The best new hip-hop this week includes albums, videos, and songs from City Girls, Earl Sweatshirt, Open Mike Eagle, and more.

This week, we’ve got one of the quirkiest collections of new hip-hop in a while. After last week included new music from the likes of longtime critical and fan favorites like Noname and Trippie Redd, new releases this week came from a motley crew of avant-garde indie rap mainstays like Count Bass D, Earl Sweatshirt, Fat Tony, and Open Mike Eagle.

However, that isn’t to say there aren’t plenty of more mainstream offerings to go around. While a rumor that Drake’s latest was due this week turned out to be false (obviously), we did get new stuff from Gucci Mane (with J. Cole!) and Mike Will (“There I Go“), Lil Yachty (“Tesla“), City Girls (“Face Down”), Luh Tyler (“Rapper Of The Year“), and even Iggy Azalea (the surprisingly good “Money Come“).

Here is the best of hip-hop this week ending August 25, 2023.

Albums/EPs/Mixtapes

Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist — Voir Dire

Perhaps the title of this joint project between Earl and Alchemist bodes well for those who were disappointed to learn it’s a Gala Music exclusive. After all, “voir dire” is a legal term meaning “a preliminary examination of a witness or a juror by a judge or counsel,” which means that perhaps there’s more on the way. For those of you still all-in on blockchain, you’ll get exactly what you expect: hazy beats, abstract rhymes, and rebellious spirit.

Fat Tony — I Will Make A Baby In This Damn Economy

While a certain other Nigerian rapper from Houston might be getting all the attention at the moment, Fat Tony continues to approach indie rap from a wholly unique perspective. Produced entirely by LA-based Taydex, I Will Make A Baby finds Tony spitting short, sweet observations on a variety of subjects. You may notice a running theme developing with this week’s artists.

Jaboukie — All Who Can’t Hear Must Feel

Standup comedian/actor Jaboukie adds another job to his resume with 13 tracks of experimental, dance-influenced reflections on identity, masculinity, and sexuality. It also has, for my money, some of the best, most interesting music of the avant-garde releases this week. Check out our interview with Jaboukie here.

Open Mike Eagle — Another Triumph Of Ghetto Engineering

Continuing this week’s odd tradition of exceptionally long, wordy album titles, the flag-bearer for “art rap” himself, Open Mike Eagle, follows up 2022’s A Tape Called Component System With The Auto Reverse with another compilation of stream-of-consciousness storytelling and off-kilter observations about the quirks of life that we take for granted in the ‘hood.

Sauce Walka — Dat Boy Den

Watching Sauce getting more and more professional over the last year or so has been heartening like nothing else. There are a lot of rappers from the South operating in a similar lane, but few have as much charisma and personality as Sauce. The pieces are starting to fall into place for him, and I can see a huge breakout on the horizon. Dat Boy Den is another step in the right direction.

Singles/Videos

Audrey Nuna — “Locket”

The Korean-American rising star deftly rides the line between futuristic, experimental pop and energetic, forward-facing hip-hop. Nuna continues to grow as an artist, approaching the music with an outsider’s ear for fresh angles, but ingrained respect for what’s come before.

D Smoke — “Work Hard, Play Hard” Feat. SiR

The Inglewood brothers take a tropical vacation in the video for the previously released single. Perfectly for a song about celebrating their self-made success, “Word Hard, Play Hard” presents an enviable getaway from the rigors of the grind.

Rexx Life Raj — “Backslide”

The Berkeley rapper gets back to flexing after dropping last year’s cathartic and melancholy The Blue Hour. Here, Raj’s consistently slick lyricism allows him to put a fresh spin on the usual rap boast topics of wealth and luxury.

Tyga & YG — “PARTy T1M3”

Nothing too surprising here, just good, clean fun and an upbeat party anthem comprised of a cleverly cut down sample of Nas’ “Oochie Wally” and an R&Bass break certain to set some booties motorboating on the dance floor. The Compton rappers’ chemistry remains impressive.

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

Thanks in part to visual platforms like TikTok and Instagram, over the past few years quesabirria (or birria tacos) went from a regional Central Mexican phenomenon to America’s favorite way of eating tacos. Thanks to its sumptuous red broth, grilled and melted cheese, and braised beef filling, birria is the sort of food that you can taste just by looking at it — which is part of the reason why it spread on social media the way it did.

