Month: March 2023

The Los Angeles Clippers fell to 0-4 since the Russell Westbrook trade after losing to the Golden State Warriors, 115-91, on Thursday night. Westbrook had his worst game as a Clipper, scoring eight points on 3-for-12 shooting with six assists and no rebounds, in part due to the way that Draymond Green approached defending him.

In a clip that made its way around Twitter on Thursday, Green let Westbrook stand wide open when he was behind the three-point line, while the former Defensive Player of the Year patrolled the paint.

Westbrook’s struggles mixed with the fact that the Clippers shot 36 percent from the field are pretty good signs that this worked. After the game, Green spoke to the media and laid out why this was the approach.

“It’s very easy when a guy is sagging off like that, when a guy catches, you just rotate to him,” Green said. “And we didn’t want to do that, and I think the gameplan worked for us tonight. We got Russ to miss some shots. But I think when you have a gameplan like that, even more so — I know everyone always judges Russ’ jump shot, but what that does to you mentally is tough, and I think it was more so the mental of his shot. He’s been shooting the ball well, I think he’s shooting the three at like 33 or 34 percent, but mentally, that can get tough.”

Green said that while sagging off like that doesn’t necessarily get in a guy’s head, “it’ll make you think for sure, because you’re open every play, and you’re taught in basketball if you’re open, take the shot. But if you’re open every play, you kinda start questioning yourself.”

Steve Kerr also addressed this, telling the press that there is no better center fielder in the NBA than Green.

On the heels of the Dreamville Festival 2023 announcement, J. Cole and his Dreamville Records roster are showing no signs of letting up. The two-day music festival’s lineup features some of the biggest current acts in music, including headliners Drake, Usher, and Burna Boy. Now, the Fayetteville, North Carolina native is taking it back on his latest musical release off of the Creed III soundtrack.

With the film, now in theaters, starring Michael B. Jordan (in the role of Adonis Creed) and Jonathan Majors (as Damian Anderson), each track on the project executive produced by Cole is live across streaming platforms. However, fans are paying close attention to the track, “Adonis Interlude (The Montage)” by the rapper. Unlike the two previously released singles “Blood, Sweat, & Tears” and “Ma Boy,” J. Cole’s song pulls inspiration from a hip-hop pioneer as he re-imagines Dr. Dre’s 1999 song, “The Watcher,” off his album 2001.

“Adonis Interlude (The Montage)” catches up listeners with the fictional character’s journey throughout the trilogy as he prepares for his toughest opponent yet, his former childhood friend, Damion. Avoiding spoilers, the song is a clever musical assist to the epic sports film.

Check out J. Cole’s “Adonis Interlude” above. To listen to Dr. Dre’s “The Watcher,” continue below.

“Madmen builds flying cities” is usually the stuff of comic book villains. Heck, it’s literally the plot of the hit video game Bioshock: Infinite, so it completely tracks that Donald Trump wants in on the megalomaniacal action. According to a new report, the former president is attempting to rebrand himself as some sort of futuristic tech mogul and is tasking his disciples with drawing up plans for “Freedom Cities” to be built on federal land.

Oh, and by the way, those plans must include flying cars and detailed instructions for unparalleled levels of baby making.

Of course, the big question is can Trump’s rabid followers pivot from storming the Capitol to harnessing the power of flight in an ambitious feat of civil engineering built on unfettered reproduction? We’re about to find out.

Via Politico:

Trump’s plan, shared in advance with POLITICO, calls for holding a contest to design and create up to ten new “Freedom Cities,” built from the ground up on federal land. It proposes an investment in the development of vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicles; the creation of “hives of industry” sparked by cutting off imports from China; and a population surge sparked by “baby bonuses” to encourage would-be-parents to get on with procreation.

In a video to be released by Trump on Friday, the former president touts his commitment to prompting a “quantum leap in the American standard of living,” which apparently requires a levitating sex town as our forefathers no doubt imagined.

“Our country has lost its boldness,” Trump said. “Under my leadership, we will get it back in a very big way. If you look at just three years ago, what we were doing was unthinkable, how good it was, how great it was for our country.”

(Via Politico)

One of the most dangerous Neo-Nazi propaganda groups on Telegram is allegedly being run by a former dildo saleswoman in California.

