Month: January 2021

Just months after Brooklyn rapper Rowdy Rebel was released, his fellow Brooklynite and GS9 member Bobby Shmurda may be freed as well. According to court documents shared by Complex, Bobby is up for consideration for early release pending a behavior review by the prison staff’s Time Allowance Committee. While he’s currently scheduled to be released on December 11, 2021, the conditional release may allow him to leave his current incarceration by February 23, 2021.

Although a previous review of his behavior while incarcerated caused him to miss out on early release in 2020, Bobby had his “good time” restored. If he can maintain that status, he can be released early and serve out the remainder of his sentence in supervised housing. However, that doesn’t mean he’ll be completely free; he likely won’t be able to have contact with Rowdy or any other GS9 member. Should Bobby try to resume his rap career, it’ll be complicated by the conditions of his release.

Meanwhile, Rowdy seems to be flourishing since his release, receiving support from other rappers such as Young Thug and organizing a toy drive in his hometown. He recently collaborated with the late Pop Smoke on “Make It Rain,” recording his verse from prison.

The Brooklyn Nets were the hottest team in the league for the first two games of the season, having blown out the Warriors and Celtics in succession, but have gone 1-4 since with losses to teams like the Hornets and most recently the Wizards. Those performances were reminders of the continued growing pains the Nets will have as they work with a very new roster led by superstars in Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, doing so under a new coaching staff headed up by Steve Nash.

The Nets are still tinkering with rotations and combinations, as well as trying to get accustomed to the offense which has seen them struggle mightily with turnovers as they all still feel out where everyone is going to be at any given time. Their next chance to work things out will be on Tuesday against a Jazz team coming off of their best performance of the season against the Spurs, but Brooklyn will be without a key piece.

The team announced on Monday that Kevin Durant will not be with the team due to the league’s health and safety protocols.

What raises eyebrows about the news that KD is in the league’s protocols is that he was one of four Nets players to test positive for COVID-19 back in March, remaining asymptomatic. Durant is in the protocols due to a close contact, not a second positive result, which would mean he must isolate and continue producing negative tests before he can rejoin the team after seven days, similar to what John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins went through earlier in the season — which Shams Charania and Adrian Wojnarowski confirmed shortly after the news broke.

With that timeline, he would miss four games as Brooklyn plays the Jazz, Sixers and Grizzlies this week, before facing the Thunder on Sunday. For any team, missing a star for an extended period makes life difficult, but that’s especially the case for a team still trying to figure out its identity around the two stars they revolve.

Howard Stern tore into Donald Trump on Monday for calling up Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a desperate, and most likely illegal, attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Stern spoke while noting country’s struggle to quickly distribute the COVID vaccine to as many Americans as possible, which would make significant strides in stemming the pandemic. Holding nothing back, the SiriusXM host referred to the call as “criminal” and “gangster” while blasting Trump for ignoring the health crisis to waste his time on strong-arming politicians into falsely saying he won. “It’s like Donald Corleone,” Stern said. “How is this sh*t not criminal?”

Via The Hill:

“The thing that’s really pissing me off is that this motherf*cking government that hardly exists now, they can’t get the coronavirus vaccine out,” Stern, 66, said, adding he would like to receive the COVID-19 vaccine himself.

“Front-line workers in hospitals can’t get it, and you’re making f*cking phone calls to try to end the election?” Stern said of Trump. “What happened to this country? It’s such a disappointment that we cannot vaccinate people. We can’t get f*cking vaccine into people’s arms.”

While efforts are being made by Dr. Fauci and top medical officials to ramp up the speed of vaccine distribution, Stern just couldn’t get over the fact that is Trump spending his time on the election while “we’re all locked in our houses.” After dropping a few more profanities, the radio host had some blunt advice for the outgoing president. “You didn’t win. It’s over. Go back to f*cking Florida.”

(Via The Hill)

After an 2-3 start in which they got blasted by the three presumptive playoff teams they’d faced, things looked bleak for the Golden State Warriors. Stephen Curry wasn’t able to get the looks he wants and his efficiency had dipped through the first five games of the season from where we’re accustomed to seeing it.

