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Yesterday, Billboard reported that veteran underground rap producer Madlib had filed a lawsuit against his former manager, Eothen Alapatt — better known to rap fans as Egon of Stones Throw Records. According to Madlib’s lawsuit, Egon used his role as an executive at Stones Throw to self-deal, claiming profits for himself that were otherwise due to Madlib.

Madlib allegedly trusted Egon to set up two entities: Madicine Show, which would handle Madlib’s musical interests, and Rapp Cats, which would manage sales of Madlib’s merchandise. The producer says that he recently learned that Egon was abusing his privileged position by skimming profits for himself, either hiding accounts or providing false accounts of his work to Madlib about his compensation, and not giving written agreements to his business partner.

In another example of his alleged mismanagement, Egon supposedly secured a single lawyer and accountant to represent both partners in the two enterprises, then instructed them not to work with Madlib and only deal with him, even after Madlib secured new representation of his own. After reviewing accounts from 2018-2022, Madlib says his new team found irregularities and lack of hard copy that amounted to “several hundred thousand dollars” listed as “‘consulting,’ ‘commissions,’ ‘fees’ or ‘reimbursements’” for Egon.

‘Lib also accused Egon of locking him out of his digital accounts for services like Apple Music, Bandcamp, and Ingrooves, allowing Egon to take half of the producer’s royalties. Madlib’s complaint says he “demanded that Madicine Show and Rapp Cats be wound up and dissolved,” and that Egon instead told Madlib to buy him out.

Egon was also sued last year by the widow of the late MF DOOM, whose Madvillainy album with Madlib was put out through Stones Throw during Egon’s time there. Jasmine Dumile claimed Egon refused to return DOOM’s rhyme books, insisting on donating them to a digital archive rather than keep them secret as DOOM intended. Egon has derided that claim as “baseless and libelous” through his attorneys, but has yet to respond to Madlib’s newly filed suit.

Dexter Morgan might never die. He miraculously survived both “deaths” that would have taken anybody else out in the original Showtime series and his New Blood continuation. That second death also wasn’t followed by a “peekaboo” lumberjack surprise, and when New Blood ended, Showtime’s Gary Levine called Dexter’s grievous gunshot wounds “a profoundly powerful conclusion to our beloved and extraordinary series.”

So there? Then Dexter (again) became a streaming phenomenon on Netflix (Showtime sees you, too, Yellowjackets), and miraculously, both Dexter: Resurrection and a Dexter: Original Sin prequel were greenlit with original showrunner Clyde Phillips. We’re here today to dig into how the latter will flesh out the history that we’ve previously seen portrayed by a bewigged Michael C. Hall and Dominic James in the original show. Let’s get started.

Plot

“I am a killer. But I wasn’t born this way. By my history. By the people around me. They say it takes a village. To raise a killer.” That would be Michael C. Hall’s voice in a teaser trailer to prepare viewers for Dexter’s inner monologue, so that we’re not floating around in unfamiliar territory with a ^^^ younger Dexter (Patrick Gibson) who has much less hair than his predecessors. Presumably, being more aerodynamic won’t take his homicidal edge off.

The “I wasn’t born this way” utterance and the trailer’s zoom-ins on Dexter’s coworkers do make me wonder how much the prequel series will indulge the “born in blood” concept (due to Dexter witnessing his mother’s murder as a child). Still, the heavy presence of Harry Morgan (now portrayed by Christian Slater) suggests that there won’t be any tweaking of how dad helped him develop a Code after recognizing that Dexter’s Dark Passenger was onboard and needed to be at least guided rather than let loose.

Now, about those links to the future. Clearly, Hall’s voice will provide an aural link to Dexter, but Game Rant has noted a character of interest listed on IMDb for Original Sin. That would be “Iron Lake Doctor” (portrayed by Dante Myles), who hails from the upstate New York town where Dexter: New Blood took place. Does this mean that we will see a flash forward in time on this prequel? This hunch hasn’t been confirmed yet, so stay tuned there.

