Category: Viral

The Weeknd opted against holding his tongue on Tuesday night and shared a post to Twitter where he called the Grammy awards “corrupt.” His accusation came after he failed to receive a single nomination in any category for the 2021 Grammys. His tweet also came shortly after TMZ reported that the singer did not get nominated at the award show because he insisted on performing at both the Grammys and the Super Bowl. Hours after The Weeknd’s tweet, The Recording Academy’s interim president/CEO Harvey Mason Jr. put out a statement that Variety shared where he denies The Weeknd’s claims and says he was also “surprised” that the Canadian singer was not nominated.

Congratulations to today’s Grammy nominees, who have earned their peers’ recognition for their incredible work. There were a record number of submissions in this unusual and competitive year. We understand that The Weeknd is disappointed at not being nominated. I was surprised and can empathize with what he’s feeling. His music this year was excellent, and his contributions to the music community and broader world are worthy of everyone’s admiration. We were thrilled when we found out he would be performing at the upcoming Super Bowl and we would have loved to have him also perform on the Grammy stage the weekend before.

Unfortunately, every year, there are fewer nominations than the number of deserving artists. But as the only peer-voted music award, we will continue to recognize and celebrate excellence in music while shining a light on the many amazing artists that make up our global community. To be clear, voting in all categories ended well before The Weeknd’s performance at the Super Bowl was announced, so in no way could it have affected the nomination process.

All Grammy nominees are recognized by the voting body for their excellence, and we congratulate them all.

This is Mason Jr.’s second statement since the Grammy nominations were revealed. Earlier on Tuesday, he addressed some of the biggest snubs from the award show. “The Grammys have shifted in terms of what they value,” he said in his first statement. “Now they seem to value championing newer and less well-known artists over reinforcing things that have already been rewarded in the marketplace.”

(via Variety)

The Grammy Awards have been a heated topic of conversation all day, and it even saw a pair of rappers engage in a quick back and forth on Twitter. After Wiz responded to a Twitter user’s comment about Cardi B winning a Grammy before Nicki did, some fans condemned Wiz for pitting the two female rappers against each other. “Cardi wining a Grammy when nicki minaj didn’t is the biggest proof that they don’t know a shit bout music,” the fan said. Wiz replied, “Most self made artists have this problem.” And this caused a big response from Cardi and her fans, but the Pittsburgh native quickly returned to clear things up.

Cardi responded to Wiz tweet saying, “This was N****s in my dms in 2016! They really support you when you grinding at the bottom then it’s a different story when you make it !” Wiz kept things peaceful while looking to clear things up. “Damn that wuz good advice. I still support u,” he replied. “Nothings changed. Your self made in my book as well.” Eventually Khalifa attempted to prevent the situation from worsening, tweeting, “I just don’t want a Cardi/ Wiz war goin on for no reason.”

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

Barack Obama has been enjoying his post-presidential life. As the nation’s first African American president, it’s all but ensured that his life will get the big screen treatment — or even more than it has already. But when that happens (again), Obama knows who he wants to play him.

In a recent interview on 360 With Speedy Morman, Obama was asked if he would give Drake the green light to play him in a film. “I will say this,” he replied. “Drake seems to be able to do anything he wants. That is a talented, talented brother.” He added, “So if the time comes and he’s ready? You know what, Drake has — more importantly, I think — my household’s stamp of approval. I suspect Malia and Sasha would be just fine with it.”

As it happens, Drake has down to play Obama for quite a long time. Back in 2010, he told Paper Magazine, “I hope somebody makes a movie about Obama’s life soon because I could play him.” He added, “I watch all the addresses. Any time I see him on TV, I don’t change the channel. I definitely pay attention and listen to the inflections of his voice. If you ask anyone who knows me, I’m pretty good at impressions.”

(via Complex

November has been a whirlwind for Bogdan Bogdanovic, with the 28-year-old wing linked to a number of potential NBA transactions. Bogdanovic was reportedly part of a botched sign-and-trade with the Milwaukee Bucks but, when that fell apart, the talented perimeter player hit the market with only a small handful of teams wielding significant salary cap space. On Sunday, word broke that Bogdanovic inked a four-year, $72 million offer sheet with the Atlanta Hawks but, with the Sacramento Kings holding the right to match due to restricted free agency, Bogdanovic was still waiting to find out where he would begin the 2020-21 season.

The Kings had until 11:59 pm EST on Tuesday evening to match the offer but, after more than 48 hours of waiting, Bogdanovic will indeed be heading to Atlanta to play alongside Trae Young on an up-and-coming team.

