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John DiMaggio’s pay dispute with Disney did not end happily ever after.

Earlier this year, Deadline reported that Futurama would return (for something like the 12th time) with new episodes on Hulu, minus one key member of the cast: DiMaggio, who voices surly, alcoholic robot Bender. At one point, there was even talk of replacing the voice actor, which caused a riot among fans of Futurama, animation, and everyone with the common sense to not side with multi-billion dollar corporations. Eventually, the dispute was resolved with DiMaggio tweeting, “I’M BACK, BABY,” but as he revealed at the Phoenix Fan Fusion convention over the weekend, he returned without a pay raise.

“People are like, ‘I’m so glad you got more money!’ I didn’t get more money,” DiMaggio said, according to Slashfilm. But what I did get was a lot of respect, and a lot of head nods from people who are like, ‘Yo bro, I see you and thank you.’” He called “trying to get money out of Disney is like trying to get blood from a stone — you ain’t gonna get it.”

There was also talk of testicles:

“But listen, this was the best thing about that fight: I had Disney, Hulu, I was holding on to their collective testicles so hard that they couldn’t, y’know, there was nowhere for them to go. But there was also nowhere for me to go, and who wants to hold on to those for that long?”

Ultimately, DiMaggio (who wanted a raise for the entire cast, not just himself) decided that he would rather “[have] a nice Thanksgiving dinner” than “[stand] across the street in the freezing rain watching everybody eat.” Those nachos don’t pay for themselves.

Futurama returns in 2023.

(Via Slashfilm)

Anybody who thought the vinyl resurgence was just a fad was mistaken: The industry has experienced a legitimate revival. As a result, music fans are interested in physical media in ways they may not have if the decades-old medium hasn’t made a comeback. That doesn’t mean everybody is listening to just their parents’ old music, though. That’s part of it, sure, thanks to rereleases that present classic albums in new ways. A vital part of the renewed vinyl wave, though, is new projects being released as records, of which there are plenty.

Whatever you might be into, Vinyl Me, Please has a new vinyl-adjacent offering for the connoisseurs among us: The Abbey, a new knife made in partnership with The James Brand that was designed specifically for opening new vinyl records.

Each month brings a new slew of vinyl releases that has something for everybody and naturally, some stand out above the rest. So, check out some of our favorite vinyl releases of May below.

Olivia Rodrigo — Sour

Olivia Rodrigo is perhaps pop’s biggest vinyl supporter (she even got the Jack White stamp of approval on that front). So, as her debut album Sour turns a year old, it’s not surprising Rodrigo is celebrating with fresh vinyl: For the anniversary, Rodrigo has re-issued the album in some new colored pressings, including the light blue version pictured above.

Get it here.

Taking Back Sunday — Tell All Your Friends (20th Anniversary Edition)

Taking Back Sunday’s 2002 debut album is one of the most esteemed emo releases ever and it turns 20 years old this year. To celebrate, Craft Recordings has dropped a reissued version of the album, which includes newly remastered audio and four previously unreleased demos of “Mutual Head Club,” “Bike Scene,” “The Blue Channel,” and “Great Romances Of The 20th Century.” On the vinyl version, those demos comes on a bonus etched 10-inch disc.

Get it here.

ABBA — Vinyl Album Box Set

Abba (who somehow only just picked up their first-ever Grammy nomination, by the way) have a storied discography and now you can own it all thanks to a new box set. It features each of the band’s nine albums — including their latest, last year’s comeback LP Voyage — along with ABBA Tracks, which includes non-album singles and B-sides.

Get it here.

Eddie Vedder — Ukulele Songs (Reissue)

The Pearl Jam leader dropped a new solo album, Earthling, earlier this year, and in his solo discography, that LP was preceded by 2011’s Ukulele Songs. That album was just reissued in standard and deluxe edition vinyl pressings, the latter of which was pressed on high-grade 180-gram black vinyl and comes with a 16-page booklet and a special lithograph.

Get it here.

Atmosphere — Lucy Ford: The Atmosphere EP’s (20th Anniversary Reissue)

In 2001, Atmosphere — an institution in the well-respected Minneapolis hip-hop scene — dropped Lucy Ford: The Atmosphere EP’s, which compiled Ford One, Ford Two, and The Lucy EP into one release. That was two decades ago, so now the duo is celebrating with a reissue on vinyl, which actually marks the first time this fan-favorite compilation has been pressed on vinyl.

Get it here.

