Category: News

For years now, Mark Hoppus has had one of the most distinct hairstyles in all of music, with his bangs stretched out towards the sky. At least for now, though, Hoppus is taking a break from his signature locks following his cancer diagnosis: Over the weekend, the Blink-182 leader shared a photo of himself with a newly shaved head and wrote, “The Cancer Haver wishes you all a very happy Fourth of July weekend.”

A couple weeks ago, Hoppus revealed he had been undergoing chemotherapy for a few months. During a recent Twitch stream, he offered a look at how his life has been lately, saying, “On good days, I go do stuff. I went on a walk outside today and it was the first time I’d left my house in like… 5 days, pretty much. But this round of chemo, I wasn’t totally stuck on the couch, miserable. I’ve actually watched movies and walked around and cleaned the house and hung out with my dogs. I didn’t just feel like a poisoned electrified zombie leaning up against an electric fence like I did the past couple of rounds. […] I can’t go anywhere right now. I wanted to go to the Dodgers last night — I can’t. I want to go hang out with friends and go to a restaurant — I can’t. My white blood cell count is way too low for me to go out so I am stuck trying to get better. That’s alright, I’ll take it.”

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

LeBron James got to go back home this weekend for some extremely full circle dad stuff, as he was back at St. Vincent-St. Mary’s High School where he became a phenom to watch his son, Bronny, play in an AAU tournament.

James’ presence at a tournament obviously brings an additional spotlight, but the future Hall of Famer seems to work very hard at just being there in the same capacity as any other dad, cheering and supporting his son from courtside. That said, not everyone is always willing to allow him to be there as just another dad, and that can cause some issues. That’s what happened this weekend, when the public address announcer at Bronny’s game decided to editorialize a bit after Bronny drew a foul, suggesting the call was made because LeBron happened to be watching.

Understandably, LeBron was not pleased with that and walked over to the table to have a few words with the announcer before returning to his seat as you can see above (the YouTube video title significantly oversells the situation). LeBron knows all about how tough it can be dealing with scrutiny at such a young age and does his best to keep Bronny from having to deal with too much of that, but he’s also taught him how to try to stay above it all — as evidenced by his response to a fan throwing things at Bronny last year. In this situation, that it was the PA announcer at a tournament trying to crack a joke during the game made for added frustration and James couldn’t help but stand up and say his piece about how that wasn’t acceptable before returning to his seat.

[h/t For The Win]

It’s been an unusually hectic time for fireworks this year, and with good reason: Last year much of the world was at the arguable height of a massive public health crisis. While some places have run into some, shall we say, snafus, others got a happy ending. If you’re enjoying the fireworks in New Orleans this July 4, you have someone to thank. As per The Hollywood Reporter, the city — which had to cancel last year’s festivities for reasons that should be obvious — failed to make plans for this year. And upon learning this, no less than Will Smith did something about it.

The actor reportedly forked over $100,000 so that the Big Easy could enjoy some pyrotechnics over the Mississippi River. One reason he did it is because he’s currently there. Smith is shooting Emancipation, a period drama in which he plays a runaway slave escaping to freedom through the swamps of Louisiana. The film, which pairs him with director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day), was originally supposed to film in Atlanta, but Smith pulled the production from the state in April after state Republicans passed draconian voting rights laws.

July 4 is, of course, a big holiday for Smith. It was 25 years ago this weekend that the nation’s movie theaters were hit with the movie that made him a major star: 1996’s Independence Day, in which he and Jeff Goldblum and others battled invading aliens. Smith did not return for the sequel, released five years ago.

Anyway, good on ya, Will Smith.

(Via THR)

As Brintey Spears’ conservatorship battle continue, many artists have found their own ways to show support for the singer and she continues the fight. Some have shared thoughtful messages on social media, especially after Britney’s explosive court hearing at the end of last month where she labeled the court arrangement as “abusive.” Others have thought of different ways to show love to the singer.

This includes Courtney Love who recently shared a cover of Britney’s 2000 song, “Lucky,” which appears on her Oops!… I Did It Again album. In the middle of her performance, Love was brought to tears but continued to complete the song.

The cover arrived hours after The New Yorker shared an investigation they conducted into Britney Spears’ conservatorship. It revealed how much control the singer’s conservators had on her life and the great lengths she had to go through for brief moments of freedom. This includes borrowing phones from strangers to contact people as her own phone was being monitored by conservators. She was also pushed to call 911 on the day before her explosive June 23 hearing to “report herself as a victim of conservatorship abuse.” Lastly, she accused her conservators of forcing her to do a European tour, however, they’ve denied the singer’s claims saying she “begged” to do to 2018 tour.

You can watch the cover in the video above.

While Donald Trump may be spending his July 4 weekend admitting some light crimes were probably committed at his company and being trolled for holding a “loser-palooza” in Florida, his supporters were dealing with a different kind of crisis online. Specifically on the Trump-friendly social media platform called GETTR.

