Category: News

The rollout for DJ Khaled’s recently released twelfth studio album Khaled Khaled continues today with the video for the album’s opener, the Lil Wayne and Jeremih-featuring “Thankful.” The song, which samples Bobby “Blue” Bland’s 1978 soul single “Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City.” opens the album with a worshipful, gospel-inflected meditation on the success the three men have experienced over the course of their careers, as well as Jeremih’s recovery from a recent bout of COVID-19.

“Thankful” follows the Jay-Z and Nas-featuring “Sorry Not Sorry” (which also featured a harmonious, undercover appearance from Jay-Z’s wife Beyonce, as “Harmonies By The Hive”) and the dancehall-accented “Where You Come From” featuring Bounty Killer, Buju Banton, and Capleton as the latest single from Khaled Khaled to receive the video treatment — a departure from the video-crazy rollout for Khaled’s last album, Father Of Asahd.

The more measured release strategy seems to be paying off, as Hits Daily Double projects a No. 1 debut looming for Khaled — his third in five years, after Major Key and Grateful. Father Of Asahd debuted at No. 2 in 2019, prompting Khaled to rebuke Billboard for changing its counting rules.

Watch DJ Khaled’s “Thankful” video featuring Lil Wayne and Jeremih above.

Tucker Carlson is a dangerous man. No, not because of the grotesque looking fungus that seems to be engulfing his bottom lip (though he may want to have a doctor take a look at that). And not just because he so recklessly spreads misinformation and outright lies that even some of his fellow Fox News staffers have dubbed him a “trash human being” and called upon the network to fire him. What makes him so dangerous is that he has an audience—one who, for whatever reason, actually seem to believe what he says. Despite, as The Wrap reminds us, a real, live federal judge deemed him a not credible resource for “any reasonable viewer.”

Yet, Tucker persists. And on Monday night, his opening night rant—which was yet again filled with erroneous information and “facts”—once again took aim at how COVID vaccinations are a threat to your civil liberties. But where Carlson’s diatribe really went off the rails is when he shared a video that Barack Obama had filmed for TikTok, in which the former POTUS encouraged teens 16 years or older to get vaccinated. While it looked like a normal PSA to most people, what Carlson seemed to see were shades of an episode of To Catch a Predator.

Here’s the video in question, which Carlson introduced as “a creepy little video telling small children to get the shot.”

If you’re thinking you missed something there—you didn’t. The former president simply encouraged teens to get a vaccine so that they could get back to doing “normal” things like visiting their grandparents. Wow—where’s Chris Hansen when you need him?!

Carlson’s response?

“Some creepy old guy telling your children, your little kids to take medicine with effects we don’t fully understand. Totally normal. That happens every day. Don’t ask questions. Just do it. CNN explained recently we’re not getting our freedom back until you do.”

Music festivals seem like a relic of the ancient past, but slowly but surely, they’re coming back. Now, one of New York City’s biggest events is making a return in 2021, as it was announced today that Governors Ball will be hosting its tenth anniversary event at Citi Field between September 24 and 26. Tickets go on sale on May 6 at noon ET, and ahead of then, the lineup has been shared.

The first day will be headlined by Billie Eilish, while ASAP Rocky and J Balvin will lead the second day and Post Malone will wrap up the final day. Other notable artists on the poster include DaBaby, Leon Bridges, Megan Thee Stallion, Phoebe Bridgers, 21 Savage, Ellie Goulding, Young Thug, Carly Rae Jepsen, Kind Princess, Portugal The Man, 24kGoldn, Future Islands, Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist, Earthgang, Tate McRae, Sasha Sloan, Orville Peck, Bartees Strange, RMR, Aminé, Big Thief, Cordae, Cleachers, Chiiild, Jamie xx, Dominic Fike, Smino, Princess Nokia, Jay Som and Palehound’s Bachelor, and 100 Gecs.

Ahead of today’s announcement, organizers shared a tease that read, “We miss the music. The crowd. The energy. The streets were quiet, the venues empty, our gates closed. It’s not the same to scream at the top of your lungs alone, and it sure isn’t as fun dancing at home. For too long there has been too little to look forward to. That changes tomorrow.”

Check out the Governors Ball poster above.

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

Ben Affleck is blowing up the internet again, but this time, it’s not about Batman or his unusually large Dunkin Donuts order. The actor is the star of a TikTok video where he comes off looking kinda sad after getting “rejected” by a woman on the Raya dating app. According to actress and author Nivine Jay (Neighbors), she allegedly matched with Affleck on the app, but ultimately “unmatched” The Way Back star. While that’s just the way things go on dating apps, Affleck apparently noticed and went out of his way to contact Jay on Instagram where he lived her a video message, confirming she unmatched the real Ben Affleck, and not some catfish.

