Category: Trending

Draymond Green has been in headlined plenty this offseason, not only for re-signing with the Warriors in free agency but for sparking a number of spats with other players (and their families), past and present.

Just this past week he got into it with Jordan Poole’s dad over comments he made on Patrick Beverley’s podcast about punching his now-former teammate. He also made waves saying that he’s not just going to suddenly start liking Chris Paul because they’re teammates, and there was a report there’s work to do with his relationship with Jonathan Kuminga. And there was a fake Kevin Garnett quote that Green fell for that led to him trying to start beef with KG on Twitter.

Those are all more recent Draymond-related stories than when he roasted poor Andrew Nicholson on Paul George’s podcast, as George asked him for the player that made him the most mad to get drafted behind. Nicholson did, in fact, hear that and responded in a guest appearance on the Tidal League podcast, prodding at Draymond a bit over his St. Bonaventure comments, while noting mostly he took it as Green showing “insecurity” and that he enjoys seeing those from his draft class succeed, including Green.

If I were to guess, Green will laugh off the idea there’s any insecurity for him when it comes to Nicholson. I doubt anyone had an Andrew Nicholson-Draymond Green back and forth on their offseason bingo cards for 2023, but here we are.

YNW Melly’s highly publicized double murder case has ended in a mistrial. After careful deliberation, the jury could not unanimously decide on a verdict. According to local ABC affiliate WPLG, this gridlock forced the presiding judge, Broward Circuit Judge John Murphy, to make the final call.

On Friday, July 21, Judge Murphy read aloud a note from the jury before ultimately dismissing them: “What if we can’t come to a decision? Everyone is stuck on which side they’ve chosen.” On Saturday, July 22, Judge Murphy declared a mistrial.

Law And Crime on the ground correspondent Bryson “Boom” Paul took to Twitter to share the news. Paul also noted that Prosecutor Kristine Bradley sought guidance from Judge Murphy III on how to proceed moving forward, to which he responded, “Let’s set a scheduling date and start with the 90 days.”

Neither YNW Melly nor his attornies have released a statement at this time. However, when Melly was initially arrested in February 2019 on Instagram, he penned a message for fans. There are no further updates on where this leaves the case of Melly’s former co-defendant Cortlen Henry (professionally known as YNW Bortlen).

“I want you guys to know I love you and appreciate every single one of y’all. A couple of months ago, I lost my two brothers to violence, and now the system wants to find justice. Unfortunately, a lot of rumors and lies are being said, but no worries, God is with me and my brother @ynw.bortlen, and we want y’all to remember it’s a YNW family. I love you, @ynwsakchaser1 and @ynwjuvy #freeus,” wrote Melly.

Cardi B has racked up quite an impressive net worth since releasing her debut album, Invasion Of Privacy. Whether she’s pulling in major checks because of her music, brand deals, or movie appearances, Cardi B doesn’t pass up on any lucrative offers. While she splurges on herself every now and then, she doesn’t skip out on treating her children to fancy things. Indeed, Cardi B had a seriously pricey playground set built for them.

In a now-deleted post, Cardi B shared a video of the swanky jungle gym for her five-year-old daughter Kulture Kiari and nearly two-year-old son Wave Set. How expensive was the set? In the five figure range.

“When it comes to my kids, I’m going to give them the world,” declared Cardi. “When it comes to my kids, I don’t play that sh*t. Y’all know when it comes to my f*cking kids, I’m going to give them the world, honey.”

During an interview with The New York Times, Cardi echoed her statement on social media: “But it also do be the little things, right? I just bought this playground set for my kids, and it’s huge. It looks insane. And I spent in the 20 thousand for it.”

As the children of rappers Cardi B and Offset, the lack of money isn’t anything Kulture or Wave will worry about.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Samuel L. Jackson has never been afraid to speak his mind, or to speak out. Soon as Hollywood highers-up flirted with using artificial intelligence to create actors, he vowed there would never be an AI Sam Jackson. It’s all part of a life spent fighting the power, which he discusses in a new, in-depth interview with Vulture. At one point, while explaining the beginnings of his life as an activist, Jackson went off on a delightfully profane rant about cheapskate billionaires.

“I’m 74. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be around here raising hell or doing what I’m doing,” Jackson said. “But people need to start understanding that the economic gap is crazy. I pay an enormous amount of taxes, and it’s fine because I know I should.”

Alas, not everyone who has tons of money is like him. “But why can’t we get billionaires to pay their f*cking taxes?” he railed. “If those motherf*ckers paid their taxes we’d solve a whole bunch of sh*t. And they would still be richer than every motherf*cker walking around them.”

