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Perhaps inspired by all the albums his good friend Taylor Swift had been releasing in 2020, Sir Paul McCartney let fans know back in October he’d be releasing a quarantine album of his own, McCartney III, just a few days before Christmas. The December 18th release helped McCartney usher in a Billboard record that spans over six decades. As numbers of the album’s first week sales come in after the holiday weekend, the former Beatle has reportedly become the first and only musical act to have a new record reach at least the top two slots for Billboard 200 chart’s album sales in each of the last six decades.

Chart Data reported the record-breaking feat on Sunday, cementing the news that McCartney III was likely coming in at No. 2 on the charts this week, behind Taylor Swift’s still churning Evermore. McCartney let fans know he was aware Swift’s second surprise album was coming, and seems more than happy to be sharing the spotlight with her. Though his most famous contributions to music certainly came as a member of The Beatles, that iconic British band broke up in 1970, and McCartney kept on plugging away anyway. Looks like his diligent, consistent work has paid off in a big way. Congratulations, Sir Paul.

The expectation for the 2020-21 season was that there’d be a wild chase for the playoffs in the Western Conference and a pretty defined hierarchy in the East, at least among the top 6 or 7. Firmly in that group are the Bucks, Nets, and 76ers, all of whom were in action against teams expected to be on the outside looking in when the playoffs roll around this spring.

However, the NBA is a funny place in the regular season and the old adage that any team can win on any given night in the Association came true in the strangest of fashion on Sunday when the Knicks, Hornets, and Cavaliers all won over their hopeful contender counterparts. After demolishing the Warriors on Christmas, the Bucks had seemed to shake off their rough start in the opening night loss to Boston, but questions will persist after they got torched by the previously winless Knicks, 130-110.

Three-point shooting was the difference maker in the Knicks win, as New York was lights out, hitting 16-of-27 from downtown, with Elfrid Payton leading the way for all scorers with 27 points on 12-of-16 shooting (including 3-of-3 on threes). Julius Randle, Alec Burks, and Frank Ntilikina all also caught fire from downtown, combining to go 11-for-14 from deep as a trio as they simply blitzed the Bucks and never relented.

On the other side, the Bucks had a disastrous shooting night, going 7-for-38 from distance as the “others” once again struggled around Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton, who combined for 49 in the loss.

In Charlotte, it was a much closer game, which made the Hornets withstanding the best efforts of Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (of all people on the Brooklyn roster) all the more impressive. The two Nets stars combined for 54 points, while Cabarrot cashed in three triples in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a balanced outing from Charlotte.

Gordon Hayward had a season-high 28 points to go along with 7 assists and 6 rebounds against the Nets, as he showed why the Hornets were willing to commit so much to him this offseason.

Hayward had plenty of help, as all five Charlotte starters hit double figures in the 106-104 win, including 19 from Terry Rozier who continues his strong start to the season. Rozier struggled from distance, hitting just 1-of-7 from deep, but was 6-for-7 inside the arc, most notably punching home this thunderous dunk on Kevin Durant through contact.

For a Charlotte team that’s struggled on the defensive end to star the season, they get some confidence in holding the line against a late charge by two of the league’s best scorers in Irving and Durant. Brooklyn reeled it in to a one-possession game on a few occasions late, but each time they did Charlotte had an answer on the other end and got just enough stops to gut out a win.

Unlike the Hornets and Knicks, the Cleveland Cavaliers entered Sunday looking to stay undefeated rather than to shake free of a winless record, but with wins over Charlotte and Detroit, many were wondering just how real the upstart Cavs really are. The answer we got on Sunday was a resounding “very” in the form of a dominant 118-94 win over the Joel Embiid-less 76ers.

Collin Sexton continued his excellent start to the season, scoring 22 points as he’s gone for 20-plus in each of Cleveland’s first three games. As a team they shot 39.1 percent from three-point range, including a perfect 1-for-1 night from JaVale McGee.

What’s been most impressive to see about this Cavs team to start the season has been the way they’ve moved the ball on offense. It pops around the floor and finds the open man, whether in transition or in the halfcourt, something that was on full display against Philly.

Even with rookie Isaac Okoro out, the Cavs, who went big with Larry Nance Jr., looked terrific and continue to impress to start the season. Andre Drummond had a monster 24-point, 14-rebound double-double and they managed to beat a good Sixers team even as Kevin Love played just nine minutes and had to leave with a calf strain. We’ll see just how sustainable this all is for Cleveland, but the energy they play with and the nice mix of vets and young guys all seeming to find a rhythm together will make them someone every team, no matter how good, has to give their full attention on any given night.

That was the overall theme of Sunday in the NBA, as three teams that came in unbeaten all left with L’s at the hands of teams that were hefty underdogs at the sportsbooks. In a strange season like this these results might be more regular occurrences than in most years, particularly as teams still get their footing under them early on after a short preseason. While we expected parity in the West, we got a taste of how that can play out in the East as well on Sunday.

The Golden State Warriors got off to a disastrous start to the season, getting blown out by the Nets and Bucks in their first two games, but they entered Sunday looking to get into the win column against a fellow winless squad in the Chicago Bulls.

