The Atlanta Hawks entered the 2020-21 NBA season with tangible expectations for the first time since 2016-17. President of basketball operations Travis Schlenk handed out sizable contracts to multiple veteran players, headlined by Danilo Gallinari and Bogdan Bogdanovic, and prior to the end of the 2019-20 campaign, the Hawks sneakily acquired Clint Capela in a four-team swap for a modest price. With those new faces pairing with Atlanta’s intriguing young core, playoffs were the expectation for the Hawks but, through 34 games, the team wasn’t meeting those newfound expectations.

As such, the Hawks moved on from head coach Lloyd Pierce on March 1, and that decision came just days after Pierce acknowledged that a move like that could be coming in the future. At the time of the firing, Atlanta was 14-20 and actually in the middle of the race for the play-in, but with injuries and reported discontent behind the scenes, leadership felt that was the best time to pull the trigger. Veteran coach Nate McMillan was elevated from assistant to interim head coach and, well, the Hawks have been rolling since then.

It must be acknowledged that Atlanta’s schedule hasn’t been a murderer’s row during this recent stretch, especially when accounting for available rosters, but the Hawks went from the middle of the play-in discussion to a real chance to earn home-court advantage in the first round, all within five weeks.

The Hawks are 12-4 in their last 16 games, including an 8-0 start to the McMillan era. Though Atlanta had a couple of frustrating losses on a recent road trip, the team managed to navigate an eight-game journey out West with a highly respectable 4-4 record and, in the last 16 games, they own a dazzling +6.1 net rating buoyed by an offense that is scoring 116.4 points per 100 possessions.

Trae Young is the sun, moon and stars in Atlanta, which actually makes this recent run more impressive. That is because Young is actually struggling by his lofty standards, scoring only 22.5 points per game on a 44/34 shooting split and battling overall efficiency issues. In the last few seasons, any struggles by Young were essentially impossible for the Hawks to overcome, but right as the calendar was flipping to March, the Hawks were getting just a little bit healthier at a couple of key spots.

Injuries have been a massive issue for the Hawks all season, with De’Andre Hunter missing 30 games (after showing signs of a breakout), Bogdanovic missing 25 games, Cam Reddish missing 24 games, Gallinari missing 13 games and perimeter stopper Kris Dunn missing the entire season. Even now, Hunter, Reddish and John Collins are sidelined in early April, but the play of supporting pieces like Bogdanovic, Gallinari, Capela and even Tony Snell has helped the Hawks stay afloat and more.

Gallinari (64.6 percent true shooting) and Bogdanovic (58.2 percent true shooting) have found their strides since March began and, in an incredibly small three-game sample size, newly acquired Lou Williams is fitting in beautifully. From there, Snell is leading the NBA (!) in three-point shooting for the season and posting an obscene 82.0 percent effective field goal shooting mark in the last 16 games.

Both from a roster and identity standpoint, the Hawks are an offense-first team and that won’t change anytime soon. Though Young’s defense is improved from his first two seasons, he won’t soon be mistaken for Gary Payton, and players like Collins, Gallinari, Bogdanovic and Kevin Huerter are all superior offensively than defensively. Still, the addition of Capela has been enormous in making Atlanta’s defense respectable. With Capela on the floor, the Hawks are yielding only 107.7 points per 100 possessions, and Capela is leading the NBA in rebounding at 14.2 per game. He isn’t quite on the level of Rudy Gobert, but Capela has been in the next tier down and, if he can sustain this pace, he should earn some ballot inclusions when it comes to Defensive Player of the Year voting.

If anything, Atlanta’s win-loss results are lagging behind their peripherals, albeit slightly. The Hawks are a top-10 team in net rating (+1.7) for the season, despite the reality that the team’s core pieces have essentially never been healthy at the same time. It is easy to envision a world in which the Hawks can take advantage of a schedule that is easing up, and combined with presumed improvement on the health front, this is a scary team.

