Category: News

Wednesday will mark two weeks since a failed MAGA coup saw people storm Capitol Hill in an attempt to undo Donald Trump’s election loss to Joe Biden and, according to some reports, cause harm to government leaders. According to Forbes, the FBI says it has identified more than 200 suspects and arrested over 100 suspects since the January 6 riot.

This includes Arkansas native Richard Barnett who was charged with unlawfully entering the US Capitol, disorderly conduct, and theft of public property. Initially, Barnett won permission from Arkansas-based U.S. magistrate judge Erin Weidemann to return home and await trial for his charges on house arrest with “very, very restrictive conditions,” but U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell would later block the release. However, before Judge Howell could overturn the ruling, Meek Mill took to Instagram to share his disappointment with the initial decision.

The rapper shared a screenshot of a tweet from Politico that announced Judge Weidemann’s initial decision to Instagram with a lengthy caption. “My whole race in jail for tryna protect themselves or some petty drugs! We living in the middle of a silent war! You can run in the state capitol and get house arrest?” Meek questioned. “Just pay attention to that part …ain’t no protest that can fix that! We have no protection in the system as black folks and it’s not no telling what’s next!!!! Didn’t people die in that sh*t ….we would of had conspiracy to terrorism or something they made up.”

You can read his post above.

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

Saturday night was a good one on the eastern shores of Lake Erie, as the Buffalo Bills beat the Baltimore Ravens at home to reach the AFC title game for the first time since 1994. Buffalo got a bit of luck and a huge play from Taron Johnson, who returned an interception of Lamar Jackson 101 yards for a touchdown and turned the game on its head late in the third quarter.

If you haven’t seen that, please watch it from the field level and enjoy how wild the 6,700 Bills fans went who were allowed in the stadium in Orchard Park.

That’s a good indication of how the entire city erupted during one of the biggest plays in franchise history. No, really.

And it served as a prelude to a wild party that was sparked in Buffalo after the game. As those listening to the scanners in Buffalo could tell you, the party caused a traffic jam outside of Buffalo city hall with people celebrating in the roundabout out front.

Even Griselda’s Westside Gunn was outside taking it all in, hopefully from a safe distance and with everyone wearing masks because we’re still in the middle of a pandemic.

A bit further north on Elmwood Avenue, the party was a bit more cliche. At the intersection of Allen and Elmwood in the Allentown region of the city — temporarily renamed Josh Allentown, of course — traffic was stopped altogether so an impromptu party could have someone leap through a folding table.

There were also a lot of fireworks going off in the city.

Back online, where social distancing was a bit more possible and things were safer, the Bills team Twitter account roasted a Ravens player for disrespecting the Buffalo origins of chicken wings.

Humphrey did own up to simply not knowing, which was a nice moment that can serve as a lesson in humility to us all.

There’s something to be said for restraint in celebrations for a number of reasons, starting with health and safety in a pandemic. And the Bills as a franchise have been here before: five times the Bills have made it to the AFC title game and they appeared in the Super Bowl four straight years in the 1990s. But that was a very long time ago, and the city’s sports fans have endured some real misery in the interim, not to mention losing all four of those Super Bowls. In a year like this, and with a team like the Bills have improbably put together, it certainly feels right to get excited about being a game away from another crack at finally winning it all.

The Boston Celtics moved atop the Eastern Conference standings with a thorough dismantling of the Orlando Magic on Friday, moving them to 8-3 on the season. It’s an excellent record for any team, but especially one that has been without the services of their All-Star point guard, as Kemba Walker missed the first 11 games of the season rehabbing from a procedure on his knee this offseason.

On Sunday morning, Brad Stevens announced that Walker would indeed be making his season debut for their game against the Knicks that afternoon, with the All-Star being restricted to playing 20 minutes in his first game back. The Celtics will be careful in bringing Walker along, particularly given how his issues with that knee last season lingered and caused him to be not his normal self in the Bubble. Still, getting him back in the rotation figures to only elevate what has been the league’s sixth best offense to start the season.

