Year: 2022

The Ben Roethlisberger era in Pittsburgh came to a rather unceremonious end last season, as the Steelers went 9-7-1 (arguably in spite of their veteran QB) before getting blasted in the first round of the playoffs by the Kansas City Chiefs.

Despite knowing Roethlisberger’s time was coming to a close, the Steelers had not set themselves up with a quarterback of the future in recent years, as Mason Rudolph’s time as a spot starter showed he was not likely to be the short- or long-term answer at the position. As such, they were rumored to be in the mix for a number of the top quarterbacks on the trade and free agent market, and after Aaron Rodgers returned to Green Bay and Russell Wilson ended up in Denver, they chose to shift their attention to a younger quarterback.

On Monday, word broke from Mike Garafolo and Jeremy Fowler that Mitch Trubisky, the former No. 2 overall pick of the Bears and most recently the backup for Josh Allen in Buffalo, was headed to Pittsburgh on a two-year deal with the expectation of starting for the Steelers.

Trubisky’s time in Chicago was uneven at best, as he struggled with consistency and found himself benched for a stretch in 2020 in favor of Nick Foles. All reports out of Buffalo were that he had come in ready to learn from Josh Allen and had taken strides, but there’s no real way to know whether there was real improvement until he gets back under center for a team. The Steelers are willing to take that risk, banking on his talent and recognizing that they’re in a position to take a swing on a guy like Trubisky on a short-term deal that gives them the flexibility to move on quickly if he falters — and allows them to shift focus elsewhere in this year’s NFL Draft that is short on high level quarterbacks.

While Kanye West has been repeatedly throwing shade at Pete Davidson, the comedian has decided to literally leave the Earth, which is honestly understandable. The Saturday Night Live comedian is joining the crew on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin flight to space, which is set to launch on March 23rd.

Rumors of the space flight began circling earlier this month when a source told Page Six that Davidson had met with Bezos and was “excited” about the idea. This will be Blue Origin’s 20th mission to space, and Davidson will be alongside five other humans who likely shelled out close to a million dollars. Perhaps it isn’t a coincidence that SNL aired what was basically an Amazon Go commercial disguised as a sketch.

Davidson has been a very pubic target of Kanye West lately, after being seen out and about with West’s ex-wife, Kim Kardashian. Davidson has been referring to Kardashian as his girlfriend as of late, which makes West, uh, not happy and very violent. Kardashian was officially granted a divorce earlier this month, and she has dropped the “West” from her social media pages. Obviously, Kanye isn’t happy.

Most recently, screenshots of Davidson’s texts with West were released, which showed the comedian trying to reason with the rapper and meet in person to talk. It doesn’t seem to have worked. Anyway, have fun in space, Pete!

Look, it’s unfair to judge a random scene from a movie or TV show without context. For instance, Mad Men is one of the greatest shows of all-time, but if the Lane Pryce and Pete Campbell fight was the first scene you saw, well, you would still probably think Mad Men rules. But you would also be confused. It’s everything that leads up to the fight that makes it great (that, and Jared Harris’ delivery of “grimy little pimp”).

Maybe everything that leads up to the viral sex scene in Netflix‘s Brand New Cherry Flavor is great, too. I’ll admit that I haven’t watched the limited series about a filmmaker in the 1990s (played by Rosa Salazar) who moves to Los Angeles and, following an encounter with a shady male producer, hires a witch (Catherine Keener) to hex him. But without context, it’s weird as heck, although I imagine that’s true even with context.

Decider reports that “Brand New Cherry Flavor is currently getting a boost from [TikTok], as users challenge each other to record their ‘blind reactions’ to one of the series’ strangest scenes.” The scene, which is also all over Twitter, happens at the 35 minute mark of the show’s fourth episode, “Tadpole Smoothie.” I won’t describe it (that would spoil the, um, fun?), but fair warning, it’s NSFW and involves a hand and a wound.

Enjoy!

(Via Decider)

The release of Chicago rapper Lil Durk’s seventh studio album 7220 was no casual affair. He released a slew of dates for his spring tour; he engaged in as many collaborations as possible, including 50 Cent’s “Power Powder Respect,” Cordae’s “Chronicles,” Gucci Mane’s “Rumors,” and 2 Chainz’s “Lost Kings”; he challenged Kanye by announcing that the record would drop the same day as his (both albums ended up being delayed).

