Month: March 2021

In a time when albums often come out the same day they’re announced, the road to Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over The Country Club has felt especially long; She first revealed the album’s title nearly a year ago, back in May 2020. Now, it’s finally out, and to mark the occasion, Del Rey has shared a video for the album-opening “White Dress,” in which she roller skates down a desolate highway.

In a September 2020 interview with Jack Antonoff, Del Rey said of the song, which was then titled “White Dress/Waitress,” “Now that [the album] done, I feel really good about it, and I think a defining moment for this album will be ‘White Dress/Waitress.’ […] We did that early on, and it started with you just playing the piano. […] What I like about that song is that for all of its weirdness, when you get to the end of it, you understand exactly what it’s about. I hate when I hear a song that has a great melody, but I have no idea what they’re talking about. In the grunge movement, a lot of the lyrics were super abstract, but the melodies and the tonality were such a vibe that you felt like you knew exactly what the singer was thinking. Nowadays, you get a beautiful melody but you don’t really know what the person is talking about, or if it’s even important to them.”

Watch the “White Dress” video above.

Tee Grizzley switches up his flow on his new song “White Lows Off Designer” — a likely side effect of collaborating with one of the most melodic rappers out, Lil Durk. The woozy-sounding single finds the two Midwestern MCs reflecting on the street code — “Loyalty no option / Please don’t start no drama” — with singsong flows that make the gritty subject matter sound almost beautiful.

Although he hasn’t announced any projects coming out this year, Tee Grizzley appears to be slowly rolling out a new collection of music for 2021. He most recently put out the video for “Late Night Calls,” his first solo single of the year after sharing a pair of singles featuring his little brother Baby Grizzley, “Twin Grizzlies” and “Gave That Back.”

Meanwhile, the resurgent Lil Durk has been a hot commodity for features ever since popping up on Drake’s single “Laugh Now Cry Later.” New Jersey newcomer Coi Leray tapped Durk to add a verse to her breakout single “No More Parties,” R&B revivalist Kehlani put him on her “Love You Too,” and Lil Baby is working on a joint mixtape with him.

Listen to Tee Grizzley’s “White Lows Off Designer” with Lil Durk above.

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

For a team that’s made two conference finals appearances in the past few years, things haven’t quite gone as planned for the Boston Celtics this season. The expectation was that they’d be at or near the top of the East standings and that Jayson Tatum would be blossoming into an MVP candidate.

But COVID safety protocols and other injuries have cost this squad significant time, and as a result, they’re currently fighting for their playoff lives as they try to keep a tenuous grasp on the eighth and final seed. And it hasn’t been all off-the-court stuff that has put them in this predicament.

The Celtics have looked listless and disjointed, unable to put together the consistency they need to make a real run at a conference title. The team’s heart and soul, Marcus Smart, thinks the answer is pretty simple.

Marcus Smart: “We gotta have fun again. We’re not having fun. We’re not playing with that energy, that same fire. That’s just what it is. We gotta pick it up. We gotta continue to try to help one another. Nobody said this was going to be easy.”

— Chris Forsberg (@ChrisForsberg_) March 19, 2021

The Celtics have been playing .500 ball of late, winning just five out of their last 10 and clinging to a game-and-a-half lead over the ninth-place Bulls. As a result, the Celtics figure to be active before the trade deadline to try and address some of their lingering lineup issues. But as it stands, they’ll need to put together a pretty impressive turnaround if they want a shot at making some noise in the East playoffs later this spring.

The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.

ITEM NUMBER ONE — I am not joking about this

I have good news and interesting news. Good news first: The team behind Justified is getting the band back together. Showrunner Graham Yost and his crew are coming back to FX with a show called City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit, also based on an Elmore Leonard novel, which is great both because shows/movies based on Elmore Leonard novels are often terrific (Justified, Jackie Brown, Get Shorty, Out of Sight, etc.) and because the people involved here had really nailed Leonard’s style and voice by the end of the show. Variety has the specifics.

The team behind “Justified” is reuniting to develop an FX series based on the Elmore Leonard novel “City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit,” with Timothy Olyphant potentially returning as Raylan Givens, Variety has learned exclusively.

According to sources, as the project is in the very early stages, nothing is set in stone as of yet, meaning Olyphant could star in the series or appear in a smaller role, but no deal has yet been made.

And you probably saw the interesting news in that blockquote: Timothy Olyphant may or may not be reprising his role from Justified in the series, in some way, ranging from guest star to series lead, depending on the negotiations, which are ongoing, and yes, I do find it a little funny that Variety reported it a) now and b) this way, because for all we know he’s just going to show up for five seconds in the pilot as a wink at the audience who is currently half-frothing at the mouth and shouting “RAYLAN BACK???” at the prospect of him leading another full series. As a lover of both shows where Timothy Olyphant wisecracks while wearing a cowboy hat and chaos in general, I support all of this very much.

But it does bring up another point. One of my favorites. One that I seem to be the only one making, which is fine, because everything needs to start somewhere and with someone, so it might as well be now and with me. And the point is this: If we are going to go about the business of extending the Justified universe, in any way, even as small as a brief Raylan Givens cameo in a new series set in Detroit, then we should really consider giving Wynn Duffy his own television show.

What a terrific television character Wynn Duffy was. Just layers on top of layers, many of them courtesy of the writers and many courtesy of Jere Burns, who portrayed him. He was a career criminal who played any angle that worked for him. He lived in a Winnebago — excuse me, a Wynnebago — with a muscular henchmen named Mikey who may or may not have been his lover. He had the whole thing outfitted with satellite television so he could watch women’s tennis. He was the person who Raylan threw a bullet at and said “Next one’s coming faster,” which remains just about the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. He, at multiple times in the series, ended up with another person’s brain splattered across his face, and yet he always escaped unharmed. He was a well-groomed cockroach in a bathrobe and I loved him very much.

