Arguments start to take off when one partner begins to get defensive. So, therapist Lauren Consul shared her relationship-saving tip to “stop an argument in its tracks” when one partner goes into self-preservation mode.
Lauren Consul is a couples and sex therapist who’s developed a following of nearly 160,000 people on TikTok and has received over 5.4 million likes. She is an infidelity expert and hosts retreats to help people “survive and thrive” after one partner has strayed.
“The next time you and your partner are talking, and your partner becomes defensive, I want you to do this: Pause, and say, ‘I want to understand what happened there. What did you hear me say?'” Consul says in her TikTok video with over 42,000 views.
“This question is key because it does one of two things,” she continued. “First, it can allow for clarification. A lot of times when we’ve become defensive, we’ve interpreted something our partner has said incorrectly. We’ve run it through a filter, we’ve told ourselves a story about it, it’s triggered something… So we’re not actually hearing what our partner says, and it allows for clarification.”
“The second thing: If your partner did interpret what you said correctly, it gives you an opportunity to slow things down and understand what is happening for them and address the underlying issue, rather than get caught in a spiral of defensiveness,” she continued.
Consul’s advice for stopping arguments before they explode is helpful because it clears up any potential misunderstandings. The key is to remember the tactic in the heat of the moment to prevent things from getting out of hand.
Since 2019, Kodi Lee has wowed “America’s Got Talent” audiences with his next-level musical skills. That goes for whether he’s performing touching original works or putting his own personal touch on well-known songs.
For “America’s Got Talent: Fantasy League,” the music savant was guided by his mentor Howie Mandel to cover “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen.
It’s hard to imagine a version of this fan-favorite tune you haven’t already heard before, since the song has been covered quite a few times. But once again Lee delivered something epic and completely unique.
Even though judges Mel B and Heidi Klum still prefer Lee’s original songs, all applauded his haunting and emotional piano rendition of the rock-n-roll anthem.
Simon Cowell even said “You use these words ‘Star Quality’ a lot, but you genuinely, Kodi, over the years we’ve got to know you, you’ve just got better as an artist. You’ve never given up, and the Finals just wouldn’t be the same without you in it this year.”
Other viewers applauded Lee for one-of-a-kind performance, agreeing that he did freddie Mercury proud.
One wrote, “‘You can do whatever you want to do in my music, just don’t make it boring’ -Freddie. What a magical performance.”
Another added, “Kodi has an amazingly rare talent to be able to sing across different musical genres. He owns them all!!!”
Last but not least, I think this comment sums up the general consensus pretty well: “This version is unlike anything anyone has ever seen before. It’s truly a masterpiece. Kodi is an amazing gift to our world. He continues to change the world just by being himself.”
In 2016, My husband and I started renting our basement apartment out as a short-term rental on Airbnb. We live in a college town and figured we’d get some guests during football game weekends and graduations. We didn’t realize how many people come to our town to visit their college kids or check out the school, so we were pleasantly surprised by how regularly we were booked.
In 2019, we bought the house next door and now rent out both floors of the old house as separate units. We love being Airbnb hosts and have had a very successful run of it, with hundreds of 5-star reviews, Superhost status and lots of repeat guests.
We also don’t charge a cleaning fee or make guests do check-out chores. In fact, we find both things rather loathsome.
What makes us good hosts is that we’ve been Airbnb guests for years. As a family of five that travels a lot, we’ve found far more value in Airbnbs than in hotels over the years. We love having a kitchen, living room and bedrooms and feeling like we have a “home” while traveling. We even spent a nomadic year staying at short-term rentals for a month at a time.
When you’ve experienced dozens of Airbnbs as a guest, you learn what guests appreciate and what they don’t. You see what’s annoying and unnecessary and what’s to be expected in comparison to a hotel. We started taking mental notes long before we started our own rental about what we would want to do and not do if we ever had one and have implemented those things now that we do.
As guests, we know the pain of the cleaning fee, so we don’t charge one.
