Category: News

Chadwick Boseman was the posthumous recipient of the Actor Tribute award for his Academy Award-worthy performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at Monday’s Gotham Awards. His wife, Taylor Simone Ledward, accepted the award on his behalf and gave a moving speech about the Black Panther star’s “practice of telling the truth.”

Simone Ledward praised Boseman, who died in August 2020 after a years-long battle with colon cancer, for being the “most honest person I’ve ever met because he didn’t just stop at speaking the truth, he actively searched for it. In himself, in those around him and in the moment. The truth can be a very easy thing for the self to avoid, but if one does not live in truth, then it’s impossible to live in line with a divine purpose for your life. And so it became how he lived his life, day in, day out. Imperfect, but determined.”

The Da 5 Bloods star “was able to give himself over fully in every moment, to be totally present in his own life and in the lives of people he became. He was blessed to live many lives within his concentrated one. He developed his understanding of what it meant to be the none, the one, and the all,” Simone Ledward added, concluding her tearful speech with, “Chad, thank you. I love you. I am so proud of you. Keep shining your light on us.”

Cardi B has come a long way since she released her debut mixtape Gangsta B*tch Music Vol. 1 in 2016. She’s gone on to headline festivals, had a number of singles debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and won a Grammy for Best Rap Album. Though she’s gained many accolades, it can be hard to put things in to perspective. But after seeing a resurfaced tweet from 2016, Cardi reflected on her success.

A few months after the release of Gangsta B*tch Music Vol. 1, Cardi took to Twitter to set her musical intentions. “IDK where my music going to take me ,I just want people to say she puts out good tracks,” she wrote. “Respect the talent.” Nearly five years later, Cardi stumbled upon the tweet once again. Sharing it to demonstrate where her music took her career, she wrote: “WOW 2016…..Claim it !!!”

Ahead of finding her old tweet, Cardi stumbled onto another marker of success: having iconic musician Dionne Warwick cosign your music. Warwick was apparently introduced to Cardi through her niece, saying she loves how the rapper is “authentically herself.” However, discovering Cardi’s music ended in one question for Warwick: “What does Offset mean?”

See Cardi’s 2016 tweet above.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Vh1 reality show Love & Hip Hop will have been on-air for a decade this spring. The show is best known for helping to launch the career of hip-hop’s current biggest star Cardi B after she appeared on the show from 2015 to 2017, but this week, we learned that the show just missed being part of another huge star’s come-up.

Looking back at the past decade of shenanigans, Vh1’s Love & Hip Hop Unlocked has been recalling some of the show’s most eyebrow-raising moments and behind-the-scenes info — including the audition tape of one Megan Pete, aka Megan Thee Stallion, who petitioned for a role on the show with a bubbly video reeling off her many, many alter egos and revealing a bit of her backstory.

In the video, Megan recalls the conversation with her mother that led to her pursuing rap as a career, while detailing her full-time student status and making a bold prediction. “Megan Thee Stallion is just gonna become a household name,” she manifested. “When you’re talking about the popping rappers, I’m definitely gonna be in that conversation.”

Seems like a bold claim for an unknown rapper from Houston who went on to have the No. 1 record in the country twice in one year — the second time with Cardi B, no less. It’s probably safe to say that dream worked out for her.

Watch Megan Thee Stallion’s Love & Hip Hop audition video above.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Dexter‘s eight seasons recently departed Netflix as Showtime gears up to start shooting a limited series revival. Original showrunner Clyde Phillips plans to make good on remedying the maligned (and rather silly) “lumberjack” ending to the series, and the show is primed to attract an even bigger audience for Showtime. However, it looks like at least some of the wishes from fans may not be in the cards, unless Showtime is planning on announcing returns from the original cast later. For now, it sure looks like Michael C. Hall is the only familiar face onboard, but that could change. We’ll see.

Alright, so the good news is this: Dexter (who originally faked his own death) is no longer lumberjack-ing in Oregon. However, he isn’t returning to Florida, either, which means that it’s unlikely that we’ll see his old police-force pals again. Fingers might stay crossed for Jennifer Carpenter’s Debra to somehow return as a dark passenger, but Carpenter hasn’t been confirmed, and Showtime has revealed that Dexter will be heading to upstate New York. It doesn’t seem as if he’s retiring to a nice farm up there, but one never knows. However, news of the new supporting cast more than suggests that he’s working with (or at least tangling with) local law enforcement. We’ve already heard that the new villain will be played by Clancy Brown (of SpongeBob SquarePants fame), who will play the mayor of fictional Iron Lake. Here’s more of the cast via Deadline:

Julia Jones (The Mandalorian), Alano Miller (Sylvie’s Love), Johnny Sequoyah (Believe) and Jack Alcott (The Good Lord Bird) have joined Michael C. Hall and Clancy Brown in the 10-episode limited series, which begins production next month in Massachusetts.

