Category: Viral

LeBron James spoke to the media on Wednesday night after the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 128-109. Before it had the chance to wrap up, James, who frequently receives questions on topics that go beyond his play and whatever is going on with the Lakers, posed a question to members of the press about an ongoing controversy centered around Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

“I was wondering why I haven’t gotten a question from you guys about the Jerry Jones photo,” James said. “But when the Kyrie thing was going on, you guys were quick to ask us questions about that.

“When I watched Kyrie talk, and he says, ‘I know who I am, but I wanna keep the same energy when we’re talking about my people and the things we’ve been through,’ and that Jerry Jones photo is one of those moments that our people, Black people, have been through in America,” James continued. “And I feel like, as a Black man, as a Black athlete, as someone with power and a platform, when we do something wrong, or something that people don’t agree with, every single tabloid, every single news coverage, it’s on the bottom ticker, it’s asked about every single day. But it seems like, to me, the whole Jerry Jones situation, photo — and I know it was years and years ago and we all make mistakes, I get it. But it seems like it’s just been buried under, ‘Oh, it happened, we just move on.’ And I was just kinda disappointed I didn’t receive that question from you guys.”

The photo to which James is referring shows Jones, then a sophomore in high school, as one of several students blocking and harassing six Black students attempting to desegregate North Little Rock High School in 1957. It was published last week by the Washington Post. Irving, a former teammate of James’ with the Cleveland Cavaliers, was recently suspended by the Brooklyn Nets for his refusal to “disavow antisemitism when given a clear opportunity.” He has since returned to the team after completing a series of action items laid out by the Nets.

Netflix’s latest smash hit Wednesday is a fun and creepy show based on those familiar Addams family characters, starring Jenna Ortega as the titular teen and directed by Tim Burton in his first-ever TV series.

While many were excited that the series chose to honor Charles Addam’s original characters by casting a Latina in the title role, others are upset about the alleged undertones in the series. Most of the Black actors in the series portray bullies or villains, like Wednesday’s school rival Bianca Barclay or Lucas Wilson, the son of the corrupt mayor. The mayor, a Black man, also owns “Pilgrim Land” in the series, which was definitely a…choice.

Unfortunately, Burton has been criticized before due to the lack of diversity in his films. The director has made over 35 movies, though Wednesday is the first to have a person of color as the lead. Samuel L. Jackson confirmed that he had spoken to Burton about his casting choices when he appeared in 2016’s Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children.

“I had to go back in my head and go, how many black characters have been in Tim Burton movies?” Jackson said at the time. “And I may have been the first, I don’t know, or the most prominent in that particular way, but it happens the way it happens. I don’t think it’s any fault of his or his method of storytelling, it’s just how it’s played out.”

(Via CBR)

For a brief moment, Alex Jones actually looked like the reasonable person in the room. While hosting an unfiltered and unhinged Kanye West on his Infowars show, Jones actually refused to get in bed with Kanye’s wild proclamations that he loves Nazis and “sees good things about Hitler.” It was a startling display of West’s aggressive descent into full-blown anti-Semitism. It also didn’t help that he did the whole thing while wearing a mask and doing impressions of Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu. It was that bad.

As for Jones, he looked the voice of reason by comparison. Naturally, the conspiracy theorist made remarks about the “Jewish mafia” and joined in West’s odd rants about pornography. But unlike Kanye, Jones flat-out said he doesn’t do Nazi stuff and tried to hold some sort of line, as problematic as it may be.

However, after the break, Jones appeared onscreen wearing a lizard mask and joked that he’s one Kanye’s “enemies.” If the interview wasn’t completely off the rails already, it was now. The episode was already blowing up Twitter with West declaring his love for Hitler and accusing anyone who watches porn of being a pedophile, but no one was prepared for Jones adding to the chaos by breaking out his lizard people mask.

You can see some of the reactions below:

In the meantime, celebrities are already starting to speak out against West’s anti-Semitism, which he has aired on Twitter and Instagram.

