Category: Worldwide

In less than a week, Kanye West’s eleventh solo album Donda 2 will be available for people to enjoy. That is if Kanye sticks to its previously announced release date of February 22. The project is the follow-up to 2021’s Donda which presented features from Jay-Z, DaBaby, Roddy Ricch, Young Thug, Lil Durk, Vory, Kid Cudi, and many more. As for Donda 2, we’ve yet to receive its official artwork of tracklist, but there are some things we know about the upcoming album.

What’s Everything We Know About ‘Donda 2’ So Far?

As previously mentioned, Donda 2 is set to arrive on February 22. Kanye seemingly explained that he chose that release date because it coincides with a first-ever occurrence in astrology. On February 22, the United States will experience its first Pluto’s Return which is defined as when the “heavenly body returns to the same position in a birth chart where it was when the chart began.” Together with announcing the project’s release date, Kanye also revealed that Future — who has often referred to himself as “Pluto” — will executive produce the album. As for what the project might sound like, producer Digital Nas, who is working with Ye on Donda 2, said that if a song cannot be played at a “funeral, childbirth, graduation, [or] a wedding,” then it will not appear on the album.

Additionally, Marilyn Manson has been rumored to be involved with Donda 2 to an unknown extent. Moneybagg Yo may also lend his voice to the album, but Kid Cudi will not appear on the album due to his friendship with Pete Davidson who is currently dating Kanye’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian. Kanye will also hold a live performance of Donda 2 at Miami’s Loandepot Park Stadium.

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

Beau‘s Heather Goldin and Emma Jenney have known each other for a very long time. The NYC-based alt-pop duo became fast friends at a young age and have captivated audiences with their wistful and heartfelt music about love and friendship since releasing the 2015 debut album That Thing Reality. Now signed to a new label and armed with the EP Forever, recorded at the iconic Electric Lady Studios, Beau share their first new music in five years.

To celebrate the release of their new EP Forever, Beau sat down to talk about their tour, their love for Mazzy Star and Big Thief, and veganism in the latest Indie Mixtape 20 Q&A.

What are four words you would use to describe your music?

Sentimental, rocking, strong, women

It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

For it’s sincerity.

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?

New York City

Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?

Mazzy Star

Where did you eat the best meal of your life?

Paris

What album do you know every word to?

Masterpiece by Big Thief.

What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?

The Strokes.

What is the best outfit for performing and why?

Anything comfy and sparkly.

Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?

Archdigest.

What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour?

“Sweetest Kill” by Broken Social Scene.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

Do plant-based whole eggs exist?

What album makes for the perfect gift?

Angel Olsen, My Woman

Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?

Someone else’s bus.

What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?

St Marks place, 15 years old… something to do with a maze, and a musical note at the end of it.

What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?

I wouldn’t know, I skip them 😉

What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

Bring me chocolate in bed.

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?

Say yes more.

What’s the last show you went to?

Don’t remember, probably my own.

What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?

The Notebook.

What would you cook if Obama were coming to your house for dinner?

Something vegan.

Forever is out now via Range Music Partners. Get it here.

Fans haven’t heard new music from Kendrick Lamar for nearly five years but according to an Instagram post from Italy’s Milano Summer Festival, that could change soon. The post includes an announcement for Kendrick’s show during the festival taking place at Ippodromo SNAI San Siro in Milan on June 23, where he will apparently be performing new tracks.

The post appears in Italian but translated, reads, “Kendrick Lamar returns to Italy with a super anticipated show which, produced and distributed by Vivo Concerti, will see him perform – after 8 years from his first performance in Italy, in 2014 – at the Milan Summer Festival (Ippodromo Snai) [on] Thursday 23 June 2022.” It also promised that Kendrick “will play the pieces of the new album, long-awaited by the fans.”

There’s been plenty of speculation about Kendrick’s new music with fans convinced he’d debut an all-new song during his Super Bowl halftime performance with Dr. Dre, Eminem, Mary J Blige, and Snoop Dogg. While that didn’t happen (Kendrick instead performed an edited version of his To Pimp A Butterfly single “Alright”), he’s been working on other projects in the meantime, including a movie with the creators of South Park and a new podcast breaking down the creation of his Grammy-winning album To Pimp A Butterfly.

The death of comedian and Full House star Bob Saget on January 9, 2022 came as a shock to everyone, including his family. The 65-year-old icon had been suffering from COVID at the time of his death, but was presumed to have been in good health beyond that. And the initial police report found no evidence that alcohol, drugs, or foul play contributed to his passing. Which is why confusion arose when it was announced that the official cause of death was head trauma.

Saget’s cause of death was announced by his family, who noted that medical experts “have concluded that he accidentally hit the back of his head on something, thought nothing of it and went to sleep.” But approximately one week later, new details about the autopsy results emerged, which stated that Saget had “fractured his skull in several places and caused bleeding across both sides of his brain,” which was much more than just a simple bump on the head. Doctors wrote that Saget had suffered an “unmistakably serious set of injuries that would at the very least have probably left someone confused.”

