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Elon Musk seems to delight in upending things. He smoked marijuana with Joe Rogan. He lost millions after making a weed joke on Twitter. He neglected to tell anyone he and Grimes had a second child. He wants to take Tom Cruise to space. Now the Tesla and SpaceX head seems to be using Twitter to do what Trump is currently failing to do: take on Twitter.

On Friday, Musk started a poll. “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy,” he wrote. “Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?” Over 70% of participants participated in what could generously be called a flawed, unscientific study on a site that attracts extremists and people who like to bomb polls like this.

The next day, with the poll closed, he teased at his findings.

“Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?” he wrote, adding, “Is a new platform needed?”

As with much of Musk’s actions, it’s unclear how serious he is, or how long he’ll stay interested in this subject. But clearly Twitter’s increased banning of people, often far right extremists, has gotten to him. Of course, should he go full Trump and create a Twitter clone, hopefully it will fare a lot better than Truth Social, the service that, like many of the former president’s get-rich-quick schemes, started out as a disaster and continued to get worse. Maybe he wants someone else to pick up up this idea. Or maybe this is just Musk s*it-posting. Who knows?

(Via The Daily Beast)

Earlier this week, Joyner Lucas fired off a lengthy Twitter rant that was directed at the lineup for Lollapalooza’s upcoming festival in Chicago. Lucas’ gripe with the festival seemed to be their decision to place artists, which Lucas called a “bunch of random n****z that nobody heard of,” above him on the festival’s flyer. “I’m the biggest independent artist period with the exception of my n**** tech [N9ne],” he said. “How is it that these festivals keep tryna bunch my name up with a bunch of n****z who ain’t on my level?” He used Machine Gun Kelly as an example, calling the punk rocker a “goofy ass n****.”

Soon enough, Lucas deleted all the tweets and gave a questionable reason for the rant. “Them Damn Russian hackers dun hacked my phone yesterday smh,” Joyner wrote in a tweet the following day. It’s unknown if he was joking or being serious, but today, Joyner took a moment to actually apologize for his rant and for dissing Machine Gun Kelly as well.

“A lot of people saying things about me ‘crying and complaining’ when shit don’t go my way,” he wrote. “Lot of comments telling me to ‘work harder and stop being emotional’… you know what? You right… I have a history of being upset at certain things and taking it to social media. I own that… Part of being a man is admitting when you f*cked up. I be getting frustrated when I feel like I’m the underdog all the time.” He added, “Maybe I ain’t put in enuff work.‍ maybe I think I’m a bigger artist than what I actually am. Maybe you right. I own that. Real n**** sh*t.”

He continued, “As far as the @machinegunkelly shit Goes, homie ain’t have nothing to do with my rant. Jus got caught in the cross fire of one of my bitter moments. Def sum sucka sh*t to come at him for nothin. I own that & I apologize. Real n**** sh*t. I ain’t perfect. Im growing everyday.” He added, “I cant deny that sometimes i come off like a jealous asshole But that aint the case. Im a fan of these n****z. I think I been the underdog for so long, sh*t made me feel like I deserve certain sh*t. But who tf am I to determine what i deserve? Sometimes I gotta check myself.”

Lucas concluded his message with one final note, “Lot of artists or people in general are afraid of checking themselves. I check myself all the time. I cant throw a Tantrum and shoot at n****z for nothin. @machinegunkelly did absolutely nothin to me to deserve that lame tweet. If u readin this, I apologize dog. real n**** sh*t.”

You can view Lucas’ tweets above.

Taylor Hawkins’ death has left the music world in shock. Tributes and photographs have been shared all over social media as people wait to hear more details about an untimely and mysterious death. At the time of his passing, Hawkins was in his hotel room in Bogota, Colombia, where he, along with the rest of the Foo Fighters, were scheduled to perform. A cause of death has not yet been shared, but Bogota’s District Health Office shared a statement about what led to his death.

“Bogotá’s emergency center sent an ambulance to the hotel,” the statement read. “They had received reports of ‘a patient with chest pains,’ according to the Spanish-language press release. Efforts to resuscitate Hawkins were tried. ‘However, there was no response, and the patient was declared deceased,’ Bogotá’s District Department of Health said.” The statement concluded, “Teams from EMI, a health company providing home health care services, also responded to the emergency, according to local health officials.”

