Author: GoneTrending

During a recent interview, Rihanna opened up about how rough the first days of motherhood can be for a new mom. Fresh off her Super Bowl LVII Halftime performance, the “Lift Me Up” singer sat down with British Vogue to talk about motherhood, her relationship with Asap Rocky, and more.

The Barbadian-bred talked about shedding her old self and ushering in this new chapter, saying, “the feeling, the desires, the things that you enjoy, everything, you just don’t identify with it because you don’t even allow yourself mentally to get that far because it doesn’t matter.”

While Rihanna is more than excited about the new stage, it’s also been pretty exhausting, she said.

“You don’t sleep. At all. Not even if you wanted to,” she told British Vogue.”You’re a zombie for the most part. You’re just going through the motions, and even then, you’re so paranoid.”

The “Work” hitmaker also pointed out how grateful she was to have Rocky by her side, saying that the pair are “best friends with a baby.”

“Everything changes when you have a baby, but I wouldn’t say it’s done anything but made us closer,” she said.

At the time of the interview, Rihanna didn’t know that she was pregnant with her second child, but she did share that she wasn’t opposed to having more children. The couple has made it a point to shield their growing family from the public, going as far as not even revealing their firstborn’s name.

Regarding music, Rihanna said that she never stopped recording but is in no rush and wants to “have fun” with her next project. She also hinted that fans could expect new music sometime in 2023, saying, “honestly, it’d be ridiculous if it’s not this year.”

Kehlani is officially in album mode. Hot off the tour for her most recent album, 2022’s Blue Water Road, she said she is ready to begin work on her next project.

She took to Instagram to share the news, and in the post, she shared pictures of herself wearing tank tops, thongs, heels, and her hair cut short, reminiscent of her 2017 debut era for her SweetSexySavage interview.

“sweet.Sexy.Savage. 2.0. back in my bag. tour over, it’s album time,” she said in the post’s caption

Over the course of her several eras, Kehlani has enjoyed going on tour, blending a multitude of genres, and seeing how fans react differently to her music. In an interview with Billboard, she shared what sets a Kehlani tour apart.

“We headbang, we call ancestors, we celebrate love, people get engaged, we sing petty things about exes, we call in new love, [and] we talk about community,” she said. “I think that that’s what makes this tour so unique. People are coming to be everything they are and meet other people in their ‘everythingness.’ It’s a cool f*cking room full of people who don’t even exist in anyone’s binaries, just f*cking celebrating.”

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

The internet is abuzz over the NBA Celebrity All-Star game this weekend. Several notable entertainers have hit the court over the past two days to show up their skills on the court, including Simu Lu, Janelle Monáe, and 21 Savage.

Today (February 18), the “Rich Flex” rapper accomplished a rather fateful feat. At one point in the game, 21 Savage scored the 21st point in the Celebrity All-Star Game.

Surely, this accomplishment marks another milestone in 21’s career, making his hometown of Atlanta all the more proud.

Last year, 21 was granted his own holiday in the state of Georgia. In a recent interview with Complex, 21 said he only wants to keep his accomplishments on an upward trend.

“I just want to drop a good ass album that everybody loves so it helps solidify me,” 21 said. “I want that level-up album. You know how everybody has those moments in their career where it’s like, ‘He was doing this and this and then he dropped this.’ I feel like I’ve had those albums for every stage of my career. I had all my mixtapes, then Savage Mode came, and that was a pivotal moment. Then Issa Album built up, “Bank Account” built up, and then I Am > I Was was another pivotal moment, with “A Lot” with J. Cole, the Grammy, all that sh*t.”

You can see the clip from the NBA Celebrity All-Star game above.

Paolo Banchero is well on his way to being named the NBA’s Rookie of the Year. Banchero, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, has been a revelation for an upstart Orlando Magic team that has an outside shot at sneaking into the Eastern Conference play-in tournament this season — with the league paused for its All-Star break, Banchero and the Magic find themselves in 13th place in the East with a 24-35 record, a full four games behind the 10-seed.

