Month: May 2021

While coronavirus remains a top issue in the United States, the threat of deadly gun violence has been another problem the country faces amid a number of deadly shootings over the past couple of months, especially at public events. A recent example of this came on Friday at a Lousiville nightclub that rapper Jack Harlow was attending. Harlow was just feet away from a deadly shooting at the venue, an incident that was captured through a video provided by TMZ.

Harlow, who is from the Louisville area, stopped by the city’s Ultra Lounge to attend a party in honor of the Kentucky Derby. In the video, the rapper can be seen near the stage seemingly enjoying the night when a fight breaks out not too far from him. What started as a vocal dispute quickly turned physical and a short moment later, a gunshot could be heard which sparks immediate chaos as attendees — including Harlow — make a run for safety. Luckily for the Louisville rapper, he made it out of the venue untouched but the incident unfortunately left one woman dead and sent another man to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

This happened a week after a shooting occurred at Lil Durk’s Smurkchella concert in Pheonix, AZ. This incident left one woman injured after a bullet grazed her leg. To watch TMZ’s video of the Louisville shooting, click here.

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

Aaron Rodgers has a whole lot going on right now. The future Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee may not suit up for the Green Bay Packers again, as reports have indicated that he’s unhappy with how things are going with the franchise. Even though the Packers are making clear they have no intention of moving Rodgers, time will tell what ends up happening.

Off the field, Rodgers received praise for his stint guest hosting Jeopardy!, and he’s made clear that he’d like to get full-time hosting duties whenever that decision is made. In fact, Jeopardy! appears to still be on Rodgers’ mind while he’s at the Kentucky Derby, as his name tag pays tribute to the most famous Jeopardy! contestant who never actually appeared on the show: Turd Ferguson.

Turd Ferguson, of course, is the fake name Norm Macdonald wrote down when he appeared as Burt Reynolds on the beloved Saturday Night Live sketch Celebrity Jeopardy! He wore an oversized hat, it was funny because it was bigger than a normal hat.

Think I speak for everyone when I say that if Rodgers does indeed get the Jeopardy! gig, Norm has to compete on Celebrity Jeopardy! one time and the two have to reenact any and all Turd Ferguson interactions. Just a gut feeling: Rodgers knows all of them by heart.

Coi Leray’s 2021 is off to a fantastic start. Her year began with “No More Parties,” a track that caught fire on TikTok and was further elevated thanks to a remix with Lil Durk. What followed was a second successful single in “Big Purr (Prrd)” with Pooh Shiesty. Just like “No More Parties,” Leray’s latest single received a nice boost from social media.

Now, more than a month after the song’s release, the duo returns with a new video for the track. In it, Leray is seemingly tasked with recovering a diamond that Shiesty holds in his possession, a mission that required her to take down a number of Shiesty’s associates before she reaches him to retrieve the jewel.

The new release comes after Leray made her television debut with a performance of “No More Parties” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. It’s a moment that arrived after a string of solid projects the 23-year-old New Jersey rapper has shared over the years. Between her Everythingcoz and EC2 mixtapes as well as her Now Or Never EP, all of which influenced her selection in Uproxx’s “Rappers To Watch Out For In 2021,” Leray’s moment in the spotlight is well-deserved to say at the very least.

You can press play on the new video above.

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

This month will mark the one-year anniversary of Lil Durk’s mixtape, Just Cause Y’all Waited 2, a project that kicked off a strong run for the Chicago native. This hot streak included a second project, The Voice, and deluxe re-releases for both efforts. With that being said, it appears that Durk’s next accomplishment will be outside the music world. The rapper recently expressed his interest in buying the housing complex he grew up in after it recently went up for sale.

According to Chicago Sun Times, Parkway Gardens, one of Chicago’s biggest affordable housing complexes, is in search of a new owner. The 13-acre complex — which is also known as “O Block” — and its nearly three-dozen buildings stretch from the city’s 63rd to 65th streets between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Calumet Avenue. After reading the news about the complex on Twitter, Lil Durk responded to a post writing, “I’ll buy it don’t matter how much it is.”

