Category: Worldwide

Big Sean released his highly-anticipated record Detroit 2 last week and on it, the rapper offered insight into his struggles with love, relationships, and mental health. The rapper also addresses his riff with Kendrick Lamar a few years back on the Nipsey Hussle collaboration “Deep Reverence.” In a recent interview, Sean said Kendrick reached out after hearing the verse and he hopes their reconciliation can serve as inspiration to fans.

Big Sean recently discussed his record in an interview on Sway In The Morning. Speaking to Sway, Sean said Nipsey’s death made him reflect on the importance of interpersonal relationships, saying “something shifted” in him and his understanding of respect.

“Something shifted in me. Something shifted in a lot of us because he was on an upswing of being a greater version of himself. He was tuning into his highest self. It hurt real bad to see my brother go like that. I remember being on a plane to go perform at a festival next to Punch and he was like, ‘Yo you should really reach out to Kendrick.’ I was like, ‘Nah, he knows it’s all good.’ […] Immediately I got his number and I actually did text him another time but I had the wrong number and I never went any further than that, I just left it there. So when I reached out to him, the mutual respect me and him have for each other is that of kings and brothers. We respect each other to the fullest.”

Sean went on to explain the whole situation was a matter of he-said-she-said confusion: “The situation was, he thought that people around him were telling him something, people around me were telling me something, and it just really wasn’t the case,” he said. “So, when we were able to talk, it was a good reconciliation and it was a good mutual respect. Even when he heard ‘Deep Reverence,’ he hit me and was like ‘Yo, I appreciate you showing that love. I appreciate that love in the verse. You and Nip went crazy. Y’all gassed on it.’ It was good to get that response from your brother. Because, on that record, I just was keeping it open and honest and real. I wasn’t trying to hold back. It was not out of disrespect, either. It was out of respect for myself and the things I’ve learned along the way.”

Listen to Big Sean discuss his relationship with Kendrick on Sway In The Morning above, around the 12-minute mark. Detroit 2 is out now via G.O.O.D. Music. Get it here.

Nipsey Hussle is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The entire west coast of the United States is either on fire or covered in some measure of smoke and ash at the moment. We’ve seen photos of the midday sky the wrong color, from eery orange to apocalypse red. Entire towns have burned down, air quality indexes are hovering in the hazardous zone for millions, and our skilled, brave firefighters are overwhelmed.

Right now, the west needs all the help it can get.

Enter the volunteer firefighters of Guanajuato, Mexico who have arrived in Southern Oregon to help try to get the raging blazes under control. Known as the Heroic Fire Department of Guanajuato, the firefighters come from a city in central Mexico that has a 50-year “sister city” relationship with the Oregon city of Ashland. According to Portland Monthly, the five firefighters dispatched to Oregon have trained in the area before, which means they can jump right in.

The men include Captain Aldo Iván Ruiz, Captain Juan Armando Alvarez Villegas, Sargent Jorge Luis Anguiano Jasso, Sargent Luis Alfonso Campos Martínez and firefighter Miguel Ángel Hernández Lara. They arrived in Oregon Thursday, along with the city’s mayor, Alejandro Navarro. The group has already gotten started and are “very moved by the terrible impact of the fire on families and their homes,” Mayor Navarro wrote in a tweet, adding the hashtag #PrayForAshland.

Ashland is a picturesque town in Southern Oregon best known for its 85-year-old, Tony award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The Alameda Fire that threatens the town and has forced evacuations is just one of many fires burning in Oregon. Today, the New York Times reported that 500,000 people are under evacuation orders in the state. That’s 10% of Oregon’s population. Other states have begun sending firefighters to help as well.

Five firefighters might not sound like a lot, but every set of skilled hands helps—especially individuals that are familiar with fighting fires in a specific area. While this story is a lovely example of support, it also highlights one of the many benefits of maintaining positive relations across borders and nurturing international friendship and cooperation.

