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Not only is Slayyyter one of the rising pop stars we picked to have a banner year in 2022, but today she’s announced a brand new collab with none other than New Orleans Bounce legend Big Freedia. Earlier this year Slayyyter finally shared her debut album, Troubled Paradise, after popping off big with some early viral hits like “Daddy AF” and “Throatzilla.” So needless to say Slayyyter, aka Catherine Slater and Big Freedia, aka Freddie Ross, have a raunchy streak in common.

For their new song, “Stupid Boy,” the pair roast a potential suitor who may think he’s in control of the situation but, in fact, is being played like a fiddle. Complete with a dance breakdown and boxing ring photo shoot, the song really picks up in the back half when Freedia brings the heat with an unstoppable verse. Slayyyter said she wanted the vibe of the song to evoke WWE divas, and that has definitely been achieved.

“The song came together when I was in a session with my boyfriend Colin and friends Owen Jackson and Miles Comaskey,” Slayyyter said of the song. “We were cutting vocals for something else and Colin and Owen emerged from a back room with a new song idea called “Stupid Boy.” They gave me a poem of silly lyrics to read in a sexy voice and then they turned it into an absolute club banger. We hit Big Freedia’s team about being on it and they were down immediately. I added my own verse later on and the entire vibe of the song reminded me of the powerful WWE divas which is where we took the inspiration for the visuals. It’s one of my favorite songs to date because I made it for fun with my friends.”

Big Freedia is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Canelo Alvarez is almost universally regarded as the best boxer on the planet right now. After going 14-0-1 in his last 15 fights and winning belts across four different divisions since the lone loss of his career to Floyd Mayweather back in 2013, the Mexican fighter has become the face of the sport.

Still, this Saturday night represents a chance to do something he’s never done: become an undisputed champion of a division by claiming all four of the major belts (WBC, WBO, WBA, IBF) at 168 pounds. To do so, he will need to take down Caleb Plant, an undefeated American who has quickly risen to the top of the division in recent years. There is no shortage of motivation for each fighter, helped by a scuffle at their first press conference that left Plant with a cut under his right eye, but for Canelo, this bout is just as much about continuing to take his place among the all-time greats of the sport as it is about taking out an opponent for whom he has a distaste.

On Wednesday, prior to their fight week presser in Las Vegas, Alvarez sat down with Uproxx over Zoom on behalf of Hennessy to talk about why this fight means so much to him, what he expects from Plant in the ring, and why it’s easy for him to stay motivated even though he’s reached the top of the mountain.

How are you feeling a few days out from fight night?

I feel great. I feel ready for Saturday night.

What’s been your focus in camp as you get ready for Caleb Plant and what he’s going to bring in the ring?

I always focus, focus on being ready 100 percent. You know, we obviously work on how he boxes, like how he moves with jabs, so we trained for that. But at the end of the day, I like to be in the ring the first round and then look how I need to do in the night.

What are you expecting to see from him? Obviously you’ll be ready to adapt, but what are the expectations coming into that first round?

I expect he’s gonna move, using his jab, moving, trying to make the fight difficult for me. So I expect that but I’m, like I say, it’s nothing new for me. I fight before with all the styles, with all the great fighters out there. So for me it’s just, I just need to be patient and do my job.

I know you’ve said you think you can get a knockout in the 7-9 round range. What are the things you think you can do exploit in his defense and wear him down to get to that point where you can finish him?

Like I say, I need to be patient the first rounds and do my job, go forward, moving, and start with the body punches. And then looking for the good combinations, and just like I say, be patient.

This will be your your fourth straight fight at 168. You had a few fights in a row where you were bouncing up and down from middleweight, light heavy, back to super middle. Does it help you to have some consistency in the weight that you’re fighting at and know how your body’s gonna respond in the build up to a fight to be at your best at a certain weight class?

It’s hard going down, going up, so it’s always hard. But I feel great in this weight class. So I feel great in 168. I feel my power is there, my speed, my abilities, I can do it better. So I feel ready in 168.

Why has it been so important to you to go after title fights and go after these unification fights that weren’t always what the top fighters have done in boxing — whether it’s contractual things and all of that. You seem to really pursue those fights.

I like [the] challenge. I always like being there, looking for the best fights out there. In this time, our short term goal is unify all the belts. So for us, it means a lot to be an undisputed fighter, because very few fighters in the history of boxing accomplish that. So for us this means a lot.

