Despite a recent wave of female talent currently washing over the rap game in the form of Cardi B, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Rico Nasty, and more, many women in the game have continued to note double standards about their place in hip-hop persisting in the face of their success. In a prime example, burgeoning Detroit rap star Sada Baby recently went on an NBA Draft disappointment-fueled rant disparaging female rappers who switched careers from more adult-oriented industries to rhyme about sexually explicit themes instead of living them.
“And just ’cause I’m in a f*cked-up mood, I’ma put it on the flo’,” he began. “B*tch, if you known for f*ckin’ pornos and all that type of sh*t, f*ck yo music! Ain’t nobody takin’ you seriously as no motherf*ckin’ artist. Care ’bout none of that sh*t. B*tch, you known for shakin’ ass, showin’ titties, f*ckin’ OnlyFans all that type of sh*t. Whatever, b*tch. Don’t nobody give a f*ck about recordin’ no motherf*ckin’ music. Be real wit’ yourself.”
While he didn’t specifically name names, there are a number of rappers who may fit the bill, openly professing origins in the sex-work industry. Among them are newcomers like Armani Caesar, Blac Chyna, and Sukihana and established veterans like Cardi B, while OnlyFans has proven to be a worthwhile way to supplement their income, as discovered by Rubi Rose. Meanwhile, Sada Baby makes no mention of rappers like Blueface and Tyga, who both have OnlyFans pages. In fact, the latter rapper even produced his own porn video once upon a time.
Sada Baby recently experienced some online backlash over old, offensive tweets as well after Nicki Minaj’s remix of his underground hit “Whole Lotta Choppas” increased the wattage of the spotlight on him. Perhaps he should curtail his social media usage for the time being, as he’s just on the cusp of blowing up and might very well undermine himself with some of his more controversial comments. Or stick to basketball videos — he’s actually a pretty decent player, although you won’t see him declaring for the NBA Draft himself anytime soon.
As Zack Snyder continues to pump up fans for his director’s cut of Justice League (a.k.a. The Snyder Cut), he’s been steadily dropping behind-the-scenes info on the process of bring his original version of the film back to life. As of now, we know that Zack Snyder’s Justice League will hit HBO Max in four one-hour installments, which raises questions about where all of that footage will come from considering Snyder has been adamant that he will not be resurfacing shots from Joss Whedon‘s version of Justice League, which wasn’t received too well by fans. Snyder has also revealed that his own round of reshoots in the fall will only amount to four minutes of new footage, so it’s definitely not coming from there.
Turns out the answer lies in the director’s stockpile of never-before-seen footage, which will make up over half of the Snyder Cut when it’s released. Via io9:
During the discussion, which was held on Vero and lasted over an hour, Snyder revealed that his four-hour cut of the movie will have about two and a half hours of previously unseen footage. Not “new” footage exactly. This is mostly footage he shot way back in 2016 which never made it into the theatrical version, which was famously finished by director Joss Whedon.
That footage is presumably from the film cans that Snyder teased fans with back in December 2019 when “Release the Snyder Cut” was still a hashtag:
Hopefully, those cans contain something that will fix Snyder’s new look for Steppenwolf because, man, that did not go over well. People are still making wicker basket jokes on Twitter.
Barack Obama just released his new memoir, A Promised Land. Ahead of the book, though, as he often did during his presidency, he shared a playlist. The mix was of songs that Obama listened to during his time in office, and it featured a mix of contemporary and classic artists. One of the musicians included was Bob Dylan, and Obama discussed Dylan’s music during a guest appearance on popular music reaction YouTube channel TwinsthenewTrend.
Obama told twin brothers Fred and Tim Williams of Dylan and his music:
“I’ve been a Bob Dylan fan for a long time, partly ’cause I’m just older. He was part of that social conscience that was in rock music and then later in hip-hop music. Look, I’m like everybody else: I like music about girls and cars and you know, right? Rock and roll and hip-hop. But whenever you can find some musicians that really have a message about how America might be, about how the world might be, that always is something that I pay attention to, and he’s one of the greatest examples of that.”
