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Shaggy Insists Fans Have ‘It Wasn’t Me,’ His Biggest Hit, ‘All Wrong’: ‘It’s Not A Cheating Song’

For years, Shaggy‘s 2000 hit “It Wasn’t Me” has been a running meme thanks to its borderline ridiculous insistence on repeating the title after being caught in all sorts of compromising positions. Fans of The Roots also apparently have the song to thank for helping to keep the band afloat at a time “alternative hip-hop” didn’t get much support from major labels, according to Questlove. The song even ended up in a Super Bowl ad featuring real-life couple Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis.

But according to Shaggy, fans have had the song all wrong for the past 20 years. In a new interview with People about his upcoming Hot Summer Nights Tour, Shaggy insists “It Wasn’t Me” is not a “cheating song,” despite all evidence to the contrary in the humorously over-the-top lyrics. “It was a big misconception with that song because that song is not a cheating song,” he said. “It’s an anti-cheating song. It’s just that nobody listened to the record to the end.”

He continues, “There’s a part in the record where it’s a conversation between two people and you have one guy, which is me at that point, giving that bad advice, like, ‘Yo, bro, how could you get caught? Just tell her, ‘It wasn’t me,’’ and then at the end, the guy says, ‘I’m going to tell her that I’m sorry for the pain that I’ve caused. I’ve been listening to your reasoning, it makes no sense at all. Going to tell her that I’m sorry for the pain that I’ve caused. You might think that you’re a player, but you’re completely lost.’”

“Nobody hears that part!” Shaggy laments. “That’s what the song says. But everybody’s just caught up on that, ‘It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me.’ It’s an anti-cheating song. No one ever really buys into that, and I keep explaining it to people. Then, they go listen to it back and be like, ‘Oh dude, I totally missed that.’” Still, he takes the misunderstanding into stride. “I think it has helped in the life of the song,” he points out. “What’s so good about that song is that it was relatable throughout the years. People do have this whole situation with cheating, and the thing about that is that you could be young, old, Black, white, straight, gay, whatever it is, it’s still relatable.”

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After Solving Every Crime In The United States, The ‘Law & Order’ Franchise Is Heading To Canada

Now that all of the crimes have been solved in New York, it’s only natural for Dick Wolf to want to expand the Law & Order empire to other places. But why bring that said order to American cities like Boston or Philadelphia when you can go to a place rich with moose and low-stakes hockey crimes?

Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent is officially in the works up north, per The Hollywood Reporter. The debut 10-episode season will follow an elite clan of detectives who investigate high-profile crimes, much like its New York counterpart. Hopefully, Law & Order Toronto will bring in some great crimes inspired by real-life events, like a python assault and the great Maple Syrup Heist. You know, Canadian things!

The series will come from Amy Cameron, a frequent NBC collaborator who also worked on Pretty Hard Cases. Cameron said, “We are thrilled to be working with Lark Productions and Citytv to bring this series to life. We cannot wait to showcase our amazing city in the Law & Order franchise.”

Some potential storylines could include a mob boss trying to run his empire from the tippy top of the CN tower only to suffer from vertigo, a messy murder at the Hockey Hall of Fame that id disguised as just another hockey game, or Degrassi Community School finally being investigated for the various shenanigans that have been going on there for so long. Drake might be available to testify.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

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Lizzo Kicked Off Pride Month By Standing Up For Drag Performers In A Big Way On Stage In California

We’re officially a few days into Pride Month, and at the top of it, Lizzo made a statement: At her June 2 performance at Acrisure Arena in Thousand Palms, California, she made it clear she’s all in on supporting the LGBTQ community.

