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This past Friday, Prince’s estate released Welcome 2 America, the late singer’s first full album solely comprised of previously unreleased material. The 11-track project — which was recorded back in 2010 prior to his Welcome 2 America tour — captured Prince’s concerns, hopes, and visions for society at that moment and how he believed politics, disinformation, and the growing push for social justice would affect the world in the future. Now his estate has made some new moves that may make even more of his work more accessible.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the late singer’s three youngest siblings agreed to sell a large portion of their inheritance in the estate to Primary Wave, an independent New York music publisher and talent management company, which is in control of a catalog that also includes music from Ray Charles, Nirvana, and more.

According to Rolling Stone, the exchange grants Primary Wave the rights to Prince’s name and likeness, royalties from his masters and publishing rights, as well as his beloved Paisley Park studios. The late singer’s three oldest siblings — Sharon, Norrine, and John Nelson — have all said they have no plans to sell any part of their stake in the estate. “We’ll never sell out. We know the prize,” Sharon said to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

L. Londell McMillan, a New York lawyer that represents Sharon, Norrine, and John Nelson shared a statement on behalf of the trio. “There’s not much anyone can do about family members who sell out for the dollar,” he said. “That’s their right.”

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

Kevin Smith was 24 when Clerks, his film debut, was released — younger than even Orson Welles when he made Citizen Kane. His career has been a whirlwind, filled with peaks and valleys and challenges. He’s worked for big studios and gone fully, truly independent. He’s made movies and written comics and rebooted He-Man. He’s had a major health scare that turned him into a health-conscious vegan. And on the last day of the first half-century of his life — the day before he goes full circle by returning, once again, to his initial triumph — Smith was appropriately reflective and humble.

“Today is my last day of being 50. Tomorrow I turn 51 and we start shooting Clerks III,” Smith said in a video posted to Twitter Sunday morning. “It’s also another anniversary. Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of the night I [saw Richard Linklater’s] Slacker and decided to become a filmmaker.”

He added, “It’s been an excellent first half century. Thank you all.”

Smith last revisited the world of Jersey’s Quick Stop convenience stores in 2006, with Clerks II, which brought back much of the original cast, as well as Rosario Dawson, Jason Lee, and Ben Affleck. He’s repeatedly returned to break-out side characters Jay and Silent Bob, played by Jason Mewes and himself, most recently with 2019’s Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. The threequel sounds like it will be semi-autobiographical, with Jeff Anderson’s Randall recovering from a heart attack, much as Smith himself did.

(Via EW)

Saturday night in Inglewood, California, as the crowd inside The Forum at Bellator 263 erupted, 26-year-old A.J. McKee officially arrived as Bellator’s foundational star.

Knocking on the door of superstardom ahead of his championship fight in the finals of the Bellator featherweight Grand Prix, McKee showed off every ounce of potential that’s gotten him to an unblemished 18-0 record. He has finishing power, shown off by his huge left head kick that rocked the former champ, Patricio “Pitbull” Freire. Then he cinched on a tight standing guillotine to claim the belt less than two minutes into the first round, showing off his submission skills on the ground or on his feet.

And as McKee celebrated with a champagne shower inside the cage, Bellator president Scott Coker reflected on the “spectacular” and “electric” championship fight feeling in the Long Beach-native’s backyard.

“He was impressive. I’ve seen Pitbull fight for many years. A.J. did what he had to do, took care of business. Won the tournament, won a million dollars. I think he’s very happy right now,” Coker said in the post-fight press conference. “I think A.J. completely dominated the fight. Pitbull is a great fighter, he’s been a great champion. A.J. is a rising star that became a big star tonight.”

Coker is no stranger to big stars — his promotion has had plenty of them — but McKee is different. He’s not an aging star with his best days in the past. He was brought in as a foundational piece of the Bellator future at just 18 years old and Coker is watching the fruits of his labor blossom into one of the top draws in the world.

McKee’s swagger is off the charts, he has finishing power from anywhere, and Saturday night, he showed how he can sell a fight. Now, it’s all about where Bellator goes from here.

Despite McKee’s struggles to make 145 pounds for the main event — he needed two tries — the new featherweight champion believes he’s not just the best in Bellator, he’s the best in the world.

“Being at 145 pounds isn’t the easiest,” McKee said, via MMA Junkie. “Maybe we get some superfights going but I’m pretty much done with the division at 145 pounds, so hop up to 155 pounds. He’s the best 145-pounder – was the best. I’ve pretty much been saying it. Now people are seeing it and believing it. I am the best 145-pounder in the world whether it’s UFC, ONE FC, PFL, I don’t care who it is.”

