It’s a big day for the Las Vegas Raiders, as the organization opened Allegiant Stadium in style with a clash against the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football. While the early going wasn’t kind to the Raiders in falling behind 10-0 in the first quarter, Jon Gruden’s team showed signs of life and, with 1:44 left in the first half, Derek Carr found Zay Jones for a 15-yard touchdown to slash the deficit to 17-14.
That was a positive for the Raiders by any description but, after Jones scored, he led the team in a COVID-themed touchdown celebration by seemingly breaking out the (imaginary) hand sanitizer for himself and his teammates.
In the world of pre-planned touchdown celebrations, this certainly isn’t the worst, and one wonders if this was assigned only to Jones or if the entire team was planning to use it at some point. This was the first catch of the night for Jones, who had not scored a touchdown since 2018, but he picked a good time to do it and perhaps informed others about the use of hand sanitizer. Given the state of the pandemic in the United States, it certainly isn’t a bad thing to bring awareness to while scoring an important touchdown.
Blac Chyna is an actor, makeup brand founder, and star of her very own TV show, The Real Blac Chyna, whose second season is currently in production. But that’s not all. As of 2017, Chyna is also a rapper. Having released her debut single this past summer, she shared her song “My Word” this week alongside an opulent video.
The video finds Chyna tapping Too Short, Keak Da Sneak, and makeup mogul and YouTuber Jeffree Star. Chyna flaunts her wealth, cars, and Birkin bags while delivering verses about enjoying the finer things in life. “I’m rocking sh*t you b*tchеs never evеn heard,” she raps.
Ahead of the video’s release, Chyna sat down with Uproxx to discuss her semi-recent pivot to rap. While she’s put out a handful of singles so far, an album is not yet in the works:
“No, I’m not going to do an album right now. I’m just focusing on singles because I want people to understand that I’m serious about this and I want to put out visuals with each song that I put out so they can get used to my sound and they know, ‘Okay. Chyna’s taking it serious and she’s not just doing this because she’s old Blac Chyna,’ or anything like that. I’m just taking the proper steps to let people know, ‘Hey, I’m serious about this and this is something I want to do and I’m passionate about it.’
All-star script readings have become all the rage during a time when actors can’t create new content in which they, you know, share the same space. Round up a bevy of name performers (do a reunion, if you can!), have them all read a TV episode or a movie script live, and…well, it’s not the same as a typical sitcom or movie, but it’s something. But this one is next level: As per The Hollywood Reporter, Gabrielle Union is organizing an all-black cast to read a classic episode of Friends.
The episode in question? “The One Where No One’s Ready,” one of the most theatrical of Friends episodes, set entirely in Monica and Rachel’s apartment and featuring the entire sextet together at the same time for the entire time, and mostly in real time. (And they’re not even hanging in Central Perk.) A Season 3 favorite, it finds everyone supposed to be heading to a function at Ross’ museum, only for, well, no one (but Ross) to be ready to go.
Union herself will not be playing one of the main roles, handing the role of Ross and Rachel to real-life marrieds Ryan Bathe and Sterling K. Brown. Meanwhile, Kendrick Sampson (How to Get Away with Murder) will read for Joey, Jeremy Pope (Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood) for Chandler, Uzo Aduba (Orange is the New Black) for Phoebe, and Aisha Hinds (9-1-1) for Monica. The production team will include such luminaries as Cynthia Erivo, Tessa ThompsonKerry Washington, Rashida Jones, Issa Rae, and Ava DuVernay.
An all-black Friends is a smart move, especially as the show has been criticized, then and moreso now, for painting an unrealistically over-white depiction of New York City. Among its critics? Former Phoebe Lisa Kudrow, who said a potential reboot would be much more diverse. Meanwhile, David Schwimmer, the erstwhile Ross, has said that he pushed the production to include supporting players of color, including multiple girlfriends (who weren’t his on-and-off, Rachel, that is).
As with many cast readings, the Friends one will encourage donations to a charity, in this case Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote initiative. A date for the live reading has yet to be announced, but perhaps it will arrive before HBO Max’s delayed official Friends reunion.
Bubba Wallace has emerged as a rising star in NASCAR for what he’s done both on and off the track. The Cup Series’ lone Black driver used his voice in a sport that has long pushed back against change and led to some long overdue new policies in the sport, such as banning confederate flags from events, and getting his fellow drivers to speak up on issues of racism and racial injustice as well.
Wallace has driven for Richard Petty Motorsports and the No. 43 car since arriving in the Cup Series, but announced earlier this year that he will not be renewing his contract with RPM. That led to plenty of speculation about what team he will join next, but the answer to that question is something no one saw coming.
On Monday night, Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin announced that they would be starting a one-car racing team in the NASCAR Cup Series, with Bubba Wallace being their driver.
This is a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I believe is a great fit for me at this point in my career. I’m grateful and humbled that they believe in me and I’m super pumped to begin this adventure with them.
It takes a tremendous financial commitment to compete with the biggest teams in NASCAR, but Jordan isn’t new to the motorsports scene — he previously owned a motorcycle racing team. As he noted in a statement, he sees this as an investment not only in NASCAR but in bringing more opportunities to Black people in racing at its highest level.
