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On Friday, it was reported that Tony Sirico, best known as Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri on The Sopranos, had passed away in an assisted living facility. He was 79 years old. He was one of the more colorful members of an already colorful cast on a show that changed TV history, kicking off what has been widely considered a Second Golden Age. As such, his passing was met with an avalanche of tributes, many of them incredible clips from the show that made him a star.

Sirico spent decades typecast as a gangster in film and TV, and for a good reason: He used to be a criminal, and he led a colorful life before he was ever on-screen. Growing up in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, he was surrounded by what he later called “mob-type people,” and he soon started a life of crime. He was arrested 28 times but only convicted twice. While serving 20 months of a four-year stint in Sing Sing, he fell into acting when a group of reformed convicts visited the facility. He was convinced he could do that, too.

And so he did. He appeared as an uncredited extra in The Godfather: Part II, and eventually became regulars for filmmakers like James Toback (Fingers, The Pick-Up Artist) and Woody Allen, for whom he acted seven times. He became part of what his future Sopranos colleague Vincent Pastore jokingly dubbed the “Gangsters Acting Guild.”

But it was The Sopranos that made him a household fixture. From 1999 through 2007, he could be seen on Sunday nights as the simultaneously silly, eccentric, and terrifying Paulie, a mafia lifer with fascinating hair, a fear of germs, hatred of cats, and a love of track suits. Paulie avoided the grim fate that met most characters, because who could ever want to whack Paulie Walnuts?

Upon word of his passing, tributes poured in. Some were from fellow Sopranos alumni.

But really, everyone was gutted by the loss.

Earlier this week, Carlos Santana left many worried after the legendary guitarist passed out during a show in Michigan. Santana is currently on the Miraculous Supernatural 2022 tour with Earth, Wind & Fire, and they were all performing at the Pine Knob Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan when Santana took the fall. Luckily, he was able to get up and walk away under his own power, but now, it will be a little while until fans see him rocking out on stage. That’s because according to NME, a press release recently announced that Santana has postponed the next six dates of his tour to ensure that he recovers fully.

In the statement, Santana’s manager Michael Vrionis said the guitarist was “doing well and is anxious to be back on stage soon.” He added that Santana’s doctors “have recommended that [he] gets rest to recuperate fully.” The statement arrives after Santana’s wife hopped on social media to tell fans that “he’ll be as good as new soon” while also thanking them for their “prayers, love, care [and] concern.”

The day after Santana passed out on stage, he took to Facebook to explain what happened and assure fans that he was okay. “To one and all,” he wrote. “Cindy and I, we are good just taking it easy. Forgot to eat and drink water, so i was dehydrated and passed out. Blessings and miracles to you all.”

The second weekend of London’s 2022 Wireless Festival got underway on Friday night. This year’s edition of the hip-hop-themed showcase kicked off last weekend and brought forth performances from Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vert, and many more. One of the big names that took the stage so far this weekend was Cardi B who brought her talents on stage for an exciting performance. Cardi’s set seemed to be smooth sailing except for one moment when she appeared to get into a fight with a fan.

The moment was briefly caught on camera by those in the audience. It appeared that while Cardi was performing on stage, she leaned down to interact with the crowd. It’s here that a fan seemingly grabbed her hair which led to Cardi swinging her mic at the individual. The incident could also be seen on the festival’s big screens, but the visuals were cut shortly after Cardi began to fight her way out of the fan’s grasp.

Cardi did not speak out about the incident, but she did share a performance recap afterward. In it, she thanked Megan Thee Stallion and Offset, who both joined her on stage during the performance. “Let me tell y’all something … WIRELESS LONG ASSS STAGE AINT NO JOKE,” she wrote in the post. “You need lots of stamina.”

You can watch videos of the incident between Cardi and the fan above.

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

It’s been a rough return to tour life for several artists this year, including pop singer Shawn Mendes. Mendes, who is currently in the middle of his Wonder tour, has announced that he will be taking a break from touring.

