality is that when it comes to dating, 99% of us aren’t out there looking for someone the media thinks is ideal. We’re much more likely to search for the “type” we like best. And what’s cool is that just about everyone is somebody’s type, whether they know it or not.

The funny thing is that some people have a very specific type, while others cast a much wider net.

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A Redditor by the name of MyPasswordIsABC999 asked people on the forum to share a “type” they’re attracted to but “too embarrassed” to tell anyone. The question was a big hit, receiving over 17,000 responses, and most were proud of their type. In fact, the most popular comment on the thread was, “So many of these aren’t embarrassing.”

People shared all the different types they’re into, whether it’s those who are larger, thinner, have big or small features, and are tall, short or medium height. They also shared their favorite personality types, whether geeky, assertive, nice or mean.

“You know what I just love about this whole entire thread? Basically, every person in the world is attractive to someone else…that’s just so damn wholesome,” Runningprofmama wrote.

Another commenter was pleased by the refreshing tone of the thread. “What a wonderful body-positive thread. This is rare,” WhaleSexOdyssey wrote.

The thread might have been responsible for some love connections, too, as some people pointed out they were the type the commenters appreciate.

Here are 19 of the best responses to the question: “What’s a ‘type’ you’re attracted to but too embarrassed to tell anyone?”

1. Mad scientists

“What about a German scientist that is a high achiever with publications, patents, 80% of a PhD, and their own lab? Oddly specific, I know.” — DAngerscientist

2. Mean-looking women

“I like women that are kind of mean or at least look mean and stern.” — Juicecalculator.

3. Stabby-adjacent

“Crazy enough that I think I might actually get stabbed, but not crazy enough to actually do it.” — CryaxisOG

4. Girls with big noses

“Girls with big noses. I’m not quite sure why. Something about a prominent nose just adds a unique sexiness to a woman’s face.” — Wokeupstilltiredwrote.

6. Any type

“I literally have no type and no girl ever believes me. Scrolling through this post proves it. I’m just like yep strong girls love ’em, thick girls love ’em, goth girls love ’em, tomboy girls love ’em, tall girls love ’em, short girls love ’em.” — Hydroxs

7. Gray-haired men

“I’m 38, and I’m starting to be attracted to men with gray hair, or at least salt and pepper hair, which is completely age-appropriate, but it feels really weird.” — Meansecurity

8. Larger girls

“I’ve always been attracted to larger girls. I was embarrassed about this when I was younger, but fortunately got over it.” — shoesofwandering

9. Strong woman

“Assertive, not in a bossing around kind of way, more a she gets what she wants kind of way while still being a kind person.” — HelferleinLarger girls

10. Shy girls

“Super shy girls. Dating one currently and I love her so much. I feel like people assume if you like shy quiet women that you just want someone subservient. But the truth is I just like taking care of her and I love the way she looks at me when I predict what she wants and is so happy because I pay attention to her so I know how to love her and serve her.” — AbyssWankerArtorias

11. Larger men

“I only discovered this about myself with the guy I’m dating now. Was always into really skinny dudes and only dated skinny dudes and then I saw my guy one day, thought he was really cute, immediate crush.

He was wearing a mask for the first few months of knowing him (only knew him as a coworker), and then one day I see him walking around without his mask and oh my god he is gorgeous. I had to physically avert my eyes because I couldn’t stop looking at him. I’m pretty shy and unapproachable to people I don’t really know, so he stopped talking to me but I couldn’t stand it, overcame my shyness and went and confronted him about it one day (playfully), took his phone and put my details in it, and told him to talk to me. A month later we were dating. Anyway. I like thinking about it.

He’s soft and comfy and so strong so I feel really safe with him. I call him my pillow bf I’m seeing him later and I can’t wait.” — PsychicNinja_

12. Geeky guys

“The awkward geeky guys with glasses, the ones who are confident in the things they love but just a bit awkward.
There’s just something I love about winding them up, because sometimes they’ll try and give as good as they can get. But once they don’t know what to do they’re usually smiling and having fun but have no idea what to say. That’s the bit I like.
The minute I see I can get that reaction out of someone I’m hooked.

But it’s also an issue, because usually they have low self-esteem so at some point it turns into a why are you dating someone like me.” — AddictiveMischief

13. Big beefy men who are nerds

“Big boys. Human equivalents of bears. Tall and broad with thick arms and soft bellies, that could just pick me and throw me around. There is no too big. I loved climbing trees as a kid and now I’m rediscovering that hobby.

