Category: News

Shawn Mendes recently ushered in a new era of music with a cinematic visual alongside “Wonder,” his first single of 2020. The singer followed up the song by announcing it is actually the title track to his next studio album, which is slated for a December release. While Mendes has yet to offer another preview of the record, the singer recently stopped by BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge studio to showcases his soaring vocals.

Seated at the piano, Mendes dove into a chilling rendition of “Wonder.” While the performance offered an acoustic take on the single, Mendes was also joined by a full band to expand on his sound. Mendes then offered a captivating cover of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.” This time, the singer elected to forgo the full band and he instead relied on the piano and his room-filling vocals to craft an intimate performance.

In other Mendes news, the singer recently announced he is the star of the upcoming Netflix documentary In Wonder, which follows his rise to fame and culminates with his extensive 2019 tour. In the film’s trailer, Mendes details his upbringing, describes what it feels like to be on stage in front of thousands of adoring fans, and sheds some light onto his relationship with Camila Cabello.

Watch Mendes perform “Wonder” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” on BBC’s Live Lounge above.

In Wonder premieres 11/23 on Netflix and Wonder is out 12/4 via Island. Pre-order it here.

Chicago rappers Tobi Lou and Dreezy unite on “Okay,” the latest single from Tobi’s upcoming album Parrish Blue, the follow-up to his 2019 debut, Live On Ice. Over a bubbly beat produced by 20-year-old San Diego, California beatmaker Matteo Woods, Tobi and Dreezy trade flirty, melodic raps from either side of a crush between a couple who can’t help but celebrate their connection.

“Okay” follows “Pretty Much,” Tobi’s September single, in promoting Parrish Blue. The album, which was originally due in October, is named for painter Maxfield Parrish, whose distinctive approach to color saturation led to art connoisseurs nicknaming his favorite shade of blue, cobalt, after him.

Tobi also kept his name buzzing throughout the year with feature appearances on other artists’ projects. In April, he appeared on Peter Cottontale’s album Catch on the song “Pray For Real,” and in May, he popped up on “Morocco” from Kota The Friend’s Everything.

Meanwhile, Dreezy, who had a relatively quiet year, made an explosive comeback with her freestyle over Moneybagg Yo’s viral hit “Said Sum.” Earlier this year, she and a plethora of other artists garnered their first platinum plaques thanks to their participation on Dreamville’s Revenge Of The Dreamers III compilation.

Listen to “Okay” above.

If there’s one line of Kentucky bourbon that almost every single whiskey drinker knows by name, it’s Pappy Van Winkle. But besides some vague recognition, actual knowledge of Pappy — his kin, the extent of the line, where it’s made, and by whom — is a lot murkier. The Van Winkles are, at least partly by design, shrouded in mystery. Theirs is a luxury product, like clothes from Supreme, that thrives in a state of scarcity and grows ever more expensive on the aftermarket.

After meeting Julian Van Winkle at a food event, the renowned author and sports journalist Wright Thompson found himself intrigued by the company and the family behind it. So he set out to sate his curiosity, while also diving into the history and culture of Kentucky bourbon. His new book, Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and The Things That Last is out today. It’s highly informative, as any bourbon aficionado would expect, but it’s also deeply human. In vivid, punchy prose, Thompson handles these larger than life figures of whiskey culture with care. In the process, we see gain insight into not only the Van Winkles but the entire bourbon industry and the author himself.

After reading Pappyland early, I jumped on a call this week to talk with Thompson. We touched on his work habits, the increasingly wide world of Kentucky bourbon, and the people behind one of the most sought after bourbons on the market.

Let’s start with your first memory of drinking Kentucky bourbon.

I got into it like so many people who grew up in the Southern United States, I think, stealing it from my father’s liquor cabinet after they’d stolen it from their father’s liquor cabinets. Beer was really hard to get in high school, but bourbon was not. And so, frankly, it started that way.

My friend’s father’s Old Charter was always hanging around the house. It’s thievery.

