Category: News

The Pittsburgh Foundation’s Mac Miller Fund is planning to help out a sizeable group of artists thanks to a special round of grants. The fund, which was established in 2018 by the family of the late rapper, will award 75 artists who are Black, Indigenous, or people of color with $1,000 grants. Applications are open now through July 23 through the foundation’s website and are available to Pennsylvanian artists who live in the Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Mercer, Lawrence, Somerset, Venango, Washington, and Westmoreland counties. The grants will also be practice-based, allowing the recipients to use the awards on whatever they chose.

“The BIPOC Artist Micro-Grant program is a way for the foundation to carry forward Mac Miller’s creative and artistic legacy and his family’s vision for helping artists, particularly younger artists, recognize their full potential,” Kelly Uranker, vice president of the Pittsburgh Foundation’s Center for Philanthropy, said in a statement.

The announcement comes more than two years after the Mac Miller Fund awarded its first two recipients with $50,000 grants. The winners were from the Hope Academy of Music And The Arts, an after-school arts education outreach program at East Liberty Presbyterian Church, and MusiCares, a California-based charity of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

You can read more about the grants on the Pittsburgh Foundation’s website here.

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

The Atlanta Hawks, despite Trae Young being sidelined with a foot injury, obliterated the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Tuesday night. Powered by productive evenings from a number of players — including Young’s replacement in the starting lineup, Lou Williams — Atlanta picked up a 110-88 win to even up the series, 2-2.

The story of the night for Atlanta was how a collective effort lifted them to victory in the absence of Young. Two players, Williams (a game-high 21 points) and Bogdan Bogdanovic (20) scored at least 20, while another four — Clint Capela (15), Kevin Huerter (15), Cam Reddish (12), and Danilo Gallinari (10) — scored at least 10. Williams, in particular, could not have filled his role any better, taking shots as they came in the offense and going 7-for-9 from the field and making two of his three attempts from deep with eight assists and five rebounds.

Still, no Young led to one of the most well-balanced performances that we have seen from a team all postseason.

The exclamation point came from Capela. While not exactly known for his offensive game, the big fella was being harassed by Brook Lopez as the shot clock wound down. His only option was to fall out of bounds and hoist up a prayer, which was answered.

As for Milwaukee, next to no one had a night to remember. Jrue Holiday led them with 19 points and nine assists, while Khris Middleton scored 16 with eight rebounds, five assists, and two steals. But the scoring came on both players going 6-for-17 from the field.

Perhaps things would have been different if Giannis Antetokounmpo did not go down. The former league MVP had 14 points, eight rebounds, and three assists on 7-for-10 shooting, but early in the third quarter, he went down with what the team called a hyperextended left knee injury. Similar to Young, it is unclear if Antetokounmpo will be able to take the floor again in the series.

Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals will take place on Thursday night. The game is scheduled to tip off at 8:30 p.m. EST on TNT from Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

There were a number of big performances at this year’s BET Awards, some of which proved to be among the biggest moments from the show. One of them included Lil Nas X’s steamy performance of “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” in which the singer concluded his set by kissing one of his male backup dancers in a moment that became far more controversial than it should have.

The kiss received a number of reactions, the latest coming from Madonna, who took to her Instagram Story to briefly share her thoughts. She posted an image of Lil Nas’ onstage kiss above another picture of her own famous kiss with Christina Aguilera at the 2003 MTV VMAs. She captioned it: “#diditfirst.” It’s fairly obvious that Lil Nas was influenced by that 2003 moment, so hopefully Madonna’s intent behind the post was not slight on the singer.

Madonna’s post comes after Lil Nas shared his own reaction to those who were not too happy with Sunday night’s kiss. “Since y’all still doing all this over a kiss imma just f*ck the n**** on stage next time,” he tweeted on Tuesday.

You can view a screenshot of Madonna’s post to her Instagram Story above.

UPDATE: The Bucks officially announced that Antetokounmpo would not return to the game due to a hyperextended left knee.

EARLIER: Giannis Antetokounmpo suffered a left knee injury during the third quarter of Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Atlanta Hawks. Antetokounmpo needed to be helped off the floor after suffering the injury, and although he did appear to be able to put weight on his left knee, it was evident that the two-time league MVP was in serious pain.

