Category: News

Sunday night, during J. Cole’s headlining set at Dreamville Festival, the North Carolina rapper shouted out Kanye West. Just ahead of a performance of the fan favorite “Villematic” from his star-making 2010 tape Friday Night Lights, Cole implored the mercurial producer to clear the sample on the song; on it, Cole raps over Kanye’s Rick Ross collaboration “Devil In A Blue Dress” from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Cole has repeatedly addressed the absence of his two breakout tapes, Friday Night Lights and its predecessor, 2019’s The Warm Up, from digital streaming platforms. In 2019, he tweeted “10 years ago The Warm Up dropped. Thanks 2 all that have listened 2 the foundation of my whole journey. My catalogue on streaming services don’t even look right until this & FNL are up. workin on it.”

In 2020, he posted a similar anniversary recollection on Instagram (which has since been deleted). “This one defined me as a artist,” he wrote. “Thank you forever for the love … My dream is to one day have this on DSP’s where it belongs.”

Unfortunately for J. Cole, Kanye has become more unpredictable than ever in pursuing grudges — and he has good reason to be upset with Cole. In 2016, Cole’s track “False Prophets” drew attention as he called out an unnamed fallen hero of rap many assumed to be Kanye, who was then cozying up to Donald Trump. Late last year, as Kanye immolated himself with antisemitic rhetoric, “False Prophets” trended on Twitter as fans noted that Cole appeared to have predicted his hero’s downfall.

Ye isn’t likely to have taken that kindly; while he did eventually clear a sample for Drake, who was in a similar position with So Far Gone‘s sample of “Say You Will” from 808s And Heartbreak, since then, Kanye has only gotten more surly. Cole might just be forced into a situation like Chance The Rapper or De La Soul, releasing the project to DSPs with a slightly altered tracklist.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the geographically challenged congresswoman who floats harmful impossible statistics and notoriously ranted (also harmfully) about “jewish space lasers,” received her very own sit-down profile with 60 Minutes over the weekend. As one can imagine, this didn’t go over well in advance with people who were outraged that the show gave the QAnon cheerleader a platform (therefore posing the danger that her extremist views could be seen as normalized), and that outlook hasn’t changed.

For sure, 60 Minutes did itself no favors by promoting this interview by tweeting that Greene “isn’t afraid to share her opinions, no matter how intense and in-your-face they are,” as though a “fearless” vibe was all that’s going on here. And onscreen, Greene was allowed to repeat her well-known repertoire of conspiracy theories and falsehoods without much pushback. Greene even straight-up likened Democrats to “pedophiles” while declaring, “Democrats support — even Joe Biden, the president himself — supports children being sexualized and having transgender surgeries. Sexualizing children is what pedophiles do to children.” In response, Lesley Stahl puffed her cheeks in disbelief, but as Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett noted, she did not push back, nor did Stahl point out the falseness of these accusations.

And it’s no wonder that The Daily Beast and a chorus of upset Twitter users are referring to the profile as a textbook “softball” interview.

On Monday morning, following her high-profile interview, Greene appears to be emboldened after receiving said platform. She fired off a tweet that matched the theme of her false accusations against Democrats, and she’s also coming for Budweiser and the Country Music Awards for “caving to the Trans agenda” after Kelsea Ballerini performed onstage with Drag Race stars.

In other words, no lessons have been learned here, and Greene is absolutely thrilled to have spread her far-right propaganda into into living rooms across America.

Megan Thee Stallion is having a hot girl spring. The beloved Houston rapper threw out the ceremonial first pitch for her hometown Astros on MLB Opening Day last Thursday, March 30, and Billie Eilish loved to see it as much as Meg loved to do it. The following day, Meg staged her first performance of 2023 at the AT&T Block Party in Houston, before capping off her weekend at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas for the 2023 CMT Music Awards last night, April 2.

The multi-platinum artist was there to present Shania Twain with this year’s Equal Play Award. One Meg fan account captured the moment and circulated video on Twitter. Meg was flustered – “I don’t wanna cheese this hard because I just met her, and that’s my new bestie; she’s Hot Girl Shania!” – before commending Twain as “an outspoken ally against every hate of all kind — calling out gender caps, ageism, impacting inequalities against the LGBTQ+ community, and more.”

