Category: News

As the racketeering trial against Atlanta’s YSL crew gears up, another arrest has been made — but not connected with the original 56-count indictment that has Young Thug facing a massive sentence and fans calling Gunna a snitch. Latasha Kendrick, the mother of YSL rapper Yak Gotti, was arrested on Tuesday (January 17) and charged with a criminal attempt to commit a misdemeanor after trying to pass the rapper a bag reportedly filled with tobacco and rolling papers at the Fulton County Courthouse.

WSB-TV reports that the mother of Gotti’s child, Nyesha Cox, alerted the rapper’s attorney to the contraband. Kendrick alleges that Cox was the one who requested the bag and an arrest warrant has been issued for the younger woman as well.

Gotti is one of 14 remaining defendants in the case and faces charges including conspiracy to commit murder, theft by receiving stolen property, and participation in criminal street gang activity. Other defendants include YSL founder Young Thug, who is charged with possession of illegal firearms and drugs, while other YSL members like Gunna and Unfoonk have accepted plea deals that suspended any sentences and allowed them to go free ahead of the trial.

The trial is expected to last up to six months, with the Fulton County District Attorney’s office accusing YSL of being a “hybrid street gang” rather than just a record label.

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

Either Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn’t know how to take a compliment, or she knows fellow congressperson Matt Gaetz well enough to know that when he congratulated her on her new committee appointments, the sentiment behind his tweet might not have been as sincere as he made it sound. Either way, it’s a lot of fun to watch!

Though Greene and Gaetz seemed to have become fast friends shortly after the Georgia congresswoman’s arrival to the House of Representatives, the protracted battle for Kevin McCarthy to be named Speaker of the House appears to have irreparably split the one-time bosom buddies apart. While Greene surprised everyone by sticking with the majority and backing McCarthy as speaker, Gaetz spent several days and more than a dozen rounds of voting nominating a series of people — including Donald Trump — as speaker. For once, Greene seems to have made the smarter choice, as she has now officially been assigned to some actual congressional committees, including the House Homeland Security (gulp!) and Oversight (JFC!) Committees.

On Wednesday, as The Hill reports, Gaetz tweeted out a “Bravo!” to his thought-to-be pal about her achievements. Her biting response told us everything we need to know about where their relationship stands.

While Greene could have simply retweeted Gaetz’s original email, replied with a short-but-sweet “thanks,” or ignored it altogether, she instead used it as an opportunity to trash Gaetz for slowing down the entire process of naming a speaker and getting back to the business of congress.

But if you think this marks a new leaf for the conspiracy theory-loving, gun-toting firebrand, think again. As she stated in her reply to Gaetz: “As the leading MAGA voice in Congress, I look forward to committees.”

(Via The Hill)

Shaquille O’Neal has had more nicknames (most of them self-appointed) than just about any athlete in history — which is made even more fascinating by the fact that he is someone who is known worldwide by one name, Shaq.

Superman, the Diesel, the Big Shaqtus, Shaqovic, the Big Aristotle, Wilt Chamberneezy, the Big Shamrock, Big Baryshnikov, L.C.L. (Last Center Left), Shaq Daddy, and Shaq Fu are just a sampling of the monikers the Hall of Famer has taken on over the years. Even as his playing days are long gone, Shaq hasn’t stopped giving himself new titles, and his latest is one of his best, as he made Kristen Ledlow debut it on NBA TV — refusing to engage in the show until she called him by his new preferred name: Dark Nowitzki.

Look how happy this makes Shaq! Ledlow’s “I don’t think I should” only makes the entire thing funnier, as does Channing Frye cackling in the background, loving the big fella’s newest nickname. I like to imagine Shaq waking up in a cold sweat, scrambling for his phone in the middle of the night so he can jot down “Dark Nowitzki” so he doesn’t forget it in a moment of pure inspiration.

When news first broke that Republican congressman-elect George Santos had lied about where he went to school and his work history, it seemed like an embarrassing oversight for the Republican party. But with each passing day, we’re learning more about this possible con man who is, in fact, now an official member of the House of Representatives. And while he makes a handy punch line, The Daily Beast reports that Jon Stewart is concerned that the governmental powers-that-be might not be taking Keyser Santos as seriously as they should or looking at him as an honest-to-goodness threat to democracy.

On the latest episode of The Problem With Jon Stewart, Stewart’s podcast, the former The Daily Show host had a lot to say about the Republican party’s newest fabulist, whom he described as “screaming of mediocrity.” But he was also quick to point out that while it’s easy to be fascinated by the non-stop string of lies Santos has been throwing down (believe it or not, he was NOT a volleyball champ) we all need to be careful to not let the inanity of it all be the only thing we’re talking about:

The thing we have to be careful of, and I always caution myself on this — and I ran into this trouble with Trump — is: we cannot mistake absurdity for lack of danger. Because it takes people with no shame to do shameful things… Like, there’s that Brazilian insurrection. And you could say, ‘Oh, this is absurd.’ But in absurdity is where the real danger always is… Absurdity always makes you think something is more benign than it is. I had the same problem; I misjudged Trump because he’s SO ridiculous. And then you think about, well, the worst people in history have been ridiculous.

