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After stepping into whole heap of controversy during the early days of the pandemic by refusing to self-isolate, Ant-Man and The Wasp star Evangeline Lilly is back with a brand new anti-vaccine problem for Marvel to deal with. (Letita Wright says thank you.) On Thursday, the Lost actress revealed that she attended the anti-vaxxer protest in Washington D.C. over the weekend. The event has already resulted in an apology from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for saying that anti-vaxxers have it worse than Anne Frank, but that didn’t stop Lilly from proudly announcing that she participated in the weekend protest to “support bodily sovereignty.”

Via Instagram:

I believe nobody should ever be forced to inject their body with anything, against their will, under threat of:
-violent attack
-arrest or detention without trial
-loss of employment
-homelessness
-starvation
-loss of education
-alienation from loved ones
-excommunication from society
…under any threat whatsoever.

This is not the way. This is not safe. This is not healthy. This is not love. I understand the world is in fear, but I don’t believe that answering fear with force will fix our problems.

You can see Lilly’s full post below:

As The Daily Beast reports, none of the threats that Lilly writes about are real and her post “carries a whole host of misleading implications.” Of course, it should be noted that the last time Lilly spoke out against COVID mitigations, she walked back her remarks and apologized for being “arrogant” and “dismissive.” With Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania on the horizon, it will be interesting to see if Lilly pulls back on her rhetoric or if Marvel gets involved.

The studio did not publicly act when Letitia Wright spread a conspiracy video referring to the COVID vaccine as the Biblical “Mark of the Beast.” However, the actress notably removed all of her social media accounts following the incident. Everyone is having a lot of fun. It’s great.

(Via Evangeline Lilly on Instagram)

A long time ago, Meghan McCain and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin might have been friends. After all, the late Senator John McCain chose Palin as his running mate in the 2008 Presidential Election. But it sounds like the pandemic — and Palin’s willful stupidity — has burned that particular bridge.

In a new interview with The Daily Mail — where McCain has worked as a columnist after leaving her hosting stint on The View — the outspoken political pundit went off on Palin for dining out in New York City not once, but twice, despite testing positive for Covid. Palin was in the city to testify against The New York Times after slapping them with a defamation suit over some factual errors in reporting (that they’ve since corrected and apologized for) As part of the court’s policy, all witnesses attending trial must test negative for Covid before taking the stand. Palin, who has been fairly vocal about her anti-vaccine philosophies, tested positive for Covid three times, which pushed her court date back.

What those test results didn’t do however is stop Palin from having dinner in a public restaurant, without wearing a mask, on two separate occasions. After photos of Palin stuffing her face with Italian food leaked, McCain — who revealed her own Covid diagnosis — went a bit scorched earth on her dad’s former VP pick.

“Is she crazy? Day two? I haven’t seen her or talked to her for many years, aside from some short emails when my father passed, so I can’t imagine what she is thinking but this is highly irresponsible,” McCain told The Daily Mail. “This was selfish, reckless, and stupid. This is why she shouldn’t be in politics anymore. You have to lead by example. Just because it’s not illegal doesn’t mean it is not unethical. I’m embarrassed to have once known her.”

McCain has consistently flip-flopped when it comes to her thoughts on masks and how President Joe Biden is handling the pandemic, but she is vaccinated and has encouraged others to get their shot. She’s also been quarantining while dealing with Covid, which explains why she’s taking such offense to Palin spreading her germs all over the Upper East Side.

To be fair though, Palin is someone who’s gotten Covid before and still threatened to “rise up” if the government forced her to get vaccinated. Things like scientific logic and facts probably don’t mean much to her.

(Via The Daily Mail)

Three important things you need to know here, so let’s knock those out first, for efficiency…

NUMBER ONE: The Afterparty is a new limited series coming to Apple TV that follows a murder mystery throughout an entire season, with each episode focusing on a different character and potential suspect, told from their point of view, with altered facts and perspectives based on their own interpretation of the events.

NUMBER TWO: It comes from Christopher Miller (of Lord and Miller, the creative minds behind like half of your favorite comedies), who styles each episode like an entirely different genre of film, with a little rom-com and a little Fast & Furious inspired action and a little musical and a little psychological thriller, among others, which makes for a really cool storytelling device over the course of the season.

NUMBER THREE: It features so many of your favorite comedic scene stealers from the past few years, everyone from Sam Richardson (Veep, Detroiters) to Ben Schwartz (Parks & Rec) to Ilana Glazer (Broad City) to Tiffany Haddish (everywhere) to John Early (Search Party) to a slew of other notable faces, many of whom will have you saying things like “hey why isn’t this person in more things?” before you realize they’ve already been in like six things you like.

