Category: News

This is a celebratory year for Snoop Dogg, marking 50 years since hip-hop’s birth and 30 years since the release of his debut album. Doggystyle is supposed to receive a sequel album from Snoop and Dr. Dre appropriately (or inappropriately, depending on who you ask) titled Missionary.

As Billboard relayed in April, Audible is also commemorating 50 years of hip-hop with original programming.

“Snoop’s Words + Music: From the Streets to the Suites will debut June 15 and honor the 30th anniversary of Doggystyle,” Billboard‘s Carl Lamarre wrote on April 21. “According to a press release, From the Streets will find Snoop reflecting ‘on his coming-of-age journey from the streets of Long Beach to around the world and his decision to pursue love and life over death and destruction.’ It also touches on his days ‘from singing in the church choir as a boy to meeting Dr. Dre and eventually buying Death Row Records.’”

On Sunday, June 11, HipHopDX shared an advanced snippet from the Audible Original that finds Snoop specifically recalling “Gin And Juice” being nominated at the 37th Grammy Awards in 1994.

“Queen Latifah approached me about that song, right? ‘Cause me and her was nominated for a Grammy — that song against ‘U.N.I.T.Y.,’ and she won. And I was hurt,” Snoop said in the clip. “But she was like, ‘N****, I love ‘Gin And Juice.’ That’s my favorite sh*t,’ so then I got unhurt fast.”

He continued, “You know, a muthaf*cka gets hurt ’cause he lose and sh*t, but I’m like, damn, this is the Queen, n****. Bow down. This is the muthaf*ckin’ queen, and she told me that. She said, ‘But I love ‘Gin And Juice.’ That’s my favorite sh*t.’ So, I was like, you know what? I can take that L.”

Snoop’s “Gin And Juice” lost to Latifah’s “U.N.I.T.Y.” in the Best Rap Solo Performance category.

Snoop Dogg has been nominated for 16 Grammys throughout his iconic career but is still awaiting his first win.

Fox News is not playing around when it comes to Tucker Carlson launching a new show on Twitter. After warning the former anchor that his new web series is a breach of contract, Fox News has reportedly sent Carlson a cease-and-desist letter, which has once again prompted a fiery response from the ousted TV personality’s attorneys.

Despite Carlson still being under a multi-million dollar contract with his old network, Carlson’s legal team has attempted to paint the situation as a “freedom of speech” issue.

Via Axios:

“Fox News continues to ignore the interests of its viewers, not to mention its shareholder obligations. Doubling down on the most catastrophic programming decision in the history of the cable news industry, Fox is now demanding that Tucker Carlson be silent until after the 2024 election,” the statement continued. “Tucker will not be silenced by anyone … He is a singularly important voice on matters of public interest in our country, and will remain so.”

The statement from Carlson’s lawyers is similar to last week’s response to a Fox News notice that Carlson is in breach of contract. His team blasted the move as “hypocritical” given Fox News “defends its very existence on freedom of speech grounds.”

However, Fox News has continued to play hardball with Carlson. Prior to his filming his new Twitter show, the network reportedly confiscated all of its equipment from Carlson’s home in Maine, leaving him scrambling to set up a new production studio. That move did not deter him from launching his show, but Fox News is clearly showing no signs of backing down either.

(Via Axios)

The Idol aired its second episode on Sunday, June 11, and while many viewers were focused on the increasing role of Blackpink’s Jennie Kim, The Weeknd is committed to releasing singles from the HBO series’ soundtrack.

“World Class Sinner” and “The Lure” arrived ahead of Sunday’s episode — joining the previously released “Double Fantasy” featuring Future and “Popular” featuring Madonna and Playboi Carti — and two new singles joined the mounting batch after the episode: “Family” by The Weeknd with Suzanna Son and “Devil’s Paradise” by Mike Dean.

Tesfaye was particularly excited about Son’s The Idol character, Chloe, as evidenced by his Instagram activity, including a clip of Chloe playing “Family” at the piano.

The Weekend (real name Abel Tesfaye) shared his The Idol music plan last Wednesday, June 7.

“I was planning on dropping the whole soundtrack for [The Idol] by the finale, but I’m too hyped… instead, I wanna drop new music from the show every week with each episode,” Tesfaye captioned an Instagram post. “I’m excited for you guys to hear what we’ve been cooking and all these incredible artists that are a part of this show… this week… Jocelyn’s pop song ‘world class sinner’ and ‘the lure’ (theme score)… episode 2 this Sunday [purple devil emoji].”

