After previously featuring on Big Sean’s “Friday Night Cypher,” Detroit rappers Kash Doll and Tee Grizzley reconnect on the boastful “Bossa Nova.” Produced by Hit-Boy, the new single combines a skittering snare rhythm, ghostly chants, and a whining lead to backdrop the two Motor City MCs’ chest-beating rhymes. Kash establishes her dominance early, questioning, “What the f*ck I look like hoppin’ out a Uber?” Then Grizzley steps up to the plate playing lothario with a lustful verse of his own before Kash bats cleanup, dragging would-be players with “air in his Magnum.” Yikes.
Kash is a little over a year removed from her last full-length project, Stacked, but she’s kept her buzz louder than a packed barbershop with singles “Wake Up,” “Rich Hoochie,” and most recently, the DJ Infamous, Mulatto, and Benny The Butcher team-up, “Bad Azz.” “Bossa Nova” is yet another in-your-face single from her upcoming sophomore album, which doesn’t have a title or release date as yet.
Meanwhile, Tee Grizzley is fresh off the release of his 2020 mixtape The Smartest after losing his aunt/manager to gun violence last summer. He teamed up with Motown rap vet Big Sean twice this year — once on the latter’s Detroit 2 in the above-mentioned “Cypher,” and again on “Trenches” from The Smartest.
New York rapper Lil Tjay has been gaining popularity ever since featuring on the 2020 XXLFreshman Class, rewarding him for his standout album, True 2 Myself, and mixtape, State Of Emergency, and dubbing him one of the hottest rising stars in the rap game. His latest single may solidify that status, as it samples one of music’s biggest hit makers, Justin Bieber, borrowing the Canadian singer’s breakout hit “Baby” and repurposing it into “None Of Your Love.”
Tjay’s newfound stardom may be the reason the song exists in its current form at all. The 19-year-old originally put the track on his YouTube in July 2018, but couldn’t keep it there due to sample clearance issues. Then, over two years later, he made the announcement on Instagram that the song had been cleared for an official release, allowing him to bump it to streaming services and expose a whole new audience to his warbling rhymes.
The pop-leaning song arrives at an opportune time for Tjay; with the eyes of the world watching to see if he lives up to his Freshman placement, expanding his range from the Bronx-approved street tales of his prior projects may improve his mainstream appeal as he works to complete his sophomore album.
If you caught my pasta snob article from earlier this week, you should know that there’s some irony in me writing it. Enthusiastic cork-sniffer though I may be, there was once a time when I ate McDonald’s almost every single day. No exaggeration.
We lived way out in the country in Fresno County, past where my school’s buses ran. So every day when I got out of school at 3 o’clock, from about middle school until I could drive, I’d go to the junior college where my mom worked to wait until she got off at five to take us home. There was a McDonald’s across the street from the college, and, probably to keep me from annoying the shit out of everyone in her office, she’d always give me a few bucks to go get myself something.
It likely stunted my growth and guaranteed future heart disease, but I loved McDonald’s. Hell, I was obsessed with it. It was the highlight of my days.
This week, to widespread acclaim, McDonald’s has brought back the McRib (for a limited time). The saucy riblet roll debuted in the early 80s and came back for a limited run in October 2019, but hasn’t been available nationwide since 2012. In any case, the internet loves the McRib, for whatever reason. And with the sandwich back on the menu, we thought, who better to review it than me, a McDonald’s enthusiast with decades of experience?
Since I don’t have a favorite McDonald’s franchise anymore, I just went to the location nearest my house. It was one of those fancy jobs with the double-lane drive-through. I didn’t see the McRib on the menu yet, but I ordered it anyway and they took it in stride, as if they expected me all along. The payment window was no-touch and by the time my credit card was done processing the person at the next window was already holding my food bag in an outstretched fist, waiting for me to come get it.
Clearly, these were professionals. It was like they thought I was some spy from corporate, sent there to secretly time them and report my findings back to headquarters. I was sent there to do a job, alright, but not that job… (*long drag from cigarette, dreamy anecdote about some dame*)
Fine, fine, enough foreplay. I had to resist the urge to eat my sandwich in the car (the place where I’d normally eat McDonald’s food, the place where I’d argue McDonald’s food is meant to be eaten) so that I could photograph it. But it was only a two-minute drive from home so it didn’t have much time to get cold or soggy(er).
