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Ahead of the theatrical release of Till next week, Jazmine Sullivan has shared a new song, “Stand Up.” Featured on the movie’s soundtrack, “Stand Up” was inspired by Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmitt Till. The movie Till tells the story of how Mamie became one of the most prominent voices in the civil rights movement.

“You got a purpose / What is your reason? / What is you fightin’ for? / I see you searchin’/ It’s burnin’ inside / it’s somethin’ you can’t ignore / Yeah, everyone’s hurtin’ / but you gotta fight / Get up and keep forward / See, don’t back away with your hand up / ‘Cause somebody needs you to stand up,” Sullivan sings on the song’s chorus.

The song is written entirely by Sullivan and produced by D’Mile. In an interview with Pitchfork last year, Sullivan said that writing all of her own words is a therapeutic experience for her.

“It’s something that I would never give up,” she said. “It’s something so beautiful about getting it out. I remember when I was going through writer’s block [on this album], when I couldn’t say what I wanted to say, I was so sad and I felt like I was empty, and I realized that’s how I communicate: through my writing. So I have to do it.

Listen to “Stand Up” above.

Till arrives in theaters 10/14.

Just weeks away from her sixth album, The Loneliest Time, Carly Rae Jepsen has shared the album’s title track, a duet with Rufus Wainwright.

On the collaboration, Jepsen recalls the feelings of isolation she’s felt during the past few years. “I need that look in your eyes / ‘Cause we’ve had the loneliest time,” she sings on the song’s chorus over an intoxicating arrangement of drums and triumphant strings. Joining in, Wainwright sings, “I’ve had more of those bad dreams / You were 10 feet in front of me / I went running, but I couldn’t catch / just a shadow of your silhouette.”

In a recent interview with DIY, Jepsen shared how Wainwright influenced her craft and inspired her to pursue a career in music.

“First of all, I need to say I’m not just a fan of Rufus Wainwright; he literally had a profound effect on my career choice,” she said. “I can remember being 19, taking the West Coast Express from Mission – my home town – to Vancouver, and I would listen to his album Poses over and over and over again. And it was somewhere during the song ‘Poses’, where he sings, ‘Life is a game and true love is a trophy,’ that I was like, ‘I think I’m going to make a run at this music thing, like for real, for real’. Because there’s nothing that sounds better in life to me than this. Fast forward 15 years later, and I’m in a writing session and we’re working on this disco-like track with a Rufus-esque melody to it. And I said, imagine if he sang that dream sequence with us. When I went home, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

Check out “The Loneliest Time” above.

The Loneliest Time is out 10/21 via School Boy and Interscope. Pre-save it here.

Things are getting messier amid the rumored Migos split. Quavo and Takeoff have just released their new album, “Only Built For Infinity Links,” and on it is a song called “Messy.”

On “Messy,” Quavo seems to address the rumors that Saweetie had an affair with former Migo, Offset.

“B*tch f*cked my dog behind my back but I ain’t stressing / You wanted the gang you should’ve just said that, we would’ve blessed you,” raps Quavo.

Both Offset and his wife, Cardi B, have shut those rumors down, however, Quavo doesn’t seem to be convinced.

Quavo and Takeoff previewed the song earlier this week, and while some fans believe he is subliminally referring to Saweetie, others have said that Quavo is simply milking the rumors as a marketing technique.

“The reality of that Saweetie situation is most likely, Quavo is being spiteful and capitalizing on a social media rumor,” said one Twitter user, “because he don’t fuck with Saweetie or Offset anymore and it’s creating traction for that song.”

Check out “Messy” above.

Only Built For Infinity Links is out now via Quality Control Music Group/Motown Records. Stream it here.

Saweetie and Cardi B are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Thursday Night Football has been in the news a great deal in 2022, starting with a headline-grabbing matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Chargers to kick off Amazon’s foray into full broadcast coverage of the NFL. Viewership numbers are strong and, in the early going, the matchups were solid. In Week 5, however, professional football observers were treated to quite a spectacle, to the point where home fans in Denver were seemingly so annoyed that they vacated the premises at Mile High just before overtime began.

After Russell Wilson threw an interception with a chance to close out the game, the Indianapolis Colts marched the field, kicked a field goal, and forced overtime with a hilarious 9-9 score. As the transition from regulation to the extra frame was happening, Amazon’s cameras caught a slew of Broncos fans heading to the exits, and Kirk Herbstreit expressed his dismay on the air.

Herbstreit likely speaks for many people here in that it is bizarre to see fans leaving before overtime, no matter the context. While it is a night game, it was only about 9:30 p.m. local time in Denver when the exodus started, and you can hear the bewilderment of Herbstreit. His partner in the booth, the legendary Al Michaels, was also sharing quips throughout the night to make fun of the product on the field, and the tone was honestly appropriate.

While the game did have real stakes and was competitive on the scoreboard, there was plenty of evidence that the game was not going well on the whole. For example, both teams threw two interceptions and averaged fewer than six yards per pass attempt in regulation. The Broncos and Colts combined for 15 penalties in the first 60 minutes, with a combined 6-of-29 mark on third down. In short, it was an aesthetically hideous game that only a true sicko would enjoy, and at least some fans in Denver just couldn’t take it anymore.