When need arises, friends and allies step up to help. Thank you, Guanajuato, for sending help to a state that isn’t even in your own country. Your generosity is definitely appreciated.

Though Britney Spears has expressed her support of the #FreeBritney movement, her father and conservator Jamie Spears still thinks it’s “a joke.” The singer has reportedly been pushing to make some of her court documents public, but Jamie doesn’t think she understands the consequences.

According to a report from TMZ, the elder Spears filed new documents that say the court needs to determine if Britney has “the capacity to understand the consequences of her waiver” before she opens up parts of her case to the public eye. Jamie is against making medical documents public, saying it could harm the singer if the public is aware of her “sensitive medical issues.”

In other news, Paris Hilton also recently weighed in on her conservatorship. In an interview with Andy Cohen, Hilton said she has “no control” of her life: “I love her so much and I feel if you’re an adult, you should be able to live your life and not be controlled. I think maybe that stems from me being controlled so much, so I can understand how that would feel, and I can’t imagine right now if that was still happening to me. After just working her whole life and working so hard… she’s this icon and I just feel like she has no control of her life whatsoever, and I just don’t think that’s fair.”

Nomadland, which just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, firlmly establishes Chloé Zhao as one of the best directors working today. Not that this declaration couldn’t be seen coming with her last film, 2017’s highly acclaimed The Rider. But Nomadland is just one of those types of movies that announces a director’s presence with authority. It’s the type of movie that changes everything for an up and coming director. At this point, it would be an absolute shock if it isn’t somehow nominated for Best Picture.

There’s a scene in Nomadland so beautiful I gasped as it whisked my brain to some of Terrence Malick’s early work, Badlands and Day of Heaven. The very next scene portrays Fern (Frances McDormand) wearing a shirt that says “Badlands Recreational Vehicle Park.” So maybe the kind of imagery Zhao is displaying isn’t lost on her. Maybe it’s a coincidence. But I do think a pretty good argument could be made that the types of movies Zhao is making right now is a lot closer to early Malick than what we are seeing from current Malick. In that Zhao is a master of filming these beautiful landscapes and nature and weaving into the plot of her tale of America in, at least what looks like, effortlessly. Nomadland will almost physically take you places. It’s a beautiful, absolutely gorgeous motion picture.

Set in 2012 in northern Nevada, a local mine goes out of business that puts scores of people out of work. Fern (the aforementioned McDormand), whose husband has recently passed away, works odd jobs here and there, including for Amazon. But when her contract comes there comes to an end, there aren’t any jobs left in the area so she hits the road in her makeshift van/RV looking for work and, well, whatever.

She meets up with a commune of some sort. Well, less a commune (at least, there’s no organized way of living and people come and go pretty frequently) and more just a group of drifters who either aren’t really sure what they’re supposed to be doing in this country anymore, or the country has simply left them behind. Left them for dead. And instead of just rolling over and giving up, at least they have the scenery to look at. At least they can say they are doing something before it’s time to go – a certainty that’s addressed by the travelers as, “See you down the road.”

There are no politics in this movie, at least not any politics that are mentioned, even though a lot of these people find themselves in this situation because their government failed them. But growing up in Missouri, I knew a lot of people like the people portrayed in this movie. I have family like the people portrayed in this movie. And I have no doubt who they will be voting for this November. And these aren’t the screaming crazy people we see on television. These are the people who think the current president cares about them and are also too proud to take what they perceive as a handout, even though we’ve all paid into what’s supposed to be a safety net of a system for most of our lives.

Fern makes her way from landscape to landscape. We see the desert morph into the badlands. We see mountains transform into forests. She’s a caring person who is always quick to share whatever she may have from stop to stop, but more than anything she just wants to keep moving.

