Month: September 2021

Now that the music industry shutdown of 2020 is over and live entertainment is back underway, it’s once again time to line up some of the tours we’re looking forward to for the rest of the year.

While the past year was understandably quiet for live shows, venues have begun to reopen, festivals have returned, and many of the artists who spent much of 2020 indoors working on new material finally have the opportunity to show it off for an appreciative audience. Artists like J. Cole have spent weeks shaking off the rust and getting ready to head back out on the road, and hopefully, the extra time will have everyone feeling refreshed and energized after using that time to polish up their performances.

The upcoming fall tour season has no shortage of big names but with the likes of Doja Cat, Drake, and Tyler The Creator pushing to 2022, now’s your chance to see the hottest new and rising acts before they blow up.

AG Club — F*ck Your Expectations Tour

These Bay Area ragers bring a loose-limbed party vibe to their music, so it’s almost certain that their live show will follow suit. Serving up a similar vibe to early Odd Future and their offspring like Brockhampton, AG Club’s raucous energy bounces off the walls of any venue, as you can see in their videos for songs like “Memphis” and “NoHo.” This tour runs from September 26 in Brooklyn to the weekend of Day N Vegas in November.

Check out AG Club’s tour dates here.

Bino Rideaux — On My Soul Tour

It’s almost a shame Bino and Blxst aren’t touring their new joint mixtape because that tour would have the potential to be epic. As it is, the two veteran crowd controllers are more than enough to satisfy individually. Bino, of course, is the more straightforward rapper of the two, although he still mixes in his fair share of melody. However, while Blxst populates his groovy West Coast anthems with pure R&B on the choruses and hooks, Bino prefers to take a more rhythmic, gangster approach that still holds enough appeal for fans of all tastes.

Check out Bino Rideaux’s tour dates here.

Blxst

Bring a date, thank me later. Blxst’s warm, soulful grooves and laid-back nighttime vibes make his shows feel more like house parties. The smooth appeal of tracks like “Gang Slide,” “Chosen,” and “Overrated” lend themselves to slow-dance euphoria while still remaining boisterous enough to keep the whole crowd moving all night long.

Check out Blxst’s tour dates here.

Don Toliver

Toliver made waves last year when he declined to appear on XXL’s Freshman cover, so it’ll probably be worth checking out his live show to see why. The Houston crooner has rapidly become a fan favorite, getting a tremendous boost from his Cactus Jack label head Travis Scott, but showing over the last two years that he’s more than capable of standing on his own. Meanwhile, with “Whole Lotta Money” hitmaker BIA in tow, this tour should be at the top of your “can’t miss” list.

Check out Don Toliver’s tour dates here.

Fugees — The Score Reunion Tour

A late addition to the list, the iconic Jersey trio is reuniting for the first time in 15 years to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their classic 1996 album The Score. Consider this tour at your own risk; group member Ms. Lauryn Hill is notoriously prone to showing up late and refusing to perform unless the vibe is right, while the band’s personal relationships have been strained over the years. However, given how rare a reunion is, that risk may end up well worth it, especially since The Score is considered one of the best hip-hop albums of all time.

Check out Fugees’ tour dates here.

IDK — The USee4Yourself Tour

As eclectic and experimental as his latest albums have been, the DMV rebel knows exactly how to deliver onstage, as he’s proved on previous tours and at countless festival appearances. A true rapper’s rapper, IDK also brings a sharp, unique sensibility to the stage, using his magnetic presence to control the energy level like a seasoned veteran. He really cares about how things look and sound and his personality is as electrifying when he performs as it is in his records.

Check out IDK’s tour dates here.

Isaiah Rashad — The Lil’ Sunny’s Awesome Vacation Tour

The Lil’ Sunny Tour is already in progress, but if it hasn’t hit your city yet, make a plan to check it out because this stage veteran really knows how to move a crowd. In addition, he’s bringing along his newest TDE labelmate Ray Vaughn, who has proven to be a capable MC himself. Watching them, it’s obvious how much they love to perform and they reciprocate every jolt of energy the crowd sends their way.

Check out Isaiah Rashad’s tour dates here.

J. Cole — The Off-Season Tour

Likewise, J. Cole’s tour has already launched and he’s already making waves for his choice of attire: Sweatpants and Crocs. It looks like at least one person is bringing quarantine cozy fashion with him. But don’t think that means he’s a slouch onstage. If anything, the year he spent sharpening his craft has also honed his stage show and his lazy wardrobe is a sign of his confidence in the stagecraft and presence he brings night after night. His Queens brethren Bas is also along for the ride, and when these two link up, good things happen.