The New York Post also reported that the Metropolitan Police of Bogota revealed that Hawkins’ death could be “related to the consumption of drugs.” Despite this, police cautioned that the investigation is still ongoing and that the “cause of death has yet to be established.”

The 94th Academy Awards will be televised on Sunday, and it’s already shaping up to be an even more chaotic year than most. There’s no host controversy nor sloppy pandemic-era safeguards, but there is mockery over its #OscarsFanFavorite semi-trophy as well as backlash over producers’ decision to scuttle eight whole categories from the live broadcast. Another thing they won’t show, because it’s already happened: Denzel Washington giving Samuel L. Jackson his honorary Oscar.

On Friday, the Academy held their annual Governors Awards, a non-televised ceremony where they hand out awards that used to be part of the main broadcast but aren’t any longer. Since 2009, the three lifetime achievement trophies — the Academy Honorary Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, which were long part of the main show — have been given their own shindig, far away from live television cameras.

That’s a shame, because clearly Denzel repeatedly bear-hugging an excitable Jackson — or Jackson receiving any award, to be honest — would be top shelf television.

After Washington and Jackson — who have only appeared in one movie together, Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues — were done hugging it out , Jackson delivered an emotional speech. He spoke about how his film career began with him playing “gang member No. 2” and “Black guy,” but blossomed into over 150 screen credits — and, up to this point, only one Oscar nomination. (Jackson is so good that when Lee brought 1991’s Jungle Fever to Cannes, the festival dusted off the Best Supporting Actor trophy just for him.) “I guarantee you, this this is going to be cherished,” Jackson told the crowd.

When footage of Denzel and Jackson embracing over the latter’s monumental achievement, people simply could not believe producers didn’t want this on the main Oscars telecast.

Elsewhere during the Governors Awards, Bill Murray presented a lifetime achievement award to legendary actress, filmmaker, and comic performer Elaine May, while John Lithgow gave another to legendary actress, filmmaker, and frequent Ingmar Bergman collaborator Liv Ullmann. Sounds like good television!

In the meantime, feel free to revisit the 2019 Oscars, when Jackson (alongside Brie Larson) simply couldn’t hold it in when giving a Best Adapted Screenplay trophy to Spike Lee for BlackKklansman. Sometimes the Oscars are alright.

(Via Variety)

Though she’s currently traveling the world on her long-awaited Future Nostalgia tour, Dua Lipa already has her sights set on the next chapter. Following up the release of her sophomore album in 2020, the pop star has been back in the studio, hard at work on an album that reportedly has a “unique sound.”

On her Spotify podcast, Dua Lipa: At Your Service, Dua had one of her recent collaborators, Elton John, onto the show. Naturally, the conversation turned to new music, and Dua shared that her next album is perhaps closer to completion than her previous comments suggested. “How are you getting along with the new one, is it nearly finished?” Elton asks Dua, to which she responds: “Uh, close. Close. It’s like umm, I wanna say, maybe 50% of the way. I’ve still got lots more to do, but it’s starting to feel good. It’s starting to take shape. I’m very excited about some of the new songs, so it’s always exciting to look forward towards something.”

Since Future Nostalgia was very focused on a nu-disco and classic funk sound, something that stood out in the pop landscape when it dropped, she’s been clear that her follow-up project will be a world unto itself. But we don’t have any real hints about what direction she’s going in for the next project, so hopefully that’s the update we’ll get next. Check out the entire episode below, and listen for Dua’s update about her next album starting around the 9:20 mark.

Since she was released from the predatory conservatorship that’s been dominating her life for the last several years, Britney Spears has been a prolific Instagram user. She likes to use the social media platform to vent, to demand justice for what she’s been through, and get naked whenever she wants.

Now, the pop star has decided to use her account to talk about one of her favorite shows — Euphoria. She’s certainly not alone in loving this show, but her take on the series is definitely different from some other people. In her post, Britney said the show’s “crazy plots” help her forget her own anxiety, and shared this tidbit for mental health awareness week.

