Eminem and Lil Wayne have a lot more in common than rap fans might be aware. The “Drop The World” and “No Love” collaborators have always shared a mutual respect for each other despite being pit against each other by rap fans throughout the 2000s, but during the most recent episode of Wayne’s Beats 1 Radio show, Young Money Radio, the duo revealed just how much they mirror each other. It’s pretty common knowledge that both keep to themselves and only listen to a very select range of classic and emerging rap music outside of their own, but given how prolific each is, even they have trouble keeping up with their own music.

While detailing his songwriting process, Wayne revealed that he has to Google his own lyrics to make sure he’s not repeating himself. No sooner had he shared that information than Eminem confirmed that a quick lyrics search is part of his own songwriting ritual. “I literally have to Google my lyrics to make sure I didn’t say certain stuff,” Wayne admits, drawing an awed “Oh my God” from Em. “Yo, I swear to God, I do that too!” he commiserated. “That’s how long we’ve been doing this sh*t,” chuckled the younger rapper. “Soon as you go to my Safari, it’s gonna be ‘Lil Wayne lyrics.’”

While it’s likely these two aren’t the only ones who have to spot check for repetition — Questlove once bragged on his Roots partner-in-rhyme Black Thought for never repeating himself, and Black Thought’s been out almost a decade longer than both Wayne and Em — it’s fun to see them pull back the curtain and show that even they are sometimes overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material they’ve put out over the course of their careers.

Listen to the latest episode of Young Money Radio here.

Over the weekend, Mark Hamill shared an image of himself as Luke Skywalker on Instagram. “May The 9th Be A Bittersweet Episode- Knowing It Was The Last Time I Would Ever Play Luke,” he wrote, adding the hashtag “#ByeByeSkywalker.” Not much ambiguity there. But just in case: the Star Wars actor confirmed in an interview that after playing Darth Vader’s son (spoiler!) Luke from 1977’s A New Hope to 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, he’s officially retired from bullseye-ing womp rats.

“I had a beginning, middle, and end. Those films gave me far more than I ever expected when we started out so it’s never even occurred to me. My farewell was in Episode IX and it was bittersweet,” Hamill told Entertainment Weekly. “I love all those people and I certainly have affection for George and the character he created. I’m full of gratitude for what it has given me and my career, but I don’t want to be greedy. There are still so many more stories to tell and so many great actors to tell them, they don’t need me.”

Disney hasn’t announced the plot of the next Star Wars film — we don’t even know who the director is; maybe Rian Johnson, maybe Taika Waiti, maybe someone TBA — but whenever it comes out, you (probably) won’t hear the name “Skywalker” or (maker-willing) “Palpatine.” Give the people what they want: no Luke Skywalker, but yes Watto!

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

While UFC and NASCAR are making their returns this month and the PGA Tour has its plans in place for a June restart, the major team sports are having a much more difficult and complicated time working out the details of a return. The NBPA had a call with Adam Silver recently in which he prepared them for various possibilities, including no fans in stadiums stretching until a vaccine is in place and offering little in the way of certainty about finishing this season.

Major League Baseball is having similar conversations, but has the added issue of figuring out compensation for players as owners push for a revenue split dictating how much players make this season — something not in the MLB CBA. According to the Associated Press, MLB owners have agreed on a proposal that they will pitch to the MLBPA on Tuesday that would bring baseball back in July, with a spring training period taking place in June, and teams would play divisional opponents and interleague matchups with their regional counterparts in an 82-game season.

Major League Baseball owners gave the go-ahead Monday to making a proposal to the players’ union that could lead to the coronavirus-delayed season starting around the Fourth of July weekend in ballparks without fans, a plan that envisioned expanding the designated hitter to the National League for 2020.

…

Each team would play about 82 regular-season games: against opponents in its own division plus interleague matchups limited to AL East vs. NL East, AL Central vs. NL Central and AL West vs. NL West. Postseason play would be expanded from 10 clubs to 14 by doubling wild cards in each league to four.

The AP reports owners are pushing for a 50-50 revenue split, something the union has pushed back on and would prefer to go with the current agreement that will have players receive the percentage of their salaries based on the percentage of the 162-game season that gets played. There are also concerns from players about testing and protocols for positive tests, something the owners plan reportedly addresses but details are not currently known.

The proposal also includes adding designated hitters to the National League, as well as expanding rosters to 30 and adding a “practice squad” of sorts to mitigate the loss of minor league players as the minor league season is not part of this plan.

