Brooklyn rapper Medhane is currently facing sexual misconduct allegations. As Brooklyn Vegan notes, a post on Reddit’s r/HipHopHeads collects multiple allegations made against the rapper on social media. One Instagram Story claimed Medhane “[forces] himself onto women” and is “manipulative.” That post was shared by another account, and they added, “The last post isn’t mine, but I know multiple people who have experienced sexual assault and manipulation from him. It’s not my story to tell but I can vouch that there’s a pattern with this man.”
Now Medhane has responded to the allegations, and he is denying them. Saying that “rape is reprehensible and unforgivable,” he says he is “deeply pained by these accusations.” While he denies the rape allegations, he admits he “spoke poorly of” a woman with whom he “had a sexual relationship” and called his actions “emotionally abusive” and “problematic behavior.”
He concluded his post, “I am learning from this experience and I will continue to offer a space to communicate to my accuser and her family in attempts to bring healing in a holistic way.”
Read Medhane’s full post below.
“Rape is reprehensible and unforgivable.
I am deeply pained by these accusations. Our protection comes from speaking truth and making it known.
I had a sexual relationship with a woman, and spoke poorly of her to another person.
I acknowledge that this is problematic behavior and have since attempted to make amends with this young woman to no avail.
After her tweet in which she called me a rapist, I reached out to her to try to understand how I made her feel and what I could do to mend the hurt. She didn’t respond.
With the tweets and retweets by individuals of this accusation, I must respond even though to do so puts me in the position of saying a young woman is misrepresenting a sexual encounter.
Speaking poorly of a woman after you have sex with her is wrong and I accept the repercussions of that behavior, as it is indeed emotionally abusive.
I am learning from this experience and I will continue to offer a space to communicate to my accuser and her family in attempts to bring healing in a holistic way.
When the 2019-20 season was suspended, the Indiana Pacers were playing quality basketball. Nate McMillan’s team won 8 of its last 11 games in February and March but, as the NBA restart approaches in Orlando, the Pacers are usually omitted from conversations about legitimate contenders in the Eastern Conference.
Some of that undoubtedly stems from injury uncertainty surrounding Victor Oladipo, with the All-Star shooting guard’s situation at least slightly uncertain in Orlando. Oladipo is participating in scrimmages, but the team’s offensive focal point is still recovering from injury with a potential contract extension looming. From there, 2020 All-Star big man Domantas Sabonis suffered a foot injury that pushed him out of the bubble for treatment and, with Jeremy Lamb already out as he recovers from a long-term ailment, the Pacers are dinged up as the seeding games arrive.
Still, this is an interesting team to monitor and, if nothing else, the Pacers have a chance to compete for a top-four seed, even with a two-game deficit to the Miami Heat for the No. 4 spot in the conference.
ROSTER
Goga Bitadze
Brian Bowen II
Malcolm Brogdon
Aaron Holiday
Justin Holiday
Alize Johnson
Jeremy Lamb (injured)
TJ Leaf
T.J. McConnell
Doug McDermott
Naz Mitrou-Long
Victor Oladipo (status uncertain)
Domantas Sabonis (injured)
JaKarr Sampson
Edmond Sumner
Myles Turner
T.J. Warren
SCHEDULE
Saturday, Aug. 1 – 7:00 pm ET – vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Monday, Aug. 3 – 4:00 pm ET – vs. Washington Wizards
Tuesday, Aug. 4 – 6:00 pm ET – vs. Orlando Magic
Thursday, Aug. 6 – 4:00 pm ET – vs. Phoenix Suns
Saturday, Aug. 8 – 6:00 pm ET – vs. Los Angeles Lakers
Monday, Aug. 10 – 8:00 pm ET – vs. Miami Heat
Wednesday, Aug. 12 – 4:00 pm ET – vs. Houston Rockets
Friday, Aug. 14 – TBD – vs. Miami Heat
Prior to the uncertainty surrounding Oladipo and Sabonis, the Pacers firmly had their eyes on a first-round series victory. Candidly, Indiana wasn’t likely to be favored in a series against the Celtics, Heat or 76ers, but the Pacers bring a lot to the table and played as the equivalent of a 49-win team for a reason. If Sabonis is unable to play, Indiana goes from frisky and dangerous to potentially a more optimal target for top teams, but this is still a team with roster talent and they are firmly a cut above the likes of Orlando, Brooklyn and Washington. With Sabonis and Oladipo, expectations would be different but, if one or both don’t play, being competitive would be a reasonable outcome.
