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Yung Bleu is currently on a US tour in support of his debut album, Moon Boy, but it hasn’t stopped him from showing how life is for him overseas. Fresh off a performance in New York, the Alabama native returns with a music video for “Unforgiving” with Davido and it finds both acts in Lagos, Nigeria for the visual. In it, Bleu grows up and falls in love with his childhood friend, and in order to show his appreciation for her, the singer decides to build a spaceship for her from scratch due to their mutual love for space.

Moon Boy arrived at the end of July complete with features from John Legend, HER, Kehlani, Moneybagg Yo, Big Sean, Drake, Jeezy, Gunna, 2 Chainz, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, and more. The album’s release has also been supported by videos for “Ghetto Love Birds,” “You’re Still Mine,” “Baddest,” and “Way More Close (Stuck In A Box).”

It’s all been smooth sailing for Bleu since Drake helped boost his popularity by remixing “You’re Still Mine” last summer. The addition of the Toronto rapper to the song helped pushed it into the top 20 of the Billboard singles chart.

You can watch the video for “Unforgiving” with Davido above.

Moon Boy is out now via Vandross Music Group Inc/Empire. Get it here.

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

Rob McElhinney isn’t only the creator of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia; he’s also the one who puts his body in danger. For Season 7 — all the way back in 2011 — the show’s resident Mac had a shocking transformation: He gained 50 pounds and was often seen chowing down on unhealthy food. (He went got jacked for Season 8.) Now, in the first look at Season 15, he’s rocking a new look, one that’s not as over-the-top but still pretty eye-catching.

The image shows Charlie Day, McElhinney, and Glen Howerton (but not Kaitlin Olsen and Danny DeVito) standing outside Paddy’s, looking faux-serious. Day and McElhinney are even crossing their arms. But the latter goes even further: He has long hair, a horseshoe mustache, and two earrings, as well as an oversized windbreaker. Again, McElhinney’s gone way more extreme before, but it’s still a respectably dirtbag vibe.

There was no It’s Always Sunny last year, the first time it’s taken a year off since 2014, between Seasons 9 and 10. It’s not clear when Season 15 will bow, which may wind up not being until next year. But the show, which has been on since 2005, has been greenlit through Season 18, at which point it will be the longest-running live-action comedy in TV history. Not bad for a show set in a state that both helped create American democracy and, late last year, save it.

(Via The AV Club)

After taking a break in 2019, Florida’s Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival was one of the last festivals to fully run its course in 2020 before the pandemic shut down the music world for over a year. Okeechobee wound up skipping the 2021 festival season, but thankfully the Florida showcase will be back in 2022. On Tuesday, organizers revealed their full lineup.

Okeechobee will return to Sunshine Grove during the weekend of March 3-6, 2022 to celebrate the festival’s fifth anniversary. Tame Impala, Porter Robinson Megan Thee Stallion, Rezz, and Griz are among the bigger names. Others include Denzel Curry, Jungle, Gary Clark Jr., Ashinko, Flying Lotus, Troyboi, Jai Wolf, Four Tet, Caribou, The Glitch Mob, Clozee, Smino, Coi Leray, Mt. Joy, BIA, Sven Vath, Tobi Lou, Chiiild.

After announcing the festival’s 2022 dates back in June, Pasquale Rotella, the founder and CEO of Insomniac Events (one of the companies behind the festival), shared their excitement about their return. “After this long year, I couldn’t be more excited to return to Sunshine Grove and be back in nature with all my Okeechobee friends and fam,” Rotella said in a statement. “This festival is all about music, camping out, and making s’mores while dancing in a jungle, grass fields, and on a beautiful beach. It was the last festival I attended before the pandemic hit so I can’t wait to be back!”

You can check out the full lineup for Okeechobee’s 2022 showcase in the post above.

The reigning NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks began their preseason journey on Tuesday evening with a road trip to face the Memphis Grizzlies. For the most part, it was an unassuming exhibition game with high-profile players like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton, and Dillon Brooks sidelined but, as the second half was taking place at FedEx Forum, things got more interesting.

