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Ahead of the season premiere of Power Book III: Raising Kanan tonight, Joey Badass spoke with HipHopDX about his role. On the show, Joey plays a drug kingpin named Kadeem “Unique” Mathis.

Joey‘s performance has received much praise, and in the interview, he said he drew from real-life experiences of witnessing drug deals growing up in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn.

“I always been around that stuff, but I never took that path because it was right there,” Joey said. “I wanted to challenge myself to do other things, and then I had good older cousins and family that pushed me to not do that because they were doing it. It would’ve been easy for me to do it, but they wanted to see better for their little cousin and nephew…So it was easy to just kind of pull from those experiences that I’ve had or those observations that I made as a kid.”

Over the years, Joey has built an impressive acting resume, with stints on Mr. Robot, Grown-ish, and Wu-Tang: An American Saga. Elsewhere in the interview, Joey said that acting, to him, comes as easily as making music.

“Acting, in general, comes pretty instinctively to me…just in a way where you kind of go somewhere else. Like on that stage, I gotta go into superstar mode. I’m still here but it’s like a superstar hangover, but when I’m home, it’s a different vibe where I’m chill.”

Season 2 of Power Book III: Raising Kanan premieres tonight at 9 p.m. EST on Starz.

Joey Badass’ newest album, 2000, is out now via Columbia Records. Stream it here.

No one seems to much like Ted Cruz, which may be why he’s so desperate to be loved. He’ll even kiss the ring of a guy who called his wife ugly and claimed his dad helped kill JFK. Now the most-mocked man in Congress has found another way to make the worst people in the world like him: make dumb transphobic jokes about Elizabeth Warren.

Cruz was speaking at a rally in Nevada Saturday when he tried to paint D.C. as a Sodom and Gomorrah of progressive attitudes. “We need courage responding to crazy town,” Cruz told the crowd. “Elizabeth Warren told reporters that a guy came up to her and said, ‘I would have voted for you if only you had a penis.’”

Cruz called Warren’s story — accusing even her own party of rank misogyny — a “lie.” Then he went one step further. “In today’s Democrat [sic] Party, how do we know she doesn’t?” he cracked, earning big applause. He added, “How could you possibly know? ‘My name is Elizabeth. Call me Bob.’”

Later, Cruz called trans swimmer Lia Thomas a “dude,” and said, “He looks like Michael Phelps.”

Cruz’s comments (as well as another transphobic joke he made on Twitter the same day) come as the GOP has resurrected old school homophobia while amplifying their already pronounced transphobia. But again, no one seems to like Ted Cruz, not even the star of his favorite movie, and no one ever buys his weak attempts to act like a tough guy. He even recently had his butt handed to him by Jon Stewart, who showed how little he cares about veterans. Perhaps that’s why he’s reaching for the low-hanging fruit of bigoted jokes.

(Via Raw Story)

With the NBA set to release its schedule sometime in the next week, newsbreakers are starting to learn some tidbits about the league’s plans for its biggest days on the calendar.

We’ve learned that the Lakers will head to San Francisco on the opening night of the season for the Warriors’ ring ceremony, while a couple of Christmas Day contests have been revealed: Lakers-Mavericks and Grizzlies-Warriors.

The latter of those was something that wasn’t just a matchup fans were hoping for, but players on both sides were angling to see after they developed something of a rivalry after their West semis matchup that saw the Warriors come out on top in six games. During that series there was plenty of chirping on both sides, accusations of dirty play, and some really good basketball too, and the league seems to be embracing that budding rivalry in the West by giving it a spot on the biggest day of the NBA calendar.

The two stars of each team that have done the most talking, Ja Morant and Draymond Green, celebrated the news of their Christmas Day showdown on Twitter, feeling like they’d posted this into existence — with Green even offering to open his home to Morant’s family for Christmas dinner.

It’s a cool gesture from Green who clearly enjoys the banter with the young Grizzlies and knows the difference between real beef and some trash talk on the court (and on Twitter). While the Greens and Morants might get together and break bread afterwards, it seems less likely that type of invite will be extended from, say, Klay Thompson to Dillon Brooks.

Rand Paul hates government so much he got a job working inside it. The Republican senator, outspoken libertarian, and frequent Dr. Fauci punching bag is notorious for standing up to laws that may actually help people — unless they’re for his constituents, in which case he’s all for them. Now he’s conveniently come out against the very law that might land former president Donald Trump in the slammer.

As caught by Insider, the Kentucky lawmaker wants to do away with the Espionage Act, just after it was revealed that Trump may have violated it. “The Espionage Act was abused from the beginning to jail dissenters of WWI,” Paul tweeted. “It is long past time to repeal this egregious affront to the 1st Amendment.”

