Category: News

The “real” Walter White was last seen snacking in the desert for a Breaking Bad-themed Super Bowl commercial. Yet the darker side of his legend lives on, apparently in Russia, where a man dubbed as the “Russian Walter White” allegedly ran an amphetamine ring with his wife out of their apartment. The story is typically sketchy, as The Daily Beast reports, given that this duo claims to have only sold “fake” drugs while pulling the wool over customers’ eyes in order to raise money to save animals.

Yes, you read that correctly Diana Gribovskaya is the science teacher in this scenario, and Dmitry Karavaichik is her veterinarian husband. The pair received hefty prison sentences, and since Vladimir Putin has grown increasingly desperate for recruits, the Wagner Group (who Putin has hired as mercenaries for his Ukraine war) has now pulled in the husband for Putin’s cause. This does not bode well for the husband living, given that Putin recently cut off the ammo supply of Wagner, but Diana received a pardon in exchange for him essentially signing over his life. The Daily Beast has more details:

Reports had already emerged in January that Karavaichik had joined Wagner after an image was released showing the group’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, alongside former prisoners who had been cleared of their convictions after fighting in the war in Ukraine.

Independent Russian investigative group Agentstvo (The Agency) identified Karavaichik as one of the ex-convicts in the photo. The BBC said the group — which also allegedly included a murderer who had drowned his friend — were also given medals “for courage” after completing a six-month stint on the frontline..

With that detail, the story of this war grows ever messier. Russia recently notched their day of greatest losses in this conflict after 1,000 soldiers lost their lives fighting in Ukraine. Putin has also taken to recruiting female convicts after restocking the Russian army with a hefty supply of male convicts. And it seems that the Russian version of Walter White could suffer a fate worse than his alleged inspiration in the AMC show. As they say, war is hell.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Hip-hop fans were dismayed to learn that long-running mixtape streaming site DatPiff — whose existence even predates that of more mainstream DSPs like Spotify — had shut down yesterday, leading to a period of mourning on social media for one of the pillars of the modern-day internet.

That is until DatPiff’s Twitter account popped up with a message reassuring users that the service was still alive and well. “Despite the rumors, we are happy to report that we will still be supplying you with all the mixtapes you love,” it read. “We’re working through technical issues on our site and app, but still actively update our youtube! Thanks for all the love and concerns but we promise, we are still here.”

So, what gives?

Well, you know how I’m constantly harping at you all about making sure you get your news from trustworthy sources? Yeah. Reddit.com is not a trustworthy source. Apparently, a subscriber of the subreddit r/hiphop101 interpreted some of these technical glitches as a sign that the company had completely folded. That post was then shared widely among hip-hop heads on social media — there’s an Instagram screenshot of the Reddit screenshot in the tweet below, courtesy of Complex — and it seems everyone pretty much ran with this story without confirming it via any legit news publications or first-person accounts.

DatPiff, which hosts mixtapes from both megastars and up-and-coming artists, holds a unique place in hip-hop history. Because it was easier to upload a new tape to the site directly than going through Apple Music (formerly iTunes, the only real name in the streaming game at the time), many artists got their start by sharing DatPiff links with their fans in the early days of social media. That includes names like ASAP Rocky, Big Sean, Drake, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar, among others (I wrote about some of them here). The entire blog rap era basically ran on DatPiff (and illegal file-sharing sites like ZippyShare and MegaUploads), and fans were quick to acknowledge its importance while (mistakenly) eulogizing the site.

Of course, with the reveal that the site wasn’t shutting down (yet), it seems that those flowers, while warranted, were premature. If the site can itself back up and running, now might be a good time to download all your favorite tapes for posterity — just in case. If not, well, there’s always LiveMixtapes.

It’s been exactly one month since Eric Andre and Emily Ratajkowski posted their celebratory naked pictures, and even though the couple seemed to have called it quits just days later, the photo has already taken on a life of its own. It would not be surprising if the historical artifact eventually hung in the Louvre.

But the mysterious photo was just that, a mystery, up until recently when Andre told Rolling Stone about the entire ordeal. “I was really in the moment. I was drinking wine. We both started cracking up,” he said Ratajkowski then took the photo, which shows the duo very naked with clothes littering the floor (stars–they’re just like us!) The comedian said that there “wasn’t much thought” when it came to posting it. “We both agreed that this was a beautiful image that we had to share with the world.” And the world loved the beautiful thing, as the photo quickly made the rounds in every corner of the internet.

The two didn’t seem to put much energy into how people would react, according to Andre. “It was one of those things. I think that’s what art is about. Art is not intellectual; it’s primal. It has to speak to your hormones as much as it speaks to your mind. The beauty of that was the spontaneity. Spontaneity and capturing happy accidents are what art is all about.” This is what Bob Ross was trying to tell everyone for all of those years.

