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Ex-President Trump’s newest (and what a striking word to use in this instance) criminal indictment naturally did not go over too well with the eldest boy. In response, Donald Trump Jr. got all twitchy, rubbed his nose, and lacked focus while making a media appearance on the subject. It was almost as strange as watching Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade’s spirit deflate before his audience while Steve Doocy explained the impossible situation that Trump Sr. essentially created for himself.

Don Jr. is about to make more media appearances, too, and he’s not going to hang around at home (or at “Motel 6”) and mope while doing so. Nope, he’s preparing to go Down Under in Australia for speaking engagements. As Newsweek notes, Turning Point Australia is hosting Jr. for early-July trips to “Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane” while he’s flanked by Brexit mastermind Nigel Farage.

Let’s just say that not all Australians are thrilled to see him coming. Rather, it seems like a whole lot of them would like him to stay away. An activist petition on Change.org puts the matter in these terms:

“Donald Trump Jr is an illegal [redacted] bigoted person who should not be allowed to enter Australia for the purpose of earning himself and possibly his father any ‘Campaign Contributions.’”

A little bit harsh? Well, Jr. has bragged that Australians love him, and he wants to free them from “the biggest existential threat” that plagues the U.S.:

Trump Jr. has said he has a “huge fan base in Australia” and that after speaking to some of those supporters “it’s clear the same disease of woke identity politics and cancel culture that’s crippled the US has clearly taken hold there.” He called those issues “the biggest existential threat we face in the West and is literally the decay of Western society.”

Do these Internet petitions ever go anywhere? This surely won’t stop Don Jr. from trotting across the globe, but hopefully, he will spare Aussies from slurry missives that make people really wonder if an intervention is needed.

(Via Newsweek & Change.org)

Way back in 2015, Lil Dicky (aka Dave Burd) dropped his debut album, Professional Rapper. He hasn’t had a new full-length project since then, but he plans to change that soon: He’s working on a soundtrack album for his hit show Dave, which would be his first album in eight years.

Dicky plans to release the album by the end of this summer (“The sooner the better,” as he put it to Variety). He’s working on it with regular Dave guest star Benny Blanco and expects there to be between 15 and 20 songs included on the project.

Dicky said:

“I realized this year, as I took a step back and looked at all the different music that’s made it into the first three seasons of the show, there’s enough here, a great body of work and a project that I can put out as a soundtrack. I think this is such a better representation of Lil Dicky the musical artist than, honestly, my first album even was. People are always like, ‘When can I get that song?’ I think this will be a cool thing for fans who have watched the show. And for people who have never even seen the show, I think they’ll enjoy listening to this as like a body of music.”

He continued, “There are bits and pieces of songs you’ve been hearing for three seasons of Lil Dicky, the musical artist. Sometimes you’ll hear 20 seconds of it, but I might have a full three minute version of that song that’s unreleased. I want to get that out to the world. It’s a really strong body of work that I’m super proud of. I was surprised when I took a step back and looked at the inventory of stuff that have made it into the show — ‘Oh, my God, there’s like a great album here of work that can live on its own.’ So that’s what I’m working on now.”

As the world waits to see if the passengers aboard OceanGate’s Titan submersible will be rescued before it’s too late, a CBS News report from last year about the Titanic-exploring vessel has gone viral.

CBS News Sunday Morning correspondent David Pogue took a trip aboard the Titan in an episode that aired in November 2022. “It seems like this submersible has some elements of MacGyvery jerry-rigged-ness. You are putting construction pipes as ballast,” Pogue told OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush in an interview. Deadline has more:

Pogue said he was nervous before boarding and revealed some of the contents of the waiver form he was required to sign. This described the submarine as an “experimental submersible vessel that has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma or death.”

