Month: September 2023

Busta Rhymes has been serving as an opening act on 50 Cent’s ongoing Final Lap Tour, and the trek hit St. Paul, Minnesota on Friday, September 15. During Busta’s set, he drew some attention over some NSFW shenanigans on stage. At one point, he propped his microphone up against his crotch and acted like it was… well, not a microphone. He then smacked it down before lifting it back up and giving it a suggestive stroke.

50 couldn’t let this slide without commenting: On Instagram today (September 19), 50 shared a fan-shot clip of the moment and wrote, “[laughing emoji] BUSTA stole this move from me, I use to do this to magic stick 10 years ago. LOL [shrugging emoji] Now it just feels dirty, inappropriate unnecessary LMAO this is giving, your old uncle at the barbecue that won’t go sit down vibes right !”

This isn’t the only recent performance 50 has poked fun at: Earlier this month, he set his sights on Ja Rule. Ja performed at the 2023 BMI R&B/Hip Hop Awards and had a biblical visual theme. To that, 50 Cent hopped on Instagram and wrote in response, “Look at this sh*t head, is he supposed to be Jesus. WTF you can’t make this sh*t up. LOL so stupid!”

In a recent New York Times interview promoting his book The Masters, Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner said some problematic things about Black and female artists. One pull-quote, for example, reads, “Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level,” having said that in relation to the white, male artists he included in his book.

Now, Wenner, who hasn’t been directly involved with Rolling Stone for a few years now, offered an apology, saying in a statement (as The Hollywood Reporter notes):

“In my interview with The New York Times, I made comments that diminished the contributions, genius, and impact of Black and women artists and I apologize wholeheartedly for those remarks. The Masters is a collection of interviews I’ve done over the years that seemed to me to best represent an idea of rock ‘n’ roll’s impact on my world; they were not meant to represent the whole of music and it’s diverse and important originators but to reflect the high points of my career and interviews I felt illustrated the breadth and experience in that career. They don’t reflect my appreciation and admiration for myriad totemic, world-changing artists whose music and ideas I revere and will celebrate and promote as long as I live. I totally understand the inflammatory nature of badly chosen words and deeply apologize and accept the consequences.”

Rolling Stone recently distanced itself from Wenner’s comments, saying in a statement, “Jann Wenner’s recent statements to The New York Times do not represent the values and practices of today’s Rolling Stone. Jann Wenner has not been directly involved in our operations since 2019. Our purpose, especially since his departure, has been to tell stories that reflect the diversity of voices and experiences that shape our world. At Rolling Stone‘s core is the understanding that music above all can bring us together, not divide us.”

Who knew that a surprise performance, after a 10-year hiatus, on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in April would turn into a full-fledged The Walkmen tour? Well, the rockers indeed did. The Walkmen’s 2023 Revenge Tour kicked off Wednesday, September 13, at Lincoln Theatre in Washington, DC.

Unlike their past festival appearances, the 2023 Revenge Tour gives The Walkmen free creative reign to play their massive discography, almost unrestricted by time. So, what did the band settle on? View the setlist, according to Setlist.Fm, as well as the remaining tour dates, are posted below.

After The Walkmen played a few shows before their tour, Peter Matthew Bauer released a statement outlining his joy to reunite with his bandmates. “The last few weeks have been an absolute blast. Honestly, when we decided to get back together to play these shows, we had no idea if anyone would even show up. It’s been an incredible joy seeing all these people out there, playing these shows, getting to run into old friends from all over the world,” said Bauer.

