Month: March 2021

Justin Bieber’s tracklist for Justice, which he shared on Instagram last night, has fans buzzing with excitement. In part, it’s because the album is just a week and some change away from its March 19 release date, but many fans took note of some of the notable guests, who include R&B singers Daniel Caesar, Giveon, and Khalid, as well as Chance The Rapper. Juice WRLD protege The Kid Laroi appeared on Justin’s corkboard as well, inviting some pretty apt comparisons between the two artists despite their generation gap.

While fans had previously deciphered some of Justin’s collaborators via the synopsis on the Walmart pre-order page for the album, this is the first glimpse we’ve had at who all’s on which tracks — and seeing Daniel Caesar and Giveon’s smooth baritones grouped together on “Peaches” has prompted its share of enthusiastic reactions. Both Caesar and Giveon’s names trended on Twitter as fans expressed their anticipation to hear that particular melange of voices together for the first time.

One fan, however, was skeptical of Caesar’s placement, demanding an “apology” before they’ll grudgingly give the song a listen. Caesar was the subject of some controversy a couple of years ago after he dared fans to “cancel” him for defending influencer YesJulz from accusations of cultural appropriation. However, others seemed sanguine, pointing out his continued popularity in the years since.

One thing is for sure, though: Fans are ready to hear Justice when it releases 3/19 on Def Jam.

Bradley Beal is not who you think he is. It’s time to recalibrate your perceptions of his scoring prowess.

Once a secondary cog behind John Wall, thriving as an off-ball shooter during his seminal NBA years, Wall’s string of injuries, decline and eventual D.C. departure laid the groundwork for Beal to evolve from understudy to star and long-range gunner to downhill adventurer. That opportunity has produced landmark campaigns for him, coalescing with this season in which he’s averaging a league-best 32.9 points per game on 59.7 percent true shooting and serving as one of the game’s top dribble-drive creators.

While his rise isn’t entirely surprising, the manner in which it’s occurred represents a stark shift in play style from his early days. Across his first five seasons, Beal emerged as a premier off-ball shooter, netting 39.9 percent of his 1,661 threes on a three-point rate of .345. Every year, his three-point rate was at least three points higher than the NBA average and his three-point percentage was at least 2.7 points higher. He took and made triples at a clips that stood notably above his peers before the long-ball revolution really exploded.

Over the past four seasons, which have featured a trio of All-Star appearances, he’s slowly rebranded himself to become an elite driver and finisher, distancing himself from the three-point aptitude of yesteryear. The paint, not beyond the arc, is now the bedrock of his scoring. He’s shooting a career-worst 33.5 percent from deep (3.3 points below league average) on a career-low .289 3-point rate (10.6 points below), while logging the fourth-most field goal attempts per game on drives of any player. The only ones ahead of him are Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and De’Aaron Fox — all guys whose scoring ethos are commonly and justifiably associated with paint proficiency.

Beal remains highly effective in spot-up situations, knocking down 39.6 percent of his catch-and-shoot threes this season. Yet increased on-ball requirements are necessitating greater off-the-dribble three-point volume and lesser stationary chances, the former of which he is struggling mightily with and is cratering his overall efficiency. Among 53 players with 60-plus pull-up three attempts, he ranks 51st at 28.1 percent, just ahead of Anthony Edwards and John Wall. Dating back to 2017-18, he’s converted 31.9 percent of his 780 pull-up threes, a span in which he’s slipped to 35.4 percent behind the arc.

However, three of Beal’s four gaudiest points per 100 possession showings, as well as three of his four best relative true shooting percentage years* are tucked into these seasons. Those upticks, and his development into an elite scorer, stem from his budding expertise on the interior.

