Category: News

The Washington Wizards selected Corey Kispert 15th overall in 2021 primarily for his long-range shooting prowess. Across four years at Gonzaga, the 6’7″ forward drilled 40.8 percent of his 662 threes, including 43.9 percent over his final two seasons. As a rookie, he struggled out of the gates, but finished the year well, hitting 38.6 percent of his triples following the All-Star Break. In year two, he’s back to his elite ways, shooting 41.2 percent beyond the arc through his initial 24 games.

On Thursday, he and the Wizards ventured to Salt Lake City for a duel with the Utah Jazz. As the first half wound down, Kipsert caught the ball near midcourt with only a few ticks remaining on the clock. He took a couple dribbles, squared himself toward the hoop, set his feet and fired, netting one of the most beautiful half-court buzzer-beaters you’ll watch this season.

That ball just absolutely rockets through the net. Swish, 10 out of 10, no notes. The rim wasn’t invited to this party. Take your company elsewhere, sir.

Even Kispert looks a little impressed by his own bucket when the camera pans his way and he punctuates it with a subtle, yet elegant, chef’s kiss. Well done. The second-year wing has made plenty of threes throughout his basketball career, but he’ll probably be hard-pressed to outdo that one anytime soon.

Lil Durk is in album mode, as he revealed in a recent Instagram post. But despite hitting the studio hard, he’s still vocalizing his support for his friend and collaborator Young Thug, who is currently on trial for RICO charges. In the aforementioned Instagram post, Durk called for fans to share their support for Thug as well.

“Drop a [green heart emoji] if y’all want thugg home and not being blamed or left to the wolves,” Durk said in the post’s caption.

Earlier this month, Durk expressed his support for Thug in perhaps a more outright manner. On a track called “Mad Max,” a collaboration with Future that dropped last week, Durk revealed he called Thug and admitted that he “could’ve been part of the RICO,” sharing the details of his crimes.

It’s safe to say Thug would do the same for Durk if he were ever in a similar situation. In a 2021 interview with Apple Music 1‘s Zane Lowe, Thug stood firm in his loyalty to his peers.

“I’m ready to die about Future,” Thug said. “I’m ready to die by a Lil Baby, Durk And Uzi. I’m ready to die by these people. You know what I’m saying? If it ever comes down to it, this s*t ain’t got nothing to do with no music. They was a part of the whole situation. There was a part of the whole thing. I always anybody who I had encountered. You know what I’m saying? I always turn them to family. We don’t look at them like a rappers. We all look at each other like brothers and sisters. Bro, we really argue every day, bro.”

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

Big Scarr has died at 22. Earlier this afternoon, rumors started swirling about the rapper’s passing before his peers began posting heartfelt tributes. Details surrounding Scarr’s death are still to be released.

One of the rappers offering thoughts was Gucci Mane, who uploaded a series of photos of him with Big Scarr on Instagram. “This hurt I’m a miss you @bigscarr,” he captioned, confirming the tragic news. The pictures showed off Scarr’s fun side, from posing in front of the Bellagio fountain in Las Vegas to performing at a casino pool party.

“Ion wanna talk. Sorry if I don’t answer. I just can’t,” Scarr’s labelmate, Enchanting, posted on an Instagram story.

Other rappers, including Big30, are adding to the list of those mourning Big Scarr.

“When I dropped my first video. Actually, when I first did my first song is when I seen I could be able to do this,” Big Scarr, who was named an XXL Freshman in their 2022 class, told the publication earlier this year. “It was never a thing I wanted to do. I just tried the sh*t one time and it went. Just like my partner was saying, you ever had some sh*t going and you never paid attention to the other sh*t you were doing because this shit was bringing you in so much good sh*t?”

“It’s a thing like that,” he continued. “If you ask me, it’s been my time, but I ain’t rushing. I ain’t forcing nothing. I’m in my own lane. I feel like whatever comes my way is a blessing.”

Some of the artists mentioned are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music group.

Bad Bunny has joined forces with his frequent collaborator Ñengo Flow for a new surprise song, “Gato De Noche.” He had teased the early holiday present for fans on social media, telling TikTok users, “This is to close the year.”

The song is told from the perspective of a self-proclaimed “bad boy” who is attempting to pursue a woman already in a relationship.

“He loves you and gives you everything / But you’re the devil and you’re crazy for me / You like the bad boys and are playing fire with me,” Bunny sings, according to Billboard’s translation. “Although you’re a sin, I’m going to hell following that big ass / I’m on my way / Today I’m picking you up after midnight.”

In addition, they also dropped a music video that opens with Ñengo as Santa Claus, who instead of waiting to meet children, is greeted by a ton of hot women. From there, he joins Bunny as they drive around and party with the same girls — just not as Santa.

