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Modern technology allows fans of musicians to connect with their favorite artists in ways that weren’t possible before. Now SZA is taking that a step further and will be having spoken conversations over the phone with some of her supporters via her new hotline.

SZA shared the new yesterday, writing on Twitter, “Member that time we talked about crying together on a hotline ? I made one lol. 2 days outta the week we GON TALK CRY OR WHATEVER U WANNA DO . In the meantime enjoy some custom meditations n some other resources #GOODLINE CALL NOW.” She shared a similar caption on Instagram, writing, “Uhhh random I made a hotline to cry n laugh n talk w chall 2 days outta the week. Put some custom meditations on there too + other resources.”

One fan accused SZA of lying but the singer defended her honor, responding, “ITS F*CKING REAL AND ACTIVE LMAO 888-808-0CRY (0279) on Friday we cry together.” Somebody else wondered, “Girllll, can we really talk to you or is gone be you texting updates cause don’t play with my heart,” and SZA replied, “Lmao all my updates will be right here on Twitter.. the line is really jus for us.”

Since the number was made public, it has generated a ton of interest to the tune of tens of thousands of calls received already, as SZA noted: “Okay sooo we’re over 60’000 + calls in and increasing / crashing lol ! making some changes like extending the meditation audio + a few other things!! I’ll see u back on Friday when its time to talk to MEEEEEE!! I love you sleep well.”

Meanwhile, SZA was recently over the moon when she learned that “Good Days” became her first top-10 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

As Conor McGregor prepares to fight Dustin Poirier at UFC 257 in a return bout seven years in the making, his focus remains on earning another shot at the UFC lightweight championship. The belt won’t be on the line Saturday night, but UFC president Dana White made it clear the future of the division will take center stage in the main event, featuring McGregor vs. Poirier, and the co-main event, featuring Dan Hooker against UFC newcomer Michael Chandler.

So when posed with the possibility that he may face a return to the lightweight title conversation that doesn’t include the retired current champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, McGregor opened up about where he stands nearly three years removed from their first tilt.

“It’s a tough business,” McGregor said, per ESPN. “Things have gone on in his personal life. I don’t wish him any harm. Like I said, it was in 2018. A lot of time has passed. The world knows this fight is not over. This war is not over. The sport needs it to happen; the people need it to happen. I’m not gonna chase it if he doesn’t want it. And that’s it. I’ll keep my calm and move on. And that’s what I’m doing. I’m back here in the 155-pound division. I’ll show the world what’s what over time.”

McGregor’s tone has changed drastically in the years since their first bout. McGregor was arrested for throwing a piece of equipment through a bus window in search of Nurmagomedov, who slapped McGregor’s teammate Artem Lobov in the days prior. After Nurmagomedov’s win over McGregor in 2018, a melee ensued that resulted in suspensions for both fighters.

Nurmagomedov went on to defend his title multiple times before his father passed away from COVID-related symptoms in the summer of 2020. The champ returned to the Octagon once more, announcing his retirement in October after successfully defending the belt against Justin Gaethje.

McGregor has retired and unretired (multiple times) in his quest to earn UFC gold yet again. And while he holds a more respectful tone this time around, McGregor made it clear that won’t necessarily continue if Nurmagomedov refuses to defend the belt.

“If he continues to run, I’m not sure. We’ll see what happens,” McGregor said. “I would make the case, if that man is continuing to dodge this and dodge the commitment of competing again, the title should be stripped and [Poirier and I] should be engaging in a title fight.”

UFC president Dana White should have plenty of answers following Saturday’s event, with at least five contenders currently vying for a title shot. As for McGregor, he seems to have plenty on his plate for the upcoming year, as he plans on being more active in UFC by pursuing another Khabib fight, and also believes he’s close to another foray into boxing against Manny Pacquiao later this year.

It is, admittedly, probably not the best idea to go to an NBA game while the COVID-19 pandemic is going on. Having said this, teams that are able to admit fans are doing what they can to create safe environments for those in attendance — mask wearing, having folks keep their distance, all the stuff that serves as an attempt to make this situation feasible.

