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In the lead-up to the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup, TNT analyst Charles Barkley made the case for why it’d be a good thing if USA Basketball did not win a gold medal. While appearing on Bill Simmons’ podcast, Barkley — who is a two-time gold medal winner with Team USA at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics — argued that it’d be good for the sport’s popularity elsewhere if another country won the whole thing.

“They act like if we don’t win the gold medal it’s going to be the worst thing to ever happen to civilization,” Barkley said, per ClutchPoints. “I actually disagree with that. I think it’d be great. Because I think it’d really help with popularity in one of these little third-world countries if they won the gold medal. Can you imagine if France won the gold medal? How popular would basketball become in France?”

There are, obviously, a few non-USA things worth pointing out here — France is not a third-world country, France won the bronze the last time this tournament happen, Spain won gold in 2019 while the U.S. crashed and burned, basketball is already popular in France, this quote came from before the tournament and France has since been eliminated — but the main point is that Barkley thinks it’d be good if the Americans didn’t win. On the heels of the team’s blowout victory over Jordan to wrap up play in the first round on Wednesday, American big man Jaren Jackson Jr. got asked about Barkley’s quote and wrote it off as a joke that didn’t land.

“Chuck said that?” Jackson asked after learning about the quote. “Where’s Chuck from, Chuck’s from what, Bama? I mean, I don’t know — Chuck, keep doing that TNT thing. That’s fire, man, I love Inside the NBA, man, watching that for years, my dog. I don’t know, I bet he thought that was funny.”

It is worth saying that Jackson was not, under any circumstances, going to agree that it’d be good if literally any other country won the World Cup. Regardless, we’re willing to chalk this one up to Chuck not liking that Team USA usually blows opposing teams out of the water, as he is on the record as someone who hates “bad basketball.”

Earlier this week, Ukraine launched its most aggressive drone attack on Russia since the start of Vladimir Putin‘s invasion. The series of strikes hit multiple regions on Russian soil, and Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov is apparently furious.

During the Wednesday morning episode of his state TV show, Full Contact, an exasperated Solovyov couldn’t believe that the drone attacks actually happened. In a surprising move, Solovyov angrily criticized Russia’s military defenses, but that moment was short-lived as he immediately switched gears and called for dropping nukes.

Via The Daily Beast:

“If we can’t cope with drones, how will we cope with F-16s?!” he said, after yelling at those opposed to tactical nuclear strikes to “stop whining!” He went on to call for the Baltic states to be “wiped off the face of the earth” in retaliation, suggesting the drone attack was launched from there. “Where was the launch from? From Ukraine? Yeah, right. From the territory of the Baltics? Destroy the f*cking Baltics, if so!”

According to an earlier Daily Beast report, the Ukraine drone strike did considerable damage to Russian targets and left military aircrafts “engulfed in flames.” However, Russia was able to down some of the drones, including a few that made it to territories near Moscow. In response, the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, was targeted in a “powerful” missile strike on Wednesday morning.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Slowdive is set to release their new album, Everything Is Alive, later this week. To build fans’ anticipation, the band shared a new song titled “Alife.”

The mysterious animated video matches the psychedelic, dreamy nature of the song — pulling viewers into the world of a girl wielding her powers.

“‘Alife’ is one of the first tunes we finished for the record,” Neil Halstead, the band’s vocalist and guitarist, shared via Pitchfork. “Shawn Everett did a really nice job with the mix. We tried so many times to figure out a good mix by ourselves and couldn’t do it.”

Additionally, the band will be heading out on a fall tour across North America and a newly-announced European run next year.

Check out “Alife” above. Below, find a complete list of Slowdive‘s tour dates.

