Month: March 2024

To some Rudy Giuliani may seem like a tragic figure. Once upon a time he was America’s Mayor. Now he’s a broke joke who sold his soul for, of all people, Donald Trump. Thing is, Giuliani doesn’t see it that way. To him it’s good that his life’s in the crapper, because at least he stuck to his (deeply questionable) principles.

Per Raw Story, Giuliani moaned about his fortunes on his WABC radio broadcast Sunday, specifically how he was found liable late last year of defaming two Georgia election workers. That led to him filing for bankruptcy, but there’s more bad news en route.

“The Bar Association is going to crucify me no matter what,” Giuliani said. “I will be disbarred in New York. I will be disbarred in Washington. It will have nothing to do with anything I did wrong.”

But is being disbarred such a bad thing, Giuliani wondered?

“And I consider that something that will help me in heaven for sticking to my principles and not being a weakling, like all these weaklings who are afraid to represent Trump,” he concluded.

Giuliani went on to call the people prosecuting him, including the DA, “headhunters.”

It may be hard to believe, but even in the topsy turvy word of MAGAland, no one has yet to compare Giuliani to Sir Thomas More: a man for all seasons, sticking to his guns no matter what may befall him. Heck, Trump, who’s barely done anything to help him, probably doesn’t even think that.

(Via Raw Story)

50 Cent’s original series, BMF, is all about the rise and fall of the Black Mafia Family. The public remembers the real-life enterprise as ‘Blowin’ Money Fast,’ thanks to its many references in rap music. But its latest episode shows that writers are the ones speedy through materials. Users online have taken to X (formerly Twitter) to call out the show for what they believe to be a historical inaccuracy and a questionable casting decision.

In its latest episode, “Sanctuary” (Season 3, Episode 3), the series’ main character, Meech (played by Demetrius “Lil Meech” Flenory Jr., yes, that’s his actual father) so, happens to run into the late Tupac (played by Mason Douglas). The episode’s description explains that the encounter, seemingly inspired by true events, would’ve taken place at the Jack the Rapper Weekend in 1993.

However, users online couldn’t help but clown the series for the ‘off-brand’ portrayal of the rap legend. Others called about the series from time jumping, making the encounter highly unlikely.

Check out a few of the responses below.

“‘BMF’ can’t be serious with this TEMU version of Tupac,” wrote one user.

“Boy, what da f*ck LMAO,” penned a user.

“And people thought it couldn’t get any worse than Anthony Mackie’s version of Tupac,” laughed one user.

“3Pac,” joked another.

“TUPAC NOTSHUR,” added another.

Some users attempted to defend the scene by verifying the event details. “For everyone confused, Meech is attending the 1993 Jack the Rapper convention; that’s why Tupac is bald. They briefly show us the Wu-Tang Clan and Kid n Play, too,” explained one user.

But others were going for the breakdown. “It’s supposed to be 1990/91 in the show, though, not 93. Season 1 was 89. Timelines aren’t matching up, and that’s where the confusion is stemming from,” replied a user.

BMF is exclusively available on Starz. To watch the latest episode, click here.

American presidents like to make jokey TV appearances, especially once they no longer have the worst job in the nation. What they don’t tend to do is act. Even Ronald Reagan, America’s big actor-turned-POTUS, didn’t return to his old job after office. (Nor has Donald Trump, despite a history of playing himself onscreen.) Still, Game of Thrones vets David Benioff and D.B. Weiss thought they could coax Barack Obama to do some acting. Alas.

In a new chat with the BBC (in a bit caught by Deadline), Benioff and D.B. Weiss opened up about 3 Body Problem, their big GoT follow-up, which concerns humanity’s way-too-close encounters with aliens from a nearby solar system. They wanted the 44th president to make a cameo. He turned them down. But he was charming about it.

“He did sign a very funny note, when we tried to get him for a cameo,” Benioff said. “It was to the effect of, ‘In case there ever is a real alien invasion, I think I should probably save myself for that crisis.’”

Would Barry have played himself? Maybe some fictional president who’s still in office? We may never know.

Adapted from Liu Cixi’s Hugo-winning trilogy, 3 Body Problem follows five earthbound characters fending off invading aliens. We don’t want to get into spoilers, but unlike with Game of Thrones, viewers don’t have to worry about Cixi taking his sweet time finishing the series; it’s already completed and he’s moved on with his life.

3 Body Problem is set to drop on Netflix on March 24. You can watch the trailer here.

(Via BBC and Deadline)

Grand Canyon punched its ticket to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on Saturday night with a rather emphatic win over UT Arlington in the WAC tournament final.

