With the 30th anniversary coming up in September, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air cast reunited on Will Smith’s Snapchat show, Will From Home. In (virtual) attendance was Smith (he’s the titular Will, and he’s at home… it’s a complex premise), Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton Banks), DJ Jazzy Jeff (Jazz), Tatyana Ali (Ashley Banks), Karyn Parsons (Hilary Banks), Daphne Maxwell Reid (Aunt Vivian), and Joseph Marcell (Geoffrey). The great James Avery passed away in 2013, but the reunion will include a tribute to Uncle Phil.
In the clip below, Smith teases Ribeiro for coming up with his character’s name:
“The reason that my character’s name is Will Smith is because of you, do you remember that? It was such a deep insight that you had. You said, ‘Because people are going to call you that for the rest of your life!’”
Sadly, calling Will Smith “Willenium Smith” did not catch on.
Smith also asked his co-stars how they felt about being recognized by The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air fans, with DJ Jazzy Jeff admitting that he was annoyed when people would ask him to do his and Will’s handshake. “You would see in people’s eyes when they were about to sneak the handshake and I would just grab their hand and hold it,” he said.
The Will From Home finale is airing in two parts: part one is out now (and available here), while part two will premiere on Thursday, April 30, at 6 a.m. EST.
It’s hard to promote an album these days with the world being how it is at the moment. Still, Selena Gomez has found a way: Today, she has shared a new version of her recent “Boyfriend” video, except it has been carefully re-created with dolls instead of people.
Gomez herself didn’t actually sit down, meticulously reposition dolls and other props, and make this video frame by frame, though. Instead, she turned to somebody with more experience in that arena: a Instagrammer/YouTuber who goes by “Selena Gomez Doll.” Good news for folks who like this “Boyfriend” video: over the past few years, Gomez Doll has also re-created other Gomez videos in the same fashion.
The person behind the Gomez Doll account was certainly thrilled when they discovered that the real Gomez followed them on Instagram, writing last month, “I cannot believe that Selena actually followed me!! i woke up and saw a message that said selena followed me and i was so confused.. i can’t believe it was actually true!!! i can’t believe my idol actually followed me!! i’m still shaking, this was so unexpected!! i’ve been a hardcore selenator since 2012 and i’ve been making stop motions on youtube and pictures on this account for almost 6 years, never did i think that selena would actually follow me!! i’m so happy right now ahhhhhhhhhh!!! this honestly feels like a dream come true!!”
Watch the “Boyfriend” video above, and check out some other re-made videos from Selena Gomez Doll below.
Hulu is on a roll with it’s animation offerings. After dropping a trailer for Solar Opposites, the latest animated series from Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland, Hulu is back with a peak at its latest original: Crossing Swords.
In case you couldn’t tell from the stop-motion aesthetic, Crossing Swords is the newest brain-child from Robot Chicken creators John Harvatine IV and Tom Root that focuses on a young man’s journey to become a knight in a noticeably raunchy medieval kingdom. Whether the show is a deliberate riff on Game of Thrones isn’t known, but it definitely has that flavor to it with its horny, power mad queen, dragons, and a whole bunch of gratuitous violence and nudity.
From the synopsis:
Crossing Swords stars Nicholas Hoult as Patrick, a good hearted peasant who lands a coveted squire position at the royal castle. However, his dream job quickly turns into a nightmare when he learns his beloved kingdom is run by a hornet’s nest of horny monarchs, crooks and charlatans. Even worse, Patrick’s valor made him the black sheep in his family, and now his criminal siblings have returned to make his life hell. War, murder, full frontal nudity—who knew brightly colored peg people led such exciting lives?
In addition to Hoult, the stop-motion comedy series boasts an impressive voice cast that includes Tony Hale, Luke Evans, Adam Pally, Seth Green, Tara Strong, Yvette-Nicole Brown, Wendi McClendon-Covey, Maya Erskine, Breckin Meyer, and more.
A full season of Crossing Swords will be available for streaming on June 12.
American single malt whiskey might be the next big thing to hit the American whiskey scene. Whereas bourbons and ryes have mash bills (grain recipes) with two, three, and sometimes four or more grains and cereals, American single malt has only one grain. Malted barley is the star of the show.