Opening up the bag…
Vince Mancini
In contrast to the effortlessly efficient service, this thing looked like a damn crime scene. I’m surprised no one took the time to write “HELTER SKELTER” on the lid of the box. They expect a person to eat this inside a car? Yeah, right. I’m going to end up with half of that on my hands, face, and crotch. No way I eat this on the way to anywhere that doesn’t stock extra gym shorts they can loan me from the nurse’s office.
Just hefting it, I knew that the bottom bun was, as you might expect, soggy as hell.
First bite:
Okay, not bad. I was expecting that red sauce to be way too sweet but it actually isn’t so bad. The pork stuff (in classic boneless riblet shape!) reminds me of that pork loaf you sometimes get in Vietnamese restaurants — not sure what it’s called, but it looks kind of like a pork meatloaf with diced rather than ground pork?
Anyway, I love that stuff so it’s not a bad food memory to evoke. The cornmeal dusting on the bun is also a nice touch. Adds a subtle but needed flavor and texture contrast. There are big slices (for McDonald’s) of fresh onions, which add freshness and crunch. I’m very pro onion, so that’s nice.
Second bite:
Now I’m now noticing weird textures in the meat. Like microscopic bone fragments? The meat somehow comes on juicy but chews dry. Noticing the processed flavor more here, probably because of the texture putting that thought in my head.
Third bite:
Ooh, it has pickles. The pickles are great. This should have more pickles. You ever notice McDonald’s pickles are just the right size? You can bite right through them. Nothing worse than a thick-ass pickle that falls in your lap when you’re trying to bite through your burger, I always say.
The McDonald’s engineers solved that one years ago.
Fourth bite:
Okay, I’m halfway through and I’m tapping out. The sugary sauce and processed pork are yummy enough at first, and the pickles and onions help a lot, but it sort of loses its appeal. I mean… it’s fine. There’s a reason the similarly processed McNuggies only come in small crunchy bites (I confess that I still love McNuggies, even though I know deep down that they’re made of disgusting pink chicken slime). But this is like a whole big sandwich where the dominant ingredient is pork McNugget filling. Probably ill-advised.
Final thoughts:
There’s a reason McDonald’s only serves the McRib for a limited time. Scarcity seems to be the main appeal. It might not be the worst thing on the menu, but you probably don’t want your workers in the back slipping in puddles of bright red barbecue sauce all year, either. Who needs that headache? Better to release it only when public demand reaches a fever pitch. But hey, that’s just me playing “Fantasy McDonald’s Exec” here.
Oscar Issac has been extremely busy lately, but apparently he’s adding video game espionage to his to-do list. The Star Wars actor is slated to infiltrate your TV thanks to HBO Max snagging Dune, but according to reports he’s interested in helming a legendary video game franchise as well.
As reported by Deadline, Issac will take the role of Solid Snake in a Metal Gear Solid movie.
Sony’s long awaited Metal Gear Solid adaptation looks to have gained some major momentum as sources tell Deadline that Oscar Isaac is attached to play Solid Snake in the Jordan Vogt-Roberts film. The movie is currently in development at Sony Pictures with Vogt-Roberts on board to direct.
The film is based on the Metal Gear Solid video game created by Hideo Kojima and published by Konami. The script is written by Derek Connolly. Avi Arad is producing. Peter Kang is the executive overseeing for the studio.
The Kojima classic is one of gaming’s most famous series, with more than three decades of games and spinoffs. Landing Issac for the role is something of a triumph for Vogt-Roberts, who went through a not-so-secret courtship with Issac to play Snake over the years. As Variety noted, in 2019 he said on Twitter that “the ball’s in Oscar’s court” when it came to casting after Issac himself told IGN he’d like to play Snake and a fan put together a movie poster featuring Issac.
THIS-MUSING-IS-NOT-NEWS-PSA:
To everyone asking how I feel about Oscar Isaac saying he wants to be Solid Snake.
The full process required to cast an icon hasn’t even started, but..
Ask @Bosslogic where the idea for his brilliant mock up came from.
