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Depending on which corners of social media you call home, few happenings from the 2023 Grammy awards were as divisive as Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ performance of the song “Unholy.” Was it a historic moment of inclusion or a historic display of a Satanic ritual broadcast to the world?

On the one hand, the pair made music history. After winning the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, Smith became the first non-binary artist to win the category, along with Petra who became the first trans woman to win the category.

However, not everyone was a fan of their live hell-themed performance, featuring Smith clad in red leather and sporting a top hat with devil horns and Petras dancing in a cage surrounded by dominatrixes.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz took to Twitter to call the act “evil,” and his fury was quickly echoed by other conservative influencers who declared it an example of mainstream devil worship.

“Don’t fight the culture wars, they say. Meanwhile demons are teaching your kids to worship Satan. I could throw up.” wrote conservative political commentator Liz Wheeler.

However, it doesn’t take a lot of research to find out what the artist’s original intentions were behind the song.

In a previous interview with NME, Smith shared that the song was about “liberating oneself from the clutches of others’ secrets.” The song’s lyrics explicitly suggest that the story is about adultery, and touches on the way certain taboo desires are viewed as sins and therefore kept hidden or repressed. For such a large portion of history, this has been a harsh reality of the LGBTQ experience, which makes the theme seem like a creative no-brainer rather than a literal endorsement for satanic worship.

Petras also responded to backlash over the song, telling Variety that the performance was inspired by not feeling accepted by mainstream religion as a trans person.

“I personally grew up wondering about religion and wanting to be a part of it but slowly realizing it didn’t want me to be a part of it. So it’s a take on not being able to choose religion. And not being able to live the way that people might want you to live, because as a trans person I’m already not kind of wanted in religion,” she said.

Taking it from the song creators themselves, it seems the message really being put out is that of acceptance. Or at least paving your own way when acceptance doesn’t come.

Watch the video below:

At the Grammys last night (February 5), the Recording Academy paid tribute to 50 years of hip-hop history with a 10-minute, all-star performance from a number of the most important rappers ever. With anything of this sort that attempts to be all-encompassing, though, some people are bound to be upset. It’s impossible to include every rapper, and as for why some didn’t make the cut, Questlove, who put the whole thing together, offered a lengthy explanation.

He began by generally breaking it down on Twitter today, tweeting, “general ?s answered about last night: (some are asking if we are playing erasure games so uh….yeah I don’t play that so—in answering the questions of ‘why wasn’t dada there?) 1. already booked 2. declined our offer straight up 3. or a third option im not gonna get into.”

He then teased a bigger endeavor in this realm coming up: “or we made a decision to wait for the 2 hour August taping.”

After going into more depth, he addressed questions some Twitter users had. One person asked, “Why was there no representation of talent from the 2010’s,” and Questlove replied, “because they said ‘no’, or they walked out.” Another said, “I’m sure there were all types of circumstances, but Ice-T as the Only LA representative, in Staples Center, in Los Angeles… is WILD!! Great performance otherwise.” Questlove answered, “welp: I asked like 10 legends so….sometimes you gotta go with the one who wants you. again might not be your preference but most of hip hop has side gigs. Acting was the main issue. lotta movies being shot.”

Meanwhile, in an interview, he explained Will Smith’s absence specifically, saying, “They started shooting Bad Boys 4 this week, so he couldn’t make rehearsals. He wanted to do it.”

Find Questlove’s original thread below.

“general ?s answered about last night: (some are asking if we are playing erasure games so uh….yeah I don’t play that so—in answering the questions of ‘why wasn’t dada there?)