In the grand scheme, it could be argued the Hawks are simply meeting expectations now with a pace to win just over 37 games. That basically aligns with their preseason over/under projections but, in recent weeks, Atlanta has been even better than that. To put it mildly, the East is wide open beyond the top three and, while their recent pedigree may not stack up to that of the Heat and Celtics, there isn’t much of a reason that the Hawks can’t stick around the No. 4 seed mix all the way to the end.

Where do the Hawks land this week in our DIME power rankings? Let’s explore.

1. Utah Jazz (38-12, Last week — 1st)

Utah dropped its last game, falling by eight points in Dallas on Monday. Given that the Jazz won the previous eight games and still maintain the best record and point differential in the NBA, we’ll cut them some slack for a close road loss.

2. Brooklyn Nets (35-16, Last week — 2nd)

The injury bug is still biting the Nets, as James Harden left their win on Monday. Brooklyn continues to win games, though, and there is no sense in dropping them from this perch until something changes in a negative way. They hold a half-game lead in the East standings, for good measure.

3. Phoenix Suns (35-14, Last week — 5th)

Phoenix is 27-6 in the last 33 games, including 9-1 in the last 10 games and an active six-game winning streak. If anything, No. 3 is too low for the way they are playing, and they get a crack at the Jazz (in Phoenix) on Wednesday. That should be fun.

4. Denver Nuggets (31-18, Last week — 6th)

We discussed the Nuggets at length a week ago. All they’ve done since then is post a 3-0 record and surpass the Lakers in the standings. It’s going pretty well.

5. Milwaukee Bucks (32-17, Last week — 7th)

Jrue Holiday will be sticking around long-term and, when he plays, the Bucks are 27-11 this season. Milwaukee maintains a top-three net rating, and they won three in a row last week. It might even be weird to have them at No. 5, but they’ll have to settle for a two-spot bump.

6. L.A. Clippers (33-18, Last week — 3rd)

No one needs to worry about the Clippers, but they did go 1-2 this week. The real black mark was a weird home loss to Orlando, but the other loss came to the scalding-hot Nuggets. They still took care of business against the Lakers and this is a top-four team in net rating.

7. Philadelphia 76ers (34-16, Last week — 4th)

Joel Embiid is back and that is pretty much all that matters for the 76ers. He didn’t play in the home loss to Memphis on Sunday because it was the second of a back-to-back, but as long as Embiid is healthy, Philly is just fine.

8. Dallas Mavericks (28-21, Last week — 10th)

The Mavericks are pretty scary right now. They’ve won five in a row, including four road wins, and Dallas looked good in toppling Utah on Monday. They still aren’t in the top tier, but they are playing much closer to that level during a 19-7 stretch.

9. Portland Trail Blazers (30-19, Last week — 9th)

Portland continues to fly under the radar, but they’re 5-1 in the last six. The only loss in that span came to the Bucks, and the Blazers are 11 (!) games above .500 with a +0.5 net rating. If you want to understand how wild that is, Toronto has outscored their opponents by more total points (27) than Portland has (20) this season.

10. Los Angeles Lakers (31-19, Last week — 8th)

The non-LeBron, non-AD Lakers aren’t close to a top-10 team in the league. Everyone knows that. They have banked three wins in the last ten days, and that is helpful to keeping them afloat and out of the play-in, but the waiting game continues.

11. Atlanta Hawks (26-24, Last week — 12th)

Though they will play this week without John Collins and De’Andre Hunter, the Hawks have three home games against the Pelicans, Grizzlies and Bulls. Atlanta will likely be favored in all three, with the potential to keep things rolling.

12. Miami Heat (26-24, Last week — 16th)

Since the middle of February, the Heat have been as streaky as any team in the league with the potential exception of Sacramento. Miami won 11 of 12 games, then lost six in a row, only to win their last four. The end result is a 26-24 record that is tied for the No. 4 seed in the East. As a sidebar, it is wild that 26-24 is tied for the fourth in the East right now.

13. Boston Celtics (25-25, Last week — 15th)

Boston sitting at .500 through 50 games can only be described as disappointing. Many saw a step back coming with their roster decisions from the offseason but, with back-to-back wins to end this week, perhaps the Celtics can finish strong and attempt to avoid the play-in tournament.

