Kanye West’s recent legal troubles continue this week as NBC News reports the producer has been sued by his former property manager after being fired for refusing to work in allegedly unsafe conditions. According to the report, the property manager, Tony Saxon, refused a request from Kanye to remove all the windows and electricity from his Malibu home.
After Saxon refused, Kanye said he would be “considered an enemy if he did not comply,” and told him to “get the hell out.” The 32-year-old Saxon had worked for Kanye for around two months on a promised salary of $20,000 per week — although Saxon says Kanye only paid him twice, and one of those payments was alleged to have been allotted for the requested renovations. Saxon said Kanye’s goal for the house was to turn it into “a bomb shelter from the 1910s.”
To that end, some of the changes he requested included disconnecting the home from city plumbing and electric and replacing the stairs with slides. At first, Saxon said he thought it was meant to be an art project, but that “As we progress, it’s becoming clear that, no, he wants to live in here… He only wanted plants. He only wanted candles. He only wanted battery lights. And he just wanted to have everything open and dark… He wants to be on a privatized Wi-Fi network. He wants to have an alternate source of energy. He wants to have no doors, no windows, no fixtures, just concrete.” As he put it, “We were going to be gutting all of that out and sort of building him a Bat Cave” where he could “hide from the Clintons in and the Kardashians in.”
Of course, there were drawbacks. As Saxon noted, “You can’t keep food in that house, because you had no refrigerator left. You had no windows. I had sea gulls flying in.” According to Saxon’s attorney Ron Zambrano (who is also representing Lizzo’s former dancers in their own workplace dispute), “Ye has shown a reckless disregard toward his employees and has flouted the law in unbelievably dangerous ways throughout this entire project at the Malibu house.He continues his pattern of not paying his bills while treating workers terribly. No employee should have to suffer through the sort of working conditions Mr. Saxon was forced to endure, yet Ye showed no concern and merely wanted the work done, despite the hazardous and unsafe, not to mention illegal, actions he was trying to force the plaintiff to undertake.”
Alongside Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, Powell was one of the more prominent faces of Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and those efforts allegedly involved Powell’s attempt to breach voting machines in Georgia. However, she argues in a new motion that she was actually against the imaging that was done by a law firm she hired to analyze the voting machines.
“Ms. Powell’s counsel also believes there are text messages and other documents, including grand jury testimony by Paul Maggio of SullivanStricklerLLC, that not only show authority was given, but also demonstrate that Ms. Powell did not agree with anyone to access the Coffee County machines,” the footnote reads.
Powell’s non-profit group Defending the Republic paid SullivanStrickler, a computer forensics firm retained to collect and analyze equipment from Dominion Voting Systems, a frequent target of her election-related conspiracy theories. But Powell has tried to distance herself from her organization’s dealings.
“She was simply not involved in arranging that transaction,” the footnote reads.
As for the chances of Powell’s charges being dropped? Not likely considering a grand jury already examined the evidence.
“There’s no motion to dismiss for not enough evidence,” Atlanta-based defense attorney Andrew Fleischman told The Messenger. “Once a grand jury has found probable cause, that determination is the determination.”
This spring, the festival celebrated “Ten Years Of Big Ears,” and it already has eyes toward making the next decade even better. Earlier this week, Big Ears unveiled its 2024 lineup — topped by Herbie Hancock, Rhiannon Giddens, Adrianne Lenker, Laurie Anderson, and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. The event will run from March 21 to March 24, 2024.
Big Ears announced a partnership with Professor King Britt, also a music producer, who created the University Of California course “Blacktronika: Afrofuturism In Electronic Music,” which has evolved into a festival of its own. Britt and Big Ears founder Ashley Capps worked together “to curate workshops and events for the festival,” as Britt explained in an Instagram post about Blacktronika X Big Ears Festival.
According to Knoxville News Sentinel, “between 75 percent and 80 percent of artists on the lineup have never performed at Big Ears,” which is aiming to match or beat its 8,000 attendees-per-day mark from the 2023 edition.
As for ticketing, the general on-sale began Thursday morning, September 14, at 9 a.m. EST. The festival’s official website lists various four-day pass options, ranging from $350 to $950 (before fees), and single-day pass options.
