Month: June 2024

Charli XCX dropped Brat, as reviewed by Uproxx’s Indiecast, and around 48 hours later, Charli XCX gave people even more to talk about.

At midnight, June 10, Charli XCX released her Brat deluxe version, which sports a delightfully literal title: Brat And It’s The Same But There’s Three More Songs So It’s Not. The three songs in question are “Hello Goodbye,” “Guess,” and “Spring Breakers,” bringing the Brat grand total to 18 tracks. “Hello Goodbye” swells with regret and rumination, while “Guess” is a romp from start to finish — “You wanna guess the color of my underwear / You wanna know what I got going on down there” — and “Spring Breakers” indulges “crazy girl sh*t” and an awesome “Boom Clap” callback.

Upon Brat‘s release, Charli XCX wrote on Instagram that the album shows her “at my most pure, my most Charli, my most brat.” Charli XCX explained the rigorous process behind the creation of Brat while thanking her team for standing by her “even when I’m being an absolute nightmare,” which, she added, “at the end of the day, that’s exactly what Brat is all about: me, my flaws, my f*ck-ups, my ego all rolled into one.”

Brat And It’s The Same But There’s Three More Songs So It’s Not is out now via Atlantic Records. Find more information here.

Over the last couple of years, Nigerian afrobeats singer Asake has blossomed into one of the biggest names in the genre and an artist recognized globally. It began with his breakout records “Omo Ope” and “Sunga,” the latter which was remixed by Burna Boy and appeared on his debut album Mr. Money With The Vibe. A year later, Asake returned with his sophomore album Work Of Art, one spotlighted by the Grammy-nominated “Amapiano” with Olamide. Now, for the third consecutive year, Asake is gearing up to release a new project as the singer shared in an announcement for the Lungu Boy World Tour.

Asake’s Lungu Boy World Tour will begin with two festival dates, the first being AfroNation in Portugal on June 26 and the second in London for Wireless Festival on July 13. A month later, the US leg of the tour begins in Washington D.C. and ends in New York at Madison Square Garden after six shows across the country. Lastly, the tour will wrap up with five dates in Europe and one in Australia.

Tickets for the North American leg of the tour are available starting on Wednesday, June 12 at 10am local time through an artist presale. Additional pre-sales will run though the week leading up to the general sale, which begins on Friday, June 14 at 10am local time on asaketour.com.

For tickets for shows in Europe and the United Kingdom, sales will go on sale beginning with a Mastercard presale in France and Netherlands starting from Wednesday, June 12th at 10am local until Friday, June 14th. Additional pre-sales will run throughout the week up to the general on sale starting Friday, June 14 at 10am local time at asaketour.com.

You can view the announcement for the Lungu Boy World Tour above and scroll down for the tour dates.

06/26 — Portimao, PT @ AfroNation*^
07/13 — London, UK @ Wireless Festival^
08/16 — Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena
08/18 — Detroit, MI @ AfroNation^
08/21 — Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
08/24 — Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
08/27 — Los Angeles, CA @ YouTube Theater
08/30 — New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
09/15 — Cologne, DE @ Palladium
09/24 — Amsterdam, NL @ AFAS Live
09/26 — Berlin, DE @ UberEats Music Hall
09/28 — Paris, FR @ Zenith
10/01 — Dublin, IE @ 3Arena*
10/06 — Gold Coast, AU @ Promiseland*^

*Non-Live Nation Date
^Festival Date

Tom Cruise loves to run. It’s one of his favorite things, along with sending out cakes to everyone he’s worked with and nearly killing himself for our entertainment. So it must pain him that he’s not the fastest runner in the world. He’s not even the fastest runner in Hollywood, according to one of his Mission: Impossible co-stars.

Carrie Coon and Shea Whigham spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about their new film together, Lake George, which includes a scene where he chases after her. Apparently The Leftover actress, who is incapable of giving a bad performance (this is true of Whigham, too), was a soccer and track star in high school and later at Ohio’s University of Mount Union. Could she take Cruise in a dead (reckoning) sprint? Whigham thinks so.

“Tom [Cruise] is fast, but I don’t know that Tom could outrun Carrie, to be honest with you,” he admitted.

Forget the reported “submarine malfunction” reshoots. Make this the plot of Mission: Impossible 8. Don’t let Coon play Ethan Hunt’s love interest. She should be the villain who challenges him to a race, and if she wins, he has to promise to never climb or jump off a building again. Now those are stakes.

