Month: July 2021

Vince Staples has always been open about his struggles and hardships from his younger days. He sang about it on Vince Staples, but which had a more mainstream song than his previous work. The change led to a project that was well-received by both new and older fans of the rapper. He stopped by N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN’s Drink Champs podcast to talk about the album and about personal aspects of his life, including why he never did drugs or alcohol.

“I saw my pops go from being up and being the man to having all the cars to being whopped,” he said during the episode. “It’s just not cool. You don’t want to be the motherf*cker who’s up, and then at one point, it all just goes away. I couldn’t let that happen to myself.” Vince gave another reason for avoiding drugs and alcohol. “I ain’t never want to get caught,” he said after speaking about his desire to always be aware of his surroundings in his childhood neighborhood which was laced with racial tension and gang violence. He added, “My sister got shot seven or eight times when I was a kid. And you ain’t really safe nowhere.”

You can watch the full episode above.

For the past two offseasons, Bradley Beal’s name has been at the top of the list of stars teams hoped would come available in trade talks. The Wizards guard has become one of the NBA’s premier scorers, and while his three-point shooting and defensive impact have both waned in recent years while he’s had to focus on carrying the Washington offense as the lead creator, his profile in both of those areas is still enticing to teams who believe with less of the creative load offensively, he could be a more well-rounded backcourt star.

To this point, Beal has rebuffed questions about whether he will request a trade, insisting both publicly and privately that he wants to be part of building a winner in Washington. However, as the Wizards have continued to fail to put the requisite pieces around him to make that a possibility, every offseason the same questions arise and, with Beal now 28, the patience in getting to that point may be wearing thin.

This past week, word emerged that teams are again sniffing around about Beal, with a report that the Warriors’ stars are making a hard push for their front office to trade their two lottery picks and whatever is necessary to get another player who can make an immediate impact, with Beal at the top of their wishlist. Golden State wouldn’t be alone in looking to push a number of chips in to land Beal, whose skillset makes him the type of star most any team thinks could easily come in and immediately boost their hopes of contending.

On Saturday, Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report brought word that Beal recognizes that his decision on whether to ask out of Washington can’t wait until free agency as the best offers are likely to come around this Thursday’s Draft, and if a trade request is to be made, it would come before then.

“He knows he has to make a decision before the draft,” one source with direct knowledge of Beal’s thinking told Bleacher Report. For the past year, people familiar with Beal’s dedicated relationship to the Wizards have consistently rebuffed the notion he had interest in playing elsewhere. Yet a second source close to Beal, when contacted by B/R, confirmed the situation is now fluid.

This is far from confirmation that he is going to ask out, but it certainly brings a more set timetable into when we would know, one way or the other, about Beal’s immediate future in Washington. It is best for both him and the Wizards to have this decision made by Draft night, as it would open up the most possibilities for Beal and the best offers of immediate assets for Washington to sift through and try to find a destination that Beal would be interested (a contender, namely).

In the meantime, fans around the NBA will be trying to figure out what their squad’s best Beal package looks like, because if he hits the market he is the type of player that will garner serious interest from at least half of the league.

Today marks one year since Taylor Swift dropped her surprise eighth album, Folklore, which would go on to break numerous records and amass a slew of awards. It won the Grammy award for Album Of The Year, broke the Guinness World Record for the biggest opening day in Spotify history for an album by a female act, and became the best-selling album of 2020. In short, times have been good for Swift, and to celebrate the album’s anniversary, she dropped the original version of “The Lakes” as a treat to her fans.

“It’s been one year since we escaped the real world together and imagined ourselves someplace simpler,” the singer wrote in a post about the original song. “With tall tall trees and salt air. Where you’re allowed to wear lace nightgowns that make you look like a Victorian ghost every day & no one will side eye you cause no one is around. It’s just you and your imaginary cabin and the stories you make up to pass the time.” She added, “To say thank you for all you have done to make this album what it was, I wanted to give you the original version of The Lakes.”

During an interview with Billboard earlier this year, Jack Antonoff, who produced the song, spoke about the original version of the song. “On one of my favorite songs on Folklore, ‘The Lakes,’ there was this big orchestral version, and Taylor was like, ‘Eh, make it small,’” he said. I had gotten lost in the string arrangements and all this stuff, and I took everything out. I was just like, ‘Oh, my God!’ We were not together because that record was made [remotely], but I remember being in the studio alone like, ‘Holy sh*t, this is so perfect.’”

You can listen to the original version of “The Lakes” in the video above.

JaVale McGee was one of the late additions to the USA Basketball men’s roster, replacing Kevin Love who withdrew from the team due to his lingering calf injury.

