Category: Viral

For much of the last week, Chicago’s Cupcakke and Atlanta’s Sukihana have been entangled in a rap battle that began with the former’s remix of “How To Rob”. The track saw her take aim at names like Sada Baby, Lady Gaga, Migos, Offset, Wiz Khalifa, Lizzo, Lil Baby, Cardi B, Doja Cat, Lil Durk, City Girls, Megan Thee Stallion, Sukihana herself, and more. Sukihana was the first artist to take umbrage with being dissed, and she quickly responded with the track “Rob Who” before Cupcakke returned fire with “The Gag Is.” Sukihana fired another shot with “Cupcakke Bummy” this past weekend, but Cupcakke has yet to offer her response to the track. Whether she will or not remains to be seen, but for the time being, it appears the Chicago rapper is focused on putting some good in her community.

The rapper revealed her plan to open a homeless shelter in her hometown in a tweet she shared on Tuesday. “Thinking about opening a homeless shelter here in Chicago …by insuring the people that comes in will all have jobs with in a 4 month time radius , with a compacity of 300 people living there… let’s get to it,” she wrote in her post. If Cupcakke is able to make her idea a reality, it will definitely serve as a huge benefit to her community. Until then, you can revisit her pre-beef single, “Elephant.”

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

Kostas Antetokounmpo became the first member of his family to win an NBA championship last year. Kostas was an end-of-bench player for the Los Angeles Lakers, and while he did not appear in any of the team’s playoff games, he’ll get to say that he’s a champion for the rest of his life.

While his older brother certainly hopes to join him in having a ring by the time the 2020-21 season ends, he had a bit of business to take care of before the year tips off. The Lakers put forth an incredible ring ceremony in which players’ family members congratulated them, and when it came time for Kostas, his video included a cameo from Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo.

After their mom, Veronica, congratulated Kostas for his ring, Giannis and his brother Thanasis shouted out the champ. Giannis also included a simple message: “We’re extremely happy for you for bringing the first ring home. Let’s get more rings, man!”

While Giannis obviously would have wished that he got a chance to life the Larry O’Brien trophy, he’s always made it clear that his family is his top priority, so while it was a bit jarring to see him appearing in an official Lakers video, it certainly wasn’t surprising that he’d want to celebrate his younger brother. It is probably safe to assume, however, that those good vibes will go away when the buzzer tips on Jan. 21 and the Bucks play host to the Lakers.

The Brooklyn Nets were utterly dominant on Tuesday evening, zooming to a 15-point lead after 12 minutes and ultimately throttling the Golden State Warriors by a 125-99 margin in the NBA’s regular season opener. As one may expect, Kevin Durant was a big piece of the puzzle for the Nets, scoring 22 points in only 25 minutes, and he looks to be at least close to his old self after missing the 2019-20 season with an Achilles injury.

After the encouraging performance from both Durant and the Nets, he joined TNT’s Inside The NBA crew for an interview before the nightcap between the Lakers and the Nets. While that wasn’t out of the ordinary in the slightest, Durant wasn’t exactly effervescent during the discussion.

Durant didn’t cause too much of an uproar with his short, pointed answers but, when the interview concluded, the Inside The NBA panel couldn’t help but acknowledge what transpired by having a bit of fun with how the discussion went.

Kenny Smith immediately (and sarcastically) pointed out that it was “loud in that arena” and Shaq followed that up with a comment about there being “so much energy” in the building. To be fair, Smith did attempt to let Durant off the hook by pointing out the difficulty of doing such an interview but, on cue, Shaq and Charles Barkley traded barbs with exceptionally short answers to pay tribute to what just happened.

With the gap between games on opening night, something like this was certainly welcome from an entertainment standpoint, and the best studio show in the business didn’t disappoint. It will be interesting to see how soon Durant returns to the air on TNT in a similar format, though, and that could be appointment viewing.

This past Monday marked ten years since Nipsey Hussle released his trademark mixtape The Marathon, which kicked off a string of successful projects that he would release in the following year, including The Marathon Continues, Crenshaw, Mailbox Money, and his celebrated debut album Victory Lap. On the anniversary, Nipsey’s estate unveiled a new plan to honor him and the 2010 project: an interactive live album experience, set to arrive next year.

