GoneTrending

House of the Dragon is a straight-up hit so far in viewership numbers for HBO/HBO Max. There’s substance to back up the spectacle of the House Of Targaryen and their fire-breathing beasts, and it’s wild to see the show humanize this house after all the Game of Thrones background information to the contrary. So far, viewers have enjoyed not only Dem Dragons but also the show’s choice callbacks, and the hope is that the momentum keeps building as this first season and the already-announced second season continue to unfold.

Challenges do exist, however. Not only has co-showrunner Miguell Sapochnik (who helmed multiple Game of Thrones episodes, including “Battle of the Bastards”) announced his departure from the prequel, but multiple major cast members will soon hit the road as well. Those latter departures were pre-planned, obviously, because House of the Dragon (which takes place 170+ years before the O.G. show) will soon do a slight time jump into the future.

This means that the characters in the above image ^^ will be replaced by older actresses following Episode 5. Rhaenera began in the hands of Milly Alcock, who will pass the baton to Emma D’Arcy. Likewise, Allicent will transform from Emily Carey to Olivia Cooke. One wonders if the younger counterparts could ever return at some point in flashback mode, but we’ll have to wait and see what those cards hold. Regardless, it’s clear that we are in epic fantasy heaven right now between this show and Amazon’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

HBO’s House of the Dragon airs on Sunday nights at 9:00pm EST.

WARNING: Spoilers for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law below.

After She-Hulk: Attorney at Law dropped its third episode (in all its Megan Thee Stallion twerking glory), Marvel fans can’t help but wonder what’s really going on with Tim Roth‘s Emil Blonksy/Abomination. In the latest episode, Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters manages to secure Blonsky’s parole despite him complicating matters by slipping out of prison to take part in an underground fight club with Wong as seen in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. However, the fight club incident revealed that Blonsky isn’t being entirely truthful with Walters, which raises questions about his real motives in the She-Hulk series.

In a new interview, Roth is asked point blank if Blonsky is truly reformed, and while he doesn’t directly answer the question, his response hints that things aren’t as they seem. Here’s what he told The Wrap about returning to the character:

“You’re dancing on a knife’s edge. The original idea was that he would be — from the first movie, if they ever brought him back — where did we find him? Stan Lee and Kevin [Feige] talked about it; he was sealed and welded into a steel box and dropped to the bottom of the ocean. And then when he is released from that, however it happens, what is he? He’s had time to think. And he’s had time to harness the monster.”

Roth later got cheeky by saying that whatever is happening with Blonsky, “Honestly, I’m discovering it still, maybe.” That said, and here comes a possibly very large spoiler, Roth did get to shoot a scene with Mark Ruffalo, which hasn’t aired yet. Not only that, but Ruffalo is in his “loincloth” as Smart Hulk, so Marvel fans could be treated to a Hulk vs. Abomination rematch or one heck of a team-up.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law streams new episodes Thursdays on Disney+

(Via The Wrap)

Denny Hamlin enters this year’s NASCAR Playoffs in the sixth position as he chases an ever-elusive Cup series championship, having finished second once and third three times in the final standings in his career. This year, he comes in as one of the chasers. Hamlin holds just 13 points, which is only four more than the 12th spot where the first cut will be made after the first three races of the playoffs.

For Hamlin, that means a different approach from years where he’s entered as a points leader, and with the first race at a Darlington for the Cook Out Southern 500 (Sunday, Sept. 4, 4:00 p.m. ET on NBC), he’s feeling confident he can get off to a strong start given it’s a track he’s won at four times in 20 appearances with 15 top-10s. While the playoffs now take center stage for Hamlin, he’s also still got his own team, 23XI Racing, where he’s partnered with Michael Jordan for a two-car Cup series team, to worry about as well.

Prior to heading off to Darlington for the race weekend, we got a chance to talk with Denny about balancing life as a driver and team owner, his approach to this year’s playoffs being different, shaking off last week’s wreck at Daytona, adapting to a new car, and what it’s like co-owning a team with MJ.

