Category: News

Tems is a credited co-writer on Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up,” arriving last October for the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack and earning Tems an Oscar nomination at this year’s ceremony. Still, Tems hadn’t released solo material since her 2021 EP If Orange Was A Place. That finally changed on Thursday morning, October 5, with “Me & U.” Tems gifted her patient fans with an accompanying video, directed by her.

“FIRST SINGLE IN TWO YEARS!” Tems posted across her social media profiles. “‘ME & U’ OUT EVERYWHERE So incredibly grateful for all your support! LET’S GO [Earth emoji, dove emoji, star emoji].”

In the video, Tems is found by the ocean. The serene environment is contrasted by Tems’ intense emotion. “This is my decision,” she sings. “I don’t think you listen, you listen / I don’t think you listen.” She asks to “give me something” in return because “I love you,” and “I don’t need nothing, you are my everything.” She dances in the water, atop a cliff, and at a gathering in the woods at night.

At one point, Tems is alone in a castle-like room, sitting in the middle of a circle of lit candles. She sings, “Make me your matter, make me your matter, make me your matter / Show me your substance, make me your person, make me your person /Give me one break, I need faith / Faith to believe you, faith to receive you / Give me something I’m lacking.”

By the video’s end, Tems illustrates her relinquishing of control by sprinting in the dark and falling backward into the ocean.

“Me & U” and its video — and the two-year gap between Tems’ singles — speak to something Tems told Kendrick Lamar for Interview Magazine this June (published in August), when Lamar asked whether she feels “pressure to conform to what people may expect” from her.

“Yeah, you have to remember how you felt when you started as an artist, to understand the reason you’re doing what you’re doing,” she said. “Yes, it’s to be seen, or to make a name for yourself, but beyond that, why are you doing it? Most of the time it’s because you have a story to share, a message to give. When you become more known or seen, it’s very easy to get caught up in, ‘What do people expect of me now?’ But for me, it’s like, ‘What do I expect of myself now?’ Because you’re the one that has to live with yourself, the one that has to sleep with the decisions that you make.”

The Grammy winner continued, “Trusting yourself is so key, and I’m not going to stop trusting my guts just because people can see me now. It’s like being in a zoo. The animals don’t change their behavior just because you’re looking at them. They’re always going to be who they are. So why should I change?”

Watch the “Me & U” video above.

Kim Kardashian recently tried beer for the first time (or so she claims), but she’s not new to liquor. On the latest episode of Hulu’s The Kardashians, the SKIMS founder revealed she once “blacked out” while partying with Beyoncé.

“I’m definitely still a lightweight. I’ll have, like, two shots, and I’ll be wasted and it’s so much fun. I’ll be dancing on the dance floor,” she said. “Seriously, I know you guys don’t believe me — ask Beyoncé! I danced all night long at her party, I think I blacked out.” Kardashian “woke up to so many text messages, and I was like, ‘Khloé, what did I do?’ She’s like, ‘You were dropping it low and dancing,’ and I was like, ‘Nooo!’ I danced all night long and had no idea.”

InStyle did important journalism about when the dancing may have occured:

It’s unclear which Beyoncé party Kim was referring to, but if we had to guess it was the singer’s 41st birthday bash last year. And the timeline adds up. Back in 2022, Kardashian admitted that she had begun drinking again after abstaining from alcohol for years. “I started to drink a little bit at the age of 42. Coffee and alcohol,” she told Gwyneth Paltrow on her Goop podcast in December. “I feel like I just gotta let loose a little bit.”

If drinking too many Miller Lites while watching Austin Powers in Goldmember counts, then I, too, have gotten blackout drunk while partying with Beyoncé.

(Via InStyle)

2019 feels like a decade ago for countless reasons (some more obvious than others), but that was when we first heard about Masters Of The Air from Apple TV+. The world has since gone chaotic and most recently into two Hollywood strikes, but finally, incredibly promising details are upon us. To briefly recap, this limited series will hail from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television along with Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman’s Playtone. The project arrives over two decades after Hanks and Spielberg brought their first World War II-inspired limited series, Band of Brothers, to HBO in 2001. They later followed up with The Pacific in 2010, and the third time might be an even bigger charm.

At least, the leading man and his supporting players promise enormous performances. Oscar winner Austin Butler has stopped Elvis-ing it up for this project, and he will be joined by BAFTA winner and Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan. The cast further includes Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle, Nate Mann, and Ncuti Gatwa, and here’s a peek at the ensemble in action:

The story will draw heavily upon Donald L. Miller’s book, Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany, and Apple TV+ looks to be pushing further towards streaming supremacy in its own right with this project. As Apple TV+ announced this week, this limited series will follow “a true story of brotherhood and American airmen in WWII Europe. Here’s a blast from the past via Deadline:

The book tells the story of the American bomber boys in WWII who brought the war to Hitler’s doorstep. It becomes the first series greenlit with Apple serving as the studio as the company is joining major streamers like Netflix and Amazon, which also produce and own content. Deadline hears that the miniseries will be more than eight hours in length, and that it will cost well north of $200 million to produce.

