November is coming in with a bang. It’s the best month of the college football season because of its unparalleled ability to separate the wheat from the chaff in the sport, to determine which teams are real contenders to compete for conference and national titles, and which ones are unable to turn up when the pressure becomes a little more real.

Week 10 doesn’t exactly give us a jam-packed slate of games, but think of it like a really fun UFC fight nit. There is a ton on the undercard — a bunch of games that should be close and will keep you flipping back and forth. There’s the co-main event that should be really good, a matchup between a pair of fun ranked team. But everything this week is going to revolve the heavyweight fight at the top of the card, which you can read about right, well, right now.

The Game Of The Year (Of The Week): No. 4 Ohio State vs. No. 3 Penn State (12:00 p.m. ET, Fox)

The Nittany Lion fan who co-writes this every week is, in the immortal words of that kid in Christmas Vacation, sh*tting bricks. Penn State hasn’t beaten Ohio State since that famous 2016 game where they won on a blocked field goal return for a touchdown, and since then, you can make the argument that no team (outside of Michigan the last few years) has played the Buckeyes as consistently well as James Franklin’s team. But close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, and Ohio State is on a 7-game winning streak over their Big Ten foes.

Both teams have elite defenses — by SP+, the Buckeyes are No. 1 and the Nittany Lions are No. 3 in the country on that side of the football. They’re both rock solid and don’t really have a fatal flaw, although Penn State really does need to start turning its high pressure rate into sacks at some point. What this game is going to come down to, in all likelihood, is how each team overcomes potentially gigantic injuries to key parts of their offenses. For the Buckeyes, this involves their offensive line, as standout left tackle Josh Simmons is out for the year and his replacement, Zen Michalski, struggled against Nebraska before leaving with an injury that Ryan Day thinks will keep him out on Saturday. The reshuffling up front is going to be a major challenge, particularly against standout edge rusher Abdul Carter.

But Penn State might have a bigger issue on its hands with an injury to starting QB Drew Allar, an Ohio native who was a disaster in Columbus last year and looked like he was primed for a monster game against his childhood team this season. Allar appeared to hurt his knee against Wisconsin last week, and while he’s a game-time decision who reports indicate will play, his backup, Beau Pribula, was able to lead a comeback in Camp Randall while he was out. Pribula is a totally different QB — Allar is a pure pocket passer, Pribula is a dual-threat — and when he was in, the Nittany Lion rushing attack took off against the Badgers. He’s not on Allar’s level as a passer, though, and to beat the Buckeyes, you have to be able to throw the ball down the field.

The margins have been awfully tight in this game over the years, and there’s no reason to think that won’t be the case again this time around. Will Day be able to get the sort of win over a top-5 team his critics think he can’t, or will Franklin be able to finally slay one of the Big Ten’s giants as he tries to secure the Nittany Lions’ spot as one of the nation’s elite?

Lock Into This One: No. 18 Pitt vs. No. 20 SMU (8:00 p.m. ET, ACC Network)

Big week for things in Pennsylvania, eh? Pitt is coming off of maybe the weirdest win of all time, a 41-13 drubbing of Syracuse where they were outgained, 327-217, but forced five interceptions and turned three of them into pick sixes. They keep finding ways to win, whether it’s behind talented young QB Eli Holstein, a physical running game led by Desmond Reid, a defense that is very good at generating havoc plays, or the top special teams unit in the country based on SP+.

SMU, however, will be their toughest test by some margin, especially because dynamic signal caller Kevin Jennings was cleared to play despite an injury. When he is in, the Mustangs love to put the ball in the air and generate big plays, and how they manage to do that against a talented and opportunistic Panther secondary might end up deciding a game that has serious aspirations at the top of the ACC, which I did not expect to say about the game between Pitt and SMU at the start of the year.

Under-The-Radar Banger: TCU vs. Baylor (8:00 p.m. ET, ESPN2)

Is this game going to be good? Probably not. Does it have the potential to be a completely insane matchup of two teams smashed in the middle of the Big 12 that could really use a win? Absolutely. TCU quarterback Josh Hoover is capable of absolutely lighting teams up. Baylor is capable of running all over you with one of their five dudes who have at least 100 rushing yards this year. The Horned Frogs aren’t great at stopping the run, the Bears could be better at stopping teams from passing. If you like points, watch this one.

Message Board Meltdown Game Of The Week: Duke vs. No. 5 Miami (12:00 p.m. ET, ABC)

Listen, Miami is going to win in all likelihood — they’re just way more talented than Duke, which has done an admirable job gutting out wins this year, in fairness. However, if Miami’s ACC title hopes take a big hit because they lose to Manny Diaz, we are going to see a gigantic meltdown out of Canes fans.

Who Won The Heisman Last Week?: Jarquez Hunter, RB, Auburn

Auburn beat Kentucky last week, 24-10. The Wildcats had 224 yards of total offense. Hunter, on his own, ran for 278 yards. It’s really hard to carry the ball 23 times and average 12.1 yards per carry, but Hunter did just that — plus he found the end zone twice, which is again more than Kentucky did.

