Category: News

LA rapper and singer Xian Bell is six months removed from his album Crenshaw At Midnight, but he reached way back in his catalog for his UPROXX Sessions performance, drawing from his 2019 debut album You Were In My Dream for one of his most popular tracks, “Dollar And A Promise.”

Bringing along a DJ and a keyboardist, Bell showed off the fruits of his efforts in the gym as he rapped the emotive, apologetic song. The smooth track finds Xian working through the tension between chasing his dream and being there for the woman he loves.

Bell has begun to receive increased exposure in the past few years thanks to his collaborations with TDE rapper Reason and rising 1Take crew member 1TakeOcho. With the right push, he could be the latest indie rapper from California to catch fire.

Watch Xian Bell’s UPROXX Sessions performance of “Dollar And A Promise” above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

Earlier this year, The Kid Laroi excited fans with the announcement of his debut album aptly titled The First Time. There have been some singles, including “Where Does Your Spirit Go” and “Kids Are Growing Up (Part 1).” However, in light of a new scandal, it looks like the kids are in fact not growing up.

According to TMZ, The Kid Laroi, real name Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard, dined and dashed in Springfield, Missouri on Tuesday night (May 2) after his concert. At Dublin’s Pass Irish Pub & Restaurant, the singer was allegedly placed in a private room to enjoy dinner. The group ordered over a hundred dollars worth of food and then claimed they were stepping outside for a smoke break. The manager of the restaurant, Autumn Gray, says they never returned. The Kid Laroi has not yet commented on the situation.

Surely he has enough money to pay the bill — he just played Coachella, honoring the late Juice WRLD and Saiko with a tribute. “This wasn’t in the release plans, but I played it this weekend at Coachella,” he posted on social media, “and I just felt like the time was right for some reason.” He’s also set to star in a forthcoming A24 film Y2K.

Even though the internet knows all about Pete Davidson and his uh, Big Reputation, we can’t expect people to dwell on this forever. Sure, the guy is known for spreading the BDE movement, but that’s not the only thing we talk about when it comes to the comedian, right? Actually, it kind of is. But he also has a new Peacock show loosely based on his life, so, once again, the universe has forced us to confront Davidson’s weird “big d*ck” legacy, as it likely will for the rest of time. At least he owns it.

Davidson stars alongside Edie Falco in his series Bupkis, and while it might seem interesting to ask about their off-screen relationship, or how the series is influenced by his life, or literally anything else, instead, Falco is being dragged into the conversation. Hasn’t she already experienced enough over-the-top male energy for one lifetime?

When Falco was asked by The Daily Beast if she had heard of Pete’s legacy, she confirmed she had done her research. “Indeed. When I started doing the show, I started hearing more of this stuff. I started wondering, like, maybe I should find out what all this stuff means. I have my sources. I found out.” It’s worth noting that Falco has a teenage son, so she isn’t new to this stuff.

Falco said while she was aware of Davidson’s work, she didn’t know much else about his private life, which became subjected to media scrutiny after he had dated some of the most high-profile celebrities. “I knew he was on SNL, but that long ago became way too late for me to stay up to watch. So I had not seen anything he’d done, you know? All I knew was ‘he’s dating this person,’ or whatever,” she added, blissfully unaware of Ariana-gate. “I don’t know what else I knew about aside from his dating history, so I really didn’t know what to expect. I knew he was part of the present-day zeitgeist—a name that came up a lot. My kids knew who he was.”

Now, she certainly knows who he is, maybe even too much! Then again, we all know too much about Pete. And we love him anyway! Mostly.

Bupkis is currently streaming on Peacock.

(Via The Daily Beast)

It was originally reported that 113.06 million people tuned in to watch the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles to win Super Bowl LVII. This week, that number was revised to 115.1 million, making it the most-watched telecast ever. As if one reminder of losing “The Big Game” wasn’t enough, Eagles fans watching Wheel of Fortune also had to sit through a painful puzzle.

The category was “Headlines” during Wednesday’s episode of the game show. The puzzle was six words long and ended with an exclamation mark. The contestants quickly filled in the blanks, and contestant Jeremy, after landing on a wild card spot and picking up a trip to Switzerland, solved the puzzle. “Kansas City Chiefs Win Super Bowl!” it read. They sure did.

“It was in all the papers. I think they even televised it this year,” host Pat Sajak cracked (it’s a better joke than the prank he plays on his wife).

With the winning answer, it meant that contestant Jeremy bagged nearly $15,000 in cash as well as a vacation in Switzerland. By the end of the episode, Jeremy had racked up nearly $50,000 to be the clear winner.

Chiefs fans also felt like winners all over again because of Wheel of Fortune. Eagles fans, who are famously chill and don’t hold grudges, less so.

(Via Newsweek)

Today (May 4) was a big one for Ed Sheeran: He was facing a lawsuit over allegations of plagiarizing Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” for his own “Thinking Out Loud,” but the verdict in his favor was delivered this afternoon. Sheeran has shared his thoughts on the situation and he has mixed feelings.

