Category: News

As the dust settles from an exceptionally busy 2023 NBA trade deadline and the league’s attention shifts to Salt Lake City and All-Star Weekend, the Phoenix Suns are in the center of the frame. Granted, the Suns earned additional focus in the wake of a blockbuster trade earlier this month, acquiring one of the best players in the world in Kevin Durant and unquestionably going all-in on a core that still includes Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, and Chris Paul. In fact, Phoenix is now the betting favorite to win the Western Conference at virtually every outlet, even as the Suns have only a small lead on a jumbled Western Conference middle, to the point where a bad week could send Phoenix sliding into the play-in mix.

It makes perfect sense that Phoenix would rise near the top of the spectrum, simply because Durant is really that good and Booker remains an All-NBA player. Ayton and Paul give the Suns a tremendous top four and, even amid legitimate concerns with depth and defense, it stands to reason that the Suns’ expectations would fly through the roof once Durant is back and healthy.

Still, Phoenix’s ascent, as well as the power of the past, have seemingly thrown many off the scent of a team that appears for all the world to be the favorite on paper: the Denver Nuggets.

The team enters the All-Star break with a 41-18 record. Die-hards will certainly know that regular season win-loss record is never the only vessel by which contender status is measured, but Denver currently has a five-game lead on the rest of the Western Conference and the best net rating (+4.5) in the conference. The folks at Cleaning The Glass paint an even more optimistic picture that includes a +5.0 net rating when removing garbage time, and FiveThirtyEight now projects the Nuggets to finish several games ahead of the West field in the regular season with a similarly prominent gap to odds to reach the NBA Finals. If you simply covered the column that lists team names, it would be quite difficult to understand why the team with the best statistical profile wouldn’t be considered the favorite.

The reality that “defense wins championships” is the dark cloud hanging over Denver’s candidacy, and that is a legitimate concern. However, the Nuggets bring the league’s best offense to the table, scoring 117.6 points per 100 possessions this season. Denver’s ball movement is tremendous, as 66.1 percent of their field goals come off assists, they generate 29.1 assists per game, and have 1.95 assists for every turnover this season. Michael Malone’s team leads the NBA in effective field goal percentage (58.2 percent), field goal percentage, and three-point percentage, which is difficult to do, and the Nuggets also boost efficiency with 55.2 points in the paint and 16.8 fast break points per game.

In short, there is little reason to think Denver can’t keep up with any team on the offensive end, even in a playoff setting when the game historically slows down. The largest appeal for the Nuggets is the presence of the two-time reigning MVP in Nikola Jokic. While some remain inexplicably skeptical of Jokic’s individual brilliance, he leads the NBA in various advanced metrics, including EPM and RAPTOR by comfortable margins, this season. From a “traditional” standpoint, he is averaging a triple-double with 24.7 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 10.1 assists per game, and Jokic is an efficiency monster, shooting 63.2 percent from the field and regularly delivering high-quality looks for his teammates with his obscene passing.

When Jokic is on the court, the Nuggets are fantastic. Denver is 38-13 in games when Jokic plays, and the Nuggets are scoring 124.7 points per 100 possessions under his leadership. That leads to a ridiculous +14.3 net rating and, while the Nuggets have scuffled without Jokic on the floor for years, he projects to play more minutes in the postseason and this year’s Denver team is investing well into the luxury tax to support increased depth.

It would be fair to suggest that the Nuggets have had relatively solid health this season, but it isn’t as if the Nuggets have a spotless health record, with Jokic missing eight games, Jamal Murray sidelined for 14 games, and Michael Porter Jr. on the shelf for 17 games. Denver will certainly need the best possible performance from Murray and Porter, in addition to various supporting pieces, to get over the finish line. In the case of Murray, he has a strong playoff track record, and Jokic has single-handedly flummoxed various opponents in the postseason, even when the Nuggets were overmatched elsewhere.

On one hand, it makes perfect sense that some would remain skeptical of Denver. After all, the Nuggets haven’t reached the NBA Finals with this group and last year’s team exited in the first round of the postseason. It is noteworthy, though, that the Jokic-Murray Nuggets do have a conference finals berth in the not-so-distant past, and Denver is arguably playing its best basketball of the entire Jokic era this season, as evidenced by the aforementioned regular season profile.

In a playoff series against the Suns, Grizzlies, Warriors, or other potential contenders, the Nuggets will be forced to prove they can generate enough defensive stops to survive. Jokic has improved dramatically as a regular season defensive anchor, and the metrics support that, but he does have physical limitations in space, and the Nuggets have other potential defensive issues with both Porter and Murray. Denver has been a solid defensive team by regular season standards but, with few exceptions, title-winning teams usually bring elite-level defense to the table by the postseason, and it may be hard for the Nuggets to get there.