Check out J. Cole’s tour dates here.

Lil Baby & Lil Durk — Back Outside Tour

Lil Baby is currently one of, if not the hottest hip-hop act on the scene today. He’s also bringing the rapidly rising Coi Leray and his Voice Of The Heroes partner Lil Durk along, so buckle up. The hype levels for Lil Baby’s performance are always off the charts and while this will be our first time to see how he and Durk share the stage, if their on-record chemistry translates live, it’ll be a sight to behold.

Check out Lil Baby & Lil Durk’s tour dates here.

Lil Tjay — Destined 2 Win Tour

Tjay has proven to be a can’t-miss performer at festivals. It’ll be interesting to see how he condenses that energy for an indoor show after a year off. While that would worry me with some artists considering the lost year of practice and development, the precocious Tjay has already shown a natural gift for projecting his cocky persona to the back of the house. While he’s likely never experienced the sometimes grueling tour life, he seems like someone who can thrive in that environment.

Check out Lil Tjay’s tour dates here.

Playboi Carti — Narcissist Tour

Say what you want about Carti’s last album, but Whole Lotta Red probably sounds a whole lot better in a sweaty mosh pit — the way it was intended to be heard. Add in the possibility that he could very well debut an entirely new project while he’s on the road — we call that “rock star sh*t” in the biz — tapping in will at least net you a great show and at best give you a chance to say you heard the new sh*t first.

Check out Playboi Carti’s tour dates here.

Rod Wave — Soulfly Tour

The Florida crooner has made tour life a huge part of his visual presentation — nearly all his videos feature at least some footage. Anyone who prides himself on his performance that much must put on a good one. His packed schedule has taken him from Houston to Minneapolis, but you can catch the latter half of his tour anywhere from Chicago this week to his final show in Seattle in late October.

Check out Rod Wave’s tour dates here.

Snot

Snot first rose to prominence behind the intense, punk-like energy of his youth-packed live shows. His return to the road is more than welcome. He’s also one of those young rappers for whom presentation is every bit as important as his presence, so I have every confidence he’ll be one of the top artists on this list when it comes to making it a night to remember.

Check out Snot’s tour dates here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Kathryn Hahn does not miss. She’s great in comedies; she’s great in dramas; she’s great in dramedies; she’s even great as the voice of an evil octopus-doctor. Hahn was beloved before this year, thanks to roles in Step Brothers, Parks and Recreation, and Transparent, but she became next-level famous for playing Agatha on WandaVision, a role that earned her an Emmy nomination. (She lost, but in a way, we all won — in another way, “Agatha All Along” actually won.)

Hahn has booked her next big part: playing legendary comedian Joan Rivers in a Showtime series. Variety reports that Hahn is attached to play Joan Rivers in The Comeback Girl, a limited series in development at Showtime… In addition to starring as Rivers, Hahn will executive produce The Comeback Girl, Greg Berlanti will direct and executive produce, and Cosmo Carlson will write and executive produce.” The logline:

“Trailblazer. Adored. Cruel. Diva. Joan Rivers had a life like no other. At age 54, she was a superstar comedienne… and then it all fell apart. The Comeback Girl is the awe-inspiring untold story of how Joan Rivers persevered through near suicide and professional abyss to rebuild herself and her career to become a global icon.”

The Comeback Girl is set after Rivers was fired as the host of The Late Show, which means there’s a chance we’ll get to see Hahn-as-Rivers interview Gwar. I can’t wait.

(Via Variety)

Little Simz is fresh off the release of her latest album, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, an adventurous album that has left fans wanting to hear it live. Well, next year, they’ll get to do just that, as Simz has announced a North American tour for 2022.

The dates span most of May, kicking off in Portland, Oregon before rolling through Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and New York City.

Of Simz’ new album, Uproxx’s Aaron Williams notes, “Sometimes I Might Be Introvert takes some big swings, but it never lets go of its message for the sake of an impressive stroke at expanding its sound. Simz has evolved, album by album, into the kind of artist who can push boundaries and remain both relatable and universal at the same time. It’s a balancing act that so many artists could take lessons from as hip-hop pursues its contemporary aspirations at making ‘high art,’ because Simz already is.”

Check out the full list of dates below.

