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After facing a wave of controversy stemming from a recent whistleblower report that damningly lays bare the platform’s complicity in allowing misinformation and conspiracy theories to spread, plus that whole thing about attempting to lure children onto its Facebook Kids platform by essentially figuring out how to disrupt play dates, an embattled Facebook has announced that it will be rebranding itself later this week.

As part of the new initiative, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook will “effectively transition from people seeing us as primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company.” As for what the heck that metaverse part means, the most likely answer is that Facebook will be leaning hard into its virtual and augmented reality applications, which caught the attention of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

Never one to miss a chance to troll Facebook, Dorsey responded to a user who couldn’t help but notice a jarring similarity between Zuckerberg’s latest initiative and a classic sci-fi book, Snowcrash:

the word “metaverse” was coined by neal stephenson in the book “snowcrash” and it originally described a virtual world owned by corporations where end users were treated as citizens in a dystopian corporate dictatorship

what if neal was right

In a quote tweet, Dorsey wrote, “Narrator: He was.”

It was yet another move from the Twitter CEO who had some fun ribbing Facebook for its massive outage earlier in the month, which saw the platform go down for almost eight hours. Thanks to a DNS error, the Facebook domain was for sale, which prompted Dorsey to joke on Twitter: “How much?”

(Via Jack Dorsey on Twitter)

Sometimes I truly wonder what’s going through Steve Doocy’s mind when Brian Kilmeade starts to go off the rails during Fox and Friends‘ early-morning run. He’s often the (relative) voice of reason when compared to the hard-line conservative stances of co-hosts Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade, but on Wednesday morning, Doocy sort-of stared off into the distance while the energizer bunnies on his left did their thing. Perhaps that was because they were being more absurd than usual, while taking time off from claiming that Christmas is ruined because “nobody wants to work anymore.”

Here’s what happened. Kilmeade started to lose it after Young Doocy (Peter, who is Steve’s kid) confronted White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki over why migrant children were being flown “in the middle of the night” to states including Florida and New York. Psaki pushed back, saying that these voyages were simply “earlier than you might like to take a flight.” And this led Kilmeade to fret over the alleged secrecy of it all, while Earhardt stopped referencing her “friends” long enough to interject, “the Taliban.”

Via Mediaite, Kilmeade previously declared (prior to the “Taliban” remark) that allowing migrant kids into the U.S. was a “go sign to Central and South America, Africa, Norway, whatever, to come to our country.” Notice how he added Norway? That appears to be a preemptively added detail, one that would insulate him from accusations of racially charged remarks, but Earhardt torpedoed that seeming attempt with two words.

Nonetheless, Kilmeade persisted. “You get in, you get flown through, you get a nice plane ride, you get put into a suburban community in America, light years better than your country.” He then insisted that migrants and refugees must be thinking, “Now is the time to sell the house and send our kids to another country.” Oh boy.

(Via Mediaite)

To kick off season two of the popular TV show Dave, a wonderful, tongue-in-cheek series that explores the life of David Burd, aka white rapper Lil Dicky, his crew heads to Korea to make a song with one of the country’s biggest stars — CL. After meeting the pop star during an award show appearance, Dave and his crew are a bit starstruck: “She looks like a Korean Beyonce,” exclaims GaTa, one of his closest collaborators. And although the overall tone of the series tends toward silly, GaTa’s estimation of CL is right on.

When it comes to K-pop, CL is one of the genre’s original icons, stepping into the spotlight at age 17 as the frontwoman for the girl-group 2NE1, and leading the collective to become one of the best selling girl-groups in the world with 66.5 million records sold. 2NE1 was part of the “second generation of K-pop stars,” following up the trailblazers in the ’90s, as today’s artists represent a new, third wave. As she gears up to release her official solo debut album, Alpha, this week, her longevity makes CL something of a bridge between the two eras.