If Orlando doesn’t make it, the franchise can take plenty of solace in knowing that the future is as bright as it’s been in the post-Dwight Howard era. Guys like Banchero, Franz Wagner, and Wendell Carter make up one of the NBA’s most appealing young cores — the oldest player on the roster is 28-year-old Gary Harris, while seven of the team’s eight top scorers on the year or 24 or younger.

Banchero has parlayed his success during his first year in the NBA into a few things during All-Star weekend. On Friday, Banchero was part of the winning team in the Rising Stars game, and on Saturday, Banchero will team up with fellow rookies Jaden Ivey and Jabari Smith Jr. in the Skills Challenge. In between those two things, Banchero spoke to Dime from the Panini Prizm lounge in Salt Lake City to discuss his first year in the league, his jam packed All-Star weekend, and much more.

I can only imagine this is a real busy weekend for you.

It’s been crazy, but I’m having fun.

Before we get into the basketball stuff going on this weekend, I’d love to know what you have going on with Panini.

Been here chilling in the Prizm lounge, playing Pop-a-Shot, playing pool, having fun, mingling with everybody. It’s a dope setup here.

Were you a big trading card kid growing up? Any kind of card — Pokemon, anything like that?

Definitely went through that phase growing up, collecting a lot of football cards, a lot of basketball cards. My dad, actually, he really collected them. I kind of just did it for fun, but my dad, he collected baseball cards and he had a whole binder full of them. And then my mom, obviously, she had her own card when she played professional. So, definitely grew up around some cards, man, so it’s crazy seeing myself on them now.

A good way to get your own card is to be involved in All-Star weekend, and this is your first one as a player. What’s it been like just being out there and around everything that comes with that?

Man, it’s crazy. It’s a crazy thing, just seeing all these great players and NBA legends, all in one space, in one area, just mingling. You get to meet a lot of guys that you never would have thought you’d get to meet, and it’s just been a blessing for me. I’ve always dreamed of stuff like this.

Was there one guy that you got to meet this weekend who maybe had you a little bit starstruck?

I’m not sure, I’ve met a lot of people. I don’t think I’ve met anyone … I met Dominique Wilkins in the lobby. It’s really, more than legends, all the all the players now I’ve seen and met, but like, just a lot of NBA legends that are retired, you never really see. So getting to meet them has been the coolest part.

Talking to you before the Skills Challenge tonight. What are your thoughts on getting to compete in something like that?

Yeah, I’m excited. That’s a dream come true. I grew up watching the All-Star weekend festivities every single year, I never missed it. So, being able to actually be a part of it and being in the Skills Challenge, it’s crazy, but I’m ready. Hopefully I can get a win.

I’ll be honest with you, I might have you guys winning this. So I’m gonna need a gonna need a real big performance tonight, but I think you’ve got a good team out there.

Yeah, we can do it. I think me Jaden, Jabari, we got young legs, we’re gonna be ready. We’re not gonna do the cool guy thing where you jog through, I think we’re all gonna go hard. So, we should win.

And last night, you got to play in the Rising Stars game. I know they’ve tweaked that format in the last year or two. What were your thoughts on this new way of playing in that game that wasn’t back and forth, first one to 150 points wins?

That was dope, because it makes the game a little more serious — especially that second one, because it’s only to 25, so every bucket matters. But it was fun just being out there with the guys. I had a great team and we were able to get the win, which was our goal from the start.

One thing that I really loved about the game is that you obviously spent a lot of time playing against Franz. How much fun was it getting to go up against him?

Man, it was crazy. It was a little weird. Me and him never really matched up before. Not even in practice, really, we’re always on the same team. It was fun though, man. First time I had the ball against him, he’s sitting there guarding me, he’s like, “I know all your moves,” and then I hit the shot. So, it was funny playing against him.

I want to shift to talking about the Magic a little and I want to start with him. I think a lot of people know that Franz is good. But as someone who is around him everyday, what is it about him in your eyes that makes him such a special player?

