Month: February 2022

Since the release of her debut solo single, “Have Mercy,” the world has been falling in love with Chloe Bailey. Well, that’s not entirely true, she was already beloved as one half of Chloe x Halle, and her “Buss It” challenge turned quite a few heads as well. But now that she’s clearly gaining confidence in her own sexuality, and finding her voice, it’s been a joy to watch Chloe come into her own. Everyone from random internet commentators to Cardi B herself is repeatedly floored when the elder Bailey sister drops a new photo series, and even rising rapper Gunna seems intent on getting to know her better.

So look, can we really blame a man on the internet for pretending that he was once sought after by the young diva? It’s pretty understandable that someone would want to claim that they’d known her in the past, and even embellish a little bit by claiming she was interested. That’s likely what was motivating a guy who decided to share his own version of events — that Chloe tried to talk to him in high school, but that he saw her star power, and he encouraged her to work on her career instead of focusing on a humble man such as himself. Except, our girl had to crush his dreams hard by quote tweeting his fantasy and setting the record straight: She was homeschooled in high school. When you’re learning at home, there’s very little room for flirting. Like zero. As Keke Palmer would say, sorry to this man! Chloe had to ether him. Nas would be proud.

For his part, the man in question seems to be doing just fine with his fantasy world.

Saweetie has been teasing her full-length debut Pretty B*tch Music for quite a while now, but we haven’t yet, and there haven’t been many updates since she announced a delay from the original release date of June 2021. Instead, she’s been daydreaming about opening a wellness resort for celebrities (FYI they do have those), and regaling fans with stories about her kleptomaniac tendencies. She also announced a new project, Icy Season, slated for release in early January that hasn’t been released yet either.

So, needless to say fans are hungry for new music from Saweetie, and you know, not another makeup collab with Cher. (A musical collab from those two would be very welcome, however!) Anyway, all the hungry fans got fed today when Saweetie shared a cute snippet of a new collaboration on social media. Playing a preview of her new song with H.E.R. in the background, Saweetie walks around her apartment, getting ready and brushing her hair, before putting on her coat and getting ready to walk out the door. She blows a kiss to the camera on the way out, and has slated this single’s release for 2/11.

Still, the preview doesn’t include any of Saweetie rapping, we’ll just have to wait for the song to drop to get that verse.

Things haven’t been going so well for Roddy Ricch over the last few months. After the Compton rapper followed his 2019 project Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial with last year’s Live Life Fast, some fans didn’t like the direction he was going in. Undeterred, Roddy let listeners know that he would be dropping Feed Tha Streets 3 in 2022, potentially helping alleviate worries from the fans who were underwhelmed by his 2021 album.

But when he shared a song snippet on social media today, things didn’t go so well with for the young hip-hop artist. His new track, which looks like it’s called “Out My Mind” wasn’t a hit with fans, who were quick to criticize the music. This didn’t sit well with Roddy, who was clearly excited about his new work, and disappointed when fans reacted so negatively. “Guess I’m a flop now,” Roddy wrote on an Instagram story. “Sh*t crazy,” before eventually deleting both his Twitter and Instagram accounts.

For fans who missed the snippet, here’s a screen grab of ROddy posting it and his currently deactivate Twitter account, as well as the snippet itself below.

Hopefully this is just a moment of frustration for the rapper and he makes his way back to a healthy place with social media sometime soon.

After missing the Los Angeles Lakers‘ last five games, LeBron James will return to the lineup for their nationally televised game on Saturday night. The Lakers will invite the New York Knicks to Crypto.com Arena in a matchup between two teams looking for a spark as we get into the second half of the season, and Los Angeles will get one in the form of their former NBA Finals MVP.

The team announced prior to tip that James will not just suit up, he’ll be in the team’s starting lineup.

James last took the floor on Jan. 25 against the Brooklyn Nets. Since then, he’s been on the sideline due to lingering issues with his knee — James underwent an MRI and it was determined that there was some swelling that needed to be tended to. He has missed the team’s last five games, and in that time, Los Angeles has gone 1-4.

Despite playing in 36 of the team’s 53 games this season due to injuries, James has been nothing short of magnificent for the Lakers. James is averaging 29.1 points per game — his best mark since 2009-10 — with 7.7 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 1.6 steals, and 1.1 blocks in 36.6 minutes a night.

