Category: News

At the moment, social media is in chaos. More specifically, Twitter is in chaos: Ever since Elon Musk became the platform’s official owner, he’s been making changes, most of which have not been well-received. Most notably, verification is now a feature that users can pay for, which led to funny/misleading posts from checkmark-bearing accounts posing as entities like LeBron James and Nintendo.

On a somewhat related note, Grimes, with whom Musk has two children, just shared an interesting theory on social media and the impact it has had on literature.

Last night, a Twitter user wrote, “Most of the time I don’t like starting fiction books (that aren’t sequels to books I’ve already read). This is true even when I’m pretty sure I’m going to like the book ~50 pages in. I’ve tried skimming and it’s fine but doesn’t really solve the issue. Anyone have more ideas?” Grimes responded, “I think social media has given us emotional investment burnout. We’re only supposed to know 150 ppl how are we meant to become emotionally invested to the degree a novel demands. Was easier b4 all this. Nonfiction still readable for this reason.”

These thoughts on social media are about the closest Grimes has come to publicly commenting on Musk’s Twitter takeover, as she hasn’t shared any thoughts about it yet.

To raise awareness about the environmental crisis that is only going to get worse, Rainn Wilson has changed his name to Rainnfall Heat Wave Extreme Winter Wilson. No, really. “With the help of my scientist friends at Arctic Basecamp, I’ve changed my name to Rainnfall Heat Wave Extreme Winter Wilson. This is not a joke, I’m as serious as the melting Arctic, which amplifies global risks including extreme weather events around the globe,” The Office star said in a video posted on Arctic Basecamp’s social media.

Wilson, who recently appeared as Dr. Demento in the brilliantly stupid Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, did the (temporary?) name change to bring “attention to this growing… er, melting issue. We need world leaders at COP27 to take notice and take action. The Arctic is melting at millions of liters per second, yet this problem can’t seem to make a name for itself, so it’s up to us to make a name for it.”

Arctic Basecamp is led by a team of Arctic experts and scientists. The body has physically set up a real basecamp in the Arctic and uses its findings to raise awareness about the environmental crisis. Wilson encouraged people to also modify their name to bring attention to the issue, using the Arctic Basecamp “name-changer” on website ArcticRiskName.org.

If you’ve ever said “bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica,” which is basically everyone (or, y’know, you care about the Earth), you might want to check it out.

(Via Deadline)

It was Anne-Marie’s turn to own the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge today (November 10). The UK pop star welcomed Aitch to perform their September single “Psycho,” a top-10 it in the UK, and when she covered “Unholy” by Sam Smith and Kim Petras, a surprise guest appeared.

After Anne-Marie finished singing the track, Smith walked out to greet her. “Hey! Anne-Marie!” they said. It took a moment to get Anne-Marie’s attention, but once she turned her head and saw them standing there, she giddily laughed and screamed. “You sound gorgeous. You sound absolutely beautiful,” Smith said while hugging Anne-Marie. “Well, the song’s banging, so…,” she responded.

“Unholy” debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated October 8 before climbing to No. 2 for the following two weeks and finally unlocking the No. 1 spot in late October. It’s a historical No. 1, too: Smith became the first publicly non-binary solo art to hit No. 1 on the chart, and Petras is the first publicly transgender solo artist to achieve the feat. The song also sat at No. 1 for four consecutive weeks on the UK chart.

On October 17, Smith announced Gloria, their fourth LP, will arrive January 27, 2023, and they will embark on a subsequent tour.

See clips from Anne-Marie’s Live Lounge below.

It doesn’t matter if he’s on a fishing boat or a TV studio, Jason Momoa loves to get nearly naked. Can you blame him? If I looked like Jason Momoa, I would be strutting around without a shirt 24/7. The Dune actor appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday to discuss his new movie, Slumberland, and photos where he’s wearing a traditional malo and nothing else. “Are you wearing this under your clothes right now?” Kimmel wondered. “Of course,” Momoa replied, before showing off the goods.

Jimmy had the best seat in the house:

It’s like he’s wearing nothing at all…

Slumberland is Momoa’s first starring role in a family-friendly comedy. It was also his first time working with a kid actor. “Marlow Barkley is amazing,” he said about his young co-star. “I’m really excited for the world to see what this little girl does. She steals the show.”

In Slumberland, Momoa plays Flip, “an eccentric outlaw on a mission to help a young girl travel through dreams and flee nightmares, in hopes of reuniting with her father,” according to the official plot summary. The film, which is directed by Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games) and also stars Kyle Chandler (presumably as a tough but supportive father) and I May Destroy You‘s Weruche Opia, premieres on November 18.

Earlier this year, Kid Cudi dropped The Boy Who Flew To The Moon, Vol. 1, a greatest hits album. Included as a bonus track is a song called “Love,” which he previously released on SoundCloud in 2015. Now, though, the song is at the center of a situation.