For now, we know that the prequel will be set in 1991 Miami with Dexter beginning to find footing in law enforcement. Behold the synopsis:

Dexter: Original Sin follows Dexter (Patrick Gibson) as he transitions from student to avenging serial killer. When his bloodthirsty urges can’t be ignored any longer, Dexter must learn to channel his inner darkness. With the guidance of his father, Harry (Christian Slater), he adopts a Code designed to help him find and kill people who deserve to be eliminated from society without getting on law enforcement’s radar. This is a particular challenge for young Dexter as he begins a forensics internship at the Miami Metro Police Department.

Also, Wall Street Journal reported that Showtime is feeling out other spin offs, which could include the origin story of the Trinity Killer, long before he looked like John Lithgow. The Dexter universe is rapidly expending, indeed.

Cast

Showtime is pulling out the stops with this gathering of TV stars.

In addition to Hall as the inner monologue of Dexter Morgan and Patrick Gibson (The OA, Shadow And Bone) as younger Dexter, former McDreamy Patrick Dempsey will portray Aaron Spencer, captain of the Miami PD’s homicide division. Christian Slater is onboard as Dexter’s dad, Harry; and Molly Brown will portray Dexter’s sister, Debra.

Additionally, Sarah Michelle Gellar was cast as Dexter’s CSI boss, Tanya Martin, with James Martinez as younger Angel Batista (the “up-and-coming homicide detective who leads with his heart”).

Rounding out the cast are Christina Milian (as homicide detective Maria LaGuerta), Alex Shimizu as Vince Masuka (the “forensic analyst who eagerly shares his expertise while relishing the chance to boss around his new intern, Dexter Morgan”), and Reno Wilson as Bobby Watt (Harry’s partner/confidante).

Release Date

Dexter: Original Sin will debut on Friday, Dec. 13 for subscribers of Paramount+ With Showtime. On linear programming, Showtime will debut the prequel series on Sunday, Dec. 15.

Trailer

Are you ready to go back to the beginning?

LCD Soundsystem made a huge deal about their farewell after the 2010 album This Is Happening… except they didn’t actually go away. Not for forever, anyway. They have been quiet, though (aside from frequent performances). In 2017, they dropped the album American Dream. Recently, there have been rumblings that the band is preparing its first album since then, and now James Murphy himself has confirmed that to be true.

The band premiered a new song called “X-Ray Eyes” on the radio earlier this month, and now they’ve officially released it. Accompanying the song is a statement from Murphy shared on social media. It reads:

“so there’s a new lcd song now called x ray eyes.

it’s the first single of what’s shaping up to be a new album. don’t ask me when that is, because we’re still working on it. but it feels very good to be putting out new music. we made a small run of silkscreened 12″s that will sell at the upcoming LA and NYC shows, and DFA will have a limited grip of them, but don’t freak out if you don’t get one because there will be a more readily available commercial release of the same record when we can get it together. we just made a pile of white labels and are screening 100 at a time for each gig. it’s a short lead time thing. and it’s fun.

but, no, there’s no finished LP yet. but when we’re not playing shows, it’s getting closer and closer to completion. so that’s the news. anything else you hear is bullsh*t speculation.

go vote.”

Listen to “X-Ray Eyes” above.

Bon Iver (“Bonny Bear”) is coming out of hibernation.

The Justin Vernon-led group released an EP, SABLE, and they also launched a new website. Counterpart is described as “an experiment and a search for more voices who might step into the fold, make something new and embody the role of Bon Iver.” Fans are asked to share photos, audio or videos in response to prompts like “Could the essence of a song lie outside the voice that first sang it?” and “Do you have a friend that resembles Justin Vernon?”

You can check out Counterpart here.

In a recent interview with The New Yorker, Vernon discussed the identity behind a song. “I believe in the power of the individual — don’t get me wrong — but I’ve always just found that it distracts from the point. Why do we like a song? Is it because of who’s singing it to us? Or is it the song? And I just think it’s the song. For me, it is. For me, it’s about the song and what the music does. It can be very distracting when it becomes, ‘Oh, I love Bon Iver so much. I want more Bon Iver. I want to see Bon Iver. I want to get his autograph.’ I’m sensitive to it, and the attention can be overwhelming. I’m also uncomfortable with it because it distracts from the point that music delivered me to myself.”

