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Girls just want to have fun in Wale‘s colorful new video for “Poke It Out” featuring J. Cole. After dropping the latest single from his upcoming album, Folarin II, Wale furthers his Q-Tip homages by reproducing some of the Queens rapper’s iconic video moments. As “Poke It Out” samples Q-Tip’s J Dilla-produced debut solo single “Vivrant Thing,” it makes sense that Wale borrows and updates shots such as the infamous head bob as he cruises the streets in a jeep full of women.

Women are the primary focus of the video, as Wale and his female entourage end up at a lakeside campsite (reproducing the beach run from the “Vivrant Thing” video), where the ladies hike, play football, and have a late-night bonfire. Then, Wale and his running buddy J. Cole trade verses against a plain backdrop that lets Cole’s words take center stage as he praises women with bodies ranging from “Meg Thee Stallion” to “Coi Leray” — both of whom Wale’s worked with in the past (click those links).

So far, Wale’s released three singles from his upcoming Folarin sequel, including “Angles” and “Down South,” which features Maxo Kream and Yella Beezy. The classic hip-hop references have been in full effect, promising a rap album that pays even more homage to the past while advancing Wale’s sound and stature in the future.

Watch Wale’s “Poke It Out” video above.

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

Folarin II is due 10/22 via Warner Records.

Last week, a video went viral on the internet of a dude doing everything he could to catch an alligator that appeared to show up on his lawn. A man by the name by Eugene Bozzi saw an gator and decided the best way to handle it was to grab a garbage pail, use it to back the animal into a corner, and once it had nowhere to go, scoop it up. If you missed it, here’s how the whole thing went down:

While the video took place in Florida, Bozzi is originally from Philadelphia, and because all news has a local spin, the local CBS station in the City of Brotherly Love had him on to ask him about what went down. Bozzi, apparently viewing this as an opportunity to get a joke off, decided to use his 15 minutes of fame to roast Sixers guard Ben Simmons.

“I just jumped into action, and I said, ‘You know what? I’m not gonna be Ben Simmons, I’m gonna go get me this basket,’” Bozzi said.

Simmons, of course, drew the ire of Sixers fans when he passed up a dunk in the waning moments of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals of the Atlanta Hawks, which Philly went on to lose. Currently, he is away from the team after requesting a trade, and despite the fact that the Sixers withheld $8.25 million worth of salary from him over the weekend, Simmons is reportedly steadfast that he will not play another game for the franchise.

On a recent episode of The Sarah Silverman Podcast, host Sarah Silverman discussed Jewish representation in Hollywood, specifically how non-Jewish actors and actresses are frequently cast as Jewish characters. “There’s this long tradition of non-Jews playing Jews, and not just playing people who happen to be Jewish but people whose Jewishness is their whole being,” she said, adding, “One could argue, for instance, that a Gentile playing Joan Rivers correctly would be doing what is actually called Jewface.”

Silverman is referring to Kathryn Hahn, not a Jew, being cast as legendary comedian Joan Rivers, a Jew, for a Showtime series. She continued, “It’s defined as when a non-Jew portrays a Jew with the Jewishness front and center, often with makeup or changing of features, big fake nose, all the New York-y or Yiddish-y inflection. And in a time when the importance of representation is seen as so essential and so front and center, why does ours constantly get breached even today in the thick of it?” Silverman pointed out other recent examples of Jewface, include Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg in On the Basis of Sex and Rachel Brosnahan in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

The School of Rock actress pointed out common anti-Semitic tropes that so often get thrown around like “Jews run Hollywood,” “Jews are rich,” and “Jews are powerful,” which she said then “renders people very righteously unsympathetic toward Jews.”

“I wish they would realize that that is by design,” she said.

Silverman doesn’t have an answer for “how to fix this,” but “representation f*cking matters, so it has to also finally matter for Jews as well. Especially Jewish women.” You can watch a live taping of The Sarah Silverman Podcast above.

(Via Mediaite)

If you’re among the countless superhero movie fans who think DC needs to lighten up a bit, we’ve got some good news for you. Following Jason Momoa sharing how full of laughs the Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom script is, another (and pretty unexpected) DC star has come forward singing praises of the studio’s upcoming line-up of caped-crusades: Ben Affleck.