Best Bet (5-4): Minnesota vs. Illinois (+3) (12:00 p.m. ET, FS1)

This line feels like an overreaction to Illinois getting outclassed by the best of the Big Ten while Minnesota has been beating a few mediocre Big Ten teams. The Illini getting points at home against a team that is a much more comfortable caliber of opponent should bring their offense back to life a bit, and I think their defense will look much faster and better against this Minnesota offense compared to Oregon. I like Illinois to win this on the field, but will also happily take three points.

Sydney Sweeney’s career is booked out into oblivion. She’s currently ripped while portraying the “female Rocky,” Christy Martin, in a biopic. She will have Euphoria‘s third season shooting next year, and Sweeney believes that Barbarella will be filming at some point. TMZ recently revealed that she’s become one of the biggest earners of her generation in Hollywood with reportedly a $7.5 million salary to come on Lionsgate’s The Housemaid.

This psychological thriller movie could possibly turn into a franchise, too, since the literary source material arrives with two ready-made sequels, so let’s do the thing on what to expect:

Plot

The Housemaid will be based upon Rebecca Sonnenshine’s script that adapts the 3.5+ million-copies-sold novel from Freida McFadden. The author, who began writing thriller novels as a physician-by-day, followed up with two sequels, The Housemaid’s Secret and The Housemaid Is Watching. Presumably, the script covers only the first book with room for more, and director Paul Feig will move into this project following his helming of A Simple Favor 2, which will star Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick.

These are early days with most involved parties still working through other projects, and of course, spoilers are out there from those who have read the books, so be careful there. For now, it’s enough to mention that Sweeney will portray a housemaid who receives more than she bargained for when coming to live with a couple, and perhaps vice versa. Lionsgate has issued a brief synopsis via Deadline:

In the film, Sweeney will play Millie, a struggling woman who is relieved to get a fresh start as a housemaid to Nina (Amanda Seyfried) and Andrew, an upscale, wealthy couple. She soon learns that the family’s secrets are far more dangerous than her own.

Cast

Sweeney and Seyfried are anchoring the cast, and Andrew will be portrayed by Brandon Sklenar, who recently starred in It Ends With Us (alongside Blake Lively) and embodies Spencer Dutton on Taylor Sheridan’s 1923.

Release Date

Lionsgate hasn’t publicized an official release date yet, and with Sweeney’s enormously busy shooting schedule, 2026 looks likely.

Trailer

Neither Sweeney nor Seyfried is a stranger to psychological thrillers, as these yesteryear trailers show (in lieu of The Housemaid footage).

Prior to rocketing to fame, Sweeney starred as a jealous twin sister in Blumhouse’s Nocturne Prime Video/Amazon film, Nocturne:

And over a decade ago, Seyfried followed up Mean Girls with several chilling films, including the obsession-fueled Chloe.

Here at Uproxx, we believe collaborations are the spice of life — fashion collabs, artist collabs, and everything in between, if two or more entities that we’re already fans of come together to produce something greater than the sum of their parts, we’re hyped about it.

This is why every Friday, we’re going to be running down the best collabs of the week. There are no hard and fast rules here, if it’s a collaboration that has us excited for any reason, it’s fair game. So, we’ll be wading through the muck to find the collaborations you need to care about on a weekly basis.

This week we’ve got link-ups between Rick Owens and Moncler, Supreme and Jane’s Addiction, SKIMS, Tate McCrae, and Harmony Korine, and we’re closing with Central Cee’s COLORS performance. Let’s dive in.

Rick Owens x Moncler FW24

Every Gen-Z dude’s favorite brand, Rick Owens, is linking up with the Italian fashion house Moncler once again for a fall/winter 2024 outwear collection. The collection straddles the line between luxury runway fashion and winter-focused basics. Expect lots of parkas, bomber jackets, and jumpsuits in a mix of cashmere and quilt dressed up in a minimalist yet slightly edgy (or at the very least unconventional) aesthetic.

Sure, some of the pieces are comfortably conventional, but for every slightly elevated down jacket or puffer vest, you’ve got a piece that’ll make you look like a glammed-up high-fashion sith lord. But that’s what makes Rick Owens so damn fun.

The Rick Owens x Moncler FW2024 collection is available now. Shop the collection at Rick Owens or Moncler.

Supreme x Jane’s Addiction Fall 2024 Collection

Beloved ‘90s weirdos Jane’s Addiction are back — or at least they were back. The band embarked on a tour this year but on-stage fighting led them to abruptly cancel, which is a shame for Jane’s Addiction fans, but hey, at least we’re getting a Supreme collaboration out of it!

The collection is conceptually pretty simple, it takes classic Supreme staples like Mechanics Jackets, cardigans, and hoodies, marked with graphic prints of Jane’s Addiction album and poster iconography and lyrics. The collection was supposed to serve as a victory lap for the band, but now it is a small consolation for the letdown fans. If only you could trade in those tickets for pieces from the collection!

The Supreme x Jane’s Addiction Fall 2024 collection is available now at Supreme.

Tate McCrae Stars In SKIMS Holiday Shop

SKIMS is always linking up with the most cutting-edge main pop girlies, from Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, to Rosalia, and now the brand has tapped Tate McCrae to star in its Holiday Shop collection.