The Idol was co-created by Tesfaye, Sam Levinson (Euphoria), and Reza Fahim.

“After a nervous breakdown derailed Jocelyn’s (Lily-Rose Depp) last tour, she’s determined to claim her rightful status as the greatest and sexiest pop star in America,” HBO’s official synopsis reads. “Her passions are reignited by Tedros (Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye), a nightclub impresario with a sordid past. Will her romantic awakening take her to glorious new heights or the deepest and darkest depths of her soul?”

Listen to the latest offerings from The Idol soundtrack below.

Madonna is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Kanye West turned 46 years old on Thursday (June 8) and over the weekend, he celebrated with a nyotaimori dinner with friends and associates like “wife” Bianca Censori, Freddie Gibbs, GLC, John Monopoly, and Ty Dolla Sign. Nyotaimori (sometimes called “body sushi”) is the Japanese practice of serving sushi on a woman’s naked body. The practice dates back to the Edo period (between 1603 and 1867) but has since become thought of as an “exotic” attraction after its popularity in Japan dwindled in part due to international travel. The practice has been banned in some countries due to health and moral concerns.

Fans seeing videos from the celebration on social media certainly expressed some of those concerns, especially as it became apparent that Kanye’s daughter North also attended the gathering, shooting video of her dad rapping along to his track “Off The Grid” (she was apparently in a different section of the establishment where the sushi was being served normally). Some fans criticized the rapper, calling him a hypocrite for previously criticizing his ex-wife Kim Kardashian for allowing North to maintain a TikTok account. “so kanye flipped when kim let north do a dance on tiktok but he’s okay with having her come to his birthday where they’re serving sushi off a naked woman?” one fan asked.

Of course, as always, Kanye’s got his defenders, as other fans expressed appreciation for Kanye teaching North videography skills (or just, you know, saving money on a pro videographer). Although the rapper/producer has fallen out of favor, it looks like he’s still got plenty of supporters, and peers in the industry who are willing to show up to celebrate with him.

Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw the culmination of Janelle Monáe’s attention-grabbing album cycle and the continued unfurling of The Weeknd’s The Idol universe. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

For more music recommendations, check out our Listen To This section, as well as our Indie Mixtape and Pop Life newsletters.

Janelle Monáe — “Champagne Sh*t”

After much skin, Janelle Monáe’s new album The Age Of Pleasure has arrived. While Monáe’s often-NSFW promotional cycle was the talk of the album lead-up, the music itself is strong. Among the highlights is “Champagne Sh*t,” which, like many other songs on the project, is full of confidence, fun, and warm summer vibes.

The Weeknd — “The Lure (Main Theme)”

Whether or not you’re into The Idol, at least the show means new music from The Weeknd. He plans to drop new singles from the show weekly, and last week brought “The Lure,” a meditative and dramatic theme for the show that sounds very much like the kind of distinctive, standout music HBO shows tend to have.

Sam Smith and Madonna — “Vulgar”

Madonna recently entered the world of The Idol with a Weeknd collab, but now she’s shifted gears by linking up with Sam Smith on “Vulgar.” Both artists have prominently dealt with detractors over the years, and they self-assuredly address them on “Vulgar,” which includes lyrics like, “Do you know how to spell my name? / B-*-T-C-H / Go f*ck yourself, you heard me, b*tch / Say our f*cking names.”

Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit — “This Ain’t It”

The pop world popped off last week, but meanwhile, Jason Isbell had an achievement of his own: Weathervanes, a new album. He recently told Uproxx about how making this album compared to his previous one, Reunions. He said, “This one was a lot easier. And I think the main reason for that was that I just admitted to what was bothering me. It took a long time because I’m still learning this stuff. And I am still a man from Alabama at my core, so sometimes it can be a big challenge for me to actually be honest with myself and say, ‘Okay, you’re scared.’ But once I did that, things got a lot better, and it became much more enjoyable for me to write and record songs again. It’s something that I struggle with every single day: ‘What exactly am I feeling and how do I work up the courage to say that out loud?’ Because once you do, things just sort of magically start to get better.”

