Category: News

On Monday, a new development emerged in Taylor Swift’s ongoing battle to get the rights to her first six albums’ back. A report surfaced that Scooter Braun had sold her masters to a company for $300 million, the same price for which he bought Big Machine Records last year. But now Swift is saying that Braun asked her to sign a strict NDA to “silence” her, hoping that that would dissuade her from retrieving her past work.

In a lengthy message posted to social media, Swift claims that didn’t sign the NDA, saying her team was never even able to get a price quote for the masters:

“Scooter’s team wanted me to sign an ironclad NDA stating I would never say another word about Scooter Braun unless it was positive, before we could even look at the financial records of BMLG (which is always the first step in a purchase of this nature). So, I would have to sign a document that would silence me forever before I could even have a chance to bid on my own work. My legal team said this is absolutely NOT normal, and they’ve never seen an NDA like this presented unless it was to silence an assault accuser by paying them off. He would never even quote my team a price. These master recordings were not for sale to me.

A few weeks ago my team received a letter from a private equity company called Shamrock Holdings, letting us know that they had bought 100% of my music, videos, and album art from Scooter Braun. This was the second time my music had been sold without my knowledge. The letter told me that they wanted to reach out before the sale to let me know, but that Scooter Braun had required that they make no contact with me or my team, or the deal would be off.”

Along with the statement, Swift also included her response to Shamrock Holdings’ letter. The singer said she plans to move forward with re-recording her first six albums because she doesn’t want Braun to continue to profit off her work.

You can read Swift’s full statement above.

Not only was Barack Obama the leader of the free world for eight years, but he’s also a talented playlist curator. Every so often, the country’s 44th commander-in-chief flexes his musical knowledge by dropping a playlist of his current favorite songs. Back in August, he shared his 2020 Summer Playlist which boasted tracks by Billie Eilish, Megan Thee Stallion, Mac Miller, and J. Cole. But now, hes taking a trip down memory lane by sharing a list of his favorite songs from his presidency.

Obama shared the list in anticipation of his upcoming presidential memoir A Promised Land. “Music has always played an important role in my life — and that was especially true during my presidency,” he wrote alongside the playlist. “In honor of my book hitting shelves tomorrow, I put together this playlist featuring some memorable songs from my administration.”

The list bears some recognizable names. Beyonce has two thrown in the mix — her cover of Etta James’ “At Last,” from the soundtrack to the 2008 film Cadillac Records, as well “Halo.” Other artists that were in Obama’s rotation include Eminem, Jay-Z, Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Wonder, and more.

You can listen to Obama’s full playlist above.

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

Once upon a time streamers like Netflix and Hulu touted themselves as a cheaper and more viewer-friendly alternative to cable television. You didn’t pay an arm and a leg, and you could the benefit of watching what you wanted. How things have changed. Though Hulu, like Netflix, has successfully blossomed into a destination place for original movies, the Streaming Wars — which finds the online battlefield clogged with services, each vying for your dollar — are in full swing, and old war horses like Netflix and Hulu are no longer the only games in town. And now they’re not even cheap.

As per Deadline, Hulu announced that, starting December 18 of this year, their popular live subscription package — which is basically like having cable, but cheaper — is going to become slightly more expensive. Their monthly subscription will be going up 18%, which may not sound lot like a lot but is an extra 10 bucks a month, from $54.99 to $64.99. That’s not quite like having some lavish and pricey cable package, but it’s not far. And it brings Hulu in line with YouTubeTV, which runs the same amount per month.

Mind you, this only affects the 4.1 million subscribed to Hulu’s Live TV package and not the 32.5 million paying customers of their on-demand service, who will continue paying a relative pittance. Still, people online were pissed, with a number of people saying that Hulu had, at long last, just become cable.

That pay hike, again, will go into effect starting on December 18.

(Via Deadline)

Last week brought word that beloved Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek had died after a battle with Stage IV pancreatic cancer at the age of 80. Immediately, people began offering their remembrances of the legendary game show host, from those that knew him best from the show to fans who simply wanted to relive some of their favorite Trebek moments.

