For the latter, Sweeney was asked to name a moment in her career where she was doubted. “A casting director told me once that I will never be on a TV show,” she replied. “Now, I’m on some of the biggest TV shows in the world.” Some big movies, too.
Sweeney remembered another encounter:
“I had someone tell me once, it was [someone’s] mother, actually… I’m a very active person. I get hurt. I get bruises. I get cuts. I think I came back from laser tag, and I had rug burns all over my legs because I got really into it. And she sat me up on the counter and told me that no boy will ever love me if I have marks on my body. I told her, well, I guess I’m just gonna have to love myself.”
A live look at the casting director and that person’s mother:
Raveena just released her latest album, Asha Awakening, on February 11th, a psychedelic R&B album centered on a celestial princess from ancient Punjab, weaving her way through love and chaos. One of our “Artists To Watch” for February, Raveena is wasting no time announcing a tour in support of the gorgeous record.
Following her mid-April Coachella appearances, Raveena’s headlining tour begins in Oakland on April 24th, then courses through North America before culminating with a final stop in Los Angeles on May 28th. She’ll be supported by Fana Hues on the tour, who just announced a new project of her own.
Ticket pre-sale begins 02/16 at 10 am local time and general on-sale begins 2/18 here. Check out Raveena’s full tour dates below.
4/15 — Indio, CA @ Coachella
4/22 — Indio, CA @ Coachella
4/24 — Oakland, CA @ The New Parish*
4/28 — Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre*
4/29 — Seattle, WA @ Neumos*
4/30 — Vancouver, BC @ Imperial Vancouver*
5/4 — Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge*
5/7 — Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall*
5/8 — Detroit, MI @ El Club*
5/9 — Toronto, ON @ Opera House*
5/12 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry at The Fillmore*
5/13 — Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club*
5/15 — Allston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall*
5/16 — New York, NY @ Irving Plaza*
5/18 — Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West*
5/21 — Austin, TX @ The Parish*
5/22 — Dallas, TX @ House of Blues – Cambridge Room*
5/24 — Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom*
5/28 — Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre*
* = w/ Fana Hues
Asha’s Awakening is out now via Warner Records. Listen to it here.
Raveena is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
After debuting his new song “Magic” in Naomi Osaka’s new Beats By Dre ad, Vince Staples gives the Mustard-produced song an official release. “Magic” features a Mustard-standard, post-hyphy beat that gives Vince plenty of real estate to sprawl out and once again explain his Long Beach-bred point of view. Toward the end, the beat breaks down, with live horns backing a spoken-word outro by Mustard himself, who details how making it out is an example of “magic” and praises fellow Beacher Vince despite coming from “the other side” of the city.
“Magic” is largely considered to be the first single from Vince’s upcoming album Ramona Park Broke My Heart, which he subtly hinted he’d finished after connecting with another veteran West Coast producer, DJ Quik. Ramona Park Broke My Heart will be Vince’s second album in as many years after dropping his critically-acclaimed self-titled project last year. He may also have even more projects in the works after revealing that he’d recorded 30 verses over different beats with Alchemist for a project that may end up also featuring Earl Sweatshirt. Alchemist later suggested that the duo had completed a whole EP, but for now, it seems Vince is focused on rolling out the long-awaited solo album dedicated to the neighborhood where he grew up. With Mustard and Quik involved, it looks like Vince is departing from his usual chaotic soundscapes, suggesting his most mainstream-friendly project to date.
The last time NBA All-Star Weekend was in Cleveland, an 18-year-old rookie named Kobe Bryant won the Slam Dunk Contest. To secure the title, he defeated Michael Finley, Ray Allen, Bobby Sura, and Chris Carr. Seated courtside among the 1997 All-Stars who witnessed the high-flying bravado from young Kobe that night was Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Terrell Brandon.
Twenty-five years later — as his adopted hometown prepares to host All-Star Weekend once again — Brandon recalls the athletic display of brilliance from Bryant that culminated in a between-the-legs windmill dunk to win it. But more than the swagger and above-the-rim heroics from the budding superstar, it was a conversation that Terrell had with Kobe before the contest began that he treasures the most.
