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Moneybagg Yo starred alongside GloRilla for his “On Wat U On” video to start this year and rocked Rolling Loud California earlier this month, but his fans are satisfied. They want the album, so he hopped on Instagram Live a few days ago to give an encouraging update.

“Y’all are on my ass about this album. It’s comin’! I just told y’all it was coming,” Moneybagg Yo said, according to a snippet captured by RapTV. “I wanna tell y’all the date bad as hell, but it’s close. It’s real close. I promise. I swear to God. I love y’all. I love my fans. I ain’t gonna lie.”

In an interview with Billboard published on March 16, Moneybagg Yo shared more details about Hard To Love, the aforementioned forthcoming 22-track album. According to the publication, he described Hard To Love as a “personal” title because “he finds himself hard to love.”

“At the end of the day to love me, you have to understand me,” he said.

He’s also been teasing the album on Twitter.

“Even tho I do this effortlessly I put in real work on this album, hope y’all enjoy,” the Memphis rapper tweeted on March 20, including a fire emoji, eyeballs emoji, and trophy emoji. That was followed on March 25 with an even more confident tweet, “I SWEAR WEN [sic] I DROP ITS OVAAAAA.”

Moneybagg Yo last dropped A Gangsta’s Pain in April 2021, which enjoyed two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — his first album to top the chart.

In another timeline, Trinity in The Matrix wouldn’t have been played by Carrie-Anne Moss. She would have been played by Rosie Perez. It’s something else imagining the sparkplug of Soul Train, movies like Do the Right Thing, White Men Don’t Jump, Fearless, and, more recently, Birds of Prey and The Flight Attendant as part of the stoic resistance against the evil computers in the Wachowskis’ game-changing dystopian saga. And maybe it would have happened had she not by her own admission totally screwed up her audition.

In a new profile of the Oscar-nominated actress by Variety, Perez reflected on the time she went out for what became one of the biggest franchise of the late ‘90s and early aughts.

“I was horrible. As I was walking out, I was like, ‘I know I didn’t get the job. I really sucked,’ and the Wachowskis were like, ‘No,’ and the casting director was trying not to laugh,” she recalled. “And then finally I looked at her and I go, ‘I really sucked,’ and she just burst out laughing. We all were laughing. I just gave the Wachowskis a hug and I said, ‘Well, good luck with this.’”

What Perez didn’t want to discuss was the time, when she was choreographing the Fly Girls on In Living Color in the early ‘90s, that she got into a feud with a pre-fame Jennifer Lopez. She brushed that one off, deadpanning, “I don’t even want to get into that.”

(Via Variety)

(WARNING: Spoilers for this week’s episode of Snowfall will be found below.)

Snowfall fans are still reeling from last week’s gut-wrenching episode. In the sixth episode of the season, “Concrete Jungle,” Jerome, a fan-favorite of the show, was shot and killed in a shootout with Kane. The tragic ending left viewers to try and decide who was at fault for Jerome’s death. In Louie’s eyes, Franklin is to blame as it comes as a direct result of their ongoing war. Some would say that it’s Louie’s fault due to her refusal to leave the drug game despite all the money and success she and Jerome had. Then there’s the obvious choice of Kane as he was, you know, the person who kidnapped Louie and forced Jerome to come back to rescue her, all to be killed in the progress. Regardless of who’s to blame, all parties involved have to pick up the pieces and move forward in this week’s episode.

In the seventh episode of the latest season of Snowfall, titled “Charnel House,” we’re met with a grieving Louie who is as cold as we’ve ever seen her. The episode begins with Jerome’s body being taken to a funeral home to be prepared for a casket, something that causes Louie to once again break down into a painful cry. For the rest of the episode, Louie’s emotions are only reserved for her late husband. She’s extremely cold and at times combative when speaking to Cissy who begs her to bring an end to the war. It continues when Louie speaks with Teddy about meeting and again when they actually meet towards the end of the episode. Louie’s distraught pain over the loss of Jerome is clear, and there’s no telling how that will affect everyone else.

Elsewhere in this episode, Franklin continues his search to find Teddy with help from Gustavo, who is in quite a jam. Wanda delivers some surprising news to Leon and it appears that the walls around Teddy could be closing on him soon — and it’s not directly connected to Franklin or Louie.