2023 Revenge Tour setlist

1. “What’s In It For Me”
2. “On The Water””
3. “In The New Year”
4. “The Rat”
5. “Wake Up”
6. “Little House Of Savages”
7. “Blizzard Of ’96”
8. “New Years Eve”
9. “Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone”
10. “Four Provinces”
11. “Dónde Está La Playa”
12. “Angela Surf City”
13. “Red Moon”
14. “Canadian Girl”
15. “I Lost You”
16. “Juveniles”
17. “All Hands And The Cook”
18. “Heaven”

Encore

19. “Thinking Of A Dream I Had”
20. “We’ve Been Had”

2023 Revenge Tour schedule

09/21 — Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
09/24 — Seattle, WA @ Showbox
09/26 — Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater
09/29 — Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
10/02 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre
10/03 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre
10/11 — Toronto, ON @ History

Last week, Hispanic Heritage Month kicked out, and for pre-game celebrations, Becky G’s launched her Mi Casa, Tu Casa Tour. Over the next few weeks, fans from around the country will have a chance to experience the chart-topping singer’s music live in a performance as part of her first top-billed tour. The Mi Casa, Tu Casa Tour setlist is expansive, including many of Becky G’s biggest hits.

View the setlist according to Setlist.Fm, as well as the remaining tour schedule, can be found below.

In an interview with Variety’s Thania Garcia, the singer opened up about what the Mi Casa, Tu Casa Tour, her first headlining venture, meant to her and the inspiration behind the show.

“[The] ‘Mi Casa Tu Casa Tour’ is about inviting people into an intimate experience with me. My intention is for it to be a place where we can sing, dance, laugh, and cry, all in the comfort of our shared space. I’ve never headlined my own tour before, so I really want it to feel personal and connect with my fans in that way because we’ll build nuestra casa [our home] in every city, together,” said the entertainer.

Mi Casa, Tu Casa Tour setlist

1. “Intro”
2. “Mayores”
3. “Fulanito”
4. “Buen Día”
5. “Bailé Con Mi Ex”
6. “Cuando Te Besé”
7. “Ya Acabó”
8. “Chanel”
9. “La Nena”
10. “Querido Abuelo”
11. “Cries In Spanish”
12. Selena Medley (“Como La Flor,” “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom,” “La Carcacha,” and “Baila Esta Cumbia”)
13. “Dolores”
14. “Mala Santa”
15. “Dollar”
16. “Arranca”
17. “Sin Pijama”
18. “Mamiii”
19. “Outro”

Encore

20. “Shower”

Mi Casa, Tu Casa Tour schedule

9/19 — Charlotte, NC @ Ovens Auditorium
9/21 — Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern
9/22 — Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Live Orlando
9/23 — Hollywood, FL @ Hard Rock Live Hollywood
9/27 — Sugar Land, TX @ Smart Financial Centre
9/28 — Grand Prairie, TX @ Texas Trust CU Theatre
9/29 — San Antonio, TX @ Majestic Theatre
10/1 — McAllen, TX @ McAllen Performing Arts Center
10/3 — El Paso, TX @ Abraham Chavez Theatre
10/6 — San Diego, CA @ Balboa Theatre
10/7 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Novo
10/8 — San Jose, CA @ San Jose Center for the Performing Arts
10/14 — Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona State Fair

Lake Fontana, A Brooklyn-based TikTokker, received a text message from a stranger in January of 2022, and it completely upended what she knew about her family. But it also taught her an important lesson about the relationships that matter in life.

“About a year ago now, on January 9, I got a text message telling me to get a DNA test from Ancestry, and I think it’s fake,” she shared on TikTok. “I FaceTime my friend, and I’m like, ‘Listen to this.’ And she’s like, ‘I swear my gut is telling me this is real. You need to respond.’”

The mystery person who reached out to Lane also made a burner Facebook account and reached out to her on that platform as well. “You have other family you might not be aware of,’” the mystery person texted her.

To learn the truth, Lane reached out to her mother. She admitted that the man who raised her wasn’t her father. It was a man that she knew briefly in college when she was 35. “I almost fell off my f**king chair,” Lane explained. “She had an affair with a guy ten years younger than her when she was in college. ‘It was a one-time thing, but he even saw her on campus and said, ‘Is that mine?’ and she denied it.”

Then Lane received the results from Ancestry and learned the truth: her father was a British man who lives in California. The “mystery person” who reached out to her was his nephew.

