The song opens with a bewitching verse from SZA, immediately addressing the constant influx of hate she receives and not hesitating to call it out: “Woke up this morning to somebody in a video / Talking about something I posted in a video / If it wasn’t me then would you even get offended? Or / Is it just because I’m Black and heavy?”
With SZA hopping on the track and contributing strong, beautiful vocals, “Special” becomes even more motivational and encouraging than it originally was. The both of them together are unstoppable, and it’s sure to be a chart-topping hit that’ll remind fans of their worth.
Listen to the “Special” remix above.
Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Like its larger rival in brewing, Germany, Belgium can trace its brewing history back to the Middle Ages. Over those centuries, the distinct Belgian brewing tradition has spawned some of the best beers in the world. From lambics, Flemish red ales, abbey ales, farmhouse ales, pale ales, witbiers, and many other styles, Belgium has something for every beer drinker.
While you might think of Belgian beers as funky and yeasty, and many of them are, the country encompasses an impressive, maybe even unrivaled variety. They run the gamut from crisp, easy-drinking everyday brews to earthy, funky, yeasty beers, to sour, acidic, and sometimes over-the-top tart beers, to say nothing of the darker, maltier options. With so much potential for a deep dive, the toughest question is where to start. That’s where we come in.
A wide variety of Belgian beers are readily available almost anywhere, from your local beer store, grocer, or online retailer. To help you out, we picked eight of our favorite, easier-to-find Belgian brews and ranked them head to head.
This award-winning Belgian pale ale is known for its easy-drinking, creamy, flavor profile. The abbey ale is known for its spicy, earthy, lightly bitter palate. It’s a great entry-level Belgian beer for drinkers hoping to dip their proverbial toe in the country’s beers.
Tasting Notes:
Aromas of freshly baked bread, yeast, dried fruits, and wintry spices greet you before your first sip. The palate continues this trend with bready malts, yeast, fruit esters, spices, and light vanilla. Overall, it’s surprisingly muted and watery.
Bottom Line:
Leffe Blonde is a decent beer for beginners. It’s just a little thin and watery for more experienced beer fans.
Whether or not you’ve ever tried La Chouffe, you’ve likely seen this bottle, adorned with a gnome riding on a unicycle. This 8% ABV Belgian blonde is known for its spicy, citrus, yeasty, bready flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
Before your first sip, you’re met with yeast bread, cloves, citrus peels, fruit esters, and bananas. The palate continues this trend with flavors of grass, bready malts, yeast, ginger, candied orange peels, bananas, dried fruits, and light spices
Bottom Line:
La Chouffe and Duvel are two of the best, readily available Belgian golden ales on the market. It’s difficult to pick one over the other, but this one is a little heavier on the spice.
This highly-rated Belgian strong ale gets its unique flavor from the use of a yeast strain selected by Albert Moortgat in the 1920s. It’s matured in storage tanks before being bottled where it ferments again in warm cellars. It’s then moved again, to cold cellars, where it ferments for another six weeks.
Tasting Notes:
A nose of yeast, candied orange peels, bready malts, and bananas starts everything off right. Drinking it reveals notes of orange peels, more yeast, freshly baked bread, lemon, cloves, and ripe bananas. The finish is dry and spicy.
Bottom Line:
This is a great start on your Belgian strong ale journey. When it comes to the availability of the style at your local grocery store, you’ll have a hard time finding many better than this.
First launched in 1954 as a Christmas beer, Chimay Grand Reserve is a 9% ABV strong ale that’s now available all year long. It’s known for its yeasty, fruity flavor, which ends drier than some of the other Belgian strong ales on the market.
Tasting Notes:
Dried fruits, yeast, fruit esters, freshly baked bread, caramel, and wintry spices make up the welcoming nose. On the palate, you’ll find flavors of bready malts, caramel, dried cherries, orange peels, yeast, and cloves. The finishing is warming and boozy.
Bottom Line:
Fruit, yeast, spices, and a warming finish, this strong ale has it all. It’s a great example of a strong ale that’s fairly easy to find.
This 6.9% ABV trappist ale is simply brewed with water, barley malt, candi sugar, hops, and yeast. Bottled with Brettanomyces, it’s known for its fruity, dry, lightly bitter flavor profile that leaves you craving more.
Tasting Notes:
Yeast, baked bread, cloves, caramel, candied orange peels, and cidery funk make up a memorable nose. Sipping it brings forth notes of ripe peaches, citrus peels, fruit esters, dried fruits, bready malts, yeast, and more wintry spices. The finish is crisp, dry, and pleasing.
Bottom Line:
This is a great Belgian beer. It’s complex, yet easy-drinking flavor profile will insure that you continue imbibing it for years to come.
