Category: Worldwide

So far, the best way to hear Kanye West’s album Donda is to attend one of his stadium listening parties for it, as the album hasn’t actually been released yet (despite what some billboards indicate). Well, another one of those is reportedly coming up, as rumors indicate, but instead of Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, he’s heading to Chicago.

As NME notes, somebody who claims to work on the security staff at the city’s Soldier Field (where the NFL’s Chicago Bears play their home games) indicated that a “major concert event” is taking place there on August 26. They believe the event in question is a Donda listening event, writing on Twitter, “I work for security at soldier field and we recently had an event added under ‘major concert event’ and I’m very confident that it’s for Kanye’s listening party. If it’s true, then Kanye will be performing in Chicago at soldier field on the 26th.” The tweet includes screenshots of what appears to be an app related to the person’s security work.

Additionally, minutes before that tweet, Fake Shore Drive‘s Andrew Barber also hinted at the Chicago event on Twitter.

Neither West nor anybody from his team have offered any public comment on the rumors, so it remains to be seen if the August 26 event is a real thing.

After her stunning self-titled breakout album in 2017, Bedouine has been a staple in the acoustic nu-folk world ever since. Bedouine, aka Azniv Korkejian, followed up her first record with a second song cycle, Bird Songs Of A Killjoy in 2019, and after a year and some change spent on lockdown, she’s got a third record ready to release this fall. Waysides is due out on October 15, introduced today with the tranquil single “The Wave,” which Korkejian explained is a song about a past grief.

“I wrote this about the loss of a close friend, specifically the swell of emotion I try to resign myself to when thinking of her premature absence,” she said of the track. “She was someone who had an uncomplicated relationship with life and living. I often wondered, ‘Why her and not me?’ I was trying to practice the things I was learning, to surrender to the fear and the grief… and the fear of grief. I haven’t entirely worked through it. Writing ‘The Wave’ was a reminder to feel my feelings. At a time of such collective loss I imagine there are people out there that could relate. It feels cathartic to share.”

Check out the new song above and the full Waysides tracklist below.

1. “The Solitude”
2. “It Wasn’t Me”
3. “I Don’t Need The Light”
4. “Easy”
5. “You Never Leave Me”
6. “The Wave”
7. “This Machine”
8. “Forever Everette”
9. “Sonnet 104”
10. “Songbird”

Waysides is out 10/15 via Bedouine Music. Pre-order it here.

(SPOILERS for What If…? will obviously be found below.)

Disney+’s Loki officially launched the MCU’s multiverse. That’s a key storytelling tool that paves the way for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and, maybe (just maybe!) will make Jeremy Renner’s lead character in Hawkeye a more interesting hero than he’s been thus far. For those reasons and more, What If…? lands in a proper place in Marvel Studios’ timeline of films and TV series. Because this is an animated show, as well, the show can be even more daring while most of the MCU actors voice their characters in strange new scenarios. This week, we got to hear Chadwick Boseman’s voice onscreen for his final outing as T’Challa, although he led a very different life than in Black Panther. That seemingly small change led to a domino effect across the MCU.

It’s a novel series, and Marvel can use it to troll the heck out of people, too. That wasn’t the case with Peggy Carter taking the super-soldier serum, but it sure as heck happened this week. T’Challa was revealed to have been taken by Yondu from Wakanda as a child. That puts Peter Quill apparently out of the game, and there’s also an incredible twist here that shades Star-Lord’s reputation as the worst hero in the MCU. Remember this: if Chris Pratt’s character hadn’t lost his temper in Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos may not have acquired all the stones and put an end to half the life in the universe.

In What If…?, however, T’Challa’s wisdom, clout, and grace resulted in him convincing Thanos not to steal the Infinity Stones and, instead, to find another way to reallocate the world resources. So not only does T’Challa prevent the genocidal Snap, but we also got to see Thanos, looking thicc for real (not as a joke), enjoying himself at a bar.