2NE1 was a global force from 2009–2014, but after a two year hiatus, they officially broke up in 2016. During that time, CL began to establish her solo career, releasing the iconic debut “Hello Bitches” in 2015, and following it up in 2016 with the Wu Tang-sampling, reggae-tinged “Lifted” (complete with a cameo from Method Man himself in the Dave Meyers-directed video). Shortly after that, 2NE1 officially disbanded, but CL’s momentum was only building; “Lifted” made her the first solo female Korean artist to ever chart on the Billboard Hot 100, and only the third Korean artist ever to make an American chart appearance.

Obviously, in 2021, things are quite different with BTS racking up a No. 1 placement every time they drop a single. But CL was paving the way for the success of BTS, and back in 2016, seemed destined for the kind of commercial success the boy band and their army have accomplished. Instead, a long delay after her solo breakout had fans angrily tweeting #JusticeForCL at one point, angered over perceived label fumbling of the genre’s biggest female star. Things seemed to come to a head in 2019, three years after her momentum from “Lifted” had abated. CL unexpectedly announced she was leaving her long-time label, YG, and almost immediately released a left-field EP called In The Name Of Love as an independent artist.

Since K-pop artists are usually backed by rich, all-powerful label machines that help their music pop, this decision was a signal to everyone that CL was going to do things her way. The culmination of those efforts is Alpha, and though it was originally slated for release in the fall of 2020, the album was quickly pushed back to allow further fine-tuning, and likely to recalibrate live shows in light of pandemic-related delays. A few early tracks were released toward the end of 2020, the fashion-heavy, rap-sung “Post Up” that completely bricked, an insanely catchy haters rebuff, “HWA,” and the loved-up “5-Star.” Luckily, that first single doesn’t make the final cut for inclusion on Alpha , a wise choice.

Even as momentum was shifting back in the right direction for her debut album, CL was dealt another tough hand. At the top of the year she lost her mother to a heart attack, just before her own 30th birthday, and chose to mark the loss with a reflective, sad homage, “Wish You Were Here” released in February 2021. Taking a few months off after the song came out, instead, CL seemed to hit her stride this summer with the release of “Spicy,” a fiercely rapped Minaj-era banger that swaps speedy Korean verses for an English chorus: “She got the sauce and it’s spicy / You looking at the most fly Asians.” With frenetic EDM production and even an approximation of a drop, the song hit more of a mark than her late 2020 singles did.

Sharing a similar track in September, “Lover Like Me,” the swaggering tone for Alpha had officially been set — loud, brash, bold, and electric. “2020 was the beginning of my rebirth and rewriting my own story,” CL told Billboard earlier this year. “I can freely share different sides of me.” The album backs up this assertion with an eclectic mix of different styles and moods, even if it does tend more toward the bombastic style that defines those two 2021 singles. The range is there, though — album cut “Chuck” goes bouncier and more throwback, while another standout, “Paradise,” is an eerie trap song full of psychedelic flexes and slurred vocal effects reminiscent of Travis Scott. It might be the most modern rap track CL has ever done, and she sounds right at home in the post-Astroworld sound.

Alpha isn’t strictly big rap hooks, either; “5 Star” is joined by another slower track, “Xai,” an exploration of tropical house that shares DNA with the best of Major Lazer production. The piano-driven “Let It” is nostalgic of early 2000s pop, like if Vanessa Carlton learned how to jam a rap interlude into one of her catchiest tunes, and “Tie A Cherry” reminds me of the Selena Gomez and Gucci Mane collaboration, “Fetish” in the best way. Of course, unlike Selena, CL doesn’t need a rapper to guest — she handles both sections by herself. Despite the many high points, at times, the record drags. CL might be part of the bedrock for modern K-pop success, but her sound can feel stuck in the past. “My Way” hovers around the same BPM and siren-flecked sound as “Spicy,” but without any of the playfulness, and “Siren” is tepid R&B that could’ve been done by any number of mid-level artists playing in the shallow end of that genre’s pool.

