Sports

Shaq Is A Budding EDM Superstar And Just Dropped ‘Welcome To The Playhouse’ With Steve Aoki

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As Shaq gears up for his ridiculous — and quite frankly, very awesome-sounding — “Shaq’s Fun House” Super Bowl weekend party with Diplo, Lil Wayne, and bottomless Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles, he’s also adding to his EDM repertoire. Through his DJ Diesel moniker, the NBA legend has been playing gigs and festivals and collaborating with electronic stars, but none are bigger than what he just pulled off with Steve Aoki.

On “Welcome To The Playhouse,” Shaq… pardon, DJ Diesel and Steve Aoki have put down a banging trap/dubstep “gametime anthem.” The two have a real buddy comedy vibe brewing and have been friends since Shaq first saw Aoki play at TomorrowWorld in 2014. The following year, Shaq played the festival for the first time as DJ Diesel. Then in 2020, Aoki’s label, Dim Mak, released the DJ Diesel track “Ultimate.” Of this latest track, Aoki spoke on how it’s been a long time coming in a statement:

“SHAQ and I have been wanting to collaborate on a track together for a while now, but it wasn’t until he came over to Aoki’s Playhouse one day that we finally found the inspiration for our collab. We hopped into the studio and the track just came together.”

Shaq echoed the vibe in his own words:

“Working with Steve on ‘Welcome to the Playhouse’ was a blast. We went back and forth for hours together in his studio and eventually ended up with one of my favorite DIESEL releases to date. WELCOME TO THE PLAYHOUSE!”

Listen to “Welcome To The Playhouse” and watch the animated video above.

Shaq Is Throwing An Open Bar Super Bowl Weekend Party With Lil Wayne, Diplo, Papa John’s, And Roscoe’s

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shaq inside the nba wig
TNT

Go big or go home: Shaquille O’Neal clearly lives by these words. The gregarious NBA legend has seemingly never met a money-making opportunity he didn’t jump into in full force. Lately, he’s been headlining New Year’s Eve festivals under his DJ Diesel moniker, getting put through two tables in a pro wrestling match, and diving into the crypto-currency game so deeply, that his Twitter display name is no longer SHAQ, it’s SHAQ.ETH (a nod to the Ethereum blockchain.)

Now he’s getting ready to throw another edition of his wild Super Bowl weekend party that might just rank near the top of the insane-o meter. Dubbed Shaq’s Fun House, his Super Bowl Weekend… pardon… Big Game Weekend event at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium will feature musical guests like Lil Wayne, Diplo, and Zedd, plus DJ sets from himself and his son Myles O’Neal.

Did we mention that it’s open bar? That’s right, folks. Each ticket holder is entitled to a six-hour open bar, plus bites from “LA’s most iconic restaurants” like Roscoe’s Chicken And Waffles, Pink’s Hot Dogs, Diddy Riese Ice Cream, and LA… err…. institution, Papa John’s. The party is also a carnival, with the enormous FTX ferris wheel and circus performers. Shaq, who also happens to be dropping a collab track with Steve Aoki on Friday, laid out on his website that this is clearly an “over the top” affair:

“Los Angeles – I am back to win another Big Game Weekend championship! Part festival, part carnival, I recruited Lil Wayne, Zedd, Diplo and more to perform, plus will be building out a massive carnival experience. Get ready for LA’s most over the top party and celebrity filled event ever!”

This is a very of-the-moment function, with every attendee guaranteed to go home with free NFTs and even features an “Ultimate Giveaway” for $10,000 in Bitcoin among other prizes. The VIP area is hosted by Wynn Las Vegas and I’m not sure what parties you might be planning over Super Bowl weekend, but Omicron not withstanding, Shaq has you topped.

Ticketing pre-sale begins Thursday, January 6th at 10 a.m. PT here, with general on-sale starting the following day at the same link.

2021’s Most-Liked Instagram Posts Were From Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, And A Mermaid

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Ariana Grande The Kelly Clarkson Show 2021
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Musicians are major players in the realm of social media, and that remained true in 2021: A good chunk of the most-liked Instagram posts from the past year were by musicians or were music-related.

