Nicki Minaj had three separate gifts for her loyal fan base to close off this week. She released her new single “Super Freaky Girl,” and offered a special debut of the record as she relaunched her infamous talk show Queen Radio on Amazon’s new platform, Amp. Leading into the show and song release, the Queens rapper gave fans an opportunity to proudly wear their Barb status on their torsos with a limited collection of Queen Radio merchandise.
The unisex collection is comprised of a black t-shirt with an illustration of the 39-year-old donning pink hair on the front with the show’s title across her chest. There are also splashes of turquoise and green surrounding her. The second piece is a black hoodie with the exact same design. The t-shirt costs $35 and the hoodie cost $60, however, the collection is limited so fans ought to swipe their cards quickly while supplies last.
Nicki MinajNicki Minaj
It is an exciting summer for the Queen artist, as she will receive the Video Vanguard Award at the VMAs later this month in addition to reuniting with Drake and Lil Wayne onstage last week at October World Weekend in Toronto. For a megastar who has offered so much to the game yet is constantly surrounded by negative narratives and headlines, some of which are self-inflicted, these moments are surely refreshing.
Check out Nicki Minaj’s Queen Radio merchandise above and purchase here.
Mark Ruffalo dropped a random burn on Star Wars while promoting his upcoming role in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. The moment came during an interview where Ruffalo was asked about Marvel‘s aggressive output, which is now back in full swing after the pandemic forced the studio took an even longer break following Avengers: Endgame.
When She-Hulk starts streaming, it will be the third Marvel series to hit in 2022, which also saw the release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is also slated for October, bringing the total number of Marvel series and films to a whopping six for this year alone. That’s a whole lot of MCU, which is fine in Ruffalo’s book.
“It’s not something I worry about,” he told Metro. “I understand that these things run their course and then something else comes along. But the thing Marvel has done well is that, inside the MCU, just as they do with comic books, they let a director or an actor sort of recreate each piece to their own style, their likeness.”
If you watch a Star Wars, you’re pretty much going to get the same version of Star Wars each time. It might have a little bit of humour. It might have a little bit of different animation. But you’re always, really, in that same kind of world. But with Marvel you can have a whole different feeling even within the Marvel Universe.
What makes Ruffalo’s potshot interesting is Disney owns both Marvel and Star Wars. Not to mention, the House of Mouse has been aggressively creating streaming content for each of them. However, Ruffalo’s comments could be a bit of healthy competition. While the Marvel series have performed well, none of them can hold a candle to The Mandalorian, which has been a massive juggernaut for Disney+. Baby Yoda rules everything around him.
The offseason provides players with the opportunity to unwind in a variety of ways, from island getaways to diving into hobbies like golf, players get a few months to enjoy themselves with one eye on the upcoming season.
For Ja Morant, that means getting a chance to pick up some new jewelry down at Icebox in Atlanta, where many of the biggest stars in sports and music make their way to for custom pieces. On Wednesday, Morant was in Atlanta to pick out some new chains (his new max contract means there’s some more money in the jewelry budget) when a newly engaged couple rolled in looking to buy some wedding bands and got something of an early wedding gift from the Grizzlies star.
Morant invited the couple over to take some tequila shots with him to celebrate their impending nuptials properly, which they happily obliged.
It was only right for @jamorant to take a shot with this engaged couple
You can’t turn down tequila shots from Ja, even if it’s a Wednesday afternoon at the jewelry store, and it’s a cool gesture from the young star to want to help them celebrate. Morant also notes that he himself hopes to get married “some day,” and whenever that happens you can bet there will be more celebratory shots and diamonds being purchased.
Tariq Trotter — aka Black Thought — is the best rapper alive.
He may not be your favorite of all time. He may not be the best-selling rapper ever. But bar-for-bar, there isn’t a single MC in the rap business who can out-rap The Roots’ frontman. Today, he once again proves as much with his much-anticipated latest “solo” release, the Danger Mouse-produced Cheat Codes. Okay, so, it’s technically a group release, but Thought does all the rhyming, aside from a handful of features that include veterans like Raekwon, Run The Jewels, and MF DOOM, as well as a few younger spitters such ASAP Rocky, Joey Badass, and Russ.
