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DDG and Halle Bailey recently went public with their romantic relationship and the “If I Want You” video ups the ante. The Pontiac artist enjoys a night swim and evening car ride in the trap’n’b record, but the hottest moments come when he and the pop star are intertwined in the bedroom.

The dark tone of the visual and celestial female background vocals create a sensual aura for Bailey and DDG to caress one another. “I’m touching you in person, I don’t need you on my feed,” DDG exclaims, reveling in the fact he can enjoy Bailey in real life as opposed to admiring from her afar.

For DDG, “If I Want You” comes in what has been an active 2022 for the 24-year-old rapper. He released “Stay In My Circle,” “Storyteller,” and “Elon Musk” featuring Gunna in addition to appearing on “Meat This” with Blueface. In terms of projects, DDG collaborated with OG Parker on the June 2021 project Die 4 Respect which included appearances from 42 Dugg, Coi Leray, PnB Rock, Lil Yachty, and Tyla Yaweh.

With Halle Bailey as his muse and a strong work ethic, the best may be yet to come for DDG.

Check out the video for “If I Want You” above.

The 2022-23 schedule for all 30 NBA teams has finally been released, and it allows fans the opportunity to start marking their calendars and planning around the can’t miss games on the schedule. While not every team shares the same goals for the 2022-23 season, they all have games where fans will be circling dates and trying to make sure they’re in the building for or at least able to watch on TV, and here we are going to highlight five such games for each team.

Here, we will dive into the Dallas Mavericks, fresh off of a run to the Western Conference Finals. Dallas won 52 games a year ago and, while the Mavericks did suffer a significant personnel loss with Jalen Brunson signing in New York, there is a lot to be excited about in Dallas. Luka Doncic is projected as a leading MVP candidate, and the Mavericks add an intriguing talent in Christian Wood. Dallas also brought in additional center depth with JaVale McGee, and the Mavericks have a full season of Spencer Dinwiddie after the successful trade with Washington last season.

The Mavericks will need to patch together the production loss of Brunson, but having Doncic and a talented roster is a good start, and Dallas will have the chance to prove itself in each game listed below.

October 19, 2022: at Phoenix Suns (ESPN, 10:00 P.M. ET)

Opening night will be a return to the scene of the crime. The Mavericks left the Suns in complete shock after their stunning Game 7 blowout win in Phoenix last season. Phoenix entered that series having won 11 straight games against the Mavericks and went up 2-0 in the series, only to lose four of the next five games, including two blowouts in Games 6 and 7. It still does not feel quite real. While there’s been much made about a rivalry between Luka and Trae Young, it feels like a far more organic rivalry exists between Devin Booker and Luka. Booker mocked Doncic during the playoff series, calling his flopping the Luka special. The trash talk only fueled Luka after he was caught on camera after Game 5 saying “everybody acts tough when they’re up.” Any time these two play basketball against one another, it’s sure to be must-see TV.

December 9, 2022: vs. Milwaukee Bucks (ESPN, 10:00 P.M. ET)

Luka Doncic going up against Giannis Antetokounmpo? Yes, please. The two heavyweights will clash twice early in the season, which will serve as barometer for where this reconstructed Mavs roster stands amongst the league’s contenders. The Mavs’ 5-out offense has fared well against the Bucks during the Doncic era due to the Bucks’ conservative drop scheme. This matchup has produced some of Luka’s best games as a playmaker, including a 19-assist outing in the Bubble and a 15-assist game in a win against Milwaukee last season.

December 25, 2022: vs. Los Angeles Lakers (ABC, 2:30 P.M. ET)

For the first time since 2011, the Mavericks are playing a Christmas game at home. This Christmas Day slot has been given to the Luka-LeBron matchup, and it will absolutely be worth ignoring your family after presents are opened to watch this one. Both the Mavericks and Lakers enter the seasons with questions on how their rosters will coalesce, and this will be an interesting test for both teams to determine how close they are to contention.

