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TMZ reports Dr. Dre is still in the intensive care unit a week after being admitted. Doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center still don’t know why Dr. Dre had a brain aneurysm a week ago and are running a battery of tests to determine the cause, lest Dre suffer another one. Dre projected that he’d be on his way home soon in his first post to social media after the initial news broke, but it looks like the real doctors wanted a second opinion.

In the meantime, Dre has received a wave of support from his fellow artists, who posted numerous messages expressing their well-wishes and asking fans to pray for the rap music pioneer. Unfortunately, not everyone was so altruistic when it came to Dre’s recent medical setback. Police arrested four individuals who apparently tried to break into Dre’s home in Brentwood while he was away after staking out the neighborhood thanks to some other recent thefts in the area.

Dre had an up-and-down 2020 before suffering his brain aneurysm, as his wife of 24 years, Nicole Young, filed for divorce after Dre’s seminal 1992 album The Chronic was included in the Library of Congress and he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2020 Grammys.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Jazmine Sullivan. The Philly singer’s name alone is enough to unearth more than a decade of soul-capturing high notes and euphoric ballads. Her talent and remarkable, yet criminally underrated career can be placed into the “if you know, you know” and “what’s understood doesn’t need to be explained” boxes. She’s a treasure to the R&B world, and truthfully, it’s on you if you’ve traversed the world without stumbling onto her in some way. Closed mouths don’t get fed and closed ears miss out on the truth and that’s exactly what Sullivan is for this genre. Despite all the flowers she’s worthy of and received, Sullivan gives fans another chance to throw a few more roses onstage with her latest project, Heaux Tales.

Five long years have passed since Sullivan graced us with a release. A passionate anthem that called for a newly-unwrapped love to be lit ablaze was one of the many offerings her 2015 Reality Show album delivered to her fans. Nowadays, Jazmine lets the misogynistic labels from men burn to ashes as she and her fellow ladies stand tall and proud in their pool of sexual liberation. Heaux Tales presents a track record of men entering and exiting Sullivan’s life, a recurrence she accepts with no shame because what exactly is there to be ashamed of?

It could be the frequent occurrences of her late-night rendezvous, something Sullivan ponders seconds into the album. “I keep on pilin’ up bodies on bodies on bodies,” she sings with a tone of mild self-frustration on “Bodies” before adding, “Yeah, you gettin’ sloppy, girl.” Moments later these concerns are drowned out by the moans of satisfaction and pleasure she lets out on “Put It Down.” She may have debated her sexual activity on the intro all to praise her next man’s stroke game and how it altered her behavior just a few songs later, but it doesn’t make either less representative of the liberation she carries on the album. In both cases, it’s her right to think and do as she pleases without the condemnation or thirst-driven approval a man may have to offer.

Heaux Tales presents moments of freedom that, as a listener, you can’t help but appreciate. With the support of Ari Lennox, who proclaimed that “d*ck spoke life into me” at one instance of her life, the two songstresses float on a dream cloud towards sensual eruption on “On It.” The song is taunting, provoking, and inviting, but the ticket to experience any of that comes with a sizable fee. You can be a part of Sullivan’s Heaux Tales but not without at least paying the bare minimum price of the reciprocated energy or the more fulfilling one that sees the dominant role assumed and played out to the singer’s satisfaction. “Pricetags” follows a similar sentiment, where this time around, money is what “keeps the p*ssy wet” according to Sullivan. After all, it ain’t trickin’ if you got it right?

As liberating as moments on Sullivan’s latest release can be, Heaux Tales shows men can be toyed with, bought, and sent away with no remorse just as much as they proclaim to with women and more than they’re willing to admit. “Pick Up Your Feelings” drills her former lover with the same deafening punch of unforgiveness that Sullivan hoped to overcome on “Lost One,” but luckily for her where there’s one man, they’ll be another to fill the void. As she says herself on “The Other Side,” “I’m hoping these t*tties can get me out the city / I know I’m too pretty to not do nothing with it.” The options are neverending, so altering her ways for one person when there’s a sea of others who will accept them grants power and a boost in confidence to a party that is far from worthy of it. Sullivan isn’t here to declare herself as the epitome of perfection. She sees her flaws, but they all lay within a skin she wears as she pleases for herself, and no one else.