If you were to take a poll of brewers and beer fans asking them to tell you their favorite saison or farmhouse ale, you’d get a ton of people shouting out Saison Dupont. Available since 1844, Saison Dupont is brewed in the winter and ferments in wooden barrels until the summer months.
Tasting Notes:
Funky yeast starts everything off, followed by orange peels, lemon zest, banana, and floral hops. Drinking it reveals hints of coriander, banana, yeast, cloves, dried fruits, bready malts, white pepper, and floral, lightly bitter hops.
Bottom Line:
This is a funky, yeasty, fruity, lightly bitter farmhouse ale that needs to sipped to be believed. It will also take a few samplings before you’re able to find all the various flavors.
The flagship beer from St. Bernardus, Abt. 12 is a 10% ABV Quadruple known for its fruity, yeasty, bittersweet flavor profile. It’s a complex, highly-rated beer beloved by Belgian beer fans.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is all freshly baked bread, yeast, dried fruits, and a load of wintry spices. It’s very inviting. The palate is filled with more freshly baked bread, caramel, dried fruits, cloves, fruit esters, yeast, and more wintry spices. The finish is sweet, slightly bitter, and very warming.
Bottom Line:
With its warming alcohol content and complex flavor profile, it’s difficult to find a grocery store Belgian beer better than St. Bernardus Abt. 12.
The name is a reference to severe alcohol withdrawal. And while that seems a bit bleak, there’s nothing bleak about this flavorful beer. There are few Belgian beers more well-known as Delirium Tremens. This 8.5% ABV Belgian strong ale is known for its highly complex malty, spicy, warming flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
A complex nose of dried fruits, orange peels, yeast, freshly baked bread, and light tropical fruit notes greet you before your first sip. Drinking it doesn’t disappoint as there are hints of funky yeast, sweet wheat, more orange zest, banana, bubblegum, fruit esters, and light pepper. The finish is dry and pleasing.
Bottom Line:
There’s a reason Belgian beer fans love Delirium Tremens. It’s yeasty, slightly funky, fruity, and has everything they crave.
Yesterday, February 8, Nav posted security footage of Uzi attempting to leap to a landing in the middle of a pool and instead suffering a wicked fall.
“Caught Uzi slippin leaving my studio last night [crying laughing emoji],” Nav captioned the Instagram post. Uzi can be seen cracking up after wiping out, too.
“[crying laughing emojis] that hurt fa sho,” Ty Dolla Sign commented. The comment section was also flooded with amused reactions from the likes of Amir “Cash” Esmailian, RealestK, Lil Gotit, YG, and more.
Nav is bringing RealestK and SoFaygo with him for the 23-date trek, which will finish with “a special show” in his hometown Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on April 11, which will boast Bryson Tiller as a special guest.
The Los Angeles Lakers got busy ahead of the NBA trade deadline after a dismal loss to the Thunder on national TV as the world watched LeBron James break the NBA’s all-time scoring record.
Since then, the Lakers have flipped Russell Westbrook and a first for D’Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Malik Beasley, moved Thomas Bryant to Denver for Davon Reed and three second round picks, and, most recently, shipped Patrick Beverley off to Orlando for Mo Bamba — effectively replacing Bryant in the frontcourt rotation.
The Los Angeles Lakers are trading Patrick Beverley to the Orlando Magic for center Mo Bamba, sources tell @TheAthletic@Stadium.
Bamba has played sparingly in Orlando, averaging just 17 minutes per game, but he is a capable three-point shooter (39.8 percent), replacing Bryant in the stretch-big category, and is a deterrent at the rim — even if he’s not an elite defender otherwise. Bamba is also coming off of a brawl with Austin Rivers a week ago, and the Lakers will face Rivers and the Wolves in just over three weeks. It’s not a ground-shaking addition by any stretch, but it addresses a minor need and continues to shift the locker room chemistry.
Given how the Lakers seemed to blast Russell Westbrook as he went out the door, I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear some things about Beverley not exactly being beloved in the L.A. locker room in the coming days. On the court, moving Beverley clears up some of the logjam the Lakers had in the backcourt, as they can now firmly turn things over to Russell and Dennis Schröder at the point guard spot, with Dennis now serving as their primary defensive pest. Beverley, meanwhile, is expected to hit the buyout market along with a number of other players once the deadline passes.
Eric Gordon is returning to the place where he started his NBA career. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Jake Fisher of Yahoo Sports, the Houston Rockets will trade Gordon to the Los Angeles Clippers ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline.
The Houston Rockets are finalizing deal to send Eric Gordon to the Los Angeles Clippers, sources tell @TheAthletic@Stadium.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that this would become a multi-team deal, with Charania bringing word that the Memphis Grizzlies would get in on the fun. Clippers sharpshooter Luke Kennard will head to the Grizzlies in the deal, while L.A. will send John Wall back to the Rockets.
