Year: 2022

A story out of Hopewell, Texas, is about finding a ray of light in a very dark time. NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reports that on Friday, November 4, a tornado destroyed the home of Dakota Hudson and his girlfriend, Lauren Patterson. The couple rode it out in the bathroom and when they emerged from hiding, their home was destroyed.

After checking in on their neighbors, Hudson realized that the engagement ring he bought for Patterson was lost among the debris. “Needle in a haystack doesn’t come close to what we were looking for,” Hudson said.

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A Paris Junior League softball team stopped by the property to see if Hudson and Patterson needed help with the cleanup. Hudson asked the team to please help him find the ring.

“When you tell 20 girls someone is going to get engaged if they find a ring, they are going to find it,” Hudson said. Outfielder Kate Rainey miraculously found the ring, stuck in the mud, seven feet from where it was hidden in the house by Hudson.

“I was just kind of digging through the mud in this certain particular spot, and I kept digging there,” Rainey said according to KXII. “I don’t know why I felt led to dig right there, and I found a little piece of a metal circle, and it was not metal. It was gold. I didn’t believe it.”

Hudson celebrated the incredible moment by spontaneously dropping to one knee and proposing. Patterson said yes.

“We’re safe. We’re here. Everybody’s alright. It’s a miracle the ring was found. What better time to do it?” Hudson said.

Monte Morris is a little tired. He’s fresh from practice and the Wizards have only been home from Japan, where the team played its two preseason games, for a few days. The jet lag still lingers.

“I loved Japan, it was my first time there. I liked the people, they were really nice. The city, it’s clean. That was more shocking for me, to see how clean it was. When we got to the practice facility, and they advised us to take off our shoes at the door,” he chuckles in recollection.

Fresh, too, are some of the pieces Morris — a subtler fashion aficionado compared to others in the league (or alongside him in the Wizards lineup), but a fan of fashion all the same — picked up in Tokyo.

“Celine, Dior, Balenciaga, Cartier, Rolex,” Morris lists off the stores he made a point to stop in. “I did a few things, bought some nice things that I’ll be able to show during the season when I dress up for games. I like their little shopping centers. It was nice.”

In Tokyo, the team didn’t have very much downtime. But Morris still noticed, in his and the team’s excursions to sumo matches and local restaurants mostly led by teammate Rui Hachimura, the difference between the styles and cuts in the menswear looks compared to home. It was noticeable, he says, that things are “more tailored,” while baggier fits are popular in the United States. Morris was also a fan of the “variety and different options” he saw in Japan.

That variety harkened back to the way Morris started to approach fashion in the first place.

“I always had good swag, even before I had money I knew how to put stuff together,” Morris says of how his approach to figuring out his personal style started. Someone he’s shared that evolution with has been his longtime friend and new teammate, Kyle Kuzma.

“For me, I like the risks that Kyle takes with it,” Morris says. “I like some of the stuff he wears. But me, if I don’t feel it, I won’t put it on. I won’t wear it just to take a leap. Sometime this year, I’m sure he’s going to give me some ideas. It just happens like that, especially with a best friend too.”

Morris’ favorite fits, it turns out, are perfect for fall in D.C.

“I’m more of a turtleneck, sweater type guy. More casual, like Chelsea boots. That’s when I look like my best self, I feel like. I’m trying to stay in that lane,” he says. “Fall attire. I think I can jump into that real well.”

Jumping into best fits — whether in fashion, relationships, or in Morris’ case this season, a new team — takes a great deal of self-awareness. To know who you are and not feel pressure from outside forces as styles or situations change. Morris was selected in the second round of the Draft by the Nuggets and played with the team for five seasons. His role as a rotational player changed considerably when he was inserted into the starting lineup for an injured Jamal Murray. When he and teammate Will Barton were traded to the Wizards at the end of that breakout season, it meant that he would play for someone other than Denver for the first time in his NBA career.

Morris’ game — steady, collaborative, with the fitting nickname “Count of Monte Assist/TO” — is a kind of like a closet staple, something you reach for again and again. It would’ve been complimentary to nearly any outfit in the league, but a major reason his fit with the Wizards has felt so seamless was the familiar face that welcomed Morris to the team: former Denver assistant and current Washington head coach Wes Unseld Jr.