The two teams looked the part of evenly matched winless teams, as they traded the lead on a few occasions down the stretch as Stephen Curry and Zach LaVine each put on a show, scoring 36 and 34 respectively. With the game tied at 126-126, LaVine took the first turn at a clutch bucket, hitting a tough leane from the midrange with five seconds to play.

Golden State called timeout and everyone in the world knew they would like to get the ball to Curry, but the Bulls were determined to make anyone else on the team beat them. Enter, Damion Lee.

Lee had 12 points on the night, none bigger than those final three, as he put the dagger in the Bulls to give Golden State a 129-128 win and finally, mercifully, get them out of the basement of the league. Curry even seemed to get free momentarily at the end of his run off the Looney screen, but Lee had already looked in another direction and found Looney for a handoff play no one expected, but that resulted in a game-winner.

For the Bulls, it’s a rather gutting loss as they too looked to bounceback and end their first week of the season with a win, but fell just shy. The Warriors won’t be in position to turn down a win of any kind this season, so they’ll happily head off to Detroit at 1-2 where they’ll try to build on this performance where they finally saw Curry get going in the second half.

Donald Trump only has a few weeks left as President of the United States, but that still leaves plenty of time to wreak havoc. He saved one of his cruelest acts for his final month: He torpedoed a much-needed COVID-19 relief bill, resulting in millions of Americans losing their unemployment insurance the day after Christmas. On Sunday night he had one of his unpredictable changes of heart: As per The New York Times, he belatedly signed the bill. But not everyone was ready to congratulate him on doing the right thing after some damage was already done.

The relief bill will provide $900 billion in relief — down significantly from the $2.3 trillion package signed in late March. It’s only the second such package since the pandemic took over America. Ever since, Democratic lawmakers have struggled to get their Republican counterparts — most prominently Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — to pass a second wave of governmental aid, with no luck. Only with the threat of millions being pushed into poverty — and a hotly contested Senate runoff in Georgia in early January that could see the Senate flipped blue — did Republicans budge on certain key items.

But it was all for naught. On Tuesday, Trump uploaded a video to Twitter and Facebook in which he railed against the bill, demanding that the skimpy $600 to be sent to most Americans be inflated to a far more helpful $2,000. It seemed like a middle finger to Republican congresspeople, who he’s accused of largely not helping him baselessly overturn the election he lost. But Republicans didn’t budge. And nor did Trump.

And so on Christmas Day, millions of Americans lost their unemployment insurance, their lives thrown further into question. Meanwhile, Trump golfed.

Now those citizens will have their unemployment restored — but only after losing a week of money, during the holidays, during a pandemic.

People on social media were quick to point out that Trump deserves little praise for being so slow.

Some questioned the strategy of making Republicans look heartless during the holidays, with a key race on the horizon.

Some flat-out called Trump useless.

And some reminded us that, barring some surreal last minute plot twist, in less than a month Trump is out of a job. But he can always go on unemployment.

(Via The New York Times)

The Minnesota Timberwolves have been one of the pleasant surprises of the first week of the NBA season, as they’ve started 2-0 with wins over the Pistons and, most impressively, the Jazz.

However, that Utah win came at a price, as star center Karl-Anthony Towns suffered a wrist injury in the game and said after it was “very, very sore” and his status for Sunday’s game with the Lakers and beyond was in question. On Sunday, Towns was officially listed as out for the Laker game, but the good news that came from the update was that Towns, who had X-rays return negative on his wrist, was officially diagnosed with a left wrist dislocation and would be evaluated “weekly,” per the team.

In his first two games of the season, Towns had been his usual productive self, averaging 19.0 points, 11.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists and the young Wolves will have quite the task on Sunday (and for any games beyond) in trying to beat the Lakers without their All-Star. Still, the way they’ve played to open the season, particularly the play of D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, and rookie Anthony Edwards has been very encouraging and that trio will have to carry the load on Sunday without Towns.

The Wolves will stay in L.A. to play the Clippers on Tuesday and the “weekly” designation would seem to indicate Towns is unlikely to play in that contest as well. They then have two days off before hosting the Wizards on Friday, which could be potentially closer to a Towns return. The good news is that it isn’t a significant injury with either a break or ligament damage, which hopefully bodes well for a speedy and full recovery.

Because heteronormative culture just won’t quit, openly queer woman Miley Cyrus was asked which of these two male pop stars she’d rather kiss: Harry Styles or Justin Bieber? But wait, she was also asked whether she’d kiss Dua Lipa or Cardi B under the mistletoe, so maybe things are improving after all! (She chose Cardi, because she’s pretty much been there with Dua).

Anyway, on the British radio show, Heart FM, the DJ fired off a number of would you rather-style questions to the Plastic Hearts creator. The million dollar question, between Justin and Harry, might be reductive and embarrassing, but I too want to know the answer. Of course, the ever-savvy Miley knew to side with Harry on this one. “Harry,” she said with complete certainty. “That’s easy.”