It will be fascinating to see what the players are willing to agree to and what the details on where games will be played — at home ballparks or at spring training sites in Arizona and Florida — and surely other leagues like the NBA and NHL will be keeping an eye on how this baseball proposal is received by the players as they work out their own plans.

This year is shaping up to be a costly one for Rich The Kid. After being hit with a pricey lawsuit by his management company, Rich The Kid is now reportedly being sued over failing to pay for expensive jewelry.

According to TMZ, the rapper is being sued by Peter Marco from Extraordinary Jewels of Beverly Hills. Marco claims the “Plug Walk” rapper left without paying his hefty bill, which was over a quarter of a million dollars.

Per TMZ’s report, Marco has been doing business with Rich for nearly three years. Marco claims he sent Rich his recent jewelry order, which included diamond necklaces, crosses, and even a few Swiss watches that were worth several hundred thousand dollars. For some time, Marco was receiving wired payments from Rich for the bling. Eventually, the payments stopped but Rich kept ordering and Marco continued to deliver. Now, Rich has racked up a bill of over $234,000 and Marco is suing for what he’s owed.

After news of the lawsuit circulated, Rich addressed the reports on Twitter, calling it “fake news.”

If Rich is in fact being sued by Marco, this wouldn’t be the first lawsuit that he has faced this year. In February, the rapper’s management company, Blueprint Artist Management, filed a lawsuit against Rich that claimed he owed them money. According to the documents, the management company said Rich had not paid them in over three years and now owes them a whopping $3.5 million in unpaid fees.

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Comics creator Rob Liefeld has never shied away from sharing his thoughts no matter how controversial or admittedly wrong they might be, and he’s staying true to form when it comes to Marvel recasting Wolverine.

In a new interview with Inverse, the Deadpool creator was asked for his thoughts on who should play the iconic clawed mutant when the X-Men are eventually rebooted for their MCU debut. Turns out Liefeld thinks there’s only one person who should portray Wolverine on the big screen, and it’s… Hugh Jackman. To qualify his remarks and reinforce how seriously he cares about the character being done right, Liefeld revealed that he’s so obsessed with Wolverine that it’s the only reason he even created Deadpool in the first place.

“I was only doing Deadpool to get to Wolverine. Like, Wolverine was always the goal. You understand Deadpool. He comes from the Weapon X program. He has a healing factor. He shares a history with Wolverine. Did I not just kind of put the blueprint down and lift it and go, ‘hello,’ and the whole time Marvel’s like, ‘Yeah, Rob, whatever you want. That’s good. Thumbs-up,’ and I’m like, ‘I can’t believe I’m getting to do this.’ So I can’t answer your question about Wolverine. I’m stuck on Hugh Jackman. I hope to god he comes back. I do. You know what? He’s been seriously firm that he is not going to be Wolverine, right? And I foolishly don’t believe him.”

Of course, as Liefeld notes, Jackman has made it repeatedly clear that he’s not returning to the mutant role that rocketed him to superstar fame. While promoting his new movie Bad Education in April, Jackman told The Daily Beast that the party is officially over as far as he and Wolverine are concerned.

“Somebody else will pick it up and run with it,” Jackman said. “It’s too good of a character not to. It’s kind of like, you’re on your way home and your friend rings you and goes, Oh, dude, a new DJ just came on and the music is awesome, are you going to come back? And you say, Sounds good but… no. They’re fine with someone else.”

(Via Inverse)

Ken Jennings may be the best person to talk to about trivia in America, and how the show that made him famous has made its mark on the genre. The Jeopardy! GOAT won a million dollars earlier in 2020 by knocking off James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter in the Greatest Of All Time Tournament and has spent the months since putting the finishing touches on his new trivia board game, Half Truth.

Inevitably, Jennings is forever tied to the syndicated trivia game show that made him a household name in 2004 when he won 74 straight episodes and first set the record for the most earnings in show history. Last week, Jeopardy! aired his first appearance on the show in an attempt to bridge the gap between reruns now that the show is unable to tape. It’s a fun bit of nostalgia, but one that Jennings hopes does not need to cover the entirety of his run on regular Jeopardy!

“I hope that the shutdown does not last 74 more weeknights, that would really be terrible if they had time to do my whole run,” Jennings said in March. “I’d hope for America’s sake it does not come to that.”

The rest of the week featured replays of the GOAT tournament which Jennings joked was the last good thing to happen in 2020. But the trivia ace had plenty to say about how trivia has changed in the better because of Jeopardy! In writing questions for Half Truth, for example, Jennings had the difficult task of figuring out what questions are hard and what things most people know.

