Month: January 2023

What happens when second-generation K-pop royalty teams up with third-generation royalty? Perhaps the most legendary collaboration ever.

With the news of BIGBANG’s Taeyang departing YG Entertainment and signing with its subsidiary label The Black Label, the possibility of new music from the second-gen idol coming soon seemed very close.

First, it was sharing a new portrait since switching his label yesterday. Today (January 4), it was sharing the official poster for his first single featuring Jimin of BTS. The song titled “Vibe” is set to release on Friday, January 13 at midnight ET/2 p.m. KST. This will mark as Taeyang’s first single under The Black Label.

Considering both artists carry smooth vocals with range, making them some of the industry’s iconic crooners, one can only assume the vibes between these power players will be nothing but immaculate all around.

However, the news of the collaboration may not be new to some. As some fans and followers of the BIGBANG member speculated the BTS member was seen next to him in one of his now-deleted Instagram posts from a few days back.

Since the official announcement of the single, Taeyang’s posts before yesterday have all been archived or deleted, making this collaboration highly anticipated and exciting for K-pop fans of both acts and generations.

One of the best games of the 2022-23 NBA season happened between a pair of upstart squads in the Western Conference, with the Sacramento Kings and the Utah Jazz going blow-for-blow for 48 minutes. It appeared that Utah was able to just eek out a win on their home floor thanks to some heroics by Lauri Markkanen, but unfortunately for them, his game-winning effort needed another fraction of a second to get out of his hand. As a result, the Kings picked up a 117-115 victory.

It took quite the effort from one King, in particular, to get them across the finish line. De’Aaron Fox scored 37 points, 22 of which came in the game’s fourth quarter. This included this layup in which he blew past Markkanen and made a layup with less than a second remaining in the game.

Utah was out of timeouts after Fox’s layup and damn near had a prayer answered. Markkanen sprinted up the court and threw his hand in the air. Jarred Vanderbilt saw this and threw the ball exactly where Markkanen wanted, which allowed the big man to grab the ball, square up, flick his wrist, and get a shot off that didn’t touch the rim. Unfortunately for Utah, it is very hard to do all of this in 0.4 seconds, which meant Sacramento moved to 20-16 on the year.

It wasn’t that long ago that people were worrying about the Avatar sequel. It had been too long since the first, they said, claiming the first hadn’t left any “cultural footprints.” Even James Cameron was worried. Now mere weeks into its theatrical run, it’s already on point to outgross the excessively profitable Top Gun: Maverick. You know what that means: It’s time to talk about all those sequels Cameron has long threatened. And it sounds like the third is going to take the franchise in yet another unexpected direction.

Where The Way of Water was about, well, water, Avatar 3, Cameron recently teased, will be about fire. In a new interview with the French outlet 20 Minutes (as caught by Total Film), the decidedly non-prolific filmmaker said his next installment will show “different cultures from those I have already shown.” So far we’ve only seen goody-goody Na’vi, who only want to live their lives and fly freaky birds and swim with weird fish. Pandora could really use some jerks.

And so you’ll finally see some not great Na’vi. Cameron says Avatar 3 will focus on “fire,” which he said be represented by what he called the “Ash People.”

“I want to show the Na’vi from another angle because, so far, I have only shown their good sides,” Cameron explained. “In the early films, there are very negative human examples and very positive Na’vi examples,” he added. “In ‘Avatar 3,’ we will do the opposite. We will also explore new worlds, while continuing the story of the main characters. I can say that the last parts will be the best. The others were an introduction, a way to set the table before serving the meal.”

There’s a chance Cameron will be making Avatar sequels until the end of recorded time, and surely Pandora’s an even bigger joint than it seems. Could one of the sequels show a Na’vi city? Some Na’vi spelunking sounds like it would be cool. Maybe there’s a Na’vi casino somewhere. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. In the meantime, it will be nice to see Na’vi fighting each other, not just mean humans or mean humans who died and then got their own avatars.

(Via 20 Minutes and Total Film)

Late in the third quarter of Tuesday’s game between the Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder, Marcus Smart drove to the rim and earned a non-shooting foul. Presumably, Smart thought it was a shooting foul because he expressed significant displeasure with multiple referees as he headed to the bench and Payton Pritchard replaced him on the floor.

