Category: News

I’ll save you a Google search for “star wars f*ck” (don’t do it, especially if you’re at work… believe me): the word “f*ck” has never been said in the Star Wars universe. “Ass,” yes, as well as “crap” and “hell,” but never the f-word. Unless the f-word is “feed the Sarlacc,” which is apparently slang for “to use the toilet,” then it has.

But Andor almost made some swear word Star Wars history. While discussing Maarva’s stirring speech in the season one finale, actress Denise Gough, who played Imperial officer Dedra Meero, told Empire, “[Fiona Shaw’s] voice was over all of us. Except, at the end, she didn’t say, ‘Fight the Empire!’ She said, ‘F*ck the Empire!’ Which we were all really excited about. But we weren’t allowed to keep it, obviously.”

Oscar Isaac tried to drop the first f-bomb in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (allegedly), but was rejected. Now this? Disney+ needs to lighten up and let Baby Yoda say f*ck.

Gough sure isn’t afraid to let a drop a well-timed “f*ck,” however.

One thing’s certain, though: the pantheon of all-time-great Star Wars villains has a new fixture [in Dedra] — and appropriately she’s a rogue one. Not a Sith Lord, not power-hungry, just single-minded and fearsomely fanatical. She’s as smart as her Rebel enemies (“She thinks exactly like them – she is a Rebel!”), entirely disdainful of her inferior superiors, and ready to make life even more difficult for Cassian Andor and company. In Gough’s own words? “I am going to Dedra the f*ck out of the second season,” she warns.

Andor season two can’t get here soon enough (but we’ll have to wait until 2024).

(Via Empire)

Stormzy, fresh off releasing his new album This Is What I Mean, sat down for an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. During their conversation, the rapper shared how Adele helped him out with some genuine advice after he left social media: “You need to walk away and you need to take a break. You need some space. Protect your energy,” he explained.

The pair would eventually go on vacation together to Jamaica, as a way of escaping the pressures of the music business and life’s troubles. He noted that he and Adele have deep conversations often, which sparked her reminding him that sometimes an escape to a place of “peace and silence” is necessary. The trip was exactly that.

“Adele, I love her deeply. And we’ve always had amazing conversations. And that’s a true friend of mine, that’s not like a music friend. So whenever we kick it, we’ve had really beautiful and deep conversations,” Stormzy added. “And at that time it was like we weren’t going on holidays, we weren’t enjoying the fruits of our labor. Do you know what I mean?”

“It changed my life,” Stormzy said of the trip. “It was the most beautiful… I can’t even explain, it was really, really beautiful, and really healing, and really peaceful. God was on that trip. God was with us.”

Watch Stormzy’s full interview above.

This Is What I Mean is out now via Def Jam/Interscope. Buy/stream it here.

At some point this year, you probably heard everyone calling each other “chef” or buying up all of the Hanes white t-shirts, and that could only be described as the Jeremy Allen White effect! White’s stint as Carmy on The Bear made everyone think they could make some high-quality spaghetti while addressing their own inner demons. Plus, everyone and their neighbor dressed as the chef for Halloween, and that’s how you know this show is big big.

But the attention is not something White is used to. Even though he spent 11 seasons on Shameless, White was catapulted to stardom after the FX series became a major hit. In a new interview with GQ, White explains that he wasn’t quite ready for that type of stardom. “It was just like instant attention,” he told the mag. “I felt like that pretty girl who just hadn’t taken her glasses off yet,” White explained, suggesting he was unprepared for that level of fame.

Maybe he hasn’t taken off his glasses, but he has mastered something even more important: his perfectly curated messy hair that looks like it smells like marinara sauce. His secret? “Water and sweat.” You can DIY this look at home!

White is gearing up o star alongside Zac Efron in A24’s highly-anticipated The Iron Claw. Despite the fact that he has been in the industry for over a decade, White says he is just beginning. “I definitely feel like I’m taking a step up,” he says, “which is a scary feeling for sure.” On the bright side, now he can cook something carby to eat with Zac Efron.

(Via GQ)

On her latest single, “Boy’s A Liar,” PinkPantheress details the downfall of a relationship with a man who wasn’t who he presented himself to be. Over a thumping Mura Musa beat, the elusive siren taps delivers her soft-tinged vocals, as she mourns the man who she thought was her everything.

“What’s the point of crying? / It was never even love / Did you ever want me? / Was I ever good enough? / Thе boy’s a liar / The boy’s a player / He doesn’t see ya,” she sings on the song’s chorus.

