Month: October 2022

Dustin Lance Black, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Milk and Under the Banner of Heaven, came out as gay his senior year of college. It was a struggle not only because of his Mormon upbringing and the acute belief growing up that he was destined for hell, but because his mother’s initial response was antagonistic. Mama’s Boy, among other things, is an exploration of how his mother came around and eventually inspired him to become an activist.

The most fascinating turn in the trailer comes when Black gives his famous acceptance speech for writing Milk, wherein he promised that gay and lesbian children would one day have equal rights. We all remember it, but his mother took it more seriously than anyone else, reminding Black that a promise isn’t something to be given lightly, and that he’d better get off the couch and put in the work to make those equal rights a reality. There’s just no way to stay still after mom gets on your case like that.

Here’s the official synopsis: “Traveling back to the places where he grew up, Black explores his childhood roots, gay identity and close relationship with his mother, who overcame childhood polio, abusive marriages and Mormon dogma, while becoming Black’s emotional rock and ultimately, the inspiration for his activism. With a wealth of personal photographs and candid memories from Black’s family, colleagues, and friends, Mama’s Boy embraces the personal to tell a universally hopeful tale of resilience and reconciliation through the power of love and shared stories.”

Directed by Laurent Bouzereau (Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind), the HBO documentary premieres October 18th.

Somehow, nearly 25 percent of the 2022 NFL season is in the rearview mirror. It goes quickly after the (very) long offseason each year, but Week 5 is upon us with a full slate of intriguing offerings. This week’s schedule includes another London game on top of everything else and, unlike previous weeks, there are some very large underdogs on the board. Through four weeks, the results have been solid in this space, including a 3-2 mark in Week 4, but the fun never stops.

Before we roll through the card, let’s check in on the overall progress.

• Week 4: 3-2
• 2022 Season: 12-8

Come get these winners.

TEASER: Green Bay Packers (-2) over New York Giants and Kansas City Chiefs (-1) over Las Vegas Raiders

I’m only leading with this because the Packers are playing the London game, but it’s a play I like. For the uninitiated, teasers can be profitable long-term if you’re picking off key numbers, and both of these lines move through the keys of three and seven. Green Bay is on a neutral in an odd setting against New York, but I’m going to have to see the Giants do more before I believe it. Teasing the Chiefs to one at home in prime time is solid as well, and I would at least consider the Jaguars as another teaser leg.

Pittsburgh Steelers (+14.5) over Buffalo Bills

The Steelers might just be hideous, and I get that. Mike Tomlin has always been a very profitable bet as an underdog, and this number feels a touch high, against the team that many have power rated as the best team in the NFL. Kenny Pickett making his first start is scary, but we have our principles.

Washington Commanders (+2) over Tennessee Titans

Tennessee is seemingly getting a bump after beating the Colts, but the Titans were soundly out-gained in that matchup and I’m not buying it. Washington isn’t fantastic or anything, but I’m not sure they should be an underdog at all in this spot at home.

Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Rams UNDER 21 points in the first half

Sound familiar? We’re going back to the well with another Rams first half under. Los Angeles continues to play very slowly in the first half, and the Rams are scuffling on offense. Dallas has earned trust on defense this season, and this one could be a slug-fest. I’d also lean under on the full game.

Baltimore Ravens (-3) over Cincinnati Bengals

Nabbing the 3 (rather than 3.5) is important, but there are multiple shops still dealing 3 as this post goes up. I’m buying the dip on the Ravens and I think this line should be 4 or 4.5. It’s not a complicated handicap, but I also trust Baltimore’s coaching staff to deliver in a big divisional spot.

NLE Choppa has dropped several hits this year, and he’ll do it again. On the 19-year-old’s latest single, “Do It Again,” the Memphis rapper looks forward after a break-up while delivering fiery bars over a punchy, fast-paced drum-driven beat that contains a prominent sample of “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore” by Rose Royce.

