Month: December 2020

President Trump will seemingly do anything to hold onto the White House while complaining about “massive dumps,” which he falsely claimed cost him the election, to which Attorney General Barr has responded that there’s no evidence of such voter fraud. Of course, Trump has already tweet-hinted that he could refuse to leave the White House while ranting about a “Rigged Election,” and he may simply be trolling for “legal fund” money, but this has all still devolved into dangerous stuff.

A case in point would be a Georgia GOP election official, Gabriel Sterling, revealing that a noose (and a threat about a “treason” hanging) had been sent to a contractor for Dominion (which has been the target of a false MAGA conspiracy theory about a server switching Trump votes to Biden). A visibly emotional Sterling held a press conference in which he declared, “Mr. President, you have not condemned this language or these actions. This has to stop. We need you to step up, and if you’re going to take a position of leadership, show some.” The noose incident occurred after Trump lawyer Joe DiGenova declared that former White House cybersecurity official Chris Krebs should be “drawn and quartered” after Trump fired DiGenova for calling 2020 the safest election in history. And there have been threats against Georgia election workers. Sterling argued, “Someone is going to get shot. Someone’s going to get killed. And it’s not right.”

How did Trump respond to this plea to urge an end to violent threats? Not well. He retweeted a video of Sterling while escalating his rhetoric: “What is Secretary of State and @BrianKempGA afraid of. They know what we’ll find!!!” And yes, there was a “Rigged Election” in the mix as well.

In doing so, Trump had retweeted video of Sterling posted by a reporter, Brendan Keefe, who hails out of Georgia. In response, Keefe retweeted Trump’s double-down: “This is the president’s reaction tonight to my tweet of @GabrielSterling asking him to lower the temperature after multiple death threats against Georgia election workers.”

It’s mind-boggling stuff, and it’s happening while the newly pardoned Michael Flynn calls for Trump to declare martial law for the purpose of holding a new election. 2020, are you over yet?

Harry Styles mostly uses his Instagram account as a promotional tool. Generally speaking, he tends to post only about his music and other aspects of his professional life. Every now and then, though, he uses the platform to get a personal message across. In May, for example, he shared a pro-Black Lives Matter message. Now, he has taken to Instagram to clap back at critics of him wearing a dress in his recent Vogue profile.

Specifically, he seems to be addressing Candace Owens, who wrote in response to the Vogue photos, “Bring back manly men.” Fast-forward to this morning, where Styles posted a photo of himself (from a recent Variety feature) wearing what appears to be a women’s suit and blouse while eating a banana. He threw Owens’ words back at her with his caption, in which he simply wrote, “Bring back manly men.”

In the Vogue profile, Styles said of his fashion choices, “Clothes are there to have fun with and experiment with and play with. What’s really exciting is that all of these lines are just kind of crumbling away. When you take away ‘There’s clothes for men and there’s clothes for women,’ once you remove any barriers, obviously you open up the arena in which you can play. I’ll go in shops sometimes, and I just find myself looking at the women’s clothes thinking they’re amazing. It’s like anything — anytime you’re putting barriers up in your own life, you’re just limiting yourself. There’s so much joy to be had in playing with clothes. I’ve never really thought too much about what it means — it just becomes this extended part of creating something.”

Stephen Colbert looked positively giddy during Tuesday’s episode of The Late Show. You would, too, if you got to say “massive dumps” (with a sh*t-eating grin… pun intended?) on network television. Colbert covered the president’s lie-filled interview with his future ex-wife, Maria Bartiromo, as well as Attorney General William Barr confirming what everyone but Trump and his cronies already knew, that “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome” in the presidential election. “Fraud on a scale, also known as the president’s annual physical,” the host quipped.

Trump “has failed to stop the vote certification in all six states where he contested his defeat,” including Arizona and Wisconsin, Colbert continued. “So that’s 0 and six in the certifications and 0 and three in recounts, and he hasn’t won a single fraud case. He’s undefeated at losing. He is the Michael Jordan of playing baseball.” Also like Jordan, Trump has been known to down an entire pizza in one sitting. Colbert compared the president to “a guy at a custody hearing saying, ‘Your honor, my wife has made it seem like I’m a delinquent father and a terrible gambler, but how would she know any of that? I’m always at the casino.’” Not that Trump would anything about casinos and being a bad dad.

You can watch The Late Show clip above.

It has been nearly a year since Juice WRLD unexpectedly passed and left a him-shaped hole in the music world. He seems to have left plenty of music behind, though, as he has popped up on songs here and there over the past year. Today (December 2) would have been his 22nd birthday, and to mark the occasion, a collaboration with Benny Blanco, “Real Sh*t,” has been released.

