Month: February 2021

The Portland Trail Blazers shouldn’t be the Western Conference’s 4-seed more than a third of the way into the season, not with C.J. McCollum having missed 15 games and Jusuf Nurkic missing 16. And yet, here we are rapidly approaching the midseason break, and the Blazers sit at 18-10 and in position to snag a homecourt first round series.

There are a number of people that deserve credit for their current position. Enes Kanter has done yeoman’s work as the starting center in Nurkic’s (and Zach Collins’) absence. Gary Trent Jr. has further established himself as one of the NBA’s elite shooters. Carmelo Anthony continues to be a steady presence on the wing, picking some very opportune times to turn back the clock and catch fire. Anfernee Simons, thrust into a larger role than expected since the McCollum injury, has taken a leap as a shooter. Robert Covington hasn’t been an offensive force but does all the things to help hold this Blazers team together on defense.

However, as has been the case for years, the sun around which the Blazers revolve is Damian Lillard, and despite a rash of injuries and a roster few would point to as one capable of a top-4 finish in the West, here they stand because Lillard simply won’t let them fail. The All-NBA point guard is averaging 29.8 points, 7.7 assists, and 4.4 rebounds per game on a 45.1/38.4/93.3 shooting split, which is eerily similar to his season averages from a year ago. As was the case in the Bubble, when he willed this team to the 8-seed in the West, Lillard is carrying the Blazers during their active 6-game winning streak and his stats in the clutch (5-point game inside 5 minutes to play) this season are, truly, preposterous.

The 12-3 record in games that qualify for clutch time is the most impressive part about what Lillard is doing for the Blazers. Dame Time has been his calling card for a long time, but he’s never been as effective, efficient, or impactful on winning than he has this season for a team that needs every bit of what he’s giving them. His heroics in the fourth quarter have been nothing short of spectacular, but they’ve been thrust into the spotlight in particular after back-to-back-to-back wins this week that required his best in the closing minutes.

It’s the variety in Lillard’s game at this point that makes him a nightmare in these situations. His abilities to shoot from anywhere inside the halfcourt line get the most talk, and deservedly so. He and Stephen Curry have made the logo shot not just acceptable but a good shot, stretching defenses well beyond the three-point line. When teams do pick him up way up the floor, like Lonzo Ball did in New Orleans on Wednesday, it opens up a tremendous amount of room for Lillard to drive to the paint, and by coming up for a screen, whether used or rejected as he did on Wednesday, the Blazers take opposing centers out of the play by making them come out and defend a pick-and-roll 30-plus feet from the hoop.

When he does use the screen, it puts opposing big men in a no-win situation, as they have to choose to either give up their leverage at the rim by stepping out to contest a possible three, or sink back and give him space to rise-and-fire.

So, the answer is to trap him, right? Teams aren’t sending two at Lillard as often as they probably should, but the Blazers have also developed some clever counters to dissuade opponents from trying to trap him. Look at this possession in New Orleans, where they have Kanter set a screen 40-feet from the basket on the right side of the floor, which gives Lillard tons of room on the left side to get around the big man before he reaches the sideline and a trap can come from Ball as he chases back. Dame is able to turn the corner and eventually draws the attention of four Pelicans, which makes for an easy find of a cutting Derrick Jones Jr. under the basket for a wide open layup.

Lillard’s recent run has thrust him into the crowded MVP conversation, one headlined by LeBron James, Joel Embiid, and Nikola Jokic, but that has plenty more worthy of consideration depending on who you ask. The MVP conversation is always a tricky one, as every voter (and non-voter) has a different set of criteria for what goes into their personal selection, but what Lillard is doing for this Blazers team is worthy of every bit of praise he’s receiving in the moment.

Portland will likely come back to Earth a bit in the near future, as it’s hard to imagine this current run of play being sustainable. The nightly Houdini act, with Lillard pulling off increasingly difficult escapes from late game peril, tends to eventually lead to some losses. However, what Portland’s doing isn’t self-inflicted, like, say, the Lakers doing the same this year because they can’t bring themselves to care about the first three quarters most nights. This is out of necessity from a thin roster, and every game they win feels almost like two, because it buys them a bit more time for their other stars to get back for a playoff push.

