Category: News

Pedro Martinez is one of the greatest pitchers in Major League Baseball history, strolling into Cooperstown as a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2015 with 3,154 career strikeouts, a 2.93 career ERA, and three Cy Young awards. Martinez was absolutely dominant on the mound over his years in Montreal and then, particularly, as the ace of the Boston Red Sox, including the 2004 World Series winning squad.

Martinez had a powerful fastball, but his ability to mix in a lethal changeup to keep hitters off balance was the reason for his success. However, until Thursday, we didn’t know just how much he toyed with batters and opposing teams with that ability to change speeds.

On the MLB Network’s broadcast on Thursday night, Martinez showed CC Sabathia, Chris Young, and Stephen Nelson how whenever a runner was on second base, he would show them a fastball grip in his glove, knowing they’d be trying to signal to the batter, and then as he was beginning his motion, he’d switch to the changeup, and, in his words, “you dead meat.”

Sabathia seemed to know this trick from others, but Young in particular had his mind blown, noting he was always looking at pitchers when he was on second and never saw anyone pull this off. It takes a special ability to make that grip change so late and be able to throw it how you want and where you want, but then again, Martinez is one of the most talented pitchers in baseball history so it shouldn’t come as a shocker that he was one of the few who could pull this off.

It is also a reminder that, for every perceived advantage, the greats will find a counter, as Martinez took advantage of having a runner on second trying to relay signals to home by flipping the script to even further dupe unsuspecting hitters into lunging out in front of a changeup.

Megan Thee Stallion has earned herself a long list of achievements in her career. She’s a Grammy-winning artist who’s also seen her debut album, Good News, go platinum. The Houston native also has a pair of chart-topping songs to her name. By all means, Megan is a superstar whose name is recognizable all over the world, but with her latest release, she’s looking to take that even further. The rapper joins K-pop BTS group to deliver a remix of their No. 1 single, “Butter.” On it, she slides through for a smooth verse that is sure to elevate the song.

The remix could give Megan her third No. 1 single if her addition is enough to pull the song back up to the top of the charts. Prior to the remix, “Butter” spent seven consecutive weeks at No. 1. After “Permission To Dance,” another song the band released this year, interrupted the streak “Butter” put up on the charts, the latter returned to No. 1 where it would stay for two more weeks, making BTS the artist to both spend the most overall and consecutive weeks at No. 1 in this year.

The road to the arrival of Megan’s “Butter” remix was not as smooth as the Houston rapper probably hoped it would’ve been. The rapper was forced to petition for the song’s release earlier this week in court after her label 150 Certified Entertainment attempted to block her from dropping it. The filing specifically requested an “emergency relief from the Court before this Friday, August 27, 2021, to allow her new music to be released this week as previously scheduled.” Hours after the petition was filed, a judge ruled that Megan was cleared to share the remix.

You can listen to the remix in the video above.

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

Kanye West’s third Donda listening at Chicago’s Soldier Field is underway, and one of the biggest changes he’s made to the project so far was evident right off the bat — and many fans aren’t happy about it. One of the standout tracks at Kanye’s first listening came toward the end, revealing that he had, at last, reconciled with Jay-Z, who contributed a verse addressing Ye’s oddball political antics over the past few years. However, this time, he opened with the same song, with one major change: Jay-Z’s verse had been replaced with one by DaBaby.

The reason for the change is currently unknown and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future. The fan reaction, though, was obvious and immediate. Putting aside the quality of the song for just a moment, the timing — coming as DaBaby has been subject to widespread backlash over his homophobic comments during Rolling Loud — is questionable and likely intentional on Kanye’s part. After all, Kanye did spend the better part of the last four years trolling people with a Make America Great Again ball cap, even as the man who coined the catchphrase was doing everything in his power to do the opposite.

Fans criticized the switch, calling it a downgrade. Meanwhile, the listening has continued with further attention-baiting decisions, such as inviting Marilyn Manson — who is currently under investigation for domestic abuse — to hang out with him on the steps of the reconstructed replica of his childhood home as he plays an album named for his mother. Meanwhile, that album’s release date has once again changed, now showing September 5. See more responses to the change below.

For those of you who might have been unaware, Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem are cousins, and while it wasn’t exactly a promoted fact between the two rappers, the duo made it clear with the announcement of their first collaboration. They announced a new single, “Family Ties” earlier this week, and as promised, the track has arrived and it comes with a brand new visual laced with a cameo from Normani. The video is quite the chaotic effort as it features everything from a shootout, Kendrick Lamar passionately dancing, and fairly good amount of twerking.

The track is the latest single from Baby Keem’s upcoming album, The Melodic Blue. The Vegas-bred act announced the title for the project earlier this year and it’s a full-length release that will include previously-released singles “No Sense,” “Durag Activity” with Travis Scott, and “Hooligan.” Hopefully, Keem’s collaboration with Kendrick signals that The Melodic Blue is closer to arrival than some may expect.