With 7:14 left in the third quarter, Antetokounmpo rose up to try and break up a lob attempt to Clint Capela. Antetokounmpo came down awkwardly on his left leg, with his knee appearing to buckle. He proceeded to lay on the floor in several minutes while State Farm Arena in Atlanta went silent.

Antetokounmpo eventually got up, but needed assistance from his brother, Thanasis, to make his way into the locker room. Prior to his going down, Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 14 points on 7-for-10 shooting with eight rebounds and three assists. At the time of his injury, Milwaukee found itself in a 62-52 hole against the Trae Young-less Hawks. While he attempted to return to the bench, he eventually headed back to the locker room.

The Bucks entered Tuesday night’s game looking to go up in the series, 3-1, before things shifted back to Wisconsin. We’ll keep you updated as more information comes in about Antetokounmpo’s status, both in this game and throughout the rest of the series.

Willow Smith knew the music world well before entering it. After all, her parents are Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, the latter being the lead vocalist in the nu metal band Wicked Wisdom. Watching her mother also taught her a lot about being a Black woman in the music industry. During a recent cover story for L’Officiel, Willow spoke about Jada’s unfortunate experiences.

“My mom got so much hate,” Willow said. “It was intense racism and sexism, just packed on to the tens. People giving her death threats, throwing glass at her onstage. Some crazy stuff went down when she was touring with her band.” Willow then shared how Jada’s experience turned into a teaching moment for her. “Obviously, she was scared,” she said. “But she really showed me what ‘womaning up’ really was, by taking a stance and not being afraid of other people’s judgments and perceptions. I really wanted to just go within that place in myself and try something new, regardless of what my insecurities were.”

Her comments come after Willow shared her latest single “Lipstick,” and announced her upcoming album Lately I Feel Everything.

You can read the full profile on L’Officiel here.

Lately I Feel Everything is out 7/16 via MSFTSMusic/Roc Nation. Pre-order it here.

Penny Hardaway, the former NBA guard and current Memphis Tigers head coach, recently interviewed for the Orlando Magic’s open head coaching job, and according to reports, he impressed and became a serious candidate. But on Tuesday, he told Stadium’s Jeff Goodman that he was staying at Memphis:

He also took to his Instagram, posting a video indicating that he was staying at Memphis.

“One day, in the future, I’d love to coach in the NBA,” Hardaway said. “And wouldn’t that be great to work for the Orlando Magic? But today isn’t that day. Today I’m here with my players, the fans, the city working as hard as I can to bring us a national championship. That’s what I set out to do and that’s what I want to do.”

Hardaway would have been an interesting hire for Orlando. Not only is he a franchise legend, but he’s a coach who has succeeded working with young players and connecting with the current generation. For an Orlando team that fired Steve Clifford and traded Nikola Vucevic last year, Hardaway could have theoretically came in and played a major role in guiding them through a rebuild.

By his own admission, this isn’t going to be the end of Hardaway flirting with the NBA. At 49 years old, he’s still young in the coaching game. He could make the leap after several more years at Memphis and still enter the NBA with several years of coaching left in him.

Tucker Carlson is no stranger to making ridiculous claims, but the one he made on Monday night’s show seemed surreal even for him. While re-airing his Swiss cheese allegations about the FBI spearheading the Jan. 6 insurrection, the Fox News host made a curious assertion: He had, he said, irrefutable proof that the NSA was spying on him. Few believed it, and this news — which would be big if true — was never addressed elsewhere on his news network. It also seemed unlikely that if someone, even Tucker Carlson, asked the National Security Agency if they were spying on him, they would respond either way. And yet! That’s exactly what happened.

The NSA took some time from looking into matters of national concern to publicly inform a guy who frequently laughs weird that, no, they have other things to do. “This allegation is untrue,” they wrote over their social media account. They then informed what they actually do (when they’re not debunking TV stars who used to wear bowties in public). “We target foreign powers to generate insights on foreign activities that could harm the United States. With limited exceptions (e.g., an emergency), NSA may not target a US citizen without a court order that explicitly authorizes the targeting.”

Did this humble Tucker Carlson? It did not. On Tuesday’s show, he yet again took time to go after the government agency, calling their response “an infuriating dishonest formal statement” and “an entire paragraph of lies written purely for the benefit of the intel community’s lackeys at CNN and MSNBC.

“The message was clear, we can do whatever we want,” Carlson exclaimed, though the message was definitely clear in a way he didn’t mean. He added, “Orwellian does not begin to describe the experience, it is like living in China.”

