Month: December 2021

There hasn’t been an awful lot of reason to be excited about the New York Football Giants this season (or, really, in a few seasons), as they continue to toil away at the bottom of the NFL, sitting at 4-9 coming into Sunday.

With Daniel Jones out with a neck injury that might end his season, it is Mike Glennon playing quarterback for one of the NFL’s worst offensive teams, and it doesn’t seem likely that New York is going to provide a late season surge to bring some optimism to the fan base. That said, they do still have Saquon Barkley, and while the very talented running back is at the mercy of his offensive line oftentimes in terms of his overall impact on the game, he does occasionally provide the flashes of his immense talent.

On Sunday, that came in the passing game on what I feel confident in saying is the best two-yard reception in league history, when Glennon threw him a pass in the backfield so far behind him all he could do is stick his right hand back and, somehow, grab the tip of the football. From there he maintains his balance and fights for a first down on 3rd and 1 for what is, truly, one of the highlights of the Giants season.

Yes, the gloves are helpful in making a catch like this, but this is also an absurd combination of coordination, strength, and balance to reach back and get a hand on the ball, squeeze the tip of the ball to hold on to it, and stay on his feet and have the ability to break through a tackler to reach the sticks.

It’s been a big year for Lil Durk and things just got better. During the 107.5 WGCI Big Jam concert on Saturday in the his hometown, the rapper got down on one knee and proposed to his longtime girlfriend India Royale. He made the move in front of thousands who attended the show in person and even more who tuned in for its livestream from home. “You know I love you to death,” he told his bride-to-be. “You’ve been holding me down when I was going through a lot. You’re the realest and I just love you to death. Would you want to be my wife?”

Royale, who was smiling from ear to ear, said yes. She and Durk have been dating since 2017 and they currently have one child together. Durk previously hinted at marrying Royale earlier this year. “She asked me what I want for my birthday I told her a son and for us to get married,” he wrote in an Instagram post in October, according to HotNewHipHop.

Durk has been extremely open about his love for Royale, as in his recent verse on Drake’s “In The Bible” with Giveon. “India Royale cosmetic, I’m just promotin’ my b*tch / Drake song do a billion streams for sure, I’m just promotin’ her sh*t,” he says. “Nasty with it, take her to Sono Bello and get her some massive t*tties.”

You can watch Durk’s proposal to Royale in the video above.

The NBA has been desperately trying to push through the recent COVID-19 spike without postponing games, but as case counts pile up and more and more players go into protocols, the league is finding itself with no choice in certain instances. That is particularly true this week with G League affiliates all in Las Vegas for the G League Showcase, making last minute call ups to fill hardship exceptions nearly impossible due to travel.

After postponing the Bulls’ two games this past week after they saw 10 players enter protocols, the league had to postpone its third game on Sunday, as the Cavaliers saw five additional players test positive on Sunday, leaving them without the eight players needed for their game later in the evening in Atlanta.

The Hawks were also going to be without star guard Trae Young, who likewise entered protocols on Sunday morning. Shortly after word broke about Cavs-Hawks being put on the shelf, the Nets and Nuggets game was postponed amid Brooklyn’s own outbreak.

There is also potential for a third game to be postponed, with the Sixers dealing with their own roster crunch ahead of a game with New Orleans.

Any sort of pause to the season seems highly unlikely, particularly as players return from protocols after 10 days if asymptomatic, but the league appears to see that they will have to budge off of its play games at all costs stance and be a bit more willing and flexible with postponements, as team-wide outbreaks have become far more prevalent this year with less testing and a more transmissible variant now wreaking havoc around the world.

What do you do when your live show has to be dramatically altered at the last minute? That’s what the staff of SNL had to ask themselves as the Omicron variant ran roughshod across New York, shattering daily case records almost two years into the pandemic. Mere hours before the show went live, it was revealed that they were sending almost everyone home out of an abundance of caution. (That included musical guest Charli XCX.) Only two cast members, Michael Che and Keenan Thompson, remained. Host Paul Rudd showed up, mostly to get his “Five Timers Club” robe from Tom Hanks and Tina Fey.

The rest of the episode was a mix of pre-taped sketches they’d filmed throughout the week, plus older sketches chosen almost at random. Of the former, there was one where an older, washed-up Pete Davidson goes Robert De Niro towards the end of Raging Bull.

The rest? Well, there was “D*ck in a Box,” the beloved musical number with Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg. (Hey, it’s about gift-giving and there are Christmas trees!) There was Ryan Gosling in a 2015 sketch about elves.

There was a monologue fellow “Five Timer Club” member Steve Martin delivered in 1990 about his various, not terribly gracious holiday wishes.

There was Paul McCartney teaming up with Martin Sheen for a 2012 sketch that also includes outgoing Jason Sudeikis and then-newbie Cecily Strong.

There was the Christmas sketch from Eddie Murphy’s triumphant SNL return from 2019.

And there was, of course, maybe TV Funhouse’s finest accomplishment: “Christmastime for the Jews.”

