Samara Cyn is doing everything right nowadays, but truthfully, you could say she always has. Born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and bouncing around several cities before settling in Pheonix, Arizona in 2017, rapper Samara Cyn is a new lyricist to reckon with today. She constructs 16s and 32s with impressive ease and breezes through them with the TK of a veteran. There are more than slick rhymes in Cyn’s arsenal, though. Like artists such as JID and Doja Cat, Cyn lays her raps with the backing of soulful beats and soothing singing voice to make her a complete artist worth getting excited about.
Her latest single “Magnolia Rain” makes for three singles in the past year, showing a promising future in rap lies ahead for Cyn. “Magnolia Rain” presents Cyn with the cool, calm, and collected demeanor that takes precedent on most of her tracks. She steers through the record with an introspective take on life, emphasizing her choice to focus on what she can control and take everything else as it comes. “Finding out that letting go give you more control,” she sings on the song’s chorus. “Keep a calm mind, keep a calm soul.” It’s a soothing reminder to find your peace in a world that can be so chaotic.
Together with the new single, we had a moment o catch up with Samara Cyn and find out more about her in this week’s Uproxx Music 20 column. Scroll down to hear some of Cyn’s music and to learn more about her influences, inspirations, and aspirations.
This is hard. I can’t really pinpoint the earliest moment. Maybe getting ready for school to MTV Top 40s. But what’s coming to mind is rapping Slick Rick’s “Children’s Story” on karaoke with my dad at my 13th birthday party. Prime childhood memory.
Who inspired you to take music seriously?
My friend Michael Knight was the first person that really had me thinking I could do this for real. I was in college; I was just having my fun with music. It was something to do. But Michael really sat me down, believed in me, and got me set up. I remember sitting in my closet with my basic ass recording set up and him tapping into my computer from NC to teach me how to record on Logic. On some Spy Kids sh*t. He did all of my earliest production, he would mix my records, master them. All off the strength. Believed in it so much, it made me start too.
Do you know how to play an instrument? If so, which one? If not, which instrument do you want to learn how to play?
I can play a few songs on the guitar. Haven’t been able to stay disciplined enough to really learn it yet though. I think it’d be pretty badass to perform one day with an electric guitar though. So that’s the one.
What was your first job?
JCPenney and I hated it.
What is your most prized possession?
My mind.
What is your biggest fear?
Not being able to give my folks the life they deserve before time runs out, and you know, being kidnapped and tortured and stuff.
You get 24 hours to yourself to do anything you want, with unlimited resources: What are you doing? And spare no details!
Maldives, massage, good food, clear water. Peace.
What are your three most used emojis?
, , and .
What’s a feature you need to secure before you die?
Tyler The Creator.
If you could appear in a future season of a current TV show, which one would it be and why?
I really like what Vince Staples is doing with his show. It’s extremely well done. I love funny shows with a darker plot line, and I’m a fan of tasteful artist crossovers. Really admire what he’s doing with his art all around.
Which celebrity do you admire or respect for their personality and why?
Doja Cat. That woman don’t give a f*ck. She gon’ do her regardless and she does her very well, completely unapologetic. I love a “F*CK YOU” attitude for real. I feel like Tyler has that same energy. And Lil Nas X, I love him too.
Share your opinion on something no one could ever change your mind about.
You can cure any disease with the food you put and don’t put into your body — from cancer to a cold. And instead of going to doctors consistently, we should be seeing nutritionists.
What is the best song you’ve ever heard in your life and what do you love about it?
“I Don’t Know” by Nick Hakim. That song will put you in a trance! His harmonies are beautiful, his voice is soothing as f*ck, guitar loops are my favorite, and it just calms me every time I listen to it. Really pulls me back into my body when I need that. Go look it up.
What’s your favorite city in the world to perform, and what’s a city you’re excited to perform in for the first time?
I don’t have too many cities under my belt yet, but Raleigh, North Carolina has my favorite performance to date. The crowd was energetic and everybody I talked to was so sweet and down to Earth. I’m excited for London.
You are throwing a music festival. Give us the dream lineup of 5 artists that will perform with you and the location where it would be held.
What would you be doing now if it weren’t for music?
I have no idea. Whatever it would be, I’d be doing it good though.
If you could see five years into the future or go five years into the past, which one would you pick and why?
Ooof. Future. The past passed for a reason.
What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?
Don’t wait to tap into your life force. Be yourself, be grateful, be kind, and think a little bit more on that tattoo.
It’s 2050. The world hasn’t ended, and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?
I’m not that old for real so I’d still be alive, God willing laughs. But I hope people see me and my music as loving, genuine, accepting, and they respect the contribution I made. I hope my music will help people feel understood, and I plan for my contribution to extend beyond music.
Billie Eilish stans know that she is close friends with Alex Wolff. If you need a refresher, Wolff first came to fame as a child, co-starring alongside his brother Nat in the Nickelodeon series The Naked Brothers Band. He’s had a strong past couple years in the acting world, too, as he had a role in Oppenheimer and he’s in the upcoming A Quiet Place: Day One.
So, in light of their bond, it was clear Eilish and Wolff enjoyed getting to hang out and shoot a new Vogue video asking each other a bunch of fun questions.
About three minutes in, Wolff asked, “If you could send your 10-year-old self one message from the future, what would that be?” Eilish answered, “I would say, ‘You can — and have and do — call Justin Bieber at any given time. Any time you want. Any time you want, you can. And he’ll answer.’ That’s what I would say.”
