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Chlöe released In Pieces, her debut solo album on March 31 after building anticipation with singles such as “Pray It Away” or “How Does It Feel” featuring Chris Brown.

After the album’s arrival, fans were treated to the video for “Cheatback” featuring Future. They’re also still waiting on an official video for “Told Ya” featuring Missy Elliott.

All of that culminated in In Pieces debuting at No. 119 on the Billboard 200 albums chart dated April 15. As noted by Chart Data, it marks Chlöe’s first time charting on the Billboard 200 as a solo artist.

Chloe X Halle peaked at No. 16 and No. 139 for Ungodly Hour and The Kids Are Alright, respectively.

Chlöe referenced her musical beginnings with her sister, Halle Bailey, while addressing the criticism she has endured in the wake of In Pieces.

“The thing is, the same people who say that weren’t fans of Halle and [me] when we had our Ungodly Hour album out, The Kids Are Alright, so, it’s a bunch of people who are just putting in their two cents now just to really say things,” she said during an appearance on Atlanta’s Majic 107.5 radio station. “Because Sis and I, we’ve been underground for a minute, and the same people who talk, they weren’t around then or giving us our props then. It’s like, now they want to talk trash for some reason.”
Missy Elliott is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Succession had its own “Red Wedding” episode this week, bidding goodbye to Waystar Royco titan Logan Roy in the most unceremonious (and, frankly, unbelievable until about 40 minutes in) way possible.

The Roy family patriarch died as he lived, estranged from his closest family members and in pursuit of another billion-dollar business deal that would engrave his name in the highest echelons of media magnates. But what caused his seemingly untimely demise and how the show has been building to it since its first season, is worth a closer look.

How Did Logan Roy Die In Succession Season 4, Episode 3?

At the beginning of the episode, Logan eschews attending his son Connor’s wedding in favor of meeting with GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson. Their acquisition deal is in jeopardy thanks to the kids scheming and Logan wants to smooth things over in person — while asking for a bit more cash to sweeten the pot. We see him directing Tom and Roman to fire Gerri while brushing off concerns about bailing on the nuptials. (He sent a gift, people!) After witnessing him board the plane, the next update we get on the Waystar Royco tyrant comes from 30,000 feet in the air, when Tom, who’s been trying to get in touch with Shiv, ends up connecting with Roman over the phone. He tells Roman and Kendall that their dad is “very sick,” revealing he collapsed in the onboard toilet and the cabin service staff gave him chest compressions. Shiv, Roman, and Kendall all have a chance to speak to him — well, they speak while Tom puts the phone to his ear — but it’s clear that his heart and breathing have stopped.

Logan likely died from a heart attack, perhaps brought on by the added stress of trying to push the GoJo deal through and his recent falling out with Shiv, Roman, and Kendall. But we’re not placing all of the blame on them.

How Succession Hinted At Logan Roy’s Death In Season 4

Despite seeming to be this invincible force wielding absolute control over his media kingdom, Logan Roy has been flirting with death from the beginning. We first met him as he stumbled around in his penthouse bedroom, looking for a corner to piss in. By the end of that episode, he’d had a stroke and a brain hemorrhage, forcing Kendall to take the reigns of the company. When he fought his way back to the top-dog seat, Logan still suffered from medical issues — heat exhaustion, a nasty UTI that put the company’s future in question, a medicinal regimen that needed to be overseen by his son and his executive assistant. Logan Roy was not a picture of health by any means, but this season saw him finally confronting that fact.

At his birthday party in the season four premiere, Logan skips out on the festivities to take a lonely walk in the park before hitting up a diner with his security guard to muse about death and the afterlife. He’s depressed his children aren’t celebrating with him and worried about what comes next. When the GoJo deal seems to be all but confirmed, Logan has a moment of panic, refusing to contemplate retirement and instead, prowling the ground floor at ATN, promising a reinvention of the news network with him at the helm.

Logan Roy has been in the throes of an end-of-life crisis since the opening credits of this show, so while deposing of him early on in its final season was a shock to the system for fans, it fits with the grander theme of this story. Who can follow in a man like Logan Roy’s footsteps? We’re about to find out.

Normally, a death in the family serves as an acceptable excuse to postpone a wedding, but this is Succession, and presidential candidate Connor Roy isn’t going to let a tiny thing like the sudden passing of his estranged father interrupt his happy nuptials. He rented a brass band, for god’s sake.

