Month: September 2023

British broadcaster Martin Daubney just had an on-air train wreck for the ages. While covering the breaking news of an escaped terror suspect being captured by police, the GB News anchor immediately started bungling the report right out of the gate by referring to the suspect as “the terror man.” The situation got so bad that Daubney dropped an F-bomb as he struggled to salvage the situation, which he did not, much to the delight of Piers Morgan.

“First, it’s the news headlines… no it’s not – we’re going straight to me. This is breaking news – this is fast and happening,” Daubney said via The Daily Beast before realizing he’s already dropping the ball. “F*ck, it’s all gone wrong.”

The situation did not improve as he attempted to bring on a guest and referred him by the wrong name. “Joining me now for the latest is GB News Home Security Editor, Mark White, are you there, Mark?” Daubney said before realizing his latest mistake. “It’s Chip Chapman, we have Chip Chapman.”

One person who particularly enjoyed Daubney’s on-air meltdown was, as we mentioned above, Piers Morgan. Apparently, there’s some bad blood between the two conservative broadcasters, and Morgan absolutely relished watching his rival become an international laughingstock live on the air.

“GB News presenter Martin Daubney recently accused me of failing as a journalist,” Morgan tweeted. “This is Martin handling breaking news on the escaped terrorist.”

Folks on Twitter also enjoyed Daubney’s debacle, especially his off-the-cuff use of “the terror man.” You can see some of the reactions below:

(Via The Daily Beast)

Houston Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. was arrested on Monday morning in New York City after an altercation with girlfriend and WNBA player Kysre Gondrezick, per numerous outlets.

Porter Jr. was charged with second-degree assault and strangulation and Gondrezick was taken to the hospital with at least one broken bone and bruising, according to NBC New York. The alleged assault occurred after a night out with Gondrezick reportedly locking Porter Jr. out of their room amid a dispute, and when Porter Jr. was able to get into the room he assaulted Gondrezick.

Porter Jr. allegedly attacked the victim overnight Monday at the Millennium Hotel near Times Square. His girlfriend was taken to the hospital with at least one broken bone and bruising, law enforcement officials told NBC New York.

The alleged incident began after the pair had been out. She returned to the room, but Porter Jr. got locked out, sources said, and the altercation escalated from there.

Hotel security called police who arrested Porter Jr. and he was charged with assault and strangulation and remains in custody. The Rockets guard would be getting set for his fifth season in the NBA and fourth in Houston this fall, having recently signed a 4-year, $63 million deal that is only guaranteed for this upcoming season. The team and the NBA have not issued official statements on the matter.

After much fuss was made about the dearth of rap No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2023, the first rap song of the year has topped the chart, breaking the drought at 54 weeks. Best of all, the song to finally bring hip-hop back to the mountaintop came from an artist who has gone to extreme lengths in the fight for her hip-hop credibility: Doja Cat.

Her Dionne Warwick-sampling single “Paint The Town Red” — which saw her rapping more than singing for the first time since her debut album in 2018 — has topped this week’s Hot 100 chart, giving her her second No. 1 after “Say So” reached No. 1 on the chart dated May 16, 2020 (thanks in large part to a guest spot from Nicki Minaj, giving Nicki her first-ever No. 1 as well, and an NSFW promise Doja later reneged on). Interestingly, the last rap song to go No. 1 was Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl” on the chart dated August 22, 2022.

In the year leading up to the rollout for her upcoming fourth studio album, Scarlet, Doja joked that her new album would be entirely rap, then entirely R&B, then that it would be punk or inspired by rave culture. She ultimately attributed all these changes of heart to ADHD, but she’s also been a bit of a stylistic chameleon all along, even going as far as deriding her older albums for being more marketable and not as authentic to who she is.

Considering she came up under the tutelage of Project Blowed vets like Verbs in Los Angeles, hip-hop is part of her DNA — and clearly the part she’s most passionate about expressing right now. It looks like that passion is paying off.

In May, The National announced they would stage their first Homecoming Festival since the inaugural event in 2018.

“When we launched Homecoming in 2018, we were overwhelmed by the response from the community and by our renewed sense of connection to our hometown,” The National said in a statement at the time. “It was such an exciting, memorable weekend and we’ve long hoped to bring it back. We’re honored to return to Cincinnati five years later and be joined by so many of our favorite musicians and friends.”