“I write for high school and college quiz bowl events, and you have to have a sense of what these kids already know, what they knew last time and if you do enough of it,” Jennings said. “You start to see the outlines of it like ‘this one’s hard but fair, this one’s just going to annoy people because they’ve never heard of it.’”

Quiz bowl is one thing, Jennings said, that because of its structure allows a question-maker a general framework for the content that people may already know. Writing Half Truth was a challenge because that structure wasn’t there, but knowing how those traditional formats impact what people know is an important part of the process.

“You have to have an idea in your head of not only what you know, you have to have a separate sense of what the culture’s trivia canon is,” he said. “In the same sense that a college course would have a philosophy canon. Or a poetry canon. We have to have some baseline trivia canon. And if you write a lot in this field, which I do, you do have a sense of it.”

Aside from Half Truth, Jennings has a quiz email he writes and has books about the genre as well, one of which actually inspired Magic the Gathering creator and board game designer Richard Garfield to reach out and pitch what became Half Truth. But Jennings said he owes Jeopardy! a great deal, starting with his notoriety but also what it’s done to trivia in general and what it’s changed about what people more commonly know.

“Jeopardy! has really shaped what Americans know, and it’s kind of self-perpetuating thing,” he said. “If Jeopardy! asks too much about Opera or the bible or whatever, that stuff stays in the trivia canon longer than it would otherwise.”

In creating Half Truth he spoke fondly of the trivia revival he grew up during — the return of Jeopardy! to syndication and the boom of trivia board games — and how that that influenced the many other versions of trivia that have come in the decades since.

“If you were an 80s kid, that mid-80s period where Jeopardy! came back on the air and then everyone got Trivial Pursuit for Christmas — that was huge for a kind of a geeky 10-year-old boy like me,” Jennings said.

Whether Half Truth can do the same to the genre right now remains unknown, but it’s clear the thought behind its creation will keep it interesting for trivia fans looking for that attention to detail.

The anticipation for the reveal of who will top this week’s Billboard Hot 100 chart has been has intense as it has been in a while. The reason is that it looked like it would be a hotly disputed contest between Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” (thanks in part to the new Beyonce remix of the song) and Doja Cat’s “Say So” (which was also boosted by a remix, featuring Nicki Minaj). Now, the leaders on the May 16-dated Hot 100 chart have been revealed, and Doja and Minaj’s tune came out on top.

This is of course a huge moment for both artists, as this is the first time either of them have had a No. 1 song on the Hot 100. Minaj previously came close to topping the chart with “Anaconda,” which peaked at No. 2, and she also has a good amount of top-10 hits to her name. Additionally, “Say So” is Minaj’s 109th song to make it onto the Hot 100, which ties her with Elvis Presley for the fourth-most of all time.

Now, as Doja fans are aware, she has a risqué promise to fulfill:

While Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” remix didn’t make it to No. 1, this is far from a loss for the rapper, as the hit still became her highest-charting song ever this week at No. 2.

Meanwhile, Post Malone’s “Circles” remains in the top 10 at No. 8, which extends its record-breaking top-10 run.

“Your public lands, our public lands — this belongs to all of us.”

That simple message, which sounds like a modified version of the iconic Woody Guthrie song “This Land Is Your Land”, was shared with me by Ryan Callaghan when he took over as Director of Conservation for MeatEater. Stepping into a new role in a pre-COVID world, Callaghan, an avid outdoorsman and backcountry guide, was charged with helping people embrace wild spaces as part of their everyday lives. He’s a hunter and fisherman, yes, but above all things, he’s a person who just wants us all to get outside.

With the COVID-19 keeping us (mostly) homebound and adding a whole range of considerations to any thought of air travel, getting outside certainly seems like the most viable way to see the world right now. Public gathering spaces are going to be closed for quite a while. Events and concerts are on hold. Museums are only digital (and are likely to see visitor caps when they do open). Meanwhile, “active recreation” permits for public lands have allowed a stir-crazy populace to finally move their bodies again.

Though it’s easy to forget, there are 247.3 million acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM)-controlled wild spaces in this country. That’s a fair bit of elbow room in the time of social distancing. If you’re the type who wants to exert your freedoms, BLM land is the place to do it (while being safe and considerate). If you’re wary of seeing others or want to get away from a world gone mad, BLM land’s got you. In this new era, it’s perhaps the best/ safest/ most-reasonable way to scratch that travel and adventure itch in the coming months without venturing too far from home or recklessly endangering yourself or others.

Here’s a beginner’s guide for anyone thinking about a first-trip into BLM land.

What Exactly Is BLM Land Anyway?