There was also one sketch that is nowhere to be found on the internet: “Global Warming Christmas Special,” one of Hanks’ favorites, from 1990, in which Carl Sagan (Mike Myers) hosts a holiday show dedicated to the erosion of the planet due to a preventable slow-moving cataclysm that everyone assumed we’d take care of 30-some years later. Hanks plays a very drunk Dean Martin and Dana Carvey whips out his excellent take on McCartney as a babbling maniac. Looks like you had to have tuned in last night to catch it, alas.

(Via EW)

The music world is mourning the death of West Coast rapper Drakeo The Ruler after he was fatally stabbed on Saturday night. The incident occurred after a group of people attacked the rapper backstage at Los Angeles’ Once Upon A Time Festival. According to the Los Angeles Times, Drakeo was quickly transported to a local hospital where he was listed in critical condition. Unfortunately, hours later Rolling Stone and journalist Jeff Weiss, who has followed Drakeo closely over the past few years, both reported that the rapper passed away from his injuries.

“RIP Drakeo, the greatest West Coast artist of a generation,” Weiss wrote in a tweet. “A legend who invented a new rap language of slippery cadences, nervous rhythms, and psychedelic slang, who beat life twice only to suffer the most tragic fate conceivable. The Ruler, once, always, and forever.” He later added, “My love to his friends, family, and anyone who [understands] the struggle that he endured and loved his music. He was special, a legit genius and a kind, caring friend. There are no words to convey the grief.”

Several of Drakeo’s hip-hop peers shared their condolences about the rapper’s death. This includes Drake, who remembered him in a post to his Instagram Story as someone “who always picked my spirit up with your energy.”

You can read more posts about Drakeo The Ruler’s death below.

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

Last night’s SNL was very unusual. Mere hours before it went live, the show revealed that they had to send most of the cast and crew, plus musical guest Charli XCX, home due to a massive spike in COVID cases, all thanks to the Omicron variant. (Get boostered — or vaxxed — if you haven’t.) The show still went on, sort of. Host Paul Rudd was there, as were guests Tom Hanks and Tina Fey, plus cast members Keenan Thompson and Michael Che. But most of the episode was comprised of pre-taped sketches they’d filmed during the week, plus some random old sketches.

One of the pre-taped bits was called “An Evening with Pete.” (“Here’s a sketch we finished filming at 5am this morning,” Rudd told viewers in a brief intro.) It revolves around, yes, Pete Davidson, catching up with over three decades in the future, in the year 2054. As Rudd pointed out, the inspiration was Raging Bull, one of Martin Scorsese’s enduring greats, which chronicles the decline of Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro) from boxing champ to washed-up has-been working nightclubs.

And that’s what happens to Pete Davidson in the sketch. He’s got a sad white suit, a receding hairline, and an army of bitter jokes to tell audiences who just want to see him do Chad, his breakout SNL character. “You guys know the difference between Gilligan’s Island and Staten Island? One’s filled with a bunch of morons who are stuck there for the rest of their lives, and the other one’s an old TV show,” he cracks while sitting next to a malfunctioning android version of Colin Jost.

Eventually, Davidson reconnects with an old SNL staff writer (Rudd), who reminds him that he’s responsible for his best old jokes. In return Davidson gifts him with “one of my Oscars,” which happens to be Viola Davis’ Lifetime Achievement Award. And there’s Machine Gun Kelly’s urn, too.

You can watch the sketch in the video above.

Good news for pop heads this weekend — after Stereogum published their annual anticipated albums list, one of the artists included weighed in. Sky Ferreira was listed at No. 5 on their list, and she often makes Stereogum’s list of albums the staff most wants to come out, but this time she addressed her inclusion directly. Posting an Instagram story with her spot on the list highlighted, Ferreira wrote “Top 5 most anticipated albums of 2022 @Stereogum, (it happens every year, but it’s actually coming out this time).”

We’ve heard before that Sky’s label troubles have been almost insurmountable, but back in 2019 she released the new single “Downhill Lullaby” and appeared as a featured guest on Charli XCX’s self-titled album on the song “Cross You Out” the same year. Maybe the downtime in 2020 was enough of a break for Ferreira and her label to work out the technicalities, or maybe she got back in the studio and created some brand new songs.

Either way, when My Time, Night Time came out in 2013, it was widely-regarded by critics as a dark pop classic, and fans were eager to hear more from her. But now, almost nine years later, they might finally be getting that follow-up. With a new album from Charli XCX coming in the spring, maybe we’ll get another Sky feature there, along with some new solo music. Fingers crossed this is the year the follow up really does happen!

The NBA has been pressing onward despite a massive spike in COVID-19 cases around the league that has mirrored what is happening around the country as the new, highly transmissible Omicron variant takes its toll during the holiday season.

Only two games have been postponed thus far, as the Chicago Bulls hitting 10 players out on the COVID list plus injuries led to their two games this week being pushed back, but as other teams approach similar numbers of player out in protocols, they have simply had to add replacement players on hardship exemptions and press on. With the league’s biggest day of the season coming up next Saturday, with five highly anticipated Christmas Day games, an awful lot of the shine of those contests has been removed by potential COVID absences.

