GoneTrending

It wouldn’t be a Taylor Swift album release week without cryptic clues and long-planned immersive experiences. Throughout this week, Spotify has hosted The Tortured Poets Department pop-up activations, including a Spotify library installation at The Grove in Los Angeles. Simultaneously, Spotify has set up a Countdown Page ahead of The Tortured Poets Department‘s arrival on Friday, April 19.

How To Use Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department Spotify Countdown Page

Upon searching for Taylor Swift on the Spotify app, you will be prompted to visit Taylor Swift’s Spotify Countdown page, which allows fans to pre-save The Tortured Poets Department and see a tracklist preview. Additionally, the Countdown page is home to exclusive clips showing Swift typing presumed lyrics on a typewriter, such as “As she was leaving, it felt like breathing,” “One less temptress; one less dagger to sharpen,” and “Lost the game of chance, what are the chances?” Pre-saving the album on Spotify’s Countdown Page guarantees that The Tortured Poets Department will automatically be downloaded to your library on Friday, April 19.

According to Spotify, the first exclusive clip on Swift’s Countdown Page became the most-watched Countdown clip in Spotify history.

The Tortured Poets Department is out 4/19 via Republic Records. Find more information here.

For a while, Quentin Tarantino has repeatedly made it known that he plans to retire from filmmaking after his 10th feature film, which will be his next film. This subject has been a headline-generator for years, including Tarantino seemingly flip-flopping on what to make as his 10th and final film. Not many people can relate to being a generational filmmaker, but almost everybody can relate to having commitment issues. And Tarantino is reportedly no longer committed to making The Movie Critic and “is going back to the drawing board to figure out what the final [film] will be,” according to Deadline.

On Wednesday, April 17, Deadline exclusively reported that “Tarantino has dropped the film as his 10th and final project. He simply changed his mind.”

Deadline also reported the following details:

“Tarantino was going to have Brad Pitt as the principal star, which would have marked their third teaming after Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. There were rumors that many from the casts of his past films might take part, and Sony was preparing to make the film after doing such a superb job on the last one.

Word is that Tarantino had rewritten his script, which delayed the start of production. But this is his 10th and final film, and Tarantino simply decided The Movie Critic will not be it.”

Tarantino last directed, produced, and wrote Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, which arrived in 2019. The movie co-starred Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio and earned 10 Oscar nominations — winning Best Supporting Actor (Pitt) and Best Achievement In Production Design.

Kendrick Perkins decided to engage in a little cross-network smack talk the other day when he called out Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal of TNT. During an appearance on The Michael Kay Show, Perkins was asked why the Hall of Fame inductees and longtime television commentators don’t believe in the Knicks, and said that the pair “don’t watch basketball” and “can’t watch basketball on a consistent basis.”

This, unsurprisingly, did not go over especially well with the two Inside the NBA stars. At the end of Tuesday night’s broadcast, a tweet got both of them going on Perkins, with Shaq saying multiple times that he watched an old game where Blake Griffin dunked on the former Oklahoma City Thunder big man.

“We don’t watch the Knicks games, Chuck, but I watched that game,” Shaq said.

“We out here killing roaches,” Barkley responded. “I ain’t gonna even give no love to no guy that averaged five points a game. Five points a game gonna call me out?”

If anything, the surprise here is that it took until the end of the night for the pair to start making jokes at Perk’s expense. Anyway, here’s hoping Stephen A. Smith gets pulled into the middle of this.

Pearl Jam has been rolling out Dark Matter since February. Dark Matter will be released on Friday, April 19, but Uproxx’s Steven Hyden has already decided that this album is “their best in decades.” Hyden also specifically lauded “Wreckage” among the album’s “best tunes” that “often sound like homages to their favorite artists” and “will be welcome debuts on any future Pearl Jam setlist.”

On Wednesday, April 17, Pearl Jam released “Wreckage” for all to hear so you can decide whether you love it as much as Hyden. Eddie Vedder sings about “coming through the wreckage” in the chorus and zones in on introspection with lines like, “Visited by thought / And not just in the night / That I no longer give a f*ck who is wrong and who’s right.”

“That one probably has the biggest build for me personally, in terms of hearing it at first and thinking, it’s kind of an Ed song. I wasn’t quite aware of its potency until later,” Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard said in a statement, according to Rolling Stone. “Andrew [Watt] encouraged me to play this little harmonic, acoustic part almost like a Cure melody. I’ve been playing along with the song to relearn it, and I’m really looking forward to playing it live. It’s a really powerful lyric, and I think we did a really great job of taking something and really pushing it to its limit.”

Pearl Jam will support Dark Matter with their previously announced 2024 tour, which is scheduled to begin on May 4 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Listen to “Wreckage” above.