In a video shared on Lizzo’s social media accounts yesterday (June 4), Lizzo waves a pride flag around as she shouts into the mic, “Drag is not a crime,” presumably in reference to recent anti-drag laws. She was surrounded by drag queens Kim Chi, Angeria Paris Van Michaels and Kahanna Montrese, along with drag king Tenderoni (as Billboard notes). Lizzo also captioned her post, “You’ve always had my back, and I’ll always have yours. [transgender flag emoji][rainbow flag emoji] Happy Pride [rainbow flag emoji][transgender flag emoji].”

This is just the latest recent example of Lizzo vocalizing her support for the LGBTQ community. After an anti-drag law was passed in Tennessee, Lizzo said on stage in April, “In light of recent and tragic events — recurring events, I was told by people on the internet, ‘Cancel your shows in Tennessee’ and ‘Don’t go to Tennessee.’ […] Why would I not come to the people that need to hear this message the most? The people that need to feel this release the most. Why would I not create a safe space in Tennessee where we can celebrate drag entertainers and celebrate our differences? And celebrate fat Black women.”

Then, in May, after Nebraska passed a law banning gender-affirming healthcare for transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people under the age of 18, Lizzo said, “It really breaks my heart that there are young people growing up in a world that doesn’t protect them. Let me be your safe space tonight. Young people, don’t let anybody tell you who you are, don’t let any law tell you who you’re not. You are who you are. I see you. You are valid. You deserve to be here in any form. These laws are not real. You are what’s real.”

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

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Sam Hargrave On ‘Extraction 2’ And The Return Of Our Extracting Pal Tyler Rake

This first Extraction movie had a, let’s say, unique release. Released in April of 2020, a time people were at home, starved for any new entertainment, here comes Tyler Rake. Yeah, a lot of people saw Extraction. This was Sam Hargrave’s first film as director and he was, of course, expecting the whole worldwide press tour for the big new Netflix movie, produced by the directors of Avengers: Endgame, starring Thor himself. Instead, he did some interviews from his shed on Zoom. Months prior, Hargrave was hoping his new action movie could stack up against the other new competition. Instead, people got to choose between Extraction or watching nothing. Turns out a lot of people chose Extraction.

Now, with Extraction 2, Sam Hargrave represents something interesting happening with action movies these days. Now, no, it’s not completely new that stunt people or stunt coordinators become directors – Hal Needham is an example; also, if you have never seen Hooper, it’s great – but there is a trend lately with David Leitch, Chad Stahelski, and now Hargrave (who worked for Leitch on Atomic Blond and Deadpool 2) all being stunt coordinators, then deciding, you know, I think I can just run this whole show. (I will not mention any specifics, but I’ve heard more than a few times, on action-heavy films, stunt coordinators feeling like they are directing most the movie anyway. So it makes sense to move on to getting paid for doing the whole thing.)

When we last saw Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth), it appeared he had met his match, shot and falling off a bridge presumably to his death. But, as Hargrave says, originally, yes, the first movie was supposed to be a self-contained story, but they went ahead and later added the final scene that throws some doubt on Rake’s death. Well, there is no more doubt. Tyler Rake has recovered and is enjoying his retirement, but is now offered a job that is too personal to turn down. His ex-wife’s sister and two kids are being held hostage in a Georgian prison where her husband, a notorious mob leader, is incarcerated. They need to be extracted and if you need an extraction, there is no better extractor than Tyler Rake. Ahead, Hargrave takes us through the return of Tyler Rake and why he made the jump from stunt coordinator to director and the challenges that come with that. And he dives into the 21-minute continuous action shot that is already being both hyped and scrutinized.

Tyler Rake is just one of my absolute favorite character names.

Good. I’m glad you enjoyed it. It’s pretty catchy.

The first movie came out at a very tumultuous time in our world history.

Yeah. I mean, for example, well, this time around I’m able to go on our world press tour and experience the fun of that. Where the first time I spent two solid days in my shed in Malibu, just answering questions on the computer for 12 hours a day. So, I think, yes, it’s a little more enjoyable to get out amongst the world and travel again and share the excitement for this film with fans around the world.

