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The pick for Super Bowl LIX’s halftime headliner has proven controversial, drawing criticism for the NFL, Roc Nation, and Jay-Z in particular. This is familiar territory for the rapper-turned-mogul, whose partnership with the NFL has been criticized from the very beginning. But he has at least one supporter in his corner — former rap rival and fellow Golden Era pioneer Fat Joe, who defended Jay during a livestream on his Instagram account. During the wide-ranging monologue, Joe posited that while Jay-Z’s deal with the NFL might not be perfect, that there wouldn’t even be an opportunity for rappers like Kendrick Lamar or Lil Wayne to headline the Super Bowl halftime show.

While acknowledging the contingent of hip-hop heads who wanted Lil Wayne to headline in New Orleans, he argued that “it ain’t just one man’s decision” and “if he wasn’t doing shows, it’d be no hip-hop.” As an example, he pointed to the 2022 show, which was headlined by rap legends Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg and featured 50 Cent, Eminem, and Kendrick Lamar, and joked that if not for Jay, the halftime show would feature performances of the viral country folk song, “Cotton-Eyed Joe.” While that might be an exaggeration on his part, the last arguable rap act to perform the halftime show was Black Eyed Peas in 2011, at the height of “I Gotta Feeling” and “Boom Boom Pow Pow.”

So, while it wasn’t Jay’s decision to book Kendrick (or snub Lil Wayne), Joe believes his influence has at least opened the door for non-traditional performers, as hip-hop continues to take it pretty far.

The news of R&B legend Frankie Beverly’s passing at age 77 today was a little like hearing a favorite uncle died for much of the Black community. His songs entertained and brought families together for generations — especially after Beyoncé covered his signature hit, “Before I Let Go,” in 2018 for her Homecoming Coachella concert film. Beverly himself said the rendition helped to revitalize interest in his career, and today, Beyoncé paid homage to the lost legend with a heartfelt message posted by her Parkwood Entertainment.

Thank you, Frankie Beverly, for bringing us all together with your music. You’ve written some of the most inspiring and uplifting songs for the world to enjoy. With your lyrics, you have humanized our experiences, through joy and pain. Thank you for teaching us about the importance of community, family, and togetherness. We will never forget you. May you rest in power.

Fortunately, Frankie was able to receive some of his flowers while he was still around to smell them. In March, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the NAACP Image Awards. And, of course, he got to see the cross-generational relevance of his biggest hit thanks to Beyoncé, saying, “She’s done so much, this is one of the high points of my life… I just thought it was a great little song, but I never thought it’d be all this… it’s one of those things this band will be able to carry on forever.”

(FOURTH SEASON SPOILERS BELOW)

The Boys‘ recent season finale left plenty of questions to consider before the fifth and final season, such as how the show is currently (and in the future) dealing with A-Train’s disappearance. Other questions involve what powers Ashley will have after potentially Hulking out due to taking Compound V in desperation, and then there’s the possibilities opened by Erin Moriarty‘s Annie January regaining her Starlight powers and zooming into the stratosphere while Hughie was hauled off by Homelander’s minions.

This followed some episodes in which Annie felt her identity metaphorically slipping away while losing said powers, but after she had to take her identity back from the Shifter, the ex-member of The Seven found her way back to herself. As a result, Annie could be much more powerful than her former Supe self, so presumably, she will be back with a vengeance to rescue her vigilante friends and will hopefully squish some Bad Supes in the process.

Showrunner Eric Kripke has also told fans that “lots of death” will surface onscreen because there’s no need to give these characters plot armor with the series winding down. So, who should Annie kill? Or perhaps the better question is who she might kill first. Gotta be Deep, right? Chace Crawford’s character has had it coming from her since he sexually assaulted the fledgling Supe in the series’ first episodes, so a full circle moment like her casually ripping away a few of his most treasured body parts (I mean gills, but what were you thinking?) and feeding them to a shark seems fitting.

Sure, everybody who can kill someone will want to kill Homelander, but let Starlight have Deep. Erin Moriarty agreed when Comic Book asked who Annie should take out first: “You know, which one, come on.” Moriarty then did, in fact, express the desire to kill Homelander, but she believes that the “bare minimum” is Deep:

“[S]he’s got to at least get The Deep, let me kill the fish guy at least, bare minimum for God’s sake… But it needs to be under circumstances where she’s provoked at first because that’s her. She can’t just go and kill someone. They need to attack her and it’s self defense because she’s Annie, but she’s got to get someone and I feel like people weren’t rooting for that as much until this past season. But that concept of a cathartic karma. I think we really need it. So all of the above, all of them.”