Ariana Grande has the top post among musicians and the second most-liked one overall, as a May 26 post featuring photos from her wedding with Dalton Gomez has over 26 million likes (according to Wikipedia, with data accurate as of December 23 and updated by Uproxx on December 27 for this post). It could be argued, though, that Billie Eilish actually fared better on the list: While the aforementioned Grande post is her only one in the top ten, Eilish has two posts on the list, the most among musicians. A post revealing her blonde hair ranks at No. 4 with 23 million likes and a photo from her Vogue photoshoot is No. 6 with 22.1 million likes.

Other musicians make cameos on the list as well. Kylie Jenner’s pregnancy announcement post from September, in which she tagged Travis Scott, is No. 3 with 24.6 million likes. Meanwhile, Iron Shore Mermaid, a professional mermaid performer, had a post in the top ten, a video set to The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber’s “Stay.”

Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodriguez had the honor of having the year’s top post, as their pregnancy announcement racked up over 32 million likes since it was shared in late October. Meanwhile, Lionel Messi had three posts in the top ten, making him the person with the most top-ten posts this year.

In terms of the people involved, this year’s list looks similar to the 2020 ranks, as Ronaldo, Messi, Grande, and Jenner all had some of last year’s top posts, too.

Check out the top ten list of the year’s most-liked Instagram posts below.

1. Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodriguez — pregnancy announcement (October 28; 32.3 million likes)
2. Ariana Grande — photos from her wedding with Dalton Gomez (May 26; 26.7 million likes)
3. Kylie Jenner — second pregnancy announcement (September 8; 24.6 million likes)
4. Billie Eilish — blonde hair reveal (March 17; 23 million likes)
5. Lionel Messi — First post after signing with Paris Saint-Germain F.C. (August 11; 22.1 million likes)
6. Billie Eilish — Vogue photoshoot (May 2; 22.1 million likes)
7. Lionel Messi — photo with the Copa América trophy (July 11; 22 million likes)
8. Lionel Messi — post announcing his departure from Barcelona during a press conference (August 8; 21.2 million likes)
9. Mermaid Montana — Iron Shore Mermaid (August 18; 20.2 million likes)
10. Tom Holland — birthday post for Zendaya (September 1; 19.6 million likes)

Matt Rhule Bizarrely Compared The Panthers To Jay-Z After Their Latest Loss

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The Carolina Panthers lost their fifth consecutive game on Sunday in a 32-6 loss to the Bucs that featured yet another lackluster offensive performance and, just generally, little resistance to what Tampa Bay was trying to do.

There are certainly injuries that have played a role, most notably to star running back Christian McCaffrey, but the lack of improvement as a team in Year 2 under Matt Rhule has led to plenty of chatter in Charlotte that the former Baylor coach should be on the hot seat. The Panthers don’t seem like a team ready to make another coaching change immediately, but every loss to close out this season will only increase the possible warmth he’s feeling under him.

After the loss on Sunday, Rhule tried to address those frustrations by insisting things are getting better, you just can’t see those changes tangibly in the on-field product — which, of course, is the only part that matters. Rhule did this by making a strange comparison to Jay-Z having to start his own agency (we think he means record label) to become an “overnight success” after seven years.

While I understand the general premise of trying to say that every “overnight success” is actually years of work behind the scenes that no one sees to become one of the best, this seems like a really weird analogy. The issue for Jay-Z in this story is that he was trying to get noticed and had to launch his own record label in order to get his music out, while the Panthers issue appears to be that they are simply bad at football, not that they’re actually good but no one can see them.

Unless they’re going to star their own football league in order to breakout on their own, I’m not sure Rhule has much going for him here, but it’s at least a creative effort at insisting he should be given a long leash because success is just around the corner.

LeBron James Trolls His Friends Maverick Carter And Rich Paul For Being Adele And Jay-Z’s Chargers Game ‘Plus-Ones’

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There was quite a stir on the internet when British singer Adele “debuted” her new beau Rich Paul after months of low-key “hanging out” (as he put it in an interview in The New Yorker in May), with fans flabbergasted (or outright confused, for the singer’s fans who don’t watch the sportsball) by the seemingly unlikely pairing. Paul, of course, is the agent of NBA superstar LeBron James, who it turns out isn’t above teasing his friend’s PDA with the “Easy On Me” singer, as he did on Twitter last night during the Thursday night football game between the Los Angeles Chargers (still feels weird to type) and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Adele, Paul, and LeBron’s other right-hand man Maverick Carter were all caught on the broadcast along with James’ mentor and favorite rapper Jay-Z, and he couldn’t resist taking the opportunity to troll his friends for being less famous than their companions. “Who the heck are Jay-Z and Adele’s +1s????” he tweeted, adding a monocle emoji for extra effect.