SABLE is out now via Jagjaguwar.

The first winner for Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards was Bobby Darin in 1960. In his decades-long career, he had nine top-10 singles, only one of which was about splishing and splashing. The second winner in the category was legendary comedian Bob Newhart (who also, amusingly, won Album of the Year). Other honorees in the 1960s include Robert Goulet (remained popular throughout the rest of his life), José Feliciano (an icon with the rare Christmas song that’s hard to get sick of), and The Beatles (literally The Beatles).

There’s a common perception that winning Best New Artist is a death sentence for an artist / band. I’m not sure this has ever been true (see, again: The Beatles), but it certainly hasn’t been true recently. The last six winners of the welcome-to-the-big-leagues award: Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, Megan Thee Stallion, Olivia Rodrigo, Samara Joy, and Victoria Monét. Those are some huge, critically and/or commercially successful artists (Joy was a niche pick, but since she won over Måneskin, it was the correct one).

In the 2010s, you have Zac Brown Band, Bon Iver, Sam Smith, and Meghan Trainor, which is the first and last time Bon Iver and Meghan Trainor will appear in the same sentence. Say what you will about the “All About That Bass” singer / walking Target commercial, she’s undeniably popular. Going further back to the 2000s, there’s Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys, Carrie Underwood, Maroon 5, Amy Winehouse, and Adele. That’s a strong batting average, not always in terms of authorial admiration (Joanna Newsom was snubbed!), but it does debunk the idea that winning Best New Artist dooms an act to following immediate glory with falling off the face of the earth.

So, where does this idea of a Best New Artist curse come from? There’s a trio of possibilities, or more likely, a combination of all three.

-In 1976, Starland Vocal Band released “Afternoon Delight.” It was one of the year’s best-selling singles (it also inspired both a Ron Burgundy sing-along and a regrettable tattoo). But only five years later, the breezy group broke up. “[We] got two of the five Grammys [and] one was Best New Artist,” Starland Vocal Band member Taffy Nivert recalled on an episode of VH1’s nostalgia-bait 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders special. “So that was basically the kiss of death and I feel sorry for everyone who’s gotten it since.”

-Only three artists have taken home The Big Four of Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best New Artist in the same year: Christopher Cross, Adele, and Billie Eilish. Adele and Eilish are doing just fine, but Cross was never able to replicate the instant success of “Sailing” and, released later that year, the Oscar winning “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do).” He only had one more top-10 hit, 1983’s “Think Of Laura.”

-Best New Artist is notorious for being the only Grammys category with a vacated award. In February 1990, Milli Vanilli won Best New Artist; nine months later, they returned the trophy following a lip-syncing scandal.

The Milli Vanilli scandal, in particular, put a dark cloud over Best New Artist, but you know who won the next year? Mariah Carey. There’s always been peaks and valleys; it’s just that the clunkers stand out more. The Grammys probably want a redo on picking Macklemore and Ryan Lewis over Kendrick Lamar (Macklemore sure would); Esperanza Spalding was a noble if confusing selection over Justin Bieber, Drake, and Florence and the Machine; and fun., who won over Frank Ocean, isn’t even Jack Antonoff’s most famous band. (Although giving him a Grammy proved wise in the long run.)

Here’s the dirty not-so-secret about the Grammys, and every awards show: sometimes they get it “right” (taste is subjective, blah blah blah), often times they get it “wrong.” A lot of stone-cold masterpieces have been named Best Album (Songs In The Key Of Life! Time Out Of Mind! Golden Hour!) but there’s been a lot of bewildering winners, too (River: The Joni Letters? Babel? The First Family?). But you never hear about a Best Album Curse. The curse label is attached to Best New Artist because society is fascinated by the suddenly famous — and, for some, seeing their downfall is equally captivating. It’s also the Grammys attempting to predict the future, rather than honor the present. And recently, with Dua, Megan, and Olivia, they’ve done a better job of avoiding the one-hit-wonders (“Walking In Memphis” still goes hard).

If Chappell Roan, who seems certain to win Best New Artist at the 2025 Grammys (nominations are announced next Friday, November 8), came around 20 years ago, maybe she would have something to worry about. Not anymore.