This clip comes ahead of Obama’s December 16 appearance on the YouTube Originals series BookTube, for which he will discuss his book with TwinsthenewTrend and other YouTube creators.
News of King Von being murdered in Atlanta this past Friday at just 26 years old hit hip-hop like a ton of bricks. King Von’s art imitated his real life and made him one of the most prolific storytellers of his generation. After releasing two full-length projects in 2020, Levon James and Welcome To O Block, Von was perfectly positioned to become one of the genre’s biggest stars within the next year. All that was cut short, leaving behind only the potential — and his existing work.
His Shakespearian tales afforded him the chance to navigate the possibility of living life beyond what he grew up knowing. Listening to his music is like pressing play on an audiobook in rap form over dramatic production. With his “Crazy Story” series, the rapper born Dayvon Daquan Bennett was able to naturally tap into a talent that allowed him to express what was going on where he was from in Chicago — Parkway Garden Homes aka O Block — through non-fiction raps.
Just days before he was killed, I met up with him at a studio in Hollywood to chop it up about Welcome To O Block. Devastated beyond belief, I sat in denial for at least 24 hours after learning of his passing, quickly scrolling past any indication that he was really gone. The rapper that I championed to anyone who would listen to me about his “Crazy Story” raps, the artist who I went hard for and believed would be one of the greatest of this generation, was gone. His potential to become something greater than his circumstance was evident. This young man from Chicago who spit captivating cinematic, storytelling raps with precision had the talent to go beyond the music and I was excited, as I am sure many others were, to see where that would land him.
The day I met up with him, a banger with Polo G titled “How I Rock,” just leaked and I wanted to know more. “Yeah, that’s not on the album,” he said slyly. “They’re looking for it, though. They waiting on it.” Welcome To O Block would end up featuring “The Code” with Polo G instead, but Von didn’t mind the leaks. “It be cool though, because it still going to hit the same when I drop it,” he said. “And put a hard video with it or something. It’s cool, you know.”
In what is one of King Von’s final interviews, we talked more about the creation of his storytelling, music videos, what Chicago rap legends he’d put in a Verzuz battle, and more.
What’s it like, on O’Block? What goes down?
Shit, well, O Block, that’s a housing project on 64th Kings Drive, 64th, 65th where I was living. It’s low income. Single mothers over there with they kids. You know how that shit goes. Poverty and shit. Violence.
How long did you live there?
My mom moved over there when I was like 9 or 10 and then I got locked up at like at 16, and they kicked us out because I got locked up.
How did your mom feel about that?
She was sad. She had to move my grandma into her house. Locked up, I couldn’t do shit. I was pretty young. She was mad as hell. She was sad because I was in jail, but she was mad because now they trying to kick me out, and you in jail.
With that being said, your music is a little violent, a little introspective, always with crazy storytelling.
Yeah. It’s O Block shit. It’s poverty.
Who do you make music for?
People that grow up in Parkway with single mothers. You know, that Section 8 shit. Grow up around there, with drug dealers around. People that grew up in shit like that and fucked up predicaments. It’s a lot of people. And then people, just as entertainment, and shit, I guess. The suburban kids. Everybody who fuck with the music, man.
Whenever I tell people about King Von, I show them the “Crazy Story” music videos. What was the beginning of that?
The whole song wasn’t done when I first recorded it. I had the majority of it wrote, or at least half of it. Then I played it back and I keep going into this story but I ain’t know I was making a whole story, until after it was done. At the end of the video, I put “to be continued” and I wasn’t even planning on making a second, but it was so good, I then make a sequel to it. Durk did a remix and thought I might even make another one to this.
How many of these are you going to do?