As such, despite the small sample size and the clear need for the Warriors to work through a lot as a team, the takes grew hotter and hotter about the viability of Curry as a player capable of producing at the rate and efficiency he once did without an elite cast of characters around him. While it was fair to wonder exactly how high Curry could lift this particular Warriors team, the conversation shifted beyond this season to his legacy and calling into question how good he actually was when he was winning MVPs and titles.

Curry has become an incredibly polarizing figure, with extremely loyal fans who defend him to no end and plenty of detractors who happily jump at the opportunity to pick at his legacy. On Sunday night, Curry let his play respond for him, dropping 62 points on the Blazers in a career-high performance that saw him light up the Chase Center and remind people just how high his highs can be. After the game, Curry was asked about if he’d heard the chatter and responded with a self-aware answer, noting that, yes, much like the now infamous meme of Michael Jordan from The Last Dance, he heard it and took it personally.

He quickly shifts the conversation to how good it felt to just get loose on the court again and help his team start to build some winning habits. Curry even seems to recognize that after such a performance expectations can swing wildly to the other side and looks to temper them by noting that this is a team still learning how to win, and they start with a focus on winning the first quarter and building from there. They did that and more on Sunday, and he’s glad to see it come together against a quality team in Portland for once after three dismal efforts against Brooklyn, Milwaukee, and Portland this past Friday.

Though she shields her daughter’s ears from the raunchy lyrics she raps in her song “WAP,” Cardi B does not shy away from sharing explicit language on Twitter. However, Cardi is now promising to put all that behind her after claiming that she’s been shadowbanned on the the platform.

Shadowbanning is the act of a social media site blocking a user’s content from appearing on their followers’ pages. It’s meant to curb the proliferation of bots and spammers without their knowledge, but active users can also be accidentally targeted. That’s what Cardi B thinks happened to her when a fan account tweeted saying she is “on shadowban again.”

Cardi wasn’t happy about the news, so she decided to take the issue up with Jack Dorsey himself, the CEO of Twitter.

The rapper sent a voice memo to Dorsey, cheekily asking for his forgiveness in a faux-British accent.

Cardi then took it one step further, promising to stop using raunchy language on the site all together.

Cardi isn’t the only rapper who has gotten on Twitter’s bad side this year. Back in October, the platform temporarily banned Kanye West’s account for sharing a journalist’s personal contact information. The rapper was apparently outraged at Forbes chief content officer Randall Lane, who he labeled a “white supremacist” before sharing a screenshot of Lane’s phone number.

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

Of the artists who had big moments in 2020, perhaps none had as impressive a breakout as Alabama rapper Flo Milli. Her debut mixtape, Ho, Why Is You Here? made her an ostensible overnight success, trending on Twitter thanks to its bouncy beats and her flippant rhyme style. However, today she started trending for a different reason, as some fans on the app rediscovered her Beats By Dre television ad from 2020 thanks to a repost and shared their opinions on its muddled messaging.

While the commercial’s tagline of “Flex that clapback” is more of a marketing department failing over anything Flo Milli does, her participation has many befuddled. The ad follows the rapper as she exits an SUV in front of a Confederate statue, regards it for a moment, and dances in the street in front of it to her song “May I.” However, no one is really sure what message is being conveyed and it winds up feeling like the concept was based on exploiting the imagery of the summer uprisings of 2020 while leaving their purpose and demands unfulfilled.

The commercial has already been compared to the 2017 Pepsi ad featuring Kendall Jenner which was accused of trivializing the Black Lives Matter movement. That commercial was pulled after being criticized, while the Beats By Dre ad has been out for two months and is part of a series that also featured rapper Cordae and tennis star Naomi Osaka, which might have helped it fly under the radar for a while. Ironically, it was likely pulling the ad from YouTube that brought it renewed attention on Twitter, where it’s had an ignominious encore.

