Year: 2024

The first round of the expanded College Football Playoff took place over the weekend. While the on-campus environments and unique matchups between teams that don’t normally play lived up to everyone’s expectations, the games themselves did not, as they were largely blowouts where the home teams steamrolled the lower-ranked road sides.

It led to a lot of time that needed to be filled, and there were plenty of things that got thrown around by various ESPN personalities that didn’t exactly go over well. This included Kirk Herbstreit, who discussed the “lunatic fringe” at Ohio State that is fed up with head coach Ryan Day, and at one point, brought up another ESPN show, First Take, after Chris Fowler called out “nonsense” from “pundits on this network and other places” who “talk about that with certainty.”

“First Take tried to fire him,” Herbstreit said. “They thought he was done, so, I’ll be excited to see what they talk about on Monday after this performance. They had him out and were trying to find replacements, but here he is. He’s still got his hat on, he’s still coaching.”

Now, this is First Take we’re talking about here, so there was no bigger guarantee on the planet than this getting addressed. And unsurprisingly, that happened, with both Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe addressing Fowler and especially Herbstreit directly.

“Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit, outstanding, dynamic duo, it’s an honor and a privilege to call them my colleagues, that we work here at the same network, alright?” Smith said in an effort to add some diplomacy to the situation. “And I said this in fun to both of them: Stop, stop it. Chris Fowler, it’s ridiculous, no it’s not. Kirk Herbstreit, First Take tried to get him fired. That is not true, I did! Not First Take. That was me, Stephen A., I’m gonna own that. And what did I say specifically, Kirk Herbstreit? Because you gotta quote me accurately, my brother. I watch you on College GameDay, I don’t misquote you, don’t misquote me. What I said was, this man Ryan Day, if he doesn’t get a national championship, he should go. Even with a 66-10 record. I didn’t stutter one bit, I ain’t stuttering now.”

Smith then goes into Day’s struggles against Michigan, and how he hasn’t won a national title, all that stuff. Still, his whole rant was basically what you expect on an ESPN debate show that is trying to gin up a story where Stephen A. Smith and First Take are the main characters, which is the standard operating procedure for Stephen A. Smith and First Take.

What was considerably different was Sharpe, who … well, his response got a bit more personal.

“I’m gonna be a good teammate, I’m gonna let it slide — Everybody’s at ESPN. Because had you not taken the route you’ve taken, I would’ve lit their asses up,” Sharpe said. “I’m gonna let it slide. You know what guys, congratulations, Ohio State, you won the game. But hey, if we’re gonna be on the same team, if we’re gonna work for the same network, don’t do that. Kirk, Chris Fowler, I promise you, if you ever mention any platform that I’m on again and talking about ‘I wonder what they’re going to say as negativity,’ I promise you, ESPN ain’t got enough bosses to keep me off y’all for what I’m going to say. So, I’ma let y’all slide today, I’ma turn it over to [Dan Orlovsky] before I get myself in trouble. But don’t play with me.”

As both Sharpe and Smith mentioned in passing, Ohio State beat Tennessee, 42-17. This is all pretty wild, as the extremely short list of people who can say whatever they want at ESPN without fear of anyone getting too mad at them includes both Smith (and, by extension, Sharpe) and Herbstreit. At the same time, this public of a spat between some of the most visible people at the network — particularly when it pits the show ESPN built its entire morning programming around against arguably the single most valuable non-NFL property in all of American sports — absolutely seems like the sort of thing that has to be addressed ASAP.

Still, in a weekend where a lot of people did not exactly cover themselves in glory with how they discussed the sport, I think you can make the case that all of this was the nadir for something very loosely trying to present itself as college football analysis.

(via Awful Announcing)

It’s been a little while since we’ve gotten a new album from recent Uproxx cover star Charlie Puth, as his latest is 2022’s Charlie. Well, the good news is that one is coming soon, because legally, one has to come soon.

During a recent Q&A, Puth was asked when he’ll release his next album, and he responded, “The top of next year. So not five years, not four years: next year. Contractually obligated to release something next year, so…”

In his Uproxx cover story, Puth said of new music, “I do feel more at home in my music. I don’t feel insecure about being the 32-year-old band geek anymore, or the guy on the internet making fun of himself and now making fun of himself on a Roku TV show. Hopefully, this album is my best-performing one. I’d love 10 etched-in-stone songs that say as much about me as an hour-long interview. I feel like there’s only one of me. I just feel like that’s when an artist is in their prime — when they realize that there’s only one of them.”

