Month: November 2020

Ever since her song “Bodak Yellow” blew up in 2017, Cardi B has seen herself pitted against fellow rap superstar Nicki Minaj by fans and media eager for drama and intolerant of two women simply coexisting. Despite their very different rap styles, the two have been compared and debated ever since it became clear that Cardi was able to take advantage of opportunities Nicki never could — mainly because Nicki had to create those opportunities and didn’t pull the ladder up behind her.

But fans still can’t resist taking every chance to disparage one in favor of the other and both seem pretty much over it. However, when one fan received a celebrity cosign from one of their male peers, Cardi wasn’t about to let his transgression slide. The fan, who seemed miffed about the recently announced 2021 Grammy nominations, replied to Wiz Khalifa’s observation on the nominations and when Wiz quote-tweeted the reply with a cryptic comment of his own, Cardi was quick to pull receipts to show how quickly people in the industry can switch up.

“As a grammy nominated artist, I know how it feels,” Wiz wrote. “N****s always think its unfair until they get their turn. Just keep workin and that time’ll come through.” However, one fan’s response was much less gracious. “Cardi wining a Grammy when nicki minaj didn’t is the biggest proof that they don’t know a shit bout music,” the fan replied. Naturally, the terms “Nicki” and “Barb” both appeared in the fan’s handle.

When Wiz responded “Most self-made artists have this problem,” Cardi caught wind and interpreted the tweet as shade. While Wiz likely didn’t mean to shade Cardi, the implication that she was “an industry plant” has dogged her for her entire career, so it makes sense she’d infer this meaning, especially considering the wording of the quoted tweet. She questioned, “I don’t understand why n****s entertain tweets that pit successful women against each other? Ya not tired of that? Specially when ya was rooting hard when a bitch was at the bottom.” She then also posted a screenshot of Wiz sending encouragement to her through her Instagram DM back in 2016.

Cardi has a point. Even if Wiz wasn’t actively trying to shade Cardi, he did amplify yet another tweet stoking a sexist feud between the two women and some fans could have interpreted it as validating the argument as well. While Wiz’s larger point — that the Grammys are largely a political exercise and that the artists who are most visible at Academy functions are the ones they’ll recognize come Award season — is right, there were far better ways to make the point. And in any case, Nicki’s hard work made it possible for Cardi to flourish at the awards. Both women have acknowledged that Nicki opened doors that were previously closed to female rappers. Rather than pushing for them to bicker and fight, we’d all be better served looking forward to their rumored collaborative reunion.

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

There’s committing to a bit, and then there’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus smearing hair dye all over her face to roast Rudy Giuliani. In a very clear and hilarious reference to Giuliani’s disastrous press conference where he oozed from the face, quoted My Cousin Vinny, and spouted conspiracy theories that were so crazy even Fox News denounced them, Louis-Dreyfus busted out her America’s Mayor impression to promote a new Veep reunion that will raise money for the upcoming senate runoffs in Georgia.

“Over the last few weeks, many brave and patriotic Americans have come forward having witnessed similarities between our ongoing election and the TV show Veep,” Louis-Dreyfus says as the Instagram video shows clips from Veep that eerily match the events of presidential election. “And not just a singular example, but a pattern that repeats itself over and over. Literally thousands or hundreds of thousands of cases. To any experienced investigator or prosecutor this would suggest there was a plan from a centralized place, specifically focused on Veep.”

After laying out the clear and obvious “conspiracy” involving the critically-acclaimed HBO show, Louis-Dreyfus drops a My Cousin Vinny reference in this video.

She then gets into the details of the Veep reunion. Via The Daily Beast:

On Sunday, December 6th at 8 p.m. ET, the entire Veep cast plus some special guests will reunite in the event to benefit America Votes. A donation of any amount to help turn out voters for the two Georgia Senate runoffs at ShowUpforGeorgia.com gets you access to the show.

“Be forewarned, we shall release the Kraken,” Louis-Dreyfus concludes with a smile.

