Month: February 2024

The 2024 Grammy Awards were full of surprises. Killer Mike was one of the most discussed emcees in the rap categories for several reasons.

Firstly, the “Motherless” rapper shocked attendees when his album Michael swept three major categories (Best Rap Album, Best Rap Song for “Scientists & Engineers,” and Best Rap Performance again for “Scientists & Engineers”), which he didn’t mind pointing it out in his acceptance speech.

However, his victory lap was cut short after authorities whisked away Killer Mike in handcuffs. Rumors quickly began to circulate online speculating why he was detained.

However, today (February 5), Killer Mike has but the whispers to rest by releasing a statement regarding his arrest. According to Killer Mike, his arrest was the result of a rocky encounter with event security.

Read Killer Mike’s complete statement below.

I first want to extend my appreciation to the Grammy’s Committee for recognizing me and my team for the work that went into ‘Michael.’ We are incredibly proud and are basking in this moment. I am also grateful that one of my prayers has been answered – the day after my Grammy win – I learned that my son, who has been on the list for a kidney for years, finally has a match. Obviously, we are elated.

I do want to note that last night, my team and I fielded a number of calls from concerned fans and colleagues wanting to know if I was OK. I greatly appreciate the concern and support, but I am better than OK. As you can imagine, there was a lot going on, and there was some confusion around which door my team and I should enter. We experienced an over-zealous security guard but my team and I have the upmost confidence that I will ultimately be cleared of all wrongdoing. Until that time, keep listening to ‘Michael,’ and keep going after your dreams.

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The Golden State Warriors picked up a 109-98 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night. With 7:19 left in the fourth quarter, Klay Thompson went to the bench and did not check back into the game. Thompson struggled on the night — he had eight points on 4-for-9 shooting and did not make any threes in 30 minutes of work — so Steve Kerr opted to go with Moses Moody and Gui Santos off the bench, instead.

Thompson met with the media after the game and got asked how he was feeling. After saying he felt physically great, Thompson was remarkably candid, telling the press “mentally, probably a little different story.” And then, Thompson went on to have maybe the most interesting back-and-forth with the media that we’ve seen this season, as he tried to balance the pride he felt in how well his young teammates played with his own personal struggles, particularly when it comes to not closing games.

It’s easy to remember how hard Thompson took Charles Barkley’s criticism that he’s “not the same guy” after his injuries from last season and see the parallels between that and this. For how laid back Thompson’s been off the court during his NBA career, he’s always had a remarkable competitive streak, and you can see it in moments like this when he’s struggling with a dip in his performance — across his last five games, he’s only 12-for-49 (24.5 percent) from behind the three-point line. If there is good news for Thompson, it’s that he’s the kind of guy who has shown he can snap out of a rut and get back on track, and it’s not hard to imagine him on the court and playing a big role the next time the Warriors are trying to close out a win.

On Sunday viewers on the East Coast have a big decision to make: Do they watch the 49ers duke it out against the Chiefs, plus those commercials, plus Usher, plus a gazillion Taylor Swift cutaways? Or do they take an hour or so break around 9 and watch Jodie Foster in the new season of True Detective? It’s a choice, and luckily it’s one HBO has decided people don’t need to make.

Per Deadline, HBO has decided to drop the fifth episode of True Detective: Night Country two days early. Instead of Sunday at 9pm EST, it will air Friday at 9pm EST. It will also air in its usual time slot, but only for those who haven’t seen it yet and are skipping the big game.

The new season of True Detective not only has a new showrunner, with Issa López taking over for creator Nic Pizzolatto, but also fewer episodes. The past three seasons have had eight each. This one only has six. The show has been getting strong marks, though Pizzolatto weirdly dissed the new batch of episodes, saying the callbacks to the original season are “so stupid.” Instead of returning in kind, López took the high road.

Meanwhile over at the Super Bowl, this year’s festivities are already off to a rough start thanks to the far right, who’ve hatched a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory about the “deep state” rigging the game so that the Chiefs, which counts Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce as a tight end, will win over the Niners. This, by the way, will somehow end with Joe Biden getting elected. Everyone else, though, can just enjoy the game — and True Detective episode 5.

(Via Deadline)

The 2024 Grammys were all about the music community pouring positivity into one another. But outside of the ceremony, the beef between Uproxx cover star Latto and Ice Spice still brews.

