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Kentavious Caldwell-Pope left the Los Angeles Lakers’ Game 3 win over the Phoenix Suns with an injury. Devin Booker and Caldwell-Pope bumped legs into one another in the third quarter of action, and shortly thereafter, he made his way into the locker room with what the team described as a left quad contusion.

The injury made Caldwell-Pope a question mark heading into Sunday’s Game 4 tilt, in which the Lakers could take a commanding 3-1 series lead. Ultimately, the team determined he will not be able to take the floor, ruling him out. They did, however, update the injury, saying that the veteran swingman suffered a knee contusion.

Caldwell-Pope has not been his usual self on the offensive end of the floor through three games in the series, averaging four points in 30.3 minutes a night while connecting on one of his 13 attempts from three, good for a paltry 7.7 percent. He has, however, worked to make up for it on the defensive end of the floor, as he’s been his usual pesky self against the Suns’ perimeter players.

Game 4 between the Lakers and Clippers is slated to tip off at 3:30 p.m. EST on Sunday afternoon from the Staples Center. The game will be broadcast on ABC.

DMX’s posthumous album, Exodus, arrived more than a month after the rapper’s tragic death. It was his most collaborative effort to date, featuring some of the most popular names from past and present, including Jay-Z, Nas, Usher, The Lox, and Griselda. One person missing was Pop Smoke. But in a recent interview with The Breakfast Club, Swizz Beatz, who executive produced the album, explained why was the late rapper was not featured on Exodus.

“They used the verse already. I know X wouldn’t want an old verse,” Swizz said. “We fought for it,” adding that the verse was “out of nowhere.” Pop Smoke was set to appear on “Money Money Money” but Memphis rapper Moneybagg Yo eventually replaced him. Swizz continued, “It was two verses and both of them was used. We went to get another verse and it was used.” The famed producer then explained why he selected the Memphis native for the song.

“I just put Moneybagg on the song,” he said. “Not that they the same energy, but they the same demographic. X wanted to touch that part too.” He added, “I’m not mad at it. I like Moneybagg verse better anyway.”

You can watch the full interview in the video above.

Exodus is out now via Def Jam. Get it here.

Republicans have been adamant about supporting Israel during their bloody fight with Hamas. They’ve also, at the same time, been making light of the Holocaust. Marjorie Taylor Greene, of course, led the charge, doubling and tripling and quadrupling down on offensive comparisons between mask mandates and…the systematic slaughter of over six million Jewish people during World War II. Now a hat store in Nashville is under fire for going the next stop: selling Yellow Star of David badge to troll people who want to stay safe during a once-in-a-century pandemic.

As per NBC News, a store called Hatwrks in the Tennessee capital started advertising yellow badges with the word for “Jew” replaced by “not vaccinated.” The badges were used by Axis powers to mark religious outsiders. Much like Greene’s recent controversial comparisons, the store’s new line of merchandise were widely deemed as deeply offensive, with claims that they were making light of a culture war, and for money. (The badges were being sold for $5 a pop.)

Protesters descended upon the hat store, some even tying a sign that read “No Nazis in Nashville” across the storefront.

The owners, however, remained adamant about their Star of David merch, saying people should be more outraged by the “tyranny the world is experiencing,” which is to say public health measures meant to finally put an end to a pandemic.

Then they started losing suppliers. Stetson, the iconic cowboy hat peddler, announced they were ceasing the sale of all their products to the store, condemning the “offensive content.” Other lines started following suit, including Kangol and Tula Hats.

Around that time, the store took to Instagram once more, trying to apologize. “My intent was not to exploit or make a profit,” the statement read. “My hope was to share my genuine concern & fear, and to do all that I can make sure that nothing like that ever happens again. I sincerely apologize for any insensitivity.”

But people weren’t buying it.

Some pointed out that Stetson is not exactly considered a line for woke snowflakes.

And some found themselves congratulating the company for doing the right thing.

