Category: Worldwide

After a slow burn to start, the last week of the Drake-Kendrick Lamar beef has been almost non-stop as the two stars are putting out diss tracks at a remarkable pace.

We are now eight songs removed from the start of it all — Kendrick’s verse on Metro Boomin and Future’s “Like That”. While a number of other artists have tried to get involved to varying degrees of success, the focus has mainly been on Kendrick and Drake, but this weekend Metro Boomin made sure he was able to get in on the fun while on the international leg of his tour with Future. Metro enlisted the power of the internet to add fuel to the fire, releasing an insanely catchy “BBL Drizzy” beat and offering up a contest to rappers everywhere: best verse over the beat would get a free beat from him for their next project.

That’s quite the prize for someone trying to breakthrough so Metro’s mentions were flooded with submissions almost immediately, but the best thing to come from the “BBL Drizzy” instrumental has been basketball fans recognizing it sounds like the highest-grade basketball mixtape song and putting it over highlight tapes (the first I saw was this phenomenal Zion Williamson mixtape mashup).

My personal favorites are folks putting Kyle Lowry highlights over it, as there are a number of levels to it (Lowry’s friendship with Drake from playing in Toronto, his famously large backside, etc.), and the results are truly delightful.

The internet can be a terrible, toxic place sometimes, but on occasions like this, it reminds you there is still true joy to be found out there. All you need to do is give people a bit of inspiration and a free beat and they’ll do wonderous things.

Drake wrapped up his weekend by unveiling the latest product of his and Kendrick Lamar’s feud, “The Heart Part 6.” On the tune, he makes a claim about Lamar that could use some looking into.

Was Kendrick Lamar Molested As Drake Says On ‘The Heart Part 6?’

On the track, Drake raps (as Genius notes), “My mom came over today and I was like, ‘Mother, I–, mother, I–, mother–‘ / Ahh, wait a second, that’s that one record where you say you got molested,” later adding, “That’s why these pedophile raps is sh*t you so obsessed with, it’s so excessive.”

The line is an apparent reference to Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers song “Mother I Sober,” which features the following lyrics (per Genius):

“Family ties, they accused my cousin, ‘Did he touch you, Kendrick?’
Never lied, but no one believed me when I said ‘He didn’t.’”

“‘Did he touch you?’ I said ‘No’ again, still they didn’t believe me.”

“I asked my momma why she didn’t believe me when I told her ‘No’
I never knew she was violated in Chicago, I’m sympathetic
Told me that she feared it happened to me, for my protection
Though it never happened, she wouldn’t agree.”

On the song, Lamar never says that he himself was a victim of sexual assault, but does indicate that his mother was. So, the track does not provide conclusive evidence that Lamar himself was molested, despite Drake’s claim.

The point of a roast is to, y’know, roast someone. Ron Burgundy must have missed that note. On Sunday night, Netflix streamed The Greatest Roast of All Time: Tom Brady, a multi-hour comedy event where comedians — and Kim Kardashian, for some reason — cracked one-liners about the former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback. Or at least most of them did. Will Ferrell, reprising his character from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, mostly got lost in Brady’s dreamy eyes.

“Holy sh*t this man is gorgeous. Look at those cheekbones. That’s a million-watt smile right there… A person could get lost in those eyes and right now I am that person,” he said, according to People, before snapping himself out of the handsome trance. “Ron, pull it together. You’re a straight man. He’s making you question your sexuality. Stop looking at him. You’re here to make fun of him. Not fall in love. Concentrate.”

Ferrell-as-Burgundy, who said that Brady will “always be remembered as Eli Manning’s bitch,” later poked fun at the quarterback’s career.

“I never liked you Tom… in all my years of watching professional football, I never saw a more boring quarterback,” he said, joking that Brady “ruined football for all of us” and that watching the Patriots play “actually made me look forward to all the fun and laughter of a Bill Belichick postgame interview.”

It was a real missed opportunity to not sign off with, “And I’m Ron Burgundy. Go f*ck yourself, Tom Brady.” Falcons fans know what I’m talking about.

The Greatest Roast of All Time: Tom Brady is streaming on Netflix.

(Via People)

The first round of the 2024 NBA playoffs have come to an end. We know which eight teams are still alive in the race to win a championship, while eight other squads were unable to navigate the first round. It’s always a tough pill to swallow, but of course, not being able to make it through the first round is a bigger problem for some teams than others.

