Month: November 2020

President Trump’s fond of the ALL-CAPS phone button that allows him to get shouty in text form. Most notoriously, he used the method to make “ROID RAGE” trend while he was pumped full of steroids in October, but he busted the CAPS out again on the Saturday night before Election Day. The occasion? Trump appeared to be very excited to see supporters in Texas form a dangerous, so-called “Trump Train” amid highway-speed traffic while surrounding a Biden-Harris campaign bus. According to the Texas Tribune, the FBI is currently investigating the confrontation (which led to “at least one minor collision”) on 1-35 in Hays County, but Trump seems thrilled.

The president of the United States tweeted video footage of the incident while typing, “I LOVE TEXAS!”

The “highway skirmish” included a swarm of truck-driving MAGA fans brandishing Trump flags. According to USA Today, the Biden campaign called 911 and reported to law enforcement that the trucks “surrounded the bus, trying to slow it down in the middle of the highway or run it off the road.” Local law enforcement then assisted the bus in reaching Austin as planned, but the confrontation prompted Texas Democrats to cancel three campaign events over “safety concerns.”

Biden’s Texas communications director, Tariq Thowfeek, issued the following statement:

“Rather than engage in productive conversation about the drastically different visions that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have for our country, Trump supporters in Texas [Friday] instead decided to put our staff, surrogates, supporters, and others in harm’s way.”

Obviously, Trump approves of what happened, but some Americans are appalled.

Is November 3 here yet?

(Via Texas Tribune & USA Today)

The Cleveland Browns are playing host to the Las Vegas Raiders on this fine Sunday afternoon, and the Lake Effect is, well, in full effect at FirstEnergy Stadium on the banks of Lake Erie.

At present (1:20 p.m. ET) it is a balmy 43 degrees in Cleveland with winds of, I kid you not, 38 miles per hour. That is some pretty ridiculous wind power and it is wreaking havoc on every effort to put the football in the air in Cleveland. The two quarterbacks are a combined 5-of-9 for a robust 35 yards to start the game, as pushing the ball down the field is nearly impossible, but the real example of how ridiculous the wind is comes in the kicking game.

On their first possession, the Raiders got it into what would normally be field goal range, but as the wind howled across the field from right to left, it made it pretty much impossible to accurately judge how the ball would be effected. The result: one of the funniest things you’ll see today as the football starts at the right upright and gets blown across to miss off of the outside of the left upright.

Weeeee! It looks like a snap hook, but was probably actually a well struck kick. I don’t anticipate a lot of long field goal attempts the rest of the way in Cleveland, but if they try them, we will provide further updates on the wind carnage on the lake.

NLE Choppa found success in many ways this year. The Memphis native shared his debut album, Top Shotta, one that featured a good amount of highlight releases including “Walk Em Down” with Roddy Ricch. Soon after he earned a spot in the 2020 XXL Freshman class list alongside notable newcomers like Jack Harlow, Chicka, Mulatto, Polo G, and more.

Despite the success, NLE Choppa announced he was going to switch things up for the foreseeable future, promising to no longer rap about violence in his music. Staying true to this promise, he returns with a video for “Bryson” off his newly-released album, From Dark To Light.

The video finds Choppa living up to the positive lifestyle that he promised he would take on in his future music. Depicting himself as a neighborhood hero, the Memphis native gives back to the community while also using his peace and positivity to save his fellow neighbors from danger. One of 13 songs off From Dark To Light, the project also presents guest appearances from Big Sean and Ink.

The Memphis native first previewed the shift in musical content last month when he announced his decision to no longer rap about violence. “Ion Rap Bout Violence Nomo. If You Hear It From Me It’s A Old Song,” he said in a tweet. “I Wanna Spread Positivity And Wake People Up. I’ll Still Drop Them For Y’all Tho But Just Know I’m On To Better I’m Tryna grow I Got More To Talk about Now.”

You can watch the “Bryson” video above.

From Dark To Light is out now via Warner. Get it here.

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

For the first time in more than seven years, The Strokes reappeared to the music world back in April with their fifth album, The New Abnormal. The project was the group’s long-awaited follow up to 2013’s Comedown Machine. Continuing to promote the new release, The Strokes returned to a platform they are very much familiar with, that being Saturday Night Live.

Bringing their talents to the late-night show for Halloween, the band’s appearance marks the fourth time they performed on the SNL stage. In their return, they performed “The Adults Are Talking” and “Bad Decisions,” both off The New Abnormal album.

Shortly after the release of The New Abnormal, Julian Casablancas revealed that the project was not his favorite release in The Strokes’ discography. “It’s my fourth favorite record I’ve ever been a part of,” he said in an interview with Los Angeles Times. When pushed for a more detailed answer, he said the band’s 2001 album, Is This It, and 2003 album, Room On Fire, were projects he felt were better than The New Abnormal.

