GoneTrending

After dropping a new song for fans every now and then, Saweetie seems ready to flood the streets with music as the Bay Area rapper is already back with a new track. Her latest drop is an energetic banger titled “Fast (Motion)” and on it, Saweetie has her eyes on nothing but first place. She boasts about keeping things at a quick pace just like the life she lives, while leaving her competition in the dust behind her. The song arrives with a video that features the rapper as a soccer player, racecar driver, and skydiver, thus proving there’s nothing she can’t excel at.

The new track arrives after she dropped off her Pretty Summer Playlist: Season 1 project last month. Its seven tracks saw appearances from Drakeo The Ruler, Lourdiz, Kendra Jae, Bbbyafricka, and Loui. While the real full-length effort that the rapper’s fans are waiting for is her upcoming debut album, Pretty B*tch Music, they’ll have to exercise their patience for a bit longer as it’s set for a release at some point this summer. In the meantime, Saweetie has been working on her crafting at an artist development boot camp she attended. “For me, I’m gonna focus on what I struggle with,” she said about the camp. “I struggle with breathing control, I’m gonna work on my dance moves, my details, all that good stuff, my body, my stamina, everything.”

Press play on Saweetie’s energetic new track above.

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

If anyone has had a year of it with COVID-19, it’s Pink. The pop star got sick with the Coronavirus in early spring last year, back when potential outcomes for surviving the virus were still so unknown, and her three-year-old song also caught it. Luckily, they both came through unscathed, but she initially called the experience “terrifying,” and revealed earlier this week that she rewrote her will when sick, that’s how severe it was.

During her illness, the primary thing on her mind was her daughter Willow, and making sure if anything happened that her young child knew exactly how loved she was. That was part of the impetus behind the singer’s brand new single, “All I Know So Far,” which is dedicated to Willow. A bit more of a country-pop feel for Pink, with lots of acoustic guitars and bouncing choruses, the song makes it clear that no one knows exactly what they’re doing in life, and staying true to your own heart is part of surviving. If Pink is about to go acoustic for a whole album, or team up with Chris Stapleton like she did back in 2017, I’m definitely here for it. After all, she already has a folk side project with Dallas Green in You+Me, so it’s totally possible.

Listen to the new song above and look for a video sometime tomorrow morning.

It has been an injury-plagued second half of the 2020-21 season for the Los Angeles Lakers. Frank Vogel’s team continues to operate without LeBron James, even as the playoffs loom, and Anthony Davis missed more than two months with a leg injury. From there, the Lakers are locked in a genuine battle for playoff positioning, trying desperately to avoid the play-in tournament and the volatility that can be associated with a win-or-go-home scenario. With that as the backdrop, another injury hiccup is the last thing that anyone in Los Angeles wants, and a bit of a scare arrived on Thursday.

Davis left a nationally televised game against the L.A. Clippers with what appeared to be an ankle tweak in the first quarter.

The ailment did not immediately sideline Davis, who played nine minutes in the first half, but he was not present when the Lakers emerged from the locker room. Ultimately, it was not an ankle injury according to the Lakers, with Davis instead exiting with back spasms.

It should be noted that Davis does have a history of getting banged up with relatively minor ailments and, if that is all this is, there will be heavy exhales of relief. At the same time, the margin for error is incredibly small for the Lakers right now, particularly with James dealing with an ankle issue that could theoretically limit him when the bright lights come on. Further information will likely emerge after the game but, for now, Davis is dealing with a back issue and the Lakers need all the help they can get.

Brooklyn Nets star James Harden hasn’t played since April 5 due to a hamstring injury and, with not much time left before the playoffs start, he and Nets are running out of time to completely gel on the court. According to Harden, though, he is “very confident” he’ll be back before the playoffs.

“The plan is to hopefully get an opportunity to play a couple games before the postseason,” Harden said Thursday, per ESPN. “We’re just taking one day at a time.”

Harden said was on track to play in late April, but suffered a setback on April 21 that put him back on the bench. After Brooklyn’s game against Dallas on Thursday, it has five games left before the end of the regular season.

“We wanted to be patient,” Harden said. “As much as I love to hoop, I want to be out there, but you’ve got to be smart. And for me, it was just, ‘Let’s knock this thing out, let’s get this thing healthy so we can make a push.’

