Category: Trending

Noname has never been one to hold her tongue when it comes to calling out injustice. So it’s no surprise that she took to social media to offer her thoughts about how Black artistry gets commodified by corporations, which often bleeds the culture dry. On Thursday, January 19, the poet and rapper took to Instagram to challenge her fellow Black artists to start gatekeeping Black culture.

“One of the biggest mistakes I believe we’ve made in our struggle towards liberation in this country is allowing white America unfiltered access to our entire culture. White America has created an institution of violent policing and medical neglect that is killing us EVERY F**KING DAY,” she wrote.

The Chicago native urges her Black contemporaries to understand their power and how easily accessible the culture has become to the masses.

“And every day we get on their platforms (Tik Tok, Twitter, etc.), and we create trends, music, art, and language that they turn into billions,” she continued.

The rapper, whose real name is Fatimah Nyeema Warner, compared that state of Hip Hop to that of Blues, both of which originated from the Black pain and trauma artists expressed through their music. She noted that the two genres have been co-opted by white dollars.

“As black artists making black art, we have a responsibility to our community and to our culture,” she wrote. “I understand needing to survive under capitalism, but there is power in collective action! What would it look like if we all said, unless festivals, streaming, [and] social media puts 10% of their profits into a black community fund we use to house and feed people, we will no longer contribute our content.”

Read Noname’s full post below.

As you may recall, the DCEU is getting a bit of a makeover. By “makeover,” we mean “massive overhaul.” Black Adam 2 probably ain’t happening. Henry Cavill is out as Superman but may play another character. Not even Jason Momoa’s Aquaman, one of the comic movie wing’s most popular character, is safe. There are rumors that, like Cavilll, Momoa may be assigned to another superhero. And yet here’s Momoa himself, averring that he’s not done with the aquatic hero, maybe.

Momoa is at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where’s he’s promoting Deep Rising, an environmentalist documentary he narrates about organizations allegedly extracting metals for the deep sea floor. It’s a serious subject — but of course he was asked about comic book movies, and the big shakeup instigated by new DCEU honchos James Gunn and Peter Safran.

“I’ll always be Aquaman. Ain’t anyone coming in there and taking s*it,” Momoa declared, as per Variety. “There might be some other characters, too. I can play other things, too. I can be funny and savage and charming.”

His statement is a bit cryptic. Maybe he means he’ll “always be Aquaman” in a more spiritual way, like how Christian Bale will always be Batman, in a sense. Or maybe Gunn and Safran aren’t going to deep six a character whose first solo outing made a gazillion bucks, though they may have him doing double duties inside the DCEU.

Momoa also discussed his role in creating the story for the forthcoming Aquaman sequel. “The beautiful thing [about Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom] is me and my partner wrote the first treatment for it and it was about a 55-page treatment, and a lot of it has to deal with me talking to the U.N. about what’s happening with the melting ice caps,” Momoa explained. “There’s no far off galaxy coming to destroy us or aliens from another place. It’s us ruining our planet. We need to get it together and save our home.”

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom hits theaters on December 25, 2023. Hopefully it makes another gazillion dollars so Momoa and his watery biceps can stick around.

(Via Variety)

It’s been nearly six years since Kendrick Lamar released his critically acclaimed fourth studio album, DAMN., in 2017. The project debuted at No.1 on Billboard and spawned chart-topping hits like “Humble,” “Loyalty,” and “Love.” The album sold over 600k units in its first week and has been certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) since 2018. Lamar even scored a Grammy for Best Rap Album and a Pulitzer Prize For Music. On Friday, January 20, the rapper hit another major milestone with the album: It’s now spent 300 weeks on the Billboard 200.

“.@kendricklamar’s ‘DAMN.’ has now spent 300 weeks on the Billboard 200. It has never left the chart,” Chart Data reported.

Lamar’s commercial success has been substantial throughout his career, and he’s been cemented as one of his generation’s most influential hip-hop artists. Recently, his second album, good kid, m.A.A.d city., became the first hip-hop studio album to spend 10 years on the Billboard chart — an incredible feat.

