GoneTrending

In a game in Atlanta that didn’t feature much defense on either side, newly minted All-Star Zach LaVine put up a career-high 50 points, including 39 in the first half, a record among all NBA players this season.

A big part of LaVine’s huge first half came as the Bulls guard let it fly from deep, with all seven of his triples coming in the first half. The Atlanta wing duo of Bogdan Bogdanovic and Kevin Huerter stood no chance defending LaVine, the seventh leading scorer in the NBA this season.

That led LaVine to get red hot, at one point putting up 25 straight points for Chicago and setting an NBA season record in the process.

However, the big scoring night wasn’t enough to take down the Hawks in Atlanta, as Trae Young had himself his own big night with 42 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. While Chicago’s supporting cast wasn’t able to make plays when Atlanta’s defensive attention turned toward LaVine, the Hawks’ role players stepped up and Young made plays all over the court, with lobs to Clint Capela, quick-hitters to Danilo Gallinari, and of course Young’s own signature step-back threes.

In the end, LaVine only put up 11 in the second half, which while enough to net him a career high, wasn’t enough to outduel Young and give Chicago the win. The Bulls’ three-game win streak came to an end while Atlanta continued its climb up the Eastern Conference standings.

On Friday, Taylor Swift released the first of six albums the singer will re-record with Fearless (Taylor’s Version). The new versions are set to arrive after a previous contract with Big Machine, her old label which also owns the masters to her first six albums, granted her the opportunity to begin recreating the projects last fall.

After Swift failed to buy her masters back from the label, she felt she was left with no choice but to re-record the albums. Thanks to some digging by the singer’s adoring fans, however, it appears that a fellow musician may have helped Swift decide to go through with the extensive recording process.

Fans discovered a 2019 tweet from Kelly Clarkson where she told Swift to re-record the albums. “@taylorswift13 just a thought,” Clarkson began. “U should go in & re-record all the songs that U don’t own the masters on exactly how U did them but put brand new art & some kind of incentive so fans will no longer buy the old versions.” She added, “I’d buy all of the new versions just to prove a point.”

While Swift did not publicly respond to her message, the tweet seems to have become Swift’s plan for re-recording her first six albums whether she ever saw it or not. You can check our Clarkson’s tweet above.

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is out now via Republic Records. Get it here.

Cupcakke is not someone who’s unfamiliar with a viral moment or two. If fact, the rapper caught the attention of the music world when she released her remix of 50 Cent’s “How To Rob” at the end of last year. The updated take detailed the varying ways she would rob a number of popular rappers. Fast-forward a few months and Cupcakke once again ruffled some feathers on social media, but it wasn’t so much in her favor.

She took to Twitter to share her opinions on one of her most popular songs. “‘Deepthroat’ paved the way for you hoes to talk how y’all talk,” she said about the 2015 song from her Cum Cake project. “Y’all hoes use to be scared to even say y’all sucked dick before Deepthroat came out . To this day it’s the blue print & is god creation to mankind’ now.”

She added, “Stop tryna play me like I ain’t open doors for the girls.” In a second now-deleted tweet Cupcakke added, “& yes lil Kim talked about sex … but she Never done it to the level I took it to , she talked bout sex & was reserved with it . I Violated this sh*t to a whole other degreee and that came out LIL KIM Mouth . She said it with her own tongue I’m the nastiest with this sh*t .”

The claim did not land too well with some fans as many of them reminded her of the female rappers that arrived before her including Nicki Minaj, Lil Kim, and Trina. One Twitter user wrote, “Trina wasn’t rapping about f*cking 5 or 6 best friends, taking *ck in the ass, choking on d*ck and licking p*ssy to be disrespected by Cupcakke.”

You can read Cupcakke’s initial comments above and more responses from fans below.

There are plenty of gamers who take part in the political process, but apparently one Roblox player has taken a very active interest in the White House in recent weeks, going as far as to pose as a reporter and get questions through to Joe Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki.

Politico detailed the bizarre story on Friday of an anonymous person posing as a reporter named Kacey Montagu, who claims to work for a nonexistent White House News. The story, which included an apparent interview with the “journalist” who seems to have infiltrated the White House Press Corps with a series of Twitter accounts that reposted news from accounts like @WHschedule and @WHpoolreport, which take public information about the president, vice president, first lady, and second gentleman’s daily schedules and share them to a growing audience.

