Month: February 2022

The Los Angeles Lakers lost their first game out of the All-Star break on Friday night. Their late charge against the Los Angeles Clippers ultimately came up a bit short, and by the time the final buzzer went off, the Clippers moved one win away from a season sweep of their hometown rivals with a 105-102 victory.

The game came on the heels of a drama-filled break for the Lakers, as comments made by LeBron James about his future raised a whole lot of eyebrows on the heels of the team opting to stand pat at the trade deadline. Between openly praising general managers elsewhere in the NBA and in other sports, saying he’d be open to returning to Cleveland, and floating his desire to play alongside his eldest son Bronny to end his career, it became easy to speculate if James was plotting an exit.

Following Saturday’s game, James took some time to address all of these questions, specifically making it a point to say he has no intention of leaving the Lakers any time soon.

“This is a franchise I see myself being with. I’m here. I’m here,” James said, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “I see myself being with the purple and gold as long as I can play.”

James went on to address his comments on wanting to play with Bronny, telling the assembled media that “I also have a goal that, if it’s possible — I don’t even know if it’s possible — that if I can play with my son, I would love to do that. Is that, like, something that any man shouldn’t want that in life? That’s like the coolest thing that could possibly happen. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to be with this franchise.”

The comments came on the heels of a report that James’ agent, Rich Paul, met with Lakers owner Jeanie Buss and general manager Rob Pelinka to discuss the comments and say that the former league MVP is committed to bringing a championship back to Los Angeles.

Well here’s one that nobody had on their 2022 bingo card: Kanye West and Beach House appear to be in the studio together. Or maybe we could have seen this coming? Does anything surprise us with Kanye anymore these days? On the heels of releasing 16 tracks from Donda 2 directly onto his stem player this week, Ye posted a series of photos on Instagram from a studio session with two people who are very clearly Beach House’s Alex Scally and Victoria Legrande.

Beach House, who just released their double album Once Twice Melody last week, had a tour stop at The Sylvee in Madison, WI last night, and tonight, they’re performing at The Palace Theatre in St. Paul, MN. So assuming the series of photos aren’t from an old shoot, then it’s a good bet that these were taken in or near Madison or St. Paul.

West was in Miami this past Tuesday for the Donda 2 listening party and could be back in Chicago at this point. It’s also plausible that Beach House made a two and a half hour drive to Chicago after the Madison show to link with West and then took an hour and a half flight to St. Paul before tonight’s show.

Donda 2 co-producer John Cunningham took to Twitter to confirm the validity of the photo:

Regardless, even though you didn’t ask for it, we have proof that Kanye and Beach House linked in the studio. And for what it’s worth, this wouldn’t be the first time a prominent rapper has taken an interested in the dream-pop duo. The Weeknd famously sampled “Master Of None” for “The Party & The After Party” on his 2011 debut, House of Balloons, while Kendrick Lamar sampled “Silver Soul” on “Money Trees” off of his 2012 breakthrough, Good Kid m.A.A.d City.

If you want something done right, you got to do it yourself, right? Rick Ross seems to live by that mantra, as he made clear with a hilarious string of Instagram Story posts on Saturday morning. Ross, who is fresh off a deluxe release of his eleventh album, Richer Than I Ever Been, and videos for “Wiggle” and “Little Havana,” revealed a dilemma he faced: He wanted ten oak trees in his backyard cut down and the price to do so was $1,000 each. That amounts to a grand total of $10,000.

You might think that’s chump change to a successful artist like Rick Ross, but he decided there was a cheaper way to get it done. Ross sent a friend to purchase two chainsaws, which he says cost about $2,000. Then he put on a cowboy hat to cut down the trees himself. “They must’ve forgot who the f*ck I am,” Ross proclaimed after he put on his cowboy hat. “I’m hands-on, I’ll cut down my own motherf*cking trees. You can’t charge The Boss $1,000 a tree to cut it down, I’ll cut down my own motherf*cking trees. I gotta make room for my animals! I’m the biggest boss, y’all ready to go cut these trees down?”

True enough, the next few videos on his Instagram Story captured Ross taking the chainsaw to one of the oak trees. While it wasn’t the smoothest chop, Ross eventually cuts down the first of ten trees. After it falls down, Ross briefly celebrates before jokingly chasing down the person behind the camera.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin made good on his threat to invade Ukraine. Though death and destruction has abounded, it hasn’t gone as smoothly Putin may have expected. Soldiers have been met with strong Ukrainian resistance, not to mention denouncements from world leaders. Even as Russian forces entered the nation’s capital of Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has refused to stand down, even turning down an offer from U.S. President Joe Biden to help him evacuate.

Late last week US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that Zelenskyy remains a “prime target for Russian aggression.” But this hasn’t scared Zelenskyy off. According to the Ukraine embassy in Britain, when the U.S. offered to swoop him out of Kyiv, he declined the offer. “The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride,” he reportedly responded.

