Yesterday’s (August 4) news was not good for Brittney Griner: The WNBA star was found guilty on drug charges in Russia and sentenced to nine years in prison. Ever since the basketball player was first detained in March, there has been outrage about the situation, with a new wave of it coming after yesterday’s ruling. Boosie Badazz in particular had a passionate reaction, in which he pointed fingers.
Boosie is upset that Brittney Griner got sentenced to 9 years & feels like the U.S. should be doing more pic.twitter.com/7eV5U4e6Lv
In a video shared after the news broke, Boosie implies race is an issue when it comes to the United States’ efforts to free Griner, using a Taylor Swift comparison to make his point. He says, “How the hell this girl get nine years for a weed pen… and the USA ain’t doing nothing about it? You tell me that! If that was Taylor Swift, it’d be a peace treaty right now! They’d be drafting to go to war!”
He then set his sights on Vice President Kamala Harris, continuing, “What that show for Black women in the United States?! And the Vice President: as a Black woman, you supposed to be on the front line! You supposed to be on the front line to get that Black woman out of jail! Nine damn years! Y’all f*cked up in this world!”
Social media was designed to bring people together but sometimes it does so in unconventional, unexpected, and unintentional ways. For instance, there probably isn’t much overlap between fans of independent Namibian rapper Lioness and those of the English women’s football (fine, soccer) team, the Lionesses, but many of the latter are learning about the former as they seek to congratulate the English team for their recent EUFA European Championship win. Quick recap: on Sunday, England — who hosted this year’s tournament in Wembley — won 2-1 over Germany in front of a home crowd of more than 87,000 proud crumpet munchers.
Poor Lioness, though, has been fielding many of those congratulatory tweets as fans mistake her account (@LionessOfficial) for the English women’s teams account (@Lionesses). To be fair, plenty of those are probably from people typing too fast as Twitter auto-populates the account name after the @ sign, but either way, as Lioness herself puts it: “My Mentions Are A Mess.”
A quick search reveals this to be true, as plenty of accounts, perhaps in a rather un-English display of exuberance and emotion, tagged the wrong account. However, the rapper seems to have taken all this in stride, and even used the error as a promotional opportunity, reposting a video of a 2021 promo she recorded for the Barclays Women’s Super League, joking, “Maybe You’ll All Take This More Seriously Now.”
She’s not the first rapper to deal with this problem, and she probably won’t be the last. In 2017, Compton rapper Buddy started getting tagged in photos of people’s pets after finally changing his Twitter handle to his professional name, and arguably, Burna Boy’s stateside popularity was sparked by fans discovering his 2018 song “Ye” while trying to stream Kanye West’s delayed album of the same name. Let that be a lesson, I guess; when selecting a stage name these days, it’ll apparently help to consider how likely you are to be confused for someone else.
In the last few months, Drake has made it clear that he has no issue wagering big money on sports or at the roulette table. It’s not too surprising as he’s one of the music’s most popular artists, thus giving him a comfortable cash supply to pull from for his big bets. It was just last month that Jack Harlow revealed that he lost a lot of money trying to keep up with Drake’s betting ways at the Kentucky Derby. In his latest move, Drake revealed that he bet $1 million in favor of Israel Adesanya to win UFC 276 on Saturday.
Drake shared the news about the bet through a recording of a FaceTime call between him and Adesanya. In the video, he says that he put a “light million” in favor of Adesanya and noted that he has a “deep deep respect” for the fighter. Drake also requested to walk Adesanya out for the Saturday night fight and the fighter complied. “One of the most inspiring guys to me,” Drake wrote in the caption of the Instagram post. “The death note author himself and my partner with @stake @stylebender BIG FIGHT TMRW…got a million on it [shrugging emoji].”
In just the past few months we’ve seen Drake place a $1 million bet for the Los Angeles Rams to win the Super Bowl and a $200,000 bet for the Golden State Warriors to win the Western Conference Finals, both of whichwere successful
You can watch the FaceTime call, which ends with an Honestly, Nevermind reference, in the video above.
What comes to mind when you think of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? The Statue of Liberty, pizza, maybe the Manhattan skyline? All of these are defining traits of New York City, which doubles as the home to our favorite fictional group of reptiles. The Turtles have always embodied New York in a way that few other fictional characters in pop culture do.
With Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge coming out, the publishers over at Dotemu knew early on they wanted one of the game’s many themes to be the Turtles’ love for the city. They also wanted tie something in that paid tribute to the era when the Ninja Turtles were at their peak. So, they looked around and quickly realized who they wanted to partner with the Wu-Tang Clan — specifically Ghostface Killah and Raekwon.
“We knew that, for the soundtrack of the Turtles, we wanted to have guests,” Dotemu’s Adrien Marie tells UPROXX. “We wanted to have big guest stars because it makes sense for the project and we wanted to raise the bar. Adding to what we have already been doing, we have a lot of different artists and guest stars, but we wanted to go further into mainstream music … we also were thinking about the fact that TMNT and hip-hop makes sense. A deep part of our perception is that it’s very anchored in there, it’s in the TMNT DNA, to have something hip-hop, and so we were thinking about hip-hop artists. And it’s New York, so we didn’t want to have any West Coast artists. So, our thought process was that we need to have East Coast hip-hop artists from the ’90s and the Wu-Tang Clan was at the top of the list.”
