Category: News

Lady Gaga’s new album, Chromatica, debuted at No. 1 earlier this month thanks to one of the biggest sales weeks for an album this year. With that in mind, now would be a great time to tour behind it, but as everybody knows, a national/world tour wouldn’t be the best idea right now. She had a tour planned, but delayed it earlier this year to then-undetermined dates. Now, though, Gaga has shared when the new shows will be taking place, revealing the six dates have been moved to July and August of 2021.

Sharing the news, Gaga tweeted, “The Chromatica Ball is officially moving to Summer 2021! We’ve been working hard to figure out the safest and soonest way to bring this show to you, but most importantly want everyone to be healthy and able to dance together at the shows as we always have. If you’ve purchased a ticket already, you’ll find all of the new information in your email inbox. I can’t wait to see you there! Keep dancing at home in the meantime.”

Find Gaga’s rescheduled tour dates below.

07/25/2021 — Paris, FR @ Stade De France
07/30/2021 — London, UK @ Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
08/07/2021 — Boston, MA @ Fenway Park
08/16/2021 — Toronto, CA @ Rogers Centre
08/19/2021 — East Rutherford, NJ @ Metlife Stadium
08/27/2021 — Chicago, IL @ Wrigley Field

I’m not saying there wouldn’t be a Jurassic Park without Lewis Dodgson, the sunglasses-wearing character played by Cameron Thor, but he was the genesis (InGenesis?) for one of the movie’s most memorable scenes. Lewis is the one who hands Dennis Nedry a Barbasol can to smuggle dinosaur embryos (“Dodgson, Dodgson, we’ve got Dodgson here! Nobody cares. Nice hat. What are you trying to look like, a secret agent?”), leading to the Dilophosaurus attack in the rain. In a sense, Lewis did what Seinfeld always wanted to, but never could — kill Newman — and the character is returning for Jurassic World: Dominion, although he’ll be played by a different actor.

Collider reports (and Entertainment Weekly later confirmed) that character actor Campbell Scott has been tapped to play Lewis, who “has been promoted to CEO of Biosyn Genetics, but only time will tell whether the character proves to be the threequel’s big villain.” Remember, the muddy Barbasol can was never recovered in Jurassic Park after Nedry’s death — could it return, like how much of the original cast will be back?

Dodgson’s reemergence may serve as the catalyst for the return of the franchise’s three original heroes, Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), all of whom will have sizable roles in Dominion.

In other news, Dominion will be fully funded by Barbasol product placement.

(Via Collider and Entertainment Weekly)

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

On paper, Khruangbin doesn’t seem like a natural candidate for indie stardom. An eclectic funk-rock trio that originated in Houston in the early ’10s, the band plays largely instrumental jams influenced by R&B and dance music from far-flung corners of the globe, including Thailand, Iran, and Jamaica. It’s the sort of music that attracts vinyl obsessives but rarely a mass audience.

On stage, the three band members also seem like a strange fit: Guitarist Mark Speer and bassist Laura Lee wear long black wigs and vamp with low-key demeanors, while drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson stoically lays down a simple but steady backbeat. Without a flamboyant singer to act as a focus, all of the attention instead is centered on the band’s airy, vaguely psychedelic, and frequently pretty meanderings.

And then there’s the band name, which many fans inevitably pronounce incorrectly. (It’s KRUNG-bin, and it means “airplane” in Thai.)

Nevertheless, over the course of three albums, including the new Mordechai out today, Khruangbin has proven to be universally popular in seemingly divergent scenes. Upon the release of their 2015 debut The Universe Smiles Upon You, they became stars on the UK DJ circuit, where their laidback grooves soundtracked the twilight hours of all-night dance parties. In the U.S., meanwhile, Khruangbin first gained favor in the jamband scene, even playing the annual Jam Cruise in 2019. A few months after that, they were a sizable draw amid a more mainstream pop and indie audience at Coachella.

“I often say we’re the band that did everything wrong,” Johnson says. “We picked the band name that no one could pronounce. Two of the band members have a style, one of them doesn’t look like he belongs. We record in a barn that’s not acoustically treated, it’s not a real studio. Initially one of the band members lived across the Atlantic Ocean from the other two. It was just all wrong.”