Here are some of the biggest takeaways that we have after season six’s seventh episode: “Charnel House”:

Louie Has Nothing More To Lose

Jerome was the only person Louie cared about, especially during the family war. In her eyes, everyone picked their sides and Jerome was the only one who was unconditionally beside her — Franklin was the enemy and Cissy, Veronique, and Leon were all beside him. It’s for this reason that she can look Cissy in the eye and shrug off her request to end the war for the sake of everyone. Cissy begs and tries to get Louie to listen, but if she wasn’t in support of a truce before Jerome’s death, there’s no way she will be now, and Louie tells CIssy just that. “You still got things you care about,” Louie says coldly to Cissy. “I don’t.” With Louie’s promise to Teddy that she’ll kill Franklin the second she gets the chance at the funeral, and her conversation with Franklin at the funeral, there’s no telling what her next move will be. We do know that it will be made to avenge Jerome’s death in one way or another.

Franklin And Gustavo’s Best Win Is To Find Teddy

Gustavo is backed into a corner with only one way out: he has to give up Teddy. The DEA, KGB, and Franklin each want Teddy, but for Gustavo, there’s no way to give up Teddy to each party and get out of the situation alive and out of jail. The DEA is dangling a presumably long sentence over his head for Teddy’s whereabouts while the KGB agent has infiltrated Gustavo’s home to threaten his family over Teddy as well. Then there’s Franklin, who simply wants to kill Teddy for stealing his $73 million. It leaves Gustavo in a sticky situation, but his choice may not be as hard as it seems. Franklin promised to give Gustavo $1 million in exchange for Teddy, and that is far better than any deal that DEA or KGB has offered him. With the DEA, Gustavo would just escape prison or serve a lighter sentence while with the KGB, he would get relocated to a safe place with just enough money to start a new life. If you ask me, $1 million is a lot better than both of those options. Plus, going with Franklin guarantees that Teddy will be out of their respective lives for the rest of time, something that’s a big win for both Gustavo and Franklin.

Leon Might Want To Consider Following Wanda

Amid all the chaos of the last few episodes, an underlying theme has been Wanda’s growing discontent with life in the projects. Remember, at the beginning of the season, Wanda was at her happiest when she and Leon were living their best lives in Ghana. It was Leon who decided they needed to return to LA as he felt guilty for leaving his home in a mess that he helped cause. However, for Wanda, her time in Ghana was the first moment in her life that she was finally able to escape the demons and pains that surrounded her in Los Angeles. So when she informs Leon in episode seven of her plans to move out of the projects, it comes as a shock to him but not so much to us watching at home. As I wrote after episode five, Wanda cannot grow where she wasn’t rooted. Furthermore, Leon might want to consider joining her as it’s clear that the world is crumbling around the Saint family. He claims to have a few more things to fix in the projects before letting go, but just like last time, it could all get ruined and destroyed once he leaves. For once Leon, save yourself.

Franklin And Teddy Should Both Fear Louie

There is no telling what Louie’s next move will be and that is something that should scare the hell out of Franklin and Teddy. In one moment, we see Louie meet with Teddy and assure him that if he wants Franklin killed after the funeral, she will get it done. Then in another, Louie is met with Franklin’s reminder of the promise she made to him at the warehouse, one that could involve helping Franklin take down Teddy. There’s no true confirmation on what Louie’s next move will be as eliminating either Teddy or Franklin will be beneficial to her and help her somewhat avenge Jerome’s death. It’s this uncertainty that should worry Franklin and Teddy. On one end, it appears that Louie will stand by her family and not allow anyone else in the Saint circle to be killed, but on the other, she could throw that all away and go after Franklin who she believes is to blame for Jerome’s death. There are three episodes left in the final season of Snowfall and it’s through those that we’ll find out what Louie’s decision is — if she picks either at all.

New episodes of ‘Snowfall’ are available on FX on Wednesdays at 10pm EST/ PST.

Nearly one year ago, FX renewed Snowfall for a sixth and final season, one that got underway last month. Over the past six years, Snowfall grew to be one of the most popular shows on television as it garnered over a million viewers for each of its episodes at its height. In its sixth and final season, Snowfall looks to conclude the crime drama on a high note with actor Damson Idris as the centerpiece of its dramatized retelling of the crack epidemic and its effects in South Central Los Angeles. While fans expected the Snowfall experience to be officially over after its ongoing season, it appears that a new spin-off is on the way.