09/23/23 — Toronto, Ontario @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre
09/25/23 — Boston, MA @ Citizens House of Blues Boston
09/27/23 — New York, NY @ Webster Hall
09/28/23 — New York, NY @ Webster Hall
09/29/23 — Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
09/30/23 — Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club
10/02/23 — Cleveland, OH @ The Roxy at Mahall’s
10/03/23 — Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre
10/04/23 — Saint Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre
10/06/23 — Denver, CO @ Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom
10/07/23 — Salt Lake City, UT @ The Union
10/09/23 — Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
10/10/23 — Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
10/12/23 — San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
10/14/23 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Bellwether
10/30/23 — Glasgow, Scotland @ Queen Margaret Union
10/31/23 — Manchester, England @ Ritz
11/01/23 — Bristol, England @ SWX
11/03/23 — London, England @ Troxy
11/05/23 — Belfast, Northern Ireland @ Mandela Hall
11/06/23 — Dublin, Ireland @ National Stadium
11/25/23 — Buenos Aires, Argentina @ Primavera Sound
12/04/23 — Santiago, Chile @ Teatro Coliseo
12/07/23 — Asunción, Paraguay @ Primavera Sound
12/10/23 — Bogotá, Colombia @ Primavera Sound
02/16/24 — Brighton, England @ Brighton Dome
02/17/24 — London, England @ Eventim Apollo
02/18/24 — Birmingham, England @ O2 Institute Birmingham
02/19/24 — Norwich, England @ LCR UEA
02/21/24 — Liverpool, England @ O2 Academy Liverpool
02/22/24 — Newcastle upon Tyne, England @ NX
02/23/24 — Glasgow, Scotland @ Barrowland Ballroom
02/24/24 — Edinburgh, Scotland @ Liquid Rooms
02/26/24 — Cardiff, Wales @ Cardiff University Great Hall
02/27/24 — Manchester, England @ Manchester Academy

Everything Is Alive is out 9/1 via Dead Oceans. Find more information here.

Bas really leans into the theme behind his new album’s title in the video for his latest single, “Ho Chi Minh.” Since the upcoming album is called We Only Talk About Real Sh*t When We’re F*cked Up, that’s just what he does in the video, taking a break from partying to go outside and reflect on his self-destructive behaviors.

The introspective lyrics do the same, pondering a growing reliance on external substances to keep the party going. “Picture me rollin’, cue the Serotonin / I been runnin’, low but it keep me in the moment,” he raps, but chasing the high has been taking its toll. The song straight-up opens with a would-be paramour questioning, “‘Aren’t you exhausted?’” His reply? “‘That’s what they make drugs, for isn’t it?’” Yeah, dude’s not okay. On Instagram, Bas revealed that the song was “inspired by hard nights and Ken Burn’s The Vietnam War documentary” — hence the title.

Bas kicked off the rollout for We Only Talk About Real Sh*t in January with “Diamonds,” then picked it up again in July with “Passport Bros” featuring fellow Dreamville rapper J. Cole. The album is presumably due sometime soon via Dreamville Records and Interscope. Watch the video for “Ho Chi Minh” above.

Donald Trump can boast all he wants about his interview with Tucker Carlson being “the Biggest Video on Social Media, EVER” (it’s not), but it sure seems like Carlson is missing Fox News. He’s, uh, not doing great based on a recent chat with Adam Carolla on The Adam Carolla Show podcast.

When asked by the former The Man Show host if “they” are going to let Trump be president (“they” is probably everyone who doesn’t roast their nuts in the sun), Carlson answered, “No, of course. I mean, look, if, you know, they protested him, they called him names. He won anyway. They impeached him twice on ridiculous pretenses. They fabricated a lot about what happened on January 6 in order to impeach him again,” etc. You get the idea. But then Carlson predicted Trump will get assassinated if he becomes president.

“If you begin with criticism, then you go to protest. Then you go to impeachment. Now you go to indictment and none of them work. What’s next? I mean, you know, graph it out, man! We’re speeding toward assassination, obviously, and no one will say that! But I don’t, I don’t know how you can’t reach that conclusion. You know what it been like. They have decided, permanent Washington. Both parties have decided that there’s something about Trump that’s so threatening to them, they just can’t have it.”