Named after a mashup of “getting together” or maybe “get her,” depending on who you believe, the platform doesn’t include Trump himself among its members, but it has been launched by one of his former employees: ex-White House aide Jason Miller. While other far-right sites exist, the platform’s Trump-adjacent backing has seen QAnon enthusiasts and others fed up with Gab or more traditional sites like Twitter join its ranks. But like any new platform, it has some technical glitches.

According to Kotaku, the platform is plagued with online trolls who are filling the site with some extremely nude Sonic the Hedgehog images.

Sega’s speedy meme king is particularly well represented, with tags like #sonicfeet, #sonicismygod, #soniclovescommunism, #sonicmylove, and #sonic_came_in_my_bussy (ask your father about that one) tracking the sometimes-pregnant blue blur’s presence across the nascent social network for shitheads. But despite GETTR’s professed dedication to #FREEZEPEACH, a peek into accidentally leaked source code reveals its operators can add or remove “trending” topics at will. To arms, blue bussy brigade—you’re being censored!

It’s also quite easy to impersonate well-known conservative figures on the service, as evidenced by an account for Supreme Court justice “Brett Kavanaugh” enthusiastically sharing fetish images of a massive Sonic treading on a hapless fursona.

This is all, to put it simply, very funny. And while Kotaku has some screenshots of the blue hedgehog’s, well, hog, we’ll let you seek those out on your own, if you’re so inclined. Still, it’s a simple lesson in online free speech and a reminder that letting people post whatever they want on your first amendment-themed, pro-Trump website means you’re going to get a lot of people flooding it with things like blue dongs. At least until the content moderation catches up.

[via Kotaku]

Star Wars fans are tentatively excited about a new film in the franchise canon and eagerly awaiting more Mandalorian on Disney+, but there’s a lot of other projects in the works in the universe. That includes an anime, which fans got a first look at thanks to Disney+ revealing some concept art and scenes from Star Wars: Visions.

The big reveal came Saturday at Anime Expo Lite and came with news of which Japanese studios were tasked with creating the stories and animation to expand the modern Star Wars canon. The video of that reveal was then posted on YouTube for the rest of us to check out for ourselves. As Deadline detailed, the show will feature seven studios producing work for the anthology series, which will hit the Disney+ streaming service on September 22.

The seven anime studios bringing their signature visuals and storytelling styles to Visions include Kamikaze Douga, Geno Studio (Twin Engine), Studio Colorido (Twin Engine), Trigger, Kinema Citrus, Science Saru and Production IG.

Trigger and Science Saru are overseeing two episodes apiece, while the others are spearheading just one. Episode titles include “The Duel” (Kamikaze Douga), “Lop and Ochō” (Geno Studios), “Tattoine Rhapsody” (Studio Colorido), “The Twins” and “The Elder” (Trigger), “The Village Bride” (Kinema Citrus), “Akakiri” and “T0-B1” (Science Saru) and “The Ninth Jedi” (Production IG).

The first look showed some scenes from that series, as well as interviews with LucasFilm executives and some of the creators of the projects, who seem thrilled to get to work on Star Wars in their own unique way. There were even some glimpses of very familiar faces in new styles.

The sheer variety on display in the brief video is impressive, as some projects appear more traditional while others are billed as comedies or “a rock opera style film.” Some will be heavily influenced by more traditional Japanese cult

The tease was brief, relatively speaking, but certainly enough to get fans of some legendary anime studios and the Star Wars franchise itself exited about a new way to explore the universe. You can watch the full video and see all the glorious concept art in the video above.

[via Deadline]

Prior to almost two weeks ago, it’d been two years since Tyler The Creator graced the world with an album. His last effort was 2019’s Igor, a project that saw the rapper take a big step away from his trademark style. This step proved beneficial as it topped the charts and earned him a Grammy award for Best Rap Album. Fast-forward to the present and Tyler is seeing similar success with his sixth album, Call Me If You Get Lost. The project, which the rapper released last month, became his second consecutive chart-topping album after it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

The album reached the top of the chart thanks to 169,000 album units sold. This number is comprised of 114,000 streaming equivalent album units, backed by 152.96 million on-demand streams of the project’s songs. It also posted a total of 55,000 pure album sales. It should also be noted that if album sales were deducted from Tyler’s first-week numbers, Call Me If You Get Lost still would have gone No. 1 thanks to a strong streaming week.

Tyler’s album was accompanied by just one other debut within the top 10 positions of the chart this week. That would be Doja Cat’s Planet Her which checked in at No. 2 thanks to 109,000 units sold. Her album was boosted by a five-track deluxe reissue that arrived two days after the standard edition of Planet Her.

Revisit our review of Call Me If You Get Lost here.

July 4 is Christmas for those who love fireworks. (For others, it’s about watching one-term presidents basically admit to committing crimes.) But for people on the beaches of Ocean City, Maryland, the big event came a bit early. Early in the day, fireworks that were supposed to be used later in the day accidentally exploded, surprising beach dwellers but treating them to something few had ever seen before.

