Category: News

Last week, Drake’s TikTok hit “Toosie Slide” debuted at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, relegating the then-former No. 1 track, The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights,” down to No. 2. However, that didn’t spell the end of The Weeknd’s time at No. 1: On the new Hot 100 chart dated April 25, “Blinding Lights” has reclaimed the top spot, forcing “Toosie Slide” down to No. 2.

This is the third week at No. 1 for The Weeknd’s single. The return to No. 1 follows The Weeknd releasing a new remix for the song, which was crafted by Major Lazer.

It’s all good news for The Weeknd right now: This announcement comes shortly after it was revealed that After Hours sits atop the Billboard 200 chart for a fourth consecutive week. Coincidentally enough, the last album to spend at least four straight weeks at No. 1 was Drake’s Scorpion, which spent its first five weeks on top in 2018.

Although “Toosie Slide” is no longer king of the Hot 100, Drake still has plenty of reason to celebrate: “Toosie Slide” is apparently making TikTok history, as it reportedly became the fastest song to reach a billion hits, doing so in just two days.

After Hours is out now via Republic Records. Get it here.

Hugh Jackman recently revealed the inception of his faux “feud” with Ryan Reynolds, and now, they’ve pulled the figurative rug out from underneath us by declaring the whole thing moot. At least, Reynolds and Jackman have declared a temporary “cease fire,” which I never saw coming because these two enjoy ribbing each other so much. If anything can mute the memory of 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine fashioning Deadpool as a Merc With No Mouth, it’s their wonderful continued barbs, but I guess we can give up some nice things. And this ceasefire is for a good cause.

Reynolds shared the news on Twitter with a jointly (yet separately) filmed video that confirmed, yes, “our feud” is on hold, so that the pair can channel energy toward the #ALLinCHALLENGE for pandemic relief to feed frontline workers, elderly, and children. The pair will come together and run a lemonade stand for one randomly chosen bidder, and they also asked Drew Brees, Mariska Hargitay, and Peter Hermann to commit to this cause as well. If there’s really a lemonade stand, I want Mariska in on it also. And I want her to challenge Chris Meloni, and then someone should get Ice-T in on this thing.

Before we get too carried away with dream challenges, here’s the video proof in case Reynolds and Jackman forget to get along.

The #ALLinCHALLENGE has drawn quite a few celebrity supporters, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, who are offering an honest-to-god walk-on cameo for Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon. Is that more or less enticing than a lemonade stand run by Deadpool and Wolverine? If costumes are involved, that’s a no-brainer.

As the coronavirus pandemic forces businesses to close and many find themselves out of work, musicians across the globe have stepped up to offer support any way they can. Lady Gaga recently raised over 100 million dollars with the Together At Home livestream concert that featured Lizzo, Taylor Swift, and Billie Eilish. Now, the organization The Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative is tapping popular musicians to perform for a charity concert that benefits the LGBTQ community.

The Stonewall Gives Back concert aims to help vulnerable populations that once sought security at now-shuttered LGBTQ-friendly bars and restaurants. Featuring performances by LGBTQ musicians and allies, the livestream will see sets by Troye Sivan, Cyndi Lauper, Kim Petras, Allie X, Muna, Kristin Chenoweth, and many more.

In a statement, the show’s producer Erich Bergen said they are responding to the virus by bringing people together through music. “I think this pandemic has made it even more clear just how vulnerable some of our communities actually are,” Bergen said. “We are coming together to respond to this crisis in a collaborative way, through music, which is the great unifier.”

CEO of The Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative Stacy Lentz detailed the livestream’s goal in a statement: “In general, LGBTQ bars and nightlife have been decimated due to the mass closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. These are the original safe spaces for our community, which often makes us feel less alienated and alone. They are a true refuge where we can be ourselves. This industry is now gone and employees of those bars, venues and event spaces are struggling. They rely on tips and gig work and are no longer able to make ends meet. We need this moment to come together as one and help those who keep the LBGTQ nightlife industry thriving.”

The Stonewall Gives Back concert is streaming live on 4/23 at 8 p.m. EST on World of Wonder’s YouTube channel WOWPresents. Watch it here.

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

It’s been a while since the world of professional wrestling has had any good news related to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. But all that stops today, dear reader, thanks to none other than a WWE Hall Of Famer and Hollywood star. (No, not that one.)