Zelenskyy doubled down in a video posted on Twitter Saturday, which saw the president standing defiant in the nation’s populated city. “I’m here. We are not putting down any arms. We will protect our country, because our weapons are our truth,” he said. “That is it. That’s all I wanted to tell you. Glory to Ukraine.”

Zelenskyy’s bravery was praised on social media.

Meanwhile, former president Trump — whose attempts to allegedly pressure Zelenskyy into snooping on Joe Biden led to his first impeachment — has called Putin’s invasion “genius.” Tucker Carlson has also carried his water while others try to make bizarre arguments blaming this all on Biden.

(Via CNN)

It only took a few years for Lucky Daye to become one of the prominent voices of modern R&B. In 2019, Daye released his debut album, Painted, which became one of the best R&B releases of that year and scored multiple Grammy nominations. He’s also landed collaborations with the likes of Babyface, Ari Lennox, Wale, Ty Dolla Sign, and more. After dropping his EP Table For Two in 2021, Daye is ready to grace the world with his sophomore album, which he spoke about recently.

Daye previously announced that his sophomore album would be titled Candy Drip after he released its title track back in December. Now, he’s confirmed it will arrive on March 10. He also unveiled the cover art, which displays a close-up picture of Daye, who’s covered in some sticky liquid that looks a lot like honey. The announcement arrives after Daye shared “NWA” with Lil Durk, which is the second single from the forthcoming album.

Shortly after Candy Drip arrives, Daye will head out on a North American tour with singer Joyce Wrice. It kicks off March 18 in Portland, Oregon, and continues for a little over a month before coming to an end in New York City on April 25.

Candy Drip is out 3/10 via Keep Cool and RCA. You can pre-save it here.

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

The biggest NFL broadcasts have found themselves in a period of reshuffling. With Amazon getting the exclusive rights for Thursday Night Football and a number of the most prominent names in broadcasting seeing their contracts come up, there’s been plenty of movement and tons of speculation about who could be headed where.

The two biggest dominoes to fall in recent days are Troy Aikman’s reported move from Fox to ESPN, where he’ll sit in the booth for Monday Night Football, and Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay turning down an offer that reportedly could have been worth $100 million from Amazon to join its team on Thursdays. The Aikman news, in particular, is huge, as he was viewed as a potential name for Amazon and leaves a gigantic hole in Fox’s top broadcast team.

According to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, the possibility exists for Fox to have to replace its entire booth due to both of its members hopping to the Worldwide Leader. Marchand reported that ESPN hopes to get Aikman and longtime partner Joe Buck on its Monday Night Football broadcasts, with NBC’s Al Michaels mentioned as a potential backup plan.

Aikman left for ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” for $90-plus million over five. Aikman could be followed by his longtime Fox partner, Joe Buck. ESPN wants to reunite the duo, while Fox hopes to keep Buck.

If ESPN doesn’t land Buck, it likely will turn its attention to Michaels as Aikman’s potential partner.

ESPN has done a whole lot of tinkering in its Monday booth in recent years, particularly since Mike Tirico left for NBC in 2015 and Jon Gruden left to become the head coach of the Raiders at the end of the 2017 season. Since then, Sean McDonough, Joe Tessitore, and Steve Levy have all taken over play-by-play duties, with Jason Witten, Booger McFarland, Louis Riddick, and Brian Griese all serving as analysts. The constant amid all of this has been sideline reporter Lisa Salters.

As for whether or not ESPN can land either of Buck or Michaels, well, that’s another story. Buck has been a stalwart at Fox for decades, and while he’s their top NFL broadcaster, that is hardly the only sport he calls. He’s their lead play-by-play man for baseball, has done World Series games for decades, and has been one of the first calls the company makes when it wants to bring a level of clout to any sports-related thing it puts on television. Michaels, meanwhile, was the voice of Monday Night Football for 20 years and wore a number of other hats for the network, but has been viewed as the longtime favorite to head to Amazon — Marchand reports that Michaels is “on the 1 yard line” to joining the network, but his desire is “to know who his analysts would be.”

Last fall marked the 25th anniversary of Tupac’s death. Meanwhile, next month will mark the 25th anniversary of The Notorious B.I.G.’s death. Since their deaths, hip-hop has experienced the loss of other major rappers. Some examples include Nipsey Hussle and Young Dolph, who were shot and killed in 2019 and 2021, respectively.During a recent interview with HotNewHipHop, Rick Ross spoke about how impactful their deaths were to this generation.

“Losing Nipsey and Dolph for this generation, I’m sure, was just as equivalent or greater to what [Notorious] B.I.G. or ‘Pac was for my generation,” he said. Nipsey was shot and killed outside of his Marathon Clothing store in South Los Angeles back in 2019 and Young Dolph was murdered inside of Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies in Memphis last fall. Rick Ross collaborated with Nipsey and Dolph throughout their careers and he even tried to sign Nipsey to his label, Maybach Music Group, at one point.

Rick Ross’ comments come after dropped a video for “Little Havana” with The-Dream — a track from his recently-released eleventh album RIcher Than I Ever Been.

