Month: January 2021

Sunday was a meaningful day for a number of NFL franchises, as the playoff hopes of 11 teams were to be decided. Among those were three squads in the NFC East, as the Cowboys, Giants, and Football Team all entered the day with, somehow, the division still up for grabs despite all having losing records.

The first game of the day in the division was Cowboys-Giants, with the winner keeping hope alive, needing an Eagles win to make the playoffs, and the loser seeing themselves fall to the top 10 of the NFL Draft order — which, to be honest, wasn’t the worst outcome in the world. The way that game ended was an abject disaster that was fitting of the way the division has played this season. Andy Dalton threw a horrific interception in the end zone to end a Cowboys comeback bid, but the Giants almost handed the ball back to them with an untouched fumble from Wayne Gallman that, somehow, was ruled to be retained by New York after the back sat on the ball and was deemed to have possession.

Once the game ended there were some celebrations from Giants fans — and some Cowboys fans who recognized it was much more important to add talent to this team than make the playoffs and likely lose — but no one reveled in the misery of the portion of the Dallas faithful still holding out hope for their playoff dreams more than Stephen A. Smith. ESPN’s top provocateur has always loved prodding Cowboys fans and took to Twitter donning his cowboy hat with cigar in hand to take a victory lap.

Smith is the finest performance artist in the sports media for a reason, and his commitment to the bit is tremendous — although, gotta clean it up with Washington’s nickname here, Stephen A. For those Dallas fans who are happier getting a top pick so they can hopefully bounce back next year with some more talent around Dak Prescott (or on the defensive end), this won’t get to them, but there will be plenty who get riled up over Smith’s latest prodding at America’s Team, something that truly seems to bring him immense joy.

Every now and then Hollywood greenlights a movie based not on a novel or a comic book or, indeed, any IP that has been adapted into anything else before. Films based on board games have been a thing since Clue, back in 1985. Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! was based on a series of trading cards. He’s Just Not That Into You, a self-help book, was turned into a star-studded rom-com. And maybe one day we’ll final get that Kevin Hart Monopoly movie announced about a year ago.

But this one is next level: As per Deadline, a movie is being made based on…the Rubik’s Cube. The three-dimensional puzzle toy that has been frustrating all but the brainiest since 1974. How will a box-shaped gizmo with nine colored blocks per side be turned into a narrative? Well, they made a movie about emojis — surely some screenwriting geniuses can crack it.

But that’s not all. This is an era when the best (or at least most profitable) IPs are the ones that cross mediums. And so the modest Cube is also becoming fodder for the latest game show craze. It’s not clear how this one will work either. Presumably it would be pretty boring watching some rando try and solve the puzzle in real time.

In the meantime, enjoy this brief video from 2009 of film and music video director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, this classic White Stripes video, among others), solving a Rubik’s Cube with his feet. See if you can catch how he did it! And, of course, you could also just buy one and try and solve it. Maybe it’ll take you longer than it does for Hollywood to make a Rubik’s Cube movie.

(Via Deadline)

After dropping a game in Detroit on Friday, the Celtics entered Sunday afternoon’s matchup with the Pistons looking to split the two-game series in Detroit but found themselves once again in a precarious position late.

This time, however, they had the answers on both ends of the floor to emerge with a 122-120 victory and improve to 4-3 on the season, thanks to the tremendous efforts of their star wing duo of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Brown finished the game with 31 points to lead Boston, with his most notable effort coming with the Celtics trailing by one late when Tatum found him on the wing for an open three to give them a two-point lead.

Detroit would tie the game on the next possession, and once again the Celtics had Tatum initiate the action. This time, when he got the switch he wanted he went to work on Blake Griffin, shaking the big man for an open pull-up jumper on the elbow. On the Pistons next possession, it was Tatum’s turn to play hero on the defensive end as well, as he got a hand on Griffin’s late heave to secure a Boston win.

It has been hard work for the Celtics in just about every game this season, as now three of their four wins have come by five points or fewer, but with Kemba Walker out they have to be pleased with every win they get as they continue to try and figure out exactly what rotations look like. In a season in which it feels like the majority of teams are struggling to find consistency, Boston’s start is far from a disaster. The good news is that Tatum and Brown have been excellent, the big question going forward is how long it will take for them to get everyone else going — and get the defense back to where it was a year ago.

TikTok is the place where all of the bizarre memes you probably don’t understand originate these days. Now it’s also where a successful musical based on a Pixar movie was born. The production received considerable buzz online over the weekend, and it was the final culmination of a project that started with a simple video on the platform and turned into a star-studded online event.