I can empathize, I promise.

This is a very fascinating story — since Pappy has such huge brand recognition but so few people who really know the product. But the book goes well beyond that and really dives into the human side of the family history. Can you walk us through how you first met Julian van Winkle?

I met Julian at an after-party for a food festival, some chef-y thing in Atlanta. So I obviously knew who he was and he had some Pappy in his pocket and was passing it around. It was just a great fun night, but that’s as far as it went.

Then we kept getting put together at things.

So how did the book come about?

I would love to take all of the credit, but my agent, a guy named David Black, was really pushing me. At first, it was just going to be a pretty straight forward story of the world’s most sought after bourbon.

Then the more and more I went to Kentucky and went around the country with Julian, the more I realized that all of the things I was thinking about in my own box — about how to be a man, how to be a son, and a father — were being influenced by those conversations with Julian. So pretty late in the process, the book became what it is.

I wrote the first third of this without telling anyone at Penguin that that’s what I was doing. I just did it. And I’m like, “Goddamn, I hope they like this!” I thought, “Well if they hate this, I can make this a straightforward story.” But the way my time with Julian has been impacting me to think about life, I imagined that there was some way to transfer that feeling to a reader.

So that’s what the goal became: To make it a book about this quest that all humans at some point, go through. I mean, there’s nothing special about me. I just wrote mine down as a way of maybe articulating things to other people themselves, or sparking conversations or thoughts in other people.

I think one of my favorite humanizing anecdotes is when you’re talking about back in the dark days when nobody was drinking whiskey, much less bourbon, and there’s the story of Julian on top of a still, hitting it with a wrench, trying to get the damn thing to work. How did you go about pulling those stories out of Van Winkle?

Oh, it took forever. I don’t think there’s a single word in the book from the first two trips to go see Julian. That’s not true actually, but there’s not much. It takes a long time. It was interesting. So now, his children and sister have read it and they said that there were things about him they didn’t know.

I felt like if nothing else, I did the thing I came to do. This is the guy on the page.

Then these stories are filtered through your life at the time, making you a conduit for the reader.

I wish I could say that it was some sort of grand unified theory of doing it. I was going to write a draft where I let it go where it wanted to go. And then if everybody hated it, then I could either start over or whatever.

There were a lot of false starts on them, where I just couldn’t get the voice right, or the distance the narrator was supposed to stay in, stuff like that. That was a real process. And so I was like, “I’m going to let this thing go where it wants to go, and then we can go back and figure it out.”

So it was a little more stumbling along in the dark, as opposed to having, “I wish I was smart enough to have come up with a strategy.” Maybe next time.

For sure. And, I’m in the booze industry and I go to all of the booze conventions and the foodie bullshit and so on. And it’s the sort of thing where I’ve been to these after-parties and you actually meet the people behind these companies, behind the marketing, and you realize that they’re just people out there trying to get by. It’s so much more real, because you really want to champion those folks because you see the hard work, you see the humanity, you become friends with them, and aware of how much work it actually takes.

I think people will say, “Oh, everybody’s going to buy Pappy anyways.” But that’s a misunderstanding. Presley and Julian van Winkle are out there hitting the streets every day, selling, working, hustling still. Eddie Russell and Jimmy Russell are out there hitting the streets every day…

Oh my God, Jimmy Russell. I mean, these guys are legends. And they aren’t sitting up there as trust fund babies. Do you know what I mean?

They’re working.

Jimmy Russell’s got grease under his fingernails.

Yeah, and that’s one of the things I love about the Kentucky bourbon community. Everybody works and helps each other.

Oh, 100 percent. There’s that thing in the story where Julian had some shitty old bottling line that no one had anymore. And the only people in the world who knew how to fix it were these old men who had worked on the one at Wild Turkey, 30 years earlier — before Wild Turkey had installed whatever the most modern thing in the world at that time was. And Jimmy Russell is sending his guys to fix the bottling line of a competitor because he’d been friends with Julian’s father and grandfather.

