Category: News

The Los Angeles Clippers went through the NBA’s seeding games without the services of Montrezl Harrell. The favorite to win the league’s Sixth Man of the Year award this season had to leave the Orlando Bubble as he mourned the passing of his grandmother, and upon arriving at Disney earlier this week, Harrell had to quarantine.

According to a report by Ohm Youngmisuk and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Harrell’s quarantine will end at an opportune time, as he’s expected to clear quarantine and potentially be activated ahead of the Clippers’ first playoff game against the Dallas Mavericks.

While doing this in a playoff series can be tricky, the Clippers should use the series against Dallas — one that they’d be favored to win regardless of whether the former Louisville standout could suit up — as an opportunity for Harrell to work off some rust and get into game shape. His energy and desire to battle against opposing big men is a huge boost for Los Angeles, particularly as the postseason goes on.

In 63 games played this season, Harrell has posted career-highs in scoring and rebounding, going for 18.6 points and 7.1 boards in 27.8 minutes a night. While he’s always found ways to make an impact on games, Harrell has only registered two starts, as he’s been a crucial piece for the Clippers’ bench.

Sometimes the best new R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm and blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they really love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the best new R&B jams that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.

This week, Kaash Paige released her debut album Teenage Fever with features from Don Toliver and 42 Dugg. Also, Trey Songz finally shared his latest single “Circles” and Summer Walker delivered the music video for “White Tee” featuring No1-Noah. Check out the rest of the best new R&B this week below.

Kaash Paige — Teenage Fever

Dallas singer Kaash Paige exploded on the scene with her viral single “Love Songs” and she’s since has followed up that momentum with her smooth EP Parked Car Convos as well as an appearance on Travis Scott’s Jackboys compilation project. This week, the burgeoning star released her highly-anticipated debut album Teenage Fever with 15 deep cuts filled with brooding heartbreak, pain, and reconciliation.

Trey Songz — “Circles”

Trey Songz has been spending a copious amount of time back home in Virginia getting back to his roots mentally and musically. His latest release “Circles” is evidence of this and shows the talented R&B singer’s growth and maturation as an artist. The music video is an ode to Black love and celebrates a lifetime of devotion in intimacy and adoration.

Summer Walker — “White Tee” Feat. No1-Noah

“White Tee” is a such a glorious track off Summer Walker‘s Life On Earth EP with its bouncy production and chill vibe. The slow song featuring No1-Noah finally has a music video dedicated to it and is a tribute to BET’s legendary after-hours television show Uncut with lots of booty shaking.

Ciara — “Rooted” Feat. Ester Dean

Ciara takes it back to her roots with her aptly titled single “Rooted” feature accomplished singer-songwriter Ester Dean. Ciara celebrates her melanin and Black excellence on the track, which was produced by StarGate and Hudson Mohawke.

Kingdom — “No More Same” Feat. Luvk

Ahead of Kingdom’s album Neurofire, which is slated for release sometime next month, he shares his latest creation “No More Same” featuring Luvk. The Los Angeles-based producer delivers a pop of slice coated with R&B goodness for Luvk to dip her serene vocals in.

Ne-Yo — “U 2 Luv” Feat. Jeremih

Ne-Yo is making his return this week with a music video for his song “U 2 Luv” featuring Jeremih. The song is peak traditional R&B and Ne-Yo delivers nothing but love and affection with assistance from Jeremih.

Arjaysoul — “Put It Down”

Arizona native ArjaySoul is coming through this week with latest track “Put It Down.” “She loves the way I put it down, I give that body more rounds”, he sings on the melodic cut. “Put It Down” is expected to live on his upcoming EP that is set for release later this year.

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

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion released their internet-breaking single “WAP” last Friday. The video instantly went viral, and some critized the rappers’ racy lyricism while others slammed the critiques as a double standard. Trevor Noah addressed the hypocrisy of the arguments against the hit song in an episode of The Daily Show. To prove his point, the late-night host invited singer Margo Price to turn “WAP” into an acoustic country song.

Armed with just her guitar, Price gave a stripped-down rendition of “WAP.” Juxtaposing the tongue-in-cheek lyrics with soulful guitar, Price belted each verse with gusto. “Look, I need a hard hitter, need a deep stroker / Need a Henny drinker, need a weed smoker / Not a garter snake, I need a king cobra / With a hook in it, hope it lean over,” Price sang.

