TV

Tori Amos And Nine Inch Nails Are At The Top Of The ‘Yellowjackets’ Soundtrack Wish List For Season 2

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There’s a case to be made that Yellowjackets is the best new television show in a decade (we made it right here), but it wasn’t perfect. You know how the hit series could have been better? With Tori Amos and Nine Inch Nails, that’s how.

Jen Malone is the music supervisor for Yellowjackets (and Euphoria, and Atlanta, and The Umbrella Academy), and in an interview with Vulture, she discussed how she wanted to include Amos in the soundtrack for season one but couldn’t find the right spot.

“We tried it, and it just wasn’t — we want to do Tori proud with the scene that we put her music to and we just couldn’t find the right one,” she said. “She’s so influential, to not only myself. Little Earthquakes, when I was in high school, that record was everything. I remember the first time I heard that record. Thank God we have season two.”

Would “Winter” be too on the nose?

Malone also revealed that Nine Inch Nails, especially something from Pretty Hate Machine, “is going to be [on] the top of the list next season. There’s so much for Yellowjackets that I’m just very excited to dig into in season two. We haven’t even scratched the surface with the songs from that time period. To reintroduce these artists to a whole new audience has been very special for both shows.”

Misty is the Tori Amos-meets-Nine Inch Nails of people. I can’t explain it, but I know it’s true.

(Via Vulture)

Thundercat Offers A Look At His Character Poster From ‘The Book Of Boba Fett’

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Last week, Thundercat fans who also love the Star Wars franchise (I’m sure there is a sizable overlap, considering the popularity of the galaxy far, far away) were delighted to see the jazz revivalist pop up in the latest episode of The Book Of Boba Fett as an underground cybernetics technician employed by the bounty hunter turned wannabe crime boss to save The Mandalorian‘s former bounty Fennec Shand from a gutshot. This week, those same fans have more reasons to be excited about Thundercat’s role after he shared the official poster for his character Mod Artist.

Considering the show has only released posters for those guest stars who have recurring roles on the show so far, it’s probably safe to assume that Mod Artist — and therefore Thundercat — will appear on the show again to support Boba’s growing criminal empire. In a fun plus for ‘Cat fans, the character features few prosthetics, letting him resemble his real-life counterpart rather than one of Star Wars‘ massive menagerie of interesting-looking aliens. But, true to his character’s job grafting machine parts to Tattooine’s punk youth, Mod Artist sports a droid arm with attachments including a buzz saw and various probes that help him in his work.

While it remains to be seen how the character will fit into the show’s grand scheme, there’s no doubt it’s a dream come true for the sci-fi-loving Thundercat, who has referenced all kinds of Star Wars-adjacent work in his musical output.

Kanye West Demands Final Edit Approval Over His Upcoming Netflix Series

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The Netflix documentary series about Kanye West, Jeen-yuhs, has been highly anticipated since it was announced last year after months of rumors and with the recent release of the trailer, that anticipation has reached a fever pitch. Unfortunately, it looks like the one person at the center of the maelstrom is unhappy with the arrangements for its impending premier. In a post to his Instagram, the notoriously fickle Ye demanded more creative control over the project, which he’s apparently worried could paint him in an unflattering light (he knows we all saw the last five years, right?).

“I’m going to say this kindly for the last time,” he wrote. “I must get final edit and approval on this doc before it releases on Netflix. Open the edit room immediately so I can be in charge of my own image. Thank you in advance.”

While such a demand is par for the course for Kanye, it’s not all that unusual for Netflix either. The company recently honored an impassioned public request from Dave Chappelle to remove episodes of his Comedy Central sketch show from the service over a royalty dispute, and it likely extended every courtesy to the subjects of recent shows about athletes Colin Kaepernick and Naomi Osaka. However, with the Jeen-yuhs premiere date less than a month away, Netflix may not have time for Ye’s usual last-minute shenanigans. Certainly, if he gets to edit the film himself, it’ll probably end up being a much more sanitized affair — and let’s face it, with this subject, that would be a loss for fans of cinema, Kanye, and hip-hop history.

Snoop Dogg And Martha Stewart Will Host This Year’s Puppy Bowl (But More Importantly, Elmo Will Be There)

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Legendary duo and BFFs Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart are returning to this year’s Puppy Bowl XVIII — this time pulling double duty as hosts and coaches. The rapper will coach Team Fluff, while Stewart will be in charge of Team Ruff. The teams will be made up of over 100 adoptable dogs from 67 shelters across the country, in order to raise awareness for pet adoption. There will also be a Kitty Halftime Show for anyone who prefers felines (perhaps Snoop Lion will make an appearance).

