Year: 2022

In the latest NFT news from Snoop Dogg, the rapping multihyphenate will appear on a series of NFT comic book covers. The Death Row records owner will grace five different covers of “Supercuzz,” a comic book series by crypto marketplace MakersPlace.

“Supercuzz” will see Snoop play the titular character—a superhero saving the day in the fictional “Angel City.”

“Snoop Dogg and BossLogic are two iconic forces in their respective crafts and are both pioneers in the NFT space,” said MakersPlace CEO Craig Palmer in a statement. “We’re honored to host the release of ‘Supercuzz’ collection on MakersPlace and give art enthusiasts accessibility in purchasing NFT’s from their favorite creators.”

Over the past year, Snoop has become a force in the realm of NFTs. Last year, he revealed himself to be the owner of @CozomoMedici, a popular NFT Twitter account. In February, he purchased Death Row Records, the former of the “Gin And Juice” rapper, Dr. Dre, and Tupac, and announced plans to turn it into an “NFT Label.”

Weeks after the announcement, fans noticed that some of the label’s iconic albums, including Snoop’s Doggystyle, and Dr. Dre’s The Chronic went missing from streaming services.

In addition to his recent NFT projects, Snoop also joined FaZe Clan as a member of the esports brand’s board of directors and talent. With this new partnership, he plans to launch a community outreach program.

Lil Durk’s 7220 rollout continued last night with a chilled performance of album standouts “Ahhh Ha” and “Petty Too” with Future on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Durk utilized a stripped-down stage setup and plenty of smoke effects to accentuate the verbal gymnastics the two rappers share on their joint song, while Future surprised fans popping out to perform his verse on “Petty Too” to the crowd’s delight.

Durk’s new album, which also features his surprising collaboration with Morgan Wallen, “Broadway Girls,” and the singles “Golden Child” and “Barbarian,” is projected for a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 — the first of Durk’s decade-long career. Of his questionable “Broadway Girls” collaborator, Durk was gracious despite the country star’s racial slur controversy, saying, “Nah, he ain’t no racist. That’s my boy… we had [a talk] behind closed doors, and I’ll vouch for him and he good.”

Meanwhile, Durk’s tenure on Alamo has been so successful — his numbers have trended skyward with each new release, to the point he’s considered a genuine superstar within rap — that he was recently able to boast that the label “gave” him $40 million to re-sign.

Watch Lil Durk perform “Ahhh Ha” and “Petty Too” with Future on The Tonight Show above.

7220 is out now on Alamo / Only The Family. Get it here.

The Golden State Warriors are firmly in the mix for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, and the team’s 47-22 overall record would rank No. 1 if transposed to the Eastern Conference. To put it plainly, it has been a fantastic overall season for the Warriors, especially when viewed through the lens of preseason expectations. However, the Warriors opened the 2021-22 campaign with 18 wins in the first 20 games, and Golden State has leveled off, at least to some degree, since that early barrage. Part of that can be attributed to player availability, but a funny thing happened on Monday evening in that Golden State was back to (relatively) full strength.

Draymond Green returned from an absence of more than two months, and he looked lot like Draymond Green in a win over the Washington Wizards. Of course, Stephen Curry was on the on-court story, scoring 47 points on his birthday, and that came on the heels of a 38-point outburst from Klay Thompson in Golden State’s previous win over Milwaukee. All told, the Warriors are on a four-game winning streak as they prepare for a nationally televised showdown against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday.

The overarching question is just how good the Warriors are this season, and a simple measure might be the team’s 29-6 record in games in which Green plays. That is a terrifyingly high projection for any squad, but Golden State boasts a +10.6 net rating when Green is on the court, and that balloons to +14.9 in minutes with both Green and Curry together. Thompson isn’t quite back to his old self, but he is clearly a positive influence, and Golden State appears to be back in a groove after a letdown in Greens’s absence.

Everything is measured against the Phoenix Suns, with the Suns cruising to the top overall seed in the NBA, but the Warriors have been neck-and-neck with Phoenix anytime Curry and Green are available. Nothing is assured on the injury front, but Green’s return was a peek into what could be for the Warriors, and with a highly intriguing test arriving on Wednesday, it could be another datapoint in favor of Golden State as co-favorites.