While Affleck has been pretty vocal about his struggles with portraying the Dark Knight, ultimately revealing he dropped out of The Batman movie out of worries the dark script would lead to further alcohol abuse, for the first time in quite a while the actor seems pretty happy with the state of the DC Universe and his role within it. According to an exclusive interview with Variety, Affleck stated he had a ‘really fun’ time playing reprising the role of Batman in the upcoming DC film The Flash.

“It was a really nice way to revisit that as the prior experience had been difficult. This was really lovely. Really fun [..] I had a great time. I’m probably under some gag order that I’m not even aware that I probably just violated and I’m now going to be sued.”

This interview and Affleck’s newfound sunny disposition come a year and a half after the actor opened up about how difficult filming Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, and Justice League had been for him. According to Affleck, following the back-to-back filming of these movies he largely lost passion for the character and telling superhero stories.

“We had a script. I liked the script, I wrote it with Geoff Johns, who I have a lot of respect for. It just so happened that I had done a couple of those movies, and I kind of lost my passion for it. You know what I mean? I kind of lost my passion for telling those stories, I got interested in telling stories more like [The Way Back], and it just seemed like very clear to me that if it’s not the most important thing in the world to you, you’re not going to make a very good movie. The movie deserves to be made by someone whose dying to do it and can’t wait, and that wasn’t me at the time, so I moved on.”

Of course, we now know ultimately Robert Pattinson would take up the mantle left by Affleck and star as Batman in Matt Reeve’s The Batman, which the director claimed will be the “most emotional Batman movie ever made” in a recent interview. The Batman hits theaters March 4, 2022, followed by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Black Adam on July 29 and The Flash on November 4, in which we’ll see Affleck and Ezra Miller team up once again to save the universe.

It’s been about three years since Mitski released her latest album, 2018’s Be The Cowboy. This represents the longest between-albums gap of her career so far, so fans are hungry for new Mitski. Fortunately, Mitski revealed that she’s dropping some fresh material soon, although we don’t know much about it yet.

She’s releasing a song tomorrow at 10 a.m. ET, and while there’s a YouTube premiere link live now, it doesn’t reveal the name of the song, as it’s simply titled, “New Song Tomorrow – 10AM ET.”

In the promo image of the song, a person seen from the back (presumably Mitski) is wearing a cowboy hat, perhaps indicating the material is somehow related to her 2018 album Be The Cowboy. Or, perhaps she’s teasing a country influence in her new material, like she had on her This Is Where We Fall song “The Baddy Man” from earlier this year. It’s also possible that neither of those speculative guesses are the case at all. Whatever the case may be, fans are excited, as Mitski became a trending topic on Twitter following the announcement.

Fans haven’t been totally starved for new Mitski content, though. As aforementioned, she recorded the soundtrack for This Is Where We Fall, a graphic novel.

Lizzo is no stranger to controversy, but her latest brush with the ire of social media was sparked by different circumstances than her usual experiences. Instead, she’s being questioned for her musical tastes — especially her love for the controversial Chris Brown. Backstage at Bow Wow and Omarion’s Millennium Tour kickoff at The Forum in Los Angeles, Lizzo encountered Brown and asked for a photo, gushing that “you’re my favorite person in the whole f*cking world.” Unfortunately for Lizzo, fans who observed the moment thanks to a video on Twitter didn’t share her enthusiasm

The sticking point was Brown’s problematic history with women. The most well-known incident was in 2009 when Brown pled guilty to abusing fellow singer Rihanna. Brown beat Rihanna during an incident early that year, punching her and allegedly threatening to kill her for reporting the incident to authorities. When images of the horrific damage he’d done to her face hit the internet, his then-family-friendly image crumbled and he was ostracized from many radio stations for a year. However, he’s since regained much of his popularity, charting again last year with “Go Crazy” from his collab album with Young Thug, despite most recently being accused of threatening his ex-girlfriend Karreuche Tran within the last four years.

Lizzo’s fans apparently disapproved of her loving embrace of Brown despite his history. However, she also had her fair share of defenders. Ultimately, the moment seemed to prove that even the biggest stars on the planet can’t help but keep some problematic faves. You can see more responses below.