Read Twain’s full acceptance speech below and watch it above.

“Let me start by saying, let’s go girls! Now, listen, when I wrote the phrase, ‘Man! I feel like a woman,’ honestly, I had no idea at the time that it would become an undercurrent of a decades-long career. It’s amazing how just one statement can empower so many, and ‘Man! I Feel Like A Woman!‘ has been adopted by an array of fantastic communities all around the world and become a genuine path of power and progress for, I mean, women in country music, right? Which brings me so much joy.

Thank you to CMT for pushing the Equal Play agenda, and thank you for always supporting me. In fact, you know what? You may not know this, but the CMT Rising Star Award was my very first award. Ever. Thirty years ago. That was in 1993. So, CMT holds a very special place in my heart, and I promise I will continue to champion the many outstanding country artists who are not currently played. They’re not streamed, toured, signed, or awarded at the level they deserve.

I believe in an all-inclusive country music. We’re a family. This is a genre of music with a rich history that raised and nurtured my own songwriting and performance and recording career from childhood. Currently, the industry standard does a real disservice to this. Now, let us, the country music industry, do our part to close the gap and provide an equal workplace for all talent.

This year, I’m taking many amazing artists on my Queen Of Me Tour. Lily [Rose], Tenille [Townes], Lindsay [Ell], Hailey [Whitters], Breland, Robyn [Ottolini], Priscilla [Block], Mickey [Guyton], and several more. And my hope is that this opportunity and spotlight impresses you much and lifts up the careers of these very talented people on their journey. I will continue to do my best as a trailblazer, and together, let’s ensure that all our fellow artists get equal play regardless of gender, age, or race. Thank you again for honoring me with the CMT Equal Play Award, and a special thank you to all my fans! I’m truly touched.”

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The main topic of Sunday’s post-Succession episode of Last Week Tonight was solitary confinement. But it easily could have been the former president of the United States getting indicted, the first steps toward a possible arrest. Or that picture of the pope preparing to fight The Thing (which turned out to be fake).

But the Trump thing probably makes more sense. So why did host John Oliver not dedicate the entire episode to the indictment?

“Donald Trump became the first-ever former president to be indicted on criminal charges. Look, I would talk more about the Trump indictment if we even knew what the exact charges were right now, but we don’t,” he said.

Instead, he used his opening segment to address the protests in France — which he called “Europe’s high school bully” — over the recently raised retirement age. Citizens have taken to the streets by marching, striking, chanting and even setting fires to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular retirement reform, which raised France’s legal retirement age from 62 to 64. He pushed the bill through France’s parliament without a vote.

There will (unfortunately) be much more to say about Trump once the charges come in. Until then, here’s the segment on solitary confinement.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

Paddington, mensch of a bear that he is, has some good news to brighten your (and Aunt Lucy’s) Monday morning:

Paddington in Peru, the third film in the Paddington series and first since 2017’s modern-day masterpiece Paddington 2, will begin filming in July. “It has been six years since the second film in the hit franchise and the brown bear is keeping plot details for the third installment under his famous red hat for now,” Deadline reports, “but as the title suggests, the movie will see Paddington getting into sticky situations in ‘deepest, darkest Peru,’ his country of birth.” The stickiness is caused by marmalade, naturally.

Paddington and Paddington 2 director Paul King has a co-story by credit with Simon Farnaby and Mark Burton, while the screenplay was written by Burton, Jon Foster, and James Lamont. Dougal Wilson steps in as director.

As for the cast, well, no one has been announced yet, not even Ben Whishaw, although presumably he’ll return as the voice of Paddington. The real question is: who will play the villain? It was Nicole Kidman in Paddington and Hugh Grant, in an Oscar-worthy performance, in Paddington 2. Does it make too much sense to demand Florence Pugh? Or she can play Paddington’s BFF, and they can be kind and polite together. That would make the world right.

