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Originality and popularity aren’t necessarily the determinants of long-term influence in indie rock. Rather, an artist has to achieve a delicate balance between “I can do that” and “how did they do that?” During the first half of the 2010s, Alex Giannascoli came out murmuring from a Philly basement/bedroom, creating an organic buzz on the strength of music that didn’t appear to require much technical skill; self-recorded and self-released while in his teens, albums like Race, Winner and Trick were defined by briskly strummed and muffled open-tuned guitars, rickety drums, charmingly simple rhymes, and the hiss of a microphone plugged straight into a computer. Though some of these albums have been professionally mixed and mastered in the time since, the “graphic design is my passion” cover art has remained.

The music itself was heavily influenced by Kill Rock Stars-era Elliott Smith, whereas Alex G’s taste for warped vocals can be traced to The Knife’s Silent Shout — a groundbreaking record in 2006 that you could emulate after a few minutes of YouTube tutorials by 2010. And as someone with vivid memories of going to multiple record stores just to find a copy of Illinois in 2005, the rise of Bandcamp, Tunecore, and other distribution platforms is still astounding to me — I could technically record a bunch of songs on my phone and they’d be just as easy for my parents to buy as a Bad Bunny album.

Indeed, there have probably been hundreds of “Alex G-type beats” uploaded to Bandcamp in the past month alone. And you won’t hear any of them because, as easy as it to emulate the superficial aspects of the man’s music, there’s been an uncanny quality that has proven impossible to replicate — even the most seemingly straightforward and Genius-analyzed Alex G lyrics rarely match what Alex G says they’re about, if he says anything about them at all. The song structures and melodies take counterintuitive turns that end up making all the sense in the world. If there’s a throughline from 2010’s Race to Alex G’s superlative new album God Save The Animals, it’s that he’s always a half-step ahead of his listeners — enough to beckon them forward without losing them completely.

Alex G’s place in the broader context of indie rock feels just as slippery as his music. Many of the dominant threads of the past decade run through his discography — the rise of Philadelphia as the epicenter of guitar-based indie rock, the shift of tastemaking from prestige publications to non-critical sources on social media, Orchid Tapes, Run For Cover, dad hats, Frank Ocean, Bandcamp. But unlike most of the artists who’ve followed a similar path towards indie’s A-list — Mitski, Japanese Breakfast, Car Seat Headrest, et al. — Alex G has done so without making Alex Giannascoli a load-bearing part of his appeal. His lyrics are quotable, if they’re audible, but rarely the kind that get meme’d on Twitter. I’ve heard from multiple sources that he’s a very hard guy to get a pull quote out of. Surely, “guys who are super into Alex G” did not get wiped out during the pandemic, but he’s never been the type to generate much content between album cycles. His closest brush with viral controversy involved getting confused for Beto O’Rourke.

Leading up to Beach Music, his 2015 debut on Domino, the word on Alex G was “prolific” — that between his proper albums, one-offs, and collaborations, it could be difficult to find a place to start without feeling overwhelmed. In the time since, Alex G’s output has hewed to a more deliberate, traditional pace and yet the numbers still feel daunting — 10 albums over the span of 12 years. To an extent, starting in reverse chronological order might be the best move for the novice strapped for time. But then again, the man is 29 years old — ask someone who has come of age alongside Alex G and the answer might be completely different. Heck, ask me in a few weeks and the answer might be different.

10. Winner, 2011

Winner has taken on an orphaned reputation, disappearing from all non-Bandcamp streaming services and stuck between the historical import of Alex G’s debut and the 2012 double-shot of Rules and Tricks that stoked a newfound national reputation. Heck, even the Rate Your Music and Bandcamp reviews are relatively muted; it’s kinda wild to consider the possibility of those people hearing Winner in 2011 and thinking that Alex G’s best days were possibly behind him. And while there are a couple of gems here, something’s gotta hold down this spot and I swear I’m not trying to be cute just because of the title.

9. Race, 2010

If you’re unfamiliar with Indiecast — new episodes airing every Friday, by the way — one of our favorite pet theories is that the last year of any decade is the “-10.” 1991, 2001, 2011 — that’s when the real ’90s or aughts or 2010s began. And so looking back on Race, a 2010 bedroom-to-Bandcamp archetype from its album cover to its GarageBand production values, it’s fun to imagine it sharing the same airspace as Halcyon Digest, The Monitor, Teen Dream, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and such, monumental capstones of the decade prior (not to mention even the buzzier, more R&B/chillwave-indebted likes of Twin Shadow or How To Dress Well). What I hear now is a lot of charm, which is to say, a 17-year-old with obvious talents still showing his tracework — there’s obvious nods to Elliott Smith and Conor Oberst, the occasional burst of lo-fi ingenuity and puerile lyricism. To reiterate, Alex G was 17 when it came out and you should compare it to any songs you wrote at that age.

8. Rules, 2012

In some crucial ways, Rules is the first exemplar of what an “Alex G album” would be going forward — curveball opening track, artwork courtesy of his sister Rachel, plus the bonus track “Sandy” that would end up becoming far more consequential than anyone could’ve ever expected in 2012. But it also stands apart amidst Alex G’s pre-Domino output as the most rawk thing he’s ever done, as “Candy,” “Message” and “Master” truly sound like the work of a garage band recording on GarageBand. It’s not his best look — the piano-laced “Mis” and hushed “Come Back” were more indicative of what would come later that year on Trick, an album whose shadow looms over Rules to this day.