So, that’s what we’re working with here. It’s all just about a perfect premise on paper. But sometimes, too often, like a slugger taking a monster cut at a fastball in an attempt to hit the ball straight to the moon, ambitious projects like this can whiff on the execution. That’s always a bummer. The effort is appreciated, and I’m glad people are trying new and cool things, but still. Bummer City.

Luckily, that’s not the case here. The Afterparty is a delight. It’s another in a cool run of comedic mysteries, too, along with other winners like Only Murders in the Building and The Flight Attendant, that twist the genre into a pretzel to create a delicious… well, a delicious pretzel. Pretzels are great. So is The Afterparty. This is the point I’m getting at.

Let’s back up, though. Let’s discuss some plot, briefly, just in the name of professionalism. The whole thing takes place at a 15-year high school reunion and the subsequent post-party shindig at the home of a character named Xavier (Franco) who has gone on to fame and riches after high school. Which is nice, for him, until he ends up dead, a few dozen feet below the balcony of his swanky beach house. Clues abound. Motives abound, too. Everyone is somehow both innocent and extremely guilty. Enter: mystery.

Also enter: Tiffany Haddish and John Early as detectives who show up and are intent on solving the murder that night, for reasons that become clear pretty quickly. Do you want to see Tiffany Haddish question a bunch of ridiculous goofs, all of whom have secrets dating back over a decade, most of whom are up to something, some of whom may or may not have been drugged with animal tranquilizers? I’ll answer that for you: You do. It’s kind of like if Knives Out were a little less linear and occasionally featured impromptu songs performed by potential murderers. I suppose we can’t rule that out for the sequel, though. I, for one, would like to see Daniel Craig attempt to rap in a southern accent that is thicker than grits. This has very little to do with anything but it’s still worth typing just for the “speak things into existence” aspect of it all. We can dream. I can dream. I don’t need to pull you into this.

But back to the style thing. It’s probably the coolest thing the show does, one of those things you’re kind of shocked hasn’t been done a million times already, and a great way to tell you more about each character without a slew of very straightforward exposition. One character’s version of events plays out with him as the sweet-hearted lead of a romantic comedy. Another version has one character portraying himself as a kind of Dominic Toretto meets John Wick, complete with flashes of neon and devastating one-liners and a hilarious urination showdown that I kind of don’t want to describe any further, in part because I want you to experience it with fresh eyes and in part because I don’t think I can improve on the phrase “urination showdown.” Another is the aforementioned musical. There’s some Gone Girl in another episode, a cartoon in another, it’s all just a blast to watch them play around with a format we’ve seen for decades. It’s like Agatha Christie on, well… on pet tranquilizers. I promise this is a compliment.

The result of it all is one of the most enjoyable shows I’ve seen in a while. The story trickles out drip by drip with single events getting shown from multiple viewpoints, changing your own interpretation of what happened as each unreliable narrator spins a yarn, building and tearing down and rebuilding as it goes along. Once the episodes start dropping weekly (the first three drop in a lump this weekend), the whodunnit of it all will make for some good speculating. You love speculating. You’re always doing it. Even when no one asked you to. But here you have an excuse. Which is helpful.

Watch The Afterparty. Tell your friends to watch it. Get together and talk about it. Have an Afterparty viewing party. Just try to make sure none of you end up dead. And try to not accidentally consume pet tranquilizers. I cannot stress this last part enough.

The first three episodes of The Afterparty premiere on Apple TV Plus on Friday, January 28.

On the latest episode of UPROXX Sessions, Bay Area rapper Stunnaman02 steps up to the mic to perform his viral hit “Big Steppin.” The breakout single has been a favorite of the Bay Area social scene, with everyone from San Francisco Mayor London Breed to 49ers mascot Sourdough Sam doing the associated dance.

The “Big Steppin” dance is also boiling hot on TikTok, home of such Soulja Boy-esque, star-making viral dance crazes, with over 38 million views since its release in June of last year. The success of that song will be a hard act to follow, but fortunately for Stunnaman, he’s also got a few side hustles, including his role in the A24 favorite The Last Black Man In San Francisco. He’s also got a clothing line and a self-produced juice drink, 02 Juice. Even though the Fillmore native is still just a regional favorite, he’s showing he has all the ingredients to produce a full-blown rap mogul in the making.

