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As the debate about the value and utility of AI in music continues, another artist has added his voice to the conversation. Khalid, who most recently released new music last month with “Softest Touch,” was asked about his view of the situation by TMZ. His response was ambivalent; while he sees worth in AI as a tool, he sounds unimpressed by all the AI-generated reproductions of established artists that have been sweeping the internet lately.

“I have mixed feelings about it,” he said. “I feel like AI is definitely going to be a helpful tool and it’s one of those things that you can’t escape. Hopefully, you know, I get to still have my job for a long time… I feel like it takes away the authenticity and that’s something that I really value about myself.” With regard to AI “resurrecting” deceased artists for collaborations with contemporary idols, he said, “I respect all the music for what it is and I think I’m fine. I appreciate the legends as they are.”

As AI has become more commonplace in recent months, much like the popularity of NFTs a couple of years ago, some artists have encouraged its use, while others have floated the idea of using legal measures to curtail AI’s spread. Grimes and Liam Gallagher were some of the notable proponents of the technology, while Universal Music Group issued a sternly-worded statement about AI’s use cutting into artists’ profits — and notably, labels’ profits as well.

The Succession Report Card is a weekly recap feature where we attempt to assign grades to the important people, things, and themes from each episode of Succession. The grades are entirely subjective and the criteria for scoring will change from week to week and occasionally mid-week. Someone might get detention. It’ll probably be Roman.

SEASON 4, EPISODE 5 – “Kill List”

Matsson

Matsonn’s evolution from “slightly eccentric Swedish billionaire” to “one of the all-time weirdest dudes on television” has been a fascinating thing to watch. This week alone we watched him kind of impulse-buy a cable news operation for $50 billion, casually do cocaine in front of a woman he was kind of negotiating with, admit to sending liters of his own frozen blood to a woman who works for him as a romantic gesture and/or joke, and haul people onto the top of a Norwegian mountain to try to close a massive business deal. Just an absolute maniac. I think I love him. Not in an “I admire the man as a human or businessman and would enjoy working with or knowing him at all in real life” way. Not that at all. It’s more of an “I think I would be legitimately interested in watching a spinoff where he turns ATN into a boring-ass news organization on television while things spiral into madness behind the scenes.”

So… with that said. With me confessing my love of this unsettling maniac who sometimes greets guests with his hood halfway over his head like a hallucinogen-addled monk, why does Matsson get an F this week? Two reasons, both important: One, he more or less got checkmated in a negotiation by Roman Roy of all the people in the world, which was a startling development we will touch on later; two, uh… did you see the thing in the last paragraph about the frozen blood? I really cannot make this next point strongly enough: Do not do this. Any of it. Even just removing blood from your body and freezing it and keeping it around the house. Especially not sending it to someone else. And especially not sending it to a person you are trying to woo romantically who also is in a position to sue you straight to hell. I still can’t believe I heard him say all of that.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Getting Scooby-Dooed

Connor

Probably the funniest thing about all of this — Marcia showing up at the funeral home and making crazy demands about Logan getting buried in a kilt, Connor being so hopelessly overmatched by her but also by anything, Connor calling his younger and more important siblings while they’re doing a $200 billion business deal in Norway to ask for carte blanche in handling their dead father’s arrangements — is that Connor wants to be President. Like, of the United States.

Please take 10 or 15 minutes over lunch today and think about how hilarious that would be. Picture him in the Oval Office trying to make a single decision about anything. Really get a good image of him trying to negotiate his way through a debt ceiling crisis. Let’s go ahead and add this to the list of spinoffs I would watch when Succession ends in a few weeks.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: Spine-having

Gondolas

Gondolas are:

• Claustrophobic little boxes
• Dangling hundreds of feet in the air
• From a thin little wire

Absolutely not.

GRADE: F

MUST IMPROVE: I’m trying to think of something but I keep coming back to “there is no reason for these to exist now that we have helicopters.” Get rid of them.

Shiv

After promising many times that they would not hose Shiv upon becoming CE-Bros (their words, not mine), Kendall and Roman… kind of hosed her. She’s not looped in on emails or fireside chats about tanking deals, she’s generally just being forgotten or overlooked, and even when she gets a little actual business attention it’s from a coke-tooting potential vampire who might be trying to sleep with her and/or influence the deal he’s negotiating with her brothers. It’s not great.

Oh, and she’s probably still pregnant and running around in thin mountain air and kicking dirt on the shoes of the baby’s father in a childish little battle of insults they’re doing because they don’t know how to have an actual conversation about anything anymore. So… yeah. Not great!