There’s something very solitary about Frances McDormand’s performance, even though there are plenty of other people in the movie. Fern meets people and sometimes we see them again. Sometimes we don’t. that’s just the way it goes with this particular lifestyle. But even the people she gets closest to don’t seem particularly permanent. Later in the film we learn more of her motivations and each one is heartbreaking. Why she feels she needs to keep moving, never letting anyone get too close. It’s a stunning performance from McDormand, so much so that it’s difficult to not want to declare something hyperbolic like this is her best performance. But then I remember I feel like that after a lot of Francis McDormand movies. But there’s something special about this one. It’s like she’s the only person in the movie. But she’s not. David Strathairn is in this movie and is fantastic. But it’s almost like Fern is on a boat by herself. It’s her own All Is Lost, but instead of at sea, she’s floating along aimlessly in America, beside so many others just like her.

Chloé Zhao’s next film is Marvel’s Eternals, which was mostly finished before the pandemic hit. I have no doubt it will be a stunning piece of science fiction. And I know Kevin Feige is smart enough to use Zhao’s talents and not hide her unique voice behind CGI and explosions. Still, after The Rider and now Nomadland, no one quite gets this side of America like Zhao does. And I am curious how that will translate to immortal beings made by aliens. Then again, no one is better than Zhao than presenting Americans as strangers in their own land. So, immortal beings that resemble actual aliens from might just be secondhand at this point.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Like every other industry, award shows have been faced with challenges in light of the pandemic. Many shows, like the BET Awards have opted to go 100 percent virtual, streaming pre-recorded performances and award announcements. This year’s 33rd annual Hispanic Heritage Awards is doing just that and will be streaming their event as well as honoring artists like Selena Gomez and Bad Bunny.

During the ceremony, Gomez will be honored with the Arts Award for her work as a musician, director, actor, and now beauty mogul. Jose Antonio Tijerino, president and CEO of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, said in a statement that he is “thrilled to recognize Selena Gomez with the Arts Award for her impact on American and global culture through her music [and] movies but also for her courage as an advocate for mental health.”

Tijerino continued to praise Gomez opening up about her mental health challenges, particularly her bipolar disorder diagnosis: “There’s power in vulnerability and Selena has made it okay to talk about difficult issues we all deal with, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Selena is a role model for so many for so many reasons.”

Along with Gomez, Bad Bunny will also be receiving an award. The Puerto Rican singer will be granted the Vision Award for being a “powerful voice” in music.

The 33rd Hispanic Heritage Award airs 10/6 on PBS. Watch it here.

The Houston Rockets have not had the services of Danuel House for the last two games. House has been at the center of an investigation by the league over a woman showing up at his room in the NBA’s Bubble, which has led to him being posted up in his hotel room as the NBA tried to determine what exactly happened.

The investigation reached its conclusion, and as a result, the league determined that House had violated the rules and regulations of the Bubble. He will leave Orlando immediately and will not return. Here’s what the league had to say in a statement.

The NBA has concluded its investigation of a recent violation of campus health and safety protocols. The findings are that: (i) Houston Rockets forward Danuel House had a guest in his hotel room over multiple hours on September 8 who was not authorized to be on campus and (ii) no evidence was found that other players or staff had contact with the guest or were involved in this incident.

Houston is currently down 3-1 in its Western Conference Semifinal series against the Los Angeles Lakers. House’s absence has been noticeable, as he had average 11.4 points and 5.8 rebounds this postseason and turned into one of the team’s better two-way perimeter players. There is no word on whether he will be subject to any additional reprimand beyond leaving the Bubble.

Burgeoning rap star MBNel was born and raised in the gritty streets of Stockton, California and he represents the way of life that many people are subjected to what is reportedly one of the most dangerous cities in America. His storytelling capabilities are both aggressive and compassionate, always on a melodic and understanding beat. He raps from the heart about what he knows growing up as a first-generation Filipino-American and his story has certainly struck a chord with a fanbase that has been ever-growing since he released “In My City” nearly two years ago and kicked off The Yellow Tapes mixtape series with Stupid Young.