Pogue commented on his experience in the submersible on CBS News on Monday night. “I stayed up all night the night before my dive. I’d never done anything that could kill me before and I was really, really scared,” he said. “Then I had a conversation with the CEO and he said you’re worried about the wrong things. Like getting back to the surface, running out of air – those we got covered. The things you should be worried about are really rare things like getting snagged in abandoned fishing nets that are miles long in the North Atlantic, or a leak, which is also really unlikely.” Pogue doesn’t know what to say about the current experience, other than “it sounds bad.”

You can watch the CBS News report below.

(Via Deadline)

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

For two-plus decades, Killer Mike has existed at the periphery of the mainstream’s perception of Atlanta rap, despite being widely acknowledged by fans within the culture as one of the scene’s most talented members. There was Mike’s association with Outkast, the forebears of Atlanta’s rise to national prominence, and his tag-team duo, Run The Jewels with El-P, opening a whole new market of festival appearances and hipster blogger love.

He was even given one of rap’s ultimate blessings; on Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 To Pimp A Butterfly standout “Hood Politics,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning Comptonite throws Mike a lyrical shout-out while denouncing the hypocritical elitism within the hip-hop community. “Critics want to mention that they miss when hip-hop was rappin’,” he rails. “Motherfucker, if you did, then Killer Mike’d be platinum.”

To hear Mike himself tell it, though, there’s another reason behind the lack of hardware denoting his sales achievements. “My first record deal damaged me,” he told Spin in an interview this year promoting Michael, his first solo album in over a decade. “It made me afraid, it pulled me back. I hadn’t done terribly on the major. I just, you know, I came out the same year as 50 [Cent] selling 10 million f*cking records. I sold, you know, 500,000.”

While going gold with your debut album (2003’s Monster, which features the millennial-era sex-rap favorite “A.D.I.D.A.S.”) is no small accomplishment, Mike became convinced he belonged on the underground circuit, where his rap prowess could lead to all the critical acclaim that pursuing greater sales goals might cost him. So, he became a bit trapped between the two worlds; a charismatic would-be star content to grind it out below the radar where his talents might be better appreciated.

In all of this, he admits, it seems he never quite got around to introducing the audience to Michael Render, the man behind the Killer Mike persona — and maybe that’s why he never connected with audiences the same way that Kendrick Lamar would, despite sharing his fiery resolve and unapologetic outlook toward presenting his unvarnished view of the world around him. And so, Michael, released Friday via Via Loma after Mike spent half-a-million dollars of his own money recording and producing it, attempts to do that, explaining how and why Killer Mike came to be, and what he’s truly capable of when not relegated to a sidekick or partner role.

First of all, Mike’s Dungeon Family DNA runs throughout the project; it opens with an appearance from CeeLo Green in “Down By Law” and flourishes on “Scientists & Engineers” with features from the elusive André 3000 and fellow wayward Dungeon cousin Future. The album also embraces Mike’s more recent forays into the chaotic doom funk of his longtime production partner El-P on “Two Days.” But the prevailing musical thread that ties Michael together is the gospel of his youth.

Beginning with the ferocious “Shed Tears” and continuing through the defiant “Run,” picking up in the maudlin “Motherless” and piercing through the production of the album in its haunting use of organs and clips of passionate sermons from Malcolm X, the influence of the South’s church-steeped culture undergirds Mike’s tearful reflections and assertive remonstrations as he recounts his evolution from nihilistic drug dealer to community leader and unofficial poet laureate of Atlanta.

There are slip-ups, of course. A questionable reference to Brokeback Mountain on “Talk’n That Sh*t” undermines Mike’s coalition rhetoric (hard to form a coalition if you’re still so committed to dehumanizing at least 10 percent of any group of people working toward a supposedly common goal; as a resident of the city with one of the largest LGBTQ populations in the nation, Mike should know better), and occasionally, his real-life actions, however well-intentioned, come off as contradictory of the revolutionary bars he rattles off on nearly every song.

But if you’re going to paint a picture of a person, their flaws are necessarily going to be part and parcel of the completed image. That Mike refuses to shy away from even the most unflattering self-portrayals are a huge reason why he’s got so much support from the artistic community and from critics. He’s showing us just who Michael Render is, even if that’s just something we’ve all always known.