In a recent HuffPost expose, 33-year-old Dallas Erin Humber was named as a leader of the online hate group The Terrorgram Collective, which uses the encrypted messaging app Telegram to promote acts of far-right violence. Humber, who’s been shouting her racist, homophobic, and antisemitic ideologies into the digital void since she was a teenager, is the voice behind the group’s many propaganda videos celebrating mass shooters like Brendan Tarrant, the Christchurch shooter, and Juraj Krajčík, a Slovakian teenager who opened fire on a gay bar last year, killing two patrons. (Krajčík committed suicide shortly after the attack but not before naming The Terrorgram Collective as inspiration for the murders in his manifesto.)

Humber and members of the collective have glorified mass shooters — like the one in Buffalo, who killed 10 Black shoppers at a grocery store, and the one in Pittsburgh, who murdered 11 Jews at a local synagogue — as saints, commemorating their hate crimes with church-like drawings, tribute videos, and memes. But, until now, she was known only by her anime art and many aliases — handles that included “pretty dictator,” “the Lolita of the Far Right,” “Lil’ Lolita,” “hopelessfangirl,” “Lil’ Miss Gorehound,” and finally, “Miss Gorehound,” the name she’s been using to create her latest propaganda.

HuffPost’s investigation also uncovered evidence of Humber’s criminal record, drug use, and, interesting job history. Along with drawing Nazi-inspired anime cartoons celebrating the birthday of noted Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele and creating comic book stories about two SS officers falling in love set to the backdrop of a concentration camp, Humber also held a number of odd jobs. After being arrested for possession of methamphetamine and sentenced to a drug rehabilitation program as part of her probation, Humber — who never attended college — worked as an academic tutor and a dildo saleswoman, posting video reviews of sex toys with coupon codes for her followers.

Humber described her earliest blog posts as a space to share “the personal insights of a fascist dictator in training,” and the writings of “a white girl with a dream,” naming “writing to serial killers” as one of her many interests.

(Via Huffpost)

A spy thriller directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett, Cary Elwes, and Hugh Grant. That’s something you’d watch, right? Well, you can right now: Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is out in theaters after multiple delays. The film hasn’t received much of a marketing push, but the reviews have been kind and it’s (probably?) the only movie this year where Plaza slaps Statham’s butt. So it’s got that going for it.

“Jason and I had a lot of fun messing around with. He has a really good sense of humor, and he’s always joking around too,” The White Lotus actress with the week’s most famous underboob told Collider. “I was always going at him. I would do things like say a line and then slap his ass really hard.” Between takes, Ritchie would say, “You know, I liked the bit where you slapped his ass, and maybe you could do that again.” Plaza’s response: “Yes, sir.”

“It felt like we were just trying to take the piss out of each other, as all the British people say. It was great fun.”

I’m going to throw it out there: Face/Off 2 with Aubrey Plaza and Jason Statham. He knows where to find a Face/Off machine, so that’ll save time and money.

(Via Collider)

Sometimes the best new R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm-and-blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they really love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the best new R&B songs that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.

Since the last update of this weekly R&B and Afrobeats column, we’ve received plenty of music and news from the genre’s artists. SZA kicked off her SOS Tour after her sophomore album, which will soon get a deluxe release, spent a another week at No. 1. Chlöe connected with Chris Brown for her “How Does It Feel” single off her upcoming debut In Pieces while 6lack announced his third album Since I Have A Lover and has since released its title track as its lead single. Lastly, Bryan-Michael Cox joined the LVRN team as their Senior VP, A&R, and Executive Producer.

Here are some more releases on the new music front that you should check out:

Musiq Soulchild & Hit-Boy — “Beats Of A Slow Dance”

Most of Hit-Boy’s recent work has come in hip-hop as he’s helped craft projects with the likes of Nas, Benny The Butcher, and Big Sean. Now his latest step brings him to the R&B world as he and Musiq Soulchild are gearing up to release their upcoming project, Victims & Villains. Ahead of its arrival, the duo stepped forward with its first single, “Beats Of A Slow Dance.”

Tink — Thanks 4 Nothing

Ever since taking on the independent route, singer Tink has been quite active and the last four years are proof of that. In what is her sixth project since 2019, Tink returned with Thanks 4 Nothing. The 14-track project supplies features from Ty Dolla Sign and Yung Bleu and a whole lot of passion from Tink who throws a fictional punch or two at heartbreak and the person who caused it.

Jahkoy — Healing Phase

Toronto singer Jahkoy is back with his fourth project Healing Phase, and just like the title suggests, the body of work is filled with brighter and more optimistic music. Healing Phase features 12 songs without guest features, a big change from his last previous project, 2021’s Tangible.

