Megan Thee Stallion is giving away a million bucks — but there’s a catch. In her new #CashAppForHotties campaign, Megan has partnered with Cash App to give away $1 million worth of stock to increase investing awareness and encourage participation in the stock market.
In an accompanying video explaining the campaign, Megan says, “Me and my thriving empire, Hot Girl Enterprises, have teamed up with Cash App to teach you everything I learned on the way up about money and how you can build your own empire.” She breaks down such concepts as fractional shares and diversification, reassuring viewers that “buying stocks isn’t only for the big players.”
“Buying stocks seems complicated, but really it’s a pretty simple process,” she continues. “The more you educate yourself the more equipped you’ll be to navigate investing. With my knowledge and your hustle, you’ll have your own empire in no time.”
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
In a moment of disarming nonchalance, venerable punk drummer Bill Stevenson wants to make sure that he won’t be on camera for our Zoom interview. Otherwise, he would have to do what he calls a nya – a method of grooming wherein you yell the word “nya” while pulling out a nose hair to prevent yourself from crying. Milo Aukerman, vocalist and cartoon mascot for legendary punk band The Descendents, laughs and nods along. We’re here to talk about the band’s new album 9th & Walnut. Well, actually, the album isn’t really new. It’s technically new but it’s also older than any Descendents release ever. Does that make sense?
Named after the band’s first-ever practice space, the tracks on 9th & Walnut were penned nearly 40 years ago, but “by the time we kind of got competent as players, and by the time we figured out who we were and what we wanted to sound like, we were sort of sick of all those songs and we had written new ones,” remembers Stevenson, who joined the band alongside principal songwriters Frank Navetta and Tony Lombardo in the late 1970s. Thus, the tracks were shelved for nearly 25 years, only to be unearthed when the band’s original members came together in 2002 to jam out their first-ever songs and finally put them to tape.
After those sessions, the tapes remained on a shelf for another twenty years while Descendents went their separate ways, during which time Navetta passed away in 2008 after slipping into a diabetic coma. The tragic loss kept the songs shelved for even longer, until Stevenson had a lightbulb moment during the pandemic. The band was already working on new music, and Stevenson decided to revisit the songs as a way to honor his friend and showcase the earliest days of the band. “We were sitting on it, and then it’s like, ‘Wait, why haven’t we released this?’”
Aukerman was the last piece of the puzzle to guide the songs to completion, and he was already primed and ready to go. “I had written a bunch of new songs and recorded those and I wanted to just keep recording,” he explains. “I was like, ‘Obviously we’re not playing shows. Let’s keep the ball rolling. Let’s record more.’” So Stevenson sent the tracks over with guide vocals for Aukerman to record over for the first time, 40 years after they originally pieced them together.
“It sounds cheesy,” Stevenson admits. “I’m always suspicious when movies have a prequel. I feel like they made it up. I feel like it wasn’t really supposed to be that way. I hope people don’t think that about us, like Star Wars one through three.”
But as with most things Descendents, 9th & Walnut brings with it a sense of unabashed earnestness that enables this exercise in preservation to fit in perfectly with the rest of the band’s lengthy catalogue. It’s a feat that most other bands would struggle to accomplish, let alone a band that’s been playing together nearly 40 years. Descendents have been underdogs from the beginning, and they’ve always beaten the odds. 9th & Walnut is no exception.
My conversation with Aukerman and Stevenson has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
So much time has obviously passed since the songs were written. What would you say were your main influences at the time that these songs were coming together in the first place?
Milo Aukerman: Well, these were all written by Frank and Tony, and so it was kind of a culmination of their influences. Frank was a huge fan of this band called The Last, and that’s a band that we all kind of worshiped back in that day. They were right from our neighborhood, in Hermosa Beach. So if you listen to The Last and then listen to some of Frank’s early stuff, you can definitely see there’s a throughway there. Tony was just a big fan of new wave and just early punk. And I think a lot of his early stuff has almost, to me, it has even a Devo sound because it’s very kind of, you know, bobby and herky jerky kind of stuff.
Bill Stevenson: Linear and angular.
M.A.: Yeah, yeah. That kind of stuff. So, yeah, I think the combination of the two of their writing styles really worked well, because you could get these different flavors together in one. And that’s why, when I joined, it hit the sweet spot for me, because I just felt like each of the things they brought to the table was such an important kind of musical element to me. So I just really dug it all.
So Bill, how involved were you in the writing of these songs? Did you come in afterward or were you part of those writing session?
B.S.: No, these were before I… before I knew how to really play a guitar. I mean, not long after it, I wrote “Myage” and “Bikeage.” Once I dug that bass out of the trashcan, from my neighbor’s trashcan, I wrote “Myage” and “Bikeage.” But no, I hadn’t written any songs.
So since these songs are from such a different era of the band, with you guys releasing them now, do you feel like this is kind of a separate standalone grouping of songs than what started with Milo Goes To College? Or do you feel like it’s a natural progression?
M.A.: It actually takes what used to be the standalone part of “Ride The Wild”/”Hectic World,” which really was standalone, and that’s no longer standalone because now you’ve got these songs to bridge.
B.S: I think the way I look at it is, if you go from “Ride The Wild” to 9th & Walnut to Milo Goes To College, in that order, it sounds like a very logical progression. But the anomaly was the Fat EP, because we were just on so much coffee on Bonus Cups, and Frank was taking all that speed, and now the songs are just ridiculous, you know? That’s what it was. So I think the Fat EP is the odd man out.
M.A.: Well, the other way to think about it is, on the one extreme, you’ve got “Ride The Wild,” and on the other extreme, you’ve got the Fat EP. We were testing the sideboards.