14. Memphis Grizzlies (24-23, Last week — 13th)

If the season ended today, Memphis would be the No. 8 seed. Honestly, that is quite impressive for a team that has operated without Jaren Jackson Jr. all season and the Grizzlies are just… solid.

15. Indiana Pacers (22-26, Last week — 20th)

It’s not as if the Pacers are playing particularly well. They are 7-12 in the last 19 and basically just hovering the same area. Still, the door is open with the way Charlotte’s injury issues are popping up, and Indiana seems like they have another gear to find if their own health cooperates.

16. Charlotte Hornets (25-24, Last week — 18th)

The Hornets got brutal news with Gordon Hayward this week, as he will be sidelined for several weeks with a foot issue. That adds to the already persistent absence of LaMelo Ball, and the Hornets are just trying to hang on for dear life.

17. New Orleans Pelicans (22-27, Last week — 14th)

This was a week that can only be described as “incomplete” for the Pelicans. Zion and Ingram are both injured, and the Pelicans were running out some bizarre lineups as a result. They got a win. They lost two games. Wake me up when the big guns return.

18. New York Knicks (25-26, Last week — 19th)

New York ranks higher this week than last week, but not because they are playing well. The Knicks have dropped four of the last five games, and there just wasn’t anywhere else to put them.

19. San Antonio Spurs (24-24, Last week — 17th)

Is it time to worry a bit about the Spurs? They’ve lost eight of the last ten, including three straight home games, to fall to .500 on the season. Two of the home losses were in overtime, though, and things would feel much better if those break in the right direction. They are now outside of the top eight in the West for the first time in a long while, and they will face Denver (twice) and Dallas in the next three games.

20. Toronto Raptors (20-30, Last week — 30th)

The Raptors were genuinely horrendous in March, as evidenced by their No. 30 placement last week. Obviously, Toronto isn’t the worst team in the league and, after a buzzer-beating win on Monday, the Raptors are back within striking distance in the race for the play-in. Nothing is solved, but they should be fine if health cooperates.

21. Sacramento Kings (22-29, Last week — 11th)

No team has bounced around more than the Kings in this space, and that aligns with their maddening inconsistency. After a winning binge last week, they were rewarded with a big jump. This week, Sacramento went 0-4 with three double-figure losses. They still have the worst defense in the league as well, which makes life difficult.

22. Chicago Bulls (20-28, Last week — 21st)

Chicago was going to drop more than this before a nice win over Brooklyn on Sunday. Prior to that victory, the Bulls lost eight of nine games, and they were heading the wrong direction. They are unquestionably better on paper after acquiring Nikola Vucevic, but they need to start banking wins in short order.

23. Golden State Warriors (23-27, Last week — 22nd)

It is basically common knowledge that the Warriors are rudderless whenever Stephen Curry (and Draymond Green) is off the floor. That puts Golden State in a considerable bind overall and, after a 53-point (!) loss to Toronto, the Warriors lost to the Hawks with Curry and Green back in the lineup. They’ve lost seven of eight and it’s not going particularly well.

24. Detroit Pistons (15-35, Last week — 25th)

The Pistons picked up two blowout wins in the same week. That hasn’t happened much this year, but the victories came over Washington and OKC (see below), so there may be a small asterisk. Detroit also lost by 44 at Madison Square Garden.

25. Minnesota Timberwolves (13-38, Last week — 26th)

It’s been a lost season for the Wolves, but they got D’Angelo Russell back on Monday night. That’s a small consolation, but Minnesota can evaluate their young core down the stretch and see what they have. If nothing else, they’ve been more competitive under Chris Finch.

26. Cleveland Cavaliers (18-32, Last week — 27th)

Even with a dominant road win over San Antonio on Monday, the Cavs are 4-11 in the last 15 games. They are now tied for the worst net rating (-7.9) in the NBA with the Thunder, and they just can’t score. Maybe that 125-point eruption against the Spurs will ignite something.

