Category: News

Teofimo Lopez became one of boxing’s rare undisputed champions last year when he beat Vasyl Lomachenko by unanimous decision in Las Vegas to become the king of the lightweight division.

The 135-pound champ was set to make his first defense of all his belts this weekend against George Kambosos in Miami as Triller made its first foray into actual championship boxing, but on Tuesday, word emerged that rocked the boxing world. Lopez had tested positive for COVID-19 and was symptomatic, forcing the fight and all of the undercards to be pushed to August 14 — although, it should be said that date has to be considered somewhat tentative pending how severe his bout with the virus is.

Hopefully Lopez’s symptoms remain mild and he doesn’t deal with lingering effects long-term, but as we’ve seen over the last year-plus, even elite athletes in their prime can suffer severely from COVID-19 — Jayson Tatum said he started using an inhaler after his bout with the virus as it impacted his lung function. It’s an incredibly unfortunate situation for one of boxing’s most promising rising stars, as well as everyone else on the card who now have their fights pushed out two months. It also serves as a reminder that, while things are opening up in full again, there is still plenty of danger of transmission for those who haven’t had the vaccine.

A couple of days ago, Courtney Love shared an Instagram post, which she has since deleted. In that post, she accused Nine Inch Nails leader Trent Reznor of “so much systemic abuse of kids, girls as young as 12.” In that same post, she criticized Dave Grohl and how he has handled financial matters related to Nirvana. Now, Love has offered an apology.

In a post to her Instagram Story yesterday, Love wrote, “I need to apologize for my recent post. It was insensitive and it was wrong. No matter how I feel, there are real people behind my words and I need to learn to be more responsible with my words. I am truly sorry for those I’ve hurt. I will do better.”

In the original post, Love called Reznor “talented but still a creep” and wrote, “I’ve never seen so much systemic abuse of kids, girls as young as 12, by him and his crew, we all (the members of Hole) witnessed it.” She also said of Grohl, “The chaos and fury over [Kurt Cobain’s] death being directed at me, deflected by Dave, while he enriched and continues to enrich himself, gorging on Kurt’s fortune and Kurt’s goodwill. 27! Years!!! I’ve had enough. […] Nicest guy in Rock ? No.”

This week brings the 101st episode of People’s Party with Talib Kweli, and to mark that milestone achievement the podcast is going all out, delivering us an episode in which Kweli finally chops it up with his longtime friend and musical collaborator, Yasiin Bey. In addition to bringing us one of the best hip-hop records of all time in Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star, Kweli and Bey also co-host Dave Chappelle’s Midnight Miracle podcast over on Luminary, where the three’s infectious chemistry makes for an always interesting listen.

In keeping it all in the family, Chappelle will now serve as People’s Party’s new executive producer under his Pilot Boy Productions banner, as People’s Party also makes the move to subscription podcast platform Luminary.

“People’s Party has been a labor of love and I am very proud of what we have accomplished over these first 100 episodes. It makes perfect sense for us to partner with Dave Chappelle’s Pilot Boy Products going forward,” Kweli told Deadline. “Dave has always championed this culture that is based in hip-hop and he is the vanguard for great art. People’s Party is the world’s best podcast and now we have joined Luminary to become the sister podcast to the best podcast in the world, The Midnight Miracle.”

While the audio version of People’s Party will become exclusive to Luminary and Luminary’s channel on Apple Podcasts on July 5th, Uproxx will still be leading production on the series. Uproxx will also air the video version of each episode via YouTube on Mondays, one week after the audio podcast launches. The show will continue to be co-hosted by Jasmin Leigh with Uproxx’s Steve Vasquez directing. Catch the 101st episode of People’s Party here.

After releasing the exquisite LP Heaven To A Tortured Mind, Yves Tumor briefly pivoted to the world of high fashion. Their music appeared in Louis Vuitton’s spring/summer 2021 collection video, and they even modeled in an Byredo eye makeup campaign. But they’re now ushering in a new era of music, complete with a colorful video.