According to Deadline, a Snowfall spin-off is reportedly in development and it is set to star Gail Bean, who currently plays Wanda in Snowfall. The spin-off is set to continue the original story set in the 1990s by shifting its focus from the crack epidemic to the Los Angeles rap industry that took the nation by storm during that decade. Bean’s Wanda character will serve as the connection between the original show and the spin-off and new characters will be brought on to continue the story. There’s no word on if any other characters from the original Snowfall series will appear in the spin-off.

Malcolm Spellman has signed on as the executive producer and writer of the pilot. Dave Andron (the co-creator of the original and showrunner of Snowfall), Trevor Engelson, Michael London, Tommy Schlamme, and Julie DeJoie will also executive produce the new series. A release date has yet to be confirmed for the new series.

On Wednesday night, the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers met for the second time in a week, this time in the Windy City.

The last time the two teams played, Patrick Beverley got to rub some salt in the wound of a Bulls win over his former team, hitting a spinning shot over LeBron James and then giving him the “too small” gesture. Beverley then took a postgame victory lap about how the Lakers misused him, saying he’s a spoon they asked to be a fork.

On Wednesday, the Lakers exacted some revenge, beating the Bulls 121-110 to get up to eighth place in the Western Conference. They also got back at Beverley, but from the unlikeliest of sources, as Austin Reaves was the one to deliver some “too small” retribution, to the absolute delight of Anthony Davis … and Bulls announcer Stacey King.

Look at that smile on AD’s face! That might be the happiest he’s looked on the court all season. Davis showed out with 38 points and 10 rebounds in the win, while Reaves added 19 as he continues to become a key contributor in the Lakers second half turnaround.

As for Beverley, he had to know this was coming if the Lakers were in control of this game, but it makes it far funnier that it was Reaves, not LeBron, who delivered his comeuppance.

On March 27, the Covenant School, a private elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, experienced a school shooting where three 9-year-old children and three staff members lost their lives. The news of the event took over the airwaves as more details were released.

But for one reporter covering the shooting live, the event hit close to home in more than one way. Joylyn Bukovac, a local reporter for WSMV 4, was reporting live from the scene at the Covenant School when she revealed that she was a survivor of a school shooting herself. Bukovac explained that when she was in the eighth grade, someone opened fire at her school.

“About 380 school shootings have happened since Columbine, my middle school being one of them, this school being one of them,” she said. “Some people have been reaching out to me saying, ‘Enough’s enough. When is all of this gun violence going to change?'”

Getting the phone call that there’s an active shooter at your child’s school is a parent’s worst nightmare, and it seems that nightmare is becoming all too real for more parents. Sadly, gun violence has surpassed all other causes of death for children in America, even beating out car crashes.

With this reporter’s personal account, it’s clear that mass shootings have been a problem for a long time. In recalling her experience, Bukovac offered some advice to parents who were receiving the phone call that their child’s school was the newest target.

“A lot of this is really bringing up a lot of tough memories for me that I’m going through,” Bukovac revealed. “And my biggest advice for all the families here, if your student witnessed the unthinkable today, just be very gentle with them and let them talk when they’re ready because the shock that they’re going to be feeling coming home is going to be unfathomable.”

Bukovac went on to describe her own experience of being in the hallway at her middle school when a gunman opened fire, which took her two years to feel comfortable enough to open up and talk with others about. She reminded parents that everyone copes with the trauma in their own way and not to try to force their children to discuss the events.

u201cIn a remarkable live hit, this local reporter covering the horrific school shooting in Nashville shared her own experience of surviving a school shooting when she was in middle school. I didn’t catch her name.u201d

— Reem Akkad (@Reem Akkad)
1679941457

During her time on the scene, Bukovac voiced the concerns she was hearing from parents about the number of school shootings and the desire for something to be done. Bukovac said she was able to put herself in the shoes of the students from her experience and the parents because she has a small child.

It’s amazing that Bukovac was able to not only report on a school shooting but that she was cognizant enough to offer words of support and advice to parents. The reporter ended her segment by telling parents that she would be available through email if anyone needed a listening ear.

Ron DeSantis has fashioned himself as a younger version of Donald Trump, one who actually has self-control, who’s laser-focused in his determination to defeat the “woke” left. But maybe he’s just a cosplaying doofus in way over his head. For one thing, Trump has been clobbering him at the polls. Now his attempt to one-up Disney has blown up spectacularly in his face.

