Category: Viral

Kumail Nanjiani makes a blink and you’ll miss it appearance in the new Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer, but that was enough of a tasty morsel for Star Wars fans to go absolutely nuts on social media. While Nanjiani is only briefly shown, his character is seen wearing what looks like a Jedi robe, and he appears to be hiding from the Inquisitors, who are featured prominently in the new trailer.

For you non-nerds, Inquisitors are an elite force of assassins tasked with hunting down any remaining Jedi after the Emperor destroyed most of the laser sword monks with his devious Order 66 in Revenge of the Sith. They also seem to be particularly obsessed with finding Obi-Wan, who not only survived Order 66, but left his fallen pupil Anakin Skywalker for dead following a fiery duel on the planet Mustafar.

With the new trailer suggesting that Nanjiani’s character is hiding from the Imperial assassins, that has led many fans to speculate that he’s the Jedi on the run mentioned in the first teaser. Star Wars buffs are also speculating that Nanjiani’s possible Jedi character brings the Inquisitors to Obi-Wan’s doorstep, kicking off the events of the show, which will eventually culminate in a rematch between the Jedi Master and Anakin, who is now the villainous Darth Vader.

You can see some of the fan reactions below, and clearly, Star Wars fans are here for Nanjiani living his best nerd life with both the MCU and now Star Wars under his (maybe) Jedi belt:

Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres May 27 on Disney+.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who is under federal investigation over whether he engaged in sex trafficking and had a sexual relationship with an underage girl, had a predictably terrible take on the all-too-real possibility of Roe v. Wade being overturned. “How many of the women rallying against overturning Roe are over-educated, under-loved millennials who sadly return from protests to a lonely microwave dinner with their cats, and no bumble matches?” he tweeted, which probably delighted fellow far-right cronies like J.D. Vance and Marjorie Taylor Greene, and no one else.

It’s beyond parody (because parody is no longer possible) that Gaetz sees a woman being “over-educated,” whatever that means, as a bad thing, considering…

In two late-night Venmo transactions in May 2018, Gaetz sent his friend, accused sex trafficker Joel Greenberg, $900. The next morning, over the course of eight minutes, Greenberg used the same app to send three young women varying sums of money. In total, the transactions amounted to $900… When Greenberg made his Venmo payments to these three young women, he described the money as being for “Tuition,” “School,” and “School.”

As one Twitter user pointed out, “The very concept that a woman can be ‘over-educated’ tells me all I need to know about this. And the idea that the only women who want rights must be unattractive and frigid is the oldest misogynistic trope in the book. This is a sitting member of Congress.” Another tweet reads, “Matt Gaetz’s dates definitely aren’t over-educated, they aren’t even old enough to have a Bumble account.”

Here’s more:

Jack Harlow‘s upcoming sophomore album, Come Home, The Kids Miss You features a promising selection of collaborators. Fans, however, have already gotten a taste of some of the upcoming tracks in the form of a leaked Drake collaboration, which surfaced online last month. The track was revealed to be titled “Churchill Downs” yesterday, following Harlow’s unveiling of the album’s tracklist.

In an interview on Hot 97, Harlow admitted that he was upset by the leak.

“It hurt my feelings,” he said. “I’m really tight about leaks. I don’t bounce my music so I haven’t had leaks in a long time. I don’t ride to my music while I’m working on an album… the only time we get to experience it is in the studio. [The leak] was heartbreaking, especially because [Drake]’s an idol of mine. I wanted to control that moment, but it’s destiny.”

Harlow mentioned that Drake was also sad about the leak, but as an artist who has dealt with his music leaking for years, Drake was able to offer Harlow some words of encouragement.

“[Drake] kind of, you know, nudged me like, ‘Aye, don’t trip. This what was meant to happen,’” he said. “I think his experience, he let me know like, ‘You think this is gonna affect your life? Like, it’s fine.’”

In addition to Drake, Harlow also collaborated with Lil Wayne, Pharrell Williams, and Justin Timberlake on the album.

Check out the full interview above.

Come Home, The Kids Miss You is out 5/6 via Atlantic. Pre-save it here.