Men who watch anime and play video games and have any other nerdy hobby. I’m not joking. I was a weird anime kid growing up, it contributed to my bullying, I refused to give up on my interests.” — ghostyface6

14. Girls with crooked teeth

“Absolutely. I never knew I liked this so much until I realized some other folks are into it, too. I find it very humanizing and interesting. Add in some sorta sleepy eyes (just a little bags under the eye) and I’m SOLD.” — PolkaWillNeverDie00

15. Tall and slim guys

“I really like looking at this type aesthetically. They just make visually pleasing lines, especially if they’re leaning against a wall with their hands in their pockets or sitting in a rocking chair.” — CCVeediVee

16. Buff women and twinks

“I like women that are manly and men that girly. Call that the bisexual agenda.” — heyhihaiheyahehe

17. Whatever Jack Black is

“Whatever the f*** Jack Black is, but I’m NOT embarrassed. He’s f***ing hot to me. Fat, bearded, talented, and passionate. My kind of man. WOOF!” — Lostswansong

18. Red-haired men

“Men with red hair! Although I’m not embarrassed! Although a bit embarrassed to have a ‘type.’ It seems kind of shallow. It just seems to be unusual to love a specific hair color!” — Hagrid’sSexyNipples

19. Ice queens

“Every woman I’ve ever been with is cold, detached and acts like an aloof cat.” — Dammulf

Blur’s lead singer, Damon Albarn, once was placed against Oasis’ Noel and Liam Gallagher for the better band of the Britpop era. However, while Albarn’s band still makes music together, playing a recent run at Wembley Stadium and gearing up for the new album, The Ballad Of Darren, Oasis… well… Most know how that story goes.

The two Gallaghers have since taken their own solo musical routes while feuding with each other in the process. Every so often, there’s speculation or comments about the possibility of them making up to reunite Oasis, but then the feud continues.

Still, Albarn is holding out a lot of hope for an Oasis return.

“I can guarantee they’re going to reform, in fact, I’ve put money on it,” Albarn told The Sun recently. “They’re brothers and it would be wonderful to see them reconcile.”

“The only funny thing is that our two nights at Wembley will be dwarfed by their SEVEN!” he jokingly added, speaking to the group’s reach if they got back together.

In a separate interview with Consequence, he was also asked about the Gallaghers and shared, “The road is clear for them to do that now. I think that’s great. You know what I mean? Obviously, I expect an excellent new record to accompany it.”

Here’s hoping Albarn wins his bet.

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

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

For someone whose debut album is titled Love And Compromise, there isn’t much compromising on Mahalia’s second album IRL (In Real Life). The British singer laughs as I make note of this during our Zoom call as she heads to LAX for a flight back home after a month in the States.

It’s been four years since Mahalia released Love And Compromise, and since that album’s release, the singer and the rest of the world have gone through a lot. In credit to things like the obvious effects of the pandemic as well as more personal experiences, Mahalia, now 25 years old, is far removed from the 21-year-old woman who released that breakthrough collection.

Growing up is just one of the things that allowed her to make IRL. “Therapy got me here for sure,” she adds. “Therapy was probably the biggest catalyst for me. I think it was the one thing that really allowed me to understand myself. That’s why making this album was so interesting because I really felt like I was reflecting the whole time.”

Throughout the 13 songs that make up IRL, Mahalia couldn’t be more aware of herself and her surroundings and both the good and bad within them. She’s so deeply in love with Stormzy on “November” that she fears missing a moment of this romance by blinking or dozing off into sleep. “Isn’t It Strange” highlights the contradicting moments in her behavior but she blankets it with nonchalance as to do nothing more than acknowledge its existence. It’s a level of honesty and bluntness that emphasizes the “real” aspect of the album title. “I think that’s why this album maybe means so much to me because I think it actually does feel like diary entries,” she says.

Elsewhere, we meet the new Mahalia, the one who refuses to compromise for the things she wants. The one who lays down “Terms And Conditions” for love and warns that a potential lover will have to endure a vetting process conducted by her closest girls. The same who one found the courage to say “It’s Not Me, It’s You” to a man who made her wrongly believe that she was insufficient for a relationship. Despite this, Mahalia admits that often slips back to her old ways. “Even sometimes, now I find myself compromising on things and going, ‘what the f*ck am I doing?” Mahalia notes. “Like this is not what I’ve agreed with myself.”

Mahalia doesn’t attempt to hide the moments she goes against her own terms and conditions on IRL, and it’s that authenticity that adds to the album. After four years without an album, the British singer could have presented herself as a flawless woman who learned from her past to conquer anything her future threw her way. Instead, we get the very real back-and-forth moments of laying firm rules on “Terms And Conditions” all to hopefully bend them on “In My Head” with Joyce Wrice. “Wassup” with Kojey Radical celebrates freedom from an insufficient lover with a fun night on the town all for “Lose Lose” to follow and present Mahalia’s reluctance to put herself first and end a relationship that is riddled with too many problems. Through these instances, you may think that Mahalia is a bit fearful of change, but it was quite the opposite for her.