For Mordechai — named after a mysterious, philosophical stranger that Lee encountered while camping in London, because it’s just that kind of band — Khruangbin once again decamped to a barn owned by Speer’s family located about an hour outside of Houston, where they made their first two records. Their songwriting method was also unchanged: They compose music together (along with the handful of lyrics that dot the record) and then work through the songs until they can lay down complete takes live. The trick is to make it sound as though the music is flowing as naturally as the breeze through the cow pasture outside the barn doors. They put a lot of hard work into sounding effortless.

The results speak for themselves: Mordechai is the backyard barbecue album of the summer, full of uplifting funk and chilled-out optimism for a time desperately in need of both. To discuss the making of the album, as well as their unlikely journey to success, I spoke with Lee, Speer, and Johnson separately. But even apart, they proved to be oddly in sync, particularly when the subject of Sade came up.

Are you surprised that Khruangbin caught on like it has? It doesn’t exactly seem like a formula for success.

Mark Speer: When we started with the band, I’d pretty much given up any hope that I’d “make it” in the industry. I’d been trying for so many years, in different bands and different roles. I’d definitely given that up. At this point, fuck it. Do what we want. Who cares? No one’s going to give a shit anyway. So let’s call it what we want let’s do it our way.

Laura Lee: I listen to a lot of music and I feel like I have good taste so if it was moving me, hopefully it will resonate with other people, too. I’ve always believed in it. I was going to push it as hard as I could because I thought it was meaningful. But in no way did I think quitting my TA job was going to turn into what it did.

Khraungbin seems uncommonly democratic for a band. You all write the music together, you write the lyrics together, and there’s no real front person. You even all do interviews with the media. Was that a deliberate decision to keep any tensions at bay?

LL: I think it probably started organically but as time has gone on it’s definitely something that’s thought through. Because it’s three instruments and we started out as an instrumental band, every part is equally weighted.

Donald “DJ” Johnson: Before we were a band, we were friends first. That’s always a good thing. It’s no different than a marriage. If you’re friends with your significant other before you were married, there’s a good chance that marriage is going to last and withstand the troubles that come later on because you have a good foundation of friendship.

MS: I know when we were first starting out, there was talk about getting a singer. Like, “Oh fuck, if we get a singer, it’s going to be all about the singer.” It should be about the music, and I’d rather just be about the music and just be about what we do. If that means that we don’t get to be popular, big deal. I wasn’t really searching for popularity anyway.

LL: We’re kind of lucky that it’s three of us. Because if Mark and I are having a debate about something then we have a tiebreaker built-in.

An oft-told story about the band is that Laura started playing bass not long before you formed, and DJ hadn’t played drums in many years when he joined. How do you think that influenced your sound?

LL: I think that there’s a lot of beauty in naiveté and simplicity. Especially when I listen to those early tapes of Khruangbin recordings, there’s a real childlike playfulness for me, on my bass lines. And I think for DJ, it was an enthusiasm to play an instrument that he was being reacquainted with.

DJ: There are flashy drummers that could do all kinds of amazing things. I’m just not that guy. I mean, that was part of the reason I stopped playing drums in the first place because everyone in Houston that I was seeing were playing circles around me. They could do all these amazing things and they had so much speed and agility and so many great ideas. And I’m still not that guy. If you go on YouTube, you’ll find someone doing something amazing and they’re like only seven years old. I think stylistically, what I do, it worked well for what the band needed starting off and especially moving forward.

Khruangbin draws musical inspiration from funk, soul, and dance music from all around the world. What distinguishes funk music from, say, Thailand or Iran from American funk?

LL: I think it’s the interpretation. I feel the language of particular countries greatly influences the music from those countries, so you’ll find that in countries like Thailand where the language is tonal, that the melodic elements of their songs are very unique, at least to us in the Western world. And then, in places like West Africa, you’ll find certain rhythmic patterns that seem more complex because their language happens to be more rhythmic sounding. In Iran, where this culture and their language is so romantic — and when I say romantic I don’t necessarily mean love, I mean it’s heavy — you’ll have these really almost metal-sounding bass lines.

MS: What we really like is the collision of culture. I like hearing music that is a collision of the influence of the West with the tradition of that region. Let’s just say that it’s the early ’60s. You see this group from England who’s been touring the world, and they come through your town, and you’re like, “Whoa, this is so cool, man.” So, you and your buddies go get some drums and a bass and a guitar. But although you’ve been influenced by this Western group, you can’t turn off your genetic memory, that built-in memory of place and time and a region. So you’re going to start playing the music you know, music you grew up hearing, but now you’re playing it on Western electrified instruments. It creates this collision of culture, and you get things like shadow music in Thailand where it sounds like surf rock, but you’re playing Thai scales. You’re singing in Thai. You’re using Thai rhythms. But you’re using a drum kit, electric bass, electric guitar. I just love that collision.

