Category: News

For years now, there has been tension between Lil Kim and Nicki Minaj, with the former calling the latter a “snake” in 2017, for example. Now, though, the two pioneering rappers could be brought together on one of the most popular platforms of the past year: Verzuz.

In a red carpet interview ahead of the BET Awards yesterday, Kim was asked if she would do a Verzuz show and she responded simply, “Yes.” She was then asked if she had a preferred opponent, and in another succinct response, she said, “Nicki.” The host replied, “I would love to see that,” to which Kim responded, “Yes, me too.”

This lines up with what Kim said in 2017, noting that she would collaborate with Minaj if the price is right. She said, “Some things just can’t be mended unless there’s, like, a different type of conversation. Some people take it too far, some people take it to a point where they try to really deliberately see you in the ground or they still hold on to ‘I’m right.’ A snake is a snake. I’m not gonna try to pick it up because it was being nice to me. […] It’s still a snake at the end of the day. For that situation, it would have to be a business conversation.”

As for the BET Awards, Kim was on hand to pay tribute to Queen Latifah, so check out that moment here.

John Oliver’s knack for peppering serious subjects with biting humor has been going particularly strong lately. Last week, he covered the ill-advised Tokyo Olympics and the predatory lending practices that are increasingly involved with home renovations, but he made sure to sandwich in the Westminster Dog Show controversy during a delightful pair of interludes. This week’s edition of Last Week Tonight delivered a main segment that warned of fake health-care sharing ministries, which con unsuspecting enrollees into shelling out cash before, inevitably, denying that any benefits exist. Well, Oliver did a deep dive, and then he put a bow on it (around the 19:00 minute mark above) by introducing viewers to his “Mega Wife.”

Here is a look at Wanda Jo Oliver, who is the “Felicity Huffman to my William H. Macy,” apparently. Oliver took up the title of “Mega Reverend” and Rachel Dratch picked up the Wanda Jo wig. This actually isn’t the first time (nor the second time) that Dratch has popped onto Last Week Tonight, yet as a wise person once said, Christ on a cracker…

Dratch has appeared multiple times as Wanda Jo, once while creating a fake church called Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption back in 2015. Dratch also portrayed a psychic medium (in 2019) on the show, but this time, she’s back as Wanda Jo to help John fund the Our Lady of Perpetual Health church’s Johnny Care ministry, and the show has invented yet another fake website at FreedomFromHealthCare.org. It’s almost diabolical how good Oliver and Dratch are at putting on their evangelical faces to push JohnnyCare, which follows tenets like “I believe in not getting sick” and “I believe in not having a pre-existing condition.”

All of this, of course, is meant to underscore Oliver’s warning that the “lower-cost health insurance” that’s being pushed by these “ministries” turns out to be “not insurance at all,” and states are leaving their residents completely without recourse on how to clean up after they’ve fallen for these bogus institutes. The subject’s a tricky one, obviously, and hopefully, we’ll see the Oliver Effect work awareness, if not actual change.

Hey, I’ll bet these two have a real good time together…

The Milwaukee Bucks entered the fourth quarter of Game 3 trailing by two and, with 7:32 to play, were down by seven to the Hawks in Atlanta. For the last three years, one of the biggest critiques of the Bucks in the playoffs has been how much they’ve struggled to create good offense in late game situations, particularly in the halfcourt, but throughout this postseason they have shown a greater resolve than they’ve had in the past two playoffs that ended in disappointment.

On Sunday night, the answer for good offense was a simple one: get the ball to Khris Middleton. The All-Star caught fire in the fourth, scoring 20 points in the final period (38 overall) to outscore the Hawks (17 points as a team) by himself to lead Milwaukee to what became a runaway 113-102 win. Middleton got it rolling from three and once that happened, everything he put up seemed to go in the basket.

It was nothing short of sensational for Middleton, who had a disastrous Game 1 performance that many pointed to as the reason (beyond Trae Young’s outrageous effort) the Bucks dropped the opener. He put that behind him once he got into rhythm and carried the Bucks home, with his Milwaukee teammates happy to get him the basketball, step aside, and watch him cook.