In season four, episode three’s “Connor’s Wedding,” as the Roy siblings convene on the high seas for their eldest brother’s ostentatious celebration, family patriarch Logan Roy was fighting for life at cruising altitude. After skipping his son’s big day to iron out an acquisition deal with GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson, Logan was surrounded by the usual Waystar-Royco bottom-feeders when he suffered a massive heart attack and died onboard his private jet. While Shiv, Roman, and Kendall had the opportunity to say a final farewell via phone, Connor was told of his father’s passing after the fact, a cruel bit of treatment that hammers home just how low he sits in the family hierarchy. But, despite his siblings quickly slinking away to command press conferences and control the narrative surrounding their dad’s death, Connor decided to continue on his matrimonial voyage.

Why? Because he deserves a win, dammit.

Despite all of the chaos and emotional turmoil following Logan Roy’s death, a bright spot in the aftermath came when Connor and his fiance, Willa, finally had a heart-to-heart that clarified their relationship. What started out as a transactional arrangement has morphed into one of the healthiest romances on this show, and that fact was cemented when the pair’s sit-down led them to reveal some tough truths to one another. For Connor, the death of his father forced him to confront his own age, and the gap in years between himself and his bride. He admits to Willa that he’s worried if they don’t marry now, despite everything, that they never will. He fears she’ll leave him for someone younger, someone she actually loves. And, he questions whether she’s just with him for his money. For someone so purposefully ignorant about the world around him, facing these fears head on felt like a turning point for Connor.

In turn, Willa — who’s always been cagey about her desire to stay with someone so unlike herself — took Connor’s confession as an opportunity to admit some truths of her own. Yes, the money and safety that comes with their relationship is a driving factor behind their marriage, but she’s also happy, content with the life Connor is able to give her. It’s not some sweeping declaration, but for a man who delivered a depressing monologue about learning to live without familial love — likening himself to a plant that lives on rocks and feeds on insects — just one episode ago, it’s the closest Connor is likely to get.

The pair end up getting married after all, in a scaled-down ceremony that’s less impressive but somehow more meaningful than the grand celebration Connor originally planned. And in doing so, the show gives Connor a needed win. While his siblings continue to chase after their dad, hoping to impress him and earn his favor even in death, Connor is finding ways to be content without that toxic validation. It’s a rare moment of happiness that probably won’t last long, so let’s let him enjoy it, huh?

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander told the NBA world before the season that after two tanking seasons, his intentions were to start winning games in Oklahoma City again. It would have only been normal to disregard his confidence as bravado or bluster. But SGA has answered his own call, getting the Thunder to the Play-In Tournament ahead of schedule and producing at an All-NBA level.

The fifth-year star has done it without No. 2 overall pick Chet Holmgren and with the second-youngest roster in league history, made up largely of guys who are on their first NBA contract. Gilgeous-Alexander is a contradiction of hoops history. He has risen to among the best players in the NBA with a throwback style that excels within a modern squad. He was traded suddenly to Oklahoma City despite showing promise with the Los Angeles Clippers, and yet has embraced the Thunder’s rebuild and reconstructed the exuberance associated with Oklahoma City dating back to when the Kevin Durant-led squad made the move to Oklahoma.

Gilgeous-Alexander has cut back on his three-point attempts and upped his free-throw rate during his breakout campaign. With the understanding that individual counting numbers are better than ever, there is little precedent in NBA history for a guard who gets to the line 10-plus times per game, hardly ever turns the ball over, and makes more than half his shots overall. You have to go back at least a decade to find any.

Gilgeous-Alexander is operating this way not by blending into the confines of league trends, but by bucking up against them — he’s behind only Luka Doncic in terms of frequency and efficiency on isolations. With 1.06 points per possession in isolation, SGA is more efficient than superstars like Jayson Tatum, Trae Young, and even Kevin Durant when he goes one-on-one.

As a driver, he’s is even better. SGA is leading the NBA in drives per game for the third straight season, and scoring 17.1 points per game off those drives — the best mark in the NBA by almost three points. He also possesses the lowest turnover rate on drives of any of the most prolific downhill scorers in the league.

This is possible in large part because of how Oklahoma City has been built around him, as the team emphasizes ball movement and spacing. They force turnovers on defense and are elite at turning steals into offense on the other end. They get to the line and are fairly adept at getting offensive rebounds. Yet the Thunder aren’t even in the top half of the league in three-point frequency — their spacing is a product of brute force and the quick, crisp way they move the ball. SGA can get one of the team’s many wings the ball and watch them find an opening inside and power through the opponent.

When teams sell out to guard Gilgeous-Alexander’s drives, packing the paint and daring younger scorers like Josh Giddey or Jalen Williams to shoot, SGA has mastered the dance of scoring in no man’s land. He draws fouls on more than 20 percent of Thunder possessions, but his style is far from cheap, as he has made 46 percent of his midrange jumpers this season and is shooting a career-high 64 percent at the rim. In an era of pull-up threes and pick-and-rolls, SGA uses the almost postmodern, positionless roster the Thunder have assembled to free himself up to play basketball like it’s 2003 again.

