Lately, everyone’s talking about Diamond Certification. Just last week, Cardi B became the first-ever female rapper ever with two Diamond certified tracks and yesterday, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” claimed Diamond Certification as well (and surpassed over a billion streams, natch.) But what exactly constitutes Diamond Certification, you might ask? It’s an official Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certification that signifies an album or single that has sold over ten million units. So essentially, it’s a 10 times Platinum release. And today, we have a new friend in the Diamond business.
Roddy Ricch definitely has the mojo deals coming his way now that his single “The Box” is officially Diamond Certified. The 23-year-old Compton rapper’s track joins such illustrious company as Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You,” Kanye West’s “Stronger,” Adele’s “Hello,” and Pharrell’s “Happy.” He was presented with the plaque yesterday.
But he won’t be resting his laurels on the new plaque for too long, as his next album, Live Life Fast, is set to drop before the end of the year. So if you’re looking for any last-minute stocking stuffer ideas, you could help the man on the way to his next Diamond certification.
Live Life Fast is due 12/17 on Atlantic.
Roddy Ricch is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
The “buy Black” rallying cry — a grassroots effort widely supported by the media — was an inspired cause. Black influencers and small businesses received a massive influx of support, while hashtags like #amplifyblackvoices and #blackownedbusinesses finally found favor with the famously capricious social media algorithms. That said, it was also an easy form of virtue signaling. Just talking about buying Black was itself a form of social currency.
As winter 2020 turned to spring ’21, the difference between “trend” and “true systemic change” became crystal clear. Folks realized that you can’t end the Racial wealth gap with a hashtag. And, if my own conversations with Black entrepreneurs are any indication, Black businesspeople felt that in a major way.
Unsplash
A cause is only as strong as its convictions. When the #BLM wave ebbed and we came out of our collective COVID caves, perhaps many felt they had fulfilled their duties to support marginalized communities in any financially measurable way. Perhaps frequenting a Black-owned restaurant felt like it was the right thing to do at the time. Perhaps other concerns took hold of white consumers.
But the push to amplify, support, and uplift Black-owned businesses needs to be ongoing. In part, because systemic racism itself is ongoing and in part because these same businesses were disproportionately affected by the pandemic. To put a finer point on it, the sympathy of 2020 was incredible. But it was also acute. The true reasons we should support Black-owned businesses have been accruing for centuries which has made the entire ecosystem of Black businesses more fragile than white-owned businesses. (And in this fragile state, Black businesses were also less likely to receive bank support.).
All this to say, that Black business owners still need and deserve your attention this season. Especially now, when the media attention paid to the movement has waned.
At the end of the day, I hope that supporting Black-owned businesses won’t be thought of as a trend born of guilt or even a temporary solution to a centuries-long problem, but rather a continued celebration of the Black community. So I urge you to continue to patronize Black restaurants, Black craftspeople, Black artists and poets and farmers and musicians. Start today! The very next time you leave the house!
Because as 2021 comes to a close, it’s more important than ever to remain a nation of friendly neighbors, supporting one another’s boldest ambitions. Yes, we need systemic change but we also need this vital movement to carry on. To grow. To flourish.
Entertainment Tonight reports that television host Nick Cannon‘s youngest son, five-month-old Zen, recently died. Cannon announced the infant’s death during his show’s opening monologue, showing the audience a photo of Zen and breaking down as he described the conditions that led to his loss.
Born in June to Cannon and Alyssa Scott, Zen — Cannon’s seventh child — suffered from hydrocephalus, which describes the buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. This causes pressure inside the skull which can lead to a number of symptoms, including disability and death. It can be treated with a shunt, which is placed in the skull through surgery, however, despite doctors treating Zen with this method, things took a turn for the worse.
“Ultimately, it was cancer in the brain and the tumor began to grow a lot faster,” Cannon explained. “This weekend, I made a valid effort to spend the most quality time I could spend with Zen. We woke up on Sunday and was like, ‘I feel like I want to go to the water.’ We got a chance to go to the ocean.”
He also explained that show business is “all he knows,” which is why he’s back at work so soon after. While a pre-taped episode aired on Monday, the tapings he was scheduled to shoot were canceled and he’ll be taking time off from the show for the time being.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a game that doesn’t sound like it should be real. In this platform fighting Super Smash Bros. clone, we see SpongeBob Square Pants in a straight-up brawl with Ren and Stimpy, Korra from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Garfield. That’s right: Garfield and his hatred of Mondays will enter the fight against the rest of the Nickelodeon universe. He is the first DLC character to enter the game and will surely not be the last one.