As is the case with many offer sheets, the Hawks made things difficult on the Kings. Bogdanovic will have a fourth-year player option for the 2023-24 season and, in addition, the contract includes a 15 percent trade kicker. Given that he will also make $18 million annually, this is a significant investment for Atlanta, but the Hawks had just enough salary cap space to make it work after adding Danilo Gallinari, Rajon Rondo, and Kris Dunn to the fold.

Bogdanovic doesn’t project as a star in Atlanta and, at 28, he is notably older than most restricted free agents. However, he will be the best wing on the Hawks’ roster upon arrival and, if nothing else, he provides a varied offensive skill set that includes perimeter shooting and on-ball creation. Bogdanovic averaged 15.1 points per game in a supporting role for the Kings last season and, at 6’6 and 220 pounds, he has strong positional size. Atlanta does have talented young wings in Cam Reddish, Kevin Huerter, and De’Andre Hunter but, with an apparent mandate to improve based on their other transactions, the Hawks are setting up to be an interesting threat to crash the playoff party in the Eastern Conference.

For the Kings, this was reportedly a difficult decision, with Bogdanovic coming in at a hefty salary and potentially conflicting with Sacramento’s other pieces.

Still, this is anything but optimal from an asset management perspective for Sacramento. Bogdanovic is a starting-caliber player that walks out the door without any compensation and, considering the Kings had restricted rights, that is a situation that could come back to bite Sacramento in the near future.

Here we go again: Almost two years ago the reboot of Norman Lear’s classic show One Day at a Time was inexplicably dropped by Netflix. There was a happy ending there: It wound up being rescued by Pop TV. Hopefully it’s lucky enough to get another happy ending, because, as per Deadline, it’s been given the axe yet again.

After three seasons on Netflix, Pop TV kept them alive, though their fourth season wound up abbreviated, running only six episodes, due to complications involving the pandemic. But they’ve decided not to greenlight any more episodes, even though, now that Schitt’s Creek’s run has ended, there are no more original scripted series on the ViacomCBS-owned network.

Still, the cast and showrunners remain optimistic about finding yet another home. Creators Gloria Calderón Kellett and Mike Royce both sent out cautiously optimistic tweets, as did Isabella Gomez, who plays the oldest daughter of Justina Machado’s Penelope Francisca del Carmen Riera Inclán Ruiz Maribona de Alvarez.

I’m not sad just yet, y’all,” Kellet wrote, adding, “We still have some hope for new homes. Hang tight, my loves. You know that if I go down, I will go down swinging for this show (& cast & crew) I love.” Royce, meanwhile, said that “Much has changed at Viacom in the last year.” Gomez joked, “Maybe third network’s the charm?”

One Day at a Time adapted the beloved Norman Lear show of the same name, which ran from 1975 through 1984. It was a revolutionary program, focusing on a divorced mother raising her two teenage daughters, at a time when divorce had only recently become a common phenomenon. The reboot added a couple extra spins, most notably making the family Cuban-Americans. What’s more, it gave Oscar-winning actress, dancer, singer, and all-around bada*s Rita Moreno a semi-regular place to rage. May she, and her show, and her colleagues, rage for another season or two, or three, or five, or even more.

(Via Deadline)

A lot of good news came out of the 2020 national elections. Joe Biden won, defeating possibly the most hated president in U.S. history, for one thing. (There was also, of course, a fair amount of not good news, like Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham conquering their opponents, but let’s focus on the positive for now.) One of the smaller big victories was this: Delaware elected America’s first trans senator, one Sarah McBride. It was a beautiful win, and it will hopefully show trans youth — who are routinely bullied and demonized and worse — that there’s hope for them, too.

But of course, with a bigger profile means a bigger pool of anti-trans bigots to deal with. On Monday, one of them slid into her DMs, attempting to taunt her. But McBride wasn’t having it.

“I’m confused, are you a boy or a girl?” the person sneeringly asked in a private Twitter message. To which McBride replied, simply, “I’m a senator.” She then screengrabbed the exchange and posted it on public Twitter, along with the message, “Hope that clears things up.”

Before she assumes office in January, McBride will continue her gig as the National Press Secretary of the Human Rights Campaign, and she was one of the major authors of legislation banning discrimination based on gender identity in her home state. She was also, back in 2016, the first trans person to speak at the Democratic National Convention. Clearly she’s ready to do some fighting when she gets to the big house. In the meantime, LGBTQ+ teens have a reason to have hope.