X-FACTOR
With Sabonis seemingly likely to miss at least part of the team’s processional, the Pacers really need Myles Turner to be his best self. The 24-year-old center is appealing for his combination of floor spacing and rim protection, but Turner was seemingly surpassed by Sabonis in Indiana’s pecking order this season. Furthermore, the Pacers may have to make a decision between the two, acknowledging that both are likely better at center. If Sabonis is gone, Turner is the team’s best big man by far. If Sabonis plays, the big men playing well together in a high-level environment might answer some big-picture questions for the organization.
BIGGEST ON-COURT QUESTION
Can the Pacers score consistently in a playoff environment? Indiana finished the pre-hiatus schedule with the NBA’s 17th-best offense. That isn’t a damning figure, per se, but the Pacers weren’t exactly explosive on a nightly basis. Defensively, Indiana was quite good, ranking No. 7 in the league on a per-possession basis, but there are questions about the team’s ability to score enough when things slow down. Oladipo’s performance in the team’s early scrimmage has quieted some chatter, simply because he is the team’s best offensive creator by a considerable margin. Still, Sabonis acted as a fulcrum on the interior this season and, if either or both is limited or out, Indiana will need to heavily rely on Malcolm Brogdon and T.J. Warren to generate enough offense to survive.
Many actors have appeared in both Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Natalie Portman, for one, and Peter Serafinowicz, who voiced Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace and played Garthan Saal in Guardians of the Galaxy), but the list shortens if it only contains Disney’s Star Wars movies and the MCU. Think: Andy Serkis (The Last Jedi and Black Panther), Lupita Nyong’o (The Force Awakens/The Last Jedi/The Rise of Skywalker and Black Panther), Mads Mikkelsen (Rogue One and Doctor Strange). One name not on the list is Brie Larson, although not for a lack of trying.
In a video on her YouTube channel, the Captain Marvel star revealed, “I auditioned for Star Wars… I auditioned for Hunger Games, I auditioned for the Terminator reboot. I actually was thinking about the Terminator reboot today because I got a flat tire and I was like, ‘Oh the last time I got a flat tire was when I was driving into my audition for Terminator. Got a flat tire at the audition, and then didn’t get the job.” Larson didn’t say which Star Wars movie at the time, but in a subsequent chat with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story co-writer Gary Whitta on the Animal Crossing-inspired Animal Talking show, she confirmed, “You wrote Rogue One, right? I auditioned for that, I didn’t get it.”
Larson didn’t get to play Jyn Erso (I assume), but she starred in her own Marvel movie and appeared in the highest-grossing movie of all-time. Not the worst consolation prize.
50 Cent is well-known for trolling his rivals, critics, and well, everyone on social media but yesterday, the mogul issued a rare apology for one of his memes after realizing that its target actually did get hurt recently. After Megan Thee Stallion revealed that she’d been shot in both feet during an altercation with Tory Lanez, 50 deleted a meme making light of the incident and apologized for sharing it in the first place.
Apparently, the reason he did repost the meme was he didn’t believe the news that she’d been shot. I suppose as the subject of a number of false rumors himself (anyone else remember the old severed hand myth?), he is more likely to dismiss any celebrity news as conjecture and speculation. However, upon seeing Megan’s post, he realized the seriousness of the situation and replaced his trolling meme with a video of Meg talking about the shooting along with an apology.
“Damn, I didn’t think this sh*t was real,” he wrote. “It sounded so crazy.” He continued by addressing Megan directly and tagging her, “I’m glad you’re feeling better and I hope you can accept my apology. I posted a meme that was floating around. I wouldn’t have done that if I knew you was really hurt. Sorry.”
Although Megan recently posted her own photo to Instagram with the caption “Unbreakable,” she did admit that the shooting was “the worst experience of my life” after previously saying that she was “real life hurt and traumatized.” The police are investigating Tory Lanez for his alleged role in the shooting.
Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Jurassic World: Dominion recently became the first major studio movie to resume shooting in the U.K. in July, and Bryce Dallas Howard showed off the bruises to prove it. That film won’t arrive until June 2021, but before that happens — this September, actually — an animated series is coming to Netflix to quench some dinosaur thirst. Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous presents the idea that, yes of course, parents would (still) send their kids to an island summer camp where they can frolic with peaceful, veggie loving dinosaurs. I think there’s no mystery how this is gonna turn out.
The series hails from executive producers Steven Spielberg (who seems determined to keep shaking everyone up, just like he did with 1993’s Jurassic Park), Colin Trevorrow, and Frank Marshall, and the visuals arrive courtesy of DreamWorks Animation at the behest of Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment. From the synopsis:
Set against the timeline of the blockbuster film Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous follows a group of six teenagers trapped at a new adventure camp on the opposite side of Isla Nublar. When the events of the film unfold and dinosaurs are unleashed across the island, each kid realizes their very survival rests on the shoulders of themselves and their fellow campers. Unable to reach the outside world, our six teens will go from strangers to friends to family as they band together to survive the dinosaurs and uncover hidden secrets so deep they threaten the world itself.
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous arrives on September 18, and here’s a poster.
The release date for the audiobook of Lana Del Rey’s poetry collection, Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass, was leaked earlier this month (and she later confirmed it). The date was set for today, July 28, so the audiobook is out now. The audiobook isn’t currently available on streaming services, but Del Rey has shared one of its tracks individually, “LA Who Am I To Love You.”
She begins the poem, backed by simple-yet-evocative piano from Jack Antonoff, “I left my city for San Francisco / Took a free ride off a billionaire’s jet / LA, I’m from nowhere, who am I to love you? / LA, I’ve got nothing, who am I to love you when I’m feeling this way and I’ve got nothing to offer? / LA, not quite the city that never sleeps / Not quite the city that wakes, but the city that dreams, for sure / If by dreams you mean in nightmares.”
Del Rey says of the release, “Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass is the title poem of the book and the first poem I wrote of many. Some of which came to me in their entirety, which I dictated and then typed out, and some that I worked laboriously picking apart each word to make the perfect poem. They are eclectic and honest and not trying to be anything other than what they are and for that reason I’m proud of them, especially because the spirit in which they were written was very authentic.”
Listen to “LA Who Am I To Love You” above.
Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass is out now via Simon & Schuster Audio. Get it here.
As Netflix recently revealed in The Umbrella Academy‘s second-season trailer, the show goes back in time to 1960s Dallas. The siblings get separated slightly in the timeline, and Five lands on the brink of nuclear apocalypse, so they must all find each other (again) and save the world (again). The historical backdrop provides plenty of fuel for the show to branch out in relevant directions, but there’s also a cute revelation — and perhaps a nod to The Mandalorian‘s The Child — with the inclusion of Baby Pogo,.
Pogo, of course, is the hyper-intelligent talking chimp who’s comparable to Bruce Wayne’s butler, Alfred Pennyworth, and a motion-capture creation played by Adam Godley. However, it’s fair to say that there were some — SPOILER ALERT — mixed feelings about Pogo’s role last season. He was regarded mostly positively, for sure, but it was difficult to reconcile whether Pogo was entirely benevolent when he was complicit in Sir Reginald Hargreeves’ maneuverings and secrecy. Later in the season, the chimp clearly felt terrible about helping to conceal Vanya’s powers over the years, and he ended up dying as part of her rage tour, which I feel solidified some goodwill towards him since, you know, he ended up paying the price for staying silent in a tragic way.
The lure to revisit Pogo in Season 2 must have been too much to resist, but it’s not like this didn’t happen without warning. The trailer showed a shadowy glimpse of a young chimp, and now, Netflix has revealed a first official look at the little guy.
