Category: News

Jay-Z and Beyonce are reportedly putting their New Orleans mansion on the market for the price of $4.45 million, according to TMZ. The building, which is located in the city’s Historic Garden District and was originally a Presbyterian church, covers 13,292 square feet and features seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms. Spanish baroque architecture and four separate living spaces can also be found throughout the mansion. There’s also a rooftop garden, which one of them said was a kind of magical space: “I did my best writing ever, while watching the sunset from the rooftop garden!”

The musicians’ decision to sell the home comes less than two months after it caught on fire. The reports for the incident called it a one-alarm fire that required about two hours and 22 people to put out. An investigation afterward named cause of the fire as simple arson, but a suspect has yet to have been arrested.

As a part of the mansion’s sale, Jay-Z and Beyonce will have the house repainted to the preference of the new owner prior to the deal’s official deal. Altogether, the couple looks to make just under a $2 million profit on the mansion, having bought it in 2015 for a whopping $2.6 million.

It’s been less than two calendar years since LSU was on top of the college football world, but after a disastrous 2020 and little in the way of a bounce back to start 2021, head coach Ed Orgeron found himself firmly on the hot seat in Baton Rouge.

On Saturday, the Tigers stunned Florida in a thrilling 49-42 win that many thought might keep Orgeron in town a bit longer, but even a big win over a ranked rival won’t be enough to save Coach O’s job. On Sunday, word broke from Ross Dellenger, Steven Godfrey, Pete Thamel, and others that Orgeron was negotiating an agreement to leave the program and would be out after the 2021 season — with the expectation that he will not receive his full buyout amount as he departs.

Not only was the on field performance lacking after the national title winning season, but an investigation into the football program’s culture revealed the program had mishandled rape allegations against former running back Derrius Guice while he was at LSU and not followed their legal responsibility in reporting them. That seems to have provided LSU with leverage to move on from Orgeron and push him into taking less than his buyout amount.

As for who could be next to take over in Baton Rouge, Bruce Feldman reports Mel Tucker is a favorite of many around the program for what he’s done in turning around Michigan State quickly.

There will be plenty of coaches floated as possibilities for the LSU job in the coming months, as Orgeron becoming a lame duck coach opens the door for plenty to put their name in the ring for one of the nation’s biggest jobs.

The Jacksonville Jaguars entered Sunday as arguably the NFL’s most hapless team, with an 0-5 record (one of two winless teams, alongside Detroit), only one game they were truly competitive in, and plenty of off-field drama involving their embattled head coach Urban Meyer (all of which was self-inflicted).

However, the Jags were back in familiar territory on Sunday, as they played their seemingly annual London game as the hosts, with Miami making the trip across the pond to face them. The Dolphins were getting Tua Tagovailoa back from the injured list for the game and after four straight losses, things seemed set up for Miami to get back on track. However, through a combination of unforced errors, poor decision-making from the coaching staff and players, and a suddenly red-hot kicker for the Jaguars, the Dolphins managed to squander leads early and late as Jacksonville picked up its first win of the season in London.

After going up 20-17 early in the fourth quarter, Miami would scuffle on offense, as Tagovailoa struggled to find anything approaching a sustained rhythm all game, and that left the door ajar for Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars. After a very close call on a punt return in which Jamal Agnew nearly touched a bouncing ball that was recovered by Miami in the end zone (ruled a touchback and simply got the “call stands” upon review), the Jaguars marched into Miami territory to set up a 54-yard field goal from a kicker who, including his college career, had never hit from that far out.

Somehow the kick that at one point was a good five feet wide of the upright drew back in, clearing the bar by maybe two feet, tying the game. The Dolphins would work it back to near midfield on their effort at a game-winning (or at least, lead-taking) drive, but found themselves with a 4th and inches. They chose not to trot out Jacoby Brissett for a QB sneak or even the threat of one, and ran a simple dive play that didn’t come particularly close to picking up the first down.

Jacksonville would do little with the ball on the next possession, finding themselves in a 4th and 8 with five seconds left, outside of field goal range. It was then that magic would strike, as Lawrence threw a bullet of a slant to pick up the first and, somehow, got a timeout called with one second on the clock. Once again, Matthew Wright trotted out for a 50-plus yarder and this time he didn’t need a lucky late turn from the ball to hit it, banging through the game-winning kick to send the Jags into a frenzy in London.

There were some horrific decisions from both sides throughout the game, but to the Jags credit, they executed when it mattered most with a tremendous back-to-back plays to set up the game-winning field goal. They now move to 1-5, tying the Dolphins in record and leaving Detroit as the lone winless team in the NFL, and providing some rare positive discussion of the franchise and even the coaching decisions of Meyer after some truly awful coaching early in the season.