(Via BuzzFeed)

Hannibal, NBC’s improbably nasty and semi-gory Hannibal Lecter series, is one of the great prematurely cancelled shows of the modern era, maybe not right alongside Freaks and Geeks and Deadwood but not far below. And like most unfairly axed shows, there’s always the chance it could be revived. Show creator Bryan Fuller has long kept hope for a fourth season alive, and so has star Mads Mikkelsen, who is promising something big should the show ever return.

In a new interview with IndieWire, the Danish actor — promoting his new film, the drinking drama , which reunites him with The Hunt director Thomas Vinterberg — promised that if Season 4 does happen, they’ll tackle the most famous Lecter story of them all.

“I don’t think it’s a secret that if it does happen, we would love to go into Silence of the Lambs,” Mikkelsen said. He continued:

“That’s always been an issue because they didn’t have the rights for that book. But that’s obviously the most famous part and we’d love to go in there. We’d obviously switch it around a little and do all kinds of crazy stuff with it. That story is so interesting and the characters in it are as interesting. We’d switch around the genders and maybe even put two characters into one. We would love to find someone to play Buffalo Bill. That’s going to be tough. We found a Hannibal, so it’s possible.”

Mikkelsen then went further, suggesting who should play serial killer Buffalo Bill — and it’s actually someone who’s been on the show before, playing another villainous character. He wants Michael Pitt, who played wealthy reprobate Mason Verger in Season 2, but was replaced by Joe Anderson in Season 3. “We already used Michael Pitt for Mason and that was fantastic,” Mikkelsen said. “If he wasn’t playing Mason I’d love to see him as Buffalo Bill.” Then again, they’d have to find another Clarice Starling.

Of course, right now Mikkelsen is a little busy. He’s the one who replaced Johnny Depp as Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts threequel. But if NBC or whoever greenlights Hannibal Season 4 now, he might be ready to do some socially distanced shooting in a few months.

(Via IndieWire)

One of the biggest disappointments in the 2021 Grammy Award nominations comes from The Weeknd’s lack of nominations in any category. The snub left fans shocked and disappointed at the Recording Academy’s voting process and the fan’s detailed their frustration to the point that the Academy’s interim president/CEO Harvey Mason Jr. responded to the nominations snubs.

However, there seems to be more to the story as The Weeknd set out a tweet on Tuesday night that said, “The Grammys remain corrupt. You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency.”

According to a TMZ report, the snub may have actually happened because the singer choose to perform at the Super Bowl instead of the award show.

This post is currently being updated.

Earlier today, the Recording Academy unveiled their nominations for their 2021 Grammy Awards, and as per usual, people had a lot to say about whose names were called. One of the biggest surprise snubs came in the Best Rap Album category, with a large number of people disappointed that Lil Baby’s My Turn failed to get nominated. One particularly angry person was Quality Control’s CEO Pierre Thomas, who took to Twitter to express his frustrations with the award show’s My Turn snub.

“Whoever making the decisions at the Grammys ‘You all disconnected like a mf’ you don’t speak for our culture,” Thomas wrote on Twitter. “Congrats to all the nominees. #MyTurnAlbumOfTheYear.”

The Grammys have never been on the good side of hip-hop fans, so another year of anger in the hip-hop is certainly not out of the ordinary. Still, many thought Lil Baby’s album would be a shoo-in for the Best Rap Album category, as it continues to be celebrated throughout the rap community. It was also the first album to reach double-platinum status this year, leading many to assume it would be a shoo-in. Unfortunately, the Grammys thought differently.

At least Lil Baby has good company: People felt The Weeknd was snubbed but, unlike Lil Baby, who was at least nominated for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance, he got nada.

When Andrew Rea started his YouTube channel — based around his flagship show, Binging with Babish — back in February of 2016, there’s no way he could have known the heights he’d reach. Rea’s show started out with the Frasier theme song, covers of iconic dishes from TV and movies, and a real sense of accessibility that’s often absent from mainstream cooking shows.

Fast forward four years and Rea has the “Babish Culinary Universe” — with multiple shows on YouTube. He has cookbooks. He has 8.23 million subscribers. And he ready to push his brand beyond his own name and personality.

Last month, the Babish Culinary Universe launched its newest show, Stump Sohla, starring Sohla El-Waylly. Chef El-Waylly is widely known for her beloved videos from the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen and her role in helping expose racial discrimination at Condé Nast. After she left BA over pay disparities allegedly based on race and gender, Babish reached out to her and the rest is history.