Moriarty also floated the possibility of a Starlight-Ashley joint effort, and I do think that watching Ashley kill Homelander would be much more satisfying than watching Butcher do it, since that rivalry has arguably been beaten into the ground. Whereas Homelander has caused Ashley to rip her hair out due to stress, and then he taunted her for it, so viewers would love to see him be taken down by somebody who he belittled for ages and who had no power to fight back. Until now.

Hey, maybe she’ll have super-powered hair (or even Medusa-type hair) that throttles Homelander. Eric Kripke, make it happen.

The NFL and Roc Nation selecting Kendrick Lamar to headline the Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show next February ruffled some feathers in hip-hop, but apparently, the Compton rapper’s chief rival, Drake, isn’t sweating it. In fact, according to one source, Drake’s claim to be “big as the Super Bowl” turned out to be true in more ways than one.

On the latest episode of the New Rory & Mal podcast, Mal made the audacious — and largely unsupported — claim that not only has Drake had the opportunity to headline the halftime show multiple times, but that he’s also turned it down every time. “Drake has been offered the Super Bowl show for some years now and has turned it down,” he said. “Probably four years, he’s been offered to perform at the Super Bowl, said no for whatever reason.”

Now, whether this is true or just damage control on the part of one of Aubrey’s most loyal angels remains to be corroborated by any other authority. However, it wouldn’t be a surprise to learn that Drake’s been offered the show — although, the timing of this reveal is made more suspicious by Drake’s recent lashing by the future headliner.

Meanwhile, due to the Super Bowl taking place in New Orleans, some folks believe that the headlining gig should have gone to Drake’s former mentor Lil Wayne — despite the show only being headlined by a local act four times in its near-60-year history. You can check out the full episode of New Rory & Mal below.

LL Cool J just dropped his latest album, The FORCE, last week, and the headlining song has been his Eminem collaboration “Murdergram Deux” (which was also co-produced by Q-Tip, to further add to the hip-hop credibility). Now Em and LL have gone ahead and given the song a new video.

The clip notably serves as a tribute to some of the hip-hop that preceded present day: As Complexnotes, the visual features re-creations of LL’s cover for his 1987 album Bigger And Deffer, the art for Big Daddy Kane’s 1988 project Long Live The Kane, and Death Row Records’ 1996 cover of Vibe.

The song sees Em engaged in some of his classic wordplay. For LL’s first new album in over a decade, Eminem busted out lines like, “What? A supa-dupa switch / I can’t understand a single word you’re saying / I think you have syrup brain, ’bout to finish you like polyurethane / All that molly probably sure to drain your spinal fluid from your vertebrae / This the Murdergram and I brought my murder game / My sh*t fire, that is why you log on it like Duraflame.”

Watch the “Murdergram Deux” video above.

The FORCE is out now via Def Jam. Find more information here.

(WARNING: Spoilers for Power Book II: Ghost will be found below.)

Things are getting out of control in the second half of Power Book II: Ghost season four. In last week’s episode, Diana was beat up by a dirty cop who was upset that Diana enlisted Tariq to complete a job rather than doing it herself. Later on in the episode, Detective Kamaal Tate, Rashad Tate’s brother was shot and killed by Detcetive Carter after Tate learned that Carter is running a dirty operation with his team. This is all while Tariq and Brayden figured out a way to get back in the drug game and work with Noma after taking care of a problem for her.

So, what happens next? Find out out this week’s episode and here’s everything you need to know about it:

When Does Power Book II: Ghost Season 4, Episode 7 Come Out?

The seventh episode of Power Book II: Ghost season four, titled “I Can’t Fix This,” will arrive on September 13. The episode will be available on Friday, 9/13 on the STARZ app starting at midnight EST/PST. The episode will later air on the STARZ TV channel that same day at 8 pm ET/PT. A synopsis for “I Can’t Fix This” can be found below:

When tragedy strikes, Tariq and the Tejadas are set on a mission to avenge what they’ve lost. Dru must take out a threat to Carter’s organization in order to protect his family.

You can also watch a teaser for Power Book II: Ghost season four, episode seven below:

‘Power Book II: Ghost’ season four, part in now streaming on the STARZ app Season four, part two debuts on September 6.

At this point in the year, many artists are announcing new tour dates for 2025. Destroy Lonely, though, still has some fun planned for the rest of 2024: Today, he announced a 14-date North American tour, dubbed the Forever Tour.

The run starts on November 30 in Detroit and wraps up in Washington, DC a few days before Christmas. Pre-sale tickets are available starting today at noon ET, while the general on-sale begins September 13 at 10 a.m. local time. Find more information about that here.

Destroy Lonely is fresh off the release of his latest album, Love Lasts Forever, which dropped on August 30.

Check out Destroy Lonely’s upcoming tour dates below.

