Month: September 2024

The judge in the ongoing racketeering trial against Young Thug appears to have reached the end of her patience with the prosecution. Judge Paige Reese Whitaker upbraided Chief Assistant District Attorney Adriane Love for the presentation of the State of Georgia’s case during court today, just ahead of considering a mistrial motion filed by the defense.

“I don’t want to malign the prosecutor standing in front of me right now, so I’m not going to say the possible things it could be,” Whitaker said. “It is baffling to me that somebody with the number of years of experience that you have, time after time after time, continues to seemingly and purposefully hide the ball to the extent you possibly can, for as long as you possibly can. I really don’t want to believe that it is purposeful, but honestly, after a certain number of times, you start to wonder how can it be anything but that. Unless it is just that you are so unorganized that you are throwing this case together as you try it.”

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the trial has become the longest in Georgia state history as a result of numerous delays, many the direct result of the DA’s office’s presentation of its case, as well as issues with its previous judge, who was removed and replaced by Whitaker earlier this summer. The trial, which was to have begun in 2021, still has over 100 witnesses to get through, and if not declared a mistrial, is expected to continue into next year.

Young Thug is accused of one count of conspiracy to violate Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, possession of a firearm while committing a felony; possession of a machine gun; two counts of participating in criminal street activity; and three counts of violating the Georgia Controlled Substances Act. The DA’s office says Thug was the co-founder and leader of a criminal street gang, Young Slime Life — which not so coincidentally shares initials with his label, Young Stoner Life. The State believes that the label is a cover for and funds the gang’s activities, which include a string of violent crimes such as murder, robbery, and assault.

Tierra Whack is still promoting her album World Wide Whack, picking up where the “Two Night” video left off in the new video for “Moovies.” At the end of the prior video, a massive parade float balloon version of Whack was left demolished by the unhinged citizens of her hometown, but at the beginning of “Moovies,” the Philly native puts herself back together with the aid of some normal-sized balloon animals.

Then, an animated Whack goes on a succession of movie dates with a colorful collection of cartoon characters — including the Philadelphia Phillies’ mascot, the Phillie Phanatic. Somewhere, Gritty is shedding tears into cheesesteak over missing his shot (if anyone wants to photoshop gritty into the Wolverine Crush meme with Whack and Phanatic’s phamily photo in the picture frame, they will win the internet today, at least in the City Of Brotherly Love).

Whack previously featured the Phanatic in her NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert, explaining the mascot’s presence as an abundance of hometown love on her part. “Y’all know I gotta keep it Philly,” she said. “I bleed green. I bleed red. Anything Philly is all me. I had to bring a piece of home with me.”

You can check out the video for “Moovies” above.

World Wide Whack is out now via Interscope Records. You can find more info here.

(WARNING: Spoilers for 9-1-1: Lone Star will be found below.)

9-1-1: Lone Star is back for a new season, and with it brings the return of your favorite firefighters and paramedics and the crazy emergencies they’re tasked with responding to. Season five brought some new changes to the show: Carlos is now a Texas Ranger, replacing the position his now-deceased father once had and Wyatt and now is 9-1-1 operator, replacing the role Grace Ryder had. Outside of that, the season five opener saw the 126 crew go through a bit of a battle as Paul and Marjan battle it out for the open lieutenant. With all that being said, episode two of season five is set to be a big one.

When Does 9-1-1: Lone Star Season 5, Episode 2 Come Out?

The second episode of 9-1-1: Lone Star season five, titled “Trainwrecks,” will arrive on September 30. The episode air on Monday, 9/30 on FOX starting at 8 pm EST/5 am PST. The episode will then be available on Hulu the following day at 3 am ET/12 am PT. A synopsis for “Trainwrecks” can be found below:

The 126 race into action when a major train derailment causes multiple injuries; Tommy makes a bold move in her relationship with Trevor; Wyatt asks Owen to give Judd his job back.

You can also watch a teaser for 9-1-1: Lone Star season five, episode two below:

‘9-1-1: Lone Star’ season five will air on FOX and stream on Hulu. Season 1-4 are available to stream on Hulu.

We’ve been waiting since the casting for the film adaptation of Wicked was first announced back in 2021, but the time has finally arrived. Promo for the movie kicked into gear this week — fitting for the witchy season — and as anticipated, it’s already a gold mine of delightfully entertaining content featuring stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. First up is the infamous Vanity Fair Lie Detector Test, and y’all… Y’ALL.

