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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)

Since he released his 2017 album DAMN., there’s no one that Kendrick Lamar has worked with more than Baby Keem. The two artists, who are also cousins, worked together on “Family Ties,” “Range Brothers,” and “Vent” from Keem’s 2021 album The Melodic Blue. Keem also joined PgLang, the creative agency that Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free launched in 2020. Keeping all that in mind, there’s a pretty good chance that we’ll receive more collaborations between Kendrick and Baby Keem. What they’ll be remains to be seen, but during a recent interview, Keem was asked about the possibility of a joint album between them.

“That’s a good question. It’s like it’s 50-50,” Keem said during an interview with Grammy.com. “It could happen and it couldn’t, I don’t know. It just really depends on a lot of factors that I don’t have control over. So, it’s just what the world wants. The world wants it, then it can have it.”

Even if Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem get to work on a joint album, it won’t arrive until Kendrick at least releases his upcoming fifth album. The untitled project is set to be his last project with Top Dawg Entertainment, a label he’s been signed to since 2004. Few details have been shared about the project, but it seems like it will arrive just in time for the summer as Kendrick is set to headline Glastonbury, Miami’s Rolling Loud Festival, and Italy’s Ippodromo SNAI San Siro in the next few months.

You can read Keem’s full interview with Grammy.com here.

Taylor Hawkins’ unexpected death has earned a number of reactions from his peers all over the music world. The Foo Fighters drummer’s death came prior to the band’s scheduled performance in Bogota, Colombia on Friday night which was the latest in the string of live shows on their South American tour. While a cause of death for Hawkins has not been revealed yet, Metropolitan Police in Bogota says his death could be drug-related. However, they cautioned that an official cause has not been established as the investigation is still ongoing.

Nandi Bushell, the 11-year-old drummer who formed a relationship with Foo Fighters following a virtual drum battle with Dave Grohl in the summer of 2020, shared a touching message following Hawkins’ death. “Our love, thoughts and support are with all who knew Taylor,” she wrote in a statement on Twitter. “Thank you for looking after me, thank you for being so kind and loving, thank you for being the most awesome drummer ever, thank you for bringing so much joy to the world, thank you for being you! With love, Nandi x.”

A year after Bushell and Grohl’s drum battle, she joined the band on stage during a show in Inglewood, California where they performed “Everlong” together.

You can view Nandi’s tweet in the post above.

News broke last night that Foo Fighters drummer, Taylor Hawkins, had unexpectedly died at the age 50. Tributes from the music world came pouring in for the drummer, who was an industry legend and clearly beloved among his peers and fans. Hawkins passed while the Foo Fighters were in Bogota, Colombia, preparing for a show as part of their tour in South America, and the band was also slated for a headlining appearance at Lollapalooza Brazil on Sunday night.

Also on tour right now is Coldplay, and as Chris Martin noted on stage last night, his band counts the members of Foo Fighters as friends. During their performance in Monterrey, Mexico, Martin and Coldplay thought it would be fitting to send out a tribute to Hawkins and the Foo Fighters, with Martin calling Hawkins a “beautiful man.” Coldplay then preceded to perform their song “Everglow,” and you can watch a snippet of that below.

Last year, Hawkins joined together with Jane’s Addiction members Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney to form the supergroup NHC. Their collaborative album was slated for release sometime this year, and could now be some of the last music that Hawkins was able to record. To hear the full version of the song Coldplay performed in Hawkins’ honor, check out “Everglow” up top.

As conservative lawmakers were launching loud and bizarre attacks on Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, another scandal was brewing on the highest bench in the country. The Washington Post reported that Ginni Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, had sent over two dozen text messages to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during the Capitol attack of Jan. 6, begging him to overturn the 2020 election. Now it’s been revealed that one of the conspiracy theorists that inspired her beliefs is too kooky even for Alex Jones.

As per The Daily Beast, Thomas implored Meadows to look into the rantings of Steve Pieczenik, an obscure theorist who emerged in the 1980s. Pieczenik used to work as a consultant to the U.S. state department and even collaborated with novelist Tom Clancy on a series of novels. Eventually he started making bizarre claims allegedly stemming from his insider status. In the early ‘90s, he asserted that George H.W. Bush was “clinically depressed,” resulting in him being brought up on ethics charges.