Behold, six-time world champion Dave Bautista has partnered up with Smirnoff to encourage all of us to sit on our butts, pants-free, and shimmy in place for the greater benefit of humanity. Now that’s a Tik Tok challenge I can get behind! (Also, what is Tik Tok? Is that medication for my dog?)

Bautista is part of Smirnoff’s larger ad campaign, which was originally slated to launch this summer in support of Smirnoff’s Red, White & Berry hard seltzer drink, alongside Orange Is The New Black stars Laverne Cox and Diane Guerrero, plus US Women’s Soccer Team captain and all-around badass Megan Rapinoe. But, as Cox explains in this longer commercial, that plan changed in response to the global pandemic. Watch the one-minute clip below, featuring Bautista holding a puppy while sitting in a tiny monster truck and wearing heart-shaped sunglasses, and let those endorphins loose in your brain:

There’s not really much else to say besides all hail our lord and savior Big Dave. Also: Stay home, everybody.

Today is 4/20 and if you aren’t already lighting up a bowl of high-THC cannabis we sincerely feel bad for you. Getting weed is going to be a hassle today, as dispensaries battle against the demands of a population of smokers who are largely stuck at home. If you haven’t already scooped your supply, you’ll likely have to wait somewhere between two and three hours for a delivery. The good news is that you’ll be able to get it on the cheap. Like really cheap.

We reached out to Weedmaps and did some of our own digging to uncover the best cannabis deals nationwide in legal markets where cannabis is sold. Along the way, we found that just about every cannabis dispensary is offering some type of special 4/20 deal — so check with your favorite local dispensaries to see what they’re offering.

Here are the best 4/20 deals to help you re-up your supply on the cheap.

California Patients Club — Customers can pick up 12 grams for just $60. That’s crazy affordable.

Caliva — Select Saliva-branded eighths will be discounted by 17% or sold in four-jar batches for $25 each. Bad Apple brand eighths will also be discounted by 25% off, or sold in four-jar packs for $30 each.

The Colfax Pot Shop — Denver’s Colfax Pot Shop is offering three pre-rolls for $15 all day.

Evolv Cannabis — Evolv consumers can pick up edibles for 20% off all day long. Don’t feel your lungs with smoke this 4/20, fill your belly with snacks that get you high! That’s killing two birds with one weed brownie.

Five & Dime — Grams at Five & Dime will be going for $5 while eighths will sell for $15.

Ganjarunner — Save $100 dollars when you buy eight 3.5 gram flower jars from Aster Farms.

Grassdoor — Receive 30% off of concentrate selections from the top Vape brands.

Herbiculture — Herbiculture is offering 20% off on all CBD.

Leafly — Leafly is offering $20 off on Vessel-branded vaporizer kits.

Oasis Cannabis Superstore — All products are discounted by 15% for the entire month of April.

Mana Supply — Maryland residents can enjoy 20% off storewide at Mana Supply.

MedMen — MedMen will have live batter and resin from Papa + Barkley, infused blunts from CaliGreenGold, and half gram cartridges of some of the dispensaries choice selects from DomPen. In addition, select products from concentrates to smoking devices will be offered at a 30% discount.

MediThrive Delivery — Eighths of weed will be going for $15 all day long. That’s less than $5 a gram.

Planet 13 — For the duration of 4/20, eighths of Gold Tier flower and grams of concentrate will be sold for $25.

Re-up — For $99 pick up Re-up’s special 4/20 bundle — consisting of concentrate, flower, and a vape pen.

RiverRock Cannabis — Receive 25% off on all packaged goods or any 1/4 ounce flower for just $42.

The Artist Tree — Customers will receive 30% off on all delivery and pickup orders throughout the day. Stay home, let the weed come to you.

Verilife — Verilife is offering 15% off on select eights, 15% off ALL Rythm vape cartridges and 15% off on Off Curio medicated chews.

Wolfpac Cannabis — Premium boutique ounces at Wolfpac are retailing for just $160. All 710 Labs branded weed will also receive 20% off.

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is scheduled to come out on December 18, but there’s at least one person who won’t be in a movie theater (remember movie theaters?) on opening night, or ever. In a recent interview, David Lynch, who directed the 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sandworm-y novel, told the Hollywood Reporter that he has “zero interest” in the new Dune. Fine, I guess I’ll fall into Oscar Isaac’s eyes for him.