That $200 million figure was reported to be accurate back in 2019, and in a time of inflation, god only knows how much producers have invested in this project. It should be a hell of a ride.

Masters of the Air will stream on January 26, 2024.

(Via Deadline & Apple TV+)

Last month, Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness announced that they were ending their marriage after 27 years. “We have been blessed to share almost 3 decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful, loving marriage. Our journey now is shifting and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth,” they said in a statement. “Our family has been and always will be our highest priority. We undertake this next chapter with gratitude, love, and kindness. We greatly appreciate your understanding in respecting our privacy as our family navigates this transition in all of our lives.”

Now that Jackman has joined Taylor Swift’s posse of recent divorcees, he’s in the “early stages” of writing a memoir full of “big bombshells.” A source told US Magazine that the actor decided now is the time to share his life story “because he’s finally [being] honest with himself [and] the divorce, and this book is the first step.” The insider added, “The content will be Hugh speaking about his life. He’ll be opening up about his life like never before. It’s been very healing for him.”

Jackman will obviously spent a lot of pages on playing Wolverine, but there had better be at least one chapter, although ideally seven, on Movie 43. Why did he agree to have balls on his neck? The people (me) need to know.

(Via US Magazine)

Last December, SZA told Entertainment Weekly that Björk is “the GOAT to me” because the Icelandic artist is “the realest b*tch alive.” Björk is underscoring SZA’s claim by teasing a song she made with Rosalía that will serve to raise awareness and funds for an important issue in her homeland.

The 75-second song snippet arrived on Thursday morning, October 5, alongside a simplistic video. Björk’s intention for the song scrolls atop of a photo of a fish underwater (copyrighted to Veiga Grétarsdóttir), as Björk and Rosalía repeatedly sing, “Is that the right thing to do? / Is that the right thing to do? / I just don’t know / Oh, I just don’t know.”

Read Björk’s written message below, and listen to the snippet above.

“I am offering a song me and rosalía sang together. The profits will to help the fight against fish farming in Iceland. It will come out in October. People at the fjord Seyðisfjörður have stood up and protested against fish farming starting there. We would like to donate sales of the song to help with their legal fees and hopefully it can be an exemplary case for others.

Iceland has the biggest untouched nature in Europe and still today it has its sheep roaming free in the mountains in the summers
its fish has swum free in our lakes, rivers and fjords

So when Icelandic and Norwegian businessmen started buying fish farms in the majority of our fjords, it was a big shock and rose up as the main topic this summer, we don’t understand how they had been able to do this for a decade with almost no regulations stopping them. This has already had devastating effect on wildlife and the farmed fish are suffering in horrid health conditions and since a lot of them have escaped, they have started changing the DNA in the Icelandic salmon to the worse and could eventually lead to its extinction.

There is still a chance to safe the last wild salmon of the north. Our group would like to dare these business men to retract their farms! We would also like to help invent and set strict regulations into Iceland’s legal system to guard nature. The majority of the nation already agrees with us so this protest is about putting the will of the people into our rule-systems.

warmth

björk.”

For months there were rumblings that James Harden and the Houston Rockets might end up reuniting this summer in free agency. Eventually, those rumors cooled off and many wondered if Harden had been trying to use Houston’s massive amount of cap space as leverage in talks with the Sixers (which ultimately did not work out for him and now he’s demanded a trade).

The Rockets ultimately signed Fred VanVleet to a three-year max deal with a team option on the final year, adding the veteran point guard they felt they needed to help bring along Jalen Green and the young roster. However, Harden was certainly in the mix for the Rockets, but head coach Ime Udoka and the Rockets front office decided VanVleet was the better fit for what this Rockets team needed. As Udoka explained to Zach Lowe, they wanted VanVleet because he’d be a better fit in an offense that took a more egalitarian approach rather than having a ball dominant guard like Harden.

“Nothing against James,” Udoka told ESPN, “but Fred is just a better fit. I coached James in Brooklyn. He’s one of the smartest players I’ve ever been around. The words ‘Ime doesn’t want James’ never came out of my mouth. It was, ‘Let’s look at the best fit.’ If we want Jalen and the young guys to take the next steps, we need them to have the ball. As for me saying I don’t want James, that was never the case. It was about fit.”

When the Harden return rumors first started, many pointed out how this could be an issue, as Harden is someone who needs the ball constantly to be at his best. Adding him would either stymie the development of Green and the rest of the Rockets youngsters who also need to continue getting consistent reps on the ball, or if they insisted on still trying to run that kind of offense, you would not be getting Harden at his best. As a result, they opted for VanVleet, who has much more experience playing in an offense that shares ball-handling and creation responsibilities.

