Month: January 2022

For the past year, Babyface Ray has been a rapper on the rise, standing at the forefront of the emerging Detroit/Michigan underground rap scene along with fellow Motor City natives like Icewear Vezzo and Rio Da Yung OG. Today, he finally arrived as a fully-fledged rap star with the release of his debut album, Face. Along with the album’s release, Ray also shared the video for the standout track “My Thoughts 3,” which splits the video with “Pop’s Prayer.”

In the video, Ray performs the two songs amid snowy Detroit suburbs and overlooking the frozen Lake Michigan with the city center looming over the background. The songs themselves lean toward reflective, as Ray takes stock of this transitory point in his life while he prepares to crossover to being one of the hottest names in rap.

Face, out now via Empire, features 20 songs, with production from big names like DJ Esco, OG Parker, Pooh Beatz, Sledgren, and Southside. Meanwhile, guest artists on the debut album include fellow Detroiters 42 Dugg and Icewear Vezzo, Chicago drill mainstay G Herbo, rising Atlanta songwriter Landstrip Chip (who appears alongside coke rap veteran Pusha T on “Dancing With The Devil“), and world-class cool guy Wiz Khalifa.

Watch Babyface Ray’s “My Thoughts/3 Pop’s Prayer” video above.

Face is out now via Wavy Gang/Empire. You can stream it here.

Not all heroes wear capes, and not all Marvel stars are skeptical of vaccines — but some are. Letitia Wright reportedly shared anti-vaxx views on the set of Black Panther 2 (she denied the claims), and on Thursday, Ant-Man star Evangeline Lilly revealed on Instagram that she attended the Defeat the Mandates protest in Washington D.C. It’s the same rally where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. implied that Anne Frank had more freedom in hiding from the Nazis than Americans have today with vaccination policies.

“I was in DC this weekend to support bodily sovereignty while Canadian truckers were rallying for their cross-country, peaceful convoy in support of the same thing,” Lilly wrote, along with a quote from tech investor and women-be-shopping comedian Naval Ravikant: “All tyranny begins with the desire to coerce others for the greater good.”

None of Lilly’s Marvel Cinematic Universe co-stars have publicly called her out by name… yet, but at least two appear to have responded to her post on Twitter.

“It’s so unfortunate when people with a large platform use that platform to share irresponsible things,” tweeted David Dastmalchian, who played Kurt in Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp (and Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad). A few hours later, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu wrote, “I lost my grandparents to COVID last year. They were still waiting for their vaccines. I’m fortunate to have been double-vaccinated and boosted when I got COVID 2 weeks ago. Felt like a cold. The media needs to stop spotlighting opinions that are not rooted in facts or science.”

Come on, Chris Evans, stop tweeting about dogs and say something. Actually, let me rephrase that: keep tweeting dogs and say something.

After being leaving/being removed from Fox News in 2016 for alleging harassment from CEO Roger Ailes and suing the network for sexual harassment, former anchor Gretchen Carlson is speaking out on the current state of the conservative news channel, and she doesn’t like what she sees. While appearing on CNN Newsroom for a segment called “Democracy in Peril,” Carlson called out Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham for their involvement in leading Fox News down a path of only opinion-based journalism and conspiracy theories that’s affecting members of Congress.

Via Raw Story:

“This is the result of fake news,” Carlson said. “You know, we’re seeing not only the fallout from fake news during the Trump era, but what happened with the insurrection on January 6th. Now it’s moving into other areas. Not just news, now it’s hitting science with vaccines, and now it’s into Cold War politics.”

As Carlson went on to chastise the hypocrisy of Hannity and Graham for texting the Trump White House about the seriousness of the January 6 insurrection while downplaying the event as “patriotic” to viewers, she called the network a “complete disservice to our country” that’s completely altered the political landscape.

“Conservative television news is certainly not the conservative news that was out there even just five years ago,” Carlson said. “There’s a big difference between having a conservative opinion and having one that supports conspiracy theories.”

(Via Raw Story)

PartyNextDoor releases are rare — unless you’re the gifted and ingenious producer known as OG Parker, of course.

