Month: January 2022

Kansas State junior center Ayoka Lee set a new NCAA women’s basketball record with 61 points in an upset win at home over Oklahoma on Sunday night, toppling a mark that had stood since 1987.

Lee scored points 60 and 61 on a smooth post layup with about 3 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, solidifying herself in NCAA history books.

But this wasn’t a matter of Lee just heating up late against the 14th-ranked Sooners. Lee had 30 points in the second quarter alone and 51 through the first three quarters before sealing the deal with 61 to ice the game and claim the record, checking out with as many points by herself as Oklahoma had as a team.

Throughout the game, Lee was simply dominant in the post, shooting 23-of-30 from the field on her way to 61 points, consistently getting solid inside position against the Sooners and punishing them with great footwork and touch inside as she racked up the points.

Previously, the NCAA women’s basketball single-game scoring record was 60, originally set by Cindy Brown at Long Beach State in 1987 and then tied in 2016 by Minnesota guard Rachel Banham.

Lee is a third-year post player for Kansas State, but because she will turn 22 in August, she is technically eligible for the 2022 WNBA Draft. Coming into this game, Lee was already averaging nearly 24 points and 11 rebounds on the season, and this should only draw additional scouting attention to her down the stretch.

Lee and the Wildcats face another test on Wednesday when they head to Austin to take on the 15th-ranked Longhorns in another Big 12 tilt.

Whenever there’s a problem, or a bit of drama, the internet is quick to see if they can figure out the reason and place blame. Nothing illustrates this more clearly than the constant supply chain problems that have resulted during the pandemic. One area that has really been hit during the pandemic is vinyl production, although, it was already a tricky business to begin with.

So when massive pop stars like Taylor Swift and Adele started releasing new music that required lots of vinyl copies, it was easy for the internet commenters to assign blame to the biggest stars. However, things aren’t that cut and dry.

Is Taylor Swift The Reason For The Vinyl Shortage?

Back when vinyl for Evermore came out last June — which everyone would do well to remember, was a good six months after the album’s release — Swift’s record-breaking numbers for sales first led the rumors to begin buzzing. Since Evermore sold over a whopping 100,000 vinyl albums during the week of June 7, 2021, and broke the all-time weekly sales record, other artists who were still waiting on their own vinyl production started bringing up their own delays. Vinyl generally takes between nine and twenty-four months to press, so if Taylor turned in Evermore a few months before release, she’s still well within the normal window.

But, when Taylor announced that Red would be coming in November of 2021, and that vinyl would be dropping simultaneously, her peers were even more suspicious that she was somehow cutting the line. Again, looking at that timeline, all she would’ve had to do was submit Red by February 2021 in order to have the suppy in time.

Besides, so many other factors were already playing into longer wait times for vinyl: A huge increase in demand for vinyl that was already underway before the pandemic, the fact that the pandemic gave rise to people listening at home, and led to an increase in both vinyl and record players, and all the other pricing and shortage issues that Covid-19 has caused, including labor shortages.

So no, no matter how powerful and popular they might be, neither Taylor Swift, or Adele for that matter, is responsible for the global vinyl production delays. So go ahead and buy a copy of Red or Evermore without a hint of guilt.

Today marks what would’ve been the late XXXTentacion’s 24th birthday. It’s been almost four years since the young rapper, born Jahseh Onfroy, was fatally shot near a motorcycle dealership in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Over the years, his estate has continued to release music, like 2018’s Skins and 2019’s Bad Vibes Forever. Whether or not another project will arrive in the future remains to be seen, but today, his estate opted to celebrate his birthday with a new announcement.

“We continue to be amazed at the love and support that X’s fans show on a daily basis,” XXXTentacion’s estate wrote. “We know how much his music means to all of you, and his impact continues to be as powerful as it’s ever been.”

Then they broke some big news. “It is important to us to continue to honor Jah’s legacy, and in that spirit we are planning an exciting 2022. One of our first initiatives is to get as much of X’s music from his earliest days as an artist up on all DSPs,” they wrote. They then announced that his 2014 song “Vice City” will be placed on all streaming services this Friday, January 28. “We will continue to release music as we clear it, and are making sure we do it in a way that stays true to how X released each song originally.”

The message then directs fans to a website and a Twitter page to stay updated on all upcoming news related to XXXTentacion. “Beyond the music, we know X’s fans have been waiting patiently for the documentary and we will be sharing updates on it soon,” they added. “Thank you again for your support and for continuing to honor and celebrate the life of Jah.”

Next Sunday could very well be the last time we see the Joe Buck-Troy Aikman pairing as Fox’s lead NFL broadcast booth, as rumors have swirled about Aikman potentially bolting from Fox for Amazon’s new NFL booth (alongside Al Michaels) when the streaming service begins its first season as the sole proprietor of Thursday Night Football.