One would expect in games Walker plays that Payton Pritchard and Jeff Teague will see reductions in playing time, as they will not have to rely as heavily on their point guard reserves. We’ll find out on Sunday how quickly Walker, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown can regain their rhythm and continuity together, but Walker’s return is a welcome sight for the Celtics.

Legendary music producer and convicted murderer Phil Spector died in prison at the age of 81. According to TMZ, Spector died of coronavirus complications after he was diagnosed with coronavirus while serving a 19-year sentence for the 2009 murder of Lana Clarkson. The platform reports that he tested positive about four weeks ago and was transferred to the hospital to be treated. After seemingly recovering from the virus, he returned to prison but his symptoms returned once again as he experienced trouble breathing. He was rushed to the hospital where, unfortunately, he died on Saturday.

Born in the Bronx in 1939, Spector grew to be one of pop music’s most influential names. One of his biggest accomplishments was creating the “Wall Of Sound,” a technique he developed to create a fuller sound in the studio, one that gave an orchestral aesthetic.

His career began in high school when he landed his first big record thanks to Teddy Bears’ “To Know Him is To Love Him,” which reached No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart. Spector would continue to have success in the music world thanks to records like “You Lost that Lovin’ Feeling,” “Unchained Melody,” and “You’re My Soul and Inspiration” with The Righteous Brothers. He would later produce The Beatles’ last album Let It Be and some of John Lennon’s solo records including “Instant Karma” and “Imagine.” Spector was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

In 2009, Spector was sentenced to 19 years in prison following the 2003 murder of actress Lana Jackson. The trial for second-degree murder and using a firearm in the commission of a crime charges began in 2007 but it was later declared a mistrial due to a hung jury. A retrial in 2008 produced a guilty verdict the following year. Spector was eligible for parole in 2024 prior to his death.

(via TMZ)

The music world was shaken when news arrived that Dr. Dre suffered a brain aneurysm earlier this month. It was initially reported by TMZ who revealed that the health scare occurred on January 4 despite fans learning about it the following day. Almost two weeks later, though, the hip-hop mogul is finally back home and he wasted no time getting back to work in the studio with some of his closest collaborators.

TMZ first reported that Dr. Dre was released from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in LA before Ice T confirmed the news hours later on Friday with a tweet that read, “Update: Just FaceTimed with @drdre He just made it home. Safe and looking good.” Now we have an image of his return and seemingly improved health to go with the tweet.

One of Dre’s longtime collaborators, Grammy award-winning producer Dem Jointz, shared a picture of him, Dre, and a number of other producers sitting together in the studio. The image displayed the support system he has around him while the comments section captured the overall joy fans and fellow musicians felt seeing him in a better state. Names like Ghostface Killer, DJ Premier, and 2 Chainz showed love to him, clearly happy that he’s back home and improving.

Doctors are still unsure was caused Dre’s aneurysm and despite a return back home, they’ve ordered that he be monitored 24/7 as they look to find the cause. A few days after he was hospitalized, Dre shared a picture on Instagram with a caption that thanked fans for their support. “Thanks to my family, friends and fans for their interest and well wishes,” he wrote. “I’m doing great and getting excellent care from my medical team. I will be out of the hospital and back home soon. Shout out to all the great medical professionals at Cedars.”

You can check out the picture of Dr. Dre and friends in the studio above.

Donald Trump’s days as president are, quite literally, numbered. On Wednesday at noon Joe Biden will be sworn in as the next president, as is laid out in the constitution after Biden won the 2020 election. There’s already been considerable reporting about how Trump will leave the White House ahead of Biden’s inauguration, but what happens to Trump after is still a bit of a mystery.

Trump was impeached twice while in office, the second time coming after he incited a MAGA riot to lead a failed coup at the US Capitol in order to overturn election results. And though he will leave office before it happens, the Senate plans to hold an impeachment trial for him that will require a considerable legal team. Reports indicated that was true over the weekend, and Giuliani was seen at the White House. But if you ask some Republicans, that means that Trump is doomed to be convicted by the Senate.

That’s probably because Giuliani’s defense is reportedly something that has been thrown out of courtrooms all over America: a baseless conspiracy theory that Trump lost because of widespread, systemic voter fraud.