OG Parker and Party in the studio, creating music? Regular. They are good friends, after all. In the music business, however, just because a producer records a song with an artist, doesn’t mean that the song will actually see the light of day. With that understanding, somehow the award-winning hitmaker was miraculously able to get a solo record from the elusive crooner, and it’s a seductive poetic vibe titled “No Fuss.”

Ready and made for Party, “No Fuss” sees the OVO Sound singer gently opting to be a lover, not a fighter. “Don’t wanna feel pain / Don’t want no fuss or fight,” he insists throughout the song. According to Parker, “No Fuss” was originally a track created from a pool of beats that he had shared. While on a Costa Rica trip, Party played “No Fuss” for Parker for the first time. After hearing it, the beatmaker instantly hinted that he wanted the song for his upcoming EP, Moments. Without hesitation, Party apparently replied, “I got you.”

“He’s literally like my brother so it’s a little different,” Parker explained of the ease it took to obtain such a sonic rarity over a Zoom call. “He’s a very secretive person, he keeps to himself and he only f*cks with people he feels like are family.”

“No Fuss” is the second single to be released from Moments and is the follow-up to 2021’s “Rain” featuring Chris Brown, Layton Greene, Latto, and PnB Rock.

“It’s about 70% to 80% done, I would say, and we’re looking for it to come out a little bit after summer,” he revealed to me in an interview last year. He also mentioned in the same interview that Party (among others) would possibly be on it and here we are with a brand new single less than a year later.

I know fans want to know what this means as far as a new PartyNextDoor project, so I definitely asked. The truth is, we may never know and neither does Parker.

“Nah, I honestly don’t,” Parker told me with a pause and grin when I asked if there’s more PND on the way. “I don’t even like talking about that.”

He quickly assured me that Party is always in the studio and they have a lot of “crazy” music together, though. Whether or not a follow-up to 2020’s Partymobile will arrive in 2022 is a mystery in itself but for now, let’s thank OG Parker for this rare PND audible treat after starving for two, long, years.

Press play on OG Parker and PartyNextDoor’s “No Fuss” up top.

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

In a move that seemed pulled from a Saturday Night Live comedy sketch, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice flashed his dog’s butthole during a State of the State address this week.

Justice, a failing coal baron, and former Democrat-turned-Donald-Trump groupie touted out his poor bulldog named “Babydog” in order to insult Bette Midler of all people during his speech. West Virginia has been on the wrong side of the headlines recently thanks to the state’s Senator Joe Manchin, who single-handedly killed President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better legislation. That bill would’ve expanded healthcare coverage and the child tax credit while also creating a national paid leave program (among other improvements). Manchin’s decision to torpedo the bill upset a lot of people, including Midler who took to Twitter to call out the centrist Democrat.

Well, it looks that dig really got under Governor Justice’s skin because during his C-SPAN address Thursday night, the indoctrinated MAGA spokesman carted out his sweet little pup and flaunted her butthole to the world in an apparent “F*ck you” to Midler and the rest of the haters.

Is this the first scene in an apocalyptic horror movie that pins the downfall of American politics on a bulldog’s poop shoot? The answer is, yes.

(Via Vice)

Sean Penn has definitely said and done some questionable things in the past and, for some reason that isn’t quite clear, he keeps doubling down on men who wear skirts.

Earlier this month, Penn told i News that he thinks men in America are “wildly feminized” in a string of strange, off-topic comments. “I don’t think that being a brute or having insensitivity or disrespect for women is anything to do with masculinity, or ever did. But I don’t think that [in order] to be fair to women, we should become them.”

In an interview with The Independent, Penn — who once claimed to have farted in the presence of El Chapo — was asked to clarify his comments, maybe in an effort to have him clear the air. Instead, he just made it weird again. He said the following, basically equating femininity to wearing skirts:

I think that men have, in my view, become quite feminized. I have these very strong women in my life who do not take masculinity as a sign of oppression toward them. There are a lot of, I think, cowardly genes that lead to people surrendering their jeans and putting on a skirt.

Since when is surrendering jeans a power move against men? The comments seem a little misguided for someone who has played many roles that explored masculinity.

Penn is promoting his new movie Flag Day with daughter Dylan, who stars in the drama. His daughter remained quiet and “stared into space” during her father’s strange comments.