The “DNA” rapper recently celebrated the album’s 10th anniversary during a stop on his The Big Steppers Tour stop at Accor Arena in Paris this past October. The concert, which was live-streamed in conjunction with Amazon, featured sets from Grammy Award-winning recording artist Baby Keem, who is also Lamar’s cousin, and pgLang’s Tanna Leone. The enigmatic rapper’s concert followed the release of his fifth album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, which was released in May 2022.

The project served as the rapper’s first body of work since releasing 2017’s DAMN., and it debuted at No.1 atop the Billboard 200.

Chrisean Rock has announced she’s pregnant. There’s just one problem: Her on-again-off-again paramour Blueface doesn’t think he’s the father. Since starting their relationship in 2020, Blueface and Rock’s tumultuous relationship has been the trainwreck no one can stop watching. The couple has stayed in the public eye for getting involved in spats on social media and physical altercations with one another.

The pair’s toxic behavior recently came to a head during an appearance at an interview with No Jumper, in which the network’s security forcibly removed Chrisean.

Following the heated exchange, Chrisean took to social media to share a special announcement about a new bundle of joy coming into her life. On January 20, which is coincidently the same day as the California rapper‘s birthday, the reality star announces that she was with a child.

“Guess how many heartbeats?” she wrote in a photo posted to her Instagram story showing three positive results.

However, Blueface didn’t seem too excited to hear about the baby news.

“To answer y’all questions, yes, me [and] Rock are officially done. It’s strictly business. I tried it [and] clearly, it wasn’t giving. Before she announces… She’s pregnant with somebody else’s child, not mine,” he tweeted.

The “Thotiana” rapper alleges that Rock has had “encounters with 10 different men in the last year” and that until he sees a DNA test, “then it’s not mine.”

Chrisean responded to Blueface’s claims noting that she didn’t need the rapper and that “god don’t like ugly.”

“Blue tried lightly. God don’t like ugly fr. Boy, I don’t need you, lol I want [you]. That’s the difference,” she tweeted.

The Baltimore native continued, writing, “So what happens [when] you eat all ya evil words.” She also denied being sexually active with anyone else.

Chrisean, who has been very candid about having multiple past abortions due to unplanned pregnancies, fully intends on keeping this child. She also didn’t seem to mind taking a DNA test to confirm the information either.

“[I don’t] need [you’re] money. I got my money. I don’t need a baby daddy. I’m just having this child because I don’t want to keep aborting,” she said.

Jeremy Renner did not have a great start to the new year. On January 1, the Oscar-nominated actor and Marvel staple was the victim of a freak accident when a snow plow, which he was using to help a relative after a storm, ran him over. He was quickly taken to a hospital, and he’s been convalescing ever since. Reports later revealed that his injuries were even worse than they seemed. Now Renner is confirming the extent of the damage.

In an Instagram post, accompanying a picture of him receiving physical therapy in his hospital bed, Renner discussed his morning workouts and said that his “resolutions all changed this particular new years.”

He also revealed that he has “30 plus broken bones.” But that isn’t getting him down. He wrote that those shattered body parts “will mend, grow stronger, just like the love and bond with family and friends deepens.”

Renner also said that the tragedy inspired he and his family to quickly focus into “actionable love.”

It’s unclear how long Renner’s road to recovery will be; 30-plus bones is a lot. What is clear is that he has the right attitude and is ready to face the difficult task of repairing himself. So best of luck!

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

For weeks barely a day has gone by without some leftfield, sometimes disturbing, usually creatively surreal allegation made against newly sworn-in GOP representative George Santos. He embellished his CV. He lied about his heritage. He wasn’t above claiming his mom died in the 9/11 attacks. Last week someone dug up a photo and then a video purporting to show young Santos as a drag queen during his time in Brazil. Santos of course denied that one, but there may be proof that he confirmed it a long time ago.

Politico checked in on the Wikipedia bio for a user named “Anthony Devolder,” a much-used alias for the embattled new congressman. It’s lousy with spelling and grammatical errors. But it also includes a startling admission, claiming that he “startted [sic] his ‘stage’ life at age 17 as an gay night club [sic] DRAG QUEEN and with that won sevral [sic] GAY ‘BEAUTY PAGENTS [sic].’”

