Month: February 2022

It’s Megan Thee Stallion’s world, the rest of us are just trying to twerk our way through it with half the grace and talent she has. Even if she’s been facing down serious demons of late, like all the drama with Tory Lanez who won’t take responsibility for the violence he enacted against her, or even more of a struggle to get free from the label deal that has caused her so much trouble during her rise to fame.

So, instead of focusing on those negative things, why not focus on what it must be like to spend a day in the life as Megan Thee Stallion? Being successful, beautiful and talented is a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it, and a new artist spotlight from Youtube gives fans a chance to peek inside Meg’s brain. Who else is up there? Suga, Tina Snow, and Hot Girl Meg, of course, all three of these brain divas round out the cast of characters in this ten-minute short. In the clip, Megan goes about her day assessing potential suitors, remembering old flames, and plenty more shenanigans that only Megan Thee Stallion would be involved in. Check out the carefree clip above.

The upcoming HBO series, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, appears to be a fascinating look at one of the most interesting teams in NBA history, the Showtime Lakers — with the name of the show being changed from Showtime to avoid confusion with their premium cable rival, but didn’t account that one of ESPN’s best 30 for 30s was called Winning Time about Reggie Miller and the Knicks so some of us still are confused.

It stars John C. Reilly as Dr. Jerry Buss and the trailer for the series looked like exactly what you would hope for an HBO series about the Showtime Lakers to be, blurring the lines of reality and fiction, while embracing the wild off-court lifestyle of that Lakers team. Making a TV show about any sport is fraught with issues, namely that actors aren’t often great athletes (and great athletes aren’t often great actors), which makes it difficult to get great acting off the court and great action scenes on it. The early reviews suggest Winning Time will manage to get both, with The Hollywood Reporter doing a deep dive on the show, including how they went about casting their leading stars to play Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, as well as the intense basketball training they went through so they could nail the on-court action.

In that piece, there are a number of fascinating tidbits, including Reilly doing his best to skirt around the role the show had in Adam McKay and Will Ferrell’s split as creative partners, but one thing at the very end caught the eye of NBA fans. After a quote from HBO’s head of programming Casey Bloys about exploring other stories from other eras, it notes that HBO has optioned Jeff Pearlman’s other book on the Lakers, Three-Ring Circus, that is about the Kobe and Shaq era.

“If the stories are there and the different eras are there, why not keep exploring it?” says Bloys, whose network has quietly optioned Pearlman’s follow-up, which takes readers through the Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal era of the Lakers.

Now, as the story notes early on, a book getting optioned is far from a guarantee that it becomes a show, but with writers already digging in on a second season of Winning Time before its officially greenlit and the apparent excitement from HBO in this series, it seems well within the realm of possibility that if Winning Time becomes a hit, they may move forward with a Kobe-Shaq era show. That would be interesting for a variety of reasons, if nothing else than how they’d go about the casting conundrum that is Shaq. It’s one thing to find a near 7-footer who could play a svelte Kareem, but it’s a whole other to find someone that could play the larger than life Shaq. There are plenty of stories to tell from that time in Lakers history, and if the response to Winning Time is strong enough, we may very well see them on the small screen in years to come.

The IPA — and its various iterations — is one of the most popular styles in craft brewing. If you’re a fan of this hoppy, sometimes overly dank beer, this is good news (if you’re not a fan, well… sorry). There are more than 9,000 breweries in the U.S. at last count, and there’s a solid chance that every one of them currently brews at least one IPA, if not several. That’s an awful lot of bitter brews to sort through!

While it might seem daunting trying to figure out the best IPAs on the market, there are plenty of people eager to help you wade through them all (like us!). One of the most popular beer-endemic sites is BeerAdvocate — where you can easily find a top ten user-ranked IPAs. But while I’ll agree that basing a top 10 list on tens of thousands of palates is an interesting way to do things, I trust my evolved, professionally practiced palate more — so I decided to blindly taste all 10 myself and then re-rank them based on my own palate.