You’re partnered with with Hennessy and you’ve been with them for a while. Why is that a brand that you felt has has been aligned with you and your style?

Yeah, because they have the same dreams, the same vision like me. You know, never stop. Never settle. It is like I always thinking about that. I never stop. I never give up. So I feel so good we’re partnered with Hennessy.

When you go from being the guy who’s the young phenom trying to get to the top, to the guy at the top of the sport, how do you maintain that same hunger and drive when you’re the guy being chased?

It’s easy. I love this. I love boxing. I love what I do and for me it’s easy.

Finally, what comes next? Obviously you’re focused on Plant right now, but you said that unification is the short term goal. What’s next on the long term goals for you?

We don’t know yet. So we want to accomplish this fight first and then we will look forward.

When I Am Legend hit theaters in 2007, the film shattered box office records by being the highest grossing non-Christmas movie released in December. However, the movie’s $77 million opening weekend apparently wasn’t good enough for Will Smith at the time. While appearing on the latest episode of Apple TV’s The Oprah Conversation, the blockbuster star revealed that he had such an unhealthy fixation with I Am Legend‘s performance that his producing partner, James Lassiter, actually hung up on him.

Via Entertainment Weekly:

“I’m excited for 30 seconds, and then my mind drifts and I say to J, ‘Hey, why do you think we missed 80?” Smith told Oprah Winfrey. “He said, ‘What?’ And I said, ‘No, it was 77, do you think if we would have adjusted the ending? Because I wanted the ending to feel more like Gladiator.’ He’s like, ‘It’s the biggest opening in history, ever. What are you talking about?’ I’m like, ‘J, I get that, I’m just asking why do you think we missed the 80?’ And it’s the only time he ever hung up on me.”

As Oprah expressed how much she loved that someone actually hung up on Smith, the actor laughed and said that the incident demonstrated the “subtle sickness of material success.”

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

For Lorde fans who wanted more Solar Power, today is a good day, as Lorde dropped a deluxe edition of the album. The expanded release comes with a pair of new songs: the minimal and melodic “Helen Of Troy” and the similar but more rhythmic “Hold No Grudge.”

In a recent email newsletter, Lorde described both of the tracks and their origins, writing:

“These songs were fun explorations on the album journey. They didn’t quite fit into the tracklist for whatever reason but they’re both big tunes. [‘Helen Of Troy’] is just me talking trash to make Jack [Antonoff] laugh, basically. We wrote it super quickly in the tiniest room at Westlake where we did a bunch of [Melodrama] and it was fun the whole time. It’s super off the cuff lyrically, almost ad-libbed, and you can hear me starting to figure out some album themes — ‘So I took a happy face, and it’s coming on like a charm / I don’t wanna get lost, I wanna worship the sun / and if you want, you can come’.

[‘Hold No Grudge’] is a sort of composite portrait of when relationships turn sour, being trapped in the ice but remembering the warmth. Every couple lines, the person I’m singing about changes; one minute it’s a childhood friend, next a crush or a colleague. When this happens to me, I find myself hyper-aware of the space where the closeness used to be, my tongue finding it over and over like the socket of a lost tooth. I came to the conclusion that when it comes to holding grudges, I am just not that b*tch. ‘Acting my age, not my horoscope / guess that’s growing up.’ She’ll drink to that.”

Listen to “Helen Of Troy” above and find “Hold No Grudge” below.

We were promised a return to normal. Or, actually, we probably weren’t. But it sure felt like with the defeat of Donald Trump and the vaccine rollout and a stream of festival and tour announcements, that by the fall of 2021, we would be back to some version of normal. But that’s definitely not how it has felt. Instead, we keep redefining a new normal, adjusting our expectations to the reality that many people won’t be getting vaccinated, that indoor masks are here to stay, that safety from Covid is not a guarantee, regardless of the actions we take.

That’s all to say that the return of Outside Lands to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco wasn’t a one-for-one replica of the festival of old. After undergoing multiple postponements due to the pandemic, the fest finally returned to action more than two years after its 2019 installment, shifting from its typical mid-summer dates to Halloween weekend. Funny enough, the weather on the west side of San Francisco really isn’t that different any time of year, so aside from the costumes that grew denser as the weekend went on, the date switch had little effect on the actual feeling of the festival.

