TV

Roddy Ricch, Swae Lee, And More Join The Cast Of The Upcoming Movie, ‘Sneaks’

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A new animated film about sneaker culture has added some all-star level voice talent, according to Deadline. Sneaks is being produced by Laurence Fishburne, who also has a voice role, and has a star-studded cast featuring the voices of NBA player Chris Paul, Grammy winners Ella Mai and Roddy Ricch, and five-time Grammy nominee Swae Lee. In addition, LA hitmaker Mustard is signed on as the music producer.

The film revolves around a lost pair of sneakers trying to find their “sole mate” in New York City. Mai plays an oxford, Macy Gray plays a stiletto, and Swae Lee plays a “gifted young athlete” as they try to help out and stop a pair of villains, the forger played by Roddy Ricch and an evil collector played by Fishburne. Meanwhile, Chris Paul will voice himself, hosting a sneaker convention. To ensure the authenticity of the sneaker culture seen throughout the film, the legendary Bobbito Garcia serves as an advisor.

Fishburne offered this quote: “Our film will illuminate and pay homage to the forever growing and popular sneaker culture that continues to inspire and be inspired by musicians, athletes, and artists alike, and I’m thrilled by the cast and crew who have decided to join us on the journey.” Mustard said, I really see the music in this film as a crucial part of the storytelling. As the first family animated feature film to be steeped in sneaker culture, I am honored to draw from my expertise as a producer and artist, and my love of sneakers, to create moments that really connect. The added bonus is that this is a film that I’ll be able to enjoy with my family and kids.”

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

‘You’ Star Penn Badgley Discusses His Delightful Cardi B Friendship And A Potential Cardi Cameo

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Following the recent premiere of You‘s third season, the hit Netflix series is back at the forefront of the pop culture conversation. Now, we find ourselves here, where Cardi B and star Penn Badgley (aka Joe) have forged a delightful online relationship, which the actor discussed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night.

To summarize the situation (which Junkee did well): In a recent interview, Badgley spoke about his admiration for Cardi’s relationship with social media. Cardi was delighted, tweeting, “OOOOMMFFFGGGGGG HE KNOWS ME !!!” From there, the two set their Twitter profile pictures as photos of each other, and Cardi even started pitching an episode of the show featuring herself. Netflix then changed its Twitter bio to read (as it does still), “Petition to get Cardi B to guest star in Season 4 of You!”

Badgley and Kimmel ran through that history, with Kimmel suggesting that Cardi’s name might stand for “Cardi Badgley.” Kimmel wondered if all this means Cardi will find her way onto the show, and Badgley responded, “Well I… I don’t know. I definitely can’t say.” He then noted he heard there’s a Change.org petition to get her on the show, and indeed there is.

Kimmel pressed for more info about the Cardi cameo, going back to Badgley’s answer, saying, “You said, ‘I don’t know,’ ‘I can’t say.’ It can’t be both of those things, can it?” Badgley responded, “I can’t say because I don’t know. I actually don’t know. I’m not being coy.”

Check out the full interview above.

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

The post ‘You’ Star Penn Badgley Discusses His Delightful Cardi B Friendship And A Potential Cardi Cameo appeared first on UPROXX.

William Shatner’s Late 1970s Rendition Of Elton John’s ‘Rocketman’ Is Finding New Life After He Blasted Into Space

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“And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time” could be a way to describe William Shatner’s wait to actually head into space (at age 90) after his (for all practical purposes) lifelong run as forever Captain Kirk of Star Trek fame. And on this fine Wednesday morning, William Shatner actually made good on his reputation by blasting into space (for real) on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ anatomically-shaped rocket. The pop-culture institution and three other passengers finally ended up on the New Shepard vessel, in which they glided into the very edge of space before making a safe touchdown on planet Earth.

Following Shatner’s return to civilization, CNN reports that he grew very emotional after his sub-orbital journey (which included a few minutes of weightlessness). He told Jeff Bezos, “What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine.” And it seems that Shatner fans, as well, are feeling similarly. In fact, this day has seen Shatner’s late 1970s Saturn Awards rendition of Elton John’s “Rocketman” go viral. Decades later, the clip’s still as funny and bizarre as ever while featuring a smoking, tuxedo-adorned Shatner — multiple versions of him, even — doing the spoken-word thing. Can we consider this “singing”? Probably not. “Dancing,” though? For sure.

The clip began to heavily circulate during blast-off time, and for good reason.

Congrats to William Shatner, and welcome back to civilization.

Machine Gun Kelly Plots His Revenge On Pete Davidson For His ‘SNL’ Impression

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This past weekend’s Kim Kardashian-hosted episode of Saturday Night Live was eventful. A major part of that was due to references to Kardashian’s famous connections, like when she joked about her Kanye West divorce in the opening monologue. The sketch in which she played her sister Kourtney in a judge TV show called The People’s Kourt was a goldmine for cultural references and connections, even outside of Kardashian’s realm.

