There are a ton of excellent defensive players in the NBA, and Herb Jones of the New Orleans Pelicans is as good as any of them. Despite going in the second round of the 2021 NBA Draft, Jones basically forced his way into the team’s starting lineup and has never looked back thanks to his ability to win the Pelicans games by making things absolutely miserable for the best offensive players on the opposing team.

Jones is capable of doing some really incredible stuff on the defensive end of the floor, which Paul George learned the hard way on Friday night. George and the Los Angeles Clippers are in New Orleans to take on the Pelicans in a game with major playoff implications, and in the third quarter, George thought he had a wide open look from three. Unfortunately, Jones was on the floor, so instead, this happened.

The sheer amount of ground that he covers here is completely insane, as is the fact that George had absolutely no shot of getting off a clean look because Jones was all over this. And on top of all of this, Jones was able to turn defense into offense by getting a completely uncontested dunk. This is as good as any defensive play you’ll see this year, although it’s very possible Jones one-ups it before the season comes to an end.

Dr. Dre revealed that he suffered three strokes in 2021, following his brain aneurysm, during a recent interview appearance on James Corden’s SiriusXM show, This Life Of Mine.

“It definitely makes you appreciate being alive, that’s for sure,” Dr. Dre said, according to Rolling Stone. “It’s something you can’t control, it just happens. During those two weeks, I had three strokes.”

“I got up and went about my day, and I thought I could lay down and take a nap,” he added. “My son and a female friend were like ‘No, we need to take you to the hospital. Next thing you know, I’m blacking out, I’m in and out of consciousness and I end up in the ICU. I was there for two weeks. I’m hearing doctors come in, ‘You don’t know how lucky you are.’ I asked questions about what I could’ve done to prevent this. No one could give me an answer.”

The rapper and mogul has been vocal about his near-death experience since it happened. In 2022, he spoke about how he was admitted to Cedars Sinai Hospital and his family couldn’t visit him because of COVID precautions. The hospital also called them instead, in case he didn’t make it and they wanted to say goodbyes.

Thankfully, Dr. Dre is still here and seems to be in a better and healthier place now.

Stephen A. Smith has never been shy about expressing his aspirations to become more than just a sports pundit. Smith has floated a few different things as he’s become more and more prominent for always being awake and near a camera for ESPN, with a move to late night television being one of the things he’d like to explore.

Fortunately for him, there might be a job opening elsewhere in the Disney umbrella for him. Jimmy Kimmel has recently expressed that he could retire once his contract is up in 2026, and in a recent comment to Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports, Smith made clear that he’s into the idea of taking over that spot.

“I’d be very interested in succeeding him,” Smith answered. But only if his bosses at Disney, such as chairman Bob Iger, asked him to follow in Kimmel’s footsteps as ABC’s late night star.

Smith does have a tiny bit of experience in the world of late night TV, and unsurprisingly, it involves Kimmel. Back in 2021, Smith guest hosted an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he had some fun at the expense of people who did the milk crate challenge (remember that one?).

Smith’s contract situation is also a bit up in the air, as his deal with the Worldwide Leader in Sports is up in the summer of 2025. How seriously he looks into doing something other than returning to ESPN remains to be seen, but at the very least, he’s doing a good job letting his bosses know that he’s looking around and wants to take on different responsibilities, I suppose.

In honor of Justin Timberlake releasing his new album called Everything I Thought It Was, he stopped by NPR’s popular Tiny Desk Concert series to perform stripped-down spins of some of his songs. While there, his setlist included picks from the album, like his lead single “Selfish.”

He also gave a lot of love to fans who have been with his solo career for decades now, through his track selections. Timberlake’s performance opened with his Justified song, “Señorita.” He kept that same era going with “Rock Your Body.”

And for those who would choose Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveSounds as their favorite album, he performed “SexyBack,” “Until The End Of Time,” and “What Goes Around… Comes Around.”

Last, but certainly not least, Timberlake tossed in one song from his 2013 album, The 20/20 Experience, with “Pusher Lover Girl.” With a ton of career-spanning hits, Timberlake managed to make it a truly entertaining performance.

“We’ve been out on the road a little bit,” Timberlake said during the episode. “I forget how many of us there are… Y’all really lived up to the name Tiny Desk.”

Check out Justin Timberlake’s performance on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert above.

