In addition to June being Pride Month, it’s also Black Music Month. What better opportunity for Lizzo — herself an icon of pride and Black music — to link up with Queer Eye‘s Fab Five for an exuberant, animated lyric video for her new single, “Soulmate”? The song is a bright celebration of self-love, with inflections of pop, soul, and Lizzo’s own brand of brash hip-hop, and the video matches that energy, with animated Lizzo hanging out with her collaborators, playing with Corgi puppies (shout-out to Antoni!) and pampering herself on “Self-Love Lane.”
The positive lyrics reinforce the message of the upbeat song, as Lizzo boasts about being her own soulmate, “She never tell me to exercise / We always get extra fries / And you know the sex is fire.” The video represents this by depicting two Lizzos, who share fries and get married by the Fab Five’s Bobby.
Even though Lizzo’s “soulmate” never tells her to exercise, she recently posted a video doing just that in response to critics’ fat shaming her. She also led fans in a self-care session on Instagram Live during quarantine, showing that she practices what she preaches.
Watch Lizzo’s animated lyric video for “Soulmate” above.
Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Like her microwave-exploding co-star, Zoë Kravitz is stuck in London and waiting patiently for production to resume on The Batman. The pandemic threw a monkey-wrench into the highly-anticipated reboot from director Matt Reeves, which had barely gotten started before the whole world shut down. Naturally, Kravitz is excited to get back into the role of Selina Kyle (a.k.a. Catwoman), and she recently opened up about what it was like wearing the costume for the iconic character.
After talking to Variety‘s The Big Ticket podcast about her work as Rob in Hulu’s gender-swapping reboot of High Fidelity, which could land a few award nominations for Kravitz, the actress revealed what it was like suiting up as Catwoman for the first time on set and how the role carries a lot of expectation from not just fans, but her friends and family who can’t wait to see her portrayal of the classic hero-villain:
“It’s cool, man. It’s cool. I can’t say it wasn’t cool, but I’ve been really trying to not think too much about just what that character means to everybody else. Just because it can be distracting in the wrong way, especially when you’re trying to become someone else…. The script is phenomenal. The story’s really strong. I feel very clear on who Selena is and what she wants, and I’m trying to stay more focused on that.”
Kravitz also received words of encouragement from former Catwoman actresses Anne Hathaway, Halle Berry, and Michelle Pfeiffer who personally hugged Kravitz not long after she got the part. “[They] sent really sweet, encouraging messages when that was announced. So I feel supported by my girls,” she told Variety.
Late-night talk shows are continuing to rely on their new virtual platform in light of the pandemic. Even across screens, Jimmy Fallon has brainstormed some fun games for his guests to participate in. On Thursday night, Fallon invited Demi Lovato to join him on The Tonight Show, and the singer was asked to perform renditions of popular songs with jumbled lyrics.
Lovato joined Fallon for the quasi-karaoke game, Google Translate Songs. The premise of the show is fairly self-explanatory: Fallon types popular song lyrics into Google Translate, puts them into another language, then translates them back into English. The result is a hilariously reimagined song with confusing lyrics.
Lovato was the first to play and was tasked with singing “Walking On Sunshine” translated into Russian, which became, “Now Mom’s In The Sun Now.” Lovato’s captivating voice allowed her to still give a beautiful rendition of the song, even though the lyrics made no sense. “I will congratulate you on grasping email / I cannot wait to write on you when you finally move,” she sings.
In other Lovato news, the singer appears in the Netflix film, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, alongside Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams. In a recent interview, Ferrell gushed over Lovato’s talent. “And she was so sweet and lovely and she was actually shooting during her birthday,” Ferrell said about Lovato. “We kind of had this really special moment. She had just come out of her last rehab stint. I really wanted to work with her on this because I’m a fan. I go, ‘You’re so sweet I can’t believe you’re doing this, I just can’t believe.’ And she said, ‘Well I had to tell you, watching your movies really, kind of, helped me go through what I had to go through. It’s weird when you get hit in the chest with something like that and it’s so personal to her, it was one of the sweetest things ever.”
The odds are in favor of their being some manner of sports in 2020, and I’m not talking about marble racing or competitive Mouse Trap tournaments. Bats, balls, linament, the whole thing. But there’s a great big valley of uncertainty between now and the first pitch, first tip-off, or first hot dog swallow so it’s good to continue trying sportifying everything to stave off boredom. Challenge your WFH friends to see who gets the most unique stab at the “I don’t know how to do email sign-offs anymore” sign off or teach your little babies to joust. Whatever.
If those ideas aren’t working for you, though, then the people behind TBS’ Tournament Of Laughs (the second episode airs Sunday at 10 PM and the first is streaming here) may have a sales pitch for you: what if March Madness, but with comedians? 64 of them, to be exact, channeling all the weird energy of these unprecedented times into comedy clips that viewers can then vote on to help widdle down the competitors and ultimately help influence the ultimate victor. The prize? Bragging rights. Also the friends they made along the way. Regardless, it’s something to laugh at all piled into one place and the opportunity to feel the God-like thrill those American Idol fans have been smugly enjoying for years.
Tournament Of Laughs is hosted by SNL alum and actor Jason Sudeikis, who is managing to do a pretty great impression of a SportsCenter anchor while introducing the comics and clips. We spoke with Sudeikis about that, feeling like ET while filming, forgetting about committing violence on Baby Yoda, impersonating Joe Biden, and how press tours and SNL From Home can set the stage for a pretty great grift.
I feel obligated to ask anyone who I know is a huge sports fan about sports, and obviously, the vibe of the show definitely speaks to that as well. How have you been filling the time without basketball, without baseball?