[*Relative true shooting percentage is how far above or below the NBA average someone’s true shooting is to best account for
fluctuations in league-wide offensive efficiency.*]

Across his first four seasons, Beal never eclipsed more than 4.4 shots at the rim per 75 possessions, ranging between the 32nd and 50th percentile in frequency, according to DunksAndThrees.com. Since then, he’s steadily climbed from 5.0 (61st percentile, 2016-17) to 7.1 (86th percentile, 2020-21). Not only is he getting to the rim at an incredible clip, but he’s become an exceptional finisher once he gets there, shooting 67.4 percent at the rim (76th percentile, per Cleaning The Glass) after shooting 65 percent (72nd percentile) last year. Between 2013-14 (the first year NBA.com has data on drives) and 2018-19, 22.7 percent of his points resulted from drives. During the last two seasons, 37.3 percent of his points resulted from drives.

Beal’s increased success relies on a few traits he’s built up in recent years: Slippery and dexterous handles flummox perimeter defenders, bulldozer strength sheds oncoming helpers, and his innate balance and contortion are suitable backup options when brute force isn’t applicable. Most of all, though, Beal covers ground like few, if any, guards around the Association.

He can slither to the rim after picking up his dribble from way out, arriving at his destination with a rare blend of vigor, body control and touch. Elongating his stride to slice deeper inside, often a trade-off for power because it’s harder to load up and explode off the back leg when the muscles are stretched apart, does not prevent him from fierce finishes.

Replay those baskets. Observe the spots where Beal kills his dribble and where he ends up shooting from. The locations aren’t in the same zip code on most of the scores. When eating up space, he does not sacrifice strength or speed. They all work in tandem.

Drives are his runway to vault to the rim, inhabiting and navigating angles or paths defenders cannot conceive. The paint is walled off and then, boom, suddenly Beal conjures a way inside with his forceful leaping. He terrorizes down the lane, protects the ball from any swirling limbs and finishes. His legs spring him from vertical to horizontal movement and he whizzes past opponents unprepared to rotate in a timely fashion.

His strength wields utility, too. Undersized or late-arriving rim protectors are easily discarded. They are merely window-dressing, akin to a traffic light at a desolate intersection: treated as a suggested hurdle rather than any sort of genuine preventative measure.

Some adept drivers mitigate their efficiency by avoiding contact unnecessarily and spiking the difficulty of shots around the rim. Beal relishes these chances to plow forward and initiate physicality. Embracing such moments and turning up the dial as a driver has led to significantly higher free-throw rates for him over the past two seasons, going from .279 (67th percentile, according to DunksAndThrees) in 2018-19 to .351 (82nd percentile) in 2019-20 and .352 (85th percentile) in 2020-21. Before 2018-19, his career free-throw rate was even lower at .223. Driving more provides a platform for his athletic tools to both generate clean finishes and accrue easy scoring possessions at the line.

Loping strides are not a prerequisite for his finishing acumen, and that’s part of why he’s one of the league’s great slashers. He can shorten his stride length to elevate, extend off of choppy rhythm or steps and maneuver around defenders. It’s not as though a vacant driving lane and room to sprawl out is his only means of explosive leaping. He’s diverse in getup and improvisational in below-the-rim buckets, always readying for contortion if the defensive layout warrants that.

The finish around DeMarcus Cousins should catch your eye; slowly rewatch it if needed. Look how abbreviated his final few steps are and how seamlessly he still transitions from horizontal to vertical motion for the nifty reverse. That stylistic and athletic versatility is subtle and easy to gloss over, but it’s a portion of his potency when attacking the cup.

He’ll jump off two feet in space, in a crowd or off-balance. He’ll launch off either foot individually amid the same circumstances. He invents avenues to the rim that befuddle defenses, approaching spots quicker than defenders consider them an option.

Perhaps, they, too, are still adjusting their previously established notions of who the NBA’s leading scorer is. He is not a shooter. He is a scorer, one whose primary skills are foremost driving and finishing. They’re fueled by varying, explosive, space-mauling ground coverage, rendering him a better, vastly different player than the one who first announced himself to the league nearly a decade ago.

[Ed. Note: All 2020-21 stats are current as of 3/9 and do not include his most recent game against Memphis.]

