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The Los Angeles Lakers played host to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night, and despite a competitive game, LeBron James’ current team beat his old team, 113-101. Part of the reason the Cavs were able to put up such a good fight was the performance from rookie big man Evan Mobley, who continues to impress during his first few games in the NBA.

Mobley scored a team-high 23 points on 10-for-16 shooting with six rebounds, three assists, and two steals in 36 minutes of work. The performance received praise from James after the game, although he doesn’t seem surprised by how good Mobley is, in large part because he is not the first member of his family to go up against him.

Mobley was a standout at Rancho Christian School in Temecula, Calif. during his high school career, as he parlayed his success there into being a five-star recruit and the No. 3 player in his recruiting class. On a few occasions, Rancho Christian took on Sierra Canyon, the Los Angeles-area high school that features Bronny James.

It is unclear if LeBron and Bronny sat down in the lead-up to the game so dad could get a scouting report from his son, but I suppose it could have been helpful.

It’s been known for a while that former president Donald J. Trump has been blocking, via dubious legal methods and with unlikely success, a wide array of documents from the committee investigating the Jan. 6 failed insurrection. After all, he clearly has nothing to hide, and he’s clearly not in big trouble. On Saturday, it was revealed what he doesn’t want anyone seeing.

As per The New York Times, the National Archives issued a court filing that revealed he has sought to block a whopping 770 pages of documents. Of those, 46 pages pertain to files from former chief of staff Mark Meadows, former senior adviser Stephen Miller, and former deputy counsel Patrick Philbin.

Trump, who’s also busy with his shady social media service, also doesn’t want anyone on the committee seeing his White House Daily Diary, which maps out his daily activities — where he went, who he called, who he briefed, etc. — during the fateful day.

But there’s more:

Finally, Mr. Trump asserted executive privilege over 68 additional pages, including a draft proclamation honoring the Capitol Police and two officers who died after the riot, Brian D. Sicknick and Howard Liebengood, as well as related emails; a memo about a potential lawsuit against several states that Joseph R. Biden Jr. won in the November election; an email chain from a state official regarding election-related issues; and talking points on alleged election irregularities in one Michigan county.

That, however, barely scratches the surface. The vast majority of them are about another aspect of the day a large number of Trump supporters broke into the Capitol building in an attempt to stop the certification of the election he lost:

Mr. Trump has also asserted executive privilege over 656 pages that include proposed talking points for Kayleigh McEnany, his former press secretary; a handwritten note concerning Jan. 6; a draft text of a presidential speech for the “Save America” rally that preceded the mob attack; and a draft executive order on the topic of election integrity, the filing states.

Trump’s lawyers have claimed that these documents must be blocked due to executive privilege, which grants a president confidentiality. The only problem: He’s no longer president, because he lost re-election to a candidate American voters vastly preferred over him. Nevertheless, this will set off a legal battle that could delay or even harpoon the committee. But it wouldn’t be the first time Trump has used frivolous lawsuits to keep the wolves at bay.

(Via NYT)

For the first time since the Cleveland Cavaliers visited Barack Obama in 2016, the reigning NBA champions are headed to the White House. According to Tim Bontemps of ESPN, the Milwaukee Bucks will head to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to visit Joe Biden next month after the practice was put on a temporary hold during Donald Trump’s time as President of the United States.

The Bucks will be in D.C. on Sunday, Nov. 7 to take on the Washington Wizards. They’ll follow that up with a day off before heading up to Philadelphia to take on the 76ers, and while they have time to kill in the nation’s capital, the team will make a pit stop to see Biden before making the trip up I-95.

Milwaukee is not, however, the first team since 2016 to make a plan to visit the White House. While no one wanted to go there while Trump held the presidency — there was a famous back-and-forth during his first year in office where Steph Curry the Warriors would not visit, only for Trump to respond by pulling the team’s invitation — the Los Angeles Lakers made plans last year to celebrate the championship they won during the NBA’s Orlando Bubble with Biden. Due to issues that popped up regarding the NBA’s COVID-19 protocols and other scheduling issues, that plan fell through.

After the release of her surprise (ish) new mixtape, Something For Thee Hotties, the ever generous Megan Thee Stallion took to Twitter to do a Q&A with some of her fans. Well, she might not have known that one fan, UK breakout star Bree Runway, was going to have a slightly different question for her. Dutifully using the hashtag for the Q&A, Runway let Meg know she has a song in mind that the Hot Girl rapper would be perfect for. “#somethingfortheehotties MEG! Would you collab we bree runway? she has a song with u in mind,” Bree tweeted.

Now, it seems like these two were already on good terms, but shooting your shot on Twitter can always be a tricky thing. Luckily, things turned out just fine for Bree when Megan gave her emphatic answer: “OF COURSE.”

Considering the respective firepower these two women each wield in the booth, this collab is going to be one for the books. And maybe we can even get it in time for the holidays, so girls around the world have something to rage to when family drama gets a little hot?

