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Fresh off of their Coachella weekend one performance, supergroup Dinner Party headed over to Jimmy Kimmel Live! to deliver yet another powerful set, this time for the fans at home.

Comprised of saxophonist Kamasi Washington, multi-instrumentalist Terrace Martin, DJ/producer 9th Wonder, and keyboardist Robert Glasper, the musical powerhouse’s self-titled debut album showcased just how much further the industry veterans could push themselves. On their latest project, Enigmatic Society, they are looking to outdo themselves.

Joined by singer Ant Clemons, Dinner Party demonstrated their growth with an intimate performance of the single “Insane.” As Clemons sings, “Hella glad you made it / Shot a clock, I’m faded / Be my designated / Call your driver, baby / ‘Cause that body drives me crazy,” the listener is hocked in with the buttery smooth lines.

The oozing swagger of the song’s lyrics is heightened by the musicians’ homely stage set up on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Dinner Party and Clemons hold an effortlessly soulful jam session blending together areas of each musician’s areas of expertise, from jazz to jazz and every element in between.

Watch the full performance of “Insane” on Jimmy Kimmel Live above.

Enigmatic Society is out now via Sounds Of Crenshaw/Empire. Find more information here.

On Tuesday, Fox News managed to avert a no doubt destructive and humiliating (and utterly riveting) trial by settling with Dominion Voting Systems. They even talked them down to about half of what they were seeking! And they never have to even apologize or acknowledge on air! Good for them! Of course, that also means their reputation is dog poop to all but their most loyal viewers, with there now being proof that they knowingly lied to their public. Even some alumni weren’t too happy with them. That includes Bill O’Reilly, a man who knows Fox News settlements.

In a lengthy statement posted on his site, the network’s former superstar — who, incidentally, was fired in the early Trump era after the company had to settle multiple sexual misconduct settlements involving him — trashed them for their “foolish coverage of the 2020 election.”

Although he noted that the “usual far-left loons are disappointed” by the settlement and lack of trial, most of his ire was for his former employer, who he noted are not out of the woods yet. “Going forward, Fox News faces a similar lawsuit from the Smartmatic Company and perhaps thousands of lawsuits from Fox shareholders,” he wrote, adding, “What a disaster.”

He continued:

This is what happens when money becomes more important than honest information. Since I left FNC, the template changed from “Fair and Balanced” to “tell the audience what it wants to hear.” And millions of Trump voters, to this day, want to believe the 2020 election was rigged.

Good for Bill O’Reilly for coming out against the voter fraud nonsense Trump, his cronies, and his enablers in rightwing media have been peddling for over two years now. Bill O’Reilly — a man so principled, so devoted to taking down crooks and liars that he went on a disastrous speaking tour with [checks notes] Donald Trump months after he tried to overturn democracy.

For what it’s worth, O’Reilly’s various settlements cost Fox News quite a lot less than their devotion to Donald Trump did.

(Via Raw Story)

The Japanese House’s forthcoming sophomore album, In the End It Always Does, is said to feature some of the biggest names in indie music, including The 1975’s Matty Healy, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, and Muna’s Katie Gavin. Her single “Boyhood” was released last month, and now the musician has popped out with a new song to give fans a taste of what’s to come.

Co-produced by George Daniel and Chloe Kraemer, “Sad To Breathe” is a refreshingly crisp look at romantic yearning. In the accompanying video, directed by Sheila Johansson, the band opts for a straightforward display of musicianship. Despite being in a room full of superbly talented musicians and singers, The Japanese House makes it feel as if she’s all alone as she lets her heart bleed out onto her guitar strings.

When discussing the song’s growth, the singer shared, “[Sad To Breathe] is one of the oldest songs” on her upcoming album. “It was very different back then. It’s gone from being solely electronic to what it is now, mostly live/acoustic instrumentation.

“[The song is] about that desperate feeling when someone leaves you and the disbelief that they could,” she added. “It’s funny you could have those kind of insane dramatic thoughts that feel so real at the time but can, by some miracle, look back in fondness to your entire life being ruined. It all circles back around.”

Watch the full video above.

In the End It Always Does is out 6/30 via Dirty Hit. For more information, click here.