In the words of Mariah Carey, it’s time. Well, Laufey hear the countdown and immediately jumped into holiday season mode. Today (November 1), the “Bewitched” singer shared her jazzy rendition of a Christmas classic.

Back in November 2022, Laufey released her holiday album, A Very Laufey Holiday, but her time delving into those tunes aren’t quite over. With the help of director Jason Lester, Laufey put her Grammy Award-winning vocal spin on “Santa Baby.”

But this time, she will surely be added to the naughty list after flipping Santa off. In the visual, which could have been pulled from Macy’s famed window display, Laufey outlines exactly what she wants from the North Pole boss. To get in the holiday spirit, Bill Murray served as the video’s official narrator.

Before things took a PG-13 turn, Laufey was joined on screen by American Ballet Theatre’s principal dancer Isabella Boylston along with a host of other ensemble of ballet dancers (choreographed by Alex Wong).

In a statement, Laufey spoke about tackling the beloved record and tapping Murray for the visual. “I’m so excited to continue adding to ‘A Very Laufey Holiday’ with my version of the holiday classic, ‘Santa Baby.’” she said.” It was so much fun creating this version, and the music video became the perfect visual representation of the track. We were so lucky to have Bill Murray and Isabella Boylston of the American Ballet featured in the video for this fun and festive story.”

Watch Laufey’s official video for “Santa Baby” above.

On the album cover of Blood Incantation’s Absolute Elsewhere, two magma-red pyramids sit alone on a desolate planet, surrounded by pits of lava and mountains as the outer-space sky looms above it, richly coloured with deep purples and incandescent stars. The sky itself is home to a couple of vacant planets and, of course, the barely legible Blood Incantation logo resting at the top in a mustard yellow. The hand-painted artwork is as dense as the music within it: vast journeys that make Homer’s epics seem quaint by contrast; intricate arrangements that rival those of symphonic orchestras; blast-beats and shredding so intense you can envisage the calluses and blisters forming in real time. This is all to say that the visual artist behind the record’s cover is as much a visionary as the Colorado death metal band behind the record itself.

Steve Dodd is not an easy man to get in touch with. His home, a small town in Tennessee with a population of around 2,000, is where he has lived and worked for all 79 years of his life. He has no computer, no internet access, no cell phone, and no landline. He communicates exclusively via handwritten snail mail, even with his own family, who also live in town. Miraculously, Blood Incantation vocalist and guitarist Paul Riedl found a way to get in touch with Dodd’s sister, who then acted as an intermediary between the two parties. At first, when Riedl wrote to Dodd in early 2023, he wanted to commission a piece for their single “Luminescent Bridge.” Dodd was unavailable at the time, but he agreed to license some paintings of his from 2018 and 2019 for the front and back of the physical release. This gave him the time he needed to paint what would become the striking original cover for Absolute Elsewhere.

As Riedl tells me over Zoom, Dodd retired a decade ago, and he hasn’t stopped painting since. He quit painting for approximately 30 years until his retirement, which freed up his schedule to focus on his art more than he’s ever been able to. “He’s the most prolific he has ever been,” Riedl says. “He started exactly where he stopped. He did not try to incorporate modern technology. He did not try to reevaluate his technique. He didn’t do anything except keep painting.” The group knew that Dodd was the right fit because none of his paintings includes humanoid figures, which was the single caveat they gave Dodd when they outlined their initial hopes for what the cover would look like.

From a narrative standpoint, the cover for Absolute Elsewhere continues the story of Blood Incantation’s visual universe. For their full-length debut, 2016’s Starspawn, astronomical artist Don Dixon portrays a planet freshly struck by a meteor, smoke rising from the ground; a sense of mystery permeates the cover, which is partially answered by Bruce Pennington’s artwork for its follow-up, 2019’s Hidden History Of The Human Race. Although it does include a humanoid, alien figure, “it’s such an iconic, classic image that you can’t really argue with its accuracy of portraying what that music and album represent,” Riedl says. It’s the same cover used for the 1957 science fiction novel Space, Time and Nathaniel by Brian Aldiss. Otherwise, “we don’t want little green men; we don’t want astronauts; we don’t want human civilization to be a part of the Blood Incantation aesthetic dialogue.”

