GoneTrending

Kevin Smith has been a long-time supporter of “Release the Snyder Cut,” so naturally, he was pumped when the latest trailer for Zack Snyder’s Justice League dropped on Valentine’s Day. Not only is it the most comprehensive glimpse at Snyder’s original story plans for Justice League yet, but the new trailer also showed off some of the recent reshoots that took place in the fall.

Notably, the film now includes a “Knightmare scene” between Ben Affleck’s Batman and Jared Leto’s Joker that fans never got to see thanks to Joss Whedon‘s theatrical version of Justice League throwing the DC Extended Universe into disarray after it bombed with moviegoers and critics. Affleck left the franchise, and Leto’s Joker was abandoned as Warner Bros. pivoted towards a solo standalone movie starring Joaquin Phoenix. So it was a pretty big deal when Snyder managed to bring the two actors back for an iconic showdown, and Smith is definitely here for it.

“I saw the new trailer this morning, at which point I realized that we live in a society where Ben came back for @snydercut reshoots!” Smith tweeted. “Can’t wait to blaze for 4 hours while watching this epic on @hbomax! We’re gonna get to see Darkseid, Granny Goodness, AND the Bat-Tank!”

Smith has been singing the praises of the Snyder Cut for a while now, and while Snyder himself has said that he’s done with the DC Comics films after his director’s cut hits HBO Max, Smith says he’s heard talk from inside sources that the ambitious project does set up future stories. “I happen to know that the ending that he’s got for the Snyder Cut is very not a cul-de-sac…” Smith said on his Fatman Beyond podcast. “It takes it to a weird neighborhood, but it’s not a cul-de-sac. You can keep f***ing going with the story based on what I’ve heard from a friend.”

(Via Kevin Smith on Twitter)

For the last four years, a documentary that looks back at the life of legendary rapper Notorious B.I.G. has been in the works. Entitled Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell, the upcoming Netflix film is led by director Emmett Malloy and produced by Diddy, the late rapper’s mother Voletta Wallace, and more. With exactly two weeks left until it premieres on the streaming platform, the first trailer for the film has arrived to build up anticipation for its release.

A majority of the early video footage that appears in Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell was uprooted from the archives of and interviews with Biggie’s childhood friend Damian “D Roc” Bulter. “Big was always a visionary. There will never be such a crazy time in Brooklyn as the 80’s and 90’s, out of great struggle, comes great art and music,” he said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “The Brooklyn kid rapping today won’t have the same stories we have to tell.”

The release of the film’s first trailer also comes a year after the rapper was inducted to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, something Netflix mentions in its description of the film. “In the wake of the Notorious B.I.G.’s landmark induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and ahead of what would have been his 50th birthday, Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell offers a fresh look at one of the greatest, most influential rappers of all time by those who knew him best,” the platform said. “Made in collaboration with Biggie’s estate, I Got A Story To Tell is an intimate rendering of a man whose rapid ascent and tragic end has been at the center of rap lore for more than twenty years.”

Director Emmett Malloy also spoke about the long process the documentary endured before its release. “The running joke about documentary films is often how long they take to make. This film lived up to all those stereotypes, taking us four years to develop and make it,” he said. “Through those years we were immersed in Brooklyn in the 70s through the 90s. It is easy to see how much Brooklyn has changed since Christopher Wallace was a kid, but it’s also clear that many things about being a young black man in this country have not changed.”

You can watch the first trailer for Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell above.

Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell premieres on 3/1 via Netflix.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have lost seven straight and nine of their last 10 games as the team that was once one of the league’s early surprises has come crashing back to reality. Now at 10-18 and in 13th in the East, the Cavs can firmly put both eyes on the future, rather than keeping one on a playoff push this season, and with that means shifting focus on playing young players who will be long-term fits.

