GoneTrending

It’s Olivia Rodrigo’s Billboard chart, we’re just living in it. Seriously though, the pop star has been dominating the charts ever since her first official single “Driver’s License” dropped at the top of 2020, and it seems like every other week there’s a new story about her breaking another record or cinching another victory in the industry’s official ranking board. Today’s accomplishment is her debut album Sour returning to the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 albums chart after a surge of vinyl sales pushed it back up.

Though Sour came out back in May, the album has been returning to the No. 1 spot on the chart not once, twice or even three times, but four times before this week, boosted from other promotions like her Sour Prom concert film. With the official release of Sour on vinyl, Rodrigo’s debut has now clinched a fifth week at the No. 1 spot. As Billboard reports, the album has the second-most weeks at No. 1 this year, trailing only behind Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album.

Her vinyl bump is just another connection Olivia shares with her idol, Taylor Swift, who experienced a similar surge when the evermore pre-orders finally processed around the same time Sour came out in May. Also notable for pop fan’s: Lorde’s third album Solar Power bowed at No. 3, behind Olivia and Trippie Red. Not bad company! Check out the full report here.

Kanye West’s newly-released album Donda features a whole lot of names from the music industry: It’s got [deep breath] Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Travis Scott, Ariana Grande, DaBaby, Marilyn Manson, Lil Baby, The Weeknd, Playboi Carti, Roddy Ricch, The LOX, Ty Dolla Sign, Lil Durk, Fivio Foreign, Pop Smoke, Vory, Baby Keem, Young Thug, and Shenseea. Additional guests on the album include Syleena Johnson, Francis & The Lights, Don Toliver, Tony Williams, Conway The Machine, KayCyy, Westside Gunn, Swizz Beatz, Jay Electronica, Chris Brown, Sunday Service, and Rooga. But there’s one person who’s particularly upset that they were left off the album.

Hours after Donda was released, Soulja Boy took to Twitter to express his frustration with being elided. It began when a fan asked him for his opinion on the finally released albun. The rapper replied, “Idk how to feel, Kanye sent me that song ‘remote control’ and I don’t hear my verse on it… hmm f*ck that n****.” Soulja Boy then posted texts between him and Kanye that show them discussing the song, whose version on the album features an additional verse from Young Thug. In the caption he wrote, “This n**** Kanye smh. Tell homie dont hit my phone no more.” Lastly, Soulja Boy concluded his attack against West by writing, “That n**** Kanye weird af.”

Donda is out now via GOOD Music. Get it here.

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

Adam Sandler has a pretty substantial deal with Netflix to make movies, but he admitted that the company made one big change he had nothing to do with in his upcoming movie.

As The Hollywood Reporter detailed, Sandler appeared on The Dan Patrick Show on Thursday to talk about his upcoming movie, Hustle. The basketball film isn’t about him wrecking pickup games in the New York region. Instead Sandler plays a recruiter looking for the next big star. And he revealed that a major change was made to the film because Netflix doesn’t currently get to do business with China.

“It was written originally that I find a player in China and somehow, Netflix is not in China. So they were like, ‘Would you guys please make it so we find someone in Latin America or Europe?’” Sandler told Patrick. “So the next thing you know, I’m in Majorca [Spain].”

Patrick, who has a cameo in the film, was shocked to learn that the plot was changed for that reason. “Wait, that’s how that happened?” he asked, to which Sandler replied, “Yeah, it was originally, ‘find a player in China.’”

Anyone making movies knows that the people footing the bill often request changes, but it’s still surprising that Sandler saw this much meddling from a studio. There’s also the odd nature of the change, as Sandler is certainly not someone to turn down filming in a luxurious beach location, turning his shoots into fun vacations with his pals. So perhaps he didn’t mind the change of scenery all that much.

Still, Sandler said the move may have actually helped make Hustle better because it meant casting another real-life basketball player who, like Kevin Garnett in Uncut Gems, is said to have stolen some scenes.

In Netflix’s Hustle, Juancho Hernangómez of the Memphis Grizzlies plays the recruit Sandler’s character hopes will help change his fortune.

“[Hernangómez] acts better than me in every scene,” Sandler said. “It’s just like, god damn it. This guy is falling, crying in the middle of a scene, doing the right thing. Every joke he says, I’m like, ‘He said it smoother than I would have.’”

We’ll have to see just how Hustle turned out, but now we know where a good portion of the plot’s direction goes and how it got there.

[via THR]

Well, things just got a bit interesting.

On Sunday morning, Kanye West’s long-awaited tenth album Donda was released to the world. It came after three listening sessions in the span of one month and several delays that left fans doubtful that the project would ever release.

Lucky for them, that changed today as Donda and its 27 songs are available for a listen on all streaming platforms. According to the rapper himself, however, the project did not arrive in the way he would’ve liked as he shared an Instagram post claiming that his label released the album without his permission.

