When Steven Toussaint was cast in House of the Dragon, the first of several ambitious Game of Thrones spinoffs, he honestly didn’t think much of it. The British actor had Black friends who had “small parts or recurring parts” in the original series, which to be frank, had an overwhelmingly white cast. However, as Toussaint delved into the role of Corlys Velaryon, The Sea Snake, he realized the warrior turned wealthy lord is a veritable force unlike anything seen in Westeros before. Unfortunately, another signifier of the Sea Snake’s prominent role also emerged.
“I didn’t realize it was a bigger deal until I was racially abused on social media when it was announced,” Toussaint told The Hollywood Reporter. “Yeah, that sh*t happened.”
As Touissant further explained, social media did what social media does as bigoted social media users had no qualms with throwing out racial slurs following his casting:
It got announced and somebody put up like an artist impression of The Sea Snake, which must come from one of the books. So someone put that up opposite my picture and [expressed dismay]. Then someone else referred to me by the N-word – that was in reply to a director I had worked with who wrote, “Steve Toussaint is great” and they said, “No, Steve Toussaint is a … —” There was also a Black American chap who is a big fan of the show who contacted me saying that he gets abuse because he championed me for the part. And on platforms like Reddit, which I’m not on, there are such discussions going on about it.
Obviously, the situation is not great, and yet another example of how racism continues to infect fandoms as evidenced by the more recent attacks on Obi-Wan Kenobi star Moses Ingram. For Toussaint, he’s done his best to power through and ignore fan expectations, racially tinged or not. “I thought, ‘Okay, this means a lot to some people, but I can’t allow that to bother me,’” he told THR.
House of the Dragon premieres August 21, 2022 on HBO.
In his 2018 collaboration with Meek Mill, “Going Bad,” Drake proclaims “I got more slaps than The Beatles.” While making this sort of comparison to one of the most beloved rock bands of all time is a bold statement, it wasn’t entirely inaccurate. Months before that song’s release, Drake had broken the record for the most singles in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, occupying 7 spaces during the week of the release of his sixth studio album, Scorpion, breaking The Beatles’ previously held record of five spaces.
Nearly four years after Drake’s statement, he continues to break records. But it still poses a question.
Does Drake actually have “more slaps than The Beatles?”
Well, it depends on how you define what a “slap” is, however, his ability to craft hits is undeniable. In his career, spanning more than a decade, Drake has broken several chart records, according to Billboard. With his latest collaboration, “Staying Alive” with DJ Khaled and Lil Baby, Drake has earned the most top-five hits on the Hot 100 chart, with 30, breaking the record previously held by The Beatles.
Additionally, Drake also holds the record for the most top 20 hits on the Hot 100 with 100, and Top 40 hits, with 158.
Drake, however, only has 11 No. 1 hits to his credit, which practically pales in comparison to The Beatles’ 20. Also, Drake has held the top of the Hot 100 and the Billboard 200 spots for eight cumulative weeks at various points in his career, which is four weeks short of The Beatles and Whitney Houston’s 12-week records.
But given how the chart rules and the way we consume music have evolved over time, we may see Drake catch up to all of The Beatles’ accomplishments. Or perhaps, we’ll see The Beatles make a comeback, considering how many songs have received a second life by way of TikTok and viral memes.
In a video, taken backstage at an August 13 performance at Cleveland’s FirstEnergy Stadium, shared last night, Kelly is bleeding heavily from his nose. On the Instagram Story, he laughs and says, “Oh my god, Cleveland. That was f*cking insane.” In a follow-up clip, Kelly’s face has been cleaned up but the nose wound remains. The video, of him at a quiet FirstEnergy Stadium, is captioned, “They didn’t tell you I went back to the stadium at 5am and tried to sleep in the middle of the field LMAO.”
According to a Grammy.com report, Kelly’s injury happened the same way as the previous one: He smashed a glass against his head. Late in the show, Kelly was apparently being told in his earpiece he was getting fined $70,000 for every 10 minutes the show ran long. He then drank wine from a glass and said, “You know what I say about that? We aren’t stopping this concert yet. I’m rich, b*tch.”