(Via Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Instagram & The Daily Beast)

Jennifer Lopez’s breakout role as an actress came in 1997’s Selena where she played Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, the Queen of Tejano music (that also was the year she was in Anaconda, a movie now mostly known for the scene where Trump’s biggest fan winks after getting thrown up by a snake). Lopez received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in the film, which catapulted her into a level of fame that she still attains today, and she’s hoping the same level of recognition comes for Christian Serratos.

The Walking Dead actress was cast as the “Como la Flor” singer in Netflix’s Selena: The Series, which has Lopez’s support. “Guys, I don’t know if you’ve heard about this new Selena series on Netflix,” she said on Instagram. “Playing Selena was kind of a landmark moment in my career and I was so excited when I saw the trailer and heard about it. It’s a great way for this generation to get to know Selena. I love Selena. It’s a big part of my life and my career. And I can’t wait to see it. It’s on Netflix.” Lopez doesn’t mention Serratos by name, but the passing-of-the-Texas icon torch is implied.

Part one of Selena: The Series premieres on December 4.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

It’s been a tough stretch for the Golden State Warriors these past 18 months. After falling to the Toronto Raptors in the 2019 NBA Finals and subsequently losing Kevin Durant in free agency, serious injuries to their two remaining All-Stars torpedoed the entire 2019-20 season before it even really got started.

But they were looking forward to a return to form this season, with Klay Thompson and Steph Curry both healthy and some new firepower added to the arsenal. Then tragedy struck again in the form of a ruptured achilles for Klay, his second major injury in as many years which will cause him to miss all of next season.

As you might imagine, it was a significant blow to morale among the Warriors, none more so than his backcourt mate Curry, who said he was devastated when he first learned the news during a call with Steve Kerr and GM Bob Myers.

Via Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated:

“He’s the best 2-guard in the league,” Curry said. “To get that call was a gut punch for sure. A lot of tears. You don’t really know what to say because a guy like that is having to go through two pretty serious rehabs now. But at the end of the day, we have to have his back. We hope that he is around and a part of what we do through his rehab and staying connected with us.

“He can come back strong. He’s a guy that loves the game so much. He is going to do whatever it takes to get back out there on the floor and be himself. That’s what we hope and the confidence that we have. Two-and-a-half years of rehab is tough for anybody. We’re hoping for the best.”

Prior to the injury, the Warriors had every intention of working their way back in championship contention this year, a goal that now seems nearly far-fetched without their second-best player. Still, it’ll be interesting to see how they respond. Golden State has added some intriguing young talent in recent months Andrew Wiggins and Kelly Oubre Jr., along with draftee James Wiseman. The question is whether they can put all the pieces together at the right time.

(Via The Undefeated)

Pioneering Queens hip-hop collective A Tribe Called Quest just gave fans something to look forward to in the new year. Despite being officially disbanded following the death of group founding member Phife Dawg in 2016 and the group’s final outing that same year, Tribe’s social media has remained active, giving updates on merch and special announcements. Today, it offered up both in the form of a tweet honoring Phife’s 50th birthday.

“To honor and celebrate his life and legacy, the estate on behalf of his family just released limited-edition ‘Phife Forever’ tees,” the tweet announced before following up with the real kicker. “Also know that early next year you will all get to hear a new Phife album.” That’s truly impressive news considering his last full-length release came out over 20 years ago in 2000. Ventilation: Da LP received mixed reviews at the time — mainly, I think — because it was not the Tribe reunion album fans hankered for. It reached 175 on the Billboard 200 (by way of comparison, Q-Tip’s solo album Amplified from the year before debuted at No. 28 and spawned the Hot 100 hits “Breathe And Stop” and “Vivrant Thing”).

Interestingly, Phife’s widow Desha Head Taylor had previously teased the album to drop in 2017, but with no new announcements since, it seemed we’d heard the last of Phife Dawg on the Tribe farewell album We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service. Now, it looks like we can expect a new collection soon.

The Washington Wizards are the latest NBA team that gets to experience having a member of the Lopez family on their team. The franchise came to terms on a one-year deal with Robin Lopez, who will leave the Milwaukee Bucks and join the seventh team of his 13-year career in the Association.