No one would have faulted Portland for slipping back into the muddied pack of teams in the play-in race out West while down their second and third best players, with the hope that once McCollum and Nurkic were back they could make a late push for seeding and once again win their way into the playoffs. Instead, they’ve surged ahead to move 2.5 games ahead of the Warriors in that 7-seed, where a play-in fate awaits. Lillard has been quick to give credit to his teammates after wins, whether it be Covington for his defense, Kanter for his rebounding, or Anthony, Trent Jr., and Simons for hitting big shots when called upon.

But behind that guise of humility is the NBA’s preeminent late-game assassin. He knows the importance of keeping his teammates pumped up in case he has to call on them, but so long as there’s a sliver of space, the number 0 is the only one getting dialed up.

Writer James Lane Allen once wrote, “Adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it.” If that’s the case, we’re seeing the true character of political leaders in the state of Texas right now.

While Senator Ted Cruz gallivanted off to Cancun as people in his state froze in their homes, boiled water for drinking, and stood in line for hours to get food, former Texas representative Beto O’Rourke gathered volunteers and organized a grassroots effort to help elderly Texans stuck in their homes to connect them with resources.

O’Rourke wrote on Twitter that a virtual “welfare check” phone banking event held on Wednesday, February 17 had reached 151,000 seniors.

“One of our vols talked to a man stranded at home w/out power in Killeen, hadn’t eaten in 2 days, got him a ride to a warming center and a hot meal,” O’Rourke wrote.

O’Rourke has been sharing county-specific shelter, food bank, and aid information on social media, pointing people to the places where they can seek help in their area. He’s also holding another phone bank welfare check event on Thursday from 1:00pm to 9:00pm, which anyone in the country can sign up to be trained and help with.

The situation in Texas is dire. Millions have been without power for days, millions more are under water boil orders, stores are running out of food, and people are chipping icicles off the insides of their homes. While there’s nothing anyone can do about the weather, there is plenty that can be done on the ground to get people connected with the help that is available.

Politicians can bicker all they want about who’s to blame for this crisis, but it’s pretty obvious that the problem is the state’s approach to independent energy competition with little government oversight or regulation. Texas is known for distancing itself from the federal government and limiting its own state government, which means people have to rely on each other in a crisis. Isn’t that what small-government ideology is all about? The power of local communities and organizations to provide what people need? Wouldn’t it logically make sense, then, that politicians who scoff at government aid and regulation would be the first on the ground providing that community-oriented assistance, since that’s the societal structure they want to see?

How ironic is it then that the politician doing that assistance is Beto O’Rourke, while Texas’s actual elected official, Ted Cruz, hops on a plane to Cancun?

O’Rourke pointed out the irony of the Texas government being run by people who don’t believe in government and explained how fighting regulation led directly to the crisis Texas is currently experiencing. “We are nearing a failed state in Texas,” he told Chris Hayes on MSNBC.

It’s worth pointing out that O’Rourke isn’t even in an official leadership position right now. A lifelong resident of El Paso, O’Rourke served four terms in the House of Representatives and gave Ted Cruz a run for his money in the Texas Senate race in 2018. He also made an ultimately unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2020. But at the moment, he’s just a private citizen, and he’s doing far more leading by example and taking far more action than Texas’s actual elected representatives.

A crisis shows us who is fit to lead and who is not. Good for Beto O’Rourke for stepping up and exemplifying what leadership should look like and for helping out his fellow Texans when they need it the most.

A few weeks ago, UPROXX Sessions hosted a performance from rising West Coast superstar Drakeo The Ruler, once tabbed as the leader of a new movement in Los Angeles artists putting their own spin on the city’s gangsta rap roots. This week, another member of that lineage, Almighty Suspect, stops by to deliver a vibrant performance of his song “MTV Cribs.”

Like many of the members of this rising LA wave, Suspect raps with a jumbled flow that packs way too many words into way too small of a space, somehow forcing it to work through sheer will and undeniable charisma. It’s a style that LA outsiders have recognized and attributed to Blueface, but its origins extend much further back to the marble-mouthed cadences of West Coast greats like E-40 and Sugafree.

