Category: Worldwide

After a collective decision to strike instead of playing Wednesday night’s slate of games, the WNBA came together overnight at the IMG Academy campus in Bradenton, Fla., for a candlelight vigil, which included a moment of silence and speeches from Commissioner Cathy Engelbert as well as Players’ Association executive committee members like Nneka Ogwumike and Layshia Clarendon.

ESPN’s WNBA insider, Holly Rowe, captured footage of the vigil.

“I just want to say how proud I am of all of you,” Engelbert says. “What you’ve displayed over the course of a very difficult season, what you’ve displayed tonight, I just want to say on behalf of the league that we’re here to listen to your fears, listen to your frustrations, listen to your hopes, listen to your goals and your dreams, and be supportive of that, because this is a very difficult time for so many of you, I know.”

In a show of unity, the vigil allowed for players to come together in a way they aren’t often able to, even despite being in the “Wubble” together. That sentiment was expressed by Clarendon, who made a point to say, “we are not alone … and there is no wrong answer.”

Clarendon also read a passage from the Maya Angelou poem “Still I Rise,” which she said could serve as a reminder of how much power the players all have. Las Vegas Aces head coach Bill Laimbeer came forward as well to acknowledge the power athletes hold at this point in our country, adding “that is a good thing.”

After a night that featured much back-and-forth about whether to play or not, the WNBA ultimately came forward as a unified front to protest the evening of games and followed it up as a community with this vigil, coming together in mourning while also reinforcing their purpose for keeping the platform of the WNBA season.

NBA players plan on resuming their postseason. According to multiple media reports on Thursday morning, the Bubble-wide meeting among players that began at 11 a.m. concluded with them coming to an agreement on playing games again, something that seemed up in the air following a contentious meeting that occurred the previous evening, when the two Los Angeles teams voiced their support for leaving the Orlando Bubble altogether.

That, however, had changed, with several reports indicating that everyone is on board with starting the season back up following a day-long strike.

One of the teams that was on board with calling the whole thing off last night, the Lakers, reportedly held several meetings following the resumption of Wednesday’s meeting to talk things through.

That seems to have been one of the reasons why things went the way they did yesterday. One of the reason why players were not collectively on the same page reportedly stems from the fact that the Milwaukee Bucks, which kicked off the strike on Wednesday, did so without consultation with other players.

One reason why players are on board with resuming playing is everything that has happened up to this point to get to and play in the Bubble, while players’ families will be able to join them in the Bubble soon to provide some “sense of normalcy.”

The big question that looms now is what’s next? Players seemed ready to end the Bubble experiment altogether in the name of fighting systemic inequality and the repeated killings of Black individuals by the police, and while this strike brought that battle into the spotlight following Kenosha officers shooting Jacob Blake in the back and paralyzing him, players want conversations to be turned into actions.

According to reports, there will be meetings among players and, eventually, owners to map that all out. And when it comes to games, those could resume as early as Friday, but the belief is apparently that they’ll start back up sometime this weekend.

What players end up wanting owners to commit to — More money being invested into communities of color? Every NBA arena turned into voting centers? Asking them to use the power they inherently possess as billionaires to turn the heat up on politicians to make drastic changes? — remains to be seen, but it does seem like these questions will be answered sometime later on Thursday.

Reports of a live-action Resident Evil series coming to Netflix have been floating around for almost two years now, but in an exciting move for fans of the hit video game franchise (that already spawned several movies), the streaming giant has confirmed that a show is officially in the works. The new Resident Evil series will be written by Supernatural co-showrunner Andrew Dabb, who promises to deliver an experience that stays true to the horror games while also welcoming new viewers. Via Deadline:

“Resident Evil is my favorite game of all time,” said Dabb, who will serve as showrunner. “I’m incredibly excited to tell a new chapter in this amazing story and bring the first ever Resident Evil series to Netflix members around the world.

“For every type of Resident Evil fan, including those joining us for the first time, the series will be complete with a lot of old friends, and some things (bloodthirsty, insane things) people have never seen before.”

According to Deadline, the all new story will stretch across dual timelines with the first focusing on twin sisters Jade and Billie Wesker as they move to New Raccoon City, a “manufactured, corporate town” where things will naturally go south as they do in Resident Evil. Meanwhile, the second timeline jumps thirty years into the future where Jade struggles to survive in a world where only 15 million people are left on Earth, due to the presence of six billion monsters. The show will feature signature elements from the games including monster-slaying action sequences and plenty of Easter eggs.