Nelccia — From Me, To Me

To close 2022, Nelccia made a big mark in the R&B world with her two singles, “Smoke, Drink, Break Up” with Wale and “Triggers.” Now, she’s back with her debut project From Me, To Me. With eight songs on the project, Nelccia gives listeners plenty to enjoy on the honeyed EP.

M’elle — “Greens” Feat. Kai Ca$h

Brooklyn singer M’elle is here to make some noise and her latest single “Greens” with Kai Ca$h is a great first step in achieving that goal. The record is a track for women from all over who seek to reclaim their wasted time with men. “If you want my love and energy, it’s going to cost you,” she says of the song. “As women, people feel entitled to have access to everything we have… I don’t think we should just give that out for free anymore.”

Phabo — “Out Of Touch” Feat. Shaé Universe

The incomparable and ever-so-talented Phabo checks in 2023 with his new single “Out Of Touch” featuring Shaé Universe. The infectious and breezy record is one that arrives ahead of Phabo’s upcoming album, due out later this year. “As an artist, we coexist with an ongoing stigma that we’re unable to walk a faithful line when it comes to long-distance relationships,” Phabo says of the song’s inspiration. Oftentimes we stumble upon love in new cities and countries which leaves us chasing a moment or a specific emotion.”

Jozzy — Songs For Women, Free Game For N****s

Signed to Diddy’s Love Records, singer-songwriter Jozzy arrived with her new project Songs For Women, Free Game For N****s. With ten songs, the project captures why Jozzy has been such an appealing name in the industry. Outside of the project, she’s also previously written for big names like Beyoncé (“Virgo’s Groove”), SZA (“Low”), and Metro Boomin & John Legend (“On Time”).

Raahiim — “Outside Freestyle”

If there’s one R&B singer who will surely make a splash in 2023, it’s Toronto’s Raahiim. More than two years removed from his soothing and sultry sophomore project, ii Knew Better, Raahiim is making all the right moves toward his next body of work. His latest single, “Outside Freestyle,” is proof that something special is on the way from the Toronto native.

Jawan.mp3 — “Still (For You)”

With his upcoming project Reverie: The Expansion on the way, Jawan.mp3 returns with the silky and warm “Still (For You).” “Making ‘Still (For You)’ was a way to reconcile my residual feelings from a past relationship,” Jawan.mp3 says about the track. “I’m basically saying, ‘I’m okay with things being over, but here’s what I’ll always hold for you.’”

Jon Vinyl — “Pressure (Remix)” Feat. Kenyon Dixon

Jon Vinyl and Kenyon Dixon are both special names in the R&B world that you should pay attention to, so it’s even better that they joined forces for a new single. Dixon joined Vinyl for a remix of the latter’s “Pressure,” a record that is one of the many highlights from Vinyl’s 2022 EP, Palisade.

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

Sports categories on on Jeopardy! tend to go one of two ways. When at least one of the contestants know sports, it’s usually one of the first categories to get cleared off of the board, as it’s an easy way to get a whole lot of money relatively quickly.

And then, there are the times that no one is especially well-versed in sports, which leads to clips like the one at the top of this post. Jeopardy! is in the midst of its High School Reunion Tournament, which is pitting former Teen Tournament contestants who are now in college against one another. On Thursday’s episode, the category “In The Sport” really tripped everyone up, to the point that no one got a single answer correct. The contestants were given a bunch of terms that apply to specific sports and were supposed to name where they came from, let’s see how you do:

$200: Inherited Runners, Appeal Play, Pickoff
$400: Best Ball, Casual Water, Closed Face & — The Absolute Worst — Shank
$600: Eight-Count, Accidental Butt, Cutman (For Said Accidental Butt)
$800: Penalty Killing, Plus-Minus, The Five-Hole, “The Biscuit” (That’s What Everyone’s Chasing)
$1000: Chukker, Gag Bit, Mallet, A Lot Of Money

These are, in order, baseball, golf, boxing, hockey, and polo. I will admit, in the interest of transparency and fairness to the contestants, I did not get polo.

Anyway, the star of the category was Caleb, who picked the $200 answer after saying he wanted to “get rid of” the category and then predicted “the internet’s gonna love that.” He is correct about that last thing, in part because it lets us remember the time Alex Trebek was in the same situation with a football category and absolutely roasted the contestants, to the point that he tried to remedy this not long after by writing an entire football category on his own.

