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You know, I love Rihanna’s voice. So the amusing facts of her first single in six years I won’t make fun of.
But still: it took at least four people to write “Lift Me Up” for the “Wakanda Forever” soundtrack. The press release says it was recorded in no less than FIVE countries. Come on. Was one of those countries Wakanda itself?
Anyway the song is coming tomorrow night at midnight. The people getting publishing credits are Tems, Oscar winner Ludwig Göransson, Rihanna and “wakanda Forever” director Ryan Coogler. The song is a tribute to Chadwick Boseman, who tragically died two years ago. His T’Challa character is killed off in the movie.
Who is Tems? She’s a Nigerian born singer songwriter named Temilade Openiyi. She actually wrote the song, I guess. Everyone else jumped on. I like her: we share a birthday. Go, Tems!
Kanye West losing his recording contract and other businesses is bringing out comments from his associates. I told you in my last post that NFL linebacker Antonio Brown is sticking with West as the head of his moot Donda Sports.
Kanye has a lot of musicians, engineers, and producers who work for him assembling his albums. Presumably, their business is shot now. So how are they taking it?
One long time producer, Andrew Dawson, is a mensch. He wrote on social media that he’s making donations to the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, and other civil rights organizations.
Mike Dean, another of West’s long time producers, the guy who actually writes the “music” that shows up in Kanye constructions, has a different view. He’s worried that he’s going to lose his income stream.
Dean reponded to Dawson with this observation:
“Careful tho. Those royalties will shrink. Sucks. He’s hurting all his collaborators too”
Good to see everyone has their priorities straight!
Kanye West’s most ardent supporter — and most clueless — former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown.
According to reports, Brown — who’s no longer playing but has been with four different NFL teams — has just been ordered to pay $1.2 million in a judgement for an assault case. Brown and his trainer allegedly attacked a moving man in Broward County, Florida in 2020. A jury found Brown liable for $407,000 to cover Anton Tumanov’s past and future medical expenses and $793,000 for past and future pain and suffering. Brown never showed up for any of the court hearings. The alleged assault on Tumanov was instigated when Brown wouldn’t pay him $4,000.
The same Antonio Brown is president of Kanye West’s Donda Sports, an agency for athletes. Today both of the clients of Donda Sports — Aaron Donald and Jaylen Brown — left the agency. But npt Antonio Brown – he’s issued a statement supporting West despite all the companies and people who have publicly denounced West for antisemitism. Adidas, The Gap, Universal Music are all gone, but Antonio Brown is staying! He’s standing by freedom of hate speech!
Too many hits to the head for Antonio Brown? Apparently so. Good for him. He’s willing to go down with the ship. And he shall.
The People’s Choice Awards are back! This is the exact bottom of the awards barrel. This year’s nominees are completely hilarious. Look at their main category, The Drama Movie of 2022. In what bizarro alternative universe does this take place? Of all these nominees, only “Elvis” would stand a chance to be in a real awards show. The rest, I mean, oy gevalt. I’m actually shocked they didn’t include “Top Gun Maverick.”
Anyway, pay no attention to this miserable carnival. All the winners are arranged in advance and it’s shown live on NBC (wow they are desperate to fill time) and the E! channel on December 6th. I’m hopeful that “Halloween Ends” wins this category.
THE DRAMA MOVIE OF 2022 Nope Death on the Nile Don’t Worry Darling Elvis Halloween Ends Luckiest Girl Alive Scream Where the Crawdads Sing
In the next couple of weeks, Ryan Murphy starts shooting his second “Feud” mini series, about Truman Capote falling out with his rich lady friends after he exposed their secrets.
But Murphy’s next “Feud” series could be about Kanye West, a more evil version of Capote who’s burned all his bridges in the last week.
This week, West has lost over a billion dollars after doubling and tripling down on hate speech against Jews. His antisemitic rhetoric has cost him his livelihood for now as all the companies he’s in business with him have severed those relationships.
Ironically, this very same week, his once arch nemesis, Taylor Swift, is on top of the world. By Friday morning she will have sold over 1 million copies of her new album, “Midnights.” It’s the biggest release of 2022.
In 2009, West and Swift became mortal enemies when West jumped up on the stage of the MTV Video Music Awards and interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video. He announced that Beyonce had had the best video, and ruined Swift’s moment. The feud was launched.
Six years later, in 2015, Swift was persuaded to present West with a lifetime achievement award from MTV. She did it in good form. West responded by saying in his acceptance speech that she only did it for publicity.
The feud continued until West filmed himself making a call to Swift to her permission to rap a line about her in a new song. The line was about her owing him sex after everything they’d been through, She reacted calmly, but the subsequent fallout from the song and a from a video in which he used a wax figure of Swift, only made things worse.
And now 13 years of feuding, of causing other people pain, of creating and losing a family, has led to this ironic week. Swift is on the up, up, and up and West is pretty much destroyed. Even claiming that his bipolar condition made him say and do everything won’t fly this time. Swift, however, will be counting royalty checks and bathing in the light of a super success.
What a weird juxtaposition.
Luckily, a YouTuber has made a video history of their relationship. I’m glad I found it.
Universal Music’s Def Jam has just sent this announcement. Their relationship with Kanye West is over.
It doesn’t matter much. West’s record sales and streaming numbers have completely bottomed out in the last week. All of last week he averaged 10,0000 “copies” a day of albums. This week, the numbers are around 100.