Last week, Sharon Van Etten announced a tenth anniversary reissue of her album Epic, which will feature each of the album’s songs covered by a different artist. She shared Big Red Machine’s rendition of “A Crime” at the time alongside a promise that a new cover would be shared every Thursday leading up to the album’s release. Well, today is Thursday, so now we have Idles’ version of “Peace Signs.”

Ahead of its release, the band wrote of their cover, “@sharonvanhalen is one of the greatest songwriters on earth, to be allowed anywhere near her songs is a great and unexpected privilege. We learned a lot about true songwriting by trying to cover ‘Peace Signs.’ We hope it does some justice to the original.” Van Etten reciprocated the admiration in the Instagram comments, responding, “You all were so kind to me when I was missing my family the most on tour. You know the grind. Your spirits lifted me and help me keep going and I will never forget that. Your performances were so inspiring and it means the world you wanted to cover my song. I wish I could do what you do. So much love. X”

Van Etten also previously said of the covers album, “Epic represents a crossroads for me as an artist — going from intern to artist at Ba Da Bing, from solo folk singer to playing with a band for the first time and beginning to play shows on tour where people showed up. I am in awe of the artists who wanted to participate in celebrating my anniversary and reissue, from young inspiring musicians, to artists who took me under their wing, who I met on tour, and to artists I’ve looked up to since I was a teenager. Each one of these artists continue to influence my writing and provide a sense of camaraderie during this new era of sharing music.”

Listen to Idles’ cover of “Peace Signs” above.

Matthew McConaughey is reportedly weighing a run for governor in Texas. The actor has flirted with the idea of political office in the past, but this time he seems to be heavily considering a run as the next chapter in his life. While talking to Houston’s “The Balanced Voice” on Wednesday, McConaughey was asked about his gubernatorial aspirations, and he said, “It’s a true consideration.” The discussion came about while promoting his new memoir Greenlights, which has put the Magic Mike star in a contemplative mood over how he can help the next generation. Via The Hill:

“I’m looking into now again, what is my leadership role?” said McConaughey, 51. “Because I do think I have some things to teach and share, and what is my role? What’s my category in my next chapter of life that I’m going into?” he added.

While McConaughey hasn’t specified when he’s looking to run, his potential run arrives on the heels of turmoil in Texas. The state was recently blanketed by a massive winter storm that left millions of citizens stranded without electricity and water for days as the state power grid literally froze up. As the power restored, Texans found themselves saddled with $17,000 electric bills, which only further highlighted the problems with Texas deregulated power infrastructure. Following the storm, Governor Greg Abbott put an even larger target on his back by ending all mask mandates and re-opening Texas “100-percent” while the pandemic is still ongoing.

Abbott is up for re-election in 2022, but again, it’s unclear if McConaughey is aiming to challenge him that earlier. However, the actor has been laying the groundwork for a serious run. He’s deeply involved in high school and college sports, which are practically a religion in Texas, and he’s been hosting virtual Bingo games for seniors during the quarantine. You know who rely shows up to vote every election? Seniors. McConaughey has also dipped his toes into distancing himself from Hollywood liberals by calling out “cancel culture,” which could further endear him to Texas’ predominantly conservative voters.

(Via The Hill)

Fox News has spent the past week covering the only two issues that matter: Meghan and Harry’s interview with Oprah and the Muppets / Potato Head / Dr. Seuss / Looney Tunes being “canceled.” The $1.9 trillion stimulus plan? Never heard of it.

“Personally, I can’t believe Fox News is defending someone who’s French,” host Seth Meyers joked during Wednesday’s episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers. “If this was 2003, they’d be referring to him as a freedom skunk,” a reference to when Republicans, ahem, canceled french fries in 2003 and renamed them freedom fries.