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

ITEM NUMBER ONE – My sweet boy

There is some good news and bad news out there this week, and you probably know it all already, but I’m going to share it anyway because that’s what we do around here.

GOOD NEWS: The trailer for the final season of Succession dropped this week.

BAD NEWS: Uhhhh the thing where the “good news” contained the phrase “the final season of Succession”

I am both fantastically excited and deeply bummed out. I kind of don’t want to talk about it right now. Let’s just watch the trailer again in silence for a couple of minutes.

Here’s the thing: There is a lot going on here. So much, really, with the family dynamics being blasted with a jackhammer and Logan grumbling a lot and the Shiv/Tom relationship headed for what appears to be a gutting stretch, if not a gutting end. I got legitimately excited when I heard the music start to build. Those tinkly pianos, man. I hear them and I start to get all wound up. Shout out to Pavlov and Nicholas Britell.

But again, there will be plenty of time to discuss all of that. I’m going to recap every episode right here at this fine website. Today, right now, we are going to focus on the important things. We are going to talk about my sweet and slightly evil boy Cousin Greg. I have missed him so much.

Here are Cousin Greg’s five appearances in this trailer, ranked.

5. Clapping for Logan

While I do not necessarily love to see him sucking up to Logan like this, there are two things I appreciate about this situation:

• I love to see my beautiful lanky prince doing happy claps
• It increases the chances that this whole endeavor ends with Greg in charge of the entire company, which is all I have ever wanted from this show

Conflicting. Let’s move on.

4. Math

The context here is kind of important, so we can kind of mention it: Connor, the oldest of all the Roy children and most likely to go bankrupt after buying a vineyard that becomes infested with termites, is lamenting his various polling/approval numbers, which are lingering at one percent. Enter Cousin Greg, our gangly Greek chorus, our sky-high voice of reason-ish, our 6’6 little woodland creature in the tiger cage.

The delivery here puts it over the top. I genuinely can’t tell if he’s being sincere or kind of a dick. This is a useful skill to have in life and especially on a critically-acclaimed television show.

3. Please tell me more about the kill list

I hope this is an entire episode.

I hope Greg is on the kill list.

I hope he goes full Home Alone on a squadron of assassins and defeats all of them by accident.

I hope, at the very least, he brings up this kill list a lot and talks about it every episode.

2. Everything happening here

What I like here, in no particular order:

• He appears to be spying on Logan, which increases the possibility of Subterfuge Greg returning for the first time since he was wearing a wire in a bathroom a while back
• His use of the word “moseying”
• The thing where “if Santa was a hitman” made me think about the Crashmore sketch from I Think You Should Leave
• The very slim chance that this means he will just be narrating the action for a while, like how Gonzo was Charles Dickens in The Muppet Christmas Carol

He’s a good boy.

1. LOOK AT HIM ON HIS BIKE

Yes.

Yessssss.

Yesssssssssssss.

I don’t know if I’m ready for this all to end but I’m definitely ready to have this goofball back in my life. Like I said, it is all very conflicting. We have much to process. But let’s just take this weekend to think about Greg on a bicycle. The other stuff can wait.

ITEM NUMBER TWO – I need some of these at once

The Mandalorian came back for a third season, which is cool. It was a little confusing if you’re the type of viewer who remembers things that happened two years ago and is very concerned about continuity, based mostly on the thing where Baby Yoda left with Luke Skywalker for Jedi training at the end of season two and was just, like, back in this week’s episode for reasons that went mostly unexplained. Turns out you had to watch the Boba Fett show to understand why it all happened. Luckily, I am not this type of viewer. I’m just in it for the pew pews and cute little green guys. Which is not me casting judgment. I can and have done five-minute monologues on the chronology of the Fast & Furious movies. We all have our thing.

Anyway, I already discussed Baby Yoda’s little floating stroller/saucer thing, which we first saw in the trailer and which I still love and planned on being my favorite thing in this season. And it was well on its way to being just that.

UNTIL

Carl Weathers came back as a character whose name I do not remember but I refer to lovingly as “Space Apollo Creed” and he had on a cape and he had two little robots following him around lifting up the back of the cape so it didn’t drag on the streets as he walked through town.

This is… awesome.

I love it.