As per Click Orlando, a board of DeSantis-picked cronies who were set to take over the land on and around Disney World in Orlando, Florida were in for a rude awakening when they convened on Wednesday morning. They were set to replace the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which served as the governing jurisdiction of the land, which has long had its own government independent of the state.

Instead they found out that back in February, the Reedy Creek board and Disney had reached a special agreement that handed direct control of the district’s development rights and privileges over to the powerful corporation. That means DeSantis’ board has almost no power to do anything, which they only discovered during their first meeting.

Upon learning this, board member Ron Peri, one of five on the team, was shocked and appalled. “I cannot tell you the level of my disappointment in Disney. I thought so much better of them. This essentially makes Disney the government,” he lamented. “This board loses, for practical purposes, the majority of its ability to do anything beyond maintain the roads and maintain basic infrastructure.”

As per Above the Law, DeSantis offered a meek response, claiming the agreement “may have significant legal infirmities that would render the contracts void as a matter of law.”

Problem is, he and his lawyers may have trouble proving that. For one thing, the board and Disney did this all out in the open, as per Florida law. DeSantis simply didn’t do anything to stop it. Maybe he was too busy spouting huffing and puffing on Fox News to notice.

For another, Reedy Creek and Disney ensured that their deal will last a good, long time. The agreement contains a clause declaring that the declaration will last until “twenty one (21) years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III.” That is quite a long time.

In other words, Bob Iger beat Ron DeSantis at his own game. Maybe a mid-40s upstart politician who models his hand gestures after a guy who now considers him his number one enemy is no match for a guy who runs one of the largest corporations on the planet.

News that DeSantis got pantsed, and not by the guy who refuses to call him “Meatball Ron,” led to a lot of jokes.

Iger had a big day Wednesday. News broke that he’d also fired Isaac Perlmutter, CEO of Marvel Entertainment (then Marvel Comics) since 2005 and a key part of it since the ‘90s, as part of overall layoffs. Perlmutter has not been looked on kindly by Disney brass for over a decade, and besides, he’s had diminished power anyway. He hasn’t been involved in their movies since 2015, and he lost control over the TV wing in 2019.

The one-two punch of Iger squashing DeSantis and Perlmutter led to still more jokes.

News of DeSantis getting humiliated by Iger comes mere days after Disney announced they were holding a summit on gay rights in Orlando, amidst the governor’s ongoing war on the LGBTQIA+ community. But he may have messed with the wrong people.

(Via Click Orlando and Above the Law)

Within the last year, GloRilla burst onto the scene with “FNF (Let’s Go),” leading to her signing with Yo Gotti’s CMG Records and becoming a ubiquitous voice in hip-hop with Billboard Hot 100 hits like “Tomorrow 2” alongside Cardi B and her debut EP, Anyways, Life’s Great. Yet, the Memphis standout is only beginning to cement her legacy.

That growing legacy now includes Tommy Jeans, as she is a face for the Tommy Hilfiger brand’s new collaboration with Aries. Her Tommy x Aries photos immediately conjured nostalgia for the late Aaliyah’s 1996 campaign.

According to Billboard, the Tommy x Aries capsule includes 35 pieces spanning menswear, womenswear, and footwear:

“The retro designs include ‘90s-style silhouettes with exaggerated proportions, split colorways, layers and lots of baggy denim. Some of the key pieces from the collection include a black trucker jacket with a five-pocket matching pant, a jacquard tape logo dress and relaxed indigo denim jacket and baggy split colorway screen-printed jean, similar to what Aaliyah wore in a 1996 campaign for Tommy Jeans.”

The full collection will be available this Friday, March 31, in select retailers on Tommy Hilfiger’s official website.

It was unexpected when the one and only Keanu Reeves mentioned indie darlings Alvvays during a Reddit AMA last year as a band he’d been listening to recently. Fans of the “Belinda Says” band wanted to know more, and now we finally have answers.

During a talk with NME, the interviewer asked about his favorite albums. Reeves tried to think about the new LPs he recently acquired, and the interviewer brought up Alvvays. “Yeah, I don’t have their new record,” he said about last year’s seismic Blue Rev. “I bought it digitally, but I don’t have it on vinyl.”