I’m a soccer fan, as well, so for me, it’s been the little things that help you out. The Last Dance was very, very, helpful to give you something to look forward to every Sunday for five weeks. And then more recently, me and some pals that work on this show that we have coming up this August for Apple TV [Ted Lasso], we play a lot of FIFA. We’re making our own sports. Dealing with our own virtual soccer to scratch that itch.
I guess the FIFA counts as research?
Oh yeah, exactly. We’ve written off the whole thing.
Perfect. So with this show, it really seems to lean into the daydreams of anybody who grew up watching SportsCenter and March Madness. Was that a part of the show when you signed on or is that partly your influence?
No, that was all them. They had that all lined up. I believe the show was probably even pitched in the absence of March Madness. I came into it after the fact. But you hit the nail on the head as far as the theme. I’m basically getting to play as if I was Rich Eisen or Scott Van Pelt. Just hosting SportsCenter and being the guy showing you the highlights and talking you through some of the great plays, the great moves and making a few jokes here and there.
Did you have any say in the comics that were chosen to be a part of the show? Did you call in any favors? I’m curious how easy it was to get participation. Obviously a lot of people are making this kind of content but adding the competition factor is definitely unique.
The producers had everything all lined up. It was one of the questions that I had coming in because with COVID going on, it affects everyone. It affects so many gigs. I’ve never done standup, I came up in the improv and sketch world, but I have a lot of friends who do stand-up and all the gigs were canceled. So this is a good opportunity to get them paid for doing what we all… anybody that does what we do, we do it for free to a certain degree. Unfortunately, people that rent homes and apartments don’t feel the same way. [Laughs] And it’s understandable, no judgment on them. So when I asked, “Who do we have?” And then when the producers started listing the names I was like, “Holy smokes, this is great,” because it’s a lot of people that I’m friendly with but also fans of, and a half dozen or more people that I also didn’t know.
TBS
So I know in the initial press release they had called out the at-home sets, and that’s hard to believe. This was filmed in your home, is that right?
Mine is not. [The comics are] I go through this interesting process, not too dissimilar from like third act of ET. Like coming into the situation, I get my temperature taken, I’m in a room all by myself, I get changed, I take my tie and my plastic bag. I’m in a room with just me, a teleprompter and three cameras, two of which are locked down and one is remote controlled. The producers are in different parts of this house speaking to me through a walkie-talkie. It’s very different from anything I’ve ever done. But that’s where we are in this day and age with that process of just figuring it out as we go. It’s been very engaging.
For me, part of the problem is how quick the turnaround is going to be, especially after we get through this first round. We had 16 comics for the premiere and then 16 [this] week, and then we start getting into the week to week voting and elimination. That will be very similar to the process that I was used to at SNL where you kind of even forget people are watching the show, at least for me that is. By the time people are talking about the last one, you’re already on to the next one. I’m looking forward to that element, though, because I’m watching the pieces pretty much in real-time as well. At least I have over the last couple of weeks. There will probably be more of that. They’ll probably be coming in maybe as I’m talking about them. [Laughing] You don’t know. It’s part of the fun.
Popping back up on SNL From Home with the red tracksuit for “What’s Up With That,” did you have that already in storage or is that something they had to mail you?
No, man. The geniuses of that place figured out a way to bring that right to my home out here in L.A. That was all fresh. Eagle-eyed viewers would have noticed that it wasn’t an official Adidas tracksuit.
Ah! Okay.
It was like a velour kind of different thing. I’m not as good with the wigs as my gal Inga [Thrasher], who is my hair and wig lady from SNL, so that was just really a simple thing. It was all stuff that the producer and wardrobe there, sending packages the day of… they sent ring lights, they sent the tripods, I used my own phone. The same way that I feel like teaching at home has made all of us that have kids –especially younger children — appreciate the work and the patience of teachers, there’s nothing like trying to do a little 45-second sketch in your home to appreciate people behind the scenes at a place like SNL that make that seem so seamless. They did exactly what they do for me at the home version too. It was just me who took forever to be like, “Can you get this light to look right? Can I hang up a green screen?” Goodness, gracious. The crew is the glue.
Did you hold on to the suit now for next time or do you send it back?
Oh yeah! Oh no, no. I kept it all. I kept all the electronics too, I’m not sending any of that back. They know better. I don’t care if they put a return label on there or not. It’s mine now.
Yup, definitely.
I’ll say I sent it back. You can use that in the interview, “oh yeah that was a joke.” My kids are going to make the best home videos, better than the crap I made when I was a kid. Oh yeah. We’re in great shape now.
Honestly, you just keep doing these things… keep going on different shows. I feel bad I didn’t send you some electronic equipment. Were you expecting me to send like a ring light or a phone or something? A rig? I’m sorry.
You know what I need now? HDMI cords.
There you go. It’s cool, we’ll just set up like an Amazon wishlist for you and then we can get that taken care of, perfect.
[Laughs] Exactly. Perfect.
NBC
So the Biden thing, obviously that’s in a different state right now because he’s the nominee and you’ve obviously played him for a while on SNL, though I know Woody Harrelson stepped in. Have you put that down or is that something where you might return at some point in the future?
Oh gosh, that all comes down to… I don’t know. That’s a Lorne question. Ask him and tell me what he says.
With everything going on right now, I don’t want to assume a political ideology, but is there any worry when you play a character like that where you might say something that might stick and become a factor? Like obviously, it’s probably overstated to a certain extent, but Tina Fey’s famous Sarah Palin had an impact. Do you ever have that in mind or is that just not part of the process?