I full-on pointed at the television and made someone come in and look at it. It would not be as useful to me as Yoda’s lil saucer for a bunch of reasons (the floating saucer would be a cooler way to get around than my wheelchair, I rarely wear capes, etc.), but I don’t care. I want these things, too. I can have them buzz around my apartment carrying snacks and iced tea. We are over nine months away from Christmas. You have plenty of time to find or build them for me.

ITEM NUMBER THREE – This was a great week for stories about good dudes

Not a lot of things in this world I love more than stories about people being good dudes. I’m such a sucker for them. Maybe it’s because I’m an optimist or because I would like other people to regard me as a good dude or because sometimes the world can be a weirdo hellscape and it’s nice to know people are out there doing cool stuff when they don’t necessarily have to. Whatever the reason, it’s nice.

We had two cool examples of it this week, too. One was a huge investment of time and money and resources and the other was just, like, the tiniest little thing. They both made people’s days, though. That’s what’s important here. We’ll come back to that.

First, the Dave Grohl thing, where he showed up at a shelter during the California storms this week and fed twice as many people as I had in my graduating class. You probably saw it, but still.

Grohl rolled up to LA’s Hope Of The Valley Rescue Mission on February 22 with a big meat smoker, and after 16 hours of preparation, he had enough food to feed around 500 people “ribs, pork butt, brisket, cabbage, coleslaw, and beans.”

Hope Of The Valley also shared an Instagram Story yesterday from CEO Rowan Vansleve, who posted a photo of Grohl preparing food in the rain and wrote, “In the middle of the storms this week. This is Dave Grohl cooking over 500 servings of the best barbecue for those living in our shelters. That’s class.”

Two things worth noting here, both important.

ONE: Dave Grohl has a lot of money and could have easily written a check to feed all these people but there’s something so cool about showing up and rolling up your sleeves and doing the work.

TWO: Less important than that first thing but Dave Grohl is a full-on legit barbecue fanatic, as he explained to this very website a few years ago.

“So when Nirvana became popular, the first thing I did was buy a beach house in North Carolina and I just spent years there,” he tells us like we’re all old drinking buddies. “I ate pulled pork fuckin’ from the time I was 22 ’til about 25-years-old.”

Like many of us, he’d found a food he loved and gotten hooked. But it wasn’t until about three years ago that Grohl really got into cooking the stuff for himself. He tells the story of when he broke his leg on stage and the downtime that injury forced him to have. He’d sit in his backyard with a Big Green Egg, figuring out how to make one of his favorite meals.

“You’re basically sitting there staring at these fucking thermometers all day long,” Grohl says. “I’d just sit there for nine to 12 hours at a time just … oooommmmm … meditating and watching these temperature gauges.”

Cool. Great. I love that he did all of that. But I also love, well… this.

This is what I mean about the big stuff and small stuff both being important. Martin Short didn’t spend an entire day cooking for people who were affected by gross meteorological anomalies, but he did see a father and daughter in a tough spot and took action to be helpful. It was so easy, too. It cost him nothing and still made someone else’s day. You can do little stuff like this whenever you want. Pay for the coffee the person behind you in line is getting at Dunkin. Hold the elevator for someone who is carrying groceries. Tell a stranger you like their shoes and/or hair. It feels great.

Hmm. This feels like a good time to post the Keanu ice cream story. Again. The one that starts with a young man working at a movie theater in Australia. The one that goes like this.

The lessons in all of this:

• Be a good dude whenever you can
• I use the word “dude” in a gender-inclusive way here, because ladies can be good dudes, too
• It is extremely funny that the very sweet little Martin Short story ended with the phrase “SHOUTOUT JACK FROST”

Everybody wins a little bit here.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR – Hey, do you guys wanna see Harrison Ford sing the song “Every Morning” by Sugar Ray?

I have been watching Shrinking the last few weeks. It’s good. It’s wild that we’re not all talking about it a lot. The show is from the Ted Lasso team — Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein — and it stars Jason Segel and Jessica Williams and Ted C. McGinley and a bunch of other people you probably recognize from things you have enjoyed.

It also co-stars Harrison Ford. Harrison Ford is just, like, in a television show. That’s him up there in a car singing along to “Every Morning” by Sugar Ray. I strongly suspect that I will write about this show more in the very near future because I’m really enjoying it a lot. But I needed to be sure you saw this. One of the biggest movie stars in history is doing carpool karaoke to 90s songs on a television show made by the company that built your telephone. The future is wild.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE – Go Birds

Here’s a tweet I have been thinking about for days now.