First off, how are you feeling? I know you’re not doing the Xfinity race this weekend because you were dealing with some soreness. How are you feeling come off the wreck on Sunday?

Yeah, I think that I wanted to make sure I was 100 percent for Sunday, and that’s hard to do even when you’re healthy. It’s hard to do because the 500-mile race in the Southern 500 is really, really hard on your body. I’ve run the double there for the last couple of years, and I know that it’s taken a little bit out of me in that race, so it just makes sense to kind of sit this one out and focus, especially with our 11 team needing to perform really well at all the playoff tracks. We don’t have a big point cushion this year. We need to focus 100 percent on Sunday.

How does your body respond differently now to those hard hits then maybe 10-15 years ago? Have you learned kind of to listen to your body as you’ve gotten older?

Yeah, I mean, typically as you get older all the hits that didn’t bother you when you’re 25 do when you’re 40. All those things are quite a bit different. But just going off of a big car change from generation six to this one, there’s a significant change. So you just kind of listen to your body and make sure — that’s what Kurt Busch is doing and he says he’s not ready — and so you have to listen to your body and the older you get the more you have to do that.

With regards to the new car, I mean, from where you guys started the season in the 11 car to where you are now, that obviously wasn’t the ideal first few races. How happy are you with the way you guys have progressed and your comfort level as a team going into the playoffs with this car?

Well, there’s probably not going to be as many unknowns as what we were talking about early in the season. A lot of these racetracks we’re going to, we went to in the spring, so we’ll probably have a better understanding of how our performance is going to be that given weekend. So you know, at Kansas, the mile and a half, we’re probably going to perform really well there. The shorter tracks like the Roval, probably won’t perform as well. So it’s about how can we get the most out of our weekend even when we don’t have a fast car.

And then for you as as a driver, what have been the biggest adjustments you’ve had to make in the new car?

As a driver, you know, getting used to the braking zones is quite a bit different in this car, the deceleration of it, less power. All those things play a role in how you attack a certain race track and how you get speed out of this car on a particular race track. So I think it was important for me to kind of continue to evolve my game and how I have my certain disciplines at race tracks. I’ve had to evolve it with this race car because it is totally different.

You’ve had a lot of success in your career at Darlington. Even though it is a new car and like you said you’re making adjustments, is it nice starting the playoffs at the track that you’re at least comfortable in and know you’ve had a lot of success?

Yeah, it is. I mean, Darlington has always been a great race track for myself personally. Even in the spring it was really good until we got caught up in a wreck. But yeah, I’m comfortable going there. I think that it’s you know, for a lot of guys it’s a struggle track. I would hate to go to Charlotte Roval I guess the first race of the playoffs. You know, this is certainly one that’s kind of in our wheelhouse where we think that we can go out there, win, punch our ticket, and move on.

And then from a team ownership side, you’re now in your second year with that. What’s been the biggest surprise to you that maybe you weren’t expecting about being a team owner and the biggest learning curve for you in that regard?

The biggest thing is just being hands on with all the different departments that it takes to make a race team go. Certainly as a driver my job is competition of the 11 car, make sure I execute when they build me a fast car, how do I go win with it on the race track? So, I play a very small role in the performance of that 11 car. When you have a team, there’s so many different aspects that makes a car go — when you have your hands in ’em, there’s more gratification when it does run well.

So, I just learned to understand the business of it, understand what it takes to make a competitive team go. The struggles that it comes with. Every single week you’re putting out a different fire that didn’t see coming, so you just never know. And most people that run businesses understand that. It’s doesn’t just open itself and run itself every day, and you punch out at the end of the clock. So just understanding that and really kind of getting a taste of it over the last year and a half has been fun.

And then balancing that responsibility with with driving and kind of how have you learned to be able to put one hat on and take one hat off, and also when you have to wear both sometimes?

