Category: News

Back in 2019, Janelle Monáe and Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover) were both Coachella headliners. This fact was brought up during a recent lie detector test video from Vanity Fair, in which Monáe measured herself favorably against Glover.

In the video, Monáe was hooked up to the machine while Glass Onion co-star Kate Hudson asked questions. Hudson showed a photo of Glover, mentioned Coachella, and asked if Monáe has a problem with sharing the spotlight, to which Monáe said she doesn’t. Hudson then pointed out that Monáe and Glover are both multi-talented triple threats before asking Monáe if she thinks she’s the better “actress/singer/dancer” of the two. Monáe sighed and answered, “You know what, Childish? I love you, but I think yes. I mean, should I lie?”

Elsewhere during the interrogation, Hudson asked Monáe if she’s more “extra” than some celebrities. One of them was Lady Gaga and Monáe said, “I love her. I think… I actually don’t know. I actually don’t know, because I feel like when we started in the industry, kind of like close together, I was doing my version of extra and she was doing her version of extra. And I haven’t given up on my extra and I don’t think she’s given up on hers.”

Check out the full video above.

Lizzo’s Special 2022 featured a few SiriusXM staples. Her Special Tour trek snaked through her hometown Detroit, where she also performed “About Damn Time” and “Truth Hurts” for SiriusXM’s “Small Stage Series” at Saint Andrew’s Hall in October. Earlier this month, Lizzo sat down with Howard Stern and discussed the perpetuated false narrative that she makes “white music” and the once-held fear that Special would be overlooked because it released in a “goated year.” (Note: it was not overlooked at all, as Lizzo is nominated six times at the upcoming 2023 Grammys.)

So, it’s only right that Lizzo celebrate 2022 and ring in 2023 on SiriusXM. Today, December 30, the company announced Lizzo Radio, taking over Channel 14 for a three-day limited-engagement run beginning on New Year’s Eve.

“Starting New Year’s Eve, turn up Lizzo Radio on SiriusXM for music and personal messages that will have you feeling good as hell. You’ll hear Lizzo’s biggest songs and exclusive performances from her unforgettable SiriusXM ‘Small Stage Series’ concert from last October,” the announcement reads. “The special channel will also include her hand-picked favorites by Beyoncé, Prince, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Missy Elliott, Lauryn Hill, 21 Savage, Cardi B, SZA and many more.”

Hustling in Minneapolis to launch her career, Lizzo also had ties to the late Prince. In 2020, she shared for her Rolling Stone cover story that Prince had offered to produce an album for her before his sudden 2016 death.

More recently, Lizzo welcomed Missy Elliott, Cardi B and longtime friend SZA to the stage during her Special shows at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum in November. This week, SZA revealed that she and Lizzo recorded “five or six songs” during an SOS session, and if Lizzo’s recent social media activity is any indication, “Kill Bill” will definitely be in rotation.

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

Tesla’s stock price is rapidly plummeting as Twitter becomes increasingly infested with server crashes and right-wing trolls, so what better time for Elon Musk to put his energy into helping out… Hooters? The mammary-focused restaurant chain reached out to the Twitter CEO after a false report that went viral earlier in the week.

According to the now-debunked claim, Hooters is “shutting down and rebranding” because “millennials aren’t that into boobs.” Of all the fires happening on Twitter, Hooters potentially closing is what caught Musk’s eye, and he responded to a tweet pushing the false report.

“Can’t tell if satire or real,” Musk tweeted.

Knowing that any tweet Musk replies to gets boosted by Twitter’s algorithm, Hootie, the social media account for Hooters jumped in with a plea for Musk to set the record straight.

“Elon if you could let the world know that millennials do in fact love boobs that would be really cool,” Hootie tweeted, to which Musk simply replied, “Phew.”

While Musk’s reply will go a long way in amplifying Hooters’ tweet debunking the false rebranding story, the company wisely went the traditional media route and issued a statement to the Associated Press.

