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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Speaks On LeBron Potentially Claiming Scoring Record
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one of the greatest basketball players of all time and he is consistently respected as such. The NBA legend has the record for the most points scored in a career, although LeBron James is fast approaching as he is just 3,020 points behind. It could take LeBron a couple of more seasons before he reaches the record, and fans are excited to see it happen.
Understandably, one might assume that Kareem would see things differently. You never want to see your records get broken, especially by the younger generations. Despite this, Kareem takes a different approach to his record. While speaking to Marc Stein, the Lakers legend noted that he is looking forward to LeBron’s next achievement and that he even hopes he’s there to witness it.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Turner Sports
“I’m excited to see it happen. I don’t see records as personal accomplishments, but more as human achievements,” Kareem said. “If one person can do something that’s never been done, that means we all have a shot at doing it. It’s a source of hope and inspiration. Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile back in 1954. Since then, not only have 1,400 runners beaten that time, but the new record is 17 seconds less. We all win when a record is broken and if LeBron breaks mine, I will be right there to cheer him on.”
Just like Kareem, LeBron is considered to be one of the greatest to ever do it, and if he reaches the scoring record, he will have yet another accolade on his Hall of Fame resume. No matter what happens, both of them are cemented in basketball history.
Harry How/Getty Images
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Adidas Yeezy Boost 700 V2 “Mauve” Officially Unveiled: Photos
Kanye West’s obsession with dad shoes truly began in 2017 as he launched the Adidas Yeezy Boost 700 in the “Wave Runner” colorway. Eventually, this sneaker became a massive success and to this day, it is still getting new colorways. In the aftermath of this release, Kanye came up with the Adidas Yeezy Boost 700 V2, which was a doubling down of his original dad shoe design. Since that time, the 700 V2 has received a whole fleet of new models and in 2021, it will get another.
This new offering is being dubbed “Mauve” and it is a lot like the “Mauve” that we saw on the original 700. This colorway is filled with neutral tones that appear to be brown on the surface, although there are some hints of purple throughout that give the shoe its name. Overall, it is a colorway that is both clean and unique, which should be enough for it to be a success on the sneaker market.
For now, a release date has not been announced although you can expect it to drop sometime this Fall for a price of $240 USD. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, and stay tuned to HNHH for all of the latest updates from the world of sneakers.
Image via Adidas
Image via Adidas
Image via Adidas
Image via Adidas
Image via Adidas
Tank Finally Brings Back Catalog To Streaming Platforms
As of today, three of Tank’s most beloved albums — 2001’s Force of Nature, 2002’s One Man, and 2007’s Sex, Love & Pain — have officially been added to streaming platforms for the first time. It should be noted that rights to the project belong to Blackground Records, the label that notoriously held onto Aaliyah’s entire catalog up until recently.
Speaking with Rolling Stone, Tank opened up about how the transition to DSPs has left him with a “bittersweet” feeling. “It’s bitter because I’ve missed out on 10 years’ worth of revenue, 10 years’ worth of discovery,” he admits, before shifting perspectives. “Now people will know I was an artist that existed before 2010. I go back — and there’s music to prove it.”
Paras Griffin/Getty Images
While Tank’s comments about his existence are clearly exaggerated, it’s still a pointed remark on how younger audiences who have grown up during the streaming era might find themselves limited through behind-the-scenes circumstances. Of course, Tank’s many loyal fans likely found ways to keep his music on rotation, though it’s entirely possible that many of his classic cuts were streamed through unofficial sources.
If you’re feeling nostalgic, be sure to go and revisit Force of Nature, One Man, and Sex, Love & Pain on whatever streaming platform you favor. You likely won’t be alone. Once upon a time, Tank’s output was moving heavy on the Billboard charts, with Force Of Nature debuting at #7, and the Grammy-nominated Sex, Love & Pain debuting at #2. Congratulations to Tank for this milestone, bittersweet though it may feel right now.
Do you have any love for Tank’s early output?
“Montero” Rollout Prompts T-Pain To Say Other Rappers Are “Too Gangsta To Make More Money”
T-Pain is no stranger to shaking up the music industry and more specifically, the rap game.
Coming onto the scene as the rapper most known for his use of autotune, T-Pain recently revealed that other artists felt he had done a disservice to the music and weren’t shy about letting him know that.
Jay-Z notably wrote and released “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune) but in an episode that triggered a four-year period of depression for the “Buy U a Drank” singer, a flight attendant on the plane taking Pain to the 2013 Bet Awards woke the singer up and told him Usher needed to speak with him. What started as small talk eventually escalated and ended with Usher telling Pain, “You really, like, f**ked up music for real singers.”
