Category: Viral

Dirty South rap legend Gangsta Boo is back in the public’s consciousness thanks to Latto and GloRilla repurposing Three 6 Mafia‘s “Tear The Club Up” in their new single “FTCU,” which features the Memphis Queenpin. Keeping the ball rolling, Gangsta Boo hits the UPROXX Sessions studio to perform a rowdy rendition of her unrestrained 2020 single “I’m Fresh.” The track, which Boo released alongside New York producer Nick Hook, is a bass-blasting, drum-heavy club anthem in which she implores listeners to “smoke weed [and] eat p*ssy.”

“I just remember Nick playing some beats we were vibing at thespacepit studio but nothing was sticking to me, so we decided to create on the spot, piece by piece,” she explained on the song’s Bandcamp page. “I didn’t have to write any of the lyrics down because the beat wrote for me, so it was easy to freestyle off the dome. I used my voice like a record to create scratching sounds and we added harmonica and guitar, just to be different. Why not?I just kept hearing more and more as the track went on. Me and Nick overthink things a lot because we’re perfectionists with our sounds. I was just thinking about everything that I was doing and how I was feeling at the time while stoned and that’s how ‘I’m Fresh’ was made: two fresh people in the room together with a microphone.”

Watch Gangsta Boo’s UPROXX Sessions performance of “I’m Fresh” above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

Video game movies are all the rage these days. What was once considered a guaranteed flop at the box office has seen a resurgence over the last few years as major producers and names across all kinds of industries rush to be a part of the next major video game movie.

Of course, with everyone trying to make these, licenses for the bigger names are getting picked up fast and not everyone can be making the next ‘Super Mario’ movie. This also means we’re seeing some surprise announcements such as on Monday from the Hollywood Reporter when it reported that Steph Curry’s company Unanimous Media alongside Amazon Studios would be helping produce a ToeJam & Earl movie.

The 1990s SEGA video game ToeJam & Earl is in the works as a feature film at Amazon Studios, also hailing from Stephen Curry’s Unanimous Media and Story Kitchen.

ToeJam & Earl, created by Mark Voorsanger and Greg Johnson, centers on two space-alien rappers who come to Earth seeking a cure for the disease eradicating their home planet’s rhythm, funk and groove.

Let’s be honest here. ToeJam & Earl was likely not on the list of names people were expecting to get a video game adaptation anytime soon. It’s a franchise from the SEGA Genesis era of games and became popular largely thanks to a bumpin’ soundtrack, as well as just being really weird. It was set in odd locales, had randomly generated levels, and wasn’t afraid of making a burp or fart joke. It was a really unique game at the time, but not something you would expect to get a movie.

That oddness and chance for a blank slate open world are maybe what was so intriguing about the franchise to producers. There’s really no limit to the number of weird ideas you can put in this movie with the only real expectation being that it has a good soundtrack. As long as that’s accomplished then it should leave at least some fans satisfied.

After starring together in the 1994 comedy, Airheads, Hollywood legends Brendan Fraser and Adam Sandler had an enjoyable reunion while interviewing each other for Variety‘s Actors on Actors series. At the time of Airheads filming, Fraser was coming off of Encino Man while Sandler was a rapidly rising star on Saturday Night Live. Neither one had a huge amount of clout, but Sandler immediately used what little he had to get Fraser into Airheads by any means necessary.

Much to the surprise of The Whale actor, who had no idea about any of this, Sandler threatened to walk from the film if Fraser wasn’t cast in the role of lead singer Chazz:

Sandler: The director, Michael Lehmann, was very against you. He was like, “I don’t get it. I don’t see the caveman being in the movie.” And I just said, “He can do other sh*t, man.”

Fraser: Are you pulling my chain right now?

Sandler: I eventually went to his house at like 4 in the morning, woke him up, and I said, “Just know Adam Sandler ain’t going to be in ‘Airheads’ unless old Fraser is in it.” So he changed his little tune.

However, Lehmann wasn’t the only obstacle in Sandler’s path. According to the Hustle star, Pauly Shore asked Sandler not to push for Fraser for very opportunistic reasons. “He kept saying, ‘Just in case we do Encino 2,’ I don’t want him doing other sh*t,’” Sandler recalled. “And I said, ‘Don’t do that to him.’”

Fraser remembered that part and that Shore angled to get himself in Airheads, which Sandler confirmed. Instead, the role Shore wanted went to David Arquette.

