Month: April 2021

It been a little over a week rapper DMX’s tragic death, but he will not be forgotten. His manager, Steve Rifkind, has announced plans to honor him, telling TMZ that a public memorial for DMX will be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on April 24. However, it won’t be open to the public. The family has chosen to limit it to just close friends and family. The arena, which normally seats 19,000 people, will only allow 10% of its capacity. Despite this, TMZ reports that the memorial will be livestreamed for people to watch.

The announcement comes a week after Yonkers mayor Mike Spano offered his city’s massive raceway as a potential location for the public memorial. The outdoor venue, which resides in DMX’s hometown, carries 7,500 seats, nearly half the capacity of Barclays Center. But the late rapper’s family chose the bigger location for the service. Spano also promised to honor DMX in the city with a “lasting gesture” that may take the form of a street name, a statue, or a mural.

The news comes after a posthumous verse from the late rapper — on “Been To War,” his collaboration with Swizz Beatz and French Montana — was dropped. DMX’s music streams have also increased by nearly 1,000% since his death.

At the beginning of 2020, brothers Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi, who comprise the rap duo Rae Sremmurd, were hit with tragic news: Their stepfather, Floyd Sullivan Jr., was shot and killed by their half-brother Michael Sullivan. He would eventually be arrested and charged with felony first-degree murder, facing life in prison if convicted. More than a year later, Swae Lee is using his Snapchat series, Swae Meets World, to open up about the incident with fans.

Swae spoke a bit about his stepfather’s passing in the first episode of the Snapchat series entitled “Swae Lee’s having the wildest year of his life, no cap.” “Allegedly the police say my brother shot my dad,” he said. “It’s unbelievable. You can’t even imagine. It’s like something out of a movie. I’m still dealing with it. I don’t even know how to deal with it all the way completely. It’s traumatic but it like puts fury inside of you. It puts fire inside of you. You can’t bring nobody back.”

At the time of his stepfather’s passing, Swae mourned the loss on Twitter. “I pray this world let’s me keep some compassion,” he wrote. “I’ve been tested my whole life.”

You can watch the trailer for the forthcoming series above and head to Snapchat’s discover page to watch the new episode.

The Utah Jazz avoided the worst-case scenario with Donovan Mitchell’s ankle. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Mitchell, who suffered a pretty nasty looking ankle injury on Friday afternoon against the Indiana Pacers, had both an x-ray and an MRI come back clean and showing no signs of any major structural damage.

As a result, instead of any extended absence, Mitchell is expected to miss a few games before getting the green light to return to Utah’s lineup, per Woj.

A timetable for a return is unclear, but considering that Mitchell needed to be helped off the floor after rolling his ankle, it’s pretty good news for the Jazz that he isn’t slated to be out for a particularly long period of time. Still, the sooner his return the better for Utah, which sit 1.5 games up on the Phoenix Suns for the 1-seed in the Western Conference — the two teams are slated to play on April 30 in Phoenix, but the Jazz will play six games between now and then.

Mitchell, who made his second All-Star team this year, is in the midst of a career season, leading the team with 26.4 points per game. Wojnarowski pointed out that Mitchell has taken his scoring to another level since the All-Star break, putting up numbers the Jazz have not seen since Karl Malone’s time with the franchise.

After pump-faking on its initial release date of August 2020, Young Thug finally released Slime Language 2, the sequel to the compilation album he and his YSL record label released back in 2018. Less than 24 hours after the project’s arrival, he dropped the music video for “Ski,” his collaboration with Gunna. It finds the two rappers throwing a lavish pool party filled with plenty of women and lots of energy.

The video sports appearances from Swae Lee, Nav, Seattle Seahawks’ wide-receiver DK Metcalf, and fellow YSL members T-Shyne, Strick and Lil Duke. A number of TikTok stars can also be found, like the Corvette dance creator Dorien B. Scott and the Up dance creators Mya Nicole Johnson and Christopher Zion Cotter.

Slime Language 2 presents 23 tracks in a star-studded affair, including contributions from Drake, Travis Scott, Big Sean, Meek Mill, Rowdy Rebel, Coi Leray, Lil Baby, Lil Uzi Vert, Future, and more. The compilation album also arrived on the six-year anniversary of Thug’s Barter 6 mixtape, which helped push the Atlanta rapper into the spotlight.

You can watch the “Ski” video above.