In 1993, a brand-new Lexus GS 300 was the height of luxury — at least, it was in the mind of Jay-Z, who was still about three years away from his big break. It figured so prominently into his dreams of wealth that he rapped about it multiple times early in his career — notably on songs like “Can I Live” and “Dead Presidents II,” and later nostalgically on “Empire State Of Mind.”
Now, that car has been added to the Brooklyn Public Library’s The Book of HOV exhibit, bringing his early fascination with the vehicle somewhat full circle (I mean, it’s a thirty-year-old luxury car from when “luxury” meant “it has power windows.” You never thought Toyota would take it this far).
The exhibit has been such a resounding success that its run has been extended per Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez, who said, “The response to The Book Of HOV has been overwhelming, so we’re excited to extend the exhibit to December to ensure new and returning attendees can have enough opportunities to fully immerse themselves into the experience.”
According to Lexus Advertising & Media Senior Manager Mia Phillips, “The vehicle display is recognition of the mutual respect and admiration between Lexus and Jay-Z, whose brilliance and contributions to culture extend far beyond hip-hop.”
Fans want to know who’s on the album. Wednesday (September 13), the rapper teased a new single with SZA with an Instagram post. Lil Yachty spoke about working on the record. Thursday (September 14), Drake began teasing the track “IDGAF,” with features Yeat. Nicki Minaj has confirmed that she’ll be on the album, as well as Bad Bunny.
About the album, Lil Yachty explained, “It sounds current, you know? It sounds very current,” he said. “It’s interesting, it’s coming together a lot better than I thought when I — I just had a talk with him a couple days ago in Vancouver and I was like, ‘Man…’ I was a little worried, ’cause I have a lot of the songs, I don’t have all of ’em, I have a lot of ’em though. And I was just like, ‘Man, I just don’t know if it’s — how are you gon’ put this together? Because it’s a lot of great songs but they don’t really — in my brain, I was like, they didn’t really sound together. And then we had a talk about it and he explained to me his thought process about it. And we drove somewhere, we drove to that video shoot which was like an hour away, and we listened to it, and it makes sense now.”
Apple TV+ is doing its part to corner the market on coveted adaptations these days, and the streamer managed to pull off a swift adaptation of Bonnie Garmus’ bestselling novel, Lessons In Chemistry, for a limited series starring Brie Larson. Garmus became an overnight “a literary rock star” at age 66 and has been hailed as not only penning an impressive debut novel but also the biggest debut novel of 2022, so there’s certainly a built-in audience waiting to stream the subversive story when it arrives in October.
Larson portrays Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant chemist who’s on the verge of a major breakthrough when she ends up being fired for a double standard. She makes an unexpected career change and finds herself with a high-profile new platform, where she can not only host a cooking show but sandwich in other nuggets of wisdom as well. From the synopsis:
Set in the early 1950s, “Lessons in Chemistry” follows Elizabeth Zott (played by Brie Larson), whose dream of being a scientist is put on hold in a patriarchal society. When Elizabeth finds herself fired from her lab, she accepts a job as a host on a TV cooking show, and sets out to teach a nation of overlooked housewives — and the men who are suddenly listening — a lot more than recipes.
Apple TV+’s Lessons In Chemistry co-stars Lewis Pullman, Aja Naomi King, Kevin Sussman, Stephanie Koenig, Thomas Mann, and Patrick Walker. The limited series debuts with two episodes on October 13 and weekly Friday episodes to follow.
“I think what helped me to overall just take a breath and let things be is understanding that my journey has never worked out in the specific ways that I wanted it to — always better,” the What I Didn’t Tell Youartist said. “Better in ways that I would have never known to pray for.”
“I heard y’all requests & made it happen!” Jones wrote to X (formerly known as Twitter) and Instagram Stories on Wednesday, September 13. “Leg 2 of the What I Didn’t Tell You Tour is official with new dates & new cities.”
The second US leg is scheduled to start on October 23 at Theatre Of The Living Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and stretch across 11 cities before the November 12 finale in Houston, Texas. Ticketing information can be found here.