“I was so tired when I got to the Dunk Contest,” Brandon said while thinking back on the last All-Star weekend in Cleveland. “When you’re the All-Star host, you have a lot of commitments. There are a lot of interview requests, a lot of places that are pulling at you. Sponsors have events, Nike needs you to make appearances, this and that, there’s a lot of places you have to be. It was fun, but it was also exhausting.”
Terrell earned a spot on the Eastern Conference All-Star team for the second-straight season in 1997. As Cleveland’s only participant in Sunday’s game, Brandon’s SkyPager was buzzing throughout the weekend. He hosted a party on Friday for the All-Stars a few blocks away from what is now known as Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. Gary Payton, Penny Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, and others came through. NFL stars like Ed “Too Tall” Jones made an appearance and other celebrities like boxing great Pernell Whitaker.
While the All-Star festivities were underway, Sports Illustrated published their latest magazine issue with Terrell on the cover. The headline declared Brandon as “The Best Point Guard in the NBA.” On Saturday, he was up early to tape an episode of NBA Inside Stuff with Ahmad Rashad. Media obligations and sponsorship events filled the rest of his time from there. His chance meeting and conversation with young Kobe almost didn’t happen.
“Saturday morning, I was with the great Ahmad Rashad on NBA Inside Stuff,” Brandon said. “We filmed the segment crazy early in the morning. After that, there were so many commitments throughout the day. I was so tired when the Dunk Contest came around. But my homeboys from Portland were like, hey man; we didn’t fly out here to be in the house – let’s go.”
Brandon and his friends arrived just in time for the highly-anticipated contest featuring the Los Angeles Lakers rookie. He took a seat alongside the other NBA All-Stars behind the bench. Gassed and thirsty, Brandon decided to grab a water bottle from the Cavs locker room. While walking through the tunnel, he bumped into Kobe, who was in uniform, moments away from participating in NBA All-Star weekend for the first time.
“I went into the back to get a bottle of water right before the dunk contest started,” Brandon explained. “Kobe was walking in the tunnel, and he happened to be walking my way. I didn’t know Kobe personally at this time, and he was very young. So I walked over to introduce myself to him.
“As I introduced myself, I said, ‘Hey, what’s up, man. I’m Terrell.’
“Kobe replied, ‘What? You think I don’t know you?’”
“My bad, man,” Terrell said with a laugh. “I wasn’t sure if you did?”
Kobe shook his head to suggest, of course, he knew Terrell. Then he added, ‘Man, let me ask you a couple of questions real quick.’
The conversation continued as follows:
Bryant: “How do you come out of the University of Oregon averaging 27 points a game, and you’re only 5-11?”
Brandon says he was surprised Kobe knew his college stats. He smiled and answered the question.
Brandon: “Well, I’m a Pac 10 point guard. We play hard where I’m from, and we play with an edge. We don’t back down from anybody on the west coast. That’s the mentality I play with on the court. What’s your second question?”
Kobe nodded. Then he asked his second question.
Bryant: “What do you think about my game. How can I get better?”
Terrell remembers feeling like Kobe was asking a genuine question that someone would only ask in a situation like that if they truly wanted to be great. He offered the rookie the perspective of an NBA veteran in response.
Brandon: “I don’t know about your eating habits, but stay away from fast food. And get on the weights. The weight room is going to help you as you get older. You’re going to get more mature, and you’re going to gain weight naturally. But get on the weights in the meantime. Get in the weight room and get stronger.”
Bryant: “Man, I appreciate that.”
YouTube
Brandon would sit behind Kobe and talk with him throughout the Dunk Contest. But for the moment, in the hallway outside the Cavs locker room, they went their separate ways. Terrell walked in to grab a bottle of water, and he assumed Kobe made his way out onto the court. That’s why it seemed odd when Brandon and the Cavaliers trainer, who was also in the locker room, started to hear a loud banging noise nearby.
“We were the only people in the locker room, and we heard a thud, thud, thud, like that,” Brandon said. “We thought something was going on in the ceiling or with the ventilation system. But then, when I walked out of the locker room, the noise got louder. It sounded like it was coming from the weight room. So I opened the door to the weight room, and Kobe was in there lifting weights – five minutes after I told him to start making weights part of his workout regimen.”