Of course, the Wu-Tang Clan was formed in Staten Island. There are few people in music that better represent New York than them, so having Ghostface Killah and Raekown involved in the game was an obvious decision. So much of Shredder’s Revenge is about capturing the original spirit of the Turtles that many people grew up with in the ’80s and ’90s. From having a new rendition of the original theme song playing in the opening cinematic, to the entire game’s style, it’s a trip down memory lane for everyone involved.
So how exactly did Dotemu and the developers over at Tribute Games involve them? The spoiler-free answer is that it does play in the game and it’s one of the best moments of the entire game, but there are some secrets to the song that we don’t want to reveal without a spoiler warning.
A disclaimer: If you plan on playing Shredder’s Revenge then be warned that the following few paragraphs will have spoilers for both the game and music.
The track that Ghostface Killah and Raekwon made plays during the boss fight with Shredder towards the end of the game. It’s a really cool moment, because Shredder joins in a little earlier than expected. It’s a fun fight and the best thing to do is blast the music and enjoy the moment to its fullest, but there’s a fun little secret that Marie told us about what the song is supposed to represent.
“So, the idea was to have a rap battle,” Marie says. “Cyrille [Lambert] wanted the first part to be Shredder’s, which is why the first part of the song is from the point of view of Shredder, and then the other side of the track is the reverse. It’s when, after all of the menacing lyrics from Shredder, you have the Turtles fighting back. This is why the second part of the track is the Turtles saying, ‘No, this is this is our fight and we’re going to win.’ Based on that, Cyrille worked with Kid Katana records, and Tee Lopes, the composer of the soundtrack of the game, Tee created a beat, then Raekown and Ghostface recorded their parts.”
The song is a delight, it’s reminiscent of the infamous “Go Ninja” scene from the second movie. If they ever decide to make another Ninja Turtles movie, please let them do a battle rap scene and bring back the Wu-Tang Clan to make a cameo.
Pop star Normani has been slowly rolling out the release of her debut solo album over the past few months, sharing the single “Fair” and teasing a new one, ostensibly titled “Candy Paint.” And while fans have been patient in holding out for confirmation of a release date so far, they now have an entirely different kind of “date” to distract them from the wait. The “Wild Side” singer was recently seen leaving a trendy Los Angeles restaurant with a new potential boo, and fans are having a field speculating about the possibility of romance.
Normani arrived at the restaurant, Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica, solo, but left with Seattle Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf in the same car, according to sources including Hollywood Life and Billboard. Once fans got their first glimpse of the photos they couldn’t help but gush over the possible couple. And while there are certainly some who disapprove, there are others who were quick to defend her.
Normani was spotted leaving a restaurant with Seattle Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf and now the internet is buzzing with dating rumors. #BillboardNewspic.twitter.com/R1Utm7nOSb
“Normani can do better than DK Metcalf” like he’s not young, black, successful, and arguably the most fit mf in the entire NFL right now. A high profile athlete is actually courting one of our black queens and look at how yall talk about it. Fuckin wow.
— nah, too playa for that. truthfully. (@Tip_MojoSoDope) June 14, 2022
Look, we’re not here to question who’s out of whose league. But both seem to be doing just fine in their respective fields. Metcalf is apparently so fast on the field, in fact, that he’s reportedly looking forward to try to qualify for the Olympics despite a diet consisting of what sounds like mainly sugary sweets. Meanwhile, both clearly have the downtime to enjoy together — while DK is rehabbing from an injury, Normani is just waiting for a release date for her album. If they’re enjoying killing time together, good for them.
Yesterday was a big day in the NBA, as the night started with the Celtics and Warriors tied at 2 wins apiece in the Finals, with Golden State ultimately winning and taking the series lead. An event like that is bound to bring out the stars to watch, and sure enough, it did, as Jay-Z and his daughter Blue Ivy Carter were courtside. While Jay-Z was arguably the coolest person in the building, to Carter, he was clearly still just an embarrassing dad.
At one point during the game, the PA announcer made a note of the pair’s presence, at which point Jay, who was all smiles, lovingly put his arm around his daughter. Carter briefly took exception to that, saying something to Jay and trying to get his hand off her. She quickly relented, though, and stewed in some minor embarrassment as Jay gave her a kiss on the cheek.
All in all, it seems like the two had themselves a good night, as they got to say hi to E-40 and meet up with Stephen Curry in the bowels of the Chase Center after the game. They certainly had a better time than the Celtics, whose turnovers and missed free throws throughout the evening stopped them from getting a win and going up 3-2 in the series.
