Month: July 2021

Kid Cudi is someone who has oftentimes taken an unorthodox approach to things. His music and his style have always been his own and he’s rarely conformed to what society expected from him. So it came as no surprise when he took the Saturday Night Live stage earlier this to perform “Sad People” while wearing a dress custom-made by Virgil Abloh and designed to emulate the one Kurt Cobain once famously wore. While Cudi has no problem with standing out in a crowd, the rapper is certainly putting his foot down to those who try to criticize him for it as recently he did on Twitter.

After sharing a picture of himself wearing a Mandalorian helmet and throwing up the peace sign with painted nails on Instagram, Cudi was forced to turn off the ability to add comments on the post after some were displeased with the colorful addition to his hands. He then took to Twitter to share a piece of his mind with critics.

“Turned my comments off on Instagram,” Cudi wrote. “Seems people really have a problem w me painting my nails. I got tired of blockin so many accounts. I really need u to understand, if u dont like me doin this or anything I do, please dont buy my albums, dont come to my shows. F*ck all the way off.”

You can check out Cudi’s original Instagram post and his tweet above.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have blessed us with a good amount of weird baseball already this season, but in this case they had an extremely good day thanks to a meltdown from the New York Mets. Two of the National League’s most chaotic teams squared off on Sunday and early on saw a player quite literally throw a fair ball away to allow three runs to score.

With the Pirates already up 3-0 in the bottom of the first inning and the bases loaded against struggling pitcher Taijuan Walker, Kevin Newman swung and hit a dribbler that initially was in foul territory. And then, well, everything went wrong for the Mets. The ball was spinning on the line, and slowly moved back into fair territory.

Walker, somewhat bizarrely, tried to sweep it back into foul ground to avoid the ball moving into play. Even though they could have gotten a force at home with the bases loaded and a rare out in the inning, that’s a thing he decided to do. Which was blown up when the umpire declared the ball fair before he threw it way into foul territory.

As the Pirates all circle the bases, the Mets do… several things that do not stop the other team from scoring. Some argue that it was a foul ball, while the rest stand around looking at the ball laying in foul territory but still live. Three Pirates score, Mets manager Luis Rojas ran out to argue and was immediately ejected when he bumped the umpire. But the play still stood, and the Pirates were up 6-0 in the first.

Even Jon Stewart said the Mets are trying to kill him.

It’s important to note that the Mets blew a 6-run lead to Pittsburgh on Saturday night, losing on a walk-off grand slam. So maybe Stewart isn’t being as hyperbolic as you might think here.

The Milwaukee Bucks moved one game away from an NBA championship on Saturday night with a thrilling Game 5 win in Phoenix that saw Giannis Antetokounmpo once again create the signature moment — alongside Jrue Holiday — on the emphatic alley-oop finish that proved to be the dagger after Holiday ripped the ball and the game away from Devin Booker.

For the second straight game, Booker had 40 points in a losing effort as his Herculean efforts on the offensive end just weren’t enough to withstand the more balanced onslaught from the Bucks, who finally got a complete offensive performance from their Big Three. For much of the game, Booker’s backcourt mate was quiet offensively, as Chris Paul continued to struggle with the ball pressure and size of Holiday, but came alive in the fourth to serve as the catalyst for Phoenix’s comeback effort that fell just short.

Much has been made this postseason about Paul finally making his first Finals in his 16th season and the Suns have been open about wanting to get him to that championship, but in the moment the furthest thing from their minds is Paul’s legacy. That didn’t stop a reporter on Saturday night for asking arguably the worst question of the Finals when, with Booker and Paul at the podium, someone asked Booker how frustrated he was for Chris after the loss. Booker, unsurprisingly, wasn’t interested in even acknowledging the question.

There are times for legacy questions and times to talk about how folks feel about their teammates, but moments after a loss to go down 3-2 is not the time to ask the guy who just scored 40 in said loss for whether he feels bad for their teammate moving a loss away from falling short of a title. Everyone on the Suns wants to win a championship this year, not just Paul, and if anything, Paul’s presence on the team makes them all acutely aware of how rare these opportunities present themselves. So, a fair warning to my fellow media members, if the Suns lose Game 6, don’t ask anyone other than Chris Paul about how difficult that loss is for Chris Paul.