He also said of one (currently untitled) song in particular, “It’s just as real and raw as I can be. It’s less about sneaking in the secret synth that no one cares about. They care about what I’m singing, and I should care about what I’m singing. I’m writing all the words, and I’m not really processing my vocals because my production idol, Max Martin, told me that what he misses from me is emotion in some areas musically. That comes from not tuning the vocals to high heavens and just letting it breathe.”

Forget the number of roads a man must walk down before you call him a man, and don’t even get me started on how many times must the cannonballs fly before they’re forever banned. You know what’s really blowin’ in the wind? Favorite Bob Dylan songs. It changes daily. Sometimes I’m in the mood for the post-“thin, wild, mercury sound” era (“The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest” is an underrated jewel). Other times, the only thing I want to listen to is the haunting loneliness of “Not Dark Yet.”

Naming a favorite Bob Dylan song is especially difficult when you’re in a movie about Bob Dylan.

I recently asked the cast of A Complete Unknown — Timothée Chalamet (who plays Bob Dylan), Elle Fanning (Sylvie Russo, based on artist and Dylan’s girlfriend at the time Suze Rotolo), Edward Norton (Pete Seeger), and Monica Barbaro (Joan Baez) — as well as director James Mangold to share if they have a favorite Bob Dylan song(s). Some did, others found it an impossible task.

Check out their answers below.

James Mangold

I can’t do it. It’s too many, I can’t. Honestly, I’m so bad. I won’t do it with movies, I don’t do it with anything. I love too many things. It’d be like asking me to name a Tom Petty or Bruce Springsteen or Frank Sinatra song I like best. I just can’t do it.

Do you remember the first Dylan album you heard?

Absolutely. It was my dad’s Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits record, the one with the backlit big hair. That was my introduction. He had a cassette that he played in his VW bus whenever he drove me somewhere. It was either that or Glen Campbell singing “Wichita Lineman.” That’s where I first was introduced to Bob. And then I obviously heard the records, but by the time I was in college, even when I was 17 or 18, I believe that’s when Infidels came out. I love that record, and that also made me buy everything backwards from there that I hadn’t heard.

Is there a deep cut that you really wanted to include in the movie, but couldn’t find a place to fit it?

“One Too Many Mornings.” I love that song, but I also managed to get it in, in the sense that if you see the movie again, and you listen to the guitar playing under Bob and Joan when he rides off on his motorcycle at the end, it’s the guitar part for “One Too Many Mornings.”

Edward Norton

The answer to that question has probably changed every five years, because I think as you move through life and go through your own phases and changes, there’s so much richness in his music that you end up realizing a different song that he wrote is the soundtrack you need at the moment. It’s never stayed fixed.

I’ve had periods where Blood On The Tracks was the soundtrack of my emotional life. And I’ve had periods where I was deep in World Gone Wrong. And I think when I was young and moved to New York to try to live in Greenwich Village and be an artist, those early records were almost totemic to me. “Song For Woody” is a very important song in my life. That idea of coming to a place to follow in the footsteps of people that you have taken inspiration from, I honestly felt that song was my story. That’s like what I was trying to do. Like so many other people, things he has written at different phases and eras of his own life have resonated for me at different times.

When I moved to New York for college, the song that spoke to me in the way you’re describing was “She’s Your Lover Now.”

Those songs, “Boots Of Spanish Leather,” “Girl From The North Country,” “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” I mean, he’s got this whole landscape of longing and loss, but then there’s the political stuff. Timothée and I talked a lot about how “The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll”… I mean, that song is so lacerating, and challenging, and brilliant, and bold, kind of like “Hurricane” later. You know, the capacity to write a thing that’s not about rhyming, that is telling a story of injustice, and to have it actually, you know, hurt your heart. It’s amazing what he’s able to encompass in his writing. I remember when he won the Nobel Prize, and people were like, “Oh, but he’s not a writer.” It’s like, yes, he is. Yes, he absolutely is.

