Category: News

Some time ago, Lucy Dacus asked her fans to submit videos of themselves dancing, skating, or otherwise enjoying her Home Video highlight “Brando.” Ultimately, over 100 people submitted clips, which have been compiled into the song’s new video that was shared today. The montage is a light and fun clip that paints Dacus’ fans as a delightful bunch.

“Big thank you to everyone who submitted,” Dacus says in a message to her devotees. “These videos brought me a lot of joy and made me feel more connected to the song and all of you.”

Dacus previously noted of the song, “‘Brando’ refers to a very dramatic friend I had in high school whose whole personality was the media he consumed. He showed me a lot of amazing movies and music, but I think he was more interested in using me as a scrapbook of his own tastes than actually getting to know me. He claimed to know me better than anyone else but I started to feel like all he wanted from me was to be a scene partner in the movie of his life.”

Watch the “Brando” video above and revisit our review of Home Video here.

Home Video is out now via Matador. Get it here.

Lil Nas X and Elton John have become quite the pair. The two performers are separated by decades of age and experience, but linked by their status as queer icons. That connection became more apparent when Lil Nas X revealed that the “Rocketman” singer will feature on his upcoming debut album but their collaborations apparently didn’t stop there. Both are featured together in a new campaign for Uber Eats, “Tonight I’ll Be Eating,” appearing in ads showing off their shared sense of flamboyant style.

In a press release, Nas said of the near-50-year industry veteran, “I’m so excited and honored to be working with the legendary Elton John on this Uber Eats campaign. We had so much fun on set deciding what’s for dinner and trying on each other’s most iconic looks. I can’t wait for everyone to see it!” John, meanwhile, was equally effusive in his praise for the younger artist, saying, “It’s been absolutely wonderful partnering with Lil Nas X, one of the most influential voices in pop culture, and with Uber Eats, my faithful favorite for everything delicious. From taking selfies to deciding to swap looks on set, working together has been a blast.”

Both artists have new projects in the offing; Nas, as previously mentioned, drops his much-hyped debut album Montero this Friday after a rollout that included everything from Lisa Frank-resembling cover art to pregnancy photos — complete with a gift registry where fans can donate to causes important to Nas. Elton’s new project, Lockdown Sessions, is due October 22 and sees him collaborating with contemporary artists like Young Thug and Nicki Minaj.

Watch Elton John and Lil Nas X trade looks above.

After giving fans serious early internet vibes with an interactive site that took The Matrix series back to its roots, Warner Bros. dropped the first trailer for The Matrix Resurrections, and it absolutely melting minds on social media. While boasting an updated look for the now 20 year old sci-fi series, the Resurrections trailer does an excellent job reeling people back into the world of The Matrix with familiar imagery and the exact brand of WTF moments that made the film a modern classic.

While newcomers Yahya Abdul Mateen II and Jessica Henwick are standouts in the new trailer, there’s one scene that has people absolutely buzzing: Keanu Reeves sitting in a bathtub with a rubber duck on his head.

While not every reaction revolves around Neo’s duck, it definitely made its presence known as people geeked out over the Resurrections trailer:

Obviously, the plot of the Matrix Resurrections is being kept tightly under wraps, and below is all that Warner Bros. is offering up as a synopsis to keep the film shrouded in mystery:

From visionary filmmaker Lana Wachowski comes “The Matrix Resurrections,” the long-awaited fourth film in the groundbreaking franchise that redefined a genre. The new film reunites original stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss in the iconic roles they made famous, Neo and Trinity.

Not a whole lot, right? And if you’ve seen the original trilogy, then you undoubtedly have a lot of questions about how the events of this movie are even happening. Whatever it is, it looks like a wild ride, and seeing Keanu Reeves with a duck on his head is apparently worth the price of admission alone.

The Matrix Resurrections hits theaters and HBO Max on December 22, 2021.

