Category: Worldwide

One of the stories of the NBA Bubble seeding round was the absence of some of the Clippers key bench players, with Patrick Beverley, Montrezl Harrell, and Lou Williams all missing time due to personal reasons that kept them outside the Disney Bubble.

Williams famously had to quarantine for a full 10 days after his return to Orlando because of a trip he took to the noted fine Atlanta establishment, Magic City, where rapper Jack Harlow took a photo with him, setting off plenty of jokes and takes. Williams explained his trip to Magic as a simple takeout run to get some lemon pepper wings, and as someone that covered Lou in his time with the Hawks I can confirm he has long been a fan of the wings from Magic City Kitchen.

However, that didn’t stop the jokes nor was it believable enough for some, but Williams made it through quarantine without a positive test and has steadily worked his way back into form as the Clippers are now just a game away from the Western Conference Finals. On Thursday, Williams posted on his Instagram Story that he had filed a trademark for “Lemon Pepper Lou,” noting it’s the first time he’s “owned a joke.”

It’s a savvy business move from Lou, as he notes if folks want to make shirts about Lemon Pepper Lou they’ll now have to pay him to do so. Also, this wasn’t something that was ever going to fully go away, so steering into it and embracing the jokes is by far the best way to handle this, rather than trying to ignore it or push back against it.

Lemon Pepper Lou will be on the court again on Friday when the Clippers look to close out the Nuggets in Game 5 of their series.

It’s always interesting to learn about how an American president handles their day-to-day. Barack Obama’s old daily schedules have become fodder for some of Twitter’s better feeds, revealing a productive though often quite dull routine, hailing from far less interesting times than these. But based on reports from inside the White House — and from our current president’s own Twitter feed — it appears the majority of Trump’s day is devoted to this: watching a ton of Fox News. Maybe that explains why he’s not been doing much to stop the pandemic, despite knowing its severity.

He also occasionally does press conferences and lets slip things he probably shouldn’t say out loud. That happened Thursday, when he blurted out that, at least the other night, he watched many hours of Fox News, where he’s still, even now (although not always), held in the highest of esteem.

Trump was asked about the investigation under way by U.S. attorney John Durham, who is looking into the origins of the Mueller Report and what it had to say about Russian influence upon the 2016 election. Trump said he couldn’t say what it was going to say, but he suggested it would be flattering. He then listed other places that have said kind words about him, even after Wednesday’s bombshell reveal that Trump admitted to underplaying the severity of the coronavirus in its early stages. And of course, all of those places were on Fox News.

“I watched Liz McDonald. She’s fantastic,” Trump said. “I watched Fox Business. I watched Lou Dobbs last night, Sean Hannity last night, Tucker last night, Laura. I watched Fox & Friends in the morning. You watch these shows. You don’t have to go too far into the details, they cover things that are.”

As per The Daily Beast, this contradicts things Trump said last month, when he claimed he doesn’t “watch very much TV” because he works “very long hours.” Maybe it was a special occasion. And for whatever it’s worth, perhaps he didn’t watch all of Hannity the night before. After all, he was on it.

Still, this is, even for a Fox News devotee, a lot of Fox News. His admission was quickly picked up by social media, many of whom were horrified and the opposite of jealous.

Some made solid Billy Joel jokes.

The other notable part of Thursday’s press conference was when he snapped at a Washington Post reporter for asking him about his aforementioned remarks on the severity of COVID-19, in audio obtained by former Post alum Bob Woodward. That didn’t go well.

Anyway, Trump likes to watch. But we already strongly suspected that, didn’t we?

Alicia Keys has created a $1 billion endowment for Black businesses in partnership with the NFL, according to Billboard. The singer, who will be performing at tonight’s NFL Kickoff event for the 2020 season explained her reasoning for teaming up with the league, even after its problematic approach to protests for Black lives.

“We are already seeing the blatant injustices that are going on around us,” Keys told Billboard. “As an artist, I’m always thinking about how can I use my platform to further racial equity. This fund is one of the answers and our goal is to empower Black America through investing in Black businesses, Black investors, institutions, entrepreneurs, schools and banks in a way to create sustainable solutions.”