The folksy cover caught the attention of many, including Cardi herself. The rapper retweeted the cover, much to Price’s excitement.

Ahead of Price’s cover, the singer released her third album That’s How Rumors Get Started in July. The record was supposed to come out a month earlier, but Price decided to push back the release amid Black Lives Matter protests across the country. “This album is a postcard of a landscape of a moment in time,” she had written alongside the delay announcement. “It’s not political but maybe it will provide an escape or relief to someone who needs it. Sending love to everyone out there and hope I see you down the highway.”

Watch Price gives a stripped-down rendition of “WAP” on The Daily Show above, starting at 6:05. That’s How Rumors Get Started is out now via Loma Vista. Get it here.

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

Sometimes a boycott succeeds when it fails.

Although the general aim of a boycott is to hurt profits, there are times when the symbolism of a boycott gives birth to a constant, overt and irreversible new optic for a company to nurse.

When the boycott of Facebook began in June and reached its peak in July, it gathered thousands of brands who vocalized their dissatisfaction with the platform.

The boycott, under the hashtag #StopHateForProfit, was launched by civil rights groups. By July brands were fully behind removing their ad spending – resulting in a small financial dent for the social media juggernaut, but a forceful bludgeoning in the press.

Although Facebook still saw growth during the boycott, the social network was left with no choice but to address its own long standing apathy towards hate speech and disinformation. With copious amounts of money constantly flowing through the company, it’s clear that in many ways the Facebook executive team see their reputation among activists and the public as a more elusive form of intangible capital.

Intangible capital that they cannot afford to burn through at the rate they currently are.

Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg once again attempted to rebuff the assertions that Facebook has done little to stem hate speech and misinformation on their platform.

“Some seem to wrongly assume that most of the content on our services is about politics, news, misinformation or hate,” Zuckerberg said.

“These make up a small part of the content on our services, although they are all things that people generally tell us they’d like to see even less of. We do not profit from misinformation or hate,” he continued.

“We completely agree that we don’t want hate on our platforms, and we stand firmly against it,” Sandberg said. “We don’t benefit from hate speech. We never have. Users don’t want to see it. Advertisers don’t want to be associated with it.”

This is a lie.

Many of Facebooks top performing posts, advertisements and public figures peddle a deluge of white supremacy, conspiracy theories, homophobia, misogyny, death threats, coronavirus misinformation and just about every other form of information that can be mangled and weaponized for public consumption.

However, Facebook has more recently made one symbolic step towards something resembling integrity.

Facebook took down a video posted by the Trump campaign in which he claimed children were “virtually immune” to the coronavirus. This is generally regarded by the majority of health experts as completely false and flies in the face of any basic level of logical thought. The reason for it being removed from Facebook was due to it being in violation of the social network’s rules against misinformation about coronavirus. This represents a positive small step forward for the social media giant, a small step in a marathon of decency that should have been started over a decade ago.

The boycott began what will be a series of future reality checks for Facebook, as they can no longer plead ignorance or impartiality. In a statement, the boycott organizers said, “This movement will not go away until Facebook makes the reasonable changes that society wants. The ad pause in July was not a full campaign — it was a warning shot across Facebook’s bow.”

The fact is, despite what Zuckerberg and Sandberg would have you believe, that Facebook is molding the national consciousness and finds itself dangerously close to irrevocably poisoning the body politic.

There is a small window within which to salvage what integrity remains, but consistently denying their own faults does nothing to begin this vital process.

The series of sexual misconduct allegations made against Chris D’Elia earlier this year appear to have cost him at least one role he’d already been given. According to reports, D’Elia has been axed from Zack Snyder’s Netflix zombie comedy film Army Of The Dead.

It’s part of the considerable fallout for D’Elia and his partnership with Netflix, which was to include a show on the streaming service where he was supposed to play the lead. According to IndieWire, D’Elia will be removed from the zombie comedy through reshoots, with fellow comedian Tig Notaro replacing him in the role.