The comedian also addressed the common trope of an actress/model dating an “ugly” (his words!) comedian, noting Colin Jost and Scarlett Johansson as an example. “How could this happen?” He joked, adding “I think that people think attraction is only based on physical appearance, but beauty is only skin-deep.”

We know just how popular comedians are lately, so maybe this isn’t a very surprising development. Being funny works! For some people, anyway.

(Via Rolling Stone)

The last 2-3 years of musical projects from TWICE may have felt like a transition period as they begin to mesh their bright and colorful image with cheeky messages on love and growing up. In their twelfth EP, Ready To Be (released last Friday, March 10), the top-selling South Korean girl group from JYP Entertainment — consisting of Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung, Tzuyu — has solidified their image as grown women in the pop industry. Their English pre-release single “Moonlight Sunrise” that dropped in January was only a glimpse of what was to come in the new seven-track project.

Ready To Be opens up with the group’s lead single “Set Me Free” — a disco-heavy pop track penned by GALACTIKA and produced by Lindgren. The first track off the mini-album suits its place in the EP, as the song can easily feel like you’re listening to the opening credits of a 1970s action-packed thriller. It’s not until we get into the bridge where modern meets nostalgia as TWICE’s rap-line of Dahyun, Momo, but Chaeyoung go back-to-back for a couple of lines. Blending in old and new genres is no stranger to TWICE’s signature sound. It’s something that they’ve perfectly formulated over the years alongside their production team. However, the message for “Set Me Free,” and its English version, are loud and clear: love freely and break from the chains that may bind and hold you back from doing so. Carrying a theme such as that makes “Set Me Free” a strong lead single and confirms both TWICE’s maturity as artists and their message.

If “Set Me Free” cemented TWICE’s newfound image of bringing sophisticated pop with mature themes, Ready To Be’s second track, “Moonlight Sunrise” (also known as the pre-release English single), was a teaser to the group’s grown era. As we’ve mentioned before, the song’s flirtatious lyrics (“I’ve got the moonlight, tequila sunrise, come take a shot on me, I got ya”) on top of a bed of Miami-bass is an invitation to the new side of TWICE. After all, the English single was the first project from the group after breaking K-pop’s seven-year curse and renewing their contracts last year.

“Got The Thrills” plays as the third track off of Ready To Be and can be easily taken as the sequel to “Talk That Talk” with its similar synths and progressions sprinkled throughout. Produced by JYP Entertainment’s in-house producer collapsedone (“What Is Love?” “Knock Knock,” “Feel Special”), TWICE highlights the adrenaline-rushing feelings of falling in love in a metaphorical sonic journey of thrills — “An insatiable thirst, risky eye contact / Even if it’s dangerous gotta gotta gotta get the thrills.”

The excitement springing from “Got The Thrills” transitions into a powerful rock and blues anthem penned by member Dahyun called “Blame It On Me.” Filled with a loud strum of the electric guitar and a consistent chord progression throughout, the song rages on the themes of a one-sided obsession with a subtle touch of lust. It’s an ode to unrequited love and the consequences of not being reciprocated.

As the thematic message of love can get complicated, TWICE’s “Wallflower” takes on a “drunk in love” approach in its messaging. With lyrics confidently suggesting an intimate night and sharing a dance with one another, TWICE allures the listener into their thoughts, eventually seducing them into their world in this lustful earworm.

And if you can’t deal with the complicated moments of love, sometimes it’s best to just leave it be. That’s exactly what the second penned track from Dahyun is saying in her rock pop song “Crazy Stupid Love.” While it may be considered a sad break-up song, it’s also a song filled with raging emotions of not wanting to deal with trivial lies and toxicity love can carry. Listing “Crazy Stupid Love” as the last [Korean-sung] track off the album (besides the English version of “Set Me Free”) is a great way to generalize how love is such a complex experience for young adults that, sometimes, we realize that maybe love, or specifically companionship, isn’t for all of us.

TWICE’s Ready To Be is out now and available on all streaming platforms.

During The Last of Us season finale, Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) recreate an iconic moment from the critically acclaimed video game by stumbling upon a giraffe while looking for the Fireflies camp in Salt Lake City. Ellie is first to spot the creature, and Joel joins her as the two marvel at the sight while standing on the open ledge in a collapsed building. Soon, the two are feeding the animal and even petting in a touching scene that fans of the game were waiting for all season.

However, in a surprising twist, the giraffe in the scene is actually real. Audiences today are so used to CGI creatures that many suspected the animal was created in a computer, but not so much. While the giraffe’s surroundings were digitally added, Pascal and Ramsey were working with the real deal for the scene. According to production designer John Paino, it wasn’t easy task for him and visual effects supervisor Alex Wang while on a tight deadline.