Elsewhere in the video, Wolff asked Eilish for “one dream song collaboration” and Eilish responded with a smile, “Nobody.” At another point, Eilish prompted Wolff, “If you don’t like blank, we can’t be friends.” His reply was The Beatles, and Eilish said, “I met someone who hates The Beatles, and I didn’t know how to look at them. […] Doesn’t make sense. […] There’s, like, a deep moral point of, like, then what’s going on?”
In a 2018 pre-fame interview, singer Chappell Roan was asked if there any performers whose stage presence she admires. She named Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, telling ANCHR Magazine that “they are both so confident and really own the stage and connect with the crowd so well. I hope to be like them one day.” She’s getting there: Roan is one of the most exciting pop stars of the moment, and throughout her The Midwest Princess Tour, she’s been covering “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga.
One of the live performances, from a show earlier this year in Cincinnati, caught the attention of Mother Monster after it went viral on TikTok. “I love Chappell,” Gaga wrote along with four black heart emojis (as Billboard reports).
Gaga isn’t the first music icon to show her appreciation for Roan. Last month, Elton John raved about the “Red Wine Supernova” singer when she appeared on his Apple Music radio show, Rocket Hour. “Your journey has kind of accelerated, especially recently,” he said, adding, “I rang you the other night and said, ‘Listen, I’m not stalking you, but I’m as excited about your album’s success as you are.’ It’s wonderful to see true talent being recognized.”
Summer is so close you can practically taste it, but despite the according change in temperature, Quavo still wants to flex his “Mink.” The new video finds Quavo hanging out on the block, getting his hair cut, sipping out of red cups, and getting twerked on as he quotes Sexyy Red in his coolly menacing verse.
Although Quavo has yet to announce any new solo projects, the former Migo has been busy as a bee for the past several months. Back in February, he kicked off 2024 with a video for the standalone track “Himothy,” following up in April with “Potato Loaded” featuring rising star Destroy Lonely.
He was most prolific, however, during his beef with Chris Brown, of all people, dropping two new tracks back-to-back. However, the combative energy quickly fizzled out and Qua returned to his regularly scheduled programming with the appropriately titled “Clear The Smoke” last month.
Prior to any of this, Quavo paid tribute to his late bandmate Takeoff with his second studio album, Rocket Power, last August. Next up for the Atlanta rapper: an appearance on Éxodo, the new album from Latin music rising star Peso Pluma, set to release on June 20.
Subtle, condescending sexist remarks such as “When are you going to have children?” and “You’d be so pretty, if you tried” are heard by women on a daily basis. Like water torture, what’s subtle and persistent can become debilitating over a lifetime.
Making things more difficult is the contradicting nature of many sexist clichés that women are subjected to starting in childhood, such as “Is that all you’re going to eat?” and “You eat a lot for a girl.” Then there are the big-time, nuclear bomb sexist remarks such as “Don’t be a slut” and “What were you wearing that night?” that are still shockingly common as well.
It’s hard for men to truly grasp this never-ending barrage of sexism because it’s not in their faces. That’s why The Huffington Postcreated the video “48 Things That Women Hear in a Lifetime* (*That Men Just Don’t),” in which women of all ages share the most common sexist comments they hear—but which men never do.
Jim Henson’s creations (the Muppets, Fraggles, and Sesame Street gang) remain as those rare kinds of things: shared touchstones as capable of sparking nostalgia in a 35-year-old as they are joy in a 5-year-old. I thought about that a lot while watching Ron Howard’s Henson documentary, Idea Man, which was recently released on Disney+. What does it mean to create something that cuts through generational divides real and imagined? What does it even take to create that kind of thing, or is it not a question of engineering and more something powered by luck?
Howard is, of course, no slouch when it comes to creating great and lasting things. A kid actor, a teen icon, a filmmaker dancing between comedy (Splash) and drama (A Beautiful Mind), fantasy (Willow), reality (We Feed People – a doc about chef José Andrés), history (Apollo 13), and everything in between. And, of course, he’s the narrator who tells us all about the Bluths on Arrested Development. With a career as vast and accomplished as Howard’s, it was natural to ask about similarities he saw between himself and Henson and if there was anything he learned while working on this project.
To be sure, Henson and Howard are different kinds of creative animals. “[Henson] was a total outlier creatively, in terms of where his imagination could take him,” Howard tells me. “I’m a little more grounded in the reality that I can observe, and not so much these sort of abstract notions of the human experience that Jim seemed dialed into.” Still, time and ambition are factors that seem to unite the two. As the documentary shows, Henson was always trying to fit as much as he could into a life that sadly ran short when he died at just 53. Howard, at 70, is beyond prolific and shows no signs of slowing in his ambition or productivity, directing more than 10 projects in the last 10 years. And why would he? Why would anyone if capable and given the chance?
Below, you can read more about Howard’s read on Henson and all the ways he impressed and surprised him throughout his research on this project. You can also gain insight into what Howard thinks this generation of creatives can take from this story and what he thinks Henson, a vocal advocate for the new tech tools of his time, might think about something like AI.
Young creators and people who are just starting out, what can they take from this story and Jim Henson’s work?
Well, one of the things that drew me to the project was when I saw those very early TV appearances and commercials, I thought about the internet because, I mean, TV was the new tech of its moment. And he [Henson] took something kind of traditional, puppets, and found a way to express himself, grab people’s attention in these short formats and sort of build his creative presence, his experience, and an audience through that, using that new medium.
