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Jay-Z hosts an annual Roc Nation Brunch, but he’d probably bypass his own star-studded soirée if given the option to deposit $500,000 into his already-overflowing bank account.

Hov sat down with Gayle King for the latest CBS Mornings, where King asked him to settle a years-long online debate with various mutations. “If you a had choice between getting paid $500,000 in cash or lunch with Jay-Z, which would you choose?” King asked.

Jay-Z barely needed two seconds to think before shrugging and saying, “You gotta take the money. What I’m gonna say?” King’s counterpoint was that wisdom garnered from Jay-Z during lunch would pay endless dividends, but Jay-Z wouldn’t be swayed. “You got all that in the music for $10.99. That’s a bad deal! I wouldn’t tell you to cut a bad deal.”

He continued, “Take the $500,000, go buy some albums, and listen to the albums. It’s all there. If you piece it together and really listen to the music for the words, for what it is, it’s all there. Everything that I said was gonna happen, happened. Everything I said I wanted to do, I’ve done. There’s the blueprint. The blueprint — literally — to me and my life and my journey is there already.”

There you have it. While King got Jay-Z’s answer, an Instagram user named K Rich briefly bonded with Jay-Z over the question during last week’s Monday Night Football game between the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Chargers. In the Instagram video, K Rich told Jay-Z he would “take that $500K!” Jay-Z walked over to fist-bump him and say, “Be good, man.”

Watch that clip below, and watch the CBS Mornings snippet of King with Jay-Z above.

In late September, the Writers Guild Of America strike ended after 148 days, and late-night television shows seamlessly slipped back into their schedules throughout October. Well, for the most part. Stephen Colbert hosted The Late Show remotely last week due to testing positive for “COVID (Taylor’s Version).”

Regardless, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert must go on. This week, according to press release and the show’s Instagram, Colbert will welcome the Talking Heads to the couch, but the below musical guests are scheduled to perform.

Arlo Parks — Monday, October 23

Arlo Parks’ sophomore album, My Soft Machine, was described in an Uproxx “Best New Indie Music” weekly round-up as “a touching flash of intimate slam poetry against a sprawling sonic backdrop.” Viewers of The Late Show will be able to judge for themselves during tonight’s (October 23) episode. The show’s scheduled guests are Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez.

Parks will also bring her My Soft Machine Tour across North America in early 2024. See all dates here.

Caroline Polachek — Tuesday, October 24

Jim Gaffigan will warm the audience up for another performance from Caroline Polachek, who brought “Dang” to The Late Show last week. In June, Polachek’s Desire, I Want To Turn Into You was named among Uproxx’s “Best Pop Albums Of 2023 So Far.”

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

“It’s like when Kobe changed his number from 8 to 24, it’s just different. Different beast.”

That’s what Arin Ray said about his growth during an interview with Uproxx days before the release of his latest EP, Phases III. The third installment in the series, which dates back to 2016 when the inaugural edition was released, comes after the Cincinnati-bred singer felt his 2022 sophomore album Hello Poison flew a bit lower under the radar than he would’ve liked.

For anyone who’s followed Arin’s music since Phases, you know that the EPs are a check-in from the singer that update fans on his current mental and emotional state, so now could be the perfect time for Phases III.

Arin Ray’s latest project is the result of some course correcting, going back to what he does best: having fun with his art. The result is an 11-track body of work — almost twice as long as the previous Phases installations — that presents the singer as a flirty and charismatic character who can let his guard down for a good time.

Elsewhere in this interview, Arin Ray spoke about his growth between Phases and Phases III, what to expect for his Phases Tour in 2024, and how he balances love and lust on his latest project.

You’re over a year removed from Hello Poison, what about that project and the experience creating it would you credit towards making Phases III?

