By now, you’ve probably seen a post on social media featuring a list of names of prominent Black authors, poets, and culture critics like Amiri Baraka, bell hooks, and Ta-Nehisi Coates with their names crossed out. (If you haven’t, I suggest you meet some Black people or at least start associating with people who care about Black people. You might not think we’re all that important, but in this country, we’ve been the canaries in the coal mine for 200 years.)
This list denotes recent changes being threatened by the Florida College Board to optional AP African American Studies classes as part of a wider effort in that state to suppress historical works or studies that paint the US in anything less than a flattering light when it comes to the government’s treatment of Black folks. You know, like how there were forcible, undisclosed medical studies performed on Black men at Tuskeegee, or how prominent Black towns were burned to the ground.
On Thursday, Questlove, whose directorial debut Summer Of Soul was one of those works that unearthed a vital piece of Black History, the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, after footage was shelved for over 40 years, called out the “Black erasure” that the changes represent on Instagram, warning followers that this changes could become widespread should Florida governor Ron DeSantis run for President. DeSantis has been described as a “sanitized” version of Donald Trump, but in actuality, he might be worse.
“For all of you kind folk who praised @SummerOfSoulMovie this is the exact kind of erasure that makes black erasure so easy to do,” Quest wrote. “It starts slow and benign….and before you know it—-it spreads and spreads & we ignore or hope it will fall on someone else’s hand to come with a solution. Then it’s too late. This is why local elections are important. This is why you can’t sleep for even a micro minute until the job is done.”
“If this is what is happening in Florida….what will happen when he runs for president?” he wondered. “Don’t wanna start the morning fear mongering but these are different times we living in. You can’t sleep for a second.”
It took until 2022’s Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo for Velma to live her truth, but it should have happened a lot sooner. “In 2001 Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script,” Scooby-Doo writer James Gunn tweeted in 2020. “But the studio just kept watering it down & watering it down, becoming ambiguous (the version shot), then nothing (the released version) & finally having a boyfriend (the sequel).”
Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played Daphne in the movie, revealed on Thursday’s episode of Watch What Happens Live that there was even supposed to be a kiss between her character and Linda Cardellini’s Velma. “There was a steamy — I mean, I said it was steamy, but they probably didn’t think it was — hence why it was cut,” she said.
When host Andy Cohen asked for more details on the kiss, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer star reiterated, “There was an actual kiss between Daphne and Velma that got cut. I feel like the world wants to see it. But I don’t know where it is.” SMG also teased that the original script had “this implication about Fred [played by her real-life husband, Freddie Prinze Jr.] being interested in both, you know, parties,” but that, too, was removed.
James Gunn should have enough power now to release the Daphne and Velma and bisexual Fred cut.
You can watch the Watch What Happens Live interview above.
The biggest event in music, the 2023 Grammy Awards, is just days away. But, before host Trevor Noah takes the main stage on February 5, leading up to the ceremony across the city of Los Angeles, this year’s nominees will be celebrated at smaller Grammy Week events. So, as music heavyweights and fans patiently wait to see if Beyoncé breaks another Recording Academy record at this year’s event, first-time nominees are excited to be welcomed into the fold.
For the first time since 2020, streaming giant Spotify hosted its annual event yesterday (February 2) at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood to highlight the musicians nominated in this year’s Best New Artist category. According to USA Today, during the over four-hour event, all 10 of the musicians (Anitta, Domi & JD Beck, Latto, Måneskin, Molly Tuttle, Muni Long, Omar Apollo, Samara Joy, Tobe Nwigwe, and Wet Leg) competing in the category performed.
While the event was not broadcasted, attendees shared clips of some of the performances across social media. Several fan pages uploaded Latto’s performance. Two songs featured in Latto’s set included “Big Energy (Remix),” which is nominated for best melodic rap performance as well as “It’s Givin’.”
