Trevor Noah devoted a substantial chunk of time (on Tuesday night’s The Daily Show episode) to discussing the ongoing trainwreck of the Kanye West/Kim Kardashian/Pete Davidson situation. By now, you’ve surely noticed the back and forth, including how Kayne has thrown obstacles into Kim’s divorce filing (which was granted by a judge) and depicted an act of physical violence against Pete in a music video, and Noah has warned this very publicly rendered obsession could take a terrible turn.
Noah, who had discussed how his own mother endured an abusive relationship before being shot in the head (Patricia Noah did, miraculously, survive), did carefully make sure that he wasn’t accusing Kanye of physical violence. Still, Noah expressed worry and wondered, “Do we wish to stand by and watch a car crash when we thought we saw it coming? Or do we at least want to say, ‘Slow down, let’s all put our hazards on, because there’s a storm coming and sh*t might go down.’”
Before long, Kanye posted (as noted by both TMZ and Us Weekly) a response on his Instagram page. He’s since deleted the racial slur-filled post, but here’s a screenshot:
— Man’s NOT Barry Roux (@AdvoBarryRoux) March 16, 2022
Noah stepped up and responded in the comments to that post. Of course, the post and the comment are now deleted, but Noah (via The Wrap) declared (of the racial slur), “Clearly some people graduate but we still stupid.” He added, “Don’t ever forget, the biggest trick racists ever played on black people was teaching us to strip each other of our blackness whenever we disagree. Tricking us into dividing ourselves up into splinters so that we would never unite into a powerful rod.”
Earlier on in the comment, Noah expressed concern for Kanye’s well-being, too:
“There are few artists who have had more of an impact on me than you Ye. You took samples and turned them into symphonies. You took your pain and through the wire turned it into performance perfection. I thought differently about how I spend my money because of you, I learned to protect my child-like creativity from grown thoughts because of you, shit I still smile every time I put on my seatbelt because of you.
“You’re an indelible part of my life Ye. Which is why it breaks my heart to see you like this. I don’t care if you support Trump and I don’t care if you roast Pete. I do however care when I see you on a path that’s dangerously close to peril and pain.”
As of now, there’s been no additional response from Kanye.
Kid Cudi dropped by Late Night yesterday and had a lot to talk about, like his upcoming movie X, getting his daughter into horror movies, and the time his music teacher mother gave him a B- in her class.
As a seventh grader, Cudi told Seth Meyers that to avoid being in his mother’s class, he took band class and tried playing the trumpet, like his older brother did. However, we was failing the class, so his teacher suggested he switch to his mother’s choir class. He did, and Cudi continued:
“All year long, I’m just like in the back of the class, trying not to get called on. And my mom was always trying to give me solos and sh*t. Sorry, I cursed. So stressed out about that still to this day [laughs]. Report cards came, the end of the year came. I’m thinking, ‘OK, my mom’s gonna give me an A+,’ you know? It’s my mom, right? I get my report card and I got a B-. My mom keeps it so real. She was like, ‘You missed some homework.’ I was like, ‘You keep it so funky.’ I got to respect it.”
Earlier in the interview, it was noted Cudi had become friends with Abbott Elementary star Quinta Brunson, who was the next guest on Late Night after Cudi. Cudi said he wants to be on Abbott Elementary, saying, “That was something that I was kind of just throwing out, talking to [Abbott Elementary’s Tyler James Williams] about.”
Later in the show, Brunson came out and Cudi stayed for the interview. Meyers noted Cudi’s interest in the show and Cudi and Brunson said they’d talk about it while getting dinner together after the show. At the end of the interview, Meyers wrapped up by saying he hopes Cudi finds his way onto Abbott Elementary, to which Brunson responded, “Yeah, I mean, he’s Kid Cudi. It’s pretty easy. I don’t know why he’s like [laughs]… Tyler was like, ‘This guy wants to be on the show.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, he can.’”
Given that Brunson not just stars in Abbott Elementary but is its creator, it would seem Cudi is essentially a lock to be on the show if they can find a good way to work him in.
