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When Bridgerton announced that breakout star Regé-Jean Page would not be returning for Season 2, fans of the hit romance series were heartbroken, but the news wasn’t entirely unexpected. Page’s storyline was neatly wrapped up in the Season 1 finale (although it could have continued) with the show focusing more on other characters. A new report suggests Page’s exist was not so cut and dry, and that show actually did make moves to bring the Duke back despite the fact that it would go against the source material. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

Sources close to the show tell THR that Page was offered an opportunity to return as a guest star in three to five episodes of season two — at a rate of $50,000 an episode — but declined for a multitude of reasons.

One of those reasons is Page is looking at a burgeoning film career and, thanks to the success of Bridgerton, his name is already being tossed around as the next James Bond. There’s also the fact that when Page agreed to do the show, part of the appeal was that he’d do a year, and then move on.

“It’s a one-season arc. It’s going to have a beginning, middle, end – give us a year,” Page told Variety when his exit was announced. “[I thought] ‘That’s interesting,’ because then it felt like a limited series. I get to come in, I get to contribute my bit and then the Bridgerton family rolls on.”

You can tell Page was serious about only doing of a year the show because even with Netflix ponying up more cash for him to come back, the Duke is sticking to his guns.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Last month, indie psych rockers Crumb ushered in a new era of music with their surreal track “Trophy.” It was the first offering of new music from the independent band since their debut album Jinx, which came out in 2019 to positive reception. Though Crumb have yet to shed light on details surrounding their sophomore release, the group previewed their upcoming project’s sound with two new singles, “BNR” and “Balloon.”

Crumb’s “BNR” track arrived alongside a sinister visual. It opens with a black-and-white shot of Crumb singer Lila Ramani walking through the streets. She eventually discovers the color red, and her world shift from monochrome to a muted array of colors. True to the band’s aesthetic, the visual also features a handful of surreal moments, like when Ramani bites into a crisp green apple only to discover that it has a rotten core.

Briefly describing her inspiration behind both of the new songs, Ramani said:

“’BNR’ is an ode to my favorite colors [black and red]. I had a weird obsession with those colors in winter 2018-2019 and felt like they would follow me around everywhere I went. ‘Balloon’ tells the story of a girl that dances so fast in the club that her head falls off.”

Watch Crumb’s “BPR” video and listen to their track “Balloon” above.

Gus Dapperton spent a good chunk of 2020 promoting a new album, Orca. There seems to be some unfinished business on the Orca front, though, as Dapperton has now returned with a new version of “Palms.” This version, titled “Palms (With Channel Tres),” features (drum roll, please) Channel Tres.

Dapperton says of the track, “I’m a huge fan of Channel and thought he would sound perfect on ‘Palms.’ I was so excited when he said he was down to do it and even more excited when I heard what his verse was sounding like. We met a while back at one of his shows and had a fun time hanging afterwards. So glad it’s come full circle.”

Dapperton and Tres also linked up on this month’s edition of Dapperton’s monthly “Cumulonimbus” Spotify playlist, which features a selection of hand-picked songs from both artists.

In a recent interview, Dapperton told Uproxx that Orca is about “feeling trapped, depressed, and having these people and unconditional forces of love in your life that reel you back in” and also noted, “When I’m feeling depressed and lost in the world, there’s not many things that help me. Therapy doesn’t help me very much. But putting it into the music is very therapeutic for me.”

Listen to “Palms With Channel Tres” above.

Staten Island rapper CJ continues his quest to dominate pop culture with the video for “Set” from his debut EP Loyalty Over Royalty. This brings the total number of music videos from that project to five of eight, including “Whoopty,” his original breakout hit, “Bop,” its first follow-up, and “Real One,” which he released in the final week of March to extend his run.

In addition to the aforementioned videos from the EP, he’s also released multiple remixes of “Whoopty” to ensure maximum saturation. On the “NYC Remix,” he recruits French Montana, his vocal doppelganger, and Rowdy Rebel, the GS9 New York drill forebear who recently ended a six-year stint in prison, to hype up the Big Apple aspect of the standout hit. Then, he got in touch with his roots via the “Latin Mix,” which features Reggaeton/Latin trap stars Anuel AA and Ozuna to talk smack in Spanish.