1. already booked
2. declined our offer straight up
3. or a third option im not gonna get into

or we made a decision to wait for the 2 hour August taping

—we decided to eschew those who passed away, & give flowers to the living —for starters I learned with VH1 Honors not all rappers are good MCs and bad karaoke is a danger slope. And WAY too many legends passed so someone’s estate was gonna be heated.

this went through a crazy evolution. all my suggestions were 20 min presentations with Breakbeats/Graf Legends/Dancers/DJ/Beatboxers—-you’ll be shocked how fast 25-40 secs goes by and you don’t even get the halfway mark of 1995l remember 1973 to 2023 was the goal

we were aware of playing our biases out (if it were me alone? idda just skewered to my teenyears). at one point I said ‘we should do ALL women!!’ —that idea didn’t get too …..far (we didnt have time to do a ‘Some Kind Of Monster’/Kumbya thing to make that a reality)

& this is NOT leading to a tired narrative that women don’t get along because there MORE concerns on the men side of things too (happiest moment seeing LL & Ice T just chillin—)—but yeah the most asked question was ‘who all gone be there?’ which is understandable.

we had a criteria we wanted to follow: alive? harmonizing? turntablism? fighting shape? NYC? LA? BAY? ATL? NAWLINS? HOUSTON? MIDWEST? born before 1960? born after 1995? Superlyrical? Stylistic? Original? generally known by at least 2 generations?

now granted they might not be your favorite (and there were 2 crucial 11th hour (more like 10 mins before taping) cancellations that mighta made it look like we were biased in our choices. but just understand we literally tried to SQUEEEEEEEZE everyone in.”

Robert Glasper may not be a household name — something the producer has jokingly alluded to while promoting his own music — but he certainly gets his due from the recording industry establishment (i.e. those in the know). However, one of the artists he defeated in the category for Best R&B Album at last night’s Grammys wasn’t joking when he blew up at Glasper over the win.

Chris Brown, whose album Breezy was nominated against Glasper’s Black Radio III, threw a bit of a hissy fit on Instagram, wondering “who da f*ck is this?” and joking that he would “start playing the harmonica” to get recognition from the Recording Academy. (Truthfully, he’s lucky they’re still considering him at all after being basically persona non grata for upwards of a decade after assaulting Rihanna.)

Glasper acknowledged Brown’s meltdown, posting a graphic on his own Instagram that read “Who the f*ck is Robert Glasper?” “If y’all have questions, I have answers,” he captioned the post, smoothly highlighting his impressive resume which includes production for Kendrick Lamar, Mac Miller, and a who’s-who of Black music royalty in addition to composing the score for The Photograph starring Issa Rae.

Fans on Twitter seemed to align more with Glasper than with Brown’s outlook, censuring the more popular artist for not doing his research. Since then, he apparently has, as he sent Glasper a DM on Instagram apologizing for his outburst, according to a screenshot he shared on his Story.

“Congratulations my brother,” he wrote. “I would like to apologize if you took offense to my reaction at the Grammys.. you were not the Intended target and I know I came off really rude and mean. After doing my research I actually think your amazing.”

However, he didn’t stop there. While acknowledging how his tantrum came off, he recommended a change to the Grammys’ format which actually might make things better for R&B artists in the future. “THE ORGANIZATION ISNT DOING US BLACKS OUR DUE DILIGENCE,” he wrote. “YOU AND I SHOULD never be in the Same category… two totally different vibes and genres. So from one black man to another.. CONGRATULATIONS.. HOPE YOU ARE ABLE TO FEED YOUR FAMILY FOR LIFE.”

Interestingly enough, R&B has had a fraught history at the Grammys — after all, what Black genre hasn’t? From 2003 to 2011, it was split into separate categories, Best R&B Album and Best Contemporary R&B album, to allow for the differences in production between those albums styled after the genre’s roots and those with more hip-hop influence and electronic production. After the categories were re-merged, a Best Progressive R&B Album award was introduced in 2020. Glasper’s Dinner Party bandmate Terrace Martin was nominated in that category this year, although Steve Lacy’s Gemini Rights took the award.

For what it’s worth, pitting Brown’s much more pop-influenced album against a field that included more soulful entries like Mary J. Blige’s Good Morning Gorgeous, Lucky Daye’s Candydrip, and PJ Morton’s Watch the Sun does make it stick out like a sore thumb. Perhaps the Grammys could figure out another category for more uptempo, dance-centric R&B records in the future.