I don’t think you can have any part of that in your mind. I know I didn’t. I really enjoyed Studio 60 and Aaron Sorkin in general. I’m a big fan of his but we like to think like Sports Night, or even West Wing, or Newsroom, or Studio 60… I think he essentially looks for the best version of a place and yet from the inside when that show is on television… [Laughs] I think Al Franken said it best when he was talking about the heyday of SNL, when it was the number one thing to watch on television in the ’70s. When it was Chappelle Show, The Daily Show, Amy Schumer, all in one type of show. Franken was just like, “We’re really just trying to make each other laugh,” so at the end of the day, that’s really what it is. The cultural relevance of it and the significance of it is nothing… Lorne tries to be responsible with it. We’re not trying to take shots that weren’t fair or warranted, but as far as from a performing side, no I’ve never gotten in my head. I played George Bush towards the tail-end of his presidency or Mitt Romney when he ran against Obama or Biden now. If anything, you’re just trying to connect to the material.
Especially not doing that show now on a weekly basis year after year like I was when I initially started playing Joe Biden. My take on it is, whenever you get the call… and a lot of times, it depends on what’s possible. When Woody played him we were in London working on this Apple show, so it was impossible to get back. I’m never going to complain losing a gig to Woody Harrelson. May I be lucky enough to have that happen many times over the course of my career. You can’t think about… “Will this change the NASDAQ?” as I’m saying this silly joke, this four-line monologue. It’s mostly just about trying to keep the fake teeth in.
Disney
Did you feel the cultural significance when you punched Baby Yoda and did you face a bit of backlash with that?
Yeah, that was a whole thing. You know what? I kind of forgot about it. I can’t remember exactly how many weeks, months went by from when Adam Pally and I did that with Favreau and Taika Waititi. For me, the most significant thing was my little boy Otis, who, like any little kid from the last 50 years, loves Star Wars. And I remember he even got to see baby Yoda. And it didn’t hit me when that became such a huge thing when the first episode of Mandalorian premiered and everybody went hog wild about Yoda, baby Yoda, it didn’t even hit me then like, “Oh shit.”
Like a sense of dread. Like uh oh.
Nope. Forgot. Didn’t even… because it didn’t show who he was before and it was just this one-off neat thing where you get to dress up like a scout trooper, not a Stormtrooper just so you know. [Laughs] I think its a scout trooper, it’s not a Stormtrooper. Anyway so they premiered on a Friday or a Saturday, whatever it was, I know it was the weekend because Otis and I were playing video games and Olivia [Wilde, Sudeikis’ partner] came into the room and goes, “Hey, you’re trending on Twitter” and I’m not active on social media so in this day and age it’s kind of like, “Oh, that’s interesting.” And then immediately it’s like, “Wait, why?” I have no idea why. I already got a hard enough last name to spell. For it to be trending is bonkers, and then when she says, “apparently you punched Baby Yoda” and I was like, “Oh, that’s right!” I totally forgot that I literally hit… then I watched it and I was like, “I’ll be darned. How about that?” So that was the extent of it. It was very surreal and I started getting texts from friends going, “You bastard” and people saying like, “Did you really get to wear the suit or was that just your voice?” All those funny questions. And Liv is active on social media so I knew she was catching some guff on my behalf.
I’m wildly curious about Fletch. How real was that? Is it even still real, the possibility of you doing that? Because I thought it was was a fantastic fit.
There’s a version that almost went that I think would have been erroneous had it gone because it wasn’t ready. It was extremely real, drafts of the script and the studio, and I guess most importantly, money to back it financially. But yeah, it’s still going around out there. I’m not personally involved with it right now because I never personally have access to the money so I’m not exactly sure where it all stands now. I think the character of Irwin Fletcher has the opportunity to be a modern-day superhero, that’s my take on it. And I don’t mean that in the cape flying, throwing people through windows way. I just mean a person that is truly in search of truth and feels let down at every corner that he has to take matters into his own hands. I think it’s a compelling character that’s very, very, prescient and yet relevant at the same time. And it has been. Even from the early days as a character in a bunch of novels by Greg McDonald. I hope it sees the light of day with the right people behind it because I think it’s a cool idea.
Yeah, I actually agree and you never know. Look at how Ryan Reynolds swung back to Deadpool eventually. I honestly hope it does for you.
Yeah. You have all my blessings to start a Kickstarter or a GoFundMe.
All right, I will absolutely make that happen and at the very least, we’ll send you the money for the HDMI plugs.
That’s really what I was getting at. I appreciate you doing that. [Laughs]
‘Tournament Of Laughs’ airs Sunday at 10PM ET on TBS and you can vote for your favorite comics here.
DaBaby fights off a zombie invasion alongside Roddy Ricch in his action-packed “Rockstar” video. The latest single from DaBaby’s spring Blame It On Baby album, “Rockstar” flips the image of an archetypical rock star as a metaphorical reference to the rappers’ guns and drugs lifestyle. Reel Goats translates that imagery by literally loading them both down with full Call Of Duty-esque arsenals to battle the undead horde.
To be honest, it’s a little disappointing to find out that Roddy and DaBaby probably won’t make it through the zombie apocalypse — there are only like five head shots in the entire video. Come on, guys, you’ve seen Walking Dead, right? You have to aim for the noggin! The video is still pretty clever and there are even a few moments where it looks like our heroes might really meet their respective fates.
Of course, no self-respecting rapper or rockstar would ever let themselves get got — especially not in their own video. If LL Cool J can defeat those sharks and Busta Rhymes can beat up Michael Myers with martial arts moves, then it’s guaranteed DaBaby and Roddy Ricch will make it to the end of their own monster movie. With “Rockstar” hitting the top of the charts earlier this year and getting a “Black Lives Matter”-themed remix, DaBaby has certainly earned at least a little leeway when it comes to dodging the jaws of (film) death.