December 27, 2022: vs. New York Knicks (8:00 P.M. ET)

Shortly after Christmas, Jalen Brunson will make his return to Dallas after leaving in free agency to join the Knicks. Brunson’s departure still stinks considering his vital role as the second leading scorer on a team that made the Western Conference Finals. By all accounts, Brunson had great relationships with his teammates and the coaching staff, but it will be interesting to see how Mavs fans greet Brunson on his return to the American Airlines Center.

January 24, 2022: vs. Washington Wizards (8:30 P.M. ET)

Barring injury, this will be Kristaps Porzingis’ first appearance at the American Airlines Center since he was traded to the Wizards at the deadline last season. His return to Dallas shouldn’t bring the same animosity as his return to Madison Square Garden. While the trade was unexpected, the Porzingis deal brought role clarity and playmaking to the Maverick roster that propelled them to the Western Conference Finals, but that won’t make the first time Porzingis gets switched onto Doncic any less enticing.

It’s a Friday afternoon in August, which means the closest thing to NBA news right now is a video of James Harden celebrating his birthday on a yacht and launching a birthday cake into the ocean for reasons that are not known.

You have probably seen this video somewhere on social media, but we here at Dime want to take a closer look because there are a number of questions we have about the cake incident and why it happened.

First off, the cake is quite obviously fake. It does not change structure when it is tipped over at a 90-degree angle before being launched off of the yacht. Harden also does not have any icing on his right hand after grabbing the base layer, and despite being a four-layer cake, it goes flying into the ocean after an incredibly gentle flick by Mr. Harden.

So that begs the question, why would there be a fake cake at James Harden’s yacht celebration? Why would he not have an actual cake? If he didn’t want an actual cake, why bother bringing a fake cake at all? Beyond that, why throw the fake cake into the ocean? We’re littering now, James? C’mon man, that’s not cool. I think the answer to all of these questions is “why not?” which I guess is a good enough reason as James seemed to enjoy launching the cardboard cake into the water to the confusion of the DJ and everyone else.

The talk of DJ Khaled’s new album God Did might be the title track and its outstanding Jay-Z feature, but the Miami superproducer isn’t about to let the rest of his latest project languish. He strikes while the iron’s still white hot with the video for “Big Time” featuring Atlanta’s finest, Future and Lil Baby.

The video opens with a short interlude that might be intended to be comedic — but with DJ Khaled, who really knows — that sees Khaled soaking in a bubble bath surrounded by scantily clad beauties. One fans him with a palm frond, another feeds him grapes, and yet another pops out for the apparent sole purpose of removing a serving tray cover when he demands his butler bring him a towel.

Once the video gets started, it bears all the hallmarks of a DJ Khaled original. Future, Khaled, and Lil Baby all roam the immaculately manicured lawn of a beachside villa while being attended to by the aforementioned beauties. A helicopter buzzes overhead, and yes, products are placed; Khaled shows off his Theragun, and a bottle of Luc Belaire gets its own hero shot alongside the shapely models as they lounge by the pool (Rick Ross, oddly enough, does not cameo along with his liquor). Big time, indeed.

Watch DJ Khaled’s “Big Time” video featuring Future and Lil Baby above.

God Did is out now on We The Best / Epic Records. Get it here.

Episode-length parodies aren’t always successful, but the Property Brothers spoof on this week’s What We Do in the Shadows — the funniest show on television — was another fantastic episode in a season full of them.

It doesn’t take a super-fan of John and Jim Property, which I assume is the names of the brothers, to recognize the tropes that were being mocked. But that took a lot of work — and a lot of Property Brothers episodes. During the pandemic lockdown, What We Do in the Shadows director Yana Gorskaya told Vulture that she “spent most of my free time watching Property Brothers. I feel like I was made to do this episode.” Director of photography DJ Stipsen was less enthused about having to do an HGTV binge, but “it felt really necessary,” Gorskaya said. “Our show was already documentary style, so the parallels are there in terms of the handheld look. But it was helpful to have conversations about how to make it look and feel different from a regular Shadows episode.”

