Fugees founder Pras Michel has filed a lawsuit for defamation against 50 Cent, Kyrie Irving, and Rolling Stone magazine for calling him an FBI informant and a “rat,” according to Rolling Stone. After Rolling Stone reported on Pras’ unusual testimony during the money laundering case against him saying that he approached the FBI after meeting with a Chinese minister in 2017, rumors of Pras being an “informant” spread rapidly online. 50 Cent, who is often quick to react or joke around about hip-hop news stories on social media, called Pras “a rat” on Instagram, while Irving also shared a post calling Pras a “federal informant” on Twitter.
In a letter sent to the Rolling Stone offices Wednesday, May 10, Pras’ attorneys notified the potential defendants of their intention to take them to court. Jonathan Noah Schwartz wrote (again, according to Rolling Stone), “It is and was absolutely and demonstrably false for you to publish that Michel was a ‘government informant.’ Labeling a hip-hop artist such as Michel, the reputation of whom is dependent upon ‘street credibility’ and not being a ‘snitch,’ a ‘government informant’ most certainly tends to subject said hip-hop artist to hatred, distrust, ridicule, contempt and/or disgrace, along with injury in their trade or profession.”
Pras was convicted of money laundering, illegal lobbying, witness tampering, and campaign finance violations in the April trial, all charges stemming from his association with Malaysian money man Jho Low, who is himself wanted for allegedly embezzling billions from his home nation’s sovereign wealth fund.
Jean Dawson is back. Last year, he unleashed his jam-packed LP CHAOS NOW* after a batch of compelling singles. Today, he’s not just announcing a new project — he’s announcing a whole trilogy, along with a headlining tour this fall. The first installment of the trilogy is “XCAPE” PT. 1, consisting of the tracks “youth+” and “delusional world champion,” out now with Dawson as the character Phoenix.
“Phoenix is a boy on the fringe,” he explained. “He is described to write with the tenacity of Kurt Cobain and the subversive subjectivity of a David Bowie. Using himself as a mirror for whoever decides to look at him because he is a product of the world rather than a product of perceived individuality. He is a manifestation of misunderstanding unawareness. His ideas are flirtatious, asymmetric and brash outwardly contradicted by his own lack of personal identity. Phoenix is only as real as the listener listening.”
Listen to “youth+” above and “delusional world champion” below, followed by Dawson’s upcoming tour dates.
09/24 — Santa Cruz, CA @ Atrium @ The Catalyst
09/26 — Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole
09/27 — Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad
09/29 — Oklahoma City, OK @ Beer City Music Hall
10/01 — Nashville, TN @ The Basement East
10/03 — New Orleans, LA @ Toulouse Theatre
10/05 — Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
10/06 — Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall
10/07 — Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
10/08 — Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom
10/10 — Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig
10/11 — Cleveland, OH @ Cambridge Room
10/13 — Cincinnati, OH @ Top Cats
10/14 — Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre
10/15 — Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room
10/17 — Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck
10/19 — Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre
10/21 — Las Vegas, NV @ When We Were Young
10/22 — Las Vegas, NV @ When We Were Young
“The Goonies” is a classic ‘80s film about energetic, fast-talking kids searching for One-Eyed Willie’s treasure. It’s fun for two hours, but the day-in and day-out grind of working with the young cast was a bit much for director Richard Donner.
“Everyone we cast was high energy, and after a while, it kind of started working on Dick. It’d tear him apart a little bit, a piece [at a] time,” the film’s writer-producer Steven Spielberg later recalled in “Reunited Apart with Josh Gad.”
“And so by the end of the movie, in the last two weeks, Richard just kept saying, ‘Oh, my God, I got two weeks to go, and I can’t wait to finish, and I’m going to go to my house in Hawaii, and I’m gonna get away from all of this noise. It’s extraordinary, and I love ’em to pieces, but I can’t stand it anymore,’” Spielberg continued.
u201cWhen GOONIES wrapped, Richard Donner needed a vacation after working with the kids for an entire year, and went to Hawaii to finally relax. As a prank, Steven Spielberg flew the entire cast out (including The Fratellis!) to surprise Donner at home. Here’s that footage. Amazing.u201d
Donner’s exhaustion inspired Spielberg to pull an epic prank. He flew the cast of kids out to Donner’s house in Hawaii, including Sean Astin (Mikey), Josh Brolin (Brand), Jeff Cohen (Chunk) and Martha Plimpton (Stef). He also sent the actors who played the obnoxious Fratellis, Anne Ramsey (Mama), Robert Davi (Jake) and Joe Pantoliano (Francis).