“It’s not what Kanye West says that scares me,” Josh Gad tweeted. “It’s that he has 30 million followers who listen to his insanity on top of a cheerleader in the form of the current owner of this platform. No one who says “I love Hitler” should be allowed any oxygen on any social platform (period).”

(Via Josh Gad on Twitter)

By this time next year, outgoing Madison Cawthorn will be the answer to a trivia question about which disgraced former North Carolina congressman was best known for his love of wearing ladies’ lingerie and randomly claiming that octogenarian Republicans are desperate for him to attend their regular coke- and Metamucil-fueled orgies. But for right now, he’s just that loser who spent one term in congress and is clearly pretty bitter about it.

On Wednesday, congress opened the House floor to outgoing politicians to say their final farewells, and mostly expected to hear people thank their colleagues and offer support for the future. Cawthorn, however — who once threatened a “Dark MAGA” takeover (whatever that is) tried to turn it into a spectacle (despite the fact that C-SPAN was probably the only place even filming it) and went full Tyler Durden on his soon-to-be former colleagues. Or, as The Recount put it, Cawthorn ranted “about men being taught to be a ‘soft metrosexual.’”

Here’s just a sampling of the inanity:

It used to be a rite of passage in this country for young men to be punched in the face when they did something stupid. Our nation used to believe that there was strength and purpose in taking the hits, learning from your mistakes and growing through the adversity.

America is weak. Her sons are sickly, and her daughters are decrepit. Our country now faces the consequences of enabling a participation trophy society. We’re no longer the United States. We’ve become the nanny state. Our young men are taught that weakness is a strength, that delicacy is desirable, and that being a soft metrosexual is more valuable than training the mind, body and soul.

I ask the young men of this nation a question: Will you sit behind a screen while the storied tales of your forefathers become myth? Or will you stand resolute against the dying light of America’s golden age? Will you reclaim your masculinity? Will you become a man to be feared? To be respected? To be looked up to? Or will you let this nation’s next generation be its final generation?

The only thing that would have made Cawthorn’s speech, which he seemed to be reading from index cards, any more like a third grade book report would have been if he kicked it off with “Webster’s Dictionary defines ‘masculinity’ as…”

We look forward to Cawthorn’s next act as a Cracker Barrel busboy.

(Via The Recount)

ASAP Rocky isn’t a fan of lowbrow comedy. He prefers highbrow art and fashion, though he also watches cartoons and voiced a car horn for Need For Speed Unbound. In late October, Rocky and Rihanna made their first red carpet appearance since becoming parents at the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever premiere. That was a big night for Rih because she returned to music by contributing two songs to the Wakanda Forever soundtrack. Meanwhile, today (December 1) is a big day for Rocky’s artistic pursuits.

The 34-year-old rapper announced Hommemade through a limited-edition collaboration with Gufram. “I’M PROUD TO PRESENT TO YOU MY NEW DECOR LINE @hommemade AND OUR FIRST COLLABORATION WITH @gufram !!!” Rocky wrote on Instagram. Hommemade is officially dubbed a “furniture interior design studio.”

Rocky’s first Hommemade piece is a reimagining of Gufram’s Cactus, celebrating its 50th anniversary at Art Basel in Miami (as noted by Complex), called “Shroon Cactus.” Gufram posted to Instagram that “there are only 9 of them in the whole world.”

“From mid-century modifications, to contemporary collaborations, they have established themselves as a unique brand and therefore a perfect brand collaborator,” Rocky said of Gufram in a statement shared by Complex. “This is the first collaboration from my HOMMEMADE decor studio, and since I’ve always advocated for mushrooms, it was only right that we made a cactus with them.”

Rocky previously founded AWGE, a creative agency, in 2017. “This sh*t is more than just rap for me,” he told GQ in 2021. “I’m into design, I’m into detail, I’m into elevated taste value.”