According to WTOP News, the company handling the town’s fireworks display were unloading their wares when one of them was “unintentionally discharged.” Not all of the fireworks went off, but enough of them did that it created rounds of explosions that were caught on video by unsuspecting citizens on the beach.

The explosion was such that, as per CNN, first responders initially assumed a car was one fire. There weren’t any injuries involving beachgoers or pedestrians on the town’s boardwalk, but employees of the company responsible for the fireworks did receive minor injuries. However, they refused transport to the hospital.

Ocean City’s fireworks event was supposed to begin around 8pm, with musical acts, ending with the big display at 9:30. But after the freak explosion, they were cancelled out of an abundance of caution. But it’s safe to say that the premature show some got in the morning was more memorable anyway.

You can watch more footage of the explosion in the video above.

(Via WTOP News and CNN)

Chika has faced disrespect one too many times in the music industry and unfortunately for the Grammy-nominated rapper, she was forced to deal with another instance of it over the weekend. In a lengthy string of tweets, Chika shared a recent encounter with a club promoter that she deemed disrespectful for a number of reasons. On Friday June 2, the rapper was asked to host a club event in Los Angeles, but the night turned out to be extremely disappointing and unsatisfying as she revealed through her posts to Twitter.

“This is why I don’t f*ck with the industry,” she wrote. “Keep disrespecting me, it’s gonna get physical. I’m from Alabama, b*tch don’t play with me.” She added, “Offered me 2k, no complimentary bottles, I paid $1600 for the tab, they didn’t play ONE song of mine, but played like 5 of guest’s (kehlani.)”

Chika later clarified that her comments had “nothing to do with lani,” but rather “the n**** running the event.” She also revealed the promoter’s name to be Brandon Anthony before explaining that an incident like the one at the club makes her specifically targeted.

“Let’s not even try to make this a solidarity moment cuz they would never do this to Cardi, Meg, Saweetie, Latto, Lizzo, Coi Leray, Rapsody, etc,” she added. “This is specific to ME. And a lot of those black women actually never say sh*t. We not in this together.” A few moments later, she shared screenshots of a text message exchange with who appeared to be Anthony. In it, the promoter offers $2,000 as well as car and bottle service for Chika and an invited guest, adding that “no speaking” was needed at the event.

A couple of hours later, Anthony arrived on Twitter to defend his side of things, but Chika wasn’t having it. In a tweet, Anthony wrote in part, “I am not going to allow certain individuals tarnish my name because of a simple miscommunication,” and in response, she said, “Miscommunication, boy shut your lying ass up,” with a screenshot of the promoter telling her, “the people was not there to see yo ass anyway. I promise you.”

Chika also revealed accused Anthony of assaulting another woman the same night of the event. “This was in response to me bringing up him putting his hands on Amiyah last night,” she wrote with a screenshot of a message from the promoter. “PLS report his page.” As her lengthy messages slowly came to an end, Chika shared plans to seek legal action against the rapper. “And since I didn’t sign the contract, I can sue,” she tweeted. “And if he wants to say there was a verbal contract, that “verbal contract” included car service & bottle service which I spent $2k+ on. Boy, I’m bout to collect everything you made last night.” She added, “The lord works in mysterious ways.”

You can see additional tweets from Chika about the club event below.

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

Of the many disturbing things about the pandemic that we’re still living through, this takeaway is among the most upsetting: We now know that in the face of a once-in-a-century public health crisis, about half of Americans won’t take it seriously. So when Henry Winkler, aka the Fonz from Happy Days (and, more recently, the deservingly fêted scene-stealer from Barry), tried to make a well-meaning call for unity, to say it fell flat would be an understatement.

“We are So divided as a country,” Winkler lamented on Twitter. “only a cataclysmic Event , that makes us depend on one another again , can bring us back together [all sic].”

Most ignored the random capitalizations (and lack thereof) and weird spacing. Instead they dwelled on the “cataclysmic event” part. For one thing, it’s never a good idea to wish something terrible upon the world, even if it may end with people putting differences aside and recognizing our shared humanity. For another thing, we’re still going through a “cataclysmic event,” and that somehow made our lack of connection even worse.

And so Winkler’s good intentions backfired, with many pointing out that the pandemic has definitely not brought us back together.

Besides, the pandemic isn’t the only cataclysmic event we’re going through.

Some made jokes.

Eventually Winkler realized his tweet didn’t work the way he intended. So he responded. “To be clear,” he later wrote. “I am not wishing for devastation. My hope is for for our country to re unite again .. I ‘m so sorry for not being clear.”

That said, his tweet did have some fans.

In other news, please get vaccinated, if you haven’t already — if not for your own health but because the vast majority of COVID-19-related deaths involve those who still, madly, haven’t been dosed.