To make his case, Paul linked to a 2019 article by former Libertarian presidential candidate Jacob Hornberger, who called the law “tyrannical” after it was applied to Julian Assange. The law, which was enacted in 1917, punishes those who share information that could harm the U.S. or benefit foreign adversaries.

Last Monday, FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago, the resort in which Trump now resides, taking with them 11 sets of documents. Sources claim some of the items pertain to nuclear weapons. In a statement he released Friday, Trump did not deny this.

Trump has claimed — erroneously — that as president he had the power to declassify any documents he wished. The Justice Department revealed Friday that they are investigating whether Trump broke the Espionage Act as well as two other laws. A conviction for breaking the Espionage Act carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Even if he’s sent to the clink, Sean Hannity claims he could still run for president.

Paul’s comments earned derision, including from Charles Booker, who’s currently challenging his Kentucky Senate seat. Booker called Paul’s actions “shameful” and vowed, “When I am elected to the Senate, you will never have to question my loyalty to our country.”

(Via Insider)

Making a rare appearance on Twitter, Kendrick Lamar briefly shared an update from his “Big Steppers” tour. During his short bout on Twitter, Lamar expressed some kind words about his “Family Ties” collaborator, labelmate, and cousin, Baby Keem.

In a Tweet, Lamar praised Keem’s craft, simply posting, “baby keem musical genius.”

Elsewhere in his postings, Lamar said his “Steppers Tour” is the “greatest show alive.”

For years, there have been rumors about a joint album between Keem and Lamar. In an interview with the Recording Academy, Keem didn’t rule out the possibility.

“It could happen and it couldn’t, I don’t know,” Keem said. “It just really depends on a lot of factors that I don’t have control over. So, it’s just what the world wants. The world wants it, then it can have it.”

Keem previously spoke on his relationship with Lamar with Complex, saying that his cousin is one of the people he greatly admires.

“Whenever I need anything regarding, like, life, and if I need some wisdom, then that’s who I go to,” Keem said. “That’s one of the first people I look towards, him and Dave Free.”

Lamar’s latest album, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, marks his last album on Top Dawg Entertainment. He is currently working on building his multi-disciplinary creative collective, pgLang.

Over the past couple of seasons, NBC has been playing musical chairs with its football broadcast teams, as the impending departure of Al Michaels led them to bringing in Mike Tirico from ESPN, and they tried to capture the same magic CBS had with Tony Romo by hiring Drew Brees in hopes he could be a long-term replacement for Cris Collinsworth in the booth.

However, a year after pairing Tirico and Brees on Notre Dame games as a trial run for Sunday Night Football, Brees has left the network completely, Collinsworth’s standing at NBC appears stronger than ever, and the Notre Dame booth needed a total revamp with Tirico sliding into Michaels’ spot. On Sunday, word broke from Andrew Marchand of the New York Post that with a few weeks left until the start of the Notre Dame season, NBC had decided on their top college football booth, and it’s probably not a pairing that will bring too much excitement to Fighting Irish fans.

Jac Collinsworth (a Notre Dame grad) and Jason Garrett, who were the lead broadcast team for NBC’s USFL coverage, will take over the call in South Bend this year for NBC. Their first game on the call will be Notre Dame vs. Marshall on September 10, and it will be interesting to see the reaction from Notre Dame fans to their new lead broadcast team. For those that didn’t tune into USFL coverage, this will be the first time for many seeing either member of the booth in this role, as most of our introduction to them has been in studio show coverage (which both will continue on Football Night in America).

If you think it’s bad enough having Lauren Boebert in a position of power, imagine being her neighbor. Last week, word broke that the cops were called after one of her sons was driving around the neighborhood on a dune buggy, wreaking all manner of havoc. When residents called the authorities, Boebert’s husband Jayson — the one who exposed himself to a woman at a bowling alley — only made matters worse. Now you can hear the panicked calls to 911.

The Denver Post obtained audio of two 911 calls by neighbors of the Boeberts, and you can hear the stress in their voices as events were still unfolding. In the first, a man can be heard yelling at Jayson Boebert mid-call as he was allegedly running over his mailbox.

“Stop, you jackass! Get the f*ck out of here,” neighbor can be heard yelling as he tries to explain the situation to the dispatcher. “Come on, man. What are you doing? What did we do wrong?”

The man explains that Jayson was “trying to claim that someone took a swing at his kid and nobody did.” He describes him as “dumb as a post” and “irrational.” He also claimed he was “probably drunk. You could probably get him for a DUI, he just drove down here.”

In the other call, a woman says, “He’s just speeding up and down the road, all over the place, just freakin’ through his property.” She adds, “He’s going like 50 miles an hour and this is a residential lane, there’s kids. We tried to stop him and he’d just freakin’ cuss at us and just left.”