“My partner and I have now been together for coming up on three years,” she says. “Before that, I only made it to about 10 or 11 months, three times. When I got to that point with my partner, I remember having an internal freakout because I was like I don’t think I can go past that point or I’m feeling like I need to change and feeling like I need to alter something so that I can grow artistically.”

That feeling didn’t last too long as Mahalia admits that she’s “very scared of change now.” She is currently working towards splitting her time between homes in New York and London, a transition that she admits “freaked” her out at its start. “As you get older and figure out your comfort and the things that make you bounce, I think you don’t really want to change that because it’s taken you 25 years to find that sweet spot.”

This relationship has also allowed Mahalia, for the first time in her career, to create an album from the perspective of someone in a stable relationship. Staying on the topic of change, it’s been quite an adjustment for her to write from this new point of view. “I’m so used to just writing about the guys that do the sh*tty things and the guys that leave,” she says. “This was the time to be able to talk about all the intricacies of long-term relationships. They are just as crazy as being single and dating and being in the streets.” It’s a change that Mahalia not only fully embraced, but enjoyed as well. “The process itself was really, genuinely fun. Like, just really fun,” she admits. “I laughed [and] cried a lot while I was writing and creating, and I think that’s maybe why I’m so proud of it.”

During an interview with Evening Standard earlier this year, Mahalia admitted that she “probably wouldn’t have written this same album” if not for the pandemic. It’s an unsurprising note from the singer for a few reasons. First, the pandemic change a lot of things in a lot of areas for people all over the world, changes that were temporary and others that were permanent. Secondly, Mahalia’s almost three-year relationship means that it began in the heart of the pandemic, so who knows how it would’ve existed, if at all, if not for this time that forced the world to come to a standstill. These points aside, Mahalia also credits the “post”-pandemic moments for helping her find a direction for her sophomore album.

“Through the pandemic, we obviously couldn’t go into studios and stuff,” she recalls. “So when, when that time was over, I was working with loads of different people. I wasn’t really taking the time to sit and think, ‘This is my second album, what do I want to say?’ So after that immediate rush of being outside again, I decided that I kind of wanted that. I missed that feeling, I missed the four walls, I miss seeing the same people every single day.”

What came out of that was the decision to work with a small circle of three people to create IRL, and through that, comes an album that she feels is more cohesive than her debut. “[Without that], I would have just been going in the studio with everyone and just making a bunch of music which is kind of how Love & Compromise felt to me,” she admits. “I love that record and I always will because it was my first, but it definitely felt disjointed to me because I wasn’t learning with people and I wasn’t creating with people in that way. I was just creating to create.”

So what is it that Mahalia wants to say on IRL? Through all the changes she’s experienced in her life (multiple managers, boyfriends, and friends), Mahalia wanted to showcase her newfound independence and the benefits that come from it. “I really wanted people to get a sense of independence from this record,” she says. “Even though there are moments when I talk about relationships and people that I do depend on, I think you can really hear that I am depending on myself to get through this life and human experience.” She later adds, “I’m in that phase of my life where I’m like, I can do this sh*t on my own.”

Compromise is a thing of the past for Mahalia. Now, she’s putting herself first, both in her music and in real life.

IRL is out now via Atlantic Records. Find out more information about it here.

Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly’s rollercoaster of a relationship seems to be on the way up. On Sunday, the Jennifer’s Body actress shared a photos and video on Instagram of herself posing in a tree wearing only a bikini. “the forest is my oldest friend,” she captioned it, whatever that means. The post caught the attention of 3.7 million people who liked it, including Machine Gun Kelly. “if this is what a wild animal looks like, i’d let it maul me,” he commented.

What a wild weekend of celebrities oversharing on Instagram.

It seems that the couple, who got engaged in January 2022, are back on solid footing. The two threw fans for a loop earlier this year, however, when Fox sparked breakup rumors by posting cryptic lyrics from Beyoncé’s Lemonade hinting that she’d been betrayed before deleting her Instagram entirely. Speculation that Baker had cheated on the actress with his guitarist, Sophie Lloyd, swirled shortly after, but Fox later insisted that there had been “no third party interference in this relationship of any kind.”

What’s next for these crazy kids? Will MGK pick a fight with Jason Statham at the Expend4bles premiere for his double entendre shenanigans with Fox in the movie’s trailer? I think I speak for everyone when I say: god I hope so.

(Via Billboard)