It helps that my husband has a flexible schedule and grew up helping with his parents’ janitorial service, so most of the time he cleans the apartments himself. We could charge a cleaning fee for his time and labor, but even if we were paying for outside cleaners, we still wouldn’t put a separate fee onto guest bookings. It makes far more sense to us to just wrap the cleaning fee into the per-night price.
From a host’s perspective, the one-night stay is where the cleaning fee question hits the hardest. Whether someone stays one night or 10 nights, the cleaning cost is the same. But spreading the cost over 10 nights is a very different beast than adding it to one night, especially from a guest’s perspective. On the host side, if we had to pay cleaners without passing that fee onto guests, we’ve barely make anything on one-night stays. But on the guest side, a $100 a night stay suddenly jumping to $150 because a cleaning fee was added is painful, and often a dealbreaker. You can see the conundrum.
$200 cleaning fee Airbnb
— (@)
The way we see it, and as other Airbnb hosts have found, wrapping cleaning costs into the base price comes out in the wash over time, as long as you have some longer-term stays mixed in with the one-nighters. And it’s a much better experience for the guest not to get hit with sticker shock on the “final cost” screen, which is already eye-popping when service fees and taxes are added on.
(I will say, this may only ring true for smaller units. If you’re renting a huge home, cleaning costs are going to be higher just because it takes longer to clean. But I still don’t think the full cost should be passed onto guests as a separate fee.)
If you charge a cleaning fee, you should not be allowed to include CHORES in your AirBnB rules
— (@)
As for check-out chores—asking guests to do things like start laundry, sweep the floor, take out the trash, etc.—those have never made sense to us. Hosts should have enough switch-out linens that laundry doesn’t have to be started prior to checking out, and none of those chores save enough time for the cleaning people to make it worth asking guests to do it. I can see taking out trash if there wasn’t going to be another guest for a while, but usually you’d want to clean right away after a stay anyway just in case it does get booked last minute.
The only thing we ask guests to do is to start the dishwasher if they have dirty dishes (as a guest, I’ve never found that an unreasonable request), lock the door and have a safe trip home. Don’t need to pull the sheets. Don’t need to take out any garbage or recycling. Those things don’t take that long, but that’s just as much a reason not to ask guests to do it. Annoying your guests by asking them to do something extra isn’t worth the tiny bit of time it might save the cleaning people.
And you know what? This approach works really well. Approximately 95% of guests leave the apartments clean and tidy anyway. In seven years, I can count on one hand how many problems we’ve had with guests leaving a mess. That’s been a pleasant surprise, but I think part of the reason is that guest are simply reciprocating the respect and consideration we show them by not making them pay extra fees or do chores on their way out.
To be fair, it probably also helps that we aren’t some big real estate tycoon buying up a bunch of apartments and turning them into short-term rentals run by impersonal management companies. People’s complaints about how short-term rentals impact local housing economies are legitimate. We’re more aligned with the original “sharing economy” model, renting out our home to guests who come through town. And in a small college town with a large university, there often aren’t enough hotel rooms during busy weekends anyway, so it’s been a bit of a win-win.
I think being right next door, having personal communication with our guests (but also leaving them their privacy), and not charging or asking anything extra of them makes them want to be respectful guests. From our perspective, both as guests and hosts, cleaning fees and check-out chores simply aren’t worth it.
After 10 days, the NBA free agency market has been pickedthrough pretty cleanly. The big names have all found homes and most teams have filled up their cap space — and many have filled out their big exceptions. As is always the case with free agency’s game of musical chairs, some guys get left without a seat after the early frenzy and have to strike a balance between finding the best situation and the most money, because it’s not always in the same place at this point.
Most of the attention has shifted to the trade block, where some star wings are available and could be on the move. That said, there are still some genuinely helpful players on the free agent market, some who will likely end up on veteran minimum deals, while others are hunting for their chunk of the mid-level (or more).
Here, we’re going to look at the 10 best players left on the board, with an awful lot of guards still available and looking for a roster. It’s possible some of them will try to wait out the trade market to see if a team misses out on a star and ends up looking to them for a smaller upgrade, but with the NBA world descending on Las Vegas for Summer League and the men’s Olympic team’s training camp, it’s a good time to get deals hammered out by way of a little face time.
