Category: Viral

Shakira is in a bit of legal hot water at the moment: Prosecutors in Spain are calling for the singer to spend eight years (and two months) in prison, and pay a fine of 24 million euros (about $24.4 million), if she gets convicted for alleged tax fraud, the Associated Press reports.

Shakira is charged with failing to pay 14.5 million euros (about $14.7 million) in taxes to the Spanish government between 2012 and 2014, since she allegedly spent more than half of 2012, 2013, and 2014 in the country and therefore should have paid taxes there. Shakira recently ended an 11-year relationship with soccer player Gerard Piqué, with whom she has two children and used to live in Barcelona.

The indictment includes six charges against Shakira. Earlier this week, Shakira rejected a settlement deal offered by prosecutors, apparently finding going to trial the more appealing option. A trial date has not yet been set.

Shakira was named in last year’s Pandora Papers leak, but was not accused of wrongdoing. A representative offered a statement to Rolling Stone at the time, saying, “At the time, [Shakira’s companies addressed in the Pandora Papers] were set up for a specific operational purpose. Today they have no income or activity whatsoever and, in fact, they are in the process of being liquidated.” They also noted these companies were properly declared to Spanish tax authorities.

It’s been four months since Will Smith slapped Chris Rock for not keeping his wife’s name out of his f*cking mouth at the 94th Academy Awards, even though it feels like it’s been four years. But for Smith, who later that night won his first Oscar and gave an extremely awkward speech, it’s only “been a minute.”

Smith uploaded a video to his YouTube channel titled “It’s been a minute” where he directly addresses The Slap. “I was fogged out by that point,” he said when asked why he didn’t apologize to Rock in his acceptance speech. “It’s all fuzzy. I’ve reached out to Chris and the message that came back is that he’s not ready to talk and when he is, he will reach out. So I will say to you, Chris, I apologize to you. My behavior was unacceptable and I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.”

Smith said that there’s “no part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave in that moment. There’s no part of me that thinks that’s the optimal way to handle a feeling of disrespect or insults.” He also denied that Jada Pinkett Smith told him to “do something” following Rock’s G.I. Jane joke. “No,” Smith said. “I made a choice on my own from my own experiences, from my history with Chris. Jada had nothing to do with it.”

You can watch the video above.

A good way to show an artist you love them is to not pose major safety hazards at their shows. Unfortunately, an attendee at Dua Lipa‘s show at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on her Future Nostalgia Tour the other night did not get this memo and set off fireworks in the crowd.

The “Levitating” singer has since acknowledged this on her Instagram story, saying that “my team and I are just as shocked and confused by the events as you all are.” Read her full statement below, which appeared on her Instagram story last night.

“Last night, unauthorized fireworks went off in the crowd during my set in Toronto. Creating a safe and inclusive space at my shows is always my first priority, and my team and I are just as shocked and confused by the events as you all are.

There is an ongoing investigation into the events being conducted, and everyone involved is working hard to find out how this incident occurred. Bringing this show to life for my fans has been such an amazing experience, and I’m so deeply sorry for anyone who was scared, felt unsafe or whose enjoyment of the show was affected in any way.”

The Inside the NBA crew will keep its most prominent member. According to an interview he gave to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, Charles Barkley will remain with the show where he’s been a stalwart for decades after conversations came to an end about a role with LIV Golf, the new professional golf league financed by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia.

“I want to thank Greg Norman and LIV for their interest in me,” Barkley told Marchand. “I wish those guys great success and nothing but the best. But, in my best interest, and being fair to Turner — because Turner and basketball have given me every single thing in my life — it is best for me to move on and I’m staying with Turner for the rest of my TV career.”

Marchand reported that negotiations had not gotten to a point where LIV Golf offered Barkley a contract.

The news of Barkley’s decision comes on the heels of a report from Dan Patrick, who indicated that Barkley would meet with LIV Golf decision-makers last week about joining in some capacity. Patrick further noted that Barkley, should he accept a role with the upstart golf league led by Norman, would have to leave Inside, where he has provided analysis about basketball and scores of other things since 2000.

Earlier this month, Barkley indicated he had some level of interest in joining LIV Golf in a cameo on The Next Round.

“I’m gonna meet with LIV,” Barkley said. “To be always transparent and honest, they called me and asked me if I’d meet with them. I said yes. Nothing’s imminent. I actually don’t know everything they want from me or what they technically want me to do. But you have to always look at every opportunity that’s available. So, to answer your question, yes, I’m gonna 100 percent meet with LIV.”

