Month: January 2022

The Chicago Bulls entered Wednesday night as the East’s top seed by 2.5 games over the Brooklyn Nets ahead of a showdown between the two best teams in the East on national TV. After a highly entertaining first half, the Nets eventually ran away with a dominant win in what felt like a statement win from Brooklyn in one of their first games as a complete roster with Kyrie Irving against one of the league’s top teams.

On the Chicago side, it was a disappointing result, particularly with the avalanche of points Brooklyn scored in the second half, but the bigger concern for the Bulls was their health. Already without their best perimeter defender in Alex Caruso as well as Javonte Green due to injuries, Chicago saw Derrick Jones Jr. (starting in place of Green) leave the game with a knee injury just a minute into the game after he came down awkwardly and had his right knee bend backwards.

Jones Jr. was helped to the locker room and did not return, and on Thursday the results of further testing revealed a bone bruise that will keep him out for a month-plus, per Shams Charania.

The good news is that, for as ugly as the injury looked on replay, he avoided any structural damage, but his absence is significant for a Bulls team short on wing depth with Patrick Williams already sidelined for the year due to a wrist injury. For a team with sudden championship dreams, it will be interesting to see how they approach the trade deadline, as there’s a clear need to bolster their depth at the four spot, but whether they want to part with any significant assets to upgrade that position considerably rather than just adding another bench rotation guy remains to be seen.

One of the best games of the NFL’s 2022 Wild Card weekend should be the AFC East showdown between the Buffalo Bills and the New England Patriots. The two teams split their season series this year, only it came with the catch: The road team won both games.

This Saturday’s game will take place in Buffalo, where it’s expected to be cold as all hell because it is Western New York in January. The last time the two teams played in Buffalo, it was in crazy wind and snow and the Patriots won despite only throwing three passes all game.

Speaking to the press on Wednesday, Bills quarterback Josh Allen said that his No. 1 priority is staying warm, because, “I got bad circulation in my feet. My toes get really cold and they go numb a little bit. So just keeping those suckers warm and as dry as possible, as well as the hands — obviously that’s a big emphasis for quarterbacks, you need your hands to throw. So keeping those extremities as warm as possible.”

One day later and ESPN’s Bart Scott, who played his fair share of games in cold environments during his NFL career, has some advice for Allen and any other Buffalo player concerned about the conditions.

“Can I give you a suggestion for him?” Scott asked on ESPN’s Get Up, because irony is dead. “Josh Allen listening? Can people get this message to him? Vi. A. Gra. Take some Viagra before the game, baby, because that’ll get that circulation going right.”

Scott went on to say that plenty of players during his NFL career took Viagra “because Viagra opens up the blood vessels.” He is not the first ex-player to make this claim, as Chad OchoCinco has said in the past he did the same thing. Anyway, word of this got back to Bills tight end Dawson Knox, who said the following:

The Bills throw a lot, which elongates games, and based on some Googling I have done, there is no word on what a football player who took Viagra should do if a game takes longer than four hours.

Rick Ross and DreamDoll put on a chaotic carnival of clapping and cash in their video for “Wiggle,” from Ross’ new album Richer Than I Ever Been. “Wiggle” is the latest single from Richer Than I Ever Been, following “Outlawz” and “Little Havana,” and it’s the second single to get a music video treatment (“Outlawz” was the first).

The premise is simple — what if there were a drive-thru strip club (this is actually a thing, BTW)? The result is predictably debauched, with a line of cars cruising through a canvas big top tent and drivers throwing piles of money out their windows to the twerking dancers on socially distanced stages. While Rozay gets his back rubbed, Dream pops out of her vehicle to shake hands with the dancers, paying props to her fellow women and taking her own shift on one of the poles with an elaborate leopard print bodysuit on.

In addition to releasing his new album, Ross has been extending his reach as a businessman. He recently teamed up with the CEO of Rap Snacks to start his own cannabis line, Hip Hemp.

Watch Rick Ross’ “Wiggle” video featuring DreamDoll above.