GRADE: D

MUST IMPROVE: Earlobes

Cousin Greg

Just another pathetic performance out of Greg this week. Sucking up to the siblings in a way so transparent that I’m surprised he was even visible on the screen, trying to sound smart by saying things like “I read an article in The Economist” even though there’s a zero-percent chance he did so, dancing to techno so awkwardly I thought he might blow out his Achilles.

I don’t know, man. I really don’t know. I used to love this goof and all of his sad little attempts to attach himself to the buttocks of whichever person will let him stay around for a while. A year or two ago, the techno-dancing alone might have gotten him an A. Now… I don’t know. He has somehow been replaced as the person on the show I have a little soft spot in my heart for by… Roman?

It’s weird. We all have a lot to consider.

GRADE: D

MUST IMPROVE: Rhythm, branding, most other things

Saunas, generally

Saunas seem like a nice idea on paper — “I’ll just relax and get a little steam, maybe open up the pores a little bit,” you think — until you find yourself drenched in sweat in a body-odor-scented room with a handful of other miserable people wearing only towels.

No other animal on Earth would exchange goods or services to cook itself on purpose in a piping hot little box. We went and overthought ourselves into sitting inside a Crockpot and calling it luxury.

GRADE: D

MUST IMPROVE: Just sit on a couch in a comfortable room and watch a movie

Various Karls, Franks, and Karolinas

ON ONE HAND: Frank and Karl seem poised to get their golden parachutes with this very lucrative deal and go do whatever exactly these two do with their free time for the rest of their lives. I stand by my repeated assertion that Karl golfs and has won his country club championship. I have no clue what Frank does. Fly fishing, maybe? I can’t decide if I just want that to be true so I can think about him in the hat. Either way, a good start.

ON THE OTHER HAND: Hugo is on the kill list and Karolina might be going to work for a man who just sexually harassed his last comms person with liters of his own frozen blood. I know I keep coming back to this but I can’t get over it. I might just tell somebody about it at the gas station this week.

GRADE: C

MUST IMPROVE: Everyone is going to need a new plan here, in one way or another

Tom

Tom is:

• Having awkward little conversations with Swedes
• Maybe and maybe not still employed by the cable news company now owned by a Swedish lunatic
• Still not aware he might be the father of a fetus that is growing inside of a woman who was recently seen literally kicking dirt on him

Lot going on with Tom Wambsgans.

Gerri

I was very proud of Gerri for her little speech about Vikings. I feel like she and Ebba could bond over having creepy bosses who send them inappropriate pictures and/or vials of sensitive biological material.

GRADE: C

MUST IMPROVE: Gerri should go get a job as an executive at, like, Popeyes or something

Kendall

So…

It looks like there’s a deal now. It looks like the little mountain standoff after the attempts to sabotage the negotiations with crappy robot movies resulted in a multibillion-dollar price bump that will make the board happy and all of the children fantastically wealthy. It looks like Kendall got everything anyone could have ever wanted out of all this and got the benefit of not having to run a soulless news organization for the rest of his stupid life.

And yet…

There’s still a chance he tanks this, right? Nothing he said at that fireside chat was changed by a $5-10 billion bump. He’s still a sad little boy who wants to prove himself and run the company and shout “SCREW YOU, DAD” while also lighting candles at the gravesite and crying. I’m leaning towards this happening, if only because you can usually predict Kendall’s next move by asking yourself what the stupidest possible decision would be.

GRADE: B

MUST IMPROVE: GET OUT AND ENJOY THE MONEY, YOU BOOB

Marcia

I love that Marcia has become the show’s little chaos agent, just capable of throwing everything straight into the trash without ever even showing up on the screen. A kilt?! What a maniac. I hope the next episode pauses all other action completely and just follows her around for a day. I want to see her do anything and everything out in the world.

GRADE: B

MUST IMPROVE: Screentime

Fikret the driver

I hope, the instant Kendall got out of that car, he pulled a weed vape out of his pocket and took a long drag and turned up the music real loud — just leave The Blueprint playing, it’s fine — and cruised around Manhattan a little bit.

GRADE: B

MUST IMPROVE: I feel like, despite knowing nothing about this man, he would be an excellent helicopter pilot

Roman

I’m… I’m so proud of him? I really am. He’s somehow become a competent businessman and he’s behaving like a mature adult and he actually stood up to Matsson on the frigid mountain. Like, he really did. The whole trip was an exercise in displaying dominance and Matsson got a lot of pleasure out of screwing with them and Roman finally reached his breaking point and told that Swedish weirdo to get bent. Good for him.