The duo previously worked together on the 2020 songs “Que Malo” and “Safaera” from Bad Bunny’s album, YHLQMDLG.

Watch the music video for Bad Bunny and Ñengo Flow’s new song “Gato De Noche” above.

Ed Sheeran recently had dinner with rock band Cradle Of Filth’s singer Dani Filth and producer Scott Atkins, as a new Instagram post teases their unfinished — and somewhat unexpected — collaboration song.

“A little over a week ago I was having lunch with the unlikely lads, having just done something fun,” Filth captioned the pic, as the trio posed together at a pub.

Last July, Sheeran shared with The Sun that he was surprisingly a huge fan of death metal as a kid, sparking the artists teaming up. “I listened to Cradle Of Filth and Slipknot and all that stuff,” he said. “I’m not saying I could ever step into that world. I learnt all those riffs on guitar as a kid. That’s something I’ve never thought about doing — but something I would not be opposed to creating.”

“I think the Ed Sheeran collaboration would be great fun,” Filth told Kerrang! Radio (via NME) following Sheeran’s reveal. “I think it’d be great if we did it for charity because at least it would bring a bit of credibility to it. Because obviously, to his public, it’d be like, ‘Oh my god, he’s got this weird comical guy’, and to my public, it’d be like ‘Oh my god, this is a bit weird, isn’t it?’ But I think that sort of thing, nowadays, works.”

“He’s done some of it, but then he had a baby, and then he got obviously sidetracked with that and doing whatever Ed does, which is play massive shows around the globe,” he added. “He’s not at our beck and call. But he is gonna finish it, he assures me. Actually, I spoke to him quite recently.”

Considering Sheeran has also coined himself the nickname “Death Sheeran,” it seems his metal era is steadily approaching.

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music Artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Swifties aren’t taking their feet off of Ticketmaster’s neck. Taylor Swift fans have filed a second lawsuit against Ticketmaster following the infamous pre-sale for her Eras tour, according to a report from Rolling Stone.

In the latest lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday, December 20, fans claimed Ticketmaster violated federal antitrust laws and unfair competition laws, which resulted in the botched presale.

“Ticketmaster intentionally and purposefully misled millions of fans into believing it would prevent bots and scalpers from participating in the presales,” the lawsuit says. “However, millions of fans were unable to purchase tickets during the TaylorSwiftTix Presale and the Capital One Presale, due in large part to unprecedented website traffic caused by Ticketmaster allowing 14 million unverified Ticketmaster users and a ‘staggering’ number of bots to participate in the presales.”

Swift herself has not commented on the active lawsuits, however, days after the presale, she took to her Instagram to express her disdain toward Ticketmaster and Live Nation, saying, “I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could.”

At the time of writing, 26 fans are documented as plaintiffs in the active lawsuits.

NOFX’s Fat Mike, Pennywise’s Fletcher Dragge, visual artist Bryan Ray Turcotte, former Less Than Jake member Vinnie Fiorello, and more members of the “punk collective” were originally set to open The Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas next month but it has been delayed until March 10.

Despite the two-month delay in the museum’s grand opening, they still have some serious events planned. Guided tours will be hosted several times a day for 20 people at a time. Oh, and the tour hosts are punk legends, including The Offspring’s Noodles, The Germs’ Don Bolles, Suicidal Tendencies’ Louiche Mayorga, Rise Against’s Zach Blair, and more.

Single-day tickets are available for purchase beginning in January according to the museum’s Instagram.

“Now is your chance to hear about the first Germs shows from Don Bolles, walk with Roger Miret from Agnostic Front as he tells them about living in a van in the Lower East Side in the early 80s, and hear about the crazy meteoric rise to fame from Noodles of The Offspring,” the caption said. “Everyone who books one of these tours will hear stories no one else has heard before, from the people who lived them.”

Other details about The Punk Rock Museum is that it will be a “12,000 square feet space” that includes a tattoo shop, wedding chapel, and a bar, as well as collectibles on display from bands like Devo and Sum 41. It will open in the heart of Downtown Vegas — known as the city’s Art District.

More information and presale tickets are available on the museum’s official website.

Elon Musk is (he claims) stepping down as CEO of Twitter after users overwhelmingly voted for him to skedaddle. It’s not clear when he’s out — he says whenever he finds some “foolish” enough to take the gig, which isn’t exactly enticing to potential replacements — but on his way out he still has some more unpopular changes. Last week, when he wasn’t briefly suspending journalists who were critical of him, he introduced an instantly hated new rule banning links to rival social media platforms.