While preparing to make Game of Thrones, a project he never expected to get off the ground, D.B. Weiss wrote a script called Metal Lords that hit the backburner as Thrones became a mammoth juggernaut for HBO. However, once the dragon series concluded its eight season run, Weiss quickly returned to his film about a high school metal band and retooled the script that hadn’t been touched since 2006.
Along the way, he became friends with Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello. Morello came aboard the Netflix film as an executive producer, but the musician quickly took on the role of a hard rocking advisor as he pushed the actors to fully embrace the metal genre.
“It doesn’t matter the accuracy of your cymbal hits. You just have to go fucking berserk the entire time,” Morello told Billboard. “That’s metal! Don’t worry about the rest. Kick my ass with your facial expressions, which should be, at a minimum, Neanderthal-like and at a maximum, like you’re just in some sort of roiling pain and never stop doing that.”
Here’s the official synopsis for Metal Lords:
Two kids want to start a heavy metal band in a high school where exactly two kids care about heavy metal. Hunter (Adrian Greensmith) is a diehard metal fan —is there any other kind?— who knows his history and can shred. His dream in life is to win at the upcoming Battle of the Bands. He enlists his best friend Kevin (Jaeden Martell) to man the drums. But with schoolmates more interested in Bieber than Black Sabbath, finding a bassist is a struggle.
So far, Encanto smash hit “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” has spent five weeks in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Its streak actually came to an end this week, though, as Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” is now on top of the chart. Now, in a new Los Angeles Times interview, Lin-Manuel Miranda (who penned all the Encanto songs) spoke about the movie and its music, revealing that “Bruno” would not have been his pick to become a big success.
Miranda explained:
“In my wildest dreams of what might happen, I would have swapped ‘Colombia, Mi Encanto’ — the top and bottom of that chart! ‘Colombia, Mi Encanto’ [which spent one week at No. 100 before leaving the chart] is such a party tune: ‘This could maybe have a little life beyond the movie.’ And the fact that the ensemble song that is incredibly plot-heavy and almost requires having seen the film to fully understand is the one at the top of the charts is one of the most delightful and hilarious surprises … of my life [laughs]! The one that requires no context just made it and the one that requires all the context is the banger.”
He went on to note of “Bruno,” “I think the variety of it is a part of it; the fact that everyone can have a favorite part — it’s gonna be a karaoke jam forever because everyone can grab the mic at one moment or another. My son came home from school the other day and said, ‘Dad, we were singing it on the bus and everyone took different parts.’ I went, ‘Oh my God, did you sing along?’ He goes, ‘I was one of several Camilos’ [laughs].”
Alongside hosting her own long-running talk show, perhaps the defining job of Ellen DeGeneres’ career is voicing Dory in the Finding Nemo movies. On today’s Ellen episode, Machine Gun Kelly was a guest and he brought those two DeGeneres worlds together by remixing one of DeGeneres’ most iconic Finding Nemo moments.
To wrap up the “Burning Questions” segment, the final prompt was “Do your best Finding Dory impression.” That was a set-up for something MGK had planned, which started with him pulling out a piece of music production hardware. He started by showing DeGeneres an audio sample he pre-loaded onto the machine, a clip of her Dory character making “whale noises.” From there, he reversed the sound and used it as the foundation for an instrumental beat, which left DeGeneres impressed.
Elsewhere during the segment, DeGeneres asked what boyband Kelly would want to perform at his wedding. He responded, “Which boyband am I going to know the most songs of? For sure, NSYNC. Which band do I surprisingly know all these facts about? BTS. […] I remember one time, I met them at the Billboard awards. They were, like, stoked to meet me. I think I have a better chance of getting BTS to come.”
Check out the segment above. Kelly also talked about his and Travis Barker’s tattoos, so check that out below.
2020 was major year for The Weeknd’s foray into animation. First he got to appear in an episode of one of his favorite shows, American Dad, and just months later, he voiced some characters on Robot Chicken. Here in 2022, he’s getting back into the saddle, as he is set to make an appearance on the cartoon: The Simpsons.
According to The Futon Critic, The Weeknd is set to voice a couple characters, Orion Hughes and Darius Hughes, on the March 20 episode, titled “Bart The Cool Kid.” An episode synopsis reads, “When Bart befriends a famous kid influencer who owns an ultra-cool skate wear brand, Homer leads a rebellion of loser dads against them.” Michael Rapaport is also set to guest star as as Mike Wegman.