For example, there was a scene where Pete Davidson impersonated his good friend (and recent SNL musical guest) Machine Gun Kelly. In the sketch, Davidson and Chloe Fineman (playing Megan Fox) poke fun at Kelly and Fox’s frequent and intense PDA with a tongue-entwining kissing display.

Naturally, Kelly caught wind of the sketch and started plotting his revenge. In a tweet tagging Saturday Night Live, Kelly re-shared a clip of Davidson’s impression and wrote, “i think it’s time for me to come on the show as Pete.”

Meanwhile, a month ago, Davidson revisited a moment from Kelly’s aforementioned SNL appearance, when he and Kelly fell off the stage together during the episode’s closing credits. Davidson explained to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show that Kelly tried to pick him up, which, due to an injury Kelly was going with, didn’t exactly work out.

Kim Kardashian Turns Into A Judge And Rules On Family Drama On ‘SNL’

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With Saturday Night Live’s 47th season underway, Kim Kardashian assumed the duty of host for its most recent episode. She began the night with an entertaining monologue that was received well by audience members. Later on in the night, Kim returned to participate in a courtroom sketch that found her taking the role of a judge while simultaneously playing her sister, Kourtney Kardashian. In the sketch, Kim somewhat delivers decisions on family matters which includes Kylie Jenner’s “overdue” baby, Kendall Jenner’s lack of drama, and Kanye West’s tweets.

In the sketch, Kris Jenner and Khloe Kardashian appear as themselves while other SNL cast members and guests assumed the role of Kardashian family members and friends. Halsey appeared as Kendall Jenner, Melissa Villaseñor as Kylie Jenner, Heidi Gardner as Kim Kardashian, and Mikey Day played Travis Barker. Chris Redd also appeared as Kanye West, Pete Davidson as Machine Gun Kelly, and Chloe Fineman as Megan Fox. All in all, it was an enjoyable sketch that poked fun at the Kardashian family and their friends.

Kim’s monologue was highlighted by her making jokes about her and Kanye West’s divorce earlier this year. “I mean, I married the best rapper of all time. Not only that, he’s the richest Black man in America, a talented, legit genius, who gave me four incredible kids,” she says. “So when I divorced him, you have to know it came down to just one thing: his personality.”

You can watch The People’s Kourt sketch in the video above.

Kim Kardashian Joked About Her Divorce From Kanye West In Her ‘SNL’ Monologue

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We’re now into the second week of the 47th season of Saturday Night Live, and for this week’s episode, Kim Kardashian took on the hosting duties while Halsey arrived as the show’s musical guest. Kim, along with the rest of her family, are by far one of the most recognizable names in entertainment as they’ve amassed a huge following through several endeavors in the worlds of business, reality television, and more. Kardashian is no stranger to being on camera, so it’s no surprise that she delivered an entertaining and comical monologue to open the show.

One of the highlights came when she joked about her divorce from Kanye West. “I’ve been very blessed in this life, and I’m grateful for everything, honestly, all the ups, all the downs,” she said. “I mean, I married the best rapper of all time. Not only that, he’s the richest Black man in America, a talented, legit genius, who gave me four incredible kids. So when I divorced him, you have to know it came down to just one thing: his personality.”

She continued, “I know it sounds mean, but people keep telling me that comedy comes from truth. And if there’s one thing that I always strive to be, it’s genuine.”

Kardashian also joked about her family’s failed political campaigns, that being Kanye’s run for president and Caitlyn Jenner’s run for governor of California, as well as being “much more than that reference photo my sisters showed their plastic surgeons.”

You can watch the full monologue in the video above.

Those Anxiety-Causing Voices In ‘The White Lotus’ Theme Song? They Were Originally Meant For Kanye West

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Cristobal Tapia de Veer composed the music for HBO’s Hawaii-set breakout hit The White Lotus, but the anxiety-causing voices were originally meant for Kanye West.

“I went to his place where he works” in California, Tapia de Veer revealed on the Broken Record podcast, “and then I was trying to understand what he wanted.” But because West is “always talking about a million things at the same time,” he didn’t know what he was there for. It had something to do with Nike and a prototype for a new shoe and “how this Nike shoe relates to music,” so Tapia de Veer started to work on something “really striking” on his laptop. He continued:

“I had those voices and I tried to find a way to play melodies that is really striking, and this happened by accident and I was like, at that point I knew that this was like gold. And I was like, ‘OK, this I’m going to show to Kanye.’ I was there for like a week and I had to leave, and there was problems, and Kanye started firing people and his lawyers and everything was too long… It was a mess”

This was, Tapia de Veer notes, a month before all the Trump stuff.

Anyway, West never called Tapia de Veer back, so when The White Lotus came up, he knew “those tribal voices” would be perfect for the show. “So I went back to my system and started finding the right melody,” he said. Tapia de Veer found it: creator Mike White said that he wanted “music that makes you feel like there’s gonna be some kind of human sacrifice at some point… Cristobal nailed that — and then some.”