Suspect knows a thing or two about lineage and legacy, as his father is Rifleman, a fixture of LA’s battle-rap focused, underground rap network Project Blowed, which began as an open mic night established by Freestyle Fellowship’s Aceyalone and eventually became the city’s primary hotbed of simmering talent, giving quite a few stars — including Doja Cat and Kendrick Lamar — their earliest performance experience.

Watch Almighty Suspect’s “MTV Cribs” performance above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

The Weeknd’s Super Bowl halftime performance was a major hit. People could not stop talking — and making memes about — the show, which caused the singer’s album sales to inflate an impressive 385 percent. In order to commemorate the career-defining set, The Weeknd is getting a massive, diamond-encrusted Super Bowl ring.

The singer’s new bling is being given to him as a gift from The Weeknd longtime manager Cash. The 16-carat ring features the Lombardi trophy and a nod to his XO label on the surface. It also reads “World Champions” and has The Weeknd’s name plated in gold on its perimeter.

Popular jeweler Eliantte created and shared a video of the ring to social media Thursday. Eliantte frequently works with celebrities and is the same jeweler responsible for Lil Uzi Vert’s infamous pink forehead diamond.

On top of getting a commemorative ring, The Weeknd’s halftime show also earned him the opportunity to star in a documentary about the performance. Titled The Show, Pepsi’s VP of marketing Todd Kaplan says the documentary will take “fans on the emotional and thrilling journey of what it takes to make the biggest show of the year — with the added complexity of doing so amidst a global pandemic.”

Check out a video of The Weeknd’s ring above.

Rock revivalists Greta Van Fleet are months away from the release of their second album, The Battle At Garden’s Gate. Their latest single from it came last week, “Heat Above.” Now they’ve returned with a visual for the clip, which seems them performing the tune in a brilliantly white space.

The band says of the video, “‘Heat Above’ is theatrical, eloquent, and exaggerated. This is a dream in the clouds, a moment of peace in the storm. Thematically, we are dead center in the cult of Heaven, surreal, strange and free.” Bass/keys player Sam Kiszka also previously said of the song, “There’s plenty of love left in this world, even though it may not seem like it. And that’s what ‘Heat Above’ is about, rising to the stars together.”

Last year, the group said of the new album, “There are definitely Biblical references. Not just in the title, but throughout the entire album… This is a world with the ancient civilizations in it, just like our own parallel universe, really. It’s an analogy. Each song is a theme. A magnification of different cultures and civilizations inside of this world searching for some kind of salvation or enlightenment.”

Watch the “Heat Above” video above.

The Battle At Garden’s Gate is out 4/16 via Republic. Pre-order it here.

The emergence of Afrobeats and Afropop has long proven to be more than a passing trend, thanks to artists like Tiwa Savage, DaVido, Burna Boy, and Wizkid. Rather, they’ve sparked a new revolution. Leading the charge is Mr Eazi. After a year of collaborations with artists like J Balvin, Nicki Minaj, and Joeboy, he is appeasing fans with his second EP, Something Else.

Out Feb. 19, the five-track project finds Eazi partly recording by himself for the first time (a result of the lockdown) and celebrates his “Banku” sound. “I spent most of my life in Nigeria, then moved to Ghana when I was 15 and [stayed there] for seven years straight,” Eazi tells Uproxx. “So Banku music is a blend of both influences. You can hear it in the four-to-the-floor drums, the sweet Nigerian chords, and then the delivery that usually switches between Ghana or Naija pidgin, Igbo and a little bit of Twi [a dialect of Ghana’s Akan language].”

Highlights on Something Else include the cheeky “Cherry” with Kenyan singer Xenia Manasseh and lead single “The Don” that embodies his signature laidback groove. “I’d been flying producers to Accra while I was there, but wasn’t recording because I’ll be so busy having meetings,” he recalls of “The Don” with a laugh. “I’d leave the house when we were supposed to be having a recording camp, come back like at 2 a.m. and go to bed. I remember [Nigerian producers Kel P and Killertunes] holding this semi-intervention: ‘Hey Eazi, you brought us here. We’ve called like three, four times. So now we’re not going to come to Accra anymore until we know that you’re actually going to record.’”

Below, Uproxx caught up with Mr Eazi about his musical growth and the next steps of his business venture.

I think it’s important the industry is finally recognizing the beauty of different African music.