Barkley’s love of golf is nothing new — the NBA Hall of Fame inductee has long played the game, both for fun and in semi-competitive tournaments, while much has been made of the way his swing has been overhauled over the course of his life. There is no word on whether the door is open for something between the two sides down the line, but Barkley has said he would probably leave broadcasting when his current contract with Turner is up in two years because “I don’t want to die on TV.”

Post Malone‘s love for geeky games like Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering is no secret. Last year, he announced his partnership with MTG creators Wizards Of The Coast to promote the return of Friday Night Magic, a promotional campaign for the popular fantasy card game, promising “some cool stuff” to come in the following year. More recently, we discovered just what that “cool stuff” would entail. During a live stream next Friday, August 5, Post will select one viewer to fly to Los Angeles to play a one-on-one MTG match with him for $100,000.

Pardon me while I dig out and dust off my deck.

The actual match will take place on August 11 at 6 pm local time and stream via the Whatnot app. To enter, fans will need to download the app, create an account, and tune into the live stream on Friday. The winner will be randomly selected. According to the event website, no previous experience is required as MTG champion Reid Duke will coach the competitor ahead of the match (although, let’s face it; it’ll probably help to know what you’re doing ahead of time).

For the past month, Post has been hosting livestreams on Twitch, playing the battle royale-hero shooter Apex Legends and giving money to charity. Looks like mom was wrong about not being able to make a career out of playing video games — too bad I believed her, eh?

For a guy who quit the role over three years ago, Ben Affleck sure can’t seem to stop playing Batman. After filming an appearance in The Flash and reshoots for Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Affleck is apparently back again Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom. The cameo was supposed to be a surprise, but fans on a Warner Bros. studio tour accidentally spotted the actor on the set of the Aquaman sequel. Realizing the bat’s out of the bag, Jason Momoa confirmed the news on his Instagram.

“REUNITED bruce and arthur,” Momoa wrote. “love u and miss u Ben WB studio tours just explored the backlot alright. busted on set all great things coming AQUAMAN 2 all my aloha j”

If you scroll through the photos of Momoa and Affleck hamming it up, the Aquaman star also shared the moment he knew the Batfleck cameo was busted. In the video, you can hear Momoa laughing (and dropping an “F-bomb”) as he realized that a shuttle full of tourists definitely saw Affleck walking around the set.

“Well, it’s not a f*cking secret anymore, is it? Sorry, children,” a laughing Momoa said to the group before turning to the camera to himself while continuing to crack up. “That’s what happens, Warner Bros., when you walk out of your set and there’s our fans. … Well, we tried to keep it a secret.”

Momoa then peeked into a trailer where Affleck was hiding in costume as Bruce Wayne after being spotted by the tour bus. “Sorry, bro!” Momoa said before walking away still laughing.

Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom swims into theaters on March 17, 2023.

(Via Jason Momoa on Instagram)

You’ve heard of meatless Mondays, but have you ever heard of meatless Fridays? This week, Indiecast hosts Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen are forgoing the meat of the episode in order to focus on the biggest indie news of the week. That’s right — it’s all banter to celebrate the last double-digit installment before Indiecast hits 100 episodes. That’s partly due to Steven and Ian not being able to get their hands on an advance of Beyoncé’s new album, but also because there’s simply too much indie news to discuss. In this week’s episode, Indiecast talks emo week, Joni Mitchell’s first performance in two decades, 10 years of Frank Ocean’s debut Channel Orange, and more.

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Ian gives props to Chat Pile, an Oklahoma City band he hopes gains traction this year. Meanwhile, Steven gives a shout out to the Reigning Sound, a band formed in 2001 by Greg Cartwright who made eight great albums before disbanding.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 99 below and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

Kenan Thompson is the longest-tenured cast member in Saturday Night Live history, which should give him seniority when it comes to making decisions about the sketch show. That’s unfortunately not how it works, however, not with Lorne Michaels still kicking around Studio 8H. He’s the one who ultimately decides what makes it to air and when the show will (eventually?) end. But maybe he’ll listen to Kenan?

“The rumor is, the show is ending at its 50th season because Mr. Lorne Michaels doesn’t want to do it after age 80. Is that true?” host Charlamagne tha God asked Thompson on his Comedy Central series, Hell of a Week. The former-All That and Kenan and Kel star pretended to play dumb (“Is that a rumor?”) before directly responding to the rumor. “There could be a lot of validity to that rumor, because 50 is a good number to stop at,” he said. “That’s an incredible package. He will be, probably, close to 80 years old at that point, and you know, he’s the one who’s had his touch on the whole thing.”