The casting switch-up arrives after a dramatic few months for comic actor D’Elia, who faced sexual-misconduct allegations that spurred representatives from CAA, WME, and 3 Arts Entertainment to drop him as a client. Netflix also canceled a planned show featuring D’Elia in the lead. The news of Notaro replacing D’Elia was originally reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Netflix confirmed the news to IndieWire, and said that reshoots will begin soon.

As IndieWire noted, the movie was already in post-production when the coronavirus pandemic hit and effectively shut Hollywood down, and though it was unclear when reshoots would happen it will be done in a similar manner that Hollywood has used to replace actors in similar situations.

Notaro will reshoot scenes with an acting partner against a green screen, with CGI used to insert her into the film. This is similar to Ridley Scott’s 2017 “All the Money in the World,” in which Christopher Plummer (going on to earn an Academy Award nomination) had to step in for Kevin Spacey, who was yanked from the movie in post amid his own sexual-misconduct scandals.

D’Elia had an existing relationship with Netflix that now seems in serious doubt. In 2019 he played a comedian in Season 2 of You, the Lifetime show that found a second life on the streaming service. As many noted when the serious allegations against him came out, he (spoilers) played a comedian who secretly was preying on young women.

[via IndieWire]

Mo Bamba didn’t appear in the Orlando Magic’s final six seeding games in the NBA’s Bubble. A report indicated that Bamba, who played 10 combined minutes in the team’s first two games, contracted COVID-19 in June, with the big man telling Josh Robbins of The Athletic that he wants people to “take it as seriously as possible.”

While he’s gotten past COVID-19, Bamba is leaving the Bubble to undergo what the team is calling a “comprehensive post-coronavirus evaluation.” It is unclear exactly what this means or what medical professionals will be trying to determine by putting Bamba through this evaluation, but the team did announce that he will miss the remainder of the season.

Magic coach Steve Clifford had previous said that Bamba’s conditioning was not up to par, although he could not mention exactly why that was the case. As The Athletic laid out, Bamba catching the virus understandably caused major setbacks in his ability to be in playing shape.

Bamba was fully on track with his hiatus training regimen until the virus prevented him from going to the Orlando Magic’s practice facility for individual workouts at a time the performance staff was increasing players’ cardio routines.

Then, after Bamba had gotten better, after he and his Magic teammates arrived in the NBA bubble at Walt Disney World Resort, he registered of couple of false positive tests, which forced him to quarantine for extra time inside his hotel room and miss three days of practice.

There is still plenty we do not understand about how COVID-19 impacts individuals, but some thing we do know include the fact that this can serious sap the strength out of individuals, and as we’ve seen with Boston Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez (and numerous others), a condition called myocarditis in which the heart muscle gets inflamed. Hopefully nothing this severe is impacting Bamba, and he’ll be able to get back to 100 percent as soon as possible.

Drake released his latest single, the possibly-Kanye-West-dissing “Laugh Now Cry Later,” today. Alongside that news, Drake also revealed that his new album will be titled Certified Lover Boy. It turns out that name has been a little problematic for Drake behind the scenes, though, as he was apparently unable to trademark it.

Complex reports that Robert Kleinman is an attorney with some apparent connections to Drake; His law firm is named Common Sense Counsel, and a company called Common Sense Counsel IP Holdings owns a number of Drake-related trademarks, like Frozen Moments (the name of Drake’s company) and even the name “Drake.” In February, he filed a trademark for “Certified Lover Boy,” and the application named three possible uses for the phrase: music recordings; clothing; and television, movies, and live events.

However, the application was denied in April, as the US Patent And Trademark Office refused the application due to “likelihood of confusion.” One of the entities with which they suspected Drake’s desired trademark could be confused with was Michigan clothing company Lover’s Lane, and the other was Loverboy, the Canadian rockers behind the ’80s hit “Working For The Weekend.”

So, Kleinman and Drake now have the option of trying to file a revised application six months out from the application refusal (so October). They could also reach out to Lover’s Lane and/or Loverboy and try to come to a “consent agreement,” where the brand/band basically says they’re fine with Drake trademarking his album’s title. Whatever the case, none of this will prevent Drake from using the album title, it just won’t be granted some legal protections.

Drake doesn’t appear to see this as too big of a roadblock, as he’s apparently known about the application rejection since April and decided to press on calling his album Certified Lover Boy anyway.