You’ve talked about how Mordechai also has a strong influence from Houston. How did Houston shape Khruangbin?

LL: We regularly talk about the international influence from Houston, which is a huge part of it. You have the medical center, which is considered essentially the best in the states and the world. And a really huge cancer researching center that draws people from all over the world to come there, as well as the oil and gas industry. It was very common for anybody from Houston to have friends from Pakistan or from Russia or from wherever because their parents were doctors or oil and gas people. Therefore, you’re hanging out with them, hearing what their parents play when you’re at their homes.

DJ: We didn’t realize that the rest of the world wasn’t like this until we started moving around. I know places that are on the coast, like New York, LA specifically, San Francisco, they get credited with being multicultural and diverse, but Houston is rarely talked about in that regard, but it’s really one of those places. There’s some really interesting fusions that happen as a result of cultures clashing here in the city. It’s one of those places where you can go to a strip center and you’ll have a super authentic bomb Vietnamese spot, and they’re serving authentic food, and over the loud speaker they’re playing authentic Vietnamese music. Then you’ll go right next door and there’ll be a super dope African spot where they’re serving Ethiopian food and they’re playing authentic Ethiopian music.

You’ve recorded all of your albums in the same barn. Why?

DJ: Khruangbin always plays to the room. That’s one of our things, no matter where we are, we try to play to our environment. If we’re on a stage at a festival to a lot of people and it’s a party atmosphere, we’ll play a little bit louder and a little bit more intense. If we’re playing in a small living room, maybe a hundred people, we’ll play really quiet and kind of bring people in. In the same way, in the way we record in this environment, being a barn, we can open the doors to the barn and you can see just grass and open fields as far as the eye can see. Big sky, just cows, it’s really peaceful, really quiet out there. You’re playing for the cows. If you play bad music, the cows are going to go away.

I’ve seen Khruangbin grouped in with the jam scene, perhaps because you’ve played the Jam Cruise and once opened for Trey Anastasio’s solo band. Do you have any affinity for jam bands?

LL: We’re not a jam band, in the sense that we play structured songs with parts. Whereas the jam scene doesn’t and it has much more of a jazz, improvisational aesthetic to it.

MS: I really have a big soft spot in my heart for the jam community. It was one of the first scenes to really give us love when we started touring in the states, because prior to that, we had toured overseas. Over there, it’s like the DJ culture was our first audience, essentially. We were known for being that band you put on at the end of the night when you’re coming down after a nonstop dance party. So, we got a lot of love through those folks. Living in the states, the first crowd that gave us love was the jam band scene. I was like, what? Wild.

LL: The fans really, really care about music. And a lot of that music is instrumental which I think serves us well. I see a similarity between jam band festivals and DJ culture. Because in both worlds, a performance is very much a journey and it’s non-stop music from start to finish. So people in the audience can bliss out and be taken on that ride where the sequencing of it is really thoughtful.

You’ve toured throughout America, but you’ve also played all over the world, including countries where a lot of bands don’t play, including numerous countries in Asia and South America. What are audiences like here versus there?

LL: I’d say America is the rowdiest, which also comes with people talking during the show, which isn’t a bad thing, everybody is having a good time. But there are countries like Belgium in particular, and I’ll say Europe as a whole, they’re just really attentive. They don’t cheer as much but they also don’t talk as much. I feel like in Asia as a whole, the audiences are really excited. I think because there aren’t that many western bands that come. And then in South America, especially Argentina, they have amazing claps. Like, their rhythm on clapping is second to none. So, like when we play “Maria También,” the claps we do in the background have never gone off so well.

I’m going to ask all three of you the same question, and we’ll see if you give the same answer: In the past you have collaborated with Leon Bridges and the Wu-Tang Clan. Who would be your dream collaboration?

LL: Sade

DJ: Sade, 100 percent.

MS: Duh.

LL: We always say Sade. I mean, that’s our dream. She’s like a unicorn of music and she kind of inspires us from just how people see her, in addition to the way her music sounds. She’s iconic but she’s also not super out there in the world. There’s a lot of mystery surrounding her.