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

Urban Meyer and the Jacksonville Jaguars narrowly lost to the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday Night Football last week. In the aftermath, the conversation surrounding the fact that the Jags did legitimately look like they have made some strides since Week 1 ended pretty quickly, as videos and photos of head coach Urban Meyer at his steakhouse in Columbus, Ohio ended up attracting a whole heck of a lot of attention.

The various things that went viral over the weekend show Meyer, while wearing Ohio State gear, cozying up to various women who are not his wife, and led to tons of questions about what, exactly, Meyer was doing. On Monday, the former Buckeye coach had his weekly press conference, and from the jump, he was asked about what he was doing.

“I just apologized to the team and staff for being a distraction,” Meyer said. “It was stupid. So I explained everything that happened and owned it, just stupid. Shouldn’t have put myself in that position.

“I stayed to see the grandkids and we all went to dinner that night at the restaurant,” Meyer continued. “There’s a big group next to our restaurant, and they wanted me to come over and take pictures and I did. Try to pull me out on the dance floor, screwin’ around, and I should’ve left.”

Meyer went on to say that he’s spoken to leaders on the Jags, his owner and general manager, and the entire team, and while he said that “they’re good” in reference to the response he got from the roster, he made it a point to stress that “the coach should not be a distraction.” Meyer also mentioned that he had discussed this with his family, saying that “they were upset.”

After spending essentially his entire coaching career at the college level and winning nigh everything a head coach can win during his stops at Bowling Green, Utah, Florida, and Ohio State, the 57-year-old Meyer decided to try his hand at coaching an NFL team when the Jaguars came calling this year. It’s been a rocky start to the season on the field, though, as the team finds itself 0-4.

As Stephanie Grisham‘s new tell-all book, I’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw in the Trump White House, gets ready to hit book shelves on Tuesday, former First Lady Melania Trump has fired off a statement in an attempt to discredit Grisham, who pulled back-to-back duty as the White House communications director and the First Lady’s chief of staff. In the lead-up to the book’s release, excerpts have been revealed that accuse Melania of refusing to help stop the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building as well as a laundry list of petty moves against her husband like asking to be escorted by handsome soldiers and/or secret service agents.

“The author is desperately trying to rehabilitate her tarnished reputation by manipulating and distorting the truth about Mrs. Trump,” Melania’s office wrote on Monday. “Ms. Grisham is a deceitful and troubled individual who doesn’t deserve anyone’s trust.”

However, the former First Lady’s office probably should’ve worked on their timing. By releasing the statement on Monday morning, it gave Grisham the opportunity to respond during a live interview with GMA, which she did. Via Business Insider:

“I expected that. I expect more. This is right out of their playbook: when they don’t like the message, they’re going to destroy the messenger. I know, I was part of doing that sometimes,” Grisham told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

“I notice she’s not denying anything fully in the book just yet, I think she knows that I have a lot of receipts to show I’m being fully honest. I expected that, and I’m sure there will be more to come, probably a lawsuit or two or three or four,” Grisham added.

Along with excerpts about Melania’s time as First Lady, Grisham’s book also detailed Jared and Ivanka‘s bumbling attempts to act as “America’s Royal Family” as well as accusations that the former president sexually harrassed Grisham by making comments about her body and calling her to deny that his penis is small and not shaped like a “toadstool” despite what his alleged mistress Stormy Daniels revealed.

(Via Business Insider)

In Emily Ratajkowski’s upcoming memoir, the actress/model accuses singer Robin Thicke of groping her on the music video set of his controversial 2013 hit single, “Blurred Lines.” The video, of which two versions were released, one for broadcast and the other “unrated,” features Ratajkowski and other models dancing around Thicke and the song’s co-producer Pharrell Williams with various props. In the broadcast version, the women are scantily clad in short shorts and crop tops, while the “unrated” version has them topless in underwear. Apparently, Thicke took advantage of this situation to make unwanted advances toward the women.

In an excerpt published by The Daily Beast from the memoir, titled My Body, Ratajkowski describes the incident in question. “Suddenly, out of nowhere, I felt the coolness and foreignness of a stranger’s hands cupping my bare breasts from behind,” she writes. “I instinctively moved away, looking back at Robin Thicke.” As noted by Consequence Of Sound, this squares with the video director Diane Martel’s account to The Sunday Times Of London. “I remember the moment that he grabbed her breasts,” she recalled. One in each hand. He was standing behind her as they were both in profile. I screamed in my very aggressive Brooklyn voice, ‘What the f*ck are you doing, that’s it!! The shoot is over!!”

