Category: Worldwide

The Beatles haven’t been an active band for decades, and yet their music is still immensely popular all these years later. A lot of the group’s current fans never got to experience the excitement of a new Beatles song getting released, but that changes today (November 2): The band has unveiled “Now And Then,” which is being billed as “the last Beatles song.”

As explained in a short film released yesterday, the band first had the thought to finish “Now And Then,” from an old John Lennon demo tape, back in 1994, but the technology available to them at the time wasn’t able to produce the results they wanted. Now, here in 2023, the tech finally caught up and “Now And Then” is here.

McCartney previously explained how AI technology was used to help make the song possible, saying, “[Peter Jackson] was able to extricate [John Lennon’s] voice from a ropey little bit of cassette. We had John’s voice and a piano and he could separate them with AI. They tell the machine, ‘That’s the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar’ So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles’ record, it was a demo that John had [and] we were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI. Then we can mix the record, as you would normally do. So it gives you some sort of leeway. We just finished it up and it’ll be released this year.”

Listen to “Now And Then” above.

The first half of the fifth and final season of Yellowstone aired from November 2022 to January 2023. The second half was slated to return sometime this year, but then came the WAG and SAG-AFTRA strikes, not to mention all the drama with Kevin Costner, so production was shut down. The actors are still on strike, but dust off your cowboy hats, dads: according to Variety, the Paramount Network’s western mega-hit will return in November 2024.

Additionally, Paramount ordered two more Yellowstone spin-off series, 1944 and 2024 (which might star Matthew McConaughey), joining 1883 and 1923. Also, Lawmen: Bass Reeves is my favorite Sheridan series because the title isn’t a year.

“Within five years, we grew Yellowstone from a hit U.S. cable show with five million viewers into a global hit franchise with over 100 million fans around the world and multiple extensions, Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of Showtime & MTV Entertainment Studios, said in a statement. “On the heels of 1883 and 1923’s success, our new planned spinoffs, 1944 and 2024, will take audiences on a thrilling, new, and unexpected journey with the complex and compelling storytelling that has become a hallmark of the franchise and has helped turn it into a worldwide cultural phenomenon – thanks to the creative mastermind of Taylor Sheridan.”

It’s unclear if Costner will return for the final batch of episodes, but at the moment, it’s not looking promising.

(Via Variety)

50 Cent is currently on his Final Lap Tour. Yet, in a new interview with Europa 2 (via HotNewHipHop), the rapper revealed that he isn’t slowing down any time soon. Although he’s been on the road since July, playing shows across the globe, he also will be treating fans to some new music very soon.

“When I’m not moving around and I’m not touring and doing things, it’s going to permit me to focus on creating music,” 50 shared, hinting that he spends his downtime in the studio. “You’ll get a little more of what you get from Dr. Dre and Eminem from me at that point.”

While 50 didn’t exactly share much else about his new music or a potential album beyond that, it is nice to know that it’s still being planned. His last record was back in 2014 with Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire To Win — making next year a full decade since that.

However, he has stayed busy in recent years with other creative endeavors. 50 has been a co-creator in the Power television franchise, as well as shows like BMF, Raising Kanan, and Ghost. He also joined the Expendables movie franchise, appearing as a new character in Expendables 4 earlier this year.

One thing is for sure: he is very very busy.

Melania Trump was spotted with her frequently-indicted husband Donald for the first time in seven months on Halloween. Spooky! The not-so-happy couple “partied it up with all the Mar-a-Lago ghouls,” host Jimmy Kimmel joked during Wednesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, including a man carrying a blow-up doll and a Bang energy drink, for some reason. There was sadly no Diet Coke Button costume. Also sad: that Melania didn’t dress up as Stormy Daniels “just to mess with [Trump],” Kimmel joked. “It would be fun to maybe scare him a little. Maybe give him his first erection since January 6th.”

Later in the monologue, Kimmel covered every parent’s dream: to watch their children testify after being accused of fraud. On Wednesday, sniffly Donald Trump Jr. became the first member of the Trump family to take the witness stand after being named a defendant in the $250 million lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general’s office against the former president, his company, and several executives,” according to CNN. Next up: Eric and Ivanka.

Once Trump Jr. and Eric have testified, their loving father “will claim he’s never met either one of them,” Kimmel cracked.

You can watch the Jimmy Kimmel Live clip above.

In a video shared on November 1st, Mariah Carey was thawed from a block of ice in order to get ready for Christmas and for “All I Want For Christmas Is You” to dominate the music landscape once again. Freshly unfrozen Carey has something perhaps more pressing to deal with now, though: a lawsuit over the song.

As Rolling Stone reports, Andy Stone, a country musician who performs as Vince Vance, has refiled a $20 million copyright infringement lawsuit. The case was previously dismissed in federal court in New Orleans due to it being the wrong venue, but has now refiled in federal court in Los Angeles.

Stone claims he didn’t receive proper credit for Carey’s song, and that it infringes the copyright of his 1989 song that’s also called “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” Douglas M. Schmidt, Stone’s lawyer, told the publication, “If you look at both songs, you can see that about 50 percent of the words are the same, in almost the same order. I think it’s a pretty strong claim.”

Schmidt also said attempts to settle the case ended without resolution, hence when they’re going back to court.

Jay Ceravolo, Stone’s manager, said in a statement, “Now we are moving forward to a financial conclusion either through settlement or a trial. It is simply a case of copyright infringement.”

Given that The Beatles broke up in the 1970s, and that John Lennon and George Harrison have since passed away, the band hasn’t exactly been releasing a ton of new music in recent years. That’s actually about to change soon, though: “Now And Then,” which is being billed as “the last Beatles song,” is set to be released today (November 2). Ahead of that, yesterday, the band shared a short film looking at the making of the track.

The video runs for 12 minutes and it looks back at how the song came to be, a story that began in 1994, when Yoko Ono offered up a demo tape by Lennon to the surviving Beatles (Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and Harrison at the time). From there, the film gets into more detail, creating a timeline of what happened between 1994 and present day.

McCartney previously said of the song, “[Peter Jackson] was able to extricate [John Lennon’s] voice from a ropey little bit of cassette. We had John’s voice and a piano and he could separate them with AI. They tell the machine, ‘That’s the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar’ So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles’ record, it was a demo that John had [and] we were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI. Then we can mix the record, as you would normally do. So it gives you some sort of leeway. We just finished it up and it’ll be released this year.”

As for what the song will sound like, BBC notes, “The original demo has circulated as a bootleg for years. An apologetic love song, it’s fairly typical of John Lennon’s solo output of the 1970s — in a similar vein to ‘Jealous Guy.’”

Check out the short film above.

The Warriors and Kings have developed a budding little rivalry in northern California now that Sacramento has taken a leap into being a playoff contender in the West. It’s not so much a rivalry in terms of animosity, but just in the fact that they always seem to play tense, highly competitive games against each other.

Last year we got to see that unfold over seven games in the first round, and that’s continued this season with the Warriors getting the edge in their first two meetings. On Wednesday night in San Francisco, the Kings appeared to have control of the game, but after Golden State got a few rare stops late, they were able to retake the lead in the final minute in a frantic finish.

After a fairly cold second half shooting the ball, Steph Curry got loose with 40 seconds to play on a drive to give the Warriors a one-point lead on a floater in the lane. The Kings answered by getting it to their star big man, with Domantas Sabonis banking in a 19-footer from the elbow to put Sacramento back in front with 14 seconds on the clock. The Kings would then trap Steph at midcourt to force the ball out of his hands, but the Warriors gladly swung it to Klay Thompson who shook free of Davion Mitchell for just long enough to create enough space to hit the game-winning midrange pullup.

It was a wild final minute of play that has become fairly typical of when these two teams meet. It’s a tough loss for Sacramento, which played a great game without their star guard De’Aaron Fox as he’s sidelined with an ankle injury. Sabonis had 23 points, 11 rebounds, and eight assists on the night, but much like in the playoff series against Golden State, they went cold from three-point range as a team and could never really open up a considerable advantage in the second half.