Rolling Stones — Live At The El Mocambo

In March 1997, the Rolling Stones, at the long-running height of their power, played two secret concerts at Toronto’s The El Mocambo, a 300-capacity club. Now, for the first time, audio from those sets has been released in full — specifically, the full March 5 set and three songs from the previous day’s performance. Previously, just four of the songs had made it onto the band’s Love You Live album. The vinyl edition comes in black and neon pressings, each consisting of four LPs.

Get it here.

The Clash — Combat Rock/The People’s Hall (Special Edition)

The Clash’s Combat Rock is a classic album for multiple reasons: It’s the final Clash album from the group’s classic lineup — Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, and Topper Headon — and it features two iconic singles, “Rock The Casbah” and “Should I Stay Or Should I Go.” Now, 40 years after the album’s original release, it gets a fresh vinyl reissue, alongside a selection of 12 additional tracks (the The People’s Hall part of the reissue’s name).

Get it here.

Roxy Music — Stranded (Reissue) and Country Life (Reissue)

Roxy Music has popped up in this space recently because they’re in the midst of a series of vinyl reissues. The latest albums to get that treatment are two big ones in the Roxy Music oeuvre: 1973’s Stranded was their first No. 1 album in the UK while the next year’s Country Life is often considered to be perhaps the group’s best album.

Get Stranded here. Get Country Life here.

The Cranberries — Stars: The Best Of 1992-2002 (Reissue)

The Cranberries were one of the toasts of the ’90s thanks to a run of memorable albums and singles. That era was encapsulated in a greatest hits collection, which has now been reissues on vinyl. In addition to hits like “Zombie,” “Dreams,” and “Linger,” the collection also includes two songs not available on other albums: “New New York” and “Stars.”

Get it here.

Justice — † (Vinyl Me, Please Reissue)

Justice came hot out of the gate with their 2007 debut album (also known as Cross), as it was among the year’s most revered albums and it earned the French electronic duo a handful of Grammy nominations. Now, Vinyl Me, Please has a striking reissue of the album, pressed on gorgeous “gold nugget” vinyl.

Get it here.

With less than a month until the 2022 NBA Draft, teams are starting to lock in on their favorites and get their big boards in order. Most of the early entrants into the draft that remain at this point are committed to staying in through the entire process, but on Tuesday morning, word emerged of one notable process backing out of the draft and announcing his intentions to return to the college ranks.

Terquavion Smith, a guard out of NC State, had vaulted up boards to be a projected first rounder for many, but has decided to return to Raleigh for his sophomore season, telling ESPN’s Jonathan Givony that he wants another year as a college student.

“I have to be honest and admit money has never been at the center of my thoughts,” he said. “My agent explained to me that teams as high as the late teens, through the rest of the first round, all have me ranked as a first-round talent. It’s exciting to hear that. But I told him I have more work to do. I like school and my college in particular. Remember, my last two years have been so strange, thanks to the pandemic. I just want one more season to get everything right and just be a college student.”

It’s not often that a projected first rounder returns to school, but there are some recent instances where a late first rounder has maneuvered himself into lottery contention with a strong sophomore season at the collegiate ranks. One would expect Smith will also be landing some NIL money that, while he insists money’s not at the center of his thoughts, will probably mitigate some of what he’s missing out on in terms of NBA earnings this coming season.

This is obviously great news for the Wolfpack as they look to bounce back from a tough 2021-22 season, while NBA teams enamored with Smith will have to shuffle their big boards now that he’s no longer an option.

The world premiere of Top Gun: Maverick was a typically lavish affair. But the biggest moment of the evening was reserved for the arrival of its leading man. Rather than arrive via limo, Tom Cruise entered the party in a helicopter, the kind of bombastic declaration of one’s presence that befits only the most famous and iconic of stars.

Top Gun: Maverick is an increasing rarity in the oversaturated market of Hollywood blockbusters: a practical stunts-driven star vehicle that, while a sequel to a notable IP, is defined almost entirely by its leading man. Actors don’t tend to get above-the-title credits with MCU movies or other such franchises but Cruise’s name is right there. Cruise’s films have grossed over $10.1 billion worldwide. He’s been Oscar-nominated three times and worked with the likes of Oliver Stone, Stanley Kubrick, and Michael Mann. At the age of 59, he is still headlining massively costly blockbusters, keeping critics and audiences on his side, and maintaining his A-List power. He’s almost invincible, the last movie star standing in a changing Hollywood.

True megastars get to do things that nobody else can. They earn more money, they demand major rewrites, and they can bend even the most inflexible of industry stalwarts to their will. That level of power demands consistency and results. And while Cruise has bounced between more serious dramas and blockbusters for the majority of his career, there is also a specific formula that he often follows, as laid out by Roger Ebert in his review of 1990’s Days of Thunder.

