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DaBaby is going viral on Twitter again, but it’s not for new music or quirky memes this time. The Charlotte rapper, who was captured in a video over the weekend reprimanding a pair of candy-selling kids for overcharging while in New York for the ESPY Awards, has come under scrutiny for the video. While some are defending his actions, others think he took it too far, embarrassing the kids online and playing the miser, considering how much money he flaunts in his music.

Sharing the video to his Instagram Story Sunday, DaBaby apparently intended to teach the kids a lesson in fair business ethics after they tried to charge him $200 for a box of Gushers. The boys told the rapper that their rate was $2 for each individual bag of candy but DaBaby noted that the boxes only contained 34 bags, prompting a quick math tutorial. “What’s 34 multiplied by two, my boy?” he presses them. “It ain’t $200! It’s not even $100. It’s $68.”

However, it’s his next statement that has some fans up in arms against him. “You gotta use your head, you tried to play me,” he says after giving each kid just $2 in exchange for three bags of candy — $1 each for two bags of Gushers and $2 for one bag of Skittles. “I was gonna bless you anyway. You would have gotten the $200 but now you got $2. Y’all be good.”

Some fans on Twitter expressed their disappointment in DaBaby for putting the two youths on blast the way he did, admonishing him or being cheap. Others, meanwhile, frowned on the kids for trying to finesse the rapper because they thought he made more money (to be fair, that’s what like 99 percent of fashion designers and jewelers do when it comes to rappers but that’s their business). Check out the responses below.

When James Gunn signed on to direct The Suicide Squad, he had no idea that he’d be spinning off one of the characters into a full-on HBO Max series. But then, the pandemic hit, and Gunn found himself sitting at home bored out of his mind, so he tossed what he describes as a “vague pitch” to HBO Max who immediately bit. Barely a year later, he’s now sitting on a wrapped up first season for Peacemaker starring John Cena.

“And that’s a wrap on Day 131 & Season One of #Peacemaker,” Gunn tweeted. “Less than a year ago I pitched a vague pitch to @HBOMax – here we are 11 months later with 8 astounding episodes in the can. Cast & crew: I love you all. Thank you for putting your hearts & souls into this project.”

Plucked from his upcoming reboot/sequel of The Suicide Squad, which hits theaters and HBO Max next month, “Peacemaker is an opportunity to delve into current world issues through the lens of this superhero/supervillain/and world’s biggest douchebag,” Gunn said in a statement when the show was announced. And like all of his projects, he’s fiercely defended the John Cena series from misinformation online. Not long after Peacemaker was announced, a site tried to claim that an edited version of the series would air on The CW. Gunn laughingly shot that rumor down.

“Lol. No. If we edited it for broadcast TV it would be forty seconds long,” he tweeted.

Peacemaker is expected to start streaming on HBO Max in January 2022.

(Via James Gunn on Twitter)

While festivals regain their footing and museums are eager to re-open to the public, a new hybrid model between the two has emerged in — where else? — Brooklyn. The focus of Undercurrent, which is described on its website as “a new event that immerses visitors in over 10 original audiovisual art installations, created by influential musicians to inspire positive impact around the Climate Crisis,” is focused on artist’s reactions to the looming issues of human impact on our environment.

So far, installations by artists like Bon Iver, Grimes, Jorja Smith, Khruangbin, Miguel, Actress, Aluna, Jayda G, Mount Kimbie, and Nosaj Thing had been announced, but today, Undercurrent is adding two more massive artists to the bill — Grimes and The 1975.

In a press release Grimes explained why she decided to join the project. “If we don’t protect the environment the future of consciousness will be artificial, not biological,” she said. “Would mental health and wellness even be relevant in a world where emotions aren’t an evolutionary advantage? A.I. Meditations were created by a generative language program that was provided with meditations made by humans and, based on those models, created its own meditations without the guiding aid of human emotion. Personally, I find beauty in this work, but it represents a distinct artistic shift from things written by humans. This work isn’t critical of A.I., but rather a neutral depiction of what the wellness landscape might look like without us.”