But the main event will be an appearance by superstar icon Elmo and his rescue puppy, Tango. Zoey and her pet rock Rocco are not slated to appear, which is probably for the best.

Both Snoop Dogg and Stewart hosted the events last year, but coaching will be a new role for the two, which includes training sessions, drills, and motivational speeches for the pups. The two have paired up a handful of times over the past few years, hosting various specials together.

This won’t be the only role Snoop Dogg has at this year’s Super Bowl, as he is also slated to perform at the halftime show alongside Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, and Eminem.

Puppy Bowl XVIII will air on Animal Planet and Discovery+ Feb. 13th ad 2 pm ET. You can meet the puppy players ahead of time here.

Thundercat Makes His Acting Debut In The Disney+ ‘Stars Wars’ Spinoff ‘The Book Of Boba Fett’

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Thundercat ended 2021 by releasing “Satellite” with Genevieve Artadi and Louis Cole, which appeared on the season five soundtrack for Issa Rae’s show Insecure. The year also saw him win a Grammy for his fourth album, It Is What It Is. Now he’s extending his reach to the small screen: He recently made an appearance on the Disney+ Star Wars spinoff The Book Of Boba Fett, playing a body-modification artist with a robot hand.

The singer’s appearance on the show, his official acting debut, was rather quick, with just a few lines of dialogue as his character spent the scene operating on an injured individual.

Thundercat’s The Book Of Boba Fett appearance comes after he appeared on Kaytranada’s “Be Careful,” from his late 2021 EP Intimidated. He and Bootsy Collins also joined Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars, aka Silk Sonic, on their album An Evening With Silk Sonic album.

You can see a sped-up clip of Thundercat’s appearance in The Book Of Boba Fett in the video above. Later this year, Thundercat will serve as one of the opening acts for The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 2022 Global Stadium Tour.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

‘SNL’ Embraces Chaos And Books Willem Dafoe And Katy Perry For The Same Episode

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Over its four-and-a-half decades, Saturday Night Live has had plenty of Mad Libs-y host-musical guest(s) pairings. Al Gore and Phish. Tony Danza and Laurie Anderson. Old school entertainer Milton Berle and free jazz legend Ornette Coleman. Business magazine founder Steve Forbes and anti-capitalist rockers Rage Against the Machine. Some even become memes. There’s even an entire Twitter account dedicated to hosts improbably introducing musicians. So here’s another.

As per Deadline, for the episode of Jan. 29, the live sketch show has recruited beloved character actor Willem Dafoe and — why not! — pop goddess Katy Perry. For Perry, who is in the midst of her first Las Vegas residency, it’s her fourth time on the show. For Dafoe, it’s his first. Dafoe isn’t exactly a comedic actor, preferring serious art cinema and cutting up the occasional blockbuster, but he can be very funny. Witness The Lighthouse, in which he out-there enough to inspire an SNL sketch, well before they finally invited him on.

Besides, who doesn’t look Willem Dafoe? He can currently be seen in two big movies: dusting off his old Green Goblin duds in Spider-Man: No Way Home, which is making all the money, and Guillermo del Toro’s star-studded remake of Nightmare Alley, which is not. He had a busy 2021, appearing in yet another Wes Anderson movie (The French Dispatch), yet another Paul Schrader (The Card Counter), and yet another with perhaps his most frequent collaborator, eccentric weirdo Abel Ferrara (Siberia).

Before this hot mess begins, feel free to visit the aforementioned SNL host/musical guest(s) Twitter account, where you see such inventive sights as this.

(Via Deadline)

‘The Story Of Hip-Hop With Chuck D’ Docuseries Is Coming To PBS

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Chuck D is a key figure in the history of hip-hop. There’s no denying that. In Jeff Chang’s seminal 2005 book, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, — arguably the definitive document on the history of hip-hop culture — The Public Enemy MC is featured prominently as a source and Public Enemy are justifiably a major part of the book’s comprehensive tracking of hip-hop’s sociopolitical shift in the late-80’s and early 90’s. So it’s fitting that Chuck D is now bringing The Story Of Hip-Hop With Chuck D, a four-part docuseries for TV that will document the history of hip-hop and air on PBS.

Produced by BBC Studios, the series is set to trace the history of hip-hop over the course of the past 40 years and will feature appearances from hip-hop legends like Run DMC, Queen Latifah, and LL Cool J. Chuck D, who developed the series with his manager Lorrie Boula shared a statement on the project:

“The hip-hop community has, from the start, been doing what the rest of media is only now catching up to,” said Chuck D. “Long before any conglomerate realized it was time to wake up, hip-hop had been speaking out and telling truths. Working with PBS and BBC is an opportunity to deliver these messages through new ways and help explain hip-hop’s place in history and hopefully inspire us all to take it further.”

