GoneTrending

Since Busta Rhymes‘ E.L.E. 2 single “Outta My Mind” samples New Jack Swing trio Bell Biv Devoe’s iconic hit “Poison” on its beat and chorus, it’s only right he bring the three living legends along for the video. The clip takes place in what looks like a warehouse, where Busta and his Conglomerate cronies throw a raucous mid-quarantine party — checking the temperatures of its female attendees despite the women’s obvious annoyance.

Once inside, though, the ladies are treated to a typically animated Busta Rhymes performance as the Dungeon Dragon brings the heat back via the fire he spits over the clattering beat — and his massive fur coat. How he maintains so much energy wearing that thing without losing a gallon of sweat is beyond me, but it’s impressive that he’s kept up that ability after nearly thirty years as one of hip-hop’s most quick-tongued lyricists. As for Bell, Biv, and Devoe, the three singers keep it dapper in matching suits and tasteful chains, differentiating themselves with their headwear.

Busta has had a busy month promoting his new album, which includes collabs with Anderson .Paak and Kendrick Lamar. He also made an appearance on Russ’s Chomp EP.

Watch Busta’s “Outta My Mind” video above.

Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God (The Deluxe Edition) is out now via Empire. Get it here.

Netflix’s Cobra Kai Season 3 trailer confirmed a jam-packed set of events that will include Ralph Macchio’s Daniel-san returning to Okinawa, Japan, where he will encounter an old rival, Chozen (Yuji Okumoto), who was last seen in The Karate Kid Part II. In addition, co-showrunner Jon Hurwitz told Total Film/Games Radar that this season will honor Mr. Miyagi’s spirit, and that Daniel’s voyage will function as a soul-seeking pilgrimage. In this new clip, Daniel seems to sort-of find what he’s looking for while reuniting with a former love, Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita).

I say “sort-of” because there’s something happening in a roundabout way here. Daniel reminisces about how Miyagi always had the answers he sought, and now, he struggles to guide his own students in the same way. “I wish he could be here to guide me,” Daniel mused. And Kumiko answers, “I think I can make that happen.”

Sooo… a séance? Noooo. I’m being silly here, but obviously, the late Pat Morita has not been of this world for over a decade. Flashbacks will happen, but I’m wondering if Miyagi left something behind (a journal, an artifact, a freaking hologram, who knows?) for Daniel-san to help guide him on his way. Hurwitz also previously revealed, “We’re constantly looking for ways to honour Pat Morita’s legacy and make it feel like he’s a part of the series, because he’s such an important part of the Karate Kid universe.” In other words, this is quite a cryptic clip, I’m looking forward to seeing the followup.

Ahead of Cobra Kai‘s first two seasons arriving on Netflix, Ralph Macchio made a promise to us: “The best is yet to come in this series! And I believe in that.” Well, those first two seasons are a tough self-act to follow, but Cobra Kai creators Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald, and Hayden Schlossenberg have already made it clear that they take the franchise’s legacy seriously, so viewers must trust that every aspect involved still sits in the right hands. From the Season 3 synopsis:

Season 3 finds everyone reeling in the aftermath of the violent high school brawl between their dojos, which has left Miguel in a precarious condition. While Daniel searches for answers in his past and Johnny seeks redemption, Kreese further manipulates his vulnerable students with his own vision of dominance. The soul of the Valley is at stake, and the fate of every student and sensei hangs in the balance.

Cobra Kai will return for Season 3 on Netflix in January.

Offset‘s 29th birthday was Monday so of course, Cardi B made sure her husband spent the day in style. After celebrating with a night out in Atlanta, Cardi presented Offset with an impressive birthday gift.

The rapper instructed Offset close his eyes while she walked him outside to reveal his surprise gift. When he opened his eyes, Offset was shocked to see a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ sitting in the driveway. According to Offset, the car costs upwards of $700,000 — and there’s only 63 of them in the world.

On top of the expensive gift, Cardi also shared a heartwarming birthday post. “Happy birthday Hubs,” she wrote. “I wish you many more. I wish you more positivity, wisdom, health, and for God to continue to keep you with a good heart. Thank you so much for helping me these past months getting my business in line (somebody gotta be the mean 1.”