With its painfully relatable message and its all too hypnotic electronic track, “Boy’s A Liar” makes for a perfect anthem for the heartbroken to dance the pain away.

PinkPantheress blew up throughout the pandemic by way of catchy, genre-transcending bops. Back in October, she joined Paramore onstage at Austin City Limits to perform the band’s breakthrough song, “Misery Business.” In a recent conversation with Bree Runway for Interview, PinkPantheress spoke about how she’s adjusting to her rapidly found fame.

“It’s very exciting knowing that people are listening, people care, people are actually interested,” she said. “When I came into it, not to be cringe, but I did it for the music. I wasn’t trying to have myself out there like that. But when things started picking up, it became uncontrollable. If anything, all of it has been one big learning experience. I’ve grown up more in one year than I have the last ten years.”

Check out “Boy’s A Liar” above.

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

If you’ve been on social media today, you probably already know this: Spotify Wrapped 2022 is here. The annual summary of users’ listening habits dropped this morning, and of course, so too have the memes about it.

One particularly viral post has around 190k likes (as of this post) and reads, “I already know what my Spotify Wrapped is going to look like.” The accompanying photo shows two books: a dull-looking one titled Depression: The Way Up When You Are Down and a more colorful one called Homosexuality: Speaking The Truth In Love.

The Twitter account for the Empire State Building also got in on the fun with a fabricated Wrapped graphic that pays tribute to New York and architecture. The top artists are Commodores, Pink Floyd, Frank Sinatra, Calvin Harris, and Jay-Z, while the top songs are “Brick House,” “Brick In The Wall,” “New York, New York,” “Giant,” and “Empire State Of Mind.” As for the top genre: “concrete.” That post has since been deleted, but they also shared this morning, “My #SpotifyWrapped is just ‘Welcome To New York’ over and over and over again.”

Other users addressed the annual wave of complaints about how Wrapped posts take over social media.

As for some more serious data, Bad Bunny was the world’s most-streamed artist of 2022, followed by Taylor Swift, Drake, The Weeknd, and BTS.

Check out some more Spotify Wrapped tweets below.

There are a lot of great benefits to the boom of music festivals for indie artists but there are also some drawbacks. For instance, up-and-coming rappers who land a slot on a Rolling Loud lineup can expand their audience and get their feet wet performing for the first time. However, things can also get a little awkward because these artists are often so new, they don’t have much music to perform — or many fans to perform for.

That’s what happened to Philadelphia rapper Eem Triplin at Rolling Loud New York this autumn. Triplin was booked for one of the earliest time slots, and the crowd had yet to arrive in earnest. This meant that he had to perform for a “crowd” of just 13 people. At the time, he seemingly took the mishap in stride, tweeting, “Gotta start somewhere.”

This chapter of his story has kind of a happy ending, though. On Monday (November 29), he posted photos of a package he got from the festival’s organizers containing a new Xbox and a card that read, “Hopefully, you get 20 people next time.” Rolling Loud reposted the photo on Instagram, writing, “Glad you like it.” At least he didn’t get his set canceled by the NYPD.

Back in March, Turner Sports and the U.S. Soccer Federation announced that Turner will become the television home for the USMNT and USWNT starting in 2023. In an effort to promote the 8-year deal that begins in 2023, the Inside the NBA team got jerseys, and Charles Barkley made clear that his jersey comes from the women’s team, because “the American men’s team sucks.”

Fast forward to Tuesday night and Barkley changed his tune up on the men considerable. The USMNT beat Iran, 1-0, earlier in the day to get out of the group and set up a knockout stage matchup against the Netherlands on Saturday. As a result, Barkley is fully on board, to the point that he predicts that the Americans will “open up a can of whoop ass” against the Dutch before giving a signature guarantee that they will advance to the quarterfinals.

Barkley shouted out American captain Tyler Adams before going through a list of other countries — Spain, Brazil, Germany — that he wants to see the USMNT play. He included France in the list before remembering that they have Kylian Mbappe, who he correctly states is “no joke.”

The Americans made it out of their group with draws against Wales and England before beating Iran. The Dutch, meanwhile, beat Senegal and Qatar while earning a draw against Ecuador.