After making a solid reference to the Acme Corporation, Meyers asked his viewers to “imagine being an actual adult and spending any amount of time at all complaining about a decades-old cartoon character being left out of a movie… Point is, guys, there’s a pandemic raging, millions suffering or out of work, and you’re spending your time defending the Looney Tunes. The whole thing is just, well, I want to say ‘looney tunes,’ but that seems redundant.” He went with the next-best option: “The whole thing’s Mickey Mouse.” The GOP has “turned entirely to nonsense culture war B.S. because they have nothing else to talk about,” Meyers added. “They don’t have a convincing criticism of the Democrats’ massive COVID relief bill because it’s overwhelmingly popular even with their own voters.” So, instead, conservatives get angry about a horny cartoon skunk.

You can watch the clip above.

Clueless star Stacey Dash enjoyed a sporadic run (from about 2014-2017) as a Fox News contributor. She cut loose from the conservative cable news network after many bad takes, including saying that Caitlyn Jenner and other trans people should go to the bathroom in “the bushes.” She went on to give more controversial takes, including a MAGA-based argument about Charlottesville (supporting Donald Trump’s notorious blaming of “both sides”), which was part of her short lived political career, including a abbreviated run for Congress.

Fast forward a few years, and Stacey Dash wants nothing to do with politics. While speaking to Daily Mail TV, Dash expressed regret for things that she said and the way that she said them while pursuing a political pundit career. She insists that this wasn’t the real her but simply symptomatic of a period in her life.

“I’ve lived my life being angry, which is what I was on Fox News,” Dash somberly explained. “I was the angry, conservative, Black woman. And at that time in my life it was who I was. I realized in 2016 that anger is unsustainable and it will destroy you. I made a lot of mistakes because of that anger.” Watch part of the interview below.

“There are things that I am sorry for,” the actress continued. “Things that I did say, that I should not have said them the way I said them. They were very arrogant and prideful and angry. And that’s who Stacey was, but that’s not who Stacey is now. Stacey’s someone who has compassion, empathy. God has forgiven me, how dare I not forgive someone else. I don’t want to be judged, so how dare I judge anyone else. So if anyone has ever felt that way about me, like I’ve judged, that I apologize for because that’s not who I am.”

Dash’s turbulent period didn’t quite end with her short-lived Senate run. In 2019, she was arrested and charged with domestic battery in Florida after she allegedly slapped and pushed her husband during an argument, although the case was dropped days later.

(Via Daily Mail)

Northwest Los Angeles restaurant Los Toros has been open since 1967, but after all these decades, they just experienced something they probably haven’t seen before: A man named Hunter Ray Barker sat in front of the restaurant for 24 hours, soaking in an inflatable pool filled with bean dip all the while. The stunt caught the attention of news outlets and even Lana Del Rey, who shared a photo of herself posing next to a soaking Barker and wrote, “Don’t ask why.”

If the name Hunter Ray Barker sounds familiar, it’s because he’s a filmmaker and director. Music fans might recognize one of his recent works, as he co-directed Perfume Genius’ bizarre “Some Dream” video that was released in November. As Patch notes, Del Rey and Barker are friends.

Barker spoke about the stunt with Reuters mid-soak, saying, “I’m spending 24 hours in this tub of bean dip for Los Toros. I just think we have a golden opportunity to grab the bull by the horn and support local businesses in a big, explosive way, because why not? […] I personally believe that small businesses are the backbone of the nation. I believe that it is our duty to support them, and I just think if we can do that in a fun way and in a way that encourages other people to bring some excitement to the small businesses as well, I think it’s really, really helpful. I think now is the best time to do it.”

After getting out of the pool, Barker said, “It was kind of nice. I love [bean dip] even more. The bean addiction still stays strong.”

Last week, a Twitter prompt went viral with 28,000 retweets and 233,000 likes when a user asked, “When did you quit The Walking Dead?” While there are still millions of us who do watch, the answer to that question was mostly unanimous. It was after Negan lined up several characters from The Walking Dead and beat Glenn and Abraham to death with his baseball bat. It’s no secret that ratings for The Walking Dead reached their peak ahead of that Season 7 moment and have been in decline ever since, even as Negan himself has more or less redeemed himself on the series.