The Lopes lead got trimmed to as few as three in the closing minutes, but Grand Canyon finished the game on a 19-7 run to earn an 89-74 win. Even in what became a lopsided victory, there was still some drama late thanks to a kerfuffle that started when Collin Moore put an exclamation point on GCU’s win with a windmill dunk with three seconds to play. UT Arlington’s players took exception to Moore not simply running out the clock, with Akili Vining giving him a hip check and Phillip Russell taking the ball and chucking at him as he took it out for the inbound after the dunk.

Both Vining and Russell were given technical fouls, with Moore making three of the four free throws, and because Russell stepped onto the court to pelt Moore with the inbound pass, it was also a turnover. After the free throws, the Lopes would actually run out the clock, putting an end to the game without any more shenanigans.

Honestly, it was a great job by all involved not to have this turn into a brawl, as Grand Canyon’s coaching staff quickly popped up from the bench to keep everyone seated and to instruct the players on the floor to simply walk away. Meanwhile, UT Arlington’s guys were fine with having made their frustrations felt with a little push and a ball rifled at Moore’s hip and walked away themselves.

It’s been a bumpy road to 2024 Rolling Loud California. From accusations of racist business practices to booking mishaps, the multi-day event was off to a rough start. However, since it kicked off on Thursday, March 14, everything’s been smooth sailing (not counting the Kanye West debacle).

Yesterday (March 16), Post Malone closed out the day with a head-banging set of his biggest hits. As an added bonus, Malone treated the sold-out crowd to a surprise performance of his hit song, “Congratulations,” alongside his collaborator Quavo. The former Migos member crept up onstage to deliver his verse as the audience grew hyped with the instrumental blaring overhead.

Initially released in 2016, “Congratulations” was produced by Metro Boomin and appeared on Malone’s Stoney album. Since it was shared, the record has gone on to earn diamond certification by the RIAA, selling over 14 million copies.

In 2022, during an appearance on the Full Send podcast, Metro revealed that the collaboration wasn’t actually planned but a result of a scheduling conflict.

“He called me, and so I came to the studio one day,” he said. “The same day, I was supposed to pull up on Quavo, on the same night. So, he called me while I was [working] with Post and said, ‘Where are you? What are you doing?’ So, I pulled Post to the side and said, ‘Man, you ever did a song with Quavo?’ He said, ‘Nah, but that would be dope though.’”

Years later, the song continues to rack up massive streaming numbers.

While the NCAA Tournament won’t begin until next week, March Madness is in full swing thanks to conference tournament action and we have already seen some wild upsets and heartbreaking losses. In terms of the big picture of who will get at-large bids, NC State beating UNC in the ACC final and Oregon beating Colorado in the Pac-12 final will have the biggest ripple effects around the country as they swiped automatic bids.

Then you have the single bid leagues, where the conference tournament is your lone pathway to the Big Dance, and the final game produces some of the purest “thrill of victory, agony of defeat” moments in the game. On Saturday night in the MAC Tournament final, we saw just that in a truly insane final few seconds between Akron and Kent State. The Golden Flashes took a one-point lead with under seven seconds to play on a putback, but not everyone was aware that bucket put them in front, as Julius Rollins ran in to intentionally foul Akron on the inbound, sending the Zips to the line with a chance to retake the lead.

It was a brutal mental mistake, with Rollins’ teammates and coach, Rob Senderoff, losing their minds over what just happened. You can only feel for Rollins as he was distraught on the sidelines after realizing what he’d done, and the Zips naturally made both free throws to win 62-61 and punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

This July the Republican National Convention will descend upon Milwaukee. An estimated 50,000 visitors are expected to descend upon Laverne and Shirley’s old stomping grounds. That means a lot of commerce for the city’s businesses — and it means plenty of fans of the wannabe dictator whose brain definitely isn’t mush. But one bar would rather make nothing.

Per Rolling Stone, The Mothership, a cocktail bar in the Bay View neighborhood, will temporarily shut down during the convention, which is set to take place from July 15 through the 18th. The joint’s Facebook page describes it as a “stupid idiot booze dungeon,” but Trump supporters will have to find somewhere else to quaff while they’re in town.

“I don’t f*cking care who comes into my bar on the norm, but it’s such a heightened event where people are very proudly going to be confirming that Donald Trump’s the nominee for the party again,” the bar’s owner, Ricky Ramirez, told RS.

In a Facebook post, Ramirez said the Motehrship would be open to groups renting out their space for a “private event wedding reception wet tshirt contest idk whatever private people wanna party about.”

Ramirez said he’d shut down the bar even if it was the Democratic National Convention rolling into town.

“The No. 1 reason is we are a bar and alcohol and politics don’t mix,” Ramirez told RS. “It’s a rule in any bar no matter what kind of bar it is, so that’s the simple gist of it.