27. Oklahoma City Thunder (20-30, Last week — 24th)

OKC is still playing well above its baseline when you compare their win-loss record to their point differential. Things are starting to correct, however, with the Thunder losing six of the last seven games. They are deploying a fun roster of young guys, but it’s not exactly conducive to high-level performance on a consistent basis.

28. Washington Wizards (17-32, Last week — 23rd)

As noted above, the Hawks had a 14-20 record in early March. The Wizards had the same 14-20 mark at one point. Now, Washington trails Atlanta by 8.5 games in the Southeast Division with a 3-12 mark in their last 15 tilts. Yikes.

29. Orlando Magic (17-33, Last week — 28th)

Following a hideous stretch in late February and early March, Orlando has been more competitive. At the same time, they are also clearly in a different stage with their roster, letting young guys play larger roles. They won twice this week, but also got walloped in Utah by 46 points, so there will be some growing paints.

30. Houston Rockets (13-37, Last week — 29th)

There isn’t really any debate about this selection. Houston is 2-27 in the last 29 games. That is mind-numbing and, while they still don’t have the worst record in the league, they are well on their way at this point.

Despite her battle rap roots, Philly artist Tierra Whack has become better known for her imaginative videos over the past few years, beginning with the colorful Whack World and including clips such as “Dora” and “Unemployed.” As there is perhaps no greater symbol of the limitless power of imagination than Lego, it’s only right that the interlocking blocks feature prominently in her latest video, “Link.”

In the video, she builds one of the most common Lego creations that just about every kid has put together with the blocks, a spaceship, with the help of some colorful, abstract-looking alien friends. She launches the ship to explore space, only to quickly end of missing her friends and attempting to return. Unfortunately, a flaw in her ship’s design — and isn’t there always one of those? — makes getting back even more of an adventure than she expected.

According to a press release, the lighthearted video was shot in partnership with Lego as part of Lego Group’s Rebuild The World Campaign. Schoolkids from Whack’s hometown helped put the video together, from adding their own sound effects to designing rocket and structures in the video. Whack says of working with the kids, “I was so excited to work with kids because their energy is fun, exhilarating, never-ending, and full of surprises. I really trusted them, and I knew they were going to come up with something great.”

Watch Tierra Whack’s “Link” video above.

LeVar Burton seems to be getting serious about becoming the new host of Jeopardy! following the death of Alex Trebek. Back in November, a fan petition emerged calling on Sony Pictures Television and the show’s producers to name Burton as Trebek’s successor while citing his well-respected work on Reading Rainbow and Star Trek: The Next Generation. When the petition came to Burton’s attention, he reacted to its presence with grace and humility, but he didn’t seem too optimistic about its chances.

“Even if nothing comes from it, I can’t tell how much how I appreciate all y’alls love and support,” Burton tweeted in the fall.

However, there’s been a development. On Monday night, the Roots actor re-upped the fan petition and included a message to Jeopardy! producers. “Leaving this here in the event the powers that be are listening…” Burton wrote above the link.

As of this writing, the petition is sitting at 135,399 signatures with a goal of 150,000, and it does make a compelling case for tapping Burton as the new Jeopardy! host. Via Change.org:

Between hosting 21 seasons of the educational Reading Rainbow, playing the brainiac engineer Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: the Next Generation, and filling the roll of Kunta Kinte in the ever important mini-series Roots, LeVar Burton has inspired and shaped the minds of several generations of trivia-loving nerds. This petition is to show Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. and producers Mike Richards and Harry Friedman just how much love the public has for Burton, and how much we’d all love to see him as the next host of Jeopardy!

Recently, the show’s producers gave Dr. Oz a controversial two week guest-hosting stint, which sparked a petition of its own denouncing the decision to showcase Oz and his history of questionable medical advice (that doesn’t embody Jeopardy!‘s history of promoting science and learning). In comparison to Oz, Levar is clearly a fan favorite.

(Via LeVar Burton on Twitter)

Piers Morgan has a lot of time on his hands after his Meghan Markle rant cost him his job on Good Morning Britain, and the British television personality is using it wisely — taking the time to learn and to grow.