“At this point in my career, going to postseasons basically since I’ve been in Houston, I’ve been playing heavy minutes, just carrying the load,” he continued. “And this was an opportunity for me to keep my body right going into the postseason with a clear mind and a clear body. You’ve got 16 games to win. That’s the ultimate goal. That’s the reason why I came to Brooklyn.”

For the year, Harden is averaging 25.4 points, 11 assists, and 8.7 rebounds and was firmly in the MVP mix before his injury. Due to his injury and Kevin Durant’s injury earlier in the season, Brooklyn is taking a lack of chemistry developed in the regular season to its extreme. Per Basketball-Reference, the most common five-man lineup with Harden, Durant, and Kyrie Irving on the floor has played a total of 75 minutes together. Even if it’ll probably work well when it matters, those three have had very little on-court time together to work out the kinks.

As of now, it seems like the Nets are going to end up as the No. 2 seed in the East and, assuming they get out of the play-in tournament, a match-up with the Heat in round one, although they’re only a half-game up on the third seed.

The other day someone on Twitter pointed out that this season of Top Chef feels noticeably more enjoyable than the last few have. That seemed right to me. Maybe it’s because with the contestants not living in a house together, there isn’t even the possibility of “house drama” segments? Maybe shooting when restaurants weren’t doing indoor dining meant they had to get rid of any business-y industry stuff? Maybe the characters are just better? Discuss.

Anyway, this week began with an attempt to celebrate Oregon’s status as both a top producer of wild mushrooms and Portland’s unofficial designation as “Stumptown” — so named thanks to its status as the world’s top exporter of amputee porn. I’m kidding, they didn’t actually say why Portland is called Stumptown. I guess because of all of the stumps?

In any case, the quickfire challenge involved cooking a mushroom dish, because mushrooms; prepared on a stump, because Stumptown. And the winner would receive $10,000 because “Better Than Buillon” sponsored it. Was it just me or did this product placement seem much less shoehorned and awkward than all the rest? I may start using Better Than Buillon just because they seem like a chill sponsor.

Also, Padma wore her finest snake shirt for the occasion:

“My latest collection is inspired by Lorenzo Lamas’ acclaimed performance in the beloved afternoon motorcycle drama, Renegade.” -Jacobin Mugatu, Top Chef season 18 costume coordinator.

After the mushroom tree stump bouillon surprise challenge, it was time to take a trip out to the coast to get schooled on indigenous cuisine by the native Pacific Northwesterners. Snakeskin Padma was gone by then, replaced by Slouch Hat Tommy.

Damn, someone yoink that thing off before he starts writing sad French poetry. Amour… c’est le merde…

This was all for a SURF AND TURF challenge, in which the chefs drew knives, choosing either a fish or a… non-fish …and then having to pair up with someone who had the opposite protein. They were then to create one surf and turf dish. And as if that weren’t stressful enough, this was a DOUBLE ELIMINATION CHALLENGE!

Well… sort of. The losing team would both go home, but only until the end of an instant Last Chance Kitchen, at the end of which the winner would immediately return to the competition. Ah, the old Last Chance Kitchen tease! Classic!

Fun fact: I had to write these rankings before Last Chance Kitchen aired, so I’ll be SPECULATING WILDLY!

RESULTS

Quickfire Top: Gabriel*, Dawn, Gabe. (*Winner)
Quickfire Bottom: Chris, Nelson, Byron.

Elimination Top: Gabe/Dawn, Sara/Shota*.
Eliminated: Gabriel/Nelson.

—

10. (even) ((Eliminated?)) Nelson German

AKA: Papa Bear. Cardio. The Gipper.

Papa Bear apparently never recovered from having to run around an orchard two episodes ago, so he spent this episode alternately icing his war wounds and doped to the gills. In the elimination challenge, he did what no one else wanted to do and paired up with Gabriel. Gabriel, despite being the show’s villain, seems to be in the top side of most challenges, including winning the quickfire this week, so that seemed like solid reasoning on Papa Bear’s part. I was half expecting Gabriel to win one for the Gipper, as wounded Nelson smiled fondly from his hospital bed, or for Nelson to get shot up with cortisone and limp out of the chef’s dug out to hit a walk-off food home run like Kirk Gibson. Chef Kirk Gibson.

Instead, Nelson and Gabriel couldn’t get the salmon cook quite right and had to choose between serving slightly over salmon with crispy skin or perfectly cooked salmon with flabby skin. On an episode when the judges had to pick nits, they were probably f*cked either way.

