Sports

J. Cole’s Rwandan Basketball Team Shares A First Look Of Him On The Court

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J. Cole is notorious for keeping his projects under wraps but the musician has been busy lately. Not only has Cole just dropped his anticipated album Off-Season, but he’s gearing up to play his first-ever game as part of the Rwandan basketball team the Patriots.

The clip was shared to the Basketball Africa League’s official Instagram account. It shows footage of the Patriots going head-to-head with an opposing team for a friendly scrimmage game ahead of their season’s opening game against the Nigerian team River Hoopers this Sunday. The team had been practicing against each other to prepare for the upcoming season, and this was their first time competing against another team. Cole’s cameo in the video was brief, only being seen walking on the court and dribbling the ball past an opponent.

It hasn’t been long since Cole was first announced as part of the Patriots team. Earlier this week, Rwanda’s English newspaper The New Times Rwanda confirmed that the rapper was on the Patriots’ roster. It means that Cole is joining on for the BAL’s inaugural season and is one of the few Americans who will play in the league.

Watch the clip above.

Off-Season is out now via Dreamville. Get it here.

Shaq Applies His Analysis To Rap Lyrics About Him From Cardi B, Drake, Jay-Z, And More

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When it comes to pop culture figures that rappers love to reference in their songs, NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal stands head and shoulders above the rest — literally, in most cases. Not only does he have an extensive hoop, film, and rap career to draw lyrical comparisons to, but there is a wealth of words that rhyme with “Shaq” — not to mention, his many, many nicknames. The Big Diesel, who’s now best-known for his nightly hoops analysis on NBA on TNT, tried his hand at breaking down some of the bars about him from rap titans like Biggie, Cardi B, Drake, and Jay-Z for Genius’s Between The Lines.

Throughout the course of the video, Shaq gives his impression of the many, many rap lines about him. Nas’s “It Ain’t Hard To Tell” was one of the first songs to make reference to O’Neal (more precisely, to the way “Shaquille holds the pill”), blowing the then-NBA sophomore’s mind, while Mannie Fresh’s “Still Fly” line about buying a car from him turns out to be a true story. Shaq also notes he wasn’t bugged by Biggie’s line about losing money on Lakers games from “I Love The Dough” because it too was based on the performance of the Lakers in their first three playoffs appearances with Shaq on the team, plus due to BIG’s contribution to Shaq’s own album — which he naturally gets into as well.

There’s plenty more to talk about; watch the full video up top.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Cowboys Schedule Release Video Has Post Malone And Jerry Jones Playing Beer Pong For Some Reason

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The NFL held its 2021 schedule release on Wednesday night, as teams got to unveil their 17-game schedules which, as always, involved fun videos from their social media accounts to unveil their upcoming slate of games.

For some, like the Chiefs, this meant going back to old footage to craft a clever video to reveal their full schedule — pulling Reid saying “a good football team” for Washington was an especially nice touch.

Others put a lot more time, money, and effort into producing their schedule release video, and it should come as no surprise that Jerry Jones and the Cowboys tried to one-up everyone with their video. Dallas pulled in Post Malone to help with a wild video that involves him delivering the schedule to Jerry Jones and the two celebrating by playing beer pong, Post putting a giant Cowboys logo necklace on Jerry, and then the two making it rain schedules on Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott.

I like how much Zeke sold his part by jumping up and down trying to catch the mini schedules Post Malone and Jerry Jones were raining down on to him, and I guess when you’re the Cowboys you have the ability to spend whatever it cost to get Post Malone to do this. That Jerry put himself front and center is also unsurprising, and the funniest part is that the schedule just kind of flashes up there at the very end.

J. Cole Shoots Down Rumors That He’s Contemplating Retirement After ‘The Fall Off’

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Ever since J. Cole closed his 2018 album KOD with a song title “1985 (Intro To The Fall Off),” fans have looked forward to the album of that title with both anticipation and apprehension. For one thing, lyrics, interviews, and social media posts he’s made since then have all seemed to imply plans to retire from rap once the album drops. However, in a new cover story in Slam magazine, of all places, Cole denies that he has any such plans, explaining that while he’s at peace with never making another album, he has too much love for the game to simply declare he’s done.

“I’m super comfortable with the potential of being done with this sh*t,” he tells Slam. “But I’m never going to say, ‘Oh, this is my last album.’… Because I never know how I’m going to feel two years, three years, four years down the line, 10 years down the line, but please believe, I’m doing all this work for a reason. I’m doing all this work to be at peace with, ‘If I never did another album, I’m cool.’”