Unfortunately for Virtue Worldwide, the agency behind the “Flex That” campaign, once it’s on the internet, it’s fair game for roasts and legitimate criticisms alike. Check out some of those above.

30 Coins (HBO, 9:00pm and 10:20 EST) — This Spanish horror series, directed and co-written by Álex de la Iglesia (The Day of the Beast, The Last Circus), premieres with two episodes tonight. Prepare yourself for a spooky show following Father Vergara, who is (get this) not only an exorcist but a boxer and ex-convict. Naturally, he’s also an exiled priest who ends up in a remote Spanish town, where his past comes back in haunting ways, and (of course) there’s a global conspiracy at work.

Headspace Guide to Meditation (Netflix series) — Need a little meditation (in)action? This series will be one of three Headspace projects in 2021, and this one will lead with eight episodes that will teach viewers different mindfulness techniques to learn the surprisingly difficult practices — including stress, sleep, and letting go — of how to meditate. It’s damn hard to do, especially in our current age where information never stops coming our way, but this series might help convince everyone that meditation can be both accessible and… easy? Not to mention interactive.

The Hustler (ABC, 9:00pm) — This new game show revolves around trivia questions and a collective prize pot that only keeps growing. Secretly, one of the contestants (“the Hustler”) already knows all but must keep his or her identity under wraps until the end.

Asphalt Burning (Netflix film) — Well, this isn’t exactly an enlightened film, but if you need some escapism, feel free to check out this car-enthusiast series about wild racing types who confront the Trollstigen mountain road in Norway via Sweden and Denmark to the Nürburgring in Germany. There’s a drunken bet and a wedding night and a police chase and a dead corpse, and yes, this is a ridiculous movie, but it totally knows it.

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — Stacey Abrams, RuPaul Charles, Maren Morris

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Rosario Dawson, Ingrid Andress

Late Night With Seth Meyers — Guest Amy Poehler, Burna Boy, Chris Coleman sits-in with the 8G Band

In case you missed these recent picks:

His Dark Materials (HBO, 9:00pm EST) — The Dust-filled fantasy series is already renewed for a third (and final) season, but before that happens, the second season must (of course) draw to a close. This week, Mrs. Coulter’s confrontation with a formidable foe leads to her finding an important answer, and Lyra and Will’s search for his father ends with a dramatic new status and semi-conclusion.

Cobra Kai: Season 3 — (Netflix series) The good news? This The Karate Kid revival is still as much of an adrenaline shot as the last two rounds. The bad news? It’s also infuriatingly good. After Johnny and Daniel’s combined bad moves contributed heavily to Miguel landing in a hospital bed, Johnny’s looking for redemption. While he does the hard work in the hospital — and Kreese re-takes the dubious reigns of the Cobra Kai dojo, which makes me worried about him instructing Hawk to be even more of an anger-bear monster — Daniel-san heads to Okinawa, where an old rival is ready for him. The soul and fate of every sensei (and their students) are up for grabs.

Dan Le Batard’s tenure with ESPN was fraught with battles between the Miami columnist and management as he became one of the network’s most prominent and beloved radio and TV personalities. However, for all the times he butt heads with his corporate bosses, what he did at ESPN was sensational and he leaves behind one of the most impactful legacies the company has ever seen. Monday was his last day with the four-letter, as he moved on to new opportunities with his radio show and left behind Highly Questionable to Bomani Jones and others.

Le Batard helped bring along an entire new crop of ESPN talent, elevating them beyond what they were maybe initially hired to do at the company and offering them a place to be themselves. It’s the thing that Pablo Torre told me when I profiled he and Bomani while they did High Noon, and that influence was clearly felt by so many others as they posted heartfelt messages on Dan’s influence and importance on social media for his final day.

It was an emotional day for Le Batard, particularly with regards to Highly Questionable, the show he started with his father, Papi, and managed to grow into a staple of the ESPN afternoon block. To close his final show, Dan offered a tearful goodbye and heartfelt thanks to everyone that helped make the show a success and for everyone that tuned in to a family show that was, technically, about sports but in reality was so much more.

