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Tom Brady is headed to his 10th Super Bowl on Sunday when his Buccaneers play a home game in Tampa against the reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs, led by Patrick Mahomes. It is a battle between two quarterbacks with very different styles, as Brady is among the last of the prototypical pocket passers of yesteryear and Mahomes is the prototype for the next generation of superstar quarterbacks, with a rocket for an arm, precision accuracy, and mobility that allows him to extend plays.

Eli Manning is quite familiar with seeing Brady in the Super Bowl, as he and the Giants went a perfect 2-0 in big game showdowns with Brady and the Patriots in 2007 and 2011. The recently-retired Manning will enjoy watching Brady and Mahomes go at it from the comfort of his home. Before that, he spoke with Uproxx Sports this week on behalf of Frank’s RedHot about the two QBs that will face off in Tampa, his own Super Bowl memories, and possibly dumping 100 gallons of hot sauce on TikTok star David Dobrik this week.

Super Bowl week is something you’ve experienced on a couple of occasions. When you look back on your Super Bowl experience is there anything that particularly stands out when you reflect on your two Super Bowls?

Yeah, I mean, I think there’s so many positive memories. The fact that you were there twice and you win both of ’em, I don’t have a bad memory or a bad experience with one. I think the week’s different than a normal week, just because for the last 20 weeks, you’ve basically had the same routine every week, Monday through Sunday, gameday. Now all of a sudden, except for Tampa who’s playing a home game basically, your schedule can be a little different. For me, it was all of a sudden that week you’re in Arizona for practice, you’re taking buses to practice. It’s a lot more bonding with the team on those bus rides, at night your family is not there all week so you’re having dinner with your buddies, just casual, and so I think you have a lot of great moments right there, just hanging out with your teammates all getting ready to play the biggest game of your life. There’s obviously a seriousness to that and a focus to it, but it’s still kind of a boys will be boys and when there’s time to relax and laugh we had a great crew of guys who knew how to flip that switch and never got too goofy, but like to laugh and be around each other during those bus rides after the day was done.

So all those, and also the celebration after the game when you walk into your party with your friends and family, and high school buddies and college buddies greet you. You kinda figure out that when you win a championship it’s not just the New York Giants and the owners and the fans, but everybody you played high school and college football with that didn’t get to go on to the next level, they’re winning a championship with you. And I promise you they celebrate like they just won a Super Bowl as well. So there’s a lot of great memories.

This year you’re partnered with Frank’s RedHot for The Big Pour to support Tackle Kids Cancer. How did that partnership come about and why is it so important to work with this organization in Tackle Kids Cancer for you?

Yeah, you know, it’s been a great relationship with Frank’s RedHot. We have a new commercial that’s out right now where I’m handling retirement and doing different activities and pouring Frank’s all over everything and using it in every activity I do. I got introduced to them at the beginning of the pandemic when Peyton was playing in the golf Match and I was on Twitter to tweet some heat towards him and attacking Brady when he was playing in that. I think Frank’s and their brand and their sense of humor matches up with mine, kind of a dry sense of humor. They take their business very serious but don’t take themselves very seriously though. And so I think it’s been a great relationship and they approached this idea of pouring 100 gallons of Frank’s RedHot on someone and I’m just glad I don’t have to get it poured on me.

But David Dobrik was willing to take the pour and it’s because it’s for charity and Tackle Kids Cancer, which has been a charity very close to me these past five years and dealing with that and helping out research and patient care programs. It’s been a great fit and hopefully the Big Pour — we’re trying to hit that 100,000 tweets with the hashtag #FranksBigPour coming up — and it should be pretty exciting. I have no idea how it’s gonna look or work out or go down, but it should be interesting to say the least.

You mention the commercial where you put Frank’s on everything, which is their slogan. What’s the strangest food that you put hot sauce on that folks might not think?

Nah, I think that’s the great thing about Frank’s is I don’t think there’s anything too strange you can put it on. Obviously the wings are great and I put it on my eggs, but I don’t know if there’s anything totally outrageous. I think anything’s acceptable and wouldn’t be frowned upon putting Frank’s on.

