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As one of the biggest yet most elusive rappers of our time, Kendrick Lamar dominates pop culture whenever he releases new music. But did his latest album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers live up to the hype? On this week’s Indiecast, hosts Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen share their thoughts on the undeniably fascinating album and wonder if the rapper’s name alone will secure him a spot on Album Of The Year lists.

In terms of music news this week, Indiecast discusses the other much-anticipated album this week: Harry Styles’ Harry’s House. Steven and Ian also talk about the Billboard Music Awards‘ attempt to “uncancel the canceled” musicians and a contentious article that examined Taylor Hawkins’ final days.

In the Recommendation Corner, Ian gives a shout-out to Gospel, a hardcore NYC band who just dropped their first album in 17 years. Meanwhile, Steven recommends listeners to check out the South Korean indie rockers Say Sue Me, whose new album The Last Thing Left sounds like a mix of Mazzy Star and Pavement.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 89 below, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

“I kept noticing that whenever anything happened in the news, his name would start trending and you would go on Twitter and he would have the perfect routine to comment on something that had happened in the news,” said director Judd Apatow when we spoke recently about his new two-part documentary on the life of George Carlin, George Carlin’s American Dream, which premieres on HBO and HBO Max May 20.

What’s most remarkable about Carlin may not be his unheard-of staying power 14 years after his death, though, it may be how he continued to innovate and reinvent himself over a 50+ year career to get to the point where his words and memory would carry so much weight with so many people; something Apatow explores thoroughly here while exploring the drive, complexity, and artistry of the man as well as the impact on and influence of his family life. A remarkable, oft-ignored side that pushes this documentary from mere comedy nerd nirvana to something greater.

Apatow is quick to praise Carlin’s daughter, Kelly, for her determination to help him tell a story about her family that is clear and unsparing, never tawdry but also never candy-coated. To keep things more in the Carlin vernacular, it’s no bullshit.

We spoke with Apatow about telling this story without bias or in service to choices that might make this all feel saccharine. We also discussed Carlin’s career, a point when he was mocked as outdated, his determination to keep getting better, and the heart behind his late-career hard edge.
The way that some of the clips were cut together, I don’t think I’ve pumped my fist as much to a documentary since like The Last Dance. It was just really exciting to see. It was just really great work.

[Laughs] Thank you.

Is it easier to do something like this where you don’t have a personal connection like you did with Garry Shandling?

I think the key to making these documentaries is that there are people who are willing to be completely honest about the true story of what happened. I think a lot of times there are people who want to protect the subject of a documentary, and in ways that people don’t understand a lot of it is watered down. People avoid certain moments in performers’ lives, where maybe their behavior was questionable or maybe there’s something that the family is embarrassed about. I was very lucky that Kelly Carlin [George Carlin’s daughter] was adamant that we told the truth.

When making the Garry documentary, is that something you found yourself subconsciously doing? Protecting certain things or pulling back in certain ways that you would not have in something like this when you don’t have that much personal connection or understanding?

It’s not so much that you’re trying to protect someone, it’s that you’re worried about emphasizing something too much. So with Garry, he had several lawsuits, some where he was being sued and some where he was suing people. And you can change what the audience thinks about a conflict based on removing an image or one thing that somebody said. It’s so easy to take a side. I think in the old documentaries, whether you like it or not, whether you want to or not, you do by the choices you make. And we just spent untold hours trying to figure out how to present things in the most truthful way. It’s very difficult. It’s like if you were making a documentary about JFK, are you going to say he was the best president ever? Are you going to show what went wrong? And there are thousands of choices that affect that.

Carlin’s politics were pretty clear, but he did seem like someone who was angry at everyone equally, or maybe not equally. But angry at politicians on both sides of the fence. Whereas now there definitely seems to be more of a slant. Is that where his power comes from, that level of anger at both sides?