Watch the video for DaBaby’s “Rockstar” with Roddy Ricch above.
Roddy Ricch is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Ask any Texan, myself included, what they’re most proud of from their home state and you’re sure to get an emphatic answer. It might be the savory barbecue served up everywhere from fine dining restaurants to the roadside shacks, or the uncrowded, seemingly-endless national parks, or simply the beautiful, expansive, star-filled night sky. Or it might be the whiskey.
Young to the industry in relation to whiskeys distilled in Kentucky and Tennessee, the current wave of Texas distilling started in 2006 — when Garrison Brothers Distillery was granted a distiller’s permit for bourbon. That made it the first of its kind: the only legal bourbon distillery in Texas. Much progress has been made since then, with the Texas Whiskey Trail launching just last year, founded by 12 distilleries at the forefront of crafting Certified Texas Whiskey.
To speak generally, Texas whiskey, particularly bourbon, features nuances and notes that are distinctive to the region. Unlike whiskey-producing states to the east of Texas, with four easy-to-define seasons, Lone Star weather is generally dry and often hot. (It’s also variable — we like to say that you can experience four seasons in one week, in Texas. Sometimes all in one day.) The dry conditions combined with warm temperatures cause barrelled alcohol to expand. This helps the distillate reach deep into the pores of the wood, which is where many of the flavors are born and where the deep, dark hues originate. Of course, the climate varies based on where you are in the massive state. Houston (more humid) and Austin (drier) are just a few hours away from each other, but the unique weather in each city no doubt affects the taste of the whiskeys made there.
For years now, brands have loved slapping “Texas” on any product they market to denote large size or a certain rugged cool factor (yeah, we’re kind of a big deal). So the Texas Whiskey Association has specified the criteria that must be met for a whiskey to be a true Texas expression. These specifications can be summed up in one simple line: “Begin with grain from Texas or elsewhere, then complete every step of the whiskey-making process all within Texas.”
As an avid lover of both bourbon and my home state, I thought it was time run down a few Texas made bourbons that excite my palate. With Texas going right back on lockdown after a huge COVID spike, these bottles might be exactly what residents need to make it through a sweltering summer.
Founder Dan Garrison spent the early 2000s learning his craft from the crème de la crème of Kentucky’s distillers. Fast forward to 2010, Garrison Brothers introduced the first bourbon whiskey legally made in Texas. Every expression of the company’s bourbon is made from a sweet mash bill (as opposed to sour mash) and barrel-aged in the intense Texas climate. Every step, from cooking the mash to bottling, takes place on-site at the Garrison Brothers Distillery.
Tasting Notes:
This bourbon has long been one of my absolute favorites. This amber-colored expression has an oak, vanilla, and caramel palate with a welcoming, long finish. I associate whiskey with music, so this one has a Kacey Musgraves-style “Slow Burn” and its heavily oak-flavored profile arrives thanks to the scorching Texas heat.
The Balcones imprint gets an A+ in innovation. The team pairs classic techniques with experimentation and this pot still bourbon is a testament to their inimitable approach. Created from their signature roasted blue corn, the mash bill is also comprised of Texas wheat and rye, plus malted barley.
Tasting Notes:
I was drawn in by the subtle, sweet scent of honey and toasted oak. I was completely won over by the baking spices and spicy rye palate. The lingering finish is riddled with heat and sweet spices such as cinnamon.
Treaty Oak Ghost Hill Texas Bourbon
ABV: 47.5% Distillery: Treaty Oak Distilling, Dripping Springs, Texas Price:$50
The Whiskey:
The bourbon is made with local heirloom grains from Barton Springs Mill. This grain-to-glass goodness is mashed, fermented, distilled, barreled, aged two years, and bottled on-site at the Treaty Oak Distillery.
Tasting Notes:
The honey and caramel nose enraptured me, so it was definitely “love at first scent.” Full body, robust oak and spice flavors with medium heat. I added a few drops of water in the second sip that left me with a soft, vanilla finish.
Milam & Greene Triple Cask Bourbon
ABV: 47% Distillery: Ben Milam Whiskey Distillery, Blanco, Texas Price:$42
The Whiskey:
Milam & Greene is named for the collaboration between Texan entrepreneur Marsha Milam and whiskey expert and writer Heather Greene. The Milam & Greene Triple Cask is a batch of three straight bourbon whiskeys selected by Greene: a two-year-old premium Texas bourbon alongside three to four-year-old Tennessee whiskey, plus a ten to eleven-year-old Tennessee whiskey.
Tasting Notes:
This is the first bourbon I’ve tried with a floral aroma. It was a bit off-putting, but I’m glad I didn’t stop there. The creamy palate has hints of vanilla and honey, culminating with a spicy, lingering finish. I loved this as a slow sip neat, but I’m convinced it would make for an even better cocktail.
The bourbon is crafted with yellow dent Texas corn, Texas soft red winter wheat, 6-row distillers’ malt, and their own proprietary strain of yeast from Texas pecans, combined with pure Texas water. A pretty darn cool feature of the bourbon is the leather bottle caps unique to each bottle. A nice, cowboy-cool way to package the juice.
Tasting Notes:
There are so many good things going on with this bourbon. Pecan, banana, maple, and caramel aromas partnered with the light mouthfeel of vanilla, brown sugar, and spice all come together like a beautiful, melodic song. What it lacks in linger, it makes up for in a balanced finish of spice and subtle sweetness.
Using a variety of local and heirloom corns, Ironroot whiskeys are crafted with traditional French brandy techniques, particularly the process of elévage — whereby close attention is paid during the aging process. This ensures that the extreme Texas climate has a positive impact on the whiskey. The bourbon is crafted with four heirloom corns and rye.