This fall, Nel is continuing to offer a lyrical space of hope with his Child Of The Trenches mixtape series and its second installation Child Of The Trenches II is expected to be released on September 24. Today, the Muddy Boyz rapper officially released his single “Thru The Night” to DSPs as one of six songs off the project. Fan-favorite “Sincerely” is also expected to make an appearance on Child Of The Trenches II.

Ahead of the EP’s release, I spoke with MBNel about Child Of The Trenches, what fans can expect with the follow-up and his favorite tracks from the project, as part of our Fall Music Preview.

Check out the full interview with MBNel below.

She’s All That is one of the many movies getting a reboot once making movies is a thing again, this time as a gender-swapped version supposedly titled He’s All That. And apparently its star will come not from the world of young Hollywood, but TikTok.

According to Variety, Addison Rae Easterling, who has millions of followers on the social media app that Donald Trump is actively trying to kill, will star in the role inspired by Freddie Prinze Jr.’s original role in a modern-day retelling of a movie that’s been made several times over the years:

The gender-swapped reboot, titled “He’s All That,” has been in the works for years and recently started to gain traction again. Mark Waters, the filmmaker behind “Mean Girls” and “Freaky Friday,” is set to direct.

The film will reimagine the plot from a teenage girl’s perspective, with Easterling taking on a role inspired by Freddie Prinze Jr.’s Zackary Siler from the original. “She’s All That” — a modern-day take on George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion” and the 1964 movie “My Fair Lady” — centered a popular high school jock who, after getting dumped by his girlfriend, attempts to transform one of the school’s nerdy outcasts into the next prom queen.

The report makes it clear the word “influencer” will be thrown around a bit in the movie, with Easterling playing one on screen who tries to rehab a dorky foil’s image into that of high school royalty. In real life, she has more than 58 million followers on TikTok and reportedly makes millions in various endorsement deals. So the character won’t be much of a stretch for this modern-day retelling of influencer meets nerd, who will then be destined to become an influencer in their own right. Hopefully they’ll skip the pizza scene this time around.

(Via Variety)

Along with with being one half of the rap duo Run The Jewels, Killer Mike is a known political activist. The rapper has publicly supported Bernie Sanders‘ presidential campaign and spoken at press conferences in his state. Earlier this week, Mike met with Georgia’s conservative governor, Brian Kemp, to discuss policies he’s advocated for in the past. The meeting drew a number of criticisms from fans who said the rapper was being used as a “prop” for Kemp’s political gain. Trying to quell the backlash, Mike and Kemp further addressed their meeting on a local radio show.

Mike and Kemp gave an overview of the topics they covered in their meeting on 95.5 WSB’s Word On The Street. “It’s really kind of interesting that some people are upset about us having that conversation. Quite honestly, we need to have more of that in today’s world, in my opinion,” the Governor said.

Starting off the summary of their their meeting, Mike applauded Kemp’s character:

“More than anything, I’m a Southerner. I’m a Black man. I’ve been raised in a traditionally Democratic city. But my state is pretty conservative, always has been. So as a Southern man, I connected pretty much instantly with him. Politics and policy don’t matter to me as much as human decency and principles, and he seemed to be a principled human being when I talked to him. I’ve only met him once, I was glad to meet him. I hope we get a chance to congregate and talk more and move Georgia to a more progressive place.”

The rapper also explained the details of their conversation, saying they discussed human trafficking in the state, legislation that will help young Black Georgians learn trade skills, as well as programs that decrease the number of incarcerated individuals.

“I told the governor I believe he has a strong chance of being a two-term governor, and if that’s going to be the case, I’d like to see minority contracts rise from 2% to between 8-10%. I’d like to see a program created, as early as high school, pushes in particular working-class poor men and African-American young men into trades because over the next 20 years, Georgia’s going to be growing. Whether it’s the port down in Savannah, where my wife is from, or the city of Atlanta, or the agriculture of southern Georgia, I’d like to see us prepare our young men to fill those jobs because we need fathers, we need husbands, and we need stability, in particular.”