This comes on the same weekend Axios reported in depth about the bizarre scene in the White House in the days after Trump was declared the loser of the 2020 election. While some of the more reasonable members of his staff convened to explore a potential path to winning, albeit low percentage and involving some legal battles in states like Wisconsin, Giuliani reportedly led the charge of a “Giuliani cabal” shouting wild conspiracies. That group included lawyers like Sidney Powell and other conspiracy theorists that Axios reported sent Trump’s efforts to overturn the election in his favor off the deep end.

The story details some intense arguments between Giuliani and others in the White House about conspiracy theories, including one where Giuliani was called a “f*cking asshole” by another aide. Apparently it got to the point that those with more reasonable efforts to subvert democracy in mind had to leave the room and hold another meeting elsewhere while Giuliani and his friends were left behind.

A bizarre routine set in. These meetings would begin with official staff raising plausible legal strategies. Then Giuliani and Powell, a lawyer with a history of floating “deep state” conspiracy theories, would take over, spewing wild allegations of a centralized plot by Democrats — and in Powell’s view, international communists — to steal the election.

Bewildered campaign aides would look around the table at one another, silently asking what the hell was going on. One would invariably shuffle out of the room, followed by another a few minutes later. Then another. Then another. The professional staff would reconvene in Stepien’s office, about 20 yards down the hall.

Eventually, Giuliani would realize that he and his crew were alone in the conference room. He’d walk down the hall and knock on the glass outside Stepien’s office, where about eight aides had squeezed onto a pair of couches. “You guys, where did you go?” Giuliani would say. “This is serious!”

That report, of course, was denied. Just like Giuliani’s defense of Trump for a second impeachment trial was denied by the White House on Saturday.

But as his presidency comes to an end and the White House continues to empty out, it’s clear that some of the few people left defending Trump are Giuliani and the MyPillow guy.

[via Axios]

“Hey! Long time,” John Kreese says into the phone at the end of Season 3 of Netflix’s Cobra Kai right after making an arrangement with Daniel and Johnny to settle their dispute at the All Valley High competition. The suggestion, of course, is that Kreese is calling his friend from Vietnam who — in the flashback in the scene before — said to Kreese, “I owe you, man. You saved my ass. Anything you need, I’m there for you. Your whole life. You hear me? Your whole life.”

The phone call, in effect, sets up Season 4, and knowing who is on the other end of the phone also establishes the contours of next season. The nickname of the character in Vietnam whose life Kreese saved was Twig, but his real name is Terry Silver, a character played by Thomas Ian Griffith in Karate Kid III.

In that third Karate Kid movie, we learn that Silver was a friend of Kreese’s from the Vietnam War. He’s also a wealthy businessman (who owns a toxic-waste disposal business) and the founder and owner of Kreese’s Cobra Kai dojo. Silver and Kreese had designs on opening up an entire franchise of Cobra Kai dojos, but Daniel’s defeat of Johnny Lawrence in Karate Kid destroyed those plans. In Karate Kid III, Silver (along with Kreese) is out for revenge, and in an effort to gain that revenge, Terry Silver brings in a Mike Barners, a vicious karate prospect, to defeat Daniel at the All Valley competition. Silver also briefly turns Daniel against Miyagi, training Daniel himself, which obviously brings out the worst in Daniel. Miyagi has to step in and undo all the poisoning inflicted on Daniel by Silver.

The phone call at the end of season three suggests that the trick Kreese has up his sleeve in Season 4 is Silver, who I expect is still a wealthy businessman and capable of bankrolling another “vicious” prospect who can defeat Miguel at the All Valley High. I am also guessing that the new vicious prospect will probably alienate Robby at Cobra Kai, hopefully driving him back to Johnny and Daniel.

What’s less clear is whether Thomas Ian Griffith will return for Cobra Kai Season 4. He hasn’t had an acting credit in nearly 15 years, although his performance in Karate Kid III was singled out for transcending the otherwise subpar installment. John Hurwitz, the showrunner of Cobra Kai, has not confirmed the return of the character, although he confirms his identity and alludes to the possibility of his return. “We can’t really speak to how Terry Silver would respond to that call,” Hurwitz told EW. “I think you’ll have to see if that character returns in Season 4.”

