Year: 2024

Last week, Sabrina Carpenter announced Short N’ Sweet, her forthcoming sixth full-length studio album, and she released “Please Please Please” alongside a video co-starring Barry Keoghan. Carpenter debuted the single during her Governors Ball 2024 set at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in New York City on Saturday, June 8. Of course, the Carpenter also pulled off her now-iconic trick of ad-libbing the outro for “Nonsense,” the standout track from her 2022 album, Emails I Can’t Send.

“Do I text him back? / It’s such a tough call,” Carpenter sang in a video posted by Gov Ball on Instagram. “That won’t fit inside me / Bro, I’m dumb small / People who hate Pride can suck my Gov Balls.”

Predictably, Carpenter’s crowd erupted before she could add, “Happy Pride, New York! I love you so much.”

“Gov Ball, that was one of the biggest, loudest, most playful crowds I’ve ever seen,” Carpenter captioned her own Instagram carousel. “So grateful for each and every one of you!!!! Thanks for having us!”

Carpenter couldn’t possibly be riding any higher into this album cycle. The 25-year-old pop star dropped “Espresso” before her Coachella 2024 debut, and the song has consistently charted on the Billboard Hot 100 — peaking at No. 4 and sitting at No. 5 on the chart dated June 8.

Short N’ Sweet is out 8/23 via Island Records. Find more information here.

It wasn’t even a year ago that Zach Bryan first headlined Crypto.com Arena. That was following a jump from his previous LA show at The Wiltern in 2022, nearly multiplying the capacity by 10 in the process. But in the year that past, he has again multiplied his draw, scheduling three nights at the same arena he only played once last year. In other places around the country, like Dallas and Philadelphia, he’s playing football stadiums. He recently landed his first No. 1 single with his Kacey Musgraves duet “I Remember Everything,” and has also offered up his first No. 1 album for his self-titled offering in the process. There is no denying that Zach Bryan keeps getting bigger, and we still don’t know if the peak is in sight.

Bryan, for his part, is not taking his foot off the gas. His rapid-fire release strategy defies norms — outside of the rap world, at least — and has resulted in a triple album, a regular full length, a live album, two EPs, and the “Dawns” single, all within the last two years. He’s got another album just about ready to go, too, with The Great American Bar Scene already poking its head out with a lead single, “Pink Skies,” on the charts and more songs being debuted live. “Guys I’m teasing no body, I write and record music reckless and fast,” Bryan tweeted a couple weeks back, “just got the record finished so it’ll be dropped on someone’s head any day now.” The new songs that we’ve heard are just as strong as anything that has came before, with Bryan trusting his craft and lacking the preciousness that many artists hold with regards to their catalog. Or, maybe Bryan is precious, but also just deservedly confident that this moment in time of inspiration is worth milking for all it is worth.

There’s a balance there that can be seen in his live show. On the second of his three Los Angeles performances, Bryan unveiled a setlist that had evolved in the last year, including many songs that had been released in the past 12 months while tightening the older tunes explored. The stage was less cluttered, his in-the-round concept honed even more for visually-appealing results. The choreographed moments still feel natural even when they’re obviously planned, be it the band posing around the drum kit while Zach caries a song, or a member going back-to-back with the drummer at a song’s peak, looking up to the rafters with locked-in passion.

And the members are starting to stand out even more than just Zach Bryan’s backing band. Most notable is multi-instrumentalist Read Connolly, who not only looks amazing in a suit while playing, but now has multiple standout solo moments during the set. As Bryan makes clear during the extended closer “Revival,” most of the people in the live band are longtime friends that Bryan is sharing his wild ride with. Zach’s gratitude extends not just that his life is forever changed, but also the lives of the people he cares most about.