“Me and his relationship has always been more than basketball. I know that I can go to his office and talk to him about anything in life. Him being my coach now is giving me more confidence because I know he’s going to demand that high level,” Morris says of playing for Unseld again. “He deserved this opportunity, everything coming his way, he worked very hard. He can tell you the same for me, two guys that are worth everything they put in the work for, it’s only right it comes together like this — I wouldn’t have wanted it any different.”

Besides a familiarity for Morris’ game, and where Unseld knows how to push and play him in games, the transition to a Wizards team one season into a much-needed overhaul has been, thus far, smooth. Fast forward to a month into the season and the Wizards are more than hanging around in the East. Washington has leaned into a defensive identity, and as of this writing, they’re eighth in the league in defensive rating and find themselves sitting at fifth in the conference with a 10-7 record.

“You can just tell around the league that people are sleeping on us, but in our locker room, we’re like this,” Morris crosses his fingers together. “We’re together. We’re all trying to complete one go. To shock the naysayers. So the locker room vibe is totally different.”

To that end, Morris notes the uptick in “team bonding” activities the Wizards are doing, but the sense of familiarity goes deep. Morris and Kuzma grew up together in Flint, Michigan. Delon Wright and Kuzma both went to the University of Utah. Barton was in Denver with Morris and Unseld, while Wizards cornerstone Bradley Beal — plus relative newcomers Hachimura, Deni Avdija, and Corey Kispert — have all come up with the club.

It makes sense, then, that the bigger adjustment for Morris came off the court. Oftentimes it gets skimmed over that, along with team dynamics shifting in a trade, the real lives of the people involved get thrown in flux, too.

“The move was the toughest part for me, and reality kicking in,” Morris says of first getting to D.C., and the time immediately following his trade. “Like, this is your new home, finding where to go with [a] GPS. All that’s new for me.”

It’s rare in the ceaselessly shifting landscape of the NBA for an athlete to stay with a team, whether because of a trade or making moves in free agency, for five seasons. As much as the trade to Washington was an upset to the style and fit Morris made for himself in Denver, the move offered an opportunity for a new look, a fresh start.

“I like fresh starts. Sometimes you need to get a different type of hunger, or different type of result, just changing something up a little bit,” Morris says with a nod. “For me, it’s just another chapter in my book. Year five — we’ve been through five chapters already — that’s how I look at it. Chapter six, it’s just a change of location with the same drive and the same opportunities. It’s like we’re reading a book, we’re just on chapter six now.”

The attitude of managing a big move, or figuring out where he can benefit and push his new team, is something Morris says he’s gotten better at taking in stride. As someone who admittedly used to “beat himself up” over every single game and strove to be “overly perfect,” Morris has shifted to a wider lens and more long-term approach in basketball.

“Everybody wants to be an MVP, everybody wants to be an All-Star, everybody wants to win Most Improved, but at the end of the day, I always judge on wins and losses,” he says. “So if I can get wins and get to the playoffs, whether I get those awards or not, my life going forward is going to be good. My goal is to get D.C. back in the playoffs. I think this city deserves it.

“I just try to keep my demeanor as straight as I can ‘cause I’m really the quarterback out there,” he continues. “They’re looking at me for answers. I can’t panic or change my demeanor because people are watching me. I try to keep even keel, keep a smile on my face even through hard times, and people will follow. That’s what being a leader’s all about.”

With so much of the season stretching out in front of Morris and the new-look Wizards, it might be preemptive to say the fashion and form the franchise is playing with will turn into something timeless, a lasting style all their own. But the tell-tale signs of confidence that will ultimately take are there. The only carryover, and personal staple Morris is missing, lives in a different kind of lane, really its own runway.

“I’m a big bowler on the side. That’s my second hobby. I’m trying to get into the PBA in the offseason coming up,” he grins. “I’ve only been twice [in D.C.], but I used to go all the time in Denver. I’ve got my own ball and everything, I’m for real for real.

“Brad said he could bowl. I probably could take Brad,” Morris muses. “We can go up against Chris Paul and D-Book on ESPN, that would be nice,” Suddenly, the lightbulb goes off over his head — “Tell CP3, come get me for the PBA Bowl!”

Lasting style has always required the right amount of attitude, you know.

Last month, Adidas severed ties with Kanye West over his antisemitic social media posts, after which it was estimated that Ye lost his billionaire status. Since then, reports about West’s conduct as the Yeezy boss have surfaced, like the time he allegedly fired an employee for playing Drake music. It looks like things got much worse than that, though.