7. We’re All Going To The World’s Fair (Original Soundtrack), 2022

Even if he wasn’t responsible for the original score, We’re All Going To The World’s Fair probably doesn’t exist without Alex Giannascoli. Jane Schoenbrun reportedly went heavy on the Alex G catalog while writing the script, part body horror, part mumblecore, part suburban picaresque, all very online. While the mundane ASMR-like sounds of the online experience carry much of the sonic weight of the film — tapping keyboards camera timers and such — Alex G was tasked with serving as a liaison between the physical and digital realms of We’re All Going To The World’s Fair, as well as between the eerie beauty and gory repulsion of its visuals. Given carte blanche by a superfan, he gets indulgent here, a handful of more traditional vocal performances overshadowed by experiments in frosted synth instrumentals and “Casey’s Walk,” seven minutes of haunted house ambient. If not an essential addition to the Alex G discography, it’s an important one nonetheless, proof of a distinct, highly in-demand sonic signature that requires going straight to the source.

6. Trick, 2012

Trick is Alex G’s most successful album on Spotify and it’s not particularly close. This is largely thanks to “Mary,” “Sarah” and “Advice,” all of which have at least 32 million streams apiece — about three times more than their closest competitor (House Of Sugar’s “Gretel”) and more than Beach Music and DSU in their entirety. I can’t really ascribe this to Trick having some kind of rarefied status in the Alex G universe, nor the commercial boost provided by its 2015 reissue. But my theory is that Trick is the Alex G album most suited to spawn fluky Spotify hits (though it doesn’t contain his “Harness Your Hopes,” that would be 2011 single “Treehouse,” a duet with Emily Yacina). Up to that point, Alex G songs were loose, off-the-cuff things but the albums themselves were fairly tight; Trick was downright indulgent at 37 minutes, 16 songs and some of which were clearly larks or, dare I say, filler. And then there’s “Mary” and “Sarah,” the ones probably best suited to playlist-making for people who fail to dig deeper than their titles — “Mary” is perhaps the creepiest women-as-weed metaphor ever put to tape, while “Sarah” is the kind of love song deeply emotional and unhappy young people share with each other as a kind of aspirational model. But then again, it’s usually the hits that distinguish the superfan from the casual listener, i.e., the kind that had yet to learn not to take everything Alex G says at face value.

5. Rocket, 2017

Like most prominent indie rock artists from Philly, Alex G started leaning more towards country music in 2017. With their twangy cowboy chords and high lonesome harmonies, “Bobby,” “Proud” and “Powerful Man” reframe Alex G’s ’90s reference as that of a long-lost descendant of the No Depression movement rather than a Kill Rock Stars signing. But if Rocket indeed is his “country” album, what to make then of the Califone-esque, pots-and-pans percussion of “Horse” and “Poison Root,” or the psychedelic loops of “Alina” or… “Brick,” which sounds like a Show Me The Body track that accidentally got smuggled into Rocket as a plant pressing error. Perhaps the better word for Rocket is that it’s Alex G’s “roots” album, so long as one can accept that alt-country, hardcore, and cocktail jazz are equally foundational forms of American music.

4. DSU, 2014

If we’re allowing the Elliott Smith comparison, this is his Either/Or — the last record he’d make as a strictly cult artist and also the one I feel most self-conscious about ranking because I believe his best work came with a bigger budget (I don’t know what the “Say Yes” is in this scenario, Alex G doesn’t really write those kind of songs). I won’t begrudge anyone’s personal attachment to DSU and it’s certainly a significant step up in an already impressive catalog. Critics playing catch up understandably used 2014-appropriate weirdo-pop touchstones (Ariel Pink! Mac DeMarco! Jackson Scott!), but Alex G’s forays into off-kilter funk (“Promise”), Scotchgard-huffing slowcore (“Icehead”) and shaggy guitar heroism (“Serpent is Lord”) felt borne of confidence and curiosity, like someone who was only beginning to realize the extent of their talents and their ambitions. From DSU forward, it was impossible to engage with indie rock and not hear artists trying to sound like Alex G.

3. House Of Sugar, 2019

When I first conceived this list, I felt pretty sure House Of Sugar was going to be No. 1 — it had the best singles of any Alex G album that actually had pre-release singles, I’ve been conditioned over the past 25 or so years to believe any indie artist’s dive into electronic music is inherently greater than their guitar-based work and it also got the best overall reviews. Upon revisitation, a lot of that holds true — both “Southern Sky” and “Gretel” are No. 1 seeds if there’s ever an Alex G tourney pool-style bracket, while “In My Arms” and “Cow” accounted for his strongest Side B run to date. And yet, while the largely abstract and discordant electronic midsection felt beguiling and progressive throughout 2019, nowadays I find myself impatiently waiting through “Near” and “Project 2”; interesting stuff and certainly unexpected from someone whose transitory tracks in the past had still leaned more towards analog, strings-and-wood instruments. But while I appreciate the artistic risk, House Of Sugar spends a bit too much time working against Alex G’s strengths, at least when the “singer-songwriter” and “electronic” modes are divided so blatantly. Of course, this is only something I realized three years later as he reconciled those sides on God Save The Animals.