Because of its popularity, birria taco joints have popped up across the US and, like any super popular food, the big fast food brands want in. So far, it’s been a bumpy ride — El Pollo Loco dropped birria tacos last year, kind of botched the job, and returned this year with a slightly revamped recipe that was admittedly, pretty good, but still failed to capture what makes birria so special.

The problem? Birria is a dish made from slow braised meat which is fried in the stewed juices of that meat. Meaning it doesn’t exactly fit the fast food model of things that cook quickly and cleanly. But that doesn’t mean brands are going to quit trying to crack the code, and the latest attempt comes from Taco Bell which dropped its birria-inspired Grilled Cheese Dipping Taco this month.

“Birria-inspired” because even Taco Bell admits, this isn’t birria, but it has some of the touchstones of the dish. It features shredded beef that is slow-braised and juicy, sports grilled melted cheese on the inside and outside of the tortilla, and is designed to be dipped. Unfortunately, you won’t be dipping this taco in birria consommé like El Pollo Loco. Instead, Taco Bell wants to you dip it in either its red sauce or nacho cheese sauce, and the tortilla, while fresh fried, is not cooked in the broth of the braised beef.

But even though this isn’t birria by any measure, it’s certainly interesting enough to inspire curiosity. We ordered the taco to see how it stacks up to the real thing. Check our full review below!

Taco Bell Grilled Cheese Dipping Taco

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

It’s a sad sight and a far cry from birria. Luckily, it tastes better than it looks. After the initial explosion of grease, your taste buds will be met with a savory beef flavor backed by a creamy jalapeño-infused sauce, and Taco Bell’s nutty, creamy, and salty three-cheese blend. The tortilla is super light and crispy — serving as mostly texture and making way for the richer flavors of the ingredients. Dipping the taco in nacho cheese sauce or red sauce doesn’t really enhance the experience, which is unfortunate because this is designed to be a dipping taco.

I found both sauces pretty one-dimensional, the cheese sauce just adds a salty component to the mix, while the red sauce adds an ultra mild sense of heat, like enchilada sauce, but not quite as spicy as one of Taco Bell’s hot sauce packets. If you’re going with one sauce, I’d say hit the red sauce, but truthfully the taco doesn’t really need it, the jalapeño sauce that comes in the taco is more than enough.

Taco Bell’s shredded braised beef is a significant improvement over its ground meat and carne asada, it’s the brand’s best take on beef so far. Hacks with this mean in other dishes are sure to come soon. While I don’t think the Grilled Cheese Dipping Taco will earn permanent menu status, the beef is used in a few other dishes and deserves to be on the menu permanently.

Will it in any way remind you of birria? Not at all, but for what it is, it’s pretty damn good and my current go-to at Taco Bell.

The Bottom Line:

If you divorce it from its inspiration — the birria de res taco — this thing is delicious. It’s greasy, juicy, beefy, and cheesy, easily Taco Bell’s best taco currently on the menu. That said, the best fast food version of the birria taco is still El Pollo Loco’s Shredded Beef Birria,

Find your nearest Taco Bell here.

Lagers are the closest thing the beer world has to an “all-rounder.” Crisp and refreshing on a hot day; malty and warming on a cool night. There’s no wrong time of year for a well-made lager. That being said, there’s just something extra special about an ice-cold lager on a hot summer’s day. Whether it’s a pilsner, pale lager, Helles lager, or even a Vienna lager, we love them all. Especially as summer begins to turn the corner towards fall.

Esteban Molano, bartender at Mayami in Miami agrees. Specifically, he prefers a pilsner on the waning summer days and nights.

“The lager family and the Pils type is the one I recommend this time of year since they have a light body and have little toasted malts that give them great freshness and are easy to drink.”

Other bartenders have their own preferences for end-of-summer lagers. That’s why we asked some of our favorites to tell us their favorite, refreshing lagers for the remaining summer days ahead. Keep scrolling to see all of their picks.

