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Based on the first memes of the year, 2021 is off to a better start than 2020.

Bernie Sanders, looking like every parent waiting for their kid’s soccer game to be over, and his mittens took over the internet on Inauguration Day, and it’s still going strong. He’s been turned into a cast member from The Sopranos, the fourth Haim sibling, and a baseball card, but the Vermont senator didn’t immediately realize he had gone viral.

When asked if he was aware of his meme fame on Thursday’s episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers, Sanders told host Seth Meyers, “Not at all. I was just sitting there, trying to keep warm. Trying to pay attention to what was going on.” Meyers, who praised the senator for not being a politician “who uses memes” (his Twitter account mercifully hasn’t exploited the meme; it’s still focused on real issues), wondered if Sanders’ staff showed him some of their favorites. “Yeah, I’ve seen them,” he replied while laughing.

Sanders also brought up the woman who made the mittens. “She is a schoolteacher and a very, very nice person, and she’s somewhat overwhelmed by the kind of attention that’s being shown to her mittens,” he said. As for the contents of his mysterious manilla envelope, he isn’t saying. “I’d love to tell you, Seth, but it’s top secret,” he told Meyers.

Watch the Late Night clip above.

Last month marked one year since Juice WRLD’s untimely death at Chicago Midway International Airport. Prior to the anniversary, fans received an ample amount of music from the Chicago rapper and that bounty continued through the one-year anniversary of his passing. The latest posthumous release from Juice WRLD comes in the form of a guest appearance on DJ Scheme’s “Buck 50.” The mellow effort lands on a re-release of the producer’s Family album and sees the “Lucid Dreams” act keeping it straight with his opponents while warning them that retaliation is in order if he or anyone in his crew is injured on their behalf.

The track stands as the only addition to the Family deluxe album and it also concludes with a guitar solo dedicated to Juice WRLD from Carlton McDowell, who grew up with and remained close friends with the late rapper. Juice’s contribution to “Buck 50,” comes after he and Young Thug delivered a menacing video for their long-awaited track, “Bad Boy.” That video was directed by Cole Bennett, who made sure to add a positive message from the fellow Chicagoan at the visual’s start. Prior to that, The Kid Laroi dropped his “Reminds Me Of You” collaboration with Juice on the one-year anniversary of his death.

Listen to “Buck 50” above.

Family (Deluxe) is otu now via Scheme Records/EMPIRE. Get it here.

While much of the music internet was frustrated today by the multiple delays of the Verzuz showdown between Ashanti and Keyshia Cole — initially postponed because Ashanti contracted COVID-19 and then airing over an hour after the posted start time tonight — one rapper was feeling just fine. 21 Savage was also feeling himself, happy to sing along to the R&B jams that populated tonight’s battle, going on Instagram live himself to let fans see him crooning along, albeit a little offkey, to some of the hits.

Fans on Twitter posted clips from the rapper’s livestream, where he belts with Keyshia on her song “Love”:

And then later on Keyshia’s “I Remember:”

While the Atlanta rapper is mostly known for sticking to bars and not venturing too far into the world of singing, hey, there’s nothing else to do right now… maybe Keyshia and him can link up to put something new together for us, she probably didn’t know he was such a fan before tonight! Other events during tonight’s show included O.T. Genasis reuniting with Keyshia to get back on good terms and join her for “Love.” This peacemaking is a little reminiscent of Gucci Mane and Jeezy appearing to squash their longstanding beef on their own Verzuz.

Genesis is great, but he’s got nothing on Savage.

After a month worth of delays, Keyshia Cole and Ashanti finally had their long-awaited Verzuz battle on Thursday night. The singers brought out their vocals as they traversed through 20 of the best songs from their respective catalogs. While the night was filled with memorable moments that included Cole showing up more than an hour late to the battle as well as the odd sponsorship combination from Ciroc and Doritos, one of the best moments of the Verzuz matchup came when O.T. Genasis made a surprise appearance on the livestream to an exuberant performance of “Love” with Cole.

You may recall that in 2019 Genasis shared a comedic “Cuz” remix of Cole’s classic 2006 track. While many fans enjoyed the new take with the rapper’s poor high notes, the R&B singer herself was not a fan of it. During a 2019 episode on her talk show, One On One With Keyshia Cole, she expressed her distaste with the remix. “I would like my classics to be left alone,” she said at one point. “How I’m going to get paid, you know what I’m sayin’, if you making new lyrics and you ain’t sent me out a check or anything like that?” Afterward, the two sent a few more jabs in each other’s direction but now it seems like all is well between them both.

