As more and more athletes and musicians add their voices to the chorus calling for change this week, one of those voices falls under both categories. NBA star Damian Lillard — also known as Dame D.O.L.L.A. when he’s on the mic — shared a new song, titled “Blacklist,” addressing the ongoing calls for police reform and denouncing white supremacy. The song appeared today on his SoundCloud, as Dame continued to speak out against injustice on his social media.

“As a brother with a good heart, I say, ‘F ck You’ if you racist / Or you white and you quiet, you disabling the changes,” he snaps to begin the track. However, he isn’t shy about facing the consequences his rhymes could bring. “F*ck being famous, tired of watching us complaining.” As the track builds, he continues to point out the hypocrisy of police who protect the “bad apples,” calls out Donald Trump for his inflammatory rhetoric, and compares himself to Muhammad Ali and Tommy Smith — Black athletes who voiced their concerns despite backlash.

Dame already experienced something of a backlash himself after declaring that he wouldn’t play in a truncated season should the NBA return post COVID-19 because his team wouldn’t have a chance to play for a title.

Listen to Dame D.O.L.L.A.’s “Blacklist” above.

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DaBaby is on top of the world right now, as his Roddy Ricch-featuring single “Rockstar” has climbed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. This is DaBaby’s first time having a No. 1 song, and in light of that, he has taken a moment to reflect on where he came from to get to this point.

Sharing the top ten of the chart he currently leads, DaBaby offered a simple, “I came from nothing.” He then elaborated in a follow-up tweet, “Nah fr, I really came from nothing. I’m not perfect at all but look, I done been through it all, and still got PLENTY more to go through. If you willing to go through it with me, grab my hand let’s go. If not, F*CK YA. I wish you the best.”

He shared a similarly spirited message before the news that he went No. 1, tweeting, “I love being the under dog, something about climbing up out the mud make them victory’s bigger.” After that, he offered a peek at his future plans: “Ima finish this run off successfully, reach another milestone & take some much needed time off to work on self-discipline, mental health, physical health, loving on my kids/family & becoming a better person overall. Im only tweeting this so I can look back n say ‘I did dat!’

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

This past weekend, NASCAR’s fanless season continued in Atlanta, but prior to the race they made a rare statement in the realm of social issues, as they played a video featuring a number of their high profile drivers speaking on the need to listen and learn about racial inequality and police brutality.

That message was prompted by the week-plus of protests that have been going on nationwide since the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police in Minneapolis and Louisville. For a sport like NASCAR to feel it necessary to make such a video message shows the impact the Black Lives Matter movement is having, but there is still a long way for the sport to go in terms of embracing diversity.

There is one Black driver in NASCAR, Bubba Wallace, and as such he has been quite busy over the last week with interviews and questions about what it’s like to be the lone Black man in a sport that has long lacked much in the way of diversity. Wallace has handled that responsibility with incredible tact, speaking with numerous outlets on the matter and NASCAR’s response in recent days. On Monday, he joined CNN’s Don Lemon for one of those discussions, and noted that he’s felt NASCAR’s leadership has done well and been very willing to listen to him. However, he hopes that continues and, when asked what the next step he thinks the sport should take is, he pointed out that confederate flags should no longer be allowed to fly at races.

Wallace makes the point that no one should come to races and feel uncomfortable or like they don’t belong, and for Black Americans, the confederate flag is a symbol of exactly that, exclusion and a place they don’t belong and aren’t wanted. While there were plenty of NASCAR fans that appreciated the message on Sunday, there was also backlash from, what is very possibly, just a vocal minority. What happens next will be fascinating as NASCAR will either move forward without putting more into action, alienating those like Wallace who feel they’re committed to making real change and want to help with the net steps, or their message will actually mean what they said and they’ll listen and implement policies like what Bubba expresses here. If they do the latter, there will be more backlash and anger from some, but if NASCAR is serious about expanding its footprint and becoming more progressive on issues of race, they’ll have to leave some folks behind to do so.