I do have fond feelings for the first one. At the time it was pretty exciting to see a new movie.

Well, I’m glad that we could do that. I mean there always will be, I guess, a special place for the first film because of the time at which it was released. Because a lot of people were prisoners in their own homes, so to speak. And they had no form of entertainment outside of these streaming services. And to have something come out that was entertaining and, for some people, fun to watch multiple times, I guess, was a godsend, so to speak.

Which means a lot of people saw that first movie. So I do think a lot of people are really looking forward to the sequel.

Hey, it’s a good way to see success. Right? [Laughs] Just have no competition. No, I’m kidding. But the second movie, yes, I can feel the response to the trailer that we put out a couple of weeks ago. Last week has been overwhelmingly positive, so from that reaction, yeah, I’m feeling the love. And I feel like fans are waiting for this movie. Hey, if the same amount of people, or more, that watch the first one enjoy this one, we’ll be doing good and I’ll be happy.

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that Tyler Rake is alive. At the end of the first one, we think he might have met his end. Was it always a plan to do a second one and bring him back?

Well, you never know when you make a movie and it’s an original idea, especially how it’s going to be received. So we were hopeful, yes, but it was planned as a single installment. There was never, going into the first one, a plan for a second one. Once we got a little bit deeper in and started to get positive feedback and see the potential for this character, when we went back to pick up some additional things for story and character development. We actually did an additional ending which ended up in the movie as a way to hedge our bet, so to speak.

Oh, the scene where we see Tyler Rake out of focus?

Yeah. Where the kid comes up out of the water and you see a figure in the background that resembles Tyler Rake, but out of focus. So the reason we landed on that idea was so that if, for some reason, the movie flopped and nobody wanted to see it beyond the first movie, then we had a satisfying ending for Rake’s journey. And if those same fans enjoyed it enough to clamor for a second one, you could then argue, “Oh, that was Tyler Rake.” And it made for really interesting parking lot conversations.

It’s interesting to hear you even say “if it flops.” Because I know when you were filming it, you didn’t realize the circumstances it was going to come out under. But it would be something if Netflix was like, “Hey, people chose nothing over Extraction.”

[Laughs] That would be a strong statement, and I probably would have to reconsider my choice of career if that was the case. Fortunately, I’m able to make a second movie, which I’m eternally grateful for Netflix and AGBO. So it wasn’t the case, thankfully.

Was there ever a thought of making that Tyler Rake’s thing? At the end of every movie he’s just presumed dead?

Not necessarily, but that’s a really actually a funny idea. You just keep always yanking the chain of the audience. They’re like, “Oh, he is dead this time.” No, he is not. No. I think we, myself included, and Chris, we all believe strongly enough in this character of Tyler Rake that we were able to make a strong statement at the end that he is very much alive and very much ready for another adventure should the audiences desire such a thing.

It does seem like, lately, a lot of stunt coordinators are becoming directors. Obviously, we can go back to someone like Hal Needham, it’s not like this is brand new. But the way movies are done now, with stunt coordinators directing large portions of big superhero movies now that they’d just move on to directing the whole thing.

I don’t think it’s as simple as saying, because we were in the stunt world, thusly, we make good directors. I think it goes a little deeper than that. I think the way that like Chad and Dave and myself approached the filmmaking process was part of it – as filmmakers rather than just action designers was a large part of it. We always kind of wanted to be filmmakers, wanted to tell stories, so when collecting your experience on the set as a stunt coordinator and fight coordinator and second unit director, it’s with the eye towards telling your own stories.

And the plus side, I mean, one of the many plus sides, is you get on-the-job experience. There are not a lot of film schools that you can go to that you can collect 10,000 hours of on-the-job experience where you’re managing budgets, you’re managing a team, you’re part of a larger production where there’s a lot of responsibility on you. You’re communicating with actors every day, you’re getting to shoot action. So, there’s a large correlation between that approach to getting into the stunt world with the on-the-job experience of directing and communicating that you get while doing the job of stunt coordinator, if that makes sense.