“So it’s your favorite album-to-be,” the interviewer suggested.

“Yeah, can I say that?” Reeves replied. “Because I love that band.” When asked what he loves about them, he explained, “I like me a good pop song, and I like me a kind of inventiveness in it. And I think the lead singer [Molly Rankin], she’s great. And the textures of it. I mean, I love bass guitar and drums, and I like their energy.”

If you’re looking to possibly run into Reeves this summer, Alvvays will be on a highly anticipated co-headlining tour with Alex G, who also released a notable record last year, God Save The Animals.

Even if you haven’t heard of Neuschwanstein Castle, there’s a good chance you’ve at least seen pictures of it. Set atop a tree-covered rock ledge in the Bavarian Alps, the picturesque castle looks like it was conjured straight out of a fairy tale. In fact, it served as inspiration for Disney Imagineers as they designed “Sleeping Beauty’s Castle” in Disneyland, and it’s regularly named the top castle to visit in Germany.

There are estimated to be around 25,000 castles in Germany, but Neuschwanstein is unique among them. Most notably, it’s not a real castle and never was. While it bears the look and feel of a well-preserved medieval castle, it was actually built in the 19th century, and rather than serving as a fortress, it served as the fantasy castle of an eccentric king obsessed with Richard Wagner’s operas and medieval mythology.

Ludwig II came to the Bavarian throne in 1864 at age 18 with no experience in government or politics. Two years later, Prussia conquered Austria and Bavaria, and Ludwig’s powerful status as king was greatly diminished. Not that he was particularly interested in governance anyway; he was more drawn to the romantic idea of having his own kingdom.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “The king worshiped the theatre and the opera, and henceforth concerned himself almost exclusively with his artistic endeavors, developing an extravagant mania for building in the Bavarian mountains that he loved.” He essentially spent much of his reign constructing an elaborate fantasy world in which he could be the king he imagined himself to be.

Hence the idea for Neuschwanstein Castle, which Ludwig wished to be built “in the authentic style of the old German knights’ castles.” The foundation for the structure was laid in 1869, but it took until 1892 for the 65,000 sq. ft. “castle” to be completed. Ludwig himself would only ever see it as an incomplete building site, as he drowned himself in a lake in 1886, a few days after being declared insane. (Though his death was officially ruled suicide by drowning, some sources point to some mystery surrounding his death, as the psychiatrist who diagnosed him also drowned at the same time.)

The tragedy of Ludwig’s final years stands in sharp contrast to the extravagant beauty of the castle he created, which The Cultural Tutor referred to as “the world’s biggest work of fan fiction.”

u201cNeuschwanstein Castle in Germany is one of the world’s most famous and beautiful castles.nnBut it isn’t a real castle: it has central heating, hot water, flushing toilets, telephones, and elevators.nnBecause Neuschwanstein is actually the world’s biggest work of fan fiction…u201d

— The Cultural Tutor (@The Cultural Tutor)
1679202293

The Throne Room serves as a symbol of how Ludwig saw kingship. The grand hall was built in the style of a Byzantine church, pointing to how Ludwig saw kings as being intermediaries between God and the world.

Where fan fiction comes in is in how much of the castle is an artistic shrine to Wagner’s operas. In many rooms, the walls are covered in paintings depicting the German legends as told in Wagner’s works, such as his 1845 “Tannhäuser” opera and his 1859 “Tristan and Isolde.”

In Neuschwanstein’s early stages, Ludwig wrote to Wagner describing his vision for the castle, telling the composer he looked forward to moving in and having Wagner come visit:

“There will be several cosy, habitable guest rooms with a splendid view of the noble Säuling, the mountains of Tyrol and far across the plain; you know the revered guest I would like to accommodate there; the location is one of the most beautiful to be found, holy and unapproachable, a worthy temple for the divine friend who has brought salvation and true blessing to the world.”

Ultimately, Ludwig and Wagner’s friendship would be complicated by money, differing artistic visions and Ludwig’s clear romantic feelings for Wagner, but if it weren’t for Ludwig’s support, Wagner would likely never have risen to the fame he ultimately enjoyed.

The “mad king” may have had some issues ranging from quirky to concerning, but he can fairly be credited with the making of Richard Wagner, as well as creating an architectural masterpiece that millions of people from around the globe travel to enjoy.

Check out the gorgeous Neuschwanstein Castle from all angles here: