Month: June 2021

The Phoenix Suns will head into their first Western Conference Finals game in more than a decade without their leader. The team announced on Saturday evening that Chris Paul, who has been in the NBA’s health and safety protocols Wednesday, has not been cleared in time to suit up against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday afternoon.

It’s an unfortunate bit of news for Paul and the Suns, as he’s spearheaded their attack all season long and has helped turn them into a legitimate NBA title contender. On the year, Paul averaged 16.4 points, 8.9 steals, 4.1 assists, and 1.4 steals in 31.4 minutes per game, serving as a steady hand that has given the team a dimension they lacked last season. And of course, any game that Paul misses in this series will be particularly ironic due to the fact that he tried to break through and make the conference finals during his tenure with the Clippers but always came up a little short — now, Paul and the Clippers are standing in one another’s ways of their first Finals berths.

It is unclear when Paul, a second-team All-NBA selection this season, will be cleared to take the floor in the series. When the team announced that Paul entered the protocols, it said that he’d be out indefinitely, and while that could obviously mean that Paul misses an extended chunk of time, the obvious hope from the Suns’ point of view is that he’ll be able to return as soon as possible.

Rick and Morty is back for a new season on Sunday, and we already know what the first episode’s cold open will look like. The Adult Swim YouTube channel posted the first two minutes of the show’s season five premiere on Friday, and we now know that Rick’s much-hyped nemesis gets introduced right away.

The cold open is something some of the show’s fans have likely already seen, as a rough animation of the clip was shown back in 2020 and also lives on YouTube. The open has Morty carrying an injured Rick past some sci fi things, including a look at another universe where they were Blades.

“Leave me, Morty,” Rick says weakly. “It’s the only way.”

Morty does not, loading him in the ship and getting them through a portal and back into Earth’s atmosphere in pretty rough shape. After a call with Jessica, however, Morty decided life was worth living and tries to land the damaged vessel safely back on the ground. Eagle-eared fans will notice they cut a line from Morty about wanting to live from the original version, though the fully-animated version has a clever change in background as Morty finalizes a date with his crush.

That sets up meeting Mr. Nimbus, who has appeared in a number of teasers and trailers ahead of Season 5, sometimes referred to as “horny ocean man.” We’ll see exactly what Rick and Nimbus get up to on Sunday, but at least we know that we won’t have to wait all season to finally meet Rick’s once and eternal nemesis.

CNN’s Jim Acosta has made a habit of taking aim at Fox News and its role in the media landscape, and on Saturday he went after Tucker Carlson for his months-long defense of insurrectionists who attacked the US Capitol at Donald Trump’s behest on January 6.

Acosta, who anchors CNN’s Newsroom on the weekends, has used the program to deliver video essays about the news media and Republicans at large. And on Saturday he criticized the right wing response to January 6, the latest of which was submarining an investigation into the deadly breach of houses of congress in an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the Electoral College.

In particular, he targeted Fox News’s Tucker Carlson for his incessant rhetoric defending those who stormed Washington DC and tried to stop the democratic process and undermining confidence in the election by following Trump’s “big lie” that he actually won the election.

Acosta reminded viewers that he coined the term “bullsh*t factory” for Fox News earlier in the year, “in honor of the steady stream of bogus segments aimed at ginning up your outrage.” But one employee, he says has “really outdone himself this week.”

“So I’ve decided to award Tucker with the distinction of Bullsh*t Factory Employee of the Month,” Acosta said. “Congrats Tucker. You did it. Nobody bullsh*ts like you when it comes to the insurrection. Nobody does it as good as you. Well, at least in the English language.”

He then showed a clip of Vladimir Putin talking about the insurrection as well. Acosta also made another point during the segment: that those defending the lack of a commission on January 6 or excusing the actions of insurrectionists are not actually “backing the blue,” a common right-wing sentiment about supporting law enforcement in juxtaposition to the Black Lives Matter movement.

