Category: Trending

Lorde is currently celebrating the release of her third album Solar Power, and while she’s absolutely deserving of her own spotlight moment, the singer is also using some of the press she’s getting to shine a light on some of her peers in music. This includes Lil Nas X who she spoke about during a recent interview with YouTube Originals’ series, Released.

Lorde was asked to name songs that were ideal for certain moments and situations in her life and when it came time to mention a record ideal for a “night on the town,” the singer named Lil Nas’ “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).”

“Just before I left New Zealand, I was in a real zone of wanting to go out and dance and party a lot,” Lorde said in the interview. “And the song that we would all just lose our minds to was “Montero” by Lil Nas X. It’s just so good.” She added, “Every time that would come on, we would just lose it. It would get embarrassing, you know?”

Lil Nas caught wind of the singer’s comments after a fan brought it to his attention on Twitter and he was left in shock at her selection. “No f*ckin way omg,” the rapper wrote in response.

You can watch Lorde’s interview with YouTube Originals and view Lil Nas X’s comment above.

Solar Power is out now via Republic Records. Get it here.

After a brief lull, the pandemic is roaring back, although it’s not the entire nation that’s suffering the same levels of crisis. Cases are for the most part rising in Republican-led states whose leaders and residents have refused to take it seriously, even as it claims their own. It’s unlikely that governors Ron DeSantis, of Florida, and Greg Abbott, of Texas — who actually tested positive — are going to change course, even with ever-alarming numbers. But one MAGA-heavy state has resorted to desperate — and hopefully game-changing — measures.

As per NBC News, things have gotten so bad in Mississippi that the state’s Department of Health has threatened fines and even jail time to anyone who tests positive for COVID and doesn’t quarantine for at least 10 days. Failure to do so could result in one of two forms of punishment:

Failure to do so could result in fines and jail time. Dobbs’ order mentions two possible levels of violation. One, a refusal to obey a health officer, comes with a $500 fine and, possibly, six months behind bars.

But the order says that where a life-threatening disease is involved in a refusal to obey, violators could face a fine of up to $5,000 and possibly five years behind bars.

How will people who think freedom means potentially exposing people to a life-threatening disease take this? Probably not well. But according to The Daily Beast, cases are currently “staggering.” On Friday, the state reached 5,048 new cases — a pandemic record. If even a state as red as Mississippi is willing to this extreme to save lives, then other, similar states could follow suit. Though probably not Florida or Texas. Of course, there’s a simple way to avoid most of this: get a vaccine.

(Via NBC News)

We have officially reached the point of the NBA offseason where we are flooded with heavily curated videos from pickup runs and individual workouts that result in dozens of eyeball and fire emojis and discussions of who is or is not built different.

These videos are rarely truly noteworthy, but on occasion they bring video evidence of something truly impressive. That was the case on Sunday when Swish Cultures released a cut-up from the latest Chris Johnson Hoops run in Los Angeles, where we’ve already gotten our annual “Ben Simmons can shoot now” videos (that’s included in this as well). However, Simmons launching shots from the outside was not the headliner on Sunday, as Ja Morant stole the show with one of the most ridiculous in-game dunks you’ll see, as he managed to throw down a windmill off an alley-oop where his eyes were, legitimately, at the rim.

I’m still not 100 percent sure how any human can do this, much less a point guard, but it is a reminder of just how freakish Morant’s athleticism is. Morant took another step forward as a sophomore, helping the Grizzlies to the playoffs and dominating against the Jazz in their first round exit, and his trajectory as a star seems as high as his bounce on this dunk. That, plus the clips of Jaren Jackson Jr. flashing his own ball-handling and finishing skills in this video will make it catnip for Memphis fans, who have visions of another leap from their young squad this coming season.

Ted Lasso‘s second season has delighted many who have Apple TV, but after a new episode hit the platform on Friday it sparked a lot of conversation about the differences between the show’s first and second seasons. While Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney had plenty to say about one joke in particular, others have been frustrated by the direction the show has gone over the five episodes that have aired thus far. And one criticism in particular drew a response from showrunner Bill Lawrence on Twitter.

Daniel Radosh, a senior writer and producer of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, wrote a long thread arguing that Season 2 of the show has some big central problems. In a series called “How Ted Lasso Lost The Thread,” Radosh argues that the tenor of the show’s second season is different from the first, which has made for difficult watching.

“A lot of people still aren’t ready to admit it but it’s clear that season 2 of Ted Lasso is not good, certainly not as good as S1,” he wrote. “And I think the reason is everyone completely misunderstands why everyone loved S1.”

The long thread lays out the details in full and got people talking about the pace of the show and what may be ahead in the second season.

Eventually Ted Lasso showrunner Lawrence caught wind of the discourse and chimed in. On Sunday morning he wrote “oof” and asked for a bit of patience about what’s coming in the next seven episodes.

“Our entire first season was 8 weeks long. We have 7 weeks left,” Lawrence wrote in a pair of tweets. “I feel like we’ve set up a lot. Maybe you’ll dig where it goes. Maybe not.”

Lawrence admitted that the criticism bothered him more than most things he reads online ordinary do.