B.S.: We’ve never been gnarlier than Fat EP. That’s the gnarliest we’ve ever been. So you’re right. It was like we tested the sideboards and then we figured out what we sounded like. That’s a good one, Milo. I never thought of that.
So the last few Descendents releases have kind of dealt with a lot more adult themes. And now you’re releasing this music that’s the group’s absolute youngest form of songwriting.
B.S.: Completely juvenile.
How does it feel to be singing those songs now that you’re adults, going back so far?
M.A.: What it allows me to do is get back into that state of mind that I was in when I first joined the band. I would hear some of Frank songs and just be like, “Yeah, this guy, he’s really punk.” I was getting into punk rock, but I think when I heard Frank’s stuff, it kind of, for me, crystallized a particular punk attitude. Misanthropic, I guess, is the way you’d put it. When I re-look at that stuff now, I kind of realize how we were as people back then. We were all kind of loners at our school and we were all, I would say, fairly bitter about how our lives were going. Maybe even just from a social standpoint. We were all just kind of outcasts. And I think that’s the way I view it. When I sing those songs, it brings me back to a particular period where we were all just struggling to try to fit in, but also at the same time, didn’t care about fitting in either. It’s just kind of a weird period. We were all very young and trying to figure all this out. And that’s what I get out of his songs, for sure.
B.S.: Misdirected hormones combined with a pretty big chip on each of our shoulders.
What would you say now to the kids who wrote these songs?
B.S.: You kick ass.
M.A.: I’d say to Frank, “Man, you were ahead of your time.” Also, I mean, if you look at the songs, some of them are just really vitriolic, but then some of his songs are very kind of romantic as well. I think he captured both of those sides, and those are both sides that I was feeling at the same time. I’m struggling with being someone who could fit in, but also someone who is starting to recognize girls or just kind of think that girls existed at that point.
It’s an interesting line to toe, between wanting to be a punk rocker and set yourself apart from the group, but also, you’re still in high school and want to have friends.
M.A.: Yeah. If you’re that person in high school who just can’t find his crew, and is maybe on your own, a loner, you have a couple different choices. But I think one of the choices is just to kind of rail against the people who are kind of precluding your involvement.
I often feel like I missed out on the height of the best eras of punk music, whether it be New York City in the seventies, or Seattle in the early nineties, or whatever it was. Did I actually miss out on all of this stuff or is it just another instance of, “The grass is always greener on the other side?”
B.S.: I feel like you’ve missed out on one wave of it, but there have been thousands of great bands since then. But it was pretty bitchin’ to be 15 and be able to go out, and, in one show, see Fear, The Screamers, X, and The Weirdos, like all at one show. And then go another night and see The Go-Go’s, The Flesh Eaters, and The Cramps, or just whatever, for five bucks or however much it was in these little clubs. It was pretty, pretty cool to be there for that, but then there have been a million bands since then that have taken that and kind of produced something that was more than what they inherited.
What are some bands that are going right now at the height of their power that you think invoke that similar type of sensibility?
B.S.: Milo.
M.A.: What?
B.S.: You’re supposed to help.
M.A.: Oh.
B.S.: You fall asleep, Milo? No, I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding.
M.A.: I mean, I’ve really liked this band, The Pairs. I guess they’re just called Pairs. I feel like they maybe kind of mined a lot of the same area we did, in terms of, we want to play really fast and aggressive, but we want to have melodies and stuff in there. So that’s how I’d describe them. I feel like they’re doing something similar.
B.S.: Yeah. Or Wilhelm Scream. Audio Karate, Propagandhi. I’m saying, even after that first wave, just to go back not quite that far, I mean, the third wave was Nomeansno and Fugazi and stuff. There have been tons of cool bands, man, all along the way.
M.A.: The thing, too, is that you go into Spotify and you’re inundated by just way too much choice. Picking the needle out of the haystack has got to be difficult. You could spend days listening to a genre and try to figure out for yourself which ones you like and which ones you don’t, but that’s maybe one of the problems. But it’s also one of the great things at the same time. There’s so much music out there, but because there’s so much music out there, you got to listen to a lot of it to find what you really like too.
Is this album an exercise in nostalgia, or rather an exercise in preservation of history? I think those are two distinct things.
B.S.: It’s maybe more completing a task that had been long left uncompleted. It was kind of like, “Wait, why didn’t we record all those?” They’re good songs. Just because we got sick of them, that doesn’t mean that they should just go forever without anyone… Oh, so maybe the latter one you said. Not nostalgia, but the like, “Hey. People would enjoy knowing what the very first things we ever played together. People would love that.”
M.A.: It becomes a way of getting in touch with who we were as people, then. And especially who Frank was. He’s not around anymore to complete his legacy and this whole thing, but this was a way of kind of commuting with that part of our lives and with those people as they were then.
To me, the track “When I Get Old” is kind of like Descendents’ version of The Beatles’ “When I’m 64.” So my question is: Do you still hop on your bike and ride around town?
M.A.: [Laughs] If I could, I would. I can hop on my bike and ride on trails. That’s the closest I can do. A lot of the stuff in that song is actually a way of staying young through your actions. Because we’re all going to age, but it’s your actions that can keep you from really feeling older, and maybe aging too much. I mean, for me, just being in a band is a great way that I can just be like, “I want to stay young.” And that’s part of why I do it… What are you doing, Bill? You’re singing a song.
B.S.: [Singing] 13, 14. 15, 16… You don’t know the song, Milo?
M.A.: No, I don’t! What record is it on? Which of The Beach Boys’ record is it on? I’ll look it up. I’ll find it.
B.S.: Oh, it’s so cool. You’re going to love it, Milo. You’re going to love it. But then you’re going to know. You’re going to know the secret.
Follow-up question: Do you still hate cops?
M.A.: Well, right now, the cops are really… They’re misbehaving. The cops need to kind of clean up their act, is what they need.
