Category: News

Quentin Tarantino’s gone on a podcast rampage of late. The famously boisterous director opened up to Marc Maron about a Once Upon A Time In Hollywood casting dream that went unfulfilled. He got profane with Joe Rogan while discussing the controversial portrayal of Bruce Lee in that same film. And recently, he visited The Moment podcast, hosted by Billions co-creator Brian Koppelman, and revealed how he’s holding onto a childhood grudge, including a vow never to give any money to his mother, Connie.

Apparently, 12-year-old QT got into an argument with his mother over his time spent on crafting screenplays, at the expense of paying enough attention in school. This dispute grew contentious. “In the middle of her little tirade,” Tarantino related (via The Wrap) while adding what his mother said next. “‘Oh, and by the way, this little ‘writing career’ — with the finger quotes and everything — this little ‘writing career’ that you’re doing? That sh*t is f*cking over.” This moment not only stuck in his head but led Tarantino to throw down a vow and stick with it:

“When she said that to me in that sarcastic way, I was in my head and I go: ‘Okay, lady, when I become a successful writer, you will never see penny one from my success. There will be no house for you. There’s no vacation for you, no Elvis Cadillac for mommy. You get nothing. Because you said that.’”

Quentin did explain that he has helped his mother, once, when she got into “a jam with the IRS.” Yet as far as anything else goes, he insisted, “There are consequences for your words as you deal with your children.” He then added, “Remember there are consequences for your sarcastic tone about what’s meaningful to them.” Perhaps that seems a little harsh, or maybe the whole experience is partially why Quentin has taken a laid-back approach to certain aspects of his on childrearing experience.

(Via The Moment With Brian Koppelman & The Wrap)

The Ted Lasso Power Rankings are a weekly analysis of who and/or what had the strongest performance in each episode. Most of the list will feature individual characters, although the committee does reserve the right to honor anything from animals to inanimate objects to laws of nature to general concepts. There are very few rules here.

Season 2, Episode 3 — Do The Right-est Thing

HONORABLE MENTION: Trent Crimm, The Independent (need one of you to make a supercut of him introducing himself at press conferences while standing up and removing his glasses); Keeley (tough week between the photoshoot causing assorted calamity and the Bantr app not really taking off); Sassy Smurf (straight shooter, seems like a fun hang); Mae (really great little dance she did in the background while the pub was singing the Jamie Tartt song); Higgins (still funny to me to keep him out of the listings proper, so here he stays); Nate (I am suddenly very sad for Nate and need him to find love on the Bantr app at once); Phoebe (no ice cream for dinner, but she understands why)

10. Nora (Last Week: Not ranked)

Big fan of Nora, the sassy child of Rebecca’s friend (and Ted’s one-time lover), Sassy Smurf. I like that she’s a little jerk almost all of the time except when she gets hopelessly starstruck by Sam, because that feels correct and natural for most teens. I like that she dresses kind of like a street urchin from a film adaptation of a Charles Dickens novel, because it reinforces everything I think I know about British people. But mostly I like that she made this awful horsefly/pee joke within about 30 seconds of appearing on-screen for the first time.

Do I think for one second that a deeply sarcastic teen like Nora would ever make a joke this corny on purpose? No. Do I think she would roll her eyes all the way back into her head if an adult around her made this joke? Absolutely. Do I care at all, even for a little, even just long enough to emit a whispered “hmm” as I think about it again right now? Reader, I do not. The lesson here is to just accept a good thing sometimes and not let your brain think you out of it.

9. Ted Lasso (Last Week: 6)

Ted is a fascinating man. Consider:

• He is comfortable enough around a one-time lover to make an “Is she mine?” joke about the woman’s teenage child, in front of his boss
• He is so uncomfortable at the mere mention of the menstrual cycle that he looks like he’s trying to hide his entire body behind his mustache

Dr. Sharon is going to have a field day with him. She’s going to be running around inside his brain like Nicolas Cage in the National Treasure movies, carrying a torch and sliding tiles around until she unlocks the secret room where the jewels are. I can’t wait.

8. Soccer Saturday Host Jeff Stelling (Last Week: Not ranked)

I would, without hyperbole, watch this show — a fake sports commentary show that discusses fictional athletes that play a sport I barely follow in real-life — for an entire half-hour. Maybe even a full hour. It’s perfect. My new favorite guy is the host, Jeff, who is desperately trying to hold things together, to make it a normal show that follows normal rules, as the dudes around him descend into bickering madness. Look at him in that last screencap. It’s beautiful. Add him to the list of minor characters I now want a full episode of backstory about.

(UPDATE: It has been brought to my attention that Soccer Saturday is, in fact, a real show, and Roy’s presence is the only fictional element. This somehow makes me enjoy all of it even more.)