There’s little to no place to hide when you only have one grain to work with. That means American single malts — like Scotch or Japanese single malts — have a certain clarity of focus by design. It also means that we’re dealing with a very different flavor profile than your average bourbon or rye, since there’s no corn, wheat, or rye at play. To create distinct expressions, American single malt distillers often experiment with aging and barrel types, evident when you compare their bottles to common bourbons and ryes, which both have fairly strict aging rules.
The ten whiskeys below will introduce you to American single malts in a major way. These are the bottles that’ll help you elevate your whiskey game and expand your palate. You can also get any of these bottles delivered right now, just in time for another weekend in quarantine.
Virginia Distillery Port Cask Finished Virginia-Highland Whisky
ABV: 46% Distillery: Virginia Distillery, Lovingston, VA Average Price:$36.97
The Whisky:
Okay, we’re already cheating a little with this choice. While this is made from 100 percent malted barley, it’s made from a Scotch single malt and a Virginia single malt. This is technically a blend of two single malts to create one whiskey that’s then finished off in port casks from a port winery in Virginia.
Tasting Notes:
Apple orchards, ripe figs, and fresh honey lead the way here. Sweet and crisp apples play next to dark chocolate cut with powdery cinnamon and clove as hints of oak and smoke linger in the background. An almost rummy sense of brown sugar peeks in late as the warmth, oak, and figgy nature of the sip fades slowly away.
Kings County Distillery Single Malt
ABV: 47% Distillery: Kings County Distillery, Brooklyn, NY Average Price:$45.99 (half bottle)
The Whisky:
This is an American single malt made in Brooklyn by way of Scotland. The spirit is made in New York from malts acquired from England and Scotland. Scottish pot stills are employed for the double distillation. Then the hot juice goes into Kings County’s own ex-bourbon barrels for up to four years.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a sense of fruit and dried flowers on a dry edge, cut with honey. That honey carries through and dried orange zest mixes with dried straw and an echo of peaty smoke. The malts shift toward creamy as the honey, earthiness, and light oaky touches take center stage before the dry, slightly medicinal final notes.
Old Line Single Malt American Whiskey
ABV: 43% Distillery: Old Line Distillery, Baltimore, MD Average Price:$51.99
The Whiskey:
This whiskey is a bit of West Coast meets East Coast. The Maryland-made tipple has a base of malted barley grown all the way out Pacific Northwest. The juice is then aged in small-format 10-gallon charred new white oak casks. The smaller casks mean shorter aging times, so this expression only spends two years mellowing.
Tasting Notes:
Those malts come through with a sense of oaky char and plenty of fruit. Honey is present and mixes well with the vanilla. There’s a slight wisp of smoke and a hint of spice on the malty and full finish.
Del Bac Dorado Mesquite Smoked Single Malt Whiskey
ABV: 45% Distillery: Whiskey Del Bac, Tucson, AZ Average Price:$58.23
The Whiskey:
Usually, Scotch single malt uses malted barley made with peat. This small, family-run distillery out in Arizona changes that up by using locally grown mesquite wood to malt their barley. It’s a great way to really imbue a local flavor into single malt. The copper pot distilled juice is then aged in white oak barrels under the Arizona sun.
Tasting Notes:
It should come as no surprise but tobacco smoke is front-and-center with a hint of dark chocolate cut with spicy chili. The smokiness turns those chilis towards chipotle with the chocolate bitterness fading as a burnt sugar note sails in alongside a clear billow of campfire smoke.
All that smoke, spice, and vegetal nature fade slowly like the coals dying down at the end of a spring evening.
Deerhammer American Single Malt Whiskey
ABV: 59.9% Distillery: Deerhammer Distillery, Buena Vista, CO Average Price:$53.99
The Whiskey:
This is a grain-to-glass distillery that takes their whiskey-making very seriously. This expression is made from a mash fermented via open air for days and is then distilled in direct-fire copper pot stills. The juice then goes into charred new white oak and is aged at the base of the Rocky Mountains for at least two years.