With Hello Poison, that was definitely a weird time for the world coming out of the pandemic. It was super pandemic-esque, super lovey-dovey. It’s coming from a space of it not doing what we felt we could’ve [done] with it. Then I was like, “Do I have a temperature on what’s dope right now?” I took a step back and just paid attention to my previous recordings. Whether it was Platinum Fire or the Phases [EPs] and just seeing what I was doing aesthetically [and] energy-wise, what was working?

I was a fan of Hello Poison so I may just be in my own bubble, but did you feel like it didn’t reach expectations in the way you wanted it to?

I mean, shoot, that thing didn’t reach nobody, to be honest. If we’re really talking about numbers and stats, that did not do what it was supposed to, or what it could have done. I felt like it was better than advertised, but it showed me to find new ways to promote my music. I took that one on the chin and started moving in a certain direction as far as being more intentional with my records. It was a weird time because it was COVID vibes, but we back outside now.

You’re going off instinct and having fun on this project with songs like “Wet Dream,” “Tequila,” and “Psychic.” How much did you miss these fun moments in creating and was it something you felt like you had to do?

We was just having fun, literally. My intention with that was really just to have fun, be creative, and be intentional. Sometimes when you’re talented and you want to always push and give people new stuff, they might not be ready to receive that just yet. I feel like a lot of people are still musically catching up to Platinum Fire.

I feel like pretty much all the young dudes today, and no disrespect, there’s a piece of Platinum Fire in them. I dare you to ask any of them and see what they say about that. There is an influence in the way we do break beats, melodies, [and] cadences the way I was doing it. Artists wasn’t doing it. So yeah, I definitely was just trying to have fun with this one and just not really care.

All my Phases were literally me just trying things. Phases I was me trying stuff because I was working with Nez & Rio with different sounds. It was just trying stuff and having fun. It’s a check-up on where I am mentally, physically, [and] emotionally with these relationships with women.

You worked with Tricky Stewart and James Fauntleroy on “Wait So Long,” I hear James on “Psychic” as well. What was it like working with legends like Tricky and James?

There’s not a song I have ever let anybody write and produce for me. This is the only song (“Wait So Long”) I let [someone produce and write for me] with James Fauntleroy. I let him do his thing from scratch – beat and song. The session was crazy bro, I’ve been waiting for that for like 10 years because I studied bro, so I was like, “Hey, you got it.” I ain’t never let nobody do that. It was a great experience, great experience.

I like how you balance lust and love on this project. The fun moments we previously talked about depict the lust, but you seem more serious and a bit more geared towards love on “Wait So Long,” “Cold,” and “Moonlight.” How intentional was this and what’s key about that balance to you?

It’s just where I’ve been. I was just having fun, not looking to be in a relationship. So this is Single Arin not looking for love in any way — but you know, you always find it somehow. That lust/love contrast really pushed the whole project because it’s like I’m talking to her, I’m dating, doing whatever. But I’m just having fun at the end of the day. It literally just comes down to fun man, just having fun and not really being so serious and caught up in being in love and having to do that. I’m like, “Do I know what love is?” half the time. You know, we learning.

I loved your “Stay” collaboration with Phabo, so I wanted to ask, who are some of the newer R&B artists that have caught your attention lately?

Phabo is obviously one of them. I love bro, he’s really cool. Jordan Ward’s not really R&B, but Jordan’s incredible. I love Jordan. Q’s really not R&B, but he’s incredible. The ladies are running it, it’s really not about the men as it is the women. Samaria is crazy right now. I been loving her music. Ebony Riley, I love her. Obviously, Ari Lennox my peer, she’s incredible. Summer Walker [too]. Baby Rose, I’m hypnotized when I watch her perform. Her voice just grabs you, dog. There are so many people who are incredible.

What I’m seeing is style. What I like from all of them [is] they have style. They don’t all look the same, they got their own thing and they’re really into their music. They love their craft and they love building a community and I love that about them. [It’s] something I wish I was better at. I’m learning from them. Chase Shakur [too], I’ve been seeing him come up. That boy is nasty. He’s on to something.