Well, he definitely distrusted power. But he also said he liked individuals, he didn’t like groups. You know, he said, “When people form groups pretty soon they’re wearing hats.” He had a lot of criticism for both sides of the political spectrum, but he made it very clear that he thought that Democrats were concerned about people and Republicans were concerned about stuff. And he certainly had a lot of progressive points of view. At the same time, he really distrusted the government because he felt like it had been co-opted by big business. And that there were a lot of people running things whose interests were not the same as the citizens of the country.

It’s just shocking watching the documentary and coming across the “America The Beautiful” song that he sang in 1972 or 1973 and realizing how much it all still applies. Shouting into a bullhorn and people just not hearing — was that part of what led to some of his frustration?

Well, I think he was somebody that had more hope in the late sixties and the early seventies that good things would happen as a result of protests and people speaking up and paying attention. And then later in his life, he realized that even though people had been given the opportunity to treat each other better and treat the earth better, they didn’t.

Then his comedy came from a different, much darker stance, which is, “You people have ruined the world, so I’m just going to observe it and laugh as it goes down in flames.” And I always felt that the reason why he did that was, as a way of slapping you in the face to say, “Wake up.” He got so dark that your reaction would either be, “I agree,” or “No, I don’t agree. I want to do something about it.” You know, it is an older man’s way of saying, “Hey, it’s your turn.”

Was that your view of it when it was happening?

It was, it was. I always thought there was a big heart behind it. And he decided to take a very strong comedic stance, but I never for a second thought that he would ever want one person to suffer in any way. It was a way to exaggerate everything, to get people to look at how awful certain things were and hopefully to make a choice to treat each other better.

Going into this and going through all these materials, diaries, journals, and things — what was the biggest revelation for you?

Well, what I connected to emotionally was that he met his wife, Brenda, when he was working at a comedy club, and she was an employee there. They got married a few months later, and he was completely broke. We found a letter where they were writing her parents because they had $7 in the bank. And a lot of this story is about this relationship. And also about a woman in the sixties and seventies who had a husband who left town to work and [she] was left alone and didn’t see the possibility of pursuing her own dreams for a long time. And they both fell into terrible addiction. And how they climbed out of it and stayed together until her death. Kelly Carlin was so honest about what it was like to grow up in that type of house that was going through so many struggles.

I wasn’t aware of how much he was kind of dragged at one point in the eighties. Was that something that you were aware of at the time, that he had kind of fallen out of vogue and become uncool?

I don’t think I realized in that period that anyone considered him uncool. When I would see SCTV rake someone over the coals, I always thought, “That’s the point of SCTV.” They made fun of everyone. So it didn’t seem especially specific or cruel. But when you are the subject of it and people are looking at what you’re doing and finding what’s funny about it, it’s certainly painful.

I think it’s more like a musician who put out five great albums and then people are wondering why six is weaker. It’s very hard to keep up that quality. And he had been at it for a long time at that point, 15 years or so. And he was addicted to cocaine, and it’s hard to continue to do your best work in that mode. And the culture moves on, and suddenly Steve Martin arrives and Andy Kaufman and Richard Pryor is peeking. And you realize, “I’m not at the top of this form.” But what’s amazing about George Carlin is he takes a breath and says, “Okay, I have to get better.” And he did that a few times in his life. He didn’t look at it like, “Oh no, the world was passing me by.” He said, “I need to do the work.”

The ability to not just dominate, but then to drop and then rise back up. To use the Jordan reference again, Jordan not being able to dominate in the paint, becoming somebody with more of an outside shot. Ali finding ways to fight as he got older.

It’s like, Bob Dylan putting out Time Out Of Mind.

Yeah. Adaptability is, to me, the defining aspect of greatness. Would you agree?

Yes, because he never looked at it like some people do, which is, “I guess that was my time. And now I’ll coast.” You know, he saw Sam Kinison and thought, “I’m not going to eat this guy’s dust.” That’s what he said. And he spent the rest of his life trying to out-Kinison Kinison. And it’s really remarkable, the energy and the focus he put into improving and going deeper. That’s very rare. It reminds me of Sydney Lumet directing Until The Devil Knows You’re Dead when he was 80. And it was so edgy and incredible. It’s such an inspiration for me, people who just keep looking for ways to get better.