10/23 — Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre Of The Living Arts
10/24 — Raleigh, NC @ Lincoln Theatre
10/26 — Washington, DC @ The Fillmore Silver Spring
10/29 — Atlanta, GA @ One Music Fest
10/31 — Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head Live!
11/01 — Richmond, VA @ The National
11/03 — Charlotte, NC @ The Underground
11/04 — Greensboro, NC @ AT&T State University
11/06 – Indianapolis, IN @ Deluxe At Old National Centre
11/07 — Cleveland, OH @ House Of Blues
11/09 — St. Louis, MO @ Delmar Hall
11/12 — Houston, TX @ Honeyland Festival
Maher revealed on Wednesday that Real Time is coming back, “sans writers or writing.” He wrote on X, “It has been five months, and it is time to bring people back to work. The writers have important issues that I sympathize with, and hope they are addressed to their satisfaction, but they are not the only people with issues, problems, and concerns.” Maher admitted that the writers-less version of the HBO series “will not be as good as our normal show, full stop,” but “the heart of the show is an off-the-cuff panel discussion that aims to cut through the bullsh*t and predictable partisanship, and that will continue.”
It sounds like this version of Real Time will be pure, uncut Maher, who Norm MacDonald once memorably called “maybe the unfunniest person I’ve ever encountered.” That comes from a 2015 Hollywood Reporter interview with the late, great comedian, which was resurfaced by writer Sean O’Connor after Maher stopped talking about masturbation long enough to criticize the “kooky” demands of the striking writers. Here are his full comments on Maher:
“I find him completely unfunny. Like, maybe the unfunniest person I’ve ever encountered that’s called a comedian. I like his show because of the arguing back and forth, and he knows a lot about politics. But the worst is when he forces you to sit on the panel while he does his New Rules, which are just a bunch of jokes. And you have to sit there, a foot from the dude with a camera in your face. You’d think he would just excuse them, but no, you have to sit there and watch.”
Back in August, it was reported that NSYNC would reunite for a new song for the movie Trolls Band Together, in which the group’s Justin Timberlake of course stars as Branch. Now, we know for sure: The song, the first new musical release from the band since 2002, has been officially announced and some of it can be heard in a new trailer for the movie. It’s called “Better Place.”
It’s all we ever wanted, all we ever needed Watch the new trailer for #TrollsBandTogether featuring “Better Place” from *NSYNC
Earlier this year, Lance Bass spoke about assumptions people might have about how the band members are doing financially, saying, “We were famous, but we were not rich,” adding, “I made way more money after NSYNC than I did during NSYNC.” The reason? He said the band’s late manager Lou Pearlman “took the majority of our stuff.” He added, “And the record label too. Horrible, horrible deals.” Bass noted, though, “To do that with those guys, it was incredible, and you had some of the best experiences ever. I mean, obviously changed my life, led me to so many things I wanted to do in life.”
Gareth Bale’s bonafides in the world of football are well-established. Bale, who announced his retirement from his primary sport in January of 2023, established himself as one of the most dynamic players in the world during his time with Tottenham, won the Champions League five times and La Liga three times as a member of Real Madrid, and is very high on the list of the greatest Welsh footballers to ever live. The final two acts of his career involved leading Los Angeles Football Club to the first MLS Cup in club history and playing an integral role in getting Wales to its first World Cup appearance since 1958, where he scored the team’s only goal of the tournament via a penalty against the United States.
Performing in a sport at such a high level requires an outlet, and for Bale, that came in the form of golf. While his love of the sport made headlines during his time in Madrid — he was once, for example, at the center of controversy after his Welsh teammates grabbed a customized flag for him to celebrate their Euro 2020 qualification that read “WALES. GOLF. REAL MADRID.” across the top and “IN THAT ORDER” on the bottom — Bale doesn’t hesitate to speak glowingly about his love of golf to this day. And now that passion has led to him entering the world of golf video games, as the one-time talismanic winger is the latest non-golfer to appear in PGA Tour 2K23 as a playable character.
In conjunction with the news, Uproxx Sports caught up with Bale to discuss his love of the game, how golf helped him during his footballing career, playing in MLS, the Wales-USMNT game at the 2023 World Cup, and much more.