2. Beach Music, 2015

It being 2015 and not 1995, I don’t recall many people having hang-ups about Alex G becoming labelmates with Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand. Getting signed to Domino felt like a validation for Bandcampers, proof of a path forward for the countless, solo bedroom artists taking advantage of the unprecedented accessibility of home recording technology and the grim realities of trying to start out as a band in the mid-2010s (indeed, Car Seat Headrest and Mitski would soon find themselves stepping up to Matador and Dead Oceans in the next year). It’s not like a beefier recording and/or promotion budget made Beach Music any more slick or pandering; in fact, Alex G’s de facto “major label” debut took the experimentation of DSU towards even stranger places, developing a taste for corrupting pre-rock pop music and all but eliminating the fuzzier indie stylings of Rules and Trick. But am I wrong in remembering Beach Music being viewed as… kind of a disappointment? Or at least, the source of befuddlement to people just catching wind of Alex G and wondering, this is the new Elliott Smith? Certainly, Beach Music makes for a curious starting point, and lead single “Bug” ended with some of his most abrasive pitch-shifted vocals. The most popular song, “Brite Boy,” is a playground duet that could pass for a chipper Ween, but the vibe is otherwise generally somber and subdued, the guitar heroics of “Snot” and “Kicker” bashful as they are beautiful. But whereas the more acclaimed Domino albums that would come later largely adhered to a Microcastle-style track sequencing — singles at the front, experimental middle, reconvene for a more accessible but somewhat more subdued Side B — Beach Music strikes me now as the most coherent Alex G album, darting every which way on a track-by-track basis but maintaining a consistent, bittersweet mood that never fails when any of the four seasons start to change.

1. God Save The Animals, 2022

Had it not been made clear already, this, like all Best Albums lists, is the result of inherently subjective dark arts. Had someone else made this pitch to Uproxx HQ before myself, you would’ve read about how Trick is actually Alex G’s greatest work or why House Of Sugar can’t possibly top Rocket because the latter came out when the author was a freshman in college. Or vice versa. While there have been plenty of superlatives granted to God Save The Animals thus far — his most refined work, his most pop, surely more to come — I feel comfortable giving into recency bias here because it undeniably feels like a culmination of everything he’s done up to this point. Folky Alex G, abstract Alex G, slowcore Alex G, rawk Alex G, it’s all here, but God Save The Animals manages to circle back to his origins placing the vocals higher than they’d ever been since Race or Rules. And this time around, it seems like Alex G wants you to pay attention to what he has to say, largely forgoing his more oblique lyrical style to express his thoughts about art, about God, about his career, about drugs, about eternity — or at least, what seems like Alex G doing a straight-up “singer-songwriter” bit. By this point, we should know better — God Save The Animals holds true not to convention but to Alex G.

God Save The Animals is out now via Domino. Get it here.

Yesterday (September 22), Kanye West appeared on Good Morning America for an exclusive interview with Linsey Davis. According to an early Twitter teaser of their conversation this week, West would touch on everything, including “Kim Kardashian, fatherhood, social media, fashion, politics, and the Donda Academy.”

After the conversation aired, West did indeed touch on all of those things, with some… interesting responses. When it comes to politics, West notoriously launched a failed attempt to run for president in 2020. When asked if he would consider doing it again, he said “absolutely” but didn’t specify a timeline on when his next campaign would be. “That time wasn’t in God’s time,” West said about his first Presidential attempt.

The rapper also spoke about his “radical” beliefs during the interview.

“When you remove the love and fear of God, you open up the love and fear of everything else,” he said. “And it’s easier to have sheep when people don’t have God. It’s easier to control the people if people are not controlled by God. Because then they can be controlled by how many likes they have or whatever’s happening on their TikTok or how much money or the perception that people have. But we only have one audience here and that audience is God. And He’s watching us at all times. He’s got my back.”

West also noted his “new respect” for his ex-wife Kim Kardashian in the Good Morning America. After frequently targeting Kardashian’s then-boyfriend Pete Davidson via social media after the divorce, the posts were emotionally affecting her and the children as well.

West apologized, saying, “I need this person to be less stressed and of the best, sound mind and as calm as possible to be able to raise those children at the end of the day.”

Still, tensions between Kardashian and West didn’t stop with Davidson. West had been frequently critical about her decision to share and let their children use TikTok and other social media platforms. He seems to still be adamant on that part of how they should be raised. “As a dad and as a Christian. And I have a right to have a voice on what my kids are wearing, what they’re watching, what they’re eating,” he said.

“I have a platform where I get to say what so many dads can’t say out loud,” West continued. “I’m their dad. It has to be co-parenting. It’s not up to only the woman. Like, men have a choice also. Men’s voices matter.”

This also led to the topic of West recently opening the Donda Academy school. Originally named the Yeezy Christian Academy (but eventually renamed to honor West’s late mother), the Simi Valley school’s website lists their mission is to “learn fundamentals, grow in their faith, and experience two enrichment classes.”

West notes the Donda Academy is in its third year of classes. However, earlier this month, Rolling Stone published a deeper dive into how the school operates, including $15,000 for tuition and required NDA’s for parents.

Read more excerpts from West’s Good Morning America interview here. The full interview is also available to watch on Hulu, here.

After years of multiple Marvel and Star Wars-inspired stories, it’s time for another franchise to get an origin story. Sure, we all love learning about Baby Yoda and Groot’s silly little adventures, but what about some good, old-fashioned royalty drama that is not based on real life? The good news is that Netflix agrees, and so, dear reader, the beloved Bridgerton universe is expanding!

After being announced last spring, Netflix has finally unveiled the first look at Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story which will focus on the titular Queen’s rise to power in the Bridgerton universe.