Probably two more. I’m going to do some more series, though. I got “Wayne Story” on the album. I’m going to make a second one and a third one. It’s a story about a shorty and he just grew up bad. He started young. He trying to hit a lick. He tries to go rob a guy named Wayne. Wayne sees him trying to rob him and they get in a shootout. The boy gets away, but Wayne ends up killing the boy’s cousin. It’s just crazy.
That is crazy. How much fun do you have making the music videos? Would you consider acting as a career?
It be fun when you putting together the ideas but then when it’s time to make it, I be mad as hell, that I put together all this. It’s tiring, man. We would get it out in one day. Sometimes it would drag over to the next day, if that was the plan, but if it was that day, we would just punch the hours in. We out five o’clock in the morning damn near.
Speaking about the stories that you have, where does the inspiration come from?
It’s really just me making everything up. My imagination is decent. I know how to just think of shit. I just come up with what type of story I would want to start off with. Fucking somebody or fixing to rob somebody? What’s his name? Who you fixing to rob? What he rob him for? You see what I’m saying? Then I just put it together.
On your album, what song means the most to you?
“Demon” the most emotional song on that motherfucker, because I harmonized, I’m talking about my homies that passed away. “Demon,” that’s one of them for sure.
Do you read a lot of books?
I read a lot of books when I was in jail. I read a lot in jail because I had a lot of time, and a lot of books, so I read a lot. I don’t got a lot of time on my hands, lately. I’ve been on the go. I’ve got some books on the phone. I try to read them when I’m in the bed. You know them days you wake up, and you just know you ain’t got nothing to do right away, so you’ll be laying around. I try to read on the phone. I used to be doing it heavy in jail. Like, every day, all day, just reading, reading, reading. Every time I lock up in the cell, I make time to read.
What type of books were you reading?
It depends on where I was at. It’s hard to get books in the hole and when you’re in trouble so I got to read whatever is laying around. When I was doing good I could get all type of books.
Did you have a favorite?
I fuck with all the Block Party books. What’s his name? He’s a Muslim brother. I forgot his name. Block Party. [Editor’s Note: the author of the Block Party series is Al-Saadiq Banks] I fuck with all the Sister Souljah books, The Coldest Winter Ever.
Was that your first time reading The Coldest Winter Ever?
That’s the first book I ever read. I read it when I was 16. My uncle sent it to me from the feds. He told me to read it. The Midnight series, I fuck with all that.
You and Durk are best friends but you guys aren’t able to talk or be around each other. How was it to record “All These N****s?”
Yeah, we really just get the beat from DJ. DJ put a beat to something together for us, and he like, “You go first.” I be like, “No, you go first. You start it off.” He like, “All right.” He’ll start it off and shit. Then I’ll go. And then we’ll finish off or something. We’ll go back and forth on it. Then I’ll say I’m good. Then we’ll add if we need to add some shit. It really be simple.
I like that song with you and Polo G, was that a leak?
Which one?
“How I Rock.”
Yeah, that’s not on the album.
That’s not on the album?
No. They’re looking for it, though. They waiting on it.
How do you feel about leaks?
It be cool though, because it still going to hit the same when I drop it. And put a hard video with it or something.
If there was ever a Verzuz with two Chicago rap legends, who would you pick?
Chicago rap legends? Durk and Keef. I don’t know about nobody else. Kanye West was going crazy. Kanye West be on-and-off sometimes. That’s my boy, but it’s like, what you doing, man? He must be tweaking. But you know, inspiration wise, he got a lot of good shit. He got a lot of good treasure. Good outweigh his bad, for sure. But I don’t understand. He don’t really reach out to — well I ain’t going to say what he don’t do, because I don’t know. I just ain’t got no good connection with him and I’m from Chicago. It’s just us. We did this shit ourself.
I feel like in the beginning, Kanye maybe—
Because Keef was big and he got on a Keef song? That was it. After that, no.
You don’t count that?