Monica Barbaro

I have, right now, the deepest relationship with “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.” That was a song that I really focused on with guitar, because it’s very difficult to play, and in doing so, constantly repeating it, I just felt like, over months, the lyrics meant more to me. I was constantly finding new depth in the lyrics, and even changing my relationship over time with the words of that song. There’s also… god, I love the moment in “Farewell Angelina”: “Shut the eyes of the dead / Not to embarrass anyone.” That is something that just hits you. He’s a brilliant poet.

How about your favorite Joan Baez song?

It’s hard to narrow it down. I really love “Diamonds And Rust.” She wrote it in the ’70s, or at least it was released in the ’70s, and I thought that was a really helpful lens into a lot of pieces of [Bob and Joan’s] relationship, as many people did, as many fans did, and as he did. I think from the sounds of it, he heard the song and called her, and he’s like, “What the f*ck.” That was a very informative song. But I love the way she sings “The Water Is Wide.” I love the way she sings “House Of The Rising Sun,” the way she hovers on the relationship with the sister in that song. To me, whether she was doing this or not, it feels like she’s saying something about her sister and the relationship that they had. I find the accompaniment to be beautiful, and I think it’s the most beautiful version of that song that exists. God, “Silver Dagger,” so cool. It’s peppy, but tragic, and… god, I can’t pick favorites with her songs. I really can’t.

When you were preparing for the role, did you watch a lot of live footage?

Yeah yeah. We all pored over so much footage, and luckily, it was fairly well-documented. And there have been lots of documentaries throughout the decades. I think they’re also all very honest about themselves and honest about the time, and that’s a gift when you’re portraying these people, having the audacity to portray them behind closed doors. We’re let in on a lot of who they were, because they’re just honest.

Timothée Chalamet and Elle Fanning

Elle: It’s a wild question, I must say. But “Buckets Of Rain,” that’s the first Bob Dylan song I heard, so it means something to me. I love “Hurricane.” I love “Ballad Of A Thin Man.” Those are the ones that are endless, right? “Tangled Up In Blue.”

Timothée: It changes every day. Today, I’ll say “Outlaw Blues,” because, I could be wrong, I’m sure I’m wrong, but it’s been very hard for me to ever find a live version of him doing “Outlaw Blues.” And it’s also, conversely, one of the Dylan tracks from that period that has a crazy kick to it and a crazy energy. And to me, one of the underrated songs of that time period.

Do you remember the first album of his that you listened to?

Elle: Mine was Blood On The Tracks.

Timothée: I couldn’t tell you. For me, it was like everything at once. So I really don’t have a good answer for you there, and…

Elle: You were trying to be him.

Timothée: But in the beginning, the truthful answer of that was “Ballad Of A Thin Man,” the live version from No Direction Home, the Scorsese doc. And also “I Want You” from Blonde On Blonde. Those were, for whatever reason, some of the early Dylan songs in my library.

Have either of you ever seen him live?

Timothée: Yeah, we saw him together.

Elle: Kings Theatre?

Timothée: Kings Theatre in Brooklyn. Not this summer, but this past summer and Elle passed out in the audience.

Elle: No, I threw up.

Timothée: She was throwing up.

Elle: I had a bad turkey sandwich. It was awesome.

Timothée: I was like, this is either a great omen for the movie or the exact opposite.

Elle: Oh my god, he was halfway through. I’d never seen him live, and we were there, and then something overcame me. And then I envisioned the turkey sandwich I’d had that day, and ran out. I threw up in the concession stand.

Is there an artist or band who you haven’t seen live who you really want to?

Elle: AC/DC.

Timothée: Whoa, good answer.

Elle: Yeah, I haven’t seen… I can still see them, right?

I think they just announced a stadium tour.

Elle: Amazing. All right, Sign me up.

How about you, Timothée?

Timothée: Maybe your sweater? [I’m wearing a Phoebe Bridgers hoodie] Maybe Phoebe Bridgers? I’ve seen Boygenius, but I haven’t seen Phoebe live.

A Complete Unknown opens in theaters on December 25.

A fed-up Summer Walker grabs the gas can in an homage to ’90s Black cinema. Even if you haven’t seen the 1995 Angela Bassett vehicle, you can probably predict how the video for Walker’s single “Heart Of A Woman” ends. NLE Choppa stars as her cheating beau, who ends up with a smoldering heap where his designer clothes used to be after stepping out one too many times.