While the Nuggets may not be quite as big of a favorite as the current regular season profile suggests, they do, however, boast clearly the best metrics in the Western Conference right now and, with the understandable rush to anoint another team with clear potential drawbacks in the Suns, Denver is being overlooked. This isn’t a season in which it would be wise to take any single team in the West against the field, and that is likely the case for Denver as well, but the Nuggets are doing all they can do to assuage doubt in the regular season and playing a lot like a legitimate contender as the All-Star break arrives.

The next handful of Saturday Night Live hosts has something for everyone: the sports fans, the emo kids, and the Now You See Me fandom (we exist!).

SNL will return next week with host Woody Harrelson and musical guest Jack White. Harrelson starred in last year’s Triangle of Sadness, the movie that all of your cool friends tried to get you to watch. Up next, the actor will star alongside Justin Theroux in White House Plumbers as one of the guys who accidentally brought about the Watergate Scandal. Hey, it happens.

On March 4th, the Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce will host with musical guest Kelsea Ballerini, where there will likely be some sort of pun about their name similarities.

Finally, and this is the one for the books, Wednesday star Jenna Ortega will host what will inevitably be a whole series of Wednesday-inspired sketches and jokes (if they know what’s good for them, anyway). Ortega will be joined by musical guest The 1975, making it the must-watch comedy event of the year for weirdos and goths alike. As long as Matty Healy behaves himself.

Ortega has been one of the most in-demand actresses as of late, thanks to her role on Wednesday and the upcoming Scream installment. Maybe Lady Gaga will make a quick cameo! One can only hope.

Drill music has been taking over lately as more and more US rap artists tap into the crunchy, upbeat instrumentals that define the sound pioneered by UK producers. Maryland rapper IDK is no exception, but in the video for his new track “Radioactive,” he heads straight to the source, running the “endz” of London as he tries out his new rap style.

The scenery and wardrobe look straight out of Top Boy as IDK, bundled in a down jacket, surrounds himself with roadman dem to goad any wannabe bullies to come see him on the block. The estate houses loom in the background, suggesting the strong connection between hoods on both sides of the pond.

IDK’s latest stylistic departure should come as no surprise to anyone who’s been following his career. The PG County native has switched through hip-hop subgenres like school clothes from MF DOOM homage “Monsieur Dior” to the dancefloor groove of his and Kaytranada’s album Simple (with part two coming soon!) Also, funnily enough, IDK was actually born in London, much like 21 Savage.

If IDK’s first song of 2023 is any indication of his future output, his next project could see him going back to his roots. Stay tuned.

Watch IDK’s video for “Radioactive” above.

At the 65th annual Grammy Awards ceremony, hip-hop celebrated a major milestone: its 50th birthday. To commemorate the occasion, the genre’s pioneer acts, as well as some of today’s rising talents, took the stage of the Grammys for a tribute performance honoring the cultural phenomenon. With a diverse range (or so they tried) of ages, geographic regions, and gender expressions showcased on stage, from the outside looking in, you’d think that hip-hop is a warm, welcoming environment. This couldn’t be any further from the truth, especially as it relates to Black women both in front of and behind the microphone.

Although legendary hip-hop group Salt-N-Pepa, multifaceted talent Queen Latifah, the evening’s Global Icon Award recipient Missy Elliott, and newbie on the block GloRilla delivered a stellar performance, it has been a fight for them and other talented women like them to gain the respect of their male counterparts and predominately male fan base. Whether it comes to being deliberately left out of the conversation (i.e. the late Gangsta Boo being left out of the in-memoriam portion of the Grammys), being harshly criticized for the music’s subject matter (i.e. the Latto and p*ssy rap debate), or the public’s treatment of Megan Thee Stallion during Tory Lanez’ trial for assaulting her — hip-hop still has a misogyny problem.

In her memoir, Her Word Is Bond: Navigating Hip Hop And Relationships In A Culture Of Misogyny, veteran rapper Psalm One provides an unfiltered account of what it is truly like finding your way through the industry as a Black queer woman and all the nuance that comes along with these intersections.

Back in 2015, after your interview with City Pages detailing what you had faced at your former record label (Rhymesayers), you were called everything but a child of God, which you address in the book. Did that play a part in any hesitation you might have had when it came to releasing the memoir?