Of course, Mav and Rich are likely used to drawing just a little less attention after growing up with LeBron in Cleveland and helping to manage his career since he was drafted straight out of high school in 2003. Nearly 20 years later, it seems they’re as tight as ever — and enjoying the benefits of it, hanging out not just with LeBron, but with two of the biggest names in entertainment as well.

Oh, and the Chargers lost. Sigh.

‘Beat Saber’ Adds Hit Songs Like ‘Alejandro’ And ‘Rain On Me’ In Its New Lady Gaga Pack

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Beat Saber is one of the best games out there. The VR-only game puts the player in a world where they’re given two beams of light and, with the rhythm of a song, have to swing at blocks that appear before them. The game first exploded in popularity because of how fun it was, but it’s also an excellent form of exercise. These days, a lot of people are trying out Beat Saber because their favorite artists’ music is beginning to appear in the game. We’ve already seen Billie Eilish add her music to Beat Saber, for example.

During The Game Awards on Thursday night, we saw another gigantic name add their music to the game. Lady Gaga will add some of her biggest hits to Beat Saber in the Lady Gaga music pack. Songs like “Alejandro,” “Poker Face,” and “Rain On Me” will all be available for the player to jam out. The full list of songs include:

  • Alejandro
  • Bad Romance
  • Born This Way
  • Just Dance (feat. Colby O’Donis)
  • Paparazzi
  • Poker Face
  • Rain On Me (with Ariana Grande)
  • Stupid Love
  • Telephone (feat. Beyoncé)
  • The Edge of Glory

Beat Saber and this music pack are available on both the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift. The pack itself will cost $12.99 but anyone who wants to get an individual song can do so for $1.99.

‘GTA Online’ Has A New Story Featuring Exclusive Music From Dr. Dre

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When Grand Theft Auto V was first released back in 2013, it set records as one of the best-selling media franchises ever. That said, nobody expected the game to last as long as it has. GTA V is just as popular now as it was back in 2013 and a huge reason for that is the game’s online mode, GTA Online. The concept was pretty simple: give players the opportunity to explore the fictional city of Los Santos in a sandbox environment while having a few missions they can play every once in a while.

The results of that simple idea turned GTA V into the most profitable piece of media ever made and GTA Online has people still logging on to play it all these years later. So it’s no surprise to see that the developers over at Rockstar are still finding new ways to support the game. Their latest update sees GTA Online bring back a GTA V favorite, Franklin, in a new set of story missions. Not only that, but these new missions are going to feature Dr. Dre as himself in the game. Rockstar is also telling us that this story will feature new exclusive music from Dre himself in the game. Via Rockstar Newswire:

“Get ready for a wild and hilarious ride through Los Santos, from the mean streets of Franklin’s old neighborhood to the hottest parties in the city, from debaucherous mansions to the offices of the FIB and everywhere in between as you join Franklin, expert hacker Imani, Chop the Dog, and crew to secure Dr. Dre’s precious tracks and return them to their rightful owner.

Stay tuned to the Rockstar Newswire in the coming days for more info on The Contract, arriving December 15 to GTA Online — including details of an eclectic new radio station from some very special guest hosts, huge first-of-their-kind updates to existing radio stations including a ton of new and unreleased exclusive tracks from Dr. Dre and a heavy-hitting line-up of artists, plus additional opportunities for agency work including choice hits for players willing to get their hands dirty, plus new weapons, vehicles, and much more.”

A while back, Snoop Dogg revealed that Dre was working on new music for Grand Theft Auto. While he didn’t clarify what GTA game that was, it seems more than likely that he was referring to this upcoming GTA Online update.

This is all really exciting news. GTA fans have to be excited to see Franklin back in the fold after going so long without seeing him and we get new music from Dr. Dre on top of that. For anyone that’s big into GTA Online, this is going to be a must play update.