You compared it to a film school. When someone like David Leitch is the director, is he teaching you about other aspects of directing?

I mean, very much so in an informal way. I mean, he’s not saying, “Here, I’ll teach you all you need to know to become a great director.”

“Be my competition someday.”

But they’re giving you opportunities to create, and a lot of the on the job experience of directing came through choreographing and shooting and editing – where you would take an action sequence, if it’s written in the script, and because they’re directing and they’re too busy, they got a bunch of stuff to do, they would hand it off to whoever’s under them. Which I got to be, graciously, for a number of movies.

I’ve just heard too many stories through the grapevine. I’m sure you’ve heard this too, or maybe experienced it, and that’s what I guess my point was earlier: why so many people who do what you do are becoming directors now, and good directors, obviously, is because I’ve heard stories of people in your position feeling like, “Hey, I’m actually the one directing most of this movie.”

Oh, yeah. No, it happens. Sometimes what’s interesting is, as a director, if you’re signing on to direct an action movie, half of the description of the genre that you’re making, “action movie,” is action. So, if you don’t pay as close attention to the action side of what you’re shooting and directing as you do the acting and the drama, you’re going to have half a successful movie, I think. Or you turn it over, you’re giving up control to other people who know it better than you. I think, for me, at least, I felt very confident with action. But when I did the first film, what I tried to focus on and turn my attention to, was becoming much better at the dramatic side and the storytelling side because that was something I felt like I just didn’t quite have as much experience with.

A lot is being made about the continuous shot. It’s a pretty neat scene, but it’s being used in the marketing and now people will scrutinize it…

I mean, when it comes to marketing, Netflix has their algorithms and they’re experts that know what’s going to draw the eyes. And I think, because of the success of the first film and the buzz around that one shot that we did, or the “oner,” we call them, it was a logical place to push the envelope. We knew going into this that it was going to be a lot of scrutiny because of the first movie. And if you did one, you know people are going to look at it and judge it against the first, so we were aware that it was going to be scrutinized. And it will be, and people are going to find fault in it, as they can in any piece of art. It’s far from perfect, let me tell you. I’ll be the first one to admit it. But we swung for the fences.

It’s a pretty good one.

Which, hey, we fully committed. And we can’t find, or at least I can’t hang my head in shame of, “Oh, well, we didn’t try our best.” Because we did. Every single person involved in that sequence gave everything they had, and I think it shows on the screen. And I’m proud of what everybody did.

Obviously, it’s not one continuous filmed shot and movie magic is involved. Though, the beginning of that sequence does look pretty continuous. What’s the longest actual shot in the sequence?

Well, I mean a lot of that are trade secrets. Got to keep you guessing! But I can tell you, methodologically speaking, what we tried to do is create a style. And we did it with the first one, the experiential camera moving – camera operating to where stitches and cuts were kind of part of the nature and the style of the camera movement. So when something happens, you, as the audience, are experiencing it as if you were in the sequence with our hero. So, if something happens or we hear someone yell to the right the camera looks to the right as you would reacting. Or if somebody falls and they start to leave your frame, you tilt down because that’s where the action goes. So you’re following things as if you were experiencing them. And because of that, it allows us to seamlessly hide a lot of different cuts in there for different reasons, both creatively and logistically. But it maintains the experience of a continuous shot, a continuous moment or sequence. I don’t know exactly the length. I think the longest one was upwards of three minutes plus.

With that much going on, that’s pretty long.

Yeah. It’s not bad. I mean, because of course when you first started out, the desire is to do it all.

At the end of the movie, it hints at the worst of the worst of villains might be coming up in the next one. Do you have someone in mind already or have you talked to someone? I was almost expecting a post-credit scene with a reveal.

