Category: Worldwide

Tonight’s celebration of the Bay Area featuring E-40 and Too Short is one of the best entries into the Verzuz catalogue so far, and it will also be the showdown of the year. The show is in full swing, and hearing these two legendary producers share stories and play the classics is more than enjoyable — it feels historic. Both of these icons know that despite their own talents, the hip-hop community at large has been instrumental in their success, and Too Short in particular has been mentioning the female rappers who he worked with on hit songs, name-checking Lil Kim and Kelis while playing collaborations.

But he also took a moment to mention Queen Latifah for another reason. Using what might be his favorite adlib, the B-word, very frequently throughout the night, Short mentioned that there’s certain women he will never use the word on… like Queen Latifah. Fans and listeners reacted to this hilarious statement with question marks and plenty of their own thoughts, immediately bringing up her song “U.N.I.T.Y.” and the famous line “Who you calling b*tch?” Now, fans are waiting for word of the mention to get back to Queen and see if she responds. Technically, it’s a compliment, even if it’s a roundabout way of delivering it. Check out more reactions below and tune in to watch E-40 and Too Short play the hits for the rest of the night.

Disney is expanding the Star Wars universe at a massive clip in the coming years, with new Disney+ shows and some big movie plans in place even if the Skywalker Saga is apparently wrapped up. And though much of the extended Star Wars canon was largely dismissed when The Mouse bought the franchise’s rights from George Lucas, some of its biggest beats have been readdressed in shows like The Mandalorian.

Which is why it’s particularly of interest that a new report says some authors of Star Wars books say they haven’t been receiving royalty checks from Disney since they bought control of the franchise. The Wall Street Journal laid out their claims on Saturday, detailing how several authors of Star Wars and other novelizations say the checks stopped coming when Disney took control of the franchise and its many, many works.

The story largely focuses on Alan Dean Foster, who famously wrote the novelization of the original Star Wars movie in 1977. Foster had received royalties for decades for it and several other projects, and he’s certainly a notable figure in the extended Star Wars universe. But in 2012, when Disney bought the franchise, the checks stopped coming.

Now, Mr. Foster and other authors from Disney purchased franchises are in a heated dispute with Hollywood’s biggest empire, which they say refuses to pay royalties on book contracts it absorbed in the $4 billion Lucasfilm deal and other acquisitions. The amount of money at stake is minuscule to a company of Disney’s size but important to the writers seeking it. While Disney has mined Lucasfilm for new movies that have collectively grossed nearly $6 billion at the world-wide box office, these writers say the company has delayed dealing with their complaints and stiffed them on checks that rarely total a few thousand bucks apiece.

Since Mr. Foster’s dispute was taken public by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America association, other authors of books tied to projects from Indiana Jones to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” have come forward with similar stories of royalty checks that stopped after Disney acquired the properties. In each case, Disney threatens to alienate an obscure but vital tentacle of the franchises, as these novelizations helped build and maintain fan loyalty. Complicating matters: The exact amount of money at stake is unknown, since sales and royalties for the books involved have fluctuated wildly over time.

Disney responded to the report with a statement, saying “We are carefully reviewing whether any royalty payments may have been missed as a result of acquisition integration and will take appropriate remedial steps if that is the case.” But that’s apparently not what the company had said in the past when it came to other books Hansen wrote that Disney now controls.

In response to queries about the “Alien” checks, a Disney attorney told Mr. Foster that the company had acquired the rights to these books, but not the obligations to pay out royalties. But in the case of “Alien,” Ms. Hansen said, the rights to Mr. Foster’s novels had been reassigned several times, with no interruption of royalty checks, before Disney bought Fox.

“Disney has acquired a house with a mortgage on it. They want to keep living in the house. They don’t want to pay the mortgage,” Mr. Foster said.

As is pointed out in the piece, many of the authors who write these books are not the big-name writers and directors that make the box office hits or big-budget TV shows that power the Star Wars universe, but the more modest artists whose income largely relies on royalty checks, however small they may be. Hopefully things get sorted out soon, but it’s certainly a clerical issue that’s far more pressing for those cashing the checks than the company that should be cutting them.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

The Atlanta Hawks are entering the 2020-21 season with remarkably high expectations levied onto them. The team brought in a ton of talent to put around its existing young core, with All-Star guard Trae Young expected to be at the center of things. The message is clear: Atlanta is expected, by those who make decision in the organization, to compete for a playoff berth.

