Category: News

It’s been a while since we heard from Herschel Walker. Much like fellow failed GOP candidate Dr. Oz, he at least had the decency to drop out of sight after losing in November. (But at least Dr. Oz helped out after the devastating Turkey earthquake, which is genuinely decent.) Walker was plagued with one creative scandal (or humiliation) after another. Now, some six months later, he’s embroiled in another.

The Daily Beast dropped a bombshell piece on Wednesday that unearthed emails showing Walker had asked representatives for a billionaire donor — with whom he had a long history, including family vacations — for over $500,000 in March of 2022. That donor, industrialist Dennis Washington, assumed they were political contributions. But they were actually for HR Talent, LLC, Walker’s personal company — a company never disclosed on his financial statements.

“In the best possible circumstances, legal experts told The Daily Beast, the emails suggest exponential violations of federal fundraising rules,” writes The Daily Beast. But “in the worst case, they could be an indication of more serious crimes, such as wire fraud.”

What’s more, the amount Walker was asking for — over half a million dollars — was far in excess of federal limits. That he was allegedly converting said campaign contributions to personal use is also in violation of federal law.

Legal experts seem baffled by the audacity of what Walker may have done. One said if Walker “used the campaign to funnel money into his own business, that’s one of the biggest campaign finance crimes I’ve ever heard of.”

There’s more in The Daily Beast’s report, including that Washington gave Walker another $500,000, this time going directly into his super PAC. Walker hit up Washington again that November, this time asking for another $100,000. And to think it all ended in an embarrassing defeat for the candidate who once admitted he wasn’t sure how many states were in the U.S.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Fireboy DML teamed with Ed Sheeran for a “Peru” remix to close out 2021 and carried those vibes into 2022 with another “Peru” remix alongside 21 Savage and Blxst. He got a little bit later of a start on 2023, but it’s worth the wait.

“Thank you for your patience, always,” Fireboy DML wrote to Instagram on Wednesday, May 3. “My first single this year, ‘Someone’ audio and video out now! Let’s go [four rocket emojis].”

The pulsating track is accompanied by an intimate video directed by Bruno Marin.

The five-minute video opens by setting the scene in Warsaw, Poland. Fireboy is preparing to be met by countless excited fans on stage. The faces in the crowd have nothing on the woman he’s kicking it with backstage. We see vignettes of the perks of tour life — from Hamburg, Germany to Berlin, Germany — but nobody nor nothing makes Fireboy light up like one-on-one time with her.

“But if you leave / What happens to me?” Fireboy DML softly sings. “Where do I find someone, someone / Someone to love me?”

And midway through the video, Fireboy’s fears come to fruition. They hit a snag. She interrupts one of Fireboy’s rehearsals and asks, “What’s going on?” He’s confused, but she doesn’t let up: “What the hell are you doing? You’re an a**hole. Why did you make me come here? I don’t even know why I’m here.”

She bolts out, and he’s left baffled before chasing after her. He asks her what’s going on, and she’s incredulous that he can’t figure out for himself why she’s upset.

“You flew me from Italy to join you on tour, and this is the treatment I’m receiving,” she says.

Fireboy DML tries to apologize, sort of, but it’s not warmly received. He’s tired of making sacrifices, which predictably is also not received well. But by the end, they’ve worked through it and resume their honeymoon phase.

The fast-paced, tour-themed video juxtaposes what Fireboy DML described as his natural demeanor to Rolling Stone last year.

“I’ve always been reclusive, placing priority on solitude, having alone time, and I’ve never really been the going-out person,” he said. “Growing as a person and into the industry, seeing things, I realized how important it is to hold on to that part of me that always seeks solitude after a long period of time of exchanging energy out there.”

Watch the “Someone” video above.

Before 50 Cent began building his sprawling universe, which should eventually include Lady Danger on Amazon Freevee, he laid the foundation with his 2003 debut album, Get Rich Or Die Tryin’. Uproxx celebrated its 20th anniversary in February by ranking the 34 best 50 Cent songs.