Tyus Jones
Jones is a sign-and-trade candidate, but he hasn’t seemingly found a team willing to pay him to be a starter like he was reportedly hoping. Jones is in that fringe starter range, but hasn’t been able to find that kind of money and it’s hard to see it being out there at this point this summer. He could very well end up back with the Wizards, but it’s not clear exactly what the price tag will end up for him. Perhaps he tries to take a shorter, prove-it deal and bet on himself by giving it another year or two before he hits the market again, or he could look for a longer-term deal that would give Washington another trade chip in their rebuild once a team realizes they need some high-end point guard depth.
Gary Trent Jr.
One of the top shooters on the market is still available as he, like Jones, has not been able to find the money he hoped for this summer. Reports indicate Toronto’s held firm at an offer around $15 million per year for Trent Jr., and while he’s tried to find more elsewhere, to this point it hasn’t happened. He, maybe more than anyone else on this list, might be best served waiting out trade decisions and the extension deadline of August 6 to see if a team seeking a shooting upgrade falls short on the trade market and is willing to pay a bit more for him.
Kyle Lowry
Lowry was solid for the Sixers last year and while he’s not the dynamic offensive player he once was in his prime in Toronto, he still can provide a team some quality minutes at the point guard spot. He’s still crafty on both ends of the floor, picking up his trademark charges on defense, and was excellent shooting the ball last year, hitting 40.4 percent of his threes. Philly is certainly in play to bring him back, but if he’s willing to take a minimum deal, a team like Phoenix would certainly make a strong pitch for him to join their star trio as they have a glaring need at the point guard position.
Luke Kennard
Kennard was expected to be back with Memphis after the team declined his option to work out a new deal, but almost two weeks in and he’s still not re-signed. That could be a matter of Memphis keeping all options open for other additions before re-signing Kennard with Bird rights, or it could indicate Kennard is waiting to find out if a bigger offer is out there from a team seeking his shooting ability. The Grizzlies have an obvious need to keep one of their best floor spacers, but that’s a skill just about every team is hoping to add.
Isaac Okoro
The best RFA still on the market is Okoro, who is learning the lesson so many players in his position have in recent years, which is offer sheets just don’t exist anymore for mid-tier RFAs. As a result, Okoro is presumably going to have to return to Cleveland and it’s up to the Cavs to put up a number that is just good enough to keep him from signing the qualifying offer to hit free agency next summer. Okoro is coming off the best shooting season of his career (39 percent from three), and perhaps a surprising sign-and-trade emerges from a team looking for a defensive upgrade on the wing. Or maybe a team like the Jazz or Pistons throw an offer sheet at him to fill their cap space. However, it seems more likely he ends up back on the Cavs on a relatively team-friendly deal.
Justin Holiday
Holiday was a trusted rotation piece for Michael Malone in Denver last season and had his best shooting year (40.4 percent) in Denver. He should have plenty of contenders calling him about vet min offers, but those will be there no matter how long he waits. Right now he may be waiting to see if someone comes calling with some exception money that’s above the minimum, and if that never comes, he’ll line up a deal with Denver or another contender.
Markelle Fultz
Fultz was able to get his career back on track in Orlando and, while he hasn’t reached the star status expected of a No. 1 overall pick, he has carved out a nice spot as a strong defensive-minded point guard who can put pressure on the rim on offense. That said, the jumper remains an issue, which limits what he can provide a team offensively and his injury history will scare teams from giving him a significant deal. Still, Fultz has become a steady hand and is a good defender when healthy, which should interest at least a few teams in need of guard help.
Dennis Smith Jr.
This list is full of point guards, which is probably hurting their individual causes as teams likely see a lot of these guys in the same tier and aren’t rushing out to grab one. Dennis Smith Jr. has, similar to Fultz, moved past the “bust” tag after not panning out as a star and carved out a career as a quality backup point guard who can put pressure on the rim and provide high level point of attack defense. However, like Fultz, the jumper has just never come around and is the limiting element of his game. Smith is likely hoping to avoid a min deal, but will have plenty of contenders calling him about his services if bigger money doesn’t present itself.