I want to get your thoughts on the game on Sunday and particularly these two quarterbacks, because they’re very different in terms of playing style but they’re two of the best we have in the league right now. Obviously Tom’s been doing it for a long time and somebody you know well, and then Patrick is the new guy coming up. When you look at their games what are the things that stand out the most when you watch those two?

You know, I think they have a similar quality and it’s hard to put a finger on, but that “it” quality where at the critical moment of the game they seem to be able to raise their level of play that much more. And they get that much more focused or make that key throw, make that key play. So the moment is never too big for them and I think you just see it over and over again. Patrick through the playoffs last year, Tom Brady through his whole career and other championships. So it’s a matter of, this game, it could be a high scoring game throughout the entire game — you never know how it’s going to play out — but I can tell you in the fourth quarter both teams will be scoring, because those quarterbacks will know it’s crunch time and each drive in that fourth quarter is so important to get points to try and either take a lead or extend a lead.

So you just know there’s going to be a lot of fireworks going on in that fourth quarter of the game.

And they both have Super Bowl experience. How does that change your approach going from your first Super bowl into a second Super Bowl because you know that extra stuff like how the routine changes and a better understanding of the magnitude of everything?

Yeah, I think, well, I know one thing, that winning a championship does not make you content. You’re not like, “Oh, I’ve done it all.” It is a feeling and a high that you can’t replicate, and you want to have that feeling again. You want that feeling that you are the world champion. That you get to hoist up the Lombardi Trophy. That you get to celebrate, you get that ring. Those are just feelings that you can’t replicate in other ways, so it makes you want to do it and take advantage of that opportunity. So I don’t think either team will be distracted or think that it’s going to be automatic.

They both know the challenge ahead of them and the opponent they’re playing is worthy of being in this situation and being in this game, so I think they’ll both come out ready to play.

Windy City rap upstart Polo G is barely old enough to buy himself an alcoholic drink, but that didn’t stop him from buying his mom a house bigger than his. The “Pop Out” rapper boasted of his accomplishment on Twitter, adding a sobbing emoji to underline the poignant nature of the moment.

Meanwhile, his mom Stacia Mac went a step further — as proud parents tend to do — showing off the house on Instagram. Mac, who is also Polo’s manager, posted a detailed explanation of the promise he made to her at the outset of his rap career. “He promised he’d create a life for our family free of struggle and/or lack,” she wrote, expressing her approval of him delivering on that promise. “September 2020. Today my son purchased my dream home! I showed him the home and he didn’t flinch. His response was ‘What you need?’”

She continued, “To say I’m appreciative is an understatement. Thank you, son! Thank you for being a man of your word. Thank you for giving me things, that at times, I was unable to provide you or myself. I love you and I’m eternally grateful.” She also thanked the realtor, with whom she took a commemorative photo that she also shared in the slideshow.

Mac previously told DJBooth she’d given her son an ultimatum about his rap career — either make it big in a year or go to college. He was able to secure his major-label deal in less than a year, and now, just two years later, purchase both himself and his mom homes far from the Chicago trenches he raps about. Don’t be surprised if his follow-up to The GOAT sounds way different. Check out his celebratory post for his own home purchase below.

After vowing to take a Twitter break on Tuesday, Elon Musk lasted less than 24 hours before returning to tweet one word early Thursday morning: “Doge.” The tweet refers to the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which originally started as a joke, but is now a viable contender in the crypto market. As GameStop stocks began their descent following a coordinated buying frenzy by Reddit traders, talk began swirling around Dogecoin becoming the next big thing to take investors “to the moon,” and that prediction may be true. After Musk tweeted “Doge,” the price of the coin immediately took off and has nearly tripled in the hours since. Via The Guardian:

Dogecoin, which uses a shiba inu dog meme as its logo, was started in 2013 as a joke, after the invention of bitcoin prompted a wave of imitator cryptocurrencies. However, the joke caught on, and the coins had a market value of $6.3bn (£4.6bn) on Thursday morning, according to Coinmarketcap.com, a cryptocurrency data provider.

The value of a single coin rose to $0.05204 that Thursday morning, up by almost three cents in 24 hours. The volume of trading more than tripled over the course of the day.

Clearly, Musk noticed the activity that his first tweet caused, and it didn’t take long before he began leaning into the attention with memes and more endorsements of Dogecoin. (And, yes, that is Musk’s face photoshopped into The Lion King.)

