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Pokemon’s presence on the Nintendo Switch is opening up in a big way as part of a 25th anniversary celebration for the legendary RPG series. The Pokemon Company held a livestream event on Friday detailing new games, including remakes of two handheld classics. But the biggest news is a new open world RPG set in the Sinnoh region well before the events of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.

Before that, though, the event highlighted two remakes of those 2006 GameBoy classics: Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.

Those games, however, will now get a prequel with a slightly different twist. Friday also brought word of Pokemon Legends: Arceus, an open-world RPG

“This is a tale from a long, long time ago. When the Sinnoh region was a vast wilderness,” a narrator says, laying out a less developed human society long before Pokemon trainers and Leagues.

The trailer shows a trainer diving into a thick brush, aiming a Pokeball at a faraway Shinx and throwing it. There are battles and Pokemon in the player’s control, but it’s certainly a departure from more traditional Pokemon games. Sword and Shield, which were released in 2019, introduced the concept of a Wild Area that had Pokemon roaming free that could spark encounters. Arceus appears to be the next evolution of that concept according to the game’s description.

As trainers explore the natural expanses in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, they’ll encounter pokémon that call these grand vistas home. To catch wild pokémon, players can study the pokémon’s behaviors, sneak up to them, then throw poké balls. Players can also battle wild Pokémon with their ally pokémon. By throwing the poké ball holding their ally pokémon near a wild pokémon, players will seamlessly enter battle. This new gameplay angle is intended to provide trainers with an immersive experience.

The event also showed off some new Pokemon Snap gameplay on Friday.

That’s a lot of Pokemon, which is great news for fans. But while Snap is expected to hit the Switch in April, we won’t see Arceus until at least 2022.

The 2021 NBA All-Star Game will look different in a number of ways, with one of the most prominent being the lack of an All-Star Saturday night. The league will attempt to compensate for this by putting some of the events that we’re used to on Sunday, including the dunk contest, which will occur at halftime of the game.

It’s still not clear who all will participate in the event, but on Friday, Shams Charania of The Athletic leaked the first name that will take the floor in Atlanta. According to Charania, New York Knicks rookie Obi Toppin will be in the field.

Toppin, a Brooklyn native, was the No. 8 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft following a magnificent sophomore campaign at Dayton in which he was a consensus first-team All-American and the national player of the year. As a power forward on a team with an All-Star with that position, it’s been a bit tough for Toppin to get consistent run — he’s averaging 4.8 points and 2.4 rebounds in 12.1 minutes per game — but if there is one thing that is well-documented about him, it’s that he can absolutely fly.

With the All-Star Game taking place next week, it’s probably not off-base to assume that more participant names will come out soon.

After brushing off the backlash resulting from his “Beat Box” freestyle, DaBaby officially joins Florida-based, TikTok-favorite, trap rap upstart SpotEmGottem on “Beat Box 3.” While the original “Beat Box” generated a wave of buzz for the 19-year-old rapper and “Beat Box 2” featured Pooh Shiesty and became the basis for a viral TikTok challenge, “Beat Box 3” finally connects SpotEmGottem with the North Carolina superstar who helped bring “Beat Box” to the mainstream with his freestyle.

That freestyle, though, was the subject of some controversy thanks to a throwaway line in which DaBaby name-checks 17-year-old pop star JoJo Siwa. The line, which rhymed the singer’s name with “see why,” posited an imaginary rival as a “bitch,” employing the hashtag flow for a clunky punchline that seemed to either call JoJo a bitch as well, or equate all women with bitches, with the most conveniently rhyming one falling within the category. Either way… not a great use of the form, which is always a danger with the hashtag flow.

Of course, DaBaby — no stranger to Twitter controversy after a couple of years’ worth of call-outs and missteps — dismissed the backlash as a case of wordplay going over listeners’ heads. That isn’t quite what happened here, but by combining his verse with SpotEmGottem’s original, at least SpotEmGottem can hope to benefit from the extra attention, and capitalize on it with his next release.

Listen to “Beat Box 3” above.

After months of discussions, the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream have new owners. Amid a war of words with former minority owner Kelly Loeffler, who lost her Senate race in Georgia last month, the Dream had been very publicly on the block, and the league announced today that the team was purchased by recently-retired WNBA star Renee Montgomery along with two executives from a real estate firm in Massachusetts.