Both Gabriel and Nelson went home, but based on pure speculation I’m going to assume that Gabriel won their head-to-head battle. Time will tell!

Notable Critique: “That steelhead was cooked too hard.”

Christ, if you can’t cook something called a “steelhead” hard, what can you?

9. (-2) Byron Gomez

AKA: Manolo. Burger King. Goldblum.

I worried Byron’s victory last week was a fluke and this week’s performance seemed to confirm it. First he served too-salty mushroom confit in the quickfire and landed in the bottom three. Then he teamed up with Maria in the elimination challenge. They made an elk with green mole with smoked fish on the top, that the judges seemed to like, except that they wanted more mole. Sadly, Byron had just finished telling Maria not to put more mole on the plate.

The big question is, was this a plating error or a naming error? Was there not enough mole on the plate, or should they just not have put mole in the title? That created false mole expectations. You can’t give a Top Chef mole blue balls, that’s a mole mortal sin.

Notable Critique: “I wish it had more green mole.”

8. (even) Chris Viaud

AKA: Stretch. Butter. Kelso.

Stretch also fell to Earth this week, having to stoop his big ass down to stump size in the quickfire, in which he landed in the bottom three for his worst-in-class hen of the woods chicken finger. Then in the elimination challenge, he teamed up with Avishar for sturgeon and a croquette. Have you noticed that sturgeons are weird-looking sea monsters? Scary as hell. I wouldn’t eat that thing if I didn’t know better.

They managed to please the judges just enough not to go home, but it sounded like Chris’s grilled sturgeon was the weaker component.

Notable Critique: “I’m not sure if I would’ve gone for grilling the sturgeon.”

7. (+2) Maria Mazon

AKA: Gas Can. Backdraft. James Brown. Holy Mole. Mole Maria.

Maria always seems like she’s just on the cusp of having a break-out week but never quite gets there. This week, it was an unforced mole error that did her in. A classic mole boner. If only Mole Maria had stuck to her Mole Guns, we wouldn’t be wondering what could’ve been.

Dammit, Maria! Next time someone tries to mansplain plating tell them to slurp your mole!

Notable Critique: “Yummy, I want to eat all of this.”

6. (-1) Avishar Barua

AKA: Milhouse. Chillhouse. Thrillhouse. American Pie. The Carbonator. Portmanteau. OH.

Avishar was barely in this episode. He’s also become the wild card of this season. Everyone else in the competition has fully solidified as either a favorite or an underdog except for Avishar. He’s the chameleon, slipping back and forth between the two depending on how much he talks about Ohio. If Avishar brings up Ohio it’s going to be a bad day for him. It just goes to show, no one wants to hear about Ohio.

This week, in true nerd fashion, Avishar chose his quickfire mushrooms based on size, reasoning that the smaller ones would cook the fastest (NERD!). He also said, “When I agreed to this show, I had no intention of making friends,” which is probably the nerdiest way that I’ve ever heard a reality show contestant say “I’m not here to make friends.”

Anyway, Avishar paired up with Chris and the judges liked his croquette, so.

Notable Critique: “That was awesome.”

5. (+1) ((Eliminated?)) Gabriel Pascuzzi

AKA: Patriarchy. Evil Gabe. Chad. Bluto. Mr. Mackie. The Noodge. Pascooch. The Cooch. Toni Coochkoc. The Forager.

Be honest, did this week evoke some sympathy for Gabe? Even after winning the quickfire, thanks to his childhood foraging experience and chanterelle fois gras dedicated to his dad, Gabriel basically got Forrest Gump’d in the elimination challenge. No one wanted to be his partner!

Poor Evil Gabe. What did he do wrong, anyway? Was it the name dropping? The mansplaining? The micromanaging? It’s sad to be living in a day and age when no one wants to be a guy’s partner solely because he has a bunch of annoying personality traits.

Evil Gabe finally found his Jenny in Nelson, who was unfortunately too doped up and injured to cook salmon properly. Technically they were both eliminated. I’m nonetheless putting Evil Gabe at number five, based on my assumption that he won the head-to-head Last Chance Kitchen challenge and will re-enter the competition next week.

Notable Critique: “I really like antelope the way he cooked it.”

4. (even) Sara Hauman

AKA: Tails. Yogurt. Portlandia. Trapper Keeper. Manic Pixie Cream Sauce. Fiddlesticks. The Queen Of Comedy.