(Via Deadline)

April Fools’ Day: the worst day to consume content on the internet. The whole day is spent maintaining skepticism about every aspect of your reality, but ultimately, the jokes can be fun. That night, Sabrina Carpenter had a show in Salt Lake City, and she decided to make the most of the occasion with a small prank of her own.

During the outro of “Nonsense,” Carpenter sang, “Put your hands up if you live in Salt Lake / How do you get alcohol on Sundays? / I’m pregnant… happy April Fools’ Day!”

After the word “pregnant” left Carpenter’s mouth, the audience was dead silent before erupting into cheers when Carpenter revealed she was kidding.

Meanwhile, commenters on the original TikTok video described the show as “hectic” and noted that Carpenter had to stop the concert on multiple occasions as people in the audience were passing out.

Elsewhere in the entertainment space, Saturday Night Live‘s Michael Che had one of the best April Fools’ pranks of the weekend. As he and Colin Jost delivered jokes on “Weekend Update,” Jost’s bits got noticeably fewer laughs than Che’s did. After a couple minutes of that, Che revealed he told the audience to not laugh at him, which got a giant smile (and presumably a wave of relief) from Jost.

The 2023 NCAA Women’s National Championship game went down yesterday (April 2), and despite Iowa’s Caitlin Clark delivering a series of star-making performances throughout the tournament, it was Angel Reese and LSU who came out ahead in the ultimate contest, winning 102 to 85.

Louisiana native Boosie Badazz was pretty excited about the whole thing, even coming through with some trash talk directed at Clark. In one clip he shared on social media, the rapper repeats, “Larry Bird, come get your daughter!” In another video, he calls LSU’s Jasmine Carson “LSU Ice Spice” due to her Ice Spice-like hair.

Elsewhere, Boosie, mirroring the tradition carried out by the championship-winning team, cut down the net on a hoop at his own house.

LSU previously showed love to Boosie by celebrating with his music in the locker room after clinching a spot in the championship game.

Meanwhile, Boosie recently spoke about Jay-Z’s relevance, saying, “When I go to these clubs in Atlanta — these 25-to-35 clubs — I’m not hearing Nas, I’m not hearing Jay-Z. Every club I go in, it’s not one or the other… Jay-Z is respected by these people for being the boss that he is. When Jay-Z flashes across that muthaf*cka, it’s somethin’ with a billion dollars; it’s somethin’ with 500 billion, 200 billion when them young n****s see him. It ain’t his songs flashing across no f*ckin’ social media; it’s his hustle. That n**** got hustle.”

Drake and J. Cole may have been billed as co-headliners of Dreamville Festival Sunday night but Drake’s portion of the set turned into a mini-festival of its own as he brought out a plethora of special guests to round out the show. Amid a hit-strewn set that saw Drake bring out fan favorites spanning all the way back to his debut album, the Canadian superstar still found space to surprise fans with some familiar faces.

First, he introduced the crowd to breakout Memphis star GloRilla, who performed her viral hit “FNF (Let’s Go).” Then, without warning, Lil Uzi Vert appeared, sporting a relatively low-key look (for Lil Uzi Vert), prompting performances of “XO Tour Llif3” and “Just Wanna Rock.” As Drake performed his 2011 party cut “The Motto,” his Young Money boss Lil Wayne popped out to contribute not just his verse from the song but also performances of “Uproar” and “A Milli.”

Then, before wrapping things up, Drake invited his Her Loss collaborator 21 Savage to the stage to perform a pair of their joint tracks, “Knife Talk” and “Rich Flex.”

As his set came to a close, Drake was joined by J. Cole, and the pair spent the last few minutes of the festival showing their appreciation for each other (again) before J. Cole closed things out with his fan-favorite hit “No Role Modelz.”

You can watch the videos above.

A year after returning to WWE, Cody Rhodes was unable to overcome the Bloodline, when Roman Reigns successfully retained the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship in the main event of Sunday night’s WrestleMania 39.