However, it should be noted that Musk tweeted about Dogecoin last weekend, which saw the price rise before dropping sharply. So as with any investment, buyer beware.

(Via The Guardian)

Olivia Rodrigo is still riding the wave from her breakout single “Drivers License,” but she’s starting to think about the future. For example, if Taylor Swift’s wishes come true, Rodrigo could end up working with Swift’s Folklore and Evermore collaborator Aaron Dessner.

In a new Nylon profile, Rodrigo said, “I don’t even know if I’m supposed to be saying this, but I think it’s fine. Somebody told me that Aaron Dessner said that Taylor talks to him about me. And Taylor said that Aaron has to work with me because she loves my music and she thinks that it’s going to be big.”

The singer says she has about eight songs she’s happy with, and in her mind, she already has a vision for her eventual album:

Elsewhere in the piece, Rodrigo said she’s not sure what’s next for her musically, but she has an idea of what she wants her debut album to sound like: “I want it to be super versatile. My dream is to have it be an intersection between mainstream pop, folk music, and alternative rock. I love the songwriting and the lyricism and the melodies of folk music. I love the tonality of alt-rock. Obviously, I’m obsessed with pop and pop artists. So I’m going to try and take all of my sort of influences and inspirations and kind of make something that I like.”

Check out the full feature here.

One of the best ways to tell an artist is a bonafide superstar is by their brand looks. Although hip-hop comes from the streets, you know a rapper’s made it when they’re doing Super Bowl ads for huge national brands like Rockstar, Inc. (makers of the energy drink, not the video game developers). Cardi B and Lil Nas X have already appeared in ads themselves, and they’re two of the genre’s most recognizable acts. With those criteria in mind, it certainly looks like Lil Baby, who was called the best rapper of 2021 by multiple outlets, is now a superstar.

“I wasn’t born in the spotlight,” he says in the 30-second spot. “I had to grind to shine… something about the struggle now resides in my muscles.” While Baby himself only appears in the commercial for a few seconds, he narrates the ad straight through as the camera takes in a skater practicing his tricks, a fashion designer finishing off a dress, and a producer clicking through tracks on his desktop. “Real stars don’t chase the spotlight,” Lil Baby declares toward the end. “It chases them.”

The spotlight certainly chased Lil Baby over the past year — even when he didn’t want it to. The Atlanta rapper had the best selling album of 2020, beating out Taylor Swift for the honor, but also received attention for the recognition he didn’t acquire at several major awards shows, including the AMAs and the Grammys. He also became a reluctant figurehead of the summer uprisings thanks to his song “The Bigger Picture,” prompting him to take a step back from political or social commentary.

Watch Lil Baby’s first Super Bowl ad above.

Around this time last year, Tool leader Maynard James Keenan was dealing with the effects of the coronavirus, as he revealed in October. Now, he says he is once again recovering from COVID-19, as he got it a second time.

He spoke about it with Apple Music’s Strombo yesterday, revealing that he contracted the disease in mid-November and found himself in the ER in December. He described the situation:

“Ugly, ugly. Couldn’t breathe. I could barely put two words together without going into a coughing fit, you know? It ended up kind of also progressing into pneumonia. So, if I stayed in the hospital, they said, ‘OK, we can keep you here, but you’re fighting 12 other people for a bed and a ventilator we don’t have, so what do you want to do?’ I’m like, ‘Well, I need to breathe and I need to sleep.’ So, you’re just treating symptoms at that point. There’s nothing you can do other than treat the symptom, so for a real cough medicine – not the crap over-the-counter [medicine] – and then like an inhaler and some antibiotics to fight the pneumonia, and strap the f*ck in.”

Listen to the full Apple Music interview with Keenan here.

Now that Donald Trump is out of office and they can no longer complain about the media being unfair to the president, conservative pundits have taken up “cancel culture” as their new favorite topic. It’s at least 75 percent of what Tucker Carlson spews about every night. Tomi Lahren, Fox Nation’s most meltdown-prone host, also frequently discusses cancel culture and how it’s the [checks notes] most deadly threat to America?