As he made his way toward the sideline, one official ejected him from the game. That likely frustrated Smart more, who had to be held back by multiple Celtics coaches, as well as teammate Sam Hauser, and reportedly yelled “you’re f*cking horrible” at the refs. He continued to voice his substantial frustrations while coaches escorted him away from the action and into the locker room.

Officials have long taken exception to players directing expletives their way. Smart is the latest example of that and he seemingly made the most of his ejection, continually expressing himself, even after he’d been tossed from the game. Across his 26 minutes, Smart tallied seven points, eight assists (three turnovers), four rebounds and one block. Despite his wide-ranging stat line, the Celtics were routed by the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander-less Thunder, who torched their defense to the tune of a 150-117 victory.

Smart and the Celtics, who have now lost two straight games, will hope to start fresh when they face the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night.

Like the millions of Americans eager to kick off the new year through self-improvement, JT is also looking to get healthier in 2023. The City Girls rapper recently created a “FitCity” Instagram account dedicated to trekking through her new health journey. The name comes from the #FitCity hashtag the Miami rhymer created while she was getting in shape for her April 2022 Coachella performance.

So far, the account has less than 400 followers and only one post, which bears the caption “Nothing is forced. Fun Fitness.”

This isn’t the first time JT, whose real name is Jatavia Shakara Johnson, has opened up to fans about wanting to trim some pounds. Last spring, the “Jobs” rapper shared that she was trying to shed some pounds and had begun working with a nutritionist in preparation for her festival performance. JT would later share photos of some of her healthy meals, complete with fruit and many leafy greens.

When it comes to music, last year, the City Girls released two singles in 2022, “Top Notch” with Fivo Foreign and “Good Love,” featuring Usher. While it’s unclear when JT and her partner in rhyme, Yung Miami, will release a new project, the Miami rap duo have fans on the edge of their seat.

Mercedes Varnado, formerly known as WWE’s Sasha Banks, is confirmed to appear at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 17, but her WWE status has remained very much a mystery up until seemingly now.

Ahead of Varnado’s first appearance at a wrestling event since walking out on WWE in 2021, she appears to have closed the chapter on her WWE tenure with a slew of “thank you” notes to the like of WWE, William Regal, Triple H, the WWE Universe, Vince McMahon, and a special one to Sasha Banks.

Banks will not be heading to NJPW alone, as her former partner Naomi, as well as apparently one of her fiercest rivals, Bayley, will be in attendance for her match, per PWInsider.

Bayley is under WWE contract and reportedly is unlikely to appear on camera. Naomi will also reportedly “almost certainly be returning to WWE” herself, according to the Wrestling Observer.

Varnado became a free agent when the calendar turned to 2023, after reportedly attempting to negotiate money in the range of what Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch make. WWE allegedly balked at that price, per the Wrestling Observer. Since her WWE exit, Varnado has also apparently requested a trademark for ‘Mone’ Banks, and ‘Bank Mone’ signaling what could be her post-WWE ring name.

Varnado’s appearance at Wrestle Kingdom is still very much a mystery as to what to expect, but we’ll get an answer very shortly.

Netflix kicked off the new year by dropping one of its more radical experiments yet. It’s called Kaleidoscope and it’s a heist show spread over eight episodes. But that’s not the main gimmick. That would be that you can watch the show in any order you like (with the exception of its final episode, which really is the finale). But there’s another hook: It’s loosely inspired by real events (that didn’t quite happen this way).

As per Netflix’s own site Tudum, showrunner Eric Garcia was inspired by a real-life event that may come as some shock: Hurricane Sandy, which bombarded and partially crippled New York City and vicinity back in 2012. The storm caused problems the mighty metropolis is still dealing with. But there was one outlandish part of the story that inspired Garcia: the near disappearance of $70 billion in bearer bonds.

After Sandy landed in late October 2012, among the places that suddenly found themselves flooded (along with many subway stations) was a large depository located underground in Lower Manhattan. The vault contained $1.7 million in bond and stock certificates, which were suddenly doused in water. It also bore over $70 billion in bearer bonds, which aren’t registered to any owner and are therefore easy to steal. (It’s what Robert De Niro’s Neil McCauley steal at the beginning of Heat.)