Today, we’re going to look at all eight teams that couldn’t win four times in seven games at the start of the postseason and try to answer a question: How disappointing is it that they couldn’t make it out of the first round? For some teams, like the Magic or the Pelicans, it wasn’t that big of a gut punch, and they have reason to believe brighter days are on the horizon. But for other squads, like the Bucks or the Suns, being unable to get out of the opening round is a flat-out disaster.

Milwaukee Bucks

It’s very easy to spin this Bucks exit as “Giannis Antetokounmpo was hurt and didn’t play, Damian Lillard was hurt and played, Khris Middleton was playing on a bad ankle,” and I’d get it. However, even when their guys were healthy, we saw that this Milwaukee team was not championship caliber in the slightest. They drew a team in the playoffs that owned them during the regular season, they fired a coach who was 30-13, then went 19-20 from that point on. Still, they had title-or-bust expectations, and boy, did they not meet them. Now, they will go into an offseason where they have to find a way to get better without too many avenues to do that.

How disappointing?: It’s a total disaster, but at least Giannis is still here.

Orlando Magic

Yes, the Magic will be bummed they blew a double-digit lead in Game 7 against the Cavaliers. Having said that, Orlando is in a really nice position in the big picture, as their building blocks (namely Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Jalen Suggs) are still on their rookie deals and they have stuff to go make a big swing via a trade, along with a bit of cap room in case they want to fix some problems in free agency. They have to find a way to boost their offense — your friends at Dime would love to see them get a veteran point guard who can make things run smoothly on that end of the floor, a la Mike Conley — but generally, they were playing with house money this year. Expectations will be raised going forward, but for now, this was a learning experience for an ascendant team in the Eastern Conference.

How disappointing?: Not in the slightest, because brighter days are on the horizon.

Philadelphia 76ers

Like the Bucks, injuries (i.e.: two injuries to Joel Embiid) kept them from reaching their ceiling. They were excellent before Embiid hurt his knee, but he was clearly not right and tried to work his way back into playing shape during the series against the Knicks, and that’s before you get to him dealing with Bell’s palsy. There’s a major silver lining in seeing that Tyrese Maxey is a stud — he is about to make a ton of money in an extension this summer — but they could have beaten New York and now go into an offseason where they have to basically rebuild their entire roster. There certainly was a chance for them to finally make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, which makes this a tough pill to swallow. Having said that, if they can manage Embiid’s knee going forward and Maxey continues on this trajectory, they got to see during the playoffs that they finally have the 1-2 punch that perfectly compliments one another they’ve coveted for Embiid’s entire tenure.

How disappointing?: Any missed opportunity with Embiid really hurts, but by Sixers standards, this wasn’t that bad.

Miami Heat

It’s hard to be too upset at how things turned out if you’re the Heat. Yes, they want to compete every single year, but going into a series against Boston without Jimmy Butler, Josh Richardson, or Terry Rozier, and then having Jaime Jaquez Jr. get hurt before it ended, is just brutal. This was not an especially good team that went into a series shorthanded against the best team in the league and took a game off of them. They have aspirations of doing great things, but managed to win a game despite bringing a knife to a bazooka fight. This offseason has the potential to get strange depending on what happens with Butler, but as for how this playoff run went, well, that’s about right.

How disappointing?: With that many injuries, it can’t be too disappointing.

Los Angeles Clippers

We’re at the point where Kawhi Leonard’s inability to stay healthy is a feature, not a bug. It’s hard to shake the feeling that something big has to happen in Los Angeles this offseason — Paul George is a free agent, as is James Harden, and who knows what Steve Ballmer might have up his sleeve ahead of the team’s move to the Toilet Palace. If they stay healthy, maybe they beat the Mavericks, and then get to battle against an inexperienced Thunder team. Instead, we got the latest high-profile playoff flop by perhaps the team most desperate in the entire NBA to get over the hump. Only this time, they couldn’t even make it out of the first round.

How disappointing?: Pretty bad, and how they navigate the existential crisis that is coming to define this era of Clipper basketball will be fascinating to watch.

Phoenix Suns

If you ask Mat Ishbia, everything is great. If you ask literally anyone else, this was a travesty. Phoenix gave up anything and everything it had to put together a basketball team that got the 6-seed in the Western Conference and got swept in a series against an ascendant squad in which they lost three games by double-digits. Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal are getting older, and they’re locked into a team built around those two, Devin Booker, Jusuf Nurkic, and Grayson Allen without all that many avenues to get better. Just about everything about this year went wrong, with a first round playoff sweep being the icing on the cake.

