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CULTURE

From Beyoncé to Sophie Turner: Celebrities Who Steal The Courtside Show

For better and worse.

We're bombarded with photographs of celebrities on a daily basis from all corners of media.

The more fascinating snapshots are of celebrities enjoying themselves, being human outside of the ability to walk to and from their cars. The intersection of the sports and entertainment industries is the apex of celebrity culture: they're two of America's greatest exports. As such, NBA games are the go-to place for celebrities to see and be seen. They sit courtside and often interact with the States' greatest players. It's a celebrated celebrity crossover. From viral moments to costing championships, the appeal of this kind of content reminds us how much we love seeing our celebs being truly human, in a way that can't be masked on the carpet or scripted in interviews.

Spike Lee

Many forget Spike Lee is the NBA's GOAT nuisance. The 1994 Eastern Conference Finals became a historic, frustrating moment for NBA stars. In Game 5, Lee's sideline antics had Reggie Miller dropping 25 points in a quarter, almost costing the Knicks their place in the finals. In Game 6, Chicago Bulls' Scottie Pippen was fed up with the director's commentary. After dunking on Ewing, Pippen walked straight up to Lee and directed him to sit down. The power move birthed an inadvertent player vs. fan feud.

Spike Lee's basketball interference didn't end there. The long-time fan called out the Heat back in 2012, claiming on behalf of The Knicks, "We're gonna kick LeBron's ass." Lee may have trolled and attempted to bait the star from the sidelines but didn't manage to faze him. Really, Spike Lee walked so Drake could run.

Rihanna

Speaking of Drake, Rihanna has also become a notable presence in arenas across the country. She may not have an allegiance to a particular team, but she's definitely LeBron's A-List groupie. Wherever he goes, she's there.

Also, who can forget the phenomenal moment Ethan Hawke made his son switch seats with him to mack on the singer. He really was all of us.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z

Anytime Beyoncé shows up, someone is going to write about it. Whether it's LeBron getting a little too close to Beyoncé for Jay's comfort or Nicole Curran (wife of Warrior's owner, Jacob Lacob) talking across Beyoncé, it's always entertaining to watch.

Sophie Turner

Across the sports spectrum, Sophie Turner has taken over the sideline, chugging wine and juuling up a storm. Her fun-loving, no-fucks-given personality is everything we could want and we hope to get more of it soon.

Drake

Oh, the reason we're all here. Think-pieces aside, the "appointed" Toronto Raptors' Global Ambassador was a great marketing strategy. Unfortunately, the Spike Lee impersonation isn't as genuine or inviting as the original. The rapper covered up several of his Warriors' tattoos in favor of Canada pride, rubbing everyone the wrong way. His enthusiasm is so notable, Barack Obama asked NBA commissioner, Adam Silver if Drake was behaving himself.

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend

Everyone loves when a celebrity get dunked on, but we love it even more when they embrace it. Teigen did just that when Dwayne Wade crashed into the pair, causing their drinks to splatter.

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MUSIC

Taylor Swift's BBMA "Mayochella" Performance Angered the Beyhive

So, was Kanye right all along?

Last night at the Billboard Music Awards, Taylor Swift and Brendon Urie debuted the live performance of their newest single "ME!"

The performance, which featured a pastel-clad legion of dancers twirling from suspended umbrellas, opened with a drumline that many saw as a rip off of Beyoncé's seminal Coachella performance.

Of course, Beyoncé did not invent the marching band. But the 2018 Beychella performance has been at the forefront of everyone's cultural purview since the documentary, Homecoming, dropped just a few weeks ago. Beyoncé's performance, as explained in the documentary, was a tribute to the homecoming events of historically black colleges and universities (HBCU). Even if Taylor had planned her strikingly similar performance months in advance, she had to have realized that starting with the pink marching band opening would ignite at least some backlash. But then again, for T Swift, there seems to be no such thing as bad press.

As if the poorly-executed pink drumline wasn't enough, T Swift also announced that she will be releasing a live 2019 BBMA Rehearsal Audio––much like Beyoncé's latest live album, Homecoming. It would have been one thing if it was just the performance that was suspiciously similar to Beyonce's, but this just seems calculated.

After years in the public eye and countless scandals, Swift has mastered the art of harnessing media attention and using it in her favor. Capitalizing on outrage seems to be her forté––like when she tried to reclaim the image of a snake (a word used to describe her by many after a slew of controversy a couple of years ago) and become a "bad bitch." Unfortunately for her, this rebranding ended up falling flat, with her Reputation tour and album receiving a luke-warm reception.

Supporting the claims that Swift will do anything for personal gain, the singer told her fans that the music video for "ME!" contained hidden clues for the new album, which inevitably led to fans rewatching it over and over again, sneakily bolstering the number of views until it managed to break the record for most views in 24-hours. . It's kind of twisted, but kind of genius.

Also, let's not forget that this isn't the first time Swift has been accused of copying Beyonce. She was under fire for her "Look What You Made Me Do" video, where her choreography looked awfully similar to Bey's in her "Formation" video. Given the number of instances that Swift has appeared to borrow ideas from Queen B, it's difficult to believe that this is anything other than a deliberate pattern of mimicry.