Baby Keem’s meteoric rise continues. Last night, the Las Vegas rapper made his television debut on The Tonight Show, where he performed the new song “Issues.” Presumably, the song will appear on his debut album, The Melodic Blue, which is due to release this week. The performance is stripped-down and direct, with Keem sitting astride a bicycle in front of a screen displaying a desert tableau. He spends most of the performance with his eyes closed, projecting a sense of deep introspection.

Also featured on the debut album are the previously released singles “Durag Activity” featuring Travis Scott and “Family Ties” featuring Keem’s real-life cousin, Kendrick Lamar. Keem confirmed both tracks would be on the album when he announced that he’d turned the completed project in a few weeks ago. Shortly after that, he shared the cover and tracklist, which revealed that Houston rising star and Keem’s would-be fellow 2020 XXL Freshman Don Toliver would also appear on the album.

With The Melodic Blue dropping this Friday, 9/10 via PgLang/Columbia, Keem’s due for a huge breakout, the culmination of a climb he started in 2019 with the viral success of his single “Orange Soda.”

Watch Baby Keem perform “Issues” on The Tonight Show above.

September 9 is a big date in Ed Sheeran history: It was on this day in 2011 that Sheeran released his debut album +, which spawned singles like “The A Team” and “Lego House” and laid the foundation of his international superstardom. Sheeran is well aware of the anniversary, as he has taken some time today to commemorate it.

Sharing a photo of himself from the + era, Sheeran wrote a message about the origins of his music career and how grateful he is for those times:

“This is me 2011 in the Worlds End pub up in Finsbury Park, just after signing my publishing deal. I lived all over London back then, wherever anyone would have me, but Finsbury is where I’d spend most of my evenings coz of the open mic nights there run by my mates. I first moved up in 2008 and on my first night got inspired to write my song The City, which was the first song written and recorded for my debut album + (or Plus if you use google). It’s been 10 years since the release of +, today is the day it came out. I’ve been making music for a very long time but I guess your major label debut counts as the start in the industry, so I’m officially a decade in as of now. All I ever wanted was to have a gold album and to sell out Shepherd’s Bush empire, I never thought my career would go past that to be honest, and if I got that, I’d be chuffed. When + came out, it went gold in the first week and I played to a sold out Shepherd’s Bush 3 weeks later. Ever since then everything that has come my way has been an added bonus, it’s been an incredible journey so far, and way beyond my wildest dreams. And it all started with an album recorded in Windlesham. Happy birthday +, and thank you to everyone keeping it alive, it’s not my album anymore it’s yours, and I’m honoured for it to be so many moments and memories for so many people x.”

As he looks back on that era, Sheeran is prepping a new one, as he recently announced the long-awaited = album.

Check out Sheeran’s + post below.

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In a very “how do you do, fellow kids?” move, Donald Trump’s “inner cycle” is reportedly paying teenagers, some as young as 14 years old, to post right-wing memes on social media. The Huffington Post provided evidence that since “the 2020 election, these meme moguls have quietly collected payments to run ads” for the former-president’s shady “Election Defense Fund,” GETTR, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and because it wouldn’t be conservative nuttiness without Mike Lindell, MyPillow:

Most of the ads come in the form of memes with captions urging people to click customized links inserted into the memers’ Instagram bios, which lead to the promoted parties’ websites. The memers typically earn a small “conversion” fee for each person who uses their link, doled out by third-party marketing agencies working with big-name clients. Given the massive reach of several of these pages, often boosted by Instagram’s powerful recommendation algorithms, this can quickly add up.

“There’s a lot of money to be made,” one of the meme teens told HuffPo. No kidding: a recent campaign for GETTR, the app launched by Trump’s former shady spokesman Jason Miller that was quickly overrun with horny images of Sonic the Hedgehog, saw The Youth make $0.85 for each conversion with a limit of $21,250. Fourteen-year-old me would have bought so many Shrek toys with that $21,250 (then again, fourteen-year-old me would not have been sharing Mike Lindell memes on my Instagram).