Dark Matter is out 4/19 via Republic Records. Find more information here.

Earlier this month, Anitta announced her tour, billed as Baile Funk Experience, including her first-ever North American leg. The tour is due to begin in Mexico City, Mexico on May 18, which is soon. Anitta’s new album is arriving even sooner.

On Wednesday, April 17, Anitta, Spotify Brasil, and Spotify Mexico collaboratively shared an Instagram post revealing Anitta’s Funk Generation cover art. Anitta had already confirmed the album’s release date as April 26 when she released “Double Team” featuring Brray and Bad Gyal on March 21.

“Funk Generation is an album where I celebrate my roots,” Anitta said in a statement upon releasing “Double Team” in late March. “It’s where I express the power of Rio’s funk in every track, its unique, danceable, and sensual beats. It’s a rhythm born in the favelas, where I grew up, and it exudes resistance and art in every community. I’m proud to work on a project about a genre that has been unfairly stigmatized in Brazil but is slowly gaining recognition worldwide. In the album, I bring in important collaborations that helped me tell this story. I’ve been involved in every step of the production and visual direction, and I’ve achieved the result I’ve been aiming for.”

Anitta also previously released “Mil Veces” last October.

Funk Generation is out 4/26 via Floresta Records Inc./Republic Records. Find more information here.

Caitlin Clark’s arrival in the WNBA as the top pick of the Indiana Fever is a major moment for the league. Where Clark goes, attention follows, as she has transcended sports into being a well-known figure in popular culture beyond just basketball fans.

For the Fever and the WNBA, it’s incumbent on them to capitalize on that attention and make sure the league’s product can shine and get the attention it deserves. However, the attention also means a lot more people coming in looking for access and it will also be important for the league and team to help Clark handle the pitfalls of that level of fame.

Part of that is who to provide access to, and being both proactive and reactive to folks that prove they can’t behave properly. In Clark’s introductory press conference on Wednesday, she had to deal with a very uncomfortable moment with Gregg Doyel of the Indy Star, in which he did her “heart hands” sign to her before asking a question, and suggested she do it to him.

I can’t even fathom what the thought process was that went into starting this interaction from a reporter’s point of view — doing a hand gesture you’ve seen someone do but don’t quite understand is questionable at best. Then to roll into “start doing it to me and we’ll be just fine” makes it go from awkward to flat out creepy.

Clark will have to deal with a lot as one of the new faces of the league. Every quote will get dissected and her body language on the court picked apart and analyzed. Poor performances will be shredded while great ones will be lauded. All of that comes with being an elite athlete and a person of immense interest in the public eye.

However, what she should never have to deal with is situations like this. It’s the job of reporters to be professional and for grown men in general not to be weird to young women. The intent of the interaction is inconsequential, as what matters is what happens and how it’s received. This clip going viral is hopefully a good thing, because folks need to understand that this sort of thing isn’t acceptable in 2024.

The Netflix global Top 10 TV show list currently lists 3 Body Problem (from the Game of Thrones showrunners) as the reigning show on the streaming service, but do not sleep on number two. That spot would belong to Unlocked: A Jail Experiment, which might sound like (from the title alone) a depressing endeavor, considering that it’s a reality TV series that follows incarcerated individuals behind (and in front of) bars.

However, the show has struck a chord not only from an entertainment perspective but also a sociological note. The first season contains eight episodes, in which an Arkansas law enforcement leader decides to open all cell doors (other than during sleep-associated hours) and see what transpires. What does follow suggests that rehabilitation can be a viable outcome, since the inmates came together to build a sense of community. Obviously, this would not be the outcome in all jails, but the question remains…

Will There Be An ‘Unlocked: A Jail Experiment’ Season 2?

Netflix would likely be open to continuing the series (if the streaming views stay high) and hasn’t commented otherwise, but there might be a legal hangup involved with doing more. As the local Fox affiliate and Forbes have revealed, officials have concerns and want Sheriff Jeff Higgins to provide answers:

Justice of the Peace Phil Stowers, District 13, said there are concerns that this is a bad look for the county, but the ordinance will affect how they move forward legally, the news site reported. “It’s not a question as to whether or not the sheriff has the ability to try something out of the box, something new in the jail,” Stowers said, per Fox 16. “The questions and concerns are why did that have to turn into a reality TV show?”

In other words, a second season is totally up in the air, yet for now, the first eight-episode season of Unlocked: A Jail Experiment is available on Netflix. And if you would like some true crime viewing recommendations, we’ve got those, too.

It has been some months since rumors first began to circulate about a potential pregnancy for the recently reunited Ashanti and Nelly. The millennial radio mainstays were first linked again in 2022 after revisiting the past‘ with a sultry performance in Las Vegas.

