The early 2000s were the heyday of rap crews branching out into multiple forms of media, with groups like Cash Money, No Limit, and State Property self-financing their own films throughout the decade to varying degrees of success. As adherents to that decade’s take on grimy, New York City-centric sounds, the Buffalo, New York-based Griselda Records is embracing that throwback aesthetic in more ways than one, sharing the trailer for their own crime drama film, Conflicted.

Westside Gunn, the mastermind behind the label’s past decade of growth, including its explosion in popularity within the last few years, shared the trailer on Instagram and paid homage to the pioneers of rap label-financed crime action films. “When Master P did Bout It Bout It showing u the N.O. and Hov made Streets Is Watching showing u BK, and Cam’ron made Killa Season showing u Harlem, Griselda & Conflicted shows u Buffalo,” he wrote. “We’re taking it back to when ppl stole your DVDs.” Ah, the good old days.

Gunn seems jazzed about the movie’s potential, saying, “I’ve literally watched this movie every day since its completion… I promise u you will watch this 50x like any other classic in the streets… What Griselda did for music will be the same way for film. It’s all about the art.”

Check out the trailer for Conflicted above.

Over the weekend, an old clip of Megan Fox on Jimmy Kimmel Live! went viral, with the Jennifer’s Body actress recalling how director Michael Bay had her wear “a stars and stripes bikini” when she was 15. The interview is from 2009, the same year that Guardian writer Jason Soloman claims Fox told him that Bay invited her to audition for Transformers at his house, where he made “her wash his Ferrari while he filmed her.”

Those actions, along with the infamous “he wants to be like Hitler” comparison, make Bay come across as a “sexist jerk,” as The Cut put it, but Fox insists that the resurfaced clip casts an unfairly “sinister shadow” over her relationship with the director.

“I know that a discussion has erupted online surrounding some of my experiences in Hollywood and the subsequent mishandling of this information by the media and society in general. While I greatly appreciate the outpouring of support, I do feel I need to clarify some of the details as they have been lost in the retelling of the event and cast a sinister shadow that doesn’t really, in my opinion, belong,” Fox wrote in a note on Instagram:

“I was around 15 or 16 years old when I was an extra in Bad Boys II… It’s important to note however that when I auditioned for Transformers, I was 19 or 20. I did ‘work’ (me pretending to know how to hold a wrench) on one of Michael’s Ferrari’s during one of the audition scenes. It was at the Platinum Dunes studio parking lot, there were several other crew members and employees present, and I was at no point undressed or anything similar

So as far as this particular audition story I was not underaged at the time, and I was not made to ‘wash’ or work on someone’s cars in a way that was extraneous from the material in the actual script. I hope that whatever opinions are formed around these episodes will at least be seeded in the facts of the events”

Fox also said that she’s “endured some genuinely harrowing experiences in a ruthlessly misogynistic industry,” and that while there are “many names that deserve to be going viral in cancel culture right now, they are safely stored in the fragmented recesses of my heart.” As for Bay and Transformer producer Steven Spielberg, however, “I was never assaulted or preyed upon in what I felt was a sexual manner. I’m thankful to all of you who are brave enough to speak out and I’m grateful to all of you who are taking it upon yourself to support, uplift, and bring comfort to those who have been harmed by a violent and toxic societal paradigm.” You can read the entire note below.

Bunny, a Sheepadoodle in Tacoma, Washington, has become a star on TikTok for appearing to communicate with her owner, Alexis Devine, through a soundboard.

In the video below, Bunny appears to ask for take a trip to the park and understands when her owner says it’s time to stay home. Bunny responds by telling Devine, “Love you, mom.”

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In another video, Bunny says she has a question and then presses, “Ouch.” After the interaction, Devine took Bunny to the vet and discovered she had infection in her nose.

Devine says that she is hopeful, but rightfully skeptical, about her experiment.

“I am not a scientist but I recognize that large amounts of data need to be collected before we can make a judgment as to whether or not Bunny actually understands what she’s saying,” she said. “I’m also aware that I inevitably skew the data in favor of saying that Bunny is consciously communicating with me.”

However, Devine’s attempts to teach Bunny how to speak have their basis in actual research. Last year, Upworthy profiled a speech-language pathologist in San Diego, California who has taught her dog to communicate in five-word sentences using a similar soundboard.

Why is Stella mad?

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This week, many artists issued releases in celebration of Juneteenth that rank among the best new pop music of the week. HER shared the poignant single “I Can’t Breathe,” John Legend released his inspiring album, Bigger Love, with some big-name features, and Victoria Monet teamed up with Khalid for the passionate number “Experience.”

