Category: Worldwide

The latest installment in the John Wick universe doesn’t involve John Wick at all (unfortunately). But it does take place in New York in the 70s so you know there will at least be a little bit of disco involved. It makes up for the lack of Keanu Reeves. Kind of.

The prequel follows a young Winston Scott (played by Ian McShane in the films, and Colin Woodell in the series) who is climbing his way up the organized crime ladder in New York City. The series also stars Mel Gibson (yeah, that guy) as mob boss Cormac. Ayomide Adegun portrays a young Charon, while Peter Greene, Ben Robson, Hubert Point-Du Jour, Jessica Allain, and Katie McGrath round out the rest of the cast. The three-part event begins this weekend on Peacock, with a new episode on Fridays through October 6th. Here is the official synopsis:

The three-part event will explore the origin behind the iconic hotel-for-assassins centerpiece of the John Wick universe through the eyes and actions of a young Winston Scott, as he’s dragged into the Hell-scape of 1970’s New York City to face a past he thought he’d left behind. Winston charts a deadly course through the hotel’s mysterious underworld in a harrowing attempt to seize the hotel where he will eventually take his future throne.

If you don’t get your John Wick fill from The Continental, no worries! The first three Wick movies are available to stream on Peacock now. At least you have Keanu in those.

When the Jonas Brothers, Uproxx’s June cover stars, opened their ambitious The Tour on August 12, Sophie Turner, Joe Jonas’ wife of four years, showed her support by wearing a Taylor Swift-inspired “Mr. Perfectly Fine” friendship bracelet. Just over one month later, it seems nothing is fine between Jonas and Turner, who confirmed their plans to divorce with public statements on September 6.

Jonas has issued a statement to Page Six refuting a lawsuit filed by Turner, as NBC News obtained and shared earlier this morning (September 21), asking “for the return of their two young children to England” because she felt Willa, whom they welcomed in July 2020, and their second child, whose identity has remained private since birth in July 2022, “have been wrongfully retained in New York City since September 20 from ‘their habitual residence’ in England.”

Through his representatives, Jonas stated that he didn’t “abduct” their daughters and called Turner’s filing “a harsh legal position,” which surprised Jonas because they’d previously agreed to an “amicable co-parenting setup.”

“Less than 24 hours [after meeting last Sunday], Sophie advised that she wanted to take the children permanently to the UK,” Jonas’ statement reads. “Thereafter, she demanded via this filing that Joe hand over the children’s passports so that she could take them out of the country immediately.”

It continues, “Joe is seeking shared parenting with the kids so that they are raised by both their mother and father, and is of course also okay with the kids being raised both in the US and the UK.”

Additionally, Jonas’ took issue with the assertion in Turner’s court documents that she only learned of Joe’s divorce filing “through the media” on September 5. Jonas offered that he believed Turner was “aware” of his filing because they’d had “multiple conversations” about the state of their marriage prior.

Page Six noted that Jonas’ divorce filing in Miami from earlier this month “restricts both Jonas and Turner from relocating with their children.”

However, Turner’s filing states, “They decided that as Turner started filming a new drama series in the UK in May, the kids would travel with Jonas and a nanny as he kicked off his tour with The Jonas Brothers in the US in late July.”

Earlier this week, Turner was spotted with Taylor Swift in New York City. Meanwhile, the Jonas Brothers’ ongoing tour is next scheduled to hit Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Thursday night, September 21.

On Wednesday, September 20, Jada Pinkett Smith posted throwback videos of her and Tupac during their junior year of high school as a way to promote her forthcoming memoir, Worthy. In the clips, Pinkett Smith and the late Tupac are performing to Will Smith’s “Parents Just Don’t Understand” with DJ Jazzy Jeff from 1988.

This morning, September 21, Smith revealed plans to explore that time period even more thoroughly with his Class Of ’88 podcast. According to Billboard, Smith “will celebrate 1988 hip-hop with episodes alongside Queen Latifah, Salt-N-Pepa, Darryl ‘DMC’ McDaniels, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Rakim, and Chuck D.”

The publication additionally relayed, “Smith will explore the landmark year of 1988, which included the rise of Public Enemy, the ascension of DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, and the outpouring of female MCs such as Salt-N-Pepa and Queen Latifah.”