Yeah, sometimes you have to wear both, but you know on the weekends I really trying to focus on the FedEx hat. That’s the most important one to me. So I know that as long as I keep winning races in my number 11 FedEx car, that keeps me relevant as a car owner to 23XI. So that’s my first job. I know that my number one goal when I came into this sport was to win a championship. That goal is just 10 weeks away. And that’s on the driver’s side. So that’s where it kind of shift my focus really for these last few months is that, what can I do to achieve the goal that’s right here in front of me.

You’ve obviously known Michael Jordan for a long time being the Jordan athlete, but what is it been like partnering with him on this? And seeing that love of motorsports that that he has and also seeing that competitive spirit kind of firsthand.

Yeah, he’s race fan first, which is why he came into this sport to begin with is that he’s been a motorsports fan for a long time. But you know, he loves it and he loves being a part of it and he loves the growing part of it. What it takes to build a championship organization. And luckily for me, he’s kind of letting me have the reins of that to identify the talent that we need to hire and what infrastructure we need to build to build that out. So it’s been a great partnership. We’ve had and he’s got to reap the benefits of being able to come to the races and watch those cars go around the race track.

Shifting back to you in the 11 for the playoffs, this is your 15th playoffs appearance. From from when you started doing this to now, what have you learned about how to approach this 10-race season now it becomes a little bit more condensed and, kind of like you said, making sure you’re getting the most out of every week? Is that the biggest approach difference, maybe not saying I’m going to try to win every week?

Yeah, listen, I think that each year is a little bit different. I’ve had 40-plus playoff points some years and this year, I only have 13. So you have to honestly look at that and approach the first couple rounds differently than what I have in the past. So I have to look at points, we have to look at getting stage points, more so than what we had in years past. So you know, it’s going to be a stage by stage, race by race basis on how we approach the playoffs. I think just the tone gets set on qualifying this weekend. That’s really going to be a big indicator of whether you’re going to get stage points in the first stage or not. If we do, we’re going to feel pretty good about optimizing our strategy towards winning the race of the end versus getting second stage points. So, it’s always evolving, but this year is just a little different because we really need to get more points.

Yeah, and as a driver, the introduction of the stage points a few years ago, how does that change the calculus and how have you adapted? Because that wasn’t a thing early in your career where you ever had to think about was different sections of the race, but how do you pace yourself differently now?

Yeah, it’s different. I mean, I like it because it rewards you if you do get taken out with five laps go, you get rewarded for your performance during the course of the race. So I really liked that quite a bit. I’m happy that we added the stages in NASCAR, but certainly, there’s a lot of points to be gotten in any given race and if you miss out on ’em, you can finish 10th, but no stage point and lose out to someone who finished 28th, who went out there and won the first couple of stages. So you really have to perform the entire race which changes the dynamic for sure.

Leon Thomas has never been too far away from the spotlight. His early days were spent heavily in the acting world as he spent time on Broadway before moving to a big role on Nickelodeon’s Victorious. Both experiences gave Thomas the motivation to pursue a career in music, and after Victorious came to an end, that’s exactly what he did. Over the years, he’s written for the likes of Ariana Grande, Rick Ross, Kehlani, Post Malone, and Drake.

While his talents as a songwriter and producer are undeniable, so are his as a singer himself. Back in 2018, Thomas released his debut EP Genesis, which was spotlighted by “Favorite” with Buddy and “Beg” with Elle Varner. Four years later, Thomas is ready to share new and unheard stories about himself with the world through his upcoming debut album. This project will also be released under a new imprint as Thomas recently signed a deal with Ty Dolla Sign’s EZMNY Records imprint.

Fresh off the music video release for “Love Jones” with Ty Dolla Sign, Uproxx spoke with Thomas about his new releases, his upcoming album, the state of R&B, and more.

What would you say your identity and even influences are when it comes to you being an overall entertainer and creative?

Music is a huge part of my foundation. Most of the roles that I’ve been featured in over the years, from a kid until now, have had aspects of music woven into them in very real ways. Starting on Broadway really taught me my work ethic. Nobody’s really babying you on Broadway, you gotta show up, get it done, hit those rehearsals, and perform every night for everybody who’s paying those really expensive tickets to sit in and escape into this world. So that’s a real big part of my foundation. Showing up prepared, I think preparation is a huge part of all of it.