Montgomery, who played for the Dream in 2018 and 2019 before stepping away from the game in 2020, has grown her profile immensely over the past calendar year, becoming a major voice and leader in sports, culture, and activism. Now, she will gain the influence of becoming a team governor in the league where she won two WNBA titles.

“My Dream has come true,” Montgomery said in a statement. “Breaking barriers for minorities and women by being the first former WNBA player to have both a stake in ownership and a leadership role with the team is an opportunity that I take very seriously.”

In expressing support for the purchase, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert called Montgomery a “trailblazer” and said she was “thrilled” that Montgomery was part of the group. LeBron James, who had been rumored to have interest in investing in the team himself, tweeted in praise of Montgomery’s involvement.

The other two investors involved in the purchase are Larry Gottesdiener and Suzanne Abair of Northland Investment Corporation, a real estate private equity firm that is based in Newton, Mass.

Welcome to our new weekly streetwear series! At the end of every week, we like to hit you with the hottest fits out now to help ensure you’re all geared up for the season and looking your best. This week, we’ve got new releases from READYMADE, Carhartt WIP, Brain Dead, Palace, and Cactus Jack himself.

We might be quickly approaching the warmer spring season but these drops consist of mostly layer-friendly outerwear, like hoodies and sweaters. Remember, it’s still Feb — we’ve still got a long way to go until summer.

If you’re looking for some kicks to complete your fit, be sure to hit up SNX, our series covering the best sneaker releases of the week.

READYMADE x BAPE Collection

Upcycling brand READYMADE and legendary Japanese streetwear brand BAPE have one of our favorite drops of the week with this capsule collection designed by READYMADE’s Yuta Hosokawa that utilizes BAPE’s iconic shark face and camo patterning alongside READYMADE’s signature bee for its centerpiece hoodie. The five-piece collection consists of a camo shark hoodie, matching sweat shorts, a graffitied long and short sleeve t-shirt, and a simple dual-branded t-shirt three-pack.

The READYMADE x BAPE capsule collection is set to drop on February 27th at READYMADE and BAPE retailers, as well as the BAPE webstore.

Carhartt Wip L’Art de L’Automobile Karhartt Collection

Carhartt WIP has teamed up with Paris-based brand L’Art de l’Automobile for a new collection that celebrates Carhartt’s motor city roots. Designed by L’Art de l’Automobile founder and famous vintage care dealer Arthur Kar, the Karhartt collection features a reworking of Carhartt’s Michigan coat, as well as a fresh take on the Single Knee Pant, with simple graphic tee shirts, hats, accessories, and a Nalgene water bottle completing the collection.

The capsule’s main colorway is a dope forest green, which was inspired by the forests of Lebanon that Kat grew up among.

The Carhartt-WIP Karhartt Collection is set to drop on February 27th at both Carhartt-WIP Los Angeles and the Carhartt-WIP online store.

Brain Dead Spring 21 Collection

This week Brain Dead launched their first Spring 21 collection featuring vibrant streetwear essentials fit for the season, like long sleeves, sweats, sweaters, t-shirts, pants, and jackets, with stand-out pieces including the patchwork military shirt, and jacquard letterman. Brain Dead went heavy on the paneling for this collection, overlaying mixed fabrics across the brand’s signature utilitarian silhouettes.

On the accessory end, the brand has bell-shaped bucket hats as well as corduroy climbing pants with built-in belts. The entire collection is presented in a varied but muted color palette, with brighter colors like pink and yellow toned down with an earthy undertone, giving the collection a lived-in aesthetic.

The Brain Dead Spring 21 collection is available now at the Brain Dead webstore.

KITH WMNS 2021 Collection

KITH has just dropped a major 53 piece collection under their KITH Women line, featuring comfy sweats, t-shirts, high-wasted joggers, a cardigan, a knit bra, crop tops, and sweaters. A few accessories round out the full collection, which is dressed in a minimal and muted colorway of grey, blue, and beige tones. Highlights of the collection include the two-piece knitwear set, the cropped long sleeve Henley hoodie, the knit bike shorts, and the KITH branded nylon cap.

It’s a pretty expansive collection but it’s comfortably geared for this transitional part of the season we’re living in, so if you plan to cop, move fast before it gets too warm to rock knit.

The KITH WMNS 2021 collection is available now at the KITH webstore.