Cardi’s impressive Lamborghini gift tops the present she got for Offset’s birthday last year, which solved the age-old question of what to gift someone who has everything. Rather than presenting him with a material item, Cardi instead filled up a refrigerator with stacks of cash totaling $500,000.

Watch a video of Cardi gifting Offset the Lamborghini above.

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

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has finally acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden’s win, congratulating both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on their historic ticket. This concession came after the Electoral College certified the results of the 2020 Presidential Election despite weeks of failed lawsuits and unsupported claims of voter fraud from the Trump administration.

As a career-Congressman and a leader on Capitol Hill, McConnell’s public confirmation of the election results really should’ve come much sooner, but good luck trying to tell that to Trump’s fanbase.

Despite McConnell eschewing tradition by allowing Trump’s legal team to cast doubt on our democratic process with wild conspiracies and often throwing his support behind the president’s controversial policies, the MAGA crowd are viewing the speech McConnell delivered as traitorous. In fact, plenty of Trump’s followers are starting to craft their own theories as to why McConnell and other GOP members might “turn” on them, giving us all an invaluable look into the strange idolization Trump’s base has for their commander-in-chief.

In fact, “Cocaine Mitch” is now trending on Twitter, mostly because angry Trump voters are using the moniker to dredge up old controversies and accuse McConnell of somehow helping to rig this election against the current president. In case you forgot, in 2014, a magazine article alleging that drugs were found aboard a commercial cargo ship owned by the family of McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who serves as President Donald Trump’s transportation secretary, is the reason for the nickname. MAGA supporters have also made references to Chao’s heritage as reasons why McConnell might be “siding” with Biden in all this.

In case you were still confused as to what irony looks like, it’s this.

In February, Netflix introduced a top 10 feature that allows subscribers to see the most popular titles on the streaming service. “In addition to the overall top 10 list, you’ll also be able to see the top 10 most popular series and top 10 films when you click on the movies and TV shows tabs,” the press release boasted. Tiger King was on the list for weeks, while The Queen’s Gambit is still there, despite coming out in October, and The Office is a permanent fixture. But none of those shows, nor The Umbrella Academy, or Ozark, or Avatar: The Last Airbender, was Netflix’s most-popular in 2020. Folks, it’s Cocomelon.

As parents everywhere are already aware, Cocomelon is a cheaply-animated, song-heavy series aimed at kids. It’s one of the biggest things on YouTube, and it’s huge on Netflix, too. Variety reports that since the streamer began airing episodes earlier this year, “it has spent 104 days on Netflix’s top 10 ranker, more than any other program except “The Office.” But when you look “at how consistently high each program ranked on Netflix, assigning the most points to No. 1, Cocomelon winds up as the most popular show since February (when the top 10 most-watched lists began) on the streamer.”

Cocomelon amassed 572 points since late February (if it’s number one for the day, it gets 10 points; if it’s number 10, it gets one point), followed by The Office with 438 points, The Queen’s Gambit with 431 points, Tiger King with 382 points, and Ozark with 377 points. Netflix should apologize to every parent for subjecting them to this.

If Cocomelon does a chess episode, it’s over for everyone.

(Via Variety)

In a Jimmy Kimmel Live! interview from last night, Taylor Swift said of Folklore, “I was too afraid to even unveil the title of the album to even my closest teammates and management. I didn’t tell anybody the album title until right before it came out.” It’s not clear if she surrounded her other 2020 surprise album, Evermore, with the same level of internal secrecy. Whatever the case may be, Paul McCartney knew about the album weeks before the music-listening public.

During a recent interview with Howard Stern (as Billboard notes), McCartney was discussing the Beatles’ friendly rivalry with the Rolling Stones and how the groups would coordinate their release dates so as to not step on each other’s toes. It turns out Swift offered McCartney the same courtesy with the upcoming McCartney III, so she told him about Evermore weeks ago. McCartney said:

“I did the Rolling Stone cover with Taylor Swift and she just emailed me recently and she said, ‘I wasn’t telling anyone, but I’ve got another album,’ what’s it called… Evermore? ‘So I was going to put it out on my birthday,’ which I think was the 10th. And then she said, ‘But I found out that you were going to put [McCartney III] out on the 10th so I moved to the 18th.’ And then she found out we were coming out on the 18th, so she moved back to the 10th. So, you know, people do keep out of each other’s way. It’s a nice thing to do.”

