In recent months, Britney Spears has frequently used her Instagram page to tell stories about her conservatorship, show off some skin, and tease some upcoming projects. At the moment, though, her Instagram account is currently not active. The account was viewable this morning, but this afternoon, fans started noticing trying to access it now yields an error page.
In one of the last posts Spears shared before the account was deactivated, she wrote about visiting Las Vegas and an experience she had with a masseuse, saying, “The only thing I’ve known when I used to go to Vegas was hour long meet and greets with 40 people every night getting the worst pics of me and then a two hour show !!!! Let’s just say THIS TIME visiting it gave me a whole new perspective on what it means to live !!!! Being able to go to the spa was a highlight as well and you know what ??? Don’t ever pity me like my masseuse does …. ‘People do love you!’ …. Huh ???? Huh ???? I don’t want to be loved … I want to be feared !!! Being loved and being nice got me taken advantage of so take your pity and go f*ck yourselves !!!!”
Imagine being the masseuse that Britney Spears called out on Instagram
This isn’t the first time Spears’ Instagram page has been deactivated: When it was back in September, Spears noted on Twitter, “Don’t worry folks … just taking a little break from social media to celebrate my engagement !!!! I’ll be back soon.”
Following the one-two punch of the pandemic and Deep Water stars Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas breaking up after an almost year-long, heavily-photographed relationship, it seemed like the erotic thriller was, well, dead in the water. The film was eventually set for a streaming release on Hulu, where at least it won’t become just another footnote in Affleck and de Armas’ careers.
However, the first reviews are rolling in for Deep Water, and some critics appear to actually love the throwback vibes from the film directed by Adrian Lyne, who was the master of erotic thrillers like Fatal Attraction and Unfaithful. That said, others did not enjoy Deep Water‘s plot (particularly the murder mystery central to the film), but there’s an almost unanimous theme running through each that the movie is a weird, wild mess that’s hard to look away from.
It’s been so long since we have gotten a mainstream sleazy movie (released by Disney no less) starring two movie stars (at least, as much as anyone can still be a movie star today) that it feels like a whole new concept. To the point that Deep Water makes no sense, it’s impossible to make heads or tails out of character motivations, and there’s no real resolution or payoff to anything, yet I enjoyed this trashy dumb thing more than I ever thought I would.
The primary usefulness of Deep Water is as a record for celebrity chroniclers of the off-camera romance that made co-stars Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas a tabloid thing for a minute, hopefully with better chemistry than they generate onscreen. But it does serve a secondary purpose for those of us who have ever considered the prodigious gifts of Tracy Letts as both playwright and actor, and wondered, “Is there anything he can’t do?” Well, turns out he can’t emerge unscathed from an Adrian Lyne erotic thriller, not that anyone does in this case.
A simple story that tracks, with aberrant characters and the boldness to be weird; when was the last time we got one of those? Deep Water is not only a refreshing throwback to the days of mid-budget thrillers aimed at adults, but perfect for at-home binging.
Deep Water doesn’t do a very good job of helping the audience connect with its cast, as Vic and Melinda are both very surface-level characters. Between the two, Vic is the far more developed character. We see that he is a dedicated father who adores his daughter, and we see him tending to his unique snail-raising hobby. Melinda, on the other hand, is set up to purely be a beautiful and promiscuous wife that has a drinking problem. de Armas is an extremely talented actress, but it feels like she gets typecast as the eye candy that lacks any real depth.
“Deep Water” may be as short on steaminess and stingy with nudity as you might expect from a movie in which sex is almost exclusively used as a weapon, but Lyne maintains a studied fascination in the messiness that tends to follow — emotional or otherwise. (Or, told another way, this critic can’t remember the last time I saw an A-list movie star pick a pubic hair out of her teeth on the big screen.)
There’s something missing from Adrian Lyne’s “Deep Water,” and it’s not just the body of Martin McRae, the last unfortunate rival to get a little too friendly with Vic Van Allen’s wife. Vic (Ben Affleck) and Melinda (Ana de Armas) have an open marriage, but her … distractions have a habit of disappearing, and so do pretty much all ties to recognizable human behavior in the “Fatal Attaction” director’s unexpectedly cool-headed adaptation of the 1957 Patricia Highsmith novel for Hulu. This erotic thriller is still sexy and plenty entertaining, mind you, but it’s just not very useful insofar as what it says about real relationships.