Blanco also shared a lengthy Instagram post reflecting on recording the song and his relationship with Juice, writing, “my friend played me a song like 2 or 3 years ago… i looked at him and said it was one of the best songs i had ever heard… my friend didnt even know the artists name… said it was juice or something… i searched and searched on instagram until i came across juice’s page… he had 9k followers at the time… i dmed him and said we had to work… he said he was coming to la in a week and we could go in then… i booked us a studio… he didnt even have a record deal… labels were coming to the session all night trying to butter him up and offer him anything he wanted… he didn’t give a f*ck… he just wanted to make music… we made like 6 songs the first night… one of them being ‘roses’… the first song we ever recorded tho was ‘real sh*t’… it was the first time i saw his magic… the whole room dropped their jaws and watched him in awe… we knew we were in the room with a man who was going to change music forever… he went in the booth and recorded a song top to bottom in one take… then he did it 3 more times and said pick the best one… and they were all perfect songs… he was an absolute genius to say the least but above all he was one of the kindest and most considerate people i have ever met… he was my friend… happy birthday juice… we miss u…”

Fans have had plenty of love for Juice WRLD in 2020, as he was the most-streamed US artist of the year on Spotify.

Listen to “Real Sh*t” above.

There’s extra — then there’s Mariah Carey extra.

At this point in her career, MC knows how much her fans appreciate that she puts herself first, and frankly, it’s refreshing to see a woman have her own back to the extent Mariah does. That trend continues today, as Carey put together her 2020 reading list for PopSugar. Lots of celebrities put together these kinds of book lists for fans to see what they’ve been checking out in a given year, and potentially grab books for holiday gifts, but few of them put their own memoirs front and center on these guides.

Mariah Carey does, though, and The Meaning Of Mariah Carey, her memoir with Michaela Angela Davis, is the first thing she recommends. I also love that this implies Mariah has been reading her own book that she wrote about her own life. I’m sure it’s fascinating, though! Carey has had quite the interesting life, but the act of putting it right at the top is just such a funny twist, or a shameless plug, as PopSugar dubs it. But who doesn’t love a shameless plug? Especially in a year when artists can’t be out performing, book sales might be the ticket to Mariah coming out on top in 2020.

Some of her other reading suggestions include Untamed by Glennon Doyle and The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. Check out the full list here.

Yesterday the news broke that after months of rumors – and plenty of fans shipping them since that flirty “Fashion Killa” video back in 2013 — ASAP Rocky and Rihanna are reportedly dating. At least, according to Page Six and People, who tend to know when these rumors are actually true.

RiRi officially split from billionaire boyfriend Hassan Jameel at the beginning of this year, and when Rocky appeared in her Fenty Skin campaign back in July, it might’ve been more than just a business deal. While Rihanna has been busy building her Fenty makeup and skincare empire of late, along with high-fashion collaborations and a lingerie line, neither her nor Rocky have released any new music in several years, her since Anti in 2016, and Rocky since Testing in 2018. But when fans heard the news of the fledgling couple, their minds didn’t go to music, but to babies.

Considering these two could both easily land on a list of the most beautiful people in the world, people couldn’t help but comment that their children would be equally gorgeous:

Personally, I’ll take a follow-up record from Rihanna before she starts in on family planning. Then again, knowing her, she’d probably be able to handle both at once. Let’s wait and see if an official confirmation of their relationship comes before planning any babies, ok? Remember what happened to Drake when he thought it was official?

Justin Timberlake recently came through for a family in his home state of Tennesse this past Thanksgiving. The family of 17-year-old Jake Stitt from Morristown, Tennessee — who is known in his hometown for sitting outside in his wheelchair with a sign that says, “Honk if you’re happy” — was in need of a wheelchair-accessible van for their son who suffers from cerebral palsy. Jake’s father, Tim Stitt, is a primary caregiver who recently began to lose function in his hands after repeatedly lifting his son in and out of their van. After hearing of their story, actor Michael Abbott Jr. launched a $35,000 fundraiser to help get the Stitt family the wheelchair-accessible van they needed.

“Jake Stitt is 17 years old. He loves sports, the outdoors & maintains a busy social life,” Abbott said in a tweet. “His father is desperate for a handicapped accessible van in order for Jake to keep living at home.” Unfortunately, the Tennessee family fell short of their $35,000 goal, but Timberlake was so moved by the story that he went ahead and purchased the van for the Stitt’s prior to Thanksgiving. During a zoom call with Jake and Tim, Timberlake shared his motivation for helping them out.

“I heard there was a goal to try to get this van before Thanksgiving. I heard your story and saw a little news clip about it and I was just so moved,” the singer said. “I want you guys to have a great holiday, and you inspire me Jake.”

