Month: January 2022

On the first day of 2021, The Weeknd hinted that he wanted to drop his new album soon, as she shared a screenshot of a text conversation in which he said, “Let’s just drop the whole thing and enjoy it with the people.” Now, he’s following through with that: The Weeknd has announced that his new album, Dawn FM, is set for release this week, on Friday, January 7.

He shared a minute-long trailer and it describes the project as “a new sonic universe from the mind of The Weeknd.” The trailer also includes a list of what seems to be collaborators on the project, and it features Jim Carrey (yes, that Jim Carrey), Quincy Jones, Tyler The Creator, Lil Wayne, and Oneohtrix Point Never. The clip, which features footage of The Weeknd in aging prosthetic makeup, ends with a voiceover (recited by Carrey) that says, “You are now listening to 103.5 Dawn FM. You’ve been in the dark for way too long. It’s time to walk into the light and accept your fate with open arms.”

While the Carrey collaboration may be unexpected, it’s not entirely unprecedented: The Canadian entertainment icons were introduced at a party and later spent The Weeknd’s 30th birthday together. The Weeknd previously explained, “On my [30th] birthday, he called and told me to look out my window, and on his balcony he had these giant red balloons, and he picked me up and we went to breakfast. It was surreal. Jim Carrey was my first inspiration to be any kind of performer, and I went to breakfast with him on my first day of being 30.”

Watch the trailer above.

Dawn FM is out 1/7 via Republic.

South Park has had its share of (in)famous episodes during its lengthy run, but one that stands out in particular is “Ginger Kids,” which debuted in 2005 and sees Eric Cartman transformed into a redhead after he made fun of redheaded people. The episode is credited with inspiring “Kick A Ginger Day” and, among some, a general mistreatment of and/or disdain for people with red hair. Not even Ed Sheeran is immune, as he says the episode “f*cking ruined” his life.

Sheeran recently told Slam Radio (as The Independent notes) that after the episode, people in the US started commenting on his hair more than they did before:

“Having red hair in England was always a thing that people took the piss out of you for, but it was never something in America. People never knew what a ginger was in America. That episode of South Park f*cking ruined my life. I was going to America and everyone was like, ‘I love your hair dude.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God, people like my hair?’ And then I remember that episode coming out and that was just it worldwide for the rest of my life.”

The episode didn’t damper Sheeran’s appreciation of the show, though, as he said he’s still a fan and that he’d like to voice a character on the program.

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

This season hasn’t gone according to plan for the Boston Celtics, as they entered Sunday night’s game against the Magic at 17-19, barely holding onto a play-in position in the East. There have been injuries and the roster inconsistencies that all teams have dealt with due to players going in and out of COVID protocols, but even when the team has had most of its roster intact, they have just not been able to finish games off.

Boston has had the third worst fourth quarter net rating in the NBA this season (-8.0), and their inability to close out games has been a bit of a surprise given the presence of their two stars in Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. As Marcus Smart complained about early this season, teams have been able to focus almost solely on those two late in games and, if they slow them down, they likely slow the Celtics down as they lean so heavily on those two to create shots for themselves (with Smart wanting them to take on a greater facilitating role).

On Sunday, however, that was not an issue as Jaylen Brown put the Celtics on his back and carried them to a comeback win over a scrappy Magic team, scoring 50 points on the night including 21 in the fourth and the dagger in overtime to get Boston a much needed 116-111 win.

Brown had 11 rebounds and four assists to go along with his 50-point outburst, and that gives Boston a two-game winning streak that they will hope to build off of with some winnable games coming up against the Spurs, Knicks (x2), and Pacers (x2). For Brown, he’ll hope this is the start of a quality stretch as he has seen his normally high efficiency slip this season, as he had his own battle with COVID and a hamstring issue that have seemed to kept him from getting into a rhythm thus far.

Sunday was a wild day in the NFL, with some sensational finishes across the league, most notably the Bengals kicking a last second field goal to beat the Chiefs in a shootout and the Bucs keeping their hopes for the No. 1 seed alive with a comeback victory over the Jets on the road.

However, the story of the Bucs game was not the comeback and game-winning touchdown from Tom Brady to Cyril Grayson, but the receiver who wasn’t on the field to end the game. Antonio Brown walked off the field after a tantrum on the sideline that saw him rip off his shoulder pads and jersey, throw his undershirt and gloves into the crowd, and then bounce through the end zone waving to the crowd, all while the Bucs were on the field.

After the game, Bruce Arians was clearly not happy with the situation, refusing to speak about the situation beyond saying Brown is “no longer a Buc,” while Tom Brady said he hopes Brown can get himself right off the field so he can continue his career in another stop. As for Brown, he won’t be going back to his Florida home immediately.

