Category: News

Earlier today, Cardi B was in hot water for tweeting about how she wanted to buy a purse with an $88K price tag, now Meek Mill is in trouble for a similarly insensitive financial gaff. Though his recent new EP mad fans happy, his behavior while driving around Atlanta today definitely didn’t.

Meek posted an Instagram story of himself giving $20 to kids selling water in the streets, and as fans pointed out, with a car worth around $400,000, decked out in jewelry, the move comes off incredibly cheap. Gy the time children are hustling something like water bottles in the streets, it’s likely they really could use help from someone like Meek, who is in a much better position when it comes to money.

The kids rightfully feel a little slighted that he only gave $20 and told them to “split it.” They ask for more but are turned down. Now, this is a video that Meek posted himself, clearly not thinking he did anything wrong, but people on social media had other thoughts. For a well-off rapper to ask six kids to split a $20 bill — working out to maybe $3 per kid — does feel a little cruel and unusual, particularly during one of the worst financial crises in American history. Reactions from fans and onlookers who thought the move was pretty gauche immediately began to trend, and Meek is now getting dragged for the post.

Meek Mill is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The 2020 election process saw two men become stars — NBC News’ Steve Kornacki and CNN’s John King — who were tasked with spending seemingly endless hours at the touchscreen to break down the county by county results as counts continued to roll in for the better part of a week after election night.

Kornacki’s performance became such a sensation that khaki sales at the Gap actually saw an uptick, with the clothing store donating 500 pairs of khakis to those in need in his name. NBC also decided to take advantage of his rise to stardom in helping with probabilities and the predictive science of projections by bringing him into the sports world this week for a halftime segment on Sunday Night Football, in which he broke down exactly how the playoff picture in the NFC and AFC had changed after Sunday’s action. For someone who isn’t known as a sports guy, his segment was arguably more informative than most anything you’ll see on a studio show.

The man is a magician with the touchscreen, and while this wasn’t as difficult as hopping from county to county, he still moved through the playoff picture with ease and broke down how teams had moved up and down and why the projection model from PFF had their percentages where — such as Baltimore still being at 47 percent despite a 6-5 record because of the ease of their schedule remaining. For someone that spends most all of their time in the political world, Kornacki’s jump to sports was pretty impressive and, honestly, segments like these that pack a bunch of information into two minutes to offer a full update on the playoff picture each week might not be the worst idea to keep going forward for NBC.

Cardi B is the kind of star who loves to tweet out her thoughts, stream of conscious. It’s part of what makes following her so much fun, and part of why she’s constantly involved in ongoing, public conversations about her own life. Well, one such conversation was triggered today by her casually tweeting about a designer bag she’d like to buy, even though it costs close to $90,000.

Now, in a time when a lot of people are struggling financially, it’s easy to see how this tweet could rub people the wrong way. But it’s also clear that Cardi isn’t really the correct target for ire when it comes to how wealthy people behave. She’s given back over $2 million of her own money to those who are in need, as she points out during her clapback to the backlash over the initial tweet.

“Donate 88k to a charity for people that need help right now….u know the people that buy your music to perhaps get thru these shitty time’s…idk jus sayin….,” one Twitter user responded. She pointed out in response to his comment that she’s done quite a bit already.

But because she can never help but do more for fans and continue being generous, Cardi eventually used the situation as a moment to encourage fans to show what they’ve donated and she offered to match receipts:

Some understood the negative reaction to the initial purse tweet, but Cardi stood by her decision:

And fans saw both sides of the situation:

In the end, ever the gracious Libra, Cardi did apologize, while pointing out the double standard that’s constantly applied

In my opinion, there’s little point in shaming Cardi for how she wants to spend her money though.
Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Sunday night brought forth one heckuva double feature: two separate debates for the Senate runoff in Georgia. Ordinarily such a hoedown wouldn’t receive national attention. But not only has this been one of the most intense election seasons in American history, but this particular runoff — set to happen on January 5 — may wind up flipping the Senate blue. (Also, it’s 2020, so everything is weird.) Earlier in the evening, Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff debated…well, not his Republican opponent David Perdue, but rather an empty podium, as Perdue didn’t show up. The other, between Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler and Reverend Raphael Warnock was also weird, but in a much different way.