The Story Of Hip-Hop With Chuck D is entering production and no word on yet on when it will be released.

Freddie Gibbs Gets In A Financial Fracas With Chris Redd In A Cut-For-Time ‘SNL’ Sketch

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Hip-hop fans got a pleasant surprise over the weekend when Freddie Gibbs popped up in a Saturday Night Live sketch, one that didn’t make the broadcast but was still shared on the SNL YouTube page.

The skit is a music video for a song called “All On Me” by an up-and-coming rapper named Lil T (played by Chris Redd), who just got signed to a record deal and is celebrating by spending loads of money in the club alongside his entourage, played by Kenan Thompson and host Ariana DeBose. Lil T is taken aback when he sees the massive tab he’s run up, though, so he starts being more frugal. Partway into the song, Gibbs pops up, rapping, “OK, Lil T, you up in the big leagues / See you spending big G’s like your boy Freddie G / Young’uns making money is something I like to see / Send him one big bottle of Ace, it’s on me.” Then, in accordance with the “club code,” Redd sends Gibbs something back: a bottle of Diet Coke. After chastising Redd for that move, Gibbs continues, “Old dude’s just being cheap / Shots for everybody and they all on T.”

Gibbs shared a clip of the skit and wrote on Twitter, “Man shout out my dog Chris Redd for putting me on this SNL sh*t. Live from New York!!!”

Watch the sketch above.

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

R&B Star Joyce Wrice Sings The ‘Proud Family’ Reboot’s Theme Song

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LA-based R&B singer Joyce Wrice has quietly made a name for herself locally thanks to the feel-good, throwback vibes 2021 debut album Overgrown, but her next project just might make her a household name — at least, if your household includes any demographic that grew up on Disney Channel staple The Proud Family. It’s fitting that an artist who made nostalgia her stock in trade has been selected to sing the theme song for the Proud Family reboot coming soon to Disney +.

“I am so excited to share that I’ll be singing the reimagined theme song for #TheProudFamilyLouderAndProuder” she tweeted. “I am a huge fan of the original series and am honored to be a part of the #DisneyPlus Revival. I can’t wait for you to hear it!!”

The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder will follow the ongoing coming-of-age adventures of Penny Proud and her friends as they enter the world of dating — opposed, as always, by Penny’s overbearing dad Oscar. Judging from the trailer that dropped earlier today, the storylines will expand the scope of the show to encompass modern-day topics and the various pop culture changes that have taken place since the original groundbreaking series broke boundaries in the early 2000s.

In addition, the show will feature a who’s-who of Black entertainment talent including Lizzo, Tiffany Haddish, Gabrielle Union, Lil Nas X, and more.

As far as Wrice’s involvement goes, Disney dropped a cute featurette to explain how the burgeoning star was pulled into the project to put her own unique spin on the theme song originally made famous by Destiny’s Child. You can check that out below and watch the trailer above, and keep an eye out — something tells me Ms. Wrice’s rise to superstardom is just beginning.

Yes, Lawd! Anderson .Paak Sings, Dances, And Drums With Elmo And Cookie Monster On ‘Sesame Street’

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You gotta give it up to Sesame Street and the stellar slate of musical guests that have already appeared in the show’s 52nd season. The lineup of artists once again looks like it was picked by a team of people who clearly have their finger on the pop culture pulse. First, it was Billie Eilish and her ode to the Number 2 (the actual number, not… you know) with the Count. Then it was Kacey Musgraves‘ bouncy disco-pop tune about colors. And now in the latest episode, the multi-talented Anderson .Paak joined Elmo and Cookie Monster to sing about the many Holidays we all celebrated (in case you didn’t know, holiday starts with the letter “H.”)

.Paak began by walking down the step of the timeless Sesame Street stoop with flannel pants, a cardigan sweater, a newsboy cap, and an ear-to-ear smile that never leaves his face. He’s quickly joined by Elmo and Cookie Monster as .Paak leads the trio through a laundry list of notable holidays, paying homage to all denominations in the process. Among them they nod to M.L.K. Day, Indigenous People’s Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Hannuakah, Ramadan, Diwali, Passover, Dia de Los Muertos, and Cookie Monster’s personal favorite, Christmas. “Ooh that makes me jolly!” he says while taking a bite out of a cookie shaped like a Christmas tree.

Paak closes out the song on the drums, and the best moment in the clip comes when he and Elmo prank Cookie Monster. “The world is out of cookies!” .Paak says to a noticeably distressed Cookie Monster. “No I’m serious! Ain’t no more cookies in the world, fam!” before Paak and Elmo shout in unison: “APRIL FOOLS.”

Nice work, Sesame Street. Nice work.

Watch Anderson Paak’s appearance on Sesame Street above.