For her part, Bree also woke up this morning still pinching herself:

Billie Eilish thrilled Angeleno fans of both nightmares and Christmas when the news broke that she’d be appearing at one of Danny Elfman’s Nightmare Before Christmas concerts in LA. Hosted last night at the Banc Of California Stadium, the show was a success with Billie stepping in as Sally to perform “Sally’s Song,” and later joining Elfman as Jack Skellington for a duet of “Simply Meant To Be.” Obviously, celebrations of this magnitude around Halloween last year weren’t possible due to the impact of the pandemic, so fans of ghouls and ghosts came out in droves for the orchestral-backed screening as part of the holiday celebration.

Check out Elfman and Eilish (heh) doing “Simply Meant To Be” right here:

The connection between Billie and Halloween is pretty much a no-brainer considering her first album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? was incredibly eerie and utilized lots of spooky imagery! Now that she’s shifted tone and direction to laidback Parisian jazz for Happier Than Ever, she’s still maintained enough edge and versatility that the casting makes sense. Though other pop stars have recently been making their way into silver screen productions, Billie hasn’t gone that route so far, but based on the above rendition of “Sally’s Song,” maybe she should? Check out that performance up top.

Last week, nearly 10 months after being booted off of much of social media, former president Donald Trump made a big announcement: His long-threatened social media service was soon to become a reality. It’s called Truth Social (of course), and it will start beta testing in November, with plans for a proper launch in early 2022. But how could Trump, whose history of bankruptcies and loan defaults have largely barred him from the mainstream financial history, pay for it? A new report found some predictable answers.

According to The New York Times, Trump recently merged his social media business, Trump Media, with what’s known as a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. (His is called Digital World Acquisition, of DWAC.) SPACs are, as NYT puts it, “empty vessels” and stock exchanges “allow them to list their shares without disclosing much financial information.” To prevent shady business dealings, SPACs are not supposed to have mergers planned at the time they go public.

But that may be exactly what Trump and his cohorts did. When DWAC went public in September, they stated they had not had any “substantive discussions, directly or indirectly” with any companies. But Trump and his team had already long been in talks with an obscure Miami banker named Patrick Orlando:

Mr. Orlando had been discussing a deal with Mr. Trump since at least March, according to people familiar with the talks and a confidential investor presentation reviewed by The New York Times. That was well before his SPAC, Digital World Acquisition, made its debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange last month. In doing so, Mr. Orlando’s SPAC may have skirted securities laws and stock exchange rules, lawyers said.

As a result of the merger, Trump was able to secure $300 million to pay for Truth Social. But to do so, they may have ventured into what the Times describes as an “unregulated and sometimes shadowy corner of Wall Street.”

But it’s not the only thing shady about the social media service’s genesis. Trump has already been accused of using “blank check dealings” to fund it, and even stealing code from other sites. Indeed, as per Raw Story, if they don’t make its source code public, they could lose their software license months before it’s set to launch.

In other news, last week DWAC suffered a massive decline in stock, dropping a whopping 25% from the previous week.

(Via NYT)

It’s been almost a year since Donald Trump lost re-election, and yet a large number of Republicans still refuse to admit it publicly. One of them is Sean Spicer. The former president’s first press secretary went on Real Time with Bill Maher Friday to promote his book, Radical Nation: Joe Biden & Kamala Harris’ Dangerous Plan for America, hoping for a spirited debate. Instead he got called out for being just another member of the GOP who won’t say their former leader is a loser.

Spicer spent the first chunk of their chat attacking Biden’s increasingly decreased Build Back Better bill, whose transformative aspects are being chipped away thanks in large part to Democratic senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin. But eventually Maher got him on the topic of bonkers conspiracy theories floated by Republicans. Spicer denounced QAnon. But when it came to the “Big Lie” — that the 2020 election was somehow stolen from his former employer — he fell right in line with the worst in his party.

“What about (the theory that) the election was rigged and Trump really won?” Maher asked him, point blank. “Is that lunacy?”

Spicer responded with the line that “there are some serious problems with the election,” even repeating the claim that some staets “changed the rules” before an election taking place during a once-in-a-century public health crisis.

But Maher wasn’t having it: “This is a rabbit hole you want to go down to avoid the question: Did Trump win or lose the election?’”

Spicer replied, “I don’t know.”

“Well, there you go, because the world does,” Maher replied. Spicer tried to get into the nitty-gritty, but Maher eventually called him out, saying, “You’re afraid of Trump.”

“I’m not afraid of anything,” Spicer replied.

“Yes, you are,” Maher responded. “This is all about, you work in the conservative sphere of media. If you say what I want you to say, what I think you truly believe, you won’t get your job, Trump will start attacking you.” He added, “It’s bullsh*t, Sean. You know it’s bulllsh*t.”

Ultimately all Spicer would admit in public is what most Republicans will say with cameras trained on them: that Joe Biden “is president.” But they won’t say how he got there.

(Via Raw Story)

It never ends in this Instagram world of flexes, social media subs and text messaging rumors. After fans took Jada Pinkett Smith’s comments on Red Table Talk about the challenges of monogamy and vulnerability out of context, and began implying that she and Will had problems, she cleared the air on Twitter: “Only because I got time today. Stop making up headlines. Watch the @RedTableTalk I did with @GwynethPaltrow for yourselves. Will and I have NEVER had an issue in the bedroom. Thank you”

But hip-hop’s favorite cad thought the situation still might be a chance to stir the pot. After a fan suggested Will Smith start hanging with Future, the rapper responded that he’d rather hang with Jada.