That’s one perspective that’s unique only to Grimes. More about Undercurrent: Each installation is designed to draw awareness to one of the three partner nonprofits, Kiss The Ground, Ocean Conservancy, and Global Forest Generation.

The installation opens in Brooklyn on September 9, with a trailer previewing it above. Tickets are available here.

Though Ben Gibbard is known for his definitive work with the cult favorite electronic group, The Postal Service, the Death Cab For Cutie founder hasn’t been working in that space of late. That changes today with “Only Love,” his second collaboration with Tycho, who remixed the Death Cab track “The Ghosts Of Beverly Drive” back in 2016. Both artists had plenty to say about their new track, which touches on the issue of climate change in subtle and serious ways.

From Tycho, describing how Gibbard’s vocals brough the song to life:

“I had been a fan of Ben’s work for a long time when, in 2016, I had the chance to do a remix for Death Cab For Cutie’s track “The Ghosts of Beverly Drive.” Ben’s voice was a very inspiring element to work with from a production standpoint, I felt it really meshed well with the kinds of sounds and instrumentation I gravitate towards. “Only Love” started life as an instrumental, but something was missing. I sent a rough demo to Ben and he recorded some vocals over it. The first time I heard the rough vocals the whole song suddenly made sense and the arrangement flowed out of that. After my early experimentations with vocals on Weather this felt like a great opportunity to put everything I had learned during that process into practice. It was certainly an honor to be able to work with such an iconic voice.”

Gibbard also had a lot to say about the collaboration:

“In 2014 while reading This Changes Everything: Capitalism And The Climate by Naomi Klein, I came across a quote from Montanan goat rancher and environmentalist Alexis Bonogofsky that moved me immensely. Speaking about the fight to protect public lands in southeastern Montana from the mining company Arch Coal, she said: ‘(The) connection to this place and the love people have for it, that’s what Arch Coal doesn’t get. They underestimate that. They don’t understand it so they disregard it. And that’s what in the end will save that place. It’s not the hatred for the coal companies, or anger, but love will save that place.

When Scott sent me the music for “Only Love,” it seemed perfect for this statement. Since reading Alexis’ words, I’ve carried them as a universal truth; that the only way we preserve the people, places or things we care for is with love, not hatred. This is often easier said than done, of course. But I find myself coming back to her statement as if it were a mantra. I grew up hiking and camping on public lands here in Washington State and my love for them has only increased since becoming a mountain / ultra / trail runner. They were in the forefront of my mind while working on this song.”

Check out the collaboration above.

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

With cannabis sales increasingly becoming legal in the United States (and beyond), there’s seemingly a shop on every corner in some cities, and that goes for billboards, too. When it comes to Borat mastermind Sacha Baron Cohen, however, he’s setting the record straight after a cannabis company tossed the character’s likeness onto a billboard for the heck of it. Cohen has filed a lawsuit against Solar Therapeutics for their billboard (posted next to a Massachusetts highway) that features the satirical character doing his thumbs-up gesture with an “It’s Nice!”

News of the botching of the “Very Nice!” slogan arrives courtesy of Hollywood Reporter, which published excerpts from the lawsuit. In the filed documents, Cohen alleges that the company committed copyright infringement and false advertising, among other civil wrongs, and there’s another detail worth mentioning — Cohen wishes to make it very clear that neither he nor Borat would ever endorse cannabis. “To the contrary, Mr. Baron Cohen never has used cannabis in his life,” the lawsuit penned by attorney David Condon reads. “He never would participate in an advertising campaign for cannabis, for any amount of money.”

