STEPHEN COLBERT

Stephen Colbert Parodies Nicki Minaj’s Unlikely Vaccine Story With A Riff On ‘Super Bass’

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Nicki Minaj’s vaccine tall tale continued to inspire content as late-night host Stephen Colbert joined in on the fun on his show last night. A few days ago, Nicki tweeted she is unvaccinated because her cousin told her his friend had an unusual adverse reaction to a vaccine that caused his testes to swell up. Despite that horror story being debunked by Dr. Anthony Fauci, who pointed out there’s ‘no mechanistic reason’ for a vaccine to affect one’s sexual organs, Nicki has remained more or less steadfast.

However, the unintentional hilarity of the tweet’s “Caribbean auntie WhatsApp broadcast energy” prompted plenty of equally hilarious meme-ing at Nicki’s expense. Colbert, looking to one-up Twitter’s plethora of pranksters, hijacking Nicki’s one-time biggest hit, “Super Bass,” turn to playfully jab at the likely mythical cousin’s friend’s dilemma with “Super Balls.” The show was cold-opened with the video, to the audience’s delight.

Remixing Nicki’s colorful video with closeups of all kinds of balls (basketballs, beach balls, disco balls, ping pong balls, etc.), the lyrics are revamped to reflect fictional misfortune, referencing King-Kong, the moons of Mars, and James And The Giant Peach. Colbert also roasted Nicki’s narrative in his opening monologue, cracking, “Nicki Minaj is known for her extensive research on what anacondas want… if and when you’ve got buns, hun.” Taking the iffy provenance of her story to task, he snarked, “To be fair to Dr. Minaj, everyone knows there’s no source more reliable than your extended family’s acquaintances in another country. Her report comes straight from the New England Journal of My Cousin’s Friend in Trinidad. Check out this week’s study: ‘I Heard His Girlfriend Got Pregnant From a Hot Tub.’”

Watch Stephen Colbert air out Nicki Minaj above.

Brockhampton Performs ‘Don’t Shoot Up The Party’ On ‘The Late Show’

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If Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine really is Brockhampton’s penultimate album as a group, they’re going out with a bang. The group appeared on last night’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to perform the album’s pensive but electrifying cut “Don’t Shoot Up The Party.”

Wearing matching jumpsuits — as per usual for the extremely coordinated, self-professed “boy band” — the group performs from a tiered platform surrounded by massive LED screens projecting their performance back at them. The effect is suitably trippy for the glitched-out, magnetized VHS look they’re fond of embracing, and as always, their energy is unmatched, despite being sort of constrained by the small set.

Kevin Abstract, the group’s de facto leader, informed fans ahead of Roadrunner‘s release that their next two projects would be their last. With Roadrunner out now, that leaves one album to go — although Abstract later offered a glimmer of hope in explaining the band’s oncoming dissolution. Writing, “we all love each other and we wanna continue making the best music we can everybody just getting a lil older and got a lot to say outside of group projects,” Kevin revealed that the band may have a bonus project on the docket — the previously postponed Technical Difficulties, which he says has “hella samples to clear.”

Watch Brockhampton’s Late Show performance of “Don’t Shoot Up The Party” above.

Shelley Shows Off His Romantic Side With His Tender ‘Exposure’ Performance On ‘Colbert’

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The Chicks and Lady A were among several musicians that decided to change their name in 2020, mostly due to the fact that their monikers were problematic in nature. DRAM was another musician that changed their name, choosing to go by his first name Shelley and announcing an album, though the shift wasn’t tied to controversy. Now under his new name, Shelley offers a taste of his upcoming project with a performance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

The singer brought his charming single “Exposure” to the late-night set. Throughout the tender track, Shelley sings of learning to be vulnerable with his lover and making sure to respect their boundaries in the process. “Let me love you inside-out and outside-in / Let me touch your soul just like I touch your skin,” he sings.

Shelley’s upcoming album is aptly titled Shelley FKA DRAM. The release date is set for April 29, which is his late mother’s birthday. According to Shelley, he hopes to honor his mother’s memory with the LP’s release. “Before she passed I played her my upcoming album and I begged her to promise she wouldn’t play it for anyone else. She held her promise and took the music with her beyond this life,” Shelley explained. “Her birthday is April 29th, so I’m pushing my album Shelley FKA DRAM’s release date to April 29th as not only my gift back to her, but my promise to play it for the world.”

Watch Shelley perform “Exposure” on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert above.

Shelley FKA DRAM is out 4/29 via Atlantic Records. Pre-order it here.

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

Vic Mensa Delivers A Defiant Performance Of ‘Shelter’ On ‘The Late Show’

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Chicago rapper Vic Mensa appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to perform a medley of new songs, “Shelter” and “FR33DOM.” Recruiting “Shelter” guest Wyclef Jean and longtime Windy City collaborator Peter Cottontale, Vic’s prerecorded performance finds him performing from the floor of an empty warehouse and visually condemning the prison system. For the second half of the performance, red highlighting accentuates a riotous rendition of the defiant “FR33DOM.”

Both songs are due to appear on Vic’s upcoming EP, I TAPE, the follow-up to last year’s V TAPE. The activist/rapper revealed the I TAPE due date via a press release after the performance: March 26. It’s clear that Vic is building up to a larger project, so a C TAPE can’t be very far behind that.

“Shelter,” I TAPE‘s first single, featured the reunion of Vic and his musical brother-in-arms Chance The Rapper. The two rappers came up at the same open mic together and had parallel career tracks early on, but when Chance’s Coloring Book took off, the two apparently had a falling out that lasted for several years. In the meantime, Vic released an experimental punk album, became an outspoken critic of various US policies, and even visited Palestine, deciding to recommit to the social justice cause and apparently getting back to his musical roots. You can read more in Uproxx’s new interview with Vic Mensa here.

Watch Vic Mensa’s The Late Show performance of “Shelter” and “FR33DOM” above.

I TAPE is out 3/26 on Roc Nation.