A month ago, Blackpink made their return with their first new song in a year, “How You Like That.” The K-pop titans’ comeback was clearly anticipated, as the song’s video shattered a YouTube record upon its premiere. Now, they’re preparing to give fans what they’ve been waiting for since 2018’s Blackpink In Your Area: a new album. They announced the record yesterday (but not its title), revealing that it will be released on October 2 via YG Entertainment/Interscope Records. Promotional materials seem to indicate the album is titled The Album, but no title is used for the album on the pre-order pages.
The group previously revealed they would be releasing a single from the album in August. That teaser came with the promise of a mystery guest on the song, who fans now believe to be Selena Gomez. Korean publication MyDaily reported that Gomez is featuring on the song, and YG Entertainment commented simply, “Please wait for the official announcement later.” Before Gomez became unofficially attached to the song, a prevalent rumor was that Ariana Grande would be the one to appear on the song.
YG Entertainment previously laid out their plans for the group’s comeback, saying back in May, “BLACKPINK’s first new song, which will be released in mid-June, is a pre-release title track. The BLACKPINK members are currently preparing to film the music video for the song, and they are picking up the pace of their final preparations, including practicing their new choreography. The second new song, which is a special kind of a new song, is scheduled for a release in July or August. As it’s a first studio album that [BLACKPINK] has been preparing for a long time, we hope to create more opportunities for the group to greet fans through performances and other content than in any year before through a three-step, multi-phased release.”
After winning the Golden Globe for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy, Ramy star Ramy Youssef began his acceptance speech with, “Well, yeah, so I would like to thank my God. Allahu Akbar. Thank you, God.” Later in the evening, he was asked whether thanking God was a jab at loud atheist / Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais, who kicked off the ceremony by saying, “If you win, come up, accept your little award, thank your agent and your God, and f*ck off, OK? It’s already three hours long.”
“The timing of it was funny after what Ricky said, but it was really important,” Youssef says… He even reached out to Gervais about how the line between atheists and believers has come full circle. “I told Ricky that he talked about God so much, he might be Muslim!”
Ramy was renewed by Hulu, so can we expect a Ricky Gervais cameo in season three? After Mia Khalifa showed up in season two, anything is possible.
Talking to The Umbrella Academy‘s Robert Sheehan is like injecting espresso straight into your veins. He’s a gregarious Irishman — who I suspect was wildly gesticulating during our phone call to discuss the Netflix show’s second season — as well as whip smart and extremely funny. As Klaus Hargreeves, Sheehan nailed down fan-favorite status while portraying the black-sheep sibling whose powers include communing with the dead. This ability doesn’t come without major downsides, which frequently leads Klaus into substance abuse, but this year, he’s got a whole new outlet.
Sheehan was cool enough to speak with us about Klaus’ adventures this season, including a key scene inspired by a Darren Aronofsky film. Klaus also becomes a doomsday cult leader, which is how he adapts to 1960s Texas, where siblings land (through botched time travel) ahead of yet another apocalypse. So, there’s plenty going on for him this season, and even though fans suspect Sheehan of being Klaus-In-Real-Life, he’s got quite the extensive list of credits and was, frankly, overdue for a major breakout role. During the course of this conversation, Sheehan broke into song twice (I noted one instance and will leave the other up to your imagination) and deftly ricocheted answers, no matter how strange the inquiries.
Robert Sheehan: How are ya? I’m lathered in soap as we speak.
I’d expect no less from you, so we might as well stick with that vibe. You recently Instagrammed a Season 2 poster while asking, “Who farted?” Do you know the answer to that question?
Yes, I do, in fact. Yes, I do. You wanna know the answer?
This is already an experience.
Tom. Hopper. It’s always Tom! [Tom plays the musclebound “gorilla,” Luther.]
I was totally off base. I suspected Justin L. Min’s Ben character. It seems like something that a ghost would do.
He can be quite straight-laced, though.
Well, Ben is still haunting Klaus this season. Who would you like to be haunted by?
St. Francis of Assisi. Just because there’d be little ghost woodland creatures following him around. That’d be quite eventful. You’d have little ghost hamsters, little ghost squirrels, little ghost centipedes, just following him around like a little ghost animal parade. It’d be like Ghost David Attenborough.
Have you ever personally had experiences with the paranormal?
I have a few friends who get a few pints and get a little paranormal, but apart from that, nooooo.
