Category: News

Nigerian superstar Omah Lay just dropped a new heater in time for summer. On “Woman,” the latest cut from his upcoming album, Boy Alone, he celebrates the lovely lady in his life.

“Anything I do is for my woman,” Lay says on the fiery Afrobeats track. In the song’s accompanying visual, filmed in Nigeria, Lay is surrounded by models, but keeps his eye on one woman in particular. They ride in a car, dance near a harbor, and hang out in an apartment, where they feast upon gold-crusted burgers.

In a recent interview with Billboard, Lay spoke about the recent wave in popularity of Afrobeats in North America and what he enjoys about performing in the US.

“It feels more present when we come out here,” Lay said. “They could just listen to it and that’s it. But actually seeing the Afrobeats artists right here in America, it’s like, ‘OK, that’s close to home,’ Afrobeats makes you dance. And I think this is the time when the world is in that headspace. The world wants to dance.”

Check out “Woman” above.

Boy Alone is out 6/24 via KeyQaad / Sire Records. Pre-save it here.

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

It seems as though Jack Harlow is tired of getting dunked on by Brandy, so why not let Kawhi Leonard have a turn instead? And while Leonard didn’t play a single game in the 2021-22 NBA season while he was rehabbing a knee injury suffered in the previous season’s playoffs, he showed in a brand new commercial for New Balance kicks that he’s ready to fly — although his defense might need some work before he’s at 100% again.

In the new spot for New Balance’s “We Got Now” campaign that is airing during the NBA playoffs, Harlow and Leonard are squaring off on a hilltop basketball court in a friendly game of one-on-one. Harlow, who’s set to star in the re-boot of White Men Can’t Jump, shows off his handles, before checking the ball to the Los Angeles Clippers star and the game begins. Leonard makes a fancy dribble before throwing down an uncontested dunk. They both sink an outside shot in each other’s face (Harlow with the skyhook!) before both taking the ball to the rack and throwing down a slam dunk. Now Kawhi can dunk in his sleep, but did anyone know that Harlow had that in his arsenal?? The “First Class” rapper is six foot three inches tall, but some people on social media weren’t so sure that this was a regulation hoop.

“Is the New Balance ad suggesting Jack Harlow can dunk on a full height rim?,” on Twitter user asked. “There’s absolutely no way in hell jack Harlow can dunk,” another protested. While a third got punny in saying, “Just saw an ad and jack Harlow dunked…? Wtf white men can dunk.”

Either way, the game between the pair was all love and we’ll see what Harlow brings to the Hollywood court in the upcoming flick.

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

If you only had $15.1 million to spend on Ernie Barnes’ iconic “Sugar Shack” painting, you’re out of luck. The Black Romantic masterwork featured in the fourth season opening and closing credits for Good Times (and as the album cover for Marvin Gaye‘s 1976 I Want You) just pulled in 76 times what it was expected to at auction. Poker player and hedge fund manager Bill Perkins (not to be confused with jazz saxophonist Bill Perkins) scored the painting for $15.2 million, calling the acquisition a “childhood dream come true.”

Which is fitting, because the painting, which features Barnes’ signature elongated limbs and free-spirited dancehall composition, was inspired by a childhood memory. Barnes explained in an interview in 2008 (about a year before his death) that “Sugar Shack” sought to convey “the first time my innocence met with the sins of dance. The painting transmits rhythm so the experience is re-created in the person viewing it. To show that African-Americans utilize rhythm as a way of resolving physical tension.”

Maybe this blockbuster sale will reinvigorate interest in a Good Times reboot. Blackish and Coming 2 America screenwriter Kenya Barris was hired by Sony to write a feature version in 2015, but nothing ever came of it.

For fans of Barnes, the epic sale is a powerful commentary on the ascendant recognition of his talent. For everyone else, it comes with the tragic revelation that J.J. did not paint his own painting. Not Dy-No-mite, y’all.