The Holiday Shop Collection features loungey staples and lingerie in SKIMS minimalist aesthetic, though if you love patterns there are plenty of snow-flake, leopard print, and mistletoe-adorned pieces that reflect the cozy season.

But we’re not here to talk about the clothes, we’re here for the collaboration, and this is a great one! The ad campaign was shot by Harmony Korine of Spring Breakers and Kids fame, and has a sheen to it that echoes the bright and loud photography of early 00s-era David LaChappelle.

Tate McRae looks great and exudes confidence. We’re fully expecting 2025 to be McRae’s year.

Shop the SKIMS Holiday collection here.

Aimé Leon Dore x New Balance SONNY Basketball Capsule

Aimé Leon Dore’s SONNY Youth Club is an NYC-based program that provides mentorship and a place to play for young athletes in the city, and recently, the Baseketball Club took their talents to an international tournament in Paris and to mark the event, ALD teamed up with New Balance for a new collection of footwear and apparel.

We love the retro vibes of this collection, which includes hoodies, jackets, tank tops, footwear and other off and on-court staples that feature SONNY branding done in a throwback ‘70s and early ‘80s aesthetic.

The Aimé Leon Dore x New Balance SONNY Basketball Capsule is set to drop on November 1st at 7:00 AM ET. Shop the collection at ALD.

100 Thieves x Adidas Drop 002

The LA-based lifestyle and e-sports brand 100 Thieves is teaming up with Adidas Originals for the duo’s second drop of the year. The two brands joined forces earlier this year, but that collection played things relatively safe. We’re glad to see 100 Thieves get a bit more comfortable this time around by infusing more of its aesthetic personality into the collaboration.

The collection features everything from apparel to footwear, and accessories with a sporty-meets-utilitarian aesthetic. Considering the first drop was a success, and this one is looking even better, it’s safe to say Adidas is throwing itself into the e-sports ring (battlefield?) with full force.

The 100 Thieves x Adidas Drop 002 is set to hit the 100 Thieves website on November 2nd at 10 AM PST. Check out the full collection here.

Amaria has been working towards this moment for the last four and a half years. The Tampa native launched her music career at the beginning of 2020, and since then the young singer’s tender and velvet have graced ears far and wide, whether it be releases like her debut single “Morning” or her first two projects. Bittersweet and All For You. Other examples lay with collaborations alongside Mac Ayres, UMI, and Destin Conrad as proof of Amaria’s neo-soul excellence inspired the likes of Sadé and Erykah Badu.

This continues with her debut album Free Fallin’ which arrives with an added dose of maturity and youthful wisdom that arrives thanks to experience in the music world. “The main theme of the album, represented by the name, is the idea of going through different life experiences with no safety net,” Amaria said about the album in a press release. “Letting life take you whichever way it wants — essentially ‘free falling.’” Amaria achieves this while using different feelings, styles, attitudes, and auras from various R&B eras in a combination that feels truly authentic to the young and talented singer.

With Free Fallin’ out now and in rotation, we spotlight Amaria for this week’s Uproxx Music 20 column in an interview that dives into her inspirations, aspirations, and influences.

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• Dylan Sinclair’s ‘For The Boy In Me’ Champions The Beauty Behind Love And Intimacy
• Jaz Karis’ ‘Safe Flight’ Is A Soaring Debut And A Tasteful Melting Pot Of R&B Flavors
• >Kei’s ‘Double Jimmeis’ Proves She Has A Story To Tell And A Whole Lot Of Fun To Have

What is your earliest memory of music?

Me jamming on the toy piano my parents got me at 3.

Who or what inspired you to take music seriously?

I was surrounded by several artist friends in Tampa who encouraged me to take the musical leap!

Do you know how to play an instrument? If so, which one? If not, which instrument do you want to learn how to play?

I can play most instruments enough to produce a song but I would love to be able to shred bass.

What was your first job?

I did multimedia and content creation for my college’s alumni association. It was pretty fun.

What is your most prized possession?

My 15-year-old iMac that I learned all my favorite things on.

What is your biggest fear?

Gas hitting $10 in LA.

Who is on your R&B Mt. Rushmore?

Kem, Sade, Jill Scott, and Michael Jackson.

You get 24 hours to yourself to do anything you want, with unlimited resources: What are you doing? And spare no details!

Laying poolside in the south of France with a glass of prosecco.

What are your three most used emojis?

I genuinely only use the emoji of the guy saluting ().

What’s a feature you need to secure before you die?

Tame Impala!

If you could appear in a future season of a current TV show, which one would it be and why?

I desperately need a guest role on Grey’s Anatomy. Just to fulfill my childhood dreams.

Which celebrity do you admire or respect for their personality and why?

I think Chappell Roan is breaking barriers with her unapologetic attitude towards inexcusable behaviors. I love it.

Share your opinion on something no one could ever change your mind about.

That hot chocolate can never be made with water. Only milk. Always.

What is the best song you’ve ever heard in your life and what do you love about it?

“New Person, Same Old Mistakes” by Tame Impala opened me to a world of music I’d never explored!

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform, and what’s a city you’re excited to perform in for the first time?