“I want you to understand something about this. I am in no way, shape, or form exaggerating in even the teeny tiniest little bit when I say that this album F*CKED THE GAME UP,” Uproxx‘s Aaron Williams wrote. “We talk a lot in this business about ‘groundbreaking,’ ‘earth-shattering,’ or even paradigm-shifting albums. Usually, that’s a bunch of nonsense. But this time? This time, it’s all the way real.”

50 appears to understand the significance of his seminal project.

On Wednesday, May 3, he posted a 24-hour countdown clock labeled “20 Years Later…,” and the only logical conclusion is that it’s related to Get Rich Or Die Tryin’.

It’s the only post on 50 Cent’s Instagram grid. He also shared the semi-mysterious clock to his Instagram Story and on Twitter.

In February, 50 marked the official 20th anniversary by making autographies vinyls of Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ available for seven days.

“20 years ago today, I dropped the largest debuting hip-hop album of all time,” he captioned a since-deleted Instagram post on February 6, as captured by HipHopDX. “Here’s Your chance to Own a piece of History!”

For the record, 50 Cent has gotten very rich in the decades since.

Ever since Iron Man, which featured its hero getting a surprise visit from Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, the MCU has loved them an end credits scene. Sometimes they set up future adventures, often cryptically so. Other times they’re just gags, like the silent shawarma feast at the end of the first Avengers. Sometimes there’s just one. Many times there’s not only a post-credits scene but a mid-credits scene. Or two. Or three. Or four.

So with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, it’s not so much a question of if it has a post-credits bumper so much as does it have a post-credit scene and a mid-credits scene. And of the latter, does it have more than one?

The answer is: It has one of each. There’s a mid-credits scene, then when all the credits are over, there’s one more. We wouldn’t dream of telling you what they are. But suffice to say, when they end, so ends the Guardians saga, at least with this cast (or most of them), and definitely with James Gunn, who’s off to even bigger and even brighter things.

As you may recall, the original Guardians movie had one of each, too: The first had Baby Groot dancing, and the second introduced Benicio del Toro’s The Collector, as well as brief glimpses of Marvel characters Cosmo the Spacedog and Howard the Duck. Vol. 2 had a whopping four mid-credits scenes and a final post-credits one. But we won’t list all of those.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hits theaters on May 5.

Snoop Dogg isn’t high on streaming services, and he hasn’t been for a while. After acquiring Death Row Records in February 2022, Snoop removed seminal albums such as his Doggystyle debut and Dr. Dre’s The Chronic from platforms.

“First thing I did was snatch all the music off those platforms traditionally known to people because those platforms don’t pay,” Snoop explained on Drink Champs that April. “And those platforms get millions of millions of streams, and nobody gets paid other than the record labels.”

Snoop resurfaced his opinion on Wednesday night, May 3, in the context of the Writers Guild Of America strike that began earlier this week. He was participating in a panel at Milken Institutes’ Global Conference with Variety executive music editor Shirley Halperin and Larry Jackson, his Gamma business partner.

Per Variety, Snoop called streaming models at the center of the WGA’s dispute “f*cked up.”

“[Artists] need to figure it out the same way the writers are figuring it out. The writers are striking because [of] streaming; they can’t get paid. Because when it’s on the platform, it’s not like in the box office,” Snoop said.

He added, “I don’t understand how the f*ck you get paid off of that sh*t. Somebody explain to me how you can get a billion streams and not get a million dollars? … That’s the main gripe with a lot of us artists is that we do major numbers, … but it don’t add up to the money. Like, where the f*ck is the money?”

For what it’s worth, Death Row Records’ catalog returned to streaming services this March.

Jack Harlow stripped back down to the basics for his album Jackman, which he released without much notice last Friday, April 28 — 10 tracks, no features, and simplistic cover art featuring a shirtless Harlow standing in an empty background and by a shoddy garage.

According to The Courier-Journal, “The now-famous garage featured on Jack Harlow’s new album has brought hundreds of sightseers to an alley in Louisville’s Highlands neighborhood. But now it’s drawn graffiti, too. The word ‘Crips’ was written in blue paint on the garage featured on the cover of the Jackman album.”