John Mulaney also hosted the SNL episode for the second time this year and the fourth time overall in his career. After the October 31 episode, the show revealed that Dave Chapelle would host the show on November 7, but a musical guest for the episode was not revealed at the time of the announcement.

Season 2 of The Mandalorian premiered to great fanfare this weekend on Disney+, as the streaming service’s biggest hit series returned with its longest episode yet, once again following Mando and Baby Yoda’s quest through the galaxy.

Last holiday season, Baby Yoda and Mandalorian merchandise became must-haves for fans of the franchise, and it appears companies are ready to double down on Mando merch this winter as well. Microsoft unveiled a new Mandalorian themed Xbox controller that will be compatible with the upcoming next-gen Xbox Series X/S as well as with an Xbox One, and the privilege of owning the beskar steel inspired controller and charging dock comes with quite the price tag: $169.99.

Yes, that is correct, this controller — which, to be clear, has no additional features that make it special beyond the design — will run you a good $70 more than if you bought a regular controller and charging stand. It also, as our Ryan Nagelhout pointed out to me, doesn’t have the same functions as the official Series X controller, as there is no dedicated screenshot button. It does look pretty cool, as it’s made to look like Mando’s armor and even features a little Baby Yoda wanted poster on the back of the battery cover, but it is a steep price point for pre-order for the Dec. 31 release.

Halloween in 2020 was much different than it was in recent years. The lingering coronavirus pandemic made a regular celebration difficult and highly unadvised. However, this didn’t stop a number of notable names in the music world from getting into the holiday spirit and dressing up in elaborate costumes to show off to their fans and fellow peers. Thanks to their makeup teams and stylists, the celebs successfully pulled off their costumes, most of which kept their fans entertained as well (hopefully) stayed safe and out of harm’s way.

Saweetie got things started early with her costume as she recreated Destiny Child’s “Bootylicious” single artwork and video. The execution was perfect enough that Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, both who are members of Destiny’s Child, praised the “Tap In” rapper for her costume. Days later, she appeared as Mystique alongside her boyfriend Quavo, who appeared as The Beast.

Lil Nas X also got a head start with his costume, one that found him heading back to his life as a Nicki Minaj super stan as he dressed up from head to toe like the “Super Bass” rapper.

Another highlight costume came from Cardi and she donned and flashy and intricate Medusa outfit, one that came with beautiful snakes on her head and gold accessories from top to bottom.

The Weeknd also showed off an impressive costume as he dressed up as The Nutty Professor.

Ciara kept fans entertained all throughout Halloween as she dressed up as Cardi B from her Invasion Of Privacy cover, Megan Thee Stallion from her “Girls In The Hood” single artwork, Nicki Minaj from her infamous cheetah print outfit at the 2007 Grammy awards, and Janet Jackson from her “What’s It Gonna Be!?” video with Busta Rhymes thanks to some help from hubby Russell Wilson.

Singer and actress Ryan Destiny arguably had the most on-point costume of the night as she blew fans away with her recreation of an iconic Lauryn Hill photo.

Halsey spent quite a while preparing for Halloween as she dressed up as Corpse Bride, while Flo Milli honored TLC’s Left Eye with her costume.

While this wasn’t done by a musical artist, fashion model Tabria Majors recreated a slew of scenes from Beyonce’s musical career in what was a phenomenal 10-minute video. From the makeup to the styling to the choreography, Majors blew fans away with her video.

The aforementioned names are just a small portion of all the costumes that were displayed on Halloween. Scroll down and take a gander at some other costumes from this year’s Halloween season.

Some artists mentioned are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music.

Let me just preface this by saying that I have been very hard on Fear the Walking Dead over the years. The series started slow and didn’t start to gain any sort of foothold until Season 3, after which point the show’s original showrunner, Dave Erickson, parted ways, and AMC brought in Ian Goldberg and Andrew Chambliss. They managed to deliver the best 8 episodes of the series’ run before making the biggest mistake of the entire series by killing off Madison Clark.

It’s been mostly downhill since, as the showrunners brought in new characters (some successful, some not); experimented with the storytelling devices (sometimes successfully, usually not, especially in the case of those documentary episodes); and rotated through a series of terrible protagonists. The back half of Season 4 and, especially, Season 5 were so immensely frustrating, in part, because Fear has such a terrific and talented cast, including Alycia Debnam-Carey (horribly utilized in Season 5); Colman Domingo (who forgot who he was in Season 5, which is a little bit shifty); Rubén Blades (always great); and the phenomenal Garrett Dillahunt, who was mostly frittered away last season. That’s not even to mention two fan favorites from The Walking Dead, Morgan Jones — who became one of the biggest sources of frustration last season — and Dwight, who came over from TWD and immediately got sucked into the vortex of awful. The series even managed to waste the talents of Karen David and Jenna Elfman, and I won’t even talk about what a black hole the character of Luciana has become.