Deep Water looks like a huge amount of material has been shaped in the edit but there are odd gaps and elisions. De Armas behaves as if she’s in some saucy cologne commercial, and Affleck appears to have necked a hundredweight of Percocet before the cameras rolled.
Despite what should be the sizzling allure of Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas as its stars, the rather plodding sexual thriller Deep Water feels like a reject from the pile of scripts its director Adrian Lyne got in the ’80s. His career was on fire then, notably for Fatal Attraction and other films like 9 1/2 Weeks, Indecent Proposal and his most recent feature credit, 2002’s Unfaithful, which earned Diane Lane a Best Actress Oscar nomination. But no one is getting nominated for this one.
Deep Water starts streaming (not a water pun) March 18 on Hulu.
Despite the New York Knicks regressing from a top-four seed to the lottery in Tom Thibodeau’s second year at the helm, the 64-year-old head coach is “expected to remain the Knicks’ head coach beyond this 2021-22 season,” according to a report from Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer.
“Knicks governor James Dolan had granted the front office permission to either remove Thibodeau or retain him, sources said,” Fischer reports. “But team president Leon Rose has no plans to make any change on the Knicks’ bench, sources said. Thibodeau maintains a frequent dialogue with Dolan following each game and often visits the governor’s box.”
Fischer also writes that the New York front office “values” Thibodeau embracing a role as the organization’s spokesperson, willing to address both positive and negative news publicly.
Furthermore, the absence of an obvious successor dissuades the Knicks from considering or opting for a change. Fischer writes “there’s no evidence” that assistant Johnnie Bryant would represent an upgrade, while Kenny Payne “may very well” try to “pursue” becoming the men’s basketball head coach at University of Louisville.
A lack of health from key players like Derrick Rose and Nerlens Noel, who have combined for just 51 games this season, is also seen as a reason for New York’s down year, according to sources in contact with Fischer. A decline from Julius Randle, who was an All-NBA forward last year, was also mentioned, in addition to the team prioritizing more ball-handling this offseason, which created a shift away from the defensive identity of 2020-21.
“New York’s commitment to Thibodeau comes after a disconnect grew between the head coach and Leon Rose’s primary front-office lieutenants — executive vice president William Wesley and vice president of basketball strategy Brock Aller — ahead of the February trade deadline, sources said,” Fischer writes.
Fischer reports “there will be a level of turnover in New York this summer” and that the Knicks, since the 2021 Draft, have been willing to trade much of their roster. They’re in the market for a point guard, with Jalen Brunson seemingly atop their list of targets.
Last summer, Roc-A-Fella Records filed a lawsuit against Damon Dash after the label’s cofounder announced plans to auction a portion of Jay-Z’s debut album, Reasonable Doubt as an NFT. The label argued that the album is owned by the company, and not by its individual partners.
The lawsuit is ongoing, however, Jay and Dash are reportedly in talks to reach a settlement deal.
Jay-Z’s attorney Alex Spiro said in a filing earlier this week Dash and Jay were “in the process of meeting and conferring to determine whether they can reach a settlement agreement that would resolve this case.”
If Jay and Dash are unable to settle the case, Spiro and Jay plan to file a motion seeking full victory in the case.
Dash currently owns one-third of Roc-A-Fella, however, Spiro and Jay argue that Dash’s stake in the label doesn’t give him the right to sell any portion of the esteemed album.
“The sale of this irreplaceable asset must be stopped before it is too late, and Dash must be held accountable for his theft,” read the lawsuit filed against Dash last June. “The bottom line is simple: Dash can’t sell what he doesn’t own.” A judge immediately blocked the album’s sale as an NFT.
Dash and Jay must reach a settlement deal by April 1, according to the letter.
Better known as Combat Jack, Reggie Ossé died in December of 2017. As the host of The Combat Jack Show, the former Def Jam attorney and once Managing Editor of The Source pioneered the hip-hop podcast format, turning his show into a hub for hip-hop conversation, interviews, culture, and knowledge. He co-founded the Loud Speakers Network and then in the last year of his life, hosted the first season of Gimlet’s Mogul podcast, helping to usher in the storytelling format for hip-hop podcasts that was similar to NPR-style radio segments. In so many ways, hip-hop podcasting today is indebted to Ossé and the shaping of this medium for celebrating the culture on the internets and beyond.
