Category: News

Two years after its predecessor, Young Thug and his YSL Records collective returned with Slime Language 2. The highly-anticipated album dropped Friday, backed by 23 songs and guest appearances from Drake, Travis Scott, Big Sean, Meek Mill, and others. But it was supposed to come out much earlier. Back in August, Thug tweeted that the project would drop that month. He quickly retracted the news after he said his account was “hacked.” Now that the project is finally here, the rapper stopped by Zane Lowe’s Apple Music radio show to talk about making the compilation album with some of the industry’s biggest names.

“It seemed like a show,” he said. “It seemed like a Lollapalooza, Coachella. It just seemed like a show. Every moment was performing. Those was more a performance. You got to show up. You know what I’m saying?” He added, “Everybody’s watching there. Everybody here. Everybody in your shit. Everybody in your face, you got to show up. It just felt like that. Every moment.”

You can listen to the full episode, which also features an appearance from Gunna, here.

Slime Language 2 is out now via YSL Records/300 Entertainment. Get it here.

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

Jim Caviezel has long been one of Hollywood’s more conservative actors, forsaking the typically decadent life of a movie star to appear in religious and right-wing movies. Still, people on social media were surprised to learn that even a guy who made a Jesus movie for Mel Gibson (and arguably dragged down Persons of Interest) appeared at a conservative conference against COVID-19 restrictions, where he parroted a particularly virulent QAnon conspiracy theory.

The gathering — entitled the “Health and Freedom Conference,” and held over the weekend in Tulsa, Oklahoma — was about spreading misinformation about the pandemic, even concluding with a mask-burning closer. Despite this, Caviezel didn’t join them in-person. Instead he safely social distanced, addressing the crowd over Zoom. And yet he still went tinfoil hat, talking about “adenochrome,” a conspiracy theory that last year became popular with believers of QAnon and Pizzagate.

Technically Caviezel was there to promote his next film, Sound of Freedom, in which he plays Tim Ballard, a real-life former CIA agent who quit his job to helps save children from human trafficking. While talking about Ballard, Caviezel casually mentioned “adenochrome,” which he later elaborated upon, sort of, saying it involves adrenaline in children…but not really elaborating for those who’ve never heard of it.

“It’s the worst horror I’ve ever seen,” Caviezel told the crowd, though he later said, cryptically, “even if I never, ever, ever saw it.” But to whoever’s doing this mystery thing, he said, “there will be no mercy for them.”

So what is “adrenochrome”? As per The Daily Beast, it’s an “easy-to-come-by chemical compound, usually found as a light pink solution, that forms by the oxidation of adrenaline, the stress hormone.” Some, including Aldous Huxley and Hunter S. Thompson, used it as a psychedelic. Johnny Depp, as Thompson, took it in the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas movie, and there’s even a Sisters of Mercy song about it. But for the QAnon crowd, it’s quite different — and it somehow involves a beloved Pixar movie:

For conspiracy theorists, adrenochrome represents a mystical psychedelic favored by the global elites for drug-crazed satanic rites, derived from torturing children to harvest their oxidized hormonal fear—a kind of real-life staging of the Pixar movie Monsters, Inc. “QAnon also likes to say that Monsters, Inc. is Hollywood telling on itself,” says QAnon researcher Mike Rains, “because the plot of scaring kids to get energy is what they really do.”

So that’s weird! And according to Wired, it’s not just QAnon types who believe this; anti-Semites who spout nonsense about “blood libels” do as well. And a famous actor — appearing at a conference that also included crumbling. MyPillow guy Mike Lindell — was repeating it in a conference for people who don’t think a highly infectious disease that has killed over half a million Americans and over three million globally is that big a deal.

When video of his appearance hit social media, people realized there’s a reason they barely see Caviezel in movies or TV anymore.

Some even roped in Mel Gibson.

So that’s what the guy who played a domestic terrorist in the Denzel Washington thriller Deja Vu is up to these days.

It been a little over a week rapper DMX’s tragic death, but he will not be forgotten. His manager, Steve Rifkind, has announced plans to honor him, telling TMZ that a public memorial for DMX will be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on April 24. However, it won’t be open to the public. The family has chosen to limit it to just close friends and family. The arena, which normally seats 19,000 people, will only allow 10% of its capacity. Despite this, TMZ reports that the memorial will be livestreamed for people to watch.

The announcement comes a week after Yonkers mayor Mike Spano offered his city’s massive raceway as a potential location for the public memorial. The outdoor venue, which resides in DMX’s hometown, carries 7,500 seats, nearly half the capacity of Barclays Center. But the late rapper’s family chose the bigger location for the service. Spano also promised to honor DMX in the city with a “lasting gesture” that may take the form of a street name, a statue, or a mural.