Marcus Ingram/Getty Images
Pain said that the depression that followed resulted from Usher’s comments and the possibility that the “Love in This Club” singer was correct. “Is he right? Did I f**k up music?” Pain said he wondered to himself.
T-Pain, however, made it to the other side and after finally checking those hidden DM requests, has begun fighting for artists, earlier this year lamenting over artists only making a miniscule 12 per cent of the $17B profit record labels bring in and today, Pain hopped on Twitter to air out his thoughts on Lil Nas X and the rest of the hip-hop world.
First writing that there are rappers with “3x the budget that Lil Nas X got and still can’t do what he do because they too cool to be funny,” Pain continued on, saying that other rappers are “too gangsta to make more money,” and capping it with “you ain’t gotta kiss a dude in the mouth but I also don’t need to feel like I’m gonna die watching ur video.”
Lil Nas X, who has been on an incredible run recently, just dropped his debut album Montero, which was preceded by one of the funnier album rollouts in recent history including lapdances for Satan, pink prison uniforms, a mock daytime talk show and the most important part — a two-week pregnancy and the birth of Baby Montero. All of this kept Lil Nas at the top of nearly every conversation and with the exception of those appalled at nearly everything the 22-year-old rapper says or does, it was because the album rollout was grandiose and funny.
T-Pain recognized that and clearly thinks more rappers could benefit from incorporating more comedic elements into their processes. He didn’t say anybody else had to fake a pregnancy or anything like that either, he just said there’s people out there taking themselves too seriously who could make more money just by easing up.
Do you agree? Or is T-Pain way off base here? Let us know in the comments.
Kyle Dion Continues To Break The Rules With The Excellent ‘Sassy’ And He Wants You To Do The Same
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
“Let’s break the rules.”
These are the words singer Kyle Dion blares out on the opening track to his third album Sassy. This idea of negating the world’s expectations isn’t a newly-discovered concept for the Los Angeles-based singer, he’s been doing that from the very start. From his 2016 debut Painting Sounds through his 2019 sophomore effort Suga, Kyle Dion has made his uniqueness very clear. He possesses the energy of a rockstar, has one of the more impressive voices in the R&B world, carries an impenetrable confidence like most rappers do, and he does all of this while traversing the world like an indie act. It’s these qualities that helped the singer craft his last album, Suga, one of the most impressive R&B albums in 2019. The album’s 13 tracks detailed the rise and fall of love filled with equally climatic and crushing moments. Each was accentuated by the singer’s ability to excellently portray the raw passion needed for whatever emotion was at hand.
With that being said, his invitation to break the rules is more so for we as listeners, and maybe even his contemporaries, to join him in moving against the expected flow of the world. It comes with the hope that we’ll find an exhilarating freedom in doing so. But how does a rule-breaker continue to break the rules in a way that’s still attention-grabbing rather than recycled, repetitive, and even exhausting? Well, for Kyle Dion, he does it by simply having fun. His third album Sassy taps into a different side of his personality, one he describes as “an exaggerated version of myself.” However, even Dion has set boundaries for his anti ways. “I’ll never make the same song or album twice,” he says over a Zoom call. “That just doesn’t stimulate me at all and I don’t want to hear that, so I wouldn’t make it.”
It’s a line of thought that Dion said multiple times to me during our conversation. Even without him saying it, one might have guessed it as his mantra after listening to Sassy. The 17-track album is lively in ways that even the most energetic moments of his previous two projects hadn’t reached. “Parmesan” welcomes your best dance moves while Dion sings of his saucy ways and “Drip” with Duckwrth picks up the pace for an infectious number that commends a woman’s spotlight moment during a night out. “Money” is a cut-throat record that happily accepts the idea that cash ruling everything around him while “Fix Vision” with Channel Tres praises a woman’s beauty on the beautifully constructed track.
Kyle Dion’s change of emphasis on Sassy came after he discovered a falling point with his 2019 album. “I remember going to my friend’s house and they couldn’t play a song of mine on Suga at a kickback or something because it was not the wave,” he says. “I want to be played at a kickback, I want girls to be twerking and sh*t. I want to be played at different things.” So after touring the United States and Europe, all while having a blast with friends as he created moments like partying and “peeing in a lake and sh*t” in Amsterdam as well as the “lit as hell” experiences of Chicago, Dion set his mind on making a more outdoor-friendly album. While some may have not caught on to his versatility yet, the singer is very aware of his Rolodex of talents. “I can do many things and I’m not scared to show people that I can do many things, I don’t want people to expect things.”