After listening to Cheat Codes, if you still don’t believe me, I’ve got nine more examples of times that Thought proved he was the best rapper alive below.
The Time Thought Dropped THAT Freestyle
Truthfully… We could end this list here. Mic drop. Done. From the opening bars (“I’m sorry for your loss / It’s a body dead in the car and it’s prob’ly one of yours”), Thought puts on a master class in breath control, cadence, delivery, and literary references in rhyme that has yet to be matched. No lie, I revisit this at least once a month. It’s a cure for writer’s block or really any sense of malaise over modern times. By the tenth(!) consecutive minute, you’ll be ready to run through a wall.
The Time Thought Dominated 2009 BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher
As much praise is heaped onto the guy who closes out the third cypher of the 2009 BET Hip-Hop Awards, I will contend that those shock-rap bars don’t come anywhere near the knowledge darts that Tariq flings throughout his verse. When he says, “Y’all see him on a job, see my eyes focused where the prize be / I’m like Martin Luther King, you like Rodney,” the impact can be felt as much as heard.
The Time Thought Didn’t Say Nuthin’
Long before “real hip-hop heads” were complaining non-stop about “mumble rap,” Black Thought and his band turned an unfinished reference track into a certified hit. The first single from The Tipping Point, “Don’t Say Nuthin’,” sees Thought mumble his way through a nonsense hook, putting the emphasis on his verses, where it belongs.
The Time Thought Took On The Entire Rap World
“Thought Vs. Everybody,” which appears on the Sean C-produced third volume of Tariq’s Streams Of Thought solo mixtape series, finds the Philly rapper waxing philosophical and wondering at the state of the world with his typical blend of well-worn wisdom and scholarly observation. “I hear police discussin’ whether to try and kill us all,” he muses. “I questioned if that’d matter, life is like a tree that falls / In the woods, even with iPhone footage to see it fall.”
The Time Thought Was Still A Teenager
“@ 15,” from The Roots’ Rising Down, can hardly be considered a song or even much of an interlude. Consisting of a scratchy recording of a young Tariq freestyling back before you could just capture such moments on a cell phone, the snippet gives us a glimpse of a Black Thought who was still raw, not fully formed… and still rapping rings around grown rappers who’d appear 30 years later.
All The Times Thought Was Game For Jimmy’s Shenanigans
Say what you want to about the host of The Tonight Show. His golden retriever energy is always matched by The Roots, who’ve been pulling double duty as the show’s house band since 2014. Whatever silly variety gag Jimmy comes up with — many of them utilizing Thought’s supreme freestyle talent, prompting him to make up songs on the spot about a variety of topics — Tariq is always down for the cause, showing fans a more carefree side of the seemingly super serious super MC.
The Time Thought Made Himself At Home
Rather than facing the impossible task of trying to curate specific moments from across the Streams Of Thought run, I’ll recommend you check out his Tiny Desk (At Home) Concert, which does the hard part for us. A fun game to play is to scan Thought’s desk, which contains a wealth of references to his incredible 30+ year career, as well as some truly impressive reading material.
“Break My Soul” is a strong contender for “song of the summer.” Ever since Beyoncé released it in late June, it’s been ubiquitous and has consequently hung around near the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, finally reaching No. 1 (where it currently sits) after the recent release of Renaissance. The song has managed this success without an official video, and since it was the album’s lead (and so far only) single, that means Beyoncé has yet to release any sort of Renaissance music video.
It looks like that’s going to change soon, though: Today, Beyoncé shared a teaser for an upcoming “I’m That Girl” video.
Unlike most teasers, this one actually features the entire song, albeit with the last half of the visual just the title displayed over a black screen. In the first half, though, there are plenty of indications about what the visual will look like. Presented here are a variety of scenes, in most of which Beyoncé is wearing a piece of stylistic metallic armor on her torso, and in all of which she teases quite a visual spectacle set to arrive at a currently unannounced date.
