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Travis Scott’s McDonald’s partnership went so well that the fast food giant had to alter the ordering process because they were continuously running out of ingredients. Following the collaboration’s immense success, McDonald’s decided to tap another superstar. J Balvin announced his McDonald’s partnership earlier this month and has now unveiled an exclusive line of McDonald’s merch, and it boasts some unusual items.

Balvin’s retro-inspired merch has some classic items like bucket hats and sweatshirts in the collection’s signature neon colorway. The line also features a handful of head-turning items such as sunglasses in the form of McDonald’s recognizable arches, a $90 water bottle, neon burger slippers, and a temporary tattoo that is just a receipt of Balvin’s go-to order.

Explaining the McDonald’s partnership in an interview with Complex, Balvin said: “I grew up with McDonald’s. I wasn’t born in the States, but since I was a kid, I was eating McDonald’s meals. When I had my very first chance to go to the States, it was like a dream to me, coming from Colombia to my first time having a McDonald’s meal. It’s those types of moments that connect with me as a child. And when they called me saying that they wanted to work with me, I immediately said yes because it connects with me and my childhood. I’ve always been a big fan. It’s crazy to have your own meal.”

Check out items from J Balvin’s McDonald’s merch collection below.

Despite being in a Bubble like the NBA, the WNBA this season partnered with career activists and politicians to draw attention to police brutality, voting, and census registration. At one point, the players used their platforms to advocate for specific political candidates.

In a detailed new story at The Athletic, Chantel Jennings outlined the decision made by a number of players to endorse Rev. Raphael Warnock in the U.S. Senate race in Georgia. Most know the backstory of incumbent Kelly Loeffler, a part-owner of the Atlanta Dream, and how she bashed the league aligning itself with the Black Lives Matter movement, but Jennings explains how leaders in the WNBA arranged a call to learn more about Warnock’s candidacy.

In consultation with (former Georgia state representative Stacey) Abrams and former WNBA commissioner Lisa Borders, players arranged a Zoom call with one of Loeffler’s Democratic opponents, Reverend Raphael Warnock, for July 27, two days after their 2020 season had started.

Warnock wasn’t really sure what to expect from the call. He had followed the emerging storylines in his Senate race with his Republican opponent and he wanted to express his support of the players in using their voices and platform.

So, he was a bit surprised when they began asking about his platform.

Was he an ally of the LGBTQ+ community? What life experiences helped shape his political viewpoints? What was his record on reproductive health issues? What were his thoughts on criminal justice and police reform?

Hearing about how Warnock had led protests against police shootings as a young man and worked for a non-profit dedicated to voting rights convinced players to fully endorse the candidate. The Dream and Phoenix Mercury wore t-shirts as they entered the arena for a nationally televised game in August that said “Vote Warnock.” Kurt Streeter of the New York Times has noted Warnock’s campaign raised an uncharacteristically high $236,000 the day the teams donned those shirts.

In response, Warnock praised the women of the league.

“They’re showing a lot of courage, because I think there’s a lot of pressure for athletes not to take these kinds of risks, and some have chosen not to,” Warnock said. “But I think they heard, coming from the owner of the team in a way that was just unacceptable, that you should just shut up and play, and all they were trying to do was express their solidarity for the human rights of every citizen. And they decided that it was important for them to stand up and say, ‘You may own the team, but nobody owns our voice, and nobody owns our vote.’ ”

Added Warnock:

“It’s not surprising to me that athletes who experience the intersectionality of oppression — race, gender and sexual orientation — would be leading the way in this regard. I think it’s the ways in which they experience marginalization in so many ways that gives them a unique perspective and, yet again, a kind of courage and voice that is really leading the way for other athletes.”

Recent polling shows Warnock now leading both Loeffler and fellow Republican Doug Collins in the special election for a seat in the U.S. Senate — he would not automatically get the seat if he wins November’s election, though, because if no one in that race receives at least 50 percent of the vote then the top-2 candidates, regardless of party, will move on to a run-off early next year.

Mulatto never does reveal what’s in the “Mulatto sauce” in her colorful “In N Out” video but the revelation apparently has some interesting effects on the counter clerk at Big Latto’s drive-in diner. Mulatto and guest rappers City Girls are flanked by a group of racy, roller-skating carhops while serving up confident, coquettish rhymes about their sexual and moneymaking prowess.

