In response to the death of George Floyd, the music industry is coming together for “Black Out Tuesday,” a day on which record labels, artists, and other entities will go radio silent. The black out is set to take place tomorrow, June 2.

These companies and people have made their announcements with similarly spirited messages on social media, and the one from Warner Records reads:

“This Tuesday, June 2nd, all of Warner Music Group including Warner Records will observe ‘Black Out Tuesday.’ We will support our employees, artists, and global community.

The music business at WMG will not go on as usual.

While this is only one day, we are committed to continuing the fight for real change. We will be using this day to collectively reflect on what we as a company can do to put action towards change and we will be taking steps in the coming weeks and months.

As part of this, we will be contributing to Black Lives Matter and other organizations that are doing crucial work to combat racial injustice.”

Participating labels include Interscope, Def Jam, Eminem’s Shady Records, Columbia Records, Capitol Music Group, and many others. Artists and industry figures are also putting a pause on their activities: Tim Burgess has postponed listening parties, and Apple Music’s Ebro Darden noted, “All of my shows are cancelled. I will air replays of conversations with community activists, politicians and revolutionary music.”

Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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The National’s Aaron Dessner was the target of a bizarre false claim Sunday. The musician was mistakenly identified as an organizer of the group Antifa, and claims began circulating on social media that Dessner was inciting violence at protests. But the musician was quick to squash the false reports and offered his support to those protesting police brutality.

A video circulated Sunday of a man in Columbus, Ohio appearing to direct protesters. The man in the video held a similar look to that of Dessner, and many began to call for his arrest.

Addressing the claims in a post on social media, Dessner denied the reports and said he is isolating with his family in the rural countryside but ‘fully’ supports the protests:

“This morning I’ve woken up to the unpleasant and surprising news that I’ve been misindentified by some social media users as someone seen encouraging rioting in Columbus, Ohio — I am not the person some are suggesting I am. Nor have I been in Ohio since June 2019. However I do FULLY support peaceful protests and activism against endemic racism and racially motivated violence in this country, which somehow continues generation after generation after generation. Like so many, I’m hoping for peaceful resolution and actual progress addressing these persistent issues in our society.”

Read Dessner’s full response above.

The world of wrestling has lost another star far too soon as Danny Havoc, best known for his work in Combat Zone Wrestling and Game Changer Wrestling, has died. He was only 34 years old. In a social media post about his passing, GCW described Havoc as, “an elite performer that entertained a generation of fans & inspired a generation of aspiring performers,” with CZW agreeing that he was an, “inspiration to so many and a friend to all.”

Havoc (real name Grant Berkland) began his career in CZW in 2005, and would go on to win the company’s Tournament of Death in both 2008 and 2013. He also held the CZW Ultraviolent Underground Championship, won CZW’s World Tag Team Championships on two occasions, and had one run with the World Junior Heavyweight Championship. He announced his retirement from the sport at 2019’s tournament, but returned to work for GCW in February.

Below you can see some of the messages that have begun pouring in from Havoc’s friends and peers, including stars from WWE, NXT, AEW, and Impact Wrestling.

We’d also like to send our thoughts and condolences to Danny’s family and friends. Between this and the tragic passings of Shad Gaspard and Hana Kimura, this has been a really heartbreaking couple of weeks. Rest in peace to Danny Havoc.

There’s been talk for a long time now of the WWE Network moving to a tiered system, with some shows available for free and others behind a paywall, perhaps even more than paid option with more shows for more money. We’re still waiting to hear if that latter part is going to happen eventually, but as of today the free Network tier is officially a reality. This is more than just a set of temporarily free shows like WWE offered back in March — this is an ongoing new option for viewers who want to watch some Sports Entertainment without a monthly subscription.

Without paying any money or even entering a credit card number, fans can watch Raw, Smackdown, and NXT a few weeks after they air on cable. The free tier also offers a selection of WWE PPVs, original shows like Table for 3 and The Bump, and more. They’re even bringing back Raw Talk, the post-show that immediately follows Raw every Monday Night. That will air tonight for paid subscribers and free viewers alike, and will presumably be promoted throughout Monday Night Raw to make people aware of the Network’s new free option.

Here’s the press release from WWE:

WWE® Introduces the New Free Version Of WWE® Network
06/01/2020

STAMFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– WWE (NYSE: WWE) today unveiled the Free Version of WWE Network, the company’s award-winning digital streaming service, unlocking a vast portion of its content library with more than 15,000 action-packed WWE titles now available for free, no credit card required.

The Free Version of WWE Network includes:

• New shows including Raw Talk, streaming Monday nights each week immediately following Raw
• Groundbreaking original series including Monday Night War, Ride Along, Table for 3, Photo Shoot and Story Time
• Recent episodes of WWE’s flagship programs Monday Night Raw, Friday Night SmackDown and NXT
• Select historical WWE pay-per-views and NXT TakeOver events
• Weekly WWE highlights, Top 10, WWE’s The Bump, WWENow, The Best of WWE and WWE Timeline

“The launch of WWE Network’s Free Version is a key component of our company’s digitization strategy and a new way for all fans to be able to experience premium WWE content,” said Jayar Donlan, WWE Executive Vice President, Advanced Media. “As we continue to reimagine WWE Network’s offering, the Free Version will serve as an effective way to reach a broader group of consumers and allow them to experience the history and spectacle of WWE.”

For the past decade, the Dallas Police Department has made use of a smartphone app called iWatch Dallas, which they described in a 2011 tweet as “an app that can be uploaded to your phone so that anonymous tips can be sent to the Dallas Police Department.” However, the app ran into a bit of trouble over the weekend thanks to hordes of K-pop fans.

