Category: News

According to a new report at The Daily Beast, the new Tiffany & Co. ad campaign featuring Beyonce and Jay-Z posing alongside a rarely-seen canvas by Jean-Michel Basquiat has drawn the ire of the artist’s closest friends and collaborators, some of whom say they were “horrified” to see the ad. They maintain that Basquiat himself would not have approved of such commercial use of his work, calling it a “prop” to give the ad empty cultural clout.

Alexis Adler, who is described as a girlfriend of the late painter who lived with him during his early career, told The Beast, “I’d seen the ad a couple days ago and I was horrified… the commercialization and commodification of Jean and his art at this point—it’s really not what Jean was about.” Alder pointed out that while Basquiat certainly wanted to be commercially successful, he also wanted his art to be accessible. “Unfortunately, the museums came to Jean’s art late, so most of his art is in private hands and people don’t get to see that art except for the shows,” she notes. “Why show it as a prop to an ad? Loan it out to a museum. In a time where there were very few Black artists represented in Western museums, that was his goal: to get to a museum.”

Al Diaz, Basquiat’s partner in the duo SAMO, also criticized the ad for misappropriating Basquiat’s image and reputation as a “luxury” association. “People think that his association with luxury was because he was impressed with that shit, but he couldn’t care less,” he explains. “It’s not just about wearing an Armani suit. If he wore it, it’s because he could buy it and fuck it up, it wasn’t because the stitches were fabulous or well-made… People won’t see the depth. At this point, the only people that could afford a Basquiat are the people he was targeting. Like, you’re the oppressor. They buy it out so that it becomes meaningless.”

And an unnamed curator of Basquiat’s work takes issue with the company’s insistence that the distinctive blue tone used on Equals Pi would ever be a simple tribute to the remarkably similar “Tiffany blue” signature. “Let’s say he did reference that color on purpose — which seems out of character for him to do something that simple — I think it really flattens his artistic approach,” they said. “He was a really deep thinker. His work wasn’t like, this symbolizes this. Everything references something but then it tells a story of that thing. But let’s say he did though… to use it in an ad, it wouldn’t have been the context. It wouldn’t be used to sell Tiffany’s but to say something critical, maybe about blood diamond extraction or something. I just think it’s a reach.”

The full article can be read here.

Tripwire is a video game publisher best known for games like Maneater and the Killing Floor series. However, nobody is talking about their games after the CEO for the publisher, John Gibson, tweeted out praise for a controversial bill in Texas that bans abortions after a woman has been pregnant six weeks. The bill also allows people to legally target anyone attempting to aid women in getting reproductive healthcare including abortions.

Shortly after Gibson Tweeted out his praise, it was announced by Tripwire that he would be stepping down as CEO immediately and would be replaced by Alan Wilson. The statement that followed from Tripwire said that they do not agree with Gibson and feel that he doesn’t reflect what the company believes in.

However, while Tripwire’s swift response is appreciated, it’s worth noting that this is not the first time Gibson has shown his beliefs. He’s even done so in games they have published such as Killing Floor 2 where he inserted his own Christian Metal Band into the game, where they sang songs that included anti-abortion lyrics.

Since Gibson tweeted out his statement, there was been a wide response from not only fans that planned to boycott games published by Tripwire but even some of the developers they worked with. Shipwright Studios, the developers of Maneater and Chivalry 2, immediately cut off their relationship with Tripwire in response to Gibson’s tweet.

While Tripwire says that Gibson’s beliefs don’t reflect their own, and that’s why he’s stepping down, it feels more likely that he’s doing so because his statements are harming the company’s bottom line.

Televangelist Franklin Graham—the eldest son of the late televangelist Billy Graham, and heir to the family business—spent Labor Day paying tribute to America’s workers by declaring that the millions of people who are unemployed during the pandemic are lazy, God-ignoring money-grubbers.

In a Twitter thread posted on Monday afternoon, Graham — who serves as president and CEO of both Samaritan’s Purse charity and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association — had a lot of thoughts to air about the state of employment in America and how the financial incentives that many have received amidst the COVID pandemic have impacted the country’s workforce:

Today we celebrate the American worker—the entrepreneurs w/ their dreams & the workers w/their skills who built this nation. But it’s troubling to see the disregard we now see for hard work. Almost every business is trying to hire people, but so many don’t want to work. #LaborDay

With @POTUS45 Trump, the US had the strongest economy, some say since Eisenhower, & we had more people working than at any time in our history—but it’s evaporating. COVID had an impact, but political mismanagement has dealt a debilitating blow.

Repeated stimulus payments & giveaway packages have encouraged people not to go to work. The Republicans seem to know how to get people to work and the Democrats seem to know how to tax your money and give it to people as an incentive not to work.

God created us to work. On this Labor Day, join me in thanking Him for His hand of blessing on this nation through the years. And pray for America and our leaders to turn to God and ask for His forgiveness, His mercy, and His continued blessings. That is what we need most.