In the chat, Jackson goes into great detail about his earlier life, especially how he first became an activist while a freshman at Morehouse, the historically Black college, how he was definitely “not a nonviolent protester,” how the FBI showed up his family home in Atlanta, etc. He also discusses arriving in Los Angeles with no connections in Hollywood, finally getting a job for the bureau of public assistance:

I used to go to people’s houses and see if they were still eligible. I wouldn’t have taken anybody’s fucking money. I was still part of the Black Revolution then. All these people that were on welfare, I just went out and sat in their house, smoked reefer with them, and hung out, made sure that all this stuff was in order and made sure they stayed on public assistance.

It’s a great read, which you can delve into over at Vulture.

On Doja Cat’s recent single, “Attention,” the rapper brags about how she continues to thrive despite all the haters. However, after some criticized the singer’s rumored relationship with J Cyrus, she wasn’t able to play it cool. According to some on social media, Doja Cat went as far as to allegedly block fans who criticized her over their coupling.

Although it was first reported in November that Doja was exclusively dating someone, it wasn’t until last month that her mystery beau was revealed. In images captured by TMZ, the pair are seen vacationing in Los Cabos, Mexico. After the photos hit social media, several users accused Cyrus of grooming and sexual misconduct. Fans of Doja rushed to her profile, urging her to end the relationship.

Supporters have continued to request that Doja Cat end things with Cyrus, often tagging her in posts with screenshots of the allegations. Now some people are implying that after doing that, they’ve been blocked by Doja.

One person went as far as to accuse Doja Cat of reporting them for harassment. In the tweet, they wrote, “Doja cat blocked me earlier this month then dmed me this. She thinks I was trolling her predator boyfriend’s live stream and reported me to ‘cyber security.’”

Doja Cat hasn’t commented publicly about her rumored relationship or the current pushback.

Matt Damon’s doing alright for himself. He’s so set that he promised his wife he’d take a year off — which he almost did before Christopher Nolan came knocking. Not that he always make the right choice. The actor, who’s very good as the mostly supportive General Leslie Groves in Oppenheimer, recently went on CNN’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace (prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike, mind you), where the host gave him a hard time for nixing one of the most profitable movies in Hollywood history.

What was that movie? Avatar! He could have played Jake Sully, the soldier-turned-heroic turncoat-turned-Na’vi warrior. That’s not all. James Cameron even offered him a percentage. The movie went on to become the highest-grossing film in history (not adjusted for inflation, natch), and its belated sequel didn’t do too shabbily either.

Damon was chagrined, saying, “I’m sure it’s the most money an actor ever turned down, you know?”

Why did Damon turn a role that eventually went to Sam Worthington? Because he as in the midst of another franchise.

“I was in the middle of shooting the Bourne movie [presumably The Bourne Ultimatum] and I knew that we were going to need work at the end and I had to get it all the way to the finish line and I would have to leave the movie kind of early and leave them in the lurch a little bit and I didn’t want to do that,” Damon explained “I desperately wanted to work with Cameron. I mean, because he worked so rarely.”

Wallace kept digging in, though. “Honestly, Matt, if you had known that Avatar was going to be the biggest grossing movie of all time and you were going to have 10% of the after. Could we have maybe put off the Bourne series?” he asked.

Damon had a noble reason, saying he didn’t want to “all my friends in the lurch.” He then recalled when he told this story to John Krasinski:

[We] were writing this little movie a long time ago called Promised Land and we were in my kitchen and it was a Saturday morning and we were on a break and I said, Yeah, I tell him about Avatar, and he launches himself out of the chair. He starts pacing the kitchen, he goes, ‘Okay, okay, okay. Okay, okay. Nothing in your life would be different today if you had done that movie, except you and I would be having this conversation in space.’ I would have been the same guy…

Damon then cracked, “I would have been the same guy, I just would have had a space station.”

Of course, Matt Damon is doing just fine. He has plenty of money. Perhaps he can comfort himself by noting that turning down Avatar meant that another actor, who wasn’t much known when he nabbed the gig, got a small fortune himself.

Oppenheimer is currently in theaters, and you can see it on a double with another smart movie about existential dread.

(Via Mediaite)

Without giving away any spoilers, the Barbie movie is all about women’s empowerment. But all the Kens need love, too. This is where Sam Smith’s new song “Man I Am,” featured on the Barbie movie soundtrack, comes into play. The track produced by Mark Ronson and Ricky Reed is a rallying cry for all the Kens worldwide. Teeming with gym bro energy, Smith’s song offers a safe space on the dance floor for fist pumping and chest flexing.