When the Dallas Mavericks traded for Kyrie Irving on Sunday, there were ripple effects felt around the NBA. For one, it was the true opening of trade deadline week, offering an indication that teams were finally ready to start making deals and get down to business after weeks of posturing and plenty of pessimism that teams would meet the astronomical asking prices for stars.

It also meant a few contenders missed out on Irving, with the Lakers and Suns at the top of that list. Phoenix reportedly offered up Chris Paul and now is dealing with the fallout of that offer getting out into the public, with Paul brushing it aside as part of the business on Monday. The Lakers offered Russell Westbrook and their two firsts, but wouldn’t give up all of their young players and some pick swaps in the deal as well, leading the Nets to turn to Dallas.

On Sunday night, LeBron James appeared to offer up some of his feelings on the trade with a brief tweet saying “Maybe it’s me,” but on Monday he made a much longer statement to ESPN’s Michael Wilbon, opening up about being “disappointed” because he felt Kyrie could’ve helped win championships and now shifting his focus back to the group they have.

“Well definitely disappointing. I can’t sit here and say I’m not disappointed about not being able to land such a talent, but someone I had great chemistry with and know I have great chemistry with on the floor that can help you win championships — in my mind, in my eyes,” LeBron says. “My focus has shifted now. My focus has shifted back to where it should be, and that’s this club now and what we have in the locker room. It’s a quick pivot. It don’t take me long. I don’t get too excited about the possibilities of things that can be. I kinda envision myself on what it can, but I don’t invest it all the way until I know it’s happening. And when it does not happen I’m back locked in on the job at hand. So, we had an opportunity, out name was out there, the Lakers name was out there, we had an opportunity, it didn’t happen. We move on and we finish this season strong and try to get a bid into the postseason, where I feel if we go in healthy, we can compete with anybody.”

While LeBron can be disappointed, it seems the Lakers weren’t really ever in the lead position for Irving based on what has come out since the deal. Nets owner Joe Tsai apparently wanted to send Irving anywhere else knowing that Kyrie’s preferred destination was L.A., and on top of that, the Westbrook package would have almost assuredly not been a return that would’ve excited Kevin Durant. There are already rumblings KD could be back on the market, mere months after rescinding his trade request, but adding his old teammate who became a nemesis for years and a package of picks certainly would not have had Durant looking at the Nets as a long-term home.

In any case, there are three days left before the deadline and the Lakers now have to figure out what else they can do to upgrade the roster, or as James says, they’ll spend the next few months scrapping just trying to get a play-in bid.

After Scream revitalized the slasher film genre in 1996, the equally teen-based horror flick I Know What You Did Last Summer quickly followed in its footsteps in 1997, and dang, if history isn’t about to repeat itself. Thanks to the success of 2022’s Scream, which is technically the fifth film in the series, Sony Pictures is reportedly moving forward with a new sequel to I Know What You Did Last Summer with original stars Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. in talks to once again be chased by the guy on the Gorton’s Fish Stick box. Or however those movies went. He had a hook, okay!

Via Deadline:

The idea for the new film came from [Jennifer Katyin] Robinson and [Leah] McKendrick, who blew away studio execs when they pitched this idea for a sequel last fall, especially given the recent success of the Scream franchise. That film was recently relaunched with original cast members returning, and the idea of bringing back original castmembers to draw in old-school fans while also adding fresh faces to relaunch the series was too good for the studio to pass up. Another big factor was the recent success of Robinson’s Netflix pic Do Revenge, which was lauded for its throwbacks to late-’90s pics like Cruel Intentions.

Like Scream, the I Know What You Did sequel will reportedly see Hewitt and Prinze “pass the torch” to a new generation of youngsters. Because if there’s one thing Americans are always demanding, it’s more teenagers being brutally murdered by maritime-based villains. Frankly, we can’t get enough of it. It’s a sickness, really.