“There is no validity to this story,” Hooters spokesperson Stephen Brown wrote in an email. “Guests are enjoying this week’s televised sports events at our restaurants across the country and around the world in record numbers, accompanied by craveable menu items, cold beer and iconic hospitality. Our concept is here to stay.”

(Via Associated Press)

The holiday season is nearly over. With just a few days until the start of the new year, people begin to reflect on all 2022 had to offer them. In music media, we recount the best albums of the year and foreshadow the most anticipated projects to drop in the next few months. On the other hand, musicians prepare their final theatrical performance of the year. Some stop by the televised concert Dick Clark’s New Years’ Rockin Eve hosted by Ryan Seacrest. While others, like pop singer Miley Cyrus, take matters into their own hands by hosting their own banger blowout.

As rock band Paramore gears up for their North America tour in a few weeks, singer Hayley Williams opted out of New Year’s Eve performances, instead lending her talents to fashion designer Rodarte for their latest campaign. Williams has served as a musical inspiration to acts like Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and Steve Lacy, so it’s no doubt she can serve as a fashion muse to the company. Photographed by Paramore’s resident photographer, Zac Farro, Williams is pictured in the Los Angeles-based designer’s gold sequin halter dress sporting her signature burnt orange tresses as she freshens up her makeup.

Another rocker featured in the campaign is none other than Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner. However, the best-selling author took a much less glamorous approach to her imagery. She wears Rodarte’s black velvet dress with lace collars styled with her signature space buns. This isn’t Zauner’s first fashion campaign, having appeared in The North Face’s promotional video. Still, instead of an elaborate set design, Zauner photographs herself in what appears to be her bedroom.

Musicians Maggie Rogers, Kilo Kish, and Joanna Newsom also appear in Rodarte’s campaign.

Rodarte’s PS23 collection is available here.

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

21 Savage bodied his Amazon Music Live concert the way Dallas Cowboys fans thought their team would handle the Tennessee Titans, primarily starting their backups, on Thursday Night Football on Thursday night, December 29. The Cowboys won, 27-13, but Amazon Prime’s main event was unquestionably 21’s performance after the game — closing out the 2022 season of Amazon Music Live, hosted by 2 Chainz.

As the pre-show co-hosts Hannah Rad and Amber Wallin put it, Amazon Music Live tapped 21 to put a cherry on top of ’22 before we enter 2023.

The concert was streamed live on Amazon Music and Twitch from Hollywood. Savage commanded a vast stage, encouraging the crowd to yell “hell yeah” several times and honoring the late Virgil Abloh between “No Heart” and “X,” two tracks off his and Metro Boomin’s 2016 Savage Mode album. He also delivered two No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 smashes he was featured on, Drake’s “Jimmy Cooks” and Post Malone’s “Rockstar.”

In other words, 21 Savage had something for everyone’s tastes — from seminal solo songs like “Bank Account” and “Ball W/O You” to his and Drake’s new Her Loss hits and deeper cuts from his sprawling discography with Metro Boomin. To end the nearly hour-long set, 21 Savage said that Drake couldn’t make it out to the show and asked for the audience to help him with “Rich Flex,” peaking at No. 2 on the Hot 100 and supplying plenty of memes.

Watch the full stream on Twitch here and see 21 Savage’s setlist below.

1. ”Jimmy Cooks” by Drake Feat. 21 Savage
2. “Don’t Come Out The House” by Metro Boomin
3. “10 Freaky Girls” by Metro Boomin Feat. 21 Savage
4. “Runnin” by 21 Savage and Metro Boomin
5. “Red Opps” by 21 Savage
6. “Major Distribution” by 21 Savage and Drake
7. “More M’s” by 21 Savage and Drake
8. “Privileged Rappers” by 21 Savage and Drake
9. “Out For The Night” by 21 Savage
10. “Ball W/O You” by 21 Savage
11. “Mr. Right Now” by 21 Savage and Metro Boomin Feat. Drake
12. “Spin Bout You” by 21 Savage and Drake
13. “Who Want Smoke??” by Nardo Wick Feat. 21 Savage, G Herbo and Lil Durk
14. “Rockstar” by Post Malone Feat. 21 Savage
15. “My. Life” by J. Cole, 21 Savage and Morray
16. “A Lot” by 21 Savage Feat. J. Cole
17. “No Heart” by 21 Savage and Metro Boomin
18. “X” by 21 Savage and Metro Boomin Feat. Future
19. “Bank Account” by 21 Savage
20. “Knife Talk” by Drake Feat. 21 Savage
21. “Rich Flex” by 21 Savage and Drake

