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Pop Smoke’s Memory Lives On Through His ‘What You Know About Love’ Video

Pop Smoke’s team has been steadily releasing videos alongside the rapper’s posthumous album Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, which was released in July. Now, fans get a behind-the-scenes look at the late rapper’s life through his “What You Know About Love” video.

Directed by Oliver Cannon, the visual opens with a heartwarming message from Pop Smoke to his fans: “I love y’all, I f*ck with y’all, and I appreciate y’all. I wouldn’t be nothing without y’all.” The rest of the video compiles memorable clips of the late rapper, from showing him vibing out in the studio to putting on a show for hundreds of adoring fans.

The “What You Know About Love” video arrives after much of Pop Smoke’s posthumous music has risen to success. His album Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and three months later, it managed to return to the top of the chart once again. On top of that, SoundCloud recently revealed that Pop Smoke was the site’s most-streamed artist of 2020. The Brooklyn drill rapper had 65 tracks uploaded to the platform and his music was streamed 191,500,188 times this year alone, with his DaBaby and Lil Baby collaboration “For The Night” making up 40 million of those listens.

Watch Pop Smoke’s “What You Know About Love” video above.

Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon is out now via Republic. Get it here.

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Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo Got ‘Punked’ By An Animal Rights Activist Who Pretended To Be A Meat Company CEO

Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo had to issue a correction on Wednesday after the Morning with Maria host was duped by an animal rights activist who posed as the CEO of a major pork processing company. The activist, Matt Johnson of Direct Action Everywhere, got pretty far into the interview while pretending to be Smithfield Foods CEO Dennis Organ. However, there were moments during the segment when Bartiromo started to realize something wasn’t quite right. Usually, CEOs don’t come right out and say that their plants are poised to be the source of another outbreak. Via Mediaite:

“The truth is that our industry, in addition to the outbreaks that are happening at our plants, our industry poses a serious threat in effectively bringing on the next pandemic, with CDC data showing that three of four infectious diseases come from animals and the conditions inside of our of farms can sometimes be Petri dishes for new diseases,” [Johnson] said.

Bartiromo noticeably rolled her eyes at that one, and not long after, she issued a correction once her producers realized what was happening.

“It appears we have been punked,” Bartiromo said. “Earlier in the program, I interviewed someone claiming to be the CEO of Smithfield Foods, Dennis Organ. We’ve since learned that that was not Dennis Organ, but an imposter making false claims about the company. He is someone who has absolutely no relation to Smithfield Foods. We want to apologize to Dennis Organ, Smithfield Foods, and to our audience for making this mistake. We will of course be more vigilant.”

After pulling off the successful stunt, Direct Action Everywhere released the following statement: “The action is part of DxE’s ‘No More Factory Farms‘ campaign, which calls on government officials to proactively prevent future pandemic outbreaks by introducing a moratorium prohibiting the construction of new factory farms and slaughterhouses.”

(Via Direct Action Everywhere & Mediaite)

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Reason’s Perfect Plan Comes Together In His Wistful ‘Westside’ Video

TDE rapper Reason gets exactly what he wants in the new video for “Westside” from his October album New Beginnings. The wistful song, which features Spillage Village’s Mereba on the soulful hook, finds the Del Amo, California spitter unleashing his slickest dirty mack game on the object of his affections, but the video plays things slightly differently. It follows a bank teller who appears to be in a flourishing relationship with one of the bankers at work, causing dissonance with the song.

Then Reason shows up at the bank multiple times, looking like he’s got his eyes on this young lady and designs on her heart. However, he still doesn’t seem to be making any headway, and her relationship looks as strong as ever by the time he walks into the bank holding a bouquet of roses. I won’t spoil the twist, but I’m sure if you’ve watched any of Reason’s other cinematic music videos, you can probably guess where this one is heading.

Over the past year, Reason’s shown a true penchant for creative, narrative music videos for songs like “Favorite N****,” “Pop Sh*t,” and “Trapped In” — although, he can go for a purely eye-popping aesthetic as well, as he does on the Vince Staples collaboration, “Sauce.” Combined with his thoughtful bars, easygoing charisma, and star turn on “LamboTruck,” from Revenge Of The Dreamers III, he’s put himself in prime position for a huge breakout in 2021.