Rosalía — “Tuya”

Rosalía has found acclaim and an audience by being undeniably herself, which she continues on her latest single, “Tuya.” The track incorporates the reggaeton rhythms that are commonplace in her work, but she brings even more international flavor into the fold with the koto, the national instrument of Japan.

BTS — “Take Two”

BTS has been releasing a surprising amount of new music for a group on a hiatus. They couldn’t just let their tenth anniversary go by without celebrating, though, so they shared “Take Two,” a song that sees the group (all seven members are on the song despite their various commitments) showing love to the fans who have helped them reach the heights they have.

PinkPantheress — “Angel”

PinkPantheress became a genuine hit-maker earlier this year with “Boy’s A Liar,” especially via the Ice Spice-featuring remix. She further found herself in good company last week with her contribution to the stacked Barbie movie soundtrack: “Angel” stays true to her sound and is a bright tune that fits wonderfully into the perpetually sunny Barbie universe.

City Girls — “I Need A Thug”

It appears City Girls have a new album landing this summer, and they’re certainly getting ready for a strong season with “I Need A Thug.” It’s a perfect contender for a warm-weather party playlist and is memorable despite being over after just a couple minutes. (If you need more City Girls, they dropped another new song, “Piñata,” just hours later.)

J Hus — “Who Told You” Feat. Drake

J Hus has been a Drake associate for a few years now, since he popped up at one of his London shows just hours after being released from prison. Now they’ve linked up on a song: “Who Told You” has an undeniably fun rhythm and groove, while Drake’s signature vocal stylings only further the cause.

Sexyy Red — “SkeeYee”

How’s this for a pleasant surprise: Sexyy Red announced a new album, Hood Hottest Princess, last Tuesday and it was out by Friday. The timing for a new project is certainly good, as Red is riding the momentum of the viral hit “Pound Town” and its Nicki Minaj-featuring remix.

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

There are hard feelings between No Hard Feelings star Jennifer Lawrence and her middle school bully.

“This one girl named Meredith handed me a stack of invitations to her birthday party, but I was not invited. She asked me to hand them out. Isn’t that so mean?” the actress said in a video with E! News. Lawrence claimed that she spit on them and “threw them in the trash,” although she might have been joking. What wasn’t a joke, however, is the time she pantsed someone.

“I was an accidental bully because I pantsed this kid named Tyler,” she confessed. “We were pantsing people at a football game, and I accidentally grabbed his underwear. He got really embarrassed and I feel really bad. I’m sorry.” Lawrence still checks in on Tyler to this day. “I sometimes Google him,” she said, “just to be, like, you alright?”

If your name is Tyler and you went to Kammerer Middle School in Louisville, Kentucky, today is a great day for you. If your name is Meredith and you went to Kammerer Middle School in Louisville, Kentucky, today is a horrible day for you. There goes your shot at attending the Oscars with Lawrence.

You can watch the video above. No Hard Feelings comes out on June 23.

ARMY was treated to “Take Two,” the monumental K-pop group’s single to commemorate their 10-year anniversary, and rumors are swirling that Jungkook is preparing to release a solo album. Even so, it appears Jungkook is using BTS’ hiatus for some much-needed rest.

According to various outlets and fan accounts on Twitter, Jungkook fell asleep during his recent Weverse live session.

The BTS Live YouTube account, which exists solely to capture each member’s activity on Weverse Live, posted a 45-minute video of Jungkook with captions translated to English. To start, he told viewers he’s “tired” and wanted to go to sleep but couldn’t because he kept thinking of ARMY.

After giving a demonstration of his pillow and how he usually sleeps on it, Jungkook reiterated he couldn’t sleep “when I think of ARMY” despite his level of exhaustion. Jungkook intermittently yawned and relayed, “There are times when I snore and times I don’t snore, but I think I will snore today.” Again, Jungkook told viewers he’d missed them.

“If I sleep like this? Then, the company will go crazy again,” he said, presumably referring to Big Hit Music. He added, “Since it’s morning, the company will be careless. That’s when I go for it.”

He rambled like this for a while before finally beginning to drift off around the 15-minute mark. There are differing reports as to how many people continued watching the live as Jungkook slept — most agree it was over six million, like Sportskeeda — but either way, it was a lot.

Just after the 24-minute mark, Jungkook relayed that he “had a dreamlike thought about how you guys can’t get hurt. We must be careful all the time. We can’t get hurt.” Then, he seemingly was out like a light this time.