A hundred percent. That’s why it’s really important for us in this position, in a time where the internet connects us, to not just create music but also structure something that’s sustainable. So beyond just dropping records and getting a bag. But learning from hip-hop, which has started becoming the sound of radio essentially. We are making pop music, but it’s always going to be looked at this new wave.

That’s why I’m passionate about African creatives owning equity in the structures. There’s a huge opportunity for the Sonys and Universals of Africa to be African-owned or to have African equity. There’s a huge opportunity in publishing, touring, and the live music agencies. As exciting as the music is, we have to be looking at all the business and making sure we push it so that it’s sustainable. I think we’re just scratching the surface right now, even with the popularity of Afrobeats or whatever you want to call it.

You also combine your sound with artists from different musical backgrounds, like a J Balvin or Major Lazer.

I don’t like to be in a box. I don’t like stereotypes. I hear, “Oh, this is how we expect African artists to sound like.” What does that mean? The reason I make music is to spread it to the world. And who is introducing something to you is very important. If you were walking on the road and somebody tries to introduce you to something, your first reaction might be to suspect it. If it was somebody you knew, then the possibility of you accepting it is way higher.

So when you see me on records with J Balvin, I’m sharing my culture and introducing my sound to his audience. They follow the breadcrumbs and it opens them to this whole new world of African music. It makes the conversation even bigger. My fans know that Mr. Eazi is always on a journey and that includes listening to music that might seem experimental. They may say, “We don’t know what is happening here. But we know it’s good music.”

But I didn’t just start making music with J Balvin. I first went to Spain for [the Sonar festival]. I saw so much good music and culture from the artists that were performing. It was absolutely insane, so I ended up listening to a bunch of Latin American artists. I went out to Cuba and was hearing sounds that I thought I had heard in West Africa. I was like, “Who’s stealing whose sound? (laughs)

I think that’s why it works so well because the basis of reggaetón and Afrobeats is similar.

Yeah, and the groove! A lot of my fans don’t know that this world exists. Not because they don’t have access to it, just ‘cause they’ve not finished exploring Afrobeats. I feel that’s my role: to build bridges between different cultures and introduce my fans to that. It doesn’t mean because I’m an African artist that my song must have specific kinds of drums. I can make classical music if I want and I’ll still sound authentic.

It’s nice to see people who came from the motherland and dispersed in the Caribbean, Africa, London, and New York collaborate. But I want to get your thoughts on this because I’ve noticed the Twitter topic of dancehall leans more towards African artists rather than Jamaican ones.

If you listen to African and Jamaican dancehall, you have to be a zombie to not be able to tell the difference. In Ghana right now, there’s drill music that everybody goes crazy to. It’s not UK drill. It’s not Pop Smoke. It’s these guys called the Kumericans: boys from Kumasi [a city in Ghana] that are doing drill in their local language. So it really depends on where you are. Obviously, you cannot deny where the inspiration comes from. I feel like the top-tier artists are always vocal about mentioning Bounty Killa, Popcaan, or Beenie Man. Even I have been inspired by Beenie Man. Actually, you see Jamaican artists coming to Ghana. Two years ago, I brought Kranium and Koffee.

You collaborated with Kranium on Walshy Fire’s “Call Me” track two years ago.

Exactly. So I don’t think there’s any purposeful disrespect, I think both are existing in their own unique spaces. Jamaican dancehall, unquestionably, always has been driving culture and influencing people from different genres. Same as reggae. You had Lucky Dube in South Africa making reggae that was very personal to the people going through apartheid. If you think about it deeply, you would see that we’re all Africans making music that we can relate to because somewhere inside the DNA of dancehall or reggae, I also have the same DNA because we are all brothers and sisters.

Of course, there’ll be some fans who like to make banter and say one is better than the other. Just like in a match of football. Some may say Manchester City is better than Liverpool. In this terms of music, I think there’s mutual respect, at least on this side of the world. But even when I went to Jamaica to perform with Chronixx and Reggae Sumfest 2019, I could still see the respect.

Your emPawa Africa talent incubator also helps to unite the diaspora. What have you learned about the business side of the music industry?

Four years ago today, I put out my song “Accra To Lagos.” In those four years, I’ve been independent. The more I learn, I realize that it’s essentially the same thing as if I was selling milk. Because at the end of the day, you still have raw materials and putting everything together into this awesome product, and then you’re sharing it with the world. Music is different in the sense that it’s a more sentimental product.