If you’re a whiskey drinker and you’ve put off trying rye whiskey because you assume it will be spicy and peppery, you’re limiting yourself for the wrong reasons. While high-rye whiskeys can certainly carry spicy, cracked black pepper notes, it’s much more than just spice and heat. There’s a whole symphony of flavors including floral, grassy, earthy, and herbal notes at play.

In fact, modern rye whiskey leans more heavily toward botanical and herbal than spicy and peppery.

If you’re already a bourbon fan, it’s a great time to get into rye whiskey. But like with any whiskey style, you need to start somewhere. And while strolling down the aisle at your local liquor store might end up with you bringing home a bottle or two, you can’t be guaranteed you’ll like them when you crack them open.

Luckily, there are a ton of great gateway rye whiskeys on the market. Each is a perfect way to get your proverbial feet wet in the rye whiskey world. And who better to tell us about them than the people who actually make whiskey? We asked a handful of distillers and whiskey professionals to tell us their picks for the best beginner rye whiskeys — keep reading to see them all!

Catoctin Creek Roundstone Rye

Andy Nelson, co-founder and head distiller of Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery in Nashville

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $57.99 for 750ml

The Whiskey:

The best beginner rye is Catoctin Creek’s Roundstone Rye. It has some really beautiful Bourbon-like notes in the beginning, things like cherry and maple, but then flows into flavors more typically associated with Rye.

Tasting Notes:

I get great cinnamon and nutmeg followed by a sort of cooling mint note that is simultaneously familiar and unexpected. It’s an excellent go-to rye in my opinion.

Pinhook Flagship Rye

Lauren Patz, head distiller at Redwood Empire Whiskey in Graton, California

ABV: 46.75%

Average Price: $48 for a 750ml bottle

The Whiskey:

Pinhook Flagship Rye – A grain forward rye that temper’s rye aggressive sometimes astringent nature with the inclusion of corn in the mash bill making it more assessable to burgeoning rye drinkers.

Tasting Notes:

Flavors of vanilla beans, caramelized sugar, cinnamon, dried fruits, oak, and peppery rye are big on this whiskey’s palate.

Bulleit Rye

Eboni Major, master blender, bourbon women board member, and founder and CEO of Major Whiskey in Louisville

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $26.99 for a 750ml bottle

The Whiskey:

Bulleit Rye will always be a favorite for the rye category. MGP makes a great rye product, and the Bulleit team does a great job of blending the perfect notes.

Tasting Notes:

Those grapefruit, cloves, chamomile, and other citrus warm notes make a perfect twist on any cocktail like Rye Manhattan. It is a product that carries through all seasons.

Laws San Luis Valley Straight Rye

Colin Keegan, founder of Santa Fe Spirits in Santa Fe, New Mexico

ABV: 47.5%

Average Price: $53.99 for a 750ml bottle

The Whiskey:

Laws Whiskey House San Luis Valley Straight Rye 95-proof. It has all the straight rye notes you would expect. The baking spice and orange notes on the nose draw you in before you even take a sip.

Tasting Notes:

The taste is black tea, stewed fruit, and a nice pepper finish you would expect with rye.

Rittenhouse Rye

Bobby Finan, co-founder of Tommyrotter Distillery in Buffalo, New York

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $25.99 for a 750ml bottle

The Whiskey:

Rittenhouse Rye. It’s very affordable and will give a new rye drinker a preview of spicy rye offramp from the bourbon world. There’s a reason it’s one of the most popular value rye whiskeys on the market.

Tasting Notes:

It really highlights the rye spice and earthy rye bread notes that bourbon drinkers refer to when describing rye’s contribution to a bourbon mash bill. If nothing else, this is a great product to try to just understand the aged American brown spirits world better.

Sagamore Rye Whiskey

Mark McLaughlin, co-founder of Old Line Spirits in Baltimore

ABV: 41.5%

Average Price: $43 for a 750ml bottle

The Whiskey:

Sagamore’s 83-proof flagship rye is a great starting point. It’s made in the traditional Maryland style with a higher corn content and that makes it a little less spicy for a newcomer to rye. That doesn’t mean it’s simple, not at all, just approachable. And once you try that you can move up to the cask strength and double oak – both beauties.

Tasting Notes:

The palate is filled with warming flavors like cinnamon, candied orange peels, toffee, vanilla beans, oak, and cracked black pepper.

George Dickel Rye

Phil Morgan, distiller at Arcane American Whiskey in Brooklyn, New York

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $22.99 for a 750ml bottle

The Whiskey:

What’s the best beginner rye whiskey you don’t make and why? George Dickel Rye for an Introduction to Rye this is another easy-on-the-pocketbook bottle.