On Tuesday, what was supposed to be a wild — and, for conservative media, potentially gutting — trial ended in a surprise 11th-hour settlement: Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems, who had accused the news giant of slandering them on-air with knowingly false info, about half of what they had asked for. Reaction was mixed. On one hand, at $787.5 million, it’s the largest defamation settlement in history. On the other, Fox News doesn’t even have to apologize or admit fault on-air, effectively forking over money to get away with it.

But perhaps you forgot about Smartmatic, another voting machine company who’s also suing Fox News for the same thing. Their lawsuit is even larger. Dominion sought $1.6 billion. Smartmatic wants $2.7 billion. In case that one slipped your mind, the company put out a statement telling Fox News to get ready.

“Dominion’s litigation exposed some of the misconduct and damage caused by Fox’s disinformation campaign,” a spokesperson said, as per The New York Times. “Smartmatic will expose the rest.”

In its complaint, Smartmatic alleged that Fox News aired over 100 false statements. The day after the suit was filed, the network cancelled Lou Dobbs’ show.

No trial date has yet been set, but perhaps they have even more dirt than the ones Dominion made public. Ditto the two lawsuits filed on behalf of former producer Abby Grossberg, who alleges a sexist, manipulative workplace, and has some not nice things to say about Tucker Carlson.

In the meantime, Fox News was caught admitting they lied, further ruining a reputation that was already clearly low amongst other news networks (and leading to the usually detached Jake Tapper to lose it on air). But since they don’t have to admit as much on air, their viewers will probably never know.

(Via NYT)

Michael Jackson was known as the King of Pop, but was he secretly the King of Petty? According to hip-hop media titan Benzino, that might be true. Many stories about the musician have emerged, including how the “Bad” singer was almost run over by actor Jason Bateman on a bicycle. Now, Benzino is sharing one of his own.

During his appearance on The Gauds Show podcast, Benzino revealed that Michael Jackson fully supported his feud with rapper Eminem.

“I knew Mike. I met Mike through Teddy [Riley]. He called me, and he thanked me,” said Benzino. As for what the call was about, he revealed Jackson called him, “Because when Eminem dissed him with the fire situation, in the [‘Just Lose It’] video, Mike called — and I remember his assistant put him on the phone — and I sat there and listened to him. And he thanked me.”

The “Just Lose It” video was released back in 2004. In it, Eminem poked fun at Jackson on several fronts, including his 2005 child molestation trial, rumored plastic surgery, and his hair catching on fire on the set of the infamous 1984 Pepsi commercial.

The feud between Benzino and Eminem is still going strong to this day. Strangely, the former’s daughter, rapper Coi Leray, has said she’s on the side of her dad’s foe.

George Santos may have been caught repeatedly and creatively lying during his House election campaign, but will that stop him from running for a second term? Of course not. Only problem is the serial fabulist’s campaign is already in the red. Luckily there’s a House group set up to help cash-strapped members with this very problem. Unluckily they’re turning their back on the erstwhile Kitara Ravache.

As per Politico, Protect the House, a fundraising committee that helps vulnerable candidates keep their seats, and according to paperwork filed Monday they were ready to dump cash on a number of New York representatives. Santos’ name was not on the list.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, a member of the committee, was asked whether he would support Santos’ re-election campaign. He responded with a laugh, then added that he would “wait and see.”

McCarthy has never formally denounced Santos, but others on the committee have. Santos has tried to spin his infamy, claiming he was an outsider and not an untrustworthy sort who lies about his mom dying in the World Trade Center attacks.

Last week, first quarter fundraising data for Santos’ campaign was released and it was not pretty. In the first three months of 2023, he raised a mere $5,333.26. Worse, he had to refund over $8,000 in donations, meaning his campaign has a net loss of about $3,000. Best of luck with that and with that Nicki Minaj bill.
(Via Politico)

Love Is Blind viewers thought they’d never see the footage of the live reunion special. It was later revealed that this was due to the extreme technical difficulties faced by Netflix. But reality television enthusiasts aren’t the only ones anxious about the streaming giant. A short clip of the show featured in Ye’s (formally known as Kanye West) 2022 Netflix documentary Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy is at the center of a new lawsuit, according to TMZ.

A Chicago woman named Cynthia Love is seeking $30,000 in damages from the three-part series directors Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah as well as Netflix. Love, who had appeared in the video for Ye’s breakout single “Through The Wire,” which was also directed by Simmons, claims in the lawsuit that the extended version of her used in the series shows her in an “altered state” in which she “was not capable of providing consent.”