It’s an astute point, and it’s still surprising to see members of the mainstream media calling out Fox News for its programming. But Acosta seems to relish describing the right-wing news organization’s actions and framing them in the largest context of the media landscape. And judging by the reaction it got on social media on Saturday, plenty of people appreciate him doing so on CNN.

Though plenty of people probably envy Bille Eilish’s life as a pop star, she isn’t one to proclaim the joys of her own role. In a new cover story with Rolling Stone in the wake of her sophomore album, Happier Than Ever, which is slated to release in July, the young singer-songwriter admits that making her debut full-length was a fairly miserable process for her.

“I hated every second of it,” she told Rolling Stone. “I hated writing. I hated recording. I literally hated it. I would’ve done anything else. I remember thinking there’s no way I’m making another album after this. Absolutely not.” Although, after the world-stopping success of that first record, When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go?, the process of making her second album was totally different. “No one has a say anymore,” she explained. “It’s literally me and Finneas and no one else.” Which might be why the tone of the album is completely different, with a whole new look for Billie that’s raised a lot of eyebrows, and seems to represent a new era for the young pop star. So maybe the first album was the hardest one, and it gets easier from here?

For more brutal honesty from Billie, check out the full cover story here.

Young Thug’s and YSL’s Slime Language 2 project was one of the more anticipated albums to arrive this year. While highlight members from that YSL cast showed out, including Young Thug, Gunna, and Lil Keed, there were also newer members who made a strong impression. One of them is Unfoonk, who recently released his debut project, My Struggle.

The effort gets a nice boost thanks to a video for “Running Out Of Patience” with Future. In it, the duo sits in a dimly lit house as they course through the traumatic moments that occurred in their lives.

Unfoonk’s new project received an attention boost thanks to “Real,” his collaboration with Young Thug — his biological brother — that served as a highlight effort on Slime Language 2. As for My Struggle, the project is equipped with 12 songs and additional features from Young Thug, Gunna, Lil Keed, FN DaDealer, G Herbo, and Lil Duke.

As for Future, the new video arrives shortly after he joined Hotboii in a visual for their “Nobody Special” collaboration. He also stood beside 42 Dugg to provide a controversial verse for “Maybach.”

You can press play on the “Running Out Of Patience” video above.

My Struggle 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.

The Utah Jazz saw their season come to an end on Friday night. Despite securing the best record in the NBA during the regular season, and despite the Los Angeles Clippers being without the services of Kawhi Leonard for the last two games, Utah lost four in a row en route to a 4-2 series defeat in the Western Conference Semifinals.

It was quite the accomplishment for the Clippers, particularly young guard Terance Mann, who had a career night in the Game 6 win. But for the Jazz, it was an abrupt end to a year that had legitimate championship aspirations. Beyond that, it was the fifth season in a row in which Utah could not advance past the conference semifinals.

These sorts of things lead to plenty of frustrated individuals, and in his end of the year press conference, standout center Rudy Gobert expressed that a number of things made him upset with the way their loss to the Clippers went down.

As for what, in particular, rubbed him the wrong way, Gobert did not dive into specifics. He did, however, point out that he wasn’t happy with the defensive effort his team showed against L.A.

Gobert certainly was not blameless for losing in Game 6 — he had 12 points, 10 rebounds, and zero blocks while the Clippers looked content to play 5-on-4 on the perimeter as he patrolled the paint — but seeing as how he said he planned on showing up to the Olympics for France with the Larry O’Brien trophy, it’s pretty obvious he had a title-or-bust approach to this postseason. The team came up short, and as a result, they’re heading home early and the Defensive Player of the Year wants to chew over what happened.

Since last year’s Miss Anthropocene Grimes has been making more headlines for personal reasons than musical ones. Her proximity to Tesla’s Elon Musk, who is the father of her child, has put her in the news for defending him against allegations that he’s “destroying the planet”, and she was part of his recent SNL performance, too. After teasing her appearance, Grimes showed up to play Princess Peach, and praised Elon’s hosting job on the show.