Watch Reason’s “Westside” video above.

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Two penguins who recently lost their partners seem to comfort one another in an iconic photo

Forgive me as I wax rhapsodic about penguins, but this truly is just the sweetest thing.

Photographer Tobias Baumgaertner has captured hearts around the world with his photo of two fairy penguins, one with its flipper around the other, as they appear to stare at the lights of Melbourne, Australia across the water. At first glance, one might assume that Baumgaertner just got lucky, snapping the photo just as one penguin was stretching or something, but videos he shared on Instagram show how genuinely touching the moment really was.

According to BBC News, St Kilda Pier in Melbourne is home to a colony of around 1,400 fairy penguins, the world’s smallest penguin species, and the population is monitored by volunteers. One of them approached Baumgaertner as he was shooting and told him that the white penguin was an elderly lady who had lost her partner and the younger male to the left had also.


“Since then they meet regularly comforting each other and standing together for hours watching the dancing lights of the nearby city,” Baumgaertner wrote on Instagram. “I spend 3 full nights with this penguin colony until I was able to get this picture. Between not being able or allowed to use any lights and the tiny penguins continuously moving, rubbing their flippers on each other’s backs and cleaning one another, it was really hard to get a shot but i got lucky during one beautiful moment.”

“The way that these two lovebirds were caring for one another stood out from the entire colony,” he wrote in another Instagram post. “While all the other penguins were sleeping or running around, those two seemed to just stand there and enjoy every second they had together, holding each other in their flippers and talking about penguin stuff.”

The photo, which was actually taken in 2019, recently won the Community Choice award in Oceanographic magazine’s Ocean Photograph Awards.

Baumgaertner also shared a video of the penguins, showing how close they were. However, he also shared a caveat about anthropomorphizing animals too much.

“I am a dreamer,” he wrote. “I believe that it is important to have dreams as they make life worth living and give love meaning. I previously shared these penguin images to spread love because that, I believed, is what the world needed most right now. It was never intended to be scientifically accurate as it was quite obviously romanticized by adding my personal feelings of being separated from and longing for the one I can’t live without. I wrote these words from the bottom of my heart and never expected so many people to connect with them.

Like with anything else in life too much of one thing has the potential to become dangerous and while we don’t know what goes on in these little penguins I’ve been advised by the scientific community that anthropomorphizing animals can have a negative influence on them as it “can… lead to inappropriate behaviors towards wild animals”. This is especially the case for animals living in such close proximity to the city as they are already dealing with various challenges. I have further been advised that these two could be related, …the exact relation of these two is at this point probably hard to figure out but I am happy to hear that if they are not friends then they might at least be family.

Either way I believe that this was a truly beautiful and magical moment that spread so much love around the world. I also believe that humans protect what they can connect with and it acts as a reminder that we share this beautiful world with many other beings which come in various shapes and sizes, degrees of fluffiness and colors as well as with specific needs crucial for their survival. It presents us with just one of many reasons why we should protect the ones with no voice to stand up for themselves and most importantly it has shown us that if we care and come together we could change the world…”

Indeed, as the world reels from the widespread losses from the coronavirus pandemic, we need all the comfort we can get. If that comes in the form of a penguin photo that touches on the grief so many are experiencing and the connections that bring joy to our lives, so be it.

Several photos of the penguins are available for purchase on Baumgaertner’s website.

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Big Sean Is The Pistons’ New Creative Director Of Innovation

As the Pistons look to make the Detroit community a bigger part of their team branding through their D-Up campaign, the team on Wednesday named hip-hop artist and Detroit native Big Sean as its creative director of innovation.

The Pistons said in the announcement that Big Sean will be part of the creative team overseeing team merchandise design and in-game experience for Pistons fans as well as community outreach efforts and social responsibility efforts in the Detroit area.

In addition, the Pistons in-arena intro video will feature Big Sean’s music, and the team’s practice jerseys will be emblazoned with the rapper’s signature “Don Life” logo.

