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Much like the failed blogger MAGA fans still cling to, many in the sphere of influence around Donald Trump are simply out to make a quick buck. And the latest example of this is a smartphone designed to make people make a very dumb purchase, apparently in the name of fighting censorship.

That would be the “Freedom Phone,” a device that’s supposed to come pre-loaded with all of Trump World’s favorite apps like Rumble and Parler according to a flag-waving website selling preorders of the phone as of this week. According to the site, it will be available in August and come with a number of apps and a “free speech-first operating system,” whatever that means. But the hefty price tag for an unsubsidized smartphone, $499.99, may be much more than what the phone is actually worth.

As The Daily Beast’s Will Sommer detailed, the Freedom Phone is little more than a budget phone made by a Chinese manufacturer that’s selling for much more as the “Freedom Phone” than it does otherwise. The company, run by a self-proclaimed “youngest bitcoin millionaire” named Erik Finman, wants to sell phones to patriots who don’t want to be censored on social media like Trump and his insurrectionist supporters claim to have been since the January 6 MAGA riot in Washington.

But what they’re buying is, well, a budget phone from China.

In fact, Freedom Phone appears to be a simple rebranding of a budget phone called the “Umidigi A9 Pro,” made by the Chinese tech company Umidigi. In an interview with The Daily Beast, Finman confirmed that the Freedom Phone was manufactured by Umidigi, but couldn’t say immediately which Umidigi phone it was based on.

The Freedom Phone’s $500 price tag would represent a substantial markup on the Umidigi A9 Pro. That phone is available on Chinese retail giant AliExpress for $120 — less than one quarter of the price of a Freedom Phone.

Asked to justify the Freedom Phone’s notable price increase over the Umidigi model, Finman claimed vaguely that the Freedom Phone features customized hardware and improved memory. He committed Wednesday to publishing the phone’s technical specifications — basic details any company selling a phone should be able to provide. As of Thursday afternoon, however, no technical specifications had been provided to The Daily Beast or added to the Freedom Phone’s website.

Sommer’s always-excellent reporting has plenty of details about Finman, as well as some extremely basic logic about the phone itself: all the advertised apps supposed to be “preloaded” on the phone are free and currently available in Android and Apple app stores, so MAGA fans are paying a pretty huge markup just to have them downloaded in advance. There’s also the mobile version of Fortnite on the phones as well, apparently.

None of this sounds like a particularly good deal, except for the MAGA influencers who seem poised to get a cut of profits if their followers buy one with their promotional code. But it will likely sucker some freedom-obsessed folks into buying a cheap phone in the name of fighting censorship. Good luck to everyone involved in figuring out that free speech-based operating system by August.

[via The Daily Beast]

Since breaking out with his debut project, A Love Letter To You, back in 2017, Trippie Redd has made it a point to deliver at least one full-length effort, if not more, to his fans every year. Highlight releases in the years that followed include 2018’s Life’s A Trip, 2019’s A Love Letter To You 4, and 2020’s Pegasus. Trippie will continue this streak with his upcoming effort, Trip At Knight, but not without calling for a prior collaborator in Lil Uzi Vert for their latest track together, “Holy Smokes.”

Trippie and Lil Uzi celebrate their riches on the new track while listing the different ways they can spend their money and enjoy the lavish lifestyles that appear before them. While an official tracklist for Trip At Knight has yet to be revealed, the project is locked in for a July 23 release date, meaning fans will only have to wait an extra week before they can get their hands on it. Trip At Knight will feature the rapper’s previous single, “Miss The Rage” with Playboi Carti, which became his highest-charting single when it debuted at No. 11 on the Billboard singles chart. Trippie also announced a 25-city tour for the album in partnership with Rolling Loud

As for Lil Uzi Vert, the track is the rapper’s latest guest feature, coming just a few weeks after he teamed up with Tyler The Creator and Pharrell for “Juggernaut.” In disappointing news, the new song also comes after he was accused of stalking and abusing his ex-girlfriend, Brittany Byrd.

Scroll up to the video above to hear Trippie’s “Holy Smokes.”

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Just a little over a year after his posthumous debut album, Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, was released, Pop Smoke’s management shares the rapper’s second posthumous effort, Faith. The new release is presented with 20 songs and a large number of guest appearances that include Pusha T and Kanye West who join Pop Smoke for “Tell The Vision.” The track fits right in the drill rap pocket that Pop thrived in before his tragic death as he raps about the struggles he faced growing up. As for the song’s guests, Pusha pays respects to Pop and shouts out Tyler The Creator while Kanye looks to turn up the energy with an adlib-filled intro.