This checklist of nine requirements reveals the template that has strengthened Cruise’s stardom in the years since: stories of “rambunctious” scamps with undeniable talent who come up against unexpected obstacles, get the girl, learn from their mentor, and prove their mettle in the face of doom. While not every film he’s made fits into this structure, it’s remarkable how many of them do over the course of 35+ years. Cruise gets older but he’s retained that go-getter energy and thrall that fits so well into stories of heroes going up against the rest of the world. It’s not a formula he’s had to change all that much, even as fellow megastars find themselves struggling with new demands and their old ways losing popularity with audiences.

The jewel in the crown for Cruise remains the Mission: Impossible franchise. This is his domain, the platform from which he can be the unbeatable idol of blockbusters worldwide. What started out as a big-budget remake of a ‘60s TV show evolved into a singularly Cruise-ian endeavor. The first film quickly eschewed the tenets of the source material (much to the chagrin of some fans) to fully center Cruise in every way. New cast members and creatives would come and go across the franchise, but Cruise remained front and center. The Mission: Impossible franchise allowed Cruise to be the kind of movie star that simply doesn’t exist anymore. Always keen to perform his own stunts (the fish tank scene in the first film happened at his insistence, with no stunt man in his place), each movie brought progressively bigger and more dangerous set-pieces that allowed Cruise to be a real-life action man.

Stunts are dangerous, costly, and dependent on years of training and planning. There’s a reason that you don’t see any of the Marvel stars flinging themselves off of skyscrapers. Robert Pattinson doesn’t get to fly from rooftops with his Batsuit. Nowadays, stunt workers are more in-demand than ever for such work and the advancement of hyper-realistic CGI has helped to make such things safer than ever. Yet Cruise does it all himself. He jumps across buildings, shattering his ankle in the process. He does motorcycle chases without a helmet. He clings to the side of planes as they take off. He sat atop the tallest building in the world for a casual selfie. And this doesn’t even include the stunts he’s done in other movies. There are plots in these movies but, let’s be honest, people love the Mission: Impossible franchise because it’s evolved into a ceaseless spectacle of A-List stunt madness, with one of the most famous people on the planet doing the kind of things that, once again, you can only do if you’re mega-rich and powerful and no one wants to tell you no. There’s a realness to seeing an actual movie star literally skydive for our personal entertainment. Not since Jackie Chan have we had this kind of starry thrill.

It’s the Mission: Impossible franchise that has allowed Cruise to stay on top. He makes a lot of interesting non-franchise blockbusters such as Oblivion and Edge of Tomorrow, both of which are great and are a reminder of how star power can get such films made. Yet it’s hard to ignore the way that his biggest project has bolstered his career during some slippery periods. In the mid-2000s, Cruise’s image took a beating thanks to some questionable interviews, his louder-than-ever support for the Church of Scientology, and the parody-ready public romance that was his marriage to Katie Holmes. Cruise hadn’t been defined in Hollywood as an everyman for a long time but this era saw him become a joke, a “weirdo,” the kind of guy that his audiences felt put off by. To many, this might be an endgame moment. But Cruise found a way around it.

If you can’t be relatable or accept a shift toward playing regular old guys, then the next logical step is to be the opposite of that. What better way to solidify your place as an all-powerful and untouchable superstar of epic proportions than by doing the kinds of things in movies that nobody else can, will, or should? The last three Mission: Impossible films have helped Cruise in this effort, propelling him past those past controversies. It’s not that they aren’t there anymore, people are just distracted by the spectacle of what he’s doing on screen.

Cruise might be making physically dangerous movies but, despite his unique position (or maybe with its preservation in mind), he’s not exactly a creative risk-taker with his projects. This isn’t an actor who’s using his clout to get hubristic vanity projects made. There’s no Hudson Hawk or Heaven’s Gate in his filmography. The past 15 years or so of work have seen Cruise almost entirely eschew darker roles and the kinds of auteur-driven narratives he once felt so comfortable in. There’s nothing as nervy as Magnolia or even Interview with the Vampire in his 2010s filmography, although one could make the case that his turn as a faded rockstar in the musical Rock of Ages comes somewhat close. He doesn’t remold himself to fit new projects anymore. Rather, the movies must bend to his brand, and sometimes that leads to a clunky failure like The Mummy, a remake of a quiet horror classic that became a set-piece laden tentpole piece to match Cruise’s stunt-focused heroism in the Mission Impossible series.