She also elaborated on the future goals of the fund, saying, “The initial goal of $1 billion is to ensure a substantial commitment. Even with that, it does not come close to closing the economic gap. The next steps are to reach out to different industries to invite them to invest in racial justice and create a multi-billion dollar endowment across business sectors.”

The NFL had previously teamed with Jay-Z, appointing the rapper and music mogul its “Live Music Entertainment Strategist” in a move that drew split reactions from the hip-hop community after the NFL’s treatment of Colin Kaepernick and Jay’s outspoken support for the blackballed quarterback.

During a press briefing on Thursday, Donald Trump faced intense questioning after journalist Bob Woodward’s new book revealed that the president had full knowledge of COVID-19’s deadliness, but chose to downplay its dangers in the early months of the pandemic. After being asked by Jonathan Karl, “Why did you lie to the American people? And why should we trust what you have to say now?” Trump’s response didn’t change tactics.

“That’s a terrible question and the phraseology,” Trump said. “I didn’t lie. What I said is we have to be calm. We can’t be panicked.”

While it is true that the president told Woodward that he “likes” to downplay the pandemic to avoid a panic, it’s hard to reconcile that reasoning with the fact that, several times, Trump privately expressed the full severity of the coronavirus, including that children are not immune, yet continued to give public statements that contradicted that information. The president’s cavalier stance created a diminished sense of urgency (as his supporters began to push back against health initiatives like wearing masks or not reopening schools) that could’ve slowed the virus’ spread if more widely adopted.

However, Trump’s answer to Karl only worsened as he continued. At one point, the president even joined the growing criticism against Woodward for not releasing the Trump’s recording sooner. Via Mediaite:

“But I thought it would be interesting to talk to him for a period of calls. So we did that. I don’t know if it’s good or bad. I don’t know if the book is good or bad. Certainly if he thought that was a bad statement, he would have reported it because he thinks that, you know, you don’t want to have anybody that is going to suffer medically because of some fact. He didn’t report it because he didn’t think it was bad. Nobody thought it was bad. Wait a minute. And your question, the way you phrased that is such a disgrace. It’s a disgrace to ABC television network, it’s a disgrace to your employer. And that’s your answer.”

Karl was quick to respond that Trump told the American people that COVID-19 is just like the flu — even though the president is on tape specifically telling Woodward that it is deadlier than the flu. In other words, he lied.

You can watch Trump’s full response below:

(Via ABC News on Twitter & The Independent)

Gabriel Garzón-Montano changes tack on his latest single, trading in his usual upbeat, Reggaeton-influenced sound for an acoustic guitar-driven ballad called “Bloom.” Produced by Gabriel himself, the song opens with the Colombian-French singer softly strumming his guitar, with backing strings coming in and providing a pretty counterpoint along with some light harp, complementing the bittersweet lyrics. It’s a musical departure that promises his next album, Agüita, will be an even more diverse affair than we’re used to hearing from him.

Of the track, Gabriel explains, “‘Bloom’ is a song about birth, life, decay and death. I looked up the word ‘bloom’ and was delighted at the many definitions it boasts. Using the ones that lent themselves to my story, I decided to start the first and last phrase in each stanza with the word. Each line uses the definition to describe a different state of human development of a stage of life.”

Agüita, which drops October 2 on Jagjaguwar in association with Stones Throw, is the follow-up to 2017’s Jardín, which found Gabriel blending an eclectic array of styles — both global and personal to his unique upbringing — to craft a sound that even drew the attention of Drake, who sampled his song “6 8” on the 2015 standout “Jungle.”

Agüita is out 10/2 via Jagjaguwar/Stones Throw. Pre-save it here.

Omar Apollo keeps the new songs coming with “Kamikaze,” his third release of the summer after “Imagine U” and “Stayback.” The alt-indie songwriter’s latest picks up where his last left off, opening with a refrain of “Stay back, for what?” and launching into a nostalgic reminisce of simpler times, when he was “naive but I remember.” The instrumentation is simple but clean, with a strumming electric guitar and midtempo beat similar to the one from Frank Ocean’s breakout his “Novacane.”