Where do the Warriors stack up in our DIME power rankings this week? Let’s take a glance.

1. Phoenix Suns (55-14, Last week — 1st)

Ho-hum for the Suns. Chris Paul is still out, but Phoenix absolutely throttled the Lakers this weekend and then beat the Pelicans by 16 on the road on Tuesday. If you are making tiers, it is the Suns and everyone else until otherwise noted.

2. Golden State Warriors (47-22, Last week — 10th)

If you examine the performance at full strength, this is where the Warriors should be. If you want to talk about the last month or two, it seems high. We’ll learn more on Wednesday.

3. Miami Heat (46-24, Last week — 2nd)

Miami slides a bit, but it’s mostly that Golden State made a leap. The Heat did get blasted by the Suns to begin the week, but that loss came without Jimmy Butler, providing cover of some sort. Miami still sits atop the East by 2.5 games, though getting the top seed may not be so appealing if the Nets end up in the No. 8 spot.

4. Memphis Grizzlies (48-22, Last week — 4th)

It is Memphis, not Golden State, that has the West’s second-best record. The Grizzlies have won four in a row, but they were “taking care of business” wins against the Pels, Knicks, Thunder and Pacers. Next up is an interesting road trip to Atlanta to take on the Hawks.

5. Milwaukee Bucks (43-26, Last week — 7th)

Brook Lopez is back, and the Bucks are looking like themselves. Granted, Lopez will need time to get settled, but Milwaukee is 7-1 in the last eight games as he returns. Given the pedigree of this group and the wide-open nature of the East, the Bucks feel quite dangerous.

6. Dallas Mavericks (42-26, Last week — 8th)

Dallas suffered a thoroughly bizarre 30-point home loss to the Knicks this week. That was so weird that it’s almost worth throwing out, and the Mavericks are 13-3 in the last 16 games. That includes a very nice road win in Boston on Sunday that facilitates the small bump in the rankings.

7. Boston Celtics (41-28, Last week — 3rd)

As noted above, the Celtics did lose to the Mavs at home, but there is no great shame in that. Boston’s defense continues to be absurd, and the Celtics are 16-3 in the last 19 games. Boston is getting more buzz as an actual contender to reach the NBA Finals, and that is a scenario that is quite reasonable.

8. Denver Nuggets (41-28, Last week — 6th)

After back-to-back home losses, the Nuggets went into Philadelphia and won the first matchup between Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid in a long time. Beyond the standings, Jamal Murray is reportedly getting close, with an appearance at G League practice and all kinds of positive buzz.

9. Brooklyn Nets (36-33, Last week — 15th)

This might be too low for Brooklyn, but the Nets are creeping back up the list. Kevin Durant’s presence immediately makes the Nets a different team, and Brooklyn has won four in a row. Kyrie Irving absolutely erupted for 60 points on Tuesday and, as it turns out, Brooklyn is pretty good when most of their guys can play.

10. Philadelphia 76ers (41-26, Last week — 5th)

It wasn’t the best week for Philly. The 76ers were absolutely throttled by the Nets before losing a home game to the Nuggets. Granted, they beat the Magic in between, but the loss to Brooklyn (on national television and all) has to give the organization some nightmares. That’s how bad it is.

11. Utah Jazz (42-26, Last week — 9th)

Last week, we discussed the mess in the middle of the West, and the Jazz went 2-2 this week. That isn’t catastrophic by any means, but Utah now sits in a tie with Dallas and just 1.5 games ahead of Denver. Every game counts, and the Jazz were sideswiped by the drought they endured without Rudy Gobert on the court.

12. Minnesota Timberwolves (40-30, Last week — 11th)

The Wolves are 8-1 in the last nine games, which speaks for itself. The only loss came to Orlando, which isn’t ideal, but the vibes are very strong on the heels of a 60-point performance from Karl-Anthony Towns. Can the Wolves catch the Nuggets for the No. 6 spot? We’ll see, but Minnesota already having 40 wins is remarkable in itself.