Golda Rosheuvel (Queen Charlotte), Adjoa Andoh (Lady Agatha Danbury), and Ruth Gemmell (Lady Violet Bridgerton) will each reprise their roles from the initial series, with India Amarteifio stepping in as a young Charlotte. The streamer unveiled the first picture of Amarteifio in all her royal glory.

Queen Charlotte is known for her fancy updos, extravagant dresses, and, most importantly, her love of gossip, so this should be a good spinoff for any Bridgerton fan. According to the press release, the limited series is expected to follow the rise of Queen Charlotte, and how the young Queen’s marriage to King George inspired both “a great love story and a societal shift, creating the world of the Ton inherited by the characters in Bridgerton.”

The news was revealed in a new clip featuring the show’s actresses ahead of Netflix’s Tudum event this weekend, which is expected to show off more from the upcoming series, along with various Netflix news and first looks.

No release date has been set for the series, but you can stream all episodes of Bridgerton on Netflix. Season three of Bridgerton is expected to hit the streamer sometime next year.

Girls are bombarded with messages from a very young age telling them that they can’t, that is too big, this is too heavy, those are too much.

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Unless someone takes the time to show them otherwise, they will grow up believing those limitations are true—and never reach their full potential. Girls at Work, Inc., a nonprofit based in Manchester, NH, wants to change that by showing girls that they CAN.

Elaine Hamel founded Girls at Work, Inc. in 2000 because to her, empowerment isn’t just a buzzword but a way of life. Their mission is to challenge traditional norms and normalize girl power, focusing specifically on uplifting and supporting inner city girls between the ages of 8 and 18, who need stability, safety, and confidence.

The girls attending summer camps or after-school programs work in groups and learn how to problem solve, communicate, and use tools to build something practical. Hamel believes that learning how to use power tools shows the girls that they can do anything they put their minds to, better preparing them for a bright future.

Photo courtesy of TD Bank

Elaine’s forward-thinking, positive leadership, and passion for the community is exactly why TD Bank chose to honor her for the 2022 #TDThanksYou campaign, a North American campaign demonstrating the bank’s gratitude and commitment to their customers by celebrating, recognizing, and thanking unsung heroes in exciting and meaningful ways. Hamel is one of six honorees recognized this year and was presented with power tools and gift certificates to purchase additional items needed to enhance the program.

Hamel understands what it feels like to hear the word “can’t.” Growing up, she struggled to find her place in a world that seemed to be built by, and for, men. As a kid she loved to “create or fix things” and always found something to tinker with. Before long, she discovered not only did she enjoy building and repairing things, but she was very good at it.

She spent the next several decades breaking down the multitude of barriers that a woman pursuing a career as a general contractor faced in the 1980s and 1990s.

“It was really brutal when I first started out in construction,” Hamel said. “The men were so cruel. But I grew up with five brothers and I was used to it. I told myself I’d be the boss one day…and now I am.”

Photo courtesy of TD Bank

The process of learning how to become stronger and more confident in her natural abilities sent her career soaring, and drives her life’s work—empowering girls to take up space and take control of their own lives.

“These are kids who grapple with neglect, food insecurity, and extreme poverty,” said Hamel. “They’re not soaring in school because they’re in survival mode. They’re hungry and unable to focus and learn.” Hamel’s solution is a fully stocked food pantry, where the girls can shop for groceries before heading home. Girls at Work, Inc. also has a “kindness closet,” stocked with clothing, shoes, outerwear and other items.

After addressing their immediate needs, the girls are ready to get to work. “There are many programs out there devoted to teaching trades and skills to girls,” said Hamel, “But this is about learning how to think critically and problem solve. Pushing through that is what actually empowers them.”

Photo courtesy of Girls at Work

The nonprofit is a vital part of the community, relying heavily on donations and volunteers to keep it going. For example, a club of retired men volunteer their time to pre-cut the lumber for Girls at Work, Inc.’s projects. The girls use that lumber to create things—like picnic tables, benches, and birdhouses—which in turn are donated to local organizations.

Hamel says she’s built with over 20,000 girls so far, and her goal is to hit one million. Her dream is to secure funding to open up new locations to serve even more communities and says that watching these girls’ step into their power and believe in themselves is what keeps her moving forward. The world needs more heroes like her.

To learn more about this year’s #TDThanksYou heroes, visit https://www.td.com/us/en/about-us/customers/humans-with-heart

Freddie Gibbs proved his versatility this week. On Tuesday (September 20), the Gary, Indiana-bred rapper visited Funk Flex on Hot 97 and performed a freestyle, taking shots at disgraced R&B figure R. Kelly and rival Benny Butcher. Today (September 23), Gibbs shows his vulnerable side with the introspective new single “Dark Hearted.”

The James Blake-produced track opens with an ethereal beat and Gibbs proclaiming, “I hope the chopper never jam on me.” He chronicles his struggles while entrenched in “murder land,” reminiscing on being in a crowded apartment where they pushed molly and powder, and prays for God’s protection. He acknowledges, “I know I took a risk with this sh*t when I put my hands on it” and laments that “this game got me dark-hearted,” but his most brutally honest admission comes when he expresses fear that “police might shoot and kill me over my dark skin.”

“Dark Hearted” comes after “Too Much” featuring Moneybagg Yo, Gibbs’ first release of the year, arrived earlier this month. The singles are generating momentum for Soul Sold Separately, his major-label debut studio album due next Friday (September 30) via Warner Records. Gibbs unveiled the full tracklist earlier this week.