“Family Ties” also marks the first musical release of any kind for Kendrick Lamar in 2021. The track hopefully makes a return for the Good Kid, M.a.a.d City, but there is an end of sorts for him in the near future. Last week, Lamar announced that his upcoming fifth album would be his last with Top Dawg Entertainment, a label he’s called him since 2005. “As I produce my final TDE album, I feel joy to have been a part of such a cultural imprint after 17 years,” he wrote in a letter to fans. “The Struggles. The Success. And most importantly, the Brotherhood. May the Most High continue to use Top Dawg as a vessel for candid creators. As I continue to pursue my life’s calling.”

You can press play on the video above to hear

Kim Petras is back, and bigger than ever.

After the blockbuster success of early projects like her Halloween mixtapes Turn Off The Light and Turn Off The Lights Vol. 1 — not to mention 2019’s excellent project, Clarity — Kim is ready for a whole new chapter. Tonight, the pop star announced that she’s signing to Republic Records, joining the likes of Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd and Post Malone, and gearing up to release her debut album. More on this new phase will be coming very soon, but she’s kicking everything off with the aptly-titled single, “Future Starts Now.” Never one to shy away from the more synth-pop side of things, this track takes it to a whole new level, tapping into the classic ’80s pop sound that typified her most recent new music like the sparkling “Malibu,” which ushered in the beginning of her “superstar-pop” era.

In the past, Kim also laid the blueprint for turning Halloween into her own personal holiday, and provided the soundtrack for queens on RuPaul’s Drag Race to battle it out over lip sync. Those were great moments, but her new era is about something bigger and more focused. So look out for more new music coming from Kim very soon.

Fans have been speculating about the return of Kacey Musgraves for quite some time now, and just a few days ago she finally gave her eager listeners a much appreciated update. Musgraves revealed that her new album will be called Star-Crossed, and described it as a “Greek tragedy in three acts.” The album’s title track and first single sits somewhere between psychedelic rock and Western blues, offering a woozy, flickering look into the heart of a woman who risked it all, and lost. Of course, Star-Crossed follows Kacey’s experience through her divorce from fellow country star, Ruston Kelly, the chapter that comes after her lovey-dovey, record-breaking album, Golden Hour, which was mostly inspired by their love story and marriage.

Tonight, Kacey let fans further into the world of Star-Crossed by sharing another new single called “Justified.” In the song, she details the myriad of reactions that come after a breakup, tracing the journey from numbness, anger and sadness, to trying to connect with someone new, and even recounting some of what went wrong with the relationship — “When you lied and said you didn’t want me / Tell me what was I supposed to do?” The song isn’t a breakup anthem as much as a reconciliation with the entire process. Listen above.

You know what’s even cooler than watching a film and being able to perfectly nail its various homages and what movies it drew inspiration from? When those inspirations are so unexpected you don’t see them until you do, and apparently, that’s what we have to look forward to with the upcoming superhero film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

In a recent interview with Fandango, Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton shared the list of films that inspired his work on the upcoming Marvel movie. While several of the movies he listed make a ton of sense — such as classical martial arts films Ip Man, Kung Fu Hustle, and Tai-Chi Master — one of the ones that played a major role in setting the film’s tone is pretty unexpected, to say the least. According to Cretton, the 1997 film Good Will Hunting — and the character of Will Hunting in particular — helped inspire the story he created for lead character Shang-Chi.

One of the very loose inspirations for tone and character was Good Will Hunting, which may be a surprise. Will Hunting is a character that I think has a lot of similarities to Shang-Chi, just in that they have a big secret and they have a lot of baggage that they have to learn to deal with in order to step into their fully realized shoes.

For those unfamiliar with the Academy award-winning story of Good Will Hunting, the film follows a brilliant-but-troubled young man named Will (played by Matt Damon) who is, to put it bluntly, wasting his potential and going down a pretty dark path. Fortunately, Will finds guidance and comfort in the shape of community college professor Dr. Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) and after a tumultuous journey, winds up in a better place with a clearer direction and more open view on life and love.

Based on what we know about Shang-Chi, there definitely seem to be some parallels between the two films and the characters of Will and Shang-Chi. For starters, both men suffered a form of abuse growing up that led them to have a pretty sour outlook on life and themselves. Cretton also noted both characters are a “mixture of masculinity and vulnerability,” who have “secret and a superpower [they don’t] quite understand and [have] not stepped into.”

However, even apart from Good Will Hunting, the film has an absolutely stellar list of influences, chiefly now-iconic martial arts films. In the Fandango interview, Cretton provided a very thorough list:

Some of the other inspirations… every Jackie Chan movie ever made, the Ip Man series — there’s a big inspiration from Jet Li’s Tai-Chi Master, and, of course, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. There is a long list. I cannot not give enough props to Kung Fu Hustle, which is one of my favorites. We watched a lot of these classic movies to make sure that we were paying proper respect to them and to the long history of martial arts and kung-fu movies that came before us.