New Glarus Two Women Lager

Alex Barbatsis, bartender at The Whistler in Chicago

ABV: 5%

Average Price: $10 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Two Women Lager from New Glarus Brewing in Wisconsin is so refreshing and has a biscuit note that really rounds out the fruit flavors. It’s a wonderful beer that’s only sold in Wisconsin, but luckily, it’s a quick drive from Chicago.

Tasting Notes:

It’s known for its nose of toasted grain and floral hops as well as a palate of cracker-y malts, honey, citrus, and floral hops.

Fort Point Yuzu KSA

Michael Carlisi, beverage director at Barrio in San Francisco

ABV: 4.3%

Average Price: $17 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans

The Beer:

Fort Point in San Francisco makes a Yuzu KSA that is outstanding. Super light, citrusy and refreshing, it’s the perfect companion for a trip to a pool, beach, lake, or river.

Tasting Notes:

This mix of a classic Kölsch-Style Ale and yuzu juice is crisp, refreshing, and has just a hint of tart yuzu to make it an exciting, unique warm weather beer.

Trumer Pils

Shiva Thapa, head bartender at Miller & Lux in San Francisco

ABV: 4.9%

Average Price: $9 for a six-pack

The Beer:

A German-style Pilsner, Trumer Pils is the best lager for a hot summer. A malt mashing process and proprietary yeast make Trumer Pils very unique in the beer world.

Tasting Notes:

With great hops flavor and a lighter body, it is brewed with a combination of Saaz and Austrian hops. It has the taste of a classic European lager and is perfect for a hot day.

Narragansett Lager

Jared Bailey, bar manager at Soho Cigar Bar in New York City

ABV: 5%

Average Price: $7 for a six-pack of 16-ounce cans

The Beer:

Hailing from the ocean state, an ice-cold Narragansett cannot be beat especially after a long day on the beach. It’s the perfect pick-me-up to get the night going. Crisp, refreshing, and perfect.

Tasting Notes:

The beer most famous for being featured in ‘Jaws’ is filled with cracker-y malts, sweet corn, citrus peels, honey, and floral hops.

Dovetail Helles

Phillip Miley, beverage curator and general manager at 1308 in Chicago

ABV: 4.4%

Average Price: $9 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans

The Beer:

I love Dovetail Brewery’s Helles. They make such great beers. The Helles is super light and crisp and has such awesome malt flavors. It gets its hop flavor from the addition of Saphir hops.

Tasting Notes:

Dovetail’s flagship Helles has aromas of cereal grains and floral hops and a palate of citrus peels, sweet malts, and floral, herbal, and piney hops.

The Tank La Playita

Stephanie Torres, assistant director of food and beverage at The St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort in Miami

ABV: 5.1%

Average Price: $13 for a six-pack

The Beer:

La Playita from the Tank Brewing Company in Miami is a crisp, flavorful, German-style lager that’s great for a beach day.

Tasting Notes:

Its distinct flavors of ginger and lime, finished with burnt sugar, offer a unique tasting experience on the palate.

Pilsner Urquell

Mitchell Patmagrian, lobby lounge bartender at The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes in Orlando

ABV: 4.4%

Average Price: $10 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Pilsner Urquell is no doubt the best lager for a hot summer day. I personally have one or two bottles or maybe even a 6-pack when mowing my one-acre lawn. Crisp, balanced, and perfect for a hot day.

Tasting Notes:

The original pale lager, it’s fresh, full of flavor, with the perfect balance of sweetness and bitterness.

Modelo Especial

Deke Dunn, bar and creative director at Allegory in Washington, DC

ABV: 4.4%

Average Price: $9 for a six-pack

The Beer:

The best summer lager is Modelo Especial. It’s light, refreshing, and cheap. It’s tough to beat an easy-drinking Mexican lager on a hot, end of summer day or night.

Tasting Notes:

It has a great, crisp finish and it goes down way too easily. Grab a couple limes if you want to turn up the summertime vibes, but there really is nothing better.

Common Roots Lager

Graham Christie, bar manager at The Gem in Bolton Landing, New York

ABV: 5.2%

Average Price: $11 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans

The Beer:

My go-to Lager on a hot summer day is from Common Roots Brewing Company. It is a German-style Helles Lager, so it is light, crisp, and always refreshing on a hot day.