It’s clear how much it meant to Dan to be able to do a show with his father and how much he appreciated the opportunities afforded to him at ESPN, even if he didn’t always see eye-to-eye with the people upstairs. The TV show was such a unique take on a sports TV show and was a risk taken by ESPN, one he notes in the video that Papi questioned when they first started. Still, they made it work and now it moves on in the hands of Jones and the cavalcade of up-and-coming stars that Le Batard helped to present to a national audience with HQ and his radio show.

As for the final episode of his radio show on ESPN — as it gets set to move on to a new home — the tone for the final minutes was very different from that emotional Highly Questionable video. It ended as only the Dan Le Batard Show could, with “Freedom” by George Michael playing in full before Greg Cote talked about his toenails, getting cut off by the hard network out with no final goodbyes or anything of the sort.

In their own way, they were both perfect in showing the dichotomy of Le Batard and the shows he built.

Saweetie still has yet to offer fans a release date for her long-awaited debut album Pretty B*tch Music, but has kept fans fed with a steady stream of content including her Icy Life and Icy University YouTube shows. Later this month, though, she’ll make the jump from YouTube to television with her first official acting role on the popular Freeform sitcom Grown-ish. Spun off from the ABC sitcom Black-ish, Grown-ish follows the exploits of eldest Johnson daughter Zooey (portrayed by Yara Shahidi) as she heads off to college.

In Saweetie’s debut role, she’ll play Indigo, one of aspiring stylist Zooey’s celebrity clients alongside Joey Badass, who plays himself. In this scene previewing an interaction between Zooey and Indigo, the client and stylist clash over a music video look, which results in Saweetie giving Shahidi a mischievous look and Shahidi’s character making promises she can’t possibly deliver on — again (just watch the show, you’ll see).

Now in its third season, Grown-ish has provided a popular platform for musicians as well as family-friendly entertainment for young adults. The show’s cast includes R&B duo Chloe X Halle and rapper Diggy Simmons as regulars, Joey Badass in a recurring role playing himself, a soundtrack worthy of such tapped-in shows as Insecure and Power, and even debuted Leikeli47’s “Tic Boom” video.

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

The Buffalo Bills are arguably the hottest team in football, winning the AFC East for the first time in decades and finishing 13-3 for the first time since 1991. A playoff matchup against the Indianapolis Colts looms later this week, but everyone has taken notice of Josh Allen and the Bills officially in the Super Bowl conversation.

That hype has been impossible to miss online, with Bills fans firing off memes and declaring independence for the Great Lakes from the rest of the country, among other things. And even people from The Office universe have gotten in on the act. Actor Andy Buckley, who played Dunder Mifflin CEO David Wallace on the NBC sitcom, is still engaging with Office fans on Twitter long after the show left the air. He still has jokes from the show in his Twitter bio and calls himself the company’s CEO.

And on Sunday, he tweeted that the power of Josh Allen has made him bring back the Buffalo branch of Dunder Mifflin that was eliminated due to downsizing.

The tweet is a joke, of course, as the actor doesn’t have any real power over Dunder Mifflin despite where his character’s narrative arc takes him. But the Bills very good social media team went the extra mile to find footage from the Season 5 episode Company Picnic, where Michael Scott reveals that the Buffalo branch is closing during a skit at the Dunder Mifflin picnic.

The scene is one of the most cringe-worthy from the show’s run, which is saying something considering the horrors of “Diversity Day.” But learning everyone you work with is out of a job from a Michael Scott skit is truly dreadful. Look at these poor people, who are also in canon likely Bills fans.

Even imagining them to be back employed, in the middle of a pandemic and a further struggling paper economy, is a nice thought on top of a fine Bills season. It’s always fun to see an NFL team embrace things like this, and the Bills have done a surprisingly good job of garnering support in a record-setting year for the team in many ways. They’ve worked with Griselda rappers to promote team merchandise, and now they’re undoing some important Office history. Even if it’s not real, fans love this kind of stuff. And lately, there’s a lot to love about the Buffalo Bills.