Thompson continued:

“So, if somebody tries to come into his shoes, you know it’s a good opportunity for NBC to save money as well, you know what I’m saying? So they might slash the budget and then at that point, you can’t really do the same kind of show. So that’s unfair to watch it just really go down kind of in flames or whatever for real because of those restrictions… Capping it a 50 might not be a bad idea,”

SNL has been around for 47 seasons — it could last forever, but 50 is a nice round number to end things. Then again, I thought the same thing about The Simpsons after 20 seasons… and 30 seasons… and now it’s up 33 seasons, with season 34 premiering in September. One thing’s for sure: the SNL series finale, whenever it happens, will feature Paul Simon. Even if he’s no longer with us, he’ll still be there, somehow.

You can watch the Hell of a Week video above.

(Via The Wrap)

Before they released their first single this past April, the only way to discover Domi & JD Beck online was getting lucky on one of those deep YouTube rabbit holes. If you happened to arrive at that layer of the internet, you’d have seen two teenagers with stupefying jazz music chops straight killing it, but with a foot firmly entrenched in the organic construction of melodic hip-hop beat canvases.

One of their relatively newer clips from December of 2020 called “Madvillainy Tribute,” sees the pair recreating Madlib’s iconic Madvillainy orchestral productions on their respective instruments. Domi plays keys and lays down bass grooves on pedals with her bare feet. Beck rips away at his modest drum kit, tapping a snare and cymbals faster than a house fly flaps its wings. The top comment on the video says, “I’m convinced these two made every adult swim bump to ever exist,” and it’s a hilarious albeit plausible assertion. Especially when you consider that a month before, they appeared in another viral YouTube video backing Thundercat and Ariana Grande’s duet of “Them Changes,” as part of Adult Swim’s peak-pandemic virtual festival.

“Thundercat is one of our closest friends. He’s done a lot for us,” Beck says backstage at Montreal’s Club Soda, before the pair’s Montreal Jazz Festival performance on July 6th, where the young audience at the foot of the stage hung on every dizzying note from their set-closing rendition of John Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things.”

But lately, it’s another friend who has helped Domi & JD Beck raise their profile considerably: Anderson .Paak. Paak made the prodigious pair the flagship signing to his brand new Apeshit Records label and their debut album, Not Tight, arrived July 29th as a joint release with the storied jazz label, Blue Note Records. Along with appearances from Paak (notably on “Take A Chance,” which the three masterfully performed on Kimmel earlier this month), the album also features Snoop Dogg, Mac DeMarco, Herbie Hancock, Thundercat, and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel; an illustrious cast of guests to say the least. But the magnitude of none of this seems to phase the Parisian, Domi, 22, and Beck, 19, a Dallas native.

“We try not to overthink it,” Domi says. “Some people are like, ‘OMG Anderson Paak!’ And we’re like, ‘Yea, it’s Andy. We make music with him and we hang with him.’ It’s the same with Blue Note. We text and talk with them and sh*t. But we don’t try to make it like, ‘Blue Note! Blue Note!’ It’s still tight, but yea…”

They met Paak in late 2018 over Instagram. One of the members of The Free Nationals (Paak’s backing band and the other artists currently on the Apeshit roster) came to one of their shows. They later hipped Paak to their tunes, who then reached out on the app. They kept bumping into the Silk Sonic star at festivals when the pair were playing early sets or opening for soul multi-instrumentalist John Bap and just hit it off. The way they tell the story is in a ping pong recollection — equal parts nonchalant and frenetic, but always linear — each one peppering in a detail before the full picture comes together, just like their music.

Beck: “We just became friends.”

Domi: “Then we met him at a festival in New Orleans and met him and sh*t.”

Beck: “Like six or seven of our shows were in the same city.”

Domi: “Then he asked us to come through.”

Beck: “We’d play a bunch of jam sessions with them and stuff.”

Domi: “And then went to LA and he invited us to his studio and then dinner and sh*t. And he was like ‘Hey, I’m starting a label…”

Beck: “We met Mac DeMarco on that same tour.”

Everything is so matter-of-fact with them. They barely remember how they met each other in the first place. It was at the NAMM Convention in Anaheim (National Association of Music Merchants) and they can’t recall why they both ended up there, just that the whole experience was a drag, but they bonded over how hilariously bad everything felt.