It’s been a while since I’ve read the Good Book, but praising Donald Trump while eviscerating hard-working Americans who are not paid a living wage and mentioning COVID as a sort of afterthought as to why so many people have been out of work doesn’t sound like the most Christian of things to say. Of course, it didn’t take long for people to react to Graham’s post.

Some people schooled him on the details of the Bible:

Some people likened Graham’s message to the slogan of Nazi concentration camps:

Many laughed at the irony of Graham, who reportedly rakes in a salary of about $900,000 per year, would know the first thing about working hard.

Still others just went straight for the most obvious fact that Graham was leaving out: The abusive and unfair conditions so many people work under without even earning a living wage in order to line the pockets of fat cats (which is basically what Graham is, just under the guise of being a God-fearing do-gooder):

Your move, Frank.

What sets Olivia Rodrigo’s music apart from that of most other modern pop stars is her heavy incorporation of rock elements, like with her hit single “Good 4 U.” Now, Camila Cabello has taken on the track, but instead of rock, she infused it with a Latin flavor.

In the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, Cabello offered a cover of the song that’s more inspired by salsa music than it is punk-rock. She takes the tempo down a notch as she sings the track, backed by musicians playing conga drums, accordion, guitar, and more.

Ahead of the performance, Cabello said of “Good 4 U” and of Rodrigo, “I feel like she’s such an incredible vocalist and an amazing singer. I think her songs really lend well to… this song was a challenging song to practice. It’s pretty high and demands a lot of breath, and I was excited to do it. I love her kind of punk-rock vibe.”

Speaking of covers, Cabello recently busted out some songs in the middle of the street for a “Crosswalk The Musical” segment on The Late Late Show. Meanwhile, Cabello recently confirmed that, despite the rumor she unintentionally started, she and Shawn Mendes are not actually engaged.

Watch a clip of Cabello performing “Good 4 U” above and find the full Live Lounge broadcast here.

Can Jake Gyllenhaal‘s smoldering hotness and intensity be contained by being “the guy on the phone?” A new Netflix Original, The Guilty, is definitely going to test that premise. Directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) with a script from Nic Pizzolatto (True Detective), The Guilty stars Gyllenhaal as a seemingly mild-mannered 911 operator until he receives a troubling call that sends him over the edge in an effort to save a woman who’s been abducted. Or has she?

As the trailer promises, there’s more than meets the eye, and whatever twisted tale is unraveling, it will put Gyllenhaal through the hoops. Even though he’s the sole focus of the first trailer that keeps the action contained to the call center, The Guilty boasts an impressive supporting cast, according to Deadline. Ethan Hawke, Peter Sarsgaard, Riley Keough, and Paul Dano also star in this remake of the Danish thriller Den Skyldige.

Here’s the official synopsis:

The Guilty takes place over the course of a single morning in a 911 dispatch call center. Call operator Joe Bayler (Gyllenhaal) tries to save a caller in grave danger—but he soon discovers that nothing is as it seems, and facing the truth is the only way out.

The Guilty starts streaming October 1 on Netflix.

One of the more fun aspects of the way streaming and social media have upended the music business is how artists no longer have to rely on traditional releases to get their new material out. Where in the not-so-distant past, everything hung on a label’s release schedule and the need to manufacture the physical products to send to stores, now, rappers like Rico Nasty can simply upload a batch of new tracks to their SoundCloud pages and notify their fans via Instagram and Twitter, with no need to classify the release as a single or an EP or an album.

And that’s exactly what the elusive, genre-agnostic DMV rapper did over the long weekend, posting the cryptic photo below captioned “Secrets on SoundCloud.” A quick perusal of the SoundCloud bears five new discoveries of unknown origin, each reflecting a different sound from the grand Rico Nasty galaxy of sonic experimentation. There’s the puffy sugar trap of “Show Me Your Love,” the JetsonMade-produced banger “How Ya Feel,” the stripped-down “Switch Places,” the spacey “Cotton Candy,” and the surprisingly vulnerable “Grow Up.”

Meanwhile, Rico has more traditionally released another pair of singles, “Buss” and “Magic,” recently, complete with music videos. Whether all this is ramping up to the follow-up to her debut album Nightmare Vacation remains to be seen, but half the fun is not knowing what she’s got planned next.

You can hear Rico’s new songs here.

Rico Nasty is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The first Aquaman movie arrived in 2018 with no shortage of scenery chewing performances (Willem Dafoe and, yes, Yahya Abdul-Matteen II), all of which were eclipsed up by the charisma and hair of Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry. The same goes for Patrick Wilson, who portrays Orm/Ocean Master and the half-brother to Aquaman. Orm didn’t fare so well at the end of the first film; he was defeated by Aquamomoa and Amber Heard’s Mera before being exiled and imprisoned in a desert setting.