Is this the final installment for Phases? I ask as you said that the trilogy is complete in a post.

I would hope imma be done with Phases, but you never know. I can’t say no because what if I get bigger and — I’ve never done it on a Drake scale, but say I’m that big, you never know what doing an EP like that and bringing it back to home could do for your fans and your people. To that, I wouldn’t say no, but for right now I would love to dive in and new things.

I got a few collab vibes that I’m gonna do with a few people. I got some music that I want to do with Terrace [Martin] and Elena Pinderhughes. There are a couple of collectives I want to create to push my artistry and my musicianship to the next level. I don’t know if I would do another Phases, but if it’s another EP, it’s definitely gonna be something where it’s very, very unique and very for the times and just maybe collabbing with other people.

You did the Hello Poison Tour last fall. For fans that will come to the Phases Tour, what will be different about this run of shows?

The experience is going to be more for the fans, I’m really touching on everything. I’m doing renditions of certain things that I haven’t performed, things that people been asking me to perform and I never do. The experience will be crazy. The bigger show, we got the band. Me and a band, it’s not a night-and-day because I can crush the stage by myself, but the type of energy that comes with that is second to none. I just can’t wait to give them visuals, my voice, everything. It’s another step up, the next step from what we were doing on [the] Hello Poison Tour. The Hello Poison Tour was great, but I learned a lot too. It’s gonna be a show, it’s always a time when you come out to my show, people know that.

Phases III is out now via Interscope Records. Find out more information here.

It’s Ryan Reynolds‘ birthday today, so Rob McElhenney did what any celebrity would do to celebrate a celebrity birthday: Bring another celebrity into the mix. In this case, Chris Pratt, who has no idea what the heck is going on.

As McElhenney explains in the birthday video, he and Reynolds are always doing goofy stunts to celebrate their birthdays. This year, McElhenney decided to rename an entire park after Reynolds — which is really happening by the way — and he was hoping Pratt could help him out with the Parks and Rec/Welcome to Wrexham mash-up.

Pratt seems less than enthused, especially after learning that he’s not going to meet Ryan Reynolds. He also has a fair and frankly pressing question about why Danny DeVito isn’t involved, which does seem like a massive oversight. Someone dropped the ball here.

As for the park, like we mentioned earlier, it’s actually a real thing. McElhenney is breaking ground on the new communal space in Wrexham that will be named the “Ryan Rodney Reynolds Memorial Park.” There will be pop-up restaurants, movie nights, and lanterns with actual green lights in them to commemorate Reynold’s massive flop.

You can also buy official “Parks and Wrex” merchandise with proceeds going towards the park’s development.

(Via Parks and Wrex)

Warning: If you are not familiar with the miles-long rabbit hole that is Taylor Swift, Swifties, and friendship bracelets, then proceed with caution. Then again, even if you are a novice on Swiftian friendship bracelet folklore, you’ve surely at least heard of Travis Kelce’s friendship bracelet that jumpstarted a relationship some might call “The Last Great American Dynasty.” And you probably saw Swift wearing a friendship bracelet at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday (October 22).

Eagle-eyed Swifties noticed one of the bracelets on Swift’s wrist during the Kansas City Chiefs’ 31-17 win over the Los Angeles Chargers featured two heart beads on either side of “87.” Yup, Kelce wears No. 87 for the Chiefs. This accessory puts the red scarf to shame.

Now, the backstory (Condensed Version): In July, Kelce attended one of Swift’s two The Eras Tour shows at Arrowhead in Kansas City, Missouri. A few weeks later, Kelce shared on the July 26 episode of his New Heights podcast with his brother, All-Pro Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, that he’d attempted to slip Swift a friendship bracelet.

“I was disappointed that she doesn’t talk before or after the shows because she has to save her voice for the 44 songs that she sings,” the two-time Super Bowl champion said. “So, I was a little butthurt I didn’t get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her. If you’re up on Taylor Swift concerts, there are friendship bracelets, and I received a bunch of them being there, but I wanted to give Taylor Swift one with my number on it.”

