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In June, rapper Cordae gave a TED Talk about “Hi-Level mentality,” named after his label. “I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “What does a 24-year-old rapper possibly have to say during a TED Talk? Like, ‘Who cares what Ja Rule thinks,’ you know?”

With humor and intellect, he gave a powerful speech. His TED Talk was actually so powerful that it was the series’ most popular one of the year, according to their website. Titled “How a ‘Hi Level’ mindset helps you realize your potential,” it received almost five million views in six months.

He is often motivational; he once discussed losing 35 pounds for a magazine cover. “I had to do a GQ cover,” he explained. “I’m speaking my truth. I had to do a GQ cover and was like, ‘Man, if I don’t get in shape to do a GQ cover, what ever in life is gonna motivate you to get in shape?’”

He added, “When you look good, you feel good; when you feel good, you do good; and when you do good, they pay good. That’s why it’s important to feel good.”

Revisit Cordae’s TED Talk above.

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

ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins seemingly has a knack for bothering current NBA players. Perhaps most prominently, Draymond Green took a victory lap around Perkins after winning the 2022 title with the Golden State Warriors, and there are numerous instances of Perkins’ errant takes making the rounds. On Monday, things got personal with Perkins and a former teammate, Serge Ibaka, when Perkins insinuated Ibaka may have lied about his age and Ibaka took great offense.

Immediately after Ibaka’s pushback to Perkins’ careless comments, Perkins released a trio of responses, first with a direct reply, then a quote tweet, followed by a tweet aimed directly to Ibaka.

This seems to be a consistent playbook for Perkins, who ratcheted up the discourse with these responses. However, Ibaka wasn’t done after one tweet, instead releasing a six-tweet thread.

The full thread is certainly worth reading, with Ibaka saying Perkins’ comments were “disrespectful to many Africans who have to live with that unfounded accusation,” and also saying “you cheated and didn’t respect the game.” Ibaka then took it to a different place, saying Perkins had broken “the locker room code” with previous comments on Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, saying Perkins was “not a locker room leader” and Perkins “went too far” with his actions.

It isn’t often that this kind of beef escalates in this fashion between former teammates, and Ibaka certainly laid his thoughts out in complete fashion. For now, Perkins has not further responded, but it is easy to see why Ibaka was so offended here, and Perkins didn’t do any favors with his defensive posture.

For most, even the non-religious, Christmas Day is a chance for rest and relaxation. Not so for the world’s most famous failed blogger. While sitting president Joe Biden tweeted a message of unity, imploring both the nation’s main parties to see each other as “fellow Americans,” his predecessor took a different tack. Not only did Donald Trump wish a sarcastic Merry Christmas to his many enemies, but he also made the bold claim that he was a mystical soothsayer.

“Merry Christmas to EVERYONE,” Trump posted, “including the Radical Left Marxists that are destroying our Country, the Federal Bureau of Investigation that is illegally coercing & paying Social and LameStream Media to push for a mentally disable Democrat over the Brilliant, Clairvoyant, and USA LOVING Donald J. Trump, and, of course, The Department of Injustice, which appointed a Special ‘Prosecutor’ who, together with his wife and family, HATES ‘Trump’ more than any other person on earth.” He concluded with a bit of gear shift, writing, “LOVE TO ALL!”

There’s a lot going on in the former president’s “Truth”: the dense run-on sentence, the typical random capitalizations and air quotes, the tall claims that may have little foundation in, well, truth. An overwhelmed reader might not even catch the bit about him being “clairvoyant.” Trump already exhausted most of the post with various tirades and accusations, so he might not have had time to explain how he’d ever proven capable to seeing the future. Indeed, his rallies — which he hasn’t held since he was hit with a flurry of bad news, all of it brought on by himself — tend to end with him looking not at the future but at the present, which he paints as downright post-apocalyptic.

If Trump is clairvoyant about anything, it’s likely about the way he might not ever face any comeuppance for his many crimes. After all, he’s spent his life weaseling out of responsibility. But who knows? Maybe this time will actually be different.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Kris Floyd celebrated Christmas last night by releasing a surprise EP: The rising Puerto Rican singer-songwriter dropped four new tracks on his X-Pack EP.

Floyd is part of Tainy’s creative group Neon16 that is behind many of Latin music’s biggest songs. Last year, Floyd co-wrote the hits on Selena Gomez‘s Revelación EP like “De Una Vez” and “Baila Conmigo” featuring Rauw Alejandro. Floyd also made his debut with his La Última Vez Que Me Viste EP.

To celebrate Christmas, Floyd dropped his X-Pack EP through Soundcloud. “I’m releasing an EP only on Soundcloud to remember how it was before,” he wrote in his Instagram Stories.