Tasting Notes:
Dark, spicy chocolate bars dipped in fresh honey greet you. That bitter chocolate carries on with the spice as a sense of caramel and sweetened coffee come into play. Oak, grassy bales of hay, and rich toffee take hold on the long, warming end.
Copperworks American Single Malt Whiskey
ABV: 52% Distillery: Copperworks Distilling Company, Seattle, WA Average Price:$64.99
The Whiskey:
Seattle’s award-winning waterfront distillery has its roots in craft beer. Co-founder Jason Parker has brewed beer for Seattle craft icons Pike Brewing (he was their head brewer), Fish Brewing, Redhook, and Pyramid. In fact, Copperworks’ entire ethos for making whiskey is based on its craft-beer heritage. It’s a good ethos, as Copperworks is now a multiple award-winning craft distiller.
Tasting Notes:
Bales of hay next to freshly broken honeycombs mingle with notes of sherry plum and a hint of roasted nuts. A dried fruit nature takes over with malts covered in treacle with a whisper of orange Necco Wafers. A sourdough malted bread loaf baked with pecans kicks in late as the sip ends on a warm-yet-sweet final note.
Balcones Texas Single Malt Whisky
ABV: 53% Distillery: Balcones Distillery, Waco, TX Average Price:$69.99
The Whisky:
This Texas whisky does things a little differently. The mash bill is made from 100 percent unpeated barley, giving the mash a very clean line of malts. The juice is then aged in various sized barrels in the Balcones rickhouse, on various floors. Once the right notes are hit, the whisky is then blended and aged in single large-format barrels for a finishing touch.
Tasting Notes:
A fruit bowl brimming with bananas, pears, and peaches mingle with light notes of rose water cut with citrus oils and honey. The sip turns towards a toasted sourdough slice with plenty of butter and a dollop of orange marmalade. That toast fades as the oak rises to the fore — along with burnt sugar, malty earthiness, and a lingering sense of citric acid.
FEW Single Malt Whisky
ABV: 46.5% Distillery: FEW Spritis, Evanston, IL Average Price:$69.99
The Whisky:
FEW also brings their own flourish to the single malt game. They use both smoked and unsmoked barley, using cherry for smoking. This is also a grain-to-glass distilling experience so all the barley is sourced with 100 miles of the distillery.
Tasting Notes:
Marzipan and a wisp of smoke open this one up. There’s a clear sense of grainy malts next to mild notes of spice and fruit with an echo of herbal oils. The oak is more reminiscent of a lumberyard as more hints of fruit with vanilla enter the mix near the sweet-yet-mild finish.
Stranahan’s Sherry Cask Single Malt Whiskey
ABV: 47% Distillery: Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey, Denver, CO Average Price:$80.82
The Whiskey:
This one is all about the finish. Stranahan’s takes their 100 percent malted barley that’s been aged for four years and transfers it to special sherry casks. They source 500-liter (i.e. huge) casks from Andalusia in Spain. They specifically choose casks that have been aging sherry for up to 40 years.
Tasting Notes:
Freshly threshed straw mingles with ripe cherries and tart apples alongside a note of leather. The cherry carries through with nice hits of walnuts, figs, tart red berries, and a honey sweetness that’s cut by a slight salinity. On the palate, the dram hits notes of a creamy and buttery pudding filled with all that fruit, counterpointed by a slash of chili spice on the quick finish.
Westward American Single Malt Stout Cask
ABV: 45% Distillery: Westward Whiskey, Portland, OR Average Price:$95.00
The Whiskey:
Westward starts its distilling process in true Pacific Northwest fashion by using craft beer techniques in the mash to make their base American single malt. After four years of aging, that expression is moved into barrels that have been seasoned with stouts from a long-list of Oregon’s craft brewers. The whiskey spends another year in those barrels, giving the single malt a clear line of brewery-focused whiskey throughout.
Tasting Notes:
Orange zest, Christmas spices, toasted oak, and rich dark chocolate come through upfront. The sip really embraces the dark chocolate notes as burnt sugar sits next to vanilla, dried orange, and slight roasted almond flavor. The dark chocolate hits a bitterness note — balanced by the oak and spices — which carry the vanilla and sweetness to a long and warming finish.