While this may sound like a weird addition to some, Garfield joining a game like this is actually not a huge surprise. He’s a popular cartoon character and has a growing video game presence on his own. While we don’t necessarily suggest going out and buying Garfield Kart, we do want everyone to know it exists and a lot of people play it. For any huge Garfield fans out there, this is now their chance to stomp on someone with him in a fighting game.
Platform: Xbox, PlayStation, PC, Nintendo Switch
Price: $50 for the game, Garfield is free
Release Date: Available now on Xbox, PlayStation, PC; Coming on Nintendo Switch on Dec. 22
Genre: Platform Fighting Game
Developer: Ludiosity and Fair Play Labs
Publisher: GameMill Entertainment
Rating: E
Where can I buy this: Microsoft Store, PlayStation Store, Steam, brick and mortar shops
Single Player: Yes
Multiplayer: Yes
Early Access: No
Microtransactions: No
Jack Harlow has come a long way since he first started making music. In fact, he recently shared a photo of his 2018 tour that showed less than 20 people in the crowd. That’s why it was especially meaningful for him to be named Hitmaker Of Tomorrow by Variety, who awarded the rapper at their star-studded Hitmaker Brunch over the weekend. While on stage, Harlow told the crowd that he credits his love for the written word to his childhood days of reading Harry Potter books.
Harlow walked on stage to accept the award and during his speech, the rapper shared a story about his youth. He recalled the time when he was in second grade and he won a book-reading contest thanks the reading all the Harry Potter books he could find:
“So we get to the end of the school year and there’s a big assembly. The entire school is there, in my memory at least it feels like a stadium full of people. The climax of this assembly is the staff announcing the top three students who had read the most, or at least, had been credited the most points for reading. In third place they announce some fifth grader, he goes up and they give him his trophy. Second place, another fifth grader — he goes up, they give him a trophy. And in first place, a second grader, they called my name. And I had beat the entire school. I won by a landslide, I probably had quadruple whatever second place had. […] It was a competition and it brought out the competitor in me, which is a big part of the genre I’m in. All that reading is what made me the writer I am now and I’m pretty sure it’s what going to make me the hitmaker of tomorrow.”
Watch Harlow give his speech while accepting his Variety’s Hitmaker Of Tomorrow award above.
Jack Harlow is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Are you on the hunt for some great gifts for your extra pawsome friends. Then paws what you’re doing, head to our Shop and check out our curated list, which showcases the best gifts for those who love animal-themed stuff. At Upworthy Market you are directly supporting artisans who create their own products, so you are doing good with each dollar you spend.
A cheerful little turtle comes to life in terracotta. Handcrafted by ceramists from the House of El Salvador Artisans, this versatile design is perfect to hold a potted plant. Geometric patterns in pale brown adorn the ornate shell.
A serene cat sits in lotus pose as if in prayer or meditation in this charming sculpture. Hand-carved in Bali from local suar wood and signed by artist Nengah Sudarsana, who shares his love for animals through his work.
Sleek and agile, twin dolphins leap and play on this pendant necklace made by Andi Rachmansyah in Bali. The pendant is hand- carved from smooth cow bone and centered on a black cotton cord of adjustable length.
Three petite green ceramic owls recommend that we “see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.” This charming trio of statuettes is created by Duangkamol Srisukri in Thailand.The figurines are crafted by hand and given the crackled glaze that is characteristic of celadon ceramic.
A handy little gecko rests atop a door stopper with a natural brown finish. Nengah Sudarsana designs this Balinese door stopper, hand-carved of suar wood for a charming home accent.
From Suresh and Devender Garg, this striking kadam wood sculpture captures the elephant’s inherent majesty. Its lordly stride, intelligent expression, strength and power radiate from the hand-carved piece. The perfect gift for elephant lovers.
In his 30 year long career, Michael Sheen has made quite a name for himself as one of Wales’ top actors, dominating both the stage and the screen. More recently, however, the actor and filmmaker has earned a reputation for being a bit, well, eccentric. From Tron to Good Omens,Sheen has made it a habit to select pretty unusual roles for someone with his classical training — which, hey, we’re all about. Now though, the actor is taking his eccentricity (and philanthropy) to the next level, telling The Big Issue he has officially turned himself in to “not-for-profit” actor (via the BBC).
As for what that entails, Sheen said that from here on out, he intends to funnel his pay from various projects directly into different community-driven ventures. The Frost/Nixonstar has already pledged a whopping £50,000 ($66,200) over five years to fund a bursary to help Welsh students go to Oxford University.
