Category: News

The Roots co-founder Black Thought has had a storied career in music. He’s consistently lauded as one of hip-hop’s best lyricists and has even appeared in a few films. Now, Black Thought takes a trip down his musical memory lane in his new memoir 7 Years.

The musician’s memoir is released in audiobook format exclusively through the platform Audible. The book details his career highs and lows and walks the listener through his experience founding The Roots and playing as part of the house band on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. On top of that, the entire audio book features an original score by Black Thought and even includes one of his first-ever freestyle raps.

In a statement on social media, Black Thought wrote that 7 Years is inspired by his commitment to continuously reinvent himself:

“It’s inspired by one of my life theories that every 7 years I should be actively working to become better creatively, emotionally, personally, and mentally as my body also changes and new cells replace the old. So in this piece of words and music I’m sharing some of these key important periods that have made me into the man I am today — with an original musical score that highlights the very first freestyle I ever wrote to our @theroots classics to performances of some of my more recent pieces.”

Listen to a preview of 7 Years below.

7 Years is available now through Audible. Get it here.

Ed Sheeran is the latest celebrity to guest on the wing-eating YouTube show “Hot Ones,” and his episode yielded some great anecdotes, like one about 50 Cent. Elsewhere during the show, he insisted that collaborator and Dave star Benny Blanco, despite his denial, peed in his hot tub so much that he needed to call somebody to address the issue.

The episode featured a segment where Sheeran answered questions submitted by Blanco via pre-taped videos. At ten minutes into the episode, Blanco starts, “For everyone who doesn’t know, me and Ed: real good friends. We went to a festival, stayed up all night, came back, got in a Jacuzzi together…” Sheeran then said over the video, “And he pissed in it. He did.”

Blanco continued, “And someone peed in the Jacuzzi. It was me, Ed, Ryan Tedder, maybe one other person. Ed has been convinced that I pissed in the Jacuzzi. Now, just for everyone around the world: I do piss in pools, but I don’t piss in Jacuzzis. I would never piss in a body of water that small. Ed, I need to know: Do you believe me or not?”

Sheeran responded:

“So he’s been going on about this for a while. It might be Tedder, it might be. But the thing is, Benny said to me, as he arrived at my house, [imitates Blanco] ‘I’m gonna pee in your pool.’ And I was like, ‘You’re not going in my f*cking pool, Benny, if you’re gonna pee… He’s like, [imitates Blanco] ‘I’m gonna pee in your pool.’ So, just never let him in the pool.

We went to a festival, Latitude Festival. We came back to my house and we’re sitting in the Jacuzzi. And then, like, a couple weeks later, I go to use it and it f*cking stinks. I get someone to check it out, the Jacuzzi people come and check it out. They said it had so much urine in it that it overflowed the system that, like… cleans urine. So, it is either Benny or Tedder. But, only one person told me that they would pee in my pool, and it was this c*nt.

Watch the full “Hot Ones” episode above.

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

Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O, the kings of the Jackass empire, were reportedly hospitalized on the second day of filming for Jackass 4 for a stunt that involved jumping “full-speed treadmill with band equipment,” including a “f*cking tuba.”

This would not be Steve-O’s only trip to the hospital in 2021.

“I bought a t-shirt cannon for Jackass 4,” the performer says in a video on his YouTube channel, “My Most Embarrassing Trip To The Emergency Room” (you can probably guess where this is going). “My idea was to fill it up with dog poop and have someone get shot in the face with it. But the director Jeff Tremaine didn’t the idea was really clever enough, so it didn’t happen.” At least not for Jackass 4. Steve-O went through with his “poo cannon” concept with the Nelk Boys, who have 6.6 million subscribers on YouTube. He was also the recipient of the turd blast. It was gross — and it turns out, dangerous!

“My ear canal is filled with dog sh*t and it came with such force that I’ve done serious damage to the middle of my ear. So I rush into the shower to try to flush it out, but I’m like, “I’m not OK, I need medical attention.’ Of course, first I got a haircut. Once I was all styling, I went to the urgent care.”