Brooklyn rapper Kota The Friend may seem atypical compared to the average person’s idea of a hip-hop star. For one thing, he says his ultimate goal is to help other artists surpass him — an ostensible no-no in the hypercompetitive world of rap. But Kota didn’t join the game to be on top — instead, he wants only to make music to encourage others to pursue their own dreams, hyping them up all the way and living up to his genial sobriquet.
Kota’s seemingly counterintuitive approach has endeared him to rap fans of all stripes though, as he grew his audience from the low thousands to garnering millions of streams on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube in the few short years that he’s been active. His 2019 full-length Foto was a critical favorite, proving as well that hip-hop still has a niche for low-key personal music in a time where it can feel like everything needs to be supersized just to get noticed.
The amiable rapper followed up his shining moment in 2020 with an EP titled Lyrics To Go, Vol. 1, displaying his lyrical prowess in a series of one-minute, freeform verses. He plans to follow that with another full-length, Everything, dropping on May 8 and featuring appearances from fellow New York breakouts Bas and Joey Badass, as well as Chicago upstart Tobi Lou.
Over the phone with Uproxx, Kota turned out to be as approachable as his name suggests as he broke down the albums features, being vulnerable in his music, and being okay with having “fame, not clout.”
How have you been keeping busy during quarantine? What have you been up to?
Honestly, during this quarantine I’ve been tightening a lot of loose ends that I’ve been letting off because I’ve been working on an album. I’ve been trying to make time for my son and right now, I’m doing pretty much simple stuff — getting my health insurance in order and now that the album is pretty much wrapped up, getting my life together so I can roll out the album the right way and in a very peaceful way.
Right. Adulting is hard when you actually have stuff to do, but then when you have time to slow it down, you can just catch up on all those little things. So, talk to me about this new project, Everything. What have you been working on? What is the difference between this one and Foto?
I wasn’t even going to make an album this year and out of nowhere, I just made a good song. And it always starts like that with me — I make a song that inspires me to keep going in that direction and creating a project. I think the difference between this one and Foto is that this one is just a lot more up tempo. It has a lot more bops than Foto does.
One thing I wanted to focus on with this one is, I wanted to make it just a really feel-good album. I didn’t want one song to be a downer. I wanted every song be uplifting and just really get people hyped and get people in a good mood or feel a really good version of nostalgia. So, I think this one is definitely more positive then Foto and less heavy but still meaningful and it still represents who I am.
The title is Everything, which you said is “less heavy,” but that’s heavy. What inspired the title and what does that mean to you, and what do you think it’ll mean to the average listener?
When I was in college, I was in a little hip-hop trio and I named the first album Anything. I named the second album that we did Everything. So, it’s not only bringing it back because I feel those are just great ideas for names for albums, but Everything is really, “Yo what means everything to you? What does having everything mean to you? What does it mean to have everything?” So, right back to me just making a really positive album, I wanted to make a project that was about manifestation and manifesting the things that you want as an individual and only speaking good things.
Because as an artist, when you’re really speaking your truth, your words are powerful and you bring a lot of stuff that you talk about in the music, it actually comes true and it comes to life. So this album, I’m pretty much talking about all the things that I want, what means everything to me, what’s important to me, and what I put before everything else. We have other people on the album — fans, actors, and artists — just talking about what means everything to them on the interludes.
That’s fire. That makes me do some thinking. How have you manifested this position in hip hop? Because you do occupy a very interesting space. You aren’t a major label artist but at the same time, you really built a following and a movement and people are really checking for you. How did you manifest that and what does that position mean to you?
It means a lot to me because I think one thing that I represent to a lot of people is freedom, to do what you want and to say what you want and just to do what makes you happy. I manifested this by just working hard and keeping my head down and staying on the grind. This is one of the things that means everything to me. I used to write about being where I’m at and traveling the world and touring.
Coming back to the concept of the album, “what means everything to you?” That’s a daunting concept to try and be that vulnerable and that honest. What are some of the challenges that come from trying to express such a complex idea and what are some of its rewards?