A fire alarm began to sound in the arena, with players clearing the floor and fans heading to the concourse.

Shortly after, the Grizzlies indicated via a spokesperson that it was a false alarm of sorts, followed by official word from the team that the issue was a sprinkler being inadvertently tripped.

This issue rose even more in prominence with a national television broadcast on TNT, and the announcing crew provided an update while the alarm was still going off in Memphis.

Fortunately, it seems as if the alarm did not signal anything dangerous, and all signs point to inconvenience rather than anything more significant. Still, there was genuine uncertainty as to whether game would continue and, given the exhibition nature of the proceedings, the urgency level would not be as high as a contest that counts in the standings.

Verzuz has a new battle: Legendary rappers Big Daddy Kane and KRS-One will face off later this month. This means it will be the third straight matchup between New York stars following last month’s battle between Fat Joe and Ja Rule and the one between The LOX and Dipset in August.

Big Daddy Kane, who hails from Brooklyn, and KRS-One, who calls Bronx home, will face off at the Barclays Center on Sunday, October 17 for a matchup that kicks off at 7pm EST. While their matchup is highly anticipated, there’s another artist many Versuz watchers have been long hoping will finally take the stage.

That person is Diddy. A number of names have been proposed for who he’d b attle, but Diddy has made it clear that only one person is worthy: Dr. Dre. Jermaine Dupri attempted to put his own name in the mix, but Diddy shot the idea down, tellin ghim, “your arms too short to box with God!!!” This resulted in a passionate Instagram Livestream that saw Dupri and Diddy taking playful shots at one another.

Prior to that, Damon Wayans expressed his desire to challenge Dave Chappelle to a comedic version of Verzuz. “Chappelle, I’m calling him out!” Wayans said during an August appearance on KBXX 97.9 The Box.

In late September, rumblings began to emerge that Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving had not received the COVID-19 vaccine despite a local New York mandate that indicates players would miss games and other team activities if unvaccinated. Similarly, Andrew Wiggins faced a similar circumstance with the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco before ultimately choosing to receive the vaccine.

On Tuesday evening, however, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst reported that the Nets “remain unclear” on whether Irving intends to get vaccinated and, as such, no firm decisions have been made on how the team will proceed.

Within the report, Wojnarowski and Windhorst share that “hope is waning” for the Nets, and the team is now at least preparing for the potential of Irving to miss extended stretches of the season. Brooklyn head coach Steve Nash said this week that the team won’t be moving its practices to accommodate Irving, which could present a tenuous situation in the aggregate.

Perhaps the headliner of the entire ESPN story arrives with the reporting that the Nets could weigh the choice between having Irving come in and out of the team fold depending on location, or the potential to “just keep him sidelined all together.” Beyond that grim reality within the confines of this season, the report includes the nugget that the Nets “could ultimately have to make hard decisions on Irving’s future” if he chooses to abstain from the vaccine and ensure the inability to play in New York.

“I know that I’ll be there every day no matter what and just be present for my teammates as one of the leaders on the team and be there for my growing tribe off the court,” Irving shared at Brooklyn’s Media Day last week. “I know the focus has to be at an all-time high, no distractions. This is the last thing I wanted to create, was more distractions and more hoopla and more drama around this. I’m doing my best to maintain this with good intentions and a good heart.”

Under the current protocols, Irving would lose approximately $380,000 in salary for each game missed, running up a tab of more than $15 million in lost revenue if things continued throughout the 2020-21 season. Beyond that financial impact, the Nets would miss him tremendously on the floor, even with the presence of Kevin Durant, James Harden, and one of the league’s deepest rosters to soften the blow.

Overall, the Nets face a very difficult situation should Irving continue to remain unvaccinated. Brooklyn is the betting favorite to win the 2022 NBA title but, with Irving either out of the picture or not present for half of the team’s games (and myriad practices), the team’s short-term outlook becomes blurrier.