Though weary and lovelorn, “Kamikaze” isn’t without its humor as Apollo describes his crush: “Ass round like cheerios / And you got a lil’ vimeo / What’s thе password? You just froze / Don’t you got enough material?” As Apollo explains in the press statement announcing the release, “‘Kamikaze’ is a song that taps into my old emotions, taking it back to when I was younger. When I made ‘Kamikaze’ I was reminiscing on how I used to feel for someone and realizing those feelings are lost and we’re left with nothing. It feels good to hold on to the memories without the feelings it gave me.”

Watch Omar Apollo’s lyrics video for “Kamikaze” above.

Omar Apollo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

This time last year, when a rift between James Harden and Chris Paul forced Houston’s hand, Paul was seen as a highly overpaid old-timer on the decline. Most assumed he had little value left as a player relative to the $40-plus million he’d be owed by the end of his contract. Injuries continually derailed the Rockets’ playoff pushes and it seemed as if the shake and peskiness that had defined Paul’s career couldn’t possibly hold up much longer.

But this year, he reframed what could be possible as he nears retirement. Paul, who is 35, can’t do anything to change how much he’s owed over the next two seasons (which is about $85.5 million), but during a throwback All-Star campaign in Oklahoma City, the Point God reminded us of all the things that make him special.

With an elite 61.0 true shooting percentage, it was the most efficient shooting season for Paul since he was a Clipper, and the second-most efficient of his career. And he stayed healthy, starting 70 games for the Thunder in addition to another seven in the playoffs. Most impressively, he gave a sense of purpose and moxie to an Oklahoma City squad that was expected to define success by draft capital rather than playoff wins. Rather than dumping Steven Adams and Danilo Gallinari at mid-season, the Thunder were good enough to make a playoff push and give meaning to what could have been a lost season following the departure of Paul George.

This is Paul in 2020: A genius player and determined leader who is still admittedly being paid too much. That’s still a fairly risky bundle to absorb, but the version of Paul we saw this year is quite a bit more valuable than the Rockets malcontent. Already, many teams — starting with Philadelphia and Milwaukee — have made it known they could make a run at Paul, and with Oklahoma City parting ways with head coach Billy Donovan as the first step of their rebuild, it looks like the Thunder are ready to move him, too.

The best circumstance for Paul is a place where, like he was in Houston, he can be a secondary playmaker and not exert himself too much in the regular season. Teams will still want to be careful with how much they ask of him if they want him at his best in the playoffs. Yet many of these teams exist across the NBA as the league values play-making wings more highly. It’s no coincidence that the Bucks and Sixers — two great teams who fell short this year because their offense runs through bigs — are expected to be among the most aggressive suitors.

That said, here’s what we could be looking at in the Paul sweepstakes this offseason.

The Contenders

Milwaukee Bucks

These playoffs have reinforced the fact that in the postseason, the easiest way to create good shots in the halfcourt is in the pick-and-roll. Yet the Bucks’ best players rarely hooked up for buckets in these playoffs, and despite creating the third-highest expected effective field goal percentage of any playoff team, Milwaukee was seventh in actual effective field goal percentage. That is the mark of a team that struggled to make good on its usual recipe and whose stars could not make up for missteps.

Paul solves a lot of these issues. He can be effective without having the ball in his hands, as we saw in Houston, meaning Giannis Antetokounmpo can still initiate possessions in transition and from the post, while in late-clock or crunch time situations, Paul can bail the Bucks out better than the likes of Eric Bledsoe or even Khris Middleton.

Milwaukee can put together salaries of Bledsoe and role players to get in business for Paul, and they should be willing to give up multiple first-round picks if that’s what it takes to acquire Paul and upgrade their team in a do-or-die 2020-21 season. The issue is whether they can come close to matching what the Thunder want — or find a third team to make a deal work, as our Robby Kalland looked into earlier.

Philadelphia 76ers

So much is in flux in Philly that it’s hard to know the Sixers’ priorities. They need a coach, which will help define their desired style, and further front office upheaval could lead to a much different roster going forward. But Elton Brand has made it clear that the team’s goal is to keep Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid going into next season, and Paul complements those two perfectly.