The news comes after a posthumous verse from the late rapper — on “Been To War,” his collaboration with Swizz Beatz and French Montana — was dropped. DMX’s music streams have also increased by nearly 1,000% since his death.

At the beginning of 2020, brothers Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi, who comprise the rap duo Rae Sremmurd, were hit with tragic news: Their stepfather, Floyd Sullivan Jr., was shot and killed by their half-brother Michael Sullivan. He would eventually be arrested and charged with felony first-degree murder, facing life in prison if convicted. More than a year later, Swae Lee is using his Snapchat series, Swae Meets World, to open up about the incident with fans.

Swae spoke a bit about his stepfather’s passing in the first episode of the Snapchat series entitled “Swae Lee’s having the wildest year of his life, no cap.” “Allegedly the police say my brother shot my dad,” he said. “It’s unbelievable. You can’t even imagine. It’s like something out of a movie. I’m still dealing with it. I don’t even know how to deal with it all the way completely. It’s traumatic but it like puts fury inside of you. It puts fire inside of you. You can’t bring nobody back.”

At the time of his stepfather’s passing, Swae mourned the loss on Twitter. “I pray this world let’s me keep some compassion,” he wrote. “I’ve been tested my whole life.”

You can watch the trailer for the forthcoming series above and head to Snapchat’s discover page to watch the new episode.

The Utah Jazz avoided the worst-case scenario with Donovan Mitchell’s ankle. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Mitchell, who suffered a pretty nasty looking ankle injury on Friday afternoon against the Indiana Pacers, had both an x-ray and an MRI come back clean and showing no signs of any major structural damage.

As a result, instead of any extended absence, Mitchell is expected to miss a few games before getting the green light to return to Utah’s lineup, per Woj.

A timetable for a return is unclear, but considering that Mitchell needed to be helped off the floor after rolling his ankle, it’s pretty good news for the Jazz that he isn’t slated to be out for a particularly long period of time. Still, the sooner his return the better for Utah, which sit 1.5 games up on the Phoenix Suns for the 1-seed in the Western Conference — the two teams are slated to play on April 30 in Phoenix, but the Jazz will play six games between now and then.

Mitchell, who made his second All-Star team this year, is in the midst of a career season, leading the team with 26.4 points per game. Wojnarowski pointed out that Mitchell has taken his scoring to another level since the All-Star break, putting up numbers the Jazz have not seen since Karl Malone’s time with the franchise.

After pump-faking on its initial release date of August 2020, Young Thug finally released Slime Language 2, the sequel to the compilation album he and his YSL record label released back in 2018. Less than 24 hours after the project’s arrival, he dropped the music video for “Ski,” his collaboration with Gunna. It finds the two rappers throwing a lavish pool party filled with plenty of women and lots of energy.

The video sports appearances from Swae Lee, Nav, Seattle Seahawks’ wide-receiver DK Metcalf, and fellow YSL members T-Shyne, Strick and Lil Duke. A number of TikTok stars can also be found, like the Corvette dance creator Dorien B. Scott and the Up dance creators Mya Nicole Johnson and Christopher Zion Cotter.

Slime Language 2 presents 23 tracks in a star-studded affair, including contributions from Drake, Travis Scott, Big Sean, Meek Mill, Rowdy Rebel, Coi Leray, Lil Baby, Lil Uzi Vert, Future, and more. The compilation album also arrived on the six-year anniversary of Thug’s Barter 6 mixtape, which helped push the Atlanta rapper into the spotlight.

You can watch the “Ski” video above.

Slime Language 2 is out now via YSL Records/300 Entertainment. Get it here.

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

It’s been a few weeks since Sharon Osbourne officially left The Talk following an on-air meltdown, in which she tried to defend her friend Piers Morgan, who himself had left his job over his own on-air meltdown. But she finally broke her silence. Appearing on Real Time with Bill Maher Friday night, the former reality TV show star held little back, railing against her colleagues, who accused her of racist remarks, and calling them “disgruntled ladies.”

“I’ve been called so many things in my life. I am so used to being called names. But a racist is one I will not take,” Osbourne told Maher. “Disagreeing with someone does not make you a racist, in my book.”

She also denied claims, from former co-hosts Leah Remini and Holly Robinson Peete, that she’d ever trashed-talked her colleagues, including claims that she’d made anti-Asian remarks about Julie Chen Moonves. “I never, ever said that,” Osbourne said. “I don’t even use those words; they’re not in my vocabulary.”