My family, they’re also very involved in music. My mom and my stepdad had a band that performed and opened up for people like Chaka Khan and [other] really big artists. My stepdad used to play for BB King, Salt N Pepa, [and] Missy Elliott. I just feel like growing up around amazing musicians has always helped me fall in love with music from the aspect of people who really spent time perfecting their craft and coming through with a unique ability.

You released “X-Rated” with Benny The Butcher, your first solo song in a few years, back in May. What made it the perfect time to get back into the swing of things and why that song to start?

First and foremost, “X-Rated” lives in such a very specific place that is really only attributed to my music right now and the next album that I’m about to release. I think seeing what Griselda was doing was super inspiring. I’m from New York, I feel like culturally when you’re being reintroduced to an artist or introduced to an artist for the first time, it’s really important to kind of understand culturally where they’re from. “X-Rated” to me had a lot of that boom-bap attached to it, and adding in Benny The Butcher really, really took it over to the top into that ’90s and nostalgic place. I wanted to really pinpoint that as the through line for what we were doing sound-wise for the rest of the album.

That direction you’re talking about continues with “Love Jones” featuring Ty Dolla Sign. What was the inspiration for that song?

A part of my process when I’m writing and producing records, is I always have a movie on in the background. While we were creating that song, I had Love Jones on. It’s one of my favorite films, I love the cinematography, I just love the vibe of it, it just feels good. I wasn’t able to actually use the scene that I originally had in the intro, but that intro kind of inspired a lot of what I was doing lyrically. Love Jones is about falling in love with somebody who has a passion, who’s artistic. If you think about the movie, Nina and Larenz Tate’s characters both had artistic passions, from him being a poet and her being an amazing photographer, they were able to fall in love in multiple ways at once. That’s an experience that I’ve also gone through personally living in California. Everybody’s got a dream and they’re chasing something more than just a white picket fence and a family. I feel like sometimes you can fall in love with somebody’s passion for the art just as much as you can fall in love with their physical and emotional attributes. “Love Jones” is all about that.

Both “X-Rated” and “Love Jones” sound a bit more slowed down and dimmed from the brighter and more upbeat records we heard on Genesis. What can you say about the total direction of your next project?

For me, it was really important to put it into music and find ways to really document my story and to give people more of a real look into my story as a human being. Outside of chasing charts, I felt like it was important for people to finally get a chance to really have that musical conversation with me and really get into my head and see some of the things that I’ve been going through as a human being. Sometimes I feel like it’s easier to tell stories like that super fast, in your face, and doing all types of stuff. I also co-produced on a lot of his music as well, just as I did on Genesis, but I felt like it was very important for me to express that sonically just as much as I did lyrically. There are certain sounds that bring that out of me and we used all of them on this one.

You did an interview last fall, and in it, you mentioned that you’re okay with being known, respected, and heralded by those behind the scenes more so than wanting all the flashy materialistic things from fame. With your upcoming releases, how would you define them being a success in your eyes?

I think success to me is really being able to genuinely touch the people that genuinely care about the music. Obviously, numbers are beautiful and we strive for greatness, but I feel like genuinely building a brand, that’s breaking a mold that’s been used for a very long time, takes time. I’m personally feeling very patient and I’m ready to just build this brick by brick. I want the same kind of love that J. Cole gets from his fans who are able to really ride with him through being true to himself throughout each and every project that he dropped and released, regardless of what the trends were doing at that time. I really respect him a lot. Even when I was in the Bahamas working with Drake, J. Cole was also out there and we had probably like a four-hour conversation in the studio just kicking it. Seeing the way that guy’s mind works just kind of showed me a lot of the similarities and the places that I like to go. At one point in my life, after I finished up all the work that I’m doing with EZMNY, I would love to have a Dreamville of my own one day or an EZMNY of my own one day, that’s the true idea of success.

What’s a collaboration, a crazy coincidence, or anything in general from your life that without it, you wouldn’t be the artist you are today?