There’s, of course, a lot of shadiness to this stealth meme blitz:

He and other memers who’ve been paid to run ads promoting one or several Trump-affiliated entities have also posted content spreading false information about the COVID-19 vaccines, urging their followers to defy mask mandates, calling for the deportation of female politicians of color and alleging that President Joe Biden is a pedophile. Some have additionally run ads for separate clients selling fake vaccine cards, QAnon apparel and toilet seat projector lights that shine open-mouthed photos of Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton into one’s toilet bowl.

The next time your aunt with questionable politics shares a blurry meme on Facebook of Batman slapping Joe Biden with a speech bubble about “fake news,” just know that it was probably put there by a teenage boy with support from a former-Trump staffer.

(Via the Huffington Post)

Kellyanne Conway, former Trump White House counselor and inventor of the Bowling Green Massacre, didn’t have a fantastic time with news that President Biden asked for the resignation of herself and multiple other military board advisors (including Sean Spicer) while he continues to do the “cleaning up” process that’s customary for new administrations. The former Trump counselor pushed back while tweeting, “President Biden, I’m not resigning, but you should.” (She really, uh, told him what’s up.)

Conway was only one of eleven Trump-appointed officials that Biden wishes to dismiss in this instance, although she’s one of the most reviled by the Democrats (due to her infamous love of misinformation). To that end, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez didn’t waste any time while reacting to Conway’s public refusal to leave while helping to push her towards the door with a hand-wave emoji.

“A predictable, if not unfortunate, outcome,” AOC tweeted. “Clinging onto vestiges of power against the people’s will is kind of your /Trump’s / the GOP’s thing. When you’re fired, don’t let the fascist victim complex hit you on the way out.”

That’s no telling, of course, what will come of Conway’s refusal to leave her post. However, the post is only a three-year term under the best of circumstances, so Kellyanne can’t resist for too long. Whatever the case, AOC remains very good at tweeting, so she may have more to say on the subject if the situation grows uglier.

In a lengthy profile to promote his new film The Power of the Dog, Benedict Cumberbatch opens up about having a larger presence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Naturally, Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit accusing Disney of breach of contract by giving Black Widow a day and date release on Disney+ hangs in the air, and Cumberbatch surprisingly wasn’t afraid to wade into those tricky legal waters. Although, the actor knows to gingerly place the blame on lawyers, and not his former Avengers co-star or Disney. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

“It’s sad what’s going on between the lawyers,” Cumberbatch says. “Just the verbiage and the accusations of, ‘Put it in a global pandemic context.’ The whole thing’s just a bit of a mess. We’re trying to understand what the revenue streams should be for artists that contribute to the billion-dollar business that is Disney. And it has to be contractualized. How does an artist’s normal compensation with box office bonuses, how does it work? It’s a new paradigm, and it’s a very complex one. No one saw this coming, and no one should use hindsight to say, ‘Well, it should have been done.’ That was the first of these films that was going to get a cinematic release during the pandemic and got stalled and stalled and stalled. It’s very new territory.”

Cumberbatch is right by saying the whole thing revolves around artist’s making sure they get their contractual back end cut. According to a new report, the ScarJo lawsuit is the result of talks breaking down after the actress team requested a $100 million payday when Disney started talking about making Black Widow available on streaming. That number was derived from what ScarJo would’ve presumably earned if Black Widow had a chance to bring in a $1.2 billion theatrical run as many Marvel films do.

However, these are not normal times, and Disney reportedly didn’t counter-offer due to “disorganization” with the company. For that blunder, they’re now in a public PR battle with Johansson’s team, and it clearly has talent like Cumberbatch paying close attention.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer—‘memba him?!—is still finding things to whine about on a regular basis as the host of Newsmax’s Spicer & Co. On Wednesday, that meant going off on an epically hilarious rant about his right to serve on the board of the Naval Academy—an appointment Donald Trump made in his final months in office, and which the Biden administration is now requesting he resign from or be fired.

Spicer teased his topic du jour earlier in the day on Twitter, where he posted the letter he had received requesting his resignation, and took the opportunity to both take a jab at Joe Biden’s handling of Afghanistan and promoting his talk show, which people are only now just realizing exists.

