Author: GoneTrending

Earlier this year, as JID promoted his new album The Forever Story, the Atlanta rapper recalled some of the record deals he considered before signing with J. Cole’s label Dreamville, including Quality Control and Rich Homie Quan‘s label. However, in explaining why he turned down those deals, it looks like he’s incensed at least one of those parties. In a new interview with HipHopDX, Quan not only refuted JID’s story but he also bet big money for the Dreamville rapper to prove it.

“I remember talking to JID,” he recalled. “He’s from Atlanta. As far as the contract, that’s cap. He knows that’s cap. I’ve never, ever sent no contract to no artist. If I want to sign you, I’ve got the best entertainment lawyer in the world. I’ve been in f’d up situations so why would I put an artist in one? … If he can show me a contract that I sent him, I’ll give him a million dollars.”

Of course, the recording industry is as littered with tales of inequitable contracts as frauds and scams, so it’s possible that both artists believe that they’re telling the truth. Perhaps some unscrupulous hustler used Quan’s name to lure artists to their own endeavor, or perhaps Quan was unaware that a legitimate offer he made included JID, who’s a member of Spillage Village along with Earthgang and may have been a package deal. Either way, the real takeaway should be clear; artists should always make sure their business is in order.

You can watch Rich Homie Quan’s interview with HipHopDX above.

With Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery now streaming on Netflix, viewers might be curious how much they need to know about the original Knives Out to enjoy the film. Well, here’s the good news: You don’t need to watch the first movie to enjoy the “sequel.” The only connective tissue is Daniel Craig, who plays genteel southern detective Benoit Blanc. In fact, we can confirm that Glass Onion doesn’t even reference the first movie at all. There’s a brief moment in the film where one of Blanc’s previous cases is mentioned, but it is not the murder mystery at the heart of Knives Out. You can go into Glass Onion completely cold.

To drive that point home, writer/director Rian Johnson recently revealed that he’s not thrilled with Knives Out being forced into the title for Glass Onion. Via The Atlantic:

I’ve tried hard to make them self-contained. Honestly, I’m pissed off that we have A Knives Out Mystery in the title. You know? I want it to just be called Glass Onion. I get it, and I want everyone who liked the first movie to know this is next in the series, but also, the whole appeal to me is it’s a new novel off the shelf every time. But there’s a gravity of a thousand suns toward serialized storytelling.

In other words, think of Glass Onion as an Agatha Christie novel, which were an inspiration for Knives Out. Yes, they star the same detective, but unlike the Marvel movies or Star Wars, you don’t need to know anything else to enjoy the story. There’s no dense canon or lore, just the game unfolding before you.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is available for streaming on Netflix.

(Via The Atlantic)

The days (or months) of having “two baddies, two baddies, one Porsche” stuck in your head may be (temporarily) gone soon.

Yesterday (December 26), SM Entertainment announced that a repackaged album is coming from NCT 127. Following the release of their fourth studio album 2 Baddies with the lead single of the same name, the record-breaking NCT sub-unit comprises Taeil, Johnny, Taeyong, Yuta, Doyoung, Jaehyun, Jungwoo, Mark, and Haechan will return with Ay-Yo next month on January 30.

The repackaged album will contain the same 12 songs from 2 Baddies but will include three additional tracks including the lead single “Ay-Yo.” Pre-orders for the album will begin on January 6.

Check out the tracklist to 2 Baddies below:

1. “Faster”
2. “질주 (2 Baddies)”
3. “Time Lapse”
4. “불시착 (Crash Landing)”
5. “Designer”
6. “윤슬 (Gold Dust)”
7. “흑백 영화 (Black Clouds)”
8. “Playback”
9. “Tasty (貘)”
10. “Vitamin”
11. “LOL (Laugh-Out-Loud)”
12. “1, 2, 7 (TIME STOPS)”

Between now and January 30, NCT 127 will be making their way back to the States for three additional stops on their Neo City: The Link tour. The group will make stops in Chicago, IL on January 9, Houston, TX on January 11, and Atlanta, GA on January 13. The group will head to South America to perform in major cities like Sao Paulo, Brazil (January 18-20), followed by Santiago, Chile (January 22), Bogota, Colombia (January 25), and Mexico City, Mexico (January 28).