Tasting Notes:

Its light bitterness and crisp, slightly citrusy notes make it infinitely drinkable and extremely refreshing.

Pacifico Clara

Pedro Pozo, beverage director of Grupo Bakan in Miami

ABV: 4.5%

Average Price: $10 for a six-pack

The Beer:

The best lagers come from hot places, although there is some debate within Mexico itself as to who makes the best beer. Pacifico is my choice for a hot day, it has the lightest body while still delivering the flavor and refreshment expected from a great lager.

Tasting Notes:

Bready malts, sweet corn, honey, citrus peels, and gentle, herbal, piney hops make for a refreshing summer sipper.

Sapporo Lager

Mercedes Cowper, certified sommelier and bar manager at Round Robin Bar in Washington, DC

ABV: 5%

Average Price: $9 for a six-pack

The Beer:

For a guest looking to have a light, easy-sipping beer, I suggest a Sapporo lager from Japan. Top it off with Sprite (frequently offered at pubs in England circa 2009) to make it a summer shandy-like beverage. Or just drink this refreshing, crisp, flavorful lager on its own.

Tasting Notes:

It’s known for its sweet rice, citrus, honey, and floral, hoppy flavor profile. It’s a unique lager well-suited for end of summer heat.

The Stockyards Cerveza Royale

Chase West, restaurant manager at Percheron in Kansas City

ABV: 4.5%

Average Price: $10 for a six-pack

The Beer:

When you think of Mexican-style lager your mind goes to Corona or Modelo. The Stockyards Cervesa Royale (from a local KC Brewery) is a personal favorite because not only is it locally sourced, but it tastes great.

Tasting Notes:

The light-bodied, crisp flavor pairs perfectly with the summer heat. Hand me a cold glass and lime wedge with this beer and I won’t be leaving until we run out.

We’re taught that “traditional love” goes something like this: Be a virgin, find a soulmate, get married, NEVER CHEAT, share resources, have kids, and dance at your 50th wedding anniversary.

It’s a lot of pressure. And, frankly, if it really worked that way, divorce rates would be at 0%.

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Love, as we know it, doesn’t work the same way for everyone.

Chris Ryan, co-author of “Sex at Dawn” puts it like this: “You can choose to wear shoes that are too small, but you can’t choose to be comfortable in them.”

In other words, our outdated beliefs about the nature of sex and relationships could be hurting many of us.

“Sex at Dawn” was published in 2010, but people are still talking about it.

The book looks into prehistoric human sexuality — it studies the behavior of bonobos and other primates in order to get at the true origins of human love. Though readers loved it for offering a more positive vision of evolutionary psychology than ones proposed by Darwin, Hobbes, and Freud, the book isn’t without its critics.

Still, as a filter for anyone trying to make sense of modern love, “Sex at Dawn” has a lot to offer.

Some of the insights in “Sex at Dawn” might surprise you, some might comfort you, some may shock you. It’s an interesting journey into the prehistoric past, and it might sound more familiar than you’d expect.

So let’s enter the shame-free zone and discover seven things about love that everyone — single, married, and everything in-between — really needs to know.

1. Competition was never about who was the biggest, strongest, or richest.

Competition for mates didn’t happen in our everyday actions, according to “Sex at Dawn.” It all took place inside … not our heads, but our bodies! The competitive advantage for males, prehistorically, wasn’t decided in the ring of life, with men competing for wealth, status, and resources to woo a lady.

It was decided … INSIDE THE FEMALE BODY. From the book:

“Rather, paternity was determined in the inner world of the female reproductive tract where every woman is equipped with mechanism for choosing among potential fathers at a cellular level.”

So ovaries are the original matchmaker? And what they’re matching is the right biological match from prehistoric ladies casting a very wide sex net?

The book is right when it states that this theory “turns the standard narrative inside out and upside down.”

2. The friend zone isn’t real.

Though the book mostly offers observations, it does posit one solution to the problem many societies have with thinking of female sexuality as property. You know the kind — frustrated Internet commenters complaining about being put in the friend zone (as if they had some prior claim to sex with a woman but the zoning commission came and denied that access to them).