In a world where women are surveilled for their sexual activity and sex workers are looked down upon by the very people who lust over them behind close doors — or even pay for their services — Sullivan’s Heaux Tales casts a light on the goalpost-shifting standards of this patriarchal society. Her stories are held up by similar accounts from five other women, an inclusion that smashes any claims of “projection” on Sullivan’s part. For example, while “Ari’s Tale” appears to be another example of the Shea Butter Baby singer’s eccentric ways, she concludes her anecdote by repeating a line that serves as the album’s foundation. “This is my truth.” That’s all Heaux Tales is for Sullivan, her truth, her story, and a very real account of how she and women all over the world feel in a society ruled by man. The music is elegant and the project’s construction is flawless. Just one week into 2021, Ms. Jazmine Sullivan graced us with an undeniable moment that will be remembered at the end of the year and years to come for a project that carries the characteristics to be labeled a classic in the future.

Heaux Tales is out now via RCA. Get it here.

The NBA’s effort to press on through the 2020-21 season has hit a rather significant snag in recent days as the number of COVID-19 cases in the league have spiked and, in turn, the number of players in the health and safety protocols both for positive tests and contact tracing has increased significantly.

On Sunday, the Celtics were set to bring eight eligible players to Miami to face the Heat, but that game became the second to be postponed this season after Miami had a contact tracing issue that kept them from getting to the minimum 8-man roster. On Monday, the third and fourth postponements of the season arrived as the Dallas Mavericks — who were set to bring Kristaps Porzingis back into the lineup — and New Orleans Pelicans game was postponed due to Dallas’ COVID-19 issues, and the Celtics-Bulls game on Tuesday was pushed due to Boston’s problems.

The Mavs had to close their facility on Sunday after another positive test, reportedly by Maxi Kleber, while already down three players — Josh Richardson, Jalen Brunson, and Dorian Finney-Smith — after one of those three tested positive on Friday. Contact tracing from Kleber apparently didn’t add any players to the COVID-19 list, which Tim MacMahon of ESPN reports means five new players, at least, were added for other reasons on Monday.

Boston was already at the minimum of eight, so any more additions to the COVID-19 list would have dipped them under that number.

In the league’s release on the postponements, they note that they will be meeting with the NBPA to discuss changes to the league protocols, which one has to wonder exactly what that means. With four postponements already and the situation seemingly spiraling out of control around the NBA, how they proceed will be critical to their ability to get through this season, because clearly what is happening right now is not working.

The NBA’s effort to press on through the 2020-21 season has hit a rather significant snag in recent days as the number of COVID-19 cases in the league have spiked and, in turn, the number of players in the health and safety protocols both for positive tests and contact tracing has increased significantly.

On Sunday, the Celtics were set to bring eight eligible players to Miami to face the Heat, but that game became the second to be postponed this season after Miami had a contact tracing issue that kept them from getting to the minimum 8-man roster. On Monday, the third and fourth postponements of the season arrived as the Dallas Mavericks — who were set to bring Kristaps Porzingis back into the lineup — and New Orleans Pelicans game was postponed due to Dallas’ COVID-19 issues, and the Celtics-Bulls game on Tuesday was pushed due to Boston’s problems.

The Mavs had to close their facility on Sunday after another positive test, reportedly by Maxi Kleber, while already down three players — Josh Richardson, Jalen Brunson, and Dorian Finney-Smith — after one of those three tested positive on Friday. Contact tracing from Kleber apparently didn’t add any players to the COVID-19 list, which Tim MacMahon of ESPN reports means five new players, at least, were added for other reasons on Monday.

Boston was already at the minimum of eight, so any more additions to the COVID-19 list would have dipped them under that number.

In the league’s release on the postponements, they note that they will be meeting with the NBPA to discuss changes to the league protocols, which one has to wonder exactly what that means. With four postponements already and the situation seemingly spiraling out of control around the NBA, how they proceed will be critical to their ability to get through this season, because clearly what is happening right now is not working.

Concerts may be able to make a comeback this year, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who cautiously suggested that some venues could reopen this fall. However, the US Chief Medical Adviser warns that the return of live entertainment hinges on an effective vaccine rollout.