Michael is out now on Loma Vista Records.

Having a baby can be stressful under normal circumstances, but having to prepare for a baby while incarcerated has to feel nearly impossible. For an inmate in Louisiana who was pregnant and in prison for a minor crime with a short sentence, options were nonexistent.

Katie Bourgeois, who is currently serving time at Louisiana Transitional Center for Women in Tallulah, Louisiana, found herself desperate for help as her due date quickly approached in May. She is due to be released in July.

The new mom didn’t have any family to take her new baby, and she worried that if she didn’t find a caregiver, the infant would go into foster care. That’s when Roberta Bell, a correctional officer at the facility, helped to ease her worries. Bell worked at the facility for over three years and enjoyed her job helping women. But when Bourgeois was trying to find a temporary caregiver for her unborn child, it was a running joke among staff that Bell was going to take the baby—until it wasn’t.

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Bourgeois approached Bell and pleaded her case for the correctional officer to become the legal caretaker of her baby.

“She was very concerned about Child Protection Services getting the baby and her not knowing where the baby was since she had such a short term to serve,” Bell told WLBT. “She said, ‘I really need somebody to get my baby when I get ready to have it because I don’t have anybody.’”

Before taking on the duties of caretaker, Bell reached out to her superior to make sure she would not be violating any rules, but weeks had passed without an update. According to WLBT, no one had returned her inquiry until a few days before the baby was delivered, and at that point, Bell had already provided the new mom with her contact information for the hospital to transfer the baby to her.

This is what caused her termination, but the correctional officer was undeterred. She fully planned to fulfill her promise to the scared mom and care for her baby until she gets released in July. Kayson Bourgeois was born May 17, and Bell took him back to her home in Mississippi since she is no longer employed.

Approximately 58,000 pregnant people go to jail or prison every year and thousands of babies are born while their mothers are incarcerated, according to Prison Policy Initiative. After giving birth, new parents are typically allowed to spend 24 hours with their newborn in the hospital before the mother returns to prison or jail. The child is then placed with a relative or in foster care. Only 12 states offer prison-based nursery programs, making the likelihood of separation high.

Thankfully for Bourgeois, she had a correctional officer who was willing to take the risk of losing her job to make sure her baby stayed out of the foster care system, and Bell has no regrets. When WLBT asked if she would change anything, she said, “I wouldn’t because this is me. There’s no changing.”

“My passion was to open a recovery home for the women that are coming out of prison. I have not been successful in that yet, but I know that I will be. To get them away from the surroundings that they were in that caused them to get in trouble. That’s my passion,” Bell told WLBT.

Maybe someday she’ll get to do just that. For now, the 57-year-old’s top priority is taking care of baby Kayson and making sure he has everything he needs. If you’d like to donate to help Bell care for Kayson, you can donate to her GoFundMe here.

The 90s aesthetic might be finding its way back into being fashionable, but certain gems from the era remain only in memories. The food, for instance, probably won’t be trending on TikTok anytime soon, as it is nowhere near as fancy as whipped coffee and watermelon pizza.

In fact, for many 90s kids, certain childhood staples might be hidden deep in the recesses of their memory, because, let’s face it, our taste buds—and our collective views on food—have advanced far beyond the comforts of yesteryear.

Still, Redditor u/kammikazzie asked 90’s kids to share common dinners they had growing up that aren’t so common anymore, and it’s hard not to feel wistful about the answers. Sure, the meals were basic as hell, but there was a simple charm to it all. They were easy enough to make that any parent could provide something tasty without being Gordon Ramsey. In fact, you might find your inner child having some nostalgic cravings after reading this list.

Go ahead, sample from the memory buffet and sink your teeth into these dinners only a 90s mother could love.

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“A bowl of baked beans with sliced hot dogs. I always looked forward to this meal as a kid, but my mom recently admitted that she only made it when she barely had any money for dinner.”