The hip-hop podcast landscape is no doubt saturated in its sheer number of shows, but there are only a few that can be deemed “Essential.” For every excellent interview-based or storytelling hip-hop podcast out there, there’s over a handful of fly-by-night shows trying to operate on a soapbox like the influential The Joe Budden Podcast, often screaming into the void to stir the pot. We’ll leave those aside, cause this is about the hip-hop podcasts that you need to be listening to. These are shows that are pushing the greater conversations in hip-hop forward, illuminating untold stories, giving shine to cult-ish lifers, and praising the undisputed greats.
What Had Happened Was
Hosted by Open Mike Eagle, What Had Happened Was is now in its third season. Each has focused on a different figure in hip-hop who is a legend in their own regard. Together with Mike Eagle, they spend each episode discussing a specific era or album in their career. Season’s one peak pandemic drop with Prince Paul jumped from the producer’s work with De La Soul, Chis Rock, Gravediggaz, and more. Season two featured El-P and saw the gregarious rapper/producer telling the behind-the-scenes stories of his discography from Company Flow to Run The Jewels. Now with season three, hip-hop OG A&R man Dante Ross has been documenting the history of hip-hop’s early days that he bared witness to with acts like the Beastie Boys, Queen Latifah, Brand Nubian, and then some.
While Ross isn’t necessarily as immediately likable as El-P, or as flat out funny and weird as Prince Paul, he’s as real as they come and Mike Eagle has proven himself to be an adaptable host with each subject. Mike Eagle really strikes a balance between confirming that he’s worthy to be moderating these conversations and always keeping his subject front and center. Oftentimes, podcast hosts have trouble relinquishing the limelight, but Mike Eagle does whatever it takes to serve the conversation and get the most out of Ross, who was the proverbial “guy in the room” for so many momentous hip-hop moments in his time with Def Jam and Tommy Boy.
What Had Happened Was is part of Open Mike Eagle’s Stony Island Audio network, which now as of season 3, has partnered with the much larger and prominent eclectic Talkhouse Podcast Network. It’s a testament to what Mike Eagle has built and his hustle as an independent podcast maestro is one that Combat Jack would most certainly be proud of.
Louder Than A Riot
There’s a point near the conclusion of NPR Music’s Louder Than A Riot’s episode “The Day The Mixtape Died: DJ Drama,” where co-host Rodney Carmichael says, “The reason hip-hop runs counter to America’s systems of power, is because hip hop is a product of the inequality built into these systems.” It’s a masterful summation of the tenuous relationship between hip-hop, Black America, law enforcement, and mass incarceration in America, and it speaks to the central thesis of this 12 episode series.
While Louder Than A Riot concluded in early 2021, it’s the type of show you can pick up at any time because the material is basically relevant forever (last time I checked, cops don’t appear to be on the verge of not disproportionately targeting Black people anytime soon.) Hosted and co-written by NPR Music journalists Sidney Madden and Rodney Carmichael, the podcast takes a nuanced look at the criminal justice system through the lens of hip-hop artists. There’s an excellent episode on Nipsey Hussle, and how his potentially being labeled as a gang member in the LAPD’s racist “CalGang” database, might very well have led to his death. A three-part episode on Bobby Shmurda’s ascent amid a murder case is likewise fantastically reported. What sets Louder Than A Riot apart is the obvious considerable amount of time and resources that went into making it and the resulting high-quality product that renders it among the best storytelling podcasts out there, hip-hop or not.
Breaking Atoms: The Hip Hop Podcast
A British hip-hop podcast with two hosts who know what’s up on both sides of the Atlantic, Breaking Atoms is primarily an interview-based show. Hosts Sumit Sharma and Chris Mitchell are two self-proclaimed hip-hop stans who unapologetically curate their guests, digging through the proverbial crates of hip-hop like in recent episodes with Wu-Tang Clan’s Raekwon, Justus League producer Khrysis, and surging Vallejo rapper LaRussell. Sharma and Mitchell have a knack for asking open-ended questions that elicit drawn-out, insightful remarks from their subjects and it’s the mark of a fluent podcast host.
But it’s the recent multi-episode storytelling series on Jay-Z that has really made Breaking Atoms stand out. There’s both a four-part episode called “The Making Of The Blueprint by Jay-Z” that came out in concert with the album’s 20th Anniversary, as well as a five-parter on Reasonable Doubt, to celebrate its 25th Anniversary. The episodes welcomed a range of diverse guests as they report on the early days in Brooklyn for Shawn Carter, as well as the creation, critical reception, marketing, and timing of these historic hip-hop albums. You’ll hear from artists in the Jay-Z orbit like Just Blaze, Young Guru, and DJ Clark Kent, as well as hip-hop thinkers like Kathy Iandoli and Oliver Wang. It all comes together in a comprehensive and well-produced podcast package.
