You can bet your bottom dollar that Barbie will be one of the most sought after Halloween costumes this year, thanks to the film being the pop culture moment of 2023. But Barbie-fied haunted houses? That’s a whole other level of hot pink.
And yet, this was the vision for a group of close-knit neighbors living in the residential community of Daybreak in South Jordan, Utah.
In lieu of cobwebs and skeletons, the crew went all out to transform their block into Barbieland, giving each house a slightly different Barbie theme.
In a now-viral clip shared to TikTok by Liz T.G. (@paseo_forever), we see houses decked out with pink flowers and furniture, a disco ball, a slide…all while the movie’s signature song, “Pink,” plays in the background.
Of course, it almost wouldn’t be right to make Barbieland without some kind of nod to Ken’s Mojo Dojo Casa House. Never fear—one family took up the mantle, bro-ing out their home with a saloon-style cowboy bar, an inflatable motorcycle and a giant horse.
And the neighborhood did still pay homage to some traditional Halloween fixtures. Like with their Barbie graveyard, where they placed tombstones for Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie, Sugar Daddy Ken and the patriarchy.
There’s even a neon sign that quotes the forever quotable line, “You guys ever think about dying?” They seriously thought of everything!
You might assume that this DIY Barbieland is best suited for daytime. Guess again. At night each house gives off a party pink glow.
You also might wonder, as one viewer did, where Weird Barbie’s house was. After all, that house is iconic all on its own.
So far, Liz has only teased its existence in a three-second follow-up video. But exciting nonetheless.
Lastly, there’s a clip where audio from the famous “Hi Barbie” scenes plays while the camera cuts to different cardboard cutout characters, like Ken and Mermaid Barbie.
Basically, these neighbors are geniuses, and everybody loves how committed they were to the bit. What a perfect way to breathe fresh new life into spooky season, and prove yet again that Barbie can be anything. 💫
Freddie Mercury was known for many things—his dramatic showmanship, his larger-than-life personality, and his untimely death during the peak of the AIDS epidemic—but he is most remembered for his clear, powerful voice, ranging from rich bass notes to impressive soprano coloratura.
It’s hard to do Freddie’s voice justice, but Marc Martel has managed to wow millions with his impersonations of the Queen lead singer. If you close your eyes and listen, there are seconds when you might swear you were hearing Freddie himself singing again.
Martel’s cover of “Bohemian Rhapsody” has been viewed 56 million times on YouTube. And another of his videos showcases Martel’s ability to captivate an audience with his—or Freddie’s—voice.
At a concert in Santiago, Chile, in 2022, Martel began playing the piano intro to “Love of My Life,” one of Queen’s simplest and most sentimental ballads. As soon as he opened his mouth to sing, the audience did the same—10,000 people all singing along in unison—and it’s just beautiful.
Watch:
Love Of My Life – Live from Santiago, Chile (Marc Martel)
Queen fans not only loved the sing-a-long but they were also blown away by how close Martel came to channeling Freddie Mercury with his vocals:
“I’m 63. Heard Queen from the start. This man is unbelievable. Why Queen didn’t grab him is unbelievable, beyond belief.”
“For those of us who love the Mercury timbre, Martel is a blessing.”
“The part “you’ve hurt me” sounds exactly like Freddie. I also love the fact that people are singing too, it gives me Queen concerts vibes :)”
“When the crowd started singing, it genuinely gave me goosebumps. It was like he was singing with a choir. Some great voices in the audience! Well mixed too. Incredible as always!”
“Never mind the vocal inflections, he plays piano outstandingly. Freddie’s voice was so unique and original, it’s unbelievable how close Marc is.”
And if you want to see Martel’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” video with 56 million views, here it is. Enjoy:
Find more of Marc Martel’s Freddie Mercury magic on YouTube.
Although Twitter isn’t the meeting spot that it used to be, people still gathered there after hearing Wednesday’s Emergency Alert Test in action. The “why” of this test makes sense, but still, hearing it was a whole other matter. That godforsaken sound will never fail to make people jump out of their skin.
To make matters more discombobulating, FEMA had publicized that the test should be expected at 2:20pm EST. Granted, the FEMA website did specify that this would happen “approximately” at that time, but nonetheless, the tone arriving two minutes early was not embraced as a pleasant surprise. In fact, people are feeling a lot like Walter White in a certain Breaking Bad scene. All I’m adding on that note is this: be careful if you see people throwing pizzas onto roofs as a protest later.