Elsewhere in the performance, the “reckless and fast” nature of his recording output can be felt in the music he is highlighting. “Something In The Orange,” long his biggest hit until “I Remember Everything” came along, was dropped on this evening and seems to be a chapter that Bryan is emphasizing less. The next night he switched it, and didn’t play “I Remember Everything” in favor of “Orange,” underscoring a supreme confidence that relies less on an individual song than the overall product he’s bringing nightly. There isn’t a single song in the set, even the unreleased title track for his next album or the weeks-old “Pink Skies,” that don’t receive massive singalongs. When every song goes over like a hit, the pressure to deliver the actual hits on a nightly basis diminishes. Bryan is not playing to the people who heard him on the radio — a group that visibly grew in the last year but can’t diminish the show’s vibe. He’s playing to the folks that got him here, and the folks that will still be there when the dust settles.

Because that’s the fear: As Zach Bryan gets more and more popular, some of what makes him special might be sacrificed. But his concerts paint a different picture. Bryan is resolute in the way he’s been doing things, and he doesn’t appear to be changing courses. He can get bigger while getting better at the same time. There doesn’t have to be a choice.

If there are only two buzzy hot topics right now, they’d be AI and country music. 50 Cent has found a way to involve himself with both, posting an AI-generated remix of one of his biggest hits.

“My country album on the way,” he joked in the post, sharing a video of the Pro Tools session for the remix. “Beyoncé ain’t got sh*t on me.”

Yes, that is an AI-generated Conway Twitty singing 50’s breakout smash, “In Da Club.” Is it kind of fire? That probably depends on your personal taste, but … it sure is something.

At least 50’s taking a break from roasting other stars to let himself be the butt of the joke for once. His last big use of AI was to troll his apparent business rival, Diddy, but the creepy AI Tupac didn’t do him any favors. He’s had better luck terrorizing the Bad Boy Records founder with his documentary about Diddy’s misdeeds which was recently picked up by Netflix after a bidding war.

However, everything isn’t all sunny for 50. He was recently sued by his ex Daphne Joy Narvaez, who accused him of similar crimes to those of his enemy Diddy. In response, he countersued for defamation.

Last year, The Kid Laroi showed GQ the tattoo that Post Malone drew onto his thigh, and it was “a stick figure cowboy that has angel wings and is wearing clogs.” Steve-O’s entire persona is based upon upping the ante to an absurd or dangerous degree, so, of course, his purported Post Malone-drawn tattoo would blow Laroi’s out of the water.

Steve-O will turn 50 on Thursday, June 13, and he shared his celebratory plans with Page Six.

“I’m getting my first face tattoo,” the Jackass star said. “Post Malone is going to tattoo a d*ck on my forehead.

He continued, “That’s the plan. He asked, ‘Is it going to be a ch*de?’ And I don’t even know what a ch*de is!”

Steve-O explained that he’d already “designed” the tattoo and plans to get it at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, where Post Malone will headline on Friday, June 14.

Of course, this is Steve-O. It is always on the board that he’s trolling everyone and has absolutely no intention to get an explicit image permanently plastered onto his forehead. But, if any two people were to do this, it would absolutely be Post Malone and Steve-O. They already have gave each other matching “Ghost Malone” tattoos in 2022, as seen in this video.

Ever since Sexyy Red blew up with “Pound Town,” fans can’t help but speculate about the St. Louis rapper’s dating life. So far, she’s been linked to Drake, who some fans even connected to her second pregnancy, and more recently, her “Bow Bow Bow” collaborator, Chief Keef. She hasn’t done much to dispel either rumor; in fact, over the weekend, she threw fuel on the flames of the latter with a pair of provocative posts on Instagram.

In the first, she and the Chicago rapper appear to be flirtatiously embracing as she sticks her tongue out.

As fans in the comments questioned the nature of the duo’s relationship, Sexyy posted a video in which she and Keef hug up on each other as she insists, “That’s my brother.”

So does this mean that the two rappers are dating? Not necessarily, but for now, the jury is out. While she seems to enjoy teasing fans over her love life, she doesn’t have any interest in shutting down rumors the way she did a conspiracy theory about getting paid to hang out with Drake.

In any event, Sexyy appears to be enjoying her newfound fame. On Saturday, she hosted WWE’s NXT Battleground event in Las Vegas, and looked like she had the time of her life, interacting with the wrestlers, presenting the championship belt, and twerking her way throughout the facility.

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)