Let’s just say that the years have been transformative for Orm, and the same goes for Patrick Wilson, who generally manages to look suave and polished in every role, but not for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Director James Wan revealed a photo of Wilson, all shredded and bearded-up to the max (while “stranded on a desert beach, doing his Cast Away impression”). You might do a double (or even a triple) take for this one.

A whole lot of iron pumping has happened in lockdown mode to prep for this sequel. Orm will undoubtedly do some kind of battle with Arthur again, and Jason Momoa already showed off his thigh-highlighting battle suit for the sequel as well. Yahya Abdul-Matteen II and Amber Heard have yet to post their jacked-costume selves, but it’s gotta be coming soon, since they both posted some workout evidence ahead of camera time.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will arrive on December 16, 2022.

“Human manure spreader” Tucker Carlson is free to spew wackadoodle and potentially harmful conspiracy theories five nights a week on Fox News, but if Peter Griffin says one barely-a-swear-word on Fox, there will be hell (h*ll) to pay.

Following a week where the Tucker Carlson Tonight host went full cartoon villain (as opposed to this cartoon villain), Family Guy‘s Seth MacFarlane tweeted, “Recently on Fox News, Tucker Carlson has defended counterfeit vaccine cards, compared mask and vaccine mandates to ‘my body, my choice,’ and suggested those working to stop Covid should be ‘punished severely.’ Oh also, Peter Griffin can’t say ‘goddamn.’”

MacFarlane is hitting all his favorite targets: the FCC (as Brian once sang, “They will make you take a tinkle when you want to take a piss”), Fox News, and Tucker Carlson. “Tucker Carlson’s latest opinion piece once again makes me wish Family Guy was on any other network,” the Family Guy creator tweeted last month. “Look, Fox, we both know this marriage isn’t working anymore. The sex is only once a year, I don’t get along with your mother, and well… I’ve been having an affair with NBC.” (In 2020, MacFarlane signed a $200 million overall deal with NBCUniversal.) Expect lots of Fox News jokes — more than usual — when Family Guy returns for season 20 later this month.

So far, Kanye West’s new album Donda is an undeniable success. The project debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, and its songs are also faring well on an individual basis. Billboard shared the top 10 spots of the Hot 100 chart dated September 11 today, and two of the songs come from Donda: “Hurricane,” which debuts at No. 6, and “Jail,” which comes in at No. 10. West now has 20 top-10 songs on the chart.

While “Hurricane” and “Jail” have guests on them, they aren’t credited as featured artists, so they do not appear on the chart; “Hurricane” includes contributions from The Weeknd and Lil Baby, while “Jail” has a verse from Jay-Z.

Elsewhere on the chart, BTS’ “Butter” returns to the No. 1 spot for a tenth week, making it just one of 40 songs to ever spend at least that long in the top spot. The song’s rise comes after the group released a new remix of it featuring Megan Thee Stallion, although that version of the song didn’t drive enough listening activity to give Megan a credit on the chart.

Meanwhile, Walker Hayes’ “Fancy Like” rises to No. 9 this week, making it just the second country song of the year to make the top 10, following Morgan Wallen’s “Wasted On You.”

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

To promote Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Ring‘s Labor Day weekend debut, burgeoning Marvel star Simu Liu not only threw the first pitch for Sunday night’s San Francisco Giants game, but he did it with style. In the now-viral video shared by the Major League Baseball Twitter account, throws a “perfect strike” and caps it off with a backflip complete with a “ten point landing.”

As the video started to trend, the Shang-Chi star chimed in with a self-deprecating joke. “That pitch was like 500% faster in my head,” Liu tweeted. “GO GIANTS!”

Of course, the actor had a lot to celebrate. Despite the Delta variant wreaking havoc on previous releases, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings managed to defy expectations with an impressive box office haul. The film brought in $90 million for the Labor Day weekend, which is typically not a big movie weekend, but that’s the power of Marvel, baby. Via Variety:

Tracking had indicated a three-day total around $50 million, so the movie’s better-than-expected start (it made $75.5 million over the traditional three-day weekend) offers Disney and cinema owners alike a boost of confidence in audience’s loyalty to the big screen even as the studio moves aggressively into the streaming space. Making its debut more impressive, Labor Day is typically a slow weekend at the box office as families opt to spend time outside before summer ends. “Shang-Chi” smashed the holiday weekend record previously set by 2007’s “Halloween” with $30.6 million.

However, Disney and Marvel are reportedly still weighing if they left money on the table by not offering a day-and-date Disney+ with Premier Access like it did earlier in the summer with Black Widow and Jungle Cruise. According to Variety, the studio has just two weeks if it will do a hybrid strategy with Marvel’s Eternals or stick to its current theatrical-only release.

Obviously, looming in the background is Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit for releasing Black Widow on Disney+, so it’ll be very interesting to see what happens after weighing the results of the Shang-Chi “experiment,” a term that Simu Liu pushed back on ahead of release.

(Via MLB on Twitter, Simu Liu on Twitter, Variety)