Travis Scott i-D Merch Capsule

We haven’t gotten a major Travis Scott sneaker drop yet this year but that doesn’t mean the Cactus Jack merch has stopped. This week Scott is teaming up with i-D magazine and Spike Jonze for a special capsule collection featuring sketches by the famous director and minimal graphics featuring I-D and Cactus Jack branding. The small collection consists only of hoodies, t-shirts, and a beanie dressed in a dusty brown, green, and black color scheme typical of Cactus Jack offerings.

The capsule is being released alongside a new “Utopia in Dystopia” I-D issue featuring Scott on the cover and shot by Jonze. Check out the interview to read about Scott’s upcoming album, Utopia, and shop the collection at the i-D merch store.

Palace Spring 21 Drop 3

For Palace’s third Spring 21 drop, the British skatewear label is dropping another layer-heavy collection featuring patchwork hoodies (everyone’s current favorite trend), colorful sweaters featuring the Tri-Ferg logo, long-sleeves, button-ups, and thankfully, a mask. If you’re looking to pick up some headwear, Palace’s new drop also includes a pretty sweet six-panel hat, a not very cool lightning beanie, and of course, a bucket hat. The bucket hat is wrapped in wool so it goes extra heavy on the ‘90s British rave vibes.

Palace also dropped a Stella Artois co-branded collaboration last week which is definitely worth checking out if you like Stella. I mean, you’d have to like Stella a lot to rock some Stella Artois branded streetwear, but there has got to be some hardcore Stella stan out there!

The Palace Spring 21 drop three is set to drop on February 26th at the Palace webstore.

Police now believe Lady Gaga may have been the target of the thieves who shot her assistant and stole two of her French bulldogs, according to TMZ. The singer is currently offering a half-million-dollar ransom for the safe return of her pets, which may have been the point all along. Using a neighbor’s security video that caught the robbery in progress, police theorize that the assailants were aware of just whose dogs they were taking.

Adding to the fact that the thieves’ white sedan pulls up alongside Gaga’s assistant Ryan Fischer in the video, law enforcement sources told TMZ that Fischer wasn’t exactly secretive about his employer. He told “numerous people” in the neighborhood that the dogs belonged to the singer, so it was seemingly common knowledge. Meanwhile, due to the darkness of the street, police don’t think the thieves would have been able to tell that the dogs were valuable French bulldogs — although dognapping and pet ransom are pretty common in affluent neighborhoods, as residents usually offer rewards for “missing” pets that thieves often return to collect.

However, rarely is a case so high-profile as this one is, or as violent. The fact that Fischer was accosted and shot suggests the thieves may have targeted him specifically, knowing the dogs’ owner was one of the biggest pop stars on the planet and being willing to use extreme measures to get ahold of the ransom money. Further complicating things is the fact that Gaga’s dogs were never chipped, so identifying them if they are sold out-of-state — another common tactic of dognappers — will be very difficult.

Gaga’s father spoke out against the attack on Fox News, saying “Our whole family is upset and praying Koji and Gustavo are not harmed. Help us catch these creeps.”

The always entertaining Jason Mantzoukas dropped by Late Night with Seth Meyers on Thursday where he showed off his hilarious, new COVID mask that practically left Meyers in tears. While talking about his pandemic life that’s left him stranded at home for a year with no one to talk to but the weird paintings on his wall (that he can’t stop buying from eBay), Mantzoukas joked about his quarantined beard and how he’s trying to go for the “full circle.” Of course, with a beard that big, Mantzoukas runs into trouble when it comes time to wear a mask when out in public, but he seems to have a found a solution. Namely a giant rubber screaming baby mask.

After disappearing off-camera, Mantzoukas emerged wearing his new COVID mask, and as you can tell by the screencap below, Meyers absolutely lost it.

And just to really sell the bit, here’s a random captioned shot of Mantzoukas attempting to talk to people at the grocery store with his special mask:

While Mantzoukas probably doesn’t really wear the mask out in public, he could for an entirely different reason than full-beard COVID protection. Back in September, he was drawn into a wild Reddit relationship post involving a husband very questionably catfishing his wife as Mantzoukas. (For the record, The Good Place actor wasn’t involved in any way.) Problematic relationship issues aside, the incident stirred up a frenzy of Mantzoukas thirst on social media where scores of women admitted they’re extremely attracted to the bearded comedy actor. So, who knows? Maybe Mantzoukas does wear the baby mask so he can buy fresh avocados without being ogled at every turn. The man has feelings, too, folks.