When asked why he doesn’t plan on seeing 2020’s Dune, Lynch replied, “Because it was a heartache for me. It was a failure and I didn’t have final cut. I’ve told this story a billion times. It’s not the film I wanted to make. I like certain parts of it very much — but it was a total failure for me.” Lynch has since disowned the film, which Roger Ebert, speaking for many critics at the time, called “an incomprehensible, ugly, unstructured, pointless excursion into the murkier realms of one of the most confusing screenplays of all time.”

But does Lynch have something against Villeneuve, or is it anyone’s Dune?

You would never see someone else’s adaptation of Dune?

“I said I’ve got zero interest.”

He’ll be eating his words when the monkey from What Did Jack Do? directs Dune 2. Elsewhere in the interview, Lynch said that given a choice between making another TV show or a new movie, he would choose the former, because he loves “a continuing story, and cable television I say is the new art house. You have total freedom. The sound isn’t as good as a great theater; the picture isn’t as big, but TVs are getting bigger and bigger and better and better, so there’s hope. And then you have this chance for a continuing story, so it’s the new art house, I say.” Twin Peaks: The Return of The Return, maybe?

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

The first two hour-long episodes of The Last Dance premiered on Sunday night to great fanfare, and the consensus as the clock struck 11 p.m. ET and the second episode ended was that the people, from fans to current NBA stars, demanded more.

Unfortunately, we will have to wait until next Sunday to watch the third and fourth episodes of the Chicago Bulls documentary that we now know is far more than just about the 1997-98 season. The episode traces the history of the major players, namely Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, and how they and the Bulls got to the point where they were going for their sixth title in eight years — and the world knew that would be their last year together.

So far we’ve seen a young Jordan rise through the college ranks to being Rookie of the Year and dropping 63 on the vaunted Celtics in the 1986 Playoffs, which means the next step in the journey for Michael and the Bulls is facing off with the Bad Boys era Detroit Pistons. That is indeed the focal point of episodes 3 and 4 — along with whatever they can tie it into with the 97-98 team (one would assume this features Dennis Rodman rather heavily for the first time) — as ESPN teased in their 30-second spot for next week’s showing.

The Jordan Rules and the Bulls-Pistons battles are well known, but it’ll be highly entertaining to hear from the participants themselves, most notably Michael on how he had to adapt to what the Pistons did to him physically. If there wasn’t already tremendous excitement coming out of Sunday night, knowing that next week picks up the best rivalry Jordan ever had in terms of a team pushing him and beating him will only further the anticipation.

It’s still unclear when “non-essential” travel will be something we can all enjoy again. Even when discretionary travel is cleared, the freedom to just travel anywhere will be based on circumstances that may very well be out of our control for the foreseeable future. Even when things do open up (and assuming the economy bounces back), travel will probably be focused on local experiences, natural adventures, and supporting troubled communities.

One cruise line is already shifting its focus to do just that — right in America’s Heartland. Viking River Cruises just opened up bookings for a small-vessel cruise along almost the entire length of the Mississippi River, from St. Paul, Minnesota all the way to the Big Easy. There are also shorter cruises that cover Memphis to New Orleans and other stretches of Twain’s beloved river. Prices range from $3,699 for eight days to $9,599 for a 15-day cruise.

The catch? These are for sailings in September and October of 2022. That’s 29 months from now. It seems fair to hope that the travel world will be functioning in some way by then, right? Right?

The small format of the cruises offers a chance to avoid the over-crowding of ships with thousands of people, which is one advantage. Another advantage is that cruises like this hit several small communities along the Mississippi River through seven U.S. states — destinations that will need your travel dollars post-COVID. The last advantage to a roll-out like this is the fact that Viking is offering a “risk-free guarantee.” You’ll be able to change your booking for no extra charge up to 24-hours from your departure date. You’ll then be able to rebook a sailing up to 24 months later — that means you can push this booking to 2024, theoretically.

With more and more people feeling wary about mega-cruises, river cruises are being called out as a way for the troubled industry to get back on its feet. John DiScala, aka Johnny Jet, noted in a recent UPROXX article on the state of the cruising industry that “as someone who likes cruising, I would definitely go on a river cruise before I’d go on an ocean cruise.” And we’ve championed small river cruises in the past throughout Europe for their adaptability and access to local economies. Millennial-focused European river cruise outfit U River Cruises is currently offering 30 percent off of all of their sailing, plus risk-free cancelations and rebookings.

If you’re itching for a glimmer of hope in your travel life, one of these trips might just be it. We still, however, always recommend proceeding with the utmost caution.