—u/strawbrimlk

“Shake and bake pork chops. It was a staple in our dinner rotation.”

—u/zakabog

“Tuna noodle casserole. It was a total abomination that I’m thrilled to never again have plonked down in front of me. Miss you, mom, you terrible yet beloved cook.”

—u/NotAlwaysRight543

via GIPHY

“Cream of mushroom soup on spaghetti. I didn’t realize until well into my 20s that this was a meal my mother fed us to make us full for three bucks.”

—u/MissingVanSushi

“Pot roast made with chuck roast covered in a packet of onion soup mix. Of course, it was always accompanied by cut carrots, halved potatoes, and mushrooms on the side.”

—u/ra3ra31010

1. “Taco night with all the fixin’s, featuring crunchy shells, ground beef, shredded cheddar cheese, lettuce, diced tomato, and jarred salsa.”

—u/itsfuckingpizzatime

2. “Kid Cuisine frozen dinners. Mmm, that blazing hot brownie that I burned my mouth on every single time….”

—u/bandaidaddict

3. “Fried bologna. My dad made a mean fried bologna sandwich with a slice of American cheese on wonder bread with mayo. On special occasions we also got our sandwiches with a fried egg or Lays potato chips added between the layers of bologna.”

—u/CottonHeadedElf“

4. “Pizza bagels, or really any kind of pizza-on-toast if we’re being honest.”

via GIPHY

—u/snailfighter

5. “I had a lot of Manwich growing up in the 90s.”

—u/TragicaDeSpell

6. “Grilled cheese and canned tomato soup. It’s the best combo ever. This would instantly revive me after riding my bike home from school in the cold weather.”

—u/staticthreat

7. “Fish sticks with ketchup, obviously. Plus a side of heated, limp, canned string beans. And a piece of toasted Wonder-bread, dry.”

—u/markphil4580

8. “Chicken breasts baked in Italian dressing with Pasta Roni. Mom’s go-to.”

—u/_shanoodle

9. “My mom used to cook lasagna with an amazing made-from-scratch meat sauce. But then she discovered Stouffer’s frozen lasagna, and we never had the homemade version again.”

—u/tacobelmont

via GIPHY

10. “We always had this one salad with crunchy, uncooked ramen noodles and canned mandarin oranges. I remember people making it a lot for picnics and potlucks in the ’90s.”

—u/Mila1023

11. “My mom would heat up a family sized pack of those cheap, frozen Salisbury steaks with gravy and serve them with instant mashed potatoes. I’d always make a messy sandwich out of everything. I remember being so stoked when she said that’s what was cooking for dinner.”

—u/dhippi

12. “Goulash. My mom kinda over killed it, but I miss how she made it.”

—u/tblazertn

13. “Chili rice. It’s made just the way it sounds: Prepare some rice, heat up a can of chili, and then mix together and enjoy. I usually ate it with some sliced white bread or Saltine crackers.”

—u/randoman00_00

14. “Meatloaf. My mom was an awful cook, and meatloaf is generally awful, but for some reason my mom’s meatloaf was amazing.”

—u/Missscarlettheharlot

via GIPHY

15. “Hamburger Helper. It was so quick and easy, and I loved it as a kid. That plus Shake and Bake Pork Chops and Stove Top stuffing. Ahh, the staples of the ’90s…”

—u/Fyrelyte67

16. “We used to have chicken breaded in crushed up Ritz crackers. I actually made it a few months ago, and I still absolutely love it.”

—u/Schlarver

17. “Pizza Hut buffet. Mostly we could only afford Pizza Hut when I read enough books to get my free personal pizza.”

—u/Truckyou666

Fresh off of appearances on albums from 03 Greedo and Larry June, Ty Dolla Sign has announced his More Motion Less Emotion Tour, which kicks off in September and runs through October. Although he hasn’t announced an album to go along with it yet, there’s plenty of time between now and then for a rollout. Fortunately, the late summer/early fall start date allows him plenty of time to recover from his skateboarding accident last year.