The Miami Heat are getting in on the “have fans in attendance” thing starting on Jan. 28, when the team hosts the Los Angeles Clippers. The full guidelines the team will follow are laid out here, but one sticks out: there’s gonna be COVID detection dogs.

As the team explains, these dogs have been trained to identify if someone actively has the virus, and all fans (save for those who are not comfortable around dogs and want to opt for a different testing method that is not specified, but “can take up to 45 minutes”) who want to attend a game will have to go through the screening, and if anyone is identified by the dog, both they and the group they’re trying to attend the game with will be denied entry.

Now, you are probably trying to figure out how in God’s name this work, but guess what! This has been done elsewhere already — as the United Nations laid out last month, Finland’s Helsinki-Vantaa airport uses COVID detection dogs which apparently have “an accuracy level of nearly 100% even 5 days before actual symptoms appear.”

“It turned out that training the dogs is a relatively quick process and results were surprisingly good and promising. A dog is capable of detecting the presence of the coronavirus within 10 seconds and the entire process takes less than a minute to complete”, says project manager Soile Turunen of the Wise Nose scent-detection foundation.

…

“Dogs learn fast to detect the virus but in addition to the smell of coronavirus, they need to be trained to function in the airport environment which might take more time. Usually the training takes 1-3 months all together”, says project manager Turunen

I am not a scientist, nor am I an expert in dogs, nor am I someone who could even begin to comprehend how any of this works, but if this works, well, more power to the Miami Heat, I guess. Just please do not bring treats to a Heat game if you plan on attending, those dogs have work to do.

Anderson Cooper has interviewed hundreds of people, from top celebrities to heads of state to people on the street. He is fairly unflappable when it comes to chatting with a guest, which is what makes his reaction while interviewing inaugural poet Amanda Gorman all the more delightful.

Gorman stole the show at President Biden’s Inauguration with a powerful performance of her original poem, “The Hill We Climb.” People were blown away by both her words and her poise in delivering them, especially considering the fact that she’s only 22 years old. But it’s one thing to be able to write and recite well, and another to be able to impress in an off-the-cuff conversation—and Gorman proved in her interview on Anderson Cooper 360 that she can do both at a level most of us can only dream of.

In the interview, Gorman explained how she dove into research to prepare her poem to fit the occasion, and then how that work was disrupted by the attack on the Capitol.

“I’m not going to say that that completely derailed the poem, because I was not surprised at what had happened,” she said. “I had seen the signs and the symptoms for a while, and I was not trying to turn a blind eye to that. But what it did is it energized me even more, to believe that much more firmly in a message of hope and unity and healing. I felt like that was the type of poem that I needed to write and it was the type of poem that the country and the world needed to hear.”

After explaining how she used tweets and articles and messages about the Capitol insurrection to hone parts of her poem, she shared thoughts on reclaiming the power of words.

“To me, words matter. And I think that’s kind of what made this inauguration that much more sentimental and special. We’ve seen over the past few years the ways in which the power of words has been violated and misappropriated, and what I wanted to do was to kind of reclaim poetry as that site in which we can repurify, resanctify not only the Capitol building that we saw violated, but the power of words, and to invest that in kind of the highest office of the land.”

Cooper and Gorman discussed the last few lines of her poem before delving into Gorman’s speech impediment. Cooper shared that he himself had a form of dyslexia and a slight stutter as a child, and Gorman shared that even up until a few years ago she would drop entire letter sounds from her speech. In fact, she said, writing and reciting poetry served as a kind of speech pathology for her. The “R” sound gave her particular trouble even into college, so she would practice singing along with the song “Aaron Burr, Sir” from Hamilton because it contained so many “R” words. (She also included allusions to Hamilton lines in her inaugural poem, which Ham fans quickly noted.)

But the part of the interview that got Cooper tongue-tied was when Gorman shared the mantra she says before every performance. Watch:

Gorman said she closes her eyes and says, “I am the daughter of Black writers. We are descended from freedom fighters who broke their chains and changed the world. They call me.”

