Category: Worldwide

On Saturday night Mike Tyson fought Roy Jones Jr., but their big bout was almost upstaged by the preliminary “undercard” fight, which found Slam Dunk champion Nate Robinson taking on YouTuber Jake Paul. Those who assumed a guy mostly known for controversial social media posts wouldn’t stand a chance were wrong: Paul wound up triumphant over Robinson, scoring a first-round knockout. The fight produced an onslaught of memes and jokes, with people making fun of the former Knicks guard for losing the matchup so quickly. Despite this, musician Rick Ross opted to show Robinson some love.

“We still f*ck with you Nate,” the Maybach Music rapper said in a video he shared to his Instagram story. “Everything good, n***a. We know you play basketball, n***a, you ain’t bought. Somebody tricked you into getting that check, we still f*ck with you.” The next day, Ross continued to support Robinson, writing, “But this what I want you to do, Nate,” he said. “I want you to still go get you a 50-piece WingStop and find a way to enjoy the day. All the memes going on. Everybody face down, ass up. I get it, I get it. But Nate, you went in there and got you a check, just look at the positive.”

It’s been three months almost to the day since Chadwick Boseman passed away, and Sunday, November the 29th would have been his 44th birthday. Marvel went all out, even changing the opening Marvel logo on Black Panther, the only solo he got to make, into an all-T’Challa affair. But they weren’t the only ones. Family and friends, including many colleagues from Marvel and elsewhere, honored the late thespian by filling social media with remembrances on what would have been a big day.

Kevin Boseman, Chadwick’s brother, didn’t refer to him by name, but it was clear what his post — an image of white flowers, with the caption “Today is a good day to give someone their flowers” — was referring to.

Fellow Black Panther cast member Lupita Nyong’o paid tribute.

As did fellow Avenger Mark Ruffalo, who appeared with him in Infinity War and Endgame.

Viola Davis, who can soon be soon alongside him in the August Wilson adaptation Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, wrote, “Happy birthday in Heaven, Chadwick! You are still so alive to me!! I love you.”

Other people in the entertainment industry wished the late actor well, too.

https://www.instagram.com/joshgad/?utm_source=ig_embed

As did Boseman’s alma mater, Howard University, one of America’s first historically black universities.

You, meanwhile, can honor him by watching some of his great work. Like, let’s say, his hilarious appearance as T’Challa on SNL’s “Black Jeopardy!”

Things have been rather quiet for Tekashi 69 since the release of his album Tattle Tales, which arrived back in September. The project failed to meet the rapper’s lofty expectations, peaking at only No. 4 on the Billboard charts. Nearly three months later, the rapper lands in the headlines once again, but not because of his music. It’s because a video shows him taunting boxer Gervonta Davis at a club in Miami recently.

Tekashi was at the nightclub along with his girlfriend and a small entourage. At some point, he and Gervonta run into each other and the encounter produces quite the awkward moment. A bit later, Tekashi can be seen throwing money at the boxer in what looks like an attempt to taunt him. Another clip shows him yelling at Gervonta, but the loud music drown out his words. But no fight ever breaks out and they eventually go their separate ways.

Gervonta seemed to respond to the situation shortly after in a pair of Instagram posts. The first one seemed to call the rapper “Snitchk” and the second post read, “You get hit for just being around a mf… but who am I!”

The incident occurred less than two weeks after Hulu premiered a surprise documentary on Tekashi 69 entitled, 69: The Saga Of Danny Hernandez.

It’s been two years to the day when Netflix cancelled Daredevil, their beloved TV version of Marvel’s vision-impaired superhero, thanks to a rights kerfuffle that also wiped out Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and more. The deal was that Marvel Studios, which had more or less relocated to their parent company’s streamer, Disney+, would not be able to launch any movie or TV content involving the character for two years. Well, those two years have elapsed, and the show’s legions of fans were quick to demand a reboot.

On Sunday, Daredevil advocates took to Twitter, launching a hashtag, #SaveDaredevil, meant to inspire the comics giant to bring it back. “Marvel decided to make one of the best TV shows ever, with themes of faith, murder, and morality,” wrote one supporter. “Filled with Emmy worthy performances, beautiful cinematography, and just kick ass stuntwork. It deserves another shot.”

The post and the hashtag went viral, and though people are pushing for a return of the original cast and crew, it’s not clear if that’s possible two years later. After all, while a fan’s love may be eternal, actors and crew members have bills to pay, and they may not be available to return. The show, which ran for three seasons from 2015 to 2018, starred Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer who moonlight as a masked vigilante who can use his heightened senses to take on crime. The character was previously turned into a big budget movie back in 2003, starring Ben Affleck as Murdock.