And here’s the best part, with a slew of Justified spoilers coming in quite hot: He got away. After all that he did, after well over a dozen interactions with Raylan Givens, a man who rarely met someone more than twice without shooting them, he got away clean. He’s maybe — I could be missing one here — the only bad guy on the show who did not end up dead or in jail. The last we saw of him, in a sendoff so perfect that I’m smiling again just thinking about it, he was fleeing Kentucky in a van for a (probably) fictional company called Down On All Fours Grooming whose slogan was “the experts of doggy style.”

While this is, again, just a beautiful goodbye to an unkillable charming sleazebag, it’s also… I mean… let’s put it this way: Have you ever, in your entire life, seen or heard of a better spinoff set-up than any of this? Wynn Duffy traveling the country doing crimes out of a dog grooming van, setting up roots in one location just long enough to make a score and then bolting, maybe finding another musclebound henchman/lover if he ever gets over the death of Mikey, which could take a while, because I still am not over it and I barely knew him. Why can’t that be a show? Why isn’t that a show already? Why isn’t it called All I Do Is Wynn and why aren’t there like four seasons on Hulu and why isn’t the main promo picture for it a closeup of his face with someone else’s blood on it? Maybe he’s sipping a cucumber water, too. I’m just spitballing here.

It’s a good idea. It’s probably my best idea for a Justified spinoff, at least. Definitely top three, right up there with a prequel about Raylan and Boyd in high school together (starring Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins as teenagers, Pen15-style) and an alternate history where Boyd gets to live out his fantasy of getting out of crime and going legit as the owner of one or many Dairy Queen franchises. I really want to see Boyd as an ice cream magnate, especially after I got to ask Walton Goggins about it and he gave this answer.

I think he would have been a very successful Dairy Queen franchise owner, very successful. And that episode in particular, it’s very … All of this shit is very personal to me. I’m a poor kid from Georgia. We’re divided on a lot of things in this country. The one thing that a lot of us aren’t divided on is poverty. And for me, Boyd Crowder was what I wanted to say about rural America and my version of it. And that for him, there was a glass ceiling, and he couldn’t break it. And all he ever wanted was that, was the ability to escape a life that he came from, and to be somebody, and to be respected in a different way, and not through fear and intimidation.

With my story, I participated in kind of all of it. And I said, “We got to say this, man.” Because there was a dude in my hometown whose dad had four Dairy Queen franchises, and he made it. He was a success. And so, to answer your question, as fastidious as Boyd Crowder was, and as great of a compartmentalizer as he was… yeah, I think you would have seen Dairy Queens popping up in places that you never anticipated.

I think about Justified a lot. I guess that’s the point I’m making here. That and the thing about the Wynn Duffy show. So those two points, really.

ITEM NUMBER TWO — It is really saying something when a movie is too bad for me

This is a clip from Me You Madness, a new film that was written and directed by (and stars) Louise Linton, wife of former Trump Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. It is hilarious. There’s no getting around that. The whole brief clip is undeniably, almost perfectly hilarious, from the dialogue to the “party mode” to the selection of the Taylor Dayne song to the thing where her scene partner and co-star is Ed Westwick, best-known for a starring role in Gossip Girl and most recently seen being accused of sexual assault by multiple women, which goes a long way toward explaining how he went from Gossip Girl to this. He appears to full-on sneeze around the 0:30 second mark of the clip. Again, hilarious.

So, of course, I cleared out a couple of hours to watch Me You Madness. I love awful movies. They are one of my great passions in life. Which is why it brings me no pleasure at all to report the following: Me You Madness was so bad I turned it off after about 20 minutes. Do you understand? This movie was too bad for me. For me! The same person who, earlier this week, was quoted on the damn DVD cover of Money Plane calling it “the most important movie of the summer.” A movie being too bad for me is like a lake being too wet for a fish. It’s unheard of.

And yet!

The movie has nothing going for it. At all. It somehow manages to be completely boring despite being about a woman who murders and eats people and has nonsense solo dance parties on the roof. It’s almost impressive how little energy any of it has despite… all of those things happening. I didn’t like it or hate it. I just kind of nothing’d it. It was aggressively nothing.

Luckily, kind of, at least for me and you, Dan McQuade at Defector did watch and blog this movie. The whole thing. He came to many of the same conclusions.

The movie is a mess. There are innumerable dance scenes, both from Westwick and Linton, none of which are interesting. It is allegedly a comedy, but there are almost no attempts at jokes, even. There is one half-decent joke, and the movie immediately runs it into the ground. It features lots of fancy cars and furniture—rented, per the credits—but none of it is specific enough to be memorable. There is a ridiculous “happy ending” in which the two main characters, who appear not to have aged at all, suddenly have three children.

Again, I should have loved this movie. I should have gotten almost unending joy out of it. I probably should have, at some point, been blurbed on this DVD cover, too. It has everything I could ever ask for out of a trainwreck film experience: vanity project, insane plot, no budget, sneezes that were not edited out of the final cut because the director was, presumably, watching herself dance, etc. The fact that I — me, the person who also wrote a review of Speed Kills, a VOD movie in which John Travolta plays a speedboat racer who gets involved with the mob — could not finish it might be the most damning criticism anyone could offer. Just watch that clip a few times. Anything beyond that results in rapidly diminishing returns.