Aaaaand now I need an Abbott Elementary crossover episode with Always Sunny. Plots I would enjoy include:

• The teachers at Abbott helping Charlie learn to read
• Dennis and Ava going on a date after matching on Tinder
• Sweet Dee and Jacob getting into a car accident in the parking lot at the Wells Fargo Center
• Frank and Barbara stuck in an elevator together for an afternoon
• Mr. Johnson and Charlie killing rats together, which is an idea my coworker Josh Kurp had that I immediately visualized

Please hurry up and make this. I need it to live.

READER MAIL

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

From Nick:

I write to you regarding the Paddington movies. My wife and I have a stereotypically different taste in movies. Her escape is through rom-coms and lighter fare, to which I get bored and play on my phone. I’ll put on a brooding, slow indie film, to which she almost instantly falls asleep. We’ve grown to understand each other’s tastes and now meet in the middle with, say, a Pixar movie or certain comedies, and watch our ‘own’ movies on our own time. Communication! Progress! I am much more Online than her and have seen the love of Paddington over the years. I feel like this movie is perfect for both of us. When I first brought it up, she thought I was pandering to her and demeaning her. I think she thinks this movie is like your Garfields, and Yogi Bears, and Marmadukes, which is understandable. I’ve tried to explain that this movie is well-regarded, but to no avail. It has been a running bit of ours for literal years now, where we are scrolling through things to watch and I stop on Paddington, raise my brow and make eye contact and get denied. How do I convince her to watch Paddington (and Paddington 2!)? note: I thought having a baby might green-light a Paddington showing, but no luck so far.

Thank you for your help.

Oh, you poor man. I cannot even begin to imagine how desperate you have to be in your marital confusion to wake up one day and think “I should email Brian about this.” But I get it. Let me see what I can do. Here are a few sentences I would toss out to see if they achieve any level of success:

“Hey, did you know Hugh Grant plays a singing and dancing villain in Paddington 2 and the character is named Phoenix Buchanan?”

“Come onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.”

“This guy on the internet swears it’s good and he likes the kinds of movies I like.”

The last one is your best option because if she hates it you can just blame it on me. God, I am terrible at giving advice. I suspect I did not need to say that after you read those ideas.

Congrats on the baby, buddy.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To St. Louis!

St. Louis Zoo officials say they are working to find a way to keep an Andean bear named Ben inside his enclosure after he escaped Thursday for the second time this month.

Hmm.

Yes.

It is settled.

I love Ben.

The bear escaped on Feb. 7 by tearing apart clips that were attached stainless steel mesh to the frame of the enclosure’s door. He did not wander far and was outside for about 90 minutes before being returned.

I love that Ben busted out and just wandered around for a little while. Sometimes this happens. One time in 8th or 9th grade, many years before my injury, I snuck out of my second-story bedroom window and was so wrapped up in the whole process and success of it all that I only realized once I was out that I didn’t really have a plan beyond that. I was just, like, in my yard, in my development, way out in the suburbs. I didn’t even know anyone who had a car yet. I think I just walked around for a while and came back in through the front door.

I don’t know if this story is more insulting to me or the bear.

In response, the zoo added stainless steel clips with 450 pounds of tensile strength to the mesh. But Ben managed to snap those clips Thursday.

I need to see Ocean’s Eleven but with this bear as one of the crew. I need to see Brad Pitt explain Ben’s prowess at escaping captivity. I need to see George Clooney at the zoo with an ice cream cone saying “it could work.” I need to see Bernie Mac get mad when Ben eats his steak. I need…

Ah, dammit. Now I’m sad again that Bernie Mac is gone. I did this to myself. That happens sometimes.

Zoo officials said they are working on alternative ways to secure the enclosure and will seek advice from the Association of Zoos & Aquariums Bear Taxon Advisory Group.

I know this just means they’re calling up some guy in an office who knows a lot about bears, but it’s a lot more fun to picture this being the guy who knows about bears. Like, he comes into the zoo in a helicopter and he steps out of it wearing a suit and sunglasses and his hair stays perfectly in place despite the whipping propellers and he just goes by “The Kodiak Wrangler” and he looks at the frazzled manager as he’s calmly buttoning his jacket and he just says “I hear you have a bear problem.”

I would watch that movie.

While James Hetfield of Metallica is busy preparing for the release of the new Metallica album 72 Seasons, he’s also doing a lot outside of music. He’s set to star in The Thicket, a Tubi film based on the Joe R. Lansdale novel.