An excerpt from a November 22 Rolling Stone story titled “Kanye West Used Porn, Bullying, ‘Mind Games’ To Control Staff” reads:

“In the month since Adidas severed ties with West amid a hail of hate speech, more than two dozen former Yeezy and Adidas staffers have described to Rolling Stone an abusive office culture that left many of them fearing for their livelihoods. Behind the scenes, this celebrity boss did more than test the boundaries of professionalism: Former Yeezy and Adidas staffers and creative collaborators claim that he played pornography to Yeezy staff in meetings; discussed porn and showed an intimate photograph of Kim Kardashian in job interviews; and showed an explicit video and photos of Kardashian as well as his own sex tapes to Yeezy team members.”

One personal also noted, “There was no accountability. Difficult moments happened, with executives in the room — VP level or higher — and nothing would be done. You’d still show up to work the next day.”

There’s a lot more to this story than what was mentioned above, so read the full Rolling Stone report here.

If Adele was “incredibly nervous” about her Weekends With Adele Las Vegas residency, she certainly hasn’t showed it on stage. Her 32-date residency began last weekend at The Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace and by all accounts, Adele has been magnificent. The stage production has been incredibly extra — in the best way possible. There’s been no shortage of pyrotechnics and fire even collides with water in her triumphant performance of “Set Fire To The Rain.”

But it’s an unbelievable vanishing act that Adele performs at the end of the set that really has people talking. As she closes her show with “Love Is A Game,” the final track off of her her 30 album, pink confetti showers down onto her from the ceiling above the stage. After what feels like hundreds of pounds of confetti are done falling, you catch a glimpse of the stage as the music comes to an end and Adele is just… gone.

It’s quite the illusion and it looks even more dizzying when you watch it in slow motion.

What a star. This is the kind of glitz, glamour, and magic that people want to see from someone of Adele’s stature when they go see her perform in Las Vegas. She’s even added a New Year’s Eve performance and says she expects “all-out black tie vibes” for the occasion.

Apparently, Jenny is back on the musical block. Jennifer Lopez sent her fan base into a frenzy after making a few noticeable changes to her social media pages. The singer wiped her Instagram profile bare, then changed her profile image to a black box. In today’s music environment, when an act takes these extreme measures, it often means new music is in the works.

If Lopez is working on new music, we could be looking at the Bronx native’s first album release since 2014’s AKA. Over the years, the “Let’s Get Loud” singer shifted her focus toward her film career. Most recently, Lopez starred in Marry Me opposite Owen Wilson, which featured a guest appearance by Latin music star Maluma. Lopez nearly snagged an Oscar for her role in the film Hustlers, which featured a guest cameo from rapper Cardi B. Before the Lopez gears up for the release of her latest feature film, Shotgun Wedding, fans are hoping the star will drop new music.

Without much to go on, fans flipped through the Lopez’s Facebook fan page, which revealed a few hints that the singer’s rumored release might have something to do with commemorating the 20th anniversary of her third studio album, This Is Me…Then.

We’ll keep our eyes peeled for Lopez’s next move.

After a few months of silence on the music front, Joel Deleōn is making a comeback. On Monday (November 21), the ex-CNCO star released a preview of the music video for his single “IDK Y.”

Deleōn first launched his music career as Joel Pimentel in the Latin boyband CNCO. In 2015, Ricky Martin and Laura Pausini helped put him into a group with Richard Camacho, Erick Brian Colón, Zabdiel De Jesús, Christopher Vélez on the TV series La Banda. Following years of success with CNCO, Deleōn decided to depart from group in May 2021.

Adopting the last name of his late grandfather, he launched his solo career in October 2021 as Joel Deleōn. That month, the Mexican-American singer released his debut single “La Culpa,” which blended Latin pop with elements of regional Mexican music. In January, Deleōn followed that up with the sexy track “Coco” that dabbled in Afrobeats.

Following the release of “Coco,” Deleōn appeared to hint at an internal struggle with his record label Sony and his management team under Walter Kolm Entertainment. He tagged both groups in multiple tweets with pleas to release new music. Deleōn was also contemplating dropping music through SoundCloud.

“There have been changes and changes take time so I decided to disconnect during that process,” he wrote in August. “There are a few last things missing before I can return with my art. You don’t know how excited I am for you to hear/see it.”