The 65th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony will be held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on February 5, 2023. The ceremony will be broadcasted live on the CBS Television Network and streamed live and on-demand on Paramount+. Find the complete list of 2023 nominees here.
Welcome to yet another bizarre moment involving George Santos. The controversial congressman has been under intense scrutiny for an ever-increasing list of alleged lies, which he reportedly admitted while being secretly recorded by a staffer. The conversation was caught on tape by Derek Myers during a meeting where Santos explained he would not be offering Myers a permanent position.
According to the audio, Santos expressed concerned over Myers because of his recent work as a journalist. Apparently, this raised some flags for the congressman who seemed very aware of his precarious position in the House because of his numerous lies, which he did not deny. Via Talking Points Memo:
“I’ve made bad judgment calls, and I’m reaping the consequences of those bad judgment calls,” Santos said.
“I’ve obviously f*cked up and lied to him, like I lied to everyone else,” Santos later added, apparently referring to [Charley] Lovett, the chief of staff. “And he still forgave me and gave me a second shot, unlike some other people.”
Santos reportedly told Myers, “It’s bad enough that I have to answer for myself these days, I don’t want to have to answer, prospectively, for you.”
The irony of those words were not lost on Myers. “I’m thinking to myself, I’m a threat and concern to this institution — George Santos, you’re George Santos!” Myers told TPM.
On top of admitting that he lied to everyone, Santos reportedly stopped the conversation to gush about getting a text from CNN’s Don Lemon, and he encouraged Myers to stop going to Colombia for “diluted Botox.” Santos also admitted to buying his ties from thift stores for $2 and even offered one to Myers. So, you know, just another weirdo day for George Santos, who still continues to serve as a United States congressman.
First things first, let’s get this out of the way: The Grammys have a fraught and sordid history with hip-hop. This much we know and there’s little reason to expect it to change in the near future, even with the adjustments the Grammys have made in recent years. But there is reason to hope, which we’ll get into below.
Now that that’s taken care of, let’s do some predictions! We’ve already done the Big Four awards, but here, we’ll concentrate on rap. Depending on where you stand, this year’s rap nominations are either the most forward-thinking the Recording Academy voters have put together in ages (I mean, GloRilla’s in there! Future and Gunna are nominated for stuff! It’s fun!), or it’s a thin field with the usual middle-of-the-road pandering (I personally like Jack Harlow, but I’m told rap fans aren’t rooting for him. Then there’s DJ Khaled…).
Either way, it should make for an interesting show full of surprises. Will Grammy voters (who tend to skew Gen-X) finally acknowledge the modern sounds of the genre? Will perennial favorite Kendrick Lamar clean up? Will the Grammys’ ugly history with female rap artists rear its head again? We’ll find out Sunday, February 5 (Here’s how to watch the show and here’s the full list of this year’s nominees) but for now, let’s pray for those parlays, for which I will warn you now, I bear no responsibility.
Best Rap Performance
DJ Khaled Featuring Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend & Fridayy — “God Did”
Doja Cat — “Vegas”
Gunna & Future Featuring Young Thug — “Pushin P”
Hitkidd & Glorilla — “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)”
Kendrick Lamar — “The Heart Part 5”
Who will win: Kendrick Lamar — “The Heart Part 5” Who should win: Doja Cat — “Vegas”
Kendrick Lamar is an award-show favorite and his Big Steppers table setter, set to a smooth interpolation of Marvin Gaye’s “I Want You,” is a classic example of his primary preoccupations. He addresses the “culture,” expresses sympathy for the canceled, and muses on the destructive cycles and systems of modern-day America. The thing is, he’s done all this before, and while I hesitate to say the schtick is wearing thin, the series of caricatures Kendrick samples through in the face-morphing visual has aged poorly enough to put off much of the Recording Academy voting base.