(Via Deadline)

Every great quarterback has a great wide receiver to compliment them. Montana and Rice. Brady and Moss. Now there’s Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill. The Chiefs duo have become the most dangerous combination in the NFL, with Mahomes dropping insane deep balls perfectly into Hill’s arms while he speeds away for highlight touchdowns. When these two get clicking, they’re pretty unstoppable.

On Sunday, in the Chiefs matchup against the Bucs we saw this combo on display when Tyreek Hill had not one, but two long touchdown catches, as he tore the Bucs defense to shreds. He even topped the second touchdown off with a backflip into the endzone.

It’s almost mesmerizing to watch this happen to NFL defenses. Hill’s speed allows him to escape even the NFL’s fastest corners and with Mahomes arm he can place it perfectly in Hill’s arms so he doesn’t have to break stride. This performance against Tampa led to 200 yards for Hill in the first quarter alone. That stat sounds insane right? Well, it also puts him in territory for history. 336 yards is the NFL record set by Flipper Anderson in 1989.

Getting nearly 350 receiving yards sounds impossible, but with Mahomes tossing up the ball to someone as speedy as Hill it certainly feels like something that he can accomplish. The thing that might come between Hill and history isn’t the ability, but instead the Chiefs getting too large of a lead and pedaling off.

Nate Robinson made his boxing debut on Saturday night in the final undercard bout on the Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr. exhibition pay-per-view. Robinson was going up against YouTuber Jake Paul, who has previously won a similar exhibition boxing fight in 2019 and, as such, had a significant experience advantage — along with a size edge on Robinson.

The fight played out as one might expect for such a differential in experience, as Robinson looked uncomfortable in the ring and was unable to land anything of substance, while Paul peppered the former dunk contest champion, sending him to the canvas three times. The third knockdown was the most violent, with a right uppercut and short hook combination from Paul sending Robinson to the mat face first and out cold.

The immediate reaction from just about everyone was of concern as he lay there, but happily Robinson was able to get up and leave the ring. Once that happened the jokes began flying, including from a number of Robinson’s former colleagues in the NBA, but he also received plenty of messages, publicly and privately, offering support after his loss. On Sunday, Robinson posted to Instagram offering appreciation to fans who supported him as well as another post specifically thanking a number of NBA players who sent him messages.

It’s good to see Robinson seemingly in good spirits after the loss, which certainly was a humbling experience — but one that he’s still grateful for. It’s also nice that he received plenty of support from NBA stars, even as they had some fun at his expense as everyone did after his very brief boxing debut.

As he’s done for the past few Sundays, Tobe Nwigwe makes his return with a brand new track for his growing fan base to enjoy as a part of his “Get Twisted Sundays” series. Back with “Father Figure,” the Houston native calls on a pair quality lyricists — Black Thought and Royce Da 5’9″ — to supply a pair of verses to the track.

Tobe’s latest track finds him declaring himself as a “father figure” to some of today’s rappers and his verse is one that definitely backs up that narrative. Supplied with a new music video, the three rappers resort to an empty house to deliver the excellent bars. Black Thought sits indoors in a long yellow coat as he gets his lines off while Royce picks the diving board of a pool as the backdrop for his rhymes.

The video is just the latest piece of content that proves Tobe Nwigwe is one of the best candidates for the “up next” title in the rap world. He first gained notoriety for his NPR Tiny Desk Concert from last summer. Additional highlights from the Houston native come from his most recent release, The Pandemic Project, which he shared this past summer.

The effort spawned some of his best tracks like “I Need You To (Breonna Taylor)” and “Try Jesus” which both gained traction on Instagram after it received support from Diddy, LeBron James, and more. On a more recent note, he shared “Wildings” with EarthGang and Duckwrth and “Bozos” with Big K.R.I.T. earlier this month, both of which will on his upcoming Cincoriginals album out next month.

You can watch the “Father Figure” video above.

Cincoriginals is out on 12/13 via Tobe Nwigwe. Pre-order it here.

Anything people see online should be met with a healthy dose of speculation these days, but apparently the mysterious tale of a monolith that appeared out of nowhere just got even weirder. The three-sided reflective metal object that popped up in the Utah desert last week has apparently disappeared, and people who were already fascinated with how and why the object appeared are just as interested in where it went.

Utah’s Bureau of Land Management shared the news about the monolith it discovered last week, along with some pictures of the giant metallic sculpture of unknown origin.

The Twitter account and its report on the monolith quickly went viral, and images of the monolith created quite a stir among art fans and those who are extremely interested in mysteries and aliens, all of which could be responsible for the structure. News of the monolith actually made the government body ask people not attempt to visit the monolith in person, instead enjoying all the images and videos of the tower that they provided to the world.

