When Atlanta debuted back in 2016, I was utterly flabbergasted, like much of the viewing public. However, unlike the majority of the show’s viewers, my astonishment stemmed from a slightly different place. While many were floored by the show’s off-kilter humor and subtle performances from Bryan Tyree Henry, Lakeith Stanfield, and the show’s creator, Donald Glover, I was instead flummoxed at the show’s depiction of my actual life from the ages of about 18 to 25.
I had the similar, eerie feeling of watching my own life story — at least, in part — when I watched the first handful of episodes of Lil Dicky’s new FX show, Dave. With each of the two dark, awkward comedies, I felt a veil had been lifted. Each of the shows approached the chase for rap superstardom from slightly different angles, but some truly authentic ones — ones only someone who had been through the tribulations themselves would understand, but ways that only true outsiders would dare to portray. As it turns out, with all the shows out there that purport to pull back the curtain on the inner workings of the rap game, the most authentic depictions of the music industry on television come from a pair of deeply satirical, at times outright surreal comedies.
Let me disclaim here: I was by no means ever on the same path to stardom as Atlanta‘s Paper Boi or Dave‘s fictionalized version of Lil Dicky. None of my songs ever went viral; I never even finished a full project, aside from a poorly-mixed EP — the same project that ultimately convinced me to lay my dream to rest. But I did watch my friends and associates — guys I’d grown up with, performed with, recorded with, and cheered on from the sidelines — go through similar experiences to those portrayed on those shows. Blu, Pac Div, Thurz, and more were my compatriots in the early “blog era” hip-hop boom, and I had a front-row seat to the often bizarre goings-on of the rap industry periphery.
There are some shows — and to be honest, a lot of magazines, documentaries, interviews, and other “journalistic” endeavors — that would have you believe that the rap music industry is a ship-shape, buttoned-up, professional enterprise run by folks who have a total grip on how it works and crystal-clear plans on breaking out to mainstream attention and critical acclaim. But the fun thing about watching FX’s dark hip-hop comedies — at least to me — is how quickly those facades are stripped away to show the dirty truth that seemingly no one in the music business wants “civilians” to know: Nobody has any clue what they’re doing.
Dave‘s fictionalized version of Dave Burd — aka Lil Dicky — bumbles through all the insecurities I went through as a young artist. He’s too scared to ask for help and insecure about his prospects, so he hides behind bluster. His encounters with would-be peers in the rap game such as Young Thug, Trippie Redd, YG, and more and his arguments for not trying to recruit their assistance remind me of my own reticence to ask Pac Div for a feature, or to tell Blu I wanted in on that one song during a recording session. Likewise, all of Dave’s and Paper Boi’s struggles to parlay their tiny bit of internet fame into other opportunities are exactly what I watched friends go through, from charity celebrity basketball games to problematic meetings with label A&Rs and potential sponsors.
Watching Donald Glover’s Earn grapple with learning the tricky interpersonal politics of management is exactly what it looks like on the ground. While social media makes it looks like managers and publicists float above it all, making deals and connections with ease, the reality is much closer to GaTa’s “wiggling,” fast-talking, finesse, trying to convince seemingly important people that you’re important enough to buy a few moments of their time. The picture on the ground is much closer to the everyday grind of Atlanta and Dave‘s hardscrabble hustle, flying by the seat of your pants and hoping things work out at the 11th hour.
The shows are also much more realistic depictions of artists themselves. When Dave‘s engineer Elz approaches Trippie to pitch his production, Trippie tells the timid wannabe that he should show some more heart. In reality, these stars are much more down-to-earth than glowing profiles and prickly public personas would suggest. In truth, hip-hop artists are just people, as prone to bad moods and bouts of emotional insecurity as anyone. They may boast a lot on record, but in both my years pursuing the craft and more recently interviewing and profiling them, I’ve found that the vast majority are just like any of your everyday friends and neighbors, albeit with a lot more money and an image to uphold.
