Category: Viral

The 2023 BET Awards paid tribute to the 50th anniversary of hip-hop with a massive slate of decades-spanning performances. The first, taking place just after Lil Uzi Vert’s opening performance of “Just Wanna Rock,” included Sugarhill Gang performing their career hit, “Rapper’s Delight” and an appearance from MC Lyte performing “Cha Cha Cha,” as well as D-Nice (yes, that D-Nice) with “Call Me D-Nice,” and Big Daddy Kane rapping “Raw,” all accompanied by DJ Kid Capri on the wheels of steel. A Biz Markie tribute followed as the crowd sang along to “Just A Friend.” And that was all in the first ten minutes.

There are a ton of performers left to hit the stage, including Kid ‘N Play, Uncle Luke, Warren G, E-40, Fat Joe, Ja Rule, Master P, Remy Ma, Trick Daddy, Trina, the Ying Yang Twins, Chief Keef, Soulja Boy, and Tyga. More contemporary performances are set to include 2023 nominees Coco Jones, Doechii, GloRilla, and more.

The BET Awards aren’t the only ones paying homage to 50 years of hip-hop. The Grammys put on a 10-minute show to celebrate, while UPROXX has held it down with interviews with Just Blaze and Rhymesayers. Stay tuned for more BET Awards coverage as the ceremony continues.

The 2023 BET Awards are celebrating 50 years of hip-hop with an emphasis on the genre’s pioneers. However, they haven’t forgotten about the new school. Opening up the ceremony was Lil Uzi Vert with a performance of his hit song “Just Wanna Rock.” With an army of dancers by their side, the Philadelphia native highlighted rap music’s incorporation of dance sub-genres like Jersey Club.

Although they weren’t nominated in any categories this year, that didn’t stop Lil Uzi Vert from using the time to tease what’s come from their upcoming project, The Pink Tape. Right before they wowed the crowd with “Just Wanna Rock,” the rapper played a snippet from an unreleased song.

During an Instagram live stream with popular streamer Kai Cenat, Lil Uzi Vert personally shared details about the forthcoming release. During the broadcast, Uzi revealed that all songs for the album had been chosen. According to the musician, The Pink Tape will feature 24 tracks, including their smash single “Just Wanna Rock.”

In addition to those songs, fans will be treated to two bonus tracks that, in their words, “A lot of people love but didn’t really get to hear.”

The official cover for the album and full tracklist is rumored to come out this week.

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Given his current legal affairs, Young Thug’s ability to speak directly with his fan base is limited. However, the “Parade On Cleveland” rapper has nothing but space and opportunity to get several messages out via his new album, Business Is Business. After the initial excitement of the project wore off, fans began to take a deep dive into the lyrics speculating that his former friend Gunna wasn’t the only one to be dissed on a track (although he wasn’t a target either).

Several supporters jumped onto social media to accuse Young Thug of dissing Saweetie on his track “Want Me Dead,” which features 21 Savage. The lyric in question reads, “My n**** ain’t even tryna hit sweetie / That b*tch turn me off, no kizzy.” While Young Thug is not above being shady on a record, he ensured this wasn’t one of those instances.

To make it crystal clear, Young Thug took to Twitter to deny dissing Saweetie but also took it a step further to clarify that stanza. “Her name is Saweetie. I said, sweetie. #BusinessIsBusiness,” wrote the entertainer.

Young Thug, for context in another tweet, wrote, “Also, that song is 6 years old,” to nip the rumor in the bud.

Listen to the track above.

Business Is Business is out now via 300 Entertainment/Atlantic Records. Find more information here.

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

Latto told her haters to put it on the floor. But when it comes to the sizzling beef between Jim Jones and Pusha T, they’d instead put it on a beat. In response to the latest round of shoots, Jim Jones hit the streets of his hometown, Harlem, New York, to deliver yet another diss track to Pusha T’s shots at him.

What started over a simple matter of opinion, when Jones stated that he didn’t feel that Pusha T wasn’t one of the 50 greatest rappers of all time, has turned into a musical feud that won’t die out. On Jim Jones’ new diss, “Summer Collection,” he aimed not only at Pusha T but also his brother No Malice.

In one of the track’s opening punches, Jones rapped, “Y’all n****s don’t know what to do in a raid / Kanye gave y’all whips, but that’s what they do to the slaves,” a cleverly worded double entendre referencing both the brutality of chattel slavery as well as Pusha T’s business dealings with Ye and his record label G.O.O.D. Music.