Fun fact: This bourbon won this year’s “World’s Best Bourbon” at the World Whiskies Awards.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a trifecta of deliciousness — consisting of peppery spice, maple, and vanilla. Baking spices and brown sugar gives this bourbon a subtle sweet palate. Packed with heat and a nice linger with a hint of oak.
Still Austin Whiskey Co. Two-Year Straight Bourbon Whiskey
ABV: 50% Distillery: Still Austin Whiskey Co., Austin, Texas Price:$40
The Whiskey:
I saved a newbie, but goodie, for last. This forthcoming bourbon has a mash bill consisting of 70 percent white corn, 25 percent rye, and 5 percent malted barley. Most bourbon is traditionally made with yellow corn, so the white corn is a unique touch. The bourbon is all distilled on a one-of-a-kind custom 42-foot column still designed by head distiller Mike Delevante and custom-built by Forsyths in Scotland.
Tasting Notes: Though this bourbon has only aged for two years, the palate tastes more mature. I’m hooked on the spice from the rye, alongside the hints of brown sugar, caramel, and toffee. The smooth, lasting lingering finish is bliss. Though I sipped this neat, it will definitely be used in a mint julep this summer.
A few weeks ago, the music industry participated in a “Blackout Tuesday” to reflect on ways to better serve the demographic that drives so much of the industry’s success. One of the resolutions that emerged was Republic Records’ announcement that the label would ban the use of the word “urban” for internal departments. That announcement was followed by a similar one from the The Grammys. The moves drew skeptical side-eyes from some observers, but were met with praise from many others.
Both reactions are understandable. The “urban” category had long been a point of contention within the industry, especially among Black members, due to its fraught history and indiscriminate use as a seeming replacement for “Black” music. In fact, the term was originally coined by radio programers to do just that. New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker coined the term “urban contemporary” in the 1970s as a euphemistic stand-in for what had been called “Black music” until then. The problem with either category to describe the phenomenon was summed up by Tyler The Creator after the 2020 Grammy Awards.
After winning the Grammy for Best Rap Album for his genre-defying 2019 album Igor, Tyler addressed the press, calling the award a backhanded compliment. “It sucks that we — and I mean guys who look like me — do anything genre-bending or anything, they also put it in a ‘rap’ or ‘urban’ category,” he said. “I don’t like that ‘urban’ word. It’s just a politically-correct way to say the N-word to me. When I hear that, I’m like, ‘Why can’t we be in pop?’ Half of me feels like the rap nomination was a backhanded compliment. Like, ‘Oh my little cousin wants to play the game. Let’s give him the unplugged controller so he can shut up and feel good about it.’”
More recently, Billie Eilish — 12 years younger than Tyler — called out the double standard in her own interview in GQ, pointing out that “if I wasn’t white I would probably be in ‘rap’. Why? They just judge from what you look like and what they know.” She talked about how such categorizations rarely reflect the style of the music, instead seemingly focusing on performers’ looks. “Just because I am a white teenage female I am pop,” she lamented. “Where am I pop? What part of my music sounds like pop?”
From their comments and others over the years, we can see the issues with the “urban” designation and its shortcomings in describing the depth and breadth of the artists that have fallen under its umbrella. In years past, the urban music departments at labels have siloed artists in styles ranging from hip-hop to reggae to house, demonstrating how useless the term is at describing the music itself as much as the artists. Think about the diversity in styles of hip-hop alone, where Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar are hailed alongside Lil Uzi Vert and Travis Scott. Lil Nas X blew up with a country song. If just one genre that exists within the so-called urban silo can have so much disparity, what good does it do to house anything that can’t be easily defined under that one category?
Even R&B can range from the soulful acoustic style of John Legend to the gritty, hip-hop-influenced sound of Ty Dolla Sign. In November of 2019, Ari Lennox’s understandable distress at missing out on a Soul Train Award for Best Soul Artist sparked a debate about whether the winner, Lizzo, classifies as a soul artist. Many observers brushed off Lizzo as a pop star, but others pointed to the lineage of women who made the sort of brassy, gospel-inflected soul music that defined the genre earlier on its history, such as Aretha Franklin. They also rightfully pointed out how artists like Whitney Houston had been criticized the same way but later revered for their talents. Meanwhile, contemporary debates continue to rage every time The Weeknd releases an album — what style is his music? Doja Cat sings and raps with equal ease and aplomb. Is she R&B, hip-hop, pop? She clearly appeals to more than just Black audiences, so should she be marketed solely to them?
By defining all this diversity under one category, “urban,” the music industry effectively told the most influential artists that they would only ever be the color of their skin. Meanwhile, artists like Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, and others can effectively dip in and out of Black music styles at a whim while maintaining their elite, pop star status. The shortcomings of urban music departments at labels like Republic can be seen in examples like the botched rollout for Tinashe’s second album Joyride. Unable to determine how to market the singer, RCA Records tried multiple approaches that failed to gain traction simply because of the ingrained belief that “urban” artists can’t be “pop,” no matter how catchy their singles are.
And that’s where I and others remain skeptical about these institutions simply renaming their “urban” categories, because it wasn’t just the term that was racist and reductive, it was the policies behind it. It’s true that audiences determine the popularity of artists at the end of the day, but audiences must be marketed to. They must know about a song, artist, or album before they are able to “vote” with their dollars. It remains to be seen whether Black artists will be better marketed to Top 40 radio stations or simply shunted onto R&B-specific playlists on Spotify and Tidal.
We still don’t know what level of commitment labels will have to dedicating the same resources to “rappers” who sing and “singers” who rap that they do to blonde-haired, blue-eyed, “All-American” girl-next-door types — or whether it’ll be business as usual, leaving artists who don’t fit in one particular box to struggle within the constraints of stereotypes. The removal of the catchall “urban” is a step in the right direction. But there’s still a long road ahead.