If it seems a little out-of-place for a rapper to be doing cover stories for a basketball magazine, Cole made sure to legitimize that as well; yesterday, it was announced that he’d signed a contract to play in the newly created Basketball Africa League as part of Rwanda’s Patriots team ahead of the release of his next album, The Off-Season, which is decidedly not the same as The Fall Off.

J. Cole Is Apparently Playing For Rwanda’s Basketball Africa League Team

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J. Cole may not have played himself onto the roster for the NBA’s Detroit Pistons but it appears his hoop dream isn’t done quite yet. It looks like he’s about to compete for a roster spot in the newly-created Basketball Africa League according to Rwanda’s English newspaper, The New Times Rwanda. The New Times‘ Twitter account posted a video of J. Cole apparently preparing to play for the country’s Patriots team. The newspaper confirmed that his name is listed on the roster.

If he makes the team, there’s no telling how it’ll affect the rollout for his new album, The Off-Season (aside from turning the title into the biggest misnomer in hip-hop), but it’ll be the culmination of a lifelong dream for him to play professional basketball — a dream that saw him taking advice from Master P, who once made it onto the Toronto Raptors’ preseason roster, and working with Puma on his own basketball shoe.

It’ll also make Cole a member of the BAL’s inaugural season, as well as one of the few Americans to play in the new league. The BAL is a joint effort between the NBA and FIBA (International Basketball Federation) to promote the sport on the continent, developing its talent for international competition. It consists of 12 teams and is scheduled to begin May 16, 2021, after being postponed from March of 2020.

According to Shams Charania, Cole is signing with the Patriots and will play three to six games, beginning with Sunday’s game against Nigeria.

50 Cent Trolls Floyd Mayweather Over His Recent Jake Paul Fight

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When Floyd Mayweather agreed to a fight with YouTuber turned boxer Logan Paul, both men likely knew there’d be a rise in media scrutiny on them, even compared to their usual level of attention. Of course, Mayweather proved to be a bit too susceptible to the Paul brothers’ trolling ways at the fight’s media day when Jake Paul snatched his hat, leading to a scuffle that wound up going viral when footage hit the internet. If that trolling got under his skin, the trolling from his former friend turned antagonist 50 Cent might just make him break out in hives.

“WTF going on on champ head,” 50 wondered in a post about the incident on Instagram. “I heard he had his pubic hairs put on his face. Lol.” In a separate post on Twitter, he again roasted Floyd’s haircut. “Floyd like [sad face] you can’t show people my hair,” he teased.

Floyd and 50’s feud extends back to 2012 when a dispute over money led to an exchange of vicious rhetoric between the two. In the years since, 50 Cent has mocked Mayweather’s reported trouble with reading, while Floyd sent some “jabs” back on social media as well. They’ve both even gone so far as teasing a potential bout between the two. But first, Mayweather has to get through Logan Paul on Sunday, June 6.

Drake’s Son Adonis Was Locked In Watching LeBron James Highlights

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Part of what makes sports so great is the history that gets passed down from generation to generation, stories told from fathers and mothers to their sons and daughters of the greats they saw. Today, that often means showing highlight reels on YouTube, which has an endless supply of videos of the best from today and compilations put together from yesteryear.

While the generations are often split on the GOAT debates based on who they saw play when they were younger, being able to appreciate greatness is nearly universal among sports fans. Some players, like LeBron James, have careers that span multiple generations and part of what makes his legacy so incredible is that he’s continuing to dominate nearly two decades into his NBA career. That so many have been able to witness his greatness in person or at least live on TV is going to make him a figure discussed, debated, and revered long after he eventually retires.

It also means there’s quite the backlog of LeBron highlights to show this current generation of kids who may only know of Laker LeBron, which is exactly what Drake did with his son Adonis, posting a video of his son absolutely locked in and enthralled by some of James’ best highlights from his younger days.

It’s they type of thing almost every sports fan can immediately relate to, that sense of awe and disbelief as a child watching the very best do seemingly superhuman things. It’s what folks of my generation born in the early 90s had the first time we saw Michael Jordan, surely having similar “OMG” moments as we, knowing the late-career Jordan, first got introduced to some of his early highlights via VHS tapes. Drake’s love of basketball and sports in general is not a secret, and part of the joy of parenthood is finding things to share and enjoy with your kids, which it seems he and Adonis will be able to do with hoops.