Carlson wasn’t done. He also claimed that in 2008, “it became really clear that Barack Obama had been having sex with men and smoking crack and a guy came forward, Larry Sinclair, and said ‘I’ll sign an affidavit and I’ll take a lie detector’ and he did.” That’s not the craziest part of the interview, however. Carlson’s camera angle is:

The man was on TV for decades. He should know better.

(Via Mediaite)

Kendrick Lamar has often been called a “conscious rapper” as he often uses his platform to talk about socioeconomic issues and inequality—while others might be labeled “trap rappers,” “Soundcloud rappers,” and “gangsta rappers.”

50 Cent is frequently labeled the latter, however, many rappers and hip-hop fans often find these categories corny and contrived. Still, Lamar revealed in a conversation with Tems for Interview Magazine that he liked the way 50 has subverted the label of “conscious rapper” and applied it to himself and a variety of other rappers.

“Now, I’ve always studied 50 Cent’s music and watched his interviews,” said Lamar, “and someone asked if he was a conscious artist. He said, ‘Yeah, I’m a conscious artist because I have a conscience.’ That sh*t blew me away. It gave me a different perspective—50 drops a lot of jewels that give me perspective, but that one right there gave me a sense of, okay, a lot of artists live and know how to project duality. That’s the true gift, because that’s what life is about in its wholeness.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, Tems revealed that she took a lot of inspiration from Celine Dion and Destiny’s Child, and recalled purchasing a bootleg CD containing 30 Destiny’s Child songs, and would later memorize them all.

Jay last used Instagram to promote the Netflix film The Harder They Fall, which he executive-produced. And while music features extensively into that film’s structure, Jay himself only appears on a couple of tracks, including the Kid Cudi collab, “Guns Go Bang.”

Well, he’s back on the platform to promote a film project again, this time, The Book Of Clarence, another collab with Jeymes Samuel, and the trailer promises more new music from the mogul. (Fans are also joking in the comments that the account will be deactivated again in 24 hours, which is about how long he had it up before.)

For years, Jay-Z has insisted that he’s “not a social media guy.” While his knowledge of memes and online trends makes that claim seem somewhat dubious, it is true that he hasn’t maintained much of an online presence — at least, not publicly. But it turns out he’s also pretty good at social media, when he does deign to use it, whether that’s promoting new projects or simply expressing appreciation for his lyrical inspirations.

Meanwhile, The Book Of Clarence looks like a satire of celebrity told through the lens of a Bible-era scammer (played by LaKeith Stanfield!) seeking to present himself as a Messiah, inspired by Jesus himself. Samuels’ reach exceeded his grasp with The Harder They Fall, and if anything, this looks even more ambitious. We’ll see if he learned enough from his last outing to stick the landing this time in January 2024.

The United States is headed to the second round of the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup. After picking up a pair of wins against New Zealand and Greece in their first two games of the tournament, the team capped off play in round one on Wednesday by taking on Jordan. It was the most emphatic win of their stay in the Philippines so far, as the United States pummeled Jordan, 110-62, behind 22 points, eight rebounds, and four assists from Anthony Edwards.

Despite all of this, the U.S. hasn’t quite moved on to the knockout stage of the tournament yet. FIBA has the top-2 teams from each group go to a second round of group play, where they are teamed up with the top-2 finishers of another group. In the case of the United States, this means they’ll be joined in their new group by the runners-up in Group C (Greece) along with Lithuania and Montenegro, the winners and runners-up, respectively, of Group D.

The teams will make up Group J, and they’ll play a pair of games against the two squads they have not played already. Here’s how that will look:

Friday, Sept. 1: USA vs. Montenegro
Sunday, Sept. 3: USA vs. Lithuania

The top-2 teams will be determined on a point system where teams get two points for a win and one for a loss. The points accrued in the first round carry on to the second, meaning the U.S. and Lithuania enter with a leg up, as both went 3-0 and accrued six points. Montenegro and Greece have five points with a 2-1 record in their group.