Cam Payne
We continue the parade of point guards with Cam Payne, who had another very solid year in Milwaukee and Philadelphia and has become a trusted backup point guard for contenders ever since he resurrected his career in Phoenix. My assumption is, once Tyus Jones and Kyle Lowry are officially in new homes, the run on point guards will begin and the rest of this group will fall into place.
Patrick Beverley
The man who Milwaukee traded Payne to get rounds out our list, as Beverley continues to bounce around from team to team ever since leaving the Clippers in 2021. He’s still a pest at the point of attack and can shoot it just well enough to keep teams honest on the other end. He wants more than the minimum but, as with all of these guys, the depth of point guards available is making it really hard for players to find leverage in talks to get more than that right now.
Picture this: It’s late Thursday night, minutes away from Friday. In a few moments, this week’s wave of new music releases will hit Spotify. Somebody inevitably goes for Drake’s throat on a new song again. Once fans get their first listen of the diss track, they’ll flock to X (formerly Twitter) to talk about Drizzy’s latest L. Topics related to new music are regularly X’s top trending topics on Friday morning, and it’s where much of the online conversation about what’s new in music happens.
The obvious reason is that Spotify isn’t a social media platform. But, Spotify execs have perhaps also gone through the thought process I just laid out.
Earlier this week, Spotify introduced the ability to leave comments on podcast episodes. In the announcement post, Spotify notes, “Our new Comments feature expands on the Q&A and polls functionality we introduced in 2021 as a way to bring interactivity into the podcasting industry for the first time. And interactivity is a feature that already has listeners and creators buzzing: More than 9 million unique Spotify listeners have interacted with a Q&A or poll just this year, and there’s been 80% year-over-year growth in the number of total Q&A responses and votes from listeners.”
So, Spotify has the users and at least a portion of them have expressed interest in more interactive ways to use the platform. Perhaps introducing commenting to podcasts is a way for Spotify to test and soft-launch a new era: Spotify as music-based social media platform, where users can listen to and discuss music in the same place.
If that is their plan, though, and they already have a framework for comment functionality, why not just roll it out big-time and let users comment on songs and albums now?
Well, being a giant internet company doesn’t mean a social media expansion will be an automatic success. We saw this happen with Google: They launched Google+ (which you probably forgot about, or perhaps never heard of) in 2011. The Facebook clone failed to gain significant traction and ceased operations a few years later. That’s not to say that Google rushed into it, but this does illustrate that nothing is guaranteed, no matter how dominant you are in other areas.
So, trying to pivot into social media is a big swing, and it’s smart of Spotify to take some practice cuts in the on-deck circle before stepping up to the plate. After all, if full-fledged social media is on Spotify’s agenda, there are still so many factors to consider. Would the platform be purely comments-based, or could users make their own posts? Will there be a way to see the best posts and users across the entire platform, or will each song’s/album’s comments section be its own beast? Will there be appropriate moderation in place to stop Neil Young from spamming comments about audio quality? That’s just a sampling of the major questions Spotify would have to work out ahead of a launch of this scale.
The opportunity appears to be there, though: Spotify is the world’s biggest music streaming platform and it continues to grow. Public opinion of X has waned ever since Elon Musk took over. (That’s not to say Spotify is without its controversies, though.) Many social media users would seemingly embrace a new forum for discussing music, especially one that lets them do it without switching out of the app they’re already listening in. It could certainly be a major value proposition for Spotify to help increase the gap between them and streaming competitors like Apple Music. It would also make them a unique presence in the social media landscape.
This is all assuming that Spotify even wants this — that they actually aim to expand comments beyond podcasts. We don’t know that for sure, but if that is the path they’re on, our Thursday nights and Friday mornings could look very different in the future.
Each week our staff of film and television experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
We Are Lady Parts is the kind of show that makes a streaming service worth the cost of subscription. If you don’t have Peacock, you should sign up for creator Nida Manzoor’s rowdy, Peabody Award-winning comedy about an all-female Muslim punk band in the UK. The cast — led by Lady Parts members Anjana Vasan (guitarist Amina), Sarah Kameela Impey (singer Saira), Juliette Motamed (drummer Ayesha), and Faith Omole (bassist Bisma) — is great, and the soundtrack rips. Have a taste with “Bashir With the Good Beard.”