For one thing, Loeffler — who like Perdue has been accused of dumping stocks upon learning about the severity of COVID-19, which they’ve downplayed — delivered a performance many on social media called “robotic.” She was stiff, her words delivered as though by rote, as though she had memorized only a few scary Republican buzzwords and kept repeating them, no matter the question. But she used two words to describe Warnock more than most: “radical liberal.”

Soon a drinking game was born.

Lots of jokes were made.

Others wondered if “radical liberal” isn’t the insult Republicans seem to think it is.

To her credit, Loeffler repeated other words as well.

Others thought her overuse of the same words were just part of an overall poor debate performance, in which she avoided answering if she believes Donald Trump’s baseless accusations about voter fraud, and claimed to have been “exonerated” of accusations concerning insider trading.

On the other hand, unlike Perdue, at least Loeffler showed up.

The Georgia runoff is on January 5. If both Loeffler and Perdue are defeated, the Senate will flip to the Democrats and Mitch McConnell will no longer be Majority Leader.

On Saturday, word broke that one of the season’s biggest new movies — Monster Hunter, in which Milla Jovovich, well, hunts monsters — was pulled from theaters in China. The reason? A line that was perceived as racist against Chinese people. Now one of its producers has released a statement, apologizing and claiming that it was not intentional.

In the statement, an unidentified producer for Constantin Films said that he “sincerely apologizes to Chinese audiences for a line of dialogue contained in an early scene of Monster Hunter. He continued:

“There was absolutely no intent to discriminate, insult or otherwise offend anyone of Chinese heritage. Constantin Film has listened to the concerns expressed by Chinese audiences and removed the line that has led to this inadvertent misunderstanding.”

The line is delivered by Asian-American rapper/actor Jin Au-Yeung, aka MC Jin, who turns to his scene partner and says, “Look at my knees. What kind of knees are these? Chinese.” It’s a riff on an old, racist playground rhyme that goes “Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees – look at these” — a line that was used to mock children of Asian descent.

Making the line’s inclusion especially inexplicable is that Monster Hunter is an international co-production between American and Chinese production houses, among others, based on a video game from the Japanese company Capcom. The movie reunites Jovovich with her Resident Evil director — and husband — Paul W.S. Anderson, and it also features T.I., Ron Perlman, and Thai martial arts legend Tony Jaa. It opened this weekend in China and it’s due for American theaters on December 25.

(Via ComicBook.com)

The 2020 election season isn’t quite over. No, we’re not talking about the outgoing president who refuses to concede, even after having his butt handed to him by dozens of courts. We’re talking about the Senate runoff in Georgia, which is set for January 5 and which might end with the Republicans — and its infamous leader Mitch McConnell — losing control of the chamber. Trump’s infamously bumbling team has been screwing that up, too; one of his lawyers actually told Republicans to boycott the election, which is…an interesting strategy. So is incumbent candidate David Perdue skipping one of his debates entirely, resulting in a noticeably empty podium.

Perdue is facing re-election against Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff, and the last time they squared off, in late October, Ossoff absolutely clobbered him, calling him a “crook” and accusing him of misleading his constituents about the severity of COVID-19. The next day Perdue — whose stiff non-response to the accusations went viral — swore he’d skip their subsequent debate. Perdue made good on that promise, but the debate still went off, only with a noticeably absent podium.

Shortly before the debate was scheduled to happen, Ossoff called his opponent out over Twitter.

And he tore into him during the debate itself. If Perdue’s plan was to allow the man who may take his job ample opportunity to attack him without a chance for him to respond, then he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.

“David Perdue has been getting rich in office,” Ossoff told viewers, standing opposite a vacant podium. “And instead of taking public health expertise and guidance from the CDC and getting that to the people, and implementing policy, he was buying up shares and manufacturers of vaccines and medical equipment.”

Ossoff added, ““He’s not here because he’s afraid he may incriminate himself in this debate.”

The fact that Perdue skipped the debate awarded it even more attention than had he shown up. And it gave people on Twitter plenty of excuses to do some attacks of their own.