Watch the “I’m That Girl” teaser above.
Renaissance is out now via Parkwood/Columbia Records. Get it here.
Anne Heche, the actress best known for her roles in Donnie Brasco, Six Days, Seven Nights, and Cedar Rapids, has died after she was “pronounced brain dead” following a car crash last week, her family confirmed on Friday. She was 53 years old.
TMZ reports that “Anne is ‘brain dead’ and under California law that is the definition of death. The rep adds life support machines are keeping Anne’s heart beating for the purpose of preserving her organs for donations, however, the rep made it clear… Anne has no brain function.”
Heche was initially in “stable condition” after she crashed her blue Mini Cooper into a Los Angeles home (drugs were found in her system), but she lost consciousness on August 8th and slipped into a coma. “Unfortunately, due to her accident, Anne Heche suffered a severe anoxic brain injury and remains in a coma, in critical condition. She is not expected to survive,” her family wrote in a statement. “It has long been her choice to donate her organs and she is being kept on life support to determine if any are viable.”
Heche, who dated Ellen DeGeneres from 1997 to 2000, won a Daytime Emmy Award for her performance in the soap opera Another World and was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Saturn Awards for playing the iconic Marion Crane in Gus Van Sant’s Psycho remake. She is survived by her two kids.
In his new book, The Church Of Baseball, writer/director Ron Shelton talks about the making of Bull Durham and says, “The biggest mistake a sports movie can make is to have too much sports in it.” He would know, of course, helming films like Durham, White Men Can’t Jump, and Tin Cup,“sports movies” that stand out more for the characters at their heart than contrived moments of athletic glory.
I haven’t seen the entirety of Abbi Jacobson and Will Graham’s reimagining of A League Of Their Own (now a series on Amazon Prime that just debuted), so I can’t say with any certainty if there are any of those “big game” moments late in the season (like there were in the original film, the rare baseball movie that, like Major League, manages to break Shelton’s rule without consequence). It is clear, however, that while baseball is a big part of this, the creative heartbeat comes from the off-the-field drama, camaraderie, and relationships of characters that both recall the charm of the original and create opportunities for a broader audience to see themselves reflected on-screen as the show explores what life would have been like for women of color and queer characters in and around the All-American Girls Professional League.
We spoke with Jacobson about all of that recently, specifically, her eagerness for people to finally see the show after working on it for about a half-decade, getting Penny Marshall’s encouragement, building on the legacy of the original over replacing it. Jacobson also reflected on her experiences finding her team/place in the world through comedy and how the experiences of her character, Carson, echo that as she finds acceptance through baseball and her peers. Because isn’t that what it’s all about?
Was there any trepidation [at the start of this] just because of what it is and the affection that so many people have for it?
Yeah, I think there’s a lot of trepidation. Even from that first conversation [with co-creator Will Graham], we were talking about how we’re not remaking the movie, we’re really trying to reimagine it and tell those stories that weren’t told in the film. This IP is so important to so many people, the way it was to me, I care very much about this film.
I didn’t sign on to act in it for quite a while. I was in the middle of season four of Broad City and I was like, “I’m still doing this, how would I ever even do that?” I was just creating or writing and producing this with Will. And we were very much writing Carson with my voice in mind, but it’s a lot of pressure. And I think we both wanted this. But I think before I signed on to be in it too, I just wanted to make sure it felt very unique and could stand on its own. And that the tone here is pulling from the film in [how] we are harnessing the spirit and the joy and the energy of the film. But tonally, ours is really this balancing act of comedy and drama and diving into some of the bigger issues of these characters and their experiences. And so, I just had to get it to that point before I signed on. I’m so excited for this to come out, but I’m definitely nervous, too.
Do you pay attention to critics and what people say? Is it more about peers?
I think a little bit of both. You know, Ilana [Glazer] and I were so different. She’s so much better at ignoring critics and ignoring that feedback. And I feel like with Broad City I had the tendency to find the bad ones. The good feedback just didn’t impact me as much, which is wild. Why are they unequal weight? And why am I searching for something to reaffirm my biggest fear? I think that’s what it is. I don’t know. I’m off Twitter. I’ve been off Twitter for a couple of years, so I think that might be helpful in this next couple of months.
It’s always helpful [to not be on Twitter].
Ultimately, it is very interesting, the feedback and what critics say and what they think about the new characters we’re bringing to life. And who knows what will happen when it comes out, but I’m at a point where I’m like, “You know what, we’ve worked so hard on this.” I do care so much about this. And I’m at a point where I really am very proud of it. And so I hope I can maintain that being more important to me than what other people think about it.
I know you did have a chance to talk to Penny Marshall going into the project early on. Not to keep this all fear-based, but what were the apprehensions going into that conversation? Because it sounds like it was a really positive experience, but I imagine that would be very nerve-wracking going into it.
It was a really positive experience. We didn’t get to talk to her for that long, and it was on the phone. I think we went in mostly just to tell her how much her film meant to us and that we weren’t trying to redo it. And why we felt there was more to tell about women playing baseball in the 1940s. So, it was almost to get her blessing and to just make her aware. And we got to ask her questions about that iconic scene where the Black woman picks up the ball and chucks it back. And she’s alluding to the fact that Black women were not allowed to try out for the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. And she’s making a huge big-budget film. She’s a female director in 1992. And she told us, “I was trying to tell this story, and I felt like I couldn’t tell all of them. But I really wanted to be able to nod to all of them.”
And you know what? We are at a moment right now where we are trying to tell a lot of them. We’re really trying to tell a lot of these stories. And I think we’re at a point where we can. And a huge studio and a huge network is behind us doing it. And I think there’s a difference in the kind of stories you can tell in Hollywood. Also, we have the real estate of a show versus the real estate of a film. And she said to us, “You know, go make it already.” She was like [Jacobson pulls off an A+ Penny Marshall voice], “Well, go do it already.” And Will and I were just, that was wild. That was just, really very important that we got to talk to her.
It’s like what you were saying before about the movie meaning so much to so many people. And with the ability to branch out and tell different stories, obviously, this is going to mean a lot to a lot of people. Obviously, it’s always different when you see yourself on screen.
Yeah, I think we’re just showing so many more experiences of women playing baseball. And I guess that is an end goal whenever you make a thing, you hope people outside the demo you’ve been told is going to watch, watches it. The scope of the representation we’re putting out there, I think is the really exciting part. I don’t think that I’ve seen these stories told about queer people and women of color playing sports in the 1940s. What would I have looked like if 30 years ago, when the film came out, as a kid, those [stories] were represented? I think my life would’ve been really different. I came into my sexuality pretty late in life, not unlike Carson. And it’s just so important. I feel really lucky that I get to do what I do for a lot of reasons. I feel like a responsibility, in a way. That would’ve changed my life, I think.
This show picks up right with your character jumping on a train and kind of going to the city. It’s almost like going to the circus, basically. Going to the show. Do you relate to that with your journey with comedy?
Oh my God, yeah. Without a doubt. Baseball would be a direct equivalent to me finding comedy. A big theme of the show is finding your team. All the characters are finding their team, whether that’s on the field or off the field. And whether that’s the Peaches or whether that’s Max, who’s trying to find her team the whole time, and ends up finding her team barnstorming on Red Wright’s team at the end of the season, but also recognizing that, her team is her best friend Clance. Teams come in a lot of different ways.
My experience coming into comedy and when I walked into UCB and saw that first show; I went by myself and [that was] the feeling that I wanted to convey when Greta, Carson, and Jo walked into Baker Field. And it’s that song, that’s “Dream.” That’s what the song is called. I’ve seen it a hundred times. It’s chill-inducing to me. That is what I felt sitting in that theater, under Gristedes [market], watching people do improv. I was like, “What is this? I want to do this more than anything.”