That includes Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had 33 points and 11 rebounds on the night in another dominant performance. Still, Giannis was happy to let his teammate go to work in the fourth and after had nothing but effervescent praise for Middleton’s fourth quarter effort.

As Giannis said, it was “greatness,” and Middleton put the team on his back to make sure they got homecourt advantage back and took their first lead of the series at 2-1. Moving forward, the Bucks will look to finally get Middleton and Jrue Holiday going in the same game, as Holiday was spectacular in Game 1 and terrific in Game 2 to pick up the slack while Middleton was struggling.

If they can manage that, it’s hard to see where the Hawks find the firepower to match the Bucks with Bogdan Bogdanovic still struggling (although he looked to be moving better in Game 3 on his injured knee) and Trae Young suffering an ankle injury late in the third quarter that left him unable to really explode off his right foot in the fourth. On top of this series, should they make it there, they’ll seemingly need all three rolling at once for the Finals, and Milwaukee will hope the fourth quarter will only be the start of a big run from Middleton.

The 2021 BET Awards was a smooth sailing affair. The artists delivered great performances and many of the award winners arrived to accept their trophies and give touching acceptance speeches. However, for those who kept a close eye on their TVs during the award show, they might’ve noticed a slightly awkward onstage moment between Megan Thee Stallion and DaBaby.

The two rappers were set to perform “I Did It” with DJ Khaled and Lil Baby at the BET Awards, but after an argument broke out between them on social media, it was hard to imagine they’d take the stage together without their somehow settling their differences beforehand. With Megan leading the way on the song, the Houston rapper performed her verse and slyly exited staged right as Lil Baby rapped his verse. By the time DaBaby arrived to perform, Megan was nowhere to be found as Khaled, Baby, and DaBaby were left as a lone trio to bring the performance to a close.

Megan and DaBaby’s rift began after the latter retweeted a post on Twitter about him and Tory Lanez being cool because they “both shot somebody and don’t have to do no jail time.” DaBaby claimed the retweet was accidental, but Megan wasn’t buying his excuse. “Support me in private and publicly do something different…these industry men are very strange,” she said in one tweet. DaBaby replied, “You know like I know I ain’t no “industry” n****.” The two exchange a couple more tweets before unfollowing each other on the social media platform.

You can watch Megan walk off the stage during the performance in the video above.

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

It was Method Man who kicked off the the DMX tribute on the 2021 BET Awards, rapping an acapella rendition of one of DMX’s most beloved verses. Then, Griselda Records took the stage to perform a snippet of their new song with DMX, “Hood Blues,” before a succession of X’s contemporaries and admirers, including actor Michael K. Williams, Busta Rhymes, and his own Ruff Ryders crew, including Jadakiss of The LOX, channeled his gritty energy to perform some of his biggest hits like “Ruff Ryders Anthem” and “Party Up.”

DMX passed away earlier this year after an accidental overdose. He was in a coma for a week, during which his contemporaries and fans in the hip-hop world shared an outpouring of well-wishes. Eventually, after he’d passed, it was announced that Def Jam, the label where he’d released groundbreaking classics like It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot, Flesh Of My Flesh, Blood Of My Blood, and And Then There Was X…, put out his posthumous album Exodus, which was named for his son.

Meanwhile, his funeral was held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, with Def Jam footing the bill, where his casket was brought in on a monster truck, and the service featured performances from his daughter (who sang her own rendition of his song “Slippin’”) and the Kanye West Sunday Service choir. DMX’s longtime collaborator Swizz Beatz gave an impassioned eulogy, imploring the assembled mourners to “learn how to celebrate each other while we’re here.”

Watch the 2021 BET Awards tribute to DMX above.

DJ Khaled returned in time for summer with Khaled Khaled, a 14-track album absolutely stacked with major collaborations like Justin Bieber, Meek Mill, HER, Migos, Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Baby, DaBaby, and more. Since DJ Khaled is nominated for Best Collaboration at the 2021 BET Awards, it only makes sense that he would celebrate by bringing Lil Durk, Lil Baby, Megan Thee Stallion, and more to the stage at for his medley performance.