The game between the Lakers and Knicks tips off at 8:30 a.m. EST on ABC.

Last spring, Long Beach’s Huey Briss dropped his sophomore album Grace Park Legend. The project delivered 12 songs and appearances from Seafood Sam, Rueben Vincent, and A. Lynn. It was a strong body of work that stood out among the hip-hop releases that year as it later appeared on Uproxx’s Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2021 list. Six months later, Briss returned with its deluxe version that supplied five additional songs to the album with appearances from G Perico, Buddy, Kent Jamz, Lord Apex, Josef Lamercier, and Nikobeats.

Now, four months after that deluxe reissue arrived, Huey Briss is back in action with a pair of new singles, “Losing My Faith” and “Thoughts N Actions,” as his first offering of 2022. Both tracks do a great job of showing his sharp lyricism while proving that he’s in tip-top shape for the new year. Along with the new tracks, Briss also offers a video for “Losing My Faith.” It arrives as a black and white visual that follows him as he journeys through a city and smokes a blunt while laying precision-cut raps.

In addition to releasing Grace Park Legend last year, Briss also deliver a gritty performance of the album’s title track for UPROXX Sessions.

You listen to both “Losing My Faith” and “Thoughts N Actions” in the videos above.

Awkwafina has long been criticized for her use of a stereotypical Black voice, something that’s been referred to as a “blaccent,” in movies like Crazy Rich Asians and Ocean’s 8. Last fall, the actor and rapper even struggled to answer a question about it. Years after those movies were released, Awkwafina hopped on Twitter to address the matter and apologize for using the “blaccent.”

“I stand by the fact that I will always listen and work tirelessly to understand the history and context of AAVE [African American Vernacular English], what is deemed appropriate or backwards toward the progress of ANY and EVERY marginalized group,” she wrote. “But I must emphasize: To mock, belittle, or to be unkind in any way possible at the expense of others is: Simply. Not. My. Nature. It never has, and it never was.”

She also revealed her plans to quit Twitter thanks to a recommendation from her therapist. “I am retiring from the ingrown toenail that is Twitter,” she said. “Not retiring from anything else, even if I wanted to, and I didn’t drunkenly hit someone with a shoehorn and now escaping as a fugitive.”

As for her apology, well, it didn’t get the best reception on Twitter. In fact, her post earned her even more criticism. “All these words and not one apology,” one person wrote. “Awkwafina could have just said: ‘You were right. I did use a blaccent to make a name for myself and that was wrong. I wholeheartedly apologize, and I’ll do better from now on.’”

You can view additional responses to her apology below.

Markieff Morris has only appeared in 10 games for the Miami Heat this season. Back on Nov. 8, Morris committed a hard foul on Nikola Jokic late in a game against the Denver Nuggets. Jokic wasn’t a fan of the foul, so as Morris started to walk away, the reigning league MVP ran up to him and shoved him from behind. A fracas broke out involving the two teams, and eventually, Jokic was handed a one-game suspension by the NBA.

The incident drew a ton of attention, both because the Inside the NBA crew defended Jokic and Jokic’s brothers made clear to Marcus Morris that they wouldn’t put up with him trying to get any measure of revenge. The whole thing is in the past now, but Morris has still not played basketball in quite some time. And apparently, it does not sound like we’re going to see him any time soon.

According to Anthony Chiang and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, Morris wants to play and believes he is at a place where he can do that. The issue is the Heat just straight up will not clear him and have not said whether or not he’ll be able to play again this year.

Morris’ injury — sustained in that Nov. 8 game in Denver — was termed “whiplash” by the Heat. The Heat is now listing him as out because of a “return to competitive reconditioning.” But the team has declined to discuss his status, what he has been cleared to do physically or whether he will play again this season.
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The Heat’s specific medical concern with Morris isn’t clear, but the sources said it was significant enough to make the Heat uneasy about clearing him to play, at least to this point, and significant enough to leave the team concerned about liability issues.

As the Herald pointed out, Morris has dealt with a neck injury in the past. The veteran forward joined the Heat as a free agent this past offseason and looked like a snug fit on the roster, averaging 7.7 points per game off the bench while connecting on 36.4 percent of his threes.