My mom was doing a show and she took me to the rehearsal. A friend of hers was like, “He’s a charismatic kid, he should audition for The Lion King.” I always think about if I would have said no to that opportunity as a kid. Would I be sitting here speaking to you right now? I feel like that was the spark that brought me through an entire snowball of a career that I don’t think anybody expected to be as long and as fruitful as it has been. Even in my adult years, really having huge giants like Babyface open up their studios to me, like opening up that door and saying, “This huge, multimillion-dollar studio is free, and you can just do your thing, you’re good.” To have access to some of the best instruments on Earth, the best equipment on Earth to hone in on my skills, and watch his process a lot with huge artists, really put me in a position to create things for myself that I probably wouldn’t have been able to create as an artist who was reliant on a producer or writer to create for me. For the third one, at a certain point, I felt like I had hit a bit of a glass ceiling. Drake opening up the opportunity for me to work with him as well, became this huge snowball effect of notoriety and people noticing what I’m doing in music in different ways.

What artists can we expect to hear you work with in the coming future? And who’s someone on your bucket list that you can’t wait to work it?

I got some really cool record dropping man. I’ve been working with Snoh Aalegra and 6lack a lot. I’ve been working with Chloe Bailey, I have something with her too, she’s really awesome. We’ll see when they end up dropping all of their projects, but those are three amazing artists that I’ve been able to tap in with who are doing amazing things in the world of R&B. In hip-hop, I took a bit of a backseat because I was doing a lot of stuff in R&B for myself, but I’m really looking forward to working with a lot of the artists killing it right now. I feel like over time, it’s just gonna all come together, it’s gonna work out.

Scroll up to check out the new “Love Jones” video.

EuroBasket 2022 is going on right now, with a number of the NBA’s best European players taking the floor for their national teams and going head-to-head on a daily basis. The latest example of this came on Friday when Greece, led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, went up against a Croatia team that features a number of current and former NBA players, like Bojan Bogdanovic, Dario Saric, and Ivica Zubac.

It was a thrilling game, with Croatia doing everything it could to claw back from a double-digit deficit against the Greeks. They ultimately came up a little short, as Greece picked up an 89-85 win in large part because Antetokounmpo is the best basketball player on the planet.

As you might expect, Antetokounmpo’s numbers were ridiculous, as he went for 27 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, three blocks, and a steal while only turning the ball over once. But his biggest impact came late in the game, when Croatia got the lead down to two with less than a minute left and he decided that was as close as they were going to get. He had a ridiculous block on Zubac, a reverse alley-oop, another block (this time by erasing a corner three despite being in the paint when the shooter got the ball), and then a Eurostep where he was fouled but banked in a shot, anyway.

I truly have no idea how anyone is supposed to stop this guy. Greece will next take the floor on Saturday against Italy.

In 2003, Jay-Z was preparing to retire from the rap business. But before he went, he wanted the people to know why he’d hung on so long. After all, he was only supposed to release one album, 1996’s Reasonable Doubt. To hear him tell it, rap was just a way to launder the wealth he’d acquired by illicit means throughout the ‘80s. He’d stuck it out for another seven albums – eight if you include The Dynasty – and along the way, had multiplied that wealth. He wanted to focus on the business dealings that had allowed him to do so, but it seems he felt he owed his loyal listeners an explanation.

So on “Moment Of Clarity” from his supposed swan song The Black Album, he rhymes, “We as rappers must decide what’s most important / And I can’t help the poor if I’m one of them / So I got rich and gave back – to me, that’s the win, win.” Of course, the years after The Black Album’s release turned out to be more of an interlude than an ending; within the decade, he was right back at it, detailing his hustler mentality and defying both the odds stacked against him and the critics who found various ways to denounce his success.

That trend continued right on up to last week’s New Music Friday when Jay contributed a rare guest verse to DJ Khaled’s new album God Did. His rhymes on the title track are just as weighty, inspiring, insightful, and motivational as ever, prompting a week’s worth of praise and discussion that spanned Twitter, YouTube, and even MSNBC as Ari Melber broke down the verse in an analysis of the failed drug war that formed the foundation for Jay’s present success. But it also sparked controversy when Jay compared being called a “capitalist” to racist slurs during a Twitter Spaces discussion with journalist Rob Markman.