But lately she’s been back to teasing her own work instead of talking about her partner’s, like the snippet of her collaboration with British EDM DJ Chris Lake revealed earlier this month. This week, during a the livestream launch of the Grimes Metaverse Server on Discord, the producer shared another new snippet of a track called “Shinigami Eyes.” The song title is a reference to the anime, Death Note, and we know that Grimes has been playing with the Death Note-referencing phrase for a while because she tweeted about it back in 2019.

So check out the snippet above, which is a little less than a minute, and if you want even more Grimes this weekend take a look at her most recent reason for going viral — some confusing TikTok posts about AI and communism.

Despite a pandemic that forced much of the world to stay indoors, DMV native IDK had a pretty impressive year in 2020. The rapper shared his IDK & Friends 2 which saw contributions from Rico Nasty, ASAP Ferg and Pnb Rock. He also graced the world with a number of singles that showed off his improving skills. With that being said, it looks like 2021 will be just as strong for IDK. With plenty of music on the way, the rapper has also launched a new program aimed at aiding college students of color.

IDK will lead a new music business program in partnership with Harvard. According to the Associated Press, the 10-day No Label Academy program begins on August 21 and lasts through August 31. It aims to give students a preview of the music industry to help them understand the value of having a job in it.

The rapper spoke about the new program in a post to Instagram. “We belong in the places where few of us exist,” he wrote. “I’m making sure the world sees that. Applications for my music business course catered to Black Indigenous People of Color @ Harvard are open. Apply now. It takes 5mins.”

The announcement comes after IDK shared, “Peloton,” the second single off his upcoming album USee4Yourself which arrives on July 9.

You can view the flyer for the No Label Academy program above.

USee4Yourself is out 7/9 via Clue No Clue/Warner Records. Pre-order it here.

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

A few weeks ago Rostam released his second solo album, Changephobia, after previewing it with a string of singles like “These Kids We Knew,” “4Runner,” and “From The Back Of A Cab.” This week, he’s followed up the original record almost immediately with a deluxe version that includes a couple covers, “Train In Vain (Stand By Me)” by The Clash and “Fruits Of My Labor” by Lucinda Williams.

“What I can definitely say is that I feel like in the last five years, I’ve grown a lot as a person,” Rostam told us earlier this month over a Zoom call from the studio where he had written, recorded, and produced the album. “I’ve had time to grow and I think that growth has come from self-awareness. The concept of Changephobia, to me, is a lot about reminding yourself to be aware of what you’re feeling.”

Odds are a lot of people are feeling that way in general, if not specifically after the impact of COVID-19 gave enough of a pause to let a lot of people to reassess their priorities and lifestyle. For these two new covers, saxophone player Henry Solomon is a featured guest. Check out The Clash cover above and the Lucinda Williams one below.

Lil Baby has often lent a helping hand to his community. The latest example came when the Atlanta native stopped by a Foot Locker store in his hometown to purchase the store’s entire collection of sneakers, planning to give them all away. The act was captured on video and it showed Lil Baby and a number of store employees walking out of the store with several bags of sneakers in hand. After the video made its rounds on social media, the rapper hopped on Instagram to explain his motivations behind the act and reveal other plans for the future.

“Buying shoes ain’t what I mean by saving [my] community or giving back!!” he wrote. “That was some sh*t I did cause I seen a lot of them had on flip flops. When I say save [my] community, I mean centers, programs, jobs. You can’t imagine the sh*t I don’t post…”

The good deed comes weeks after the rapper accompanied the family of the late George Floyd for a trip to The White House, where he spoke with President Joe Biden about passing the George Floyd Police Act bill. Prior to that, he launched The Bigger Picture initiative, which gifted 1,000 coats to residents of Birmingham, Alabama.