Today’s Lineup (which again, comes from BeerAdvocate):

• Susan Hill Farmstead Brewery
• Nelson Alpine Beer Company
• Axeman Surly Brewing Company
• Yellow Rose The Lone Pint Brewery
• Project Dank La Cumbre Brewing Co.
• The Pupil Societe Brewing Co.
• Sculpin Ballast Point Brewing Co.
• Lunch Maine Beer Company
• Triple Play Lawson’s Finest Liquids
• Tropicália Creature Comforts

Now then, let’s get our highly-ranked drink on!

Part 1: The Taste

Taste 1

Tasting Notes:

On the nose, I find aromas of ripe berries, dank pine needles, toffee-like malts, and some floral hops. The palate is loaded with juicy pineapple, tart grapefruit, more berries, caramel malts, and a nice, gentle level of hop bitterness at the finish.

Taste 2

Tasting Notes:

This beer’s nose is heavy on fruit. I noticed hints of ripe pineapple, orange zest, lime peels, earthy resinous pine, and a sweet malty backbone. This massive flavor profile continues along the palate with notes of mango, passion fruit, tangerine, juicy grapefruit, toffee, and more dank, resinous, subtly bitter hops. It’s juicy, sweet, and has just the right amount of bitterness.

Taste 3

Tasting Notes:

This beer smells like a forest of pine trees. There’s a slight citrus odor and maybe some malts, but really not much else. The resinous dank pine kind of knocks you down. The palate is much more over-the-top sticky pine. I taste some lemon zest, grapefruit, and slight floral flavors, but it’s all dominated by aggressively bitter pine.

Taste 4

Tasting Notes:

Dank pine, ripe oranges, juicy berries, and a little bit of spice are prevalent on this beer’s nose. Sipping it reveals a wallop of grapefruit juice, tangerine, mango, and a very low piney resinous bitterness. In fact, this might be a little light in the bitterness department for some IPA fans.

Taste 5

Tasting Notes:

Wet grass, fresh hay, grapefruit, orange peels, fur tips, and caramel malts — this beer has a truly multi-dimensional nose. The palate swirls with lemon zest, grapefruit, crisp melon, biscuit-like malt, fruit esters, and a healthy kick of piney, resinous, and super dank hops. It ends with a nice mixture of bitter hops and ripe citrus fruits.

Taste 6

Tasting Notes:

A lot going on with this beer’s nose. There are notes of ripe grapefruit, caramel malts, orange zest, and a healthy dose of dank pine. It’s very inviting, to say the least. Taking a sip, I find hints of biscuit-like malts, lemon candy, orange peels, floral hops, and a nice mix of bitterness and tropical sweetness on the finish.

Taste 7

Tasting Notes:

This beer has a ton of citrus on the nose. There are notes of lemon zest, orange juice, and some fruit ester, but not much else. The citrus really dominates. The palate has more tangerine orange flavor as well as some mango and guava, but its overall bitterness is a little too aggressive for me. I’d prefer a little more balance.

Taste 8

Tasting Notes:

This is the kind of beer that requires a longer nosing. First, I notice aromas of sweet honey and baked bread followed by orange peel, lemon zest, an earthy herbal aroma, and just a hint of floral hops. The palate is juicy and citrus-centric with notes of grapefruit, sweet Clementine, cracked black pepper, and guava with slightly bitter and piney dank hops at the end.

Taste 9

Tasting Notes:

The nose is loaded with both dank pine and juicy tropical fruit. It makes me want to dive right in. It definitely doesn’t disappoint with flavors like grapefruit juice, lemon zest, mango, biscuity malts, honey sweetness, and a nice kick of slightly bitter, yet pleasingly resinous pine to tie everything together.