I loved the energy at my shows in Texas and I’m very excited to perform in Paris!

You are throwing a music festival. Give us the dream lineup of 5 artists that will perform with you and the location where it would be held.

I’d have to have Erykah Badu, Tame Impala, Yussef Dayes, Clairo, and Solange on my bill. I would host it in Nice, France.

What would you be doing now if it weren’t for music?

I’d definitely be diving into the world of directing, acting, or filmmaking!

If you could see five years into the future or go five years into the past, which one would you pick and why?

Definitely five years into the future so I could either relax or be super prepared.

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?

Don’t pick the 8 AM classes you thought you could handle. Sleep! 11 am classes only!

It’s 2050. The world hasn’t ended, and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

I’d want it to be a go-to for people that want to relax and unwind. To be an escape for anyone who needs it.

Free Fallin’ is out now via Amaria/Fashionably Early Records LLC. Find out more information here.

The Best New Hip-Hop This Week includes albums, videos, and songs from Tyler The Creator, Lil Uzi Vert, and IDK.

Okay, now I am mad at all the rappers. It’s not that there hasn’t been a slew of worthy contributions to the canon over the past 10 months; it’s that so many of them waited until November to release absolute bangers that will have to be mainlined instead of savored ahead of the inevitable year-end lists. There were so many dead weekends over the past couple of months; did Tyler The Creator, Earthgang, Lil Uzi Vert, IDK, and Freddie Gibbs all have to wait ’til this week to drop? On the bright side, though, there’s a decent chance that Tyler’s new album manages to bring back New Music Tuesday, which can only benefit artists, fans, and labels — if only the latter have the brains and balls to follow through. More notable releases this week:

Drake’s “No Face” video. No comments, the man’s been through enough this year.

Central Cee’s “One By One” performance on COLORS announcing his upcoming debut, Can’t Rush Greatness.

Future and Travis Scott’s long-awaited remix for “South Of France.”

Snoop Dogg’s first Missionary single, “Gorgeous.”

And a timely remake of Kurtis Blow’s ’80s classic “Basketball” featuring Lola Brooke and finally acknowledging the ascendance of women’s hoops. I don’t care if it is technically a commercial for DoorDash; it’s a long overdue investment into women’s sports.

Also: Saweetie kicks us off on Christmas, relegating Thanksgiving to the also-ran status it deserves.

Here is the best of hip-hop this week ending November 1, 2024.

Albums/EPs/Mixtapes

Bishop Nehru — Nehruvia: Solace In Shadows

In the years since the East New York native’s teenaged debut over a decade ago, he’s kept up a truly stunning level of output, especially since going independent after parting ways with Mass Appeal. You might not have noticed; he moves with the sort of murky mystery as former mentor MF DOOM, but let his latest project (and second of 2024) serve as a reminder of his deft pen and commitment to cerebral lyricism matching that of other notable underground names like Earl Sweatshirt and Ka.

EarthGang — Perfect Fantasy

Like Tyler The Creator, EarthGang dodged the Friday deluge with a Tuesday release for their new album, which is a truly unexpected mashup of alt-indie sounds, funkwave dance floor fillers, and African diaspora riddims that explores all the ways in which human ingenuity trumps algorithmic precision. No AI would ever think to combine the sounds and ideas presented here, which is the point of EarthGang’s whole ongoing “Versus The Algorithm” project. Sometimes, it’s the things that don’t “make sense” that work the best. Surrender to humanity of Pefect Fantasy; resistance is futile.

Freddie Gibbs — You Only Die 1nce

Gibbs’ first full-length since 2022’s Soul Sold Separately, You Only Die arrives with little fanfare or advance warning, yet all the skillful wordplay and emotive storytelling rap fans have come to expect from the Indiana product. The soulful production includes notable samples like the Tony Toni Toné interpolation on “It’s Your Anniversary,” which offers a form-fitting backdrop for Gibb’s heart-yanking raps.

IDK — Bravado + Intimo

As quiet as it’s kept (at least, among some of you so-called “rap fans”), IDK has become one of the most compelling and consistent voices in hip-hop today — even if that voice pretty closely resembles one of our recent excommunicates (I joked on Twitter that it’s silly to look forward to any Kanye project as long as IDK is releasing new music). The Maryland rapper’s latest distills the best of prior projects like Simple and F65 into a compact compilation of songs that show the most critical sides of rap: the chest-beating and the soul-baring.

Lil Uzi Vert — Eternal Atake 2

Another “surprise release,” the sequel to 2020’s Eternal Atake wisely foregoes a long windup in favor of a shortened runway that allows Uzi to dodge the buildup of expectations that can crowd out artistic ambitions. By taking the pressure off, the Philadelphian genre bender gets to focus on showing off the rapid fire bars that gave them their rap name over a collection of beats that should appease anyone who was disappointed by all the rock and rolling on Pink Tape.

Tyler The Creator — Chromakopia

After taking a few detours into R&B and mixtape rap territory, Tyler gets back to his most familiar lane, crafting a slick successor to 2017’s Flower Boy. However, in the years since, he’s grown as both a composer and a person — growth that lays the groundwork for one of his most polished and mature releases to date. While Tyler’s early work spoke to the rebels and rapscallions of the world doing their best to make it through their rocky teens, his latest speaks to adults they’ve become while still honoring those youthful ideals.