According to the authors, there’s a way out.

“If you’re unhappy at the amount of sexual opportunity in your life, don’t blame the women. Instead, make sure they have equal access to power, wealth, and status. Then watch what happens.”

3. It’s totally natural to miss or still have strong feelings for your exes.

Back in the prehistoric day, it’s believed that there wasn’t really any such thing as an ex, because there wasn’t really any such thing as a relationship.

In the olden days, a man wouldn’t have even known for sure if he was a child’s dad. He (and every other dude — and lady for that matter) would have more likely just assumed that they were each child’s parent and provided and cared for them accordingly.

“… we hypothesize that Socio-Erotic Exchanges [forms a] crucial, durable web of affection, affiliation, and mutual obligation. In evolutionary terms, it would be hard to overstate the importance of such networks.”

So if you find yourself getting that old feeling, just chalk it up to some prehistoric memories of communal village life, in which overlapping relationships were more like a ’70s rock band tour bus.

“For professional athletes, musicians, and their most enthusiastic female fans, as well as both male and female members of many foraging societies, overlapping, intersecting sexual relationships strengthen group cohesion and can offer a measure of security in an uncertain world.”

4. Ladies make the first move.

Just not in the way you probably think.

It’s all biology, baby. Meredith Small, an anthropologist cited in the book, suggests that during fertilization of a woman’s egg, the egg actually may be reaching out and enveloping the sperm.

How’s that for making the first move?

She goes on to emphasize:

“Female biology … even at the level of egg and sperm interaction, doesn’t necessarily dictate a docile stance.”

5. Sexuality can be selfless.

Sex, in prehistory, was a way to bond your community together and provide a stable place for all the community’s kids to grow, according to “Sex at Dawn.”

I know. I’m a little scandalized by this as well. I’m a Methodist girl from Missouri; all this monogamish stuff is blowing my mind. But bear with me.

A story of elite World War II pilots stands out as an example of prehistory bumping into modernity.

In World War II, the book notes, elite pilots were facing the highest fatality rates in the military. They had wives and families; they had a community. But every time they went to fight, they risked abandoning and possibly hurting that community in their death.

How’d they respond? These elite fighter pilots started to ease up on the strictness of their marriages and began some of the first “key parties” on record. Rather than being scandalized, author Chris Ryan was moved.

“It was so moving to think about what motivated them to open their marriages with other couples. They were cultivating these webs of love, or at least real affection, because they knew that some of the men wouldn’t survive the war, and they wanted the widows to have as much support and love as possible. This confluence of selflessness and sexuality seemed to connect so directly to the hunter-gatherer groups, where men also have a high mortality rate from hunting accidents, falls, animal attacks, and so on. It was an unexpected yet very clear reflection of the distant past.”

6. The whole “women want resources and men want novelty” yarn is kind of contrived.

It’s more subtle than that. And also, rude! This myth implies that all women trade sex for stuff, and that’s not cool.

“As attentive readers may have noted, the standard narrative of heterosexual interaction boils down to prostitution: a woman exchanges her sexual services for access to resources.”

Monogamy and relationships are assumed a default in our world. But they’re not — they’re a convenience born out of humans switching from hunter-gatherer mode to agriculture mode. The authors explain:

“… upheavals in human societies resulting from the shift to settled living in agricultural communities brought radical changes to women’s ability to survive. Suddenly, women lived in a world where they had to barter their reproductive capacity for access to the resources and protection they needed to survive.”

Interesting. And totally outdated.

The good news is because this possessiveness isn’t an innate human thing, that means just as we were conditioned INTO objectifying and commodifying women, we can condition ourselves right on out of it.

7. Sex doesn’t have to be so serious.

As Ryan said in an interview with Dan Savage, “We hope [the book] encourages and empowers people to give themselves a break, to cut themselves and their partners some slack.”

“We need to chill out. Like music, sex can be sacred but it doesn’t always have to be. Sometimes we hear God in a Bach toccata, but sometimes we’re just dancing and having a good time listening to the Rolling Stones. Nothing sacred about it.”

If you try sometimes, you get what you need. GIF via The Rolling Stones.

This book is an interesting read, and it definitely provides a different lens on the way human sexuality came to be.