In the background, someone can be heard sarcastically referring to Jayson’s wife as “our wonderful congresswoman.”

Boebert, who is one of many in the GOP who had a meltdown over federal authorities investigating former president Donald Trump over possible violation of the Espionage Act, is running for re-election. She once heckled the current president as he was talking about his dead son Beau.

(Via The Denver Post)

Britney Spears‘ ex-husband Jason Alexander (not the Seinfeld actor) has reportedly been convicted of crashing her wedding to Sam Asghari, according to a report by The Guardian.

Alexander appeared in a California court in Ventura County this past weekend, where he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts.

Spears and Alexander were married in 2004 for less than three days, and the latter appeared uninvited at Spears’ Thousand Oaks, California home this past June, where her marriage ceremony with Asghari took place. Alexander livestreamed his entrance of the home on Instagram, went up to Spears’ bedroom door, which, at the time, was locked as she was getting ready for the ceremony, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing.

Alexander was later removed from the home, but not before reportedly damaging a door and battering a security guard who attempted to remove him.

A judge issued a protective order forbidding Alexander to come within 100 yards of Spears and the aforementioned security guard after Alexander entered his plea.

The Ventura County judge reportedly sentenced Alexander to 64 days in jail, which he has already served. Prosecutors have since dropped charges of felony stalking and misdemeanor vandalism.

On a related note, Spears’ other ex-husband Kevin Federline recently spoke out, claiming that their two sons are purposely avoiding Spears, due to her posts on Instagram. Federline also sent a video of Spears to TMZ, appearing to be arguing with her sons.

(SPOILERS for this week’s P-Valley will be found below.)

We learned a lot about the characters tied to The Pynk in season two of P-Valley. We know now more than ever that Hailey, aka Autumn Night, had no desire to preserve any aspect of The Pynk. Her time in Chucalissa began with her working at The Pynk, and towards its end, it concluded with her as the majority owner looking to sell it for $10 million, which she would split with Uncle Clifford and build the new life she desired. We now know that Keyshawn has the courage to leave her abusive boyfriend as we see her gear up to do in the penultimate episode of season two. Uncle Clifford and Lil Murda are not only able to re-establish their relationship, but take it to new heights as well, as we see in the finale. Mercedes also wins more of her daughter’s trust and a bit of her forgiveness while also finding a way to make a living outside of The Pynk — for good too.

The season two finale of P-Valley answers plenty of questions for us. We learn that The Pynk won’t be sold as Uncle Clifford makes a backdoor deal that allows the club to stay in her possession while pushing out Hailey as a majority owner. Keyshawn fails to escape from Derrick, and thanks to her boyfriend’s conniving ways, it ends with her going to jail and possibly losing custody rights to her children. Andre fails to become mayor of Chucalissa, but with plans to bring a law practice to the city, he’ll most likely fair well down in the valley. Elsewhere, Mercedes’ daughter Terricka is going back home to her and she couldn’t be any happier about it. Despite all of these answers, there are plenty of questions left after the season two finale.

Here are some of the biggest questions we had after season two final episode:

What Happens Next With Uncle Clifford And Lil Murda?

The final scene in the season two finale sees a crowd stare in disbelief and excitement after Uncle Clifford and Lil Murda share a kiss in the middle of a party. Up until this point, Uncle Clifford and Lil Murda’s relationship lived behind closed doors. Whether it be interactions in the office of The Pynk or back at Uncle Clifford’s home, Cliff and Murda were able to keep things under wraps, but no one wants to be a secret forever. After patching things up from Murda’s wrongdoings to end season one, it seems like true love could be on the horizon for the two as Murda is ready to step out into the light despite Cliff’s worries and hesitations. However, with the world unaware of this relationship, it remains to be seen how Murda will handle everyone’s reaction to this relationship.

Where Did Hailey/Autumn Night Go?

Hailey certainly tried it, but she failed and failed badly. Since gaining ownership of The Pynk, Hailey had her eyes set on selling it for an eight-figure price which she would split between herself and Uncle Clifford. Her plans to sell it were unknown to Clifford until she overheard a conversation between Hailey and Corbin. This sparked a later conversation between Uncle Clifford and Corbin which led to a deal that allowed The Pynk and the casino to co-exist in Chucalissa. Hailey is handed a check for $250,000, forcing her out of The Pynk, which is a lot less than she hoped to have. She leaves The Pynk and Chucalissa altogether, but not without taking over $42,000 from The Pynk (which puts them in the red) for herself to keep. Scenes later, she steps off a bus with a blonde wig on, leaving us all to question (if you care at least) where she is and what she’s up to.

Will Mercedes Actually Be Able To Move On From The Pynk?