The Big Hit Show: To Pimp A Butterfly
It’s crazy to think that an official Kendrick Lamar biography hasn’t been written yet. Marcus J. Moore’s The Butterfly Effect was a page-turning unofficial work that featured just about everyone in Kendrick’s circle except the man himself. But now with the new season of Spotify’s The Big Hit Show, we get an even closer look at the making of one of the most important albums of the 21st century. Hosted by Alex Pappademas, Spotify has clearly sunk a ton of money into ensuring that this sounds spectacular and it does it ever.
Not only do we get insight from people who worked on To Pimp A Butterfly like the outspoken Terrace Martin, timeless George Clinton, TDE’s President Terrence “Punch” Henderson, rapper Rapsody, saxophonist Kamasi Washington and more, we also hear from Kendrick himself and Barack freakin’ Obama. We get inner circle stories about the time Kendrick went to Minnesota to record with Prince, or when Kanye West gave Kendrick a second tour bus with a recording studio in it so he could keep working on new music and simultaneously open for West on the Yeezus tour. While Pappademas sounds a bit strangely academic at first, the format is produced incredibly well and the awkwardness slowly fades away while the subjects bring depth and backstories to the making of the jazz and hip-hop fusion masterpiece of an album. This is a must-listen new podcast with new episodes released weekly.
Dad Bod Rap Pod
Every hip-hop head has a couple of hip-hop soul siblings. You know, that one homie or two you came up with listening to the same albums and arguing about which MC was nicer? That’s exactly what Dad Bod Rap Pod hosts David Ma, Nate LeBlanc and Demone “Dem One” Carter come across as. They’re the friends you argued about hip-hop with getting blunted into the night and then laughed about it before starting the cycle again the next day. All three hosts are based out of the San Jose, CA area, and they each have backgrounds in different disciplines within hip-hop: Ma is a journalist and academic, Carter is a lifelong MC, and LeBlanc is a record collector and a certified authority in hip-hop geekery.
They’ve hosted over 200 insightful interviews to date with rappers like Too Short and Casual of Hieroglyphics, to scribes like The Ringer’s Shea Serrano, and recent J-Dilla biographer Dan Charnas, to figures who thrives in hip-hop’s margins like producer/social media savant Blockhead and Mumbles, who famously produced Aceyalone’s A Book Of Human Language and then seemingly disappeared. There’s a connection between the three hosts as they banter among themselves ahead of each episode’s interviews that afford you as the listener the ability to often disagree with what one of them says, only for the other to swoop in and prove your point for you. This is a podcast for folks who take hip-hop way too seriously, have spent a lifetime worshipping underground culture, and have come out of it all grateful for a never-ending trove of rap nostalgia.
Complex Subject: Pop Smoke
Released last year, this binge-worthy six-part saga on the life, meteoric rise, and tragic death of Pop Smoke, provides a definitive look on the Brooklyn drill rapper. Produced jointly by Spotify and Complex, the podcast is hosted by DJ Pvnch, written by Complex’s Shawn Setaro (who formerly hosted the erstwhile and likewise essential The CipherPodcast), and you’ll blow through these 30-minute episodes in no time. Like Pop Smoke, Pvnch is also from Canarsie and he brings instant authenticity to the riveting storytelling. We learn about the young rapper growing up in “The Flossy” (Canarsie), and then getting discovered by Pusha T Manager and GOOD Music COO Steven Victor, who quickly signed Pop Smoke to his Victor Victor Records label.
The stories about Pop Smoke’s phenomenal ascent as a teenager are brought to light, as we also learn about the relationship between UK and Brooklyn drill. There was really no way to predict just how much Pop’s unique sound would catch on and you root for him as a star, before the rug gets pulled out from under us with the senseless circumstances surrounding his death. The voices brought in to speak on Pop — from family, friends, and collaborators — are well-curated, and considering his death was only in 2020, this is a monumental production for how succinctly and epically it paints the fine brush strokes in the life is this once-in-a-lifetime rapper.
Questlove Supreme
What feels more like a really sophisticated hip-hop radio show, iHeart’s Questlove Supreme is well….the supreme interview and pop culture conversation style podcast. Questlove is joined by his Team Supreme co-hosts, Laiya St.Clair, Phonte Coleman, “Unpaid” Bill Sherman, and “Suga” Steve Mandel, to talk to legit the biggest names in hip-hop culture and beyond.