13. Toronto Raptors (38-30, Last week — 14th)

Toronto is on a marathon six-game road trip, but the results have been great. They did lose to Cleveland, but the Raptors then reeled off victories over the Spurs, Suns, Nuggets, and Lakers in succession. Toronto is within one game of Cleveland for the No. 6 seed, though the Raptors do lose the tiebreaker to the Cavs by nature of losing all three regular season tilts to this point.

14. Chicago Bulls (41-27, Last week — 13th)

For most of the season, Chicago’s kryptonite has been when they face good teams. The Bulls are 2-15 against the NBA’s top tier, but Chicago ended this week by losing… to the Kings. That loss keeps the Bulls from rising in the rankings, even if it could potentially be written off as noise.

15. Cleveland Cavaliers (39-29, Last week — 12th)

If the Cavs are going to hold off the Raptors for the No. 6 seed, they will need to do work in the next couple of weeks. Cleveland has seven of the next eight games at home, and that includes home dates against Detroit, Orlando and the Lakers.

16. Atlanta Hawks (34-34, Last week — 17th)

The Hawks are back to .500 for the first time since December, and that is notable. At the same time, Atlanta had to go to the wire to beat the Zombie Pacers and the Zombie Blazers this weekend. The Hawks have a bigger test on Wednesday in Charlotte, and that should spotlight whether Atlanta’s recent gains are real.

17. Charlotte Hornets (34-35, Last week — 18th)

Charlotte just scored 276 points in two games. The opponents were New Orleans and Oklahoma City, but that is wild against anyone with both games ending in regulation. As noted above, the Hornets are also facing a bottom-five defense (Atlanta) on Wednesday.

18. L.A. Clippers (36-35, Last week — 16th)

The Clippers are resilient, competitive, and well-coached. That doesn’t paper over a limited roster, but it’s true. L.A. slips behind Atlanta after a head-to-head loss, but the Clippers might be the epitome of a league-average team this season.

19. New Orleans Pelicans (28-41, Last week — 20th)

It doesn’t feel like anyone wants the No. 10 spot in the West play-in, but the Pelicans still have it. New Orleans is 1-5 in the last six games, and that includes home losses to Orlando and Charlotte. The downturn is explained by the absence of Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum, but the timing wasn’t great. Fortunately, the closest competitor is Portland, and the Blazers rank (spoiler alert!) much lower on this list.

20. Washington Wizards (29-38, Last week — 19th)

A week ago, the Wizards were within 1.5 games of the No. 10 seed. On cue, Washington went 0-4 on a road trip and the gap is now four full games behind Charlotte and 4.5 games behind Atlanta. That doesn’t totally slam the door, but the Wizards need to make a huge run and it doesn’t feel like they can.

21. San Antonio Spurs (26-43, Last week — 21st)

The headliner of the week in San Antonio was Gregg Popovich setting the all-time wins record. This has been an otherwise forgettable season, but giving Popovich attention for that mark is warranted, and the victory came against a good team in the Jazz.

22. New York Knicks (28-40, Last week — 23rd)

The Knicks just won three of the last five games on a road trip. That’s a nice development for New York, and the two losses came by a total of seven points. That doesn’t help the Knicks’ hideous clutch stats, but being competitive is nice.

23. Los Angeles Lakers (29-39, Last week — 22nd)

On the positive side, LeBron scored 50 points in a win over Washington this week. On the pessimistic side, the Lakers lost the other three games on their schedule, including a loss to the hapless Rockets, an absolute annihilation at the ends of the Suns, and a game that is now known for LeBron throwing a basketball.

24. Sacramento Kings (25-45, Last week — 25th)

De’Aaron Fox has scored at least 20 points in every game since he returned from injury on Feb. 8. His bounce-back doesn’t solve every problem for the Kings but, if you’re looking for optimism in the midst of the wreckage, Fox’s recent performance should provide some.

25. Detroit Pistons (18-51, Last week — 24th)

A week ago, the Pistons had won three in a row and they rose in the rankings as a result. This time, they are on a four-game losing streak. Still, Detroit lost to four playoff teams and all four games were competitive. That is a victory in itself, especially when the Pistons need to keep up in the race for lottery position.