You can watch the full conversation above.

(Via The Daily Beast)

While conservatives mainly have an adversarial relationship with the media, which they often accuse of liberal bias, Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert is surprisingly happy with her latest press coverage. While appearing on Dana Loesch’s radio show, Boebert not only confirmed reports of her bathroom fight with Marjorie Taylor Greene, but she was thrilled with how the story came out.

Despite seeming like close besties during their first years in Congress, a growing blood feud between Boebert and Greene reached a boiling point during the highly contentious Speaker of the House vote. The two reportedly started yelling at each other in the ladies room. As Boebert shared details of the encounter with Loesch, the congresswoman admitted that she loved how she was quoted because of the phrase she dropped on Greene who had confronted her after emerging from a stall. Via Mediaite:

“And, but yeah I looked at her, said, I don’t have time for this. I said, ‘Don’t be ugly.’ And that’s something that my granny used to say to me when I was being a brat,” Boebert added.

“It’s like the most inoffensive thing you could say,” Loesch replied.

“She said, she said, ‘Don’t be ugly.’ Granny. Granny told me that a lot, though,” Boebert replied laughing.

“It’s like sounds like a very, a Coloradoan version of ‘Bless your Heart,’ right? Yeah. It’s not something…” Loesch added.

Boebert also took things further by denying that she was “BFFs” with Greene and chalked up their seemingly chummy relationship as nothing more than politics.

“I think the media saw two women in Congress, you know, there was nothing against her,” Boebert said. “We travel in the same circles, have the same policy views on a lot of things, not everything but on many things.”

(Via Mediaite)

We may be in the thick of winter, but according to our latest UPROXX Sessions, the seasons are more of a mindset than an absolute. For Los Angeles-based producer and rapper Ye Ali, this thinking has given his career the push it needed. With production credits on releases from Doja Cat, Jack Harlow, and Kehlani, the musician has been a fixture in hip-hop for some time.

Ali’s growing discography, including his debut project Traphouse Jodeci, tethers together the softness of R&B against the brashness of West Coast rap, and his latest mixtape, Private Suite 4, is no exception. The body of work dropped in November 2022 and is his strongest showing to date. The entertainer dropped by UPROXX Sessions to perform the project’s opener, produced by VOVO and Gabe Lucas.

As he raps, “See me out in public, yeah, I love to watch the opp switch / But you know me, once I get on, it ain’t no off switch/ Put yourself on like I did, that’s the plot twist / Yeah, I quit my job, but since then I’ve lockеd in / I was workin’ at that dealership, thinkin’ if I blow up tomorrow I ain’t gon’ be back hеre leasin’ whips / Left me all alone in this water, told me, ‘Sink or swim,’” Ali gets introspective. He’s traveled a long road to land where he is today.

Watch Ye Ali’s UPROXX Sessions performance of “Autumn’s Here” above.

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

Last week, news emerged that All Elite Wrestling owners Shad and Tony Khan were among the potential buyers of WWE as Vince McMahon continues to lead the sale of the worldwide leader in sports entertainment.

Khan isn’t exactly cooling the rumors of his interest, speaking on The Maggie and Perloff Show:

“I am interested in the news that there is potentially a sales process and certainly, I think we’ve shown, when there are acquisitions and transactions, we’re capable of making the big purchases, whether my dad steps up with the (Jacksonville) Jaguars or Fulham FC in the Premier League and he’s done such a great job building up the club and putting resources into it and we’re playing football at a high level,” he said. (H/T Fightful)

“With AEW, we’ve shown that we can build a company. Even when I purchased Ring of Honor, that’s a very different thing than WWE, but Ring of Honor is a company with 20 years of history and I really have enjoyed running it and we’ve shown that we’re at all time highs in terms of every business metric since we relaunched it and it’s only going to get better. AEW is my main focus, but certainly, when that news is out there, it’s very interesting. Stay tuned to AEW Dynamite and AEW Rampage, you never know when I’m going to address something. On the other hand, it’s very preliminary to talk about that process. If there is a process there, which it sounds like there may be, I’m interested in being part of it.”

In recent weeks, Vince McMahon made his official return to WWE’s board of directors, followed by Stephanie McMahon’s near immediate resignation from the company. Shortly after, rumors swirled that Saudi Arabia was finalizing a deal to acquire WWE, but those reports were premature. A Barron’s report added that an offer from the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, which backs the golf league LIV, is “more likely” than a purchase by the Khans considering WWE’s presence in the country and its ongoing 10-year deal for premium live events.