Kendrick Lamar did a new profile with the New York Times that dropped today, where he shares the behind-the-scenes details of his 2022 album, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.

The interview touches on the album’s lead single, “The Heart Part 5,” and the accompanying music video. For those who might not have seen it, the video found Lamar transforming into a number of figures, including Tupac, Will Smith, Nipsey Hussle, and more controversial figures such as Kanye West and Jussie Smollett.

As it turns out, Lamar had been working on the concept with Dave Free years prior, through discussions about “polarizing figures” and behavior. “I look at everything as a social experiment,” Dave shared.

From there, the two decided to include another surprising duo in their video development discussions: South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. While Lamar and Dave are reportedly developing a live-action comedy with Parker and Stone, their conversations took a surprising spin. Parker and Stone own a company specializing in using deepfake technology that helped Lamar and Dave exact their vision.

“You see Kendrick turned into Tupac, Kendrick turned into Kanye, and I think we had Eminem,” Stone said in Lamar’s profile.

It went on to earn a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video, so it seems the partnership worked out.

While elected United States officials remain divided on the war between Ukraine and Russia, the conflict continues to rage. Although reports reveal Ukraine forces are making progress, non-profit organizations are still pleading for monetary support. Legendary rock band Pink Floyd is answering the call. Their song, “Hey Hey Rise Up,” has hit a record charitable milestone.

Despite founding member Roger Waters‘ personal feelings about the tensions, remaining members vocalist and guitarist David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason decided to donate the proceeds from the song to humanitarian organizations (Hospitallers, The Kharkiv And Przemyśl Project, Vostok SOS, Kyiv Volunteer, and Livyj Bereh) in the area.

In a statement released to NME, the band shared that the song raised £450,000 (British pounds) from single sales and streaming revenue, while Gilmour and Mason personally donated £50,000, bringing the collective total to £500,000. When converted into US currency, the total comes to just over $600,000.

When asked why they released the song, Gilmour said, “We, like so many, have been feeling the fury and the frustration of this vile act of an independent, peaceful democratic country being invaded and having its people murdered by one of the world’s major powers.”

Initially released in July this year, Gilmour wasn’t sure the track would gain traction, saying, “I hope it will receive wide support and publicity. We want to raise funds for humanitarian charities and raise morale. We want to express our support for Ukraine and, in that way, show that most of the world thinks that it is totally wrong for a superpower to invade the independent democratic country that Ukraine has become.”

Pink Floyd fans showed their support by streaming the song in droves.

To stream “Hey Hey Rise Up,” click here.

(Emily In Paris spoilers will obviously be found below.)

If you’re reading this blog post, then you most definitely have already binged Emily In Paris Season 3 in less than a week. And you’re probably wondering how long you have to wait to see fallout from the cliffhanger ending. Camille being pregnant with Gabriel’s baby further complicates matters, and there’s no telling whether he and Emily will get together for real or if he’ll try (in vain) to make things work with his runaway bride. Then there’s the matter of Camille cheating on Gabriel (with a woman, so he’s almost certainly the father), and it’s a rip-roaring mess in France, alright.

Will there be a Season 4 of this wildly popular show? Yes, that round was greenlit after the show’s successful Season 2. Will the next followup contain a reference to those murderous gays due to Bruno Gouery appearing in The White Lotus, to the surprise of Emily fans? One can only hope. Now, onto the question of a release date because even the dudes enjoy this fluffy show.

According to Variety, filming of Seasons 3 and 4 bumped right up against each other and began in September 2022. In all likelihood, Season 4 is in the can with gears churning towards making it a fully realized batch of episodes. This is similar to the approach taken by Seasons 4 and 5 of Netflix’s Cobra Kai as previously revealed to us by fan-favorite cast member Jacob Bertrand. That approach allowed us to see two Cobra Kai seasons within one year of each other, so can we cross fingers for the same pattern with Emily In Paris (perhaps with a late 2023 release)?

