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The Toronto Raptors decided to address its lack of shooting in the first round of the 2023 NBA Draft. With the number 13 pick on Thursday night, Toronto selected Kansas wing Gradey Dick, whose best attribute is his ability to stretch the floor. While there’s a little more to his game than just his shooting, Dick was the premier marksman in this class, as he stands 6’8 and connected on 40.3 percent of his 5.7 attempts per game during his time in Lawrence.

Dick made headlines for two reasons at the Draft. One is that, because he is now plying his trade in Toronto, Drake followed him back on Instagram, which either officially grants him Canadian citizenship or really should. The other was his outfit, which was very red and sparkly and included a pair of sunglasses indoors.

I’m not much of a fashionista, so I will leave that analysis to someone who is not currently wearing a t-shirt and shorts. What I will say is that Zach Lowe of ESPN tried to pull off his own version of the fit on NBA Today, and I’m certainly not going to disparage it (Lord knows I could not make this work), I’m just gonna say Dick’s had a little more pizzazz, is all.

Zach Lowe if you are reading this, I hereby call on you to do your own version of every famous NBA Draft fit whenever you appear on NBA Today henceforth. I think you can do some pretty incredible stuff with, say, the outfit Samaki Walker wore when he was selected.

There was a time it seemed that Atlanta rappers Gunna and Lil Baby were inseparable. From crafting their joint album, Drip Harder, in 2018, to appearing on each others’ performances, projects, and tours throughout the years since, they’ve been thought of as an unofficial tandem by hip-hop heads since their parallel breakouts in 2017. They were even rumored to be working with Future and Young Thug on a spiritual sequel to Drip Harder and Super Slimey, although nothing was ever solidified.

But things may have changed recently, thanks to the YSL racketeering case and Gunna’s Alford plea. In a new snippet that’s gone viral on Twitter, Lil Baby makes mention of “n****s taking pleas” and posits “slime ain’t happy” — with “slime” being a potential reference to Young Thug, who helped Baby get his start in the music business. Since Baby was never actually part of YSL, he can remain in contact with Thug, while Gunna cannot.

This has led to speculation online that Gunna really is persona non grata among his former rap friends as a result of his recently acquired “snitch” reputation. Of course, rapper’s have reeled off lines about “rats,” “snitches,” and “telling” in raps since time immemorial — even Thug’s new album has a few, and fans have been wondering about his relationship to his former protege ever since.

Only Lil Baby can say what his feelings on Gunna really are, but one thing’s clear: Hip-hop’s obsession with adhering to “street code” — whether it applies or not — isn’t helping anybody.

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

If you’re trying to figure out where we’ll be this summer, you can find us in the mountains. Seriously though, nothing screams “freedom” like a dose of absolute serenity in the middle of nowhere, trekking across Mother Nature’s beautifully sculpted landscapes and National Parks. But if the thought of missing out on some of summer’s best beaches, dancing to live music, and cheering with friends over some craft beer while you’re off the grid, out in the mountains makes you second-guess your plans, don’t worry…

You can have it all. High Sierra Music Festival is actually the ultimate mountain music lover’s dream, combining all the best aspects of mountain-high summer living with party vibes and dance culture.

High Sierra Music Festival remains the live music fan mainstay – a home away from home to for those eager to savor mountain-high music performances, continuous craft brews and artisanal cocktails pours, and body and mind-elevating wellness workshops. It’s this triple-threat offering amongst the Sierra Nevada mountains that have garnered the festival a prosperous three-decade-long iconic status in the music and adventure community.

This year is no different. In fact, the festival will make a return in Quincy, California June 29th-July 2nd and will oversee momentous performances from all corners of the music spectrum, including Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, Thievery Corporation, Marcus King, Lotus, Cory Wong, Neil Francis, Sierra Hull, and many more. That only that, but it’s the festival’s family-friendly and engaging programming during the day mixed with its legendary late-night shows that take the form of sweat-fueled dance parties, psychedelic explorations, and once-in-a-lifetime musical memories that truly place it in a league of its own.

Plus, who wouldn’t want to sip on freshly brewed Sierra Nevada while listening to live music and swimming in the nearby pool — one of the most breathtaking scenic views in the continental U.S.? We know we would.

To gear up for this year’s 31st event, bask in these glorious mountain music photos from across High Sierra’s tenure, which exemplify the mountain-high energy we all want and need this summer season.