Lane’s biological father had attempted to get in touch with Lane over the years but was threatened by her mother. “So what did he do? He followed me on social media my entire life. He watched me date my boyfriend, get married, have babies, everything. All from the outside. Not able to know me,” she said.

The biological father longed to hear her voice, so he called the salon where she works to ask the hours and then hung up. He wanted to fly out and get his haircut by her, but his wife was against it because, given their resemblance, she might figure things out pretty quickly.

Lane and her biological father finally met and spent 5 days together, but things didn’t go as she hoped.

@laneiscool14

Replying to @rykoda #foryoupage #fyp #ancestrydnatestresults #dnaresults #storytime #viral

“Coming from a broken family, there’s like this hole inside of me. I guess like was hoping that he was gonna fix me and I really tried to go into it with like an open mind and low expectations,” she said in a TikTok video. “I felt like he was not interested in what I had to say. I felt like I was stupid. I felt like he didn’t like me,” she continued. “I mean, I’m a very warm, talkative, funny, goofy person and he is not like that. So it could just be who he is. He could even be just trying to respect me as an adult. But, um, our interactions left me feeling very confused and very invalidated.”

The confusion with meeting her biological father made her relationship with the man who raised her seem even more important.

“Between him and I not a lot changes, like, that’s still my dad,” she said. “I’m still his daughter. My kids are still his grandkids. You know, like, he Facetimes my son every day. My son’s named after him. Like, I have his signature on the back of my neck. That’s my dad.”

Lane is taking her relationship with the man she calls her “Biodad” in stride. But after all the changes in her life, she’s happy to know the truth. “I’m just taking it at my own pace,” she said. “I just feel like I have 2 dads now, which is a good thing. The more, the merrier.”

@laneiscool14

Replying to @ashleey.victoria

Replying to @ashleey.victoria

It feels like just yesterday that music lovers were arriving at the Empire Polo Club grounds by the thousands for Coachella 2023. But in reality, it has been months since the infamous Frank Ocean onstage debacle. The organizer wasted no time as they have already announced the official dates for next year’s festivities.

Although we are a long way off until Coachella 2024’s lineup is made public, that hasn’t stopped festivalgoers from cooking up a few theories. Based on the growing online rumors, fans want to know if Justin Bieber will perform at Coachella 2024. In all fairness, anything is possible. However, there is no straightforward answer.

Frank Ocean made his long-awaited return to Coachella this year after his previously planned 2020 appearance was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to TMZ, sources revealed that Bieber was also slated to appear on the lineup. However, he eventually went to turn down the slot, reportedly stating that his focus at the time was finishing up his new album.

Following the postponement of his Justice World Tour, fans hoped that Bieber would bounce back on music’s biggest stage. Instead, he shared a statement revealing that live performances weren’t on the top of his to-do list. “After getting off stage, the exhaustion overtook me, and I realized that I needed to make my health a priority right now,” he wrote. “So I’m going to take a break from touring for the time being.”

Now that Bieber seems to have been able to manage his medical condition, fans would love to see him embark on a full tour, or at least a set during Coachella 2024.

If you’re having an off year, you can tell yourself this: You’re probably nowhere near as bad as Rudy Giuliani. The onetime “America’s Mayor” hasn’t had it good since he agreed to help Donald Trump stay in office after being voted out. Since then he’s racked up massive lawsuits, plus tons in legal bills, and Trump ain’t doing much to help. It seems like things couldn’t get worse for Rudy, and yet they have.

As per Insider, on Monday Giuliani was sued for $1.4 million by the law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron. In the filing, they allege that Giuliani had agreed to pay over $1.5 million under a retainer agreement. Alas, so far he’s only forked over $214,000 total, including a token payment of $10,000 earlier this month. That leaves a balance of $136,196.

To add insult to injury, among the plaintiffs is a longtime friend, Robert Costello, partner at the firm. Both worked at the US Attorney’s Office in the 1970s. Costello was even a major supporter of his maiden campaign to be mayor of New York City.