Others pointed out the strange disconnect defending Israel while trivializing the Holocaust.

(Via NBC News)

For the second time in a year, Boosie Badazz was caught in the midst of gunfire. According to TMZ, shots rang out while the rapper and his crew were filming a music video in Hunstville, Alabama. Footage captured the ordeal, showing Boosie and company standing comfortably beside each other on the 200-block of Binford Drive when the gunfire breaks out. People in the crowd immediately scatter and make a break for it in search of safety. TMZ added that Huntsville police told the publication that they responded to the call about gunshots around 4:30 PM on Saturday, and upon their arrival, officers said they saw between 50 and 100 people running from the scene.

Unfortunately, the shooting killed one man. Randall Strong, Jr., 20, was transported to the hospital. While he was originally listed in critical condition, CBS News19 later reported that he died from his injuries. Police said Christopher Kwan Freeman, 22, turned himself in early Sunday morning. He was charged with murder and booked into the Madison County Jail on a $75,000 bond.

It was just six months ago that Boosie was wounded in a Dallas shooting. He was seated in a sprinter van at a strip mall called Big T’s Plaza when someone opened fire on the van. Boosie suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and was quickly taken to a hospital to be treated for his injury.

You can watch the video captured during Boosie’s video shoot above.

Even among Republican governors, Florida’s Ron DeSantis is infamous for frequently approaching cartoon level of villainy. He’s enacted voter suppression laws. He’s against teaching America’s history of racism in schools. And he’s been staunchly against COVID safety measures, even as infection and fatality numbers spiked in his state. And as fears arise about yet another wave from an ever-mutating virus, he’s going next level: He’s forcing cruise ships to take unvaccinated passengers, public health be damned.

Late last week, federal health officials approved the first cruise ship to embark from the U.S., namely in Fort Lauderdale. But DeSantis, perhaps the most Florida Man of Florida men, was quick to get in the way. He took issue with their safety measures, namely that they require passengers to prove they’ve been vaccinated before boarding. In fact, he stated the industry wouldn’t be exempt from a new state law, which bans “vaccine passports” to prove that they’re safe from a highly contagious disease. Any line turning away unvaccinated passengers, he said, would be fined $5,000 a person.

Cruise ships were one of the first major vectors of transmission when COVID started spreading around the world. The industry has laid dormant ever since. Getting approval from the CDC to resume service would be a boon to the industry — but DeSantis seems to be hellbent on making them unsafe.

DeSantis came under fire after his actions went public, but in response, he did what most Republicans do these days: He doubled down.

“We are going to enforce Florida law,” DeSantis told reporters Friday. “I mean, we have Florida law. We have laws that protect the people and the privacy of our citizens, and we are going to enforce it. In fact, I have no choice but to enforce it.”

But maybe he does have a choice. Many people reminded him that piling potentially contagious passengers into tight spaces is incredibly dangerous.

Others pointed out the government forcing businesses to do something they don’t want to do kind of goes against the base principles of conservatavism.

And others suggested this could backfire severely, robbing the state of one of its biggest industries.

(Via Orlando Sentinel)

Meek Mill often finds himself trending on social media for questionable things. One example came earlier this year, when he mentioned Kobe Bryant in a tasteless manner on a song with Lil Baby. Prior to that, there was his and Tekashi 69’s parking lot spat in Miami. Despite these instances, it’d be wrong to say Meek hasn’t done anything positive, or at least not embarrassing, over the past few months. But the way the Philly rapper sees it, the coverage he gets has only focused on the bad he does.

“Yesterday I help a innocent man gain his freedom back he had life in prison,” he wrote on Twitter in reference to Eric Riddick, a 51-year-old man who was recently released from prison, thanks to help from Meek and others, after he was wrongfully convicted of murder and spent 29 years locked up for it as a result. He added, “On the net I was trending for a pause basically lol them blogs got y’all… Go check blogs pages …don’t post positive post just the goofy sh*t… y’all sheep and be serious lol.”