Over the weekend, Dallas PD brought renewed attention to the app by tweeting, “If you have video of illegal activity from the protests and are trying to share it with @DallasPD, you can download it to our iWatch Dallas app.” In response, K-pop fan accounts decided to implore their followers to overwhelm the app with “FanCam” videos, which are performance clips that focus on one member of a group. Sure enough, the plan worked: Yesterday, Dallas PD tweeted, “Due to technical difficulties iWatch Dallas app will be down temporarily.”

Dallas PD previously explained the purpose of the iWatch app in a blog post, “The iWatch Dallas app is a virtual crime watch that you and your neighbors can use to report behaviors and activities that makes you feel uncomfortable or do not look right while remaining anonymous. The mobile application enables citizens to turn in tips, images and videos about crimes or suspicious activities directly to law enforcement from almost any mobile phone or PC.”

As protests continue across the country in response to police violence and the death of George Floyd, celebrities and musicians are speaking out and urging their followers to support the Black Lives Matter movement. Lizzo is the latest to speak up about the protests, and she is calling for those staying silent to raise their voices against police brutality.

Addressing her followers in a video on social media, Lizzo delivered an affecting message about the protests and demanded for progress to be made. “Protest is not the end of progress, it is the beginning,” she said. Lizzo continued:

“Black people: This is your daily reminder that it is not your job to educate people on racism or white privilege. It is exhausting and if they don’t see it or believe it by now, they don’t want to. There are Googles and there are books, they can do that for themselves.

White people: This is your daily reminder that as long as you stay silent, you are a part of the problem. I know you’re not racist, but you have to be more than that. You have to be anti-racist. Speak up.

And to all the influential people who have spoken up, thank you so much for your allyship and your support. Protest is the beginning of progress, not the end of it. And now that the protesters have everyone’s attention, what are the next steps we’re going to take to make sure that we’re actually moving forward and we don’t go back to this bullsh*t?

Now’s the time. The world is standing still and waiting for action. Let’s make progress.”

Watch Lizzo’s full video message below.

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

There was a lot for John Oliver to cover during Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, including mail-in voting, the launch of HBO Max (“What the f*ck is that, by the way? Does anyone actually know? How do I get it? I’m on it and I don’t know”), and UFC president Dana White intentionally forgetting his name (it’s a whole thing). But he kicked off the episode by addressing the nation-wide protests over George Floyd’s death and police brutality.

Specifically, Fox News chud Tucker Carlson’s reaction to the protests.

“There is so much to say here — some of it complicated, much of it all too clear,” Oliver said. “Or, you know, you could just go on TV, open up your mouth, and let this shit fall out.” He then played a clip of Carlson whining about how “rioting is the one thing you don’t want. Ugly opinions, police brutality, officious birdwatchers, rude and entitled ladies walking their dogs in big-city parks — all of that is bad. But none of it is nearly as bad as what you just saw.” In Carlson’s mind, protests against the death of an unarmed black man are worse than police brutality. Oliver speaks for all of us when he says: “F*ck you.”

“OK, first: F*ck you, Tucker. Second, saying ‘officious birdwatcher’ is deeply offensive, because you’re either trying to both-sides that Central Park incident or insulting fans of this show, who proudly call themselves ‘officious birdwatchers.’ I am the ‘officious bird,’ they are the ‘watchers,’ keep their name out of your mouth.”

Oliver later added, “People like Tucker love to venerate order at moments like this, and that’s easy to do when order in its current form is designed to benefit and protect you. But it’s hard to overstate how clearly we’ve been reminded lately of the hostility of our existing order toward black people who’ve been killed by police on the street [Floyd], killed by police in their own home [Breonna Taylor], killed by wannabe police in the street [Ahmaud Arbery], and threatened with state violence while literally birding [Christian Cooper]. And collectively, that has just got to be some brutality bingo right there.”

You can watch the clip on HBO’s website (or HBO Max, assuming you get it).

This weekend’s George Floyd protests coincided with the 99th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. The event, which was largely unknown to the public at large until The Atlantic published a Ta’Nehisi Coates’ article called The Case For Reparations, in turn inspired showrunner Damon Lindelof to recontextualize Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s iconic Watchmen graphic novel. The HBO series began with a depiction of the Tulsa massacre, and following the series finale (complete with a prevailing Hooded Justice), awareness of the continued effects of racial injustice is not lost on Lindelof. He marked the anniversary on Instagram by urging people to not only show solidarity with protesters but to really get educated on what happened in Tulsa’s Greenwood district.

In doing so, Lindelof made a number or recommendations, including all of Coates’ writings, which Lindelof stated, “[C]hanged the way I saw our country and first made me aware of what happened in Tulsa.” He also pointed towards author James Baldwin’s 1965 debate with William F. Buckley and the New York Times‘ 1619 podcast that digs into the looming shadow of slavery in America. “Educate yourself for Ahmaud and Bre and Floyd,” Lindelof urged. “[D]o it for Eric, Mike, Tamir and Philando… for so many more, TOO many more… and please, most of all, do it for Greenwood.”

In case you haven’t caught HBO’s Watchmen yet, that’d be another educational source to put on the list. Within the series, Lindelof reshaped his source material to “rewrite” history with a fitting amplification of the Hooded Justice character. He was the first costumed vigilante in the Watchmen universe, although he only appeared in the the supplemental pages of the graphic novel, Lindelof notably rewrote this character as a Black man (Will Reeves, played by Louis Gossett Jr.) with incredible results. In the end, the series took down the Cyclops organization that (as rendered in the series) held strong ties to the 1921 Tulsa atrocity. It was a stunning piece of storytelling and a wonderful way to honor the legacy of what was lost at Greenwood. Lindelof also marked Sunday’s anniversary in a way that urged true and lasting action — in the form of education — amid the ongoing Floyd protests.

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