I still wonder if this deal is going sideways, though. Between Kendall wanting to be a big boy and Roman hating Matsson very much, there is absolutely a world where these two wreck the whole thing to fill the various bottomless pits their father left inside their souls. But still, good for Roman. I feel like, of all the ghouls on this show, he’s usually the one with his heart in the right place. Or at least right-ish. Sliding scale here.

GRADE: A

MUST IMPROVE: It would be funny if Roman tried to grow a big bushy Scandinavian beard after this trip

Jess Jordan

I doubt it very much but there’s a part of me that hopes the deal goes through and Jess has some stock options and she will have enough in there to cash out and go open her own little consulting business. Which will grow. And grow. And eventually become a Fortune 500 company. Jess Jordan: Power Broker. This is all I want.

GRADE: A

MUST IMPROVE: I would like to see Jess Jordan drive a convertible

Various Oskars, Andreases, and Ebbas

The Swedish equivalents of the Waystar executive team are my new favorite characters on the show. We’ve got Olympians and sauna-obsessed madmen and a woman with enough dirt on a mega-billionaire to fund a luxurious future for herself and many branches of her family tree, whether she gets paid the hush money or writes the book. I really did enjoy watching everyone circle each other like middle management cobras, trying to figure out status and power and all of it through passive-aggressive little digs. That was fun. For me. Less so for them.

GRADE: A

MUST IMPROVE: Medaling in the Olympics

Drake and 21 Savage initially unveiled their It’s All A Blur Tour in March. There was a promise for an announcement of more shows at a later date. Four days later, 12 shows were added. And today, April 24, another dozen were added, including back-to-back performances at Scotiabank Arena in Drake’s hometown Toronto on October 5 and October 7. October’s Very Own will handle those closing dates without 21 Savage.

According to a press release, Drake and Savage will perform four shows at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center instead of three — same goes for the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California — and It’s All A Blur will now snake through new cities such as Charlotte, Denver, and Memphis. Instead of hitting Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, New Orleans and Miami between June 16 and July 2, those dates will now take place between September 14 and October 2.

Just as with the original It’s All A Blur tour announcement, there will be a Cash App presale. It begins this Wednesday, April 26 at noon local time and extends through Thursday, April 27, at 10 p.m. local time. Early access to tickets for the new dates will be granted to Cash App holders who submit the first nine digits of their Cash App Card.

See all of the It’s All A Blur Tour dates below, with the newly announced dates in bold and rescheduled dates italicized.

06/29 – Memphis, TN @ FedExForum
07/01 – Columbus, OH @ Schottenstein Center
07/05 – Chicago, IL @ United Center
07/06 – Chicago, IL @ United Center
07/08 – Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
07/09 – Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
07/11 – Boston, MA @ TD Garden
07/12 – Boston, MA @ TD Garden
07/14 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
07/15 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
07/17 – Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
07/18 – Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
07/20 – Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
07/21 – Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
07/23 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
07/25 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
07/26 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
07/28 – Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena
07/29 – Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena
07/31 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
08/01 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
08/03 – Milwaukee, WI @ Fiserv Forum
08/12 – Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum
08/13 – Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum
08/15 – Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum
08/16 – Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum
08/18 – San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center
08/19 – San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center
08/21 – Los Angeles, CA @ Crypto.com Arena
08/22 – Los Angeles, CA @ Crypto.com Arena
08/25 – Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
08/26 – Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
08/28 – Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
08/29 – Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
09/01 – Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena
09/02 – Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena
09/05 – Glendale, AZ @ Desert Diamond Arena
09/06 – Glendale, AZ @ Desert Diamond Arena
09/08 – Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
09/11 – Austin, TX @ Moody Center
09/14 – Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
09/15 – Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
09/17 – Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
09/18 – Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
09/20 – New Orleans, LA @ Smoothie King Center
09/22 – Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center
09/25 – Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
09/26 – Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
09/28 – Miami, FL @ Kaseya Center
09/29 – Miami, FL @ Kaseya Center
10/01 – Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
10/02 – Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
10/05 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
10/07 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena

Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw Foo Fighters launch their comeback and Ed Sheeran indulge in some introspection. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

For more music recommendations, check out our Listen To This section, as well as our Indie Mixtape and Pop Life newsletters.