I thought that was incredibly relatable to what a lot of people, millions of people, are trying to do today. And it surprised me. There were a number of things that surprised me, but that was one of them.
What are some of the things that surprised you?
I didn’t realize how experimental he was in his life. I mean, when I saw his home movies, I realized, “Oh my God, those look like those little Sesame Street counting movies.” He was already doing that years before, just playing around in the backyard with his kids. But also the film he made that was so sort of autobiographical, Timepiece. It was so much about his pursuit of all the feelings that a human being has, noble and less noble. And the idea that time was always running out and him constantly saying, “Help,” like he’s drowning in everything that life presented to him as an option. I thought that was really modern, contemporary, and again, informed all the mainstream stuff that we all adore, and that has meant so much to us.
Was it necessary for him to get those more experimental pieces out, do you think, to be able to work in a space where he could accept speaking to a larger audience?
I think Hans Zimmer does this because I’m very close with Hans Zimmer. He’s constantly experimenting musically, sonically, and so forth. And it may be something that he can’t use for years and years and years, or an idea that he has in the back of his mind, and then along comes Dune and he says, “Oh, I can use that thing that this will fit.” I think Jim operated that way. I think he was constantly experimenting.
Maybe it would break through, maybe people would notice, maybe they’d reject it, who knew? But in his own mind, then we bump into something like The Muppets or the Sesame Street opportunity and say, “Hey, I could do that thing like I do with my kids in the backyard. Or I could do that stuff like I did in Timepiece, but I could use it for kids.” But I think that urge to keep sort of breaking new ground, testing the medium, testing himself in ways that ate up a lot of energy, a lot of time, financial resources, but he just kept at it.
And then I think when they were applied to something more conventional, it made it feel fresher and more creatively exciting. So I think there’s a lesson to be learned in just exploring the outer reaches of your creative sensibilities, even if you ultimately want to make broadly appealing popular entertainment.
Is there anything about creativity or imagination that you were able to take away from this?
It was more reinforcing that feeling that you can never know what a project’s value really is based on the way it’s received in a moment. A Dark Crystal, a Labyrinth or The Storyteller or some of these other projects that have suddenly emerged, they’re really memorable in people’s minds. That the lifestyle, the commitment to creative curiosity, follow through… it’s just worth it. It’s just worth it. It just adds up. And it’s a great way of expressing yourself and investing your time on the planet. So I admired that.
I also found it interesting that he was always a little frustrated because he always wanted everything to succeed instantly. Some of it did, some of it didn’t. So he had that vulnerability, even though he was a risk-taker. In his heart of hearts, he wanted to succeed every time. And so I just related to that, and yet really admire his creative courage and his desire to just keep pushing the boundaries.
As the documentary shows, he was very interested in looking at CG as sort of a sandbox for him to play in.
Yeah.
I’m curious what you think he would think about AI.
He would’ve been all over it. He would’ve been all over it. Yeah, all over it. He wouldn’t be frightened by AI at all. He’d just be trying to figure out how to ride the wave. And not for commercial reasons, necessarily, but just for the way it could be used as a tool.
I think that’s the push-pull right now: how can it be used as an additive, versus how is it going to be used as a hammer that’s going to knock down creators? That’s the fight. So yeah, I was thinking the same thing (watching the documentary).
Yeah, I think that’s the question, but it’s important to remember that those algorithms are pushing you toward the average use of an idea. The average expression of an idea. And of course, you can keep prompting and pushing it and so forth, but I think it’s going to be a long time before we don’t need filters, and interpreters like a Jim Henson. No matter what the algorithm feeds, they’re going to say, “Well, I’m not going to go in that direction, but that inspires me to go in the opposite direction.” And I think that’s what we got to keep expecting and pushing ourselves to look to do.
The Boston Celtics are a pretty uniquely built basketball team. Yes, they’re absolutely loaded with talent, as few teams in NBA history have ever had a starting five and a sixth man quite as good as what Boston throws out there on a given night. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are All-Stars. The trio of Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, and Derrick White all exemplify being stars in your role. Al Horford is about as ageless as they come outside of LeBron James.
Even more unique is how all six of those players ended up on the Celtics via a trade, whether that meant the team directly acquired them from another team or they did some maneuvering to get NBA Draft picks that they used to bring them to Boston. Today, we looked at how Boston’s wheeling and dealing — across two GMs, Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens — led to them putting together a group of players that is on the verge of winning the 18th championship in franchise history.
Jaylen Brown: July 12, 2013
Alright, so the Celtics didn’t directly acquire Jaylen Brown when he was — does some quick math — 16 years old. At the time, Brown was a highly-regarded prospect at Wheeler High School in Marietta, Georgia. Who knows where he was on this exact day, which is when the Celtics and the Brooklyn Nets agreed to one of the most infamous deals in NBA history.
Boston agreed to send Brooklyn two of the faces of their 2008 title-winning team, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, along with Jason Terry and reserve power forward D.J. White. In exchange, the team received a haul of players (Gerald Wallace, Kris Humphries, Keith Bogans, MarShon Brooks, Kris Joseph), along with a ton of draft capital: first-round picks in 2014, 2016, and 2018, along with a pick swap in the 2017 NBA Draft (keep this one in mind!). The Nets ended up being horrific in the 2015-16 season — they went 21-61 in their first season without Garnett or Pierce on the roster since the trade — and as a result, Boston got the No. 3 overall pick in 2016.