Questlove might as well be the most refreshing, well-liked, and visible hip-hop geek in the world and there’s an unbelievable moment in just about every episode — Will Smith popped in recently and talked about doing ayahuasca. Not every guest on the show fits into the hip-hop mold (take recent convos with Bonnie Raitt and Carlos Santana for example), but Questlove Supreme is definitely presented through a hip-hop lens. In the end, it’s a reminder that perhaps the greatest modern form of artistic expression, is indeed hip-hop.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
The last 12 months have been quite busy for Candace Parker, who joined the Chicago Sky a year ago, led her hometown team to a WNBA title, and got married to her wife, Anna Petrakova, with the two welcoming their new son earlier this year. All the while, she’s continued her work with Turner Sports on NBA TV and TNT’s coverage of the NBA, and this week, she’ll shift her attention to the college ranks for Turner’s coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
On Monday, we got a chance to catch up with Parker about her busy year, why she’s so excited about her upcoming Title IX documentary with Turner, and to break down her beloved Vols and the rest of the teams and players she’s looking forward to seeing as March Madness begins.
First off, how’s the family doing and how are you adjusting to life with a baby around again?
Oh my goodness. Well, thank you for asking. The family is fantastic. We couldn’t be happier. The adjustment is [laughs], it’s a lot. You know, fortunate to have a good amount of help so we’re making it, but babies are no joke. So it’s been a long time since we’ve had a baby in the house but we’re in love. So it’s, it’s going well, thank you.
Good. I mean, if you go back to March 2021, you’re going back to Chicago, and now you’re a champion again, you’re married, you have a new son. What has this last year been like for you personally?
It’s been a whirlwind. I’m fortunate enough to be able to spend a lot of time with family. You know, I think that’s the biggest thing for me, is just during this time of having my son and even before that, like, just being able to spend the quality time over these last few years, I’ve been able to see my daughter grow up and spend time with my wife and just — we spend time with family back in Chicago as well. So, for me, yes, it was. Winning the championship was unbelievable, but it was just as amazing to be able to meet my best friend for lunch, and have my dad come over and fix my blinds, and my mom made me pregame meals, and my parents be at all the games, go see my grandma. So I think those are the moments, like spending time with family and friends, that I really haven’t taken for granted and have really enjoyed.
Absolutely. And now you’re adding producer to that list with with your upcoming Title IX documentary. How did that project come about? And what are you excited for people to see with this?
This is a huge passion project, I would say, for me. This has been years in the making. I can remember the first conversation I had with my agents about trying to put something like this together. Being able to do it with Turner where I’m at as the first real project, it means a lot, because like I said, it is a passion project. It is something that … the reason why I am is because of Title IX. I think it’s definitely being brought to light through my eyes and how I’ve been able to take advantage of the opportunities that are presented because of Title IX, and how it goes far beyond sports. But I think those are the two things that I really want to bring the light and also those that paved the way for us to be able to even have these opportunities and an entire generation that didn’t have these opportunities and the previous generation before that. So I think you know, among other things, those are kind of the the main things that I hope that this documentary is able to accomplish.
Definitely. And we’re seeing the continued push for equity in women’s sports. What do you see from this new generation of athletes who certainly seem to be so confident and so willing to stand up to some of these institutions and call things out? I mean, you think to what Sedona Prince did last year with the NCAA Tournament and posting those videos and all that. Are you proud to see how this new generation continues to push that forward?
I go back to the whole point of Title IX was to create opportunities and I think with those opportunities, athletes have been able to create their own platforms — as a result of social media, as a result of their skills, as a result of their opportunities, as a result of having the skills necessary to stand up for yourself and to understand what is right and what is wrong. And I think a lot of that comes from sports. And so I think now these athletes, being able to have those platforms to stand on, now you’re seeing entire leagues whereas before it was a couple athletes — it was the Billie Jean Kings of the world, right, that stood up and made these statements and backed it up with action and the way that they played and things like that.
However, I feel as though we still have so far to go and I do see the changes. You know, the NCAA versus when I was in school is a lot different. You know, even just small things that have come from acknowledging that the playing field is far from level. You know, the referees being paid the same amount to it actually been called March Madness. You know, ESPN actually putting the women’s bracket as a topic as opposed to just the five minute conversation on SportsCenter that night, because visibility is important. You’ve seen how with March Madness, people that don’t even watch college basketball fill [brackets] out and there’s a tension behind it with men. So we need that same energy with women.