The Weeknd himself confirmed the news by shared a report from a fan account on Twitter and writing, “proud of this one.”
Shortly before the premiere of his American Dad episode, The Weeknd indicated that getting to appear on The Simpsons would be a dream come true, saying in a Variety interview, “American Dad was everything I wanted. It’s going to be hard to beat this in the TV cartoon world, but an obvious bucket list would be to work on The Simpsons. That would be a dream — and if they’re reading this, I actually have a pretty cool idea if they’re down.”
The long wait is almost over: FX has released the trailer for the third (but not final) season of Atlanta. You can watch it above.
The new season takes place almost entirely overseas, where Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) is joined by Earn (Donald Glover), Darius (LaKeith Stanfield), and Van (Zazie Beetz) “in the midst of a successful European tour,” according to the plot description. The foursome “navigates their new surroundings as outsiders, and struggle to adjust to the newfound success they had aspired to.” (The cast also faced racial profiling while filming, which they laughed off.)
“You’re not worried about, y’know, what the streets think?” Earn asks Paper Boi while he’s getting fitted for a custom outfit. “The streets?!” he replies as the trailer cuts to a different scene where a random woman steals the hat off his head. Later, Darius suggests to Earn that they should get going because things are “getting a bit… intense.”
The last new episode of Atlanta was in May 2018 (!), but the cast “always stayed in touch,” Tyree Henry told James Corden. “Like nonstop, we check in on one another. But to finally be back together, and to be back in the shoes of these characters, it just completely — it’s like a weird Twilight Zone episode, because you’re like like, ‘Do I still remember what Alfred went through?’ You’re just finding it out together.”
Whenever global catastrophe unfolds, almost everyone’s bound to have an opinion (while also watching on in horror), and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is no exception. Some current takes (Chris Evans directing people to stories of Russia’s history of atrocities towards rivals) are more productive than others (John Cena deciding to promote Peacemaker or AnnaLynne McCord performing spoken-word poetry), and Ice-T’s taking the commonsensical approach.
That’s what the interpretation has been as Ice-T — he of the no-BS Twitter threads — delivered his observation, in which he definitely does not pull an incomprehensible Steven Seagal move. Rather, Ice is dropping his truth as he sees fit.
“Here’s the Situation,” the SVU mainstay and Body Count frontman tweeted. “As soon as the US fires ONE bullet at a Russian solider. From the Ground or Air…. WE are at War with Russia. Not good.”
Here’s the Situation: As soon as the US fires ONE bullet at a Russian solider. From the Ground or Air…. WE are at War with Russia. Not good. pic.twitter.com/PgEA8LBUtg
People are here for this analysis, and they’re praising the man who portrays Fin Tutuola, not only for speaking out without bashing anyone else, but for having a much more levelheaded take on foreign policy than the talking heads (with credentials, even including former ambassadors and professors) on cable news.
When Ice T understands the situation more clearly than half the tenured natsec columnists https://t.co/NahiQn1Nb6
One of the ways you can tell that DC think tankers, IR academics, and journalists covering foreign affairs, are all frauds, is that ICE T, someone with no academic qualifications to discuss foreign affairs, understand foreign policy better than they do.
Not surprised that ICE T has better takes on this than the blue check brigade and many syndicated columnists and former ambassadors. https://t.co/4a2CI0yBvg
— isi baehr-breen (its pronounced ‘izzy’) (@isaiah_bb) March 3, 2022
Ice T gets this more than people who are paid to talk about foreign policy for a living. https://t.co/pKDPZgU9ID
When it comes to festivals in Scotland, one likely comes to mind first and foremost: Fringe. The Edinburgh arts fest is a nearly month-long celebration of creativity that has no equal across the globe. If you’re a fan of stand-up comedy, street magic, avant-garde theater, or pretty much anything in-between, you have to visit at least once in your lifetime. While the performers are fairly U.K.-focused, the fest has launched some serious careers. Fringe is where Robin Williams got his first big break on stage and contemporary comedians like Hannibal Burress and Mary Lynn Rajskub are known to frequent clubs or perform longer-term residencies during the festival.