(via USA Today)

J. Cole’s love for basketball has been documented on several occasions throughout his music career. In recent years, Cole has not only taken multiple opportunities to show off his skills in the public eye but he’s also completed with professional athletes. In 2020, The Detroit Pistons told him to reach out about a tryout, and the following year, Cole signed a deal with Rwanda Patriots who play in the Basketball Africa League. He was with the team for a little over two weeks before he made his departure, but now, Cole is gearing up to bring his talents to another team.

In a report shared by The Athletic’s Shams Charania, it was revealed that Cole signed a contract to play with the Scarborough Shooting Stars in the Canadian Elite Basketball League. The CEBL’s training camp began this week and the season opener is on May 26. The terms of Cole’s contract are unknown at the moment, but seeing how things went with his last attempt at the pro leagues, it’s guaranteed that the rapper’s first game will garner plenty of attention from the music and sports world.

The news about Cole’s latest try at the pro leagues comes after he attended a longtime fan’s college graduation and connected with BIA for their “London” collaboration.

You can view the report from Shams Charania in the tweet above.

Any week I get to use a ska-related headline pun is a great week for yours truly (PICKITUP PICKITUP PICKITUP…). And this week on Top Chef Houston, we were down to just five chefs (…again!). It’s the fiiiiinal chef doooooowwwwn.

For this most-crucial-of-episodes-so-far challenge, Tom Colicchio tossed the chefs some Dramamine and told them to get their asses to the docks. They’d be tossing aside the usual Quickfire Challenge like an undersized flounder and taking to the high seas instead, where the chefs would literally fish for their suppers, eat what they catch, teach a man to fish, and other turns of phrase. They went fishing, you get it.

In honor of the occasion, Tom Colicchio resurrected his classic comedy character, Boat Deck Tommy:

Do not adjust your TV’s jauntiness levels, folks, that really is a bandanna ascot. Bandannascot? Anyway, there are also fancy Croakies (“Excuse me, these are tactical Croakies”) and what I truly hope is a rash guard underneath it all. You do not want to get rashy while you’re reeling in a lunker, I get it.

The chefs would get to prepare TWO DISHES, using anything they caught, plus anything they bought. With a budget of just $200, to feed seven diners, including chefs Aaron Bludorn, Daniel Boulud, and Stephanie Izzard. Bludorn, Boulud, and… Izzard? What, was there no chef Bludendorf they could’ve called? Sorry, I’ve been playing a lot of Wordle lately.

Alliteration aside, we learned many things in this episode, like that Damarr had never been fishing, Evelyn doesn’t like catfish, Buddha grew up in Port Douglas in far north Queensland, and Nick pronounces Chipotle “chip-oltee.”

RANKINGS (change from last week)

5. (-1) ((Eliminated)) Nick Wallace

AKA: Domingo. Chocolate Mormon. The Count. The Mississippi Baker.

Dish One: Fried redfish taco with pickled peppers and smoked tomato crema.
Dish Two: Breadless seared bull redfish cake with lemon beurre blanc and mushroom ragout

Quotable Critiques:

“The crunch on the fish in the taco is fantastic and the seasoning is great.” “It’s almost tough for fish, and it’s dry, and the tortilla is dry so there’s no relief.” “It definitely needs extra sauce.” “It’s missing the herbs or something fresh.” “The pile that he gave us, it wasn’t a cake.” “Really great seasoning on both of Nick’s dishes.”

Breakdown:

There were some eliminated competitors from this season that definitely could’ve given the show some more entertainment value — like Stephanie, the angrily provincial midwesterner booted in week two, or that grilled potatoes maniac who looked like Ness from Smash Bros who went home a week later — but Nick is the first elimination of this season that made me genuinely sad. Nick is always a calming, sincere presence, who’s so true to his “aw shucks Dad” persona that he even mispronounces “chipotle.”

Gotta love that guy, but his elimination this week was fairly anti-climactic by the time the judges’ table came around. Time got away from Nick this week, and his big boner was getting all the way down to the last six minutes before realizing that he’d forgotten his fish binder. Oh no! Now you’ll never get into fish college!

A fish cake that isn’t a cake is basically a fatal flaw at this stage of the competition, and as if that weren’t bad enough, it also meant he didn’t have time to get his tortillas buttoned up or his taco proportions figured out. One judge described his fish cake as “the pile that Nick gave us,” so by the time Padma said “well, it looks like we have some tough deliberations ahead of us” she was self-evidently lying her (surely supple supermodel) ass off.

