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On December 20, Nicki Minaj visited The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to celebrate the success of her recently released Pink Friday 2 album and, more importantly, challenge Colbert to a rap battle. According to this Paramount press release, Minaj and Colbert have more up their sleeves this week.

Below are the musical guests (well, all of the guests, but emphasis on the musical guests) expected to appear on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert this week (January 15-19).

Monday, January 15

There is no new episode scheduled for Monday, which is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Instead, The Late Show will re-air its January 9, 2024 episode featuring Gayle King, Charles Barkley, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.

Nicki Minaj, Daniel Caesar, and Jeff Tweedy — Tuesday, January 16

As alluded to, Minaj will appear on Tuesday’s new episode for a segment in which she takes “The Colbert Questionert.” Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy is also a scheduled guest, while Daniel Caesar will give a musical performance. Last October, Caesar visited Colbert and performed “Always” from Never Enough, one of Uproxx’s “Best R&B Albums Of 2023.” Taylor Tomlinson is also set to make a “special appearance,” around her After Midnight debut.

Wednesday, January 17

No musical guests, but beloved British actors Clive Owen and Juno Temple will be Colbert’s guests.

Common — Thursday, January 18

Common is not scheduled to perform, but his interview with Colbert figures to be a delight. Will Colbert prod into rumors that Common is dating Jennifer Hudson with his usual charm and warmth so that it doesn’t feel invasive whatsoever? We’ll see! Comedian Steven Wright will also appear.

Friday, January 19

There is no episode this Friday.

Lil Nas X called his shot in the pre-chorus and chorus of “J Christ” with lines like “You know when I’m back, it’s all for take” and “Is he ’bout to give ’em somethin’ viral?” The answer as to whether Lil Nas X is going viral is usually always yes, but especially when back from a musical hiatus to jumpstart an album cycle. “J Christ” is the presumed lead single from his forthcoming sophomore album, and Lil Nas X is being accused of mocking Christianity. Uproxx’s Aaron Williams already defended Lil Nas X against such a silly allegation, but Lil Nas X is also speaking up for himself (again).

This morning, January 15, Lil Nas X posted a four-and-a-half-minute video in which he explains his intentions with “J Christ” and insists he’s “not trying to diss Christianity.” Watch the full video and read what he said, as transcribed below.

“Hello, everybody. I wanted to not necessarily apologize, but I wanted to explain, like, where my head’s at and where it’s been for the last week. So, first of all, when I did the artwork, I knew there would be some upset people and whatnot, simply because religion is a very sensitive topic for a lot of people, but I also didn’t mean to, like, mock — this wasn’t like a ‘f*ck you to you people, f*ck you to the Christians,’ you know? Like, it was not that. It was literally me saying, ‘Oh, I’m back like Jesus.’ That was the whole thing. I’m not the first person to dress up as Jesus. I’m not the first rapper. I’m not the first artist, and I won’t be the last.

And I know, given my history with the ‘Call Me By Your Name’ video, anything that I do related to religion can be seen as mockery. That just was not the case with this. And I will say, though, with the communion video, with me eating the crackers and juice, I thought that video was gonna be the video to lighten the mood — to take it down, like, less serious and whatnot. I thought that was something that we all wanted to do as kids and whatnot, but I didn’t understand the idea of, you know, the reality of what it is. It’s me eating the communion, which is the symbolism of Jesus’ blood and bones or something like that. I don’t remember completely. But I did not mean it as a cannibalism thing, or whatever the freak. But I do apologize for that. I will say I’m sorry for that.

Though I don’t agree with all of Christianity’s rules and whatnot, I know not everybody follows Christianity by the book, 100 percent, or, you know, the world would be a lot crazier. But I do apologize for that. […] This is not to try to get everybody on my good side or whatnot. This is more so to clear my own head about my own decisions. I know I messed up really bad this time, and I can act unbothered all I want, but it’s definitely taken a mental toll on me. […] I know this is not gonna be an immediate, like, swift — everybody moves forward or whatnot, but I do want my Christian fans to know that I am not against you. I was put on this Earth to bring people closer together and promote love, and that’s who I am. I’m not some evil demon guy trying to destroy everybody’s values and stuff like that. That’s not me.

And also, with the video, there’s no disrespect there. I thought me clearly not being on the side of the devil in that video […] there was an understanding there that I’m not, like, trying to diss Christianity. Also, this is not something I wrote down or whatnot. This is something off the top of my head I’m trying to get out. Lastly, again, I hope, sooner or later, we can move forward, and I’m excited for the rest of this era and things I have planned. Yeah, I mean, that’s all I have to say for right now. I’m sending you guys love. I’m sending my fans love. I’m sending the people who I hurt love.”

Poor Vivek Ramaswamy. When he launched his presidential campaign, the pharma bro stormed out of the gate, garnering lots of attention, partly by irritating fellow candidates like Chris Christie. His polling, though, hasn’t been great, and given that he was the only one who wouldn’t even slightly criticize clear frontrunner Donald Trump, it seemed like he may have only been in the game to score a gig in the big guy’s administration. Alas, that might not have worked.