Destroy Lonely’s 2024 Tour Dates: Forever Tour

09/29 @ Halifax, NS @ Magnetic World Music Festival
11/24 @ Sattahip, Thailand @ Rolling Loud Thailand
11/30 @ Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore Detroit
12/01 @ Chicago, IL @ Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
12/03 @ Denver, CO @ The Mission Ballroom
12/04 @ Salt Lake City, UT @ The Union
12/06 @ San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
12/07 @ Los Angeles, CA @ The Shrine Expo Hall
12/09 @ San Diego, CA @ SOMA – Mainstage
12/12 @ Dallas, TX @ South Side Ballroom
12/13 @ Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall
12/15 @ Miami Gardens, FL @ Rolling Loud Miami
12/17 @ Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy
12/19 @ Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore Charlotte
12/21 @ Washington, DC @ The Anthem

Love Lasts Forever is out now via Opium/Interscope Records. Find more information here.

Shannon Sharpe found himself trending on social media on Wednesday, but it had nothing to do with anything the Hall of Famer said on First Take or his Club Shay Shay podcast. Unfortunately for Sharpe, he was a trending topic because of an Instagram Live on his account where fans that clicked on his Live were suddenly presented with what certainly sounded like two people having sex.

There was nothing to be seen, as the phone was pointed towards the ceiling, but it was a very NSFW mid-morning IG Live that no one was expecting, leading to plenty of clips being passed around Twitter and elsewhere. Later in the afternoon, Sharpe released a statement on Instagram claiming he was hacked and that his team was “working vigorously” to find out what happened.

Because Sharpe is never seen on camera, the hacked excuse certainly is plausible, although it’s fair to wonder why someone would hack an Instagram to do this on a Live, but people have done stranger things. Not appearing on camera certainly helps Sharpe’s case, especially when it comes to handling this with his ESPN and Disney bosses, because we have seen how a Hall of Fame player can get ousted from ESPN for a wild IG Live — just ask Paul Pierce.

Easily the funniest part of the whole thing was WWE superstar Ron Killings (aka R Truth) in the comments of Sharpe’s IG Live. Truth asked, “are they F**KIN??? Excuse my French,” then said “Yoo UNC that’s not PG” and finally pleaded “Hang up the phone Big Unc.” Eventually, the phone did get hung up and Sharpe is going to stick with the getting hacked story.

Drake doesn’t seem too pleased about Kendrick Lamar being selected to perform during the Super Bowl LIX halftime show. Wonder why!

The “First Person Shooter” rapper showed his support for Lil Wayne by sharing five photos of his mentor to an Instagram Story on Tuesday night, a likely reference to the controversy over the Louisiana native not being selected for the New Orleans-set game. (Nicki Minaj has a lot of thoughts.) Instead, the honor went to Lamar, who will likely perform Drake diss track “Not Like Us” for an audience of 125 million people and countless owls.

Earlier this year, Lil Wayne expressed his desire to headline the Super Bowl halftime show. “I will not lie to you, I have not got a call,” he said on YG’s 4HUNNID podcast. “But we all praying, we keeping our fingers crossed. I’m working hard. I’m going to make sure this next album and everything I do is killer, so I’m going make it very hard for them to… I want to just make it hard for them not to highlight the boy.”

Considering how well the New Orleans Saints played during a week 1 win against Carolina, maybe the Derek Carr-led team will make it to the Super Bowl and invite Lil Wayne to perform the National Anthem. Dream big!

Super Bowl LIX takes place on February 9, 2025.

Pharrell had a screening of his new biopic Piece By Piece at the Toronto International Film Festival yesterday (September 10), but the proceedings were interrupted by a PETA protestor. But, why?

Why Is PETA Protesting Pharrell?

Since early 2023, Pharrell has been the Men’s Creative Director for Louis Vuitton. After the screening incident, PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman issued a statement after the incident, saying, “We would be happy to stop disrupting Pharrell’s appearances but despite a lot of lip service, he’s yet to ditch fur and exotic skins. Pharrell can decide in a heartbeat, today, to use his power for good and stop being complicit in cruelty — it’s quite easy to be kind.”

The statement also notes the protestor “blasted” Pharrell “for his disgraceful use of wild-animal skins and fur.”

After the protester was removed from the screening, Pharrell said to the audience:

“Let me address that. You know, Rome wasn’t made in a day, and sometimes when you have plans to change things and situations, you have to get in a position of power and of influence, where you can change people’s minds progression. That’s not necessarily the way to do it, and sitting in my position, when I have conversations on behalf of organizations like that, unbeknownst to them, they come out here and do themselves a disservice. That’s OK: When that change comes, everybody in this room, will remember that I told you we’re actually working on that, and if she would have just asked me, I would have told her. But instead, she wanted to repeat herself.”