That’s not enough. No. Of course, he jumped on Sosa. He was the hottest thing out. It makes sense. But no, it ain’t help us or nothing. I ain’t mad about it or nothing and I ain’t trying to say it like that. It’s just that Durk and Keef, that’s the only motherfuckers.
That’s what I’m saying, Verzuz is like “old school.” Who else is from Chicago? Common, Kanye.
I don’t talk about them. I ain’t no super music — I love music right now and what’s going on right now. I can’t tell you about that shit. I couldn’t tell you a Common song. I don’t know. He bald, right? He look like Joe Budden. I can’t tell who is who. I swear to God.
I think it depends on what you grew up with. I grew up watching Common on TV.
Yeah, I saw him play in the movies, too. But not music.
What did you grow up listening to?
Lil Wayne. Gucci.
Gucci. I know that’s your old school.
When I was 15 or 16, you got Durk. Durk and Keef. Keef was 16, I was 18, 17.
Keef is a legend for sure.
Yeah, we ain’t had no Chicago — like Twista, that’s my mom, you know? And Kanye West was, “I ain’t saying she a gold digger.” Both was cool. That wasn’t my type of ice. Wayne and Gucci, for sure.
Did you see that Lil Wayne endorsed Trump?
Endorsed Trump? I see a lot of people endorse Trump. I don’t know what’s going on. It’s just crazy.
How do you feel about that?
I’m confused as a motherfucker. I go to see my dentist, my doctor, and they go, “Biden. No Trump. You know not Trump.” Then I see motherfuckers, some rap n****s, “Man, Trump.” What the fuck?
Are you into politics at all?
No, I got other shit going on. I can’t call it. I don’t even know. I got to make sure this straight over here. I don’t even know what’s going on with that. I ain’t even trying to figure out what’s going on with that.
Welcome to O’Block is out now via Only The Family Entertainment / EMPIRE. Get it here.
Jeremih, the 33-year-old R&B singer from Chicago whose hits “Birthday Sex,” “Planes,” and “Don’t Tell Him” have made him an iconic figure in the music world, has been battling COVID-19 since at least Monday, when a number of his close friends in the industry began asking fans to pray for him online. It was later revealed that he’s been in intensive care on a ventilator to help him breathe. Today, his family issued an update on his condition in a statement to CNN imploring fans to take the coronavirus pandemic more seriously.
The statement reads, “His family would like to remind the world that COVID-19 is real and not to be taken lightly. Also, It’s important for people infected to quarantine and let their families and friends know ASAP. There’s no shame in contracting COVID-19, and people that have it need to be responsible and considerate of others.” The family also expressed gratitude to “everyone who is praying, and we ask for continued prayers. The family believes in daily prayers to God. A great team of doctors and nurses is helping him pull through. He’s not out of the woods yet, but progress is being made. The family and friends are praying that he starts breathing on his own soon, and makes a full recovery.”
Although the severity of Jeremih’s case is rare for someone his age without underlying conditions, Jeremih is not the only star to have been laid low by the virus.
Kanye West apparently contracted the virus earlier this year, frightening his family, while Houston legend Scarface is still dealing with complications during his own recovery. Fred The Godson, Westside Gunn, and YNW Melly were all afflicted as well.
After the release of their 2016 effort Going By, Felix Walworth took a hiatus from live performances under the name Told Slant. Instead, much of the last four years have been spent writing and refining Told Slant’s third album Point The Flashlight And Walk. Clocking in at exactly 40 minutes, the LP delicately balances influences of experimental folk and indie-pop, channeling the lo-fi aesthetic of earlier Told Slant releases while still pushing forward into new uncharted territory, sonically.
To celebrate the new album, Walworth sat down to talk about resisting change, Bitcoin, and Lord Of The Rings in the latest Indie Mixtape 20 Q&A.
What are four words you would use to describe your music?
Sophisticated Genius Prophetic Invincible
It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?
I would like my music to be unanimously loved by all people and used as a reference point in college level courses across many disciplines as an example of the best possible art.