That proved to probably be a wise move as they beat some traffic while also not having to watch the final twist of the knife, as the Broncos chose to go for it on 4th and 1 from the 5 while trailing by three and, instead of running the ball, they threw the ball for an incompletion to lose.

Victor Wembanyama made quite the impression in Las Vegas this week, as the presumptive No. 1 overall pick surpassed even the loftiest expectations for what he’d show in two showcase games against Scoot Henderson (who also impressed) an the G League Ignite.

Wembanyama put up some preposterous numbers, including a 36-point, 11-rebound effort in a win on Thursday afternoon, and simply did things that no one should be able to do at his size — which is somewhere between 7’3 and 7’5 depending on who you ask. He launched threes from Dame range, threw down vicious putback dunks on opponents, and just generally makes the game of basketball look upsettingly easy.

While Wemby drew the majority of the attention, one of his Metropolitans 92 teammates also became a viral sensation simply because of his name: Steeve Ho You Fat. The “Ho You Fat” jersey became an immediate meme on Twitter, and Shareef O’Neal got the coveted jersey swap with Steeve after Thursday’s game.

Even Wembanyama had to note that he has a “crazy name” when he got asked about his teammate by Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, who couldn’t help but talk about Steeve when the French wunderkind joined them for the Lakers preseason game in Vegas on Thursday night.

As Wemby notes, Ho You Fat is enjoying his viral stardom and embracing it all, even though as JVG notes later (not in this clip), it looks like an XFL jersey — which, as an aside, I’d love to see Van Gundy try to explain the original XFL to Wembanyama who was not even born at the time. For those looking for more on Ho You Fat and his name, you should read this excellent feature from Yahoo’s Jake Fischer, who talked with him about the origins of the name and why he loves the attention he’s getting because he gets to spread his family name far and wide.

The last time John Waters directed a movie was 2004’s underrated A Dirty Shame, which was just about as mainstream as he could possibly manage in the director’s chair. In the meantime, he was able to shepherd Hairspray from its Tony-winning musical incarnation into a filmic remake. He was also able to deliver a dozen memorable cameos, including a delightful turn helping Midge find a gay bar on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He’s written non-fiction books and done spoken word poetry and had several careers inside his career.

Now, he’s returning to his original love. According to Deadline, Waters will direct an adaptation of his debut novel, Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance, for Village Roadshow Pictures.

“Liarmouth is the craziest thing I’ve written in a while so maybe it’s fitting that my novel was shocking enough to jumpstart the engine of my film career,” the 76-year-old filmmaker said in a statement. “Thrilled to be back in the movie business, hopefully to spread demented joy to adventuresome moviegoers around the world.”

Yes, please. Spread that demented joy.

The novel features a grandmother, mother, and daughter (Adora, Marsha, and Poppy) who are all trying to kill each other. Adora does illegal plastic surgery for pets in Manhattan, Marsha is a klepto, Poppy operates a trampoline park outside Baltimore, and all of it sounds so thoroughly John Waters-ish that it will be difficult to wait until his triumphant, disgusting return hits theaters. Let’s hope he doesn’t end up in jail for obscenity before he gets the chance.

(via Deadline)

Following a series of disasters during Paris Fashion Week, Kanye West stopped by Fox News studios for an interview with Tucker Carlson. On tonight’s (October 6) episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Ye addressed several of the bits of headline-making behaviors from the past week. Also during his interview, he doubled down on his anti-abortion stance, while wearing a necklace containing an image of a fetus in a sonogram.

“You designed that?” asked Carlson.

“Yes,” Ye responded.

“What does that mean?” asked Carlson.

“It just represents life. I’m pro-life,” Ye said.

“What kind of response do you get? And amen, I agree,” said Carlson.

“I don’t care about people’s responses,” Ye said. “I care about the fact that there’s more Black babies being aborted than born in New York City at this point. 50% of Black death in America is abortion. So, I really don’t care about people’s responses. I perform for an audience of one, and that’s God.”

Elsewhere in the interview, he addressed the incident with Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, attacking body-positive movements in the process.

“The media wants to put out a perception that being overweight is the new goal when it’s actually unhealthy,” Ye said. “Let’s get aside the fact of whether it’s fashion in Vogue, which it’s not. If someone thinks it’s attractive, to each his own. It’s actually clinically unhealthy, and for people to promote that, it’s demonic.”

Check out the full interview here (if you must).

The Nielsen streaming ratings for the first week of September are out, and they prove that everyone was sweeping the leg. Cobra Kai topped the charts for original series with 1.74 billion minutes viewed. However, it wasn’t the only one to top a billion minutes. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix’s Devil in Ohio came in second with 1.38 billion minutes, Prime Video’s The Rings of Power came in third with 1.2 billion minutes, and HBO Max’s House of the Dragon hit the top of the “acquired series” charts with 1.02 billion minutes.