Trebek’s final episodes will air as scheduled through December, with Jeopardy!‘s executive producer offering a heartfelt message on the first show that aired following his death. There’s plenty of speculation regarding who may step into the host role on Jeopardy! in Trebek’s place, with Ken Jennings as the presumptive choice while others have expressed hope for someone like Levar Burton, but whoever it is will have massive shoes to fill — and will need to try and carve out their own tone for the show because no one can do it exactly as Trebek did.

On Monday night, prior to the Vikings game against the Bears, Adam Thielen decided to wear some custom cleats made by Mache to offer his own tribute to Trebek, with the host’s visage on one cleat and a Jeopardy board saying “We Miss You Alex” on the other.

It shows how impactful Trebek was on so many for all different walks of life that Thielen would want to pay his respects in this way. From the sports world to academia to everyday folks at home on their couch, he managed to make everyone feel at home watching the show.

Eight months into the coronavirus pandemic and it feels like disinformation and denial have spread as quickly as the virus itself. Unfortunately, disinformation and denial during a pandemic is deadly. Literally. People who refuse to accept the reality we’re living in, who go about daily life as if nothing unusual were happening, who won’t wear a mask or keep their distance from people, are preventing communities from being able to keep the pandemic under control—with very real consequences.

An ER nurse in South Dakota shared her experience treating COVID patients—some of whom refuse to believe they have COVID—and it’s really shocking. One might think that the virus would become real to people if they were directly affected by it, but apparently that’s just not true for some. As Jodi Doering wrote on Twitter:

“I have a night off from the hospital. As I’m on my couch with my dog I can’t help but think of the Covid patients the last few days. The ones that stick out are those who still don’t believe the virus is real. The ones who scream at you for a magic medicine and that Joe Biden is going to ruin the USA. All while gasping for breath on 100% Vapotherm. They tell you there must be another reason they are sick. They call you names and ask why you have to wear all that ‘stuff’ because they don’t have COViD because it’s not real. Yes. This really happens. And I can’t stop thinking about it. These people really think this isn’t going to happen to them. And then they stop yelling at you when they get intubated. It’s like a fucking horror movie that never ends. There’s no credits that roll. You just go back and do it all over again.”

Doering’s Twitter post went viral, and CNN’s New Day invited her to come on the show. Her interview is stunning and sad, as she explains how patients who should be spending their final hours talking with their loved ones spend them ranting about how the virus is all a hoax.

“I think the hardest thing to watch,” she said, “is that people are still looking for something else and they want a magic answer and they don’t want to believe COVID is real. And the reason I tweeted what I did was it wasn’t one particular patient, it’s just a culmination of so many people. And their last dying words are ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real.” And when they should be spending time Facetiming their families, they’re filled with anger and hatred, and it just made me really sad the other night. I just can’t believe that those are going to be their last thoughts and words.”

Doering explained that nurses can handle people lashing out at them in anger (bless you, nurses) but when they ask patients if they want to Facetime their families when they are clearly not likely to recover and they refuse, it’s just sad.

“I think people look for anything,” she said, when asked what people think is wrong with them if they don’t believe it’s COVID. “People want it to be influenza, they want it to be pneumonia…we’ve even had people say ‘Well I think it might be lung cancer.’ I mean, something so far fetched, and the reality is, since day one when COVID started in this area in March, you’ve kind of been able to say if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s a duck…even after positive results come back, some people don’t believe it.”

Doering made it clear that not all patients are living—and dying—in such denial. But the deniers are memorable. “It’s just a movie where the credits never roll,” she said. “You just do it all over again. And it’s hard and sad because every hospital, every nurse, every doctor in this state is seeing the same things. These people get sick in the same way, you treat them the same way, they die in the same way, and then you do it over again.”

The medical community has learned a lot about how to treat the virus, and Doering says they are managing their patient load fairly well. But the numbers keep climbing. South Dakota has a 50% positivity rate, which is astronomical. (The CDC guidance on school reopenings recommended that schools should only consider opening when positivity rates are below 3%, for a frame of reference.)

The virus is real, the pandemic is real, the illnesses and hospitalizations are real, and the deaths are real. We’ve got to figure out a way to pull deniers back to reality for everyone’s sake, including their own.