Interestingly enough, one of the strongest songs from her new era is when she went lo-fi and vulnerable in remembrance of her mom. “Wish You Were Here” didn’t make the album, but it belongs alongside these tracks anyway, offering a welcome balance. Without the unrelenting insistence on domination, CL’s strengths were on full display — her absolutely beautiful singing voice, unexpected details like a shared family love for Stevie Wonder, and a canny ability to find new angles on done-to-death subjects like grief and love. The follow-ups to Alpha should focus on honing in on CL’s voice as an artist now, instead of endlessly emphasizing her well-established stature. Sometimes the best thing a successful artist can do is get quieter. Even alphas have a sensitive side.

Alpha is out now via Very Cherry. Get it here.

New York’s A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and Capella Grey link up to offer some encouraging words in their new video for “Bestie,” the latest single released from the upcoming Culture Jam project curated by NBA star Kawhi Leonard. The video pretty prominently features basketball as well, focusing on its lead’s efforts to improve on-court, then following her as Capella picks her up from the park for a ride home and as she invites A Boogie over for a romantic date by the piano.

The first volume of the project, Culture Jam Vol. 1, is due this Friday, October 22, after months of hype from Kawhi and his Culture Jam crew. The NBA player described his effort to combine his two loves, music and basketball, as “something that could uplift our community.” To that end he told reporters during a May presser, “A portion of each stream is gonna go to the Mamba & Mambacita [Sports] Foundation.”

Kawhi previously shared a pair of tracks from the project: “Everything Different” by Rod Wave and YoungBoy Never Broke Again and “Waves” by Gunna and Polo G. In addition the project will feature other standouts like Lil Uzi Vert, NLE Choppa, Ty Dolla Sign, Wale, and Yung Bleu. The inaugural Culture Jam Sports And Music Festival is planned for November 21 at The Shrine in Los Angles featuring performances from Bluebucksclan, Cordae, and others. It will also stream live on Amazon Music’s Twitch channel.

Watch A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and Capella Grey’s “Bestie” video above.

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

Petula Clark had a number one hit in 1965 with “Downtown,” a song that has since been covered by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Dolly Parton, from Yo La Tengo to former-Spice Girl Emma Bunton, from Winona Ryder in Girl, Interrupted to Anya Taylor-Joy in Last Night in Soho. The Queen’s Gambit star’s cover, which soundtracks the haunting trailer to Edgar Wright’s new film, has been released as a standalone music video.

Taylor-Joy actually performed two versions of “Downtown,” one that’s uptempo, the other downtempo (that’s the one with the music video). Pick the cover that most matches your mood — for instance, if you just watched The Witch, maybe stick with the downtempo.

“It’s not every day you’re asked to record several versions of an iconic song,” Taylor-Joy said about covering Petula Clark. “The sounds of the ’60s was what first made me fall in love with music so I was overjoyed when Edgar asked me to give it a go.”

Here’s more on Last Night in Soho:

In acclaimed director Edgar Wright’s psychological thriller, Eloise, an aspiring fashion designer, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer, Sandie. But the glamour is not all it appears to be and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something far darker.

You can listen to both versions below.

After Donald Trump issued a remarkably tone-deaf and heartless statement on Colin Powell’s death (it was a real doozy), The Daily Show quickly got to work making “A Donald Trump Sympathy Card for Any Occassion,” so now anyone can experience our 45th president insult their recently deceased loved ones. Look at this message that perfectly captures the well of emotions that only Trump can produce by editing together his actual words from over the years:

I heard recently that your family member is dead. He or she was a stone cold loser, made a lot of mistakes, a vicious, horrible person, ate like a pig, a big fat, disgusting fraud. There’s a lingering stench. I was not a big fan. I was never a fan and I never will be. I have no idea who this person was and I don’t give a damn. But anyway, may he rest in peace.