The move comes at a time when NBA teams are increasingly looking outside the world of pro basketball for branding and marketing professionals. The Raptors notably have a partnership with Drake and his OVO line, while Jay-Z at one point was closely attached to the Brooklyn Nets as a minority owner of the franchise.

At the same time, a league like the WNBA, which recently hired Nike’s senior director of concept, Phil Cook, to be its first CMO. The lines between culture, sports, and fashion are increasingly becoming blurred, and the Pistons are betting that Big Sean, especially due to his local ties to Detroit, will be the next successful example.

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Quavo Gifted Saweetie Bentley And It Has A Subtle Nod To Their Infamous DM Conversation

People were impressed when Cardi B celebrated Offset’s birthday by gifting him a $700k Lamborghini. But fellow Migos member Quavo wanted to take things up a notch by giving his significant other a different custom ride. The rapper decided to ring in the holidays by surprising Saweetie with an icy Bentley — and she was speechless.

Quavo surprised Saweetie with a powder blue Bentley convertible with custom-made details. The car’s seats are embroidered with the word “icy” and the car’s exterior is adorned with a snowflake decal, Saweetie’s favorite emoji, and a reference to Quavo’s viral, relationship-starting DM conversation with her.

Saweetie shared the luxury gift in a video posted to her Instagram. After being initially speechless at the gift, Saweetie squealed and said her heart was “beating so fast.”

Saweetie was happy with the gift, to say the least.

Quavo’s gift to Saweetie arrives shortly after the rapper teased Migo’s highly-anticipated Culture III. Speaking about the album’s release date in a recent interview, Quavo said it’s coming “at the top of the year.” He added that Migos decided to wait to drop the LP so that they could be together with fans in person. “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.”

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

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Chloe X Halle’s Latest Virtual Performance Has Fans Buzzing

Chloe X Halle had a breakout year thanks to their viral single “Do It” and penchant for turning their backyard into one of music’s hottest stages as live entertainment turned to live streaming in response to the ongoing pandemic. Each of their performances has drawn more attention and discussion to the duo, but their latest has completely upended the discourse about them. Video of the sister act’s appearance on Verizon’s all-female series of virtual concerts prompted a trending topic on Twitter as fans were blown away by their virtuoso vocal display — and Chloe’s exuberant choreography.

Incidentally, the concert footage was initially only available to Verizon Up members, but once enterprising fans began to upload their screen captures, the clips quickly took on a life of their own. However, while much of the discussion was positive, some fans took the opportunity to suggest the sisters go solo, while others shot down their accusations that Halle is “holding Chloe back.”

Meanwhile, other fans were just extremely here for Chloe’s energetic performance, contrasting her super low squats with Halle’s relatively demure posing.

From once being told that their music was “too complex for the average ear” to Chloe X Halle to releasing a fan-and-critics-favorite album that launched them to superstardom, this year has been a good one for the young Beyonce proteges.

See the reactions to their Verizon Up performance above.

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‘Seinfeld’ Fans Are Honoring Jerry Stiller On The First Festivus Since He Passed Away

Today is December 23, which means it’s Finn Wolfhard’s birthday (the most important December birth, imo), as well as the annual airing of grievances known as Festivus.

The Christmas-adjacent holiday was introduced in the Seinfeld season nine episode, “The Strike,” and has since become “the perfect secular theme for an all-inclusive December gathering,” as the New York Times once wrote. In real life, it was created by Seinfeld writer Dan O’Keefe’s father, Daniel, but on the show, it’s Frank Costanza, played by Jerry Stiller, who comes up with the traditions. There’s the pole (it requires no direction because Frank finds tinsel “distracting”), the Feats of Strength (“Until you pin me, George, Festivus is not over”), and the Festivus dinner, where “you gather your family around and tell them all the ways they have disappointed you over the past year.”

There was a lot of disappointment in 2020, including losing Stiller, who passed away in May at 92 years old. On this, the first Festivus without Frank Costanza, Seinfeld fans are paying tribute to the actor who taught us that there’s a “Festivus for the rest of us.”