“In N Out” is the fourth single from Mulatto’s RCA Records debut album Queen of Da Souf, which was released August 21 after a week that saw her share lead single “Muwop” with Gucci Mane, cameo in Cardi B’s viral video for “WAP,” and appear on the 2020 XXL Freshman Class cover. She then shared the video for “Youngest N Richest” as well as one for “On God” before landing a spot on the remix to Chloe X Halle’s popular single “Do It” alongside City Girls and Doja Cat. City Girls previously collaborated with Doja Cat on their “P*ssy Talk” single from City On Lock.

Mulatto also made waves during the XXL Freshman Class cypher, when her flirtatious punchline about Fivio Foreign elicited a hilarious reaction from the man himself and caused the video to go viral on Twitter.

Watch Mulatto and City Girls’ “In N Out” video above.

Queen Of Da Souf is out now via RCA Records. Get it here.

Justin Vernon and his Eaux Claires festival previously launched the “For Wisconsin” initiative, where Vernon meets with contest winners to discuss voting and politics. Vernon posted a video of one of those meet-ups earlier this month, and it featured him performing a brand new song about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “Your Honor.” Now he has shared another video in the series, and this time, he premieres a new Big Red Machine song.

The track is “Latterdays,” and Vernon co-wrote it with Big Red Machine collaborator Aaron Dessner, as well as Anaïs Mitchell, who is known as a member of Bonny Light Horseman and for her Tony Award-winning Hadestown musical.

The performance came after a conversation between Vernon, a young progressive voter, and her undecided mother. Vernon prefaced the song by noting that Mitchell wrote the lyrics and explaining his interpretation of it: “To me, I think about what’s it going to feel like in the future when we look back and we wonder if we did enough.” Accompanying himself on a Neil Young-toned electric guitar, Vernon sings, “I recall it all forever / How it found us where we lay / With our arms around each other / in the latterdays, in the latterdays.”

Dessner also shared a note about the video, writing of the song, “It couldn’t be more moving and poignant in this time.”

Watch the video above.

HBO’s gearing up to begin filming (sometime in 2021) the Game Of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon, that focuses on House Targaryen (that will debut sometime in 2022). The series has already snagged a leading man, character actor Paddy Considine, who will be familiar to HBO viewers for his turns Stephen King’s The Outsider and the currently running The Third Day. Paddy and the rest of the cast will be filming in a surprising location, however, given that the prequel is departing from the main film location of the original series (Northern Ireland).

The prequel, which will take place about 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones, is poised to set up shop within England. More specifically, the show’s home base will be Watford’s Leavesden Studios, which is north of London and currently the home of Matt Reeves’ The Batman. The switchup was initially noticed by Winter Is Coming and confirmed by Entertainment Weekly, which points out that the prequel might have a drastically new look, considering that it takes place at least a considerable way into the past. A lot can change in a few hundred years. Heck, a lot can change in a year, as we know in real life.

Of course, there’s probably a good chance that House of the Dragon will be bouncing to other countries on occasion, depending how far they take the story outside of House Targaryen. It can’t all be bright white wigs and dragons, right? Actually, you know what? I’m fine with that. But hey, the weather in England will at least be more predictable than in Northern Ireland, and fewer production headaches is good for everyone these days.

(Via Entertainment Weekly & Winter Is Coming)

NLE Choppa has been going through a transformation in recent months. Back in September, the rapper announce he would stop rapping about violence in favor of a more pacifist career. Cementing his new peacemaker status, Choppa has announced his next record.

Choppa took to social media to share the news of his record From Dark To Light. The album’s cover art hints at Choppa’s new era of music, depicting the rapper seated in a meditative pose at the intersection of light and dark. The 11-track album is only a few weeks away from being released, debuting on the rapper’s November 1 birthday.

Last year, Choppa spoke to Uproxx about how he handled catapulting to success while still in high school. Offering his fans advice, Choppa said: “I love saying, just keep God first and just keep working. If you got a dream, pursue that dream. Whatever’s in your head, it don’t matter how impossible it seem, chase that sh*t because that’s what I did. It’s just doing numbers for me right now. […] Just being patient and let God work out problems. Work out everything, slowly. Patience is key pretty much. I still rush a lot of stuff but I’m thankful for my team and everybody around me. They help me value patience so I value patience a lot. From me being patient, I got the deal I wanted instead of the deal that’s a slave contract or some sh*t.”

From Dark To Light is out 11/1 via Warner Records. Pre-order it here.