A new Young Thug album has hit DSPs despite the Atlanta rapper’s current incarceration and some fans are wondering whether one of its songs contains a coded diss for Thug’s collaborator/suspected co-conspirator Gunna. On “Jonesboro,” from the new Metro Boomin-produced album Business Is Business, Thug snarls the line “N***a told and he was my homie, I can’t miss him / Ain’t nobody feel him,” prompting some fans to speculate that he’s referring to Gunna after Gunna accepted a plea deal in exchange for his release from Fulton County Jail.

However, due to the album’s provenance, it seems unlikely that the line would be directed at Gunna, as all 15 of the tracks compiled in Business Is Business were recorded prior to Thug’s arrest and subsequent incarceration on suspicion of operating a criminal organization. While it does sound like he’s talking about a snitch, it literally can’t be Gunna, who was very much a respected member of YSL Records in good standing at the time the song was recorded.

In fact, if anything, the line seems like a prime example of exactly what I wrote about in my review of Gunna’s new album, A Gift And A Curse: a generic mobster trope of the type that litters a ton of rap records these days. Whether or not they stem from the real-life experiences of the artists in question, it’s clear that they get peppered into songs because they are what the audience expects and therefore what the market demands. It could be about a real person or it could just be an abstraction, a straw man of the sort that rappers always have to set up in their lyrics to prove their superiority over an opponent — real or imagined.

It certainly highlights how life can end up imitating art; rap fans hate “snitches” because rappers rap about hating “snitches,” when either side might not have any real experience with snitching in the first place. It’s a conundrum, for sure, but this confusion is also a big part of why Thug’s locked up in the first place. Remember, in the original indictment, the evidence used against him wasn’t wiretaps or videotapes but his own lyrics.

Listen to “Jonesboro” above. Business Is Business is out now on Young Stoner Life Records/300 Entertainment/Atlantic Records.

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

The original Project Greenlight landed over 20 years ago, a relic of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s massive success and the funky shift of reality TV from college-aged sex-havers to people winning shows based on niche talents. Then it went away for a decade and returned with a disastrous fourth season which saw HBO swear that it was always, totally, 100% supposed to be a one-off. So, after a cooling off period, it’s back again.

The fifth season, subbed A New Generation, will boldly go into the chaotic world of filmmaking to create a dramatic series and a great feature film. This iteration has replaced Damon and Affleck with Issa Rae, Kumail Nanjiani, and Gina Prince-Bythewood as the mentors.

The trailer promises that a lot will go wrong. In other words, the stage is set for compelling television.

The funniest part is when tensions arise between the film crew and the Project Greenlight crew — a little fourth-wall-breaking signal of which crew is more important than the other, especially considering the track record of the show for producing winners. And because they only give the filmmaker 18 days to shoot. It’s hard to make anything quality in that amount of time, and it feels like a funny throwback to the 1990s indie vibe of running and gunning and making whatever gets on the reel.

In a weird and wonderful move, Max will stream Project Greenlight: A New Generation on the same day as the release of Gray Matter, the feature that Greenlight winner Meko Winbush made during the filming of the show we haven’t seen yet. Spoiler alert: the movie got made!

Both Project Greenlight: A New Generation and Gray Matter hit Max on July 13th.

Despite the fact that OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush repeatedly scoffed at regulations in both emails and statements to the press before taking his jerry-rigged Titan submersible down to the Titanic crash site after being warned not to by deep-sea experts, conspiracy theorists have been having a field with the missing, and now-presumably imploded vessel.

One such conspiracy nut is anti-vaxxer MAGA media guy Stew Peters, who is convinced that the entire ordeal is a “ploy” to discourage people from learning what really sank the Titanic.

“You know our policy, if the entire media is in alignment on something, then there’s probably something hidden,” Peters said before launching into his theory that naturally involved the staples of any good wackadoo conspiracy: The Rothschilds and the Federal Reserve.

Via Mediaite:

“What if all of this is actually a ploy to keep people from visiting the Titanic wreckage? But if that’s the goal, why? Maybe because if people explore the Titanic too much, they would discover that it wasn’t an iceberg that sank the Titanic,” Peters said.

Peters dived into various conspiracy theories surrounding the 1912 sinking.

“There’s a lot of alternative theories about how that sinking occurred, that it was intentionally sunk as part of an elaborate insurance scam, and even that it was sunk by newly created Federal Reserve,” Peters theorized.