An Older Couple Sitting Courtside Next To Drake Had No Idea Who He Was

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Drake TOP
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Drake is a notorious presence courtside at NBA games. While often in Toronto, the part owner of the Raptors often also shows up to big games outside of The Six. But last night, he was slumming it, so to speak, at the Oklahoma City Thunder versus Houston Rockets game in OKC. Folks were understandably perplexed as to why Drizzy would show up to see two cellar-dwellers play early in the season, but he was presumably there to show love to fellow Toronto native Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Thunder. SGA heeded the call and the point guard dropped a cool 39 points in front of the rapper, albeit in a loss. But the big story of this game was the cute older couple that was sitting courtside next to Drake and had no idea who he was.

In a hilarious exchange during a break in play, the arena jumbotron cameras seemed to pan over to Drake. When the couple sitting next to him noticed that they were in the outskirts of the frame on the giant video board, hilarity ensued.

The gentleman taps Drake (who was playing it cool for the camera) on the shoulder and says “Hey man!” to get his attention and his wife leans over and jokingly tells Drake to “Smile!” for the camera. The three break out in laughter and the affable Drake tells the man that the cameras were for him. They shared a laugh and then Rumble, the Thunder’s mascot, came over to shake Drake’s hand. Drake later posted a selfie with the couple on his Instagram story with the caption “My new parents.” Ignorance really is bliss sometimes.

No One Could Figure Out Why Drake Was At A Rockets-Thunder Game In OKC

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Drake WNBA
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For some reason, Drake was sitting courtside from Wednesday night’s Oklahoma City Thunder-Houston Rockets showdown in Oklahoma City.

The logical reason for Drake to be at this game is probably to support Thunder guard and Toronto native Shai-Gilgeous Alexander (and Lu Dort, who is also a Canadian on OKC’s squad). But why this specific game to do so? At some point, Gilgeous-Alexander will be back in Toronto playing with the Thunder. And this isn’t even a good opponent to see the Thunder play against. No offense to the Rockets, but they are among the worst teams in the league (although now riding a 4-game winning streak) and don’t even have their top pick (Jalen Green) available right now due to injury.

Frankly, getting to the bottom of why Drake is at Thunder-Rockets on a Wednesday night in December is worthy of some kind of investigation. He was in Toronto as recently as two days ago, but perhaps he’s just really into Josh Giddey’s passes (or maybe his TikTok) or loves Alperen Şengün’s flair as a center in addition to wanting to support his countrymen. It’s so random that it deserves a random explanation, one that many on Twitter were searching for.

Drake also made friends with an older couple he was sitting next to in his courtside seat, posting to his Instagram story that they are his ‘new parents.’

It turned out to be a pretty good game, with Houston winning 114-110 thanks to a big fourth quarter comeback, so maybe Drake is smarter than us all, a savvy shopper for what had to have been some relatively cheap courtside seats to take in a pretty entertaining game.

Freddie Gibbs Loved That Tom Brady Used One Of His Songs To Celebrate A Win Over The Indianapolis Colts

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Freddie Gibbs 2021 ACL Music festival
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For a few years now, Tom Brady has used social media to recap the football games he’s won with both the New England Patriots and, now, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. These recaps usually feature a motivational message from the football player followed by some highlights, usually with a song from a popular artist playing in the background. For this past Sunday’s win against the Indianapolis Colts, Brady recapped the game with a video that featured Freddie Gibbs and Big Sean’s “4 Thangs” in the background. Gibbs caught wind of this development and took to social media to celebrate.

Gibbs reposted Brady’s video on Instagram and wrote, “Tom Brady bout to turn me to a Bucs fan [laughing emoji].” He also reposted the video on Twitter, writing, “My dog TB12!!!”

Gibbs, who hails from Gary, Indiana, has spoken about his distaste for the Indianapolis Colts for well over a decade, as tweets from 2010 prove. “I fux wit DA BEARS and anybody that’s that’s playin the f*ckin colts,” he wrote in one tweet while another simply read, “F*ck the colts.” Gibbs also once wrote, “All y’all n****z from Gary that know y’all grew up as BEAR fans please stop d*ck ridin’ the colts cuz they in the super bowl.” This is in reference to the Colts’ Super Bowl matchup against the New Orleans Saints, in 2010 which they lost by a score of 31-17.

Freddie Gibbs is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.