At the same time, Gilgeous-Alexander is the face of a budding Thunder team that would remind any hoops fan of 2009. SGA was a casualty of the NBA’s megatrade era, in which roster-building became less about planning for free agency and more about nailing huge transactions. SGA came to Oklahoma City alongside a number of first round picks and swaps in return for Paul George, the golden ticket for the Clippers to woo Kawhi Leonard in free agency.

The past two seasons, the Thunder have shut him down early to rehab physical issues. It’s hard to say from afar what is going on with a player’s body, but considering Oklahoma City’s concerted tank job in recent seasons and accumulation of young players and draft picks, it at least seems that maximizing SGA’s availability wasn’t in the larger interest of the front office. He took it all in stride, never publicly complaining or disagreeing, then came back last fall very clearly ready to turn the page and start winning again.

So no, Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t choose this. Like Brandon Ingram, Mikal Bridges, and Lauri Markkanen, the new face of the Thunder arrived as a domino that fell from the departure of a franchise centerpiece. He’s has made that departure sting significantly less, become a leader for the Thunder, and has perhaps already surpassed George’s tenure in OKC.

In this second chapter of NBA megatrade life, how the trading team fares can be determined by lottery balls and draft picks, sure, but also in large part by how the blue chipper they got back performs on the court. Gilgeous-Alexander is the product of this modern trend in the league, yet has transformed the Thunder back into something wholly recognizable.

It’s rare for a player, especially one so young, to make an All-NBA team on a squad hovering around .500. Typically, voters and NBA fans are in unison casting down such players as having empty stats or needing to further prove something before they are rewarded. Perhaps as an emblem of our collective appreciation of his unusual circumstances and unique talents, SGA looks like a lock for All-NBA honors. He has blown past the usual doubts, as the Thunder’s stature as the 10-seed in the West is on the backs of his nightly Herculean performances. He has become a franchise icon for the future, today’s star, and yesterday’s hooper.

Lil Nas X turned 24 over the weekend (on Sunday, April 9), and to celebrate, he set up a racy, Playboy-inspired photoshoot that saw him embracing his inner femme and reproducing the magazine’s January 1986 Cover Girls cover. The rest of the photos Nas posted to Instagram see him perusing the pages of his custom issue with a mischievous grin.

Nas, decked out in bunny ears — which served a double purpose, considering Sunday was also Easter — stockings, and heels, lounges on a silk sheet surrounded by old Playboy magazines. A header reads Batty Boy, which is a pejorative term for gay men in Jamaican Patois; leave it to Nas to reclaim a slur in a way guaranteed to set off those most likely to use it.

The “Industry Baby” rapper has been having a lot off fun challenging critics of his queer identity lately. In March, he clapped back at a troll who accused him of only pretending to be gay for engagement, while earlier this month, he joked that he would indeed be reverting to heterosexuality after finding out Saweetie called him her celebrity crush.

Still, it’s clear from his birthday photos he isn’t really switching up for anyone and remains committed to living out loud, regardless of what the haters have to say.

Jeopardy! has seen its fair share of silly scandals over the years, but nothing like this: a contestant has responded to the “very jerky people” who compared his mustache to Adolf Hitler’s. Somewhere out there, Vince McMahon is breathing a sigh of relief.

“Right now I’m feeling every emotion under the sun reliving my Jeopardy! appearance. And I’m seeing what a bunch of Jerks on Twitter are doing because all they can focus on my looks… So I’m going to be leaving Twitter for a while, see you soon,” Brian Henegar, a guest services agent from LaFollette, Tennessee, tweeted. The next day, he returned and gave a mustache update.

After calling out the “really hurtful comments by some very jerky people [that] made me lose all faith in humanity,” Henegar (who had a three-day total of $68,202) wrote, “So I have two things to say right now, and then I’m not gonna say anything else about the matter for the sake of my own sanity. For starters, even though I’ve spent about 10 years on it, i’m shaving off my mustache tonight…too much work to keep it tight.” The second thing: “To all of you jerkolas you thought comparing my appearance to one of the most evil dictators, who ever lived was the height of comedy, when I get my Jeopardy winnings, I will be making a donation to the Anti-Defamation League.”

In response to Colin Jost joking about his mustache during this weekend’s SNL (“A Jeopardy! contestant this week was forced to quit social media after people said his mustache looks like Hitler’s. The contestant said he’s so mad, he’s had it up to here,” the Weekend Update anchor said while doing the Nazi salute), Henegar tweeted:

That’s being a good sport.