Closing out the conversation Kemp said he hopes to meet with more constituents of color: “The last thing I really wanted to do is to come down and see some of his barber shops and grab a haircut and really see and experience some of what’s going on in that community and in that neighborhood, and just keep trying to learn about what the issues are in all parts of our state.”

Listen to the full conversation on The Word On The Street here.

After the attacks on 9/11, the U.S government has had little problem spending over $6.4 trillion on the War on Terror. For some perspective, the U.S. government’s total expenditures last year was $4.4 trillion.

Direct combat has killed over 800,000 people, including 350,000 civilians, and displaced over 37 million people.

The U.S, government has unflinchingly wasted all of this blood and treasure but has dragged its feet repeatedly to pay the healthcare bills for first-responders to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Tens of thousands of police, firemen, and rescue workers who sifted through the smoldering rubble on 9/11, while breathing in a toxic cloud of debris, have since come down with a host of health issues, including rhinosinusitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), asthma, sleep apnea, cancer, posttraumatic stress disorder, respiratory disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, and anxiety disorder.

“We will never know the composition of that cloud, because the wind carried it away, but people were breathing and eating it,” Dr. Michael Crane, at the World Trade Center Health Program, told Newsweek in 2016. “What we do know is that it had all kinds of god-awful things in it. Burning jet fuel. Plastics, metal, fiberglass, asbestos. It was thick, terrible stuff.”

In America, even with insurance, chronic disease can leave a family in financial ruins.

Recent analysis has found that close to 10,000 first responders have been diagnosed with cancer and over 2,000 deaths have been attributed to illnesses caused by the attacks. It’s estimated that more people have died from toxic exposure than were killed in the actual attack.

Former “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart has been a tireless advocate for the 9/11 first responders. Last year, when funds for the most recently-authorized bill to help pay for first responders’ healthcare, became depleted, Stewart gave a passionate speech to an empty Congress.

“It’s an embarrassment to the country,” Mr. Stewart said, criticizing members of Congress for skipping the hearing.

“And you should be ashamed of yourselves,” he scolded.

After Stewart’s rebuke, the House Judiciary Committee unanimously voted to send the bill to the House floor for consideration. The Victim Compensation Fund was then been extended through 2092, funding health care for first responders for life.

Now Stewart, 9/11 activist John Feal, and FDNY hero, Ray Pfeifer, are the subject of a new documentary on their collective fight to ensure healthcare and compensation for the thousands of ailing first responders.

The film is called “No Responders Left Behind” and has yet to have a release date.

No Responders Left Behind Official Trailer

www.youtube.com

“John Feal and all the first responders have done so much for me, for the community, for the city, for the country. To be able to repay some of that debt that I feel I owe them personally, that we all owe them, is the best feeling,” Stewart said, according to Variety.

“Being a small part of this journey is the one thing I’m most proud of. I will follow John anywhere he wants to lead me next,” he added.

“For many, the last 18.5 years has been about passing legislation and fighting for justice for those affected by the aftermath of 9/11. I cannot say the same for me,” said Feal.

“It has never been about passing legislation, donating money or the accolades,” he continued. “It has always been about the journey from where we started to not knowing when it will end. It has been about the friendships and all the people I love and now call my family.”

The news of the documentary comes as reports show the Trump administration has siphoned off $4 million from the FDNY World Trade Center Health Program. The program treats FDNY firefighters and medics suffering from 9/11-related illnesses.

“Here we have sick World Trade Center-exposed firefighters and EMS workers, at a time when the city is having difficult financial circumstances due to COVID-19, and we’re not getting the money we need to be able to treat these heroes,” David Prezant, the FDNY’s Chief Medical Officer, said according to New York Daily News.

After years of complaining about the mysterious funding depletion, Prezant consulted Long Island Republican Representative Pete King and it was discovered it was due to a Medicare dispute with the state of New York.

King intends to confront Vice President Mike Pence over the issue.

“I gotta tell him,” King said. “Forget the politics. I don’t want to sound naive, but this is terrible, absolutely inexcusable.”