Yes, it’s another Star Wars show. But The Acolyte has a lot going for it. For one thing, there’s a Wookiee Jedi. All my 10-year-old Star Wars dreams are coming true. Also, the series is created by Russian Doll’s Leslye Headland and the cast, including Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Manny Jacinto (Jason from The Good Place!), is solid. The Acolyte takes place long before the prequels, so there will be no stops on Tatooine or mentions of the name “Skywalker.” And did we mention the “hottest man alive”?
Presumed Innocent is guilty… of having an all-star collection of talent! Created by David E. Kelley and produced by Gracie Abrams‘ somewhat famous father, the legal thriller stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a chief deputy prosecutor who is suspected of murder. Per Apple TV Plus: “The series explores obsession, sex, politics, and the power and limits of love, as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.” Fun fact: Gyllenhaal’s character was played by Harrison Ford in the 1990 movie of the same name.
Hit Man is funny, sexy, and charming. So why did the crowd pleaser barely get a theatrical release? I have no idea, and neither does director Richard Linklater. “I don’t know,” he told Decider about the lack of major studio interest in his film. “Everybody’s scared. [The movie] was not one thing. It’s not a hit man movie.” Maybe if Hit Man — which stars the impossibly hot duo of Glen Powell and Adria Arjona — becomes a big enough, well, hit on Netflix, we’ll get a sequel that actually plays in theaters. Or better yet, sequels.
Before House of the Dragon premiered, I was concerned that it would be nothing more than a shameless extension of the Game of Thrones brand. A DLC to check out but not engage with. Those fears have been unfounded. House of the Dragon quickly proved itself a worthy successor to Thrones (which, disappointing finale aside, is still one of the best shows of the 2010s). It exists on its own terms; it’s possible to enjoy the high-budget soap opera without prior knowledge of Westeros. House of the Dragon won’t be the monoculture behemoth that Game of Thrones was. No show will anymore. But it doesn’t need to be. House of the Dragon is doing just fine out of Game of Thrones’ dragon-shaped shadow (you can read our review here).
We will stay short and not-so-sweet with random thoughts that I had while absorbing the entire season a few days ago. First, here’s a book-end approach:
– The first thought I had when the premiere-episode credits rolled: “Well, I’ve never seen that body part on a TV show before now.”
– And when the season-finale credits rolled: “I feel utterly destroyed. And invigorated. And destroyed. God, I love TV” (you can read our full review here).
If you write “Papyrus,” you can get Tilda Swinton to be in your first movie, too. Problemista stars writer and director Julio Torres as Alejandro, “an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador struggling to bring his unusual ideas to life in New York City. As time on his work visa runs out, a job assisting an erratic art-world outcast becomes his only hope to stay in the country and realize his dream,” according to the A24 plot synopsis. Would you believe Tilda plays the erratic outcast? You would? Actually, yeah, that makes sense.
Here’s the thing: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a movie where a giant monkey gets suplexed by a large lizard. If you’re not already fully on board, you should probably, like, read a book or whatever. Nerd.
Meet your summer TV obsession. My Lady Jane is a “radical retelling” of the life of Lady Jane Grey, who was the queen of England for nine days in 1553. She was executed soon after. But what if none of that happened? My Lady Jane, which stars Emily Bader in the title role, is “an epic tale of true love and high adventure, where the damsel in distress saves herself, her true love, and then the Kingdom.” Also, shape shifters (with some Buffy thrown in there, too).
The most stressful show on television is back. The Bear season 3 begins soon after the events of the season 2 finale, with Carmy, Syd, Richie, Natalie, various Faks, and the rest of the gang getting ready to open a new fine-dining restaurant. There will be yelling (SO much yelling), food porn, and yes, Taylor Swift songs. Gorge on the 10-episode season all at once, or savior it over the course of a few weeks. There’s no wrong way to enjoy The Bear.