Watch Stunnaman’s UPROXX Sessions performance of “Big Steppin” above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

The ensemble cast of Netflix’s Space Force is back for a second season of space calamity. To help discourage the, uh, same mixed reviews of season one, the streaming show brought in iconic show-runner Norm Hiscock (known for Parks and Rec and King of the Hill) and The Office director Ken Kwapis. This news came after the announcement that Netflix would be cutting the show’s budget.

Show creator Greg Daniels told Collider: “We brought in the guy who directed the pilot of The Office and a lot of our biggest episodes, this guy Ken Kwapis, and he’s so much about protecting the performance energy on the set for the cast so that they can relax and not worry about the mechanics of shooting it. He’s also super good at shooting comedy, which is somewhat different than the sort of like Kubrick-y kind of thing we were going for season one, right? We saw what was working and we tried to fix it.”

Steve Carrell stars as general Mark R. Naird and his chaotic but lovable team at the Space Force branch of the military. In Season 2, a new administration puts the group to the test, to prove the Space Force should still exist. The cast includes John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, Diana Silvers, Lisa Kudrow, Tawny Newsome and Jimmy O. Yang.

The gang is also joined by guest stars SNL alum Tim Meadows and star of Ratatouille, Patton Oswalt. Season 2 premieres February 18th on Netlflix, and you can check out the trailer above.

If you’re a fan of pop music, there’s one response you’re probably used to hearing when asked about your favorite musician: “She doesn’t even write her own music.” It’s a quip usually delivered from the high-horse of someone gearing up to explain what a real musician is, and that musician is most likely a man. “She doesn’t even write her own music” is a phrase many women artists are unfortunately used to hearing — even the most successful ones of the past decade. It’s meant to insult women by diminishing their hard-earned success and it’s a weak argument lacking nuance. Most importantly, it’s one that needs to stop being made.

Earlier this week, the internet’s music discourse was dominated by arguments around Taylor Swift’s songwriting. It was all thanks to a comment made by Gorillaz and Blur vocalist Damon Albarn. He answered a question from the LA Times about Swift’s music by saying, “She doesn’t write her own songs.” After the interviewer challenged his statement, as Swift has songwriting credits on all her music, Albarn back-peddled his comment (and has since apologized “unreservedly and unconditionally”) by clarifying that co-writing “doesn’t count.”

Of course, many flocked to Swift’s support, including Chile’s president-elect Gabriel Boric Font. The singer directly responded to Albarn’s comments by saying they’re “completely false and SO damaging.” Swift does in fact write all her own music. She’s the only credited songwriter on her 2010 Speak Now album, and more than half of the tracks on 2008’s Fearless and 2012’s Red were written by her alone. Albarn’s comments are a way of attempting to dismiss her talent without directly saying so — and Swift is far from the first female pop singer who’s heard the insult. Ariana Grande had to defend her music in 2019 when a writer said she’s “definitely not a songwriter,” calling her a “a cartoon and a creation.” Grande responded by posting screenshots of songwriting conversations with her producer and shared snippets of voice notes on her phone. Even Beyonce isn’t safe from similar accusations and has had industry insiders assume she hasn’t written “any of her records” for years.

While Swift was referencing her own music, her Albarn clap-back summed up why accusing women musicians of not writing their music is so harmful. “You don’t have to like my songs but it’s really f*cked up to try and discredit my writing,” she said, and she’s right on so many levels. Contrary to what many stans on Twitter may declare, not everyone needs to love Swift’s music. But diminishing her songwriting abilities sheds light on the lofty and unrealistic expectations that are already placed on women in pop music. Not only are today’s top pop stars expected to endlessly deliver hit after hit, but they need to be conventionally attractive and dress in the latest fashion every time they leave their house, otherwise face online ridicule in the case an unflattering paparazzi photo leaks (Billie Eilish, anyone?). Women pop artists are also demanded to execute insanely intricate dance choreography on stage while hitting every note perfectly. Sometimes, the pressure of it all can be crippling, like when Dua Lipa admitted she used to get “bullied online” or how Lorde infamously decided to quit social media completely. In addition to unfair standards, when have you heard someone slander a male musician by saying they don’t write their own music? Probably rarely, if never, as it’s an insult hurled almost exclusively at women. People tend not to care that earworm, chart-topping tracks like Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” has four other credited songwriters, or that Harry Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar” was written and composed in collaboration with three others.