(Via Variety)

Morrocco were a major long shot to advance into the knockout stage of the World Cup in Qatar. They were placed in a very tough group with FIFA’s No. 2 team in the world, Belgium, perennial World Cup darlings Croatia, and a stout Canadian squad. But the Moroccan team defied all odds in beating Belgium, advancing into a knockout game against 2010 champion Spain and then beating them in a stunner to advance into the quarterfinal. But they didn’t just beat them, they played to a grueling 0-0 draw and then shut them out in a penalty shootout. It was a triumphant moment, one of the best in the World Cup thus far, and Morocco’s most famous hip-hop personality, French Montana, was beyond hyped.

French Montana was born in Casablanca and while he moved to New York City when he was 13, the South Bronx rapper is undoubtedly a Moroccan immigrant success story. So when the match ended in victory for his homeland’s team, Montana seemed to be ready to speed dial his travel agent and head out to Qatar for their quarterfinal match this coming Saturday. “WOWWWWW [Moroccan flag emojis] Moroccan heroes congratulations I guest we flyin to QATAR,” he wrote in an Instagram post along with three slider images of the victorious squad.

If this World Cup is missing anything, it’s rappers sitting courtside… err… pitchside. Here’s hoping we see styled-out French Montana there for Morocco’s match against the winner of the Portugal/Spain match. Given his prolific trend of making music videos for what seems like every song, he might just need to get a +1 for his director, too.

Hilary Duff has been in the spotlight for most of her life, and she has appeared relatively well-adjusted for a former child star who got her big break on Disney Channel. But as with many child stars, they begin to grow up and realize just how jarring being on screen at such a young age could be. It happened with Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez, and now Duff is reflecting on her past.

The Lizzie McGuire star recently opened up about her struggle with an eating disorder when she was a teenager. “Because of my career path, I can’t help but be like, ‘I am on camera and actresses are skinny,’” Duff told Women’s Health. “It was horrifying.” Duff battled an eating disorder for a year when she was seventeen, just a year after her iconic show ended.

After her Disney days, Duff went on to pursue other projects like music, before heading back to television earlier this year for How I Met Your Father.

Duff now uses a personal trainer to help keep her life in check. “[I’m] appreciating my health, doing activities that make me feel strong instead of just bettering the outside of my body,” she told the mag. “Spending time with people that make me feel good and share similar views on health and body positivity and getting enough sleep and balance in my diet.” Duff will star in the second season of How I Met Your Father sometime next year.

Meanwhile, fans are still holding out hope for a Lizzie/Gordo reunion.

(Via Women’s Health)

Sports betting has become a prominent point of discussion on most every network now that betting is legal in more than half of the country and every league (and sports TV network) has official partnerships with sportsbooks.

While the sports betting boom has introduced new segments and thrust lines and totals into everyone’s faces, there is still no one who does it better than Scott Van Pelt and Stanford Steve on their midnight SportsCenter. For years, SVP has waded into the sports betting space, as he did Winners on his radio show long before he had his own edition of SC. That said, when Van Pelt took over his own hour, he and those working on the show had the foresight to recognize that the thing that unites all bettors is the pain of seeing a sure winner turn into a loss.

Bad Beats is the best segment of any sports show on television, as every Monday night we get to see the most painful betting moments of the week that was in sports. While bad beats can happen anywhere in the sports world, college football and college basketball are at the soul of the show and, typically, produce the most outrageous losses. This week featured what I would argue is the worst beat of the year as SVP and Stanford Steve made history by diving into the world of props for a beat so heinous that it deserved Part 2 status with Caleb Williams rushing yards prop of 32 in the Pac-12 title game.

In the words of Stanford Steve: Roll tape (jump to the 4:30 mark for the start of Part Two).

To go from 73 rushing yards in the first quarter to 21 by way of sacks is one of the worst things I have ever seen from a betting perspective. Williams injured his hamstring which kept him from scrambling most of the game after that 59-yard rush, but even so, there’s not a world where that particular bet should have a chance to lose. And yet, here we are. The sacks at the very end with the game already decided are particularly painful, both from the perspective of this prop bet but also knowing Williams is back there as a sitting duck with a hamstring injury and USC just kept trying to throw deep while Utah teed off on the Heisman favorite.

After nearly two weeks of Spotify dominating social media’s media algorithm, thanks to their annual Wrapped reveal and the third-party Instafest mock concert lineups, streaming platform Apple Music is looking to snatch back users’ attention.

In an announcement, Apple unveiled a new feature that would be headed to the platform later this month: Apple Music users will experience karaoke re-imagined thanks to the new feature Apple Music Sing. For avid music lovers, the recent subscription uptick may finally be paying off. Apple Music Sing will allow users an immersive experience with their favorite songs’ lyrics and instrumentals across Apple devices. The volume of the song’s lyrics can even be adjusted.