McGee was added to bring some needed size to the Team USA roster after they saw how that had been exploited by teams in their early exhibition matchups. The veteran center likely won’t play significant minutes in most games, but against teams that rely heavily on inside scoring production, he figures to be a helpful presence.

On Saturday, McGee had his first USA Basketball media availability after the Opening Ceremonies and he was greeted with one of the worst questions you will ever hear in a press conference, as he was asked if his mom was still alive to his understandable confusion.

“That’s a weird question to ask somebody,” is the appropriate response to that line of questioning from The Athletic’s Joe Vardon (who you may remember as the one Gregg Popovich got into it with after an exhibition loss), and hours later he was still taken aback by it all.

It is really an absurd question to ask someone, particularly considering McGee’s mother, Pamela (who is a legendary figure in the women’s game, a Hall of Famer, and won a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics, which has to be where this reporter is going with a story) has a large Twitter following and tweeted this yesterday before this question was asked.

I understand wanting to make sure that, if you’re going to be writing the mother-son connection story about the Olympics, you double check something like this, but there are a number of ways to do that before you get on a Zoom scrum on the night of the Opening Ceremonies and ask them point blank if their mom is still alive. In this case, you can just check her Twitter page, but even if that wasn’t an option, there are plenty of other ways to research this without firing off this question that will lead that player to likely never wanting to talk to you again.

In the aftermath of his re-election loss, Donald Trump did what he’s always done: He sowed chaos and made money, often by shady means. Since November, the former president’s political PAC has raised about $75 million off his legions of supporters, ostensibly to help finance ballot reviews in states he’s alleged, without evidence, of fraud. But so far the only thing he’s spent their dough on his himself.

According to The Washington Post, the millions donated to Trump’s Save America PAC, some of from no doubt cash-strapped supporters, hasn’t gone towards efforts to prove last year’s election was stolen from him, as he continues to allege. Instead, it’s “paid for some of the former president’s travel, legal costs and staff, along with other expenses.”

Much of the money hasn’t been spent. But amassing a fortune off the backs of his supporters, argues the Post, “allows Trump to build up a war chest to use in the 2022 midterms on behalf of candidates he favors — and to stockpile cash for another potential White House run, an unprecedented maneuver for a former president.”

Instead, Trump has let others pay the millions for the months-long audit of Maricopa County’s ballots in Arizona. The slack has been taken up by nonprofits, most of whose donors have not been publicly disclosed.

Meanwhile, the Save America PAC has until July 31 to to reveal the details of its fundraising and spending for the first half of the year. Given Trump’s long history of simply ignoring the law — and getting cheered on for same by his fans — we’ll see how that goes.

Trump’s PAC has raised its bounty with a mix of unsubstantiated claims alleging election fraud and vague sloganeering. “We need you to join the fight to SECURE OUR ELECTIONS!” one Facebook ad reads. Republican lawmakers across the country, meanwhile, have set in place an untold number of vote restriction laws, claiming to stop fraud that has never been proven.

Meanwhile, Trump’s die-hards should be happy to know that their hard-earned money has been so far spent on helping one of the allegedly richest people in the world cruise around the country. Or maybe they think it’s badass that he may have just grifted them.

(Via WaPo)

Earlier this week, Kanye West revealed that his tenth album, Donda, would arrive before the weekend. The rapper also announced that he would hold a listening event at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the 75,000-capacity venue that’s home to the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. Despite a nearly two-hour delay, the event went on as expected, but Donda was not officially released afterward and fans were once again left empty-handed, with no clue for when the project would arrive.

After spending much of the day waiting for an update on Donda, Kanye finally released an updatet late Friday night, but it came from an unexpected source: Justin LaBoy. On Twitter, the social media personality wrote, “KANYE WEST WILL MOVE THE RELEASE DATE OF DONDA TO AUGUST 6TH. THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE.” He added, “HE WANTS TO GIVE HIS FANS THE BEST POSSIBLE PRODUCT WITHOUT RUSHING ANYTHING. HE LOVES YALL WITH ALL OF HIS HEART. GOD BLESS.”

LaBoy is certainly not the name you’d expect to make this announcement, but apparently they’re closer than you may think. Last week, the social media personality revealed Kanye played the album for him and NBA player Kevin Durant during a listening session in Las Vegas. Afterwards, Laboy posted on social media, “ALBUM OF THE YEAR. DONT @ ME.”