Yves Tumor returned Tuesday to release the innovative alt-rock track “Jackie,” which features a pair of emotive electric guitars and a skittering beat that builds to a powerful chorus. The accompanying video reflects the track’s experimental nature, following the musician as they tepidly explore a disorienting sci-fi world.

In a statement about the visual’s creative process, producer Actual Objects said, “We loved collaborating with Yves Tumor on ‘Jackie’ — we’ve been massive fans for years. Their work is always so forward looking, and has always been a major inspiration for us. ‘Jackie’ was a chance for us to dig deep into our toolkit and work with some of our most experimental techniques.”

Watch Yves Tumor’s “Jackie” video above and find their 2021 and 2022 tour dates below.

09/11/2021 — Milwaukee, WI @ Milwaukee WI Cactus Club
09/12/2021 — Chicago, IL @ Chicago IL Pitchfork Festival
09/12/2021 — Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
10/22/2021 — Miami, FL @ III Points Festival
10/24/2021 — Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
10/25/2021 — Washington, DC @ Union Stage
10/26/2021 — NYC @ Webster Hall
10/29/2021 — Philadelphia, PA @ Warehouse On Watts
10/30/2021 — Austin, TX @ TBA
10/31/2021 — San Francisco CA @ Outside Lands
11/02/2021 — Denver CO @ Denver CO Stanley Hotel
11/03/2021 — Seattle, WA @ Numos
11/08/2021 — Los Angeles CA @ The Fonda
11/13/2021 — Las Vegas NV @ Day N Vegas
11/15/2021 — Pioneertown CA @ Desert Daze
02/02/2022 — Warsaw PL @ Hydrozagadka
02/24/2022 — Prague CZ @ Meet Factory
02/26/2022 — Berlin DE @ Gretchen
02/28/2022 — Copenhagen DK @ Vega
03/01/2022 — Amsterdam NL @ Paradiso Noord
03/02/2022 — Gent BE @ Balzaal Vooruit
03/03/2022 — Paris FR @ Trabendo
03/05/2022 — Bristol UK @ Strange Brew
03/06/2022 — Glasgow UK @ Stereo
03/07/2022 — Dublin IE @ Whelans
03/08/2022 — London UK @ Electric Brixton
03/09/2022 — Brighton UK @ Chalk
03/10/2022 — Manchester UK @ Yes

Patton Oswalt seems to be everywhere at the moment with the excellent Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. on Hulu and the adorable Penguin Town on Netflix, in addition to production gearing up on Neil Gaiman’s live-action The Sandman (wherein Patton portrays Matthew the Raven) on Netflix. That doesn’t mean that Patton didn’t feel a little restless during the pandemic shut downs, though.

Like many of us out here reading (and watching at home), Patton admitted during a visit to Conan that he actually felt “crazier than a barn full of clown pubes” after about a month of staying at home. This terminology quickly spiraled with Conan asking for followup, and Patton clarifying that he was “not putting the crazy on the clown pubes, it’s the act of gathering enough clown pubes to fill a barn.” He then added, “Please, clown pube shaming hurts all of us.” As if things weren’t surreal enough already, Patton then explained how buffet restaurants are gonna make a massive comeback soon.

“Buffets are gonna come back so hard,” the comedian predicted. “And they’re gonna come back in that defiant, kinda like, ‘Are you a pussy, or can you come eat at the Golden Corral?’ way.” He wasn’t done yet.

“It’s gonna be like, ‘We don’t have any of those woke sneeze guards like those liberal, left-coast weirdoes,’” Patton continued to paraphrase-predict. “‘Come on our here to our [laughs] cough-welcome zone’…. can you not take no-sneeze-guard dining, or can you not make love to your wife?‘” You just wait, it’ll happen.

Also during the visit, Patton pretended to spill a future M.O.D.O.K. secret while feigning the effects of a Suicide Squad-like implanted device going off. (Tom Holland’s reputation as a spoiler-spiller precedes them all.)