As such, he was a natural fit for InfoWars. Jones had Pieczenik on his show many times. One of his favorite tricks was to claim a massacre — not just Sandy Hook, but even 9/11 and Pearl Harbor — was a false flag event or was entirely faked. He went too far even for Jones, though, when he did the same thing to the 2017 Las Vegas massacre. Jones appeared to temporarily block him, which he didn’t even do after he claimed to have once arrested Pope Francis.

Pieczenik and Jones eventually patched things up, especially once he started floating QAnon theories and other nonsense about the 2020 election. Thomas sent Meadows one of Pieczenik’s InfoWars appearances (which has since been removed from YouTube). In it, Pieczenik spins something about how Trump was involved in a “sophisticated sting operation” involving fake ballots with secret watermarks on them, which would make it easier for investigators to bust leading liberals.

“I hope this is true; never heard anything like this before, or even a hint of it,” Thomas wrote in her text to Meadows. “Possible???”

Thomas also subscribed to Pieczenik’s claim about how “white hats,” a QAnon term for pro-Trump forces embedded in the federal government, were about to be deployed to key states. And yet no widespread arrests of liberal fraudsters were made, the only voting fraud that’s been discovered involved pro-Trump people, and Trump himself is just some guy who lives in resorts ranting to strangers (and is still the GOP’s frontrunner in 2024).

Thomas has claimed that, though she and her husband share at least certain core beliefs, they still operate independently of each other. “Clarence doesn’t discuss his work with me, and I don’t involve him in my work,” she’s said. Still, some people find it hard to believe that Ginni Thomas never brought any of this up with her Supreme Court justice husband.

(Via The Daily Beast)

The music world is still grappling with the news of Taylor Hawkins’ death. The Foo Fighters drummer, who was only 50, was found dead in his hotel room prior to the band’s scheduled performance in Bogota, Colombia on Friday. While a cause of death has yet to be established, police may have a theory behind his death.

“According to those close to him, the death could be related to the consumption of drugs,” the Metropolitan Police of Bogota revealed in a statement, as per The New York Post. Despite this statement, the Metropolitan Police cautioned that the investigation is still ongoing and that the “cause of death has yet to be established.”

Hawkins’ death came just six days after what proved his last performance, which took place in Argentina last weekend for the country’s Lolapalooza festival. Prior to joining Foo Fighters, Hawkins was the touring drummer for Alanis Morissette. He joined the band in 1997 when their original drummer, William Goldsmith, quit. Last year, Hawkins created the supergroup NHC with Jane’s Addiction members Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney, where he was their lead vocalist and drummer. Their first and perhaps final album is due for a release at some point this year.

For the nearly 47 years it’s been on air, SNL has managed to keep things relatively clean, despite being a live show. Honcho Lorne Michaels banned Elvis Costello for years and years, all because he played a song he hadn’t planned to, thus mucking up the show’s air-tight schedule. Charles Rocket was fired from the show when he dropped an f-bomb. Champion swearer Samuel L. Jackson did that, too, but while he’s not officially banned, he thinks he is. And he blames it all on Kenan Thompson.

On Friday, the same day he was awarded an honorary Oscar, Jackson appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which was guest hosted by SNL vet Leslie Jones. The two got around to talking about the longtime sketch show, which he’s only hosted once, in 1998, though he did a guest appearance in 2012, on an episode hosted by alum Martin Short. It was during another spin of Thompson’s beloved recurring sketch “What’s Up With That?”, in which he’s talk show host who keeps interrupting guests by bursting into song, that he let slip the f-word (as well as “bulls*it”).

“Kenan got me banned from Saturday Night Live,” Jackson told Jones. “He didn’t cut me off soon enough and I said the forbidden word on television. He was supposed to cut me off!”

You can watch the clip below, and though the moment, which arrives around the 6:20 mark, is censored, you can see Thompson never had the chance to cut him off. (His response, though, is hilarious.) What’s more, Entertainment Weekly confirmed with SNL that even though Jackson has never been on the show since, he’s not banned. So bring him back, Lorne Michaels! After all, he managed to not curse during Sesame Street.