You can listen to the Broken Record episode above.

Dave Chappelle Takes On The Backlash To DaBaby’s Homophobic Comments In His New Netflix Special

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The fallout from DaBaby’s disastrous Rolling Loud Miami set continues to settle, as more voices enter the chat to debate his demerits. While the majority of the reactions to DaBaby’s comments have deplored his ill-chosen words, Dave Chappelle has a different question on his mind. In his new Netflix special The Closer, which debuted today, Chappelle juxtaposes the backlash to DaBaby’s homophobic comments with the rapper’s violent lyrics — which aren’t all stereotypical rapper bluster.

Chappelle leads into the observation by cheekily addressing the backlash to his own recent sets, on which he seems to have specifically targeted queer people in order to point out what he sees as discrepancies in the way they are treated in comparison to Black people (setting aside the fact that people can be … both). “All the questions you might have had about all these jokes I’ve said in the last few years, I hope to answer tonight,” he says. “And I’d like to start by addressing the [LGBTQ] community directly. I want every member of that community to know that I come here tonight in peace and I hope to negotiate the release of DaBaby.”

After some additional preamble, he reminds the audience that before DaBaby’s rise to fame (in fact, almost immediately before it) the rapper was involved in a fatal shooting, in which he claimed self-defense. Then, Dave poses his observation: “In our country, you can shoot and kill a n***a but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings.” It’s doubtful that anything’s as simple as that — queer people are often the targets of just as brutal crimes for little other reason than being queer — but to his credit, Chappelle promises to address the nuance in the special. We’ll see if he does.

DaBaby, meanwhile, has continued to address the fallout himself, meeting with organizations dedicated to HIV/AIDS awareness and sneering at some of his critics in his return to the stage at Summer Jam.

Watch the trailer for Dave Chappelle’s The Closer, which is now streaming on Netflix, above.

Brandy, Eve, And Naturi Naughton Share ‘Nasty Girl,’ The First Video From Their Upcoming Show, ‘Queens’

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ABC hasn’t had much luck with its hip-hop-themed programming, though not for lack of quality (RIP The Mayor, gone too soon. You were cut down in your prime). That hasn’t stopped the network from trying, though. Its latest effort is Queens, an hour-long drama series about a 1990s rap girl band reuniting in their 40s to try to mount a comeback and recapture the magic. Fortunately, the cast has the chops to pull it off: Brandy (check out her BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher verse), Eve (veteran of both rap and television), Nadine Velazquez (the only non-musician), and Naturi Naughton (who played Lil Kim in Notorious) star and rap in the show, giving fans a preview in the video for “Nasty Girl.”

Presented as a Hype Williams-esque mega-production from 1999 (and directed by Tim Story, of all people), the “Nasty Girl” video pays homage to the elaborate, big-budget clips favored by the likes of Diddy and Bad Boy Records, with yachts, helicopters, champagne, and pyrotechnics providing all the nostalgic eye candy you could want.

Oddly, though, the song itself is decidedly much more modern sounding, with a chopped-and-screwed loop on the beat evoking memories of Bangladesh’s heyday, which was like a decade later. However, all four women acquit themselves well on the mic, especially Brandy, who for some reason the show has rapping like Kobe on “3x Dope,” and the song’s kind of an anachronistic banger. It’s enough to spark real curiosity for Queens, which premieres Tuesday, October 19 at 10 ET on ABC, as well as streaming on Hulu.

Watch the “Nasty Girl” video/show promo above.

Kacey Musgraves And Owen Wilson Confirm Everything Is Bigger In Texas In Their ‘SNL’ Promo

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The season premiere of Saturday Night Live is just a day away and that means that the hilarious pre-show promos featuring the guest host and musical guest have also returned. In this week’s promo, series regular Kenan Thompson joins Owen Wilson and Kacey Musgraves to contemplate whether things really are bigger in Texas, try to start a belly band, and tease Kenan’s lateness. Musgraves especially looks like she’s struggling not to break in the last clip.

The first clip is of special significance, as both Wilson and Musgraves are Texas natives. Kenan asks them whether something like burgers fall under the “everything is bigger in Texas” motto, to which Wilson replies, “Depends who’s makin’ ’em.” Musgraves brags, “I make ’em about the size of my fist.” Thompson declares he’s never going to one of her barbecues — and if I may interject here, I will gladly take his spot. He’s missing out.

You should absolutely not miss out on Musgraves’ performance, which will feature songs from her new album Star-Crossed. Each time she’s performed songs from it — such as the fiery rendition of the title track she gave to the MTV VMAs this year — it’s been a show-stopper. Personally, I’m hoping for a redux of her fun “Simple Times” video.

Watch Kacey Musgraves, Owen Wilson, and Kenan Thompson hype up the upcoming season premiere of SNL above.