“There was something quite liberating about going, alright, I’ll put large amounts of money into this or that, because I’ll be able to earn it back again,” Sheen said. “I’ve essentially turned myself into a social enterprise, a not-for-profit actor.”
According to Sheen, the “turning point” came shortly after he wrapped up work on a 72-hour production of The Passion in his hometown of Port Talbot and realized there were countless people and organizations within his community doing good work that he was simply unaware of. Little groups, explained Sheen, who had “just enough funding to make a tiny difference to a kid’s life by putting on one night a week where they could get out and go bowling or watch a film and just be a kid.” Sheen said that following his discovering some of these organizations, he returned a few months later only to discover they had been shut down.
“I realized the difference between that child’s life being a little bit better or not was ultimately a small amount of funding and I wanted to help those people,” Sheen said. “I didn’t just want to be a patron or a supportive voice, I wanted to actually do more than that. That’s when I thought, I need to go back and live in Wales again.”
Since moving back, Sheen has also invested in another massive project: The Homeless World Cup. After funding for the $2 million dollar project fell through, Sheen sold off two of his homes in order to ensure the teams would get to play. While Sheen said the decision was “scary” and “incredibly stressful,” the alternative was seeing the tournament come to an end, which he simply could not do.
“I had to make a decision – I could walk away from it and it wouldn’t happen,” Sheen started. “I thought, I’m not going to let that happen. So, I put all my money into keeping it going. I had a house in America and a house here and I put those up and just did whatever it took. It was scary and incredibly stressful. I’ll be paying for it for a long time. But when I came out the other side, I realized I could do this kind of thing and, if I can keep earning money, it’s not going to ruin me.”
While Sheen might be one of the first actors we’ve heard of doing this, here’s hoping he won’t be the last.
Most of us have neighbors in real life, but some of us have virtual neighbors, too. Such is the case for Snoop Dogg, who just got a new neighbor who paid nearly half a million dollars for the privilege of owning some virtual space adjacent to Snoop’s virtual space.
Snoop owns property in The Sandbox, which is described as “a virtual world where players can build, own, and monetize their gaming experiences in the Ethereum blockchain using SAND, the main utility token of the platform.” On December 2, to celebrate Snoop’s Sandbox presence, a sale of virtual spaces near Snoop’s was launched. During that sale, a plot next to Snoop’s was purchased for 70,903.8222 SAND, which at the time of purchase was worth about $458,038. As of this post, the current value of the SAND used to make the purchase is approximately $382,906.
Snoop shared a tweet about the purchase and wrote, “Won’t u be my neighbor.”
Snoop is currently in the midst of launching a significant partnership with The Sandbox, as outlined on the platform’s website. The rapper is building a re-creation of his real-life Diamond Bar, California mansion, as well as a venue that will host concerts and other live events.
Learn more about Snoop’s involvement with The Sandbox here.
St. Bernardus/Great Lakes/Samuel Smith’s/21st Amendment/istock/Uproxx
If you pay attention to the changing craft beer seasons and the styles that each brings, you’re probably aware of a beer referred to lovingly as a “winter warmer.” When you read that term, it likely conjures up a few things in your mind like a rich, robust beer that’s full of winter spices, and effortlessly warming, right? But what exactly is the definition of a winter warmer?
A winter warmer is an old style of beer with deeply roasted malts that create anything from a light red ale to a dark-as-night ale. They have very little hop presence, are higher in alcohol content, and often have holidays flavors added (especially in the old-school English and Belgian versions). More trendy craft versions from the U.S. scene will amp up the hops and really layer in the holiday spices and fruit. All of that gives this “style” of beer a pretty wide net when talking about winter warmers.
The find the best, we asked a handful of well-known brewers, experts, and brewing professionals to tell us their go-to winter warmers to drink during the holidays and beyond. Keep reading to see their picks.
St. Bernardus Christmas Ale
St. Bernardus
Jason Santamaria, co-founder and brewer at Second Self Beer in Atlanta
Winter in our house means St. Bernardus Christmas Ale. This beer starts as one of my other favorite beers, St. Bernardus Abt 12, then adds in holiday spices for some extra flavor and warmth. This by a fire is a great experience. I always bring a bottle or three to a family gathering and have it with dessert.
If I could only drink one winter warmer forever, there’s no question what it would be De Ver Vriender Belgian-Style Quad Ale out of 54°40’Beer in Washougal, Washington. This beer is brewed exclusively for our winter warmer events and certainly doesn’t disappoint. Clocking in at ten percent ABV, it definitely heats you from head to toe while the rich flavors of raisin, brown sugar, cherry, and caramel wrap you up in a sweater of malty goodness. The name translates to “the distant friends,” which is a sweet touch as we bring people together virtually through our guided beer tastings.