So, why is there such a steadfast refusal to include people on Blood Incantation LP covers? “We want to deal with something so far in the future that it transcends the limitations of the measly planet Earth,” Riedl explains. “And we also want to inspire the person from wherever they might be. So if a reptilian looks at our album cover, they’re not ostracized, or if a humanoid sees the album cover, they’re not intimidated by seeing a Pleiadian. We want to have no types of figures to exclude any person’s experience of where they’re going to be taken on this journey of the music.” Riedl illustrated some preliminary sketches of pyramids and planets to give Dodd a rough idea of what he envisioned, and, aside from these fairly minimal guidelines, Dodd had free creative rein.

Dodd replied with an epistolary description of what the final cover would become: The sky will be dark and full of stars above; the pyramids will be a nebula shade of blue with violet hues; the crescent moons will be orange with some red on their left sides; toward the left of the cover will be a giant, red decaying sun that will cast a reddish glow on the sides of the pyramids; the landscape in general will be painted in browns, reds, and ochre; the two crevices in front of the pyramids will glow red from the lava within them; and purple snow will drift around the edges of those crevices. “What do they say today,” Riedl asks shortly before answering himself with the punchline. “He understood the assignment.”

The band had no notes or revisions for Dodd. All four members loved his painting the instant they got a first glimpse. Dodd’s cover contains elements from all of Blood Incantation’s previous works, from the planetscapes and lava to the pyramids and obelisks. In the music video for last year’s “Luminescent Bridge,” the single’s artwork becomes fully animated into a three-dimensional terrain, which transports the viewer through the portal gracing its two-dimensional cover. Once you’re through the gate, you end up in another world, which is the place depicted in Absolute Elsewhere. As a result, Dodd is not just someone who lent his artistic talents to a death metal band. He is an active participant and collaborator within Blood Incantation’s immersive world-building. Despite being so averse to technology, Dodd’s staunch adherence to purely analog modes of creation is wildly futuristic.

When I ask Riedl whether he’d like to work with Dodd again, he says that “it’s more of a question of what we’ll do next.” He continues: “It’s part of creating this consistent narrative in the aesthetic.” That’s a field in which Dodd has unequivocally proven himself, as he’s able to weave Blood Incantation’s extant visual hallmarks into his own sci-fi painting style. Corresponding only through handwritten letters certainly took a long time, but Blood Incantation’s patience paid off. “It’s easy to get frustrated in this digital age of instant gratification and point-click satisfaction,” Riedl says. “But we are not in a hurry. We’re not in a rush to make something impressive.” As both Blood Incantation’s music and Dodd’s painting demonstrate, impressive art will come with time.

You would think that the possibly final movie from one of America’s greatest filmmakers would be in at least 3,000 theaters in its opening weekend, right? Right…? Well, that’s not the case with Juror #2, the new legal thriller from director Clint Eastwood. As previously reported by Variety, Warner Bros. Pictures is “putting out the feature in a limited release of less than 50 theaters [with] no current plans to expand to more locations in the following weeks.”

That’s despite excellent reviews from critics (91 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) and a strong premise. In Juror #2, Nicholas Hoult plays Justin Kemp, a family man serving as a juror in a murder trial who “finds himself struggling with a serious moral dilemma… one he could use to sway the jury verdict and potentially convict — or free — the accused killer,” according to the logline.

So, how can you watch Juror #2? Well, if you’re in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and about a dozen other markets across the country, it’s in theaters now (you can see the full list here). For pretty much everywhere else, you’ll have to wait until it’s streaming on Max. No date has been announced yet.

Outside of The Menu actor, Juror #2 also stars Toni Collette, J.K. Simmons, Chris Messina, Gabriel Basso, Zoey Deutch, Cedric Yarbrough, Leslie Bibb, Kiefer Sutherland, Amy Aquino, and Adrienne C. Moore.

You can watch the trailer below.