ITEM NUMBER THREE — I am really just very proud of everyone involved here

The key thing you need to know here is that Scott Frank was the creator and showrunner of The Queen’s Gambit, a show that became a megahit for Netflix despite the fact that it was about chess. That was some kind of trick right there. Watching people play chess is just about the most boring thing possible, especially if you, like me, are a huge chess dope. I could not believe how into that show I was. I assume I was not alone in this reaction. All of which explains why Scott Frank is now a very hot commodity in Hollywood.

There are a few ways you can go when you get a little heat like this. You can use it to make a big passion project, something you’ve wanted to make forever but never got anyone to sign off on. You could double-down on your success by making a sequel-type project for a massive pay raise. Or, if you’re smart, like Scott Frank apparently is, you could create a new show and set in the South of France and plan to film it on-location there for a few months.

The series is called Monsieur Spade and will star Clive Owen as famous Maltese Falcon detective Sam Spade and, honestly, I’m just very proud of everyone involved in this production. Via Deadline:

The predominantly French language series will be produced by French production company Haut et Court (The Returned, The Young Pope) and will be shot entirely on location in France. It is being eyed as an international co-production with a premium cable network or streamer.

Co-written by Frank and Fontana and to be directed by Frank, Monsieur Spade centers around writer Dashiell Hammett’s great detective, Sam Spade, played by Owen, who has been quietly living out his golden years in the small town of Bozuls in the South of France. It’s 1963, the Algerian War has just ended, and in a very short time, so, too, will Spade’s tranquility.

Good for them. Good for all of them. Good for Scott Frank for figuring out how to live in the South of France on someone else’s dime for a significant chunk of time. Good for Clive Owen, who will also play Bill Clinton in the upcoming Lewinsky-themed season of American Crime Story and probably will need to play a detective who lives in France after all of that. Good for Dashiell Hammett’s estate for cashing this check. But most importantly, good for me, because I found an excuse to post that GIF of Clive Owen doing some excellent sunglasses business in Duplicity.

No losers in any of this, really.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR — A heartfelt congratulations to Glenn Close

Something incredible happened this week. I promise this is not just me getting carried away with a strange fact and going too far with my excitement. It might be a little bit me getting carried away with a strange fact and running too far with my excitement, but it’s not, like, just that. I am not overselling this. It is really, truly wild. I did not think it was even possible.

Here’s what happened: The nominations for the 2021 Oscars were announced on Monday. And then the nominations for the 2021 Razzies were announced. And after they were both announced, after the honors for the best and worst of the past year of film were official, after the dust had settled, Glenn Close had been nominated for an Oscar and a Razzie for the same role.

Close was nominated for best actress in a supporting role, along with Maria Bakalova in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Olivia Colman in The Father, Amanda Seyfried in Mank and Yuh-Jung Youn in Minari. Monday marked Close’s eighth Oscar nomination. She has yet to win.

As far as the Razzies, the actress was nominated for worst supporting actress along with Lucy Hale and Maggie Q in Fantasy Island, Kristen Wiig in Wonder Woman 1984 and Maddie Ziegler in Music.

Do you see what I mean now? About this being incredible? Other actors have been nominated for an Oscar and a Razzie in the same year, with the most notable example being Sandra Bullock. But no one has ever been nominated for both for the same role. We are in uncharted territory here. One group of people saw her performance in Hillbilly Elegy and said, “Well, this is one of the best acting displays I have seen this year,” another group of people saw it and said, presumably, “More like Hillbilly Smell-egy.” The same performance! I am fascinated by this. Not fascinated enough to, say, watch Hillbilly Elegy at any point in my life, but still, pretty fascinated.

To be very clear, though: None of this is intended as a dig at Glenn Close. Glenn Close is great. Always has been. I want her to win an Oscar someday, in large part because this is now her eighth nomination and she hasn’t won yet. Now that I think about it, it would be kind of great if she wins both the Oscar and the Razzie this year. I want it to happen. Lots of people have Oscars. Fewer people get to make history.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE — This is cool

This is a video of Tiffany Haddish learning that she won the Grammy for Outstanding Comedy Album while filming an episode of Kids Say the Darndest Things. It’s great. Watch it right now. Watch it again if you watched it earlier in the week. Send it to everyone in your phone. See if you can watch her get emotional about it without getting a little emotional yourself. It’s impossible.

I think my favorite part is the thing where she starts to explain the historical significance of a Black woman winning the award and one of the little girls on the set is like “Yeah, I already knew that.” She said it nicer than that, and it’s all very sweet, but it’s a good reminder that you should always try — using reasonable means — to have a child around you when you get good news. You never know what those guys are going to say. It’ll either make the experience so much more rich and pure or it will yoink you back to Earth immediately because kids are honest. Like, there was an equal chance here that one of the girls could have said “Beyoncé has lots of Grammys.” Which would have been great, too. Kids really do say the darndest things. Someone should make a show about it.

READER MAIL

If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.

From Paul:

As a fan of prestige television shows and NBA basketball, how excited are you about this new show about the 1980s Lakers? I’ve got to imagine you’re through the roof. I’m expecting 2,500 word recaps of each episode. I hope it spawns an entire new genre of television shows about famous historical basketball teams. Which team would be the most interesting for this kind of show and who plays Allen Iverson, because I assume your answer is the 2000-01 Philadelphia 76ers?