That won’t change rotations too much in the backcourt, where Collin Sexton and Darius Garland already have the keys and are working out how to drive this Cavs team on a consistent basis, but in the frontcourt it will see one major change. Cleveland will now park center Andre Drummond in order to start and play Jarrett Allen, who they acquired from Brooklyn in the four-team James Harden trade, with Drummond sitting out until they can hopefully find him a new home via trade by the deadline.

Drummond did not play on Sunday in the Cavs’ loss to the Clippers due to “rest” and it seems he won’t play again, as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst spoke with his agent Jeff Schwartz of Excel.

When reached on Monday morning, Schwartz wouldn’t confirm or deny the decision, but told ESPN: “Whichever direction this goes, Andre is 27, in his prime, and I believe strongly that he has a great deal to add to a team building toward a postseason run.”

What will be interesting is to see what the market is like for Drummond, as the 27-year-old center is averaging 17.5 points and 13.5 rebounds per game this season for the Cavs and has long been one of the league’s best rebounders. At the same time, he’s not the most efficient scorer compared to other traditional big men in the league, and this year is shooting a career worst 47.4 percent from the field.

Still, there are some contenders out there that are very much in the market for an upgrade at center, and Drummond will be available for what one would think would be relatively cheap provided you can make the money work. Drummond makes $28.7 million this year, which complicates matters, particularly for teams without a bloated contract to send back. For example, the Raptors have been arguably the most well-known team in the league that has a desire to add a center this season, but it would be nearly impossible to do without a third team getting involved and making it a much bigger deal because they won’t be dealing their three highest paid players — Pascal Siakam, Kyle Lowry, and Fred VanVleet — in such a deal, and Norman Powell would seemingly be off the table as well on a team friendly $10.8 million deal. That leaves them without the money to match, and you run into this issue across the league.

The Blazers could use a Jusuf Nurkic replacement while he’s injured, but they won’t be dealing Lillard, McCollum, Nurkic, or Covington for a Drummond rental. The Nets are very much in the market for a center, but would have to send out Spencer Dinwiddie and DeAndre Jordan to make it happen, and that wouldn’t exactly build depth they need at center — along with the fact that Kyrie and KD very clearly want Jordan around. It’s possible a team like Dallas would sniff around, as James Johnson makes $15.7 million and would make facilitating a deal a bit easier.

It’s just hard to take a look around the league currently and find a comfortable home for Drummond that has a need for a center of his skills and the contracts to make a deal happen. It seems most likely that if he’s moved it’s as part of a larger three-team deal, but whatever the case, he won’t be in Cleveland for too much longer, either via trade or a buyout (which would likely move the Nets to the front of the line for him).

Over the past few years, DaBaby has become a popular featured guests on songs, but it looks like that’s not because he’s cheap. Recently, DaBaby compared how much he used to charge to feature on an artist’s song versus what that rate is now, and as his star has risen, so too has his price.

As HotNewHipHop reports, over the weekend, DaBaby noted on his Instagram Story that his rate has jumped up significantly from the $5,000 he used to charge (presumably towards the start of his career), writing, “from 5k a verse to 300k.”

Wikipedia lists around 30 songs that DaBaby had a featured credit on in 2020, so if he charged $300k for all of those, that adds up to a cool $9 million dollars. To compare, if those were all at his previous rate of $5,000, that total would be closer to $150,000, which is certainly still nothing to sneeze at and a solid year’s work.

DaBaby had a lot of big-time guest appearances in 2020 and the list includes Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” remix, Future’s “Life Is Good” remix, Pop Smoke’s “For The Night,” and Jack Harlow’s “What’s Poppin” remix, among many others.

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

Oh Ted Cruz. On one hand, it’s almost admirable that the much maligned senator from Texas can’t stop owning himself on Twitter (it is a kind-of talent, albeit a dubious accomplishment). On the other hand, doesn’t the dude have a job to do? There’s the pandemic response and all the U.S. political upheaval and now a Texas ice storm to navigate, and Cruz’s been busying himself by smarting off over Shakespeare after beefing with Seth Rogen and Cary Elwes and losing both battles. Ted’s latest self-takedown was a doozy, given that he fell for a parody article (from conservative parody site The Babylon Bee) while tweeting, “I wish this was parody.”