“That was some great advice, TB!” Kobe shouted as he curled a pair of dumbells in his Lakers uniform. “I thought I’d get started with these weights right away.”
“Hey, man,” Brandon replied with a laugh. “There’s a lot of people out there waiting on you. I didn’t mean you should start lifting weights right now.”
A couple of hours later, Kobe won the dunk contest. To celebrate the high-flying finish that sealed his victory, the young rookie who’d eventually achieve potential GOAT status stood on the baseline and flexed.
Brendan Bowers is a New York-Times Best Selling Author of the book “Cleveland Is King.” His new book “Point Gods of the 1990s” will be released later this year.
Although Snoop Dogg wears many hats — rapper, actor, DJ, product pitchman, record label owner, Puppy Bowl coach/host, etc. — there are really only a couple of things he’s truly known for. One of those things is being a big fan of the devil’s lettuce, of which he partakes regularly and in copious volumes. Yet, somehow, the New York Post thought that it was worthy of a headline that Snoop Dogg — gasp — smoked weed before his Super Bowl halftime show performance. What a shocker, am I right?
Well, Snoop fans on Twitter are having fun with the reversed “man bites dog” moment, taking the Post to task for basically reporting that everything happened as planned and nobody got hurt. “Snoop Dogg engages in recreational activity that’s legal in LA and in…wait for it..New York,” wrote one miffed responder. Meanwhile, actor George Hahn gave his dramatic interpretation of the Post‘s tweet, positing that the writer, rather than being Captain Obvious from one of those travel website ads, was instead one of those pearl-clutching conservatives who railed at the supposed lasciviousness of the whole halftime endeavor.
Snoop Dogg engages in recreational activity that’s legal in LA and in…wait for it..New York. Post that https://t.co/D4t2FX7yKP
For what it’s worth, it doesn’t seem like there was much condemnation behind the headline so much as a sense of “hey, get a load of this guy.” Still, people see what they want to see on Twitter and generally respond accordingly. Over here, we’re just happy we got to see Snoop take the stage alongside Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, and Mary J. Blige for one of the most exciting halftime shows in years.
Indie-pop stalwart Samia is back with her first new music this year just in time for Valentine’s Day. To follow last year’s Scout EP, she’s sharing two heartfelt covers; one is a rendition of the Eagles’ piano ballad “Desperado” and the other is an acoustic version of “Born On A Train” by Magnetic Fields, along with a chaotic remix of the latter. The tracks are vulnerable and patient in Samia’s hands, fitting perfectly into her discography as if she wrote them.
“These two songs feel like a conversation; they’re almost two totally opposite perspectives,” Samia said about these songs. “I definitely relate more to the sentiment of ‘Desperado’ but wanted to give a voice to both sides. ‘Born on a Train’ is one of my favorite songs ever and my friend Ned soundchecks with it every night on our tour so we always end up singing it together. Two other members of my band, Sam and Boone, played on the tracks and Caleb’s production is so honest and intimate; these songs feel special because I worked on them with my friends!!”
Listen to the covers of “Desperado” and “Born On A Train” (as well as the “Anxiety Version” of the latter) above. Samia is currently on tour; find her remaining shows below.
02/14 — Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
02/15 — Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf
02/17 — Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall (Upstairs)
02/18 — Austin, TX @ Antone’s
02/19 — Dallas, TX @ Deep Ellum Art Company
02/22 — Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
02/23 — Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
02/24 — Nashville, TN @ The Basement East
06/10 — New York, NY @ Governor’s Ball
The season one finale of The Book of Boba Fett features what is supposed to be an incredibly climactic stand-off between bounty hunters Boba Fett and Cad Bane. Boba Fett finally faces his mentor turned enemy Cad Bane in a battle for control of Mos Espa in the western-style face-off, shot by director Robert Rodriguez. Cad Bane, a character from the animated series The Clone Wars, trained Boba Fett in bounty hunting, which you’d only know if you watched Clone Wars yesterday or recently read one of the many articles circling the internet right now called “Who Is Cad Bane?” But even with knowledge of who Cad Bane is and his relationship to Boba Fett, Boba’s victory, which could and should be a huge although complex moment, falls flat because Boba Fett has not been the main character on The Book of Boba Fett for the past two episodes. Instead, the episodes focused on Din Djarin (Mando) and Grogu, the unconventional but star-crossed buddies from The Mandalorian. And also, we’re still on freaking Tatooine.