Cruise’s preference to avoid those kinds of risks does feel like a loss in many ways. He could be a nervy actor, one with a ferocity and mischief that made him as good a fit for Born in the Fourth of July as it did for Jerry Maguire. He, the classic good guy, made for an impeccable villain too, as seen in Michael Mann’s Collateral, a noir-inspired drama that allowed him to use that old-school handsome demeanor for something far more chilling. Brad Pitt still works with filmmakers of ambition and curiosity. Will Smith just won an Oscar. It’s hard to imagine Cruise taking similar paths in the future.

He seems to have given up on being that kind of actor. Indeed, he’s less an actor now than a star, and that seems to be how he – and maybe the public – prefer it. We’ve been led to believe he is something more than mortal, defying perceived physical and mental limitations and the cruelty of time for a long time while continuing to be the dictionary definition of a movie star while others fade or flee from the weight of that role. For Cruise, the question may well be, why try to be anything less than that image if you don’t have to?

With the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi now streaming on Disney+, the official Star Wars Twitter account took a notably pro-active stance in welcoming Moses Ingram to the franchise. As Reva the Third Sister, Ingram has been earning praise for her compelling performance as the Jedi-hunting Inquisitor obsessed with tracking down Ewan McGregor‘s title character.

Unfortunately, a subset of the Star Wars fanbase has a recent history with hurling attacks at actors of color, forcing some of them to abandon their social media accounts altogether. John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran were subject to such brutal online criticisms while starring in the Sequel Trilogy. However, this time around, Star Wars is putting its full weight behind Ingram to, hopefully, keep fans in line.

“We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Reva’s story to unfold. If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist,” the official Star Wars account tweeted. “There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don’t choose to be a racist.”

Star Wars’ full-throated denouncement of racism amongst its fans arrives on the heels of Ingram revealing that Lucasfilm prepared her for online attacks. According to Ingram, Lucasfilm and Obi-Wan director Deborah Chow made sure “proper systems” were put in place to protect her, but Ingram is already with a tactic of her own. “I have no problem with the block button.”

The first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi are now streaming on Disney+.

(Via Star Wars on Twitter)

Over the past few months, Afrobeats artist Fireboy DML has been in heavy rotation by way of TikTok and radio play. His song “Peru” received a co-sign by Ed Sheeran, who appeared on a remix of the track, and he was recruited by Madonna for a Sickick-produced remix of her 1998 hit “Frozen.”

Although his music has made him the life of every party, Fireboy admits he prefers spending time on his own. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Fireboy mentioned that he values remaining rooted in his humanity.

Fireboy said, “I’ve always been reclusive, placing priority on solitude, having alone time, and I’ve never really been the going-out person. Growing as a person and into the industry, seeing things, I realized how important it is to hold on to that part of me that always seeks solitude after a long period of time of exchanging energy out there.”

Still, he enjoys seeing crowds dancing and reciting the words to his songs while on tour. Earlier this year, Fireboy performed his first US tour, which he said were some of the best shows of his career.

“It was during the peak winter period and people were coming out in the snow,” Fireboy said. “Family men, married people with kids. It meant a whole lot to me. When you live this life and you’re blinded by the glamour, it’s the little things that burst your head.”

Ed Sheeran and Madonna are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Although Jack Harlow is one of the most beloved new artists to emerge out of the pandemic years, not everyone has enjoyed watching his meteoric rise. Sure, his new album Come Home The Kids Miss You landed at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, while its single “First Class” has been a recurring fixture at No. 1 on the Hot 100, but there are some who don’t think Jack came by his success honestly, citing his race as a big reason he was able to blow up so quickly.

However, his labelmate Lil Uzi Vert doesn’t see it that way, telling TMZ, “Nah, he doesn’t have white privilege…he’s signed to Black people.” You can see the video below.

While Uzi’s vote of confidence likely means a lot to his fellow Generation Now artist, Jack himself has regularly acknowledged that being white has afforded him opportunities he wouldn’t have otherwise. Uzi’s apparent misunderstanding of the term notwithstanding, Jack has received similar criticisms to Post Malone in his early career, albeit without some of the more obvious missteps. Most recently, though, Jack got flamed on Twitter for not knowing that Brandy and Ray J are siblings, stoking the debate over his status in hip-hop and provoking a good-natured lyrical response from Brandy herself.

It’ll always be a prickly topic, but the discussion is important to continue having to ensure that as the culture grows and changes, we never forget where it came from and continue to give credit to its creators.