You can watch their duet above.

O.T. Genasis is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

After a month worth of delays, Keyshia Cole and Ashanti finally had their long-awaited Verzuz battle on Thursday night. The singers brought out their vocals as they traversed through 20 of the best songs from their respective catalogs. While the night was filled with memorable moments that included Cole showing up more than an hour late to the battle as well as the odd sponsorship combination from Ciroc and Doritos, one of the best moments of the Verzuz matchup came when O.T. Genasis made a surprise appearance on the livestream to an exuberant performance of “Love” with Cole.

You may recall that in 2019 Genasis shared a comedic “Cuz” remix of Cole’s classic 2006 track. While many fans enjoyed the new take with the rapper’s poor high notes, the R&B singer herself was not a fan of it. During a 2019 episode on her talk show, One On One With Keyshia Cole, she expressed her distaste with the remix. “I would like my classics to be left alone,” she said at one point. “How I’m going to get paid, you know what I’m sayin’, if you making new lyrics and you ain’t sent me out a check or anything like that?” Afterward, the two sent a few more jabs in each other’s direction but now it seems like all is well between them both.

You can watch their duet above.

O.T. Genasis is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Thursday night was a relatively quiet one in the NBA, as only three games were on the schedule, headlined by a Lakers-Bucks tilt that saw the defending champs take down Giannis Antetokounmpo and company in Milwaukee. The nightcaps featured two games that, ultimately, got out of hand as the Jazz rolled past New Orleans for a seventh straight win and the Knicks blowing out the Warriors in San Francisco.

However, the latter of those two results was directly impacted by what became the story of the night, as Draymond Green was tossed at the end of the first half for yelling “f*ck that” at rookie teammate James Wiseman as they got set on defense and the referee thinking that was meant for him and giving him his second technical foul. Green immediately was pointing at Wiseman to indicate he wasn’t yelling at the refs but the rookie, and Steve Kerr and Stephen Curry were both left dumbfounded by the decision. It was both absurd and hilarious from an objective point of view, but given the clear impact of Green on this Warriors team, their second half struggles were, at least in some ways, tied to the absence of their star big man.

After the game, Green sent a text to Marc Spears of The Undefeated to ask a few questions about why his technical couldn’t be discussed as a crew and taken away, which is a fair question.

As for the official explanation from the referees, well, there wasn’t much of one as the pool conversation with crew chief Ben Taylor didn’t exactly yield much that will satisfy anyone.

That the referees didn’t at least consider coming together and talking through the technical is one of the great frustrations players have with officiating in the league. Just like the players, officials are going to make mistakes, but the hard stance they sometimes take in refusing to acknowledge that and taking the time to possibly fix that mistake in real time drives players like Green crazy. It was a critical moment in the game and while the Knicks, who are riding a three-game win streak of their own, may very well have won, for an 8-7 team in the West like Golden State, each game is critical to their playoff hopes as Green noted.

A trifecta of new pop songs has sparked what appears to be the most exciting pop drama in many years. As the story goes, Olivia Rodrigo wrote a song called “Drivers License” about her breakup with Joshua Bassett, who wrote a song calling her version of events a “Lie Lie Lie,” and then tonight Sabrina Carpenter dropped a song she wrote about how Olivia is not getting under her “Skin” now that Sabrina is with Joshua.

Did you get all that?

Well, obviously the internet is having a field day with this one, a welcome pop culture bit of drama that is totally calorie-free and a world away from the stress and horror of the pandemic, or the brutality of politics that have otherwise dominated the last few months. The primary reaction is that both Olivia and Sabrina are way out of Joshua’s league, but plenty of people are eager to take sides or weigh in on the best display of petty 2021 has seen so far! I mean, we’re barely into the year but I still don’t see a lot of people getting into it with more flair than these three have.

In case you wanted my pick, I’m firmly Team Olivia. And that’s mostly because her song is lightyears better than the other two. Check out some of the best responses to the situation below.

In the 2020-21 season, there are no sideline reporters on NBA broadcasts which means postgame interviews are handled by either the announcers in the booth or, in the case of TNT games, the studio crew.