It’s not the first time Penn has said some, uh, weird things. Last summer, the actor criticized “cancel culture, which is an interesting take for someone who doesn’t know how to use a laptop. He also wasn’t a big fan of the #MeToo movement.

WARNING: Contains spoilers for The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett below.

As The Mandalorian burst onto Disney+ and became an immediate pop culture sensation thanks in no small part to Baby Yoda, and also the show’s wielding of iconic imagery from the original Star Wars trilogy, the show offered fans the first live-action deep dive into Mandalorian culture and history, which had only been explored in the animated series. Until this point, the classic bounty hunter Boba Fett and his father Jango Fett were the only on-screen representations of the warrior creed, but their true place in that culture has been… murky.

Despite the main character in The Mandalorian looking a whole lot like Boba Fett, he’s actually an entirely different character named Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) or Mando, as he affectionally called on the show. However, it didn’t take long for Boba to appear in the second season, and with him, came some long-awaited answers about his Mandalorian heritage. Most importantly, the revelation that his father Jango Fett was a foundling like Mando.

In The Mandalorian Season 2 episode, “The Tragedy,” Boba Fett finally regains his armor, which had been lost following his escape from the Sarlacc Pit where he was last seen seemingly dying in Return of the Jedi. After helping Mando fight off a wave of Stormtroopers and vowing to help him rescue the now-captured Baby Yoda, Boba Fett revealed a secret hidden in his armor. Inside his gauntlet is coding that proves his father, Jango, was a Mandalorian foundling who fought in the Mandalorian Civil Wars. Foundlings are exactly like they sound. Young children who are adopted in a Mandalorian clan or “Covert” as they’re referred to in the series.

Jango Fett’s Mandalorian heritage is a significant change in canon because, until now, The Clone Wars animated series claimed he was not a Mandalorian and had stolen his armor. With Boba Fett’s revelation to Mando, that explanation is now out the window.

As for whether or not Boba Fett is a Mandalorian, that’s where things still remain unclear. As a clone of his father, Boba Fett is not a true member of the Mandalore race, and he even tells Mando that he’s not a Mandalorian. However, as the series continues to show, the true definition of being a Mandalorian is a highly contested topic between followers of the creed. Not to mention, the concept of foundlings allows anyone to become a Mandalorian.

That definition is even more in flux as The Book of Boba Fett Episode 5 shows Mando’s desire to make Baby Yoda a Mandalorian while he struggles with the cult-like doctrines of his sect. As the current wielder of the Darksaber, Mando is poised to become the new leader of the Mandalorians and with that could come a change in what truly means to be a member of the fierce warrior group.

The Book of Boba Fett is currently streaming on Disney+.

As the executive director of a butterfly sanctuary, one might think that Marianna Trevino-Wright’s days are filled with peace and tranquility. And perhaps that was the case until she made an enemy of Donald Trump when she protested the former administration’s plans to bulldoze right through her property with their long-promised border wall. Now, dealing with MAGA die-hards and QAnon-like conspiracy theorists is all in a day’s work.

As the Daily Beast reports, Wright is the executive director of the National Butterfly Center in the border city of Mission, Texas. Though firmly planted in the United States, this wildlife sanctuary became the topic of much debate during Trump’s days in office, as his proposed border wall would have bisected the 100-acre property. After filing a restraining order against the project in 2019, Wright and the Butterfly Center have become a favorite target for harassment by far-right groups like Brian Kolfage’s “We Build the Wall” campaign. Though Kolfage was permanently suspended from Twitter a while back, he at one point sent more than two dozen tweets disparaging the sanctuary, which he claimed “openly supports illegal immigration and sex trafficking of women and children.”

In the years since, Wright has unfortunately grown accustomed to unwanted visits from people like Kimberly Lowe, a conspiracy theory-abiding congressional candidate from Virginia, who the Daily Beast reports showed attempted to push her way onto Wright’s private property last week so that she and a woman identified only as “Michelle” could go see the “illegals crossing on rafts.”

The women tried to bypass Wright’s son to force their way onto the property, which is when Wright got a call about the visitors. When Wright herself confronted the women, telling them that “You are here to promote your agenda, and your agenda is not welcome here,” what transpired was… bizarre.