He’s just a winner, he’s wired to win. That’s really all he cares about. He’s super competitive, he’s very talented — me and him are pretty much same height, both both can play one through five, can play on the perimeter, can play inside. People kind of underestimate how good he is as a finisher, every time he drives to the hoop, I think he’s going to finish, whether it’s a floater, a Eurostep step, inside hand, left hand, right hand, he has all types of finishes. He can do everything on the court, he can shoot, pass, dribble.

He’s just an all-around player, and he’s only gonna get better. I’m excited, we’re gonna build something special over these next couple of years and just keep on going, man. We want to win.

On that, Magic fans have been waiting for guys like you, like Franz, like some of those other dudes you have to get you guys back to where Shaq had them. Penny had them. Dwight had them. Is that something that motivates you guys? Or is the mindset, listen, those guys were special, they did their own thing. We’re our own thing. And we don’t want to be defined by those past eras of Orlando Magic basketball?

You definitely want to pay respect to those eras. Shaq, Penny, Tracy McGrady, Dwight Howard, all the great players that came through Orlando. But like you said, you also want to be — me, Franz, rest of the guys, we want to build our own legacy, we want to make our own mark. And we feel like we really can do that. And we can do it with our own style, our own play style, and add our own flair to it. It’s a new era, and I think we’re ready to really build.

It’s not often that rookies come into the NBA and have some of the success that you’ve had as such a versatile and effective score. What’s the thing that you think has helped you the most as you’ve gotten used to life in the league over these past couple of months?

I think for me, just being able to attack the basket, draw contact, and create my own shot. Obviously, for me, it hasn’t been easy. It’s been a lot of learning, but I think I’ve done a good job. And it encourages me because the games that you do struggle, it’s rough, it only makes you want to be better. So, I want to finish out this season strong, but once the season’s over, I’m gonna have a whole 82 games of tape to watch and learn what I need to be able to do better and improve on for the next year.

You’re four months into being a professional, there’s always going to be a lot of growing that comes, but where’s the area where you feel like you’ve grown the most as a player between that first game against Detroit and where you are right now?

I think more my mentality really than anything to do with my game. I think my mentality on the court, just how I go about each and every game, whether it’s a good or bad game, I think staying level headed, not getting too high, not getting too low, it’s helped me a lot. And I just want to keep improving on it, improve on every other facet of my game.

You hear guys in their first year always talk about having that welcome to the NBA moment. Do you feel like you’ve had something like that?

I think playing against Kevin Durant for the first time, for me, was my welcome to the NBA moment. He’s a killer, I think he had 45 points. So, I would say that was. I think my first ever NBA game was also my welcome to the NBA moment, but in a good way.

When you go up against a guy like KD, and he gets 45, obviously you’re a competitor, but do you have to kind of learn how to take in stride that like, listen, some guys are just all time greats, you can’t let a performance like that linger?

That’s probably the one of the greatest scorers ever, if not the greatest scorer ever, so you can’t. You’re silly if you get down on yourself when he scores a basketball, he’s gonna score, you can’t stop him. But you just want to compete, and it’s fun playing against a guy like him. It’s a real challenge every single time down the court. It just makes it even more fun to have to try and accept the challenge and try and get a stop, even though I didn’t get many of ’em.

Hopefully you get a little bit of rest and relaxation after today, but what’s your main priority as a player, for the team, once you get back to Orlando?

Definitely just locking in on this last 20 — whatever it is — 23 games, or 22 games, and trying to get in that play-in and playoff spot, and just finishing strong as a team. We’ve been playing good basketball, so we wanna keep that up.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Roald Dahl wrote many beloved, macabre books for children. (And for adults as well. Check out the nightmarish short story “Skin” sometime.) He was also an open anti-Semite whose works often traded in racial stereotypes. His work has sometimes been altered. For instance, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Oompa Loompas were originally Black African pygmies. (Dahl himself changed that one.) But a new line of editions of his children’s books may have gone too far.

As per The Guardian, Puffin Books hired “sensitivity readers” to pore over Dahl’s books and ensure they “can continue to be enjoyed by all today.” They made hundreds of changes. The adjective “fat” was removed from several books. Augustus Gloop, the rotund child from Chocolate Factory, is now only described as “enormous.” The antiheroes of The Twits are no longer “ugly and beastly,” but simply “beastly.”