“Universal put my album out without my approval and they blocked Jail 2 from being on the album,” an image the rapper shared read. In addition to his own label, GOOD Music, West also calls Def Jam Recordings home, a label that Universal Music Group owns.

West’s post seemingly explains why “Jail, Pt. 2,” which features DaBaby and Marilyn Manson, was not on Donda at its initial release around 8 am EST on Sunday morning. The issue was corrected just a few hours later as “Jail, Pt. 2” was added to the album on all streaming services.

Furthermore, West’s message could also mean that Donda was not intended to be released today. The rapper has spent more than a month making changes to the album while holding listening sessions for it in both Atlanta and Chicago. Either way, I’m sure West’s fans are very happy the album was released today after quite the wait.

You can view a screenshot of West’s Instagram post above.

Now that Lorde’s third album Solar Power is out, fans have been able to sit with the record for a week and dive in a bit deeper. It’s definitely a left turn for the pop star, who seems content to approach things from a much slower, low-key perspective after two albums that were super ebullient. Now, she’s focused on things like traveling to Antarctica, and spending time on New Zealand beaches, and that laid back approach comes through in the album. For this album, she was also able to include a spoken word cameo from one of her own pop heroes, Robyn, who offers a coda on the end of album cut “Secrets From A Girl (Who’s Seen It All).”

In a new interview with NME, Lorde talked about the amount of empathy that Robyn offers in her songwriting, which might be the reason she wanted her to act as a guide on the end of that Solar Power track.

“I think there’s just so much room in Robyn’s world for being a hot mess or being this sort of ball of emotions shooting out in every direction,” Lorde said. “I think about a song like ‘Call Your Girlfriend’ – she’s not in a traditional hero’s role; she’s telling someone to break up with their girlfriend so they can be with her. But she’s also having a huge amount of empathy for that other woman – that is some really big, complex adult sh*t to be tackling in a dancefloor banger!”

Check out the whole interview here.

The extremely weird saga of Joe Exotic’s animal preserve in Oklahoma is still going, but at least one of its threads got wrapped up. According to reports, Exotic’s former big cat rival Carole Baskin sold the animal preserve Exotic used to run and which was at the center of the Netflix hit docuseries Tiger King.

The catch, however, is that the property cannot be used as a zoo for at least the next century. As TMZ reported, Baskin acquired the land after a years-long rivalry between the Big Cat Rescue figurehead and the eccentric Exotic, who regularly threatened her over a variety of mediums and eventually was sent to prison for a murder-for-hire plot.

A judge granted Carole’s Big Cat Rescue sanctuary control over Joe’s former Oklahoma exotic animal park in Wynnewood back in mid-2020 … to satisfy the $1 million judgment she won against him in their notorious trademark lawsuit.

Yahoo Entertainment‘s Megan Johnson wrote on Sunday that Baskin, who lives in Florida and operates Big Cat Rescue there, had confirmed the sale, which has a stipulation that the new owners would not put any kind of zoo or animal preserve on the property.

Reached by phone on Sunday, Baskin, the owner of the nonprofit sanctuary Big Cat Rescue, confirmed to Yahoo Entertainment that not only has the Oklahoma property formerly used as an exotic animal park been sold to a local couple who are known for purchasing properties that need a lot of work, but that the new owners cannot use the ownership for anything Tiger King-related.

…

“When we sold the property in June, we required that it never be used as a zoo, or for anything related to Tiger King or anything like that,” Baskin told Yahoo.

The rivalry between Baskin and Exotic was chronicled in one of the pandemic’s early guilty pleasures. But the real-life legal drama of Exotic’s murder-for-hire plot and subsequent conviction came with some true horrors when it came to animal safety. Baskin’s actions here seem to be an attempt to end that property’s use as an animal preserve once and for all, and though there may be more Tiger King on the way, there won’t be any animals on that property moving forward.

Nas has been on a hot streak of late, with last year’s comeback collaboration with Hit Boy, King’s Disease and the very quick sequel, King’s Disease II that dropped earlier this month. Part of the excitement around part two of this release was the guest features he was able to score, because he’s hip-hop royalty, and fans damn near lost their minds over his collaboration with Eminem on “EPMD 2” — the first time these two legendary MCs have been on record together.

But another high-profile feature, from the semi-retired legend Lauryn Hill, had fans equally impressed that Nas could draw a verse from her. Speaking with Ebro Darden for Apple Music’s show Rap Life, Nas explained his relationship with the reclusive star. “I hit her up, ‘Yo, this is crazy. People are asking me like, how did I get you on a record,’” Nas said. “She’s laughing like, ‘What do you mean? We just had a tour like, a few years ago.,’” he told Ebro. “She’s like, ‘All my life is right now is concerned with my freedom.’ That’s a different individual. That’s her first line. She’s not out here playing games, man. Thank you, Ms. Hill.”