Ultimately, Swift released Evermore on December 11, a couple days before her December 13 birthday, while McCartney III will be released on December 18.

Swift briefly discussed her Rolling Stone feature with McCartney during the aforementioned Kimmel interview, saying of the cover, “That’s what all the walls [in my home] are gonna be made of. I’m building a whole new home with just that on every wall. Every brick has a little mini-picture of that. None of the old homes are going to work anymore because they don’t have enough of that on them.”

Ahead of the Christmas Day release of Wonder Woman 1984, WarnerMedia has partnered with Comcast to make it even easier for Xfinity customers to access HBO Max original programming and movies. While cable customers have been able log in to the HBO Max on their streaming devices if HBO is part of their package, the app is now directly available on Xfinity set top devices, according to the joint announcement:

X1 and Flex customers will be able to access the HBO Max app over the Internet by saying “HBO Max” into the Xfinity Voice Remote or, for example, by saying the name of a desired title (like, “The Flight Attendant”). Xfinity customers will also be able to find the HBO Max app content library integrated throughout the X1 and Flex experience, including in current and evergreen collections such as “Best of 2020,” “Kids and Family,” “Black Film & TV” and more.

While this latest news is well and good for Xfinity subscribers, it only further highlights HBO Max’s glaring absence on Roku devices. The two sides are still at an impasse and have yet to reach an agreement thanks to the contentious issue of how the HBO Max app should be available to Roku users, and more importantly, what the revenue share will look like. However, WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar recently shared a promising update on the negotiations during an interview with Variety. “We do respect each other and we are having productive conversations,” he said. “I do have optimism that something gets done.”

When the NFL added two more playoff games to their Wild Card Weekend slate this season by expanding the playoffs to 14 teams, it set up the opportunity to get their TV partners to bid on the rights to two additional playoff games.

One of those games is headed to CBS, which will stream the game on CBS All Access and also do a simulcast on Nickelodeon that will be a “kid-themed” broadcast. That was previously announced, but we got more details on what that will entail on Tuesday, when CBS announced how the game will look different on Nick, with superimposed slime in the end zones on touchdowns, much more colorful graphics, various filters like googly eyes on replays, and, of course, plenty of SpongeBob SquarePants.

The pregame show will be a SpongeBob special, hosted by Von Miller of the Broncos, with play-by-play duties handled by a booth with Noah Eagle, Nate Burleson, and Gabrielle Nevaeh Green, with Lex Lumpkin as a reporter during the game. CBS ran a test run of their Nick broadcast during Eagles-Packers earlier this year to iron out the kinks and figure out the timing of getting Nick graphics and all of the filtered replays back to the truck from Nick Studios and are apparently pleased with how that went.

It’ll be interesting to see what kind of audience the Nickelodeon broadcast is able to pull in, as the NFL is clearly trying to open itself up to a very different and much younger audience. If this is successful, you can expect this to not just be a one-time deal and might become a more regular setup going forward in CBS and the NFL’s partnership.

While a handful of teams haven’t taken the floor in a regular season game for nine-plus months, other NBA franchises likely can’t believe the 2020-21 regular season is about to begin. After all, organizations like the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat were playing competitive basketball into October and, well, this is a quick turnaround.

Still, the regular season is coming whether everyone is prepared or not, and one of the grand traditions before tip-off is evaluating the league through the prism of regular season win totals. This is something of a cottage industry at this point but, to explain briefly, each team is given an over/under for their win-loss record, with sportsbooks rushing to beat one another to the punch to present the quickest/best numbers.

This year, the NBA is scheduled for a 72-game season and a few books (DraftKings, etc.) are actually posting numbers based on winning percentage, likely because they foresee potent postponements. From there, other books are mandating that teams play at least 70 games for bets to be “action” and, while it is always wise to know your sportsbook’s official rules, that is especially true in this case.

With that out of the way, we are offering a six-pack of “best bets” and, importantly, we’re using more than one shop to grab our lines. A lot of people are certainly evaluating these for entertainment purposes but, if you want to attempt to profit, having multiple outlets to choose from is the way to go.

Here we go with the picks, coming to you in alphabetical order with the sportsbook vendor listed.