The news was shared in a post on The Marathon Clothing store’s Instagram page. “Today marks 10 years since the release of #TheMarathon,” the caption read. “A project our team holds near and dear to our hearts for many reasons. It represents the story of Nipsey’s resilience and unwavering faith in his mission, and the authenticity and honesty in his message. It also was the first seed planted in the Marathon brand that gave fruit to many other branches that Nipsey architected, as only he could do.”

“In commemoration of this anniversary we’re proud to announce our collaborative effort with @okidoki to bring to life an interactive live visual album experience coming in 2021,” the caption goes on to read. “The experience will give viewers [an] intimate look at the era that helped shape this masterpiece. The people, the places, the stories, and more.”

Nipsey Hussle is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

First the bad news: The reboot of DuckTales was cancelled at the start of December. But its legacy lives on, not only in its-much loved episodes but also in an old interview with one of its voice stars, Danny Pudi, that went viral on Tuesday. Back in February, in much happier times, the Community alum appeared on Larry King Now, the longtime CNN host’s current chat show. But it took almost a year for one of its best bits to enrapture social media.

It started when a TikTok user posted a video, which began with the prompt, “What is your favorite celebrity interview moment?” It’s hard to nail one down, especially if you’re an avid watcher of old Johnny Carson episodes on Pluto.

But “@opposumfanpage” had a good one. In the brief clip, Pudi, who voiced Huey on the DuckTales revival, is grilled by King about which luxury he “can’t live without.” Pudi’s answers were too modest for King’s tastes: He likes “really good coffee.” And socks — comfortable socks, he’s right, are great. But King wasn’t having it, demanding he go far more upscale than that. Even more flummoxed than his host, Pudi asked for an example. King mentioned private planes. Pudi furrowed his brow, and responded with an instant classic retort: “Larry, I’m on DuckTales.”

Or maybe it wasn’t exactly an “instant classic.” Again, this interview aired so long ago the pandemic hadn’t really hit the United States in earnest. But sometimes it takes a while for great things to earn the appreciation they deserve. And so, a week-and-a-half before one of the most consistently and creatively crappy years in recorded history, Pudi’s response belatedly took off.

And so a catchphrase — on the level of “Sir, this is an Arby’s/Wendy’s” — was born.

And so were memes.

And tattoos.

Some compared it to other catchphrases.

And some wondered if this line from a nearly year-old interview is the thing that gets the new DuckTales un-cancelled.

At the same time, you know who deserves to be private plane-rich, certainly more than the greedy billionaires who’ve been raking in the dough during the pandemic while untold lives have been destroyed?

The Los Angeles Clippers will try to bounce back after a disappointing 2020-21 campaign. While the team looked really, really good at times, L.A. blew a 3-1 series lead to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Semifinals, leading to a head coaching change and some tinkering with the team’s roster heading into this year.

The good news for the Clippers is that they should be a really, really good team. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are still around, Tyronn Lue is a championship-winning coach, and there is enough talent on the roster that they should make a legitimate run for a championship. And if that doesn’t happen, at least they were able to get a PlayStation 5 before most of us did.

According to a picture of Nic Batum’s locker, Clippers players got hooked up with Sony’s next generation console and a new pair of headphones prior to the start of the season.

Now, the best guess is that Paul George — who has collaborated with Sony in the past and had a special PlayStation colorway on the PG 2.5s — decided to hook everyone up. All eyes now turn to former Microsoft executive and Clippers owner Steve Ballmer on whether he’s going to try and one-up this by giving the players personalized Xbox Series Xes.

After spending more than a year at Chicago’s downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center, R. Kelly has received a date for his trial, where he faces child pornography and obstruction of justice charges. According to the Chicago Sun Times, U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber said the singer’s trial would begin on September 13, 2021. However, he stressed that the date is “not set in stone” given the unpredictable nature of the coronavirus pandemic and how it could affect court proceedings set to occur before Kelly’s.

Kelly was arrested on child pornography and obstruction of justice charges back in July 2019 and has stayed at the Chicago correction center ever since. He attempted multiple times to be freed from the correction center as he awaits trial, but a number of judges turned down his requests. Kelly is accused of avoiding a prosecution during his 2008 Cook County trial with threats, gifts, and six-figure payoffs.

The Chicago trial is not the only one Kelly will have to prepare for in 2021. He also has an April 7 date for racketeering charges in Brooklyn. U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly, who will oversee the trial, approved a motion for it to be held in front of an anonymous jury. “Empaneling an anonymous jury is appropriate given the seriousness of the charges, the defendant’s history of obstructing the judicial process, the potential for juror intimidation and the intensity of media attention given to this case,” Donnelly said.