Things appeared to have settled down and Deleōn is ready to release new music. After his fans left 50k comments on an Instagram post with the cover art for “IDK Y,” he released a preview of the music video on TikTok. Deleōn appears to be going in a futuristic direction. With the drums being played in the teaser, there might even be a bit of a pop-punk punch to next single.

Deleōn promises to release the “IDK Y” video when the comments on his Instagram post reach 100k. As of press time, there’s over 63k comments on the post, so Deleōn’s fans need to keep leaving comments to reach the goal.

On the heels of his new movie, Taurus, Machine Gun Kelly has shared the song “Taurus” from the movie’s soundtrack. On the song, Kelly and vocalist Naomi Wolf battle with their thoughts, as they struggle to write them down into words. It’s a rap track, unlike Kelly’s recent rock-leaning output.

“I seek you out, slay you alive / One more word and you won’t survive / And I’m not scared of your stolen power / I see right through you in the eye,” they sing on the song’s chorus.

The accompanying video features clips from the movie.

Taurus is a semi-autobiographical film that tells the story of Cole Taurus, played by Kelly, a troubled musician looking for inspiration for his new song. In an interview with Variety, Kelly, who is credited as Colson Baker in the film, said he turned to himself for inspiration for the film — especially for some of the film’s darker elements.

“That side of me is where I always felt more comfortable,” he said. “I’d much rather watch someone [for whom that self-destruction] is second nature than to watch some actor pretend. There’s nothing more annoying than watching a thespian fake being a rock star. It’s the worst.”

Check out “Taurus” above.

Taurus is now available to buy or rent on digital platforms.

“Y’all wanna talk about The Crown,” Cardi B asked fans on Twitter today, referencing Netflix’s show — a dramatized retelling of the British royal family’s history. As it turns out, both Cardi and her fans have lots of thoughts when it comes to the series.

The new fifth season dropped earlier this month, bringing viewers up to the divorce between Prince Charles and Princess Diana. One fan asked what the Bronx rapper thought of the Charles/Diana/Camila love triangle… which also features the infamous (and frankly, quite gross) phone call speech that Charles made to his then-mistress — and now, wife.

“I NEED your thoughts on Camilla & Charles,” one replied. Cardi responded, “I haven’t gotten there yet ….I’m on episode 13 when Prince Phillip comes back and Queen Elizabeth ain’t gave him no p*ssy.”

Cardi’s live-tweeting description, including blatantly joking that Queen Elizabeth wasn’t letting Phillip get some, has sent fans into a hilarious spiral. It appears that, as Netflix only drops ten episodes per season, the episode 13 in question seems to be Season 2, Episode 3. The subtext to “ain’t gave him no p*ssy” is that Lizzie went to Lisbon to visit her husband, Prince Phillip. Already having marital problems, she rejects a kiss, but divorce isn’t an option at that historical point for someone of her stature.

Continue scrolling for some fan reactions on Cardi and her thoughts on The Crown.

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

We know that there’s a painstaking amount of detail that goes into bringing characters to life on the big and small screen. But ever so often, a fascinating look behind the scenes will come along that’s so mind-blowing, one can’t help but feel a fresh level of gratitude (and awe) for the effort that goes into modern-day storytelling.

Take, for instance, the hyperrealistic wigs we see in so many films and television shows. Odds are, one of your favorite characters wears one—even when you would bet your life savings that the hairs you see are sprouting from their own head. This illusion is the result of dedicated hours upon hours from artists that are so much at the top of their game, we might as well just call them hair sorcerers.

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In a video posted to YouTube by Insider, Rob Pickens, founder of Wigmaker Associates, takes viewers on a tour of the wigmaking process for some of today’s most iconic shows, from start to finish. As Pickens explains, since cameras have become more equipped to pick up every detail, wigs must become more detailed and precise to not only mimic real hair texture, but perfectly fit an actor’s head shape to look as natural as possible.

To do this, hair teams don’t just measure an actor’s head. They create a mold that completely replicates their skull shape using a headwrap made with cellophane and tape—lots of it—after which they trace over the hairline with a sharpie.

That headwrap then goes onto a canvas block (which more or less looks like a mannequin head), and that canvas block is filled with stuffing to match the actor’s exact head shape in a process that Pickens calls “padding the block.”

It might be a laborious endeavor, but once it’s done, that mold can be used for any production in the world. Cranium cloning, if you will.