On the other hand, why create that backstory for Terry. Silver, and introduce that phone call to Silver unless the plan is to bring him back for Season Four of the series? Let’s just hope that writers do a better job with Season 4 of Cobra Kai than Robert Mark Kamen did with Karate Kid III. Let’s also hope that Anthony LaRusso is not the ringer, although if they want to bring Aisha back for this, that’d be more than OK.

When the various The Walking Dead series went on hiatus back in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the expectation was that they’d be gone for three to four weeks, they’d pick-up production where they left off, and that the release plans for the series itself would not be delayed.

That obviously changed. Dramatically. The pandemic pushed The Walking Dead‘s tenth season finale so far back that by the time it aired, it was no longer the season finale, and instead of planning for the eleventh season, the producers of The Walking Dead are now planning an endgame for the series, a Carol and Daryl spin-off, an anthology series, and maybe even a The Walking Dead comedy.

The entire The Walking Dead universe has since shifted, but plans are now falling into place for 2021. While we may not get the 40 consecutive episodes that were originally envisioned for 2020, we can expect to see a lot of The Walking Dead this year. By my count, in fact, we should be seeing approximately 40 episodes from the universe, although some may air concurrently. In a video tweeted by the official The Walking Dead Twitter account, AMC laid out their plans.

As expected, the final six episodes of The Walking Dead will begin airing on February 28th (along with the return of The Talking Dead). That should take us to the Spring, where the back half of the sixth season of Fear the Walking Dead is expected to air. Things get a little more ambiguous beyond that, except that The World Beyond will return sometime in 2021, while later this year, we should expect to see the first episodes of Season 11 (which will run until the end of 2022), as well as the seventh season of Fear the Walking Dead.

In other words, 2021 will be crammed with The Walking Dead content, and the fact that The World Beyond is airing this year probably also means we’re getting closer to the Rick Grimes movie, which is expected to begin shooting in the Spring.

For now, however, we have the final six episodes of Season 10 (which began back in the fall of 2019) to watch on February 28th, which will include Hilarie Burton Morgan as Lucille.

The Buffalo Bills and the Baltimore Ravens went into the locker room at halftime on Saturday night in the midst of a 3-3 rock fight. Buffalo got the ball out of the break, and before the third quarter came to an end, they managed to get six points on back-to-back possessions.

The catch: Only one of those possessions involved Buffalo’s offense taking the field. After Josh Allen connected with Stefon Diggs for a score, Baltimore’s offense came out and managed to march down the field. They got into a goal-to-go situation, and failed to punch it in on the first two plays of the series.

Then, on third-and-goal, Lamar Jackson had his eyes on sure-handed tight end Mark Edwards, who was standing in the end zone. Jackson’s issue was that Bills corner Taron Johnson read Jackson’s mind, reeling in the pass and taking off in the other direction for a record-setting score.

The first turnover of the game managed to be a 101-yard pick six, tied for the longest pick six in postseason history. This also marked the first postseason interception of Johnson’s career, and in what might be the understatement of the year, it came at a pretty fortunate time for the 6,700 folks in the stadium in Western New York.

Most of us have been hoping and praying that 2021 will be better than last year. Well, if you’re Olivia Rodrigo, then that dream already came true within the first two weeks of the year. The young TV star was best known for starring in the Disney+ show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (try saying that five times fast), until she released her debut single “Drivers License” about a week ago, Friday, January 8. Since then, the song has absolutely exploded, earning massive first-day streaming numbers on Spotify, winning over Taylor Swift, and catapulting Rodrigo to the top of numerous Artist To Watch lists for the year.

And even if Spotify had words about Olivia’s success before, odds are they’re going to have even more after she just broke one of the platform’s biggest records in the shortest time possible. According to Pop Crave, “Drivers License” has already exceeded over 100 million streams, and it did so in just about eight days. That makes it the fastest song in platform history to achieve such a high benchmark. If this is just the reaction to Olivia’s first single, I can’t wait to see what kind of wonderful chaos the whole EP brings. Maybe this year will shape up ok after all. If you haven’t heard the song yet, check it out above.