Here’s more from Hollywood Reporter:

“With his ‘Ali G’ character, portrayed by Mr. Baron Cohen in the HBO television series Da Ali G Show, Mr. Baron Cohen has spent much of his career making a mockery of ‘stoner’ culture – a culture which the Defendants’ Billboard overtly celebrates,” writes Condon in the complaint, which is embedded below. “In addition, Mr. Baron Cohen was born into an Orthodox Jewish family; he is an Observant Jew; and he is proud of his cultural heritage. He does not wish to be involved in the heated controversy among the Orthodox Jewish community about whether cannabis can be used under Jewish traditions, customs, and rules.”

Yep, this lawsuit apparently suggests that the defendants aren’t wholly familiar with Cohen’s body of work. That’s a slam if there ever was one, but as for the lawsuit itself? More than fair enough. As with any other product, Cohen’s entitled to crack down on the unauthorized use of his likeness and ask for monetary compensation (which he’s doing) after the billboard’s removal. He’s doing just that, including not only “statutory damages plus actual and punitive damages and disgorgement of profits attributable to the billboard.” In other words, Solar Therapeutics surely won’t have a “very nice” time with this matter.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox’s relationship is full of intense experiences, and on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night, Fox told guest host Arsenio Hall about another one they had: Using ayahuasca deep in a Costa Rica jungle.

Fox began, “We went to Costa Rica to do ayahuasca, like, in a proper setting, with indigenous people. We were in the middle of the jungle. […] I was thinking it was like glamping or something like that, like it was gonna be some kind of five-star experience. But you get there and you really are in the middle of the jungle, and you don’t get to eat after 1 p.m. You have to walk a very far distance to get your water, you can’t shower because they’re in a drought. […] Nothing glamorous about it. It’s all a part of sort of making you vulnerable, so you sort of surrender to the experience.”

After explaining how the process began with vomit-inducing tea, Fox explained her experience, saying, “Everybody’s journey is different, [but on] the second night I went to Hell for eternity. Just knowing [it’s] eternity is torture in itself, because there’s no beginning, middle, or end. So you have a real ego death. […] It just goes straight into your soul, and it takes you to the psychological prison that you hold yourself in. So it’s your own version of Hell, and I was definitely there.”

Check out the full interview above.

Domee Shi made her Pixar directorial debut with Bao, an Oscar-winning short film about a mother who eats her son. I mean, sure, there’s more to it than that, about empty-nest syndrome, about the importance of traditions, about overprotective parents, but ultimately, Bao is about a “mom nuzzling her little baby steamed bun to death.” It’s very good and very stressful — although not as stressful for the teaser trailer for Bao’s feature-length debut, Turning Red, about a young girl who turns into a giant red panda when she gets stressed. This is the Incredible Hulk movie that we deserve.

“Even though I was super young when I watched it, the first Toy Story movie was so different than all the musical animations that were coming out at the time,” Shi said about her history with Pixar. “It was probably Finding Nemo when I realized wow, they’re making different stories, stories that are really emotional and they feel real. It’s not just an animated film, it felt like there were so many more layers and emotions and stories going on in their films.

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Growing up is a beast. Young actress Rosalie Chiang lends her voice to Mei Lee, a 13-year-old who suddenly “poofs” into a giant red panda when she gets too excited (which is practically ALWAYS). Sandra Oh voices Mei Lee’s protective, if not slightly overbearing mother, Ming, who is never far from her daughter — an unfortunate reality for the teenager.

Turning Red opens on March 11, 2022.

I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year, from authors Carol D. Leonnig and Philip Rucker, is the latest tell-all book about the Trump administration. I hope they never stop coming, not when the details are as wild as the former-president raging about typos (“What is f*cking wrong with these people? They can’t hit spell-check?”) and telling his then-chief of staff that Adolf Hitler “did a lot of good things.” I Alone Can Fix It has another “so wild that I absolutely believe it” claim: that Rudy Giuliani hatched the Big Lie scam after having a few too many.