How disappointing?: The worst of the bunch. Just an all-time flop by a franchise that eyed competing for a championship this year.

Los Angeles Lakers

Well, the coach got fired, so, that’s not great. Ultimately, getting bounced in the first round looks bad because it’s the Lakers and LeBron James is getting closer and closer to retirement, but look closer and it’s not that big of a travesty. Denver is just a better team — it took two buzzer-beaters in Denver by Jamal Murray to put them away! — while Los Angeles had a solid (albeit not great) roster that won 47 games, the second-most of any LeBron team in L.A. This situation is similar to Miami’s, where the expectations were set more by the front of the team’s jerseys than anything else. Unless LeBron decides he wants to retire because he was so disappointed that they only won the In-Season Tournament and took a measly one game off of the defending champs that swept them last year, it’s probably not a huge deal. Still, the Lakers had expectations of doing more and they did not, and now, they’ll enter an offseason where they need a new coach and will almost certainly look for some short of roster shakeup.

How disappointing?: Title-or-bust expectations met a team that was not nearly good enough to have those expectations, but it still stings.

New Orleans Pelicans

Can losing a playoff series without Zion Williamson against the 1-seed be a big deal? It happened in such a way that there are questions that need to be answered, particularly when it comes to Brandon Ingram’s long-term future with the team when they have Trey Murphy and Herbert Jones, but unless you want to argue that they should have taken a game or two off of a young and inexperienced Thunder team, it’s just hard to be too riled up about this one.

How disappointing?: Probably a solid 1/10.

As Rihanna fans keep waiting for new music, the multi-hyphenate superstar continues to tend to her other ventures. Fenty Beauty recently launched its Soft’Lit Naturally Luminous Foundation, and now Rihanna has dropped a new Savage X Fenty promo video.

In the 15-second clip — which Rihanna captioned “looking for nudes” — shared yesterday (May 5), she models nude lingerie (specifically, the Signature Script Underwire Teddy) from the brand’s Signature Script collection. In a voiceover, she explains, “I was desperate for a nude. Like, I go in between nudes when I get tan or when I’m a little paler. It’s hard to find a nude you can carry through in that range of shades, and I found mine. Signature Script.”

Meanwhile, in a recent interview, Rihanna looked back some some bold fashion choices she’s made, saying, “I’ve done so much sh*t in my life. I’ve had my nipples out, my panties out. But now, those are the things which, I guess as a mom and an evolved young lady — emphasis on ‘young’ — there are things I feel like I would never do. Like, ‘Oh my God, I really did that? Nips out?’”

She also just sparked pregnancy rumors after some people thought they spotted a sneaky maneuver in a video.

Chance Perdomo was already beloved to viewers of Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina before he appeared as Supe Andre Anderson on Gen V. His rising-star status was cut short on the eve of second-season filming for The Boys spin off when the cast and crew learned of Chance’s death in a motorcycle accident at age 27. That news surfaced in late March, and producers delayed production “indefinitely” and are now circling back to discuss how the show will proceed.

In a statement, producers wrote that Chance’s role will not be recast despite Andre figuring prominently into the overall story, and the show will rewrite the storylines and push production back until May:

“As we continue to navigate the tragic loss of Chance Perdomo, everyone at Gen V is determined to find the best way to pay respect to his memory. We won’t be recasting the role, because no one can replace Chance. Instead, we have been taking the time and space to recraft our season 2 storylines as we begin production in May. We will honor Chance and his legacy this season.”

Chance’s character appeared in the final season-finale scene where he and his college classmates found themselves in a medical facility, which may or may not have been The Woods. However, filling his shoes would have been impossible as producers have communicated, hence the decision to recraft the group’s stories. With that said, Perdomo’s absence will surely be felt by viewers, cast, and crew alike.

Forget “Espresso.” The song of the summer is “Do Not Diddle Kids.” Over the weekend, Drake released “The Heart Part 6,” his latest response to Kendrick Lamar‘s endless barrage of diss tracks. “Only f*ckin’ with Whitneys, not Millie Bobby Browns, I’d never look twice at no teenager,” he raps, a response to Lamar accusing him of being inappropriate with underage girls, including the Stranger Things actress (“Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A-Minor”).