Here’s the statement:
“Def Jam’s relationship with Ye as a recording artists, its partnership with the GOOD Music label venture and Ye’s merchandise agreement with Bravado all ended in 2021.
“There is no place for antisemitism in our society. We are deeply committed to combating antisemitism and every other form of prejudice.”
Adidas may have taken too long waited too late to renounce Kanye West.
The German company’s stock price did not rebound to where it had been yesterday or, more importantly, last week after West’s antisemitic remarks were first launched.
Adidas sank to around $94 and closed at a little over $100. That’s down $3 from Monday, and off $12 from Friday.
Adidas had already been in decline because of issues with China. But on Friday the stock went off a cliff with their resistance to making a statement about West. The thinking, I’m sure, is that finally acquiescing to public sentiment would rescue the stock. But the public is too smart for that.
What will be interesting is Adidas sales going forward. Will buyers of sneakers drop the brand and turn to New Balance or my favorite, Brooks? Time will tell.
The Gotham Awards nominations are out and they are an eclectic bunch. The Gothams signal the beginning of awards season. While they’re not exactly predictors of anything, they’re a celebration of film on a broad scale. They take place November 28th in New York.
Breakthrough Televisionunder 40 Minutes “Abbott Elementary” (ABC) “As We See It” (Amazon Prime Video) “Mo” (Netflix) “Rap Sh!t” (HBO Max) “Somebody, Somewhere” (HBO)
Breakthrough Televisionover 40 Minutes “Pachinko” (Apple+) “Severance” (Apple+) “Station Eleven” (HBO Max) “This Is Going To Hurt” (AMC+) “Yellowjackets” (Showtime)
Television Performers: Bilal Baig (“Sort Of”) Ayo Edebiri (“The Bear”) Janelle James (“Abbott Elementary”) Matilda Lawler (“Station Eleven”) Britt Lower (“Severance”) Melanie Lynskey (“Yellowjackets”) Sue Ann Pien (“As We See It”) Minha Kim (“Pachinko”) Zahn McClarnon (“Dark Winds”) Ben Whishaw (“This Is Going To Hurt”)
Breakthrough Nonfiction Series “The Andy Warhol Diaries” “The Last Movie Stars” “Mind Over Murder” “The Rehearsal” “We Need to Talk About Cosby”
Breakthrough Director Owen Kline (“Funny Pages”) Elegance Bratton (“The Inspection”) Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic (“Murina”) Beth De Araújo (“Soft & Quiet”) Jane Schoenbrun (“We’re All Going to the World’s Fair”)
Best Screenplay Kogonada (“After Yang”) James Gray (“Armageddon Time”) Lena Dunham (“Catherine Called Birdy”) Todd Field (“Tár”) Sarah Polley (“Women Talking”)
Breakthrough Performer Frankie Corio (“Aftersun”) Kali Reis (“Catch the Fair One”) Gracija Flipovic (“Murina”) Anna Diop (“Nanny”) Anna Cobb (“We’re All Going to the World’s Fair”)
Outstanding Supporting Performance Mark Rylance (“Bones and All”) Brian Tyree Henry (“Causeway”) Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) Raúl Castillo (“The Inspection”) Gabrielle Union (“The Inspection”) Nina Hoss (“Tár”) Noémie Merlant (“Tár”) Hong Chau (“The Whale”)
Oustanding Lead Performance Cate Blanchett (“Tár”) Danielle Deadwyler (“Till”) Dale Dickey (“A Love Song”) Colin Farrell (“After Yang”) Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) Paul Mescal (“Aftersun”) Thandiwe Newton (“God’s Country”) Aubrey Plaza “(Emily the Criminal)” Taylor Russell (“Bones and All”) Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All At Once”)
Best International Feature “Athena” “The Banshees of Inisherin” “Corsage” “Decision to Leave” “Happening” “Saint Omer”
Best Documentary Feature “All That Breathes” “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” “I Didn’t See You There” “The Territory” “What We Leave Behind”
Best Feature “Aftersun” “The Cathedral” “Dos Estaciones” “Everything Everywhere All at Once” “Tár”
EARLIER: Now that Adidas has finally dropped Kanye West from all business partnerships, the pressure is on for his remaining deals to be severed.
West’s talent agency, Creative Artists Agency, also dropped him yesterday. Previously, The Gap and Balenciaga cut ties as well.
West’s response has been to double down on antisemitic rhetoric over the last few days. Among other things, he was cited as the influence for a banner released over the 405 freeway in Los Angeles supporting antisemitism. He may have also been tied in some way to hateful leaflets distributed all over Western Los Angeles.
Now it’s Universal Music Group’s turn. West’s music is released on their Def Jam label. Today, Lucian Grainge, chairman and CEO of UMG, is the focus as he must end the company’s relationship immediately with West or face similar scrutiny as the other companies.
The company says in a press release: “Adidas doesn’t tolerate anti-Semitism and some other type of hate speech. Your latest feedback and actions are unacceptable, hateful and harmful, and they’re an organization of variety and inclusion, mutual respect and equity.”
They added:
“After a radical overview, the corporate has determined to instantly terminate the partnership with Ye, stop manufacturing of Yeezy-branded merchandise, and stop all funds to Ye and his firms. Adidas is closing the Adidas Yeezy enterprise efficient instantly. will do.”
The move comes after international outrage that Adidas has taken too long to make this announcement. Stock price has dropped 14% or more since Friday.
The company’s World War II history has become an issue as well, with lots of people suddenly very interested in Adidas’s Nazi background.