A new Netflix documentary called Halftime takes an inside look at Jennifer Lopez’s 2020 Super Bowl, in which she and Shakira took the stage to perform some of their biggest hits. Fans may remember that near the end of the show, kids appeared in cages, as a statement condemning detaining children in ICE detention centers.
The documentary revealed that this portion of the show nearly got cut.
When conceptualizing the show, Lopez said to her choreographer, “This girl from the Bronx, this girl that’s a Latina landed on this stage somehow and is here to represent our culture, our music and women everywhere. I’m thinking a great moment would be to have these fantastic little girl dancers I just met along with hundreds of other girls in light cages. A choir of little girls singing. We want a feeling of Latinos in cages…and you can’t keep us there. We won’t have that. The concept is, this next generation is not going to be suppressed in the way that we were.”
Later on in the documentary, she is seen in a meeting talking to higher-ups from the NFL. During the meeting, which took place a day before the actual Super Bowl, Lopez recalls feeling a “weird vibe” after running through the concept. Her manager later explained that the NFL had concerns about the cage portion and wanted her to pull it.
Lopez doubled down and refused to give in.
“For me, this isn’t about politics; this is about human rights,” Lopez said. “I’m facing the biggest crossroads of my life — being able to perform on the biggest stage of my life, but to take out the cages and sacrifice everything I believe in would be like never being here at all.”
As members of the California-based supergroup Mount Westmore, Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg have been working closely together with E-40 and Too Short on their new album, Bad MFs, which is out now via Gala Music. However, it appears they liked working together so much that they’re expanding their endeavors. With Cube’s summer basketball league, Big3, returning for its fifth season, Snoop is joining the fun as part-owner of team Bivouac, which Cube revealed to TMZ Sports. In addition, they’re offering fans the chance to buy in, too.
They’ll do so with a custom cryptocurrency called FEAT — Forever Experience Action Token — dropping on Friday, June 10. “It’s better than an NFT,” he said in the interview. “I think people who can see the future of sports wanna be closer to the action. I don’t think any other league can offer something like what we’re doing… In a lot of ways, we’re in the perfect spot.”
Of Snoop’s involvement, he said, “Snoop is always at the cutting edge. He always wanna be first. When we said we was gonna start selling teams, he hit me right away saying, ‘I need to be a part of that.’”
That’s certainly characteristic of the Doggfather, who also said he wanted to make Death Row Records “the first label in the metaverse” after acquiring it earlier this year. Meanwhile, we’ll see if he can make Bivouac, which boasts a roster including Corey Brewer, Gerald Green, and Will Bynum coached by Gary Payton, a contender this season, which starts June 18 in Chicago.
The NBA may be winding up its 75th season soon, but basketball never stops. Summer hoops are an annual tradition, with the AAU season and summer pro-am leagues and tournaments kicking off even now (come on down to LA’s Drew League, where some of the best players in the world compete in the longest-running pro-am in America). A new name is about to join that illustrious collective, and it’s one that already has a longstanding tradition of its own of combining hip-hop and hoops: J. Cole’s Dreamville.
Dreamville is partnering with Wilson Sporting Goods Co. to announce the Dreamville Chi-League, a four-week tournament running throughout the month of August at the University of Illinois Chicago. The league will be co-sponsored by Gatorade and will pit eight teams of pro players, from NBA stars to overseas standouts, and local legends against each other for summer hoops glory. There will be men’s and women’s divisions, too, giving an equal opportunity to shine to all.
Wilson will be dropping limited-edition Dreamville products throughout August while hosting youth basketball clinics alongside the YMCA. Former NBA star Antoine Walker, who coached in a springtime iteration of the tournament, said in a statement, “Last season was the best pro-am I’ve been a part of, and I couldn’t be more excited to see what’s in store for this season. The history of this league is something to be celebrated and I’m proud to see its continued success.”
It remains to be seen whether Cole himself will lace up to participate in the league after playing out his contract for the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s Scarborough Shooting Stars, but it wouldn’t be a surprise, given how much he loves to play. I guess the only way to find out is to show up! You can find more information at dreamvillechileague.com.
Intriguingly enough, as more NBA stars dip their toes into rap careers, following in the footsteps of Shaq, Kobe, and Allen Iverson, it’s a little rarer to see ball players get serious about their rhymes. Of course, there’s Damian Lillard, who’s three albums deep into his career as Dame D.O.L.L.A., but for the most part, the current generation of NBA talent has yet to commit. Maybe they just need a little encouragement, and that’s where Milwaukee native/LA transplant DC The Don steps in.
The 6’7 rising rap star is best known for viral tracks like “Worst Day” and “Walk Thru,” but he’s probably just as well-known for his first song “Everything 1K” appearing in Big Baller Brand’s first sneaker commercial. That’s because he was a former Chino Hills High teammate of Lonzo Ball — another aspiring rhyme purveyor currently playing in the NBA — and his brothers LiAngelo and LaMelo. Obviously, DC went the other way, and so he’s willing to lend some of his expertise to rating NBA stars’ rap bars. Check out the video above.
pic.twitter.com/7eV5U4e6Lv
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