The Wondery podcast will last for eight episodes. Beginning on October 26, Class Of ’88 will be available exclusively on Amazon Music and Audible. Amazon Prime members can listen to the podcast’s trailer here.

“Today, hip-hop dominates pop culture,” Smith says to start the trailer. “But it wasn’t always like that. Before 1988, a lot of people saw our music as just a passing fad.”

The nearly two-minute audio trailer also includes excerpted perspectives from Smith’s A-list guests, including Queen Latifah recalling, “[Hip-hop] had an expiration date, like milk. That’s what they were saying.”

In 1988, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince released He’s The DJ, I’m The Rapper, housing “Parents Just Don’t Understand.” The track claimed the first-ever Best Rap Performance at the 1989 Grammys, which DJ Jazzy Jeff and Smith boycotted because the category wasn’t televised (as revisited by Andscape in January 2018).

X, formerly Twitter, is gradually becoming more and more of a dumpster fire. Owner Elon Musk essentially asked Taylor Swift to help him save the platform by posting her music directly on it. Now, pop star Kim Petras is expressing dissatisfaction with the website.

The singer, who just dropped a surprise album cleverly called Problematique, is living up to her provocative image. On her Instagram Story on Wednesday (September 20), she posted a screenshot indicating she was banned on X for having a NSFW avatar. It demanded she “delete profile image” for “violating our rules against graphic violence or adult content in profile images.” She put several middle finger emojis over the screenshot.

NSFW imagery is a key part of her campaign for her music. The artwork for her June album Feed The Beast depicted her topless. She also spiced up Paris Hilton’s 2006 hit “Stars Are Blind” for a sultry remix earlier this year.

Surely, this hiccup with Elon won’t ruin her party. She’s about to bring her new songs to the road on the Feed The Beast World Tour, which kicks off in less than a week in Texas.

Problematique is out now via Republic Records/Amigo Records. Find more information here.

Rick and Morty fans are used to long waits between seasons. That’s not the case for season six, which wrapped up in December 2022, and season seven, which premieres next month, but there’s another source of anticipation.

Who will voice Rick and Morty?

Co-creator and voice actor Justin Roiland is out after Adult Swim “ended its association” with him after he was charged with felony domestic violence (the charges were later dismissed). Everyone involved with the animated series has kept quiet about his replacement — or possibly replacements if Rick and Morty are voiced by two people. We will find out the answer soon, however.

The trailer for season seven of Rick and Morty will be released on Monday, September 25th. Unless every line is given to Jerry, which isn’t out of the possibility, that’s when we’ll hear the new voices for the first time. (On Solar Opposites, which was very good this season, Roiland was replaced by Dan Stevens.)

Earlier this year, Rick and Morty executive producer Steven Levy discussed the recasting. “We are closing in on the end of our process of the recast, but I do want to say it’s gonna be great,” he said. “I am thoroughly impressed with everything that’s going on, including all the work on season seven. Truly, that’s the thing I don’t want to be overshadowed. The show is as good as it’s ever been.”

Rick and Morty returns to Adult Swim on October 15th.

Keanu Reeves, being the kindest celebrity out there, is always inspiring his peers in unique ways. Whether it’s through his comics, or with his ability to stop a disastrous wardrobe malfunction, or just how his face looks when he’s holding puppies, Reeves is a man of the people. So when he met up with his old bandmates nearly two decades after their last album, it made sense that they would pick up where they left off, even though his career has skyrocketed since their initial musical endeavor.

Reeves told Entertainment Weekly how the band got together after all this time, and it turns out, it would not have happened without The Matrix Resurrections. It seems like the movie resurrected more than just Neo and Trinity.

“There was a premiere for Matrix 4 in San Francisco, and the next morning [the former band] had breakfast,” Reeves told EW. “That was the initial spark.” This is why they say breakfast is the most important meal of the day! You might just have a band reunion and write a new album.

Drummer Robert Mailhouse explained how it all came together organically after that. “We got excited, one thing leads to another, and then we all took it extremely seriously,” Mailhouse says. “It wasn’t going to be another one of those casual get-togethers. You could just tell. It was like we were on a mission.” That mission? To rock. They succeeded.