26. Indiana Pacers (23-47, Last week — 28th)

Some of the rosters being utilized by the Pacers are pretty gross, and Indiana is 4-14 in the last 18 games. They do have pieces to build with, headlined by Tyrese Haliburton, but Indiana was absolutely smashed by the Ja Morant-less Grizzlies at home on Tuesday.

27. Portland Trail Blazers (26-41, Last week — 26th)

Since the All-Star break, the Blazers have been the worst team in the NBA by a considerable margin. It is easy to see why if you take a glance at the available roster for Portland (sorry, Josh Hart) but the Blazers are 1-7 with a -23.2 net rating in the last eight games. It’s gross.

28. Orlando Magic (18-52, Last week — 29th)

Orlando ends up rising in the rankings one day after losing by 42 points at home. That is the nature of the bottom of the league, but the Magic picked up wins over New Orleans and Minnesota in the last seven days. Unfortunately, Jon Isaac is going to miss the rest of the season, meaning that he will miss more than two full years before presumably returning in 2022-23.

29. Oklahoma City Thunder (20-48, Last week — 27th)

The NBA’s longest active losing streak belongs to the Thunder at six. Five of those six losses came at home and, while the Thunder have been frisky on defense for the full season, OKC’s defensive rating (128.8) in those games was abhorrent. Oklahoma City does have injuries, but it’s ugly on the floor.

30. Houston Rockets (17-51, Last week — 30th)

The Rockets are very bad, but they did beat the Lakers this week! With that out of the way, Jalen Green had 32 points in that game and he is averaging 21 points per game on 52 percent shooting in March. That, along with ping-pong balls, is what the rest of the season is about in Houston.

While we haven gotten a Bon Iver album since 2019’s i,i, Justin Vernon has popped up on a number of projects in recent years, most notably with Big Red Machine and as a collaborator on Taylor Swift’s albums Folklore and Evermore. Today brings another new Vernon appearance: Sylvan Esso’s Psychic Hotline label dropped a new Bon Iver-featuring single from Ethan Gruska, “So Unimportant.”

Gruska — whose credits include both of Phoebe Bridgers’ solo albums, 2017’s Stranger In The Alps and 2020’s Punisher — and Vernon wrote the song long-distance during the pandemic, passing the track back and forth to each other digitally and gradually molding the tune into the slow-burning song it is today.

Vernon says of the track:

“My dear friend and great drummer, JT Bates, showed me the music of Ethan Gruska a number of years ago. It’s not often that something IMMEDIATELY grasps you where you stand like his music did. It only happens a few times in one’s life. Ethan’s musicality and touch has magic in it. We have not yet met in person, but have exchanged the longest, flirtiest texts in history. I hope to be near the mine of his mind for as long as possible. This song is just the first thing I threw at the wall. He scraped it off that wall, and turned it into a song I’ll appreciate forever.”

Gruska also shared a statement:

“Around March 10th of 2020 Justin was supposed to come to LA and we were going to spend a few days making some stuff. Obviously, that didn’t happen… We all went into lockdown shortly after. About two weeks into deep quarantine Justin and I connected and decided it would still be fun to send each other files and try something remotely. So Unimportant was the first thing that came to fruition. Justin and I passed this song and session leisurely back and forth for a while to get it where it is now.

The fact that I now have a song with Justin just completely blows my mind. He’s been my pie in the sky // I’d do anything to collaborate with artist for a really long time and having this song together is one of the most special things that has ever happened to me in my musical life. Life in general!

Justin is my favorite pen pal, person and artist, and I’m so grateful to have made this together!”

Listen to “So Unimportant” above.

Of all the surprise superstars and breakout artists to emerge during the COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps the most unexpected was Jack Harlow. The Kentucky-raised rapper had some buzz before landing his No. 2 single “What’s Poppin” in 2020, but the outsized reaction to that track had many assuming he would just be another hip-hop one-hit-wonder — an expectation that he shattered with his debut album, That’s What They All Say, in 2021. Now, hordes of newly converted fans can’t help wondering when his follow-up is coming, especially after the release of his Drake-esque new single “Nail Tech.”