There’s a scene this season that I think people will talk about. You’re dancing, and the camera work is nuts.
Oh yeah, the liquor store. The camera was attached to me. It was clumsy, but we press on, regardless. Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem For A Dream is what inspired it. They strapped one to Jennifer Connelly when her character was strung out on drugs. And I think all of the lead actors did that in that movie. And I think Mick Jagger had popularized that rig in some music video.
The song fits Klaus’ state of mind. Do you have a personal theme song?
No, if I like a song, I can play it to death, but nothing in particular, other than [starts singing loudly] “heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to work I go!”
Netflix
Klaus isn’t working, but he’s digging the 1960s as a cult leader. Do you see that as an extension of his personality, hedonistically, or is it a way of coping?
Yeah, exactly. It’s a way of coping, a coping mechanism, and I think it’s a replacement for drugs, like an anesthetic: praise and adoration and all that. I think praise and adoration is a form of an anesthetic that many people use, in the form of social media. You go on there, and they tell you how healthy you are and how great you look, and you think, “Oh, I should really stick with that filter. It behooves my skin tone!” And so on and so forth, so I think that with Klaus, it’s a bit like laying down at a shooting gallery, or as you guys call them, a heroin den.
If you had your own personal cult, what would your teachings be?
First off, I get first dibs on bank accounts and wives. It’s going to be a medieval cult, like kings, back in the day. First dibs! That’s a joke. But I think peace and love and let’s all have a cuddle and think about family. That’s a bit old-fashioned these days.
Did you do any studying up on cults or base your cult persona on any leader in particular?
Not really. We’re making the occasionally dramatic show, and I wasn’t playing a real-life cult leader. I was fascinated by cults anyway, because it’s a new design for living. They’re not necessarily all bad. In fact, I’d assume that there are quite a few good-meaning cults out there, like I don’t think there’s much difference in a society and a cult really. It’s hard to define a cult as anything but a society, that’s my point. So, there are probably good examples of that, and the bad ones get all the press, of course, but I’m sure there are some that are growing food, helping each other to be self-sufficient.
So, like a utopia? Your leader is a benevolent one.
The fact that the words “cult” or “commune” have been associated with drinking the kool-aid. Eventually, if everybody says that different designs of living are a threat by definition, you go, “Oh well, you’re a lunatic.” If you think outside the society that you’ve been born into, which frankly is great and all but can be deeply flawed and wanting, spiritually. It can leave people lonely. It can leave people broke. And I’m sure that there are [organizations] out there that are dedicated to love and self-sufficiency, not handing your power over to every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the name of convenience.
You do a lot of physical comedy in this season, including with the cult. Do you ever want to go really gung ho and maybe get ripped for a role?
Oh yeah, of course. I’d enjoy that! If you’re an actor, and you’re in it for the right reasons, you enjoy transformation. That’s the whole kick, so absolutely, I’d transform for a role.
The siblings land in Texas after Five screwed up the time travel. Have you ever been to the Lone Star State?
Yes, I have been to Texas once. I was at the SXSW film festival for Moonwalkers and had a whale, an entire whale, of a time.
Did you see any interesting bartenders like Bill Murray there?
No, I didn’t see Bill Murray, but I saw many more bartenders, but they were bartenders, so I wasn’t making any solid memories. But we screened the film in what was essentially a glorified pub cinema called The Alamo Drafthouse. That was the place, and they were slinging drinks during the screening. The waiter would come in as we were watching, and fling you tequila. This was quite a few years ago, but when we were due up on stage to talk about the film, (1) I hadn’t seen the film and was quite shocked; and (2) Was quite, quite drunk, so it was hard to talk tangibly about the thing and waffled like a mad man up there for about 20 minutes.
The apocalypse is upon the show again. Do you see any hope for society staving off an apocalypse like these characters?
Well, I think that kind of defeats the definition of an apocalypse, which means that most of humanity won’t survive. Christians are into that in a big way, they invented the idea, so I suppose there’s always a chance that someone would survive. Men and women are very, very adaptive, like cockroaches. We’re very, very good at survival.
‘The Umbrella Academy’ launches its second Netflix season on July 31.
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