New Hip Hop News

Kemba Walker returned to the New York Knicks starting lineup in time for their Christmas Day matchup with the Atlanta Hawks at Madison Square Garden and dropped a triple-double to lead his team to a 101-87 victory.

“It’s kind of hard to put it into words, to be honest. It was special, just to be home, with that New York on my chest … a New York City kid, born and raised,” Walker said after the game. “It felt amazing.”

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Walker was taken out of the Knicks rotation completely, earlier this year, but has worked his way back by stringing together several impressive performances.

Saturday, Walker finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists. 

“I’m over it,” Walker said of the benching. “It don’t matter anymore at this point. I just take it as a blessing. I think it was a blessing in disguise, to be honest.”

He continued: “God just works in mysterious ways, man. He’s blessed me, he’s helped me stay humble, grounded, and he just got me through a tough situation. I just continued to work, and time goes on and guys go down, and I’m back. First game against my old team, I’m back in the starting lineup, and the rest is history from there. Everything happens for a reason.”

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Post Malone is teaming up with Magic: The Gathering for a new series of Friday night tournaments that will be held at stores across the world every week. 

“I’m obsessed with Magic: The Gathering. This is really a dream come true. We’ll be doing some cool stuff so keep an eye out,” Malone said in a press release.

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Nathan Stewart, Head of Franchise Marketing for Wizards of the Coast added that they couldn’t have found a bigger fan: “You’d be hard-pressed to find a bigger fan of Magic: The Gathering than Post Malone. As a fan for years, he knows just how much Friday Night Magic means to players. We’re thrilled to collaborate with Posty in ways that will allow his signature style, talent and love of the game to combine in ways fans will never forget.”

Magic: The Gathering is a tabletop fantasy card game that debuted in 1993.

Back in April, TMZ reported that Malone had spent thousands of dollars on cards for the popular game. He also previously rocked a Magic-themed button-up during an appearance on Late Night With Seth Myers.

Check out the announcement for Malone’s collaboration with Magic: The Gathering on Twitter below.

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Tyler Huntley, the Baltimore Ravens’ backup quarterback who has recently started in place of Lamar Jackson, tested positive for COVID-19, Saturday, and will miss the team’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Veteran Josh Johnson will start in his place. Johnson is currently the only healthy quarterback on the Ravens’ roster.

Huntley has played a key role for the Ravens in recent weeks after Jackson injured his ankle in the team’s 24-22 loss to the Cleveland Browns on December 12. 

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Both the Ravens and Bengals currently have an 8-6 record for the season and are competing for the top spot in the AFC North. The 7-6-1 Pittsburgh Steelers and 7-7 Cleveland Browns are both within a game of taking over the top spot in the division.

Johnson last started in an NFL game in 2018 while a member of the New York Jets. That season, he appeared in three games, completing 29 of 45 passes for 334 passing yards, three touchdowns, and one interception.

The Ravens now have 17 players on injured reserve and 14 players on their injury report. Ravens’ practice squad quarterback Chris Streveler has also been placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list.

The Ravens matchup with the Bengals will kick-off at 1:00 PM, ET on Sunday.

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Frank Ocean is back with a Christmas edition of his program, blonded RADIO. The new show features a portion of Ocean’s conversation with Wim “Iceman” Hof, a Dutch motivational speaker and extreme athlete.

Ocean announced the return of blonded RADIO on his Instagram story, Saturday. The last episode of blonded RADIO aired on Christmas 2019.

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As for his conversation with Hof, Ocean explained on his IG story: “We spoke for a while about his work, the purpose of grief, and how going into the cold water changed his life. It reminded me of conversations in the studio with players I know. Freewheeling, psychedelic, emotionally charged, intelligent, and generous. I enjoyed listening to him, so in this edit I just let him speak uninterrupted. Me, @coryhenry, and @dylanpatricewiggins, played some sounds underneath to heighten the feeling. I added some writing at the end that I did a single take of w Cory in the summer of 2020. I came back and added a few words and parts over the top of that take more recently. Felt like it fit the wabi sabi of Wim’s words.”

“Merry Xmas everyone,” he added.

The Christmas edition of blonded RADIO is available now on Apple Music.

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James Gandolfini once dished out $33,000 to each of his co-stars on HBO’s hit show, The Sopranos, to end a contract dispute between the cast and the network, according to James Andrew Miller’s new book, Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers.

The book explains that the legendary actor was paid $5 million per season until season 3, when his earnings were doubled to $10 million. Gandolfini later decided that he was worth more to the network and requested $13 million per season. This time, however, HBO lamented. 

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The dispute between Gandolfini and HBO would have caused production on The Sopranos to halt and the cast to be temporarily unemployed. This is when Gandolfini decided to write out $33,000 checks for each of his co-stars.