What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?
New York.
Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?
Joanna Newsom because she is very good at writing songs.
Where did you eat the best meal of your life?
Clif Bar outside a gas station somewhere near Laramie, Wyoming.
What album do you know every word to?
Boxer by The National.
What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?
I played a show in a basement in Flagstaff, Arizona, once. This guy put a bunch of reverb on his voice and read the description off the side of the can of a Monster Energy, then poured it into a plastic red bucket. He did the same thing for 4 other flavors of Monster, and then drank the whole bucket. I thought it was cool.
What is the best outfit for performing and why?
It is important to wear expensive clothes while performing because it makes people like you more.
Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?
I don’t really enjoy following anybody on social media. I used to follow an account that tweeted a different closeup of a Hieronymus Bosch painting every hour, and I liked that one.
What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour?
No music allowed in the van.
What’s the last thing you Googled?
“Hieronymus Bosch spelling”
What album makes for the perfect gift?
I don’t know. One album? For anyone? Maybe some field recordings of birds or waves or something.
Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?
We crashed on i90 outside of Philadelphia once but I guess that’s not super weird.
What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?
My first tattoo was a pine tree and it was about resistance to change.
What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?
Typically whoever is in the car with me.
What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?
This question is taking me too long and frankly it is making me upset.
What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?
Invest heavily in Bitcoin.
What’s the last show you went to?
No idea, I haven’t been to a show in 7 months at least.
What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?
The Fellowship Of The Ring
What would you cook if Obama were coming to your house for dinner?
Human flesh.
Point The Flashlight And Walk is out now on Double Double Whammy. Listen on Spotify here.
Up until now, the “battle” aspect of the popular live stream series Verzuz has been a technicality. For the most part, the event has been celebratory, looking to highlight hits and little-known underground classics as its participants good-naturedly trade stories and praise for each other — although some of the early R&B battles did get delightfully shady. That trend may very well change with the upcoming show featuring bitter rivals Gucci Mane and Jeezy, whose decade-long feud saw the duo butting heads over money, song credit, and the 2005 shooting of Jeezy’s friend by Gucci Mane.
Gucci seems to have taken a pugnacious stance to the whole thing, selling the animosity like a professional wrestler cutting a promo. Not only did he share memes taunting Jeezy over the death of his friend — whom Gucci claimed to have shot in self-defense — but now he’s also taking potshots at Jeezy’s upcoming album cover. Jeezy smartly deemed November 20 the perfect time to release his new album, The Recession 2, to take advantage of the Verzuz buzz, but his cover art has become the target of jokes online thanks to his outfit, which fans deemed incongruous with his history and catalog.
Gucci Mane couldn’t resist getting in some jabs of his own ahead of their meeting tonight, appearing in a video on the Verzuz Twitter account. After assuring skeptical fans that the battle was real, he then set his conditions: No more sartorial snafus on the part of his opponent or he’s out. “For everybody who asking me, the Verzuz is real,” he confirmed. “Me and Snowcone will be in the same room. But this what I wanna know. Is fashion a part of the Verzuz? Because I’ma have that shit on tomorrow and if buddy have that same funny ass shirt and that dumb ass hat he had on that God damn album cover, I ain’t doing it.”
That depends on who you’re asking. If you’re new to the bourbon drinking game, a really spendy bottle — perhaps a limited edition release — might mean that you end up paying for nuance that you either A) don’t recognize or B) don’t care about. On the flips side, if you’ve been drinking bourbon for a while and find yourself loving it, you may see value in paying more for longer aging and unique barrelling techniques. At that level, drinking becomes another expensive hobby, like golf, SCUBA, or high fashion. And who are we to judge how much people spend on their passions?
All of that being said, there are definite flavor notes and textures that align with how old a bourbon — or any aged spirit — tastes. When you’re drinking well-aged bourbons, you’ll hear about leather, oak, must, funk, oiliness, and overall boldness. When you’re drinking younger bourbons, you’ll hear about fruit, corn, thinness, and maybe even butterscotch. Naturally, there are scores of expressions that fall somewhere between those two poles.