Being in the court of public opinion for something that happened to me, I felt neglected. It was harmful, and it was really hurtful. I then understand why a lot of women, in particular, disappeared from hip-hop. In 2019, when I started writing the book, you know, I was writing it in sort of like a loose chronological order of my life. So I wasn’t even at those chapters yet. And by the time we started editing those chapters in 2020, my former label got called out again, and it had nothing to do with me. It was bigger than me. It was bigger than my story, but it encapsulated everything that I had dealt with. But because of what happened in 2020 and the boycott, I was like, this is absolutely the time.

So there’s one quote in the book that hit me deeply. You wrote, “It was absolutely heartbreaking to find out that I had tours on the table that my label ignored. It always felt like they didn’t want me to win. They just wanted to say they had a woman on the label so they could look progressive.” We see this not only in your case, we see this even with Megan Thee Stallion’s ongoing battle with 1501 Entertainment. What cautionary tales, advice, or suggestions do you have for these upcoming women rappers that are looking to be validated in those male spaces?

The validation comes with so many caveats. You just never know until you know who really messes with you. I believed these men telling me, ‘Oh, you’re cool and all, but you ain’t like this, or you need to compete with Jean Grae,’ and I could never compete. How am I going to compete with Jean Grae? You’re not giving me any support. Where’s the budget? How could I ever compete with her? And I can’t compete with her, even with a budget. Let me just say that because Jean Grae is like ‘mom’ to me. So it’s like my rap mom. So, like, seriously, it was like sh*t like that made me so confused about what my purpose was. And I wasn’t really given the space to grow as an artist as much as other artists on that label. It makes you feel isolated. It makes you feel like, “Damn, I got to do something extra.” So it is very difficult for a woman to thrive in this space because it was built on a male fantasy. It was built on a straight male fantasy, and it was never built for women to thrive.

In the book, you also mentioned that you found, maybe not directly, but certainly indirectly, that you needed to take full ownership of the business side of your particular art when looking at the success of Nicki Minaj. So did her trajectory have any influence on you on what you wanted to do in terms of, like, the business side?

I think that with Nicki Minaj, I just saw her being supported in a way by her label that I had never seen before, and I just felt like I was jealous. Let’s just call it what it is. It’s jealous. When you look at someone else and say, ‘Why not me?’ That’s just jealousy. And I think that’s something that a lot of artists don’t like to do, especially rappers. I’m not bothered. I’ll never be pressed, I’m never jealous. A lot of artists only move out of that. They move out of jealousy and competition, and it’s upsetting and devastating to many people’s trajectory because they’re chasing.

Once I realized I couldn’t chase Nicki Minaj, it added perspective. But the support that she received, at least the way it looked when she first came out with Wayne, Ye, and Diddy and all these really big people embracing her and saying, “No, you’re the one,” that, to me, was something that I never experienced. And it was something that I thought was great, and it was something that I had wanted for a long time. Now it’s just about not waiting on people because look at Nicki Minaj today. Look at what happened to her last year. It’s a wild thing because I’m like, “If that’s the pinnacle of female rap, if that’s the biggest woman on the scene, and this is what she’s doing, why am I aspiring for this?”

So, in the beginning, we talked about the boycott against your former label, and then to follow that up, the opening line of your Medium article, “I am ready to forgive them.” Have you forgiven them yet? And what does forgiveness look like for you?

Forgiveness is a journey. It is not a destination. It is something that I am very good at some days, and other days I’m not. And also, let’s never forget the saying, “forgive, don’t forget.” It was very important for me to forgive myself and to forgive my former label for everything because that was the only way I was going to be able to move through it. The “Me Too” movement is still a movement. No matter what Amber Heard does in court, no matter what Tory Lanez does in jail, whatever it is, it’s still going to be an issue. It’s something that plagues many artists. It doesn’t matter if you’re a woman or not because, honestly, in the professional abuse that I endured, I had men in my DMs telling me they [experienced] the same thing as me, minus the sexual stuff. You can’t expect people to just be good to you if they weren’t good to people. And I think a lot of labels will “fam” you up, but this is a job. But for me, forgiveness does not mean forgetting. And forgiveness doesn’t mean I shut up.

So what’s next for you in your career overall?

I’m working on a lot of collaboration this year as far as, like, getting my voice on other people’s raps. I have a deluxe version of my last album on the way. My follow-up project is done. I just got the cover art for it. We’re just mixing and mastering, working on a couple of other projects. My partner Angelina has a bunch of projects that we’re trying to get out for her this year. I write music reviews and concert previews for the Chicago Reader, which is a trip because I used to always want to be in the Reader for my work. And now, I’m in the Reader not only for my work but also for reviewing other people’s work, which has allowed me not to be a bitter rapper. So you’re going to see my pen in a lot of different ways, not just rapping.