Everybody I asked the question to, they’re taken aback by the question. Like you were saying, it’s a heavy question, but I feel, once people get to answering, everybody’s answers are very similar. Once people actually think about it, everybody has a similar answer, which is, “My family or my friends or I want to travel, I want to get to know other cultures and I want to understand people.”
I think that, especially in times like this where there’s rich, poor, middle class, whatever, everybody values similar things. I think it doesn’t really have any challenges when once you think about it for a little bit. But at first, I feel like people are taken aback.
This album also has some interesting guests. You have Bas, Tobi Lou, Joey Badass — those are names that I’m personally a huge fan of. How do you navigate these relationships within hip-hop when you’re doing it on an independent level, as opposed to you have an A&R who can reach out and plug you in? Do you ever run into resistance or is it just a natural process?
It’s a very natural process for me, but there are people that I wanted on the album that may not be able to get on it. Whenever I’m making a project, I want to get people on it that I’m a fan of. It’s not always about getting a big name or anything like that. On my last album, Saba was the only rap feature, period. He was the only one. I did that for a reason: Because he is one of the most talented writers that is rapping right now. So I wanted him because his pen game was just that strong and I wanted him on that track.
But this one, it’s just everybody that I know. It’s people that I know, people that I’ve met, I met Bas in Vegas. Joey, he’s from Brooklyn, so I used to see him on the train. I’m just a big fan of Tobi Lou. I’ve always spoken highly of him and we met over the internet and have gotten cool. I try to keep all my relationships just regular. If somebody can’t do the album, then that’s cool too. It’s all love.
Earlier this year, you dropped a project called Lyrics To Go, which is not only the name of one of my favorite Tribe Called Quest songs, it’s an incredible concept. What led to the recording of Lyrics To Go and why did you feel it was so important to put out something between these two more fleshed-out projects?
I was like, “Yo I want to put out something before I put out the album,” because I wanted to put out a ton of music. That’s all I knew that I wanted to do in this year. I actually used that name to create a video series on YouTube that I would just do for my fans. I would put it on YouTube, I put it on Instagram, and it was just something I did when I had no fans.
I just stood still and I rapped a verse over any beat, over a popular beat or a YouTube beat. I would do a one minute verse and those started going viral and that’s how I gained momentum and that’s how I picked up fans. So a lot of my day-one fans know me for “Lyrics To Go,” the video series that I used to do. All along, people were like, “Yo, you need to put out an album or a project with just Lyrics To Go’s on it.” That was the perfect time in between projects to just drop that for the people.
Do you ever have moments where it just hits you that, “Oh sh*t, I’m famous,” or do you feel you’re not famous yet? If not, then what gauge do you use to determine whether or not you’ve become famous, whether or not you’ve made it?
I look at fame like, “Drake is famous.” I remember, he just said it in one of his new songs, he said, “This is fame, not clout.” For a minute I looked at that and I was like, “Yo, that makes sense. Fame and clout is different.” So I would say I’m popular and people know about me and people like the music, but I do have those moments where I’m like, “Wow, people actually know who I am.”
If I posted a picture and 40,000 people like it, you sit down and think about what 40,000 people actually is. It’s a lot of people and so it’s definitely, I don’t think I ever want to get that much more famous than I am right now. I think at this point I just want to make music and then fade into the background and help other people do what they got to do and get to the point where I’m at and beyond me.
When you drop this album, what is the ideal outcome for you?
Whenever I drop an album, I try hard not to have any expectations. Right now, I just want it to be heard. You never know how people are going to take it. I would hate to go into something thinking that, “Yo, this is a home run,” and then nobody’s fucking with it, so I just go into it like, “Yo, I made this project and I really put my all into it. I put everything I had into making this album. I made so many calls, so many late nights, overnights working on beats, I produced the whole album. I recorded myself the whole time. I tried to get the best engineer, I invested money into it, so much money and just to make sure it’s good.”
At this point, I’m just going to give it to the people and whatever they say is what they say. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I just hope that people listen to it, digest it, and just appreciate that I made an album.