The public dispute between Kanye West and Kim Kardashian is now on its second day. It began when Kanye shared an Instagram post claiming that Kim was letting their daughter North West use TikTok against his wishes. Now, the rapper is saying that Kim is refusing to let him fly their kids to Chicago so that they can watch his basketball team, Donda Academy, play.

“I WANT TO BRING MY KIDS TO MY HOME TOWN OF CHICAGO TO SEE MY BASKETBALL TEAM PLAY FOR 7 THOUSAND PEOPLE AND KIM IS STOPPING THAT,” Kanye wrote in the post. “HOW IS THIS JOINT CUSTODY?” He shared the message with what appeared to be a screenshot from his upcoming Netflix documentary Jeen-Yuhs.

Kanye’s post comes hours after he thanks far right pundit Candace Owens for being the “only noteworthy” person to defend him in his stance against North using TikTok. “THANK YOU CANDACE FOR BEING THE ONLY NOTEWORTHY PERSON TO SPEAK ON THIS ISSUE,” he said before later adding, “I WILL NO LONGER PUT MY HAND THROUGH A BLENDER TO HUG MY CHILDREN.”

Kim’s responses to Kanye’s claims have been limited. In her first and only statement so far, she said his constant attacks against her are more harmful than North’s TikTok use.

For a few years now, City Girls and Nicki Minaj have not seen eye to eye. Nicki spoke about friction with the female rap duo, which consists of JT and Yung Miami, during a recent interview on The Morning Hustle. “It’s let go,” she said about their issues. “But why would I work with someone who doesn’t like me?” A short time later, Nicki shared an update about the matter on Twitter. “Just had a great convo with @ThegirlJT & @YungMiami305. Let’s move on & make new memories y’all [unicorn emoji],” she wrote. Yung Miami recently spoke about the matter and shared what she learned through it all.

“Be careful of the things you say ‘cause it might catch up with you one day,” Yung Miami said during an interview with The Neighborhood Talk. “I would tell my younger self to just stop trolling, stop being childish, grow up and be mindful of the things you say because everybody is human.”

It seems like things will be smooth sailing for City Girls and Nicki Minaj from here on out. As for Yung Miami, she’s released a pair of songs outside of City Girls over the past few months. The first was “Scrub Tha Ground” with Quavo and the second was “Rap Freaks” which included a line that greatly amused Megan Thee Stallion.

You can listen to Yung Miami’s comments in the video above.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

For years, Joe Rogan has had it good. He went from NewsRadio alum and former host of a show where people ate bugs to hosting the most popular podcast in the world. He’s said whatever he liked, sometimes about subjects he didn’t know that much about. He’s even recklessly spread COVID misinformation and sang the praises of a drug also used to deworm horses. But in the last couple weeks, his life has stopped being so carefree.

Spotify, which has exclusive rights to The Joe Rogan Experience, has long been under fire from scientists, who begged the streamer to do something, anything about its biggest star spreading dangerous nonsense. But it took Neil Young to turn the tides. After the legendary rock god demanded his music be taken down in protest, other followed suit. Rogan apologized twice, first for making a once-in-a-century public health crisis worse, then, on Saturday, for old episodes in which he repeatedly used the N-word.

Now, as per Variety, Spotify, which already pledged to put warnings on any podcast episodes discussing COVID, has done something: On Friday, they yanked 70 episodes of Rogan’s show, ranging from 2009 to 2018 — all from before the pandemic began. Spotify brass haven’t revealed the motives behind their decision, so it’s unclear if they are related to general misinformation or if they involved him dropping the aforementioned epithet.

Rogan, in addressing the N-word controversy, called it “the most regretful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to talk about publicly,” and explained that he had mistakenly assumed he didn’t need to censor the word when addressing it in non-racist ways. “It’s a very unusual word, but it’s not my word to use,” he said. “I never used it to be racist, because I’m not racist, but whenever you’re in a situation where you have to say ‘I’m not racist,’ you’ve f–ked up, and I clearly have f–cked up.”

Still, that leaves about 1700 episodes still lurking on Spotify’s coffers.

(Via Variety)