Steve-O’s tale continues in the video here (I will not embed it; only willing participants should have to see the thumbnail image), but my favorite part is that while he’s recalling his tale of poop-filled woe, he’s petting his chill dog. That dog knows his owner suffers for his art.

Jackass 4 comes out on October 22, the best movie day of the year.

Indie-pop favorite Clairo wrote her 2019 debut album Immunity after earning viral fame for her early singles. Now, she’s just a week away from the release of her follow-up album Sling. For Clairo, the process of writing her sophomore album was immensely healing, but it almost never happened. In fact, Clairo says she was ready to leave music behind before Sling “changed everything” for her.

Clairo recently talked with Rolling Stone in a cover interview for their latest issue. The singer spoke about coping with her anxiety in the face of viral fame and how she first met her Sling producer Jack Antonoff. Clairo admitted that Immunity and its subsequent tour was such a whirlwind, she was nearly ready to leave her career behind. “This record has changed everything for me, because I was fully going to quit music,” she said.

Part of Clairo’s frustrations also stemmed from her being overly sexualized by others in the industry. The singer said she even stopped going to the studio by herself because she was sick of being objectified:

“I was pissed off. I was pissed off that that’s a part of this, and that I’m just supposed to accept the fact that that’s a part of it. I have moments where I wonder if it even matters what I write. I put in so much effort, but is it going to get to a point where I’m just overly sexualized again? You’re so desperate for someone to hear you out that you just let them do it.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Clairo talks about how her history with anxiety and depression may cause her to part ways with her musical career in the future. “It’s an unlikely pair, for sure. It makes me so anxious, but this is my life,” she said about performing on stage with crippling anxiety. “I don’t even know if I could continue to do this forever,” she continued. “If it comes to a point where I have to choose between the two, I might have to quit. And I’m okay with that. I’m just hoping that I get to a point where I don’t have to make that decision and that I can just go about this in a healthy way, which I think I’m starting to.”

Read Rolling Stone‘s full interview with Clairo here.

Sling is out 7/16 via Fader/Republic Records. Pre-order it here.

In yet another example of Donald Trump‘s penchant for turning on his closest allies, tensions are mounting between the former president and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. While DeSantis’ handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, or lack thereof, was practically Trumpian as the two repeatedly teamed up to push for the country to “reopen,” DeSantis has started to emerge as a top contender in the 2024 Republican primary, and Trump does not like it.

According to reports, Trump often tells people, “I made Ron,” so the former president isn’t exactly loving that his creation is shaping up to be the GOP frontrunner. Via Vanity Fair:

In recent days I spoke with a half dozen GOP insiders about the recent flare-ups between DeSantis’s and Trump’s camps. The sources agreed that DeSantis and Trump are on an inevitable collision course as the 2024 GOP field takes shape. “There’s going to be a blowup,” a prominent Republican said. “Trump fucking hates DeSantis. He just resents his popularity,” a Trump confidant told me. Asked for comment, Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington said: “Governor DeSantis has shown great respect.”

Tensions between Trump and DeSantis reached a breaking point over the weekend when the Florida Governor asked Trump not to hold a rally in Sarasota while the state was still mourning the collapsed building in Miami. When Trump ignored the request and went ahead with the rally, DeSantis made it a point to publicly thank President Joe Biden for his help in providing federal funds for the search-and-rescue mission. According to GOP sources for the Washington Examiner, “It’s a showdown going on right now.”

(Via Vanity Fair)

James Harden was not arrested during a run-in with police officers in Paris on Thursday, according to ESPN. Harden is in Paris for fashion week, and according to videos that have emerged from the event, one person with whom he’s been traveling, Lil Baby, was among those taken in by the authorities for marijuana possession.

One video showed Harden in communication with the authorities, expressing that he did not understand something that was happening.

Additional footage showed Lil Baby inside of a police vehicle with Harden nearby.