B.S.: Well, I hate the system whereby the rich people are who elect the politicians, and the politicians are who pay the policemen’s salary, therefore the policemen work for the rich people. You could say, “Well, there’s good cops and bad cops,” but that basic thing is still true, regardless. That they are paid to enforce the goals of the rich people. To keep the bums off the grass, so to speak. So yeah, I don’t dig that.
M.A.: I hate the cops for what they’ve done in terms of race relations in this country. They’ve just really taken us back years and years. And that’s not just from last year; it’s from long ago. So yeah, there’s a very valid reason to hate the cops right there.
The Descendents’ earlier music was very apolitical in a punk scene where politics were very important. The songs were more about girls and having good farts. But recently, a lot of the newer material songs have been more about social issues. There were even some songs about Trump. What do you think caused that shift in what you were writing about?
M.A.: Well, that’s my fault, really. I can’t really say that it’s something I’m looking forward to kind of pursuing anymore. I think one thing that’s true in all of our music is that we always just write about how we’re feeling at that moment. In our younger years, we were feeling strongly about getting a chili dog. And then last year, or last few years, I’ve been feeling really strongly just about just how fucked up… There was no calculation involved. I can only ever write about what gets my dander up, and it turns out that that’s been this political situation that we’re in. And that’s where those songs came from. But I don’t feel like it necessarily redefines us as a band. What really defines us as a band is we just write about whatever we want to write about based upon our most extreme feelings, if you want to put it that way. It’s not going to be these political screeds from now until the end of time. I’ve kind of committed myself to not being that guy.
B.S.: In true Descendents form, my coolest two new [songs]… One is about my wiener dog named Slinky. And one is about my son, Miles. I’m not trying to think about those partisan politics and all that shit. It’s weird no matter who gets in there. They get old and they get old and they don’t get anything done. The whole system is fucking stupid. Wasting 30 seconds of my time talking about a big pile of shit like that is not interesting to me.
You said you’re working on new music. Do you have any idea when we can expect a truly new Descendents album?
M.A.: Well, Milo’s and Stephen’s are all done. We’ve recorded like 20 of theirs already.
B.S.: Karl’s coming over this week and I’m helping him demo his. I can’t finish songs. It’s always been that way. Do you look at how many songs I’ve written since I started the band? It’s like one per year. It’s so lame. 9th & Walnut served as a good stop-gap. It buys me some more time to finish my songs without anybody knowing. Milo’s and Stephen’s ones are kick-ass, their new ones. They wrote a bunch of really good ones.
M.A.: I think the good thing about these most recent songs, which is kind of a novel thing, is that Stephen came in with a whole bunch of music and just said, “Hey, I don’t have any words.” And I just wrote a ton of words for a lot of his music, and that’s just a new collaboration that we hadn’t really taken advantage of too much in the past. That kind of supercharged me to plow through a lot of it, because it was just such a new creative way of writing songs for me. Because a lot of times when we write songs, we all come in with our songs fully formed. It’s one dude’s song. And this was a good way of having the guitar player and the vocalist put their heads together. So that, to me, was a lot of fun. To kind of learn a new way to write.
9th & Walnut is out July 23 on Epitaph. Pre-order it here.
You’ve clicked on this tequila article for one of two reasons:
You’re genuinely curious if Kendall Jenner’s foray into the tequila world is worthy of the hype (and price tag).
You’re a hardcore Kardashian/Jenner hater (or tequila snob) who has come to complain in the comments about how a tequila from Jenner couldn’t possibly be good because… she has money? She’s from the Valley?
Either way, welcome. But if you’re a hater who has come to hate but you haven’t actually tried 818, kindly shut the f*ck up for a few minutes. Because we’re here to talk about the quality of the product, first and foremost, and — spoiler warning — all three bottles are good-to-great. Take it from someone who rated the blanco expression blind (and would have been more than happy to hate on it).
Jenner’s recent foray into the tequila space has launched a thousand think-pieces (here’s a shorter one), and some of the conversations regarding 818 are definitely important and worth having. But many of those think-pieces were crafted solely for clicks, piggybacking on Jenner’s celebrity status to create online engagement while ignoring scores of other entries in the crowded world of famous (non-Mexican) tequila entrepreneurs. So they often read as bad-faith arguments aimed at a mega-famous young woman rather than, say, the Breaking Bad guys, who also own a celebrity white label brand.
If you’re tired of having conversations about Jenner’s tequila (I know I am!), and just want to know whether or not it’s good, please, feel free to skip ahead to the section titled “The Tequila.” But as I mentioned before, some of these conversations are vital, so let’s wade into them briefly.
Is Kendall Jenner’s Tequila Cultural Appropriation?
I said “briefly” because this is actually a pretty complicated subject and there is no easy answer. The Oxford dictionary defines cultural appropriation as “the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people of society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.” Keep in mind this is just one definition of cultural appropriation (see what I mean about complicated?), but already you can see that this definition doesn’t 100% apply to Jenner’s brand. I can say this with confidence because we know this is a tequila, which means it was produced in a very specific region in Mexico, so you can’t exactly say it’s not acknowledging the origin and tradition of the product in question, even despite the name, which pays reference to Jenner’s Calabasas, California area code of 818.
Then you get to that part about dominance. Jenner certainly has more notoriety than the underpaid Mexican farmers who actually work the fields and extract the agave to make Tequila 818. But so do the rich distillery owners, the boards of the publicly held mega-brands, and every celebrity that ever dabbles in the tequila game, from George Clooney to Nick Jonas to Guy Fieri to the Rock. So if you have a problem with Jenner’s tequila, which is fine, you also have a problem with every single corporate or celebrity-owned brand (or, at the very least, non-Mexican corporate or celebrity-owned brand).