Taste 10

Tasting Notes:

There’s a real herbal/earthy quality to this beer’s nose that demands further exploration. On top of that, I’m greeted by strong scents of grapefruit, orange, lemon zest, and dank pine needles. The palate continues the fruity/tart trend with notes of blood orange, juicy grapefruit, pineapple, mango, light malts, and spruce tips. The finish is a mix of sweetness and bitterness that’s extremely pleasing.

Part 2: The Ranking

10) Alpine Beer Nelson — Taste 7

ABV: 7%

Average Price: $14 for a six-pack

The Beer:

This seven percent ABV year-round offering gets its name from Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand. It’s well known for its hazy, piney, and fruity flavor and gets added spice from the addition of European rye.

Bottom Line:

Nelson Sauvin is the name of the game with this beer. If you enjoy these specific hops and you can handle a ton of bitterness on the back end, you’ll enjoy Nelson. Otherwise, a different beer on this list is probably your best bet.

Beer Advocate’s Ranking: #2

9) Creature Comforts Tropicália — Taste 4

ABV: 6.6%

Average Price: $13 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Sometimes brewers choose silly, gimmicky names to get people to notice their IPAs. Other times, the name perfectly describes the liquid inside, as is the case with Creature Comforts Tropicália. This 6.6 percent ABV IPA is known for its mix of ripe tropical fruits and low bitterness.

Bottom Line:

It’s loaded with ripe tropical flavors, juicy citrus, and some malts. I’d expect nothing less from a beer called Tropicália. It just lacks the bitterness level I crave in an IPA.

Beer Advocate Ranking: #10

8) Ballast Point Sculpin — Taste 3

ABV: 7%

Average Price: $14 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Ballast Point Sculpin is like the Duke men’s basketball team of beers — always at the top of the rankings if not in the top spot. This award-winning IPA is known for its mix of fruity sweetness and the bite from the bitter hop from which it gets its name.

Bottom Line:

Ballast Point Sculpin is a beer for drinkers who enjoy slight citrus and malts that are completely overshadowed by almost harsh levels of bitter and dank hops.

Beer Advocate Ranking: #7

7) La Cumbre Project Dank — Taste 6

ABV: 7.5%

Average Price: $14 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans

The Beer:

La Cumbre Project Dank is a bit of a mystery on this list. Unlike every other beer in the ranking, Project Dank will be a slightly different beer, depending on when you grab a four-pack. That’s because this is a special release from the New Mexico brewery’s “hop laboratory.” Each batch released utilizes different hops and hopping techniques.

Bottom Line:

This version of La Cumbre Project Dank had a nice mix of tropical and citrus sweetness, caramel-like malts, and nice bitterness. It was almost a little too busy though for my palate.

Beer Advocate Ranking: #5

6) Surly Brewing Axeman — Taste 9

ABV: 7.2%

Average Price: $18 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans

The Beer:

This beer’s name conjures up a ton of images. I imagine a scowling, bearded lumberjack chugging a frosty hoppy brew. Originally brewed in collaboration with Danish brewery Amager, it’s double dry-hopped with Citra and Mosiac hops to give it an explosion of flavor.

Bottom Line:

With a name like Surly Axeman, you almost assume this beer would be dominated by one or more flavors. But it was really complex and well-balanced between fruits, malts, and bitter hops. Still, there was better complexity and balance on this list.

Beer Advocate Ranking: #3

5) The Lone Pint Yellow Rose — Taste 1

ABV: 6.8%

Average Price: $12 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans

The Beer:

This 6.8 percent IPA from Magnolia, Texas’ Lone Pint Yellow Rose gets its name from a famous Lone Star heroine. The beer has a ton of malt and is “massively dry-hopped” with Mosaic hops. The result is a well-balanced, noteworthy beer that consistently ranks with the top IPAs in the country.

Bottom Line:

This isn’t the easiest beer to find, but if you get a chance to try it, you won’t be disappointed, especially if you’re a fan of Mosaic hops. The fact that it only finished in the middle of my rankings is a testament to how great the beers on the rest of this list are.