Semi-related: I tweeted about how much I love sports pundit Roy and how I want him to have his own show and I got this reply…

… which is maybe the best idea I’ve ever heard. I need this at once. Like, in real life. Thirty minutes every weekday. I know this reads like a joke but I assure you it is not.

7. Led Tasso (Last Week: Not ranked)

This is startling. When I watched the trailer for this season, weeks ago, and saw a reference to an evil alter-ego named Led Tasso, I thought it would be my favorite moment of the whole season. Flipping around names like this — spoonerisms, they’re called — is one of my favorite hobbies. Try it yourself sometime. A few of my favorites: Paul Rudd (Raul Pudd), Samuel L. Jackson (Jam Sackson), former NBA all-star Danny Granger (Granny Danger). And so on.

And yet! This sunglasses-wearing demon was ineffectual when it came to results. He made no substantial progress in opening up the team to Jamie’s return. All he did was yell and kick some soccer balls and wear sunglasses. I still love him very much and would like to see video of whatever exactly happened inside that Chuck E. Cheese, but I cannot in good conscience rank him any higher than this.

6. Dr. Sharon (Last Week: 4)

Took her one session to fix soccer vagabond and reality show loser Jamie Tartt, apparently. That’s kind of impressive. Part of me wants to see what she can do with my mysterious king Coach Beard. Another part of me is terrified of what would happen. I will needs weeks to consider this.

5. Roy (Last Week: 2)

I must, once again, for the third consecutive week, insist that Roy Kent get a daytime talk show, one where he gives blunt but shockingly helpful life advice to an audience of housewives. Maybe like The View but with him and the Yoga Mums in the comfy chair with cups of tea and/or whiskey. Look at what he’s done for Rebecca already this season. He’s given her accurate advice for both her love life and for relating to children. He’s wise and profane like an NC-17 Oprah. Air this every day at noon and the show with Trent Crimm every day at dinner time. Roy is a star. Point a camera at him as often as possible.

4. Rebecca (Last Week: Not ranked)

Good for Rebecca. I’m glad she stuck up for Sam and I’m glad she got to do it in a way that let her be a competent, assertive authority figure. She is that, to be sure, but a lot of the show has focused on the various ways her personal life is a disaster, and even when she’s gotten a win it’s been with the assistance of someone around her, with Ted in the darts scene being the most notable example.

But here, all her, sticking up for a good person and a good cause even though it could make things sticky and weird going forward. She probably needs to reconsider her office open-door policy — not sure how she gets anything done with various employees barging in all day long — but otherwise quite solid.

3. Jamie Tartt (Last Week: 10)

Nice little emotional journey and awakening for Jamie this week, all of which you are welcome to discuss on your own time. I want to talk about crying. Specifically, I want to talk about the thing where I watched the screener for this episode over lunch last week (“Oh, I have a free 30 minutes, lemme quick watch Ted Lasso”), expecting a fun little diversion, and ended up legitimately crying when Jamie taped over the Dubai Air logo on his jersey.

While this is fine, generally, both because I support shows doing cool emotional stuff and because I cry all the time when they do, it did make it tough to just go back to work after that emotional journey. I was over here in pieces trying to, like, edit blog posts while sniffling. It was a weird day. Happy for Jamie, though. I don’t think it will stick long-term, or at least that he won’t slip up and go all diva again, but it was still nice.

2. Sam (Last Week: 8)

Sam has been having a tough go of it this season. He’s the team’s star but they’re stuck playing to ties every match. Ted brought back Jamie against his stated wishes. He landed a big star-making advertising campaign and then learned from his disappointed father that the company he’s endorsing is responsible for destroying his homeland. The hits kept coming for a dude who is either the first or second nicest guy on the team, depending on how much you believe there is darkness hidden inside my sweet prince Dani Rojas.

So this was a cool moment to see, across the board, but especially at the press conference. I like that he shot down Trent’s soccer question. I think Trent liked it, too. It was great how all the other reporters started clamoring and Trent went full alpha when he realized he could finally ask a serious journalism question. This is why we need that Trent-Roy PTI show.

1. Coach Beard (Last Week: 1)

To recap:

• Last week, we learned Coach Beard is sleeping in the clubhouse because he got into an argument with Jane and she threw his phone into the river
• This week, we learned he could not download Keeley’s new dating app because he shares an iCloud account with Jane and he worries she’ll destroy his phone with pliers and a blowtorch

This is now my favorite running subplot on the show. I need to know how many phones he goes through. I need a running tally. I want him to walk into an Apple Store — yes, I am endorsing shameless product placement for Apple on the Apple TV show, but only for jokes — and have the employees react to him like he’s Norm from Cheers. Like, they just have phones ready for him. He walks in and some employee hands him a new phone all casually, without even looking away from another customer, like they do it every morning. Maybe Coach Beard brings him a coffee the way he likes it, like they’re buddies now.