Richer Than I Ever Been is out now via Epic Records. You can get it here.

Tomorrow, the world will have a new FKA Twigs project, a 17-track mixtape called Caprisongs. Ahead of then, though, Twigs has shared what will presumably be the final song shared from the album before its release, “Jealousy,” which features Nigerian singer/rapper Rema.

Twigs spoke about the track with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, saying:

“I started that song with Fred Gibson a couple years ago and it was just a tiny snippet and I was so excited about it. Sometimes you leave the studio and there’s a really rough demo and it’s sort of gobbledegook words. I was like, ‘Wow, like that melody was really exciting to me and I hadn’t done anything like that.’ […] Then I sat on it for a long time. Then when I was in lockdown, I ended up connecting with El Guincho Pablo a lot over FaceTime. It was the first lockdown when it was really hardcore and I was isolating alone and feeling like quite crazy. To be able to connect with El Guincho over FaceTime, it saved me every single day. […] We got in, we finished it, and then we were like, ‘Oh, it could really have someone else in the second verse.’ El Guincho was like, ‘Rema.’ […] It was actually through one of my oldest friends that we ended up connecting and finishing the track through her, which was really sweet. To me, that’s the soul of the record. I’ve really, as you said in the beginning of the conversation, pushed myself to connect more and to be even more collaborative and to grow and step outside of myself.”

Listen to “Jealousy” above.

Caprisongs is out 1/14 via Young Recordings/Atlantic. Pre-order it here.

FKA Twigs is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It’s been nearly a year since Austin, Texas five-piece band Sun June released their standout sophomore album Somewhere. Now as the band prepares to hit the road now that they can finally tour behind their album, which includes a stop at this year’s SXSW festival, Sun June expand their original LP with a few more tracks, including the pastoral number “Reminded.”

Echoing the wistful chords and dreamy vocals heard on Sun June’s sophomore album, “Reminded” features swirling melodies and poetic lyrics that evoke a keen sense of nostalgia. “Reminded” arrives on the forthcoming expanded version of Somewhere, which features their recent track “Easy” as well as the previously unheard song “Tom Petty.”

Speaking about the inspiration behind the new track, Sun June singer Laura Colwell says:

“‘Reminded’ is about being captivated by someone you have a bad history with and wanting to reconcile with past mistakes, despite it being the most unhealthy decision. It’s about gazing narrowly into an old flame… Basically, it’s the sexiest song we’ve ever written. The song leans so far into romance that we thought it would be fun to add some sax. Justin got to arrange it all, and then we had local saxophonist David Alvarez (from Medellin Collection, and Hyah!) lay it down.”

Listen to “Reminded” above.

Somewhere (Expanded) is out 1/14 via Run For Cover Records/Keeled Scales. Pre-order it here.

A week ago, the NBA released the first round of All-Star fan voting numbers, and there weren’t very many surprises, as Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry led their respective conferences in votes and, if the fan vote (which counts for 50 percent of the starter vote) were to stand the starting lineups would’ve been Curry, Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Nikola Jokic, and Paul George out West, and DeMar DeRozan, James Harden, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, and Durant in the East.

A week later, and there are some significant changes that have come to those starter groups after the second round of fan votes were tallied. Curry, James, Durant, and DeRozan still lead their respective position groups in the East and West, but the order below them has been shaken up to include three potential first-timers.

Trae Young leaps James Harden into the second East guard starting spot next to DeRozan — who is not a guard and that the NBA lists him as a guard rather than frontcourt is going to create a roster crunch later — after this latest round. In the West, two newcomers enter the starting five, with Ja Morant jumping Doncic as he continues to play incredible ball for the red-hot Grizzlies, and Andrew Wiggins jumping George in the West frontcourt in a rather significant surprise — although he is enjoying a sensational season for the West’s No. 2 team.

It’ll be very interesting to see how the player vote (25 percent) and media vote (25 percent) balance out the fan vote this year, as there figure to be a number of contentious starter spots just about everywhere other than the East frontcourt, where Durant-Embiid-Giannis figures to be a lock.