Lil Durk and Lil Baby first kicked off the set to deliver their collaboration “Every Chance I Get.” Then taking the stage, DJ Khaled hyped up the crowd in his typical fashion with one-liners like, “Jealousy is a disease” and “Don’t get mad, get a bag.” Finally, Megan Thee Stallion and DaBaby appeared, joined by HER on guitar, to fire off a pumped-up rendition of “I Did It.”

Ahead of his 2021 BET Awards performance, DJ Khaled was invited to record his reaction to Megan Thee Stallion’s “Thot Sh*t” video before it aired. The producer looked incredulous, shaking his head in disbelief and pointing to a new, raunchy era of the rapper’s music. “Yo, they gon’ actually air this? It’s going on YouTube and all that? Nah! Yo. It’s a new world, and it’s definitely a new video,” he said. DJ Khaled’s reaction was pretty spot-on, as Megan’s video featured clips of her twerking on the desk of an old conservative senator.

Watch a clip of DJ Khaled’s 2021 BET Awards show performance above.

Khaled Khaled is out now via The Best/Epic Records. Get it here.

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

Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals was nothing short of a disaster for the Atlanta Hawks, who returned home to State Farm Arena tied at 1-1 with the Bucks after splitting in Milwaukee. Unsurprisingly, Atlanta came out looking to send a message early and did so with some terrific defense and a quick 15-2 run out of the gate as Trae Young, who was dreadful in the Game 2 loss, came out on fire back home.

Atlanta would get the lead up to 25-10, but the Bucks began to steadily reel them in, trailing by just five after the first quarter and got it tied at 56-56 at the half even as the Hawks were 10-of-22 from deep. Giannis Antetokounmpo led the way as he so often does, putting his head down and attacking, getting out in transition very well.

Still, Young was out of his mind, hitting a pair of logo threes that sent the Atlanta crowd into pandemonium.

The third quarter saw more of the same from both teams, with Young staying hot and the Bucks never letting them run away from them with steady offense going downhill.

For much of the game, the Hawks were reliant on Young to keep the offense going, which is not unusual, but with a minute to go in the third, Young had disaster strike as he stepped on the foot of a referee and rolled his right ankle, sending him to the locker room to get retaped.

Despite Young’s absence to start the fourth quarter (which happened during his normal rest period), the Hawks were able to extend their lead thanks to some timely contributions from the bench, including Onyeka Okongwu who played some terrific defense on Giannis and had a monster lob finish from Lou Williams to push the Atlanta lead to five.

Young would make his return after four minutes out of the game, moving fine on his ankle which was a welcome sight, and the Hawks went to work on the task of trying to extend their lead. They got it up to seven, but Khris Middleton found his stroke to rally the Bucks quickly into a one-point lead at 96-95.

Trae had the first answer with another deep three, but the Middleton fourth quarter barrage continued with a pair of long-range buckets (one with his foot on the line in the corner) to push Milwaukee into a 101-98 advantage.

From there it was just non-stop buckets from Middleton, who was absolutely out of his mind in the fourth quarter, scoring 20 of his 38 points for the night in the final period.

Young clearly didn’t look quite right as evidenced by the offense rarely running through the superstar in the fourth quarter off the dribble, and without his creation the Hawks offense stagnated down the stretch. On the other side, Middleton and Giannis were able to keep the foot on the gas for Milwaukee, pulling away for a 113-102 win.

Overall, the Bucks closed the game on an extended 25-7 run from when Atlanta took a 95-88 lead with 7:32 to play on the Okongwu lob. The Hawks would pull Young with just under a minute to play and a pair of John Collins missed free throws down 10 put to bed any chances of a furious late rally from Atlanta.

The series now shifts firmly into the control of the Bucks, who showed some impressive resolve in Game 3 given how things started. Giannis and Middleton were the unquestionable stars, combining for 71 points, 22 rebounds, and 11 assists, but they got a big night from Bobby Portis with 15 points off the bench and despite a dismal shooting night for him, Jrue Holiday dished out 12 assists.