Still, there’s more to Scotland’s festival scene than Fringe. The country boasts an eclectic mix of cultural fests that celebrate the intricacies of Scottish culture, one-of-a-kind whisky events tucked away on the Inner Hebrides, and rad EDM bacchanals that last days on end.
If those don’t nail your vibe (they definitely nail ours), there are plenty of other options, too. You might have heard of the famed Highland Games — featuring modern-day goliaths competing in feats of strength supported by a rich cultural (and culinary) backdrop — or the almost impossible-to-summarize scene at Eden (paganism! music! yoga!). The point being, the whole Scottish festival universe is unique, diverse, and a whole lot of fun. We’re calling out five festivals beyond Fringe that we love best below!
Terminal V Resurgence, Edinburgh
Terminal V
The Fest:
The easiest recommendation we can give is Terminal V Resurgence. This is the ultimate techno party with a direct line to Berlin’s scene, where a sibling festival takes place next year. While that sounds amazing in and of itself, Festival Director Derek Martin takes us deeper:
“Our stage designs are productions that have been meticulously planned with no corners cut on costs,” he says. “Our lineups feature the biggest electronic acts from across the musical spectrum.”
On that last point, Martin isn’t kidding. The lineup this year is a deep dive into the cutting edge of techno, EDM, trance, and every other form of electronic music from all around the world in one place. That translates to nearly 60 acts on six stages with over 20,000 people dancing and partying every day and night. You can see the whole, vast lineup right here.
Details:
Terminal V runs April 16th-17th, 2022, at Edinburgh’s The Royal Highland Centre. The venue is out at the Edinburgh airport, meaning that there are plenty of hotels very close. Terminal V will also be providing pre-party buses to and from the venue to central Edinburgh and several other cities throughout the U.K.
Tickets start at $88 for a one-day pass with VIP upgrades starting at $27. The full weekend pass is $168.
Highland Games, Nationwide
Pitlochry Highland Games
The Fest:
If Fringe isn’t what you think of when you think of Scottish festivals, then it’s probably the Highland Games. This nearly 1,000-year-old cultural festival celebrates all things Scotland but is far more than a monolith. Sure, you can watch bulking Scottish dudes throw logs (caber toss) and rocks (shot putt) while a bagpipe parade bellows in the background alongside foot races. But you’ll also find plenty of local food, drink, dancing, and community.
2022’s Highland Games take place across the whole region. The gist of the Highland Games is really local celebrations of summer across the region. Expect a county fair vibe but with a quaint Scottish village feel to it with Scotland’s dramatic Highlands framing every scene.
In all, you could spend May to September traveling all of Scotland and hit all the games, and then leave having a deeper understanding of the whole country under your travel belt. Plus, you’ll have eaten some amazing meat pies and drunk some great whisky and ale along the way — hopefully, at a local pub after a tug-of-war battle just outside.
Details:
The Highland Games run May through September. You can check here for nine towns hosting the games this year. Most games will have a small entrance fee ($7 to $12 per person) plus an extra fee if you want to compete in any of the sports/activities. Don’t take that lightly though, the games are taken very seriously by local folks — it might be a good idea to just sit back with your whisky or pint and cheer from the crowd.
Fèis Ìle 2022, Islay
Fèis Ìle
The Fest:
Fèis Ìle is the ultimate Scottish whisky festival. The festival takes place in the late spring on the isle of Islay and celebrates the island’s deep and long history with all things Scotch whisky.
Ben Shakespeare, the communications manager for the fest, breaks it down like this: “each distiller has their own festival days, which are a celebration of whisky and music. But mostly, it’s just people from all over the world coming together and having a good time on this little island.”
While whisky is the main focus, Fèis Ìle is really all about the community in Islay. The whole island participates from pub to pub and distillery to distillery, proudly sharing everything the island has to offer, from white sand beaches to the local Gaelic Centre, perfect for history fans. There are also bands and food and scores of very friendly locals — it’s a whole vibe.
Shakespeare offers one last tip, stay until the end. “The Final Fling is a great night!” he says. “It’s the last night of the festival when a lot of the locals come out and celebrate the end of a really busy week.”