I don’t know. I’m just spitballing. But I’m also serious.

Reservation Dogs, the new FX (on Hulu) series from Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, is a slice-of-rambling life portrait of four “criminals.” I put that word in quotes because you’ll never be able to forget that this is a Waititi work on FX (also home to What We Do in the Shadows, one of the funniest shows on TV). This life of crime is an absurd one, and this gang of Indigenous teens can’t go about their hustlin’ and thievin’ in an effective way. Meanwhile, their reservation life oozes multiple obvious not-so-subtle homages (a semi-pastiche of a pastiche, if you will) to a certain Quentin Tarantino work, but these kids can’t even get things off the ground to fathom some enormous diamond heist. They’re comically low-stakes, and they’re ostensibly the story’s main characters, although there’s another big one. That would be the show’s Oklahoma setting (the show was shot outside of Muskogee, the Creek Nation headquarters), which Harjo (a member of the Seminole Nation who also has Muskogee Creek heritage) and Waititi (who has delighted in dropping nods to his own Māori heritage) deftly use in their bid for authenticity.

The bid is a serious one, despite the not-so-serious subject matter at hand. The show exclusively builds itself from the minds of Indigenous writers, cast, and crew members, who know that feeling of identifying with one’s own close-knit community while also, at times, feeling those confines. And the project itself is a tremendous display of not only Indigenous representation, on and offscreen. It’s also what happens when a community comes together to tell the stories that they want to tell in the way that they want to tell them. And so, these characters didn’t burst fully-formed onto the screen. I wouldn’t say there’s massive character development (we’ve got some breezy episode runtime), but layers do show themselves. These teens also aren’t in service of propping up anyone else’s stories (or any other community’s stories) but their own. That’s huge when one reflects upon how Indigenous characters have been represented in Hollywood projects throughout pop culture history.

All of this is happening after Native Americans endured atrocities and were pushed into reservations and still, at times, find themselves marginalized against the mainstream community. And the way that the show maneuvers against stereotypes is bitingly funny. What transpires builds upon what Peacock’s Rutherford Falls is doing, respectably, while still, you know, revolving on Ed Helms (who co-created and stars) to be the focal point through which the show’s cultural commentary reverberates. Yet Reservation Dogs commits itself to Indigenous ownership and reclamation from the ground up. Furthermore, the show’s tone embraces surreal, what-the-f*ck elements, which underscore realities for Indigenous communities in the U.S. If that sounds familiar to you as a fan of Atlanta‘s FX, then yes, you should put this show on your list. Likewise, those who recently loved Betty will enjoy similar come-what-may vibes here.

It must also be noted that what might seem like a niche project shot in Oklahoma could carry a lot of appeal. (Don’t hate on Oklahoma, man. Marty Scorsese is there and shooting a movie with Brendan Fraser and some guy named Leo as we speak.) One can easily surrender to how this show touches upon the cultural shackles of Indigenous people while also embracing a rambling approach to exploring what these teens do (surprisingly a lot yet not much at all) on a daily basis. They find themselves in some ridiculous scrapes and situations that are written, and acted, with a sensational approach, like a paintball attack by a rival group — known as, yes, the Indian Mafia — that rolls in slo-mo. The scene ends with the group’s apparent ringleader collapsing and awakening to his warrior-spirit guide, who’s a nod to almost every Native American cultural cliché out there.

Yet there’s a lot of heart in this mystically realistic character, who helps to cement the soul of this series. The show’s very cheeky and lighthearted, and in that way, Reservation Dogs pushes against the assumption that one must be overly serious when forging ahead to tell stories from communities that found themselves steeped in tragedy not too terribly long ago, against the backdrop of history. This community is one of survivorship, yet one must remember that identity should not be singularly defined by trauma. In that way, Reservation Dogs recognizes the value of telling textured stories, even if (at least in the four episodes screened for critics) the commentary doesn’t yet reach Atlanta levels. There’s a lot of room to grow here, and this show’s characters get some fine setups for future development. The group’s ringleader, Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), is entirely ineffectual, and Elora Denan (Devery Jacobs) could probably do a better job as frontwoman, but that’s part of the charm here, too. Paulina Alexis (Willie Jack) and Cheese (Lane Factor) round out the group.

“Cheese” must be the coolest/uncoolest character name of all time, right? You’ll dig Cheese (he’s adorable), but the group is mourning a fifth member (weirdly named “Daniel,” who sounds too ordinary) and desperately want to build their savings up and get the hell out of dodge, lest they suffer their lost friend’s fate. There aren’t a whole lot of ways for teens to rustle up cash in rural Oklahoma, so they decide to evade the law, such as it is in tribal terms. Enter the heisting of snacks and edibles and other very ridiculous efforts. So far, the show weaves a humor-filled tapestry while diving in and out of realities that often plague reservation life (the medical clinic frequently attended by Bear, for example) while still somehow tying into a broader mainstream set of references that a larger audience can appreciate. Reservation Dogs doesn’t try too hard to impress, either, and that’s the beauty of this show. It’s authentically impressive and (so far) a ride to nowhere, but what an enjoyable ride to take.