Each week, Uproxx rounds up the best new pop releases. Listen up.

John Legend — “U Move, I Move” Feat. Jhene Aiko

John Legend debuted his triumphant record Bigger Love this week and with it arrived the best new pop contender “U Move, I Move” with Jhene Aiko. In a statement alongside the album, Legend said he hopes it inspires: “During these painful times, some of us may wonder if it’s ok to laugh or dance or be romantic. Lately, the images of black people in the media have been showing us with knees on our necks, in mourning, or expressing our collective outrage. We feel all those emotions. But It’s important for us to continue to show the world the fullness of what it is to be black and human. Through our art, we are able to do that. This album is a celebration of love, joy, sensuality, hope, and resilience, the things that make our culture so beautiful and influential.”

HER — “I Can’t Breathe”

In light of the movement protesting George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police, HER shared the touching ballad “I Can’t Breathe.” Over a subdued beat, HER takes an aim at contemporary politics. “All the corruption, injustice, the same crimes / Always a problem if we do or don’t fight / And we die, we don’t have the same right,” she sings.

Victoria Monet — “Experience” Feat. Khalid, SG Lewis

Victoria Monet teamed up with Khalid and producer SG Lewis for the shimmering number “Experience.” In a message shared to Instagram, Monet wrote that she decided to push the song back “because of the disgusting and confusing state of the world.” Monet added: “We hope this brings some solace and joy to you. We hope the double-ended message of this song is heard: based on experience, we want change! We matter, we always have. Here’s to making changes and celebrating US the best ways we know how.”

Justine Skye — “Bulletproof”

Opening with jaunty marimba, Justine Skye’s “Bulletproof” arrives on her highly-anticipated sophomore album Bare With Me. “The new songs on there mean so much to me,” Justine wrote on Instagram. “I’ve been writing my lil heart out so go dive into it. Let me know how you feel.”

ENZI — “Retrograde”

Nashville-based rising singer ENZI expands her catalog with the room-filling number “Retrograde.” In a statement, ENZI describes the inspiration behind the track: “I was roaming around some audio sample websites when I found a voicemail of a guy asking someone, ‘when the hell does mercury get out of retrograde because this is driving me batshit?’ I thought it was hilarious and I started thinking about what it meant when mercury goes into retrograde. I’m not an astrology expert, but the belief is retrograde throws everyone out of whack and makes people really impulsive and prone to mistakes.”

BTS — “Stay Gold”

Continuing to hone their global audience, K-pop supergroup BTS announced they are reworking some of their songs to be in Japanese. “Stay Gold” arrives as a preview to their new project, Map Of The Soul: Journey, which features two new songs alongside their revised music.

Callaghan Belle — “Sleepwalking”

Callaghan Belle got her start working behind-the-scenes as a songwriter and producer for the likes of JoJo and Colbie Caillat. But now, the musician aims to break into her own with “Sleepwalking.” In a statement, Belle explains, “‘Sleepwalking’ is about the denial phase of heartbreak. That moment when you first wake up in the morning and you don’t remember you broke up. The song is metaphorically extending that brief moment of blissful ignorance. It’s trying to live there for as long as possible. For me, the lyrics depict wandering through a ghost town of memories, going through the motions of an old relationship.”

Lydia Ford — “Overrated”

Irish alt-pop singer Lydia Ford shares her triumphant single “Overrated” this week. Over buoyant instrumentals, Ford gets real with a toxic relationship. “It’s not my job to be your therapist,” she sharply quips at the bridge.

Elenoir — “Wrong Party”

Boundary-pushing Italian art-pop singer Elenoir released the bewitching track “Wrong Party” as a catchy ballad. Alongside the track, the singer shared a stanza from Shakespeare’s Macbeth: “Our is Mind is the Kingdom we have to rule the most, forgive its tricks. The World is the most enchanting place we are gifted to live in, take your own sweet chance to dissimulate, but don’t give up on yourself, ever. Dance when it seems to be the worst moment.”

Pink Sweats — “Not Alright”

“Not Alright” heralds Pink Sweats’ upcoming album The Prelude. The song was originally supposed to arrive on the record, but, in light of the protests happening across the country, the singer opted to share the track early. “‘Not Alright’ is a song I wrote about the wide range of feelings you experience being Black in America,” Pink Sweats wrote in a statement.

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

Conor Oberst has remained busy over the past decade with a handful of solo albums and his recent Better Oblivion Community Center effort with Phoebe Bridgers. All the while, Oberst has given many a performance in promotion of these endeavors. One thing he hasn’t done in some time, though, is perform with his recently reunited Bright Eyes, who have been active lately and just officially announced a new album.