Amid the raging successes of Severance and Silo along with long-lived powerhouse For All Mankind and the franchise-spawning Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters, Apple TV+ read the room. As a result, sci-fi devotees (and those of survival thrillers, creature features, and high-concept B movies with added polish) will keep reaping the benefits.

Expect a buffet of new sci-fi shows on the horizon, including Neuromancer (starring Callum Turner as a console cowboy) and Murderbot (with Alexander Skarsgård as a homicidal yet vaguely rebellious bot), and the tech giant’s streaming service isn’t planning to ignore the movie department either. Hence The Gorge, a feature film that will not only include a sci-fi legend but will be scored by atmospheric wizards Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Let’s dive into what we can expect to hear (and see) in this movie.

Plot

Directed by Scott Derrickson (Sinister, Doctor Strange, The Exorcism Of Emily Rose), The Gorge will revolve around twin operatives (Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy) who are assigned to guard a gorge that contains a mysterious threat, which (unless the above key art is a complete misdirect) sure seems monstrous. The world that they are protecting is a corrupt one, but these two are lethal weapons in and of themselves, a combination that suggests a twisty thrill ride of a story. From the series synopsis:

Two highly-trained operatives are appointed to posts in guard towers on opposite sides of a vast and highly classified gorge, protecting the world from an undisclosed, mysterious evil that lurks within. They bond from a distance while trying to stay vigilant in defending against an unseen enemy. When the cataclysmic threat to humanity is revealed to them, they must work together in a test of both their physical and mental strength to keep the secret in the gorge before it’s too late.

The action-heavy thriller’s appeal will be bolstered by the masters of the postmodern film score, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. While speaking with GQ earlier this year, the pair alluded to “a kind of haunted, chanting murmur” that will pervade throughout The Gorge. Additionally, Ross divulged that Derrickson requested extra intensity (for a scene with “Teller and Taylor-Joy in an evil-looking spiky forest”) beyond the pair’s original vision:

They were working on a lengthy, music-dependent scene that they’d already mostly scored. But, Ross said,
the director wants it to be a bit more, I can’t think of a better word than just a bit more scary and intense.” They weren’t sure what that directive meant, exactly, but they were content-they were happy-to try to figure it out: to enter the room once again, carrying nothing, and to try to leave it with something that didn’t exist before.

The full article is a fascinating one with Reznor’s method for tackling scenes being to “improvise some music” before Atticus uses his “superpower” to make magic happen in context of a specific project. Reznor dryly remarked, “I can come up with a melody and a chord change, and he can make that sit on the scene in a way that is meticulous, and mind-numbingly boring to watch him do.” Can’t wait to hear it.

Cast

Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy will be accompanied by sci-fi queen Sigourney Weaver, who is accustomed to starring alongside nasty creatures.

Release Date

Apple TV+ hasn’t given this movie a precise release date beyond “2025.”

Trailer

Nope. Not yet. However, Reznor and Ross recently (ahead of Challengers) dissected their most iconic tracks, also in a GQ interview:

Metro Boomin has been sued for battery and sexual battery in Los Angeles court by a woman who says he raped her in 2016. According to Billboard, Vanessa LeMaistre, the plaintiff, says that she visited Metro’s studio in September, where she took a shot of alcohol and a Xanax pill and blacked out; after which, the producer allegedly took advantage of her. After the incident, she says learned she was pregnant, getting an abortion in November that year.

She also claims that the incident was referenced on Metro’s 2017 collaborative album Without Warning with 21 Savage and Offset on the song “Rap Saved Me.” On the chorus of the track, the two rappers recite the lines: “She took a Xanny, then she fainted / I’m from the gutter, ain’t no changing / From the gutter, rap saved me / She drive me crazy, have my baby.” Although Metro does not rap on the song and the authorship of those lines is unclear, LeMaistre says that hearing the raps “caused further trauma.”

Metro denied the accusations through his attorney, Lawrence Hinkle II, who told Billboard, “These are false accusations. Mr. Wayne refused to pay her months ago, and he refuses to pay her now. Mr. Wayne will defend himself in court. He will file a claim for malicious prosecution once he prevails.”

The producer was involved in a minor controversy earlier this year after social media users resurfaced questionable tweets from his account amid his ongoing feud with Drake.