News

Each week, we handpick a selection of stories to give you a snapshot of trends, updates, business moves, and more from around the creator industry. This week, a rapper takes his beef on line, and social stars head to traditional TV.

Creator commotion

Did Drake troll Ksi on Adin Ross’ stream? Drizzy asked Ross to play Ksi’s latest “banger” on stream. The track in question, titled “Thick Of It,” has received a negative reception, so Drake’s request was likely a troll. Given how his last beef went down, maybe he should sit this one out.

Jae and Trey Richards are “moving” to TV. The brothers behind the YouTube channel Random Order Studios have a new show called The Office Movers on Crave. It’s not the first time the Canadian network has handed a deal to digital tastemakers. TikTok star Boman Martinez-Reid took his act to Crave earlier this year.

The biggest betch of 2006 is still strutting her stuff all these years later. On June 9, 2024, comedian Liam Kyle Sullivan adopted his alter ego Kelly to perform the song “Shoes” at the L.A. Pride Parade.

Sullivan was one of YouTube’s earliest viral stars, and “Shoes” is his undisputed magnum opus. In the guise of Kelly, Sullivan sings about what she wants (shoes) and where she wants to go. With its wealth of quotable lines (“con-dams”) and Sullivan’s perfect portrayal of a stereotypical valley girl, “Shoes” vaulted its creator to internet fame. It has received more than 69 million views to date.

“Shoes” is so old that Sullivan’s video celebrating the song’s ten-year anniversary is itself approaching its ten-year anniversary. But the video’s age and its creator’s sporadic output on YouTube haven’t blunted the cultural impact of “Shoes,” and during Pride Month, Sullivan got a...

It’s a good time to be a fan of filmmaker Mike Mendez. Not only did he contribute to the horror anthology Satanic Hispanics, which received a theatrical release a few months ago and is coming soon to Blu-ray, but now Synapse Films has given his awesome 2000 horror comedy The Convent (watch it Here) a limited edition 4K release! Copies of this release can be purchased directly from Synapse Films, or through Diabolik DVD.

Directed by Mendez from a screenplay by Chaton Anderson, The Convent has the following synopsis: In 1960, a young woman named Christine enters St. Francis Boarding School for Girls and lays waste to the resident nuns. Four decades later, a group of college students head to the long-abandoned building late one night to tag it with their fraternity letters, little knowing that rumors of the place being haunted are terrifyingly true. Stir in a couple of disapproving...

Since its inception in 2005, YouTube has become a home to many things — a place for people to post historic clips, to flaunt their inner selves, to share their latest creation, to share dangerous misinformation. But at its core, YouTube is a place to get lost for hours in viral content. Here, a quick rundown of the most memorable viral videos of the site’s early days, from animated clips to news reports gone wrong to an adorable child calling Will Ferrell a bitch.

Evolution of Dance (2006)

Simplicity was the most important part of early YouTube.

Missed The First Purge in theaters last July? Well, then, check out a few clips of Gerard McMurray's film, which kicks off today's Highlights. Also: Retro Nightmares returns with Sweet Sixteen and The Convent screenings and soundtrack release details for the RPG Vampyr.

Watch The First Purge Clips: From the Press Release: "Universal City, California – The origin story to the worldwide phenomenon that redefined horror, The First Purge, the fourth chapter in the thrilling franchise, arrives on Digital and the digital movie app Movies Anywhere on September 18, 2018 and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray™, DVD and On Demand on October 2, 2018 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. When the New Founding Fathers of America look to push the crime rate below one percent for the rest of the year, a radical sociological theory that vents aggression is tested among an isolated community. But once the violence of oppressors clashes with the rage of the marginalized,...

By Jett Wells

Sometimes a fart joke just works better with a melody. Of course, combining the two is an art form mastered by only an elite few ... a select group of artists who can not only master quality songs, but make us all squirt milk out of our noses at the same time. And, thanks to "Saturday Night Live" and Andy Samberg, we'd like to welcome a new member to that, uh, exclusive club: The Lonely Island, a so-called "joke band" that truly stands alone.

Don’t worry if the name doesn’t ring a bell, because chances are, you know their hits ... classics like "I Just Had Sex (feat. Akon)," "The Creep (feat. Nicki Minaj)" and, of course, "I’m On a Boat," their parody of all things T.Pain that also, amazingly enough, features T.Pain himself. Comprised of Samberg and his pals Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone,...

Figure skating star Johnny Weir makes the quadruple axle leap to the big screen when a documentary about him, Pop Star on Ice premieres this Sunday at the Seattle International Film Festival.

A teaser trailer has been released and we've got it after the break. 

I must say this trailer has my curiousity piqued. It starts off with some closeup shots of Weir's face, legs, feet, stomach, etc. It is quite literally navel gazing. But over that you have someone reading various press clippings about Weir. On first hearing, you might think the voiceover narration is being done by Liam Kyle Sullivan (a.k.a. Kelly of "Shoes" fame), but when the camera pulls back you realize it is Weir himself doing the narrating. 

One wonders if Weir will finally put the matter of his sexual orientation to bed in this documentary. He has always been coy aobut the matter in the past.