Now, Dogstar is heading out on a national tour ahead of their latest album release, and it would have literally never happened if Reeves hadn’t put a rubber duck on his head in the bath. Think about that!

(Via EW)

Say what you want about Sean Combs, aka Diddy — and a lot has been said about the man formerly known as Puff Daddy, both good and bad — but as a producer and an artistic force in the music industry, he is undeniable. He has been for a very long time.

He brings all that irresistible force to bear on his new project, The Love Album: Off The Grid. Incredibly enough, it’s only his fifth studio album to date despite his 30-plus years as a recognizable name in the music business.

It’s also his first solo album as Diddy since 2006’s Press Play and his first album as Diddy overall since the 2010 collaborative album Last Train To Paris (a 2015 mixtape, MMM (Money Making Mitch), was credited to his former moniker, Puff Daddy).

Like Diddy’s previous projects dating all the way back to his first, the 1997 debut album No Way Out (released as Puff Daddy & The Family), calling this a solo album feels like a stretch. Even then, Puff’s albums were littered with features and showcased his prowess as a producer as much as a vocalist (a thing I’ve always found cool about Diddy is his proficiency as a rapper despite not writing the verses — it’s a lot harder than it sounds).

The Love Album: Off The Grid is no anomaly in that respect. With 23(!) tracks, the album features nearly 30 credited guest artists, from Puff Daddy contemporaries like Busta Rhymes, Mary J. Blige, Babyface, and John Legend to contemporary stars such as 21 Savage, H.E.R., Justin Bieber, and Summer Walker.

It’s also a showcase for rising talents, both those under the umbrella of Diddy’s own Love Records and otherwise. Songwriters Jozzy and Nova Wav receive some spotlight, as does Compton rap-singer Kalan.FrFr. The album is, to paraphrase Diddy’s own words, something of a love letter to R&B as much as it is a hip-hop album from the self-described “greatest rapper that ever lived” (a quote from “Stay Awhile” with Nija — one of greatest rap lies in hip-hop’s 50-year history, to be sure. You sort of have to respect the audacity).

In fact, somewhere around the midpoint of the album, Diddy basically disappears almost entirely. This feels odd to write, but you kinda wish Diddy’s much-touted comeback album featured more… well, Diddy.

Think about all the hits the rapper-producer has been responsible for over the years: the “Benjamins”; the “I Need A Girl” parts one and two; the “Pass The Courvoisiers.” For all the accusations of shady business practices and not actually writing raps or making beats, he’s always been the best part of those collaborations, often through the sheer magnitude of his personality. It’d be nice to get more of that here.

Fortunately, the other hallmark of Diddy’s storied career has been his ear for talent. And, my God, what a collection of talents is arrayed here. It’s nearly impossible to choose a standout. The Dirty Money reunion “Deliver Me” is candy for the ears. Not even a poorly advised Fabolous cameo can drag down an all-time performance from Jacquees on “Pick Up.” (For the life of me, I cannot understand why men in rap close ranks around proven abusers; there’s more nuance in this discussion than can be shared here, but still… it’s so easy to just… not.)

Ty Dolla Sign and Coco Jones form a heavenly combo on “Reachin’.” H.E.R. remains magnificent on “Space.” And the touching “Kim Porter” wisely employs two of R&B’s greatest emotional songwriters ever for Diddy’s tribute to The One Who Got Away.

However, the back half of the album, which you can imagine Diddy meant as an ode to Quiet Storm and slow jams, becomes a slog as the tempo winds its way lower and lower ’til it gets stuck in the mud. It wastes all those great performances because the first half of the album is vintage Diddy.

The funk bop of the album opener “Brought My Love” with The-Dream and Herb freaking Alpert is a welcome dodge away from the conventions of modern rap. It’s upbeat, fun, reminiscent of Diddy’s best without being derivative, and taps into the contemporary wave of dancefloor-ready rap without being gimmicky.