Netflix also teased the series on Twitter with a photo of the official pilot script, which you can see below:

(Via Deadline)

Following many months of his high-profile legal proceedings, R. Kelly is currently being held in Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center. While Kelly is still facing court hearings, the singer has allegedly been the subject of jailhouse justice. Reports have surfaced that indicate Kelly was attacked by a fellow inmate in his jail cell.

According to a report from TMZ, the rapper was the victim of a sucker-punch. The report states the singer was sitting in his cell bed when an inmate walked in and “started punching the crap” out of him. The report states the inmate’s anger was directed at Kelly because the prison had been placed on “lock down” multiple times due to demonstrators protesting the singer outside the jailhouse. TMZ claims the fight didn’t last long but it’s unclear if it was broken up by guards or other inmates. Kelly was reportedly examined by a doctor following the tussle and has no broken bones or serious injuries.

The publication reached out to Kelly’s attorney Steven Greenberg about the alleged attack. Greenberg did not comment on the incident but instead said Kelly has been a “model inmate.”

Reports of the alleged attack are the latest news from Kelly, following the New York Times‘ story that three of the singer’s associates set one of his accuser’s cars on fire to intimidate her. This wasn’t the first time Kelly’s team had reportedly used an intimidation tactic against is alleged victims. Back in October of 2019, Kelly was accused of sending threatening letters to his alleged victims and their families.

Dropping the “YBN” part of his rap name following the disbandment of the YBN crew, Cordae returns with his first single of the year with “Gifted” featuring Roddy Ricch. The song, which Cordae told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe the duo recorded last year, sees the two 21-year-olds trading bars about their respective comeups, from stress to checks.

The song will hopefully kick off the next chapter in the young rapper’s bright and undeniably promising career following the success of his debut album. The Lost Boy earned Cordae his first Grammy nominations for Best Rap Album and Best Rap Song with “Bad Idea” featuring Chance The Rapper. He says he plans to make many more appearances in the future: “We are going to be regulars at the Grammys,” he boasted to Lowe. “We are going to have assigned seating for the next decade.”

Aside from the split up with the YBN crew, Cordae’s most notable moment this year came after the rapper was arrested for protesting the death of Breonna Taylor last month outside the home of Kentucky’s Attorney General, Daniel Cameron. Eighty-seven people including rapper Trae The Truth, Houston Texans wide receiver Kenny Stills, and The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Porsha Williams were arrested outside Cameron’s home, but a few days later the charges were dropped “in the interest of justice and the promotion of the free exchange of ideas” as Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell said in a statement.

Although Cordae stops short of announcing a new album during his interview with Lowe, when he does, the rapper already has a potential feature waiting for him from Lil Wayne. During his interview with Cordae on Young Money Radio, Wayne requested that he appear on his upcoming second album. After Cordae confirmed that he was “like 50 songs in” on the second album, Wayne jokingly said, “All you gotta do is text me the song, I’ll murder it and send you the finger so you know it’s dead.”

Listen to “Gifted” above.

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

The NBA season will resume at some point in the near future. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the players in the Orlando Bubble have decided to play after a league-wide strike on Wednesday, although the trio of games that were scheduled to take place on Thursday are going to be postponed and rescheduled.

The report was confirmed by Shams Charania of The Athletic, who said that the players want to “find new and improved ways to make social justice statements.”

On Wednesday, the Milwaukee Bucks led the way in initiating a player strike in the NBA to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, in the back seven times in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The video of the shooting, which left Blake paralyzed from the waist down, has led to more protests. Three protesters in Kenosha were shot and two were killed by a 17-year-old white vigilante with an AR-15 on Tuesday night.

Following the Bucks lead, the Thunder, Rockets, Lakers, and Blazers all agreed to sit out their Game 5s later that day — with the league officially postponing those games as word emerged of players refusing to play — and a meeting was scheduled with every NBA player for 8 p.m. ET in the Bubble. The meeting was to determine the next steps for how players want to proceed and determining if or when they will play again. That meeting ended without a resolution beyond the Lakers and Clippers voicing their support for ending the season altogether, but another meeting was scheduled for Thursday morning. There, it appears, a decision to play again was made.