Previously, the song was subject to a lawsuit filed by the family of R&B singer Marvin Gaye, who said that the song blatantly copied Gaye’s 1977 hit “Got To Give It Up.” The Gaye estate won the case, with a judge granting the family $7.4 million in damages for copyright infringement and adding Gaye’s songwriting credits to “Blurred Lines.”

Kobe Bryant’s signature Nike sneakers don’t seem to carry the same kind of cultural weight as the Air Jordan does outside of your average sneakerhead. If you gift any of your friends a random pair of Air Jordans for Christmas, there is a chance they’ll recognize them as a pair of Jordans, but hand an unsuspecting friend a Kobe Protro IV, and they’ll probably just think you got them a new pair of running shoes.

Don’t get us wrong, a Kobe branded sneaker will still sell out instantly (or would sell out, as Nike’s contract with Kobe Bryant’s estate has expired), there just isn’t an endless line of celebrities or streetwear brands clamoring to redesign a Kobe VI the way there is a regular rotation of new colorways for the Jordan I, III, IV, V, and beyond week after week.

That’s because Kobe’s signature silhouettes resonate with a different audience entirely: people who, like Kobe himself, live, love, and breathe for the game. The people who strive to live with that Mamba mentality.

I’m not just talking about the people who play at the park every weekend, I’m talking about professional ballplayers. Year after year, Kobe’s sneakers are routinely the most worn sneakers in the NBA. That has less to do with the way they look and more to do with the way they’re constructed.

Unlike the Air Jordans, which were really only worn by Jordan himself and a handful of players, Kobe’s sneakers took things like stability, movement, weight, cushioning, and energy return into mind as key aspects of each design. Every Kobe signature sneaker with Nike attempted to be an improvement on the last in terms of function, and for all its efforts, Kobe’s signature Nikes may go down in history as some of the best basketball sneakers of all time, which is fitting, as they are attached to one of the greatest to ever step on the hardwood.

Let’s run through a few of the most essential Nike Kobe colorways and designs.

Nike Zoom Kobe 1 ’81 Points, 2007

In a 2006 game against the Toronto Raptors, Kobe rocked his first Nike branded sneaker, the Zoom Kobe 1, and scored a jaw-dropping 81 points in a single game. That feat would forever be immortalized in sneaker history when the following year Nike dropped a Player Exclusive white, black, and purple colorway that matched the design worn by Kobe that night.

A full retail release wouldn’t happen until 2019, but thankfully, players and fans can finally own a pair that commemorates one of Kobe’s career-defining moments.

With its heavy leather construction, the Kobe 1 is a bit of an anomaly in the Kobe signature line as each subsequent pair would shed layers for a more lightweight and responsive fit.

Nike Hyperdunk Marty McFly, 2008

The Nike Hyperdunk wasn’t technically a Kobe signature sneaker, but if you followed his game, you no doubt recognize this one. No other player embodies the Hyperdunk quite like Kobe, who rocked the sneaker in several games and while representing Team USA at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

In a famous ad for the sneaker, Kobe jumped over a speeding Aston Martin, afterward exclaiming “do not try this at home.” Word. When it was time for a retail release, Kobe showed up at LA retailer UNDEFEATED in a Delorean with a special blue and white colorway inspired by Marty McFly’s futuristic Nike MAG from Back To The Future II.

It’s still the sneaker’s greatest colorway.

Nike Zoom Kobe 4 Chaos Joker, 2009

As legendary a basketball player Kobe is, his interests extended far beyond the hardwood. For proof of that, look no further than how many of his sneaker colorways paid tribute to tv and movie characters.

2009’s Chaos Joker colorway is one such example. Named in tribute to Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning turn as the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, this sneaker combined metallic shades of silver with Nike’s Abyss and Nightshade colors over a Flywire base and a Lunar Foam midsole.

It manages to look nothing like the Joker, which is quite frankly, a good thing.