As Deadline noted, Issac will star in both Dune and The Card Counter in the coming months and is involved in Brian K. Vaughn’s Ex Machina comic adaptation. There are also some projects still in motion, though the MGS adaptation will reportedly take top priority for him as Hollywood attempts to resume production during a still-ongoing pandemic.
Even as the industry slowly gets back into production due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Isaac has been busy setting his future slate in recent months. He is set to star in HBO’s Scenes From A Marriage opposite Jessica Chastain, followed by playing the title role in Marvel’s Moon Knight for Disney+.
That’s a lot of Issac in the entertainment world of the future, but it seems his top priority in all this is learning how to sneak around unnoticed in empty cardboard boxes. It’s an important skill to have, especially after all the press he’ll have to do to promote these works.
As teams continue to ramp up for the start of the new season on December 22, players met with media members during Zoom calls on Friday and subjected themselves all all sorts of lines of inquiry about the upcoming campaign, the changes their teams made during the offseason, and so much more.
Joel Embiid was among them, and Sixers’ star had plenty to discuss as he looks to capitalize the major upgrades his organization made in hopes of getting the team over the hump and into championship contention. But first and foremost, Embiid appeared to want to set a few things straight about both his future in Philly, and his dynamics with certain other teammates.
Never one to be cagey about what he means, Embiid told reporters point-blank that he’s committed to winning a championship with the Sixers and wants to finish his career there, if possible.
And on the topic of teammate Ben Simmons, Embiid also stuck to his usual tract of insisting that he wants Simmons on his team and that any rumors to the contrary are manufactured wholesale.
Joel Embiid on Ben Simmons: “I want him on my team. … The national media is always trying to make stories because they don’t have anything to talk about.”
He also sounded off on bringing in Doc Rivers and Dwight Howard, the latter of whom he believe he can take some pointers from, as Howard was once one of the NBA’s premier centers.
Embiid sees the value of having Dwight Howard with him this year. “I’ve never had a Hall of Fame [big man] coach or player around me.” Believes even though their games are different he can pick his brain as a guy who has been there and done it before.
All in all, the Sixers will once again enter the new season with a load of expectations, and a similar level of scrutiny, as Doc tries to get this team to a level they’ve never reached previously.
Tony Soprano finally realizes he’s a mofo in this week’s Pod Yourself A Gun.
This week, Matt and Vince are joined by Matt Christman from Chapo Trap House to talk about The Sopranos season 3 episode 12, “Amour Fou.” Alternate title: “Suicide by Capo.”
Jackie Jr. makes a move in an attempt to show he’s got balls big enough to get the respect like Scarface, but he should have stayed in watching Basic Instinct with his bro. Listen to the podcast for a non-exhaustive list of all the movies that feature a Sharon Stone nude scene. There are a lot. As far as I know, she’s never done a seductive dance to a song by Little Steven and the Lost Boys (with lead singer Steve Van Zandt, aka Silvio Dante), but Annabella Sciorra does in this episode. She deserves some kind of award for convincingly pretending to love that song. Did Tony’s mom ever dance like that? Is that how Tony realized he’d been hooking up with his mom?
Subscribe to Pod Yourself A Gun on Apple Podcasts. Email us at [email protected]; leave us a voicemail at 415-275-0030. Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast and get more bonus content than you could ever want.
Don’t play around on Melii or 6lack. They’ll kick you to the curb quickly. That’s the message of their new song, “You Ain’t Worth It,” which finds the two melodic rappers exchanging verses explaining all the reasons they’re dismissing their potential paramours over a smooth, guitar-laden beat provided by Fort Lauderdale producer Z3N. The two rapper-singers display crackling chemistry as they deftly switch from rhythmic rhyming to cool crooning.
“You just wanna sex and party all these bitches up,” Melii accuses her reticent Romeo. “But baby, I done had enough.” Meanwhile, 6lack plays around with the meme joking around about his name. “How to make her climax, one thing 6 don’t lack,” he quips, although he also admits, “Out of everything on my list of things that’s worth it, I did not find you.”
Melii appears to be gearing up to release music once again after dropping two mixtapes in 2019, Phases and Motions. She also raised her profile last year with a pair of high-profile guest appearances. In March, she and Teyana Taylor added provocative verses to Chicago rapper Lil Durk’s bedtime anthem “Home Body,” while in September, she joined Becky G in throwing some Latin flair on Saweetie’s hit single “My Type.” Stay tuned because it looks like Melii is preparing to make big moves in the new year.