Just kidding, he’s getting into a Twitter war with the guy who created HBO’s The Wire.

Morgan appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox Nation show earlier this week to bemoan how poorly the public treated him after he made some nasty comments about Markle and Prince Harry’s sit-down with Oprah Winfrey. You’ll remember, Morgan was left clutching his pearls after Meghan and Harry revealed made accusations about the ill-treatment at the hands of the British press and the royal family not mitigating the fallout while the couple still held their titles. Morgan’s reaction to the interview — and the scrutiny of his years-long obsession with Markle — led to his departure from his morning TV show, but he continued to double down on his rhetoric for Carlson, igniting outrage in critics, particularly David Simon.

Simon, who created the critically-acclaimed crime drama The Wire for HBO, called out Morgan on social media, using some colorful turns of phrase to describe the beleaguered TV host.

Morgan clapped back, accusing Simon of being “all over him” when Simon was promoting the show. In reality, the interaction Morgan was referencing was a creator’s panel that included Aaron Sorkin and former HBO chief Richard Plepler. Simon apparently was told to play nice by Plepler during the interview.

And that’s how one of the more entertaining blood feuds on social media this week was born.

Morgan used a pretty tired comeback, taking a jab at Simon’s show by claiming Sorkin’s The West Wing was better. We’ve seen worse from him, but as far as takedowns go, this just felt lazy.

Simon managed to sneak the phrase “Tijuana cathouse” into his rebuttal, so that’s something. But his dig ended up boxing Morgan into a corner he just couldn’t find his way out of. So instead, the Brit kept going on (and on, and on) about how great Aaron Sorkin is. Is Aaron Sorkin the new Meghan Markle? For Piers Morgan, he might be.

Look, is trying to prove to Piers Morgan that his moral compass is broken an effort in futility? Yes, but at least Simon kept his trash talk interesting. He won this battle, but the war? It’ll probably rage on.

Judy Vaughn has spent most of her life helping other women, first as the director of House of Ruth, a safe haven for homeless families in East Los Angeles, and later as the Project Coordinator for Women for Guatemala, a solidarity organization committed to raising awareness about human rights abuses.

But in 1996, she decided to take things a step further. A house became available in the mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles and she was offered the opportunity to use it to help other women and children. So, in partnership with a group of 13 people who she knew from her years of activism, she decided to make it a transitional residence program for homeless women and their children. They called the program Alexandria House.

“I had learned from House of Ruth that families who are homeless are often isolated from the surrounding community,” Judy says. “So we decided that as part of our mission, we would also be a neighborhood center and offer a number of resources and programs, including an after-school program and ESL classes.”

She also decided that, unlike many other shelters in Los Angeles, she would accept mothers with their teenage boys.

“There are very few in Los Angeles [that do] due to what are considered liability issues,” Judy explains. “Given the fact that there are (conservatively) 56,000 homeless people and only about 11,000 shelter beds on any one night, agencies can be selective on who they take.”

Their Board of Directors had already determined that they should take families that would have difficulties finding a place. Some of these challenges include families with more than two children, immigrant families without legal documents, moms who are pregnant with other small children, families with a member who has a disability [and] families with service dogs.

“Being separated from your son or sons, especially in the early teen years, just adds to the stress that moms who are unhoused are already experiencing,” Judy says.

“We were determined to offer women with teenage boys another choice.”

Courtesy of Judy Vaughn

Alexandria House also doesn’t kick boys out when they turn 18. For example, Judy says they currently have a mom with two daughters (21 and 2) and a son who just turned 18. The family had struggled to find a shelter that would take them all together, and once they found Alexandria House, they worried the boy would be kicked out on his 18th birthday. But, says Judy, “we were not going to ask him to leave because of his age.”

Homelessness is a big issue in Los Angeles. “[It] is considered the homeless capital of the United States,” Judy says. “The numbers have not changed significantly since 1984 when I was working at the House of Ruth.” The COVID-19 pandemic has only compounded the problem. According to Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), over 66,000 people in the greater Los Angeles area were experiencing homelessness in 2020, representing a rise of 12.7% compared with the year before.