While fans of Saget are understandably curious about what exactly happened to cause his untimely passing, Saget’s family is hoping that the details of their patriarch’s final hours can be kept private. As The Wrap reports, Saget’s widow, Kelly Rizzo, and his three daughters are actively working to prevent the public release of “statutorily protected autopsy information,” as well as any audio, video, or photographs that are part of the official autopsy.

On Tuesday, as The Wrap wrote, Saget’s family filed a lawsuit against Orange County, Florida, where Saget’s body was discovered, which stated that any public release of the very private documents and evidence relating to his death would cause them to “suffer irreparable harm in the form of extreme mental pain, anguish, and emotional distress if Defendants release the Records in response to public records requests or otherwise disseminate the Records for any other reason or purpose.”

As WESH 2, Orlando’s local NBC station wrote, the suit also claims that “no public interest would be served by the release of the records to the public.”

(Via The Wrap)

LaMelo Ball is one of six first-time NBA All-Stars this season, as the 2021 Rookie of the Year earned a selection from commissioner Adam Silver to replace the injured Kevin Durant in Cleveland. Ball has had an excellent sophomore campaign in Charlotte, averaging 20.1 points, 7.5 assists, and seven rebounds per game on a 42.7/37.3/86.7 shooting split.

He’s been given the reins in Charlotte and taken another step forward despite the increased responsibility placed on his young shoulders, improving in just about every area — from his shooting efficiency to ball security — as the Hornets arrive at the week before All-Star at 29-29.

It’s undoubtedly production worthy of an All-Star nod, but more importantly, Ball’s game deserves the freedom of creativity that the All-Star exhibition provides. We, as basketball fans, deserve to see him fully unleashed in an All-Star format that’s built for him to thrive. Few players try more ambitious passes in actual NBA games than Ball, who has a preternatural ability to see passing lanes before they open up, already knocking on the door of the elite tier of facilitators like Nikola Jokic, LeBron James, Luka Doncic, and Trae Young. Like the latter two in that group, Ball has exceptional flair to his game, an audaciousness that’s at the foundation of his game, weaved into his basketball DNA.

This is someone who scored 92 points in a high school game as a freshman. Every movement on his road to the league, both on and off the floor, have been documented, and for the bumps that he hit on that path, it’s also what makes him built for the All-Star stage. He’ll embrace the bright lights and the opportunity to steal the show in a game that will highlight his strengths as a shooter, fearless facilitator, and fastbreak catalyst, while not caring about the areas of his game he’s still rounding out, like on the defensive end. Few players in the league are as exciting as Ball when he’s pushing things in transition and is running alongside a lob threat, and there will always be at least two or three of those on the floor with him in the All-Star Game.

Ball does things like this in the early third quarter of a three-point game in actual NBA competition, just imagine what he’ll do in an All-Star Game that regularly sees players trying to throw themselves lobs off the backboard.

The All-Star Game is about fun, and there are few players who seem to have a better time playing professional basketball than LaMelo Ball. He has been destined for this moment since he was a teenager, and we can’t wait to see what he does now that he gets to grace that stage.

Studio 666, Foo Fighters’ new horror flick, is set to premiere this month. Ahead of the premiere, Dave Grohl has dropped a new death metal track called “March Of The Insane,” under the alter ego Dream Widow.

In the B.J. McDonnell-directed film, the Foo Fighters play fictional versions of themselves, as they move into an Encino mansion to record their 10th studio album. In the house, Grohl finds himself dealing with writer’s block, in tandem with tampering with supernatural forces.

“…I go into the basement, I find this tape by a band from 25 years ago that recorded there,” said Grohl on The Howard Stern Show. “And there’s this song that, if recorded and completed, the f*cking demon in the house is unleashed, and then, whatever, all hell breaks loose.” According to the YouTube description for “March Of The Insane,” the hellish, scream-driven track comes from the band’s “never released self-titled album.”

Studio 666 was filmed in the same house where Foo Fighters recorded their 10th album, Medicine At Midnight. Grohl told Rolling Stone the band originally planned to release the film in tandem with the album, however, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forced them to put those plans on hold. “We were going to try to pull a Blair Witch where we’re telling everyone that we recorded this album in a haunted house and giving them all of this bullsh*t about instruments being detuned overnight, voices on the Pro Tools and things like that. We were trying to make a big deal out of the fact that we had recorded in a haunted house and it would just be bam and drop this f*cking movie out of nowhere,” Grohl said.

Studio 666 hits theaters February 25th. Check out “March Of The Insane” above.

Last week, Hulu announced that it was bringing back Futurama for something like the 12th time. Much of the original voice cast for the animated series, including Billy West, Katey Sagal, and Phil LaMarr, will reprise their characters, but not at all.

John DiMaggio, who voices the beer-loving, magnets-fearing, Zoidberg-tolerating robot Bender, has not signed on for the revival after “negotiations with Futurama studio 20th Television Animation came to a standstill,” according to Deadline. There’s genuine concern that if a deal isn’t reached, Bender could be recast with a new voice actor.