Here’s the best part about this email: Paul sent it last week, before the news dropped that Adrien Brody would be playing Pat Riley in this series. I was already excited. Now, I’m basically in outer space. Adrien Brody makes… let’s call them “choices.” He popped up in the most recent season of Peaky Blinders as a Sicilian mob boss and his performance was kind of like “what if Adrien Brody did an impression of Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone in The Godfather?” It was mesmerizing. It gives this new Lakers show very strong American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson vibes, which I could not be happier about.

Which brings me to Paul’s question. Surprisingly, my answer has nothing to do with my beloved Sixers, although I did type the phrase “we should let Allen Iverson be the next James Bond” into a Slack room earlier this week, and I stand by that. No, my answer is much more obvious than that. I need a multi-season series about the 1990s Chicago Bulls. Basically just everything from The Last Dance but dramatized and spread out over 30-40 hour-long episodes. I want to see Jordan gambling at 2 a.m. with a game the next day. I want entire episodes about Rodman. I want Jerry Krause and Jerry Reinsdorf to both be played by Paul Giamatti in different makeup and I want it on my television as soon as possible. None of this is unreasonable.

Thank you.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To Texas!

A pair of River Oaks museum intruders are still on the run after they were chased by police Tuesday night as they boarded a boat on Buffalo Bayou and disappeared into the city’s storm drain system.

Yes, hello, hi. This article now has my full attention. I turned off the television and wiped everything else off my desk if one dramatic whoosh. My floor is a mess. It’s worth it. I can’t have any distractions. I must know everything about this at once.

When police responded to the museum, they spotted the pair running out of the building.

Police say the suspects appeared to have a motor boat waiting for them in Buffalo Bayou, which borders the museum.

They took off down the bayou, but when they spotted officers on the Shepherd Drive bridge, the suspects turned around and went in the opposite direction, according to Lt. Larry Crowson.

They fled the museum…

… AND HOPPED IN A MOTORBOAT…

… AND THEN WERE INVOLVED IN A MOTORBOAT CHASE.

KIND OF.

I GUESS THE COPS JUST SAW THEM FROM DRY LAND AND THEN THEY TURNED AROUND.

WHATEVER.

LET ME HAVE THIS ONE.

When the HPD dive team spotted the two suspects with the boat in the culvert, the pair jumped down a storm drain and ran off, according to police.

Officers followed them in, but ultimately couldn’t find the suspects.

During the storm drain search, HPD lost cell phone and radio connection with a couple of officers, who were then considered missing. The officers were eventually located unharmed.

PROSECUTOR: … and with all that said, do you think you can be a fair and impartial juror on this case?

POTENTIAL JUROR: So they stole some art and fled in a speedboat and then lost the cops in the drainage system?

PROSECUTOR: That is what they are accused of.

POTENTIAL JUROR: Then I cannot be impartial.

PROSECUTOR: May I ask why?

POTENTIAL JUROR: Because I love them.

According to MFAH, no works of art were damaged and nothing was removed from the premises. They are examining camera footage and are in contact with the police.

Wait.

Hold on.

They didn’t even steal anything?

They just snooped around and then fled in a speedboat.

That doesn’t make any sense.

Unless…

Dear Lord…

WHAT IF IT WAS A DISTRACTION?

What if the whole point was to get written up in the news and discussed in this column?

What if someone is reading these sentences right now and not paying attention to their job?

What if it’s a security guard at the Louvre?

SOMEONE CHECK ON THE MONA LISA.

Staten Island rapper CJ has a bonafide hit on his hands with his Bollywood-sampling single “Whoopty,” tightening drill’s stranglehold on the New York rap scene. Now, he looks to further ingratiate himself with the Big Apple’s rap fans by giving them a remix of the song just for them. The “Whoopty NYC Remix” features a pair of Empire State stalwarts in the Bronx-bred, underrated hitmaker French Montana and the recently-released rabble-rouser Rowdy Rebel.

Featuring a slightly re-worked sample, the remix sees the three rappers delivering updated verses boasting of their money, fame, and respect in the rap game. When the original came out, I was struck by how similar to French Montana I thought newcomer CJ sounded; on the remix, that comparison is heightened and enhanced, but it also shows just how versatile both rappers really are to not completely step on each other’s toes (the effect is similar to when Ghostface did a song with Action Bronson, and suddenly everything just clicked for the younger rapper).

Meanwhile, Rowdy Rebel’s comeback campaign appears to be proceeding swimmingly. After surviving a six-year bid, he’s returned with a more polished flow and gameness to take on any and all new musical trends, unwilling to become the out-of-touch oldhead that laments how much things have changed. It’s a good look for him and his feature has the added benefit of a cross-co-sign effect for CJ; the younger rapper gets the approval of older fans while the older rapper gets to stay cool in the younger generation’s eyes. It’s a win-win and to be honest, another collaboration wouldn’t go amiss.

Watch the video for CJ’s “Whoopty NYC Remix” featuring French Montana and Rowdy Rebel above.

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

“I feel like respect is the most important sh*t ever,” 23-year-old rising rap star DDG firmly proclaims over a mid-day Zoom call with Uproxx. “I feel like being respected is better than being loved. If you ain’t gonna love me, you at least gotta respect me. Disrespect is not tolerated on my side.”

Today, the Pontiac, Michigan-bred rapper is celebrating the release of his latest project Die 4 Respect with legendary producer OG Parker. From the sound of their 11-track collection of songs, respect should be on the way.

“I feel like OG Parker don’t get enough respect,” DDG further asserts. “He on the radio every day, people don’t even realize it that this n**** — he’s a G.O.A.T., he’s a genius.”

Alternately, many may know DDG from the YouTube space. However, he’s fully aware that the idea of one of the top Black YouTube creators transitioning into the music space to become one of the biggest stars in the world, is an idea that may take some time for people to get used to.