“I’m too fine to be so alone,” he raps on the song’s chorus, continuing, saying, “I’ma get money no matter the cost / Havin’ some water, I’m havin’ some Voss / Got that dope d*ck, that’s yo’ loss / He is a worker, I am a boss.”

Joining Choppa is Philadelphia rapper 2Rare, who shows off his vocal stylings, singing and rapping humorous one-liners on his verse. One of the standout lines is, “B*tch, you like a squirrel, you just like Sandy, b*tch, get off my nuts.”

In the song’s accompanying video, Choppa throws a party in the street, where he is joined by his neighbors. Throughout the video, Choppa and 2Rare are seen dancing in the street, grilling wings, smashing cakes, and getting twerked on by some ladies.

Check out the video above.

NLE Choppa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Denver Broncos lost 12-9 to the Indianapolis Colts in overtime on Thursday Night Football in a game that was uglier than that touchdown-less final score would even indicate — with fans leaving after regulation because they’d seen enough.

The two offenses were absolutely horrendous, as both veteran quarterbacks struggled to do much of anything positive, and in the end it was Matt Ryan, who had two interceptions and a couple fumbles that somehow the Broncos didn’t get back, who ended up as the winner because he held it together the best late. On the other side, Russell Wilson was dreadful (again) this season and threw two interceptions of his own, but chose the worst possible time for both.

The Broncos signal-caller threw a pair of interceptions himself, but his proved far more costly. His second came on third and four inside the 20 and gave the Colts a chance down 9-6 to force overtime, when a first down would’ve allowed the Broncos to kneel out the clock or an incompletion would’ve let them go up 12-6 in a game where no one could score a touchdown.

However, the bad decisions wouldn’t stop there, as after a Colts field goal in OT, as the Broncos rolled the dice on 4th and 1 after marching down to the five, choosing to throw, bizarrely, and Wilson missed a wide open KJ Hamler to throw an incompletion in the middle of the end zone.

If “Russell Wilson throws game-losing pass on the goal line” sounds familiar, you aren’t alone, as Richard Sherman just so happens to be on the Thursday Night Football desk and was self-admittedly “triggered” by what he saw from Wilson and the Broncos. The former All-Pro corner of the Seahawks launched into an incredible rant begging the Broncos to just “run the dang ball” while the rest of the desk tried not to laugh as he relived some trauma.

It’s incredible television and great work from the Amazon desk to just clear out and let Sherm go off, because that’s what everyone wanted in that moment because no one can relate to that pain better than him. Him begging Russ to “learn from your mistakes” is, to me, the funniest part of this. He wasn’t alone on the desk at getting after Wilson, as Tony Gonzalez didn’t hold back either, noting that this loss is firmly on the QB and not on the coaching staff.

Still, it was incredible watching Sherman let a decade’s worth of frustration out live on air in part postgame show/part therapy session, and hopefully it was as cathartic for him as it was incredible for us to watch.

It’s been a month since Stray Kids and JYP Entertainment dropped a cryptic teaser on their socials, announcing a comeback was on the way. Now, that cryptic teaser has slowly unraveled over the last couple of weeks — through countless of handsome-looking group and individual portraits, energizing music video teasers, all in different concepts — to unveil “Case 143.”

At midnight EST (1 p.m. in KST/9 p.m. PST), Stray Kids finally unleashed the full music video to “Case 143,” the lead single off of their sixth EP, MAXIDENT! In a colorful chaotic three minutes and 40 seconds, Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin, and I.N. expresses what it’s really like to be crazily whipped and in love with someone. In between scenes of tutting choreography and questioning themselves on why they keep getting attracted to someone, the music video embodies what the heart (there’s literally an animated heart character running around) and mind goes through when you’ve fallen deep.

MAXIDENT! currently holds the record of one of the highest pre-sold K-pop albums in history with more than 2.24 million units sold (as the end of September). The sixth EP from the world-dominating boy group consists of eight tracks including three songs by the group’s sub-units — 3RACHA (the producing unit with Chan, Han, and Changbin), DANCERACHA (the dance line Lee Know, Hyunjin, and Felix), and VOCALRACHA (the main vocalists consisting of Seungmin and I.N.) — “3Racha”, “Taste”, and “Can’t Stop,” all of which they performed at their two-night encore concerts in Seoul last month as part of the MANIAC! World Tour.

The group will continue their tour next month and next year with stops in Asia, Australia, and the US.

Check out the full tracklist of MAXIDENT! below.

1. “CASE 143”
2. “식혀 (CHILL)”
3. “Give Me Your TMI”
4. “SUPER BOARD
5. “3RACHA”
6. “TASTE”
7. “나 너 좋아하나봐 (Can’t Stop)”
8. “CIRCUS (Korean Version)”

Ahead of the theatrical release of Till next week, Jazmine Sullivan has shared a new song, “Stand Up.” Featured on the movie’s soundtrack, “Stand Up” was inspired by Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmitt Till. The movie Till tells the story of how Mamie became one of the most prominent voices in the civil rights movement.

“You got a purpose / What is your reason? / What is you fightin’ for? / I see you searchin’/ It’s burnin’ inside / it’s somethin’ you can’t ignore / Yeah, everyone’s hurtin’ / but you gotta fight / Get up and keep forward / See, don’t back away with your hand up / ‘Cause somebody needs you to stand up,” Sullivan sings on the song’s chorus.

The song is written entirely by Sullivan and produced by D’Mile. In an interview with Pitchfork last year, Sullivan said that writing all of her own words is a therapeutic experience for her.

“It’s something that I would never give up,” she said. “It’s something so beautiful about getting it out. I remember when I was going through writer’s block [on this album], when I couldn’t say what I wanted to say, I was so sad and I felt like I was empty, and I realized that’s how I communicate: through my writing. So I have to do it.

Listen to “Stand Up” above.

Till arrives in theaters 10/14.

Just weeks away from her sixth album, The Loneliest Time, Carly Rae Jepsen has shared the album’s title track, a duet with Rufus Wainwright.

On the collaboration, Jepsen recalls the feelings of isolation she’s felt during the past few years. “I need that look in your eyes / ‘Cause we’ve had the loneliest time,” she sings on the song’s chorus over an intoxicating arrangement of drums and triumphant strings. Joining in, Wainwright sings, “I’ve had more of those bad dreams / You were 10 feet in front of me / I went running, but I couldn’t catch / just a shadow of your silhouette.”

In a recent interview with DIY, Jepsen shared how Wainwright influenced her craft and inspired her to pursue a career in music.

“First of all, I need to say I’m not just a fan of Rufus Wainwright; he literally had a profound effect on my career choice,” she said. “I can remember being 19, taking the West Coast Express from Mission – my home town – to Vancouver, and I would listen to his album Poses over and over and over again. And it was somewhere during the song ‘Poses’, where he sings, ‘Life is a game and true love is a trophy,’ that I was like, ‘I think I’m going to make a run at this music thing, like for real, for real’. Because there’s nothing that sounds better in life to me than this. Fast forward 15 years later, and I’m in a writing session and we’re working on this disco-like track with a Rufus-esque melody to it. And I said, imagine if he sang that dream sequence with us. When I went home, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

Check out “The Loneliest Time” above.

The Loneliest Time is out 10/21 via School Boy and Interscope. Pre-save it here.

Things are getting messier amid the rumored Migos split. Quavo and Takeoff have just released their new album, “Only Built For Infinity Links,” and on it is a song called “Messy.”

On “Messy,” Quavo seems to address the rumors that Saweetie had an affair with former Migo, Offset.

“B*tch f*cked my dog behind my back but I ain’t stressing / You wanted the gang you should’ve just said that, we would’ve blessed you,” raps Quavo.

Both Offset and his wife, Cardi B, have shut those rumors down, however, Quavo doesn’t seem to be convinced.