From those that are against it to those that have fallen victim to it, cancel culture has been a hot button topic in music this year. Doja Cat was canceled after insensitive videos resurfaced and Sun Kil Moon singer Mark Kozelek was canceled after three separate women accused him of sexual assault. Many musicians, like The 1975, have questioned the productivity of cancel culture, and 50 Cent is the latest. However, the rapper has a slightly different take, saying cancel culture is unfairly aimed at men.

In a recent interview with Variety, 50 Cent addressed his issues with cancel culture. The rapper thinks “heterosexual males” are now no longer “superior” because he believes there are no organizations in place to defend men’s rights:

“If you say something about someone who chooses something different, there’s organizations set up to start sending things around to get signatures and stuff. And tell me this, as a heterosexual male, who’s going to send things around to get signatures based on your failures? There’s no one. There’s no organization. Certain demographics have been conditioned because they’ve been taken advantage of in the earliest stages. Once inferior, now they’re superior because we have no organization. The biggest target is heterosexual males in general.”

50 Cent didn’t offer examples of men who have been recently canceled, and also failed to address the multitude of female celebrities — from Cardi B to Billie Eilish — who have briefly been canceled on Twitter.

Elsewhere in the interview, 50 wondered if Kanye’s presidential campaign is a ploy to help Trump’s re-election. “You see Kanye and the things that he’s doing, I wonder if Trump is not re-elected, does he go to jail for tampering with an election?” 50 said. “One of the weaker points for Trump would be the Black vote. So to have Kanye come in, somebody is going to vote for him and it’s probably someone who isn’t going to vote for Trump… It just creates noise. There’s a legitimate attempt at winning the election just by being in it, and I don’t know to whose benefit it is. I know it means nothing when Trump wins again.”

Read 50’s full Variety interview here.

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

The self-declared Humble Bard is at it again. After yesterday’s trailer drop for the now-streaming Making The Witcher (a half-hour documentary-style installment), Jaskier has apparently hacked into the production’s editing room to insert his own version, “Behind The Bard.” Geralt of Rivia has now been relegated to the Best Friend role, and all eyes are on Jaskier as he writes his own version and winds up to a familiar moment: the insidious “Toss A Coin” earworm that even gets on the nerves of actor Joey Batey.

Fortunately, Jaskier is much more lovable than his songs. With this trailer, Netflix asks us to “journey into the extraordinary world of ‘The Witcher’ — from casting the roles to Jaskier’s catchy song — in this behind-the-scenes look at the series.” From there, we get wall-to-wall bard, who “puts the ‘lute’ in ‘absolute talent.’” This certainly strikes a different tone than the version that focuses upon Henry Cavill’s swashbuckling skills. No matter what, though, this unexpected 32-minute gift to fans is a wonderful way to tide people over after Season 2 took some months off the schedule after you-know-what interrupted European production.

Rest assured, Henry Cavill and the rest of the cast are back at it with unflattering photographic proof, and eventually, we’ll see a live-action prequel series called The Witcher: Blood Origin and an animated, feature length movie called Nightmare of the Wolf. Hopefully, a lot of future bathtub action, too.

Making The Witcher is streaming on Netflix now.

In 2017, Gucci Mane published an autobiography. The rapper apparently enjoyed being an author, because now he is back in the writing saddle and is ready to release a new book. His second book, The Gucci Mane Guide To Greatness, is set for release on October 13 through Simon & Schuster.

Gucci said in his author’s statement:

“I live by the principles in this book. I wanted to write this book to give you a tool set. This book should touch people who are going through something. It’s not going to be easy. But study these words, and put them into action. I want this book to keep you motivated. I want you to keep coming back to it for guidance and inspiration. You can put it on your shelf and keep going to The Gucci Mane Guide to Greatness. This book is a challenge. Don’t underestimate yourself. Don’t think that what you’re saying is not important. Don’t think you can’t achieve the impossible. Everyone needs some game, so here it is. The Gucci Mane Guide to Greatness is for the world. Enjoy.”

The publisher’s statement also reads, “In this inspiring follow up to his iconic memoir, Gucci Mane gifts us with his playbook for living your best life. Packed with stunning photographs, The Gucci Mane Guide to Greatness distills the legend’s timeless wisdom into a one-of-a-kind motivational guidebook. Gucci Mane emerged transformed after a turbulent life of violence, crime, and addiction to become a dazzling embodiment of the power of positivity, focus, and hard-work. Using examples from his life of unparalleled success, Gucci Mane looks inward and upward to offer his blueprint for greatness. A must read for anyone with big ambitions and bigger dreams.”