Well, I think that I can say that the reason there’s no post-credit scenes is because we haven’t yet landed on who that is. There are a lot of ideas floating around between Netflix and AGBO, and whoever that is will be a gnarly emmer effer.

So the answer is yes, you do have someone in mind.

We do have someone in mind in mind, yes.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

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A Road Trip Might Be Required If You Want To See ‘Oppenheimer’ The Way Christopher Nolan Intended

Oppenheimer will be shown in multiplexes, indie theaters, drive-in theaters, the crappy TV on airplanes, and your friend’s Nintendo DS. But if you want to see Christopher Nolan’s 12th film the “correct” way, you’ll need a IMAX 70mm screening — assuming you can find one.

“The sharpness and the clarity and the depth of the image is unparalleled,” Nolan told the Associated Press about shooting with IMAX film cameras. “The headline, for me, is by shooting on IMAX 70mm film, you’re really letting the screen disappear. You’re getting a feeling of 3D without the glasses. You’ve got a huge screen and you’re filling the peripheral vision of the audience. You’re immersing them in the world of the film.” The “gold standard” of Oppenheimer, as Nolan put it, will only play in 30 theaters for a limited time (not limited enough for Tom Cruise). If you live in New Hampshire, buy a plane ticket now.

Here they are:

Arizona
Harkins Arizona Mills 25 & IMAX – Tempe, AZ

California
AMC Metreon 16 & IMAX – San Francisco, CA
Universal Cinema AMC at CityWalk Hollywood & IMAX – Universal City, CA
TCL Chinese Theater IMAX – Hollywood CA
Regal Edwards Ontario Palace & IMAX – Ontario, CA
Regal Irvine Spectrum 21 + IMAX – Irvine CA
Esquire IMAX – Sacramento, CA
Regal Hacienda Crossings & IMAX – Dublin, CA

Florida
AutoNation IMAX, Museum of Discovery & Science – Fort Lauderdale, FL

Georgia
Regal Mall of Georgia & IMAX – Buford, GA

Indiana
IMAX Theatre at Indiana State Museum – Indianapolis, IN

Michigan
Chrysler IMAX Dome Theatre, Michigan Science Center – Detroit, MI
Celebration! Cinema Grand Rapids North & IMAX – Grand Rapids, MI

New York
AMC Lincoln Square 13 & IMAX – New York, NY

Pennsylvania
Regal UA King of Prussia & IMAX – King of Prussia, PA

Rhode Island
Providence Place Cinemas 16 and IMAX – Providence, RI

Texas
AMC Rivercenter 11 & IMAX – San Antonio, TX
Cinemark 17 & IMAX – Dallas, TX

Tennessee
Regal Opry Mills & IMAX – Nashville, TN

The rest of the screenings are in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Czech Republic. You can see the full list here.

(Via IMAX)

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The Creator Of ‘Succession’ Was ‘Terrified’ When Jeremy Strong Tried To Improv A Much Darker Ending For Kendall While Filming The Finale

The Succession finale aired over a week ago, but fans of the prestige HBO series are still poring over the final moments for clues as to what happened to the characters after the futre of the Roy family empire was decided in a bombshell board meeting. The show purposefully left their fates ambiguous, but Jeremy Strong has already admitted that he tried to engineer a more definitive ending for his character Kendall Roy.

In the Succession finale, a visibly deflated Kendall is seen walking down to Battery Park with his dad’s former bodyguard, Colin (Scott Nicholson) following behind him. As the series ends, Kendall stares out at the Hudson River as the episode fades to black. However, Strong recently revealed that he made a run at the water and actually climbed over the barrier.

“I got up from that bench and went as fast as I could over the barrier and onto the pilings, and the actor playing Colin raced over,” Strong told Vanity Fair. “I didn’t know I was gonna do that, and he didn’t know, but he raced over and stopped me. I don’t know whether in that moment I felt that Kendall just wanted to die—I think he did—or if he wanted to be saved by essentially a proxy of his father.”