As the record opens, Smith states the oath of this newly forged fraternity, singing, “This one is for the boys / With your greased up and heavy metal toys / So beefed up, you can’t get through the door / It’s your time to break through / Bad man to the rescue / Barbie, your time is up / You will not take our voice.”

Smith’s roaring declaration continues in the song’s second verse, in which he belts out, “It’s time you realize / That in this world we’ve all been taught a lie / You think that women rule the world / But, baby, where I’ve been / All the things I’ve seen / This Ken has crossed the borderline.”

Listen to the “Man I Am” above.

Barbie is in theaters now.

For the last few years movies have been in peril. The pandemic shut theaters down, and they’re still not fully back to before-time levels. Warner Bros. Discovery, under the leadership of David Zaslav, has cancelled nearly completed films and put cinema history at risk. There’s a two-pronged strike that may last for several more months. Movies need a win, and this weekend they’re getting one.

As per Deadline, the phenomenon known as “Barbenheimer” descended upon the multiplex this weekend, and sure enough, the two very different films are commanding jaw-dropping numbers. Barbie — a very PG-13 take on the doll line whose feminist bona fides are predictably enraging conservatives — is set to make $150 million+. Meanwhile, Oppenheimer — a three-hour panic attack about the inventor of the atomic bomb — is poised to Hoover up $77 million. (Note: Oppenheimer making half of Barbie’s haul can be partly attributed to its length and its R rating.) Combined, that’s an estimated $308 million, just in domestic tallies alone.

It’s not just that these two films, which have inspired many to do a very odd double bill, are making tons of dough. It’s that they’re both non-franchise films, released at a time when franchise films have been underperforming if not outright tanking. Perhaps execs, when they’ve finally worked out deals with their writers and actors, will take note. For now, though, it’s clear a ton of people took Tom Cruise’s advice.

(Via Deadline)

Back in mid-April, Jamie Foxx was mysteriously hospitalized. It’s still not been made public what ailment befell him, but he’s been getting better and better. The actor-musician has reportedly been looking “vibrant” and “cheerful,” and he even saved a woman’s purse after it went missing. Now he’s opening up further about his progress, while still keeping certain details private.

As per Deadline, Foxx posted a video on Instagram Friday in which he discussed the severity of his illness while thanking people for their messages and prayers.

“I cannot even begin to tell you how far it took me and how it brought me back. I went through something that I thought I would never, ever go through,” Foxx said.

He also explained why he kept himself out of the public eye.

“I just didn’t want you to see me like that. I want you to see me laughing, having a good time, partying, cracking a joke, doing a movie, a television show,” he said. “I just didn’t want you to see me with tubes running out of me and trying to figure out if I was going to make it through.”

Foxx debunked rumors that he’d been left paralyzed or blind. Still, it wasn’t a walk in the park.

“But I did go to hell and back,” Foxx said. “My road to recovery had some potholes as well but I’m coming back, and I’m able to work.”

Foxx ended the video by getting choked up, saying, “I just want to say that I love everybody, and I love all the love that I got.” He assured everyone that he’s “on my way back.”

(Via Deadline)

Travis Scott’s Utopia rollout is the epitome of slowly, then all at once. After months and months of uncertainty, this week rewarded fans’ patience. On Friday, July 21, Scott dropped “KPop” alongside Bad Bunny and The Weeknd. Later that night, he dropped a new Utopia breadcrumb.

Someone tweeted at Scott, “I need Utopia bad @trvisXX [smiling with a tear emoji].” Scott quote-tweeted a promising response, writing, “Meet me here on Monday. We shall eat sooooonnn.”

Scott also hinted at what could be to come with an Instagram post of behind-the-scenes flicks from his “KPop” video with Bad Bunny and The Weeknd.

“K pop Outttt nowwwwww Ahhhhh doing fckkkking flipssssss Can’t wait to seeee ya in Utoppiaaaa In just some days we take the sonics uppppppppppppppppp a notchhhhhh,” he wrote in the caption.

Scott is scheduled to headline Rolling Loud Miami on Saturday, July 22. There has been confusing back-and-forth about whether Scott is still going to fully unveil his Utopia world by performing at the Pyramids Of Giza in Egypt on July 28, but despite conflicting reports, the latest official word from Live Nation, the show’s promoter, assured that “there have been no changes” to the much-hyped show.

Scott’s official website offers five different versions of Utopia for pre-order. Each one is billed as a “Topia Pack” and includes a unique custom printed mailer box and various merch items. Prices range from $50 to $150.

Watch the “KPop” video above.