Are you looking to do more documentaries down the road?

I’m going to do more. I like documentaries, I find them a lot less stressful. Because when you write jokes, you just never know if they’re going to work. So in a way you’re just scared all the time. You know, if you make a TV show or movie, you don’t know how people react. But with a documentary, you’re in a constant exploration of everything somebody left behind. And you’re trying to find a way to put it together, to tell the story of their life. And you feel a responsibility to do it well, but it’s not that terror of a joke bombing.

Is that responsibility solely the idea of getting it right? Or is it also the idea of, “This is a signal into the future, this is something that helps to preserve this person so I want to get it right?”

Yes. I feel like, when these types of movies exist, they are the path in for people to discover an artist. You know, one of my favorite ones was the two-part Martin Scorsese/Bob Dylan documentary. He also did an incredible one about George Harrison. I think that in the future, when people have been drowned under millions more hours of content, they will discover who they want to learn about through documentaries. So someone will watch the Bob Dylan documentary, maybe even before they go deep into listening to all of his music. And I think to have your life and career organized in that way, creates a possibility that someone will watch The Larry Sanders Show or watch the George Carlin specials, because they have some sense of the environment they were made in.

I don’t want to fracture your worldview, but that seems like a hell of a lot more pressure than just if a joke is funny.

[Laughs] Well, it’s less pressure because George made all those specials. He left behind all these interviews. He left behind 23 hours of conversations that he made in order to write his autobiography. All the brilliance is there. It’s just me finding a way to present it logically and in a way where it reaches you and moves you. But the raw materials are great.

Judd Apatow’s two-part ‘George Carlin’s American Dream’ documentary releases on May 20 on HBO Max and on consecutive nights on HBO with Part one on May 20 and Part two May 21

The internet has been mad at Cara Delevingne, whose weird behavior at the Billboard Music Awards made headlines. This ranged from laying on the floor to take a picture of Doja Cat, DJ Khaled, and Fat Joe that ended up being a pretty low-quality photo, to playing with Megan Thee Stallion’s dress on the red carpet. Though Delevingne is practically known for her weird, eccentric presence, she was accused of fetishizing Black women.

In a surprising turn of events, Azealia Banks, after having a fan reach out and ask about the situation, came to Delevingne’s defense on Twitter.

She wrote, “Cara doesn’t have an obsession with with black women. It’s that upper crust English society full of fake white and jealous white hoes who were never as charismatic as she is that made fake friendships, tried sabotaging her every which way she moved and the intense jealousy. Of her older and extremely plain looking sister poppy that always made Cara feel sad and lonely. Poppy would always say mad back handed slick sh*t and tell Cara’s business to people in the industry and I always remember Cara literally traveling the world completely alone 4 years.”

She continued: “Lots of English society/media took advantage of that and there were plenty of times I would just hide Cara in my apartment for days at a time to make sure she got some deep sleep and some actual food and wasn’t just thrown out amongst the wolves like that. Everyone always wanted to use Cara for what they could get from her, and luckily for her – none of them got anything substantial. deep down I could tell she was (like me) so used to being told ur a bad person that she began to believe those things about her self and go out of her. Way to please people who saw her as an easy route to some fashion/British society clout… all of which they fumbled in the grand scheme of things. Cara and I just did normal stuff like dress up like mermaids, smoke spliffs and take naps. That’s my girl thru and thru.”

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

Nipsey Hussle’s death shook up the world three years ago and every effort to honor his legacy has provided some needed comfort or joy. The latest piece of content surrounding the late Los Angeles native comes in the form of a YouTube documentary called The Marathon (Cultivation), which follows the Victory Lap artist throughout the process of he and his brother, Samiel Asghedom, developing their own marijuana strain called Marathon OG. The documentary arrives just under a month preceding the June 18 opening of The Marathon (Collective), a cannabis retail store in Los Angeles.