The defendant alleged that when the footage was first captured, she was compensated $20. Her appearance in the music video was minor as she is seen dancing in what appears to be a restaurant while not in a right state of mind. Love shared that use of the extended footage shows her “dark past” from which she’s worked nearly two decades to escape.

Love insists that she was not personally contacted for consent to use the extended footage, claiming Simmons told her son “he assumed she was dead” instead of trying to contact her before the documentary was released.

De’Aaron Fox has turned himself into a crunch time killer for the upstart Sacramento Kings, and as a result, his efforts late in games are being recognized by the league. As part of the NBA’s rollout of its end of season awards this week, it was announced on TNT on Tuesday evening that Fox has won the inaugural Clutch Player of the Year award.

While there are a myriad of reasons why Sacramento broke its 17-year playoff drought and finished with the 3-seed in the Western Conference, the play of Fox in tense moments late in games was a major reason why. Fox took his game to another level this season, which saw him earn the first All-Star nod of his young career thanks in large part to his fearlessness down the stretch of close games. This has continued through the first two games of the postseason, where Fox has been a menace in the fourth quarter against the Golden State Warriors.

On the year, Fox averaged 25 points on 51.2 percent shooting from the field with 6.1 assists, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in 33.4 minutes a night. Fox beat out two other finalists for the honor: Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler and Chicago Bulls ace DeMar DeRozan.

The NBA announced that this would join its collection of awards prior to the 2022-23 season. Fox joins Jaren Jackson Jr. of the Memphis Grizzlies as award winners this year — Jackson was named Defensive Player of the Year on Monday — while the Coach of the Year and Sixth Man awards will be announced on TNT later this week.

Back in November, singer and rapper Aaron Carter tragically died. For the weeks to follow, close friends and family shared kind words about the musicians and their latest moments with him. His brother, Nick Carter, even took to Instagram to upload a touching message to Aaron’s fans.

“Even though my brother and I have had a complicated relationship, my love for him has never ever faded. I have always held on to the hope that he would somehow, someday, want to walk a healthy path and eventually find the help that he so desperately needed. Sometimes we want to blame someone or something for a loss, but the truth is that addiction and mental illness is the real villain here. I will miss my brother more than anyone will ever know. I love you, Chizz. Now you can finally have the peace you could never find here on earth….I love you, baby brother,” wrote Nick.

Now, nearly six months late, Variety has obtained a document that revealed the pop star’s cause of death. According to the outlet, “Aaron Carter’s death was caused by drowning and the effects of alprazolam (an ingredient used in cans of compressed air), a generic form of Xanax, and inhaling difluoroethane.”

The entertainer was found unresponsive at home and his death was ruled an accident by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner’s office.

The Scream franchise is back and arguably stronger than ever, and usually with a longtime franchise that means lots of callbacks. Problem is, this is a horror franchise, with the requisite high body count. A lot of great and famous actors have been brutally murdered over the seven films, but that hasn’t stopped some of them from wishing to come back, somehow. Drew Barrymore, the first to ever eat it in the series, wants back in. And now so does Scream 3 victim Parker Posey.

As caught by Variety, the legendary actress, who can currently be seen in a memorable role in Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid, recently did an interview with ComicBook.com. They asked her what she thought of Barrymore’s pitch, which was that her character was only faking being dead. Posey responded with a similar but less far-fetched idea:

“Well, I did an interview for WNYC Radio, like three weeks ago, for the play I was doing. And they said, ‘Well, there’s some people here that want to say hi.’ And it was the Scream team. And I actually pitched, ‘Can I just be in another dimension and come back? And continue to …’ I hope so. I would love to do that. That was really fun. I can’t believe Wes Craven let me get away with some of the silly stuff I was doing. I loved him, and that was fun.”

Multiverses are hot right now, so why not? Scream isn’t that realistic, so they could get in on the same action as Rick and Morty and the MCU. Besides, Posey is an always welcome presence, so if the Scream team isn’t into going the multiverse route, why not just give her an entirely new character? As Barrymore said about her idea, “With good writing, you can make anything happen.”

(Via Variety and ComicBook.com)