It’s just buying and selling. I always say it’s not rocket science. You have to protect the brand, you have to advertise. That’s why Coca-Cola is so big, they’re still rebranding. When I’m in meetings where people are trying to overcomplicate things, I’m like, “Hey, this is not that deep.” (laughs)

You give me an advance, it’s like invoice financing. You’re basically saying, “Take this money right now. I have a feeling that you would make it in the future.” So when I sign an artist and I give them funds, I’m hedging on the fact that the artist is going to make that money back. Then I’m taking the masters or the license for a period of time as collateral. I know that I have the infrastructure to help the artist grow, to mentor them, to put them on TV, et cetera. And we break bread. So that “one plus one equals two” in any business, that’s the same mindset that I bring to the music.

As you grow as a label boss, what are some goals that you want to accomplish?

I’m obsessed with the idea of breaking new artists. I signed an artist last year from the Northern part of Nigeria. Just for context, it’s like the most populous in terms of density. They speak Hausa. I think over 50 million people across Africa speak Hausa. But it just seems like the North is musically disconnected from the West and the East. So for me, I took it as a challenge to sign an artist from there. His name is Namenj. I’m giving him that same quality and the same kind of producers that I work with myself. The idea is to break him into what will be the first Hausa popstar out of Nigeria. They already call [the sound] “Arewa pop.” I’m sure it’s not on any major publication’s radar yet, but very soon.

Well, we have it in this interview now!

Yes exactly. (laughs) There’s also like 200 million people who speak Swahili, right? One of the biggest artists out of Africa, who a lot of people don’t talk about, is Diamond Platnumz. He’s not only the biggest artist in Tanzania, but he has his own label and stakes in radio and TV stations.

He just collaborated with Alicia Keys on her new album.

Yes, but there’s also still a disconnect where anything happening in East Africa just stays in East Africa. It never comes to the West. So we just started working with a female artist called Nandy. The goal is to take her story and try to amalgamate what’s happening in the West with what’s happening in the East to make it a bigger conversation. So between that and working on my album this year, that’s where my head is.

Something Else EP is out Friday via Banku Music. Get it here.

If there’s one thing celebrities know how to do, it’s convince us mere mortals to spend our money. It’s like they dazzle us with their art, music, and movies only to get rich and then sell us on some tangential products that essentially put more cash in their pockets. Do I need to spend $46 on facial exfoliants? No. But if I want youthful skin like Pharrell, then maybe I should buy his Humanrace Lotus Enzyme Exfoliator.

It’s not just skincare treatments that celebrities have wooed us into purchasing. They’ve got their diamond-studded hands on a range of products from apparel, beauty, and perfume, to tech gadgets, tequila, and wine. Yes, folks, the celebrities have even gotten in on the grapes. No industry is safe!

While I’ve shelled out plenty of dollars for celebrity products like Kim Kardashian’s incredible Skims line (truly great stuff, and yes, this is a hill I’m prepared to die on), when it comes to the vino, I am admittedly skeptical about celebrity wines. Maybe it’s because I am a nerdy oenophile who is enthralled by the science behind fermented grape juice and the knowledge of those who make it. Maybe it’s because I am a simple laborer who appreciates the hard work of those whose job it is to provide us with delectable drinking experiences while simultaneously providing for their families and/or continuing their family’s legacy.

Whatever it is in my subconscious, throwing a high-profile name on a bottle to convince people to drink it… IDK, this unsettles me.

That said, I can’t deny that there are some celeb wines that actually slap. Bottles backed by Hollywood darlings who actually care about the way the wine is made and the people who make it. To help you get acquainted with some of them, I’ve rounded up nine celebrity wines that are actually worth purchasing and trying at home. And no, Jay-Z’s Armand de Brignac, aka Ace of Spades, isn’t included because I am trying to be financially mindful. Bottles on this list are all under $40 and are accessible online and in retail shops across the country.

Now let’s drink like we’re famous.

Maison No. 9 Rosé

ABV: 12.5%
Average Price: $20

The Wine:

It seems that Post Malone has traded in the beerbongs for bottles of pink drink. The rapper launched his own rosé in 2020 in partnership with James Morrissey of Global Brand Equities and the founder of London Entertainment, Dre London. A blend of grenache, cinsault, syrah, and merlot, the wine is produced near St. Tropez and completely captures the essence of what a Provence-style rosé should be.

Tasting Notes:

Crisp and refreshing, this wine opens up with aromas of spring gardens and tropical fruits. The rosé graces the palate with strawberry and pear flavors that mingle with hints of dried earth and fresh acidity.

Bottom Line:

This wine is as easy to drink as water. Sip it solo when you’re thirsty at the beach, by the pool, on the back porch, or in the house—i.e., wherever, whenever.

Avaline Sparkling by Cameron Diaz

ABV: 12%
Average Price: $26

The Wine:

Actress Cameron Diaz and fashion mogul Katherine Power are behind the organic, vegan-friendly wine label Avaline. The women initially launched the brand in 2020 with a Spanish white wine and a French rosé but have since expanded their portfolio to include a French red and their latest, a Spanish sparkling wine comprised of macabeo, xarel-lo, and parellada grapes, which released in December.

Tasting Notes:

This is a dry, effervescent bubbly that smells of apples and orange oil. The green apple flavor is definitely prevalent on the palate, which gets a boost from more citrus notes and lemon zest. Overall the sparkling wine is clean and bright — with tiny, full bubbles that dance across the tastebuds in a delicate kind of way.

Bottom Line:

Drink this bubbly with a bowl of berries for a dessert, you won’t regret.

LVE Côtes de Provence

ABV: 12.5%
Average Price: $20

The Wine:

Picture this: John Legend and his piano in the middle of a lavender field on a sunny 74-degree day in Provence, France, singing about love and luxury. Can you see it? Well, lucky for all of us, we can taste it too. Because that’s exactly what this rosé is — a harmony of grenache, cinsault, and syrah from the Montagne Sainte-Victoire and Massif des Maures regions of Provence. This wine is produced in collaboration with proprietor and winemaker Jean-Charles Boisset, whose expertise underscores Legend’s passion for the product.

Tasting Notes:

This pale pink wine delivers sweet aromas of peach blossom and candied apricots, but the sip is all fruit. Notes of strawberry and nectarine sing on the palate while crisp minerality provides some depth in the lengthy and elegant finish.

Bottom Line:

This is a light and splashy rosé that will work well as a solo sipper, but it has the character to stand up to a plate of grilled fish or light dishes like salad.

Sun Goddes Sauvignon Blanc

ABV: 12.5%
Average Price: $20

The Wine:

Mary J. Blige teamed up with the Fantiel family, one of Italy’s most esteemed winemaking families, to produce wines from grapes on their vineyards in Friuli Venezia Giulia. In addition to a sauvignon blanc, Blidge’s label also includes a pinot grigio romato, which is an Italian rosé style of wine.

Tasting Notes:

Straw-yellow in color and oozing with melon, passionfruit, and banana aromatics, this medium-bodied wine leans into green and yellow apples on the sip, while a twinge of minerality dances in the background. There is some acidity in the finish that balances the fruit and gives the wine some structure.

Bottom Line:

This wine is a great alternative to the usually acidic and zesty sauvignon blancs that regions like Marlborough, New Zealand are known for. While it does have some semblance of those notes, the tropical fruit flavors and silky, weighted body are more of a standout in this Italian varietal.

Z. Alexander Brown 2018 Uncaged Proprietary Red by Zac Brown

ABV: 14.5
Average Price: $18

The Wine:

Now here’s a wine created by country singer Zac Brown that will likely lead you to break out the grill. Produced in California, this wine is comprised of a blend of zinfandel, petite sirah, and syrah. John Killebrew is the head winemaker for the label, but don’t get it twisted. Brown is heavily involved in all facets of production from blending to label designs, bottling, and packaging.

Tasting Notes:

Smell the smoked meat on this bottle! Seriously, a pour of this and your nostrils may lead you to think you’ve just tossed a few chops and steaks in the smoke pit. That smokey aroma is enhanced with dark, jammy notes of blackberry, black cherry, and clove on the palate. And the wine wraps up with chewy, rich tannins—the naturally occurring polyphenol within fruit skins, seeds, and leaves that aid in a wine’s astringency—to produce an exceedingly long finish worthy of a big-body wine.