A photo of Brown standing outside MetLife Stadium on his phone with his suitcase waiting on a car to pick him up went viral, as storming out doesn’t quite work as well on the road when you arrived on a team bus and don’t have a car there.

The driver of said car posted a video of he and Brown driving from the Meadowlands into New York City, as Brown no longer needed to find his way back to Tampa on the team plane and will apparently be hitting the city instead.

Brown’s tenure in Tampa has officially come to an end, but it remains to be seen if this will also close the book on his NFL career as a whole. For now, he doesn’t seem too worried about that as he ventures off into New York City.

Last year was a timid year for 21 Savage. After dropping Savage Mode II with Metro Boomin, an effort that became each of their second No. 1 albums, 21 Savage laid low until last spring when he dropped his Spiral EP. The project also doubled as the accompanying soundtrack for the film of the same title and it presented features from Gunna, Young Thug, 21 Harold, Millie Go Lightly, Young Nudy, and more. However, since 21 Savage dropped that EP, his future releases have come in the form of sporadic features. Finally, to end off 2021 on a high note, 21 Savage returned with two singles.

21 Savage gets back to action with “No Debate and “Big Smoke.” The former is produced by Cardo Got Wings and Deats while the second is produced by Sg Kid Hazlel. The songs were also put together and released with an accompanying video that captures the rapper laying some bars while spending some time with his friends as well as his child.

It arrives to conclude the last half of the year which featured plenty of highlight moments involving 21 Savage. There was his appearance with Project Pat on Drake’s “Knife Talk” as well as working with G Herbo and Lil Durk for a remix for Nardo Wick’s “Who Wants Smoke??” He also made appearances on Rick Ross and Rick Ross albums.

You can watch the video for ‘No Debate’ and ‘Big Smoke’ above.

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

Liz Cheney was once one of the most powerful Republicans in the country. Then she spoke out against Trump. Last May, her own party came for her, voting to remove her from her leadership position. But has that stopped her from slamming the former president? Absolutely not. The Wyoming representative is one of the few GOP members of the House’s Jan. 6 committee and she’s not above absolutely shredding Trump cronies like Jim Jordan. On Sunday, she did not mince words about some of the things they’ve discovered.

The daughter of Dick Cheney, who has weathered untold abuse from the party her father once helped control, was on ABC’s This Week, where she slammed what Trump did as his violent supporters were running roughshod through the Capitol building: He watched them do it on TV and, for hours, did nothing to stop it.

“Any man who would watch television as police officers were being beaten, as his supporters were invading the Capitol of the United States, is clearly unfit for future office,” Cheney said on, saying he “clearly can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again.”

Cheney was just getting started. “He crossed lines no American president has ever crossed before,” Cheney said. “When a president refuses to tell the mob to stop, when he refuses to defend any of the coordinate branches of government, he cannot be trusted.”

She also spoke about some of their findings. “The committee has firsthand testimony now that [Trump] was sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office watching the attack on television,” Cheney said. “We have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence.”

Cheney also pointed out that he could very well have done what he wound up doing much later, after the damage was done. “He could have told them to stand down. He could have told them to go home—and he failed to do so,” Cheney said. “It’s hard to imagine a more significant and more serious dereliction of duty than that.”

She also suggested that Trump could face jailtime, saying there were “potential criminal statutes at issue here.”

The Jan. 6 committee is far from done investigating that fateful day, with talk of coming for House minority leader Kevin McCarthy next. Those who’ve ignored subpoenas, such as Steve Bannon and Mark Meadows, may be headed for the slammer.

(Via ABC News)

The Bay Area hip-hop community began 2022 with a huge loss: Producer Traxamillion, who is created with propelling the hyphy sound, reportedly died on Sunday. The news was shared by TMZ, which cited Thizzler On The Roof as a source. “The San Jose producer who helped create the ‘Hyphy’ sound passed away today,” Thizzler On The Roof wrote in a post. “This is a huge loss for Northern California We send our condolences to his family & loved ones.” A cause of death was not revealed, but it appears that his passing was sudden, as he made several recent posts on social media.

Since the mid-2000s, Traxamillion has produced a number of songs for the hyphy movement. They include recognizable tracks like Keak Da Sneak’s “Super Hyphy” and “On Citas,” Mistah F.A.B.’s “Sideshow” and “Da Yellow Bus,” The Pack’s “Club Stuntin,” Izz Thizz’s “Gas, Skrape,” The Jacka’s “From the Hood,” Dem Hoodstarz’s “Grown Man Remix,” and more. Traxamillion was also celebrated for his compilation album, The Slapp Addict, which featured work from a number of Bay Area artists like Clyde Carson, Turf Talk, San Quinn, and Zion I.