After two years of waiting, Normani finally gave fans a new single with “Wild Side,” an effort that will hopefully bring us closer to the release of her debut album. While the new song was certainly a surprise for her supporters, another unexpected aspect of it was the guest verse from Cardi B. While it marks the first time the two collaborated on a song together, though Normani did appear in the video for Cardi and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP.” As fans continue to enjoy the new song, Cardi took to Twitter to share one way she wished to promote the song.

“If I wasn’t pregnant I would of done a lit ass pole video to wildside,” she wrote. “But I am so imma just have to do a video rolling on the floor like peppa pig.”

Whether or not the rapper actually goes through with the video remains to be seen, but if she does, it will surely be an entertaining sight.

Cardi’s tweet comes after she revealed that her verse on “Wild Side” was not the original one she wrote. She previously shared a gif of a mischievously grinning Wendy Williams to Twitter and wrote, “Sooo I did a verse and Normani team said they wanted nastier. Sooo I was like alright …. Your wish is my command.”

You can read Cardi’s tweet above.

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

Earlier this month, a second woman stepped forward to accuse Diplo of sexual assault in a new lawsuit. The alleged victim claims the incident occurred after one of the producer’s concerts at the Wynn Hotel back in 2019. After being brought to Diplo’s private room after the show, the woman says that he would not let her leave the room until she performed oral sex on him, an act she reluctantly did after seeing no way to exit the situation. She also claims he recorded the encounter without her permission. Less than two weeks after it was filed, however, the woman decided to drop the suit against Diplo.

According to court documents that TMZ has obtained, the woman withdrew the lawsuit and shared a statement with the publication. “In light of the evidence and after consultation with my attorneys, I have decided to withdraw my lawsuit,” she said, adding, “No payment was offered or requested. I regret filing the lawsuit.”

Diplo’s attorney also shared a statement after receiving word that the lawsuit was dropped. Bryan Freedman told TMZ that he and his client are happy the lawsuit was dropped and after hearing what the alleged victim had to say, they “will not be pursuing charges of malicious prosecution against them at this time.”

He added, “There was absolutely irrefutable evidence that proved that the allegations it contained were false. As soon as we shared that plethora of evidence with the plaintiff’s lawyers, they recognized that they needed to withdraw their suit immediately.”

Diplo still faces a lawsuit for sexual battery, assault, defamation, infliction of emotional distress, and fraud from his ex-girlfriend Shelley Auguste.

As of earlier this week, Loki has officially come to a close, but like all good media, we simply can’t stop thinking about it. Also like all good media, there are continuously more things to consider and observe when you revisit it — which yes, I already have a bit… no judging. One thing I keep coming back to is the final bit of the series final episode, and the more I think about it, the more there is to unpack.

Following Sylvie’s ill-advised and life-altering actions in Loki episode six’s climax, we return to Loki, who has been thrust back to the Time Variance Authority headquarters. As Loki frantically searches the building for anyone who will hear out his warning and help him, there are two important things to take notice of: Mobius’ inability to recognize Loki, and a new statue donning the TVA’s main lobby.

Based on these two occurrences, there are two possible conclusions we can reach in regards to what’s going on. Either Loki has wound up in an alternate dimension, or the dimension the Loki variant formerly inhabited (which was already an offshoot of the core MCU universe following Loki’s Tesseract heist Nexus event) has been altered.

Either way, in this dimension it becomes abundantly clear that the struggle “He Who Remains” (Immortus) described in episode six — in which he faced off against several Kang variants and ultimately came out on top — ended quite differently. In this universe, Kang the Conqueror rose to power and governs the TVA, and whereas Immortus did so from the shadows, we can tell from the statue constructed of Kang that this variant is far more grandiose.

In this dimension, there is not even the illusion The Time Keepers lord over the TVA. Instead, Kang the Conqueror publicly executes his will over his own “sacred” timeline, without bothering to hide his involvement in the pruning process. This might just be the universe where we see the Kang and Ravonna we know from the comics and have been theorizing about — which means pretty bad things for the MCU and a whole lot of drama.

Now, before we get too carried away, let’s jump back up to the other major red flag up there: Mobius and Hunter B-15 not recognizing Loki. While this scene might have been heartbreaking to watch, things actually get worse upon closer inspection. Despite the pair celebrating undermining Ravonna and Loki and Sylvie’s “victory” moments prior to Loki’s arrival, they seem far more stressed when Loki appears. Furthermore, Loki’s warnings seemingly mean nothing to them, as does Loki himself as Mobius asks him if he works in analytics. While Mobius and Hunter B-15 still work at the TVA and much feels the same, it’s once again clear something is off — and right now it’s impossible to know just how deep that goes.