However unlikely it is that WWE ends up under the same umbrella as AEW, Khan at least knows it’s good for business to keep this story going.

Shame, who are in the same vein of UK post-punk as Fontaines DC or Idles, broke through the scene with their compelling debut Songs Of Praise, which contained their infectious hit “One Rizla.” The London-based band grew with the release of their 2021 album Drunk Tank Pink. They’re returning this year with their third album, Food For Worms, and Phoebe Bridgers will be featured.

“We thought the song had an American edge to it, and thought it would sound nice with a woman’s voice,” drummer Charlie Forbes said in an interview with NME. “By chance, [Bridgers] was recording in the same studio as us, and one day we did a trade where Josh went and did some tambourine on her new track, and she came in and did the vocal line on our track — which you can’t actually hear at all.”

When asked if they saw the singer since, he continued, “We went to an afterparty at her mum’s house after we played in LA. There was an in-house tarot reader, sushi, vegan Mexican food and tequila cocktails.”

Hopefully since you apparently “can’t actually hear” the vocals it won’t be another “Snow On The Beach” situation where fans were disappointed by Lana Del Rey’s anticlimactic contributions to the song on Taylor Swift’s Midnights.

Other albums Bridgers will be on this year include Boygenius’ (obviously), The National’s, and last year she was on SZA’s and Marcus Mumford’s.

If there’s anything TOMORROW X TOGETHER, or TXT, is doing ahead of their comeback, besides being on top of TikTok trends and whatnot, it’s dropping hints and teasers for their upcoming EP, The Name Chapter: Temptation.
Just a week ahead of the release, BigHit Music unveiled the tracklist to the forthcoming EP today (January 19), including a total of five tracks. ‘Temptation’ features the lead single “Sugar Rush Ride,” along with b-sides “Devil by the Window,” “Happy Fools (feat. Coi Leray), “Tinnitus (Wanna Be a Rock),” and “Farewell, Neverland.” The lead single was produced by Slow Rabbit, and gives credit to Sofia Kay, Supreme Boi, Moa “Cazzi Opeia” Carlebecker, “hitman” bang, Salem Ilese, Krysta Youngs, Myah Marie Langston, and OLLIPOP.

However, upon the unveiling, the tracklist also confirmed the ongoing rumors of Coi Leray’s feature on the EP after the “Players” rapper tweeted photos of herself out and about in a TXT shirt, showing love for the BigHit boy group.

Just this morning, TXT member Yeonjun quote-retweeted Coi Leray, returning the love with a video of him greenscreening her photo and adding pop-up effects featuring her face onto his shirt.

The Name Chapter: Temptation is set to release next week on Friday, January 27 at midnight EST. Ahead of the actual release, TXT recently announced the group will embark on their Act: Sweet Mirage Tour this March in the US and Asia.

Fear The Walking Dead‘s eighth and final season will arrive this spring on AMC, and from there, multiple other Walker-focused spinoffs shall arrive. In 2023, however, the movers and shakers behind the scenes realize that the TV landscape has changed, so they’re taking a new approach. For example, the Negan and Maggie spinoff that will bring us more terrifying Walkers will arrive in a six-episode season. This shouldn’t be too disappointing. Really, because Jeffrey Dean Morgan has used language that suggests additional seasons that could include crossovers (like maybe Rick Grimes and Michonne, or even Daryl Dixon after he’s done in France?) from other spinoffs.

The six-episode format appears to be universal for the three spinoffs that we’ll see in the next year or so, which sparks some curiosity about the franchise’s overall game plan going forward. Scott Gimple, the chief architect of The Walking Dead universe, was happy to oblige with an answer when quizzed by Collider:

“We can just be straight up about that, that was more of an AMC thing. But to tell you the truth, it really is also a 2023 thing, where it’s telling stories in a different cadence. It’s telling stories to be consumed in a very different way. I think it’s actually pushed us to tell stories in a very different way, which I think is a very good thing, after 12 years. I’m a dinosaur. Considering The Walking Dead universe and The Walking Dead storytelling in a very different way has been really rewarding and really interesting, and thank goodness, it’s given us different ways to go about it.”

Considering how viewers are often working through content overload on streaming services, this seems like a wise approach for many reasons. In addition, one can also consider that these spinoffs will arrive with well-treaded characters already, some of whom have received origin stories, and all of whom don’t need more groundwork. A leaner and meaner universe sounds like the way to go, and viewers can always rewatch the original series (and all eleven seasons) on Netflix or the first spinoff’s eight seasons (seven are currently on Hulu), or The World Beyond‘s two seasons (on AMC+), and then there’s also Tales of the Walking Dead floating around out there, too.

(Via Collider)