That’s real, and that’s how these guys roll.

I love it.

It makes me want to drink Wild Turkey.

Maybe grab a bottle of Russell’s Reserve or something?

Have a word with the bird! A little 101? We drank that shit in high school, man. If somebody got a bottle of Wild Turkey, we thought we were James fucking Dean.

For me, hearing the stories is what makes the difference. And that’s what I dig about this book, the stories add to the experience. For instance, the letters of Julian’s dad writing from being in the Pacific during WWII, where else are you going to get that? How many letters did you have to go through from the family?

I went through all of them. I felt like those were representative. I wasn’t just pulling out the wildest thing. Those in the book felt representative of the guy and that’s what he was doing. All he thought about was killing the enemy and the Stitzel–Weller plant. That’s it.

Another thing you seemed to get across well is explaining the industry. One of the most salient points, which I try to share with people as well is, most of your bourbon comes from one place. Why do you think it’s important that people know that a lot of bourbons are just a label?

Well, just because you should understand it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be loyal to your brand or invest complicated feelings of home in your past with it. But you should interrogate it a little and understand what it is you love. Love the fact that the label is the label that was in your dad’s liquor cabinet. Bourbon’s hold on people is so metaphysical and beyond the technical tasting notes. That felt important to explore.

On some level, this book is just the story of someone who makes whiskey and the story of someone who drinks it. And so let’s talk about it.

It’s tough because people want to put their point of view on every aspect of it, including how you’re supposed to enjoy it.

Well, it’s interesting. At one point we were having dinner and I was being a jerk and going for an easy laugh and making fun of people who obsessively collect whiskey. And Julian was like, “Wait a minute. Who are you to tell someone how to enjoy this? Why is your way of enjoying it the one true way? There is no dowel of whiskey.” And I was like, “Oh, shit. I’m an asshole.” You know what I mean?

But that was really something — there is no one true way.

I like to say, “You do you. You enjoy your whiskey the way you want to enjoy your whiskey.”

Yeah, whatever joy you’re getting from it, good for you.

You also look into the culture of Kentucky, in general, and how it informed bourbon. You talk about the whole “Southern” identity of Kentucky, which is a bit of a sham because Kentucky wasn’t even part of the traditional “South” and most Kentuckians fought for the Union. As somebody from the West Coast, Kentucky never really felt Southern to me in the same way that Mississippi or Georgia.

It always felt borderland to me. I mean, it is interesting. One of the things I kept coming back to is — and this felt like an important question to ask and answer — to unpack in the context of the myth of bourbon.

It is interesting that bourbon comes from a state that pretends it lost a war it actually won. If you start from there, everything about bourbon suddenly makes sense. It is self-defeat in a bottle. It becomes very interesting to me what’s it in context to or what’s it in conversation with…

How do you see the industry dealing with the last nine months? Have people gotten more into their community and their bourbon, or do you see people taking a step back?

I think that once again, bourbon is a proxy. All of these broken and displaced and paused communities that we were a part of before the virus hit, now exists symbolically in these bottles and in drinks alone, and in drinks six feet away from the next person, and drinks with friends over Zoom.

I think that if anything, the metaphysical ideas of home and community and tribe that we can invest in something so nakedly commercial as a bottle of bourbon, have grown stronger.

Are you going to do something about Tennessee whiskey next?

I don’t think I’ll do another whiskey book. I was much more interested in what this whiskey meant to Julian and his family and what that made me think about my own family. I think that’s done and done.

Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and The Things That Last is out now.

Atlanta rap star Quavo is almost as well-known for his athletic prowess as he is for his raps as a third of Migos. Now, he’s getting involved in the sports world in a different capacity. Today, Quavo announced he has acquired a minority stake in the athletic apparel brand Legends. After previously partnering with Legends for his annual Huncho Day charity event, Quavo joined an investment group that includes NBA players Matt Barnes and Steve Nash and NFL players Baker Mayfield and William McGinest, as well as a number of other young NFL stars in taking ownership of Legends and beginning work on new collaborations.