“And look, I watch tv the same way,” he continued. “This just stung more than usual. Not sure why, yet. I’m usually Teflon. Still, no biggie.”

Lawrence also retweeted another comment on the thread that mentioned the show’s first three episodes of the season were originally meant to come out all at once, which could explain the new season’s slow build. You can’t please everyone with your art, of course, and critiques can be hard to take. But things seemed to end amicably here. We’ll have to just wait and see how the show’s second season finishes.

Sean Penn has never not spoke his mind, and he’s been very vocal about his thoughts on the pandemic. He’s demanded some very hard-line vaccination rules on his sets. And in a recent interview on CNN, he went even further, suggesting that unvaccinated people shouldn’t go see his movies — at least not in a theater — and pointing out that not getting dosed is a danger to others.

The two-time Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker was promoting his new movie Flag Day, which he directed and stars in, along with his daughter Dylan Penn. It’s not one of those films that’s playing in both theaters and on a streamer, which Penn likes.

“I am so grateful that audiences — and yes, we’ll come around to that I would request only vaccinated audiences — have an opportunity to see this theatrically,” Penn said. “It’s rare these days to have something that is exclusively theatrical. Eventually it will stream, and that’s a better time for the unvaccinated to see it, though I think I’ll probably offend them out of that choice.”

He doubled down on his stance. “I do request people who are not vaccinated, don’t go to the cinemas,” he said. “Stay home until you are convinced of these very clearly safe vaccines.”

He also talked about his on-set vaccination rules. “I didn’t want to feel complicit in something that was taking care of one group and not the other,” Penn added. “And I do believe that everyone should get vaccinated. I believe it should be mandatory, like turning your headlights on in the car at night.”

Penn didn’t explicitly call out anti-vaxxers, but he did argue that they’re putting people in harm’s way. “I have some areas of strong belief in the Second Amendment,” Penn said. “But I think that you need to recognize how, you know, with something like this, you can’t go around pointing a gun in somebody’s face, which is what it is when people are unvaccinated.”

In other words, please go get vaxxed, not only so you can see Flag Day but also so, you know, you don’t make other people sick with a highly contagious and possibly fatal disease.

(Via CNN)

Nearly 25 years after its release, fans of Aaliyah are finally able to listen to her 1996 sophomore album One In A Million on digital platforms. The move came after years filled with her biggest supporters begging for her music to be made available on streaming services, as only her debut Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number could be heard.

One In A Million was re-uploaded following a deal between Blackground Records and EMPIRE Records, with the former being the label the project was released on. After the early success of One In A Million on streaming charts, Blackground’s founder Barry Hankerson released a statement that thanked fans for their support.

“As the owner of Aaliyah’s catalog and label Blackground Records, I want to thank you all for allowing One In A Million, to chart #3 in the world,” he wrote in the caption of an Instagram post. “I cannot take the credit for managing Aaliyah as that was never a title I held. That title belonged to Diane Haughton and her husband who managed Aaliyah from the start of her career until her passing. I want to thank Diane, Aaliyah’s manager, for allowing and choosing Blackground Records to become her label.”

Hankerson went on to thanks Jomo Hankerson for their contributions to the Blackground company during its music industry heights before he shifted his attention to the fans.

“Thank you to all of her many fans for keeping her music alive,” he added. “I’m sorry it took so long, but when you lose a family member so unexpectedly, it takes time to deal with that type of grief. I decided to release Aaliyah’s music in order to keep her legacy alive.”

You can view his message in the post above. Get it here.

One In A Million is out now via Blackground 2.0/EMPIRE. Get it here.

Megan Thee Stallion is riding high right now. After announcing a brief break — one that her team labeled a “period of regeneration” — back in April, the Houston rapper made her return in June and it’s been nothing but good things from her. In the more than two months that followed, Megan dropped her “Thot Sh*t” single, earned the second most nominations for the 2021 MTV VMAs, and impressed with her “Outta Town Freestyle.” Luckily for her fans, the Houston rapper is far from done.

On Sunday, Megan returned with the “Tuned In Freestyle.” She delivered the showcase of her relentless rapping abilities with a matching visual that captured her in the studio twerking and enjoying a nice glass of wine. The two-minute freestyle also delivered a reference to Normani’s “Wild Side” single, as Megan raps, “I wanna show my wild side, make them doo doo doo.”

The new freestyle comes after she shared an update about her upcoming sophomore album. “I feel like this project is definitely something very well thought out,” she says of her next album. “This project is me talking my sh*t, getting back comfortable with myself, getting back to the Megan that was on the come-up.”

You can listen to the rapper’s freestyle in the video above.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Ted Lasso’s second season is giving fans of the Apple TV series exactly what they wanted, but two people in particular aren’t happy with a joke from a recent episode. The Jason Sudeikis comedy about a fictional lower tier soccer club poked fun at a real lower tier soccer club that happens to be owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

The joke is quick and doesn’t mention them by name, but comes when a character mentions the club that was purchased in 2020. Higgins, who runs the fictional AFC Richmond, is talking about a potential deal with Wrexham, the club the actors own.