Meanwhile, Harlow is continuing to leave a meaningful mark on his hometown. On Wednesday, May 3, he announced the launch of The Jack Harlow Foundation. Initial contributions were made to Adelante Hispanic Achievers, Centro Latino, Russell: A Place Of Promise, and Sponsor4Success in Kentucky.

“The launch of my foundation is represented by gifts to four organizations that I believe are doing the work of making Louisville a better place; helping under-resourced families remove obstacles to higher education, supporting a new start in a neighborhood that has been lacking investment, giving hands-on assistance to the poorest of the poor, and making safe housing affordable for families,” Harlow said in a statement.

The multiplatinum rapper continued, “With all I have done and will do in my career, my home is where my heart is, my refuge, and the place that shaped me. Giving back to Louisville represents the dream I have of making a difference. My vision is to make Louisville a better place. Know that this is just the start of my philanthropic legacy and I look forward to transforming our community and, as a result, the success and happiness of its citizens.”

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

TV networks often use the playoffs to debut new things, whether it’s a different graphic package, a new broadcast feature, or a different camera angle. On Wednesday, TNT made waves with a drone camera flying around TD Garden during Game 2 of Sixers-Celtics, but unfortunately it did not get the intended rave reviews.

The general reaction online was “please stop with the drone camera,” albeit there were a select few who said they thought it was cool. The objections to the drone were for a few reasons. For one, it was mildly distracting seeing the drone flying around in the regular camera shots of the game. For another, while it was a slightly different angle, it wasn’t providing groundbreaking images from above the play or right behind the action over the court — one would assume because the league wouldn’t sign off on having it flying over actual play for understandable reasons. And finally, the camera quality of the drone is simply not as good as the incredibly crisp, clear HDTV cameras we are accustomed to.

It’s not a bad addition, in that aside from seeing it buzz around in the wide shot it’s not a distracting change from what we’re used to seeing, but it also just doesn’t seem worth it. We’ve seen the sideline tracking camera before — ABC used to have it in the Finals and I believe CBS still uses it in Final Four coverage — and this is basically just a higher angle version of it that then sets up more in the middle of the halfcourt, but with a little worse quality. If there is value to it, it’s more in providing another angle for replays rather than necessarily being part of the camera cuts for live play, but even so it feels like a superfluous addition for the sake of doing something new — again, assuming they can’t start flying it over the actual court during play.

Missy Elliott “cried all morning” in gratitude after it was revealed she will be the first-ever female rapper to inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame when this year’s class was announced on Wednesday morning, May 3. Missy will be inducted alongside Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Kate Bush, Rage Against The Machine, George Michael, and The Spinners during a ceremony this November.

The groundbreaking artist will properly begin her months-long celebration at the Lovers And Friends Festival on Saturday, May 6, in Las Vegas. Elliott was tapped as a headliner, as were 5o Cent and Usher.

The official set times have been released.

Elliott is scheduled to take the Lovers Stage at 10:30 p.m. local time. Before welcoming her, that stage will feature Christina Aguilera at 9 p.m., 50 Cent at 7:20 p.m., Miguel at 5:30 p.m., Pitbull at 4:10 p.m., Lil Kim at 3 p.m., Omarion at 1:50 p.m., and Next at 12:40 p.m.

Mariah Carey will cap off the night on the Friends Stage at 9:40 p.m. immediately following Usher’s 7:55 p.m. set. That stage will also host Chris Brown at 6:15 p.m., Nelly at 4:50 p.m., Jhené Aiko at 3:35 p.m., Shaggy at 2:25 p.m., Da Brat at 1:15 p.m., and Lumidee at 12:15 p.m.

The Crunk Stage and Bling Stage will be the busiest, including the likes of PartyNextDoor, Summer Walker, Bryson Tiller, Sean Paul, T.I., Ginuwine, Boyz II Men, Eve, Bow Wow, and more.

See the full schedule below.

