Month: April 2024

For years now, the most iconic part of Rihanna’s online identity has been her Instagram profile image. You know the one: It’s a simplistic and relatively crude illustration of an expressionless character with curly hair on its head. As Vulture notes, the image dates back to 2014, so it was there for Anti, it was there for the launch of Fenty Beauty, and it was there for the births of Rihanna and ASAP Rocky’s two children.

Now, we are at the dawn of a new era: Over this past weekend, Rihanna changed her Instagram profile image. Now, instead of the classic doodle that has graced her account for a decade, we have a photo of a Fenty product, being held by what looks like a stick-figure hand, perhaps belonging to the beloved illustration.

There is a degree of devastation among Rihanna’s fans over this change. One shared an “In Loving Memory” video that has racked up 2.8 million views, reading, “I was deeply saddened to hear of your loss. Please know that you have my heartfelt condolences. In this time of grief, may you find strength and solace in the embrace of family and friends who care deeply for you.”

Check out that and other reactions below.

Breaking (wind) news: Donald Trump may have farted during his hush-money trial. Last week, MeidasTouch founder Ben Meiselas reported that the sleepy former president is “actually farting in the courtroom and that it’s very stinky around him.” The odor is so “putrid,” he claimed, that Trump’s lawyers are “repulsed by the scent and the smell.”

This is “unsharted territory,” as Jimmy Kimmel joked during Monday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live.

“Just when you think the insano-meter has topped out, Donald Trump adds farting to his list of atrocities,” he said. Kimmel acknowledged that “we don’t know for sure that Trump was the one farting in court” (Snopes gave the story an “uncertain,” so the rumor is neither confirmed nor denied), so “I cannot in good conscience report that Trump was pumping gas like a Barstow Texaco, but I can report, to borrow a phrase he likes to use when spreading rumors, many people were saying Trump was farting in court.”

After listening off the phrases that trended on Twitter about Trump allegedly passing gas, including “Odor In The Court,” Kimmel added, “There’s no way to prove Donald Trump was the one who dealt it, so please don’t repost this video with a dumb caption like ‘Julius Squeezer’ or ‘The Shart of the Deal’ or ‘You Have the Right to Remain Silent but Deadly’ because we don’t know if any of this is true.” If you like edited footage of Trump farting (who doesn’t), you can watch the Jimmy Kimmel Live clip above.

With Donald Glover devoting much of his energy to acting in recent years, the future of his music as Childish Gambino has remained uncertain. There has been some clarity lately, though: Earlier this month, Glover broke down his plan for his final two albums as Childish Gambino. Now he has shared even more about what his upcoming Gambino goings-on will entail.

During a recent GILGA Radio broadcast, an advertisement-style announcement said, “Childish Gambino New World Tour this summer. Coming to an arena near you. Are you ready?” Glover later shared an Instagram post about it, featuring a simple graphic for The New World Tour and a link to a website, thenewworldtour.com. There, there’s an email sign-up form to be updated with more information when it becomes available.

So, to summarize: What we know about the tour right now is that it’s called The New World Tour, it will take place in arenas, and it’s set to kick off this summer. Dates and information about tickets have yet to be revealed.

Elsewhere during that same broadcast, Glover teased two new songs, one featuring Kanye West and the other featuring Kid Cudi. As NME notes, the Kudi collab is called “Warlords” and previously leaked in 2021.

If you plan on finding yourself in Finland this summer (or don’t yet but have been looking for some travel inspiration), Flow Festival Helsinki is set to go down from August 9 to 11. The lineup was already looking fantastic, but it just got even better today (April 23) with the third wave of acts announced.

The full list of artists unveiled today includes Halsey, Janelle Monáe, Vince Staples, Aurora,, Amaarae, Yves Tumor, Barry Can’t Swim, Evian Christ, Ron Trent Presents WARM, Gasellit, Malla, Lauri Haav, SMC, Turisti, Grande Mahogany, and Goldielocks.

They join a lineup that already featured folks like Fred Again.., Raye, Pulp, Idles, The Smile, PJ Harvey, Jessie Ware, Overmono, Blonde Redhead, Alvvays, Miriam Bryant, Kenya Grace, Artemas,
Kokoko!, Serpentwithfeet, and Helena Hauff.