Beer Advocate Ranking: #4

4) Maine Beer Lunch — Taste 2

ABV: 7%

Average Price: $8 for a 16.9-ounce bottle

The Beer:

It might be called “lunch” but I feel like I could drink this IPA any time of the day. Named for a well-known whale that spends its time along the Maine coast since 1982, this IPA gets its hop profile from the addition of Amarillo, Centennial, and Simcoe hops.

Bottom Line:

There’s a reason Lunch from Maine Beer is one of the most beloved American IPAs ever made. It’s juicy, hazy, and well-hopped. I’m actually surprised it was beaten out by any other beer on this list.

Beer Advocate Ranking: #8

3) Lawson’s Finest Triple Play — Taste 8

ABV: 7%

Average Price: Limited Availability

The Beer:

Continuing the trend of big names on the top IPA list, Lawson’s Finest Liquids out of Vermont is the type of brewery that makes nothing but bangers. Its best beer just might be its Triple Play, which gets its name from the three hops with which it’s brewed: Citra, Simcoe, and Amarillo.

Bottom Line:

This spring seasonal definitely lives up to the hype. It’s juicy, hazy, and filled with tropical fruit flavors. But it also has a nice herbal and malty backbone that gives it more depth and ranks it higher for me.

Beer Advocate Ranking: #9

2) Hill Farmstead Susan — Taste 10

ABV: 6%

Average Price: Limited Availability

The Beer:

Hill Farmstead is a well-known name in the craft beer world. While you can’t go wrong with any of its brews, there’s no disputing the appeal of Susan (named for the brewer’s grandfather’s sister). Brewed with Yakima Valley hops as well as Riwaka hops from New Zealand, it’s a highly complex and beloved beer.

Beer Advocate Line:

When it comes to complexity, it’s hard to top this special beer from Hill Farmstead. It’s perfectly balanced between sweetness and bitterness. It came close to being my number and I can see how it’s in that spot for a lot of beer drinkers out there.

Beer Advocate Ranking: #1

1) Societe Brewing The Pupil — Taste 5

ABV: 7.5%

Average Price: $14 for a six-pack

The Beer:

San Diego is one of the best beer cities in the country. You could fill an entire beer store just with San Diego IPAs with no complaints from IPA lovers. One of this Southern California city’s best beers is The Pupil, from Societe Brewing. It’s a fresh, refreshing, hoppy gem.

Bottom Line:

Considering how many talented brewers live in San Diego, I’m not surprised an SD brewery took home the top spot. I just assumed it would be Ballast Point. This was definitely a pleasant surprise and well deserved, due to its complex, flavorful, and well-balanced flavor profile.

Beer Advocate Ranking: #6

The series finale of beloved children’s show Arthur aired this week, and the internet went into full-blown nostalgia mode, sharing their favorite aardvark memories from the last 25 years of the show.

The show ended in a touching full-circle moment, with Arthur becoming what he always wanted to be: an author. His first story? How he got his glasses, which just so happened to be the first episode of Arthur way back in 1996. That is the definition of wholesome content.

Obviously, millennials were inspired by the aardvark’s various adventures over the last two decades. We were all there when he got his first library card, and when DW was being the most annoying little sister on the planet. As the Arthur generation grew up, his likeness became the face of many memes and jokes. Arthur has been there for us through it all! It’s sad to see a monumental show end, but a finale like this also created an opportunity for some really good tweets.

We were able to see Arthur & his pals grow up, and the original voice actor came back to portray 28-year-old Arthur for the finale. Though some people were a little…critical of his late-twenties look.

He also met his maker, literally, when the creator of the show Marc Brown, had a cameo on the finale.

As Arthur publishes his graphic novel, it’s revealed that the whole series was actually written by the aardvark himself. Now that’s a beautiful ending.