Right up top, Erivo’s asking Grande about conspiracy theories including the fake moon landing and Flat Earth theories, and the lie detector machine immediately throws the Florida native under the bus. To the first, the machine spits out an “inconclusive” result, prompting a panicked outburst from the “Thank U, Next” singer, who sounds terrified about the perception this could generate about herself, worrying that her Florida origins would almost certainly lend credibility to an idea she believed the conspiracies.

She also answered questions about whether or not she’d had various surgical procedures, including something called a “fox eye lift,” which she didn’t know existed until people accused her of getting one, a chin implant, which she seemed incredulous about, and a BBL, which she jokingly answered “yes” to, only for the machine to indicate “deception.”

“This is the best day of my life,” she cracked between answers, “Take that, you YouTube people!” Good for her, and shame on those people who make it their business to nitpick her body and choices, just because she did well for herself.

You can watch the full video — which has some heartfelt answers, as well — above.

Media day is always a time when the level of excitement and optimism is at its highest for the upcoming season. Everyone is in the best shape of their lives, added some muscle, worked really hard on their game all summer, and is focused and ready for the upcoming season.

For the Los Angeles Lakers, this year’s media day featured all of those talking points — and the excitement of a new head coach — but the biggest story was the first ever NBA media day featuring a father and son on the same team. LeBron James and Bronny James snapped their first official pictures together wearing their Lakers uniforms since Bronny got taken by the team in the second round of June’s NBA Draft, but the two have been on the court together already in pre-camp practices getting ready for the season.

Those scrimmages have already yielded some father-son trash talk, with LeBron posting to IG last week about getting a bucket on Bronny, calling it “good defense, better O.” On media day, the two joined the Spectrum SportsNet desk and Bronny got asked about that bucket, claiming he reviewed the film and LeBron stepped out of bounds so he got a stop, leading to some very funny back and forth between the two (1:40 mark of the below video).

Bronny: “Alright, in all seriousness, I looked at the film and he did step out of bounds. But I’m not gonna go there. I’m not gonna go there right now.”

LeBron: “What do you mean you’re not going to go there right now? You just went there!”

Bronny: “I mean, I know you did.”

LeBron: “I stepped out of bounds?”

Bronny: “You did. You stepped out of bounds. I got the stop.”

LeBron: “They don’t even have that camera angle of the baseline like that!”

LeBron then asked Bronny to tell them about when he forced his son to dribble out of bounds, leading to another argument about LeBron committing a foul. It’s terrific stuff and it’s clear that LeBron is having a blast having Bronny around, even if the younger James is learning the frustrations of having do defend his dad in practice. Still, he also knows how to press his dad’s buttons and wind him up, telling him he stepped out of bounds and fouled him. The two figure to have some fun battles on the practice court this camp and during the season, and long as Bronny doesn’t call LeBron “dad” on the court, everything will be fine.

People do some truly silly things to prove their dislike of celebrities and brands that do things they disagree with. And while burning jerseys and other apparel (that were already purchased) to protest Nike’s pro-Black Lives Matter stance is one thing, one man is going viral for showing his disagreement with Taylor Swift with an epic self-own. The video, shared by PopCrave on Twitter, depicts the older-looking gent moments after winning a signed Swift guitar at an auction, destroying his brand-new purchase with a hammer. It appears he’s trying to “own the libs” or something, after Taylor Swift’s Kamala Harris endorsement prompted a massive tantrum from Harris’ presumed opponent, Donald Trump.

It’s kind of hard to believe that anyone would be all that shocked about Swift’s endorsement. After all, Swift was pretty anti-Trump about the 2020 election after expressing regret about remaining silent during the 2016 election. Ever since, Trump’s been hell-bent on proving that he’s more popular than Swift — which… hasn’t been going great for him, honestly. Swift just released her biggest album yet, just months after completing a globe-spanning tour that fueled a year-long, unrelenting campaign of Taylormania that made her one of the most ubiquitous celebrities alive. Even her boyfriend Travis Kelce is more famous than he’s ever been — does anyone know what Omorosa is up to these days?

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is currently facing federal charges of bribery, fraud, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations — and, apparently, we can thank “Espresso” singer Sabrina Carpenter for her service.

Or, at least, in part. While her Short N’ Sweet Tour stopped in New York’s Madison Square Garden last night (September 29), Carpenter joked about her supposed involvement with the investigation that brought the charges against Adams, saying, “Should we talk about how I got the mayor indicted, or…?”

However, her role in the indictment actually turns out to be quite minimal and stems from the minor controversy that spun out of her video for “Feather.” Last November, after the video debuted, a scene filmed at Our Lady Of Mount Carmel-Annunciation Parish in Williamsburg, Brooklyn got the priest who okayed the shoot relieved of his administrative duties.