Everything I Thought It Was is out now via RCA Records. Find more information here.

Cardi B recently chatted with Speedy Morman for his 360 With Speedy show, where she revealed why her previously teased collaboration with Ice Spice for the “Munch” remix never hit streaming platforms officially. Fans might be shocked, but as it turns out, Cardi loved the song — her main issue was simply not being pleased about her verse reacing a level of perfection.

“I love the record, I did not like how I sound,” she shared. “You know it being on a drill beat, it’s not as easy as it [looks]… I was like, ‘They’re gonna drag me and they’re going to drag the song bad.’”

Speedy Morman then pointed out that Cardi B had dabbled in drill music before, according to Complex.

“Yeah, but that was a little bit more my speed because it was a little bit more aggressive,” Cardi added. “I’m really good at being more aggressive than being, like, more sexy. I feel like I’m better off being aggressive than being sexy. So I just felt like it was not giving, I was like, ‘I don’t even want to do this to this girl.’ The record is already great, I don’t want to f*ck it up. I just hated my verse… I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is embarrassing. I can’t catch the beat for sh*t.’ Doing drill music is not as easy as people think it is.”

Hopefully fans will get a chance to finally hear it eventually. Until then, check out Cardi B’s full interview, including discussing her Ice Spice collaboration, above.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Earlier this week, Olivia Rodrigo made headlines after posts went viral online about how the abortion rights groups who appear at her concerts were handing out emergency contraceptives and condoms. However, according to Rolling Stone, the attention after Rodrigo’s St. Louis show caused her team to no longer allow those items to be handed to concertgoers going forward.

Rodrigo’s team according to Variety, will be reportedly shutting this down because “children are present at the concerts.”

The Missouri Abortion Fund was invited as the local group to Rodrigo’s show, but clarified that they were the ones who chose to pass the items out — rather than coming from Rodrigo herself.

“While we are disappointed to learn that other abortion funds will not get the same opportunity to do the same, we are encouraged by the overwhelmingly positive response,” Robin Frisella, Missouri Abortion Fund’s Community Engagement Director, told the outlet about the move. “We can’t speak to why this decision was made, but we hope this conversation highlights the work being done by abortion funds every day in states across the country. We stand by our decision to hand out EC and will be increasing our efforts to provide this to our community.”

For those going to a future Guts World Tour stop, the abortion rights groups will still be there — but purely for informational purposes.

The TV empire of Taylor Sheridan finds bedrock in the Yellowstone shows, but those are far from the only attraction under his prolific writing belt. Additionally, even the departure of Kevin Costner hasn’t slowed the rush of famous faces who are flocking to star in Sheridan shows, several of which are in production for their next seasons. Those include Sylvester Stallone’s Tulsa King, now gearing up for a a second season, and Billy Bob Thornton is moving past his 1883 confines to lead his own series, Landman.

The show is based in Texas, where Taylor Sheridan owns numerous sprawling properties, although he hasn’t let it slip whether any filming for Landman will take place in these venues. Let’s talk about what to expect from this series, which will likely surface before the final Yellowstone episodes.

Plot

This show finds bring to life material from the popular Boomtown podcast, although Sheridan’s pen will surely take the story elsewhere, too. Landman‘s description promises that this “drama is set in the proverbial boomtowns of West Texas and described as a modern-day tale of fortune seeking in the world of oil rigs.” Not only will Billy Bob Thornton portray the main character, wheeling and dealing oil company crisis manager, Tommy Norris, but his life will take us on a tour of “an upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fueling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics.”

In other words, this series hopes to bring to life the behind-the-scenes workings of the oil business, which surely arrives with other shades beyond the product itself, as anyone who has seen There Will Be Blood can attest. Both Thornton and co-star Jon Hamm have reveled in Sheridan’s writing for the series, and Hamm added, “It’s based on oil speculators and what they called landmen, which are the guys that run around and try to acquire mineral rights and land rights in the hope of speculating and finding oil.” The scripts are expected to weave the oil business into American identity in a move similar to other Sheridan scripts.

As a side note, Hamm has been in barbecue heaven in Fort Worth, so if there’s a second season, he’ll likely be all over it.

