Category: News

For the better part of three years, Kid Cudi has been teasing the release of Entergalactic, a multimedia project set to accompany the rollout of his next album. Back in 2019, Cudi revealed that he was working on an animated Netflix series that was based on the concept, but since then, he’d been pretty tight-lipped about the project. At the end of 2020, he instead released his seventh album Man On The Moon III: The Chosen, but at the top of this year, he returned to teasing Entergalactic. At long last, it appears that the project will arrive sooner than later as Cudi announced the title and release date for its lead single.

In a post on social media, Cudi revealed that the upcoming single is titled “Do What I Want.” The song will arrive this Friday, June 10 and feature production from the duo Take A Daytrip, who is best known for their recent work with Lil Nas X among other acts. “DO WHAT I WANT’ Friday,” Cudi wrote in the first of two tweets. “Its all happening… the beginning.” In the second, he added, “Do What I Want was the first song I did w Day Trip and I locked in w them heavy shortly after to make MOTM3. Im really happy ull finally get to hear it.”

Cudi’s announcement comes after he called Entergalactic “the greatest piece of art Ive ever made” back in January. He added, “I am so sooo f*ckin proud of this show. U have no idea what ur in for. 3 years in the making. Id say watch the show first then consume the album.”

You can view Cudi’s tweets about “Do What I Want” above.

When the BET Awards unveiled the nominations for their upcoming 2022 award show, there were names that fans expected to appear on it. For example, Doja led the way with six nominations while Ari Lennox and Drake were tied for second with four nominations each. With that being said, there were also names that did not appear on the nomination list that fans hoped to see. One of those was Lil Nas X who did not receive a nomination, while Jack Harlow, who earned his first No. 1 song as a feature on Lil Nas’ “Industry Baby,” was nominated.

Along with fans, Lil Nas shared his frustrations about receiving “an outstanding zero nominations” in a pair of tweets that he shared afterward. Now, he’s taking things a bit further by dissing BET in an unreleased song that he previewed on social media. He begins the snippet by saying “f*ck BET” four times before the song’s beat drops. He also raps, “Look at how I top sh*t / I just put like three in the top ten / And I don’t need nobody.” This is a reference to Lil Nas’ three 2021 songs that appeared in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, those being “Industry Baby,” “Montero (Call Me By My Name),” and “That’s What I Want.”

Later on in the snippet, it appeared that rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again arrived with backing vocals on the unreleased track. In a later post, Lil Nas confirmed that YoungBoy is featured on the track as he teased his collaborator’s verse with the caption “YB BETTER.”

Lil Nas later explained that the song was about more than just BET. “This not over no BET award,” he wrote in a tweet. “This is about the bigger problem of homophobia in the black community. Y’all can sit and pretend all u want but imma risk it all for us.” When a fan questioned his reaction, noting that he has a Grammy award, Lil Nas took a moment to address them.

“This is my point exactly,” he replied. “How can i get acknowledged by the most acclaimed award show in the world and then not even [have] just one nomination from my own people? is that not crazy? am i really tripping?”

You can watch the videos and see Lil Nas’ tweets in the posts above.

According to The Shade Room, rapper DDG was arrested in Los Angeles, California on a felony charge for carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle. He was then released after posting a $35,000 bond. As per his file, he was taken into custody on Tuesday at 9:21 p.m. PT. He’s expected to be in court on June 28 in Van Nuys.

The 24-year-old, TMZ reported, was caught driving recklessly in his Lamborghini and was subsequently pulled over. His car was searched, and police found a weapon, which led to this charge.

For Uproxx Studios’ How I Blew Up segment, the rapper discussed his video for his hit “Elon Musk” featuring Gunna, as well as manifestation. “That’s the only way you can make stuff come true. If you truly believe in yourself, you gotta manifest it. You’ve gotta give yourself a goal that you know you’re gonna reach,” he said. He also recounted how he got higher than he’d ever been by underestimating a weed gummy and explained how Gunna went from being a work acquaintance to a genuine friend. “The whole hook I freestyled,” DDG brags. “I just went down a rabbit hole of Elon Musk and SpaceX and it just inspired the thought.”

While the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial (and its potentially troubling aftermath) consumed most of people’s attention, another, more low-key but still shocking one was unfurling in its shadow. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley — stars of the longtime hit reality show Chrisley Knows Best — have been found guilty on multiple counts of fraud and tax evasion. The USA Network names face up to three decades in prison.

As per the AJC:

Federal prosecutors, who indicted the “Chrisley Knows Best” couple in 2019, said the Chrisleys deliberately “swindled” at least $30 million from community banks from 2007 to 2012 by inflating their net worth to get loans, purposely targeting smaller banks that did less due diligence than larger ones. Then Todd Chrisley filed for bankruptcy in 2012, erasing $20 million in loan debt.