Jones will play Angela Bishop, the first Native American Chief of Police in her town in upstate New York. Sequoyah portrays Audrey, Bishop’s brash and opinionated teenage daughter. Miller will play Logan, a sergeant for the Iron Lake Police Department and the assistant wrestling coach for the local high school. Alcott is Randall, with whom Dexter (Hall) has a meaningful encounter.

Well, it doesn’t sound like Yvonne Strahovski returning as poison-happy Hannah is in the cards, but one never knows. It truly seems like the revival would want her onboard, but she’s probably still in Argentina, enjoying her new life while Harrison might be easing steadily toward some serial killer tendencies of his own. And we haven’t heard a thing about Harrison, but wouldn’t it be something if he tracked dad down to upstate New York, where the two would clash over the whole abandonment thing? Dexter’s own dad would never have abandoned his son, no matter what, and even though Dexter probably thought he was giving Harrison a better life, this still leaves room for a lot of resentment. All of this is wild speculation on my part, but hey, I’d be here to watch the show end with Dexter and Harrison facing off. Why not? It’s better than chopping wood.

As of now, the Dexter limited series revival is scheduled for a fall 2021 launch.

(Via Deadline)

Idles haven’t phoned it in when it comes to the videos for their latest album, Ultra Mono. They dropped an animated video, one made with Michel Gondry, and now they’ve returned with a left turn of a visual for “Reigns.”

The video goes back and forth between people sitting down to watch a nature documentary and clips of animal violence, with the people seemingly reacting in glee as nature brutally does its thing. In fact, some of the clips are so gory that it’s worth including a warning about here.

The band’s Joe Talbot previously said of the song, “This was written around the bass, obviously. Again, another movement — techno — and that idea of togetherness and the love in the room is always apparent. Techno is motorik, it’s mesmeric, it is just a singularity — minimal techno, especially. It’s just the beat or the bass line and that carries you through, that’s all you need. Obviously, we’re a chorus band, so we thought we’d throw in something huge to cut through it. But we didn’t want to overcomplicate it. That sinister pound just reminds me of my continual disdain for the Royal Family and everything they represent in our country, from the fascism that it comes from to the smiley-face racism that it perpetuates nowadays.”

Watch the “Reigns” video above.

As the music industry begins ramping up for the new year, many big-name pop musicians released new music this week. Taylor Swift added a few tracks to a deluxe version of her Evermore album, elusive ex-One Direction member Zayn returned with a new single, and Saweetie tapped Doja Cat to embark on antics in a fun collaboration.

Each week, Uproxx rounds up the best new pop music. Listen up.

Taylor Swift — “It’s Time To Go”

“It’s Time To Go” is one of a pair of tracks Taylor Swift unveiled this week to keep eyes on her surprise Evermore release. A quiet ballad, Swift sings of learning the hard lesson of letting go of toxic relationships, even if they used to be a close friend.

Zayn — “Vibez”

Fans thought Zayn was gearing up for a new era of music when he dropped the single “Better” as his only track of 2020, and they were proved right this week. Zayn returned to promise fans that new music is, in fact, on the horizon with the shuffling single “Vibez.” The single arrived in tandem with the announcement of his album Nobody Is Listening, which includes “Better” and “Vibez” within the LP’s 11 tracks.

Saweetie — “Best Friend” Feat. Doja Cat

Though Saweetie and Doja Cat’s “Best Friend” was prematurely published by her record label in late 2020, the duo teamed up for a captivating visual to award fans for patiently waiting for its official release. The song is a swaggering single devoted to dynamic duos and serves as a hyped-up anthem for women everywhere to shake their hips to with their best friends.

Zara Larsson — “Talk About Love” Feat. Young Thug

Returning after her hit “Wow” went viral on TikTok, Zara Larsson tapped Young Thug to “Talk About Love” in a new single. “’Talk About Love’ is about that phase before two people work out what they are to one another,” Larsson said. “That specific window is so beautiful and fragile, as soon as you start asking ‘are we doing this?’ or ‘how do *you* feel?’, for some people that ruins the magic. ‘Talk About Love’ is savoring that moment before you have to decide.”