This month, Rea and El-Waylly teamed up with Blue Moon to create a Thanksgiving Live Stream to help all of us cook a better fall feast. More specifically, the duo teamed up to figure out Thanksgiving recipes that pair well with beer — very much in the wheelhouse of things we love. With the live stream currently up, we jumped on a call with Rea and El-Waylly to talk about their process, making food content during a pandemic, and what this holiday (and its complicated legacy) means to them.

Let’s get into it!

What’s your favorite food memory of Thanksgiving?

Sohla: When my husband and I first moved to New York, we didn’t know many people in the city. But we were lucky enough to both have the night off and were determined to have a gathering. We invited everyone and anyone who crossed our paths — from the bartender we met once to other line cooks we had never spoken to. We didn’t expect anyone to come by, but everyone did. Crammed in our little studio, these strangers became family for a day, and ever since it’s been a reminder of how gathering around food can bring people together.

Andrew: My favorite Thanksgiving memory would probably be the special plate my mom got me. As a child, I was adamant that my food not touch: a tall order for a meal like Thanksgiving. My mom searched far and wide, in the days before the internet no less, for a compartmentalized plate that would match her blue willow china. Finally, she found one and, at long last, I was able to keep my turkey and potatoes from touching.

Nowadays, I just mix everything up into a mushy pile like everyone else. But every Thanksgiving, I remember my mother’s kindness in catering to my peculiarities.

Let’s take a step back for a second. Can you tell us what was the impetus for you bringing Sohla onboard?

Andrew: The impetus for that, really, was Sohla becoming available. I have wanted to expand the channel for a long time, for years even. And we didn’t want to do it until we knew we could bring somebody on board that could carry with them the core competencies as a brand that we’ve tried to build, which is one of encouragement and being as informational as we are entertaining. And Sohla is all of those things. So as soon as we had the opportunity to work with her, as soon as the idea crossed my mind, I DM-ed her on Instagram and we were getting coffee in like the next day or two.

The one good thing about being small is that we’re spry. So it went from idea to concept to execution in a matter of weeks to a month or so.

I don’t want to get into the whole Rappaport thing, that’s been covered a million times, but did you feel like you were looking for a new home when Andrew DM-ed you, or were you just in a holding pattern?

Sohla: I wasn’t really looking for anything. I was just having really bad meetings and contract negotiations with Condé Nast. And then I was like, “You know what, maybe this is a good opportunity to just stop this.” So I didn’t really have any plans. So when this opportunity came around, I was like, “Yeah, why not? It’s not going to be worse than this.”

Stump Sohla has a different vibe than the shows with Andrew yet very much in the same wheelhouse. Did it feel like a natural progression to do a special about Thanksgiving?

Andrew: Well, we had the opportunity to partner with Blue Moon. The more that we talked about it, the more we realized that it was an essential thing to do for the channel. Everybody’s stuck where they are and not able to see the people they love the way they normally do this time of year. So to be able to give a place for everybody not only to learn a few things but to hang out and have a beer, it’s something we’re really excited about.

Mostly because we just get to cook and drink beer on camera. That we get paid to do this is, frankly, a miracle.

Sohla: Yeah. I think it’s going to be really fun. I think people will enjoy just seeing us have fun together because the holidays are going to be a little bit different. The recipes that we’re going to be demo-ing are a little bit different. I think they’re really fun.

I feel like they have a little bit of a sense of humor. And I hope that people just enjoy watching it.

How was the recipe development different on the Thanksgiving episode compared to your average episode?

Sohla: We wanted to make sure these are dependable recipes that people can make. So we did a lot of testing. There’s a culinary producer, her name’s Kendall. She’s fantastic. I usually recipe develop alone, so it was really fun being able to work with her.

So how does that process work?

Sohla: I’d give her a recipe, she’d test it and give me notes, and then I’d try it again. And then we just did this back and forth thing until we came up with something that we felt was going to be easy and delicious and offer something fun and new to people.

Andrew, have you had a similar process now in developing new recipes now that Kendall’s around? Or are you still down in the trenches on your own?

Andrew: Well, like I was saying about why we brought Sohla on board is because she very much identifies with our corporate culture, which is, “show your mistakes.” So I too do not do much recipe development. If I mess up, I want to catch it on camera so I not only can look silly but also show you at home what not to do. I can make the mistakes so you don’t have to. I am, however, vigorously testing today because the upcoming episode of Stump Sohla is a bake-off between her and me.