The New York Post spoke with Jason Miller, one of Trump’s top shelf cronies, who said voters should “probably” rule out the idea of Ramaswamy being the former president’s second vice president.

“Pretty safe to say it won’t be Vivek,” Miller said.

This news come on the heels of Trump, who used to be a vocal Ramaswamy fan, having one of his unpredictable changes of heart. In a Truth Social post, he declared Ramaswamy “not MAGA” and slammed his so-called “deceitful campaign tricks.”

In his own Twitter/X post, Ramaswamy refused to take the bait, saying he wouldn’t return fire. On Monday, while on Fox & Friends, Steve Doocy asked him how he felt about thrown “under the bus.”

Ramaswamy tried to deflect, saying, “Well, I didn’t get thrown anywhere, but I think there might have been an attempt to do that.”

“You were under the bus!” Doocy replied. “And the bus had snow tires on it!”

Is this the end of Ramaswamy’s attempts to become a Trump crony? Probably not. Trump’s a weird, cynical guy, with a long record of trashing possible allies before welcoming them back into the fold — then trashing them again, if they’re not suitably loyal to him.

Besides, does Ramaswamy really want to be Trump’s VP? Look what happened to the last guy.

(Via The New York Post)

Robert Downey Jr. earned some of the best reviews of his life for Oppenheimer, his return to serious dramatic work post-Marvel. He’s even nabbed a bunch of awards for it. One of them was for Best Supporting Actor at the Critics’ Choice Awards. Is he grateful? Of course! But he couldn’t resist reading some of the more colorful slams certain reviewers threw at him.

“I was thinking this morning, I love critics,” Downey told the crowd, some of whom couldn’t resist chuckling. “You know, they’ve given me such beautiful feedback, really just so many great moments, and some of it is so poetic.”

And so he read some of the rare pans he’s received for playing Lewis Strauss, the hissable bureaucrat who surreptitiously targeted J. Robert Oppenheimer over some perceived slights. Here are the ones he read out, though he didn’t attribute them to any specific writer:

• “The first one is kind of like Haiku: ‘Sloppy, messy and lazy.’”
• “The next one is more metaphoric: ‘Like Pee-Wee Herman emerging from a coma.’”
• “This was from a Brit: ‘A puzzling waste of talent.’”
• “And lastly, and this one lingered: ‘Amusing as a bed-locked fart.’”

Of course, Downey earned plenty of raves, some hailing it as not only a return to form after a decade-plus of mostly playing Tony Stark, but perhaps his finest work over his long, storied career. But you gotta take the sour with the sweet, and those insults aren’t half-bad. Besides, he could have read out the reviews for Dolittle.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

A few days ago, The Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences (aka the Television Academy, the organization behind the Primetime Emmy Awards), shared a list of the “Top 75 Most Impactful Television Moments.” As for how the list was decided, they explained, “In celebration of the Emmy Awards’ 75th Anniversary, we invited Television Academy members to review several hundred programs and news moments submitted by our Peer Group Executive Committees, and to then vote on those they felt have had the greatest impact on the viewing public over the past 75 years.”

Music has long played a major role in TV history, and this new list makes that clear. Two music moments made the top 10: The Beatles’ iconic performance on The Ed Sullivan Show is No. 3, behind only the Apollo 11 moon landing at No. 1 and 9/11 news coverage at No. 2. At No. 9 is the first music video that aired on MTV, The Buggles’ “Video Killed The Radio Star.”

Just outside the top 10, at No. 11, is an Elvis Presley performance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Other notable moments include Live Aid (No. 37); the first season finale of American Idol, which saw Kelly Clarkson named the winner (No. 44); the debut of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video on MTV (No. 48); Justin Timberlake exposing Janet Jackson’s breast during the Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show (No. 61); and Whitney Houston singing the “Star Spangled Banner” before Super Bowl XXV (No. 65).

This list was compiled and shared ahead of the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, which airs tonight (January 15) at 8 p.m. ET (learn how to watch the show here). Ahead of then, check out the full list here.

Last Friday, January 12, Lil Nas X sent seismic waves across the music and pop cultural landscapes by releasing “J Christ,” his first single in two years. Before it even arrived, “J Christ” upset some people because of Lil Nas X’s heavy usage of Christian imagery, going so far as to cosplay Jesus Christ’s crucifixion in the song’s cover art. He billed the song as “dedicated to the man who had the greatest comeback of all time.”

Uproxx’s Aaron Williams defended Lil Nas X against criticisms that he’s “mocking” Christianity, and unsurprisingly, Lil Nas X is receiving loud praise from Church Of Satan Magister David Harris.

TMZ relayed, “While certain Christian rappers and groups have expressed disgust with the song and video, the Church of Satan loves it … magister David Harris tells TMZ he’s giving the video a thumbs up, calling the imagery ‘fantastic.’”

So, there’s that.

Lil Nas X previously received unsolicited support from Harris in 2021 when his devil-themed “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” video, as per Rolling Stone at the time. “J Christ” is presumably the lead single for a forthcoming Lil Nas X album — among Uproxx’s “Most Anticipated Albums Of 2024” — which would be his first since his September 2021 debut LP, Montero.