Details:
Fèis Ìle runs from May 27 to June 4th this year. All “first batch” tickets are sold out but there will be more events and tickets going up soon. Keep an eye on the fest’s social media for updates. You’ll also be able to buy tickets to food events, boat trips around the island, and music events at the distilleries themselves.
We’d also argue that you’d need to book accommodation ASAP if you plan to go this year. There are just over 3,000 people on Islay and up to 10,000 are expected to show up for the fest.
Eden Festival, Moffat
Eden Festival
The Fest:
The Eden Festival started off cheekily as the Wicker Man fest back in the early aughts. That vibe transcends to this day. The modern Eden Festival is a place where ancient Gaelic paganism, hippy vibes, and a 1990s carnival of the absurd collide. There are the requisite yoga mornings, meditation tents, vegan treats for everyone, and plenty of scantily clad and painted bodies everywhere you look.
Then there’s the music. Eden Festival is the biggest music fest in the whole country. This year’s event will have 250 acts across ten stages over just four days. Naturally, that vastness covers pretty much every genre of music there is. So we’re pretty confident that you’ll be able to find something that speaks to you.
All of that combines to create a scene, and that’s what the festival is all about. Those Wicker Man vibes still permeate through the whole event and drive the holistic and paganist nature of a festival that prioritizes treating all music and people as equals.
Details:
Eden Festival runs June 9th-12th, 2022, at St. Ann’s just outside Moffat in the Scottish Lowlands. There’s camping and glamping on-site for a fee. There are also public buses from Edinburgh and Glasgow with an Eden shuttle to take you the rest of the way. Otherwise, this is a pretty remote location. There are plenty of food stalls, beer taps, and cocktail bars on-site in case you’re worried about food.
Tickets are almost sold out. Expect to pay $178 to enjoy the whole festival run. You can also book bus travel, camping, and more right here.
TRNSMT Festival, Glasgow
TRNSMT Festival
The Fest:
Let’s end things with a classic multi-stage music festival in a big city. TRNSMT in Glasgow has a classic main stage in a big ol’ field with huge nostalgia acts this year like The Strokes as well as two supporting stages with up-and-coming hip-hop, rock (Wolf Alice is on the lineup), and EDM artists.
The stages are set up with vendors in between selling plenty of food and drink. That being said, the ripple here is that the fest takes place in Glasgow Green, which is right in the middle of the city. That means you have the entirety of Glasgow’s restaurant, bar, and club scene at your fingertips before, during, and after every performance. That makes this kind of the perfect festival to travel to, especially if you’re looking to party in one of Europe’s coolest cities while also attending a massive music festival.
Details:
The fest runs from July 8th-10th this year. Since it’s in the middle of Glasgow, transportation isn’t an issue once you arrive. Moreover, there a plenty of hotels within a stone’s throw of the Green. Though be warned, up to 120,000 people attend this festival. So book your accommodation now.
Tickets start at $82 for a single day or $210 for the full run. Though, since this is the first year back since 2019, tickets are going quickly.
While it mostly traditional pop or hip-hop songs that hang out near the top of the charts, things have been different lately as standout Encanto hit “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” has enjoyed a sustained run atop the Billboard Hot 100. It spent a fourth frame at No. 1 last week, and now it once again occupies that spot for a fifth time on the new chart dated March 5.
Billboard notes the song’s success this week is due to a significant uptick in radio airplay impressions (7.9 million of them, a 23-percent increase from the previous week) despite declines in streams and downloads.
“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” drew 29.9 million U.S. streams (down 7%), 7.9 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 23%), and sold 6,600 downloads (down 12%) in the Feb. 18-24 tracking week, according to MRC Data.
A fifth week on top extends the song’s record for most weeks at No. 1 for a song from a Disney movie. In fact, it now has more weeks at No. 1 than the next two-biggest Disney songs combined: Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, Sting’s “All For Love” from The Three Musketeers spent three weeks at No. 1 while “A Whole New World” from Aladdin logged a week on top.
Meanwhile, Gayle is having a moment, as her viral hit “ABCDEFU” has hit a new high on the Hot 100, rising from No. 4 last week to No. 3 today.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