And so we bid the Chocolate Mormon adieu, to return to his brood of alliteratively named children and what will surely be a lucrative future in the spice rub industry. I’m giving Nick a 26-spice salute to honor his memory.

4. (+1) Sarah Welch

AKA: Ms. Marvel. Lula Roe. Aunt Frances. Kooky Librarian.

Dish One: “Pseudo crudo” – pickled gulf snapper with silken tofu and kraut broth
Dish Two: “Pastrami Sandwich” – Smoked red drum with pastrami spice, carrot butter, and Parisian gnocchi.

Quotable Critiques:

“So smooth and silky.” “The broth is absolutely delicious.” “Every element was perfectly executed.” “My mind was blown.”

Breakdown:

The producers opened this week’s episode with a nice Sarah flashback package, with her describing her “absurdly charismatic” sister as “fiercely loyal to her family, so she will literally murder someone if they make me cry — so watch out, Tom.”

SMASH CUT TO: Tom describing Sarah’s dish, “It just doesn’t eat well.”

Is there any more enjoyable food show critique than when something does or doesn’t “eat well?” It’s like watching Gruden call someone “a real football guy” in his broadcasting days.

I do tire of Sarah’s overwrought-yet-hackneyed turns of phrase, so it was kind of fun watching Tom shit on her in the most succinct, inarticulate manner possible. But that edit, along with the extended drama of whether Sarah would actually catch a fish, turned out to be a mere setup for this week’s big twist ending. Sarah won!

Obviously, I’m still sandbagging her a little at number four, but that pastrami sandwich smoked fish thing with the fried gnocchi did look good as hell. I’m just desperate for something, anything to come out of Sarah’s mouth that doesn’t sound like someone trying to be cute on Tumblr.

3. (-1) Damarr Brown

AKA: Catchphrase. James Beard. Screech. Dusty. Drew Barrymahi.

Dish One: Snapper crudo with apples, radish, and coconut vinaigrette.
Dish Two: Blackened bull redfish with marinated vegetables and herb salad.

Quotable Critiques:

“It presents beautifully, but for me the fish is bland.” “I think when you have a fish this delicate, it doesn’t matter what sauce you put around it, if the fish is bland it’s gonna stay bland.” “We just didn’t get all the way there.”

Breakdown:

I’m calling this guy “Drew Barrymahi” on account of he’s never been fished.

Yes, this week Damarr revealed that before this episode, he’d never been fishing. Fishing was one of those things that my dad desperately tried to get me into, but it turns out that ADHD and sitting quietly on a dock aren’t a great mix. Now that I’m an adult and I can mix in catching a socially acceptable beer buzz to the dock-sitting routine I like it a lot better.

I will say that Damarr’s first fishing expedition occurred under ideal circumstances. The best way to fish is on somebody else’s boat, with somebody else’s gear, with somebody else doing the rigging. Most fishing trips are like 5% fishing and 95% incredibly tedious tasks, like trying to tie a lead weight the size of a cat’s balls to an invisible rope with your large clumsy hands while jouncing up and down to the rhythm of the waves. That part sucks ass. (I also suck at video games and crafts, though I do excel at opening jars and smashing walnuts, in case you were wondering).

Aaaanyway, this was the week that finally knocked Damarr out of the top two for me. I still believe in him, but this week’s offerings honestly did look like fairly pedestrian, prototypical Top Chef dishes. A kind of bland crudo and then a fish filet with a kind of half-assed Southeast Asian-inspired slaw. No papaya! Pivot to jicama!

In my heart, I’m giving Damarr the benefit of the doubt and saying that this was a momentary hiccup. He said he wanted to show the judges “his range” (note to future contestants: no one gives a shit about your range. Be like Ilhan Hall from season two and cook the same goddamned food the entire season; if it’s good you will win), and hell, it was also his first fishing trip. Give the guy a break!

My brain says I have to drop Damarr down to number three… but I still like him the best.