Mission: Impossible 8 is scheduled to come out on May 23, 2025, hopefully with Carrie Coon. But you can definitely see her in Lake George at the Tribeca Film Festival.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Drake hasn’t been doing too well in the court of public opinion over the last couple of months. It goes back to he and Kendrick Lamar’s rap beef that has seemingly concluded, but at best, has returned to the cold war it was before Lamar’s world-rocking “Like That” diss. Music fans deemed Lamar the winner and levied Drake with jokes afterward. It continued with Metro Boomin’s “BBL Drizzy” diss beat and things got worse when Drake remixed Snowd4y’s “Wah Gwan Delilah.” Both instances resulted in jokes from fans, and they continued thanks to Drake’s latest Instagram post which captured him in some funky pants.

Over the weekend, Drake made an appearance at his son Adonis’ soccer game. The was seen on the sidelines for teh game in a fancy get up: a sweater wrapped around his neck over a beige shirt and very baggy pleat pants. The pants in question went on to be the focus of jokes and commentary from fans on social media compared them to “dad pants” while also reference the “BBL Drizzy” allegations, the alleged daughter Kendrick said he had on “Meet The Grahams,” and Michael Jordan who is known for his affinity of baggy pants.

“Kendrick Lamar has broken Aubrey Drake Graham so badly that he is wearing a Little House on the Prairie Skirt Pants,” one fan wrote. Another wrote, “Drake got them Michael Jordan cut pants lol” while a third said. “The fact that this is drake Wallahi looks like my dad’s pants.”

The jokes continued and you can view all of them in the tweets below.

Last week was Pat Sajak’s final episode as the host of Wheel of Fortune, but his retirement thunder (good band name) was stolen by another game show.

On Friday’s episode of The Price Is Right, contestant Patrice from Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada, made a historic bid during the Showcase Showdown. He was asked to guess the retail price for a prize package that included a new car and a trip to Miami. His bid: $39,500. The actual cost? Well, before host Drew Carey read it out, he stepped back twice, did a double take, and said, “So… let me tell… let me just tell you.” Then he read it out loud: “Thirty-nine thousand, five-oh-one.” Patrice was one dollar off. He had “the best Showcase bid in the history of the show,” according to Carey.

It got even better for Patrice.

Show rules state that if a contestant bids within $250 without going over the actual price, they win both Showcase Showdown packages — that’s known as being a Double Showcase Winner… The Canadian contestant walked off with $83,068 in fabulous prizes — the highest showcase win this season, CBS said. The prize bucket includes a Kia K5 GT-Line; getaways to Milan, Hawaii, and Miami; a Husqvarna Svartpilen 401 motorcycle; and a stack of designer duds from Versace, Gucci, and Coach.

You can watch The Price Is Right clip above (sorry, Pat!).

(Via the New York Post)

The Boston Celtics are two wins away from winning their 18th NBA championship, as they improved to 2-0 in the 2024 NBA Finals thanks to yet another defensive masterpiece in a 105-98 win over the Dallas Mavericks.

As expected after laying an egg early in Game 1, the Mavs came out as the aggressors, jumping out to a 13-6 lead in the opening minutes with Luka Doncic leading the way and getting some assistance from Kyrie Irving.

However, the Celtics would get right back into the game thanks to their defense, as they again walled off the rim from the Mavs and made it difficult for the “others” — which in turn allowed Boston to turn defense into offense, as they had their own issues in the halfcourt.

Much like in Game 1, the only real offensive threat for the Mavs was Doncic, who had 23 points in the first half to keep Dallas attached, even as his teammates struggled from the field around him.

For Boston, it was Jrue Holiday who stepped up in a major way with 17 first half points, as they were similarly ice cold from three but still managed to take a 3-point edge into the locker room.

The two teams would go back-and-forth until the midway point in the third quarter when Boston began to open things up. They held Dallas scoreless for more than three and a half minutes, and in that time they opened up the biggest lead of the game at 12 points. Jayson Tatum was the catalyst for the run on the offensive end, as he struggled with his shooting but was spectacular as a facilitator — and found his way to get some timely buckets when needed.

Boston’s defense was giving the Mavs fits in the third, particularly from their supporting cast, as Holiday and Derrick White hounded the Mavs on the perimeter, while Kristaps Porzingis continued to be a menace in the paint.

The Mavs would continue to hang around, though, as Boston just could never find their stroke from three-point range to put Dallas away. Boston shot 10-of-39 from three, with one of them being a prayer by Payton Pritchard to end the third quarter that pushed their lead out to nine.

Their lead would stay in the 7-13 range for most of the fourth quarter, as Dallas shot equally bad from distance, knocking down just 6-of-26 from beyond the arc. But, to their credit, they hung in there, largely thanks to Doncic, who had 32 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists on the night.

However, Boston would finally see a couple threes fall late, and went up 14 with three minutes to go on a Derrick White triple (his fourth of the night) and it looked as though they’d cruise to a win.