05/01/2022 — Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
05/02/2022 — Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
05/05/2022 — San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
05/11/2022 — Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theater
05/15/2022 — Chicago, IL @ Reggie’s
05/17/2022 — Toronto, ON @ The Axis Club
05/19/2022 — Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
05/21/2022 — Philadelphia, PA @ Foundry
05/23/2022 — Washington, DC @ Union Stage
05/25/2022 — New York, NY @ Webster Hall

When Rihanna put on her first Savage X Fenty fashion show in 2018, it was clear she intended to revolutionize the industry. Rather than simply sending models down the runway in her lingerie garments, Rihanna tapped celebrities and famous models to showcase their outfits in a cinematic and size-inclusive show complete with live music and choreography. This year, Rihanna is once again inviting a number of today’s top stars to join her for her third Savage X Fenty fashion show.

The singer just dropped an exciting trailer for Savage X Fenty Vol. 3, previewing how the runway show will take over an entire building. Along with previously announced performances by Normani, Daddy Yankee, and Nas, Rihanna has invited musicians like Troye Sivan, Erykah Badu, Sabrina Carpenter, and Jazmine Sullivan to make a cameo in the performance. The entire show will be available to stream starting on September 24 exclusively on Amazon’s Prime Video.

According to an official press release, Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty 2021 lingerie collection fashion show are meant to exude “baddie energy” by incorporating “strong lines that trace contours of the body and unconventional silhouettes that push the boundaries of individuality to bring out the baddie in everybody.”

Watch the Savage X Fenty Vol. 3 trailer above.

Savage X Fenty Vol. 3 premieres 9/24 on Prime Video. Watch it here.

While there might not be as many capes involved, SiriusXM and Apple Podcasts have just revealed a super-powered team-up of their own. According to Engadget, the two broadcast behemoths are pairing up to bring all of SiriusXM’s Marvel Podcasts Unlimited series to Apple Podcasts, with both free and paid options for interested listeners. The shows included will range from talk shows and fan theory-filled breakdowns, to scripted series following the biggest Marvel character’s misadventures. All of the seemingly countless hours of content is available on Apple Podcast’s new Marvel channel starting today.

Among the free shows coming to Apple Podcasts include the award-winning Marvel’s Wolverine: The Long Night and its sequel, Marvel’s Wolverine: The Lost Trail. Both of these titles are based on Marvel comics by the same name and marked Marvel’s first — and extremely successful — attempt at turning their graphic novels into compelling and colorfully acted podcasts.

In addition, fans can also tune into several unscripted series, such as Marvel/Method, where rapper Method Man interviews celebrity guests such as Kevin Smith and Killer Mike about their relationships with Marvel, and This Week in Marvel, a weekly series that dishes out the latest going-ons in the Marvel Universe, whether that be a new trailer or a new line of action figures hitting shelves. Hit and diverse series, such as Women of Marvel and Marvel’s Voices, will also be available starting today.

Lastly, the new Marvel channel on Apple Podcasts also features the first installment of the new multi-part series Marvel’s Wastelanders, an original scripted podcast that follows Star-Lord and the Guardians of the Galaxy that features the voice acting talents of Timothy Busfield (Peter Quill), Chris Elliott (Rocket), Danny Glover (Red), and Vanessa Williams (Emma Frost).

For those looking to subscribe to the Apple and SiriusXM’s Marvel mash-up, for $3.99 a month you’ll be given ad-free access to all of these shows and more, as well as Marvel’s Declassified, a documentary series that dives into Marvel Comics’ history, and Marvel’s first Spanish-language podcast series, Marvel’s Wolverine: La Larga Noche. As of right now, Apple is also dishing out a free seven-day trial to the service.

As if the COVID pandemic hadn’t already wreaked enough havoc on Hollywood, a strike could now be looming. Variety reports that on Monday, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada (better, and less clunkily known as the IATSE) called for a strike authorization vote as their negotiations talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers seem to have stalled.

In a statement to its members, the IATSE said:

“Today, the AMPTP informed the IATSE that they do not intend to respond to our comprehensive package proposal presented to them over a week ago. This failure to continue negotiating can only be interpreted one way. They simply will not address the core issues we have repeatedly advocated for from the beginning. As a result, we will now proceed with a nationwide strike authorization vote to demonstrate our commitment to achieving the change that is long overdue in this industry.”

The talks between the two organizations began back in May, with the IATSE looking to negotiate a new three-year agreement with the AMPTP that would address the need for more breaks and extended turnaround times between production days, as well as the long hours production professionals routinely put in when working on movies and TV shows.