An example of “goofy sh*t” Meek refers to is a past tweet where he oddly asked his followers, “I need vibrating panties with the remote lol they on Amazon? Lol.” The post caused him to trend on Twitter.

As for Riddick, he was freed after he agreed to plead no contest to third-degree murder with time served. A Court of Common Pleas Judge previously reviewed Riddick’s case after his defense attorneys claimed evidence was withheld from the defense team during the trial.

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

Movie studios, theaters, and fans have been eyeing Memorial Day weekend for months now in the hopes that the box office might return to some semblance of normal. The last few months have seen a few scattered hits — Godzilla vs. Kong, Mortal Kombat, and Demon Slayer: Mugen Train — but with mask mandates lifted around the country and vaccinations ramping up, this weekend would be the true test of the post-pandemic box office.

It passed!

With $20 million on Friday alone, the Memorial Day box office for John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place Part II is shaping up for a huge $58.5 million holiday weekend. That is from 3,752 theaters, which is about how many theaters screened blockbuster movies pre-pandemic. The $58.5 million four-day weekend, the $48.3 million three-day, and the $20 million single-day Friday gross are all box-office records since the pandemic. Those numbers are not only well ahead of expectations (Paramount figured $40 million for the four-day weekend), but the sequel actually scored more than the original’s $50 million opening weekend.

The other test for A Quiet Place Part II and the box-office, in general, is how well it does after its opening weekend. Films like Godzilla vs. Kong and Mortal Kombat have seen successful opening weekends, but have plummeted in their second weekends. A Quiet Place Part II, however, is the first major blockbuster film to be released exclusively in theaters since Tenet, although there is one change for A Quiet Place Part II: Its theatrical window is now only 45 days before it will then be released to the Paramount+ streaming network. In fact, John Krasinki and Emily Blunt, who earn a percentage of the theatrical take, are asking Paramount for more money because the window was shortened.

Disney’s Cruella, meanwhile, had no theatrical window, as it was released in theaters and on Disney+ for a cost of $30. We won’t learn how much it earned from premium access, but it put up a very impressive $7.7 million on Friday and what looks to be around $28 million for the weekend. That’s all the more impressive because these Disney films — even during the pandemic — have been sticking around in theaters for months. Raya and the Last Dragon, for instance, has very quietly earned over $50 million since March, and until A Quiet Place Part II came along, was the second-highest-grossing film of the year, despite also being available for premium access.

In another sign of normality, we also have Cinemascores again! A Quiet Place Part II scored an A- CinemaScore (even better than the original’s B+), while Cruella received an A. Critics, meanwhile, preferred Quite Place, giving it a 91 percent on Rotten Tomaotes compared to the 73 percent earned by Cruella.

As it stands, it also looks like the box office will earn over $80 million over the three-day weekend, a first since the pandemic. The biggest difference right now, however, is that there still isn’t a deep bench of hits behind the top two films. Spiral is hanging on at number three, earning around $2.9 million for the four-day holiday ($20.3 million overall) followed by Wrath of Man with $2.7 million and $22.7 million overall. In fifth, again, is Raya and the Last Dragon, clinging to the top five with $2.2 million and $51 million overall.

More good news is that we don’t have to wait two or three weeks in between major releases anymore. Next weekend, in fact, will see the release of another Conjuring movie, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It plus a Sylvester Stallone film, Samaritan, followed by the release of In the Heights in theaters and on HBO Max on June 11th.

Source: Deadline, Box Office Mojo

Some spend Memorial Day weekend enjoying a rare three days off — grilling with friends and/or family, thinking about those who died fighting for America, maybe making jokes about Cruella. Others have no chill. Republicans have spent the holiday break keeping the crazy going. Fox News tried to turn an innocuous tweet from Kamala Harris into a culture war firestorm. Texan GOP lawmakers spent Saturday night signing transparently evil voting restriction laws into place. And Sidney Powell, one of Trump’s wacko lawyers, fed conspiracy theorists the lie that Trump is coming back to the White House.