On Tuesday night, DiMaggio shared an update on what he’s calling #BenderGate.

“Hi, I’ve been thinking about everything that’s been going on these past months and just to be clear, I don’t think that only I deserve to be paid more. I think the entire cast does,” he wrote in a statement posted to Twitter. “Negotiations are a natural part of working in show business. Everyone has a different strategy and different boundaries. Their ‘price.’ Some accept offers, some hold their ground.” DiMaggio continued:

“Bender is part of my soul and nothing about this is supposed to be disrespectful to the fans or my Futurama family. It’s about self-respect. And honestly, being tired of an industry that’s become far too corporate and takes advantage of artists’ time and talent”

DiMaggio ended the note by wishing he “could give you every detail so you would understand, but it’s not my place. Thanks again for the love everyone. Still hoping for the best.” You know who DiMaggio should use to negotiate a better salary? That guy.

You can read the entire statement below.

It’s tough keeping up with all the conservative-friendly apps. There’s Parler and Rumble, of course, but don’t forget (or maybe do) about The Right Stuff, which shares the same name as a white supremacist website, and TRUTH Social, Donald Trump’s long-threatened social media platform. After months of missed deadlines, shady financial issues, porn bots, and SNL jokes (“Donald Trump announced the launch of his own social media network that he’s calling TRUTH Social, but most people know it by its original name: the National Sex Offender Registry”), TRUTH is launching on March 31. So, if your anti-vaxxer aunt doesn’t post anything on Facebook that day, you’ll know why.

Former-president Trump is “permanently suspended” from Twitter, but his Kendall Roy-esque son, Donald Trump Jr., is still tweeting all bangers, all the time. His latest: “Time for some Truth!!!” along with a screenshot of the first post on his dad’s billion-dollar vanity project. It reads, “Get Ready! Your favorite president will see you soon.” Bad tweet.

The replies were amusingly savage. “Truth Social is going to fail in spectacular fashion and I’m going to absolutely love it,” reads one tweet, while another wrote, “Trump’s first post on his Twitter clone site was written to people not on the site. This was written to be a screenshot post on Twitter. This will be such a glorious dumpster fire.” Here’s more:

Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, better known to most as The Weeknd, was born on February 16, 1990, making today his 32nd birthday. Late last night, The Weeknd shared was must have been one of the first birthday messages he received, a sweet text from his parents.

The text, sent from his mother’s phone but addressed from both of his parents, reads, “February 16 @ 2:45 pm the Star is born Happy Birthday Abel. Enkuan tewoldek [heart emoji] [folded hands emoji] [cake emoji] [champagne glasses emoji] [champagne bottle emoji]. egzaiber ymesgn [folded hands emojis]. You are our hero God bless you and your work with much Love. Always yours proud parents [heart emojis].”

The Weeknd’s folks aren’t the only ones who took notice of his big day, as he’s currently a trending topic on Twitter as fans wish him a happy birthday.

At the young age of 32, The Weeknd has accomplished a ton in his life. He has three No. 1 albums to his name in the US, while his LPs that didn’t top the chart — Kiss Land and Dawn FM — peaked at No. 2. His 2018 EP My Dear Melancholy also went No. 1. Additionally, he has a handful of chart-topping singles, the latest of them being 2020’s “Save Your Tears.” He also has the most monthly listeners on Spotify, a throne he claimed from Justin Bieber in January. “Blinding Lights” is also the second-most-streamed song in the history of the platform and will likely follow Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” to become the second song to ever hit 3 billion Spotify streams.

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

While sandwiched (onscreen) between two female Newsmax anchors on Tuesday, Rudy Giuliani boasted that he has proof that Hillary Clinton spied on Donald Trump. As for where America’s Mayor is keeping such vital information? His bedroom, of course.

While discussing special counsel John Durham‘s investigation into why the Department of Justice began its probe into Trump’s alleged connection to Russia during the 2016 election, Giuliani latched onto the current MAGA talking point that Clinton’s campaign hired a spy to look into Trump. The embattled Trump attorney claimed he could bolster it, if you just step on into the room where the magic happens. Via Mediaite:

Giuliani then said that while people might be inclined to think that claims Clinton spied on Trump are mere “gobbledygook,” he has receipts.

“But it’s gobbledygook supported by about 1,000 pieces of evidence, none of which have been revealed yet.”

Giuliani concluded, “I happen to have it in my bedroom, or my den, actually. I’ve had it there for years.”

As Giuliani himself admits, most experts have dismissed the spying claims against Clinton. In fact, Durham’s own legal filing doesn’t contain the bombshells MAGA world thinks it does.

“The filing does not specify whether any of the data collection occurred while Trump was in office,” NBC News reports. “It also does not allege that the content of any communications from the Executive Office of the President (EOP) or any parties were compromised or read and there’s no indication data collection went beyond identifying where the internet traffic came from and where it went.”

But, sure, Rudy has the smoking gun. It’s just right over here by the bed…

(Via Mediaite)