No one actually stole said bearer bons. Instead, some two weeks after the storm, teams descended some 60 feet below street level into the vault, rescuing 99.9% of the bearer bonds were rescued. It what was the largest vault recovery in history.

This isn’t depicted in Kaleidoscope. Instead, it loosely inspired Garcia and team to come up with a similar scenario involving a gang of thieves plotting some 25 years for the perfect heist. The episodes jump around in time, some set months or weeks before the heist, one set 24 years prior, others afterwards.

Kaleidoscope streams on Netflix.

Dua Lipa welcomed the new year by posting a series of glamorous shots to social media. Lipa poses around a house party as she continues the “whale tail” resurgence in fashion with a sparkly barely-there dress.

“2023 ~ Happy New Year ~ wishing you peace, love, health and happiness for this year ahead x,” Lipa tweeted.

Fans and fellow musicians alike were immediately obsessed, both with her outfit and the bubbly message she shared.

“Love you!!” Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers replied.

“That’s hot,” Paris Hilton added to Lipa’s Instagram post, giving her the original glitter party girl stamp of approval, considering the 2000s are coming back in full swing.

As one user spotted, Lipa was wearing “the ludovic de saint sernin ss23 iridescent swarovski crystals dress.” According to Vogue, the iridescent see-through dress was included in the designer’s spring 2023 Ready-To-Wear collection.

Lipa has also loved incorporating Swarovski crystals and the whale tail into her fashion throughout the last year — even if it’s different designers. She just raised the stakes for the new year.

A few fans also pointed out the similarities between Lipa and Hailey Bieber’s holiday dresses.

Continue scrolling for some additional fan reactions to Dua Lipa’s instantly iconic NYE outfit.

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

It’s time to get back on the dancefloor. Skrillex is back. What a fantastic way to kick 2023 off.

After nearly nine years, the California DJ and music producer will release his first project, entitled Rumble. The album will be in collaboration with Fred again.. and UK grime MC Flowdan, according to Billboard. A snippet of the upcoming project was posted to his YouTube yesterday (January 2). Skrillex, whose real name is Sonny Moore, made the announcement on New Year’s Day via Twitter, writing “QFF/DGTC 23” in the post’s caption.

In the electronic dance community, the acronyms are meant to stand for the names of a pair of albums that will be coming in 2023.

The producer’s last project was 2014’s Recess, which peaked at No.4 on the Billboard 200 in April of 2014, just as the electronic dance music scene burst onto the mainstream. In 2016, Skrillex snagged two Grammys alongside hitmaker producer Diplo in their duo Jack Ü.

“Skrillex, he’s probably the best producer of electronic music I’ve ever met in my life. He can turn anything into anything on his own terms, the guy is the master,” Diplo told Billboard in 2022.

Rumble will be released on 1/6 via Atlantic Records and Owsla.

Check out the 15-second preview of Rumble above.

GloRilla‘s meteoric rise didn’t come easy. Despite the seemingly overnight success with the release of “F.N.F” last summer, the Memphis rapper wasn’t always sure how things would pan out. Before her rap career, the hitmaker was a fast food worker. In an Instagram post on Tuesday, the “Blessed” rapper shared a heartfelt, inspirational message about her journey in the music industry and not giving up on her dreams.

“2022 was Everything,” she wrote in the caption. “God kept his hands on me.”

The rapper said that she “never imagined” she would go on to make a breakout hit, win a BET award, and earn a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance for “F.N.F.”

The CMG rhymer also had her debut performance at the 2022 American Music Awards alongside her “Tomorrow 2” collaborator Cardi B. GloRilla noted she is thankful for all her success and is excited to see what the new year brings.

” [In] the beginning of last year, I would’ve never imagined that I would be making a breakout hit, signing to CMG, winning a BET award, making billboard top 10, performing at the AMAs with Cardi, getting nominated for a Grammy & the list goes on,” she continued. “You had to be there to know what I was going thru & what I went thru & that’s why I’m always smiling because weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning & THAT’S WHY I LUV TOMORROWS. I can’t wait to [see] what 2023 brings. LET’S GOOO.”