Westside Gunn & DJ Drama — Still Praying

Gunn — bar none, the most productive person working in rap music today — actually has two projects out today: The five-track 11 and the Gangsta Grillz entry Still Praying. We’re giving the spot to the more polished product, which resides comfortably in the now familiar zone that has defined his output to date. Enough drugs to fuel the New York State economy get sold, enough verbal bullets to take over a third-world nation get thrown, and those ad-libs everybody loves remain intact.

Singles/Videos

Gang Starr — “Finishem”

I’ll be honest: I did not think I would ever hear a whole new Gang Starr song in 2024. Surely, every last viable Guru verse has been used, every session between Guru and DJ Premier has been plumbed. And yet, here we are, miraculously hearing the Beantown representative over his Houston brother’s production in honor of the five-year anniversary of One Of The Best Yet, their last album together and first since 2003’s The Ownerz.

Flau’Jae — “Big Bag”

LSU’s women’s basketball season tips off in just a few days, and junior guard Flau’Jae Johnson gets herself hype with a boastful new release tapping into every rapper-hooper’s favorite subject — that bag. While we’ll see how her off season bag work pays off on court in a few days, we’ve already seen how her off season rap moves contributed to a “big bag” of opportunities, making her one of the first college athletes to be afforded such gains from extracurriculars during her student-athlete years.

Kal Banx — “Sunstory” Feat. Isaiah Rashad

The TDE producer continues the rollout to his debut project, following “Hop Out Cho Feelings” with “Sunstory” a jazzy mood poem featuring labelmate Isaiah Rashad. Featuring a looser structure than the traditional “verse-hook-verse-hook” model, “Sunstory” sees Rashad contemplating his conditions. A pretty string section closes things out, showing off Banx’s production prowess and leaving appetites whet for his eventual release announcement.

Luh Tyler — “Money Virus”

Tyler loves rapping; it’s been evident since his breakout “Law & Order.” But it’s rare to see someone who blew up so young so committed to improving after all the success. At first blush, “Money Virus” might seem just another example of the teen rapper piling double entendres on top of each other, but he’s gotten more precise with his delivery and creative with his hook work, demonstrating his dedication to actually improving rather than coasting on past wins. If only they could all be like Tyler.

Maxo Kream — “Big Hoe Me”

The Houston big stepper swaggers all over a rumbling but surprisingly pretty beat to highlight the thin line between mentorship and bad advice, detailing the ways in which his “big homie” low-key ruined his life. After all, someone really looking out for him would keep him away from the street life, not hand him a gun and send him out to hit the opps. In that way, “big homie” is more like a “big hoe,” hence the title.

The Philadelphia 76ers haven’t had Joel Embiid to start the 2024-25 NBA season. Embiid missed all of the preseason, and when the first game of the year rolled around, the team said he was out with “left knee management” — the Sixers star dealt with left knee issues that limited him to only 39 games last season, and while he was able to play in the Olympics, he hasn’t taken the floor since.

It’s led to Embiid getting a ton of criticism. Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal both hit him pretty hard on TNT, while one column by a local reporter — titled “Joel Embiid disrespects the Sixers, the game, its greats, and himself. Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley are right to rip him.” — seemed to especially rub him the wrong way, which he made clear while speaking to the media on Friday.

“It was never decided,” Embiid told the press when asked when it was decided that he’d slow play his debut this year. “Like I said, everybody has been on the same page. If your body doesn’t react well, and if your body tells you one thing — I’ve done it. From what I can tell you, I’ve broken my face twice, I came back early with the risk of losing my vision, I’ve had broken fingers, I still came back. So, I’m not gonna sit here and be like … When I see people saying he doesn’t want to play. I’ve done way too much for this city, putting myself at risk for people to be saying that. So, I do think it’s bullsh*t. Like that dude, he’s not here, Marcus, whatever his name is, I’ve done way too much for this f*cking city to be treated like this. Done way too f*cking much.

“But, like I said, I wish I was as lucky as other ones, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not doing whatever it takes to be out there, which I’m gonna be here pretty soon.”

Earlier this week, the NBA fined the Sixers $100,000 for how it approached the Embiid injury situation.

(SPOILERS for The Diplomat will be found below.)

Keri Russell’s return to TV in Netflix‘s The Diplomat bestowed viewers with a second season of Kate Wyler that began streaming on October 31. This led to a swift binge session for people who couldn’t wait to see how Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell) would irritate the hell out his wife while possibly holding backroom conversations with other countries. Then the mood shifted. Kate changed her mind and decided to go for the VP slot, and this led to some rare sexy time with Hal, but not so fast.

Kate’s newfound ambitions were shut down by current VP Grace Penn (Allison Janney), who decided that she wasn’t going to resign after all. This was a turn of events befitting almost any Allison Janney character, but the season’s final moments did cause my mouth to fly open. Hal (of course Hal) had decided to inform the president of his VP’s treachery, and he stressed POTUS out so much that the dude dropped dead, meaning that Grace Penn is now president. The season ended with federal agents swarming across a lawn to where Kate and Grace were arguing. The End.