He added, “We want to represent the entire city and include all, especially our friends who don’t have equal access to this part of city due to the segregation caused by the history of this city. Both parties do little to mitigate the ongoing issues, so screw them both. We don’t want to throw a party for either side because they both suck (in my eyes, the RNC a lot more).”

Luckily Milwaukee has plenty of other watering holes. Heck, they don’t call it the Original Brew City for nothing.

(Via Rolling Stone)

Award season isn’t complete without the NAACP’s annual Image Awards ceremony. Yesterday (March 16), entertainers from across disciplines gathered to celebrate the artistic work of people of color. The night, which Queen Latifah hosted, even featured a surprise call-in from Vice President Kamala Harris.

On the music front, Usher, Victoria Monét, Chris Brown, and Megan Thee Stallion won big. Usher took home the award for Outstanding Male Artist. During his acceptance speech, the “Good Good” singer showed that his ladies’ man persona started with his deep love for his mother, Jonnetta Patton.

Victoria snagged two trophies at the awards (Outstanding New Artist and Outstanding Album for Jaguar II). Brown also pulled a double victory. His collaborative song with Ciara, “How We Roll,” won for Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration (Traditional). As the lead artist, Brown’s breakout song “Sensational” featuring Davido and Lojay won for Outstanding Music Video/Visual Album. Megan Thee Stallion was also declared a winner. Her recent single, “Cobra,” won for Outstanding Hip-Hop/Rap Song.

Frankie Beverly was bestowed the Lifetime Achievement Award to honor his decades-long career.

Continue below for the full list of winners in the recording categories. To view all of the evening’s winners, click here.

Outstanding New Artist

FLO
Jordan Ward
Leon Thomas
October London
Victoria Monét

Outstanding Male Artist

Burna Boy
Chris Brown
Davido
Jon Batiste
Usher

Outstanding Female Artist

Ari Lennox
H.E.R.
Janelle Monáe
Tems
Victoria Monét

Outstanding Gospel/Christian Album

All Yours – Kierra Sheard
Father’s Day – Kirk Franklin
Impossible – Pastor Mike, Jr.
My Truth – Jonathan McReynolds
The Maverick Way Complete – Maverick City Music

Outstanding International Song

“Amapiano” – Asake feat. Olamide
“City Boys” – Burna Boy
“Me & U” – Tems
“People” – Libianca feat. Ayra Starr & Omah Lay
“Unavailable” – Davido

Outstanding Music Video/Visual Album

“Boyfriend” – Usher
“Cobra” – Megan Thee Stallion
“How We Roll” – Ciara
“On My Mama” – Victoria Monét
“Sensational” – Chris Brown feat. Davido & Lojay

Outstanding Album

Clear 2: Soft Life – Summer Walker
For All The Dogs – Drake
I Told Them… – Burna Boy
Jaguar II – Victoria Monét
The Age of Pleasure – Janelle Monáe

Outstanding Soundtrack/Compilation Album

Creed III: The Soundtrack
Godfather of Harlem: Season 3 (Original Series Soundtrack)
Metro Boomin Presents Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Soundtrack From and Inspired by the Motion Picture/Deluxe Edition)
The Color Purple–Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
The Little Mermaid Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Outstanding Gospel/Christian Song

“All Things” – Kirk Franklin
“All Yours” – Kierra Sheard feat. Anthony Brown
“In The Room” – Maverick City Music
“It’s Working” – Todd Dulaney
“JOY (Unspeakable) – Voices of Fire feat. Pharrell Williams

Outstanding Jazz Album

Brand New Life – Brandee Younger
Melusine – Cécile McLorin Salvant
Who Are You When No One Is Watching? – Braxton Cook
Phoenix – Lakecia Benjamin
Truth Be Told – Angie Wells

Outstanding Soul/R&B Song

“Back To Your Place” – October London
“Good Good” – Usher feat. 21 Savage x Summer Walker
“ICU Remix” – Coco Jones feat. Justin Timberlake
“On My Mama” – Victoria Monét
“Lipstick Lover” – Janelle Monáe

Outstanding Hip-Hop/Rap Song

“All My Life” – Lil Durk feat. J. Cole
“Blue Eyes” – Vic Mensa
“Cobra” – Megan Thee Stallion
“Palisades, CA” – Larry June & The Alchemist
“Sittin’ On Top of the World” – Burna Boy & 21 Savage

Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration (Traditional)

Ciara feat. Chris Brown – “How We Roll”
Coco Jones feat. Justin Timberlake – “ICU Remix”
Dreamville, Bas & Black Sherif feat. Kel–P – “Creed III: Soundtrack”
Karen Clark Sheard, Hezekiah Walker, Kierra Sheard – “God Is Good”
Voices of Fire – “Joy (Unspeakable)”

Outstanding Original Score for TV/Film

American Fiction – Laura Karpman
Rustin – Branford Marsalis
The Color Purple – Kris Bowers
The Other Black Girl – EmmoLei Sankofa
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts – Jongnic Bontemps

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

The Warriors picked up a 128-121 win over the Lakers on Saturday night in L.A. in what may be a preview of a Play-In Tournament game later this year.