“Homecoming” with Jozzy updates Diddy’s favorite approach to sampling (Ecstasy, Passion & Pain’s “Born To Lose You”), and “It Belongs To You” is slinky bedroom funk at its best. But then the first intermission hits and the production switches to that murky, Drake-esque slush — which has its place, to be fair. But the thing about Quiet Storm is there still needs to be some… let’s say “motion in the ocean.”

A lot of the back half is great from a songwriting and performing standpoint but placid and downright inert if you’re thinking of “music you make love to.” Diddy made a lot of fuss about bringing R&B “back” with this album but had he been paying attention, he’d have seen it never left — and he could have incorporated more of what modern singers like Lucky Daye, Arin Ray, Ari Lennox, SZA, Cleo Sol, Khalid, Tems, Victoria Monét, and more have been doing all along.

But what’s here is still a great sampling of what’s out there — in fact, it’s more of a smorgasbord, for better or worse. It’s overstuffed, indulgent, and overlong, but it’s also sumptuous, charismatic, and satisfying, if not sonically audacious. Basically, it’s all the things you want from a Diddy album.

The Love Album: Off The Grid is out now via Love Records and Motown.

If there’s one thing that separates the pros from the home cooks, it’s how clean your work area is when you’re getting ready to cook, cooking, and finishing up. Be assured that if you can’t keep a spotlessly clean station in a professional kitchen as you work, you will not be on the schedule the next day. This simple truth of cleanliness in the kitchen is the cornerstone of our new series, Clean Cookin’.

In this episode, Nashville country artist Mickey Guyton is welcomed into the kitchen of celebrity Chef Jamika Pessoa to make some delicious lasagna rolls. But before they dive into the cooking, Chef Pessoa breaks down the steps of cleanliness necessary to operate a pro kitchen. Step 1: “Everything Starts Clean,” which means that you need to clean your kitchen — and your hands — before you pull a single thing out of the fridge or fire up the stove. Step 2 is where a lot of home cooks can get into the proverbial “weeds,” but it’s a crucial step — “Clean As You Go.” While this seems obvious, it’s really what separates the pros from the novices. Make a mess? Clean it up right away. You’ll have more space and less room for contamination.

Naturally, having the cleanest possible kitchen is of paramount importance because you don’t want to get people sick — and a messy/dirty kitchen is the fastest way to that terrible outcome. No one wants to make themselves, their partner, or family and friends sick with their cooking from a disastrously messy and unkempt kitchen.

Chef Pessoa has more advice for keeping the kitchen clean while also offering an outstanding lasagna roll recipe that you can try at home (in your super clean kitchen). So watch the whole episode above to see it all.

In 2017, when Matthew A. Cherry, whose talents include but are not limited to directing, writing, filmmaking, and producing, set out to launch his Oscar-winning Hair Love short film, he did it with one goal in mind. “We just really wanted to represent for that modern-day father who is more involved, and really will do whatever for their kid,” he said in a 2020 interview with Deadline. Two years later, thanks to a Kickstarter that raised $300,000 for the film, far more than the over $75,000 goal, Cherry and his team were able to accomplish that goal and then some with release of Hair Love.

With Hair Love, we’re introduced to the characters Stephen (played by Cherry himself) and his daughter Zuri. We follow the pair’s relationship and how it evolves when Stephen must learn how to do Zuri’s hair for the first after her mother ends up in the hospital to do a round of chemotherapy following a cancer diagnosis. Four years after Hair Love was released, Cherry and his team sought to continue the story with a new spin through the spin-off TV series Young Love.

Young Love continues from the events that Hair Love concluded on. We meet Angela, Zuri’s mother (played by Issa Rae), who struggles to find her rhythm after her recovery. There’s Stephen (now played by Kid Cudi) who is in full pursuit of a career as a music producer, which has its highs and lows. And then there’s Zuri herself (played by Brooke Monroe Conaway), an ambitious young girl who thinks she can do any and everything.

The first four episodes in the 12-episode season of Young Love are out now on Max, and ahead of its release, we spoke with Matthew A. Cherry who spoke about the connection between Hair Love and Young Love, what he hopes millennial parents will take away from the series, and what we can expect next.

At what point after Hair Love or even during it did you decide that a story like Young Love was needed?