“Before it was the American Dream,” he mused of the ways in which the US’s socioeconomic and political systems stack the deck against the nation’s Black citizens. “‘Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You can make it in America.’ All these lies that America told us our whole life and then when we start getting it, they try to lock us out of it. They start inventing words like ‘capitalist.’ We’ve been called ‘n****rs’ and ‘monkeys’ and sh*t. I don’t care what words y’all come up with. Y’all gotta come with stronger words.” Fans were flabbergasted at the comparison, which seemed to suggest that Jay equates “capitalist” to a dirty word – and that he also thinks it’s being leveled at him specifically for being a Black success story. But why?

First of all, let’s get one thing out of the way: Jay-Z is a capitalist. I shouldn’t need to give a dictionary definition here, but clearly, this is the level we’re working on, so here it is: A capitalist is “a wealthy person who uses the money to invest in trade and industry for profit in accordance with the principles of capitalism,” according to Oxford Dictionary. Jay-Z is a wealthy person. He invests in various industries to make a profit. He is a capitalist. Now that we’ve established that, let’s play junior armchair psychologist to figure out why being called one seems to hurt his feelings so much – or at least why he thinks it’s meant to.

It helps to look at his words from “Moment Of Clarity,” because they’re so instructive about what he thinks and why. Jay wants to get rich, in his own words, to “give back.” And from what we’ve seen from him in the last few years, it really does seem that way. He and Meek Mill founded the REFORM Alliance to use their shared wealth to pressure lawmakers to make sweeping changes to the criminal justice system, from ending cash bail to improving conditions in prisons to rewriting legislation – which he calls “draconian” in “God Did” – that is unfairly skewed against Black Americans. He’s also offered financial education classes to residents of Brooklyn’s Marcy housing projects, where he grew up, and in general, seems really keen to teach and support other aspiring Black entrepreneurs how to overcome a system that’s weighted against them.

We know the laws punish us the most. We know the police target us. We know that the powers that be are shorting Black Americans’ opportunities in education and business. Jay looks at all that and has decided that the best way to defy a system that is set up for you to fail is to succeed within that system. This is his rebellion. If all your life you are told that you are destined only for an early grave, a life sentence in prison, or a dull life spent in blue-collar drudgery, then to him, the only way to win is to do the opposite, then to push others to do the same. It even makes sense, when you consider the context under which he evolved as an artist and a person.

Think about it: Jay’s a product, literally, of the Reagan eighties. His concepts are very much in line with the idea of “trickle down” economics, the idea that as the rich get richer, they will open up their coffers and share those opportunities with the lower class and less fortunate, providing a ladder to success. But the problem is, we know – as well as we know the truisms that I listed above – that there is no trickle-down effect. The rich get richer and pull that ladder up right along behind them to keep as much distance between them and the great unwashed masses as they possibly can. And I think this might well be the crux of Jay’s offense at being called a capitalist.

It’s guilt by association. In his heart, he’s doing what he’s doing out of a sense of universal altruism. His intentions are pure, so he doesn’t want to be painted with the same broad brush as his contemporaries. He isn’t pulling up the ladder. He isn’t denying opportunities, he’s giving them. He’s not like those other, nasty capitalists who are keeping folks downtrodden while counting their profits and swimming in gold bullion like Scrooge McDuck. He’s no miser. And the thing is, we’ve seen him wounded by critical rhetoric before, and he’s used the same defenses.

On the title track from Blueprint 2, Jay raps about critics condemning some of his misogynistic content on songs like “Big Pimpin’” and “Give It To Me.” “They call me this misogynist,” he complains, “But they don’t call me the dude to take his dollars to give gifts at the projects / These dudes are all politics, depositin’ checks they put in the pocket, all you get in return is a lot of lip.” He wants us to judge him by his positive deeds as much as by his negative ones, especially in comparison to other wealthy businessmen who say they want to help but don’t. Why can’t we just see that he’s different?