Alice Glass — “Suffer And Swallow”

It’s been nearly seven years since Alice Glass left Crystal Castles after saying she survived “almost a decade of abuse” from bandmate Ethan Kath. Now, Glass is pivoting back to her solo career with the new single “Suffer And Swallow.” In a statement about the song, Glass said: “The song is true to the singular vision that Glass has crafted over the course of her career, but finds her exploring the dichotomy of pain and beauty in a manner more stark than ever before.”

Charlotte Lawrence — “Talk You Down”

If Charlotte Lawrence has taught us anything over her career, it’s that she’s perfected the club-ready beat drop. Following a handful of 2020 singles, including one that landed on the Birds Of Prey soundtrack, Lawrence returns with another banger. “Talk You Down” explores times the singer has been needlessly in her own head underscored by a sparkling beat.

VanJess — “Curious” Feat. Jimi Tents and Garren

Sister duo VanJess have been turning heads since their 2018 debut album but now, they continue to tease a new era of music. Along with announcing their upcoming EP Homegrown, VanJess share the sultry single “Curious” to showcase their project’s captivating harmonies.

Olivia Rodrigo — “Driver’s License”

After coming into stardom with her lead role on Disney+’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Olivia Rodrigo has shared her debut solo single. “Drivers License” offers a vignette of the aftermath of one’s first heartbreak, with Rodrigo writing: “When I came up with ‘Drivers License,’ I was going through a heartbreak that was so confusing to me, so multifaceted. Putting all those feelings into a song made everything seem so much simpler and clearer.”

JC Stewart — “Break My Heart”

Following a string of mellow pop hits, JC Stewart’s distinctive sound has captured the attention of many, including Niall Horan. Stewart teamed up with Horan to co-write “Break My Heart,” a bouyant tune about knowing a relationship isn’t right, but taking the risk anyway. “‘Break My Heart’ is big, fast, and fun,” Steward said. “It’s about someone who can catch you so off guard that they can ruin a city for you and tear your life apart. But sometimes that can be addicting.”

Aaron Frazer — “Can’t Leave It Alone”

Aaron Frazer is gearing up for the release of his debut solo album Introducing… this week, produced by Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach. Sharing the grand single “Can’t Leave It Alone,” Frazer said: “I have a soft spot for mid 2000s hip hop with marching band vibes. It just takes me back to the formative songs I heard emanating from 92.3 on my boombox. […] I wanted to write something in tribute to that sound, and who knows maybe a marching band out there will play it at a football game someday.”

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

Hollywood’s preference for neatly categorizing the legions of good-looking thespians that grace our screens every year is fairly obvious. We used to silo the men and women who are cutting a check for acting out fantasies in theaters and on TV as either movie stars or dramatic actors. The former was the hook that studios hung tentpole blockbusters on: charming, impossibly masculine, glamorous, famous as much for their real-life personas as they were for the characters they played on screen. The latter? Those were the Oscar-winners, the critical darlings, the Jeremy Strongs making bold choices, begging directors to tear-gas them on sets in the name of storytelling.

The divergent path has merged some over the years. There’s no clear, defining line separating bankable talent from actual talent. Chris Evans can brandish a shield in Marvel behemoths one second, then don an unkempt beard and heavy demeanor for a limited drama on Apple TV+ the next. Jon Hamm, who rose to fame playing an arrogant, adulterous ad executive in ’60s era Mad Men is now one of the most unpredictably exciting comedic actors in the game. Chadwick Boseman brought a royal Wakandan superhero to life in Black Panther, but he’ll also probably take home posthumous awards for his brilliant turn in an August Wilson adaptation this year.

In Hollywood, you can now be both a movie star and a serious actor, which is what makes Michael Sheen even more interesting. Michael Sheen is decidedly not a movie star. He’s also Welsh, which means he likely doesn’t sport the kind of ego that would make him capable of attaching gravitas to his acting career. He has 93 credits on his IMDb page. He’s played former British Prime Minister Tony Blair thrice, earning awards recognition for his impersonation in the Helen Mirren-starring The Queen. And he’s lit up the small screen with guest stints on everything from 30 Rock to The Good Wife.

Michael Sheen is, by all accounts, a serious, or at least seriously talented, actor. But he’s also weird as f*ck. I hope he’ll take that as the highest of compliments because it’s the truly bizarre character actors that should be propped up on a pedestal. That’s what Sheen really is: a character actor in his prime, a fearless conqueror on-screen, blazing a path by brandishing his quirky habits and secret love for creating chaos while leaving behind a scorched Earth of conventional conformists in his wake. He’s not like the other girls, and that’s become more apparent as time drags on.