So what was different? There were vaccine/testing checks, all done efficiently using the Clear app, utilizing wristbands that made entry a breeze, even better than before the pandemic. There were mask requirements indoors, and despite general mask recommendations for the rest of the grounds, a good portion of the crowd opted to enjoy the crisp, cool air. There were also more lineup changes than usual, most notably Young Thug canceling a set Saturday evening on the main stage, which isn’t exactly uncommon in a normal year, and should only be more common as everything from supply chain issues to general health affect touring.

But mostly, Outside Lands 2021 felt like the return to normal we’ve been craving, the type of place you can go and temporarily forget about the horrid previous 18 months. Sunday closer Tame Impala exemplified that with their multisensory experience around their pre-pandemic offering, The Slow Rush. Seeing the fans in the front row absolutely lose their shit with the faux commercial for the drug Rushium — some clearly questioning whether the psychedelic video was druggy in production or just druggy because they were, in fact, on drugs — was equally hilarious and endearing. The band’s decision to announce that Tame Impala had been replaced by The Wiggles, and then showing up dressed like the kids’ entertainers for their Halloween set, only added to the joyous insanity of it all. But frills aside, Tame Impala was the act of the weekend that best bridged the fest’s dueling demographics, where OSL veterans and the next generation of Zoomers could enjoy one of contemporary rock’s best bands together.

Lizzo’s infectious personality also managed to unite the OSL audience; she’s the kind of pop star that can attract a crowd out of sheer curiosity as much as because of actual attachment to the music. And it’s a good thing, because witnessing a Lizzo concert is to become a fan, with the catchy tunes joining forces with a captivating stage presence that just screams stardom. Her rise from daytime small stages at festivals to the marquee act has been a pretty wonderful storyline over the last half-decade, and if she can continue to turn out hits, she’ll be doing the same for a long time.

In fact, of the headliners, only The Strokes that disappointed. It’s tough to say what’s going on there, but it’s easy to say that the responsibility falls solely on leader Julian Casablancas. His interest in his main band has seemed slight for literally decades, with him much more artistically and, seemingly, emotionally invested in his side work with The Voidz. On this night (and, through conversations, other nights of the current run), Casablancas seemed to hold his audience in contempt, baffled by why anyone would care about his music and giving them little reason to while on stage. It says something about the undeniability of their catalog that even with a lead singer phoning it in, they still entertained and showed flashes of greatness. Still, it was clearly the least attended headlining set of the weekend.

Outside of the headliners, the highlights were many. Vampire Weekend might as well have been a closer, as few bands that are still at their creative peak can fill a festival set with more recognizable tunes. Angel Olsen and Sharon Van Etten got together to play their great recent single “Like I Used To,” while also offering career-spanning sets that presented versions of themselves less tied to particular album cycles. More in the hip-hop lane, Rico Nasty and Nelly both showed off polar-opposite appeals, one with inviting abrasiveness, the other with a stream of tunes deeply ingrained in the public consciousness. And then there’s Khruangbin, the ideal festival band for 2021 that can tap into decades of hits from other artists as well as their own hyper-vibey psych-funk, becoming the ultimate communal band.

Outside Lands also remembers that festivals should be about music discovery. That’s why getting there early is essential, to make sure you take in people like Bartees Strange, whose anthemic indie rock is on a trajectory for bigger rooms as soon as next year. Or people like Dijon, whose silky voice is buoyed by a stage persona that’s hard to take your eyes off, his face contorting and eyebrows furrowing to exemplify the passion of his music. And then there’s my beloved Petey, who opened the Twin Peaks stage on Sunday to a small but mighty crowd, showing off his unique blend of clever songwriting and absurdist humor. He’s the absolute best.

Of course, there were all the rest of the activations and eats that make Outside Lands one of the best live events in the world. Maybe most notable is Grasslands, which thanks to California’s legalized weed laws, actually has areas now designated for consumption. Pair that with the self-explanatory Beerlands and Winelands, and well, you have yourself a nice time in the park. The cuisine was expertly curated with some of the best of the Bay, with a special shoutout needing to go to both the wonderful sticky buns from The Chairman and the delicious BBQ from Vegan Mob. But the overall sense of Outside Lands 2021 wasn’t a band or a song or a bite, it was being among tens of thousands of people and losing sight of the greater world narrative for a moment. Live music is a place to lose yourself and find it again. It felt more essential than ever this year.

Check out some photos from this year below.