On the other hand, Doja Cat, fresh off the successes of her versatile third album Planet Her, demonstrates she’s got plenty more creative space to stretch out in — and she’s just getting started. A venomous excoriation of a philandering romantic partner, “Vegas” catches Cat traipsing over a slick reimagining of Big Mama Thornton’s original version of “Hound Dog” by Shonka Dukureh — a sly reclamation of a musical legacy that reframes the titular ne’er-do-well, turning the spotlight on the subject of the film from which this song hails (and his ilk).
Best Melodic Rap Performance
DJ Khaled Featuring Future & SZA — “Beautiful”
Future Featuring Drake & Tems — “Wait for U”
Jack Harlow — “First Class”
Kendrick Lamar Featuring Blxst & Amanda Reifer — “Die Hard”
Latto — “Big Energy (Live)”
Who will win: Jack Harlow — “First Class” Who should win: Latto — “Big Energy (Live)”
Jack Harlow’s gonna win by virtue of two facts: One, this song was borderline inescapable for the better part of a year after its release, and two, … well, you know. The Grammys have managed to avoid embarrassing themselves in that way in the rap categories since the Macklemore debacle in 2015, but then again, they haven’t had many opportunities since (the closest they came was Adele rejecting her win over Beyoncé for Lemonade).
Still, if they really want to make up for past mistakes, they can start by acknowledging that they snubbed Doja and Megan Thee Stallion in the performance and song categories and women overall for Best Rap Album. Yuck. If there was any song that challenged “First Class” for having a chokehold on your eardrums in 2022, it was “Big Energy,” which was also Latto’s breakout moment (even if she had already been around for a while).
Best Rap Song
DJ Khaled — “God Did” Feat. Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend & Fridayy
Future Featuring Drake & Tems — “Wait for U”
Gunna & Future Featuring Young Thug — “Pushin P”
Jack Harlow Featuring Drake — “Churchill Downs”
Kendrick Lamar — “The Heart Part 5”
Who will win: Kendrick Lamar — “The Heart Part 5” Who should win: DJ Khaled — “God Did” Feat. Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend & Fridayy
So, like my colleague Derrick did in the Big Four list, I must begin here with a disclaimer. Best Rap Song is considered “A Songwriter(s) Award” by the Recording Academy. This means that it’s (ostensibly) awarded strictly on the technical aspects of the writing/production, rather than the vocal performance of the rapper(s). As we all know, good delivery can make a mediocre bar sound like the illest words ever written, while the transverse is also true. With that said, I looked at the lyrics of each song, combined with other stuff like sample selection. Ultimately, it’s still entirely subjective based on my own tastes.
From that standpoint, I think Jay’s peak on “God Did” overshadows Kendrick’s consistency on “The Heart.” While “God Did” on the whole is mostly a collection of fairly straightforward flexes from Jay’s co-stars, once his verse starts, it’s his song, relegating everyone else to background roles. Not only does he lay out his reasoning for “what the stove did,” but by the end of the verse, he’s got even the most staunch law-and-order conservative starting to agree with his choices, no matter how self-destructive they might have been.
DJ Khaled — God Did
Future — I Never Liked You
Jack Harlow — Come Home The Kids Miss You
Kendrick Lamar — Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
Pusha T — It’s Almost Dry
Who will win: Kendrick Lamar — Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers Who should win: Future — I Never Liked You
Don’t kill me! Look, it breaks my homer heart to give anything the nod over my Compton countryman, but from my perspective, the best album has to be the most consistent, the most committed to the bit. To quote a bit of secondhand writing advice from one of my esteemed peers, all the sentences in a piece should aim in the same direction, and every single bar on Future’s album does that.
While Kendrick gets credit for the ambition of his fifth and final project for TDE, it’s a little too disjointed, too directionless, and too difficult to listen to straight through. Meanwhile, Future has gone for over a decade and a half as one of rap’s most esteemed yet uncelebrated cult personalities; a genre unto himself, his sole win was for a feature on Jay Rock’s “King’s Dead” and it was a tie with Anderson .Paak’s “Bubblin’” (again, the Grammys are not known for making the best choices when it comes to rap; also nominated in 2019 were Drake’s “Nice For What” and Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode”).
