Category: Viral

Essence Fest will return to New Orleans this June, with a line-up honoring hip-hop on its 50th anniversary. Today (March 29), Billboard has reported that Megan Thee Stallion and Ms. Lauryn Hill will headline the festival. This year’s Essence Festival will take place from June 29 to July 3.

According to the report, Hill will perform her debut album, The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill, in full to commemorate the album on its 25th anniversary. Also set to perform are Wizkid, Monica, Coco Jones, and Kizz Daniel. Doug E. Fresh will curate a special performance, and DJ Spinderella, DJ Kid Capri, and DJ Clark Kent will perform DJ sets. More performers will be announced soon.

The festival will also coincide with the 30th anniversary of So So Def, which will be celebrated with a performance from the label’s founder Jermaine Dupri, as well as past signees.

“For nearly three decades, the ESSENCE Festival of Culture has been an international and joyful gathering that empowers community throughout the global Black diaspora,” said newly-appointed Vice President of ESSENCE Festival of Culture, Hakeem Holmes, to the magazine. “As the nation’s largest festival by per day attendance, it continues to be a crown jewel of Black culture and plays a pivotal role in the amplification and celebration of the contributions of the Black community through business, music, and more. As we gear up to celebrate the ’50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop’, we couldn’t think of a better way to honor the contributions that genre has made on global culture and the impressions that these artists and their deep musical catalogs, which we all know so well, have been ingrained into the fibers of our day to day lives. This year, we are excited to have everyone join us in celebrating 50 years of musical excellence, experiencing our diverse daytime and nighttime offerings, and in highlighting the importance of Black economic inclusion.”

Tickets are available for purchase here.

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

If your Twitter feed feels peaceful, filled with a few less idiotic conspiracy theories on Jewish Space Lasers and Gazpacho Police this week it’s likely because Marjorie Taylor Greene’s account has been suspended.

The Republican representative from Georgia managed to trigger the already-lax community standards of Elon Musk’s billion-dollar garbage heap by repeatedly sharing a “Trans Day of Vengeance” graphic that’s as offensive as it sounds. Greene’s tweets came as a response to the mass shooting at a private elementary school in Nashville that ended with the deaths of three adults and three children. Police later identified the assailant as a transgender man whose preferred pronouns were he/him, something right-wing conservatives like Greene quickly latched onto.

Greene reportedly shared the graphic along with the message that read, “The people need to know about the threats they face from Antifa & trans-terrorism!!!” But, she wasn’t the sole target of the sensitivity sweep.

According to a post from Twitter’s Vice President of Product Ella Irwin, the company decided to “automatically sweep our platform and remove >5000 tweets /retweets of this poster. We do not support tweets that incite violence irrespective of who posts them. ‘Vengeance’ does not imply peaceful protest. Organizing or support for peaceful protests is ok.”

This isn’t the first time Greene has been banned from the platform but it does mark her first censure under Musk’s leadership.

(Via People)

Things have been slightly quiet on the Lauren Boebert front lately. Let me rephrase: Lauren Boebert has been typically vocal on Twitter (and she let the world know that she will soon be a grandma while praising teen pregnancy), but it’s run-of-the-mill stuff for her to talk about gun rights amid the ongoing rash of school shootings. Both fortunately and unfortunately, Boebert is now discussing something else: public urination. Naturally, this also brings to mind how Boebert’s husband was once arrested for exposing himself in a bowling alley, but here we are.

Boebert was very eager to cut into a discussion led by Rep. Becca Balint, who questioned why public urination should be of importance right now with so many other vital subjects at the forefront. Why this is of interest now (other than lingering discussions about D.C. criminal code retooling from last fall) remains a mystery, and Balint clearly wanted to cut the subject short, so she asked a witness for a final sentiment on the subject.

However, Boebert muscled in to assert that she had something to say instead: “I do!” Balint was not thrilled.

As Raw Story further notes, Boebert also came in hard for a witness, who she appeared to accuse of decriminalizing public urination. She continued to ask the same question of “Mr. Allen,” who maintained that he had not done so, and in fact, “The revised criminal code that was passed by the council kept it as a criminal offense.”

It’s a bizarre interlude for sure, and one that will likely be remembered as ultra-absurd in a time when the nation is once again reeling from a mass-shooting at an elementary school. And Congress is up on Capitol Hill, spending valuable time discussing pee.

(Via Raw Story)

Rina Sawayama has announced her new Hold The Girl Tour: Reloaded. The new shows kick off in Massachusetts starting in June and include a number of festival appearances at Governors Ball, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Osheaga, and Life Is Beautiful.