Yesterday (November 9), a Cudi fan tweeted a screenshot of the SoundCloud version of “Love” and wrote, “I fkn love u @KiDCuDi thank you so making this masterpiece.” Cudi shared the tweet and replied, “U know i released this officially right?” Another fan replied, “The OG version on SoundCloud hits different [crying emoji].” (As XXL points out, the new version of “Love” has a “cleaner” mix and misses some instrumentation included in the SoundCloud version.) Cudi shared that tweet as well and wrote, “Taking it off.”

Indeed, the SoundCloud version of “Love” is no longer available. People had thoughts about this. One Twitter user wrote, “kid cudi took love off soundcloud cuz a fan said they enjoyed that version more than the official release… dude lame af for that.” Somebody else wrote, “i love kid cudi whole heartedly but that fool be acting like a whole ass b*tch sometimes.”

Cudi apparently caught wind of the discourse, as he tweeted, “Anybody switchin up and talkin sh*t about me taking off my song on soundcloud thanx for showin who u truly are. Its one of the reason i dont want to do music anymore. (Some) fans can be toxic and not cool sometimes. And this app really be showin some of yall true colors.” He added in another tweet, “Ill be happy when I stop makin albums so I dont have to deal w this madness anymore.”

He also continued, “Dont get it twisted either im happy and this is not a rant before headlines make it that haha just being honest w everyone. I have a lot of blessings happening in my life and I wont let anything get me down becuz life is so great right now [smiling emoji].”

A few days ago, Aaron Carter passed away at 34 years old. Before his death, he was working on a memoir, which, despite being incomplete, is set to come out soon (as Billboard reports).

The book is titled Aaron Carter: An Incomplete Story Of An Incomplete Life and comes from over three years of interviews between Carter and author Andy Symonds.

In a statement, Symonds said, “Aaron was an open book during the writing process. It’s a tragic irony that his autobiography will never include all his stories, thoughts, hopes, and dreams as he intended.” Publisher Ballast Books also noted in a statement, “In the book, Aaron is honest, funny, irreverent, and self-aware with amazing recall about the stories that shaped a childhood star into a troubled but talented adult.”

The book touches on various topics, including how making beats saved Carter’s life when he was at low points. He told Symonds, “I was always suicidal, especially through those years. I never attempted suicide but never had anyone to talk to about it. But I knew I loved life too much to actually do it. Hopefully I won’t do it. Having lost my own family, I want to have my own. That’s the best feeling.”

When the RIAA certifies an album platinum (meaning it has achieved at least a million units in sales), it’s one of music’s biggest achievements. But which music legends have been honored the most of all time? Let’s break down the artists with the most platinum-certified albums ever.

To start, here’s everybody with between 10 and 14 platinum songs (all data accurate as of November 9, 2022 via the RIAA website):

Andrea Bocelli (10), Frank Sinatra (10), Isley Brothers (10), Jimi Hendrix (10), Johnny Cash (10), Kiss (10), Santana (10), Taylor Swift (10), Bon Jovi (11), Brooks & Dunn (11), Celine Dion (11), Eminem (11), Eric Clapton (11), Journey (11), Kenny G (11), Prince (11), Simon & Garfunkel (11), Tim McGraw (11), Vince Gill (11), John Mellencamp (12), Ozzy Osbourne (12), Queen (12), Toby Keith (12), The Who (12) Barry Manilow (13), Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band (13), Eagles (13), Jay-Z (13), John Denver (13), Linda Ronstadt (13), Lynyrd Skynyrd (13), Metallica (13), Michael Jackson (13), Van Halen (13), Dave Matthews Band (14), The Doors (14), James Taylor (14), Mariah Carey (14), Rush (14)

Here are the artists with between 15 and 19 platinum hits:

Alan Jackson (15), Bob Dylan (15), Kenny Chesney (15), Pink Floyd (15), Willie Nelson (15), U2 (16), Billy Joel (17), Bruce Springsteen (17), Kenny Rogers (17), Madonna (17), Aerosmith (18), Chicago (18), Led Zeppelin (18), Luther Vandross (18), Reba McEntire (19), Rod Stewart (19)

Here’s everybody with between 20 and 40 platinum-certified songs:

AC/DC (20), Alabama (21), Neil Diamond (21), Elton John (28), The Rolling Stones (28), Barbra Streisand (30), Garth Brooks (31), George Strait (33)

And that brings us to the top two spots. In second place is The Beatles, who have a whopping 42 platinum songs. No. 1 is actually way ahead of them, though: Elvis Presley accumulated 57 platinum songs during his storied career.