In a day and age when seemingly every promotion is vying for cross-promotional superfights, McKee isn’t worried about getting lost in the shuffle. He seems to be just as happy taking a Max Holloway fight as he would be staying in Bellator and trying to become the first fighter to defeat Pitbull twice — albeit likely at 155 pounds.

While he’s certainly not ruling out another bout in the featherweight division, a move to lightweight and a rematch against Pitbull makes the most sense in the immediate term. But regardless of where McKee lands, Coker finally has his homegrown star and someone who appears determined on becoming the transcendent star the promotion has been searching for.

On Saturday, Florida experienced its largest single-day increase in COVID cases since the pandemic’s start. The Delta variant, far more transmissible than earlier strains, has breathed new life into a catastrophe that seemed to be on the wane, and sure enough, the Sunshine State — whose Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has always downplayed its severity — saw a massive uptick: some 21,683 new cases, as per the CDC. Meanwhile, Matt Gaetz, the state’s most headline-grabbing politician, was making fun of the health crisis that’s running roughshod over his home.

On Saturday, the Republican representative kicked off his “Freedom Tour,” which either referred to some interpretation of the term “liberty” or to the thing he may lose once the federal investigation into his ties to a sex trafficking ring comes to a close. At one stop, while standing in front of a fake backdrop filled with images of Trump 2020 signs, he mocked the very thing that was targeting his mask-hating constituents.

“You’ve had all the experts say look out for the delta variant or the lambda variant, well next it’ll be the Chi Omega variant or the Pi Kappa Psi variant,” he told the crowd. “I got the Florida variant. I got the freedom variant. It affects the brain. It gets you to think for yourself where you don’t just surrender to the truth that they’re trying to create in corrupt big media.”

It sure does affect the brain. A number of prominent Republicans have recently pulled a 180, advising their base — which have been predominantly COVID skeptics who hate wearing protective cotton contraptions on their faces, and therefore more susceptible to the new variant — begging them to get vaccinated so they don’t get sick and/or die.

Gaetz isn’t one of them. Indeed, it seems particularly clueless, even for him, to dub something a “Florida variant” when the disease in question is now especially targeting Floridians whose lawmakers keep giving them bad advice.

(Via The Daily Beast)

The homophobic rant DaBaby delivered during last weekend’s Rolling Loud festival in Miami was met with plenty of backlash. His rant — which also targeted people with HIV/AIDS — earned him criticism from Madonna, Dua Lipa, Elton John, Questlove, and more, while BoohooMan terminated their partnership with him. Now, his actions have impacted one of his bigger gigs.

On Sunday, Lollapalooza announced that DaBaby would no longer perform at the show, just a half-hour before the final day of the festival began. “Lollapalooza was founded on diversity, inclusivity, respect, and love,” read a statement put out by the festival. “With that in mind, DaBaby will no longer be performing at Grant Park tonight.” The festival also announced that Young Thug will take the show’s 9 p.m. slot, while G Herbo will step into the 4 p.m. slot to accommodate the gap in their scheduling.

While the move from Lollapalooza is a credible one, it should be noted that at least one other scheduled performer has made public statements that don’t exactly comply with “diversity, inclusivity, respect, and love.” Last year, Young Thug — who’s still on the line-up — responded to controversial comments Boosie Badazz made about Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union’s trans daughter. But he seemed to be more on Boosie’s side. “All I wanna say to dwade son is ‘GOD DONT MAKE MISTAKES’ but hey live your true self,” he wrote in a tweet. The rapper later deleted the message.

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

The Los Angeles Clippers will retain the services of Serge Ibaka for the 2021-22 season. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times, the Clippers’ big man will pick up the player option in his contract for next season, eschewing free agency and giving L.A. a shot in the arm in its frontcourt.

Ibaka joined the Clippers in free agency last year from the Toronto Raptors and gave the team a consistent option in the frontcourt. Midway through the season, though, Ibaka suffered a back injury that held him out for essentially all of the second half of the year. While he tried to play in the team’s final two regular season games and its first two postseason tilts, Ibaka eventually got shut down, and it was announced that he needed to undergo back surgery.

It is not known if Ibaka will be ready to go when the 2021-22 campaign rolls around, but whenever he is able to play, he’ll give Los Angeles some frontcourt reinforcements that they don’t really have outside of Ivica Zubac — following Ibaka’s injury, the Clippers relied heavily on small ball last postseason, something that will likely be more difficult with Kawhi Leonard out for much (if not all) of next year. On the season, Ibaka averaged 11.1 points and 6.7 rebounds in 23.5 minutes per game.