7220, which was finally released a few days ago, was reported to have earned an estimated 120,000 to 130,000 total album-equivalent units in its opening week. To celebrate his success, he took to Twitter to flex: “My label gave me 40million let’s talk bout it.”

When he announced 7220 in November 2021, he promised it would contain “anthems and no skips.” It follows last year’s joint project Voice Of The Heroes with Lil Baby, as well as a string of well-received features with artists such as Latto, Moneybagg Yo, Nardo Wick, Polo G, Pooh Shiesty, Tee Grizzley, and more. After the rapper challenged Kanye in February, fans speculated that Durk had acquired a feature from Pete Davidson for his album to antagonize Kanye, and Durk had to take to Instagram to shut down the rumors, stating: “Plus Ye want to do a album together.”

7220 is out now via Alamo/OTF.

Josh Hawley is looking at legal repercussions for his now-infamous fist-pump photo during the January 6 failed MAGA coup, but not for the reasons you might think. The failed insurrection is still considered a noble cause in Republican circles, so naturally, Hawley has been leaning into his fist-pump moment for his re-election campaign. More specifically, he’s selling a coffee mug that says “Show Me Strong” along with the January 6 image, but there’s just one small problem: He doesn’t have the rights to the photo.

The rights to the fist-pump photograph taken by Francis Chung belong to E&E News, which was recently purchased by Politico back in December. According to The Hill, Politico has issued a cease and desist to Hawley’s campaign instructing them to remove the image:

“We do not authorize its use by the Hawley campaign for the purpose of political fundraising, which the campaign has been put on notice of by legal counsel,” a spokesperson for Politico told The Hill on Monday. “We are eagerly awaiting a response, but in the interim again respectfully ask that the campaign immediately cease and desist unauthorized use of the image.”

Interestingly, this is not the first controversy caused by the fist-pump coffee mug. Back in February, Hawley’s campaign was ruthlessly mocked on social media for claiming the mug is “Made in America” when in fact, it’s made in China. At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before we find out the thing is made of lead and asbestos, or Putin has one sitting on his desk. Could go either way.

(Via The Hill)

After accumulating some impressive features over the past year, including “City Of Gods” with Alicia Keys and Kanye West, and clearing up some legal issues related to his arrest for carrying an unregistered firearm in April, Fivio Brooklyn rapper Fivio Foreign is preparing to release his debut album, B.I.B.L.E. (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth). However, it appears he didn’t think the album would be all the way ready by its March 25 release date, so on Sunday, he announced it was being pushed back, although he promised this would be the final delay.

“My album gon’ be pushed back,” he said in a video posted to Instagram. “I pushed it back one more time. This is the last time though, for sure. It was March 25, now it’s April 8. It ain’t really a reason or anything, I just wanted to make that sh*t perfect. I want it to be the perfect album. That sh*t is going to be viral. Stay tuned, that sh*t gon’ be viral. April 8.”

One person who likely won’t be happy to see the album drop is New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who has been on a one-man, anti-drill rap campaign, saying, “We are alarmed by the use of social media to really over-proliferate this violence in communities.” However, drill rap mainstays like Fivio maintain that they are only recounting the state of violence they see, not causing it themselves.

In any case, B.I.B.L.E. is now due 4/8 via Columbia Records.

Famous singer Lizzo has to spend a lot of time advocating for herself, and she does for others, too. Most recently, she took the stage at the Austin Convention Center for SXSW to talk with radio host Angela Yee. The focus was mainly on her forthcoming Amazon Prime streaming series Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, but she, being an international star, had a lot to discuss, and she used her platform to bring up the pressing issues that have been going on in Texas, both where SXSW is and where she grew up.

According to Rolling Stone, Lizzo spoke on Texas governor Greg Abbott’s decision to treat gender-affirmative childcare as child abuse: “I’m proud to rep Houston but I’m not proud to rep Texan politics right now. There are very regressive laws being passed. They’re taking away the right for young children to have a chance to live authentically as themselves. It’s a violation of human rights. Trans rights are human rights.” She also weighed in on the restrictive abortion law: “We got a lotta ugly babies y’all need to be handling instead of y’all being in people’s homes and telling them what to do with their bodies and being all up in their uteruses. The abortion ban is atrocious as well. Mind your business. Stay out of my body.”