A lot went on between then and Swift attending her first Chiefs game on September 24, but Kelce and Swift hard-launched their relationship with PDA-filled outings in New York City on October 14 and 15 — including cameos at Saturday Night Live. The weekend was punctuated by Travis attending Jason’s Eagles game against the New York Jets, and while Swift was not present, an invisible string was: Someone gave Travis a friendship bracelet saying “on the map,” a nod toward the September 27 New Heights episode where Jason joked that Swift had “finally put [Travis] on the map.”

Jimmy Kimmel Live! returns this week with a slate of guests including Terry Bradshaw, Eric Andre, Ronny Chieng, Meg Ryan, David Duchovny, Tiffany Haddish, and more. The musical guests include Brothers Osborne, Joe Walsh, Olivia Rodrigo, and Tate McRae. You can check out more on the musical guests for the week of October You can check out more on the musical guests for the week of October 23-27 below.

Brothers Osborne — Monday, October 23

A country music duo from Deale, Maryland, John and T.J. Osborne are country music stars with a list of hits that includes “Stay A Little Longer,” “It Ain’t My Fault,” “Shoot Me Straight,” and “All Night.” T.J. is also the first openly gay artist on a major country music label. They’re promoting their fourth studio album, Brothers Osborne, which was released on September 15 and features Miranda Lambert. It peaked at No. 28 on the US Top Country Albums chart.

Olivia Rodrigo — Tuesday, October 24

Look here: I should not have to explain who Olivia Rodrigo is. Surely, you’ve heard her massive breakout hit “Driver’s License,” or seen her Disney+ documentary Olivia Rodrigo: Driving Home 2 U, or seen her on the Disney channel production High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. And if you somehow missed all that, she’s been everywhere promoting her new album Guts for the past three months, including her No. 1 single “Vampire” and its pop-punk follow-up “Bad Idea Right?”

Joe Walsh — Wednesday, October 25

The former Eagles guitarist isn’t currently promoting any new projects, but you can take your pick of any of his twenty prior albums as a solo artist or member of an influential band. The man’s an institution.

Tate McRae — Thursday, October 26

Canadian singer-songwriter is still very much at the outset of what could be a long and storied career. She broke out in 2019 when a two-year-old song went viral on TikTok (as so often happens these days), earning a spot on Forbes‘ 2021 30 Under 30 list as the youngest musician. Her debut studio album, I Used To Think I Could Fly, was released on May 27, 2022. She just wrapped up her Are We Flying Tour and released her first new single “Greedy” last month.

To Be Confirmed — Friday, October 27

Ivanka Trump has largely stayed out of the public eye while her father has been indicted into oblivion. She was, reportedly, seen sneaking into Mar-a-Lago and has been the subject of heavy speculation on whether or not she would testify against her father in his fiasco of a New York case. All of that is up in the air, but it’s worth noting that Ivanka generally didn’t look too happy during her “Trump” tenure.

She did, however, look like she was having a ball over the weekend at Kim Kardashian’s birthday party. You’ll have to scroll through to photo five, below, and you might not even recognize Ivanka at first glance (I did a slight double take) because she’s genuinely smiling.

This certainly isn’t the first time these two have been photographed together. Years ago, they attended a criminal justice reform presentation together, but nowadays, Ivanka appears to be back in “civilian” celebrity mode and attending events like a Kardashian bash in Los Angeles. Also, Kim wrote, “So blessed to have hit the jackpot of friends! I couldn’t have ever dreamed I would be so lucky to call these girls my friends.” And check out her dessert in Photo #6. That seems like a real Is It Cake? candidate, but at least she was enjoying herself, too.

Levitation 2023 is going down in Austin, Texas this weekend, from October 26 to 29. There’s a strong lineup this year, so for attendees looking to plan their weekend (or those who just like looking at festival lineups, I suppose), let’s look over the highlights from the festival set times (you can find the full set times on the Levitation website). All times at p.m. and in CT unless otherwise noted.