Gender aside, today’s pop music is almost always co-written. According to Billboard, only 13 of the 283 songs that have topped their Hot 100 chart since the 21st century have just one credited songwriter. The last time it happened was in 2017 with Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect.” But even Sheeran’s song is a technicality since the actual No. 1 version of “Perfect” was a co-written duet with Beyonce. More often than not, songwriting is a very collaborative process. Per an analysis of the most-streamed songs of 2018, the average number of writers needed to make a song a hit is nine. In pop music in particular, it’s very common for musicians to write music intended for other artists. Ed Sheeran, for example, wrote BTS’ hit song “Permission To Dance,” while SIA has written for and collaborated in songwriting sessions with artists like Rihanna, Adele, and Katy Perry. Even Ciara’s breakout debut single “Goodies” was almost given to Britney Spears.

Glossing over co-written music and mocking a woman for “not writing her own music” also skirts around a much more pressing issue in the music industry: There’s a glaring lack of women songwriters, producers, and engineers. In fact, women made up less than three percent of producers in 2020 and only 12.5 percent of songwriters according to Forbes. Less than one percent of songs released last year had female-only writers. So, maybe instead of insulting women musicians for inviting co-writers into the studio, we should instead actively foster gender equality in the industry — or at least support organizations who do.

There’s still a long way to go before gender equality is achieved behind-the-scenes in the music industry. But until then, belittling women musicians for the very-common act of co-writing music certainty doesn’t help anyone. It’s time we retire the chauvinistic phrase, “She doesn’t write her own music” as an insult and instead find more nuanced ways to discuss subjective music tastes. It’s fine to not like Top 40’s pop artists, but don’t discredit the around-the-clock work it takes to become a pop star — because it’s by no means an easy job.

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

Glaive turned some heads last year with his All Dogs Go To Heaven EP, which is impressive considering his age: He just turned 17 a week ago, on January 20. To mark the occasion, he announced Old Dog, New Tricks, a deluxe edition of All Dogs Go To Heaven that is out today. The deluxe edition adds five new songs — “Lap #1,” “Icarus,” “Justlikeu4theimage,” “Walking Around With No Hands,” and “Prick” — that extend the project to 13 total tracks and about 27 minutes in length.

When announcing the EP last week, Glaive shared an Instagram post in which he wrote about how the last year has been for him, saying, “16-17 was a big one for me, the year started off with me wanting music to be a part of my life and it ended with music being my life. this has been a year of firsts, my first show (shoutout cole), my first time going on tour, my first time visiting LA, and more importantly this was also the first year i was able to buy expensive things for my mom on christmas. now, i can only try to thank the people who listen to my music and support me but it’s nearly impossible. if i didn’t make music i’m not sure if i’d even be around so i can’t stress it enough that this year and this life i’ve been so fortunate to grasp has been my saving grace.”

Stream Old Dog, New Tricks above and check out Glaive’s upcoming tour dates below.

02/04 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda
02/05 — San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
02/09 — Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
02/11 — Dallas, TX @ Dada
02/12 — Austin, TX @ Empire Control Room
02/16 — Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
02/18 — Washington, DC @ Union Stage
02/19 — New York, NY @ Webster Hall
02/20 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry
02/22 — Cambridge, MA @ Sinclair
02/25 — Detroit, MI @ El Club
02/26 — Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
02/27 — Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground

Old Dog, New Tricks is out now via Interscope Records. Get it here.

In addition to being the world’s most popular podcaster, Joe Rogan is also a moron (his words). This is, of course, no surprise to most people—not even the millions of people who regular tune into The Joe Rogan Experience. But it bears repeating, especially after Tuesday’s episode, in which Rogan and controversial clinical psychologist/YouTuber Jordan Peterson decided to share their opinions on Blackness. It went about as well as you’d expect.

As Mediaite reports, Peterson kicked off the shenanigans by claiming that it was wrong to call him white, because “I am kind of tan” (which he most definitely is not). Rogan took the buffoon baton from there and ran with it, explaining that:

“The Black and white thing is so strange, because the shades are such a spectrum of shades of people. Unless you are talking to someone who is, like, 100 percent African from the darkest place, where they are not wearing any clothes all day and they have developed all of that melanin to protect themselves from the sun, even the term Black is weird. When you use it for people who are literally my color, it becomes very strange.”

Needless to say, Trevor Noah had a few thoughts about this whole inane conversation. After first feigning gleeful shock—“Oh my god! I’m not Black. I’m not Black!”—Noah decided to respond to Rogan, who “apparently wants to know why they say ‘Black people’ if they’re not the color of a Sharpie.” And Noah admitted that Rogan wasn’t the first person to ask this question: “When my brother was five years old, he asked me the exact same thing.”