Absolutely. As you kind of shift your focus now going into the men’s tournament with your with your work with Turner, how do you approach this month? Because obviously you go from NBA coverage into NCAA, and I recently talked with Reggie Miller about the same thing, how he navigates kind of living in living in both worlds as an analyst and making sure that you’re keeping an eye on both.
Yeah, it’s really difficult sometimes to shift. I mean, I’m a basketball junkie, so basketball’s always on. But it’s different when you’re covering it the entire year. You know, the NBA, it’s like I’m on NBA TV and I can remember the game from October, November when, you know, the Bucks played the Lakers or whatever. Like I remember those games, and it’s like with college, obviously, I have certain teams that I follow and on Sunday, it’s always on, or on Saturday, it’s always on, but you know, it’s different. And so now shifting your brain to the rules, to the players, to in studio, what are we talking about, things like that. So, I think it’s definitely shift, but basketball is basketball to me. When you see certain teams, you know they either have it or they don’t in terms of making a run. And so in NCAA, I look for those things, and they might be different than what it takes to win an NBA championship, but, you know, they’re still similar.
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Definitely. Who are some of the teams that you’re most excited to see in the next couple of weeks?
Well, of course, I would be remiss if I did not mention my Tennessee Volunteers. Tennessee, I thought deserved a higher seed. You know, they got the 3-seed, which to me, if you’re gonna have a conference tournament and kind of see where everybody’s at — I understand like the entire resume of the year matters — but also how you finish matters, too. I think what I’ve been most impressed about Tennessee is their ability to continually get the ball to the third side. And that is underestimated in how important it is even in the NBA, even in the WNBA, how important it is to be disciplined enough to get the ball on offense to the third side, because you’re making the defense shift two to three times. And so having players that are disciplined and not taking a shot before that, I think Tennessee just put that on display an SEC tournament. I’m excited to watch what [Josiah]-Jordan [James] is going to do. [Kennedy] Chandler, obviously, high IQ coming in, can create, can make plays. If Tennessee is knocking down the three ball, I think that they can go far, even winning this thing, to be honest with you.
You mentioned the the differences in what it takes to win an NCAA Tournament compared to an NBA championship and so much of that is format considering you need to win six games to win an NCAA Tournament, you need to win 16 to win an NBA championship. What are the things that you look for in a team, just generally speaking, when it comes tournament time and the formula to make that run to a second weekend and to a Final Four?
I would almost argue with you that it’s harder to win the six games because you can’t lose you have to be 6-0 whereas —
Oh, I was just saying different. Not easier or harder. Just a different format.
Yeah, yeah, a different format. Okay. With the NBA format, you have to get 16 wins, but at the same time, you can have 12 losses. The format [is harder] in terms of always having to be on top of your game. I think for me, it comes down to three things. It comes down to being able to play both ways, meaning fast teams really struggle NCAA Tournament, because the game is going to slow down. So you have to be able to play fast and you also have to be able to play in the halfcourt. I think that’s one thing.
You also have to be able to defend and match up well in multiple positions defensively. I think when you have guys that are fours and fives that can guard multiple positions, you’re at an advantage, so that athleticism and things like that. And the third thing is you have to have great guard play. You have to have guys that can come down get you into sets, and go getters, people that can create. Create for you, create for the team, because everybody’s gonna be able to scout by game three or game four. They’re gonna know exactly what you want to do. But the team that’s disciplined enough to continue to stick with it is going to be the team that successful. So those, to me, are the keys to trying to win a championship.
I think it’s interesting this year because a lot of the talk, at least at the top of the draft this year, is about big guys — you got Chet Holmgren, Jabari Smith, those guys. But who are the guards that you look at and think could be difference makers. Jaden Ivey, obviously, is the standout for Purdue, but who are some of the guards that you think could be the ones that can carry a team in one of those close games, in those late game situations and maybe lift their team to a deep run?