Housing broker Affordable Housing Advisors posted the complex to the market without an asking price. The development was originally purchased by Realtor Midwest in 2011. The deal included $59.5 million in tax-exempt bonds from the Illinois Housing Development Authority, $28.8 million in Wells Fargo equity from low-income housing tax credits, and $9.9 million in historic rehabilitation tax credits. Currently, 3,000 residents fill out the 694-unit housing development.

DJ Khaled recently dropped his 12th album, Khaled Khaled, on Friday. As he’s done with previous work, the rapper and producer called on some of the music industry’s biggest names to come together for the star-studded release, which he continues to promote with a new video for “Where You Come From,” featuring Buju Banton, Capleton, and Bounty Killer.

The video finds Khaled enjoying the earthy forests of Jamaica, a country that Banton, Capleton, and Bounty Killer call home. They also welcome other people who live in the area to hang out. In a message paired with the new video, Khaled pointed out a unique aspect about the song. “Let’s be CLEAR!” he said. “All these artists have NEVER collaborated on one record before. This is HISTORY. JAMAICA I LOVE YOU!”

Khaled also dropped another video from the album, for the track “Sorry Not Sorry.” It features Jay-Z and Nas, as well as James Fauntleroy and Harmonies By The Hive — who many correctly guessed is actually Beyonce prior to its arrival. Elsewhere on Khaled Khaled, listeners can catch appearances from Lil Wayne, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Bryson Tiller, Cardi B, Roddy Ricch, Megan Thee Stallion, Post Malone, and many more.

You can watch the video for “Where You Come From” above.

Khaled Khaled is out now via Epic Records. Get it here.

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

Like One American News Network, the far right news network Newsmax became a big deal during the Trump administration, basically by being even more fanatically pro-Trump than Fox News. But neither has Murdoch money keeping it afloat, so when they spent months spreading baseless allegations about nonexistent voter fraud (though even they had a sense to cut off the MyPillow Guy), it was only a matter of time before they got sued. And so, some three-and-a-half months after their favorite president left office, the network was forced to issue a formal apology for spreading bull.

On Friday, the network issued a formal apology to one Eric Coomer, a Dominion Voting Systems employee who brought a large defamation suit that went after not only Newsmax but also lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, columnist Michelle Malkin, Colorado activist Joseph Oltmann, the website Gateway Pundit, as well as OANN. They had all claimed, without evidence, that Coomer had manipulated voting machines, switching votes away from Trump. As a result, Coomer received death threats.

The apology was carefully worded. It read that the network wanted to “clarify its coverage” and that, after airing segments about Coomer’s nonexistent malfeasance, they “subsequently found no evidence that such allegations were true.” They went further than that, writing that “Many of the states whose results were contested by the Trump campaign after the November 2020 election have conducted extensive recounts and audits, and each of these states certified the results as legal and final.”

Of course, the damage is done. A large number of Republicans continue to believe, without merit, that there was significant fraud in the 2020 election, claiming that Trump won. The former president himself now spends his days in a resort, living among strangers, to whom he robotically rants about a “rigged” election that wasn’t. And after reading Newsmax’s apology, a lot of people weren’t having it.

Some translated what the statement really said.

Others thought it came too late.

Or that an apology wasn’t enough.

And some felt that, despite this, they still lack credibility.

(Via AP News)

The NFL Draft can lead to football players doing some silly things. It’s the best day of a young man’s life, and when they find out what city they’ll call home for the next few years, plenty will try to do things to endear themselves to their new fanbase from day one.