Cast

Billy Bob Thornton did not hesitate to hop on the lead role of Tommy Norris. Additionally, Demi Moore will portray Cami, the wife of a Norris friend and oil-business associate, and Jon Hamm portrays an oil-industry Titan named Monty Miller, who has an extensive background with Norris. On the personal side of the story, Norris’ ex-wife will be portrayed by Ali Larter, and Michelle Randolph and Jacob Lofland will portray their children, and the son is not peripheral to his father’s business.

Background roles will be filled by Texans far and wide, and those roles include oil-and-gas workers in the fields, both in North and West Texas, and some college-set scenes will be filled by area athletes.

Release Date

Filming is roaring along. In fact, Jon Hamm recently noted that that phase is halfway complete, so yep, there’s also an official release date from Paramount: July 23. The streaming home? Paramount+, of course.

Trailer

No trailer has surfaced yet, but here’s a CBS News peek at production ongoing in Fort Worth, Texas.

The best new hip-hop this week includes albums, videos, and songs from Cardi B, Flo Milli, Tierra Whack, and more.

Guys, it’s finally happened: A Best New Hip-Hop column in which I could literally get away with ONLY writing about women. That it comes in the middle of Women’s History Month is icing on the cake. Obviously, the menfolk put some stuff out this week as well, and I GUESS we’ll get to that, but let’s all just take a moment to Truffle Shuffle on Joe Budden’s po-faced (and — let’s face it — sexist, sycophantic, and downright incorrect) doomsaying.

It was a solid end to a week that frankly, got off to a pretty trash start in the “women in hip-hop” department. It’d be remiss not to adknowledge the passing of a a true pioneer in the space, Boss, whose death was announced on Monday by a gang of her peers. From there, it only got better.

Fortunately, things picked up thanks to the announcement that Rapsody is making her long-awaited return with a new album in May.

Flo Milli revealed that Cardi B would be joining her on the highly anticipated “Never Lose Me” remix.

Cardi herself dropped her own new single, “Enough (Miami),” debuting new looks and a sharper pen game than ever.

Sexyy Red teamed up with Tay Keith and had the whole internet yelling “Bow, bow, bow, bow!” with “Get It Sexyy.”

And, of course, a slew of women, from Bktherula to Tierra Whack also released new albums.

Here is the best of hip-hop this week ending March 15, 2024.

Albums/EPs/Mixtapes

Bktherula — LVL5 P2

Bktherula’s distorted thrash rap has been a staple of the Rolling Loud crowd’s rotation for some years, so it’s fitting that she drops her latest on the first day of the festival’s latest California iteration. She raps the way Shaggy and Scooby run while being chased by the latest monster of the week, and the beats are fittingly menacing.

Bossman Dlow — Mr. Beat The Road

I wrote about Bossman Dlow about a month ago and my colleague Wongo interviewed him a week later. Talk about striking while the iron is hot. The Florida rapper certainly benefitted from signing to the lithe Sony imprint Alamo, which was able to get his latest out the door while his viral track “Get In With Me” is still baking hot on TikTok.

Chuck Strangers — A Forsaken Lover’s Plea

While much of the attention and praise for the erstwhile members of Pro Era has rightfully been focused on Joey Badass, his old crewmates aren’t exactly sitting around doing nothing. Where Joey adjusted his style to suit the mainstream attention, Chuck Strangers went the other way, becoming more cerebral, dense, and mysterious (think fellow New York underground mainstays like Mike and Navy Blue). There’s a lot of J Dilla influence on his latest along with sprinkles of Griselda. It’s a great combo for fans of wordy, stream-of-consciousness backpack rap.

Flo Milli — Fine Ho, Stay

Of the modern wave of “girl rap” artists, Flo might be the one I’m rooting for the hardest. It’s pretty clear she focuses on barwork as much as the most dextrous backpacker while keeping things accessible. She’s a fan of the art, from hanging with Benny The Butcher to releasing the catchy, singsong brat raps that first made her a star. She splits the difference on her third album, leaning heavily on bangers and 106 & Park-ready pop ditties that show a lot of range.

Jay Critch — Humble Giant

A staple of the SoundCloud Rap boom era who has stuck around largely by virtue of a gift for consistency and a prolific work ethic, Jay Critch has proved to be remarkably adaptable. Case in point, he sounds as comfortable on drill beats here as he has on his Cloud rap production, coolly sauntering from one to the other for the duration of an easy-to-consume 13 tracks.