And she’s going to wipe the floor with me.

Sohla: No, I’m not.

Andrew: So I’m doing my best to get a little practice in because we’re talking about someone who went to CIA [the Culinary Institute of America].

Sohla: But to level the playing field, I’m not practicing at all.

Andrew: Thank you. I just made a batch of my cookies, trying to mold it into the thing, and it’s spot welded to the mold. So that’s the main thing that I’m trying to figure out right now. Normally, I do not do any recipe testing, but I’m not trying to go into this thing naked.

What did you draw from your own experiences of Thanksgiving and what did you draw from 2020 and everyday life now to create this menu?

Andrew: Well, the menu was largely inspired by the flavors of the beer. And as such, since we wanted to capture citrus, coriander, the other flavors in the beer, it led us to the Southwest. A place that I can confidently say neither of us are from and a place that I can say I’ve never even been to. So we’re looking forward to giving it a shot.

But Sohla, this was largely your idea. You can speak to this better than I can.

Sohla: Well, actually, when we were working on the Thanksgiving episode that just aired this weekend, Jess, Andrew’s girlfriend, was talking about corn casserole, which is something I’ve never had before. It’s her favorite Thanksgiving dish where they mix a can of creamed corn with a Jiffy Cornbread. And there’s sour cream. There’s lots of stuff in it. So the corn spoonbread was kind of inspired by that. It’s going to be our stand-in for stuffing kind of thing. But it’s much lighter than stuffing. It’s also gluten-free, which I think it’s really important to meet a lot of dietary restrictions these days.

So I think it was slightly inspired by that cornbread casserole, but then we took it to the Southwest because we really wanted it to match the bright citrusy flavors of the beer. And then we were just all in a basement together talking about it and it turned into what it turned into. That’s why it’s really fun brainstorming with everyone.

Andrew: I was just saying there are no rules around these parts. So for recipe development, it can just start as a silly conversation and we can get some really wild ideas. And we can sort of whittle it down to something that makes us happy and will make the viewers happy.

So you did a great thing a couple of episodes back where you did a walkthrough of the new space and we saw that you each have your own kitchen now. Can you tell us how you guys go through recipe development for Stump Sohla?

Sohla: So for Stump Sohla, I prefer not to develop. I prefer to do it all on camera. So if I fail, you get to see that and we can all enjoy my failure together. So the stuff for Stump Sohla is all pretty spontaneous, which is why sometimes the shoots can be a couple of days, depending on if something goes wrong.

It’s really hard to plan things for that because I’m doing a lot of stuff that I’ve never done before.

People being stuck in means there’s a lot more YouTube watching. Have you noticed people have been more engaged with the whole Babish Culinary Universe, especially now that you’ve brought on Sohla? And how has that changed the way you work?

Andrew: Everybody’s watching a lot of YouTube nowadays. So yes, we have viewership growth, subscriber growth, larger engagement. I always was very, very fortunate to have a very engaged audience, no matter what was going on in the world. So people being stuck at home and having to figure out new things to watch has brought in new viewers. And now we’re just lucky enough to be able to continue chugging and functioning in this strange new world. So that’s why we’re just cranking out content like never before because we’re very lucky to have this opportunity to do so.

How are you guys looking to continue pushing the envelope for the future of the channel?

Sohla: We’re just going to keep going. We have a bunch of new ideas for season two. And what has happened with season one is we’ll go in with something really simple, there’s an upcoming episode where the wheel ended on sad and birthday. So… it’s sad birthday meals.

It started out with me making a cake and then it turned into something crazy. So we don’t really thoroughly plan stuff. Because if it is a small theme, we can just have a really cool idea in the moment and then just roll with it. So I guess we’re just going to keep going. We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing. I feel like we’re all gelling more and more and getting to know each other better and that’s making the shoots get more creative and the content is getting cooler.

Andrew: Outside of Stump Sohla, which we’re very excited to get into season two, which is hilarious that we’ve called it season two because this is YouTube. But yeah, we’re just going to keep going. Might take a little break, but it’s not like we’re going to wait a year like a television show.

Apart from that, we also have new personalities that we’re pursuing to create content with. Can’t say exactly who just yet, but we’re working with another popular YouTube personality right now to establish the visual identity of their show. It’s going to be a really colorful, really culturally focused show. I’m trying to be as vague as I can. But that should be premiering hopefully later this year, if not early next year.

So we are going to continue adding names to the roster.