Next, wigmakers must create a layer of superfine lace that will serve as the piece’s foundation. For very short hair styles, a silk base is used to create the look of skin that might be visible under the hair’s surface. This technique was used for later seasons of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” to create Eleven’s signature buzz cut, when actress Millie Bobby Brown couldn’t shave her head.

When actors are portraying real people with different skull shapes and hair lines, the hair team must add an extra step of creating prosthetic pieces to go under the wig’s foundation. In Hulu’s “Pam & Tommy,” for example, a prosthetic forehead was given to actress Lily James to replicate Pamela Anderson’s characteristic high forehead.

The next step is the ventilating process, where each hair is stitched into the lace one by one using a variety of knotting techniques. The key here is to match an actor’s natural hair patterns, like which direction the hair at their temples prefers to go, while keeping it malleable enough to part anywhere, just like you can with real hair.

As for the hair itself, the choices come down to either real human hair or synthetic. Synthetic hair, which is more durable but has more of a light-reflecting sheen, is usually used for background actors. But for “hero wigs” that must pass the close-up test, real human hair is required.

Pickens might even add mohair (a durable, resistant hair fiber made from angora goats) to hairlines to mimic baby hairs, which he did for Ana De Armas for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in Andrew Dominik’s “Blonde.”

Wigs might evoke a sense of glamor, but in the world of realistic storytelling, accuracy takes precedence. When tasked with creating an aging and syphilis-ridden Al Capone (played by Tom Hardy), Pickens helped convey the story with hair that was “actually a bit sickly before we texturized it.”

But wait, there’s more. We are now to the coloring process, which, as Pickens puts it, is a blend of “alchemy and color theory and figuring out how that’s going to play on the final product.” Colorists have to understand how a scene might be lit and edited, so that they can make an educated guess as to how to color the hair so it has the desired shade in the final cut, rather than in real life.

“Reds can be quite the nightmare sometimes,” Pickens shared. “If we create a red wig and they put a blue filter over the entire thing, it could look brown.”

And just to make matters more complicated, the looks don’t just get created for the main actors. Anyone performing as a photo double or stunt performer also needs a matching (usually synthetic) wig. Stunt double wigs in particular are tricky, as they need to be durable enough to endure take after take of literally rolling with the punches, yet still be easily removed for when a stunt might go wrong. But also they must look exactly like the hero wig. No big deal, right?

To say that people were floored to learn some of these things would be an understatement. Just check out some of these comments:

“I’m amazed by what they can create to make us believe that their wigs are their real hair because it looks so natural..So many times I’ve just assumed that the actors must have changed their real hair to look a certain way because it looks too real to be a wig. It was interesting to see what the process looks like.”

“I love learning stuff like this. I never would have thought about how much went into wigs. Unsung masterpieces are everywhere.”

“This is so cool. I honestly had no idea so much detail went into this. I’m impressed.”

More content is being put out now than ever before, causing many shows to have to create costumes and wigs on a mass level (read: faster and cheaper). This undoubtedly leads to a drop in quality that can sometimes take us out of a story—something we covered in a previous article. However, when artists are given the opportunity and resources to really work to their highest potential, magic happens. Kudos to the pros who completely immerse us into a story, strand by strand. Your labor of love is appreciated.

You can watch the full video below, which has even more fascinating info:

It’s been nearly a year since City Girls rapper JT and Lil Uzi Vert went public about their relationship, but fans think there could be trouble in paradise: In a tweet shared yesterday (November 23), JT shared a one-word tweet, simply saying, “Single.”

After providing no follow-up context, fans were left to assume the tweet was a direct shot at her relationship with Uzi.

Despite having temporary pauses in their relationship in the past, the couple seemed to be doing well. As recently as Monday, the “Act Up” rapper praised Uzi for their new music video for “Just Wanna Rock” and shared that she might be in Philadelphia– Uzi’s hometown — for the Thanksgiving holiday.

To date, JT nor Uzi have offered a public response since the Miami rapper made the initial tweet. But, with the holidays right around the corner, maybe there is some hope for the lovebirds.

When it comes to music, the City Girls were expected to drop their highly anticipated follow-up to 2020’s City On Lock on July 29, but due to unforeseen reasons, the album was delayed. This past spring, the Miami duo released “Top Notch” with Fivio Foreign, following up with “Good Love” featuring Usher over the summer.

In September, JT was among the artists enlisted by Minaj for the official “Queen Mix” of her “Super Freaky Girl” single.