Category: News

Megan Thee Stallion delivered another reminder that her knees were created in a laboratory in her performance debut at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards. The Houston artist graced the stage sporting a thong bodysuit and lace-up boots with an initial solo rendition of “Plan B” before her backup dancers joined the fun. She then transitioned into “Sweetest Pie” sans co-star Dua Lipa.

The 27-year-old walked away from the night with the Top Rap Female Artist award, a form of recognition she’s already familiar with having won it at the 2020 BBMAs. She also previously won the 2019 Billboard Women In Music Powerhouse award.

Megan Thee Stallion has been riding a huge wave of momentum over the years, seeing much success due to collaborations with Cardi B (“WAP”), Beyonce (“Savage Remix”), and Nicki Minaj (“Hot Girl Summer”). She’s taken home a Grammy at each of the last three shows and set Guinness World Records for being the first Female Lead Rapper to win Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance. She last released Something For Thee Hotties back in October 2021, following up her debut album Good News in November 2020. Revlon and Essence took to Twitter to salute Megan for her 2022 BBMAs victory, which likely will not be her last.

Check out Megan’s performance above.

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

Earlier this year, Latto admitted that Cardi B’s 2018 Coachella performance inspired her to improve her own live show, and last night at the Billboard Music Awards, she put what she learned to good use with a blowout, exuberant performance of her own massive hit, “Big Energy.” Flanked by a fleet of dancers and backed by a soaring live band, Latto gave the BBMAs a taste of the charismatic, explosive performances she recently showed off on her first-ever headlining tour.

The single, which kicked off the promotion for her new album, 777, has become her biggest hit to date. In April, “Big Energy” peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart propelled by a sample of Mariah Carey’s 1995 single “Fantasy.” Latto tapped Carey herself for the song’s remix, furthering its reach, and along with singles like “Soufside” and “Wheelie,” “Big Energy” helped push 777 to a top-20 debut on the Billboard 200.

Those accomplishments didn’t go unnoticed. Although Latto wasn’t nominated for any awards at last night’s ceremony, her showstopping performance will undoubtedly result in an invitation to come back — and the success of 777 will almost certainly warrant a nomination if she keeps the momentum going until next year.

Watch Latto perform ‘Big Energy’ at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards above.

The 2022 Billboard Music Awards went down last night and if you had to pick one non-musician in attendance who stole the show, it’s probably Cara Delevingne. It seemed like she was all over the place last night, including the floor when she laid down to snap a photo of Doja Cat, Fat Joe, and DJ Khaled.

Since that photo started making the rounds after Joe shared it, fans took to Twitter to poke fun at the low quality of the photo despite all the trouble Delevingne went through to snap the pic.

More broadly, a lot of attention was paid to how excitable Delevingne seemed to be throughout the evening, especially in her interactions with Doja and Megan Thee Stallion.

Elsewhere during the show, Doja had one of the biggest nights thanks to her 14 nominations. She managed to win four of those: Top R&B Artist, Top R&B Female Artist, Top R&B Album (for Planet Her), and Top Viral Song (for her and SZA’s “Kiss Me More”). Meanwhile, Megan picked up a win on her sole nomination of the evening, for Top Rap Female Artist.

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

As electric utilities across the country raise prices on their customers, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver dedicated Sunday’s episode to hammering power companies for their terrible (and often extremely dangerous) infrastructure. At the heart of the issue is the monopoly that most utility providers have over local markets. “They’re actually the only game in town,” Oliver explained before tearing into PG&E in California, which has been the source of several fires, including the massive wildfire into 2018 that killed 85 people thanks to an almost century old hook failing on one of it power lines.

“PG&E are less a utility and more a fire company that occasionally also delivers power to people’s homes,” Oliver quipped before blasting energy companies for hindering solar use and just all around fleecing customers because its more profitable to shareholders to build more power plants than actually fix their infrastructure. Via Yahoo!:

“And high bills are just the beginning of the problems here, because utilities are also exceptionally prone to scandal. In fact, just google your utility company right now and the word ‘scandal,’ and chances are they’ve gotten into some major trouble. It’s basically like googling your local Jimmy John’s and e. coli, or the name of your favorite teacher from high school and January 6th — you’re not going to like the results that you find.”