But things got a bit dicey late thanks to some free throws made by PJ Washington and Derrick Jones Jr., and a Doncic and-one that cut the deficit to five with 80 seconds to play.

From there, a Derrick Jones Jr. block sparked a fastbreak that could’ve cut the deficit to three, but White made another incredible defensive play to block Washington from behind (with a push in the back from Brown that could’ve been called a foul) to effectively ice the game.

From that point, the wind went out of Dallas’ sails and a Brown layup put an end to the drama, as Boston would run out the clock on a seven-point win.

Tatum continued his nightmarish shooting postseason with a 6-of-22 night, scoring just 18 points, but it was arguably the best passing game of his career, as he piled up 12 assists. He didn’t try to force it too often as his jumper wasn’t falling, and made some spectacular reads and finds against doubles to get his teammates great looks. Holiday was a frequent beneficiary, as he had one of the best offensive performances of his playoff career, leading Boston with 26 points and 11 rebounds on 11-of-14 shooting. Holiday was a menace on the offensive glass (four OREBs) and caught Dallas ball-watching to crash the boards and make timely cuts to the basket.

His backcourt running mate was also terrific, as White had 18 points on 6-of-15 shooting (4-of-10 from three), with three steals and two blocks on the defensive end, as he and Holiday absolutely terrorized Irving for the second straight game. Brown, aka the Celtics “best player” per Jason Kidd, had 21 points and seven assists, as he, like Tatum, did well not to force things offensively and made the right reads to get the others involved.

Doncic’s triple-double was one of the few bright spots for Dallas, as they continued to have a hellacious time trying to deal with the Boston defensive. Irving had flashes of production, but mostly found himself stymied by Holiday and White, who continue to do an incredible job of keeping Kyrie in front of them and cutting off his driving lanes off the bounce. The result was a 7-of-18 night for Irving, finishing with 16 points and six assists. That just won’t cut it, especially with the role players struggling with their shot on the road. The non-Luka Mavs went 2-of-17 from three-point range, and while it was a better night offensively than Game 1, they still were stuck in the mud in the halfcourt and heavily reliant on difficult shot-making from Doncic.

Going forward, the Mavs will hope being at home can wake up their shooters (and Irving), but for Dallas to lose a game where the Celtics shot 26 percent from three doesn’t bode well for their chances in this series. The Celtics, meanwhile, will feel like they got away with one in Game 2, as they missed a ton of good looks but managed to keep themselves going by getting downhill and to the free throw line just enough.

With a string of projects already out, Joshua Bassett is finally ready to drop his debut studio album. Shortly after The Golden Years is uploaded to streaming platforms, the “Smoke Slow” singer will launch the supporting tour.

On July 30, Bassett’s The Golden Years Tour is set to takeover Phoenix, Arizona’s Arizona Financial Theatre. Across the US and UK stops, the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series alumnus is slated to perform a total of 40 shows with support from special guest Thomas Day.

Joshua Bassett’s artist presale will kick off on Tuesday, June 11 at 10 a.m. local time. While the general sale will follow on Friday, June 14 at 10 a.m. local time. Find more information here.

Continue below for the full tour schedule and official poster.

Joshua Bassett’s 2024 Tour Dates: The Golden Years Tour

07/30 — Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre
08/01 — Irving, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
08/02 — Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall
08/03 — Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits Live at The Moody Theater
08/05 — New Orleans, LA @ Fillmore New Orleans
08/06 — Jacksonville, FL @ Daily’s Place
08/08 — Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy
08/09 — Birmingham, AL @ Avondale Brewing Co.
08/10 — Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
08/12 — Raleigh, NC @ Red Hat Amphitheater
08/13 — Charlotte, NC @ Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre
08/14 — Baltimore, MD @ Pier Six Pavilion
08/16 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Presented by Highmark
08/17 — Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway
08/20 — New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall
08/21 — Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall
08/23 — Rochester Hills, MI @ Meadow Brook Amphitheatre
08/24 — Chicago, IL @ Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
08/25 — Minneapolis, MN @ Armory
08/27 — Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
08/28 — Sandy, UT @ Sandy Amphitheater
08/30 — San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
09/01 — San Diego, CA @ Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre at SDSU
09/03 — Los Angeles, CA @ YouTube Theater
09/16 — Dublin, IE @ 3Olympia Theatre
09/17 — Belfast, UK @ Ulster Hall
09/19 — Glasgow, UK @ O2 Academy
09/20 — Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy
09/22 — Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo
09/23 — London, UK @ Eventim Apollo
09/25 — Brussels, BE @ La Madeleine
09/27 — Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
09/29 — Paris, FR @ Salle Pleyel
10/01 — Barcelona, ES @ Razzmatazz
10/03 — Milan, IT @ Fabrique
10/05 — Munich, DE @ Muffathalle
10/06 — Cologne, DE @ Carlswerk Victoria
10/07 — Berlin, DE @ Huxleys Neue Welt
10/09 — Copenhagen, DK @ Vega

Joshua Bassett’s The Golden Years Tour poster

Initially, Thomas Day was only slated to join Bassett during the North American date as the poster states. However, Bassett took to Instagram to confirmed that Day will stay on for the entire tour.