Via Variety:

“The trainers worked to get them to eat out of a stranger’s hand. So, when Ellie and Joel walk up at the enclosure, that’s the giraffe eating those branches of food,” Paino says. “That’s Hollywood magic of Alex isolating the giraffes and putting them on our set. That was probably the most complicated piecing of VFX stage, scenery and location I’ve worked on.”

Clearly, their work paid off. The season finale put up huge ratings for HBO and the giraffe scene has been almost universally praised in every review of the episode. They crushed it.

The Last of Us Season 1 is available for streaming on HBO Max.

(Via Variety)

Lamar Jackson is still a member of the Baltimore Ravens, although his future with the team is unclear. After efforts to hammer out a long-term contract extension failed to lead to a new deal, Baltimore put the non-exclusive franchise tag on the former NFL MVP last week. The two sides can still negotiate on a deal, but the catch is that Jackson can agree to a contract with another franchise, and if Baltimore does not choose to match it, Jackson would change teams in exchange for a pair of first-round NFL Draft picks. There has, however, been reported a lack of interest in doing that around the league, which has raised some eyebrows.

On the most recent episode of Adam Schefter’s podcast, the ESPN insider brought word that Jackson turned down a deal that could have brought him up to $200 million, with Schefter claiming that it was $200 million in guaranteed money. Jackson caught wind of that report and made clear that it is not true.

Now, as Schefter laid it out, Baltimore never actually offered Jackson $200 guaranteed. The star signal caller would have gotten $133 million guaranteed at signing, and then, there were additional incentives that would have brought it up to $200 million. But because the NFL has weird verbiage on things, Schefter said the deal would have given Jackson “$200 million in guarantees.”

“Chris Mortensen and I reported on this last September when Lamar Jackson was offered a deal that he turned down. A deal that included at the time he was offered $133 million due at signing,” Schefter said, per Baltimore Beatdown. “$133 million guaranteed. The contract also had injury guarantees that brought the guarantees to $175 million and it then had a springing guarantee that could’ve brought the value for the contract, the guaranteed money of the contract to $200 million in guarantees… and yes, those were the actual numbers and that was the situation. So those really were the guarantees for Lamar Jackson.”

As of right now, Jackson is slated to make $32.4 million with the Ravens next year.

In a lot of ways, Dreamville was the perfect record company to produce the soundtrack for Creed III. Much like the label’s founder, J. Cole, and the film’s protagonist, the rappers represented on Dreamville’s roster could best be described as underdogs. Like Adonis Creed, they work hard at their craft; the recording session for Revenge Of The Dreamers III could be seen as one big sparring session in which the rappers tested their skills against each other.

And in the new video for “Ma Boy,” featuring JID and Lute, neither rapper pulls a single punch — they go hard all the way through the three-minute rap drill. Thematically, “Ma Boy” mirrors one of the film’s primary dynamics: the fractured relationship between Donnie and his former friend Dame, who returns after an 18-year prison stint to challenge the junior Creed via survivor’s guilt. JID, who’s a huge movie buff, opens the track with a perspective that almost sounds Dame-like, while Lute answers with a lyrical counterpoint from Donnie’s.

Dreamville isn’t stopping with the Creed III soundtrack this year; a few weeks ago, they announced the lineup for this year’s Dreamville Fest featuring Drake and Usher.

Watch JID and Lute’s “Ma Boy” video up top.

Willie Nelson is heading out on the road again, and this time, he’s bringing some friends. Today (March 14), the 89-year-old country superstar announced another edition of the Outlaw Festival tour, an annual tour in which he, along with several country and rock acts, brings live music to several cities.

Joining Nelson on this year’s Outlaw Festival are Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, John Fogerty, the Avett Brothers, Margo Price, Kathleen Edwards, and Kurt Vile And The Violators.

The acts joining Nelson will vary city by city. Tickets will be available for purchase via Ticketmaster on Friday, March 17 at 10 a.m. ET.

Find the tour dates below.