In this new (or altered) dimension, it’s unclear if Mobius and B-15 know that they’re variants, what their exact job entails in this new TVA with assuredly a new objective, and if they’re even on the “good guys” side. However, what is both clear and unusual, is that Loki is no longer even a person of interest at the TVA, much less a threat. Whereas Mobius spent day after day studying those mischievous Lokis every move and trying to prevent the damage they consistently caused, in this dimension they’re quite simply not noteworthy — and therefore have probably never even caused a single Nexus event.

Based on all of this, we can infer that season two of Loki is going to look entirely different than the first, and the main Marvel timeline should mostly be intact (for now), this one is going to be all sorts of messed up. How much of the first season of Loki actually mattered within the confines of the show is now up on the air, as is what the world outside of the TVA looks like. Only time, and seeing what happens in the MCU films between now and Loki season two, will give us any insight into what’s to come.

Saturday night featured an MLS tilt between the Colorado Rapids and the San Jose Earthquake. The former sit in the top half of the Western Conference, while the latter have struggled this year but are capable of playing some really eye-catching, up-tempo soccer when things are going well for them.

The reason for the latter is manager Matias Almeyda, whose full-throttle approach leads to his team playing some real feast-or-famine football from time to time. What he never seems to be is a particularly mean dude, although he was tangentially involved in a red card that got handed down during Saturday’s game.

Agustin Zalazar, the head of coaching communications for the Earthquakes and the person who handles translations for the club’s Argentinian manager, got a little riled up in the 69th minute of play. As a result, he picked up a red card and was sent to the back, but it was not for anything Almeyda said — he, instead, got handed a yellow and was able to stick around.

After the game, which ended up being a 1-1 draw, Almeyda vented some frustrations about the way games are officiated in MLS, a league he otherwise loves.

Soccer is a gigantic sport played all over the place, so it is extremely possible this has happened before elsewhere. But with that disclaimer aside, I have never seen anything quite like a translator getting the boot while a manager picks up a yellow.

The Milwaukee Bucks are one game away from winning their first championship since 1971. The Bucks walked into Phoenix on Saturday night and managed to come out on top, 123-119, despite taking the Suns’ best shot during the game’s first quarter and needing to survive a torrid fourth quarter comeback by the home side.

The tone was set early by the Suns’ defense and a hot start from Jae Crowder. Phoenix forced four Bucks turnovers in the first four and a half minutes of action, while Crowder — who has always fed off of crowds in his NBA career — scored eight early points.

Jrue Holiday, who scored four early points, picked up two fouls and was autobenched by Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer, and the Suns responded in a big way. The team immediately ripped off a 16-5 run to double up the Bucks, 32-16.

The Suns’ quarter-long haymaker could not have landed any more cleanly. The team led, 37-21, after one frame, with Phoenix connecting on 14 of their 19 attempts from the field (73.7 percent) and five of their six triples, while turning six Bucks turnovers into 11 points.

Milwaukee came out in the second with a newfound sense of urgency. While Giannis Antetokounmpo sat on the bench, the team ripped off a 21-5 run to tie the game.

The Bucks kept fighting, and with 5:41 left in the quarter, they took the lead when Antetokounmpo pushed the ball in transition and found Bobby Portis for a triple in the corner.

The remainder of the half was a back-and-forth battle, but the Bucks, improbably, were able to take a 64-61 lead into the locker room. Holiday’s 15 points and seven assists led the team, while Antetokounmpo had 12 points, four rebounds, and four assists, and each of Pat Connaughton, Khris Middleton, and Portis had nine. The Suns were led by Booker’s 15, along with 12 points from Deandre Ayton and 10 from Crowder.

The start of the third quarter saw Milwaukee continue to impose itself. Holiday’s defense and shot-making, combined with Middleton’s otherworldly shot-making and Antetokounmpo picking his spots brilliantly, saw them push their lead to double-digits.

Things were going so well that Antetokounmpo, who isn’t exactly known for this sort of thing, hit a stepback long two with Ayton contesting.