Reservation Dogs premieres on FX on Hulu on August 9.

Isaiah Thomas has always been a tremendous scorer, peaking in his 2016-17 season with the Celtics in which he averaged 28.9 points per game and took Boston to the conference finals. However, from there Thomas’ career got derailed by a hip injury and a trade to Cleveland and later the Lakers, with stops in Washington, Denver, and most recently a cup of coffee in New Orleans.

Thomas has tried to do whatever he can to prove he can still, at minimum, be a valuable veteran bench scorer in the NBA, but that is a tough market to stick in beyond the elite guys like Lou Williams. As such, Thomas spends his summers traveling the country playing in various pro-ams to show that, yes, he is still that guy, and so far in 2021 he’s put up two legendary performances.

The first came in Atlanta at the AEBL where he scored 65, lighting it up from deep and then getting wherever he wanted off of that smooth jumper. On Monday night, Thomas returned home to Seattle for The Crawsover, Jamal Crawford’s pro-am, where he put on an even bigger show in Seattle as he went off for 81 points, with BallIsLife providing a full documentation of the highlights above, but maybe the best of them all came with this stepback.

Thomas is, truly, an incredible scorer and watching him play against non-pros is just a reminder of how ridiculously good all of these pro guys are. It is also hopefully the latest indication that Thomas is, truly, fully recovered from his hip injury. Whether Thomas lands with an NBA team this season remains to be seen, but at the very least, if you see him at a local gym this summer, be ready for a show.

When Athena started Twitch streaming it was for one sole purpose: she wanted to play Rocket League online. The idea of streaming anything else was a non-starter for her because she loved it that much. The game about rocket-powered cars playing soccer is an addictive escape from reality for some, but for her, it changed her entire life. That love has grown from a hobby to a career, and has led to some pretty amazing opportunities. It also eventually put her on the path to meet music duo smle, made up of Grammy-nominated electronic duo Ruben Cardenas and Lewis Martinee.

The pair love video games themselves, with Cardenas putting 2000 hours into Rocket League himself, and Martinee being a regular streamer on Twitch playing games like Overwatch and Valorant. It’s that love of video games that pushed the three to make a music video together, with Athena moving past streaming into singing on the track. It just made sense, with gaming being the bridge between worlds, as it often is.

Uproxx Edge got with all three to discuss how the song came together, their love of gaming (especially Rocket League), their Mad Max themed video, and more.

Chris Barnewall: What does this song and video mean to you?

Athena: Creating “Eternal” will forever be a pivotal moment in my life. Music has always been a huge passion of mine, and to be able to create something that has never been done before is unforgettable. I hope everyone can feel how much heart we have put into this song. Get excited for more future releases!

Cardenas: “Eternal” is a pretty special moment for us, Athena, and the music and gaming worlds. It’s the first time a Rocket League content creator pairs up with an artist who’s had in-game music to make a song specifically for the game. It’s been so fun getting everything together for this – from having some of the other top Rocket League content creators cameo in the video, to working closely with Monstercat and Psyonix to make this a major moment, has been nothing short of exciting. We hope those listening feel as energized as we are, because this one’s really special to us.

What led the three of you to decide to collaborate together?

Cardenas: So [I’m] a big fan of Rocket League and I’m always, you know, keeping my ear to the streets as far as all the creators and stuff and I would watch Athena here and obviously she’s into Rocket League but she sings as well. And I was kind of like, whoa, she sings well. One night I was popping in to [her Twitch] chat and started talking about music right when she was talking about music and she recognized us from our music before because she liked some of our music. And then we took a shot like “hey you want to do music together?”

Athena: Honestly, it was just a mix of two worlds that I have always been extremely passionate about, and to be able to kind of work together, you know, with Ruben and Lewis. And to do something that I know a lot of people will hopefully enjoy. It was absolutely insane. It was just, it was just the perfect moment on how we met and how we were able to, you know, just dive into the whole, the whole song. It was unbelievable.

Have you always wanted to sing?

Athena: Music has always been a huge part of my life. I’m sure you can ask anyone. It’s been such a factor in everything that I do, whether it be, you know, warming up for basketball in high school or playing games on Twitch, and having that in the background. It’s just something that people can bond to and just relate to one another with the lyrics. And I have always wanted to take that extra step and really dive into it, but I never really had the opportunity. And so when this arose, and Ruben and Lewis went and contacted me. I couldn’t let this pass up.