To drive all of this home, Oliver also employed the use of Reddy Kilowatt, an electric company mascot who told customers for years that electric companies care about their customers. Clearly, that’s not the case, and the mascot was not a fan of Oliver exposing that fact. After being welcomed into the studio at the end of segment, a terrifying looking Reddy immediately electrocuted Oliver to death. It was pretty… shocking.

(Via Yahoo!)

Travis Scott has been returning to the stage after the Astroworld tragedy that happened in November. Information about injuries is still coming out; only a few days ago, a woman filed a lawsuit against Scott because of a miscarriage she experienced after the festival. Still, the rapper performed at the Billboard Music Awards after Diddy, advocated for him. “I am uncanceling the canceled,” he explained in an interview. “There will be no canceling on my watch. Love is about forgiveness… so that was why it was important for me to have Travis Scott perform. It’s going to be a great night.”

He performed the song “Mafia” with a bright, futuristic stage setup that’s aligned with the aesthetic of his forthcoming album Utopia, which does not yet have a release date. Fans in the comments praise Scott for seemingly working on his vocals, which sound more trained than they used to.

Aside from this performance, he also recently played a club in Miami where tickets at the door were $300 for men and $200 for women. He is also set to make his headlining festival return, with a spot on the roster for the Brazilian festival Primavera Sound in November.

Check out Scott’s performance above.

Baz Luhrmann rudely didn’t include any Elvis Presley songs in the “Elephant Love Medley” from Moulin Rogue!, but he made up for it by directing Elvis, a musical-biopic about the singer. The film stars Austin Butler as Elvis, of leaving the building fame, and Tom Hanks as his manager Colonel Tom Parker, and while the latter is the one who’s usually in the Oscars conversation, it’s the former who Elvis’ real-life daughter hopes get recognized by the Academy.

“I do want to take a moment to let you know that I’ve seen Baz Luhrmann’s movie Elvis twice now. Let me tell you that it is nothing short of spectacular. Absolutely exquisite. Austin Butler channeled and embodied my father’s heart & soul beautifully,” Lisa Marie Presley tweeted. “In my humble opinion, his performance is unprecedented and FINALLY done accurately and respectfully. (If he doesn’t get an Oscar for this, I will eat my own foot, haha.)” She added that “you can feel and witness Baz’s pure love, care, and respect for my father throughout this beautiful film, and it is finally something that myself and my children and their children can be proud of forever.”

Lisa Marie is Elvis’ only child; her mother, The Naked Gun actress Priscilla Presley, was married to “The King” from 1967 to 1973. This will probably be covered by Luhrmann in Elvis, so apologies for the spoiler. My bad.

Elvis opens on June 24.

In early April, it sure looked like Travis Barker and Kourtney Kardashian were married, considering they went to a Las Vegas chapel and had a wedding ceremony. However, reports quickly surfaced that the ceremony wasn’t legally binding, which Kardashian later confirmed by sharing photos from the event and writing, “Once upon a time in a land far, far away (Las Vegas) at 2am, after an epic night and a little tequila, a queen and her handsome king ventured out to the only open chapel with an Elvis and got married (with no license). Practice makes perfect.”

Now, it appears they’re done with dry runs, as it looks like the two got legally married over the weekend.

Yesterday, TMZ shared photos and reported the two were seen in traditional wedding garb on the steps of a courthouse in Santa Barbara, exchanging vows. The pair later drove off in a low-rider convertible with a “just married” sign on it. “Sources close to the couple” later confirmed with TMZ that Barker and Kardashian filed the appropriate legal paperwork that day, so their marriage is official.

Another source told People, “They had to legally get married first ahead of their big Italian wedding, which is happening very soon. All the details are set and the whole family, including all the kids, are very excited.”