Samples have always been the backbone of hip-hop. The very first raps were performed over beat breaks, which were looped and extended to provide B-boys a platform for their gymnastic dance routines and rappers their bombastic bars. However, despite hip-hop’s preference for calling back to the past, making history as modern as a freshly-released single, the genre has oddly few examples of another tool for paying homage to the forebears and icons of days past.

Last week, M1 and Stic.man of revered revolutionary rap duo Dead Prez revealed that the late, great Los Angeles legend Nipsey Hussle reached out to them prior to his death for permission to remake their seminal 2000 debut album Let’s Get Free — but the idea was never executed, as Nipsey passed away before he was able to begin work on the project in earnest. Besides this one high-profile example, there aren’t very many other albums by current rappers that seek to recreate the classic works that have inspired and influenced them. So, why doesn’t hip-hop have many cover albums?

Part of the answer may stem from rap music’s status as a young genre. Just 30 years ago, the culture as a whole was still fighting for its legitimacy, dismissed as a passing fad. However, that didn’t seem to stop musicians in other disciplines from nearly constantly covering each others’ songs to the point that there is widespread debate about the “best” versions of hits like “Respect,” originated by Otis Redding and made classic by Aretha Franklin; “Proud Mary,” a Creedance Clearwater Revival turned rocking revue by Ike and Tina Turner; and “Strange Fruit,” the defiant ode to Black resistance in the face of monstrous treatment sung by Billie Holiday and further popularized by Nina Simone.

Rock artists have also had a long history of reinterpreting classics for new generations. Consider Dirty Projectors’ Rise Above. In 2007, bandleader David Longstreth set out to replay Black Flag’s 1981 album Damaged from memory despite not hearing in for 15 years prior. If that sounds ambitious, Beck’s 2009 project Record Club would seem downright obsessive, as the genre-hopping multi-instrumentalist sought to cover whole albums in just one day each with a fluid collective of musicians. These included Leonard Cohen’s Songs Of Leonard Cohen, The Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground & Nico, and INXS’s Kick.

The form is a staple of other genres, such as rock and soul, but seems foreign to hip-hop, despite the fact that hip-hop now has enough history behind it to have several generations of “old-school” music, as many a millennial has been dumbstruck to learn in recent years. Where a 35-year-old today may have cited NWA, Public Enemy, or Run-DMC as “old-school” based on their high school experiences, a 15-year-old today looks at that 35-year-old’s high school faves like Jay-Z, Ludacris, or Nelly, and sees only a pack of old fogeys — Public Enemy may as well have been recorded on Fred Flintstone’s Dictabird.

Further complicating hip-hop’s relationship to cover projects is its reliance on samples and insistence on originality. Biting lyrics is a no-no of the highest order in hip-hop, and while sampling is the foundation of the art form, rarely are songs recreated or reinterpreted — and sometimes, choosing a sacrosanct record to recreate is seen as blasphemous. Just look at the reaction to DJ Khaled’s Outkast sample on his 2019 song “Just Us.” Borrowing the melody of “Ms. Jackson” didn’t work out any better for him than J. Cole’s similar homage — borrowing the loop from “Da Art Of Storytelling, Part 1” on “Land Of The Snakes — did for the North Carolina MC.

However, there is one example of a hip-hop cover album that was both well-received and tastefully done. In 2011, former Slum Village member Elzhi set out to pay tribute to one of his favorite MCs, Nas, by recreating Nas’s revered debut album Illmatic with a live band. The resulting mixtape, cleverly titled Elmatic, saw Elzhi putting his own unique twists on both Nas’s rhymes and the ’90s masterclass beats; Elzhi deftly re-worded some of the more iconic lyrical sequences, keeping the familiar diction and cadences, channeling them to flip Nas’s autobiographical tales into narratives of his own Detroit upbringing. The band embellished on the Ahmad Jamal, Gap Band, and Michael Jackson samples, bringing their musicality to the fore, where previously the drum tracks were the centerpieces of the album.

Elmatic‘s success only highlights how intriguing the idea of hip-hop cover albums truly is. Rap music, despite its reputation as a youth genre with little use for its elder statesmen, has always held a deep reverence for the history, breadth, and depth of Black music. Puffy can sample Diana Ross for a celebratory posthumous Notorious BIG single and Three 6 Mafia can turn a 30-year-old Willie Hutch soundtrack cut into an international players’ anthem, thoroughly disproving the trope that hip-hop doesn’t respect its elders. Rappers and producers simply choose to reinterpret what has already been done. If that’s not the essence of a cover, nothing is.

