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Before the premiere of the final season of HBO‘s How To with John Wilson, one of the best shows on TV, host John Wilson told us about how he processes surprising confessions from his interview subjects. “That’s the high that I’m chasing throughout all the work; getting to these real moments with people that we don’t usually have access to in our personal lives or in other media that we watch,” he said. In the latest episode, he had one of his realest — and most shocking — moments yet.

In “How to Work Out,” Wilson, who travels everywhere with a camera and films everything he sees, tries to improve his fitness. “The more you look around New York, the more you notice all the hard work people are doing to maintain their physiques. They make it look effortless, and you’ve never really understood how to do it right,” he said in the opening narration. “So instead of just letting gravity suck you down, stick with me, and I’ll show you how to finally get off your butt and start to work out.”

Wilson, naturally, starts his journey at a gym, which leads him to a meme-making chronic masturbator… and a literal dumpster fire… and a cat show, where he asks a photographer to take semi-nude photos of him… which are later stolen. Somehow, when watching the episode, this all makes sense.

Later on, Wilson attends a September 11th-themed bodybuilding competition where he’s handed a memoir written by a personal trainer who “discovered that a former client of his became one of the 9/11 hijackers.” Wilson meets with the trainer and asks him for his reaction when he found out what happened. “Made me feel proud,” he answered. This was the moment my jaw dropped. “Made me feel good that I’d trained somebody for something committed that they were able to pull it off. We may not agree with them, but they were committed. That’s what I liked about it.” Wilson’s only response:

Awkward kings stay winning.

How To with John Wilson is available on Max.

(WARNING: Spoilers for Swagger season two will be found below.)

Season two of Swagger came to a close last weekend with its eighth and final episode. For those who are new to the Swagger experience, the series is loosely based on the life of NBA player Kevin Durant as it follows a teenager named Jace Carson who has very realistic dreams of making it to the NBA. The show isn’t only about basketball though. It also incorporates the real experience of young Black men in this country with themes that include pressures from the youth basketball world, friends, families, and competitors, as well as dealings with racism, broken families, abuse, incarceration, and more. All these ingredients combined have made Swagger an authentic show to love, which makes it unsurprising that fans of the show are asking about season three.

Will There Be A ‘Swagger’ Season 3?

As of now, Swagger has not been renewed for season three, but this does not mean that the show will not be given a new round of episodes. In fact, following its inaugural season, Swagger was not renewed for season two until six months after the season one finale. Case in point, we might have to wait a bit for news on Swagger season three, but hopefully, it arrives sooner than later.

Seasons one and two of ‘Swagger’ are available to stream now on Apple TV+.

Doja Cat has a message for the social media followers who leave nasty comments on her posts. Doja, who has seemingly been on a mission to alienate all but her most loyal fans lately (which, honestly, might not be such a bad strategy), followed up a series of bizarre grid photos with the post on her Instagram, deriding the users leaving “mean comments” and noting, “You still follow me.”

“To all the people in my comments section who are leaving mean comments: I checked your page and you still follow me,” she wrote. “I have a setting on that only allows followers to comment. Also, I’m better than you and you’re so jealous that I’m fly and hot and pretty and you’re nothing like that, you’re nothing of the sort.”

Doja Cat has long been known for trolling her fans and haters alike, starting with her breakout song, “Mooo!” and continuing right up to last month, when she told users with stan accounts to “get off your phone and get a job and help your parents with the house.” She allegedly lost a quarter of a million followers after that, but her actions certainly track with her statement that she’s no longer doing “palatable, marketable, and sellable” stuff anymore.

Clearly, that includes dropping pop star kayfabe — y’know, the syrupy “I love my fans” act most of them commit to in order to feed the parasocial dynamic that often leads to stalkers showing up at their homes and fans pelting things at them at concerts. More power to her, I say, especially if it means that the music will be stuff that she wants to make instead of just what some label bean counter thinks will sell. Of course, it could all be an inside joke from a known trickster, but either way, thank you, Doja, for making music weird again.

Justified‘s Raylan Givens is the role that Timothy Olyphant was born to portray. Granted, Deadwood (as seen above) was a hat-bound precursor to the even more infamous Wild West lawman character that Olyphant has now revived for City Primeval. Many more roles came before, some with hats and some without. Yet one role in particular seems to have intimidated the heck out of the generally laid-back Olyphant, and that would be picking up one of the two “killer” roles (Mickey) for 1997’s Scream 2.

Via ComicBook, this was one of several topics discussed by Olyphant with Josh Horowitz of the Happy Sad Confused podcast:

“That whole movie was overwhelming and exciting, and that’s early. That’s me just trying to keep my head above water and pretend like I’m not freaking out inside. That was quite a job. I was still maybe lying on my resume when I got that gig; I hadn’t done a lot…. Huge opportunity, and I showed up and everybody on that set was people I’d been watching on television and film.”