It would be a considerable shakeup and with Cris Collinsworth likely re-upping at NBC and Tony Romo locked in to a massive deal at CBS, Fox would have to look either internally or to someone new to broadcasting for an Aikman replacement. If they were to promote anyone in-house, Greg Olsen has garnered terrific reviews in his young broadcasting career, but certainly doesn’t carry the big-name quality that Fox may be hunting to replace Aikman.

Of outside candidates, one surprising name is popping up at the top of the list for Fox, as Mike McCarthy of Front Office Sports reports they’ll make a hard push for current New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton to leave the sideline and come to the booth.

Fox Sports is targeting New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton as a candidate to succeed Troy Aikman should the former Dallas Cowboys star bolt for Amazon, sources tell Front Office Sports.

Payton has not committed to returning to the Saints for the 2022 season, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. The Super Bowl-winning coach is at the top of Fox’s hit list, said sources.

It would be fascinating to see Payton leave in the middle of a coaching contract to enter broadcasting, but Rapoport reports there’s a real chance he decides to take at least a year away from coaching to recharge. What makes that all the more interesting is if Payton isn’t retiring for good and instead is taking a break from coaching before looking to return to the sideline, would Fox want to go through this process again in a year or two to find another replacement for their top broadcast.

It’d be a massive story both in the broadcasting space and from a football perspective, as the Saints would suddenly be on the hunt for a new head coach as they deal with trying to figure out their organizational future after Drew Brees’ retirement.

Donald Trump is not exactly the world’s greatest dad. Not only has he gotten his kids into all manner of legal trouble, but he’s already picked which one should serve jail time. (Spoiler: It’s not the one he’s subjected to gross, pervy comments.) He may not even know their ages, as suggested by his typically bizarre attempts to defend them from the clutches of the House select committee investigating the time his violent supporters tried to overturn democracy.

As per The Hill, Trump recently did an interview with The Washington Examiner, who asked him about the committee demanding an interview with Ivanka.

“It’s a very unfair situation for my children. Very, very unfair,” he said. “It’s a disgrace, what’s going on. They’re using these things to try and get people’s minds off how incompetently our country is being run. And they don’t care. They’ll go after children.”

Trump has never been great with words; he seems to only know 100 of them tops. But he wound up inadvertently highlighting a strange quirk of the English language: Trump can call his fully grown kids “my children” but that doesn’t make them “children” in the general sense of the word. Because, again, they are adults. In Ivanka’s case, she was born during the Reagan administration.

When Trump’s latest gaffe went public, people couldn’t help but point out that Ivanka is his child but not a child.

Trump is also no stranger to hyperbole and to painting himself as a victim when people try to hold him accountable for his many alleged crimes. Instead of playing ball, as an innocent person would do, he’s tried — and, in some cases, failed — to block the Jan. 6 committee from probably incriminating records. And failing that, he’s called them names.

“They are using whatever powers they have,” Trump whined to the Examiner. “They couldn’t care less. They are vicious people.”

(Via The Hill and The Washington Examiner)

Gunna kicked off the year with his third album DS4EVER, which featured collaborations with Young Thug, Future, 21 Savage, Kodak Black, Yung Bleu, Chloe Bailey, and more. However, when it was released, a song between Gunna and Drake was missing. Thankfully, that track, “P Power,” which was previously titled “P*ssy Power,” eventually arrived a week later. During a recent interview with Complex’s Jessica McKinney, Gunna explained what was behind the delay.

“I originally sampled Donna Summer,” Gunna said about the song, which samples the legendary singer’s 1976 song “Could It Be Magic.” “I don’t even know her, because I’m so young. But she was a legend and her estate couldn’t get back in time for my album.” The sample within Gunna and Drake’s collaboration was eventually cleared and released with a deluxe edition of the album.

The delayed release of “P Power” may have helped propel DS4EVER to the top, as it edged out The Weeknd’s Dawn FM to give Gunna his second No. 1 album. Gunna has also promoted the album with videos for “Livin Wild,” “Pushin P,” and “Life Of Sin.”

You can read Gunna’s full interview with Complex here.

DS4EVER is out now via 300 and Atlantic. You can stream it here.

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

We’re a mere three weeks into 2022, and any hopes that it would be less weird than 2021 — or than 2020, or than 2019, or than 2018, etc. — have been quickly dashed. And SNL‘s Weekend Update, as ever, was here to remind us of that. For starters, there’s Joe Biden. He’s no Donald Trump, so he’s got that going for him. But he doesn’t have much else, and not even Tom Hanks can save him. Last week, to mark the end of his first year in office, Biden held a two-hour press conference — or as Colin Jost put it, “because that’s how long it took to list everything that’s gone wrong.”