Studio Ponoc’s affectionately animated The Imaginary is about a young girl named Amanada and her make-believe friend, Rudger. Together, they visit a magical world filled with “creatures and places never before seen until a sinister force threatens to destroy their imaginary world and the friendship within it,” according to the official Netflix logline. The Imaginary is written by Yoshiaki Nishimura (The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, When Marnie Was There) and directed by Yoshiyuki Momose, who also worked on a few films you might have heard of, including Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away. This one isn’t to be missed.
Faye is a documentary about Faye Dunaway, the esteemed Bonnie and Clyde, Chinatown, and The Thomas Crown Affair actress who has been nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars three times, winning once for Network. The film “contextualizes her life and filmography, laying bare her struggles with mental health while confronting the double standards she faced as a woman.” There are only so many living legends in Hollywood — Faye Dunaway is one of them.
Beverly Hills Cop is an action-comedy classic (the Blank Check podcast recently did an insightful episode with Bad Boys: Ride or Die directors Adil & Bilall about the Martin Brest film). Beverly Hills Cop II is pretty fun, while the less said about Beverly Hills Cop III, the better. Even star Eddie Murphy agrees, which is one of the reasons why he wanted to make Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. A lot of familiar faces are back in the fourth installment in the series, including Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Kevin Bacon are new additions to the cast. But there’s really only one reason to watch Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F: Eddie Murphy. Even without the laugh.
Vulture recently pointed out that Rashida Jones has never hosted Saturday Night Live despite a) being friends with a lot of SNL folks, and b) she has the comedic chops. The campaign to get Rashida Jones in Studio 8H (with musical guest Vampire Weekend?) begins… as soon as I finish watching Sunny. The Apple TV+ series stars the Parks and Recreation actress as Suzie, an American living in Japan who is gifted a robot following the disappearance of her husband and son. Together, they attempt to find out what happened to her family.
Sausage Party, the 2016 movie that was the highest-grossing R-rated animated film of all-time until Demon Slayer: Mugen Train came along, has been reheated as a streaming series. Prime Video’s proudly vulgar Sausage Party: Foodtopia is set after the events of the movie, with Frank, Brenda, Barry, and Sammy, the characters voiced by Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Michael Cera, and Edward Norton, respectively, attempting to build their own society. The rest of the voice cast includes Will Forte, Sam Richardson, Yassir Lester, and Natasha Rothwell. Expect lots of food puns and orgies.
Despite obstacles to listen to Vultures 1, it still debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart dated February 24 — becoming West’s 11th-career No. 1 album and Ty Dolla Sign’s first. Vultures 1 accumulated 148,000 equivalent album units in the United States during its first week, according to Billboard and its Luminate data service.
The Compton star’s alleged disconnect from the world, which became a trademark of sorts for him, also led to a disconnect with Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha fans who demand their stars to be ever-present and at the top of their to keep their crown. Two years later, Lamar finds himself in the good graces of these young fans following his win in the epic, rapid-fire rap battle against Drake. Through his diss tracks, especially “Not Like Us,” Lamar not only reconnected with the world and remained present, but he also proved that he always had his ears to the streets.
For example, in the “Not Like Us” video, Lamar references a Drake TikTok dance video — something a rapper who goes “months without a phone” wouldn’t notice. In the end, it made for an entertaining war that also made Lamar a more appealing figure for Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha rap fans who had yet to connect with him.
When Lamar announced Morale, he did so by quoting a tweet by self-labeled “hip-hop enthusiast” SK (@raptalksk) who claimed that “Kendrick Lamar is officially retired” due to the lengthy absence fans endured before the album’s release. SK, a college freshman at the time of that tweet, captured the general sentiment of Gen-Z and Alpha rap fans who’d yet to see Lamar be the star that their elders claimed he was. Lamar wasn’t as active and ever-present as his contemporaries – Drake and J. Cole – or modern-day stars like Travis Scott, Future, and Young Thug, nor was his music universally loved like the aforementioned names.
Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha rap fans live in an era where their favorite entertainment is readily and consistently available, and new editions quickly arrive to replace the previous ones. In the past decade, Lamar didn’t care to cater to their desires, but in his battle with Drake, Lamar prioritized their interests knowing that it was key to beating his opponent.
Unlike any other time in his career, Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha rap fans became Kendrick Lamar’s main audience during the height of his beef with Drake. “Not Like Us,” Lamar’s final entry in the battle, is a joyful dance on Drake’s metaphorical grave and a victory lap that mocks the rapper with comedic vitriol, a perfect delivery for Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha fans. Lines like “Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A minor” and “Freaky-ass n****, he a 69 God” and the “OVOHoe” chant quickly became rallying cries in young fans’ newfound love for Lamar in the mainstream world. With “Not Like Us,” Lamar successfully recruited a new generation of rap fans who’d failed to appreciate him as one of rap’s elites. It’s the same crowd that Drake typically catered to with his music, especially that of the past half-decade.
It was a smart move from Lamar who is just two years removed from the mixed reception Morale received. Yes, the album topped the charts and went on to win a Grammy for Best Rap Album the following year, but it wasn’t held in the same regard by this young generation. It extended a streak of difficulty Lamar had in roping in Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha.
To Pimp A Butterfly, arguably his best album, is often deemed his worst by this young crowd. DAMN. trended in the right direction, but Morale erased that progress – not that Lamar desired to go out of his way and recruit this crowd. That changed with “Not Like Us.” Lamar reportedly removed copyright claims on the song for a limited time which allowed streamers – mostly made up of Gen-Z and Alpha members – to freely use the record for any content they desired, even commercial purposes.
Just like that, “Not Like Us” skyrocketed to the top of the charts and entered itself into the song of the summer conversation while becoming the biggest hit of Lamar’s career. To this day, videos with the song continue to go viral on social media. Whether it be at clubs, birthday parties, other artists’ concerts, in weather reports, or Twitch streams from this generation’s favorite streamers, “Not Like Us” has become inescapable. It’s a successful move by Lamar pulled right from Drake’s playbook as the Toronto native employed the same tactics with his Meek Mill diss track “Back To Back.”
Lamar pushed the agenda further by performing the song five consecutive times at his The Pop Out — Ken & Friends show before releasing an epic music video for the song three weeks later. The same Kendrick Lamar who would release an album, drop music videos, and go on tour, before retreating to his Compton cave, is now outside and in the face of everyone willing and unwilling to watch just as the young generation called for him to be.
“Not Like Us” and Kendrick Lamar’s rap beef with Drake placed the star right back in the good graces of young rap fans. How long Lamar will be there remains unknown, but at the very least, their eyes are on him as they await his next move. Rumors of new music on the way from Lamar have picked up steam by the day as some hint at a massive “Not Like Us” remix while others point the rapper’s sixth album is on the way.
The latter seems to be the most likely as the “Not Like Us” video begins with a brief preview of an unreleased song complete with thumping, bass-rattling production that Lamar glides over with a catchy flow. The preview was met with support from all generations as they begged Lamar to release the song. This is all a result of “Not Like Us,” a record that unlocked the Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha rap fan generations for Kendrick Lamar who will have his biggest audience yet for the most anticipated era of his career.
Football fans have had more than a decade to think about which team they’re going to use when EA Sports College Football 25 finally drops. Obviously, plenty of us will fire up the game and use our alma maters the very first time, dropping the difficult all the way down to the easiest setting and giving the team we hate the most a whooping in a video game that they’ve managed to avoid since NCAA 14.
But not everyone is normal like I am. Other folks are not guided by a fandom that revolves around tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt, and they may need a little bit of guidance about which team they should use in the game. If you’re one of those people, fear not, because we’re here to help you out with the most fun team to use depending on a number of different factors.
The most fun team to use if you wanna grind opponents to dust: Ohio State
Unlike years past under Ryan Day, this Ohio State team is probably not going to throw the ball for a million yards. However, while the offensive line has some questions, they have the best running back room in the country with the 1-2 punch of TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins, a quarterback in Will Howard who is a bulldozer in the running game, and an elite defense with no major holes. You’ll want to get familiar with the name Jeremiah Smith as soon as possible for future versions of the game — he has the potential to be the best WR they’ve ever had in Columbus — but for this year, you’re gonna want to play ground and pound with OSU.