For this exercise, we grabbed eight bottles of bourbon — four mid-level (not bone cheap) and four expensive — to see how they’d match up in a blind tasting. This wasn’t a one-to-one comparison, it was a look at how four bottles in the $30 to $70 price range taste compared to four bottles in the $200 to $700 price range (granted that’s not MSRP for all of those expressions, as the expensive bottles have seen their prices driven up, but it is retail). Among these, we put two 10-year-old bourbons into the mix, one from Michter’s ($199) and one from Basil Hayden’s ($70), but we didn’t set out to directly compare the two.
In the end, this was all about how these bottles tasted and whether I could tell the expensive drams from the more affordable ones. It definitely wasn’t as easy as it sounds. In fact, I had more bottles marked down as expensive in the end than there were expensive bottles in the flight. I also got two completely wrong. Read on to find out which!
There’s a nice hit of candied fruit, nuts, and vanilla up top. The taste adds to that nose with a clear Christmas cake vibe next to subtle wood and sherry plumminess. The end is slightly sweet while wallowing in all that candied fruit and spicy Christmas cake with a hint of oak on the end.
Bottom Line:
I’m calling this as expensive. It’s full of bold Christmas cake and candied fruit flavors. It also feels like something you could serve with a rock at a party and people would absolutely adore.
Taste 2
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
This is all about cinnamon and oak up top. There’s an oily vanilla nature that’s counterpointed by a bitter oak char and a distant note of worn leathers. This is old, big, and lingers on the senses for a loonnnnggg time.
Bottom Line:
This is 100 percent an expensive bourbon.
Taste 3
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
I can see from the funky green tint on this dram that it’s not cheap. The nose is slightly funky, herbal, and full of orchard fruit. That herbal nature draws you in and there’s almost a sense of an Almond Joy with a dark chocolate and toasted coconut vibe.
Bottom Line:
There’s no way this isn’t an expensive bottle of booze. The green twinge from what must be a unique barrel, the heavy funk from very long aging, and the overall abstractness of the palate all point to something really, really old.
Now though, I’m getting worried. I know there are only four “expensive” bottles and I’ve already called out three of the four?
Taste 4
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
This opens with a nice vanilla pudding creaminess next to mild spice. The taste leans into a butterscotch sweetness with a dose of corn, mild Christmas spice, and a whisper of espresso bitterness. The end is medium-length, warm, and holds onto the butterscotch.
Bottom Line:
The corn and butterscotch are dead giveaways as to the youth of this bourbon. It’s definitely a cheaper bourbon but, to be honest, I’m not sure which.
Taste 5
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
There’s real thinness to the juice in this dram. The nose has a mix of pecans and orange with a light spice. The spice kicks in a bit on the tongue as caramel mingles with more nuttiness. It’s light but really approachable and has a fairly long end that basks in the pecan, orange, and spice.
I think I got a bit of grassiness on the very end, which was a nice touch.
Bottom Line:
This is way too thin to be particularly old. I’m saying this is a cheap bourbon… but it’s also a really interesting one.
Taste 6
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Damn. There’s a lot going on in this Glencairn. The nose hits on big notes of spice, leather, vanilla, oak, and cherry with a capital “C.” The spice gets peppery with a light caramel nature. The end leans back into the oak and leather with a very clear hit of mustiness next to the cherry.
Bottom Line:
That musty oak, cherry, spice, vanilla, and leather is almost unmistakably an expensive bottle of booze.
That means the next two have to be cheap if I’m on track.
Taste 7
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Toasted oak meets maple syrup up top. Those notes marry vanilla … and I already know I’m screwed because this is 100 percent Michter’s 10 and a very expensive bottle. Damn it.