In a press release, Quavo said, “I’m excited to officially be a part of the Legends family. Legends is about striving to be the best no matter what it takes, fighting to get to the top. The team is already shaking up the game with performance gear that fits the look and lifestyle of the new age athlete. Now we’ll take it to the next level.”

Other brand partnerships Quavo has started this year include one with video game publisher Activision to promote Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time. He also leveled up his education, announcing that he’d graduated “high school” by receiving his G.E.D.

Check out more information about Quavo’s partnership with Legends here.

By many metrics, “Baby Shark” is the most successful children’s song in the history of recorded music. Just a week ago, the song’s video surpassed Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” to become the most-viewed YouTube video ever. Now, the track has achieved yet another milestone, as the RIAA (Recording Industry Association Of America) has declared the single is the only children’s song to ever achieve Diamond certification, meaning it has sold at least 10 million copies; “Baby Shark” is currently 11-times multi-Platinum.

The RIAA website also indicates that “Baby Shark” is the only children’s music single to earn Gold certification or above. The only other release listed is Disney Lullaby Album, a 2000 release which achieved Gold certification in 2015.

The song is one of 26 to achieve Diamond certification in 2020. Other songs that joined the Diamond ranks this year include Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” Foster The People’s “Pumped Up Kicks,” John Legend’s “All Of Me,” Katy Perry’s “Firework,” Pharrell’s “Happy,” The Chainsmokers and Halsey’s “Closer,” The Weeknd’s “The Hills,” Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off,” and, of course, “Despacito.”

Aside from all the quantitative data, the song has also earned love from people in all walks of life. Kids are clearly still playing the song on YouTube, and everybody from Coachella festivalgoers to Travis Scott have enjoyed turning up to “Baby Shark.”

Ever since the #FreeBritney movement has caught a second wave, fans have been meticulously following the singer’s legal battles with her father and court-assigned conservator Jamie Spears. Fans continue to insist that Spears’ father is taking advantage of her situation and unnecessarily controlling her life. These claims have since been dismissed by Jamie Spears as well as her legal team, and Spears herself even assured fans of her well-being. But as the case continues to develop, the motives of Spears’ father are once again being called into question.

According to a report from TMZ, Spears is not happy with how her father is handling her finances. The report states that Spears’ legal team filed documents that point to an agreement made between her father and her former management company, Tri Star Sports & Entertainment Group. The company has been representing the singer for over a decade and their contract promised a five-percent payout of Spears’ gross income.

The management company’s payout was much larger when Spears was actively performing. But since the singer went on an indefinite hiatus from touring in 2019, Tri Star reportedly sought to renegotiate their pay and allegedly made an agreement with Spear’s father to receive a $500,000 minimum annual salary on top of their five percent. However, Spears’ legal team claims that the singer’s father didn’t negotiate the deal and screwed her out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Spears’ legal team alleges the new deal (which they call “radical new arrangements”) secured Tri Star a 260% raise, which went against Spears’ wishes. Because Spears feels as though she was given the short end of the stick, the singer’s legal team is now seeking about $309,000 from Tri Star, the amount she thinks the company was over-paid.

The decision to request a refund arrive days after Spears took the initial steps for her father to be removed as her co-conservator. The motion was filed after Spears’ longtime Tri Star manager resigned without notice — and the singer was not informed. Instead, Spears’ father appointed Michael Kane of the accounting firm Miller Kaplan to act as her new business manager without her approval.

Tommy Heinsohn, whose career in basketball has been defined by his unwavering loyalty to the Boston Celtics, has died, according to multiple reports. A Basketball Hall of Fame inductee as a player and a coach who served as a longtime broadcaster for Celtics games, Heinsohn passed away at the age of 86.