“Nivine, why did you unmatch me? It’s me!” Affleck said in the video, which Jay then shared on TikTok with the following caption: “Thinking of the time I matched with Ben Affleck on raya and thought it was fake so I unmatched him and he sent me a video on instagram.”

You can see the awkward Affleck video below:

Once Jay’s TikTok video was out in the wild, it didn’t take long for it to spread to Twitter where people lost their minds over Affleck shamelessly sliding into Jay’s DMs to let her know that she just missed a chance with Batman:

While the video has produced a cornucopia of dunks on Affleck, Jay actually feels bad about the whole thing and claims she really wasn’t trying to make Affleck look bad. “I’m seeing a lot of comments calling him a creep and l don’t think that’s fair. l wasn’t making fun of him in the video,” she told E! News. “l was making fun of myself for thinking he was a catfish and it was just supposed to be funny.”

(Via Nivine Jay on TikTok)

Mark Wahlberg is playing a boxer-turned-priest in the boxing biopic Father Stu, which is the most Mark Wahlberg-sounding movie ever. To prepare for the role, the actor vowed to gain 30 pounds in six weeks. “After we do the boxing scenes, I get to put on as much weight as possible over the course of the film, so I’m challenging myself to put on 30 pounds in the next six weeks,” he told Jimmy Kimmel on Jimmy Kimmel Live last month.

Wahlberg was excited to “go to bakeries, I want to go to Denny’s, I want to get pancakes, I want to get everything I can possibly get my hands on,” including the “20-piece chicken nugget and 20-piece hot wings from Kentucky Fried Chicken with a six-pack of beer.” (He clearly has never been to KFC — no one who has been to KFC calls it “Kentucky Fried Chicken.”) Let’s check in with Wahlberg’s progress.

“From left photo 3 weeks ago to this, now,” he wrote on Instagram, thanking his personal chef Lawrence Duran. He still has six-pack, but “I’m up about 20. Inspired to be better! I’m going up another 20.” Like Will Smith, Wahlberg is in the “worst shape of my life,” but he was quick to note, “It’s for a role.” If only he had access to unlimited free burgers…

(Via People)

Ted Cruz fancies himself a pop culture aficionado, although he generally misses the point, as he did with The Avengers and while completely misreading some evil environmentalist message into Watchmen. That’s consistent with his tendency to self-own on most subjects, although it was almost sad when he declared himself a The Princess Bride superfan and then completely fell on his face while feuding with the likes of Cary Elwes. Yet Ted is nothing if not persistent, which is why people are scratching their heads at his newest reference that makes zero sense.

Ted decided to mention Jason Bourne for some unknown reason while reacting to a “Humans of the CIA” video, in which a woman makes mention of her “intersectional” identity. Ted picked up the ball and ran with it, although it’s unclear what his goal was, other than to say that the woman in the video wouldn’t be intimidating enough to China, Iran, or North Korea? He then sarcastically (?) added, “We’ve come a long way from Jason Bourne.”

This, of course, led people to wonder if Ted realizes that Jason Bourne (embodied by Matt Damon in five movies and a late 1980s take starring Richard Chamberlain, all of were adapted from Robert Ludlum’s novel-born character) is fictional. Surely Ted realizes that much, right? People weren’t in the mood to give Ted the benefit of the doubt, though. That’s probably because Ted didn’t articulate his point well, and for that matter, he failed to make any point at all. It’s clear, at the very least, that he doesn’t understand that Jason Bourne wasn’t, you know, a role model… he was brainwashed and molded into an assassin. Then again, Ted Cruz considers Watchmen‘s Rorschach to be a hero, so it’s safe to say that he didn’t think the Bourne reference through.

2020 yielded some memorable music feuds, with one of the biggest being the beef between Noname and J. Cole. Uproxx’s Aaron Williams previously summed up the situation with a detailed explainer, but in essence, it began with Cole taking notice of a Noname tweet that he perceived as calling him out. Now, about a year after the saga began, Noname has addressed it again.

It began with Noname tweeting a personal philosophy a few days ago: “noname. no allegiance to one ideology. i read all. take what applies. leave the rest.” Somebody responded, “Dweebs gon call you unprincipled,” to which Noname replied, “i’m no longer interested in proving myself to an internet that will cannibalize the vulnerability of those who choose to publicly learn. it’s cop sh*t. i’m interested in what my community calls me. twitter is not my community [heart emoji].”

Somebody else then brought Cole into the conversation, responding, “J Cole literally tried to make that same point to you almost 2 years ago lol.” Noname fired back, “no. j cole was upset because i tweeted about rappers who profit off blackness while simultaneously being silent when it comes to black death. he was angered by the ‘tone’ of a tweet that didn’t even specifically name him.”

