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Ice Spice and Taylor Swift were an unexpected crossover, but when it happened it made sense. The pair teamed up for the new version of “Karma” from Swift’s Midnights (The Til Dawn Edition).

In a new interview with The Guardian, Ice Spice elaborated on her friendship with Swift. “I was like: ‘You f*ck with my project? Like, what?’” she said. “She’s so sweet — I was so obsessed with how humble she was and willing to work. She gives me so much advice — we talk all the time and she’s so funny… But I can’t say what she be telling me.”

Swift also discussed their friendship back in May. “Collaborating with Ice Spice on ‘Karma’ was one of the most natural things,” she said. “She reached out through her team just kind of saying, ‘Hey, you know, Ice has been a big fan of Taylor since she was a little kid. We’d love to collaborate if that was ever something that came about.’ And I had been listening to her nonstop like getting ready for my tour I was just listening to Ice Spice constantly.

She continued, “So I immediately got her number and said, ‘Hey, would you want to do your version of ‘Karma’? Do you relate to this? And so she jumped in headfirst and getting to know her has been so special because I’m blown away by her. She is — in my opinion — she is the one to watch. Just watching her work ethic and how thoughtfully she approaches her career — she’s like my new favorite artist and I’m so honored that she’s on the song. So, yeah, what a joy!”

PartyNextDoor heard that 2023 was the musical year of comebacks. So he’s deciding to give fans what they’ve been begging for — new music. The singer has broken quite a few hearts in the past, but on his new single “Resentment,” he acknowledged that it’s no fun when roles are reversed.

The self-produced track marks the entertainer’s official follow-up to his song “Her Old Friends,” shared in January. On this release, PartyNextDoor turned inward to examine his role in the relationship’s demise instead of blaming others for his failed attempt at a forever love.

As he sings, “Thinking about getting even, but I ain’t even aspire to get that low / I just want to know what we’re waiting for, baby
I won’t keep bringing up the past, I won’t keep trying to run it back / I won’t keep standing for it / What be going through your mind, staying out past 5 / And you know you’re going to get checked for it,” the singer confessed how his nonassertion eroded the health of the relationship.

While his 2020 EP Partypack, didn’t have much staying power, his forthcoming album PartyNextDoor 4 is shaping up to deliver a lasting punch.

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

In the video for his new song “Merch Madness,” Lil Baby has some fun with the title’s sports-related concept by teaming up with a squad of athletes to show off his philanthropic side. Filmed at a youth event where NBA players like Chris Paul and Joel Embiid gave away gear backed by Fanatics, Lil Baby roams the halls of The Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem, New York, and hangs out with the kids as they enjoy their new sports equipment.

Other cameos in the video include Baby’s fellow rappers Meek Mill and Quavo, NFL legends Eli Manning and Tom Brady, and Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin. The Merch Madness event, which took place on June 27, reportedly gave away over 300,000 licensed pieces to approximately 100,000 underserved youth in 100 locations across the US. In the song, Lil Baby highlights the endeavor, rapping on the chorus:

Merch madness, I done took it global
Jump back in my bag, did this one for the culture
Ain’t too good to give, my cup been runnin’ over
Made these millions for the kids, I gotta turn it over

Baby’s been growing his corporate partnership portfolio a bunch this year; in May, he announced a collaboration with Axe including his own manga, although in a TikTok he shot to promote it, he was less than impressed with the results of an AI anime filter.

Watch Lil Baby’s “Merch Madness” video.

One of the more surprising names that lost a job during ESPN’s latest round of layoffs was Jeff Van Gundy. After spending a decade-plus in the booth for the company as part of its top NBA broadcasting team, Van Gundy saw his time with the company come to an end on June 30, leaving questions about whether someone will replace him alongside Mike Breen and Mark Jackson.

It’s unclear what is next for Van Gundy, but according to Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated, he has the itch to coach once again. In the aftermath of his time with the Worldwide Leader coming to an end, Mannix reports he’s been in talks with NBA teams about returning to the bench as an assistant.

Jeff Van Gundy, a cost-cutting casualty at ESPN last week, has been actively exploring a return to coaching, sources tell Sports Illustrated. Van Gundy, who last coached in the NBA in 2007, has been discussing assistant coaching jobs with several teams. Dallas and Boston discussed roles with Van Gundy before beefing up their coaching staffs. There’s some mutual interest in Washington, where the Wizards have room on Wes Unseld Jr.’s staff. Van Gundy, who won 57.5% of his games as a head coach in New York and Houston, won 52 games in his last season with the Rockets.

