GoneTrending

On the whole, concepts like “the metaverse,” “virtual reality,” and “calling Facebook ‘Meta’” haven’t quite caught on with the general public. That hasn’t stopped Silicon Valley from trying to make “fetch” happen (yet), and their latest bid to do so will utilize a character who has caught on with a broad mainstream audience: Post Malone. Per Billboard, Meta (still feels weird, man) will host the beer-loving, cover-crooning pop star’s upcoming 40-minute concert film, Twelve Carat Toothache: A VR Experience on July 15.

The concert will stream on the free online video game Horizon Worlds in the Venues section, as well as Meta Quest 2. Fortunately for those of us who love Posty but don’t own a fancy virtual reality headset, it’ll also stream live on the singer’s Instagram and Facebook pages. It’s said to feature guest performances from the Twelve Carat Toothache featured artists, which include Fleet Foxes, Roddy Ricch, and The Kid LAROI. Post seems most excited about the fact that “we got to light some things on fire too.”

In a statement to Billboard, Post Malone said, “What really appealed to me was Meta being a great partner and allowing us to go absolutely nuts to create some of the most epic sh*t ever. It’s just a really cool, really different way to experience the album. Opening and listening to a new album had always been an experience for me and now with VR and what Meta is doing, it’s taking the meaning of an album experience to another level.”

Twelve Carat Toothache: A VR Experience will be available beginning July 15 through September 30.

The Toronto Raptors have been kicked around as a potential landing spot for Kevin Durant. The logic, as laid out by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, is that the Raptors can do a 1-on-1 trade due to the players they have on their roster and the fact that they have their full arsenal of draft picks.

There is one issue, according to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report. A potential trade between the two teams would, in theory, revolve around Scottie Barnes, the No. 4 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft and the reigning Rookie of the Year. Barnes was a revelation in Toronto last season, and per Fischer, the team does not want to move him this offseason.

“Of important note regarding Toronto: Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation say the Raptors are unwilling to part with reigning Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes,” Fischer wrote.

It is conceivable that the Raptors can put together a deal that interests the Nets without Barnes, but a hypothetical trade package featuring Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, and Gary Trent Jr. with a whole heck of a lot of picks would be quite the difficult pill for them to swallow. During his first year in the Association, Barnes started all 74 games in which he appeared and averaged 15.4 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.7 blocks in 35.4 minutes per game.

It’s been 18 months exactly since the Capitol insurrection of January 6, 2021. And while former president Donald Trump continues to deny that he had anything to do with the deadly attacks perpetrated by his followers (who he described as “well-behaved”), he isn’t being shy about sharing the positive effect they’ve had on his popularity. Or he’s simply not bright enough to make the connection.

As Raw Story reports, on Tuesday evening the former president shared a story from CNN of all places titled “Donald Trump has become more popular since the January 6 Capitol attack” on his TRUTH Social page. While he shared the link as well, the nearly 12,000 people who liked the post or the 2,860 who “ReTruthed” it (yes, that’s the actual word) probably didn’t bother to read it, as it’s not the most flattering portrait. In the month-old analysis, CNN’s Harry Enten asks:

So just what happened to allow Trump to become less unpopular? The answer is probably simple: time. Trump is no longer the president. Americans’ memories tend to be very short. Issues that once seemed important (e.g., controlling the coronavirus pandemic) have sunk to the bottom of the priorities list for most voters, as new concerns arise (e.g., inflation).

The question for which the answer is yet unknown is what happens if Trump decides to run for president again? Will the American public’s strong dislike of him from January 2021 return? Or does distance really make the heart grow fonder?

Whereas Trump had nearly 90 million followers on Twitter at the time he was permanently banned, Raw Story reports that he has just a fraction of that number—3.4 million—on TRUTH. So, given TRUTH Social’s struggles (add it to the list of Trump’s many failed business ventures), perhaps the former president just assumed no one would ever read it.

Ever since former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s explosive testimony in front of the January 6 committee, more witnesses to the events of—and leading up to—that day have reportedly come forward. On Tuesday, it was announced that former deputy White House press secretary Sarah Matthews has agreed to testify next week.

(Via Raw Story)

It’s been nearly three decades since Friends first debuted, and the titular group of quirky friends had seen a lot during their 10 years on the air. There were missing monkeys, alleged breakups, and embarrassing wedding mishaps, though there is one plot that the show’s co-creator wishes didn’t happen.