My fascination with Sheen’s filmography began, to my shame, late in his career. His current gig is playing an irresistibly charming serial killer and lauded surgeon named Dr. Martin Whitly on Fox’s Prodigal Son. Perhaps the best praise I can heap on Sheen’s performance is that it convinces me to tune into a network drama every week, a rare feat in the age of streaming. But even that adulation doesn’t paint the whole story of what Sheen’s doing on that show.

Sporting the kind of knit cardigan Ransom Drysdale would be envious of and a crop of wild, grey-dusted curls with just enough kink in them to hint at the perverted madness housed underneath, Sheen’s Whitly is charismatic, comical, and shockingly likable. His unnerving ease at see-sawing between philosophical convos on life and love with his son Malcolm (the excellent Tom Payne) and pragmatically outlining how to dismember a body is at once jarring and, oddly, mesmerizing. Sheen plays him as a perpetually amused psychotic genius, an Einstein whose intelligence is so far above those that keep him captive, it’s almost a joke. And we’re in on it, as the audience, gleefully cackling when Whitly gets overexcited about consulting on the most gruesome homicide cases or, even more disturbingly, momentarily forgetting he once stuffed a woman into a box when he shares a tender exchange with his son. And Sheen embraces the strangeness of the man, rejoicing in his eccentricities, adding a musical flair to every “My boy,” he greets Malcolm with and relishing the more awkward moments by exploiting their inherent comedy. Really, when has a slow-rising hospital bed and distasteful Stephen Hawking joke been funnier?

Lest you think playing a serial killing diva was the most oddball acting choice Sheen has ever made, may I point you to the rest of his film catalog. There’s his mustache-twirling clichéd villain in Dr. Dolittle. The eerily robotic bartender of Passengers. The long-haired alpha Lycan of Underworld. The Tony Blairs (all three of them) and the heavily-bronzed game show hosts of Quiz. The Hot Tub Time Machine hating settling soul mate of Liz Lemon in 30 Rock.

And then there are a handful of performances that live in my own brain, rent-free, like when he played Aro in the Twilight series. Other actors would’ve balked at the challenge of turning a 4,000-year-old Italian vampire riddled with boredom and consumed by unchecked power into something more than just a two-dimensional, cartoonish stereotype, but not Sheen. No, while Robert Pattinson flaunted his constipated sullenness and Kristen Stewart fidgeted and fought to make her character likable, Sheen basked in the camp of it all. He over-enunciated, he exaggerated Aro’s mercurial nature with rapid eye movement, twitchy physicality, and shrieking giggle fits. In the franchise’s final film, just before a climactic battle is set to take place, Sheen throws the atmospheric tension every other actor in the scene has worked so painstakingly hard to build into turmoil. It’s like watching Georgia O’Keefe destroy a room full of paintings, or Heath Ledger’s Joker burn a mountain of money, and it is glorious.

In Tron: Legacy he plays Castor, a maniacal nightclub owner with a consuming love for theatricality. As his guests fall into his well-laid trap, he dances and kicks and shuffles and shouts, wielding a neon-tinted cane like a Barnum and Bailey’s ringmaster and a slicked-back shock-white hairdo that turns him into an analog-style Bowie wannabe. His accent careens into the absurd, from high-pitched lilts to German parody to something I can only describe as Marvel supervillain Arnim Zola on steroids.

In Neil Gaiman’s Amazon Prime comedy Good Omens, Sheen played the anxiety-ridden angel, Aziraphale, a heavenly kiss-ass who befriends David Tennant’s demonic Crowley, and together, the two try to save the world. Playing the more uptight celestial being might not be as fun for any other actor, but Sheen has a hell of a time, dealing nervous spasms and twitchy eyeballs and exaggerated gulps with such a heavy hand, you can’t help but feel sympathy for the straight-laced seraph.

And just when I was ready to conclude my research, feeling quite confident dubbing Sheen’s extensive resume as one of the wilder, diverse acting careers in Hollywood, I stumbled upon Michael Bolton’s Valentine’s Day Special on Netflix. It’s here that Sheen truly goes above and beyond in the name of weird, playing a Bob Fosse parody named Carl Flossy: a gruff, chain-smoking choreographer whose manners are as coarse as his constantly-displayed chest hair. Shouting obscenities at Bolton as he tries to map out a musical dilly that will convince punk kids that old-time rock-n-roll is, in fact, badass, Sheen’s growling criticism and shouted anger is muffled only by the ever-present cigarette dangling from his mouth. He’s an aging Guido-type with an open-neck satin shirt, and inflated confidence, and a mysterious way of drawing out the best in his dancers, one that usually involves throwing the nearest folded chair.