Video of the prank recently surfaced on Twitter, where Cohen can be seen telling him, “We’re gonna stay with you the whole time we’re here.” Astin adds: “We’re gonna do a sequel to the movie.”
At the end of the clip, Donner laughs as he flips the middle finger to someone off-camera, presumably Spielberg, saying: “I’ll get you.”
A new video by Our Eden traces the timeline of one of the most ambitious environmental projects in world history, the Great Green Wall in Africa. Eleven countries from the African Union have come together to build a 5,000-mile wall across the entire width of the continent made from trees and grass by 2030.
The project aims to prevent the entire Sahara Desert from moving southward into the Sahel region, which is home to over 100 million people and growing. The problem is climate change is causing the Sahara to expand into the Sahel at a breakneck pace of up to 30 miles every year.
The encroachment of the desert into the Sahel creates persistent droughts that destroy farms and livelihoods at a time when the population could expand to 330 million people by 2050.
So how is the project going? By 2020 it had raised $1 billion of its $30 billion price tag, and only 4% had been planted. It will have to proceed 20 times faster, restoring an additional 20 million acres per year, to finish by 2030. However, over the past two years, there has been a significant cash injection into the project of $20 billion from international organizations in a final push to finish the project by 2030.
When completed, the Great Green Wall should restore 247 million acres of land, sequester 250 million tons of CO2 and create 10 million jobs. To follow the project’s progress or to donate to the cause, you can learn more at Tree Aid.
Internet sleuth and TikTok creator Kahn (who goes by @notkahnjunior) has an uncanny ability to procure a complete stranger’s personal information through a meticulous social media search, even when that person has virtually no presence online.
Okay, just to put your mind at ease from the get-go—she only does this to willing participants.
It all started when Kahn stitched a woman’s video asking viewers to guess her age. Going a mile a minute, Khan rambled off an extensive list of social media clues, coming to a very, very educated guess of 30 to 31 years old. While it’s unclear whether or not her hypothesis was ever confirmed, Khan’s video went viral, with several others asking her to try to guess their birthdays.
And thus, Khan’s “Consensual Doxxing” series was born. Doxxing is the act of obtaining personal, potentially sensitive info about an individual or organization and publicly revealing it, often for nefarious purposes. And consent is…well I hope we all know what that means by now.
While she has a ton of popular videos, her most recent investigation really blew TikTok away. Over 16 million people have tuned in to witness Kahn find the birthday of someone who goes by @jd867_5309. The real kicker to this mystery—she somehow succeeded using a photo of the man’s truck as a profile picture.
“I have kept everything on here so separate I don’t think you could find me,” the mystery truck owner wrote.
To which Kahn replied, “Oh JD, you think that because your profile picture is a truck, that I won’t find you. Well, my nickname is the bus driver. Why? Because I’m about to take your ass to school.”
Honestly, Kahn’s mastery of deduction could rival Sherlock Holmes. She scoured the man’s followers list in reverse chronological order, which led her to a comment he made on someone else’s TikTok profile.
Going just off of the way he made a comment (seriously) she went to that other person’s Instagram profile searching for any pictures posted around the same time featuring the same faces from that TikTok video. Then a bit of further probing and cross-referencing, and boom, she discovered that Mystery Truck Man was none other than a dude named Jace, who was born on April 26, 1991. Whoa.
Impressed? Terrified? Both? You’re not alone. This was the general reaction from folks who saw the video, with a few noting how Kahn really needed to become a bona fide investigator of some sort.
Here are a few comments:
“That’s scary and fascinating at the same time.”
“The CIA needs to start hiring these people because this is IMPRESSIVE.”
“FBI OPEN UP.”
“I’m an actual criminal analyst, like I get paid to do it. But ma’am. Ma’am. You’re an inspiration.”
“You scare me. Because every time I’m like, ‘there’s no way she can do this.’ And you always do.”
Though Kahn is showing off her skills in the name of fun, it does illuminate how easily private information can be plucked by someone with malicious intent. Bad actors can use doxxing to harass, threaten or get revenge on others.
Plus doxxing in and of itself is rarely seen as illegal, since technically the information is publically available—though it is often connected to things like harassment, stalking, intimidation and identity theft, which certainly are against the law. Organizations like UC Berkeley,PEN America and Artist At Risk Connection suggest safety precautions like thoroughly checking privacy settings on your social media platforms, removing any addresses, places of work and specific locations from your accounts, and Googling yourself to see if private information comes up.