Bottom Line:

No guessing here—pair this sucker with something medium-rare and hot off the grill.

Ferguson Crest 2018 Viognier

ABV: 14%
Average Price: $22

The Wine:

Long before Fergie became the platinum-selling artist and former Black Eyed Peas member she’s known as today, her father Pat Ferguson enlisted the singer and her sister Dana to help him harvest fruit and vegetables in their California back yard. Then in 2006, Fergie and her dad purchased a winery in Santa Barbara County and began producing cabernet sauvignon and a viognier that is truly g-l-a-m-o-r-o-u-s.

Tasting Notes:

This golden-pale wine smells of Meyer lemon, apricot, and mango sorbet. On the palate, it’s brimming with notes of peaches and features a hint of citrus. But what makes this viognier a standout is the stony complexities that evolve on the back end of an overall pillowy wine that results in an intense yet enjoyable finish.

Bottom Line:

Drink this wine when you’re tired of the same old same and need some nuance and complexity in your white wine. The stony qualities of this wine give it some unexpected character that will take you out of your day-to-day norm. This is also a food wine that will pair well with a variety of cheeses, roasted chicken, and vegetarian dishes.

19 Crimes Cali Red by Snoop Dog

ABV: 14.1%
Average Price: $12

The Wine:

Snoop Dogg ganged up with the winemakers behind Australia’s legendary 19 Crimes Wines to produce the winery’s first California blend. Made in Lodi, petite sirah and zinfandel grapes are used to create a nearly purple red wine that is as smooth as the Dogfather himself.

Tasting Notes:

You’ll smell this wine’s dark fruit aromas of black and blueberries right away, while the palate is soaking with flavors of candied cherry, Sun-Maid Raisins, and a touch of smokey sweetness in the finish that brings it all together. This is a medium-bodied wine that is silkier than the scarves Snoop uses to wrap his hair at night.

Bottom Line:

Roll one up and drink this wine with your homies. It’s an easy-to-crush red that will likely go quick.

Diamond Collection Zinfandel

ABV: 14.1%
Average Price: $15

The Wine:

Award-winning director Francis Ford Coppola launched his California winery with his family back in 1975, and the estate has grown tremendously over the last three decades. The zinfandel, which includes a 10 percent splash of petit sirah, is just one of the many gems the winery produces.

Tasting Notes:

Wafts of forest floor, mulberry, and cassis fill the nose on this wine, while the palate maintains an alluring deep woods profile highlighted by jammy notes of boysenberry, black cherry, and a hint of toasted oak. You can’t miss all the black pepper, which gives the wine some character in the back end of the sip. Those peppery flavors and supple tannins spill over into a long and spicy finish that will leave you licking your lips.

Bottom Line:

This is one of those red wines that tastes like it should cost much more than it actually does. Its low price may be what makes this bottle a perfect intro to Coppola wines though. The winery also produces a few other dynamic wines that are just as good with a significantly higher price tag.

Château Miraval Cotes de Provence Rosé

ABV: 13%
Average Price: $20

The Wine:

Nearly four years since their split, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are still the co-owners of Château Miraval, a premiere wine estate in Correns, France—within the region of Provence—that they purchased in 2008. They also exchanged vows on the property during their 2014 wedding. We all know how that marriage turned out, but this particular union of cinsault, grenache, syrah of is still incredibly good.

Tasting Notes:

This refreshing pink wine is the epitome of elegance. The nose is soft with aromas of white fruits and currants sprinkled with lime zest, but the wine dazzles the palate with vibrant notes of strawberry and rose petals. This wine also displays a note of salinity that provides a soothing-yet-lively complement to the hint of lemon that lingers in the long finish.

Bottom Line:

This rosé could be triple the price, and it would still be worth the purchase. It hits all the benchmarks of a Provence-style rosé with its light body, crisp acidity, and overall opulence that captures the ease and sophistication of life in the South of France.

Ted Cruz fled the state of Texas during a climate disaster, but his biggest supporters will openly tell you he had no plans to actually help anyone without power or water or supplies amid freezing temperatures in the Lone Star state. Reports that Cruz had left Texas for a flight to Cancun circulated early on Thursday, and by the late morning it was confirmed that Cruz was in Mexico while hundreds of thousands of Texans remained powerless amid freezing conditions and a crumbling infrastructure that posted a real threat to millions of people.