Heinsohn was born and raised in New Jersey, but his time in the city of Boston began via his collegiate career at Holy Cross. From there, Heinsohn became synonymous with the Celtics — the team selected him in the 1956 NBA Draft, at which point he began a highly-successful career with the team. Heinsohn played 10 seasons with the Celtics, winning eight championships, earning six All-Star nods, and being named the NBA’s Rookie of the Year. For his contributions as a player, Heinsohn’s No. 15 was retired by the franchise.

He eventually became Boston’s head coach, winning a pair of championships during the 1973-74 and 1975-76 campaigns. In his career as a player, Heinsohn averaged 19.8 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, and as a coach, he accrued a 427-263 record. Eventually, Heinsohn moved into the broadcast booth, and while he was never shy to let it be known that he loved his Celtics with every bone in his body, he and Mike Gorman became stalwarts on calls whenever Boston would play.

With A Teacher (which is available to stream via FX On Hulu), creator Hannah Fidell is revisiting the central focus of her 2013 indie film of the same name, portraying the power dynamics of a wildly inappropriate sexual relationship between a female teacher and her teen male student. But while pop culture (and porn culture) often romanticize (or fetishize) the fantasy of that specific type of relationship, the show is careful to follow things all the way to their end with something to say about the impact on the people involved.

As the teacher, Kate Mara is tasked with playing a literal monster and predator with a vulnerability that tries to not justify her actions but which make you understand the ways the character is broken. It’s a complex undertaking, to be sure, but one that drove Mara’s interest in the role. That and a willingness to play characters that you may wind up not liking. In the forthcoming interview, we spoke with her about that, the show’s use of fantasy sequences, and her relationship to one of her favorite roles in House Of Cards years after revelations about series star Kevin Spacey tainted the show’s legacy.

There’s a lot of space to tell this story in that it’s not, specifically, just about the relationship, but it’s also about the aftermath. Was that part of the appeal to jumping into this?

Kate Mara: It was very important to me. I wanted to make sure that everything about the show was about the consequences as well. So that was a huge selling point for me when Hannah was telling me what her idea for the season was. And I think it’s so important to show the lasting consequences of such a predatory relationship, which happens much more frequently than I think anyone would expect it to.

How much research did you wind up doing on how frequently relationships like this occur? Because obviously, we see things like this pop up in the press from time to time, but I’m sure it’s more frequent than we’re aware of on the surface.

Once you’re actually looking for it, it is not hard to find. It happens so often in America and so it was, very sadly, quite easy to find real-world cases to read about. Hannah and I just constantly texted each other back and forth sending different articles that we would find on a weekly basis. Because my character is a fictional character, she’s not based on anyone specific, a lot of her characteristics and backstory was just made to fit by Hannah. And some of it was from our conversations together and trying to figure out where someone would come to this place in their lives.

Do you reach out and talk to somebody who’s been on this side of this or to get a sense of their psychology, or is it mostly through media reports and trying to just work off the script?

I just didn’t ever have the thought to reach out to someone…a predator or the abuser in a relationship…but Hannah and our writers talked to lawyers who had represented both the survivors of cases like these and the abusers. So I felt like the writer knew a lot about sort of what would happen in these cases based on conversations with people like that and also with therapists and people like that.

When you’re looking at any role, but specifically with this one, do you make a value judgment about the character? Is this character a straight-up villain in your eyes?

I guess I don’t really necessarily characterize roles specifically as like villain or savior or anything like that. But I am specifically more interested in playing characters that are multi-dimensional, who have complicated lives, and make very complicated choices. Obviously, Claire has some moral issues and, when I think something might be challenging to figure out or create, the more I want to do it. And so, for this, I think that was one of my driving forces. I think I was empowered by the complexity of this character.

Empowered just in the choices that you’re able to make with it?

Yeah, just as an actor, I feel much more fulfilled when I’m playing characters who people maybe don’t like so much. [Laughs] A lot of times, I’ll hear, “Oh God, I hated your character in this or that.” And I don’t really take that as an offense. I think if you’re not playing a likable character… Not everybody’s likable in the world. And I’m not saying Claire is not likable. I think there are things about her that are or that should be, but at the end of the day, she is the predator of this relationship and manipulates this boy and has to live with the consequences of that, as she should.