Though he is not here with us physically, rappers, celebrities and companies at every turn have paid homage to the trailblazer and kept his memory alive. Hussle posthumously earned two Grammy awards in 2020 for “Racks In The Middle” (Best Rap Performance) with Hit-Boy and Roddy Ricch, and DJ Khaled’s “Higher” (Best Rap/Sung Collaboration) alongside John Legend.

Hussle was fatally slain at the end of March 2019 in front of his Marathon Clothing store in Los Angeles. The rapper had just reached the peak of his career with the success and critical acclaim of his 2018 debut album Victory Lap.

Check out the documentary, The Marathon (Cultivation), above.

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

Following Charlie Cox‘s cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home and the very notable shifting of the Netflix Marvel shows over to Disney+, Daredevil fans’ dreams seem to be coming true as a new series (as we previously discussed) featuring ol’ hornhead is reportedly in the works. It was a welcome surprise as the notoriously secretive Marvel kept Cox’s future in the MCU close to its chest. The persistent rumor was that Daredevil would pop up in the previously announced Echo series (or possibly even She-Hulk), but now, it appears he’ll get to fly solo in his own Disney+ project from Matt Corman and Chris Ord.

To refresh, here’s part of the initial Variety report:

Corman and Ord most famously co-created the USA Network series “Covert Affairs” starring Piper Perabo and Christopher Gorham. The show aired for five seasons on the basic cabler between 2010 and 2014. They most recently worked as executive producers and co-showrunners on the NBC drama shows “The Enemy Within” and “The Brave” as well as The CW series “Containment.”

As news of the Daredevil reboot/revival hit, it didn’t take long for Jessica Jones to start trending on social media as Marvel fans saw a glimmer of hope that the Krysten Ritter-starring series might be next for a return. Like Daredevil, Jessica Jones was unceremoniously canceled after its third season as both Netflix and Disney shifted their streaming strategies. (Netflix no longer wanted to pay the hefty licensing fee for the Marvel shows, and Disney wanted all of its Marvel properties under one roof for obvious reasons.)

With Daredevil reportedly primed for a come back, the possibility of seeing more Jessica Jones is higher than ever. As you can see below the fans are hungry for it:

(Via Variety)

Remember Sonic? He’s back, in ugly form.

In the only non-toxic instance of a movie studio giving in to fan demands, Paramount Pictures famously retooled the original cursed design of everyone’s favorite chili dog-eating blue hedgehog for 2020’s Sonic the Hedgehog. This was the last anyone saw of his toothy grin — until Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, the new animated Disney+ film featuring the voices of John Mulaney as Chip and Andy Samberg as Dale.

“Ugly Sonic,” as he’s referred to, appears early in Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers at a convention booth, alongside Lumière from Beauty and the Beast and Marvel Comics character Tigra. “They’ll like me for who I am, not like last time when the internet got one look at my human teeth and burned the place down,” Ugly Sonic tells Dale before signing an autograph for two scoffing attendees. “Oh, they’re laughing at me. I know that. You can’t hurt my feelings if I’m in on the joke.” Ugly Sonic’s luck since the backlash to Sonic the Hedgehog has shifted, though. He’s been offered a “new reality show where I do ride-alongs with the FBI.” The title: Ugly Sonic, Ugly Crimes.

Ugly Sonic — voiced by the great Tim Robinson — is an inspiration to us all.

Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers is available on Disney+ now.

Elon Musk has long since reached the point where his antics rise above his actual actions (or non-actions) when it comes to news stories (and his responses) about him. Over the past few days alone, he’s been compared to the MyPillow guy for melting down over not voting for Democrats ever again. And the Tesla/SpaceX CEO been trolling the Twitter CEO while apparently doing plenty to undo the Twitter deal, but Twitter won’t let him back out of that multi-billion dollar transaction, so that mess will continue.