Atlanta Hawks OVER 34.5 wins (FanDuel)

The Hawks missed the bubble entirely, finishing 20-47 last season. As such, this is a very substantial jump to forecast and, under normal circumstances, that would be pretty scary. Lloyd Pierce’s team has a lot going for it, though, and it starts with the presence of a true star (Trae Young), another top-50 incumbent (John Collins) and a massive investment in the offseason. Atlanta signed Bogdan Bogdanovic and Danilo Gallinari, both of whom are starting-caliber players with offensive punch, and the Hawks also get a healthy Clint Capela after trading for him in February. Atlanta’s defense is still a concern, which may scare some people away, but this is a team with five top-100 players in the NBA, all kinds of depth, and real star power with Young. They may not crash the top six in the East but, if you shop and get the right number, they don’t have to.

Indiana Pacers UNDER 39.5 wins (Westgate)

It’s a credit to Indiana that they have played as well in recent years as they have. The Pacers haven’t been a team that blows you away from a roster standpoint but, in 2019-20, Indiana was a top-eight defense and they rode Domantas Sabonis to glory. This is a reasonable number but, at the same time, the Pacers benefited greatly in the win column last season when compared to their actual metrics. From there, Victor Oladipo is a (very) uncertain asset right now, and the Pacers had a coaching change that adds a level of uncertainty. Indiana was a stay-away for me until word broke that TJ Warren wasn’t healthy, but that sent me over the edge. Give me the Under.

L.A. Clippers OVER 45.5 wins (Westgate)

Don’t overthink this. The Clippers went 49-23 last season and, from a point differential perspective, they were actually unlucky and “should have” finished 50-22. Despite their lackluster Bubble showing, L.A. isn’t really worse on paper than they were a year ago, and this number is low, simply because of what happened… in a playoff setting. The Clippers don’t even need to replicate all of their success from last year to hit the Over, and they could clear the bar with ease if things break right.

Minnesota Timberwolves UNDER 29.5 wins (FanDuel)

Defense still matters. Minnesota does have offensive talent, headlined by Karl-Anthony Towns, and they could put together a pretty interesting offense this season. However, the Wolves aren’t guaranteed to be awesome on that end of the floor after a bottom-10 showing a year ago, and they will need to be near-elite to hit the Over here. I say that because Minnesota might be flat-out dreadful defensively. They do have some supporting guys who can defend, but if the Wolves rely on Towns, D’Angelo Russell, Anthony Edwards, Malik Beasley and others to juice their offense, it comes at a cost.

Phoenix Suns OVER 37.5 wins (FanDuel)

If Chris Paul stays remotely healthy, it will be a significant surprise to me if this goes Under. Now, it is important to shop this, because some outlets are hanging more lofty numbers and that gets scary. With that said, the Suns could be the No. 8 seed in the West and still hit this over, doing so with relative easy. Paul joins Devin Booker to form one of the NBA’s best backcourts, and the Suns have underrated supporting talent, ranging from Deandre Ayton to Mikal Bridges. There is a lot to like here.

Portland Trail Blazers UNDER 41.5 wins (Westgate)

The Blazers should be notably better this year than they were in 2019-20. I’ll grant that after the investments in Robert Covington and Derrick Jones Jr., coupled with Jusuf Nurkic entering the season healthy. However, Portland has to be a lot better to go Over this total after finishing with a 35-39 mark last season. The Blazers were certainly bit by the injury bug, but Damian Lillard was absolutely unbelievable a year ago, and CJ McCollum played 70 games and gave Portland a lot. It’s a credit to Dame and Terry Stotts that the number is this high, but it shouldn’t be seen as a slight to Portland to think they might just win 40 games instead of 42. The West is a gauntlet.

Wonder Woman 1984 is like eating dessert. There’s really nothing here that’s particularly healthy or substantial – even for a superhero movie. There’s no secret green bean hidden under all the gooey, colorful, and brightly lit frosting. No, Wonder Woman 1984 is pure sugar. But here’s how I’m looking at it: Dammit, we all deserve dessert right now. And for the first, oh, 30 minutes of Wonder Woman 1984 I felt that sort of guilt – you know, “Well, I guess I’ll have to exercise even harder tomorrow.” But, them, I just gave myself over to the whole thing. I just stuck my head right in that delicious, sweet morsel … and I ate the whole thing. And then after my sugar rush was over, I slept well that night.