Harlow answers that question in a new profile in Rolling Stone, revealing that “Nail Tech” isn’t just the beginning but it’s also “probably my least favorite song on the album.” Intriguingly, it appears that Jack revealed the album’s title on Instagram months ago, although no one could have known that at the time. It’s called Come Home The Kids Miss You and it’s projected for a May 6 release date. He says that he prefers his more heartfelt, introspective tracks like “Rendezvous,” promising more on the album.

“My new s*t is much more serious,” he says. “Right now, my message is letting muh’f*ckers know I love hip-hop, and I’m one of the best in my generation. You can’t do that with nonchalant, like, ‘Eeey, I got the bitches,’ in clever ways over and over again. I got to dig deeper this time.”

A 2015 poll of the most commonly misheard songs lyrics of all-time includes the first line from “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” by Eurythmics. The actual lyric: “Sweet dreams are made of this.” The commonly misheard lyric: “Sweet dreams are made of cheese.”

I hate to disagree with the alleged 2,000 UK adults who were polled for the survey, but: no one has ever sang “sweet dreams are made of this” as “sweet dreams are made of cheese” (or “we built this city on rock ‘n’ roll” as “we built this city on sausage rolls,” which also appears on the list). But if the poll had Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-nominated misheard lyric as “sweet dreams are made of these,” I would believe it, because that’s how I sing it every time I hear the song on the radio. I should know better — the parenthetical in the title gives it away — but a) I’m an idiot, and b) I’m not the only one.

On Tuesday’s episode of Wheel of Fortune, contestant Chris Bryant tried to solve the puzzle in the “Song Lyrics” category. The board read, “S_EET _REAMS ARE MA_E O_ THIS.” His guess: “SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THESE.” He got everything right, except for a word that was already complete. What a not-sweet nightmare.

You can watch the clip here.

It’s OK, Chris, other people would have gotten it wrong…

… although some Wheel fans were quick to make fun of him, too.

(Via Yahoo Entertainment)

In mid 2021, Netflix revealed that Mike Myers would play an astounding number of characters (seven) in a new comedic series called The Pentaverate. Well, the Austin Powers frontman decided to drop in a bonus character, and that’s where this teaser comes in. Eight is a lot. This teaser is a lot! The show revolves around the centuries-long aftermath of a catastrophe (the Black Plague of 1347), after which a secret society came together to make sure that humanity’s sh*t doesn’t go off the rails again.

Seems more than a little bit timely. The society’s called (like the show, obv) the Pentaverate, and in addition to Myers’ wild cast of characters, Ken Jeong will play a casino mogul/chaos theory specialist and Keegan-Michael Key will portray a nuclear physicist with Debi Mazar, Richard McCabe, and Jennifer Saunders all picking up similarly extravagant roles. Via Netflix, here’s who Myers will portray:

Ken Scarborough: An old-school Canadian news journalist who sets out to expose the Pentaverate and win his job back
Anthony Lansdowne: A New England conspiracy theorist, determined to expose the Pentaverate
Rex Smith: A far-right radio host and highly prominent conspiracy theorist
Lord Lordington: The Pentaverate’s oldest and highest-ranking member.
Bruce Baldwin: Former media mogul
Mishu Ivanov: Ex-Russian oligarch
Shep Gordon: Former Rock-N-Roll manager
Jason Eccleston: A tech genius who invented the Pentaverate’s super computer, MENTOR

Again, it’s a lot. And since there (probably) won’t be an Austin Powers 4, and the world doesn’t need more of The Love Guru, we can relax and wrap our heads around the Myers madness to come in this series.

Netflix’s The Pentaverate debuts on May 5.

Kristen Stewart is in full press mode as she heads into the 94th Academy Awards with her first Best Actress nomination for Spencer. While the barrage of interviews have focused mainly on her portrayal of Princess Diana and the feeling of entering the Oscar race, Stewart has been candid about her career, including past roles and ones that she left on the table.