Of course, Peters isn’t the only MAGA figure who has glommed onto Titan conspiracy theories. Earlier in the week, super sleuth Donald Trump Jr. began getting suspicious that a wildly unregulated sub could somehow just disappear in the ocean despite the entire industry specifically warning that it could implode.

“Literally everything I’ve seen about this missing submarine is insane and sketchy AF,” Junior tweeted. “[A]lmost none of it makes any sense whatsoever. How long till we find other external factors making it even more so???”

Clearly, top minds are on the case, everybody. Top. Minds.

(Via Mediaite)

Glastonbury Festival 2023 is set to be yet another magical outdoor music experience. This year will mark Elton John’s final headlining appearance at the event (or so he says). But the Rocket Man isn’t the only music legend that knows how to make an entrance: Foo Fighters gave a surprise performance and managed to keep it under wraps thanks to a playful name change.

Fans speculated that the band would play at the festival after Dave Grohl posted a handwritten note on social media back on June 6. The note made use of the phrase “churning up,” which seemed like a hint that a mysterious band on the Glasto lineup, The Churnups, was actually a front to hide a surprise performance from the Foos. The jig was up when “The Churnups” took the stage today and it indeed was Foo Fighters.

Ahead of the set, Foo Fighters all but confirmed the Churnups suspicions were true by hopping on Twitter to share a photo of a flag in the audience that read, “Churn it up.”

According to fans on setlist.fm, their performance on day three of the festival holds some professional significance. As users note, Foo Fighters are “playing the same stage, night, and spot (Pyramid, Fri, 2nd from headliner) as their Glastonbury debut 25 years earlier.”

Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour dancers Les Twins went above and beyond during her stop in Hamburg, Germany, saving her from an apparent wardrobe malfunction, according to Complex. It turns out they aren’t just there to make her look good, they’re also there to keep her from looking bad. Fans caught the incident on TikTok, capturing the moment as Beyoncé came close to bursting out of her dress and one of the twins stepped in front of her to make a split-second adjustment — all on beat in a move that would have left many fans none the wiser.

Fans on Twitter praised the dancers for being so aware in the moment and for pulling off the adjustment so smoothly. “Les twins will forever have a job,” one fan wrote. Another said they were “undoubtedly the greatest in the whole world.”

Another dancer who recently joined the ranks of Beyoncé’s team was the superstar’s own daughter, Blue Ivy. Blue stole the show during her first appearance and has become something of a fixture on the tour ever since. Beyoncé praised Blue Ivy for the performance, writing, “I’m so proud and thankful to be your mama. You bring us so much joy, my sweet angel.”

The thing about The Righteous Gemstones is that it is a good show. It has been for a while, too, thanks in no small part to things like Walton Goggins singing a song about misbehaving and Macaulay Culkin showing up and punching Walton Goggins in the face and a bunch of other reasons that don’t directly involve Walton Goggins. Everyone on the show operates at such a high level all the time. Most of Edi Patterson’s line-readings as Judy Gemstone should be put in a museum so future generations can enjoy them. Reasonable arguments can be made that it is actually our best recent show about idiot children attempting to fill a power vacuum created by a domineering father stepping away from the family business. Sometimes those arguments are made by me. I get excited.

And when I make those arguments, one thing I plan to cite going forward is the 10-minute stretch that closed out the most recent episode, the second of the third season, which debuted as the back half of a two-part season premiere. It was kind of incredible, really, just for the ambition and range and the fact that they went ahead and made it all work. I apologize in advance for all the GIFs coming up here. I was not joking when I said I get excited.

The background of it all isn’t super important for our purposes here, but I am a professional (sort of), so let’s sketch them out quickly. The first part of the action features the three children — Jesse, Judy, and Kelvin — at a meeting of pastors who work with and under the Gemstone family brand. They are trying to convince these pastors that the leadership will remain strong and stable in their father’s retirement. It starts out fine, or at least fine-ish, but then…

What I like here is that this is almost certainly the first time this collection of words has been said out loud in this order. Another thing I like about it is that it came moments after Danny McBride — in character as a failson megachurch pastor — took off one of his shoes and whipped it from the stage at another pastor who was questioning his leadership.

And then other people started taking off their shoes and whipping them at each other, including Edi Patterson launching a high heel that caught a lady who was just unfortunate collateral damage.

And then the whole thing devolved into a conference room full of pastors launching shoes at each other and shouting and flipping double-birds about it all.