There are basically two options for interviews when they are with the Inside the NBA crew: fun or disastrous. The best example of the fun option came in the Bubble when they talked with Boban Marjanovic. The examples of disastrous ones are, well, unfortunately far more prevalent, including with Kevin Durant, Christian Wood, Nikola Jokic, and, most recently, Donovan Mitchell on Thursday night after Utah came back from 16 down to runaway from the Pelicans for their seventh straight win.

After Ernie Johnson started things off, they turned to Shaq who was critical of Mitchell at the half, noting he doesn’t believe he can be the best player on a championship team. That isn’t exactly a startling revelation, as at any given time in league history there are usually only a handful of players that fit that description, but given Mitchell’s sensational 36-point night in the win it was weird timing for that critique. What made it weirder was Shaq, who has been recently trying to beef with Rudy Gobert, bringing it up in the interview with Mitchell and noting that he hoped it would serve as motivation and Mitchell not having any of it.

So, yeah, it’s really awkward! Poor Kenny Smith has to follow that, and by that point they’d lost Donovan who was simply ready to take the headset off and leave. Mitchell didn’t want to hear about how it was somehow thanks to Shaq that he stepped his game up on Thursday, and Shaq’s insistence on trying to pick fights with current players has been a constant of his tenure with TNT and it seems, just as a whole, the league has had enough of it.

On one hand, at least Shaq doesn’t try to hide from what he says on air when they welcome players in, but at the same time, his approach to these interviews just simply isn’t working and for a show that thrives on being fun, it puts a real damper on the show’s entire vibe.

It’s early in 2021 yet, but we’re already rich in pop drama. In one corner is Olivia Rodrigo and her searing torch song “Drivers License,” a track that is, by the way, the biggest song in the world at the moment, shattering Spotify records and winning over fans like Taylor Swift, Halsey, and Cardi B. In another corner we have Joshua Bassett, rumored ex-boyfriend/subject matter of “Drivers License” pathos, insisting Olivia’s side of things is a “Lie Lie Lie” in his new single, and then, unrelatedly, landing himself in the hospital for serious surgery. All humor aside, here’s hoping he is doing good and gets healthy as soon as possible. Bassett and Rodrigo star on a Disney+ show together, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series where their characters have a romance, which always complicates reality.

All this to set the stage for Sabrina Carpenter, who chose to directly address some of the lyrics ini Olivia’s new single in her new single “Skin,” namely about the girl with blonde hair, which fans already assumed were about Sabrina. So, as the story goes, around the time Olivia and Joshua stopped being as close, he got with Sabrina, a much older blonde who is about four years older than the two teen stars.

Olivia’s lyrics on “Drivers License”:

“And you’re probably with that blonde girl
Who always made me doubt
She’s so much older than me
She’s everything I’m insecure about”

Sabrina’s lyrics on “Skin”:
“Maybe we could’ve been friends
If I met you in another life
Maybe then we could pretend
There’s no gravity in the words we write
Maybe you didn’t mean it
Maybe blonde was the only rhyme
The only rhyme”

She goes on to assert in the chorus that the drama is breaking her heart, but not getting under her skin. Clearly not, hence the whole song about it… that’s not even a subliminal, that’s a direct shot on both ends. We’ll see how this continues to play out. Listen to Sabrina’s new song above.

Ohio native Jasiah rose to fame thanks to his penchant for genre-bending tracks. From collaborations with the likes of Travis Barker and Yung Bans to highlight singles that include “Break Sh*t” and “Crisis,” Jasiah is primed for an exciting 2021, and it beings with his latest single, “Unintelligible.” The “Heartbreak” act recruits Nascar Aloe to join him on the new song and with it comes a matching visual that finds the duo in a rambunctious state as they show off their undeniable rockstar qualities to viewers.

Almost two years have passed since Jasiah delivered a project to his fans, with the last being his 2019 effort Jasiah I Am. The 12-track release also saw a guest appearance from Snot, who’s been enjoying a breakout moment of his own. The hope was that the Ohio native would make his return last year with a brand new batch of songs for fans to enjoy, but unfortunately, the year came and went without a new project. Now, the hope is that Jasiah will end the wait this year, but that remains to be seen. Nascar Aloe’s appearances on “Unintelligible” comes after the punk rapper performed “I Throw A Fit” for UPROXX Sessions last November.

Watch the “Unintelligible” video above.

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