Night after night, Tucker Carlson bombards his millions of viewers with unhinged conspiracy theories: Vaccines are dangerous. He’s being spied on by the NSA. The Jan. 6 insurrection wasn’t that bad. But behind the scenes he may be a lot more chummy with his purported enemies than he lets on. A recent New York Times piece alleged that he’s a notorious leaker to the so-called “Fake News Media.” And now a lefty politician claimed he and the Fox News host got into it over text.

On Friday, Representative Eric Swalwell, one of the House’s biggest critics Donald Trump critics, took to Twitter, posting an alleged screengrab of a mobile exchange between he and the Fox News firebreather. It shows Carlson reaching out to him, asking him to give him a call.

“I’m hesitant to do that,” Swalwell wrote back. “You falsely smeared my wife on Tuesday and she’s getting death threats. That’s way out of bounds. She’s a pregnant mom of a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old. Hit me all you like. But to go after her. That’s just wrong.”

Carlson, allegedly, had a one-word response: “Coward.”

In the post, Swalwell said Carlson is “losing his mind that I won’t return his calls,” adding, “Sorry, Tucker, I’m just not that into you. Who knows what lie he’ll tell next?”

Earlier in the week, Carlson came after the Democratic lawmaker in a segment entitled “Eric Swalwell Has a Problem With Money.” In it, he claimed that “more than $20,000.00 of Eric Swalwell’s campaign expenditures went to the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Half Moon Bay, California. Now, weirdly or maybe not so weirdly, Eric Swalwell’s wife is an executive at that very hotel.” He also accused him of bedding a Chinese spy.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Looks like Bobby Shmurda just took the stage for his first official show back now that he’s officially out of prison. Though Shmurda was slated to appear at the All Star Weekend this spring to perform alongside 50 Cent, that show was unexpectedly canceled. So when the line-up for Rolling Loud was announced this past April, fans were eager to get a do-over for the “Hot N—-” rapper’s long-awaited return.

When Shmurda went to prison back in 2016 on a plea deal along with fellow GS-9 crew member Rowdy Rebel, the pair were some of the, ahem, hottest artists out. Now, it’s still unclear if Bobby can return to his former glory after all this time has passed, but considering his first hit was a product of the viral Shmoney dance and spread via social media clips, it seems like he already has the blueprint down, no? And considering Migos have his back several times over, and he’s closely following his parole guidelines, it looks like he’s well on his way to a come back.

Check out some clips of Bobby’s performance below, and here’s hoping he’ll be gracing a lot more stages this year. If anyone deserves a chance to get back on stage and prove his worth, it’s an artist like him who tragically had his career cut short.

You’ve heard of the University of Miami turnover chain and Chris Paul’s secret stuff, and the New York Mets debuted their own version on Friday night — a stuffed horse that back-to-back Home Run Derby winner Pete Alonso termed the Home Run Horse.

During Alonso’s two-dinger night, the Mets celebrated with a cotton-filled mare that could easily be found in a children’s playroom. It first came out in the bottom of the first inning.

The Home Run Horse came back in the bottom of the eighth as Alonso hit another bomb to give New York a 3-0 lead.

After the game, Alonso said on the local broadcast that the idea for the Home Run Horse came from hitting coach Hugh Quattlebaum. As you can tell from Alonso’s explanation, there’s really not much to the gimmick.

The Mets could use the kick in the butt when it comes to power. They are 25th in the majors in total home runs, and even the powerful Alonso is 24th in MLB with just 19 home runs on the season.

Still, a win on Friday night led by the Home Run Horse pushed the Mets to 51-43, extending their lead in the National League East to an impressive 4.5 games.

Aaron Rodgers is expected to announce his retirement from the NFL some time before the Packers’ first training camp practice, if Las Vegas sports books are to be believed. The Westgate SuperBook has closed its NFC North odds, and according to Bill Huber of SI Fan Nation’s Packer Central, other books have followed suit.

Writes Huber: “Two other sportsbooks contacted after that initial message said the expectation is Rodgers is going to announce his retirement sometime before the first practice on Wednesday.”

As Huber charts, Packers season win total bets are not available at PointsBet, DraftKings or Bet Online, while at Bovada, there are no odds listed for Rodgers’ touchdown or passing yardage totals.

The latest Rodgers reporting from Adam Schefter of ESPN indicates Rodgers turned down a two-year extension that would have made him the highest-paid player in the NFL. The 2020 MVP made it clear in doing so that money in this case is not what will talk.

As contract negotiations between Green Bay and wide receiver Davante Adams come to an impasse, the Packers seem to have extensive issues on their hands that go beyond Rodgers. But Rodgers is not helping matters by remaining opaque about his intentions, still having not publicly demanded a trade or announced his intentions when it comes to 2021.

But if the sports books have it right, news about Rodgers’ retirement could come in the very near future.