The show was also known for its inclusivity, featuring a gay wedding in its later seasons, which was rare for a children’s show. Fans pointed out that they hinted at even more in the finale.

The official Arthur Twitter account assured the internet that our friend isn’t going away forever, and his legacy will live on, with digital shorts and online content. Although we could do without DW becoming a cop. She already did enough tattle-tailing as a kid.

Look, there is absolutely nothing good about the tragedy that happened at Astroworld last November. More than ten people died, crushed in a frenzied crowd as Travis Scott performed a headlining set at his own festival. If there has been one silver lining to this horrific event, it’s that other artists have made it a point to stop their concerts when they notice if a fan in attendance could be having a medical emergency.

There’s footage of Billie Eilish stopping her Atlanta show mid-set earlier this month when it came to her attention that a fan was having trouble breathing. And now post-metal legends Tool, were captured stopping their Fear Inoculum Tour show at Washington DC’s Capital One Arena two nights ago when a fan near the front row had collapsed.

Just as a song is about to begin, the band cuts the music. Singer Maynard Keenan recognized that something was happening with a fan close to the front of the crowd. People were surrounding the person along the barricade with their cell phone lights on pointing downwards to care for someone who had collapsed. “Hang on we got a little situation down here,” Keenan said to the patient crowd. “We’re gonna make sure this person is OK before we continue.”

As medics made their way to the person, Keenan calmly bantered a bit with the fans who were immediately respectful of what was happening and cleared the path. “Make way for the EMTs please,” Keenan said. A minute or two passed at which he asked “We’re good?,” got a thumbs up and the crowd roared.

This situation showed again, how possible it is to be aware of the crowd from the stage. Losing yourself in the music is understandable, but there’s a greater community to consider as well. Bravo Maynard. Bravo Tool.

It’s been almost two months since Bob Saget’s unexpected death left the world mourning America’s Dad. The comedian’s sudden death was recently determined to be due to head trauma, as there was no evidence of drugs or foul play. Now, some members of the cast who worked alongside Saget in his most famous role, single father Danny Tanner on Full House, will be reuniting in a few weeks at ’90s Con in Hartford, CT.

Fellow comedian and friend Dave Coulier confirmed that some of the core cast will make an appearance at the convention, marking the first time the crew will be seen together since Saget’s death. Coulier, Candace Cameron Bure, Andrea Barber, and Scott Weinger are all slated to appear at the convention, which takes place March 11-13th.

“We’re so close, that whenever and wherever we get together it’s like a family reunion,” Coulier told E! News. “This may sound kind of sappy, but we really do love each other. We’ve been through everything together—births, deaths, marriages, divorces, our shows being picked up and canceled. We’re a real family on and off-camera.”

Saget played the single father of three girls, the eldest played by Bure, who had his brother-in-law Jesse, played by long-time pal John Stamos, and best friend Joey, played by Coulier, move in to help raise the girls. Much of the cast returned for the 2016 Netflix revival series Fuller House. The cast frequently reunited and interacted on social media, making it seem like they were a real-life family.

Last month, the cast each paid their own tributes to their fellow co-star.

BlackRock investment management company and Warner Music Group have made a huge investment in female and diverse artists according to The Wall Street Journal, putting $750 million into a fund dedicated to collecting rights catalogs from such artists in what the Journal calls a novel approach to the current trend of funds buying up artists’ catalogs.

While many of those efforts have focused on collecting older artists’ catalogs such as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen — both of whom recently sold their catalogs for huge payouts — the new fund is buying up music rights from artists who are still actively writing, particularly women, who want to maintain stakes in their catalogs. So far, $300 has been paid out for 20 catalogs, including those of Tainy, the reggaeton star who has worked with Bad Bunny and J Balvin, the Stereotypes, who co-wrote “24K Magic” with Bruno Mars, and popstar Jessie Reyez.