This is true, but my biggest laugh of the episode came when the format returned to its “regular” documentary look. Please enjoy the great Matt Berry saying “New York City.”

This video currently has 1.9 million views. At least 27 of them are mine.

Make it 28.

It’s not too late to let Matt Berry host Shark Week or a NYC-set travel show. I can picture it now: [Matt Berry voice] “Pizza”

Make it 29.

(Via Vulture)

The Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary series Chef’s Table returns on September 7th with what looks to be the series’ best season ever, Chef’s Table: Pizza. Nothing beats pizza, and a whole season that focuses on the art of the perfect pie is sure to rival even the biggest shows fighting for your attention right now. Seriously, ask yourself — do you really want to watch an hour of Game of Thrones dragon f*ckery or spend an hour salivating at beautifully shot pizza porn with pies that look so good you can taste them through the screen?

Our money is on the pizza. Hell, an NYC touring episode is practically written out right here.

The new season will center around the six chefs who are currently elevating the art form of the perfect pie, including legends like Chris Bianco, Gabriele Bonci, Ann Kim, Franco Pepe, Yoshihiro Imai, and Sarah Minnick as we bounce between Phoenix, Caiazzo and Rome, Minneapolis, Portland, and Kyoto. Clearly the show aims to offer a slice for every sort of pizza fan out there. Whether you’re all about those classic red sauce mozzarella pies or prefer something a little bit more decorative and inventive, Chef’s Table: Pizza looks to have it all.

Aside from the varied styles of pizza we see, it looks like the new season is going to have a lot of emotional range as well, with insanely quotable lines like, “When we make dough, there is no machine behind it, there are only the arms and the mind of the man” along with heavily emotional moments that examine the tortured souls of artists who become consumed by their medium. It’s wild stuff and this season looks right up there with series creator David Gelb’s Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

Check out the trailer for the new season above and catch Chef’s Table: Pizza on Netflix on September 7th.

Long ago, Blockbuster Video had the chance to buy a fledgling little company that was delivering DVDs to customers by mail. The rental giant took a pass. That company would quickly become Netflix, and within a few years it would completely revolutionize how people watch movies in the home. As Netflix became a massive entertainment powerhouse, Blockbuster began shuttering locations across the nation, and now, it’s down to its last store in Bend, Oregon, which is somehow still holding on and doing deals with Oreo?

In short, Netflix absolutely crushed Blockbuster, which makes it hilariously awkward (and, maybe, even deliciously petty) that the streaming platform is unveiling a new sitcom based on the failed rental giant. Creatively titled Blockbuster, the new series will star Randall Park (WandaVision), Melissa Fumero (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), and JB Smoove (Arrested Development) when it arrives in November.

Here’s the official logline:

Timmy Yoon (Randall Park) Is an analog dreamer living in a 5G world. And after learning he is operating the last Blockbuster Video in America, Timmy and his staff employees (including his long-time crush, Eliza (Melissa Fumero) fight to stay relevant. The only way to succeed is to remind their community that they provide something big corporations can’t: human connection.

The cast will also include Olga Merediz, Tyler Alvarez, and Madeline Arthur who will round out the employees at the last remaining and inevitably doomed Blockbuster location.

Netflix also released a set of first-look photos from Blockbuster, which you can see below:

Blockbuster starts streaming November 3 on Netflix.

A lot has been made about the budget for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Too much, one could argue. But I would not make this argument. This is the most expensive show in the history of television, to the tune of $715 million for the first season alone if you include the nearly $250 million that Amazon paid for the rights.

The Wall Street Journal put The Rings of Power‘s staggering budget into perspective: the bill “comes to roughly $715 million, or about 5,143,885 annual Prime subscriptions — 0.15 percent of Amazon’s 2021 revenues and approximately one-fifth what New Zealand, where the series was filmed, allocated for its defense budget this year.”