Foo Fighters — “Rescued”

There’s a lot we don’t know about the future of Foo Fighters. A big question is who will be the band’s new drummer after the death of Taylor Hawkins? After last week, though, we know a lot more than we did: The band is coming back with a new album, But Here We Are, this summer. The first taste of it is “Rescued,” which really reminded fans of In Your Honor.

Ed Sheeran — “Boat”

We’re now just a couple weeks away from – (aka Subtract), the upcoming album from Ed Sheeran that has been touted as an extremely personal LP. On new single “Boat,” Sheeran looks for silver linings as he sings, “Came in for the embers / Stayed out for the breeze / I need to feel elements to remind me / There’s beauty when it’s bleak.”

The Kid Laroi — “Where Does Your Spirit Go”

Laroi is also in the midst of an emotional era. That’s clear on last week’s “Where Does Your Spirit Go,” a piano ballad on which he opens up and sings, “Numb today, but tomorrow I’ll feel it / Truth is worse every time that I hear it / Know you’re gone but tell me, where did your spirit go?”

The Weeknd — “Double Fantasy” Feat. Future

The Weeknd’s upcoming HBO series The Idol is approaching, and so too is some new music from the artist to accompany the show. The first look at that body of work is last week’s “Double Fantasy,” a characteristically synthy effort that features Future ringing some chill vibes with a verse.

Kim Petras and Nicki Minaj — “Alone”

Nicki Minaj has very much been in a collaborative era lately and she kept it going last week by joining Kim Petras on “Alone.” The track is built on a sample of Alice Deejay’s “Better Off Alone” and consequently, it’s a trance-influenced number boosted by Minaj’s rapid-fire verse.

Moneybagg Yo — “Motion God”

Recent Uproxx cover star Moneybagg Yo has Hard To Love on the way soon, but an early look at it came last wek with “Motion God.” It’s a boastful tune with “a throwback bounce-inflected beat,” per Uproxx’s Aaron Williams.

Vic Mensa — “Swish” Feat. G-Eazy and Chance The Rapper

Uproxx’s Aaron Williams notes of Vic, Chance, and G’s new collab, “It’s actually a frantic club song, over which Chance, Vic, and Gerald rap praise to the twerkers while boasting the trappings of their wealth, from name-checking Rick Owens, The Ramones, and Al Capone to comparing their fists to Thanos — because they have too many stones, you see.”

Beabadoobee — “Glue Song” Feat. Clairo

Bea’s “Glue Song” from this past Valentine’s Day was great as it was, but Clairo hopping on a new remix is certainly welcome. Uproxx’s Megan Armstrong notes, “The romantic song begins the same as the original, with Beabadoobee softly singing over swoon-inducing strings. Clairo’s vocals are the perfect complement, making the sentiment somehow even sweeter.”

RAYE — “Flip A Switch” Feat. Coi Leray

RAYE is sharing new music just a couple months after the release of her latest album, My 21st Century Blues. She brought Coi Leray into the fold on a new remix of “Flip A Switch,” on which both artists are fed up with sub-optimal men.

Latto — “Put It On Da Floor”

Speaking of Coi Leray, Latto’s latest stirred up some controversy last week. On “Put It On Da Floor,” Latto raps, “Smokin’ on that gas, blunt big as Coi Leray.” Leray took to Twitter to let Latto and the world know that she didn’t like that, although she later conceded she may have overreacted.

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

Anyone who wanted to see what a rap beef between Latto and Coi Leray would look like will be disappointed after this weekend. During her final Coachella set, Latto gave an appreciative shout-out to the other rapper, finally clearing the air after Coi’s reaction to her new song “Put It On Da Floor.”

“Aye, Coi,” Latto said on stage, knowing that even if the New Jersey rapper wasn’t watching, she’d get the news. “By the way, I love your body, baby.” Coi herself acknowledged the moment, retweeting a clip from a fan account and writing, “It was the diss record with my name on it that confused me. Much love to Latto! Appreciate the compliment.”

The diss record in question is “Put It On Da Floor,” which Latto released on Friday after teasing it during her week one Coachella performance. The song has been interpreted by some fans as a diss directed toward Nicki Minaj, with whom Latto has had some friction recently, but it does make mention of Coi, who took issue with her name coming up in the song.