Songbird, the pandemic thriller produced by Michael Bay, is barreling onto home theaters sooner than expected. The film, which was inspired by last spring’s COVID-19 lockdowns, will be available on PVOD on December 11. From there, it will head to whichever streaming platform snatches up the rights to the movie that many called “too soon” when Bay first announced news of its existence. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

The movie, notably the first to shoot in Los Angeles during the pandemic, takes place two years in the future, in which COVID-23 now wreaks havoc on the world by attacking the brain. Infected Americans are forced into quarantine camps called Q-Zones, while some fight back against these brutal restrictions. Amid this backdrop is the budding love story between a motorbike courier named Nico (K.J. Apa) who has rare immunity, and Sara (Sofia Carson), a young artist who is believed to be infected.

Directed by Adam Mason, Songbird also stars Craig Robinson, Bradley Whitford, Peter Stormare, Alexandra Daddario, and Demi Moore. While it’s no shock that the film completely skipped releasing in theaters, it’s release date will be an experiment, alright. Currently, the United States is experiencing a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases that already have health experts and public officials cautioning against traveling during the holidays. Not to mention, schools across the country are switching to all-virtual classes as talk of another lockdown hangs in the air. Then again, new shows and movies are at a premium as more people are stuck indoors, so maybe a pandemic thriller won’t be such a bitter pill to swallow if it saves folks from another night of reruns.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Just ahead of Lil Uzi Vert’s short-lived retirement, the rapper began teasing his long-awaited record Eternal Atake. The LP finally arrived in March after a surprise-drop and received a number of accolades. Along with debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, the record was nominated for an AMA award. While most musicians would be over the moon about the nomination, Uzi isn’t holding his breath for a win.

Uzi’s Eternal Atake is nominated for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album at the upcoming AMAs, which takes place November 22. But because Uzi also shares the category with Lil Baby’s My Turn and Roddy Ricch’s Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial, he isn’t confident that he’ll be taking home the trophy. Replying to a fan’s question about his reaction the nomination, Uzi succinctly replied: “My thoughts Oh yea I’m not winning that.”

Despite the long wait for Eternal Atake, it didn’t take Uzi long before he released yet another project — this time with Future. Last week, Uzi joined forces with Future for the 16-track effort Pluto X Baby Pluto. The duo had been teasing the project for several months and by the time it was officially released, Uzi had already set his sights on something else. A day following Pluto X Baby Pluto, Uzi teased that he has yet another project coming with Future.

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Seventeen-year-old Michael Marshall had never been to a protest before, but on June 10, his mother dropped him off at Bayside Marketplace in Miami, Florida to join Black Lives Matter in their call for justice.

“It was important to me as a young Black man to go out there and stand with my people,” he told The Miami Herald. “It was important to represent something way bigger than me.”

The protests turned violent when demonstrators began vandalizing statues of Juan Ponce de León and Christopher Columbus. This resulted in the Miami Police Department deploying a response platoon against the demonstrators.

This caused a melee in which the 6-foot-4, nearly 300-pound Marshall whacked officer Raymon Washington in the head with his skateboard.

Boy, 17, faces charge after video shows him hit officer with skate board

www.youtube.com

Soon after Marshall struck the officer he had deep feelings of remorse. “When I was going home, I looked around and realized this took a hard curve and it wasn’t for me,” he said. Marshall, a standout Northwestern High football player, had never been in any trouble before or had any encounters with the police.

As Black man, Washington understood the protestors’ rage.

“The uproar — I understood it because I’m Black myself,” Washington said. “I still get stopped in my neighborhood in my car by the police. I get it. There is change that needs to happen but tearing up the city is not one way.”

Washington didn’t immediately realize he had been struck, but after things calmed down in downtown Miami, he vomited and was sent home. “I took a shower, ordered a pizza and slept for three days,” Washington said. “I woke up to my brother kicking in my front door. They thought I was dead.”

Washington was concussed by the blow. This added to the lingering effects of multiple concussions he received as an athlete in his youth.

After video of the teenager striking the officer spread online, Marshall turned himself in to authorities and was charged with aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer.