Here’s her full take on the show:

“For MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK a little while ago I watched this insane amazing show @euphoria … Good God it’s too good !!!! I’m a little behind anyways !!!! Watching this and being entertained by these crazy plots I suddenly felt all my anxiety go away … the show was like meditation !!!! It put a HUGE grin on my face … and if you want to be zen … there’s sound therapy … stillness … yoga … monk retreats … but last but definitely not least, train your thoughts to think things that make you SMILE … YES you know THOSE !!!! YOU GOT IT ???? KEEP SMILING !!!!!

While Euphoria doesn’t usually end up on a list with those other things, it’s always great to have an off-the-wall suggestion for dealing with mental health, and frequently those suggestions are the ones that work the best.

Check out Britney’s post below.

Cardi B has been doing well in court as of late. Earlier this year, she scored a win in her libel lawsuit against blogger Tasha K who used her platform to spread bizarre and false claims about the rapper. As a result of the win, Cardi was awarded nearly $4 million in damages. Now, Cardi has avoided the possibility of paying anything in a defamation lawsuit that was brought against her back in 2020. In it, three Suffolk County beachgoers sued Cardi and her sister Hennessy Carolina after they got into a confrontation with the pair.

The trio sued Cardi and Hennessy for assault and battery, in addition to defamation, as they claimed that Cardi posted a video online of her calling them “racist.” They also accused Cardi and Hennessy of editing the video “to remove portions thereof, and thereby hold plaintiffs in a false light, so as to tend to expose and in fact expose each plaintiff to public contempt, ridicule and disgrace and harm.” According to Rolling Stone, a judge dismissed the lawsuit and called it “baseless.”

“[Plaintiffs] have failed to allege any special harm or defamation per se,” Judge William Condon wrote in his decision. “They cannot specifically identify who the defamatory statements were made to. Further, neither Cardi B nor Michelle Diaz made any defamatory statements or publish(ed) any video to the Internet concerning the incident.” He added, “The words uttered to plaintiffs do not arise to defamatory language as they were merely general insults.”

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

Maren Morris has been pretty busy the last few years. The country-pop star broke out in 2016 with her major label debut, Hero which included breakout singles like “My Church” and “80s Mercedes.” When EDM producer Zedd tapped Morris for a feature on his hit “The Middle,” it catapulted her to mainstream pop fame in a way that’s pretty rare for an emerging country singer. She followed up her debut and that smash hit with her sophomore album Girl in 2019, an album that leaned heavily into other genres like R&B and soon after that, she got an even bigger look when Taylor Swift tapped her to collaborate on a Fearless (Taylor’s Version) track.

Since then, Maren took a break to focus on becoming a new mom, but at the top of 2022 she announced her third album, Humble Quest, and described it as a journey through some of her own most humbling moments. One of the early singles off the album, “Circles Around This Town” details some of her own struggles on her way up to the top. The album officially came out yesterday, and to celebrate the release Maren performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Check out her performance up top.

After two years, Dua Lipa is more than ready to own the stadium tour she’s been waiting to embark on. Just days before her 2020 album, Future Nostalgia, was slated to be released, the Covid-19 pandemic impacted not only the album’s release (she moved it up a week early), but the massive set of live shows that was set to catapult her to global stardom. No matter. As the shutdown stretched through 2020, and most of 2021 as well, Dua and her camp did what all great artists did during that time: She pivoted. First, giving fans even more to dance about by releasing the Club Future Nostalgia remix versions of her original songs, often with superstar collaborators in tow, and then followed that up with the Moonlight edition, which also featured a few new songs.

Of course, even with all the new music and different versions coming out, lots of listeners were happy to just keep returning to the hits, part of what made “Levitating” a historically popular song — it just hit the mark for the longest-charting song by a woman on the Hot 100. That’s quite a feat for a pop star who has only been around for less than a decade. All this to say, by the time fans got to their seats for one of two nights that Dua Lipa and her stacked openers would be performing at The Forum in Los Angeles this week, the anticipation was palpable. And, perhaps one of the few great side effects of the delay was, Dua had never been more polished and ready.

Kicking off the setlist with an ensemble number for the second Future Nostalgia single “Physical,” she made it clear that disco, neon, roller skaters, and lots of glitter were all going to be on hand for the next 90 minutes, making this tour into the stadium spectacle fans had been craving. Flanked for most songs by a series of extremely talented backup dancers, Dua hit every move of the choreography with the kind of practiced precision that only someone who is proving dectrators wrong can muster. Though she’s been derided in the past for not backing up her danceable hits with moves of her own, it’s clear that Dua 2.0 is a dancing machine. While this means she sometimes looks a little stiff while going through the motions, the bevy of dancers around her, and those incredibly strong, pitch-perfect vocals make this set one of the most enjoyable pop tours of 2022 so far.