Contracts are often solidified on-the-fly, fan encounters veer from exasperating to uplifting, and through it all, a love of the art form keeps everyone going, chasing a dream that only a spare few ever get to truly execute at the highest level. Almost any artist would agree; why else are these shows populated with cameos from the likes of trap rappers and blog favorites? It’s likely because they recognize the authenticity behind these shows’ narratives, seeing their own stories reflected on screen and in the scripts as the only true representations of the rap game as they know it, having seen it from behind the curtain in all its surreal oddity, awkward drama, and yes, its dark comedy.
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown everything into upheaval, and wrestling TV ratings are just one small sign of that. Viewership is down across the board, probably for the simple reason that shows with no live crowd tend to feel kind of awkward, and a lot of fans are understandable looking for entertainment that helps them forget the current crisis, while wrestling reminds them of it. However, NXT has worked hard to make its episodes feel like a big deal, while AEW Dynamite has pretty much just done what they can with the people they have around (which doesn’t include a lot of their biggest stars), and that’s been reflected in the total viewership these last couple of weeks.
Last week’s NXT was promoted as Takeover USA, and featured a big women’s ladder match and the latest (and supposedly last) extended Gargano vs Ciampa painfest. According to Showbuzz Daily, that show drew 693,000, while only 692,000 people watched AEW Dynamite.
Dynamite still came out ahead in the 18-49 demographic, however, with a 0.26 rating compared to NXT’s 0.19. That put Dynamite at 32 in the Cable Top 150 rankings, and NXT at 51. The Fox News show Special Report With Brett Baier came in first that night, with a 0.64 demo rating. That show was also first in overall viewership with 5.531 million people watching.
This week, NXT was on top once again, although both shows lost some viewers. Showbuzz reports that this week’s NXT had 692,000 viewers (the same amount AEW Dynamite had last week) while Dynamite dropped to 683,000 viewers.
Those key 18-49 demographic ratings still only changed a little bit, with AEW Dynamite getting a 0.25 this week, compared to NXT’s 0.17. Special Report With Bret Baier on FOX News remained first among cable shows, with a 0.56 rating and 5.586 million viewers.
It seems likely that NXT will stay on top in viewership for the weeks to come. As unethical as it might be for WWE to be running live shows right now, it does help them keep things a little bit fresher.
In December of 2014, Chromatics announced a new album called Dear Tommy. That album has not been released yet. In fact, the group has released another album, Closer To Grey, since then. Dear Tommy has had a long and mysterious history, but now things are clearing up: The group has unveiled a new Dear Tommy tracklist and shared a new song from it, so it appears the album is finally coming out.
The album will feature the new cut “Teacher,” a synthy and thumping electronic song, as well as previously released singles “Just Like You,” the title track, and “Time Rider.” It does not include, however, the songs they released earlier this year, “Toy” and “Famous Monsters.”
The group shared a message alongside the new song, which reads:
“‘The apple obscured in fog is enigmatic & open to the interpretation of the viewer. Are we sinking into the unknown or rising from beyond the grave? An apple a day keeps the doctor away & music is the medicine. Our teachers transfer knowledge of good & evil. From the fairytale of Snow White’s endless sleep to the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis, exposure is the agent of change. Music is a language communicated by the artist but ultimately defined by the listener’s own exposure to sound throughout their life time. I can’t change my past, but I can choose to break the cycle & not pass the poison apple I was fed to my daughter.’
Bazzi’s quick rise stems from his unique ability to proliferate hits by offering an exuberant mix of smooth pop and R&B. The singer released the heartfelt ode “Renee’s Song” to his girlfriend just a few weeks ago that followed the playful ode to young adulthood “Young & Alive.” Now, the singer has returned with the snappy track “I Got You.”
When Bazzi sat down to write the tune, he knew he wanted to make a viral TikTok hit. A day after releasing the track, Bazzi began a successful TikTok dance challenge using the memorable beat. Starting off slow, the single quickly picks up a rolling beat under Bazzi’s tender vocals. “I know I haven’t been a lover, I’ll be here for a while / There’s some insecure people tryna mess with the plans / You help me focus on myself, help me focus on the fans,” he croons.