On February 3, fans reportedly spotted the “Put It On The Floor” rapper filming a secretive music video. According to sources, Latto took a trip to her foe Ice Spice’s old Bronx stomping grounds. While there, Latto recorded the official visual for her forthcoming single, “Sunday Service.” Today (February 5), Latto has shared the official artwork and fans believe it is a callout of several women rappers.

As Latto poses in front of a mural, there’s an interesting mixture of faces plastered behind her. Some of those folks include Ice Spice, GloRilla, Coi Leray, and more. Each of which has been involved in an online dustup with Latto. Given the diss-like lyrics heard in the teaser, users online believe the artwork is a subtle callout to some of these women.

View fan responses to the artwork below.

But to be fair, Latto did include photos of her friends, the late Gangsta Boo, Megan Thee Stallion, and Saucy Santana. So, the public will have to wait until it is released to make heads or tails of the song.

“Sunday Service” is out 2/9 via RCA Records. Find more information here.

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

The original big screen Iron Man movie didn’t just kickstart the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It gave Robert Downey Jr. a new act. Back then the actor, who went drug-free in 2003, was still seen as a potential liability, risky to cast. That didn’t stop him from delivering some of his best, most exciting work, in the likes of Zodiac, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and A Scanner Darkly. He was doing so well that he even tried to get into the superhero movie business a few years before Marvel came his way, even if it of course didn’t work out.

Per Entertainment Weekly, Downey did a Q&A in Los Angeles after a screening of Oppenheimer. (Yes, it’s still playing in theaters, over six months after its release. Go see it on IMAX 70mm if you can.) At one point he recalled the first time he tried to work with future Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan…only to lose out to his future Oppenheimer costar. That film was, of course, Batman Begins.

“I’m pretty sure that I heard, like, ‘there’s this role, Scarecrow,’ and I was like, ‘psh, I’m Scarecrow!” Downey told the crowd. “I remember meeting for tea, and I was like, ‘He doesn’t seem like he’s really leaning in on this interview. And he was polite and all that, but I mean, you know, you can tell when someone is kind of like, ‘It’s not gonna go your way.’”

So who wound up getting the role of Dr. Jonathan Crane, aka the Batman baddie with the gas-emitting mask? Cillian Murphy, who went on to become a Nolan regular.

It all worked out, of course. Downey got to play Tony Stark, a hero rather than a villain. Nearly two decades later Murphy and Downey got to square off, this time with the former as the (sort of) hero and the latter as the hissable villain, namely scheming, thin-skinned bureaucrat Lewis Strauss. (Downey even got to finally learn about Nolan’s fastidious on-set rules.) And now both are up for Oscars, with each having a good chance of winning. If only life were always like this.

(Via EW)

At the 2024 Grammy Awards, Taylor Swift made history. After accepting the Album Of The Year award for the fourth time (and seemingly snubbing Celine Dion), Swift became the only artist to do so. Swift announced her next album to celebrate the joyous occasion, and it wasn’t a Taylor’s Version recording.

The “You’re Losing Me” singer is ready to enter a new era with her forthcoming album. Despite being due out in the spring, The Tortured Poets Department already has the Swifties clamoring for more information. Today. (February 5), Swift fed her ravenous fans the official tracklist.

Across the 17 tracks (which includes the bonus record), there are quite a few song titles and surprise guests, including Post Malone and Florence And The Machine. Continue below to view the complete tracklist.

Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department Album Tracklist

1. “Fortnight” Feat. Post Malone
2. “The Tortured Poets Department”
3. “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys”
4. “Down Bad”
5. “So Long, London”
6. “But Daddy I Love Him”
7. “Fresh Out The Slammer”
8. “Florida!!!” Feat. Florence And The Machine
9. “Guilty As Sin?”
10. “Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me?”
11. “I Can Fix HIm (No Really I Can)”
12. “LOML”
13. “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart”
14. “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”
15. “The Alchemy”
16. “Clara Bow”
17. “The Manuscript”

The Tortured Poets Department is out 4/19 via Republic Records. Find more information here.

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

Sexyy Red is officially a mother (for the second time). The “Pound Town” rapper took to X (formerly Twitter) to confirm that she has given birth.

For months, Sexyy Red has provided fans with updates regarding her pregnancy. From her maternity photoshoot to her lavish Chinatown-themed baby shower, supporter haven’t been left out of any step. But the updates didn’t stop there. On Monday, February 5, Sexyy Red posted a series of photos celebrating the birth of her child.