But The Daily Show host pointed out a very important part of the conversation that Rogan and Peterson seemed to forget:

“Black people didn’t call themselves Black. You understand that, right? It’s not like Black people were like, ‘We’re Black.’ No. In Africa, we have tribes. We have cultures. Zulu. Xhosa. Baganda. Igbo. Wakandans! But then white people got there, and they were like, ‘Wow. There’s a lot of Black people here. A lot of Black people.’ Then in America, they invented a rule that if you had one drop of Black blood in you, that makes you Black—which defined how you were treated by the government and by society. Even vampires wouldn’t bite you.”

On the upside, Noah was at least glad that Rogan wasn’t talking nonsense about vaccines for once, which he said “was a step in the right direction.”

You can watch the clip below.

(Via Mediaite)

Candace Owens has been having an eventful week. Not only did Jesse Watters give her the opportunity to go bananas over Minnie Mouse temporarily ditching her “iconic” dress to wear (the outrage drill keeps going), but her name has popped up in relation to Justice Breyer’s recent announcement of Supreme Court retirement. In the aftermath of this news, President Biden confirmed his intent to nominate a Black woman as a replacement justice, and that’s somehow led to right-wingers tossing out the Daily Wire host’s name on Twitter.

Not that this could actually happen, given that Owens did not graduate college for that journalism degree that she pursued, meaning that she also didn’t go to law school, which is a prerequisite for serving on the highest court in the land. Yet Candace, whether she’s trolling or not, heard about people mentioning her name, in jest or not, and she wants everyone to know that she is flattered to be ending. “What an honor,” she tweeted.

If “America” is people who are far-right and think that Twitter is a way to nominate a justice, then sure, but that’s not how these things roll. There’s probably no way to know for sure if she’s serious, short of her appearing on Tucker Carlson’s show to talk about it (and that could happen), but regardless, people sure are enjoying this tweet. Justice Troll doesn’t have a nice ring to it, but perhaps Owens believes that if a reality star can become president, then anything is possible.

Of all the many rap beefs in the history of hip-hop, none has been as brutally dissected — and deadly — as Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac’s East Coast/West Coast spat. Things reached a head when Tupac dropped the supremely insulting “Hit ‘Em Up” in June of 1996, which besides being lyrically pointed at Big, Puff and Mobb Deep, rode samples of two Junior Mafia tracks in “Get Money” and “Player’s Anthem.”

While Biggie got his shots own shots in over the years (“Who Shot Ya?” came out months after Tupac was shot at Quad Studios in November of 1994, although Biggie never admitted it being pointed at Tupac), there was more in store from Biggie that never fully materialized the way he ended it to. In an interview with The Art Of Dialogue, Junior Mafia member and Biggie’s cousin, Lil Cease, shed more light on the epic beef and what might have happened if things went as planned:

“Big wasn’t gonna put forth a full effort into a whole full song dissing Tupac… Big was kinda more like just sprinkling on it,” Cease said of “The Ugliest,” a J-Dilla produced track that featured Busta Rhymes. Biggie delivered the verse, “And the winner is, not that thinner kid / Bandanas, tattoos, my fist never bruise / Land still cruise, Frank White paid his dues.” While Tupac wasn’t name-checked, it was clear who the lyrics was pointed at, and the diss was strong enough for Busta to not put the song on the album it was earmarked for, The Coming, but this was hardly the epic shot that Biggie thought he could take with a little help.

Cease says the original plan was for Nas and Busta to do the heavy lifting on the diss which could have really lit a fire under the beef. But that’s not how it went down.

“It’s not a diss if you don’t say their name. Ya gotta say somebody’s name if you wanna call it a ‘diss record’” Cease says. “If you’re just throwing subliminals, that’s only for that man to hear and figure out ’cause you’re gonna say something that only he would understand like, ‘Alright, he’s talking about me.’ Big didn’t say his name… It was for Busta Rhymes’ song at that. The song never came out — supposed to been Busta Rhymes, Nas and Big. It was produced by Q-Tip. But everybody never did their verse after Big did his. Nobody laid the verse on it, so the song kinda just pushed away. ”

Nevermind that Cease confuses Dilla with Q-Tip as the song’s producer (Tip was famously J Dilla’s manager), but had Nas and Busta joined Biggie in the spat, “The Ugliest” could very well have topped “Hit ‘Em Up” as the piece de resistance of the Tupac/Biggie beef.

Watch a clip of Lil Cease’s interview below.