Psalm One’s book Her Word Is Bond: Navigating Hip Hop and Relationships in a Culture of Misogyny is available where all books are sold. To purchase a physical or digital copy, click here.

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

R&B duo DVSN may still be working on their karma, but it is surely paying off on the road. The OVO Sound pair (singer Daniel Daley and producer Nineteen85) is currently on the road for the first time since 2018 to support their latest album, Working On My Karma which features lead single, “If I Get Caught.”

The Canadian tag team has become the face of modern-day baby-making music ever since the release of their debut EP Sept. 5th back in 2015, and their admiration from their women fans has only heightened since then. Their international Working On My Karma Tour, which kicked off last month in Denmark, is sure to leave behind a trail of broken hearts in each country it makes a stop in.

Partnering with event promoters Trap Karaoke, potential concertgoers will now be given the opportunity to sing along with the group in a way never possible before. To prepare for your possible solo moment on stage with DVSN, take a look at their Setlist.fm confirmed setlist below.

The remaining Working On My Karma Tour dates can be found under the setlist.

1. “Last Time”
2. “Don’t Take Your Love”
3. “With Me”
4. “Bring It”
5. “Freak Me” (Silk cover)
6. “Memories”
7. “Mood”
8. “A Muse”
9. “P.O.V.”
10. “Greedy”
11. “Too Deep”
12. “Flawless (Do It Well Pt. 3)”
13. “Do It Well”
14. “Touch It (Do It Well Pt. 4)”
15. “If I Get Caught”
16. “I Hate U” (SZA cover)
17. “Get Even”
18. “Between Us”
19. “Nuh Time / Tek Time”
20. “Hatin”
21. “I Don’t Wanna Know” (Mario Winans cover)
22. “Take It Slow”
23. “Dangerous City”
24. “Tired”
25. “Sept. 5th”
26. “Kiss It Better” (Rihanna cover)
27. “Body Smile”
28. “What’s Up”
29. “Think About Me”
30. “Hallucinations”
31. “Conversations in a Diner”
32. “…Again”
33. “The Line”

02/18 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore
02/21 — New York, NY @ Terminal 5
02/24 — Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore
02/25 — Baltimore, MD @ Soundstage
02/26 — Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
02/28 — Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore
03/01 — Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle
03/03 — Dallas, TX @ South Side Ballroom
03/04 — Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
03/05 — Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater
03/07 — Denver, CO @ Summit
03/09 — Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren
03/10 — Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues
03/11 — San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
03/14 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Novo
03/16 — San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
03/18 — Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
03/19 — Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
03/21 — Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum Theatre
03/23 — Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall
03/24 — Edmonton, AB @ Union Hall
03/25 — Saskatoon, SK @ Coors Event Centre
03/27 — Winnipeg, MB @ Burton Cummings Theatre
03/28 — Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater
03/30 — Chicago, IL @ Radius
03/31 — Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
04/01 — Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
04/03 — Montreal, QC @ MTELUS
04/04 — Ottawa, Ontario @ Bronson Centre Music Theatre
04/06 — Toronto, ON @ HISTORY

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

True Blood, the campy vampire series that inspired headlines like “The Best Hookups On True Blood, From Neck-Twisting Hate Sex To Orgies,” is coming to the same channel as NCIS: New Orleans reruns.

Edited episodes of the Anna Paquin-starring True Blood will air on TNT, while TBS will be the new home of Silicon Valley, which features slightly less neck-twisting sex orgies. (TBS and TNT are owned by the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, as HBO.) “As this is TV — not HBO — the shows will be edited both for content (receiving a TV-MA rating) and ad breaks,” Variety reports, which added that this multi-channel partnership is “a first for programming produced and aired on HBO in recent years.”

The reruns will launch immediately out of NBA All Star coverage on the the cablers, with True Blood beginning Saturday after the game on TNT and Silicon Valley on TBS. Following that initial premiere, True Blood will move to its regular time period on Mondays at 10 p.m. on TNT. Silicon Valley will air Sundays at 10 p.m. on TBS.

If you want to see Alexander Skarsgård reading a book while naked in Sweden, you’ll have to do it the old fashioned way: HBO Max. Or, y’know, Google.

