Month: May 2021

Last week, Chloe X Halle celebrated the one-year anniversary of “Do It,”, the second and most popular single from their excellent sophomore album, Ungodly Hour. The track became the duo’s most successful song and helped push the Bailey sisters into the mainstream spotlight. Months after they released the single, the once inseparable duo was forced to take some extended time apart as Halle crossed the pond to film her role in Disney’s live-action rendition of The Little Mermaid. All the while, Chloe has been sharing excellent covers of songs. On Sunday she delivered another one.

Chloe returned with a dazzling cover of Rihanna’s “Love On The Brain,” a highlight from the singer’s 2016 album Anti. Chloe delivered her own rendition of the song with only slight alterations, making it her own while not straying too far away from the original. The new cover arrives after she took on Cardi B’s “Be Careful,” a performance that the rapper said left her “smiling from ear to ear.” Chloe also covered Silk Sonic’s “Leave The Door Open,” The Weeknd’s “Earned It,” Giveon’s “Heart Anniversary,” and more.

You can watch the “Love On The Brain” cover in the post above.

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

Prior to Sunday, only three albums had spent more than one week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2021. The first was Taylor Swift’s Evermore as it claimed the top spot twice in January. Next was Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Album, which spent its first ten weeks dominating the charts after its debut in late January — the most in Billboard history. Nearly three months later, Justin Bieber’s Justice would land two nonconsecutive weeks atop the album charts. Now, Moneybagg Yo can add himself to this list, as his latest album, A Gangsta’s Pain, is back on top.

Just two weeks ago, the Memphis rapper’s project debuted at No. 1 thanks to a total of 110,000 album units in its first week. Two weeks later, it’s back on top thanks to 61,000 album units, a number comprised of 60,000 streaming equivalent album units. The album’s sales last week are the second-lowest number by a No. 1 album this year behind Taylor Swift’s Evermore, which posted 56,000 when it topped the chart in January. On top of that, this week’s Billboard 200 makes the first time in two months that no albums debuted in the top ten positions of the chart.

After A Gangsta’s Pain debuted at No. 1, Moneybagg shared a video for “Free Promo,” with Lil Durk and Polo G, which made for the fifth song from the album to receive the video treatment.

If the existence of Eva Longoria’s forthcoming movie about Flamin’ Hot Cheetos seemed too good to be true, that’s because it might be. A new piece by The Los Angeles Times spills what may be cold water on a story that was already considered an urban legend, in which a janitor was the one who hatched the new, popular, outside-the-box flavor for the popular cheese snack. But that’s all it is: an urban legend, at least according to parent company Frito-Lay.

The story involves one Richard Montañez, who was hired as a teenager by the snack company as a member of their cleaning staff. He wound up rising the ranks, becoming vice president of multicultural sales and community promotions for PepsiCo. That much is true. What may not be true is Montañez’s claim that he came up with the idea for the Flamin’ Hot flavor by adding spices reminiscent of Mexican seasoning, which they could sell to the Latinx community. That flavor first hit the market in 1992.

But, the L.A. Times claims, there’s no record of this claim. “None of our records show that Richard was involved in any capacity in the Flamin’ Hot test market,” a spokesperson for Frito-Lay told the publication.. “We have interviewed multiple personnel who were involved in the test market, and all of them indicate that Richard was not involved in any capacity in the test market.”

They do allege that Montañez started claiming he invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos when he became a motivational speaker. Frito-Lay, meanwhile, did nothing to disabuse his listeners of this claim. They did, however, allegedly tell Longoria that the tale she wants to tell may possibly be tall. The film is still allegedly a go, though Longoria’s involvement seems to be in doubt. Still, at least someone in charge is going by the old maxim, heard in the classic Western The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: When the truth becomes legend, print the legend — even after an exposé in a major newspaper.

(Via The Los Angeles Times)

Sam Houston State and South Dakota State met on Sunday for an unusual FCS Championship. After delaying their seasons in the fall due to COVID-19, they finally were able to compete in the spring. The two teams were the top two seeds in the FCS playoffs coming in and both had a chance at their first-ever national championship, making it an incredibly meaningful matchup for both programs.

Unfortunately, for the first half of the game, the weather kept the potential of the contest low. It also didn’t help that SDSU starting quarterback, Mark Gronkowski, had to leave the game early with an injury. For a large portion fo the game, Sam Houston State dominated due to a mix of weather and the Jackrabbits’ inability to get the ball moving on offense.

When the sun came out, though, so did the SDSU offense. Down 17-7, the Jackrabbits offense found new life in freshman running back Isaiah Davis. He put the team on his back in a five-play, 72-yard drive capped off by a 28-yard run. A few drives later, Davis again came up big with an 85-yard touchdown run to give the Jackrabbits the 21-17 advantage. Watch him barrel through the entire Sam Houston State defense in one run.