Just to show how hilariously spot-on the Donald Trump Sympathy Card is, here is Trump’s real-life “tribute” to Colin Powell where Trump basically made a pee tape on his grave:

Wonderful to see Colin Powell, who made big mistakes on Iraq and famously, so-called weapons of mass destruction, be treated in death so beautifully by the Fake News Media. Hope that happens to me someday. He was a classic RINO, if even that, always being the first to attack other Republicans. He made plenty of mistakes, but anyway, may he rest in peace!

It’s yet another case for Trump where satire and reality blend, but damn, if The Daily Show didn’t give it their best shot.

Back in June, Spain’s Mad Cool Festival announced its 2022 lineup, and it was pretty stacked. Now, though, it just got even more so, as organizers have announced some tantalizing new additions to the event, which is set to go down between July 6 through 10.

Some notable artists are newly present on the lineup, including Haim, Florence And The Machine, Queens Of The Stone Age, and Glass Animals. You may have noticed that July 6 through 10 spans five days as opposed to the four-day fest that was initially announced: Aside from the aforementioned new artists, the festival also went ahead and added another day, Sunday the 10th. Performing on Sunday are Arlo Parks, Tones And I, Tinashe, Sam Fender, and others.

Other artists on the lineup include Metallica, Twenty One Pilots, Placebo, Imagine Dragons, The Killers, Muse, Faith No More, Kings Of Leon, Pixies, Carly Rae Jepsen, Wolf Alice, Deftones, St. Vincent, Foals, Sigrid, Tove Lo, Beabadoobee, Cherry Glazerr, Alt-J, The War On Drugs, Mø, Phoebe Bridgers, Black Pumas, Shura, Royal Blood, Zara Larsson, Editors, Leon Bridges, Sylvan Esso, Princess Nokia, Gang Of Youths, Marika Hackman, and Bartees Strange.

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

Despite a slew of far out experimental releases in the last few years, Baltimore-bred Animal Collective haven’t released a full-length album since 2016’s Painting With. The wait is over, though, as the core four band members in Avey Tare, Deakin, Geologist, and Panda Bear recorded the completed new album, Time Skiffs, over the course of 2020 and have announced its early 2022 release today.

Out on February 4 via Domino Records, the album features the just-released lead single “Prester John.” Comprised of oddball rhythms and those familiar strangely alluring effects, it’s as well-formed of a composition as the band’s early material. The song is actually an amalgamation of a song written by Avey Tare and another one by Panda Bear, and long-time fans of the band will appreciate how fluidly their vocals converge in their signature seesaw harmonies.

The band have also announced a number of tour dates for next March and a release for the album added some color on the intent behind the album for the four:

“These nine songs are love letters, distress signals, en plein air observations, and relaxation hymns, the collected transmissions of four people who have grown into relationships and parenthood and adult worry. But they are rendered with Animal Collective’s singular sense of exploratory wonder, same as they ever were.”

Listen to “Preseter John” above, and below, find the Time Skiffs art and tracklist, as well as Animal Collective’s upcoming tour dates.

1. “Dragon Slayer”
2. “Car Keys”
3. “Prester John”
4. “Strung With Everything”
5. “Walker”
6. “Cherokee”
7. “Passer-By”
8. “We Go Back”
9. “Royal And Desire”

03/08 —Richmond, VA @ The National
03/09 — Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
03/11 — North Adams, MA @ Mass MOCA – Hunter Center
03/12 — Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
03/13 — Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
03/15 — Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
03/16 — Sayreville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom
03/18 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre
03/19 — Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
03/20 — Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre
03/21 — Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
03/23 — Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
03/24 — Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works
03/24-03/27 —Knoxville, TN @ Big Ears Festival
03/26 — Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern

Time Skiffs is out 2/4/2022 via Domino. Pre-order it here.