NLE Choppa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

One defining characteristic about the Los Angeles Lakers during their run to a championship was how every player bought in to what Frank Vogel and co. wanted to do. As a result, L.A. was able to win the 17th championship in franchise history and seemed to have a blast doing it, with the team having a bench that celebrated like a 15-seed in the midst of a gigantic March Madness upset.

As Vogel explained during a recent appearance on The Lowe Post, his hyper-expressive bench did cause him some headaches. As a result, he had to turn to an unlikely source of inspiration to get his guys to calm down a bit: Old School.

“During the Finals we used that, which is, you don’t really think you’re gonna be using levity in your film sessions during the Finals, but,” Vogel said when ESPN’s Zach Lowe relayed that he heard the movie played a role in the team’s Bubble stint. “Everybody thinks the best scene in Old School is either the Frank the Tank scene or the streaking scene, but they’re wrong. The best scene in that movie is the dart scene.”

A quick interjection here: If you have not seen Old School in a while (or if you have, I suppose), here is the dart scene. If you haven’t seen Old School period, uh, I’d apologize for the spoiler but the movie has been out for nearly 18 years so it technically doesn’t count as a spoiler, and also, you should see Old School.

“Our bench was so nuts throughout the whole playoff run — like, the celebrations, the jumping out on the court, doing the goggles,” Vogel said. “The refs, every game, telling me, like, ‘These guys got to get back on the bench, this is out of control.’ So there was a little dust up and I wanted to sell the message that you could get suspended. If there’s an altercation, you guys are out there. You guys are crazy, I like that, but let’s make sure you guys are back. So that’s the scene that came to my mind, when Will Ferrell’s got a dart and his neck, and he’s looking at who goes, ‘Man, I like you, you’re crazy.’ So I said, ‘This is my message to you guys: I love the energy, I love you guys, but you’re crazy and you need to kinda get it under control.’”

As an added bonus, Vogel described the scene as having “Stifler from American Pie” in it. Anyway, this ended up working, and as a result, the Lakers won without any players getting in too much trouble for having way too much fun on the bench.

T.I. is just one day away from releasing his upcoming record The L.I.B.R.A (The Legend Is Back Running Atlanta), which boasts features by some of today’s hottest artists like Rick Ross, Snoop Dogg, John Legend and Benny The Butcher. T.I. announced the effort with “Ring,” his collaborative track with Young Thug which marked his first new song of 2020. Returning to offer one last preview of his album, T.I. taps Lil Baby for the wavy track “Pardon.”

Collaborating with Lil Baby was a smart move on T.I.’s part, as the rapper has been a hot ticket item lately. Lil Baby recently revealed he’s accepting no less than $100,000 for a feature and flew all the way out to Wyoming after Kanye tweeted about wanting the rapper on one of his songs.

“Pardon” marks T.I.’s third song of the year and while the rapper has been quiet on the music front in 2020, he’s been steadily making headlines — oftentimes for controversial reasons. In the last few months alone he’s called out Candace Owens, made out out-of-pocket comments about his daughter’s sex life, and was sued for promoting fake cryptocurrency. Controversy aside, T.I.’s also been making good in recent months. After the pandemic hit, the rapper took to the streets in his Atlanta hometown to join Killer Mike in passing out free meals to the community.

Listen to T.I. and Lil Baby’s “Pardon” above.

The L.I.B.R.A (The Legend Is Back Running Atlanta) is out 10/16 on Grand Hustle. Pre-order it here.

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

Following NBC’s controversial decision to host a town hall with Donald Trump after the president withdrew from the second debate by refusing to participate virtually due to his recent coronavirus infection, over 100 Hollywood stars have signed a petition to implore the network to move the event to another date. As it stands, Trump’s town hall will directly compete with Joe Biden’s Q&A event on ABC on Thursday night, which is when the second debate would’ve taken place had Trump’s campaign agreed to the rules. But since that clearly didn’t happen, Biden was awarded the entire time slot to himself. Or at least he was until NBC stepped in, prompting an open letter from Hollywood’s biggest power players.

“This is not a partisan issue. This is about the political health of our democracy,” the protest letter states as it takes NBCUniversal and its parent company Comcast to task for undermining the bipartisan debate commission. Via Variety:

“President Trump refused to participate in the virtual debate scheduled for Thursday night by the Presidential Debate Commission,” the letter says. “By agreeing to air his town hall as counterprogramming opposite Vice President Biden’s town hall on ABC, you are enabling the President’s bad behavior while undercutting the Presidential Debate Commission and doing a disservice to the American public.”