This article originally appeared on 02.12.16

Matthieu Ricard, often called “the happiest man in the world,” says that the way for all of us to live sustainably on this planet is to adopt a culture of thinking about each other. And not just the others who are here right now, but also people we’ll never meet.

He tells us some stuff that you’re probably tired of hearing. We’re exhausting our planets resources. Humanity has completely screwed everything up on this planet.

But stick around because he’s going to get crazy surprising.

This is not a speech about recycling.

He points out that our situation is even more serious than you might have known. We’re rapidly exceeding the planetary boundaries that make Earth habitable.

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And, let’s be honest, it’s easy not to feel crazy urgent about this, right?

• The glaciers are melting, but I didn’t see them back when they were all there.
• There’s a flotilla of plastic out in the Pacific, but it’s pretty far from my home.
• And we’ve lost half of the world’s species since 1970, but how many of them were cute ones? (Kidding — lots of them were.)

When we consider how we treat our planet, when we’re talking about big action, we’re doing it because we’d like our kids and grandkids to not live in a post-apocalyptic hellscape.

But then he offers a solution.

And it’s not about buying a Prius.

So, his big revolutionary advice is just to look out for each other but in a tremendous way. Look out for your neighbor. Look out for your friend. Look out for your enemy and their great-great-great-grandkid.

But is that possible? And can we be happy if we think about others that much?

In fact, it happens all the time. So often that it’s not newsworthy. This ordinary goodness is what helps communities and families grow.

An international survey found that the very most perfect predictor of happiness is the quality of human relationships.

But what is altruism? Is it a choice? Is it something we do for ourselves so that we will feel good about ourselves?

But how do we encourage that impulse to grow within ourselves, our communities, and our children?

For that, you’ll have to watch the video.

With Donald Trump’s mugshot out in the wild, social media has had a field day reacting to the photo even though this is technically Trump’s fourth arrest. (He’s had a busy summer.)

While most of the reactions have been jokes dunking on the former president, Marjorie Taylor Greene took things to a strange and incoherent level by making up a fake mugshot of herself. However, in a surprise twist, Greene did not corner the market on the most sycophantic reaction to Trump’s arrest. That honor goes to the conservatives filling up Twitter by comparing Trump to, we kid you not, Tupac Shakur. Never in a million years would anyone equate Trump with Tupac, and yet here we are.

“In the urban black community, a mug shot can be an iconic symbol, both of victimization and of greatness,” Dinesh D’Douza tweeted. “It’s a defiant UP YOURS to ‘the man.’ Think Tupac Shakur. Trump is now the ultimate gangsta in our culture.”

“I support Tupac Trump and I’m blocked by Elon Musk. I think I’m becoming a gangster,” noted conservative pundit Catturd tweeted before creating the hasthag #TupacTrump.

Naturally, it didn’t take long for right-wingers to run with the Tupac theme, and quickly get dunked on for what has to be their most out-of-touch comparison yet. Donald Trump and Tupac. What even is reality anymore?

But don’t take our word for it, here’s the actual Tupac sharing his thoughts on Trump:

You can see some of the reactions to #TupacTrump below:

(Via Dinesh D’Souza on Twitter)

Bridgerton was a great way for people to be introduced to London high society, but have you ever wondered what it would be like if there were a bunch of Americans thrown into the equation? Well, wonder no longer! Apple TV+’s The Buccaneers is the next period drama to bring back corsets and curly updos for the modern woman. And probably some sex.

Based on the novel by Edith Wharton, The Buccaneers was first brought to the screen in 1995 with a BBC miniseries starring Carla Gugino, Mia Sorvino, and Alison Elliot. The novel was published in 1993, nearly 50 years after Wharton died, and now Apple TV+ is bringing it back for another go with a whole new set of young women looking to find a man. This is the type of history Barbie was trying to warn us about. Here’s everything you need to know.

Plot

Similar to Bridgerton, The Buccaneers will follow a group of young American women who head to London in order to find the perfect husband. What makes a husband perfect? Money!!! This is the 1870s, by the way, so it’s fine. Women weren’t allowed to make their own money anyway. Here is the official AppleTV+ synopsis:

The Buccaneers are the daughters of America’s new rich — beautiful and untameable, despite the best efforts of England’s finest governesses, they are on their way to London to snare themselves an aristocrat, low in funds but high in class, to make a perfect match.