Check out their conversation below.

Meanwhile, Nas is already teasing King’s Disease 3, and praising his producer Hit Boy as a “Quincy Jones”-style figure.

Early Sunday morning, Kanye West surprised the world by releasing Donda, his long-awaited tenth studio album. Fans had been waiting for its release since late July, but after so many delays, some of his supporters began to doubt that the album would ever drop. There was even a bizarre theory that suggested West wanted to make Donda the first official unreleased album.

Thankfully that wasn’t the case for Donda as listeners all over the world are enjoying the album and its 27 songs today. One of those people is West’s longtime collaborator and labelmate Pusha T who took to Instagram to celebrate the release of Donda.

“This is about power, money, influence and taste…nothing more, nothing less,” Pusha T wrote under an Instagram post that displayed a screenshot of Donda on Apple Music. “Watching you “joystick the culture” makes us all proud. Continue to do things your way, congrats, and I’m honored to have been a part of the process. #DONDA.”

Donda and its 27 tracks clock in at nearly two hours worth of music, making it quite the long effort for albums nowadays. Throughout the whole album, fans will hear contributions from Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Travis Scott, Ariana Grande, DaBaby, Marilyn Manson, Lil Baby, The Weeknd, Playboi Carti, Roddy Ricch, The LOX, Ty Dolla Sign, Lil Durk, Fivio Foreign, Pop Smoke, Vory, Shenseea, Syleena Johnson, Francis & The Lights, Baby Keem, Young Thug, Don Toliver, Tony Williams, Conway The Machine, KayCyy, Westside Gunn, Swizz Beatz, Jay Electronica, Chris Brown, Sunday Service, and Rooga.

You can view Pusha T’s post above.

Donda is out now via GOOD Music/Def Jam. Get it here.

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

Streaming records come and go since the technology is still so recent, but certain milestones are still commendable regardless of the fickle landscape. In a new shift, Justin Bieber has been declared the most-streamed artist ever on Spotify, breaking a record that was previously held by fellow pop star and Scooter Braun client, Ariana Grande, who had hit 82 million in one month.

Earning over 83.3 million streams last month — the highest number for any platform ever on the service — he eclipses his peers and proved that even if Justice wasn’t quite the return to form fans hoped it might be, fans clearly still found something to love on it. Surely the success of “Peaches,” his collaboration with Giveon and Daniel Caesar that went No. 1 hasn’t hurt those numbers any.

Right behind Bieber in the rankings were The Weeknd, with 74.5 million monthly listeners and then Ed Sheeran who earned 72.4 million during his current comeback period featuring the new single “Bad Habits” and a reported “next stage” of his career. Of course, Abel Tesfaye has been in his superstar lane for a while now, and the release of last year’s After Hours only continued his massive success. Abel is another artist on the brink of releasing new music, so Justin might have a run for his money coming pretty soon. For now, it’s his moment to enjoy.

Quentin Tarantino says his next movie will be his last, but if he ever wants to make another Kill Bill the actress another star of the film series suggested certainly seems interested in the part. There are a lot of rumblings about what Tarantino will do for his swan song, and he himself suggested that he briefly thought about remaking Reservoir Dogs to cap his career.

That’s not happening, he insists, and though he’s admitted the thought of a Kill Bill Vol. 3 has crossed his mind as well that isn’t in the cards right now, either. But in 2020, Kill Bill star Vivica A. Fox told NME the plot for a new movie should involve the daughter of her character, Vernita Green. And she had an idea of who to cast in the role as well.

As ComicBook.com laid out, Fox told the publication that Zendaya would be perfect for the role of her daughter, and she hoped mentioning her publicly could stir the pot a bit and spark Tarantino’s imagination.

At the time, Fox said, “So I went, Zendaya! How hot would that be? And that would probably green light this project. Her and Uma are both very tall, and it would just be kick-butt, and I love her. Hopefully now we can put that out, like ‘Tarantino, cast Zendaya!’ And spark his interest to put it on the fast track.”

And it turns out Zendaya saw that suggestion floated by the actress. The Euphoria star was interviewed by Empire Magazine and said that, while nothing is in the works, she’s certainly not saying no to a role in the iconic franchise.

I saw that! I was quite honoured that she would say that. Obviously she’s incredible and I’m very flattered that she would think of me. But, you know, it’s just an idea. The internet kinda takes things and runs with it.

It’s certainly an interesting idea, but convincing Tarantino of anything is far from a sure thing considering he’s pretty dead-set on a final film and calling it quits. Still, he’s talked publicly about his ideas for a Kill Bill sequel in the past. And you can’t help but try to put the process in motion here, as more Kill Bill would certainly not be a bad thing.

[via ComicBook.com]