To date, “Whoopty” by far remains CJ’s most popular track thanks to an infectious beat that even other rappers find irresistable. So far, Tierra Whack, Westside Boogie, Polo G, and Young M.A have all gone in with freestyles over the melodic loop, with more sure to come.

Watch CJ’s “Set” video above.

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

Greg Gutfeld of Fox News’ The Five is officially in the late-night comedy business now. Well, that’s sort-of the case. His new show, Greg Gutfeld’s Gutfeld! aims to be an alternative to all the late-night comedy shows (and cable news talk shows) out there, and so far, it’s drawing a decent amount of viewers (1.69 million, which beats the cable news competition). One would expect that the existing crowd showed up because Gutfeld is promising to “cancel cancel culture,” although one can’t expect the attraction to last too long. Not when people get over the novelty of exactly how not-laugh-filled this show’s jokes turned out to be.

Take the opening monologue, for example, which suggests that Joe Biden thinks his TV is a microwave and that Brian Williams broadcasts from Mars.

It’s… not great. Even “hard-edged satirists” are supposed to be funny. Well, this is not drawing genuine laughs, and comedians are taking notice. Both Michael Ian Black and Tim Heidecker noted that the logo looks too far too close to the Garfield counterpart. Is that funny?

The Daily Beast spoke with some comedians who’ve offered their own criticism. Jena Friedman (formerly of The Daily Show and now of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) declared, “It’s like watching a guy going through a divorce doing an impression of Bill Maher… He reminds me of the boss whose jokes you’re forced to laugh at.” Sasha Stewart (formerly of Nightly Show) stated, “Just because something has the cadence of a joke does not make it a joke.” She added, “I’m sorry for the five staffers who make up the laugh track.”

Justin Cousson (who noted the laugh track) and Conan writer Laurie Kilmartin also weighed in.

People can’t stop marveling at how cringeworthy all of these jokes are turning out to be.

Meanwhile, let’s turn to Sean Hannity.. here’s a real laugh.

Back in August, LA-based singer Duckwrth leaned into his funk-forward sound though his anticipated debut album SuperGood, which saw a handful of soulful collaborations with the likes of Earthgang and Jean Deaux. Though its been less than a year since his full length LP, Duckwrth has already been hard at work on new music. Taking his tunes to an NPR Tiny Desk performance, Duckwrth premiered two new upbeat songs.

Backed by a full band and a pair of backup singers, Duckwrth kicked off the set with a rendition of his SuperGood track
“Kiss U Right Now.” He then moved into one of his unreleased song titled “Make U Go,” which he said was written “for the lovers and the freaks.” Next, Duckwrth delivered another new sultry tune, “Birthday Suit,” before closing out the performance with his debut album’s title track “Super Good.”

Ahead of his Tiny Desk concert, Duckwrth sat down with Uproxx to talk about his debut album SuperGood and how rhythm is central to his sound:

“I think that for me, it was proving to myself who I am and what sound I like the most for myself, what space I want to be in, and it’s something about soul and more specifically rhythm. Rhythm is my sh*t. When I perform, I don’t stop moving. Unless it’s just one of those moments I have to sit still, but further than that rhythm is my shit. So I think SuperGood solidified it for me. Like, “N****, this is you, so kick it here for a bit,” but I’m still going to play with different genres.”

Watch Duckwrth’s Tiny Desk concert above.

SuperGood is out now via Republic. Get it here.

It goes down in the DMs. Just weeks after Lil Nas X made a TikTok using a screenshot of his Instagram DMs to put Tekashi 69 on blast after Tekashi tried to troll Nas with homophobic jokes, another artist has adopted the format to take her own thirsty messengers to task.

Apparently, ever since she broke up with Playboi Carti, Iggy Azalea‘s inbox has been flooded with direct messages from famous followers shooting their shots. However, from the screenshots she uses in her TikTok video, in which she dances in the foreground while the screenshots appear behind her, plenty of these famous followers could use some game lessons.

Among them are men who go way too graphic way too quickly, while others offer money for Iggy’s company. One takes a day’s worth of silence from the Australian rapper as license to start insulting her, and another simply obsessively repeats “I love you” over and over again. Take notes, gentlemen: These are all what not to do — not just to famous women, but to anyone online. There’s shooting your shot, then there’s lobbing the ball toward the gym from the parking lot and expecting it to fall in the hoop through the skylight. Just don’t do it.