Pre-order The Gucci Mane Guide To Greatness here.

Gucci Mane is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

When Edwin Outwater listens to Metallica, he doesn’t merely hear the most successful American metal band of all time. He’s also reminded of an iconic 20th century Russian classical music composer.

“That dark lyricism is so much of what sets Metallica apart from other bands, and Shostakovich,” he says. “Also, Shostakovich can get really aggressive and kind of thrashy as well.”

It makes sense that Outwater, a symphony conductor from California who is currently the music director of the San Francisco Conservatory, was tapped to oversee last year’s collaborative concerts by Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony at the new openly Chase Center. The shows, which will be released Friday as the live album S&M2, were a sequel of sorts to performances in 1999 by Metallica and the symphony conducted by the late Michael Kamen, in which they played dramatically revamped renditions of songs like “One” and “Master Of Puppets.” S&M2 marks a return to the same expansive sound, mixing up classics like “Nothing Else Matters” with newer songs such as “Moth Into Flame.”

When I mentioned Outwater’s Shostakovich comparison to Kirk Hammett during a phone interview earlier this week, the Metallica guitarist swiftly concurred.

“I’ve listened to Shostakovich, and it’s really super dark. And then it gets really super intense, really at the turn of a dime,” he said. “When I think about those factors, I mean, heavy metal does that as well. There’s an intensity, there’s a moodiness, and an intensity of emotion. And heavy metal, we’re able to shift that emotion within the next beat, or within the next measure. And classical music can do that, too. You can’t really do that in pop music, or the blues. Even jazz music, you can’t actually do those switching things that quickly. Classical music can do that, so can heavy metal music, and that’s one thing that really shares, is the dramatics.”

For Metallica, the S&M2 shows were the final performances before an audience, pre-pandemic. Now, one of the world’s biggest stadium-rock bands is trying to figure out how to navigate our present, confusing reality. On Saturday, there will be a new Metallica concert — likely their only performance of 2020 — presented as part of the Encore Drive-In Nights series, which takes place at drive-in theaters across the country. (Tickets are available here.) In the meantime, the band is also having regular conversations about when they might resume touring again, though Hammett adds, “I have to warn you, and I have to warn everyone: It’s going to take a long time, and no one’s going to tour until it’s safe.”

In this interview, Hammett discusses the S&M2 album and shares his thoughts on the future of Metallica’s live tours.

The strength of these albums is that even with the orchestra element, it still sounds like Metallica. It would be easy for it to come off as a pretentious, Spinal Tap-style move. Did you have any examples of rock bands playing with symphonies as examples of what not to do?

Well, we knew from the first album that there needed to be a balance, and finding that balance was a trick. With the first one, there wasn’t much of a precedent. The only precedent, really, that we can really think of that was similar, was the Deep Purple album. A concerto written for the London Philharmonic, but that was written in collaboration, and for symphony, and it was different on that behalf. And so there wasn’t really a band out there that was going out and playing balls out heavy metal, and an orchestra coming in and wrapping themselves around a heavy metal band.

We started hearing some of the string arrangements that Micheal Kamen was doing, just kind of like rough demos of string arrangements. We started thinking, “All right, this might be something really, really cool.” And then when we started rehearsing with the orchestra, it made us feel a lot better, because it started to make sense. With this album, we had the luxury of experiencing all of this once before, and knowing that it’s really just a balancing act between the symphony and the band, so that we still come across as a heavy metal band, and the symphony still comes across as a symphony.

Michael Kamen passed away in 2003. Was it strange not having him around this time?

Yeah. To a certain extent, it was a given that this was kind of like an unspoken tribute to him. Because it was his initial inspiration to do this in the first place. It wasn’t us.

A link between both S&M albums is that they start with “Ecstasy Of Gold” by Ennio Morricone, who passed away earlier this year. Metallica has used that as their walk-out music for years, and it always sounds awesome. How did you hit upon that?