“It’s a pretty good holiday when you think about it,” “The Strike” co-writer Jeff Schaffer told about Festivus’ legacy. “It’s the perfect antidote to Christmas when you’re supposed to pretend to be nice to everybody, and give them presents. Why not have its evil twin where you can sit around a pole and tell everyone what you don’t like about them?”

For much more on the origin of Festivus, click here.

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An MSNBC Anchor Mopped The Floor With Chris Christie For Attempting To ‘Clean The Trump Stink Off,’ Too Little And Too Late

Chris Christie’s past four years have been quite an adventure, to say the least. He went from a Trump rival in the primaries to a Hostage Face mascot to McDonald’s fetching manservant and, finally, a trusted Trump surrogate for years. Small moments aside, it really wasn’t until Christie caught COVID-19 that he started pushing back at Trump’s policies and admitting that it was mistake to not wear a mask in public. Subsequently, Christie has been very vocal in urging Trump to stop pushing voter-fraud conspiracies and attempting a coup, but one MSNBC anchor isn’t afraid to say that she’s not buying it.

After the 1:10 mark in the above video, Nicolle Wallace starts to call Christie out for not distancing himself from Trump until recently (and while Christie apparently positions himself for a 2024 run). The discussion began with Christie expressing his belief that Trump would leave the White House on January 20 without incident because that’s what’s good for the U.S., and then Wallace got real with Christie, accusing him of simply polishing himself up faster than the rest of the GOP while distancing himself from Trump.

“It is my sense, and I know you said in an interview with Hugh Hewitt, you haven’t ruled out a run in 2024. I don’t remember you coming out and forcefully pushing back against Donald Trump’s comments on the Access Hollywood tape. I didn’t hear you, after he called African nations ‘bleep-hole nations.’ I didn’t hear you distance yourself from this president at any point until the target for his ire and lawlessness was the democracy you haven’t ruled out leading in four years. Are you simply making a political calculation that you could clean the Trump stink off you faster than Marco Rubio or some of the other competitors?”

Yeah, that left a mark, and people noticed.

In response, Christie simply asserted that he made the right decision back in 2016 before he chose Trump over Hillary Clinton. “I wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton today, if that choice were to be made,” he explained while also arguing that he stood up for former AG Jeff Sessions. It’s quite a deflection. Watch the full video at the top of this post.

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Nipsey Hussle Posthumously Appears On J Stone’s ‘The Definition Of Pain’

Nearly two years have passed since the death of the great Nipsey Hussle, and while hip-hop still contends with the void left behind by his loss, his voice still resonates through his music — including the posthumous verses he blessed collaborators with before he died. Two new Hussle verses arrived today courtesy of the Crenshaw rapper’s All Money In artist J Stone, who released his new project The Definition Of Pain. Nipsey appears on a pair of songs, “LeBron James” featuring Dom Kennedy, and “Started Wit Nothin’” featuring T.I.

The fellow featured artists are fitting, as both were regular collaborators and close friends of Nipsey’s in life. Dom and Nipsey were two of the primary rappers at the forefront of Los Angeles’ blog rap explosion in the late 2000s, culminating in their collaboration “Checc Me Out” from Nipsey’s Crenshaw mixtape as well as on “Double Up” with Belly from Nip’s debut album Victory Lap, while Nip appeared on T.I.’s Paperwork on the song “About My Issue.” J Stone’s new album also contains features from Dave East, E-40, Kash Doll, and Trae The Truth.

Along with Cobby Supreme, Cuzzo Capone, Pacman Da Gunman, and Wali Da Great, J Stone was one of the artists on Nipsey’s All Money In label. Nipsey was fiercely independent in his life, living by the mantra, “All money in, no money out,” and eventually turning that motto into the name of his label. Before he died, he partnered with Atlantic Records to distribute his debut album after independently releasing mixtapes for ten years — including the $100 mixtape Crenshaw and the $1,000 mixtape Mailbox Money.

Listen to Nipsey’s posthumous verses above and check out The Definition of Pain here.