Hopefully, that’s the case. Also worth noting: Netflix has been slow to green light Season 6 of Cobra Kai despite a rabid audience reception for Season 5, so will Season 4 of Emily In Paris be followed by the same streaming hesitation? That would be a shame, but let’s hope that further renewal news for both shows will soon be forthcoming. In the meantime, maybe the McBaguette will be kind enough to make a stateside appearance.

Emily In Paris Season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.

Looking back, it makes a lot of sense why I didn’t see Love Actually in theaters. Love Actually was released in theaters in November of 2003 and, at the time, I was living in St. Louis and I was going through a terrible breakup and the last thing I would want to do at the time is buy one ticket to a movie called “Love Actually.” A breakup that was bad enough that, a few months later, I decided, “Hey, maybe I should move to New York City. That sounds like a good idea.” (I still live here.) So, anyway, my point is that I was preoccupied during its theatrical run and then pretty busy during its initial home video blitz.

The thing is, I don’t remember Love Actually becoming “a thing” until later. It was a modest hit in the United States (and a pretty massive hit worldwide), but it’s always weird when you realize you missed out on something that seems pretty universally accepted as something everyone has seen. There are few movies like that. You know, where people don’t even ask if you’ve seen the movie. It is just assumed. They just go into their references and then I have to sit there and pretend I get them.

To be fair, I’ve seen bits and pieces on cable. It’s almost impossible to avoid Love Actually completely. Obviously, I’m aware of the Keira Knightley and Andrew Lincoln scene at the door, which has been parodied one million times, including this year in a cell phone commercial starring the two leads of Scrubs. Here are two funny things about that scene. The first is I didn’t understand the context. I had no idea Andrew Lincoln plays a guy in love with his best friend’s wife. (I have been warned by people who love this movie to not get too deep into this strange plot point here. Summing it up with, “We already know.” Fair enough.)

The other thing I assumed was this was the dramatic last scene of Love Actually. It is not. After this scene there are still 45 minutes left in the movie. But here’s the thing I realized about what I think makes Love Actually addictive. The entire movie is composed of “dramatic last scenes.”

So before we get into that and you start yelling at me on social media, I am not here to make fun of Love Actually. I’m actually embarrassed it took me this long to watch it. And no one forced me to watch Love Actually. A few days ago I had some time to kill and just watched it by myself. As I watched, it’s one of those things where I realized two things: One, yes, as I mentioned, I get why this is so popular. And two, this is not the movie I quite thought it was and, free from its edited cable run, this movie has a surprising amount of nudity for no real reason. I am not judging that aspect at all other than to say I didn’t realize this beloved holiday classic would be on par, nudity-wise, with popping in Porky’s. (Speaking of holiday classics, it never fails to delight me that the director of A Christmas Story also directed two Porky’s movies.)

Okay, so, back to the point that Love Actually is made up of nonstop dramatic endings. Think of almost, literally, every scene in this movie. If the credits played right after, would you be at all surprised? Obviously, when Mark reveals his love for Juliet through written out cue cards, the credits could run right after that and it would feel right. Actually, go back to one of the first scenes in the movie, Juliet and Peter’s (Chiwetel Ejiofor; literally everyone is in this movie, somehow) wedding. When “All You Need is Love” starts playing, that’s a dramatic ending! The credits could start playing right there and I would have thought, “well that’s nice.” When Hugh Grant’s David finally tells off the President of the United States (Billy Bob Thornton) to a round of applause, the credits could roll. I truly believe this was Richard Curtis’s intention. “People love emotional dramatic endings, what if we made an entire movie is only that?” It’s like that muffin-top episode of Seinfeld. Why mess around with the parts people don’t want?

(Speaking of parts you don’t want, yeah I could have done without a couple of the storylines that aren’t as exciting. And, again, I was warned not to focus too much on that either and that came with the same caveat, “We already know.” Fair enough. Though I have noticed people seem to disagree on what their least favorite storyline is. Though everyone agrees Bill Nighy rules.)