DJ: I grew up listening to Sade. I mean, I was one of the most awkward kids ever, but I would take my boombox into the bathroom when I would take showers in the morning and I would listen to Sade while getting ready for school. It was either Sade or James Brown.

MS: She’s priceless. There’s a concept in design, in presentation, where it’s like, you go to a shop and there’s a billion things in the window. You know that place is going to be pretty inexpensive. You go to a shop and there’s one thing in the window, you know that place is going to be very expensive. I don’t know how much it costs to get Sade to come play your event, but it seems less like it’s a matter of money and more like you must complete this mission. And you have to go and learn something about yourself and come back a more enlightened person before you can unlock the Sade achievement. She just has this vibe.

Mordechai is out now on Dead Oceans. Get it here.

Welcome back to our various stages of reopening reunion! Phase (insert whatever numerical reopening stage where you live is at) friend? Testing out new things to call you, dear reader, as well as what we’re seeing from players in this column.

I have to level with you: It was my hope to cover everything in NBA isolation until that isolation ended, either with the season being called, resuming, or, in a perfect world, shifting directly into NBA summer vacation. But starting this, there was no way to see ahead to now with messy things have gotten. We’ve lost the initial equalizing experience of the pandemic, and in their return to play and staggered arrivals to Orlando or seasons ending, basketball players have, too.

So how long does this go now? Will you trust me when I say until it feels right to gently close the gilded cover on this scrapbook of basketball in a pandemic? Yes? Thank you.

Bradley Beal

Beal marched on Juneteenth in Washington this week. John Wall, Rui Hachimura, and Ian Mahinmi all went with him. Beal also spoke about the significance of Juneteenth and called for accountability from police all the way up through every level of government. Without getting too ahead of ourselves, and shifting attention from where it needs to stay (justice and equality for Black lives), this tragic and powerful past spring into summer has amplified player’s voices in a very tangible and necessary way, and there’s no going back from it.

Rating: It has also shown there is no way in good conscience to ever trash talk the Washington Wizards again.

Lou Williams

Williams hit the water on Juneteenth and offered some advice for anyone feeling overwhelmed, worn down, or otherwise carrying a lot of psychic weight. It’s good advice. There are plenty of studies that show even a prolonged bath, if you can’t make it to open water or a pool, is good for the human brain as a stress regulator. So take it from Williams and science, please.

Rating: And stay hydrated.

Terry Rozier

I couldn’t tell you if Rozier just got this, or he’s had it all along and only now decided to match his outfit to this gigantic jeep and strike a pose on it in the sunshine, but both are well beside the point. Take it from Terry and find joy where you can, folks.

Rating: And include your friends if you can, even if it is them pointing at you like, “Get a load of this guy.”

Fred VanVleet

For Father’s Day, VanVleet carefully curled his one year old son as a very cute and powerful weight. Fred Jr. was born last year during the Eastern Conference Finals. Everyone knows the boost he gave to his dad in slaying the Bucks, and he is putting forth that protection now as VanVleet heads to Orlando early with the Raptors.

Rating: Cute and strong, a motto for living.

JaVale McGee

McGee marched this week in a Juneteenth rally in L.A., masked up with a pair of the most expressive eyes in the league imploring you, the viewer, to keep the pressure and support on where it counts.

Rating: I question greatly your capacity for compassion if you are able to ever let JaVale McGee down and sleep at night.

Tobias Harris

Have we shared posts of players sharing astrology memes here yet? It was a matter of time. If you hadn’t — how? — heard, it’s Cancer season. Overall that means it’s a sensitive time where a groundswell of change is possible but only if we are open about our vulnerabilities and shortcomings. Cancers, how do I put this, not always the best as embodying this? Anyway this is a pretty good meme.

Rating: Column of NBA players going deep into astrology forthcoming?

D’Angelo Russell

D’Angelo Russell took a trip to Mexico this week and despite the caliber of his on camera expressions, seems to be having fun. He arrived, greeted “rum,” took a plane ride, piloted the small craft (apologies for this very stretched out version of his face, maybe something to do with flight speed and Instagram?), and attempted to s’more.

I hope he was successful in that attempt because this is one dude who could use some sweetness in his life, don’t you think?

Rating: Hello Rum.

Tim Hardaway Jr.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it ten million more times until you listen to me, but man, does Tim Hardaway Jr. know how to ride out a pandemic. This time, poolside with a loaded bagel made just for him.

Rating: Petition to demote the old, angry, quite short Bagel Boss and replace them with relaxed, quite tall Tim.