How many days will this drag on? Or will Tucker do what he often does and make a bizarre claim that doubles as red meat for his base, then never address it again, having moved onto greener pastures? Whatever the case, it’s clear not even the NSA wants to watch Tucker.

(Via Deadline)

Dennis Schröder is among the list of players hoping to get a big payday this summer. According to one official with the German Basketball Federation, that payday involves nine figures.

During an appearance on the Abteilung Basketball podcast, Armin Andres, the vice president of German Basketball Federation, said that Schröder wants a number in the $100-120 million vicinity, and there is optimism that he will be able to get that on the market.

It should be stressed that this could be Euros and not dollars, which would be in the range of $118-143 million. It is also worth noting that Schröder reportedly turned down an extension from the Lakers around $84 million at some point in the last year.

The former Sixth Man of the Year, Schröder had his ups and downs during his one year in Los Angeles. He averaged 15.4 points, 5.8 assists, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in 32.1 minutes per game for the Lakers this year, but when the postseason rolled around, he struggled mightily, seeing his counting stats fall off and connecting on 40 percent of his shots from the field and 30.8 percent of his attempts from three. It got to the point that Lakers legend Magic Johnson openly questioned whether or not he had the mentality to return to the team next season.

(Via TalkBasket.net)

After an impressive year run that concluded with his sixth album, After Hours, The Weeknd will now bring his talents to the small screen. According to Variety, the singer will star in the upcoming HBO series The Idol, which is about a female pop singer who falls in love with an L.A. club owner who also leads a secret cult. The singer will also co-write and a co-executive produce the series alongside Reza Fahim and Sam Levinson, with all the three being labeled as co-creators.

Joseph Epstein will also write and executive produce on the show in addition to acting as showrunner. Levinson is also responsible for HBO’s hit series Euphoria, which landed a number of Emmy nominations, one of which was given to Zendaya for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

This is far from the first time that The Weeknd has found himself on television . In 2020, he appeared as himself in an American Dad episode, titled “A Starboy is Born,” that we also co-wrote. He also played himself on the big screen, in the 2019 film, Uncut Gems.

On the music side of things, The Weeknd recently joined Doja Cat in a video for their first-ever collaboration “You Right.”

Eric Adams pitched himself to New York City residents as a centrist. Of the many Democratic candidates for mayor, he was arguably the most unique: a former Republican, a former NYPD officer. He knew the other side intimately, and promised he wouldn’t pull any of their crap. But a week after the primary election, he did something surprising: After his once-commanding lead narrowed as more votes were counted, he dared question the legitimacy of the still-in-progress count, giving off strong vibes of You Know Who.

The primary saw the nation’s most populated city experimenting with something new: Rather than pick one favorite, voters would rank as many as five. It’s a first for the city, and it promised to delay the outcome not for days but weeks. The initial tally put Adams well ahead of his closest competitor, former Sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia. But a week later, as more votes trickled in, that lead shrank, from several percentage points to just a few. Rather than accept a conclusion everyone knew was likely, Adams played a Trump card.

“The vote total just released by the Board of Elections is 100,000-plus more than the total announced on election night, raising serious questions,” read a statement from Adams’ team. “We have asked the Board of Elections to explain such a massive increase and other irregularities before we comment on the Rank Choice Voting projection.”

Not long after Adams’ statement was made public, the city’s Board of Elections put out their own, admitting there “is a discrepancy in the unofficial RCV round by round elimination report.” Though they didn’t go into details, they said they “are working with our RCV technical staff to identify where the discrepancy occurred. We ask the public, elected officials and candidates to have patience,”

To many, Adams’ statement was triggering, summoning up memories of the aftermath to the 2020 election, in which the 45th president aggressively contested a free and fair election, even after it was clear his accusations were baseless (and often convoluted). And they were not happy to be back in that nightmare headspace.

The Trump vibes were so strong even Don Jr. tweeted about it. But others were not that surprised that Adams would pull this.

Don jr https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1409998713708240901

Others put the blame on the decision to try out a new form of voting so soon after an election that inspired grifters to take advantage of a degree of uncertainty.

And others were worried that this — questionable, if not baseless, questioning of election results — were now the new normal, if even a Democratic candidate was willing to go there.

In other words, fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be another bumpy election.

(Via Yahoo! News)