I Never Liked You offers exactly what it says on the tin, but it’s also Future at his best, stepping up his lyricism, curating some of his most effective beats choices, and delivering the consistency that has kept him at the top of the charts since his legendary three-mixtape run in 2015. Breaking new ground is cool, experimentation is fine, and pushing boundaries is always welcome, but sometimes, you just want dope beats, dope rhymes, and a signature Drake feature. The streets love I Never Liked You; for once, the Grammys can align with the people’s champ if they give it the hardware it deserves.
Pamela Anderson’s whirlwind of a week keeps cranking amid her release of two projects: Pamela: A Love Story, a documentary currently streaming on Netflix, and Love, Pamela, her memoir available in bookstores. In the process of promotion, she’s divulged plenty of tidbits, including how Kid Rock threw a tantrum at the Borat premiere, which ended their marriage. She’s also discussed her worst marriage, which wasn’t to Kid Rock. It’s been a lot, but that’s only the beginning.
For the moment, it’s worth noting that Ronan Farrow (for Interview magazine) asked Pamela to address a controversial 2017 statement that she made to Megyn Kelly, to whom she declared (of the Harvey Weinstein scandal), “It was common knowledge that certain producers or certain people in Hollywood are people to avoid, privately. You know what you’re getting into if you’re going into a hotel room alone.”
To Farrow, Anderson did not back down despite people not loving those remarks. She stood by her sentiment and declared, “I could even take it a step further.” And she did:
“My mother would tell me — and I think this is the kind of feminism I grew up with — it takes two to tango. Believe me, I’ve been in many situations where it’s like, ‘Come in here little girl, sit on the bed.’ But my mom would say, ‘If someone answers the door in a hotel robe and you’re going for an interview, don’t go in. But if you do go in, get the job.’”
She also realized, “That’s a horrible thing to say but that’s how I was. I skated on the edges of destruction, I just had this sense of value and self-worth. But I think a lot of people don’t have that or they weren’t taught that.” And Pam acknowledged (“Thank god”) that the #MeToo movement created progress “because things have changed and people are much more careful and respectful.”
On the “more careful”-these-days note, Pamela has also recently alleged that Tim Allen flashed his penis at her on the set of Home Improvement. That’s a “tool time” that wasn’t welcomed, and Allen has gone on record to express how “disappointed” he feels about the accusation.
Though The 1975 finished touring the US, Matty Healy is not done making headlines. After eating raw meat on stage and making out with fans, he is now complaining about Oasis being broken up. In a new interview, the singer went on a rant about the notorious bad relationship between the Gallagher brothers — and he’s got a serious message for them.
“What are Oasis doing?” he said. “Can you imagine being in potentially, right now, still the coolest band in the world and not doing it because you’re in a mard with your brother? I can deal with them dressing like they’re in their 20s and being in their 50s, but acting like they’re in their 20s — they need to grow up. They’re sat around in Little Venice and Little Highgate, crying because they’re in an argument with their brother. Grow up; headline Glastonbury.”
He continued, “There is not one person going to a High Flying Birds gig, or a Liam Gallagher gig, that wouldn’t rather be at an Oasis gig. Do me a favor: Get back together; stop messing around. That’s my public service announcement for today.”
Watch the full interview above. Hopefully this was the push that Oasis needed.
[WARNING: This post contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2]
Bella Ramsey is 19 years old, but on The Last of Us, she plays 14-year-old Ellie. If the HBO series follows the video games, the age gap will be closed during season two, which is set five years after the events of season one. We won’t get into the specifics, but if you know, you know. The point is, The Last of Us isn’t going to pull a Bobby Draper and re-cast Ellie; in fact, Ramsey is already discussing her excitement for season two.
“I’m really excited to be honest for the Ellie / Dina story,” the Game of Thrones actress said on Happy Sad Confused. “I’ve watched a cut together, someone’s made a phenomenal — I don’t know how they do it — like an amazing edit of just like the gameplay, like Ellie and Dina’s love story. So I’m excited to play that out.”