Many were minor, arguably arbitrary tweaks. Miss Trunchbill in Matilda, originally described as a “most formidable female,” is now a “most formidable woman.” The Oompa Loompas used to be “small men”; they’re now “small people.”

You can some more changes below.

While Dahl’s real-life bigotry is fairly well-known, his work continues to be read and adapted into movies and TV shows. Netflix forked over tens of thousands last year for his complete works. Willy Wonka is coming to the big screen for a third time, now as hot Timothée Chalamet. The 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory remains a stone cold classic.

Will these revisions protect young readers from retrograde mores? Or is it destroying a late artist’s work? (Again, Dahl was responsible for the Oompa Loompa change.) Whatever the case, the changes seemed to please few, with many marveling not only at the extent of the changes, but also at their poor quality.

Some suggested what publishers and readers alike could do instead.

(Via The Guardian)

Lil Wayne will be making an entryway into the virtual gaming world very soon. The New Orleans rapper has been revealed as a new playable character in NBA 2K23. 2k Games, the video game’s publisher, made the announcement late last week. The latest installment of the basketball simulator will be released on February 24.

The Young Money rapper will be available as a Crossover Card in “MyTEAM” mode for a limited time only. Players will be able to unlock the “A Milli” hitmaker after finishing the Lil Wayne Spotlight challenge. The Grammy award-winning rapper’s character captures him perfectly, complete with his locs and tattoos, and has been given an 89 overall rating.

2k Games has plans for more updates in the future including an array of apparel and extra content, the will be released before the end of the month.

With a career spanning nearly three decades, Lil Wayne has certainly earned all the recognition he gets. Aside from being apart of the new season of NBA 2K, the rapper was honored by the Recording Academy —along with Missy Elliot and Dr. Dre— with the Global Impact Award.

Last year, “Lollipop” arguable one of Weezy’s biggest hits, was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Additionally, the rapper has teamed up with Rolling Loud for the Welcome To Tha Carter Tour, which kicks off at the Fillmore in Minneapolis in April.

The Navy and the Barbs are equally as anxious for new music from their respective queens. It’s been almost five years since Nicki Minaj put out a full-length album, and over seven years for Rihanna. While we trust that the two will deliver quality this year, both stars are enjoying motherhood to their sons.

Nicki Minaj hasn’t posted to Twitter since November, and posted to Instagram today (February 18) for the first time since November to share the remix of Machel Montano and Destra’s “Shake The Place,” on which she delivers verses shouting out her Trinidad roots.

While making an appearance on the gram, she took time to shout out Rihanna and congratulate her for her second pregnancy, as well as her Super Bowl halftime performance.

Minaj sent her benedictions by way of a comment on Rihanna’s Instagram post, where she shared her British Vogue spread featuring her partner ASAP Rocky, and their son.

“A lil pretty boy already,” said Minaj. “Congratulations on the new bundle of, joy, Queen. Bodied the Super Bowl.”

Minaj and Rihanna have collaborated quite a few times in their careers, notably on “Fly” from Minaj’s Pink Friday album and “Raining Men” on Rihanna’s Loud album. Perhaps a new collab is in order for their respective new eras.

Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow’s “Industry Baby” has proven itself quite a success. The pair’s 2021 single is now the most streamed song in the 2020s, dethroning Drake and Future’s 2020 smash hit “Life is Good.” The track, which appeared on Lil Nas’s debut album, Montero, debuted at No.2 on the Billboard Hot 100 before finally reaching the top spot a few months later and earning the duo a Grammy nomination for Best Melodic Rap Performance.

.@LilNasX and @jackharlow’s “INDUSTRY BABY” is now the #1 most on-demand streamed song released in the 2020s in the US, surpassing @1future and @Drake’s “Life Is Good,” Chart Data reported.