Those accounts have been useful follows for some online, and apparently the person running them as “Kacey Montagu” has acted like a journalist in several ways, filing Freedom of Information Act requests to get documents about Psaki’s personal finances. But the claims made by “Kacey Montagu” about their journalistic background don’t appear to make sense to those who have interacted with them online. As Politico notes, for starters, it seems to all be something made up to brag about on the Minecraft-like gaming service Roblox.

Acquaintances online suspect much of the biographical information to be untrue. They believe Montagu’s White House moonlighting began as something to boast about in the online global gaming platform called ROBLOX, where users jokingly call themselves “Legos.” Within that platform is a role-playing group called nUSA, where people from across the world engage in a mock U.S. government exercise. At one point, Montagu had adopted the role of Secretary of State but resigned from that job after — as they recalled — ”the [nUSA] President went to war with some U.K. and I thought it was a pretty bad idea!”

…

A Twitter account by the name Kacey ‘Lego’ Montagu has been engaging with a few individuals who have noticed Montagu’s involvement in White House press operations. But there is no identifiable information one can discern from it either. The background image is of the late Prince Philip and the avatar used is of Trisha Paytas, a YouTube star.

Politico’s story lays out in detail the anonymous person’s real-life scheme, which is ultimately pretty harmless. While posing as a reporter using a fake Twitter handle called “White House News,” the person in question emails several credentialed reporters questions they’d like to get asked at Psaki’s press briefings. They claim that due to “social distancing regulations” they can’t be there to do it themselves. And, apparently, it’s actually worked.

The reporter for that day declined to ask Montagu’s question, as did several others who received emails from the account, including at least two staffers at POLITICO. But Montagu, whose email signatures at other points called them a “political correspondent” at the fake acronym WHSG, was successful in planting questions with reporters at The Plain Dealer and CQ Roll Call, among others, asking about everything from Covid-19 travel bans, to coming ambassadorships, to Biden’s reaction to Microsoft being hacked.

There is something to be said for ordinary people asking valid questions of a federal employee, whose salary is paid for by the American people. But it’s also important to note that this sort of role playing is what brought us QAnon, which started as roleplaying on an image board and led to several real-world deaths and an attempt to overthrow the government at the behest of Donald Trump.

That’s probably not where this Roblox-related minor conspiracy is headed but, well, it’s probably the weirdest thing you read about all day at the very least.

Vvia Politico]

After being traded to the Orlando Magic as part of the Nikola Vucevic trade at the deadline, Otto Porter Jr. is expected to stay put with the organization rather than taking a buyout, according to Marc Stein of the New York Times.

Porter, who is earning $28.5 million in the final year of the contract he initially signed as an offer sheet with the Brooklyn Nets, is now on his third team. But Stein reported there had been no buyout talks back when Porter was on the Bulls, either.

Since joining Orlando, Porter has played 66 minutes across three games, averaging eight points per game and shooting just 36 percent from the field. Porter has dealt with foot injuries the past two seasons and is currently out dealing with more pain there, but his injury history is stuffed with maladies on nearly every body part since 2017.

It’s peculiar that Porter would not seek out a buyout despite playing on a lottery team, but if he can get healthy, Orlando could provide him an opportunity to get actual minutes and rebuild his value to at least get a contract this summer. Because of his poor health and lack of a track record the past couple seasons, it may be that no contenders expressed interest in signing him in the first place.

Jean Dawson’s creative palette is filled with many different colors that’s helped form his eclectic style. Much of this is rooted thanks to a childhood spent growing up in Tijuana Mexico and commuting five hours across the border to attend school in the US every day. The multitude of genres that he’s stumbled upon helped fuel his second album, Pixel Bath, which he released last year.

These same creative juices are at the base of his latest clothing release, which arrives through his Turbo Radio line. The varying collection includes face masks, shirts, sweats, crewnecks, and sweaters that were all designed by Dawson himself.

The new drop also comes with a limited 3D vinyl of his Pixel Bath album, which comes less than two months after Dawson premiered his Burnout documentary, a creative experience that introduced fans into his world. In it, he discussed his past, being “anti,” getting happier with age, and more.

The documentary dropped after Travis Barker praised him and Pixel Bath during a recent interview with Uproxx. “That record is amazing, and he’s still kind of slept on,” he said. “Not that many people know about him, and hopefully you and I talking about him helps get his name out there even more.”

To take a look at the full collection and purchase some for yourself, click here.

The death of rapper DMX at age 50 on Friday was a sad day for music fans who loved his work. As musicians and fans mourned his loss and the legacy he leaves behind, many fans pointed to one of the more unique parts of his work outside of the recording studio. Namely, his legendary role in 2003 video game Def Jam Vendetta.