Brittany Howard

Burna Boy

Angel Olsen

Bartees Strange

Nelly

Mxmtoon

Kehlani

Caroline Polachek

Dijon

Dr. Dog

Glass Animals

Yves Tumor And Its Band

Tame Impala

Rico Nasty

Rexx Life Raj

Remy Wolf

Sharon Van Etten

Vampire Weekend

The Strokes

If you have gone this long without being made aware of “Let’s Go Brandon,” first off, teach me your ways. But for any of the following to make sense, I should probably explain the dumbest meme since that fly landed on Mike Pence. In early October, NASCAR driver Brandon Brown was being interviewed by NBC Sports reporter Kelli Stavast at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama when the crowd started chanting “f*ck Joe Biden.” Except Stavast didn’t hear “f*ck Joe Biden.” She heard “let’s go Brandon.” And thus, a libs-owning meme (and Billboard-charting songs) was born.

That takes us to this week, when rootin’ tootin’ Lauren Boebert (R-CO) celebrated Republican Glenn Youngkin winning Virginia’s governor’s race over Democrat Terry McAuliffe with a “Let’s Go Brandon” dress. “It’s not a phrase, it’s a movement! #LGB,” she tweeted on Thursday while posing with a certain ex-president.

If the dress looks familiar, that’s because it’s the Spirit Halloween version of what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) wore to the Met Gala.

Boebert mocked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Tax the Rich” dress that the New York Democrat wore to the Met Gala in September. Boebert’s dress read, “Let’s Go, Brandon,” the phrase that has become something of a rallying cry for President Biden’s most fierce critics, which is code for a derogatory message to the president… Boebert’s office told Fox News on Friday that she posed for the photo with former President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida this week.

Boebert seemingly posed with everyone who wanted a photo — and was widely mocked on Twitter for letting AOC live in her head campaign funds free, I mean, rent free.

(Via Fox News)

Ye — aka Kanye West — caused quite a stir with his recent appearance on NORE’s podcast Drink Champs. In addition to throwing his former GOOD Music signees Big Sean and John Legend under the bus and realigning himself with Donald Trump, he also made other wild claims including accusing fellow former Roc-A-Fella Records in-house producer Just Blaze of copying his production style. While it’s true that both producers made use of pitch-shifted soul samples, there is ample evidence that their techniques were developed concurrently — that didn’t stop Kanye from doing his best to burn that particular bridge.

Now, Just Blaze himself has replied to Kanye’s claims, posting a statement on Instagram and Twitter calling the incident “unfortunate” and refuting the accusations of copying.

Well that was unfortunate. I’m only addressing this publicly because it was stated publicly. I’m not here for the mudslinging, I’m just a bit confused and disappointed.

None of what was said tonight regarding me fits with any of our history or our previous interactions – particularly in light of very recent attempts to work together again. Through recent years he has reached out to collaborate on various projects, including a much rumored collaborative project that he was looking for me to handle a good amount of. It unfortunately never saw the light of day due to reasons unrelated to me. Most recently, a couple of months back I woke up to a literal red alert from his people that he was looking for me for his last album in the 11th hour. We tried to pull something off but it was way too last minute.

Regarding that one comment: respectfully, I’m happy for him and the fact that he has succeeded in the ways he wanted to, but not everyone wants to be where he is. Everyone’s definition of personal success is a bit different. I’m quite happy where I am creatively, with my family, and my life in general. We were a part of history together and I wish him well and continued success.

Just signs off by warning, “Media: please do not clickbait this,” but like… we all have jobs to do, man. Anyway, the fallout from Kanye’s implosion on Drink Champs continues to land on the music landscape and I’m sure that there will be further responses from those folks the mercurial producer mentioned because there were a lot and he wasn’t really kind to most of them.

Deron Williams is apparently getting into the world of celebrity boxing. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Williams, who spent more than a decade in the NBA, will be a participant on the undercard of next month’s bout between internet personality Jake Paul and boxer/reality TV star Tommy Fury. The event will take place on Dec. 18.

There is, at this time, no opponent for Williams, but Charania mentioned that he could end up facing another former professional athlete in longtime NFL running back Frank Gore.

The No. 3 pick in the 2005 NBA Draft, Williams spent time with the Utah Jazz, New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets, Dallas Mavericks, and Cleveland Cavaliers during his time in the Association. He made three All-Star teams and was a two-time second-team All-NBA selection. Gore, meanwhile, was a five-time Pro Bowl selection in his career, which spanned 16 season and included stops with the San Francisco 49ers, Indianapolis Colts, Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, and New York Jets.