For its part, the AMPTP says that it has indeed addressed the issues at hand—and that it’s the IATSE walking away from the table. They issued their own statement, which noted:

“The AMPTP put forth a deal-closing comprehensive proposal that meaningfully addresses the IATSE’s key bargaining issues. When we began negotiations with the IATSE months ago, we discussed the economic realities and the challenges facing the entertainment industry as we work to recover from the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic… The AMPTP listened and addressed many of the IATSE demands, including paying the nearly $400 million pension and health plan deficit. The package includes substantial improvements in rest periods, increases in wages and benefits, increases in minimum rates for specific job categories and increases in minimum rates for New Media Productions. While neither party is getting everything it wanted this bargaining cycle, this package recognizes the crucial role IATSE crew members play as we continue to move our industry forward and provide employment for thousands of employees who work on productions.”

Dozens of actors, including Bradley Whitford and Natasha Lyonne, have shown their support for the IATSE on social media using the hashtag #IASolidarity.

As The Hollywood Reporter writes: “IATSE uses a delegate system for strike authorization votes, wherein each Local has a particular number of delegate votes and if 75 percent or more of that Local’s eligible members vote to authorize, all of those delegate votes are counted as a ‘Yes.’”

In the hours before the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building, Donald Trump was reportedly so “enthralled” by the sound of his MAGA supporters that he would open doors and windows in the White House to make sure everyone could hear them. Trump’s behavior is detailed in the upcoming book from Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Peril, which focuses on the disastrous final days of his presidency that culminated in a failed attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Or as Trump told Steve Bannon the night before the attack, “we need to kill the Biden presidency in the crib.”

While appearing on Morning Joe on Tuesday, Woodward and Costa recalled a scene where Trump essentially threatened Vice President Mike Pence by making him listen to the sound of the soon-to-be insurrectionist MAGA crowd. Via Mediaite:

“We have this scene of President Trump not only pressuring Vice President Pence in the Oval Office but then opening the [door] and having the cold air coming in and talking to his aides, saying ‘can you hear my supporters outside?’” Costa said. “It was a domestic political crisis, a national security emergency as well.”

Woodward likened the scene to Watergate, which ultimately brought down Nixon. Although, by this stage, Trump had already been voted out, and the only thing stopping him was Congress continuing to fulfill its Constitutional duty by certifying the election. As for whether the former president will face consequences for the Jan. 6 remains to be seen, but a House select committee is investigating the attempted coup, which has already angered Republican politicians who may be implicated in the attack.

(Via Mediaite)

If you spend any amount of time on social media at all, you know there’s a whirlpool of information and misinformation about COVID-19 and the vaccines that help prevent severe illness and death from it.

Getting vaccine information from a random individual doctor isn’t generally advisable, since there are plenty of misinformation mongers with impressive degrees out there. (They are one reason we have medical associations and public health institutions to maintain standards of research and information.) However, sometimes an individual doctors have a knack for taking scientific information and translating it into layman’s terms.

Comedian and actor Ken Jeong did just that with the Delta variant and vaccine efficacy on The Late Late Show with James Corden. Jeong is best known for his TV and film roles, but prior to his success in Hollywood, he had a whole career as an internal medicine physician. Watch:

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Solid breakdown of the Delta variant from @kenjeong. https://t.co/r5HKTvQNka

— The Late Late Show with James Corden (@latelateshow)
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Jeong explained why the Delta variant is so much more contagious than the original coronavirus strain, then compared the vaccine to an umbrella. With the original strain, the vaccine was highly effective at protecting us from the virus, just like an umbrella during a normal rainstorm. Delta is more like a monsoon in which an umbrella still protects you from being soaked to the bone, but doesn’t fully protect you from getting wet at all.

Yes, vaccinated people can still get and spread the virus, but they are much less likely to than unvaccinated people. For the record, if you were unvaccinated from May to July of this year (when Delta became the dominant strain), you were five times more likely to get infected with COVID and 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID than an unvaccinated person, according to a CDC analysis. Hospitals around the country have begun posting statistics of unvaccinated vs. vaccinated patients in their ICUs, which show the vast majority are unvaccinated.

The numbers are clear. The best thing we all can do to protect ourselves and others is to get vaccinated.

Ever since the early days of video games one of the most crucial parts of the experience has been the items we get along the way. Depending on the game, the items we get can really make or break the experience for us. If a game has bad, or non-memorable, items then it can result in them barely getting used. A really great item, though, can create a whole new element to a game.