When I found that community (that includes Ilana and all of my friends) it completely changed my life. And I think that that’s where a lot of our characters are finding themselves. And they’re finally finding other women who love the game of baseball as much as them. And you just feel understood and seen. And I think that can be equated to whatever it is that you do. Whatever you do. You’re a graphic designer. You find your firm. You’re like, “Holy shit.” You know what I mean? Whatever it is. I think that that’s a pretty big part of being alive.
‘A League Of Their Own’ is now available to stream on Amazon Prime
In October of 2020, Tegan And Sara announced that they were turning their memoir High School into a TV series. It’s been a slow process, but it amped up this year when they revealed the cast in May, sharing that TikTok celebrities Railey Gilliland and Seazynn Gilliland are the leads.
Now they’ve unleashed the first trailer for High School. At a little over a minute, it’s brief but packed with compelling scenes that portray the youthful, emotional texture of the series. It’s funny but has a dark edge, but more than anything it’s a coming-of-age story set to the sound of acoustic songs by a teenager navigating her identity.
“No one is more shocked than us,” the duo once said about this project, “that after a VERY difficult couple years in high school, doing copious amounts of drugs, skipping school, lying + being all around degenerates that we made it this far in our musical journey.” They added, “We are incredibly excited to be working with Lauren, Ryan, and the fantastic IMDb TV team to bring ‘High School’ to life and apologize in advance to our mother for forcing her to relive this period of time with us again.”
Watch the trailer for High School above.
High School premieres October 14 via Amazon Freevee.
Britney Spears has one less ex-husband to deal with… for now. While ex Kevin Federline has been hogging all the headlines as of late as he airs out his grievances on Spears’ alleged shortcomings as a parent to their two sons, Spears’ other ex-husband Jason Alexander (no, not George from Seinfeld) — who famously filmed himself trespassing and stalking the pop star on her wedding day — has reached a plea deal in Ventura County. After recording his own ludicrous antics on Instagram Live, and nearly ruining Spears’ wedding to Sam Asghari in the process, Alexander was sentenced to 128 days in county jail. But, he won’t have to serve any of them.
“Where is Britney,” Alexander could be heard frantically shouting in the video of him crashing Spears’ wedding day back in June. One of her security guards (who was later fired) testified, “He [Alexander] started reaching into his right pocket,” so he drew his weapon. It turned out Alexander only had a box-cutter on him. Rolling Stone reports that Alexander pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of aggravated trespassing and battery and that his felony stalking and misdemeanor vandalism charges were dropped.
Britney Spears’ ex, Jason Alexander, broke into her house and stormed inside her wedding venue before her wedding ceremony on Instagram Live. pic.twitter.com/tiRbXBoAnJ
The judge in the case ruled that Alexander had already served the time from his 128 day sentence, since he had already spent two months in custody and got double credit for “good behavior.” It appears to be a solid plea deal for Alexander, who won’t have a felony on his record for this one.
Alexander and Spears were married for a total of 55 hours in 2004. Not exactly a lasting marriage for the childhood friends. But that makes one less ex-husband that Spears has to deal with at the moment.
Each week our staff of film and TV 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.
What if there was a show from the people who made Mr. Robot and Lodge 49 and it was set at a spooky tropical resort and it starred Cristin Milioti from Palm Springs and William Jackson Harper from The Good Place and the whole thing hinged on a mystery they uncovered because one of them crashed a four-wheeler in the jungle and discovered a mangled old Motorola Razr? Well, guess what: there is. Watch it on Peacock.
The first season of Reservation Dogs was a revelation. Just a group of foul-mouthed Native American teens living on a reservation in Oklahoma and getting into trouble and being little rascals. It was also, sometimes, sweet and, also sometimes, heavy, and sometimes there was a mystical figure who would show up and giggle a lot and kind of just screw with everyone for five minutes. It’s a hard show to describe. But it’s a heck of a ride. Watch it on Hulu.