On the other side, the Warriors likewise struggled from beyond the arc and got dominated on the boards, but were very efficient inside the three-point line and were able to attack downhill against the Kings to stay in the game and, ultimately, pull out their fourth straight win of the year. Curry finished with 21 points to lead Golden State in scoring, with Dario Saric giving them a big boost off the bench with 15. Thompson was fairly quiet with 14 points on 15 shots, but showed up at the right time to lift the Warriors to the W.

When asked by TMZ in September, Gunna playfully credited his recent weight loss to “lifting legs.” He made clear that was a sexual reference by pantomiming what he meant. So, it makes sense that Turbo chose Gunna as the featured artist on his upcoming single “Bachelor.”

Turbo, Gunna’s longtime producer, has been busy promoting his single on Instagram for over a month. Most recently, he posted the single’s official artwork — a bouquet of roses — alongside the caption, “Official Cover art for my new single Bachelor Ft. @Gunna dropping November 3 THIS FRIDAY! PRE SAVE THE SONG NOW! LINK IN MY BIO! Who else you thinking about.” Previously, Turbo had posted videos showing him listening the final “Bachelor” mix and master in his car and the live debut performance of the unreleased song. (As per setlist.fm, Gunna added it to his The Curse concert setlist on September 28 in Inglewood, California.)

Leading up to releasing solo material, Turbo was a credited producer on six of 15 tracks on A Gift And A Curse, Gunna’s latest album from June. Turbo also produced Young Thug’s “From A Man,” a single released in tandem with Mariah The Scientist’s “From A Woman” in mid-October.

Gunna and Young Thug are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Washington Wizards began the rebuilding process this offseason, trading Bradley Beal, Kristaps Porzingis, and a couple other veterans over the summer to reset their roster and try to build a new foundation.

This season will largely be about evaluating the players they have and figuring out who they want to build around long-term. The headliners on the roster currently are Jordan Poole, who was eventually the top player they got in return for Beal by way of Chris Paul, and Kyle Kuzma, who they re-signed for $100 million this offseason. Both Kuzma and Poole have shown the ability to be quality role players on a winning team, but this year they’ll get the chance to show what they can do in a starring role.

To this point, it’s been a rough start for the Wizards and their two leading stars, which was to be expected, but they have provided a couple of funny moments in this early season. Poole’s lackadaisical three that got blocked by Kristaps Porzingis over the weekend went viral, and on Wednesday they authored another rather hilarious moment when, after getting a steal down 21 in the third quarter to the Hawks, they decided to go for an off-the-backboard alley-oop in transition.

It is objectively funny to do this while down 21, and I think it might be made funnier by how gently Kuzma flushes the dunk home, as he seemed to realize in real time this might not be the best idea. To their credit, in this one, they battled to the end and made it just a 9-point loss, even though the outcome was never actually in doubt.

I do, honestly, appreciate that the Wizards are gonna have some fun this year even if they aren’t going to win a lot, and this figures to be just the beginning of some entertaining moments from this team — whether that’s a good thing or not if you’re a Wizards fan is all about perspective.

Anyone who grew up listening to compact discs is bound to feel old after watching this video of 3 young Taylor Swift fans trying to figure out how to get a CD out of its case. Understandably, anyone under the age of 15 would be confused by the ‘90s technology because they’ve probably streamed music their entire lives.

CDs peaked in popularity in 1999 but began a steep fall after pirating music and streaming made physical media less practical. At their peak, compact discs made $22 billion a year, compared to 2022 when they accounted for $482 million in sales.

The video was initially posted by TikToker @shannonschmidtmn, who later made it private, and according to Comic Sands, even Swift herself liked the video.

@swiftiebabies13

Hahaha – what is a CD 🫶🫶 #1989 #swifties #taylorsversion #tweens #iamold

The girls all have a different way that they think will get the “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” CD out of its case. One believes the center knob works as an eject button to dislodge the CD. While another thinks that spinning the disc will unscrew it from the jewel case.

A third is afraid that they will break the disc. Then they won’t be able to hear “Blank Space” in crystal clear quality! “You guys are making me laugh because this is how we listened to music,” an older person behind the camera quips.

Eventually, the girls were able to pry the disc out after pushing the knob in the center and gently lifting it out of the case. When the disc was released, one of the girls explained: “I knew that was a button!”