Though it’s clearly a serious issue, Khan is at least using her powers for good. Good entertainment, anyway.
will.i.am has long held a reputation for being at the forefront of innovation in music. The Black Eyed Peas frontman has been quick to embrace technology, from a Bluetooth face mask to an AI-powered messenger platform for artists to collaborate. And as AI has come to dominate the discussion of the musical landscape, it’s only natural that will has some strong opinions on where the technology is headed.
will shared those views with UPROXX at the launch of his FYI messaging platform, giving his candid view and explaining why he thinks “the machine is gonna do everything.” Comparing AI to well-worn tools in hip-hop like turntables and beat machines, he envisions a future where AI is not just “the group” — writing, producing, and “performing” the music — but also the marketing, legal, and accounting departments, ensuring that algorithms maximize the efficiency of every aspect of the music industry, essentially replacing human beings in most fundamental positions, save for one.
“The future of popular music isn’t people,” he predicts. “But the future of social activism around music, that’s the only way I think we are still going to be needed.” He suggests such artists as Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Public Enemy, and Stevie Wonder as examples before warning that creating music to feed recommendation algorithms is going to become impossible. “The algorithm will out-algorithmic you.”
The antidote, he says, will be to create “organic” music that taps into human emotions more effectively than the machine-created variety. The future is full of possibilities and not all of them are particularly appetizing, but there’s no question: The genie is out of the bottle, and there’s no going back. will.i.am knows this and remains on the cutting edge, whether that’s pushing the genre into new markets like Formula 1 racing or just continuing to contribute his unique viewpoint in songs like “The Formula” with Lil Wayne.
Watch will.i.am break down the future of AI in music above.
What’s the difference between bourbon and whiskey, you ask? As basic as it might sound, that question still gets asked a lot. And with good reason. There are always new people coming of age and getting into the brown sauce in one way or another. And while some people in this industry would roll their eyes, scoff, recriminate, or harrumph (do people still harrumph?) at getting asked a question like that, I’ve always taken it as a moment of curiosity that can lead someone deeper into the wonderful world of bourbon and the wider world of whiskey.
There’s never anything wrong with asking a question like that. In fact, that question is a great opportunity to teach someone what whiskey actually is and how bourbon whiskey fits into that spectrum. Also… a lot of “well, actually” snobs actually get this simple question and others like it wrong. So there’s that.
I’ve been deep in the spirits industry for over a decade behind high-end cocktail bars, in media, in spirits judging, and behind the scenes on some great bottle releases. And to drive the point home, this column and my answer to this question are never going to be about talking down to the whiskey curious. This is about helping someone find their own path into whiskey and hopefully gaining a little knowledge along the way so that they can enjoy their journey all the more.
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
Whiskey (or whisky) is a spirit produced only from grains. That’s in comparison to brandy (cognac, slivovice, schnapps, or otherwise) that’s produced from any fruit and, say, rum that’s solely produced from sugar cane products. Vodka, on the other hand, can be produced with anything from grains to fruits to vegetables to milk fats and everything in between — truly anything that has fermentable sugars.
Pretty much every grain has been used to make whiskey at some point but a few are most common. Scottish whiskey is most often made with barley (single malt) but there’s a massive amount of “grain whisky” from Scotland which primarily uses wheat, rye (a cousin of wheat and barley), and maize (corn). American whiskeys focus more on corn, rye, and wheat with barley in a more supporting role. Irish whiskeys tend to lean more toward Scottish grain whiskies with slight variations in distilling and aging. There’s of course way more to it than just this, but that’s the general soul of it.
Moreover, whiskey does not have to be aged to be called “whiskey.” Still, a lot of folks/brands/experts will call unaged whiskey “white dog,” “moonshine,” “white whiskey,” “poitín,” “new make,” “rotgut,” etc. No matter the name though, it’s still already whiskey when it comes off the stills. By comparison, whiskey that spends time in oak is still just whiskey too. You’d never really hear anyone call it “aged whiskey.”
We could go deeper into rye whiskey’s origins in mainland Europe, especially Germany, how Ireland plays into whiskey’s development, the variation in specialty grains use in craft distilling in the 21st century (millet, sorghum, and things like that), and a million other things, but let’s stick to the gist when it comes to what whiskey is at its core : It’s a grain-based spirit (corn can be considered a grain, depending on when it’s harvested).
What Is Bourbon?
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All bourbon is a type of whiskey. So, yes, bourbon is whiskey. Always. The first part of bourbon’s definition is that “bourbon whiskey” is an exclusively American product. Back in the Johnson administration in the mid-1960s, the U.S. government codified bourbon as America’s “native spirit” and laid down some laws/guidelines for export/tariff reasons to put bourbon on the same pedestal as agricultural products like cognac from France or prosecco from Italy.