And there it began. Sassy and all its beauty slowly came together, and as Dion worked to put the pieces together, there was one thing he was sure of. “One thing that I’m always gonna be able to do is sing my ass off,” he proclaims. “I’m always going to incorporate that into everything that I do, but there are no rules in what I’m able to do. I can do whatever I want as an artist.” It’s this refusal to conform that also welcomes a surprising, unexpected, but pleasant guest appearance from Ja Rule on “Placebo.” The New York rapper’s appearance came after Dion jokingly mentioned him after Ja Rule and Jennifer Lopez’s “I’m Real” came to mind while recording “Placebo.” “We just felt like it was funny and kind of a stretch, but we put it out there to my team,” he says. “A member of my team knew Ja Rule’s camp, and we sent it out to them.” Well, it turned out to be a great move as they received more than was asked for. “We were so excited when he sent a verse back instead of adlibs and I was like, ‘Yeah, man, this shi*t’s crazy.”
Furthermore, Dion loved that I labeled Ja Rule’s guest appearance as unexpected because it plays into the random and freeform artist he strives to be. “Like you said, You didn’t expect the pairing and that’s what I love,” he boasts. “I don’t want anyone to expect anything from me because I’m ever-changing, I’m ever-growing, and evolving. That’s what it is.” For some, change is dangerous as it promises an equal chance of rejection as it does praise. It’s something Stormzy alluded to during an interview with Billie Eilish. “Your spirit sometimes wants to stick to what you know,” the British rapper said while speaking about the pains of a sophomore album. “But then you want to venture out and like you’re just trying to figure out… the world really loved me for everything I did the first time around, so how do I approach the second one?”
So in a world where many, understandably, cringe or shudder at the idea of sharing something completely different than what they’ve found great success in and have been typecasted to, Dion practically begs his peers to throw caution into the wind and show their full palette of colors. “People are scared bro, people are so scared to show the range [and] do different sh*t,” he says with a bit of frustration in his tone and later adds, “Do what you want in the moment [and] be unapologetically yourself.” It’s sound advice from the singer who’s spent half a decade doing this. Being a musician is founded on constant leaps of faith as you repeatedly subject yourself to criticism or acclaim with every release. However, there’s a reason the saying “you miss every shot you don’t take” exists.
One of my favorite aspects of Sassy comes right after Dion’s collaboration with Ja Rule. Following “Placebo,” the flashing lights and pyrotechnics that come with the show that Dion puts on throughout the album are replaced with a single dim light as the singer’s tender touch returns to the forefront. “Comfortable” provides a warm blanket to a lover in hopes that the gesture will provoke them into opening up and showing him their true self. “Kiss Me Back” uses an endearing collection of guitar chords to beg for reciprocation and his “Good Bye, Good Luck” interlude lets go of a love he so desperately hoped would last forever. This versatility, and mastery in controlling it all, is truly impressive. It’s sequenced perfectly into the album making it a smooth transition into this relaxed moment as well as one out of it as the singer laughs off his sad-boy moment to return to the fun and bring the album to a close.
Sassy is filled with color from top to bottom and Kyle Dion is aware of it. The album isn’t painted within some imaginary lines that were set for it. That would quite literally go against the boundary-breaking agenda that the singer set for it. Instead, it contains splatters of vibrant coloring all over the canvas, and even if it doesn’t amount to a beautiful work of art in society’s eyes, it’s elegant enough for Dion and he’s happy that he did it that way. “I just threw up on this album and [it’s] like, “What do I do now? What’s next?” he ponders as our conversation nears an end. “Just as a young man growing into myself, I’m so curious as to where I’m gonna be next and where I’m gonna go next, but I’m happy that I let that out.”
Being a rule-breaker requires you to put up blinders to how people may respond to you. Going against the grain is rarely applauded, and it’s something the singer understands with his third album. “I did this one unapologetically, this is how I’m feeling, take it, love it, or don’t,” he says to me. However, even this rebel can’t help but hope for one thing from the world that consumes Sassy. “Do what you want and f*cking respect people that just put their sh*t out there and be f*cking free, unapologetic, and exactly who they are,” he declares. “If you don’t like it, that’s fine, but you got to respect it. That’s what I want, people should do whatever they want. That’s it.”
I think we can all agree with that.
Sassy is out now via Kyle Dion/AWAL Recordings. Get it here.
Gunna’s Charitable Efforts Were Honored With A ‘Gunna Day’ In South Fulton, Georgia
This week, YSL Records rapper Gunna became the latest entertainer from the hip-hop world to be honored with a hometown holiday as South Fulton, Georgia declared September 16 Gunna Day to honor the rapper’s philanthropic efforts in the area. Gunna hails from neighboring College Park and has focused his community outreach in the area through projects like Gunna’s Drip Closet and Goodr Grocery Store. In addition, his Gunna Great Giveaway Foundation has hosted free grocery stores in the community and helped families in Houston, Texas survive this year’s winter storms after the intense cold disrupted the city’s infrastructure.