“Nah Drake” started trending on social media following the release of “The Heart Part 6,” as did a clip from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. In the season seven episode “Frank Reynolds’ Little Beauties,” Frank (Danny DeVito) asks Dennis (Glenn Howerton), Charlie (Charlie Day), and Mac (Rob McElhenney) to help him write a song about how he does not “diddle” kids.

Frank’s proposed lyrics to “Do Not Diddle Kids”:

Do not diddle kids, it’s no good diddlin’ kids

I wouldn’t do it with anybody younger than my daughter, not little kids, gotta be big

Older than my wiiiife, older than my daughter

As Mac points out, “There is no quicker way for people to think that you are diddling kids than by writing a song about it!” A certain someone did not get the message.

“Oh my god. Drake’s response was to actually make a song about he doesn’t diddle kids. ‘The Heart Part 6’ is literally the It’s Always Sunny scene,” one X user wrote, while another added, “Drake literally pulled a Frank Reynolds.”

You can see the reactions below

We already know that Madonna is one of the biggest stars in the history of music, but her latest feat provides further evidence: On May 4, Madonna put on a free concert at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Per a press release from Live Nation, 1.6 million people attended, which sets the record for “the largest audience ever for a stand-alone concert by any artist in history.”

For reference, 1.6 million is greater than the population of Philadelphia, and Philly is the sixth most populous city in the United States. Also for reference, Coachella averages about 125,000 daily attendees.

According to this Wikipedia list, Madonna’s show is No. 6 on the all-time list of the most-attended concerts. However, all the concerts ahead of Madonna were part of some larger event/occasion/observation, so Madonna does indeed claim the title of biggest stand-alone concert. The previous record holder was The Rolling Stones, who performed to 1.5 million people, also at Copacabana Beach, in 2006.

Leading that larger list, though, is Rod Stewart, who performed for an estimated 3.5 million people — again, also at Copacabana Beach — in 1994. After him are Jean-Michel Jarre (3.5 million); Jorge Ben Jor (3 million); Jean-Michel Jarre again (2.5 million); Antonello Venditti (1.8 million); the collective of AC/DC, Pantera, Metallica, The Black Crowes, and E.S.T. (1.6 million); and then Madonna.

The New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers will meet in the 2024 Eastern Conference semifinals, renewing one of the great rivalries of the 1990s. From 1993 to 2000, the two teams met six times in the playoffs, with each team winning three of those series.

Since then, the teams have met just once in the postseason (2013) in 23 years, but the 2024 edition feels like it could be the start of another postseason rivalry between Indiana and New York. It’s hard to replicate the roster continuity of the 90s in today’s game, but both teams have cornerstones set at the guard position with Tyrese Haliburton and Jalen Brunson, and if both can retain their ex-Raptor wings in Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby, that would seem like two good starts to perennial playoff cores.

What makes the 2024 edition of this rivalry so interesting is the divergent styles the two teams play. Indiana likes to play at breakneck speed, pushing the pace off makes and misses alike to stress opposing defenses and attack weak points before they can get set in the halfcourt. New York, meanwhile, is a classic Tom Thibodeau outfit, looking to wear you down with defensive pressure and intensity, and then dominating on the boards on both ends. The clash of styles should be fascinating, as each team will look to dictate the tempo which could lead to wild swings.

If we’re lucky, the 2024 renewal will find footing alongside some of the past epics between these two teams, and before we get to Monday night’s Game 1, we wanted to look back at the history between New York and Indiana in the playoffs and some of the moments that defined the rivalry.

1993 Eastern Conference First Round (Knicks 3-1)

The 1993 first round matchup between the top-seeded Knicks and the 8-seeded Pacers is where it all began. The Knicks won in four games, with Patrick Ewing leading the way while getting help from John Starks and others. But the seeds of a rivalry Reggie Miller averaged 31.5 points per game in the series and drawing a theatrical ejection of John Starks (who just went for 29/11 in Game 2) for a headbutt in Game 3 — which would serve as the intro to the fantastic 30 for 30, Winning Time.

1994 Eastern Conference Finals (Knicks 4-3)

Things really picked up in 1994, as the two teams looked to take advantage of Michael Jordan’s absence from the league and punch their ticket to the NBA Finals. It was a grueling 7-game duel that culminated in a wild finish to Game 7, with Patrick Ewing putting up a huge 24-point, 22-rebound game, including the go-ahead tip-dunk in the final minute. That was followed by a Reggie Miller airball that sent the Knicks to the NBA Finals.