If I hadn’t been aware that only six episodes existed in this second season, I might have been upset for a few moments at the sudden ending. And on social media, yup, people are frustrated to receive six episodes instead of the eight (like the first season), which has sparked a question.

Why Does The Diplomat Season 2 Only Have Six Episodes?

First, it’s important to acknowledge that — as frustrating as it might seem to wait for more episodes — at least Netflix pre-announced a third season renewal, so it’s not as though the abrupt season finale is a series finale. As for the “why,” showrunner Debora Cahn told TV Line, “It was my decision.” She also added, “[Netflix] was not happy. They wanted the full eight.” Cahn, however, was too exhausted to turn around eight episodes to bring the show back in less than two years despite the Hollywood strikes:

Cahn attributes the episode shortfall to limited bandwidth. “I was really tired,” she says with a chuckle. “It was a time thing. It felt like there wasn’t enough time to turn around eight of them. It was a lot to do in what appeared to be a short period of time.”

Cahn did promise that “Season 3 will be eight episodes.”

And you know what? Viewers don’t seem to be complaining every time that Slow Horses — a show with a similar pace, tone, and style as The Diplomat — releases six-episode seasons. That shorter structure has allowed that show to stick to annual releases, which is far more preferable to viewers than waiting three years between seasons. Adding more episodes to The Diplomat‘s second season probably would have pushed the release back considerably due to rewrites, and then viewers would be upset about a longer wait, but as the common saying goes, you truly can’t please everybody.

The Diplomat‘s second season is currently streaming on Netflix.

Basketball and hip-hop have been joined at the hip as long as both have been at the forefront of American (and eventually global) pop culture. This is largely a result of ’80s rap pioneer Kurtis Blow‘s 1984 breakout hit “Basketball.” You know it. You love it.

The song’s been remade a couple of times over the years — most notably by Bow Wow in 2002 — but Blow himself teamed up with DoorDash and contemporary hitmaker Lola Brooke for “Basketball 2.0,” a remake capitalizing on the WNBA’s breakout 2024 season. Adding new verses to the traditionally heard “I like the pick-and-roll / I like the give-and-go,” the two rappers name check a variety of contemporary players, from LeBron James and Kevin Durant to WNBA stars like A’ja Wilson, Jonquel Jones, Sue Bird, and of course, rookie sensation Angel Reese.

The video for the song, which includes a demonstration of DoorDash’s DashPass benefts, takes place at New York’s legendary Rucker Park, where the Knicks’ Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart take on all comers with some help from Bird, ending with a cheeky visual reference to NBA Jam — that’s right, “HE’S ON FIRE!” Fortunately, Kurtis has a fire extinguisher handy to put out the burning backboard.

You can check out Kurtis Blow and Lola Brooke’s “Basketball 2.0” video above.

Chelsea Cutler and Jeremy Zucker drove by Brentwood Road, and the direction of their artistic lives changed.

Brent was born. First, with the five-track Brent EP in May 2019, followed by the five-track Brent II EP in February 2021.

“When we were coming up with the name for the first one, it was a big conversation,” Zucker tells Uproxx in a joint interview with Cutler. “We wanted to create something that had a name of its own that didn’t have anything attached to it. We wanted a name that would become sort of a thing. We got attached to the idea of it being a name, and we were going through names. It was literally on the way home from the cabin where we did that original Brent. We passed Brentwood Road. Brent just sounded right. For a second, we were like, ‘Is that too weird? Does that not make sense? Who is Brent?’ The more we started talking about it, the more natural it felt.”

Brent III, their first-ever collaborative full-length album out now via Mercury Records, captures Cutler and Zucker in their most naturally reflective and vulnerable states.

Cutler and Zucker talked all things Brent with Uproxx below.

Brent III — and your entire Brent world — is described as “home away from home.” Are there pieces of you that only feel at home within Brent?

Jeremy Zucker: Honestly, when we started, I would say yeah. That was one of the first times that I’ve really embraced wholesomeness as a young adult, and that’s the first time I felt like it was cool to cater to this feeling of wholesomeness and comfort. But now, I definitely experience it outside of Brent.

Chelsea Cutler: Yeah, I mean, I think that making Brent was one of the first times that I also experienced the intersection of collaboration and friendship in the music industry. Obviously, I think we’re both really fortunate. We do a lot of collaborations and have a lot of friends that we work with frequently in the music industry, but it definitely kind of defined collaboration for me and working relationship for me.

Brent III was recorded in several locations, but “A-frame” was born in an A-frame cabin in Big Bear, and the Brent universe metaphorically lives in a cabin in the woods. So, what does the Brent cabin represent to each of you?

JZ: A safe place. Where you are doesn’t matter; it just matters who you are with.

CC: I think of the Brent world as current nostalgia, if that makes sense. Well, I just think of Brent as this place where I get to make really, really special music and bring my inner child’s creative vision to life while experiencing watching movies, getting food together, and laughing.

JZ: It’s just like summer camp.