In her latest interview, Stewart confirmed that she had been contacted for a cameo in the new Scream, but she turned it down once she learned the role would entail recreating an iconic scene that she had no intention of trying to top. Via Slant:

Fully transparent Kristen is the best. So they’re already making Scream 6. Who did they contact you about playing in the last sequel?

So it’s the Drew [Barrymore] character that gets killed in the beginning. And they created a whole sequence where a lot of people got killed to emulate the Drew thing. But it was just going to be one person, and I was like, “I can’t do a Drew. I can’t touch that.” Do you know what I mean? But, yeah, so then they ended up doing, if I’m remembering correctly, a larger sequence and not just one victim.

Of course, Stewart has experience walking in Barrymore’s footsteps. The Twilight actress stepped into the Charlie’s Angels world with the reboot/sequel directed by Elizabeth Banks. That film did not connect with audiences like the original starring the powerhouse combination of Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu, so that experience could’ve very easily factored into Stewart’s decision to take a pass on Scream.

(Via Slant)

Contrary to what he says in his 2012 breakout hit “The A-Team,” Ed Sheeran won’t “go mad for a couple grams.” Of weed, that is. During an appearance on Australia’s Fitzy And Wippa radio show, the “Shivers” singer recalled studio sessions with rapper The Game, which went down shortly after “The A-Team” took off.

“We were in the studio,” Sheeran said, “and we probably made like 13, 14 songs. And towards the end of the session, his boys come in and… it starts being a bit of a party… I took a tiny, tiny, tiny puff on something and I was out, I had to go home. I don’t really do that at all.”

Since the debauched studio sessions, Sheeran and The Game have collaborated on the tracks “City Of Sin” and “Roadside,” both of which appear on The Game’s 2019 album Born 2 Rap.

Sheeran’s radio appearance coincides with the announcement of his 2023 Australian stadium tour. He’s set to kick off the first leg of his +-=÷x Tour, also known as The Mathematics Tour, next month in Cork, Ireland, with dates throughout Europe and the UK. Sheeran is expected to announce American tour dates soon.

Ahead of his tour, Sheeran will perform a series of “warm-up shows” kicking off in London next week.

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Kid Cudi dropped by Late Night yesterday and had a lot to talk about, like his upcoming movie X, getting his daughter into horror movies, and the time his music teacher mother gave him a B- in her class.

As a seventh grader, Cudi told Seth Meyers that to avoid being in his mother’s class, he took band class and tried playing the trumpet, like his older brother did. However, we was failing the class, so his teacher suggested he switch to his mother’s choir class. He did, and Cudi continued:

“All year long, I’m just like in the back of the class, trying not to get called on. And my mom was always trying to give me solos and sh*t. Sorry, I cursed. So stressed out about that still to this day [laughs]. Report cards came, the end of the year came. I’m thinking, ‘OK, my mom’s gonna give me an A+,’ you know? It’s my mom, right? I get my report card and I got a B-. My mom keeps it so real. She was like, ‘You missed some homework.’ I was like, ‘You keep it so funky.’ I got to respect it.”

Earlier in the interview, it was noted Cudi had become friends with Abbott Elementary star Quinta Brunson, who was the next guest on Late Night after Cudi. Cudi said he wants to be on Abbott Elementary, saying, “That was something that I was kind of just throwing out, talking to [Abbott Elementary’s Tyler James Williams] about.”

Later in the show, Brunson came out and Cudi stayed for the interview. Meyers noted Cudi’s interest in the show and Cudi and Brunson said they’d talk about it while getting dinner together after the show. At the end of the interview, Meyers wrapped up by saying he hopes Cudi finds his way onto Abbott Elementary, to which Brunson responded, “Yeah, I mean, he’s Kid Cudi. It’s pretty easy. I don’t know why he’s like [laughs]… Tyler was like, ‘This guy wants to be on the show.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, he can.’”

Given that Brunson not just stars in Abbott Elementary but is its creator, it would seem Cudi is essentially a lock to be on the show if they can find a good way to work him in.

Watch Cudi’s interview above and Brunson’s below.