“As good of an actor as he was, he was a better guy,” co-star Steve Schirripa told a New York City radio station in 2013 after Gandolfini’s death. “A generous guy. The guy gave us $33,000 each—16 people. In Season 4 he called every one of the regular castmembers and gave us a check. He said, ‘Thanks for sticking by me.’ It’s like buying 16 people a car.” 

“Jim was a brilliant actor but a complicated guy to deal with,” Mike Lombardo, HBO’s former president of programming said in Tinderbox.

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For years now, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has floated the idea of a mid-season tournament that could potentially have implications on the playoff picture. Essentially, this tournament would be similar to what we see in European soccer, and it would involve teams getting together for some group play, which would lead to tournament style eliminations. There would be a huge cash prize attached to this, and while fans think it could be interesting, the players are lukewarm on it.

The idea has been presented and rejected numerous times, but it seems like Adam Silver is desperate to make it work. With Christmas Day games going down today, it is now being reported that the NBA would like future Christmas cycles to include the aforementioned tournament.

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According to Adrian Wojnarowski, the idea that the league wants to go with is a tournament where the games start in Early December and by Christmas, the tournament has been completed. There would probably be just eight teams who make the knockout tournament, although it remains to be seen if the whole league would participate in any given year.

For now, the talks are still in the preliminary stages, so stay tuned to HNHH as we will be sure to bring you all of the latest updates from around the NBA.

Julia Fox, best known for her breakout role in the Safdie Brother’s 2019 film, Uncut Gems, called out her “dead beat alcoholic drug addict,” baby daddy on Instagram ahead of Christmas. She joked that the father of her child, Peter Artemiev, can be found “at most strip clubs, Lucien, Paul’s [Baby Grand], Casablanca, the streets etc.”

In another post on her story, she added: “I just don’t want my son fucked up cuz he feels like his dad was absent or loved alcohol and partying more than him. As a mother anyone could understand that. TAKE CARE OF YOUR KIDS MEN!!! AND OTHER MEN, HOLD DEAD BEAT DADS ACCOUNTABLE!!! It’s damn near 2022 how can u say u care about women and mothers and single mothers and ur out here enabling the behavior!!!”

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Fox and Artemiev married in November 2018. Their son was born in February 2021.

Artemiev responded to the accusations in a statement provided to Page Six. Artemiev writes that he “was saddened to learn of the utterly false statements made on social media by Julia Fox, my co-parent, who is clearly struggling. Out of respect for her privacy and to protect our child, I will not comment further.”

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Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers used to have a bit of a contentious relationship, however, this has changed over the years. Now, the two embrace each other and as Rodgers looks to surpass Favre’s Packers touchdown record, Favre is offering all of his support. In fact, Rodgers will likely pass Favre’s mark as he is currently tied for the record going into the Packers’ Christmas Day game against the Cleveland Browns.

Recently, Favre spoke to TMZ Sports about the record, and as he explained, he is very happy for Rodgers. He even had some wild praise, as he made the claim that despite his one Super Bowl, he is still a top five quarterback of all-time. Favre firmly believes Tom Brady and Joe Montana are 1-2 on the list, but Rodgers is safely on the top five.

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“You have to put Tom Brady and Joe Montana right at the top,” Favre said. “And I think Aaron Rodgers falls in the top five. I think Aaron should be in the top five. If he quit today, he’s a top five guy.”

In the eyes of many, Rodgers is a top five talent, but he doesn’t necessarily have the resume. Regardless, Favre is giving him some massive praise, which must be a nice Christmas gift for the Packers QB.

Stephen A. Smith is known for delivering a ton of hot takes that can sometimes upset fans and even players. Regardless, Smith knows that his style is what has gotten him this far in his career, and as a result, he hasn’t slowed down. This year has been a particularly solid opportunity for Smith to show off his hot takes, and prior to the Christmas Day slate today, Smith decided to make Donovan Mitchell his latest target.

As it stands, Mitchell is on the Utah Jazz and last year, he led the team to a first place finish in the Western Conference. Mitchell continues to be one of the best players in the league, and recently, Smith made the claim that Mitchell is actually the most talented player in the history of the Jazz franchise.

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“I will remind y’all that even though he doesn’t have the resume, I’m not comparing resumes, Donovan Mitchell is the greatest talent in the history of the Jazz franchise. A better talent than Karl Malone, a better talent than John Stockton,” Smith said. As you can imagine, this drew pushback from fans as Stockton is considered to be the greatest passer ever, all while Malone has the second most points in the entire history of the NBA. 

Regardless, you have to applaud Smith for at least attempting to get this one off. After all, today’s Christmas and this is Smith’s gift to us.