Julian Stroleny, the teenager’s lawyer, got to work on a plea deal that would spare Marshall a mark on his clean record and impede his promising football career.

“I had seen the pictures distributed by the media, I had seen the video, but the young man before me was kind, timid, humble, and incredibly remorseful,” Stroleny said. “He had no priors, excellent grades, and was a star athlete. Not even a detention at school.”

As part of the deal, he proposed a meeting between Washington and Marshall to reconcile.

However, Washington was hesitant.

“I was like, ‘No.’ I didn’t really have a good understanding of the juvenile justice system,” Washington said. “I’m used to dealing with adults — do the crime, do the time type of thing.”

But after Washington learned about Marshall’s athletic aspirations he agreed to meet with the teenager.

The two, along with members of Marshall’s family met in a State Attorney’s conference room where Washington read Marshall’s three-page letter of apology. The letter brought him to tears.

“I was that kid — a high school athlete, wanted to go to college. Had offers on the table. I was like, I don’t want to screw this kid up. If I can change one life, and that’s it, then that’s it,” Washington said. “I should have been dead three times this year. For some reason, God was like, you’re here for a reason.”

Marshall was devastated after learning the officer’s history with concussions.

The police officer then did something extraordinary. He gave the teenager his cellphone number and arranged for him to receive tutoring and offered him rides to and from football practice.

The two are now in regular communication through text messages and Washington has become a mentor to the teen.

Recently, Washington visited the teenager’s home and was in the stands for Northwestern’s game against its rival, Central High.

“We won. I played great,” Marshall said. “I played amazing. He was so proud of me.”

“The divide between police and the communities they service isn’t good for anybody,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said. “This is a shining example of how we can overcome the tense relationships that exist. It’s a beautiful story.”

Marshall’s attorney has reached a plea deal with the state that includes Washington’s blessing. If he completes his probation and volunteer hours at the Miami Police Department, his record will be expunged at the age of 19.

Marshall is a senior looking to graduate this June. He has already received a few scholarships offers and hopes to play for a Division 1 team.

Not much has changed in the New York you explore in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. As you swing through a snowy cityscape everything should feel familiar. The buildings still look the same, the little shortcuts you’ve created for yourself are still there, and even the crimes taking place are the same. This is because Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a fresh coat of paint on a game that already exists. Except this time you’re playing as the new kid on the block, Spider-Man’s new protege, Miles Morales.

It would perhaps been unreasonable to expect Insomniac to bring us a whole new New York to Miles Morales just two years after Marvel’s Spider-Man hit the PlayStation 4. Video games like this just take too long to make, but the decision to make Miles Morales a standalone title meant they were going to need to find something that would help it stand out. Something beyond just a new story to make it unique. And what they chose to do was focus on the details and that is where this game is at its best (minor spoilers ahead).

It can sound like a hindrance for a game developer to be forced to use the same assets to make a new game, but in that challenge comes an advantage. They’ve already made this game before, and that time can be spent on making unique parts of the universe that add to what’s already there. Take Miles’s bedroom for example. When you first enter it you’ll notice a clear place on the wall where a painting used to reside. As you work through the game’s story that place on the wall will be met with anew coat of paint. Continue playing and a mural begins to form.

This may sound minor, but these small details are what the entire game is built on and it makes playing this game incredibly fun. It is also what separates it from the original Spider-Man the most. When Morales is swinging around town he’ll receive calls. If he receives them from his Mom he’ll frequently flip back and forth between Spanish and English. It’s not only a nod to his Mom’s Puerto Rican heritage but an opportunity to allow Morales to be himself. It’s an easy reminder that you aren’t playing as Peter Parker this time around, even if the setting is the same.

This attention to detail even goes into the gameplay. In Spider-Man (2018) Peter is a full-grown adult that has been doing the job for years now. He swings through the air gracefully and when webbing up enemies he does so with an ease and smoothness you would expect from a veteran hero. When you’re playing as Miles, however, you are reminded that he is a smaller teenager with nowhere near as much experience. He twists and turns while he swings and when he’s yanking someone with his webs he shows much more visible force while doing so than Peter ever did. This is a 17 year old novice you’re at the sticks of, and even with the extra super spider-aided strength, these powers all feel a bit new.