You’ve probably heard “BLM Land” thrown around by hardcore outdoorsy types a fair bit. Besides being a legit designation for certain parts of the country, it’s also a bit of a cool kids term these days. In short, BLM stands for Bureau of Land Management and is a federal body under the Department of Interior that oversees all the public land in the United States.

That includes accessible land across each U.S. State. Generally speaking, these comprise:

• 221 Wilderness Areas
• 27 National Monuments
• 636 National Conservation Lands
• 2,400 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers
• 6,000 miles of Historic and National Trails

It’s a vast network of land that’s held by all of us for use by all of us. But, as you can see, “BLM Land” isn’t a single thing. Which leads us to…

Don’t Expect A Single Set Of Rules For All Public Lands

While embracing the publically owned, undeveloped land in our own backyards feels like the best possible option for an adventure this summer, you can’t just show up and expect to do whatever you want. This was very true even before the pandemic. There are rules and fees for access and they can vary greatly and there may be new rules to help with social distancing or COVID-precautions.

“Wilderness can still be highly restricted in how you use it,” Callaghan tells us. “Still, if you’re willing to hike in, you’ll be shocked at just how much access you can have.”

It may sound counterintuitive, given how much we’ve said about these lands being ours to use, but certain sections of BLM land are leased out to cattle ranchers, while other parts are mineral or oil extraction sites. Is that wonderful news for the planet? Probably not. But it is the present reality, so… if you want to go mountain biking or find the perfect swimming hole you need to do the research to see where exactly that is and isn’t allowed.

For what it’s worth, the BLM does a fairly good job helping people figure out which activities are viable in which locations. There’s a whole section on their site for mountain biking riding. The same goes for caving and off-road vehicles. We understand that this feels like a lot of information to manage, but Callaghan puts it this way, “Each spot is unique and they all kind of have their own set of rules, so it’s kind of hard to talk about them in bulk.”

Obviously, a national forest in upstate New York is going to be a wholly different experience than a national forest in, say, Idaho’s backcountry where wolves, lions, and bears roam. Expect different rules to apply.

Research What’s Available Around You

“The reality is the bulk of my recreation — which I get a lot of — is really, really, really close to home,” Callaghan notes. This can be true for you too, even if you live in a big city.

The best advice is to do the research first. Where can you go? Where can you camp? Where can you swim? Where can you get food or access to a toilet? These are all valid questions that you should consider and find answers to before setting off.

The BLM website has basic information on camping rules on public land. Learn them. But to actually pinpoint the place to go to fit your needs/ desires — like a campground, trailhead, or even just a vista — head to Recreation.gov. Simply enter your town and a map will pop up with everything available around you (as seen above). From there, you can get pricing for campgrounds, points of interest near you, and most of the information you’ll need to plan anything from a day trip to a weekend to a multi-week getaway.

Just a note, campgrounds will have different rules, amenities, and prices across the board. There are also plenty of free camping areas for those willing to pack in and pack out all their gear. Considering that BLM land is truly more “wild” than US National Parks, the bar for being fully researched and prepared is higher.

Learn The Safety Rules Of Where You’re Going And Follow Those Rules

This is probably the most important aspect of using BLM lands. There are a lot of things to consider if you’re camping, hiking, climbing, cave diving, or just taking a stroll without rangers on duty. Again, the BLM website does a good job of breaking down important regulations and considerations. They cover everything from fire, river, and cave safety to water issues, hypothermia, dealing with snakes, and even what cellphone coverage to expect. Check out the “Know Before You Go” section of their site and absorb as much information as you can.

It’s important to know what flora and fauna are present in the area you plan to visit as well. No one wants to wander into a poison ivy patch or get woken up by a hungry bear. Moreover, have a solid plan for water. Do not expect to be able to draw water from streams or lakes without some sort of purification system.

A great place to find real-world information about using BLM land is Backcountry Hunters & Anglers communities. They have chapters all over the country and offer expert guidance on embracing the great outdoors while also leaning heavily into the conservation of those spaces.

Take It Slow

“I think that we have to do a little bit better job about being realistic and celebrating just getting out,” Callaghan says. “It’s not necessarily these grand adventures all the time. A lot of my wilderness experiences are less than a mile into the wilderness.”

You don’t need to climb a mountain the first time you go onto BLM land. It’s totally fine to just do a day hike to a lake or stream, drop a line in the water, and pack it in before sunset.

The point is, it’s okay to stay close to your comfort zone on your first few outings. Test the waters, see where your lines in the sand are with regards to comfort, and go from there. No one should rush you into doing anything in the wilderness that you’re not ready for. Just getting out there and breathing the clean air, surrounded by trees, can be enough to leave you feeling alive and invigorated.