Slime Language 2 is out now via YSL Records/300 Entertainment. Get it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It’s been a few weeks since Sharon Osbourne officially left The Talk following an on-air meltdown, in which she tried to defend her friend Piers Morgan, who himself had left his job over his own on-air meltdown. But she finally broke her silence. Appearing on Real Time with Bill Maher Friday night, the former reality TV show star held little back, railing against her colleagues, who accused her of racist remarks, and calling them “disgruntled ladies.”

“I’ve been called so many things in my life. I am so used to being called names. But a racist is one I will not take,” Osbourne told Maher. “Disagreeing with someone does not make you a racist, in my book.”

She also denied claims, from former co-hosts Leah Remini and Holly Robinson Peete, that she’d ever trashed-talked her colleagues, including claims that she’d made anti-Asian remarks about Julie Chen Moonves. “I never, ever said that,” Osbourne said. “I don’t even use those words; they’re not in my vocabulary.”

She also swore she wasn’t looking for sympathy. “I’m a fighter,” she told Maher. “But what about the people who are cut from the knees down and can’t afford to go get lessons on what is politically correct and how to talk to people? It’s not fair because it isn’t about being a racist, it’s about not knowing what is correct and woke for your language that day. Because it changes from day to day.”

But she didn’t just talk about herself. She also — like Morgan, the man who got her in trouble in the first place — railed against Prince Harry. “You know when they say with white privilege? Right there with Harry. He’s the poster boy,” Osbourne said. “He sits there and says daddy cut him off so he’s not on the wages anymore and he was boo-hooing about it. You can’t feel empathy for that because you are healthy, bright educated young man. You can go do whatever you want to do. Your life is your own.”

The inciting incident that led to Osbourne’s departure happened over a month ago, mere days after Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle sat down with Oprah Winfrey for an explosive interview. They alleged enduring racist comments from undisclosed members of the royal family, prompting their departure for the United States. Piers Morgan’s inflammatory comments about the interview — in which he, among other things, called Markle a liar, even about her claim about feeling suicidal — received massive pushback. When Osbourne was asked about him on her own show, she blew up, prompting the program to be put on hiatus. Osbourne had been on the show for 11 seasons and was its last remaining original host.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

Aaron Rodgers’ turn as the host of Jeopardy! came to an end on Friday evening. Now, the show will continue to shuffle through guest hosts as it looks to find a full-time replacement for the late Alex Trebek, with a new report indicating that a stalwart from the world of sports broadcasting getting a shot a little later this year.

According to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, longtime broadcaster Joe Buck will spend a stint behind the podium. The exact air dates and the amount of time Buck will get to host the show are still to be determined, but Marchand noted that Buck getting the opportunity to do this means he will be put in contention to take over the show full-time whenever that decision is made.

Buck’s episodes are expected to air at some point in the mid-summer, according to sources. Guest hosts have done one- or two-week stints. No word yet on how long Buck will be on.

The tryout will not impact Buck’s schedule as the voice of MLB and the NFL on Fox.

Buck has done a little bit of everything in his broadcasting career, but hosting a show like Jeopardy! is a new one. It’s impossible to bet on this, but we would like to wager that one Final Jeopardy contestant who has no shot of winning will write down “What is THAT IS A DISGUSTING ACT” at some point.

Since Donald Trump left office in January, Republicans have been moving ever more right-ward. Tucker Carlson has even openly discussed the racist “white replacement” theory on his much-watched nightly Fox News show. Now there’s this: Marjorie Taylor Greene and other Trump loyalists in Congress have started an “America First Caucus,” intended to promote “Anglo-Saxon” traditions. And, well, lots of people just think they’re no longer hiding their white supremacist views.

According to The Washington Post, the group was formed by Greene and Arizona representative Paul A. Gosar, and they’re seeking to keep Trump’s legacy alive. As per a seven-page document/manifesto, they see the United States as a land with “uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions.” They’re also very much against immigrants, claiming that “societal trust and political unity are threatened when foreign citizens are imported en-masse into a country, particularly without institutional support for assimilation and an expansive welfare state to bail them out should they fail to contribute positively to the country.”

Some far-right lawmakers have already joined the group, including tooth-loser Louie Gohmert and Matt Gaetz, who’s under federal investigation for his connections to an alleged sex trafficking ring.

It didn’t take long for people to see this “America First” group for what it really is.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy appeared to condemn the group, albeit in a vague way that didn’t involve actually naming names or doing anything about it.

Others trolled them.

Or mocked them.

Anyway, now that Republicans are comfortable floating white supremacist theories and openly nativist groups, who knows what the party will say next.

(Via WaPo)

The marquee national TV game on Friday night in the NBA featured an All-Star on either side, and in this case Knicks forward Julius Randle went toe to toe with Mavericks guard Luka Doncic and out-dueled the Dallas star.