The game was moving right along until the final couple minutes of the fourth quarter when an extremely lengthy review of whether Draymond Green’s toe was out of bounds (it was eventually decided it was) brought things to a screeching halt. That review didn’t just ice the players but apparently iced the clocks at Crypto.com Arena, because the delays continued when they tried to restart action and couldn’t get the shot clock to function. After a couple different attempts to start the game failed, they eventually started keeping the shot clock manually, with the PA announcer counting it down when it would get close to zero.

It was not exactly an exciting finish to what had been a good game, and as everyone waited for the referees to get it all together, ESPN’s cameras panned through the star-studded crowd courtside to show celebrities bored out of their minds, just like everyone else.

There really isn’t anyone that does “bored at an event” better than Ben Affleck, who slumps in his chair, head leaned back to stare at the ceiling, wondering why everyone else can’t figure out that time is just a concept and we don’t have to be beholden to clocks if we don’t want to. He does have some competition in that department from a non-plussed Bad Bunny, arms folded looking like he’s trying to stare intensely enough at the refs that maybe they’ll get the game going again. Eventually they did and the Warriors polished off the win, but for a brief moment everyone, including the celebs, was trapped in basketball purgatory and at the mercy of the clocks.

Voice actors have long been given less attention, support, and respect than their on-screen counterparts and that trend doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. Unless Hollywood, which loves a great story, steps in and gives them the spotlight they deserve with a full seat at the table during the Oscars.

Would such a move be cool comfort in an industry where voice actors are more exposed than their on-screen counterparts in the on-going battle between studios (both gaming and TV/film) and the incursion of AI tech that some fear could replace them? Yes. But closing the celebration gap might help to at least start the process of raising the profile on voice acting as a art form and vital piece of the entertainment industry puzzle.

One of the many conversations going into this awards season was about how the best-animated feature film category was stacked with a number of critically acclaimed projects that also did well at the the box office — solidifying the point that Studio Ghibli and Disney’s Pixar aren’t the only ones who can produce high-quality content that resonates with a wide audience. With that plus the explosion of popularity for the anime genre how can a single category at the industry’s biggest awards show be enough to recognize the awesome work and cultural importance of films like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Nimona, and The Boy and the Heron? More is needed.

The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature has been in existence since 2001 when the award first went to Shrek. (It’s also the last time a new category was added before the Academy starts giving awards for Best Casting in 2025.) The directors of the nominated films are normally the ones to come up on stage and accept the award. They’ll even include a thank you to the cast in their acceptance speech if they manage to remember. And that’s normally the last we hear of them.

While their vibrant look and amazing soundtracks define the Spider-Verse films, they go from good to great due to the ability of the ridiculously stacked cast — from Jake Johnson’s version of Peter Parker to Hailee Steinfeld’s Gwen Stacy, Shameik Moore’s Miles Morales, and Mahershala Ali’s Uncle Aaron. Yet none of them can get their flowers on the industry’s grandest stage for this work.

Going back through time, the same can be said about Jeremy Irons’ bone-chilling delivery of “I killed Mufasa” as Scar in The Lion King, Robin Williams magical work as Aladdin’s Genie, and both Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy’s iconic work in the Shrek franchise. We could have had moments to celebrate the likes of Tom Hanks as Woody in Toy Story, Angela Lansbury for her work in Beauty And The Beast. The list is endless, the lost chance at elevating the art form truly unfortunate. And that’s just traditional animation. Millions felt gutted watching Rocket Raccoon’s story play out in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 last year. And what about Andy Serkis’ legendary work in Lord Of The Rings?

Voice actors can play superheroes, magical creatures, anthropomorphic animals, or even inanimate objects and regularly use their talent to convey a message, instill an emotional response, and power some of pop culture’s most iconic (and successful works). While Hollywood has never been a meritocracy, award shows let us pretend that it is for a little while, but there are cracks in the facade. That voice actors are technically as eligible for plaudits as any live-action performance proves the point that they are equally vital to moviemaking when all things are equal, but some segments of Hollywood will never see them on that same level, and so we need this kind of distinct award to be reminded of how amazing and irreplaceable they are.