Cooper had to take a moment before saying, “Um, wow…just…you’re awesome. I’m so transfixed.” So funny to see one of television’s most familiar faces being so awestruck. He’s not the only one, though. She is truly mesmerizing.

“Your mom must be so proud of you,” Cooper added. Gorman mentioned in her poem that she was raised by a single mother, and considering how proud the whole country is of this young woman, her mom is undoubtedly bursting with pride. Gorman shared how “a village” of support has helped lift her up to where she is today, and that her mom was right there with her filming her as she did this interview.

Anderson Cooper was all of us here. Amazed by Amanda Gorman’s talent. Stunned by her grace and wisdom at such a young age. Moved by her personal story. Awed by how she captured this significant moment in our nation’s history so beautifully.

Pure brilliance. We will definitely be keeping our eye on Ms. Gorman as we work to build the brighter future she envisioned for our nation.

Maester Aemon didn’t get stabbed in the gut by his incestuous lover or roasted by a dragon, but he did have one of the more touching death scenes in Game of Thrones. In the season five episode, “The Gift,” the elderly brother of the Night’s Watch is on his death bed when he mutters, “There he is. That laugh. Egg! Egg laughed like that. One of the first things I remember about him.” It sounds like nonsense, but as Sam explains to Gilly, Aemon is referring to “his little brother, Aegon. He became king.” Aegon V Targaryen, a.k.a Egg, a.k.a. Daenerys’ relative, never appeared on Game of Thrones, so he’s known mostly to book readers. But everyone may soon learn a lot about him.

HBO is in “early development” on adapting Tales of Dunk and Egg into a show. “The one-hour show would be based on the series of fantasy novellas by George R.R. Martin, which follow the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) and a young Aegon V Targaryen (Egg) 90 years prior to the events of A Song of Ice and Fire,” Variety reports. There are three Tales of Dunk and Egg titles to date: The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight. If picked up, it would be the second Thrones prequel to make it to air after House of Dragon. Here’s more:

No writer or talent is currently attached to the project, but sources say it is a high priority for HBO as the premium cabler looks to build on the success of “Game of Thrones.”

HBO must love all things Targaryen (and eggs), because House of the Dragon also follows Daenerys’ family. It premieres next year.

(Via Variety)

Hailing from Pontiac, Michigan, DDG got his start through a method that’s become increasingly common in recent years: making videos on YouTube. Documenting his come-up through vlogs and videos with fellow YouTube personalities like Queen Naija, DDG was able to parlay his popularity on the video-sharing site into a major label deal with Epic Records and the 2019 album Valedictorian.

Toward the end of 2020, he released his most popular single to date, “Moonwalking In Calabasas,” at last reaching the Billboard Hot 100, as well as two remixes featuring West Coast hip-hop mainstays. One features Blueface, while the second features YG. However, when DDG pulled up to Uproxx Studios to perform the hot single for UPROXX Sessions, he did so solo, proving that he’s got what it takes to carry the performance all on his own. He may have had an unconventional entry to stardom, but he’s working hard to prove he belongs.

Watch DDG’s UPROXX Sessions performance of “Moonwalking In Calabasas” above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

Billie Eilish has always worked with her brother Finneas as her songwriting partner. For her new Rosalía collaboration “Lo Vas A Olvidar,” though, her entire family got involved.

In a new interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Eilish explained how she came up with the song’s final line, “You say it to me like it’s something I have any choice in / If I wasn’t important, then why would you waste all your poison?” She told Lowe that it emerged from a spur-of-the-moment family studio session:

“What’s funny is the way that we wrote it was the whole song was done, except we needed this last line. This was a period of quarantine where every Friday, we had a family dinner and a movie night, which got old pretty quick [laughs]. But it was a good one, and we had dinner, we watched a movie, and then we were like, ‘You guys want to hear this Rosalía song we’ve been working on?’ So my mom, my dad, Finneas, me, Finneas’ girlfriend Claudia, we all came down to the studio, and we listened, and me and Finneas were like, ‘Should we just write this line right now?’ So I was sitting in the room with my entire family. All of us, including my dad and my mom, they were like, ‘What if it was like…’ We were all giving ideas. So technically, they should have a writing credit, because we all wrote that line right at the end.”