Although the scene is an iconic one for the series, it is also a reminder of a hugely unpopular moment. It’s curious then that Fear the Walking Dead would so clearly evoke that same moment in the series’ latest teaser.

Fear the Walking Dead itself has been on a major creative upswing this season, and this scene is coming in Fear’s run around the same time it arrived in the run of the parent series. Hopefully, however, the “Negan line-up” presented in the teaser will be subverted in some way because if any of the four are killed off here in a grisly fashion, there may be more fan backlash.

The teaser does, at least, portend an interesting and complicated back half of Season six, one in which Victor Strand still seems to be working for Virginia and the Rangers. He’s burned all his bridges with his allies, and from the looks of this teaser, it may have been Victor who orchestrated this “Negan line-up.” It would be fun to see someone break bad, although it’s still the fervent hope of most Fear fans that it will ultimately be Madison who does so. Fans might get their wish. Strand, meanwhile, has always been a little sketchy, but invariably he always comes out on the side of good. I wouldn’t ultimately expect any different this time around.

Fear the Walking Dead returns on April 11th with the back half of Season six.

A new Vogue cover story about Selena Gomez features a disheartening quote from Gomez, in which she suggests that she’s thinking about retiring from music due to a lack of respect. Gomez said, “It’s hard to keep doing music when people don’t necessarily take you seriously. […] I think there are a lot of people who enjoy my music, and for that I’m so thankful, for that I keep going, but I think the next time I do an album it’ll be different. I want to give it one last try before I maybe retire music.”

Given that Gomez has been one of the most successful pop stars of the past decade, there are plenty of people who’d rather she stay in the music game. One of those folks is Cardi B, with whom Gomez collaborated on DJ Snake’s “Taki Taki.” Instead of retiring, Cardi thinks that Gomez should try entering “a bad b*tch era.”

Last night, Cardi tweeted, “I don’t think Selena should retire .She makes good music & her fans love her .I think she needs one more Era. A edgy one that no one ever seen her as .I would love to give her some ideas.” She continued, “I like Selena tho .I defend her cause she is such a sweetheart in person.Us celebs get picked apart all the time but she is just to sweet to go thru that.If she wants to leave ,leave cause you want too not cause of these f*ckers.” Cardi then concluded, “A bad b*tch era is needed tho ‘A b*tch I’m nice sweet girl but I’m a rich bad b*tch too.’”

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

In 2009, MTV aired Steve-O: Demise and Rise, a documentary about Jackass star Steve-O’s “decent into madness” while he was addicted to drugs. “When I saw the footage of myself doing drugs, I felt like I could see them, I could taste them. It made me crave them and as embarrassing as that footage is, that just seemed like another reason to get high. I couldn’t watch it; I haven’t watched it since then,” he recalled about the special years later. “The producers put it all together and finished it up without any input for me, it’s better that way.” Steve-O has since kicked his addiction, and on Wednesday, he celebrated 13 years of sobriety with a “grateful” tweet.

“So grateful to be celebrating thirteen years of sobriety today— thanks to everyone who helped me get here!” he tweeted. On the left, in a photo from 2006, he’s surrounded by pills and booze and blood (?), and looks strung out. On the right, from 2021, the pills and cigarette have been replaced by vegetables and he looks happy and healthy.

Steve-O, who’s been sober since March 10, 2008, told us about the difficulty of doing what he does — getting launched into the air in a disgusting portable toilet, a.k.a. the “Poo Cocktail Supreme” — without taking painkillers. “When I got my ankle screwed together. There’s little more invasive surgery than, what do you call it, compound fracture… open reduction. Open reduction, where they screw your whole ankle together, and I went through that and took zero painkillers other than Tylenol and Advil,” he said. “Of course, when I was in the hospital, they had me under, and they gave me, I’m sure, some kind of IV pain medication on the spot, but I’ve never even filled out a prescription. Tylenol and Advil for the win. And when it’s really unbearable, Tylenol with Advil.”

Jackass 4 is scheduled to come out on September 3.