He’s the master at self-humiliation, and he keeps coming back for more. Much like the Zodiac Killer, the Cruz just can’t stop. After he noticed how people were laughing at him for falling for an article with such a ridiculous headline (“Disney Posts Job Ad Looking For Strong, Fierce Women Who Are Also Obedient, Submissive, And Docile,” a reference to Gina Carano’s The Mandalorian firing), Ted got defensive and frustrated, so he said something that makes, uh, very little sense:

“Why do you have to explain irony to Newsweek?” could mean a lot of things, but it definitely doesn’t communicate that Ted acknowledges that he fell for a parody article. Surprise, surprise, people are firing shots at him over this comeback, too.

Speaking of John Oliver, the Last Week Tonight took a swing at Cruz over his impeachment shenanigans, including meeting with Trump’s lawyers ahead of the trial and assuring them that they’d “already won.” As Oliver put things, “Dead eyes, empty heart. Ted Cruz!” He’s not wrong.

It’s been more than eight years since fans of DMX received an album from the rapper, but it looks like that drought will come to an end soon. In a recent appearance on NORE and DJ EFN’s Drink Champs podcast, the Yonkers native revealed that he has just two songs left to finish before the album is complete. Next, he shared some guests that listeners can expect to hear on the album. While DMX previously mentioned names like Pop Smoke and Griselda, it’s another artist that will feature on it that’s catching some by surprise, that being U2’s Bono.

DMX revealed that the collaboration between him and Bono is titled “Skyscrapers” and it came together thanks to some help from Swizz Beatz, who he labeled as a “magician” and who has been friends with Bono for years. He also shared his excitement about his collaboration saying, “Sh*t’s crazy. It got a Miami feel to it. I feel like I want to shoot the video here!” before praising Bono for the song’s bridge adding, “all muthaf*ckas need to do is listen to it, and we good.”

The rapper also revealed that Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Alicia Keys, and Usher will also appear on his upcoming eighth album. “It’s called ‘Letter To My Son,’” DMX said about the Usher collaboration. “When I first did it, the only issue was the piano. Then my man, Ryan King Joseph, he play the violin. It was just piano on the song, and I never did a song with one instrument before. It came out crazy, it hits you. And then I heard [Joseph’s] work, and put him on the joint.”

Watch the full Drink Champs episode above.

For nearly a year, Verzuz has delivered thrilling battles to music lovers in a number of genres, helping to ease the boredom and solve the lack of entertainment that the quarantine has produced. As the one-year anniversary of the show’s first event between Swizz Beatz and Timbaland, who created Verzuz, looms, the platform is switching things up a bit. At the end of the month, Verzuz will bring their talents to Harlem’s famous Apollo Theatre for a battle headlined by R&B singer D’Angelo.

The legendary act who is responsible for classic albums like Brown Sugar and Voodoo will take over the legendary venue at end the of the month in a battle with unnamed music guests labeled as his “friends.” This signals that the Verzuz will most likely be a bit different than the traditional battles we’ve seen from the likes of Monica and Brandy as well as Gucci Mane and Jeezy. The singer made the announcement during an appearance on DJ D-Nice’s Instagram Live and the platform confirmed the news shortly after.

In addition to the upcoming event, D’Angelo also confirmed his fourth solo album will drop soon. The project would be his first musical contribution to the world since last year’s “Behoove” track with Slingbaum and Erykah Badu and his first album since 2014’s Black Messiah.

You can read the announcement above.

Tune in on Saturday, February 27 at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET on Instagram and Apple TV to watch D’Angelo and friends duke it out.