Just a massively stupid and funny and chaotic scene that somehow drives home what a disaster these children are better than any dialogue anyone could ever write. I was howling when I saw it. I’m laughing a little again now. It’s fun to think about how the Gemstone family thought this was going to go. It’s also fun to picture them explaining this to their father, Eli Gemstone, who is played by John Goodman. I would very much like to see that.

Where was Eli while this was happening, by the way? Well, this brings us to the second half of this brilliant 10-minute slice of television. He was in an SUV driven by Jesse’s son Gideon — a wannabe stuntman who just got the gig as his grandfather’s new driver — that was fleeing a group of doomsday preppers led by Eli’s maniac brother-in-law, played by Steve Zahn, because this show does guest stars and recurring characters better than any other show on television.

That’s right. We rolled from shoe-tossing straight into a car chase. A really good one, too! Like, one worthy of an actual action movie! Let’s crank through some GIFs to drive this point home.

We have nudging…

… and we have wheel-cranking turns into and around fields of grass.

It was honestly so good, and made better by Eli’s two goofball bearded nephews — nephews he was liberating from the prepper group, hence the chase — flailing around the backseat as the SUV screeched around turns. Just a lovely little chunk of business.

Anyway, it all culminated in an attempted ramming and brake-slamming bit of anarchy that left my mouth hanging open a little bit. Look at this show do work.

LOOK AT THIS SHOW — A FUN LITTLE HALF-HOUR COMEDY — DO WORK.

This is what I am talking about. Look at the range on display here. Very few shows could pound out the back half of an episode with an outrageously silly scene where men of god wing footwear at each other followed by a scene where a different group of men of god engage in a highway chase that ends with multiple airborne pickup trucks. An even smaller number of them could do it and make it work.

I’m thinking about it now and the only one that leaps to mind is Barry, another straight-up incredible piece of television that mashed together nail-biting action and slapstick comedy. Yes, this is where we mention the dirtbike chase scene from last year. Again. There aren’t many shows in this genre, the one I would best describe as “stupid comedies that are also brilliant action movies,” but I sure am glad Danny McBride and Bill Hader are doing their best to make it a thing.

The Charlotte Hornets opted to take Alabama forward Brandon Miller with the second overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft on Thursday night. It wasn’t a gigantic shock, as Miller is viewed as a more snug fit alongside LaMelo Ball and is a potential All-Star down the line, but there were plenty of folks who believed Charlotte made a mistake in passing on G League Ignite guard Scoot Henderson. Instead, Henderson fell to No. 3, where he is now a member of the Portland Trail Blazers.

There was plenty of chatter in the lead-up to the Draft over whether the Hornets would take Miller or Henderson, and there was no strong hint that Henderson would be the guy than a tweet from Shams Charania of The Athletic on Thursday afternoon which said there was “serious momentum” behind taking him No. 2.

Not long after, Troy Machir of BetRivers noted that there were some pretty stark swings in the betting market, which saw Henderson skyrocket to -910 to go second and Miller crater to +400. Eventually, these ended up leveling out, and Miller had as good as -1000 odds to become a Hornet.

All of this, mixed with a tweet by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN about how there was alignment from the beginning in Charlotte on Miller being the pick, led to some questions about Charania’s report. In addition to his work for The Athletic and Stadium, Charania is a FanDuel partner and co-hosts the show Run It Back on FanDuel TV. It is easy, then, to make the jump that something nefarious was going on here, and there were plenty of folks on the internet alleging that Charania reported bogus information in an effort to bring more money in to FanDuel — he falsely says Henderson has momentum to get picked, money comes pouring in, and then, when that ends up not happening, FanDuel suddenly has a gigantic influx of cash.

This would, of course, be a gigantic problem. But in a comment to Darren Rovell of Action Network, a spokesperson for FanDuel indicated that that there is some separation between the company and the way Charania goes about his business.

“FanDuel is not privy to any news that Shams breaks on his platforms,” the spokesperson said. Of course, every reporter gets their own information in their own way, and every reporter gets stuff wrong every now and then as a result. It’s also worth mentioning that, while Miller ended up being the pick and the Hornets were aligned, it’s certainly plausible there were last-minute conversations going on that led to Henderson’s name gaining some amount of momentum internally that wasn’t able to unseat Miller atop their board.

The only way to know what happened here is to straight up dump Charania’s phone, which is not going to happen, so for now, all we have is FanDuel’s remarks on the matter. We’ll let you know if that changes.