Think of the cartoon icons that stretch across the generational divide from the sheer will of their appeal and the skill with which they are deployed: Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Homer Simpson… Beavis and Butthead. Didn’t see that coming when we were snort laughing along to these idiots as they riffed on music videos and got into idiotic horny adventures in the ’90s, but now they’re back, riffing on music videos (and TikTok videos) and getting into idiotic horny adventures. Some things never change. It’s kinda beautiful. Watch it on Paramount Plus.
Neil Gaiman’s seminal comic book series finally lands on the small screen (while the successful Audible epic keeps cranking with a different cast). The story picks up with Morpheus (the King of Dreams) angry as hell at those who imprisoned him. Tom Sturridge takes on the lead role and guides us through space and time on a cosmic trip. Let’s hope this show is worth the extensively long wait (the project has the unenviable task of piecing together a tapestry of sometimes free-standing stories), but no matter how it turns out, we’re getting Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer. That ain’t nothing. Watch it on Netflix.
Popularly and positively referred to as Euphoria and Succession‘s love child, Industry returns for season two, focussing again on the realm of global finance through the lens of the 20-somethings who are consumed by it and the realities of survival and success in a world post panny where satisfaction seems like a hindrance. Watch it on HBO Max.
The super-popular spinoff of the super-popular Starz series Power is back for another run to detail the rise of Kanan in the 1990s drug trade. This show has good music, drama, lots of cool stuff, and has the added bonus of just slipping a sneaky little pun right there into the title. Tough to ask for much more out of a television program. Watch it on Starz.
Extra extra, there’s some Stranger Things-like comic book content coming your way. This live-action adaptation (of the works of Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang) follows four paper-delivery girls who end up (while only doing their jobs) stumbling into a war of time travelers. They end up springing from 1988 into the future and meeting their eventual selves. Ali Wong stars as one of the grown-up girls, and let’s just say that the future is not easy. These paper girls, however, are here to heal wounds and rock out to Danzig at the same time. A win-win. Watch it on Amazon Prime.
It’s tough to better the best, but Abbi Jacobson and D’Arcy Carden aim to do just that with this reimagining of A League Of Their Own. Taking advantage of the space that a series brings to expand the story and move away from the field in affecting ways, the show manages to mix charming nods to the original with a focus on queer characters and women of color whose experiences in and around the All American Girls Baseball League had yet to be explored. Watch it on Amazon Prime.
The good news here is that Harley Quinn is back, finally, after a multi-year break due to, well, everything. The delightfully profane animated series remains one of our finest television programs, between Harley and Ivy being a couple now and chaos descending upon Gotham and this show’s version of Bane continuing to be a hopeless goofball. It really is a blast, a beam of sunshine in a world filled with bleak dramas. You deserve to have fun. Watch it on HBO Max.
Nathan Fielder is back with another show that toes the line between awkward and brilliant. His first go-round was Nathan for You, the Comedy Central series where he “helped” people “fix” their businesses. Now he’s got this project, in which he “helps” people plan out conversations and various personal interactions in very, very deep detail. It’s a lot and it’s hard to explain on paper (please do imagine Nathan Fielder pitching this to a confused HBO executive), but it also sounds like a perfectly imagined Nathan Fielder show. Worth a shot. Watch it on HBO Max
The good news here is that the vampires are back. The bad is that… well, there’s not really any bad news. How could there be? This show remains relentlessly fun and silly in a way that almost feels like they’re getting away with something, like someone in charge stopped paying attention and they’re just running wild in their own little sandbox. This is, to be clear, a compliment of the highest order. One of our best shows is back and still humming along in peak form. This is worth celebrating. Watch it on FX/Hulu.
There’s so much we know and so much we don’t know about what’s on the other side of Better Call Saul‘s finale. So much anxiety over what happens to Kim Wexler and, ultimately, what happens to Jimmy/Saul after the events of Breaking Bad. But as the season premiere demonstrated, the thrill is in the journey (with surprising turns, masterful storytelling, and gripping visuals), not just in the destination, meaning sit back, relax, and try and enjoy the shooting star that is this all-time best series’ final notes. Watch it on AMC Plus.
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