Immediately getting into her debut hit single, “New Rules” as the second song in the setlist, Dua mostly stuck to Future Nostalgia favorites like “Love Again,” “Cool,” “Pretty Please” and “Break My Heart,” before closing out the first half of the show with “Be The One,” one of the earliest singles from her self-titled debut. Turning that shimmering, hopeful tune into a sing-along with the crowd, and letting her backup vocalists take over the refrain, Dua disappeared for the first of what would end up being many costume changes. Her lacy, lime green jumpsuit with long-sleeved gloves has since become a staple in social media clips and videos, but later looks like a silver bodysuit, or her final black sequined jumpsuit with suggestive cutouts and a catwoman feel were just as stunning. Because, after a few years of sweats and at-home looks, this kind of high-fashion glamor is part of what fans want to see during a massive pop show.

Her second full set was all Future Nostalgia songs, including the Moonlight edition standout, “We’re Good,” along with “Good In Bed,” “Fever,” and “Boys Will Be Boys.” Then, she incorporated some of her best collaborations into the show, the slightly clubbier “One Kiss,” her song with Calvin Harris, and the Silk City (Mark Ronson and Diplo) track “Electricity,” before heading into the final stretch with “Hallucinate” and “Cold Heart,” the Elton John cover/remix that’s been heating up on the charts itself, and is currently sitting at No. 13. Considering her new collab with Megan Thee Stallion, “Sweetest Pie” debuted at No. 15, and “Levitating” is still hanging out at No. 19, Dua’s current chart domination is definitely part of what makes this tour feel so exciting and relevant.

Speaking of “Levitating,” of course it had to be the show’s formal closer, as Dua took to the skies in a floating cage, still dancing and belting out lyrics while she moved through the air and gave attention to different sections of the nosebleeds. Coming back one last time after that to encore with “Future Nostalgia,” which seemed like it would’ve worked better earlier in the show, the last song of the night was “Don’t Start Now,” a supercharged, extended take on the lead single that kicked off this entire album cycle. And even though this single, in particular, came out all the way back in October of 2019, it sounded just as fresh as it did three years ago. Or maybe that’s just the future nostalgia at work. This show lived up to the hype in every way, and sets Dua up perfectly for whatever she wants to tackle next.

Setlist:
1. “Physical”
2. “New Rules”
3. “Love Again”
4. “Cool”
5. “Pretty Please”
6. “Break My Heart”
7. “Be The One”
8. “We’re Good”
9. “Good In Bed”
10. “Fever”
11. “Boys Will Be Boys”
12. “One Kiss” (Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa)
13. “Electricity” (Silk City & Dua Lipa)
14. “Hallucinate”
15. “Cold Heart” (PNAU Remix, Elton John & Dua Lipa)
16. “Levitating”
17. “Future Nostalgia”
18. “Don’t Start Now”

It’s been over a month since Russia invaded Ukraine, and it has not been going well for the aggressor nation. Ukrainians, including their own president, have put up one heckuva fight. Russian soldiers, stuck with poor equipment, flailing leadership, and surprisingly robust Ukrainian defense, have suffered high death counts and plunging morale. Things are so bad that one colonel may have been killed by his own men.

As per AP, a number of high-ranking Russian military leaders have been killed since the invasion began in late February. One of them, an unidentified colonel, is claimed to have been “deliberately run over and killed by his own men, as a result of the scale of losses taken by his brigade.” If true, it’s a case of what’s called “fragging,” in which soldiers “accidentally” kill either fellow cadets or military leaders.

The killing has not been confirmed by Russia, and indeed it’s hard to sift through the oft-contradictory reporting from Russia and western officials. For instance, western officials claim seven Russian generals have died since the invasion began. But Russia has only confirmed one death. Russian state TV has done its best to create a bubble for its populace, despite creative and brave attempts to tell the people the truth. They’ve even used the likes of Tucker Carlson to help spread misinformation. Alas, the invasion has not been going well, which should upset Vladimir Putin and certain people on the American rightwing.

(Via AP)