The Brooklyn Nets lost Kyrie Irving in the second quarter of Game 2 after he suffered a sprained ankle landing on Giannis Antetokounmpo’s foot in the lane, and suddenly found themselves without two of their Big 3, as James Harden sat on the bench in street clothes due to an aggravation of his hamstring injury in the first minute of Game 1.

On Monday, the Nets listed both Irving and Harden as officially out, and it seemed like they’d enter the pivotal Game 5 with just Kevin Durant leading the way. Then, on Tuesday morning Harden was moved to doubtful and later upgraded again to questionable after going through another workout in the afternoon, and it became apparent that the Nets’ star guard had a very real chance of making his return.

The Athletics’ Shams Charania brought further word that Harden “plans to play” provided he doesn’t suffer a setback in pregame.

It would be great news for the Nets if Harden can go and be anything close to his normal self, but there is obviously concern about whether he’s hurrying back and could aggravate it again as he did in the opener. Steve Nash insisted the team wouldn’t let him rush back at risk of longterm issues, but with the importance of Game 5, Harden clearly wants to do everything in his power to play. That he was initially listed as out raises eyebrows though, as it’s quite the rare shift to go from that to questionable in under 24 hours.

Ever since Nintendo first announced The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 back in 2019 there has been eager anticipation for more news about it. The first Breath of the Wild game was beloved by not only Zelda fans, but video game fans as a whole. It won numerous game of the year awards and was considered an absolute masterpiece of a game. So of course everyone wanted a sequel.

On Tuesday, during Nintendo’s E3 Presentation, fans finally got the teaser trailer they’ve been wanting for so long. While it didn’t give us all the details we could want, it was enough to tide us over until we get more info at a later date. More importantly, we have an idea of when the game is coming. 2022. As long as it doesn’t get delayed, we should all be exploring Hyrule again by the end of 2022 at the latest. It can’t come soon enough.

Of course, since this is a sequel, we do want to see some changes in the upcoming game and the trailer did give us a tease of what it may look like. A big part of the first Breath of the Wild was the ability to climb and go anywhere the player wanted. The detail was incredible with every piece of the world having something in it and no piece of land going unused. So there wasn’t much more the developers could do with the land itself. So where could they go? In the sky of course!

The trailer featured Link gliding through the sky, giant continents floating in the air and clear use of more verticality in the map. This gives the developers infinite room to work with and some of the new tools we were teased complimented this new vertical approach. One, which had Link phasing through solid matter, looked particularly fun to use.

Two aspects of the game they didn’t show that is going to make or break this game for a lot of traditional Zelda fans are the dungeons and weapons. The first game allowed Link to use all kinds of weapons, but they would break after being used too long forcing the player to go find new ones. This, and the lack of major themed dungeons, turned off a lot of longtime Zelda fans from the first Breath of the Wild game. It will be interesting to see if the developers stick to the formula of the first game or try to appease some of the original fans with a more traditional Zelda game.

Rick Ross is well-known for his luxury lifestyle raps and his big-money boasts, but as it turns out, he has a very responsible outlook toward spending and saving his money, sharing some of his cost-cutting, money-making hacks with Forbes magazine in a new interview. For one thing, all of his investments are in stable markets like real estate, thanks to some advice from his hard-working mom.

“When I became a young millionaire for the first time, I went to my mother because she had always been a registered nurse and worked two and three jobs,” he recalls. “She always bought real estate. She came from Clarksdale, where the real estate was a lot cheaper. She would just keep buying houses. And I would say, ‘Mom, what do you think about the stock market?’ And she would say, ‘Son, I don’t really rock with the stock market. I don’t know much about it, but I know about real estate . . . So when you buy something, make sure you can touch it.’”

However, some of his other tactics are a bit unexpected for a big-time rapper who’s appeared on Forbes’ Hip-Hop Cash Kings list. After buying his 235-acre estate in Georgia from boxing champion Evander Holyfield in 2008, he not only turned the acquisition into a money-maker by renting it out to movie productions like the one for Coming 2 America, but he also saved money by mowing the lawn himself.