The swifties may be a devoted fanbase, but they should never under-estimate the Beyhive, who have gotten the hashtag #Mayochella trending. The internet is doing what it does best and ruthlessly making fun of the allegedly ripped-off performance in what is now being referred to as "#Mayochella," or as one Bossip headline referred to it, "MAGAchella"


But the drags don't stop at the condiments. The Beyhive reigns supreme when it comes to coming up with the most creative and hilarious disses: "Homegoing" "The Unseasoning Stone" "Diet Lemonade" "Marching Bland" and "The Alabaster Abyss" are among some of the funniest disses in the Mayochella hashtag.

But when it comes to Taylor Swift, it's hard to know whether she's actually tone-deaf, or whether it's all part of a savvy rebranding scheme to garner attention for her music videos. Is she always three steps ahead or does she just have a strategic PR team who are really good at covering up her missteps? I guess we'll just have to see how the new album rollout goes. The new title has yet to be revealed, but perhaps it'll be called Limeade.

Sara is a music and culture writer.

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MUSIC

Beyoncé Drops New 40-Track Album Featuring Blue Ivy

We've all been blessed.

Walt Disney Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstock

Beyoncé has never been one to stick to tradition or to announce when she's about to drop something, so it's really no surprise that she just released a 40-track live album called Homecoming in conjunction with her new Netflix documentary.

Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé | Official Trailer | Netflixwww.youtube.com

The album, which dropped at 10 AM on Wednesday morning, is a collection of the singer's greatest hits, ranging from "Single Ladies" to Destiny's Child's "Say My Name." It also includes rarities such as two covers of the hymn often called the Black national anthem—"Lift Every Voice and Sing"—first sung a cappella by an emotional Beyoncé as a lead-in to "Formation," and later by Bey and Jay-Z's daughter, Blue Ivy.

Blue, who recorded the track in the audience at one of her mom's rehearsals, has obviously inherited some of her parents' love of the spotlight; at the end of the song she exclaims, "I wanna do that again because it feels good!"

B7 also features Jay-Z and J Balvin and concludes with a new studio track—a cover of the song "Before I Let Go" by Frankie Beverly and Maze, originally released in 1981 and first covered by Destiny's Child in 1997.

As if the album alone wasn't enough of a gift, it's available on all streaming platforms. On it, you can hear Beyoncé's vocals—silky and flawless as ever—layered over complicated new brass-heavy arrangements and the distant screams of the infatuated crowd. Supercharged with electric energy, it's a straight shot of the empowerment and magnetism that has gained Beyoncé her well-deserved status as an inimitable icon of our times.

June's Diary performs "Lift Every Voice and Sing" live at Royal Farms Arena in Baltimorewww.youtube.com

The album comes as a surprise companion piece to Beyoncé's Netflix documentary, which debuted last night at Howard University and Houston's Southern Texas University—appropriate venues, as her Coachella performance featured a massive marching band and sets inspired by the aesthetics of historically black colleges. It follows her 2018 performance from conceptualization to fruition and features interviews and intimate behind-the-scenes footage.

The critically lauded set marked the first time in the festival's 11-year history that an African American woman headlined it, and 2018 will forever be marked in history as the year of Beychella. But then again, every year is Bey's year—she's been steadily creating extraordinary multimedia works of art for the past decade, with each event—from the Super Bowl to Lemonade—further fortifying her legacy as music's eternal queen, one surprise release at a time.

Eden Arielle Gordon is a writer and musician from New York City. Follow her on Twitter @edenarielmusic.

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Beyoncé Walks Out of Reebok Pitch Meeting, Citing Lack of Diversity

And really, we wouldn't expect anything less

Photo by Emily Bauman on Unsplash

Queen Bey is not known for following rules or compromising her personal values, and so it's really not surprising that she walked out of a Reebok pitch meeting because the staff wasn't adequately diverse.

According to ESPN's Nick DePaula, she previously turned down a deal with Reebok because no one who would be working on the line reflected her race. "She had a meeting at Reebok and they had a whole presentation of everything, potential products, how this could all look," DePaula wrote, "and she kinda took a step back and said 'is this the team that would be working on my product'?"

When the answer was in the affirmative, Queen Bey reportedly told the pitch room, "Nobody in this room reflects my background, my skin color, and where I'm from and what I wanna do," before walking out.

Her actions will hopefully serve as a wake-up call to Reebok and companies like it, who have to understand that if they want to capitalize on the work and star power possessed by people of color, the very least they can do is provide a staff that features adequate representation. Beyoncé may be famous enough to abandon partnerships like this one, but certainly, not everyone does—so in demanding more diversity, her actions are setting an important precedent.

Instead, Beyoncé will be partnering with Adidas, which announced that it will be re-releasing Beyoncé's activewear line Ivy Park as part of an initiative "aimed at empowering the next generation of athletes and creatives" by "driving positive change in the world through sport." The relaunch "will still respect Beyoncé's ownership of her company which continues her journey as one of the first black women to be the sole owner of an athleisure brand," the press release concluded.

"This is the partnership of a lifetime for me," Beyoncé stated. "Adidas has had tremendous success in pushing creative boundaries. We share a philosophy that puts creativity, growth and social responsibility at the forefront of business."

Eden Arielle Gordon is a writer and musician from New York. Follow her on Twitter @edenarielmusic.

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