The line that caused all the drama goes: “Smokin’ on that gas, blunt big as Coi Leray.” On Twitter, Coi went off, writing, “Latto bye . here you go taking about my body. Please do not come on here and talk about nobody BODY.” However, after fans pointed out the figurative nature of the line, Coi reconsidered, reeling in her annoyance with an admission that:

“Maybe I over reacted idk. End of the day. Don’t say my name for clicks and likes. Specially if we don’t speak or communicate. I’m not a big blunt small blunt. Don’t compare me to nada. Mention bitches you actually beef with. Put it on the floor but leave me out of the bs.”

So, Coi and Latto are officially cool now, but we’ve yet to hear back from Nicki Minaj, the alleged target of the diss. She’s been known to keep her feuds simmering for years at a time, so we’ll probably hear from her soon enough.

John Oliver waded into the conservative freakout over a Bud Light ad campaign featuring trans activist Dylan Mulvaney, and the Last Week Tonight host had plenty to say about Kid Rock and Budweiser’s weird, 9/11-themed response to the backlash.

After explaining that this whole debacle began after of one sponsored video showing Mulvaney opening a can of Bud Light on her social media channel, Oliver went to town on conservatives who “lost their sh*t” over the fact that the beer company partnered with a trans woman. Kid Rock even went so far as to shoot Bud Light cans with an AR-15, and Oliver ruthlessly tore apart the trigger happy display.

Via The Hollywood Reporter:

“I don’t think there’s a more dangerous way to dispose of Bud Light other than, of course, drinking it,” he explained. “And second, not to gun shame Child Rock here, but you are 20 yards away from a target that’s bright, identifiable, and crucially stationary, and you are spraying bullets all over the place. Perhaps that is why it sure seems like you may have help there because if you watch it slow down, you’ll notice that three blasts that actually destroy the cases appear to be coming from the right.”

However, Budweiser seemingly caved to the right-wing freakout by releasing an odd, pro-America commercial starring its iconic Clydesdale horses. Granted, the ad didn’t specifically address the controversy, but it was a milquetoast middle of the road response that Oliver did not appreciate.

“[It is] really annoying to be both sides in something when the two sides are: I am trans, and that makes me so mad I’m gonna shoot $65 worth of non-refundable beer,” he quipped before noting the weird 9/11 imagery.

“Is that a 9/11 reference by Budweiser?” Oliver said. “Because shots of a horse running through the planes and remembering 9/11 feels less like an ad and more like the results of feeding an AI program the prompt: America, freedom, I’m sorry.”

The Last Week Tonight host ended the segment by noting there was only one way that Budweiser should have responded to the boycott.

“When bigots are loudly announcing, they don’t like your beer because they are bigots, that is an opportunity for you to say, ‘Then our beer is not for you.’”

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

“As an artist, you have to know that you can’t please everybody,” The Weeknd recently said. He was speaking to Interview Magazine about The Idol, his soon-to-debut HBO drama that was at the center of a troubling Rolling Stone report in March. But the sentiment extends to his music, too.

On Sunday, April 23, someone tweeted to The Weeknd, “ABEL NOTICE DAWN FM DON’T ACT LIKE IT DIDN’T HAPPEN.” He tweeted back, “What does this mean?”

Someone else chimed in with a tweet, “I feel like the Dawn FM era didn’t have its time to shine the way it deserved.”

“Really? I don’t know if I agree… maybe elaborate?” The Weeknd responded.

He also had worthy reactions to someone claiming “you hate Dawn FM” (“??? Not true! One of my favorites hands down”) and another person claiming he “did a little more for After Hours than what you did for Dawn FM”:

“It had the same amount of music video videos as After Hours,” The Weeknd tweeted separately to yet another person convinced they know how The Weeknd feels about his discography better than he does. “Maybe one less? A universe. Dawn FM experience short film, stadium tour(still going), live film and live album… I don’t think it needs more.. it’s perfect.”

After Hours arrived in 2020, housing the all-timer “Blinding Lights” and “Save Your Tears.” Dawn FM followed suit in January 2022.

The argument is moot, really. The Weeknd began a new era on Friday, April 21, by releasing “Double Fantasy” featuring Future from the companion album to The Idol.

Ron DeSantis is expected to run against Donald Trump for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024. But he hasn’t officially announced his candidacy. So why is he, the “a**hole” governor of Florida, currently in Japan? Especially so soon after a devastating flood in the Sunshine State.

The official explanation is “to buff up his foreign policy credentials, which are in need of positive headlines,” according to the New York Times, but “an American governor [having] a meeting with the Japanese prime minister — so close to the Group of 7 summit being held next month in Hiroshima — is considered unusual.” Also unusual: the face that DeSantis — a very normal guy who reportedly eats pudding with his fingers — makes in this video.