Both Lithuania and Montenegro should provide interesting tests for the United States. Coming into the tournament, a major question was how the Americans would deal with size, and they haven’t really been tested in Group C. Both of their opponents in Group J, however, will coming in with NBA big men — Lithuania, the best rebounding team in the tournament so far, is led by New Orleans Pelicans center Jonas Valanciunas, while Montenegro has a current and former Chicago Bull in the frontcourt in Nikola Vucevic and Marko Simonovic. Both Jaren Jackson Jr., who has had a good tournament but struggles as a rebounder and is known for getting in foul trouble, and Paolo Banchero, who head coach Steve Kerr has used as a small ball 5, will be under the microscope in the two games.

Should Team USA move on, it would set up a matchup in the quarterfinals against one of the teams from Group I, which is composed of Serbia, the Dominican Republic, Italy, and Puerto Rico. Tip times and television info for Group J will be announced soon, but all of the games in the group will take place at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

50 Cent made Snoop Dogg upset after his recent post to promote his sold out concert in Los Angeles tonight.

“LA tomorrow night we are gonna turn it all the way up SOLD OUT!” 50 Cent captioned the Instagram post. He then encouraged fans to call Snoop Dogg if they wanted to get tickets to the Final Lap Tour.

“But call @snoopdogg for tickets, he can still get everybody in,” 50 added. “I’m turning my phone off. LOL #bransoncognac #lecheminduroi @thefinallaptour.”

While his phone number wasn’t leaked, Snoop later took to Instagram to share a video where he was still being bothered by all the calls coming his way.

“Hold on,” Snoop Dogg asked. “Why all you n***** keep calling me for these tickets to 50 Cent’s concert?”

“50 Cent, you told these n***** to call me for tickets?” he continued. “N****, I ain’t got no tickets to your show! I ain’t got no tickets to my show! So y’all can stop calling me, texting me, talking about, ‘Cuz, 50 said…’”

Later in the video, he told everyone calling him to go back to 50 Cent and take it up with him.

However, he also tagged 50 Cent in the caption with a bunch of laughing emojis and one shrug — so the two might just be joking around with each other.

Check out both 50 Cent’s post about calling Snoop Dogg and his reaction video above.

Los Angeles R&B singer/songwriter August 08 (real name Ray Jacobs), who was signed to Def Jam and collaborated with Jhené Aiko and the indie label 88rising, has died at the age of 31. The singer’s family confirmed his death with a flyer on Instagram honoring his life shared by his sister.

“As we all try to press through understand that we all come here to serve a soul purpose,” she wrote. “I find comfort in knowing that my brother lived a full life of abundance. He was able to travel the world, and touch millions of people while fulfilling his soul purpose as a musician. I am proud to have a brother who lives on through music, and I encourage you all to keep streaming his records and telling everyone how great he is. 08/08 = infinity I give thanks to you all for the calls, text, and prayers. Please keep us uplifted.”

88rising also wrote a statement on Instagram, which reads, “RIP August the kindest and most talented genius you will be missed beyond words. Thank you for being an amazing mentor and a steadfast friend through all these years. We are forever grateful to you and the joy you brought in every room, through every song. Your energy, guidance and care gave so much inspiration and strength that will be carried on always.”

Meanwhile, Jacobs’ label, Def Jam, sent a statement to Complex: “The entire Def Jam family mourns the tragic loss of Ray ‘August 08’ Jacobs,” it reads. “A brilliant songwriter, an accomplished musician and a singular artist, August will remain in our memory as a beloved colleague and friend. We extend our deepest sympathies to his family and loved ones.”

August 08 most recently released the single “Bruises,” following the release of his 2022 album Seasick and EP Towards The Sun.