“Growing up in North Carolina, my parents would take my brothers, sisters and me to races, and I’ve been a NASCAR fan my whole life,” said Jordan. “The opportunity to own my own racing team in partnership with my friend, Denny Hamlin, and to have Bubba Wallace driving for us, is very exciting for me. Historically, NASCAR has struggled with diversity and there have been few Black owners. The timing seemed perfect as NASCAR is evolving and embracing social change more and more. In addition to the recent commitment and donations I have made to combat systemic racism, I see this as a chance to educate a new audience and open more opportunities for Black people in racing.”
As for Hamlin, he will continue to run in the No. 11 car for Joe Gibbs Racing, and more details are to come about the car manufacturer — Wallace currently drives a Chevy with RPM, while Hamlin drives a Toyota for JGR and the expectation is it will be a Toyota team — as well as the number and official team name. For those curious, the No. 23 is not currently running in NASCAR and it’d be fairly stunning if that wasn’t what Wallace is running as in 2021. Still, what we know for sure is that NASCAR’s lone Black driver will race for the first Black-owned racing team since Wendell Scott raced for his own team in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and that’s pretty cool.
The Las Vegas Raiders picked up a win in their first game this season, outlasting the Carolina Panthers by a 34-30 margin in Week 1. However, there was more than a little bit of extra emphasis on the second game of the season for Jon Gruden’s team, simply because it marks the first game in the newly constructed Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
In advance of Monday night’s tilt against Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints, the hype was significant, including a video released by the Raiders to get the blood flowing in the NFL’s maiden voyage in Vegas.
The facility is overwhelming in its grandeur, with a billion dollar price tag to boot, and many were looking ahead to the festivities even before the public was allowed inside.
It is still too early to get a full-fledged feel on how the stadium will be received in the long term but, if nothing else, the “death star” moniker to describe the venue seems to be catching on with vigor.
Overall, Allegiant Stadium looks brilliant and it certainly seems to embody the city where its located. Whether the Raiders can live up to the billing remains to be seen, but Las Vegas now has an NFL team to pair with a highly successful NHL franchise, and they have a venue to host the action.
Moneybagg Yo released his song “Said Sum” at the start of summer but he didn’t stop there. Last week, the rapper tapped DaBaby and the City Girls for a new remix of the track. Chicago rapper Dreezy was apparently hoping for a spot on the track as she didn’t wait long before dropping her own remix.
For her take on “Said Sum,” Dreezy stands alone. As she brings her signature flow to Moneybagg Yo’s beat, the abbreviated remix sees her flexing her fast-paced flow. Throughout the single, Dreezy matched the energy of DaBaby and City Girls’ “Said Sum” remix, leaving no space in between each prideful verse.
While Dreezy dropped the track in response to Moneybagg Yo’s high-profile remix, the rapper said she also wanted to give fans something to hold them over until her next album sees a release. Since the release of her 2019 project Big Dreez, she’s stayed relatively quiet, but it seems that is all about to change. Dreezy has yet to unveil too many details of the upcoming release, but if Big Dreez was any indication the rapper’s record will be filled with her signature quick-witted flow.
You can listen to Dreezy’s “Said Sum” remix above.
Since Disney now owns Star Wars, we should expect to be flooded with a near-constant output of Star Wars-branded memorabilia on a yearly basis. Some of it will make sense — like being able to build and purchase your very own lightsaber at Disneyland (very cool) — while some will feel slightly more random — like an entire sneaker line designed after the characters in the franchise’s almost 50-year history.
Today brings a collab that lands right in the middle — a Mandalorian-inspired Polaroid instant camera. The instant camera arrives to honor of the season two premiere of the Disney+ hit The Mandalorian, borrowing colors and textures from the armor of the series’ main character, Din Djarin.
Polaroid
The Beskar steel-resembling camera sports all of the usual Polaroid functions like an autofocus lens system, a built-in self-timer, and a dynamic flash, but also features double exposure capabilities, allowing you to create some truly DIY experimental images. Releasing alongside the camera is a set of Baby Yoda inspired I-Type Film that features colored borders with insignias and imagery from the series.
While a Polaroid camera might seem like a blatant cash-grab, this analog approach to memorabilia ties in nicely with the show’s back-to-basics aesthetic. The Mandalorian-themed Polaroid Now camera is available now at the Polaroid webstore for a retail price of $119.
Bobby Shmurda was sentenced to prison back in 2014, and it looks like there’s no chance of him getting out early. While it was previously reported that the rapper may be able to get out of prison as early as this December, his parole was recently denied, meaning he’ll have to stay behind bars for the remainder of his sentence.
A recent report from TMZ broke the news, stating that the exact cause for Shmurda being denied parole is unknown. It did mention, however, that the rapper racked up eleven violations while in prison. Those violations include drug possession and getting into a fight using a makeshift knife. As a result, Shmurda is now facing his maximum sentence.