While all of these titles are quite a lot to live up to, our fingers are crossed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will nail it. You can see how it all plays out — and if Shang-Chi reaches his potential — when the upcoming Marvel film hits theaters on September 3.

TikTok has helped a number of artists reach viral status over the last eighteen months. A shortlist of songs that have benefitted from the app include K Camp’s “Lottery,” Curtis Roach’s “Bored In The House,” Erica Banks’ “Buss It,” and Doja Cat’s “Streets.” Another track to add to that list is Capella Grey’s “Gyalis.”

The single from the New York native first gained traction on TikTok back in the spring, and today, it continues to climb the Billboard Hot 100 where it currently sits at No. 71. Months after releasing the single and inking a deal with Capitol Records, Grey returns with the official video for the track.

The visual is quite the lively effort as it captures the rising act surrounded by hundreds of fellow New Yorkers who came out to support him and the song, which many have selected as their pick for the song of the summer (see: Elliott Wilson). The video is filled with plenty of energetic dancing and Grey’s charisma matches the high spirits of the video as it also effectively proves why he’s the man around town.

The official video arrives after A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie delivered an official remix to “Gyalis” last month. Other acts like Kranium and Vory also delivered their own takes of the growing hit. “Gyalis” also came after Grey dropped The QuaranTape Vibe 1 last year, and thanks to the success of the 2021 track, fans can expect to hear more from the New York act in the coming months.

You can press play on the video above.

Jeopardy! is still scrambling to find a full-time host to properly succeed Alex Trebek, as executive producer Mike Richards’ single day with the gig ended with him resigning in shame. But as the show once again picks up its search we’re learning more about how it made that disastrous first pick of Richards.

Much of the fan outcry around the situation is about Richards’ past, yes, but also that LeVar Burton didn’t get a fair shake at the job. And while some of that is subjective, a report indicates that Burton was never really an option for the job regardless of his performance. According to a TMZ report, not only did Burton not get an offer for a deal, as was rumored in recent weeks, he was not seen as the “right fit” for the full-time role after his less-than-stellar week at the podium.

Production sources tell us … Sony Studios execs loved the “Reading Rainbow” star as a guest host, but they didn’t think he was the right fit for the daily syndicated quiz show … and the same can be said about almost all the other guest hosts.

…

Our sources say Mayim and Mike were the ONLY guest hosts who had talks with Sony about hosting full-time … so LeVar getting snubbed wasn’t personal, and he wasn’t alone.

However, we’re told Sony did speak with LeVar about other projects outside of the “Jeopardy!” brand … and those opportunities are still a possibility.

As we’ve written here before, there are a lot of reasons why Burton wasn’t particularly great. He also got a single day to tape, and there’s rumblings Richards was involved in what the focus groups saw that largely contributed to the show making its first pick. But it’s certainly interesting to see that Sony apparently “loved” Burton even if he was never really an option for Jeopardy! in their eyes.

[via TMZ]

Teyana Taylor has often been praised for her physique, with fans and peers often left in awe at the singer’s ability to be in shape at seemingly all times. But the singer was surprised with quite the health scare recently. During an episode of her and her husband Iman Shumpert’s reality show We Got Love Teyana & Iman, the singer revealed that she had to undergo emergency surgery in Miami after her doctor discovered lumps in her breasts.

She described the procedure as a “complicated” biopsy that required dense tissue to be removed from her breasts in order to be sent to a pathology lab for testing. While the results came back fine, the singer admitted she was frightened through the experience as she feared it would be linked to an illness present in her family.

“Cancer runs through my family, so it’s a scary thing both for me and Iman,” the singer said. She also revealed that she could not use her arms and lift her children for six weeks following the procedure.

“It’s tough,” Taylor said. “I’m definitely overwhelmed because I miss my kids so much, I miss Iman so much.” She added, “I think that’s probably the longest I’ve been away from them. My number one priority is to hurry up and get back home, but I know I need to take care of what I need to take care of as well.” Elsewhere she added, “I just want this to be the last time I go through this.”

The singer’s return home was captured toward the end of the We Got Love Teyana & Iman episode. It’s there that she spoke about the mental and physical toll that the situation took on her.

“I accept every single body scar, everything that comes with mommy-hood, but the changes — physically, mentally, emotionally, it’s crazy,” the singer said. “As mommies, we really are super-women. It’s been a rough year for me, but I feel like I overcame it, and I did a great job of balancing everything, trying to be mommy, trying to be [a] wife, trying to be [an] entrepreneur and everything else I have going on. I just want to enjoy this moment and try not to think of the negative.”