In 2017’s (weirdly) polarizing film The Last Jedi, writer/director Rian Johnson challenged everything we expected from a Star Wars movie. Johnson united its hero, Rey, with the villain, Kylo Ren, creating a gray area in a world that was always presented as black and white. In The Last Jedi, Luke Skywalker rejects all of the ideals that once made him a hero. “It’s time for the Jedi to end,” he says. In the film, Rey also discovers, through Kylo Ren, that her parents were nobodies who abandoned her. Regardless of whether or not you liked The Last Jedi, Johnson’s idea that the politics within the galaxy far far away are more complex than surface-level good and evil and that a hero could come from nothing was a necessary reversal that provided more room for exploration within the Star Wars universe.
Season one of The Mandalorian was a similar relief back when it premiered in late 2019, which feels like several decades ago now. Finally, someone – creator Jon Favreau and executive producer Dave Filoni – understood the Star Wars universe beyond the Skywalker saga. This was a show about a guy doing his job who comes across an adorable green baby with mysterious powers. But in the second season, The Mandalorian reverted back to the narrative of the original trilogy, weaving in characters like Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) from The Clone Wars (who will get her own live-action series), a digitally de-aged Luke Skywalker, and Boba Fett, the bounty hunter who had long been assumed dead, swallowed by the sarlacc pit in 1983’s Return of the Jedi. While still good, The Mandalorian quickly became a show everyone thought it wasn’t, struggling to balance between being its own standalone space buddy adventure and being the link that holds an entire decades-old franchise and all of its spin-offs together.
The first several episodes of The Book of Boba Fett concentrated on Boba Fett, as you’d expect from a series called The Book of Boba Fett, although the show featured zero books. The first several episodes follow the iconic bounty hunter’s journey from getting out of the sarlacc pit, being a captive of Tusken Raiders, becoming friends with the Tusken Raiders, and taking over Bib Fortuna’s position as crime lord and Jabba’s Palace. The series was fine, but not nearly as magnetic as the first season of The Mandalorian. Just as things were beginning to get interesting on The Book of Boba Fett, episode five instead follows the adventures of Mando. Episode six then focuses on Grogu’s Jedi training with a digitally de-aged Luke Skywalker, with an appearance from Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano.
While I’ll never complain about seeing the miracle that is Baby Grogu or the miracle that is Timothy Olyphant as a space desert sheriff, the integration of storylines from multiple series comes across as desperate corporate overlords reminding audiences that other Star Wars shows exist on their streaming platform. While it does make sense that characters such as Mando and Boba would continue to interact with each other, it also can’t help but feel like a condescending reminder that The Mandalorian exists, that Ahsoka exists, and that Luke Skywalker (ever heard of him?) exists. At a certain point, it feels more like content than rich storytelling, when it could so easily be the latter.
Disney Plus’ Marvel Cinematic Universe shows Loki and WandaVision were so strong because while they were part of a massive, bloated, and corporate universe, the shows had their own stories and individuality that separated them from the rest. Loki and WandaVision – and even the weaker shows The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Hawkeye – had their own signature style and independent stories that made each feel essential and unique. The Book of Boba Fett is stylistically the same as The Mandalorian, its only identifier being different theme music.
If everything looks the same and ties together so much that two episodes of The Book of Boba Fett were episodes of The Mandalorian – then why are they separate shows? A departure from The Mandalorian that focuses on Boba Fett makes more sense than a departure from The Book of Boba Fett that focuses on Mando. The sluggish integration of the stories from two different television shows slows both shows – which are, to be clear, still quite good – down. This also makes the future of the Disney Star Wars shows less promising. Will every Star Wars show eventually become one interchangeable storyline? It’s a little early to judge too much since there have only been two live-action shows so far, but it feels like the shows are repeating the same cycle as the prequel and sequel trilogies which had their highs but were ultimately disappointments because of convoluted integrations of characters we already knew. The Star Wars shows started as standalone shows that would explore unearthed parts of an infinite universe filled with colorful characters from hundreds of planets. Ultimately, the Disney Star Wars live-action series have mistaken the Skywalker saga, a story that concluded itself almost 40 years ago, for being Star Wars. Will season one of Obi-Wan Kenobi, coming May 25, feature a bearded Ewan McGregor feeding purple milk to a 30-something Baby Grogu? I, for one, would like to see that as much as I don’t want to see it.