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

Tory Lanez is once again under fire for unauthorized sample use on his ’80s-themed album Alone At Prom. This time, it’s the estate of George Michael who wants a song removed, saying “Enchanted Waterfall” uses part of “Careless Whisper,” arguably Michael’s signature hit. Even worse, the estate claims that they already rejected his request to use the sample flouting the estate’s wishes in releasing the song anyway.

“It was brought to our attention that the song ‘Enchanted Waterfall’ by the artist Tory Lanez incorporated an unauthorized sample of ‘Careless Whisper’ written by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley,” reads a statement given to Variety. “Requested permission for this use had been declined in June 2021 so we took immediate action on behalf of the writers, in collaboration with our publishers Warner Chappell Music, to prevent further exploitation as we will not tolerate any unauthorized use of any songs within the catalogs of George Michael and/or Andrew Ridgeley.”

The song has since been removed from Spotify but is still up on Apple Music, Tidal, and YouTube. It’s the second time Lanez has been taken to task over this album after Madonna called him out via Instagram for sampling her song “Into The Groove” on “Pluto’s Last Comet.” While Variety‘s report doesn’t cite a lawsuit being filed just yet, it certainly wouldn’t help the embattled Canadian singer to receive another suit, as he’s already being sued for foreclosure on a Miami condo and facing criminal charges for allegedly shooting Megan Thee Stallion in 2020.

Just in time for its season premiere on Hulu, The Kardashians has dropped a new trailer that catches everyone up on the reality TV family and issues a surprisingly blunt (and The Godfather-esque) warning: “Never go against the family.” In the drone-shot heavy preview, naturally, Kim Kardashian is front and center and hints at her budding relationship with Pete Davidson amid her divorce from Kanye West. (An interesting reveal considering Kim had recently told Variety that Davidson won’t be in the first season, but that doesn’t mean his presence won’t be felt.)

The rest of the family get their fair share of screen time, too. Kourtney Kardashian and fiancé Travis Barker are front and center while Khloe Kardashian and her messy relationship with Tristan Thompson are also in the mix. Kendall and Kylie Jenner are, of course, along for the ride. However, it’s towards the end of the trailer where we see a new side of the Kardashians. As the sisters meet to commiserate over the people who keep traumatizing them, Kim is shown taking an aggressive stance on the phone.

“We have all of the time and all of the resources to burn them all to the f*cking ground,” Kim says before the trailer cuts to Khloe and momager Kris Jenner warning Scott Disick to “never go against the family.” Considering the ongoing drama with Kanye that has been playing out in public, it’s an interesting choice to see Kim and her family actually lean into the power of their vast media empire.

The Kardashians premieres April 14 on Hulu.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been making headlines lately for his surprise baby and breakup with Grimes and his rather terrifying brain-implant initiative, but he’s diving into international relations now, or so it seems. Musk (age 50) decided to begin the week by throwing down a “challenge” of “single combat” against Vladimir Putin (age 69) with the “stakes” being Ukraine. Meaning that Musk desires to physically fight the Russian president, one on one, with the prize being a war-torn country.

Yep, Musk tweeted in both Russian and Ukrainian, and he added, “Do you agree to this fight?”

While people wondered whether the heck he had thought this through, Musk offered, “If Putin could so easily humiliate the west, then he would accept the challenge. But he will not.” He then assured his followers, “I am absolutely serious.”

Let’s just say that there’s a lot of commotion here. On one hand, Elon Musk has found a way to make the Russian invasion of Ukraine all about him. On the other hand, people are doing the pick-your-fighter thing, and it’s as absurd a decision as one would expect. On one hand, there’s martial arts experience. Putin has famously done some judo moves in public, and Elon, well, he did this.

But also, there could be flamethrowers involved.

Let the deluge of fittingly outrageous responses begin.

And here’s a relevant question: what has Elon actually done here?

Whether or not Musk means well here is up for debate. He recently tweeted an unsavory meme, which suggested that Netflix couldn’t wait to make a love-story film about this war. The tweet carried anti-trans vibes, and Musk also tweeted a meme that’s still open for interpretation but could suggest that people hop too quickly on the various “I Stand With” bandwagons. He also quoted Agatha Christie for unknown reasons, so the jury is out on whether Musk would actually step into the ring, should Putin decide to go for it.