English says that after The Vaudevillains ended and he brought back his Drama King character, he was paired up with Rusev “by pure circumstance.” He was supposed to sing the Bulgarian national anthem at the first Rusev Day segment in which Rusev was given an award from his hometown and attacked by Randy Orton. English explains that “as far as I know” that segment was all Rusev Day was supposed to be, “but we got such a good response in the arena and on social and everything that they were like, ‘Let’s do something next week.’”
The act’s popularity grew and “by Survivor Series two months later, there were people in every building chanting ‘Rusev Day’ and then the rest is literally history. It was so organic, man… People just loved the idea of celebrating something every single day.”
But English says it wasn’t just the idea of a daily holiday that hooked fans:
What I truly, truly believe is what resonated with people as ridiculous as some of that stuff was… at the end of the day, to really, really look at it, here you had this character Rusev who for the longest time was the Bulgarian Brute. He’s the big foreign bad guy. He comes out and beats you up. And it worked. He had a tank entrance for WrestleMania with John Cena. That’s pretty good. But he’s always just been kind of a big, brute-y bad guy. I mean, he is such a fun-loving, goofy, funny dude.
Rusev saw the chance to be himself on WWE TV and took it, and English says he put more of his own personality in the act too. “All those backstages, we pretty much took what they wrote for us and threw it out,” he says. “So I think people saw these two characters who were for a long time kind of in these boxes all of a sudden get a chance to just play and experiment and be themselves… People saw that, and I think that’s what resonated.”
DaBaby tests out the free market in his latest video from Blame It On Baby. Borrowing cues from the colorful lyrics of his song “Can’t Stop,” DaBaby’s latest hilarious video finds him setting up shop with his son to sell overpriced lemonade ($500 a cup) and mix up some chocolate pudding with his daughter. The Charlotte rapper links up again with Reel Goats, who have become his unofficial official videographers, contributing to his videos for “Jump” with Youngboy Never Broke Again, “Find My Way,” and more.
While the fan reaction to his new album was less than enthusiastic, that didn’t stop DaBaby from replacing The Weeknd on the top of the Billboard albums chart after a strong first week thanks to the buzz remaining from DaBaby’s first two albums, Baby On Baby and Kirk, as well as one weird trick that has propelled a whole peck of songs to the top of the Hot 100 chart (which, in turn, helps the album chart higher as well, thanks to streams counting toward equivalent units).
2020 is playing out in ways that no one would have guessed, and few people could have anticipated a major movie-business fight breaking out over Trolls World Tour. That’s the case, however, after Universal Pictures released the children’s film as a $20 on-demand rental, and parents hopped all over that business because pandemic entertainment is no joke. This led to over $100 million rolling in over the course of three weeks (and surely, more to come) for this movie, and that upset the AMC theater chain, which would have preferred for Universal to hang tight until movies could play in theaters again. And so, AMC made the public declaration that they’d no longer screen Universal movies after what it called a “unilateral” decision from the studio.
Following the banning declaration, Universal has now issued a lengthy response that defends the Trolls World Tour decision as the right move and stresses their desire to protect its own employees and provide entertainment to those who are in quarantine:
“Our goal in releasing Trolls: World Tour on PVOD was to deliver entertainment to people who are sheltering at home, while movie theatres and other forms of outside entertainment are unavailable. Based on the enthusiastic response to the film, we believe we made the right move. In fact, given the choice of not releasing Trolls: World Tour, which would not only have prevented consumers from experiencing the movie but also negatively impacted our partners and employees, the decision was clear. Our desire has always been to efficiently deliver entertainment to as wide an audience as possible.”
Universal’s statement reiterated its previous sentiment that they’re planning to release movies both on PVOD (“when that distribution outlet makes sense”) and in theaters, even after outlets reopen across the U.S. The studio added its belief that there’s been a “seemingly coordinated attempt from AMC and NATO” to misinterpret Universal’s actions, and then NATO issued its own statement about Universal’s “reckless charge,” and my gosh, this is getting extremely ugly:
“Without any knowledge of the facts, or the common courtesy to inquire about those facts, Universal nonetheless made the reckless charge this evening that the company is ‘disappointed by this seemingly coordinated attempt from AMC and NATO to confuse our position and our actions.’ Unfortunately Universal has a destructive tendency to both announce decisions affecting their exhibitor partners without actually consulting with those partners, and now of making unfounded accusations without consulting with their partners.”
