Month: April 2022

The first quarter of 2022 was very eventful for Kanye West, in both good and bad ways. He released his eleventh album Donda 2, a project he shared exclusively on his Stem Player website, and collaborated with names like The Game and Fivio Foreign. Elsewhere, Kanye also used his Instagram account to speak out about his divorce from Kim Kardashian, struggles with co-parenting, his beef with Pete Davidson, and more. His rants on Instagram came to an end when the platform suspended him for 24 hours following racial slurs he directed at Trevor Noah. Since then, we haven’t heard much from Kanye.

Now, thanks to an update given by Fivio Foreign, we know how Kanye is doing and what he’s been up to as of late. “YE is on a Island relaxing clear’n his mind & healing from all the stress of Society,” Fivio wrote in a tweet. “He appreciates the support for the Album & the response.” The album that Fivio is referring to is his debut album B.I.B.L.E. Kanye executive produced the project and contributed a guest verse to it with “City Gods” which also features Alicia Keys. B.I.B.L.E. arrived with 17 songs and additional contributions from KayCyy, Quavo, Queen Naija, Coi Leray, Chloe, ASAP Rocky, Lil Yachty, Lil Tjay, Yung Bleu, DJ Khaled, Vory, Polo G, Blueface, and Ne-Yo.

Fivio’s update comes after Kanye officially dropped out of his headlining slot in this year’s Coachella festival. The Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia have stepped in to headline the final day of Coachella’s respective weekends.

You can view Fivio’s tweet above.

B.I.B.L.E. is out now via Columbia Records. You can stream it here.

Dwayne Haskins died on Saturday morning when he was hit by a car in Florida, according to his agent. Haskins, who was 24, was with a number of other members of the Pittsburgh Steelers for an offseason workout.

In the aftermath of Haskins’ passing, both of the NFL teams for which he played in his career — the Washington Commanders, which took him with the 15th overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, and the Steelers — put out statements. Washington’s statement came by way of the Snyder family, while Pittsburgh’s was authored by head coach Mike Tomlin.

The NFL community came together to celebrate Haskins, with recently-retired All-Pro safety and fellow Ohio State Buckeye Malcolm Jenkins saying “we’ve lost a king before we got to watch his rein.”

Haskins was memorialized by a number of individuals who spent time around him as a teammate. This included Cincinnati Bengals signal caller Joe Burrow, who famously transferred to LSU after getting beaten out by Haskins for the backup quarterback job at Ohio State in 2017, giving him a leg up in the race to get the starting nod the following year — Haskins would go on to set a number of team records en route to being named the Big Ten’s Offensive Player of the Year and a finalist for the Heisman Trophy for the conference and Rose Bowl-winning Buckeyes.

There aren’t a lot of openly pro-Trump celebrities. The former president’s inauguration did not feature big names, though a pre-inauguration celebration did manage to score Toby Keith and Three Doors Down. For some reason rap rocker Kid Rock was not on that list, but he’s certainly made up for that since. He’s come out against masks and dropped homophobic slurs at his shows. He even claims Trump tapped him for advice on North Korea. Now he’s even bringing him to his shows, sort of.

As per Rolling Stone, Rock has been opening his shows with a pre-taped video message from the big boy himself. And it’s pretty awkward.

““Hello, everyone. I love you all,” Trump says to the crowd. “I know you’re having a great time at the Kid Rock concert tonight. Quite frankly, he’s amazing. All of you in attendance are truly the backbone of our great country. Hard-working, God-fearing rock-and-roll patriots.”

Trump also casually informed the crowd of something they might not have known: Kid Rock’s name is Bob (and he’s also just okay at golf). “Bob is truly one of the greatest entertainers of our time,” Trump says. “Not the best golfer by any means, his golf game could use a little work, but a great, great entertainer, and that’s why you’re there. Let’s all continue to love one another, fight for our God-given freedoms, and most of all, let’s make America rock again.”

Granted, if you’re going to see Kid Rock in 2022, you probably wouldn’t be too surprised to see a former president who now lives in resorts. Still, there’s probably no one less rock ‘n’ roll than the guy who loves dancing to “Y.M.C.A.”

(Via Rolling Stone)

Dwayne Haskins, the former first-round NFL Draft pick who was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy during his collegiate career at Ohio State, died on Saturday morning. According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, Haskins’ agent relayed the news that the Pittsburgh Steelers was hit by a car in Florida. He was less than a month away from his 25th birthday.

Schefter went on to report that Haskins was training with his teammates at the time of the incident.

Haskins went 15th overall in the 2019 NFL Draft to the Washington Commanders, but before Washington’s 2020 season could conclude, it was announced that the team decided to cut him. He did, however, get a second chance with the Steelers, which signed him in January of 2021 and had him on the roster for the duration of the 2021 NFL campaign, although he was only active for one game. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin had previously announced that Haskins would compete for the starting job in the wake of Ben Roethlisberger’s retirement.

Prior to his time in the league, Haskins was a highly-sought after 4-star recruit out of Maryland who opted to go to Ohio State. He redshirted his freshman campaign and got the occasional snap in JT Barrett’s stead during his second year in Columbus, and prior to the 2018 campaign, he earned the starting job over Joe Burrow. His one year at the helm could not have gone much better: The Buckeyes went 13-1 with a Big Ten title and a win over Washington in the Rose Bowl, with Haskins winning MVP honors in both games.

Earlier this week, Pusha T announced that his upcoming fourth solo album would be titled It’s Almost Dry. The announcement came after he and Jay-Z reconnected for “Neck And Wrist,” their first track since 2016’s “Drug Dealers Anonymous.” Guest verses from Jay-Z are not the easiest to come by nowadays, so it’s a testament to the talent and respect Pusha has in the game that he’s been able to snag two in a little over a half-decade. The song serves as a strong follow-up to “Diet Coke,” the lead single from It’s Almost Dry. During a recent appearance on Desus and Mero, Pusha opened up about the collaboration.

“It all happens over email. This is the wildest part, I’ll have a beat, and I’ll be like, ‘This is crazy,” he said during the sit-down. “I’ll say everything I can say crazy to it, and I’m like, ‘Man, who belongs on this beat.’” He continued, “So it’s like, I record it and send it to him. And he hit me back, whether it’s emojis or… I think he said, ‘What the hell do you want me to say to this?’ I know I can count on him to say things I just can’t say. He lives… Bro, [it’s] a different level.”

In addition to dropping “Neck And Wrist” and sharing his next album’s title, Pusha T also revealed the tour dates in support of It’s Almost Dry. The string of shows will begin at the end of May and continue through mid-June with more dates to be announced.

You can watch Push T’s full interview in the video above.

After the 2020 election was called for Joe Biden, the person who lost, Donald J. Trump, did everything he could to overturn those results. It didn’t work. It still hasn’t worked, despite considerable, increasingly desperate efforts. But at least one person was trying to make Trump the winner while votes were still being counted. CNN recently acquired texts from Trump’s oldest son, Don Jr., in which he instructed possibly jailbound then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to do everything he could to make sure more votes went to his dad.

In those texts, which were sent on Nov. 5 — two days after the election, and two days before Biden was declared the winner — Don Jr. laid out a plan. “This is what we need to do please read it and please get it to everyone that needs to see it because I’m not sure we’re doing it,” Don Jr. told Meadows before sending out a plan on how to keep his dad in office.

“It’s very simple,” Jr. told Meadows. “We have multiple paths We control them all.”

The plan Don Jr. laid out to Meadows was more or less exactly what Trump’s cronies did over the next two months: file lawsuits, advocate for recounts in swing states, try to prevent states from certifying results, install fake “Trump electors.” And if all that failed, he’d simply have Republicans in Congress vote to reinstall Trump, rather than the person who actually won.

“We have operational control Total leverage,” Don Jr.’s message reads. “Moral High Ground POTUS must start 2nd term now.”

In other words, Trump and his team were already trying to subvert the election before they definitively knew he lost.

Don Jr. lawyer told CNN that Don Jr. didn’t personally write the message. “After the election, Don received numerous messages from supporters and others,” he said. “Given the date, this message likely originated from someone else and was forwarded.”

Of course, if that’s true, Don Jr. still sent the messages.

(Via CNN)

Last summer, just days after he released his third album Hall Of Fame, which went on to become his first No. 1 album, Polo G was arrested in Miami. The rapper was leaving an album release party in celebration of Hall Of Fame when officers pulled him over. According to Billboard at the time, Polo G, who was a passenger in the car with his mother and manager, was stopped after cops suspected that there were weapons in the car because they overhead a passenger say that the car was bulletproof. Shortly, after he was pulled over, an altercation between Polo G and an officer occurred before he was placed in handcuffs.