Consider Getting A Pass Or Entering A Lottery

Yes, public land is open to everyone but you also can’t just walk into some places. An annual recreation pass generally gives you access to national parks and federal lands, campsites, trails, and more. They only cost $80 per year (they’re free for military and ex-military families) and make accessing a huge swath of public land much easier.

The passes are currently suspended due to the pandemic but are likely to be reissued as restrictions ease. When that does happen, you can get a pass from the USGS.

As we mentioned, there are sites under BLM control that do have restricted access. That means you’ll need a permit that sometimes those permits are tied to a yearly lottery. This covers everything from river access to canyons with a delicate natural balance that needs to be protected to ancient archeological sites to dangerous areas that you shouldn’t be walking into unless you truly know what you’re doing. You can find a list of restricted access lands on the BLM website.

Know What You Need To Bring And Leave No Trace

This seems pretty obvious. Still, plan ahead.

You’re going to need to bring food, water, and supplies in with you — even if it’s just for a day hike. Know what you need and make sure you don’t forget it at home. A good rule is to be a little more prepared than the situation demands. If you’re going to camp along a river with clearly marked trails, a few miles off the highway, you probably don’t need a satellite phone, but you should have some basic directional skills and compass knowledge. If you’re planning on starting a fire, even a small one, knowledge of fire safety protocols are a must. The phrase “just in case” is an important consideration here.

Also, it should go without saying, but don’t leave any waste. Bury your feces at least six inches deep, 200 feet from a water source. Pack out your trash, please.

Lastly, do not remove any artifacts from public lands (or anything else for that matter). Many monuments, forests, deserts, and parks contain ancient Indigenous American sites that are sacred to locals today. Sometimes those sites will be whole abandoned towns. Sometimes they’ll be rock walls covered in ancient petroglyphs. You’re not Indiana Jones. Admire. Take photos. Show respect. Don’t touch. Move on.

Keep An Open Mind

Finally, Callaghan notes that “you don’t know who you’re going to bump into out there, from whatever walk of life.” Depending on where you are and what season it is, you could run into folks hunting, fishing, riding mountain bikes, horseback riding, birding, mushroom picking, or just hanging out and drinking a beer or two. A lot of people use our public lands for a lot of reasons. All of them are valid, as long as the rules are being followed for that area.

Here’s where the “your public lands, our public lands — this belongs to all of us” quote comes to bear. Your political/ social ideology or level of outdoorsiness doesn’t give you a better claim to a single inch of BLM land than anyone else. And without a heavy ranger presence, you’ll need to navigate certain situations calmly.

In short, be considerate and compassionate, or simply don’t go. Just like in the case of the pandemic, we’re in this together.

On the flip side, keep an open mind to just how wonderful of an experience BLM land can be. Maybe you realize you don’t need a tour guide every time you leave home. Maybe you connect to new activities that change how you relate to the planet in general. Maybe you find a piece of yourself out there in the wild spaces that you’d never encountered before and grow as a result.

The truth is, COVID is going to shape our world for a long time. Everything is different now, including the way we spend our recreation hours. The opportunity to connect with wild spaces in a way that doesn’t endanger yourself or others while also opening the door to new adventures might just be one of the few silver linings of that fact.

Kim Petras aims to reign in all things summer with her recent cheery number “Malibu.” With the track, Petras wanted to ease anxieties that inevitably arise in quarantine. To assist her with her goal, a host of celebrities joined in for Petras’ quarantine-style video accompanying the track.

The “Malibu” video opens with Petras in front of a brightly-colored ocean background before a clip of Paris Hilton singing the song’s hook appears on the screen. The remainder of the visual jumps between joyous snippets of various celebrities giving their best lip-synched renditions of the song. Along with Hilton, musicians and stars like Charli XCX, Jonathan Van Ness, Demi Lovato, Jessie J, and Loren Gray join in on the fun.

Ahead of the visual’s release, Petras spoke with Uproxx about her writing process on the single:

“I actually wrote it when I had never really been to anything else but the beach in Malibu. And my imagination of it was so great, but then I was like, ‘Wait, it’s just a bunch of rich people living by the ocean.’ I wanted to write a song about my imagination of it and how I wanted it to feel — I think I just haven’t been to Malibu with the right people. But this song is an ode to my imagination, like how Malibu looks on TV, to somebody who’s from Germany and how it seems in the movies and stuff like that. So it’s really romantic because I’m comparing love to my dream version of Malibu, that’s what the song is all about to me. But I would love for people to make it about anything they want to make it about.”

Watch Petras’ “Malibu” video above.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.