The NBA is conducting rigorous COVID-19 testing before 22 teams descend upon Disney World to begin its bubble league in an attempt to wrap up the 2019-20 season. This testing, it has long been presumed, would identify cases of the virus before players head to Orlando and would let the league keep everyone who makes their way into the bubble safe.
The first round of testing occurred on June 23, the first day that the league mandated that this would occur in its pre-Orlando guidelines. Of 302 tests done to players, the NBA announced that it was able to find 16 positive cases. According to a release put out by the league, “Any player who tested positive will remain in self-isolation until he satisfies public health protocols for discontinuing isolation and has been cleared by a physician.”
There is no word on how many more rounds of testing will occur between now and the day that teams begin making their way to Florida — which is currently one of the COVID-19 hotspots in the United States — or if any coaches/additional team personnel were tested and identified as positive cases. There have, however, been a few players who have announced that they contracted the virus, like Indiana Pacers guard Malcolm Brogdon and several members of the Sacramento Kings.
Testing and identifying positive cases before restarting a league is nothing new, as we saw this occur with soccer leagues in Europe before things kicked back off. For example, the English Premier League conducted numerous rounds of testing before it fired its campaign back up and as it has resumed. In a statement put out by the Prem earlier this week, thousands of tests have been conducted in that period of time, with 18 total positive cases being identified as a result.
Last week, Beyonce celebrated Juneteenth by releasing “Black Parade.” Proceeds from the track are going to her BEYGood Foundation’s Black Business Impact Fund, which offers financial assistance to Black-owned small businesses in need. Her move to support small businesses was her latest philanthropic act, for which the singer is now being recognized. Beyonce is slated to receive BET’s 2020 Humanitarian Award as recognition for the impact she’s had through her BEYGood Foundation.
Since founding BEYGood, Beyonce has supported many important initiatives. In 2019, she partnered with UNICEF to create BeyGood4Burundi, a multi-year clean water program that focuses on regions in East Africa.
Beyonce and the BEYGood Foundation were also quick to jump into action at the beginning of the pandemic. The foundation donated $6 million to coronavirus relief funds and the singer recently joined with her mother to launch the #IDIDMYPART initiative, which passed out 1,000 test kits, face masks, gloves, essential vitamins, and household supplies to citizens and urged Houston residents to get routinely tested for the virus. “The virus is wreaking havoc on the Black community so we need a movement to prioritize our health,” Knowles Lawson said about the program.
By being awarded the BET Humanitarian Award, Beyonce joins the ranks of other charitable musicians. Past recipients of the award include Chance The Rapper and the late Nipsey Hussle.
The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.
ITEM NUMBER ONE — This is important
HBO’s new Perry Mason series debuted this week. It is fine. It is even good in places. It is darker than you might have expected, and there is almost definitely more dead infants and hefty nude comedians engaged in pie-related sex acts with young starlets than you expected going in, too. And that was all in the first 10 minutes. It’s really quite a lot.
But that’s not what I’m here to discuss today. I am here to discuss mustaches. There are so many mustaches in Perry Mason. All kinds of them: little thin ones, big bushy ones, the whole deal. That’s the beauty of a show set in the 1930s. Mustaches galore. There are not enough mustaches in present-day television shows. I have always said this.
And so, to recognize this achievement in facial hair, to call attention to this monument of whiskers, we are going to rank some mustaches. We’ll start with the show’s biggest disappointment and build to its biggest triumph. You can probably guess where it’s headed if you, say, looked at the large banner image atop this page. We call this foreshadowing. Or poor storytelling. Either way.
Here goes.
7. Perry
HBO
Perry does not have a mustache as much as he has a drunkard’s perpetual stubble. It makes sense for the character because this version of Perry is usually drunk and/or hungover, and it gives Matthew Rhys an excuse to look very sad and beaten-down in a prestige television series, which is his specialty. But still. Come on. I’m so tempted to open up MS Paint and draw a mustache on him right now, just to see what it would look like. I won’t because we have pressing matters to get to and because once I start scribbling facial hair on people I can lose hours of the day. You can picture it, though.
Huge missed opportunity. Very upsetting.
6. E.B.
HBO
Look at John Lithgow with his fancy little mustache. I love it. It’s thick and white like a vanilla milkshake. And it’s trimmed up so nicely, too. It fits perfectly with his whole look in this picture: glasses, suit, handkerchief, glass of brown liquor. Perfect match of facial hair and character. I’m proud of everyone involved. But we can do better.
5. The morgue guy
HBO
The important thing to remember about the morgue guy — the one who lets Perry use the dead’s discarded clothes as his own morbid Goodwill — is that he wasn’t growing “a Hitler mustache” in the timeframe of this show. We’re only in the 1930s here. Hitler has not yet ruined this look for eternity. If fact, at this point in time, the mustache is probably more associated with Charlie Chaplin. It was cool. People liked it. It’s just that history has not been kind to the look.
I bet if you get the ghost of Charlie Chaplin good and drunk, he’d tell you how mad he is about the whole situation.
4. The evil studio chief guy
HBO
Excellent evil mustache. Kind of a menacing Groucho Marx situation. I knew the instant I saw it that things were about to go very sideways for Perry Mason very quickly. I did not necessarily predict “a red-hot gun barrel will be seared into his sternum like a cattle brand,” but I wasn’t shocked when it happened, either. The mustache never lies.