Some commentators, according to WSJ, consider these investments higher risk; while older catalogs have proven to be safe bets — think about how many songs from the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s are still being used in movies, let alone other commercial uses — newer music isn’t as sure to still be popular in 20 or 30 years. However, some artists have maintained their popularity, so some investors like BlackRock are willing to go all-in as newer music finds more use in streaming, video games, fitness apps, and social media.

Meanwhile, by allowing songwriters to maintain stakes in their own work, it gives them the incentive to not only accept investors’ terms but keep actively promoting their works to keep the checks rolling in.

Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

If there’s one thing we all know Drake loves, it’s Toronto (Especially the Raptors). So it should come as no surprise that when one of the city’s staple Jamaican restaurants, Randy’s Patties, announced that they would be closing, Drizzy stepped in immediately. According to a local Toronto site, BlogTO, the restaurant is closing due to supply chain issues related to the pandemic. “Randy’s often holds number one spots on lists of the best patties in the city,” BlogTO noted. “[It] has been around since 1979, often inspires long lineups and is known for their signature red boxes… Randy’s has not made an official announcement yet, but a Randy’s staff member tells blogTO that they’re closing permanently because of manufacturing issues and they’re unable to get their supplies.”

When ETalk anchor Tyrone “T-rex” Edwards posted his dismay about the closure on Twitter and Instagram, Drake immediately got into the comments. “Feel like we need to save @randyspatties,” Edwards wrote. “Listen big up all the Patty places in the city (done know @pattystopinc ahh ahh ) but something about the fact that lil Jamaica is slowly being erased just doesn’t sit right with my soul – during black history month at that.” Clearly, the 6 God agreed because he chimed in: “I’ll buy Randy’s right now,” he wrote, continuing “And give it back to them.”

Edwards responded to Drake’s comment and is apparently trying to link Drake with the owners, so this might just happen.

Never have I wanted to try a Jamaican patty more in my life! Let’s hope the city comes together to keep this institution open.

While promoting her upcoming film, Everyone Everywhere All At Once, action legend Michelle Yeoh opened up about her career making some of the best martial arts films in history. One such film is the Jackie Chan classic, Supercop, which involved some of the wildest stunts of Yeoh’s career, including literally riding a motorcycle onto a moving train. However, Yeoh reveals that one particular stunt turned out to be way more difficult than she anticipated, and if it wasn’t for Chan’s quick reaction, she probably would’ve been dead.

During a chase sequence in the film, Yeoh’s character rolls off the back of a moving van into the windshield of a convertible that Chan is driving. From there, she rolls forward onto the road as Chan hits the brakes. In order for the stunt to work, the windshield is supposed to break, giving Yeoh a quick second to ready herself for the roll forward. However, things didn’t go as planned right out of the gate. Via Entertainment Weekly:

The first go-round, Yeoh hit the hood but then fell off the car and hit the road, narrowly avoiding two cars coming up from behind. “The windscreen was supposed to shatter, and that would have helped me have a break,” she says. “But the windscreen didn’t shatter, I had nowhere to hold onto, and I kept sliding off the car. All I remember was like ‘Duhn!’ on the ground. Fortunately, I didn’t go head first. Then I hear Jackie. He was like, ‘Okay, okay, that’s it! Enough! We are finished for the day! We’re not doing anymore! This is stupid! This is ridiculous! We’re not doing it!’”

In an outtake from the film provided to Entertainment Weekly, you can literally see Chan grab Yeoh’s shirt just as she’s about to roll off the side of the car. While Chan’s quick action doesn’t stop Yeoh from tumbling onto the road and into the path of the oncoming vehicles, it did slow her impact, which she credits for not “losing my head.”