Musical biopics were dead for a good while, thanks in part to Walk Hard, the devastating parody that sent up the corny likes of Walk the Line and Ray. But they’re alive again. The Queen movie Bohemian Rhapsody even netted its star, Rami Malek, an Oscar. So it’s only inevitable that one day soon we’ll get a Prince biopic. But who will play him? An SNL sketch had some suggestions.

Malek, who hosted the most recent episode, plays one of two actors auditioning for the role. The other is Kenan Thompson. Malek isn’t Black. Thompson, even with a wig and purple get-up, doesn’t look much like Prince. But they’re still the final two contestants for a movie by director Jordan Peele (Chris Redd).

But there are two twists. One, Jordan Peale’s Prince biopic winds up not being about Prince at all. Instead, as one of them guesses, it turns into a “horror movie about racism.” The other is that they wind up with an unexpected guest: erstwhile James Bond, Malek’s No Time to Die co-star, and NYC resident Daniel Craig shows up, thinking it’s an audition for “a prince,” with regalia to match. None of them are ideal Princes, reminding us that perhaps no none could ever embody the late musician.

You can watch the sketch in the video above.

The young class of artists on Gucci Mane’s The New 1017 label started an HBCU tour last week. The rappers, which include Bic Fizzle, Big Scarr, Bigwalk Dog, Enchanting, and Hotboy Wes, will visit Jackson State University, Morehouse College, Howard University, Florida A&M University, and Texas Southern University over the course of eight days. The performances at Jackson State University and Morehouse College went as planned, but the one at Howard University’s own did not. Instead, the artists chose to join the students in a sit-own protest against deplorable campus conditions.

The protest was captured on Big Scarr and his manager’s Instagram Stories. In one post, Scarr’s manager wrote, “We’re still here! Students you are the revolution. We are the revolution. This is not okay.” Another showed the artists standing beside students. Bigwalk Dog also shared posts about the protest to his story.

Students at Howard have spent nearly a week protesting at the university in hopes of attaining a list of improvements to campus life. According to Teen Vogue, one major issue is a campus housing crisis that has left many dealing with water damage and mold in their dorms. Others struggle to find affordable housing close to campus. Other issues include tuition hikes, a lack of COVID-19 testing, and more. A sit-in was staged on October 12 at Howard’s Blackburn University Center, with somewhere between two dozen to over 50 students occupying the area at various times. The following day, hundreds of students joined in the sit-in after they were instructed to leave the building in a letter from affairs vice president Cynthia Evers.

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

Perhaps you’ve heard of Squid Game. It’s the biggest global televisual sensation right now, watched by so many people Netflix has gotten sued in its native South Korea for breaking internet traffic records. And to prove that a program from a non-American country in a non-English language has truly penetrated subtitle-hating America, it got sent up on SNL.

The parody takes the form of a music video, sending up Branchez & Big Wet’s country hit “Turn Up On the Weekend.” Host Rami Malek and Pete Davidson — who also impersonated each other in a separate live sketch — play down-on-their-luck contestants in the deadly game, which invites the cash-strapped to endanger their lives for money.

“There’s a robot girl who caught me running, better duck behind the nearest guy,” Davidson sings as he hops behind fellow cast member Chris Redd, who’s then shot down by the creepy robot girl from the show.

Eventually Davidson turns on Malek, letting him be killed in his place. (“I just won the Squid Game, killed all of my friends to win the Squid Game.”) He wins, but he does something deeply foolish: He bets his entire winnings on the Jets, forcing him to return to the game. Perhaps it’s an ending Lebron James would have preferred.

You can watch the sketch in the video above.

Being on SNL means often being called on to do impersonations. Pete Davidson doesn’t usually do that. He does himself, usually appearing on Weekend Update to talk about himself. But he’s done the occasional impersonation. One is Rami Malek. They look a bit alike. They both have bulging eyes, for one. So when Malek wound up hosting SNL, it was only fitting that Davidson did his impersonation of him to his face…and vice versa.

In the sketch “Celeb Game Show” — basically their version of Jeopardy! but with twice the famous guests — host Kenan Thompson lords over a treasure trove of celebs. There’s John Oliver (Mikey Day). There’s Adam Driver (James Austin Johnson). There’s George Takei (Bowen Yang). There’s Lil Wayne (Chris Redd). There’s SNL alum Kristen Wiig (Melissa Villaseñor). And there’s current cast member Pete Davidson (Rami Malek) and the night’s host Rami Malek (Pete Davidson).