2. (+1) Evelyn Garcia

AKA: Cuddles.

Dish One: Caldo De Pescado with poached redfish and roasted vegetables.
Dish Two: Redfish taco al pastor with roasted redfish and pineapple chili salsa

Quoteable Critiques:

“I really love the flavor of the caldo.” “I would prefer a little more fish in here.”
“I thought the tortilla was very thick, it sucked all the moisture out of the taco for me.” “Too precious for a taco.” “Incredibly safe.”

Breakdown:

Sheesh, what was it with all the dry tacos this week? If I wanted a dry taco I’d call my editor’s mom.

Okay, so it wasn’t exactly a dominating performance from Evelyn this week. But I also feel like the judges were kind of grasping at critiques and maybe hated on her for cooking Mexican food. Oh, was the caldo was too pedestrian for you, Monsieur Boulud? You can calgo fuck yourself. Meanwhile, Stephanie Izzard basically said, “this probably would’ve been really good if I’d been more drunk.” (A critique that frankly applies to most foods).

Luckily Evelyn did get the line of the episode: “I can’t believe Daniel Boulud ate my taco!”

1. (even) Buddha Lo

AKA: Mr. International. Big Pun. Asian Ben Mendelsohn. The Salad Nazi. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Terminator. Moneyball. Big Data.

Dish One: Steamed bull redfish with shrimp farce.
Dish Two: “Fish In Chips” – fried flounder with vadouvan sauce and potato gribiche.

Quotable Critiques:

“Buddha’s food is beautiful.” “Fish was cooked beautiful, it was so moist.”
“Very satisfying.” “Fish does eat slightly dry but I can get over it because of this vadouvan sauce.” “I think Buddha knocked this out of the park.”

Breakdown:

Sometimes I think Buddha is moneyballing his way through this competition using Big Data, but other times I think he’s just really f*cking good. This week Buddha attempted his own play on a Daniel Boulud classic, seabass in potato, with his own typically punny “Fish In Chips.” This was Buddha’s attempt to cook redfish inside crispy, spiralized potatoes. Even more so than usual, that seemed like a really good idea. I will eat anything inside crispy potato. Has anyone attempted a potato-based corndog? Get the scientists working on this immediately.

But Buddha couldn’t quite make his blanched potatoes work as a wrapper (“Bro, just grill them!” -Ness). He tempura-battered them and put them on top of the fish. Not quite as clever or pretty (and probably was enough to cost him the victory), but delicious nonetheless.

Buddha narrowly finished in second place this episode, but after these last few episodes it’s hard to imagine anyone beating him.

THE TEASE:

For next week’s episode, Padma announced that the show would be traveling to “one of only two cities in the US that is designated as a UNESCO city of gastronomy.”

Not for a million dollars could I have predicted the city that was about to come out of her pillow lips: Tuscon, Arizona! Ah, yes, that famous mecca of cuisine. No offense, but I always assumed most of Arizona was just Las Vegas with an associate’s degree. Arizona, the place where future porn stars go to get one semester of college experience.

Care to try to guess the other American UNESCO city of gastronomy? That’s right, San Antonio, Texas. DUH. Go home, UNESCO, you’re drunk. (I’m allowed to say these things because I live in Fresno, California, an official UNESCO city of getting dunked on by other cities. It’s called “punching up.”).

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Read the rest of our Top Chef Power Rankings here. Vince Mancini is on Twitter.

The leak from the Supreme Court about overturning Roe v. Wade caused many people with uteruses to go into a tailspin. People began scheduling appointments for long-term birth control. Some opted for permanent birth control. Others stocked up on Plan B or called in preemptive prescriptions for the abortion pill mifepristone. In addition to making tangible plans for what the future might hold in some of these trigger states, people took to the streets to make their voices heard. Protests were held across America against the proposed overturning of Roe v. Wade, which protects people’s right to abortion under the 14th Amendment.