The band’s most recent show was at Honolulu’s Hawaii Theatre in November 2011, and they haven’t performed together since then. They changed that last night, though, when they gave their first performance in almost a decade on The Late Show.

For the performance, the band chose “Mariana Trench,” the new single they released alongside the recent album announcement. The performance took place in a studio with all three band members and others present for a nicely filmed, multiple-camera presentation.

At least some individual parts may have been filmed separately, though, as there seem to be some slight continuity errors when transitioning between shots (like at around 3:30 into the video, when one shot shows backing singers in one part of the room, and the next shot of Oberst singing in front of that same area doesn’t feature the singers behind him). Either way, this was pulled off in a nice and mostly seamless way.

Watch Oberst and company perform “Mariana Trench” above.

Rappers often feud with each other but it seems as though lately, they’ve had more disagreements with brands and retailers for hawking questionable wares and making iffy public statements. One of the biggest offenders is Walmart, whose website operates similarly to Amazon’s in that outsider retailers can rent “space” on the site to sell goods you wouldn’t normally find in Walmart’s brick-and-mortar stores. In December 2017, 2 Chainz went off on the brand for knocking off his dabbing Santa sweaters (which were supposed to be for charity) and now, another Atlanta star is mad at Walmart for selling bootleg branded goods.

Lil Baby, whose album My Turn has had an impressive run on top of the Billboard charts this year, woke up to the news that somebody is using the Walmart site to sell copies of his signature chain. Lil Baby, who proudly reps his “4 pockets full” mantra with a 4PF chain and clothing line, logged into his sparingly used Twitter to let fans know, “Walmart got me f*cced up.”

The rapper’s popularity has skyrocketed within the last few years thanks to a string of successful singles and projects including My Turn and most recently the single “Bigger Picture,” which he released as a response to ongoing protests against police brutality. So, it makes sense that fans would want to be a part of his movement — but maybe knocking off his trademark looks isn’t quite the right way to do it. At $70 for the fake 4PF chain, it’s probably not an investment you’d want to make anyway — unless you want your neck to turn green.

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J.K. Rowling’s latest round of controversial comments about trans people (“If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased”) led to a renewed backlash against the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts author. Very quickly, Daniel Radcliffe expresesd disagreement with Rowling, and Eddie Redmayne, followed suit. Rowling’s latest book, The Ickabog, appeared to be in jeopardy when Hatchette employees threatened to stop working on the book, and now, some of Rowling’s fellow authors don’t want to be associated with her literary agency.

Variety reports that four authors from the U.K.’s The Blair Partnership are outta there. Among them are Drew Davies, Ugla Stefanía Kristjonudottir Jonsdottir, and Fox Fisher, who all resigned while stressing that their decision was not an easy one and issuing the following statement:

“After J. K. Rowling’s public comments on transgender issues, we reached out to the agency with an invitation to reaffirm their stance to transgender rights and equality. After our talks with them, we felt that they were unable to commit to any action that we thought was appropriate and meaningful.”

The authors continued while claiming that freedom of speech should not be valued at the expense of further oppression of underrepresented groups. They also feel that both publishers and agencies must make meaningful change and offer platforms for these groups, and it’s clear that they’re not onboard with The Blair Partnership’s response to the Rowling matter.

Days after Rowling’s latest round of anti-trans tweets, she penned a lengthy essay, in which she elaborated upon her unchanged point of view. After stating that “accusations of TERFery have been sufficient to intimidate many people,” she wrote at length about her “five reasons for being worried about the new trans activism.”

(Via Variety)

Lil Yachty appears to have found himself in a scary situation yesterday, but thankfully, it seems he is alright. TMZ reports the rapper crashed his Ferrari on the highway, but was not seriously injured.

The publication notes that Yachty was driving the car on Georgia State Route 400 in Atlanta on Monday. It was raining, which made the roads slick and caused Yachty to hydroplane, spin out, and crash into a barrier on the side of the road.

The good news is that it appears Yachty is doing fine, as he only sustained minor injuries to his arm, and it’s not clear if he even went to the hospital following the crash. As for the car, it is apparently totaled.

Last night, Yachty shared a tweet that may be connected to the reported crash, writing, “So thankful for my life. Never take it for granted.” This is as close as the rapper has come to addressing the situation.

The rapper is fresh off the release of his latest album, Lil Boat 3, which just came out towards the end of May. The record features a roster of esteemed guests that includes Drake, DaBaby, ASAP Rocky, Tyler The Creator, Tierra Whack, Future, Mike Will Made-It, Draft Day, Lil Keed, Lil Durk, and Young Thug.