However, when it comes to multi-platinum songs (songs that have sold at least 2 million units), The Beatles are on top with 26, followed by Presley’s 25. Following them are Garth Brooks (17), Elton John, Led Zeppelin (14 each), Billy Joel, George Strait (13 each), AC/DC, Aerosmith, Barbara Streisand, Madonna, Neil Diamond, Pink Floyd, and Van Halen (12 each).

Check out the platinum songs data for yourself here and the multi-platinum data here.

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

They sure don’t make Twitter like they used to, eh? A lot has been changing on the social media platform in a very short period of time since Elon Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion and instantly made himself the company’s CEO and “Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator.” The latter is a title he assigned himself via his Twitter profile, right below his display name (Elon Musk) and his handle (@ElonMusk).

You see, those are the basic elements of a Twitter profile. While handles typically stay the same, many users frequently swap their display name for fun to be something thematic to major event or holiday, a pun, or as of late, to impersonate Elon Musk. But Doja Cat falls under the “for fun,” category, frequently swapping hers with the seasons. In fact, her current display name is “Christmas,” because well…you know, it’s coming. But she just found out that because of a new change to the platform, she might forever be known as Christmas on Twitter if Elon Musk doesn’t do something about it. “I don’t wanna be christmas forever @elonmusk please help i’ve made a mistake,” she tweeted.

Confused? Well the thing is, since Musk has been the subject of countless trolls following what even Fox News called an “embarrassing” plan to charge users for a verified account and blue checkmark, one of Twitter’s new policies makes it so that existing verified users can’t change their display names anymore. Looks like Musk hatched up a quick plan to combat those trolls, but left Doja Cat hanging in the process. So is Doja Cat going to be Christmas forever? Musk replied, but at first, her stream of consciousness tweets when she first found out what was happening were downright hilarious. First she realized it, then she immediately cursed at Musk.

It looks as though Twitter’s Complaint Hotline Operator has heard her pleading and quickly issued a response. “Working on it!” Musk replied to the “Kiss Me More” star. Before realizing what a great running joke he could hold over Doja Cat’s head if he just sat on his hands instead.

LeBron James returned to the court on Wednesday night after missing the Lakers most recent loss to the Jazz nursing a foot injury, telling reporters before the game the only way to heal was rest, but the 2-8 Lakers can’t afford to be without their star so he was going to play through it against the rival Clippers.

While James had it going to the tune of a 30-point night, it wasn’t enough with another lackluster shooting night around him to beat the Clippers, who won 114-101, and to make matters worse, LeBron left in the fourth quarter with just over five minutes to go, grabbing at his left groin area as he walked gingerly to the locker room.

There wasn’t a particularly clear moment where the injury occurred, as James didn’t have a slip or a particularly awkward step or landing, but the Lakers broadcast did pick up the first appearance of James seeming bothered by the injury after getting fouled on a post fadeaway.

It’s hard to see anything happen, but you can see the grimace on his face and he would leave the game for the locker room shortly after. The team quickly announced he would not return with “left leg soreness,” which is fairly vague and leaves the door open for it to be something other than his groin, even thought that’s what he’s grabbing at as he walks off the floor.

Any absence from LeBron is a disaster for a Lakers team that can’t win with him out there, and for the now 2-9 Lakers, being without James for an extended period would push them further and further from any hopes of salvaging this season. Hopefully it is a mild tweak and nothing more, but it remains to be seen what the official diagnosis will end up being.

It is notable that the left leg is the same leg that he had a groin injury in the 2018-19 season that caused him to miss 17 games over the course of a month-plus, before missing more time at the end of the season as the Lakers missed out on the postseason. Hopefully this is not as severe a situation, but there’s plenty of concern for the Lakers about the health of their star.

According to TMZ, Bankroll Freddie has been arrested in a round-up of about 70 people being charged for firearms and drugs. This allegedly happened on Wednesday (November 9) in Arkansas because he and others are believed to have conspired to sell crack cocaine and marijuana between March 2021 and October 2022. Meanwhile, the rapper has other charges regarding weapons. Sources told TMZ that jewelry and cash were also seized.

“Law enforcement sources tell TMZ Hip Hop the 28-year Freddie Gladney was part of a massive 61-count indictment … along with 34 other defendants, and is currently in custody,” the outlet relayed.

In April, Freddie was pulled over for speeding and ended up being arrested and receiving a number of charges because cops allegedly found guns and narcotics in a pickup truck. He was charged with resisting arrest, drug and firearm possession, and speeding. He was subsequently held on a $2,870 bond. This was disappointing for many considering he had been on an upward journey; he signed to Quality Control at the end of 2019 and received a profile in XXL‘s “The Break” column. More recently, he was featured in Erica Banks’ “Nasty.”

There were also, at one point, rumors that Freddie had been shot. He seemed to confirm the gossip when he reposted a fan’s screenshot of one outlet’s headline about the situation and then followed it with a video in which he said, “I’m good,” while showing a wound on his chin.

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