(Via Variety)

The Cardi B and Offset McDonald’s meal is upon us and you know what that means: exclusive, co-branded merch. This time around, it looks like the Golden Arches has decided to keep things simple with easy-to-manufacture apparel like T-shirts, hoodies, hats, and shorts. It appears that lessons were learned from the supply chain debacle with J Balvin’s more out-there options, but you do kind of wish Cardi and Set got the chance to go as crazy as Travis Scott did — if only to see what they’d come up with.

As it is, the options continue the lovey-dovey vibe of the overall concept; the T-shirts say goofy things like “nice buns,” the hoodies bear profiles of Cardi and Set saluting each other with sandwiches and McD’s “I’m lovin’ it” catchphrase, and the shorts are suitably cheek-baring for lounging around the house, as the couple can often be seen doing on social media. All in all, a 7/10 for the collection. It’s solid but you really do miss oddball add-ons like throw rugs, ashtrays, and chicken McNugget body pillows (bring them back, Mickey Ds!)

By all reports, the Cardi B And Offset Meal is selling well, and Cardi’s spent the past few days reposting fans’ pics of the meal — although she did take a break to show off some of her own photos from the couple’s Valentine’s vacation.

You can check out Cardi and Set’s McDonald’s merch here.

Marjorie Taylor Greene recently made an appearance on Donald Trump Jr.’s new webseries, Triggered, where the Georgia congresswoman trotted out around an old conspiracy theory about the January 6 attack. While recounting her reaction to the “Stop the Steal” rally turning violent, Greene claimed that she was “shocked” by the events at the Capitol building and repeated her insistence that Antifa was behind the whole thing.

Then January 6 happened. It shocked me. I had no idea. I just couldn’t imagine. As a matter of fact, I was arguing with [Florida Congresswoman] Kat Cammack, one of my colleagues, and we were fighting and I said, “Those aren’t our people.” I just couldn’t believe it, like, “Those aren’t our people. That’s Antifa. Those are the same rioters that we see in 2020.” And I could not believe it. And she was like, “They are our people,” and I was like, “No, they’re not.” And she’s like, “They have our red hats,” and I was like, “I don’t care!”

Greene digging up her old Antifa theory is an interesting development given she recently boasted that had she and Steve Bannon organized the assault on the Capitol building, “we would have won.” How, you might ask? “We would’ve been armed.”

Greene also spent time protesting the conditions of the rioters that have been jailed and demanded their release, which is a weird thing to if they were all secretly Antifa. That line of thought was a recurring theme on Twitter as people blasted Greene for trying to feign shock at the violence on January 6 and roasted her for once again bring up Antifa.

You can see some of the reactions below:

(Via Ron Filipkowski on Twitter)

Earlier this month, rumors circulated that Megan Thee Stallion and Pardison Fontaine broke up because they unfollowed each other on social media. What’s more telling than that? However, it looks like that may not be the case. Or maybe the pair were able to resolve things in time for Valentine’s Day, because one social media post showed clues that they’re still together.

Fontaine posted an Instagram Story on Valentine’s Day of two hands, one looking like his and the other resembling Megan’s, taking heart-shaped shots. The long, purple acrylic nails are a pretty obvious giveaway — fans seem to be taking this as a good sign.

Last month, Fontaine had to take to Instagram to clear up other rumors that they’d broken up. Megan was accused of being an “abusive, mean drunk,” which Fontaine refuted in his post. “Stop this cap nobody puttin hands on nobody …(At least not in that way ),” he wrote. “Been seein the break up rumors and was lettin y’all imaginations run ..but y’all gettin too crazy ….ain’t give n****s a story so they made one … we really been on it double time.”

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Don Toliver is rolling out his new album, Lovesick, a little over a year since his last full-length project, Life Of A Don. This time around, he says he’s “really locked in on the actual story and the theme of the album” and appeared to be teasing a February release as a nod to Valentine’s Day, a holiday centered around love.

His latest single from the album, “4 Me,” sticks closely to the theme, hijacking an interpolation of Beenie Man’s 2000 Mya collaboration, “Girls Dem Sugar,” to express his devotion to the song’s addressee. The two stars — Don and Kali, that is — have been romantically linked for some time, and previously collaborated on the 2021 track “Drugs N Hella Melodies.”

In addition to sharing the “4 Me,” Toliver also dropped a follow-up single today. “Leave The Club” is a more upbeat track featuring Lil Durk and GloRilla and instead focuses on the sort of chance meeting at a nightclub that sparks chemistry. “I wanna leave the club right now,” Toliver croons on the chorus. Check that out below.

Watch Don Toliver and Kali Uchis’ “4 Me” video above.

Lovesick will be released on February 24 through Atlantic Records. You can preorder it here.

Don Toliver is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.