But that apparently is no longer a problem, as the Bureau of Land Management said on Saturday that the structure was now missing.

As the New York Times reported on Sunday, a now-deleted post on Instagram saw Utah’s Department of Public Safety share news that the monolith that delighted many earlier in the week as a curiosity had disappeared and jokingly blamed aliens.

The Utah Department of Public Safety said on Monday that it had found the object while surveying for bighorn sheep.

“IT’S GONE!” the Department of Public Safety said, reacting to the news in an Instagram post. “Almost as quickly as it appeared it has now disappeared,” the department said, adding, “I can only speculate” that aliens took it back, using the emoji for extraterrestrials.

“Maybe it will stop by and visit us in Canada!!” one person commented.

The paper of record had previously speculated that the mysterious, shiny tower may be the work of artist John McCracken, a sculptor who died in 2011 but had apparently told his son that he wanted to leave behind works in remote places to be found by others. That isn’t confirmed, though, nor does it explain where the object, which according to the Times had been embedded deep into rock, went.

It was a mystery how the monolith had been installed in the first place. Lt. Nick Street, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said this week that the monolith had been embedded into the rock.

“Somebody took the time to use some type of concrete-cutting tool or something to really dig down, almost in the exact shape of the object, and embed it really well,” he said. “It’s odd. There are roads close by, but to haul the materials to cut into the rock, and haul the metal, which is taller than 12 feet in sections — to do all that in that remote spot is definitely interesting.”

All that mystery, of course, has led to wild speculation online about aliens, vast art-based conspiracy theories and even just some jokes about the Utah desert.

We may never know who put the monolith there, or even who removed it. But the Utah BLM says it didn’t do either, it just found it while checking out some sheep. Maybe they are the key to unraveling this mystery, don’t you think? What do the sheep know? What are they hiding?

The Hornets will finally be moving on from Nicolas Batum, as he was officially waived by Charlotte on Sunday. It was a move that surprised no one after Charlotte signed Gordon Hayward, but signaled that they were unable to find a sign-and-trade opportunity for Batum in the deal.

Batum had fallen out of the rotation in Charlotte due to a mix of poor fit and the franchise heading in a new direction. That said, there’s still hope the soon to be 32-year-old wing can contribute to a winning team in a smaller role. So it’s also not a surprise to find out the Clippers are willing to take a flyer on him. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Batum plans to sign with the Clippers in hopes of reestablishing himself in the NBA.

When the Hornets signed Nicolas Batum to his giant 5-year contract in 2016 they knew it was risky. He had massively overperformed in his one year with the team, but his importance to them as an on ball creator and scorer off the dribble made him a valuable asset they couldn’t afford to lose. The Hornets took the risk, but unfortunately he never quite lived up to his expectations, in part due to injury issues. He was a quality player, but not the second star they were hoping to pair next to Kemba Walker. His final year with the team he was miserable shooting from the field and honestly he didn’t look like an NBA player.

It’s possible however that Batum’s fit in the new look Hornets was more the cause of his poor play than his actual ability. If he does end up signing with the Clippers we may see a resurgence from him on a winning team. His role will be smaller and he may be happier. It’s certainly worth the gamble. He’s a multi-tooled offensive player that should fit in well on the bench in Los Angeles. Even if we never see him play like he did in that one career year for Charlotte.

Jhene Aiko made her return to the music world this year with her third album, Chilombo, back in March. The 20-song effort was later boosted by an additional nine songs for a deluxe re-issue that was released in July. In the months since Chilombo dropped, the singer has shared several videos for songs from the project, and “Born Tired” is the latest track from the album to receive the visual treatment.

The video finds the singer in a relaxed state as she enjoys time outdoors, with family, and in the studio as she experiments with sound baths for songs. Just last week, Jhene received three Grammy nominations thanks to her Chilombo album. The singer landed a nomination for Album of the Year and Best Progressive R&B Album for the project as well as a Best R&B Performance nomination for “Lightning & Thunder” with John Legend. Prior to the “Bored Tired” video, Jhene joined Saweetie in an exotic fantasy world for a visual to their “Back To The Streets” collaboration.

Earlier this year, the “Triggered” singer joined Kehlani, Summer Walker, and Teyana Taylor to cover this month’s Billboard issue. The quartet spoke about the current state of R&B during a roundtable discussion and agreed that most pop is R&B. “There are different sounds within R&B that I’m seeing reflected in other genres,” Jhene said while Teyana explained, “We want to be honest without coming off feeling a type of way.” Summer Walker also said, “It seems the only songs from me that do super good on the radio are those that are more upbeat.”

You can watch the “Born Tired” video above.

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