Twitter recently introduced a feature that shows how many times a tweet has been seen. It’s something that no one asked for (“sir you are so brave and smart. you are genius man. please add an option to turn it off because it is extremely stupid. not you though, you’re really smart,” reads one of the top replies to accidental Glass Onion inspiration Elon Musk’s announcement of the View Count), but there is one good thing about it: we know exactly how many people have seen Greta Thunberg roast Andrew Tate.

To recap: Tate, the former kickboxer and misogynistic moron, tried to impress (?) Thunberg, the teenage climate activist, with his car collection, to which she replied, “yes, please do enlighten me. email me at [email protected].” Thunberg not only humiliated Tate, she (and a pizza box) also may have helped him get him arrested.

Here’s how she responded to Tate being taken in by Romanian authorities:

Don’t mess with teens.

Tate and his brother Tristan were detained on kidnapping and rape charges Thursday after the controversial social media star tweeted a video response to one of Thunberg’s tweets. In it, Tate asks someone off-camera to bring him pizza and “make sure that these boxes are not recycled” as he’s handed two pies from Jerry’s Pizza — a local chain in Romania. The video was all authorities needed to pinpoint the former kickboxer’s location and make the arrest.

Thunberg deserves two Nobel Prizes: one for her work protecting the environment for future generations, and one for getting Andrew Tate thrown in jail.

(Via the New York Post)

In a new lawsuit, Aerosmith leader Steven Tyler is accused of “sexual assault, sexual battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress” by Julia Holcomb, who claims to have had a sexual relationship with the singer in the ’70s, when she was a teenager.

Rolling Stone reports that in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles, Holcomb doesn’t mention Tyler by name, but the suit includes quotes from Tyler’s memoir and Holcomb has spoken out against Tyler in the past. The lawsuit was filed as part of California’s Child Victims Act, “a 2019 piece of legislation that lifted the statute of limitations and granted a three-year lookback period for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to come forward with their allegations,” per Rolling Stone. The deadline to file a lawsuit under the act is December 31, 2022.

In Does The Noise In My Head Bother You?, Tyler notes that he “almost took a teen bride” and that “her parents fell in love with me, signed a paper over for me to have custody, so I wouldn’t get arrested if I took her out of state. I took her on tour with me.”

In the suit, Holcomb says she met Tyler shortly after her 16th birthday in 1973, after Aerosmith performed in Portland, Oregon. Tyler would have been 25 at the time. Tyler apparently took Holcomb to his hotel room and “performed various acts of criminal sexual conduct upon” her before calling a taxi to take her home the next morning. She also claims she “was powerless to resist” Tyler’s “power, fame and substantial financial ability,” and that Tyler “coerced and persuaded Plaintiff into believing this was a ‘romantic love affair.’”

The lawsuit goes on to allege that by 1974, Tyler had convinced Holcomb’s mother to allow him to become her legal guardian, a move that would allow Holcomb to legally travel across state lines with Tyler. The suit claims Tyler “did not meaningfully follow through on” promises to enroll Holcomb in school and give her medical care and “instead continued to travel with, assault, and provide alcohol and drugs to Plaintiff.”

Read more about the lawsuit here.

First it was BIGBANG‘s Taeyang. Then it was Daesung. Now? It’s iKON.

YG Entertainment‘s third-generation K-Pop boy group iKON will soon bid their farewells to their parent agency after seven years (debuted in 2015). In a statement released today (December 29), the Korean music label released a statement saying members Kim Jinhwan, Bobby, Song Yunhyeong, Goo Junhoe, Kim Donghyuk, and Jung Chanwoo have collectively decided to end their exclusive contract with YG Entertainment. However, the six members would still be able to promote using the “iKON” branding.