That’s also fine, by the way! We’re just advocating even-handedness when approaching this issue.
At the end of the day, there is a Mexican-owned distillery and Mexican farmers making money from the existence of 818. Perhaps not as much as they should be making, but that’s more of a problem with the rampantly extractive nature of late-stage capitalism. On the flip side, 818’s very existence is making it harder for lesser-known brands to garner the same level of attention, and pulling the exhausted agave resources away from brands that can’t afford to keep up with Jenner’s massive wealth, which may cause them to fold. That would definitely put some people out of jobs — especially brands owned by local Mexican families who have a deep, historical, and personal connection to tequila that Jenner might not have. It’s not wrong to be deeply concerned by that. But remember that, when viewed through this prism, all celebrities entering the tequila space are gobbling up precious and limited agave resources and jeopardizing the fate of smaller labels. Though they’re also building a pipeline of new aficionados, so there’s room for some nuance here — do you believe in the phrase “a rising tide lifts all ships” or not?
As we said, it’s a thorny issue. Wherever you land on it, please do absolutely vote with your dollars. If you feel like Jenner’s tequila is cultural appropriation, we implore you: don’t buy it. It’s not like it’s lightyears ahead of anything on the market. In fact, I have a piece coming next week all about non-celebrity, non-corporate tequilas that will help you navigate lesser-known brands.
In the meantime…
The Tequila
Tequila 818 comes from the La Cofradia distillery in Jalisco. La Cofradia is a pretty divisive distillery amongst tequila snobs, as it’s a contract distillery that is currently home to over 60 brands of tequila. That doesn’t automatically make tequila from La Cofradia “bad,” as some self-described tequila aficionados will tell you. Plenty of well-respected brands that have scored highly at the prestigious San Francisco World Spirits Competition come from this distillery — including Storywood and Hiatus — so the idea that a good tequila can’t come from this distillery is a little ridiculous. Having said that, the distillery is certainly no Fortaleza or Alteña, two smaller, family-owned distilleries that live up to their well-deserved hype.
The tequila itself is produced from Blue Weber agave harvested at peak maturity (seven years) by jimadores local to the Los Valles region of Tequila. The agave is then cooked in brick ovens for 40 hours, before being subjected to the tahona extraction method, a traditional extraction process adapted from the Aztecs that relies on a large stone wheel that crushes the agave. It’s a very labor-intensive process, so Kendall’s brand certainly can’t be accused of cutting any corners.
The juice is then fermented for 70 hours and twice distilled in alembic pot stills. All in all, the process is pretty solid. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that people keep saying this stuff is actually good.
The Blanco presents itself with a sort of shimmery silver glow that looks great in the glass. On the nose you get a bouquet of fresh lemongrass, juicy fruit and, I kid you not, spit. On the palate, this expression is highly vegetal, with notes of lemon-lime citrus, asparagus, agave, and the slightest pinch of almond. There’s a smooth finish that makes this remarkably sippable.
The Bottom Line
Incredibly smooth with lots of refreshing tropical notes, that nose is rough stuff though. For the price it’s not even close to the best blanco you can find in this range.
Very subtle whiffs of honey on the nose, the 818 Reposado presents itself with a light straw color and reveals notes of vanilla, fresh asparagus, and bright citrus on the palate, with gentle echoes of floral hibiscus. The finish is supremely smooth with a baked caramel quality that settles on the tongue nicely between sips. There is a sweet dessert quality to this tequila, but it’s not overly sweet in a distracting way. Overall a great expression.
The Bottom Line
818’s tequila reposado strikes a nice balance between bright and vegetal qualities and something with a deeper complexity.
818’s Añejo, the label’s most expensive expression, features a beautifully rich amber glow. On the nose, it presents strong notes of rich milk chocolate and toffee. The smell is so sweet that you’re going to want to sit with it for a while, just breathing it in. Go for it, everyone around you will think your nuts, but it’ll deepen your experience. Across the palate, those brown sugar dessert-like qualities intensify, revealing breakfast-like flavors of honey, maple, with a pronounced oak finish resulting in 818’s smoothest expression.
The Bottom Line
The dessert-like qualities teased in the 818 Reposado are in full force here. It’s rich and a pleasure to drink, and while I miss some of the bright vegetal qualities of the other two expressions, this is likely my favorite overall.
Final Thoughts
All three expressions of Jenner’s 818 are very solid, with the repo and añejo being full-on great, but if you’re looking for an answer on whether or not they’re worth it, that’s going to come down to just how much you want to spend. For me, given what these bottles offer, I’d say all three are priced a little higher than I’d like them to be personally, you can easily find bottles just as good if not better that are nearly $15 cheaper. El Tesoro and Herradura instantly come to mind, but the inflated price of 818 is what happens when you opt for a celebrity brand over the tequilas that don’t have a famous face or name attached to them. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that these come accompanied with a heftier price tag, but from what I’ve tasted from other celebrity tequilas like Teremana and Casamigos, this is the best I’ve had.
Of the three I have to hand it to the 818 Añejo, it has the best flavor profile overall, but at just shy of $75 per bottle (average retail) I can’t see myself reaching for this over some of my current favorite añejos. For that reason, I’m going to say if you want to pick up a bottle of 818 your best bet is the 818 Reposado for its versatility and great flavor. It has some of the delectable dessert qualities of the añejo, balanced out with the bright agave-focused notes of the blanco, providing you with a great bottle of tequila to sip, shoot, or mix in the drinks. At $60 a bottle, it hits the Goldilocks zone for me. It’ll be interesting to see how it elevates a cocktail compared to similarly priced bottles.
As a Disney Channel star, a No. 1 artist, and awards show performer, Olivia Rodrigo is not a typical teenager. However, the singer wanted a way for her and her friends a way to live out the ultimate teenage experience by sharing her concert film Sour Prom.