ESPN managed to get some more details, and while Harden was “briefly detained,” he was never taken into custody. The report indicates that Harden was not with the group when 20 grams of marijuana was found in their car, but when it was evident that something was going down between Lil Baby’s group and the authorities, “Harden was apparently nearby and tried to intervene and was briefly detained, but was let go.”

TMZ went on to report that Harden “did not break any laws and was allowed to go about his day.” There is no word on who else was arrested alongside Lil Baby, but reports say that two others were taken in alongside of him.

The Witcher can be everything, as it turns out, following author Andrzej Sapkowski’s ridiculously popular book series that launched canon-divergent video games and a TV franchise. This, of course, includes Henry Cavill’s flagship series, an anime movie, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, coming soon, and a prequel series, The Witcher: Blood Origin, in the works. We’re currently only one day away from a momentous happening, too. That would be July 9’s WitcherCon, a joint event from CD Projekt Red (the developer of The Witcher video games) and Netflix (the maker of The Witcher TV show). In the spirit of making the fandom even more excited, Cavill ditched the grumpy faces (and aired out his guns) to remind fans everywhere to tune into the festivities.

Admittedly, I’m rather sad that he didn’t add a trademark Geralt grunt for good measure because that’s what fans of the loner monster hunter additionally want to see. Either that or a bathtub, which is now canon, so it’s practically obligatory.

If you’d rather see Cavill formally in Geralt mode, well, there’s that happening, too.

WitcherCon will feature multiple appearances from Cavill, along with Freya Allan (Ciri) and Anya Chalrota (Yennifer), as well as showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich. Hopefully, we’ll also hear news about the mobile The Witcher: Monster Slayer game and Season 2 of the Netflix series… and maybe some fresh news about the anime movie and prequel, too? There’s so much to look forward to, in addition to dueling Geralts. For more information on the WitcherCon, visit the official website and prepare for a swashbuckling time on Friday. The YouTube- and Twitch-held event will be held exclusively online on July 9, and another stream will run on July 10.

This article originally appeared on 03.30.16

Dalton Ross wanted to make sure his family didn’t miss him too badly while he was studying abroad in London.

To help them cope, the 22-year-old Tennessee native did what any selfless college student would do: He sent his mom a life-size cutout of himself.

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All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

“I thought maybe they’d put it in the living room corner until I got back to remember I exist,” he explained about the cutout, which came with a short note: “You’re welcome.”

But like any clever mom, Susan Talley couldn’t just stash this amazing piece of work away when it arrived about two months ago.

No, no — she had better plans in mind.

Talley decided the cardboard version of her son could be a great companion “while the real one is in Europe.” So she brought him along with her to events, like basketball games …

Can you spot cardboard Dalton in the stands?

… trips to the doctor’s office …

… and sub sandwich runs.

Fake Dalton celebrated Valentine’s Day with a fellow inanimate object.

He enjoyed playing with a furry, four-legged friend in the sunshine.

And he appreciated a good bedtime story, just like the rest of us.

The photos of fake Dalton are spreading like wildfire.

Without showing her son the photos first, Talley went ahead and uploaded them to Facebook. And after Dalton shared them on Imgur — explaining his mom “seems to be entertaining herself” while he’s gone — the story sent the Internet into a buzzy frenzy.

“The attention is crazy,” Ross told Upworthy, noting the story has gained so much traction that a restaurant featured in one of the photos, O’Charley’s, sent the family a gift card.

“I hope my mom’s holding up all right,” he said. “It’s awesome though.”

Fake Dalton has been to the batting cages …

… taken in some city nightlife …

… and celebrated Easter with his family.

Although the viral reaction to the photos has been a bit nuts, Ross isn’t all that surprised his mom was up for a good laugh.

“Oh yeah, my mom is very funny,” he explained to Upworthy. And it’s a good thing, too: Laughter can be a great tool in improving the quality of family dynamics and boosting a loved one’s emotional health. (A student studying abroad should especially keep that in mind, considering being away from loved ones and familiarity can be tough.)

“We’re a big family of jokesters.”