(Via People)

Rumors were swirling last fall that Bob Odenkirk was on the wish-list for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though the actor has remained quiet on the subject. Instead of doing some hardcore MCU training, he instead starred in a DIY remake of The Room, which is arguably even better! But since the actor has been experimenting with more physical roles, it would have made sense for him to graduate into some sort of latex costume.

Odenkirk recently spoke to The Independent, where he gave his thoughts on the ever-expanding Marvel universe. As it turns out, he doesn’t feel like he’d really fit in with the rest of the superhero crew. “I always like to keep things grounded, relatable, and smaller, ” Odenkirk explained, referencing his non-superhero roles in Lucky Hank and Better Caul Saul.

But when it comes to enlisting in the Marvel universe, he doesn’t think it’s for him. “I don’t think I’m built for that world. I’m built for characters that make you feel like that guy could live next door.” Doesn’t everybody have a sketchy lawyer living next door?

Even though he doesn’t feel the need to rub elbows with Captain America, Odenkirk has expressed interest in exploring his action roles. Last year, he told the crowd at the Venice Film Festival that he is still training as if he’s on-call to become the next John Wick. “If I get my way you’re going to see me doing more action. I found the action sequences a great deal of fun and close to doing sketch comedy… I’d like to get that in the future.” It’s only a matter of time before a Keanu/Bob movie gets greenlit now!

(Via The Independent)

The best part of The Super Mario Bros. Movie was the Luma begging for the sweet relief of death. The second best part was Jack Black’s “Peaches” song. The third best? Jack Black’s press tour. He dressed like Bowser, called Elon Musk’s bluff, and revealed that the movie he’s proudest of isn’t necessarily his best. Black is very invested in the Mario-verse, and hopefully Nintendo and Illumination are invested in his casting ideas. Because they’re very good.

When asked about a potential (and inevitable, considering the movie’s box office domination) sequel, Black told Gamespot, “It’s not a given that Bowser will return. You know, I did a few Kung Fu Panda movies, and it was a different villain every movie. They may do the same thing.” He continued:

“You know, what if there is a more powerful, more evil villain? Then I may need to be turned to help Mario and the rest to defend our universe against some other unseen force of evil. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Wario. Pedro Pascal is Wario.”

The Last of Us star is one curled mustache away from the role:

Ethan Hawke can be his Luigi.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is out in theaters now.

(Via Gamespot)

WARNING: Spoilers for Succession below.

Keeping in the proud HBO tradition of brutal weddings, Succession patriarch Logan Roy died during the latest gut punch of an episode. Focused entirely on business, as always, Logan dropped dead during a flight to Sweden where he planned to sell off his media empire instead of handing it over to his children, who have continued to be a disappointment to him.

However, the shocking and emotionally riveting depiction of Logan’s death left the door open to numerous questions about what really happened on that flight, and Brian Cox is apparently jumping right in to the conspiracy theories that are already forming.

Here’s what Cox told the official Succession podcast via Rolling Stone:

“We don’t actually see Logan die,” he said. “We know about it, we hear about it; but we don’t actually see it. We don’t even know if that body at the end of the episode is Logan’s body. So there’s a sort of mystery — is Logan dead? Or is he just gone to somewhere else? Or is he testing his family to see how they’re going to react when he’s dead. That’s the other attitude.”

According to Cox, if Logan did fake his death, it’d be to set up a new life for himself in the north of Scotland. Is that the case? Probably not. Succession creator Jesse Armstrong, and even Cox himself, has confirmed in interviews that Logan is gone, and both defended the creative decision. That said, Logan is a wily old bastard and the show already pulled off one mega twist, so literally anything is on the table going into the series finale.

Succession Season 4 airs Sunday on HBO.

(Via Rolling Stone)

Doja Cat’s fans are anxiously waiting for her next album, but her Twitter account is its own art form. Credit where credit is due: Doja Cat doesn’t delete tweets. She does the opposite. She piles them one by one until a thread is so layered that you can’t remember which tweet started it all.

When someone mocked Doja’s decision to undergo surgical procedures such as breast reduction and liposuction, she clapped back with, “eat my long quiet and warm farts.” And on Saturday, April 8, Doja tweeted screenshots of audio files and vaguely warned “no more pop.”

Of course, that wasn’t the end.

The following night, Doja went on a tweet spree. You need to go on the chronological journey to get the full experience:

Within all of that, Doja claimed her forthcoming album is “called Moist Holes” before immediately retracting with “Jk.” Then, “I quit music” followed immediately by — you guessed it — “jk” followed by “no I’m serious I quit music” and “jk I’m not. relax.” Ultimately, Doja assured her followers that she’s going to “finish this album y’all don’t worry.”

If it’s true that Doja Cat is still flip-flopping on her album’s title, she should definitely consider Never Boring.