For the standard concert shows, Sawayama will be joined by Magdalena Bay, Empress Of, and Tom Rasmussen at select shows across North America.

This serves as just another step in a busy past year for the pop star. Sawayama made her big screen movie debut with an acting role in John Wick 4, which is currently in theaters. She also dropped her sophomore album, Hold The Girl, last fall.

Pre-sale tickets opened up earlier this morning, and general tickets go on sale this Friday (March 31) at 10 a.m. local time. More information is available here.

Continue scrolling for a complete list of Rina Sawayama’s Hold The Girl Tour: Reloaded dates.

06/09 — North Adams, MA @ MASS MoCA
06/10 — Queens, NY @ Governors Ball Music Festival
06/16 — Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo Festival
08/04 — Montreal, QC @ Osheaga Festival
08/06 — Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza Festival
08/09 — Toronto, ON @ HISTORY
09/22 — Salt Lake City, UT @ SLC Twilight
09/24 — Las Vegas, NV @ Life Is Beautiful Festival
09/26 — Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
09/28 — Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
10/06 — Bentonville, AR @ The Momentary
10/09 — New Orleans, LA @ House Of Blues

Before finding success with a string of TV hits that includes Spin City, Scrubs, Ted Lasso, and his latest creation, Shrinking, Bill Lawrence struggled like most Hollywood writers. Although, unlike most Hollywood writers, his learning process involved getting fired from three pretty huge sitcoms. In a new interview, Lawrence opened up about the early days of his career, and the valuable experience he gained from getting canned from Boy Meets World.

“I’m a big believer in mentorship, and one of the main things I tell young people now is, ‘If you get paid to write — even if it’s not your thing — if it generates an audience, it has massive worth,’” Lawrence explained. “If you can embrace doing what you have to do to then get what you want to do, things go very well out here — if you’re good enough.”

Unfortunately, Lawrence learned that lesson the hard way when he got a crack at the ABC sitcom.

Via Vulture:

But, man, if you live in this cynical, judgmental, snarky, “I’m working on this thing, but it’s a piece of shit” — that stuff will come back to haunt you. I was embarrassed about Boy Meets World and should not have been. A lot of people loved it.

I made it fairly clear that it was like, “Oh man, this is not my type of comedy,” and that was a monster mistake. And they were right to let me go.

Lawrence would also get fired from The Nanny and Friends for not being a good writing fit, but he put his best foot forward on both shows, which helped him get in the good graces of iconic TV creator Gary Goldberg. That relationship resulted in the creation of Spin City, and from there, Lawrence was off to the races. Now, he’s working with Harrison Ford on Shrinking, and it turns out Indiana Jones is a funny guy. Han Solo has chops, folks.

(Via Vulture)

In typical Tyler The Creator fashion, the musician has a lot to get off of his chest, and his latest single, “Sorry Not Sorry,” is the perfect outlet. Although the “Dogtooth” rapper doesn’t have any children of his own (just yet), the creative liberties he’s taken in his music as birthed a movement currently inspiring others.

That limitless ideal shines bright in the self-directed visual for “Sorry Not Sorry,” the second track released off his forthcoming Call Me If You Get Lost deluxe album. In the retrospective video, Tyler lets his apologies fly, rapping, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry I don’t see you more / I’m sorry that the four minutes where you see your son could feel like a chore / Sis’, I’m sorry I’m your kin / Sorry we ain’t close as we should’ve been / Sorry to my old friends / The stories we could’a wrote if our egos didn’t take the pen.”

However, the one thing he isn’t sorry for is allowing his music to change with him as he’s navigated through these emotional landmines. In the video, Tyler steps back into each of his old personas respective to each project he’s released, to paint just how much internal conflict he’s dealt with.

By the end of the visual, the musician makes it clear that although the track will be featured on the deluxe version of his Grammy Award-winning album, fans shouldn’t get comfortable with this sound. Tyler is planning to transition to another era of his art very soon as he is now yet another version of himself.

When discussing the deluxe album on Twitter, the recording artist wrote, “Call Me If You Get Lost was the first album I made with a lot of songs that didn’t make the final cut. Some of those songs I really love, and knew they would never see the light of day, so Ive decided to put a few of them out.”

Watch the video above.

Call Me If You Get Lost: The Estate Sale is out 3/31 via Columbia Records. Find more information here.

Ahead of their upcoming eighth studio album dropping this summer, Weathervanes, Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit have shared their new song, “Middle Of The Morning.” On the track, Isbell laments a feeling of being cooped up, over breezy guitar loops that musically encapsulate the hopes of letting light in.