The outrage of Cruz abandoning his state’s people in an historic weather crisis was swift, especially as the story shifted from Cruz and his staff attempting to claim that he left on what was apparently supposed to be a days-long vacation that suddenly became a lone overnight stay in Mexico.

https://twitter.com/donmoyn/status/1362452816644747273

As Cruz reportedly changed his flight plans, issued a vague statement about wanting to be a good dad and apparently set to return to Texas on Thursday afternoon, other conservatives actually tried to defend Cruz fleeing a climate crisis amid a pandemic instead of helping the people who elected him. Most of their defense stemmed from a simple fact: even if Cruz stayed in Texas instead of slipping on a plane and off to warmer climates, Cruz is so useless as a politician he can’t actually help people if he tried.

On Newsmax, the right-wing news channel had guests declare that Cruz is better off leaving Texas and working from lush beaches because he can… get more done on vacation and away from what’s been an extremely deadly and dangerous situation for millions of Texans who can’t just hop on a plane and leave the country.

And over on Fox News, they apparently didn’t even acknowledge that Cruz leaving Texas for a Mexican vacation has become the talk of the political world.

Though they did finally get around to it by Thursday afternoon, confirming that Cruz was in Mexico.

And, of course, there’s always a tweet to throw back at Cruz that he tweeted just months earlier. On Thursday, people recirculated a tweet from December where Cruz criticized a Democratic lawmaker in Texas leaving the state (and the country) during a pandemic. Which is the exact the exact same thing Cruz did two months later, with a climate disaster on top of that.

It all only added to a very bad Thursday for Cruz, as even the people defending him for fleeing the state could only show how bad he is at his job.

“‘Till I Collapse” proved to be one of the more popular songs from Eminem’s 2002 album The Eminem Show. Back in 2018, the Nate Dogg-featuring song was certified 5-times Platinum by the RIAA, and today, it’s one of Em’s most-streamed songs on Spotify. Some fans might be surprised to learn, though, that the song was never actually released as a single, which makes the track’s new milestone a historic one.

Chart Data reported yesterday that the song has surpassed a billion streams on Spotify, which makes it the first non-single to ever hit that mark. Wikipedia’s list of the 100 most-streamed songs in Spotify history ends with Billie Eilish’s “When The Party’s Over” at 1.09 billion streams, so “‘Till I Collapse” may not be too far outside of the top 100.

The Eminem Show actually holds another Spotify distinction as well. According to Wikipedia, the project is the most-streamed album released in 2002. Additionally, “Lose Yourself,” which isn’t from The Eminem Show (it’s from the 8 Mile soundtrack) but was released in the same year, is the most-streamed song from 2002.

Meanwhile, Eminem is fresh off attending the Super Bowl… or rather, a cardboard cutout was placed in the audience, where representations of other music stars like Eilish, DaBaby, and others were also spotted.

Late last year, Migos member Offset was billed to make his feature-film debut in the Pete Davidson-starring American Sole. Now, his bandmate and cousin Quavo is set to make his own film debut in Wash Me In The River alongside none other than Robert DeNiro and John Malkovich. Quavo will take on the role of Coyote, “a ruthless and heartless drug lord,” according to a press release — a role he seems to thoroughly enjoy, judging from some of Migos’ music videos over the years. It also might explain that chainsaw chopper he showed off on his Instagram last week. If we don’t get to see him use it in the movie, the whole thing’s a sham.

Way back in 2017, Quavo was said to be writing a script for a movie starring Migos, and maybe this is the first step toward getting it produced. The trio made their collective acting debut the same year during an episode of Atlanta and since then, they’ve had various roles on shows like NCIS and Star (although, travesty of travesties, they were not cast as the hyenas in the Lion King remake), while Quavo and Offset’s boos Saweetie (Grown-ish) and Cardi B (Hustlers, Fast 9) have also picked up roles on TV and in movies themselves.

In fact, the only remaining member of the extended Migos family to not have a film or television project in the works is poor Takeoff, who will probably have to endure even more jokes at his expense as a result.

Check out Quavo’s posts about his upcoming film and stay tuned.