CC: Yeah. It’s the most raw human experience, and it’s very vulnerable to exist that much in the present with someone.

I like the phrase “current nostalgia.” None of us can predict what our future self will miss most about the version of life we’re living right now, but what do you think you will cherish most about this time with Brent III as time passes?

JZ: That’s a good question. The thing is, you never know what you took for granted. That’s why you’re taking it for granted.

CC: I know I’m going to be really intentional about enjoying [Brent Forever: The Tour] because it’s our first time touring together. I hope there will be a time in the future when we’ll tour it again. You never know. That could be a fun thing to revisit in some years. But because we don’t know the future, I think I’m going to try to be really intentional about just cherishing each night and even all the time we’ll spend together on off days.

When you’re in the thick of making a Brent record, do you notice a shift in yourself, whether it be your behaviors, perspectives, or enjoying the frivolous things more, than when making any other music?

CC: I would say I had a pretty bizarre and all-over-the-place year, so I would be the first to take accountability that I feel like — definitely, when we had weeks of writing, it felt like an escape and a beautiful thing. And also, there were times that I wish I was more present, which is why I’m obviously trying to really lock in for tour.

JZ: Since it’s outside of our solo artist projects, it’s always an opportunity for Chelsea and I to make music and feel like we’re really good at what we do, where it isn’t attached to either one of our individual identities and it feels less dire and less critical. It feels lighter, in a lot of ways. That’s the most striking thing about it for me.

CC: That’s something I’d love to carry forward into music making in my own career. too.

It’s interesting. In 2019, around the first Brent EP, Chelsea talked about how it represented an opportunity to get away from criticism and music industry pressures. Has that need to escape escalated as you’ve gotten further into your solo careers?

JZ: For me, definitely. It ebbs and flows. Sometimes, I’m super down to work with the pop songwriters and just to be open to new things, but I almost always inevitably need to retreat because when you hear too many other people’s voices, it’s easier to lose the sound of your own. Every once in a while, I need to reset and just be away from everything to get perspective.

What perspective did Brent III give you?

CC: At least for me, I definitely had more fun and felt that special kind of feeling in my chest around a lot of the songs that we made. I think, sometimes, in my own music, I just put so much pressure on myself that I am not even having that much fun making it. I feel like that’s good perspective to carry forward.

Speaking of pressure, you are always under pressure from the fans for more Brent. Why was it finally time to give in and do another Brent record?

JZ: The pressure from fans never really got to me. I just knew it was something we were inevitably going to do. So, I was like, we’ll do it when the time is right.

CC: More than anything, it was the first time in a couple of years that our schedules made sense to do. it.

I was going to ask why it was finally time to do a full-length album. Was it just as simple as logistics?

CC: Honestly, I don’t think either of us went into it expecting that to happen.

JZ: We just had so much more to say.

CC: I think it had been a long time since we’d written together, and then we also removed the physical restraint of just spending a week on a project. We gave ourselves a bunch of weeks over the course of a year, thinking, Let’s just keep writing and keep trying to beat what we have. And then, we ended up just having so many songs that genuinely felt so special and worthy of keeping on the project. So, we just kind of came to a place where we’re like, Well, this has become an album totally by accident.

Which song dictated the direction of the rest of the album?

JZ: When we made ‘And The Government Too!’ was a pretty decisive moment. That was the first song that really felt like Brent.

Why?

CC: It’s a very intangible thing that’s hard to describe.

JZ: For me, it was like the marriage of a heartstring, desperate longing song, which Chelsea and I have written a lot in the past, and pairing that with a really big energy. We knew that we wanted big reverb — the sound of the room in the recordings — so this really beautiful close intimate song just blows up into a massive thing. I remember when we were writing it, we start slamming on the guitars, and the whole room reverberates. We kind of just knew — I don’t know if we ever had a conversation about it. But that’s what Brent always felt like to us. Brent III, specifically.

Individually and together, you have always been exceptional at using outsized, uninhibited emotion — whether sonically or lyrically — to elevate the beautiful minutiae often overlooked in our daily lives. Brent III romanticizes everything because romanticization shouldn’t be reserved for romantic love. Do you constantly just take notes, or where does this bottomless pit of anecdotal hyper-specific lyricism come from

JZ: [Laughs] Life!

CC: No, literally. Even with ‘And The Government Too!,’ it was funny. We were just having a literal conversation, and I remember Jeremy having that line, ‘I would scream at the stars / For keeping us apart.’ And then, he started laughing and was like, ‘And the government, too!’ I was like, ‘Bro, just say that.’ It was awesome. I think so much of our lyrics come from just literal pieces of conversations between us, which is probably why it feels familiar and so real.

Why did you want “Good Things” to be the last song people hear?

JZ: The lyric is, ‘Good things never stay,’ and it ends with this massively dramatic melody lead. When we were writing, it feels like a grand finale. It feels like flipping the page and closing the book. Everything that is special doesn’t last forever because if it lasts forever, the moments aren’t special.

Is “Good Things” your ode, or farewell, to Brent?

CC: Thematically and sonically, for sure. Lyrically, we were kind of just storytelling a bit with it. The way it crescendos into this massive moment, and then breaks down. Jeremy actually ripped the audio of some home videos from my parents. The way the song ends feels really spectacular.