On Saturday, during a virtual conference held by the Association of Performing Arts Professionals reported by The New York Times, Dr. Fauci explained that the return of the lifeblood of the music industry depends upon the US reaching a vaccination threshold of 70 to 85 percent of the population. He also warned that masks would likely be a requirement for the foreseeable future.

“If everything goes right, this is will occur sometime in the fall of 2021,” Dr. Fauci said, “So that by the time we get to the early to mid-fall, you can have people feeling safe performing onstage as well as people in the audience.” That’s good news for the arts, as performers, tech crew, and other industry professionals have lost an estimated $14.8 billion according to a survey by Americans for the Arts, a national advocacy group.

Of course, in many locations throughout the country, venues have flouted safety regulations to host shows by DaBaby, Mulatto, and others. However, with the US’s vaccine distribution behind schedule, Fauci advised caution, recommending that perhaps venues could require audience members to provide negative test results in order to gain admittance, while also doing more studies on the impact of concerts and performances on the coronavirus’s spread.

Ultimately, he encouraged viewers that, “We’ll be back in the theaters — performers will be performing, audiences will be enjoying it.” “It will happen,” he said — even if it doesn’t quite happen as soon as he projects.

Before creating The Boys, prolific comic book writer Garth Ennis delivered some of the most brutal and memorable The Punisher stories of the past 20 years. But much like the Punisher’s original creator, Ennis is not a fan of Frank Castle’s skull logo being used by cops and, more recently, Trump supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol building last week. When asked about the Punisher logo popping up during the MAGA coup, Ennis blasted anyone who are misunderstanding the Frank Castle character and co-opting his symbol without truly thinking about his message.

“Nobody wants to pull three tours of duty in a combat zone with the last one going catastrophically wrong, come home with a head full of broken glass, see their families machine-gunned into bloody offal in front of their eyes and then dedicate the rest of their lives to cold, bleak, heartless slaughter,” Ennis said before tearing into the MAGA insurrectionists. Via SyFy:

“The people wearing the logo in this context are kidding themselves, just like the police officers who wore it over the summer,” he added. “What they actually want is to wear an apparently scary symbol on a T-shirt, throw their weight around a bit, then go home to the wife and kids and resume everyday life. They’ve thought no harder about the Punisher symbol than the halfwits I saw [on Wednesday], the ones waving the Stars & Stripes while invading the Capitol building.”

Frank Castle’s original creator, Gerry Conway, took a more active approach to denouncing the use of the Punisher skull by police officers during last summer’s protests and encouraged young artists to repurpose the logo into a symbol for Black Lives Matter. Punisher star John Bernthal has also been vocally opposed to seeing the skull twisted into a symbol of the far-right, and he had very blunt words when asked about it by Esquire: “F*ck them.”

(Via SyFy)

Donald Trump was recently banned from Twitter, setting off a chain reaction of multiple sites also blocking the would-be tyrant from several other services, including Facebook, Reddit, Spotify, and YouTube. The flurry of reactive bans caused Freddie Gibbs, one of hip-hop’s most notable Twitter users, to troll the failed casino owner, joking that “Fam can’t even use the internet.” However, Freddie had a few suggestions amid the trolling — ones we all deeply hope the disgraced meat salesman isn’t desperate enough to consider.

Freddie had a field day roasting Donald Trump, flaming him for getting banned from even Pornhub. “N**** can’t even beat his meat,” Freddie laughed. He also wondered how the wannabe strongman would get around without a Presidential motorcade after January 20. “I wonder if Trump can still get a Uber,” he mused.

After cracking that he needed Trump to log off with a popular Simpsons meme altered to add a despondent-looking Donald, he did offer some advice — although for the good of society, let’s all hope that DJT missed it in the rush. “F*ck it,” Freddie guffawed, posting a photoshopped picture of a nude Trump at the beach with the OnlyFans logo. The implication that Trump should start an account on one of the few platforms that hadn’t yet preemptively banned him is impossible to miss — and there are certainly those who’d sign up to see more missives from the former game show host — it’d probably be in the public’s best interest for him to remain logged off for the foreseeable future.