On the other side of the ball, SDSU’s defense had stepped up big in the second half, really getting after the Sam Houston State quarterback Eric Schmid. However, despite the physical attack, he managed to lead Sam Houston State down for a few shots at the endzone. With 16 seconds left he found his target in Ife Adeyi.

With only 10 seconds left, South Dakota State attempted a few hook and lateral plays, but to little success. The clock ran out and Sam Houston State won their first ever FCS Championship.

This is a huge moment for Sam Houston State and an absolutely brutal ending for South Dakota State. For years, both of these teams had been bullied by the powerhouse of FCS in North Dakota State, but the Bison were facing a down season after Trey Lance’s departure for the NFL among other top players. If there was ever a year to take home the title this was the one. Sam Houston came out on top and SDSU will be left wondering what could’ve been.

This was also a huge legacy victory for Sam Houston State coach K.C. Keeler. With this championship he now has the most playoff wins in FCS History, with 24, passing Jim Tressell.

Kash Doll fell victim to theft this past weekend. According to TMZ, the Detroit rapper was forced to call the police on Saturday after she discovered a thief broke into her car and made off with $500,000 worth of jewelry. The publication reports that the incident occurred between 11 p.m. and 5 p.m. while she was recording a music video in San Fernando Valley. The thief made off with a large sum of jewelry as well as a $50,000 Louis Vuitton bag. TMZ added that none of the windows on Kash Doll’s car were broken, which suggests that the items were taken through an unlocked door.

No arrests have been made so far but the hope is that Kash Doll can get her items recovered as soon as possible. The incident comes after a string of releases over the past couple of months from the rapper, including the flirtatious “Bossa Nova,” with Tee Grizzley, which later saw a video that put a wild twist on Goldilocks and the Three Bears. She also recently dropped the single “Thumbin” and joined fellow Detroiter Babyface Ray on “Allowance,” off his Unf*ckwitable EP.

As for what’s next, Kash Doll will join Snoop Dogg, La La Anthony, Steve Harris, and Russell Hornsby as actors on the upcoming series Black Mafia Family. She will play a character named Monique who’s described as a “paralegal for the biggest defense attorney in Detroit and a strong single mom determined to give her daughter a better life.”

The Golden State Warriors led the Memphis Grizzlies by 17 going into the fourth quarter and it looked for all the world like they were about to cruise to a win and lock up the all-important 8-seed in the West going into the play-in tournament. However, a 26-7 run from Memphis to open the quarter saw them take an improbable 95-93 lead midway through the fourth, and suddenly things got tense inside the Chase Center.

However, one of the two teams has Stephen Curry and the other does not, and that was all the difference. After Golden State went back in front 100-97, Curry hit three consecutive threes to run the lead up to 12 and put an end to the Grizzlies’ furious comeback.

After the last one, Steph did the Baron Davis shirt lift celebration that he made famous after his legendary dunk on Andrei Kirilenko, letting out a big scream to the Warriors faithful to put a bow on a sensational performance.

Curry finished the night with 46 points, going 9-for-22 from three-point range — which was three more made threes than Memphis had as a team. The Grizzlies fought valiantly, led by a big 29 and 16 night from Jonas Valanciunas, 18 points from Dillon Brooks (who fouled out when the game was tied at 91-91), and 16 points and nine assists from Ja Morant, but they just couldn’t create enough offense consistently to hang with Golden State. We know for sure that Memphis will host the Spurs in the 9-10 play-in game on ESPN on Wednesday, with the Warriors taking the 8-seed and awaiting word on where they will be headed.

The most likely scenario is a monster showdown with the Lakers, who will be their opponent as the 7-seed with a loss to New Orleans OR a Portland win over Denver. Should the Blazers lose and the Lakers win, Curry and company will head north to Portland for the play-in.

To the surprise of her extremely faithful fans, Nicki Minaj re-uploaded her beloved mixtape Beam Me Up Scotty to streaming services on Friday, with three brand new songs. One of them is “Seeing Green,” a collaboration with Drake and Lil Wayne, which marked the trio’s first song together since their 2018 effort “No Frauds.” While the song was extrmely well-received, she had to admit that she felt differently about it.

In a post on Twitter, Minaj confessed that her verse on the track was not the best out of the three in her eyes. “Way too many,” she wrote in response to someone who asked for her favorite Drake and Lil Wayne bar ever. “All I know is they washed me on #SeeingGreen. I’m woman enough to admit when I’ve been washed on a track by the Greats.” She added, “It’s ok #Barbz I’ve washed them b4. We’ll live through this one. I was still a lil rusty. I washed them in my head on #Fractions.”