Before that happens, though, the team has to go through the preseason, which included a testy moment on Saturday night. With the Hawks down by six in the third quarter against the Memphis Grizzlies, Young was tasked with checking Grayson Allen, who came off a Jonas Valanciunas screen and began dribbling towards the rim.

Young tried to slow Allen down by fouling him, which was probably the right decision in that situation, but opted to engage in some extracurriculars by shoving Allen to the ground, which led to a minor fracas involving players on both teams.

As the announcers posited, it does seem like this is just Young taking out some frustration on Allen, as he’s struggled in each of the last two preseason games that Atlanta has played. Things continued for a minute after the shove, and at one point, it appears that Young jawed with Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins. When the dust settled, Young and Jenkins picked up technical fouls

Let’s be clear: Things could be going much better for the folks behind Cyberpunk 2077. The game, which had remarkably high expectations, fell flat on its face when it was rushed into being released. Instead of it being a potential game of the year, Cyberpunk is such a buggy mess on last-gen consoles that a power struggle between its developers and Sony led to it getting pulled from the PlayStation Store altogether.

There are some silver linings on this cloud, though. Thanks to things like patches, there may be new life breathed into the game that help it reach its potential down the road. And in the meantime, those of us who love glitches in video games get the occasional outstanding clip, like this one that made the rounds on Twitter on Saturday.

This one is art. The first time I saw it, I thought the glitch was going to be just a blackout that led to a loading screen or something, not “you will slowly ascend through the air, ostensibly to go meet the Lord.” While it’s hard to say this without seeing every single glitch that comes from this game, this one is going to go down as my favorite one barring something completely unforeseen.

Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden in November, a fact that remains true days after the Electoral College officially awarded him the presidency he will begin next month. Trump is struggling with this fact, though, and continues to refuse acknowledging the reality that he will leave the White House and Biden will take his place.

But now that his favorite social media app is telling him he lost the election, perhaps his social media presence will change. Probably not, though Twitter is officially citing his tweets about election misinformation with a new disclaimer. Variety and many others noticed the new label on Saturday, as Trump spent the day

“Election officials have certified Joe Biden as the winner of the U.S. Presidential Election,” the disclaimer said below a tweet on Saturday morning where Trump downplayed the severity of a very real cyber attack on government servers while baselessly claiming vast election fraud.

“Following certification of the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, we’ve updated our label to reflect the latest information,” a Twitter spokesperson told Variety on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported on Saturday that Trump has weighed appointing a conspiracy theory-slinging lawyer to a special council to investigate election fraud, even though the Electoral College vote is done and Biden’s transition team. So expect to see this disclaimer on a lot of Trump tweets moving forward.

Earlier today Doja Cat let her fans know on Twitter that she’d be dropping a new song called “Generous” later on, and now the song is up on Soundcloud. The downtempo song is less pop than some of the other songs that helped put Doja on the map in a big way this year, and is about being giving to a partner. Produced by tizhimself and Soraya LaPread, the song shows yet another side of the multi-faceted singer and rapper, who can do everything from pretty, uptempo pop to lowkey R&B and blitzed rap verses. She’s indulging in her sensual, R&B side on “Generous,” and no word yet on whether it’s a loosie one-off track or will be included on a forthcoming project.

Doja released her debut studio album, Amala in 2018 and followed it up last year with Hot Pink, the project that includes this year’s No. 1 hit “Say So,” but hasn’t shared much information about what is coming next for her. Instead, she’s promoting the pop-punk tinged track “Bottom Bitch,” another song off Hot Pink. With huge features like Nicki Minaj jumping on the “Say So” remix and appearances on Ariana Grande’s Positions album, it’s not like she needs to put out another full-length any time soon. But striking while the iron is hot never hurts, either. Listen to the sultry “Generous” below.

Alabama is known for having freaks of nature at every single position. Their players tend to be bigger, faster, and stronger than most everyone else — even when there are other teams that are really, really good, the Crimson Tide just have dudes whose physicality can take your breath away, regardless of which position they play.