When we first got Vashti Harrison’s artwork. It was just like, “Wow, this looks like a TV show. This looks like a picture book.” Her art style is so warm and loving. When we first saw it, her artwork actually inspired us to be like, “Yo, we just need to offer a picture book.” Ultimately, we got a deal to make one. The initial idea was formed there, but it was really once the short film and the book got out into the world and just seeing everybody’s affinity for it. It was just like, wow, this is all happening off a short film. We gotta figure out a way to tell this in a little bit more of a long-form way. So, as it got out into the world, we really locked in, let’s figure it out. A lot of the backstory was already created. We knew Stephen was a producer, the mom was working natural hair, [and] we knew they were living in Chicago. It was all already there.

What was the main thing you wanted to achieve in continuing the story that first began in Hair Love and now continues with Young Love?

I think just wanting it to be relatable man. There were a lot of shows that were coming out that really focused on the 1%. I was a part of one with The Kings Of Napa, and it was just not the reality for a lot of Americans. Most people relate to the nine-to-five hustle, you know what I mean? You gotta work a regular job and come home and you gotta do it all over again in the morning. You really have to value those weekends. It really was just wanting to do something that was relatable. Something that really showcased a Black family and three different generations of it [and] kind of the love and struggle that it takes to really be present, but also people that also want to achieve their dreams too.

What made Kid Cudi and Issa Rae perfect roles for the parents? They seem so naturally in these roles and the characters they’re based on seem so natural to them.

Believe it or not man, neither Scott nor Issa were in the same room together. They all recorded their lives separately. We got very lucky and great with our voice directing in that they were able to make it seem like that chemistry was there. Honestly, I don’t think they’d ever met before. With Cudi, I knew him from working as a creative executive at Jordan Peele’s production company, Monkeypaw, and we tried to get a show set up, it didn’t work out, but we were just always cool. He’s from the Midwest, from Cleveland, just a real dude, not really Hollywood about them. I just always thought he would be great for this just because he’s a young father, he has a 10- or 11-year-old daughter. Also, he obviously works in the music industry, so I knew he would be able to relate to the struggles that Stephen is going through from when he was early in his career. And he just loves the animation too, so just a really great choice.

Issa, [with] her show Awkward Black Girl, to me just really represented the voice of young Black, millennial women. People who were in their 20s and struggling and trying to figure it out, both on the work and the love life side of things. Her voice just has such a unique quality to it. We’ve been friends for a minute, and I’m so thankful that she decided to be in both the short and the series. I think people are really gonna love her man. Her character is going through the aftermath of recovering from this illness, getting back to work for the first time, and just kind of really questioning everything in life. Every episode kind of showcases her journey of really trying to get back to what life was like before.

There’s a tug and pull through these episodes between accepting reality and chasing dreams, something that gets complicated when a family is involved. What do you hope a parent or a millennial in general takes away from these moments?

Man, it’s hard. When I was in my 20s, I didn’t have any kids. I was able to basically move with reckless abandon. I would spend my own little bit of PA money and invest it in the music videos that I was trying to direct. Sometimes you end up living out of your car for a second, you know, I mean? Just things that you normally wouldn’t be able to do when you have a kid you’re able to do and you don’t have kids. So I think the whole lesson in this is just man, it’s hard to try to achieve these dreams and also be present as a parent, but it’s very much worth it. I don’t think any of us want to be those parents where 20-30 years from now, your kid becomes famous and they’re interviewing them and they’re like, “My dad was never there. He was always at work, trying to figure out the dream. I really needed him to be there.” So I think it’s all about just being present as much as you can.

How would you say that the individual struggles of Stephan and Angela have affected Zuri whether it be positive or negative?

I think we definitely explore that a little bit. There’s Zuri acting out a bit because they never really dealt with the reality of Angela almost not being here anymore. We definitely tried to be subtle with it, we weren’t trying to beat people over the head with it. But also, Zuri is a young, confident Gen-Zer who loves to just change the world. She sees a problem, she’s not waiting on somebody to figure it out. She’s gonna come up with big ideas, that may not be the right thing every time, but she tries to figure it out. We just tried to be real in all things and not shy away from the fact that Angela was coming off this illness and how would that affect Zuri? In a later episode in the season, we really get into that.