But then everything changed. I’m still not sure how because the creative team behind Fear the Walking Dead has not changed. However, they did decide to take a different approach to the series, separating the characters into different communities, all under the thumb of the series’ best villain by a mile, Virginia. Now, each episode centers on two or three characters at a time and tells smaller, more focused stories, all of which have been very, very good. The first three episodes of the season have been three of the best the series has ever delivered. I’ve seen tonight’s episode, too, centering on Dillahunt’s John Dorie, and it may be the best of the bunch.

I have tried to tell friends who bailed on Fear that the series is good again … or great for the first time. They are reluctant to believe me. I don’t blame them, honestly. The turnaround is really something you have to see because it’s otherwise hard to believe. But it really is better, and if you can’t take my word for it, take the word of social media and the fan community, which is every show’s harshest critic.

The fourth episode of the sixth season airs tonight on AMC. It’s a great, heartbreaking episode, as Fear continues in its peak form.

SNL‘s final pre-election cold open was once again political in nature, but with no debates to skewer and just days before voting ends, the show elected to let Jim Carrey’s Joe Biden tell a spooky story about polling errors. Saturday’s John Mulaney-hosted episode didn’t feature Alec Baldwin’s Trump, but the ghosts of his surprise victory in the 2016 election over Hillary Clinton remained.

“Good evening, America. It’s a spooky time filled with demons and darkness,” Carrey’s Biden said. “Also, it’s Halloween. For some Trump voters, it’s the only day they’ll wear a mask.”

The sketch is a parody of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven,” a lyrical breakdown of what’s coming in the days ahead featuring Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton and a warning that, despite Biden’s promising poll numbers in the days before an election with a startling lack of undecided voters up for grabs, things could still go wrong for Biden like they did for Clinton four years ago.

“They say I’m eight points ahead. Poll numbers like that only go wrong once in a blue moon,” Carrey’s Biden said before a blue moon was shown in the sky outside.

The show even brought out a pollster, Nate Silver, to riff on what happened in 2016. The sketch also featured Maya Rudolph’s Kamala Harris, an appearance by Mitch McConnell’s purple hands and Carrey putting on Biden’s signature aviators because, well, of course. With election day days away and another new SNL coming on Saturday, the hope is that something much more concrete will be the focus of the next cold open. Because in this one, all anyone could really focus on was fear.

Gervonta Davis and Leo Santa Cruz met on Halloween night in a battle for two division belts, as Davis put his WBA Super Lightweight title on the line against Santa Cruz’s WBA Super World Super Featherweight title. The two met at 130 pounds, with Davis as the bigger, stronger puncher and Santa Cruz as the slighter, longer fighter, and through five rounds, it was a tight, action-packed fight.

The fourth round saw tons of action as the two exchanged big punches as Santa Cruz stayed true to his word to do everything he could to make it an interesting and exciting fight for the fans.

However, that same uppercut that he somehow shook off in the fourth round came back in the sixth and put Santa Cruz out cold, as Davis rocked him in the corner and left the former four-division champ folded up on himself and under the ring ropes.

It was a brutal left uppercut that, the moment it landed, Davis knew was the punch that won him the fight as he simply turned and walked away having collected his 24th career win and 23rd career knockout, still with an unblemished resume. It was the kind of fight fans love to see and while it was a scary moment as Santa Cruz lay motionless under the ropes, he would eventually get to his feet but Davis’ power proved to be too much in this one.

Davis cements his place as one of the absolute best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, taking out a multiple time champion in Santa Cruz and certainly looks to be the beast of the 135-pound division where he’ll return surely looking to continue his dominance.

Saturday’s League of Legends World Championship in Shanghai was the conclusion of what’s been an unprecedented year for the eSports competition. China’s LoL league was one of the first to be interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and one of the first to return to play. League of Legends leagues across the world saw various restrictions and stoppages, but DAMWON Gaming’s 3-1 win over Suning gave them the title, meaning the Summoner’s Cup will return to Korea for the first time in three years.

To celebrate the season and in an effort to thank fans, Mastercard gave fans a chance to snag World Championship gear from a capsule collection celebrating a decade of League of Legends eSports. The collection has a number of items, each $10 and including a signature cloak, a long-sleeved shirt, a duffel bag and a “Take Over” puzzle.

The celebration also included the company’s “Priceless” Experiences collection that featured LoL pros, streamers and on-air talent along with in-game digital promotions or Riot Points. Events including Q&A sessions, virtual meet and greets and other less tangible rewards are also available in addition to the capsule collection, which went on sale on Halloween alongside the start of the World Championship Finals in Shanghai.