CBS has unveiled the first trailer for its upcoming series Clarice, a direct sequel to The Silence of the Lambs that follows FBI agent Clarice Starling (Rebecca Breeds) as she navigates her newfound reputation as the nation’s top serial killer investigator. Judging by the trailer, Clarice isn’t exactly fond of the increased attention that comes from saving a senator’s daughter from the deranged “Buffalo Bill,” who was fashioning a coat of human skin from his victims’ bodies. Clarice’s colleagues in law enforcement aren’t fans of her increased fame either and seem determine to push back against her methods despite her success capturing Bill.

Here’s the official synopsis:

Set one year after the events of The Silence of the Lambs, join Agent Clarice Starling in this new psychological thriller that takes a deep dive into her untold personal story. The series will bring you along as she returns to the field in pursuit of serial murderers and sexual predators while navigating the high stakes political world of Washington, D.C.

On top of the challenge of operating in the shadow of Jodie Foster who brought Clarice Starling to life in the classic film, the series will also have the additional obstacle of not referencing Hannibal Lecter. Considering Lecter played a pivotal role in the capture of Buffalo Bill and was a significant character in The Silence of the Lambs, it will be interesting to see how the showrunners tip-toe around his absence without it being a distraction to fans of the original film.

Clarice premieres February 11 on CBS and CBS All Access.

(Via CBS)

The Dallas Mavericks came into the 2020-21 season as one of the teams many expected to take a step forward. That’s in large part due to the presence of preseason MVP favorite Luka Doncic entering his third season and the expectation that with a slightly retooled roster around him, the Mavs would be among the top contenders in the West.

Thus far, the Mavs have treaded water to the tune of a 5-4 record that’s included some incredible highs (a 51-point win over the Clippers) and rather stunning lows (losses to Charlotte and Chicago). Their middling record is due largely to an offense that has taken a step back, going from a historically good group a year ago to the 15th best offense in the league, per NBA Stats.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why the Mavs offense has fallen off from last year’s pace as they’ve played their first nine games without the services of their second star, Kristaps Porzingis. A year ago, Porzingis averaged just north of 20 points per game and gives this offense such a unique dynamic when he’s on the floor that simply can’t quite be replicated no matter the combination of players Rick Carlisle throws out there. The good news for Dallas is that Porzingis is making his return on Monday night when they play host to the Pelicans after being cleared from rehab from offseason knee surgery, per Shams Charania of The Athletic.

One would expect the Mavs to continue being cautious with Porzingis, given he’s had lingering knee problems for some time, but even if he’s sitting out back-to-backs, his presence is going to provide a major boost to this Mavs offense and we’ll see if they can ride that to a bit of a jump up the standings.

Phase Four of the MCU is finally upon us, comic book fans. Granted, this was already supposed to have happened with Black Widow, but we all know what happened there (no need to rehash). Now the MCU is set to get very weird, very fast with WandaVision, which will send the galaxy-crossed lovers rip-roaring ride through decades before turning into a full-on action affair. Paul Bettany recently confirmed that last detail to Jimmy Kimmel, who expressed disappointment at not seeing a screener before he talked to the Vision actor. In other words, Marvel Studios still fiercely guards secrecy, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t guess what happens. And we can certainly hope for certain developments while the show dances through homages to The Dick Van Dyke Show and the like. Obviously, this approach is nothing like we’ve seen even from the strangest of Doctor Strange vibes. It’s entirely unlike the MCU as we know it, and thank goodness for that because we could use a shake-up after the 23-film long Infinity Saga.

The endgame (pun fully intended here) of this show remains nebulous, but it will begin with Wanda and Vision landing in the town of Westview, where they’ll set about living picture-perfect lives in suburbia. They’ll soon realize that everything isn’t as it seems, and along the way, the duo will be joined by a nosy, overbearing neighbor played by Kathryn Hahn and these players from the MCU: (1) Kat Dennings, reprising the role of scientist Darcy Lewis, who she played in multiple Thor Movies; (2) Randall Park, returning as FBI agent Jimmy Woo from Ant-Man And The Wasp; and (3) Teyonah Parris, who’s new in acting for the MCU but will play the grown version of Captain Marvel‘s Monica Rambeau, who might become Captain Marvel one day.