She also swore she wasn’t looking for sympathy. “I’m a fighter,” she told Maher. “But what about the people who are cut from the knees down and can’t afford to go get lessons on what is politically correct and how to talk to people? It’s not fair because it isn’t about being a racist, it’s about not knowing what is correct and woke for your language that day. Because it changes from day to day.”

But she didn’t just talk about herself. She also — like Morgan, the man who got her in trouble in the first place — railed against Prince Harry. “You know when they say with white privilege? Right there with Harry. He’s the poster boy,” Osbourne said. “He sits there and says daddy cut him off so he’s not on the wages anymore and he was boo-hooing about it. You can’t feel empathy for that because you are healthy, bright educated young man. You can go do whatever you want to do. Your life is your own.”

The inciting incident that led to Osbourne’s departure happened over a month ago, mere days after Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle sat down with Oprah Winfrey for an explosive interview. They alleged enduring racist comments from undisclosed members of the royal family, prompting their departure for the United States. Piers Morgan’s inflammatory comments about the interview — in which he, among other things, called Markle a liar, even about her claim about feeling suicidal — received massive pushback. When Osbourne was asked about him on her own show, she blew up, prompting the program to be put on hiatus. Osbourne had been on the show for 11 seasons and was its last remaining original host.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

Aaron Rodgers’ turn as the host of Jeopardy! came to an end on Friday evening. Now, the show will continue to shuffle through guest hosts as it looks to find a full-time replacement for the late Alex Trebek, with a new report indicating that a stalwart from the world of sports broadcasting getting a shot a little later this year.

According to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, longtime broadcaster Joe Buck will spend a stint behind the podium. The exact air dates and the amount of time Buck will get to host the show are still to be determined, but Marchand noted that Buck getting the opportunity to do this means he will be put in contention to take over the show full-time whenever that decision is made.

Buck’s episodes are expected to air at some point in the mid-summer, according to sources. Guest hosts have done one- or two-week stints. No word yet on how long Buck will be on.

The tryout will not impact Buck’s schedule as the voice of MLB and the NFL on Fox.

Buck has done a little bit of everything in his broadcasting career, but hosting a show like Jeopardy! is a new one. It’s impossible to bet on this, but we would like to wager that one Final Jeopardy contestant who has no shot of winning will write down “What is THAT IS A DISGUSTING ACT” at some point.

Since Donald Trump left office in January, Republicans have been moving ever more right-ward. Tucker Carlson has even openly discussed the racist “white replacement” theory on his much-watched nightly Fox News show. Now there’s this: Marjorie Taylor Greene and other Trump loyalists in Congress have started an “America First Caucus,” intended to promote “Anglo-Saxon” traditions. And, well, lots of people just think they’re no longer hiding their white supremacist views.

According to The Washington Post, the group was formed by Greene and Arizona representative Paul A. Gosar, and they’re seeking to keep Trump’s legacy alive. As per a seven-page document/manifesto, they see the United States as a land with “uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions.” They’re also very much against immigrants, claiming that “societal trust and political unity are threatened when foreign citizens are imported en-masse into a country, particularly without institutional support for assimilation and an expansive welfare state to bail them out should they fail to contribute positively to the country.”

Some far-right lawmakers have already joined the group, including tooth-loser Louie Gohmert and Matt Gaetz, who’s under federal investigation for his connections to an alleged sex trafficking ring.

It didn’t take long for people to see this “America First” group for what it really is.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy appeared to condemn the group, albeit in a vague way that didn’t involve actually naming names or doing anything about it.

Others trolled them.

Or mocked them.

Anyway, now that Republicans are comfortable floating white supremacist theories and openly nativist groups, who knows what the party will say next.

(Via WaPo)

The marquee national TV game on Friday night in the NBA featured an All-Star on either side, and in this case Knicks forward Julius Randle went toe to toe with Mavericks guard Luka Doncic and out-dueled the Dallas star.

Randle put up a monster 43-point, nine-rebound, six-assist line as New York won, 113-104. Most impressively, Randle did it over the course of the whole game, and was effective in the clutch for the Knicks despite enormous defensive attention from Dallas all night.

The first-time All-Star has been impressive for the Knicks, now 30-27, all season. But stealing games like these will be key to New York potentially avoiding the play-in game and really marching into the postseason for the first time in years.

It wasn’t just Randle on Friday night. Nerlens Noel put an exclamation mark on the win with a sick block on Dorian Finney-Smith in the fourth quarter. Rather than make the business decision of getting out of the way, Noel leapt at the rim and took away a flashy finish from Finney-Smith.

The Knicks have a pretty cushy schedule the rest of the way and Tom Thibodeau is already leaning heavily on veterans like Randle, so this could spur a bit of a run for the Knicks, who have now won five straight after beating Dallas on the road.