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

In times of stress and strife, it’s only natural to want to lash out and blame someone for the situation. With the leak of the Supreme Court’s opinion draft about overturning Roe v. Wade and setting our entire country—not to mention women’s rights and health care—back by a half-century, Justice Samuel Alito, who penned the opinion, would be the most obvious choice. (And is a totally valid one.) But as Stephen Colbert pointed out, so would Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett “I Love Beer” Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, who were all in agreement with Alito’s opinion… despite indicating otherwise during their confirmation hearings.

But Colbert offered one additional target who is equally deserving of your understandable ire: Maine Senator Susan Collins. On Tuesday night, The Late Show host launched into a tirade against Collins, the “moderate” Republican who has regularly seemed to pretend like she’s really considering which way to lean on an issue just before siding with her party—then seems surprised when she learns that someone in her party has lied to her. As Colbert noted:

“Collins, who says she supports abortion rights, got a lot of people mad at her in 2018 when she supported Brett Kavanaugh, even though everyone knew he would not hesitate to overturn Roe vs. Wade…

This morning, Collins released a statement saying: ‘If this leaked draft opinion is the final decision and this reporting is accurate, it would be completely inconsistent with what Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office.’

OK, so she’s just another gullible grandma. ‘I don’t understand why they lie. We pinkie swore in my office. This is just like that time my niece sent me the email saying she was stranded in Guadalajara and needed money to get out of jail. So I sent her $10,000, then found out I don’t even have a niece.”

You can watch Colbert’s full‚ and very animated, segment above.

The Golden State Warriors announced that defensive ace Gary Payton II suffered a fractured left elbow during Tuesday night’s Game 2 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. Payton went up for a layup during the first quarter and got clotheslined by Grizzlies wing Dillon Brooks, who was assessed a flagrant 2 foul and ejected.

The foul — along with a few other moments during the opening 12 minutes of the game — drew the ire of Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who accused Memphis of playing dirty during his interview with TNT in between the first and second quarters. And after the game, Kerr ripped Brooks for breaking a code among players.

“I don’t know if it was intentional, but it was dirty,” Kerr said. “Playoff basketball, it’s supposed to be physical, everybody’s gonna compete, everybody’s gonna fight for everything. But there’s a code in this league, there’s a code that players follow where you never put a guy’s season/career in jeopardy by taking somebody out in mid-air and clubbing them across the head, and ultimately fracturing Gary’s elbow.

“This is a guy who’s been toiling the last six years, trying to make it in this league, finally found a home playing his butt off this year,” Kerr continued. “In the playoffs, this should be the time of his life, and a guy comes in and whacks him across the head in mid-air. He broke the code, Dillon Brooks broke the code. That’s how I see it.”

There is no word on whether or not Brooks will be assessed any further penalty for the foul.

If you’re just waking up and checking Uproxx before your Twitter feed, number one, thank you. Number two: Batten down the hatches. You’re in for a wild day.

Last night, Dave Chappelle performed at the Hollywood Bowl as part of the ongoing Netflix Is A Joke Fest, which has seen seemingly the entirety of the comedy community descend on LA for a month-long slate of events. However, it seems unlikely that any will top the outrageous happenings toward the end of Chappelle’s headlining set. As Dave was closing out the show, an unidentified male assailant tried to rush the stage, apparently brandishing a replica handgun.

He was able to tackle the comedian before a group of people, which reportedly included rapper Busta Rhymes (with whom Chappelle is soon to launch the Dave And Busta Tour, no joke) and the multitalented Jamie Foxx, intervened, packing the attacker up and taking him backstage. Later, he emerged on a stretcher doing his best impression of a human pretzel, as seen in a video posted to social media. He was loaded into an ambulance for transport to a local hospital, where I’m sure doctors will try their best not to practice their own tight fives as they sort his arms back into some semblance of their original shape.

Fans on Twitter have naturally been buzzing, expressing awe at how badly beaten up the attacker looks (here’s your reminder that Busta is 6’1 and well over 200 lbs.) and comparing the incident to Will Smith and Chris Rock’s recent Oscars outburst — including Chris Rock.