In addition to kicking off his show with the news of his impending termination, Spicer actually dubbed it “Breaking News.”

“We’ve got some breaking news tonight: All Trump appointees, including myself, have been kicked off the boards of the United States Naval Academy, Air Force Academy, and West Point in an unprecedented move by the Biden administration. I’m announcing tonight, for the first time, that I will not be submitting my resignation. And I will be joining a lawsuit to fight this.”

Unless doing the foxtrot on Dancing With the Stars qualifies one to serve on the board of one of the country’s esteemed military academies, it doesn’t seem like Spicer has much of a leg to stand on here. Still, after sharing the email and letter he received requesting that he be a good boy and do what the president says, Spicer pretty much screamed “IT’S NOT FAIR!”

“Remember back during the inauguration, when President Biden said, ‘I’m going to be the president for all people. Trump voters and everyone else? Yeah, where’d that go? Pretty… got the window pretty much… huh?”

No really, that last sentence is actually what a very flustered Spicer said. He then got into the “At a time” stuff…

“At a time when the administration is dealing with, you know, COVID, Afghanistan, the effects of Hurricane Ida, what are their priorities? Apparently they’re prioritizing flying to California to campaign for Governor Newsom and firing veterans from service academies.”

In Spicer’s defense, he’s not used to a president who can multitask. Nor is he used to one who doesn’t make hitting the links his daily priority. Still, his rant didn’t end there. He spent several minutes questioning why, at the same time we’re withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, the Biden administration “would want zero oversight during a challenging period, where the academies are dealing with COVID, they’re navigating funding issues. Huh! I wonder why?! Ho! Maybe it’s because they want to inject liberal ideology, like critical race theory, into the curriculum and they want to ensure there’s no pushback and zero oversight.”

It could be that. Or maybe they’d like to ensure that the bodies overseeing our military institutions during “a challenging period” might, I don’t know, be qualified to assist in that oversight?

On Biden’s side, CBS noted that White House press secretary Jen Psaki offered a pointed response to the pushback from Spicer and other Trump appointees, including Kellyanne Conway, who serves on the board of the Air Force Academy.

“I will let others evaluate whether they think Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer and others were qualified… to serve on these boards. But the president’s qualification requirements are not your party registration. They are whether you’re qualified to serve and whether you are aligned with the values of this administration.”

You can watch Spicer’s full hissy fit above.

Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker has had the opportunity to collaborate with a handful of rappers over the years. A prominent and relatively recent example of that is “Skeletons,” a highlight from Travis Scott’s hit 2018 album Astroworld. Earlier this week, on September 7, Tame Impala kicked off their comeback tour at the United Center in Chicago, and during the set, the band decided to perform the Scott collaboration for the first time.

In a 2018 Billboard interview, Parker spoke about how “Skeletons” came to be, saying, “[Scott’s] manager got in touch and said he was a big fan [and suggested we] meet up if I was ever in LA, so I went to a few sessions with him. We hung out and played some stuff, and he really liked what ended up being ‘Skeletons.’ That definitely got the biggest reaction out of him. I could tell he liked it. I remember going through this stuff to play to Travis, and just thought, ‘Oh, this is actually really up his alley.’ I know Travis likes his psych-rock. He likes his crusty metal guitar sound. I was struck by how much I thought it would fit Travis’ thing even though it’s not hip-hop-sounding. So much hip-hop is cycled from music that sounds like that — crusty-sounding ’70s rock. There’s so much of that, that kind of King Crimson stuff.”

In that same conversation, he talked about what it was like working with Scott, saying, “What’s cool about people like Travis is that they’re just getting a bunch of people in the room and seeing what happens. For a lot of it, I was just a team player. At some points, there were 10, 20 people in the room. You could just be there and hang out and not do anything for like an hour. And then something perks your ears up, and you can be like, ‘Oh yeah yeah, plug me in, I’ve got an idea.’ We’d go for hours, until three in the morning.”

Watch a clip of the “Skeletons” performance above.