While the Suns didn’t let things get completely out of hand, Milwaukee took a 100-90 lead into the final frame, thanks to some absolutely beautiful offensive execution and swarming defense that made Phoenix work for everything.

The start of the fourth quarter saw Booker pressing, which did not always work particularly way. But the team was able to get the crowd going with Booker driving and kicking, which led to some terrific ball movement and a Paul triple.

The Suns kept chipping away, with Paul getting it down to six by throwing a fallaway over Antetokounmpo.

The Bucks had a pretty good answer for this in Middleton, who kept slamming the door whenever the Suns looked like they were preparing to burst open.

But in the face of this, Booker was a monster. He hit a fallaway triple with less than 90 seconds left to get things down to three.

Antetokounmpo missed a pair of shots from the charity stripe, the Suns went the other way, and Paul got it to one with a layup.

But the dagger came with 13.5 seconds left. A Holiday miss led to the Suns having a chance to go ahead. But he made up for it in a big way, picking Booker’s pocket, going in the other direction, and throwing a lob that Antetokounmpo threw down through contact.

The three-headed monster of Antetokounmpo (32 points, nine rebounds, six assists), Middleton (29 points, seven rebounds, five assists), and Holiday (27 points, 13 assists, four rebounds, three steals) did the heavy lifting, with Connaughton pitching in 14 points and six rebounds off the bench. Booker’s 40 and Paul’s 21 points and 11 assists stood out for Phoenix, but the team just did not have the horses to keep up with Milwaukee’s high-powered offense.

Now, the series shifts back to Wisconsin, where the Suns will try to do something that has only happened once this postseason: Beat the Bucks on their home court. The two teams will square off on Tuesday, July 20, with things slated to tip off at 9 p.m. EST on ABC.

Saturday evening’s game between the Washington Nationals and San Diego Padres in the nation’s capital was abruptly suspended in the middle of the sixth inning. According to multiple reports inside the stadium that were eventually confirmed by the home team and local law enforcement, a shooting occurred outside of Nationals Park while the game was ongoing.

Videos from inside the stadium popped up on Twitter, showing fans inside the stadium — along with players on both teams — noticing something happening outside the game. It led to some players grabbing family members and heading into the clubhouse, fans running around with some making their way into the clubhouses for both teams, and a message from the stadium’s PA announcer that whatever was going on happened outside of the stadium.

It appears that the gunshots could be heard as the teams were heading into their respective dugouts in between innings.

The Nationals eventually announced that fans could exit the stadium through one specific gate, while the team posted to Twitter that there was indeed a shooting.

The local police provided a pair of relatively updates, saying that two people were shot, neither of them were died, and that they believe there is no ongoing threat.

While the game is second to making sure everyone is safe, the team announced that the two sides will return to the ballpark to finish this game at 1:05 p.m. EST on Sunday.

Marjorie Taylor Green and Matt Gaetz are trying to keep their America First speaking tour afloat, but getting a venue in the state of California is proving to be a bit of an issue. Multiple reports on Saturday indicated that several venues abruptly canceled on the two Republican lawmakers, who are quite literally speaking to people about not getting canceled.

As The Daily Beast reported on Saturday, three different venues officially canceled on Gaetz and Taylor Greene ahead of their scheduled Saturday event. The third came just hours before the scheduled event, as the M3 Live Anaheim Event Center pulled the plug on the rally for the QAnon-believing congresswoman and the Florida congressman currently under investigation for sex trafficking allegations.

This came after two separate venues, the Pacific Hills Banquet & Event Center in Laguna Hills and the Riverside Convention Center, canceled on the pair after protesters flooded the respective owners with complaints.

In Riverside, city council members also chimed in to voice their concern, with council member Ronald Fierro saying, “The hateful and racist rhetoric that will be perpetrated at this event by these two well-known extremists has absolutely no place in our City.”

Gaetz later teased a new venue on Saturday afternoon (the fourth one, for those keeping track), that he believed is “even better than we imagined.”

None of that ever came to fruition, though: Gaetz later tweeted an awkward video of him in front of a city hall and announced a “peaceful rally against communism” on Saturday night.

Gaetz tweeted about the cancelations themselves on Saturday, summing it up that people are “afraid” of what he and Taylor Greene have to say.

As many pointed out, however, it’s more like the two representatives quite literally can’t pay people enough to let them hang around their property.