As we now know en masse, the Emergency Alert Test worked. If you have the jitters now, you are definitely not alone, but at least you didn’t react like Aaron Rodgers might have done.
Aaron Rodgers running to grab his AR-15 with a handful of burning sage right now and frantically texting Rogan “IT’S ON”
Hopefully, we can all recover soon and sleep easy tonight, knowing that the government could wake us up for the heck of it at any given moment. That’s better than having bed bugs, though!
Each week, Billboard releases the list of songs featured on the Hot 100 chart. The ranking is determined by combining data from both sales and streaming numbers of all songs, which is compiled by Luminate.
When Does The Billboard Hot 100 Update?
Typically, the Billboard Hot 100 chart changes every Tuesday morning — along with most of their charts in general. The website notes that if there is a holiday that falls on a Monday, the chart’s update might be delayed until Wednesday of that week. Or if there’s just any sort of issue that prompts it to be postponed.
Fans can find the Hot 100 under Billboard‘s Chart News section each week for an early glimpse, too, as stories tied to the updated chart are typically released on Monday afternoons. So, basically, you would know who would be at the top spots before it technically updates.
For those who have other specific questions about the Hot 100 chart, Billboard‘s website mentions either emailing, contacting their Chart Beat editors, or submitting questions to their reader mailbag. The information on that can be found here.
On this week’s Hot 100, Doja Cat’s “Paint The Town Red” returned to No. 1, followed by SZA’s “Snooze,” Luke Combs’ cover of “Fast Car,” Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer,” and Zach Bryan’s collab with Kacey Musgraves on “I Remember Everything.”
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
With the Ahsoka finale now streaming, the big question on Star Wars fans‘ minds is will there be a Season 2? As of this writing, neither Disney+ or Lucasfilm have confirmed a second season, but there are clues pointing towards it happening.
For starters, Episode 8 “The Jedi, The Witch, and The Warlord,” ends on a major cliffhanger. Granted, the events of Ahsoka will reportedly feed into a new theatrical movie from Dave Filoni, so the story could pick up there. However, Disney+ has notably been referring to Episode 8 as the “season finale” not “series finale” on its in-app banner image. Gizmodo also reported that official social media posts were fixed to make the “season finale” distinction after fans noticed they read “series finale.”
Meanwhile, Deadline reported the following in its Episode 8 recap:
Some fans have speculated that Dave Filoni’s stand-alone feature film — a culmination of his Disney+/Lucasfilm universe of The Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka, etc. — centers around Thrawn, and that is poised to be next. However, we hear that Ahsoka Season 2 is more of a reality in the conversation, though nothing is locked yet. Tonight there were no placards teasing that Ahsoka would return in the immediate future. Natch, the ending WGA strike and the ongoing actors strike has put off production for some time.
Rosario Dawson also teased Ahsoka Season 2 during a pre-strike interview with Empire.
“I’m absolutely putting it out into the universe,” Dawson said. “We’re joking about it, but I’m manifesting it because I feel like I helped Dave [Filoni, Star Wars mastermind and Ahsoka Tano’s co-creator] manifest this role. So I’m ready. I’m excited. I’m willing. I got my ice-packs ready to go for Season 2 and beyond! I would not be mad at that.”
Considering Disney+ is officially referring to Episode 8 as the “season finale,” and it ended with a cliffhanger, it’s probably a decent bet that Ahsoka Season 2 is in the works albeit potentially delayed by the recent strikes. That said, there has been some cost-cutting happening at Disney. Not even Marvel is safe, so maybe cross your fingers if you’re really hoping for more Ahsoka.
In its second season, Amazon Music Live continues to bring quality performers to the stage. The live-streaming music performance show returned this September with performances from Ed Sheeran and Feid. The season will continue with an illustrious line-up of artists.
This Thursday (October 5), on the 2 Chainz-hosted show, Lil Durk will take the stage. Lil Durk has had a pretty big year, with the release of his album Almost Healed, which contained the J. Cole-assisted hit single, “All My Life.”