Every murder of an innocent person is tragic, but the cold-blooded killing of a child is too heinous to even think about. So when a man walks up to a 5-year-old riding his bike in broad daylight and shoots him in the head in front of his young sisters, it’s completely reasonable that people would be horrified. It’s an unthinkable and unforgivable act.

Cannon Hinnant didn’t deserve to die like that. His parents didn’t deserve to lose him like that. His sisters didn’t deserve to be scarred for life like that. We can all agree that a horrible tragedy in every way.

His murderer—Hinnant’s dad’s next door neighbor, Darius Sessoms—deserved to be rounded up, arrested, and charged for the killing. And he was, within hours. He deserves to be punished to the full extent of the law, and history indicates that he assuredly will be. The system is working exactly as it’s supposed to in this case. Nothing can be done to bring Cannon back, but justice is being served.

So why is #SayHisName trending with this story, when that hashtag has long been used in the movement for Black Lives? And why is #JusticeForCannon being shared when justice is already happening in this case? Why is #ChildrensLivesMatter a thing, when there’s never been any question that that’s the case?

The complaint stems from the claim that the media isn’t covering this story because the murderer is a Black man and the victim was white. It doesn’t “fit the narrative,” according to these complaints. “If the races were reversed, we’d see nothing but this story on the national news,” say people foaming at the mouth on Twitter as they point to public support for Black Lives Matter protests and ask why there isn’t a similar outrage for this little boy.

First of all, the story is being covered by news outlets. It’s a popular media attack tactic to say that the media isn’t covering a story, when it takes a 30 second Google search to find that it’s not true. National media outlets generally don’t report on individual crime cases, so them not picking up an individual murder story immediately is the norm, not an exception. But it’s certainly not being ignored.

Second of all, while every child’s murder is undeniably tragic, it happens every day. Literally, an average of three children are murdered in the United States every single day. The vast majority of these crimes don’t make headlines on the national news, because most of the time, the system works like it’s supposed to. Families suffer terribly, but murderers are apprehended and convicted. Generally, individual murders—even of children—are considered local stories unless there’s something in the story that pushes it into the national discourse. (For a BLM-related example, Ahmaud Arbery’s murder didn’t make national news when it happened, but rather months later when it came to light that the men who killed him hadn’t even been arrested, much less charged or convicted.)

Third, the not-so-subtle racism in the hijacking of the #SayHisName hashtag is gross, as are the false equivalencies with the BLM movement. Cannon Hinnant was not killed by the police with impunity. He was not a victim of a justice system that disproportionately harms people with his skin color. His murderer is not walking free. BLM isn’t just about Black people being murdered, otherwise the #SayHisName or #SayHerName hashtags would be used for every Black murder. It’s about Black people being killed with impunity by agents of the state charged with protecting people, or murdered by others and justice not being served. There’s not an ongoing justice issue with children being murdered in broad daylight and their murderers walking free.

When I see people complaining that Cannon Hinnant’s murder isn’t getting the same outrage or attention as Black Lives Matter, I see people who willfully don’t get the issue, which has been explained ad nauseam. What exactly is the justice people are calling for in this case? For Cannon Hinnant’s murderer to be apprehended? Already done. For him to be charged with murder? Also already done.

Stop conflating a heinous individual tragedy with the fight against systemic injustice. And stop using a child’s gruesome murder to discredit or demean or deflect from a social justice movement. There is little doubt that justice will be done in Cannon Hinnant’s case.

By all means, be outraged that this little boy was murdered, but direct that outrage at his murderer, not at the individuals and groups calling for justice to be equally applied to all. Say his name if it makes you feel better, but don’t politicize his death to hijack the movement for racial justice. Call for justice in a case where justice is already happening if you must—even though it doesn’t makes sense—but ask yourself if you’ve put that same energy into the systemic racial injustices that have long been documented in this country.

Cannon Hinnant’s murder is a tragedy, no question. But using his death as a political talking point is a travesty. Just stop.

Tattooing, like any other skill, requires practice. The problem is, how do you practice permanently putting a nipple on someone else’s body?

This genius tattoo artist found a solution. “Shannon McCauley gives out free tattoos to the people who volunteer their bodies to help her practice tattooing nipples.