When asked about falling behind Trump in the polls, DeSantis briefly turned into a bobblehead before answering, “I’m not a candidate, so we’ll see if and when that changes.” His wife’s face remains frozen the entire time.

“curious to know why desantis is in japan. trade? promoting florida tourism? secretly a weeb? honestly, would not be shocked if it came out that desantis had a secret twitter account with an anime pfp,” columist Jamelle Bouie joked about deSantis, while the No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen account tweeted, “This clip shows Ron DeSantis exhibiting very bizarre social behavior. Is he okay?”

That’s the face of a guy who picks a fight with Disney.

(Via the New York Times)

Jack White is very famously somebody who tends to prefer older technologies and reject newer ones; In 2019, for instance, he revealed he doesn’t own a cell phone. Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich doesn’t quite understand that, though, since he and White text frequently.

Ulrich is the guest on a new episode of the Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast that premiered today (April 24). At the top of the show, Ulrich and O’Brien opened by talking about White, a mutual friend. A few minutes into the chat, O’Brien and Ulrich were playfully ribbing White, after which O’Brien said, “I’m going to get a text from Jack about this.”

Ulrich replied, “I’ll tell you what, and Jack, if you’re hearing this: You know I love you and nothing but love. But for a guy who supposedly doesn’t have a phone, he’s a pretty… he’s a pretty engaged texter. I’m not really quite sure how that works out, whether it’s his wife’s phone or whether he’s got a computer that he texts from, whatever.”

O’Brien then joked, “Also, he’s so pro-vinyl, vinyl, vinyl… every time I go to his house, all he does is play CDs. That’s all he does.”

Speaking of vinyl, White recently congratulated Metallica for buying their own vinyl pressing plant.

Check out the clip above and find the full episode here.

Twitter’s original verification system served a very straightforward function: to assure users that they were following an authentic account belonging to an individual or business. As we’ve seen from Elon Musk’s “pain”-filled Twitter, the blue checkmark now means one of two things: (1) a user ponied up $8 per month to have it; or (2) Elon foisted the mark upon them, and they really don’t want it.

Handfuls of celebrities have now pushed back after Elon “gifted” checkmarks to them. That includes Stephen King (and his reaction spawned horror jokes) and Lil Nas X, who has vowed vengeance against “Tesla man.”

Then there are the almost inevitable mistakes that will come from selling business verification at a $1000 price tag after meeting mystery standards. No one knows if the error in question actually sprang from someone paying the full fee (Elon is apparently gifting free badges to businesses who meet a follower threshold), but the error is arguably as egregious as when a verified but imposter Eli Lilly account made fake “free insulin” claims, thereby tanking the actual Eli Lilly’s stock price. That happened last fall and appeared to be a case of some prankster swapping out their handle and name after verification. And presumably, that’s what led to a new policy of temporary checkmark removal for all handle/name changes until approved.

That supposed safeguard, however, didn’t save Twitter from committing a seriously embarrassing mistake involving a fake Disney Junior U.K. parody account. This was a relatively long-standing account, according to Variety, meaning that someone must have flubbed the verification approval process, which even surprised the account’s f-bomb-dropping owner:

The owner of the @DisneyJuniorUK account appeared to be as surprised at their new verification status as the account’s 2,628 followers, tweeting: “No f*cking way. This isn’t actually real right. Someone f*cking pinch me or something” alongside a screenshot of the account’s profile page with the gold checkmark circled.

From there — and the account has since been suspended — the account began to drop racial slurs and make jokes about “Disney hitmen,” too:

In a poll retweeted by the Disney Junior U.K. account, @7virtues_ wrote: “should i deactivate the disney junior uk account for a while so i dont get murked by the disney hitmen” with the options being “”Yeah.Ye;yah… ye.s,..,,y” and “NOT AT ALL N****” At the time of writing, almost 2,000 people had voted in the poll, with over 88% encouraging @7virtues_ to keep the Disney Junior U.K. account.

Yikes. As you can see below, the account owner was seen claiming that they snapped up the handle nearly two years ago (after, as Variety points out, Disney Jr U.K. shuttered its use of the handle). Among other rantings, the owner claimed that South Park was coming to Disney+ streaming and kept the charade going for several hours after verification until someone finally shut the monstrosity down. (It’s going great over there.)

(Via Variety)