In season seven, Chandler’s mother is introduced and it is revealed that she is a trans woman. Chandler handles it poorly. Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman recently admitted that the way they handled the plotline was a “mistake.”

While speaking with The Conversation on BBC, Kauffman explains why she wishes the plot were done differently. “We kept referring to her [Chandler’s transgender parent] as ‘Chandler’s father’, even though Chandler’s father was trans,” Kauffman explains. “Pronouns were not yet something that I understood. So we didn’t refer to that character as ‘she’. That was a mistake.”

This isn’t the first time Kauffman has openly regretted certain Friends plot points. Just last week, she said she was “embarrassed” by the lack of diversity in the show. She said, “I’ve learned a lot in the last 20 years,” the writer explained. “Admitting and accepting guilt is not easy. It’s painful looking at yourself in the mirror. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know.”

(Via Huffington Post)

There’s a good chance one of your favorite actors/actresses/pop stars appears in Amsterdam, the new film from director David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook, I Heart Huckabees, Three Kings). That is, unless you’re the one person in the world who doesn’t enjoy at least one of Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Chris Rock, Zoe Saldaña, Anya Taylor-Joy, Michael Shannon, Taylor Swift, Timothy Olyphant, Alessandro Nivola, Andrea Riseborough, Mike Myers, and Robert De Niro.

Amsterdam is described as “an original crime epic about three close friends who find themselves at the center of one of the most shocking secret plots in American history.” Those friends, played by Bale, Robbie, and David Washington, are accused of killing someone, “which is not true,” Bale adds in the trailer above. Later, Robbie says, “This is all turning out to be a lot larger than any of us.”

Amsterdam is one of two films starring Bale coming out in 2022, along with Thor: Love and Thunder, while Robbie can also be seen in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon (December 25) and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (July 21, 2023). As for David Washington, he leads the cast of True Love (October 6, 2023) from Rogue One director Gareth Edwards. You probably already know what Olyphant, Swift, and especially Rock have been up to.

Amsterdam opens on November 4 (it’s also worth reminding yourself of Russell’s “dark reputation”).

At the end of 2019, The Game dropped his ninth album Born 2 Rap, and claimed that he would retire from rap after the project’s release. As you’re probably aware by now, we live in a world where rappers are really bad at retiring and it was only a matter of time until The Game reclaimed his position in hip-hop. Fast-forward almost three years and the Compton native is gearing up to release his tenth album Drillmatic, and while a release date for it is unknown at the moment, The Game did reveal an interesting tidbit about the album.

The Game took to Instagram to reveal that Drillmatic will include a number of sampled Jay-Z songs and he thanked the Reasonable Doubt rapper for allowing him to use them. “S/O to S. Dot for clearing all 7 samples on #Drillmatic,” he wrote in the post. “3 more sample clearances & the AOTY belongs to me & hit-boy.”

The latter half of the message seems to explain the delays behind Drillmatic. The Game initially said the project, which is executive produced by Hit-Boy, would arrive on June 17, but it was later pushed back to July 1 which came and went without its release. The album has yet to receive a new release date, but with three samples left to clear, it shouldn’t be too long until we know when it will drop.

You can view a screenshot of The Game’s message in the post above.

In just a few months, Coldplay will celebrate the first anniversary of their ninth album, Music Of The Spheres. The project is their second space-themed concept album after 2005’s X&Y and it features a pair of songs that gave the band some special recognition. “Higher Power” was nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2022 Grammys while their “My Universe” collaboration with BTS debuted at No. 1 on the singles chart to become their first chart-topping song in 13 years. While Coldplay is a bit removed from the release of Music Of The Spheres, the band looks to keep the project alive with a new video for “Biutyful.”

The new visual is led by The Weirdos, a diverse muppet alien band from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Coldplay’s sparkling song soundtracks the puppet band’s rise to fame as they go from unknowns to the most popular band on the planet, an act that’s orchestrated by their manager Bruce Cakemix. Coldplay and The Weirdos are well acquainted, as the latter band’s lead singer, Angel Moon, has been a regular on Coldplay’s current tour, singing “Biutyful” to large crowds all over the world.