Quavo and Takeoff previewed the song earlier this week, and while some fans believe he is subliminally referring to Saweetie, others have said that Quavo is simply milking the rumors as a marketing technique.

“The reality of that Saweetie situation is most likely, Quavo is being spiteful and capitalizing on a social media rumor,” said one Twitter user, “because he don’t fuck with Saweetie or Offset anymore and it’s creating traction for that song.”

Check out “Messy” above.

Only Built For Infinity Links is out now via Quality Control Music Group/Motown Records. Stream it here.

Saweetie and Cardi B are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Thursday Night Football has been in the news a great deal in 2022, starting with a headline-grabbing matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Chargers to kick off Amazon’s foray into full broadcast coverage of the NFL. Viewership numbers are strong and, in the early going, the matchups were solid. In Week 5, however, professional football observers were treated to quite a spectacle, to the point where home fans in Denver were seemingly so annoyed that they vacated the premises at Mile High just before overtime began.

After Russell Wilson threw an interception with a chance to close out the game, the Indianapolis Colts marched the field, kicked a field goal, and forced overtime with a hilarious 9-9 score. As the transition from regulation to the extra frame was happening, Amazon’s cameras caught a slew of Broncos fans heading to the exits, and Kirk Herbstreit expressed his dismay on the air.

Herbstreit likely speaks for many people here in that it is bizarre to see fans leaving before overtime, no matter the context. While it is a night game, it was only about 9:30 p.m. local time in Denver when the exodus started, and you can hear the bewilderment of Herbstreit. His partner in the booth, the legendary Al Michaels, was also sharing quips throughout the night to make fun of the product on the field, and the tone was honestly appropriate.

While the game did have real stakes and was competitive on the scoreboard, there was plenty of evidence that the game was not going well on the whole. For example, both teams threw two interceptions and averaged fewer than six yards per pass attempt in regulation. The Broncos and Colts combined for 15 penalties in the first 60 minutes, with a combined 6-of-29 mark on third down. In short, it was an aesthetically hideous game that only a true sicko would enjoy, and at least some fans in Denver just couldn’t take it anymore.

That proved to probably be a wise move as they beat some traffic while also not having to watch the final twist of the knife, as the Broncos chose to go for it on 4th and 1 from the 5 while trailing by three and, instead of running the ball, they threw the ball for an incompletion to lose.

Victor Wembanyama made quite the impression in Las Vegas this week, as the presumptive No. 1 overall pick surpassed even the loftiest expectations for what he’d show in two showcase games against Scoot Henderson (who also impressed) an the G League Ignite.

Wembanyama put up some preposterous numbers, including a 36-point, 11-rebound effort in a win on Thursday afternoon, and simply did things that no one should be able to do at his size — which is somewhere between 7’3 and 7’5 depending on who you ask. He launched threes from Dame range, threw down vicious putback dunks on opponents, and just generally makes the game of basketball look upsettingly easy.

While Wemby drew the majority of the attention, one of his Metropolitans 92 teammates also became a viral sensation simply because of his name: Steeve Ho You Fat. The “Ho You Fat” jersey became an immediate meme on Twitter, and Shareef O’Neal got the coveted jersey swap with Steeve after Thursday’s game.

Even Wembanyama had to note that he has a “crazy name” when he got asked about his teammate by Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, who couldn’t help but talk about Steeve when the French wunderkind joined them for the Lakers preseason game in Vegas on Thursday night.

As Wemby notes, Ho You Fat is enjoying his viral stardom and embracing it all, even though as JVG notes later (not in this clip), it looks like an XFL jersey — which, as an aside, I’d love to see Van Gundy try to explain the original XFL to Wembanyama who was not even born at the time. For those looking for more on Ho You Fat and his name, you should read this excellent feature from Yahoo’s Jake Fischer, who talked with him about the origins of the name and why he loves the attention he’s getting because he gets to spread his family name far and wide.