(Via EW)

Late Friday night, the music world was hit with the news that Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins had passed away at the age of 50. “His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever,” the band wrote in the statement. “Our hearts go out to his wife, children, and family, and we ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time.” A cause of death for Taylor Hawkins has yet to be revealed, but according to the The New York Post, he was found unresponsive in a hotel room in Colombia.

As expected, a number of performers and acts from all corners of the music world took a moment to remember Hawkins through social media posts. Ozzy Osbourne called him “a great person and an amazing musician.” He added, “My heart, my love and my condolences go out to his wife, his children, his family, his band and his fans. See you on the other side.” KISS co-founder Paul Stanley said, “Speechless and Gutted. Taylor was a great guy, a dad and a husband. My heart goes out to them, Dave and the band. What awful news.” Coldplay even took a moment during a tour stop in Mexico to play “Everglow” from Foo Fighters’ 1997 album The Colour And The Shape.

You can view some more reactions from the music world below.

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

Every now and then the Razzies and the more sincere awards bodies cross paths. The majority of the nominees at this year’s Golden Raspberry Awards were, shall we say, not considered good. But there was one performer who managed to straddle the good and the bad: Jared Leto, whose dementedly over-the-top turn in House of Gucci earned him both a Golden Globe nomination and a Razzie.

On Friday, two days before the chaotic Oscars go down, the Razzies handed out their winners, and despite being singled out for having a more accurate Italian accent than the likes of Lady Gaga and Al Pacino, Jared Leto still beat out such competitors as Mel Gibson, Nick Cannon, and (somehow) Ben Affleck, whose work in The Last Duel was considered by others to be one of his best. Leto played the scheming son of Pacino’s fashion god, whose wild gesticulations became an instant camp classic.

But the Razzies’ biggest winner wasn’t even really a movie. It was a filmed version of the Broadway show Diana, yet another piece about the late Princess of Wales. The show was reviled by theater critics, and so was the filmed version, which scooped up five Razzies, including Worst Picture, Worst Actress, Worst Supporting Actress, Worst Director, and Worst Screenplay.

Elsewhere, LeBron James nabbed Worst Actor for Space Jam: A New Legacy, as well as Worst Screen Couple, which he shared with “Any Warner Cartoon Character.” (The film also won Worst Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel.) Finally, Bruce Willis won for Worst Bruce Willis Performance in a 2021 Movie, a category dedicated exclusively to the copious direct-to-streaming schlock he made in the last calendar year. Which of the eight did he win for? It’s called Cosmic Sin, a sci-fi thriller starring Frank Grillo that sounds a touch like one of his biggest hits, Armageddon.

You can see the full list of nominees and winners over at The Hollywood Reporter.

Amy Schumer is known for her funny yet relatable quips that sometimes go a little too far. But while gearing up for her Oscar hosting duties, the comedian opened up about a very real disorder that she deals with called trichotillomania, which her Life & Beth character also struggles with.

In her profile with The Hollywood Reporter, Schumer admits she wanted to make the character more real, even the less-admirable parts. There is a shot of clumps of hair on the ground, which leads to Schumer’s character explaining what trichotillomania is. “I think everybody has a big secret and that’s mine,” she told the mag. “And I’m proud that my big secret only hurts me, but it’s been what I’ve carried so much shame about for so long.”

Trichotillomania is a common disorder that involves the irresistible impulse to pull out hair from your scalp, eyebrows, or other parts of your body. The disorder can be attributed to stress and anxiety, and a few stars, including Olivia Munn and Colin Farrell, have opened up about their struggles in the past.

“It’s not that I used to have this problem and now I don’t,” Schumer continued. “It’s still something that I struggle with.” The comedian also expressed concern that she would pass it on to her son, who is two. “Every time he touches his head, I’m having a heart attack.”

The disorder, which is common among women, is rarely seen in media, which is why she wanted to add it to her Hulu series. “I thought putting it in there would be good for me to alleviate some of my shame and maybe, hopefully, help others alleviate some of theirs, too.”

At the end of the penultimate Life & Beth episode, the show adds a disclaimer: “If you or someone you know experiences Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors, the TLC Foundation for Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors offers support and resources” in order for others to learn more about the disorder.