According to Deadline, the legendary singer will act alongside Peter Dinklage, Juliette Lewis, Esmé Creed-Miles, Levon Hawke, Leslie Grace, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Macon Blair, Ned Dennehy, Andrew Schulz, and Arliss Howard.

The Thicket is about “an innocent young man, Jack (Hawke), who goes on an epic quest to rescue his sister Lula (Creed-Miles) after she has been kidnapped by the violent killer Cut Throat Bill (Lewis) and her gang,” as per the publication. “To save her, Jack enlists the help of a crafty bounty hunter named Reginald Jones (Dinklage), a grave-digging alcoholic son of an ex-slave (Akinnagbe), and a street-smart prostitute (Grace). The gang tracks Cut Throat Bill into the deadly no-man’s land known as The Big Thicket — a place where blood and chaos reign.”

Meanwhile, 72 Seasons arrives next month, and singles “If Darkness Had A Son,” “Screaming Suicide,” and “Lux Æterna” are out now. The band will be heading on a length tour at the end of next month as well.

You might be forgiven for not knowing that hip-hop superproducer Metro Boomin claims St. Louis as his hometown. After all, thanks to his work with trap rap mainstays like 21 Savage, Future, Migos, and Young Thug, his looming, thunderous instrumentals have become the de facto sound of Atlanta. But although he’s made his mark in the Peach State, he still counts the Show Me State as home.

And now that St. Louis has added a sports team, the St. Louis City SC, he’s all-in on showing his support — even if he’s never been the biggest soccer fan. The club is kicking off its inaugural home game with the “CITY Block Party” at the CITYPARK stadium Friday, March 3 at 6 pm CST and Saturday, March 4, headlined by Metro Boomin with a special DJ set from Anderson .Paak as DJ Pee .Wee (they’ll be supported by local acts Mvstermind, Kennedy Holmes, and DJ Mahf).

Metro was kind enough to check in with Uproxx via Zoom to talk about the sound of St. Louis, his connection to his hometown, the cross-regional impact of his music, and of course, his burgeoning soccer fandom. We also fell down an anime rabbit hole and talked about ASAP Rocky’s upcoming album Don’t Be Dumb, which Metro contributed to so heavily that the Harlem rapper nicknamed the album Flacko Boomin.

For more details about the CITY Block Party, check out the St. Louis City SC website.

How’d you get involved with the City Block Party and what made you say yes to kicking off the St. Louis City SC season?

Because of St. Louis, more than anything, me being born and raised there and always looking for great opportunities and the right opportunities to bring awareness and shine more light on the city. Definitely excited to be a part of this. This is big. This is historic. St. Louis getting a soccer club, that’s major. I’m just grateful that they even reached out and I jumped at the opportunity.

Yeah, yeah, I understand. Anything Compton-related, I’m on it. Were you a big fan of soccer growing up at all? And if so, who was your team?

Actually, no, I was a fan of soccer, but I just always been such a fan of St. Louis and I still am. But I actually started going to some soccer games a few years ago. It was just a new experience and I remember after the first one I just kept going because it was just a different kind of excitement — just the fact that you know how most games, there’s pauses in between play? It’s just nonstop. That was new for me and really just piqued my interest and opened my eye up to that world.

Now that St. Louis has its own team, are you going to get season tickets?

Man, hopefully. Hopefully, man, I don’t want it to be a one-and-done thing. I definitely plan on just getting as involved with the club as I can.

And of course, another name for soccer is football. We know our Super Bowl just passed. Were you rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs?

Yeah. Even though it’s not the Rams (Metro roots for the Los Angeles team), it was still Missouri. I had to go with that over Philadelphia. It’s still like, Show Me State.

Yes, sir. Speaking of St. Louis, I wanted to ask you about how St. Louis has figured into your music, but it occurred to me that for someone my age if you say, St. Louis, we’re going to think of Nelly, St. Lunatics, and Chingy, but when people hear Metro Boomin, a lot of times I think they may associate that with Atlanta, like Migos, Future. How do you reconcile that in your music?

That’s one of the main reasons I jumped at this opportunity and why I wear a Cardinals hat all the time: Just to remind people, you know what I’m saying? I’m born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. Atlanta is my second home. I moved there at a young enough age that I grew up there as a man, but I went to school in St. Louis.