Did you take any singing lessons before this?

Martinee: She’s a complete natural. She’s amazing.

Athena: Okay, you are being way too kind.

Martinee: I’m not!

Cardenas: It’s for real dude.

Athena: I just never really thought I’d be singing on a song, just like, as a collaboration, I always found singing was something that I just like to do in my spare time and granted, singing lessons would be great and I hundred percent should take them. But no, this is kind of my first step into the music world and I haven’t really done voice lessons.

What kind of music does everyone like to listen to when you’re not streaming or making your own music?

Martinee: I have a wide variety of genres. I really like pop a lot, and Indie, sometimes folk music. That’s usually what I’m listening to.

Athena: I think for me, I often say that I was born in the wrong decade. I absolutely love Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel and I often find myself listening to oldies and just classics and my parents listened to them growing up. So I listened to them growing up and have very fond memories tied to them.

Cardenas: Yeah, and I grew up rock and roll and blues and stuff like that my parents listened to and also a lot of pop. Yeah, just kind of like all over the place. Go through phases, you know?

Why Mad Max as the inspiration for the video?

Martinee: Well, because one the aesthetic is super cool. A lot of lyrics are based and literally taken from a Rocket League map called Wasteland, which has that whole Mad Max aesthetic.

Athena: So it was I think an element of the music video is to have it in some way tie back to Rocket League. Because of course, Rocket League has had such a huge impact on my life and that’s how I met Ruben and then Lewis. So I think it was really important for us to have some car some race element to it and we found that having a race that was just Mad Max style was the perfect combination and just a kind of paid homage to the game that impacted us so much.

“We can talk, but money talks, so talk mo’ bucks,” Jay-Z spits on 2001’s “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”, indicating just how mammoth his empire would become. Not only was The Blueprint single his first Top 10 hit (signaling his growing rap domination), but it also marked Kanye West’s mainstream introduction. Then solely an in-house producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, he made his place known with the jovial “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” production and later his rollercoaster ride as a solo rap superstar.

In the decade following “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”, both artists’ pockets got even heavier as they skyrocketed as the Kings of Rap. Being the boastful men they are, their untouchable stature was celebrated on Watch The Throne. The joint project, which turns 10 this month, was a natural progression of the buddies’ careers. West was still on a high from 2010’s magnum opus My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, a prog-rap feast that was released eight months prior. As for Jay-Z, he dropped his 11th album The Blueprint 3 in 2009. Albeit insipid compared to the triptych’s previous albums, it gifted him his first No. 1 hit with the ubiquitous, Grammy-winning “Empire State Of Mind”.

So they kept the momentum going, combining years of friendship, equal love for the finer things in life, and sh*t-talking together on a handful of collaborations on Watch The Throne. The packaging alone was dripping in luxe: the pair called on Riccardo Tisci, Givenchy’s creative director at the time, to design the gold-plated artwork as well as their tour outfits that ignited the idea of concert merch being presented as high-fashion.

Even the album’s creation was an event. They recorded in extravagant hotels and villas all around the world, from New York City, Paris, Sydney (where Russell Crowe, whom West shouts out on “Illest Motherf*cker Alive” made a cameo), England, Los Angeles, and Hawaii (the same place West hunkered down for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy). It was a lifestyle that only the rich and famous could acquire, which they made clear throughout the album.

“It’s just protecting the music and the culture. It’s people that’s in the forefront of the music. ‘Watch the Throne,’ like protect it. You just watch how popular music shift, and how hip-hop basically replaced rock & roll as the youth music,” Jay-Z explained during the album’s promo run. “The same thing can happen to hip-hop. It can be replaced by other forms of music. So it’s making sure that we put the effort into making the best product so we can contend with all this other music, with dance music that’s dominating the charts right now and indie music that’s dominating the festivals.”

That idea of reclaiming rap as a youth genre was best seen on “H•A•M,” the album’s first single and the most arrogant track on Watch The Throne. The pair’s braggadocio lyrics (see Jay-Z’s Birdman subliminal “I’m like, ‘Really, half a billi,’ n****, really?’ You got baby money / Keep it real with n****s, n****s ain’t got my lady money) was anchored by Lex Luger’s intense, spooky, and operatic production — his signature sound that ruled hip-hop for a wink of time. Yet “H•A•M” wasn’t the best reflection of the album, and the rappers seemingly agreed, ultimately placing it as a bonus track on the deluxe edition.

Watch The Throne’s true landmark was “Otis.” Diehard fans remember exactly where they were when it premiered on Hot 97, with Funkmaster Flex dropping infinite bombs on the single. It’s one of West and Jigga’s most jubilant moments that highlight their innate chemistry, as they trade grandiose bars atop a fervently chopped sample of Otis Redding’s “Try A Little Tenderness” that could only be executed by West himself. The Spike Jonze-directed video doubled-down on the rappers’ blatant flexes (“Luxury rap, the Hermès of verses / Sophisticated ignorance, write my curses in cursive”) by deconstructing a Maybach 57 like kids playing with a toy car just for the hell of it.