It’s been one heck of a year for jazz-hop duo Domi & JD Beck. Their debut album, Not Tight, which features high-profile collaborations with Anderson .Paak, Herbie Hancock, Mac DeMarco, Snoop Dogg, and others, was nominated for the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album award at the 2023 Grammys. Not only that, they were also included in the field of Grammy nominees for the Best New Artist award. Now with their first headlining tour under their belt, they appeared last night on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, performing the song “Two Shrimps” with Mac DeMarco on vocals.

DeMarco was front and center of the stage, rocking a DIY Dolly Parton t-shirt, torn jeans, and his signature slacker hat. It could have been quite the juxtaposition compared to the jazz prodigies behind him if you didn’t know anything about Domi & JD Beck’s whimsy. Beck tapped away on his drums, as zoned in as ever, while Domi tickled the keys sitting atop an ornate toilet seat. In fact, Domi told Uproxx earlier this year that they’ve even been known to conceive some of their music while sitting on the toilet… how fitting. The trio’s tongue-in-cheek musical mastery was on full display in front of cherry blossom trees, with Domi even reading sheet music off of tattered scraps of paper taped to her keyboard.

Watch DeMarco join Domi & JD Beck for “Two Shrimps” on Fallon above.

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

House Republicans have yet to take a firm stance on antisemitic comments made by MAGA poster boys like Donald Trump and Kanye West, but they have started scrubbing old tweets praising the bigoted firebrands in case they need to jump ship.

Earlier today, a user discovered that a tweet from a few weeks ago by the account run by the Republicans’ on the House Judiciary Committee had been removed from the group’s official account. The original tweet was sent in October of this year, around the time Elon Musk welcomed Kanye back to the social media site and just a month before Trump’s account would be reinstated. It read simply, “Kanye. Elon. Trump.” The holy trinity of exhausting narcissistics.

A reporter for The Daily Beast had visited the account to see if the tweet was still live, which it was at 1 p.m. Just 34 minutes later, another user noticed the tweet had been removed.

Why the sudden change of heart?

It seems the move may be tied to West’s disastrous appearance on Alex Jones’s InfoWars show, which was live streaming as the House GOP account deleted the post. On the stream, West donned a black mask covering his entire face and carried a bible onto the set. He then launched into a tirade about Jewish people pushing pornography before expressing his admiration for Adolf Hitler for inventing things like the Autobahn and microphones.

“I see good things about Hitler also,” West said. “I love everyone, and Jewish people are not gonna tell me, ‘You can love us and what we’re doing to you with the contracts and what we’re pushing with the pornography…’ But this guy who invented highways invented the very microphone that I use as a musician, you can’t say out loud anything good that this person ever did. Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table. Especially Hitler.”

It seems that labeling the Holocaust — the only thing Hitler “brought to the table” — as something of value was a step too far for the House GOP because their endorsement of West vanished after this interview.

Then again, House Republicans were probably less offended by West’s endorsement of genocide than they were by his outfit choices. Blatant anti-Semitism and Hitler isolation are fine, but we all know how right-wingers feel about face coverings. Wearing a mask is just a bridge too far.

When was the last time Joe Biden was asked if he goes golfing with Donald Trump because they’re around the same age? Never. That’s a weird assumption to make, but it didn’t stop a reporter from wondering if New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern met with Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin “just because” they have things in common.

“Are you two meeting just because you’re similar in age and you’ve got a lot of common stuff there, you know, when you got into politics and stuff?” a reporter from a New Zealand outlet asked Ardern during cool-as-hell Marin’s diplomatic visit to Auckland. “Or can Kiwis actually expect to see more deals between our two countries down the line…” Before he continued, Ardern jumped in and asked a question of her own.

“My first question, is I wonder whether or not anyone ever asked Barack Obama and [former New Zealand Prime Minister] John Key if they met because they were of similar age,” she replied. “We, of course, have a higher proportion of men in politics. It’s reality. But because two women meet, it’s not simply because of their gender.”