“Just because I come from this different platform don’t mean that I don’t deserve the same respect as a motherf*cker that went to jail 10 times and got out and made some songs and got lit,” he says.

DDG isn’t necessarily asking for anyone’s respect, though. He’s simply taking it.

With nearly 10 million combined subscribers on YouTube and a loyal base of supporters who show up for DDG at all costs, that should be easy. It makes even more sense when the music aligns with the talent and that’s what DDG delivers on Die 4 Respect.

Getting to this point has been a windy road. In 2014, he lost his older brother Darion Breckinridge. He recalls being woken up at 4 o’clock in the morning with the tears of his big sister telling him the heartbreaking news. He raps about the moment on the track “Hood Melody” featuring NBA Youngboy.

“A lot of people don’t make it out of Pontiac,” he says. “That’s why when you search for Pontiac, I pop up. Not to sound cocky or nothing but DDG is Pontiac. That’s because not a lot of people make it out that motherf*cker. That’s why I keep it in my name. I keep PontiacMadeDDG in my Instagram name, in all my social media handles because I like to let people know where I come from and that sh*t made me who I am. It made me change my ways and it made me want more for myself. It made me want to get my mom out of there.”

For Darion’s funeral, a fund was set up for people to donate. With some of the leftover funds, his mom asked him if he wanted a car or a camera. He ultimately chose a camera with a combined effort to focus on school so that he could make it out the city.

“I was always heavy into the school side,” the high school valedictorian admits. “I used to stay after school. I was like a little nerd and into robotics. I was like a cool nerd. I had all the girls.”

While working at TJ Maxx in high school, he quit after making his first $200 check from creating videos and having fun on YouTube.

“I’m wondering if I can make $400,” he remembers. “I’m wondering if I can make $1,000. Then I got to college, freshman year, it got to a point I was making like $700 a month, which is nothing. But I’m in college, that’s crazy. I’m 18 and it get to a point where I’m making like 10, 15K, 20K a month. This was before I really got into music. I did a song with Zaytoven before I even went to college. That was like when I was 17 years old, and I just never really took music too serious. I was focused on YouTube.”

While majoring in Broadcasting at Central Michigan University, he was rocking expensive threads like Bape hoodies and Yeezy attire on campus. Much like quitting his job at TJ Maxx, DDG made the decision to drop out of college after reaching over $10,000 a month in revenue.

“It was an 8 a.m. class and I had to pass it for my major,” he says of the moment he decided to longer go to school. “My major was broadcasting and my minor was acting because that’s what I wanted to do. I’m like, ‘Man, I don’t want to wake up for this no more. It’s sophomore year, I’m making 15 bands a month.’ So I’m like, ‘I’m done going to class.’ Let’s see, let’s take a leap of faith. I’m sitting in my dorm and I skipped class for three weeks straight. You know college, they don’t call you, they don’t care if you come to class or not.”

It was around the time that the killer clowns phenomenon was going viral on social media that he began to make that type of money off his own killer clown videos.

“I’m the hottest Black creator there is,” he says of that moment. “There is nobody that’s more lit than me. I’m on some other sh*t. Whatever is lit on YouTube, I’m doing because I’m making money. 2017, I’m dropping diss tracks every week and I’m beefing with my buddies. But it’s not like real beef on my side. I really don’t care. I’m just finessing. I make a diss track on Lil Yachty.”

The diss towards Lil Boat came about after hearing the Atlanta rapper spit, “S, K, T, D, D, G,” in a freestyle to Tay-K’s “The Race.” Though DDG knew Yachty was not talking about him, the clever creative chose to take things full-throttle with not only a diss track but with an accompanying video that he also edited himself.

“The sh*t gets 12 million,” he recalls. “It goes crazy, like the biggest video I ever had.”

Yachty actually ended up responding to his diss track by hopping on Twitter to deny any knowledge of who DDG is. Now the two have a song together titled “Rule #1.”

“Me and Yachty cool at this point,” he tells me. “I DMed him, I’m like, ‘Man, I’m just messing, bro. I know you ain’t shout me out. I’m just finessing. Don’t even mind that sh*t.’ I got that squared away.”

Soon after, YouTube had a devastating crash and his monthly income went from 50k to $8,000. Not one to panic, he chose to adapt and made the decision to focus on music with the understanding that people may not take him too seriously.

“I know they ain’t gonna rock with me off the jump because I’m this full-blown YouTube dude,” he says.

Once his song “Lettuce” with Famous Dex earned 5 million views on Worldstar Hip Hop, he began to turn things up a notch.

Among other songs he released during this point in time is the track “No Label” where he boasts about all the labels after naming Atlantic and others being on his line offering him million-dollar deals.

“I’m in my bag. I’m lit right now,” he says of that time period. “So I was just feeling myself and I knew where I was headed. I knew where I was going. It was just I always know where I’m going. I know I’m going to be the biggest artist at some point. It’s just about me being patient and making sure I follow all the steps to get to that point and not lose sight of the journey rather than looking at the destination.”

In that song, he raps about copping a Wraith, which he eventually manifests in 2019.

“When I made that song, I couldn’t afford a Wraith at the time, but I knew I was on my way,” he says. “I knew how much money I was making and I knew as long as I saved up for a little bit, I was going to get that Wraith.”

“I go ahead and I do a song called, ‘Take Me Serious,’ shot in downtown LA, shot the music video,” he remembers. Next was his R&B record “Arguments,” which was the song that got him signed to Epic. The song was part of debut album Valedictorian to which he admits to being disappointed in.