Was there any concern about the use of dream sequences and leaning too far into the fantasy, because obviously, it’s in our culture. There are elements of [this kind of relationship] that meet certain people’s fantasies.

No. I didn’t have any concerns about that. Again, we’re making a show that has to have different elements to it to keep people interested. There are fantasy sequences in all kinds of different shows. I’m sure there are some fantasy sequences in The Sopranos, for example, and the show’s about, basically, murder. That definitely didn’t scare me away. I think those types of things are interesting and keep the story moving. And there’s a reason it’s certain people’s fantasy. And I think to explore that is important.

No, I agree. I think, it also speaks to the psychology of the characters here as well.

Yeah.

Obviously, to speak to Claire’s dissatisfaction with her husband, you can’t just do that with words. I think it did make sense, specifically. So, obviously, this was a film before. How much conversation was there with Hannah about things she wanted to do differently?

When she brought it to me, she said she definitely wanted this to stand alone. And while it deals with the same subject matter, we definitely wanted it to feel different, to look different, and for the character to have a different journey in a lot of ways. In most ways. So, that was definitely important. And obviously, we have a lot of time to explore these characters. I don’t know for her, if she just scrapped the movie altogether when she was writing this. I don’t think she did, but for me as an actor, the character was a very separate character, from her in the movie.

You’ve had a long career. You’ve had other scenes where you’ve been in romantic relationships on screen. How is it different in terms of establishing chemistry and even choreographing any intimacy with Nick (Robinson) on this, since the power dynamic is so different from anything else you’ve done?

That’s a good question. I always felt like Nick and I were a team, from the very beginning. Everything always felt very comfortable with Nick. And he understood what we were trying to make. The three of us had a lot of discussions about all of the intimate scenes. We wanted it to feel almost like it was improvised or like it was just happening off the cuff, but none of it ever was. It was all very specific and that was important and that really did help. It helps the awkwardness of those scenes… They can feel awkward, sure. And if they’re supposed to be awkward and that’s exactly how you should feel while making them, but I never felt unsafe, I guess, is a good word to use. I always felt we knew exactly what we were doing and what the goal was. So I really loved working with Nick and so, it was all around a good experience and we would connect before a scene and just go, “Wow, can you believe this scene?” Or we’d try and laugh about it after or laugh about it during to try and stay sane and connected.

Going back to what you said before about playing characters that people don’t like. Obviously, Zoe Barnes from House Of Cards fits that description. That character in that world at that time…it’s obviously a very different time right now and there were complicating factors attached to the show, but would it be interesting to you to face this world with that character ?

Well, the amazing thing about that show is obviously it’s still… My God, it’s still so relevant today and I love that. I love the character, Zoe Barnes. That was one of the top two favorite characters I’ve ever played. Yeah, in a dream scenario, to explore what she would be doing today in this climate, I’d be curious to see. And, like I said, that was such a fun role to play. And complicated.

Everything that happened there and everything that happened with Kevin Spacey, how does that influence your view of what the work was? Because there was an impact, obviously. It’s not going to be on top ten lists and people aren’t going to think about it, only because of its association.

That is a very sad reality. That’s a sad reality because I do think that the show is so great and specifically, that first season because Fincher was obviously the mastermind behind that and there’s just nobody like him. That is a very bad thing, that people don’t really want to give it that kind of credit now because of all that’s happened since then. But for me, my experience was my experience and I’ve said it before, David Fincher totally changed my… he is one of the all-time greats and it was definitely the greatest work experience I’ve had. And so, it’s very bittersweet, I have been to say.

When something like that happens, when there’s an artist, who’s tainted and then it taints the whole project… In general, just as a consumer of art, where do you stand on separating the art from the artist?

Oh, that’s a good question. I don’t know how to answer that. [Laughs] That’s my honest answer. I really don’t have something for that. I actually don’t know. I have to think about that.