On Friday, September 15, and Saturday, September 16, the festival will take place on The Icon Festival Stage at Smale Park in Cincinnati, Ohio. Predictably, The National will headline both nights — performing their High Violet album in full on Friday and Trouble Will Find Me in full on Saturday. It should also be noted that the band released two new singles in August.

Doors will open at 11:30 a.m. local time on Friday. Allen Lanz will perform from 1 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., followed by Carriers (2-2:30 p.m.), Bartees Strange (3-3:45 p.m.), Arooj Aftab (4:15-5 p.m.), The Walkmen (5:30-6:15 p.m.), and Pattie Smith (6:45-7:45 p.m.). The National’s headlining set is scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m. and wrap by 11 p.m.

After doors open at 11 a.m., Saturday’s slate includes Snail Mail (3:45-4:30 p.m.), Weyes Blood (5-5:45 p.m.), and Pavement (6:15-7:45 p.m.) ahead of The National’s second headlining set, again from 8:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Single-day ($125 general admission or $300 VIP) or two-day tickets ($225 GA or $500 VIP) are still available at the festival’s official website.

See the full lineup and schedule below.

Jason Thomas Gordon is gearing up to publish The Singers Talk, which features interviews with singers including Bruce Springsteen, Roger Daltrey, Chrissie Hynde, Willie Nelson, Mavis Staples, Ozzy Osbourne, Robert Smith, Geddy Lee, Michael Stipe, Rod Stewart, Steve Perry, and Thom Yorke.

Gordon just shared an excerpt of his Yorke interview with Rolling Stone and in it, the Radiohead singer describes a time he got high during a concert, so much so that he couldn’t quite deliver a performance of “Everything In Its Right Place” without incident. He said:

“[Laughs.] There was one time we played in San Francisco in this really nice outdoor place, Shoreline. It was a great show, really, really fun. The audience were brilliant. Then, before the final encore, I smoked a blunt with Jonny [Greenwood]. I went back on and started playing ‘Everything In Its Right Place’ and got completely lost. I think I sang the second verse first, and then I was looking at the keyboard going, ‘What’s this?’ [Laughter.] Then, I went to sing the next verse, and I realized, I’ve just sung that, and I looked at the others, and they were all going [makes a face] ‘Get us out of this one.’ I’m just going around the riff, looking at the audience, and they’re all singing the words, and I’m going, ‘What?’ [Tries reading their lips.] I was so high, I just got up from the piano and [puts his hands up in surrender] walked off. [Laughs hysterically.]”

Gordon responded, “That’s incredible because the song only has, like, three lines in it,” to which Yorke replied, “Exactly! [More laughter.] It’s not f*cking rocket science!”

Check out more of the conversation here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The most profitable venture for sportsbooks is getting people to place parlays — over the last year in Nevada, the hold percentage for casinos is an outrageous 32 percent on parlays, while blackjack is 15 percent, for comparison’s sake. As such, if you ever log into a mobile sportsbook you will notice the top is always flooded with suggested parlays trying to get you to get in on the action that pays the bills for those companies.

Usually, the sportsbooks try to put some kind of theme around each parlay or attach it to one of the personalities they partner with. The problem with this plan is, sometimes you might wade into some deep waters with your parlay theme if you are not careful. That happened on Monday with DraftKings, as they posted a “Never Forget” parlay of New York teams for 9/11, featuring the Yankees, Mets, and Jets. Unsurprisingly, that didn’t go over particularly well.

I have no idea what the chain of command is for getting parlay themes approved inside the DraftKings office, but I think it’s safe to say it will probably change now. Whoever approved that one got the company in some hot water, and they took the “Never Forget” parlay down off of the site and offered an apology on Twitter.

As always, if you are a brand thinking about doing something on 9/11 that is anything more than the most basic solemn post about the tragedy, I would advise against it.

Amy Schumer found herself caught up in a controversy on Monday morning, and because celebrities are just like us, she did what a lot of people do when they’re in trouble: Point out somebody else acting even worse.

The comedian became the target of backlash after she made a joke about Nicole Kidman in a now-deleted Instagram post. In attempt to bounce back from the controversy, Schumer fired off an apology where she trolled Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis for their letters of support for Danny Masterson.