After the ruling was handed out, outside the courthouse, Sheeran told reporters (as Evening Standard notes):

“I’m obviously very happy with the outcome of this case and it looks like I’m not going to have to retire from my day job after all. But at the same time, I am absolutely frustrated that baseless claims like this are allowed to go to court at all. If the jury had decided this matter the other way, we might as well say goodbye to the creative freedom of songwriters. We need to be able to write our original music and engage in independent creativity without worrying at every step on the way that said creativity will be wrongly called into question.”

(The singer’s joke about retirement references a recent comment he made about potentially being found guilty: “If that happens, I’m done, I’m stopping. I find it really insulting to devote my whole life to being a performer and a songwriter and have someone diminish it.”)

Sheeran also confirmed reports that he missed his grandmother’s funeral in Ireland due to the trial, saying that he “won’t get that time back” (as the Associated Press reports).

AP also noted of Sheeran’s immediate reaction to the verdict, “As the jury answered the single question of whether Sheeran proved he didn’t infringe upon the copyright in the affirmative, the crooner briefly put his hands over his face in relief before standing and hugging his lawyer. As jurors left the courtroom, Sheeran quietly mouthed “thank you” in their direction. He then spoke for about 10 minutes with the plaintiffs, including the daughter of Ed Townsend, who co-created the 1973 soul classic with Gaye. They hugged and smiled with each other.”

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

Drew Barrymore has pulled out of hosting this weekend’s MTV Movie & TV Awards to show solidarity with the striking members of the Writers Guild of America. However, being a genuine sweetheart, she’s already agreed to host the 2024 event as a “sign of good faith” to MTV.

You can read Barrymore’s full statement below via Variety:

“I have listened to the writers, and in order to truly respect them, I will pivot from hosting the MTV Movie & TV Awards live in solidarity with the strike,” Barrymore said in a statement. “Everything we celebrate and honor about movies and television is born out of their creation. And until a solution is reached, I am choosing to wait but I’ll be watching from home and hope you will join me. I thank MTV, who has truly been some of the best partners I have ever worked with. And I can’t wait to be a part of this next year, when I can truly celebrate everything that MTV has created, which is a show that allows fans to choose who the awards go to and is truly inclusive.​”

Of course, this move puts MTV in a bind considering the awards show is scheduled for this Sunday, May 7. In light of the writers’ strike, there will be no host, red carpet entrance, or interviews with talent, mostly because the production has no idea who’s going to show up.

The situation is reportedly “evolving” day-by-day, and Barrymore is among the stars who will not be attending. However, she will appear in several pre-taped shorts that were filmed prior to the strike.

(Via Variety)

If Clarence Thomas thought that promising to do better with disclosing whenever a billionaire pal/GOP mega-donor wines and dines him with private jet rides and superyacht vacations would quell the calls for his impeachment… oops!

Less than a month after ProPublica published an explosive report about the millions of dollars of “hospitality” that has been lavished on the Supreme Court Justice and his kooky, QAnon-believin’ wife Ginny by their close friends Harlan and Kathy Crow, the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalism website has struck again. On Tuesday, they reported that the Crows’ kindness toward Thomas also extended to the judge’s grandnephew.

As ProPublica explains:

In 2008, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas decided to send his teenage grandnephew to Hidden Lake Academy, a private boarding school in the foothills of northern Georgia. The boy, Mark Martin, was far from home. For the previous decade, he had lived with the justice and his wife in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Thomas had taken legal custody of Martin when he was 6 years old and had recently told an interviewer he was “raising him as a son.”

While that was 15 years ago, recently discovered documents reveal that Martin’s whopping tuition bill, which cost more than $6,000 per month, was paid for not by Thomas, but by the company owned by Harlan Crow… which seems hella shady.

While the recently uncovered bank statement that revealed this bombshell was for one month only in 2009, Christopher Grimwood — a former administrator at the chic school — confirmed to ProPublica that it was Crow, not Thomas, who paid Martin’s tuition throughout his entire time at the school.

“Harlan picked up the tab,” said Grimwood, who knew both the Thomases and Crow, and further claimed that it was Crow who paid Martin’s tuition at Randolph-Macon Academy, another boarding school, which the teen attended both prior to and after his time at Hidden Lake Academy.

Thomas did not include Crow’s tuition payments as part of his annual financial disclosure, and even Martin — who is now in his 30s — was unaware that it was Crow who was footing his educational bills. Though he doesn’t see anything nefarious in it.

“I think his intentions behind everything is just a friend and just a good person,” Martin told ProPublica of Crow, who we now know has a massive collection of Hitler/Nazi memorabilia.

Mark Paoletta, a longtime friend of the Thomases who occasionally acts as Ginni’s lawyer, released a statement following the publication of ProPublica’s story, in which he claimed that “Harlan Crow’s tuition payments made directly to these schools on behalf of Justice Thomas’s great nephew did not constitute a reportable gift” because Martin was Thomas’ grandnephew and not the legal definition of a dependent child.