Prosecuting attorney Annalise Peters alleged they then actively hid millions they made from the reality show, which began in 2014, as well as $500,000 in taxes Todd owed in 2009. They alleged that the couple actively evaded taxes going back to 2009.

During the trial, the Chrisleys blamed a former business partner, Mark Braddock, who oversaw their company, alleging that he performed all the defrauding without their knowledge. They fired him in 2012. Late last month, Braddock claimed that Todd had cheated on his wife with him before their professional falling out a decade back. Todd’s attorney argued that Braddock was “obsessed” with him but that nothing happened between the sheets.

Meanwhile, Chrisley Knows Best was recently renewed for a 10th season. Todd and Julie face up to 30 years in prison. They plan to appeal the decision.

(Via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

One of the biggest stories to come out of Game 2 of the 2022 NBA Finals revolved around comments made by former referee Steve Javie. At one point in the game, Green fouled a Jaylen Brown jumper and the two got tangled up in an incident that got reviewed, which led to Javie — who works as an analyst for ESPN — saying, “You have to consider one player has, definitely, a technical foul. Is this enough to call a double-T and eject the one player? Personally, I would say nothing and I would let it just defuse as that.”

While plenty of basketball fans have long suspected this, hearing Javie be this explicit about how high the bar is for some players to get a second technical raised some eyebrows. And in an interview with Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, Boston Celtics forward Grant Williams expressed some frustration with the whole thing, saying that “as players, all we want to see is consistency.”

“If the refs are taking into consideration that a player — a key player — already has a technical and then they decide for whatever reason that a similar incident doesn’t warrant a second technical, that’s fine as long as there is consistency. The problem is there is no consistency,” Williams said. “As players, we just want to know how the game is going to be officiated and then we’ll adjust. I personally believe you have to understand the magnitude of the game and how an ejection can impact the game. No one wants to see the game impacted by an ejection. But either all techs are the same or you consider the situation when [contemplating] a second tech. We just want the rules to be enforced straight forward and consistently.”

Williams stressed that Green avoiding a second technical in that situation didn’t surprise the team, but despite that, “we just hope that grace is extended for everyone.” Green went on to play a game-high 35 minutes and made his presence felt on both ends of the court in Golden State’s 107-88 Game 2 win.

Last weekend, Jared Leto got in on the jokey Morbius meme action: He posted a video of him reading the script for a sequel to the two-time comic book movie bomb, complete with a patently absurd title. Jump a few days and there’s what appears to be a serious version of the same thing, featuring another onscreen version of the Batman baddie.

In an Instagram post, director Todd Phillips showed two pictures: one of a bound script for the sequel to Joker, followed by a pic of star Joaquin Phoenix presumably reading it, sunglasses on, cigarette in his mouth. There’s even a working title (which could wind up being the official title, unless social media hates it): Joker: Folie à Deux.

That subtitle might be a clue to what Phillips and returning co-writer Scott Silver have in store. A folie à deux means a delusion shared by two people. Think about couples who lose it together, or even lovers on the lam, like Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Could the follow-up to Joker find Phoenix’s mentally ill failed stand-up teaming up with someone he meets in prison? Maybe going on some kind of spree? Who knows! We don’t have access to the script as Joaquin Phoenix does!

Phillips’ post got a lot of attention, including from Simon Rex, the old MTV VJ given a mighty career renaissance after his singular turn in last year’s Red Rocket. “I zoomed in on the script and I see my cameo you wrote me,” he wrote in the comments. “Thanks man. I’ll see if I’m avail.”

Even after Joker made over a billion dollars worldwide in 2019, it wasn’t clear if it would get a sequel. Wayne family connection aside, it felt relatively self-contained, not hob-nobbing much with other parts of the DCEU. (Meanwhile, Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader now has his own wing of the universe, independent of the Justice League-ers.) Both Phoenix and Phillips seemed to be on the fence about a sequel until they decided to go ahead. And now here we are, with a script and a fancy title.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

On Tuesday morning, ESPN’s First Take drew headlines with a viral segment featuring Stephen A. Smith, J.J. Redick, and CJ McCollum. At the center of the fracas was an opinion from Smith about Russell Westbrook’s presence at Darvin Ham’s introductory press conference with the Lakers, and both Redick and McCollum were having none of it in amusing and pointed fashion.

If nothing else, Smith certainly met his match during this particular portion of the program. On Tuesday evening, longtime Smith critic Kevin Durant weighed in to express that he is now “locked in” on First Take because of how it has guys like Redick and McCollum as Smith’s foils.