She said that Finnish exports into New Zealand are worth more than $335 million and that Finland has Nokia, “biofuels, even basic industrial wares that we use in our buildings. You won’t be aware that a large number of our elevators come out of Finland, agricultural machinery.” Finland, on the other hand, according to Ardern imports more than $8 million in “mostly wine and beef.”

Marin gave a more, let’s say, diplomatic answer (“We are meeting because we’re prime ministers”), but you could tell from her barely-concealed smirk while Ardern was talking that she agreed with her — and that she’s sick of “sexist” questions like this one.

(Via Mediaite)

Boosie Badazz is no stranger to sharing his controversial opinions, and in a recent interview, he did just that.

The Louisiana rapper chatted with DJ Vlad about Jay-Z’s relevancy in hip-hop these days. In a clip that surfaced online yesterday (November 30), Boosie and the YouTube personality discussed OG rappers, such as Jay-Z and Nas, and their place in hip-hop. While Vlad noted that it might be difficult for older rappers to stay relevant, Jay-Z is one of the few who has been able to reinvent himself. But it doesn’t seem Boosie agrees.

The rapper admits that people respect Jay-Z’s business acumen, but when it comes to music, his songs aren’t being played in the clubs. They aren’t resonating with the younger crowds, specifically millennials in the 25-to-35-year-old range.

“When I go to these clubs in Atlanta — these 25-to-35 clubs — I’m not hearing Nas, I’m not hearing Jay-Z,” he said. “Every club I go in, it’s not one or the other… Jay-Z is respected by these people for being the boss that he is. When Jay-Z flashes across that muthaf*cka, it’s somethin’ with a billion dollars; it’s somethin’ with 500 billion, 200 billion when them young n****s see him.”

“It ain’t his songs flashing across no f*ckin’ social media; it’s his hustle,” he continued. “That n**** got hustle.”

The “Wipe Me Down” rapper’s comments follow a recent discussion, where another rapper, 21 Savage, made remarks during a session on Clubhouse, where he said that Nas was not relevant to the younger generation, sparking a massive debate on social media.

Check out the clip below.

As terrifying as the idea of Herschel Walker being named Georgia’s senator might be, it’s hard to deny that his campaign — which has been a nonstop roller coaster ride of incoherence mixed with mortifying gaffes, several secret children, and at least one “erection” — is the gift that keeps on giving. And while Election Day was nearly a month ago, Walker is still out there on the campaign trail, and Trevor Noah couldn’t be happier.

The Daily Show host has spent the past several months gleefully covering Walker’s many missteps, and on Wednesday night he was ready to talk about Walker’s most recent controversies, including whether the former football player even lives in the state of Georgia at all. “According to new reports,” Noah explained, “the Georgia home that he’s claimed as his residence has actually been rented out for years.” When Walker accidentally admitted that he lives in Texas in a recent speech, Noah admitted that he was shocked: “Because I did not think Herschel Walker knew the name of two different states.”

But Walker’s biggest problem, according to Noah, is that “every time he speaks, things go wrong.” Most recently, Walker attempted to share his views on Donald Trump’s border wall… and somehow ended up bringing his dog into it.

After playing the clip, Noah — through near-tears — did his best to translate what he had taken from the speech. His takeaway: “I’m sorry, WHAT?”

Did this man just win an argument with himself? ‘Cause I think his plan is to, what, build a border wall so that he can trap immigrants inside America? Is that what he’s doing? ‘You see, once they get in, they can’t get out! Then they gotta get jobs and raise a family and settle down, and THAT’S how we get ‘em, yeah!’

It’s almost like Walker started out talking about border security, and then ended up telling everybody how to break into HIS house. And personally, I don’t think he needs a wall. Because the hardest part about breaking into his Herschel Walker’s house is figuring out which state it’s in.

You can watch the full clip above, beginning at the 2:45 mark.