The latest marquee name to hit protocols is Hawks guard Trae Young on Sunday, who would need to test out with two consecutive negative tests by Friday if he’s going to be able to play against the Knicks in New York on Christmas, the place where he became one of the NBA’s great villains last postseason.

Young joins a rather outrageous list of names currently in protocols who could miss Christmas Day action. On the Knicks, RJ Barrett and Obi Toppin are both in protocols, while Celtics-Bucks may go on without Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bobby Portis, and Al Horford — not to mention Khris Middleton currently sitting with a knee injury.

The primetime matchup between the Nets and Lakers will likely be without Kevin Durant in COVID protocols (and Kyrie Irving, as he is in protocols a day after entering the testing pool). The biggest group of Nets currently in protocols, including James Harden, went in on Dec. 14, which could bring them back, provided they are healthy enough to do so. On the other side, Anthony Davis is out with a knee injury and a number of the Lakers reserves are in protocols, including Malik Monk, Austin Reaves, and Avery Bradley (Talen Horton-Tucker, likewise, went in on Dec. 14 and could return).

Warriors-Suns and Mavericks-Jazz are, for now, the two games on the Christmas schedule without any major COVID absences (although Luka Doncic is currently out with an ankle injury), and the league will be hoping dearly that remains the case. It has been a rather disastrous month for COVID cases in the NBA and around the country, and unfortunately it feels much closer to the beginning of the surge rather than the end.

The show still went on, sort of. Last night’s SNL was supposed to be a happy occasion: It was both the last show of 2021 and Paul Rudd’s fifth time as host. Then the pandemic shifted into another wave, thanks to the Omicron variant. Most of the cast and crew were sent home. So was musical guest Charli XCX. All that remained were Rudd, two cast members, guests Tom Hanks and Tina Fey, and a skeleton crew. Only two live sketches remained: a cold open, in which Rudd received his “Five Timers Club” robe, and a stripped down, Colin Jost-less Weekend Update.

Fey returned to her old gig co-hosting the joke news segment, this time sitting beside Che. “We thought we’d read these dumb jokes anyway and so if we can make these guys laugh,” Che cracked, pointing to host Paul Rudd, guest Tom Hanks, and Keenan Thompson, the only other present SNL cast member — the only ones sitting in the audience.

There were jokes about one of the late Norm Macdonald’s favorite Weekend Update punching bags. “O.J. Simpson has been released from parole two months early because of good behavior,” Che told the sparse crowd. “Said O.J., ‘I can’t believe I got out of parole early, but I did it. I did it.’ “

There were jokes about Elon Musk being named Time’s Person of the Year. “You can read more about it on your phone,” Fey said, “while your Tesla is self-driving you into a lake.”

There were jokes about multiple Fox News hosts frantically texting former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, begging him to stop the Capitol siege of Jan. 6. “You know you’ve gone too far when Fox News is like, ‘Somebody better calm these white people down,’” said Che.

There were jokes about Bruce Springsteen selling the rights to his music catalog for $500 million. “So hopefully,” Che said, “he finally has the money to move out of New Jersey.”

And there were dumb jokes about the very smart people at NASA sending a spacecraft to touch the sun (without being destroyed, too). “NASA was finally able to complete the impossible mission,” Fey cracked, “by going at night.”

You can watch more where those came from — including Fey’s very good Andrew Cuomo impersonation — in the video above.

Drakeo The Ruler, born Darrell Caldwell, is dead at 28 after he was fatally stabbed at Los Angeles’ Once Upon A Time Festival on Saturday night. The stabbing was initially reported by the Los Angeles Times, who said Drakeo was attacked by a group of people backstage at the showcase. He was quickly transported to a local hospital and initially listed in critical condition, but hours later, he succumbed to his injuries.

Drakeo’s death is an unfortunate ending to a promising career that was often halted and disrupted by numerous roadblocks. He earned his breakout moment after DJ Mustard remixed his track “Mr. Get Dough” in April 2015. Months later he released his debut mixtape, I Am Mr. Mosely, under Mustard’s 10 Summers record label. He released numerous mixtapes over the next few years, but run-ins with the law, which often proved to be controversial, disrupted his upward trajectory.

In March 2018, Drakeo was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder in relation to a December 2016 shooting in Carson, California. He faced life in prison, but a year later, he was acquitted of the murder and attempted murder charges. Despite this, the district attorney decided to re-file charges of criminal gang conspiracy and shooting from a motor vehicle in August 2019, which both resulted in a hung jury during its first trial. In November 2020, he was released from jail after the district attorney suddenly offered him a plea deal for time served after he spent three years behind bars.

Despite his time behind bars, Drakeo released a pair of projects, Free Drakeo and Thank You For Using GTL, with the latter receiving high praise from critics. After his release in November 2020, he went on to release four mixtapes (We Know The Truth, Because Y’all Asked, Ain’t That The Truth, and So Cold I Do Em 2) as well as his debut album The Truth Hurts.