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

Anita Baker is a 40-year recording industry veteran and currently performing a Las Vegas residency. During her show Sunday night (May 29), she acknowledged one guest in particular: Chance The Rapper. Baker said that Chance helped her regain ownership of her master recordings from her former labels, which she’d been trying to do until last year.

“Would you guys say hello to a friend of mine by way of the music industry, by way of helping me get a hold and ownership of my master records, Mister Chance The Rapper is right there,” she said. Chance himself later reciprocated on Twitter, posting a video of the touching moment and writing, “I saw one of THE greatest performances of my LIFETIME last night! Thank you so much @IAMANITABAKER for being an inspiration and an icon to so many of US.”

Funnily enough, Chance has also had social media run-ins with other R&B legends that led to unexpected shout-outs. In 2020, Dionne Warwick playfully teased Chance over his stage name, leading to an invitation to record together. That culminated in their November 2021 collaboration “Nothing’s Impossible.”

Meanwhile, the 29-year-old rapper appears to be rolling out a new project, releasing a new single, “Child Of God,” and writing exercises such as “A Bar About A Bar” as he highlights local Chicago artists.

This upcoming August and September, Snoop Dogg was supposed to perform in Europe and the UK for his I Wanna Thank Me tour. Then, in October and November, he had a handful of Australian dates set as well. Unfortunately for fans in those regions, Snoop recently announced he has canceled those shows, although his upcoming US concerts are unaffected.

A statement Snoop shared over the weekend reads, “Due to unforeseen scheduling conflicts, including family obligations and upcoming tv and film projects, Snoop Dogg regrets he is canceling all upcoming non-US tour dates for the remainder of 2022. He was excited to see his fans around the world and apologies to all that had already made plans to see his show. He looks forward to rescheduling dates in the future. Ticket refunds will be available at the original point of purchase.”

Snoop certainly has a lot of film and TV projects in the air at the moment: On his IMDb page, upcoming projects at some point in development include Day Shift, Spoken Mirrors, All-Star Weekend, Doggyland, and Pierre The Pigeon-Hawk. Aside from that, he also has a new album, A Death Row Summer, on the way. He shared a single from the project, “Touch Away,” a couple weeks ago.

Though it may seem far-fetched to Ted Cruz and his “One Door” crusade, Bill Burr happens to think that it’s far too easy to legally obtain a gun in America and that stricter guidelines should be put in place. As Mediaite reports, the comedian/actor didn’t hold back when he recently spoke about the tragic shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on a Thursday edition of his Monday Morning Podcast.

After warning his listeners that “I’m gonna be controversial,” Burr promised that he was going to solve America’s gun crisis right there and then:

Why don’t you just do it like a pilot’s license? Like when you get a gun, like when you get like a pilot’s license, you’re flying a Cessna or whatever, you can’t just go f**king fly an American Airlines jet—you gotta work your way up.

You gotta get rated. You know, I don’t think if you get like a f**king gun license, I think the first thing you should get regardless of your f**king age is you get a little six shooter. That’s all they give you. Or maybe one of those little Saturday night specials. You get a little one shot thing. That’s all the f**k you get, right?

Then as you work your way up to more and more powerful guns that could potentially do way more f**king damage, you have to pass major, major psychological evaluations. If you do, the world is your oyster and you can have whatever f**king weapon you want. How about that? Does that work out for everybody?”

According to the Texas Tribune, the unprecedented series of mass shootings we’ve seen in America have only led to looser gun laws in the state of Texas. In 2021 alone, following back-to-back mass shootings, Lone Star State lawmakers actually made permitless carry legal, meaning that anyone who legally owns a gun in the state does not need a license to carry it in (or them) public.

Like millions of others approaching America’s gun epidemic with common sense, Burr just doesn’t seem to think that the repeated act of the Left and the Right simply yelling at each other about what should be done in the wake of a tragedy like the one in Uvalde, then ultimately doing nothing, is working:

I think the left is f**king stupid. They start yelling at people on the right. Not saying everybody on the right has a gun. Not saying everybody on the left doesn’t like guns. I’m just saying like that this f**king thing where you just start yelling at the other side.”

Just go, ‘Hey, what if we do this?’ What if we try to weed out the bad apples by doing this: As long as you’re not f**king crazy, we’ll give you a f**king bazooka. Right? And you can take it outside in your backyard and go f**king shoot at something. I don’t give a f**k. Someone would have a problem with that. ‘Oh, that’s a way to control people.’

You can listen to Burr’s full podcast below.

(Via Mediaite)