A lot of people reflected on that empty podium.

Some saw a perfect metaphor for Perdue’s reputation.

And some made sure to praise Ossoff for actually showing up.

Georgia’s other runoff race is between incumbent senator Kelly Loeffler and Democratic rival Raphael Warnock, who were set to debate after Ossoff and Perdue. To her credit, Loeffler plans to actually show up. Both Democratic candidates will have to win in order for the Senate to flip.

When Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. stepped into the ring for their exhibition bout that, somehow, resulted in a draw, it was a rather ridiculous entry into the world of exhibition boxing but at least pit two actual fighters — and two of the best of their era — against each other. While the two legendary champions going toe-to-toe was the main event, the spotlight was taken by Jake Paul, the YouTube star, knocking out Nate Robinson in the latter’s boxing debut.

That fight was everything actual boxing fans hate about these exhibitions, as it put someone who has no business being in the ring in Robinson out there against the bigger Jake Paul, who previously had a knockout win in a slightly more legitimate exhibition match in 2019. Floyd Mayweather is no stranger to a money grab, and after seeing the immense amount of attention the Jake Paul fight got, he couldn’t help himself but call up Jake’s brother and fellow YouTuber turned boxing exhibitionist, Logan Paul, to set up an even more ridiculous pay-per-view event.

Mayweather, of course, is one of the greatest fighters all time, lording over the welterweight and super welterweight divisions for a decade from 2006-2016 after a decade in the late 90s and early 2000s in which he dominated at super featherweight and lightweight. In case you aren’t familiar with boxing’s weight classes, Mayweather has never fought an actual fight at above 154 pounds, and regularly came in under that even when stepping up to fight at super welterweight — for example, when he fought Conor McGregor in their exhibition match, he weighed in at 149 pounds.

Logan Paul, like his brother, has one exhibition bout under his belt, knocking out KSI in a cruiserweight showdown in which he weighed in at 199.4 pounds, just under the limit. That means that in their last “fights” the two men who will meet on February 20 will have been a full 50 pounds apart. I have no idea how this will be sanctioned or even set up, as Paul can’t get anywhere near 154 pounds and Floyd could do nothing but eat from now until February and probably could barely touch 160.

Anyways, despite that this is apparently happening and, as is so often the case with Mayweather, the promotion for the fight is rather brilliant. They are offering a special $24.99 PPV price for the first million buys, and then tiering pricing up as the fight date comes closer to get as much money in immediately as possible.

I cannot in good conscience suggest anyone buy this fight, but that won’t stop plenty for tuning in to what I can only imagine to be a less exciting version of Mayweather-McGregor, as Floyd isn’t going to even entertain the possibility of getting caught with a big shot from the (much) bigger Paul. As such, expect lots of Mayweather slipping and jabbing and doing all the things that made him the best in the world but also frustrated fans for years who hoped for something exciting to happen in his fights but were instead treated to a defensive exhibition. That worked well when he was fighting for real titles, but not so much for an exhibition like this.

While the denizens and lawmakers of New York City have valiantly fought COVID-19, normalizing masks and social distancing and even shuttering beloved institutions, not everyone has played by the rules. One exception: Staten Island bar employee Daniel Presti, who has become a Fox News regular for repeatedly defying pandemic laws, even allowing patrons to drink and eat indoors, sans masks. He’s been arrested for the crime twice in the span of a week, and his most recent brush with the police allegedly involved him running over a deputy with his jeep.

According to New York 1, the incident happened at Mac’s Public House, where Presti is general manager, in the early hours of Sunday. Police had been staking out the joint, whose windows had been darkened to obscure the illegal activity happening inside. They observed several patrons entering through a back door, but they waited until after Presti was closing the bar, after midnight, to make their arrest.

But it didn’t go so smoothly. Presti — who had declared the bar an “autonomous zone,” free of any pandemic-related laws that might stop the spread of an already out-of-control virus, though the police obviously disagreed — made a run for it. He jumped into his jeep and, in the commotion, allegedly struck one officer, who was thrown onto the vehicle’s roof. Presti kept driving, but he was soon apprehended. The deputy has since been treated for his wounds and was discharged.