For his part, Chappelle seemed unharmed and like Rock, played it off with his own improvised riff, which Foxx joined. “I been doing this 35 years, I just stomped a nigga backstage,” joked. “I seen Busta Rhymes, he was like, ‘That’s how you do it, god.’”

That is, indeed, how you do it. Let’s all hope no one else gets any ideas about trying this stunt again.

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.

“I’m so stupid happy that you left,” Winona Oak sings, a cutthroat lyric on the kind of sparkling pop song that would make her fellow Swedish star, Robyn, incredibly proud. “If you see me having fun it’s all ‘cause you’re my ex,” concludes the chorus, rounding out an incredibly addictive bit of pop that’s a celebration of life after leaving a toxic relationship. “Happy You’re My Ex” is one of the last tracks on Oak’s fascinating debut album, Island Of The Sun, which is slated for release later this summer, and it’s one of the best debuts of 2022.

The album doubles as the coming-of-age story of a woman and an artist who has already been to hell and back, and managed to translate all of the pain, chaos, and loss into a collection of near-perfect pop songs. The record’s soaring title track, “Island Of The Sun,” kicked off the news of Winona’s full-length album earlier this year, a follow-up to two EPs released in 2020 — though most emerging artists already know the story of how it felt to release music in a year marked by pandemic and isolation.

Closure, released in January of 2020, and She, released in October of the same year, mostly flew under the radar, even if an earlier collaboration with The Chainsmokers back in 2018, “Hope,” put Oak on the map in some circles. Those early EPs began to tell Winona’s story, but in order to really do that, it’s necessary to go back to Sollerön — the remote Swedish island where she grew up. Or at least, have Winona take us there.

Since traveling to Sweden is a daunting task even without a virus raging, meeting up with Winona in LA right before the start of her North American tour dates made the most sense. And even sitting outside Soho House all alone, Winona Oak is impossible to miss. Wearing an oversized, linen khaki suit, Oak was initially trying to get the concierge at Soho House to let her in, before giving up and waiting it out on a nearby bench. Both of us were a bit too early for a lunch meeting at the Soho Warehouse in downtown LA, just a few blocks away from the Atlantic Records headquarters.

But as soon as a publicist walked up with the proper credentials, we were quickly ensconced in the cushy booths on the building’s sunny rooftop, facing down a table full of appetizers, coffees, and drinks. Unassuming and down to earth, there’s still a sense of mysticism around the Swedish singer-songwriter, especially in her linen suit, with her dark brunette hair tipped blue at the end, and striking, intense eyes.

Winona had only recently arrived in Los Angeles from her native Sweden, and was still a little jet-lagged. Between rehearsals, label meetings, and press for her upcoming album, she decided to treat herself to a mimosa before our lunchtime interview, giving way to the sunny California day and the chance to settle in and talk for an hour. Oak will be in America for the next month and a half, so it’s understandable that the first thing she wanted to do is show off photos of her dog, who she’s already missing like crazy.

Like plenty of other young, beautiful women before her, some of Oak’s earliest memories of the industry are about the powerful men who wanted to control her image, and shadows of these figures still show up in some of her songs. But, also like plenty of her predecessors — including Sweden’s most brilliant pop export, the aforementioned Robyn — Oak wasn’t the type to be under anyone’s thumb. If anything is obvious upon meeting Winona, it’s that her stubborn streak is a mile wide, and that resilience would serve her well in a tricky industry.

Between the prevalence of misogyny in the music industry and that escape from a toxic ex, some might’ve worried that an initial gig collaborating with The Chainsmokers would be similarly scarring. But, in fact, it was quite the opposite. “That was one of the first songs I ever released,” Winona remembered. “They heard the song and really loved it, it wasn’t even a finished song, just a little piece. I met up with them, and I just loved them. They were super fun and supportive. I didn’t have anything out back then, and they just decided to take a chance on me, and really believed in me. They’ve been really good mentors to me, from the start.”