The Los Angeles Clippers are sending Luke Kennard to the Memphis Grizzlies, sources tell @TheAthletic@Stadium.
Marc Stein had reported for days that the Clippers were trying to figure out a way to move Wall, whether that was via a trade or on the buyout market. But was is not the only veteran heading to Houston, as Memphis will send Danny Green to the Rockets. And the Grizzlies are getting in on the day’s hottest trend, as they will send a trio of second-round picks to the Clippers.
The Grizzlies are sending Danny Green to Houston in the deal, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/umsRiDMGWp
The Clippers are sending Luke Kennard to the Grizzlies, who are sending three second-round picks to the Clippers, source tells ESPN. https://t.co/umsRiDMGWp
Gordon is the second backcourt player who is joining Los Angeles at the deadline, as the Clippers acquired Bones Hyland from the Denver Nuggets earlier in the day. Other reports have indicated the Clippers have interest in bringing Russell Westbrook on board if and when he is bought out by the Utah Jazz.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders‘ rebuttal to Joe Biden’s State of the Union address is getting hit from all sides. After being blasted by her own home town paper, Steve Bannon has entered the mix with a barrage of insults for the newly-elected Arkansas governor. While Bannon is onboard for Sanders fanning the flames of the culture war, he was extremely perturbed that she never once mentioned Donald Trump.
“She does not exist, politically, if it’s not for President Trump. I thought the speech was terrible,” Bannon said before launching into his rant where he insulted Sanders’ intelligence. Via Raw Story:
“If you’re going to give a counter speech, you’ve got to talk about important issues. Don’t get me wrong, the wokeism is very important. But it’s not quite the heart of the matter right now, right? It’s not the heart of the matter. She is not — the reason is she’s just not — she’s not intellectually capable of going to the heart of the matter, right? Let’s be blunt.”
As Bannon went on, he seemingly tipped his hand to what really concerned him. “This was like written by Ron DeSantis and the entire [Republican Governors Association],” he said.
However, Bannon’s anger isn’t entirely without reason. In January, Sanders notably refused to say whether she would back Trump’s 2024 presidential run despite serving as his press secretary. After being repeatedly asked by Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream what her timeline is for endorsing a candidate, Sanders continued to deflect to her new role as governor. “My focus isn’t 2024,” she said.
In 2010, at the tender age of 26, conservative agitator James O’Keefe founded Project Veritas — a right-wing activist group that claimed to be about citizen journalism. In reality, the nonprofit has made its name by releasing deceptively edited videos meant to introduce and spread dangerous political conspiracy theories and incite fellow far-right activists (when they’re not stealing Ashley Biden’s diary). Though from what we’re now learning about O’Keefe’s management style, what’s been going on behind the scenes of Project Veritas is far more shocking than any stories they have ever fabricated (or tried to).
As Rolling Stone reports, O’Keefe is currently taking a paid leave of absence — or what the organization described as “a few weeks of well-deserved PTO” in an internal memo — as the organization’s board of directors attempts to parse a litany of complaints about O’Keefe’s reportedly “outright cruel” behavior toward Project Veritas staffers. Part of what the board will be relying on to making any decisions regarding the organization’s structure is an employee-created memo that was presented to the board earlier this week, and signed by one third of all staffers, in which specific incidents of O’Keefe’s toxic behavior were exposed.
The memo details a series of bizarre incidents. In one, during a Sept. 2022 trial against a Democratic consulting firm that O’Keefe later lost, an employee complained that O’Keefe berated them in front of jurors because he needed something to eat. Ultimately, the employee alleged, O’Keefe took a sandwich from a heavily pregnant woman to sate his hunger.
“I was yelled at in front of jurors because he was hungry and then he took the 8-month pregnant woman’s sandwich,” the account reads.
According to the memo, O’Keefe has been known to spit at an employee if he doesn’t like a tweet and hire private investigators and subject employees to lie detector tests in order to find any leakers within the organization. Employees described incidents of being berated by O’Keefe as “public crucifixions.”
Perhaps most bizarre are the claims that O’Keefe, a former high school theater geek, has improperly used funding to further his musical theater dreams.
“In December,” according to The Daily Beast, “Project Veritas acknowledged improperly giving O’Keefe $20,500 in ‘excess benefits’ to pay for Project Veritas staff to accompany him to Virginia as he performed a lead role in a production of the musical Oklahoma!.”
Oh, what a beautiful mornin’ it will be on Friday, when the board is set to meet to decide O’Keefe’s fate with the company he founded in his parents’ “garage” (a.k.a. carriage house) a dozen years ago.