The most recent episode of FX’s brilliant comedy Atlanta aired in May 2018. It was a different time: Drake had the number one song in the country, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was dominating the box office, and the world was terrible.

OK, maybe things haven’t changed that much, but it does feel like season two happened a lifetime ago. Do you remember what happened in the season two finale? I didn’t until looking it up (it involves a gun, a backpack, and Paper Boi telling Earn, “You my family”), and then I remembered why Atlanta was Uproxx‘s best show of 2018.

Thankfully, after a nearly four-year break, Atlanta is coming back in March. Ahead of the premiere, FX released a new teaser for season three that has Earn (Donald Glover), Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry), Darius (LaKeith Stanfield), and Van (Zazie Beetz) stuck in a nightmare of capitalism. Over what sounds like a corny cover of “So Fresh, So Clean” by ATL legends Outkast, Paper Boi says, “These products scare me.” Thumbs up.

Here’s more:

Taking place almost entirely in Europe, season three finds “Earn” (Donald Glover), “Alfred / Paper Boi” (Brian Tyree Henry), “Darius” (LaKeith Stanfield), and “Van” (Zazie Beetz) in the midst of a successful European tour, as the group navigates their new surroundings as outsiders, and struggle to adjust to the newfound success they had aspired to.

Atlanta returns to FX on March 24, and hits Hulu the following day.

Marjorie Taylor Greene hasn’t met a conspiracy theory she won’t wholeheartedly embrace, which recently led to her now permanent ban from Twitter. You’d think getting deplatformed for spreading COVID misinformation would slow Greene down a bit, but nope. She stopped by the latest episode of Steve Bannon’s podcast where she proceeded to regurgitate the age-old rumor that Dr. Anthony Fauci is behind the creation of the coronavirus, which Greene refers to as a “bioweapon” deployed by China. She played all her greatest hits, but with a new twist that Fauci has essentially destroyed the whole planet.

Via Mediaite:

“Dr. Fauci is responsible for all of this. He created the gain-of-function. He gave it to China. They created the bioweapon, which is Covid-19, and it broke the world,” she claimed. “But our government and anyone that goes along with this and doesn’t fire Fauci, investigate him, prosecute him and hold him accountable is failing the American people.”

Of course, Greene has been routinely flagged for spreading COVID misinformation. Following her ban from Twitter, Greene was temporarily suspended by Facebook for posting pandemic lies. And while the GOP has been no stranger to embracing COVID misinformation, Greene’s antics have been so wild, that even Republicans are getting sick of her.

One vocal critic is Greene’s congressional colleague, Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, who has not held back his criticism of Greene. Crenshaw has called out Greene for her stupid antics and referred to her as a grifter, which resulted in the two of them feuding over who’s hurting the conservative brand the most. To put it politely, it’s a close race.

(Via Mediaite)

Kanye West is being investigated for battery after allegedly punching a fan in the face outside a Los Angeles nightclub according to LA’s Fox affiliate.

This story is being updated.

Games Done Quick (GDQ) is one of the biggest video game events of the year. More than 100,000 people tune every day during the week of these marathons so they can watch their favorite video games get beaten via exploitations, glitches, and pure muscle memory. Throughout the event, everyone is donating money to the charity of choice. This year’s first marathon, Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) 2022, is for The Prevent Cancer Foundation.

GDQ is usually a success, frequently breaking the $1 million mark, and AGDQ 2022 has been no different. It only took until Wednesday evening for this year’s marathon to exceed $1 million dollars, and by Thursday morning, it had already raised another $100,000.

As the donations continue rolling in and the event’s Sunday deadline approaches, it sure feels like $2 million is well within the realm of possibility for AGDQ 2022. They’ve hit that marker many times before, and if they can continue their current momentum, we have a hard time seeing why they can’t do so again. Anyone interested in watching year’s AGDQ can find them over at Twitch.tv/GamesDoneQuick. There have been some pretty incredible runs already, and with games like Hades, Stardew Valley, and Super Mario 3D Land still on the way, there is still plenty of reason to tune in.