Gibbs told Funk Flex on Tuesday that he’s “coming for album of the year” with his new one, “like I did last year.” His first Grammy nomination was earned for Alfredo, his May 2020 collaborative album with Alchemist, under the Best Rap Album category at the most recent ceremony.

Soul Sold Separately is out 9/30 via Warner Records. Pre-order it here.

Freddie Gibbs is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Ana de Armas and director Andrew Dominik will bring Blonde to Netflix on September 28. As you’re undoubtedly aware, the film’s not a standard biopic but an adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ expansive novel about a somewhat fictionalized version of Marilyn Monroe. The film’s gathered up mixed reviews with a hefty dose of praise for de Armas, and it’s worth noting that even Chris Evans was bowled over by the star’s transformation and couldn’t tell subject from actor apart by looking at a photo.

The film also received an NC-17 rating with Dominik reacting by calling this an unwarranted case of “Eisenhower morality” in an age where Cardi B’s “WAP” ruled the charts. Still, Dominik declared that the film contains something “to offend everyone,” and Ana De Armas is now here (in a new Variety cover feature) to talk about her trepidation for what scenes will go viral once the film streams. As Variety indicates, she brought up the subject on her own, and it involves nude scenes. She’s upset about what will happen but told herself that she cannot control the situation, which… oh boy:

“I know what’s going to go viral,” she says, “and it’s disgusting. It’s upsetting just to think about it. I can’t control it; you can’t really control what they do and how they take things out of context. I don’t think it gave me second thoughts; it just gave me a bad taste to think about the future of those clips.”

De Armas continued, saying that she filmed scenes for this movie that she never would have otherwise done, and “I did it for her, and I did it for Andrew.” The film earned a 14-minute standing ovation at the recent Venice Film Festival, and hopefully, audiences will handle the situation maturely when they see Ana’s transformation for themselves on September 28.

(Via Variety)

In light of the George Floyd protests in Spring of 2020, Paramount made the decision to cancel COPS, the long-running reality TV series that followed police officers around on patrol. The show had already been weathering concerns about its exploitative content, and with the nation grappling with the topic of police brutality, Paramount pulled the plug as other shows like Live PD followed suit.

However, conservatives have long been critical of the Black Lives Matter protests, so in a not exactly surprising development, Fox Nation has resurrected COPS. The right-leaning streaming service will have new episodes next week, and according to a statement from Fox Nation president Jason Klarman, whoever the heck subscribes to Fox Nation is pumped to see minorities and poverty-stricken communities get shoved into police cruisers. It’s their favorite.

“It has been nearly one year since we greenlit COPS and the reaction has been positively overwhelming,” Klarman said in a statement via Mediaite. “Our subscribers continue to flock to the series and we’re excited to provide our engaged audience with more of the exclusive content they have come to rely on from FOX Nation.”

The move to Fox Nation also corroborates reports that COPS never stopped filming. Following its cancellation by Paramount, Langely Productions, the maker of COPS, “quietly” continued to film new episodes in Spokane, Washington well into November 2020. Those episodes were reportedly filmed to fulfill oversea commitments, but it appears the show was able to find a new home with an audience who did not lose sleep over the death of George Floyd, or countless others.

(Via Mediaite)

In her new video for “Ain’t No Love” featuring 2 Chainz, Baby Tate makes a show of getting pampered at the nail salon with her crew (fan-shaped with the extra details, okay?). The Atlanta native then hits the streets to flaunt her fresh looks, posting up at the gas station to run through some choreography in front of her tricked-out jeep before hitting a diner for a late-night meal. It’s a fitting theme, considering the single is promoting her upcoming mixtape, Mani/Pedi, and takes inspiration from the video for the ATL classic it samples: Ciara’s 2004 Goodies standout “Oh,” which intriguingly enough featured 2 Chainz’s former label boss, Ludacris. We love a good homage.

In addition to dropping the “Ain’t No Love” video, Tate also shared the release date for her upcoming tape, the follow-up to her breakout 2020 EP After The Rain. The tracklist includes the previously released “Dancing Queen,” as well as a remix of “S.L.O. (Slut Him Out)” featuring fellow Atlanta rapper Kali titled “Slut Him Out Again.” Besides these singles, Tate built anticipation for the project with a series of freestyles and features, including the “extendo verse” from JID’s “Surround Sound,” a feature on Landstrip Chip’s “Wrong Way,” and a fun verse over the TikTok hit “Period Ahh, Period Uhh.”

Check out the tracklist for Mani/Pedi, out 9/30 through Raedio, below. Pre-save it here.

1. “Perfect”
2.”Aint No Love” Feat. 2 Chainz
3. “Do Better”
4. “Karma”
5. “Slut Him Out Again” Feat. Kali
6. “Differences”
7. “Mani”
8. “4Lifers”
9. “What’s Love”
10. “Dancing Queen”
11. “Pedi”
12. “Yasss Queen”
13. “Honest”
14. “I Do” Feat. Slim Wav

Baby Tate is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Donald Trump’s Wednesday night interview with Sean Hannity had everyone talking — largely because of his insistence that, as President of the United States, he had the authority to declassify documents with his brain. But that’s just one of the reasons why Seth Meyers thinks that the former president might have “lost his f***ing mind.”

On Thursday night, Meyers talked about Trump’s newly discovered Jedi mind trick-like ability to declassify documents through sheer mind power, but was also taken aback by Trump’s suggestion that what the FBI was really looking for when they rummaged through his Palm Beach home — and didn’t even have the decency to take their shoes off while walking through his bedroom — were… Hillary Clinton’s emails?!