Each woman who comes to Alexandria House has her own unique story, but some common reasons for ending up homeless include fleeing from a domestic violence or human trafficking situation, aging out of foster care and having no place to go, being priced out of an apartment, losing a job, or experiencing a family emergency with no ‘cushion’ to pay the rent.

“Homelessness is not a definition; it is a situation that a person finds themselves in, and in fact, it can happen to almost anyone. There are many practices and policies that make it almost impossible to break out of poverty and move out of homelessness.”

And that’s why Alexandria House exists: to help them move out of it. How long that takes depends on the woman, but according to Judy, families stay an average of 10 months. During that time, the women meet with support staff to identify needs and goals and put a plan of action in place.

A number of services are provided, including free childcare, programs and mentoring for school-age children, free mental health counseling, financial literacy classes and a savings program. They have also started Step Up Sisterhood LA, an entrepreneurial program to support women’s dreams of starting their own businesses. “We serve as a support system for as long as a family would like,” Judy says, even after they have moved on.

And so far, the program is a resounding success.

92 percent of the 200 families who stayed at Alexandria House have found financial stability and permanent housing — not becoming homeless again.

Since founding Alexandria House 25 years ago, Judy has never lost sight of her mission to join with others and create a vision of a more just society and community. That is why she is one of Tory Burch’s Empowered Women this year — and the donation she receives as a nominee will go to Alexandria House and will help grow the new Start-up Sisterhood LA program.

“Alexandria House is such an important part of my life,” says Judy. “It has been amazing to watch the children grow up and the moms recreate their lives for themselves and for their families. I have witnessed resiliency, courage, and heroic acts of generosity.”

The best new hip-hop this week includes albums, videos, and songs from Freddie Gibbs, Lil Tjay, and more. Gibbs, who who was recently beaten out by Nas for a Best Rap Album Grammy, turned the loss into motivation, dropping the video for “Big Boss Rabbit.” Tjay released his hotly anticipated third album, Destined 2 Win, which featured the bouncy “Move” featuring Saweetie and Tyga.

Meanwhile, Young Dolph & Key Glock released an unusual video for “Dum & The Dummest,” Brockhampton shared the tracklist for their upcoming album Roadrunner, Deante’ Hitchcock continued his #NewAtlantaTuesday freestyle campaign with his muscular take on Spillage Village’s “Baptize,” Westside Gunn hyped his latest Hitler Wears Hermes mixtape with two new singles, and MC Jin returned with a questionable new video supporting MYC mayoral candidate Andrew Yang.

Friday saw the releases of Roddy Ricch’s “4 Da Gang” featuring 42 Dugg, Lil Wayne’s “Ball Game,” and Playboi Carti’s monochromatic video for “Sky,” along with the releases listed below.

Here is the best of hip-hop this week ending April 2, 2021.

Albums/EPs/Mixtapes

AG Club — F*ck Your Expectations, Pt. 1

The Bay Area collective’s second release continues in the same vein of boundary-pushing, high-energy rebellion as Odd Future and Brockhampton.

Bankroll Freddie — Big Bank

Hefty trap beats back the Arkansas spitter’s bid for mainstream recognition as the latest Quality Control signee to receive a big push. Thanks to that big-name cosign, he draws even more from 2 Chainz, Megan Thee Stallion, and Young Dolph, among others.

Jasiah — War [EP]

Jasiah’s rough-edged punk rap is more refined here, while the Dayton, Ohio-bred rule breaker receives some belligerent support from fellow screamers Nascar Aloe, Pouya, and Rico Nasty.

Lil Tjay — Destined 2 Win

Following up his debut album True 2 Myself, the melodic New York rapper employs a massive tracklist and a who’s-who of guests from Polo G and Fivio Foreign to Offset and Moneybagg Yo.

Mello Music Group — Bushido

The underground rap standard-bearing label compiles 20 tracks from signees and longtime collaborators to compare rap skills to the samurai code of honor.