The Team Behind ‘Framing Britney Spears’ Is Tackling The Janet Jackson Super Bowl Incident

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When the documentary series Framing Britney Spears bowed on HBO back in February, it caused an avalanche of support to come the singer’s way. Long a target of condescending press coverage — not to mention still legally under the control of her domineering father — Spears found the public finally rallying to her side, hoping to correct years of unfair coverage. Now the team behind the doc look to be trying to do for Janet Jackson what they did for Britney.

According to US Weekly, Left/Right TV, who produced the Spears doc, are at work on a movie about the infamous halftime show at Super Bowl XXXVIII, in 2004. That’s the one where a performance by Jackson and Justin Timberlake resulted in a “wardrobe malfunction,” in which the latter ripped off part of her costume, exposing one of her breasts for half a second. The incident led to a massive fallout. The FCC tried, and failed, to fine CBS for over half a billion dollars, while some accused the two of staging it, with Jackson receiving more vitriol than Timberlake.

Neither Jackson nor Timberlake are involved in the movie, though the former is working on a documentary about her own career to coincide with the forthcoming 40th anniversary of her debut album, Janet Jackson. Timberlake, meanwhile, has come under fire over the last couple years, as the public has begun viewing his treatment of both Jackson and Spears, who he once dated, with a more critical eye. Indeed, after Framing Britney Spears debuted, he issued a formal apology to both parties.

“I specifically want to apologize to Britney Spears and Janet Jackson both individually, because I care for and respect these women and I know I failed,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “Because of my ignorance, I didn’t recognize it for all that it was while it was happening in my own life but I do not want to ever benefit from others being pulled down again.”

(Via US Weekly)

LeBron James’ Tweet About Kendrick Lamar Is Giving People Hope That New Music Is On The Way

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Last week marked four years since Kendrick Lamar dropped his last solo album, DAMN. Since then, fans haven’t been entirely deprived of new music from him as the rapper has delivered several guest verses on top of his big role on 2018’s Black Panther soundtrack. Despite this, supporters of the TDE rapper are heavily anticipating a new body of work from him, something they think is coming soon thanks to a tweet from LeBron James.

On Saturday morning, LeBron posted, “Man I miss @kendricklamar ! In dying need of his gift/presence right now.” From the looks of it, the tweet may appear as just an innocent shoutout to the rapper, but some fans think otherwise.

“Lebron the A&R just told us Kendrick is coming with some summer heat I fear,” one person wrote in a tweet. Another user noted what happened the last time LeBron shared a similar tweet. “The last time he did this Kendrick dropped Untitled Unmastered (laughing emoji),” they wrote. “I appreciate what LeBron is doing for the people.”

LeBron’s tweet comes after TDE in-house engineer MixedByAli shared some insight on the rapper’s upcoming album. “I would say, every album that he has dropped since Good Kid has come with a different feeling so just look forward to Kendrick obviously expressing himself in the most creative way -– the most highest of the creative way,” he said. As for whether or not it would drop this year, this is what MixedByAli had to say: “It might, it might, you never know.”

You can read more reactions to LeBron’s tweet below.

The ‘Call Of Duty: Warzone’ Season 3 Trailer Features Everyone From Young Thug To Mookie Betts

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No video game took over in 2020 more than Call of Duty: Warzone, as the free-to-play battle royale became massively popular as it dropped right at the start of pandemic restrictions hitting in March and people finding themselves having to find ways to pass the time at home. A year later and Warzone is still plugging along and entering Season 3, which will see updated maps, weapons, and gear hit after they nuked Verdansk Island to end Season 2.

To celebrate the start of Season 3, the game brought together a number of their biggest celebrity players from the world of sports, music, and entertainment for a ridiculous two-minute trailer that was released on Thursday morning — along with a call to drop in to Verdansk84. The trailer, which you can watch in its absurd entirety above, opens with Young Thug leaping out of a building and grabbing onto a helicopter piloted by Gunna, who then blows up the building that Thug presumably rigged with charges. Jack Harlow, Saweetie, Swae Lee, and others from the music world are featured, along with Dennis Schröder, Jack Grealish, and Mookie Betts from the sports world — with Betts hitting a grenade out of the air with his rifle like a baseball.

In case there were any wonder if Call of Duty was still raking in cash thanks to Warzone, this trailer and all the celebrity cameos should provide the answer, but if it gets people to drop back in, that’s all they care about.