3. The as-yet-unintroduced district attorney
HBO
I am admittedly cheating here. Stephen Root as the shady district attorney has not yet been introduced in the series. This is a promotional picture that HBO released before the season. I stand by my inclusion of it in this list for the following reasons:
It’s a great old-timey thin mustache
Stephen Root rules
It is not any kind of spoiler to say that Stephen Root is playing a morally flexible authority figure because that describes about 85 percent of the characters he plays, something that no one in the world does better
Moving on.
2. The judge
HBO
This guy was on-screen for like 90 seconds but he still cracks the top two because, like, look at that sucker. Huge and bushy and styled into little points at the ends. A magnificent display of grooming all-around.
A small part of me hopes we never see this character again and the actor grew all of that out just for this one scene in the premiere. Like, he’s clean-shaven the rest of his life but he’s such a committed method actor that he spent two months growing this out for one day on set. I hope he kept it in working order for weeks in case they needed reshoots. I like to picture him going to the gym in Santa Monica with this exact look but little running shorts and a t-shirt on.
1. Pete
HBO
There it is. Look at Shea Wigham. Look at the king. I suppose he’s getting bonus points here for the entire picture, the snooping and the face and all of it. I can’t help it. This was a real promotional picture that HBO released for the show and I just adore it. Every part of it. Including the mustache. I don’t think the rest of this works without it. It ties it all together. A perfect mustache for a perfect picture.
Take a few minutes this weekend and ask yourself how you’d react if you saw someone doing exactly this on the street someday. I would be so curious. What’s he doing? Why’s he being so sneaky? What kinds of secrets does he keep in that mustachioed head of his? I must know. I must know at once.
ITEM NUMBER TWO — Rest in peace, Joel
Regency
Joel Schumacher passed away this week, which stinks. I didn’t love all of his movies, but I did love that he made Choices — Capital C — in all of them. Greasy sax man in Lost Boys, greasy… everyone in A Time to Kill, nipples on the Batsuit, the man never saw a flourish he couldn’t flick into a big-budget Hollywood picture. One of my favorites is depicted in the screencap up there, from The Client, where he had Tommy Lee Jones briefly stop interrogating — threatening — a child to take a big old sip from the kind of tiny milk carton you get with lunch in elementary school. It’s so preposterous, so outlandish, and yet perfectly effective. It’s so much more menacing than if he had been drinking, for example, scotch. Milk. From a carton. Total psycho move.
Schumacher was also a blast in interviews, as anyone who has read his chat with Vulture from a few years back can attest. That interview goes places, buddy. I’ll leave most of the fun discoveries for you to find, but please note this section.
Another one of your talents has always been your respect for actors. You very infrequently said terrible things about them in the press.
No, I said Tommy Lee Jones was an asshole in People magazine.
But you hired him twice, in The Client and then Batman Forever.
He was fabulous on The Client. But he was not kind to Jim Carrey when we were making Batman Forever. And I didn’t say Val [Kilmer] was difficult to work with on Batman Forever. I said he was psychotic.
I love this for two major reasons:
The interviewer tries to pay him a compliment and Schumacher immediately corrects it, not by saying “that’s not correct” but by including a specific example that provides evidence from the past and evidence from the present, because he calls out Tommy Lee Jones by name, unprompted, just to make a point
He also heaves Val Kilmer under the bus for good measure, again, completely unprompted
I have said this hundreds of times. I will say it hundreds more. The best interview subjects are aging celebrities who have seen decades of wild stuff and are old enough to no longer care about biting their tongue. No one needs another interview with the hot young star of the moment. They don’t have anything to say yet, just because they haven’t seen anything worth discussing. Give me a long freewheeling chat with someone who has stories and wants to tell them instead. Give me one every week. Make it a podcast if you want. Have their grandkids teach them how to use GarageBand to set it up. Whatever it takes.
ITEM NUMBER THREE — This counts as news now
Will Ferrell has a new movie coming out. It’s called Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga and it co-stars Rachel McAdams and it’s coming to Netflix. That’s a good enough excuse for us to rank Will Ferrell movies and it’s definitely enough for me to use an entire section of this column to discuss “Red Ships of Spain,” a very old and very weird SNL sketch that I like very much. It features Ferrell as Robert Goulet, which is already a nice start, and please watch his old appearance on Conan in character as Goulet for confirmation. It also features Alec Baldwin and Chris Parnell doing Goulet-style impressions. They’re all putting on a musical titled Red Ships of Spain that looks terrible and beautiful and… actually, let me just blockquote a pretty helpful explanation instead of bungling it myself.
The sketch cuts back and forth between excerpts from the show, itself, to reviews of the show that appear in various print media. Much of the humor is derived from how sloppy and unprofessional the stage production is, from the Goulet brothers performing in their signature dark glasses (while smoking cigarettes), to singing nonsensical lyrics that are inconsistent with the show’s period setting, to random breaks in character which culminate in Robert angrily storming off stage after an altercation with Ken (Baldwin). A particularly memorable review notes that the reviewer, “fell asleep during the production and when I woke up, was so convinced I was still dreaming, I got up on stage and walked around. The odd thing is, the show is such an ugly mess, no one seemed to notice or care.” Another review points out that for the show’s opening performance, two of the Goulet brothers were replaced by their understudies. In spite of this, tickets are said to cost $90 and up.
Want to know my favorite thing about that blockquote? I’ll tell you: I got it from the Wikipedia page for Robert Goulet. This sketch covers a full two paragraphs in a section titled “Legacy.” There’s something almost powerfully funny about that. The man lived a long life, crooned with the best of them, made a name for himself as a Vegas institution, and a huge chunk of his Wikipedia page is devoted to a stupid SNL sketch that only maybe 60 people in the world care about. Life is a journey.
Want to know my second favorite thing about that blockquote? I’ll tell you that, too: It is immediately followed by this sentence.