“When I bought the Fayetteville estate, locals would see me walk out of a restaurant and scream, ‘You know Holyfield spent $1 million a year to cut the grass,’” he admits. So I decided that I was gonna cut my own grass… I went down to John Deere and asked to see the biggest tractor, the most efficient tractor. I told them I had 200-plus acres that I wanted to keep cut, and they pointed out the right tractor. I bought it right then and there. I bought the extended attachment on the back that would cut even wider. Once I got it back home, I filled it up with gas. I may have sat in the same spot for two hours before I got everything working, but once I got it going, I didn’t stop. I cut grass for about five hours.”

He further explains how he finds the process therapeutic, spending time “connecting with the estate and the animals and the birds and the wildlife.”

Ross also lets it slip that he’d rather buy antiques at swap meets than spend a lot decorating and that he flies commercial instead of owning a private jet. Even a boss keeps to a budget — that’s how he stays a boss.

If there is one thing Nintendo is known for it’s their legendary IP’s. The franchise that created Mario, Zelda, and yes even Metroid. However, many Metroid fans will be quick to tell others about how Nintendo has frequently left them feeling forgotten and underappreciated compared to some of Nintendo’s other franchises. Despite being loved, and creating an entire genre of games, Nintendo has historically been hesitant to release new Metroid games. That said, we know Metroid Prime 4 is in development and they did release Metroid: Samus Returns back in 2017. So everyone’s favorite space bounty hunter has been getting a little more appreciation as of late.

Even with the recent love for the Metroid franchise, nobody expected Nintendo’s announcement during their E3 Nintendo Direct. A new 2D Metroid game, Metroid Dread. While not many details were given, it seems pretty clear that this is a sequel to Metroid Fusion. You know, the Game Boy Advanced game that came out back in 2002. To say that this caught everyone off guard would be an understatement!

The gameplay we saw in the trailer was everything we’d want to see in a 2D Metroid game. Exploration, a large map to explore, and power-ups. However, it’s been almost 20 years since the last official 2D Metroid game and that means that everyone is expecting something a little more modern. The trailer gave us a few signs that we will be getting a modern experience with cutscenes and a couple of cool uses of 3D here and there.

While everyone was expecting Metroid Prime 4 news, this caught all of us off guard and it’s a welcome surprise. The Prime games are really fun first-person adventures, but there’s a whole army of Metroid fans who grew up playing the original 2D games and have been asking for a sequel to Fusion for years. Metroid Dread is the gift we always wanted but never expected to get and that’s awesome.

With her debut album Stranger In The Alps and her 2020 sophomore effort Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers cemented her brand of cathartic songwriting. While her songs have become popular for their relatability, there were moments when the people around her were genuinely concerned about her music’s lyrical content — especially her mom.

The singer recently sat down with W Magazine to chat about the absurdity of hearing her music play during yoga class and growing up as a theater nerd. But she also touched on her vulnerable songwriting, saying her debut album was “so depressing” that her mom nearly intervened. “I play stuff for my mom and my friends,” she said. “After my first record, my mom thought she was going to have to intervene, because every song was so depressing. In fact, I probably needed that, but hey…”

Elsewhere in the conversation, Bridgers mentioned the dangers of building a musical identity around sad music:

“The whole narrative around catharsis is complex. Sometimes it can put you in a box, where you feel like you can’t write anything but heartfelt songs that offer an emotional release. The other day, Lucy Dacus posted this thing about how capitalism commodifies women’s pain. That being said, I started out by copying music that I loved—people like Elliott Smith and Merle Haggard, to name just two. When you write music, if it’s true, it’s useful. But if it starts to feel like you’re playing a character, I think it can get dangerous. Especially if that character is very, very sad.”

Punisher is out now via Dead Oceans. Get it here.