Mercedes’ original plans were to fully retire from The Pynk. Deep down, Mercedes knew that she would not be able to keep up with the physical demands of a stripper for much longer. Additionally, she had dreams of leading an all-girls dance class. That dream was slowly becoming a reality as she found a space to hold the classes, but her mother Pastor Woodbine stole the money she intended to use for it to open her own church. So back to The Pynk Mercedes went, but as season two closes, she has her eyes set on leaving once and for all as a new career awaits her. Ladies from The Pynk haven’t had the easiest time retiring from The Pynk (see: Keyshawn), but hopefully, things will swing enough in Mercedes’ favor to allow her to live out her new dreams.

What Will Keyshawn Do Now?

Keyshawn was supposed to be the latest Pynk album to make it big time after her time at the club, and quite frankly, she was well on her way to that fame. Touring with Lil Murda was a big hit for her, but everything went south after Rome threatened and sexually assaulted her, which led to him being killed by Whoddy who poisoned him. Keyshawn’s time back at home made her realize that it was time to escape Chucalissa and her abusive boyfriend Derrick. Her plan is a solid one, and she nearly makes it out, but her stepmother ruins everything after she hands the children back to Derrick. Keyshawn hits her breaking point after CPS launches an investigation against her thanks to false claims from Derrick, and soon enough, she ends up in jail for what seems like a few nights. Life is crumbling around Keyshawn, and with few options around her, she asks Diamond to do a major favor for her. Even if that’s successful, what will Miss Mississippi do next?

Will The Pynk And The Casino Survive In Season Three?

Thanks to the deal that Uncle Clifford and Corbin were able to work out, The Pynk and Chucalissa’s upcoming casino are now tethered to each other. Casinos can only be built on waterfronts, and thanks to an idea from Uncle Clifford and some presumably expensive construction, the casino can exist without forcing The Pynk to close. It’s also expected that the casino will bring new customers and attention to The Pynk which only means more money for them. In a simple world, The Pynk and Chucalissa’s casino could co-exist with no problems. However, with greed and Pastor Woodbine both set as possible obstacles for the future, the question about their future isn’t if their relationship will make it through season three together, but what causes it to fall apart?

Season 2 of ‘P-Valley’ is now available to watch on STARZ.

(SPOILERS for this week’s P-Valley episode will be found below.)

After ten weeks of love, hate, pain, pleasures, highs, lows, and so much more, P-Valley will wrap things up with the finale for its second season. There are so many questions that remain as we enter the closer for Katori Hill’s hit show. Will Andre become the mayor of Chucalissa? Will Haley successfully sell The Pynk for $10 million? Will Uncle Clifford be able to stop Hailey from selling The Pynk? Will Mercedes be able to win back Terricka? Will Keyshawn be able to escape from her abusive boyfriend Derrick and out of Chucalissa with her two children?

For what it’s worth, each of the aforementioned questions will be answered in a yes or no fashion. However, it means that there’ll be a big shift in the future for The Pynk and its lovely ladies. Bigger obstacles will be left for the strip club to deal with while big moments of love and pain will only serve as fuel to the fire for what goes down in the valley.

The aforementioned events in the finale of season two are soundtracked by songs that help to accentuate the emotions behind each scene. They include Jucee Froot’s thumping “Down In The Valley” which serves as the theme song for the series.

What Songs Were In The Season Two Finale Of P-Valley?

The songs that soundtracked the standout moments on this week’s episode of P-Valley are Jazmine Sullivan’s “The Other Side” and L.T.D.’s “Love Ballad.” Jazmine Sullivan’s “The Other Side” plays as Mercedes pole dances in the space she initially purchased to hold dance classes for young girls prior to the pandemic. At this moment, she just received a wonderful gift from Farrah, Coach’s wife, when her mother Pastor Woodbine walks in to brag about her success, but more importantly, to also inform her about news regarding Mercedes’ daughter Terricka.

L.T.D.’s “Love Ballad” can be heard during a party at The Pynk hosted by Earnestine who wants to celebrate successfully recovering from COVID. While Lil Murda was expected to have left for his tour by the time the party began, he delayed his departure in order to say his goodbyes to Uncle Clifford. As a result, it sparks a moment that will forever change their relationship.

The soundtrack for this week’s episode also includes the following songs:
J. Alphonse Nicholson — “Seven Pounds Of Pressure”
Tonay Marie — “Eat It”
Sam Cooke — “Bring It On Home To Me”
GloRilla & Hitkidd — “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)”
Big KRIT — “No Playground”
Mint Condition — “Breakin’ My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes)”
Erykah Badu — “Didn’t Cha Know”

Season 2 of ‘P-Valley’ is now available to watch on STARZ.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.