With so many games having different items it creates a lot of debate over what the best items are. So we decided to try and compile them, but with a couple of ground rules here. For starters, we don’t want to include items like Simon’s Whip from Castlevania or the Portal Gun from Portal. While these are technical “items” they don’t feel like they belong in the same category as the Holy Water or Companion Cube from those same games. One is required equipment while the other is an additional tool in the player’s arsenal. We also didn’t want to include power-ups, because those feel like they fall into an entirely different category of their own.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Paraglider

Items are an essential part of the Zelda formula, but that is part of what made Breath of the Wild such an outcast among Zelda fans. This was a franchise that had built its identity on completing dungeons, finding new items in those dungeons, and then using them to complete the dungeon. Breath of the Wild cut almost all of those out in favor of giving players a select few items to work with instead. One of the items it did give us though is an incredible paraglider.

This wasn’t the first time Zelda had introduced a tool to glide with, but none of the previous attempts captured players the way the paraglider did in BOTW. It all has to do with the level design. BOTW’s designed to be very vertical to encourage players to climb and explore. This also gives them plenty of places to jump and glide across the vast land of Hyrule. It makes exploring the world fun and creates a feeling that anywhere can be reached in a reasonable amount of time. By giving Link the ability to essentially fly for limited periods of time the developers of Breath of the Wild gave him one of the best items he’s ever had.

Spider-Man (PS4) – Impact Web

Spider-Man is not Batman. Most players will think that’s obvious, but anyone that plays a lot of superhero video games probably understands the comparison. When Spider-Man (PS4) was released the immediate comparison for the combat was to Batman’s Arkham series. However, while Batman is able to knock his enemies unconscious through powerful punches, Spider-Man isn’t quite as strong and takes a beating easier. To use Spider-Man properly you need to be quick-witted, fast, and sometimes willing to capture the enemy over knocking them out.

This is why the Impact Web is easily the best gadget in Spider-Man’s arsenal. This turns his trusty web shooter into a high-powered force that will sling enemies straight into walls or off buildings, immediately capturing lower-level enemies and making them easier to pick off at the beginning of fights. Fights become easier which allows the slightly more fragile Spider-Man to save some energy and hits. It’s a powerful tool in the web slingers arsenal and once mastered it becomes arguably his best.

Animal Crossing – Shovel

Animal Crossing is a super relaxing franchise with the only enemy being your house debt. Of course, that house debt can be paid at our own leisure without any interest or due dates on it. Even better, when we pay off our debts we get rewarded with a bigger house for all the awesome stuff we want so why wouldn’t we pay it off? To pay it off though we’re gonna need the assistance of the many tools at our disposal.

In a lovely world like Animal Crossing, how can there a best item? Easy. It’s the item that gives the player the most versatility. With our trusty shovel we can dig up fossils, plant trees, bury treasure, or hit rocks open for money. While other items like the fishing rod only allow the player to catch fish, the shovel is the powerhouse item that every villager needs to do their daily chores and earn that cash. Just be careful in New Horizons. Use it too much and it breaks then you have to go buy or craft a new one.

Resident Evil 4 – Attache Case

Anyone that’s played a survival horror game knows how important inventory management is. Use too many bullets and survivability becomes a challenge. Don’t have enough health items around and dying becomes a significant reality. It’s a balancing act that the player has to juggle at all times and the original Resident Evil puts that balancing act to the test for a lot of players. The only real way for players to hold on to items were to use the item boxes spread throughout levels.

Resident Evil 4 perfected inventory management for the entire series and a large part of this was through the Attache Case. Not only did this give players the ability to better organize their inventory, but it completely restructured the inventory system. In previous games, every item took up one to two squares of space and players got at most about eight squares. With the Attache Case, players not only got a larger inventory but items now took up space based on size so something like pistol ammo would obviously take up less space than a rocket launcher. Add in the ability to upgrade our Attache Cases throughout the game and it’s no wonder this is still one of the most beloved items in the history of the Resident Evil franchise.

Halo: Combat Evolved – Pistol

While weapons are technically not items, we decided to cheat just a little bit here for Halo: Combat Evolved and the pistol. In most games, the pistol is the weakest weapon and is easily forgotten by all players. Quickly discarded for a more powerful gun. In Halo: Combat Evolved specifically though, it is easily the most important tool in Masterchief’s arsenal. More important than the Rocket Launcher. More necessary than a bubble shield. Even a bigger deal than the Energy Sword.