Nike Zoom Kobe 5 Bruce Lee, 2010

One of Kobe’s biggest influences was another master of their respective field, Bruce Lee. In 2010, Kobe and Nike paid tribute to the master of martial arts with this colorway inspired by Lee’s jumpsuit in Enter the Dragon.

Featuring a lightweight build crafted with Nike’s new-at-the-time Flywire technology, the Kobe 5 Bruce Lee featured a foam midsole, Zoom Air cushioning, and a silver-lined Swoosh over a loud yellow and black colorway.

Nike Zoom Kobe 6 — Grinch, 2010

Quite possibly the most iconic signature sneaker in the whole Kobe lineage, 2010’s Grinch is still highly coveted amongst sneakerheads, and for the first time, the decade-old colorway was re-released in 2020, predictably selling out in minutes. It wasn’t easy an easy pair to cop, but the people who were able to score a fresh pair of Grinches last year realized one of their wildest sneakerhead dreams, and that’s a beautiful thing.

Featuring a bright Volt Green colorway with a translucent outsole, crimson red accents, and a synthetic upper, the Grinch wasn’t the official name given to the shoe by Nike. They called this colorway Green Mamba, in reference to the polyurethane scales that mimicked snakeskin on the shoe’s base and Bryant’s Mamba persona.

But given the sneaker’s holiday release date, and its resemblance to the iconic Dr. Seuss character, the fans saw fit to rename it, and the shoe is more recognizable for it.

Nike Kobe 8 System — What The Kobe, 2013

What the Kobe indeed. Sure, this design is kind of ridiculous, but what would Kyrie Irving’s kicks look like without Kobe paving the way for athletes to get overly creative in what they put on a signature sneaker? This sneaker was meant as a special holiday 2013 release and its wild electric toned upper is actually a combination of more than 30 previous Kobe 8 releases, so it’s meant as a bit of a celebration of the Kobe 8 System silhouette. The psychedelic upper featured an Electric Orange base used on the right sneaker, and a base of Deep Night on the left, with Volt and Electric Orange Swooshes.

The sneaker continued the trend of applying a snakeskin textured upper to the silhouette and was at the time of its release, the lightest sneaker in the signature Kobe line.

Nike Kobe 9 Elite Low, Moonwalker, 2014

Kobe liked to pay tribute to other figures operating at the top of their game: Bruce Lee, the Joker (I guess), and in 2014, Michael Jackson. In truth, there is no rhyme or reason for these celebrity-tribute colorways, I’m telling you, Kobe was just wired differently.

This iteration of the low-top Kobe 9 featured a Flyknit upper in a Hyper Grape colorway with a metallic silver Swoosh, a translucent outsole, and lunar graphics on the footbed in reference to Jackson’s career-defining moonwalk.

Nike Kobe 10 Elite Premium HTM Race Car

Designed by a legendary collective of Nike footwear designers including Hiroshi Fujiwara, Tinker Hatfield, and Mark Parker — a trio dubbed simply “HTM” — the Kobe 10 Elite Premium HTM Race Car features reflective accents over a translucent Swoosh that sits atop a flexible and supportive Flyknit upper dipped in an asymmetric black, green, and red colorway.

Rounding out the design is a translucent icy outsole. It’s without a doubt one of the finest colorways of Kobe designer Eric Avar’s underrated late-period silhouette.

Nike Zoom Kobe 4 Protro — Del Sol, 2019

A late classic in the Kobe line, the Zoom Kobe Protro Del Sol’s colorway was chosen to mimic the same exact pair Kobe rocked as the Lakers paraded through the streets of L.A. celebrating their 2009 championship win.

Even if Kobe didn’t score his fourth championship ring wearing this pair of sneakers, it would still likely go down as one of the best colorways the Kobe 4 would ever see thanks to its mix of white, black, and gold.

Nike Zoom Kobe 5 Protro Alternate Bruce Lee, 2020

Dropped as a holiday release last year, the Kobe 5 Protro Alternate Bruce Lee was released alongside a new iteration of the original Bruce Lee 5. The Alternate features the same construction and design as the OG, but with a black and white color scheme.

It’s a controversial take, but I prefer the Alternate over the original. It might not hold the cultural weight of the legendary colorway it was inspired by, but overall, it’s a better design.