The page was last edited on April 29, 2011, strongly suggesting it wasn’t some modern day chucklehead trying to spread misinformation about a guy with enough problems. The bio also contains basic information about Santos (or Devolder), including that he was born on July 22, 1988 to a Brazilian family with a European background.

Snatos has used the Anthony Devolder alias plenty of times before, including with the Navy veteran who accused him of stealing fundraising money for his dying dog (which then died).

For months, the GOP has turned drag queens into an unexpected and bizarre target of their culture warfare, even after a gunman shot up a drag queen show.

Meanwhile, new Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy punished Santos for misleading voters into electing him to Congress: He only appointed him to multiple lesser committees.

(Via Politico)

For nearly a year, the FDA has flirted with banning menthol cigarettes. Those efforts have amped up recently, with New York City considering a ban, too. Few have been as angry at this as insurrection defender and incompetent elections soothsayer Tucker Carlson, who’s dedicated multiple segments to getting weirdly angry about the subject, despite cigarettes having nowhere near the public pull they once did (unless you’re Post Malone). As is Tucker’s wont, he went a little farther into the breach than usual on Friday night, even claiming that highly addictive cigarettes, which are incredibly hard to quit, somehow “free the mind.”

“Why do they hate tobacco? It’s not because it causes cancer,” Tucker railed. “They don’t care about your health. They closed the gyms during COVID. Anyone who closed a gym during a pandemic that kills people who are fat clearly doesn’t care about your health at all.”

That’s some truly tinfoil hat logic, given how easily COVID could spread at a gym, but that wasn’t even the kookiest part. This was: “They hate nicotine. They love THC. They’re promoting weed to your children but they’re not letting you use tobacco or even non-nicotine-delivery devices, which don’t cause cancer. Why do they hate nicotine? Because nicotine frees your mind and THC makes you compliant and passive, that’s why.”

As anyone who’s had to quit smoking tobacco knows, tobacco certainly does the opposite of freeing your mind. It causes both physical and psychological distress. Over the last couple decades, tobacco has grown increasingly unpopular, which surely doesn’t sit well with tobacco companies. Indeed, the world hasn’t heard pro-tobacco nonsense like the kind Tucker has been spouting since the ‘80s.

Tucker’s pro-tobacco ranting certainly turned heads.

It’s yet another example, like demonizing COVID vaccines, of Republicans passionately telling their base to do things that kill them.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ comeback win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night featured one awfully bizarre moment right at the start of halftime. Cameras caught Grizzlies wing Dillon Brooks jawing with Shannon Sharpe, the Hall of Fame tight end and Fox Sports personality who is no stranger to attention Lakers games.

Things seemed to really escalate when Sharpe got riled up over the interaction. Steven Adams and Tee Morant, among others, went at Sharpe, which led to the referees and stadium personnel holding everyone back from one another. It was awfully bizarre — although basketball fans had a whole lot of fun with the entire thing — and after the game, both Brooks and James commented on what went down, with Brooks expressing that “the blogger or whatever he is” should have been ejected from courtside.

As for James, he was asked about the incident after the game and expressed his appreciation for how he and Sharpe always have one another’s backs.

It is worth mentioning that, after Sharpe issued a statement where he said he was extremely willing to tussle with the Grizzlies, he seemed to patch things up with Morant during the game. Memphis will return to Los Angeles to play LeBron and co. on March 7.

When Robert Milburn came across a tiny, hairless creature the size of his thumb in his driveway, he had no idea what it was. So he took it inside, wrapped it up to keep it warm and started Googling.

After figuring out it was a newborn squirrel that had probably fallen out of its nest, he put it back outside in a shallow box and waited to see if the mom would return for it. She did come to check it out, but then left it again. (Later, Milburn would find out that the baby squirrel had a mouth deformity which most likely made it unable to suckle properly.)

Milburn didn’t think the wee one would survive, but he decided to do his best. He took it back inside and began feeding it puppy formula with a syringe every three hours, around the clock. He said it was “like having a newborn baby in the house.”

---

It worked. The squirrel grew and grew and they began to bond.

Once Milburn knew the babe was going to make it and could identify it as a male, he named him Bobby. (Robert T. Squirrel, to be precise—the T is for “The”).