A few days ago, Elon Musk announced his acquisition of Twitter was temporarily on hold as he awaits more information about how many of the platform’s accounts are spam or fake. As the purchase is paused, Snoop Dogg sees an opportunity to swoop in and buy Twitter himself and Musk has thoughts about the rapper’s mission.

On Friday, Snoop laid out his plan, most elements of which are questionable at best. He wrote over the course of multiple tweets, “May have 2 buy Twitter now. Gonna replace the board of directors with Jimmy from my corner Fish Fry, Tommy Chung and tha guy with the ponytail on CNBC. First line of business. Free internet on airplanes!!! 29 dollars for 1 hour is bullsh*t. Everyone gets a blue checkmark. Even tha bots with 10 letters in their name that hit you in DMs n just say ‘Hello’. Nah f*ck those bots. #WhenSnoopBuysTwitter …”

Yesterday, Musk responded with two fire emojis, to which Snoop replied, “You bring the fire I’ll bring the smoke!!”

Of course, Snoop is most likely joking about his plan, given the ridiculousness of some of his ideas; the free airplane WiFi is a good one, though, although that’s not really something he could change owning Twitter. Furthermore, buying Twitter is expensive, outside the price range of even Snoop, whose net worth is estimated at $150 million.

Jason Momoa recently went on a posting rampage for Earth Day, which included a parking lot shower (that message was best delivered shirtless), and has been busy shooting Fast X in Italy. He did, however, make time to head into Vatican City, where he visited the Sistine Chapel and posted some photos from within the landmark. Of course, photography is generally prohibited within the chapel (the damaging effects of flashes are real), and that led to some questioning remarks (and a bit of backlash) on the below posts (which both contained several photos apiece).

Momoa caught wind of what was up in his comments, and since he definitely understands the value of sacred places, the dude stepped up with an apology. Naturally, he decided to multitask and get an arm workout in while shirtless because, I don’t know, the flexing makes it hit home more? The caption notes his apology (as declared within the video, which is credited to Just Jared) and ends with “i love your culture and history. ITALY I F*CKING LOVE YOU ALL MY ALOHA J.”

“If you ever thought I disrespected your culture, that wasn’t my intention,” Momoa said while feeling the burn. “I found people really wanted to take photos with me. I was very respectful and I asked for permission for what I thought would be okay. I would never want to do anything to disrespect someone’s culture. So if I did, I apologize.” He also noted that a “nice donation” was made to the Catholic Church, and one can’t hate on a guy for owning his mistake, especially with an “ALOHA J” at the end.

A gunman killed 10 people and wounded three others, 11 of whom were Black, at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York over the weekend in what authorities are calling a “straight-up racially-motivated hate crime.” Prior to the attack, the 18-year-old shooter reportedly posted a 180-page manifesto online, which “explained that he was motivated by a conspiracy theory that white people are being replaced by other races. In the document, he says he is [a] self-described white supremacist and anti-semite.”

That white nationalist, far-right theory, known as the “great replacement,” has been a frequent topic of discussion on Fox News, leading CNN’s Jim Acosta to point his finger (one in particular) at the likes of Tucker Carlson for what happened in Buffalo.

“What Tucker Carlson is doing by peddling ‘replacement theory’ and other white nationalist talking points is dangerous and we called it out today and asked the head of the NAACP what can be done about it,” Acosta tweeted. The CNN anchor, who previously said that “nobody bullsh*ts like [Tucker],” also played a compilation of Carlson spewing dangerous “great replacement” rhetoric on Fox News.

“When the New York Times recently ran an expose on Carlson’s record of promoting white nationalism and replacement theory, he tweeted out [a] picture of himself holding up the article, the front page of the New York Times, and laughing about it,” Acosta told his guest, NAACP president Derrick Johnson. He added that “millions of people absorb this garbage on a regular basis on his program” and “Fox does nothing about it. They make millions of dollars off of it. We have not shied away from calling that out and calling Tucker out on this program, because what he’s doing is very dangerous.”

You can watch that clip below.