Officially though, Winona’s first-ever song came even before that one, a collaboration with another supportive producer. Attending a writing trip for the boutique synth-pop label, Neon Gold Records, was when Oak met Australian producer What So Not, and their collaboration “Beautiful“ became the first time she ever officially shared her music with the world. Oak decided to attend the trip, which was held in Nicaragua in 2017, last minute, with only about two weeks notice. And that decision was one that changed her perspective on music forever. “I got a taste of a different life,” she remembered. “I was like ‘I need to change things. I need to actually put all my energy into this.’ It was such a life-changing experience.”

Before she decided to go full tilt into the industry, music was always in the background of Winona’s life. Born Johanna Ewana Ekmark, the third child to parents who’d already had two children fifteen years before, she was more than just the youngest child. Winona described it as more like having “two more moms,” with her older sisters stepping in to help guide her as a child. That childhood, spent on the isolated, heavily forested island of Sollerön — also known as the “island of the sun” — included growing up with animals, particularly the family’s five horses, and forced lessons in violin starting at the age of five.

“I would write stories that were really dark,” she remembered of her writing habits as a kid. “I’ve always had a really dark side to me. But it wasn’t until I was 18 or 19, when I moved to Stockholm and met people who were actually making music for a living, that I realized I could try that as well. When I was a kid I was writing stories and poems, now I write songs.” As she’s grown in stature as an artist, releasing two EPs of her own, and now on the cusp of putting out a debut, Winona isn’t the kind of pop star who will gloss over the heavy, complicated emotions.

Instead, these subjects constantly make their way into the heart of her songs, like the searing kiss-off, “NDA,” or the love letter to herself she penned in the sad, brutally honest third single off her album, “Jojo,” which comes out today. “My name is Johanna, but I’ve always been called JoJo,” she explained. “I wanted to write a song to myself. It’s one of those songs reflecting on the time that we live in, and feeling confused and lost, and not knowing where to put these big emotions.”

Across the complicated themes found on Winona’s reflective title track, her nostalgic ode to a former lover on “Baby Blue,” and today’s latest release, “Jojo,” this young artist isn’t afraid to mix the fear, anger, and sadness that she’s experienced as a woman in music with an equally unshakeable sense of self-confidence. “We are so powerful,” she said. “We can create an entire life. Women’s bodies are so powerful. We are divine.” If there is a thesis for Island Of The Sun, it is undoubtedly that. Check out the video for “Jojo” above and keep an ear out for more new music coming from Winona as the days get longer.

Island Of The Sun is out 6/10 on Atlantic Records.

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

There has been mass outrage since a draft opinion about the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, the famous 1973 Supreme Court decision that protected a woman’s right to have a safe and legal abortion nationwide, leaked. Some in the music world have offered their thoughts on the situation and now so too has Halsey.

In a lengthy social media post shared last night, Halsey called the decision “one of the most significant events we will witness in our lifetimes” that will “spiral into lethal situations for our entire country” and implored their followers to take action by attending local rallies and donating to pro-abortion organizations and funds.

Halsey’s post concludes, “I cannot stress enough the implications of this moment in history. This is a cruel attack on our fundamental right to choose if and when to have a child. I felt this way before I became a mother and I feel this way even more now after having my son. Pregnancy and having a child is a dangerous and life altering experience. Though one that can be BEAUTIFUL if you are consenting and desiring of it. Everyone deserves the right to choose and the right to make that choice SAFELY. Please take action.”

Read Halsey’s full post below.

“For any of my followers who are hearing about the Supreme Court leaked draft decision to overturn Roe V Wade, this is one of the most significant events we will witness in our lifetimes. This has been confirmed by Judge Roberts and is NOT a hypothetical. The effects of this decision will spiral into lethal situations for our entire country. Most seriously impacting people of color, rural areas and socioeconomically impacted communities. The time to take action is NOW. Many states are armed with trigger bans that will go into immediate effect pending this decision.

Attend a local rally. Make donations to ACLU (aclu.org) and Abortion Funds (abortionfunds.org) or to your local organizations and funds. Educate yourselves on your local legislators.