Regardless of how this all plays out, both Universal and AMC are making bold moves here during an already arduous time for all of humanity, including the movie industry. Upcoming Universal flicks include massive tentpoles like Fast and Furious 9 and Minions: The Rise of Gru, both of which should be massive successes for the studio with their pushed-back 2021 release dates in theaters. In the meantime, Universal decided to experiment, and it’s had the side-effect of making folks wonder if more on-demand new releases might be welcome. Well, Trolls World Tour fans think that it’s a good thing, and this story undoubtedly isn’t over yet, although it’s doubtful that AMC or Universal will benefit if there’s no resolution on this ban business.
Following a string of debut singles released in 2019, rising songwriter Samia returns with her first official release of 2020. Samia showcases her swooning vocals in the heart-tugging track “Is There Something In The Movies?”
Directed by Matthew Hixon and Samia herself, the single’s accompanying video emphasizes the singles theme, which deals with the idealization of film and the celebrities who star in them. For the visual, Samia called upon her actor friend Maya Hawke, who appeared in Stranger Things and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, and Charlie Plummer, who starred in Looking For Alaska. The duo act in a fictional film while Samia haunts their set, unsuccessfully attempting to force her influence on the characters.
Speaking about the single in a statement, Samia said she pulls inspiration from the ever-present feeling of disenchantment in the industry: “It’s a song about heartbreak and disenchantment with the entertainment industry. I felt betrayed by someone honoring that fantasy over my love. Glorifying the idea of legacy or life as a means to an end makes me really sad, especially when it comes to people dying young. There’s a line about sleeping with a stuffed pig that Brittany Murphy gave me the day I was born; her death has always felt painfully unnecessary to me and has fueled my resentment towards that whole thing. In the video, Maya and Charlie play ‘Movies’ and I’m just trying to make sense of them.”
Watch Samia’s “Is There Something In The Movies?” video above.
The debate in college sports over allowing athletes to be compensated for the use of their name, image, and likeness took on a more serious shape on Wednesday when the NCAA released a report in support of athletes signing endorsement contracts and being paid for work off the field of play.
According to the report, an athlete’s school cannot be involved in the arrangement of contracts. And while athletes would be able to reference their school affiliation and the sport they play, the NCAA would shut down the use logos or school branding.
Yet as has become typical in this prolonged battle, the report was served with so many qualifiers that it merely sets the stage for further negotiating rather than legitimate promise for athletes.
At the center of the controversy over the NCAA report is the NCAA’s desire to work with Congress on legislation that would grant the governing body jurisdiction over all athlete compensation. The NCAA is using the guise of “antitrust” concerns to push the federal government, and earning new detractors in the process.
“Today is either the day that a wall of injustice around student-athletes started to crumble, or the day the NCAA used more tactics to bait and switch young men and women from some of America’s most vulnerable communities,” U.S. Rep. Mark Walker told ESPN, also noting that antitrust regulations could also allow the NCAA to overreach in other areas of athlete oversight down the road.
Chris Murphy, a United States Senator from Connecticut, was similarly pessimistic in his response.
This proposal is one step forward, one step back.
The NCAA wants to limit athlete endorsement deals in a way that could make them totally impractical.
And the NCAA wants Congress to give it total power of athletes’ compensation. That should be a non-starter. https://t.co/G83zfkHf1i
If the NCAA wants bipartisan support in Congress for governing powers over athletes’ name, image, and likeness compensation, they seemingly have a long way to go to earn it. NCAA president Mark Emmert reiterated the need for federal guidance, while Big East commissioner Val Ackerman said “it’s vitally important that we maintain some level of integrity and fairness.”
For many, the NCAA’s push toward an agreement with athletes will be seen as too little too late. Taking Ackerman at face value is the right thing to do, but integrity and fairness are unlikely to be the first words to be associated with the NCAA by anyone who follows college sports. Surely, there has to be some kind of oversight, but the first draft of a partnership with these young athletes is already looking like a half-measure.
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