The following Thursday (October 12), prolific producer Metro Boomin is set to deliver a cinematic set. This year, Metro has produced on albums by Young Thug and Travis Scott. He also executive produced the Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse soundtrack. According to a press release, Metro will be joined by surprise guests, as he delivers renditions of some of his biggest songs as a credited producer.
On October 19, Mexican superstar Peso Pluma will perform, with rapper Latto closing out the month the following Thursday (October 26).
Fans can tune into Amazon Music Live on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. PDT via Prime Video and Amazon’s Twitch Channel.
Some of the artists mentioned here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Just a few minutes ago, an emergency alert probably appeared on your TV or cell phone, and it could also be heard on your radio if you’re still using those. Though the alert may have startled you, there’s nothing to be worried about as a result of it. Earlier this month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that it would conduct an emergency alert test on October 4 at 2:20 pm EST by sending out an alert to every TV, radio, and cell phone in the United States. The test was done in coordination with the Federal Communication Commission. Now that the test is complete, you’re probably wondering why it had to be done.
Why Was There An Emergency Alert Test?
The purpose of this test is to ensure that the systems in place continue to be an effective means of warning the public about emergencies at a national level. Additional information was given in a message that arrived with the test, which you can read below:
THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. The purpose is to maintain and improve alert and warning capabilities at the federal, state, local, tribal and territorial levels and to evaluate the nation’s public alert and warning capabilities. No action is required by the public.
Additional Details: Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) are short emergency messages from authorized federal, state, local, tribal and territorial public alerting authorities that can be broadcast from cell towers to any WEA-enabled mobile device in a locally targeted area. WEAs can be sent by state and local public safety officials, the National Weather Service, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the FEMA Administrator or the President of the United States.
Controversial interview responses aside, Sexyy Red is still one of the hottest names in rap right now. The St. Louis native was recently tapped to contribute the sexy single “No Panties” to the soundtrack for season two of Rap Sh!t after capitalizing in a big way on the success of her breakout hit “Pound Town.” She returns to her eyebrow-raising raunchy ways in the video for “No Panties,” running a variety of sex-themed businesses, including a massage parlor and a car wash.
Sexyy Red has been creating controversy almost since she first appeared on the scene with her Vanessa Carlton-sampling viral single “Ah Thousand Jugs.” When she released “Pound Town” and “Born By The River,” listeners on Twitter were quick to express as much exasperation with her ratchet ways as interest and appreciation for her over-the-top explicit content. And once Nicki Minaj joined the party on the “Pound Town” remix, not even Ben Shapiro could resist chiming to voice his distaste for her unapologetically racy raps.
But now, those Twitter fans she’s since won over are concerned after she praised Donald Trump, inaccurately crediting him for the stimulus checks that helped Americans weather the pandemic and pardoning rappers like Kodak Black and Lil Wayne despite ending a number of initiatives designed to counter racial inequality in the legal system. Hopefully, someone near her can explain the fault in her logic so we can all get back to enjoying the ratchet bops.
Taylor Swift has been in the news a ton lately. While she is currently on a break between dates of The Eras Tour, that hasn’t slowed her down. Swift is set to release her 1989 (Taylor’s Version) re-recording later this month — which might have people wondering what label she’s signed to.
Swift is currently signed to Republic Records at Universal Music Group, after getting a deal with them a few years ago. She has released everything from her 2019 album, Lover, until today with them. Her label deal also gives her complete ownership over her masters, leading her to re-record her first six original albums to gain control.
As a teenager, she first was part of Big Machine Records. However, things soured between her and label owner Scott Borchetta. When Swift left for UMG, she wanted to buy her early master copies as well, but the deal was reportedly rejected. Instead, they were sold to Scooter Braun — who then sold them to Shamrock Holdings as of 2020.
Upon hearing of Braun selling them, Swift revealed on social media that he would not consider her purchasing them without signing a NDA. “He would never even quote my team a price,” she wrote. “These master recordings were not for sale to me.”
When Tyga and YG announced that they were teaming up for a joint project at Rolling Loud earlier this year, I admit I was eager. Hometown pride aside, YG and Tyga are two of artists left from the blog era who have consistently shown improvement on each project. Tyga’s last project, Legendary, was an overlooked gem in 2019, while I would take YG’s I Got Issues over the other, more highly touted album from a Compton rapper that dropped last year.