Rockie Fresh — Slid Thru Part 2

Ever since going independent, the Windy City rapper once signed to Rick Ross has become more productive than ever, churning out the sequel to his 2020 mixtape and bringing fellow Chicagoans Vic Mensa and Tobi Lou along for the ride.

Singles/Videos

FNF Chop — “Walk Down”

Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, the 22-year-old newcomer doesn’t appear in the video for his TikTok-favorite viral hit, as he’s currently incarcerated for parole violations. The hostile beat and arrogant lyrics do all the work of selling the track.

Fredo Bang — “Click Up”

Fredo Bang has yet to miss, coming through this time with an upbeat track highlighted by glittering piano and exuberant organ.

Kenny Mason – “Rih”

An Atlanta rapper who debuted in 2020 with the impressive Angelic Hoodrat, Mason is preparing to follow up with a deluxe edition offering more of his athletic flow and dizzying production.

Lakeyah — “Easy”

Another recent Quality Control acquisition, the Milwaukee-born Atlanta transplant is a week away from releasing her second project on the label and makes it look easy on her most recent single promoting the project.

Mozzy — “Blackout”

Mozzy fans know what to expect; a soulful beat, vulnerable, slickly-written lyrics, and the polished authenticity of a self-made veteran.

Young M.A — “Successful”

Following up her “BeatBox” freestyle, M.A takes on a skittering drill beat to declare herself the Queen of New York.

Yung Bleu — “Lemon Pepper (Freestyle)”

After receiving the blessing of a Drake co-sign, Bleu takes things a step further, utilizing Drake’s recently released loosie to explain his worldview.

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

The Black Eyed Peas‘ core member Will.I.Am has attempted to break into the tech industry for years. He even launched a version of a smartwatch back in 2014, a full year before the Apple Watch was released. Though his product didn’t become successful as he’d hoped, Will.I.Am has now unveiled a high-tech version of a face mask.

Will.I.Am teamed up with Honeywell for the new product Xupermask, a $299 “smart” face mask that has Bluetooth and noise-canceling capabilities along with LED lights, a rechargeable battery, and a HEPA filtration system. Per a report from the New York Times, the mask was designed by Jose Fernandez, the same person who created Elon Musk’s SpaceX suits and also lent a hand on a number of superhero movies including Black Panther and The Avengers.

What was Will.I.Am’s reasoning for making a nearly $300 face mask? Well, as he puts it, we’re already “living in sci-fi times,” so we might as well have protective gear that reflects the age we’re in:

“We are living in sci-fi times. [The pandemic] is straight out of a friggin’ movie. But we are wearing masks from yesterday’s movie. So I wanted to make a mask to fit the era that we’re in.”

Though the product was officially announced this week, Will.I.Am has been sporting his Xupermask for several months now. He publicly debuted the mask during his performance with the Black Eyed Peas at the 2020 MTV VMAs, where he sang “Vida Loca” and “I Gotta Feeling” with his face covered by his high-tech mask.

Check out a product photo of Will.I.Am’s Xupermask above and order it here.

Last year, Justice League actor Ray Fisher accused writer and director Joss Whedon of being “gross” and “abusive” while making the 2017 superhero movie. (The Buffy creator has since faced a new round of allegations.) The actor has mostly used social media to speak out against Warner Bros. executives for “racist conversations” and Whedon’s “unprofessional” behavior, but the Hollywood Reporter published a lengthy interview with Fisher on Tuesday, where he discussed what it was like to work with Whedon.

In a call with the filmmaker about much of Cyborg’s story being removed from the script, Fisher said he was told, “It feels like I’m taking notes right now, and I don’t like taking notes from anybody — not even Robert Downey Jr.” (Cyborg is arguably the main character in HBO Max’s restored Zack Snyder’s Justice League.) Whedon and then-DC Films chairman Jon Berg also made Fisher say Cyborg’s “booyah!” catchphrase from the Teen Titans animated series. “It seemed weird to have the only Black character say that,” Fisher told THR, when no other character in the film had a catchphrase. He thought the issue was dropped after raising his objection, until a dinner with Berg.