There’s the rub, though: He isn’t. As much money as he gives away, he still has more. While he pours some of his funds into prison reform, he also boasts that “new planes gettin’ broken in” – meaning he’s bought a private jet. We see Jay’s lavish lifestyle because he shows it to us, every bit as often as he tells us about his latest philanthropic endeavor. Yes, he offers an example to aspire to, but there can only be so much wealth to go around – and acquiring it often leaves others at an increased disadvantage.

This is the analogy I came up with listening to Jay speak on Twitter that night. Imagine you’re playing Monopoly but all of your opponents have advantages you don’t have, and you have been saddled with disadvantages none of the others face. Your bank is a tenth of that of your rival players, you can only collect $50 when you pass “Go” instead of $200, you only get to roll one die while everyone else can roll two, and your property cost is 25% above the price listed on each space, you make 25% less from each time an opposing player lands on a space you own, and you must avoid the “go to jail” card at all costs or you are out of the game entirely. And somehow, despite all that, you win the game. Yes, that is impressive, and yes, you absolutely deserve congratulations.

However, your win doesn’t materially change the conditions for the next person to play Monopoly. The skewed rules remain in place, with the exception that you can coach the next player on avoiding pitfalls you fell into or taking advantage of loopholes you discovered. The game of Monopoly still sucks. It’s still fundamentally unfair. And in the end, it’s still about a bitter, spiteful competition in which the only way to win is to make sure everyone else loses. (It also still takes FOREVER, making it an absolutely pointless party game.) Wouldn’t it be better to put Monopoly back in the box, throw that box out of the goddamn window so no one ever sees it again, and play a game where everybody has fun – or at least an equal chance of winning?

That’s what Jay has missed in the critiques of his strategy for overcoming oppression. He wants the praise, but none of the criticism – which isn’t so much about him being a good or bad person but more about how his success at the game of American Economic Monopoly does not, ultimately, help Black people as much as he thinks it does. He’s welcome to continue using his success to influence politics and law and education and industry to open doors that would ordinarily be closed to most of us, but in the end, he may learn that it could be more effective to change the game entirely.

That’s what Black revolutionaries like Fred Hampton and Malcolm X – who Jay loves to name-check in his songs – ultimately wanted, too. Even Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. “Content of their Character” himself, was a socialist. These men recognized that if the system is inherently unfair, there’s no amount of individual success that can offset the cost to the wider population. It took Jay a while, but he eventually expressed remorse for the misogynistic content that he once defended, and has actually seemingly changed his views in that respect. The hope is that one day, he’ll realize the same need to rethink his economic views as well.

The xx’s Oliver Sim is unveiling his debut solo album Hideous Bastard in a week. He was set to kick off a tour on September 29 in Seattle and head out to other states and eventually end up in London at the end of October, but he announced today that the shows are canceled.

“Part of the reason Hideous Bastard came to be was imagining playing the songs live,” he wrote in a post on Instagram. “But timing is everything and sometimes things don’t quite come together the way we’d hoped. The shows booked for September and October are sadly not able to happen so we’ll have to wait a little longer to hear these songs in a room together. I’m sorry for any inconvenience caused but I look forward to putting on a truly hideous show for you very soon.”

So far, Sim has released the singles “Romance With A Memory,” “Fruit,” “Hideous,” and “GMT.” The latter was written with Jamie xx and sampled The Beach Boys, about which he said, “You’re not just sampling because of how beautiful it sounds, but because of all of the emotional memories you have locked into it.”

Hideous Bastard is out 9/9 via Young. Pre-order it here.

Despite the fact that Lord of the Rings: Rings Of Power shares a name, location, and even some characters with the iconic Lord of the Rings franchise, the show’s executive producer does not want you to think you know what’s about to happen on the show, which takes place nearly 2,000 years before our familiar fellowship friends embark on their journey.