I know it seems like this conversation is happening constantly and many of us have lived with the mental security that we would never witness the revocation of this right. I know it seems like every time we worry, it’s a false alarm. But it’s not. That security comes from people like YOU, people at ACLU, Planned Parenthood and more who are actively advocating to protect this right.

This is not a false alarm. Again, this is not a hypothetical. And while for the time being, you can STILL access abortion in all 50 states, that will NOT be the case in the summer when this decision is cemented. And many of those who seek abortion out of state will be at risk of persecution as well.

I cannot stress enough the implications of this moment in history. This is a cruel attack on our fundamental right to choose if and when to have a child. I felt this way before I became a mother and I feel this way even more now after having my son.

Pregnancy and having a child is a dangerous and life altering experience. Though one that can be BEAUTIFUL if you are consenting and desiring of it. Everyone deserves the right to choose and the right to make that choice SAFELY. Please take action.

Halsey.”

Howard Stern has a headline-making take on every hot-button topic lately. When he came (armed with profanity) for Joe Rogan’s vaccine skepticism, this ignited a rivalry between Stern’s audience and Rogan’s rabid fanbase. Will there now be a rivalry between Stern followers and the SCOTUSBlog readers? Not likely, although the blog did post Chief Justice John Robert’s disapproving acknowledgement of the leaked memo — revealing that the court is set to overturn Roe V. Wade — and Stern’s tearing into those 5 conservative justices who want to pave the way for states outlawing abortion.

Make no mistake, some states are keen to make this happen. Texas led the extreme way by effectively putting a bounty upon anyone who assists a woman in getting the (medical) procedure, and the Ohio legislature is currently drafting a bill that will likewise eliminate exceptions for rape and incest. Via Mediaite, Stern’s response to this ongoing madness laid out some realities on how women’s bodily autonomy is viewed:

“If guys got raped and pregnant, there’d be abortions available on every corner. Every street corner a different clinic that would take care of the problem. How women would vote for this agenda is beyond me. Who the hell wants to carry a baby that you do not want? And again, the people who carry these babies who don’t want them don’t raise these kids and then we’re stuck with them.”

Stern then declared (from a perspective not unlike that of George Carlin) that pro-Lifers are anything but pro-Life after the child is born. “The people who are anti-abortion, they don’t give to charity, they don’t raise these kids. I don’t know who they think is going to raise them,” he declared. And Stern has an idea on who should raise those children:

“All the unwanted children should be allowed to live at the Supreme Court building with those Justices and they should raise every one of those babies. That crackpot Clarence Thomas and that wife and all of them. They can raise those babies that they want.”

Watching robed justices chasing after toddlers sounds like an SNL skit, but it’s also awfully sobering to think about it at all. The 2016 presidential election results keep on hitting back, even in 2022.

(Via Mediaite)

A Texas pastor is suing Kanye West for using part of one of his sermons without permission, according to TMZ. Bishop David Paul Moten is sampled on the Donda song “Come To Life,” which uses about 70 seconds of the sermon looped throughout the song. Moten’s lawsuit calls the uncleared sample an example of musicians “willfully and egregiously sampling sound recordings of others without consent or permission.” The lawsuit also includes Kanye’s label, G.O.O.D Music, and its parent entities Def Jam Recordings and Universal Music Group. Donda, released in August 2021, sold 309,000 equivalent units, topping the Billboard 200 in its first week.

Kanye was previously sued over a religious sample in 2019. Andrew and Shirley Green, the adoptive parents of a little girl whose prayer is sampled on “Ultralight Beam” from The Life Of Pablo, sued Kanye for pulling the audio from a viral video on social media. Although Kanye reached out to the girl’s biological mother Alice Johnson for permission to use the clip, the Greens, the girl’s legal guardians, said they were never contacted, and that Johnson was never given a written license agreement or payment.

More recently, a music rights company, Declan Colgan Music Ltd., sued Universal over a sample of the band King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man” from the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy single “Power.” DCM said that UMG has been underpaying the agreed-upon 5.33-percent cut from streams.