It’s unclear how many Prime Video subscribers have an annual subscription compared to month to month, but overall, Amazon’s streaming service has 175 million subscribers. Meaning, roughly one of out every 35 patrons is footing the bill for The Rings of Power.

The sellers had expected to receive between $50 million and $75 million for the rights… The nearly $250 million offered by Amazon — split roughly 50/50 between the Tolkien estate and Warner Bros. — came after the company pledged several seasons of the show and highlighted its ability to cross-promote the author’s books on its website. (In 1999, Amazon customers named Lord of the Rings the best book of the millennium.)

If The Rings of Power is a bust, Amazon’s space-obsessed CEO Jeff Bezos will take a major financial hit: he’ll only be able to afford two mega-yachts this year, instead of three.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on September 1.

(Via the Wall Street Journal)

Producer-led albums are far from a novelty in music, but they exist within different lanes. Some producers opt to provide the entirety of a project’s beats for artists to perform over, while others curate a collection of music by bringing in other masterminds in addition to rappers or singers. With the new release of DJ Khaled’s God Did, a fan questioned how compensation works when someone like him and Calvin Harris are known as DJs. Let’s just say, the Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2 artist came with the facts.

In a Friday morning (August 26) tweet, a fan asked, “I always wonder how DJs like Khaled and Calvin Harris make bread. Like all of their songs are other artists. Just production revenue?” This fan is surely not alone in this inquiry, as many do not understand the work that goes into these projects beyond what on the surface seems to not be much. The “Feel So Close” artist came across the tweet and showed why more respect should be put on his name by the unaware masses.

“Because I write, produce, mix, play every instrument and sometimes vocal. We found love, Summer, Feel so close for example 100% publishing because I did everything,” Harris said in a quote tweet. “Only reason I got Frank Ocean feature was he told me we found love was one of his favorite songs. I wrote that song.”

Now, any doubts can, or should, be put to bed as to what Calvin Harris is capable of. If the tweet isn’t enough, there is also his first two albums I Created Disco and Ready For The Weekend, from 2007 and 2009 respectively, where he shows his vocal chops with minimal features.

Check out the exchange between Calvin Harris and the fan above.

In 2019, while still relatively early in her come-up to being the nationally recognized star she is today, Megan Thee Stallion noted that online stan wars appeared to be the source of much of the friction between female rappers. “A lot of beef between women gets started because of their fanbases,” she told Joe Budden on his podcast. She also provided her idea for a solution: “Let’s all get to know each other. Let’s be cool because when the fans see that girls are being nice to each other that makes them lessen that drama.”

Her perspective makes a lot of sense, considering she’s one of only a handful of newer rappers to have collaborated with both Cardi B and Nicki Minaj, who are usually the focal point of most of the toxic fan bickering on Twitter. This week, Megan appeared on another show — Yung Miami’s Caresha Please — and reiterated this viewpoint with her previous experience in mind. “Do you feel like y’all ever be in those type of predicaments, like you can’t work with somebody because you worked with somebody else?” she asked.

“I feel like, just friends in general when you know your friend might not feel so good about somebody, do you like, go out your way to be like, ‘Okay, bitch, I’m not f*cking with you. Period.’” While she acknowledged that loyalty is important, outside observers seem more interested in seeing artists throw away business opportunities in music. I feel like it be the fans more so than anybody,” she said. “They keep it up more than the actual artists and they got the world thinking something that’s not happening.”

Her words are especially poignant today after Cardi B was once again confronted with trolling from one of Nicki’s stans who accused her husband Offset of cheating on her with Saweetie. As Cardi pointed out, there was no evidence to support the claim, just attention-seeking behavior from a fan who hasn’t quite figured out that stars are people too. In 2020, Cardi also shared her view that fans try to instigate beef, saying, “When female artists are rising, you don’t have to put one down because the others are rising. Every single time a female rapper comes out, people wanna start fake beef.”

You can watch the full episode of Caresha Please above.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.