Directed by Kimberly Stuckwisch and Toby L, the Sour Prom film kicks off with Rodrigo being picked up from her house and ushered into a stretched limo. She begins to deliver a few lines from her song “Deja Vu” before arriving at the event, checking in with a few friends, and heading to the dance floor. The singer performs the rest of her amid twinkling lights and slow-dancing teens before closing out the film with a raucous rendition of “Good For U” on the school’s football field with the help of the marching band.
Rodrigo drummed up excitement about the film ahead of its release by showing up to some fans’ homes and asking them to prom. The promotion paid off as Sour Prom was streamed over 3.6 million times on YouTube in just 12 hours, becoming the platform’s No. 1 trending video.
However, not all the attention around Rodrigo’s Sour Prom was positive. Courtney Love slammed the singer for paying homage to Hole’s Live Through This cover art in Rodrigo’s promotional photos for the film. “Stealing an original idea and not asking permission is rude,” Love wrote. “There’s no way to be elegant about it. I’m not angry. It happens all the time to me. And really I’m very gracious or say nothing. But this was bad form.”
The 2021 NBA Playoffs have seen new contenders rise to the top of the East and West, as the four teams left in the conference finals have combined for two championships, most recently the Bucks in 1971. That has also opened the door for some new stars to emerge on a grander stage, most notably Atlanta’s Trae Young and Phoenix’s Devin Booker, while the Clippers’ Paul George has rewritten his own narrative with sensational play.
With some of the injuries we’ve seen to key players, this postseason has also thrust others into a larger role, offering an opportunity to prove what they can do on the biggest stage. Some have been younger players getting an expanded role for the first time, while others are veterans proving they still have plenty in the tank to provide to a contender. Showing that is always important, but never more than when you’re about to enter a free agent summer. There have been a number of upcoming 2021 free agents who have taken advantage of this postseason to showcase what they can bring to the table for a top team, and are set to cash in on their performance this summer.
Reggie Jackson (Clippers, UFA): The most talked about player in terms of who has made himself the most money in the playoffs is Reggie Jackson. The Clippers guard is set to go from making the vet minimum to another substantial, multi-year deal thanks to his performance for L.A., stepping up to help carry the offensive load alongside Paul George in the absence of Kawhi Leonard. Jackson has made more threes than any player in the 2021 Playoffs and is averaging 18.1 points, 3.2 assists, and 3.1 rebounds per game on 49.2/41.5/86.8 shooting splits in 18 games. It hasn’t just been a hot series for Jackson, but a sustained performance and that matters in securing him a big contract this summer from someone.
John Collins (Hawks, RFA): So much of the conversation is, rightfully, about Trae Young, but John Collins has consistently been their second best player. With Bogdan Bogdanovic being hampered by a right knee injury, the Hawks have needed someone to step up as a secondary scorer and Collins has been that guy against Milwaukee so far. His averages aren’t gaudy — 13.6 points and 8.6 rebounds per game — but he’s been efficient (55.4 percent shooting from the field and 34 percent from three) and he’s shown versatility playing some small-ball five and some big-ball three around his typical stints at power forward. The Hawks weren’t ready to pay Collins what he wanted before the season, but his playoff performance is going to apply plenty of pressure to give him a big time deal this summer.
Cam Payne (Suns, UFA): Payne was good for the Suns all season, but the playoffs have been where he’s really shined. He set a new career-high for points scored in any game earlier this postseason and is averaging 10.3 points and 3.5 assists per game (with just 1.2 turnovers) on solid efficiency (42/35.8/93.8 splits). Payne has been vital to Phoenix’s success, particularly early in the Clippers series with Chris Paul out, and for someone who was out of the league and playing in China two years ago before getting picked up as a late pre-Bubble addition by the Suns, he has more than made the most of his opportunity and proven he belongs in the NBA.
Tim Hardaway Jr. (Mavs, UFA): Hardaway was the Mavs’ second-best player in the Clippers series, and while he wasn’t quite as consistent as he maybe would like, I think he still earns a spot on this list. He was always going to command some serious money this offseason, but he showed how valuable he is to Dallas and why they can’t risk seeing him walk this summer, so expect the Mavs to have to pony up big time to keep their best perimeter threat alongside Luka Doncic.
Norman Powell (Blazers, UFA): Powell was only out there for six games this postseason, but he was terrific for Portland, particularly in some games where they desperately needed a pick up offensively. He didn’t need a “prove it” performance in the same way as Payne or Jackson, but his effort certainly endeared him to the Portland faithful and showed why they dealt for him at the deadline in order to secure his Bird rights. Whether he stays or not is among the bigger questions facing the Blazers in a very important offseason, and they’ll have plenty of competition for a wing of Powell’s caliber on the market.
Blake Griffin (Nets, UFA): After he got bought out by Detroit and landed in Brooklyn, Griffin was expected to look solid in a reduced role that would only ask him to do what he’s best at, but few expected him to look as good as he did in the postseason. He was simply terrific for the Nets, giving them quality minutes on both ends. What he does this offseason will be fascinating. It would make a lot of sense for him to stay in Brooklyn and continue in a role that clearly suits him, but that would need to be on a minimum deal or a small exception. It’s possible bigger money is out there for Blake, but after how things went in Detroit, he’ll surely be thinking about fit and title contention first, which might lead him right back to the Nets.
Derrick Rose (Knicks, UFA): Rose was the Knicks’ best player in their first round series with the Hawks, which, in fairness, is partly why they were bounced in five games. He’s not a player capable of dragging teams to win by himself at this point in his career, but he showed that there’s still plenty left in the tank, particularly on the offensive end. Rose has said he enjoys being in New York, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a contender comes calling with a two-year mid-level type deal.