Watch Lil Nas X’s “J Christ” video above.

Who’s having a better 2024 than Paul Giamatti? Probably no one. In the last two weeks the beloved actor has a) won his third Golden Globe, b) celebrated that by going to In-N-Out Burger, c) revealed that he’s dating Clara Wong, who played his character’s dominatrix on Billions, and d) gushed about playing an orangutan in Tim Burton’s remake of The Planet of the Apes. Good for him! On Sunday he won yet another trophy, and he made sure to note that he knew all about b).

Per Deadline, Giamatti scored Best Actor at the Critics’ Choice Awards, where he was once again honored for his role as a cheerfully disgruntled alcoholic private school teacher in The Holdovers. He began his speech by noting he’d noticed — or someone had told him — that a picture of him housing a burger at the beloved southwestern fast food chain was a smash on social media.

“Wow, guys, I didn’t think my week could get any better than going viral for eating a cheeseburger,” Giamatti cracked. “Serious guys, I need that endorsement. So let’s all just pray for me.” He added, “Everybody get their pizza in a bag, by the way? I think that’d be a good endorsement. Paul Giamatti for pizza in a bag.”

Giamatti also joked about how thanking his son would only cause him to “roll his eyes” at him. “I can hear him doing it, but I want to thank him anyway.”

He got serious, too. “I want to think about my father tonight who never saw me act professionally,” Giamatti told the crowd. “If that’s what I do is professional acting. I’m not so sure. But he was a critic. He was a literary critic. And so you couldn’t get away with anything but good work with him. So this would make him really happy. And that makes me really happy. So thank you.”

Anyway, congrats to Paul Giamatti on winning yet again for his very fine work in The Holdovers. May this not be the last trophy nor the last In-N-Out burger.

The Holdovers is now in theaters and streams on Peacock. It’s pretty good.

(Via Deadline)

Last night (January 14) marked the start of the fourth season of True Detective, subtitled Night Country. The show has a new theme song this time around, and it’s a tune you might recognize.

What is the True Detective: Night Country theme song?

On Instagram, ahead of the season debut’s premiere, True Detective showed off the new title sequence, and playing during it is Billie Eilish’s “Bury A Friend,” a single from Eilish’s 2019 debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?.

In a recent Business Insider interview, showrunner Issa López explained, “I knew that the series was going to need a powerful anthem, a showstopper, honestly. When we were doing the titles, I tried several things and then I realized that the lyrics of this song seem to be written for the series. It’s crazy. It talks about a tongue, about burying your friend. It seemed that it was made for the show. So we tried it and it just matched and it was meant to be.”

Back in 2019, Eilish said of the song, “‘Bury A Friend’ is literally from the perspective of the monster under my bed. If you put yourself in that mindset, what is this creature doing or feeling? I also confess that I’m this monster, because I’m my own worst enemy. I might be the monster under your bed, too.”

Listen to “Bury A Friend” above.

Steve Lacy earned success and acclaim as a member of The Internet, but he had his mainstream solo breakout with the 2022 single “Bad Habit,” his first No. 1 song. The track appeared on his top-10 album from the same year, Gemini Rights. Now, it looks like we could end up with a new Lacy solo release in 2024.

Is Steve Lacy releasing a new album in 2024?

On his Instagram Story yesterday (January 14), Lacy shared a photo featuring two items resting on his lap: a portable CD player, and a burned CD labeled “GR2 full v1.2 sequence, 01/13/24.” He captioned the image with a mischievous or gleeful, “hehehehehehheeheheheeheheheheheheehehehehehehe.”

Presumably, “GR2” stands for “Gemini Rights 2,” meaning that Lacy could either be listening to a deluxe edition of his 2022 album, or perhaps a full-blown sequel project with all-new songs. Lacy didn’t offer any explanation beyond the photo and his caption, though, so any other guesses about what’s going on are purely speculation.

Meanwhile, there has also been speculation about a new album from The Internet this year. Earlier this month, the group shared a photo on Instagram, of band members working on something in a recording studio. They didn’t confirm that a new album is coming, but if one does drop, it’d be the group’s first since 2018’s Hive Mind.

Travis Scott’s latest album, Utopia, is only a few months old, as it was released in July 2023. Still, some think that a recent tweet from the rapper could indicate that Scott could have another new album on the way soon.

Is Travis Scott releasing a new album in 2024?

Over the weekend, a Scott fan account on X (formerly Twitter) tweeted, “Travis records before every show, and has consistently been previewing new songs at clubs. Wonder if he’s got something on the way.” Another user responded, “Imagine an album where each song is the city it was made in on the tour.” To that, Scott replied, “R u in my brain or what ????”

The takeaway many had from Scott’s tweet is that he’s either interested in the idea of releasing an album where the songs were recorded in different cities on tour, or that’s something he’s already actively working on.

That said, Scott didn’t give any explicit confirmation that such a project actually exists or is in progress, let alone with it might be released, so it might be optimistic to expect a new Scott album in 2024, especially so quickly after his latest full-length release. The fact that he seems at least interested in the idea, though, makes the situation something for interested parties to keep an eye on.