“[B]y far the craziest part of the interview,” according to Meyers, “came when Trump fully unraveled and seemed to suggest that the FBI was maybe searching Mar-a-Lago to look for Hillary Clinton’s emails. It made so little sense, even Hannity had to jump in and stop him.”

Trump, in a bold attempt to point the finger in a whole other direction, told Hannity that there’s “a lot of speculation, because of what they did — the severity of the FBI coming and raiding Mar-a-Lago — were they looking for the Hillary Clinton emails that were deleted, but they are around someplace.”

First of all: There is no speculation of the sort other than in Trump’s mind, which we guess now makes it official (he just has to think it, after all). But more importantly: Even Hannity seemed unclear whether Trump was asking a question or making a statement. So he interjected with a “Wait, wait — you’re not saying you had it?” To which Trump replied no, but again suggested that the FBI “may have thought” Hillary’s emails were there.

“Wait, WHAT?,” was Meyers’ — and, well, pretty much everyone else’s — reaction to this new line of defense:

The FBI searched your private resort to look for Hillary Clinton’s emails? The ones you supposedly have been looking for forever… But man, what a twist. What a twist it would be if Trump accidentally admitted that he’s the one who stole all of Hillary Clinton’s missing emails. I mean, honestly, that would have been worth it. Even M. Night Shyamalan would have been like, ‘F**k. Hats off!’

You can watch the full clip above, beginning around the 9:50 mark.

The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.

ITEM NUMBER ONE – This poor miserable goof

I’ll be honest here: I did not expect to enjoy House of the Dragon this much. I thought I was done with Game of Thrones and all of its various kings and queens and magic doodads. I started watching only because it was kind of an obligation for this job. (I am very professional.) But now, a few weeks into it all, I find myself hooked all over again. It’s a truly shocking development. No one is more surprised by it than me. And there’s one main reason why it’s happened: King Viserys and the misery that is constantly stretched across his poor face.

Look at this guy.

Look at him try to hide the fact that he’s just having the worst time anyone has ever had while also sitting on a throne and commanding a squadron of fire-breathing dragons.

I love him so much. I get excited whenever he shows up on screen, kind of like I did whenever Philip Jennings showed up to Mope his way through a scene on The Americans. I think if Viserys ever experiences actual happiness, even for a moment, I will be so disappointed I might stay in bed the following Monday. His misery is fueling me right now. I feel okay about it.

To be fair, the man does have legitimate reasons to be having a bad time. For one, his… uh, flesh is kind of rotting and falling off of his body. Which does not seem fun.

And then there’s the thing with his daughter’s wedding, which featured both of them making these faces before any of the real messy stuff went down. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a more accurate representation of raising and being a teenager. It could be the poster for a CBS sitcom about a single dad. It’s thrilling to me.

Then these things happened at the wedding:

• His snotty younger brother showed up — fresh off of murdering his own wife — despite being kind of banished from the realm for being a devious little snot all the time
• His child bride showed up late and wearing a green dress, which I learned later is basically a declaration of war on this show
• His daughter’s not-so-secret boyfriend beat her new husband’s not-so-secret boyfriend to death with his fists during the reception
• His snotty brother and rebellious daughter started dancing and eyeing each other real sexy-like in front of everyone

Look at these two.

Sooooo yeah. My dude has every right to constantly look like he threw up in his mouth a little bit and decided to swallow it. The next episode jumps forward 10 years from the end of this one. Viserys is still alive, somehow, despite his own body and offspring and wife trying to kill him in various ways. This is great news. For me. Probably not for him. Which makes it great news for me. I hope he lives forever and mopes around like a royal Charlie Brown for six seasons. I hope he frowns so hard his whole face slides off of his skull, which it actually might, given the flesh thing we mentioned earlier. I had no clue I needed to see Paddy Considine doing this much face-acting on a show about dragons and incest, but here we are.

One more for the road.

This poor miserable dope. I hope he is never happy for another day in his life. Again, for me. It’s nothing personal. Kind of.

ITEM NUMBER TWO – Meanwhile, on 9-1-1…

Here’s what happened, and I need you to stay with me on this one: 9-1-1 returned this week with an episode that opened in the sky, in a blimp, where the pilot and co-pilot were having a conversation about a nosy mother-in-law, for kind of a while as they floated through the sky. If you read that sentence and started thinking “Hmm, if I know anything about 9-1-1 from all the times Brian has rambled about it, it sure sounds like something crazy is going to happen to this blimp,” congratulations, you are very intuitive. Or you saw the screencap at the top of this section with the flaming blimp. Or both. There are a lot of ways you could have figured this one out. The artwork for this season full-on featured a crashing blimp. I just wrote about it the other week. This was the worst-kept secret in television history.

Anyway, they dialed 9-1-1 from the clouds and had this conversation with Jennifer Love Hewitt, who, if we are to believe this show, handles every emergency call in Los Angeles.

Perfect. Succinct, accurate, objectively hilarious. No notes from me. My only complaint is that I’ve never had a legitimate opportunity in my life to use the phrase “we have a blimp emergency.” There’s still time, but I will need to hurry.

But yes, they were correct, the blimp went down, straight into a soccer stadium. I need to stress to you that the whole series of events looked like it cost the production about $85. I loved it very much. Look at this.