Jones is letting it be known that he wasn’t a fan of the jabs Pusha T threw during the Louis Vuitton fashion show by poking fun at Pusha’s style. “You be dressing kinda weird man you really need a stylist/Plus we all know what you identify with / Plus you kinda, sorta dress, n***a, you been a fly b*tch/And then he said I was trying to chase a feature / N***a’s a gorilla cause he got some apes in his features/All my gorillas got stones, I’ll have these apes come and meet you,” rapped Jones.

Before the song ends, Jones is sure to take a dig at Pusha T’s brother and Clipse member, spitting, “Plus, you got your brother rappin’ / What you tryna bring the Clipse back? / Speaking of your brother, what happened to that boy? / It looks like they’ve been selling crack to the boy.” Jones must’ve figured that if Pusha T can mention Drake’s young son in his 2018 diss “The Story of Adidon,” then his adult brother and fellow rapper is up for decision.

Watch the full video directed by From The Block above.

Donald Trump has a history of fleecing his supporters. Back in 2021, it was revealed that of the $75 million he’d raised to ostensibly investigate voter fraud, most of it he spent on himself. If you’re donating to his third presidential campaign, then surprise! You might actually be helping the big guy pay off his ever-mounting legal bills.

As per The New York Times, the Trump team made a little, barely noticed change to how their 2024 campaign raises money. When it kicked off in November of last year, 99 cents of every dollar raised went to his campaign, with a mere penny going to the PAC Save America. But starting in February, the fine print changed: Now 90 cents goes to the campaign and 10 cents go to the PAC.

Since the change, it’s estimated that Save America has raised $1.5 million.

But what is the Save America PAC? Begun before Trump even announced his candidacy late last year, it has been used, NYT reports, to pay for “bills related to various investigations into the former president and his allies.” It’s also been used to pay staff salaries, to support other candidates and groups, and on other assorted sundries.

The Save America PAC used to be flush with cash. In February of 2022, it had amassed some $122 million. A lot has changed since then:

By the beginning of 2023, the PAC’s cash on hand was down to $18 million, filings show. The rest had been spent on staff salaries, on the costs of Mr. Trump’s political activities last year — including some spending on other candidates and groups — and in other ways. That included the $60 million that was transferred to MAGA Inc., a super PAC that is supporting Mr. Trump. And more than $16 million went to pay legal bills.

And Trump sure has some legal bills to pay. In the first half of 2022, Save America had spent $1.9 million on such matters. By the second half of last year, that had ballooned to $14.6 million.

For the record, other GOP presidential candidates do not split their donations at all — not Nikki Haley, not Mike Pence, not Vivek Ramaswamy, and not Trump’s biggest critic/rival, Chris Christie.

(Via NYT)

One of the more interesting free agents on the market this summer is returning to his old team. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Minnesota Timberwolves center Naz Reid agreed to a contract extension with the team that could keep him around for the next three seasons. Wojnarowski reports that Reid received a three-year deal with the team that will pay him $42 million, although it has a player option that could let him hit the open market after two seasons.

Reid was viewed as a player who could have been in line for a substantial deal with a team that would allow him to start, as he has been a reliable player in a bench role over the years for the Timberwolves. Instead, Reid is going to stick around, and should provide some incredibly important frontcourt depth with the ability to serve as a spot starter if Rudy Gobert misses any time.

A former undrafted free agent out of LSU who has spent his entire NBA career with the franchise, Reid put up career-best numbers almost across the board last year. Reid averaged 11.5 points and 4.9 rebounds in 18.4 minutes per game while connecting on 34.6 percent of his attempts from behind the three-point line. He appeared in 68 games for Minnesota, with 11 of them coming as a member of the starting lineup.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is no stranger to wackadoodle conspiracy theories. She even floated one about the aborted military rebellion that happened in Russia over the weekend. But she was just getting started. On Sunday, she claimed someone was trying to hack into her TV. Or something.

“Last night in my DC residence, the television turned on by itself and the screen showed someone’s laptop trying to connect to the TV,” Greene wrote on Twitter.

The Georgia lawmaker then tried to assure people she’s not nuts. “Just for the record: “I’m very happy. I’m also very healthy and eat well and exercise a lot. I don’t smoke and never have. I don’t take any medications. I am not vaccinated. So I’m not concerned about blood clots, heart conditions, strokes, or anything else.

“Nor do I have anything to hide,” she added.