While the Knicks got the last laugh, that series was where the legend of Reggie Miller in the playoffs really grew with his Game 5 performance in the Garden, scoring 25 in the fourth quarter to lead Indiana to a win — and then delivered his iconic “Spike Who?” line to Ahmad Rashad after the game.

1995 Eastern Conference Semifinals (Pacers 4-3)

The 1995 Pacers-Knicks conference semifinals is one of the all-time great NBA Playoff series, providing an almost unbelievable number of memorable moments. It started with the biggest of them all, as Reggie Miller and the Pacers quite literally stole Game 1 thanks to Miller’s 8 points in 9 seconds, which remains one of the craziest playoff sequences in NBA history.

The Pacers would win both back in Indiana to put the Knicks on the brink back in the Garden in Game 5, but they were able to stay alive thanks to a game-winning runner from Ewing in the final seconds, cutting the deficit to 3-2.

After winning Game 6 in Indiana, the Knicks had a chance to pull off a remarkable comeback from down 3-1 and found themselves in the same position as Game 5. This time, however, Ewing could not provide the heroics, as a running layup at the buzzer hit off the back rim and bounced out to send the Pacers to the Conference Finals.

1998 Eastern Conference Semifinals (Pacers 4-1)

It would take three years for the two teams to meet again, this time with some different supporting casts, but most of the main stars remained the same. The Pacers would once again get the best of the Knicks, winning in five games with Game 4 being the standout. Miller once again had a big game in New York, scoring 38 points, including a game-tying three in the closing seconds, in an Indiana overtime win. That game also featured another scuffle between Miller and Starks, with the Knicks guard getting ejected in the first quarter for throwing an elbow to Miller’s head.

1999 Eastern Conference Finals (Knicks 4-2)

The two teams met again in the Conference Finals in the strike-shortened 1999 season, where the 8-seeded Knicks gave Miller a taste of his own medicine. After splitting games in Indiana — where Ewing suffered an Achilles injury — the Knicks were able to improbably hold serve in Game 3 thanks to a Larry Johnson 4-point play in the closing seconds to turn a 3-point deficit into a 1-point win.

While the Pacers would even the series at 2-2 in the next game, the Knicks won Games 5 and 6 to become the first 8-seed in league history to reach the NBA Finals.

2000 Eastern Conference Finals (Pacers 4-2)

A year later, Reggie Miller got to put on his final big show in the Garden, exacting revenge on the Knicks in the 2000 Eastern Conference Finals by scoring 34 in Game 6 in New York to send the Pacers to their first (and only) NBA Finals. This was the final battle between Miller’s Pacers and Ewing’s Knicks, as the New York legend would move on to the Sonics that offseason for the twilight of his career.

2013 Eastern Conference Semifinals (Pacers 4-2)

The 2013 edition saw the Paul George-Roy Hibbert era Pacers at the peak of their powers go up against the best Knicks team of the Carmelo Anthony era. The two teams split the first two in New York before the Pacers took control by winning both at home. Game 6 was the best game of the series, as the Pacers were able to get the series clinching win at home despite a 39-point performance from Melo — thanks to a playoff career-high 25 from Lance Stephenson.

It doesn’t look like this whole Drake/Kendrick Lamar situation is stopping any time soon. After Lamar spent last week unleashing a flurry of diss tracks aimed at Drake, the latter fired back last night (May 5) with his latest contribution to the conversation, “The Heart Part 6.”

So, how did Drake’s new diss go over? Well, here’s an indication: “Nah Drake” was the No. 1 trending topic on X (formerly Twitter) after the song was released, as Kurrco notes.

A number of the reactions focused on the line, “Only f*ckin’ with Whitneys, not Millie Bobby Browns, I’d never look twice at no teenager,” which is a clear response to Lamar accusing Drake on “Not Like Us” of having an inappropriate interest in young women.

One X user wrote, “he called u master manipulator and u admitted to feeding him lies then dropped a bar about Millie Bobby Brown when Kendrick never mentioned her. you’re #Caught.” Another tweeted, “kendrick: drake you are a pedophile. drake: i did NOT do anything inappropriate with millie bobby brown.” Somebody else said, “Drake put out the names Millie Bobby Brown and Epstein in reference to himself before Kendrick even mentioned them.”

Check out some more reactions below.