What else can we expect from WandaVision? A whole lot of unexpectedness, and of course, we’re only a few short days away from the show’s Disney+ premiere, so let’s get down with a wish list.

1. Elevate Wanda To Her Rightful Place: Nothing against Vision here, but it’s actually kind-of amazing how Wanda Maximoff busted into the MCU during Age Of Ultron as more powerful than any existing Avenger, yet her powers were subsequently downplayed. There were still little hints here and there, but Wanda’s badassery was largely forgotten until she vengefully faced off against Thanos during the Avengers: Endgame final battle. Kevin Feige recently confirmed to the New York Film Academy that the moment does matter (a lot) in his mind. “I think it’s interesting, if you look at Endgame, Wanda Maximoff was going to kill Thanos,” Feige pointed out. “That’s as scared as I’ve ever seen Thanos, and if he hadn’t said, ‘Decimate my entire team to get her off of me,’ I think she would have done it.”

So, I’m looking forward to Wanda getting her due in this Disney+ show, even if it takes awhile. WandaVision‘s nine-episode run will immediately be followed by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but more than likely, these shows will not resemble each other much, in structure or in theme. The same goes for having much to do with Black Widow, since that movie takes place in between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. It does seem likely, however, that the events of WandaVision might set up a few upcoming MCU movies, including Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (and probably the next Spider-Man movie, since Strange will be a Tony Stark-esque mentor to Peter Parker), and I mention Strange specifically because Elizabeth Olsen will be reprising her Wanda-game for that movie. I’m hoping that Wanda goes full-fledged Scarlet Witch and is finally hailed as the most super of MCU superheroes.

2. Definitively Answer The “Is-He-Or-Isn’t-He Alive?” Question: This one might be a no-brainer to answer, but yeah, I’d like to know how the heck they’re going to explain Vision being in this show after he died in Endgame. It feels like time-travel will figure into the explanation, since that’s obviously on the MCU table after the Ant-Man movies and Endgame, and WandaVision will jump through decades, at least, in the TV-homage sense. Is there something deeper going on, though?

It’s entirely possible that Vision’s presence might actually be down to a distraught Wanda losing touch with reality and toting him back in time as a figment of her traumatized imagination. If that’s the case, Vision might not actually exist in WandaVision at all, right? And of course, I’m entirely speculating here, as well as gathering “evidence” from the fact that Paul Bettany is not listed in the cast for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Of course, that could be a ruse by Marvel Studios, who delights in f*cking with fans for the greater good: to avoid spoiling. I mean, c’mon, they flat out-erased Lebowski Thor from trailer footage like the total pros that they are. In other words, there’s no damn telling whether Vision is actually alive in this show or not, but I want an answer, please.

3. Tell Us What’s Really Going On With Those Babies:

Those baby twins that conspicuously appear in one of the show’s trailers probably aren’t simply a symptom of domestic bliss, regardless of whatever we find out (and it might be nothing) about Vision’s anatomy. Rather, the babies suggest that the series will dive into the comic book lore that sees Wanda descend into madness. This could prove tragic, since the comics detail Wanda’s fractured mental state that follows her pregnancy. Long story short, she essentially conjured these babies into existence, and what happens later causes her to go mad. It’s tragic, and dark, and it remains to be seen whether Disney+ will get as bleak as the comics do with those twins.

I do, however, suspect that what happens with Wanda and Vision in this show, no matter if Vision exists or survives or whatever in this series, will guide the MCU into a tonal shift. This will help set things up for viewers to question reality in the MCU and begin adjusting to all the wild possibilities that the Multiverse will bring next time Doctor Strange shows up. In other words, there’s no possible way to guess exactly where WandaVision will take viewers by season’s end. We could even get a little crossover action with X-Men, given that mutant vibes entered an early trailer, and Wanda is Magneto’s daughter in the comics. Again, the possibilities here are endless, and damn, it’s good to see some Marvel superheroes back in action again, right? Let’s settle in and get ready for what’s being forecast as the wildest ride so far in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Disney+’s ‘WandaVision’ will premiere on January 15.