Bobby Portis (Bucks, UFA): Portis was one of Milwaukee’s offseason additions last summer in their scramble to put together a squad after the Bogdan Bogdanovic debacle, and while there were questions at the time about whether he’d bring them what they needed come playoff time, he has answered those and then some this postseason. Portis has been, alongside Pat Connaughton, Milwaukee’s best and most consistent bench contributor, and his energy has been a needed jolt for the Bucks second unit. He has embraced his role in Milwaukee, taking fewer shots but being a willing scorer when the opportunity presents itself, and he’s bought in fully to what the Bucks do defensively to help alleviate a huge drop off when Brook Lopez is on the bench by being a switchable option to shake up the looks they can show opponents compared to Lopez’s drop coverage. He’s going to have plenty of offers to consider this offseason, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him back on the Bucks, as, similar to Griffin, he’s likely learned the value of fit after numerous stops elsewhere.
Nic Batum (Clippers, UFA): Batum’s resurgence this season with the Clippers on a vet minimum will open up some doors to go elsewhere in the offseason. He’s still a quality corner three shooter and he’s proven to be an extremely valuable small-ball big as the Clippers have morphed into this postseason’s best small team, at times out of necessity rather than will. Like a number of guys on this list, Batum will likely be seeking chances to win and fit over money, but the offers might be more significant even accounting for that thanks to his play this postseason.
Torrey Craig (Suns, UFA): This is more of a “I still belong in the league” situation as Craig hasn’t been out of his mind or anything, but he has been a helpful rotation piece on a Finals contender in Phoenix. That’s important for Craig, who couldn’t crack the Bucks rotation this season (after falling out of favor in Denver at the end of last season) and was a literal throwaway in the PJ Tucker trade that the Suns wisely scooped up for free. He has always been a willing and capable defender, and has bolstered his stock with some terrific and timely three point shooting (both in the regular season at north of 36 percent and jumped to 44 percent in the playoffs). He’ll have some real offers to consider this offseason as a quality role player.
DeMarcus Cousins (Clippers, UFA): Similarly, DeMarcus Cousins has gotten his chance to prove he still can be a helpful offensive player in the right role. Ty Lue has helped him out by deploying him against opposing small-ball lineups and letting him feast at the rim, proving that in the right situation, Boogie can still do Boogie things. He is not the same explosive athlete he once was, but he still has his back to the basket craft and knows how to use his immense size to bully his way to the basket and score once he gets there. He’s still likely to find himself on vet minimums going forward, but for someone who had injuries push him near the brink of being out of the league, that’s a welcome improvement.
Ever since her arrival on the scene, one of Rico Nasty‘s greatest strengths has been her chameleon-like versatility as she shapeshifts to suit any number of different styles. While she’s primarily noted for the chaotic punk-rock energy of songs like “Smack A Bitch,” she’s consistently shown that she can’t be limited to just being a screamo rapper and with her latest single, “Magic,” she stretches those creative muscles once again to show the world that she’s just as capable of making a club banger.
Incorporating some vaguely Mediterranean wind instruments and a sparse beat with a whole lot of swing, Rico’s latest is a swaggering, flirtatious celebration of a solid romantic relationship with plenty of pop appeal. If it seems like a huge departure from her more aggressive material like “OHFR?” and “STFU” or more straightforward trap-rap fare like “Don’t Like Me” or “Own It,” it only shows that she can fit any formula and make it work for her — and fill in the gaps in her stylistic palette, adding in easygoing danceable pop hits to draw in more fans who might not have jibed with her more challenging stuff.
And that’s a good thing for Rico as she prepares to release a new mixtape and build on her already impressive buzz, raising her profile even further as she steps into the stardom she’s worked so hard to attain.
Listen to Rico Nasty’s new track “Magic” above.
Rico Nasty is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
(WARNING: Massive spoilers for Loki will be found below, so get the heck outta here if you haven’t caught up on Episode 3.)
*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
Loki delivered a highly emotional episode (with Tom Hiddleston really drawing from his theatrical background) during “The Nexus Event,” which follows up on last week’s fan-pleaser of an installment that made the God of Mischief’s bisexuality canon. Not only that, but had Loki found himself romantically compromised by a Loki Variant named Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), and we didn’t know if she could be trusted, yet this week, the show dispenses with suggestions of ulterior Enchantress motives on her behalf towards Loki. Instead, we learn that, yes, Sylvie can “enchant” people, but she’s definitely a Loki Variant as claimed. Further, we’re shown how Sylvie was tragically ripped away from her Asgardian childhood (as portrayed by Cailey Fleming from The Walking Dead), and no one in the TVA can even remember what she did to deserve this fate. We also receive confirmation that, yes, Mobius is a jet-ski-obsessed Variant, and everyone else who works at the TVA is a Variant, too.
As if that wasn’t enough of a gut punch (that’s a lot of ruined lives), the audience is dealt more blows. We learn that, yes, Loki has deep feelings for Sylvie, but the two are separated when TVA agents fetch them away from the Lamentis apocalypse. After their fates hang on the line during interrogation, Sylvie lives, but Ravonna “prunes”/vaporizes Mobius and then she kills Hiddleston’s Loki as well. Granted, Loki also reminded the audience (during this episode) that he’s died many times already, but it still stings to see it happen. And then comes the post-credits scene, which we must discuss.