But that was nothing. For the holidays, he gave everyone a gift: Now people can see how many views or “impressions” each tweet received. It’s a great way for people to feel worse about a tweet that’s already not gotten many (or any) likes.

“Twitter is rolling out View Count, so you can see how many times a tweet has been seen!” Musk excitedly (or perhaps sadistically) wrote on Christmas Eve Eve Eve. “This is normal for video. Shows how much more alive Twitter is than it may seem, as over 90% of Twitter users read, but don’t tweet, reply or like, as those are public actions.” He later added, “Meant to say impressions.” (For the record, there was already a way of seeing this intel, but it was hidden under an area one had to click on to see. This puts it right out in the open, for all to see.)

Musk, whose excessively thin skin has become extra apparent over the last month and a half, basically forked over a fortune for a service where masses of people routinely drag him. (At least far right maniacs peddling misinformation adore him — or at least see ways to exploit his neuroses.) As such, it didn’t take long for the reviews to pour in. And they were worse than the ones for the 2019 motion picture Cats.

Some pointed out that seeing “view counts” — especially measured against how few likes let alone re-tweets a post received — was not great for mental health.

There were jokes.

But the consensus was that this was yet another blunder from a guy whose erratic antics are killing his most prized company.

Three weeks remain in the NFL regular season, and Week 16 features Christmas Eve and Christmas Day action. Before we turn it over to a full slate of games, I will simply reflect on two things from Week 15. For one, I will never, ever understand how the Ravens teaser leg didn’t get home for us, and Justin Tucker missing two field goal attempts in the same game is part of that. The other is that I’ll go to my grave believing the Cardinals get home if not for Colt McCoy’s injury.

Alright, with that out of the way, we turn to Week 16, but first, a look at the full-season progress.

• Week 15: 2-2-1
• 2022 Season: 38-35-2

Come get these winners.

Tennessee Titans (-3) over Houston Texans

Ryan Tannehill isn’t playing, and that is part of why this line is what it is. The other part is that Houston has overachieved in recent days, which has some folks believing in the Texans. Listen, Malik Willis isn’t very good, but this line shouldn’t be three. Lay it, even if it’s kind of gross with a backup quarterback.

TEASER: Buffalo Bills (-2) over Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-1.5) over Arizona Cardinals

This is as square as I get, but I do like it. Buffalo speaks for itself as a very good football team against a team that is broken on defense. Tampa Bay is riskier on paper, but the Bucs are facing Trace McSorley. I saw enough last week.

Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints under 32.5 points

These two teams are about to play in something called a “bomb cyclone.” Yep, that’s a thing. Also, these offenses are not good, the defenses are frisky, and there is going to be some hideousness here. The number is very low for a reason, but there is only one side.

Philadelphia Eagles (+4.5) over Dallas Cowboys

Gardner Minshew is pretty good. He’s not as good as Jalen Hurts, which explains this number. The Eagles are absolutely loaded at the skill positions on defense, and Minshew is good enough to keep the train on the tracks. I’d need at least 4 to take Philly, but this is enough.

Los Angeles Chargers (-4.5) over Indianapolis Colts

It’s possible this is a bad read on the Colts, but I have no idea how they come back from the last two weeks. They have another quarterback change happening, Jonathan Taylor is on IR, and the Chargers need to keep winning. Los Angeles is a team I usually lean to on the road given their total lack of home-field advantage, but the on-paper matchup also favors the Chargers.

Today (December 22), Latto celebrated her 24th birthday in cheeky fashion. The “Another Nasty Song” rapper took to her social channels to share some festive NSFW pictures.

In her new set of photos, she is seen dressed in snow boots, a jewelry-studded brassiere, and a matching thong, as she spends time in the snow. “Cold a** b**** I was born in December,” reads the photo set’s caption.

As one could expect, these pictures have broken the internet, as fans are quickly reacting to them.

“This is how you do a birthday shoot,” said one Twitter user.

“I give tens when tens are due,” said another fan.

The past year was a big one for Latto. Her hit single, “Big Energy,” went double platinum in the US, and its live version secured a nomination for Best Rap Performance for the 2023 Grammys. In an interview with XXL, Latto revealed the type of legacy she wants to leave behind in her years to come.

“I want you to think of me when you think of persistence. People seen me grow up on television and in the limelight. I been rapping forever and I never gave up. So many people were like, ‘Oh, you don’t have a song on the radio.’ Boom, got a song on the radio. ‘Oh, well you don’t have a song on the Billboard charts.’ Boom, got a song on the Billboard charts. ‘Well, it’s not top 40.’ Now it’s top 40. So, I’m just the person that showed you like, if you stay at it and don’t give up on yourself, it’ll happen.”