.@1GunnaGunna received his own day in South Fulton, GA!
pic.twitter.com/W1ZHr9ARAc
— UPROXX Music (@uproxxmusic) September 17, 2021
South Fulton Mayor William “Bill” Edwards announced the honor at a special event on Thursday, saying, “I hereby proclaim Sept. 16 as Sergio Giavanni ‘Gunna’ Kitchens Day in the City of South Fulton.” He also presented the rapper with a proclamation noting his efforts which read, “Gunna is committed to giving back to the community that raised him, buffered him, sheltered him and supported him by creating Gunna’s Drip Closet and Goodr Grocery Store, which is set to provide students of McNair Middle School with access to free meals, clothing, and toiletries for years to come.”
Earlier this year, Gunna and his YSL labelmates also hosted dinner for 30 Fulton County Jail inmates and their families after paying their bail, celebrating with the video for “Paid The Fine.” Previously, Houston’s Travis Scott was honored with his own “Astroworld Day” in 2018.
Gunna is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Is This Cam Newton’s Burner Account?
Burner accounts have been a hot topic of discussion ever since Kevin Durant got caught for having one back in 2017. At the time, it was pretty embarrassing and while KD has gotten over it, it’s something that made a lot of people laugh. Since that time, fans have always been on the hunt for burner accounts and suspicious tweets that feel as though they are too inauthentic to have come from a fan.
Now, it appears as though Cam Newton may very well be on the burner account hot seat. A Reddit user by the name of u/Spinexel recently came across a truly bizarre Twitter account by the name of @partridgelady, and as you will see, the tweets are way too Newton-centric to be real.
Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
In the pinned tweet below, the user tags themself in the quote tweets of a post that praises Newton for his professionalism during his time with the Patriots. While this might not be all that suspicious, one would just have to look at all of the other tweets below to see exactly what we are talking about.
As you can see, the account is constantly defending Cam while offering some insight that typically doesn’t come from fans. For instance, the account is claiming that Newton carried the Carolina Panthers all while slandering the various coaches on the team. From there, we have plenty of tweets about how Bill Belichick did Cam dirty and that he is no longer a true legend.
Of course, there is no guarantee this is Newton, however, the tweets are certainly suspicious. There are some fans out there who pretend to be burner accounts, which is definitely a lot shadier than an athlete making such an account themselves.
Either way, at least Newton knows he has at least someone in his corner.
Mozzy Puts In Work On “Tycoon”
Today, Cali rapper Mozzy came through and delivered his brand new album Untreated Trauma, itself a powerful statement in itself. With the entire project available to stream right here — featuring guest appearances from EST Gee, Babyface Ray, E. Mozzy, Kalan.FrFr, Celly Ru, and YFN Lucci — it feels appropriate to single out one of the solo highlights, “Tycoon.”
Over a vibey West coast instrumental, Mozzy lets fly a steady stream of rhymes. “Cussin out my bitch hardly ever sober,” he raps, over the off-kilter synthesizers. “I be cussin out my n***a he done sold the blower / Theodork, suckaz out her loafin’ we gon’ blow his motor / old-ass trey five-seven you got deserve a holster.”
It’s a simple and effective dose of hard-hitting bars from one of the West’s most consistent, so be sure to check out “Tycoon” right here and now.
Quotable Lyrics
Cussin out my bitch hardly ever sober
I be cussin out my n***a he done sold the blower
Theodork, suckaz out her loafin’ we gon’ blow his motor
Old-ass trey five-seven you got deserve a holster
Clippers Reveal The Name Of Their New Stadium
Steve Ballmer and the Clippers have big plans for the future as they are in the midst of delivering a brand new stadium that is set to be ready for the 2024-25 season. This arena is going to be in Inglewood and it will finally allow for the Clippers to have their own home outside of the Staples Center. Everyone knows that the Staples Center is the home of the Lakers, and it was about time the Clippers leave.
The concept photos for this new arena are quite impressive as there will be various fan experiences that are part of the arena’s expansive size. When all is said and done, it could very well be one of the nicest arenas in professional sports.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Recently, Ballmer made some big announcements related to the new arena. For instance, the team has signed a 23-year naming rights deal with a tech company called Intuit. Moving forward, the Clippers’ arena will be referred to as Intuit Dome, and it is something that Ballmer is undeniably excited about.
“When we began the search for a partner for the L.A. Clippers and our new dome, we looked for one that shares our passion for technology, the pursuit of innovation and our commitment to customers, fans and community,” Ballmer explained. “Intuit is a perfect fit, and we’re excited to be calling our future home the Intuit Dome.”
If you are a Clippers fan, there is a lot to be excited about here. This arena is about to cost $1.8 billion, and hopefully, the final result will be well worth every penny.
[Via]