Gene Hackman hasn’t been seen since the 2004 Ray Romano comedy Welcome to Mooseport, and for a good reason: He’s happily retired. Nowadays the legendary actor with two Oscars to his name is an avid bicyclist, keeping himself athletic even at the age of 91. He also rarely does interviews, but he made an exception for The New York Post, in a piece celebrating the 50th anniversary of one of his most enduring classics…which he’s only seen once, half a century ago.

Hackman was speaking, of course, of The French Connection, the 1971 docudrama-thriller, in which he won his first Academy Award as a rule-breaking (some would say reckless) NYPD detective. The actor wasn’t down on the film, but he didn’t seem all that excited either, saying simply, “I do choose to consider that film a moment in a checkered career of hits and misses.” He added, modestly, “The film certainly helped me in my career, and I am grateful for that.”

The actor wasn’t even too impressed with the film’s centerpiece: the unbearably intense, gritty chase, in which his sorta-hero pursues a commandeered elevated subway train by car through Brooklyn. “As for the car chase, there was a better one filmed a few years earlier with Steve McQueen,” Hackman said, alluding to the one in 1968’s game-changing Bullitt.

In any case, Hackman’s going off some no doubt fuzzy memories. “[I] haven’t seen the film since the first screening in a dark, tiny viewing room in a post-production company’s facility 50 years ago,” he said, adding that “if the film has a legacy, I am not sure what that would be. At the time, it seemed to me to be a reverent story of a cop who was simply able to solve and put a stop to a major crime family’s attempt to infiltrate the New York drug scene.”

Should Hackman feel like revisiting The French Connection — the third highest-grossing film of 1971, and which won Best Picture and four other trophies — he’ll either have to have a Showtime add-on on Hulu or pay for it on Amazon Prime. Of ask someone for a copy, because he is Gene Hackman.

(Via NY Post)

The Philadelphia 76ers took a dramatic step in its ongoing standoff with Ben Simmons when they decided to withhold his salary last week. Simmons was owed 25 percent of his salary, a figure of $8.25 million, on Oct. 1, and there were questions about whether the Sixers would pay him or keep that for themselves due to his holdout.

Ultimately, Philly decided to not pay him, instead putting that money in escrow. And while the Simmons camp was apparently prepared for this possibility, a new report from Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice indicates there may be some second-guessing going on.

After being fined for missing Philadelphia’s preseason loss to the Toronto Raptors on Monday night — a penalty of roughly $360,000 — Simmons’ representation had another discussion with the players association in which it was reiterated they would be unable to recoup the money being deducted from the $8.25 million sitting in escrow, sources say, and it was communicated to the Sixers that these early fines were perhaps higher than they expected.

Neubeck pointed out that Simmons could seek arbitration, but reports that there’s not much optimism that would work out for him. With the Sixers’ season beginning in just over two weeks, there’s still plenty of time for some sort of resolution on this front front, but for now, it appears Philly is prepared to see this out no matter what route it takes, while those around Simmons have some questions about the path this is traveling.

Eleven-year-old best friends Stevie and Owen hadn’t seen each other since 2019, after Owen’s family moved from Chicago to Missouri. Despite several phone calls and FaceTime video game sessions, COVID-19 had made keeping in touch difficult.

But their luck was destined to change last Friday. Stevie Stroud had no idea that after being picked up early from a bad day at school, his friend Owen would be waiting in the car to pay him a special visit.

A heartwarming video of their reunion has been spreading smiles, and a few tears, across the internet. If you’re in need of an extra dose of sweetness today, you’re in luck.

In the video, Stevie approaches the car, backpack and basketball in hand. On seeing his friend in the back seat, he is filled with excitement.

3 yrs ago, best friends Stevie & Owen where separated when Owen moved to Missouri

Recently, Stevie had a bad day a… https://t.co/hp3axnIbml

— GoodNewsCorrespondent (@GoodNewsCorres1)
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“What are you doing?” he asks. The basketball drops and tears fall. Stevie lets out a wail as his head falls into Owen’s arms.