The video opens with Walker in her boudoir watching anime, when a buzzing iPhone sends her to the shower to confront a naked (safe for work) NLE Choppa. However, he convinces her to forgive him; after a few more cycles, though, Walker reaches the end of her rope, with fiery results.

“Heart Of A Woman” is the lead single from Walker’s upcoming third studio album, Finally Over It. Due for release in 2025, the album appears to be the final piece of her coming-of-age romantic trilogy. Its release is set to be accompanied by the launch of an Apple Music Radio station, Over It Radio, which was announced earlier this month. Walker’s had a quiet 2024, but it looks like the new year is going to be bringing a flurry of activity from the reluctant star.

Watch Summer Walker’s video for “Heart Of A Woman” featuring NLE Choppa above.

It has not been the best year for Drake, as he found himself on the wrong end of 2024’s biggest rap beef with Kendrick Lamar, whose final salvo in the duel, “Not Like Us”, lived at the top of the charts for most of the summer. Beyond that, Drake’s beloved Toronto Raptors have fallen back towards the bottom of the Eastern Conference, as they look to rebuild around Scottie Barnes but seem like they may have to battle through some lean years before they can get back in the contending conversation.

A 7-22 start to the season for Toronto has made them (and Drake) a bit of an easy target, and the latest to get some shots in at Drake’s expense were the Houston Rockets broadcast team. After the Rockets held on late for a 114-110 win over the Raptors on Sunday night, many fans raised an eyebrow when Houston’s play-by-play man said the Rockets were “victorious tonight against the Guangdong Dragons.”

That line was pulled from Drake’s response to Fred VanVleet’s farewell to Toronto two summers ago, when Drake wished VanVleet luck on the “Guangdong Dragons”, likening the Rockets to a Chinese Basketball Association team — but getting the name wrong, as they are the Guangdong Southern Tigers.

Houston’s announcers did not forget about this and waited more than a year to drop this line after a win over Toronto, although I think it would’ve hit much harder had they said “the Guangdong Tigers are victorious over the Raptors” rather than trying to flip the name onto Toronto. In any case, there’s still a week left in 2024 for anyone trying to get a lick in on Drake, as it seems to still be open season.

Stray Kids accomplished a feat that no band or artist — not The Beatles, not Taylor Swift, not Jay-Z — has ever pulled off.

The K-pop group‘s latest album, Hop (which is technically being billed as a mixtape), is their sixth No. 1 to debut at the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart with over 187,000 equivalent album units in its first week. According to Billboard, that makes Stray Kids “the first act to debut at No. 1 with its first six chart entries in the nearly 69-year history of the chart.”

Stray Kids’ previous chart-toppers are 2022’s Oddinary and Maxident, 2023’s 5-Star and Rock-Star, and 2024’s Ate.

“I think we always tried to capture our own story as it is, without trying to make up anything,” Stray Kids member Changbin told USA Today earlier this year. “However, we still tried to make it interesting by telling the story in our own authentic style, no matter what the theme is.” Bang Chan added, “One thing for sure is we put in our souls and minds into the music.”

Stray Kids is touring North America in 2025, including stops in New York City, Los Angeles, and Mexico City. You can see the full dates for the dominATE World Tour here.

Social media is a virtual space where people nowadays spent a decent portion of their lives, so what happens there is significant. With that in mind, as 2024 counts down its final days, now is a good time to look at who generated the most attention online, by checking out which 2024 Instagram posts got the most likes across the platform.

Per data collected on Wikipedia and accurate as of December 23, the most-liked Instagram post shared this year comes from user @pop_cj6, and it compiles two videos. One is of a horse having a surprised reaction after a person takes off the horse mask they were wearing, and the other is an edited clip, made to look like a panda is having a shocked reaction to a person removing their panda mask. It has 31.2 million likes and is currently No. 14 on the all-time list of most-liked Instagram posts.

In second in 2024 is a post from footballer Kylian Mbappé announcing his signing with Real Madrid (25.5 million likes). Following that is Justin Bieber’s photo of his and Hailey Bieber’s son (23.1), Selena Gomez announcing her engagement to Benny Blanco (22.8), and cricket player Virat Kohli celebrating India’s victory at the 2024 T20 World Cup (21.7).