In addition to the aforementioned named, Faith also sports features from Rick Ross, The-Dream, 42 Dugg, 21 Savage, Rah Swish, Travi, Beam, Bizzy Banks, Takeoff, Lil Tjay, Swae Lee, Future, Chris Brown, Dua Lipa, Pharrell, Kid Cudi, Quavo, and Kodak Black. It’s a lengthy affair that invites even more individuals to the party than Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon did.

Faith was announced at the end of the last month with an album trailer that presented encouraging words from the late rapper. “Never let anybody get in between you and your creations,” he says in the video. “Why you just trying to be cool? You gotta make history.”

You can listen to “Tell The Vision” in the video above.

Faith is out now via Victor Victor Worldwide/Republic. Pre-order it here.

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

Normani’s last single came back in 2019 with “Motivation.” It’s an uptempo effort that was released with an eye-popping visual that made references to Ciara’s “Goodies,” Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love,” and Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time” videos among others. However, after its release, Normani took a big step out of the spotlight and stayed out of it for nearly two years until, finally, she returned with her first single in nearly two years. “Wild Side” arrives today with help from Cardi B who steps up to provide a guest verse on the bass-driven track.

The track also comes with a video that sees Normani showing off her impressive dance moves while beckoning for the special man in her life to step up to the plate and enjoy a sultry night with her. Cardi later accompanies Normani for her guest verse where both artists appear discreetly nude from head to toe.

The singer originally previewed the song in an Instagram video she posted back in February. She captioned it, “Know it’s been a while,” an obvious tease towards new music on the way and while it took five months for it to land in the hands of fans, late is far better than never. As for Normani and Cardi’s connection, some may remember that Normani appeared in Cardi and Megan Thee Stallion’s video for “WAP” last fall. On a more recent note, Cardi B recently revealed that she’s pregnant with her and Offset’s second child. She broke the news during a performance at the 2021 BET Awards.

You can check out the new song in the video.

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

Beaten to space (more or less) by Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos has decided not to be outdone by bringing the youngest ever astronaut with him to space later this month. That news came on Thursday, days after the Virgin owner’s own trip to the edges of space that made him the first civilian to briefly leave Earth’s grasp.

Skeptics could certainly paint this as two billionaires merely fighting over the upper edge of Earth’s atmosphere, but a more whimsical look at Bezos and Branson taking flight may see it as the start of space tourism in earnest. Whatever the future holds, though, what’s clear is that this may be yet another example of The Simpsons predicting something that happened in real life years before it actually occurred.

As Deadline laid out following a few days of post-Branson buzz, a scene from the show’s 25th season shows Branson admiring a painting while floating in space. The clip comes from the 15th episode of the season, entitled The War of Art. In it, an art forger speaks to Lisa about how much joy his work has given others, kicking off a quick montage of art in different places. One of them, of course, is an image of Branson floating in a spacecraft while looking at a painting.

The clip from 2004 went viral in the wake of Branson’s spaceflight, but many — including at least one person involved with the show — pointed out that it wasn’t a prediction as much as a pretty common reference once Virgin’s space endeavors were made public with Virgin Galactic that same year.

Given the extremely long time the show’s been on the air and the sheer volume of episodes out there at this point, it seems logical that the show would get things right from time to time. But whether it’s a prediction or luck, it certainly had people talking about weightless billionaires.

After two losses to begin their exhibition slate prior to the Olympics, the men’s USA Basketball team bounced back with a convincing win over Argentina. In the moment, that showing eased at least some of the early concerns about the squad’s forecast for Tokyo, but in the ensuing hours, roster concerns have piled up. Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal is officially out of the Tokyo Olympics after entering health and safety protocols and Jerami Grant joined Beal in the protocols shortly thereafter. As a result, word broke earlier on Thursday that the squad’s penultimate tune-up against Australia could be canceled, and that is now officially the case.

As noted in the official announcement, the women’s team will still take on Australia at 2:30 p.m. ET, but the men’s team is now down to only one more exhibition tilt. They are scheduled to face Spain on Sunday in Las Vegas before heading to Tokyo.

With Beal and Grant out of action, Team USA would have been down to only seven of their 12 players from the original roster, with three players (Khris Middleton, Devin Booker and Jrue Holiday) still participating in the NBA Finals. Reports are circulating that USA Basketball is looking to replace Beal before the team makes its way to the Olympics but, for now, there isn’t anything official.

It certainly seems logical to avoid playing an exhibition tilt if there was any concern whatsoever, and the statement notes an abundance of caution. It will be interesting to see how things proceed from here, though, particularly with the Olympics set to begin in fewer than ten days.