In what’s being described as an “unprecedented” weather event, Texas is being absolutely pummeled by a winter storm leaving residents who aren’t accustomed to dealing with large amounts of snow in disarray as power outages and highway pile-ups roll across the state. In a move that’s already distinguished this administration from its predecessor, President Joe Biden issued a federal state of emergency for Texas and has mobilized resources to aid residents during the unusual storm. Meanwhile, local authorities have been scrambling to encourage people to stay off the road and prepare for rolling blackouts as temperatures dip into the negatives for the first time in 122 years and has already frozen power turbines in some areas. Via ABC News:

As of 6:30 a.m. on Monday morning, there are 1,834,260 customers without power in Texas due to the winter storm and state officials have warned that number could get higher.

ERCOT, the energy provider in Texas, entered its highest alert level overnight Sunday into Monday and has begun rolling blackouts to conserve power during this harsh winter storm.

One can understand the panic, since Texas isn’t exactly equipped for snow and ice.

You can watch Good Morning America‘s coverage of the historic winter storm below:

Despite the dire conditions, Texas residents have been sharing their winter storm experiences on social media. For some people, it’s their first time seeing this much snow, and they’re in for a lot of fun when it comes time to try and remove it all. You can also see which folks thought it’d be no big deal to drive out onto the roads, which have been a complete mess since icy conditions started on Sunday. Stay inside!

Over the past year or so, as Hayley Williams has spent more time focusing on her solo career outside of Paramore, fans have wondered what the future of the band will look like. However that takes shape, it might not take too long until we find out, as Williams has revealed that she’s ready to make new Paramore music.

Last night, Williams took to Twitter to answer some questions from fans, and one asked, “did you write more songs for FFV that weren’t eventually included in the tracklist and if so are you gonna use them either for a future solo project or for a Paramore album?” Williams responded, “there are more songs, yeah. but I’m not planning on another solo album. and I’m not sure if they’d be great for Paramore. I’m ready for the next Paramore album. let’s go.”

She also referenced her band in response to some other questions. One person asked, “are you going to be more involved with the instrumental writing process in paramore albums now,” and she replied, “I wouldn’t say I’ve been un-involved up till now but the thing is we grew up playing together and learning (and the re-learning) how to write together. they are my favorite musicians in the world. I’m excited to see how our writing together grows for this next project.”

Somebody else wondered, “Which song are you most excited to hear us sing back at you on tour,” and Williams answered, “Tour… what’s that??! (kidding) honestly, I can’t wait to hear a lot of songs sung back at me. I’m most looking forward to hearing whatever the next @Paramore songs will sound like.”

Check out more from Williams’ Q&A session here.

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

Following Disney and Lucasfilm’s decision to fire The Mandalorian actress Gina Carano over a series of controversial social media posts that were increasingly anti-Semitic, transphobic, and conspiratorial (Carano pushed anti-mask propaganda along with the “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen), fans have launched an online petition calling for Disney to rehire her. While the petition attempts to take a middle of the road approach by refusing to say whether Carano’s posts were “right or wrong,” but concedes they were a “little extreme,” it doesn’t take long before it rolls out the predictable argument that Carano is a victim of “cancel culture” because of her conservative beliefs. Via Change.org:

This petition is for the executives at Disney. Please, why can’t you just leave politics out of the industry and press on? “The Mandalorian” is a fantastic show, and Gina Carano’s portrayal of Cara Dune is a joy to watch. The Mandalorian wouldn’t be the same without her. To the fans of “The Mandalorian,” please. Speak out. Disney needs to stop the trend of firing actors for controversial tweets, and just keep treating the fans to a great show. Rehire Gina Carano. Firing her isn’t justice.

While Star Wars fans launching online petitions demanding changes to the franchise is nothing new, the authors of this latest endeavor probably should’ve paid attention to Carano’s actions immediately after she was let go by Lucasfilm. The actress signed a movie deal with Ben Shapiro‘s far-right website The DailyWire, and the two of them have been very publicly thumbing their noses at Disney. In fact, Carano claims she couldn’t be happier now that the “totalitarian mob” can’t silence her. “I have only just begun using my voice which is now freer than ever before, and I hope it inspires others to do the same,” she wrote in a statement to Deadline. “They can’t cancel us if we don’t let them.”

(Via Change.org)