On the other side, it was all about Trae Young, who finished with 35 points but just four assists, as the Bucks dared him to shoot Atlanta to a victory. He seemed capable of doing just that for three quarters, but the ankle injury really took away from his ability to carry the load as he had to start the game and the Hawks didn’t have anyone to make up for that absence. Danilo Gallinari did his best in support, with 18 points off the bench, but the lack of a secondary creator was clear down the stretch.

All eyes will be on Young to start Game 4, as his health will determine whether the Hawks have a chance to make this a series again. For now, Milwaukee assumes control with their first lead in the series, swiping homecourt advantage back and will be looking to take a 3-1 lead in Game 4.

Lil Nas X has been breaking down barriers since the beginning of his career. First, he bridged genres between country and hip-hop with his introductory single, “Old Town Road,” then, he broke multiple records with how popular that tongue-in-cheek, campy song was. After that, he became even more influential by choosing to come out, and live openly in his queerness.

Tonight, he raised the stakes even higher by making out with one of his male dancers during a performance of “Montereo (Call Me By Your Name)” at the BET Awards. Calling back to that infamous kiss between Madonna and Britney Spears, it’s a much more powerful statement for a young Black, queer man to do this on national television — during Pride — than it was for those two women back then.

Since it came as such a surprise, fans and celebrities alike are reacting to the moment, uplifting and praising Nas for both his bravery and self-acceptance, condoning his choice to be himself so openly. It shouldn’t be revolutionary for him to kiss another man at an event like the BET Awards, and maybe because of his choice to be so open, one day soon it won’t be. Check out reactions below.

Rapsody, Lil Kim, MC Lyte, and Monie Love paid lyrical tribute to Queen Latifah at the 2021 BET Awards as she won a Lifetime Achievement Award, performing Queen Latifah’s culture-defining hits “Ladies First” and “U.N.I.T.Y.” Rapsody and Monie Love opened things up with “Ladies First,” rocking gender challenging looks inspired by athletics, then Lil Kim and MC Lyte rapped “U.N.I.T.Y.,” with Kim ironically being the one to yell the iconic line, “Who you callin’ a bitch!?” The quartet’s tribute was followed by an acceptance speech from the pioneering Queen herself, who shouted out her partner, and wish fans a happy Pride Month.

Rapsody, who’s been a fixture of BET’s award shows over the years, last performed on the network in 2020, at the BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher, spitting socially conscious bars alongisde Chika, Jack Harlow, Polo G, and Rhythm + Flow finalist Flawless Real Talk. Throughout 2020, Rapsody made impressive appearances on a number of other artists’ projects, including Public Enemy’s What Are You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down?, Reason’s New Beginnings, and T.I.’s The L.I.B.R.A., as well as Stevie Wonder’s social commentary, “Can’t Put It In The Hands Of Fate.” Meanwhile, she also made her own social commentary on the song “12 Problems,” ensuring she stayed in the conversation, even without having a new album out.

Watch the 2021 BET Awards tribute to Queen Latifah above.

After a dreadful Game 2 performance in a blowout loss, Trae Young came out like a man possessed in Game 3 against the Milwaukee Bucks, through three quarters, Young had 32 points on 11-of-19 shooting, including a 5-of-11 effort from three. However, with under a minute to play in the third, Young left for the locker room after stepping on the foot of the sideline official following a turnover.

Young’s right ankle turned over and he was looked at by the Atlanta training staff before walking to the locker room under his own power but clearly in some pain.

It is a wildly unfortunate injury that will hopefully not be too serious for Young, who has dealt with shoulder issues at points during this postseason. It is not the same ankle that Young injured back in April, which is hopefully good news as far as it not furthering any damage remaining, but Hawks fans and fans around the NBA will be holding their breath to find out the severity of the injury and how it impacts Young going forward even if he’s able to return to the court.

It should be noted that the late third and early fourth is Young’s normal time to get some rest, and he returned to the bench early in the fourth seemingly retaped and ready to return — with the team announcing he was indeed available shortly after.