Cast

The cast includes Looking for Alaska’s Kristine Froseth, 13 Reasons Why’s Alisha Boe, Josie Totah, Mia Threapleton (daughter of Kate Winslet), and Christina Hendricks.

Release Date

The series is set to premiere on November 8th 2023.

Trailer

Apple TV has yet to release the teaser trailer, but here are some of the first-look images:

With each release of singer SZA’s music videos, the Grammy Award-winner finds a way to hide Easter eggs of what she has lined up. The notable guest cameos within her new video for smash single “Snooze,” off her sophomore album, SOS, has fans speculating what the future holds.

The NSFW behind-the-scenes teaser for the mini-film, shared on August 13, didn’t do the final product justice. Power Book II star Woody McClain, Beef‘s Young Mazino, entertainer Benny Blanco, and pop star Justin Bieber all make on-screen appearances at different points of the visual. However, Bieber’s spot has sparked rumors that he and SZA have something in the works.

According to Variety, that something more is an extended official remix to “Snooze.” Bieber and his wife Hailey (Baldwin) Bieber were spotted in March enjoying SZA’s SOS Tour stop in Los Angeles. So, the idea that Bieber and SZA are working on music together isn’t as farfetched as it may seem.

SZA’s sophomore album, SOS, was released in December 2022 and quickly rose to the top of the charts. Should a “Snooze” remix be shared with Justin Bieber, it could appear on the deluxe version of the project that has long since been teased.

Ahsoka, so far, feels like a missed opportunity.

I have many friends who are huge fans of the animated series, Rebels. I, too, am familiar with the series. I watched the entire first season. Then kind of decided it wasn’t really my thing and moved on, catching a handful of other episodes here and there. But I certainly understand why people like it. But it’s hard to explain to fans of Rebels that Rebels doesn’t hold a grip on the zeitgeist like they think it does. Fans of Rebels are, trust me, really into that show. But if you walk down the street and ask 100 random people if they know who Ezra Bridger is, how many people get that right? One? I suspect you’d get a lot of answers like, “Isn’t that the guy who used to run that deli?” Now ask if they know who Luke Skywalker is. I bet it’s a lot more.

A lot of people who like Star Wars just don’t watch the animated series. That’s just a fact. And I know a lot of their fans will say, “Well, you’re missing out.” Maybe! But that’s not the point here. The point is, a lot of people who do watch the live-action just don’t watch them. And Ahsoka really could have been a great introduction of this character to people who only know her from a couple of guest appearances on The Mandalorian. But, unfortunately, Ahsoka not only assumes you know everything about her from the animated Clone Wars series, it also assumes you know everything from Rebels. Which is probably wonderful if you’ve watched those shows, but to everyone else it’s so far been a huge bore. And if you are a fan of the Rebels animated show, you should want more people to be interested in these characters. And this series probably isn’t doing that. (Not to mention, I remember these characters being much more interesting in the animated series. For whatever reason, in Ahsoka, the dialogue flows like toothpaste. A character will say something, then the other character will stare off into space for five seconds before responding. For the life of me I can’t figure out why anyone would choose to do this.)

One of Ahsoka‘s biggest problems is the whole story, once again, revolves around “a map to a guy.” What’s weird is the first six Star Wars movies all successfully avoided maps in general. The first Star Wars had plans to the Death Star, which is sort of a map, but it’s not the same thing. The Empire Strikes Back is kind of opposite of a map, as everyone is sort of scrambling to get anywhere. Though, it just hit me, if Empire came out today, Ben Kenobi would appear to Luke on Hoth telling him to find the map to Yoda and the whole movie would be about that. It’s funny, now, Ben just says, “You will go to Dagobah,” and Luke is like, “Okay, sure, I know where that is.”