For one player, this meant leaning really hard into getting drafted by the Buffalo Bills. The team selected Spencer Brown, a monstrous offensive lineman from Northern Iowa, in the third round on Friday night, and in response, Brown grabbed his nearest folding table and immediately became a member of Bills Mafia. Fortunately one of his friends was filming the whole thing, and we got to see Brown drop a Macho Man-esque elbow onto the table.

Brown is a fascinating prospect — he stands 6’8 and 311 pounds, his athletic numbers are off the charts, and he was a second-team All-Conference selection in 2019 before sitting out the 2020 campaign due to the pandemic. He also did not appear to get injured after he celebrated getting selected by the Bills by dropping an elbow through a table that he immediately destroyed, so all in all, the fine folks in Buffalo’s front office are probably pretty stoked with this pick.

It’s been awhile since we heard about Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds’ fake beef. Last time the two actors indulged in their faux-feud it was for good, raising money for charities during the pandemic. But on a lazy May Day, Jackman decided to resume their beef, posting a video in which a New York City police officer offered Reynolds what Jackman called “incredibly smart career advice.”

What was that advice? Basically to get them in the same movie for the first time since X-Men Origins: Wolverine, in which Reynolds played the character that essentially becomes Deadpool, long before he took over the role proper.

“Hey Ryan, you’ve got to get this guy in Deadpool 3,” said one Officer John Dobkowski, who Jackman said stopped him — not to give him a ticket but to say hi. “Even if it’s for a 10-minute cameo, that would be awesome. That movie would be so cool, so great, it would blow the box office.”

So there you go. So far the third in the gleefully R-rated series has yet to cast its supporting cast, including its villain. But if Reynolds’ team winds up taking the officer’s advice, you could potentially see the two bringing their fake beef to the big screen.

(Via EW)

Meek Mill has been hard at work on his fifth album, which will be his first full-length effort since 2018’s Championship. From the looks of it, the album could arrive soon, but before it does, the Philly native showcased his talents in a confident new freestyle. Mill’s latest track finds him rapping over Drake and Rick Ross’ “Lemon Pepper Freestyle,” a remix that also came with a music video. It finds Meek recording in the studio and shopping for jewelry while speaking about his turbulent past and determination to remain successful.

Shortly after he released the song, Meek hopped on Twitter to chat with fans. After one user requested a mixtape from him, he responded, “Just RAP, no features, no singing n****s, Just Meek over a calm beat going crazy.” He added that more new music from him is coming, writing, “Ima give y’all one this summer after my album.” Another person responded with skepticism about the claim, but Meek seemed set on making it happen, saying, “We gon see!” He also teased a sequel to his 2014 track “Blue Notes,” which features Lil Uzi Vert “on some Philly sh*t and he rapping rapping!”

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

The Rookie of the Year will return to action on Saturday night. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Charlotte Hornets standout LaMelo Ball plans to suit up for the team against the Detroit Pistons after missing the last 21 games following a wrist fracture, giving Charlotte a much-needed boost ahead of the team’s postseason push as we enter the final stretch of the 2020-21 regular season.

Ball suffered the injury on March 20 against the Sacramento Kings, and in that time — a period which also saw Gordon Hayward due to a foot injury — the Hornets went 10-11, staying afloat in the race to make the play-in tournament in the Eastern Conference. Currently, the team sits 30-32, putting them solidly in eighth place in the East. The sixth-seeded Boston Celtics are three games up, while the 11th seed, currently occupied by the Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors, is 4.5 games back. The Hornets have 10 games left in the regular season and have the eighth easiest remaining schedule in the league, according to Tankathon.

The youngest Ball brother has been a revelation in Charlotte, taking the league by storm during his first year as a professional in the United States. Ball is averaging 15.9 points, 6.1 assists, 5.9 rebounds, and 1.6 steals in 28.6 minutes per game for the Hornets, connecting on 45.1 percent of his field goal attempts and 37.5 percent of his threes. He was previously listed as questionable to take the floor against the Pistons, and there’s no word on whether he will be on any sort of minutes restriction.