According to series creator, Jesse Armstrong, Strong’s improv movement happened very quickly and basically scared the crap out of everyone.

Via NPR:

I was terrified. I was terrified that he might fall in and be injured. … He didn’t look like he was going to jump in. But once he climbed over that barrier — when you film, there are generally a lot of health and safety assessments made, and that was not our plan that day. And normally I know that if we’d even been thinking of that happening, we would have had boats and frogmen and all kinds of safety measures, which we didn’t have. So my first thought was for his physical safety as a human being, not anything about the character. That’s what I felt on the day. Good Lord, above.

Executive producer Frank Rich also revealed that an “alarmed” Nicholson reacted purely on instinct and was “functioning as a person as much as a character in that moment.”

Succession is available for streaming on Max.

(Via NPR)

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Taylor Swift Explained The Mindset Behind Featuring Pop-Punk Icons Hayley Williams And Fall Out Boy On ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)

In recent days, Hayley Williams fans have been convinced that the Paramore singer is set to appear on Taylor Swift’s upcoming Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). Now, we know that the speculation was correct, as Swift unveiled the project’s tracklist today (June 5). Furthermore, the album also features Fall Out Boy, and Swift explained why she decided to include them and Williams on the album.

In the caption of her reveal post, Swift wrote, “I’m VERY excited to show you the back cover of Speak Now (my version) including the vault tracks and collaborations with @yelyahwilliams from @paramore and @falloutboy. Since Speak Now was all about my songwriting, I decided to go to the artists who I feel influenced me most powerfully as a lyricist at that time and ask them to sing on the album. They’re so cool and generous for agreeing to support my version of Speak Now. I recorded this album when I was 32 (and still growing up, now) and can’t wait to unveil it all to you on July 7th.”

Meanwhile, Paramore recently opened for Swift on The Eras Tour and Swift said of the experience, “Having Paramore join me on tour is such an honor. We came up alongside each other as Nashville teenagers writing our own music, so it feels insanely special to kick off the tour together nearly two decades later. I just remember being constantly floored and inspired by their writing, originality and artistic integrity. Hayley is such a riveting performer because she’s so multifaceted — bold and playful and ferocious and completely in command. It’s a dream come true to join forces like this.”

Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is out 7/7 via Republic. Find more information here.

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

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FLO Is Ready For World Domination

For the past year and some change, FLO – the British girl group comprised of singers Stella Quaresma, Jorja Douglas, and Renée Downer – have captured the hearts, attention, and most importantly, the support of people all over the world. One of the most impressive aspects of FLO is that they check off the boxes of music lovers with different tastes from different generations.

Their music sounds like it was made from the 1990s-2000s era of shimmering and theatrical R&B production, enough so that millennials will smile and maybe gain a bit of hope for the kids of today. Their soaring vocals and pristine harmonies will make the R&B traditionalists send a hallelujah or two into the sky in relief that their beloved vocals are still important in the genre. Gen-Z can beam in delight at the sight of girls from their generation who shares similar qualities: the resistance to tradition, being fearlessly outspoken, and having confidence in all the best ways.

FLO has it all, and with that, there’s no denying that they’re ready to take over the world.

The girls’ recent steps have come through the releases of “Fly Girl” with Missy Elliott and “Losing You,” records that both fit the mold of FLO’s DNA despite being polar opposites sonically. “I think they’re quite contrasting and I think that’s kind of what we’re about,” Stella says about these songs over a Zoom call with Uproxx. “We’re very multifaceted.” Similar to their The Lead cut “Another Guy,” “Losing You” leans into the characteristics of an R&B ballad to bid a final goodbye to a past lover who mistreated them in more ways than one and share the relief that came with their exit.