Durant takes a bit of a shot at both Max Kellerman and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo in the process, and it wouldn’t be Durant if he wasn’t having a bit of fun on Twitter. Still, this is both funny and notable in that this is not a segment that you would always see on First Take, particularly with Smith as the clear dominant voice on that program.

It has to be said that Durant very clearly is not alone in appreciating what happened here, and perhaps ESPN will take solace in that when it comes to future programming choices. It will also be interesting to see if Durant is truly dialed in moving forward, if for no reason other than KD live-tweeting First Take would be extremely entertaining.

Back in March, Lollapalooza unveiled its jam-packed lineup for the Chicago iteration of its festival after the showcase was brought to other countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Stockholm. The 2022 Chicago show was set to be headlined by Dua Lipa, J. Cole, Metallica, Green Day, Doja Cat, Machine Gun Kelly, Lil Baby, and Kygo. However, as we now know, Doja Cat will not be able to perform for the foreseeable future as she underwent tonsil surgery that will keep her off the performance stage for the time being. A couple of weeks after Doja’s announcement, Lollapalooza has announced her replacement for the upcoming show: J-Hope from BTS.

With the announcement, it marks the first time that a “South Korean artist will headline a main stage at a major U.S. music festival” according to Lollapalooza. The news arrives after J-Hope, along with the rest of the BTS collective, stopped by The White House to discuss anti-Asian hate and Asian representation with President Joe Biden. BTS also broke Apple Music’s record for 2022’s biggest radio show.

In addition to performances from the aforementioned names at Lollapalooza’s 2022 Chicago show, which goes down July 28-31, attendees will also see sets from Glass Animals, Big Sean, Jazmine Sullivan, Don Toliver, Charli XCX, Denzel Curry, Blxst, Willow, Cordae, Caroline Polachek, PinkPanthress, Audrey Nuna, Wet Leg, Larry June, Coi Leray, and more.

You can view the new announcement from Lollapalooza above.

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

Azealia Banks recently returned to Twitter after she was banned from the app in 2020, and she has not been wasting a moment. Last month, she showed a soft side by unexpectedly coming to Cara Delevingne’s defense. But now she’s back to starting drama by calling Cardi B an industry plant and roasting Iggy Azalea.

After Banks praised Cardi’s song “Bodak Yellow,” someone replied suggesting that Cardi is an industry plant. Banks quote-tweeted it, writing: “She was an industry plant lmao. But sis took advantage of the opportunity and rode that b*tch the f*ck out, assembled the right team, seized the moment and made herself a cultural mainstay. U have to respect it.”

When someone brought up Iggy Azalea, Banks was less inclined to pay compliments. “Sis really was supposed to use T.I for whatever he was worth, drop the blaccent – give fancy and a slew of other kesha type joints, then give fashion mogul Victoria Beckham KUNT,” she wrote. “But she’s giving the single mom thing she really thought whiteness would shield her from.”

She added: “Lmao and ur dumb ass is really trying it. House music is a black American art form. All that music u think is native to the UK is lifted from black American groups like underground resistance, drexciya etc. Donna Summer is literally the first techno artist in history.”

Tim Burton is one of the pioneers of the modern comic book movie, having helmed the game-changing 1989 Batman as well as its darker, thirstier, more S&M-heavy sequel. He only made two with the Caped Crusader before passing the baton to Joel Schumacher. Burton has long been thought of as a weirdo, but he sees it differently. It’s the Schumacher Batmans that are the oddballs, not the one where Bruce Wayne and Selena Kyle bond over their shared love of leather and whips.

In a new interview with Empire (as caught by Deadline), Burton looked back at Batman Returns for its 30th anniversary, but he wound up discussing the next two films in the franchise, which took the series in a different direction. Gone was Michael Keaton and the brooding melancholy; in were a campy tone and a Day-Glo aesthetic.

One decision particularly rankled Burton, at least at the time: the alterations to the Batman (and the newly introduced Robin) suit, namely the addition of protruding nipples and bulging codpieces.

Burton admits this change of direction is “funny” now, but not so much then. “I was like, ‘Wait a minute. Okay. Hold on a second here. You complain about me, I’m too weird, I’m too dark, and then you put nipples on the costume? Go f*ck yourself,’” Burton recalls thinking.

A lot of reviews dragged the new costumes, especially in the franchise-killing Batman & Robin. Reassessed over a quarter-century later, they seem like parts of ahead-of-their-time queer texts, from a gay filmmaker, slipped into the nation’s multiplexes. So maybe the Burton Batmans still are the “weird” ones — and besides, “weird” is good.

(Empire and Deadline)