Getting Robin Lopez inherently means that your NBA team is going to be a little sillier. Your interior defense will get a bit of a boost, too, as Lopez is happy to anchor a back line, and can give a team a little help on offense, too. But above all else, Lopez is a different breed of cat, which makes him an extremely fun person to be around.

An example of this came during his introductory press conference as a member of the Wizards on Tuesday afternoon. Beyond the normal discussions about basketball, Lopez was excited to present a list of his three favorite wizards — not, like, Gilbert Arenas and Jerry Stackhouse, but the magical kind.

Technically Granger (who is referred to by Remus Lupin in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as “the brightest witch of your age I’ve ever met,” which is paraphrased by Lopez here) and Price were witches, while Galadriel was an elf. Still, we support praising any and all magical beings in any NBA press conference, so shout out Lopez, who also isn’t sure if he’s ready to bury the hatchet with his nemesis, Wizards mascot G-Wiz, just yet.

Lopez’s impact on the court for Washington remains to be seen, but if nothing else he will bring a levity to press conferences that they’ve been missing.

Despite his The Mandalorian character’s presumably villainous intentions, Giancarlo Esposito has come to the rescue of Baby Yoda. In a new interview to promote the back half of the bounty-hunting series’ second season, Esposito defended his green co-star from accusations that the tiny Jedi committed “genocide.” In the now-controversial episode “The Passenger,” Baby Yoda hilariously scarfs down eggs from a tank being transported by the Frog Lady. (Super original naming, Lucasfilm.) However, the internet went to town on the ethical implications of the little guy’s snacking considering the Frog Lady is the last of her species, and well, Baby Yoda is seemingly eating her kids. While a Lucasfilm exec has clarified that the eggs were not fertilized, and therefore no different than eating chicken eggs, you know how social media can be.

Esposito, on the other hand, will hear none of the negativity. Here’s his response when asked if Baby Yoda is “terrible” for eating the eggs. Via Entertainment Weekly:

No, I don’t think so. Baby Yoda is a very pure spirit, and yet 50 years old, so he’s someone who’s very highly intelligent, but also has to survive. And we need to keep that baby happy. We’ve all fallen in love with The Child and The Child has some compassion and is funny and is absolutely the cutest thing you’ve ever seen.

Of course, this is coming from a guy whose character is hell-bent on harvesting Baby Yoda’s blood, but Esposito isn’t alone in coming to Baby Yoda’s defense. Daisy Ridley stood by her fellow Jedi in a recent interview with IGN. “I’m like, ‘Yoda, do your thing,’” Ridley said. “The creature [Frog Lady] got to be where she needed to be with the eggs. It’s all good. It was beautiful.”

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

With the Recording Academy releasing its nominees for the 2021 Grammy Awards today, the reactions have been flying thick and fast on Twitter about the respective merits of the nominees, the mysterious absence of The Weeknd, and the most egregious snubs. However, rather than addressing this year’s batch of nominees, one person used the opportunity to revive an old grievance against the Academy. Nicki Minaj reminded her fans that she was once nominated for Best New Artist in 2012, but lost to Bon Iver.

“Never forget the Grammys didn’t give me my best new artist award when I had 7 songs simultaneously charting on billboard & bigger first week than any female rapper in the last decade- went on to inspire a generation,” she wrote. “They gave it to the white man Bon Iver.” As usual, there’s a point to her pettiness — pun intended. The Grammys have long had a history of overlooking and underrating accomplished artists in traditionally Black genres like rap and R&B — especially women, who have rarely won albums of the year in either category and are even more seldom even nominated for general categories like Album Of The Year.

In fact, this year, there are no women nominated in the Rap category at all and only Jhene Aiko and Chloe X Halle are nominated in the new spinoff R&B category, Best Progressive R&B. Also, remember the year they gave Best Rap Album to Macklemore despite Kendrick Lamar being nominated for Good Kid, MAAD City?