Van Gundy spent some time as an assistant in New York before taking over the team’s head coaching role in 1995. Despite his tenure with the Rockets coming to an end in 2007, he did return to the bench in 2017 as the head coach of the United States men’s national team for the FIBA AmeriCup. After winning a gold medal with that group, Van Gundy stayed on as the coach during qualifying for the 2019 FIBA World Cup.

This is truly the finest headline of the year. After news broke that Vietnam has banned Barbie over a map in the film depicting what looks like the “nine-dash line,” which China uses on maps to lay claim to disputed territory, Warner Bros. has released a public statement trying to calm the waters.

Enter, Diplomat Barbie.

As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, the movie studio behind the goofy Margot Robbie-starring toy adaptation said, “The map in Barbie Land is a whimsical, child-like crayon drawing. The doodles depict Barbie’s make-believe journey from Barbie Land to the real world. It was not intended to make any type of statement.”

Please, please don’t get mad about the doodles.

It’s unclear whether this statement will placate the Vietnamese censors into allowing the film to play there or convince The Philippines not to make a similar move for the same reason.

But for a moment, imagine that you’re the art department for Barbie, charged with making a map that looks like a kindergartener drew it. It’s a delightful task in what has already been a color-filled gig. You scribble some boats and wave-like squiggles. You try to empty your mind completely to make random-enough shapes to turn into continents. On a whim, you fill some empty space next to “Asia” with a few dashes.

Now, you’ve caused an international scandal that will cost the company whatever it might have made in Vietnamese theaters.

Also, there are only 8 dashes there. What a time to be alive.

(via The Sydney Morning Herald)

Candace Cameron Bure is pushing back against a recent TikTok video that claims the Full House star tried to have a queer character “removed” from the Netflix spinoff Fuller House. According to Miss Benny, who played the first gay character on the series, she was allegedly informed that she was in danger of being pulled from the show because “one of the Tanner sisters” was “very publicly not for the girls.”

“I remember I got sat down by the writers and the studio to basically warn me how this person allegedly was trying to get the character removed and not have a queer character on the show,” Miss Benny alleged in the TikTok video. She also claimed to have been warned about the person in question’s fanbase who may “target” her.

While Benny doesn’t call out Bure by name in the video, she did include the hashtag #candacebure, which prompted a statement from the actress denying the accusations.

Via PEOPLE, Bure issued a statement:

“I never asked Miss Benny’s character to be removed from Fuller House and did not ask the writers, producers or studio executives to not have queer characters on the show,” said Bure, who played DJ Tanner on Full House and its Netflix revival. “Fuller House has always welcomed a wide range of characters. I thought Miss Benny did a great job as ‘Casey’ on the show. We didn’t share any scenes together, so we didn’t get a chance to talk much while filming on set. I wish Miss Benny only the best.”

Bure’s anti-LGBTQ stance is no secret. After accepting a position as Chief Creative Officer for the ultra-conservative Great American Family network, Bure kicked off a wave of controversy after she said in an interview that the channel’s Christmas movies would only feature “traditional marriage.” She was then called out by actors like Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and even her longtime Full House co-star Jodie Sweetin appeared to throw shade at Bure by siding with Jojo Siwa during their brief feud.

(Via PEOPLE)

Iconic Texas magazine Texas Monthly — perhaps most famous for its stellar feature reporting and end-of-the-year Bum Steer awards for the biggest losers and villains in the Lone Star State — is prepping its first documentary feature.

According to Deadline, the TV and film production arm of the magazine is working with director Deborah Esquenazi to chronicle the case of James Reyos, a gay Apache man who has spent 40 years trying to clear his name and regain freedom following a murder conviction. The Innocence Project is now working with Reyos, and he got a new trial back in March. Esquenazi’s documentary will look deeply at the case as well as Reyos’ battle for his freedom.

“Deborah’s nuanced and deeply journalistic approach to filmmaking is an excellent fit for Texas Monthly as we dive deeper into the world of documentary storytelling, and the rich layers of the James Reyos story made this project a very appealing one to collaborate on with this team,” said Texas Monthly‘s executive producer for TV, film, and podcasts, Megan Creydt.

Added Esquenazi, “There is no better collaborator than Texas Monthly for a film like this. The Odessa Police Department—which reopened this case on its own—uncovered new forensic evidence in 2022, and it has been thrilling to film the collaboration between Odessa’s police department, the District Attorney’s office, and the Innocence Project of Texas clinic at Texas Tech University to do what might have once been unthinkable: reinvestigate a cold case, together, that might finally exonerate an innocent man who has been fighting for his life since the early 1980s.”