The pistol in the first Halo game is maybe the most overpowered gun ever made. Despite being a tiny little pistol, it had the range and damage of a sniper rifle. Accurate shooters were able to pop headshots into any enemy in front of them and eliminate them immediately. This of course made runs through the game laughably easy, but it also turned multiplayer matches into a bit of a joke with players opting to forget the more traditional weapons in favor of firing pistols at each other from across the map. Was that how the developers at Bungie intended it to be? Absolutely not, but it did give us a great video game item.

There was a point when I was in college where I damn near lived on biscuits from Popeyes. There’s something about the buttery, flaky, and glutenous mounds that just struck a nerve. Part of it was that my grandmother always made me biscuits and gravy when I’d go stay with her over the summer. Part of that is that I love biscuits in general and have since childhood. Butter, honey, bread — it’s not exactly rocket science.

The thing is, I never really cared about the biscuits from KFC. The only sides I cared about at KFC were the mashed potatoes and brown gravy. But I had a KFC biscuit recently and it was way better than I remembered. Whereas the Popeyes biscuit is buttery and dense, the KFC biscuit I tried was light, very fluffy, and somehow felt home-baked and not mass-produced. I was charmed, to say the least.

Was it a fluke? Was I misremembering the tastes and vibes of each of these biscuits? Was my love of Popeyes blinding me to KFC’s biscuit prowess? I knew I had to answer these questions with a side-by-side comparison — based on three variables:

• Presentation (looks)
• Flake or crumb (buttery? dry? dense?)
• Taste (self-explanatory).

And away we go!

KFC Biscuit

Price: 99 cents

Calories: 180

Presentation:

Look at the image above! This looks like it’s goddamn homemade. It’s funky, bulbous, unique — the opposite of mass-produced. There’s a nice browned top with a pure white body, which is what you want in a classic biscuit.

Flake/Crumb:

This biscuit has more of a crumb than a flake. I think this works better as a biscuit and gravy biscuit. It’s a little closer to a dinner roll than a flaky biscuit, which has its place in the pantheon of great biscuits and is a little more traditional, rather than following the hipster trend that every biscuit be layers of quick bread.

Taste:

The biscuit has a nice, almost sour vibe with a savory edge. There’s really no butteriness at all. This is all about the quick bread. It’s also very light and fluffy (as you can see from the images). That being said, this is definitely a biscuit that needs gravy, butter and jam or honey.

Verdict:

It’s kind of a miracle that a biscuit as popular as KFC’s feels this authentic and real. Still, this was more a dinner roll than a buttery biscuit bomb so I’d give it 2 out of 3 star-shaped biscuits.

Popeyes Biscuit

Price: 79 cents

Calories: 207

Presentation:

This feels a lot more cookie-cutter and massed produced. That being said, it’s uniform, clearly flaky, and well-browned. It’s very tidy and neat which feels a bit disingenuous when talking biscuits. Where’s the character?

Flake/Crumb:

This has a perfect balance of dinner roll crumb and flaky quick bread with plenty of butteriness. Truly, this stuck a balance that’s hard to achieve at home without some skills when mixing quick bread. It was the best of both worlds.

Taste:

This really didn’t need gravy to amp up the flavor. It was already a nice little savory and buttery bomb. It didn’t melt in your mouth but it was close. It was a little denser — you could use this biscuit as a spoon/scooper if you needed to. But that density didn’t really take away from the overall experience.

Verdict:

Just like the KFC biscuit, this is 2 of 3 star-shaped biscuits for me. The taste and flake were the real high point of this biscuit but the shape and look were a little too industrial for me. It felt a little… loveless.

FINAL VERDICT

The KFC biscuit lost a point for a mediocre flake/crumb that felt more like a dinner roll than a biscuit. The Popeyes biscuit lost its point for the look of the biscuit. But not all points are equal here — taste always trumps presentation in the case of a tie. So Popeyes wins this. It’s just a better overall biscuit experience. That butter flake and soft crumb in the Popeyes biscuit alongside a really savory taste simply cannot be beaten in the fast food galaxy.

Hack of the day: crack a few of these in half, lay some spicy chicken fingers inside, butter and honey the top biscuit half and you have a salty-savory-spicy chicken slider that hits notes of a certain famous sandwich AND chicken and waffles.

Winner: Popeyes