On the other hand, “Fly Girl,” similar to “Summertime,” is steered by the feisty fun that lives in the heart of a lively part. FLO is fierce, confident, and dismissive to anyone and anything that falls short of their reasonably high expectations because, I mean, c’mon, it’s FLO we’re talking about! “I think that they were good contrasting songs to put out one after the other,” Stella says. “That’s also what our album gonna be about, just us and our journey and being honest about everything.”

FLO’s journey began with the release of their debut EP The Lead in the summer of 2022. A viral clip of one of their music videos on Twitter help make them the beloved darlings to fans that they are now, but the music on that project sufficed as the most ideal launching pad toward their current success. “It was quite a journey getting to that list of songs,” Stella says. “We’re proud of it [The Lead] and proud of the songs and proud of the list. We worked really hard to get everything on there to be how we wanted it.”

That work paid off thanks to excellent entries to The Lead like “Not My Job” and “Immature” which once again find insufficient men as the subject their heavenly harmonies dive into. These songs, as well as others like “Cardboard Box,” stand out as the most quality entries, or “bops” as the girls call them, in their discography. Think they can’t top these? FLO has something to tell you about that. “We like the kind of pressure that, [because] we keep putting out bops, we need to top them because we want to grow as artists,” Jorja says. “We just want to keep pushing ourselves because we want to release the best music possible. We don’t feel pressure from anyone else, we just feel a healthy pressure [from ourselves].”

As the saying goes: pressure creates diamonds. Though the girls still have plenty to achieve in their careers, they have successfully created a career that their younger selves would be proud to see. “It’s really important to us that we stay true and honest to ourselves and each other and to the people that we’re working with who have the power over our music,” Jorja says. “The way we carry ourselves through and navigate these situations is something that our younger selves would be really proud of.”

These situations include their first US tour which came to an end at the end of April with a closing show at Los Angeles’ Fonda Theater. Over the course of two weeks, FLO made stops in major cities like Atlanta, New York City, and Chicago to not establish an audience across the pond, but meet and connect with fans who’d been supporting them for months at a minimum.

“I don’t even think that we’ve had time to process how people are receiving like our shows because it’s [been] so fast-paced,” Jorja admits. “As much as we love meeting people, we kind of hate meeting people in that rushed setting where it’s like, this is this person, ‘hi!,’ next person, next person. I don’t feel like we’re actually like connecting with this person and like getting to know them and actually processing the things that they’re saying.”

Despite that, the girls are still taking in and appreciating these moments as best as they can for the circumstance at hand. “We’re very happy that like overall everyone is really enjoying the show,” Jorja added. “We can’t wait for it to be over so we can actually process how amazing the experience has been.”

Now that tour is over, FLO will get back to work on their upcoming debut album. Though details on it are slim, the project is undoubtedly a highly-anticipated follow-up to The Lead and FLO’s ambitions for the alum are just as high as the excitement from fans for it. “I think definitely around the album, a personal goal is for us to create a video that, through and through, we’re really proud of and there’s no doubt about it that this is just the best video that we’ve created,” Jorja says.

Stella’s response was a bit different saying, “It would be really cool to get some cool features on the album with people we’re inspired by” while Reneé notes, “I’m most excited about having a final piece and being able to reflect on the process of getting there. That’s gonna feel really special and be a very key point in our careers and I want to make sure that we’re able to feel the most amazing feelings about it, even though it’s a crazy process and things might go wrong, the outcome, I want us to feel really proud of it.”

FLO has plenty to be proud of and it’s evident with their upcoming album which is one of the more anticipated debuts in recent time. Through this process, the girls have learned lessons and received advice that will be extremely handy in their expansive toolkit. One of them is simple but equally important to their growth: always do your best. “You never know what people are gonna latch on to,” Jorja says. “So you want to make sure that everything you’re doing is something that you’re like 100% proud of.”