Sharing the song, Bazzi wrote on Twitter that he completed the song relatively quickly: “i woke up today & decided i would make a song and put it online no matter what… i think it actually turned out kinda hard lol”
i woke up today & decided i would make a song and put it online no matter what…
Tyler The Creator puts his own, mellow spin on a remix of La Roux’s Supervision single, “Automatic Driver,” once again showing off his versatility as a producer. Turning the upbeat bop into a more laid-back tune, Tyler gives La Roux’s dance floor anthem more of a hazy, kick-back-on-the-couch feel, slowing down everything from the tempo to La Roux’s voice. It’s not quite chopped-and-screwed; the beat is reminiscent of mid-2000s Pharrell and La Roux doesn’t sound like she’s singing through mud. If the original sounds like a sunny day, the remix is that day’s relaxing twilight.
The remix may seem like it comes from out of the blue, but the two artists have actually previously collaborated on Tyler’s Grammy-winning album, Igor, on the song “Gone, Gone / Thank You.” La Roux sings background vocals on the track, which also features CeeLo Green and a spoken outro from comedian Jerrod Carmichael. La Roux released Supervision in February of this year. Check out the original version of “Automatic Driver” below.
Tyler also showed off his production chops on another weekend release, Westside Gunn’s Pray For Paris. Tyler produced the beat for “Party Wit Pop Smoke” and also contributes a verse to “327” alongside Joey Badass.
Listen to Tyler The Creator’s remix of La Roux’s “Automatic Driver” above.
Verzuz livestream battles are the best thing going — AKA they’re the only thing going. Timbaland and Swizz Beats parlayed the hysteria around their March beat battle into a Verzuz series where a who’s who of hip-hop and R&B are going track for track in front of hundreds of thousands of people on Instagram Live.
Matchups like RZA vs. DJ Premier, Scott Storch vs. Mannie Fresh, and T-Pain vs. Lil Jon have piqued quarantined fans’ interests and stirred debate about future matchups. What are the rap matchups that we’d most like to see as a hip-hop community?
A couple qualifiers: this is (for the most part) a practical list. Kanye is still on his secular music boycott and likely won’t be participating. Legends like Jay-Z, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Nas, LL Cool J and others are too reclusive to get down and dirty. There are also a couple of tricky artists: for instance, Snoop Dogg has too much of a catalog for anyone other than artists who won’t participate, while Rick Ross’ Justice League work would shellshock any of his trap peers.
So here’s the unscientific, variably realistic list. Let us know what other battles you’d like to see below:
Havoc vs Alchemist
The late Prodigy, a brother to both men, suggested this battle several years ago. Now that beat battles are more in-demand than ever, it seems like the two should fulfill his wish and go at it with their lengthy catalog of head-nodding bangers and enticing soul samples. The two are known for sinister production ripe for spitters but they have their fair share of mainstream bangers like the Alchemist-produced “We Gon Make It” and Mobb Deep’s “The Learning (Burn).” It would also be fun to see them go off on a run of Prodigy vs. Prodigy to celebrate their fallen comrade.
Who Wins: Havoc. It’s gonna be hard for ALC to compete with the weight of The Infamous tracks.
Jeezy vs 2 Chainz
2 Chainz has expressed interest in wanting to do a beat battle. He challenged Meek Mill last week, but Meek declined. 2 Chainz also declined a battle with Fabolous because F-A-B-O has too many “girl records.” But there’s another charismatic hitmaker artist who’s just as trap-focused as 2 Chainz : Jeezy. The Snowman hasn’t been releasing his best music of late, but this quarantine period is all about celebrating history. And when it comes to trap music, Jeezy’s catalog is integral to the canon. A lot of people need to learn or be reminded of an era when his catalog was so infectious that Kanye West admitted in 2008 that “every time I write a chorus or any type of hook, I say like, ‘What would [Young] Jeezy do?’”
Who Wins: 2 Chainz’ feature work helps him take the edge.
T.I. vs 50 Cent
Aside from being two of the most captivating personalities in the game, 50 Cent and T.I. are both the embodiment of the 2000’s archetypal hitmaker: they could get play in the club, be as grimy as they wanted, but also had swooning women fanbases who they appeased with catchy singles. These days, they’re so entrenched as hip-hop multi-taskers (for whom rap isn’t the primary vehicle) that it would be good to see both of them celebrated for how dominant they were in the ‘00s — and not old beef. Despite representing different regions, their catalog is so similarly balanced thematically and stylistically that neither one would be able to swerve on the other in the way that Timbaland and Scott Storch did their opponents. And if nothing else, this battle would also be an A1 sh*t-talking contest.