The fest goes down at the historic Suvilahti power plant area in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Tickets are available now via the Flow Festival website. Three-day passes start at 239€ (about $261), while a two-day pass goes for 199€ ($218) and a one-day pass is 129€ ($141) for Friday or Sunday, or 149€ ($163) for Saturday.

Flow Festival is fresh off a nomination for Best Festival Creative at the 2024 Uproxx Sound + Vision Awards, “a first-of-its-kind award honoring the creative direction that helps music connect with its audience, adding untold value and nuance to the art form.” So, it’s an event worth making the trip for.

The Denver Nuggets, somehow, have a 2-0 series lead on the Los Angeles Lakers after a thrilling 20-point comeback win in Game 2 on Monday night.

After a rough start, Jamal Murray closed the game with a flurry and tore the Lakers hearts out with a fading buzzer-beater over Anthony Davis to give Denver a 101-99 win. It was a game Denver had no business winning, but was emblematic of what they’ve become. LeBron James hit big shot after big shot late. Anthony Davis had 32 points and 11 boards. D’Angelo Russell hit seven threes and the Lakers as a team shot 43 percent from deep compared to just 23 percent by Denver.

And yet, it’s still a 2-0 Nuggets lead despite them not playing anything approaching their best ball as a team so far in the series. That’s largely because they have the best floor-raiser in the NBA in Nikola Jokic, who put up yet another outrageous stat line with 27 points, 20 rebounds, and 10 assists to lead the comeback before Murray put the game on ice.

After the game, Charles Barkley wanted to make sure that in all the excitement of the finish, Jokic’s performance didn’t get lost and that fans don’t take what he’s doing for granted.

The stat Barkley was referencing was this one that has Jokic doubling up Wilt in 20/20/10 triple-doubles in the playoffs after his Game 2 performance.

Jokic’s current run is nothing short of phenomenal. He’s likely going to be handed his third NBA MVP award at some point in the next month, and he simply demands that an opponent put together 48 full minutes to beat the Nuggets. He is doing things at a level of, as Barkley notes, the all-time greats of the game and he’s going to continue climbing the ranks as he brings down accolades and continues winning. It’s cool to hear Barkley take a moment to shout out his greatness and he’s right that we should appreciate what we’re getting to watch.

There’s an immediate frontrunner for the best game of the 2024 NBA playoffs, and it’s going to be awfully hard to beat. Despite trailing by as many as 20 points in the second half of Game 2 against the Los Angeles Lakers, the defending champion Denver Nuggets were able to scratch and claw their way back into the game and pick up a thrilling 101-99 win thanks to the heroics of Jamal Murray.

While Los Angeles seemed to be in total control in the third quarter of the game, the sense of inevitability that made Denver champions reared its head. The team kept chipping away at the lead, and while they could never quite get over the hump, they slowly but surely got back into it. And then, after a wild sequence with 75 seconds remaining ended with a Michael Porter Jr. triple, the Nuggets tied it up for the first time since the game was 3-3 in the first.

The two teams traded buckets down the stretch, and with 16 seconds remaining, LeBron James — who was nothing short of brilliant on the evening — missed a jumper that got corralled by Porter. He gave the ball to Murray, who brought the ball up the court, got to his spot despite being hounded by Anthony Davis, and drilled a jumper as time expired.

Murray had a rough shooting night, as he had 20 points on 9-for-24 shooting. Despite that, he was able to come up big late, as he had 14 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, including what might go down as the best shot of his career. As a result, the Nuggets picked up their 10th win in a row over the Lakers, and they find themselves in total control of their series as it shifts to Los Angeles for Games 3 and 4.

The Philadelphia 76ers face an 0-2 series hole in their first round matchup against the New York Knicks. There are certainly some positives for the team to take away from those games, namely that both were extremely close and the Sixers had a chance to win down the stretch despite the fact that they were on the road. And now, the series is heading the Philadelphia, where they’ve been incredibly difficult to beat this year.

But despite that, it appears that Sixers executive Daryl Morey is dipping back into his old bag of tricks. While it is unclear if he is spearheading this effort, the front office led by Morey — who has never been shy about trying to put the officials in the spotlight when things go against his team — is filing a grievance over the officiating through the first two games of the series.