Meanwhile, Iggy herself has been promoting a new single, “Sip It,” her second collaboration with Tyga after “Kream,” and has been on an anti-music industry campaign, claming she’s been blackballed. You can check out the new single here.

It was reported a few days ago that DMX experienced a drug overdose. The latest reports indicate that he is still in the hospital. The rapper has received an outpouring of support from his musical peers since the news broke, and now Demi Lovato, who has been open about her own overdose, has shared her thoughts about the situation.

In an interview with TMZ, Lovato was asked if she was scared by the DMX news and she replied:

“Yeah, of course. Any time that I see somebody OD or even pass away that’s in the public eye, I immediately think, ‘That could have been you had you not been putting all this work in for the last couple years of your life.’ There are times where I’ve talked about feeling survivor’s guilt, because you do ask yourself, ‘Why am I still here? Why are others not?’ It’s a challenging thing to get over, but ultimately, I had to realize every day is a day that someone else doesn’t get, you know? Every day that I’m here on this Earth is a day that I need to be counting my blessings and just be appreciative and grateful for. It makes me want to live the best life I can possibly live, knowing that others didn’t get the same chance that I did.”

Check out more from the interview here.

After the unintentional reveal of Muncher set social media ablaze back in January, Ghostbusters: Afterlife is officially ready to show off an adorably (demented) spin on an old classic: the Mini-Pufts. In a just-released clip, Paul Rudd’s Mr. Grooberson has his ice cream interrupted after one of the tiny Stay Puft Marshmallow Men burst out of a package on the shelf. But as Rudd’s character learns, you don’t want to get too close to the Mini-Pufts, who have a taste for human flesh and roasting each other on fire. Apparently, there’s going to be a horde of the little guys running around wreaking havoc when they’re not being miniature pyromaniacs who have no problem being melted into S’Mores. It’s hilariously weird.

With the Mini-Pufts reveal, it appears that Sony Pictures is feeling confident in Ghostbusters: Afterlife‘s November release date. Like most blockbusters scheduled for 2020, the film has already been delayed three times, and when it finally crosses-streams in theaters, Ghostbusters: Afterlife will have waited over a year and a half to show us more of its tiny marshmallow mad-men. Here’s the official synopsis:

From director Jason Reitman and producer Ivan Reitman, comes the next chapter in the original Ghostbusters universe. In Ghostbusters: Afterlife, when a single mom and her two kids arrive in a small town, they begin to discover their connection to the original ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind. The film is written by Jason Reitman & Gil Kenan.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is currently set to hit theaters on November 10, 2021.

(Via Sony Pictures Entertainment)

As NFT-mania maintains its vice grip on the public consciousness, early adopter Ja Rule continues to capitalize on the craze by once again returning to the scene of one of his biggest business failures: Fyre Festival. After selling a massive painting of the Fyre Festival logo as an NFT for over $120,000, the latest Fyre-related NFT to appear on his Flipkick platform is a viral tweet about the “gourmet” dinner provided to attendees, which turned out to be a sad cheese sandwhich.

The 2017 tweet was one of the wider world’s first indications of trouble in paradise, as influencer attendee Trevor DeHaas alerted his Twitter followers to the logistical shortcomings that would soon become a full-blown disaster and the subject of competing documentaries on Netflix and Hulu. DeHaas seems to have developed a sense of humor about the whole thing because he has partnered with Flipkick to sell the rights to the now infamous tweet. They’ve valued those rights at $80,000, which will go toward DeHaas’ medical expenses — he needs a kidney transplant and is currently on dialysis.

There’s precedent for selling tweets as NFTs, with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first tweet going for $2.9 million, but it’s unclear just what happens once the non-fungible token trades digital hands. Plenty of investors are betting big that other rich folks will want to “own” a digital code that says they have the rights to a piece of artwork most people can just right-click/save as on their desktops. But at least the money in that case went to a good cause; Dorsey donated the money to GiveDirectly, which works with US families affected by COVID.

Meanwhile, Ja’s other big investment this year, into inflated GameStop stock, isn’t quite showing the payouts that enthusiastic investors promised when they made a run on the stock in January. Maybe this isn’t the guy to take your financial advice from, just a thought.