“What are you doing here?” Stevie asks again, sniffling. “I don’t know, what am I doing here? I’m visiting you in Chicago, that’s what I’m doing here,” Owen replies. Clearly, Owen is the jokester of the two.

As Owen pats his shoulder, Stevie says, “You just made my day. I’ve had the worst day ever.”

The cries turn into laughter as Stevie hops in the car next to his pal. And the clip ends with Stevie saying “I think I’m dreaming.”

Seeing these two young boys express their love for one another so purely and freely is definitely worth a view, so it’s no wonder the video has now gone viral.

Gracing our phone screens since April, the “that girl” TikTok trend shows us an archetypal, if not stereotypical, wellness formula usually consisting of an early morning wake up + healthy breakfast (plant-based, preferably) + wellness activity + goal setting. Have this done before 7 a.m., then go boldly forth into your new day with full confidence that you have earned your happiness. Document it all for the world to see, and voila, you have now become “that girl.”

On the one hand, “that girl” encourages us all to bring our A-game every day. By offering a small snapshot of what our lives could look and feel like if we really committed to morning routines, we can find motivation to follow through on our goals. And hey, if multiple studies show that faking it till you make it actually works, then maybe posting that yoga routine will genuinely boost confidence and help it stick. Nothing wrong with that.

And “that girl” inspires us to find joy in the small things, even our daily habits. Much like the #maincharacter trend, which encourages everyone to see themselves as the hero of their own story, “that girl” is all about romanticizing life. Sometimes, that can be good medicine.

However, things that at first glance appear empowering can often have more insidious effects on mental health.

For example, when it presents a narrow view of wellness. Though you’d think that we could move beyond picturing healthy eating as avocado toast and celery juice, trends like “that girl” allow that narrow view to permeate. The biggest danger of this message being that good health is only a result of a privileged lifestyle. Not everyone can easily have access to fermented coconut yogurt and goji berries; only a certain few, therefore, can trully become “that girl,” even though everyone should, apparently, be striving to become “that girl.” Yikes, even writing out this logic is exhausting.

In this instance, wellness takes on an all-or-nothing attitude. Where instead of one person jogging at the crack of dawn in their Lululemons, everyone is, and therefore you should be too. It seems harmless enough, but when women, especially young girls, are being bombarded with images of extremely low calorie diets, and only one aspirational body type, it’s a recipe for disappointment. If not worse.

all that the that girl trend did to me is give me an eating disorder and made me hate my life 🙁

— ꧁MilkyOnce꧂ (@Dahyuni16548508)
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Of course, we can’t put all the blame on “that girl.” This idolizing of a certain aesthetic of health and success is no new trend. “That girl” goes by many names: girlboss, bossbabe, bosslady. Whatever moniker she takes on, “that girl” is here to tell us to wake up earlier, eat cleaner, get the reps in, and you can be everything you want to be. And before TikTok and Instagram, “that girl” showed up in magazines, showing us all exactly what to do to have the perfect life.

The real question here is: Why won’t this trend die? Why does it continue to reinvent itself even in a digital space? What is so intoxicating about the idea of perfection that generations of women have become addicted? In a word, it’s control. The dizzying high of knowing deep in your bones that Z always follows X and Y. That if you control your body, you control your life, and if you control your life, you control destiny. You will be worthy. And at the heart of many women, there is a fear of UNworthiness. If that uncomfortable, unattainable, downright rigid routine keeps you at arm’s length from the dreaded UNworthiness? Then sobeit.

Though this is not the first time TikTok has inadvertently promoted body image issues, in an interview with Refinery29, a company spokesperson stated “Being true to yourself is celebrated and encouraged on TikTok. As a platform, we’re focused on safeguarding our community from harmful content and behaviours while supporting an inclusive – and body-positive – environment.” Because the platform has had several trends that actually advocate body positivity, in addition to viral success stories of self-love, there’s reason to believe the platform can help break the social media mold on beauty standards.

After all, nothing is inherently wrong with the desire for self-improvement, but there’s no need for women to be “that girl,” if they don’t want to, or can’t. They’re perfectly fine being themselves.