“I just think when Valedictorian was coming out, truthfully, I felt insecure about my music,” he laments. “I felt like, ‘I’m not good enough. I’m not good enough to work with these people yet. I didn’t put in the groundwork to work with these people yet.’”

One thing he learned about his process in making Valedictorian from his process in making Die 4 Respect is that making music takes time. It can’t be dealt with in the same rapidness that he creates his YouTube videos. Especially if he wants to be taken seriously as a rapper in this game.

“I already put the groundwork in, man,” he says of his journey so far. “I went on two solo tours and I’m headlining both of my own tours and I’m selling it out. It’s like at this point, nobody can tell me that they don’t take me serious. Nobody can tell me that I’m not an artist. It sounds dumb. I just wanted to prove people wrong at this point. I’m more impactful than a lot of rappers that’s already lit because I got kids on lock. Every minority kid, every minority teenager know who I am. That was my goal. That was me at one point. I want these people to look up to me. I just got a cult following.”

The burgeoning star has a staunch army of supporters who show up for him for not just entertainment but inspiration. He knows that he’s spawning a generation of Black kids who are vlogging because of him and he takes pride in that.

Before our conversation, he recounted how he was recently on Instagram live motivating his fans and said someone had sent him a DM, thanking him for helping them to become a millionaire.

“If I ever met 50 Cent when I was a kid, I would’ve cried and now people look at me like I’m 50 Cent,” he says. “The little kid that I used to be is my supporters. They look up to me like I used to look up to him. I’m their favorite like he used to be my favorite. So it’s just a dope feeling, man.”

DDG himself gathers inspiration from those he looks up to the most and if he can help it, is on his way to becoming just as great. After all, he’s barely getting started and already has two gold records under his belt including his breakout hit “Moonwalking In Calabasas.”

“I’m going to be lit,” he proclaims. “I’m finna to be him very, very soon and I’m excited for that. I want to know what it feels like to be Meek or Drake. I want to know what it feels like to be Diddy. I want to know what it feels like to be 50 Cent. I want to know what it feels like to be Lil Baby, to be on top of the rap industry. I want to know what that feels like and I’m chasing that experience and I feel like that’s what really keeps me going.”

DDG is confident and poised to win at this juncture.

“I really feel passionate about it to the point where I’d die about this sh*t like you gonna respect me at the end of this,” he expresses. “At the end of my road, everybody gonna respect me. That’s how I feel.”

Die 4 Respect is out now via Epic Records. Get it here.

The best weekend of the year is finally here. After the NCAA Tournament was put on ice last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, things are set to begin on Friday at noon. From there, a four-day race will commence with 64 of the best college basketball teams in the country, all of which are in Indiana right now for a pseudo bubble with their eyes on ending the beloved One Shining Moment montage in a few weeks.

But first, we need to get through Friday and Saturday, two of the most action-packed days in all of sports. Games are going to come fast and furious, and as always, it can be hard to keep track of everything going on. We’re here to help with that, as we identified the nine games over the first two days of the Tournament that you should make sure you carve out time to watch for one reason or another. And if all nine of these turn out to be stinkers, the good news is that there are 23 other games you can watch, and if we know one thing about March Madness, it’s that something incredible is going to happen more often than not.

(All estimated tip times EST)

No. 14 Colgate vs. No. 3 Arkansas (12:45 p.m., truTV)

This game is going to be played at a breakneck pace — the Razorbacks are 17th in the nation in pace, while the Patriot League champion Raiders (which only played 15 games this season) are 25th. Colgate wins games on both ends at the three-point line, as they’re third nationally (40 percent) on field goal percentage behind the charity stripe and tops nationally (26.1 percent) on three-point defense, but it’s hard to see them toppling Moses Moody and co. in their first game against a non-conference foe this season. Still, this could turn into a track meet quickly.

No. 11 Utah State vs. No. 6 Texas Tech (1:45 p.m., TNT)

One of the best matchups of the day. The Red Raiders come into this one No. 23 in KenPom, while the Aggies come in at No. 42. Both of these teams take joy in dogging opponents on defense, with Chris Beard coaching up a nasty Texas Tech side and Neemias Queta anchoring Utah State. Mac McClung will take a lot of shots for the Red Raiders, and the game will be determined by how many of them go in.

No. 13 Liberty vs. No. 4 Oklahoma State (6:25 p.m., TBS)

Watch every game that has Cade Cunningham in it. Liberty will try to slow this game way down and is ruthlessly efficient on offense, but they don’t really force turnovers, and giving Cunningham a slowed down game where he’s not turning the ball over is a recipe for disaster for the opposing team.

No. 10 Rutgers vs. N0. 7 Clemson (9:20 p.m., TBS)

A slower game between two teams with ok offenses and stout defenses. Both are battle-tested after having to navigate tough schedules, and at the very least, it’ll be worth watching because it’s always cool to see teams like Rutgers that never make the tournament get a nod. Keep an eye out for the Tigers’ Aamir Simms, who does everything for them, and the Scarlet Knights’ guard trio of Ron Harper Jr. (feel old?), Jacob Young, and Gio Baker.

No. 12 Winthrop vs. No. 5 Villanova (9:57 p.m., TNT)

The Wildcats have limped to the finish line, both in terms of recent results (they’ve lost two in a row to end the year) and literally (veteran guard Collin Gillespie is out for the year and backcourt mate Justin Moore is coming off of an injury). They’re still a better team, but the Eagles are going to try and speed them up without Gillespie around. It’ll still be an uphill battle, but styles make fights, and Villanova won’t have its metronome on the floor.