He’ll be joined on tour by singer Leon Thomas, whose album was so good it prompted Ty to redo his own, and rapper Symba, who had a bit of a breakout last year thanks to his DJ Drama-produced Gangsta Grillz mixtape and a standout Tiny Desk Concert. Tickets go on sale this Friday, June 23 at 10 am. You can find more information here.

9/15 – San Diego, CA @ SOMA
9/16 – Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues
9/18 – Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theatre
9/19 – Albuquerque, NM @ Revel
9/21 – Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
9/22 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater
9/23 – Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
9/24 – New Orleans, LA @ The Fillmore New Orleans
9/26 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
9/27 – Nashville, TX @ Brooklyn Bowl Nashville
9/29 – St. Petersburg, FL @ Jannus Live
9/30 – Miami, FL @ Oasis Wynwood
10/1 – Orlando, FL @ The Vanguard
10/3 – Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
10/4 – Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
10/6 – Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore Silver Spring
10/7 – Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall
10/8 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
10/10 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues
10/11 – Montreal, QC @ MTELUS
10/13 – Toronto, ON @ Rebel
10/14 – Cleveland, OH @ Masonic Cleveland
10/15 – Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed
10/17 – Denver, CO @ Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom
10/18 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Union Event Center
10/20 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
10/21 – Vancouver, BC @ Harbour Event & Convention Centre
10/22 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
10/24 – Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades**
10/26 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Novo
10/27 – San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield**

** dates without Symba & Leon Thomas

Ty Dolla Sign is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The year was 2007, and Kanye West was pitching to have a comedy show on HBO. Titled A Little Inappropriate, it reportedly pulled inspiration from the platform’s other popular shows, including Entourage (which West guest-starred in) and Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Now, the full pilot for West’s once-planned show is making the rounds online, after a user uploaded it to YouTube reportedly from Seinfeld writer Larry Charles’ now-private Vimeo account. The episode’s plot centers around West discovering a Make-A-Wish child is no longer sick.

The cast included Curb‘s JB Smoove and Jeff Garlin, Wyatt Cenac, Kym Whitley, Don C, and GLC, according to Vibe. Cenac previously shared the full pilot back in 2013 at one of his shows, which led to him doing an interview with Vulture about West and the scrapped project.

Over the years, since at least 2008, clips had also made their way online.

“I figured if I did it as a surprise, I don’t think HBO could do anything but keep me out of HBO shows,” Cenac said at the time.

Reportedly, West had taken private improv lessons specifically for it.

“Kanye knew he wasn’t a good improviser,” Cenac added. “He’d read something that [Jerry] Seinfeld said about surrounding himself with better talent and that he would rise to the occasion. And so that was his hope.”

Obviously the show never made it past that point, but perhaps in an alternate universe, it could have.

Check out the full version of Kanye West’s original A Little Inappropriate pilot above.

The Smile is hitting the road for a full North American tour starting tomorrow (June 21) in Mexico City, Mexico. Before the rockers take the stage of the Auditorio Nacional, they are treating fans to a new single. Although it isn’t a completely new release, supporters are excited nonetheless. With their latest track, “Bending Hectic,” the band builds up more anticipation for their upcoming album.

The song is the perfect display of their mastery of both post-punk and progressive rock. Across the eight minutes run time, the melody of instruments captivates the listeners as the lyrics tether you to their fantasy trip. The most memorable stanza reads, “We are coming to a bend now, skidding round a hairpin / A sheer drop down the Italian mountainside / Time is kind of frozen, you are gazing at the view / And I swear I’m seeing double / But no-one’s gonna bring me down no, no way and no how / I’m letting go of the wheel.”

“Bending Hectic” originally debuted at the 2022 Montreux Jazz Festival. However, the track, which was produced by Sam Petts-Davies, did not make The Smile’s live album from the set. The record features string support by the London Contemporary Orchestra.

Listen to the track above.