He then smashed the glass on his head and continued, “Should we stop the show or spend the $70,000?” The crowd then chanted, “MGK.”
Kelly put on quite the spectacle overall for the hometown show, as he also zip-lined across the stadium.
It has been a while since we’ve gotten some new music from Solange, but it looks like that may change in the near future. There’s a catch, though: To indulge in Solange’s latest work, you’ll have to be in New York on September 28 for the New York City Ballet’s Fall Fashion Gala.
According to The New York Times, while Beyonce is busy bringing ball culture to the mainstream, Solange will be bringing her unique sensibilities to the ballet, composing the score for an original work by choreographer Gianna Reisen. It’ll be performed by a chamber ensemble made up of City Ballet orchestra members as well as some of Solange’s own musicians.
To be fair, it won’t be much of a jeté (that’s “leap” in ballet) for Solange to move into this new field. After all, she’s worked with museums like the Guggenheim and Getty, where she’s curated collections of fine arts from music to film. She also, according to The Times, dreamed of attending the prestigious Julliard School in New York, inspired by Houston Ballet’s own Lauren Anderson.
Meanwhile, Solange’s collaborator Reisen has already choreographed two prior shows for City Ballet. The upcoming Fall Fashion Gala will feature dances paired with designers such as Giles Deacon and Raf Simons.
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
In the lead-up to her second album Traumazine, Megan Thee Stallion repeatedly noted that it had more emotionally-charged themes and greater vulnerability than her debut, Good News. In a June interview with Rolling Stone, she said, “I want to take you through so many different emotions. At first you was twerking, now you might be crying.”
She reiterated the sentiment in an August Q&A session on Twitter. “I wrote this album for myself,” she admitted. “I wanted to start writing in a journal but I said f*ck it I’ll put it in a song.” She also confessed that “saying certain things you’ve never said out loud before is hard.” Fans understandably presumed that this meant the Houston rapper would address the various public misfortunes that had befallen her since her Tina Snow EP rocketed her to stardom.
Traumazine delivers on Megan’s promises, but it doesn’t stray too far from her established formula. Production-wise, it runs the gamut from Thee Stallion’s preferred speaker knocking Texas trap to a very on-trend detour into Miami Bass and house, while lyrically, Megan returns to the rapid-fire freestyle form that first impressed her fans, peers, and early mentor Q-Tip. The newer, more confessional attitude peppers her hard-hitting, boastful verses with lines that hide the hurt behind defiant bluster.
On songs like “Not Nice,” Megan’s gift for storytelling comes to the fore. “I kept your bills paid. You were sick, I paid for surgery,” she reminds a disloyal acquaintance. “But I pray you boo-hoo, do me wrong, where they deserve to be.” The specificity of her examples lends weight to her jabs – for every verbal right cross, someone has crossed her. Meg’s also unafraid to drop the facade of the tough-girl rapper and bluntly state a long-standing issue. On “Anxiety,” she wishes she could “write a letter to Heaven” so she can “tell my mama that I shoulda been listenin’.” I just wan’ talk to somebody that get me,” she accepts.
But even with the more vulnerable material here, Meg shines brightest when she sticks to the brash, explicit material that defines breakout hits like “Big Ole Freak” and “WAP.” “Ms. Nasty,” which pairs a thumping bass kick with an ‘80s R&B melody, offers another worthwhile inclusion to this tradition, opening with the straightforward come-on “I want you to dog this cat out, whip it like a trap house / Stand up in that pussy, stomp the yard like a frat house.” “Pressurelicious” with Future and “Budgets” with Latto match this energy, the latter pairing working best. We need more songs with these two together.
Other guests include Rico Nasty, with whom Meg displays incredible chemistry on “Scary,” Key Glock, who gifts her a suitably spiteful verse on “Ungrateful,” and Pooh Shiesty, who makes fans feel his absence from the spotlight (he’s currently locked up on a gun charge, facing a eight-year sentence) on “Who Me.” There are also contributions from R&B singers Jhene Aiko and Lucky Daye, which have the unfortunate side effect of highlighting the weaknesses of Meg’s own singing voice. She’s at her best spitting bruising bars with her gruff Texas twang as she does alongside her Lone Star compatriots on “Southside Royalty Freestyle”; when she tries to croon her own choruses, the effect feels raw and unpolished — and not in a good way.