Bourbon must be made within the borders of the United States of America.***
Bourbon must contain at least 51% corn (maize) in the grain mash bill (recipe).
Bourbon has to come off the still at 160 proof (80% ABV) or less and go into the barrel at 125 proof (62.5% ABV) or less.
Bourbon must be aged in new oak (the type of oak and shape of the container do not matter as long as it’s a new vessel).
Bourbon must go into the bottle no lower than 80 proof (40% ABV) but there is no limit (besides what’s scientifically/naturally possible) to how high that proof can be in the bottle.
So bourbon is made from a grain mash bill that’s fermented into a beer with grains, yeast, and water (like beer, lactobacillus can also be a key factor). That “beer” is then distilled (mostly on column stills but pot stills are used too) a couple of times. What happens to that distillate after distillation is what makes that whiskey a “bourbon whiskey.”
These days you’ll see bourbon labeled as “Bourbon Whiskey,” “Straight Bourbon Whiskey,” “Blended Bourbon, and just “Bourbon.” There’s a reason for this and it’s about barrel aging … mostly.
“Bourbon whiskey” is something that’s touched oak but likely for less than two years. Legally, when the corn distillate comes off the stills, it’s just “whiskey.” The second (literally) it hits new oak, it becomes “bourbon whiskey.” That “bourbon whiskey” becomes “straight bourbon whiskey” if it rests in that oak for at least two years and is bottled according to bourbon laws, including that the only additive in the straight bourbon whiskey is water for proofing.
Whiskey can be bottled a “Bottled-In-Bond Straight Bourbon Whiskey” if it’s aged at least four years and proofed (with water) to 100-proof (50% ABV) from barrels stored in a federally bonded warehouse (it’s a tax thing from the 1800s and all warehouses are federally bonded, in general).
“Blended bourbon” and some bottles just labeled “bourbon” are often bourbons cut with a neutral grain spirit (like basic vodka) but must still contain at least 51% bourbon whiskey in the bottle. That means that something could be 49%, say, caramel liqueur and 51% one-minute-old bourbon whiskey and still be labeled a “bourbon whiskey.” More often than not something like that would be labeled a “flavored bourbon” though. Legally, it’s still 100% a bourbon, just a variation on the theme if you will.
***Legally, one could make bourbon in the U.S. Embassy in, say, Moscow, Russia, and it’d legally be bourbon due to that land being the United States. This also applies to U.S. territories. Where’s your bourbon at, Puerto Rico?!
Final Answer
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All bourbon is whiskey. But not all whiskey is bourbon.
Whiskey/whisky is a grain spirit. Brasstacks, bourbon whiskey is an American whiskey (grain spirit) that’s made with a majority corn base and aged in new oak.
There’s, of course, so much more to both whiskey and bourbon whiskey, but that’s the basics you need to know to get a good start.
Janelle Monáe is absolutely living her best life lately. Ever since she ditched the Monopoly Man fits, she’s seemingly been on a mission to blast as much of her ample sex appeal into our faces as we can possibly stand. From showing off her “Jamaican food and sex“-formed, Florence Pugh-approved physique to teasing fans with steamy images from her upcoming videos, Ms. Monáe has completely upended our expectations.
The video for her latest single, “Lipstick Lover,” reinforces that in two ways. One: it is ridiculously unserious, cheekily poking fun at Western squeamishness with a plethora of sex toys and kinky visuals (Janelle’s got a thing for feet, apparently), and two: it is very, very, extremely not safe for work. It’s downright porny. Monáe and friends throw a pool party/orgy that involves a lot of exposed flesh — tastefully blurred for the prudes at YouTube, naturally — and so much food, you just know someone caught a cramp while swimming.
“Lipstick Lover” follows “Float,” another song that had quite the steamy buildup, although we never did get a video for that. All of this is building up to The Age Of Pleasure, which will be the title of Monáe’s new album dropping June 9.
Meanwhile, in other non-sexy news, Janelle Monáe is going to be booked and busy this year, with performances planned at Outside Lands and Montreux Jazz Festival all while she’s expanding her Fem The Future non-profit’s mission to support girls and non-binary youth of color in the arts and education.
Watch the “Lipstick Lover” video above — just not at work. The Age Of Pleasure is due on 6/9 via Wondaland Arts Society/Atlantic Records. You can get more info here.
Janelle Monáe is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Justified: City Primeval will soon (but not soon enough) arrive to catch us up on Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens’ post-Harlan life in a different environment. That’s one reason why “Long in the Tooth” is an essential rewatch, since it highlights the legend of the legendary lawman, who will soon emerge in Detroit with a “new Boyd” as teased in a new Entertainment Weekly feature piece. Of key interest in the piece is the question of whether Raylan, who made it out of Harlan alive, will be lucky enough to do the same with Detroit.