From there, we learned about the Embers of Genesis being able to terraform an entire ecosystem with nutrients, so yep, that means that the MCU never experiences the snap in this reality. That, right there, not only changes everything we know (but only for this show), and we also got to enjoy seeing Thanos holding a dog. Also, Drax the Destroyer surfaced as a bartender and Star-Lord fanboy, and Nebula looked absolutely stunning, compared to her usual miserable state (before Thanos’ kids later beat the stuffing out of him). In short, T’Challa being Star-Lord did wonders for the universe at large.

Let’s just say that people freaking loved the Thanos twist on Twitter.

Disney+’s ‘What If…?’ streams new episodes on Wednesdays.

This past weekend was supposed to be a celebratory one for Lizzo, as she just returned with her first single in almost two years: “Rumors,” with Cardi B. But it was rudely interrupted by trolls, who appeared on her social media pages with hateful comments. The posts pushed the singer to tears and she hopped on Instagram Live to share her thoughts. “For the most part, it doesn’t hurt my feelings. I don’t care,” she said during the livestream. “I just think when I’m working this hard, my tolerance gets lower, my patience is lower, I’m more sensitive and it gets to me.”

Now one social media platform is stepping up to defend her. According to TMZ, Facebook is coming to the defense of the singer by deleting a number of the hateful comments that were posted on her page. Furthermore, the platform is taking the extra step to delete the accounts of multiple trolls. They added that the platform will review additional reports of hateful comments on a continuous basis.

The news comes after Cardi defended Lizzo on Twitter after watching a clip of her Instagram Livestream. “When you stand up for yourself they claim your problematic & sensitive,” the rapper wrote. “When you don’t they tear you apart until you crying like this. Whether you skinny,big,plastic, they going to always try to put their insecurities on you.” She added, “Remember these are nerds looking at the popular table.”

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

Back in July, there was a disturbance in the Supernatural realm: Stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles appeared to be fighting. Ackles had announced he and his wife were working on a prequel to the long-running show. This was apparently news to Padalecki, who fired off a tweet dripping in sarcasm and fury. But by the next day, Padalecki assured the base that things were cool between them. Now, a few weeks later, he’s further clarified what went down.

In an interview with The New York Times (as caught by Deadline), Padalecki said that his pissy-sounding tweet wasn’t actually that pissy. He was simply trying to tell people that he wasn’t involved in the project.

“It was just one of those things that because it was online, and people were assuming I was part of it, I really wanted to just say: ‘Hey, I’m not keeping a secret from you guys. I just don’t know about this,’” he told NYT. “And I should be old enough to know better than to put something out there and expect that people will understand.”

He admitted that social media isn’t always the best place for nuanced communication. “It’s hard to tweet a specific tone. If you write it online, it’s like, ‘Oh, he doesn’t know! They’re going to kill each other! The world is ending!’” he said. “And I’m like, ‘No, no, no.’ [Laughs.] I try to avoid social media as much as possible because of that.”

When he did speak to Ackles following the snafu, he got his answer. “He just kind of explained: ‘Man, it’s not picked up yet. It’s not even written yet.’ He knows and I know how much ‘Supernatural’ means to both of us, and it wasn’t a secret he was trying to keep, necessarily. It was just something that he didn’t feel really even existed yet,” the actor said. “But he has been like: ‘Hey, I’ll let you know what’s going on [going forward].’”

The promised show, entitled The Winchesters, wouldn’t even be about Sam and Dean but about their parents, John and Mary, showing how they met and fell in love. It will be told from the perspective of Ackles’ Dean. Will we wind up seeing Padalecki’s Sam after all? Considering the project was still in the larval stage a month ago, you’ll probably have plenty of time before you find out.

(Via Deadline and The New York Times)

It’s still clear when Kanye West’s tenth album Donda will arrive. It was first announced last summer, and though Kanye played new music, presumably from it, during a July listening session in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, it still hasn’t been released. At this point, all fans can do is fantasize about what it is. That’s what one person, who unveiled a bizarre theory about Kanye’s tenth album, did.