Greene concluded by writing, “I just love my country and the people and know how much they’ve been screwed over by the corrupt people in our government and I’m not willing to be quiet about it, or willing to go along with it.”

In her post, Greene didn’t go so far as to make any direct accusations. Maybe it was a neighbor who accidentally accessed her smart TV. That can happen! But by going so far out of her way to persuade people she’s not loco — and by tweeting about it all — it sure felt like she was intimating something more nefarious.

Maybe Lauren Boebert did it as revenge for being called a “little b*tch” on the House floor last week.

(Via Raw Story)

The most emphatic win in Major League Baseball this season occurred on Saturday night, and after it was all over, the team that won went out and got some reinforcements from the team is beat. The Los Angeles Angels and the Colorado Rockies played in Coors Field on Saturday, and while you can’t predict baseball, the game was essentially over after four innings, as the Angels found themselves up, 23-0.

Unfortunately for the Rockies, they were unable to rally and put 30 runs on the board, and the Angels would go on to win, 25-1. In a funny twist, MLB had a trade last night between, you guessed it, the Rockies and the Angels. In the aftermath of the game, Los Angeles was able to acquire veteran infielder Mike Moustakas from Colorado in exchange for a minor league pitcher, according to Robert Murray of FanSided.

After spending the first 7.5 years of his career with the Kansas City Royals, Moustakas has bounced around recently, as he’s had stints with the Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinnati Reds, and the Rockies. Injuries have been a problem in recent years, but this season, he’s hitting .270 with a .795 OPS and four home runs. He did not get on the field for Colorado in Saturday night’s game, which is probably for the best.

The 10 players who will take the floor to start the 2023 WNBA All-Star Game were announced on Sunday afternoon. In all, four guards and six frontcourt players will make up the two teams, which will be captained by Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson and New York Liberty standout Breanna Stewart.

The guards will consist of a pair of Wilson’s teammates in Las Vegas, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray. Additionally, Jewell Loyd of the Seattle Storm and Arike Ogunbowale of the Dallas Wings will be part of the festivities. We were incredibly close to having a third member of the Aces among the guards, as Kelsey Plum was the top guard among those who did not get a starting nod.

In the frontcourt, Stewart and Wilson will serve as All-Star captains for the second and third times, respectively, in their careers. This is the second year in a row where the two will captain the All-Star teams, and last year, Team Wilson beat Team Stewart, 134-112. They’ll be joined by Brittney Griner of the Phoenix Mercury, Satou Sabally of the Wings, Nneka Ogwumike of the Los Angeles Sparks, and Aliyah Boston of the Indiana Fever, with Boston becoming the sixth rookie in league history to earn a starting spot in the All-Star Game. Here is how the voting for the starters broke down:

The All-Star Game will take place in Las Vegas on July 15. Before that, 12 reserves will be selected by the WNBA’s head coaches and announced on July 1, and one week later, Wilson and Stewart will select their squads on the WNBA All-Star Team Selection Special on ESPN.

Donald Trump may still hold sway over the Republican party, but not every conservative is afraid of him. When he announced his own presidential campaign, Chris Christie came out swinging against his old pal, making his mission to de-MAGA the GOP. Trump predictably responded with fat jokes. But Christie isn’t fazed.

On Sunday, the former New Jersey governor went on Fox News’ MediaBuzz, where host Howard Kurtz asked him about Trump cracking wise about his weight. Christie just scoffed.

“What? Like he’s some Adonis? Please,” Christie replied, hinting at Trump’s own unchiseled figure. “I don’t know what his point is. You know what it is? It’s like a child. It’s a bully on the schoolyard who teases you and makes fun of you. But here’s my message to him: I don’t care what he says about me. I don’t care what he thinks about me.”

He added, “And he should take a look in the mirror every once in a while. Maybe he’d drop the weight thing off of his list of criticisms.”

Kurtz also asked Christie about how he supported him, at least publicly, through the majority of his presidency, finally turning after his post-2020 election antics. Did Christie wait too long to snap, Kurtz asked?

“I don’t think I waited too long, Howie,” Christie replied. “I think that the right thing to do is to try to make the person who is in the White House the very best president he can be for the whole country. That’s what I tried to do. Turned out that I failed at doing that. So if you want to criticize me for not changing Donald Trump despite my best efforts, I’ll plead guilty to that.”

Christie hasn’t been afraid to talk smack about the guy currently crushing it in the polls. Last week he even welcomed jeers from a revved-up MAGA crowd, telling them, “You can boo all you want.”

(Via Mediaite)