Thursday, October 26

Sasami — 9 @ Concourse
Ty Segall & Freedom Band — 9:20 @ Stubb’s
Yeule — 10 @ Concourse
Babehoven — 10:40 @ Parish
Oneohtrix Point Never — 11:30 @ Concourse
Slow Pulp — 11:40 @ Parish
Flat Worms — 12:10 a.m. @ 13th Floor

Friday, October 27

Panda Bear + Sonic Boom — 7 @ Far Out
High On Fire — 7:40 @ Stubb’s
Unknown Mortal Orchestra — 8:50 @ Far Out
Bully — 10:15 @ Parish
Eshu Tune (Hannibal Buress) — 11 @ Concourse
Blonde Redhead — 11:10 @ Mohawk
Alan Palomo of Neon Indian — 11:30 @ Empire Garage
Flying Lotus — 12:30 a.m. @ Concourse

Saturday, October 28

The Dandy Warhols — 5 @ Far Out
Militarie Gun — 8 @ Stubb’s
The Brian Jonestown Massacre — 8:40 @ Far Out
Amyl & The Sniffers — 9:20 @ Stubb’s
Baths — 10:30 @ Parish
Durand Jones — 11:30 @ Mohawk
Palehound — 11:30 @ Parish
Mercury Rev’s Clear Light Ensemble — 12 a.m. @ Elysium
Speedy Ortiz — 12:50 a.m. @ Parish

Sunday, October 29

DJ Shadow — 6:50 @ Far Out
BadBadNotGood — 8:50 @ Far Out
Beach Fossils — 9:10 @ Stubb’s
Death From Above 1979 — 9:10 @ Mohawk
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs — 9 @ Hotel Vegas

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

The Phoenix Suns have almost a completely different roster than they had a year ago when they were ousted in the second round by the eventual champion Denver Nuggets in six games. In that series, Phoenix’s lack of depth was exposed as they needed Herculean efforts from Devin Booker to pick up their two wins by an average of six points, and lost the other four games by an average of 17 points.

This summer, they went out and doubled down on building a star-studded lineup, swapping Chris Paul for Bradley Beal and shipping out Deandre Ayton for Jusuf Nurkic. Overall, just five players remain from last year’s playoff roster, as they completely overhauled the roster and added a new head coach in Frank Vogel. The expectations are sky high in Phoenix, but it’s rare for a team with that much turnover and that many players that are new to each other to reach their max potential in the first year. If they are to challenge for a championship this season, they’ll need health (like everyone else), to establish quick continuity, and answer a couple lingering questions about this roster.

Biggest Question: Will They End Up Needing To Add A Point Guard?

The Suns are going to start the season putting the basketball in Devin Booker’s hands and having him run the offense, with the understanding there will be plenty of touches for Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant as initiators as well. As they completely overhauled their roster this summer, they focused their efforts on adding wing and frontcourt depth, trying to give Frank Vogel a variety of lineup combinations that can lean more defensive or offensive depending on the situation. However, they never really bolstered their point guard depth beyond the initial addition of Jordan Goodwin in the Beal trade, as both Chris Paul and Cameron Payne are gone from the roster a year ago. It’s clear their plan is to spread out offensive responsibilities across the roster, with Booker as the nominal point guard but running offense through Beal, Durant, and even Jusuf Nurkic as well to take some of the creative burden off of Booker’s shoulders.

What is going to be important in the first few months of the season leading into the trade deadline is for Frank Vogel, James Jones, and the rest of the Suns decision makers to be extremely honest in their evaluation of this team, because it’s very likely they’ll look just fine doing this in the regular season. However, in those bigger games and bigger moments, they’ll be keeping a very close watch on how the ball moves and how things flow offensively, because those will be indicators of whether this can work come playoff time or if they might want to take a look on the trade market for a veteran point guard just to add a steady hand to the roster.