Rudy Gobert

Ever since he went and got the league shut down, Gobert has been facing some warranted criticism and what seems like more than the pandemic-mandated social distancing. Like, he doesn’t seem to have many friends, I mean. This fact was exemplified anew this week when Gobert befriended a tiny bee. We get the sense from his caption that they have already been spending a fair amount of time together when this was recorded, we also get the sense that Gobert is trying to get something called “Bee Energy” off the ground.

Rating: It won’t fly and I have to wonder how long this new friendship lasts before Gobert is told, once again, to buzz off.

Delon Wright

Confession: I miss Delon Wright. He was part of Toronto’s inaugural Bench Mob and thrived alongside the once-upstart Raptors now at the core of the team. I’ve watched his career, since he was sent to Memphis and now Dallas, with a lot of hope and a little anxiety. Seeing these photos of Wright atop his convertible in a pink shirt was like finally getting a postcard that’s been lost in the mail…

Rating: …but like one of those ancient portrait photographs on a postcard where people didn’t smile in pictures yet.

Norman Powell and Malcolm Miller

Powell headed to Orlando this week to join the Raptors as the first team entering the bubble and/or “mesh hat.” Partway into his journey, he realized he was seated beside Malcolm Miller, who did not yet recognize Powell. It’s one thing if the mask on Norm’s face confused Miller but the Understand The Grind t-shirt really should have given it away.

Before this flight, just to further break your heart, Miller had to say goodbye to his very cute dog, North. She was bummed out.

Rating: Proof that it’s not just you, it really has been 80 years since basketball. Championship teammates no longer recognize one another.

Otto Porter Jr.

Porter Jr. got up bright and early and put his kit on to watch the match, this week. Do you think he enjoyed a nice jambon and potato bombas? Do you think he pronounces Barcelona with a th every time he cheers?

Rating: Look, this isn’t La Liga Self-Isolation Watch, I do what I can.

Enes Kanter

After a couple weeks away from destroying his appliances Kanter is up to his freak test kitchen tricks again. I would not consider injecting peanut butter into a ball of cookie dough with a medical-grade syringe “starting slow” for everyone, but trust me, he’s easing back into it here.

Rating: Maybe he finally ran out of waffle irons to wreck.

Marco Belinelli

Like the longest day of sunshine signifies the solstice and the official start of summer, Marco Belinelli submerging himself into an ice bath marks the Spurs entering into the preparations for the closing of another just fine season in the western conference.

Rating: Something about Belinelli’s very reliable legs encased in a loose ice bath is very comforting, though.

Kelly Oubre Jr.

The Tsunami Papi was seen out and about this week but the thing he wants us to note most closely, by the pointing and the several photo gradual zoom in, is that his sunglasses spell “NO”..

Rating: Contrarian shades, maybe even a sporty wraparound version that says NOPE, here for it.

Terence Davis

In continuing Raptors-heavy content this week, Davis did a friendly spy sesh from his balcony upon arrival in Florida. He peered birdseye down at assistant coach Jim Sann (thanks to prominent Raptors insider, Blake Murphy, for the help on positive ID via top of head shape), doing some stretches, who eventually sensed he was being watched and looked up to be cheered on by Davis. This team is full of angels and if anything happens to them, I can’t even let myself go there.

Rating: Squad full of sweet grinders, indeed.

Robert Covington

Excuse the blurry capture but reptiles in repose are difficult to display. Covington showed off the new digs for his two pet pythons, Max and Elle, as well as for his geckos? Medium sized lizards? The “4 brothers.” If cold-blooded creatures can be happy, then these ones are stoked.

Rating: Or should I say, sssssstoked.

Jodie Meeks

Meeks had a good mail day this week.

Rating: Champs deserve all the bubble gum they want!

Josh Okogie

Okogie took to the links this week in a great big little convoy of golf carts really ripping around. His summer vacation begins somewhat abruptly now and I hope he enjoys himself.

Rating: How fast can your standard golf cart typically go? This is a question for Dime Deputy Editor and resident benevolent golf expert, Robby Kalland.

Chris Boucher

Boucher is in Florida and already having a good time, indoors, thank god. He tested out a few Instagram filters before he settled on this one, which he really liked, because he recorded three videos simultaneously, his dancing growing more unrestrained by the second.

Rating: Keep this energy and self-containment please Chris, no sneaking out to go to the grocery store this time.