Via Page Six, who captured a screengrab of Schumer’s post before it was also deleted:

“I want to apologize to all the people I hurt posting a photo of Nicole Kidman and alluding to her being an alien,” the “I Feel Pretty” star, 42, told her followers.

“I will be asking the cast of that 70s show to write letters advocating for my forgiveness,” she sarcastically continued, adding the hashtag “#takingtimetoheal.”

As for the initial joke that caused Schumer’s comments to be filled up with angry fans, the comedian joked about the robotic facial expression on Kidman’s face while the actress was attending the U.S. Open.

“This how human sit,” Schumer reportedly wrote. She was quickly accused of being “mean” and “cyberbullying” the Lioness star before Schumer eventually pulled the post. The Kutcher and Kunis quip was her attempt at a recovery, and apparently, Schumer wasn’t committed to that bit either.

(Via Page Six)

A Polish singer is under scrutiny for a doing an impression of Kendrick Lamar while employing some ill-advised language and darkening his skin for a local karaoke show. Your Face Sounds Familiar pits eight celebrities against each other to imitate artists in the hopes of winning a cash prize. However, Polish singer Kuba Szmajkowski may have overstepped when he performed “Humble” as Kendrick in full blackface with braids, and eschewed common-sense self-editing for instances of the N-word in the song — something for which Kendrick has actually censured fans in person during his own performances.

Once the clip made its way online, some fans were disappointed in Szmajkowski’s decision to perform in blackface and use the N-word, neither of which seemed strictly necessary for him to do to give an authentic performance (he won that episode, the second of the 19th season, donating the prize money to the Przystań Nadziei Foundation, which helps children with cancer).

As it turns out, the show has had a bit of a history of similar incidents, with impressions of Beyoncé and Kanye West utilizing blackface and unflattering caricatures of African American Vernacular English. Unsurprisingly, it seems rappers are very popular in Poland.

Now, obviously, there’s a lot of cultural context that the Polish might not have regarding the damaging history of such stereotypes here in the States (blackface and racial caricatures were key to minstrel shows, which contributed to negative attitudes toward Black people, including inaccurate and reductive perceptions of their tendency for laziness, stupidity, and violence — ironic considering they were forced against their will to work for free under threat of violence).

But we’re in the year 2023, we have the internet now, and all of this stuff is relatively easy to find out. There’s just no excuse and shame on everybody involved. Somehow, the US has managed to put on a similar show and get rousing performances from its contestants without the use of offensive stereotypes. Lil Yachty and his wock should probably just stay home.

Diddy isn’t one for small gestures. He took Yung Miami on a very expensive shopping spree, appeared naked in the video for City Girls’ “Act Bad,” and led his own tribute performance at the 2022 BET Awards. More recently, Diddy publicly proclaimed he was “proud” to contract athlete’s foot, which, ew, and he’ll receive the Global Icon Award at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards on Tuesday, September 12.

So, of course Diddy’s forthcoming The Love Album: Off The Grid is shaping up to be an industry-wide spectacle.

Watch the album’s trailer above, and learn everything you need to know below.

Release Date

The Love Album: Off The Grid is out 9/15 via Love Records/Motown. Find more information here.

Tracklist

1. “Brought My Love” Feat. The Dream and Herb Alpert
2. “What’s Love” Feat. Nova Wav
3. “Deliver Me” Feat. Dirty Money, Busta Rhymes, Dawn Richard, and Kalenna
4. “Stay A While” Feat. Nija
5. “Homecoming” Feat. Jozzy
6. “Pick Up” Feat. Fabolous
7. “Tough Love” Feat. Swae Lee
8. “Stay Long” Feat. Summer Walker
9. “Belongs To You” Feat. Jozzy
10. “Another One Of Me” Feat. The Weeknd, French Montana, 21 Savage
11. “INTERMISSION”
12. “Moments” Feat. Justin Bieber
13. “Need Somebody” Feat. Jazmine Sullivan
14. “Mind Ya Business” Feat. Ty Dolla Sign, Kehlani
15. “Nasty Interlude” Feat. Jozzy
16. “Reachin” Feat. Ty Dolla Sign, Coco Jones
17. “Stay Part 1” Feat. Kalan FrFr, K-Ci
18. “I Like” Feat. Mary J Blige
19. “Closer to God” Feat. Teyana Taylor
20. “BooHoo” Feat. Jeremih
21. “Interlude” (Burna Boy Interlude)
22. “Kim Porter” Feat. John Legend
23. “Space” Feat. HER

Features

As you can see above, the features are plentiful. There is only one song without a featured artist, which would be notable for any album but especially for a project of this length.