Philadelphia was fifth in the NBA in the proportion of shots taken from floater/post-up range because their halfcourt offense was centered around Embiid and Harris, who prefer those more difficult shots. Overall, over one-fifth of their offensive possessions came via post-ups, almost 10 percentage points higher than second-ranked Denver. They were running an offense that would have been more familiar to “The Last Dance” than the 2020 playoffs.

Rarely has a team had such a glaring weakness and simultaneously done so little to address it as with the Sixers’ need for a perimeter play-maker. Since drafting and dumping Markelle Fultz, the Sixers have effectively acted as if this is not something they need to solve for, but after another playoff disappointment, they have no choice.

Imagine Paul navigating a Simmons screen, running a two-man game with Embiid from the elbow, or hitting Harris off a curl. The possibilities are pretty exciting, and though they made several mistakes in free agency last year, it also means they have the matching salaries for a trade with the Thunder (I picked Al Horford because his contract is shorter than Harris’), as well as young players like Zhaire Smith and all their own first-round picks.

Utah Jazz

The Mike Conley experiment didn’t go so well for Utah, as it was basically the inverse of what the Thunder got out of the Paul deal. Conley showed his age, shooting worse than 41 percent from the field and being almost a negative player on the whole based on overall stats like Box Plus-Minus. And in the playoffs (when the Jazz were also without Bojan Bogdanovic), head coach Quin Snyder handed the offense almost entirely to Donovan Mitchell.

With Paul next to Mitchell and a supporting cast that includes Bogdanovic, Royce O’Neale and Rudy Gobert, the Jazz are a team that could allow Paul to do much of what he’s most comfortable doing: Initiating offense, setting up teammates, defending point guards, and leading. Utah is still pretty young and has been unable to crack through to the conference finals since Snyder took over. Paul might only be a short-term solution while Mitchell continues to improve, but he could be exactly what the Jazz hoped for from Conley.

Because Conley is on an expiring contract, this could be one of the more attractive deals to Sam Presti and the Thunder as well.

The Wildcard

New York Knicks

Especially now that Tom Thibodeau has been hired to coach the Knicks, a grinder like Paul makes even more sense for the team. The other intriguing aspect of Paul going to New York is how it could help the growth of R.J. Barrett, who at Duke and in his rookie season in New York was wildly inconsistent in large part because he had no secondary creator who could take pressure off him, which forced Barrett into tons of bad shots and turnovers.

If Paul can’t finish out this contract on a great team, being close to league headquarters as the union president and playing in a big market under a coach who can match his competitiveness might be one of the best options out there. It’s a stretch, but because Paul is on the trade block and not choosing his destination in free agency, this may ultimately be one of his best options.

Unpregnant (HBO Max) — A 17-year-old Type A student, Veronica (Haley Lu Richardson), deals with a never-taken-lightly decision by taking a 1000-mile road trip with her former BFF, Bailey (Barbie Ferreira), and it’s a wild ride that neither of them suspected was afoot. The value of renewed friendships with a dash of both Thelma And Louise and Fast And Furious make this an unexpectedly funny film with costars including Alex MacNicoll, Breckin Meyer, and Giancarlo Esposito, and Betty Who.

Julie and the Phantoms (Netflix film) — High School Musical choreographer and director Kenny Ortega teams up with Paul Brecker (Mirror Mirror) after their joint work on Descendants to bring us into a high schooler’s world as she attempts to regain her musical passions following her mother’s death. What follows is a series about embracing life’s ups and downs and discovering one’s own power.

Black Boys (Peacock film) — While intersecting the realms of education, criminal justice and sports, this movie explores and celebrates the experience of Black men and boys in America. It does so through intimate conversations and stories with NFL champions including Greg Scruggs, Malcolm Jenkins, Cris Carter, and Chris Long, along with rapper Vic Mensa, the NBA’s Carmelo Anthony, and former U.S. Secretary of Education Dr. John King.

The Babysitter: Killer Queen (Netflix film) — Get into the Halloween mood now with a not-quite-as-fun sequel to the original, but it’ll do just fine. Starring Bella Thorne, the action picks up two years after Cole defeats the satanic cult, but old (and new) enemies are back for more.

Holey Moley II: The Sequel (ABC, 8:00 p.m.) — With the promise of “A Finale of Epic Proportions,” you can’t really go wrong here, but please prepare your mind by reading Brian Grubb’s ranking of Holey Moley holes.