First, we must note that Disney+’s MCU series use post-credits scenes sparingly, which makes sense. Yes, the MCU audience is trained to expect them with movies, but they’re tough to deliver with series, no doubt, since they generally suggest where the MCU is going. Since Loki introduced the multiverse, we can expect any post-credits scene from the show to carry extra significance, and that’s precisely what’s happening here:
Disney+
This shot takes place immediately after Loki gets vaporized, and fortunately, that gold dust doesn’t stick, as Thanos’ dusting did. He’s not sure if he’s dead and in “Hel,” which is a sort-of purgatory for Asgardians. However, it’s probably safe to assume that Disney+ won’t whack the title character of this show with multiple episodes to go before season’s end (also, MCU producer Nate Moore has gone on record to state that Loki “lends itself to multiple seasons,” more than any other Disney+ MCU show). We don’t receive a definitive answer on Loki’s alive-or-dead status, but we do see what he sees:
Disney+
We’ve got four more Loki Variants. Ladies and gentlemen, Richard E. Grant has entered the MCU as a Golden-Age, “Classic Loki” (who people will probably refer to as “Old Loki”) as named in the credits. A “Boastful Loki” (DeObia Oparei) is wielding a hammer. And there’s a character that the credits refer to as “Kid Loki” (Jack Veal), along with an Alligator Loki, who I’m betting will win this whole thing because this show is nuts.
What we’re left with here is the realization of one concrete fact: “Pruning” doesn’t kill Variants, although Classic Loki (in a very Kyle Reese-from-The Terminator manner) warns that Loki will be dead soon if he doesn’t follow them. And it seems that every Loki who gets pruned ends up in this post-apocalyptic wasteland, although we’re not sure where the other Variants go after pruning. Could Mobius be lurking around this joint, too? Fingers crossed.
Surely, next week’s episode will fill us in on more truths, but we must assume that Classic Loki is telling the truth, and time is of the essence. There’s part of me that suspects that this wasteland is a place that’s set up by Sylvie during her 1000-apocalypse life, so that the Lokis may gather to finally hatch a plan for disbanding the villainous TVA. However, we must also consider that this is the first we’re seeing of Loki‘s contribution to The Young Avengers gang that will replace the likes of departed Avengers — including Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, and so on — following Avengers: Endgame. Speculation has swirled that Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova will join that gathering after Black Widow (the same goes for Hailey Steinfeld’s Hawkeye character in an upcoming Disney+ series), but for the moment, we’re looking dead-on at Kid Loki.
Kid Loki, in the comics, is part of that gathering of young replacement heroes. He was a reborn version of Loki, and there’s no telling how far this series will go with him, particularly because there appears to be little chance that Hiddleston’s Loki will ever truly die. Also, we can clearly have a zillion Lokis running around at any given time, should Kevin Feige choose to go there. Heck, the trailer even showed us Hiddleston’s Loki apparently being elected president, so we can assume that this is in the cards in the coming weeks.
From there, we can only hope that this gang of Lokis will help crush the TVA for good, so that the so-called “Sacred Timeline” goes away, and free will can exist, along with the multiverse. That appears to be where this post-credits scene is going, which would line up with the end of WandaVision and Scarlet Witch speed-studying to join Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Phase 4 is definitely giving fans their money’s worth so far.
The biggest takeaway here: Disney+ is assembling The Young Avengers through these Disney+ shows (the WandaVision twins might even be part of the crew).
Here’s the biggest question left right now, though: Who created the TVA? Hopefully, we’ll find out more next week.
Disney+’s ‘Loki’ streams new episodes on Wednesdays.
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
Quiet as it’s kept, Tyler has been one of the best pure MCs across not just one, but two generations. Debuting as he did at the tail end of the late-2000s blog era (when those Gangsta Grillz tapes reigned supreme) but being about 10 years younger than its biggest stars, Tyler can proudly claim to represent both that time and this modern, post-Soundcloud streaming boom, acting as the bridge between both that someone like J. Cole imagines himself to be.
But, it was easy enough to forget that Tyler’s pen game is worthy of placement among rap’s upper echelons amidst all the chaos of his early introduction alongside Odd Future or his creative invention in more recent years as the sensitive loner of Flower Boy or the artful eccentric that was Igor. It’s kind of hard to pay attention to a clever turn of phrase or an armor-piercing punchline when you’re too busy feeling revulsion from watching a kid apparently down a roach, or mystified from his and his cohort’s antisocial antics.
Fortunately, Tyler’s latest alter ego, Tyler Baudelaire, has put all that behind him. In fact, of all the alter egos he’s displayed over the past several projects, this one feels the least like a put-on; Tyler was much too far removed in life circumstances from the awkward teen that was Flower Boy by the time he made the album bearing that title, while Igor was inherently a mask, playing up the Warhol-esque arthouse proclivities that drove that album to its critical acclaim and ill-fitting Best Rap Album Grammy win. On Call Me If You Get Lost, Tyler is most like himself, free of the artifice that he no longer feels the need to hide behind — and free to finally let his nuts hang, so to speak.
Here, he raps like a rapper. Boasts of wealth and status abound; on the chest-thumping “Lumberjack,” he flaunts that aforementioned golden statue, bragging that he “bought another car ’cause I ain’t how to celebrate.” He tells just what kind of car with a subtle hint in the punchline: “That big boy, that big bitch for all-weather / It never rain in Cali’, came with an umbrella.” That would be just about any car made by Rolls Royce, which stashes high-end umbrellas in the driver’s side doors of its automobiles. Tyler just told us he has a Rolls in the slickest way possible. Again, thank you, Westside Gunn. Sometimes, amid all the high-concept stuff out there in the world, you just want to hear a rapper floss cool stuff at a high level.
Tyler does cool stuff like this all over the album. On “Corso,” he spits a brain-teasing reference to the 106 & Park classics of his youth: “Hurricane-proof all the views, shit like ‘A Bay Bay.’” He slickly calls back to another misunderstood genius of rap on the barn-burning “Manifesto,” snarling, “I might not have dreadlocks, I might have these gold teeth / But I’m a n**** like you, and you’s a n**** like me.” I am trusting you to catch these references because to understand Tyler is to understand that Tyler is a true student of hip-hop, as well you should be too because if you’re only catching half the bars, you’re missing out. Tyler gets that, which is why he’s employed the ultimate signifier of cultural cachet, DJ Drama, to yell all over his tracks.