Kenny Mason — 9

I put Kenny Mason in this year’s Most Anticipated Hip-Hop Albums Of Spring feature earlier this week for two reasons. One: He’s got a ton of co-signs from rappers I really respect and enjoy. Two: My best friend Drew won’t shut up about him. Generally, this behavior is unbelievably grating — but it’s never inaccurate (for reference, he does the same thing with Curren$y and Larry June, two staples of this here column). “Luminous” probably won’t leave my personal rotation for at least three months.

Tierra Whack — World Wide Whack

Whew. I hope Whack has people around her to hug her. She’s always hinted at the rougher aspects of life but Vulture’s feature on the personal growth and struggle she’s undergone since dropping her last project — 2018’s groundbreaking EP(?) Whack World — makes the expansive and varied material here more poignant by entire orders of magnitude. She’s always been impressive. World Wide Whack is just transcendent.

Singles/Videos

Big Sean — “Clarity”

The Detroit icon missed 313 Day by 48 hours, but you know what? That’s okay. He’s back. This isn’t really a “song,” per se, but a five-minute therapy session with Sean, who’s certainly seen his fair share of ups and downs. I’m not sure what it says that makes his comeback this way while Lil Jon is doing meditation albums and André 3000 is dropping projects made of entirely woodwind instruments, but if hip-hop is entering its health girlie phase… I’m actually really proud of everybody. It’s been a rough couple of years, we need it.

Guapdad4000 — “I’d Rather Be With You Freestyle”

I’d rather listen to Guapdad’s freestyles than a lot of rappers’ entire albums. His commitment to this rollout is commendable; lots of artists do the weekly single release thing, but very few make sure to have a whole new music video ready to go with each one. The Bay Area rapper is dead set on proving doubters wrong — but if there are any left at this point, I “doubt” they’re listening.

Grouptherapy — “Pull Up!”

Yikes! Another one of those times I accidentally missed a full-length release I had been looking forward to. Grouptherapy is a rap trio made up of former child actors (including Tyrel J. Williams, the younger brother of Tyler James Williams of Abbott Elementary fame) who turned their disillusionment with the entertainment industry into fodder for their wildly experimental and introspective music. This one is a great example, but by no means emblematic of their output, as its way chiller than, say, “1stRoundDraftPickDEMO.mp3.” They’re incredibly versatile and entertaining in their own way, and that the project (THE ADDENDUM – IWMFMABIWSAC) is so personal tells me they’re going to find a very enthusiastic fanbase. Flog Gnaw worthy, for sure.

Zack Bia — “DAMN!” Feat. Teezo Touchdown

Teezo can do anything. The Houston(-ish) rapper — which seems like an inadequate descriptor, at this point — lights up every project he touches, and in this case, makes a strong case for the continued combination of hip-hop and EDM along with Field Trip Recordings producer Bia, who is responsible for advancing the careers of other like-minded genre-benders like SSGKobe, Slump6s, and Yeat.

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

The list of Stephen King short stories and novels (and everything in between) that have been adapted onscreen could fill the space of an abridged dictionary. Several more onscreen projects are in the works, too. There are not quite that many Salem’s Lot adaptations, but damn, there are a few. In 1979, Tobe Hooper directed the CBS miniseries, and in 2004, Rob Lowe, Rutger Hower, and Donald Sutherland appeared in a miniseries for TNT. A third version, helmed by Gary Dauberman (of the recent IT films and Annabelle Comes Home), was expected to be the first theatrical version of the tale.

The apparently finished film from New Line Cinema, however, somehow fell off the theatrical agenda for distributor Warner Bros. Pictures. That silence became so notable that King recently addressed the matter in an unvarnished manner. “Between you and me,” the horror maestro wrote on Twitter. “I’ve seen the new SALEM’S LOT and it’s quite good. Old-school horror filmmaking: slow build, big payoff. Not sure why WB is holding it back; not like it’s embarrassing, or anything. Who knows. I just write the f*cking things.”

It appears that King’s declaration might have brought results (because the film will indeed surface), unless the timing is sheer coincidence. What can we expect from the impending Salem’s Lot movie?

Plot

Warner Brothers Discovery announced this week that the New Line film will not head into theaters but, instead, will premiere on Max as a streaming film. (That’s much better news than it never seeing the light of day or even ending up like the Coyote Vs. Acme fiasco.) Finally, the King tale will be able to spook an entirely new generation onscreen, and even better: James Wan’s Atomic Monster is onboard for executive producing duties.

