Month: April 2021

Last summer, DJ Khaled revealed his 12th album would be titled Khaled Khaled, after his legal first and last name. While a release date was not shared at the time, some expected that it would arrive sooner than later, especially since he’s released an album every year since 2006, with only three exceptions: 2009, 2014, and 2018. Unfortunately, that increased to four when 2020 concluded without the arrival of Khaled Khaled. Luckily the album is now just days away from dropping, namely April 28.

“ALBUM 100% DONE!” he said in one tweet. “ITS TIME (alarm clock emoji) I TOLD MY TEAM LETS PUSH THE BUTTON!” He also shared the cover art. “This my name. This is my legacy. This my COVER. Time to bring MORE LIGHT,” he wrote before teasing something else that would arrive on the same day. “I have a gift for the world. I can’t wait to share it with you. Let’s talk tomorrow, are you available??”

The upcoming album arrives on the heels of three singles: “Greece,” “Popstar,” and “Sunshine (The Light).” The former two include guest verses from Drake while the third features viral up-and-coming producer Amorphous.

You can view the posts from Khaled above.

Khaled Khaled is out 4/30 via Epic Records.

With Stephen Curry playing some of the best basketball of his career and six wins in the last eight games, the Golden State Warriors were riding high as they hosted the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday. In addition to their encouraging recent play, the Warriors had home-court advantage against the Mavericks and, for good measure, Dallas was on the second night of a back-to-back while Golden State rested on Monday. However, none of that manifested in the first half of a nationally televised tilt and the results were staggeringly poor for Golden State.

The Warriors scored 29 (yes, 29) points in the first 24 minutes against the Mavericks, trailing by a 33-point margin at the halftime break. Along the way, Golden State yielded a 28-0 run to Dallas that perfectly encapsulated the half.

Ironically, the Warriors actually led the game 12-11 when Curry connected on a three-pointer with 8:40 remaining in the opening quarter. From there, the Mavericks used those 28 straight points to key a 51-17 overall run, effectively ending the game before halftime even arrived.

Curry was the only Warriors player to reach double figures, scoring 12 first-half points, but Golden State wasn’t even competitive in his minutes. As a team, the Warriors shot just 8-for-39 from the floor (20.5 percent) and 3-for-19 from three-point range (15.8 percent). Those numbers are unsightly enough, but Golden State committed 12 turnovers, compared to just five assists, and the Mavericks had more three-pointers (nine) than the Warriors had field goals (eight).

In this highly unusual regular season, extreme results seem to be the norm. Still, this was an outlier among outliers, and it is hard to imagine a more lopsided half of basketball, particularly on the large stage of a Tuesday night TNT broadcast.

Back in January, the sports world watched the Kansas City Chiefs make their way to a second consecutive Super Bowl after beating the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship game. It was during this game that Trey Songz was arrested for fighting with a police officer. The incident was captured on video, which quickly made its rounds on social media. Months later, Kansas’ Jackson County prosector’s office revealed that they will not press charges against the singer for the fight.

According to Billboard, Mike Mansur, a spokesperson for the prosector’s office, said there was “insufficient evidence” to bring charges against Trey. The fight led to Trey spending a night in jail after a statement from police said attendees at the game complained about a man who was not following COVID-19 protocols and other rules, including being disruptive, intoxicated, or using obscene language. It later says that the individual punched and placed an officer in a headlock when he was asked to leave, and while the statement did not identify the man as Trey, both parties delivered a punch and a headlock.

That claim goes against a witness’ account that was shared with TMZ after his arrest. They told the publication that the fight began when fans heckled Trey and he told them to stop. It was here that an officer approached and, without warning, grabbed him which caused the singer to fight back.

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

Jay-Z’s next business move is a step into the fitness world. His investment firm Marcy Venture Partners has teamed up with former MLB baseball player Adrian Gonzalez to put money in the Los Angeles-based LIT Method. The fitness company was launched by Justin and Taylor Norris back in May 2020 after the duo created the LIT Strength Machine, an all-in-one water rower, Pilates reformer, and resistance band training system.

Larry Marcus, co-founder and managing director of Marcy Venture Partners, spoke about the new investment in a statement. “Justin and Taylor are tenacious and adaptive entrepreneurs with so much drive and passion,” he said. “Their engaging content, motivating style, and innovative equipment are a winning combination.” Justin and Taylor also discussed the new investment in a statement of their own. “Having Marcy Venture and Adrian Gonzalez as partners in this mission means we can support the growing demand for the machine, expand our product line, and make our method accessible to people across the country,” they said.

The move comes after Jay-Z sold half of his company Ace Of Spades champagne to LVMH for an undisclosed amount. According to the rapper himself, the decision was motivated by the brand’s growth, which surpassed the expectations and expertise it already had. Jay later sold his streaming service, Tidal, to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s Square for $297 million in cash and stocks. In exchange, Jay was given a seat on the mobile payments company’s board.