The decadence continued on The Neptunes co-produced “Gotta Have It” that gave us timely references like “planking on a million” and “Maybachs on ‘Bachs on ‘Bachs on ‘Bachs on ‘Bachs”, as well as the “No Church In The Wild” opener. Featuring Frank Ocean (who just became a critical darling with his debut mixtape nostalgia,ULTRA), it is an ominous, cinematic masterpiece. The artists discuss Greek philosophy, the constructs of religion and monogamy (“Jesus was a carpenter, Yeezy laid beats / Hova flow the Holy Ghost”), and misogynistic power (“You will not control the threesome”)

Then there’s “N****s In Paris.” The Grammy-winning track put producer Hit-Boy on the map, thanks to its bonkers blend of thumping basslines, ear-piercing synths, and that incredibly random Blades Of Glory dialogue that best summates the song: “No one knows what it means, but it’s provocative!” It’s weird, anthemtic nature is best displayed in a live setting, with West and Jay-Z showing just how wonderfully obnoxious it is by performing it a record of 11 times during their Paris tour stop.

​​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG_dA32oH44

But the luxury rap and trendy sounds (the dubstep-driven “Who Gon Stop Me” and the bombastic electronics of “Why I Love You”) were balanced with messages that gave an insight into what it means to be successful and Black in America.

The pair call upon RZA, who funnels Nina Simone’s ​​”Feeling Good” through Auto-tune as they somberly ruminate over the lessons they want to teach their future sons. It was an interesting foreshadow, as both rappers first had daughters before adding their male heirs to their throne. While West mostly harbored the album’s viral moments, “Welcome To The Jungle” belongs to Jay-Z. Here, he reveals pain, grief, and depression he’s faced while describing himself as a “tortured soul,” flipping the Guns N’ Roses debaucherous reference to represent the rugged streets. Yes, the rappers were rich beyond measure, but they also grappled with the average Black American struggle that contrasted with Black excellence (“Murder To Excellence”) and if the American Dream is even achievable (“Made In America”).

Jay-Z and West already launched their careers into music’s stratosphere by the time of Watch The Throne’s release, but they solidified themselves as rap visionaries shrouded by wealth in an untouchable tax bracket. Jay-Z continued to flaunt his riches, releasing the designer Magna Carta Holy Grail in 2013 before breaking his facade with 2017’s 4:44 and later becoming rap’s first billionaire in 2019. West had a vastly different trajectory: in the midst of releasing five more albums (including this year’s DONDA), he became even more known for controversy, from supporting President Trump, having very public mental breakdowns that targeted then-wife Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner and his daughter North, harmfully declaring “Slavery is dead” and later divorcing the Kardashian.

There have been many cries for a Watch The Throne sequel, and the teasers and false starts didn’t help the cause. It was unclear if the reunion was ever going to happen, especially as Jay-Z continued to distance himself from his once-close ally. Interim joint projects, from Drake and Future’s What A Time To Be Alive to 21 Savage and Offset’s Without Warning and even West’s Kids See Ghosts with Kid Cudi, helped satiate millennial rap fans.

The pair seem to be on better terms, though, with the former recently making an unexpected appearance on West’s DONDA. But the opulent spectacle that made Watch The Throne so fun cannot be replicated. “How many people you know can take it this far?” Beyoncé mused on “Lift Off.” Jay-Z and Kanye West exceeded far beyond their pinnacles at the time, and it’s hard to guesstimate how much further they could possibly go. But we’re fine not knowing the answer for now.

Adele’s 25, her most recent album, came out in 2015. That’s a long time ago in music terms, and there has been buzz over the past year-plus that new music from the singer is coming soon. There’s still no official news on that front, but it appears something may be in the works: the Daily Mail reports that she’s working on a Las Vegas residency.

A source told the publication, “Adele has very recently been talking to musicians that she has worked with before to gauge their availability, to see whether they could be in Vegas for the gigs. It is all very exciting. It would make her a lot of money but it would also mean she could have a routine. It would be hugely lucrative for her but also really fun. She loves performing live and there would be no shortage of people traveling to see her once the COVID restrictions are dropped.”

She is apparently in the process of recruiting band members to join her for the residency. Instead of making a home for herself in Vegas, the plan is apparently for Adele to commute from her Los Angeles home via private jet, a trip that would only take about 40 minutes.