Who knows. It might be true crime we can actually feel good about watching.

(via Deadline)

Kanye West is about as provocative as they come these days, but there was a point in his life, years ago, when swiping the microphone from Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards was considered a relatively major controversy for him. Fast-forward to present day: Taylor Swift just released her latest re-recorded album, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). One of the previously unreleased “From The Vault” songs is a Hayley Williams collaboration called “Castles Crumbling,” and Swifties are convinced the song is about the West situation.

One fan on Twitter theorized, “‘they used to chant my name now they’re screaming that they hate me’ oh my god she wrote castles crumbling after the VMAs when she thought she was getting booed… she thought everyone hated her… i’m gonna jump off a bridge #SpeakNowTaylorsVersion.” Another wrote, “i just realized that castles crumbling is about what happened after the vmas when she thought everyone was booing her.. ‘my frozen friends watched my reign end’….’used to chant my name now now they’re screaming that they hate me..’”

Swift hasn’t addressed this, but Williams recently said of Swift, “Taylor was the first industry friend I ever made and hung out with outside of work things. When Speak Now dropped, I bought my friend’s record (as you do!) and listened to the whole thing in my first car, sitting still in the driveway. It’s my favorite Taylor Swift album for so many reasons.”

Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is out now via Republic. Find more information here.

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

(And Just Like That… spoilers will be found below.)

People are watching And Just Like That… even if they’re not universally loving it (as suggested by the 30% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes), given what it’s done to some Sex And The City characters. This includes Miranda Hobbes, who is a shadow of her former ass-kicking-attorney self while following Che Diaz to the ends of the U.S. and essentially doing nothing but losing her phone on the beach while Che Diaz tries to be great. And mind you, I kind-of enjoyed Che as a character and how they didn’t care about being liked. Yet a little bit of them goes a long way, and man, there’s a lot of Che Diaz in Season 2.

On a related note, what the show did to Steve was one of several reasons why I semi-jokingly likened Season 1 of the spinoff to a secret horror show. “Aw, geez, poor freaking Steve Brady” was how I non-eloquently described the situation, but Steve might be living his best life now.

This is an improvement because the Steve situation was not great. He was suddenly a shouty mess and pathetic doofus. Still, his biggest offense was to kill Miranda’s sex drive by washing his hands in order to avoid giving her a UTI. As well, he was newly partially deaf (the affliction found inspiration from David Eigenberg’s real-life experience, though the execution was not kind), and this apparently made him annoying. Mind you, he was still the same stand-up guy who will deftly take apart plumbing to rescue Carrie’s ring. He was relegated to, as I previously wrote, being that horror movie character who “would have been the first character knifed by a serial killer, right after he dutifully and thanklessly set up everyone’s tents in the woods.”

Well this week, the writers finally let Steve Brady have his day in the sun. As Decider’s Meghan O’Keefe has aptly phrased things, Steve is now the displayer of a “Revenge Bod.” I think people liked it, too.

The bod was always there, most likely, just hidden away well. Yet the shirtless aspect is now happening while Che and Miranda’s relationship is starting to disintegrate. Please please please do not let Steve take Miranda back again. He deserves to be treated so much better! Dang it, now I’m all invested in this show again. Nice work, HBO Max.

And Just Like That…‘s second season is currently progressing on Max.

Teen music journalist Jazlyn Guerra — aka Jazzy’s World — has landed her fair share of big-name interviews. Over the last few years, she’s spoken with Jay-Z, J. Cole, Cardi B, Kendrick Lamar, and Nicki Minaj, to name a few. But what happens when the burgeoning star reporter meets one of the personalities who paved the way for her particular brand of on-the-spot artist interviews?

Well, now we know, thanks to “Nardwuar vs. Jazzy,” in which the Human Serviette gets interviewed by — and interviews — the kid journalist, leading to one of the most wholesome discussions in the business. Jazzy even dresses up as Nardwuar, complete with his signature plaid pants and matching bonnet. Nardwuar actually credits the look to Sebastian Bach of the ’90s hard rock band Skid Row, who stole his skullcap one day.

The two journalists go back and forth about the craft and their origins, from Jazzy’s Panamanian roots to Nardwuar’s punk band, the Evaporators. And of course, Nardwuar lavishes Jazzy with lots of gifts, including unusual chip flavors, a J. Cole double LP, and more. Jazzy even sings a little of her own theme song (someone get her into the studio, immediately!).

You can watch the full interview above.