After the Philadelphia 76ers took Ben Simmons and the Los Angeles Lakers took Brandon Ingram, the Celtics selected Brown, the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and a first-team all-conference selection out of Cal. At the time, he wasn’t viewed as a no-brainer to go third — names like Dragan Bender and Kris Dunn were brought up in that spot — as he wasn’t the most consistent player as a college freshman and needed to take become more well-rounded instead of just a terrific athlete who played basketball. He wasn’t an especially efficient scorer (43.1/29.4/65.4 shooting splits), while having more turnovers than assists. But it’s safe to say that Boston made a pretty good pick taking the high-upside swingman and banking on their ability to develop him, as Brown has made three All-Star teams and enters Game 4 of the 2024 NBA Finals as the favorite to win Finals MVP.
Jayson Tatum: July 12, 2013 and June 19, 2017
Boston ended up taking that 2017 pick swap with Brooklyn. You might remember the 2016-17 campaign as the one where Isaiah Thomas became an all-time great fourth quarter player en route to Boston going 53-29. Brooklyn, meanwhile, was horrific, going 20-62, the worst record in the league by four games. After some ping pong balls bounced around, the Nets had the No. 1 pick, which meant the Celtics had the No. 1 pick, which meant the team with the best record in the Eastern Conference had the No. 1 pick.
There were two guys at the very top of that draft: Washington guard Markelle Fultz and UCLA guard Lonzo Ball. The latter very clearly wanted to end up on the Lakers (which he did at No. 2), while the Sixers were sitting at three thanks to a trade they made in 2015 with the Sacramento Kings and really, really wanted Fultz, an explosive combo guard who theoretically was a perfect fit next to their young duo of Joel Embiid and Simmons and could give them one hell of a big three if they all hit. And eventually, they were able to make a deal happen, as they sent the No. 3 pick and a pick that ended up being No. 14 overall in 2019 (this one will pop up again in a bit) to Boston.
Now, all the caveats apply here about how Danny Ainge went about his business with this sort of stuff, but according to Ainge, the Celtics always had their eyes on one guy: Tatum. He made the jump to the league after one year at Duke where he was a polished scorer and promising rebounder, but it wasn’t clear if he’s be able to develop into a superstar due to a lack of explosiveness in his game, questions about his ability to consistently hit threes, and his need to consistently bring it as a facilitator and a defender. It’s funny to look back on the pick and say there was some risk involved in taking Tatum, but fortunately for Boston, this all worked out, and as a result, they got the best player in that Draft.
Al Horford: June 18, 2021
Unlike the rest of the guys on this list, Horford’s original stint in Boston didn’t happen due to a trade. The Celtics famously signed him to a 4-year, $113 million deal in 2016 after his original team, the Atlanta Hawks, were hesitant to give the 30-year-old Horford a long-term deal over how his game would age and chose to sign Dwight Howard instead. Whoops!
Anyway, Horford was quite good for the Celtics for three years before hitting free agency in 2019, when the Sixers inexplicably gave him four years and $97 million because they apparently thought the only thing that would prevent them from winning a championship was their inability to do anything in the 10 minutes a game where Joel Embiid rested. The problem: Horford and the Sixers just never gelled, and after a year and a half, Philly attached a 2025 first-round pick to him and shipped him to Oklahoma City in a deal that included a few other picks and players.
Horford spent three months playing in OKC before the team shut him down with an eye on bringing along their younger guys. And then, on June 2, Brad Stevens took over for Danny Ainge in Boston’s front office. 16 days later, he made his first trade. While it cost him a pick in 2021 that eventually turned into Alperen Sengun, Stevens got Horford, Moses Brown, and a 2023 second back for Kemba Walker, the No. 16 pick in 2021, and a 2025 second-round pick. Between Horford making less money and just flat out being a better player than a physically compromised Walker at that point, it made a ton of sense at the time, even if giving up a first was a tough pill to swallow and it’s fun to imagine what this Celtics team would look like with Sengun on board if you’re assuming he’d develop into a star with them.
But even with Sengun’s involvement, this trade has been a home run. Horford’s familiarity with Boston — particularly Brown and Tatum — made him an invaluable member over their starting lineup over the last few years, while he’s aged gracefully and has accepted a new role as either a bench contributor or a spot starter during their run to the NBA Finals this year.
Derrick White: February 10, 2022
White’s basketball journey has been pretty well-documented by this point, as he went from a D-II player to a first-round pick with the San Antonio Spurs (he went 26 picks after Tatum in 2017), then turned into one of the league’s great developmental stories as he continued to get better with each passing year. His defense got him on the floor in both the G League and in the NBA, while he kept improving on offense as a scorer and a point guard.
Ahead of the 2022 trade deadline, Boston needed some backcourt reinforcements. Marcus Smart did his best, but wasn’t the most natural fit as a point guard, while free agent signing Dennis Schröder wasn’t quite right for the team despite being on the taxpayer mid-level. As such, on the same day that Boston sent Schröder (along with Enes Freedom and Bruno Fernando) to Houston for an old friend in Daniel Theis, the Celtics agreed to send Josh Richardson, Romeo Langford, a pick in 2022 that turned into Blake Wesley, and the option for a 2028 pick swap to San Antonio for White. Langford, the No. 14 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, was taken with the second pick the Celtics acquired in the trade that got them Tatum.