The cover art features an action figure of WWE wrestler X-Pac. Floyd dabbles in Latin trap in the swaggering “Mööd Swing$” and knockout track “Que Pa$ol.”

Floyd switches between singing with his soulful voice and spitting bars in the atmospheric “Fūdo.” He also embraces reggaeton music in his soaring love song “Tayya.” Throughout the EP, Floyd flexes his sensual flow with his fierce rhymes that can pack a punch.

Most of the EP was produced by Floyd’s Neon16 cohort Jota Rosa. Rosa featured Floyd on his recent hits like “Como Ñengo” alongside Feid and “De Pasajero” with Young Miko and Chanell.

Listen to the full EP below.

Near the start of December, Diddy revealed that he had welcomed a new baby girl, Love Sean Combs, to his family. Now, he has given the world its first look at his newest offspring.

In a photo shared on Christmas (December 25), Diddy and all his children (except for Justin Dior) donned matching pajamas and smiled at the camera: Quincy (31 years old), King (24), Chance (16), twins D’Lila Star and Jessie James (16), and of course Love Sean Combs (as People notes). Diddy holds the baby in his arms, with the child’s face not visible.

In the post’s caption, Diddy wrote, “Merry Christmas from my family to yours! LOVE [heart emoji].”

After news of the baby broke, many wondered what this meant for the status of Diddy and Yung Miami’s relationship, considering the new baby is not hers. Diddy addressed rumors, writing, “@yungmiami305 is not my side chick. Never has been, never will be. She’s very important and special to me, and I don’t play about my Shawty Wop. I don’t discuss things on the internet and I will not start today.”

Miami later replied when asked if she knew about Diddy’s baby announcement before he made it and she replied, “Yeah, I did. I think communication is the key. I feel like when you dealing with somebody communication is the key. It wasn’t a surprise.”

Warning: This post contains major spoilers for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

While Avatar 2 dominated the multiplexes over the holiday weekend, streaming belonged to two titles: Top Gun 2, which just hit Paramount+, and Glass Onion. The latter recently bowed on the streamer that paid a fortune for it — and which kept it from a probably lucrative proper theatrical release — and it’s scored great reviews and great feedback. It had its critics, though. One of them was ageless far right pipsqueak Ben Shapiro. The Daily Wire honcho is a frequent fixture of fun on Twitter for his political takes, but the dragging can get even more intense when he’s talking about another subject: the cinema.

On December 26, Shapiro decided to gift the world with his thoughts on the first Knives Out sequel. “I regret to inform you that ‘Glass Onion’ is actively bad,” Shapiro wrote. “I will discuss first the actual writing of the movie followed by the politics of it. Both suck.”

What was Shapiro’s main beef with Glass Onion? That it was a murder mystery that “deceived” the audience, which never happens with the genre. “The first half of the movie is a complete misdirect and a waste of time,” Shapiro wrote. He complained about how the two murders in the film either don’t happen or aren’t revealed until halfway through the movie, at which point the story flashes back to fill in lots of detail that had been kept under wraps. (He also railed against the identity of the killer, which we’ll refrain from mentioning.)

Shapiro also predictably disapproved of the movie’s furtively progressive politics, which features a character clearly modeled after Elon Musk (and which arrived just in time for him to potentially torch his businesses).

When the guy who was mocked three years ago over his critique of Parasite weighed in one of the holiday weekend’s biggest movies, a lot of people couldn’t believe even he didn’t understand how mysteries work.

Some wondered what other movies would confuse or infuriate Ben Shapiro.

At least, as one person noted, director Rian Johnson refrained from including his favorite song, “WAP.”

Some joked about Shapiro’s resemblance to the conservative Poindexter from Knives Out.

And some noted that Rian Johnson movies tend to make a certain type of person incredibly angry.

Glass Onion is now streaming on Netflix.

Doja Cat shaved her head this summer. “I have never felt more beautiful in my entire life, which is very strange,” she said of the look as the cover star of Dazed‘s winter issue. “I felt beautiful when I had long hair. I definitely felt like a hot girl then, but I always do.” That confidence hasn’t gone anywhere. On Saturday, December 24, Doja wished her 25 million Instagram followers a Merry Christmas Eve with a carousel of photos. Doja was beaming while posing in Santa-themed lingerie.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, Doja marked the holiday with a series of off-beat (and very on-brand) tweets. “Feeling aggressive today,” she sent on Christmas Eve, followed by the more blunt “what if everyone sucked a fart out my ass” and “when I run naked my ass clap viciously whats up w that” on Christmas Day, December 25.