We can’t take credit for that. The credit for that goes to Jonny Z, our first manager. I remember he suggested it, and it was tried out, and it was very effective as an intro. The epicness of it, the dark quality of it, the heaviness of it without having a lot of crunch, and the heavy metal guitars, and the heavy beats. But there is a heavy mood to it, and a real, real dark theme to it. And when it stops, you’re kind of left with a feeling of anticipation. I think that’s what’s so great about it, because it really just doesn’t fade out, or come to any sort of positive resolution. It just stops.

I have to think that you can’t hear that song now without immediately feeling the anxious excitement you experience before a show.

Absolutely, completely Pavlovian. There are times when I’ve heard that song, we have not been on stage, and all of a sudden I feel my adrenaline flowing. And then all of a sudden I’m thinking, “Oh man, am I stretched out enough? Am I warmed up enough? Is my guitar in tune? How’s my guitar sound?” And I’m just sitting there at the kitchen table.

These S&M shows took place in September 2019, which was the last time you played before an audience. Now you have this special drive-in show coming up on Saturday. How is that going to work?

We filmed the actual drive-in show about two weeks ago, at a secret location in Northern California. And it was the first time that we had gotten together since the S&M shows. It was really important for us to be able to come together and play that particular show, because we needed to just get some sort of semblance of, if we’re going to go forward in the future, how that was going to look with the pandemic going, and all of these safety protocols. We adapted this whole safety protocol so that we were able to work at HQ, and rehearse without us having any fears of being infected, or infecting other people. What that meant was getting tested for Covid, literally every other day. That week of rehearsal, I got tested for Covid five times.

Wow.

It also meant that our entire crew had to have face masks on. A double face mask, which was a paper mask and an N95 mask, [plus] a face shield, and a raincoat, and gloves, and sanitize, and just spray our guitars. That was while we were rehearsing. While we were filming, we were the only people in the whole place without masks on. Everyone else had masks on. And everyone, from the crew to us, had been tested, and quarantined as well. We were able to do that, and do that successfully without any health flare-ups, or any obvious sort of potential of getting infected. So that kind of set a precedent for us moving forward. It gave us hope, knowing that with all this that’s happening right now, if we need to, we can still get together and function as a band.

Not to give too much away, but what should people expect on Saturday?

Full balls out, Metallica show. We’re filmed playing outside, and it’s everything you should expect to see from us. We walk out on stage and play our music. It’s just the 2020 version. If anything, it’s a document of us playing in this time. And it’s also an opportunity for us to just put something out there for the people who are bored, and for Metallica fans who need something to do. I know I’m constantly looking for something to do. And so this is our way of going out there and just giving people something.

Looking ahead to 2021 and beyond, have you guys been talking about what touring will be like? There’s so much uncertainty for fans and musicians alike.

We’ve been talking about it a lot. And it’s a constant thing, because I mean, this whole entire time we’ve had dates. And once we hit a certain pandemic milestone, it seems like, okay, now we have to cancel these dates. A couple of months pass, we hit another milestone in the pandemic, and now we can’t play these dates. We just canceled dates in December, not that long ago. It’s really, really frustrating, because every two or three weeks, we’re in a different spot. The whole world’s in a different spot, every two or three weeks, and no one is at the same place at any given time.

We’re hoping that maybe if Europe can get it together, then maybe we can start playing some festivals in Europe in the summer. But I don’t know. No one knows. Maybe we’ll be taking temperatures. Maybe there’ll be a saliva test, I don’t know.

I have to warn you, and I have to warn everyone: It’s going to take a long time, and no one’s going to tour until it’s safe. I can only talk for us. We’re not going to tour until it’s safe for our fans. Until it’s safe for our fans, we’re not going to expose them, or take the risk of anyone getting sick and getting infected. We don’t want to be responsible for any sort of irresponsibility of that type.

In the meantime, have you guys talked about the next album?

Yes. We have weekly check-ins, and the dialogue has been steered towards what we’re going to be doing in the immediate future. And I’ve been using this time to go through all my musical ideas that I’ve come up with. In the last three or four years, it’s over 600 ideas, it’s taken me a couple of months to go through it all. But they’ve been sent into the big musical idea bank, and we’re starting to talk about going through all that stuff, and exchanging ideas, and just starting to get the ball rolling towards creating some new material. There’s a lot we can do remotely, but I really think that we all need to be together in the same room, to really create some really, really, really great songs and music. The magic really happens when we’re all in the same room, breathing the same air, even though that can be deadly.

S&M2 is out tomorrow on Blackened Recordings. Get it here.