While he largely came off the bench during his first year in Boston, it was evident from the jump that White was a perfect fit, as his defense and willingness to play within the team’s system made him a valuable contributor as the team won the Eastern Conference. He became a starter during the 2022-23 campaign, showed that he developed a reliable jump shot, and has seemingly done nothing but make winning plays ever since. While he has one more year on the 4-year, $70 million deal he signed with the Spurs in December 2021, the Celtics will hope they can find a way to lock him up long-term given his incredible impact on this team.
Kristaps Porzingis: June 21, 2023
After essentially getting salary dumped by the Dallas Mavericks, Porzingis spent a year and a half with the Washington Wizards in what turned into a career reset. He didn’t do all that much winning in the nation’s capital, but Porzingis did put up the best numbers of his career as a scorer, and perhaps most importantly, showed an ability to stay on the floor that he hadn’t in the previous five years — in 2022-23, he appeared in 65 games, the most since his sophomore season in the NBA.
The fun thing about this deal is that it almost didn’t happen. Originally, Boston agreed to a three-team trade with the Wizards and the Los Angeles Clippers that would send Malcolm Brogdon to L.A., but apparently, an injury Brogdon suffered in the playoffs led to the Clippers backing out of the deal. There was, however, reporting that the Celtics really wanted to bring Porzingis on board, and as a result, they’d keep working to find a deal, even if that meant doing something with Washington directly.
Later that day, a new trade came into focus, and Boston was indeed able to get Porzingis. It happened in a three-team deal, only this time, the Memphis Grizzlies got pulled into the negotiations and acquired the heart and soul of the Celtics, Marcus Smart. The whole deal is pretty remarkable in retrospect, as Boston sent Smart to Memphis and Danilo Gallinari, Mike Muscala, and the No. 35 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft to Washington. In return, they got Porzingis and two first-round picks — one in 2023 (the 25th overall selection) and a top-4 protected 2024 pick that came from the Golden State Warriors that will get mentioned again in a moment.
Not long after, Porzingis agreed to a short-term contract extension with the Celtics. He’s missed time during both the regular season and the playoffs — his health is presumably a big reason why they got multiple firsts in the deal — but when he’s played, you see why Boston coveted him last offseason, as his shooting, rim protection, and low post scoring have been huge throughout the year.
Jrue Holiday: October 1, 2023
Four days earlier, the Milwaukee Bucks — which clearly felt the need to shake things up following an embarrassing playoff exit the year before — swung for the fences by trading for Damian Lillard in a three-team deal that included the Phoenix Suns. The package they sent to the Portland Trail Blazers was headlined by Holiday, and almost immediately, there was one prevailing thought: A lot of teams are going to want him, but boy, the Bucks better hope Boston doesn’t get him.
While the Celtics probably didn’t desperately need Holiday as badly as some of the other teams linked to him did, the front office still made it a point to pursue him. Long viewed as one of the most malleable players in the NBA, Holiday made a ton of sense as a player who could slide into the backcourt next to White, especially after the Smart trade, and wasn’t the sort of person who would need to take the ball out of Brown or Tatum’s hands. As such, Boston packaged a pair of players — Brogdon and Robert Williams — with its own unprotected 2029 first-round pick and the 2024 selection they got in the Porzingis deal.
Losing Williams was tough due to how beloved he was by teammates and fans, but from a basketball perspective, Porzingis was an upgrade, while the team had already tried to move Brogdon earlier in the offseason, which led to some apparent tension. Unsurprisingly, Holiday was an outstanding fit in Boston from the get go, to the point that the team gave him a lucrative extension back in April. In the Finals, he’s been nothing short of spectacular, and is a significant reason why Boston has a 3-0 lead — even if Jayson Tatum still isn’t sure how the rest of the league let the Celtics get him.
At almost 15 years in the game, Cardo is finally prepping for his first solo album in 2024. His historic run includes placements with a Mount Rushmore of hip-hop heavyweights, such as Wiz Khalifa, Meek Mill, Freddie Gibbs, Drake, Curren$y, Mac Miller, Nicki Minaj, Snoop, Travis Scott, Migos, and Kendrick Lamar. Inspired by his Dallas roots, Cardo’s brand of production is the next generation of Texas rider music — with his trademark sub-busting 808s paired with the melodic stylings of West Coast G-funk.
Most recently Cardo punched the clock with Larry June on his latest “Night Shift” and the pair’s labor manufactured one of the most cohesive rap projects of last year. His sonics are the perfect sound bed for Larry June’s signature humorous brags and bars. But despite his A-List affiliations, Cardo clearly still relishes the glory of cooking up with like-minded friends such as Larry June and Curren$y as much as producing hits the biggest chart toppers in music.
We sat down at a smoothie shop in Austin, TX to discuss Cardo’s newfound healthy lifestyle and smoothie obsession, we learned what gives him the bubble guts, his go-to spots in Dallas, and how his Grandma sparked his love for all things coffee. We also demystified Taffy Grapes, got put onto the goodness of ranch on spaghetti and the magic of wrapping a Snickers bar in a Little Debbie’s Honeybun.
So my first question is what’s on your rider?