Who Wins: T.I. has a little bit more in the tank hit-wise.
Metro Boomin vs Zaytoven
This is the matchup of two out-of-towners who helped shape Atlanta’s sound. They’re both known for their synergy with a pair of iconic acts (Future and Gucci Mane respectively), but have plenty of bangers with other Atlanta based acts, including each other’s go-to artist. It would be fun to intriguing to see “mixtape Gucci” tracks go up against four-peat era Future, as well as Migos hits like the Zaytoven-produced “Versace” vs. Metro Boomin’s “Bad And Boujee.” They’ve both worked with so many of the same artists, so this could be a song for song fight to see who got the most out of any given artist.
Who Wins: Metro for most people, though it will likely be a streets vs. charts preference battle.
Young Thug and Drip Harder vs Migos
This is probably way too ambitious to ever happen, but it would be a fun celebration of “the New Atlanta.” It wouldn’t be fair for any solo act to go against Migos, as their solo work and features (Quavo and Offset especially) would make that kind of battle feel like a handicap match. But seeing Thug get some help from his young labelmate Gunna and Lil Baby (who he put on) makes sense. It would also help certain artists involved further confirm that whatever fight they say didn’t happen didn’t actually happen, and even if it did it doesn’t stop the movement. We could call this one the Gucci Mane battle royale.
Who Wins: Migos outlast the tag team round-for-round.
DJ Khaled vs Mike Will Made-It
This would be a fun matchup of two of the 2010s’ biggest hitmakers who both approached their artistry differently. DJ Khaled is the world’s most relentless pitchman, while Mike Will is damn near anonymous beyond his producer tag despite producing hits for the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Future, Gucci Mane, and more. Both men have kept the functions plenty fed with tracks like Khaled’s “Wild Thoughts,” “All I Do Is Win,” and “We Takin Over” and Mike Will’s “Same Damn Time,” “No Flex Zone,” and of course “Black Beatles.”
Who Wins: Mike Will wins out round-for-round.
Missy Elliott vs. Nicki Minaj
It’s corny to pit the two women on this list against each other, but no cishet male artist would take on either artist because of fragility. The only people who are beating out Nicki or Missy are fellow certified legends, many of whom won’t be participating in beat battles. Nicki could frankly use the good press, while Missy could give the younger generation another reminder of her lasting greatness. In many ways, Nicki Minaj followed after Missy as a charismatic, genre-bending, aesthetically imaginative artist. Why not go hit-for-hit and see who did it better?
Who Wins: Missy and Timbaland are a cheat code.
Pharell vs Drake
This matchup could be a reach, but I feel like T-Pain vs. Lil Jon opened the door for this kind of matchup. T-Pain played several tracks against producer Lil Jon where he didn’t craft the beat but did the hook. It wasn’t a beat for beat battle between two producers. It was two artists hurling anything they’ve had their fingerprints on at each other. As a producer, Pharell would have the enviable advantage of Snoop Dogg, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z records at his disposal, but Drake has 19 No. 1 singles on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and 15 No. 1 singles on the US Hot Rap Songs. With over 200 Billboard charting songs, he’d do just fine finding 20 or so smashes for a battle that shouldn’t be taken deathly serious anyway.
The ideal match for both men would probably be Kanye West, but he’s currently doing gospel music and building futuristic contraptions in the Great Plains. It only makes sense for them to face off against each other.
Both men are among the most iconic acts of the past vicennium (thanks Kanye). They’re often referenced as solitary creators but have had varying amounts of help crafting their catalog. Both artists are as versatile as it gets, with Pharell’s iconic genre-bending with N.E.R.D. and Drake’s forays into so-called Afrobeats. The amount of left-field turns this battle could take would be fascinating. Both artists have way too many vibes in the chamber for other prospective (practical) competitors, so why not battle each other?
Who Wins: Realistically, we all win. But Pharell being able to use Jay-Z records to go against Drake’s rap records could be a difference-maker.
Diddy vs Dre
This is the one. Diddy has rightfully clarified that his catalog is “not regular,” but neither is Dr. Dre’s. The Compton icon has been the lynchpin behind so many movements and cultural moments that he could wash most producers with his 88-93 or 98-03 output alone. But opening the totality of his 30+ year catalog is the best antidote for Diddy’s massive resume. While Diddy isn’t a beatmaker, he’s had his fingerprints on so many songs, remixes, and guest appearances that this battle could easily go 30 for 30 with bangers to spare. Not to mention that few people would be as engaging on a live stream as Diddy.
Who Wins: Diddy’s R&B work turns the tide in this one.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
The Tiger King documentary series proved to be a raging success for Netflix while claiming the streaming giant’s “Most Popular” list spot for weeks, and for solid reason. The project piled on heaping helpings of insanity within seven episodes — not only from the big-cat trading standpoint but through wild mullets, extreme polygamy, drug use, faux country music, and exhausting rivalries — while shining the light on frontman Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as “Joe Exotic.”
The streaming crowd couldn’t get enough of Mr. Exotic, who arguably tapped into the zeitgeist with his showman’s flair, and although Netflix also aired an aftershow episode, the thirst for guilty documentary pleasures shall not be quenched. Tiger King followup projects continue to simmer while Exotic languishes behind bars (that murder-for-hire business sealed the deal), but the streaming world is here to give the people what they want. Here are similarly bonkers TV docuseries and documentary films that you can watch right now.
There’s retroactive Tiger King flavor in this story of two North Carolina men who duked it out over a mummified foot, which happened to rightfully belong to one of men, yet he initially lost it in a small plane crash. I can’t believe that I just typed those words, and it gets even stranger as this documentary traces the steps where this foot went amiss, somehow got basted-mummified, tucked into a storage space, and then put up for auction. The purchaser discovered the foot (what a day that was) and marketed his discovery into a tourist attraction, and that’s only the beginning of the madness. Yet this story isn’t simply an oddity-filled circus. Nope, filmmakers Bryan Carberry and Clay Tweel manage to stir up some genuine emotion in this story, which ends up being slightly heartwarming despite all the voyeurism and grossness on display.
Mark Wahlberg executive produced his addictive and twisty saga of fast-food fraud — which transpired through the innocent-enough looking 1990s McDonald’s Monopoly promotional game — that spanned a decade. Mafia dons were in on this thing, the FBI got big-time involved, and Agent Doug had the time of his life in a story that’s so strange, it must be true. Before all was said and done, this scam produced $24 million worth of stolen, black-marketed winning tickets and corresponding dirty deeds until an anonymous tipster set things in motion for the whole scam to come crumbling down. There’s blackmail, intrigue, duped players, and an honest-to-god sting operation with insane “undercover” tactics, all to nab the scoundrels and bring them to justice. It’s great.
The greatest conman among wine connoisseurs, Rudy Kurniawan, gets the spotlight here for his elaborate schemes carried out upon members of the ultra-swanky community of serious wine tasters and collectors. His high-stakes game involved infiltrating a massive market while pocketing millions from CEOs who believed his charade. It’s difficult to feel too sorry for some of Kurniawan’s targets, including a Koch brother who dropped several million on falsified vintage wine. And while Kurniawan is undoubtedly a smooth operator, he’s still the Joe Exotic of wine snobs, so this conman’s maneuvers (and his swagger) are truly engrossing to behold.
Conspiracy theories abound in this film from Danish filmmaker Mads Brügger, who digs into the 1961 plane crash that killed Swedish diplomat and former United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld. The cause of the crash serves as the jumping-off point for one bonkers theory, but somehow, another conspiracy theory about white supremacists and HIV/AIDS surfaces, and then there’s an explosion of shadowy mercenary organizations. One gets the sense that Brügger (who shoots this project with a vaguely theatrical flair at times) is unreliably presenting this tale because it feels like a mockumentary. In the end, perhaps he got in far deeper than he ever planned with this project, and it’s difficult to know what to believe, but that’s part of the fascination factor.
At first, this doc presents what seems like a straightforward enough situation — a 12-year-old girl in 1970s Idaho is seduced and kidnapped by a neighbor, but this is no cut-and-dried story. There are no easy answers here, given that this neighbor excelled as a conman and somehow managed to fool the girl’s family away from believing the truth. Manipulation and coverups abound, along with a critique on suburbia and the blind spots that can arrive with religion. It’s a confounding story that will cause viewers to gasp at the screen in disgust and disbelief, all while unable to stop staring at the increasing outlandishness that continues to unfold. It’s grim stuff but nonetheless transfixing.
If you’ve spent much time online over the past year — and let’s face it, you know the truth here — you’ve at least heard about this series (which carries a subtitle, Hunting An Internet Killer). This truly absurd documentary found its roots in an animal rights-focused Facebook group, which included members that tracked down the person responsible for viral animal cruelty videos. Two members of the Facebook group followed painstaking clues and obvious giveaways from the cat-killer, and after one serious snafu, they ended up tracking down Luke Magnotta, who (of course) graduated from murdering animals to killing people. Magnotta’s thirst for attention and notoriety not only got him busted, but his acts turn this doc into a disturbing sociological study for the Internet age.
This project digs deeper into the relatively well-covered 1980s media circus surrounding three triplets, David Kellman, Eddy Galland, and Bobby Shafran, who were separated and adopted out to different families, only to encounter each other around college age. Archival footage and interviews follow the reunion stories of these three charismatic, Jewish-American young men, yet the media whirlwind and celebratory times gradually give way to a slightly darker side of the story. There, we see an examination of family and ethics by director Tim Wardle, who found himself intrigued by Laurence Wright’s coverage of the trio in the New Yorker. However, even the more serious aspects of the story are outshined by plenty of humor and heart in this documentary.
The opioid epidemic gets personal in this Netflix documentary series about a small-town pharmacist, Dan Schneider, whose pursuit of justice for his son’s killer came back to haunt him on the job. Doctors who become dealers come under harsh scrutiny here as Schneider becomes an unlikely hero while helping to expose the river of alarmingly powerful OxyContin prescriptions coming his way from seemingly healthy patients. This leads him back down the tragic path that led to his son’s addiction and demise, and Schneider makes it his mission to prevent other families from suffering the same fate. Big Pharma never faced down such a formidable foe, and this documentary is for anyone who needs to be convinced that one voice can make a world of difference.
Tiger King exposed the downright appalling behavior of the big-cat-people culture, but 2013’s Blackfish laid the animal-abuse illuminating blueprint for at least one of the Netflix documentary’s subjects. Carole Baskin straight-up claimed that she was convinced to participate in Tiger King by directors who promised to shine the same light on the big-cat trade that Blackfish did while exposing SeaWorld for its shameful captivity practices. Baskin’s expectations didn’t exactly work out for her, but Blackfish is nonetheless worth revisiting for the eye-opening story within this activist project, which made the case that the aggressive behavior of so-called killer whales is actually a product of SeaWorld practices. The documentary isn’t an easy watch and argues that Tilikum the orca had no chance at a normal demeanor, given the unethical and reckless manner in which he was raised, and the film acts as a cautionary tale to all of mankind.
The full title of this true-crime documentary series is Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist, and that’s not an overstatement. Known as the “pizza bomber case,” this series follows the tragic 2003 results of an elaborate robbery scheme (in Erie, Pennsylvania) that ended with the death of a pizza delivery man, Brian Wells. He appeared to have been forced to walk into the bank to demand money while believing that this act would spare him after an elaborate scavenger hunt. However, the neck-collar bomb around Wells’ neck exploded, and the series attempts to unravel the bizarre path that led him to participate in this heist. The project ultimately delivers insight into the various parties involved, but it’s still a somewhat frustrating exercise to witness, along with being an unpredictable and unsettling ride.