The two obvious things jump out here: first, that we were streaming, like, a ton in early September. Is everyone okay? The answer is no, but are we less okay than the normal level of Not Okay? Just checking in. Call a friend and see how they’re doing tonight, please.

Secondly, plucky little reboot Cobra Kai is king of the heap versus a slew of gargantuan-budgeted epics. Amazon spent a billion dollars on The Rings of Power, and it’s losing out to the delightful nostalgia bomb about kicking people in the face and learning personal responsibility. That’s pretty cool! Also, art isn’t a competition, and both can be excellent shows at the same time.

(via The Hollywood Reporter)

The 2016 election was a watershed moment when misinformation online became a serious problem and had enormous consequences. Even though social media sites have tried to slow the spread of misleading information, it doesn’t show any signs of letting up.

A NewsGuard report from 2020 found that engagement with unreliable sites between 2019 and 2020 doubled over that time period. But we don’t need studies to show that misinformation is a huge problem. The fact that COVID-19 misinformation was such a hindrance to stopping the virus and one-third of American voters believe that the 2020 election was stolen is proof enough.

What’s worse is that according to Pew Research, only 26% of American adults are able to distinguish between fact and opinion.

To help teach Americans how to discern real news from fake news, The News Literacy Project has created a new website called RumorGuard that debunks questionable news stories and teaches people how to become more news literate.

u201cLove this. We need to make it easy for people to know the difference between what is real and what is misinformation. Itu2019s especially helpful that @NewsLitProject shows the process of how they debunk these rumors.u201d

— Melissa Luck u2618 (@Melissa Luck u2618)
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“Misinformation is a real threat to our democracy, our health and our environment. But too many people are not sure how to verify the news they come across and are convinced there is no useful action they can take to protect themselves and others from being fooled,” Charles Salter, NLP’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “We can confront these challenges by making sure more people have news literacy skills and the ability to collectively push back against the spread of false, misleading and harmful content.”

The site regularly posts debunked news stories to push back against the lies that spread online. The great thing is that the stories explain why the information shouldn’t be trusted.

Each post explains how to use five major factors of credibility to judge whether a claim is legitimate and walks the reader through the debunking process. The five criteria are a great thing to consider any time someone is reading a news article.

Source: Has the information been posted by a credible source?

Evidence: Is there any evidence that proves the claim is true?

Context: Is the provided context accurate?

Reasoning: Is the claim based on sound reasoning?

Authenticity: Is the information authentic, or has it been edited, changed, or completely made up?

The site also provides lessons to teach people how to identify misinformation so they don’t fall for it in the future. Studies show that the best way to combat misinformation is by inoculating people against it by teaching them how to spot the deceptive tactics used by illegitimate news sites.

u201cFeel empowered ud83dudcaaud83cudffenStop misinformation in its tracks u274cnJoin the #RumorGuard today! nnud83dudd17 https://t.co/xLs55ws8HJu201d

— The News Literacy Project (@The News Literacy Project)
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A recent study highlighted by Upworthy from researchers from universities of Cambridge and Bristol found that “pre-bunking” was one of the most effective ways to stop the spread of misinformation.

“Across seven high-powered preregistered studies including a field experiment on YouTube, with a total of nearly 30,000 participants, we find that watching short inoculation videos improves people’s ability to identify manipulation techniques commonly used in online misinformation, both in a laboratory setting and in a real-world environment where exposure to misinformation is common,” the recently published findings note.

Over the past six years, there have been numerous attempts by social media platforms and fact-checking organizations to try to stop the spread of false information online as it slowly erodes our democracy. RumorGuard seems to be following the lessons we’ve learned over the past few years by providing fact-checks to big news stories in real time and by helping to inoculate people against fake news in the future.

Let’s hope we can stop the spread of misinformation while we still have a democracy to protect.

Deep in the bowels of The Hollywood Reporter‘s sprawling profile of The Rings of Power showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne lies a curious tidbit about how all the majors were promising comically large checks to the Tolkien Estate if they could be the ones to bring further Lord of the Rings projects to life. HBO Max wanted to take everyone back to Middle-Earth, McKay and Payne spoke Elvish during their pitch on behalf of Amazon, and Netflix allegedly offered the most money and the most frightening vision.

As the feature, written by James Hibberd, states:

Netflix pitched doing several shows, such as a Gandalf series and an Aragorn drama. “They took the Marvel approach,” said one insider to the talks, “and that completely freaked out the estate.”

Thus, if that insider has it right, this is one of those rare moments where the biggest number didn’t win the day. It’s also one of those moments where attempting to create an expanded universe was actually balked at. Regardless of where you come down on Amazon’s concept of taking us all back in time long before Frodo got the ring, it’s difficult to imagine a Netflix version that wasn’t algorithmed into the ground. It’s hard to judge too harshly without knowing more, but those two concepts feel wholly uninspired.

On the other hand, no one had the courage to pitch a Tom Bombadil series, and we’re all worse off for it.

(via The Hollywood Reporter)