Watch more from the interview below.

Joe Biden’s inauguration Wednesday featured a show-stopping rendition of the National Anthem by Lady Gaga and a medley of “America The Beautiful” and “This Land Is Your Land” by Jennifer Lopez. But all eyes were also on the 22-year-old poet Amanda Gorman, who recited her moving poem “The Hill We Climb.” Gorman’s words won over the hearts of viewers everywhere, including producer Rostam, who was so captivated by the poet’s words that he transformed them into a touching piano ballad.

Alongside the new song, Rostam explained how he wrote the composition. “I was deeply moved by Amanda Gorman’s poem this morning,” he wrote. “I went to my studio and improvised three piano takes while listening back to the speech. The following video is take two in its entirety.”

Not only is Gorman a recent Harvard grad, but she was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate and also the youngest inaugural poet in US history. “The Hill We Climb” was penned while Gorman watched the Capitol building insurrection unfold before her eyes earlier this month. Throughout her prose, Gorman addresses white supremacy and the truths we as a country must reconcile in order to arrive at a collective healing.

Listen to Rostam’s “The Hill We Climb” improvisation above.

New head coach press conferences in the NFL are the ultimate environment for Football Guys to be Football Guys, and there is no better example than the description given about the Lions’ identity by new head coach Dan Campbell, who quite vividly went detail by detail about how Detroit will out-tough their opponents on the football field.

“When you punch us back, we’re going to smile at you,” Campbell told reporters. “And when you knock us down, we’re going to get up, and on the way up, we’re going to bite a kneecap off, alright?”

Campbell either put a lot of thought into how to describe how that process will play out or is just really imaginative when it comes to the role that knees play in metaphorical football fights. Either way, the dialogue was certainly something that Lions fans won’t forget anytime soon.

For Campbell, it seems to be all in good fun, as the longtime Saints and Dolphins assistant just truly leans into being a Football Guy in all capacities of life. The sign outside his new office names him as the head coach but also “The Dude” in a nod to Jeff Bridges’ character in The Big Lebowski.

While Matt Patricia brought his own ideas about toughness and backward hats to the Lions’ organization, Campbell wants to set the precedent early that Detroit will be known for scrapping under his watch.

The Philadelphia Eagles became the last team to join the coaching carousel in the NFL this season after firing coach Doug Pederson after a 4-11-1 season that saw quarterback controversy and a very strange final game that many cried foul about Philly purposefully tanking (which upset the Giants who needed an Eagles win to make the playoffs).
On Thursday, Philly’s coaching search came to its conclusion as they became the sixth team to find a new head coach, tabbing Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni to come in and turn things around.

There have been rumblings that one of the chief priorities for the Eagles new coach is to be open to trying to resurrect Carson Wentz’s career after a disastrous 2020 that saw him get benched for rookie Jalen Hurts. The Eagles are heavily committed to Wentz financially and while ownership has insisted its not their job to dictate who plays quarterback, we all know that isn’t necessarily true. We’ll find out as this offseason transpires if that is indeed the case, because if Wentz is still on the roster come training camp, one can assume Sirianni was on board with trying to work him back into the fold.

The 39-year-old was previously a receivers coach in Kansas City and San Diego (and briefly a quarterbacks coach with the Chargers) before joining the Colts in 2018 as offensive coordinator. Indianapolis has been top 10 twice (2018 and 2020) in yards per play under Sirianni, with a rough 2019 following the sudden retirement of Andrew Luck.

The other headline out of this hire is that Sirianni is the fifth white coach hired this cycle out of six — Robert Saleh in New York is the lone exception — and for a league that has promised to make strides with regards to hiring practices and making the coaching ranks more diverse, particularly coming out of 2020, this hasn’t exactly been a banner hiring cycle. The name on everyone’s mind this season was Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, who remains a target for the Texans (but it remains to be seen if that’s a job he would want given the turmoil there). That all but one team have moved on with hires before having the chance to bring in Bieniemy will surely be a topic of conversation and something the league is going to have to reconcile with.