An example of this was put on display on Saturday night in the SEC Championship Game against Florida. Alabama quarterback Mac Jones tried to force a ball in a really tight window on an early third down and got picked off by Gators defensive back Trey Dean. He had some room for a return, at which point he ran into John Metchie, a wide receiver for the Tide who apparently doubles as being Brian Dawkins every now and then.

Metchie hit Dean so hard that he lost the football and, I have to assume, got knocked into another dimension. The ball was recovered by DeVonta Smith, one of Metchie’s fellow receivers. And on the next play, this happened:

You would think by now opposing teams would learn that you should never, ever give Alabama a second chance to score, because they will, but in fairness to the Gators, they probably did not expect a receiver to hit like this.

Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, but long before that happened, he lost out on becoming the owner of the Buffalo Bills. Trump, in a past life, tried to acquire the team when they were up for sale, and while it is unclear if he actually wanted the team or was merely using their ownership search as a chance to generate some publicity, he ultimately came up short, with Terry Pegula putting in the bid that beat out Trump and a Toronto-based group led by Jon Bon Jovi.

In classic Trump fashion, he tweeted about the whole ordeal right after it happened. Most notably, he predicted that his losing out on the whole thing due to his reluctance to pay what he claimed was a “ridiculous price” would lead to the team never becoming a winner.

History ended up getting really weird in the years since that tweet. Trump, of course, went on to win the 2016 presidential election and spent a spell in office before losing to Biden in November. And on Saturday, this prediction made the rounds on Twitter once more, as the Bills thrashed the Denver Broncos, 48-19, to win the AFC East for the first time since 1995.

The win boosted the Bills to 11-3 on the season. As for Trump, he did not respond to any of this, instead using his evening to tweet that he won the 2020 election. (He did not.)

Jamal Murray may have been the biggest breakout star of the NBA’s Orlando Bubble. The former University of Kentucky standout seemed to find an extra gear in the postseason, going from one of the league’s most promising players to one of its best in a pair of series — first against the Utah Jazz, then against the Los Angeles Clippers — when the Denver Nuggets fell into a 3-1 hole.

For his efforts, Murray is adding a bit of silverware to his trophy case. On Saturday night, Murray won the Breakout of the Year presented by Emsculpt Neo at the 2020 Sports Illustrated Awards, beating out Cleveland Indians pitcher Shane Bieber, Washington Mystics standout Myisha Hines-Allen, and Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, who battled against Murray in the first round of the 2020 playoffs. Following his win, Murray was interviewed by Richard Jefferson.

Murray had a spectacular season in 2019-20, putting up a career-best 18.5 points per game along with 4.8 assists and four rebounds a night. He took a gigantic leap in the postseason, though, dominating on the offensive end of the floor by averaging 26.5 points and 6.6 assists in 39.6 minutes per game, connecting on 50.5 percent of his shots from the field and 45.3 percent of his triples. He’ll look to build on this during the 2020-21 campaign, which starts for the Nuggets this week — the team tips its season off on Wednesday against the Sacramento Kings before a Christmas Day showdown with the Clippers.

As the former president has done for the last few years, Barack Obama returned with his annual favorite songs of 2020 list on Saturday. The past history of the list finds Barack accounting for his favorite records that were released throughout the year with the collection of songs coming from various genres and this year, things are pretty much the same. Obama shared the list with his followers and let them know that he got some help from his youngest daughter, Sasha, in putting it together.

“As usual, I had some valuable consultation from our family music guru, Sasha, to put this together,” he said.

Across the 30 songs, Barack made sure to include some of this year’s most popular tracks including Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage (Remix),” Travis Scott, Young Thug, and M.I.A.’s “Franchise,” and “Levitating” by Dua Lipa and DaBaby. The former president picked Lil Baby’s “The Bigger Picture,” J. Cole’s “The Climb Back,” Internet Money, Gunna, Don Toliver, and NAV’s “Lemonade” and more as his selections from the hip-hop world. The R&B world saw HER’s “Damage” and Jhene Aiko’s “Summer 2020,” while names like J Hus and Wizkid from outside the country made the list.

Other additions to the playlist include Mac Miller, Waxahatchee, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Anderson .Paak, Spillage Village, Bad Bunny, and more.

Prior to this, Barack unveiled his list of favorite movies and TV shows from 2020.

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