It’s a pretty wild story — but it also may not have happened.

A lawyer representing Presti disputed the story told in the police report. Whatever the case, the next day the bar manager was escorted from the local precinct and into a sheriff’s car.

The previous time Presti was arrested was on last Tuesday, when he pulled the same stunt, minus the alleged part where he tried to flee the scene and ran over a cop. The next night the streets outside were filled with “patriots,” i.e., people potentially spreading a highly contagious disease.

Though Presti’s been fêted as a hero among conservatives, others have not been so kind. One noted Staten Islander who does not appreciate Presti’s cavalier attitude amidst a global public health crisis is Pete Davidson, who on the most recent SNL started to rail on him on Weekend Update, only to wind up talking about dildos bearing his likeness instead.

Meanwhile, on the day Presti illicitly opened the inside of his bar to patrons, there were reportedly over 200,000 new COVID-19 cases in America and over 2,000 COVID-19-related deaths.

(Via NY1)

The holiday season is a time of giving and receiving, and Pete Davidson would really like you to know that, should you be in need of a last-minute gift, you can always buy your loved ones a vibrator with his face on it.

Davidson’s first appearance on this week’s Saturday Night Live found him parodying Eminem’s “Stan, changing the lyrics so it’s about threatening Santa into giving him a PlayStation 5. But he returned for “Weekend Update,” where he pitched another kind of holiday gift. Davidson was brought in to talk about a bar owner protesting COVID safety regulations in his hometown of Staten Island, but he kept getting sidetracked talking about a vibrator adorned with his face on it currently being sold on Etsy.

Davidson joked that this new story means he’s not what people think of when asked “What’s the worst thing that’s come out of Staten Island?” “Weekend Update” co-host (and fellow Staten Island native) Colin Jost said that people liked Davidson, which gave him a chance to point out that they do, just not in the “right way.”

“I don’t get to, like, host the Emmy’s like you and (Michael) Che,” Davidson said. “But I did just find out there’s an Etsy store selling Pete Davidson vibrators.

“Yeah, how weird is that? You can buy a vibrator with my face on it for $15 dollars or one without my face for $20,” Davidson continued. “I don’t even get a cut of the sales. Now I know how Chappelle feels.”

The sketch continued, but the Davidson-branded vibrators came back later, when he pointed out things you could do at home instead of drinking inside a bar in Staten Island. This time, however, the vibrators were labeled as “official.”

“I just decided it was,” Davidson said. “It’s a quality item, and it’s weirdly accurate. How did they know how white it is?”

A quick look at the listings for such items on Etsy reveals that there are indeed various items for sale at that price, and many predate the airing of this SNL sketch. So either the show has done some pretty substantial legwork to get these out there so they can make these jokes, or Davidson has some very enthusiastic fans. I think it’s safe to say, however, that the latter is much more likely.

Zion Williamson is one of those guys that every time you look at him on a physical level you can’t believe he’s real. He’s insanely fast, can jump out of the gym, and has a level of powerful athleticism that few possess. So when he goes up against guys, even in the NBA, he’s usually the one dominating them, not the other way around.

That was until he came in for group practices with the Pelicans and discovered just how incredibly strong his new teammate Steven Adams is. Adams does not let other bigs dominate him. He uses a mix of strength and savviness to force anyone going up against him to work for every basket and fight through every screen. It’s like going up against a moving brick wall.

On Sunday, following practice, Williamson spoke to the media and spoke about how absurdly strong Adams is.

“I thought I was strong, Seeing it up close, on the same team now, and it’s crazy. Steven is really strong and he’s a great basketball player”

It’s funny to hear Williamson speaking about how strong Adams is because it’s not exactly a secret in the NBA. Everyone knows how powerful he is, but it’s also one of those experiences where you don’t really understand it until you go up against him — Jimmy Butler famously discussed how he thought he was going to die when he ran into an Adams screen once. It’s one thing to see video of a guy like Adams shoving someone off the block, but it’s another to be the one being shoved. Especially when you’re a guy like Williamson that is so used to dominating everyone he goes up against.

It’s safe to say that Williamson is happy to have Adams playing with him, not against him, this season.