And look, I know that a lot of Tyler’s newer, younger, more sophisticated, hip, tasteful fans fell in love with the melodic bent his music has taken on since 2015’s Cherry Bomb. But as a member of that blog generation, someone who counts names like Kendrick Lamar and Wale among my peers and contemporaries, someone who recognized that Tyler could rap his Black ass off but didn’t seem to have anything to rap about until recently, I can’t help but feel like this is his most complete work yet.
He addresses racism, and the backlash to his refusal to speak out on issues that should be self-evident, on “Manifesto.” And his boasts are now Jay-Z level, not just in construction, but in content, revealing an un-self-conscious swagger that doesn’t aim to shock in its bluntness anymore. He’s just getting these bars off, feeling himself, and dismissing — not reacting to, truly dismissing — the lame criticisms his detractors fling at him “from your lunch break,” as he says on the provocatively-titled “Massa.”
Don’t even get me started on the production, which has finally achieved the ideal balance between his cacophonous, Neptunes-inspired percussion parties and the soulful wit of Igor’s most groovy moments. If there’s anything to be disappointed by, it’s that he soils the smooth H-Town sample on “Wusyaname” with an irksome verse from Youngboy Never Broke Again, who does the track justice but brings his abusive baggage to what should be another triumphant, bridging-the-gaps moment of cross-generational synergy. Tyler’s now the wise vet, passing the torch to hungry young upstarts like 42 Dugg that he was once semi-denied.
And he’s hanging, lyrically, socially, and financially with influences like Pharrell and Lil Wayne, bringing out their best because they need to keep him up with him. He even offers an olive branch to fans of his melodic material with “I Thought You Wanted To Dance,” which should appease the flower children who might well be bewildered by all this gruff tough talk. But it’s only an intermission in the rhythmic proceedings, offering a glimpse at a more well-rounded artist and letting us know this is only one of the tricks from his bag. That said, as much as you have to appreciate just how roomy and densely-packed that bag is, Tyler’s still left plenty of room for some good, old-fashioned, rhythm-and-rhymes-first-foremost-and-forever, “I’m the shit and I know it, now let me explain why”-style rap. Thank you, Westside Gunn.
Call Me If You Get Lost is out now on Columbia. Get it here.
And now watch the rest of the Fast films (you can skip Hobbs and Shaw), so F9‘s mid-credits scene makes sense. Otherwise, you probably had no idea why Jason Statham was in the movie, and why director Justin Lin saved him until half the audience had already left the theater, and why I gasped when Han showed up (this only applies to the person sitting next to me at the time). In short: fan favorite Han, played by Sung Kang, was killed in 2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift… which takes place after the events of 2013’s Fast & Furious 6, but in that film’s mid-credits scene, we learn that the car accident that killed him was, well, no accident — he was murdered by Statham’s Deckard Shaw. Also, the words “killed” and “murdered” in that last sentence should be in quotes because Han is still alive. (I love this inexplicably complicated franchise.)
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Kang was asked whether he knows how the mid-credits scene resolves itself. “I have no idea. Justin will not tell me until probably the day of,” he answered. “I don’t know if he knows yet, but I’m sure he has ideas.” If it’s like every other Fast movie, Han and Shaw, who’s kind of a good guy now (again, complicated), will resolve their differences because family. That’s the power of Dom.
Kang also told a story about the first time he met Statham.
I did a movie with him prior to Tokyo Drift called War, and I was a character that was in his police squad. It was him against Jet Li. We shot that in Vancouver, and when we wrapped the movie, we were both at the airport on the same day. So he asked me, “Hey, what are you doing next?” And I said, “I’m going to go do this movie Tokyo Drift, Fast and Furious.” And he said, “Fast and Furious? That’s a good franchise to be a part of.” And I was like, “Yeah, man.” And he said again, “That’s a good one, man.” And then years later, he plays Shaw! It’s crazy.
Maybe Kang can be in the sequel to Spy. No one has announced a sequel to Spy, but I’m putting it out into the world because there should be a sequel to Spy.
Boygenius (Lucy Dacus, Phoebe Bridgers, and Julien Baker) had the indie world floored with their self-titled 2018 EP, and while the six songs on the release were great, fans were left wanting more. They’ve actually gotten more in a sense, as the trio has appeared on multiple projects together since then, like on albums from Hayley Williams and Baker. As far as a full-blown Boygenius reunion, though, the band members apparently really want that to happen, too.
Dacus and actress Thandiwe Newton recently had a conversation for Interview Magazine, and naturally, the conversation found its way to Boygenius. Dacus declared, “We want to play together again so bad. I think we’re so busy, but we would take any excuse, we miss each other so much.” She was then asked if the trio plans to record together again, and Dacus responded as optimistically as she could without confirming anything: “There aren’t any plans, but we talk all the time. I think we are the biggest Boygenius fans. We want it to happen, so we’re not working against it.”
Dacus also spoke about how how the trio’s respective record labels (Matador for Dacus and Baker and Dead Oceans for Bridgers) felt about the collaboration, and about how quickly the EP came together. She said:
“They didn’t really have a choice. We were going to be on tour together, so we recorded a song and it just turned into a whole EP, and they were like, ‘All right, well, put this out now.’ We recorded in June and I think the first song came out in August, which is the tightest turnaround. For instance, I recorded Home Video in August 2019, and it’s coming out June 2021. And even writing, we wrote all those songs the day before, or during recording. I think we were all very surprised.”
Hayley Williams is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
#CashAppForHotties https://t.co/NuktKg7ZmD pic.twitter.com/kz5gmy6ySn