You can read Ross’ interview on HotNewHipHop here.

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

Not even a potential global catastrophe can stop Peter Doocy from doing his job. It’s just that his job involves annoying White House press secretary Jen Psaki (and sometimes President Biden himself). On Friday, the Fox News correspondent tried to diminish Biden’s work helping to rally world leaders against Vladimir Putin. For his efforts, Doocy was patiently educated on the basics of diplomacy.

Doocy cited a New York Times report about how Biden repeatedly reached out to China to help with the Russia-Ukraine situation. They turned him down. Doocy then asked, “So what have you guys done throughout this slow moving Russia crisis that has worked?”

Psaki was visibly taken aback by the ignorance of his question, simply asking him, “In what capacity?”

Doocy was then forced to rattle off some of the things Biden and his administration have done to address the turmoil in Eastern Europe. “Well, the President talked to Putin,” Doocy said. “He talked to the G-7. He threatened sanctions. He put sanctions in place. Now he says the sanctions are going to take 30 days, or about a month. Do you guys think the people in Ukraine have about a month?”

And so Psaki schooled Doocy, once more. “Well, Peter, let me just take a step back and explain to everyone how diplomacy works and how our approach from the United States has worked,” Psaki said:

“What the President has done is he has built a global coalition to stand up in the face of President Putin and President Putin’s aggression and invasion of Ukraine. What he has done is he has rallied the world, our European partners, even at cost to them in some capacities, to put in place significant sanctions, historic sanctions, that would have an enormous impact on the Russian financial sector. It is President Putin’s choice to go to war and invade Ukraine. That is what he has done. It is our choice and our responsibility and the role of the President in the United States to rally opposition and make sure they feel significant pain from that choice. That’s exactly what we have done.”

Meanwhile, others in the rightwing have been in disarray. While leaders, such as Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham, have denounced Putin’s efforts, others, such as Tucker Carlson and even a certain former president, have praised him, even calling his deadly invasion “genius.”

(Via Raw Story)

It’s been more than a year since Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from Kanye West, but the two are still fighting. Earlier this week, Kardashian requested to have the divorce expedited by the court while Kanye himself is still putting up a fight to win her back. Now Kanye has reportedly filed legal documents to have his social media posts kept out of their upcoming hearing. According to TMZ, the rapper has argued that Kim does not know that he wrote the posts despite the fact that they’ve been shared on social media accounts like Instagram.

“Kim claims she read something online allegedly by Kanye and characterizes the posts in her declaration as misinformation,” Kanye’s lawyer says according to TMZ. “Kim needed to offer the social media posts into evidence, and show that the posts were written by Kanye.” For what it’s worth, Kanye’s team did not deny that he’s behind the posts in the documents. Their argument instead is that Kim hasn’t done enough to prove that Kanye wrote them.

On top of that, Kanye’s lawyer reportedly says that the prenup between Kanye and Kim can no longer be viewed as valid, claiming there’s a presumption in California that prenups signed after 2001 are invalid, and that the only way that they can be validated is through a trial or if both parties agree to uphold its terms. It seems that Kanye will not agree to the terms, which means that a full-blown trial will be required, thus stifling Kim’s attempts to expedite the divorce.

David Lynch is more than one of the most distinctive filmmakers in history. He’s also a weather man, of sorts. Every day, more or less, the co-creator of Twin Peaks records a YouTube video of him greeting the world, telling people what the weather is like in his home city of Los Angeles. Sometimes he says more than that. On Friday, Lynch’s report began as usual, albeit with a little mention of Portishead. Then he launched in to a giant pause before addressing the biggest elephant in the room right now: Vladimir Putin ordering Russian troops to invade Ukraine.

“If I could say something to Mr. President Putin, we are, as human beings, charged as to how we treat our fellow man. And there is a law of nature, a hard and fast law. There’s no loopholes, there’s no escaping it,” Lynch averred. “And this law is: What you sow, you shall reap. And right now, Mr. Putin, you are sowing death and destruction, and it’s all on you.”

He went on: “The Ukrainians didn’t attack your country. You went in and attacked their country. And all this death and destruction is going to come back and visit you.”

Lynch then reminded Putin that karma is a bitch:

“In this big picture, in this show we’re involved in, there’s an infinite amount of time, so there’s plenty of time — life after life after life — for you to reap what you are sowing. My advice to you is, ‘Save yourself.’ Save the Ukrainians, save this world. Start getting along with your neighbors. Start building friendships. We are a world family. There is no room for this kind of absurdity anymore. Get with it. Stop this attack. Let’s work together so that all the countries of this world can come up in peace, get along with one another, and solve the problems that we’ve got together. Let’s get real.”

Since the invasion last week, there have been untold posts from the rich and powerful. Some have been righteous. Some have been cringe-inducing. Some have actually cheered on what Putin is doing, including a certain former president. But Lynch’s is definitely in the first category.

(Via IndieWire)