Understand, I say this as a fellow nervous laugher, so it’s partly hypocritical: I don’t know how much longer I can watch Sara laugh her ass off at her own observations. She was absolutely CRUSHING with herself this week. Sara revealed that her dream job would be to open a “boutique cannery” and then laughed so damned hard at this thought that you’d have thought she’d turned into a one-woman Def Comedy Jam audience from the 90s. A boutique cannery?!?

Really cracking yourself up over there, huh? Her self-deprecating shtick got so stale this week that guest judge Dale Talde actually shouted “YOU’RE LYING!” at her when she tried to act fake flustered. Thank you! No one’s buying it, Sara.

Anyway, Sara paired up with Shota on “Team Tiny,” doing a smelt-crusted rabbit loin with a variety of smelt-flavored sides. You know what that smelt like? It smelt like victory. Based on the victory, should Sara rank higher on this list? Maybe. I may be too infuriated by Sara’s inability to deliver a single sentence confidently to see her for the talent that she is.

3. (-1) Shota Nakajima

AKA: Beavis.

Interestingly, neither Shota nor Sara landed in the top three in the quickfire, but once they joined forces they went straight to the top. It seemed like it was Shota’s bright idea to do smelt five different ways. That’s normally a recipe for disaster on Top Chef, where more components usually just means more things for Tom to bitch about. Yet surprisingly, the judges liked what Shota was smelting and Team Tiny went home with the win.

That’s a hell of an achievement, impressive stuff. Last time I coated a rabbit loin in smelt, a judge made me introduce myself to all the neighbors.

Notable Critiques: “I’m loving this dish.” “Yeah, I’m gonna go coat a rabbit in smelt.”

2. (+1) Dawn Burrell

AKA: Hothead. ‘Sheed. Legs. Breaking Dawn. Milk Carton.

Dawn starred in her very own episode of FRYER HOGS during the quickfire challenge, when the other chefs tried to muscle her out of all the deep fryers and the wood-fired oven. Here’s a wild idea for the producers: maybe throw a few more deep fryers in there, huh?

Even with that handicap, Dawn landed in the top three. She has been on an absolute tear lately. So much so that when Dawn teamed up with Gabe for a bison tenderloin and grilled catfish with a pumpkin seed mole dish, I thought for sure they were headed for the victory. It turned out that they simply couldn’t compete with Sara and Shota’s sheer volume of smelt. Still, I have to think Dawn is still a top one, two, or three competitor. Not many chefs could out-mole the mole queen.

Notable Critique: “That mole brought the two proteins together.”

1. (even) Gabe Erales

AKA: Good Gabe. Canelo. Fozzy. The Foz. Masa Father. Jamón.

Like Dawn, Good Gabe had a top finish in both challenges this episode. He proved himself the Masa Father yet again by going back to the tortilla well and busting out a bomb-ass taco in 20 minutes. I was slightly surprised that he and Dawn lost to Team Tiny Smelt, but Gabe is looking so strong in damn near every challenge that I can’t bring myself to peel him off the top spot. Ol’ Fozzy looks like he’s got what it takes.

More than a decade and a half ago, Jeezy arrived on the hip-hop scene as one of the earliest trap artists in the genre, joining the likes of T.I. and Gucci Mane. In the years that followed, Jeezy, who hails from Atlanta just like the other aforementioned artists, would go on to drop well-appreciated albums and mixtapes and grow into one of the most respected rappers from that time period. However, in Jeezy’s own words, his rise didn’t come without lessons from a pair of rappers that came before him, them being Snoop Dogg and E-40.

During an appearance on Spotify’s Best Advice podcast with Kim Bennett Taylor, Jeezy shared a time where Snoop Dogg and E-40 “g-checked” him after a run-in with the law during a video shoot.

“Snoop Dogg and E-40 they looking at me like I’m crazy. Say ‘you know what? You know what’s the difference between you and Pac?’ and I was just like ‘Whoa.’” he said on the episode. “I’m like ‘OK’ and they just went on to say ‘Yo listen, he never stopped what he was about. He never let up on his people. He never…’ and it was like ‘Yo, you, you better get out here and do what you’re supposed to be doing. Because these people believe you and they riding with you. And you ain’t moving right. And we telling you that.”

Jeezy continued to praise and thank Snoop and E-40 for their actions. “I don’t really think, you know, Snoop and E40 and those guys get enough credit for who they really are, man,” he added. “Like you know, those guys save lives you know what I’m saying. And, and, and they definitely got me back on the right course but they’ve been through what I’ve been through.”