Ramsey is also looking forward to “the complexity of her relationship with Joel and how that gets decidedly more complex… And the violence that ensues is thrilling in a way, to get to maybe explore that in a really safe environment. It will be cool. But I am nervous about it, too.” She then discusses the thing she’s most nervous about, but that’s too big of a spoiler for even a post that begins with a spoiler warning.
But you’re welcome to find out for yourself in the video above.
In her 2020 memoir, Open Book, Jessica Simpson discussed her “emotional affair” with Jackass star Johnny Knoxville when they were both married to other people and her on again-off again relationship with John Mayer, who she claimed would “[photograph] me constantly, to the point that I worried he was keeping souvenirs before dumping me again.” One anecdote that it didn’t make it into the book was the time an “A-list childhood crush” invited the singer and actress on a romantic getaway, which Simpson detailed in the new Amazon Original Story, “Movie Star: They Always Say They’re Single.”
Simpson met the Movie Star, who she grew up thinking was “hot,” at the 2001 MTV Movie Awards. They saw each other again at Spots Club/LA, where he asked her to hang out again, and she requested for him to be in her music video. They exchanged phone numbers, but “I didn’t call the Movie Star,” she wrote. “He sent word to me through my security guard that he was going to be too busy filming some blockbuster to do my music video. I got engaged to Nick [Lachey] the following February and married that October. Then we got ridiculously famous because of a reality show. I don’t regret any of it, especially the marriage. But, as you probably know, we got divorced.”
Years later, Simpson and the Movie Star reconnected (and kissed for the first time) on the night he had to “appear at an award show”… with his girlfriend. “I saw a photo of Movie Star on a red carpet with her,” she wrote. “I was never ever in a million years going to be the other woman.” He claimed the relationship was “completely over,” and that they were only appearing in public together because otherwise “it’s a story we have to deal with,” he said. They began to see each other more often. Movie Star’s “spiritual advisor” told him that “having sex brings you closer to God,” but Simpson wasn’t ready.
The duo ended up enjoying a whirlwind romance and would go to events together, with Jessica even visiting the man on one of his movie sets. However, she started to feel uncomfortable with the relationship. She says: “Yes, there was something sexy and enticing about all this, but there was also something demeaning about it. I felt like a call girl.” Jessica adds that she felt as though he was trying to “hide” her from his partner, and she admits that her behavior is not something that she was “proud of.”
If you put together all the clues, as Pajiba did, there’s a top suspect for who Movie Star is. Let’s just say that Simpson’s fling with him was more pain than gain.
Last night (February 2) was the Recording Academy Honors Presented by the Black Music Collective at Hollywood Palladium, where Wayne and Missy Elliott were given the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Drake honored Wayne with a video message, which he started, “Good evening, Grammys. Well, I haven’t gotten to say that since 2016.”
He continued, “Lil Wayne… I love you so much. I know I probably get annoying with saying how much you mean to me and my family, but I think I speak on behalf of everybody when I say that our careers, our cadences, our melodies, maybe our face tats or our outfits or our decisions in general would not have been the same without your natural gift to just be yourself.”
Wayne gave a touching speech of his own, saying in part, “I want you all to know that I don’t get honored. Where I’m from, New Orleans, you’re not supposed to do this. I walked into my mama’s room when I was 14. She asked me for a kid because my dad was killed. And her son had just blown up and went on his first tour. When I came home she said, ‘Son, I can’t live in this house by myself. We’re going to have to figure something out.’ “I’d like to thank Antonia Johnson [his first child’s mother] for reasoning with me and my mom, and my life. I’d like to thank every single one of my kids and every single one of their mothers.”
Deion Sanders also honored Wayne with a video message and 2 Chainz, Swizz Beatz, and Tyga closed the show by performing some Wayne songs.
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