Okay, stick with me some more, because here’s where things get crazy, and yes I realize we’ve already seen a blimp crash into a stadium. To the bullet points:

• Chaos ensues, with people running and screaming and fleeing the stadium
• A girl and her mom get separated just moments after having a vague conversation about living a normal life like a normal kid
• The girl goes down and her backpack opens and some guy sees weird tubes sticking out and shouts “IT’S A BOMB”
• Angela Bassett rushes into the stadium to investigate and discovers it is not a bomb, but an artificial heart that the girl carries with her to stay alive
• It is malfunctioning and the mom has the backup but no one knows where she is amid the commotion
• Jennifer Love Hewitt just like Googles stuff over the phone and talks Angela Bassett through troubleshooting an artificial heart while a blimp balances precariously on the scaffolding of a soccer stadium, which is not a collection of words I ever expected to type
• They find the mom and get things working and everyone is saved, including the blimp pilots, who have been pulled out of the wreckage by firefighters as this is going on

Which is great. Classic 9-1-1 piece of business. Very proud of everyone involved. But here’s the best part. Look at this screencap from the aftermath of it all…

Do you see it?

Do you see the credits on the screen in the corner?

That’s right.

All of this happened before the opening credits had finished.

BEFORE THE OPENING CREDITS HAD FINISHED.

We were not even 10 minutes into the episode and all of this had already happened.

What a beautiful television program.

ITEM NUMBER THREE – This was really just an incredible week for the cast and crew of Peaky Blinders

Two pieces of Peaky Blinders-related news, both kind of incredible in their own way. First, this, which I can’t believe is true: The people who made Peaky Blinders — the gritty and violent British drama where bootleggers smoke cigarettes and fight each other, often while covered in about an inch of industrial soot — are bringing it to the stage for a dance-heavy production. Please read this.

“Through dance theatre ‘Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby’ picks up the story of the Peaky Blinders at the end of World War One, following Tommy Shelby and Grace Burgess through their passionate love affair,” reads the logline. “While Tommy is building his empire, Grace is operating as an undercover agent for Special Branch on a mission to get close to the heart of Tommy’s gang. As the story unfolds, many hearts are broken.”

That’s… it’s fascinating. It would be like if David Chase made a dancing Sopranos musical, which I now want to see more than anything else in the world. Show me Paulie Walnuts sashaying into a restaurant and gliding to his table. I am so mad this doesn’t exist. Dammit. I did this to myself.

And yet, somehow, this is not the wildest Peaky-related story of the week. Not even close. How could it be when Tom Hardy — who played a mumble-mouthed bootlegger on the show — is just running around winning martial arts tournaments in his spare time. From a local news report in Europe.

Danny Appleby, from Ormesby, was stunned when he discovered his opponent at a Jiu-Jitsu tournament at the weekend was Mad Max Fury Road actor Tom Hardy.

The 44-year-old star turned up unannounced at the REORG Open Jiu-Jitsu Championship in Wolverhampton.

This is probably my favorite thing… maybe ever? Definitely this week. Tom Hardy — BANE — is just popping up to whomp on dudes in his free time. It’s somehow both shocking and not surprising at all, given everything we know and don’t know about Tom Hardy. I must know more. Let’s read on.

“It’s been crazy on social media,” he says, “I was waiting match-side for the semi-final in Wolverhampton when Tom showed up. I didn’t know he was going to be there. And they expected me to remain composed,” he laughs.

“I recognised him straightaway. Everyone knows who Tom Hardy is, don’t they?

“I was shell-shocked. He said ‘just forget it’s me and do what you would normally do’.”

Ugggghhhh this is so cool. It’s so cool it actually bothers me a little bit. Like, come on, Tom Hardy. Chill out a little. The rest of us have to be out here too, and we just cannot compete with “an A-list movie star who sometimes shows up at little jiu-jitsu tournaments for kicks and wins adorable little victory certificates.”

Oh. Wait. I’m sorry. Did I not already mention the adorable little victory certificate? Because that actually might be the best part of all of this. I mean…

I hope he frames that and hangs it up in a prominent place in his house. Maybe right next to his, uh… [quick goes to Tom Hardy’s Wikipedia page]… his 2011 BAFTA Rising Star award. Or maybe he just has a trophy case full of these. What if Tom Hardy has like two dozen trophies and certificates like this, like a little kid who displays all his karate awards? Someone needs to investigate this. Not me. But someone.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR – Good for Lacey Chabert, honestly

There’s this big article in Variety this week about Candace Cameron and her quest to start a conservative Christian Christmas powerhouse to rival places like Hallmark and Netflix that churn those movies out 40 per year. You can read the whole thing if you want to. Here’s the link. I want to talk about something else, though. I want to talk about the financials of starring in these movies. I want to talk about people making crazyyyy money by appearing in these movies. Not crazy like billions or anything, but… at least more than I expected.

The key points are as follows:

• Hallmark was paying people $200-300k for a couple weeks of work on these movies
• Which is wild when you consider former Party of Five and Mean Girls star Lacey Chabert has, to date, made 27 Hallmark Christmas movies, which is a real fact I looked up and everything
• Netflix swooped in recently and just started heaving money at people to get their own holiday stockpile loaded up

Like, so much money.

When Netflix came into the game, it was willing to up the ante. Since its overall budgets are more than double what cable networks have, it’s able to land stars like Dolly Parton, Goldie Hawn, Vanessa Hudgens, Kurt Russell and Rob Lowe. One source tells Variety that while some of those movies were pitched elsewhere, Netflix was the only place able to pay bigger leading stars, often shelling out paychecks of more than $1 million per film.