Apple’s Vice President of Apple Music and Beats, Oliver Schusser, spoke about the new feature in a statement, saying, “Apple Music’s lyrics experience is consistently one of the most popular features on our service. We already know our users all over the world love to follow along to their favorite songs, so we wanted to evolve this offering even further to enable even more engagement around music through singing. It’s really a lot of fun, our customers are going to love it.”

Apple Music Sing will allow fans to take the lead or backup to their favorite song and perform duets with their friends. In addition, Apple Music will launch 50 curated playlists featuring the platform’s most popular songs, duets, choruses, and anthems.

If you’re not watching The White Lotus, you’re missing out. Not only because it’s a very good show with lots of intrigue, sex, and cocaine, it’s also a genuine sensation: the Mike White-created HBO series had its best ratings yet for a second episode in a row.

Variety reports that “2.8 million viewers tuned into season two, episode six of The White Lotus on Sunday night. That number is calculated from a combination of Nielsen’s measurement of linear viewing on HBO’s cable channel and [Warner Bros. Discovery’s] proprietary data about streaming on HBO Max.” That’s a 22 percent increase from last week’s record-breaking episode, “That’s Amore,” which was seen by 2.3 million viewers.

Episodes of The White Lotus are now averaging 9.5 million viewers across platforms, which Warner Bros. Discovery says is nearly 60 percent more than the season one average at the same point in time. The season premiere has now been seen by 10.4 million people. Additionally, this is the fifth week in a row that The White Lotus has ranked as the No. 1 title on HBO Max.

White chalked his show’s success to two factors: a good gimmick (the dead body in the premiere) and nudity. “It’s funny how now that the show is airing, how much you realize a graphic sex scene or a sex scene that kind of is titillating for various reasons, does just spike and generate an interest in the populace, for better or worse,” he told NPR.

The old Italian ladies yelling about artichokes is a bonus.

(Via Variety)

It’s impossible to listen to Blue Oyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” and not picture Will Ferrell furiously banging away at the cowbell. The classic Saturday Night Live sketch is a testament to Ferrell’s comedic genius; how he can take a concept so simple and turn it into an ubiquitous bit of comedy. For Will Ferrell’s son, Magnus, who was playing a benefit concert for a charity event benefitting the Cancer For College nonprofit, it felt like a great time to bring out his pops to reprise his iconic cowbell-smacking role on stage.

But this was a far cry from Christopher Walken’s Bruce Dickinson proclaiming that he had a fever “and the only prescription… is more cowbell!” In a video posted by Rolling Stone, towards the end of Magnus Ferrell’s song “Back In Place,” Magnus nodded to stage left, and in sauntered Ferrell, cowbell in hand. Wearing an Isaac Hayes “Hot Buttered Soul” hoodie, Ferrell banged away at the cowbell to the tune of the catchy synth pop song while marching demonstratively throughout the stage. In short, it was pretty damn cool.

Look, when you’re Will Ferrell’s son, you might as well take an opportunity to bring your dad out to spice up your band’s set with one of his iconic characters. Especially when it’s for a good cause. Started by Will Ferrell’s college roommate, Cancer For College says they help “cancer survivors thrive through college and beyond.” Let’s just be glad that Magnus didn’t ask his dad to go streaking through the quad to the gymnasium instead.

Watch the video at Rolling Stone here.

After negotiations with Amazon fell through, HBO Max content stopped being available through Prime Video Channels back in September 2021. However, now that HBO Max’s parent company is under new leadership following the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, the streaming platform’s content has returned to Amazon Prime. As for why the sudden reversal is happening, it’s pretty simple. HBO Max left a sizable amount of subscribers on the table in its aggressive pursuit to become one of the top streaming platforms on the market.

Via Variety:

The sticking point: WarnerMedia, then owned by AT&T, wanted more control of the direct-to-consumer relationships — including the ability to collect data for targeted advertising — than Amazon was willing to cede. About 5 million HBO/HBO Max customers had subscribed through Prime Video Channels, and the end of that deal took a bite out of HBO Max’s subscriber base.

With Discover CEO David Zaslav now at the helm, Warner Bros. Discovery is drastically rethinking its streaming strategy. The newly-merged media conglomerate is now more interested in spending on theatrical releases, and it’s entirely open to licensing out its deep bench of IP to other streamers.

In short, HBO Max — which will later combine with Discovery+ for a new, all-consuming streaming platform — is less concerned with trying to dominate the competition and more concerned with being a profitable business model that leverages Warner Bros. massive library. It’s in their interest to hop back onboard with Amazon, and so be it.

(Via Variety)