Believers in the nutso conspiracy theory known as QAnon — which includes 30% of Republicans, by the way — gathered in Dallas over the holiday weekend for an actual QAnon conference, entitled Patriot Roundup for God and Country. The event’s headliners were its two most prominent cheerleaders: Disgraced former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and Powell, who’s being sued for $1.3 billion by Dominion Voting Systems for peddling election fabrications that have been dubbed the “Big Lie.”

Powell, though, was there to reassure the crowd that the big guy is coming back to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

“It should be that he can simply be reinstated, that a new inauguration day is set, and Biden is told to move out of the White House. And President Trump should be moved back in,” she told the crowd, to lots of cheers. But this event — which is almost certainly never happening, despite their continued and baseless claims of widespread 2020 voter fraud — has its downside.

“I’m sure there’s not going to be credit for time lost, unfortunately because the Constitution itself sets the date for inauguration,” she added. “But he should definitely get the reminder of his term and make the best of it, that’s for sure.”

The QAnon-ers ate it up, but perhaps they were forgetting that Powell herself might not even believe this stuff. Her entire legal defense for the lawsuit that would cost her over a billion dollars is that “no reasonable person” would believe her cockamamie claims about Dominion fraud. But to her credit, Powell must know she’s not talking to reasonable people.

(Via Raw Story)

DMX’s Exodus, arrived on Friday. It’s the final album the rapper completed before his death, minus some last-minute loose ends that were tied up posthumously. Swizz Beatz executive produced the album and he’s also taken charge of promoting it, including an appearance on The Breakfast Club, in which he spoke about the possibility of a second posthumous DMX album.

“He’s got a lot of music,” Swizz says around the 23:00 mark of the interview. “But, for me it’s like, he just worked so hard on this record that I don’t really want to tamper with things unless it can be better than this record. I don’t want to just put things out, and even with the footage, we recorded the whole process of the album, and we could’ve been putting that footage out right now leading up to the album.”

He added, “But I’m like, ‘let’s do something masterful with it. Let’s treat it as art and curate it to where it adds to his legacy and is not just a blip of a moment that seems like it works, but you still don’t understand the whole story.’” So this almost certainly isn’t the last you’ll hear from DMX.

You can watch the full The Breakfast Club interview above.

We’re less than a month away from the new season of Rick and Morty — only its fifth since bowing in late 2013. Teasers and trailers have already promised not only a kookier but also a kinkier next batch; there appears to be a bondage-themed episode, and one character is actually named “Horny Ocean Man.” But that’s not all. In a new interview, its voice cast promises lots of randy goings-ons for arguably the most frustrated characters, on-again-off-again sometime-marrieds Beth and Jerry.

“It’s a fun season for Beth and Jerry,” Sarah Chalke, who voices the family matriarch, told Inverse. That’s a big deal: They two split at the end of Season 2, and Jerry spent much of the following two in the dog house, living in a sad divorced dad apartment. They patched things up in Season 4 and appeared to be on the road to recovery. But apparently they’re doing even better than that, partially by exploring their more prurient urges.

Indeed, Chris Parnell, voice of Jerry, semi-jokingly promises “[l]ots of sexual adventures,” Parnell promises. “Season 5 for Jerry and Beth is mostly about their sexual relationship. It’s kind of all the show explores.”

That said, they’ll have to go pretty far into the ether to get anywhere close to the sex positivity of another very blue animated favorite, Big Mouth, which often delves uncomfortably deep into the hellscape of puberty. That said, Rick and Morty has always been a very pro-sex show. Rick has impregnated a robot and reunited with a hive of former lovers, while Jerry has already earned the wrath of an alien lover. In an age when a lot of popular fare is powerfully sexless, bring it on.

(Via Inverse)