Jost also noted it’s the longest presidential presser in American history, adding, “But as I’ve been told many times before, just because you went for a long time doesn’t mean you did a good job.”

There was also the controversy over the M&Ms character redesign, which sought to make them more “progressive.” There was a fair amount of online dragging. Meanwhile reasonable adult man Tucker Carlson got mad that he no longer found these cartoon characters representing chocolate candy “sexy.” But Jost didn’t seem to miss it, joking people requested that “the brown M&M not look like a teacher that has sex with her students.

Then there’s Dwayne Johnson, who turned heads by recording a video in his home in front of a massive T-Rex skull, which he later claimed was a replica. “Johnson also said it’s just a coincidence that his diet calls for a thousand pounds of dinosaur meat a day,” Jost cracked.

There were also jokes about Kyrsten Sinema, new Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin banning Critical Race Theory from schools that never taught it, and old Jeffrey Epstein pal Prince Andrew, “England’s most eligible bachelor,” who deleted his Twitter account, Jost joked, “after realizing that’s not the app with all the dancing teenagers.”

You can watch Weekend Update in the videos above and below.

Kanye West has always shown his distaste for the paparazzi. Back in 2013, the rapper was sentenced to two years of probation, 250 hours of community service, and a restitution payment for attacking a photographer outside of Los Angeles International Airport. He’s currently under investigation for punching a photographer in Los Angeles. But Kanye is looking to heal the rift between celebrities and paparazzi, as he revealed during a conversation with a group of photographers shortly after he arrived at Miami International Airport on Saturday.

“Right now y’all get to shoot us without having to pay,” he said. “Imma change that. I’m not saying it in a negative way. It’s just like, right now, it’s just really one-sided. You guys can follow us, you guys can stand [outside] a hotel at any given time—you don’t give us any percentage of what you’re making off of us, off of our kids, and I’m gonna change that.”

“We all gotta make money together … It can’t be a one-sided thing. That’s why it feels vulture-like,” he continued. “Look, if I’m just with my kids, I say I don’t want you to shoot me, then that’s just something y’all gotta respect as a man ’cause if we can get that money together, but we gotta have a conversation. I’m gonna make sure we get our rights. We’re very important. We’re real people, also.”

Recently Kanye demanded a final edit approval on his upcoming Netflix series, Jeen-Yuhs.

It was the aughts all over again on last night’s SNL. Not only was Will Forte, who left the show in 2010 after eight seasons, hosting for the very first time, but he had some guests. Kristen Wiig and Ryan Phillippe, both of whom joined Forte in the movie version of MacGruber as well as its new show, came by to bring the popular sketch back to where it was born. But that wasn’t all Wiig did: She joined Forte to bring back another, even weirder sketch.

For the first time since a 2009 episode hosted by Seth Rogen, Forte and Wiig dusted off Clancy T. Bachleratt and Jackie Snad, the only country music duo who dare sing songs spaceships, toddlers, Model T cars, and jars of beer. As show host Jeyner Keeblerely (Kenan Thompson) put it, those are “the four things they know best,” before letting them rip to treat viewers to the “ear caviar” that is such unsettlingly strange songs as “Salad Bar Boogie” and “Pool Trip Tango.”

It’s the kind of surreal end-of-episode sketch that used to be Forte’s, uh, forte. But since he was the host, it was smack dab in the middle of the episode, which leaned into Forte and Wiig’s brand of eccentric, goofy humor.

You can watch the two tear through strange songs in the video above.

In the summer of 2021, Lorde returned with Solar Power, her first album in about four years. It went on to be her third consecutive top-five album after it debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200. It was another instance of the singer taking her time between albums, which she detailed in a past Vogue interview. Lorde’s third album also marked a first for her as an artist, namely that it was the first where she received the proper credit she deserves for her artistic contributions.

During a recent interview with Euphoria‘s Hunter Schafer on the A24 podcast Divine Frequency, the pair discussed Lorde’s “Solar Power” music video, which she co-directed alongside Joel Kefali. “I had written all the treatments and helped produce it, because I was super, super involved. It was so much fun to be on that set,” she said. Schafer then asked if she had ever directed before prior to the video.

“It’s that classic thing for young women, where you’re like ‘I think I do this thing but I’ve never been credited with it and no one’s ever talked to me about it’, whether that’s music production, video directions or graphic design,” Lorde replied. “It takes a second to be like, I know what I’ve contributed to this and my credit should reflect that. It’s definitely been a process for me, figuring out how to voice that. So (the ‘Solar Power’ video) is my first time being called a director.”

Lorde later revealed that she’s filmed “six or seven” videos for Solar Power and only four have been released: “Solar Power,” “Mood Ring,” “Leader Of A New Regime,” and “Fallen Fruit.”

You can listen to Lorde and Schafer’s full Divine Frequency episode here.