If you smoke weed, you’ve been there. It’s the moment when, after a big hit of something skunky, your eyes flood with light and your heart starts racing. Maybe your scalp sweats a little bit before your chest tightens. Then the mind starts racing. “Do I look weird?” you might think before wondering, “Shit, did I pay my rent? I need to call my mom. Oh, no, Where’s my phone?” By then, you’re perma-grinning, on your way to a full-blown weed-induced freakout.

Anxiety — whether physical, mental, or some combination thereof — is a common unwanted side effect of smoking cannabis. For some people, the onset of anxiety after smoking weed is so unmanageable and unpleasant that they choose to abstain altogether. Others find that they suddenly have paranoia after years of smoking without it.

It doesn’t happen to me too often anymore. But on occasion, I notice it after I smoke certain Sativa strains that can make me feel more energized. In my own body, I notice the tell-tale signs: swollen eyes, dry mouth, chest tightening, and increased heart rate. The next thing I know, my thoughts are running a million miles a minute, crisscrossing all over my brain.

These reactions are obviously bummers, but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for some people, and much of it has to do with a “mind over matter” mindset, as well as learning how to properly dose. “A few things happen physiologically that cause us to feel anxious when smoking weed,” says Emma Chasen, cannabis educator and an industry consultant at Eminent Consulting. “They’re all seemingly caused by THC,” she says, referring to the compound in cannabis that gets people high.

This is correct, says Dr. Jamie Corroon, medical advisor at CV Sciences and the medical director at the Center for Medical Cannabis Education. He says this anxiety response is related to THC use, though it is largely dose-dependent.

“The anxiety that people report when using THC is typically the result of taking too much. Low doses do not cause anxiety. In fact, they may reduce it,” Corroon says, referring to studies performed that show low doses of THC to be effective in treating anxiety.

This anxiety-provoking effect, while caused in some people by THC, is not a constant across all people who ingest it. “From a psycho-emotional standpoint, the discomfort may simply be a result of THC-induced changes in perception,” Dr. Corronn tells us. “Some people feel a loss of control, which they perceive as negative or dangerous. Thus, they experience an increase in heart rate, breathing patterns, and a sense of pending doom.”

In other words, a lot of this anxiety has to do with physical changes caused by THC intake and the brain’s sometimes confused and hyperactive responses to them. THC is a vasodilator, which means it opens up blood vessels and allows blood to move throughout the body more quickly, increasing the heart rate. This increased heart rate, alone, can lead some to feel like they’re losing control, heightening the mind-body connection.

“THC interacts with areas of our brains that are responsible for both euphoria and anxiety. When we consume too much THC,” Chasen says, noting that the dose at which this occurs will be different for everyone, “the brain quickly switches from happy-go-lucky to imminent threat level danger.” She notes that this can occur even at small doses, so the old adage of “go low and slow” still holds when deciding which dose is best for you.

After the brain determines a threat via the amygdala, that signal gets sent to the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. The hippocampus gives context to anxiety and the prefrontal cortex will decide what to do about it. “These areas of the brain often act as safeguards against THC-related anxiety because they can logically assess that there is no real threat and therefore suppress the anxiety. However, at some dose of THC, the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex will decide that there is danger and start panicking. This is most likely due to the suppression of GABA, a neurotransmitter in the brain. And this is when you will start to feel anxious,” Chasen explains.

For those worried about becoming anxious when smoking weed, Chasen and Dr. Corroon offer a few tips below. Through personal experience, I’ve found that mindful breathing exercises, taking CBD, and learning how to talk myself out of a tough spot were key to managing weed-induced anxiety — all of which our experts called out specifically.

Check-in With Yourself Before Consuming Cannabis

Chasen begins with, “When smoking weed, make sure to sit with yourself and run an internal diagnostic on how you are feeling mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.” Chasen then drops some example questions: “Is your body in pain? Are you feeling connected or disconnected? Are you feeling stressed or anxious? Are there any emotions you’re suppressing? Where does your mind drift when you let it?”

She also suggests setting goals for the experience, which include identifying how you want to feel or nailing down anything you want to explore internally or externally while high. For those who are particularly mindful, logging these answers in a journal may also help.

Lean Into The Concept Of “Set And Setting”

“Cannabis is a medicinal plant and therefore, the ritual of consumption is a large part of the experience; making sure your set and setting — where you are at and who you are with — is in line with the type of experience you want to have,” Chasen explains. “When you are under the influence of cannabis, sensitivity and vulnerability are often heightened. Anxiety can occur when you become high and look around to realize you don’t actually like the people you’re with. Therefore, it is important to consume where you feel safe and comfortable with people you know and trust.”

Move Your Body And Perform Mindful Breathing Exercises

Chasen then explains that this helps people “to get out of their heads and back into their bodies.” She continues, “It can help to do some breathing exercises: inhale for seven seconds, exhale for ten seconds. Do some stretching as well.”