PGA Tour 2K23
I want to start by asking about PGA Tour 2K23. How did that arrangement come about?
I think everybody knows how much I love golf and [I’m] always trying to promote the game and try and grow it in any way, shape, or form I can. And then obviously, I think there’s been a few celebrities, sports stars in the game, and obviously got approached, kind of a cool thing to happen to see yourself in a golf game. Normally, I’m used to seeing myself in a football game. But yeah, it’s quite cool to be in a game that you have a great hobby for, you have a great love for, and you love playing. So it was quite a cool, cool thing to happen.
And I know you’re very good golfer, and we’ll get to that in a second, but were you ever a big golf video game guy? Or did you prefer to play in real life?
No, I used to play quite a bit — actually, when I was younger, I used to play only on the golf games. So obviously, the old Tiger Woods game and stuff like that. So, I remember a couple of times, trying to call in sick so I didn’t have to go to school. And I used to try and trick my mum, because I was on tour in career mode in Tiger Woods. So, I’ve always loved playing the video game, and then obviously as I got older, around 19 or 20, I started playing golf actually on the course.
I want to ask about the process of getting added to the game, like all the capturing stuff. Is that a similar experience to you when you’ve been added to FIFA games in the past?
Yeah, kind of a similar experience. It was cool coming here today and having all the cameras and doing the funny facial expressions, because obviously, I think in golf, you see a face a lot more closely. It’s a lot more individualized and FIFA is a bit more from a distance, and you only really see yourself in a celebration. It was a cool experience, pulling the funny faces and getting the features and stuff like that. So yeah, had a good bit of fun doing that.
So where does this love of golf come from?
I couldn’t really pinpoint one thing where it came from. But I think, no matter who you speak to, everyone wishes they took up golf earlier. I’m the same — I only started playing properly, maybe when I was about 19 or 20, and I think just being in football with the stresses, with the pressures, being able to … you’re in that cauldron, and everyone’s always talking about you, or they’re putting the pressure on you to play and this, that, or the other.
Being able to go on a golf course, having that peace and quiet, having that bit of enjoyment with your friends or whether you’re on your own, just being away from the hustle and bustle of life, of the stresses of the job, really appealed to me as well. And it definitely helped me during my career to have those times away from your sport, away from everything that’s going on. You’re just able to have a bit of fun with your friends or yourself and battle the course. I just feel like it really did help, I think, with my mental health more than anything, being able to go out there and enjoy myself and get away from everything.
I’m fascinated in the relationship that high-level athletes in other sports have with golf — there’s you, there’s Michael Jordan, there’s Harry Kane, there’s Josh Allen. Do you think that being able to get away but still scratch that competitive itch is really that important for athletes in team sports?
One-hundred percent. There’s no better adrenaline than hitting a birdie putt, hitting a good drive, hitting a wedge shots close, you really do get the competitive juices going and they really do give you that little kick of adrenaline. So, even though it’s maybe not in front of thousands, you really do feel the buzz and the kickoff playing with your friends, beating your friends — not even for money, just for the bragging rights. I think there’s no other sport that you can play against any kind of standard of player and make it an even game. I think that’s what makes it even more special, to be able to play with a lot wider variety of people.
I saw that you played a Pro-Am at Pebble Beach this year. Is that something that, if your schedule allows, you’d love to do more of those kinds of things?
Yeah, definitely. I’ve never done anything like that before, so going into it was a bit of a daunting experience and I hadn’t played too much golf going into it. In an ideal world, I would have had a three or four week kind of training camp, practice sessions going on, but that wasn’t the case.
But yeah, I really looked forward to going there and I absolutely loved it. Honestly, my goal for the week was not to kill anybody with a golf ball. I successfully did that and I made the cut. And I had a great time with with my professional, Joseph Bramlett, who was an incredible guy, made me feel so welcoming, and he played absolute incredible that week as well. So yeah, I loved it, and like I said, I would love to do more of those things in the future, because they were really fun. Obviously being able to see what the pros go through, in their kind of zone where they have to get in the zone for their sports, and obviously looking at what I did with mine, it was quite cool to see how they go about things, how focused they are, how much time they take on each shot, and really what they speak about, how they think going around the course, which I think definitely will help my game moving forward.