One of the hardest things to do for a team that’s just been constructed is to make decisions that benefit the playoff roster based on regular season results, but Phoenix will certainly need to do its best self-scouting to determine if this group can reach its offensive peak as is or if they need another distributor to maximize their talent.

X-Factor: Jusuf Nurkic

When the Suns jumped into the Damian Lillard deal to send Deandre Ayton to Portland for Jusuf Nurkic, there were some reports that Phoenix felt the move was addition by subtraction, as it was clear the relationship with Ayton in that organization was frayed beyond repair. That may very well be the case, but Ayton’s top-level of play has been higher than Nurkic’s in recent years and the two bring very different skillsets to the table. That means there’s ample pressure on Nurk to find another gear alongside a new star trio, particularly on the defensive end.

On offense, I think the Nurkic fit could be better than Ayton, just based on what Nurkic is willing to do that Ayton wasn’t satiated in doing. Ayton wanted more touches, as happens with a former No. 1 overall pick on a big contrct, while Nurkic will be a more willing tertiary contributor. He’s a big body that sets solid screens, and while he’s certainly not the vertical roll threat Ayton was, he’s a good short roll man, with solid touch and much better passing acumen than Ayton. That passing ability figures to be where he impacts the game the most, as they can trust him to keep the ball moving, find cutters out of the high post, and run some different dribble handoff actions to apply stress to the defense with their stars all working off the ball.

Defense is where most of the concern lies with this Suns team with Nurkic swapped in for Ayton. Of their top four, Durant is the only plus defender and with Ayton gone, they are seriously lacking in terms of rim protection. Ayton’s defensive issue wasn’t skill based but engagement based, as he had a tendency to lower his effort level when he wasn’t having the offensive impact he wanted. That said, he was a rim deterrent simply by being a giant with athleticism in the paint and he was a strong post defender thanks to his size and length. Nurkic is not close to the same level as an athlete or rim protector, and it’s going to be fascinating to see how Frank Vogel crafts a defense with Nurk at the five. Vogel has long leaned on very good shot-blocking bigs as the anchor for his defenses, dating back to Roy Hibbert, but won’t have that in Phoenix this year. Finding a way to get a net-neutral defense out of this group with Nurkic at the five will be the task for Vogel, but doing so will require some creativity in lineups and a different structure than he’s usually put together on that end.

It’s rare that someone has so much going on that dropping a new album gets lost in the shuffle, but Taylor Swift is the rarest of rare. As soon as Swifties wrapped their heads around the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film enjoying an all-time theatrical release, Swift broke the internet by dancing and making up a handshake with Brittany Mahomes to celebrate Travis Kelce, her all-but-confirmed boyfriend, and his Kansas City Chiefs beating the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday (October 22) — days before the arrival of 1989 (Taylor’s Version).

Swift’s fourth re-recorded album will come out at 9 p.m. PT on Thursday (October 26), or midnight ET on Friday (October 27). 1989 (Taylor’s Version) will mark her seventh overall album release since 2020, following in the footsteps of Folklore, Evermore, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Red (Taylor’s Version), Midnights, and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). In true Swiftian fashion, each of those six albums debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Go ahead and pencil in 1989 (Taylor’s Version) becoming Swift’s 13th-career No. 1 album.

On August 9, Swift confirmed the October 27 release date for 1989 (Taylor’s Version) during the final 2023 US show of The Eras Tour at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Simultaneously, Swift’s social accounts posted the announcement, including that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is Swift’s “most FAVORITE re-record I’ve ever done because the 5 From The Vault tracks are so insane.”

Swift will have the opportunity to celebrate 1989 (Taylor’s Version) when her The Eras Tour resumes on November 9 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, beginning an international leg that will stretch through next summer before Swift stages a second North American leg next fall.

1989 (Taylor’s Version) is out 10/27 via Republic Records. Find more information here.