(Via Deadline)

After the great podcast boom of 2018, you might have thought that you had heard of every re-watch podcast out there. For any given show you could ever want to watch (or re-watch), there was at least one podcast (if not two) that would accompany you on your journey. Instead of skimming the depths of Wikipedia in order to find out filming locations, you could simply just listen to your favorite actors talk about putting on your favorite show, and that’s a lot easier than reading it!

Another handful of early 2000s/late ’90s shows is getting the podcast treatment this year, this time from various former Disney Channel stars. Led by Christy Carlson Romano, PodCo is a new podcast network that will host re-watched of various tween shows you used to know and maybe loved.

Upcoming podcasts include Wizards Of Waverly Pod, a Wizards of Waverly Place podcast hosted by the show’s stars Jennifer Sone and David DeLuise. New episodes will premiere Mondays and follow the popular Disney Channel show, with guest appearances from Selena Gomez, who is very familiar with podcasts.

The original trio from Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide, Devon Werkheiser, Lindsay Shaw, and Daniel Curtis Lee will reunite once again for Ned’s Declassified Podcast Survival Guide beginning on Feb. 15th. The Brotherly Love Podcast, hosted by brothers Joey, Matt, and Andy Lawrence, will launch on Feb. 24.

Finally, Even More Stevens will be hosted by Romano herself, alongside Nick Spano and Steven Anthony Lawrence, and is set to premiere in March. So you have time to re-watch the original series once before rewatching it again. That’s the only way to do this successfully.

(Via Variety)

Doja Cat is in an experimental mood. Isn’t she always? Recently, she was a lightning rod for attention in Paris with outfits hinged on fake eyelashes and 30,000 Swarovski crystals. Doja attended the 2023 Grammys in Versace on Sunday, February 5, but she raised eyebrows with a tweet before the event.

“Got my first tattoos today,” she tweeted in the early hours of February 5.

Some fans might recall Doja Cat claiming she’d gotten her “first tattoo ever” on July 23, 2022. It was actually just a temporary tattoo. This time, though, the ink seems real.

One of Doja Cat’s Grammys looks came from KNWLS. She posed for various photos in the custom tarnished leather gown, and if you zoom in, you can see delicate tattoos of a cat holding a pitchfork and a spider. The tattoos were previously covered up by her Versace black latex elbow gloves.

Doja Cat was nominated five awards at the 2023 Grammys: Best Music Video (“Woman”), Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (“I Like You [A Happier Song]”), Best Pop Solo Performance (“Woman”), Best Rap Performance (“Vegas”), and Record Of The Year (“Woman”).

She didn’t emerge victorious in any category, unfortunately, but we’ll always have her Best Pop Duo/Group Performance acceptance speech for “Kiss Me More” from last year’s Grammys. Plus, more music is on the way.

“I know that I’ve done a lot of pink and soft things, a lot of pop and glittery sounds,” Doja told Variety as their latest cover star. “But for this next era, I’m going in a more masculine direction.”

She added, “I feel like we have enough pop-punk artists right now. And if there needs to be more, then let there be more, but I don’t think I’m the one to do it. I want to explore more of a raw, unfiltered, hardcore punk sort of thing. It’s just something that I’m doing for my own personal fun — getting some drummers and guitarists together. And I don’t even know if that’s gonna make it out there.”

Texas governor Greg Abbott has responded to an “epic” ice storm that left at least eight people dead and hundreds of thousands without electricity by… vowing to ban TikTok.

“Announcing today a statewide plan to ban TikTok. Texans, especially our state agencies and employees, must be protected from having sensitive information shared with the Chinese Communist Party. We cannot ignore this security threat,” the governor tweeted.

Abbott’s plan would “prevent the download or use of TikTok and prohibited technologies on any state-issued device identified in the statewide plan,” including “all state-issued cell phones, laptops, tablets, desktop computers, and other devices of capable of internet connectivity. Each agency’s IT department must strictly enforce this ban.” The University of Texas at Austin has already blocked access to the app on campus wi-fi.