You can listen to Jeezy’s full appearance on the show here.

Earlier this week, Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher made a quip that went viral and it involved Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide. In addressing the Houston Touchdown Club on Wednesday, Fisher was prompted on what it would take to beat Alabama outside of the retirement of Saban.

Fisher’s response… made the rounds.

“We’re going to beat his ass when he’s there,” Fisher said. “Don’t worry.”

It was a mortal lock that Saban would be asked about Fisher’s comment, and that moment arrived on Thursday.

Saban’s immediate response of “in golf” is unquestionably elite, especially when combined with his facial expression. The follow-up of “I’m sure there will come a day” is also tremendous, before the easy pivot to talking points about Texas A&M’s improving program, but the point was certainly made. He even followed up by asking if Fisher’s comments were actually about football.

This is far from the first time that Saban has been blindsided by a potential rival, and he has been sitting atop the college football mountain for quite some time. However, it is always fun to see him provide a genuine reaction to a challenge, and the first few seconds of his answer in this instance perhaps provide a window into his thought process.

The first look at season four of Stranger Things dropped on Thursday with an Eleven-centered trailer. The Indiana Fever took a moment to celebrate by showcasing their recently-announced Stranger Things jerseys on Twitter.

In the photos, Fever players Kelsey Mitchell, Tiffany Mitchell, and Danielle Robinson are wearing the jerseys, part of the line of redesigned jerseys Nike released for the upcoming WNBA season. Stranger Things, for those who don’t know, is set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana which may or not be a suburb of Indianapolis, and the Fever got a ton of praise when these were released for leaning into the beloved show. There were a number of sensational unis in the Nike Rebel edition drop, but these were a cut above.

It’s going to be fun how far the Fever can lean into this as a bit. The show itself is filmed in Georgia, so it’s probably not easy to have actors from the show drop by and sit courtside. (They should try and get Winona Ryder at all costs, though.) But could they do an Upside Down-theme intro for games they where these jerseys? Yes. Should they serve some kind of Eggo waffle dish in honor of Eleven’s favorite food? Also yes. Should they play the clip of David Harbour dancing after every made basket? Also yes.

Over the years Twitter has made a lot of changes and added new features, some of which it felt not many people were actually clamoring for. But the latest add is certainly interesting: a “tip jar” function that lets people pay others through the social media app, presumably for having good tweets.

Twitter announced the Tip Jar function on Thursday with, as you might expect, a few tweets.

The feature is pretty simple: you can pay people directly through Twitter, using a payment app like Venmo or PayPal. In many ways it’s similar to Patreon or other ways that writers have monetized their work, and as Twitter is often a big part of that work it’s the next logical step in said monetization.

There was a lot of reaction to the news, starting with people who were excited to see that it was enabled on their accounts.

And many saw it as an opportunity to finally cash in on some good tweets.

Or, perhaps, finally log off for good.

The feature was being rolled out slowly starting on Thursday, but some users started to have some concerns right away. Starting with the fact that, according to some users, your address could actually be sent to the person you tip if you’re not careful which payment app you use.

That part is apparently being worked on by Twitter, but it did make for a new round of people making jokes about it, of course.

While his own artistry is absolutely something to recognize and appreciate, 6lack’s ability to stand beside a variety of artists no matter the genre is another quality that makes him great. In just the past few months, the Atlanta-born singer — who switches hats to rap on songs at times — has worked with the likes of JID, Lil Durk, Lil Tay, and Melii.

As he’s done a few times in his career, 6lack returns to the afro-fusion lane for a remix of Spinall and Fireboy DML’s “Sere.” The summery track takes life on Spinall’s 2020 album, Grace, and with 6lack’s addition, the song gets a nice boost without moving away from its original structure.

As of late, 6lack’s been a busy man. In addition to providing great guest features on a number of tracks, he singer stood by his fellow LVRN labelmates for a hard-hitting Rap Caviar cypher. With OMB Bloodbath leading the way, new names to the roster like NoonieVsEverybody and BRS Kash followed suit with confident verses of the own.

Next, the more familiar names of the label, Westside Boogie and 6lack himself, delivered bars of their own. Boogie’s verse focused on his fame and how it impacted his life and the lives of his homies while 6lack’s own was a slick-lipped contribution filled with enough metaphors to remind you of his original rap upbringing.

You can press play on the new remix in the video above.