The ‘Westworld’ Confusion Index is your guide to what we know, what we kind of know, and what we don’t know about Westworld, one of television’s more confusing shows. We will make mistakes, surely, because we rarely know what is happening or why (and whenever we think we’ve figured it out, they go and change it on us), but we will try to have at least as many jokes as mistakes. This is the best we can offer. Here we go.

What We Know

Westworld is, in many ways, a show about female robots striding confidently into battle

Westworld is many things in its third season. It is a continued examination of free will and how much of our lives are predetermined by outside forces. It is an action movie in a televised form in which long conversations about that first thing are punctuated by furious blasts of gunfire and sword-related bloodshed. It is a puzzle box that reveals its true intentions piece-by-piece until the fuller picture becomes clear. But it is mostly, if you want to be technical about it all, a show about lady robots waltzing into battle with the confidence of mid-90s Michael Jordan.

It’s undeniable. It happens at least once or twice an episode and it is maybe my favorite part of the show now. Maeve came back this week after an episode off and promptly marched into a crowd of Nazis, dropped a few very brassy one-liners, and then dismantled every one of them, for no real purpose other than to get them out of the way so she could talk to Lee in peace. Dolores has done it at least a half dozen times this season, occasionally in a ball gown. Charlotte spent half of this episode doing it. Just gliding down a hallway with menace in her eyes, waiting for some goon or series of goons to accost her, fully prepared to smash their faces into or through walls. It’s a lot of fun.

It’s also an enjoyable way to watch the show, stepping back and watching the action like that. It can be easy to get very deep into the show’s various mysteries, worrying about who wants what and why. You’ve seen Reddit. And while that can be fun, all the theorizing and decoding, it’s nice to also remember that all that stuff will sort itself out as the show progresses. Like, we’ll find out if we don’t figure it out first. There’s no need to put pressure on yourself to beat the show to the payoffs. Pay attention, follow along, try to notice things, but also try not to get so far ahead of yourself that you lose focus on the fun stuff. Like, for example, Maeve defeating Nazis in hand-to-hand combat, or Charlotte and some robots running amok through a corporate facility, or Dolores doing… Dolores things. That stuff is cool. Do not lose sight of it. We’ll get to the rest of it soon enough. I promise.

I love my big boxy robot boys

When Charlotte was running around Delos HQ, after Serac had completed his takeover and outed Charlotte as the hidden host and vanished into thin air when she tried to put him down, and after she got cornered in a hallway by his guards, she used her phone to wake up the company’s riot control robots and I squealed with delight. I love those guys. I love watching them just smash and crash this way and that. I love that Delos has enough futuristic technology to build science androids that look and behave exactly like real human beings but they also have these big dumb faceless Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots that burst through walls and heave dudes into swimming pools.

These things are now my favorite characters on the show. I hope they get fed up and start their own faction in this war. It would be profoundly funny to me if all this subterfuge, all this stuff about Rehoboam and corporate takeovers and clones of hosts waging multi-layered battle against each other, ends with two huge brainless hunks of metal just bopping everyone on the head so hard that they end up submerged in the dirt like carrots. Serac, Dolores, Maeve, Bernard, all of them. Charlotte, too. My sweet metal boys fed up with all the chicanery and planting the participants in a harmless garden.

Everyone would be so mad and I would never stop laughing.

Never underestimate this show, not even for a second

Serac booted up a previous version of Dolores for Maeve to interrogate and learn from before they face off in battle. The two of them had a discussion in the laboratory, with Lee and Hector along for the ride, at least until Hector disappeared forever (probably?) when his pearl got crushed. It was a lot and probably something that will come up again and I’m not going to talk about it until then because I have more important business to get to. Important to me, at least.

As we’ve discussed in earlier Confusion Indexes, Westworld has an impressive history of using some variation of the classic phrase “we’re not so different, you and I.” They did it in the first two seasons and kept it alive with a third usage this season. It brought me unending joy. And as this scene developed, it looked like we were headed for another one, either said by Maeve to Dolores or by Dolores to Maeve. The clues were all there.

But then!

Dolores said the thing in the screencap up there. About herself and her clone. It was incredible. I had never even considered this as a possibility. I’m so proud of everyone involved in making this happen. Truly a groundbreaking moment in television history.