Nipsey Hussle and Elzhi both understood this, and both were willing to take the plunge, risking the disapproval of hardcore hip-hop heads to salute their musical forebears. That’s to be applauded — and imitated. Hip-hop now has a rich history of its own, just waiting to be mined, paid homage to, and translated into new terms for younger ears that may not be familiar with it, but are certainly much more receptive than they are given credit for. Whether it’s a New York boom-bap standard, a West Coast G-funk essential, or a Dirty South crunk classic, it’s time for hip-hop to begin giving its older albums some fresh looks.

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

Jacob Chansley, the infamous QAnon Shaman currently facing prison for his role in the Jan. 6th insurrection on Capitol Hill, is once again pointing the finger at Trump as part of his defense strategy.

After Chansley’s arrest, he quickly turned on the former president, accusing Trump of lying to his followers and sparking a heated debate within QAnon circles online. In Chansley’s latest plea for leniency, his attorney Albert Watkins used some strong language to describe how his client was “groomed” into carrying out treason on Trump’s behalf.

“For years during the Trump administration, the President honed and routinely utilized his mass communication means to effectively groom millions of Americans with respect to his policies, protocols, beliefs, and overwhelming fixation on all matters conspiratorial,” Watkins wrote in his motion, according to Newsweek. “Months before the 2020 Presidential election, former President Trump heightened his public propaganda such as to alarm, alert, and amass his supporters and cause them to be concerned about an inevitable voter fraud being perpetrated upon the United States of America and, in turn, theft of our nation, loss of our democracy, and the seating of a falsely/fraudulently elected individual other than former President Trump.”

Though true — Trump did spend months sowing doubt around the election process and making baseless voter fraud accusations — Chansley’s most recent attempt to escape the consequences of his own actions is not the best choice of words. “Grooming” is the process by which an individual builds a relationship with a child or young adult to emotionally and/or physically abuse and manipulate them. Chansley is a 33-year-old man who just couldn’t be bothered to fact-check his leader’s propaganda. It’s really not the same thing.

But the QAnon Shaman didn’t just want to paint himself as the victim in this whole “topple democracy” plot, his attorney also plead with the courts to release his client because of Covid-19 concerns and his ongoing digestive issues. Chansley demanded to be fed an organic diet while in jail because of his underlying health issues and though that request was granted, the motion filed by his lawyer claims he has “experienced significant digestive tract issues attributable to the sustenance accorded the Defendant while in custody.” The motion goes on to say that while Chansley doesn’t have an “underlying medical condition which makes him especially vulnerable” to Covid, his “faith precludes him” from getting a vaccine that would protect him from the virus, making his jail time especially dangerous.

You’d think a grown man who storms government buildings in war paint and a Viking headdress would be a bit tougher than this, no?

(Via Newsweek)

You don’t really go to Inside the NBA for hardcore basketball analysis. That’s been pushed further and further to the sidelines over the years to make room for its oversize personalities to simply entertain us. To be certain, they throw out basketball opinions left and right, although it can oftentimes feel like that’s more designed to illicit a reaction than anything.

Heck, you don’t even expect them to be particularly knowledgeable about today’s players. I mean, one of their longest-running gags is literally called “Who He Play For?” a game in which Charles Barkley hilarious and incorrectly makes wild stabs in the dark about where a particular player happens to be suiting up this season.

So it’s no surprise they’ve tweaked that idea a little to showcase Shaq’s similar lack of knowledge about players’ first names with a segment called “Shaq’s First Name Game,” a nod to his recent inability to come up with Pascal Siakam’s first name.

“Do I get a lifeline?”

“Shaq’s First Name Game” went as expected. pic.twitter.com/qMygFgNHax

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 26, 2021

As you may have guessed, Shaq didn’t fare too well here, but the results were hilarious. “Eli” Monk got us off on the right foot, and it only got better from there. Shaq’s ownership stake with the Sacramento Kings couldn’t help him figure out Richaun Holmes’ name, though we suppose “John” was close enough?

He didn’t do much better with Immanuel Quickley (“Gerard”), but “Stuart” Robinson (Mitchell) was the icing on the cake before correctly coming up with Desmond Bane’s name to cap off a 1-for-5 performance. Granted, there are 450 some odd players in the NBA, so it’s impossible to keep track of everyone, but most of these are relatively well-known, especially if you are in the business of covering the league.

Still, we wouldn’t have it any other way. The results are comedic gold.