McCauley is a tattoo artist at Steadfast Tattoo in Rochester, NY. She went absolutely viral after tweeting a photo of a leg with a nipple with the caption, “Tattooed my first nipple on skin. I’ll be covering this tattoo for free once it’s healed. I’m learning this so I can tattoo in surgeon’s offices and help breast cancer survivors that had mastectomies.”

She later said she’ll also use this skill for people in the trans community. Simply amazing. You can visit Shannon’s instagram to see even more photos of nipples tattooed on legs.

Tattooing is very common for people that have gone through mastectomies because surgeons can only do so much in terms of pigmentation. Tattoos on the hand have a practically infinite range of shade and color. Artists like Shannon are necessary in helping people through the recovery process.

If nothing below suits your sensibilities, check out our guide to What You Should Watch On Streaming Right Now.

Lovecraft Country (Sunday, HBO 9:00 p.m.) — This series (created by Misha Green, based upon Matt Ruff’s 1950s-set dark fantasy novel, and executive produced by Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams) will blow your expectations away. It’s an audacious, ambitious, and absolutely astounding horror series with standout performances from Jurnee Smollett, Jonathan Majors, and the rest of the cast.

Project Power (Netflix film) — Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon-Levitt star in the next Netflix action movie about superpowers that can be unlocked through a mysterious drug. Who created the pills, and can the resulting crime wave be stopped? Well, the powers only last five minutes per drug hit, so these are some fast moving criminals for sure.

Boys State (Apple TV+ film) — This A24-produced documentary scored a Sundance Grand Jury prize and follows a group of Texas teens who run their own mock government. Tune in to find out if they go all Lord of the Flies or not.

The Legend of Korra (series arriving on Netflix) — Amid the current controversy involving a live-action Avatar The Last Airbender, all four seasons of this animated sequel series (from Nickelodeon) have arrived for the binging.

Teenage Bounty Hunters (Netflix series) — You totally know what this series is about already (not Warrior Nuns), but let’s do this anyway. Two fraternal twins decide to rebel against their religious Southern upbringing by joining forces with a veteran bounty hunter named Bowser. Jenji Kohan (Orange Is The New Black) is executive producing, so expect things to get weird.

Ted Lasso (Apple TV+ series) — Jason Sudeikis is reviving his small-time college football coach character (who hails back to 2013 NBC Sports English Premier League coverage) for this show. Lasso is somehow coaching professional English soccer, and good luck to him.

The Great Heist (Netflix series) — This story about “the robbery of the century” is based upon true events that transpired during 1994’s assault on the Bank of the Republic. $33 million is an unbelievable take for sure.

A few must-see leftovers from last week:

An American Pickle (HBO Max) — Seth Rogen‘s dual roles have arrived, and the end product is both touching and hilarious to witness. Rogen plays a 1920s Jewish immigrant who falls into a vat of pickle juice and is perfectly “brined” for 100 years, so suspend your disbelief and enjoy the surprising amount of nuance here. It’s both an interesting match-up and a truly inspired Jewish version of Encino Man.

Hitmen (Peacock series) — It’s a workplace comedy about assassins, starring English comedy duo Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins as longtime pals who kill for dollars.

Here’s the rest of this weekend’s notable programming:

Room 104 (Friday, HBO 10:00 p.m.) — The fourth season of the Duplass’ Brothers bizarre playground continues with Eva (Melissa Fumero) overhauling a major decision.

P-Valley (Sunday, Starz 8:00 p.m.) — The Pynk crew is forming new bonds while looking toward the future, but there’s pushback for Andre.

The Chi (Sunday, Showtime 9:00 p.m.) — Ronnie’s seeing praise from some and reminders of his mistakes from others. Meanwhile, Kevin’s working hard to balance his obligations and personal life.

NOS4A2 (Sunday, AMC & BBC America 10:00 p.m.) — Charlie Manx must face his worst fears, and Millie must make a choice while Vic and Maggie prepare for a dangerous showdown.

We Hunt Together (Sunday, Showtime 10:00 p.m.) — A deadly duo — a former child soldier named Baba and Freddie — finds themselves drawn together (to commit murder). Two detectives are hot on the trail, and only agree on one thing this week.

Desus & Mero (Sunday, Showtime 10:30 p.m.) — The illustrious guest is the WNBA’s Sue Bird.