What We Kind Of Know

Something is happening with William

Well, William is back again, tucked away in some secret psychiatric facility in Mexico where he’s wearing all white and ruining group therapy sessions by talking about humanity as maggots and bacteria and all sorts of other fun things. He’s not doing great, in a lot of ways, but he did have a busy episode. Let’s run down some highlights:

• Was signed up for “AR Therapy” by a doctor who later hung herself in her office after her husband saw her Rehoboam future profile (opioid addiction, multiple affairs with patients, etc.), which is not ideal
• Bit some guy on the finger real hard
• Was given some crazy hallucinogen that made him picture a group therapy sessions with all the various versions of himself, from child through present, including ones we’ve seen throughout the show
• Murdered all of them with steel chairs and his fists
• Declared himself “the good guy”
• May or may not have some secret stuff in his blood that is vital to the plan Dolores has in motion
• Was discovered by Bernard and Stubbs

We’ve all been there.

What We Don’t Know

Who is this and what does he or she want and/or bring to the table that will be valuable to Maeve and/or Serac?

Toward the end of the episode, we saw the results of Maeve and Serac’s plan to build her an army. It looked like there were five hosts being built, total. One was probably Hector, but he’s gone now. Another appeared to be a clone of Maeve. The last one we saw being built remains a mystery, though. We saw eyebrows being threaded and color added to the skin and a nose emerging from the chalky life-giving muck. Who is it? Whooooo is it? Is it one of the people we’ve already seen this season, like Lee the Mostly Useless Writer who is still hanging around despite bringing very little to the table in the way or strategy of combat skills? Is it the samurai boss who later became a Yakuza boss who drapes his coat over his shoulders without putting his arms through the sleeves? Is it another Maeve?

All fair questions. My suspicion is that it is none of these, though, only because, like, why draw it out and leave it on a cliffhanger for something as anticlimactic as a person we’ve seen earlier this season? I hope it’s a bigger throwback, like Armistice the Snake Lady, or Clementine, or another William. Or Ford. Or, just hear me out… Teddy. Bring back that naive cowboy. Try to bring him up to speed and watch his simple brain just melt as he tries to comprehend it. I miss Teddy and his confused face a lot. I would like to see the earliest version of him attempt to grasp the finer points of Serac’s entire existence.

It would also be cool if the new host was just, like, The Rock, and now The Rock is on Westworld, running around and choking out Nazis with Maeve. It’s a longshot, I admit that, but until we see who is really in there, until we have undeniable confirmation that it is not The Rock, I’m going to keep pretending. Let me have this one. Just for the week.

Where does Charlotte/Dolores/Charlores/Dolorlette go from here?

I could write all of this out. I could get way into the way Charlotte is becoming less like a Dolores clone and more like the human Charlotte she replaced. I could dig into what it means going forward that she tried to abandon the plan and flee with her family. I could do a whole bunch of speculating about her state of mind after an episode where things went sideways for her in a bunch of ways and left her charred to a crisp on a San Francisco street.

Or, alternatively, I could just post a series of images from the episode’s final scene that sum up everything better than any clunky words I string together. Yes, let’s do that instead.

Yup. That’ll do it.

Last Friday, fans expressed their disappointment in DaBaby‘s new project, Blame It On Baby, which arrived with plenty of buzz but ultimately wound up apparently falling short of expectations. While DaBaby was likely just as disappointed in the fans’ reactions as they were in the album, there was one observer who found delight in the Charlotte rapper’s fall from grace: Westside Gunn, whose album Pray For Paris had also dropped on Friday. The Griselda Records general took advantage of the opportunity to declare victory over his new unofficial rival by posting a throwback meme, inviting anyone who disagreed to “change his mind.”

We all remember the “Change My Mind” meme that dominated social media for much of 2018. After conservative podcaster Steven Crowder posted a photo of himself seated at an outdoor table with a sign reading “male privilege is a myth — change my mind,” witty internet users had a field day mocking him by swapping out the sign’s message with any number of supposedly controversial or outright wrong opinions. Westside Gunn’s post made use of the format to compare his album cover with the DaBaby’s, sliding a “greater than” sign between the two, favoring Pray For Paris, of course.

The tweet quickly went viral, accumulating over 5,500 retweets in the days since, along with over 19,000 likes. While DaBaby has yet to respond, it’s likely because he’s been focusing on the positive reactions to his album instead, retweeting praise from the fans who actually tweeted their approval of his new lyrical direction. Of course, the two rappers may also just appeal to entirely different fanbases, so there’s plenty of room for both to flourish.

Blame It On Baby is out now via Interscope. Get it here.
Pray For Paris is out now via Griselda/Shady Records. Get it here.