In April of 2019, Blackpink dropped “Kill This Love,” and they haven’t shared a new single since then (although they feature of Lady Gaga’s new album). That changed this morning, though, when the Korean group finally shared a new song, “How You Like That.”

The numbers make it clear how eagerly anticipated their return was: 1.65 million people tuned in to the clip’s YouTube premiere this morning, which set the record for the biggest video premiere ever on the platform. As of this post, the video has about 25 million views, around five hours after its debut.

As for the song itself, it begins as a swelling pop ballad before transforming into a bouncy hip-hop track. Blackpink’s Jisoo said of the single at a press conference, “This might seem large-scale, but I want to deliver a positive and hopeful message. We sang to give the message of not being daunted by dark situations and to not lose the confidence and strength to stand up again.”

The group also had another strong premiere today: They just created their first dedicated Twitter account (having previously only had a Twitter presence via the @ygofficialblink account), and in under six hours since their first tweet on @BLACKPINK, the account already has over 442,000.

Watch the “How You Like That” video above.

Kid Cudi and Kanye West are known for their animated personalities and live performances but they’re about to get animated in a more literal sense. Cudi just shared a teaser trailer for the duo’s Kids See Ghosts animated show based on their 2018 joint album of the same name. The show is directed by Takashi Murakami and features the voices of the two hip-hop stars as well as the return of the Kanye Bear mascot as designed by Murakami for Kanye’s 2007 album Graduation.

The cartoon clip sees Kanye as Kanye Bear and Cudi as Kid Fox getting swept up in an epic adventure. They are pursued by the titular ghosts through a nightmarish dreamscape before being rescued by an anime-inpsired, dryad/mecha who transforms into a spaceship before swooping in to save the day. The teaser doesn’t provide much in the way of plot — or even in their voice acting, as Kanye’s character just vocalizes reactions to being terrified by the ghosts and Cudi mostly speaks in monosyllables. However, it’s enough to get their fans excited for the show and the rest of us just intrigued enough to stay tuned for more information.

The trailer arrives after some big news from both artists. After Kid Cudi announced he would be starting a new podcast, Kanye West shared news of his new partnership with Gap.

Watch the Kids See Ghosts teaser trailer with Kid Cudi and Kanye West above.

Ask any Scrubs fan what their favorite episode of Scrubs is, and they will invariably tell you that it is the 14th episode of season three, an episode called “My Screw-Up.” That is the episode where Dr. Cox thinks he is at his son’s first birthday party, but in the end, there’s a Sixth Sense twist, and both the audience and Dr. Cox simultaneously realize that we are at the funeral of Ben Sullivan, Dr. Cox’s brother-in-law and best friend, played by Brendan Fraser. It is a gut punch of an episode, the top-ranked episode in even our own ranking of the all-time best Scrubs episodes. It is also the episode that launched the career of musician Joshua Radin, whose song, “Winter,” played during the reveal in that episode. It was how the rest of the world discovered Radin.

In fact, Brendan Fraser appeared in three episodes of Scrubs and all three — out of 182 episodes, in total — appeared in the top 15. That’s how well regarded Brendan Fraser was on the series, which had a lot of great guest stars over the years: Heather Graham, Scott Foley, Markie Post, John Ritter, Tom Cavanagh, Michael J. Fox, Mandy Moore, Matthew Perry, and even Ryan Reynolds. Brendan Fraser, however, was the only actor to appear on Scrubs during the time in which he was also a big movie star. Fraser’s three episodes of Scrubs, in fact, coincided with the peak of his career, during his run of The Mummy movies.

Given Fraser’s popularity during a time in which movie stars did not often appear on television — much less as guest stars on sitcoms — why would he take a role on Scrubs, in its freshman season, no less? Is it because he’s just a really nice guy? That is certainly part of it, but Bill Lawrence — the creator of Scrubs — also managed to convince Fraser with a personal touch.

As Fraser tells it on this week’s episode of the Scrubs rewatch podcast, Fake Doctors, Real Friends, Bill Lawrence got is foot in the door with Fraser, so to speak, because Lawrence’s wife (and Scrubs cast member), Christa Miller, was friends with Fraser’s then wife, Afton Smith. Fraser, however, had never met Lawrence.

Bill Lawrence phoned up Fraser and asked him to be on the show. Fraser replied by asking for Lawrence to send him the script. However, “I mentioned something about feeling a little tired or jet lagged and that I needed to get back to the gym,” Fraser said. And Lawrence said, “Well, alright. I’ll send the script over.”