I don’t have a set answer either, honestly. I don’t blame you for not having an answer. It’s probably an unfair thing to ask.

So you think you’d probably go, “I don’t know, actually.”

Yeah!

Well, that makes me feel better.

I was really looking for you to answer for me.

It is a good question though. And I’m going to spend some time thinking about it and exploring that. [Laughs]

The first three episodes of ‘A Teacher’ are available to stream now on FX On Hulu with more episodes dropping every Tuesday.

Naming conventions be damned, Tuesday officially brought two new Xbox consoles to the market with the Xbox Series X and Series S hitting shelves across the country. Both Microsoft and Sony have decided the next console war will be fought on two fronts, both with an optical drive-equipped device and a download-only console available at a slightly smaller price tag.

The plethora of new options can make it difficult to decide which console to buy, and whether it’s worth even diving into the next generation of games at any cost or with any console. And while time and experience (and scarcity) may help sharpen these choices into clearer focus for some, sometimes it’s best to dive in and see what you can for yourself. Which is why Microsoft provided an Xbox Series X to Uproxx Gaming to put through the paces, and after a fortnight with the console I can report that the early returns are, indeed, very good.

Buying any new console is a unique purchase for everyone, and it’s impossible to weigh every factor and option. Microsoft is attempting to capture a wider swath of the gaming market with the Series S, but its larger, black box of a sibling is the flagship product on launch day. And the cube certainly brings a lot to the table in an industry that’s more crowded than ever. That shape, though, is one of the first things you’ll notice about the console. Though it’s not as big as the PS5, it takes up considerable space in a way unlike other Xboxes.

With its vents on the smallest rectangle of the cube, it’s meant to stand upright and to the uninitiated might look like a large, nondescript router or hard drive. It’s a uniquely-shaped console to say the least, and in my fairly squat entertainment center it simply has nowhere to go but standing slightly taller than the Yamaha receivers next to my record player. If you’re looking to buy a new Xbox simply based on the likelihood you won’t have to rearrange your consoles, buy a Series S and expect to invest in a hard drive eventually. Otherwise, you’re in for some logistical experimentation after you’re done unboxing.

If this is a purchase decision made mostly on what games are currently available: wait. There’s no need to torture yourself based on new console FOMO. Games may be optimized, but if you’re feeling the pressure of potentially getting shut out on a title in these early months that simply won’t happen with the new Xboxes. The consoles have zero true exclusive titles on launch day, and even some of the few “exclusives” of the next-gen enhanced titles are available on your current Xbox.

Sure, those enhanced games play better. NFL Madden 21 is a more polished, better-looking football sim on the Series X. NBA 2K21 looks and feels better on the console, too. A more thorough recap of the next-gen titles on the Xbox is on the way soon, but the same can be said for every game optimized for the Series X. Load times on last-gen titles are so quick you might never read the text on loading screens, frame rates were considerably better and automatic HDR brought new life and color to some games in need of a boost. The new Yakuza game looks better, and racing games like Dirt 5 and the remastered Forza all take advantage of the console’s new tech to make driving crisp and beautiful. But if we’re being honest with ourselves the system lacks a true killer app that’s worth the upgrade price right away. Halo Infinite is delayed until next year along with many of the other teased titles coming to fulfill the many promises of a next-gen console.

We’ll have more on the Series S and how it performs in the coming days, but both the Series S and Series X will play the same next-gen titles, unless you buy those games on physical discs. Only the Series X has a disc drive, and therefore also can play 4K ultra HD Blu Rays after quickly downloading an app. The picture is, as expected, great and the console can download games and do other tasks while you watch the only Blu Ray you have in your apartment, which may or may not have been a previously unopened copy of the LEGO Batman Movie.