Watch the full 45-minute video below.

In the heart of Pride Month, the LA Pride Festival & Parade went down in Los Angeles this past weekend. Janelle Monáe made sure to put her stamp on proceedings with their own float, from which they sang some songs from their new album, The Age Of Pleasure. She also took a minute to deliver a rousing speech about celebrating and protecting the LGBTQIA+ community.

They said, “We are here, we are queer! We are trans! We are the LGBTQIA+ community and we celebrate us right now! We celebrate all that we are from all different walks of life. We protect each other. We use our privilege to protect those who don’t have any. We use our voice. We use and exercise our right to vote to protect our trans family! […] We protect Black folks here. We protect brown and Black. All of us protect each other. We love each other and we create safe spaces for each other, ’cause there’s no pleasure without safety. So thank you for this safe space right now. I love you so much!”

This follows a recent interview in which Monáe said, “You respond by fighting back, by speaking out against, standing with our trans community, my siblings. As a nonbinary, queer, pansexual person, I am proud to be in this community. I will never sit back and be silent about the injustices that are happening against our trans community.”

Janelle Monáe is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Ron DeSantis got called out during last night’s Tony Awards as actor Denée Benton slammed the Florida governor for his aggressive education policies, which have targeted everything from so-called “critical race theory” curriculum to the now-infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law that’s locked him in a heated battle with Disney.

While saluting the 2023 recipient of the excellence in theater education award, Florida student Jason Zembuch Young of South Plantation High School, Benton noted that she’s also a native of the Sunshine State as she proceeded to refer to DeSantis as a high-ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Via Variety:

“I’m certain that the current grand wizard — I’m sorry, excuse me, governor of my home state of Florida,” Benton said, to a roar of applause from the crowd at the historic United Palace Theater in Washington Heights. Benton seemed to nod to DeSantis’ legislative push in Florida to enact racist and discriminatory policies restricting school curriculums on American history, among other disturbing moves during his time in office.

The Hollywood Reporter tweeted a video clip of the moment.

In an effort to boost his culture war credentials before entering the 2024 presidential race, DeSantis has been at the forefront of notoriously sweeping education policies that have targeted LGBTQ educators and students as well as strictly limited teaching materials that grapple with America’s racist past and present.

While other red states have attempted similar measures, DeSantis’ administration has been notably successful in jamming through “anti-woke” measures that has made DeSantis a darling with ultra-right conservatives. However, those same conservatives are also extremely loyal to Donald Trump, which has forced DeSantis into awkward positions like denouncing the latest indictment against the former president.

(Via Variety & The Hollywood Reporter)

Few people would ever accuse (or praise) the The Idol of being anything less than an intentionally controversial hot mess. The second episode more than doubled down on the softcore-porn vibe with nudity galore and a particularly unsettling sex scene (a followup on the confusing counterpart of the pilot) between Lily-Rose Depp’s Jocelyn and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye’s Tedros. (I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say that a different kind of choking was involved.) As viewers learned about the latter, he is apparently leading some kind of sex cult, and he’s succeeding at getting Jocelyn into his clutches. By the end of this week’s edition, he’s arranged to move into her mansion as her career is falling into tatters around her.

And that’s where the character of Dyanne comes back into focus. The back-up dancer character, who is portrayed by K-pop star Jennie Kim from Blackpink, already captured more YouTube views for one scene than the premiere initially racked up for HBO. Jennie later revealed that the choreography came pretty naturally, and it seems that everything that Jocelyn can do (dancing, singing, and “f*ck”-ing), Dyanne can do better.

In retrospect, this HBO tweet had some fun with what was to come: “Everyone needs a Dyanne.”

As it turns out, Dyanne was the reason why Jocelyn ended up at Tedros’ club. She’s also apparently coming for Jocelyn’s career, and by the end of the episode, she’s laid down a track for a record executive (played by Jane Adams) who sent Jocelyn home after her on-set meltdown.

Here’s a budding theory (about that leaked photo) that actually might not be too far-fetched, considering all that we are learning about this cult.

Amid all of the well-founded tweets complaining about the Jocelyn-Tedros sex scene, another refrain is becoming clear: people are enjoying the revelation that Jennie is portraying a villain. So, I imagine that a great deal of people who continue to tune in will do so solely for the Blackpink star.

HBO’s The Idol airs on Sunday nights at 9:00pm EST.