You know what it’s like to be a pro athlete going up against an amateur and what that entails. When you got to be on the other side of that — and you kind of touched on that — what’s the difference between a pro golfer and a really, really good amateur golfer like yourself?
There’s a big difference, don’t get me wrong. But they really just think their way around the course, they don’t make those silly mistakes, when they hit a bad shot, they hit a bad shot into the correct spot, they just get up and down from everywhere. The focus they have, you can see it in their eyes, they’re just so focused with every shot. I feel like, for example, with me, an amateur, I can easily hit a couple of good shots and think I’m better than I am, and then come crumbling back down to earth, and then I have to grind again. So, just seeing, I guess, the practice they put in, obviously they put themselves in position where they’re gonna keep playing while not making too many mistakes. Something now that I would love to do more that I have the time is to practice and try and get better and try to achieve a better handicap.
Let’s talk about football. You are an all time great over in Europe, you came over to the United States. And I’d love to know, what were your perceptions of football in the United States and how did coming over here and playing for LAFC change that one way or the other?
Obviously, I had a great career in Europe and I’m very fortunate and very blessed to have been able to play for so long and achieve so many things. Coming over was something that, w come over on preseason most years and were able to play against MLS teams and I saw how much it progressed over the years, and something that always I wanted to do and wanted to try. And I think when the opportunity arose, it was something that me and my family really were looking forward to doing, and I think we felt like if I could help grow the game in any way, shape, or form over here by just attracting more eyeballs on the TV, and more kids, and maybe kids out here really love the Premier League and they know who I am, so get them even more to football.
It was more of an all-around thing and something that I wanted to experience, and I really do think the league is going in the right direction. I think, obviously, it still has some way to go to catch up with European leagues, but it is definitely going in the right direction. The facilities are better, the stadiums are better, the travel is now better. It was an amazing experience and one that I never regretted for a second coming over, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time here.
Yeah, I was going to say, I think when decorated players come over to the United States to play in MLS, I think people just assume that they go through the motions. But when I watched you play, it seemed like you had a blast out there.
Yeah, definitely. I felt like I still had something to give, otherwise, I wouldn’t have come over. I wouldn’t have come over just to see my career out. I wanted to come over, I wanted to win a trophy, I wanted to do as much as I could for LAFC and was fortunate enough to play a few games and score some really important goals and win some great titles. Yeah, obviously win LAFC’s first MLS Cup will always be special to me, be special to them. And I guess we can always have each other to look back on in history books now, which is such a cool thing to have.
You obviously follow that up by your first World Cup game, which was against the United States. And I’d love to know what stuck out about them in that game, because I thought they had a really great first half and then you guys took control from them and we saw their their youth and naivety a little bit.
Yeah, definitely. We played against the United States a few times before and they’ve always been a good team. But I think really at that moment, they surprised us, how good they were, how well-organized, the style of football they played. And in the first half, yeah, we felt like we couldn’t really get a kick of the ball, we were in wrong positions. I think we played bad, and the U.S. played really good. So, it did feel like a very difficult first half. But I think obviously, using our experience, we’re able to come out in the second half and yeah, we’ve been in situations before, we know how to turn games around, and I think we came strong on in the second half. Obviously tied the game up, if anyone was probably gonna go on to win, it would have been us.
Agreed.
I think a draw was probably a fair result overall. It was a great game, and it was great to be a part of in terms of, it was history, playing in the first World Cup game in 64 years.
Did you joke around with Kellyn Acosta for that tactical foul, because everyone I know was very happy that he did that.
It was quite funny, because after the game, our manager, Steve Cherundolo of LAFC, messaged us “Kellyn, that’s probably the best yellow card you’ve ever gotten your life.” I wasn’t too pleased, because I felt like I had a very good chance of scoring. But yeah, if I was in the same position, I would be fouling exactly the same. So it was a great foul, but I would have loved the opportunity to try and win the game. But, you can look back on that and laugh.
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It’s all we ever wanted, all we ever needed 
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