Billie Eilish’s hotly-anticipated new album Happier Than Ever (and video) came out yesterday, and it’s already well on its way to a successful first week. Making the record was such a good experience for Billie, she’s also already said she wishes she could make it again – and detailed for fans the ideal way to listen to it for the first time.

On Thursday before the album came out, Billie and Spotify hosted a massive release party for the record, and it looked to be one of those unmissable events, with a veritable who’s who in music and entertainment in attendance. One such who’s who was none other than Olivia Rodrigo, whose recent success of her own in the pop world at such a young age makes her a contemporary and peer of Billie. While the internet scoured Billie and other public figure’s Instagram posts for glimpses of the event, today Billie shared a photo dumb that gives fans a much more intimate look at the party.

And yes, one of the photos does show her in a full-on hug with Olivia, so clearly these two are closer than we knew, or immediately clicked. Check out more photos from Billie’s point of view of the party above, which she captioned with the heartfelt: “This is where the real love is.” Olivia quickly commented back, “ur an angel.” Collab coming soon??? No one would be mad at that!

After MF Doom’s family revealed the sad news that the legendary rapper had died in 2020 at the untimely age of 49, an outpouring of grief at the loss and appreciation for his artistry erupted. Now, the community where he grew up has decided to commemorate the rapper’s legacy even further, renaming the street he grew up on in Long Beach, New York in honor of him. KMD – MF DOOM Way is named for the rapper and a group he and his younger brother Subroc created early in his career.

As Stereogum points out, Dr. Patrick Graham, a former schoolmate of MF Doom, spearheaded a petition to make the dedication. With close to 10,000 signatures at the time of publishing, the City Council of Long Beach approved the petition. For those familiar with the city, KMD — MF Doom Way is on East Houston Street, covering the block between Riverside Boulevard and Long Beach Road. The ceremony for renaming the road was Saturday.

Born Daniel Dumile, Graham said that Doom represents the best of the resilience that’s needed to carry into the future. “His hip-hop lyricism represents some of the culture’s best linguistic metaphors, garnering intergenerational and interracial admiration,” he said. “His life and art symbolize the resilience we need in our present context.”

The ceremony for renaming the road was today, check out some posts from the event below.

The Olympics are a quadrennial celebration of the best athletes in the world. These sorts of athletes get those huge platforms annually if they play the right sport — the basketball players have the NBA and WNBA, that sort of thing — but for the lesser-heralded sports, the Olympics double as a chance to get under a spotlight that just isn’t there all that often.

Take, for example, equestrian, which spends three years getting tons of attention from hardcore fans of the sport and not much else in our broader sports consciousness. On Saturday, equestrian got a little more attention than usual thanks to a pair of Peacock analysts who don’t exactly follow the sport year-round.

Peacock has Kevin Hart and Snoop Dogg providing some uncensored Olympic commentary, and you should take a sec and listen to the sheer amount of joy Snoop has in seeing a “horse crip walkin.”

Kevin Hart laughed very hard because it is hilarious — he especially enjoyed Snoop saying he needs to get that horse in a video, which again, is hilarious. This was not the only bit of analysis we heard from them, as Snoop probably got an executive somewhere very mad with his analysis of skeet shooting.

We also got Hart telling Randall Cunningham about what happened the last time he wore his Philadelphia Eagles jersey with Cunningham’s name and number on it.

Go Birds.

Pop Smoke’s Faith recently became the second No. 1 album in the late rapper’s catalog, joining Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, which was released posthumously last summer. The 20-track project came with a vast lineup filled with some of the music industry’s biggest names, including Pusha T, Kanye West, Rick Ross, 21 Savage, Future, Chris Brown, Dua Lipa, Kodak Black, and more. Pop Smoke’s team added four new songs to the album in a deluxe reissue that saw guest appearances from G Herbo, OnPointLikeOP, Killa, Dread Woo, and Travi. However, it looks like they’re not done with Faith.

The late rapper’s team quietly updated the chart-topping album with six additional songs. Five of the tracks and brand new releases include contributions from Tay Floss, Rah Swish (who appears on the original version of the album), Fetty Luciano, Anuel AA, and the late rapper’s brother Obasi Jackson. The last addition to the project is “Dior,” Pop Smoke’s Grammy-nominated single.

The updated version of Faith arrives after the rapper’s team shared a celebratory video for Pop Smoke and Dua Lipa’s “Demeanor.”

Faith (Deluxe) is out now via Victor Victor Worldwide/Republic. Get it here.

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