Legendary director Martin Scorsese may be the scourge of Marvel-heads, but no one can deny his unimaginable talent. It appears talent runs in the family. While he’s hard at work shooting his next movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, his young daughter Francesca has made her own piece of cinema: A TikTok, in which she grills her father on the identity of a line of feminine products.

It’s called “Having my dad guess feminine items pt. 1,” which is at least as good a title as The Color of Money or Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. And it features Francesca and her father superimposed over a series of slides, each showing things like eyelash curlers and bobbypins. He then tries to guess what they’re called. Throughout their heads pop in and out of the frame, sometimes disappearing into the ether. It’s at least as visually adventurous as the very ending to The Last Temptation of Christ.

Francesca goes easy on him, even confessing in the TikTok’s caption that “he actually did much better than I thought!!” He doesn’t often get the names, and she accepts things like “something for your head?” (Scrunchies.) His misses, though, are the stuff dreams are made of. He calls a menstrual cup a “flagon” and nipple pasties “earbuds.” The man’s 78 years old and somehow only has one Oscar! You’d go easy on him, too!

Despite the huge gap in their ages, Scorsese and his daughter, who was born in 1999, are very close, and it’s like her who got him to sign up for his very normal older dad Instagram account. He even brought her to the Oscars in 2020, sitting next to him as he barely endured Eminem.But it’s clear she’s as good at moving images as he is. So enjoy this cinematic delight on the same day Citizen Kane got demoted.

You can watch her fine work in the tweet embedded above.

Beef has been in the headlines lately, thanks to some incredibly bad reporting on Fox News making it sound like the Biden climate action plan would limit people’s beef consumption to one burger a month. It’s not planning to limit anyone’s beef consumption. It never was.

However, a different entity is cutting out beef, which is surprising considering this entity is all about food. Epicurious, one of the world’s most popular recipe sites, has announced that its new recipes, articles, newsletters, and social media posts will no longer include beef.

In a letter to readers, the site’s senior editor and former digital director made it clear that the company doesn’t have a personal vendetta against beef or people who eat it. They simply shared the statistics that almost 15% of greenhouse gases come from livestock and 61% of that comes from beef. (To be clear, it’s not just the cows themselves, but the soybean and corn crops used to feed them that are also part of the problem.) For a company whose entire focus is food, this is a way they can make a difference in the fight against climate change.

“Our shift is solely about sustainability,” they wrote, “about not giving airtime to one of the world’s worst climate offenders. We think of this decision as not anti-beef but rather pro-planet.”

What’s perhaps most interesting is that Epicurious actually started implementing this policy more than a year ago, in the fall of 2019—they just didn’t announce it. They started sharing vegetarian recipes where they would normally share beef ones, even for holidays that traditionally see steak and burger cookouts. And they say readers have rallied around the recipes they’ve shared in place of recipes using beef, with traffic and engagement numbers showing that people are hungry for beef alternatives—even though consumers didn’t even know that beef was out.

So why announce it now? Despite beef consumption being down from 30 years ago, it has started to climb in recent years (likely due in part to the popularization of the paleo and keto diets). Epicurious says the conversation about sustainable food choices needs to be louder, so they’re making their voice heard.

As they wrote:

“Addressing climate change requires legislation, international cooperation, and buy-in from the corporate sector. Individual actions like choosing alt-meat—or mushrooms, or chickpeas—instead of the real thing can feel so small they’re essentially pointless. But every time you abstain from beef at the grocery store or a restaurant, you send a signal—to the grocery store, yes, but also, and perhaps more influentially, to whomever you talk to about your decision. Our announcement today is simply us loudly (and proudly!) letting you, the home cook, know about a step we’re taking. (Admittedly, we’re also hoping the rest of American food media joins us too.)”

The Epicurious editors also created a Q & A page about their no-beef policy in anticipation of people’s questions, curiosities, and concerns. For example, they clarify that they are not removing recipes containing beef, they just aren’t adding any new ones. They offer information on grass-fed beef as well as the carbon footprint of dairy, chicken, pork, and other animal products. And they explain why they’re focusing on individual food choices when it’s policy and systems that need to change the most.

“It’s true that truly tackling the precarious state of our environment will require policy,” they wrote. “But policy isn’t just at the state and national level. Rather, it’s everywhere: at your local college, at your place of worship, at your place of work. Epicurious’s ban on beef is policy too.”

As they said, addressing the climate crisis is going to require action on various fronts, from governmental policy to corporate policy to personal policy. Each plays off the other, and making real change on each of those levels means doing what we can do. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing, but we all need to do something. Good for Epicurious for doing something.

Just five days ago, former Kentucky standout and NBA Draft hopeful Terrence Clarke passed away in an automobile accident in Los Angeles. Clarke’s death came just hours after he officially joined Klutch Sports and fewer than 100 days before the 2021 NBA Draft, when the 19-year-old was aiming to achieve a lifelong dream of reaching the highest level of the basketball world. His passing is tragic on a number of levels, and individuals from across the sporting landscape expressed their condolences.