Even wilder: The director asked Yeoh if she wanted to try one more time, while she was still lying on the pavement, and she said yes. Fortunately, she nailed it on the next try, proving once again that Michelle Yeoh is badass as hell.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

The very idea of a super-serious Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air remake turned ’90s kids (myself included) apoplectic. Here was this perfect timeless thing led by one of the most magnetic megastars of the last 30 years. Unimproveable! But timelessness is in the eye of the beholder and rarely applicable when the burden falls on a new generation to find a connection with something made for a different time, with a different aim. In short, Bel-Air (which streams new eps every Thursday on Peacock) isn’t exclusively for those fans, but if you can fight off nostalgia-powered preciousness and give this a chance, you might find some familiar notes and a story about fitting in that has the potential to connect.

For actor Olly Sholotan, the role of Carlton is a huge opportunity to introduce his skillset to a larger audience. The cost of that is that he’s been tasked with the most challenging role in this whole endeavor, taking the preppy, Tom Jones-loving Carlton that’s frozen in amber for some people and bringing him into a new more aggressive pose where Carlton’s ambition and the weight of expectations on him have turned him fiercely territorial and ceaselessly intense. How’s he doing with that? Pretty well, as we discovered when talking about the challenges of taking on Carlton, being seen as a villain by new fans, and connecting with his own ambitions and self-imposed expectations.

What was your thought initially when you heard about this more serious Fresh Prince as far as if they could pull it off? Because I know there’s been a lot of doubt out there, and it’s been interesting to kind of see people get it and start to see.

Interestingly enough, I did kind of go through a similar thing because I remember when Morgan [Cooper] dropped his original trailer in 2019, I kept seeing, “oh, fan-made, Bel-Air trailer, but it’s gritty.” And I was, I don’t want to see that; that’s uninteresting to me. But then it kept coming up on my Twitter feed, time and time again. And I was, fine, I’ll watch this thing. And then, when I watched that proof of concept trailer, I was just hooked. You know what I mean? I watched it on repeat over and over again. So, I do understand why the initial instinct is, “Well, it was already great.” Because also, I feel like a lot of people don’t even know that it’s dramatic; they just assume we’re doing the same show, which, that would be a waste of time.

But also, even that being it’s dramatic, I don’t think a lot of people realize the brilliant mind that is behind us. And you see it in the first three episodes out the gate. Morgan Cooper is an absolute visionary. And I think only when you watch that, do you go, “Wait a second, I see what [they’re] doing. This is cool. I fucks with it.”

There are great moments here. It’s not all serious. But to me, the character that changes the most is your character. Would you say that that’s fair?

Oh, I would absolutely say that’s very accurate. I think that, yeah, Carlton is probably the most wildly, wildly different and that, yes, I remember when I got those initial audition sides. And they’re, “Oh, Carlton from Fresh Prince.” And in bold letters, for me, they said, “This is a different thing. Don’t try to do what Alfonso did.” And I was, okay, that’ll be kind of hard. And then I read the script, and I was, “I understand what you mean now.” It was part of the huge appeal to me because I am always a fan of, “respect the past and then build on its legacy; don’t try to imitate.” And so, so the idea of showing a different facet to this really interesting character just fascinated me. Because look, the fact of the matter is at the end of the day, I think part of why Carlton in the original Fresh Prince was so lovable was because we loved making fun of him.

He was the butt of every joke. It was, “Oh, ha ha ha.” You have this kid that, “Oh, he’s black, but he doesn’t really know how to be black.” But over the years, as we’ve had more and more conversations about race, I think we’ve yet to really address that phrase, “doesn’t know how to be black.” And what I love about the show is it really takes that sense of a loss of identity and throws it into today. And it asks the question, “What happens when a 16-year-old kid doesn’t feel like he belongs to his own community and how does that affect him? On top of dealing with mental health issues. On top of dealing with issues of how he sees himself and success and his father. And all of that really, really was fascinating to me about this version of Carlton.

Yeah. Seeing specifically the toll of the expectations of having to follow in his father’s footsteps and be the son, the firstborn son and the conflict there with Will; it’s just really brilliantly fleshed out. Can you talk a little bit about finding your way into that?