Don’t worry, though, Drake’s commercial success isn’t ending anytime soon. Earlier this month, the Toronto rap star surpassed 75 billion streams on Spotify— he’s the first artist in the streaming platform’s history. The “Rich Flex” rapper also won big at the 2023 Grammys despite not submitting any music, earning himself four nominations, including one for best melodic rap performance, that he won for his guest appearance on Future’s No.1 hit, “Wait for U,” which also features vocals from Nigerian singer Tems. The chart-topping single appears on Future’s album, I Never Liked You.

In 2019, Drake was named one of the most streamed artists of the decade, alongside other commercial juggernauts like Eminem and Ed Sheeran. It seems like no matter what he does, Drake can’t stop winning.

Jack Harlow is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Dunk Contest is the main event of All-Star Saturday night in the NBA. Despite that, the event has underwhelmed recently, something that was particularly the case last year when Obi Toppin defeated Cole Anthony, Jalen Green, and Juan Toscano-Anderson. It’s struggled to bring in really big names, and players haven’t been able to execute the kinds of unforgettable dunks that fans remember from, say, Michael Jordan, or Vince Carter, or Spud Webb, or Dominique Wilkins, or [insert the name of a legendary dunker here].

So, with that out of the way, let’s watch the best Dunk Contest in recent memory. Back in 2016, Minnesota Timberwolves high-flyer Zach LaVine wanted to defend his title as the best dunker in the league. He had to get through a field that featured a pair of guys, Detroit’s Andre Drummond and Denver’s Will Barton, who didn’t exactly put forth unforgettable performances as they were eliminated in the first round.

And then, there was the third contestant: Orlando Magic forward Aaron Gordon. In what might have been the best performance by an eventual runner-up in the history of the event, Gordon pushed LaVine to the brink with some of the most impressive dunks we have seen in the Contest’s history — his dunk over the Magic’s mascot where he put the ball completely under his butt is, for me, the single best effort we’ve seen in the Dunk Contest in the last decade or so, and is right up there with some of the best we’ve ever seen in the event.

LaVine would go on to win in the final round with four dunks that earned a 50. Gordon, meanwhile, got three 50s and a 47 on his last dunk. We highly, highly recommend watching the video at the top of this post before tonight’s Contest, because, well, why not?

James Cameron is the king of the world again thanks to his belated first sequel to Avatar, a movie even he doubted would be a monster hit. He was wrong and, after a bit of tussle, the film recently passed another of his money-gobblers, Titanic, on the list of all-time highest grossing movies (not adjusted for inflation, of course). Speaking of, that story you might have heard about the cast and crew accidentally getting high on PCP-laced chowder? That’s “100 per cent true,” Cameron recently revealed.

During an appearance on the CBC show Q with Tom Power, Cameron — who has been wildly entertaining on the press circuit — confirmed the story, namely that on the final day of filming Titanic, almost everyone found themselves poisoned with phencyclidine, aka angel dust. What is it like inadvertently being on a mind-altering drug that can cause hallucinations and psychosis, while making what was then the most expensive film ever made?

“You haven’t lived until you’ve been high on PCP, which by the way, I do not recommend to anyone,” Cameron said.

At first, Cameron thought everyone had actually simply eaten contaminated shellfish, so they all went to a local hospital.

“There was an emergency room with no one in it and, like, a nurse, and 85 crew members walk in,” recalled the director. “We don’t know what’s going on. And basically, somebody had taken a pound of PCP and dumped it into the chowder.”

Despite what Cameron says, the story isn’t “100% true,” as per Snopes. Not everyone was affected, namely stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. The late Bill Paxton, however, was.

So who done it? “We have a pretty strong suspicion who it was, although it was never proven,” Cameron said:
“We believe the story is that it was somebody who had a beef with the caterers because the first thing we did was fire the caterers.… And, you know, sure enough, we had some leads on that. Of course, the operating theory was that I was such a psycho maniac that [the perpetrator was] trying to get back at me, but I reject that theory out of hand for obvious reasons.”

So the next time you’re watching Titanic — and it’s back in theaters, in 3D — see if you can spot any shots where people like they’re blitzed out of their minds on PCP. Also please don’t take PCP, as per Cameron’s recommendation.

You can watch Cameron’s Q with Tom Powers chat in the video below.

(Via CBC)