(via the Chicago Sun Times)

Vaccines for COVID-19 may have started hitting America this week, but there’s still a bumpy road ahead. Cases around the world continue to explode, and they’ll almost certainly get worse over the coming holidays. So what we need now is jokes. We need gallows humor. And we got it when we learned the scary news that the virus had finally made its way to Antarctica, meaning it’s now on every continent on the planet.

Previously the southern land was the only respite from the coronavirus pandemic — until 36 cases were suddenly reported at a Chilean research base. According to The Guardian, those infected were quickly escorted back to their native country, where they immediately went into isolation. It’s a reminder that nowhere is safe from COVID, not even remote research bases on the bottom of the planet, where conditions are not fit for man nor beast — nor, it was assumed, highly contagious viruses that have been spreading in congested cities and in places where masks and social distancing have been ignored.

But in these stressful times, it was also a time for dumb jokes. And a lot of people had the same one: An easily spreadable and fatal disease running amok amongst a tight-knit group of researchers in the Antarctic, causing widespread mistrust? That’s the plot of The Thing, John Carpenter’s 1982 remake of the ‘50s sci-fi/horror classic The Thing from Another World (which actually took place way up north, in the Arctic). And a lot of people immediately thought that even COVID is no match for Kurt Russell’s MacReady.

Or maybe this one has a happy ending.

(Via ComicBook.com)

The Brooklyn Nets and the Golden State Warriors took center stage in the first matchup of the 2020-21 NBA regular season on Tuesday evening. While there was significant anticipation on both sides, it was the Nets that exploded out of the gate, rewarding believers in their upside with a dynamic and explosive performance that showcased their arsenal in the first quarter.

The Warriors actually scored first but, in fitting fashion for a team built around two superstars, Brooklyn opened with jumpers from Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.

Durant’s matchup against a former team was one of the top selling points of this particular contest and, in short order, the former MVP picked up where he left off in the preseason and looked like his old self after a year off.

The Nets used an early 13-3 run to take a 23-9 lead and, a few minutes later, back-to-back three-pointers from Caris LeVert and Irving gave Brooklyn a 36-17 advantage.

To be fair to the Warriors, there was one (very) impressive highlight for Golden State, as Kelly Oubre Jr. threw down a memorable dunk.

When the dust settled after 12 minutes, Irving (17 points) and Durant (10 points) actually outscored the entire Warriors roster (25 points), with the Nets leading by 15 points. Brooklyn shot 58 percent from the floor, converted 7-of-12 from three-point distance (including two long-range connections from Joe Harris), and held the Warriors to just 9-of-27 shooting in the opening period.

Obviously, the Nets won’t continue this blistering pace all the way through this matchup, much less the season, but Brooklyn certainly made quite a first impression on Tuesday. If nothing else, all signs point to the Nets being one of the most explosive offensive teams in the NBA and, with the star power and supporting cast they bring to the table, the team’s upside is quite lofty.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Migos had planned to drop their third album, Culture III, at the start of 2020. However, that day came and went, as did the following months, and still there was no sign of Culture III. But now, almost a year after its initial planned release, we’re learning that the wait won’t last much longer.

Quavo, one third of the rap trio, joined The ETCs podcast, co-hosted by Kevin Durant and former Uproxx writer Eddie Gonzalez, with an update. “We done with the album, we just waiting on 2021, man so everything can crack up,” he said. “We want the commotion, we want to move, we want to be outside. We want to drop it and go on tour. We want to have an album listening [party] and have people in that thang and really hearing the album.”

Quavo’s reason for waiting until the pandemic is over? He wants people to not listen to it while cooped inside. “I just want to be with the people,” he said. “I want to touch the people and that’s what we gon’ do at the top of the year.”

Earlier this year, Offset told GQ that he considered naming the album something else. “Ever since ‘Bad and Boujee’ went No. 1 and then we dropped Culture and Culture II, I’ve heard the word ‘culture’ so much,” he said. “As artists you challenge yourself—you have to keep moving forward. So I’ve been thinking of a plan to make something as powerful or more powerful [than Culture].” Despite this, it appears he’s sticking with the original title.

You can listen to the full episode of The ETCs with Quavo here.