Where did those embedded home videos come from?

CC: It was Jerm’s idea. He asked if I had any home videos, and my parents were so excited. They sent, I think, an hour straight of compiled home videos that they’d put together. Jerm ripped some really special moments from it. I think that embodies that nostalgia we’ve talked about. Listening to it again, I feel like working on Brent nurtures the inner child. To get to make music with a good friend and being creative with a good friend and get to just romanticize your life and live out all these emotions, hearing my parents and my family’s audio at the end, it’s definitely very emotional for me to wrap the project up that way.

As per the Brent bylaws, you each contributed a solo song. But are there any other songs on the album that could, in theory, also be a solo song?

CC: I think we have a few that particularly represented stories in our individual personal lives more so than others. I would say “Ashes & Rush” for me, and “Government” for you.

JZ: Yeah. Usually, though, the chorus will be more general, and then each of us do a verse where we can write about our own stuff in relation. If the chorus is the thesis, then the verse is our supporting paragraph.

It’s an obvious question because this is your first collaborative full-length album, and every album is different from the last. But what really differentiates Brent III from the past two EPs?

CC: The hope is, as you continue to grow and mature as a person, you can honor the complexity of your feelings a little bit more maturely. Hopefully, that translates in the music. Another thing about Brent III is we tackled some subject matters that I thought were pretty cool.

Such as?

JZ: “Ashes & Rust”?

CC: Yeah, “Ashes & Rust,” we wrote about my granddad, and it’s about generational trauma. “Government” is about an international, long-distance relationship.

JZ: And something as ridiculous as the government getting involved in people’s personal lives; having a say over relationships is insane.

CC: I love “Terrible Things,” too. I just love that feeling of a crush.

JZ: And the irony of calling the song “Terrible Things,” but [the lyric] is really, “Is that such a terrible thing?” It’s a very conversational phrase.

CC: Well, yeah, because starting to like someone and starting to notice and want all of those things about a person is terrifying. So, your visceral reaction is like, Oh, no, please don’t!

The album is a mosaic of 11 little stories. I have interpreted it as reveling in simple pleasures and pure romance. Do you see a narrative through line?

JZ: I think seeing the romance or beauty in simple things and not taking things for granted feels like a bit of a through line. Maybe an even deeper through line is the album is a safe place where we can talk about these things.

CC: I think Brent has always been a reflection of Jeremy and I having a close enough friendship to have these intimate and vulnerable conversations about things across all facets of our lives. The fact you have 11 songs about, as you described it, 11 different stories represents true friendship. Being able to talk openly about our feelings and just be there for each other.

What is your primary hope for Brent Forever: The Tour?

JZ: To cry on stage every night?

CC: No, I don’t want that. That would be emotionally taxing.

JZ: I’m just excited to give the show to the fans. I feel like we’re really doing something for the people that the project means a lot for. We’re really doing it up, so to speak, and really putting together an amazing experience for people.

CC: I will say, selfishly, I’m pretty stoked because it’s a really cyclical industry, and there’s so much of put out a project, tour that project, put out another project, tour that project. It’s nice to break the cycle a little bit and get to do something collaboratively — something that’s a little bit, again, outside of our individual careers and individual cycles. It’s definitely refreshing, to be honest, and I feel like it obviously is going to translate into us bringing something to the shows that fans wouldn’t get by coming to our individual shows.

Are you afraid to let Brent go?

CC: Oh, wow. Let me think. I guess I just don’t feel it has to be so finite. That’s the thing about music: It always exists. I mean, we could wake up when we’re 40 and go make another EP. There doesn’t have to be any definitive finality around it. I think it’s cool to live in this grey area of not necessarily needing to close the door on anything. Life is so long, and you never know where we’ll land with it later.

JZ: It’s alive forever. Brent forever.

Maybe the most famous sheep ever is Dolly, who was born as a result of cloning and was exceptionally well-known in the late ’90s until her death in 2003. As for the name, Dr. Ian Wilmut, one of the doctors behind the cloning, once explained, “Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn’t think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton’s.”

It turns out Parton is flattered by the whole situation.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Parton was asked how she reacted to the news back in the day, and she said:

I was flattered. You know, when the scientists cloned Dolly the sheep, they used the mammary glands. That’s what they call them … glands … the boobs. They said, ‘Oh, we have this sheep, Dolly…’ Everybody always played up to these [points to her chest], so that’s why we had Dolly the sheep. I was sorry when she died, though I don’t want be cloned myself. I want to get on out of here when I can. We already get a lot of Dolly lookalikes, a lot of Dolly drag queens. I can just send them down to the store instead of me.

She also spoke about her future in music, saying, “Oh, my Lord, I can’t retire. I always say I’ve dreamed myself into a corner. I’ve got to keep all those dreams alive. Every dream spins off into some something else. It’s misinformation when I said I was not touring any more. I still do shows — I just don’t go on the full-blown tours where I go overseas for weeks. I’m older, my husband’s older, and I want to be with him more. So, no. I couldn’t retire if I wanted to. And I don’t want to.”

Find the full interview here.