I mean, you look at Gonzaga, and you look at even what Jalen Suggs was able to do last year just even knocking down shots — and I know it was a three pointer at the buzzer, whatever. But at the same time, he’s able to get you into position, and I look at Andrew Nembhard kind of the same way. He’s a guy that when you need to make a play … and I think everybody thinks plays are always at the end of the game. And it’s not, like, you sometimes need a big run going into the second half, or you need to be able to sustain a run from the other team, or you need to come down and you need to know when you’re going to get in your sets. So I think Andrew Nembhard has done that. Like, he’s been the guy that shoots well from beyond, from the field, he is able to create for others. I just want to see him be able to match up against the physicality of other conferences, to be able to match up with the physicality and the speed and quickness that he’s going to face him into a tournament.
If you were to look ahead, we’ve had a day now with the bracket, as you map this thing out, who is your Final Four and what are the matchups that you think we are gonna see?
So I haven’t settled on my Final Four yet. I’m one of those where I’m going to take until that Thursday to fill out my bracket. Just because I’m like, I want to measure everything and I’m still gonna be wrong, like everybody’s gonna be wrong.
For me, I picked the darkhorse of Loyola Chicago. I just like the way they play, I like the way that they spread it around. However, I have it coming to an abrupt halt when they play Tennessee in the Sweet 16. So I look at that matchup as a little bit of redemption — a couple of years ago, I think Sister Jean had something to do with the ball hanging on the rim and going in for Loyola Chicago. I look at that matchup. I would say I do like the matchup — I know this is probably second round — but Houston-Illinois to me is really cool, if Illinois can get past Chattanooga. Going to school in Knoxville, of course, I paid attention to Chattanooga, and the way that they play is so fun to watch, but I just want to know if they can do that and play that fast and with that much high octane in the NCAA Tournament. I would say, let’s see, I think Arkansas-Connecticut is another one that I look at in terms of the second round that could be really intriguing. But again, I think you’re right. I don’t know if I’m gonna have, more than one or two 1/2 seeds in the Final Four. I think this year it’s it really is wide open. Like we could see another VCU, we could see another of those types of teams that are able to get deep into this.
I live in Chattanooga now. And yeah, they are a fun team.
They are so fun to watch! And they have size.
Well, that’s the thing, like Silvio De Sousa’s a beast.
Yeah you usually see teams like that and they don’t have that size.
Yeah, I went to Georgia State so we did not have a fun draw. I’m gonna be honest with you, I’m not even looking forward to watching. We have like one guy in the rotation who’s over 6’8, and we have to play Drew Timme and Chet Holmgren, like, cool. Cool cool cool cool cool.
Yeah, it’s gonna be tough. I think Timme will do better. But anytime for me, my knock on Chet is when people get into him, he struggles against guys that are shorter and stockier than him. So I want to see him play against the 6’6 posts that’s got a little size.
You know, I appreciate the optimism.
You’re welcome.
I needed that. Well, I appreciate you taking some time, Candace. Always a pleasure, and enjoy the next few weeks of the Tournament and hopefully it’s as exciting as it looks because, yeah, it does look like we could have some chaos.
Yeah, it’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna be a lot of fun. It’s never what you expect, right? You go in with so much like promise with your bracket and then you’re just ripping it up no matter what. And you’re just like, how could I not have predicted that, but you can’t predict it.
Hindsight’s so much easier.
Yeah it is.
I’m a much bigger fan of hindsight than predicting.
Rosalía is in the midst of a busy stretch when it comes to being in the public eye: Her album Motomami is out in a couple days, she was on The Tonight Show last week (where she told a great Harry Styles story), and she was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live this past weekend. Now, ahead of the album, she has dropped a video for “Hentai,” a sexually charged piano ballad.
The song, of course, is named after hentai, the sexually explicit genre of manga and anime. While the video itself isn’t hentai, it’s certainly sex-forward, as parts of it feature Rosalía striking suggestive poses on a bed in the middle of a rodeo arena.
She recently told Vice of the song, “In this new album, there’s some humor. In my other projects, I didn’t allow a sense of humor. ‘Hentai’ is much more suggestive, much more erotic for me. Hentai is more interesting than conventional porn. And why not talk about something like that as an inspiration for a song? Having sex is part of life. It’s all the same. I put everything on the same level.”
Watch the “Hentai” video above.
Motomami is out 3/18 via Columbia. Pre-order it here.
On the 20th anniversary of his gastric bypass surgery, Al Roker shared photos on social media of his weight loss journey. “Hard to believe it was 20 years ago today, I wore these jeans to my #gastricbypass at 340 lbs and here I am today,” the Today weather anchor wrote. “It’s still a struggle but I’m never going back. I may have setbacks but I work on it ever day.” In the photos, Roker is holding an old pair of now-oversized jeans that could now fit both him and jorts king Kevin Smith, who also lost a ton of weight.