Here’s the full list of stars who signed the letter to NBC:

Aaron Sorkin
Adam McKay
Adam Scott
Alex Barnow
Allison Tolman
Amy Lippman
Amy Schumer
Aubrey Plaza
Ava DuVernay
Ayelet Waldman
Ben Stiller
Billy Eichner
Billy Porter
Brendan Gall
Chelsea Handler
Chris Bishop
Chris Meloni
Chris Miller
Chris Sullivan
Chrissy Metz
Courtney Kemp
Dahvi Waller
Damon Lindelof
Dan Fogelman
Daniel Hageman
David A. Goodman
David Guggenheim
Debra Messing
Ely Henry
Emily Gordon
Eric Guggeheim
Greg Berlanti
JJ Abrams
Jason Moore
Jennifer Yale
Jill Knox
Jim Parriott
Joe Mantello
Jon Cryer
Jon Hamm
Jon Huertas
Josh Gad
Josh Singer
Julianne Moore
Julie Plec
Justin Hartley
Keith Powell
Kenya Barris
Kevin Hageman
Kumail Nanjiani
Laeta Kalogridis
Latoya Morgan
Mandy Moore
Marc Guggenheim
Mariska Hargitay
Marti Noxon
Martin Gero
Matthew Lopez
Max Mutchnick
Michael Chabon
Michael Green
Michele Fazekas
Milo Ventimiglia
Neal Baer
Nicholas Stoller
Nicole Yorkin
Otmara Marrero
Parvesh Cheena
Patton Oswalt
Phil Lord
Preacher Lawson
Robert Kirkman
Ryan Murphy
Samuel Baum
Sarah Schechter
Sarah Silverman
Sarah Treem
Seth Grahame-Smith
Seth Rogen
Shakina Nayfack
Sophia Bush
Sterling K. Brown
Sunil Nayir
Susan Kelechi Watson
Tara Butters
Terry Matalas
Thor Freudenthal
Tom McCarthy
Tony Kushner
Travis Beacham
Vanessa Taylor
Zoe Lister-Jones
Ken Olin
Abbi Jacobson
Alison Janney
David Kohan
Robert King
Malcolm Spellman
Seth MacFarlane
Marjorie David
Donald Faison
Chris Misiano
David Goyer
Julie Martin
Joss Whedon
Warren Leight

While the letter will hopefully turn some heads at NBC, the battle over the controversial town hall continued on Twitter where the #NBCBlackout hashtag is gaining traction thanks to stars like Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who was a prominent fixture on the network during her time on Seinfeld.

(Via Variety)

For the first time in 13 season, someone other than Daryl Morey will serve as the general manager of the Houston Rockets. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Morey, one of the leaders in the NBA’s embrace of analytics, will step down from his position and move into an advisory position with the team until it completes its search for a head coach. The news of Morey’s departure was confirmed by Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, who stressed that this was Morey’s decision.

As Wojnarowski explains, Morey approached Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta about this following the team’s exit from the second round of the playoffs at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers, at which point the two sides figured out an agreement. Morey, it is reported, wants to explore possibilities away from basketball for now and is open to returning to the league in the future.

In the aftermath of Houston’s elimination from the NBA’s restart in Orlando, Florida, Morey approached owner Tilman Fertitta with the idea of leaving the job and the sides quietly worked through an exit agreement to conclude his 13 seasons running the franchise’s basketball operations, sources said.

Morey isn’t ruling out a future return to the NBA on the team side, but he has become increasingly determined to explore what else might interest him professionally, sources said. Morey also saw an opportunity to spend time with two college-age children who are each taking a gap year academically during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Rockets do apparently plan on promoting internally, with executive vice president of basketball operations Rafael Stone becoming their new general manager. The move comes as a major shock, as there was zero indication that Morey had any intention on leaving a team that had been built in his image over the course of his entire tenure. Houston, more than any team in the league, has been defined by its embrace of letting the numbers be their guiding principles, which has led to an admirable run of success.

However, the franchise — and, by extension, Morey — had come under scrutiny for never being able to get over the hump, with their overarching philosophy oftentimes coming under criticism. He also stirred up controversy prior to what ended up being his final year at the helm with a tweet in support of protestors opposing the Chinese government in Hong Kong, which led to the league taking a financial hit due to China’s refusal to air games in the aftermath. That did change recently, as CCTV aired the final two games of the NBA Finals.

It stands to reason that whenever he decides to return to basketball, Morey would be in demand by front offices in need of a major shake up. But for now, Morey is on his way out, and the Rockets are handing things over to Stone.