The scene: Election Night at the White House. Trump is watching the results “from his bedroom alone and from a family room with Melania, other family members and some of his most trusted aides, including Hope Hicks,” according to an excerpt from the book in the Washington Post. Meanwhile, Rudy is at “his own command center upstairs on the party floor.” He was with his son, Andrew, and after awhile, the disgraced lawyer “started to cause a commotion. He was telling other guests that he had come up with a strategy for Trump and was trying to get into the president’s private quarters to tell him about it. Some people thought Giuliani may have been drinking too much.”

Giuliani went state by state asking [campaign manager Bill] Stepien, [White House chief of staff Mark] Meadows, and [advisor Jason] Miller what they were seeing and what their plan was.

“What’s happening in Michigan?” he asked.

They said it was too early to tell, votes were still being counted and they couldn’t say.

“Just say we won,” Giuliani told them.

Same thing in Pennsylvania. “Just say we won Pennsylvania.”

Later that night, after Fox News called Arizona for Joe Biden, Giuliani continued to insist that Trump should say he won, results be damned. “Just go declare victory right now,” he told Trump. “You’ve got to go declare victory now.” Around 2 a.m., out walked Trump, who claimed that “we were winning everything and all of a sudden it was just called off.” He added, “This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.”

Months later, he still believes this, and it’s partially because of Rudy.

(Via the Washington Post)

Over the weekend, Cardi B and Offset’s daughter Kulture celebrated her third birthday, and aside from an extravagant party, the youngster also enjoyed a high-end gift from her parents: a watch valued at at least $150,000. Cardi generates opinions pretty much no matter what she does, so naturally, people online had thoughts about the gift. Now Cardi has responded to detractors wondering why a kid that young needs such a fancy present.

Cardi explained that she’s giving her daughter the childhood she never had, tweeting, “Listen imma live my childhood dreams thru my kids [laughing emojis].” A Twitter user responded to that tweet, “Cardi honey….You openly said this? Proudly? Loudly? Yikes.” Cardi replied, “Yes why not ? Princess parties ,unlimited toys , vacations and Pools my kid loves the pool and I went to the pool like 5 times in my childhood. Different flavor cereal not just Raisin Bran.”

Cardi later said of her detractors, “They want me to be just as miserable as them .Same ol sh*t .Then speak about it for a week and play victim like if I started with them .You can’t show people you happy here it make b*tches pull their coochie hairs .”

Check out Cardi’s posts below.

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

There was a brief period when Fox News didn’t air 2020 election nonsense. It probably wasn’t because they’d had a crisis of conscience; it was almost certainly because they didn’t want to get sued. It didn’t work. Both Dominion and Smartmatic voting machine companies filed a lawsuit against the network, which they’ve attempted to have dismissed. But even the news channel that lets Tucker Carlson say whatever are clearly not taking too many chances.

On Sunday night, they surrendered their air waves to former president Donald Trump’s predictably bonkers speech at the second CPAC of the year so far. It was a Greatest Hits package, with lots of voter fraud mishegoss, plus some new ones. This is probably the first time he’s bragged, at least in public, about being impeached twice. But while he spoke, especially about voting machine conspiracy theories, Fox News tried their best to distance themselves.

“THE VOTING SYSTEM COMPANIES HAVE DENIED THE VARIOUS ALLEGATIONS MADE BY PRESIDENT TRUMP AND HIS COUNSEL REGARDING THE 2020 ELECTION,” read a chyron, which stayed on the screen as he spoke, for over 30 seconds.

It was the barest minimum of butt-covering, unlikely to make any Trump supporter doubt the efficacy of his claims, but also unlikely to result in further lawsuits. It’s a similar tactic adopted by the even more die hard pro-Trump networks OANN and Newsmax, which have to tow a line between airing propaganda and not getting sued off the air.

But most non-Trumpists just thought it was somewhere between amusing and pathetic.

Meanwhile, the failed blogger in question, who lives in resorts with strangers and who can’t speak without getting disclaimers from even his biggest cheerleaders, continues to be the Republican frontrunner for 2024.