Category: News

Donald Trump took some surprising jabs at his own supporters for the MAGA reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine. Despite the vaccine being streamlined into rapid production thanks to the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed, a vast majority of the former president’s hardcore devotees refused to get vaccinated as they turned to conspiracy theories and thoroughly debunked alternative medicines like ivermectin.

While speaking at a MAGA rally in Alaska over the weekend, Trump seemed to be particularly aggrieved that he couldn’t tout his role in getting the COVID-19 vaccine to the masses while heading into a potential 2024 presidential run. Via Mediaite:

“We did so much in terms of therapeutics, and a word that I’m not allowed to mention,” Trump said — clearly referring to the word vaccine. “But I’m still proud of that word! Because we did that in nine months, and it was supposed to take five years to 12 years. Nobody else could have done it.”

According to Mediaite, the crowd responded with “moderate cheers,” which is an improvement from the time Trump was booed by a crowd of MAGA supporters for telling Bill O’Reilly that he got a booster shot. However, Trump is apparently still not over how the situation played out with the vaccine. The man wants his credit.

“I’m not mentioning it in front of my people!” Trump said. “But someday, we’re going to have to all sit down and have a little talk. But you know what? We did a hell of a job.”

(Via Mediaite)

Kanye West hasn’t performed live for some months thanks to his dropping out of Coachella at the last moment, but fans of The Game got to see his return to the stage when he made an impromptu appearance during the Compton rapper’s show at The Novo in downtown Los Angeles Saturday night and performed his verse from their recent collaboration, “Eazy.” It was also the first time the duo has played the song live since its controversial debut in January.

The Game told the audience, “[Kanye] ain’t come to perform no songs. He told me how he was coming, he told me he was gonna be three minutes late – he said he might show up in the middle of the verse cause he got sh*t to do. I love you for always being there for me, man. You my motherf*ckin’ brother – he know it, I tell him in front of y’all.” Kanye, typically masked up, at first allowed his pre-recorded vocals to play but eventually grabbed a mic and performed. The Game followed up by bringing out Lil Wayne.

Kanye’s next billed performance will be at Rolling Loud in Miami on July 22. Incidentally, one of the last times he publicly performed was at Future’s Rolling Loud performance in San Bernardino last year.

In 2020, Bad Bunny proved he was a global superstar by releasing two albums that debuted in the top two positions of the Billboard 200. YHLQMDLG arrived at the top of the year and peaked at No. 2 while Bad Bunny closed the year by sharing El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo which became his first No. 1 album. In 2022, Bad Bunny has taken things to a new level and that’s in large part thanks to his fourth album Un Verano Sin Ti. The project, which he released in May, debuted at No. 1 in what was the biggest week in music at the time. Now, just two months later, Un Verano Sin Ti has logged its fourth overall week at No. 1.

For the new Billboard 200 chart dated July 16, 2022, Un Verano Sin Ti earned its fourth overall and second consecutive week atop the chart thanks to 111,000 copies sold. That number is mostly comprised of streams with 109,00 streaming equivalent album units thanks to 154.12 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs. Un Verano Sin Ti also logged its ninth straight week with at least 100,000 copies sold, something that hasn’t been done since 2016 when Drake’s Views sold 100,000 or more copies for ten consecutive weeks.

Additionally, Un Verano Sin Ti has spent its first nine weeks in the top two positions of the Billboard 200. The last album to do that was Drake’s Certified Lover Boy which did so between the September 18-November 13, 2021-dated charts.

Finally, after over a decade away, Rage Against The Machine played their first reunion show, on July 9 in East Troy, Wisconsin. Unsurprisingly, they got political, specifically about the Supreme Court and the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade.

As the band performed a medley of “Freedom” and “Township Rebellion” towards the end of their set, a message on the screen behind them read:

“Forced birth in a country with no universal healthcare and where the cost of giving birth is $4,000 to $15,000.

Forced birth in a country that is the only wealthy country in the world without any guaranteed paid parental leave at the national level.

Forced birth in a country where Black birth-givers experience maternal mortality two to three times higher than that of white birth-givers.

Forced birth in a country where gun violence is the number one cause of death among children and teenagers.

ABORT THE SUPREME COURT.”

Back in May, the band shared a statement that read, “Rage Against The Machine stands in support of reproductive justice and will continue to fight against any attempts to restrict or control reproductive freedoms. Criminalizing access to abortion will only add to the suffering disproportionately felt by poor, BIPOC and undocumented communities. The constant rightward shift of both major parties should alarm us all — a wake up call that we desperately need to organize radical people power against a warfare state that continues its assault on people’s lives.”