That quote from Udoka is also part of what is making it difficult for Harden to find another basketball home. He is a player that needs the ball in his hands to be his most effective (and has never shown much of a desire to change) but few teams are in the market for a player like that, particularly one that is getting older and has dealt with injuries in the past. Building a team around Harden at this point in his career is probably not good business, as the risks outweigh the rewards — unlike back in his prime in Houston when he was capable of carrying a team.

It has been over six years since the release of Miguel’s last album, War & Leisure. Since then, the California singer has shared a handful of EPs, featured on a few hit singles, and seen the resurgence of a fan favorite via TikTok, but it appears it’s at last time for him to put out a new full-length LP.

Miguel announced his new album, Viscera, with a moody video for its first official single, “Give It To Me.” The sparse beat is matched with equally sparse visuals, which mainly consist of neon-lit shots of Miguel and his leading lady showing off their physiques and intimately embracing as the camera swirls around them.

In the months leading up to this release, Miguel also shared two other songs in very different ways. The first, “Number 9” with Lil Yachty (who has truly been everywhere lately), had a very traditional release with a trippy visualizer. The other, “Rope,” had a less standard release. Miguel debuted that song with a performance piece that found him suspended in the air by literal ropes stuck into his back with hooks. Given the title of his new album, perhaps we should expect to see more viscera on display before it receives its official release, which is “soon” according to a press release.

In addition to these songs, Miguel also popped up on Jesse Reyez’s new single “Jeans” and its sexy, sultry music video. Check out the video for “Give It To Me” above.

After locking down an Emmy nomination for the final season of Succession, where he dominated every scene as brash media tyrant Logan Roy, Brian Cox has revealed his next big TV project: A James Bond reality competition.

007: Road to a Million will take pairs of contestants across the globe as they compete in Bond-like situations for a hefty chunk of change. The reality series was announced last year in March, but what wasn’t announced is Cox’s involvement in the series. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cox will essentially serve as the competition’s villain known only as The Controller.

Described as the “mastermind of the game,” The Controller “dictates where the pairs go, what they must do, and sets their questions. He monitors each pair’s quest, delighting in the unfolding drama of his intricately devised and often relentless challenges.”

There’s no word on whether the contestants will have to perform a birthday rap to win The Controller’s favor, but fingers crossed.

Here’s the official synopsis:

Nine pairs of everyday people scramble over rugged terrain, attempt stomach-churning challenges and answer questions for a chance to win up to £1 million each. Meanwhile, Brian Cox calls the shots as The Controller. Will they rise to the challenge, or fold like a pack of cards in this true test of intelligence, endurance and heroism.

007: Road to a Million starts streaming November 10 on Prime Video.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

While locked into his NBA squad long-term, Joel Embiid was the hottest free agent on the international basketball market, as he had a choice to make between joining USA Basketball, France, or Cameroon ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Given the general lack of big men on the USA Basketball roster, landing Embiid was the biggest task for Grant Hill and Steve Kerr to addressing their biggest weakness, particularly since him choosing France would’ve given the French squad a truly gigantic roster the U.S. would’ve had little in the way of obvious answers for. At Sixers media day, Embiid said he was close to making his choice, noting Cameroon would be the easy selection if they were qualified for the Olympics.

On Thursday, word broke from Ramona Shelburne and Shams Charania that Embiid made his selection, choosing USA Basketball and giving them the star center they desperately wanted for the 2024 Olympics.

With Embiid on board, the U.S. squad can look to add some of the more versatile bigs in the player pool like Draymond Green and Bam Adebayo, and if they can get commitments from those two they figure to have one of the best frontcourt rotations in the Olympics after that being one of the glaring issues at this year’s World Cup. France, meanwhile, will roll with Rudy Gobert as their starting center with Victor Wembanyama likely joining the roster for the Olympics after skipping the World Cup.

Blink-182 is preparing for the release of their new album One More Time… arriving later this month. So far, they’ve shared “Edging” and “One More Time,” and now they’re back with the new single and video “Dance With Me.”

In the video, they’re dressed up as The Ramones. It kicks off with a mock interview, in which Mark Hoppus gives his definition of punk: “Punk is doing what you think is right on your own terms and not answering to anybody else and not letting people tell you how you should live your life.” They don’t hesitate to rock out; the clamorous song is as fun as it is loud, and the lyrics are as chaotic as the sound: “I’ve been waiting around to lose / So dumb, trying to make believe / You’re mine, what are you gonna do / Come here, do you want to come dance with me?”

One More Time… is highly anticipated, considering it has Tom DeLonge for the first time since he left the band in 2015. Upon his return, he posted on Instagram, “What if I was to tell you we just made the best album of our career.”

Watch the video for “Dance With Me” above.

One More Time… is out 10/20 via Columbia. Find more information here.