“This breaks my heart to have to say this,” he said in an Instagram post, “but unfortunately I’m going to have to postpone the next three weeks of shows through Uncasville, CT until further notice. I’ve been touring since I was 15 and, to be honest, it’s always been difficult to be on the road away from friends and family. After a few years off the road, I felt like I was ready to dive back in, but that decision was premature and unfortunately, the toll of the road and the pressure has caught up to me and I’ve hit a breaking point. After speaking with my team and health professionals, I need to take some time to heal and take care of myself and my mental health, first and foremost.”

Mendes isn’t the only Canadian pop icon who was forced to postpone his shows. Earlier today, The Weeknd announced that he would have to postpone the kickoff show for his “After Hours ‘Til Dawn” tour due to an outage at Rogers Communications.

Neither Mendes nor The Weeknd have announced new dates for their postponed shows.

Known for his work with singer/songwriting collective 88 Rising, August 08 has returned with a new single. Joined by fellow LA native Jhene Aiko, August 08’s “Water Sign” is a transcendental duet.

Over a calming, rattling drum beat, August 08 likens his flame to the beauty of the night sky. He then embraces their astrological placements, singing “My water sign /come just like the wind at night /Feisty like a fire sign / No, I don’t mind.” Aiko then joins in, confessing to another subject her to remain close to her.

The song is accompanied by a video, in which the two are joined by a group of dancers, performing visually captivating choreography while wearing stunning, colorful costumes.

Earlier today, August 08 and Jhene Aiko revealed to Variety that the latter has officially signed the former to her label, Allel Sound. Allel comes as a joint venture between Aiko and Def Jam records.

“As a longtime fan of Jhene’s, I’m really humbled by her belief in me as an artist,” said August 08. “She set the bar as an independent R&B artist from L.A. who wrote her own rules and made no compromises in following her dreams. We really vibe on music and creativity and I’m excited to go on this journey with her.”

Check out “Water Sign” above.

While Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” has seen a massive surge in streams since the season four premiere of Stranger Things, another song was just as much of a driving force throughout the season. “Master Of Puppets” by Metallica was also given new life this season, seeing a boost in popularity following the season finale of the Netflix original.

For context, the finale features a moment in which Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) plays a guitar solo of the Metallica hit. Since the finale, the original band has taken to TikTok to perform a duet alongside the guitar solo scene. “Eddie, this is for you!” said Metallica.

Earlier, Metallica took to Instagram to praise the show’s creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, for their creative way of sharing “Master Of Puppets” with a new generation.

“The way The Duffer Brothers have incorporated music into Stranger Things has always been next level,” said the band in a caption, “so we were beyond psyched for them to not only include ‘Master of Puppets’ in the show, but to have such a pivotal scene built around it.”

Stranger Things is set to return to Netflix for a fifth and final season.

The New York Yankees have earned the best record in baseball this season in large part because their lineup of small and power forwards launch balls into the second deck with regularity. Entering Friday night’s slate of games, the Yankees — who are in Fenway Park to take on the Boston Red Sox — as a team hit 141 dingers, 14 more than the team with the second most in all of baseball.

While they added to that total on Friday, their most notable at-bat of the evening came when Joey Gallo hit a pop fly into right field in the top of the third inning. With runners on second and third and New York leading, 5-2, Gallo took an offering from Connor Seabold and didn’t quite get enough of it, which led to a lazy pop-up just shy of the warning track.

The issue for the Red Sox was the team’s right fielder, Christian Arroyo, completely lost the ball in the lights. This meant the ball — which landed, like, 10 yards behind him — hit the ground and rolled slowly onto the track, letting Gallo drive in a pair of runs.

Gallo ended up getting a triple out of this, but got greedy and tried for home, where he ended up getting thrown out. In fairness, you probably can’t blame him for pressing his luck considering how this at-bat went.

Russell Westbrook joined the Los Angeles Lakers last offseason. Despite that, the former league MVP saw his name come up in trade rumors ahead of last season’s deadline, and in the aftermath of the team’s disappointing 2021-22 campaign, Westbrook once again got linked with a move away from Los Angeles via a trade.