Check out the full concert below, with the on-screen massage starting at 1:14:28 into the video.

It looks like Meek Mill is in the market for a new management company. Billboard reports that, after ten years signed to Jay-Z’s do-it-all management firm, Meek’s name no longer appears on the Roc Nation roster or its social media pages. Sources told Billboard that Meek parted ways with Roc Nation, but doesn’t have an explanation or any details on his future plans. Roc Nation is also the distributor for Meek’s Dream Chasers label; there is no information on whether this is affected.

While business is business, it remains to be seen how this affects Meek’s personal relationship with Jay-Z, with whom he’s partnered on the Reform Alliance non-profit dedicated to transforming the criminal justice system. Fans previously speculated that Meek’s proximity to Jay strained his relationship with MMG ower Rick Ross; Meek has released music under Ross’ MMG imprint since 2011, the same year he was featured on XXL‘s Freshman Class.

Although Billboard does not have many details of Meek’s departure from Roc Nation, it does note that the Philadelphia rapper previously expressed discontent with his label situation, maintaining that Atlantic Records didn’t properly promote his 2021 album Expensive Pain and applied draconian measures to the end of his contract. He even threatened to post his own contract online, a la Kanye West, but has yet to follow through.

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

We here at Uproxx are big proponents of banning cable news from waiting rooms in favor of Food Network or HGTV programming, especially if Guy Fieri is involved, and game shows. Mechanics and doctors are, I assume, the only reason the Game Show Network still exists, but not every game show is a winner. Chain Reaction? People Puzzler? America Says? Let’s stick to the classics, folks. Pluto TV just made that easier.

Vulture reports that the streaming service has struck a deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to play episodes of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune all day, every day. Each show will get its own channel on Pluto TV, beginning August 1.

Pluto plans to use Jeopardy! and Wheel as anchors for a significant expansion and consolidation of game-show content on the platform. Starting today, the ad-supported streamer will move its existing buzzer-beater channels (Buzzr, Game Show Central, vintage The Price Is Right, The Barker Years) out of the entertainment category and into a new game-show hub.

Pluto TV already has channels dedicated to Mystery Science Theater 3000, endearingly low-budget movie factory The Asylum, and TV Land sitcoms, among literally hundreds of other options. But is it asking too much for a dedicated Supermarket Sweep channel? Never mind, it already exists.

(Via Vulture)

On Friday, Elon Musk made clear what pretty much everyone had figured out by now: He’s doing everything he can to not buy Twitter. The news arrived on the heels of him seemingly confirming that he impregnated a Neuralink exec with twins as well as several weeks of Musk suddenly growing concerned about Twitter’s bot problem. However, backing out of the deal won’t be easy. The social media platform has already threatened to sue Musk to complete the merger agreement, which would involve him purchasing Twitter well above what its shares are now worth. (Like Tesla, shares in the social media company have plummeted since Musk pulled the trigger on the acquisition.)

“The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement,” Twitter co-CEO Bret Taylor tweeted hours after Musk’s announcing he was pulling out. “We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.”

In true Musk fashion, he’s reacted to Twitter threatening to sue him with, of course, memes. And not just any memes, memes that make Musk look like all of this is part of some genius plan. In the first meme, he posted four images of him laughing with the corresponding captions, “They said I couldn’t buy Twitter. Then they wouldn’t disclose bot information. Now they want to force me to buy Twitter in court. Now they have to disclose bot information in court.”

In the second meme, Musk posted an image of Chuck Norris playing chess and wrote “Chuckmate” in a follow-up tweet.

While Musk’s horde of online fans are buying his narrative, there’s one person who’s not buying it: Donald Trump. In a sign that their bromance may be over, Trump referred to Musk as a “bullsh*t artist.” It takes one to know one.

(Via Elon Musk on Twitter)

Before Cameron Diaz ended her acting hiatus, she retired from an equally profitable career: drug mule.

The There’s Something About Mary star appeared on the Second Life podcast, where she recounted a story from her modeling days. “I didn’t work a day,” she said. “I was [in Paris] a full year and I didn’t work one day. I couldn’t book a job to save my life. I got like one job, but really I think I was like a mule carrying drugs to Morocco, I swear to God.” Diaz said it was “before the TSA or anything like that. It was like early ’90s. They gave me a suitcase that was locked that had my ‘costumes’ in it — quote, unquote.”