It’s a fairly harmless joke, and pretty predictable considering it’s an easy connection to the show’s Americans in English soccer theme. But it clearly caught the attention of McElhenny, who also has a TV show on Apple TV with Mythic Quest. In a tweet sent out on Saturday, Reynolds responded publicly to the joke, demanding some of Lasso’s famous biscuits “to avoid legal action.”

“While we hold the incomparable Jeremy Swift in no ill regard and are honored to be mentioned on the platform that’s brought us high-quality programming ranging from Mythic Quest season one to Mythic Quest season two,” the statement said. “We must insist that you cease and desist from the casting of any doubt regarding our commitment to the club, the fans, and the entire Wrexham community.”

The demand was to get said biscuits before Wrexham’s match over the weekend, and while Apple’s Twitter account said they’re working on the request, it doesn’t seem like that happened.

It’s a fun back-and-forth between the two sides, which helps everyone do a bit of harmless promotional work for their collective shows and teams. But we’ll have to wait and see if anyone actually gets biscuits out of the deal.

Donald Trump has contracted coronavirus and been vaccinated against it, but it’s long been clear many of his supporters are against vaccinations. Much of that is his doing, of course, as he downplayed the dangers of coronavirus and held back about mask mandates and other mitigation efforts while in office and after his term ended.

Regardless of his own personal dealings with the virus, many of his biggest supporters are anti-vax and have fought against mask use and other safety measures. And that was made very clear on Saturday when Trump was actually booed at his own rally for talking about vaccines and their efficacy.

Appearing very wet in Alabama on Saturday night, Trump told his supporters to “take the vaccine” and actually saw some people booing him for it.

“That’s okay, that’s all right. You got your freedoms. But I happened to take the vaccine,” Trump said, walking his comments back after he heard boos. “But you do have your freedoms, you have to maintain that, and you got to get your kids back to school.”

The rant is classic Trump, meandering through a very brief encouragement to get vaccinated before wondering about their effectiveness and concluding “but it does work.” Trump told the crowd that they would be “the first to know” if Trump’s vaccine doesn’t stop another breakthrough case, whatever that means, but it’s a brief look at just how severe the anti-vax sentiment is among Trump supporters.

The Chicago Bears are going to start their season in Los Angeles against the Rams with Andy Dalton as their starting quarterback. That is the decree of head coach Matt Nagy, despite a fan base that is desperate to see rookie Justin Fields be handed the reins.

This has been the plan all along, but as the preseason rolls along, Dalton’s performance has not been particularly inspiring and Fields has provided enough glimpses into his immense talent to get the Bears faithful very excited about his prospects and impatient at the idea of someone else starting the season under center. This all reached a fever pitch on Saturday when the Bears hosted the Bills in their second preseason game of the season and got thoroughly trounced by Buffalo, who started ex-Bear Mitchell Trubisky to rub salt in the wound.

The scoreboard in a preseason game isn’t all that important, but seeing Trubisky carve up the Bears (20-of-28, 221 yards, 1 TD, 0 INTs) while Dalton mostly struggled to get anything going with the Chicago offense pushed fans over the edge. They booed and chanted Justin Fields’ name, giving the rookie a standing ovation when he finally entered the game in the third quarter. After the game, the rookie made clear that he wasn’t thrilled with that response, calling it “disrespectful” to Dalton and hoping that Bears fans would cheer whoever was on the field (via NBC Sports Chicago).

“I really think it’s kind of disrespectful to Andy, them cheering my name out like that,” Fields said. “Just cheer him on, you know? That’s not helping Andy play better, to cheer my name. That’s not doing none of that.

“My advice to them would be just cheer whoever’s on the field.”

Dalton played all of the first half and finished 11-of-17 for 141 yards, 1 TD, and 1 INT, but 79 of those yards came on one TD pass and the offense stalled on the first few drives of the game — Dalton had a clever quip that he didn’t hear any boos after the touchdown, so as long as he produces he’s not worried about it. It wasn’t entirely on Dalton, as the offensive line issues for the Bears have been very apparent, but that also has underscored for some why Fields should play. Fields was 9-of-19 for 80 yards through the air, making a couple terrific downfield throws but likewise struggling to consistently move the ball passing. The difference, though, between he and Dalton was his 46 yards rushing on four attempts, all scrambles that helped extend drives and pick up first downs.

There are two schools of thought with a young quarterback and a bad offensive line, and there’s merit to both. One is that if he misses on processing what he sees at the line, it could lead to disaster — as we saw when he failed to go hot on an overload blitz on Saturday and took a scary helmet-to-helmet shot.

On the other hand, Dalton is not mobile enough to extend plays and avoid pressure in the same way as Fields, which leads to faster checkdowns or throwaways in order to get the ball out of his hands. The rookie, instead, has a serious weapon in the form of his legs and that too was on display on Saturday.

Both arguments have validity, and it’s clear that, at least in the beginning, Nagy is choosing to start the veteran and keep his rookie on the bench to learn a bit more before throwing him into the fire with a shaky offensive line. However, Fields’ request that Bears fans will accept that if the offense struggles under Dalton will likely go unheard, even if the plan is somewhat understandable.