You can watch a clip from Timberlake’s zoom call with the Stitts above.

In the midst of a bizarre college football season, some conferences are scrambling to determine which programs will be eligible for championship games, with established minimums needing to be met. The most prominent example is Ohio State in the Big Ten, with the Buckeyes now facing a situation in which any cancellation would keep them from reaching the conference’s six-game threshold for inclusion and, by proxy, might keep one of the best teams in the country from winning its conference and putting itself in the best position for the College Football Playoff.

With that as the backdrop, famous Ohio State alum and ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit made controversial comments on ESPN’s air on Tuesday, saying that he thinks “Michigan waves the white flag” and “potentially avoids playing Ohio State.”

As noted above, Michigan missing the game would keep Ohio State out of the Big Ten title game but, in short, Herbstreit didn’t present any evidence for his claim. That drew the ire of many, not just in Big Ten circles, and Herbstreit issued a lengthy apology within a short period of time.

Herbstreit said he had “no business at all saying that” and “no evidence of that,” while also noting that it was “completely unfair” to Michigan. To his credit, Herbstreit didn’t hold back in accepting blame for what he said, though he did indicate that tries to “remain positive and upbeat, and I think sometimes we all have our breaking points.”

While the connection between Herbstreit and Ohio State undoubtedly raised the profile of this story in a hurry, Herbstreit is arguably the most famous analyst in the sport. As such, this kind of sentiment would draw attention under any circumstances and, in putting the apology out, he likely knew that and realized the misstep. Still, this is a talking point that will percolate across the college football landscape, and the response will be interesting on all sides in the coming days.

Royce Da 5’9″ became a Grammy nominee last week when The Allegory, the Detroit rapper’s eighth album, earned a spot in the Best Rap Album category. This isn’t the first time he’s been nominated, having received one at the 2010 awards for his appearance on Eminem’s Recovery. But the version of the album that got released is not exactly the one he wanted. In a recent interview with PSA Hip-Hop’s Threeletterman3, Royce revealed that Cordae was supposed to appear on it but the young rapper’s label, Atlantic Records, blocked him from doing it.

“[Vince Staples] sent his verse last day because originally YBN Cordae was there in that spot,” Royce said. “Atlantic would not clear YBN Cordae, so I had to take him off. They said they wanted to ‘keep him young.’ These labels, they are so caught up young, young, young, young.” He was a bit frustrated by the label’s action, however, and he also pointed out that it put Cordae in a bad position as well.

“Obviously the kid wanted to do it, otherwise, he wouldn’t have done it! So why put him in that position?” he said. “And now the album is nominated for Grammy. You don’t think that in retrospect was a bad move from them?”

Royce’s The Allegory joins D. Smoke’s Black Habits, Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist’s Alfredo, Nas’ King Disease, and Jay Electronica’s A Written Testimony as the other nominees in the Best Rap Album category.

You can watch the interview in the video above. Royce’s remarks on Cordae come around the 27-minute mark.

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

Joakim Noah wasn’t a centerpiece of the 2019-20 L.A. Clippers, but the veteran big man provided depth and leadership for a title contender as recently as just a few months ago. However, Noah’s lengthy NBA career could be over, as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports that 35-year-old was waived by the Clippers and is “likely headed toward retirement” as a result.

Noah was the No. 9 pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, navigating a 13-year career that included two All-Star appearances, three All-Defense selections, and the 2013-14 NBA Defensive Player of the Year award.

“What an illustrious career for Joakim, starting with two national titles at the University of Florida, to becoming an NBA Defensive Player of the Year and ultimately evolving into one of the most passionate, spirited players to ever come through our sport,” Duffy shared with ESPN. “It’s been my honor to represent Joakim through his journey.”

During a five-year peak from 2009-10 through 2013-14 with the Chicago Bulls, Noah averaged 11.5 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.6 blocks per game, providing useful offensive contributions and an elite-level defense. In fact, he earned an All-NBA selection in 2013-14, peaking as an offensive player in averaging 12.6 points, 11.3 rebounds and a whopping 5.4 assists per game from the center position. He was also the 2014 NBA Defensive Player of the Year and a first-team All-NBA selection.

Though his career slowed considerably after Noah signed with the New York Knicks prior to the 2016-17 season, he remained well-regarded and is a highly decorated college player, dominating alongside Al Horford and Corey Brewer at Florida.

It is highly unfortunate that Noah’s prime was cut short by injury, and he also suffered an Achilles injury in 2019 that limited him to just five regular season games and two playoff games during his final NBA season. Still, Noah’s unique blend of defense and style will be remembered well, and he enjoyed a fantastic professional career if this is indeed the end of the line.