Executive producer Lindsey Weber stopped by Deadline’s Hero Nation podcast to set the record straight about what to expect from the highly-anticipated (and expensive) series. “The first thing I would say is we don’t really think of it as a prequel, though it is before,” Weber explained. “Something about the word prequel seems to suggest you need to know what comes later to appreciate it. It’s sort of like an appendage to a preexisting thing, and we don’t feel that way about this.”

Even though fans might be familiar with some of the storylines and references, Weber says that this story is for everyone, not just seasoned fans of Tolkien’s universe. “This is a story that you can appreciate if you’ve not read the books, if you’ve not seen the movies, there is an on-ramp for you,” Weber added. “This could be your first introduction to Middle-earth and we would be honored if it does become that for people, and it winds up turning people on to read the books – it would be a thrill for us.”

Of course, there are some familiar faces that might appear. When a curious character only named “The Stranger” appeared in the season premiere, many were speculating that he is a much younger incarnation of everybody’s favorite wizard Gandalf. Weber won’t reveal any more about the stranger, but she did give a cryptic clue: “What I can say is that he is a bit of an onion with many layers to peel. And I think it will be a fun journey for fans to peel as the season goes along.” Onions? Layers? Perhaps this is a Shrek crossover event.

(Via Deadline)

“Everybody wants to not get yelled at.” –PFT Commenter

Just like every episode of The Wire begins with a quote from the episode, every episode description for Pod Yourself The Wire: A The Wire Podcast, now begins with a quote from the podcast. Today’s quote comes from writer, podcaster, cohost of Pardon My Take and the Macrodosing podcast, PFT Commenter. Matt and Vince welcomed PFT to talk about season one episode two of The Wire, “The Buys.”

To hear it now, subscribe at Patreon.com/Frotcast. Episode one is available for free.

PFT breaks down the subtext of the episode right from the start. What we all really want from our job is to not get yelled at. The Wire does a great job of reminding you that cops are guys who will absolutely shirk their duties at work if it means they won’t get yelled at, but also they have guns, and if they think shooting or pistol whipping some poor mope’s eyeball out of his socket will lead to less yelling in his direction, he’ll do it.

It’s easy to judge because, you know, they are abusing their power to avoid accountability, but can you imagine if they gave you a gun at work? Like, how quickly would you make some entitled customer shut up and leave your Quizno’s if you could wave a glock around? Would you wield that power responsibly? I’d be a terrible cop, and I bet you would too. It’s almost like the whole system is broken. It’s a cliché, but if you talk about The Wire long enough you will eventually say “the whole system is broken.” It’s unavoidable.

A friendly reminder that cops are allowed to lie to you during interrogations, and you are allowed to lie in podcast reviews, so even if you don’t like the show, give us five stars on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe to Pod Yourself A Gun on Apple Podcasts (Or Stitcher)

Email us at [email protected]; leave us a voicemail at 415-275-0030

Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast to get more bonus content than you could ever want. Sign up for the Pod Yourself a Shoutout tier to hear Vince give you a corner nickname on the podcast.

-Description by Brent Flyberg

Last week, Boston Celtics forward Danilo Gallinari suffered a knee injury while representing Italy in a FIBA World Cup Qualifier game against Georgia on Saturday. The Celtics announced Friday that Gallinari tore his left ACL and the timeline for recovery is six-to-12 months.

Initially, Gallinari’s injury was diagnosed as a torn meniscus, which tends to be a more manageable injury with a briefer recovery period. This updated news obviously changes things. First and foremost, the wish is the 34-year-old Gallinari can make a full recovery as quickly as possible. Nobody deserves to endure this sort of injury and the rehab can be grueling.

Boston signed Gallinari to a two-year, $13.2 million deal last month, so he at least has some financial security. According to the timeline reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania, he could return as soon as late February, if he adheres to a six-month rehab. He could also be sidelined for the entire season, if he needs 10 or more months to recover. Gallinari was set to begin his 14th NBA season and was viewed as an important depth piece for Boston, which could really use his shooting and veteran savvy off of the bench. Back in 2013, he missed the entirety of 2013-14 due to a torn ACL in his left knee.