The reason is simple: They both know what they do well and they don’t try to do too much else. Truly, there is not enough of that “stay in your lane” mentality in rap music these days. It often feels like every new rapper wants to be a capital-A “Artist” or a rock star, and while diversions from the beats-and-rhymes tradition like Lil Yachty’s Let’s Start Here are fun and interesting in doses, there’s an elitism to those artists’ insistence they aren’t just rappers.
What, exactly, is wrong with being “just” a rapper? Rap music blew the ceiling off of pop culture, reshaping society in its image. It was the most dominant genre in popular music for longer than it was acknowledged for it. It changed the face of advertising, fashion, film, politics, television, and more. I get it; Drake and Kanye West are globally-recognized household names. But T.I. and Ludacris are doing just fine, thanks.
Which is why Hit Me When U Leave The Klub, the joint “playlist” from two of Compton’s longer-tenured second-generation hip-hop stars, is so valuable. It asserts — efficiently, at just 14 tracks, and effectively, with at least 11 of those tracks being certified bangers — that staying in your lane can be profitable and fulfilling too. Someone has to make the music that makes the clubs go up; it might as well be them.
Especially because that’s what they’ve done so effectively individually for so long. Both Tyga and YG took their time figuring what works for them, so why fix what isn’t broken? Both rappers’ breakout singles — “Coconut Juice” for Tyga and “Toot It And Boot It” for YG — belied their individual talents for making uptempo, ratchet dance anthems; both found their grooves in large part thanks to collaborations with Mustard, whose production supercharged their respective comeback hits and helped make them a fixture of radio in the last decade radio mattered.
Since then, both have seen their popularity rise and fall, but they’ve always bounced back; YG’s highest-charting single came in 2018 with “Big Bank,” a decade after his debut, while Tyga came roaring back in 2018 with “Taste.” Their 2019 collab “Go Loko” was, incidentally, the last time either went double platinum with a straight rap song since and likely laid the groundwork for their chemistry on Hit Me When U Leave The Klub. (YG went 3x platinum alongside Bay Area singer HER with “Slide” while Tyga’s Blxst collab “Chosen” was certified platinum — both R&B songs featuring rap verses.)
“Go Loko” is the baseline and the North Star for the musical direction on Hit Me, with most of the album following a similar formula of the stripped-down, post-hyphy club thump that has dominated the LA underground for the past decade or so, with boastful verses about money, sex, and the occasional gangland shootout. Wisely, they stay away from a bunch of the latter and stick to the more aspirational topics, with beats that rarely drop below 90 bpm. Again, if it works, it works, and they’ve long been aware of their strengths.
That isn’t to say they don’t try a few new things too. The main difference is a clear focus on writing; in the past, both boasted that they rarely put pen to paper when conceptualizing their songs. While this often resulted in a freewheeling aspect that really worked for their turn-up anthems, it also led to an unfortunate assumption among many rap fans that they couldn’t rap well. Hit Me dispels that notion with verses loaded with slick wordplay and clever turns of phrase that might surprise those who’d written them off at the nadir of their respective careers.
And while R&Bass experiments like “PARTy T1M3” and “Boachella” aren’t great, singles like “West Coast Weekend,” “Platinum,” and “Brand New” present Tyga and YG at their best, and the remaining tracks could all easily be singles themselves. Limiting the guest list to just three fellow rappers — Blxst, Busta Rhymes, and Lil Wayne — lets their chemistry shine, and they have plenty of it. No, there’s no salient social commentary aside from autobiographical accounts of life in inner-city LA and neither does much crooning, but again, this is a feature, not a bug. Sometimes, you just want to hear two of rap’s finest trade bars.
The recent wealth of collab projects bears this idea out. Personally, I’ve always loved rappers getting together for quick-hit albums and EPs that clearly stem from their chemistry and friendship (certainly, more than the endless array of diss records and “beef” that much of the fanbase seems to love), but the fact that they’ve always needed to feel like “events” has made them harder to enjoy. It’s hard to live up to Watch The Throne or What A Time To Be Alive (which barely lived up to itself). Hit Me When U Leave The Klub offers an example of the form that seems more sustainable and exciting. There’s a wealth of possibilities for further entries to the joint album canon — this one is a fantastic starting point.
Hit Me When U Leave The Klub is out now via Last Kings Music / 4Hunnid Records / EMPIRE.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