Marcus Smart is one of the NBA’s best and most versatile defenders. He is one of the few players in the league who can genuinely guard every position on the floor, and that ability provides the Celtics with an awful lot of lineup options depending on their matchup that night.
Smart is best known for his physicality, which is why he can hold up in the post against taller players, but he also has tremendous quickness, great hands, and is incredibly smart as a defender. All of that makes his propensity to flop one of the most frustrating things about him, because he’s a terrific defender without needing to do it, but can’t help but practice the dark arts of faking contact in big moments. There are plenty of examples of Smart embellishing contact and flying to the floor to try and get a call, and for a recent live show of JJ Redick’s Old Man and the Three podcast, Redick and Jason Gallagher put together a compilation and surprised Marcus by showing it to him on stage, leading to an incredible reaction.
Naturally it ended with photos of the stitches Redick had to get from Smart’s flailing elbow trying to draw a foul on a three-point shot, and the two talked about that and more, with the highlight being Smart explaining the method behind the madness. In explaining his hilariously bad flop against Pascal Siakam in the playoffs, he said he did it knowing it’d draw a challenge from the Raptors and take their only challenge away before the fourth quarter. It’s pretty incredible the levels going on with that decision from Smart, knowing the call has no chance of standing but it’s more important to force them to burn a challenge in that situation than actually caring about whether it’s a foul or not.
Saweetie and HER fly the (very) friendly skies in the video for their funky new collaboration, “Closer.” Expanding her Icy brand to include a fictional, ladies-only airline, Saweetie and HER take on the role of pilots for a private flight, with Saweetie meeting a new boyfriend at every destination, which include Paris, Tokyo, and of course, the Philippines. And because Saweetie is sponsorship queen, there’s product placement for water flavoring powder, Ledger hardware wallets (even Saweetie’s into crypto), and Bumble, which apparently helps her keep track of her conquests.
With its dreamy, cloudy aesthetic, the “Closer” video looks a lot like the video for “Back To The Streets” with Jhene Aiko, another of Saweetie’s more well-received singles. When she teams up with other ladies, as she did on “Back To The Streets” and “Best Friend” with Doja Cat, it seems the girl power brings out the best in the Bay Area rapper. Hopefully, that energy will be present on Saweetie’s upcoming debut album, Pretty Bitch Music, which she’s promised to release sometime in 2022 after pushing it back to tweak some of its songs. If “Closer” is representative of the new direction, then Saweetie is definitely going the right way.
Watch the video for “Closer” above.
Saweetie is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Following Kanye West launching yet another rant at his ex Kim Kardashian and her new boyfriend Pete Davidson on Super Bowl Sunday, questions started swirling around whether West is still dating Uncut Gems actress Julia Fox. The answer is… complicated. In early February, reports claimed the two were in an open relationship because they’re “evolved beings” and also super busy. Of course, it probably wasn’t a coincidence that those reports arrived on the heels of Kanye being spotted on a date with model Chaney Jones, who bears a striking resemblance to Kim Kardashian.
However, Kanye and Fox’s relationship became even less concrete following his now-deleted Super Bowl Sunday meltdown. Following Kanye’s rant making headlines, a source for Fox told PEOPLE that the couple is taking some time apart:
“Kanye and Julia both have separate busy lives. Julia lives in New York City and Kanye has been in Los Angeles. The distance makes it hard,” the source said. “They are still in touch and will see each other when they can. Kanye really likes her. It’s fair to say that they have cooled off a bit, though.”
Further complicating the matter is the fact that Kanye has been very vocal about his intentions of getting back with Kim Kardashian. He’s openly posted on social media, “GOD PLEASE BRING OUR FAMILY BACK TOGETHER,” and during his latest rant, he declared that Pete Davidson will never meet his children. In short, Kanye is still intent on patching things up with Kim, which doesn’t lend itself to a relationship with Julia Fox, if there ever really was one to begin with.
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