Mysteries Decoded (CW, 8:00 p.m.) — The “Bermuda Triangle” episode digs into the claimed vortex for supernatural forces that has plagued mankind (planes, ships, you name it) for god only knows how long.

Jimmy Kimmel Live — DJ Khaled, John Legend

Late Night With Seth Meyers (CW, 8:00 p.m.) — Michael Cohen, Sheryl Crow

The National vocalist Matt Berninger is gearing up for the release of his debut solo record, Serpentine Prison. So far, Berninger has previewed the effort through his evocative singles “Distant Axis” as well as the record’s title track. Offering another glimpse at the project, Berninger shares “One More Second” as his interpretation of a “desperate love song.”

Though Berninger’s “One More Time” is anything but lovelorn, the singer penned the song as a response to Dolly Parton’s infamous “I Will Always Love You.” “I wrote ‘One More Second’ with Matt Sheehy with the intention for it to be a kind of answer to Dolly Parton’s ‘I Will Always Love You,’ or sort of the other side of that conversation,” Berninger said. “I just wanted to write one of those classic, simple, desperate love songs that sound great in your car.”

Speaking about the album’s recording process, Berninger said: “I sent [friend and collaborator Booker T. Jones] a few rough demos of originals that I had started working on with some old friends, including the songs ‘Serpentine Prison’ and ‘Distant Axis.’ Booker responded to those demos right away and encouraged me to keep writing and digging deeper into that stuff. Six months later we had twelve originals and seven covers. Everyone I had been working with on these songs came to Venice, CA, and we recorded it all in 14 days.”

Listen to “One More Second” above.

Serpentine Prison is out 10/16 via Book’s/Concord Records. Pre-order it here.

The best new hip-hop albums coming out this week include projects from B.O.B., Bobby Sessions, and Conway The Machine.

With summer winding down, it appears that hip-hop is finally beginning to take a rest from the tidal wave of releases that marked July and August, with the last two weeks given over to one or two big-name releases like Big Sean’s Detroit 2 or Jaden’s Cool Tape Vol 3.

That trend continues somewhat this week, albeit in inverted fashion, as Bobby Sessions offers up his own sequel to a running series of projects, while Conway follows up a string of early 2020 releases with his third drop of this year. Now that things are slowing down, it seems like a great time to check out our Fall Music Preview to see what’s coming down the pike to look forward to.

Here are all the best new hip-hop albums coming out this week.

B.O.B. — Somnia

Oddball conspiracy theories aside — and honestly, which rappers these days don’t think the Earth is flat or that there are mind-control chemicals in the water — B.O.B. remains a top-tier lyricist who picks great beats to rap over. While some of the subject matter may end up a little sketchy, to be clear, he hasn’t really relied on rhymes that reflect some of his goofier thoughts about the world, so this one may be worth a spin or two. Besides, wouldn’t you rather hear Bobby’s ill-informed flights of fancy than seemingly every other rapper complaining about Gayle King holding men accountable for their bad behavior?

Bobby Sessions — RVLTN 3: The Price Of Freedom

Def Jam acquisition Bobby Sessions may not be a household name yet, but he should be. Everything everyone expects from a J. Cole, a Kendrick Lamar, or a Killer Mike, Sessions actually has: Profound insight into politics and current events, sharp-tongued lyrics written from a poignant, personal perspective, and none of the faux-woke missteps each seems to find themselves making every 12 months or so. His RVLTN series has been satisfying thus far, and this entry does not disappoint. “Reparations” is the perfect entry point if you’re late to the Bobby train.

Conway The Machine — From King To A God

Pushed back from its original release date, Conway’s third project of the year will undoubtedly prove to be every bit as entertaining as his earlier releases with The Alchemist and Big Ghost LTD. Whereas both of those projects were produced in their entirety by their respective collaborative partners, this one is 100 percent directed by Conway himself and set to feature a broader musical palette courtesy of producers like Hit-Boy as a table setter for his forthcoming Shady Records debut. In holding it back, he also added a dedication to his late mentor DJ Shay alongside tracks featuring Dej Loaf, Freddie Gibbs, and Method Man.