Diaz didn’t consider the contents of the suitcase until she arrived in Morocco. “All of the calculations in my head went running back, like, what the f*ck is in this suitcase?’ I’m this blond-haired, blue-eyed girl in Morocco, it’s the ’90s, I’m wearing torn jeans and platform boots and my hair down, and this is really unsafe.” It was “only job I ever got in Paris,” Diaz added, and soon after, she was cast alongside Jim Carrey in The Mask.

Now that Diaz is acting again, maybe she can go full method and star in Narcos?

(Via the Guardian)

A number of artists have shared their displeasure about The Shade Room and similar social media platforms over the years, and on Sunday night, Cardi B became the latest person to do so. It all went started when The Shade Room shared a birthday post on Instagram for Cardi’s 4-year-old daughter Kulture. Cardi then asked them to delete the post, reaching out through private messages on both Instagram and Twitter, but when her requests were seemingly ignored, she took to Twitter to air out her grievances.

“Cause my thing is …okay you only post negative content bout me ,cool no biggie. got me blocked from commenting on their page ok cool,” Cardi wrote in a tweet. “But please don’t post my child on yall funny ish …I don’t want to be [my] old self but just leave me alone.”

The Shade Room responded with screenshots of past positive posts they’ve done about Cardi and wrote, “Whats the phone number of the lawyer you used in your defamation case because we tryna see something,” adding, “is this the ‘only negative’ content you are referring to?”

Cardi replied with a series of video messages that further explained her ill feelings about The Shade Room.

“I DM’d you guys but, of course, you guys ignore me, and that’s why I had to take it publicly,” she said. “Clearly, you guys have me muted from commenting on your page. That’s why when I comment, nobody can see my comment and I actually have screenshots of it, and that’s why I posted it.”

She continued, “So now you guys want to gaslight me. And if you guys are not doing shady sh*t on purpose, why mute me from commenting? Then you guys post certain things positive about me so y’all can continuously post negative things about me that you don’t do to other artists.”

Cardi even went as far as to provide another example of The Shade Room’s alleged wrongdoings.

“Example: the thing with Lil Kim with the Lip Service,” she said. “You guys literally edited the video and posted things that sounded kinda funny so people could drag me… Also, you guys post funny things when it comes to my music releases, you guys ignore completely when I do really good performing — anything that’s positive about me.”

The Shade Room claimed that they could not post certain positive things about Cardi, like her recent performance at the 2022 Wireless Festival, because they “have to get permission from owners to post videos to our page.” Cardi wasn’t buying their reasoning as she replied, “Wait how can u say that ,when have you ever ask me to ever post anything about me ?& if that’s true you got my publicist # why not ask her sh*t why not ask me on Dm? Like this arguments are so stupid!The gaslighting it’s insane.”

Cardi and The Shade Room continued to go back and forth through additional tweets, but the two sides appeared to settle their differences as The Shade Room revealed in a tweet.

“Just spoke to @iamcardib and we were able to come to a resolution,” they wrote. “We’re putting the issue to rest and moving on. Cardi, we wish you the best and continued success. Glad we found a way to move forward peacefully. What happened earlier was bad, but how it ended is good.”

You can view screenshots and recordings of the posts and videos from Cardi’s back and forth with The Shade Room above.

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

Metallica has enjoyed plenty of popularity over the past few decades and they’re riding a renewed wave of it now, thanks to “Master Of Puppets” playing a pivotal role in the new season of Stranger Things. Without spoiling too much, in the show, Eddie Munson (portrayed by Joseph Quinn) plays the 1986 single on guitar at a key moment.

Since then, the tune has found a new audience for itself and sparked a younger generation to get interested in the legendary rockers. All the while, the band has embraced being part of this cultural moment, doing so again over the weekend.

Yesterday, @strangerwriters, the official Twitter account of the Stranger Things writers’ room, shared a video of Quinn (not in character as Munson) playing the song along with Metallica’s studio version, doing a terrific job at keeping up with the song’s fast and intense riffs.

“practice makes perfect,” the post reads. Metallica seem to dig the video, as they gave it a retweet.

This comes shortly after they did a TikTok duet video of themselves playing along with the song’s appearance in the episode. They also recently shut down fans of the band trying to belittle Stranger Things viewers just now discovering the long-running group, writing, “FYI – EVERYONE is welcome in the Metallica Family. Whether you’ve been a fan for 40 hours or 40 years, we all share a bond through music. All of you started at ground zero at one point in time.”