A few years later, Olyphant picked up the role of a Santa-hat wearing, scuzzed-out drug dealer in Go by pretending that he didn’t care about the role. Many years later, he found his hat camouflage roles, and now, he always appears to be one easygoing dude. The hat helps, no doubt.

Watch him talk about Scream shortly after the 33:00 minute mark.

(Via Comic Book)

The Big Bang Theory ran for 12 seasons. It was one of the 15 biggest shows on television for 10 of them. The CBS sitcom benefitted from nerd culture taking over Hollywood (Iron Man came out during season one), but the real secret to the show’s ratings-dominating success is Kaley Cuoco.

In a new interview with Emmy Magazine (via Screenrant), former CBS executive Nina Tassler discussed how Cuoco saved The Big Bang Theory. “There was so much about the pilot that did work. But there were parts of the script that didn’t work, and we had to recast an actress. [Creator Chuck Lorre] is such an extraordinary talent. He had a great concept and wonderful chemistry between the two leads, so I asked him if he would try again,” she said. Lorre agreed with Tassler. “You’re right, I know I can do better. Thank you for this opportunity, and we’ll figure it out,” he said.

The role of Penny was re-cast with an actress from 8 Simple Rules. “Kaley Cuoco joined the cast, and she was the secret sauce. Chuck and [co-creator] Bill Prady delivered a pilot script, and the rest is history,” Tassler said.

The catchphrase shirts and slot machine industries thank you most of all, Kaley Cuoco.

(Via Screenrant)

Sufjan Stevens returned today to announce his new album, Javelin, will be arriving this fall. To hold fans over until then, he shared the lead single, “So You Are Tired,” a peaceful track that opens with a piano instrumental.

“So you are tired of us / So rest your head,” Stevens sings to the listeners, crafting his own sort of lullaby.

Throughout the rest of the record, Stevens enlisted a powerful team of collaborators who provided harmonies, instrumentation, and songwriting. This includes Bryce Dessner (guitar on “Sh*t Talk”), Neil Young (wrote “There’s A World”), Adrienne Maree Brown, Hannah Cohen, Pauline Delassus, Megan Lui, and Nedelle Torrisi, according to a press release.

Additionally, Javelin‘s release will come complete with a 48-page book by Stevens, featuring art (“meticulous collages” and “puff paint word clouds”) and ten short essays, some of which served as the inspirations behind the songs.

Listen to “So You Are Tired.” Check out the Javelin cover art and tracklist below.

1. “Goodbye Evergreen”
2. “A Running Start”
3. “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?”
4. “Everything That Rises”
5. “Genuflecting Ghost”
6. “My Red Little Fox”
7. “So You Are Tired”
8. “Javelin (To Have And To Hold)”
9. “Sh*t Talk”
10. “There’s A World”

Javelin is out 10/6 via Asthmatic Kitty. Find more information here.

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

Hawaii native Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson wants the people of Maui to know he has their back. As wildfires ravish the island, the powerhouse actor couldn’t hide his feelings at seeing so much “destruction.” In a new video posted to his Instagram on Sunday, The Rock offered his heartfelt love and support to the people of Maui.

“I know that by now all of you around the world have seen the complete destruction and devastation that has hit our Hawaiian islands, our island of Maui, and I’m completely heartbroken over this,” The Rock said. “Everything that I’ve seen transpire over these past couple of days, everything that continues to transpire hour by hour, minute by minute, it’s all heartbreaking.”

Like fellow Hawaiian Jason Momoa, The Rock is doing everything in his power to get help to the island residents affected by the wildfires. He told his millions of Instagram followers that he’s in constant contact with several organizations to get aid on the ground as best as possible.

The Rock also wrote an inspirational message in the caption, praising first responders and urging the people of Maui to “stay strong.”

“First responders, health care teams, hotels, locals businesses, boots on the ground organizations and all our local heroes, stay strong – we love you and appreciate you,” The Rock wrote. “All our local families, our ohana, our aiga, stay strong thru this devastating time. Resilience resolve is our DNA. Our ancestors are in our blood. This is who we are. This is what we do. I love you.”

(Via The Rock on Instagram)

Billie Eilish’s songs are often about sad or serious topics, but when she’s not in the studio, Eilish has shown time and time again that she loves to have fun and has a terrific sense of humor. Exhibit A: The new fart video brother Finneas just shared on his Instagram Story today (August 14).

The video starts with Finneas in a plane, pointing the camera on himself and saying, “We’re in Amsterdam for a layover, Billie just told me something.” Billie interrupted, “Who?” Finneas replied, “Dog, I’m just filming this, I’m not sending it to anyone.” Billie then turned her butt toward him and let out a fart. You can hear what sounds like the start of a laugh before the video abruptly ends.