Tasting Notes:

It’s filled with soft vanilla and stone fruit, the filtering process makes this a soft spice rye even with a 95% mash bill of rye.

Elijah Craig Straight Rye

Joe Michalek, founder and president of Piedmont Distillers in Madison, North Carolina

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $35 for a 750ml bottle

The Whiskey:

For those who prefer their whiskey neat or with a cube, I think the best beginner rye is Elijah Craig Straight Rye Whiskey. It’s warming, slightly spicy, and well-priced.

Tasting Notes:

With its 35% corn inclusion, I think it provides a slightly sweeter, more balanced flavor versus the more robust, pepper flavor notes associated with higher-rye alternatives.

Angel’s Envy Rye

LC May, Grandson, Clyde May and brand ambassador for Clyde May’s Whiskey in Troy, Alabama

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $85 for a 750ml bottle

The Whiskey:

There tends to be a love/hate relationship between consumers and rye whiskey. Consumers that do not like rye whiskey normally blame it on the heavy spice that is commonly found in a rye whiskey. For this reason, I would suggest a beginner start with Angel’s Envy Rum Cask Finished Rye.

Tasting Notes:

You will certainly taste some spice but also some nice notes of orange. There are also hints of dried fruits, caramel, vanilla, rich oak, and maple candy.

Wild Turkey 101 Straight Rye

Rebecca Running, CEO of Darco Spirits in Philadelphia

ABV: 50.5%

Average Price: $21.99 for a 750ml bottle

The Whiskey:

Wild Turkey 101 Kentucky Straight Rye. This is the OG of Ryes. It has hints of vanilla with warm honey and notes of spice. I love ryes – this is a great one to try. At around $30 it’s affordable and delicious. A great way to discover and try something new without breaking the bank.

Tasting Notes:

Flavors of caramel, clover honey, rich oak, and dried fruits are balanced with spicy cracked black pepper and wintry spices.

Fans across the globe who use Spotify to stream music are getting their long-awaited Spotify Wrapped annual drop today. The yearly promotion showcases a listener’s personal top five songs and musicians for the entire year. It also includes some other fun statistics, like how long (in minutes) you listened to music and your top artist, your top five genres, podcasts, and a “listening personality test.” Not only that, but it seems for 2022, the streaming service had some extra surprises in store for the most dedicated of fans.

Artists like Taylor Swift, Blackpink, Mitski, and more recorded videos that appear in the Your 2022 In Review section for a certain exclusive number of listeners.

Users have also spotted Katy Perry teasing new music through her video, Little Mix delivering a heartfelt holiday wish, as well as clips from WayV, Red Velvet, Niall Horan, J-Hope, Anne Marie, and more.

Others that have also recorded some, by appearing in my personal artist messages, include Maisie Peters and Gracie Abrams.

Because of this, it seems listeners who have an artist either in their top five musicians or songs will receive a video message — if the person recorded one. Bright Eyes did not, and I am disappointed but not surprised.

Continue scrolling for some additional Spotify Wrapped personalized video spots.

Kanye West has already taken a big hit to his net worth this year but it looks like things are going to get worse for him. Appearing on Tim Pool’s right-wing YouTube podcast Timcast IRL (alongside other delightful people like Nick Fuentes and Milos Yiannopoulos — note the sarcasm), Kanye claimed that the Internal Revenue Service has put a $75 million hold on his accounts — the ones that weren’t closed by JP Morgan, anyway — as he owed “a lot” of money in back taxes.

He said after questioning his accountants, he found out just how much “a lot” is: “They said, well, around $50 million.” While admitting that he’s “obviously not the most financially literate person on the planet,” he has begun asking the CFOs of his businesses for advice — although it’s not looking good, since one of his questions appeared to be whether not paying taxes is considered tax evasion. The answer is “yes,” Kanye. That’s literally the definition of it. There are whole books about this.

“So now I’m having — I get to actually learn how to run a company,” he said optimistically. “I get to learn how to count, really. “It’s like I didn’t even know where to put the money.” With at least some of it going to child support after his divorce from Kim Kardashian was finalized this week, it looks like Kanye’s fortunes have really turned.

The discussion ended early when the host asked him about the backlash from the antisemitic comments he’d made earlier this year. Kanye reportedly “walked off in a huff” when pressed about his thought process.