Gomez’s rank is especially impressive considering her post was only shared on December 12. Gomez, meanwhile, had one of 2023’s most-liked posts, too.

In case you missed it: Back in 2011, Kim Kardashian released her debut single, “Jam (Turn It Up).” A few years later, in 2014, she reflected, “It’s definitely a memory and it was a fun experience. We gave the proceeds to a cancer organization. But if there’s one thing in life that I wish I didn’t do… I don’t like it when people kind of dabble into things they shouldn’t be. And that I don’t think I should have. Like, what gave me the right to think I could be a singer? Like, I don’t have a good voice.”

Well, Kardashian apparently isn’t ready to give up on music yet: Today (December 23), she released a Travis Barker-produced rendition of the holiday classic “Santa Baby.” She shared a lo-fi video for the track, too, which primarily features Kardashian crawling around as a hectic Christmas party unfolds around her. At the end, there’s even a quick cameo from Christmas icon Macaulay Culkin.

While Kardashian herself hasn’t been too involved with music lately aside from this, her Skims shapewear brand has been recruiting some of today’s biggest stars for campaigns. The list includes Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, Lana Del Rey, and more.

Watch the “Santa Baby” video above.

In the hip-hop scene, Drake seems to be public enemy number one. However, the “No Face” rapper just received a public statement of appreciation from one hip-hop legend.

Yesterday (December 21), André 3000 stopped by The New York Times’ Popcast podcast to discuss all things music. During the conversation (viewable here), André 3000’s verse on Kanye West’s Donda song “Life Of The Party” became the topic of conversation. As André talked with hosts Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, he revealed he should “thank” Drake for leaking it on his OVO Sound Radio show.

Although he expressed disappointment in the verse being used as a tactical move in Drake and Ye’s beef, he is happy to know that fans were still about to enjoy it. “I mean the history of it now, I know Kanye and Drake…were beefing at the time,” he said. “I don’t know how [this is so odd] Drake got a hold of the song before Kanye was able to put it out. And Drake released it on his radio show.”

André went on to say, due to creative differences the likelihood of his verse being released as he recorded it was up in the air. “At that point, Kanye and I weren’t really in agreeance with how the song would be release,” he said. “So, I’m not sure if it was even going to come out. I don’t know if Drake knew that the song wasn’t going to come out and said, ‘I’m going to put it out.’ Because Kanye was at a point in his life that he didn’t want any curse words on the album. And I said, ‘I’m cool with no curse words, but just take me off the song.’”

Unfortunately, the two didn’t come to an understanding before the track was eventually leaked. But André isn’t made about Drake leaking it, saying: “I kind of have to thank Drake for letting that song see the light of day.”

After earning the top-seed in the Western Conference in 2023-24, the Oklahoma City Thunder found themselves outclassed by the Dallas Mavericks in the conference semifinals, losing to Luka Doncic and company in six games.

The young Thunder took note of their shortcomings in that series and went into this summer determined to address them as best they could. They gave a big contract to Isaiah Hartenstein in free agency to provide the rebounding and rim protection at center they were lacking alongside Chet Holmgren, and traded Josh Giddey to the Bulls for Alex Caruso, upgrading their backcourt rotation alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, adding a better defender and a player more comfortable off the ball.

Those moves have allowed OKC to jump out to a 22-5 start to their season, once again moving to the top of the West, even with Holmgren missing most of the season with a hip injury. On Sunday, the Thunder made sure that their acquisition of Caruso wouldn’t be a one-year rental, signing the guard to a 4-year, $81 million contract extension, per Shams Charania. Caruso gets some long-term financial stability and a healthy raise off of the ~$10 million he’s making this year, locking himself into a situation that seems ideal for his talents.

For the Thunder, they make sure to take one of their top free agents off the board early and make Caruso part of their foundational core group, as he’s quickly made a seamless fit into the Oklahoma City ecosystem. For this contract to be a value deal down the line, they’ll need Caruso to shake out of a career-worst shooting funk (27 percent from three), even if he can’t replicate his sharpshooting from a year ago (40.8 percent in Chicago). Still, what he allows them to do in terms of keeping an elite wing defender on the floor at all times along with or opposite Luguentz Dort makes them a truly hellacious defense to deal with, and if the shooting even returns to a league-average mark, this could end up being another high-value deal for the Thunder.