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

Apocalypse Now is a strong contender for the greatest war movie ever made, but its shoot was also one of cinema’s most chaotic. There’s an entire documentary about the mess that transpired when Francis Ford Coppola tried to make a movie about the Vietnam War. (Over four decades later, he even had to shoot down rumors that his latest, Megalopolis, was similarly cursed.) But there’s one harrowing story that’s a lot less known.

As caught by Variety, Emilio Estevez was recently on The Jennifer Hudson Show with his dad, Martin Sheen, that film’s star. One of his father’s co-stars was a 14-year-old Laurence Fishburne, who famously lied about his age to play one of the main soldiers. Emilio was also 14 at the time, and he’d joined his father on set in the Philippines. The two naturally began hanging out, and one day their misadventures nearly got the better of one of them.

“[Fishburne] says, ‘Hey there’s this little boat, let’s go out on it.’ I said, ‘Sure.’ We were both 14 at the time,” Estevez recalled. “So we were out on this boat together, and we started getting too close to the shore and I said, ‘Well, let me jump out, I’ll push us offshore. I jumped out, and it was like quicksand mud.

“I was sinking, and I just saw Fishburne just looking at me going, ‘Grab my hand!’ and he pulled me back onto the boat,” Estevez said. “We were bonded ever since.”

Sheen then chimed in, saying, “I called Mr. Fishburne to thank him for saving my son’s life.”

Estevez wasn’t the only one who nearly died on the set of Apocalypse Now. His dad almost did, too, suffering a heart attack while making a film that took 10 times longer than expected to film, cost its maker millions of his own money, among other horrors. Hell, even Fishburne nearly died after co-star Dennis Hopper got him hooked on heroin. Who knows? Perhaps there are other Apocalypse Now horror stories not yet made public.

(Via Variety)

Why, it feels like it was only yesterday when dating apps were the shiny new trend in the singles world. However, with life becoming increasingly more virtual, many people are looking to become less dominated by screens. As a result, folks are once again hoping to find love from an authentic connection IRL. Swiping just isn’t as romantic (or cutting edge) as it used to be.

That’s where the Pear ring comes in. Self dubbed as the “world’s biggest social experiment,” this $25 brightly colored blue ring offers something classic, with a twist. Basically, folks wear it out to signal they’re single and ready to mingle. Almost like the opposite of an engagement ring, really.

By wearing their Pear ring anywhere and everywhere—the gym, the coffee shop, at an event, etc—single people would theoretically open up more of those kismet interactions, without having to be constantly online.

See on Instagram

According to the Pear ring website, the first release has already sold out, with the second release ending soon. And while there’s no hard data sharing just how many people have purchased, the company ambitiously aims to have “millions” donning one.

Hard to say if the trend will take hold, but folks are certainly talking about it. Television personality Alison Hammond was seen on “This Morning” wearing one, or at least something similar to the Pear ring with the same symbolism. According to The Mirror, she said, “More people are wanting to meet people out and about and having a green ring might be a good idea so that people know you’re single.”

“As you can see, I’ve got my single ring on,” she said.

Meanwhile on TikTok, reviews seem mixed, with some feeling like this public display is out of their comfort zone. Others felt like it could help them avoid the awkwardness of going up to a person they like and finding out they’re already committed. Or for those who are just introverted overall, this would be a great way to passively initiate.

@amandabril Would you wear a ring to identify if you’re single??? #pearring #datingapps #dating #news #oddnews ♬ original sound – Amanda Brilhante

This comment seems to really cover the gamut: “It does feel Black Mirror-ish, but also imagine being in Trader Joe’s and knowing who’s single… A dream.”

One thing seems to be certain—people miss genuine connection and want a romantic landscape that protects their mental health. We see this in multiple aspects of dating, from a recent uptick in “sober dates,” where singles share a fitness class instead of meeting at a bar, to mixing dating with travel adventures, to dating outside of a normal “type” to simply setting stronger boundaries.

Sure, online dating might not be a thing of the past just yet. But it is cool to see that social experiments like the Pear ring exist, so that, if nothing else, we can be reminded that there is always a way to prioritize humanity no matter how high-tech our modern world becomes.