6/23 – Somerset, WI @ Somerset Amphitheater (with Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Trampled By Turtles, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, & Particle Kid)
6/24 – East Troy, WI @ Alpine Valley Music Theatre (with Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Trampled By Turtles, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, & Particle Kid)
6/25 – St. Louis, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre (with Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Trampled By Turtles, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, & Particle Kid)
6/29 – Rogers, AR @ Walmart AMP (with Margo Price, Flatland Cavalry, & Particle Kid)
6/30 – Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion (with Whiskey Myers, Flatland Cavalry, Brittney Spencer & Particle Kid)
7/02 – The Woodlands, TX @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion (with Whiskey Myers, Brittney Spencer & Particle Kid)
7/28 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion (with Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Kurt Vile And The Violators, Kathleen Edwards, & Particle Kid)
7/29 – Bethel, NY @ Bethel Woods Center for the Arts (with Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Gov’t Mule, Kathleen Edwards, & Particle Kid)
7/30 – Darien, NY @ Darien Lake Amphitheater (with Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Gov’t Mule, Kathleen Edwards, & Particle Kid)
8/02 – Gilford, NH @ Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion (with the Avett Brothers, Kathleen Edwards, Flatland Cavalry, & Particle Kid)
8/04 – Hershey, PA @ Hersheypark Stadium (with the Avett Brothers, Marcus King, Kathleen Edwards, Flatland Cavalry, & Particle Kid)
8/05 – Philadelphia, PA @ TD Pavilion at The Mann (with the Avett Brothers, Marcus King, Kathleen Edwards, Flatland Cavalry, & Particle Kid)
8/06 – Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center (with the Avett Brothers, Marcus King, Kathleen Edwards, Flatland Cavalry, & Particle Kid)
8/11 – Cleveland, OH @ Blossom Music Center (with John Fogerty, Kathleen Edwards, Flatland Cavalry, & Particle Kid)
8/12 – Pittsburgh, PA @ The Pavilion at Star Lake (with John Fogerty, Kathleen Edwards, Flatland Cavalry, & Particle Kid)
8/13 – Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center (with John Fogerty, Gov’t Mule, Kathleen Edwards, & Particle Kid)

There were some fireworks at the end of Tuesday night’s game between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Sacramento Kings. According to De’Aaron Fox, Kings players took umbrage with how Giannis Antetokounmpo dribbled out the clock at the end of the Bucks’ 133-124 win, which led to Trey Lyles shoving the two-time NBA MVP in the back. Brook Lopez didn’t like that, which led to a brawl between the two squads.

“Giannis could just dribble the ball out,” Fox said after the game. “That’s all he had to do, and nothing would have happened.”

During his postgame press conference, Antetokounmpo expressed his appreciation for Lopez, and said that when the NBA hands out a fine for the incident, he plans on footing the bill.

“To be honest with you, I didn’t understand what happened,” Antetokounmpo said at the 4:20 mark of the above video. “They told me that he pushed me in my back. I didn’t know if he pushed me or he — you know, because I’m not seeing, I didn’t fall. I just kind of keep on moving, and then I just saw Brook being upset, and he usually is not that upset. He was yelling, ‘Don’t do that again, don’t push him like that.’ Then I realized, oh man, he pushed me in my back. And obviously, I appreciate Brook having my back. That’s my guy, not just on the court, off the court for life, he’s my guy. And I’m definitely going to pay for his techs. I’m gonna, what you call it? Reimburse him. I already told him. But I just appreciate people having my back.”

There’s no word on how much Lopez will be fined or if he’ll miss any games for the incident.

Vladimir Putin cannot keep up with restocking his troops for his deadly Ukraine war. That much is clear, given that he’s instituted multiple massive drafts within a year, and he’s even reportedly grown so frustrated with a lack of progress from private mercenary hired guns in the Wagner Group that he’s cut off their ammo supply, presumably to divert resources elsewhere. Where are those resources going, exactly? Well, Putin has been recruiting from prisons over the past year after running short on civilian troops in order to combat Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces, who refuse to yield their country.

Apparently, the prison supply is waning, too, because The Moscow Times reports that Putin is now drawing from women’s institutions. One can assume that this is probably not something that he’s doing for the sake of female empowerment, given that Putin hasn’t hasn’t made the most representative statements about women in the past. Following word from an independent watchdog and Ukrainian officials, The Moscow Times passed on word that a train full of Russian female convicts was headed towards Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Activist Olga Romanov (of the Russia Behind Bars organization) believes that this has been in the works for awhile, and here’s more:

“They were taken from penal colonies in southern Russia. I don’t know the exact ones, but they worked in Kushchevka [in the southern Krasnodar region],” Romanova told iStories.

As many as 100 female prisoners are believed to have been transferred to fight in Ukraine so far, according to the human rights defender, though it remains unclear if the recruitment was carried out on a voluntary basis or whether the inmates had been press-ganged into the Russian military.

This news arrives shortly after word that Russia recently suffered their deadliest day in the war with over 1,000 soldiers losing their lives in Ukraine in one swoop. And it’s not good news for these female convicts, obviously. Recruitment is tantamount to a death sentence at this point, and Putin apparently has no intention of stopping this war, to the point where he’s more worried about cabbage than the loss of life. At this point, he’ll likely die while trying to win what looks like an unwinnable war for anyone.

(Via The Moscow Times)