“I was playing these electronic drums. So fake,” Beck says. Domi laments the in-ear monitor and a bunk keyboard they had her on. It’s almost as if they caught each other’s eye from an opposite corner of a stage and laughed. “We saw each other at a jam session the night before and he was with Thundercat,” Domi says. “That’s the first time I met him and hung out,” Beck adds. “Domi was there and she barely spoke English at all…she dapped me up like this.” [motions a half-assed fist bump]

They laugh because they remember the experience in the same way. And if there’s a brother/sister vibe to them, it’s because they literally spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week together. “It’s been like that since 2018. But we beat each other up all the time,” Domi says. “We’re more like sumo wrestlers,” Beck adds. “It’s 50/50 on who wins.”

They currently split time between Dallas and LA. Before that, Domi was finishing up her studies at the Berklee School of Music, which the French national needed to do in order to maintain her visa (she graduated in 2020.) “‘I’d do all my classes in one day and then fly right back to Dallas,” she says. “Take a 5am flight, do my classes and fly back at midnight.”

Dallas is where they write, chill, and play video games when they’re not making music. But their writing process can be unconventional to say the least. Take “Smile” for example, a lead single from Not Tight and one of the most mesmerizing pieces of music you’ll hear this year. Domi’s Nord keyboard lays down an impeccable melody, and then no sooner than it starts to bounce alongside her MIDI keys bass, Beck’s snare and cymbal smacks jump symbiotically with it. They sound like Karriem Riggins and Bob James scoring a Quasimoto cartoon in the year 2030.

“JD was on the toilet, singing the melody and sh*t and I heard him scream ‘Domi! You gotta help me out!” Domi recalls of the song’s inception. “And he sang me the melody so I had to play and record it and then he was guiding me through the whole sh*t. We wrote it together, but it started with him on the toilet singing that melody. That’s the full disclosure.”

If jazz musicians ever created on the toilet, they’d never admit it. That’s part of what makes these two unique. But they have dexterous compositional chops as well. Writing melodies, chords, and bass together, but not on their instruments. “We notice that when you write on our instruments, that’s how it gets lazy and you write the same sh*t all the time,” Domi says. “That’s why a lot of people end up sacrificing their playing for writing,” Beck adds. “So we want to do it like composers, flesh out a whole song to write it and then the playing comes after.”

But you can’t pigeonhole what they are. With them, jazz is hip-hop and hip-hop is jazz. It’s the way music has been shifting since Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder sound joined forces with Kamasi Washington’s West Coast Get Down and started bringing it to the masses. Domi & JD Beck embody this paradigm shift in spades. Two Gen Z’ers who don’t give a f*ck, just want to create lasting work, and what they make is so cool and fresh; subversive and enlightening. It’s the same way that Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters was in 1973. A jazz and funk fusion that was as audacious as it was classically on point.

Hancock, who appears on Not Tight in the far-out “Moon,” in fact invited Domi & JD Beck on stage with him at the Hollywood Bowl last September, just after they recorded the song together. On this warm Southern California evening, they joined him for his pioneering fusion standard, “Chameleon.”

“It’s a funny thing because it’s the most played song that everybody just ruins and destroys,” Domi says. “Like every jam session where you can find the least amount of groove ever and everybody just plays like ten-minute solos. But we were playing it with f*cking Herbie Hancock.”

“If you’re ever gonna play ‘Chameleon,’ you have to play it with Herbie Hancock,” Beck jokes. ”Otherwise? Don’t play it.”

“But as we walked out,” Domi continued, “He said, ’Check em out on YouTube!’ ‘Cause that’s how he found us too. And I was like, there’s no way that 82-year-old Herbie Hancock — legendary — just shouted out our YouTube at the Hollywood Bowl.”

Not Tight is out now via Apeshit/Blue Note. Listen to it here.

Taylor Swift‘s music has been all over cinema lately, with “This Love (Taylor’s Version)” up in The Summer I Turned Pretty, “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version)” in a trailer for Spirit Untamed, and “Carolina” in Where The Crawdads Sing.

Now, the pop star’s influence is reaching even further into the film world with “Bad Blood (Taylor’s Version)” and “Message In A Bottle (Taylor’s Version)” will be in DC League Of Super-Pets, which is in theaters as of today. This was confirmed by The Rock and Kevin Hart via TikTok. The Rock captioned his video with, “Pumped to have TWO of my friend @Taylor Swift’s tracks in our #DCSuperPets! In theaters TONIGHT!” The “Love Story” singer left a comment, “Leave it to my friend Dwayne to support the ethically sourced versions of my songs. Good luck with the film!! Ur the man.”

Swift has been all about surprising her fans lately. Recently, she joined Haim on stage at a show in London and sent the arena. She told the crowd, “I haven’t been on stage in a very long time. It’s nice…it’s nice, it’s very nice. When I heard my girls were playing in London at the O2, I thought, ‘I’m going to have to see that.’”