Lowe, who had been broadcasting their visit to the facility in now-deleted Facebook Live videos, asked Wright: “So you’re not for helping all these poor people in the humanitarian crisis? You’re OK with children being sex trafficked and raped and murdered.” When Wright again informed the pair that they were trespassing on private property and asked them to leave, “Michelle”—like something out of a terrible Bond spec script no one asked for—tells Wright that “I’m federal—I work for Secret Service, so nothing is off-limit for me.”

Wright could not help but laugh at this, and who can blame her?

The Daily Beast obtained a copy of the increasingly unhinged audio, which you can listen to here.

Meanwhile, Wright and her colleagues have decided to close the Butterfly Center from today through Sunday due to a credible threat against the center because of a We Stand America event that is intent on taking a field trip to the border. Wright was advised that “she should be armed at all times or out of town” as the events on the group’s agenda include “a ‘Trump Train’-style caravan to the border.”

Butterfly sanctuaries are the new pizza parlors.

(Via Daily Beast)

What do you think the biggest, richest rappers on the planet do with their spare time? For Drake, this past Thursday was video roulette night. Doesn’t sound all that exciting, right? Well, maybe if you were putting down over $200,000 on a single spin, then it could be really exciting. That’s exactly what Drake did and he took video of himself winning a very improbable bet.

With a $215,000 bet down (to be exact), Drake was sitting at his kitchen table, hookah by his side. The man loves roulette and even has a $620,000 roulette watch. “I guarantee you it’s a repeat eight,” he says while staring at the live Roulette app on his screen. “I guarantee it. I feel it.” The ball goes around and sure enough, it lands on the eight. Drake flies up from his seat yelling “What did I say?! What did I f*cking say?!” And then promptly sits back down to play again. What a life.

But how much did he really win? A single bet of $215,000 on the eight would pay out 35 to 1. $7.525 million would be the payout there. But that’s not how anyone plays roulette. Not even Drake. You spread the odds and put smaller amounts on single numbers and groups of numbers to balance out your winnings and limit your potential losses. A popular way to bet is to put the bulk of your chips on either red or black, which gives you close to a 50/50 split on wherever the ball lands. (“Always bet on Black,” Wesley Snipes famously said in Passenger 57.)

For context, another clip on Twitter shows Drake placing another $215,000 bet (gotta be his go-to figure) where, despite not hitting the single number he called out, the screen flashes with “you win $354,000,” as “PAMI” by DJ Tunez, WizKid, Adekunle Gold, and Omah Lay blasts in the background.

Whatever the payout on the “repeat eight” bet was, Drake’s screen also shows that he had over $2.8 million in the bank at that point in the evening. So this second spin probably came after hitting the eight. Again, what a life.

The New York Liberty faced pressure from the moment the franchise won the WNBA Draft Lottery in 2019. Finally out from under the weight of James Dolan’s ownership after being purchased by Nets governor Joe Tsai, the ping-pong balls determined that the Liberty would have the chance to draft Sabrina Ionescu, one of the most famous and exciting prospects ever to come out of college, the following spring. A new era had begun.

Ionescu represented hope for a franchise that Dolan had publicly complained about owning, then moved out of the five boroughs. Before she even played a WNBA game, Ionescu was one of the most famous basketball players on the planet, a voice for the sport, and a thrilling talent.

Unfortunately, Ionescu suffered an ankle injury three games into the WNBA Bubble season, creating something of a lost year for both her and the Liberty, which went 2-20 in Bradenton. Still, New York pushed ahead in its quick rebuild, adding star free agents Betnijah Laney and Natasha Howard ahead of the 2021 campaign. This allowed them to sneak into the playoffs for the first time since 2017 despite Ionescu still acclimating to the WNBA for much of the season.

Laney turned in her first All-Star season and became the top option on the team with a physical, slashing style that made her difficult to contain with one defender. At the same time, Howard made good on the claims she made when she was signed by New York, upping her scoring production while remaining efficient before getting injured midway through the year.