“The most deadly and un-American threat to this country and our freedom is this rampant and rabid cancel culture. We don’t give grace anymore, we rush to cut people off at the knees and ruin their lives all for some sick twisted 5 mins of satisfaction. It’s wrong & it has to stop,” Lahren tweeted. She quickly followed that by what I assume is her bumper sticker: “Cancel Cancel Culture.” Wow. Really makes you think.

Lahren continued, “Does ripping away everything from someone do anything to advance anything for anybody? Or is this just another cheap thrill for the woke keyboard crowd? A trophy for the cancel culture mob? A feather in the hat of self-righteous jerks who take pleasure in misery/downfall of others?” Based on the timing of her tweets, the “someone” Lahren is referring to could be country star Morgan Wallen, whose record label dropped him after he was caught on video using a racial slur. Or maybe she’s speaking generally. Either way, Lahren would never support a president who loves to cancel people. Oh wait.

Also, pretty sure there are other, more deadly threats than cancel culture out there.

Cardi B makes no secret of her past as a stripper in various New York clubs before her time as an international rap superstar. Well, it turns out she hasn’t left that life completely behind after “retiring her G-string,” so to speak. Cardi dusted off an in-home stripper pole and her requisite dance skills to join in on the TikTok trend known as the #SilhouetteChallenge.

As you can see, she actually puts a lot of effort into her video, making the transition cut in motion as she spins around on the pole with her hair pinned up in a nightgown. The “silhouette” portion of the video doesn’t show much we haven’t seen before — this week, in fact, when she posted the racy cover to her forthcoming single “Up” — but it’s an impressive entry, especially for someone who believes “It’s so hard to do tiktoks,” as she put it in the caption.

She also won the approval of her commenters, including Doja Cat, whose song “Streets” is used for the filtered half of the challenge’s videos. “Streets” made the jump all the way to No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 thanks to the trend, and Doja no doubt appreciates Cardi’s “exquisite” contribution to her impressive streaming totals. Doja also finally jumped on the trend herself, as well.

Watch Cardi B’s “Silhouette Challenge” video above.

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

The shortest track from Vampire Weekend’s 2019 album Father Of The Bride is “2021,” which clocks in at 1 minute and 38 seconds. Now, though, the group has given the brief song some extra attention with their new project, 40:42, which includes two reimaginings of the song that are each 20 minutes and 21 seconds long.

Vampire Weekend recruited jazz saxophonist Sam Gendel and jam band Goose to help them out, tasking them with making new versions of the songs that run for the specified length. Sure enough, Gendel’s rendition is a spaced-out and jazzy affair while Goose takes things in the jammy direction that Vampire Weekend have flirted with in recent years.

This is the first new release in a few months from Vampire Weekend, who released the Live From Florida EP back in mid-2020. Meanwhile, Brandon Flowers of The Killers recently admitted that Father Of The Bride inspired his band to put their all into their latest album, Imploding The Mirage. He said, “That really helped to propel us into the right direction and realize that we couldn’t just phone in The Killers’ record. We had to do better. I told Ezra [Koenig] that. I’m grateful for people like him.”

Watch both performances above and stream 40:42 below.

To promote her return to the MCU in the Disney+ series WandaVision, Kat Dennings has been doing the interview rounds and telling some great stories in the process. While stopping by the “Just for Variety” podcast, Dennings opened up about her worst audition, which involved being in the same room as a major star for an Oscar-nominated film, but she noticed something was off when the actor refused to touch her. Before being convinced to reveal that the actor was Nicolas Cage, Dennings recalled the very awkward experience of basically miming her way through the audition. Via Variety:

“I have everything memorized. I’m ready to get into like the physicality of the scene, but I realized pretty quick that that actor is not going to touch me. He’s also not going to be near me. He was at the other end of the room, which seemed to be his choice, which I was like I’m going to be miming this. So a scene where I am asking to be let go of and physically wriggling out of this man’s grip became a mining session. But I understand and I respect that the actor made that decision. But at the time, it was not great because I was like, ‘I look like an absolute moron.’ I’m not getting this.

Despite being forced to mime the scene, Dennings has no hard feelings towards Cage. In fact, she actually spoke to him after the audition, which was a highlight of her career, and she respects that he didn’t feel comfortable man-handling a young actress in an audition. “I’m a young girl so he didn’t want to physically touch me and make me uncomfortable,” Dennings said. “I appreciate it. I really do.”

(Via Variety)