And as far as the music, even though I worked with a lot of artists, a lot of my come-up was with a lot of prominent Atlanta artists and aiding their come-ups as well… I’m all automatically in the Atlanta conversation, but I feel like just how I was doing that with the Atlanta artists, the next step for me is just bringing and shining a light on St. Louis talent because there’s just so much of it. It’s so much raw talent. That’s one of my next goals for sure.

What would you say is the thing that sets St. Louis apart from most other cities in terms of the sound musically? Right now, you guys have Smino who’s very spacey, like Parliament-Funkadelic almost. Whereas for yourself, you have the trap, 808 thing. Does the city have a signature sound? And if so, what is it?

Man, St. Louis’s signature sound is, more than anything, soul. We put feel in. It’s no gimmicks in our music. Everyone always talks to me about my production, just how dynamic [it is] and just the ranges of where it can go. And I feel like that comes from just growing up in St. Louis. Traditionally in hip-hop, it’s like, okay, you got the South, you got the West Coast and the East Coast, mostly the West Coast and the East Coast.

But man, growing up in the Midwest, it’s like we was catching all the East Coast, the West Coast, the South. I grew up listening to Tupac, but at the same time, Cameron, Dipset, Outkast, Eminem, just from everywhere. Back then, people on the East Coast was really just listening to East Coast rap. People on the West was really listening to West Coast and so forth. But through the way music traveled, I feel in the middle, we was just catching everything. And I feel like that has a big impact on my sound as well as just everybody in St. Louis because we all come up just listening to everything.

I know you do a lot of interviews. I do a lot of interviews. We both get sick of hearing and asking and answering the same type of questions over and over again. If you were going to ask yourself a question for an interview, what would it be? What’s something you always wanted to talk about but never had the chance to?

Damn, that’s a good one. I ain’t going to lie. I got a lot of respect for that question. That’s a good one. That’s the first time I got that one. Something I always wanted to be asked. Ooh, damn, I’m trying to think of something good.

Well, I’ve had people tell me about all kinds of things. Anime, sports, sneakers, clothes, all of it.

As far as anime, I just got into that in the past year.

Oh, really? Cool. What you been watching?

My introduction was One Punch Man. I just fell in love with that. It just became a theme for me. And in the process of watching that while I was working on Heroes And Villains, someone had told me, they was like, “Man, you need to watch My Hero Academia.” I had started that. And then as I was finishing the album, I didn’t have that much time, but my little brother, he’s eight, he ended up flying through the season, and now he’s on season six. I’ve been binging it for the past couple of months, and I just caught up to season five today on the plane. I got to season five, and I’ve been loving that show. I ain’t going to lie, I’ve been watching that a whole lot. I started Attack on Titan, I got to get back on it, and somebody told me to watch Death Note. I’m supposed to watch that too.

Those influences are strong. May it give you lots of inspiration for your next project.

Nah, without a doubt. It gave me a lot of inspiration, even on the last one, just on the morality and the duality of just Heroes And Villains, and just even watching that stuff every day, it put a lot of stuff in perspective on the point I was trying to get across with the album.

You are a truly groundbreaking producer in your own right. And for me, one of the most groundbreaking producers of my generation was De La Soul. Are you looking forward to De La Soul hitting streaming tomorrow? And if so, which project are you streaming first and why?

Well thank you, I appreciate that. De La Soul? They hitting streaming tomorrow?

Yes, sir. For the first time ever in the whole history of streaming.

Damn, that’s crazy. It’s crazy that if you really think about it, it’s really a bunch of stuff that’s not on streaming, that growing up, it was so regular. I was always so big on a lot of the Death Row albums.

I would probably say, what’s that one? … I was in fourth grade, sixth grade. I remember it had the cover with the blue. It was a calendar. What was that?

Yeah, The Grind Date. I really recommend that one. That one’s really tight. That one’s actually not part of their original deal so it was actually already on streaming, you can check that one out now if you want to.

Meanwhile, ASAP Rocky is jokingly calling his next tape Flacko Boomin, which I think is really clever, but it also highlights how closely you’ve been working together. Are you able to reveal any details of that project ahead of time?

Man, it’s crazy. I was talking to Flacko yesterday. I wish people really knew the details of our history and just our brotherhood over time, between me and him, and linking with him through Yams back in high school when I was in St. Louis still. That’s how I first linked with them. I just feel like right now it’s just an accumulation of everything lining up for us to finally just do our joint. We always do so many songs and I feel like we just done got used to just them stashing and piling up and not putting them out. But what can I say, man, you got to stay tuned. I promise we won’t waste your time.