The 2023 Royal Rumble winner, Rhodes made his entrance, greeting his wife, daughter, family, and the late Brodie Lee’s son at ringside. Reigns entered flanked by Paul Heyman and Solo Sikoa one night after The Usos dropped their tag team titles to Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens.

Rhodes earned the advantage early, but after a pep talk from Heyman, the tide turned for Reigns. As Rhodes began to get the advantage on the outside, he climbed onto the apron only for Sikoa to grab a chair and hit him in the ribs with the ref’s back turned. Rhodes again looked to turn the tide, but Sikoa grabbed his foot, allowing Reigns the advantage.

Reigns cleared off the announce tables and attempted to pile drive Rhodes through the table. Rhodes reversed into a back body drop and sent Reigns crashing through the table. Back inside the ring, Rhodes got going, landing the Cody Cutter for the two count.

Sikoa again attacked Rhodes outside the ring, hitting him with a weight belt across the back. The referee heard the belt smack across his back and sent Sikoa to the back. Reigns grabbed the weight belt and fought with the ref over it, then stumbled into Cross Rhodes for the two count.

Back on their feet, Reigns set up for the Superman Punch, but Rhodes reversed into the pedigree for a two count. Reigns caught Rhodes with a Superman Punch on a reversal of the Disaster Kick for the two count. Rhodes reversed a spear attempt into a two count, then locked in the figure four leg lock and screamed at Reigns to tap. Reigns reversed and Rhodes reached the ropes for the break.

Reigns landed the spear on Rhodes for a two count of his own. Reigns laid forearm shots to Rhodes on the ground, then locked in a standing guillotine in the middle of the ring, wrapped his legs around him, and took him to the ground. Rhodes escaped and poured shots to Reigns. As he got to his feet, he took out the referee before clotheslining Reigns as they both recovered on the mat. Rhodes set up for the Cross Rhodes, but the Usos hit the ring and attacked him with a super kick. They hit the 1-D before Zayn and Owens hit the ring to fight off the Usos. Owens stunned Reigns, Zayn hit him with the Helluva Kick, and the tag teams fought into the crowd.

Rhodes crawled into the pinfall, but Reigns kicked out at two. On their knees, Reigns and Rhodes exchanged shots as they made their way back to their feet. Reigns went for a Superman Punch, but Rhodes reversed into a Dusty Rhodes combo. He hit two consecutive Cross Rhodes when Heyman distracted the referee and Sikoa climbed into the ring to knock out Rhodes with the Samoan Spike. Reigns hit the ropes, landed a spear, and earned the pinfall to leave the L.A. crowd completely stunned.

The “one last job” trope his hit Marvel Studios with Disney+’s Secret Invasion trailer in the form of “one last fight” for Nick Fury. In the process, not only is Sam Jackson’s character returning to the MCU but also his Skrull friend, Talos (Ben Mendelsohn). As well, this series brings both Emilia Clarke and Olivia Colman into the fold, which I believe means that all working actors other than Gerard Butler have now entered either the MCU or the DCEU DCU at some point. That’s an exaggeration, but we do live in unusual Hollywood times.

Make no mistake, though, both of these comic-book-movie universes sit at a crossroad of sorts. The DCU is now undergoing a massive transformation under incoming chief James Gunn with a giant Shazam! blunder to bury, and the MCU just had its first middling box-office performance with the latest Ant-Man movie. Can Secret Invasion get things back on track? Whatever is going on with the Skrulls could do the trick.

It’s worth remembering that Captain Marvel actually changed up the comic book lore and made Skrulls the good guys. In the above trailer, however, it seems that the pendulum is swinging backward, and we’re witnessing a world where these shapeshifters have infiltrated Earth for quite some time, and they might be up to no good. Disney is officially calling this a “crossover event series,” and it sure looks like we’re gonna get some Rhodey in the mix. Hopefully, we’ll see him for longer than we did in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but it’s always nice to see Maria Hill propping up the joint.

One question I do have and which remains unanswered: will this crossover bring us more Goose? I’m holding out hope, since we’re seeing an eye-patch-less Fury and getting a better look at what that kitty/flerkin did to make him trust no one. Meow.

Secret Invasion premieres on June 21.