As of now, Westbrook is still on the Lakers, even if there has been a whole lot of speculation that he could be headed to Brooklyn in a move that reunites LeBron James with Kyrie Irving. And in a recent interview with Marc Spears of Andscape, new Lakers coach Darvin Ham indicated that he already knows how he wants to Westbrook in Los Angeles this season.

“Counted out prematurely,” Ham said of Westbrook. “Counted out. Prematurely. I’ve had some great interactions with Russ, in person, over dinner, over the phone, over text messages. I love Russell Westbrook, man. Just his mentality, his approach. Just to see him, a guy of that magnitude and everything he’s done in the league to get hated on. But being me, I got a wholehearted plan, a clear plan on how I’m going to use him. I showed it to him, sat down, brought stuff up for him. I think he’s going to flourish. We ain’t going to try to curtail his energy. We’re just going to diversify it, redirect it.”

Ham went on to state that he plans on using Westbrook in the team’s starting lineup this season. This is not the first time that Ham, who will fill in for the recently-fired Frank Vogel, has praised Westbrook ahead of the 2022-23 season. Whether or not he gets to work with him, however, remains to be seen.

Fans of The Weeknd have been waiting more than two years to see him on tour. Unfortunately, they’re going to have to wait a little bit longer. The long-anticipated “After Hours ‘Til Dawn Tour” was set to kick off at the Rogers Centre in Toronto tonight, however, due to an outage at Rogers Communications, the kickoff date has been postponed.

“We regret to announce that The Weeknd tour stop at Rogers Centre has been postponed due to service outages impacting venue operations,” read a tweet from the official account of the Toronto Blue Jays, who frequently play at Rogers Stadium. “A new show date will be shared ASAP and tickets will be honored. We understand how disappointing this is and apologize for the inconvenience.”

The outage has affected venue workers’ ability to scan tickets and maintain security. The Weeknd has since taken to social media to mourn the show’s postponement with fans.

“I’m crushed & heartbroken,” he said in an Instagram story. “Been at the venue all day but it’s out of our hands because of the Rogers outage. Operations and safety are compromised and I tried my absolute best. This one hurts the most, and we will make this show happen, but unfortunately not tonight. I know how long you’ve been waiting and how hard a lot of you worked to make it to the show to experience this special moment with me. I can’t wait to see you all.”

As of now, new dates have not yet been announced.

Jaden Hardy fell to the second round of the 2022 NBA Draft, a huge disappointment for a prospect that was ranked in the top-5 of the 2021 high school class. Hardy, who was considered the No. 1 combo guard prospect in the country, bypassed the college experience to play with the G League Ignite last season, but his scoring efficiency issues throughout the campaign hurt his draft stock.

Before he was selected with the 37th pick by the Dallas Mavericks, Hardy was projected as a mid-to-late first round pick and even received an invitation to the green room. Instead, he fell to the second round, but landed on a Mavericks team that is constantly looking for backcourt reinforcements alongside Luka Doncic. That’s especially true in the aftermath of Jalen Brunson joining the New York Knicks. On Friday, we got our first taste of Hardy in Summer League, where he flashed the tantalizing skill set that made him a highly-touted recruit in a 100-99 overtime loss to the Chicago Bulls.

Summer League is a playground for a player with Hardy’s skill set. Hardy is a natural scorer who can pull from anywhere and has never let doubt creep into his mind. He scored 28 points on 9-for-19 shooting while displaying a silky smooth handle and jumper that dazzled the Las Vegas crowd. Hardy even showed a determination to drive to the rim and shot 11 free throws.

Brunson’s departure means Hardy will get an opportunity to earn a rotation spot with the Mavs. His efficiency struggles in the G League were not due to a lack of ability — the Ignite consistently had poor spacing that made shots in the paint difficult, but Hardy was still talented enough to be entrusted with the primary scoring responsibilities for the team. On the Mavericks, Hardy will have a simplified role that will allow him to play in space and showcase his talent appropriately.

Next up for Hardy and the Mavericks is a Monday night tilt against the Utah Jazz.