First off, we got to kick it off healthy, we got to have hella alkaline water. Got to keep the pH levels right, you know what I’m saying? That good old alkaline for your body. I know a lot of people got they own opinions about alkaline, whatever. Definitely chicken nuggets, McDonald’s, preferably. Shout out to McDonald’s. We love french fries, so we got to have the french fries; 100 french fries for the gang so we can all eat. Of course, we got to have a few Caesar salads for the healthy people like myself, even though I’m a snack on them chicken nuggets too though, but I’m also (going) to try to play it healthy. (All of) That, some hot wings. It depends what kind of day it is, if we there for a minute, the rider list can get crazy. Definitely have espresso shots, coffee for me ’cause I love coffee. Shout out to my grandma for the coffee.
What type of sauce are you dipping the nuggets in?
Come on man, sweet and sour. And the barbecue too, the tangy barbecue. You can never go wrong with the barbecue. But that sweet and sour, come on, man, it’s hitting the spot every time, never fails.
So would you say when it comes to snacks, are you more like a sweet or savory kind of guy? Like salty stuff or more like candy, cookies and fruits and stuff?
I like savory things. I don’t like too sweet. I used to love Zebra Cakes and then when I got older Zebra Cakes just taste like pure sugar, like marshmallows. So I grew out of that phase. Like Honeybun, same thing.
So you’re Little Debbie’s guy?
Yeah.
… as a kid?
Always, man. When I was a kid, I used to go to the corner store (and) get a Zebra Cake for 25 cents. I used to get some shit for a whole dollar, get that, an A&W cream soda or root beer, or I get the Starbucks Frappuccino. Either way, get that Honeybun, get the snicker. You get the Snicker, you can wrap the honeybun around and melt it.
Wait, what? Explain that, please.
So what me and my cousin and my brother used to do, we get the Honeybuns, we get a whole four pack and then we get the Snicker. We put the Snicker in the middle of the honeybun, wrap it up like a taco almost put it in the microwave, fold it down.
Oh, in the microwave too?
Yeah. Put it for a good 15 seconds. That motherfucker is like a delicacy, like a nice little hood dessert.
Yeah, it’s a honey-nicker. Or a honey… We had a different name for it, ’cause we can’t go with the honey one. What is it some ghetto shit? Some good ghetto gold for you to cook up with.
You said you’re a little more on the salty side, so what’s hitting on the salty side?
You could never go wrong with… What’s the name? They got a whole bunch of different bags. They got the pecans, they got the…The pistachios. They be coming in different flavors. They be like clustered with like…
Oh, with the fruits and dry… Sahale, it’s called?
That’s an amazing snack to have. Not only is it healthy — it’s a little on the sodium side — but it’s a healthy snack. Get in your protein.
So when you’re in the studio cooking up, are there specific foods or snacks that you need to have around? You have a home studio or are you out?
Whenever I’m out, I usually like to have the fruit bowl.
What’s in your fruit bowl?
Pineapple, mango, dragon fruit, kiwi. I like tropical fruit. Might be some soursop, you never know. Soursop looks a little weird, but we love it. It’s good for your gut and everything, it’s good for your soul.
What’s soursop for people that may not know? That’s something I’m not even really that familiar with.
I’m not even sure where the fruit even hails from, I just know from reading up on it and what is the benefits of it, and it tastes like juicy fruit bubblegum.
So fruit in the studio and that’s pretty much it?
Definitely have to be water, I got to be hydrated.
What’s your alkaline water of choice?
Essentia. And I love Core too, Core is amazing water. Put a little chlorophyll in there, get your healthy on, get on about your unhealthy eating habits for a quick second, and get back to it.
And do you have a time of day when you are snacking or what are your habits?
I’m a real snacker, I don’t like to eat dinner like that. I’ll snack on some, I don’t know, some noodles. Not only just regular noodles, some ramen noodles from somewhere, from K-pop or something like that. Places around the way around the neighborhood (in Dallas) and kind of go from there.
When you’re on the road and you get to a hotel or your destination, is there stuff like food or snacks that you got to have in your room so you feel settled and comfortable?
I’m taking the Snickers out of there, automatically. Taking the M&M’s, the peanut M&M’s, you know what I’m saying? You can never go wrong with peanut M&M’s. Sometimes they have the Clif bars in there. I take the Clif bar depending on the flavor. If it’s the macadamia peanut butter one, it’s over with, I’m taking it. With the white chocolate? Taking it all.
When you get there and there’s nothing in the room, what are you stocking up with?
I’m just leaving that room, going to a whole ‘nother hotel. I’m playin’. I’ll go down to CVS and grab some Funions, I might grab the Doritos, the sweet chili ones. The purple pack, it’s me and my son’s favorite chips ever. And I might grab a Sprite. Can never go wrong with a Sprite. Might get a little bubble guts from eating these snacks or something, might have to calm the guts down, the bowels.
How did you get into the healthy wave of food? What was that for you that made you change or get more into that side of things?
I feel like health is important. For you to get wealth, you have to have health first. Your health got to be in the greatest shape. I see family members suffer, go through things and that made me look at life differently and try to change up my habits too. And also my father had cancer, this is a long time ago. My dad, he’s been in remission for over 20 years now. God is good. That’s what matters.
I know a lot of artists don’t like to eat before they perform, after the show, are you going out to eat? Are you getting room service or Postmates? Or what’s your move?
Man what? We going to get something to eat. I like diner spots. I like unique hole in the wall, mom and pop shops. I feel like without these mom and pop restaurants, I don’t even think there’ll be any kind of color to the cities. You can go to Ruth Chris, and you go to Prime and there’s nothing that you’re going get out of it, compared to a Mom and Pop type restaurant. Go to a Rudy’s or Heartache or a Hutchins (all in Dallas).