The fan shared their thoughts on the project to a subreddit page under the title “[Theory] Kanye Wants To Make The First Official Unreleased Album.” The user believes Kanye’s “concept with donda is an album that has materialized itself into existence without being officially released.” They add that the songs on Donda will play on the radio, the album will be reviewed as the rapper “wants everyone to pretend and act like it’s out” — but no one will ever be able to buy it.

To conclude, they point to the mask Kanye has worn over the past month to promote Donda as well as the fact that the album currently has a completely black cover art to argue that the project is “an album you can’t see.” They added, “It doesn’t seem real. but the music exists. the experience exists. and it will be talked about for generations to come.”
Truthfully, this sounds similar to what releasing Donda as an NFT would feel like. But people will just have to keep waiting.

You can read the full theory above and check out what some fans had to say about it below.

https://twitter.com/ElliottBros1/status/1427649761906135041?s=20

Kid Cudi is looking to make his experience with marijuana a bit less laborious. The rapper sent out a tweet earlier this week calling for a specific kind of help. “I need a professional blunt roller in LA,” he wrote. “Hit @Shift_leader06 w resume. Serious inquires only!!”

The rapper’s appreciation for marijuana goes as far back as 2010, with his sophomore album, Man On The Moon II: The Legend Of Mr. Rager. It was filled with songs that referenced weed, including a pair of tracks titled “Marijuana” and “Ashin’ Kusher.” The role of the professional blunt roller is one that could amount to a big payoff for a lucky individual. While it might not be the $5,000 per day, the amount Quavo pays his assistant, it probably wouldn’t be shabby either.

Cudi is not the first rapper to seek a professional blunt roller. Two years ago, Snoop Dogg revealed that he hired one to work for him at the time. “That motherf*cker is like Lurch from the Addams Family: ‘You rang?’” Snoop said about the blunt roller. “That’s his J-O-B — his occupation,” he added. “On his resume, it says, ‘what do you do? I’m a blunt roller. P-B-R, professional blunt roller.” That same year, Waka Flocka Flame shared that he was offering $50,000 for a professional blunt roller of his own.

The Los Angeles Lakers have three open roster spots for next season. The top of their roster is presumably set — headlined, of course, by LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and offseason acquisition Russell Westbrook — but there are still spots to fill.

Per Yahoo! Sports’ Chris Haynes, the Lakers have recently worked out three veteran guards — Isaiah Thomas, Mike James, and Darren Collison — as they look to add a backup point guard and perhaps a wing to round out the roster. Per Haynes, Thomas also worked out with James and Westbrook in Los Angeles on Tuesday. No signing, per Hayes, is “imminent” for any of the three players.

Considering a third guard makes sense for Los Angeles. Since coming to the Lakers, James has wanted playmaking around him and, despite adding both Westbrook and Kendrick Nunn this summer, a “break glass in case of emergency” option makes sense.

Thomas is the most notable name, considering he played with James for half a season in Cleveland and hasn’t really been an effective player since his last season in Boston. His last stint in the NBA was on a 10-day deal with the Pelicans last year, and were he to sign with the Lakers — who, incidentally, he played for after the Cavs traded him away — it’d be something of a real return for him, even if his role doesn’t seem big.

Collison, meanwhile, would be attempting his own comeback, as he retired in 2019 after a second stint with the Pacers. James made an NBA return of his own last year, appearing in 13 games for the Nets and contributing to their postseason run after playing a few seasons overseas.

Despite the clear and very obvious risks that surround COVID as it continues to spread throughout the country, there are a number of notable individuals who have taken a stance against masks. One of them is Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who recently tested positive for COVID-19. Last month, he used an executive order to ban the use of mask mandates across the state. An appeals court later issued a temporary restraining order that stopped Abbott from continuing the ban. And now Carrie Underwood is against them, too.