I suppose that’s what’s so great about Sheen’s career so far. He’s happy to sacrifice whatever level of stardom and recognition he may have been afforded thanks to his talent and good looks for something even more elusive that blockbuster fame and Academy trophies: the unique ability to disappear into even the most bizarre of characters; to convince audiences he’s no longer Michael Sheen, affable Welshman and ex-husband of thee Kate Beckinsale, but instead, an amalgam of the oddities and freakish individuals he plays on the screen. Michael Sheen might, in truth, be as weird and out there as the characters he inhabits. That’s what makes him great.

FOX’s ‘Prodigal Son’ returns on Tuesday, January 12.

After Donald Trump was banned from virtually every social media platform, including his beloved Twitter account, for inciting the attack on the U.S. Capitol building last week, critics of the president are taking the Trump erasure to the next level by demanding he be removed from Home Alone 2. In a moment of much-needed levity, social media users have come up with a few creative ideas on how to replace Trump’s scene where he tells a lost Kevin McAllister (Macaulay Culkin) how to find the lobby of the Trump Plaza.

People also had some fun with the IMDB page for Home Alone 2, which is currently crashed, after a new edit was added. Where is the lie?

While removing Trump from Home Alone 2 may seem random, the president notably flew off the handle in 2019 when he learned that a Canadian TV broadcast had edited out his scene. The cut was one of several made to the film for the sake of adding in commercials, but Trump went so far as to blame Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for personally excising the scene. Because Trudeau has nothing better to do than oversee the broadcast of random Christmas movies.

As for the chances of editing Trump out of Home Alone 2, director Chris Columbus probably wouldn’t mind. While recently celebrating the 30th anniversary of the first film, Columbus revealed that Trump “bullied” his way into the sequel by refusing to allow filming in the Plaza unless he had a cameo. The scene was going to be edited out after it was filmed to appease Trump, but according to Columbus, test audiences “cheered” when Trump showed up on-screen, and here we are.

It’s been a long time since Azealia Banks’ name has trended on social media due to her music. Unfortunately, the latest incident of increased notoriety for the Harlem rapper was par for the course as horrified music fans woke up today to find see her trending on Twitter — and even more so once they found out why.

The “212” rapper, who has been more well-known in recent years for her feuds with other celebrities and interest in the occult, posted a video to her Instagram Story of her digging up and boiling her dead cat Lucifer, apparently in an effort to bring it back to life. Clearly, she’s never seen Pet Semetary, or she’d know just how bad an idea that is.

All jokes aside, the video was quickly deleted, but nothing is ever truly deleted on the internet (we aren’t posting it here, but you can find it on Twitter — you shouldn’t, though). While the initial reactions were troubled, it didn’t take long for fans to begin making light of the situation, comparing Banks to her stylistic successors, posting screenshots from the universally-panned 2019 screen adaptation of Cats, and making the same crude joke.

Since exploding into pop culture’s consciousness in 2012 with her breakout single “212,” Banks has become better known for her concerning, frustrating, and often alarming antics and social media posts than her music, despite keeping up a relatively steady stream of new releases over the years. From beefing with Cardi B, Lana Del Rey, Nicki Minaj, and even Elon Musk, Azealia’s public feuds, and disturbing behavior have overshadowed her talent.

Future Islands is one of the best live bands around today, which makes it a real bummer that they didn’t get to tour behind their new album, As Long As You Are, in 2020. Last year was actually the first year of the band’s existence when they didn’t put on live shows, save for their “A Stream Of You And Me” livestream concert.

They’ve always thrived on late-night TV, though, and they got to do so again last night with a performance of “Plastic Beach” on Late Night With Seth Meyers. The performance was pre-taped from a separate venue, where the group was bathed in red light as Samuel T. Herring, as he always does, led his band with uncommon levels of passion.

In an interview with Uproxx last year, Herring spoke about how the pandemic has affected the band and reflected on their canceled tour, saying, “It’s all interesting. We were supposed to be in Japan a week ago and we missed some shows in Mexico already this year. I guess we were supposed to be going on tour any day now, or maybe we were supposed to be on tour right now. It’s really changed a lot of things.”

Watch Future Islands perform “Plastic Beach” on Late Night above and revisit our interview with the group here.