Now, we’re going to get the two-piece wings with the fries, get the extra pickles. Might get that serendipity. You can go to Hutchins, you get the ribs, they got everything man. You can go to… Blacks too. Blacks is all barbecue as well. Fuel City Tacos…
Do you have a favorite steak spot in Dallas? I know everybody thinks about Dallas for steak.
Yeah, that’s a real battle. You could say Truluck’s, you could say Drake’s.
And what’s your order? Are you a ribeye, sirloin? You getting a tomahawk?
I want the wagyu. I want to do a tomahawk, that’s some Flo Rida shit. You ever see that picture with Flo Rida with the big tomahawk? I’m going to go with the Wagyu. I’m not really a steak kind of guy. I feel like steak is like zombie meat, damn near. I mean, but it’s good for you too, protein. But I could never go wrong with a T-bone. A butterflied filet.
What sides are we getting?
I’m going to get the mashed potatoes. We’ll get the mac and cheese. If they got a broccoli salad, that’s going to make it even better. I love broccoli, I love cucumber. So if they got cucumber salad, oh yeah, I’m in heaven with it.
Are there any foods or snacks in Texas that are regional that other people should know about or may not know about that are amazing?
They got the candy lady that sells the pickles, the candy grapes and shit. But I feel like Chicago kind of started all that. First place I ever seen people doing that was Chicago.
Wait, what type of grapes?
Taffy grapes.
Okay, please tell us what those are.
The first ones I got was at Chicago at Harold’s. I don’t even remember which Harold’s it was. Me and Don C and my cousin Mike-Mike was there. It might’ve been off of Wabash over by Lakeshore when it used to be open and seeing them my cousin was like, “Yo, these grapes right here, taffy grapes, these different. They have candy on them.” Soon we got them and shit, bro we was standing in front and ate them all, we went right back in, got some more.
They’re fresh grapes?
Fresh grapes but they candied, they put taffy and all that shit on them.
Going back, you had mentioned your Grandma getting you into coffee and espresso. Can you break that down a little bit?
Shout out to my grandma Annie Brown, I just talked to her. She told me the first day I was born, the first week she gave me my first sip of coffee, a teaspoon or something like that. I didn’t believe my grandma, but apparently she did. And then ever since then, I always loved coffee. From day one, I would drink anything coffee tasting or coffee flavored, like ice cream, cookies, you name it. Listen, this is how I know my daughter is me all day, ’cause she loves anything coffee flavored. Bro, I eat the chocolate covered coffee beans. I go so crazy on them. I be geeked for like a whole week off of those, just running. But I love it though, this is a coffee smoothie.
I’m glad you said smoothie because obviously we’re at a smoothie place. What’s your go-to smoothie? I saw you drink the green ones and all that?
I love Green ones. I love my little healthy glow ones from over at Clean Juice. I think that’s Tebow’s juice shop, that he owns, or franchise. But yeah, my go-to is the glow one. It has celery, apple, ginger, chlorophyll, I put chia seeds in there extra. I keep it simple though, just to get rejuvenated, give my bowels a good swim.
Did you like the taste right away or was it a learning curve for you?
I loved it. I always loved it. I was drinking smoothies since I was a kid. So it was always something I been a fan of. Like this fruity flavor, I was a pina colada type of guy.
And then for healthy food, people that are just starting to get into that, what are some things that you would recommend that they try to get their foot in the door?
Beyond Meat, like a burger. I had a vegan chopped cheese that tastes like a real chopped cheese. Fucking blew me away. So that’s for starters right there.
I like eating buffalo cauliflower or cauliflower pizza, it’s not bad as people think, it’s amazing to me. If you got your little dipping sauces or whatever, make sure they ain’t over the calorie limit, you good.
I even eat the lettuce wrap burgers and shit, like the keto shit. My girl got me into that, so I started doing that more. She’ll get the little wrap from Cheesecake factory, even though I know people have hate towards the Cheesecake Factory, it will always have a place in my heart, always.
So speaking of franchises, if you could own or operate any restaurant, somebody’s like, yo, I’m going to give you a free Franchise of a restaurant, it’s yours and you can take it and run with it. What would be your pick of something that’s out there already that you would love to work on?
Automatically McDonald’s, for My kids. Everything I got to do has got to be for my kids. So when I do it, my kids going to be like, “Damn, my dad is running McDonald’s? What? I get free Happy Meals every day? I get a cheeseburger every day?” Generational, generational, generational income. Their kids, kids, grandkids, grandkids, grandkids, grandkids won’t have to worry about a thing in life ever.
If you could be the ambassador or a Spokesperson for any restaurant or food or snack brand, what would your pick be?
It got to be Doritos. It got to be Doritos. Man, we grew up eating Doritos. Doritos may be a part of our life and our family since the beginning of the times.
So Sweet Chili is your number one Doritos flavor?
Yeah, me and my son go crazy over that. We damn near be fighting over them last bag of chips.
And so your kids like a lot of the same foods that you do?
My son, he a little picky, but I’m trying to open them up more to try new things. My daughter though, she’s grown into it ’cause it’s one of them things, it takes a little process for her to kind of do some things and it goes from there.
And is there anything that they like that you feel is weird or you’re like, whoa, that’s different, kids are growing up eating this?