Apparently, Msgr. Jamie J. Gigantiello reviewed the script, but did not know how the final scene would play out, and his superiors in the Catholic Church were less than pleased with the results. While Carpenter had a typically sarcastic response, apparently, Gigantiello had other business dealings that drew investigators’ attentions. According to the New York Post, Gigantiello’s associations with Adams and his former chief of staff, Frank Carone, led to a federal subpoena looking into whether Adams’ alleged corruption extended to the church.

The Post even suggests that it was the “Feather” shoot specifically that drew federal attention to the parish, but according to Brooklyn diocese officials, “It would be inappropriate to comment further on that review, which is still ongoing.” The church says it’s “fully committed to cooperating with law enforcement in all investigations, including conduct at individual parishes or involving any priest.”

It’s Monday babe (yes, I babe’d you), which means it’s time for the Crumbl Cookie report. Every week we break down all six cookies dropping at Crumbl and rank them from least essential to most delicious. We love the Crumbl model, it keeps things fresh and exciting, and it’s something we wish could hit fast food.

Just imagine it — a fast food restaurant that one week has the best chicken sandwich you’ll ever eat, the next week the most decadent and delicious bacon cheeseburger, and the week after the most epic burrito. Are we crazy? Would that work? It’s worth trying, so if you’re a high-powered investor who is waiting for a golden idea, go ahead and take it, just let us eat there for free.

This week’s cookie lineup is a bit tame compared to last week’s. Last week we got cookies and big snack collaborations, this week we’ve got a whole lot of cookie staples, like an oatmeal cookie, a peanut butter cookie, and of course, the return of the Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunk. No elaborate cakes or weird combination of flavors… but just because Crumbl is keeping things simple this time around, doesn’t mean these cookies won’t be delicious.

So here they are, all the cookies dropping at Crumbl this week (Sept. 30—Oct. 5) ranked from least to most delicious.

6. Ultimate Peanut Butter

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

After eating Crumbl consistently for over a month, I’ve come to realize that this brand f*cking loves peanut butter. Unfortunately, only one cookie (last week’s Snicker’s cookie) has managed to impress me and this week’s Ultimate Peanut Butter is a bit too one note to really wow me.

The Ultimate Peanut Butter features a peanut butter cookie base loaded with peanut butter and drizzled with more peanut butter on top. That’s three different sources of peanut butter and altogether they make a cookie that tastes like, well, peanut butter. There is nothing else going on here, no jelly to add dimension, no chocolate to add a rich component, it’s just peanut butter.

That’s great if you love peanut butter, but if you’re neutral on the ingredient, this isn’t going to win you over.

The Bottom Line:

A peanut butter cookie that triples down on its star ingredient. For hardcore peanut butter heads only.

5. Pumpkin Cake Cookie

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Here is what I love about the Pumpkin Cake Cookie: it tastes like a slice of pumpkin pie. The cake cookie has all the right spices including cinnamon, clove, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg, and it’s topped with a thick layer of sweet cream cheese frosting and the tiniest semi-sweet chocolate chips you’ve ever seen. Altogether, it’s delicious, but it’s not a slice of pumpkin pie.

A real slice of pie gives you so much more, you get that wonderful flakey buttery crust and that soft pumpkin filling. Compared to the real thing this cookie just comes across as a bit dry.

Don’t get me wrong, I like this cookie, but I couldn’t eat it without wanting the real thing.

The Bottom Line:

A good cookie, but it pales in comparison to a real slice of pumpkin pie. For a couple of dollars more you could pick one up from your local market and have enough pie for a whole week.

4. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunk

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Look, the Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunk cookie is easily the most boring choice you could make at Crumbl, but it’s consistently delicious, so you can’t really go wrong with this cookie.

It’s buttery, loaded up with semi-sweet chocolate chips, and dusted with just a touch of salt. It’s a perfect chocolate chip cookie, but at the end of the day, it’s still a chocolate chip cookie. If you really like this thing, download the Crumbl app and use your rewards to pick one up in addition to whatever else you get.

The Bottom Line:

A great chocolate chip cookie, but ultimately a pretty boring choice compared to the rest of the lineup.

3. Brownie Sundae

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

The only thing better than a brownie is a brownie with extra ingredients. Walnuts, chocolate chips, whatever, anytime you stack ingredients on a brownie it greatly elevates the dessert. Crumbl chose to add a sweet vanilla mouse, fudge, rainbow sprinkles, and a maraschino cherry to their baked brownie, and the result is wonderful.

The texture of the brownie is a bit dry but has nice crispy edges while the vanilla mouse adds a sense of moisture and an intense sweetness that helps balance the richness of the chocolate.