My favorite part of The Mandalorian every week (besides the Baby Yoda reaction shots) is when the credits roll and we learn who directed the episode. You never know who it’s going to be! The season two premiere was directed by showrunner Jon Favreau, which makes sense, but then we have Peyton Reed, Bryce Dallas Howard, Carl Weathers, Dave Filoni, and for today’s tragedy-filled episode, Robert Rodriguez. In a possible coincidence, Netflix has also released the trailer for the From Dusk Till Dawn and Sin City director’s new movie, We Can Be Heroes, which stars… Mando himself, Pedro Pascal. The rest of the cast to The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl sequel is rounded out by Priyanka Chopra, Boyd Holbrook, Yaya Gosselin, and Christian Slater.
Here’s the official plot synopsis.
When alien invaders kidnap Earth’s superheroes, their kids are whisked away to a government safe house. But whip-smart tween Missy Moreno (Yaya Gosselin) will stop at nothing to rescue her superhero dad, Marcus Moreno (Pedro Pascal). Missy teams up with the rest of the superkids to escape their mysterious government babysitter, Ms. Granada (Priyanka Chopra). If they’re going to save their parents, they’ll have to work together by using their individual powers — from elasticity to time control to predicting the future — and form an out-of-this-world team
Once again, Rudy Giuliani has proven to be a non-stop treasure trove of material for late night hosts, and Jimmy Kimmel clearly had a blast going to town on Giuliani’s latest debacle in Michigan. During another desperate hearing to somehow prove that Donald Trump won the election and is the victim of widespread voter fraud, Giuliani trotted out star witness Melissa Carone whose wild, sometimes slurring testimony became an instant viral hit. It was like watching an SNL skit come to life. On top of that, Rudy audibly farted not once, but twice during the hearing, and the whole thing was an embarrassment of riches for Kimmel.
In a video clip hilariously titled “Shart Week,” Kimmel couldn’t contain his disbelief at Carrone’s existence. “We were introduced to a new character in the Trumperverse, a woman named Melissa Carone, no relation to the virus. And I say character because I’ve watched this clip around 14 times now and I am still not convinced she’s a real person,” Kimmel quipped. After noting that Carone’s strategy seemed to confusingly involve attacking Republicans to prove that Democrats stole the election, Kimmel couldn’t help but notice her slightly off composure. “What are the odds she’s wearing a ‘Rose All Day’ tank top under that scarf? Watch your back, Judge Jeanine!”
Kimmel then moved on to Rudy passing gas, and the late night host really didn’t have to do much heavy lifting. The audible farts and Jenna Ellis’ facial expressions are all the punchline you need.
You can watch Kimmel make a meal out of the Michigan hearing at the 5:10 mark:
After an awesome run through the NBA postseason as he shifted to center for the Miami Heat and unlocked new possibilities for them on both ends, Bam Adebayo is setting his sights higher.
In a media week press conference on Friday, Adebayo was asked about a phenomenon that happens for great players in the league in which other players suddenly want to model their game after the star’s. Surely after the run he just finished in the Bubble, young bigs will be looking to Adebayo for ways to grow their game.
In response, Adebayo gave an interesting answer about the young All-Star’s influence on big man development going forward.
Bam Adebayo, on others seeking to model their games off his, “It just shows respect for my game. I feel like I’m trying to change basketball.”
Bam likes the nickname the Heat has given him: “No Ceiling.” He said he wants to be remembered as one of top 5 centers or PFs of all time and wants to “keep changing basketball,” noting it’s rare for a big man to be able to guard 1 through 5 and run an offense.
As one of the Heat’s offensive initiators as well as their do-it-all defensive anchor, Adebayo has a hugely important role in Miami on both sides of the ball. There simply aren’t many players who have as much responsibility as he does, and he’s managed to shoulder that load in such a way that Miami was able to make a run to the NBA Finals.
Should more Adebayos spring up, it would certainly represent a sea change in the NBA, but the better bet might be that as others try to copy him, what we really learn about Adebayo is how unique he really is. The big man has few matches in the league, even if some claim to see themselves in him.
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