While Finneas was on the receiving end of the gas attack here, it seems he found it at least a little bit funny since he went ahead and posted the video (and, like his sister, he’s also been known to have a good sense of humor).

In July, Eilish shared another funny video of herself and Finneas. The clip, which she shared for Finneas’ birthday, sees the pair laughing about Finneas mishearing a Lana Del Rey lyric, mistaking “Chateau Marmont” for “Trapdoor mama.”

Rob49 has only been rapping seriously for around three years, but he’s already on the verge of his big breakout. In the past year, the New Orleans native has fielded a steady stream of impressive opportunities and made the most of them. He joined the recent spate of rappers doing hype videos for their hometown sports teams — in his case, the Saints — and landed a string of high-profile feature placements, performing alongside the likes of G Herbo, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Trippie Redd, and most recently, Travis Scott.

That last one, “Topia Twins” from Travis’ long-awaited album Utopia is certainly the one that puts Rob on the launching pad. His fuel? A charismatic, languid flow peppered with smart wordplay and cold-eyed remembrances of life in the trenches. His stabilizers (i.e. the thing that’ll keep him at the forefront of street rap for a while): His hard-won business savvy and a gift for code-switching bestowed by his time in the National Guard after high school, an experience he says saved his life.

And the spark that’ll likely ignite his ascent into the stratosphere is 4GODII and its newly released deluxe edition. Adding ten new songs to an already hard-hitting tracklist containing features from G Herbo, Icewear Vezzo, NoCap, and Trippie Redd, Rob showcases more of his seemingly unstoppable drive and bottomless well of sharp observations and eyebrow-raising wordplay. Already something of a fixture around Uproxx — check out his New Orleans food guide and UPROXX Sessions performance — Rob linked with us via Zoom to break down the theme of 4GODII, his new favorite restaurants, and how Travis Scott surprised him with his collaboration request.

This year has been an incredible breakout for you. What would you count as the biggest difference between 2023 and 2022?

Just the amount of music I’m ready to drop. Last year, I wasn’t comfortable dropping no music, but this year I understand: “They like you, so it’s whatever you come out with, they’re going to like it, so just go.” I think that was one of my biggest things that I should have did in 2022 that I didn’t do. But this year, it’s just I feel like I could drop anything.

It’s interesting to hear you say that because some of the profiles I’ve read, you were described as kind of a cool kid, and you have such confidence in your delivery. Why do you think you felt that sense of, I don’t know, reluctance or shyness or self-consciousness about putting your music out?

I just like being a perfectionist, and I had to realize everything not going to be perfect. I just was trying to perfect everything, just trying to jump from zero to 100 when instead I could have jumped from 0 to 20, 20 to 40, 40 to 60, 80 to 100. But now I understand that so that’s what we’re doing.

What’s been your favorite opportunity that’s come along as a result of your big step-up in the past year?

I think my favorite opportunity was probably being on Billboard, making a Billboard debut because yesterday my song debuted at No. 17. I just was sitting back like, “Damn, you going to look at this 10 years from now and be like, ‘This the time for you.’” So that’s probably one of my things that I was looking forward to.

I was listening to the tape, and it is just so hard hitting that it feels to me like the car tape, where you just put that in the car and just cruise. Is that the vibe that you were going for with that?

That’s really the vibe I went for because I’m like, “Man, I don’t make car music. I need to make some car music.” I told you I was trying to perfect everything. I’m trying to make music that people like. Now I’m like, “Man, this hard right here. This what we going with. We going uptempo, we going crazy.”

What was your childhood like growing up in New Orleans? What were you like as a kid?

Honestly, I think I got ADHD because in school… I look back at it, bro, I could never chill. I was always in trouble. I remember thinking to myself, “Alright, when I go to school today… I get put out every day. I’m going to be good and not get put out.” I ain’t never want to be extra bad. I wanted to be the smart kid, but I just was bad in school for some reason.

I don’t think any of us was ever really bad. I think some of us were just funny. I think a lot of teachers just couldn’t handle funny kids.

Nah, I ain’t going to lie. I used to be doing a lot of bad shit.

Was that when you decided to start rapping? Or what was the song that you heard? You said that it was something like a Future song.

It was all his music. I used to listen to it and just rap at the end. You know they got a little beat left? I used to just put my own lyrics there and be like, man, I go crazy on here. That’s why a lot of my ad libs turn the way they do in the middle of my shit. Just doing that.

Do you remember who the first person was that got you in a studio and really started making it real for you?

Probably my partner. He was the first person got me in the studio ever. He was making music, and he went and got some food. I told him the song was trash. He like, “You make one.” I wound up making one, and it was just that. He’s like, “Man, this what we doing now.”