People are also organizing over social media. They’re helping locate nonprofits that will help cover the cost of travel from a restricted state to states where abortion will remain legal. Secret Facebook groups are popping up to help arrange transportation and accommodations for those who need access to safe reproductive care. People are coming together in ways you see in movies, all in an effort to prevent inevitable deaths that would occur if people attempt home abortions. It’s both heartwarming and heart-wrenching that this is something that needs to be done at all. It doesn’t stop with determined activists and housewives across the country, this fiery spirit has reached corporations as well.

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Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Tesla have all announced they will be reimbursing employees for travel expenses incurred while seeking abortion services, and, without taking an official stance on the law itself, Salesforce has offered to help relocate any employee who wants to move out of Texas in light of Texas’ Senate Bill 8. Uber and Lyft said they will cover any legal fees for drivers who are sued due to Oklahoma’s new law that would allow citizens to sue someone that helped another person secure and abortion.

Starbucks is the latest large company to throw its metaphorical hat in the ring to help its employees get safe reproductive care. The coffee company isn’t new to championing its employees’ civil rights through its policies and insurance plans. Starbucks’ insurance plans have covered gender-affirming care, including gender reassignment surgery, since 2012.

The insurance plan offered through Starbucks covers the travel expenses for its employees and their dependents. The benefit is available if the employee or enrolled dependent has to travel more than 100 miles from their home to receive the appropriate reproductive care. While Starbucks hasn’t worked out all the details, the move will allow employees to have a sense of control over what happens with their bodies.

Resources to help people get safe access to abortions are popping up in some unexpected places. In addition to larger companies and nonprofits providing assistance, a group of volunteer pilots has created an organization called Elevated Access to fly people seeking the procedure to an unrestricted state free of charge. Currently there are about 50 pilot volunteers.

If you live in a state that has a trigger law that will go into effect immediately if Roe v. Wade is overturned, you should become familiar with organizations like the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. Midwesterners should know about Midwest Access Coalition, which provides travel, accommodations, food, childcare, medicine and emotional support for people traveling to, from and within the Midwest. ARC Southeast helps people in the southern states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee with funds for the procedure as well as rides, accommodations and escorting to the clinic. Kentucky Health Justice Network provides procedure funding, travel support and interpretation services for Kentucky clients seeking care, no matter where they have to travel.

While the future of abortion access may seem bleak, organizations, companies and regular people are providing guideposts for people who may find themselves in a situation where these services are needed.

After Jeremy Strong went a little too deeply into his method acting process for Succession late last year, even he admitted that his co-stars might not be big fans of the way he gets his scenes done. Brian Cox praised Strong’s results, but expressed concerns about what being Kendall Roy 24 hours a day might be doing to Strong’s mental and emotional health. After all, Kendall is a pathetic dumpster fire to inhabit. (Still, it never made him want to superglue his hand to a Starbuck’s counter, so how bad could it be really?)

Now co-star Matthew MacFadyen has weighed in with a diplomatic nudge that we fans should consider the whole spectrum of the show’s performances instead of going all deer-in-the-headlights for Strong’s grisly process. “I find it slightly aggravating because—it makes [the show] about one thing, and it’s an ensemble piece,” MacFadyen told Vanity Fair. “You think of J. Smith-Cameron and Alan Ruck, who are fucking extraordinary actors. [Strong] is not the main event.” For what it’s worth, his process is essentially the polar opposite: he drops deeply into character when the cameras are rolling and then pops back into MacFadyen Mode when they’re done, and he resents the wrongheaded conclusion that actors who don’t go method “aren’t as invested, or as involved, as someone who’s weeping in a corner.”

Of course, this comes after Jared Leto’s performance as The Joker, rats and all, poisoned an already scummy well of public tolerance for the acting style. Angelica Jade Bastien at The Atlantic‘s read on the situation was apt, arguing that method acting as we know it has descended into an overused gimmick to shortcut prestige and to score publicity points. It’s that environment — where method acting makes audiences feel like they’re putting on a wet swimsuit — in which Strong’s comments landed, so MacFadyen’s feel like an antidote. Let’s not punish Strong for using the tool he most values to get to that dark place, but let’s also celebrate Kieran Culkin’s supreme ironic detachment, Sarah Snook’s smiling hatred, Cox’s dad-never-said-I-love-you energy, and Nicholas Braun’s Labrador Retriever vibes, too. No matter what acting technique they’re using, they all nail it.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Four years after Daredevil‘s cancellation at Netflix, Charlie Cox popped up as super lawyer Matt Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home. It was a nice treat for fans which, paired with Vincent D’Onofrio reprising his role as Kingpin in Hawkeye, formally announced the return of the character into the active Marvel fold. Naturally, Kevin Feige refused to say anything further about Cox returning to the character, maddeningly elaborating, “Where we see that, how we see that, when we see that, remains to be seen.”