The Golden Years is out 7/26 via Warner Records. Find more information here.

Jason Kidd busted out the mind games before Game 2 of the 2024 NBA Finals. Kidd, whose Dallas Mavericks find themselves in an 0-1 hole in the series, went into why he believes Jaylen Brown and not Jayson Tatum is the best player on the Boston Celtics. It’s a bit of a strange issue in Boston, because while there’s never seemed to be any disagreement that Tatum is the best player on the team, there have been plenty of people for years who have tried to drive a wedge between the pair, going as far as to say they need to be broken up if the team wants to win a ring.

This came up during NBA Countdown on Sunday night before the game, which led to former Golden State Warriors executive and current ESPN analyst Bob Myers talking about how “we tear teams apart more than we ever have.” This included Myers awkwardly taking a bit of a swipe at Stephen A. Smith, as he essentially accused him of doing this.

“Not me,” Smith said in the very serious voice he tends to use when he’s upset about something. “Not me. Not me. That’s social media, that’s not me.”

It’s always interesting to see what does and does not get under Smith’s skin with this stuff, and it sure does seem that Myers touched a nerve with this one.

Shaquille O’Neal knows a little something about being part of a star duo that splits apart due to friction. After Jason Kidd tossed another log on the fire in Boston this week, calling Jaylen Brown the best player on the Celtics, there was no one better equipped to talk about how Brown and Jayson Tatum need to handle that than O’Neal.

As Shaq explained on NBATV’s pregame coverage, the two stars cannot “worry about useless titles” like who is the best player, noting if they start doing that it’ll impact not just Game 2 but could cost them the series. It’s sage advice, but Shaq begins it with a bit of revisionist history, as he said he “knew” he wasn’t the best player on those Lakers teams with Kobe Bryant that three-peated in the early 2000s.

Shaq and Kobe rather famously had differing opinions about who was the best player, and Shaq covers himself a bit here by splitting hairs between “best” and “most dominant.” But I’ve got to say, I’m not sure the guy who once freestyled a diss song asking Kobe “how’s my ass taste” while reminding Bryant he can’t win without him truly thought Kobe was the better player at the time.

While this feels like the product of hindsight (and, some would say, a false statement even in hindsight given how Shaq dominated those Finals), the advice is correct. To win a title, you have to be willing to set aside some of that personal desire to make sure you’re doing everything your team needs you to. For Tatum, that means continuing to make the right reads and passes when the Mavs send doubles, and not try to force yourself into having a big scoring impact on the series. For Brown, it’s continuing to be a two-way force and attack when opportunity presents itself, but be willing to do the same if Dallas adjusts their defense to send more help his way.

During their three-peat, Shaq and Kobe were always able to rise to the occasion and set aside any differences to do what was needed to win championships, even if they ultimately drove them apart. Brown and Tatum have been saying the right things all postseason, and we’ll get firm confirmation on Sunday night as to whether they’ve taken that to heart and will continue keeping their focus on the ultimate prize.

The Los Angeles Lakers will find out if they have their next coach lined up on Monday, as Dan Hurley will make his decision between returning to UConn, where he’s led the Huskies to back-to-back men’s national championships, or take a reportedly large offer from the Lakers.

Per Woj, Hurley and the Lakers met this weekend and the team made a “compelling case” to the UConn head coach, who told Woj he was “extremely impressed” by the presentation in L.A. on Friday after meeting with Rob Pelinka and Jeanie Buss. It’s rather fascinating that this is all happening very publicly, with Hurley confirming reports and the entire pursuit by the Lakers being reported out step-by-step.

Typically, coaching searches feature a handful of top names — and even a frontrunner — but because there’s always a chance someone says no (or another candidate blows the team away in interviews), they don’t often make it so abundantly clear they’ve made their choice and are simply hoping for a yes. That won’t matter much if Hurley says yes on Monday, as the Lakers will have gotten their man. However, if Hurley says no this becomes a disaster for L.A., to have so publicly chased a coach and now obviously be offering the job to their Plan B — possibly (probably?) JJ Redick. That adds even more pressure to the job than already would’ve existed, while also making for a rather embarrassing swing and a miss for the Lakers to make such an all-out pursuit and be turned down.