Anyway, there’s a nice buttery toffee sweetness with a subtle Christmas spice next to a very musty oak edge. The end is long, musty, oaky, spicy, and hits that maple syrup note one last time.
Bottom Line:
Michter’s 10. I drank half of this bottle when celebrating Trump losing the election, so the flavor profile is very much in my active memory.
Taste 8
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
There’s a subtle but very concise matrix of vanilla, oak, and spice that greets you. It’s classic and very enticing. The spice gets peppery. The oak leans into a toasted oak feel, The vanilla gets creamy with oily vanilla beans mixed in. There’s a dark cacao bitterness underneath with a slight caramel sweetness. The end brings about a musty oak feel as the spice, vanilla, and bitterness all slowly fade out.
Bottom Line:
I don’t know. This is another old bottle and could easily be a very expensive bottle. I’m just going to say it’s expensive and find out which bottles I got wrong.
Part II — The Answers
Zach Johnston
Woodinville Bourbon Port Cask Finished (Affordable/ Incorrect)
Woodinville Whiskey has been cleaning up awards recently. Their Port Cask takes their 5-year-old bourbon and ages it for a final six months in Ruby Port barrels to add a whole new dimension to the whiskey.
George T. Stagg 2020 Antique Collection (Expensive/Correct)
This year’s George T. Stagg is a 15-year-old expression. The mash has a little rye in the bill. The barrels are stored in very specific parts of three different warehouses where 59 percent of the juice is lost to the angels.
Heaven’s Door Bootleg Series Mizunara Oak Whisky 26 Year (Expensive/Correct)
This 26-year-old whiskey was finished in the much-hyped Mizunara oak casks from Japan. Those barrels are made exclusively from oaks that are over 200-years-old when harvested and impart the color and funk mentioned above.
This bourbon is the entry point to the wider world of Woodford Reserve’s line. The juice is fairly high rye with 18 percent of the grain in the mash bill. The whiskey is then aged between six and seven years before it’s married, brought down to proof, and bottled.
Pinhook Bohemian Bourbon High Proof (Affordable/ Correct)
Pinhook Bourbon was created by a master sommelier and restauranteur who became a master blender of whiskey. The whiskey is made at Castle & Key under the watchful eye of Pinhook. It’s then blended exactly to Pinhook’s specifications and is typically under four or five years old.
This is Buffalo Trace’s jewel in their whiskey crown. The expression spends 18 years in the barrel in one specific spot in one specific warehouse. In that time, almost 60 percent of the juice is lost. The whiskey is then cut down to a very drinkable 101 proof.
Michter’s 10 Year Kentucky Straight Bourbon (Expensive/Correct)
Michter’s 10 is a single barrel expression that exemplifies the brand’s craft. The juice is hand-selected for its exactness before it’s cut down to proof and bottled in a heavy bottle with a waxed cork.
Basil Hayden’s 10 Year Bourbon (Affordable/ Incorrect)
This expression from Basil Hayden’s takes the standard Basil Hayden’s bourbon and lets it rest for around six more years. The result is a limited edition release that drops every year around the holidays and then goes away again for 12 months.
Part III — Final Thoughts
Zach Johnston
It’s interesting how well the Woodinville and Basil Hayden’s stood up again bottles that are, at times, ten times more expensive on shelves. Full disclosure, the MSRP for Eagle Rare and George T. Stagg are marked at $99. But we don’t live in a world where those bottles cost that. Both of the ten-year expressions were remarkably close in taste and character yet very different in price ($70 vs. $199). Basil Hayden’s for the win on that count.
The other big winner is Woodinville’s Port Cask. That’s just a goddamn delicious bourbon that’s like going to only get more expensive as it keeps racking up awards and accolades.
If I had to rank these, I’d rank them by “bottle I most want to drink again.”