In November, Doja Cat’s Twitter display name was “Christmas,” and she panicked when the controversial new Twitter boss Elon Musk made it so people could no longer alter their display names. She begged Musk to let her change her display name, and her pleas were answered. If you’re curious, Doja’s “Christmas” display name didn’t make it to Christmas; she’s currently known on Twitter as “fart” — a name that’s nothing if not evergreen.

Lasso is paying tribute to his late grandmother. On Christmas Eve, the rising Venezuelan singer released the music video for his heartfelt song “Oma” that’s named after his abuela.

To close out the year, Lasso wrote a song in honor his grandmother Oma. He also shared his final Whatsapp texts with her and expressed his regret for not responding to her last message.

“This is my grandmother Oma who, without a doubt, was my second mother,” Lasso wrote on Twitter. “On 6/23/19 she wrote me a message that I didn’t respond to and the next day she suffered a stroke that left her a vegetative state until she died. This song that comes out tomorrow is my farewell letter.”

“Oma” is a stripped-down ballad with Lasso singing along to the strumming of his guitar. Though he laments not cherishing his last moments with his grandmother, he thanks her for being his strength during difficult times. In the music video for the beautiful ode to his abuela, he plays the song at a campfire and witnesses a shooting star. “Only those who are forgotten die and I’ll never forget you,” he wrote in the YouTube comments.

This year, Lasso wrapped-up his Algodón World Tour that included stops in the US. In October, he performed “Subtítulos” live with Danna Paola in Mexico.

In 2021, Lasso received a Latin Grammy nominee for Best New Artist. Though he didn’t win, he used the motivation from the nomination to score one of the biggest hits of this year. 2022 proved to be Lasso’s breakthrough year with thanks to his global hit “Ojos Marones.” The song has amassed over 175 million streams on Spotify. Later, Colombian singer Sebastián Yatra joined him on the remix.

SZA can exhale. During an interview with Rolling Stone last week, she shared that she “never thought in a million years that people would like” SOS, her sophomore album, before its highly hyped December 9 arrival. Well, SOS became her first career No. 1 album last week with 318,000 first-week equivalent album units, per Billboard, and Barack Obama probably contributed to those numbers.

SZA held firm at No. 1 on the new Billboard 200 chart dated December 31 for a second consecutive week. According to the publication’s Luminate data source, SOS netted 180,000 equivalent US album units in the week ending on December 22.

Tracks “Kill Bill” and “Nobody Gets Me” also debuted at Nos. 3 and 10, respectively, on last week’s Billboard Hot 100. “Blind” came in at No. 12, with “Low” at No. 17, “Love Language” at No. 21, “Seek & Destroy” at No. 24, “Snooze” at No. 29, and “Used” featuring Don Toliver at No. 30. Elsewhere on the Billboard charts, “Kill Bill” notched SZA her first career No. 1 on the Streaming Songs chart and second career No. 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

This week’s Billboard 200 top five is rounded out by Taylor Swift’s Midnights (No. 2), RM’s Indigo (No. 3), Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains (No. 4), and Michael Bublé’s Christmas (No. 5). Drake and 21 Savage’s record-setting Her Loss collaborative album fell out of the top five to No. 6.

SZA will take SOS on the road with opener Omar Apollo for her first-ever arena tour beginning February 21, 2023 in Columbus, Ohio.

Nathaniel Hackett was hired this offseason by the Denver Broncos in hopes of breathing some life into the offense alongside the addition of Russell Wilson. Through 15 games, Denver is just 4-11 with the league’s worst scoring offense, which is averaging 15.9 points per game and has just 22 total offensive touchdowns.

Early on, the defense was keeping Denver in games, but on Christmas, the Broncos fell apart completely in a 51-14 loss to the Rams (which likewise entered the game with 4 wins and were starting Baker Mayfield). It was a disastrous performance, including three more Russell Wilson interceptions, and one that proved to be the last straw for the Broncos front office, as they fired Hackett on Monday morning.

It’s rare for a coach to be fired in the midst of their first season, but Hackett’s tenure was truly a disastrous 15 games and it was clear nothing was getting better for Denver to be worth continuing the charade for the rest of the season. Hackett joins Urban Meyer and two others as the only NFL coaches to last less than one season before getting canned.

From the first game of the season, when Hackett’s catastrophic clock management and bizarre decision-making cost Denver a win when he played for a 64-yard field goal, he has appeared over his head in the head coach role, and while it’s still jarring to see a coach fired in the middle of his first season, it was fairly clear this wasn’t going to work out.

To be clear, Denver’s failings are far from the sole responsibility of Hackett. Russell Wilson looks completely cooked, and with his massive contract, whatever coach that takes on the Broncos job is going to have to figure out how to mask his deficiencies and try to coax better play out of him. Otherwise, it won’t matter much who is at the helm.