Yeah, my daughter, I try to get her into new things ’cause she’s more open to it versus my son. My son, he ain’t about to eat nothing that has pizza sauce on it.
When he orders pizza it has to be straight cheese bread. I don’t mind it, but I’ll be trying to break him out of that. My daughter, she’d be willing to try it, it just got to look good to her. If it looks any kind of discoloring, like green or whatever, hell no, I ain’t touching that. She’ll grow to it naturally though I feel like ’cause it’s just like me, same way.
I ain’t start liking eating pickles until I got 35, 36 years old. Here I am, 39 I love pickles now, pause.
Is there any food trend or weird thing that you’ve seen lately with food where you’re like, why are people doing that? It sounds kind of nasty, but-
I ain’t going to lie about that pink sauce shit. The pink sauce thing. Remember the lady came out with that pink sauce last year. I’m not trying to talk down on her or nothing like that, but it was mixing dragon fruit I think and making it almost like a ranch-based sauce.
Like a dipping sauce?
Yeah, I didn’t even want to try it because it was pink and it looked like Pepto Bismol. I thought that was so weird.
And is there anything that you eat that people might think is weird or unappetizing?
I’m glad you asked that, ’cause I just seen somebody talking about it, but I’m probably going to get ate up about this. But with spaghetti, I put a little sugar in my spaghetti, yes. Not like a shitload of it. I mean, I come from a black background, my mama Black. So I know that different households do not do the same, like how my mom makes spaghetti.
My mom put real sugar in spaghetti. But what I do, I put ranch on mine.
Just ranch and spaghetti?
And hot sauce. I got to have the turkey sausage, I got to have the nice little meat sauce.
In the spaghetti as well?
Yeah.
You ever considering having your own wing franchise? Considering Cardo Got Wings?
We’re working on it, man. We’re working on it. The ideas are definitely endless. They’re definitely endless.
And where’s your favorite wing spot, period?
Oh, you going try me like that? Oh shit. Rudy’s Chicken for sure at the crib. Hutchins for sure at the crib as well. And then Chicago Harold’s, even Uncle Remus. Even JJ’s. Man, I’m everywhere in New York.
I want to say… No, they don’t got a good wing spot in New York. I ain’t going to lie, Blue Ribbon. Blue Ribbon got some amazing – That’s some bougie wings, that shit is fire.
You can’t go wrong at Blue Ribbon.
No. They got a location. They got one that’s in the LES, then they got another one that’s around the corner from the Sixty. This one was different though. They make a different fried chicken compared to the other one. Their sauce at the Sixty, they do it with the little wasabi… And I hate that shit, I hate wasabi. I’m not a big fan of wasabi. Wasabi just taste like the devil’s asshole, pause.
It’s been almost a year since Carmy got stuck in that refrigerator and you’ll probably be delighted to know that he did, in fact, make it out. Or the entire third season of The Bear is just a hypothermia-induced delusion, but no matter what, The Bear is returning this month. And with that comes a series of chaotic interviews with the cast, including Ayo Edebiri.
Edebiri was on The Tonight Show chatting with Fallon when the host asked for “something about the season.” Edebiri, a woman of the people, did not disappoint. “Okay, we do a crossover with Shogun, so it’s like a crazy,” Edebiri began. “Carmy hits his head, and the world of Shogun overlaps with world of The Bear and as he tries to find his way back to full health he starts to see the characters from our world and their world. You have to watch it, it will make sense,” she said, before adding, “No spoilers!” Hopefully the big heads at FX aren’t too upset about this.
Jokes aside, Fallon then mentioned that Edebiri made her directorial debut this season. Edebiri says she never had the directing bug until she met director Chris Storer.
“I was like 22 or something and when we first met he was like ‘You’re a director’ and I was like “No, I just think im nosy.’” Luckily, most directors are nosy, so she fits in well with that crowd. “I still think it’s because I’m nosy and opinionated, I don’t know.” Nosy and opinionated are the two best words to describe Irish royalty, so it fits!
Check out the full interview above. The Bear returns on June 27th.
In season 3, episode 5 of the Netflix series, Penelope Featherington (played by Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) engage in the show’s lengthiest (and “hottest”) sex scene to date. It goes on for nearly six minutes.
“Luke and I decided entirely what we wanted to show on camera,” Coughlan said about the scene. “We had a lot of say in the mirror scene in particular, how that was shot and that we wanted that to be front-facing into the mirror and undress in front of it. It was like an amazing moment, and also I was like, when I’m 80, I’m gonna look back and be like, ‘My boobs look great! They’re all my own and they’re sitting up there.’ No regrets.”
Things got so heated between Coughlan and Newton, they accidentally broke a piece of on-set furniture during filming.
“We did break a piece of furniture while doing one of those scenes,” the actress told Entertainment Weekly. “I didn’t know what it was gonna be like, but it’s a little bit like a stunt in which they’re like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna do this, this, and this.’ But then they gave us freedom to like, we had a lot of say in how we did those scenes and what we wanted to do.” She added, “It was fun.”
Hopefully Coughlan’s parents are enjoying the PG cut of the mirror scene — or they can watch the clip that Netflix uploaded to its Twitter account. Porn is allowed on the “everything app,” but this is still probably all that the streaming service felt comfortable sharing.
Bridgerton season 3 part 2 is streaming on Netflix now.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
, 
, and 
.