The fudge, which is supposed to go on top of the mouse but in my case was placed under the mouse (I doubt this changes much aside from being more visually appealing) keeps the vanilla from being too overwhelmingly sweet, I just wish it was more evenly distributed throughout the brownie to help with the dryness issue.

A perfect bite includes all the ingredients, including the maraschino cherry, but that only works for one bite, so make sure you save that cherry for last.

The Bottom Line:

A wonderfully balanced sweet, rich, and decadent chocolate brownie. It’s just a bit too dry to snag our top spot.

2. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Crumbl’s Oatmeal Chocolate Chip takes my two favorite cookies — oatmeal and chocolate chip — and combines them into one super cookie, so I can’t help but fall in love with this cookie. The cookie base is wonderfully spicy with a mix of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and star anise overpowering the earthy oat flavor in the best way.

The inclusion of semi-sweet chocolate chips adds a touch of richness to the cookie that elevates the spicy blend. I have no notes for this cookie — it’s perfect.

The Bottom Line:

One of the best oatmeal cookies I’ve ever eaten. If you’re a fan of oatmeal cookies but hate raisins, you’ll love this cookie.

1. Cookies & Cream Milkshake ft. MINI OREO

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Last week I gave Crumbl a lot of sh*t for relying on Oreos like a crutch. And I stand by that, I think Crumbl has too many OREO-based cookies, but this week’s Cookies & Cream Milkshake Ft. Mini Oreo justifies that because this cookie is f*cking amazing.

The cookie base is sweet, delicate, and loaded with bits of real OREO cookies, which add that rich, slightly bitter, super sweet chocolate that is characteristic of the iconic cookie. Topping the base is a sweet vanilla buttercream peppered with Oreo dust and topped with a single Mini Oreo that serves as a visual bow, wrapping the flavors together.

The Bottom Line:

Crumbl’s best Oreo cookie and our pick for the week’s most essential cookie.

Find your nearest Crumbl here.

A recent phone call has Todd White’s head spinning.

“I just had a call today and learned that I need to put together a mood board for a music video that, potentially, has 16–20 looks,” he says, shocked, over the call. “I’ve never done anything like that before.” As if that’s not wild enough, the tight timeline to which he potentially has to adhere makes it even scarier. “You get these calls sometimes where you have 48 hours to pull something like this together.”

Easy-peasy — at least for a stylist and costume designer of White’s caliber. He’s an industry heavyweight, a creative director who’s been tapped by rap’s leading women like Megan Thee Stallion, Latto, and Coi Leray to curate the iconic looks you see get tens and thousands of likes on social media. No matter whether they’re shutting down the red carpet, gracing the cover of a magazine, or filming a leading commercial, White’s fingerprints can be found all over their fittings —- and he’s just getting started.

It all came from sending one direct message in 2017 that changed his life forever. “I always say yikes because I feel like without that moment I wouldn’t be here,” he says. “I’m so grateful that I just took that chance.”

White didn’t just wake up a few years ago and say, “I want to be a stylist.” Since he was a kid in Cincinnati, he had a serious love for all things fashion. “I’ve always been attracted to art in general, but specifically fashion just because of the glam of it all, luxury designers, and the celebrity aspect.” When he turned 16, he decided to pursue it after graduating from high school.

That’d lead him to Kent State to study fashion merchandising. While he was there, he became even more immersed in fashion, with a job at Forever 21 inspiring him to focus on women’s fashion design. White collaborated with a friend around this time, who studied photography, to create Fashion Haus — a showcase for their creative direction skills. “I kind of came up with this idea with my photographer friend at the time for how we can practice for the future,” says White. “The idea was, I’d style, he’ll shoot, and we’ll come up with concepts for people who want to build a portfolio for modeling or if someone has a brand, and they need some sort of creative concept for an upcoming release.”

At the same time that White was waist deep in preparation for his fashion career, Megan Thee Stallion was exploding onto the rap scene after making “The Houston Cypher” her bitch and dropping her debut EP Make It Hot in 2017. Her aura and lyricism were unmatched. Anybody who was anybody knew that she was next up. White discovered her music around this time and instantly became a fan. Wanting to become a part of her story, he decided to shoot his shot and hop into her Instagram DMs with a proposition.

“I got hip to her music and was really inspired by her,” he says. “One late night, I just randomly decided that I would DM her and see about the possibility of styling her for upcoming shows and projects.” Not anticipating a response, he was shocked when she got back to him pretty quickly. “I can’t remember if it was the next morning or a few hours later, but I know it didn’t take that long,” he recalls. “This was a time when she only had about a hundred thousand followers.”