It’s always refreshing to highlight a documentary that isn’t tragic, although that easily could have been the case. Filmmaker Crystal Moselle (the Skate Kitchen director who will soon bring the follow-up Betty series to HBO) introduced the world to the six Angulo brothers, an extremely sheltered set of siblings who were essentially raised on Reservoir Dogs, The Dark Knight, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, among other badass movie selections. Their tastes seem atypical at best, given that the siblings were mostly confined to their small NYC apartment by a mentally-ill father and homeschooled by their mother. The boys eventually take to the streets in this doc, though, and they are a sharp-dressed vision to behold, given their penchant for costume-and-prop crafting and cinematic flair. It’s somehow an uplifting tale, even though story edges into exploring childhood abuse, and there are unsettling moments and suggestions of trouble brewing behind the brothers’ smiles. However, it’s clear that the group has become as well-adjusted (and personable) as possible by not only leaning on each other but on their favorite films while making the most of an extraordinary situation.
Ticketmaster caused a stir earlier this week with a quiet update to their refund policy. The page previously indicated that “refunds are available if your event is postponed, rescheduled or canceled, with the only exception reserved for MLB games and US Open events.” However, the update changed it so postponed and rescheduled shows were no longer eligible for refunds. This came after Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, postponed all upcoming tours back in March.
Now, Live Nation and AEG, the two biggest players in the live entertainment space, have updated how they are handling all the rescheduled shows. Ticketholders can now get refunds, but there is a catch: The shows have to have been rescheduled with new dates announced (as The New York Times notes). This means that fans with tickets to shows that have been postponed indefinitely are not eligible for refunds.
AEG will offer refunds under those conditions, and buyers will have a 30-day window to request their money back, beginning on May 1 or on whenever the new dates are announced. Live Nation’s timeline is less clear, as they note, “Live Nation’s plan is to continue offering an opportunity for refunds on all of its rescheduled shows as new dates are set. We anticipate those windows will begin to open up on an event by event basis in the next few weeks.”
Ticketmaster previously offered a statement about their new policies, saying, “In the past, with a routine volume of event interruptions, we and our event organizers have been able to consistently offer more flexibility with refunds for postponed and rescheduled events. However, considering the currently unprecedented volume of affected events, we are focused on supporting organizers as they work to determine venue availability, new dates and refund policies, while rescheduling thousands of events in what continues to be an evolving situation.”
Movie productions will eventually resume. It’s true. The Directors Guild Of America has even appointed Steven Soderbergh to help get the ball rolling again, which means that Taika Waititi will get to do his offbeat thing with Thor: Love And Thunder after no one realistically (at least, not after The Dark World) expected a fourth Thor movie to materialize. Thanks to Taiki’s masterminding of Ragnarok, though, and added fuel from Chris Hemsworth’s jolly Thor in Avengers: Endgame, nerds are very excited to more of the God of Thunder, even if he’s no longer the King of New Asgard. Will Thor shed his “Fat Thor”/”Bro Thor” physique, though? That’s been a major question, especially while knowing that Natalie Portman’s Mighty Thor will pick up the hammer.
Do the powers that be want Thor to go back to being buff, or not? Tony Stark’s “Lebowski” comment hit the mark on the character’s Endgame vibe, but Taika Waititi doesn’t sound like he wants to continue with the Thor incarnation that launched so many Halloween costumes. When Waititi hosted an Instagram live viewing of Ragnarok earlier this week, he made it sound like Thor got on a Peleton kick. Via Comic Book Resource:
During a recent Instagram Live watch of Thor: Ragnarok, Waititi said the Marvel Cinematic Universe is done with “Fat Thor” and Hemsworth probably won’t put on a padded suit for Love and Thunder. “We haven’t figured that out, but I feel like that’s done,” Waititi said.
As much joy as Lebowski/Bro Thor brought to audiences, it makes sense to put that phase to sleep. “Fat Thor,” as he was initially dubbed, was a byproduct of the depression that consumed the Avengers in the first five years of Endgame‘s timeline. Even though Cap kept shaving, Black Widow let her red hair roots grow absurdly long, while Thor hit the bread bowl and beer. So yeah, he turned into an Asgardian Lebowski, but times have changed. Thanos went down, and Thor’s glee from that victory (and watching Cap swing the hammer) lifted his gloomy mood, even with Loki’s fate still ambiguous. Thor’s probably gonna get ripped again, and that’s definitely not the worst news in the world today. It’s be just fine.
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