When we last left Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), she was the hero of the first World War. The first Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins, hit at a time that felt very unique. It was 2017, there was a sense of dread of the unknown, and the future seemed bleak (and that wound up being fairly accurate). It just felt comforting, and a little unusual, to have a True North character of pure good show up at our movie theaters. (Let’s not tell our 2017 fiends what happens to those.) It felt like “the movie we needed now,” a line that has become quite a cliché over the last few years. But with that first Wonder Woman, it felt true. It felt needed.

There’s quite a tonal shift with Wonder Woman 1984. But there kind of has to be. Diana is no longer in the trenches of World War I, she’s in 1984 listening to Frankie Goes to Hollywood and people are wearing parachute pants. It’s not a “grim” setting. And the device that runs the whole plot of this movie is quite bizarre.

And the plot device that runs Wonder Woman 1984 doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But I don’t think it’s a movie that’s really trying to make a lot of sense? I think there’s a difference. When a movie makes no sense, but thinks it makes sense (*cough,* The Rise of Skywalker), that’s when we run into problems. Wonder Woman 1984 establishes its plot device early and just goes with it. And it’s an insane plot device.

(I’m hesitant to say what it is because of “spoilers,” but it’s literally the plot of the entire movie so I am going to discuss it. So, if you don’t want to know, this would be a good time to check out. And, look, no hard feelings. We’ll meet again another day.)

After a pretty killer opening sequence set at a local mall (a sequence that isn’t quite as silly as the Superman III opening sequence, but owes some of its style and humor to that) we learn Diana now works at a museum. She befriends Barbara (Kristen Wiig), a socially awkward woman who just started at the museum. Diana likes Barbara because she’s funny. Barbara like Diana because Diana is everything Barbara wants to be. One day a mysterious artifact shows up that, we learn, has the power to grant wishes. And this item has a kind of Monkey Paw’s effect and leads to a whole host of problems for the numerous people who ask for their wishes to be granted. Barbara wants to be more like Diana, but she gets more than she bargained for with that wish. And Diana, well, if you saw the first film, you can probably guess what she wants.

A man who really wants this artifact is Pedro Pascal’s Maxwell Lord, a businessman who might not be quite as wealthy as he appears to be (and a character with a somewhat complicated history in the comics). Let’s talk about Pedro Pascal in this movie for a moment, because he is DYNAMITE. There is little doubt that Pedro Pascal read the script for Wonder Woman 1984 and thought to himself, “Oh, this is a movie about a magic rock that grants wishes and it’s set in 1984 … stand back, because I am going to do A THING.” In other words, Pascal knows he’s in a crazy movie and he amps up the craziness of the plot of this film in every scene he’s in. And, frankly, he’s in a lot of scenes. And every time he’s on the screen with his Simon Le Bon haircut I found myself smiling. (This year has not offered up a lot of reasons to just smile, but every second of Pedro Pascal’s performance made me do this and I think I’ll be forever grateful.) He is truly going for it.

And, well, that’s pretty much the whole plot of the movie: Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) are trying to stop Maxwell Lord, who is the true antagonist of Wonder Woman 1984, from wishing his way to becoming a powerful billionaire. Kristen Wiig’s Cheetah is certainly around, but disappears from time to time during the two and a half hour running time. And her main character motivation seems to be that she wants Maxwell Lord to succeed because then she gets to keep the wish she was granted.

One last note: I do wonder how this would have played in a theater (which you can, technically, still do instead of just watching it on HBO Max.) Because this is a movie of “hijinks” and the actual plot is pretty drawn out. I do wonder if I’d have gotten antsy in a theater, as opposed to sitting on my couch at home where I could have watched another hour of Wonder Woman and Maxwell Lord having a blast. But, that’s not reality right now. And I’m looking at Wonder Woman 1984 as a sort of gift to help all of us get through the pandemic-year holidays. It’s a perfect thing for those of us who can’t make it back home to watch.

And, again, Wonder Woman 1984 is pure sugar. There’s little nutritional value. But we all deserve dessert right now.

‘Wonder Woman 1984’ will be in theaters and stream on HBO Max starting on Christmas Day. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.