Milburn shared the story of Bobby’s rescue and their relationship with Newsner’s We Love Animals channel, and I feel a duty to warn you that the video will almost-pretty-much-for-sure make you want a pet squirrel. Milburn shared the video on his TikTok channel dedicated to Bobby, where it has collected more than four million views.

Watch:

@robertsquirrel

From an interview on Newsner who has 30 million followers in 11 languages

But that’s not where the story ends.

Bobby has a family now out in his little squirrel house. He and his squirrel wife, Barbara Ann, are the proud parents of four youngsters—Peepers, Jeepers, Creepers and Sneekers.

“Peepers seldom ventures from the treehouse, and Jeepers is a bit more adventurous. Creepers creeps out further, and Sneekers sneaks into other trees,” Milburn shared on his website, bobbysquirrel.com.

Milburn’s @robertsquirrel Tiktok channel has a trove of sweet videos like this one, in which Bobby came inside because he was scared of a thunderstorm.

@robertsquirrel

Scares #bobbysquirrel #storm #thunder #throwbackthursday #fyp #nature

He knew just where to go for safety and comfort. Too sweet.

Bobby is totally comfortable going back and forth from his outdoor home to his human’s home—and his human’s pockets.

@robertsquirrel

Pocket Squirrel #bobbysquirrel #squirrel #fyp #nature #funny #love

In fact, Milburn shares, Bobby comes to visit him inside almost every day.

Unfortunately, Milburn has run into some trouble with his HOA, which informed him that he needed to stop feeding the squirrels in his yard as they were considered a “nuisance.”

But who could watch Bobby listening to his story being told in the video below and tell us he’s a nuisance? Come on now.

@robertsquirrel

Happy time #bobbysquirrel #throwbackthursday #squirrel

Milburn has been asked if squirrels make good pets, and he has clarified that raising one as a newborn is very different than trying to domesticate a wild squirrel. Squirrels do have sharp teeth and long claws, he pointed out in a video with this face covered in Band-Aids. (He shared that he’s been working on building a friendship with Barbara Ann, who grew up in the wild, and while it’s slow-going, he feels he’s making progress.)

Milburn has also created a children’s book called “Bobby and Friends,” which includes 10 short stories for children ages 2 to 11 and an accompanying coloring book.

People can’t get enough of Bobby the squirrel, and who can blame them? He’s the pet squirrel most of us wish we could have—one who has a full outdoor life as he should, but who also likes to come in for some cuddles with his people.

Just when you thought Jennifer Coolidge’s renaissance in pop culture couldn’t get any better, guess again. We’ve seen her completely steal the show on television, film and even music videos, but now the Emmy award-winning actress is expanding her talents to new platforms with her very first TikTok.

All glammed up and in front of a green screen, Coolidge, in an attempt to do “something cool” for her TikTok debut, begins reciting the millennial hit “Jenny From The Block” like she’s onstage at a slam poetry night.

Coolidge then cuts to none other than the OG Jenny from the block herself—Jennifer Lopez.

---

Needless to say, this video went viral instantly.

Coolidge’s video got instant approval from fans. I think the person who wrote this comment sums up the general consensus: “Only Jennifer Coolidge would be able to master TikTok on her first TikTok.”

Another added, “Not since Leslie Jordan have I been so excited to see someone join TikTok.”

@jennifercoolidge Trying out TikTok! 💋👀 @jlo ♬ Jenny from the Block (Bronx Remix – Edit) – Jennifer Lopez

There’s just no denying that Coolidge has a delightful brand of weird that is so well suited for a place like TikTok. While this might have been the “White Lotus” star’s first personal contribution to the platform, she has definitely had viral moments on it before, as with a delightful dance remix based on her character from the show’s second season. So to expect anything less from a video created by the comedy queen herself—with the help of a fellow queen named Jennifer—would be foolish.

Folks who are loving this JCool/JLo combo (which, c’mon, is everyone) can look forward to the upcoming action-comedy movie “Shotgun Wedding,” premiering on Jan 27 on Amazon Prime. The trailer promises Coolidge as a curlers-wearing, shotgun-wielding mother-in-law to be. What’s not to like about that?

In the meantime, we’ll be watching this TikTok on repeat.