So this time, we have to side with Nicki. Incidentally, though, the Academy does have the chance to clean up that eight-year-old mistake; this year’s Best New Artist category includes Chika, the breakout Alabama rapper who starred on Netflix’s Project Power and collaborated with Stevie Wonder, Doja Cat, the compelling R&B/hip-hop hybrid who racked up a No. 1 with Nicki earlier this year, and Megan Thee Stallion, who garnered two No. 1s with Beyonce and Cardi B, competing against a field that includes D Smoke, Ingrid Andress, Kaytranada, Noah Cyrus, and Phoebe Bridgers.

Weeks after White House Senior Advisor Ivanka Trump’s ironic celebration tweet about Alaska being called for Donald Trump, she’s still tweeting in the wrong direction. Given that she’s not too able to read the room and has prolifically tweeted as such lately, one wonders if she’s affected by all the speculation out there (and reports about her being an alleged fart-blamer) on what she’ll do after her father leaves the White House in January.

If Ivanka’s concerned about the election results, she’s not showing it. Today, she’s claiming some sort of success (?) on behalf of her father’s administration in a few ways. First, she tweeted, “FACT: Greenhouse gases generated by the U.S. will slide 9.2% this year, tumbling to the lowest level in at least three decades.”

It’s already a bizarre claim in light of the Trump Administration withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, and then there’s the horrific context to consider. No one can ignore the fact that this “slide” could only have taken place because humans are largely grounded (from flying, and from a lot of driving) by the pandemic. Travel, both on the business and leisure fronts, hasn’t been possible for most Americans for much of the year, so it only makes sense that we aren’t emitting as many greenhouse gasses. The reasons for this “success” are actually tragic, as some pointed out.

Shortly after the greenhouse-gas tweet, Ivanka chose to celebrate the stock market reaching 30,000 for the first time in U.S. history.

The president also gave a strange, one-minute briefing to that effect, calling this “a sacred number.” He added, “It’s the ninth time since the beginning of 2020, and it’s the 48th time that we’ve broken records during the Trump administration. I just wanted to congratulate all the people within the administration that worked so hard.”

Trump left the room without acknowledging reporters’ questions about when he will concede to Joe Biden. The stock-market rise did coincide with news that the GSA would release transition funding to Team Biden. And as The Recount illustrated with a Twitter video, a reporter could be heard describing Trump’s remarks as “weird as sh*t.”

Here’s how Twitter responded to Ivanka’s stock-marketing.

Maybe it’s time for Ivanka to concede to a Twitter break.

Just because the free agent frenzy has been somewhat light on star-power this time around — compared to recent years — there’s still been plenty of wheeling and dealing that is certain to shape the NBA landscape for years to come. Many teams that were already good refused to stay complacent, while other made bold moves to get over the hump.

Count the Phoenix Suns among the latter. After years spent wallowing at the bottom of the West, the Suns managed to swing a deal to land Chris Paul, instantly transforming them into a playoff threat. It meant giving up a talented young wing in Kelly Oubre Jr., but that was the cost of doing business for a team that has been spinning its wheels for so long.

From Oubre’s perspective, he’s happy to take his talents elsewhere. He’ll join a Warriors team on which he will likely play a more significant role in the immediate future, given Klay Thompson’s season-ending injury. And in general, Oubre seems happy to be out from under an owner who he believes values style over substance.

Here’s what Oubre had to say about Suns owner Robert Sarver after being traded to the Warriors, via Mike Deprisco of NBC Sports Washington:

“I can play for an owner — somebody who actually cares about the organization and not just the perception of the organization on the media end of it,” Oubre told 95.7 The Game in San Francisco. “It’s all about the foundation for me, man. You have a beautiful foundation, can build a beautiful [future].”

Oubre could be alluding to any number of problems over the past few years, whether it be poor decision-making in the draft, instability among personnel all across the organization, or the lack of showing much on-court progress, despite boasting one of the NBA’s most lethal scorers in Devin Booker. Sarver’s reputation around the league is not particularly good and this only further shows how some in the league feel about Phoenix’s ownership.

Now, with Chris Paul at the helm, Phoenix is in prime position to restore some semblance of respectability, but as always, they’ll face a gauntlet in the Western Conference, where several other teams improved their rosters significantly this offseason as well.

(NBC Sports Washington)