Thrilled by the safe arrival of her new bundle of joy and excitement to have her anatomy, Sexyy Red shared the first thing on her post-pregnancy agenda. “Me waitin’ to get discharged from the hospital,” she wrote. “…so I can hit da block wit da guys .”

https://twitter.com/SexyyRed314_/status/1754624210926727279

During an interview with Billboard, Sexyy opened up about her struggles while pregnant. “Being pregnant is stressful,” she said. “It wears your body down. I was tired, but I tried to hide it as much as you possibly could. I like to have a personal life.”

So, Sexyy Red’s desire to let loose makes perfect sense. But for now, mommy duty calls. By the summer, she could be back outside for real, as the kids say.

It’s (almost) the end of an era: Starting February 4, Curb Your Enthusiasm begins its final season — that is, unless Larry David once again gets bored and decides to bring it back, which he’s done before. But it’s best to act as though this is your final voyage with the semi-fictitious version of the Seinfeld co-creator, who has a whole new list of grievances to air.

But how many episodes are in Season 12 — or to put it another way, how many Curb episodes do we have left until there are no more?

The answer is predictable: 10. It’s the same as every season, going back to the first in the year 2000.

One thing has changed over the last few seasons: Those episodes have gotten longer. In the olden days, episodes were in the 30-minute range, as HBO still had to deal with linear television schedules. In the streaming age, episodes can run longer (or shorter). Last season the average episode was in the high-30-minutes range. Season 10 had one that ran 45 minutes. You have to go back to Season 8 for episodes to only run a half hour.

Alas, the final season of Curb was long wrapped by the time the real Larry David had one of his most fictitious Larry David moments ever: He beat the crap out of Elmo the Muppet on live TV. Or was the most TV Larry David moment the time he screamed at Alan Dershowitz in a Martha’s Vineyard store? Even when Curb’s gone for good, we may still get some IRL Larry David funniness.

The Jurassic World trilogy may have gobbled up scores of scratch, but to say it wasn’t as well-received as the original is to put it mildly. Granted, that’s a tall order: The first two were directed by no less than Steven Spielberg, and the Joe Johnston-helmed threequel is at least pretty good. Perhaps that’s why the next in the series is going back to the well, at least by nabbing its original screenwriter. But they also may try a new director who may give it a new flavor, one who’d make Jurassic Park at least a little John Wick-y.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, the Jurassic World people are in talks with director David Leitch. Along with being a former stunt coordinator, he directed the first John Wick with Chad Stahelski. After the first, Leitch lit out on his own, making a slew of fight-heavy action fare like Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Hobbs & Shaw, Bullet Train, and the forthcoming stunt performer saga The Fall Guy.

What could the guy who made all of those bring to a movie about dinosaurs running rampant in the present day amongst puny humans? Will one of the latter fight a velociraptor in a stairwell? Will a dilophosaurus learn how to shoot two handguns at the same time? Or will Leitch, whose films have been uniformly fun, simply tighten up a franchise that some have argued has lost its way? Unless this very old franchise suddenly goes extinct, there’s a chance we may find out.

(Via THR)

Over a year after its release, SZA’s sophomore album, SOS, still has the music charts in a chokehold. On February 4, it even took home multiple awards at the 2024 Grammys, including Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Ghost in the Machine” featuring Phoebe Bridgers, Best R&B Song for “Snooze,” and Best Progressive R&B Album.

But SZA is ready to kick off a new era of music by way of her forthcoming Lana.

When Does SZA’s ‘Lana’ Deluxe Album Come Out?

According to fan-circulated rumors across X (formerly Twitter), Lana will hit streaming platforms on February 9. However, the reports are too good to be true. After several posts and deletes from fan pages, SZA has denied the claims.

In a message exchange with a fan, SZA laughed off the rumors. “I just liked the photo,” she wrote. “LMAO, it’s not coming out on 2/9. I’m sorry, lmao. I like jerseys.”

The photograph in question was uploaded by a fan who attended a private event curated by SZA, apparently during pre-Grammys festivities this year. Attendees believed the numbers on the two models’ wardrobes were a subtle confirmation.

Still, SZA, her manager Terrence ‘Punch’ Henderson, nor her record label Top Dawg Entertainment have confirmed the release date for Lana. In fact, they might’ve suggested that delays could be on the horizon following leaks.

But during the 2024 Grammys broadcast, SZA partnered with Mastercard to preview the song “Saturn,” set to appear on the Lana.