Roker (who shared a video of his fitness routine in a follow-up Instagram post) discussed his transformation on Today. “I’m thrilled about where I am,” he told now-disgraced anchor Matt Lauer in 2013. “Life is terrific; I wouldn’t trade it for a moment. But you always wonder where you would be if ‘x’ hadn’t happened. I’m thrilled that I’ve finally got to this place at 58 years old. I finally got it figured out. I feel good about it.”
There have been some post-surgery complications, though, including the time he pooped his pants in the White House. “I pooped my pants. Not horribly, but enough that I knew,” Joker, I mean, Roker said, adding, “I got to the restroom of the press room, threw out the underwear, and just went commando.” Hopefully he threw out those pants, unlike the ones in the photos below.
As Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the United States Congress on Wednesday in a rousing plea for aid that earned him a standing ovation. In what’s being described as a “historic” speech, Zelensky urged the U.S. to enforce a no-fly zone in Ukraine and provide fighter jets to the country as it attempts to repel Russian attacks. While the U.S. has been resistant to these requests, which could be treated by Russia as an act of war, Zelensky nonetheless urged Congress that such help is desperately needed, and he might actually be shifting the debate, according to CNN:
“Remember Pearl Harbor, terrible morning of December 7, 1941, when your sky was black from the planes attacking you,” Zelensky said. “Just remember it, remember, September the 11th, a terrible day in 2001 when evil tried to turn US cities into battlefields, when innocent people were attacked from air, just like nobody else expected it and you could not stop it. Our country experiences the same, every day, right now at this moment.”
Obviously, this is a dire situation involving a president who has stayed in the midst of combat to defend his country against a massive military invasion, but if you ask economist Peter Schiff, the true crime is that Zelensky wore a t-shirt while addressing. You cannot make this up.
“I understand times are hard, but doesn’t the President of the #Ukraine own a suit?” Schiff tweeted. “I don’t have much respect for current members of the U.S. Congress either, but I still wouldn’t address them wearing a t-shirt. I wouldn’t want to disrespect the institution or the Unites States.”
Considering the outpouring of support for Ukraine, Schiff was almost instantly roasted in the replies to his god awful take. Seriously, a dude wearing a T-shirt in the middle of a warzone is what Schiff zeroed in on? You can see just a small sample of the reactions below, which are already in the thousands:
clearly you actually DON’T “understand that times are hard”.
— Juniper Stands With Ukraine (@JunipersBird) March 16, 2022
This may literally be the worst take ever tweeted. Literally the worst possible take ever tweeted — and given that this is Twitter, that’s pretty damn bad.
The only way you could make this worse is by turning this tweet into an NFT.
Let’s hope that the next generation of up-and-coming rappers is learning from the mistakes of their predecessors and reading those contracts (let’s be real, they probably aren’t). With the rise of social media and music blogs, more and more artists’ struggles with their record labels are coming to light lately; Meek Mill, Megan Thee Stallion, and Rowdy Rebel have all had widely publicized falling outs with their respective labels and they’re all far from the only ones.
Lest anyone think that it’s only major label artists who can find themselves in unfavorable contracts, Conway The Machine recently revealed that even his deal with indie label Griselda Records — which was founded by his blood brother Westside Gunn — was tilted more toward Griselda’s benefit than his own. During his recent appearance on The Breakfast Club to promote God Don’t Make Mistakes, Conway stressed the importance of thoroughly reviewing all the terms of a label deal.
“I’mma keep it a buck,” he admitted. “I didn’t even read that contract, bro. I didn’t read that shi*t. I just signed that sh*t and moved on. Unfortunately, the contract wasn’t in my favor. So now, going forward, it’s time to redo all that. I gotta make sure it’s in my favor now.”
While he didn’t elaborate on which terms he took issue with, he did say that while he feels he “didn’t get no money” after signing the deal with Griselda, Interscope, and Shady Records, he intends to work something out with Gunn. Now that he’s turned in his third and final album under the deal he said he’s contractually finished with both Griselda and Shady Records. “It’s free agency right now,” he declared. “I need that supermax. I need that Giannis bag.” If I have anything to add, it’s that I hope he’s got a good lawyer and a better understanding of how most recording contracts work because it’d be a shame if he didn’t get a better deal the next time around — or better yet, stay independent.
You can watch Conway’s full interview above.
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