Well, I’m a son of immigrants; I’m a first-generation American. And something that’s been ever-so-present in the back of my brain is that my parents worked so, so hard to get me here. My father, to my knowledge, taught himself English. He sent himself through school. And it used to bother me a lot more as a kid. And as I’ve grown up, I’ve realized, no, I must forge my own path. But as a kid, there was definitely this deep understanding, I have to be better than him because I am a manifestation of my parents and my ancestors’ wildest dreams. And I think in a way, Carlton feels something similar in that he knows that his father has created this incredible life for them, and he enjoys that life, but he definitely puts a lot of pressure on himself, and his father does help out with that, to exceed his father’s expectations.

And again, I think that’s something this generation can identify with. This might be a bit of a non sequitur, but I think it’s very interesting talking to anyone today who’s between the ages of 13 and 17, or honestly 20, because there’s this sense of loss in a way. But not a grieving loss; just the sense of, I don’t even know how to do the things I want to do. Getting a job is really difficult. Getting a job that pays is really… Just the idea of success, that quote-unquote “American dream” sort of becomes less and less possible, in a way. And I think that Carlton’s a reflection of that; someone who’s working really, really hard to get somewhere big, but he doesn’t know how to.

And then also, throw Will into the mix. Because something that I think is so brilliantly done is that Carlton has struggled so much with his blackness and as a result, has tried so hard to, in a way, run away from it. And so, he sees his cousin come to Bel-Air and do the exact opposite of what he has worked so hard to do. And he succeeds with flying colors. And that’s infuriating. He’s a 16-year-old kid.

What do you want this show to do for you in your overall career? I know you’ve done work in music. What are you looking to get from this beyond just the work itself?

The sky’s the limit. I really love interdisciplinary work. I love work that pulls in all kinds of media, between traditional media, film/TV, to movies to newer media to music to art to live experiences. So, I think the goal, really, is to be happy and to create art for a living. Because I think I’ve learned time and time again that it’s very easy to get stuck in the, “Okay, and after this, I want to do a movie that’s between this budget and this budget. And then…” But this career path is so non-linear that my goal really is just to get the chance to keep creating and to keep sharing my art and work with the world, through as many mediums as possible.

You need to get Carlton to this place of chill, with regard to his ambition.

[Laughs] Here’s the thing: it’s taken me a minute to get here. I remember oh God, my poor mother. I would run downstairs in tears, and she’s, “What’s up?” And I’d be, “I just watched this amazing movie, and I wasn’t even in it.” And she’s, “What movie are you talking about?” And I’m talking about Inception. There was no role for me. I didn’t even audition for it. But it’s taken a lot of growth to get to this point where… There was a point in my life, it was in college, it wasn’t that long ago, where I couldn’t watch a good movie without feeling terrible for the next few days because I was, “I’m running out of time. What am I doing? I’m going to grow old and die and never achieve my dreams.”

And that’s, I think, what makes me really proud of Carlton, especially just knowing where he goes by the end of the season. He’s become like a little brother to me. And I know right now, the world isn’t fucking with him too hard. I believe Carlton might be the most hated character on Black Twitter at the moment. And I totally understand it, but I only ask that people give him the chance to grow, because he really does do that.

How much attention do you pay to the public response?

It’s hard not to. I’m not going to pretend like, “Oh, I haven’t seen anything” because obviously, we made this thing in a bubble and it’s so exciting. I think part of the exciting part about a show being released is sharing it with the world and seeing what people catch onto, seeing what people love. But it’s a few things. A, I’m not sitting all day just, what are people saying? I catch it. Friends will send me funny tweets and all that. And also, the second thing is I think the greatest compliment for an actor is believability. And if people are saying that, “Oh, Carlton pisses me off,” I’m, all right, cool. I think I’m doing my job. And I’m proud of that.

New episodes of ‘Bel-Air’ drop Thursdays on Peacock