This is pretty funny today, now, with all the news about Netflix struggling a bit and being buried in debt. It’s kind of like this tweet but with Holiday Movie Salaries in place of Candles:

But whatever. Good for the people cashing these checks. Good for Lacey Chabert, especially. This isn’t even the only source of income related to these cheesy movies. It turns out there’s a whole economy based around it, complete with conventions attended by thousands of people. This paragraph is fascinating to me in ways I have been struggling to articulate for days.

In addition to pricy day passes, fans can take part in a professional photo opps with stars like Lacey Chabert, Danica McKellar or Jesse Metcalfe, or buy an autograph for $80. Plus, each actor is paid a guaranteed rate to attend for the weekend — which can be anywhere from $10,000 to $75,000.

And, on the heels of this report, Hallmark went out and dropped this year’s holiday movie schedule. Guess who got the primo post-Thanksgiving Saturday night spot?

Saturday, Nov. 26: Haul Out the Holly
Stars: Lacey Chabert, Wes Brown, Ellen Travolta, Peter Jacobson, Melissa Peterman and Stephen Tobolowsky
Premieres 8 p.m. ET/PT.

Emily arrives home, hoping to visit her parents, only to discover that they are leaving on a trip of their own. As she stays at their house for the holidays, their HOA is determined to get Emily to participate in the neighborhood’s many Christmas festivities.

Please consider this your periodic reminder that everything is somehow 40-50 percent weirder than you assume it is, always, often in ways you could not have comprehended before they were presented to you in black and white. Also, that Lacey Chabert is doing great. Good for her.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE – Please think about this one for a couple of minutes this weekend

Three things are important to note here, and then we can move on…

ONE: Sometimes Danny DeVito, Hollywood legend and multi-decade veteran of the stage and screen, will post pictures of his foot on Twitter under the heading “TROLLFOOT.”

TWO: This is deeply funny to me, just the thing where he has leaned into being the weirdest dude all the time now, up to and including the thing last week where he did an ad for Jersey Mike’s Subs where he appeared to be extremely horny for hoagies.

THREE: Please take maybe five minutes at some point in the next few days and picture yourself driving down a California highway on a sunny September day, just picturesque and perfect and everything The Beach Boys ever sang about, and then you look out your window and Danny DeVito is lying on his back with his leg in the air trying to take a picture of his bare foot.

I guess that’s Hollywood for you.

READER MAIL

If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.

From Matthew:

We need a rule about movie trailers in theaters. Specifically, horror movie trailers. More specifically, no horror movie trailers except before horror or horror-adjacent movies. People who want to watch a movie about demonic possession or a creepy doll or a haunted house know about these movies already. Those of us hitting up a matinee of Confess, Fletch or like, the Marvel movie du jour don’t know, or, and this is my point, want to know that apparently a movie about an infectious demonic smile that kills you is coming out. Jason Blum is creative. He’ll find a different way to advertise.

Freakin’ THANK YOU, Matthew. God. What a good and simple rule, which I say as someone who loves seeing movies in a theater but very much does not enjoy horror movies, in general. It’s not that I’m some big fraidy cat baby — or at least not just that — as much as it is that I don’t like being scared in real life and do not want to scare myself on purpose in my leisure time. Separate these suckers. Gimme cool action movie trailers before cool action movies and cute rom-com trailers before cute rom-coms. I do not want to be reminded that I’m a huge baby right before I watch Fast & Furious 16: Getting A Little Slower, Actually because they ran a trailer for a movie called Demon Orphanage or something.

Leave me alone.

I just want to see Vin Diesel save the world using cars.

I don’t need all this.

Listen to Matthew.

Thank you.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To France!

A suspected gang of thieves who allegedly stole items worth €300,000 (£260,000) from first-class passengers on French trains has been captured.

It is thought they stole luggage from passengers after sitting beside them on high-speed trains crossing the country.

Hmm. Yes, I am interested in the train heist. It feels almost old-timey at this point, in the age of hackers and cybercrimes, just dudes sitting down next to rich French people and being like “Hey, look over there!” and then making off with their valuables. I kind of respect it in a way.

One man, aged 57, is said to have posed as a woman, wearing a wig.

I like to believe no one asked him to do this and he just showed up with a woman’s wig on all proud of himself and everyone in his crew groaned and was like “Jesus Christ, Gary, we talked about this.” It also brings me to the thing that hooked me with this story in the first place: the headline. Look at this pile of words: “French police nab first-class wig gang suspects.”

FIRST CLASS WIG GANG SUSPECTS

It’s beautiful.

The alleged modus operandi was to steal items during station stops after the unsuspecting owners got off the train to stretch their legs or have a smoke.

It’s so low-tech and simple that it’s almost charming. No hacking or trickery, just wigs and waiting. I mean, definitely do not do this. Especially do not do this to me. I like my stuff and want to keep it. But if I can’t talk you out of it, if you are truly dead-set on robbing people on a train, I suppose this is better than resorting to violence. Right?

I hope this is the argument their lawyer uses to defend them in court.

Police were first alerted in April when a passenger reported the theft of a briefcase containing jewellery worth €50,000, local media say.

Four months later, police discovered a hoard of stolen goods in the Marseille flat.

Please make this series at once and release it on a streaming service by the end of the year. Pierce Brosnan as the ringleader. Cousin Greg from Succession in a wig. And so on. These are good ideas. Much better than the ones in the actual crime itself.

Think about it.