Really? Man, I don’t know if I can handle this franchise pulling a [SPOILER ALERT] similar move as a certain set of beloved movies. Apparently, though, showrunners Dave Andron and Michael Dinner feel that we should be prepared for anything to happen to Raylan, and that includes a visit from the Grim Reaper in addition to being confirmed as a not-so-ideal father. Dammit:
“If you’re bringing Raylan back, you put him up against a really, really bad guy who doesn’t have any problem killing people, because Raylan could die,” Andron says. “This is a limited [series] and Raylan could very well not make it out of this. Every season we ended the show with ‘You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive,’ but then he does. Right up until the end of the show, you know Raylan’s not going to die, and obviously he did not at the end. But I think, at this point, all bets are off.”
Dinner explains that one of the core aspects of the novel is how it’s really a “three-hander” between the cop, the criminal, and the lawyer in between them. “We wanted to stay true to that,” he says. “When American crime fiction is working on all cylinders, you have a feeling that cosmic forces are maneuvering people together and that one, if not all, of them will not be standing at the end. Raylan’s made it this far, but will he survive this? He very well might not.”
The series will co-star Timothy Olyphant’s real-life daughter, Vivian, as Raylan’s daughter, Willa Givens. And Vivian also delivers some valuable information in while reminiscing about visiting the Justified set during finale filming and revealing that there was so much ice cream on the scene. This revelation checks out for sure.
We shouldn’t expect any familiar faces beyond Raylan, however, because Olyphant warned that “[y]ou’re not going to recognize anyone” in this spinoff. The “new Boyd,” as referenced by Olyphant to EW, will be Clement Mansell, “a.k.a. The Oklahoma Wildman, a violent, sociopathic desperado who’s already slipped through the fingers of Detroit’s finest once.”
Mansell will be portrayed by Boyd Holbrook, who will hopefully be doing the same accent that he did in Narcos. So there, Grim Reaper!
Beyoncé is flourishing on her Renaissance World Tour, which opened in Stockholm, Sweden on Wednesday (May 10), but Jay-Z is handling business back home.
This morning, May 11, Roc Nation shared an open letter (buying ad space in multiple newspapers) making the case as to why their group should be granted the license to open their desired casino and their intent behind it.
According to Billboard, Jay-Z and Roc Nation’s group is competing with New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, Stefan Soloviev, and John Catsimatidis — all billionaires as well. The publication additionally noted that Roc Nation’s open letter “was placed in The New York Post, New York Daily News, and Amsterdam News.
Read the full letter below.
“IT’S TIME, TIMES SQUARE
Dear New York,
A gaming license is going to be awarded to New York City. A bill was passed in the state legislature confirming it. The question is: which applicant will get the license? Some conflicted parties have attempted to spread misinformation, so we wanted to speak to you, New York City, directly.
The winning group must have a track record of turning words into deeds — of putting New York City and its residents first — people of all races, religions, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations and socio-economic statuses. New Yorkers in every corner of every borough — all of us. The winning organization must have a history of campaigning for fair hiring, representation, and reform. Hate, as well as groups that have a history of oppressing the most vulnerable, have no place in New York.
The winning licensee must always put the well-being of New Yorkers at the top of their agenda and do right by its residents. This is too important of moment in our city’s illustrious history. Times Square, the epicenter of entertainment with palpable energy, is unmatched. Roc Nation and our partners are here to ensure Times Square remains connected to all facets of culture. There’s no better location for a Caesars Palace entertainment destination than the Crossroads of the World.
Our proposal lays out an innovative plan that will not only draw additional tourists to our city but will also enhance the lives of everyday New Yorkers.
Gives back to all surrounding businesses.
Benefits mass transit.
Invests money into sanitation and security from the bowtie all the way west into Hell’s Kitchen.
Develops and delivers a much-needed transportation plan.
Protects the interests of the actors, producers, theatre staff, writers and patrons that represent the true heart and soul of Broadway.
Provides opportunity for all.
Caesars Palace Times Square will benefit all of New York — the hotel and restaurant workers in the area, retailers and surrounding neighborhoods. Our bid commits $115 million for diverse theater programs that include daycare for Broadway workers and their families.
Our bid honors the city of dreams, New York City, and the people that have made this place we call home the cultural and entertainment capital of the world. This is our moment, our opportunity to capture the energy of Times Square and invest in our city. You’re a New Yorker, you get it.
In service,
Roc Nation.”
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