“This is one of the most expensive movies Warners has ever made,” Fisher claims Berg told him. “What if the CEO of AT&T has a son or daughter, and that son or daughter wants Cyborg to say ‘booyah’ in the movie and we don’t have a take of that? I could lose my job.” Whedon reportedly handled the situation with a mocking tone:

But he shot the take. As he arrived on set, he says, Whedon stretched out his arms and said a line from Hamlet in a mocking tone: “Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you.” Fisher replied, “Joss — don’t. I’m not in the mood.” As he left the set after saying just that one phrase for the cameras, he says, Whedon called out, “Nice work, Ray.”

Whedon was also accused by a “knowledgeable source” of threatening to make Wonder Woman look “stupid” if Gal Gadot didn’t follow his orders:

A knowledgeable source says Gadot had multiple concerns with the revised version of the film, including “issues about her character being more aggressive than her character in Wonder Woman. She wanted to make the character flow from one movie to the next.” The biggest clash, sources say, came when Whedon pushed Gadot to record lines she didn’t like, threatened to harm Gadot’s career, and disparaged Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins. While Fisher declines to discuss any of what transpired with Gadot, a witness on the production who later spoke to investigators says that after one clash, “Joss was bragging that he’s had it out with Gal. He told her he’s the writer and she’s going to shut up and say the lines and he can make her look incredibly stupid in this movie.”

“I’m not so indebted to Hollywood that I haven’t been willing to put myself out there,” Fisher said to THR. “If I can’t get accountability, at least I can make people aware of who they’re dealing with.”

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber had a winner on their hands in 2020 with “Stuck With U,” which ended up topping the Hot 100 chart. It turns out the two nearly dropped a collaboration years before that, though, as it seems Grande actually featured on an early version of “Wish You Would,” which went on to appear on the deluxe edition of Bieber’s new album Justice, but featuring Quavo instead of Grande.

This is according to BMW Kenny, who co-produced “Wish You Would.” He told Metro that the song was initially meant for Bieber’s 2015 album Purpose and that even before Grande hopped on the track, the original version featured Cody Simpson. Kenny said:

“I actually believe there is a version with Ariana Grande out there, somewhere in the computers on the hard drive. The first version was with Cody Simpson, then they put Ariana Grande on there. I don’t know what happened with the song, but it didn’t make Purpose, so it just sat in a vault. He put out Changes, but sometimes when you do an album, you gotta catalogue the songs.”

He also noted the song was dropped from Purpose in favor of one of the handful of songs on the album that Skrillex produced.

Meanwhile, both Grande and Bieber have been busy in recent days. Grande made a guest appearance on Demi Lovato’s new album and Bieber celebrated Easter by releasing his surprise EP Freedom.

After facing a week of backlash over perceived anti-Asian lyrics from some employees, YouTube removed YG’s 2014 song “Meet The Flockers” from its platform, only to re-upload the song with one word censored. The YouTube employees who objected to the song’s lyrics did so via a letter to the company’s Trust and Safety team. However, according to Bloomberg, the request was denied in an email:

“We find this video to be highly offensive and understand it is painful for many to watch, including many in Trust & Safety and especially given the ongoing violence against the Asian community. While we debated this decision at length amongst our policy experts, we made the difficult decision to leave the video up to enforce our policy consistently and avoid setting a precedent that may lead to us having to remove a lot of other music on YouTube.”

It appears that a compromise was reached. The video was taken down and replaced with a new one censoring the lyric, “First, you find a house and scope it out / Find a Chinese neighborhood, cause they don’t believe in bank accounts.” The word “Chinese” was muted. The remainder of the lyrics, which play as instructions for burglary, remain unchanged.

Meanwhile, a recent rise in anti-Asian attacks has been linked by many to a corresponding increase in derogatory language toward Asian people in general and Chinese people specifically as a result of misplaced anger and confusion over the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

You can hear the updated version of the song above.