I read that you spent some time in the National Guard. What can you tell me about your time in the National Guard?

I’ll tell you everything about it. I ain’t going to lie. It was one of the funnest times in my life, but sometimes I wish I never did it, though. Coming straight out of high school, I went straight there just because I wanted free college. I went and I came home. And I was looking at all my peers and shit, and I was just a different person.

I had missed so much. I had stopped doing stuff for so long, I just was a different person. But I ain’t going to lie, I feel like it saved my life though because the stuff I was doing before I went there, if I would’ve went into that summer or that next year, keep doing what I was doing, I probably wouldn’t have been here today, period.

What are the biggest lessons or takeaways from your time in the National Guard that you apply to your musical approach today?

Just being aware and being able cater to all crowds. In the National Guard they got different races, they got different ages, and you able to fit in everywhere. Right now, I’m able to fit in everywhere because I done been in all different type of rooms. Before I even went to the National Guard, I was in the trap room so I learned that room already. Now you go to this and you got to change everything. I go rapping, I know them rooms, and I got a whole collage of things I can always bring to life. They got a lot of n****s in the hood who can’t even express that shit.

That definitely is something I catch through the music because you do have a clever way with words that shows that you really put thought into it. I can see you probably ending up on tour by the end of this year. Is there something that you’re looking forward to the most going on tour?

I just want to go on tour with Travis Scott. That’s about it.

Speaking of Travis Scott, what can you tell me about how that song came together and how its reception has impacted you?

I ain’t going to lie. It just impacted me so much. We go pull up, and the first day, we was just talking. He bring me to the club, we went crazy in the club. Then sometime I wind up coming back down there, and we about to go pull up on Travis. I’m going over there to chill just like we did last time. We go straight to the studio. He like, “You ready to make a song?” I’m like, “What the fuck, nigga? Yeah. What the fuck is you talking about?”

He played me this shit with him and Pharrell. He played me this shit with him and The Weeknd. And he telling me I can get on any of this, I can play with any of this. And then he played “Topia Twins,” but it was structured so different. It was just a mellow song, how his mellow songs be, and he say, “Twin bitches, twin bitches jumping off jet ski.” I said, “Give me this right here and put this up here. Cut the beat right here. This the song we’re going to start it from right here.” And that’s what we did. We really made that motherfucker.

I haven’t seen anybody ask you, well, at least not in any of the print interviews I’ve read, about Vulture Island. What is the concept of Vulture Island?

It was just me and my partners just looking for a name. We liked vulture. That’s what we came up with. We wasn’t thinking too hard about it or nothing. We liked vultures. And then we was in the studio. We were just banging it for two years straight. And we was in the studio making “Vulture Island.” We had beaucoup people in there and I remember just saying real trap stuff about Vulture Island. I was like, that’s crazy because to us, this is like an island. This is my 10 partners, and we ain’t going outside this island.

So it’s been a crazy year for you. If and/or when we get on another call, we get on Zoom again and we’re talking and catching up and you just say, “Hey Aaron, the craziest thing happened over this past year,” what do you want to be able to tell me next year?

I just want to stay consistent. That’s it. I don’t want to have no expectations for myself because that’s when I thought to myself, “Am I doing it right?” I just want to keep going, keep dropping music that you like. If they do wind up liking you, at least they’re going to like you for you.

4GODII (Deluxe) is out now via Rebel/Geffen Records. Get it here.

During Foo Fighters‘ performance at Outside Lands over the weekend, Dave Grohl continued with a bit that he had been doing on tour, where he asks if anyone in the audience knows Michael Bublé’s 2009 song, “Haven’t Met You Yet.”

The joke is based around the band’s new drummer, Josh Freese, who played drums on the original studio version of the song. He also previously performed live with Bublé.

“The last couple shows, I always look out [into the crowd]. Someone’s like, ‘I know the Bublé song,’ ‘I’ll come up and sing,’ ‘I know the f*cking Bublé song,’” Grohl told the Outside Lands crowd. “And every time someone f*cking says they know the song, they don’t know the f*cking song. Do you know the f*cking song? Who knows the f*cking song?”

After spotting someone in the audience with an “I Love Bublé” sign, Grohl invited the person to join the challenge.

“This motherf*cker better know the song! Do you know the song? Because people say they know it but they don’t!” he added.

However, there was a hilarious twist. The sign’s holder was none other than Bublé himself, who went on to flawlessly perform the words with the Foo Fighters.

“Oh my God, it’s Michael Bublé!” Grohl joked. “This bad-ass motherf*cker, and I’m not even kidding, flew in today from Argentina to f*cking sing that song to you guys.”

Check out the clip of Foo Fighters playing with Bublé above.

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