Another example comes with the reminder that this is just the beginning of a career that FLO hopes will turn them into household names like Beyoncé and Whitney Houston. “We’re not in full bloom yet,” Jorja says. “We really want people to just stick around and watch us develop and turn into the incredible artists that we know we are deep down inside.” Taking over the world is in FLO’s destiny, and with the cards they have in their deck, Stella, Jorja, and Renée have just what they need to make that a reality.

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‘The View’ Had Republican Presidential Candidate Tim Scott On As A Guest And Things Got Really Messy Really Fast

Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott stopped by The View on Monday where things quickly turn contentious as the South Carolina senator grew combative with co-host Sunny Hostin over the issue of systemic racism. As a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, Scott doesn’t believe in the “leftist lies” that successful African-Americans are the exception not the rule, and he pushed back against Hostin for suggesting as much.

“That is a dangerous, offensive, disgusting message to send to our young people,” Scott said to Hostin, who did not back down from the verbal sparring match.

Via Mediaite:

“So the fact of the matter is we’ve had an African-American president, African-American vice president. We’ve had two African-Americans to be secretaries of state. In my home city, The police chief is an African-American who’s now running for mayor. The head of the highway patrol for South Carolina is an African-American,” Scott replied.

“Still exceptions,” Hostin interjected.

“In 1975, there was about 15% unemployment in the African-American community. For the first time in the history, the country’s under 5% percent,” Scott continued.

“Forty percent homelessness,” Hostin interrupted as she and Scott began speaking over each other.

As the two reached a surprisingly agreeable end to their argument, Scott found himself in another pickle. While discussing Ron DeSantis and his feud with Disney, Navarro asked Scott if he thinks the entertainment giant is part of the “radical left” and things went south again. Only this time, the audience got in on the act.

After Scott agreed that DeSantis “started off on the right foot” with his “Don’t Say Gay” bill, the audience started booing the Republican senator, which prompted Whoopi Goldberg to chastise the room.

“No, no, no, no. Not here. I’m sorry, sir. Do not boo,” Whoopi lectured the audience while apologizing to Scott. “This is The View, we accept — we don’t have to believe everything people say, but you cannot boo people here. Please, you cannot do it.”

(Via Mediaite)

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Emma Stone Explains Why She’ll Never Join Her ‘Wonderful Friend’ Taylor Swift On Stage At A Concert

When Emma Stone showed up at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, many people were a little confused why the Oscar-nominated actress would be going so hard for opening night, to which I say: where have YOU been? These ladies have been going on FroYo dates since the Obama administration.

Stone and Swift have been friends for a long time, which was recently confirmed to Vanity Fair while at the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic this past weekend. While that sounds like a fancy French event, don’t be fooled: this was in New Jersey. Stone told the mag, “I was lucky cause we’ve been friends for a really long time. I’ve known her since we were 17 and 18, so she hooked me up, which was very nice ’cause I know those tickets are impossible to get.” The Ticketmaster saga is a whole different blog.

After being presented with the coveted tickets, Stone had a great time. “The concert was pretty amazing,” she gushed “She’s a wonderful friend. She blows my mind. I mean, the amount of sheer stamina to do three and a half hours and perform 44 songs and to maintain the extreme energy of the audience—I’ve never seen anything like it.” Her love was immortalized on the internet when videos of her singing along to “You Belong With Me” went viral. That video does, in fact, belong to me, but you can watch it here. Laura Dern was also a witness.

Even though Stone was at the show, she said she could never get up there and perform, though, as evident by the video mentioned above, she for sure has the energy for it. “I can’t sing, like, for a massive stadium. Let’s not even go down that road. She has insane talent—I could never do what she does.” And yet…she did kind of do it in her own way.

Speaking of Emma…Swift just announced that her latest re-release will have a song titled “When Emma Falls In Love.” Maybe Stone will rethink her stance and get up on stage to perform! She’s been a part of worse live situations, what could go wrong? Get Ryan Gosling up there too while you’re at it. He’s game for anything these days.

(Via Vanity Fair)