There’s another mess afoot, too, involving allegations first reported by Business Insider. The publication relayed word (which could be reliance upon hearsay) from the friend of a flight attendant who did contract work for SpaceX. Reportedly, SpaceX dealt with a 2018 sexual misconduct claim (against Musk) with a $250,000 payoff. From the Insider report:

The attendant worked as a member of the cabin crew on a contract basis for SpaceX’s corporate jet fleet. She accused Musk of exposing his erect penis to her, rubbing her leg without consent, and offering to buy her a horse in exchange for an erotic massage, according to interviews and documents obtained by Insider.

The incident, which took place in 2016, is alleged in a declaration signed by a friend of the attendant and prepared in support of her claim. The details in this story are drawn from the declaration as well as other documents, including email correspondence and other records shared with Insider by the friend.

Elon did not respond to Insider’s request for comment on the report, but he’s been tweeting a lot about the report. Most prominently, he resurrected his March 2021 wish, for which he tweeted, “”If there’s ever a scandal about me, *please* call it Elongate.” Fast forward to May 2022, and he’s pleased to let the banal joke live: “Finally, we get to use Elongate as scandal name. It’s kinda perfect.”

Presumably, Elon’s joking about an “elongated” state after Insider reported that he “exposed his genitals” and wanted the flight attendant to “do more” after she showed up to give him a massage. These allegations are reportedly referenced in a “declaration” and “email correspondence” viewed by Insider, although the documents in question have not been made public.

And Elon is pushing back while tweeting that “[t]he attacks against me should be viewed through a political lens – this is their standard (despicable) playbook – but nothing will deter me from fighting for a good future and your right to free speech.”

According to New York Post (which published tweet screencaps), Musk accused the “friend” of the flight attendant of being a “far left activist/actress in LA with a major political axe to grind.” He also tweeted “a challenge to this liar who claims their friend saw me ‘exposed’ — describe just one thing, anything at all (scars, tattoos, …) that isn’t known by the public.” He added, “She won’t be able to do so, because it never happened.”

Also on Twitter: a Musk tweet that reads, “In my 30 year career, including the entire MeToo era, there’s nothing to report, but, as soon as I say I intend to restore free speech to Twitter & vote Republican, suddenly there is…”

A few days ago, Elon predicted that the “[p]olitical attacks on me will escalate dramatically in coming months.”

Not to downplay any seriousness of the allegations mentioned above, but man, I have to wonder if Elon Musk ever sleeps. It sounds exhausting to be him, but he has enough energy for jokes.

(Via Business Insider & New York Post)

Beach House‘s performance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was one that may have been difficult to see, but impossible not to feel. The indie duo stopped by the popular show on Thursday (May 19) to deliver an ambient performance of “Superstar” off of its latest release Once Twice Melody. Vocalists Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally appeared as silhouettes, coloring the smoky atmosphere with their lucid singing. Sonically and visually, the performance feels like it took place underwater. During the set’s climax, a luminary backdrop pops up adding a bit more light to the immersive experience.

Once Twice Melody, released back in February, marks the Baltimore duo’s eighth studio album, coming just a little over four years after their aptly-named 2018 release 7. Beach House has kept busy since the release of Once Twice Melody, as it was announced back in March that they would be responsible for scoring Sofia Alvarez’s upcoming Netflix film Along For The Ride. The duo has also previously scored the short film Marin’s Dreams and three trailers that ran at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Check out their performance of “Superstar” on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert above and listen to Once Twice Melody here.

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

For the past couple of months, Halsey has been opening up about the health problems that they’ve been struggling with since having a baby. “Basically, after seeing, like, a hundred thousand doctors, I got diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Sjögren’s syndrome, mast cell activation syndrome, POTS, and I’m still looking for answers to the root cause of some of these things,” they explained in an Instagram story.

In a TikTok posted yesterday, the “Closer” singer confronted the comments they get on their health and body all of the time, including examples like: “Halsey u look sick,” “Is she ok? Put some meat on those bones,” “She’s too thin,” and, “Looks unhealthy.” Their caption reads: “‘u look sick’ BC I AM! LET ME LIVE!”