8. Heaven’s Door Bootleg Series
7. Woodford Reserve
6. Pinhook Bohemian Bourbon
5. George T. Stagg
4. Basil Hayden’s 10
3. Michter’s 10
2. Eagle Rare 17
1. Woodinville Port Cask
That Heaven’s Door Bootleg Series haunts me. It’s so funky and different that I can’t stop thinking about it. At the same time, I’m fine not drinking it ever again. The Woodinville — on the other hand — is quickly becoming one of my favorite bourbons of the year.
Charli D’Amelio, a TikTok superstar so famous that she has her own drink at Dunkin, recently started a YouTube channel with her family, the accurately-titled The D’Amelio Family. In the first episode of the “Dinner with the D’Amelio’s” series, Charli, along with sister Dixie (also TikTok famous) and their parents, are served dinner by a mystery chef. Exciting stuff. The video has led to a major backlash against Charli and Dixie, however, due to the latter’s reaction to the delicious-looking meal made by guest Aaron May, who has made “multiple appearances on The Food Network alongside big names such as Guy Fieri.” If he’s good enough for Guy, he should be good enough for the D’Amelios:
The personal chef whipped up a multi-course meal, including a fresh salad and seafood paella dish, but the D’Amelio sisters were far from appreciative. Charli, 16, was caught making faces as May described the menu. Once the main dish was served, Dixie, 19, squeezed a fresh lemon over her paella, then placed the rind on her father’s plate. The situation came to a head when Dixie found a snail in her paella — something that May described as “an omen of good luck and fortune” — and made faces and gagging noises.
Dixie eventually excused herself to the patio, where she claims she threw up, while Charli requested dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets from May (I’m sorry, but I laughed at that). Charli also complained about not having 100 million subscribers on TikTok yet, to which the family’s dining-mate, internet personality James Charles, responded, “Was the 95 [million] not enough for you?” He, not the parents, is the one who’s embarrassed by the D’Amelio sister’s actions. “It’s also kind of the parents fault. They didn’t even stop them, James did. Straight up embarrassing,” reads a top comment on YouTube, while another added, “it’s obvious that the damilos grew up spoiled and james didn’t.”
As BuzzFeed points out, Charli D’Amelio, who has the most-followed account on TikTok (Dixie is number seven), has been shedding subscribers. She was at 99.4 million on Wednesday, but it was down to 98.9 million by Thursday. Charli’s still number one by nearly 30 million, but it doesn’t look like she’ll hit her target goal of 100 million by 2021.
i watched the d’amelio dinner video and charli and dixie were literally being so rude. be grateful for the food you have. you literally had a personal chef. dont ask for fucking dino nuggets
This morning, Myles Powell, the former Seton Hall Pirates guard who was named the Big East Player Of The Year, was trending on Twitter, as many were shocked that he wasn’t selected in yesterday’s NBA Draft. He wasn’t the only big name who went undrafted last night, though. Yesterday, Sheck Wes, the rapper who last played competitive basketball in high school, revealed that he had declared for the draft. Perhaps unsurprisingly, no NBA team saw a Sheck-sized hole in their roster, so the rapper was not picked.
Posting a photo of himself playing ball ahead of the draft, he wrote, “Damn… it’s really real , The 2020 NBA DRAFT , all my life I always wanted to follow my passion for music and basketball . Playing basketball and going to play pro in the @nba is something that I always strived for . Tonight that dream comes true!” It turns out Sheck’s draft aspirations were a promotional stunt: Following the draft, he released a new single and video, “Been Ballin (Draft 2020).” The video is very much Uncle Drew-inspired, as Wes put on aging make-up and surprised younger players at a park court.
Sharing the video, he wrote on Twitter that he intends to try his luck at the draft again next year: “STRANGEST DRAFT EVER , I AINT TRIPPING I WILL COME BACK NEXT YEAR 29 TEAMS WILL REGRET THIS NIGHT. BACK TO THE GYM. BEEN BALLIN !!!!” He also wrote in another tweet, “Next Draft.”
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is ready for Thursday night 
?? 