Anyway, yes, that’s finally over for me. I’ve now seen Love Actually. I will now understand all your references and the deeper meaning of current T-Mobile commercials. Also, Bill Nighy as Billy Mack is the best part of this movie and I kind of wish the whole thing had just been about him. In fact, I loved Nighy so much in this it inspired me to watch Nighy’s new film, Living, and he’s wonderful and I understand why now he’s getting so much awards acclaim. Anyway, I now completely understand that Love Actually is a good enough movie that’s been genetically engineered to make people inexplicably love it.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

With The Last of Us premiere less than a month away, Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann is opening up about how the HBO series differs from the award-winning video game. The biggest difference? The show starring Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones) will have significantly less violence, while still ratcheting up the horror. But before fans of the video game get riled up, Druckmann broke down the reason for that decision.

“We need a certain amount of action, or violence, that we could use for mechanics so you could connect with Joel and get into a flow state,” Druckmann told SFX Magazine about the game. “Then you would really feel like you’re connected with this on-screen avatar and you’re seeing the world through his eyes.”

However, when it comes to the passive medium of TV, Druckmann explained that viewers don’t need that immediate jolt of violence to be connected to the characters, and he’s actually thankful for that dynamic:

One of the things that I loved hearing from [co-creator Craig Mazin] and HBO very early on was, ‘Let’s take out all the violence except for the very essential.’ That allowed the violence to have even more impact than in the game, because when you hold on showing the threat and you’re seeing people’s reaction to a threat, that makes it scarier. And when we do reveal the infected and the Clickers, you get to see what brought down humanity and why everyone is so scared.”

The Last of Us premieres January 15, 2023 on HBO.

(Via SFX Magazine)

James Cameron has a very specific vision when it comes to his movies, which may or may not be why they take so long to produce. But it obviously works, and even though he may say some silly things while he’s hyping up his movies, it doesn’t negate the impact that his little blue army has on society, both good and bad.

So, when making Avatar: The Way Of Water, Cameron was very aware of how violence would be portrayed in the film. “I look back on some films that I’ve made, and I don’t know if I would want to make that film now,” Cameron recently told Esquire Middle East via Variety. “I don’t know if I would want to fetishize the gun, like I did on a couple of Terminator movies 30-plus years ago, in our current world. What’s happening with guns in our society turns my stomach.”

Cameron also revealed that he cut nearly 10 minutes of the film in order to reduce the amount of gun violence on screen. Of course, the movie is already close to three-and-a-half hours long, so that was probably a good idea no matter what the content. “I actually cut about 10 minutes of the movie targeting gunplay action,” Cameron explained. “I wanted to get rid of some of the ugliness, to find a balance between light and dark.”

The director explained that the various strifes on Pandora could be handled in a different way, without excessive amounts of violence that are often shown in other action movies and, unfortunately, real life. “You have to have conflict, of course. Violence and action are the same thing, depending on how you look at it. This is the dilemma of every action filmmaker, and I’m known as an action filmmaker.” While there is little gun violence, the movie is not safe for people who are afraid of water and/or drowning, because there is water everywhere. But that’s kind of obvious at this point.

Eventually, Cameron might want to add back the deleted scenes for an extended edition, if the fans decide they need to spend 6 more hours in a movie theater. Who doesn’t?

(Via Variety)

A day after the news broke out on Daesung and Taeyang‘s departure from YG Entertainment, another second-generation K-pop icon begins their new chapter elsewhere.

Yesterday (December 26), it was reported Girls’ Generation’s very own Tiffany Young signed with Sublime Artists Agency after leaving her longtime company SM Entertainment five years ago. This marks the Korean-American artist’s first time signing with a Korean label since 2017.

“We are sincerely delighted to be able to work together with Tiffany Young, who has limitless influence,” Sublime Artists Agency stated, in a translated report from Soompi. “We will actively support her so that she can exert that influence in a wide variety of fields in the future.”

Tiffany’s decision to sign with Sublime roots from the rapport and trust she’s built with a longtime manager.

With that being said, Tiffany now joins a star-studded roster that includes Rain, GOT7’s Jackson Wang, Youngjae, EXID’s Hani, former GFriend member Yerin, and much more under Sublime.

Over the summer, the members of Girls’ Generation reunited for their 15th anniversary and released their seventh studio album, FOREVER 1, with a lead single of the same name. Just recently, Tiffany Young starred in the popular Korean drama Reborn Rich alongside Korean actor Song Joong Ki. This comes after her role as Roxy in the Korean version of the Broadway musical Chicago.