The source material, of course, is King’s 1975 novel (his second book), in which an author, Ben Mears, hopes to find inspiration for another book in his hometown (Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine) and experiences much more than he bargained for. As in, the place is vamping out.

Previously, both miniseries versions of the tale were well received on TV, and details on how much this film will tweak the subject matter remain relatively vague. King, however, has not only expressed his satisfaction with the project, but last fall, he declared of the then-“shelved” film that it “is muscular and involving. It has the feel of ‘Old Hollywood,’ when a film was given a chance to draw a breath before getting to business. When attention spans were longer, in other words.” He added, “It feels like a horror movie version of slow-burn movies like THE GREAT ESCAPE. It builds very well. There are diversions from the book I don’t agree with, but on the whole, faithful.”

Given Warner Bros.’ relatively recent slow burn in HBO’s The Outsider series, that bodes well for the same with Salem’s Lot. Additionally, Dauberman and the rest of the producing team are well versed in effectively scaring the hell out of people, and King promised that a key scene “could have been directed by John Carpenter in his prime,” so we must trust the process.

Cast

Ben Mears will be portrayed by Ben Mears. Alfre Woodard steps in as Dr. Cody. They are joined by Makenzie Leigh (Susan Norton), Pilou Asbæk (Straker), Bill Camp (Matthew Burke), Spencer Treat Clark (Mike Ryerson), and John Benjamin Hickey (Father Callahan).

Release Date

2024 is official. Perhaps King’s little social media nudge helped mark the project on the calendar? Whatever the case, it’s good news.

Trailer

We should see a trailer soon, given that Max recently announced that the film would premiere on the streaming service this year. Until then, please enjoy the production values of 1979 again.

Lately, I’ve noticed an annoying trend in fast food. Brands have always given us limited-time menu options, it’s an easy way to bring customers back to the drive-thru, but lately these LTO options have been better than just about everything else on the menu.

Shake Shack’s Spicy Burgermeister burger exploded with spicy, rich, and savory flavors. We named it the best burger of 2023. It’s gone now. Chipotle’s Garlic Guajillo Steak was so tender it practically melted in your mouth and dunked on just about everything else on the menu. It, too, is gone (though to Chipotle’s credit, they did bring back the pollo asado, which is also very good). And Jack in the Box soft-launched its best burger ever a couple of months back, then it disappeared from menus before most people knew it was even on the menu.

But we’re happy to say the Smashed Jack is back! For good.

For the uninitiated, the Smashed Jack is a smash-inspired burger (it’s not actually a smash burger, but that doesn’t matter) that is topped with grilled onions, thick pickles, a new special sauce known as Boss Sauce, all served up on a buttery brioche bun. The beef patty is juicy, and savory, has a crispy Maillard crust edge, and pairs perfectly with the caramelized grilled onions and smokey-tangy sauce.

In celebration of the burger’s return, here are three reasons you should order the Smashed Jack. If you’re more interested in a deep dive review, we have that too.

Three Reasons You Should Eat The Smashed Jack

It’s Jack in the Box’s best burger by a mile.

It may not compare to a high-quality fast-casual burger like what you’ll find at Shake Shack or Five Guys, but the Smashed Jack is significantly tastier than other drive-thru fast food restaurants including McDonald’s Quarter Pounder, and Burger King Whopper, and the Carl’s Jr. Angus Burger. Its only real competitor is Wendy’s Dave’s Single.

It’ll send a message to Jack in the Box that what we want is good food, not gimmicks.

I like JiB’s weird menu items like the tacos and eggs rolls as much as the next person, but I’d like to see fewer new menu items like Red Bull-infused drinks and French Toast Sticks. These are side orders, not flagships like a great burger.

It might inspire other fast food restaurants to launch new recipes.

It sounds farfetched, but it has happened before. When Popeyes dropped its chicken sandwich in 2019 nearly every fast food chain with a chicken sandwich launched a brand new take on their respective recipes. Some of those sandwiches were great (BK’s Ch’King sandwich comes to mind, RIP) and some weren’t, but it single-handedly elevated the chicken sandwich to a new level of popularity that put it in competition with the mighty cheeseburger.

The Bottom Line:

The Smashed Jack puts Jack in the Box in competition with some of the best burgers in all of fast food.

Find your nearest Jack in the Box here.