“Justice Thomas never asked Harlan Crow to pay for his great nephew’s tuition. And neither Harlan Crow, nor his company, had any business before the Supreme Court,” Paoletta added. Before ending with:

This malicious story shows nothing except for the fact that the Thomases and the Crows are kind, generous, and loving people who tried to help this young man.

Generous? That’s one word to describe the Crows’ frequent tendency to pay a Supreme Court Justice’s bills. Here’s hoping Charles Barkley makes more jokes about this shady mess.

(Via ProPublica)

Few jingles get stuck in your head as easily as the Chili’s “Baby Back Ribs” song, officially known as “Chili’s (Welcome To Chili’s),” which was first broadcast in 1996. The music starts with a deep-voiced man singing, “I want my baby back, baby back, baby back,” and builds from there to a sweet and tangy crescendo of “I want my baby back ribs!”

Guy Bommarito, the songwriter who wrote the jingle, says that Chilli’s execs weren’t initially too excited by his creation. “The response was, ‘Yeah, that should work.’ Nobody was blown away or overly impressed,” he told Delish. “But it could’ve been my singing.”

The song was later rerecorded in 1998 by a team of studio pros who took it to the next level with their soulful professionalism. The recording session video was shared on YouTube by singer Alvin Chea, and there’s something so satisfying and nostalgic about watching these guys put it down together at the same time.

In the new version, the iconic “baby back” bassline is sung by Alvin Chea, the bass singer for Grammy-winning gospel a cappella group Take 6, who also sang on Michael Jackson’s “This is It.” Dorian Holley, in the vest and tie, sang harmonies and also worked with the King of Pop as a background singer.

Oren Waters takes the lead on the “Chili’s” line and is part of the Waters family who sang background on MJ’s “Thriller” album. Louis Price sings the “barbeque sauce” line and was the lead singer of The Temptations from 1977 to 1980.

Earlier this week, The Athletic reported that Snoop Dogg had joined Neko Sparks’ group bidding for ownership of the Ottawa Senators of the NHL, and Snoop’s group happens to be bidding against a group spearheaded by Ryan Reynolds.

This morning, May 4, The Athletic spoke with Snoop Dogg about the validity of his involvement.

“This ain’t no joke or no gimmick — or an image or likeness play. This is a real ownership play,” he told reporter Ian Mendes. “And Snoop will put his foot in the town.” (You know it’s serious when someone busts out third-person.)

Snoop added:

“I want Ottawa because Ottawa wants me. It’s a thriving city. The team is going to make a U-turn once we get ownership. The players are inspired. The community is inspired. I felt like this is what Ottawa needs. […]

“I love the city. Every time I’ve come through the city, they’ve rolled out the red carpet for me. The fans, the city. Everyone. It’s been nothing but love. When you go around the world as much as I have, there are certain places that stick out in your heart. Everywhere I go in Canada, it’s always been love, but there’s something about Ottawa. And the opportunity for the team to be bought? It’s impeccable timing right now.”

He described his potential role in ownership as “a community activist,” and Senators fans or Ottawa residents at large could expect to “become family.”

Per The Athletic‘s initial reporting on May 1, the Senators are expected to draw a sale “eclipsing $1 billion, although it is unclear how much of a financial stake Snoop has put into the group.”

Snoop made the emotional stakes clear while appearing on Tuesday’s (May 2) episode of First Take on ESPN. Watch clips below.

Artists are in the midst of finding ways to protest Tennessee’s ban on drag performances. Madonna is bringing Caldwell Tidicue, who performs as Bob the Drag Queen, on her tour. Yo La Tengo dressed up in drag to make a point. However, Hayley Kiyoko experienced struggles at her show in Nashville.

The singer shared an Instagram post, saying an undercover cop attended her soundcheck and informed her that she can’t have drag performers because the gig is all ages.

“This is f*cked up. This is so f*cked,” she said. “And I’m so sorry to my community and I’m just devastated, this is just not right, it’s not okay. And my heart just goes out to everyone navigating this.”

She also refused to give up, inspiring fans to maintain hope: “We will not be silenced,” she wrote.

The show successfully went on with the drag queens.

Find the full post below.

“At soundcheck the day of, I was advised by local law enforcement that having a drag performance at my all ages show could result in legal action. They warned us to not bring any drag performers on stage. I was shattered as you can see in the videos I recorded reacting to the situation in real time before the show started.

I never want to put anyone in a position to be at risk or in danger in any way. But also where is the line of being silenced? How do we navigate these absurd threats and laws against our community? I find pride in making sure my concerts are safe places for ALL. How can I do that if we aren’t allowed to be ourselves, especially at a predominantly queer concert? We deserve to have a safe space to be ourselves while we navigate the evil that is threatening our own existence.

When the queens arrived it was about 10 minutes before the show. I was distraught and let them know what was communicated to us and our concerns. They showed no fear and said they wanted to continue with the show and come out on stage. So they did.

Thank you @theladylibertea and @jivy85 for joining us last night. You looked radiant and truly inspire me.

We will not be silenced. We will find ways to continue to be our authentic selves, no matter what. We will not give up.

No matter how hard they make it. I love you all so much.”