21 Savage and Metro Boomin made fans wait more than four years to get a sequel to their Savage Mode project. The effort finally came in October 2020 and as opposed to the first installment which was a mere mixtape, the second edition came as a full-length album, one that was met with acclaim and positive reviews from fans and critics alike. Nearly a full year after Savage Mode II was released, 21 Savage and Metro Boomin continue their promotion of the project with a video for “Brand New Draco.”

The new visual hones in on 21 Savage’s humor while keeping his menacing raps, which often cross into dark territories, intact. The Atlanta rapper steps into the role of a financial advisor who promotes his new $DRCO stock. Promises of monetary success are made with the help of testimonies from DJ Khaled, Bow Wow, Shaquille O’Neal, and more. However, it’s all a facade as the company 21 Savage and Metro Boomin built together is forced to quickly disband before law enforcement raids their office to arrest them for an unknown crime.

The video joins “Glock In My Lap,” “My Dawg,” and “Runnin” as other songs from Savage Mode II to receive the visual treatment. On a more recent note, 21 recently signed as a headlining act, along with North Carolina rapper Morray, for J. Cole’s The Off-Season tour.

You can watch the video for “Brand New Draco” above.

Savage Mode II is out now via Epic Records and Republic Records. Get it here.

Ruby Rose only briefly held the mantle of Batwoman on the CW, and apparently the reason first given for her abrupt departure didn’t tell the whole story. Rose made headlines in 2020 by leaving Batwoman after its first season, citing some difficulties that soon spawned rumors things did not exactly end amicably.

A year later, though, Rose has slightly changed her tune as to why she left the show. As the New York Daily News shared on Thursday, Rose spoke to an Australian program called the Kyle And Jackie O Show where she gave a new reason for her abrupt departure from the DC Universe show: an allergy that impacted her ability to wear the costume required for the part.

“I did find out that I was allergic to latex … unfortunately, my mask is latex,” the 35-year-old beauty said during an interview on Australia’s “The Kyle and Jackie O Show.” “I was getting worse and worse, because as you get more contact with it, I guess you get more reactions. I took off the [mask] at the end, and my face was just hives. My throat was all messed up.”

“It was like it was out of a scary movie,” the “Orange is the New Black” alum added.

That’s certainly a new one in the list of reasons to walk away, and it seems like it certainly was a factor regardless of all the other interpersonal drama that may have played a part as well. Considering how integral a costume is to a superhero role, not being able to get through taping without medical side effects would make it tough continue with a second season. But given all the other smoke around her departure here, it seems likely it’s just a new wrinkle in a story that only keeps growing more complex.

[via NY Daily News]

With EA Play quickly approaching there is growing anticipation about what kind of video games everyone will get to see. While rumors persist of a new Dead Space and maybe a new college football game announcement we’re also, unfortunately, hearing about what will not be there. We already know that Bioware is skipping out, which means no new information about Mass Effect and Dragon Age, but it looks like another major franchise will also be missing from EA Play 2021.

Star Wars, which until recently was an EA exclusive, is not going to be making an appearance at EA Play. However, for fans of the Star Wars video games from EA they can rest assured that there will be more to see in 2022. EA teased that while they don’t have anything Star Wars to show this year they will be showing off some stuff next year. Maybe a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order?

This is admittedly a little bit of a disappointment, but at least we know that some new Stars Wars games are in development and on the way. Star Wars has one of the best universes in fiction and that has managed to give us some really great games. What’s more concerning is that EA keeps announcing that major names will not be a part of their upcoming EA Play, which creates questions about what it is they plan to show during the upcoming event.

Hopefully, this just means that without Bioware or Star Wars that EA is going to come through with tons of new games to show. A new IP announcement would be very cool, for example. We’ll just have to wait and see!

Lil Durk has unfortunately experienced an unusual amount of tragedies over the last year and he was nearly involved in another one as a report from TMZ revealed on Thursday. The rapper’s Georgia home, which he resides in with his girlfriend India Cox, was reportedly broken into by multiple unidentified individuals early Sunday morning.

According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the break-in quickly led to a shootout that saw the intruders as well as Durk and Cox exchange gunfire. Officials were unable to determine how many people broke into the rapper’s home and they’re seeking help from the public to investigate the home invasion.

XXL was also able to obtain documents that confirm Durk and Cox were listed as victims in the incident and were not injured in the matter. The home invasion and shooting occurred a month after Durk’s brother, DThang, was shot and killed outside of Club O, a strip club in Harvey, Illinois, a city south of their hometown of Chicago. This came after King Von, a rapper Durk often referred to as has “twin,” died as a result of a club shooting in Atlanta back in November 2020.

In more positive news, Durk received his first No. 1 album last month thanks to the release of Voice Of The Heroes, his joint album with Lil Baby. The 18-track effort came attached with guest appearances from Travis Scott, Young Thug, Meek Mill, and Rod Wave.