Randle put up a monster 43-point, nine-rebound, six-assist line as New York won, 113-104. Most impressively, Randle did it over the course of the whole game, and was effective in the clutch for the Knicks despite enormous defensive attention from Dallas all night.

The first-time All-Star has been impressive for the Knicks, now 30-27, all season. But stealing games like these will be key to New York potentially avoiding the play-in game and really marching into the postseason for the first time in years.

It wasn’t just Randle on Friday night. Nerlens Noel put an exclamation mark on the win with a sick block on Dorian Finney-Smith in the fourth quarter. Rather than make the business decision of getting out of the way, Noel leapt at the rim and took away a flashy finish from Finney-Smith.

The Knicks have a pretty cushy schedule the rest of the way and Tom Thibodeau is already leaning heavily on veterans like Randle, so this could spur a bit of a run for the Knicks, who have now won five straight after beating Dallas on the road.

Game of Thrones is celebrating its 10-year anniversary these days, or at least the decade since its first season aired and it became a global phenomena. With that has come a lot of speculation about what might happen to the last season of the show, which aired more recently but was received far less enthusiastically by its fans.

That kind of nostalgia for the show’s earlier days seems to have extended to one of its biggest stars as well. Emilia Clarke, who played a character many felt was dealt a bad hand in the show’s endgame, had nothing but good things to say about the season of the show. Clarke spoke to Entertainment Weekly ahead of the 10-year anniversary of the first season’s premiere and reminisced about how much has changed in the decade since. Interestingly, despite a lot of things that were far from perfect, Clarke raved about the experience.

“I honestly still look back at it and go, ‘I’m so not at a point where I can retrospectively see this for what it is.’ I think I’ll be 90 when I can actually do that,” Clarke tells EW, ahead of the 10th anniversary of the HBO series’ premiere. “The experience was so enormous, and so all-consuming, and defines me at that young moment in my life. You kind of look back at it like you would high school or college. When you’re young like that, you’re so in the moment.”

The first season also includes some changes from the books that didn’t go over very well with George R.R. Martin and other actors on the show as well. She also admitted she felt pressure to do nude scenes in the first season, something she was more willing to push back on in later seasons. And then there were the aneurysms that threatened her life, including one she dealt with shortly after the first season wrapped. And though Clarke ultimately didn’t nearly have as bad a time filming the first season as the Danny she replaced from the disastrous first pilot, nothing that came her way a decade ago seems to have left a negative impact on her.

“I look back at the person who was there and go, ‘You really have no idea what’s coming. You have no idea what’s about to hit,’” the actress says. “And it was beautiful for that. We were all very much in the moment that we were in, and very unaware as to how it was going to be received, what people were going to think, who we were going to be at the end of it. I’m going to call us kids, because we were — we were just having fun, experiencing this crazy thing. And it was joyous for that. That first season was nonstop joy, and so much fun. I look back at it with complete love.”

Clarke also had very nice things to say about the Thrones prequel show that will carry on the story of Westeros without her. But perhaps it’s nice to see that despite all the headlines that show some of the bleaker sides of Hollywood and the process of making a big-budget TV show, only the good remains after some time.

[via EW]

While the game itself isn’t taking place this year, there have still been ways that the McDonald’s All American Game has honored the top high school hoopers in the country. All of the best players learned that their names will be added to the list of high school legends who can call themselves All Americans — with two, Azzi Fudd and Chet Holmgren, being named the national players of the year.

To continue the fun, adidas and McDonald’s teamed up with New York-based designer Eric Emanuel for a collection of gear to celebrate the game’s past, present, and future with a new line of apparel.

“The McDonald’s All American Games are the pinnacle games of high school basketball, and I have been a fan for as long as I can remember,” Emanuel said in a statement. “It’s an honor to help give fans a way to connect with the Games and together, with adidas, I look forward to giving them the opportunity to show McDAAG pride without ever stepping foot on the court.”

As for the entire collection, Emanuel’s line of gear will include, per a release, “hoodies in two colorways; classic basketball shorts featuring iconography from either adidas or McDonald’s World Famous Fries; classic slides in a McDonald’s All American Games colorway; graphic tees; reversible track suits; Forum 84 High sneakers and more.”

The collection dropped on Friday at Emanuel’s store in New York City, but for the rest of us who do not live in the Big Apple, it’ll become available online starting on April 23. And beyond the Emanuel drop, adidas has a line of Heritage gear related to the game which features colorways of the Harden 5s and Dame 7s that releases on the same day.