Check out the full statement posted on YG Entertainment’s official website, translated by Soompi, below:

“Hello, this is YG Entertainment.

We are informing you that after a long discussion with the iKON members (Kim Jinhwan, Bobby, Song Yunhyeong, Goo Junhoe, Kim Donghyuk, and Jung Chanwoo) about their future activities, out of respect for each other’s opinions, we agreed to end our exclusive contract following the expiration of their contract period.

The six members of iKON will of course be continuing their activities as the group “iKON” in the future, and we are also letting you know that they will continue to communicate with iKONIC [iKON’s fans] through their official social media accounts, including their official fan community Weverse, just as they are now.

We sincerely thank iKON, who has been with us as one of our agency’s artists up until now. We are looking forward to their future activities in a wide variety of fields, and we will be cheering them on.

Additionally, we also thank the iKONIC who were together with us for iKON’s journey. We ask that you continue to give the members your unchanging interest and encouragement as they prepare for a new start.”

On the other hand, the Korean Herald’s subsidiary music outlet, K-Pop Herald, tweeted an exclusive reporting Blackpink moving from YG Entertainment to its affiliate label, THEBLACKLABEL. (The label, founded by YG’s longtime in-house producer Teddy in 2015, recently signed BIGBANG’s Taeyang after his departure from his first label.)

According to a representative from YG Entertainment, the K-pop quartet still has time left on their current contracts, making it hard to confirm their decisions.

“I’m not in the position to confirm the news, but our contracts with the members have not yet ended,” the rep said to K-Pop Herald. “It’s hard to confirm whether they will sign with The Black Label or not after their contracts end.”

Other than, iKON, actor Kang Dong Won has also parted ways with YG Entertainment alongside Taeyang and Daesung of BIGBANG.

As Young Thug and the Young Stoner Life crew’s RICO trial is underway, fans and viewers are eager to know when some of the collective’s members are coming home. In a recent update, it has been reported that rapper YFN Lucci, one of Thug’s known adversaries, is not expected to testify in the RICO trial.

Lucci’s lawyer, Drew Findling, told TMZ, that Lucci, whose real name is Rayshawn Bennett, has not been interviewed or subpoenaed by anyone associated with RICO Case.

“Any party can announce for example that Abraham Lincoln is on their witness list, but those words alone are meaningless,” Findling said. “So, to be 100 percent clear, Rayshawn Bennett will not be a witness in the YSL case.”

Lucci is currently in custody in Fulton County Jail, where he is awaiting his own trial in which he and 11 others were charged with gang-related racketeering.

“His focus, as it should be, is on his pending Fulton County case,” said Findling.

Thug’s trial for his RICO case is currently set to take place on Monday, January 9, 2023, and could potentially go on over the course of more than six months.

Some of the artists mentioned are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

DJ Khaled celebrated his holiday by treating himself to a long-awaited and rare present: Eminem’s Nike Air Jordan 4 “Encore” sneakers. Khaled was so excited that he posted a video to his Instagram, where he sits holding the electric blue shoes.

“I finally got ’em. Anybody know me I been trying to get these for the longest time,” he says. “Yes, I have a lot of sneakers. I collect sneakers, I collect watches and I love my sneakers but I been trying to get these for so long and I finally got ’em.”

“The word is they only made like 23 pairs of these… I’m sure they made a little more than that but I know I been trying to get ’em and I could never get ’em,” Khaled continued.

Eminem’s “Encore” Jordans were originally released in 2005, according to HipHopDX, with only 50 pairs for his friends and family. Most recently, in 2017, there was a retro version of the shoe offered — with only 23 pairs made available, of which Khaled seemingly bought.

The publication notes that only one pair of the iconic shoe currently is being sold for $47,000 as a minimum.

As for Khaled, he’s been a documented sneakerhead. He even showed off his extensive shoe closet during an episode of Complex Closets in 2015, which has likely only grown since then.