Josh Trank has already been through a protracted studio battle with 20th Century Fox (for Fantastic Four), so one might imagine that bad movie reviews might not feel as jarring in comparison. That assumption would be correct, and Trank is ready to reckon with those Capone reviews while letting them roll off his back. In an interview with Hollywood Reporter, he sifts through the aftermath of a less-than-impressive VOD take ($2.5 million held up to a $20 million budget) and is simply happy that people are having strong reactions.

The film, which sits at 42% on Rotten Tomatoes, led our own Vince Mancini to declare, “Context is not the enemy.” Notably, there’s a scene where Tom Hardy, as the post-prison Al Capone, defecates in his own pants. But Trank is “very happy with the outcome,” because some viewers love what other viewers hate. Trank continued:

“That’s perfectly fine because everything in this movie is up front and center for you to see. Nothing is being hidden. It’s right there. But I’m glad that what people are reacting to are the most extreme elements of the movie. It’s getting a reaction. If you hate this movie, that’s perfectly fine because you’re reacting to something that’s pretty real.”

As long as people are paying attention, in other words, that’s better than being ignored, according to Trank. It’s not a new idea by any means, but it does seem useful right now when movies are struggling in the face of pandemic chaos. One might argue, though, that movies like Capone are much better off heading to streaming services than, as Vertical Entertainment did, forging out to VOD-land unattended. With The Last Days Of American Crime earning 0% positive reviews but still sitting atop the Netflix charts, there’s certainly an audience for terrible movies. 2020 isn’t getting any less weird.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

After previously postponing the event, Barcelona’s premier festival Primavera Sound announced they were canceling this summer’s festival in light of the pandemic. Primavera Sound was slated to celebrate their 20th year this summer and had even planned an LA debut in September. Instead of holding the festivals, Primavera Sound instead commemorated two decades as an organization by airing past performances. But the festival has also set their sights on the future: Primavera Sound has already confirmed its full lineup for 2021.

Now scheduled for June 2021, Primavera Sound’s first wave of lineup announcements was led by Gorillaz, Tame Impala, Charli XCX, Pavement, and The Strokes. Now, the fest has expanded on their original announcement and added a massive amount of artists to its bill. Taking place at Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona from June 2 to 6, Primavera Sound will feature performances by artists like Kehlani, Slowthai, Kurt Vile, Khruangbin, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, and more.

While the festival added a number of acts, a few musicians who were originally booked for 2020 don’t appear on the new lineup. Lana Del Rey, King Princess, Kacey Musgraves, and Brittany Howard were slated to play this summer, but don’t appear on the 2021 lineup.

Tickets for Primavera Sound are available starting 6/11, with all 2020 day tickets remaining valid for next summer’s festival. Find tickets here.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

One of the more unusual angles in WWE in recent memory belonged to three-time tag team champion Erick Rowan and a cage covered in burlap. From November 2019 until February 2020, Rowan would carry this mysterious cage to the ring, occasionally letting jobbers peak inside and/or be attacked by whatever was in there. Then, it was revealed in March that there was none other than a big, extremely fake-looking spider inside of it.

Alas, Drew McIntyre squashed the cage — and presumably the fake spider inside of it — on one of Raw’s final pre-pandemic episodes, and shortly thereafter, Rowan was released. He’s kept a low profile since, rebranding himself as Erick Redbeard, but otherwise he’s been quiet. That changed recently when he appeared on the Lewis Nicholls Show to discuss his wrestling career, and most importantly, just what his thoughts were on his final angle:

“I had the cage thing, whatever that was, but it kept me on television. Good or bad, it kept me on, and that’s what I always say to people; good or bad, you try to make the best you can with it. Sometimes, you can make good out of it, but sometimes, the writing is the writing, and I don’t know what happened. I really don’t.