Pro tip: try it with a chocolate-dipped Belgian sugar waffle and you just may find nirvana.
Heavy Riff Instigator
Heavy Riff
Stephen Hale, founding brewer at Schlafly Beer in St. Louis
ABV: 9%
Average Price: Limited Availability
Why This Beer?
Heavy Riff Brewing Instigator Doppelbock is my pick. It’s an iconic bock, full of dark rich fruit flavor. Warming, sweet, rich, and extremely warming on a cold winter day or night, it’s definitely not to be missed.
Great Lakes Christmas Ale
Great Lakes
Manny Salvatori, lead brewer at The Bronx Brewery in Bronx, New York
I always say Great Lakes Christmas Ale tastes like a drunk gingerbread man. It’s got tons of spicy cinnamon and is sweetened with honey. There’s a reason it’s one of the most eagerly-awaited winter warmers on the market.
Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome
Samuel Smith
Brad Bergman, director of brewing at Sycamore Brewing in Charlotte, North Carolina
I’m going with Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome. This one holds a fair amount of nostalgia for me. It was one of the first “craft” beers that I got into years ago. It’s been a while, but the flavors I appreciated were the smooth, sweet caramel notes paired with the characterful fruitier English ale yeast esters. Non-spiced, which I prefer, this one is really just a smooth, malty, approachable winter ale that personally carries a lot of nostalgia.
Avery Rumpkin
Avery
Michael Buchkoski, brewer at LUKI Brewery in Arvada, Colorado
This monstrous ale comes in at a whopping 16.3 percent ABV and warms all takers. I really enjoy and appreciate the blended combination of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and ginger. Aged in rum barrels, the Rumpkin Ale picks up some unique characteristics ranging from oak to molasses. It pairs well with a hearty stew or can be enjoyed straight.
East Rock’s Winter Lager is the perfect winter warmer. Being, well, me, I always prefer lagers. This one is a bock beer with a blend of spices. This adds vanilla, brown sugar, and molasses. It’s malty sweet with spice making it a nice winter beer. It’s a great buy if you can find it.
Anchor Christmas Ale
Anchor
Dennis O’Harrow, head brewer at Lone Tree Brewing in Lone Tree, Colorado
My winter warmer pick is a classic, Anchor Steam Christmas Ale. It’s slightly different every year with spices that make for a feast for the senses. It’s definitely a beer to get excited about each and every year.
21st Amendment Brewery’s Fireside Chat is my selection. When brewing, spices can get away from you quickly, and my favorite thing about 21st Amendment’s Fireside Chat is that the spice is punchy, but not overdone. The rich and soft character of the base beer does a great job of absorbing some of the spice.
Avery Old Jubilation Ale is pretty great for this type of beer, although I would suggest this beer to anyone who prefers a big, malty beer any time of the year. Its name is a great indication of what you’ll find when you pour it into a glass. It’s highlighted by flavors of caramel, raisins, and sweet malts.
Winter Warmer from Scratch Brewing is my pick. Any beer you try from Scratch Brewing is going to be interesting. I generally don’t seek out winter warmers unless something is intriguing enough is going on to take a chance on. The interplay between spicy ginger and cedar is really nice, with a warming sweet alcohol finish. It’s perfect next to the fire on a cold night.
While Destiny 2 was first released back in 2017, it’s still going strong to this day. Bungie’s MMO first-person shooter has gone through a lot of changes since then such as dropping from a $60 title to free-to-play, but these changes are considered a positive by most fans and critics. Bungie, once again an independent studio after releasing itself from the Activision Blizzard umbrella in 2019, is currently in the process of celebrating 30 years of existence with a package of goodies for players in Destiny 2. Those 30 years have featured the company creating games like Destiny and, at one point, Halo.
While Halo is now in the hands of 343 Industires, Bungie still remembers the game that helped it become the giant it is today. That’s why we see Halo staples like the Magnum Pistol, Battle Rifle, and Energy Sword prominently in the trailer. Of course, Bungie has done more than just made Halo and Destiny — they also made games like Marathon and Myth. If we look hard enough, we might be able to find even more Easter Eggs.
Platform: PlayStation, Xbox, PC
Price: Free for base game, expansion costs vary
Release Date: Available now
Genre: FPS/MMO
Developer: Bungie
Publisher: Bungie
Rating: T
Where can I buy this: Microsft Store, PlayStation Store, Steam, brick and mortar stores
Single Player: Yes
Multiplayer: Yes
Early Access: No
Microtransactions: Yes
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Won’t u be my neighbor. 