It’s all subtle presentation, and thankfully none of this will ever impact your ability to play the game. Combat is just as smooth as it was before and thanks to new gameplay additions such as Miles’s Electric Venom Powers there are extra wrinkles that help the game still feel new. You had far more gadgets at your disposal when playing as Peter, but what Miles lacks in gadgets he makes up for in powers. Superpowered punches, acrobatic crashes into the ground, and electric fast darts at enemies help Miles be his own hero, and players who master these powers will have the best time with the combat.

You can still upgrade both yourself and your gadgets by going across the town doing side missions. There are new collectibles to hoard and missions to complete, but they are of course optional. Players who are really enjoying the game will likely go out of their way to do all these and the rewards are absolutely worth it. Many of the extra side quests also create a little more story and world building to help flesh this game out even more, and perhaps set up some DLC or sequels in the process.

That will have to be where any set up exists because the story itself is very self-contained. If you are someone that did not play Spider-Man (2018) you can safely play Miles Morales with fear of minimal spoilers. A couple of major moments will be spoiled for you because they needed something with which to build the story for this game, but what follows is largely unique and excellent in its own right. As long as you like superheroes. It’s not formulaic by any means, but many of the superhero moments you expect from a superhero story are in Miles Morales, and fans of something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe will feel right at home in it, but others will likely lean on the great supporting characters, who are well-written, voice acted and feel like real people. There are no characters who exist merely for the sake of moving plot along. Everyone matters and during the few moments of the story that you may not enjoy it’s those characters that will push you through.

Fittingly, Insomniac made sure Spider-Man’s” Be Greater. Be Yourself” mantra was reflected in Miles Morales. This may initially look like the same Spider-Man, but when you look at the details it is so clear that it isn’t. It is well deserving of being its own stand alone title. It is unashamedly itself, which is what makes it excellent.

Back in August, Zack Snyder’s teaser trailer for his director’s cut of Justice League contained a curious Joker card that fueled speculation that, somehow, the Clown Prince of Crime would appear in the HBO Max project previously known as the Snyder Cut. The fan-hunch turned out to be correct, and Jared Leto was confirmed to be reprising his (much maligned) Suicide Squad incarnation of the greatest villain of Gotham for Snyder’s reshoots. Those reshoots turned out to be shorter than expected, but one also must remember that Snyder has so much extra footage from his principal photography that the director’s cut runtime will be massive. As far as Joker is concerned, Snyder has revealed that Leto’s Joker will appear differently than he did in Suicide Squad.

How so? Leto “little scene” will be part of the four minutes of new footage, and he will be “road-weary,” according to Snyder. Here’s what the director said during a Beyond The Trailer interview (via Bloody Disgusting):

“I wanted to, of course, honor what had been created with him because I thought it was really cool, but I also felt like… I’m not gonna tell you what happens in the little scene, but there is… some water has gone under the proverbial bridge between last we saw Joker and this sort-of appearance. He’s a road-weary Joker, I guess that’s a way of saying it.

So, what does this mean for Joker — no huffing and puffing over Harley Quinn, but what else? It actually doesn’t sound like we’re gonna see Joker interacting much with anyone, if only a few minutes of reshoot footage has materialized, and Leto wasn’t in any of Snyder’s original principal photography. Perhaps he’ll simply appear in a flashback or a dream sequence, and we totally know that Snyder’s fond of Knightmares, so that route would probably be a safe guess.

Snyder further elaborated while explaining that Leto was perfectly game to take on what Snyder “felt like was an inevitable course that the movie had to take,” which involved Joker. As Snyder put it, Leto “just kind of warmed up to this idea,” and “I am grateful and I am forever in debt to his kindness for doing it.” Yep, it’ll likely be a few minutes of Leto inside of a four-hour miniseries, but one can expect that Leto’s turn will be one of the most talked about moments.

Really though, wouldn’t it be something if we simply saw Leto’s face cackling from within that Joker card from the teaser trailer? Never say never, people.