Williams would have a notable size advantage — he is 6’3 while Gore is 5’9. Gore, meanwhile, was a professional athlete through last season, while Williams retired back in 2017, and has always been revered for the amount of power he had as a runner despite his relatively small frame. Hopefully getting into boxing goes better for Williams than it did for Nate Robinson.

After boldly tweeting earlier in the year that she’d never go to prison because she’s blonde and white, you’d think Capitol rioter Jenna Ryan would pull back on the tweets after learning that, actually, she will be going to jail despite her skin and hair color. But no. After her 60 day sentence went viral on Thursday, Ryan once again took to Twitter to address her haters and issue what you might call a concession tweet?

“I’m just gonna make a blanket statement to all the people that are calling me and texting me,” she wrote. “You win!!! I’m going to prison. So you don’t need to contact me anymore. Pop champagne and then rejoice. But just leave me alone. Thank you.”

Of course, it’s not a great sign that Ryan still can’t stay away from social media even after her aggressive posting not only led to her swift arrest, but also sealed her fate in court. Her tweet about saying she’ll never go to prison because she’s too blonde and white did not sit well with the judge who wanted to make her an example to MAGA rioters who think they can operate with impunity.

After being sentenced, Ryan even told the media outside the courthouse that she regrets ever tweeting. Clearly, that sentiment didn’t hold for very long.

(Via Jenna Ryan on Twitter)

There’s mystery surrounding Tucker Carlson’s emergency back surgery, and little of that has to do with the surgery itself. Rather, it’s the fact that Tucker had this surgery (which reportedly followed weeks of severe pain, according to Page Six) on Wednesday morning and then returned to the air on Wednesday night to drop a whopper on critical race theory. According to Vice’s Motherboard blog, he described the incident as “one of the most traumatic things that’s ever happened to me in my whole life, ever.” The surgery was confirmed by Vice with a statement from Fox News, and then there was an added detail, which was that Tucker had told his production team that he “understands America’s opioid crisis in a deeper way” because his treatment included fentanyl and other powerful opioid-painkiller medication.

Following word of those remarks (and it was apparently a very lengthy, rambling speech), Tucker subsequently sat out his Wednesday night episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight, and Jesse Watters filled in. For what it’s worth, Watters made that revelation in the early evening hours.

The Independent is reporting that Tucker “cancelled” his nightly appearance. There’s been no confirmation that he definitively cancelled, but he wasn’t on the air for sure. Certainly, he wouldn’t feel so great after surgery, and he probably should have sat out Wednesday night as well. Via Vice, here’s part of the transcript of his leaked backstage remarks on opioids:

“They gave me fentanyl this morning, that did not cure it-they gave me intravenous fentanyl,” he said. “And they gave me all kinds of other sh*t. I was like, ‘Fine, go for it.’ And then it only ended when they gave me propofol, and I went out. Then I woke up and I was like, I felt totally fine. I haven’t taken a single Advil.”

The remarks continued after Carlson apparently expressed his intent to not take opioids again, and he detailed how the drugs made him feel different than usual fearless self:

“I had this spirit of fear within me, which I don’t have,” he said. “I’m not bragging, I don’t have it. And I think you can feel it. I don’t have it, I think that’s why I’m successful, cause I’m just not afraid. I felt afraid just of like life or something. It’s interesting.

“It was super deep. And I just haven’t had those feelings since I was in a plane crash 20 years ago this month. I’ve never had those feelings. I’m always like ‘Yeah I’m gonna die, I don’t care.’ And I mean it. But last night I was like, ‘Oh sh*t.’ Fear-just like anxiety. People who have anxiety, that’s what I felt. And it was from those drugs. And they extinguish the spirit within you. And they make you feel like you’re running away. You’re hiding. It’s so f*cking deep. I’m lying in bed filthy with dog toys on my pillow, and it doesn’t bother me. And I’m not that way. Like I am a f*cking–in real life, I wash the sheets every day. I’m that guy. I shower every day.”

Tucker’s dad previously detailed the plane crash (in an email to a Washington Post) that his son was referencing. And neither Tucker nor Fox News have commented on these reported leaked remarks, but all wishes go out for a speedy recovery for the host.

(Via Vice & Washington Post)