Another person replied, “J Cole has out in enough time to and done enough organising to be above your questioning,” to which a seemingly skeptical Noname responded, “wait, j cole is an organizer [monocle emoji].” She then added, “i forgot how much yall play on this app [crying emoji].”

Find Noname’s tweets below.

At some point in the future, there may come a time when Law & Order creator Dick Wolf simply runs out of ideas. Fortunately, for fans of crime procedurals that generally resolve themselves in less than an hour, that time is not now. NBC—which has benefited from Wolf’s seemingly never-ending stream of new perspectives from which to present a crime series for more than 30 years—has ordered his latest concept, Law & Order: For the Defense, straight to series.

While the latest L&O iteration won’t have the built-in audience that comes with Chris Meloni’s posterior, it does have Carol Mendelsohn—the longtime executive producer of the CSI universe—as its showrunner. If there were an Avengers made up of crime TV franchise creators, these two would be it. According to NBC, the new series—which has been ordered straight to series—“will put the lawyers under the microscope, along with the criminal justice system with every week delivering the promise of a contemporary morality tale.”

“This new show is exciting for me personally,” Wolf said in a statement. “We spent the last 30 years on shows that played offense. Now it will be great to play defense, and being able to do it with Carol is an honor and an opportunity for both of us to do television that hasn’t been done before.”

So just how many Law & Order series does that make? Officially, seven (if we’re including the mothership): Law & Order; Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; Law & Order: Criminal Intent; Law & Order: Trial By Jury; Law & Order: LA; and Law & Order: True Crime. NBC has also been trying to get Law & Order: Hate Crimes going for several years now. Meaning that TNT should be well-stocked with reruns for many decades to come.

(Via Deadline)

During Monday’s episode of Late Night, host Seth Meyers took a “Closer Look” at Rudy Giuliani’s legal issues. “Rudy Giuliani’s defenders are claiming the FBI raids of his home and office are part of a conspiracy by the Biden administration to target him, even though the investigation started during the Trump administration,” he said. From there, Meyers spent the next 10 minutes roasting the former-New York City mayor.

Meyers went in on Rudy holding a biography of Alexander Hamilton while teasing a press conference (“I’m guessing Rudy has some secret information that proves Hamilton actually won the duel”), how Trump’s former-personal attorney sounds like “some Upper East Side scam artist who does walking tours for out-of-towners, but doesn’t actually know what he’s talking about,” and his misplaced belief that New Yorkers still love him. “I love that when things get bad for Rudy, he always falls back on ‘New York City, baby!’ But that ship has sailed, pal. You’re never going to be in a Yankees commercial again.”

Later, Meyers noted that Giuliani has seemingly gone out of his way to incriminate himself and Trump. “I’m no legal expert but I’m pretty sure attorney-client privilege goes away when you read the documents aloud on national television,” he said. “It’s like the dumb criminal version of your grandma reading you a funny meme she came across on Facebook.” Meyers also compared him to “an ailing grandfather having a flashback to the war during a family gathering.”

You can watch the “Closer Look” above.

As Britney Spears’ conservatorship battle continues, the embattled pop star is no stranger to rumors. One of them is that she does not currently have control over her social media accounts, a claim that has been recently backed up by Spears’ former makeup artist Billy Brasfield. In a new Instagram post, Spears has addressed that, as well as the recent documentaries that have been made about her.

The post is a video of Spears dancing and she begins the lengthy caption by calling documentaries, like Framing Britney Spears, “so hypocritical:

“Geez !!!! 2021 is definitely way better than 2020 but I never knew it was gonna be like THIS [flushed face emojis] !!!! So many documentaries about me this year with other people’s takes on my life … what can I say … I’m deeply flattered !!!! These documentaries are so hypocritical … they criticize the media and then do the same thing [thinking emojis]????? Damn … I don’t know y’all but I’m thrilled to remind you all that although I’ve had some pretty tough times in my life … I’ve had waaaayyyy more amazing times in my life and unfortunately my friends … I think the world is more interested in the negative [shrugging emojis] !!!! I mean … isn’t this supposed to be a business and society about THE FUTURE [sneezing emojis] ???? Why highlight the most negative and traumatizing times in my life from forever ago ???? I mean DAMN …”

Spears then goes on to talk about things like dancing and gardening before addressing Brasfield, concluding her post, “PSSSS I don’t actually talk to Billy B AT ALL so I’m honestly very confused [crying laughing emojis]!!! This is my Instagram !!!! PSSSSS no paparazzi guy … I didn’t want you and your crew following me around !!!!”

Find Spears’ post below.