Rumors about infidelity and affairs have swirled around Jada and Will from time to time, including an allegation last summer that Jada and August Alsina had a relationship. The couple actually sat down for Red Table Talk themselves to clear the air, letting fans know that there was a period of separation between the two of them, and the relationship happened at that time. Ultimately, they’ve chosen to remain a couple for over 25 years, something that is incredibly rare in this day and age – especially for celebrities. But Future got his dig in, anyway.

An appearance from Q-Tip is a very rare thing these days, but Wale made one happen for the lucky fans attending his Rolling Loud set this weekend. As he graced the stage at the hip-hop fest, Q took the time to perform an oldie but classic song for fans, busting out the first single off his solo record, Amplified. “Vivrant Thing” was a chart hit for the rapper, and a remix also featured verses from Missy Elliott and Busta Rhymes, but more recently, Wale sampled it for the song “Poke It Out” featuring J. Cole as part of his new album, Follarin II. Now, Tip has some new solo material on the way, but it’s always great to go back to the beginning. Check out a clip of Q-Tip’s performance below:

As the last decade has seen a plethora of unexpected or untimely deaths in the hip-hop community, the call to give veterans their roses while they’re still here has been strong. That’s exactly what Wale has done by bringing the Tribe Called Quest legend out during his set. Regardless, the internet has certainly changed how hip-hop is perceived, and how it is consumed. In a recent interview with Uproxx for a cover story earlier this month, Wale said that the new shift toward recording everything on social media has changed public perception a lot. He cites his won accomplishments in his early career that rarely get recognized as an example.

“I don’t think a lot of people don’t know that me, Cole, and Pharrell opened for Jay-Z,” he said. “We did a whole college tour… A lot of people don’t know I opened for Jay before that, even in Europe… A lot of people don’t know I opened for Rihanna in Europe. Because there was no Snapchat. I wasn’t walking around with a cameraman for YouTube all day. It was a weird time… We got a little bit of the Mandela effect going on in this generation.” Read the full cover here, and check out Wale’s “Poke It Out” video above.

The Indri indri of Madagascar are not only the largest of the lemur species, they’re also talented singers. And now, thanks to a new study, they might be the next piece to solve the mystery of “where does music come from?”

As it turns out, it might have not started with humans.

“There is longstanding interest in understanding how human musicality evolved, but musicality is not restricted to humans,” said Dr. Andrea Ravignani, leader of an international research team whose primary focus is finding musical abilities in primates, according to Sci News.

She continued that “looking for musical features in other species allows us to build an ‘evolutionary tree’ of musical traits, and understand how rhythm capacities originated and evolved in humans.” Being one of the few non-human mammals capable of this kind of musical feat made them the perfect candidates for researchers looking to study the potential origins of rhythm.

An indri lemur on Wikipedia.
upload.wikimedia.org

“In the primate family tree they’re on the exact opposite end from us. In studying lemurs and studying primate evolution, that allows us to look at the history of primates and how we evolved,” Alanna Marron, lead educational technician at the Duke Lemur Center said in an article for USA Today.

Lemurs have a history of being a malleable species. The Duke Lemur Center explained that these adorable monkey-squirrels floated from Africa to Madagascar by accident, and dropped into brand new biological challenges that required adaptation to survive. Perhaps singing was one of the adaptations.

These tree-dwelling chorus singers fill the rainforest canopies with a series of loud, uniquely high-pitched howls, sounding a bit like an eerie squeak toy that’s being slowly squeezed. As social creatures, Lemurs might use the calls to mark territory, attract mates and give warning signals. “Everyone has a different part in it,” said Marron. “Usually, the adult pair is the one in the family group that does the most of the singing…If they feel scared or threatened, they will make vocalizations to warn everybody else in the area.”

Singing indri lemur.

www.youtube.com

Okay, they make sounds, but is it music? Research says “yes.”

The study, published in the journal Current Biology (paywall), shared that researchers listened to 636 recordings of vocalizations from 39 adult indris. After dedicating 12 years to the task, the team discovered that the lemurs could sing with categorical rhythm.

For those wondering what the heck that means (I sure did), Dr Ravignani explained that “rhythm is categorical when intervals between sounds have exactly the same duration (1:1 rhythm) or doubled duration (1:2 rhythm).” It’s what makes a song recognizable even when played or sung at different speeds, and it’s universally found in human music, but never before heard in animals minus birds.

The lemurs even manage to sing in a rhythm similar to “We Will Rock You,” according to the study. That’s something most humans can’t accomplish even on the best karaoke night.

As the “last common ancestor between humans and indri lived 77.5 million years ago,” it certainly gives some interesting insight as to how our sense of music might have started as a means for survival. Although it doesn’t indicate why some people are blessed with a keen sense of rhythm, and others (like myself) struggle to “feel the beat.” Don’t even get me started on pitch.