No. 14 Eastern Washington vs. No. 3 Kansas (1:15 p.m., TBS)

The Jayhawks should still win this game, but its starting frontcourt duo of Jalen Wilson and David McCormack are out due to COVID protocols. The Eagles play fast and if big man Tanner Groves (16.4 points, 8.1 rebounds per game) can impose himself, it might be worth keeping an eye on this one.

No. 9 St. Bonaventure vs. No. 8 LSU (1:45 p.m., TNT)

The Bonnies more or less play six dudes but are excellent at slowing games way down and relying on standout guard Kyle Lofton to dictate the pace of play. The Tigers get up and down the court effortlessly and can really score — three players, led by former five-star recruit Cameron Thomas, score at least 15 points per game. It is very possible that this ends up being the best game of the opening weekend, although St. Bonaventure could be in some trouble if big man Osun Osunniyi gets into foul trouble, because their frontcourt depth isn’t exactly stellar.

No. 13 Ohio vs. No. 4 Virginia (7:15 p.m., truTV)

COVID and the Cavaliers are in a fight with one another, and hopefully this game can be played. It should be a fun one regardless, as Virginia has once again mastered the art of grinding opponents to dust, while the Bobcats are led by Jason Preston, an absolutely remarkable basketball player who does everything for his team and might have the best story you’ve ever heard for a college athlete.

No. 10 VCU vs. No. 7 Oregon (9:57 p.m., TNT)

The final game of the first round is just a straight up fun game between a perpetually pesky Rams and a Ducks team that has dealt with injuries this season. At the very least, the guard matchup between Nah’Shon “Bones” Hyland of VCU and Chris Duarte of Oregon is going to be one of the best of the entire Tournament, let alone the first round of action.

After weeks of a clever rollout, Guapdad 4000 has released his Illmind-produced album, 1176. The project, which finds Guapdad reflecting on his past in West Oakland, also focuses at times on his Filipino heritage — notably on the song “Chicken Adobo,” which references a traditional dish considered a trademark of the island nation. Today, he released a tender video to accompany the song, which displays both the sincerity at its heart and Guapdad’s wicked sense of humor.

Opening with shots of a fictional comic book called Scamboy, the video follows its pretty female lead as the character comes to life and draws her into the book’s pages. Scamboy — Guapdad — and the video lead embark on a romantic tour of a tropical island which includes four-wheeling and stopping off at a food truck to purchase two plates of the titular dish. However, the song’s heartfelt chorus gets a devilish twist at the end, courtesy of Guapdad’s tongue-in-cheek love for double meanings.

Guapdad’s month-long rollout for 1176 also included music videos for “How Many,” the Alice Deejay-sampling lead single, and “She Wanna,” a freestyled homage to the Yin Yang Twins’ “Wait” featuring fellow Bay Area party animal P-Lo.

Watch Guapdad 4000’s “Chicken Adobo” above.

Guapdad 4000 is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Hey, did you hear that the NCAA Tournament is back? Apparently they didn’t play it last year or something. While I strongly suggest not basing all your opinions on the Draft on what you see in the Tournament, the reality is that most NBA fans aren’t going to see much college ball outside the occasional primetime ESPN game. So if you’re looking for some players whose stock could actually rise nationally with a deep run, here’s some names to keep an eye on.

Nah’Shon “Bones” Hyland, guard, VCU

A lightly-recruited scoring guard from the class of 2019 (he missed an entire year due to tearing up his knee while escaping a house fire in which he lost his grandmother and brother), Hyland has spent this, his sophomore campaign, destroying defenses in the Atlantic 10 to the tune of 19.5 points per game while shooting just over 37 percent from three on just under 14 attempts per 100 possessions. At 6’3, Hyland is a little small for a pure scorer-type guard. He’s not much of a passer, but he’s gotten much better this season at getting to the rim and to the line, and the shooting is good enough to carry both him and VCU to the Sweet 16 and beyond. For our purposes, perhaps this will cement him as a mid-to-late first rounder this year, whenever the Draft may be.

Tre Mann, guard, Florida

Another scoring guard from the class of 2019, Mann was a five-star recruit who disappointed during his first season, mostly because he just couldn’t create enough space for himself, shooting only 35 percent from the field and 27 percent from three with a ghastly offensive rating of 87.6. This year, with Keyontae Johnson out most of the season, Florida has needed someone to step up offensively, and Mann has been more than up to the task, putting up 20.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game while shooting 45 percent from the field, 39 percent from three, and just under 85 percent from the line.

Most impressively, he’s doing this while only being assisted on 19 percent of his shots at the rim, 36 percent of his threes, and an astounding two percent of all other field goals. Shot creation is the name of the game for Mann, and he’s matured enough both physically and mentally to do it well enough to pull an otherwise just okay team as far as possible. Right now, he’s sort of stuck in that morass between the late lottery and the second round if he declares, but a strong tourney run could easily and deservedly make Tre Mann into a lottery pick.

Jaden Springer, guard, Tennessee

Unlike teammate Keon Johnson, Springer has not spent most of the season as a projected lottery pick. Despite their similar pedigrees and production, Springer, one of the youngest players in this class, has mostly flown under the mainstream radar this season.

Statistically, there’s really no explanation for it. He scores (19.5 points per 40), rebounds (5.5 boards per 40), makes passes (4.5 assists per 40 for a primary shooting guard), shoots (44.4 percent from deep), makes plays on defense (2.3 BLK% and 2.8 STL%), and just overall produces at a very high level for a freshman in the SEC. He’s also a tremendous perimeter defender, skills he doesn’t always get to flash with players like Johnson or Yves Pons around him. A potential second round matchup with Cade Cunningham may await, and Springer acquitted himself quite well in that matchup in high school.