The pop swings are also hit-and-miss. While “Her” fits in among the Beyonce-inspired post-Renaissance wave of future ball favorites, “Sweetest Pie” with Dua Lipa sounds like Meg chasing the success of peers like Doja Cat. This misunderstands what listeners want from the two artists. Meg wins because of tracks like “Gift & Curse,” “Who Me,” and “Scary.” Give her a lush, groovy soul sample and an 808 to vent her frustrations over, you get the verses on “Flip Flop.” These are the kinds of songs at which Meg excels. The added emotional depth is a bonus, adding relatability to her aspirational boldness. This will be the formula for Meg’s future success.
Traumazine is out now on 1501 Certified/300 Entertainment. Get it here.
Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
While not every Jeopardy! fan may love seeing the same contestants go on long winning streaks, plenty of trivia fans enjoy watching contestants show off their impressive knowledge and signaling device skills over the course of a grueling taping schedule.
Players like Matt Amodio, Amy Schneider, and Mattea Roach all dazzled audiences over the last year with record-breaking performances and impressive winning streaks. And now we know that all that winning has given those three, in particular, an advantage the next time they appear on stage in the Jeopardy! studio.
On the latest episode of the Inside Jeopardy! podcast, we got a few new details about the show’s upcoming Tournament of Champions. The annual outing features the best players from the show’s most recent season, and the trio of superstar players are certainly atop the list. Which is why, as detailed in the podcast, they get an advance spot into the tournament’s second round. The episode, which featured an appearance from 2021 Tournament host Buzzy Cohen, made it clear that Roach, Schneider and Amodio will have an easier path to the grand prize than other contestants.
That’s because, well, they all went on massive winning streaks to qualify in the first place. Schneider famously won 40 games, Amodio took 38 and Roach managed 23 before finally being bested during Season 38. So those three out of the already-announced 19 players will automatically get a bye into the semifinals matches.
As The Ringer’s Claire McNear also noted, the full list of eligible champions playing in the tournament has been on the show’s website, but the official final list was mentioned in the podcast as well.
All that’s left now is to decide the final two slots with the Second Chance Tournament, which will take place later this fall. Then comes the real deal, and a chance to see the best of the best compete against one another for some serious bragging rights. And, you know, another big payday.
Lakers owner Jeanie Buss has had an eventful offseason, as her team has tried to revamp its roster around LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and (for now, at least) Russell Westbrook with an all new supporting cast and a new head coach in Darvin Ham.
On top of what the current Lakers are doing, Buss is serving as the executive producer of Hulu’s new Lakers documentary Legacy: The True Story Of The LA Lakers that is serving as something of a counter to HBO’s Winning Time series that is dramatizing the Showtime era. On Monday night, Buss went on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote the series, and just so happened to be sitting down with a guest host who is well versed in the NBA: Desus Nice, formerly of Desus & Mero.
— CJ Fogler AKA Perc70 #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) August 16, 2022
Buss notes how embarrassed she was about the situation and how sorry she was to any fans that got caught up in it — it was I guess successful enough that the Lakers put out a statement on their own Twitter account to ensure people realized it was fake and did not try to purchase a PlayStation from the team’s owner. Desus, of course, found it much funnier than Buss, jokingly asking if she was alright with her money to tee up the question.
South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone recently admitted that their dream of reopening Casa Bonita had turned into a “nightmare.” What seemed like a very cool project and the way to relive a childhood dream has turned into an astronomical cost for renovations to get the place up to safety codes for when that new waterfall starts flowing. This goes back to mid-2021 when the pair announced that they bought a Denver-area location, and to get into the spirit, Parker bought a nearby house on South Park avenue. Those sopapillas still evade everyone, though, but the pair previously stressed to The Denver Post that they’re pouring “all our money” into this project, and “[w]e absolutely should bail and stop spending money, but we’re committed now.”