The American Mustache Institute presents The Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year Award to the person who best represents or contributes to the Mustached American community during that year.
Give it to Shea Wigham. He’s earned it.
ITEM NUMBER FOUR — Only the Minions can save us
UNIVERSAL
Well, we’re trying to open things back up a little after a few months of quarantine. It’s not going great so far. Cases are spiking, people are refusing to wear masks, it’s not been a super ideal situation. The lesson is that people can’t be trusted. We need barriers to hold us back. We need an external source of prevention to keep us safe. We need, apparently, the Minions.
French movie fans ventured back into cinemas on Monday for the first time since the COVID-19 lockdown, helped by a new safety feature: minions placed at intervals in the seats to ensure social distancing is observed.
Imagine someone hopping out of a time machine from, like, 1988 and seeing a future where a movie theater only seats 40 people in masks and the rest of the seats are occupied by tiny yellow stuffed dolls with goggles on and none of the mask-wearing humans are acting like it’s weird. I would go right back to 1988. I would make so much money gambling on sports once I go back. I would be the bad guy from Back to the Future II, basically. I’m okay with it.
The minions, dressed in their trademark goggles and dungarees, were placed strategically around the auditorium to enforce a rule that viewers leave at least one place free between them and their neighbours.
Big shoutout to the theater employees whose jobs very surprisingly consisted of purchasing and arranging hundreds of Minions dolls. We’re all having a weird summer, but that’s something quite special.
ITEM NUMBER FIVE — It is time, once again, to check in with Werner Herzog
It has been a while since we checked in with German filmmaker and delightful maniac Werner Herzog, star of The Mandalorian and possessor of some wild opinions about chickens, which you can hear if you click that video up there, which you absolutely should. The man is a treasure.
And I have terrific news: The Guardian tracked him down for a chat over Zoom. The first part of the piece details the process of Zooming with Werner Herzog, and I do suggest you go there and read it after you watch the chicken clip, but I’m going to jump ahead to this paragraph.
Ideally, he would be out on a shoot right now. Until then there are books. Herzog reads voraciously; he says that all the good directors do. It doesn’t even have to be great literature. His friend, the documentary maker Errol Morris, recently recommended that he read, a real piece of crap. “It was a bad book by a failed lion tamer. His arm was bitten off by a lion. He wrote with the other arm. And it’s a wonderful book to read because you have to comb the content against the texture and it gives you fabulous insights into human nature. It is the same with trash movies, trash TV. WrestleMania. The Kardashians. I’m fascinated by it. So I don’t say read Tolstoy and nothing else. Read everything. See everything. The poet must not avert his eyes.”
He has said that exact thing about Wrestlemania and the Kardashians a few times, but it never fails to blow me away. And, somehow, none of that holds a candle to the other stuff he said about that poor lion tamer. I want him to get way into writing Amazon reviews. Werner Herzog reviewing the most trivial items you can imagine. A toothbrush, a cat calendar, a single spoon. We’re all quarantined. He’s not going anywhere. He has time, I bet.
READER MAIL
If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.
From Amanda:
I don’t know when I knew my husband had this condition. Perhaps it was when we saw Monuments Men, and he asked who the actress was playing Matt Damon’s contact with the unconvincing French accent. “Cate Blanchett,” I replied.
He squinted. “That’s Cate Blanchett?”
I nodded. It was understandable he didn’t recognize her then, what with the period clothes and the accent and (I think) a wig. But then I noticed this happening a lot. Every time we saw a movie with Miss Cate, he failed to recognize her. Even movies in which she, to my recollection, doesn’t do much to obscure her appearance, such as “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.” Even on the frequent occasions where she dons a wig or sports an accent, one would think those piercing blue eyes and cheese slicing cheekbones would speak for themselves.
No.
My husband never recognizes her.
This raises so many questions. First, what does he think Cate Blanchett looks like? Is there any movie where she could pop up and he’d say “Hey, Cate Blanchett!” I have no idea. It’s deeply puzzling and it’s a mystery I will never solve.
This is a good email. And I didn’t even include the part where Amanda describes this condition as “Cate Blanchett Face Blindness.” More emails like this, please.
I have a similar but different issue that I deal with: I absolutely cannot keep Emily Blunt and Rose Byrne straight. I know they’re different people. I enjoy them in a number of movies (Blunt especially in Edge of Tomorrow; Byrne especially in Spy), but if you surprised me with a picture of one of them I’d probably stammer and babble for a second before tossing out a nervous guess. I don’t know why I have this problem. They don’t even look alike. All they have in common is a profession and an accent. This is very much on me and my broken brain. But it’s still true. I feel like Amanda’s husband and I would get along.
AND NOW, THE NEWS
To Pennsylvania!
Going to your community pool to stay cool? If you or a family member has diarrhea, stay home! It only takes one person having diarrhea in the water to contaminate ALL of the water in a pool. Learn more: https://t.co/44afevWjdKpic.twitter.com/ml3jVdhL5C
— PA Department of Health (@PAHealthDept) June 24, 2020
This section is usually an exercise in me finding a goofy story involving an animal on the loose or an unconventional crime or both, but this time we’re going in a different direction. There’s nothing I can do about it. I saw this tweet — from the verified account of my home state’s Department of Health — warning people about going into a pool while afflicted with diarrhea and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. It’s partially the words, which would have been plenty, but it’s mostly the graphic. Look at that graphic. Look how cheery and summery it is, with its bright colors and floaties and fun font. I can’t get over it. I don’t know if I ever will.
Remember how I said the theater employees who set up the Minions were having a weird summer? The government employee who had to make this graphic has them beat by miles.
Still, solid advice, I guess.
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