Traxamillion also released songs with E-40, City Girls, Paul Wall, Yukmouth, Andre Nickatina, Mac Dre, Messy Marv, Joyner Lucas, T.I., Freeway, The Lonely Island, and more.

If one of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s New Year’s resolutions was to tweet less (which is almost certainly wasn’t), she got her wish: On the second day of 2022, the Georgia lawmaker was permanently suspended from the social media service for repeatedly sharing COVID misinformation. But before she was booted, she squeezed in one final doozy: She came for fellow Republican politician Dan Crenshaw because he dared to take the pandemic seriously.

The Navy SEAL-turned-Texas representative (and, briefly, Pete Davidson adversary) recently went on Fox News, where he proceeded to say something truly non-controversial: that President Joe Biden should try and get this newly spiking pandemic in control, especially given the far more transmissible Omicron variant.

“So what the federal government should be doing, again, using their FEMA resources to bolster a lot of these testing sites, open up new testing sites,” Crenshaw said on the program. “This is what we saw happen during the Trump administration.”

In a now-missing tweet, Greene took umbrage with the idea that the government should be trying its best to stop a once-in-a-century public health crisis that has claimed nearly 100,000 American lives.

“No FEMA should not set up testing sites to check for Omicron sneezes, coughs, and runny noses,” Greene tweeted. “And we don’t need FEMA in hospitals, they should hire back all the unvaccinated HCW they fired.”

She added, “Stop calling yourself conservative, you’re hurting our brand.”

Not long after tweeting that, Greene was permanently suspended on Twitter. Her House of Representatives account remains in-tact, which may be where she can float some of her truly dumb ideas — until that one gets suspended, too.

In the past, Greene has claimed that the Republican party is more like her: pro-Trump, pro-gun, anti-mandate, skeptical of COVID, argumentative, etc. Not that Crenshaw is some RINO. Before the likes of Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Madison Cawthorn were voted into office, he liked to do things like star in short action videos in which he threatened to beat up Black Lives Matter protesters.

(Via Raw Story)

Antonio Brown’s tenure with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has featured a considerable amount of off-field drama, but thanks to the support of Tom Brady, Brown has remained with the team as he’s been a favorite of the future Hall of Fame quarterback.

While a suspension for using a fake vaccine card wasn’t enough for the Bucs to decide they were done with Brown, the former All-Pro receiver made that decision for them two weeks after returning to the field by storming off the sidelines with a rather spectacular tantrum in the middle of the Tampa drive in the third quarter against the Jets. Brown, who had three catches for 26 yards to that point, was infuriated about something and ignored Mike Evans pleas to calm down, eventually ripping off his shoulder pads, throwing his undershirt and gloves into the stands, and walking off the field shirtless.

In case it wasn’t clear at that point, Bucs coach Bruce Arians gave a brief statement after the game about Brown’s tantrum, saying simply, “he is no longer a Buc.”

Arians was clearly not pleased and did not want to talk about the Brown situation, reiterating that he wasn’t part of the team anymore and he wouldn’t be talking about him.

The Bucs are now down two of their top receivers coming into the season, with Brown now gone and Chris Godwin suffering a torn ACL two weeks ago to end his season. In Brown’s absence, Brady turned to Cyril Grayson on the final drive for the game-winning touchdown against the Jets, as the Bucs avoided an embarrassing loss to stay in the hunt for the top seed in the NFC.

Many people spent the end of 2021 reminiscing about the year’s highs and lows. Whether it was through recap videos shared through Instagram or favorite tweets reposted on Twitter, people happily took trips down memory lane. Among them was Tyler The Creator, who shared his favorite songs from last year. It came in the midst of a recap from the rapper, which included some music videos and performances from 2021. As for his list, Tyler made sure to highlight some popular names as well as some up-and-coming acts as well.

Tyler’s list includes popular songs like Kanye West’s “Life Of The Party” with Andre 3000, Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar’s “Family Ties,” Snoh Aalegra’s “In Your Eyes,” Babyface Ray’s “If You Know You Know” with Moneybagg Yo, and Tyler’s own track “Sweet/I Thought You Wanted To Dance,” featuring Brent Faiyaz and Fana Hues. Other songs include Faye Webster’s “A Dream With A Baseball Player,” DJ Harrison’s “Know Names,” Ricochet’s “Make Love (Remix),” Air’s “I Never Want To Be Without You,” and Sault’s “Bitter Streets.”

Tyler’s list comes after he refuted reports that said he was going to go by a new alias. “I NEVER SAID I WAS CHANGING MY NAME, ARE YOU STUPID? YES,” he wrote in a tweet. The reports came after he called his stage name “really dumb” during an interview, which he later said was nothing more than a joke.