The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Department of Information Resources developed a plan for state agencies on managing personal and state-issued devices used to conduct state business. Each agency will have until February 15, 2023 to implement its own policy to enforce this statewide plan.

Abbott’s proposal wouldn’t effect you, a private citizen with a non-government job who enjoys watching videos of cats snoring, but it could be a step towards it.

(Via the Dallas Morning News)

When Kyrie Irving was traded on Sunday to the Dallas Mavericks after issuing a trade request on Friday, there was some significant fallout around the NBA.

There were the teams that fell short of landing Irving, with reports indicating the Lakers offered both of their future firsts alongside Russell Westbrook, while the Suns offered a package featuring Chris Paul. Those teams now have to reassess the market and figure out where they can make a splash elsewhere, while also dealing with possible internal damage control with the players named in their reported offers for Irving.

Then there’s the Nets themselves, who are hoping to keep Kevin Durant happy, just seven months removed from his own trade request, and are threading the needle of adding future assets while also trying to remain competitive. We’ll find out in the coming days exactly where KD stands on this entire situation, but there are plenty of teams that will be monitoring his availability — as was the case this summer. It didn’t take long for reports to emerge that the Suns were going to pursue Durant if he became available, and on Monday’s First Take, Stephen A. Smith added Boston to the list of teams that’s made calls about KD, noting Jaylen Brown is someone to watch.

“By the way, I’m hearing that he’s on the verge of potentially being moved,” Smith said. “Obviously, we’ve all been speculating about that, that he may be moved. They’re on the phone. I’m hearing Boston is making some calls. Keep your eye on that. Jaylen Brown. Keep your eye on that. Tune into Woj. He would know. Woj would know.”

I love ending it with “Woj would know,” which is an incredible hedge. As always, this comes with the caveat that while he’s plugged in, Smith isn’t a newsbreaker, but it’s not all that surprising considering there was buzz this summer that the Celtics had offered Brooklyn a Brown for Durant swap, but would not meet the Nets’ asking price for additional assets. If anything, Smith reporting this might lead to Durant staying in Brooklyn, as there are few things KD enjoys more than spiting Stephen A. at every opportunity.

Hulu just dropped its longest look yet at History of the World Part II, the long overdue sequel to the classic Mel Brooks comedy. Only this time around, the historical antics aren’t contained to just one film. History of the World Part II will be a full-fledged miniseries jam-packed with practically every single comedian you can think of. We’re talking Jack Black, Seth Rogen, Quinta Brunson, Nick Kroll, Jake Johnson, Josh Gad, and that’s barely even scratching the surface.

And yet, along with the new trailer, Hulu somehow revealed even more cast members for History of the World Part II because, again, there are a ton of funny people in this thing. Possibly even all of them:

James Adomian, Jason Alexander, Fred Armisen, Tim Bagley, Dan Bakkedahl, Travis Bennett, Sarayu Blue, Craig Cackowski, Arturo Castro, Parvesh Cheena, Margaret Cho, Andy Cohen, Andy Daly, Colton Dunn, Ayo Edebiri, Ana Fabrega, Marla Gibbs, Blake Griffin, Mitra Jouhari, Preston Lacy, Robby Hoffman, Anna Maria Horsford, Brian Huskey, Mousa Hussein Kraish, Bobby Lee, Mena Massoud, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Crystal Kung Minkoff, Finesse Mitchell, Natalie Morales, Pam Oliver, Ana Ortiz, Adam Pally, Lennon Parham, Chris Pontius, Rob Riggle, Matt Rogers, Paul Rust, Paul Scheer, Andrew Secunda, Jessica St. Clair, Carl Tart, Drew Tarver, Christopher Thornton, James Urbaniak, George Wallace, Michaela Watkins, Wee Man, Kym Whitley, Casey Wilson.

Hulu’s History of the World Part II will kick off its four-night event on March 6 with the premiere of two episodes followed by daily drops until the finale on March 9.