She clarified though that her response wasn’t a diss to Justin, who she’s known forever, but that he feels more like a brother at this point. “Justin Bieber I’ve known way too long and it’s like family. Harry Styles, he’s looking really good. I’m into the fishnets. And we have very similar tastes. I think sharing a closet, sharing a life together, it just makes sense.” Well, that’s a celeb couple that would definitely have people talking. Watch the clip below.

Lana Del Rey is well known for embedding cultural commentary in her photos, songs, and videos, so maybe that’s why she felt the need to clarify that a cast on her arm was simply due to an accident, and not symbolical of something larger. During the weekend of Christmas 2020, Del Rey was apparently skating and took a nasty fall that fractured her arm.

“When you see my second video for this album, don’t think that the fact I’m wearing a cast is symbolic for anything other than thinking I was still a pro figure skater,” she wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday. “I wiped out on my beautiful skates before the video even began after a long day of figure eights and jumps in the twilight of the dezert. Anyways my fracture isn’t that bad kind of goes with my new bucket hat. Thanks to my beautiful family for my gifts.”

The singer is prepping her next album, Chemtrails Over The Country Club and previewed a video for the title track that will be dropping on January 11. Previously the singer also shared a new track “Let Me Love You Like A Woman,” but shared the note to let fans know that whenever the video for her second single comes around, the cast is simply from an accident. Thanks for letting us know Lana, here’s to a speedy recovery.

It’s been a big year for Taylor Swift, who released two albums, each with less than 24 hours warning, and each of which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts. First there was Folklore, then there was Evermore, which dropped two weeks back. At just four months and 18 days, it was the shortest gap between chart-topping albums for a female artist. She also landed the second-biggest streaming week of 2020 with 220.49 million on-demand streams of the album’s songs. Now, in its second week, Evermore is once again at the top of the Billboard album charts.

Over the weekend Evermore sold 169,000 equivalent album units over the past week to maintain its No. 1 position. That number was boosted by the arrival of the album’s CD version, as it was only available digitally beforehand.

Elsewhere on the charts, Paul McCartney’s McCartney III came in at No. 2, having raked 105,000 album units in its first week. This helped the legendary musician become the first act to have a new album in the chart’s top two positions in each of the last six decades. Eminem’s Music To Be Murdered By comes in at No. 3 thanks to a deluxe re-issue that added 16 new songs to the album’s original album. Rounding out the top five are two Christmas albums: Michael Bublé’s Christmas at No. 4 and Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas at No. 5.

Re-read our review of Swift’s Evermore here.

(via Billboard)

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

The current GOP boasts a lot of hissable figures, but few step in it as often as Marco Rubio. The Florida senator has had a busy December: He was called a hypocrite for pearl-clutching over a Biden staffer using an epithet to describe his party members, and he was roasted for being among the first to receive the new vaccine despite months of playing down the pandemic — ahead of all the essential workers whose lives he’s helped put in jeopardy. Speaking of which, on Sunday he thought it was a smart move to attack Dr. Anthony Fauci. And once again, he got dragged.

Rubio started by claiming, baselessly, that Dr. Fauci “lied about masks.” He also asserted that he has “been distorting the level of vaccination needed for herd immunity.” He concluded that many “in elite bubbles believe the American public doesn’t know ‘what’s good for them’ so they need to be tricked into ‘doing the right thing.’”

For starters, masks have been proven to slow the spread; one need only look at stats in places that have worn them widely versus ones that have not. For another, it’s pretty clear that American public does not “know what’s good for them.” Again, the places that have not taken it seriously, where people have disregarded medical advice and put their own comfort above safety, have and continue to reap the consequences.

But Rubio is gonna Rubio, and when he had the cajones to come after the person who helped saved his life, people called him out. Again.

Some pointed out that Rubio will attack Dr. Fauci but not the guy who used to insult him on the regular.

Of course, Rubio is not the only person in his party doing a bad job of stopping the spread.

We’re less than a week before the end of 2020, but we’ll bet Rubio will embarrass himself at least one more time before January comes.

Young Thug has become one of today’s most influential acts in hip-hop, and when his rise began, the Atlanta rapper tried to show love to someone who influenced him. That someone was Lil Wayne. When Thug signed to Cash Money Records, it was in the midst of Wayne’s beef with the label’s founder, Birdman, who had blocked his album Tha Carter V from being released. Thug then named his 2015 album Barter 6 — a reference to the blocked album. But Wayne was not amused. However, the two rappers are now finally on good terms. Thug reflected on his tension with Wayne during a recent appearance on the podcast Million Dollars Worth of Game.

Gillie Da King, the podcast’s host, asked Thug about his first interactions with Wayne. “The first day that n**** didn’t goddamn dap me up,” he said. “Tried me. That n**** tried my pimping… My motherf*cking feet hurt n****, cause I’m a real stepper. Don’t do me like that.” Thug also recalled another moment, when Wayne gave him a dispassionate handshake, implying that he would not shake his hand in the future if things did not change.

Their differences continued into summer 2019, when Thug claimed they didn’t see eye to eye because Wayne was so “spoiled.” Thug and Wayne recently collaborated on the latter’s new mixtape No Ceilings 3 on a remix of Travis Scott’s “Out West.”

You can watch a clip from the Million Dollars Worth of Game podcast episode above.

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