Now there’s another potential wrinkle. As Parker and Stone try to get things done, it’s worth noting that their original purchase agreement points toward “The Beautiful Opco, LLC” as the company under which Casa Bonita’s now owned. And this company has now sued to shut down the release of construction details (including building plans) as renovations continue. Now, this might sound like they’re building ridiculous underground tunnels for secret ceremonies or something, but that sadly does not appear to be the case. Rather, they’re concerned about a public records request that was set to make a lot of sensitive information public. Via KDVR:
“This information, in the wrong hands, could be used by a person intent on doing mass harm in a public space,” the company’s lawyers argue in the complaint.
According to the suit, a trove of public records on the Casa Bonita renovations was set to be released on Tuesday after a Colorado Open Records Act request. Casa Bonita’s lawyers recognized the request was “likely in furtherance of an innocent human interest news report.” But they argued that the documents in question include “sensitive schematic and security information” that’s protected from disclosure under state open records law.
Apparently, the public records request would have covered 800 pages of the construction details in question, and Casa Bonita is particularly concerned about “a fraction of those materials.” And in the age of regular mass shootings, any move by owners of a place where people will gather has every right to worry about the safety of their patrons. So while we await further word on how the legal filings go, please enjoy Twitter user Erich Brock’s newly snapped photo of a freshly pink-painted palace.
And made a trip to see Casa Bonita, still under reconstruction. You can see the differences between the new paint and the remnants of the old paint #SouthParkpic.twitter.com/fsm1d1QZy7
Eminem, Snoop Dogg, and Dr. Dre are three of the most legendary rappers ever, and now it looks like they might be up to something together: Yesterday (August 15), Eminem shared a photo of him with Dre and Snoop in the studio and wrote, “just a few bros.. hangin out.”
Fans were excited to see this: In the 19 hours since the photo was posted, it has racked up over 1.5 million likes, which is well above Eminem’s recent average (his last post to top a million likes is from July, 21 posts ago). Fans also took to Twitter to offer reactions.
The three rappers have a storied history of working together, so a new collaboration certainly wouldn’t be their first. The trio appears on Dre’s 1999 album 2001, with Eminem featuring on “What’s The Difference” and “Forgot About Dre,” while Snoop was on “B*tch N****z,” “F*ck You,” “Still D.R.E.,” and “The Next Episode.” Of course, all three also performed at the Super Bowl Halftime Show earlier this year, alongside Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige, and 50 Cent.
Meanwhile, Snoop Dogg is fresh off a collaboration that has proven to be a part of history: His, Benny Blanco, and BTS’ “Bad Decisions” just debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making Snoop one of just three artists to have a top-10 hit in each of the past four decades (’90s, ’00s, ’10s, and ’20s).
Olivia Rodrigo is set to induct one of the biggest influences to her craft into the Canadian Songwriters Hall Of Fame next month: The “Good 4 U” singer will present Alanis Morissette with the coveted honor on Saturday, September 24, Billboard reports.
Rodrigo has cited Morissette as one of her influences on several occasions. The two have even performed together during an LA stop on Rodrigo’s Sour tour.
The event will take place at Massey Hall in Toronto and will be broadcast by SiriusXM. Singer/songwriter Marie-Mai will host the ceremony, in which singers and songwriters Bryan Adams, Jim Vallance, David Foster and beloved singer/songwriter Daniel Lavoie will also be inducted into the Hall Of Fame.
Upon the announcement of Morissette’s induction, Rodrigo fondly recalled growing up on Morissette’s music.
“I remember hearing Alanis for the first time when I was about 13. I was in the car with my parents when Jagged Little Pill came on,” said Rodrigo in a statement. “I heard ‘Perfect,’ I was like, ‘Oh, my God… You can write songs like that?’ I just looked at music and songwriting in a completely different way.”
Last year, Morissette and Rodrigo spoke with each other for Rolling Stone‘s Musicians On Musicians series. During their conversation, Morissette expressed that she admires Rodrigo just as much.
“I love how you’re so honest and talk about stuff that normally isn’t talked about in songwriting,” Rodrigo said.
“Well, you’re doing the same,” said Morissette. “I’m excited. I went down many rabbit holes knowing I was going to meet you.”
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