Diddy has teased some featured artists more than others. On August 30, Diddy confirmed that “Another One Of Me” will be The Weeknd’s final collaboration of his career. For weeks, Diddy has teased clips of Justin Bieber in the studio, promising that “R&Bieber is back” and explaining why “Moments” is a full-circle moment for them.

See Diddy’s similarly sentimental posts about Mary J. Blige, Teyana Taylor, The Dream, and others below.

Artwork

Diddy has not explicitly confirmed the album’s cover art. He’s posted loads of red-themed imagery, but one image of a diminutive Diddy in a red grid is the presumed cover.

Singles

Diddy has not released any singles, as of the time of this writing. Instead, he has gone all-in on teasing tracks with the behind-the-scenes videos, as we’ve already covered above.

Tour

A tour in support of The Love Album: Off The Grid has not yet been announced, as of the time of this writing. However, the 2023 VMAs on Tuesday (September 12) could serve as an ideal platform to reveal a single, tour plans, or both.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The NBA has spent recent years trying desperately to figure out a way to get star players on the floor more often, particularly for national TV games where the league’s network partners pay them billions to broadcast games with the best players.

Load management has become a point of contention around the league and with its broadcast partners, as teams will pick spots to sit stars in an effort to keep them healthy for the playoffs. The NBA has tried to push back on that by fining teams for resting stars during national TV games and most recently instituted a 65-game minimum players must hit to qualify for season-ending awards. That apparently hasn’t been enough, and with a new rights agreement in the works where the league is seeking many billions more from ESPN, TNT, and other prospective partners, the NBA is looking to appear even tougher on load management.

On Monday, Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania reported the NBA will vote on new, stronger fines for teams that rest players on national TV nights, while also explicitly dictating teams can’t rest two stars on the same night — with Shams even providing the league’s definition of who is and is not a star.

All of this feels, mostly, to be performative by the NBA as they look to ink a new national TV deal. Networks want assurances that the stars will play, and load management has become the boogeyman for broadcasters because the general NBA fan will tune in to see the top stars. The truth, though, is that it’s not a problem the league can solve with fines or demands.

Very few players (if any) want to sit out games if they can play, but it’s the teams that take the long view, trying to be at their peak for April through June. With 82 games featuring travel and back-to-backs, there are always little ailments guys are playing through, and by the time we are a couple months into the season, most players who log major minutes have picked up some sort of knock or nagging injury that could reasonably require them to take some time off. As players have gotten bigger, faster, stronger, and more explosive, they also put more stress on their bodies. All the new rules do is ensure teams are more thorough with their injury reports than they used to be, including various ankle and knee soreness delegations on the official reports rather than just hiding them away — or the ever popular “return from injury management” citations for guys coming back from significant injuries in the past.

Last year, there was a stretch in the middle of the season where a number of stars were out, but all were due to legitimate injuries. At times, the graphics for national TV games looked particularly bleak when it was a matchup of two teams with stars out with injuries, but at this point it’s fairly rare for a team to straight up rest a bunch of guys — like the Spurs rather famously did a few times out of spite during their heyday. I would expect these rules to get enforced extremely sparingly, with the main difference being teams being more diligent with their injury report. We’ll see lots of sorenesses and strains listed on the official report that used to go undocumented, giving teams ample cover if a guy needs to sit out.

The only real fix to the issue is changing the schedule, as eliminating back-to-backs would get rid of most rest nights, but no one wants to risk giving up any money to do so. The most reasonable answer would be to not put any national TV games on back-to-backs, but that would mean the networks have to give up some Lakers, Warriors, and Celtics games they so desperately crave. Until one of those things happens, we’ll keep getting fairly empty threats from the league that are made to keep the networks believing they’re doing something about an unsolvable problem.