According to Deadline, the musical has raised more than $1 million for The Actors Fund, which has helped out-of-work actors in need due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The event spiraled into a major, multi-song production starring TikTok stars as well as some Hollywood and Broadway talent who were eager to help.

What first started as a viral TikTok about a musical adaptation of the beloved Disney-Pixar title became a full-fledged production complete with Hollywood stars. Taking inspiration from the 2007 animated flick, the crowdsourced TikTok musical follows an ambitious and culinarily savvy rat as he uses a hopeless chef to make his mark in the cooking world.

Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical premiered on Friday, New Year’s Day, and will continue to stream until Monday. Reaching an audience of more than 200 million fans world wide, Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical featured TikTok creators performing alongside the likes of Titus Burgess, Wayne Brady, Adam Lambert, Ashley Park and more.

Even the New York Times theater critic reviewed the musical, so you know it’s legit. The stream is available here, and you can donate as little as $5 to see it for yourself before it disappears on Monday.

Since November, Sia has been dealing with heavy criticism following the release of her film Music. Much of the backlash is focused on Maddie Ziegler, who plays a character named Music, who appears to be on the autistic spectrum. Viewers were not happy with the casting choice, as many felt a “disabled” actor would have been a better choice. Sia defended her casting choice and revealed that she attempted to work with a nonverbal girl on the spectrum, but the young woman found it “unpleasant” and “stressful.” Once again, the pop singer took a moment to respond to the backlash during a recent appearance on the Australian TV show The Sunday Project.

“I realized it wasn’t ableism,” she said of her choice to cast Ziegler. “I mean, it is ableism I guess as well, but it’s actually nepotism because I can’t do a project without her. I don’t want to. I wouldn’t make art if it didn’t include her.” After calling herself Ziegler’s “bonus mom,” Sia revealed that there were concerns from the Music actor that viewers would perceive her role as “making fun” of autistic people. “I bold-facedly said, ‘I won’t let that happen,’” she said. Unfortunately that is exactly what the response has been to the film.

“Last week I realized I couldn’t really protect her from that, which I thought I could,” the singer said. “We sent it off to the Child Mind Institute and she received 100 percent as performance accuracy. I realize that there are some things I can’t protect her from as much as I try.”

You can watch her appearance on The Sunday Project above.

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

The NFC East crown was still up for grabs on Sunday as the Giants and Cowboys played in the early window, with the winner keeping their playoff hopes alive pending the result of the Sunday Night game between the Football Team and Eagles.

An Eagles win would give the winner of Giants-Cowboys the division, while Washington has a win and in scenario. Aside from the Browns nail-biting win over the Steelers, that meant it was the focal point of the early window and it produced a game fitting of the 2020 NFC East. New York went up 20-6 and appeared to be on cruise control before their offense came to a complete and total halt, with some awful turnover luck and just generally awful play.

Dallas climbed all the way back to make it 20-19 — they settled for four field goals, three of which came on solid drives after being unable to capitalize in the red zone. A Giants field goal made things 23-19 and with under two minutes to play, the Cowboys reached a first-and-goal situation. From there, Andy Dalton ate a sack that dropped them to the 17, CeeDee Lamb dropped a wide open pass over the middle that would’ve set up a third and manageable distance, and on 3rd and goal from the 17, Dalton did…this.

It was, objectively, an awful pass and also felt like a perfect end point for the season in Dallas. However, the Giants still needed a first down to ice the game, and turned to Wayne Gallman, who already had one fumble on the day. Gallman, on second down, broke free and across the line to gain and simply needed to fall down to seal the win. Instead, he just…dropped the football and chaos ensued, with one of the strangest explanations of possession you’ll ever see resulting in the Giants retaining the ball and getting the win.

Somehow, Gallman doing a James Brown split onto the football meant he had possession — an alternate angle during the replay showed there was a hand on it and made it look a bit more like possession — but with the ball eventually squirting free of Gallman’s grasp on video it was wild that it was ruled Giants ball and that the play held up.

In any case, it is Giants fans that will spend Sunday night rooting aggressively for the Eagles, and they have Wayne Gallman’s butt to thank for that.

After letting fans sit with his Music To Be Murdered By – Side B deluxe album for a few weeks, Eminem stopped by Shade 45 to share some stories and inspiration behind some of its songs. The discussion occurred during a playback of the deluxe album and when “Guns Blazing” with Dr. Dre and Sly Paper came on, Eminem shared an interesting story about how the song came together.

That was actually a record that I stole from Dre. Cause he was sending me music and he kept sending me sh*t and every time he sends I’m like, “Yo this one’s crazier than the last one.” I don’t even know which one is the craziest one. He sends me [“Guns Blazing”] with his verse and hook and I was like, “Yo, I gotta jump on this sh*t.”