The Orlando Magic are, in a word, funky. Eleven of their 15 players are 24 or younger. Five of them haven’t played more than one NBA season. At both guard and big, they are stocked with young depth. Among the guards, there is Jalen Suggs, Cole Anthony, RJ Hampton, and Markelle Fultz. For various reasons, all of them are still searching for firm NBA footing. In the front-court, three guys all likely optimized at center — Jonathan Isaac, Wendell Carter Jr., and Mo Bamba — exist. At the (big) wings, Franz Wagner and Chuma Okeke, perk up.

Aside from Suggs and Wagner, each of these players has previously suited up for Orlando in a regular-season game. The issue, however, is finding them on the same wavelength. Last year, Isaac missed the entire season due to a torn ACL suffered in the Bubble a season prior. After an encouraging 2019-20, Fultz only played eight games before tearing his ACL. Okeke sat out 2019-20 as he recovered from an ACL tear and hasn’t played a minute with Isaac or Fultz.

Whether it’s injuries or the residual effects of contracting COVID-19 (fingers crossed he’s worked past this), Bamba has struggled to maintain consistent health. Even Anthony missed about a third of the season with injuries. Meanwhile, both Hampton and Carter arrived in Orlando post-trade deadline, and notched fewer than 50 combined games with the Magic.

Fultz, Carter, and Isaac already received rookie contract extensions. Bamba is set to become a restricted free agent and Okeke is eligible for an extension after this season. To clarify which young guys are the pillars of this rebuild, health is imperative. Let these dudes mesh and share the floor together. Trot out some youth-heavy lineups that feature one or two of the team’s, well, four veterans (Terrence Ross, Michael Carter-Williams, Robin Lopez, E’Twaun Moore) for a modicum of stability, while still prioritizing the future.

Discern whether two of Carter, Bamba, and Isaac can play together. The backcourt rotation is full of secondary handlers. Can one of the guards become a more consistent perimeter creator and simplify the offense for everyone else? Are Wagner and Okeke exclusively 4s or can one of them slide up to the 3 and form a versatile, complementary duo on the wing? Among this 11-man core, is there enough volume shooting to space the floor and offset potential troubles generating paint touches?

There are so many fascinating questions surrounding this team as it fully embraces an era of development. With Nikola Vucevic leading the way, Orlando toed the line between a playoff chase and rebuilding the past few seasons. He’s now in Chicago and while there’s a clear direction, who exactly should be guiding that journey remains hazy. Remedying the situation requires health and converging timelines, something the Magic’s prospects have failed to enjoy thus far.

All of those fan campaigns for LeVar Burton to host Jeopardy! did not end up working much magic. We all know what happened there, regarding former executive producer Mike Richards and his disastrous one-week reign as host, all of which left Jeopardy Productions searching again for a host (with Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings sharing duties for the rest of the year). LeVar stayed lovable in the aftermath while revealing how he realized that he didn’t really want the job, although that hasn’t stopped people from asking him about it.

LeVar has actually started to push back (although he’s still being classy, like he truly is) on Twitter, where he called out a journalist who suggested that LeVar would take the job “in a heartbeat” if asked. And when The Daily Beast recently broached the subject with him, the former Reading Rainbow host wanted to set the record really straight. Dawn Ennis asked LeVar what he would do if approached by Jeopardy! to please take the job, and LeVar was like no way: “I’d say, ‘No. You’ve got to be kidding me! You’re out of your mind. Goodbye!’”

As if that wasn’t clear enough, LeVar’s moving forward, and he elaborated:

“I want to make it clear, for the record, that I’m really happy with the way things worked out… I was disappointed to not get the job, but I’m the sort of person, I believe that everything happens for a reason. And if I didn’t get that job, that meant it wasn’t supposed to be for me, and I accepted that almost instantly and willingly. I know that the opportunities that are in front of me right now wouldn’t have come my way had I gotten the job, so I’m certain that this has worked out better for me than I could ever have imagined.”

That’s a more than fair answer. Hopefully, that’s the end of the discussion, and hopefully, Ava DuVernay’s suggested team-up with the Star Trek: The Next Generation actor will actually materialize.

(Via The Daily Beast)