In The Force Awakens, the “map to a guy” – in this case Luke Skywalker – felt somewhat fresh, at least for Star Wars. By The Rise of Skywalker, a movie seemingly made to just repeat and erase everything from the prior movies, the “map to a guy,” this time Palpatine, already felt tired. Actually, in this case, it was the map to another map to the “map to the guy.” Which was basically the plot of Justice League. (I assume it’s a coincidence both The Rise of Skywalker and Justice League had the same screenwriter.)

With Ahsoka, right off the bat we learn the series is about, you guessed it, a “map to a guy.” The first two maps to guys were maps to household name characters. So which guy is it this time? Han Solo? Lando Calrissian? No, it’s a map to Grand Admiral Thrawn – a character who people think is a lot more popular than he really is. Thrawn, if you don’t know, is the “big bad“ of Timothy Zahn’s 1991 book Heir to the Empire, which was the first story to take place after Return of the Jedi and is no longer canon. At the time, the consensus was, “Yeah, he’s fine,” because how do you top Vader and Palpatine. You don’t, hence, “good enough.” When Thrawn was reintroduced in Rebels it was kind of a fun, “hey, the guy from the books!” moment. Now he’s apparently important enough to be a “map to a guy” guy, even though most people really don’t know who he is, but the series sure thinks you know who he is. There’s a lot of talk of him being banished to another galaxy. Even I have absolutely no clue what that’s about and the series doesn’t even think explaining that would be a good idea because obviousl we have all watched the animated series. (Again, we certainly have not.) But all I know is there’s a map, Thrawn is a guy, and all the characters are going to follow the map to the guy.

As I said, this seems like a missed opportunity to introduce, you know, the title character of this show to a wider audience. Instead, it’s all about the Rebels characters, which is a mistake. A show actually about Ahsoka, on her own, going on weekly adventures (like the early episodes of The Mandalorian would have been preferable. Instead, there are just all these characters that Dave Filoni seems to think everyone is already in love with. And in a weird way I get it? Have you ever been to Star Wars Celebration? I’ve been to a few and it’s literally a fantasy world. If you are a creator of anything to do with Star Wars you are royalty at these things. This is a place where the guy who plays Dack (John Morton, I met him, very nice guy) can get a standing ovation. When Filoni walks around Celebration, it’s a sight to be seen. He is Mister King Shit. So if I’m him, yeah I probably am under the impression everyone on earth is extremely familiar with all these characters. I mean, just look around! Everyone is dressed as them! But, unfortunately, Ahsoka isn’t streaming exclusively at Star Wars Celebration. It’s on Disney+, a place that exists to make money in a current environment where streaming services are losing subscribers. Like it or not, Ahsoka absolutely needs the casual Star Wars fan. Remember, even Obi-Wan Kenobi and Boba Fett had series that didn’t light the world on fire, and those are very popular characters that have been around for over 40 years. (Though, the former did get an Emmy nomination.) And after watching the first two episodes of Ahsoka, I can’t imagine the casual fan will be coming back for more.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Heading into Donald Trump‘s arrest in Georgia, behind-the-scenes report claimed that the former president was particularly “nervous” about the numerous defendants in the indictment turning on him. Well, at least three of them already have.

Georgia Republicans David Shafer, Shawn Still, and Cathleen Latham have told prosecutors that they acted as fake electors for Trump because he was the “incumbent president” and ordered them to do so.

Via Politico:

In a series of court filings this week, those false electors, who became part of Trump’s last-ditch bid to subvert the 2020 election, said it was Trump and his campaign lawyers who urged them to sign the false documents, claiming they were necessary to preserve Trump’s flailing court efforts to reverse his defeat to Joe Biden. That exhortation from Trump’s campaign lawyers, they said, amounted to federal government permission to take the actions they did.

Still’s attorney threw Trump under the bus during a court appearance on Thursday.

“Mr. Still, as a presidential elector, was also acting at the direction of the incumbent president of the United States,” his attorney said. “The president’s attorneys instructed Mr. Still and the other contingent electors that they had to meet and cast their ballots on Dec. 14, 2020.”

According to inside sources, Trump has been extremely concerned about defendants flipping on him and his public bravado doesn’t match his demeanor behind closed doors.

“He’s not so confident anymore,” an insider told Page Six. “He’s not acting so cocky anymore. He’s not lashing out so much. The arrogance is gone.”

(Via Politico)