Bravo, mom, for setting the bar very high ahead of April Fools’ Day.

This article originally appeared on 03.07.16

A childhood game can go very wrong in the blink of an eye.

“You’ll never get me!”

“Freeze! Put your hands up.”

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If you’ve ever played cops and robbers, you know how the game goes.

John Arthur Greene was 8 and he was playing that game with his older brother Kevin. Only the two brothers played with real guns. Living on a farm, they were both old hands at handling firearms by their ages.

The blast from the gun must have startled them both.

John Arthur Greene (left) and his brother Kevin. Image from “American Idol”/YouTube.

“We were always extremely safe. They were never loaded,” John said.

Except this time it was. And John’s brother died in his arms while he watched.

It happens more often than you would ever want to imagine.

In federal data from 2007 to 2011, which is likely under-reported, an average of 62 children were accidentally killed by firearms per year.

Here’s a chilling example from Everytown for Gun Safety:

“In Asheboro, North Carolina, a 26-year-old mother was cleaning her home when she heard a gunshot. Rushing into the living room, she discovered that her three-year-old son had accidentally shot her boyfriend’s three-year-old daughter with a .22-caliber rifle the parents had left in the room, loaded and unlocked.”

And the numbers may actually be getting worse.

With an increase in unfettered access to guns and philosophical opposition to gun regulations, the numbers seem to be on the rise. Here’s how many accidental shootings happened at the hands of children in 2015 alone, by age:

From January 19-26 of 2016 — just one week — at least seven kids were accidentally shot by another kid.

If the pace holds up for the rest of the year, America would be looking at over 300 accidental shootings of children, in many cases by children, for the year. That’s far too many cases of children either carrying the guilt and pain of having shot a loved one or hurting or killing themselves by accident.

John Arthur Greene has been able to manage his feelings of guilt and sorrow through music and by sharing his story for others to hear.

He told his story during an audition for the final season of “American Idol.” He says music has helped him keep his brother’s memory alive:

“Right now I lift him up every day and he holds me up. Music is how I coped with everything.”

It’s a powerful reminder. No matter how we each feel about gun safety laws, guns should always be locked away unloaded and kept separately from ammunition.

Our babies are too precious to leave it to chance.

Watch John Arthur Greene’s audition for “American Idol” here:

When Chadwick Boseman passed away last year after a secret battle with colon cancer, the loss was palpable. Not only did the world lose a great actor and iconic Black superhero, but a genuinely good man as well. And that it happened in the midst of a global pandemic and the biggest racial justice movement since the 1960s made the loss all the more painful.

So when Marvel released its trailer for a new animated series, “What If…?,” people were understandably hit hard upon hearing Boseman’s voice in the role of T’Challa once again. The voice performance was Boseman’s last for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and some Black Panther fans just weren’t ready for the emotional wallop.

The series will air on Disney + and premieres August 11. However, if fans are looking for T’Challa as the Black Panther, they’re in for a surprise. As the title suggests, this look into the multiverse reimagines characters in different roles. Instead of the Black Panther, the series will explore what the world would be like if T’Challa were in the role of Star-Lord instead.

Boseman’s voice comes in during the final minute of the trailer:

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Enter the multiverse of unlimited possibilities. Marvel Studios’ first animated series, What If…?, starts streami… https://t.co/LiEaQXpuPm

— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios)
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The reactions to the trailer were swift and heartfelt. Sometimes you don’t know when something is going to hit you, and even though we don’t see his face, just hearing his voice was enough to get some fans deep into their feelings.

Chadwick Boseman’s last performance as T’Challa. I can’t wait for the show to premiere https://t.co/y9wZlyRcVC

— T’Challa Stan (@KhameekJ03)
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@whatifofficial @disneyplus Who woke up today ready to hear this tease of T’Challa in Chadwick Boseman’s last role,… https://t.co/I6WKZkBh2O

— Andrew Cook (@AndrewCooker)
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Thanks, Marvel, for giving us the gift of Chadwick Boseman’s voice once again, even we weren’t quite ready for it.