“And when he sent the script over,” Fraser continued, “he sent a bunch of gym shorts. I mean, like, nice ones, too! So I thought, alright. I’m in! When one man sends another man gym shorts, there is no other love.”

It was those gym shorts that would entice Fraser to appear in two episodes in the opening season, and a return trip for the best episode ever of Scrubs in season three. The Polaroid cameras in Fraser’s episodes were also a little nod to Fraser, a longtime amateur photographer who even got Zach Braff into Polaroid photography. Moreover, when Fraser picks up Braff’s character, J.D., and J.D. says, “EAGLE,” it would become a running joke throughout the rest of the series. Fraser, meanwhile, would go on to become the guest actor most associated with the sitcom, and all because Bill Lawrence sent him some gym shorts!

Source: Fake Doctors, Real Friends

St. Louis rapper Huey, best known for his 2006 hit “Pop, Lock & Drop It,” has been shot and killed at 32, according to Fox 2 St. Louis. Huey, born Lawrence Franks, was shot just after 11:00pm and taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival. Another person was shot at the same time, arriving at the Ferguson Police Department and treated for injuries at an area hospital. He is expected to survive.

Huey was a staple of the video countdown show 106 & Park in its heyday, helping “Pop, Lock & Drop It” climb the Billboard Hot 100 throughout early 2007 to peak at No. 6 in June. A remix of the track features Bow Wow and T-Pain. The track was the lead single from Huey’s debut album Notebook Paper, which was released when he was just 18 years old. Notebook Paper reached No. 26 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

In 2010, Huey followed up with Redemption on EMI, the last album he completed in his lifetime. He had just returned to music in April this year, releasing a new single, “Pulled Away,” for which he was looking forward to shooting a music video on Saturday. Even without more recent new music, the news of Huey’s death sparked an outpouring of grief on social media — a testament to his pop culture dominance in the mid-2000s.

Huey is survived by a 13-year-old daughter.

Nerds are starved for new content this summer (Black Widow would have already arrived, if not for you-know-what), and although HBO’s announcement that the Snyder Cut of Justice League would be coming, it’s still gonna be a wait (2021) until the movie arrives. Yes, it’s true that we can all still be entertained by Jason Momoa being the happiest man alive; however, fans do need something else to keep their interest levels occupied, and they’ve channeled that energy for a worthy cause.

That cause, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, is also close to Snyder’s heart, given that his daughter, Autumn, took her own life in 2017, which is why he stepped down from finishing production, and Joss Whedon was hired to complete the movie. To date, Justice League fans have come together to raise over $200,000 for the charity. Snyder has tweeted his gratitude for their incredible gesture and the reaching of a milestone.

The 300 director’s work on the whole new take (likely a “four-hour director’s cut,” but possibly a six-chapter limited series) of Justice League continues, so that he can finish his vision of the film. Earlier this month, Snyder unleashed a first teaser that shows the arrival of Darkseid with Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor ominously whispering in the background. We can expect the Snyder Cut’s arrival sometime in 2021, hopefully sooner rather than later.

With just a couple of weeks left until the official halfway mark in the calendar, it is safe to say that Guapdad 4000 has been one of the most active artists in 2020. With a pandemic halting all physical movement in the world, Guapdad still kept things going as he introduced his “Rona Raps And Falcon Fridays” series to the world. The former found him collaborating with a number of his industry friends, bringing a total of 10 episodes for fans to enjoy. The latter served as a setup for his Platinum Falcon Vol. 1 tape which was released at the end of the “Falcon Fridays” series.

Moving full-steam ahead, Guapdad returns with another single featuring help from Denzel Curry. The video is a wild one, as it features things like human plants and Guapdad as a Thomas The Tank Engine-style train.

Working their magic once again, the song follows their “Izayah” collab from Guapdad’s 2019 Dior Deposits album. On “Lil Scammer That Could,” Guapdad and Curry lay off a verse each surrounded by a hook from Guapdad that finds him flexing his array of women, money, and jewels. Guapdad continues his braggadocios behavior throughout his verse, before handing the mic off to Curry who delivers his own ambitious raps of wanting to elevate his current living situation to one that allows him to enjoy the finer things in life.

The single arrives weeks after Guapdad and Curry flaunted their rap skills in Episode 3 of the “Rona Raps” series alongside Wiz Khalifa.

Watch the “Lil Scammer That Could” video above.