Much like buying a new cellphone these days, what you get immediately with the Series X is not a giant leap forward but incremental changes that, overall, feel like they justify the cost of living in the near-future. Games load much faster and play considerably cleaner. The actual Xbox experience with the Series X intentionally replicates what you’ve had with prior systems. It makes the same noise when you turn it on, accesses your cloud-saved data from previous games and feels like a cleaned up Xbox experience from the start. But it’s definitely a better Xbox experience in basically every way.

The console is so obviously built to play games well, which sounds like an obvious statement but wasn’t always the case with the peripheral-filled, entertainment hub launch of the Xbox 360 and its voice commands and cable television hopes and dreams. The games really are the focus here, and though a Series X is also a great vehicle for watching Disney+ or Netflix or streaming sports, it took me a long while to get to that part of the review process. That’s just not what most people will be buying it for, though those entertainment options are absolutely there.

Microsoft is betting big on games, buying Bethesda and appearing poised to make Game Pass one of the smartest investments in gaming with EA Play and other exclusives coming down the road. It’s a huge amount of money that makes deals like that happen, but after playing games on the console those deals were made for it’s easy to see why Microsoft is making that wager. Computer gaming is huge and a considerable part of Microsoft’s gaming equation, sure. But the Series X proves that consoles are far from dead, and even with a steeper price point the Series X offers a lot of advantages in simplicity and cost that PC gaming simply can’t match for the consumers who just want a gaming box they never need to open.

Perhaps the most immediate upgrade is the next-gen Xbox controller, which looks extremely similar to its predecessor but is notably better. It feels sturdier, and the material is satisfyingly sleek. It somehow feels warmer to the touch than the Xbox One controller, even when it’s turned off, and there’s a subtle texturing on the underside where your fingers go that makes the grip feel slightly more stable. It both looks and feels more premium than the controller that shipped with the last Xbox, and there was basically no adjustment period necessary to grab it and dive into a game.

Another fairly obvious but extremely useful upgrade to the Series X controller is the dedicated share button. It’s an essential tool for modern gaming (and an absolute necessity for a game reviewer like myself) and it’s a huge upgrade over the screenshot system on the last Xbox. Press the middle button on the controller, and the screenshot is automatically saved and uploaded for access on the Xbox app as well. In the past, I had admittedly favored reviewing games on the Nintendo Switch when possible, if only for the ease of easy screenshotting and sharing (and, of course, a curiosity about how the system would handle certain games). Right now, it’s difficult to imagine picking the Switch over the Series X for either of those reasons anymore.

Missing from this specific equation, of course, is a true showdown with the PS5. That console, coming later this week, has arguably the most anticipated launch day title in Spider-Man: Miles Morales and its own impressive list of upgrades from the PS4. But if you’re already in the Xbox ecosystem and plan to take advantage of Xbox Game Pass, buying in on the Series X will have some impressive upside in the coming months. On launch day, the potential for a new black box on your entertainment stand can truly feel limitless. I can say with certainty that, as you search for those limits with the Series X, you’ll find a lot of good things about what you play, even if it’s a title you’ve already spent some time with on your old console.

In the days leading up to the election, Lil Wayne posed for a photo with Donald Trump and showed some support for the president, which many in the music community didn’t take well. It appeared his girlfriend, model Denise Bidot, wasn’t the biggest fan either, as there were rumors the two had broken up over it.

They unfollowed each other on Instagram and Bidot de-activated her account after writing, “Sometimes love just isn’t enough…” with some broken heart emojis. Bidot denied the rumors, tweeting, “I did NOT! This is absolutely false.” She later noted that Wayne actually ended things because she supported Joe Biden. Whatever did or did not happen, there is a development in the situation: Wayne has now re-followed Bidot on Instagram, as The Shade Room points out. Bidot is currently the only account Wayne follows on the platform.

After the rumored break-up, Wayne also shared a message in which he wrote, “I live the way I love and love the way I live. I’m a lover not a lighter bekuz they burn out. I am an eternal fire and burning love, either leave with a tan, a 3rd degree burn, or stay and die in love. You’re sweating. Sincerely, the fireman.”