The report also states that, according to his mother, Shmurda had big plans for his life following his release from prison. He was hoping to record new music and even film a documentary about his life. But it now looks like those plans will be put on hold until he’s fully released.
Shmurda accepted a plea deal on conspiracy to commit murder and weapons possession back in 2016, a move that had extended his sentence until 2021. He now resides in Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York and will finish the remainder of his sentence in protective custody, expected to be until December 11, 2021.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, it’s also good news for anyone who doesn’t have Netflix or was able to get the show on their cable package while it was on the air the first time. The outlet reported Monday that all six seasons of Schitt’s Creek would air on Comedy Central in October:
The move comes as no surprise as Schitt’s Creek previously aired on another ViacomCBS-owned cable network: Pop TV. The niche cable network no longer has any original programming — or dedicated executives — and is now a home for syndicated repeats. Both Pop TV and Comedy Central are part of ViacomCBS’ Entertainment & Youth Group, which is overseen by president Chris McCarthy.
The news comes on the same day Netflix announced that the sixth and final season of the show, which ran on Pop TV, would hit the streaming service a few days after Comedy Central begins airing episodes.
The history-making final season of Schitt’s Creek will (finally) hit Netflix in the US and Canada on October 7. pic.twitter.com/VV3cdDCi4H
It’s certainly a logical landing spot for the show, which goes perfectly with all those mid-Saturday afternoon airings of Best In Show you’ve likely seen on Comedy Central while channel surfing over the years. And for those who have somehow missed the brilliance that has come and gone and been awarded lavishly for, basic cable is as good a place as any to finally meet the Rose family.
Biases, stereotypes, prejudices—these byproducts of the human brain’s natural tendency to generalize and categorize have been a root cause of most of humanity’s problems for, well, pretty much ever. None of us is immune to those tendencies, and since they can easily slip in unnoticed, we all have to be aware of where, when, and how they impact our own beliefs and actions.
It also helps when someone upends a stereotype by saying or doing something unexpected.
Fair or not, certain parts of the U.S. are associated with certain cultural assumptions, perhaps none more pinholed than the rural south. When we hear Appalachia, a certain stereotype probably pops up in our minds—probably white, probably not well educated, probably racist. Even if there is some basis to a stereotype, we must always remember that human beings can never be painted with such broad strokes.
Enter Tyler Childers, a rising country music star whose old-school country fiddling has endeared him to a broad audience, but his new album may have a different kind of reach. “Long Violent History” was released Friday, along with a video message to his white rural fans explaining the culminating track by the same name. Watch it here:
Childers shared that he has no intention to be preachy, describing the humbling reality of being six months sober. “But as a person who has been given a platform by providence, luck, support, and working at it, I feel undeserving of the grace this world has given me, and I would find it a waste were I not to try and use it to make some good.”
He talked about the moment we’re in and what prompted him to write an album of music that captures this moment, calling on people to empathize with other individuals or groups. And he directed his message to a specific audience by placing the movement for Black lives into a context that rural white Americans like himself might more easily relate to.
“What if we were to constantly open up our daily paper and see a headline like ‘East Kentucky Man Shot Seven Times on a Fishing Trip’ Read on to find the man was shot while fishing with his son by a game warden, who saw him rummaging through his tackle box for his license and thought he was reaching for a knife. What if we read a story that began, ‘North Carolina man rushing home from work to take his elderly mother to the E.R. runs stop sign and was pulled over—beaten by police when they see a gun rack in his truck.’
Or a headline like ‘Ashland Community and Technical College Nursing Student Shot in Her Sleep.’ How would we react to that? What form of upheaval would that create? I’d venture to say if we were met with this type of daily attack on our own people, we would take action in a way that hasn’t been seen since the Battle of Blair Mountain in West Virginia.”
The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest armed uprising since the American Civil War, led by union coal miners and supporters in 1921. After years of labor disputes, miners and coal companies clashed violently in a gunfight between thousands of miners, coal company supporters, and law enforcement. After private planes hired by the sheriff dropped two homemade pipe bombs and federal troops were brought in, the miners’ siege of Blair Mountain ended.
So…yeah.
“And if we wouldn’t stand for it,” Childers continued, “why would we expect another group of Americans to stand for it? Why would we stand silent while it happened? Or worse, get in the way of it being rectified? I’ve heard people from my Appalachian region say that we wouldn’t act the way we’ve seen depicted on various media outlets. But I’ve also seen grown folks beat each other up the day after Thanksgiving for TVs and teddy bears. And these aren’t things these communities have lost. These are sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and cousins, mothers and fathers. Irreplaceable threads within their family fiber torn from their loved ones too soon with no justice, and they are demanding change. Same as I expect we would.”
Here’s the video of Childers’ title track, “Long Violent History.”
Now, what would you give if you heard my opinion Conjecturin’ on matters that I ain’t never dreamed In all my born days as a white boy from Hickman Based on the way that the world’s been to mе?
It’s called me belligеrent, it’s took me for ignorant But it ain’t never once made me scared just to be Could you imagine just constantly worryin’ Kickin’ and fightin’, beggin’ to breathe?
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(@ChrisVannini) 