But in the last few years, things have turned sour:

Costello represented Giuliani from 2019 until this summer, the suit says. He advised Giuliani on special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, a criminal probe by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, prosecutor Fani Willis’ investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, a Congressional inquiry, attorney disciplinary proceedings that could cost Giuliani his license to practice law, and more than 10 civil lawsuits.

Last month, some of Giuliani’s current lawyers claimed he was so broke that they should show mercy upon him. Surely Rudy’s looking back fondly on those days when he was simply humiliated on national television while wearing a dumb costume.

(Via Insider)

Will Radiohead be the next group to break their lengthy hiatus? Thanks to a string of interviews featuring different members, fans are wondering that they might. At the top of the year, drummer Philip Selway shut down rumors that the group disbanded.

So, what is the verdict? Simply put, Radiohead does hope to release a new album with original music, but not as soon as supporters would like. During an interview with Uproxx’s Steven Hyden, Selway shed light on the band’s future plans. When asked about the timeline, Selway confessed that a Radiohead album won’t happen before the end of the year.

“We get together quite regularly, and we talk about what we might be able to do. But we also talk a lot about our own projects that we’re working on at the moment. Right now, it feels like all of those different projects are where our attention needs to be placed. Ed is making a solo album at the moment, and it’s going to be great. And Thom and Jonny are doing more work on The Smile, and it’s been brilliant watching that this past year. And then Colin kind of beats us all hands down, working with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis,” said Selway.

In the meantime, Radiohead has decades worth of music to hold listeners over until the faithful day comes.

The Cleveland Browns saw their worst case scenario come to life on Monday night in Pittsburgh when star running back Nick Chubb had to be carted off of the field after a severe knee injury on a run near the goal line. Chubb got hit on his knee by Minkah Fitzpatrick and immediately was writhing in pain, with the replay apparently so gruesome that ESPN opted against showing it.

Naturally, there is concern of serious damage to Chubb’s knee, and in the aftermath fans and players took to social media to offer their best to Chubb as he almost certainly gets set for a lengthy rehab process. There was also, as always, an eye on the various top NFL newsbreaker accounts, as fans were wondering just how severe Chubb’s injury is and what the feared damage may be. While we likely won’t actually learn that until Tuesday when there’s an MRI done, sometimes reports will trickle out about the initial diagnosis.

As such, when Adam Schefter opened a tweet with “Nick Chubb dislocated his left knee and tore his MCL, PCL, and LCL with cartilage damage,” many assumed he was reporting about the injury Chubb had just suffered. Instead, Schefter was clumsily recalling the injury the star back suffered in college when he had his same knee torn up against the Tennessee Volunteers back in 2015, which is information he should have led with.

The replies and quote tweets are almost all people yelling at Schefter for scaring them into believing Chubb had completely shredded his knee, when in fact we do not know the specifics. There are a lot of people who could tweet something like that — albeit, almost certainly with better phrasing — but one of the league’s top newsbreakers who regularly has injury info first is not among them.

Fans could be rocking out to a live performance from Trolls actor Justin Timberlake before they know it. Since NSYNC’s onstage reunion at the 2023 VMAs, an abundance of questions have been posed across social media. The most prominent is if Timberlake has plans to release new music. Also, is he going on tour soon?

According to a report from Billboard, the answer is leaning towards yes. As journalist Dave Brooks outlined the viability of a future NSYNC tour, they found that Timberlake has placed several dates on hold at arenas across North America. This seems to point towards a possible limited solo tour run.

So NSYNC fans might need to say bye, bye, bye to the possibility of the band getting back together next year. Multiple sources went on to tell the outlet that in addition to the supposed tour, Timberlake may drop a brand new album as well. If that does happen, the album will mark Timberlake’s first full-length album, since 2018’s Man of the Woods, outside of his soundtrack work for the Trolls film series.

Not to get die-hard supporters’ hopes up, but neither Justin Timberlake nor his team has confirmed this news to be true or not.