The Detroit rapper then goes on to say that the swap that occurred for “Guns Blazing” was not the first time he and Dre traded songs. “We actually traded a couple of times cause I did a couple of other songs and I’m like ‘Yo you can that one that I just sent you if I can have that one,’ and we kinda swapped a little bit,” he said. “It’s very personal. That’s a very personal song.”

Other highlights from Eminem’s Shade 45 appearance included a breakdown of his Snoop Dogg diss on “Zeus” and his thoughts on cancel culture. You can hear Eminem discuss “Guns Blazing” at the 15-minute mark in the video above.

The first Sunday of 2021 was not a peaceful on Twitter. People hoping to get some extra rest in before the workweek resumes post-holidays awoke to find a number of issues to steam one’s blood. One was a controversial New York Times op-ed arguing TikToks might finally supplant the album. Another was outgoing president Donald Trump caught on tape actually committing a crime. And, on the lighter side, there was something called “Bean Dad,” which was what was really making people angry.

The story is this: Musician and podcaster John Roderick had posted a lengthy, Seth Abarahamson-sized tweet thread about what he seemed to think was a charming parenting anecdote. The TL;DR version: His nine-year-old daughter wanted a can of beans, and she asked him how to use an old-school, hand-cranked can opener. He refused.

“I said, ‘The little device is designed to do one thing: open cans,” he tweeted. “Study the parts, study the can, figure out what the can-opener inventor was thinking when they tried to solve this problem.” (Again, she’s nine.) He went back to working on a jigsaw puzzle and she eventually figured it out — after six hours, which included her bursting into tears and telling him, ‘I hate you.’”

You can read the epic beginning here.

Roderick clearly thought it was a cute lesson in parenting in the 21st century, when technology has robbed us of the more simple pleasures in life, such as killing our dinner with our bare hands in the woods. Many, however, did not see it that way. Some responses were simple and direct.

Some questioned his reasoning.

Or ID’d what kind of dad he is.

Some wanted to fight him, were such a thing safe nowadays.

Some sort of, but not really, took his side.

Or demonstrated actual parenting.

Or pointed out what he instead actually taught her.

Some pointed out that she is not going to look back on this moment of tough love parenting and virality kindly in the future. Or now.

But surely one day she’ll have her revenge.

And then there were those that worried that “Bean Dad” would get eclipsed by that aforementioned smoking gun Trump tape.

As far as we know, Drake’s Certified Lover Boy album will arrive at some point this month barring any delays or mishaps along the way. The rapper said the project would come in January in a promo video he released in the fall that saw him recreate the cover art of several projects he’s released in his career. Aside from his “Laugh Now Cry Later” single with Lil Durk, not much is set in stone in terms of the music or content from Certified Lover Boy, but Drake did share what appeared to be lyrics that could land on his sixth album.

In a post to his Instagram story, Drake shared a screenshot from his notes app of a few bars for fans to take in. “Can’t love someone more than they love themselves / Can’t respect someone more than they respect themselves,” the image reads. “And def can’t want more for someone than they want for themselves / That’s all self work.”

Whether this will be something fans hear on Certified Lover Boy remains to be seen, but for the time being, the lines are a good mindset to have as one enters the new year, and at the very least, it shows fans where Drake’s head is at as he prepares to release his highly-anticipated album.

This is also not the first bit of news that comes from Drake’s Instagram story recently. On Saturday night, the Dark Lane Demo Tapes rapper surprised fans with a new haircut that his followers had a whole lot to say about. You can check out Drake’s Instagram post above.

50 Cent’s focus nowadays rarely results in new music, but for the first time in a while, the Queens rapper is back with a new video for folks to enjoy. Tapping NLE Choppa and up and coming singer Rileyy Lanez, 50 drops off the visual for his “Part Of The Game” track. The video serves as a new teaser for the upcoming Power spin-off, Power Book III: Raising Kanan, which is set to unveil the background stories for the core characters viewers saw in the original Power series.

As for 50’s new video, it begins with the rapper posted by a bodega with a bright yellow BMW by his side. He cruises through the city and stands boldly in front of viewers while bringing back his trademark melodic chorus for listeners to enjoy once again. “I know heartbreaks, setbacks,” he says in the song. “B*tch if I crap out, I’m sure I’ma get back/I been through the ups and downs, you know I get around.” NLE Choppa provides a verse on the track, one that is more relaxed than his previous tracks, while Lanez holds it all together with her soothing vocals that are sprinkled throughout the track.

Power Book III: Raising Kanan is set to premiere in summer 2021 and features a cast member list that includes Joey Badass, Omar Epps, Mekai Curtis, and more.

You can watch the “Part Of The Game” video above.

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