I put stuff in there, just in case somebody peeked through. You never know if something is going to fall out. Nobody else told me to do it, but I put stuff in there just in case. One week I didn’t have anything, so I took a T-shirt and some duct tape and made a stuffed animal. Just stupid things so if someone looked through it, there was some sort of shape. I didn’t know what was going to be in there.”

When asked if he was disappointed in the payoff of the angle, Rowan simply said, “I plead the fifth.”

Over the weekend, Game of Thrones actress Sophie Turner, along with husband Joe Jonas, attended a Black Lives Matter protest in Los Angeles. “No justice, no peace,” she wrote on Instagram, where she responded to some of her follower’s comments, including one who asked why she was still protesting the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, after arrests have been made. “I mean they’ve been arrested and charge [sic] with murder so there [is] justice soooooo can we have peace now?” they wrote.

Turner wrote back:

“This isn’t just about those 4 cops, this is about Breonna Taylor, this is about Trayvon Martin, this is about Eric Garner, this is about the systemic racism that black people have faced for hundreds and hundreds of years. This is about changing the system. Justice will be done when society reflects our beliefs that we are all equal. Until then, there should be no peace.”

Well said.

In the days prior to the protest, Turner showed her support for the Black Lives Matter movement. “My heart is heavy. I stand in solidarity with those speaking out against racism and fighting for justice and equality. Silence is not an option,” she wrote. “While my voice is not one that needs to be heard, I want to highlight some of those we should listen to,” including Colin Kaepernick, Tamika D. Mallory, and Rachel Elizabeth Cargle.

Most of the major music festivals around the world have been either canceled or postponed for months now. That said, Lollapalooza has stood as one of the final holdouts, as they had yet to announce a delay or cancelation. Now, though, the matter is out of their hands: The City of Chicago announced today that Lollapalooza (along with a host of other events scheduled for this summer) will no longer be allowed to go on as planned.

The festival organizers also shared a statement about the cancelation, writing, “We wish we could bring Lollapalooza to Grant Park again this year, but we understand why things can’t move forward as planned. The health and safety of our fans, artists, partners, staff and community is always our highest priority. Rest assured, we will be working hard behind the scenes to deliver Chicago a spectacular celebration of Lollapalooza’s 30th Anniversary in the summer of 2021, and we can’t wait to celebrate with you. It’s difficult to imagine summer without our annual weekend together, sharing the undeniable energy generated when live music and our incredible community of fans unite.”

The message goes on to note that between July 30 and August 2, Lollapalooza will host a livestream event that will include live performances, archival sets, and more.

Before this, the closest Lollapalooza had come to changing their 2020 plans was delaying the announcement of this year’s lineup.

The animated group Gorillaz fronted by Damon Albarn teamed up with UK rapper Octavian for another offering from their Song Machine series. The collaboration resulted in “Friday 13th,” a hazy and rhythmic earworm.

“Friday 13th” boasts and slow and easy groove with Octavian delivering much of the lyrics. “I been drinkin’ and smokin’ too much, that sh*t damages / Gimme a lot, I can do it myself, I can manage it,” Octavian sings. The track’s accompanying visual was all self-filmed at home during quarantine and reflects the track’s slow-burning nature with psychedelic visuals.

The single is the latest installment from Gorillaz’s series Song Machine. Before working with Octavian, Gorillaz teamed up with Peter Hook and Georgia for “Aries,” Fatoumata Diawara for “Désolé,” and Slowthai for “Momentary Bliss.”

Ahead of releasing “Friday 13th” the group showed their solidarity with Black Lives Matter. Gorillaz announced a new line of merch items with all proceeds benefitting the London-based black history education charity The Black Curriculum. “Gorillaz are enraged at the death of George Floyd and many before him at the hands of systemic racism and police brutality,” The band wrote. “It’s time to be the change and play an active part in the fight for justice and equality.”

Listen to “Friday 13th” above.

Gorillaz is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.