The most fun team to use if you don’t like a challenge: Georgia
We must stress that if you use Georgia and you are not a Bulldogs fan, no one will respect you. They are to EA CFB 25 what prime Barcelona was to FIFA games in the early-10s, or the Kevin Durant Warriors were in NBA 2K. Having said that, they have the best offense in the game (94 overall) and the second-best defense (also 94 overall), and they are unsurprisingly loaded on both side of the football. They have four of the 25-best players in the game — FS Malaki Starks, RG Tate Ratledge, QB Carson Beck, LOLB Mykel Williams — and you will win games if you use them. You will get made fun of for using them, but you’ll win games and recruit well!
The most fun team to use early (but maybe not late): Colorado
I do not think ratings adjustments throughout this season are going to be especially kind to Colorado. The team started well last year and were the story of the sport for the first month, and then things went entirely off the rails over the final nine games of the year. Having said that, EA really likes them heading into the year, and they have a legitimately good QB (Shedeur Sanders) and group of skill position players, led by two-way star Travis Hunter. Take advantage of how fun they’ll be before the non-Sanders and Hunter are brought back down to earth as the season goes on.
The most fun teams to use if you want to get in a shootout: Missouri and Kansas
Neither of these teams have one of the top-25 defenses in the game. Mizzou has the No. 9 offense, while Kansas comes in at No. 14. Both have elite talents on offense who are capable of single-handedly winning you games, with the Tigers having the game’s second-best WR in Luther Burden III, and the Jayhawks having an excellent 1-2 QB and RB punch in Devin Neal and Jalon Daniels. I expect their defenses to be on the leakier side, but for some people, that’s part of the appeal — and I can’t blame them, because few things are more fun than winning a game 45-42 because you got the ball last.
The most fun team to use if you want to get in a defensive slugfest: Iowa
I must recommend that you do not use Iowa, as I attended a Big Ten school that is not Iowa and I have seen too much Iowa football in my life as a result. But their defense is an 88 overall (which is probably way too low), while I anticipate their offense will not be good in the slightest, as it’s Iowa. They have four of the top-100 players in the game, and all of them are on defense: MLB Jay Higgins, FS Sebastian Castro, ROLB Nick Jackson, and SS Xavier Nwankpa. Their offense would be a fun challenge for you to have to figure out, but if you are hell-bent on trying to score a defensive touchdown, this would be your best bet.
The most fun team to use if you want to build a contender from the ground up: A lot
All the attention always gets put on the top-25 teams. Well, according to my pal Bill Connelly’s SP+ metric, here are the 25 worst teams in FBS heading into this season:
110. Sam Houston
111. Old Dominion
112. San Jose State
113. Middle Tennessee State
114. New Mexico State
115. Florida Atlantic
116. Tulsa
117. Eastern Michigan
118. Buffalo
119. Central Michigan
120. Ball State
121. Nevada
122. Louisiana Tech
123. Southern Miss
124. Florida International
125. UTEP
126. UConn
127. Charlotte
128. UMass
129. Kent State
130. Kennesaw State
131. New Mexico
132. Temple
133. Akron
134. UL-Monroe
If you want to use a team in a Power 5 conference, the 10 worst heading into this season via SP+ are Vanderbilt, Arizona State, Indiana, Stanford, Michigan State, Pitt, Wake Forest, Virginia, Boston College, and Northwestern. Best of luck, friends.
The posts featured a still of a black square with Jung Kook: I Am Still written on it, and that is the extent of confirmed information for now. Fans are busy speculating, however. Many hope that I Am Still signals a revival of Jung Kook’s self-filmed and self-produced Golden Closet Film series, but most everyone is ecstatic that any kind of Jung Kook documentary (presumably) will be available to experience on the big screen.
Some fans have resurfaced a clip of Jung Kook discussing filming a documentary and how the experience differed from being filmed with other BTS members.
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