Sitting a mere foot or two from Malek, Davidson still plays the host as an awkward weirdo, with a monotone drone. Malek returns the favor, amping up Davidson’s raw nerve rantiness and ability to overuse the word “dude.” Neither of them also seem to know the answer to which Revolutionary War battle was fought in NYC. (It’s the Battle of Brooklyn.) Hopefully they had a big bear hug afterwards.

You can watch the sketch in the video above.

Last week, Paul McCartney delivered his thoughts about The Rolling Stones during a profile with The New Yorker. The singer referred to them as a “blues cover band” while making a comparison to The Beatles and added, “I think our net was cast a bit wider than theirs.” Many were taken aback by McCartney’s comments, but Mick Jagger had nothing but jokes about it as he used a recent performance in Los Angeles to take a slight jab at McCartney for his comments.

“There’s so many celebrities here tonight,” Jagger said during the October 14 show. “Megan Fox is here, she’s lovely. Leonardo DiCaprio. Lady Gaga. Kirk Douglas. Paul McCartney is here, he’s going to help us — he’s going to join us in a blues cover later.” Just to make sure everyone got a laugh out of the situation, Jagger later posted a video of his comments to his Twitter page.

It turns out that this is not the first time McCartney made comments like these about The Rolling Stones. Last year, during a conversation on SiriusXM with Howard Stern, McCartney dove a bit deeper into the topic. “They are rooted in the blues,” he said. “When they are writing stuff, it has to do with the blues. We had a little more influences. … There’s a lot of differences, and I love the Stones, but I’m with you. The Beatles were better.”

Of course, Jagger responded to those comments as well, joking that “there’s obviously no competition” between the bands. “One band is unbelievably luckily still playing in stadiums, and then the other band doesn’t exist,” he added.

You can hear Jagger’s response to McCartney in the video above.

The music world is currently enjoying Young Thug’s second album Punk as the rapper released it on Friday. He first announced the project two years ago, which came less than a week after he released his debut So Much Fun. After previewing songs at Miami’s Rolling Loud festival and during his NPR Tiny Desk, the rapper released Punk with just a slight delay. To further promote the project, Young Thug brought his talents to Saturday Night Live for a pair of electric performances.

Thug started the night with a brief performance of “Tick Tock,” the promotional single the rapper released prior to Punk. It came with the presence of a live band that featured Travis Barker on drums who ended it with an energetic drum solo. Later on in the night, Thug returned to the stage to perform “Love You More” with Gunna as well as Nate Ruess from the bands Fun and The Format. Travis Barker was also on drums for this performance while Ruess covered the song’s hook and Gunna delivered a verse of his own.

Altogether, Punk presents 20 songs and additional appearances from Drake, Future, J. Cole, Travis Scott, Gunna, Doja Cat, T-Shyne, Bslime, Post Malone, ASAP Rocky, Lil Double 0, and Jeff Bashker.

You can watch the performances in the videos above.

Punk is out now via 300 Entertainment/Atlantic Records. Get it here.

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

The Tennessee Volunteers played host to the 13th ranked Ole Miss Rebels on Saturday night at Neyland Stadium. It was a highly-anticipated night game, one in which the Vols hoped to win and use as a springboard into the top-25, but during the fourth quarter, the game was temporarily stopped due to frustration boiling over from fans over a bad call.

Tennessee faced a fourth-and-24 with the ball on its own 26 while trailing, 31-26, with less than a minute to go. Quarterback Hendon Hooker found Jacob Hooker and appeared to get a first down by a yard or two, but the officials ultimately decided that he was short, giving the Rebs the ball and infuriating the home fans.

Here’s the thing: There were 54 seconds left and the Vols had all three timeouts, so the game was by no means over, even if a lot would need to go right for Tennessee. But the fans in Neyland were (pretty understandably!) not happy, and as a result, they let the refs know that they were upset. There were boos, of course, but things went to another level when the fans started launching things onto the field.

At one point, Rebels coach Lane Kiffin was hit with a golf ball, while Tennessee’s band and cheerleaders had to exit the field.

And then, in one of the more absurd things said/shown on television during a college football game, we learned some of the things that were hucked onto the field, including a bottle of mustard.

Again, the Vols had a chance to win, and they dang near made it happen. They forced a three-and-out, got a good return on the punt, and moved the ball down to the Rebs’ 21. They came up a bit short — backup QB Joe Milton tried running for it and only gained 13 yards — but this was one of the more chaotic scenes you’ll see in the sport. And on top of it all, Kiffin made sure he kept his souvenir.

As he walked off the field, fans kept throwing things, as Kiffin caught a water bottle that was chucked at his head and then tossed his visor to fans above the tunnel as one last sendoff.