“Well I’ve tried to open up my window and let the light come in / I step outside in the middle of the morning and in the evening again / Yes, I’ve tried to be grateful for my devils and call them by their names / but I’m tired and by the middle of the morning I need someone to blame,” Isbell sings on the song’s opening verse.

In a statement accompanying the release of “Middle Of The Morning,” Isbell revealed that he wrote the song during the height of the pandemic. On the song, Isbell plays the role of both the narrator and the character, describing the feeling of an essential part of oneself being out of reach.

“It was about trying to keep my mind from unraveling over the couple of years there,” Isbell said.

Listen to “Middle Of The Morning” above.

Weathervanes is out 6/9 via Southeastern Records. Find more information here.

Doja Cat — who recently had some surgical procedures done, including a breast reduction and liposuction — is now pushing back in her typical fashion against what any haters have to say.

“Stop encouraging your young and impressionable fans to change their bodies,” someone tweeted at Doja earlier this week. A mere minute later, Doja, not having any of it, responded with, “eat my long quiet and warm farts.”

Despite the internet discourse, Doja posted last week that she feels happy with the work she’s gotten. “wish i could suck my own titties thats how good they look rn god damn,” she shared on Twitter. She also answered fans with genuine questions, noting that she still has about three months to heal and that her thighs hurt from the liposuction.

Last year, she also faced some online hate about some of her makeup looks and her decision to shave her head. It was her Paris Fashion Week that made some headlines in October, after she covered herself in gold paint. If we know anything now, though, it’s that Doja loves to experiment with her creative looks.

“I wasn’t trying to look sexy or attractive,” she tweeted. “All of my makeup has a story and there are absolutely 0 rules and if there were you wouldn’t be the one making them.”

In what has to be the biggest example of “Not Helping” known to man, O.J. Simpson has come to the defense of Gwyneth Paltrow as she battles it out in an already bizarre trial over who crashed into who on the ski slopes in Utah.

Retired optometrist Terry Sanderson kicked off the legal proceedings by suing the Oscar-winning actress after she allegedly crashed into him, causing severe injuries including broken ribs and a concussion. Sanderson also claims she fled the scene in what he considers a “ski hit and run.” Paltrow, however, claims that Sanderson crashed into her and countersued for $1 in damages plus legal fees.

As the trail has already descended into stick figure drawings, Simpson randomly decided to jump into the fray by posting a Twitter video where he recounts his own experience on the Deer Valley trails where the accident occurred. According to Simpson, who name-dropped his late ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, who he was famously accused of murdering, the trails are particularly narrow at Deer Valley, and he’s had several crashes there.

Via The Daily Beast:

“I was watching today, I saw the run that their accident happened on, it was the same run that my accidents happened [on] at Deer Valley, and I don’t know how you can determine whose fault it was,” Simpson said. “I crashed with the same woman twice on one run, and if you ask me, it was her fault and I’m sure if you asked her, it was my fault. I’m just saying, it’s part of skiing.”

After recounting his own crashes at Deer Valley, Simpson blasted the frivolity of the trial. Although, is anyone surprised that O.J. isn’t a fan of courtrooms? We’re sure not.

“Accidents happen skiing,” Simpson concluded. “I don’t know how you could try to sue anybody for crashes on a ski slope. You see it all the time.”

(Via The Daily Beast)

Both Succession and Barry are ending this year. This puts a hole in HBO’s schedule — and a hole in my heart because it means I have only eight episodes of NoHo Hank left. The Chechen mobster played by Anthony Carrigan is Barry‘s secret weapon, a romantic goofball who is as bad at disguises as he is good at dancing.

And taking selfies.

That comes from the trailer for the fourth and final season, which you can watch above. Bill Hader’s Barry Berkman isn’t doing great behind bars (he’s screaming at himself in the mirror and to no one in the prison yard), but NoHo Hank has problems of his own to deal with. “Everything OK, mi amor?” his boyfriend Cristobal asks him. “Yeah, everything’s gonna be great,” NoHo Hank replies, but he does not sound convinced.

Hader explained his decison to end the show after season four in an interview with Variety. “I mean, a lot of people after last season were like, ‘Why are you doing another season? It should have just ended.’ But to me, there are still so many questions with the other characters, and with Barry — and there’s so many things unsaid,” he said. “What happens in season four is structurally radical in some ways, but it made sense for what I think the characters needed to go through, and what I think the whole show is always kind of headed towards.”

Barry returns to HBO on April 16th.