Meanwhile, Halsey has still been on the road for their tour, and included a powerful pro-Roe V. Wade message at a recent show. During the song “Nightmare,” a video played behind them, displaying abortion statistics. One read, “Abortion is one of the safest medical procedures performed today, more than 99 perfect safe in fact.” Another read, “Nearly 8 in 10 Americans oppose overturning Roe v. Wade.” Another said, “Black women suffer from maternal mortality at rates three times higher than white women.” Another noted, “There are now 16 states where 95% of counties do not have an abortion clinic.”

Over the past few months, Britney Spears mostly uses her Instagram in two primary ways: sharing naked photos and discussing her conservatorship. She did a bit of both last night, offering up some new nude pictures and teasing her upcoming memoir. In her post, she wrote that her conservatorship was so bad that it has made her question God.

She wrote, “I’ve been playing the field … the business … the industry my whole life … that was of my own making … was it in God’s hands or mine ??? Or was it because I was close to God and he guided me ??? God knows I haven’t been perfect, but I do know this the consequences that were taken over me for never committing a crime a day in my life made me question God !!!”

Spears also noted that in general, she feels better now than she ever has, saying, “I’ve never been more happy in my life … in the past several months since it’s been over besides my miscarriage !!! My spirit feels lighter and I genuinely laugh and smile now and my eyes are hungry for more each day …”

She also addressed the reason she’s writing her book: “I want to share my story for one reason and one reason only … to let people know you’re not alone and trust me I KNOW if you’re going through something and you feel so distant from everything … it’s hard to confront your mind and say … oh you’re not alone … it’s easier said than done, but I need to share through it all.”

Find Spears’ full post below.

“Point of view – perspective ??? Tell me then ??? Or do I really want to ??? I’ve been playing the field … the business … the industry my whole life … that was of my own making … was it in God’s hands or mine ??? Or was it because I was close to God and he guided me ??? God knows I haven’t been perfect, but I do know this the consequences that were taken over me for never committing a crime a day in my life made me question God !!! It wasn’t just the torture it was the embarrassment of it all … Nobody should have to go through what I went through …

I’ve made a point to capture my experience through a book I am writing … It’s all written on pages that people will hold with their own two hands … and hopefully have a better understanding … we all know something we read isn’t the same as your spirit experiencing those circumstances, but I do feel like some people will be touched …

my experiences in the business were always with vast amounts of people … always on the go and working so hard … connecting with people basically work my ass off … the one thing I will say that bothered me the most was the extent of isolation I was in for 4 months … I used to love being alone, but it was my choice !!! My choice to go in deeper and hear the whispers of the spirit … the type of isolation that was forced on me was torture on all levels … confusion … Why ??? None of it is making sense …

I do know there are quite a few people that have experienced situations similar to mine and I respect their bravery on sharing their story openly to the press … unfortunately, after I gave an open testimony in court by phone I gave so many people the awareness to question my situation … don’t want to be openly questioned by anyone about my experience !!! I don’t want to speak openly about a traumatic experience when in the foreground it was condoned by my whole family !!! Honestly, I don’t want to ever talk about it ever again … I feel like I would entertain the very people who hurt me … I do believe they would secretly like the embarrassment I would go through bringing it all up 100 percent … They will no longer get the best of me and humiliate me …

I’ve never been more happy in my life … in the past several months since it’s been over besides my miscarriage !!! My spirit feels lighter and I genuinely laugh and smile now and my eyes are hungry for more each day …

I want to share my story for one reason and one reason only … to let people know you’re not alone and trust me I KNOW if you’re going through something and you feel so distant from everything … it’s hard to confront your mind and say … oh you’re not alone … it’s easier said than done, but I need to share through it all … my subconscious knew it was gonna be ok … the spirit within me that told me to keep moving forward and it was all I had … it’s what I hung onto !!! Although it was hard as hell I got through it !!! And the one thing I wish someone would have told me is you are not alone … my fans showed me so much love and assertiveness through it all … their hearts knew and there’s not a single day that goes by that I’m not aware of that and I’m so grateful to have my fans … remember you are not alone and God bless you all [heart emojis] !!!”