Ionescu was tied for third on the team in scoring behind Laney and Howard, posted a subpar 47.0 effective field goal percentage, and turned the ball over on nearly a quarter of her possessions. New York’s offensive rating was one of the worst in the WNBA and was only slightly better when Ionescu was on the court. Late in the season, however, Ionescu started to come on, becoming an engine for New York in tight games as the Liberty powered to a 9-8 record in games that were within five points in the final five minutes. Ionescu closed the season with 11 straight double-digit scoring games, including 22 points and nine assists in a must-win matchup with Washington in the final game.

In a one-point loss to Phoenix in the first round, Ionescu put up 14 points, 11 assists, and five rebounds while Laney went off for 25 points while playing nearly every minute of the game. Howard was back and healthy in time for the game as well, pitching in a double-double with an assist and a block, and the promise of the Liberty core showed itself again. Fully healthy, their stars rose to the occasion and nearly knocked off a Phoenix team that would end up in the WNBA Finals.

All that does is add to the pressure coming into 2022. Entering her third season, Ionescu has yet to fully make good on the promise she had coming out of Oregon, when Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb called her a “generational player” and Oregon head coach Kelly Graves called her a “transcendent basketball player.” Ionescu was a nightly triple-double threat in the Pac-12. As a pro, she has been mistake-prone and inconsistent. Even in 2021, with star talent around her like she had in Eugene, Ionescu did not consistently raise the level of her teammates or control games like she was expected to do when she was the No. 1 overall pick in 2020.

There are reasons for Ionescu’s rather slow start to her WNBA career. After playing 35-plus games per season at Oregon, Ionescu has played just 33 total since being drafted in April 2020. She also has not yet traveled overseas to play during the WNBA offseason nor has she yet been invited to join Team USA for international competition, creating a vacuum of competitive basketball for Ionescu outside of the WNBA summer. The Grade 3 ankle sprain in the Wubble ended up requiring surgery in November 2020, and Ionescu was still rehabbing the injury into the start of 2021, both taking away the experience of her rookie year and her first full offseason to put in work.

Other recent top picks hailed as generational such as A’ja Wilson or Breanna Stewart had made Finals appearances and won MVPs by the end of their rookie contracts. The WNBA is unrelenting. The league’s limited size, increased player movement, and short season creates a huge gap between contenders and lower-level playoff teams. Eight of 12 teams make the postseason, which means a playoff appearance can have the dual effect of inflating the achievements of teams and players but also intensify the pressure on them to make a deeper run the next season.

That pressure has seemed to drive decisions this offseason for New York. They moved on from head coach Walt Hopkins after two seasons as his five-out system failed to generate elite offense, hiring Sandy Brondello — one of the most accomplished coaches in WNBA history — away from Phoenix. And already, they have reportedly met with two-time Finals MVP Stewart and reigning WNBA champion Stefanie Dolson to fill out the frontcourt and take the team over the top. The Liberty are +2200 to win the title, and Ionescu is +2000 to win MVP, but New York is handling its business like a team ready to make a big leap.

Unless they land a Hall of Fame talent like Stewart (which would require some salary cap creativity), the Liberty will likely go as far as Ionescu can take them. The rest of the roster met or exceeded expectations in 2021, and still they were several games below .500. A big guard who can rain in pull-up threes, create consistently out of the pick and roll, and handle multiple assignments on defense is theoretically a game-breaker in today’s WNBA. Ionescu has rarely been that across two WNBA seasons, but getting a full offseason while healthy after finally seeing what WNBA basketball is like on a nightly basis will give her a chance to build on last year.

Elite players usually find a way to rise to the top. New York drafted Ionescu to be one, and built a team under the assumption that she is an All-WNBA level offensive engine. With an accomplished new coach, a deeper set of teammates, and a clear hunger for more from ownership in free agency, the table is set for Ionescu to make 2022 her breakout year.

If she does, the Liberty could indeed make the leap from an outside playoff team to a true contender. New York could finally return to the sustained excellence it enjoyed under Teresa Weatherspoon, Becky Hammon, and Tina Charles throughout franchise history. Under Tsai, the team’s investment, visibility, and star power have been among the best in the WNBA. Now’s the time for the winning to follow, and Ionescu will be expected to take on that pressure and make good on the promise of her college superstardom.