Talk Through The Physiological Process Of The Anxiety

“Talk to your hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.” Chasen explains how to do this, “Tell these parts of your brain that there is no real danger and no need to freak out. There’s just a GABA imbalance happening, that’s all. This may seem silly, but I’ve used this particular technique with myself and others experiencing THC-mediated anxiety and it really does help to get your mind back in check.”

Consider CBD

“Preliminary research suggests that CBD may be helpful in reducing both THC-induced anxieties as well as anxiety disorders, such as social anxiety disorder and generalized anxiety disorder,” says Dr. Corroon. “More research is needed to understand the magnitude of this effect, as well as the dosage, but it’s thought that CBD may achieve this through interactions with serotonin and/or GABA receptors in the amygdala and other areas of the brain involved in anxiety.”

In short, ingesting CBD oils, tinctures, gummies, and even smoking CBD-rich hemp flowers could help achieve anxiety-mitigating effects.

Seek Strains That Are Known To Alleviate Anxiety

“A specific terpene can help and it’s alpha-pinene,” Chasen says. “Researchers suggest that pinene’s greatest therapeutic value is acting as an antidote to cannabis intoxication. Cultivars with high concentrations of alpha-pinene can reduce the likelihood that consumers will experience anxiety and/or brain fog,” she explains.

Pinene isn’t the most common terpene to express in the cannabis plant, though it is the most common terpene in the world. Two strains naturally high in alpha-pinene that are typically easy to find in stores include Big Smooth and Blue Dream.

Know That It Won’t Last Forever

“Depending on how much THC you’ve consumed and the way in which you’ve consumed it, your brain will soon feel like your brain again,” Chasen reminds us. “When smoking, for example, you hit your peak high 15 minutes after inhalation, and then it’s back down to earth from there.”

Obviously, we will be discussing the events of The Suicide Squad, so if you have not seen it yet, this gets into spoilers. Consider yourself warned.

As we discussed with Joel Kinnaman, he was pretty thrilled for the chance to come back and play Rick Flag again in a role where he could inject some fun and humor into the characters instead of being, his words, a “plot donkey.” But, alas, Kinnaman’s Rick Flag perishes at the hands of John Cena’s The Peacemaker – one of the only deaths in the movie not played for laughs – going as far to show Flag’s heart being punctured so that there’s little doubt Flag isn’t going to recover from this one.

I asked Kinnaman about that scene in particular. If he though, maybe, there was a way for Flag to survive these injuries for future installments, and if he had his hopes dashed when he finally saw the finished animation of Flag’s heart stop beating.

“Well, we’ll see,” says Kinnaman. “No, I think if you bring everyone back to life, then there are no stakes. Then you’re just playing games.” But then he added, “But we’re figuring some things out. There are other versions of this, as well.”

Well that doesn’t seem quite as definitive as one might have thought while watching Flag’s heart literally stop beating. So, what does other versions mean?

Kinnaman clarifies, “No, no, no. There’s a timeline that happens before.” Then Kinnaman, probably wisely, stopped talking about that.

Okay, so, it sounds like we, just maybe, haven’t seen the last of Kinnaman as Rick Flag. And who knows, considering how many characters are killed off in the first half hour of The Suicide Squad, (this is me purely speculating) maybe a bunch of them will get adventures set before the events of this movie. But I do enjoy Kinnaman as Flag (especially, as he said, with more humor in the latest version) so maybe this “other version” in a “timeline that happens before” will become a reality.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Jon Stewart and Pete Davidson have teamed up to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11 with an all-star event featuring some of the biggest names in comedy. While comedy might not seem like the most sensitive approach to the 2001 terrorist attack, it’s actually a fitting and a very New York response.

“We wanted to put on a fun celebration to honor this great city’s resilience. It’s nice to be able to do this with friends and people we love,” Stewart and Davidson said in a statement to CNN:

“NYC Still Rising After 20 Years: A Comedy Celebration” was announced Monday as a one-night-only event to be held September 12 at Madison Square Garden.

Scheduled performers include Amy Schumer, Bill Burr, Colin Jost, Colin Quinn, Dave Attell, Dave Chappelle, Jay Pharoah, Jimmy Fallon, John Mulaney, Jon Stewart, Michael Che, Pete Davidson, Ronny Chieng, Tom Segura and Wanda Sykes.

Both comedians have personal ties to September 11. Davidson’s father was a New York City firefighter who died during the attack — an event that’s shaped the SNL star’s brand of comedy and was the inspiration for the King of Staten Island. Like Davidson, Stewart is a lifelong New Yorker, and for years, he’s been a relentless advocate for firefighters, who selflessly sacrificed their lives and health to save others following the attacks.

Whenever Stewart shows up on Capitol Hill, any politician who fails to take care of America’s heroes is about to have a very bad day.

(Via CNN)