Minaj also revealed how long it took for her to complete her verse. “Honestly I kept coming back to it for like a week,” she revealed. “I have like 7 diff versions of my verse on that song. and no I’m not gonna upload them. and I took out a very funny line from #Fractions a cpl days b4 we released. It was such a fkng Ki”

Beam Me Up Scotty is available now on all DSPs. Get it here.

Seth Rogen is one of the most famous people on earth, but you know who’s even more famous? Beyonce. The actor and filmmaker has been making the rounds, promoting his new tome, Yearbook, and he’s done everything from telling behind-the-scenes stories to slamming Ted Cruz (again). On top of it all he also has a pretty hilarious Beyonce story.

Rogen spilled the beans on E! News’ Daily Pop (as per Entertainment Weekly), recounting the time he saw her while presenting at the Grammys. (It appears to be the 2011 edition.) He saw her with Gwyneth Paltrow and he likely figured it wouldn’t be too big a deal if he just walked up to her, unannounced.

“And I charged over. Instinct took over,” he said. But one of her employees wasn’t having it. “I was hit so hard by her security guard that I spilled a drink. I was drinking a screwdriver, which is a bad drink. I deserved what I got.” He added, “I was humiliated and I didn’t get to meet Beyonce.”

What’s worse, he still had to present an award. And so he held his arms in what he called “a very weird position,” to obscure the spilled screwdriver on his clothes.

It’s a tale Rogen’s told before, both on Jimmy Kimmel back in 2019 and again in Yearbook, which is a collection of anecdotes and personal essays. When telling the tale to Kimmel, he said he’d learned his lesson about storming up to other famous people, especially if they’re Beyonce Knowles.

“So I was wary of going near her because I look like someone who you would want to keep away from Beyoncé in general,” Rogen said. “I waited for her to approach me, which they teach you. She was very nice and my beard actually got stuck in her sequin a little bit. If you look closely, you’ll see some gray hair on her shoulder.”

The two would eventually share the screen, sort of: They both appeared as voices in the 2019 “live-action” (but still CGI) remake of The Lion King.

(Via EW)

Olivia Rodrigo is less than a week away from dropping her debut album, Sour, an effort that will hopefully show The High School Musical: The Musical: The Musical Series star’s full artistry. It will also include her chart-topping single, “Drivers License,” which spent eight consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart. Before the full-length finally drops, the singer brought her talents to Saturday Night Live for a pair of passionate performances.

Rodrigo began the night with a strong rendition of “Drivers License,” which she delivered under bright red and purple lights. In her second song, she played her newest single, “Good 4 U,” which leans heavily into the pop-punk lane and gives flashes of the singer’s versatility. Those who enjoyed Paramore’s “Misery Business” should expect to be fans of Rodrigo’s newest effort.

Sour is set to arrive on May 21. The full-length effort boasts 11 songs and is led by “Drivers License” and “Good 4 U,” as well as “Deja Vu,” which she shared at the beginning of April and which she described as a song that would hopefully prevent her from being pigeonholed into “this category of ‘sad ballad girl’ thing.”

You can watch Rodrigo’s SNL performances in the videos above.

Sour is out 3/21 via Geffen Records. Pre-order it here.

If you didn’t grow up in the ‘80s, you may not know Ricky Schroder as a former child actor. You probably know him as a washed-up Hollywood guy who’s now a Trumpist stooge. Last November, it was revealed the alum of the largely forgotten sitcom Silver Spoons was one of those who helped bail out Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who shot two protesters to death last summer. It took him another six months but he came back with a next-level sequel: Turns out he’s also an anti-masker who harasses frontline workers.

On Sunday, a video Schroder posted went viral. It found the actor confronting a Costco employee, who wouldn’t let enter the premises without a mask. Schroder gave him a hard time. The employee held his ground, patiently explaining that, though the C.D.C. had said masks weren’t necessary for those who’ve been vaccinated — a mere 36% of the nation’s populace, as per The New York Times — they were still requiring patrons to wear something over the nose, mouth, and chin.

Schroder was livid, demanding a refund of his Coctco membership, and advocating that others do the same. After a manager gives him one, Schroder turned his phone onto his aging, weathered, no longer child-like visage — a surely shocking image, even to those who watched his stint on latter day seasons of NYPD Blue.

It’s clear Schroder thought himself a hero, fighting for freedom. But those who made his name go viral for the second time in about six months felt otherwise. To them, he was an obnoxious winger cruelly badgering a blue collar worker who almost certainly wasn’t being paid enough to deal with his abuse.

Indeed, it was the worker himself who was seen as the hero, unflappably taking on what was likely his umpteenth belligerent anti-masker.

Others pointed out Schroder’s other sins, such as bailing out someone who’s awaiting trial for two counts of murder.

Or that he was twice arrested for domestic violence.

Others felt that he should find other things to do with his time.

Some pointed out that Schroder’s among august company when it comes to Hollywood wingers.

And children of the ‘80s just felt shook.