I love how there’s a balance between Zuri’s story and Stephen and Angela’s stories, what went into the decision to balance it all rather than let Zuri or Stephen and Angela lead the way?

Finding that balance for the three characters was hard because, you know, people came into this story and the various parts of the show and had their favorites. Obviously, most of our writers are millennials or a little older and they all could relate more to Stephen and Angela’s journey way more than Zuri. My big thing was we got this picture book, we got the short film, people love Zuri man, we can’t cast her to the side and not have her be a major character. There was definitely some figuring out the balance and the mix, but I think ultimately what we ended up coming up with was something that has a really unique kind of tone. It’s a family show that when we’re in the adult world, we’re not trying to dumb it down. When we’re in the kid world, we were able to kind of elevate the issue that Zuri and her friends were dealing with to make them feel more relatable to adult situations, like the episode where she’s selling the Girl Scout cookies. We’ve all been in a situation where we got into a work situation and they didn’t pay us fairly and we wanted to strike out on our own and figure it out. We really tried to find this really interesting balance where the adult stuff, the kids could still be interested in, and also the kid stuff, the adults could be interested in. That was always the goal.

What component impressed you the most as ‘Young Love’ came together to be the final product that it is now?

Everything man. Taking an idea and making it into something that exists in real life will never not be amazing. People seeing the vision and then actually working hard to try to make it become a reality is just so mind-blowing. The character designs, the way it really feels and looks like Chicago, all the different hairstyles, all the variety of skin tones that the different Black people in the city have — even within the family. You know, Gigi being a little bit more on the redder side and Angela being dark-skinned. Just all of the different things that we were able to kind of do, I really appreciate everybody that we’re doing the show because it really came out way better than I ever could have thought it would.

What can we expect next in the story of Zuri, Stephen, and Angela?

We’re gonna do more seasons. There’s so much more I would love to explore. The character Amir, who was introduced in the show, would love to see him be with the family more. Star and Stephen, I’d love to see them strike out on their own and try to put out an EP or do an album together, what would that look like? Gigi, who is played by Loretta Devine, lived in a time where she had to fall into those more traditional roles, but I know she had dreams of her own too. I’d loved to see her strike out on her own, take a risk, put herself out there, and try to find a new thing that she’s into. There’s so much I think we can play with. Does the family end up going to therapy? There are so many different things that I think we could touch on. So I really hope people dig it and we get the viewership and the social media impressions required to get a second season. I would love to continue to tell the story with these characters.

‘Young Love’ is now streaming on Max. You can watch it here.

The John Wick Cinematic Universe is locked and loaded to expand this week with the premiere of the prequel series The Continental. Set during the ’70s, the three part event will focus on the titular hotel that served as refuge for assassins in the high-octane films. While Keanu Reeves won’t be a part of the action, The Continental will feature characters from the movies at a pivotal stage in their killer careers.

Front and center is Colin Woodell as a young Winston Scott, the slick owner and operator of The Continental hotel played by Ian McShane in the John Wick films. In The Continental, Winston has yet to take ownership of the hotel and doesn’t even want to be in New York. But after a run-in with Mel Gibson’s Cormac, Winston charts a bloody course to claim his prize.

Joining Woodell is Ayomide Adegun as Charon, the unflappable concierge of The Continental played by Lance Reddick in the films. Like Winston, Charon has yet to take his position at the hotel, and the prequel series might shed some light on how he became the assassin refuge’s trusted facilitator.

Also along for the ride is Peter Greene as Charlie. The character made a brief appearance in the first John Wick film as the go-to cleanup guy for disposing bodies, so you know he’s got a busy future ahead of him.

Here’s the official synopsis:

The three-part event will explore the origin behind the iconic hotel-for-assassins centerpiece of the John Wick universe through the eyes and actions of a young Winston Scott, as he’s dragged into the Hell-scape of 1970’s New York City to face a past he thought he’d left behind. Winston charts a deadly course through the hotel’s mysterious underworld in a harrowing attempt to seize the hotel where he will eventually take his future throne.

The Continental: From the World of John Wick premieres September 22 on Peacock.