As a result of the incident, Polo G was hit with two felony charges for battery against a police officer and threatening a public servant. He also received misdemeanor charges for public servant/influence performance threat, resisting an officer without violence, and criminal mischief. Back in November, Miami-Dade County prosecutors decided to drop the felony charges, as well as the charge of criminal mischief, due to insufficient evidence. Now, the remaining misdemeanor charges have reportedly been dropped after Polo G completed an anger management class.

According to TMZ, the final charges were dropped after Polo G completed a 6-hour anger management course. It was a part of the Pre-Trial Intervention program which allows non-violent offenses to have charges dropped through courses like the anger management class.

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are very much in love, but for the second time in their lives, they’re ready to tie the knot! Lopez shared the news in a message to readers of her On The JLo newsletter and it came days after she was spotted earlier this week with what many believed to be an engagement ring on her finger. Prior to sharing the exciting news, Lopez teased a “major announcement” in a video she posted on Twitter Friday night. “So I have a really exciting and special story to share…” Lopez said in the video. She also added a ring emoji to her name on Twitter.

In the newsletter, Lopez included a video of her fawning over the large, green diamond ring, and her sister Lynda also shared images of the ring on her Instagram Story. Lopez and Affleck’s engagement comes nearly 20 years after their first engagement which occurred back in November 2002. At that time, the couple planned to get married in September 2003, but the wedding was postponed with four days’ notice. Two months later, the wedding was called off. Their engagement also comes a year after Lopez and ex-fiance Alex Rodriguez called off their own wedding.

In a past interview with People, Lopez was asked what makes her connection with Affleck different this time around. “We’re older now, we’re smarter, we have more experience,” she said. “We’re at different places in our lives, we have kids now, and we have to be very conscious of those things.”

You can view images of Lopez’s engagement ring above.

Friday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Race at Martinsville featured some fireworks on and off the track. While Brandon Jones came out on top in a double overtime finish, tensions boiled over after the race between Ty Gibbs and Sam Mayer, which led to punches getting thrown and Mayer having a shiner under his left eye.

The two drivers approached one another, at which point Gibbs shoved Mayer, who took off his helmet. While Gibbs looked like he wanted to walk away, Mayer went up to him to continue the confrontation, which led to more pushing and shoving before Gibbs threw a few punches that connected with Mayer’s face. While the two were eventually separated, Mayer was understandably not happy that another person just punched him several times.

Reporters managed to catch up with Mayer after and get his side of the story.

“$100,000 on the line, put the bumper to him because that’s what short track racing’s all about, and he got upset,” Mayer said before making baby noises to relay what Gibbs said. “It’s short track racing and all that nonsense, so, whatever. He threw a couple punches, they were weak, so I can’t say much about that, it’s kinda funny. I just put the bumper to him for $100,000 and he got upset about it, but he’s been doing that to everyone else every week so far.”

Mayer went on to say that, because Gibbs kept his helmet on during the confrontation, “obviously, he was scared about something, or he had it in his mind to throw a punch the whole time.” While one can appreciate that sentiment, all of us at Uproxx Sports must advise that if you are ever wearing a helmet and an altercation could potentially break out, do not take your helmet off under any circumstances.

The Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz both did their respective things during fourth quarters of basketball games on Friday night, as the Suns managed to rally back from a huge deficit while the Jazz completely collapsed in the game’s final 12 minutes. Despite the fact that Utah entered the fourth with a 17-point lead in front of their hometown fans, Phoenix managed to pick up a 111-105 win.

In a season that has been defined in part by an inability to see out wins when they lead after three quarters, Utah once again appeared to be in a pretty good spot. The Jazz held a 92-75 lead and did an impressive job stymieing the Suns’ offense, only to fall apart down the stretch. Phoenix won the final frame, 36-13, and at one point went on a 26-6 run to take the lead.

While Devin Booker led the Suns with 33 points, Mikal Bridges came up huge late in the game, scoring nine of his 18 points in the fourth and playing his usually pesky defense.

Unfortunately for Utah, this sort of thing has become par for the course. The team has a habit of completely melting down late in games, something that has been shoved to the forefront in recent weeks — much has been made of a recent press conference in which Quin Snyder attempted to address this narrative, but the fact remains that the Jazz continue to lead the league in blown fourth quarter leads.

With the loss, Utah falls into a tie with the Denver Nuggets for the 5-seed in the Western Conference. They do hold the tiebreaker between the two teams, but now enter the final game of the regular season needing to beat the lowly Portland Trail Blazers to secure their spot. If they lose and Denver beats the Los Angeles Lakers, the Nuggets will jump them in the standings on the final day.