Today, Ashanti confirmed the pregnancy rumors and announced her engagement to Nelly in an exclusive report in Essence, as well as an Instagram post with a LOT of production value.

“This new year of my life is such a blessing full of love, hope, and anticipation,” she told Essence. Motherhood is something that I have looked forward to, and sharing this with my family, fiancé, and loyal fans, who have been so supportive of my career, is an amazing experience.”

The two performers had originally dated from early 2003 after meeting at a Grammy Awards press conference and were together for about 10 years, splitting in 2015 after Ashanti intimated that she’d been “betrayed” by the “Country Grammar” rapper, although they did not reveal a specific reason for the breakup. Their reunion was greeted warmly by fans, with Nelly saying, “I think it surprised both of us though. It wasn’t anything that was like planned. I think we both were pretty much doing what we do, but sometimes being separate, you understand one another more. See maybe what they see.”

Now it seems what the couple sees — or hears, rather — is wedding bells.

There’s a new freestyle going viral on social media and it’s got a lot of people talking. That’s because of the identity of the rapper spitting punchlines over the instrumental to Redman’s 1999 Doc’s Da Name 2000 standout “Da Goodness.” Chey (pronounced “Shy”) is a relatively unknown rapper with a VERY well-known familial connection. Chey’s full name is Cheyenne Smith and her dad is Clifford Smith — better known to hip-hop fans as Wu-Tang Clan member and 1990s hitmaker Method Man.

According to HipHopDX, Chey kicked off her rap career in earnest earlier this year, releasing her solo debut single “Hair And Nails” in January. In February, she followed it with “Boujee And Ghetto,” her second solo single. The first taps into the ever popular New York drill wave, while the second is a thumping, organ-driven anthem anthem. However, it’s her freestyle over her famous father’s frequent collaborator’s instrumental that is currently garnering all the attention, likely as a result of her wordplay-riddled verse over a nostalgic beat resonating with listeners who grew up on Red & Meth.

Technically, though, Chey made her debut in 2021 as a feature on the “Tag I’m Litt” remix from 2nd Generation Wu — a group made up of her brother and her “cousins,” who are all children of original Wu-Tang members. The group consists of Method Man’s son PXWER; Ghostface Killah’s son, Sun God; U-God’s son GFTD – iNTeLL; and Young Dirty Bastard (whose parentage should be obvious from his name alone). And while Chey declined any favors from Method Man in a recent interview, there’s just no getting around the advantage her pedigree might be able to give her as she works her way into the business.

Okay, so maybe dogs don’t understand everything we tell them exactly as a human would. But is that gonna stop us from having full blown conversations with them? Of course not. And the times they do seem to comprehend what’s being communicated—pure comedy.

Take this dog mom’s hilarious pre-grooming pep talk with Shih-Tzus Branston, Pickle and Gizmo. She minced no words telling them exactly how this trip was gonna go. And the message seemed to be received.

Branston (the troublemaker, apparently) got a firm warning of what not to do, including telling white lies about his upbringing.

“I don’t need you running in telling the first dog you see that this is what this is what your hair used to look like when you lived in the Bronx running up and down the block, cause I know for a fact, Branston, that you live in a rural village,” she tells him.

Viewers, however, seemed on board with Branston’s Bronx-affiliation, even if it was a little white lie. One person joked, “don’t be mad at the treats that I got, I’m still Branny from the block.”

In the video, Branston is also instructed to not tell everyone that he “identifies as a BUll Mastiff,” which gets the most adorable look of disappointment for wee little Branston.

As for Gizmo and Pickle—mom’s best advice is to pretend like they don’t know Branston.

Perhaps the best part is mom’s British accent, which makes the entire clip feel like something pulled straight outta “Ted Lasso.” That, or the complete shock the Shih-tzu trio has at being informed of their weight class.

Watch:

@branstonandpickle01 Your NOT from the Bronx and you never ran up and down the block!! #dogsoftiktok #peptalktoyourdog #branstonwehavearrived #shihtzusoftiktok #peptalkbranston #funnydogvideos #funnyvideos #nyc #bronx #funny #dogs #dogtok ♬ original sound – Branston,Pickle&Gizmo

Perhaps Branston, Pickle, and Gizmo’s mom isn’t totally off-base by giving them a talking to. According to the website allshihtzu.com, this breed had a “unique intelligence,” which gets best demonstrated by their attuned, empathic connection to their human families. Meaning that while they might not have the same kind of smarts as border collies or other herding dogs, their super power is picking up social cues.

And, again, even if they had no earthly idea what their mom was saying, odds are she’d still be talking to them anyway. Why? Because pets are our babies. And baby talk is fun.jk