A fan of the country singer noticed that Underwood liked a tweet that displayed a clip of Matt Walsh, a prominent right-wing leader, speaking to the Nashville School Board. The video shows Walsh talking about “the cruel and indefensible mask mandate for children.” People were shocked at Underwood’s decision to like the post, and they did not hold back with their reactions. The interaction ushered a laundry list of responses from people on social media, with some making puns out her song titles and others referencing her time on American Idol in their posts.

You can scroll through it all in the tweets below and check out the tweet that started it above.

We’ve all spent several days watching the news from Afghanistan with a mixture of horror, sadness, and frustration. Images of crowds of people clamoring to get onto planes at the Kabul airport, human beings clinging to a flying jet before falling to their deaths from the sky, hoards of men, women, and children desperate to escape a violent, extremist regime crammed like sardines into U.S. cargo planes—it’s all too much.

We know there are so many people we can’t help. That’s the tragic reality. But there are people we can help. And that’s happening, right now, on the internet and on the ground in Afghanistan.

A humanitarian mission has been pulled together by former U.S. military and special operations personnel to get hundreds of people on the Taliban’s kill list out of the country as soon as possible. The mission includes two planes, deep connections on the ground in Afghanistan, and the logistical know-how to get a group of 300+ women’s rights activists, translators and their families, as well as other high-value targets who are in imminent danger out of the country.

Several collaborators are coordinating the mission.

Sheffield Ford, a U.S. veteran with 24 years of service within the Army’s Special Forces, runs the private special missions company Raven Advisory, LLC. Ford was deployed in Afghanistan during his active duty time and has extensive knowledge of how things work on the ground there, as well as connections to the people in need of rescue.

Karen Kraft, an Army veteran who runs VME, a professional association of U.S. military veterans working in media and entertainment, also has connections to Afghans on the Taliban kill list. She is coordinating with people on the ground to get them out. Ford and Kraft have been working together for about a week to get specific people on the flight manifest who have been thoroughly vetted and known to be targets of the Taliban.

The planes, being supplied by a defense related products trading company, have pilots who are dedicated to carrying out this humanitarian mission. Two piloted aircraft are ready and prepared to go in within the next day to bring the people on the manifest to a country of asylum. The cost is the only real hangup, as each plane full of passengers (including fuel, crew, security, clearances, etc.) costs $225,000. (Looking at it another way, it costs $1500 per life saved, which seems a lot less daunting.) The hope was to get at least one planeload of people out, but mission operators were pushing for two or more.

Now here’s the really incredible part. The money for the mission is coming from everyday people who care and want to do something to help. Through a GoFundMe campaign, the incredible online community built by meme artist/fundraiser extraordinaire Tommy Marcus (aka @Quentin.Quarantino) showed up big time.

The funds for the first planeload were raised in just 38 minutes.

And in a little over an hour, people had donated the full amount needed for two planeloads. 11,000 people donating $550,000, for an average donation of $50 a person, just like that. Amazing.

The goal has now been increased to $1.1 million in the hopes of getting more planeloads of people out. Any funds raised that do not end up being used for the rescue will be donated to the International Women’s Media Foundation, which is helping protect women journalists who are at high-risk in Afghanistan.

Things are moving fast in Afghanistan and there are lots of moving parts in such a rescue mission, but this is what people can do when we rally together, look for able and willing partners to team up with, and invite others to contribute.

As GOOD’s Head of Content and Innovation Gabe Reilich (who also served as an adviser for the mission) says:

“For everyone out there who is tired of the finger-pointing, tired of the virtue-signaling without action—this is for us. The opportunity to make a real impact, save real lives, help those people who need help immediately. It’s felt hopeless sitting on the sidelines watching this tragedy unfold, and now it’s possible to actually help.

Let there be no mistake, human decency and action make it possible to change the world—even if that’s just the world of one individual, one life being helped, one life being saved.”

Indeed. Read more about the mission and the fundraiser here.

CORRECTION: The original publication of this article contained the wrong name of the company that owns the planes being used. That information has been updated.