After that message, he linked up with her a few weeks later. “We met in New York while I was there for fashion week,” he explains. “She had a show, so we connected and vibed. We really hit it off. After that, I would meet her in other cities to dress her or at least help with whatever she would wear.”

As Megan grew in popularity and people started to see her as a fashion icon, White’s styling work got its share of the spotlight. “Our work during that era was huge because of the mega star that she’s turned into,” he says. “That opened up doors for me to get other people’s attention.”

Those “other people” are some of the biggest stars you see on social media and hear on top playlists, like Latto, who he’s draped in custom threads from Onrushw23fh and Michael Schmidt, and Uproxx Cover Star Coi Leray, who he’s laced in Karl Kani. He continuously finds creative ways to capture his clients’ personalities in clothing. To do this, White has an ideal process that helps him come up with these iconic looks.

“Most of the time, I’m turning on some music, and I’m deep diving into whatever creative may have been shared with me by the artist,” he says. “Depending on who you’re working with, you have to dissect what era they’re in at that time so it all makes sense. Then, I’m doing a deep dive. I’m on Pinterest, I’m on Instagram, I’m on TikTok. I want every platform that has anything to do with fashion, and I’m pulling references, I’m taking notes on up-and-coming designers, [and] I’m looking at seeing what is current from a runway show.”

“This process takes me a few days,” he continues. “Once I get that mood board or creative of what I see, I like to hop on the phone with the client to go through everything. Because more times than not, you’ll come up with a really nice mood board and not get any notes or have any notes. And then the day of the shoot comes and the artist, the client can hate everything — which usually only happens if there’s not been any communication.”

White is very open and honest about not just his process, but also how clients can react. There are times when people will love his creative direction. Other times, they can find issues with it — which is par the course when you’re a stylist working with so many different clients. “You want people to like everything that you do, but you’re not going to always get that reaction,” he admits. “Sometimes they hate it, and you have to come up with something completely different, or they love it, but things could be better.”

Tight turnaround times for creativity can also put a damper on the process — but even those can work out too. “I’ve had clients where we’ve had 24 to 48 hours to put everything together, including fitting on the day of the shoot, and things go bad,” he says. “But then somehow, at the end of the day, the shoot ends up turning out great and the client is thrilled. Those are the moments, the stressful days, that I live for.

“Something as simple as an assistant not showing up on time or a UPS delivery arriving late can really throw off a shoot — but when the final shot is wrapped, you’re able to reflect and be excited that you pulled off something nicely together,” he adds.

White has no plans to stop styling anytime soon, even though he’s achieved practically everything he’s ever wanted — but there are even bigger aspirations that he’s been thinking about pursuing. “I would love to get into film -— specifically, horror films,” he says. “In a perfect world, I’d love to do a slasher film and be a part of the costume design and wardrobe.”

The Los Angeles Clippers have a new look for the 2024-25 season in a number of ways. They are opening their new arena, the Intuit Dome, finally moving out of their shared home with the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena. They have a new logo set, uniforms, and color scheme, embracing a new identity in their new home building. And most importantly, they have a very different looking roster from the past few years.

Paul George is gone (as is Russell Westbrook) after not being able to fully deliver on the promise of being a title contender after coming to L.A. alongside Kawhi Leonard in 2019. With George in Philly and Westbrook in Denver, the Clippers moved to fill out their roster with depth and try to move ahead with a team built around Leonard and James Harden. That leaves some real opportunity for players to take on bigger roles, and that is something Norman Powell, at the least, is excited about.

Powell said he’s looking at George’s exit from L.A. as “addition by subtraction,” noting it means more opportunities for guys, including himself, to step up. Powell felt the Clippers depth had kept a number of players from showing their full potential, and now that will shine.

To be clear, this is how Powell should be looking at this situation. He also noted he’s long seen himself as a starting caliber player and is excited to try and take on that role this year. That said, the “addition by subtraction” line is pretty strong when talking about a former All-NBA player leaving, and you can be sure folks will keep this bookmarked if the Clippers stumble this season. Powell isn’t alone in seeing George’s departure as an opportunity to take on a bigger role, as James Harden also expects to shift back to a more comfortable role as the offensive engine this year — citing the Mavs success with Luka Doncic as an example of how it can lead to winning.

Harden was very good for the Clippers a year ago, but it’s hard to imagine him being able to just turn back the clock to his Houston days in full, where he regularly posted league-high usage rates each year. In theory, he shouldn’t have to do that with Leonard alongside (but that, of course, requires Kawhi to remain healthy), but at the very least there is no shortage in confidence in the Clippers locker room about their ability to keep moving forward without PG.