Well, now it has been seen.

Showrunners Matt Corman and Chris Ord — most notable for creating and producing CIA-focused crowd-pleaser Covert Affairs for USA — have been hired to create a new Daredevil series for Disney+. The Netflix-based Daredevil was a standout, showcasing the right way to bring the character to life over three excellent seasons, but the rights to do a new series didn’t revert to Disney until two years after its cancellation. Feige, wisely, has chosen to honor continuity by bringing Cox and D’Onofrio back. It’s a shrewd move and an easy win, celebrating two fan favorites that have defined the roles in the modern era. It also means not having to start from scratch.

It’s not easy to deduce the vibe of the show purely from Corman and Ord’s hiring. With Covert Affairs, The Enemy Within, and The Brave under their belts, they’ve shown a knack for cable-friendly, mildly adult espionage dramas, but this would be their first foray into spandex territory. It’s also not a sure thing that the project will ever see cameras, but at least it confirms that Disney is happy to keep crafting new Marvel series to stream on Disney+.

(Via Variety)

With 2018’s breakthrough All That Must Be, British producer George Fitzgerald made incredibly evocative electronic music that bridged the gap between old and new. More-so than on any other track, “Half-Light,” sees FitzGerals bringing along Everything But The Girl’s Tracey Thorn for a track that straddled deep house and IDM, with a foot in dance music classics and a mentality pointed firmly towards the future.

FitzGerald has just announced Stellar Drifting, the follow-up to his brilliant previous album, and it’s armed with an unbelievable sound of the universe. Stay with me now… the producer synthesized sound via a wavetable synth, and “turned telescopic images of the of planets and stars into synthesizer oscillators,” according to a press release. So in a way, we are hearing space on this new record, including the accompanying lead single, “Cold.”

The new album will feature appearances from London Grammar, Panda Bear, and Soak. Meanwhile, Fitzgerald is set to appear at San Francisco’s newly-minted Portola Music Festival in September.

Listen to “Cold” above and check out the Stellar Drifting album art and tracklist below.

1. “Further and Further”
2. “Passed Tense” (ft. Panda Bear)
3. “Rainbows and Dreams” (ft. SOAK)
4. “Cold”
5. “Setting Sun”
6. “Cosmonaut Alley”
7. “Retina Flash”
8. “Betelguese”
9. “The Last Transmission” (ft. London Grammar)
10. “Ultraviolet”

Stellar Drifting comes out on 09/02 via Domino Records. Pre-order it here.

Dust off your arguing cap, because “Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith,” the newest novel expanding on the universe, puts Rey’s parents front and center. We even know their names now: Dathan and Miramir. Father and mother to the by-genetics-only granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine. In the book, they’re on the run from Sith assassin Ochi of Bestoon, who wants to nab the little tyke in order to, somehow, bring Palpatine and The Empire back from the brink of total destruction.

To be fair, learning their names and the more action-packed parts of their lives as young parents doesn’t really add fuel to either side of any Rey debate, but be aware that this new (really, any news) might pry that old wound back open. The discourse launched by The Last Jedi and dumped in gasoline by The Rise of Skywalker is maddening enough to make you want to throw Baby Yoda.

What’s even more interesting than old arguments is that the main plot of the novel, written by Adam Christopher, focuses on Luke helping Lando after Calrissian’s daughter is stolen from him. That, combined with the backstory of why two junk traders/mini-Palpatines had to dump their child on a random planet, cements the Star Wars tradition of kidnapping and child abandonment for the sake of the greater good. You can read an excerpt of the novel over at USA Today.