With that said, Clarke hailed from Boston and had a special kinship with members of the Celtics organization. On Tuesday evening, the Celtics hosted the Oklahoma City Thunder at TD Garden and, prior to tip-off, the organization paid tribute to Clarke with a moment of silence and a video commemorating him.

Tuesday’s game was Boston’s first home tilt since the news broke last week and, after the game and in the ensuing days, many members of the organization spoke powerfully on the loss. That includes Boston star Jayson Tatum, who had a bond with Clarke.

In addition, Brad Stevens found it difficult to discuss basketball after learning of the news, and Kemba Walker expressed his own condolences.

“Very, very, very tough,” Kemba Walker said about Clarke’s passing after Boston’s game on Thursday. “Very tough news, man. He’s a very, very good kid. Just always smiling, always energetic. And he was about to get his opportunity, too. My condolences to his family. It’s a tough time, man. That’s really tough news to hear.”

Clarke will be remembered well beyond Boston, but as a local product, the Celtics justly honored him in a poignant way.

Brintey Spears’ conservatorship battle seems to have reached a boiling point. According to TMZ, the singer’s lawyer told the court that she would like to make a statement. It’s unknown what exactly Britney wants to discuss, but between the Free Britney movement and the Framing Britney documentary, it’s possible that she simply wants to set the record straight on her thoughts about the conservatorship.

The request comes a little over a week after she assured fans she’s “extremely happy” as the court battle continues. “Yes, I’m totally fine,” she said in an Instagram post. “I have a beautiful home, beautiful children. I’m taking a break right now because I’m enjoying myself.”

She also addressed the Framing Britney documentary, one she admits she has not seen in full yet. “My life has always been very speculated … watched … and judged really my whole life !!!” she wrote on Instagram. “It takes a lot of strength to TRUST the universe with your real vulnerability cause I’ve always been so judged… insulted… and embarrassed by the media… and I still am till this day !!!! […] I didn’t watch the documentary but from what I did see of it I was embarrassed by the light they put me in … I cried for two weeks and well …. I still cry sometimes !!!!”

A recall election vote for California Governor Gavin Newsom seems to be in the offing, with the campaign to replace him having recently come up with just enough signatures to put it on a ballot. Nothing is official yet, but already a cast of characters has stepped up to run as his possible successor. There’s Caitlyn Jenner, athlete-turned-reality TV star, as well as outspoken Republican. And now it looks like we may be getting a full-blown Trump fan: fallen actor Randy Quaid.

Quaid hasn’t been in a major movie in a very long time; his last prominent production was Milos Forman’s 2006 biopic Goya’s Ghosts. You might remember him stealing parts of Brokeback Mountain, some 16 years ago. But since then he’s fallen on hard times. He and his wife dropped out of Hollywood, made all manner of claims about persecution, even tried to escape to Canada. There was also a sex tape. Recently he’s been, shall we say, eccentric on Twitter. Late last year he even earned the social media acclaim of Donald J. Trump.

And now look at him. On Tuesday he tweeted that he was “seriously considering running for governor,” and that the “prosecutorial corruption in California (esp Santa Barbara & the Bell scandal) is rampant.” He also vowed to “clean up the District Attorney Offices throughout the state.”

To sum up, should California voters oust Gavin Newsom — who has been criticized for his handling of the pandemic, although conservatives have other beef to raise with him — their voices may wind up including Caitlyn Jenner and Randy Quaid. In the meantime, feel free to enjoy the latter’s truly remarkable screen work, not just his unhinged turns in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Independence Day, and Quick Change, but also The Last Detail, even Kingpin, in which he’s the good ol’ Amish boy calm at the center of a nutty storm. A pretty good actor, that Randy Quaid, back in simpler times.

Not all cinematic universes can be as successful as the MCU. In fact, many of them come up very short. Some die right out of the gate. Remember the Dark Universe? It appeared, after some underperforming titles, that Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment’s MonsterVerse would lurch to a premature end. But after Godzilla vs. Kong became the first hit during the pandemic, it looks like they’re ready to go next level — or do more of the same.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, that film’s director, Adam Wingard, is already deep in talks to come back to the MonsterVerse, although it’s not clear what will be next. There is allegedly one title being floated around, and it harkens back to the King Kong side of the multi-pronged franchise: We could get a Son of Kong, perhaps one like the first sequel to the 1933 original that started it all.

Of course, Godzilla also had a son — not a direct progeny, but a younger giant reptile kaiju he adopted as his own, in the very family friendly 1967 Toho entry Son of Godzilla. The two could duke it out against each other. They could duke it out together, fighting for their fathers’ love. These are the kinds of pitches that could — but probably aren’t — being had over Warner Zoom calls right now.

As of this writing, and after only about a month of release, Godzilla vs. Kong has grossed over $400 million worldwide, about $87 million of that from the U.S. That’s still nowhere near before-time levels, but it’s better than Tenet, which could only nab $58 million domestically and about $364 million worldwide. Meanwhile it’s good news for the MonsterVerse, which has had respectable numbers but not the kind that shows real passion from audiences. But then, so far the series hasn’t had King Kong coldcocking Godzilla in the face.

(Via THR)