While this isn’t everything, the series has been called fairly evenly in terms of fouls (Philly’s been called for 42, New York’s been called for 35) and free throw attempts (the Knicks have a 51-44 edge). There was, however, a high-profile moment at the end of Game 2 where Tyrese Maxey did not draw a foul despite plenty of contact, which led to a turnover and the go-ahead basket by Donte DiVincenzo. After the game, Joel Embiid called it “f*cking unacceptable” that the officials did not call a foul or grant Nick Nurse a timeout.

Becky Lynch won the battle royal on Monday Night Raw to claim the WWE Women’s World Championship after Rhea Ripley vacated the belt last week.

The match got started with Maxxine eliminating Candace LeRae and Indi Hartwell, who have played bullies to her in recent weeks. Zoey Stark eliminated Kayden Carter and Katana Chance and Nia Jax eliminated Ivy Nile.

Jax then ate a few kicks from Maxxine, before tossing her over the top rope. Becky Lynch eliminated Piper Niven, who dragged Lynch under the bottom rope and tossed her into the stairs. Niven then put Lynch on the announce table and pulled Jax under the bottom rope. Jax chokeslammed Niven onto Lynch on the table, then picked up Niven and landed a Samoan Drop again on Lynch, but the table didn’t break.

Natalya tossed Chelsea Green over the top rope, but officials missed it and she was able to climb back into the ring. Jax eventually powerbombed Lynch through the table. Stark then eliminated Green, while Shayna Baszler eliminated Natalya.

Jax caught Stark, tossed her over the top rope and then did the same to Baszler, leaving Liv Morgan, Jax, and Lynch as the three final participants.

Morgan and Lynch double teamed Jax, who turned the tables and hit a double suplex. Jax climbed to the middle rope, but Lynch and Morgan were able to toss her over the top rope and eventually eliminate her.

Morgan and Lynch squared off, Lynch tossed her over the top rope to the apron. Morgan dragged Lynch through the middle rope and Lynch hit the ManHandle Slam on the apron to win the belt.

The Philadelphia 76ers lost a heartbreaker on Monday night in New York. Despite a late 5-point lead, Philly was unable to hold onto its lead due to an 8-0 run by the Knicks over the game’s 27 seconds. As a result, New York picked up a 104-101 win that put the Knicks ahead in the first round series, 2-0.

The real backbreaker for the Sixers game when Tyrese Maxey turned the ball over after a Josh Hart three, and the ensuing possession saw Donte DiVincenzo knock down a triple to put New York ahead. There was a whole lot of contact on the play — first on the inbounds pass that Maxey could not reel in, then as Maxey got trapped — but none of it got called.

After the game, Joel Embiid got asked about the sequence and did not hold back, saying that it was “f*cking unacceptable” that the referees did not call a foul anywhere on the possession despite believing there were multiple times when Maxey got fouled. Embiid also criticized the referees for not granting Sixers coach Nick Nurse a timeout on the possession.

Despite this, Embiid is still optimistic about his team’s outlook in the series.

If there’s a silver lining for Embiid and the Sixers, it’s that they will have a little time to process this loss before playing in front of their fans, as Game 3 between the two teams will take place on Thursday night in Philadelphia.

The Los Angeles Lakers know they have to find 48 minutes of two-way excellence if they are going to even their first round series with the defending champion Denver Nuggets, as they saw Game 1 slip away after a strong start.

However, a strong start never hurts the cause, and similarly to the opener the Lakers got off on the right foot in Game 2, taking a quick 15-9 lead in the first 5.5 minutes thanks to some great play on both ends of the floor. D’Angelo Russell shook off his 1-of-9 night from three on Saturday to hit three quick threes, giving the Lakers a needed boost around LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

On defense, the Lakers were flying around the court early and it was James that set the tone with a ridiculous block on Jamal Murray as he looked to throw down a dunk.

LeBron got the ball incredibly cleanly, cupping it as Murray tried to put it home and had the strength to throw it out to the bench.

James isn’t the same defensive force he once was on a possession by possession basis, but he’s still capable of some pretty incredible feats when he taps into his energy reserves on that end. He knows the importance of this Game 2 to the Lakers chances in the series, and this block was an early highlight to send a message to both teams what this game will be like.