The game, an EA Sports BIG classic, was gratuitous and absurd — a wrestling/fighting game hybrid that used street fighting as a vehicle for Def Jam artists to get their own video game. But the voiceovers from the actual artists, and the very violent gameplay, made it a fan favorite among fighting game enthusiasts. It even spawned a sequel the next year: Def Jam: Fight For NY.

His special move — an absurd combination of flips, kicks and using his feet to snap an opponent’s neck — was a favorite among players. Which is why many shared clips of the fighting game along with well wishes and sad nostalgia for his work on social media.

In the wake of his death, many shared the video of him actually breaking down the move in real life, too.

There was also mention of his post-victory catch phrase, which is hilariously fitting as well.

Others simply got nostalgic about their childhoods, many of which both included DMX’s music and his presence in a PlayStation 2 and Gamecube classic.

The Los Angeles Clippers will be without the services of Patrick Beverley for the next few weeks. The team announced on Friday evening that Beverley underwent surgery on his left hand on Friday to correct a fracture that he suffered during the team’s game against the Phoenix Suns the prior evening.

As a result, Beverley is going to miss at least the next 3-4 weeks, although the team made sure to specify that there is no immediate timeline for him to return to action. The Clippers’ final game of the regular season takes place on May 16.

https://twitter.com/sabreenajm/status/1380672750088384512

Beverley went up to poke a rebound away from Chris Paul during Thursday’s 113-103 win over the Phoenix Suns and looked to be in some pain. He did, however, stay in the game until a few moments later, when he was assessed a flagrant 2 for a foul on Paul and sent to the locker room a little early.

Beverley has started all 31 games in which he’s appeared for the Clippers this season, averaging eight points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 0.8 blocks, and 0.8 steals in 23.4 minutes a night. While sidelined, it stands to reason that a hodgepodge of Reggie Jackson, Terance Mann, and the recently-acquired Rajon Rondo will split point guard duties.

J Balvin will hopefully grace the world with his sixth album at some point this year. The Latin star has seemingly been in high gear with its rollout the past few months and it continues with his latest release. Balvin teamed up with Khalid for their new single, “Otra Noche Sin Ti,” which arrives with a chilling new video.

The song itself finds both artists reflecting on the women from their past that unfortunately walked out of their lives. With smoke flowing around their ankles and the eerie atmosphere of a dimly-lit forest surrounding them, the pains of the duo’s losses are highlighted to a high extent.

The track is presumably the third single from Balvin’s upcoming album. He began its rollout with “Ma G” and continued it with “Tu Veneno.” The former was supported by a video that followed his return home to a barrio in Medellin while the latter came attached with a focused visual that saw the singer standing tall beside a group of supporters. In addition to the two singles, he also appeared on Pokemon 25: The Album and contributed to a multilingual remix of Ty Dolla Sign’s “Spicy” with Post Malone, Tyga, and YG.

As for Khalid, fans have also been waiting for his third album, one he gave an update on last year. “I’ll say early next year to be realistic lol,” Khalid said in response to a fan’s question on Twitter. With the first quarter of 2021 already in the books, Khalid’s next body of work should also be on the horizon.

Watch the video for “Otra Noche Sin Ti” above.

Ty Dolla Sign is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

While Gutfield! may be the talk of social media when it comes to late night fodder, the more established shows are having a field day with the growing allegations against Florida congressman Matt Gaetz. The Representative is under federal investigation for what’s been described as sex trafficking and other crimes regarding travel with a 17-year-old women along with other reports about drug use and paying for sex.

And as Venmo transactions and other details continue to emerge, Stephen Colbert simply can’t believe how Florida this story has become. Colbert’s take on the situation starts at around the 7:30 mark above, but he starts by calling the drama the “most wonderful, terrible story in the news.” The crimes Gaetz may have committed are horrible and, quite frankly, QAnon-level from an elected official. But it’s really staggering to see the hubris Gaetz and at least one of his friends seem to have about the whole situation.

The segment, called “Gaetz Gaete,” detailed all the sordid details that we know so far, but even he admitted it was all a bit too much.

“I know Gaetz is from Florida, but Bahama sex trafficking with weed-peddling hand surgeon is almost too Florida, even for him,” Colbert said. “At this point it just feels like we’re generating his crimes at random.”

He then pulled some new crimes for Gaetz out of a hat, and we’ll have to see if that prediction plays out. Meanwhile, the House Ethics Committee is looking into allegations against Gaetz in addition to the Justice Department’s investigation that’s still ongoing, so things continue to get worse for the embattled Trump ally in Florida.