The video for “Biutyful” after Coldplay’s Chris Martin delivered an impromptu performance for a group of people at a small pub.

You can watch the video for “Biutyful” above.

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

Christine And The Queens are returning with their first album in four years. Today, he’s announced his third album, Redcar Les Adorables Etoiles.

Similar to his 2018 album, Chris, Christine will adopt a new moniker for this album. Introducing Redcar, the album will usher in a new era for Christine.

As Redcar, Christine will go by “he/him” pronouns. Earlier this year, Christine, who also goes by Chris, spoke about gender expression by way of pop music to the New York Times.

“My journey with gender has always been tumultuous,” he said. “It’s raging right now, as I’m just exploring what is beyond this. A way to express it could be switching between ‘they’ and ‘she.’ I kind of want to tear down that system that made us label genders in such a strict way. I remember talking about being pansexual in France in 2014 — it was a conversation that few opened up, and I was advised in, like, offices to maybe tone it down. I’m really trying to address it the right way now, and I’ve been sometimes pressured to give an answer. But I think the answer is to be flickery, fluid, escaping.

Check out the album artwork below.

Redcar Les Adorables Etoiles will arrive on 9/23 via Because Music. Pre-save it here.

Kanye West might not be as active on social media lately as he was earlier this year, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t still lurking on the hip-hop blogs — especially when they post stories that might pertain to him. And he’s just as outspoken as he’s always been, only now he sets out to defend himself in the DMs rather than on his public feed — a much more effective strategy, truth be told.

In the latest example of Ye advocating for himself against “the hip-hop media” (actually fan blogs dedicated to reposting freely available information from social media and 2 am Google searches, apparently), Kanye reached out personally to correct a “story” posted by an account called RapThoughtsDaily. And yes, I’m using quotes derisively here and will continue to do so until people figure out the difference between legitimate journalistic outlets and 25-year-old hobbyists posting on Instagram and Twitter for “clout.”

Kanye was featured in a RapThoughtsDaily post about rappers’ performance fees, the info for which they clearly just Googled (see above) without citing any real sources to confirm. Among the rappers listed were Denzel Curry, Tyler The Creator, and Vince Staples; Kanye was given one of the largest figures at $1 million (coming in behind Young Thug at $1.5 million, which… come on. Really?). It doesn’t seem that Ye appreciated being lowballed even theoretically — the account did allow that the freely available info on Google is often way off.

He DMed the account manager to tell them to “please change this,” clarifying that “my performance fee is $8 million.” Whoever manages the account was only too happy to oblige, posting a screenshot of the conversation to the Story and updating the caption to reflect the higher figure. Of course, there’s no telling whether that figure is accurate either but at least Kanye got to see a “blog” make a correction while RapThoughtsDaily got to get a direct message from a celebrity. Everybody wins, I guess. Except for, you know, the concept of journalism in hip-hop, which is currently on life support and getting worse all the time.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is going full Alex Jones following back-to-back shootings on July 4th. During a recent video posted to her Facebook page, Greene claimed that the Highland Park shooting looks like it was “designed” to hit a “rich white neighborhood” in an effort to get Republicans on board with gun control. In other words, a “false flag” operation, which is how Jones once described the Sandy Hook shooting that’s left him facing bankruptcy after being embroiled in a lawsuit with the victims’ families.

In a revealing choice of words, Greene essentially admits that Republicans won’t take action unless something happens to a “rich white neighborhood.” She also refers to the entire month of July as “MAGA month” while pondering why there were no shootings during Pride month. Lady, this is America. There are mass shootings everyday.

Via No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen on Twitter:

Now, here’s what I have to say. I mean, two shootings on July 4th, one in a rich white neighborhood and the other at a fireworks display. It almost sounds like it’s designed to persuade Republicans to go along with more gun control. I mean, after all, remember we didn’t see that happened at all at the Pride parades in the month of June. But as soon as we hit MAGA month, as soon as we hit the month that we’re all celebrating, loving our country, we have shootings on July 4th.

In a surprising moment of self-awareness, Greene admits that this sounds like a “conspiracy theory.” However, instead of backing away from this train of thought, she doubled down.

“But what’s the definition of a right wing conspiracy theory?” Greene asked. “Well, by the way, it’s just the news that’s six months early.”

(Via No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen on Twitter)