The Denver Nuggets have been shopping former first round pick Bones Hyland for the last month-plus as the young scoring guard has not been happy with his role in Denver, and the Nuggets have made clear they aren’t happy with his response to said role.
An hour before the deadline, the Nuggets found a new home for Hyland, but it doesn’t seem a larger role will be guaranteed for him, as Bones will be going to the Clippers for a pair of future second round picks.
Clippers will send the Nuggets 2024 and 2025 second-round picks, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/OGI8VqhdDC
The Clippers have been desperately trying to upgrade their point guard rotation, as Reggie Jackson and John Wall have not worked out well this season. Hyland certainly brings some scoring pop in the backcourt, as he is a terrific microwave scorer, but he doesn’t provide a ton beyond that, and given Ty Lue’s propensity to lean on veterans, one can’t help but wonder whether this will end up being a situation where Hyland gets the expanded role he wants. Still, this is a Clippers team that can absolutely get in the mud offensively, and Bones is a player that can give them instant offense when that happens, so at least for the regular season, this could help L.A. out.
The Nuggets don’t get a huge haul for Bones, but move off a player that was clearly not part of their long-term plans anymore. It’s a shame considering how fun Hyland was a year ago in Denver, but with Jamal Murray back and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope arriving in a trade this offseason, the minutes weren’t there as Bones had hoped.
For his part, Bones seems excited for a change of scenery.
Earlier today (February 9), it was revealed that yesterday, music legend Burt Bacharach died at 94 years old. Bacharach was a premiere songwriter for decades, and one of his most celebrated professional relationships with with Dionne Warwick. Bacharach and songwriting partner Hal David penned a lot of songs for Warwick, including all of her early-career top-10 hits in the 1960s: “Anyone Who Had A Heart,” “Walk On By,” “Message To Michael,” “I Say A Little Prayer,” “This Guy’s In Love With You,” and “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again.”
Now, Warwick has addressed her collaborator’s death. She said in a statement shared with the Los Angeles Times today:
“Burt’s transition is like losing a family member. These words I’ve been asked to write are being written with sadness over the loss of my Dear Friend and my Musical Partner. […] On the lighter side, we laughed a lot and had our run-ins, but always found a way to let each other know our family-like roots were the most important part of our relationship. My heartfelt condolences go out to his family, letting them know he is now peacefully resting and I too will miss him.”
“I had come in to do a background session of ‘Mexican Divorce,’ a song for the Drifters that Burt had written with another songwriter, Bob Hilliard. And after the session was over, Burt approached me and asked if I would be interested in doing demonstration records and more background work on songs he’d be writing with a new songwriting partner named Hal David. And I said, ‘As long as it doesn’t interfere with my education because my mother would kill you and me, so let’s get that understood right away.’ And that’s how we kind of got together.
Burt, Hal, and I grew into what came to be known throughout the industry as the triangle marriage that worked. We each felt that we had something to offer and made it all work together. But musically, of course, Burt’s musicianship is — I don’t think anybody can surpass it. Hal David? I don’t consider him a lyricist. I consider him a poet. And I was the interpreter of both. So we brought what we had to the table and it worked.”
The Golden State Warriors are turning one of their young players into someone who, in theory, helps them more right now. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, James Wiseman’s time with Golden State is about to come to an end, as he’s on his way to the Detroit Pistons.
The Warriors are trading James Wiseman to the Pistons for Saddiq Bey, source tells ESPN.
Saddiq Bey will not be heading to the Warriors, though, as Wojnarowski brought word that he’s headed to the Atlanta Hawks, which will ship out a whole lot of second-round draft picks.
Bey is on the way to Atlanta in multi-team trade, source tells ESPN. https://t.co/i5YKWIpZiv
Rumors of a Wiseman for Bey trade started circulating earlier in the day, with Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports reporting that the two sides were in talks over a handful of potential moves.
Golden State and Detroit are in conversations to trade Saddiq Bey, league sources told @YahooSports. The Warriors have shown an increased willingness to move James Wiseman before this afternoon’s trade deadline, and the Pistons hold an interest in the former No. 2 pick.
Wiseman went No. 2 overall in the 2020 NBA Draft, one pick ahead of LaMelo Ball. It was an intriguing selection at the time, as Wiseman was theoretically the sort of big man prospect whose best-case scenario made him an excellent fit alongside Golden State’s veteran stars. But unfortunately, injuries have hampered Wiseman’s progress considerably during his time in the NBA, as he played 39 games as a rookie before suffering a knee injury that cost him the entirety of the 2021-22 season.
This year, Wiseman has appeared in 21 games for the Warriors, averaging 6.9 points and 3.5 rebounds in 12.5 minutes a night. Bey, meanwhile, has started 30 times and appeared in 52 games for the Pistons and averages 14.8 points and 4.7 rebounds in 28.8 minutes a night.
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