With Springer, the limitations seem to just be aesthetics. He’s a two-footed leaper who doesn’t play way above the rim, his shot is a little janky, and his game is mostly predicated on intelligence and physical power. He’s not a sexy player at all, but he’s exceptionally good, exceptionally young, and exceptionally ready to prove himself a top-10 player in this class.

Trey Murphy III, forward, Virginia

A transfer from Rice, Murphy — along with fellow transfer Sam Hauser and longtime Cavaliers standout Jay Huff — has formed one of the best shooting frontcourts in recent NCAA history. All three are 6’8 or taller and all shoot at least 40 percent from three and 83 percent of the line. On the latter, Murphy is almost at 93 percent. While he’s not an elite athlete vertically, Murphy is very lean, lanky, and active. He moves fairly well, and despite his pedestrian block and steal rates (a common problem for UVA wings), he’s a good defensive player. He’s likely not too much of a shot creator on his own, but the value of an elite shooting 6’9 wing player should be obvious in today’s NBA. At almost 21, Murphy is one of the older players on this list, but he’s NBA ready and a strong showing in the Tournament could propel him into the late first round range, where I believe he belongs.

Chris Duarte, guard, Oregon

Speaking of older, elite shooters, Duarte’s relative lack of Draft hype has been nothing but confounding. Sure, he’s almost 24 years old, but Desmond Bane and Duncan Robinson have proven that age is less important when you’re not drafting in the lottery or hunting for superstars. If you want a player who will shoot and defend at an extremely high level on the wing, Duarte is your man.

He’s a 43 percent three point shooter on a high volume, with only about two-thirds of his makes coming off assists, which gives him a little more versatility than guys like Murphy or even Corey Kispert. A huge 3.3 steal rate can be misleading, but in Duarte’s case, it’s very representative of how great he is on defense. He’s 6’6, makes passes, and just generally looks like a plug-and-play wing in the NBA right now.

This Oregon team has dealt with its share of injuries, but they look to be close to fully healthy, and Duarte is their best player, as well as being one of the best players in the entire Pac-12. He should be getting looked at by NBA teams anywhere outside the lottery.

Cade Cunningham, guard/forward, Oklahoma State

Cunningham is the consensus No. 1 player almost everywhere, but hear me out. There’s been far too much speculation about Jalen Suggs or Evan Mobley or Jonathan Kuminga overtaking this spot for my taste. Cunningham came into the season a surefire, no doubt No. 1 prospect and he’s only solidified that position more and more. Sure, he’s got more turnovers than assists, that’s not great, but the context of his situation at Oklahoma Stat needs more context than that.

He’s the only player on the team shooting 38 percent or higher from three (on any real attempts) and he’s essentially playing full-time power forward. The defense and rebounding have been as advertised, the quality of his passing has been excellent (most of the turnover issues have been dealing with on ball pressure from two or more defenders) and most importantly, the shooting has been tremendous. Aside from the aforementioned Mann, no player anywhere near my top-100 prospects shoots a higher percentage from three on a lower amount of assisted makes than Cunningham. He’s shooting just under 42 percent from deep and only being assisted on 42 percent of his attempts. This level of shotmaking, which he has shown off consistently throughout the back half of the Big 12 schedule (some of the best competition in the country) is really a huge step forward for him, given how hesitant he was to shoot before now.

The truth is, Cunningham wants to be Chris Paul, setting up teammates instead of hunting for his shot, but the relative lack of firepower around him in Stillwater has sort of forced his hand, and he’s that much better a player and prospect for it. As it stands now, he has very few flaws, if any (aside from a relative lack of burst, which is excusable for a player his size), and his ceiling as a top player in the NBA seems higher than ever. The problem is, I’m not sure the mainstream Draft coverage quite understands that. Mostly I think it’s just to stir up clicks about Suggs or Mobley or Green or whomever, but Cunningham seems to be viewed historically on a much lower tier than Luka Dončić or Zion Williamson are. I’m not sure that’s correct, and I’m hoping a Sweet 16 or better run will help alleviate that.

While promoting his unexpected return as the Joker in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Jared Leto dropped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Thursday night, and the actor can be clearly seen sporting a “We Live In A Society” T-shirt. Leto ad-libbed the infamous line, which has been a long-running internet meme, in a trailer for the highly-anticipated Snyder Cut while giving fans their first glimpse at his new road weary, Knightmare Joker. While the line didn’t make it into the final film, Leto is helping it take on a new life by using it to raise funds for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

During his interview with Colbert, Leto revealed that fans can buy the t-shirts on the website for the actor’s band 30 Seconds to Mars, which also tweeted a link to the shirts. Proceeds from the sales will go to suicide prevention. It’s a cause that’s very personal to Snyder after he lost his daughter Autumn during the initial production for Justice League, prompting his exit from the film.

As for the future of Leto’s Joker, the actor didn’t deviate from the official narrative that the Snyder Cut is a one-time thing that is not part of the DCEU canon. However, Leto appreciated the chance to reprise the role, which didn’t look likely after the reception to the first Suicide Squad and Warner Bros. taking a solo approach to the Joker with Joaquin Phoenix.

“I was just happy to be a part of his dream and to get asked to play the Joker for a second time was just a treat,” Leto told Colbert. “It’s one of those roles that’s just incredible.”

Earlier in the day, Leto had also tweeted out his appreciation for Snyder and called the director a “warrior and a madman” for following through on his vision.